Muslims Demand Sharia Student Loans Because Paying Interest Goes Against Islamic Law
MAIL ONLINE: Muslim groups are calling for a separate student loan system because the interest due to be charged will conflict with rules of Sharia law.

The changes to tuition fees, which come into force next year, will see students charged higher rates of interest on the loans they take out to pay for university.

Until now they have paid the market rate of inflation but the reforms mean students who go on to earn more than £21,000 will have to pay interest of up to 3 per cent.

But in some interpretations of Sharia law, which is Islam's legal system and governs every aspect of Muslim life, loans are forbidden.

The National Union of Students has said it could be two years before an alternative system is worked out, leaving some Muslims fearing they cannot go on to further education.

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies told The Independent that the rate increase was a 'pressing issue'.

A spokesman said: 'Because the rate of interest is above the rate of inflation, it is quite blatant usury.' » | Daily Mail Reporter | Monday, January 22, 2011

Pat Condell: An Illiberal Consensus

Anjem Choudary: Jihad Milkshakes
Anjem Choudary is the unnervingly calm voice of the extreme Islamic sect Al-Muhajiroun. VBS met up with him in an East London park in the UK, where Choudary shared his views on promoting al-Qaeda’s just-right-of-center ideology over milkshakes. Most of the major news outlets have branded Choudary as a “hate preacher” who wants to kill all non-Muslims. He didn’t help matters much when he recently called for the assassination of the Pope. But Choudary, a British citizen, claimed between sips that he’s mostly interested in sharing the religion of peace with the West by bringing Sharia Law to the United Kingdom—and by turning Buckingham Palace into a beautiful mosque.

Gaddafi Son in Libyan Rebel Custody
Two of Muammar Gaddafi's sons are now in the custody of Libyan rebels.

Earlier Al Jazeera spoke to Mohammad Gaddafi, after he had surrendered. There was the sound of gunfire before the phone line went down.

But the head of the opposition National Transitional Council told Al Jazeera he was not hurt.

Inside Story – The Fall of Tripoli
Libyan rebels claim victory in the capital after months of battling for political control but what is the real story inside Tripoli?

ICC Confirms that Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi Has Been Arrested in Libya
THE HAGUE JUSTICE PORTAL: The International Criminal Court and the Libyan transitional government are currently discussing the transfer of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi to the Hague following his capture by Libyan rebels.

The ICC’s Spokesperson, Fadi El-Abdallah, has confirmed that the ICC and the Libyan transitional government are discussing the surrender of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi (right) following his arrest, but as of yet does not have any clear information on when he would be transferred. Mr El-Abdallah added that this was an important step for international justice in the interest of the victims in Libya. The ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also confirmed that Saif had been detained by "rebel special forces". He made it clear there is an obligation to surrender Saif to the ICC in accordance with Security Council resolution 1970. » | Monday, August 22, 2011

The Café - Young and Disillusioned in Sarajevo
Young Bosnians gather in the Café to discuss the challenges they face in their fragmented country

Big Tobacco Is Smoking Hot at the FDA
COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE: WASHINGTON (CN) - The nation's biggest tobacco companies are smoking hot at a new FDA rule that will force them to put graphic images - such as a dead body on an autopsy table and diseased body parts - on cigarette boxes and ads. Big Tobacco says such forced speech is unconstitutional.

"Such 'warnings' are unprecedented," the companies say in their federal complaint. "Never before in the United States have producers of a lawful product been required to use their own packaging and advertising to convey an emotionally charged government message urging adult consumers to shun their products."

The five plaintiffs include R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, and the Liggett Group. They sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The rule, which falls under the Tobacco Control Act, will take effect Oct. 22, 2012. It will require all cigarette packages made, starting a month before the deadline, to display the new text and graphic warnings, which must take up 50 percent of the front and back panels of a cigarette box and the top 20 percent of cigarette ads, according to the complaint.

The warnings must contain messages, such as "cigarettes cause cancer" and "smoking can kill you," as well as "color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of smoking."

The tobacco companies say the proposed images are not based upon facts. » | Ryan Abbott | Friday, August 19, 2011

Ahmadinejad to RT: Europe & US Need Freedom Most of All (Exclusive Interview)

Les néo-nazis font campagne face au Musée juif de Berlin
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: RACISME | Le parti néo-nazi allemand NPD a placardé en face du Musée juif de Berlin une affiche en vue des élections dans la capitale allemande sur laquelle s’inscrit ce slogan: "Plein gaz!".

Le parti néo-nazi allemand NPD, formation ouvertement raciste, antisémite et révisionniste présente son dirigeant Udo Voigt grimpé sur une moto avec ces mots: "Plein gaz!" ("Gas geben!" en allemand). L'affiche, accrochée à un lampadaire face à l’entrée principale du Musée juif, était également visible dans d’autres endroits de la ville.

Selon le quotidien berlinois Tagesspiegel, elle aurait également été placardée en face de la villa où fut décidée, le 20 janvier 1942, la solution finale et l’organisation administrative et technique de l’extermination des Juifs lors de la conférence de Wannsee. » | AFP | Jeudi 18 Août 2011

Christine O’Donnell Walks Off Interview with Piers Morgan

David Letterman Threatened by Jihadist Website

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: David Letterman, the US talk-show host, has been threatened by a contributor to a jihadist website because a joke he apparently made on his show.

