Breaking Video: Russian Warships Attack ISIS Positions in Syria from Caspian Sea

Russia’s Defense Ministry has published a video of its warships firing cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea to hit the positions of Islamic State militants in Syria.

Asylum Shelters in Germany Struggle with Violence

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: There has been a rising number of violent incidents in German refugee hostels in recent weeks and concern is growing among officials. But some communities are finding creative ways to make life more tolerable in the asylum homes.

Two men are waiting for their lunch inside a drafty airport hangar -- one is an 80-year-old from Pakistan, the other an 18-year-old Albanian. A throng of people are waiting and the line can take up to an hour, but the young man has run out of patience. He climbs over the barrier and pushes forward, gets his food and then sits down at a table. A short time later, the elderly man addresses him angrily.

A dispute that began banally enough on Sunday, Sept. 27, ended in a mass brawl after the young Albanian hit the old man in the face. A security guard intervened and was able to pull the two apart, but three hours later, 50 to 60 Pakistanis stormed into the hangar and threatened the young Albanian with aluminum rods they had taken from their cots. The police moved in and were initially able to restore peace. Come dinner time, though, 300 angry Albanians had turned up. Some attacked the Pakistanis, benches were thrown, men struck each other with clubs and used pepper spray.

Police estimate that more than 350 of the 1,500 refugees staying in the emergency shelter at the Calden Airport near the city of Kassel became involved in the fight. The incident resulted in 14 injuries, including police officers. Two weeks prior, another altercation at Calden left 60 people injured. Read on and comment » | Matthias Bartsch, Markus Deggerich, Horand Knaup, Ann-Katrin Müller, Conny Neumann, Barbara Schmid, Fidelius Schmid, Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt and Steffen Winter | Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Looming Doubts : Merkel's Grip on Refugee Crisis May Be Slipping

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The flow of refugees into Germany is continuing and the government in Berlin has found no way to slow it. Faith in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ability to handle the problem is plunging -- especially within her own party. By SPIEGEL Staff

Sometimes, distance is good for perspective. For Angela Merkel, that perspective came in New York.

The week before last, the German chancellor flew to the Big Apple to address the United Nations summit on sustainability, women's rights and climate change. But what she took home with her was the surprising realization that Horst Seehofer actually has a lot in common with Ahmet Davutoglu and Nawaz Sharif.

Seehofer is the governor of Bavaria and the head of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU); Davutoglu is the prime minister of Turkey; Sharif the prime minister of Pakistan. All three have recently conveyed the same message: Merkel must get tougher in the refugee crisis.

Davutoglu asked Merkel in New York for her support for a buffer zone along the Syrian-Turkish border, where anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 refugees from the civil-war torn country are to be accommodated. Sharif, for his part, engaged the chancellor about the escalating situation in his country and in neighboring Afghanistan. He demanded that the chancellor send Pakistani refugees back home. Read on and comment » | SPIEGEL Staff | Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Ahmed Mansoor Speech - Martin Ennals Award 2015

David Cameron on Saudi Arabia, Isis and Welfare

David Cameron talks to Jon Snow at Conservative conference about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, the response to Isis in Syria and his welfare changes.

Jon Snow Challenges David Cameron over Deal with Saudi Arabia: Read the Transcript of the Interview in Full

THE INDEPENDENT: PM defended 2013 deal to get Saudi Arabia onto the UN Human Rights Council, claiming UK had a 'relationship' with country

David Cameron repeatedly refused to explain the British government’s deal with the Saudi Arabian authorities during an embarrassing interview with Channel 4’s Jon Snow. » | Rose Troup Buchanan | Wednesday, October 7, 2015

'Muslim Merkel' German TV Image Causes Outrage

ARD television broadcast a mocked-up picture of
Mrs Merkel wearing a chador

THE TELEGRAPH: German TV network accused of Islamophobia for producing mock-up image of "Muslim Merkel", as Pegida shows resurgence with 9,000-strong rally

An image of Angela Merkel wearing a traditional Iranian Islamic headscarf has caused controversy in Germany.

ARD television was inundated with complaints after it broadcast a mocked-up picture of Mrs Merkel wearing the garment, known as a chador, against a backdrop of the Reichstag surrounded by minarets.

The image was shown during a debate on the refugee crisis on Report from Berlin [Bericht aus Berlin], a Newsnight-style programme, and was intended to be satirical, the broadcaster claimed.

But many viewers accused the programme-makers of Islamophobia, and said they were deliberately provoking anti-Muslim sentiments. » | Justin HUggler, Berlin | Tuesday, October 6, 2015


N24: Plötzlich war die Kanzlerin verschleiert » | abo, N24 | Montag, 5. Oktober 2015

Diskussionsveranstaltung: Sind Islam und europäische Werte miteinander vereinbar?

Rund 1,5 Millionen Flüchtlinge und Migranten lassen sich heuer in Deutschland nieder. In Österreich sind bis Ende August knapp 50.000 Asylanträge gestellt worden. Ein Ende des Zustroms ist nicht in Sicht. Rund 80% der Flüchtlinge und Migranten sind Muslime. Sie werden Europa und seine Gesellschaften verändern.

Erdogan präsentiert in Brüssel "Mutter Merkel" seine Forderungen

Während Merkel in Deutschland und in Syrien das Schauspiel von der barmherzigen "Mutter Theresa Reloaded" aufführt, die alle willkommen heisst, was in Rest-Europa zu höchster Verwunderung Anlass gibt, wird hinter den Kulissen darum geschachert, wie weit man der Türkei entgegenkommen muss, damit sie die Migranten zurückhält.

