Friday, March 29, 2013
LE POINT: La minorité musulmane birmane est la cible depuis la semaine dernière de véritables pogroms instigués par des moines extrémistes. Décryptage.
La voie vers la démocratie est un long chemin semé d'embûches. Les musulmans de Birmanie en font l'amère expérience depuis deux ans. Quartiers éventrés, mosquées parties en fumée, et corps calcinés gisant à même le sol..., cette minorité, qui représente 4 % des 55 millions de Birmans, est de nouveau victime de véritables pogroms perpétrés par la population bouddhiste. Quarante personnes ont été tuées la semaine dernière et plus de 12 000 déplacées dans la ville de Meiktila dans le centre du pays, forçant l'armée à instaurer l'état d'urgence. Les violences ont depuis gagné d'autres villages et se rapprochent désormais dangereusement de l'ancienne capitale, Rangoun.
À l'origine, une simple querelle entre un vendeur musulman et des clients bouddhistes, qui a dégénéré en affrontements. Pendant trois jours, des groupes d'émeutiers ont détruit tout ce qu'il y avait de musulman sur leur passage, transformant la ville de Meiktila en véritable coupe-gorge. "Ces groupes de civils bouddhistes ont été fanatisés par une minorité de moines extrémistes", explique au Point.fr Maël Raynaud, analyste indépendant spécialiste de la Birmanie. "Ces religieux tirent parti du profond racisme existant au sein de la société birmane." » | Par Armin Arefi | vendredi 29 mars 2013
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The German Interior and Foreign ministries want Lebanon's Hezbollah movement to be placed on the EU's list of terrorist groups if suspicions are confirmed that the organization was behind the bus bombing in Bulgaria last year in which five Israeli tourists were killed.
The German government wants to push for Lebanon's Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah to be added to the list of European Union terrorist organizations. After talks with representatives of the American Jewish Committee and security experts, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said he favored banning the group in Europe. » | SPIEGEL | Friday, March 29, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: North Korea puts rockets on standby to attack US bases: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last night ordered the country's rocket units to be on standby to attack US military targets in response to Washington's announcement that it had flown B2 stealth bomber "deterrence" missions over South Korea. » | Barney Henderson | Thursday, March 28, 2013
Thursday, March 28, 2013
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Germany is home to some 4 million Muslims. With the long Easter weekend around the corner, a leading member of the country's Muslim community has called for legal recognition of two Muslim holidays, drawing criticism from among Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling conservatives.
In 2010 former German President Christian Wulff made the assertion that, "Islam belongs in Germany," provoking something of a conservative backlash. Now, Germany's Central Council of Muslims (ZMD) is bringing the topic back into the public eye -- and suggesting the introduction of statutory Muslim holidays throughout Germany.
Council chairman Aiman Mazyek told the Thursday edition of the regional daily Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) that granting one day during the holy month of Ramadan and another on the fast-breaking day of Eid would be "an important sign of integration" and "would emphasize tolerance in our society."
These holidays would not be work-free days for all citizens, specified Mazyek, but rather would serve to give Muslims the legal right not to work on these days. He added that Muslims in public services such as police could stand in for colleagues over Christian holidays like Easter.
The legal recognition of Islam has been a controversial issue in Germany, home to a population of 4 million Muslims which it has been accused of not doing enough to integrate. Public unease with this growing population came to the fore in 2010 when a book by former German central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin, in which he accused Muslims of sponging off welfare and refusing to integrate, was a huge commercial success. » | chw -- with wire reports | Thursday, March 28, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH – EXTRACT: Cypriots formed orderly queues outside the country’s banks after they reopened for the first time in nearly two weeks on Thursday, confounding fears that there would be scenes of unrest and violence.
…
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, was the target of particular resentment.
“Merkel says every single Cypriot is guilty of dirty banking. But it is the Germans who should be ashamed for the greatest evil in the history of Europe – the Holocaust,” said a furious Cleri Machlouzarides, a chartered architect, outside a branch of Laiki Bank.
“Tell the bloody Nazis to go home. Germany should go and find someone their own size to pick on instead of trying to strangle us. Europeans should know it’s not going to stop here. “Luxembourg is next, then Spain, Portugal, Ireland.” … » | Nick Squires, in Nicosia | Thursday, March 28, 2013
LE FIGARO: La gestion de la crise chypriote a renforcé la perception d'un « diktat » de Berlin.
