The EU should be stronger and more united. Great Britain should belong to the Union.
Die EU sollte stärker und geeinter sein. Großbritannien sollte der Union angehören.
L'UE devrait être plus forte et plus unie. La Grande-Bretagne devrait appartenir à l'Union.
Friday, August 10, 2007
The True, Intolerant Face of Shari’ah Law
BBC: Eighteen men have been remanded in prison following their arrest for alleged sodomy in northern Nigeria, the state-owned news agency, Nan, reports.
The men were arrested in a hotel in north-eastern Bauchi State, which is governed by the Islamic Sharia law.
Politics in the Western world is broadly characterized by the term liberal democracy. Liberal democracy combines the right to be governed representatively. In a liberal democracy, there is universal adult suffrage, and political equality for all people. Those elected to high office are entrusted with the protection of the individual’s liberties, the individual’s freedom of speech, the individual’s freedom of assembly, the individual’s freedom to choose his religion or indeed his right not to choose one at all, the individual’s right to private property, the individual’s right to privacy, the individual’s right to self-determination, and the individual’s equality before the law, under the rule of law. Increasingly, the West has moved in the direction of giving the individual equality before the law, regardless of sexual orientation.
Politics in the Islamic world, by contrast, is very different. Muslims consider themselves to be superior to non-Muslims, or al-Kuffar, in all respects. Representative government is sadly lacking in just about all countries where Islam is the dominant religion. Turkey is but one example where there is a semblance of representative government. But even in that country, democracy is shaky at best; and often has to be guarded by the military lest the politicians overstep the mark.
Of course, there is no such thing as equality before the law for non-Muslims, and nor is there freedom of speech or freedom of assembly. Indeed, in Islamic countries, there is no freedom to choose one’s religion at all. Even in Turkey we can conclude that Christians are at best tolerated. Sexual orientation, of course, is not even discussed as an issue; in most Islamic countries, gays are often persecuted, and often times even killed.
Western politicians have got themselves into a fix with Islam because they have allowed far too many Muslims into the West for economic reasons, paying scant regard to the long-term consequences of their actions, paying little regard to the propensity of Muslims to integrate into our societies, and paying no regard to the wishes of the electorate.
Western politicians are in denial about Islam. It is my belief that most politicians know exactly how Muslims think, yet they are singularly unwilling to admit fault, admit error, admit they were wrong to allow so many Muslims into the West. They are also unwilling to state, categorically, that Muslims need to abide by our liberal, democratic laws. In brief, they are running scared. The electorate is being sold down the river as a result of the craven actions of our politicians. And who, in recent years, have been more craven than George W Bush and Tony Blair?
The fact of the matter, as I have stated time and time again, is that Islam is not a religion in the Western sense at all. Islam is a total way of life. Islam, if it is anything, is politics. Indeed the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stated as much when he said: ”Islam is politics or it is nothing.” Who can argue with the Ayatollah on such matters?
Muslims believe that the only constitution worthy of being followed is one based on the Shari’ah. No liberal democracy for them! Who wants to give women equal rights when they can get away with treating them as second-class citizens? In countries such as Saudi Arabia, a woman’s word is worth half that of a man! Translated into everyday life, this means that in a court of law, there must be two female witnesses for every male witness.
Western politics has been through a period of secularization. Whilst the West’s foundations lie in Judeo-Christianity, most Western countries these days pay only lip service to those roots, since religion has become rather marginalized and pushed into the private sphere.
If it is true to say that Western politics have been largely secularized, then it is equally true to say that Islam has been allowed into the West as a theocratizing influence. Indeed, Islam in its entirety may be viewed as the theocratization of politics, for Islam recognizes no separation of the profane from the sacred, no separation of the temporal from the heavenly, no separation of the secular from the theocratic.
Therein lies a huge problem for the West. This is a circle that simply cannot be squared. Not even with the best will in the world, not even with abundant intelligence. A square peg cannot be made to fit into a round hole!
It must then be conceded that the upshot of all this is one of two scenarios: Either the West will have to cave in and accept the theocratization of its politics à l’Islam, or it will have to fight for its right to existence.
A little bit of foresight and intelligence could have avoided all the bloodshed that will surely ensue; but alas the politicians did not possess that intelligence. They took, instead, the line of least resistance; and now, this is the mess we find ourselves in: Western politics, I fear, is about to be theocratized!
MIDDLE EAST TIMES: THE HAGUE, The Netherlands -- Dutch far right MP Geert Wilders Wednesday called for a ban on the Koran in the Netherlands, describing the Islamic holy book as a "fascist" text that exhorts followers to kill and rape.
The Dutch government swiftly condemned Wilders' remarks as damaging for community relations in the Netherlands and said that the proposal was unworthy of consideration.
"It has to be perfectly clear that banning the Koran in the Netherlands is not up for discussion for this government and will not be up for discussion in future. We have freedom or religion here," integration minister Ella Vogelaar, said in a statement.
Vogelaar described Wilders' call as "an insult to the majority of Muslims in the Netherlands and abroad who reject calls to hate and violence."
Wilders, who heads the far-right Freedom Party, which holds nine of the 150 seats in parliament, argued for the ban in a letter published in the De Volkskrant newspaper.
Immigrants Take Four out of Ten Homes Built in Past Ten Years of NuLabour Rule
DAILY MAIL: Four in ten homes built over the past ten years have been needed because of immigration, figures have revealed.
Nearly 600,000 properties have had to be constructed because of the new arrivals since Labour came to power in 1997, said researchers at the House of Commons Library.
This is three times more than the number of homes needed for immigrants under the last Conservative government.
The library, a team of independent researchers who carry out work for MPs, said an average of 19,000 immigrant households a year were established between 1992 and 1997.
But the figure has since soared to 66,000 a year, which has helped to price many British first-time buyers out of the market.