The Site Monitoring Service, a private intelligence organisation that watches online activity, said Wednesday that the threat was posted a day earlier on the Shumuka al-Islam forum, a popular internet destination for radical Muslims.

The contributor, who identified himself as Umar al-Basrawi, was reacting to what he said Letterman did after the US military announced on June 5 that a drone strike in Pakistan had killed al-Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri.

Al-Basrawi wrote that Letterman had made reference to both Osama bin Laden and Kashmiri and said that Letterman had "put his hand on his neck and demonstrated the way of slaughter."

"Is there not among you a Sayyid Nosair al-Mairi ... to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever?" Al-Basrawi wrote, referring to El Sayyid Nosair, who was convicted of the 1990 killing of Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane. Letterman is not Jewish. » | Thursday, August 18, 2011

Challenge to Burqa Ban as First Women Prosecuted in Belgium
THE GUARDIAN: Businessman who paid women's fines to launch legal challenge against France and Belgium for 'violating individual liberties'

A businessman has said he will take France and Belgium to court after paying the fines of the first two women in Belgium prosecuted for wearing full-face veils in public.

French property dealer Rachid Nekkaz set up a €1m (£870,000) fund to cover fines given to women wearing niqabs and burqas, after the veils were banned in the two countries. The two women had been fined €50 for wearing the niqab in Brussels. » | Reuters in Brussels | Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Liberal Intellectuals Are Frightened of Confronting Islam's Honour-shame Culture
TELEGRAPH BLOGS – Richard Landes: Politeness is not saying certain things lest there be violence; civility is being able to say those certain things and there won’t be violence.

A recent series of polls indicate that European public opinion is substantially concerned by the increasingly aggressive Islam that their substantial immigrant populations have taken to expressing. To quote Soeren Kern, Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Strategic Studies Group:

The findings – which come as Europeans are waking up to the consequences of decades of mass immigration from Muslim countries – point to a growing disconnect between European voters and their political masters regarding multicultural policies that encourage Muslim immigrants to remain segregated rather than become integrated into their host nations.

The survey results mirror the findings of dozens of other recent polls. Taken together, they provide ample empirical evidence that scepticism about Muslim immigration is not limited to a “right-wing” political fringe, as proponents of multiculturalism often assert. Mainstream voters across the entire political spectrum are now expressing concerns about the role of Islam in Europe.

The disconnect referred to in the article constitutes one of the most worrying developments in Western culture over the last decade: between a elite that controls much of the discussion in the public sphere (journalists, academics, talking heads, mainstream politicians) and who fear being called Islamophobes and racists more than they fear Islamist racists, and a population of people who, whenever they voice concern about the behavior of the Muslim neighbors, are told not to be Islamophobic racists. The problems are knotty and painful to disentangle. Here’s my outline of an approach. (For a longer version of the following essay, see my blog, The Augean Stables.) Read on and comment » | Richard Landes | Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Richard Landes is an American writer and medieval historian specialising in millennialism. He is associate professor of history at Boston University and the author of several books including Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience (Oxford University Press).

Dutch Converts to Islam - Ahmed Nasir

Paris et Berlin veulent une règle d'or pour la zone euro
LE FIGARO: Nicolas Sarkozy et Angela Merkel ont proposé trois mesures pour renforcer l'intégration économique européenne.

Montrer qu'en pleine tempête estivale, il y a un capitaine à la barre de la zone euro. Et même deux ! À l'issue d'une réunion de travail, mardi à l'Élysée avec la chancelière allemande Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy - qui a interrompu ses vacances pour l'occasion - a remis en avant le rôle moteur du couple franco-allemand pour sortir la monnaie unique de l'ornière. Les deux dirigeants ont réaffirmé leur «volonté absolue de défendre l'euro ». Avec, à la clef, une proposition choc: «Nous allons proposer que les 17 pays membres de la zone euro adoptent, avant la mi-2012, une règle d'or budgétaire.» Concrètement, Paris et Berlin veulent que chaque pays membre s'engage sur une trajectoire de réduction de ses déficits et la fasse graver dans le marbre de sa Constitution. Une ¬telle mesure permettrait de rassurer les marchés financiers en leur démontrant la volonté absolue des pays de la zone de réduire leurs déficits et leur endettement. Pour assurer la croissance à moyen terme de la zone euro, il est essentiel, selon Nicolas Sarkozy, « de ramener la confiance avec des programmes de soutenabilité de la dette». » | Par Cyrille Lachèvre | Mardi 16 Août 2011

Lebanese Editor Comments on Syria
Rami Khouri, editor of the Lebanese newspaper Daily Star, talks to Al Jazeera about events in Syria

Gaddafi Urges Libyans to Rise Up against NATO

'Islamization' of Paris a Warning to the West

Police Water Cannon and Plastic bullets? After 50 Years of the Most Lavish Welfare State on Earth? What an Abject Failure
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