Erdogan Warns Russia Against Losing Turkey's Friendship

THE DAILY STAR: ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday warned Russia against losing Ankara's friendship, after Russian warplanes twice violated its airspace near the Syrian border.

"If Russia loses a friend like Turkey with whom it has a lot of cooperation it is going to lose a lot of things. It needs to know this," Erdogan said in Belgium at a press conference alongside Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel broadcast on Turkish television.

In his toughest remarks yet against Russia in the current crisis, Erdogan accused Moscow and its ally Iran of working to maintain the "state terror" of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

His comments came after Russian warplanes twice violated Turkish airspace at the weekend during Moscow's bombing campaign in Syria aimed at bolstering the Assad regime.

"It is of course not possible to remain patient about this," said Erdogan, referring to the incursions into Turkish air space. » | Agence France Presse | Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Saudi Opposition Clerics Make Sectarian Call to Jihad in Syria

THE DAILY STAR: RIYADH: Dozens of Islamist Saudi clerics have called on Arab and Muslim countries to "give all moral, material, political and military" support to what they term a jihad, or holy war, against Syria's government and its Iranian and Russian backers.

Although the clerics who signed the online statement are not affiliated with the government, their strong sectarian and anti-Christian language reflects mounting anger among many Saudis over Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria's war.

Russia last week started airstrikes against Syrian opposition targets that it describes as aimed at weakening ISIS, a move Riyadh has denounced. The clerics' statement compared it to the Soviet Union's 1980 invasion of Afghanistan, which prompted an international jihad.

"The holy warriors of Syria are defending the whole Islamic nation. Trust them and support them ... because if they are defeated, God forbid, it will be the turn of one Sunni country after another," the statement said. » | Reuters | Monday, October 5, 2015

Theresa May’s Immigration Speech

Theresa May speaking at the Conservative Party Conference

Activist Mark Arabo on Syria: ‘This Is a Full-blown Christian Genocide’

How ISIS have created a refugee crisis that is being overlooked by Arab nations and the US Congress, and the moral duty that the world has to accept to address the human rights catastrophe is discussed with Mark Arabo. From Yazidi genocide and sexual slavery, to the ‘underground railroad’ for refugees, Arabo illuminates some of the religious and bureaucratic hurdles to helping the victims of the plundering of the Middle East by the Islamic State, in this Lip News Interview, hosted by Margaret Howell.

Why Is Saudi Arabia On UN Human Rights Panel?

Saudi Arabia has been appointed by the UN to head a key human rights panel despite the repressive country having a deplorable record on freedoms for women, minorities and dissidents and having beheaded more people this year than ISIS. The wife of imprisoned free speech blogger Raif Badawi, Ensaf Haidar, called the appointment “scandalous” and said that it meant “oil trumps human rights”. We look at the controversial move on the Lip News with Elliot Hill and Margaret Howell.

The Lip »

Should Saudi Arabia Be On The U.N. Human Rights Council? - Newsy

Saudi Arabia has a lot of known human rights issues — so why is it on the United Nations Human Rights Council?

Merkel Under Fire from Germans after Warm Welcome for Refugees

Germany is facing a drastic number of refugees by the end of 2015 – about 1.5 million people, according to the Bild newspaper. The patience is running thin among many Germans.

German Anti-Islam Group Vents Fury at Merkel over Refugee Welcome

YAHOO! NEWS: Dresden (Germany) (AFP) - Thousands of German anti-Islam protesters on Monday vented their fury at Chancellor Angela Merkel over her welcoming of refugees, accusing her of "high treason" and "crimes against the German people".

With Europe's top economy expecting to take in up to a million people fleeing war and poverty this year, anger has flared among anti-foreigner groups and members of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement ("Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident").

"Merkel is guilty, commits ethnocide against the German people," read one banner at the rally in Dresden, the historic city in the former communist East where PEGIDA emerged about a year ago and, after a lull, is now looking to swell its ranks.

Waving flags, the agitated crowd cheered on co-founder Lutz Bachmann, 42, who was charged last week with inciting racial hatred by labelling asylum-seekers "animals", "trash" and "filthy rabble".

"It won’t stop with 1.5 or two million" arrivals, he said.

"They will have their wives come, and one, two, three children. It is an impossible task to integrate these people." » | Coralie Febvre | Monday, October 5, 2015

Deutschland: Massenschlägereien in Flüchtlingscamps

Op-Ed: Greece’s Fascists Are Gaining

Nikos Michaloliakos greeting supporters at a pre-election
rally in Athens last month.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: ATHENS — Just hours after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s new cabinet was sworn into office on Sept. 23, Twitter users began protesting the appointment of one of his junior ministers, Dimitri Kamenos, from the right-wing anti-austerity party Independent Greeks. Mr. Kamenos had published homophobic, anti-Semitic and racist comments on Twitter.

Within hours, Mr. Kamenos was fired, making his tenure one of the shortest in Greek political history. What’s most worrying about the incident is not his racist tweets, but the fact that reactionary views have gained popularity in crisis-ridden Greece, especially in areas where migrants are arriving in large numbers. And there is real risk that the popularity of these views will increase.

In Kos and Lesbos, the epicenters of the refugee crisis, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party doubled its share of the vote, exceeding 10 percent in some places. The absence of functioning government institutions in Greece — and the total lack of a collective European Union policy to address the crisis — have created the conditions that hateful ideologies need in order to grow. While the local authorities were waiting for the central government to react, and as the Greek government waited for the European Union to make up its mind about the growing waves of immigration that flooded the islands, the neo-Nazis took advantage of the situation to spread their hate. » | Matthaios Tsimitakis | Sunday, October 4, 2015

Angela Merkel sagt die Wahrheit über Migranten