Tuesday, April 02, 2013
THE INDEPENDENT: A petition calling on Iain Duncan Smith to demonstrate he can live on £53 per week passed 200,000 signatures today.
The Work and Pensions Secretary claimed yesterday he could get by on the curtailed budget if he “had to”.
The remark followed a challenge by market trader David Bennett on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
The online petition, hosted at www.change.org, said: “This petition calls on Iain Duncan Smith to live on this budget for at least one year. This would help realise the Conservative Party's current mantra that 'We are all in this together'.
“This would mean a 97 per cent reduction in his current income, which is £1,581.02 a week or £225 a day after tax.” Read on and comment » | Tim Sculthorpe | Tuesday, April 02, 2013
ZEE NEWS: Dhaka: Three atheist bloggers in Bangladesh were today arrested here on charges of defaming Islam, as the government set up the country's first cyber crime tribunal to prevent exploitation of religion on the Internet.
The crackdown as well as the announcement came two days after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pledged stern action against people found guilty of defaming Islam using the Internet.
"We are amending both the Right to Information Act and the Penal Code toughening punitive measures for hurting the people's religious sentiments," Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed told a press conference also joined by Home Minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir and two state ministers.
Ahmed said that the government constituted the tribunal appointing a judge in the capital while a process was underway to set up identical special courts at divisional cities including Chittagong.
He said a government committee comprising two Islamic scholars was constituted to identify websites which were either exploiting or defaming the religion. The committee had recommended the arrests of the three, who have been sent to seven days remand.
The trio, who were paraded in hand-cuffs at today's press conference, could face 10 years in jail if convicted under the country's cyber laws, which outlaw "defaming" a religion, deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Molla Nazrul Islam said. » | PTI | Tuesday, April 02, 2013
HT: Raymond @ Jihad Watch »
GATESTONE INSTITUTE: The Emir of Qatar, who has long cultivated an image as a pro-Western reformist, has vowed to "spare no effort" to spread Wahhabi Islam throughout Europe. Wahhabism — which not only discourages Muslim integration in the West but actively encourages jihad against non-Muslims — threatens to radicalize Muslim immigrants in Ireland.
City planners in the Irish capital, Dublin, have given the go-ahead for the construction of a sprawling mega-mosque complex that will cater to Ireland's burgeoning Muslim population.
The massive €40 million ($50 million) "Islamic Cultural Center" will be built on a six-acre site in Clongriffin, a new and as yet unfinished suburb at the northern edge of Dublin.
According to the Dublin City Council, which approved the project on March 7, the Clongriffin Mosque will consist of: (a) a three-story domed mosque and cultural center with towering minarets; (b) a two-story conference center including a reception foyer, conference room, restaurant, banquet hall, kitchens and ancillary accommodation; (c) a three-story 16-classroom primary school and a two-story 12-classroom secondary school; (d) a two-story fitness center with a gym, sauna, steam room and an Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool; (e) a bookshop, library and mortuary; and (f) three four-story blocks of two-bedroom apartments with ground floor shops.
The Clongriffin Mosque will cater to some of the 30,000 Muslims living in Dublin, which is home to around 60% of the estimated 50,000 Muslims living in Ireland. » | Soeren Kern | Tuesday, April 02, 2013
DIE WELT: Shereen el Feki hat ein Buch über Sex in den arabischen Ländern geschrieben. Von der Ehe bis zur männlichen Prostitution verrät es dem Westen sämtliche Geheimnisse des islamischen Geschlechterlebens.
Im Frühjahr 2011 spürte der deutsche Schriftsteller Navid Kermani auf dem Tahrir-Platz in Kairo die revolutionäre "Zärtlichkeit der Massen". Nun wird fast täglich über sexuelle Übergriffe, Grabscher und Vergewaltigungen vom Ort der arabischen Freiheit berichtet. Die Journalistin und Immunologin Shereen el Feki, in Kanada aufgewachsene Tochter eines Ägypters und einer walisischen Mutter, ist in tausendundeinem Tag vom Tahrir-Platz aus durch Ägypten, dem Maghreb und Mittleren Osten gereist, um herauszufinden, ob und wie sich vor und nach dem Sturz der Despoten das Verhältnis der Männer und Frauen zueinander verhält und verändert hat. Es ist eine Anamnese des Zustands der Sexualität in der islamischen Welt, wie sie so bisher unbekannt war.
Der Titel des Buches von Shereen el Feki "Sex und die Zitadelle" bezieht sich auf die von Saladin 1176 gegen den Ansturm der Kreuzritter errichtete Festung, die über Kairo thront. Auf Seite 350 erklärt sie dieses Wortbild: "Was die Sexualität anlangt, so könne man meinen, die arabische Welt gleiche einer Zitadelle, einer uneinnehmbaren Festung, deren Außenmauer jeden erdenklichen Angriff auf die Bastion heterosexueller Ehe und Familie abwehrt."