WELTONLINE: Seine Eltern sind Christen, doch er selbst hat nur noch den „Koran im Kopf": Barino meidet Ungläubige, besucht regelmäßig die Moschee und hält es für „das Größte, für Allah zu sterben". Eine außergewöhnliche WDR-Dokumentation hat festgehalten, wie aus einem Kölner Jugendlichen ein fundamentalistischer Moslem wurde.
Es ist eine unheimliche Verwandlung. Unheimlich vor allem deshalb, weil sie so leise vonstatten gegangen ist. Barino hat immer noch diese wachen Augen, diesen nachdenklichen Blick, äußerlich hat er sich kaum verändert.
Doch etwas ist mit ihm passiert in der Zeit, die seit seinem ersten Treffen mit den WDR-Reportern Antonio Cascais und Marcel Kolvenbach vergangen ist: Im Jahr 2006 paukte der Kölner für sein Abitur an einem Abendgymnasium, ein Jahr später hat er den Kontakt zu seinen Schulfreunden auf „ein Minimum reduziert“ – die meisten von ihnen sind Christen. Seine Lehre zum Versicherungskaufmann hat er zwar beendet, aber nun will er nie wieder in diesem Beruf arbeiten. Aus religiösen Gründen. Er geht nicht mehr zum Sportverein, hört auch keine Musik mehr. Statt Pop, Rock oder HipHop erschallen aus der Stereo-Anlage des 22-Jährigen nur noch Koran-Rezitationen. Die Verwandlung eines Christen zum Islamisten (mehr) Von Dennis Kramer
NEW YORK TIMES – Editorial: Despite the Federal Reserve’s stay-the-course message yesterday, investors are betting on at least one interest-rate cut by January, intended to quell turmoil in the markets and to juice the slow economy. But with the dollar also weak — recently hitting its lowest point in 15 years against an index of other major currencies — the Fed may be reluctant to oblige.
A declining dollar is a source of inflationary pressure because it can boost the cost of imports. So if the Fed tried to rev up the economy with a rate cut at the same time the dollar is falling, it could end up provoking even more inflation. That would be a drag on economic growth rather than a boost. In an extreme case, it could result in a toxic combination of weak growth and high prices that is a central banker’s nightmare.
How did the Fed lose room to maneuver? The answer is rooted in the Bush administration’s misguided economic policies. Over the last several years, America’s imbalances in trade and other global transactions have worsened dramatically, requiring the United States to borrow billions of dollars a day from abroad just to balance its books. A Weak Dollar and the Fed (more)
DAILY EXPRESS: JAILED Muslim fanatic Abu Hamza was facing bankruptcy last night after losing a battle to pass a £1million legal bill to the taxpayer.
The Legal Services Commission, given powers by the High Court to recover assets to the value of his bill, said it would first seize his £250,000 home.
Hamza, 48, was granted legal aid, to defend himself against charges of race hate and incitement to murder, at the Old Bailey last year. He was convicted of six counts and jailed for seven years.
But in January a judge ruled that the hook-handed preacher must meet the costs of defending himself after it emerged that he provided “false information” to the court – and that far from being penniless, he owned valuable property in London.
Yesterday the Legal Services Commission got the green light to recover assets from the firebrand cleric to the value of his £1,088,944.97 legal bill. Hamza Ordered to Pay Back £1m Legal Aid (more)
Nuke Makkah and Medina in the Event of a Nuclear Attack on the US, Says Tancredo
IOWAPOLITICS.COM: OSCEOLA -- Followers of radical Islam must be deterred from committing a nuclear attack on U.S. soil, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said Tuesday morning, saying that as president he would take drastic measures to prevent such attacks.
"If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina," the GOP presidential candidate said. "That is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do. If I am wrong fine, tell me, and I would be happy to do something else. But you had better find a deterrent or you will find an attack. There is no other way around it. There have to be negative consequences for the actions they take. That's the most negative I can think of."
The harsh approach is vital in order to prevent a worldwide collapse, Tancredo told nearly 30 people Tuesday morning at the Family Table restaurant.
"Beyond the loss of human life and devastation, it would cause a worldwide economic collapse," Tancredo said of a nuclear attack on U.S soil. "If all of a sudden we are not a consuming engine of the world, the producing nations will collapse also. That is what they want, that is what they are looking for, to end Western civilization as we know it."
Tancredo said there was no such deterrent in place right now.
THE GUARDIAN: The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has announced his intention to change the country's constitution, allowing him to rule indefinitely.
The socialist leader used his weekly television programme, Hello President, to confirm widely anticipated plans to scrap the limits on presidential terms.
Mr Chávez said the expected change - which must be agreed by parliament and approved by voters in a referendum - would enhance democracy.
However, critics of his leadership will see it as an attempt to tighten his grip on Venezuela and cement his self-styled "revolution", which has sharply divided opinion at home and abroad. Chávez seeks changes allowing indefinite rule (more)
Holocaust Survivors Demand More State Support in Israel
BBC: Representatives of Israel's 250,000 Holocaust survivors are to demand more state support in a protest outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's house.
A government offer of a monthly stipend of $20 (£10) was rejected as too little by survivor groups, and they vowed to go ahead with the Jerusalem action.
Many elderly survivors say they struggle to pay for medical treatment and, in some cases, food.
BBC: News of a $400m Franco-Libyan arms deal has reignited a controversy in France about how the release by Tripoli of jailed medics was secured last week.
The six were freed after a high-profile visit to Libya by President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia.
The day after their release, the president himself flew to Libya to sign trade and health deals.
Since then, opposition socialists have demanded to know whether the Bulgarian detainees were part of the package.
Mr Sarkozy strongly denies that there was any such quid-pro-quo.
But the arms agreement - the first between Libya and a Western country since the EU lifted a ban in 2004 - has fuelled demands for explanations.
The deal was first outlined on Thursday by Saif Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader.
He told Le Monde newspaper that the arms sales had long been at the heart of talks between Libya and France. Libya sales deal fuels French row (more) By Henri Astier
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: For one Amsterdam mayor, the Netherlands' famous tolerance has gone too far. Morrocan-born Ahmed Marcouch is taking the tough cop approach in a rough Amsterdam neighborhood, pushing his fellow immigrants to integrate. But some consider him a traitor.
