Ahmadinejad: Israel Wouldn’t Dare Attack Iran
YNET NEWS: Reuters - Following successful Israel test of missile 'capable of carrying unconventional payload,' Iranian president says Israel would regret any attack on his country

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Israel "would not dare attack Iran," after Israel said it tested a missile following warnings against Iran's controversial nuclear program.

The missile test came after Israeli warnings and accusations about Tehran's atomic ambitions and drew a defiant response from the Iranian president, who said Israel would regret any attack.

Oil briefly rose almost $1 to above $92 a barrel on news of the missile test, which came three days after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would consider all options to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad: Israel would not dare attack us >>>

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Hollywood Movies to Be Used to Foster ‘Inter-Cultural Understanding’
ARAB NEWS: IN the wake of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, Spain and Turkey founded The Alliance of Civilizations, an organization designed to foster dialogue between cultures and religions and, quite clearly, to head off any anti-Islamic furor triggered by the bombings. In the event the Spanish were commendably measured in their response to the carnage that had been visited on their capital. The Alliance, however, came to be criticized as being merely a talking shop.

This week this changed when, at a two-day meeting in Madrid, 350 delegates from 63 countries, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, agreed to set up a UN-backed $100-million fund to finance films which, while being entertaining, are also designed to foster understanding and peace between cultures. Unveiling the initiative, Queen Noor of Jordan said that an initial $10 million of financing was in place. It was also revealed that partnerships had already been established with Hollywood production and distribution companies. At the same meeting another project — the Rapid Response Media Mechanism — was launched which is meant to reduce tension in times of cross-cultural crises by, according to Ban, furnishing “voices of reason to reporters and producers around the world.” Editorial: Alliance not clash >>>

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Susanne Winter’s Speech with English Subtitles

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL:
Austrian Politician Calls Prophet Muhammad a 'Child Molester'

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Hong Kong Fashion Week
Am I imagining things, or do I detect more than a sprinkling of Islamic influence in these fashions?

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:Highlights of the east
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Grand Mufti of Syria Threatens Europeans at EU Parliament, EU Media Silent
Photo of the Grand Mufti of Syria courtesy of Klein Verzet
THE BRUSSELS JOURNAL: This information was brought to my attention by the blog Snaphanen. As a part of the deliberate merger of Europe and the Islamic world that is the policy of the European Union at the highest levels, yet almost never debated in European media, 2008 will be a "Year of Intercultural Dialogue," which means that Europeans will be bombarded with propaganda about how good it will be to submit to Islamic rule, and some veiled threats about what happens if we don't. The visiting Grand Mufti of Syria threatened Europeans over the "misuse" of free speech to criticize Islam. This has been carefully left out of the official EU reports from his speech at the EU Parliament.

One of the EU Commissioners, or unelected pan-European Ministers, addressed the European press a while ago, hoping that they would participate in this brainwashing of the public. Not in those exact words, of course, but the journalists got the message, and disturbingly enough didn't seem to protest. This is the hallmark of a totalitarian state, where the authorities instruct the press on what to write and which ideologies to broadcast. That is what the EUSSR is rapidly becoming, as former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky has warned.

Perhaps the most shameful aspect of the history of Eurabia is how the supposedly critical media has allowed itself to be corrupted or deceived by the Eurabians. Most of the documents about the Euro-Arab Dialogue place particular emphasis on working with the media, and the Eurabians have played the European media like a Stradivarius. A conference on "Racism, Xenophobia and the Media" in Vienna in May 2006 was coordinated by the EU. By the end of 2006, the network of media practitioners involved in the Euro-Arab Dialogue had grown to over 500 (pdf). These included people, media and organizations from all 37 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. European and Arab journalists produced dozens of recommendations on how to enhance their cooperation and promote "mutual understanding" between their cultures and religions in the media.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy (read: Eurabian affairs), addressed the assembly of journalists. According to her, "we do not believe the media should be regulated from outside, but rather that you find ways to regulate yourselves. [...] 2008 is the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, and I am determined that by then we will have made significant improvements in the level of mutual respect and understanding our communities have for one another. In the months and years to come we must reach beyond the elites to the man and woman on the street. That is a vital part of the fight against racism and xenophobia. And you will be the key to achieving that."

