Tuesday, June 05, 2007

«La guerre froide est terminée», dit Bush

LE FIGARO: Le président américain a offert à la Russie de coopérer sur le projet de bouclier antimissiles. Une manière de calmer Moscou, violemment opposée à cette question.

«La guerre froide est terminée» : tel est le «principe général» que George W. Bush a tenu à rappeler mardi au sujet des relations américano-russes. Alors que Vladimir Poutine a ravivé le spectre de la grande confrontation géostratégique en menaçant de pointer de nouveaux missiles sur l'Europe, le président américain s’est voulu rassurant. Bush à Poutine : "La guerre froide est terminée" (more)

Mark Alexander
Muslims in Britain Have Got It Made: Islam is of “Strategic Importance to Britain’s National Interests”, says Tony Blair. This Is the Beginning of the End for Great Britain!

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Photo of Blair with Imam courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Tony Blair says he wants the "voice of moderation" among Muslims to be heard, as £1m funding was announced to boost Islamic studies at UK universities.

Ministers hope the money, announced as a report criticised teaching quality, will help train more imams in the UK.

At a conference on Islam, Mr Blair also called for closer links between Islamic schools and mainstream state schools. Blair in moderate Muslims appeal (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Moderate Muslim teaching urged

The Whitewashing of Islam Continues Apace

Mark Alexander

Monday, June 04, 2007

Muttawaeen Accused of Responsibility for Death of Man in Custody

BBC: Five members of the Saudi religious police, the Mutawaeen, have been arrested accused of being responsible for the death of a man in custody.

The man died at a Mutawaeen office in Tabuk, the Saudi authorities say.

Officials said the man had been questioned for allegedly associating with a woman who was not a relative. Saudis hold five religious police (more)

Mark Alexander
Russia’s Threat “Unhelpful and Unwelcome”, says NATO

BBC: Russia's threat to aim weapons at Europe if the US sets up a missile defence shield there was "unhelpful and unwelcome", Nato has said.

The US says it wants missile defence in eastern Europe to counter threats from states like Iran and North Korea.

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Iran was not a threat to the US, hinting that Russia was the target.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he will have "frank" talks with Mr Putin this week about the threat. Nato condemns Putin missile vow (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Putin launches missile row

Mark Alexander
United States Of Jesus



Mark Alexander
Video: “Am I a racist?”



Mark Alexander
Bloomberg, the Man Who Outlawed Smoking in New York City, Now Wants to Outlaw Your Guns

NEW YORK TIMES: In New York, Michael R. Bloomberg is known as the billionaire media mogul who became mayor. But in many parts of the country, he is the man who would take away your guns.

An editorial writer in Harrisburg, Pa., accuses him of “ranting” about illegal firearms. A conservative publication in Florida, NewsMax, asserts: “Bloomberg’s hatred of guns has twisted roots.” And on the Web site of The Wichita Eagle, one writer wonders why a New York mayor is “telling the people of Kansas what to do.”

In towns large and small across the country, Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican, has emerged as the face of gun control in America. Under his guidance, a coalition called Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown in little more than a year from a skeletal group of 15 into an organization of 225 leaders of towns and cities — many of them Democrats — who are pursuing legal, political and media strategies to stem gun crime. Bloomberg Cast as Enemy No. 1 of Gun Rights Advocates (more) By Diane Cardwell

Mark Alexander
More Stupidity Written About Islam! This Time From a Senior Government Advisor

The term "modern Islam" is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as modern Islam. Islam, by its very nature, is mediæval and its body laws - the Shari'ah - dark age and barbaric. Witness the stonings to death, the limb amputations, the beheadings, and all the other punishments for petty crimes which in the West would often go unpunished at all.

We are helping Islam to spread in this country by pandering to Muslims and bending over backwards to accommodate them. What we should be doing is telling them to get on with it and integrate. We should be telling them to stop bitching, moaning and whining! Then, perhaps, they'd have more chance of being liked!

My God, are we going to pay a heavy price for this stupidity in years to come.

I would say this: If these people don't like their nest, which the West has so generously provided, then they can return home. We, the people, don't want their backward religion in our backyards anyway. - ©Mark Alexander
TIMESONLINE: Universities must employ Muslim chaplains or advisers and join forces with Islamic schools to break down widening divisions between British society and its Muslim communities, according to a senior Government adviser.

In a wide-ranging review of Islamic university syllabuses and the support available to Muslim students in England, published today, Ataullah Siddiqui, will tell institutions that their teaching of Islamic studies is “out of date” and for years has been conducted “in isolation and probably in complete ignorance of the [Muslim] community”.