A street festival is in full swing in Amsterdam's Slotervaart neighborhood. The occasion is the dedication of a new community center for Christians and Muslims designed to foster interaction between the two groups.
As the crowd listens to music, munches on fish snacks and Arab pastries and drinks fruit juice, Ahmed Marcouch, the district's 38-year-old mayor, holds a speech. He talks about progress and mutual understanding between different ethnic communities. At the end of his talk, Marcouch poses for pictures with an attractive young woman wearing a headscarf.
The festival and the speech are nice gestures, but atypical. Normally life in Slotervaart isn't nearly as convivial as the speakers paint it. Crime and unemployment are significantly higher than the national average, and one in three of the neighborhood's young people are high-school dropouts.
Ahmed Marcouch grew up in this environment, but he has since made a better life for himself. He was illiterate when he came to the Netherlands from Morocco at the age of 10, but he was lucky enough to encounter a teacher at a progressive Montessori school who helped him get on track. Moroccan-Born Mayor Dispenses Tough Love to Immigrants (more) By Erich Wiedemann
A Letter to the Editor of the Orange County Register Which Should Never Have Fallen Through the Net
With many thanks to an American friend of mine for bringing this excellent letter to my attention:
Dave LaBonte’s wife, Rosemary, recently wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the Orange County Register. Alas, it didn’t get published.
This is no surprise, since editors on both sides of the Atlantic are very busy these days doing what they do best: Editing! Unfortunately they take their jobs just a tad too seriously, since instead of editing, they are inclined to ‘edit out’! They edit out all the good stuff they receive when it either doesn’t conform to their own ideas, or when it is simply too incorrect – too politically incorrect that is.
Rosemary’s letter is particularly good, and I believe that it reflects the views of many, many people. Arguably, it reflects the views of the vast majority of people on both sides of the Atlantic.
The editor of the Orange County Register should hang his head in shame. Editors, it seems, have their own agenda. They are not truly interested in the views of their readers; rather, they have their own agenda to push. This is the sad reality we face today. And they call this democracy!
Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan [a reader] for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.
Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.
They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.
Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought alongside men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France and Japan. None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people. When we liberated France, no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German-American or the Irish-American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are in 2007 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.
(signed) Rosemary LaBonte
P. S. Pass this on to everyone you know! KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING! I hope this letter gets read by millions of people all across the nation!
NATIONALREVIEW ONLINE: Radical Islamists love to scream about the “decadent” West. Everything from our operas to our attitudes about women outrage these loud pious critics.
As part of their condemnation, fundamentalist Muslims say they put a higher premium on family values and reverence for the past than crass modern Americans and Europeans do. But that is hardly true.
In Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, unforgiving sharia law administered by stern state clerics dictates the cutting off a hand for theft. Is there less stealing then? Not at the highest levels at least. Sheiks from the ruling House of Saud are notorious for gambling and squandering abroad their nation’s collective petro-wealth. But few such royals walk around Riyadh with missing limbs from “judicial amputation.”
Recently on a British Airways flight to London, members of Qatar’s royal house were outraged that its princesses had been seated next to male passengers who weren’t related to them. Was this a clash of civilizations?
Not quite. The entire entourage was, in fact, returning from an all-day shopping spree in Milan, Italy. The angry members of Qatar’s royal house may claim outrage at gender equality, but they seem to have no problem with the libertine West when it comes to splurging their kingdom’s wealth on luxury items. This type of hypocrisy in the Muslim world is not limited to supposedly devout oil-rich Gulf sheiks who cherry-pick Western sin. Terrorists — with one foot in the 7th century and the other in the 21st century — want it both ways, too. Their Western Ways: We infidels are good for something By Victor Davis Hanson
Gordon Brown Proposes Nonsense: He Wants to Call Islamic Terrorism a Crime Instead of Calling It By Its Real Name: The Jihad!
BARNABUS [FUND] COMMUNIQUE: A shift has been taking place in UK government ministries as to the terminology used to describe the terrorist threat faced by Britain. The Foreign Office has advised ministers to abandon the use of terms such as 'war against terror', 'Islamic terrorism' and 'Islamist terrorism'. The idea is that these terms antagonise the British Muslim community and increase tensions with the wider Muslim world. Using military terminology is seen as counter-productive, contributing to the isolating of communities from each other. According to proponents of this shift, such terms imply a conflict of religions and link Islam, the religion of peace, with terrorism and radicalism. They hold that the widespread use of such terms serves only to alienate and radicalise more Muslims who would otherwise be happy to integrate into a cohesive British society. Terrorists, they believe, use the sense of crisis engendered by the discourse on a 'clash of civilisation' and a 'war against Islamic terrorism' to recruit supporters who feel that Islam is being attacked and that Muslims must defend themselves. Abandoning such terms, according to the Foreign Office, will avoid empowering the terrorists' narrative and weaken the trend to radicalisation.[1]The controversy over terrorism terminology (more)
One Step Closer to Islam Being a “Religion of State”!
With many thanks to Always On Watch for alerting me to this story:
WORLD NET DAILY: A new government study is being condemned by the Christian ministry the Barnabas Fund because its proposals would move closer to imposing Islam in the United Kingdom as "a religion of state."
Among the proposals from the study being considered for implementation is the provision by universities for Islamic studies for all students.
The report was initiated by Bill Rammell, the minister of state for higher education and lifelong learning, officials said. He appointed Ataullah Siddiqui, senior research fellow at the Islamic Foundation, to write it.
The Barnabas Fund, in an analysis, said the report "signals another step toward the Islamisation of Britain and its education system"
Free Speech Under Assault in the ‘Land of the Free’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is in the process of trying to intimidate Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch fame by getting their lawyers to try and put a stop to Robert Spencer speaking to the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) about Islam.
It is no surprise that CAIR wish to stifle free speech, since Muslims generally do not understand the concept of free speech and liberty. What is surprising, however, is that it has come to this so quickly in the US – the ‘Land of the Free’. One is left asking oneself the very important question: For how much longer will America be the ‘Land of the Free’?