This document is available on the Internet, but I doubt most Europeans have heard about it. Ferrero-Waldner also stated that "Freedom of expression is not the freedom to insult or offend. Hate speech is always abhorrent." The EU has in numerous agreements with Muslim countries made it clear that "Islamophobia" is a form of racism and hate speech.

The EU is now practicing this media censorship. According to Dutch blogger Klein Verzet, the Grand Mufti of Syria threatened Holland: "Should it come to riots, bloodshed and violence after broadcasting the Quran movie by PVV-leader Geert Wilders, then Wilders will be responsible. This was said by the Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, Tuesday in the European Parliament, where he gave a speech at the invitation of the fraction presidents. If Wilders tears up or burn a Quran in his film 'this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed. And he will be responsible', according to the Grand Mufti. Al Hassoun thinks it is 'the responsibility of the Dutch people to stop Wilders'."

If you read the official texts by the EU media, this threat has been totally removed. Euractiv.com, a website subsidized by the EU, reports today:

No 'conflict of cultures', Islamic leader tells EU Parliament

The Grand Mufti of Syria yesterday told MEPs that he did not believe in the conflict of cultures because "we are all building one culture", becoming the first religious leader to address the Parliament during the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. A series of eminent religious and cultural leaders are set to address the plenary session of the European Parliament on the subject of intercultural dialogue throughout 2008. The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, yesterday (15 January) told Parliament's Strasbourg plenary that perceived clashes of culture were instead conflicts of "ignorance, terrorism and backwardness". Grand Mufti of Syria Threatens Europeans at EU Parliament, EU Media Silent >>> By Fjordman

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"L'Europe doit revenir à la multiculturalité"
LE MONDE: La Belgique a inquiété ses partenaires européens au cours des derniers mois. Chef d'un gouvernement intérimaire, êtes-vous, alors que votre pays se lance dans un nouveau débat institutionnel, en mesure de les rassurer ?

Ce n'est pas le fait que la réforme des institutions belges soit en discussion qui a étonné. Le fédéralisme est, partout, un phénomène évolutif. Nos voisins se sont en revanche demandé pourquoi, à cause de cela, nous n'arrivions pas à former un gouvernement doté des pleins pouvoirs. Voilà pourquoi j'ai voulu distinguer les deux chapitres et former rapidement une équipe ministérielle, première étape vers la résolution de la crise. La deuxième étape est la discussion sur l'avenir institutionnel.

Notez qu'en 2007 notre bilan a été très bon : la croissance a progressé, le chômage a baissé à 7,3 %, les investissements étrangers ont battu des records et notre dette publique a continué à fondre. Seul le budget a légèrement dérapé avec un déficit public de 0,3 %, le premier après huit années d'équilibre. Mais je sais bien que la vraie question est de savoir si nous arriverons à conclure un nouvel accord institutionnel et à donner de la stabilité au futur gouvernement et à notre pays.

L'exercice est-il possible ?

Je crois qu'il sera très différent des précédents. La Belgique était un pays unitaire qui a évolué vers le fédéralisme en transférant de nombreux moyens financiers et en donnant une large autonomie aux régions et communautés. Cela a engendré vingt années de stabilité politique et permis de résoudre la situation dramatique de nos finances publiques. Cette fois, je crois qu'il faut aussi renforcer l'Etat fédéral : ce n'est pas seulement avec un roi et un premier ministre que l'on stabilise une structure comme la nôtre. On peut transférer des compétences, notamment dans le domaine socio-économique, pour viser l'efficacité. Mais, parallèlement, il faut envisager une circonscription électorale fédérale - pour créer une classe politique et une opinion fédérales -, adapter le système de financement et améliorer la coopération entre les entités fédérées. J'ai remis au roi un rapport en ce sens, afin de décrisper une situation qui avait épuisé les participants mais n'avait finalement pas donné de résultat. "L'Europe doit revenir à la multiculturalité" >>>

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Islam According to Oprah
Photo of Oprah Winfrey courtesy of Google Images
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Is Oprah Winfrey a threat to national security? No, but now that the war has begun, I worry about her, and here's why.