Courses should be more job-related, departments should link up with seminaries and madrassas to reflect Islam in Europe post-9/11, they should have more qualified staff and provide better pastoral support for Muslim students, according to Dr Siddiqui. Universities ‘must improve help for vulnerable Muslim students’ By Alexandra Blair
Mark Alexander
Putin Signals He Prefers Combat to Compromise

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Photo of Putin courtesy of THE TIMES
THE TELEGRAPH: President Vladimir Putin has sent a chilling message to world leaders on the eve of the G8 summit with a threat to aim Russian nuclear missiles at European cities for the first time since the Cold War.

In comments that seemed calculated to cause consternation and division at Wednesday's meeting in Germany, the Russian leader said that American plans to erect a missile defence shield in eastern Europe had left him with no choice but to retaliate.

"It is obvious that if part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States is located in Europe we will have to respond," he told reporters from G8 countries in Moscow at the weekend. 



"What kind of steps are we are going to take in response? Of course we are going to acquire new targets in Europe." Putin in nuclear threat against Europe (more) By Adrian Blomfield

TELEGRAPH LEADER:
Kick the Russians out

TIMESONLINE:
Putin raises spectre of nuclear war in Europe

Mark Alexander
Kursverluste in China an der Börse

WELTONLINE: Die chinesischen Aktienmärkte haben erneut schwere Kursverluste erlitten. Die Börse von Shanghai schließt mit einem Minus von acht Prozent – der schwerste Absturz seit dem Schock von Ende Februar. Platzt nun eine Spekulationsblase?

Chinas Börsen haben weitere schwere Kursverluste erlitten. Die Börse in Shanghai, der wichtigste Handelsplatz auf dem Festland, verlor mehr als acht Prozent. Es war der schwerste Absturz seit Ende Februar, als Shanghai Aktienindizes auf der ganzen Welt mitgerissen hatte. Chinas Börsen schocken die Anleger (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Amsterdam’s Nude Photoshoot

WATCH VIDEO HERE


More Spencer Tunick moments:

Spencer Tunick

Spencer Tunick

Mark Alexander
Krawalle in Rostock

NZZ: In Deutschland haben Politiker die Krawalle an der Demonstration gegen den G-8-Gipfel in Rostock scharf verurteilt. Bundeskanzlerin Merkel sagte, die Gewalt sei mit nichts zu rechtfertigen. Der bayrische Innenminister Beckstein forderte ein härteres Vorgehen der Polizei. Bei den Ausschreitungen vom Samstag waren über 1000 Personen verletzt worden, 50 davon schwer. Merkel verurteilt Krawalle in Rostock scharf: Politiker fordern härteres Vorgehen (mehr)

Mark Alexander
Lina Joy n’avait pas la joie!

LE MONDE: Personne ne connaît Lina Joy et pourtant Lina Joy est, ces jours-ci, l'une des femmes les plus célèbres de Malaisie. Son nom s'étalait à la "une" de tous les journaux de Kuala Lumpur, jeudi 31 mai, mais son visage reste un mystère. Un photographe local rit encore de l'appel de ce grand magazine américain qui, la veille, lui commandait candidement un portrait de Lina Joy, comme s'il suffisait de décrocher son téléphone et de prendre rendez-vous...

Musulmane convertie au christianisme, Lina Joy se cache, en Australie si l'on en croit les familiers du dossier. Par l'intermédiaire de son avocat, Benjamin Dawson, elle a répondu, jeudi, à ceux qui se demandent si elle va s'exiler pour de bon : "Il me serait extrêmement difficile d'exercer ma liberté de conscience (en Malaisie) dans le climat actuel." La Cour fédérale de Malaisie, a-t-elle ajouté, "m'a refusé un droit individuel fondamental : celui de croire en la religion de son choix, d'épouser la personne de son choix et d'élever une famille dans le contexte malaisien". Devenue chrétienne, Lina Joy a tout perdu (encore)

Mark Alexander
Putin Threatens Return to the Cold War

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to target Europe with missiles, including potentially nuclear weapons, in a dramatic escalation of his Cold War-style showdown with the United States.

Mr. Putin, in an interview at his country residence outside Moscow, said he considers U.S. plans to build an eastern European anti-missile site to shoot down Iranian missiles a provocation aimed at Russia.