This is a very disturbing development for liberty-lovers everywhere!
Robert Spencer’s response:
Note the personal smears, the attempt to bully and intimidate, and the non-specificity of the charges against me (they can’t be specific, because I don’t say anything inaccurate about them — or about Islam or jihad).
Note also the irony: this letter comes a day after CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper slandered me on national television by ascribing to me hateful words written by someone else — which appeared on this site for about an hour, during which, lo and behold, someone at CAIR was watching.
I was speaking to a YAF official who told me that I was scheduled to speak as planned: “CAIR can go to Hell and they can take their 72 virgins with them.”
My own reply to CAIR: remember McAuliffe at Bastogne.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: 01. August 2007 Ein Rüstungsabkommen mit Frankreich und die mögliche Auslieferung eines früheren libyschen Agenten aus Großbritannien haben nach libyschen Angaben zur Freilassung der bulgarischen Krankenschwestern vor zwei Wochen geführt. Der Sohn des libyschen Revolutionsführers Gaddafi, Saif al Islam, sagte der französischen Tageszeitung „Le Monde“, dass das Kernstück der Vereinbarungen zwischen Paris und Tripolis eine „militärische Angelegenheit“ sei. Libyen werde von Frankreich Panzerabwehrraketen vom Typ „Milan“ im Wert von 100 Millionen Euro kaufen.
Außerdem gebe es ein „Projekt zur Waffenherstellung“, sagte der Leiter der Gaddafi-Stiftung, die bei den Verhandlungen über die Freilassung der bulgarischen Krankenschwestern vermittelt hatte. Zwar habe die Europäische Union das Ausfuhrverbot von Rüstungsgütern nach Libyen im Jahr 2004 aufgehoben. Aber auch danach habe noch ein „unausgesprochenes Embargo“ gegen Libyen bestanden. Vor allem die Deutschen hätten Vorbehalte gehabt.
Gaddafi sieht „goldene Möglichkeiten“
Mit Frankreich dagegen sei sein Land schon lange in Verhandlungen. „Wir haben (dem französischen Präsidenten) Sarkozy gesagt, dass er die Sache beschleunigen soll.“ Jetzt, wo die bulgarischen Krankenschwestern und der Arzt frei seien, stünden „goldene Möglichkeiten“ bevor. Gaddafi: Frankreich liefert Libyen Waffen (mehr)
Saudis Support US Plans for Mid-East Peace Conference
BBC: Saudi Arabia says it supports US plans for a regional peace conference this year and would be keen to attend.
The conference is intended to revive the peace process and would include Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states viewed as moderate by the US.
"We welcome this initiative," said Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.
The kingdom has no diplomatic relations with Israel, saying previously it would only establish them at the culmination of an Arab-Israeli peace settlement. Saudis back US Middle East plans (more)
Rosemary, Praising Allah is a Full-Time Job Right Across the Muslim World, Not Only in Tunis
DAILY TELEGRAPH: I have been living in Tunis, the Arab world's most "progressive" capital, for almost a month. Amid disturbing notions of a clash of civilisations, I have come to learn Arabic in a city where the call to prayer alternates with the gyrating sound of Shakira. I am not alone: the war on terror has fostered a new fascination with Arabic, which isn't as hard as people like to think.
It's a phonetic language, so once you have mastered the alphabet and vowel system, street signs, advertisements and even television subtitles unfold like magic. It's a joy, when travelling in the Middle East and North Africa, to be able to move beyond shukran (thank you) and salaam aleikum (peace be upon you). That last notion, one feels, is wearing slightly thin anyway - even with Tony Blair as Middle East peace envoy.
In conversation, the first thing you notice is the amount of time even the most secular Arabic speaker spends thanking God. They praise Allah so often it's a wonder there's time to do anything else. After almost every single task, whether it's finishing a meal, having a drink of water, completing a project at work, running an errand, talking about the future or simply exchanging pleasantries, it's alhamdulilah, inshallah or bismillah. People never seem to get tired of it. Praising Allah is a full-time job in Tunis (more) By Rosemary Behan
Muslims Protest Pet Food Factory for Fear of Pork Emissions
DAILY MAIL: A group of Muslims have opposed plans for a pet food factory to be built as possible pork emissions will violate their religious rights.
Butchers Pet Care could shelve plans for a factory in Coton Park, near Rugby, because angry Asian families have complained to their residents' association about pork smells drifting into their garden.
Muslim residents in the area also claim the pork will effectively "rain down" on their homes and gardens after the factory's 100ft chimney has pumped the meat extracts into the atmosphere.
With many thanks to Judah of Judah's Journal for bringing this video to my attention. Of course, as we might expect, George Galloway completely misses the point when he talks of Islamophobia!
HUMAN EVENTS: What do anti-Semitism, racism and Islamophobia have in common?
In fact, nothing.
But according to Islamist groups, Western media and the United Nations, they have everything in common. Anti-Semites hate all Jews, racists hate all members of another race, and Islamophobes hates all Muslims.
Whoever coined the term "Islamophobia" was quite shrewd. Notice the intellectual sleight of hand here. The term is not "Muslim-phobia" or "anti-Muslimist," it is Islam-ophobia -- fear of Islam -- yet fear of Islam is in no way the same as hatred of all Muslims. One can rightly or wrongly fear Islam, or more usually, aspects of Islam, and have absolutely no bias against all Muslims, let alone be a racist.
The equation of Islamophobia with racism is particularly dishonest. Muslims come in every racial group, and Islam has nothing to do with race. Nevertheless, mainstream Western media, Islamist groups calling themselves Muslim civil liberties groups and various Western organizations repeatedly declare that Islamophobia is racism.
To cite three of innumerable examples: The Guardian published an opinion piece titled, "Islamophobia should be as unacceptable as racism"; the European Union has established the European Monitoring Center for Racism and Xenophobia; and the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission of Australia notes that "Muslims have also been the target of racism in Australia, often referred to as Islamophobia."