The nation cannot afford the naive illusions that have given many Americans comfort in peacetime. Chief among them is the notion, repeated ad nauseam by our leaders and the media, that Islam is a religion of peace. This may not be an outright lie, but it is so far from the full truth as to approach falsehood.

Americans have been told that they shouldn't attack the Muslims among us, and only the lowest of the low would disagree.

The American people, with very few exceptions, have risen to the challenge to be humane, decent, and loving toward Muslims in this country. Well and good.

Americans by nature want to think the best of those from other cultures. But we run the risk of blinding ourselves to the nature of the threat facing our country and our civilization. In his 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Harvard's Samuel P. Huntington warned us of deluding ourselves about the true nature of the Islamic threat.

"Some Westerners, including President Bill Clinton, have argued that the West does not have problems with Islam but only with violent Islamist extremists," Huntington wrote. "Fourteen hundred years of history demonstrate otherwise."

We can sit around making diversity quilts and thinking happy thoughts, or we can, with charity, commit ourselves to soberly assessing the historical and present-day reality of "peaceful" Islam, and its relations with non-Muslims.

Which brings us to Oprah. Last Friday [this article appeared on October 8, 2001], she devoted her program to "Islam 101," purportedly a crash course in the Mohammedan faith for her vast television audience of clueless Americans. It was grossly imbalanced and extremely dishonest. In fact, given how many Christians and other non-Muslims are horrifically persecuted today by Muslims in the name of Islam, it amounted to offensive propaganda.

Oprah called Islam "the most misunderstood of the three major religions" — yet did her best to add to the confusion by candy-coating the complicated truth about the Muslim faith. If you were to take Oprah's show as your guide to Islam, you would think Muslims were basically Episcopalians in veils and turbans.

Take her interview with Queen Rania of Jordan, a lovely, modern young woman who looks more at home in the pages of Vogue than in a hijab. The queen said that Islam "doesn't impose anything" on people — an absurd lie. Oprah asked her about the so-called "honor killings" of women in Jordan, murders committed by men against women in their families who are believed to have shamed the clan. For example, some young women who have been raped are in turn murdered by their male relatives for having stained the family's honor. Islam according to Oprah: Is Oprah a threat to national security? >>> By Rod Dreher, columnist for the New York Post

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Tom Cruise Talking Nonsense: Tom Cruise Talking about Scientology
A drunken man wouldn’t talk more nonsense than this!

Tom Cruise, the Goebbels of Scientology?

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Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Is it Any Wonder People are Fleeing London?
THE TELEGRAPH: In a north London suburb last week, a schoolgirl was beaten, gang-raped and then had drain-cleaning fluid poured on her body apparently to destroy DNA evidence. In the eternal cesspit of senseless urban crime, I feel that a dreadful nadir of sorts has been reached, a benchmark of slaked lust and casual, sadistic cruelty.

Police sources say the 16-year-old will never fully recover from the injuries caused by the caustic soda and, at the time of writing, she remains under heavy sedation in a burns unit, fighting for her life.

One could weep an ocean for this young woman, her life ruined by these savages, who hunted in a pack like animals and dragged her to an empty house, caring nothing for her wellbeing or future.

Drain cleaner? The callous premeditation is shocking, and underlines the fact that some of the rootless delinquents who roam the London streets are now scraping the bottom of the barrel of humanity.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that the attackers have been described as "five black youths", in case you think I'm being racist in highlighting this crime.

Yes, these are the peculiar times we live in, particularly in a week when Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has pointed out that "white flight is accelerating" as Britain becomes increasingly polarised along ethnic lines.

Following the controversy started by the Bishop of Rochester, who said that some Muslim enclaves were "no-go areas" for Christians, it all seems to suggest a country that is becoming increasingly fragmented; a patchwork of rigidly delineated little pockets of race and religion, knots of unyielding humanity who just can't rub along with each other.

This is not a Britain many of us would care to recognise, or even want to live in, although it is true that certain sectors of the middle class are fleeing from inner London like pashmina-wrapped lemmings, desperate to escape the creeping spread of urban decay.

Last year, nearly a quarter of a million decent, law-abiding citizens packed their bags and left the capital for good, seeking what they hope will be a better life elsewhere. They moved to outer boroughs, other city suburbs, rural areas, abroad, the back end of beyond, anywhere but here.

