Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Ousted by Staunch Republican Malco[l]m Turnbull

Tony Abbott speaks during a press conference in the Blue Room,
at Parliament House in Canberra

THE TELEGRAPH: Millionaire lawyer Malcolm Turnbull defeats controversial Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott in a matter of hours just two years into his term

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has been ousted in a stunning coup by self-made millionaire Malcom Turnbull continuing the nation’s five-year run of leadership swaps.

Winning a 54 to 44 Liberal party-room vote in Canberra on Monday, Mr Turnbull, 60, promised to unite the party and the nation with a new style of leadership that “respects the people’s intelligence”. The deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, backed Mr Turnbull and easily won back her position in a 70 to 30 vote against cabinet minister Kevin Andrews.

The former Rhodes Scholar and investment banker holds more progressive political views than Mr Abbott, an ardent conservative and monarchist, but immediately signalled he will restrain his own personal support for same[-]sex marriage and strong action on climate change.

“This will be a thoroughly Liberal government committed to freedom, the individual and the market,” he said. » | Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney | Monday, September 14, 2015

Isil Terrorists Could Infiltrate Europe by Hiding among Refugees, Warns Pope Francis

Pope Francis has warned that Isil terrorists could be hiding among
the tens of thousands of refugees who are entering from war-torn
countries such as Syria and Libya

THE TELEGRAPH: Pope Francis warns of dangers of terrorists slipping into Europe alongside refugees

Pope Francis has warned that Isil terrorists could try to “infiltrate” Europe, hiding among the tens of thousands of refugees and migrants streaming to the continent from war-torn countries such as Syria and Libya.

He said Italy in particular found itself in a vulnerable position, with Isil having established a presence just a few hundred miles south on the desert coastline of Libya.

"It's true, nowadays, territorial security conditions are not the same as they were in other periods (of mass migration)," the Jesuit Pope told a Portuguese radio station in a wide-ranging interview, days before he embarks on a gruelling tour of Cuba and the United States.

"The truth is that just 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Sicily there is an incredibly cruel terrorist group. So there is a danger of infiltration, this is true." » | Nick Squires, Rome | Monday, September 14, 2015

Has Obama Put Relationship with Israel At Risk?

Sep. 14, 2015 - 5:49 - Rebeccah Heinrichs and James Phillips on Israel's reaction to Iran nuclear deal

Inside Story: Is 'People Power' More Important Than We Think?

As an unprecedented refugee crisis unfolds before our eyes, we ask if civilians have the power to change global policy.

'One Million Refugees' May Arrive in Germany This Year

AL JAZEERA: Vice chancellor says forecast of 800,000 may have been an underestimate as people continue to cross Mediterranean.

One million people may arrive in Germany seeking refugee status this year, up from the record 800,000 arrivals its government had earlier predicted, vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said.

"There are many signs that Germany this year will take in not 800,000 refugees, as forecast by the interior ministry, but one million," he wrote to members of his centre-left Social Democratic party on Monday.

Germany on Sunday reintroduced identity checks on people travelling within the passport-free Schengen zone, essentially reversing its open-door policy for Syrians. » | Al Jazeera and agencies | Monday, September 14, 2015

German Riot Police Smash Innocent Bystander Unconscious During Hamburg Clashes

Riot police knocked an innocent bystander to the ground, rendering him unconscious, during clashes with leftist demonstrators in Hamburg. The officer attacked the man, smashing him in the face with an elbow, throwing him straight to the ground, and knocking him unconscious. Police also used pepper spray, water cannon, and batons against protesters.

Clashes Continue Near Al-Aqsa Mosque as Benjamin Netanyahu Calls for Emergency Meeting

THE TELEGRAPH: Protesters and police clash for a second consecutive night as the Israeli prime minister will hold urgent consultations

Clashes between protesters and Israeli police near the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City have continued for a second consecutive day on Monday.

Israeli police arrested over a dozen Palestinians after a policeman and a Jewish youth were injured in violent confrontations on and near the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount compound, holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Masked Palestinian protesters attacked the Israeli police with stones and metal rods as they entered the site, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said he will hold emergency consultations over the clashes that began on Sunday when a violent confrontation erupted between the police and rioters near the mosque.

