Cardinal Keith O'Brien Being Sued By Alleged Abuse Victim
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A former trainee priest is starting legal action against Cardinal Keith O’Brien over allegations he was abused by the disgraced cleric as a teenager.


He is claiming the cardinal groped and kissed him during a visit to an unnamed seminary in the 1980s when he was 19. He made clear his ordeal was not an isolated incident.

The former seminarian is the first of the cardinal’s alleged victims to speak publicly about his experience, having known him since childhood, and said he is prepared to face the cleric in a courtroom to encourage others to come forward.

The man, who is now in his 50s and has asked to remain anonymous, told Glasgow's Herald newspaper he had instigated legal proceedings against both the cardinal and the Catholic Church.

He left the seminary several months after the alleged incident and decided only to break his silence after the recent revelations about the former archbishop’s sexual behaviour indicated there were other victims. » | Simon Johnson | Friday, March 15, 2013

Robert Spencer and Michael Coren Discuss the New Pope and Muslim Persecution of Christians

Robert Spencer @ Jihad Watch »

San Francisco Leaders Denounce Bus Ads About Islam
SIOUX CITY JOURNAL: SAN FRANCISCO | San Francisco leaders have denounced a series of what they call anti-Islamic advertisements that began appearing on 10 city buses on Monday, calling them racist and offensive.

At least one of the ads contains a quote attributed to the militant Islamic group Hamas that reads: "Killing Jews is worship that brings us closer to Allah."

Mayor Ed Lee, District Attorney George Gascon and other elected officials joined Arab and Muslim community leaders to publicly condemn the ads on Monday.

"These offensive ads serve no purpose than to denigrate our city's Arab and Muslim communities," Gascon said. » | Associated Press | Friday, March 15, 2013


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Former BBC Security Guard Who Converted to Islam Admits Terror Plot to Attack Wootton Bassett and 'MI5 or MI6 Heads'

MAIL ONLINE: Richard Dart, Imran Mahmood, and Jahangir Alom, plead guilty at Old Bailey / Admit preparing for terrorism or assisting another in terrorism, between July 2010 and July 2012 / Trio travelled to Pakistan for terror training and helped others do the same / Conversations reveal targets were Wootton Bassett and secret services

A former BBC security guard today admitted playing a part in a two-year terror plot, which included a possible attack on Wootton Bassett, the small town in Wiltshire used for military funerals.

White Muslim convert Richard Dart, 29, also planned to wipe out members of the security services including 'MI5 or MI6 heads' after receiving training at Pakistani terror camps.

Dart, who calls himself Salahuddin Al Britani, and co-conspirators Imran Mahmood, 21, and Jahangir Alom, 26, have all pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism during a brief hearing at the Old Bailey.

The charges said they travelled to Pakistan for terror training, travelled abroad to commit acts of terrorism and provided information about travel to Pakistan, terrorism training and operational security while there.

Detectives had recovered computer conversations between Dart and Mahmood identifying one target as Wootton Bassett, whose streets are always lined with mourners when Britain's war-dead are flown back into the UK.

One conversation between the pair went as follows: 'Yes, yes Wootton Bassett, if not that then all combatants if it comes down to it, it is that or even to just deal with a few MI5, MI6 heads.'

Dart, the son of teachers from Dorset, had appeared in a BBC Three documentary made by his stepbrother after he converted to Islam by radical cleric Anjem Choudary. Read on and comment » | Sam Adams and Martin Robinson | Friday, March 15, 2013

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Pope Francis' Run-in with Benedict XVI Over the Prophet Mohammed
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pope Francis came close to losing his position within the Catholic Church after he criticised his predecessor seven years ago.

In 2005, then Pope Benedict, while quoting from an obscure medieval text, declared that the Prophet Mohammed, founder of the Islamic faith, was "evil and inhuman", enraging the Muslim population and causing attacks on churches throughout the world before an apology was issued.

Reacting within days to the statements, speaking through a spokesman to Newsweek Argentina, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio declared his "unhappiness" with the statements, made at the University of Regensburg in Germany, and encouraged many of his subordinates with the Church to do the same.