El Feki beschreibt die Geschlechterbeziehungen dieser in sich und ihrer Kultur geschlossenen arabischen Welt, aber auch die Öffnungen in den Mauern, die sie auf Veränderung hoffen lässt. Aber wie inzwischen fast jeder "im Westen" ausgebildete Wissenschaftler, der über den Orient und die islamische Welt schreibt, will sie sich zunächst von der unterstellten Bevormundung Arabiens durch die koloniale Sicht distanzieren, um sich nicht dem "Orientalismus"-Vorwurf etwa eines Edward Saids auszusetzen. » | Von Necla Kelek | Dienstag, 02. April 2013
Sex und die Zitadelle: Liebesleben in der sich wandelnden arabischen Welt »
Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing Arab World »
DIE PRESSE: Der in der Türkei verhaftete Mohamed Mahmoud soll nach Österreich überstellt werden. In einem Video drohte er seinem Heimatland mit Terror.
Die Staatsanwaltschaft Wien hat die Auslieferung des Austro-Islamisten Mohamed Mahmoud beantragt. Das wurde am Dienstag bekannt. Der 27-jährige Mahmoud war vor zwei Wochen in der Türkei mit gefälschten libyschen Reisedokumenten aufgegriffen worden.
Der Antrag beim Landesgericht Wien auf Erwirkung der Auslieferung sei bereits am Freitag gestellt worden, sagte Staatsanwaltschafts-Sprecher Vecsey. Mahmoud werde "Beteiligung an einer terroristischen Vereinigung" vorgeworfen. Konkret gehe es um Aufrufe zum "Heiligen Krieg" im Internet. » | Red./APA | Dienstag, 02. April 2013
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Un incendie s'est déclaré dans une école musulmane de Rangoun. La police parle d'un accident. Treize morts, dont des enfants, sont à déplorer
Treize personnes, dont des enfants, sont mortes mardi dans l'incendie d'une école musulmane de Rangoun, provoquant l'incrédulité et la colère d'habitants du quartier après les récentes violences religieuses, malgré les assurances de la police qu'il s'agissait d'un accident.
Le gouvernement a immédiatement appelé à ne pas croire les «rumeurs» circulant déjà sur internet alors les fortes tensions entre musulmans et bouddhistes, qui ont fait 43 morts en mars, étaient en voie d'apaisement.
«Treize personnes, surtout des enfants, ont été tuées» dans cet incendie qui s'est déclaré vers 3h du matin heure locale (21h30) dans le centre de l'ancienne capitale birmane, a déclaré un responsable de la police. «Nous pensons que l'incendie est dû à un court-circuit». » | afp/Newsnet | mardi 02 avril 2013
MAIL ONLINE: Ali Al-Khawahir was aged 14 when he stabbed his friend in the backbone / Ali has been imprisoned for 10 years, but must now pay 'blood money'
A Saudi man convicted of paralysing his best friend in a knife attack is being threatened with having his spinal cord cut in a tit-for-tat punishment.
The ultra-conservative desert Kingdom enforces Islamic law and on rare occasions issues punishments based on the ancient code of an ‘eye-for-an-eye’.
Ali Al-Khawahir was 14 years old when he stabbed his friend in the backbone and has been imprisoned for 10 years.
He has been told that he will be sentenced to being fully paralysed himself unless he pays the victim blood money in a form of compensation, reported the Saudi Gazette. Originally the victim requested 2 million Saudi Riyal - more than half a million U.S. dollars - but it was later reduced to 1 million.
His mother has begged people to contribute money to the fund.
'Ten years have passed with hundreds of sleepless nights. My hair has become grey at a young age because of my son’s problem.
'I have been frightened to death whenever I think about my son’s fate and that he will have to be paralyzed,' she said. Read on and comment » | Daily Mail Reporter | Tuesday, April 02, 2013
THE GUARDIAN: Buoyed by its meteoric domestic success, the far right party is planning to expand 'wherever there are Greeks'
Emboldened by its meteoric rise in Greece, the far-right Golden Dawn party is spreading its tentacles abroad, amid fears it is acting on its pledge to "create cells in every corner of the world". The extremist group, which forged links with British neo-Nazis when it was founded in the 1980s, has begun opening offices in Germany, Australia, Canada and the US.
The international push follows successive polls that show Golden Dawn entrenching its position as Greece's third, and fastest growing, political force. First catapulted into parliament with 18 MPs last year, the ultra-nationalists captured 11.5% support in a recent survey conducted by polling company Public Issue.