Even granting that there are people who fear Islam, how does that in any way correlate with racism? If fear of an ideology rendered one racist, all those who fear conservatism or liberalism should be considered racist. Why "Islamophobia" Is a Brilliant Term (more) By Dennis Prager
US Aims to Strengthen Its ‘Friend’, Saudi Arabia, with $20billion Arms Deal in Bid to Contain Iran
BBC: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned that Iran poses the biggest threat to US Middle East interests, as she begins a major regional tour.
Ms Rice and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates are meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab ministers at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The tour is aimed at uniting US allies against Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.
Tsarkozy’s Libyan Deals Ruffle Feathers at Home and in Germany
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to Tripoli on Wednesday and struck a number of deals with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, including promises to build a nuclear reactor. Now critics in Germany and France are crying foul, accusing him of going it alone and potentially endangering Europe.
New French President Nicolas Sarkozy is really starting to grate on German nerves. First he tried to shake up the European Central Bank, then he let his wife grab the limelight over the release of the six Bulgarian medics held in Libya for eight years and now he is going it alone to clinch important deals with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Sarkozy traveled to Tripoli on Wednesday just a day after his wife Cecilia flew out of Libya on a French presidential plane with the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor on board. The French president and Gadhafi signed five key agreements on future cooperation, including deals on defense and civilian nuclear energy.
The French even agreed to help the Libyans develop a nuclear reactor to desalinate water. But critics in Germany and France have questioned the wisdom of promoting atomic energy in a country that until 2003 had been trying to develop a nuclear weapons program. The Libyan leader has since renounced terrorism and signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but many German commentators and politicians argue that the country is still a dictatorship and so its promises should be viewed with caution. Sarkozy's Libya Nuke Deal 'A European Disgrace' (more)
In his first newspaper interview since his release, the doctor, Ashraf al-Hazouz, described the "hell" of being held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell barely long enough for him to lie down. He said his captors sexually assaulted the nurses and injected them all with what they were told was the HIV virus.
The six Bulgarian nationals, who were sentenced to death after they were convicted of spreading the HIV virus among patients in a children's hospital in Libya, were released last week and are preparing to sue the Libyan government over their treatment.
Speaking from the Bulgarian presidential residence in Sofia, where he and the nurses are currently staying, Dr al-Hazouz said: "The past eight years have been one big nightmare. We were tortured during the police investigation for over 10 months. We were held in a remote place outside of Tripoli, in a desolate area where no one could hear you scream. It was hell we went through. Libya HIV doctor tells of eight-year hell (more) By Bojan Pancevski in Vienna
I am sick to death of people harping on about Islamophobia. A phobia is a persistent, abnormal, irrational fear of something. People’s fears of Islam are neither abnormal nor irrational. It is perfectly normal to fear someone or something which wants to destroy your way of life; and fearing such is not irrational either. Indeed, it would be irrational NOT to fear Islam, given that its stated aim is to take over the world. As for people being persisent in their fears, well that is because Islam is persistent in its objectives of wanting to Islamize the world.
I was heartened to learn that Georg Gänswein, the urbane personal secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, has made public the Vatican’s fears of the Islamization of Europe. It is particularly heartening to learn that he joins me in my message, a message, as you know, I have been stating for many years now.
The West is in trouble with Islam. Our leaders have allowed so many Muslims into the West over the past decades, without knowing or understanding the Muslim mentality. As a result they have got themselves, and us, into a fix we do not know how to get out of. Would that they might have studied the mentality of the followers of this ‘political ideology clothed in a deity’ before letting such a huge number of them into the West. Now, it is up to the powers that be to find a solution to the thorny problem they have created. Politics is never a stage for the faint of heart; from here on in, it will require a steeliness and courage which politicians hitherto, especially in the decades since World War II, have not had to display.
If we cannot get politicians to lead us who both understand the problems we face, and the courage to do something constructive about it, then I fear that the West cannot survive. Soon, if things go on as they have been, then the West will be no more! Christianity will be subsumed into the darkness that is Islam.
DAILY MAIL: Three Arab princesses were thrown off a packed British Airways flight after refusing to sit next to male passengers they didn't know.
The dispute - in which the three princesses from the ultra-conservative Qatar royal family demanded segregated seating - left the London-bound plane delayed on a baking Italian runway for nearly three hours.
Furious passengers whistled and clapped as the row intensified before the captain eventually ordered the women to be escorted off the plane.
The princesses, wearing traditional Arab dress, were returning from a day's shopping in Milan. They arrived at the city's Linate airport and boarded Heathrow-bound flight BA 563, which was due to take off at 4pm on Thursday.
· First time administration has made concern public · Claims royal family is financing Sunni groups
The extent of the deterioration in US-Saudi relations was exposed for the first time yesterday when Washington accused Riyadh of working to undermine the Iraqi government.
The Bush administration warned Saudi Arabia, until this year one of its closest allies, to stop undermining the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates, are scheduled to visit Jeddah next week.
Reflecting the deteriorating relationship, the US made public claims that the Saudis have been distributing fake documents lying about Mr Maliki.
The Bush administration, as well as the British government, is telling the Saudis, so far without success, that establishing a stable government in Iraq is in their interest and that they stand to suffer if it collapses.
Relations have been strained since King Abdullah unexpectedly criticised the US, describing the Iraq invasion as "an illegal foreign occupation".
That was the first sign of a rift between the two, who have enjoyed a solid relationship for decades, based on Saudi's vast oil reserves. US accuses Saudis of telling lies about Iraq (more) By Ewen MacAskill in Washington
The Islamization of Europe a Real Concern for the Vatican
Georg Gänswein, the urbane Private Secretary of Pope Benedict XVI
DAILY EXPRESS: POPE Benedict XVI’s private secretary has warned of the 'Islamisation' of Europe and demanded that the Continent’s Christian roots not to be ignored.
"Attempts to Islamise the west cannot be denied," Monsignor Georg Gaenswein was quoted as saying in a copy of the weekly Sueddeutsche Magazine published today.