Asked what he might do to retaliate, he said he would return Russia to the Cold War status where missiles were aimed at European targets. Exclusice: Putin threatens to target Europe with missiles (more) By Doug Saunders

Mark Alexander
FBI Saves JFK from Destruction by Jihadists

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: A "chilling" Islamic terrorist plot to blow up New York's John F Kennedy Airport was thwarted yesterday. The plotters had hoped it would be more deadly than the 9/11 atrocities.

Four members of a "sleeper cell" intent on exploding fuel dumps to destroy the airport terminal buildings and aircraft on the ground, were arrested after an FBI surveillance operation lasting more than 16 months.

In conversations bugged by American officials, one of the plotters claimed the resulting explosion would have resulted in the destruction of "the whole of Kennedy". He predicted there would have been few survivors. FBI thwarts Islamic plot to blow up JFK (more) By Tim Shipman

NZZ:
US-Behörden melden Schlag gegen Terrorkomplott: Schwerer Anschlag in New York geplant

LE FIGARO:
Un projet d’attentat déjoué à New York

Mark Alexander
Welcome to Iraqis

WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE: WASHINGTON — The United States will soon begin admitting a bigger trickle of the more than 2 million refugees who have fled Iraq, acknowledging for the first time the country may never be safe for some who have helped the U.S. there.

After months of agonizing delays and withering criticism from advocacy groups and lawmakers, the Bush administration has finalized new guidelines to screen Iraqi refugees, including those seeking asylum because helping the Americans has put them at huge risk.

The 2 million-plus people — the fastest growing refugee population in the world — have left Iraq, but Washington has balked at allowing them into the United States, for security reasons. U.S. to welcome more Iraqis: Nearly 7,000 refugees may arrive before Sept. (more) By Matthew Lee

Mark Alexander

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Temporary Marriage: It’s a Way of Satisfying Your Sexual Needs!

BBC: Iran's Interior Minister, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, has started promoting temporary marriage as a solution to the country's social problems.

Shia Islam allows a man and woman to marry for a fixed period of time, ranging from an hour to a century. Iran talks up temporary marriages (more)

Mark Alexander
Immigration

The Telegraph: Listen to the audio:

DON'T STIFLE THE DEBATE

Mark Alexander
ElBaradei: People Who Wish to Bomb Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Are the “New Crazies”

BBC: The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog has given one of his sternest warnings against using military action to halt Iran's uranium enrichment programme.

Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, described those wanting to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities as "new crazies". Nuclear watchdog’s attack warning (more) By Rob Broomby

NZZ:
Kein Plan zum Angriff Irans: Washington dementiert Pläne zu militärischer Attacke auf Teheran

Mark Alexander

Friday, June 01, 2007

Gay Soap Opera

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Photo of Reinaldo Avila da Silva courtesy of THE DAILY MAIL
THIS IS LONDON: Former BP chief executive Lord Browne has struck up a 'close friendship' with Peter Mandelson's partner, Brazilian Reinaldo Avila da Silva, it has been revealed.

The peer, who was forced to resign from the oil giant last month after lying to a court about his relationship with rent boy Jeff Chevalier, has socialised a deux with Reinaldo.

The disclosure of the close links between multi-millionaire Lord Browne and Reinaldo follows reports that 53-year-old Mr Mandelson has become close to Italian fashion designer Marco Coretti.

A well-placed source, who is in contact with both Lord Browne, 59, and Reinaldo, who is 25 years his junior, said: "Reinaldo has seen John a couple of times. They are close friends and know each other well." Mandelson’s Partner Linked with Lord Browne (more)

Mark Alexander
In der Schweiz müssen sich Raucher mit den neuen Gesetzen nicht gebauchpinselt fühlen!

NZZ: Das Passivrauchen soll in der Schweiz resolut bekämpft werden. Die Gesundheitskommission des Nationalrats schlägt ein nahezu lückenloses Rauchverbot für öffentlich zugängliche Räume und für Arbeitsplätze vor. Die Kommission hiess mit 14 zu 8 Stimmen ein Spezialgesetz gut.

(sda) Die Gesundheitskommission des Nationalrats will den Schutz vor dem Passivrauchen in einem Bundesgesetz festschreiben. Sie hat einen entsprechenden Entwurf mit 14 gegen 8 Stimmen verabschiedet. Im Zentrum stehen Rauchverbote in öffentlichen Gebäuden und in allgemein zugänglichen Räumen des Gastgewerbes. Spezialgesetz gegen Passivrachen: Nationalratskommission fordert lückenloses Rachverbot (mehr)

Mark Alexander
Heiligendamm: The New Green America?

