Sunday, February 02, 2014
Maajid Nawaz Explains the Difference between Islam and Islamism to Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins
John Kerry Labelled 'Anti Semite' for Warning of Possible Boycott of Israel
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, triggered an angry backlash from Israeli leaders on Sunday after warning Israel faces economic boycott if it failed to reach a peace accord with the Palestinians.
The uproar came as Mr Kerry held cordial talks with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif in Munich at which the pair vowed to intensify nuclear diplomacy.
Ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet accused Mr Kerry of effectively endorsing "anti-Semitic" efforts to impose sanctions on Israel by issuing the warning.
"The risks are very high for Israel," Mr Kerry told the conference. "People are talking about boycott. That will intensify in the case of failure.
"Do they want a failure that then begs whatever may come in the form of a response from disappointed Palestinians and the Arab community?"
While the US secretary of state's remarks were made against a backdrop of new EU regulations barring deals with Israeli businesses based in West Bank settlements, they provoked accusations that he was threatening Israel in on-going peace talks with the Palestinians. » | Robert Tait, Jerusalem | Sunday, February 02, 2014
Freedom of Speech: Is It My Right to Offend You?
Maajid Nawaz is a former Islamist who now campaigns against extremism as the executive director of the Quilliam Foundation. He is also a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate. Three weeks ago, he appeared on the BBC's religious debate programme, The Big Questions. On that show, two atheist students wore T-shirts featuring cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed. Nawaz declared that he was not upset by the images. After the show, he tweeted one of the cartoons, declaring that his God was greater than to feel threatened by it. And then everything went mad.
Nawaz has faced an appalling string of death threats. About 22,000 people have signed a petition calling for his deselection. Thousands more have leapt to his defence. Last week, Nick Clegg promised that he would not be deselected. But as various media outlets have reported on the subject, they, too, have faced criticism for their squeamishness: no one has shown uncensored the cartoon at the centre of the storm.
There is so much to unpack here. Where to begin? Well, how about, for the record, a simple declaration: Maajid Nawaz has an absolute right to tweet a picture of the Prophet Mohamed. I would not vote for any political party that dismissed him for doing so. But actually, this is the least interesting, least fruitful aspect of the whole discussion. This is primary school stuff. » | Archie Bland | Sunday, February 02, 2014
Related »
'Jesus and Mo' Debate
Hollande and Cameron's Pub Lunch Unlikely to Improve Ailing Entente
As François Hollande arrived to meet David Cameron in London, the entente was threatening – like the weather – to be less than cordial.
The British prime minister had extended an invitation that the French president could have surely easily refused; not a multi[-]course silver-service banquet à la Elysée Palace, but a pub lunch in Oxfordshire. How Hollande's Gallic heart must have sunk as he crossed the point of no return under the Channel: he may style himself as "Monsieur normal", but he is still the president of France and we can only hope Cameron's local could produce a better glass of red than that available at most of Britain's traditional ale-houses.
If this was not reason enough for Hollande to find a more pressing international crisis demanding his attention, there was what the French media coined in defiance of the country's language police, "le French bashing".
There had been rumours that the French were about to cancel the meeting given the level of sniping from the British side of the Channel. The economics they could discuss and agree to disagree, but the idea that an insolent and disrespectful British press was more interested in the Elysée soap opera involving the president and the actor, thus provoking even more "total indignation" from the already indignant Hollande, was almost too much.
But the Elysée was determined to be grown up about it all. "If we cancelled for that, we'd never have a summit," one presidential adviser told Le Figaro newspaper.
Given the amount of flak that Cameron, his Conservative colleagues and the British media have given the president since he was elected in May 2012, Hollande might have been sorely tempted to give the prime minister a punch on the nose and return to Paris. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Friday, January 31, 2014
Stop Rich Overseas Investors from Buying Up UK Homes, Report Urges
Radical plans to stop rich overseas residents who live outside the EU buying British houses – as well as tight restrictions on them acquiring "newbuild" properties as investments – will be published in a report by a leading rightwing thinktank on Monday.
Free-market organisation Civitas castigates government ministers for allowing wealthy foreign investors to stoke a property boom that it says is driving up prices and locking millions of UK citizens out of the housing market.
The plans would prevent the likes of Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club, or other Russian oligarchs from adding to their multimillion-pound UK portfolios. They also aim to stem a flood of investment from countries such as China, Malaysia and Singapore.
Concerned that many middle and lower earners are being forced to pay high rents in London because they can't afford to buy, Civitas calls on ministers to adopt a scheme similar to one operating in Australia, which ensures that no sale can take place to overseas buyers unless they can show that their investment will add to existing housing stock.
Such a system would mean that no existing home could be sold to a buyer from outside the EU, and that such buyers could acquire newbuild homes only if their investment led to one or more additional properties being built. » | Toby Helm, political editor | Saturday, February 01, 2014
Saturday, February 01, 2014
Serbia Snow: Hundreds of Stranded Drivers Rescued
Gusts of more than 150km/h (93mph) battered towns across the country, as police and the army helped motorists trapped by snow drifts.
Guy De Launey reports from Belgrade. (+ BBC video) » | Saturday, February 01, 2014
Meltdown: The Men Who Crashed the World
Kerry: We Stand with the People of Ukraine
Related »
Poverty Crime: UK Shoplifting Soaring as Tough Economic Times Bite Deeper
Tried & True? Firing Squad, Electric Chair Return in US for Death Penalty
Related »
Un Français remporte 88,3 millions de francs
Le chanceux empoche 88,32 millions de francs [Suisse]. Il s'agit du septième gain le plus important en France depuis la création de la loterie européennes en février 2004. » | ats/Newsnet | vendredi 31 janvier 2014
Should Neo-Nazis Be Allowed Free Speech
Over the past several weeks, free speech has gotten costlier—at least in France and Israel.