"The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness," the magazine quoted him as saying.
Gaenswein also defended a speech Pope Benedict gave in Regensburg, Germany, last year linking Islam and violence, saying it was an attempt by the Pontiff to "act against a certain naivety."
In the interview with the respected German weekly, Gaenswein confirmed that the Pope wrote his own speeches and that the remarks had not been edited.
He said: "I believe that the speech from Regensburg, as it was held, is prophetic."
Asked if the idea of a serious dialogue with Islam that exists in the real world was naive, given that it was a religion where human rights were trampled under foot, he said: "Attempts to Islamize the West cannot be denied.
"The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness. Vatican warns of Islamisation of Europe (more) By Emma Bamford
THE TELEGRAPH: Following this week's Turkish general election, David Miliband spoke of "reaching out" to the victor, the moderate Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The Foreign Secretary's choice of verb is a measure of Europe's estrangement from a country which joined Nato in 1952, became an associate member of the European Community in 1963 and has been negotiating for full EU membership since 2005.
"Reaching out" suggests extending the hand of friendship to a pariah. In fact, Turkey has just conducted a democratic exercise which has trumped a none-too-subtle threat of intervention from the military.
That should be lauded by the EU. Yet Mr Miliband's exhortation reflects the fact that Britain is almost alone in pressing Turkey's case for membership. Elsewhere, attitudes vary from tepid, as in the Netherlands, to frigid, as in France.
Europe's failure to appreciate Turkey's strategic importance is depressingly familiar. It was demonstrated ten years ago by Jacques Poos, then foreign minister of Luxembourg, and is evident today in the hostility of Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French president. Democratic Muslim nation in EU? Yes! (more) By Simon Scott Plummer
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: 27. Juli 2007 Die Bundesregierung sowie Politiker von Union, SPD und Grünen haben die von Frankreich geplante Lieferung eines Atomreaktors an Libyen scharf kritisiert. Der Staatssekretär im Auswärtigen Amt, Gernot Erler (SPD), warf der Regierung in Paris vor, mit dem Abkommen gegen deutsche Interessen zu handeln. Der Grünen-Vorsitzende Reinhard Bütikofer sagte, die Weitergabe der Atomtechnik müsse Sorge bereiten. Auch Abgeordnete von SPD und Union kritisierten das Vorgehen Frankreichs.
Hintergrund der Kritik ist eine Absichtserklärung, die die französische und die libysche Regierung am Mittwoch zur Nutzung der Atomenergie unterzeichnet hatten. Sie sieht die Lieferung eines Atomreaktors vor, mit dem eine Meerwasserentsalzungsanlage betrieben werden soll. Das Geschäft soll eine Tochtergesellschaft der staatlichen französischen Nuklearholding Areva abwickeln, an der Siemens mit 34 Prozent beteiligt ist. (Siehe auch: Frankreich liefert Libyen Atomreaktor) Heftige Kritik aus Deutschland an Paris (mehr)
The Connection Between Nazism, Arab Anti-Semitism and Islam
DEFINITION – Fascism: …As a rule, fascist governments are dominated by a dictator, who usually possesses a magnetic personality, … and rallies his followers by mass parades; appeals to strident nationalism; and promotes suspicion or hatred of both foreigners and “impure” people within his own nation, such as the Jews in Germany. Although both communism and fascism are forms of totalitarianism, fascism does not demand state ownership of the means of production, nor is fascism committed to the achievement of economic equality. In theory, communism opposes the identification of government with a single charismatic leader (the “cult of personality”), which is the cornerstone of fascism. … [Source: Dictionary.com]
EDITORIAL: With the death of Hitler and the defeat of Nazi Germany, most people thought that the world had been rid of fascism. Today, however, we cannot be so sure, because there is evidence aplenty of its revival. These days, many people talk of another form of fascism in particular: Islamofascism. Some people believe this term to be apt for the radical religio-political movement based on Islam, which is currently spreading through the world like wildfire; others, especially Muslims, find the term insulting and demeaning. Who is right? Are the infidels right to be shocked, disgraced and indignant, or are infidels right to use the term to point out to the unsuspecting the dangers we face. Why? Even the President of the United States of America himself, George W Bush, has used the term in public when referring to the antics of Al-Qa’eda and its determination to cultivate mayhem throughout the free world.
When we refer to Islam and radical Islam, we have to be careful not to confuse people. In this politically correct world, a world in which nobody seems willing to upset ethnic groups and people of other religions, it has become customary to dance around the truth so as not to offend. Therefore, our politicians have become accustomed to speaking in riddles, when clearer, more appropriate language would serve the needs of the electorate far better.
In times of danger, clarity of thought is essential. Prevarication serves no-one’s best interest in the long-run. Prevarication might well buy us some time; but it certainly doesn’t solve issues for the long-term good of the nation, for the long-term good of our civilization.
Let’s take a look at the real Islam…
The real Islam is exclusive in the extreme, just as Nazism was. It tells the believers – the Muslims throughout the world – to kill the unbelievers, to kill the infidels. This cannot be disputed, since it is there in black and white in all versions of the holy book of Muslims, the Qur’an.
They [the infidels] but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of God [Allah] (from what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks. – Al-Qur’an, Al-Nisa’ (Women), Surah IV, 89 (Translation by A Yusuf Ali)
And then we have the following:
… When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. … – Al-Qur’an, At-Tawba (Repentance), Surah 9, 4 (Translation by N J Dawood)
These exhortations are also redolent of Nazism. They are certainly as violent and brutal and cruel.
These are the words of the founder of Islam or the words of Allah, according to your viewpoint and according to where you stand on the matter of Islam being a great and authentic religion. Muhammad certainly managed to make those who submit to Allah feel superior and exclusive, since Muslims are considered (by Muslims) to be superior to all other human beings. They are, after all, Allah’s ‘chosen people’, just as the Aryan race was the superior race in Hitler’s Germany. This is surely another similarity between these two ideologies.