"Pope Benedict's statement don't reflect my own opinions", the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires declared. "These statements will serve to destroy in 20 seconds the careful construction of a relationship with Islam that Pope John Paul II built over the last twenty years". » | Alasdair Baverstock | Friday, March 15, 2013

Germany vs. Radical Islamists
GATESTONE INSTITUTE: More recently, Salafists have issued death threats against German politicians, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "The groups aim to change our society in an aggressive belligerent way so that democracy would be replaced by a Salafist system, and the rule of law replaced by Sharia law." — Hans-Peter Friedrich, Ministry of the Interior, Germany

Germany has banned three ultra-conservative Salafist Muslim groups which the Interior Ministry says want to overturn democracy and install a system based on Islamic Sharia law.

The ban, which took effect in the western German states of Hessen and North Rhine-Westphalia on March 13, comes amid Islamist death threats against German politicians -- and just days after German intelligence announced that the number of Salafists in Germany has jumped over the past year.

The Interior Ministry said that it had banned the groups "DawaFFM" and "Islamische Audios," as well as "An-Nussrah," which is part of the "Millatu Ibrahim" group that was outlawed in June 2012.

In an effort to enforce the ban, hundreds of German police officers raided the homes of radical Islamists in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Gladbeck and Solingen, and seized computers, cellphones and electronic storage devices, as well as money, documents and Islamic propaganda videos in Arabic and in German.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said: "Salafism, as represented in the associations that were banned today, is incompatible with our free democratic order. The groups aim to change our society in an aggressive, belligerent way so that democracy would be replaced by a Salafist system, and the rule of law replaced by Sharia law."

Salafism is a branch of radical Islam based in Saudi Arabia that seeks to establish an Islamic empire (Caliphate) across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe -- and eventually the entire world. The Caliphate would be governed exclusively by Islamic Sharia law, which would apply both to Muslims and to non-Muslims.

Also known as Wahhabis, Salafists believe -- among other anti-Western doctrines -- that democracy must be destroyed and replaced with an Islamic form of government.

Hans-Georg Maaßen, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), told the German newsmagazine Focus on March 10 that the number of committed Salafists in Germany had grown to 4,500 in 2012, compared with 3,800 in 2011.

Although Salafists make up only a fraction of the estimated 4.3 million Muslims in Germany, authorities are concerned that most of those attracted to Salafi ideology are impressionable young Muslims who are especially susceptible to committing suicide attacks in the name of Islam. » | Soeren Kern | Friday, March 15, 2013

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Britons Afraid to Challenge Radical Islam, Says Former Obama Adviser
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: British people are too afraid to offend a "vocal and aggressive" section of the Muslim community who demand that their cultural values are accepted by wider society, according to a former adviser to Barack Obama.


Professor Lawrence Krauss said he had been shocked when taking part at a debate hosted by an Islamic group at a leading British university to find that men and women were segregated.

The professor, a leading physicist and prominent atheist, threatened to walk out unless organisers agreed to let men and women sit together, which was eventually agreed - but was then astonished to find himself being accused of intolerance by angry members of the audience.

He said there had been no such problems when he recently took part in a similar debate in Australia.

But he suggested in Britain people were often too polite to object to such practices as well as being cowed by those eager to protest whenever they felt "their cultural norms are not being met".

He said: "People are not only afraid to offend, but afraid to offend a vocal and aggressive group of people.

"There is a segment of the Islamic community that is very vocal about this."

The professor said: "I think the notion that these cultural norms should be carried out within a broader society that not only doesn't share them but that is free and open is a very serious problem." » | John-Paul Ford Rojas | Friday, March 15, 2013

Stand for Peace »

British Radicals 'Are Flocking to Syria'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Radical British Islamists are travelling to Syria in greater numbers than all other theatres of war, a senior British official has said.

The numbers of young British Muslims travelling to fight with extremist groups battling the Syrian regime has escalated to the point where the conflict already poses a "major threat" to Britain's stability and security.