La presse populaire allemande salue le retour de sa «chancelière de fer». L'intransigeance d'Angela Merkel dans le sauvetage financier de Chypre lui vaut l'admiration indéfectible de ses concitoyens, dont les intérêts passent avant toute autre considération. Mais Berlin s'inquiète des répercussions de l'affaire sur son image, alors que le «diktat allemand» est violemment critiqué dans les rues de Nicosie. Les manifestants du sud de l'Europe touchent une corde sensible des Allemands lorsqu'ils renvoient le pays à son passé nazi.
Chypre a évité la banqueroute au prix de mesures douloureuses, risquant d'entraîner une récession et une hausse du chômage. La chancelière allemande a jugé «équitable» le plan de sauvetage. Mais, comme en Italie, en Espagne ou en Grèce, l'Allemagne est perçue une fois encore comme le pays tirant les ficelles et imposant des plans d'austérité draconiens aux populations en échange d'une bouée de sauvetage financière.
Grimée en dictateur nazi, Angela Merkel est la cible préférée des manifestants. Dimanche, le journal espagnol El Pais a retiré de son site, après des réactions indignées, une tribune comparant Merkel à Hitler. L'article accusait la chancelière d'avoir «déclaré la guerre au continent» pour s'assurer «un Lebensraum économique» - référence à «l'espace vital» revendiqué par les nazis. » |Par Patrick Saint-Paul | jeudi 28 mars 2013
A controversial Muslim cleric will not face action despite telling his followers to claim benefits and saying David Cameron should be killed.
Telling fellow fanatics to claim 'jihad seeker's allowance', Anjem Choudary, who in the past has planned to disrupt the minute's silence on Remembrance Sunday, also openly mocked hard-working Britons, calling them 'slaves'.
The Sun newspaper secretly filmed him saying Islam will overrun Europe, David Cameron and Barack Obama should be killed, and called the Queen 'ugly'.
The newspaper gave its evidence to the authorities, but Thames Valley Police today said: 'The material fell below an evidential threshold to pursue a criminal case against him.' Read all at the MAIL ONLINE » | Richard Hartley-Parkinson | Thursday, March 28, 2013
TELEGRAPH BLOGS – NILE GARDINER: American Ambassador to London lectures Britain on Europe, warns EU exit is against US interests » | Nile Gardiner | Tuesday, March 26, 2013
THE GUARDIAN: Pope also breaks convention by travelling to Casal del Marmo prison on Rome's outskirts for traditional Holy Thursday mass
Two young women were among 12 people whose feet Pope Francis washed and kissed at a traditional ceremony in a Rome youth prison on Holy Thursday, the first time a pontiff has included females in the rite.
The pope travelled to the Casal del Marmo prison on Rome's outskirts for the traditional mass, which commemorates Jesus's gesture of humility towards his apostles the night before he died.
The ceremony has been traditionally limited to men because all of Jesus' apostles were male. The Vatican spokesman said two of the 12 whose feet were washed were Muslim inmates.
While the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio included women in the rite when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, it was the first time women had taken part in a papal Holy Thursday ceremony.
Taking the ceremony to a youth prison was also a papal first and Francis, who was elected only two weeks ago, said he wanted to be closer to those who were suffering. » | Reuters in Rome | Thursday, March 28, 2013
ARAB NEWS: New converts — 154 men and 220 women — from various nationalities embraced Islam last month, according to a report of the Islamic Education Foundation (IEF) in Riyadh.
The IEF used various means to take the message of Islam to non-Muslims, like lectures, seminars and the distribution of books, tapes and fliers. It also sends its preachers to residential areas and work places where non-Muslims are found in large numbers.
Over the past 20 years, more than 20,000 expatriates embraced Islam since the establishment of the IEF branch in 1993.
The Islamic dawah centers in the Kingdom have encouraged foreigners to revert to Islam. Dawah centers are not imposing anybody to embrace Islam but provide an opportunity for non-Muslims to realize the values and beauty of Islam. » | Ali Fayyaz | Thursday, March 28, 2013
LIBYA HERALD: The Al-Andlusi mausoleum in Tajura area, one of the major Sufi shrines in Libya, was destroyed early this morning, Thursday, in a bomb attack that is being blamed on Salafists.
An eye-witness, who was at work nearby, told the Libya Herald that he heard three “very loud” explosions around 4 am. He said that he did not see any one near the shrine at the time of the bombing.