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: In presenting his own proposal to deal with greenhouse gas emissions just days before next week's G-8 summit, Bush is trying to look like a leader on climate change in the hope of outmaneuvering Europe and his critics. But his plan is purposely vague and his ideas stale.

Many Americans had no idea until today that their government and those of the other Group of Eight (G-8) countries were locked in a bitter battle over global warming. The US media has studiously avoided the issue. The New York Times has ignored it for weeks, the Washington Post covered it with one short article and USA Today contented itself with a wire report from the Associated Press. Meanwhile the television networks have apparently decided to run absolutely nothing on the issue. The Emperor’s Green Clothes (more)

Mark Alexander
There’s a Chill in the Air

BBC: Even as they struggle to find common ground on Iraq, are America and Iran locked in the escalating tensions of a new Cold War?

Many analysts saw their meeting in Baghdad on 28 May as a sign of a thaw.

The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, described his four hours of talks with his Iranian counterpart as "positive".

But look at the bigger picture and there are serious and growing tensions on several fronts. Iran and the US: A new cold war? (more) By Roger Hardy

Mark Alexander
Civil liberties are Being Eroded Everywhere. Now, even Dubai is to Follow the Latest Western Craze of Banning Smoking in All Public Places

KUWAIT TIMES: DUBAI: Dubai will ban smoking in government buildings, schools and colleges from today, the first step in a plan to stub out smoking across the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub by the end of 2009. "Tomorrow will be the launch of gradual steps to regulate smoking in public areas," Zohoor Al-Sabbagh, head of the clinic and community health section at Dubai Municipality, said. "We will start with government offices and educational establishments ... there will be a gradual ban on smoking in public areas," she told Reuters. Dubai to stub out smoking in public (more)

THE TELEGRAPH:
£80 fine for dropping a cigarette butt By Harry Wallop

TELEGRAPH LEADER:
Liberties go up in smoke

THE TELEGRAPH:
Smoke police: who enforces the ban?

THE TELEGRAPH:
Where you can and can’t smoke

THE TELEGRAPH:
Are smokers a persecuted minority?

THE TELEGRAPH:
Smoking maketh man By Andrew McKie

FOREST:
Forest: The Smokers’ Lobby Group

FOREST:
Forest’s Blog

Mark Alexander
”She Goes West; He Goes Right”

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A new study has found that many more women are leaving economically moribund Eastern Germany. The result is a new, frustrated and largely male underclass. And many of them find succor in the neo-Nazi scene.

The problem has been well known for years: Ever since the mid-1990s, young Eastern Germans have been fleeing the region due to a lack of economic opportunity, hoping to find jobs in the western part of the country. Some 1.5 million have already left the region -- roughly 10 percent of the population of East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell. Even worse, most of those who leave are under 35 and many of them have above average education or training.

But according to a new study released by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, there is another problem that accompanies the migration. Since 1991, more than two-thirds of all those who have left Eastern Germany have been women. The result is that in many towns in the region, there are simply not enough to go around -- some places are missing up to 25 percent of their young women. Even worse, the young men who stay behind are often poorly educated, unemployed and frustrated -- perfect fodder for neo-Nazi groups looking for members. Lack of Women in Eastern Germany Feeds Neo-Nazis (more)

Mark Alexander
British Hypocrisy Concerning Israel

YNET NEWS: British academicians apparently unconcerned about occupation in Ireland

The British University and College Union (UCU) has decided to call on its members to "consider the moral implications" of ties with Israeli academic institutions, and even weigh the imposition of a boycott on those same institutions to protest Israel's policy towards the Palestinians.

Beyond the intolerable harm to academic freedom, this decision features grand hypocrisy; the Union, which sees fit to condemn Israel's "occupation" in its own country has no problem identifying with the British occupation of Ireland, which has lasted for hundreds of years now and led to violent struggles and peace deals that failed one after the other. British hypocrisy reigns supreme (more) By Ron Breiman

HAARETZ:
Boycotting Israel as moral masturbation By Bradley Burston

Mark Alexander

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Une grande déception: Le Vatican est favorable à l'entrée de la Turquie dans l'Union européenne!

LE FIGARO: Le secrétaire d'État du Pape a confirmé le virage à 180 degrés engagé par Benoît XVI lors de sa visite à Istanbul, l'an dernier.