There is no doubt about the fact that Muhammad was a 'great' and magnetic personality. This is quite indisputable, since were he not to have been so, then Islam would surely have died out long ago. But don’t all fascist movements rely on a magnetic personality to lead the followers, to lead the masses, to lead the people who cannot think for themselves? Think of three great examples of the twentieth century: Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco. All had quite magnetic personalities: people just had to watch them and listen to them and their rants.
The fact that Muhammad died more than fourteen hundred years ago makes no real difference, since his personality is no less magnetic today than it was when he roamed the sands of the desert. His words are still harkened unto by 1.4 billion people worldwide, and we are still counting.
Muhammad must surely rank as the dictator par excellence, since his words were clothed in a deity. Hitler, when he was sitting in his Bunker with Eva that day in 1945, when he was contemplating biting that cyanide capsule and plucking up the courage to shoot himself through the temples, must surely have regretted with every fibre of his being that he hadn’t been smart enough to clothe Nazism in a deity, just as Islam had been about fourteen hundred years before. How much more successful Hitler might have been!
Does Islam qualify so far, according to our dictionary definition, to be classified as a form of fascism? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
We are then informed that fascist dictators rally their followers by means of mass parades. Well, we cannot say with any certainty whether Muhammad did this. In all probability, he did not, since Islam, in the days of the Prophet, was in its infancy, and there would have been too few followers to rally. What we can say, however, is this: In the modern world, the dictators of the Islamic world have no difficulty whatsoever in getting rallies together on the streets of their cities. Often times, they are genuine; yet at other times, the numbers in the rallies are made by ‘rent-a-mob’. Either way, we must decide whether Islam passes this next test of a true strand of fascism. You decide!
Then we are informed in the definition that fascism appeals to strident nationalism. Well, there is no doubt that Islam is an Arabo-centric movement, worldwide. When praying, all Muslims must face Makkah (Mecca), and this takes place five times a day for the pious and faithful. One is certainly not allowed to ignore the Arab world if one is an adherent of the ‘religion’ of submission that is Islam. Added to this, of course, we have the Ummah, which is the community of Muslims throughout the world. When one enters the fold of Islam, when one becomes a follower, when one submits to the ‘will of Allah’ – some would say the arbitrary ‘will of Allah’ – then one joins the ‘nation’ of Islam worldwide. In this sense, can we not conclude that Islam is a form of extreme ‘nationalism’, a form of Islamic nationalism, a 'nationalism' that transcends geographical borders and frontiers?
Then we are told that fascism promotes suspicion and/or hatred of foreigners and impure people. Well, can we not conclude with the copious and available evidence that we have that Islam is certainly exclusive, since anyone who is not a Muslim is treated as inferior, and actually unclean, as in Kafir (pl. Kufar). The term used in Islam is Naji for such an unclean and unsavoury person. Does this remind you of the way that the Nazis thought of Jews and gypsies and homosexuals and Slavs and Russians? Nazis called them Untermenschen (unclean sub-humans); Muslims call them Najis (unclean disbelievers living in a state of Jahiliyyah, a state of pre-Islamic chaos), people who are unworthy of the human condition.
One other thing that Nazis, in particular, had in common with Muslims was this: They both hate(d) the Jews; both groups are deeply anti-Semitic. This, of course, is true to this very day. Mein Kampf, Hitler’s infamous book written whilst he was incarcerated, the title of which means ‘My fight, or my struggle’ (a title which bears a striking resemblance to the term Jihad, if you hadn’t noticed) was replete with anti-Semitism. One can but wonder why this very book is such a bestseller even to this day in countries in the Middle East, and even in Turkey. The book is an endless source of fascination to Muslims.
Fascism is a form of totalitarianism, but then isn’t Islam a form of totalitarianism, too? Fascism doesn’t demand state control of the means of production; but then Islam doesn’t either. Though it does have its own economic principles, economic principles which are neither capitalist nor socialist, economic principles and theory which are simply Islamic. This theory of economics demands neither state-ownership of the means of production nor does it demand equality among the faithful. But Islamic thinking certainly does call for infidels to be treated in an inferior manner, to be treated as dhimmies, or protected people who are not afforded the same rights as those who have submitted to Allah’s will.
Jews in Nazi Germany were made to wear a yellow star to mark them out from the crowd. Non-believers in an Islamic country, according to the ‘Pact of Umar’, are also subjected to similar indignities. Here we have another similarity.
The cult of personality, we are told, is the cornerstone of fascism. Do you think that Islam measures up on this score? Does Muhammad qualify? Was Muhammad charismatic enough? Has Muhammad passed the test of time? Can we conclude that Muhammad is the Gestalt which can truly be described as the non plus ultra of Gestalten, the non plus ultra of personality cults.
Whether ‘Islamofascism’ is a justified and apt term or indeed a calumnious one to describe what we are witnessing around the world today as Islam becomes ever more resurgent is for you, the reader, to decide. Do, by all means, think long and hard about this matter, for the future of the free world depends on our getting this right. It depends on our careful handling of this most thorny of contemporary issues.
With many thanks to Jim Ball, Australia’s best known radio chat show host, for this. It was on his great website that I came across this most interesting audio/video:
WORLD NET DAILY: A controversial Washington-based Islamic lobby group today is highlighting as "Islamophobia" a heated radio talk-show exchange in which host Neal Boortz tells a Muslim caller Islam is a "cult," not a religion. Radio host condemned for 'Islam is a cult': CAIR cites Neal Boortz for angry confrontation of Muslim caller
THE TELEGRAPH: American attempts to co-opt Iraqi insurgents in Baghdad have suffered a set back after Sunni and Shia Muslim militants in a key district of the city forged an alliance against United States forces.
In the first half of the year, US commanders teamed up with Sunni fighters loyal to the al-Girtani clan to attack al-Qa'eda cells in the Shorta and Amil areas near the airport. But after intense fighting, in which the extremists were defeated, the al-Girtani tribe reached across Iraq's sectarian divide, in what is believed to be the first partnership of its kind.