"This is a horrific situation that is now on a grave trajectory," the official said. "We now have more British jihadists going to Syria than all the other areas of conflict, be it Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen combined."

The government is examining ways of isolating jihadist groups in Syria, as Whitehall considers plans to increase assistance to rebels, including sending arms.

Security experts fear a new generation of radicals intent on a career of jihadist warfare is gaining training and experience of war in Syria. The exodus from British towns and cities is believed to have risen to levels last seen decades ago when the Bosnian and Afghan conflicts were at their height. » | Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Thursday, March 14, 2013

Pope Francis Eschews Trappings of Papacy on First Day in Office
THE GUARDIAN: Former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio ditches Mercedes, ermine and gold cross for simpler style as he begins papacy

It wasn't quite a bus – his days of taking public transport may finally be over – but it certainly wasn't the vehicle of pontiffs, either. The car in which Pope Francis travelled on his first day as head of the Roman Catholic church was a standard-issue, black saloon.

Not for him the Mercedes with the papal number plate SCV1. That – along with the ermine-trimmed mozzetta and the gold pectoral cross – had been left behind. The new pope, said a Vatican spokesman, seemed to have brought "a new style of doing things".

First on the papal agenda on Thursday was a "spontaneous" visit – alluded to on Wednesday night by the just-elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio – to the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in central Rome. The church, home to an altar where the Jesuit founder Saint Ignatius of Loyola celebrated his first mass in 1538, had played host to Francis when he was a mere cardinal and archbishop.

Now, he was returning as the world's first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff. Not that there was much difference in the way he behaved, according to one priest, Father Ludovico Melo. "It was a meeting with a father," he said, "and not with a pope." » | Lizzy Davies in Vatican City | Thursday, March 14, 2013

Londres: porc dans des saucisses halal
LE FIGARO: La présence d'ADN de porc a été détectée dans des saucisses halal au poulet au menu d'écoles et de crèches dans le centre de Londres, ont annoncé jeudi les autorités locales. Celles-ci avaient fait faire de leur propre chef des tests dans certaines cantines scolaires de l'arrondissement de Westminster, dans le sillage du scandale de la viande de cheval découverte dans des plats préparés, présentés comme étant au boeuf.

Aucune trace de cheval n'a été détectée, mais ces examens ont montré la possible présence d'ADN de porc dans des saucisses halal au poulet, confirmée ensuite par une deuxième série de tests. "Les résultats ont confirmé aujourd'hui la présence de porc dans un échantillon de saucisses halal qui ont potentiellement été servies dans 19 écoles et crèches" où elles étaient proposées au menu, a expliqué dans un communiqué la municipalité. Des traces d'agneau et de porc ont également été retrouvées dans du boeuf haché non halal utilisé par les cantines de 17 autres établissements du secteur. » | AFP | jeudi 14 mars 2013

REUTERS.COM: Pork found in halal meat in London school – council: Traces of pork were found in halal chicken sausages served in at least one primary school in central London, the local city council said on Thursday. » | Reuters | LONDON | Thursday, March 14, 2013

New Pope Urges Church to Return to Its Gospel Roots

REUTERS.COM: In his first public Mass, Pope Francis urged the Catholic Church on Thursday to stick to its Gospel roots and shun modern temptations, warning that it would become just another charitable group if it forgot its true mission.

In a heartfelt, simple homily, the Argentinian pope laid out a clear moral path for the 1.2-billion-member Church, which is beset by scandals, intrigue and strife.

Addressing cardinals in the frescoed Sistine Chapel the day after his election there, Jorge Bergoglio said the Church should be more focused on the Gospels of Jesus Christ.

"We can walk all we want, we can build many things, but if we don't proclaim Jesus Christ, something is wrong. We would become a compassionate NGO and not a Church which is the bride of Christ," he said, speaking in Italian without notes.

The first non-European pope in 1,300 years, Bergoglio's initial steps suggested he would bring a new style to the papacy, favoring humility and simplicity over pomp, grandeur and ambition among its top officials.