LE VATICAN est favorable à l'entrée de la Turquie dans l'Union européenne. Mardi soir, en marge d'une conférence organisée à l'université romaine des légionnaires du Christ, le cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secrétaire d'État du Saint-Siège, a dit oui à cet élargissement. Il a ainsi confirmé le nouveau cap du Saint-Siège qui se dessinait depuis le voyage effectué par Benoît XVI en Turquie, en no-vembre 2006. Le Vatican dit oui à la Turquie dans l'Europe (encore) de Hervé Yannou

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL:
Sarkozy Will Not Block Accession Talks with Ankara

BBC:
Pope reinstates Islam department

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE:
Pope Benedict XVI upgrades Vatican’s relations with Islam

Mark Alexander
L’accusation d’espionage

LE FIGARO: Les États-Unis rejettent ces mises en cause dans une affaire qui rebondit au lendemain des premiers pourparlers entre les deux pays depuis 1979.

ON SERA VITE retombé dans une atmosphère de guerre froide après l'amorce d'un dialogue américano-iranien, lundi dernier sur les questions de sécurité en Irak. Au lendemain des premiers pourparlers directs entre les deux pays depuis l'affaire des otages de l'ambassade américaine en 1979 et la rupture des relations diplomatiques l'année suivante, trois Irano-Américains ont été accusés d'espionnage et d'atteinte à la sécurité nationale en Iran. Téhéran accuse trois Irano-Américains d'espionnage (encore) de Jean-Louis Turlin

Mark Alexander
Islam in Switzerland

SWITZERLAND.ISYOURS.COM: Switzerland, and Geneva in particular, is often associated with emirs and other sheiks who enjoy sumptuous palaces, stroll along the harbor in the shade of the fountain and buy out the luxury shops. True, these visitors from the Gulf do exist, and they are well-known and highly appreciated by our businesses, however the bulk of the Muslim population has little to do with them.

The second largest religion in Switzerland

In 1990, the Muslim population was 152,200, or 2.2% of the Switzerland’s resident population. A surprising development for those who know that in the early seventies, there were less than 20,000 Muslims living in Switzerland. Islam is now the second largest religion in Switzerland, after Christianity. Islam in Switzerland (more)

Mark Alexander
Malaysia Demonstrates Its Commitment to Human Rights: Refusal to Grant a Person’s Right to Convert Out of Islam Into Christianity

MIDDLE EAST TIMES: KUALA LUMPUR -- The woman at the center of a religious controversy in Malaysia has accused the country's highest court of denying her fundamental rights in rejecting her bid to be legally recognized as Christian, her lawyer confirmed Thursday.

Lina Joy's comments came a day after Malaysia's Federal Court rejected her attempt to win recognition of her conversion from Islam.

Joy, 43, had sought the removal of the word "Islam" from her national identity card.

But the Federal Court, the highest secular legal body, threw out her case and said that only an Islamic Sharia tribunal could legally certify her conversion. Malaysian woman criticizes court in religious row (more)

NZZ:
Verdikt gegen die Religionsfreiheit

Mark Alexander
Why Are We Friends With Saudi Arabia?

With many, many thanks to Barry Lang-Downe for drawing this video to my attention:

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Mark Alexander
Do We Need to Protect Our Judeo-Christian Heritage?

Yesterday, I came across this excellent and thought-provoking article written by a friend of mine in New Zealand, the owner of Judah’s Journal. As soon as I saw it, I felt I should share it with you. I bring it to you today with Judah’s express permission. Don't forget to click on the link at the bottom and go over to read the rest of it. There, you can also make a comment.
JUDAH’S JOURNAL: Yesterday in New Zealand an international inter-faith forum was opened, attended by 165 religious and cultural leaders from 15 countries. The forum was sponsored by the New Zealand, Australian, Indonesian and Philippines governments as a response to the 2002 Bali bombings, the aim being to prevent religious-inspired terrorism by building links between various faiths in what is potentially the world’s most volatile region.

In a sign of the importance they are afforded by member states, the opening was attended by NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark, the NZ Foreign Affairs Minister, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and the Australian Foreign Minister.

New Zealand has a Statement on Religious Diversity, prepared by the Victoria University Religious Studies Programme, and is the subject of a national process of public consultation coordinated by the Human Rights Commission. It was endorsed by the National Interfaith Forum in Hamilton in February 2007 as a basis for ongoing public discussion. The statement reads as follows:

1. The State and Religion
The State seeks to treat all faith communities and those who profess no religion equally before the law. New Zealand has no official or established religion.

