Jed Babbin: “Free Speech and Freedom of the Press are Dead in Britain”
HUMAN EVENTS: Under assault by Muslims and multiculturalists, free speech and freedom of the press are dead in Britain. The same sorts of people who killed them in Britain are killing them in Canada. They and their allies are using the British and Canadian courts and tribunals to bury our First Amendment rights in America.

Muslims -- individually and in pressure groups -- are using British libel laws and Canadian “human rights” laws to limit what is said about Islam, terrorists and the people in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere who are funding groups such as al-Queda. The cases of Rachel Ehrenfeld and Mark Steyn prove the point.

Dr. Ehrenfeld is a scholar and author of the book, ”Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed, and How to Stop it.” In that book, Khalid Salim bin Mahfouz -- a Saudi who is former head of the Saudi National Commercial Bank -- and some of his family are described as having funded terrorism directly and indirectly.

Ehrenfeld is American, her book was written and published in America and she has no business or other ties to Britain. Under American law, the Brit courts would have no jurisdiction over her. But about two-dozen copies of her book were sold there through the internet. Bin Mahfouz sued her for libel in the Brit courts where the burden of proof is the opposite of what it is in US courts: the author has to prove that what is written is true, rather than the supposedly defamed person proving it is false.

Think about that for a moment. Under the US Constitution political writing -- free speech -- is almost unlimited. To gain a libel judgment a politician -- or someone suspected of terrorist ties -- would have to prove that the story or book was false. If that person were a public figure such as Mahfouz, in order to get a libel judgment he’d not only have to prove that what was written was false, he’d also have to prove it was published maliciously.

Those American laws and standards of proof protect political speech. The First Amendment is intended to protect political speech that people find objectionable. In the landmark 1969 case of Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court overturned an Ohio statute which would have outlawed hate speech by the Ku Klux Klan. That’s why Mahfouz sued in Britain, not here.

Ehrenfeld refused to fight the case, saying the Brit courts have no jurisdiction over her. Mahfouz got a default judgment against her for ₤10,000 (for himself, and in equal amounts for his sons). The judgment also requires that there be no further “defamatory” statements published in England and Wales. Islam vs. Free Speech >>> By Jed Babbin

Mr. Babbin is the editor of Human Events. He served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration.

Hat tip: Mosque Watch

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

FOX Accuses Obama of Hiding Muslim Background

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Pat Condell sur l'islam - Octobre 2007

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

No-Go Areas for Non-Muslims in the UK

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Carla darf nicht mit Sarkozy nach Saudi Arabien reisen
DIE PRESSE: Carla Bruni darf den Präsidenten nicht nach Saudi-Arabien begleiten, denn das würde einen Verstoß gegen islamisches Recht bedeuten.

Das Herrscherhaus von Saudi-Arabien hat dem französischen Präsidenten Nicolas Sarkozy mitgeteilt, dass er seine neue Freundin Carla Bruni nicht zum Staatsbesuch in Riad mitbringen kann. Zur Begründung hieß es, in dem Königreich gelte das islamische Recht ("Scharia").

Kontakte zwischen Männern und Frauen, die nicht miteinander verheiratet oder verwandt seien, sind in Saudi-Arabien, wo eine besonders puritanische Version des sunnitischen Islams Staatsreligion ist, generell verboten. Aus Diplomatenkreisen in der saudischen Hauptstadt hieß es am Montag, Sarkozy habe zugesagt, am kommenden Sonntag ohne seine Freundin zu seinen Gesprächen mit König Abdullah zu reisen. Riad: Sarkozy darf seine Geliebte nicht mitnehmen >>>

DIE PRESSE:
Galerie: “Sarkozys neue Schöne”

DIE PRESSE:
"Speedy Sarkos": Blitz-Hochzeit schadet Glaubwürdigkeit

WELTONLINE:
Liebespause: Bruni darf nicht mit Sarkozy nach Saudi Arabien

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Al-Qaida ruft zu Anschlägen im Nahen Osten bei Bush-Besuch auf
Für drei Tage reist US-Präsident George W. Busch ab Mittwoch in den Nahen Osten, um zwischen Israelis und Palästinensern zu vermitteln. Die ohnehin schwierige Mission wird nun durch einen Aufruf der Terror-Organisation al-Qaida noch komplizierter. In einer Video-Botschaft ruft ein ranghohes Mitglied zu Anschlägen gegen Bush auf.