The group – whose logo resembles the swastika and whose members are prone to give Nazi salutes – has gone from strength to strength, promoting itself as the only force willing to take on the "rotten establishment". Amid rumours of backing from wealthy shipowners, it has succeeded in opening party offices across Greece.
It is also concentrating on spreading internationally, with news last month that it had opened an office in Germany and planned to set up branches in Australia. The party's spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris, said it had decided to establish cells "wherever there are Greeks".
"People have understood that Chrysi Avgi [Golden Dawn] tells the truth," he told a Greek-language paper in Melbourne. "In our immediate sights and aims is the creation of an office and local organisation in Melbourne. In fact, very soon a visit of MPs to Australia is planned." » | Helena Smith in Athens | Monday, April 01, 2013
Monday, April 01, 2013
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Should the Cypriot bailout become a model for the future? The mere suggestion sent markets tumbling last week. But increasing numbers of European politicians would like to see bank shareholders and investors bear a greater share of crisis risk. The EU may be changing its strategy. By SPIEGEL Staff
Jeroen Dijsselbloem's original game plan was to just keep a low profile. When the 47-year-old Dutch finance minister became head of the Euro Group three months ago, the first thing he did was deactivate his Twitter account. In meetings of the finance ministers of the 17 euro-zone states, he let his counterparts do most of the talking. And whenever he appeared before reporters in Brussels afterwards, he would start with sentences like: "Maybe it's good, if I say something."
Dijsselbloem seemed determined to become the most boring of all the boring bureaucrats in Brussels -- until last Monday, that is, when he did something no one would have anticipated: He detonated a bomb. The way that large depositors and creditors were being drawn into the bailout of Cypriot banks, he said, could become a model for the entire euro zone. In future aid packages, he said, one must look into whether bank shareholders, bond holders and large depositors could participate so as to spare taxpayers from having to foot the bill. He was announcing nothing less than a 180 degree about face.
Cyprus as a model? Dijsselbloem had hardly finished his comments before international news agencies began registering its impacts. Markets around the world nosedived, the euro sank to a four-month low and EU leaders had to rush into damage-control mode, as did the man who triggered the storm himself. Dijsselbloem backtracked by saying that Cypriot banks were obviously "a special case." Germany's top-selling daily tabloid, Bild, scoffed that Dijsselbloem would get a new nickname in Brussels: "Dusselbloem," the rough equivalent of "Dimwit-bloem."
But the ridicule might prove premature. In reality, Dijsselbloem merely expressed something that many Europeans already think. Whether at the European Parliament or in several Continental capitals, many are saying that the time is ripe for the financial sector to assume a greater share of the costs for rescuing ailing banks. » | Martin Hesse, Michael Sauga, Cornelia Schmergal and Christoph Schult | Translate from the German by Josh Ward | Monday, April 01, 2013
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM: A year ago, Islamists and their useful idiots were writing off Wilders as finished. The political crisis appeared to have shaken his PVV party and Islamists were gleefully claiming that Wilders was done. The future might belong to the more mainstream VVD party willing to compromise on the “big” issues.
But Wilders’ gamble has paid off and voters are turning his way once again. » | Daniel Greenfield | Sunday, March 31, 2013
BBC: During the Mubarak-era, beards were a no-no in Egypt - but now they're back in fashion with a vengeance. In the Arab and Muslim world, facial hair signifies a lot more than personal style, writes Cairo-based journalist Ashraf Khalil.
A couple of years ago, I was with my parents in a mosque near Chicago. They introduced me to an old family friend - a lady who'd known me since I was a kid but hadn't seen me for years. She embraced my mother and shook hands with my father, but when she turned to me she stood about a foot away from me, didn't offer to shake my hand and instead sort of awkwardly waved.
My father asked her why she had been so distant and she said it was because of my beard. She assumed that my facial hair was symbolic of a deep Islamic religiousness and was afraid that if she offered her hand to shake, I wouldn't take it. My father, who knows exactly how non-religious I am, still LOVES to tell this story.
In the Arab and Muslim world, facial hair means far more than just style and grooming. It's a sociological signifier, a shorthand that often tells you who you're dealing with and what they're all about before they can even speak. There are a couple of different styles in play, and as a journalist you learn to develop a sort of internal chart.
In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood members generally tend to go with the full but well-groomed beard and moustache. However Salafists - the ultraconservative fundamentalist Muslims - like to let their beards grow long and wild, often leaving their upper lip clean-shaven as a nod to how the Prophet Mohammed wore his own beard 1,400 years ago.
Some within the Salafist camp take things an extra step and dye their beards with henna, producing a range of colours from maroon to bright pumpkin orange. » | Ashraf Khalil | Saturday, February 02, 2013
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