While their fairytale, roses-around-the-door belief in the safety of the countryside and the romantic ideal of a thatched cottage for two is touching, it does point to an underlying urban unease.

I would rather take my chances in the city than the country, but one can hardly blame them for wanting to move.

Elsewhere in London this week, a medical student was stabbed to death in a row over an orange in a Brixton fruit shop. A pupil who was expelled for allegedly having a knife took his school to the High Court. And about the time most of us were sitting down to dinner, watching The Bill on television or putting the children to bed, a teenage girl underwent an unimaginable ordeal in an ordinary suburban street.

What is going to happen to those of us left to live here if youths across the city continue to feel quite comfortable and confident in running amok? That's before you even factor in the older, more professional criminal gangs from more than 25 countries, who operate prosperous drug trafficking, people smuggling, prostitution, money laundering and fraud rackets on the capital's streets.

London is a welcoming city, where home-grown and particularly international criminal networks are flourishing nicely. Somewhere in the city, a great termite nest of law-breaking and corruption grows by the day, nourished by immigrants, some of them illegal, from Algeria, Nigeria, Jamaica and Pakistan, among others.

Is it racist to point that out, too? I don't know any more. All I know is that London has room to absorb them all, particularly as so many of its citizens have recently left in a hurry. And while cosy family evenings by the fire remain one of the few benefits of a wet British winter, how alarming that fewer and fewer people feel safe doing this inside their own homes. [Source: Is it any wonder people are fleeing London?] By Jan Moir

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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Mitt Romney Wins Convincing Victory in Michigan
Photo of Mitt Romney courtesy of Google Images
YAHOO NEWS: DETROIT - Mitt Romney scored his first major primary victory Tuesday, a desperately needed win in his native Michigan that gave his weakened presidential candidacy new life. It set the stage for a wide-open Republican showdown in South Carolina in just four days.

Three GOP candidates now have won in the first four states to vote in the 2008 primary season, roiling a nomination fight that lacks a clear favorite as the race moves south for the first time.

The former Massachusetts governor defeated John McCain, the Arizona senator who was hoping that independents and Democrats would join Republicans to help him repeat his 2000 triumph here. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, trailed in third, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is making a last stand in South Carolina.

"It's a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism," Romney said in an Associated Press telephone interview from Southfield, Mich., echoing his campaign speeches and taking a poke at McCain, the four-term senator he beat. "Now on to South Carolina, Nevada, Florida."

Minimizing the significance of Tuesday's vote, McCain said he had called Romney to congratulate him "that Michigan welcomed their native son with their support." Romney wins convincing Michigan victory >>> By Liz Sidoti and Glen Johnson

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Vatican Newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Condemns Harry Potter
THE TELEGRAPH: An article in the Vatican’s official newspaper has condemned JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books for posing a danger to children by promoting witchcraft and the occult.

In a damning indictment of the bestselling books, among the most successful in publishing history, the Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, has called the teenage boy wizard “the wrong kind of hero”.

Under the headline 'The double face of Harry Potter’, the lengthy article concludes: “Despite the values that we come across in the narration, at the base of this story, witchcraft is proposed as a positive ideal. 



"The violent manipulation of things and people comes thanks to knowledge of the occult. “The ends justify the means because the knowledgeable, the chosen ones, the intellectuals know how to control the dark powers and turn them into good. 



“This a grave and deep lie, because it is the old Gnostic temptation of confusing salvation and truth with a secret knowledge.” JK Rowling's Harry Potter condemned in Vatican newspaper >>> By Malcolm Moore and Nigel Reynolds

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Personenschutz für Susanne Winter
DIE PRESSE: Terrordrohung auf YouTube wegen anti-islamischer Ausfälle. Die Kritik an der Grazer FPÖ-Spitzenkandidatin hält weiter an.

Die Dramaturgie passt perfekt: Heinz-Christian Strache beendet die mit halbstündiger Verspätung gestartete Pressekonferenz am Dienstagvormittag in Graz. Mikrofone und Kameras nähern sich für abschließende Fragen dem FPÖ-Obmann. Der zückt sein silber glitzerndes Handy aus der Tasche. Ein kurzer Blick. "Da ham wir's schon: Die ersten Drohvideos", murmelt er.