2. The Right to Religion
New Zealand upholds the right to freedom of religion and belief and the right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of religious or other belief.

3. The Right to Safety
Faith communities and their members have a right to safety and security.

4. The Right of Freedom of Expression
The right to freedom of expression and freedom of the media are vital for democracy but should be exercised with responsibility.

5. Recognition and Accommodation
Reasonable steps should be taken in educational and work environments and in the delivery of public services to recognise and accommodate diverse religious beliefs and practices.

6. Education
Schools should teach an understanding of different religious and spiritual traditions in a manner that reflects the diversity of their national and local community.

7. Religious Differences
Debate and disagreement about religious beliefs will occur but must be exercised within the rule of law and without resort to violence

8. Cooperation and understanding
Government and faith communities have a responsibility to build and maintain positive relationships with each other, and to promote mutual respect and understanding.


Need we protect our Judeo-Christian heritage? (more)
Mark Alexander

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

La volte-face de Benoît

LE FIGARO: Il estime que ce pays "a parcouru un long chemin" et "respecte les règles fondamentales de la vie commune".

La scène se situe en marge d'une conférence sur le thème "Christianisme et Sécularisme", mercredi. Mgr Tarcisio Bertone, numéro deux du Vatican, s'exprime devant plusieurs journalistes : "En Europe on exalte la laïcité en tant que telle et même plus encore le ‘laïcisme’. Et au nom de ce ‘laïcisme’, on rejette toute référence aux racines judéo-chrétiennes (de l'Europe)". "Mais la Turquie aussi a parcouru un long chemin et marche encore. Les positions sont naturellement très différentes mais avec les peuples et les gouvernements qui respectent les règles fondamentales de la vie en commun, on peut dialoguer et construire ensemble un bien commun dans la sphère européenne et dans la sphère de la communauté mondiale", estime le secrétaire d’Etats du Saint-Siège. Le Vatican est pour l’entrée de la Turquie dans l’Europe (encore)

Mark Alexander
The Last Farewell: Blair on His Valedictory Tour of Africa. Defence Contracts with Gadaffi as Britain Puts Commercial Interests Above Security

Yes, yes, Tone, we all love you. Now you can go and spend more time with your family. Your children await you! By the way, if you need some help with the removal expenses, I'm sure that there's a rich person out there, dying to be rid of you, one from 'The Sunday Times' Rich List no doubt, ready and willing to help you with them! Who knows? He might pick up even the whole tab to make it easier for you to go that much more quickly! - Mark Alexander

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Photo of Blair cosying up to Gaddafi courtesy of Al Jazeera
AL JAZEERA: The British prime minister has hailed his country's "transformed" relations with once-isolated Libya as the two sides unveiled energy and military deals.

Tony Blair met Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, in his hometown of Sirte at the start of his farewell three-nation African tour seeking to build support on Darfur and climate change.

"The relationship between Britain and Libya has been completely transformed in these last few years," he said.

Blair, accompanied by his wife, Cherie, also met the Libyan prime minister, al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, and families of Libyan children infected with HIV.

Large defence contracts

Al-Mahmoudi said Libya would buy British missiles and air defence systems, in what would be the largest British defence sale to the former outcast state since an international arms embargo on it ended in 2004. Blair hails transformed Libya ties (more)

Mark Alexander
Sarkozy Plumps for “Privileged Partnership” for Turkey

Say ‘NO’ to Turkey in Europe! If you value your FREEDOMS, keep Islam OUT! Don't let the British government, the Foreign Office, or any other government or organization sell your Judeo-Christian heritage down the river! A "privileged partnership" for Turkey, at most.
BBC: New French President Nicolas Sarkozy has moved to prevent friction over Turkey's EU membership bid in the run-up to next month's EU summit.

A French presidential official quoted by Reuters said Mr Sarkozy - who opposes the bid - would not block further EU-Turkey accession talks.

Mr Sarkozy's top diplomatic adviser held talks in Turkey at the weekend. Sarkozy ‘won’t stop Turkey talks’ (more)
Mark Alexander
Setback for London Mega-Mosque

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Plan courtesy of Google Images
TIMES ONLINE: An ultra-orthodox Islamic sect has delayed plans to build a "mega-mosque" in East London after the Government warned it could "raise tensions" in the community.

Tablighi Jamaat had intended to submit plans to build Britain's largest place of worship next to the Olympic site, this September. But the group told Times Online that no plans would now be submitted until next year at the earliest.