Wenige Tage vor dem Nahost-Besuch von George W. Bush hat ein amerikanischer al-Qaida -Extremist zu Attentaten auf den US-Präsidenten aufgerufen. „Begrüßt ihn nicht mit Blumen und Applaus, sondern mit Bomben und Fallen“, erklärte der als „Azzam der Amerikaner„ bekannteal-Qaida-Anhänger Adam Gadahn am Sonntag in einer 50-minütigen Videobotschaft.

Trotz wieder aufflammender Gefechte zwischen Israelis und Palästinensern wollten beide Seitden noch vor dem Bush-Besuch weitere

Friedensverhandlungen aufnehmen. Israels Ministerpräsident Ehud Olmert erklärte allerdings, das Militär werde hart gegen Extremisten in dem von der Hamas kontrollierten Gazastreifen vorgehen. Bei einem Vorstoß der Armee in ein Flüchtlingslager kamen Krankenhausangaben zufolge vier Palästinenser um Leben, darunter drei Zivilisten.

In der Videobotschaft erklärte der aus Kalifornien stammende Gadahn, Bushs Nahost-Politik habe auf ganzer Linie versagt. In einer theatralischen Geste zeriss der Extremist vor laufender Kamera seinen US-Pass. Die Aufnahme wurde auf mehreren Internetseiten veröffentlicht, die von verschiedenen al-Qaida-nahen Gruppen genutzt werden. Der Heilige Krieg gegen die USA werde weitergeführt, solange auch nur ein einziger Muslime von den USA gefangen gehalten werde. Gadahn, der sich derzeit vermutlich in Pakistan aufhält, war bereits mehrfach in Video-Botschaften von al-Qaida aufgetreten. Al-Qaida ruft zu Anschlägen bei Bush-Besuch auf >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
This post will remain at the top for the twelve days of Christmas. Please scroll down for the latest postings during this time.

Image courtesy of The National Gallery
I should like to wish all my visitors a very Happy and Blessed Christmas and all things wonderful for the New Year.

Gloria in excelsis Deo
Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis,
Laudamus te, benedicimus te,
adoramus te.
Glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi,
propter magnam gloriam tuam.

Mark Alexander

”Sark-Opera”: 'Unseemly Sarko' Seen as Vulgar, and His Behaviour Seen as “Not in Keeping” with a Head of State as He Rushes into Marriage with “Man-Eater” Carla Bruni “on the Rebound”
TIMESONLINE: President Sarkozy is planning to marry Carla Bruni, his singer girlfriend, in early February, just over two months after meeting her and three since his wife divorced him, according to French and Italian reports today.

As the Elysée Palace made no attempt to deny an imminent wedding, pollsters said that the President's exhibition of the former Italian supermodel and his haste in replacing Cecilia, his wife, explained part of a seven-point slump in his approval rating over the past month.

"Speedy Sarko", 52, today gave the traditionalists more reason to view his conduct as unseemly when he posed for photographers holding hands with Ms Bruni, 40, on a trip to Jordan as guests of King Adullah II. Nicolas Sarkozy ‘to wed Carla Bruni next month’ >>> By Charles Bremner

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Jesus in Turkey
CHRISTIANITY TODAY: For the first time in 550 years, Christianity inside Turkey is growing in numbers and influence. But its recent growth comes at a high price: since February 2006, radicalized Muslims have killed five Christians—the kind of cold-blooded martyrdom not seen in decades.

Modern-day Turkey's 73 million citizens, 98 percent of whom are Muslims, are experiencing social and political upheaval. The country is attempting to improve its economic and human-rights record in order to join the European Union. Turkey's relations with the United States are strained as an ally in the war in Iraq, and because of Congress's aborted effort to pass the Armenian genocide resolution. Also, Turkey's border disputes with Greece over land around the Aegean Sea, as well as violent skirmishes with Kurdish rebels on its southern border, keep this nation's formidable military on highest alert.