"Susanne Winter - des war ein Fehler von dir - insallah wirst du bestraft für des was du gesagt hast." Mit diesen Worten beginnt das knapp fünf Minuten lange Drohvideo gegen die Grazer FPÖ-Spitzenkandidatin Susanne Winter, das am Dienstag auf dem Online-Videoportal YouTube aufgetaucht ist und inzwischen wieder entfernt wurde. Der Titel: "Anti Susanne Winter und Ungläubige."

Die Video-Botschaft zeigt zunächst einen Mitschnitt von Winters Rede beim Grazer FPÖ-Neujahrstreffen am Sonntag, in der sie die vielfach kritisierte Aussage getätigt hat, dass Mohammed in der heutigen Zeit ein "Kinderschänder" wäre und dass er den Koran "in epileptischen Anfällen" verfasst habe.

Brennendes World Trade Center

"Das war ein Fehler", lautet die Botschaft an die freiheitliche Politikerin. "Und mit solchen Menschen hast du dich angelegt. Diese Menschen sind Allah seine Krieger. Diese Krieger sind wir - die Moslems - mit denen du Susanne jetzt ein Problem hast." Es folgen Maschinengewehrsalven und arabische Musik, kombiniert mit Bildern von Kriegsschauplätzen im Nahen Osten, betenden und bewaffneten Muslimen.

Das rauchende World Trade Center vom 11. September 2001 wird an den Schriftzug gekoppelt: "Schau her Susanne wegen deiner Aussage kann sowas Ähnliches auch in deinem Land passieren - du bist verantwortlich dafür." Die Botschaft richtet sich im Übrigen nicht nur an Winter, "sondern an alle Ungläubigen die kein Respekt vor Allah und dem Islam haben. Insallah kommt der Tag an dem ihr bestraft wird." Die Urheber des Videos sind bisher unbekannt. Am Ende heißt es nur: "Made by Bilal & Jasko."

Das Innenministerium bestätigte Dienstagmittag Ermittlungen zum Droh-Video gegen die Grazer FP-Chefin. Derzeit sei man dabei, die Urheber des auf der Internet-Plattform YouTube veröffentlichten Videos zu ermitteln. Erst dann könne eine endgültige Bewertung und Einschätzung abgegeben werden. "Wir nehmen das natürlich sehr ernst", meinte Ministeriums-Sprecher Rudolf Gollia zur "Presse". Winter hat Personenschutz von der Polizei-Sondereinheit Cobra angeboten erhalten und wird diesen auch in Anspruch nehmen. Personenschutz für Winter nach islamischem Drohvideo >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Pope Benedict Cancels Visit to Prestigious University in Rome
BBC: Pope Benedict XVI has cancelled a visit to a prestigious university in Rome where lecturers and students have protested against his views on Galileo.

The Pope had been set to make a speech at La Sapienza University on Thursday.

Sixty-seven academics had said the Pope condoned the 1633 trial and conviction of the astronomer Galileo for heresy.

The Vatican insists the Pope is not "anti-science" - but in light of the protests they have decided it would be better for him not to attend.

Galileo had argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

The Vatican says the Pope will now send his speech to La Sapienza, instead of delivering it in person.

Landmark controversy

Pope Benedict was in charge of Roman Catholic doctrine in 1990 when, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he commented on the 17th-Century Galileo trial.

In the speech, he quoted Austrian-born philosopher Paul Feyerabend as saying the Church's verdict against Galileo had been "rational and just". Papal visit scuppered by scholars >>>

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Amnesty Demands Iran Ends ‘Grotesque’ Stoning Executions
THE GUARDIAN: Iran was urged today to abolish immediately executions by stoning, described by Amnesty International as a "grotesque and horrific" form of punishment.

The head of Iran's judiciary imposed a moratorium on such executions in 2002, but two people were stoned to death in 2006 and one last year, Amnesty said. Nine women and two men are currently under sentence of death by stoning.

Amnesty said in a new report that article 204 of Iran's penal code "dictates that the stones are large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately."

The rules prescribe that men should be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts for the purposes of death by stoning. Victims typically take 20 minutes to die.

Last week the Iranian human rights group led by Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ibadi protested against the amputation of hands and feet for offences against public security. The UN and other bodies have often protested against torture and flogging in Iran.

Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. In 2006, 177 people were put to death, mostly by hanging. That number was expected to be exceeded in 2007, with 124 people executed in the first seven months of the year. Amnesty demands Iran ends 'grotesque' stoning executions >>> By Ian Black, Middle East editor

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Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Sarkozy fait l'éloge
des religions en terre d'Islam
Photo de Sarkozy en Arabie Saoudite grâce au Figaro
LE FIGARO: Le président de la République a évoqué les fondements de sa «politique de civilisation» dans un discours prononcé devant le Conseil consultatif saoudien.

Un mois après son discours du Vatican qui avait fait couler beaucoup d'encre, Nicolas Sarkozy est revenu hier, dans un tout autre cadre, sur le rôle «civilisateur» qu'il assigne aux grandes religions. Des propos qui, ne manqueront pas de critiquer certains, l'ont amené à frôler, voire à mordre, la ligne jaune que le chef d'un État laïque est tenu de respecter.

Devant le Conseil consultatif (Majlis ach-Choura) du royaume wahhabite, l'Assemblée saoudienne composée de 150 membres, tous nommés par le souverain, le président de la République a rappelé que «les grandes religions divines se rassemblent autour d'un certain nombre de principes communs et partagent les grandes valeurs de tolérance». Un socle sur lequel, pour Nicolas Sarkozy, «nous devons fonder la politique de civilisation dont le monde, aujourd'hui, a tant besoin».

Dans l'enceinte officielle d'un pays dont le roi est le «gardien des lieux saints», connu aussi pour sa pratique la plus rigoureuse de l'islam, le président de la République a fait résonner des mots d'un œcuménisme pour le moins inhabituel. «J'ai le devoir de faire en sorte que chacun, qu'il soit juif, catholique, protestant, athée, franc-maçon ou rationaliste, se sente heureux de vivre en France», a-t-il déclaré. Mais, a enchaîné Nicolas Sarkozy, «j'ai aussi le devoir de préserver l'héritage d'une longue histoire, d'une culture et, j'ose le mot, d'une civilisation». «C'est peut-être dans le religieux que ce qu'il y a d'universel dans les civilisations est le plus fort», a dit encore le chef de l'État. Sarkozy fait l'éloge
des religions en terre d'Islam >>> D’Alain Barluet, envoyé spécial à Riyad

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Islam-Beschimpfung von Susanne Winter: Drohvideo auf YouTube aufgetaucht

DIE PRESSE: "Susanne Winter - des war ein Fehler von dir": Die FP-Spitzenkandidatin für die Grazer Gemeinderatswahl soll nun Personenschutz erhalten. Sie fühlt sich aber "in Graz sicher".

Drohvideo auf dem Online-Videoportal YouTube ist gegen die Grazer FP-Spitzenkandidatin für die Gemeinderatswahl, Susanne Winter. In dem Video sind Aufnahmen vom FPÖ-Neujahrstreffen am Sonntag zu sehen, bei dem Winter den islamischen Propheten Mohammed als "Kinderschänder" bezeichnet hatte.

Bestrafung wird angekündigt

Zu sehen ist in dem angeblichen Drohvideo, auf das die FPÖ selbst aufmerksam gemacht hatte, ein Mitschnitt von Winters Rede in Graz des ORF Steiermark mit der vielkritisierten Aussage, Mohammed wäre in der heutigen Zeit ein "Kinderschänder". Darauf folgt das Insert auf blauem Hintergrund: "Das war ein Fehler. Und mit solchen Menschen hast du dich angelegt. Diese Menschen sind Allah seine Krieger. Diese Krieger sind wir - die Moslems - mit denen du Susanne jetzt ein Problem hast"Es folgen Maschinengewehrsalven und arabische Musik, dazu Bilder von betenden sowie bewaffneten Muslimen, und Kriegsschauplätzen im Nahen Osten. Über Bildern der Anschläge auf das World Trade Center erscheint der Schriftzug: "Schau her Susanne - wegen deiner Aussage kann sowas Ähnliches auch in deinem Land passieren - du bist verantwortlich dafür." gegen Ende des Clips steht noch: "Dieses Video geht nicht nur an Susanne Winter sondern an alle Ungläubigen die kein Respekt vor Allah und dem Islam haben. Insallah kommt der Tag an dem ihr bestraft wird."Im Abspann fordern die Verfasser auf, zusammen zu halten und gegen jene zu kämpfen, die den Islam und Allah beleidigen. Es folgt der Gruß: "Selam an alle Moslems." Die Verfasser mit dem Pseudonym "nellyno1" haben übrigens insgesamt acht Videos auf die Video-Plattform "youtube" gestellt. Unter anderem Videos des Rappers Massiv Snippet und weitere Clips mit islamistischem Hintergrund. Islam-Beschimpfung von Winter: Drohvideo auf YouTube aufgetaucht >>>