In France, Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, an anti-Semitic stand-up comic infamous for popularizing the quenelle, an inverted Nazi salute, was banned from performing in two cities. M’Bala M’Bala has been repeatedly fined for hate speech, and this was not the first time his act was perceived as a threat to public order.
Meanwhile, Israel’s parliament is soon to pass a bill outlawing the word Nazi for non-educational purposes. Indeed, any slur against another that invokes the Third Reich could land the speaker in jail for six months with a fine of $29,000. The Israelis are concerned about both the rise of anti-Semitism globally, and the trivialization of the Holocaust—even locally.
To Americans, these actions in France and Israel seem positively undemocratic. The First Amendment would never prohibit the quenelle, regardless of its symbolic meaning. And any lover of “Seinfeld” would regard banning the “Soup Nazi” episode as scandalously un-American. After all, in 1977 a federal court upheld the right of neo-Nazis to goose-step right through the town of Skokie, Illinois, which had a disproportionately large number of Holocaust survivors as residents. And more recently, the Supreme Court upheld the right of a church group opposed to gays serving in the military to picket the funeral of a dead marine with signs that read, “God Hates Fags.” Read on and comment » | Thane Rosenbaum | Thursday, January 30, 2014
Hague Alderman Could Get Prison
Van Doorn gave his access card to the City Council to a journalist of AD/Haagse Courant, who in turn stole confidential information.
Police reportedly also found an alarm pistol under his bed. » | Posted by Audrey Graandogst | Saturday, February 01, 2014
Syria Becoming Magnet for Young French Muslims
The unfolding drama of the teenagers, aged 15 and 16, highlights how Syria has become a magnet for a vulnerable fringe of young Muslims in the West. It is among a small wave of cases that are putting French authorities, and some families, on edge.
The bloody three-year-old conflict in Syria has drawn thousands of Muslims to join the ranks of battalions trying to topple the regime or other fighting groups looking to conquer the region in the name of Islam.
French authorities say that more than 600 French have gone to Syria, are plotting to go or have returned, and more than 20 French have been killed in fighting. As of mid-January, a dozen French adolescents were in Syria or in transit, according to authorities. » | Elaine Ganley | Associated Press | Saturday, February 01, 2014
Michael Bloomberg Tapped to Be UN Envoy for Cities and Climate Change
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was appointed Friday to be the United Nations special envoy for cities and climate change, a position that will give the billionaire businessman and philanthropist an international stage to press for action to combat global warming.
Secretary general Ban Ki-moon chose Bloomberg, who made combating climate change a major focus of his 12 years as mayor and was very outspoken on how cities should be run to cope with ever increasing populations without harming the environment.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Bloomberg will assist the UN chief in his consultations with mayors and other key parties "to raise political will and mobilize action among cities as part of his longer-term strategy to advance efforts on climate change". » | Associated Press at the United Nations | Friday, January 31, 2014
My comment:
If Bloomberg pursues combatting climate change with the rigour he has pursued his anti-smoking agenda, then he'll have it sorted in no time! Trouble is, we'll have to put up with years more of this ideologue just when we thought we were rid of him. – © Mark
This comment appears here too.
Russian Foreign Minister Criticises West for Supporting Ukraine Protests
The Russian foreign minister has strongly criticised the West for backing Ukraine's protesters, accusing European and American leaders of inciting "increasingly violent" protests.
Sergei Lavrov said that Western support was causing an escalation in the demonstrations, which first started two months ago when President Victor Yanukovych failed to sign an agreement to deepen ties with the European Union – preferring to forge stronger links with Russia.
"Why is no one condemning those who seize administration buildings, attack policemen and chant racist and anti-Semitic slogans?" said Mr Lavrov.
"Why are prominent European politicians actually encouraging the moves in question, although in their own countries they immediately clamp down on those any encroachments on the letter of the law?"
Speaking at the three-day Munich Security Conference, which began on Friday, Mr Lavrov likened the West's support for protesters in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev to Russia supporting demonstrations in a European capital. » | Harriet Alexander | Saturday, February 01, 2014
Inside 'Billionaires Row': London's Rotting, Derelict Mansions Worth £350m
A third of the mansions on the most expensive stretch of London's "Billionaires Row" are standing empty, including several huge houses that have fallen into ruin after standing almost completely vacant for a quarter of a century.
A Guardian investigation has revealed there are an estimated £350m worth of vacant properties on the most prestigious stretch of The Bishops Avenue in north London, which last year was ranked as the second most expensive street in Britain.
One property owner, the developer Anil Varma, has complained that the address has become "one of the most expensive wastelands in the world". At least 120 bedrooms are empty in the vacant properties.
The empty buildings include a row of 10 mansions worth £73m which have stood largely unused since they were bought between 1989 and 1993, it is believed on behalf of members of the Saudi royal family.
Exclusive access to now derelict properties has revealed that their condition is so poor in some cases that water streams down ballroom walls, ferns grow out of floors strewn with rubble from collapsed ceilings, and pigeon and owl skeletons lie scattered across rotting carpets.
Yet, despite the properties falling into serious disrepair, it is likely that the Saudi owners of the portfolio made a significant profit from the £73m sale. The records available show that one of the mansions was worth only £1.125m in 1988.
The avenue, close to exclusive Highgate and Hampstead, is home to Richard Desmond, owner of Express Newspapers and Channel 5, members of the Saudi royal family, and Poju Zabludowicz, a billionaire art collector and philanthropist. » | Robert Booth | Friday, January 31, 2014
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