This is the context in which a handful of Islamic radicals targeted Christians as "enemies of the state" because of their association with Western groups and their alleged support of Kurdish rebels. The five killed within the last two years were:

• Andrea Santoro, a Catholic priest killed in February 2006. A 16-year-old youth shot Santoro as he was praying in the Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, Turkey.

• Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor. In January 2007, a teenager gunned down Dink, who had been convicted of "insulting Turkishness" two years prior.

• The three Malatya martyrs: Necati Aydin, a Turkish pastor; Tilmann Geske, a missions worker from Germany; and Ugur Yuksel, a new Christian convert from Islam. In April 2007, young radicals feigning curiosity about Christianity killed the three men by slitting their throats at a Christian publishing house in southeastern Turkey. Their survivors include five children, two widows, and a fiancée.

In November, a Turkish court set a trial date for the five suspects involved in the Malatya killings for early January. Police are calling for life imprisonment and said all five suspects have confessed to the murders. The suspects accused the Christians of "forcing local girls into prostitution" and of praising the violence of rebel Kurds. (About 30,000 people have died since the 1980s in rebel-related violence.) Meanwhile, the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey is calling Turkish congregations to pray and fast every Thursday for the next several weeks in preparation for the trial.

Isa Karatas of the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey told Compass Direct News, "It is clear from these statements of the suspects that there is some group of powerful influence behind them. These people want to portray Turkey's Protestants as enemies of the nation." Jesus in Turkey: After 550 years of decline, a bloodied church is being reborn >>> By Tony Carnes in Istanbul

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Germany’s NPD Praises Koch’s Tough Talk on Immigration
SPIEGELONLINE INTRERNATIONAL: State governor Roland Koch's latest comments on immigration include helpful tips for foreigners: Don't slaughter animals in the kitchen and dispose of your garbage properly. The far-right NPD party has praised him and called for Germany to rid itself of foreign criminals.

German state governor Roland Koch, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, has won praise from the far-right National Democratic Party for his campaign against "criminal young foreigners" (more...) and his calls for immigrants to embrace German values.

The NPD, which states that an "African, Asian or Oriental" can never become German, said Koch's comments provided "impetus to at last take political action in response to the frighteningly high proportion of foreign and foreign-born violent criminals."

"Germany must remain the land of the Germans, so that our children don't suffer the same fate as the (American) Indians who were unable to stop the immigrants and now live on reservations," Peter Marx, general secretary of the NPD, said in a statement. Far-Right NPD Praises Koch’s Tough Talk on Immigration >>> By David Crossland

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

50 Islamisten in Marokko wegen Anschlagsplänen verurteilt
NZZ: (sda/reuters) In Marokko sind am Freitag 50 radikale Islamisten wegen der Verschwörung zu Bombenanschlägen und Raub zu bis zu 25 Jahren Haft verurteilt worden.

Das Gericht befand die Verurteilten für schuldig, Angriffe auf Regierungsgebäude und Touristenattraktionen in Casablanca und anderen Städten geplant zu haben. Zudem gehörten sie einer illegalen Vereinigung an, hätten Geld für die Unterstützung des Terrorismus gesammelt und die staatliche Sicherheit unterwandert.

Die Angeklagten, die Mitglieder der «Mahdi Partisanen» von Ansar al-Mahdi sind, bestritten ihre Schuld. Sie wurden 2006 festgenommen. Kurz danach beschlagnahmten die Behörden Sprengstoff und Laborausrüstung. 50 Islamisten in Marokko wegen Anschlagsplänen verurteilt: Mitglieder der «Mahdi Partisanen» bestreiten Schuld

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

More Nonsense from the Top, More Clutching at Straws, and More Wasting of Your Tax-Pounds: “Assertiveness Courses” for Muslimatoon!
THE SUNDAY TIMES: MUSLIM women are to be sent on leadership and assertiveness courses to help to prevent Islamic extremism.

In an attempt to stop young Muslims being seduced by Al-Qaeda, women will be sent on training courses designed for FTSE 100 managers to give them the skills and confidence to confront fanatics.

Amid fears that extremists are becoming more sophisticated in their recruitment, Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, has concluded that a key way to stop extremist ideas further permeating Muslim communities is to give “the silent majority” a stronger voice.

She is to publish a good practice guidance document which will say that “resilient communities can only exist where women are playing a full and active part”.