DIE PRESSE:
Reaktionen in Österreich zu den Äußerungen Susanne Winters

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No M&S! There Has Been No “Misunderstanding”! The Case is Clear: Muslims Consider the Bible to Be Unclean
This is more proof, if indeed even more proof were needed, that Muslims will not, and, given their mindset, cannot, fit in to the free and democratic West. It’s time that we all faced up to this fact. Another thing springs to mind: M&S has Jewish roots. So what is a Muslim doing working in M&S in the first place?

THE TELEGRAPH: Marks and Spencer has launched an investigation after a customer claimed a Muslim shop assistant refused to handle a Bible she was buying.

Sally Friday said she felt “humiliated” after going to the till to pay for a First Bible Stories for her young grandson.

She said the woman behind the till refused to touch the book once she realised what it was, and made a reference to a fellow worker about being “unclean”.

Mrs Friday, 69, said: “The young lady was absolutely fine with the other stuff I was buying but when it came to the Bible she refused to touch it and asked me to put it in the shopping bag myself.

"She turned to another worker and said something about being unclean and at first I thought she was referring to a skirt I was buying and that there was a mark on it. Then she asked me to put the Bible in my shopping bag myself.

"It took me a while to realise what was happening and I felt humiliated that someone could censor what I was buying.

"If she was refusing to touch it on religious grounds then that is not on. We are a tolerant, Christian country and I could not see a Christian shop assistant refusing to touch something from another religion.

"If you are paid to do a job like that then you should get on and do it." Muslim M&S worker 'refused to touch Bible' >>> By Nick Britten

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Bible

Merkel Distances Herself from Roland Koch’s Strident Rhetoric on Immigration
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has distanced herself from the strident immigration rhetoric of her fellow conservative Roland Koch in a lengthy news conference aimed at calming down an increasingly fractious debate that has opened rifts in her government.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried on Tuesday to defuse a fierce debate about immigration that has poisoned the atmosphere between conservatives and Social Democrats in her grand coalition.

At a hastily convened news conference, Merkel defended Hesse state governor Roland Koch, whose call for a crackdown on "criminal young foreigners" has been labelled as xenophobic and divisive by immigrant groups and members of the Social Democrats.

But she distanced herself from Koch's rhetoric. She stressed that her government had increased funding for programs to combat crime by far-right German youths, and said she was concerned about all forms of youth crime -- be it committed by Germans or immigrants. Merkel Tries To Calm Tensions Over Immigration >>> By David Crossland in Berlin

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Hasnat “Mr Wonderful” Khan Breaks Silence on Diana

It is understood that at one point the Princess was so smitten with Dr Khan that she contemplated converting to Islam so they could marry.

THE TELEGRAPH: His hair is greyer and his features are more rounded but Dr Hasnat Khan's affection for Diana, Princess of Wales, remains undiminished by the passing of more than a decade.

The heart surgeon the late Princess described as "Mr Wonderful" is sitting on a sea-green sofa at his home in Pakistan.

Dressed in a white shirt, faded jeans and trainers, he fondly recalls the woman he shared an intimate relationship with until just months before her death.

To Dr Khan, Diana was first and foremost a warm, generous woman who just happened to be a princess.

"I found her a very normal person with great qualities," he says, choosing his words with immense care.

"I think she did great work all over the world not just for the UK but for everyone. That is very important."