Whereas his predecessor, Pope Benedict, delivered his first homily in Latin, laying out his broad vision for the Church, Francis adopted the tone of parish priest, focusing on faith.

"When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly," he told the massed ranks of cardinals clad in golden vestments.

"We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord," he added. » | Crispian Balmer and Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY | Additional reporting by Catherine Hornby, Antonio Denti, Naomi O'Leary, Tom Heneghan, Philip Pullella and Keith Weir; writing by Barry Moody; editing by Alastair Macdonald and Giles Elgood | Thursday, March 14, 2013

Murder Plot: Germany Cracks Down on Salafists
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Islamist extremist in Germany are under scrutiny once again after raids on members of Salafist groups coincided on Wednesday with the foiling of a suspected murder plot by individuals linked to the movement. One senior politician wants to make it easier to deport radicals.

Following police raids of Salafist groups on Wednesday in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, in addition to the foiling of an apparent Salafist plot to attack senior members of the regional, right-wing populist party Pro-NRW, German conservatives are demanding further action against the Islamist extremists.

Wolfgang Bosbach, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the party's domestic policy expert in parliament, would like to make it easier to deport religious extremists. "It is incomprehensible why the deportation law applies only to politically motivated perpetrators of violence and not for religiously motivated fanatics," he said in an interview with the daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, published on Thursday.

Because many of the Salafists in question are also German citizens, he also demanded that more be done to investigate and, where necessary, prosecute extremists.

The call came a day after police arrested four Islamists who were allegedly planning an attack on Markus Beisicht, head of Pro-NRW, in Leverkusen. Two of those taken into custody were seized near Beisicht's home, where they were apparently performing reconnaissance in preparation for an assault. A third was arrested in Bonn, where police also found a firearm and explosive material. The fourth suspect was arrested in Essen. Three of the suspects hold German passports while the fourth is Albanian, according to the public prosecutor's office in Dortmund. » | cgh -- with wire reports | Thursday, March 14, 2013

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Pope Francis, Humble, Authentic and Credible

CNN: (CNN) -- For an institution that moves glacially, instant analysis is as impossible as it is unwise. Yet first impressions are important. Our initial glimpse of the new pope was curiously disconcerting. He stood there impassive and unemotional. He looked stunned, without almost any reaction at all except, perhaps, awe or even fear of the moment.

Suddenly, his eyes seemed to open wide, as if he was really seeing the position for which he had been chosen less than an hour before. And then he spoke, not with the power of physical force or energy but with something stronger: humility.

With the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires as pope, the Roman Catholic Church enters the next chapter of her history. And yet, as often happens in the church, she turns to her past for inspiration and even innovation. So we have the first pope to be elected from the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, who were founded by Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century while Catholicism reeled from Protestant challenges.

Yet this Jesuit takes the name Francis from the humble servant of medieval Assisi who began the Franciscan order 300 years before Ignatius. » | Christopher M. Belitto * | Special to CNN | Thursday, March 14, 2013

* Christopher M. Bellitto, chairman and associate professor of history at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, is the author of "101 Questions and Answers on Popes and the Papacy."

On First Day, New Pope Urges Courage 'To Build the Church with the Blood of Christ'

CNN: Vatican City (CNN) -- Pope Francis on Thursday emphasized church advancement in his first Mass with the cardinals who elected him as pontiff a day earlier.

With solemnity, he delivered a homily about moving the Catholic Church forward to the cardinal electors, who were dressed in light yellow robes. Altar servers burned incense in the Sistine Chapel, the setting for the Mass.

He didn't appear to use a script and kept the sermon short, calling on the cardinals to have courage.

"When we don't walk, we are stuck. When we don't build on the rock, what happens? It's what happens to children when they build a sand castle and it all then falls down," the new pontiff said.

"When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we confess without the cross, we are not disciples of Christ. We are mundane," he said. "We are all but disciples of our Lord.