Blears will tell local authorities to use part of a £70m government fund set up to combat extremism to pay for the courses in confidence building, communication and mediation skills.

Muslim women will be offered work placements with business leaders and top athletes to imbue assertiveness and leadership and help them to advance their careers. Funding will be available to set up local Muslim women’s groups to provide a “safe space” where they can discuss their concerns. The plan is likely to attract criticism from some Muslim men who will see it as a threat to cultural traditions about the role of women in society. Muslim women to curb terror >>> By Marie Woolf

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
The Ineffectual Hazel Blears Talking Nonsense to Stephen Sackur on HARDtalk Part 1 and Part 2

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Britain Loses Its Christian Way
Photo of Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali courtesy of The Sunday Telegraph
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: In fewer than 50 years, Britain has changed from being a society with an acknowledged Christian basis to one which is increasingly described by politicians and the media as "multifaith".

One reason for this is the arrival of large numbers of people of other faiths to these shores. Their arrival has coincided with the end of the Empire which brought about a widespread questioning of Britain's role.

On the one hand, the British were losing confidence in the Christian vision which underlay most of the achievements and values of the culture and, on the other, they sought to accommodate the newer arrivals on the basis of a novel philosophy of "multiculturalism".

This required that people should be facilitated in living as separate communities, continuing to communicate in their own languages and having minimum need for building healthy relationships with the majority.

Alongside these developments, there has been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism. One of the results of this has been to further alienate the young from the nation in which they were growing up and also to turn already separate communities into "no-go" areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability.

Those of a different faith or race may find it difficult to live or work there because of hostility to them. In many ways, this is but the other side of the coin to far-Right intimidation. Attempts have been made to impose an "Islamic" character on certain areas, for example, by insisting on artificial amplification for the Adhan, the call to prayer.

Such amplification was, of course, unknown throughout most of history and its use raises all sorts of questions about noise levels and whether non-Muslims wish to be told the creed of a particular faith five times a day on the loudspeaker.

This is happening here even though some Muslim-majority communities are trying to reduce noise levels from multiple mosques announcing this call, one after the other, over quite a small geographical area.

There is pressure already to relate aspects of the sharia to civil law in Britain. To some extent this is already true of arrangements for sharia-compliant banking but have the far-reaching implications of this been fully considered? Extremism flourished as UK lost Christianity >>> By Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH LEADER:
Britain has changed but its values must endure

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Bishop Nazir-Ali Warns of “No-Go” Areas Created by Islamic Extremists in Britain
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Islamic extremists have created "no-go" areas across Britain where it is too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter, one of the Church of England's most senior bishops warns today.

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester and the Church's only Asian bishop, says that people of a different race or faith face physical attack if they live or work in communities dominated by a strict Muslim ideology.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, he compares the threat to the use of intimidation by the far-Right, and says that it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christianity to be the nation's public religion in a multifaith, multicultural society.

His comments come as a poll of the General Synod - the Church's parliament - shows that its senior leaders, including bishops, also believe that Britain is being damaged by large-scale immigration.

Bishop Nazir-Ali, who was born in Pakistan, gives warning that attempts are being made to give Britain an increasingly Islamic character by introducing the call to prayer and wider use of sharia law, a legal system based on the Koran. Bishop warns of no-go zones for non-Muslims >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

Have your say: What does the future hold for the Church of England?

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Guardian’s Tehran Correspondent Expelled from Iran
THE GUARDIAN: The Guardian's Tehran correspondent, Robert Tait, has been expelled from Iran without explanation after nearly three years of reporting from the country.

Tait was forced to leave the country after the Iranian authorities declined to renew his visa and residence permit, despite an appeal on his behalf from the Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, to Iran's culture and Islamic guidance ministry, which supervises the activities of all foreign and domestic media. He is now back in the UK, along with his Iranian wife.

The ministry gave no reason for its decision but said the newspaper was free to propose another journalist as its correspondent in Iran. Guardian's Tehran correspondent expelled without explanation >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Western Leaders’ Take on the Jihad Being Waged Against Our Civilization!

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Saudi Blogger Arrested
THE INDEPENDENT: Fouad al-Farhan knew they were coming for him. A few days before Saudi security forces swooped on his offices, he sent a letter to friends telling them he was a wanted man. "They will pick me up any time in the next two weeks," he predicted.