More than 48,000 people have petitioned the Government to “abolish plans for the £100m mega-mosque” with a capacity for 12,000 worshippers beside the London 2012 Olympic park in Newham, East London.

The Government said that the issue could "raise tensions" and did not expect any planning application to be made in the “near future”. Setback for Muslim sect’s ‘mega-mosque’ in London (more)

Mark Alexander
Mujahid Adam Gadahn: “Legitimate Demands”

With many thanks to Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch for drawing my attention, through his excellent website, to this video showing the venomous, bitter and megalomaniacal nature in this man and all that follow this murderous ideology:
KUWAIT TIMES: DUBAI: An American member of Al-Qaeda warned in an Internet video that US President George W. Bush should withdraw all his troops from Muslim land or face attacks worse than September 11. Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam and the first American to be charged with treason since the World War Two era, issued a list of demands which he said were not up for negotiation. "Your failure to heed our demands means that you and your people... will experience things that will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11, Afghanistan and Iraq, and Virginia Tech," he said in the video posted on Tuesday. Qaeda warns of attacks 'worse than 9/11' (more)

EL MUNDO:
Al Qaeda amenaza con ataques peores al 11-S si EEUU no deja la 'tierra del Islam'
Mark Alexander

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Important Videos: Islam - House of War (Dar ul Harb)


WATCH VIDEOS HERE: VIDEO 1, VIDEO 2, VIDEO 3


Mark Alexander
As Chávismo Tightens Its Grip, Thousands Prepare to Flee Venezuela

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Photo courtesy of Google Images
TIMESONLINE: Jason Chue used to knock off at five o’clock sharp, leave the office and go and enjoy his evening. Now he routinely finds himself stuck there long into the evening answering the plaintive e-mails of hundreds of Venezuelans pleading for information on how they can emigrate to the United States.

“They’re professional people with good jobs,” Mr Chue, a consular officer at the US Embassy in Caracas, explains. “But they’ll say they want to leave because they are frightened for their future and their children.” Amid protests and fear, thousands prepare to flee the slow revolution (more)

Mark Alexander

Monday, May 28, 2007

Zero-Tolerance of Minarets in Switzerland

The BBC seems to think the Swiss are being harsh and intolerant. (The BBC doesn’t seem to understand that Switzerland is a Christian country, and a Christian country with a superior democracy.) Actually, the Swiss are showing the rest of Europe the way forward! Would that the rest of Europe had the courage of the Swiss!
BBC: A row is brewing over religious symbolism in Switzerland.

Members of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, currently the largest party in the Swiss parliament, have launched a campaign to have the building of minarets banned.

They claim the minaret is not necessary for worship, but is rather a symbol of Islamic law, and as such incompatible with Switzerland's legal system. Swiss move to ban minarets (more) By Imogen Foulkes

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Swiss proposal to ban minarets
Mark Alexander
Stop the Islamization of Europe! Stop the Islamization of the West!

The West is being Islamized before our very eyes! It is happening in such subtle ways that it is sometimes imperceptible to those who are not looking out for it. But much of the time, what is happening is plain to see. Each and every concession we make to Muslims is a further nail in the coffin of liberal democracy. Each time we consider granting Muslims a public holiday, each time we consider curtailing our own freedom of speech to appease them, we are assisting Muslims to further Islamize our home countries. Be sure of that.

Western governments should not be powerless to deal with this, but even so they seem to be: They lack the will and determination to stop the rot.

Political correctness, of course, has taken its toll on the West. So has the ridiculous concept of multiculturalism. Add to this a deep-seated guilt complex, a pervasive attitude of self-denigration, extreme tolerance, and an army of apologists for Islam, and we have a catastrophe in the making.

One of our greatest mistakes is to think of Islam as just another one of the world's great religions. We shouldn't. Islam is politics or it is nothing at all, but, of course, it is politics with a spiritual dimension, politics all wrapped up in a deity.