"We fought the Shia because of pressure from al-Qa'eda," said Turki al-Girtani, the tribe leader. "Now after they were beaten we have to refocus on the real enemy, which is the US army." Shia and Sunni militants unite to attack US (more) By Aqeel Hussein
THE GUARDIAN – LEADER: Like a suitor who is not deterred by past rejections, Gordon Brown went to the Commons yesterday to propose that his government should be granted new powers to deal with terrorism suspects. It is less than two years since the house defeated plans for 90-day detention, but Mr Brown made a fresh pitch with great skill. In place of the melodramatic rhetoric of the last prime minister - who casually brushed aside concerns about liberty with the chilling assertion that "the rules of the game have changed" - his successor accepted the delicate balance between security and liberty. He declined to make a totem, as Tony Blair had, of 90 days - or of any other limit. Instead he claimed that while he believed the current 28-day limit should increase, he wanted to see this achieved with as much consensus as possible.
The desire to avoid looking partisan was taken to extraordinary heights, with Mr Brown making a brazen grab for one policy long championed by the Conservatives - a single border force, encompassing customs and immigration officials. In practice, the new force is not what the opposition envisaged, as it excludes the police. But the move deprives the Tories of one of their distinctive offerings on security, increasing the pressure on them to restore their tough-on-terror credentials by falling into line with ministers on pre-trial detention. The shadow home secretary, David Davis, a sceptic of state control, helped to engineer the defeat of 90-day detention last time. Whether his party will feel able to stick to the principle this time, given that ministers have adopted a less overtly draconian tone, remains to be seen. Taking liberties (more)
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money entertaining a host of Britain's leading television celebrities at Chequers during his last 15 months in power, it emerged last night.
The guest list included everyone from Charlotte Church, the singer and Channel Four presenter, and her Welsh rugby-playing partner Gavin Henson, to Tess Daly, the co-presenter of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing, and her husband Vernon Kay, who is also a TV presenter. Other famous names included Lorraine Kelly and Fiona Phillips from GMTV, as well as Chris Evans, the BBC Radio 2 DJ.
Richard Madeley, one half of the Richard & Judy show, dined with the Blairs, as did June Sarpong, the youth television presenter. Steve McClaren, the England football manager, and his wife Kathryn, were also invited to Chequers, as was Match of the Day 2 presenter Adrian Chiles.
The Blairs' guests also included a number of leading figures from the world of business, including Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo, and James Dyson, the vacuum cleaner tycoon.
The former prime minister even found room round his dinner table for church leaders such as Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York.
Mr Blair also managed to spend more than £1.6 million on foreign travel between April 2006 and March this year, including five separate trips that cost more than £150,000 each. Blairs turned Chequers into court of celebrities (more) By Graeme Wilson
Sarkozy bei seinem neuen Freund, Ghadhafi, in Libyen zu Gast
Foto von Sarkozy mit Ghadhafi in Libyen dank der NZZ
NZZ: Sarkozy ist nach der Freilassung des bulgarischen Spitalpersonals nach Libyen gereist, um die Herstellung enger Beziehungen zwischen Europa und Ghadhafi zu fördern. Er schob sich in die Rolle desjenigen, der auf der Bühne die Preise verleiht und den Dank dafür entgegennimmt, auch wenn er sie längst nicht alle selber gestiftet hat.
vk. Limassol, 25. Juli
Der französische Präsident Sarkozy ist am Mittwoch, einen Tag nach der Freilassung des bulgarischen Spitalpersonals, nach Libyen gereist, um die Herstellung enger Beziehungen zwischen Europa und der Jamahiriya des Revolutionsführers Ghadhafi zu fördern. Die Maschine des Präsidenten landete gegen Abend auf dem Flughafen von Mitiga in Tripolis. Am Abend vereinbarten die beiden im Palast Bab Azizia eine Zusammenarbeit bei der Nutzung von Atomenergie. Präsident Sarkozy in libyschem Rampenlicht: Wirtschaftliche Interessen Frankreichs an verbesserter Kooperation (mehr)
REUTERS (FRANCE): TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Nicolas Sarkozy a réaffirmé dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi en Libye que les pays en développement devaient pouvoir accéder à l'énergie nucléaire civile s'ils respectent les règles internationales.
Le document sur la "coopération dans le domaine des applications pacifiques de l'énergie nucléaire", signé lors de cette visite par le chef de la diplomatie française Bernard Kouchner et son homologue libyen, n'est pas encore un accord en bonne et due forme, a-t-il souligné lors d'un point de presse.
C'est un "mémorandum d'entente" fixant un objectif précis à la coopération franco-libyenne : l'installation en Libye d'un réacteur nucléaire destiné à la production d'eau potable par le dessalement d'eau de mer.
Si accord en bonne et due forme il doit y avoir sur ce projet, auquel serait vraisemblablement associé le groupe français Areva, ce sera "dans plusieurs mois, voire plusieurs années", a souligné Nicolas Sarkozy.
Néanmoins, depuis que la Libye a renoncé en 2003 à se doter de l'arme atomique, le sujet d'une collaboration avec le régime du colonel Mouammar Kadhafi dans le domaine du nucléaire civil, qui est au demeurant une spécialité française et une source potentiel de futurs contrats, a cessé d'être tabou.
· Help in freeing BBC man 'opened new channels' · Foreign Office denies any political contacts
The British government has expanded its links with Hamas in recent weeks, according to the militant organisation's leader, Ismail Haniyeh.
Mr Haniyeh, who was the Palestinian prime minister until last month, claims that contacts between Hamas and Britain have increased since they worked together to free Alan Johnston, the BBC Gaza correspondent, who was held captive in Gaza for almost four months.
"I cannot deny that there are now other contacts, other channels of communication with the UK and these involve people of high rank, although I am not personally involved," he claimed in an interview with the Guardian.
"The main aim of the contacts is to improve our democracy and governance. This is just part of the many contacts that are going on with other governments around the world." Hamas leader claims UK has widened links (more) By Conal Urquhart