The police were pelted with rocks and stones near the mosque and unleashed stun grenades and tear gas on the rioters, who barricaded themselves inside the mosque. Several home made pipe bombs were discovered in the vicinity of the al-Aqsa mosque and are being examined by the police. » | Inna Lazareva, Tel Aviv | Monday, September 14, 2015

«Ich gehöre niemandem!»

Zwei Femen-Aktivistinnen haben am Samstagabend eine Veranstaltung radikaler Muslime in Frankreich gestürmt. Sie wehrten sich gegen die Unterdrückung der Frau.

Den Artkel hier lesen
Related »

German Migrant Crisis

Manuel Ochsenteiter joins Richard Spencer to discuss the "refugee" crisis in Germany, the nature of Angela Merkel, and the rise and fall of PEGIDA

One Hour Compilation of How Islam Is Ruining Europe and America

Pat Condell: Islam Invasion Of Europe Will Fail

ברכת ראש הממשלה לאזרחי ישראל, ערב ראש השנה תשע"ו

PM Netanyahu's Greetings for Rosh Hashana

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Greetings for Rosh Hashana.

Topless Protesters Disrupt Muslim Conference on Women

The protesters, aged 25 and 31, grabbed microphones
and shouted feminist slogans in French and Arabic

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Femen activists bare breasts and shout feminist slogans before being manhandled out of a conference near Paris on the role of Muslim women

Two Femen protesters were arrested after baring their breasts at a controversial conference near Paris on the role of Muslim women.

According to Inna Shevchenko, a spokeswoman for the feminist protest group, two fundamentalist preachers were discussing the question of “whether wives should be beaten or not” when the activists, aged 25 and 31, ripped off their Arab-style cloaks and jumped on to the stage on Saturday evening. One had the slogan “No one subjugates me” inked across her torso. The other bore the words “I am my own prophet.”

The protesters, aged 25 and 31, grabbed microphones and shouted feminist slogans in French and Arabic before being roughly bundled off the stage by about 15 men and handed over to police. Video footage of the incident shows a man apparently kicking one of the women. » | David Chazan | Sunday, September 13, 2015

Watch the spectacle here

Viktor Orbán: Muslim Majority in Europe Coming Soon

HUNGARIAN FREE PRESS: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave an interview to the German tabloid daily Bild, in which he predicted that Muslims will form the majority population within Europe “in the foreseeable future,” thanks to immigration. Bild once again has the situation in Hungary as its cover page story.

“If Europe allows for competition between cultures, Christians will lose,” added Hungary’s prime minister. According to Mr. Orbán, “the only way out” of what he perceives to be Europe’s predicament is to “preserve” Europe for those who wish to live within a Christian cultural environment, by stopping the immigration of a growing number of Muslims.

“None of them want to return to their homes. I fear that they will all stay here,” added Mr. Orbán, when asked specifically about the Syrian refugees. » | Author: Christopher Adam | Saturday, September 12, 2015

Bill Maher and Salman Rushdie Debate the Future of Muslims in Europe

'There's a lot of young Muslim men in European cities ... Free speech we see is not something they always agree with. And often their attitude is, 'We're biding our time until you will do things our way,' said Maher. read more: http://www.haaretz.com/video/1.675841

Read the Haaretz article here Haaretz | Sunday, September 13, 2015

German Border Controls Mark Sudden Shift in Refugee Policy

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Germany announces emergency border protections after weeks of leading Europe's response to the migrant crisis

Germany’s announcement on Sunday that it was instituting emergency border protections marks a sudden shift in its response to the refugee crisis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was hailed as a saviour after her government said last month it expected to take in 800,000 refugees and asylum seekers this year alone.

Germany also became the EU first country to suspend the so-called Dublin protocol, which mandates that refugees seek asylum in the first European country they enter, by declaring last month that all Syrian refugees could remain in Germany regardless of the country through which they entered.

That decision was taken in light of the harsh treatment of asylum seekers in Hungary, which plans to complete a four-metre-high fence along its border with Serbia this week. » | David Lawler | Sunday, September 13, 2015

Refugee Crisis: Germany Reinstates Controls at Austrian Border

THE GUARDIAN: Train traffic from Austria halted as EU prepares for refugee showdown in Brussels on Monday

Germany introduced border controls on Sunday, and dramatically halted all train traffic with Austria, after the country’s regions said they could no longer cope with the overwhelming number of refugees entering the country.

Interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, announced the measures after German officials said record numbers of refugees, most of them from Syria, had stretched the system to breaking point. “This step has become necessary,” he told a press conference in Berlin, adding it would cause disruption.

Asylum seekers must understand “they cannot chose the states where they are seeking protection,” he told reporters.

All trains between Austria and Bavaria, the principal conduit through which 450,000 refugees have arrived in Germany this year, ceased at 5pm Berlin time. Only EU citizens and others with valid documents would be allowed to pass through Germany’s borders, de Maizière said.

The decision means that Germany has effectively exited temporarily from the Schengen system. It is likely to lead to chaotic scenes on the Austrian-German border, as tens of thousands of refugees try to enter Germany by any means possible and set up camp next to it. (+ video) » | Luke Harding in Berlin | Sunday, September 13, 2015

The Abrahamic Fallacy: Why Abraham Is Not a Point of Unity for Islam, Judaism, and Christianity

Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors hosted Dr. Mark Durie on January 21, 2014, in Los Angeles, California, at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel.

Over the past fifty years the expression 'Abrahamic' has become widely used to refer collectively to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The key idea is that the three religions 'share' Abraham and find in him a point of unity.

The phrase 'Abrahamic religion' or 'faith of Abraham' was first promoted in ecumenical circles during the 1950's and 1960's by Lebanese Maronite priest, Youakim Moubarak, whose theological vision was political, of an 'egalitarian Palestine in which Jews, Christians and Muslims demonstrate together its abrahamic and ecumenical vocation'.

In reality, however, Abraham is a divisive figure: in Judaism he is the Torah-observant father of the Jewish nation; for Christians he is the apostle of salvation by faith alone; for Muslims he is the proto-typical Muslim, a forerunner and validator of Muhammad.

Moubarak took the phrase 'religion of Abraham' from the Koran and his promotion of it is a manifestation of dhimmi theology, a worldview constrained by existential fear, psychological accommodation and denial. In fact the 'Abrahamic vocation' inspired by the Koran leads to Islamization and sharia implementation. The current state of the Middle East offers eloquent testimony to the hollowness of this vision.

Dr. Mark Durie is a theologian, human rights activist, Anglican pastor, a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and Adjunct Research Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Other Faiths at Melbourne School of Theology. He has published many articles and books on the language and culture of the Acehnese, Christian-Muslim relations and religious freedom. A graduate of the Australian National University and the Australian College of Theology, he has held visiting appointments at the University of Leiden, MIT, UCLA and Stanford, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1992.


Related »

Is Islam an “Abrahamic” Faith along with Judaism and Christianity?

VIRTUE ONLINE: My friend Mark Durie, an Anglican priest and theologian, has written a book refuting the thinking common today that Islam shares a theological lineage from Father Abraham with Judaism and Christianity.

"Islam has no family resemblance with Christianity and Judaism. The similarities are appropriated, not inherited," the Anglican priest and theologian Mark Durie starkly stated in his book "Which God? Jesus, Holy Spirit, God in Christianity & Islam." This volume is essential reading for Christians who wish to counter the "Abrahamic fallacy" of Islamic kinship with Judeo-Christian faith.

In his book, Durie noted the oft-touted idea of Western Abrahamic civilization in a world that once esteemed its Judeo-Christian civilization. Many assume that Islam joins Judaism and Christianity in possessing a theological lineage from the Old Testament's Father Abraham. "This is new thinking which reflects the growing influence of Islam," Durie said, adding that "one expression of the Islamicization of Christian thought serves the supersessionist program of Islam."

Durie stressed that wording in the Quran recognizes Islam not as a faith that is subservient to Judaism and Christianity, but "as the primordial religion." Those of the Islamic faith believe that other religions can be called "Abrahamic" only as concessions, because those faiths "derive their history in a confused and corrupted way from Islamic roots." As noted in Quran 3:67, Islam proclaims that Abraham and other biblical figures were actually Muslims whose revelations Jews and Christians through the ages perverted into a "debased derivative of Islam." » | Andrew Harrod | Thursday, September 10, 2015

PHILOS PROJECT: Children of Abraham’s Islamic Pretender » | Andrew Harros | Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Mark Durie »

Which God? »