"I would like for all of us, after these days of grace, that we find courage to walk in the presence of God ... and to build the church with the blood of Christ," he continued. "Only this way will the church move forward." »

Labour Peer Lord Ahmed Suspended Over Claims He Blamed Imprisonment On 'Jewish Conspiracy'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Labour has suspended a peer who is alleged to have blamed a Jewish conspiracy for the imprisonment he received over a fatal motorway crash.

The Times has reported [£] that Lord Ahmed, a Labour life peer, claimed that he received his prison sentenced because of pressure on the courts from Jews “who own newspapers and TV channels".

Lord Ahmed, who in 1998 became the first Muslim life peer, is said to have claimed that the conspiracy was a result of his support for the Palestinians in Gaza.

He is said to have made the comments in a TV interview in April last year while on a visit to Pakistan.

Labour today suspended the peer "pending an investigation".

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader said: "I think that the comments reported by Lord Ahmed are disgraceful comments.

"There's no place for anti-semitism in the Labour Party, and frankly anybody who makes those kinds of comments cannot be either a Labour lord or a Labour member of Parliament."

Lord Ahmed, who was born in Pakistan, became Baron Ahmed of Rotherham at the age of 40.

In 2007 he was highly critical of the awarding of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, claiming the author had "blood on his hands."

In 2009 he was jailed for dangerous driving after sending and receiving text messages minutes before being involved in a fatal motorway crash. The Court of Appeal later suspended his 12-week jail sentence. » | Peter Dominiczak, Political Corresponden | Thursday, March 14, 2013

US 'Hair Archaeologist' Recreates Ancient Coiffs
By day, Janet Stephens is a hairstylist in a modern salon. But by night, she's part archaeologist, part hairdresser, meticulously recreating hairdos from the age of antiquity.

Iraqi Christians Fear Being Wiped Out
Iraqi Christians have been repeatedly targeted by militants in the 10 years since Saddam Hussein's overthrow and decimated by emigration that threatens to wipe the ancient community out. Duration:

Papst Franziskus: Ein Hirte des Volkes
14.03.2013 - Gleich bei seinem ersten Auftritt bewies er Humor: Papst Franziskus scherzte, die Kardinäle hätten ihn vom Ende der Welt geholt. Mit Jorge Mario Bergoglio wurde der erste Südamerikaner und der erste Jesuit Pontifex. Der Argentinier prangert vor allem Korruption und Armut an.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Papst aus Argentinien: Franziskus amerikanus: Gegen Abtreibung, Homo-Ehe und die Präsidentin: Der neue Papst Franziskus stärkt die Konservativen in Lateinamerika. Für die progressiven Kräfte des Kontinents ist seine Wahl ein herber Rückschlag. Und: Seine umstrittene Rolle während der argentinischen Militärdiktatur rückt ihn ins Zwielicht. » | Eine Analyse von Ariel Magnus, Buenos Aires | Donnerstag, 14. März 2013

DIE WELT: Franziskus würdigt Vorgänger Benedikt mit Besuch: Den Vormittag seines ersten Tages als Papst verbringt Franziskus noch im stillen Gebet. Doch schon am Nachmittag steht eine Messe mit den Kardinälen an. Und ein wichtiger Besuch. » | KNA/ecb/sara | Donnerstag, 14. März 2013

Sunni Islam's Al-Azhar Eyes 'Better Relations' With New Pope
HINDUSTAN TIMES: Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, Al-Azhar, said on Thursday that it wants "better relations" with the Vatican under Pope Francis.

"We are hoping for better relations with the Vatican after the election of the new pope," Mahmud Azab, adviser for inter-faith affairs to Al-Azhar imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb said.

"As soon as a new policy emerges, we will resume the dialogue with the Vatican which was suspended in early 2011," Azab said. "We congratulate the Church of St Peter and all Catholics around the world."

In 2006, Pope Benedict sparked fury across the Muslim world when he recounted an anecdote in which the Muslim Prophet Mohammed was described as a warmonger who spread evil teachings by the sword. » | AFP, Cairo | Thursday, March 14, 2013

Pope Francis Makes First Outing As Pontiff