After meeting at the Royal Brompton Hospital, where the Princess was visiting a friend who was recovering from heart surgery, they pursued a discreet, two-year affair that finished in the early summer of 1997. Dr Hasnat Khan: Princess Diana and me >>> By Massoud Ansari in Jehlum and Andrew Alderson

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

The 2008 Fashions for Men Show Why the Decadent West is ‘Losing It’; Not a Gentleman in Sight!
2008 Fashion Preview for Men
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

The Plague is Re-emerging Worldwide
YAHOO NEWS: LONDON (Reuters) - Plague, the disease that devastated medieval Europe, is re-emerging worldwide and poses a growing but overlooked threat, researchers warned on Tuesday.

While it has only killed some 100 to 200 people annually over the past 20 years, plague has appeared in new countries in recent decades and is now shifting into Africa, Michael Begon, an ecologist at the University of Liverpool and colleagues said.

A bacterium known as Yersinia pestis causes bubonic plague, known in medieval times as the Black Death when it was spread by infected fleas, and the more dangerous pneumonic plague, spread from one person to another through coughing or sneezing.

"Although the number of human cases of plague is relatively low, it would be a mistake to overlook its threat to humanity, because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated," they wrote in the journal Public Library of Science journal PloS Medicine.

Rodents carry plague, which is virtually impossible to wipe out and moves through the animal world as a constant threat to humans, Begon said. Both forms can kill within days if not treated with antibiotics.

"You can't realistically get rid of all the rodents in the world," he said in a telephone interview. "Plague appears to be on the increase, and for the first time there have been major outbreaks in Africa." Plague a growing but overlooked threat: study >>> By Michael Kahn

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

White Flight is Getting Worse, Says Trevor Phillips
DAILY MAIL: White flight - the retreat of the white middle classes from city centres - is getting worse, the Government's race relations chief said yesterday.

The admission by Trevor Phillips was the first time a senior Whitehall figure has used the phrase.

Mr Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, backed the decision last week of the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, to warn of the spread of "no-go areas" for non-Muslims. 'White flight' from city centres is getting worse, says equality chief >>> By Steve Doughty

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Die Prinzessin der Probleme
DIE ZEIT: Trotz ihrer Fehler war Benasir Bhutto Pakistans Hoffnung auf eine liberale Zukunft. Jetzt drohen dem Land Chaos, Wahlfälschung, Zerfall

Der Tod Benasir Bhuttos hat die Welt erschüttert. Der Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen berief eilig eine Sondersitzung ein, um die Ermordung der pakistanischen Oppositionsführerin zu verurteilen. Die US-Aktienkurse fielen, und die asiatischen Aktienmärkte rutschten fast alle in Erwartung weltweiter Erschütterungen ab. In den USA wurde das Ereignis sogleich zum Wahlkampfthema – jeder Präsidentschaftsanwärter fühlte sich aufgerufen, etwas darüber zu sagen, wie mit der explosiven Situation in einem Atomwaffenstaat umgegangen werden sollte.

In Pakistan selbst hat der Mord immer neue Fragen aufgeworfen. Wer hat sie umgebracht – und warum? Wie wird Pakistan nach Benasir aussehen? Was wird jetzt aus der größten politischen Partei des Landes, die Benasir ohne demokratische Legitimierung »geerbt« hatte? Eine Befürchtung beherrscht alle Gespräche in den Wohnzimmern: Wird Pakistan diesen vielleicht schwersten Anschlag auf die Stabilität des Landes eventuell nicht überleben?

Mit ihrem Tod ist Benasir Bhutto sogar zu einer noch größeren Figur geworden, als sie es im Leben je hätte sein können. Ihr Vater Sulfikar Ali Bhutto, der Gründer der Pakistanischen Volkspartei (PPP), war der launenhafte Prinz der pakistanischen Politik. Vielleicht kann man seine Tochter als Prinzessin der Probleme des Landes bezeichnen. Beide waren nicht fehlerfrei. Charismatische Führer, die meist in Zeiten der Not in Ländern mit schlecht ausgebildeter politischer Kultur auftreten, regieren instinktiv als Autokraten. Benasir war mit ihren 35 Jahren die erste muslimische Frau der modernen Geschichtsschreibung an der Spitze einer Regierung. Die Macht auch hinter ihrem Thron aber war die Armee. Die Prinzessin der probleme >>> Von Ghazi Salahhuddin

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)