His crime? Writing one of the most widely read blogs in Saudi Arabia.

Mr Farhan, 32, who describes his online mission as "searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, public participation and other lost Islamic values", had already broken ground by refusing to hide behind a pen-name as he vented his spleen about the rampant corruption blighting political life. Now he has clocked up another first – the first blogger to be arrested in the kingdom.

The blogger was picked up on 10 December from the offices of his computer company in Jeddah, but it was not until this week that the interior ministry finally confirmed his arrest.

Blogging has seen something of a boom in Saudi Arabia, allowing dissident voices a space in a society were the media is kept on a tight leash and where political parties and public gatherings are banned. There are an estimated 600 bloggers in Saudi Arabia, male and female, conservative and liberal, writing in English and Arabic.

The arrest of Mr Farhan has sent shock waves around internet users in Saudi Arabia. "Although we have seen bloggers in Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt arrested and jailed, I thought this wouldn't happen here," said Ahmed Al-Omran, 23, a student in Riyadh who blogs under the name Saudi Jeans. Blogger who dared to expose Saudi corruption is arrested >>> By Claire Soares

WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO: Freedom of Expression Saudi Style

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Islam and America Through the Eyes of Imran Khan
WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO - Islam & America: Through the Eyes of Imran Khan – Pakistan
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

The Speech that CAIR Didn’t Want You to Hear

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Mark R Cohen: ”The New Muslim Anti-Semitism”
THE JERUSALEM POST: Jewish-Muslim relations are at a nadir today. But the mutual hatred and anti-Semitism on the Muslim side are relatively new phenomena, born of political, rather than religious factors. When the Islamic caliphs ruled large swaths of Asia and Africa, their Jewish subjects enjoyed a protected status their brethren in Christian Europe - victims of anti-Semitism - never thought possible.

Today, Muslim apologists have distorted this age of coexistence. They appropriate an old Jewish myth about an "interfaith utopia" in the Middle Ages and blame the Jews and Zionism for destroying the traditional harmony between the two peoples.

In response, there is a new Jewish "counter-myth" that claims that Islam has persecuted Jews from its origins and that anti-Semitism is endemic in the religion. This counter-myth has been propagated by Jewish writers in the Diaspora especially since the 1970s. It parallels a similar conviction among some Oriental Jews in Israel. Seeking to find their place in a predominantly European Jewish world scarred by centuries of Christian persecutions culminating in the Holocaust, they claim that Islam has persecuted Jews from its origins. By implication, they have a past of suffering like the Ashkenazim, including dislocation from their ancient homelands, and are thus eligible for a larger piece of the Zionist pie than the mostly Ashkenazic founding fathers of Israel have granted them.

THE HISTORIC plight of Oriental Jewry falls somewhere between these two extremes. To discover it, one must move past the layers of propaganda and mutual recriminations that have obscured our view of history.

First of all, however, let us not make the mistake of thinking that Jews lived in the Middle Ages as the equals of Muslims. They were second class citizens, at best. They were classed along with other religious minorities as unbelievers who did not recognize the prophethood of Muhammad and the truth of the Koran. But this kind of unbelief was not as threatening to Islam as Jewish unbelief was to Christians, for unbelief in Christianity means rejection of Jesus as Messiah and as God, a greater affront to the dominant faith than Jewish unbelief was to Islam because it challenged the theological basis of the whole religion.

Moreover, restrictions on Jewish (and Christian) life - they were not to build new houses of worship and were required to wear distinctive garb, avoid Muslim honorific titles, and so forth - were intended not so much to exclude them from society as they were meant to reinforce the necessary hierarchical distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims within a single social order.

Non-Muslims were to remain "in their place," avoiding any act, particularly any religious act, that might challenge the superior rank of Muslims or of Islam. Non-Muslims, however, occupied a definite rank in Islamic society - a low rank, but a rank nevertheless. They managed to co-exist more or less harmoniously with the higher-ranking dominant Muslim group because both sides recognized and accepted the place of the other - whether superior or inferior - and this facilitated interaction with a minimum of conflict. The new Muslim anti-Semitism >>> By Mark R. Cohen

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Surprising Development: Talk of Human Rights for HIV Sufferers in Saudi!
ARAB NEWS: RIYADH, 2 January 2007 — The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has called on HIV carriers who received unfair treatment from their employers or from the public to come forward and register their cases with the rights body. The process is part of an initiative by the NSHR to gather information from HIV-positive persons on the sort of maltreatment they receive in Saudi Arabia due to their conditions.