What is the nature of the politics of Islam? Well, that's an easy one to answer: It is little different from the politics of a totalitarian state, little different from the ideologies of Nazism or communism, different only in detail rather than style. Both Nazism and communism used the purge to try and 'cleanse' society of what it considered undesirable. Islam always does the same. Both of those tolerated only a single political party. Islam generally does the same, and certainly, where it doesn't, insists that all parties be Islamic ones. This, of course, gives the establishment the power to coerce the people. G. H. Sabine, in his book, A History of Political Theory, tells us this about Nazism and communism:
...the party was a self-constituted aristocracy which has the mission partly of leading, partly of instructing, and partly of coercing the bulk of mankind along the road that it must follow. Both were totalitarian in the sense that they obliterated the liberal distinction between areas of private judgment and of public control, and both turned the educational system into an agency of universal indoctrination. In their philosophy[,] both were utterly dogmatic, professing, the one in the name of the Aryan race and the other in the name of the proletariat, a higher insight capable of laying down rules for art, literature, science, and religion. Both induced a frame of mind akin to religious fanaticism. In strategy[,] both were reckless in their assertions, boundless in their claims, abusive toward their opponents, prone to regard any concession on their own part as a temporary expedient and on a rival's part as a sign of weakness. The social philosophies of both agreed in regarding society as in essence a system of forces, economic or racial, between which adjustment takes place by struggle and dominance rather than by mutual understanding and concession. Both therefore regarded politics as merely an expression of power.
So much in Islam resembles those two despicable ideologies. The ruling party in Islamic countries coerces the people along the road that it must follow. This is particularly easy to observe in Iran today. Islam, too, tries to obliterate the liberal distinction between areas of private judgment and of public control. We see this in all Islamic countries. Similar to Nazism and communism, Islam also turns the educational system into an apparatus of the state for the purpose of universal indoctrination. One would be justified in using the term 'brainwashing'.

In addition, Islam also lays down rules for art (no depiction of the human form is allowed, for example), for literature (all is censored), for science (nothing discovered may contradict the Qur'an or Ahadith, or the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), and certainly for religion (no religion is accepted of man except Islam). Where Jews and Christians live in Islamic countries, they are given protection in return for a high tax known as the jiziyah, but are given dhimmi status, which means, in effect, that they are subdued and given second class status.

Islam also induces a frame of mind akin to fanaticism. That this is so is self-explanatory. Islam is also reckless in its assertions, and boundless in its claims. Example: All the world belongs to Allah; therefore it is the duty of all Muslims to Islamize it. In Islam, too, adjustment takes place by struggle and dominance. Note the Jihad.

A remarkable similarity is this: Islam is also inclined to be abusive to its opponents (they are infidels and unclean), and is prone to regard any concession on its own part as a temporary expedient and on a rival's part as a sign of weakness. And Islam, too, regards politics as an expression of power. Oh, and we shouldn't forget that Islam is profoundly anti-Semitic!

Aren't the similarities just remarkable?

What is troubling is this: Islam is closing in on us. We have so many unassimilated Muslims living in Europe, and an ever-growing number living in the States, too. In fact, millions and millions of Muslims live in the West today. But the West has no strategy for dealing with the fall-out. We saw this recently in France when their cities burnt night after night. The mayhem Muslim immigrants caused there was enough to make anyone's hair stand on end. But what has France done about it? It has unveiled a series of measures to appease the Muslim immigrants, and has ignored the fact that this was an uprising caused in no small part by the Islamic community flexing its ever strengthening muscles. Now, however, we have some hope of change: after all, Nicolas Sarkozy has been elected Président de la Republique.

If we in the West wish to ensure the survival of our own civilization, wish to ensure that our children will be able to live as freely as we have been able to do till now, wish to ensure that people are free to choose their religion in the West, but just as free not to choose one, then we have a lot of thinking to do!

I would suggest that we start by asking one simple question: Should we regard Islam as a mere religion, or should we start to see it for what it truly is: a political ideology with megalomaniacal aspirations; a political ideology with a spiritual dimension which will stop at nothing until the West is no more, until the West has been brought into Dar ul Islam, or the 'House of Islam', until the West has been well and truly Islamized. To ignore this fact is tantamount to playing fast and loose with our children's future freedoms and security. In fact, it is negligent of their future well-being!

©Mark Alexander

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Police Interrogation Proposals

MELANIE PHILLIPS: Hard on the heels of last week’s control order fiasco comes the news that the Government is planning to introduce yet another Draconian security measure.

The police may be given the power to interrogate individuals about who they are, where they have been and where they are going. Officers would thus be able to gain information about ‘matters relevant’ to terror investigations. If such people failed to stop or refused to answer questions, they could be charged with a criminal offence and fined up to £5,000.

These powers have been in operation in Northern Ireland. In an ironic twist, at the very moment that they are due to be repealed as part of the ‘normalisation’ procedures of the peace process, the Home Secretary John Reid intends to extend them to mainland Britain. This is because, as Irish terrorism recedes, a new and far more deadly threat has taken its place. Stop and question this policy (more)

Mark Alexander