The shrine, on a prominent knoll on the Beach Road some 15 kilometres east of Tripoli, is protected under the law as a national monument. » | Farah Waleed | Thursday, March 28, 2013
GATESTONE INSTITUTE: What is taking shape could be a shift toward the end of the Jewish presence in Europe.
Exactly one year ago, a killer entered the courtyard of a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, and shot in cold blood a rabbi and three children. He said he had wanted to kill more, and to perpetrate a massacre, but that his gun jammed.
During the previous days, he had shot three French soldiers of Arab origin.
The killer was quickly located, besieged by the police for thirty two hours, then riddled with bullets when he tried to escape.
A few weeks later, his statements to the police during the siege were leaked. They showed that he defined himself as a "soldier of Islam" and that he was trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan by al Qaeda affiliates. He said that he wanted to kill French Arab soldiers because they were "traitors to their religion" and that "all traitors" had to be "eliminated." He also said that he hated "Jews," that Jews had to be "removed form the face of the earth" and that his only regret was that he did not have "the opportunity to kill more Jews." Political leaders and the mainstream media immediately said that these statements did not make sense, and they tried to describe him as a "lone wolf" and a "lost boy" who acted "irrationally." Sociologists explained that he'd had a "hard childhood," and that he'd had to face "French prejudices" all of his life. Radical Islam and hatred of Jews were almost never evoked.
In the months that followed, he became a hero -- almost a legend -- in all French Muslim suburbs. His name, Mohamed Merah, appeared on leaflets and graffiti, and was quoted with praise in rap songs. The number of anti-Semitic attacks increased all over the country: reports show that most perpetrators were young Muslims citing "Mohamed" as an "example" to follow. Two jihadist terrorist cells planning anti-Semitic attacks and assassinations of prominent Jews were dismantled: their members declared after their arrest that they wanted to die as martyrs, and kill Jews, "like Mohamed," who "showed the way." Political leaders and the mainstream media did not speak of leaflets, graffiti, rap songs, anti-Semitic attacks, or references to "Mohamed." They spoke of the dismantling of "terrorist cells" -- as if the cells had no relation to "Mohamed." » | Guy Millière | Thursday, March 28, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Turin Shroud is not a medieval forgery, as has long been claimed, but could in fact date from the time of Christ's death, a new book claims.
Experiments conducted by scientists at the University of Padua in northern Italy have dated the shroud to ancient times, a few centuries before and after the life of Christ.
Many Catholics believe that the 14ft-long linen cloth, which bears the imprint of the face and body of a bearded man, was used to bury Christ's body when he was lifted down from the cross after being crucified 2,000 years ago.
The analysis is published in a new book, "Il Mistero della Sindone" or The Mystery of the Shroud, by Giulio Fanti, a professor of mechanical and thermal measurement at Padua University, and Saverio Gaeta, a journalist.
The tests will revive the debate about the true origins of one of Christianity's most prized but mysterious relics and are likely to be hotly contested by sceptics. » | Nick Squires, Rome correspondent | Thursday, March 28, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Mothers who choose to stay at home to care for their children are being unfairly penalised by a Government that has failed to reward their role at the heart of society, the Bishop of Exeter said on Wednesday night.
The Bishop of Exeter said that traditional families were being hit by the Coalition in a manner that was “actually unfair” and which risked costing society more in the future.
The Rt Rev Michael Langrish, who sits in the House of Lords, said that his views represented those of a number of bishops who are concerned by the Government’s apparent lack of support for family life.
Over the past few months, ministers have removed child benefit from wealthier families with one breadwinner and restricted financial help with child care to those mothers returning to work, yet repeatedly delayed a promise to bring in tax breaks for married couples.
On [sic] Wednesday, an official international study found that single-earner families in Britain were now paying more tax than the international norm — and had seen their financial position worsen significantly since the Coalition was formed. A leading charity is now also warning that economic circumstances are effectively forcing new mothers back to work too early because they cannot afford to stay at home. Working Families said it had been contacted by at least one major employer worried about the health implications of mothers cutting short their maternity leave.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday night, the Rt Rev Langrish said society needs to place a greater value on the role of stay-at-home mothers and fathers, who were part of “the glue which enables us to be a healthy society”. He said the impact was being felt in “middle England” adding: “The concern for me is for those who have made a principled decision to stay at home and taken the financial hit. It is actually unfair and against the Government’s own rhetoric.” » | Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent | Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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