Legislation to protect the rights of these people is likely to be announced by March. “We have sent some members of the (NSHR) board to meet with experts on HIV cases to gather their opinions and observations on the new law,” Mufleh Al-Kahtani, NSHR’s vice president, told Arab News.

The NSHR proposed the national law to protect HIV-positive persons because currently there are no laws in the Kingdom that define the rights of these patients according to Islamic law and international conventions. Report Unfair Treatment, NSHR Tells HIV Carriers >>> By Raid Qusti

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Will We End Up Bland and Boring?
ARAB NEWS: At times I feel we’re almost being legislated out of existence by nanny governments under the pretext of keeping us safe. At the same time globalization and the information age has blurred our national identities, while satellite television insidiously moulds our cultural mores. What does this mean for individual freedom? How does this growing trend affect our identity?

There are those who believe we’ve never had it so good. I’m not one of them. As someone who grew up in London during the 1970s I know what freedom is all about. It was a time when individuals were encouraged to discover themselves and eccentricity far from being shunned was celebrated. It was an age of discovery.

Ordinary people began to travel and interact with different cultures. They discovered a colorful world made up of different ethnicities and nationalities clad in a multitude of garbs, imbued with their own traditions and proud of their unique music, cuisines and way of life. I reveled in those innate differences, which made life interesting and exciting.

But over the decades there’s been a shift. With the advent of globalization young people, in particular, now dress in the same way, carry the same mobile phones, I-Pods and Blackberries, watch the same movies, visit the same websites and often cherish similar aspirations whether they live in Dublin , Dubai , Delhi or Dallas. Will We End Up Bland and Boring? By Linda Heard

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

”Xenophobia at the Heart of German Politics”
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A German state governor has won applause from fellow conservatives for demanding a crackdown on "criminal young foreigners." Immigrant groups and political rivals say he is playing with fire in a debate that reveals the widespread xenophobia obstructing integration in Germany.

An assault by two foreign youths on a German pensioner has triggered conservative calls for a crackdown on "criminal young foreigners" and exposed deeply entrenched xenophobia that casts doubt on this country's ability ever to fully integrate its 15 million inhabitants with an immigrant background.

The 76-year-old pensioner suffered a fractured skull when he was beaten by a 20-year-old Turkish man born in Germany and a 17-year-old immigrant from Greece on December 20 after he asked them to stop smoking on a subway train in Munich, where smoking is forbidden.

The pensioner recovered after a spell in hospital and recalls how they spat at him and called him a "Shit German" before kicking him in the head. Police arrested the attackers shortly afterwards and the case could have been closed as a cowardly assault by two violent criminals who both have long police records.

But a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, Hesse state premier Roland Koch (more...), seized on the fact that the attackers weren't German and decided to launch a debate about foreign criminals.

"How much are we prepared to take from a small proportion of violent youths, who frequently have a foreign background?" Koch, who is struggling in his campaign to win a third term in a state election on January 27, told mass circulation Bild Zeitung in an interview published last Friday.

"We have spent too long showing a strange sociological understanding for groups that consciously commit violence as ethnic minorities," he went on. Xenophobia at the Heart of German Politics >>> By David Crossland

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Jefferts Schori in Gay Row
Photo of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori courtesy of the BBC
BBC: The head of the Anglicans in the United States has accused other churches, including the Church of England, of double standards over sexuality.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori, told the BBC her church is paying the price for its honesty over sexuality.

The threat of schism in the Anglican Communion was prompted by the appointment of a gay bishop.

The US church appointed an openly gay man Gene Robinson as a bishop in 2003.

Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori defended her ministry.

"He is certainly not alone in being a gay bishop, he's certainly not alone in being a gay partnered bishop," she said.

"He is alone in being the only gay partnered bishop who's open about that status." US Anglican head in sexuality row >>> By Christopher Landau

LISTEN TO BBC AUDIO:
US Anglican sexuality row

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)