Susanne Winter “wollte religiöse Gefühle nicht verletzen”
Foto von Susanne Winter dank Google Images
DIE PRESSE: In einem Zeitungsinserat gibt die Grazer Spitzenkandidatin der FPÖ zu, dass ihre Formulierungen "überspitzt" waren. Sie wollte die religiösen Gefühle der Menschen "auf keinen Fall verletzen".

Susanne Winter, FPÖ-Spitzenkandidatin bei der am Sonntag in Graz stattfindenden Kommunalwahl, hat öffentlich so etwas wie Bedauern nach ihren islamfeindlichen Aussagen gezeigt. In am Samstag in Grazer Tageszeitungen geschalteten Inseraten räumt sie ein, dass ihre Formulierungen "überspitzt" gewesen seien und sie "auf keinen Fall die religiösen Gefühle von Menschen verletzen" wollte. Winter: "Wollte religiöse Gefühle nicht verletzen" >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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Ashura: Shia Holy Day in Iraq – Violent
Photo courtesy of The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN: Around two million pilgrims today marched through the Iraqi city of Karbala in blood-soaked processions - beating their heads and chests in unison and whipping themselves with chains - to mark Ashura, one of the holiest events in the Shia Muslim calendar.

The processions were marred by violence with a deadly bombing in northern Iraq and clashes in the south involving members of a radical cult.

Shias across Iraq observed the Ashura holiday by marching, singing and beating their chests to honour the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 AD. Security was stepped up in Karbala with 30,000 policemen and soldiers deployed in the city, including reinforcements from Baghdad.

But street battles between a messianic cult, the Soldiers of Heaven, and Iraqi troops raged for a second day in two predominantly Shia southern cities. Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were reported killed in Basra and at least 32 in Nasiriyah, including Iraqi security forces, civilians and gunmen. Seven Iraqis were killed in a rocket attack after observing Ashura in Tal Afar, 260 miles north-west of Baghdad, police Brigadier General Najim Abdullah said. Shia holy day in Iraq marred by violence >>> By David Smith and agencies

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Omar bin Laden Wants to Become ‘Ambassador for Peace’!
Photo of Omar bin Laden and his British wife courtesy of The Star
THE STAR: CAIRO, Egypt–Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father – except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket.

The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview he said there is a better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West.

Omar – one of bin Laden's 19 children – raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 5,000-kilometre horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace.

"It's about changing the ideas of the Western mind. A lot of people think Arabs – especially the bin Ladens, especially the sons of Osama – are all terrorists. This is not the truth," Omar said last week at a café in a Cairo shopping mall.

Of course, many may have a hard time getting their mind around the idea of "bin Laden: peacenik."

"Omar thinks he can be a negotiator," said Alsabah, who is trying to bring her husband to Britain. "He's one of the only people who can do this in the world." Bin Laden's son an `ambassador for peace' >>> By Paul Schemm

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Michelle Obama Attacks Hillary Clinton
Photo of Michelle Obama courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: Michelle Obama, who could become America’s first black First Lady, has launched a scathing attack on her husband’s opponent Hillary Clinton, stating she represents "the same old thing over and over again".

Whereas Barack Obama preaches a message of hope and transcending differences that is more kumbaya than combative, his wife, like him a lawyer and a Harvard graduate, did not hesitate to take his main opponent on in an appearance at a Las Vegas.

On her 44th birthday, and less than 48 hours before today’s crucial Nevada caucuses, Mrs Obama spoke passionately about racial slurs against her husband and the symbolism of having a black family in the White House.

In a fiery comparison between his 2004 Senate campaign and this year’s presidential race, she said: "You know what they were saying about him then? They said he was too young. They said he was too inexperienced. They said he should wait his turn.

"They said he couldn’t build a political machine to match the might of a family in Illinois that had been running for years. They said he couldn’t raise the money. They said that he was too black. They said that he wasn’t black enough. Sound familiar?

"They said that his name was too funny. They said there was no way that white folks in downstate Illinois and vote for a man named Barack Obama. They said it because when power is confronted by change, they will say anything." Michelle Obama launches attack on Clinton >>> By Toby Harnden in Las Vegas

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Muzzled (Again) in Finland
GATES OF VIENNA: Tomashot is a Finnish blogger who has just been convicted of “incitement against a national group” (in Sweden it would be hets mot folkgrupp). I can’t link to his blog, since he was required as a part of his sentence to take it down.

The case seems to resemble that mounted against Mikko Ellilä last year, only in Tomashot’s case the government pushed it all the way through a trial.

Our Finnish correspondent Sludge reported the verdict in our comments this morning. I managed to find an online report in Finnish, and KGS of Tundra Tabloids translated it.

Tomashot is quoted by Turkkilaista Tuumintaa as saying:

Tuusula circuit court found me guilty today of incitement against a national group. My sentence was a fine of €850 and all of my web pages were ordered to be closed down. Even though I insisted that my pages which were part of the factually based “News From Finland”, which publishes news concerning the crimes committed by immigrants and should be spared, they were also ordered to be closed down as well.

Muzzled (Again) in Finland >>>

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Chinese Blogger Beaten to Death by Government Officials
TECH CRUNCH: A Chinese blogger has been beaten to death by Government authorities for the crime of attempting to record a protest on his mobile phone.

When Wei was present at some sort of confrontation or protest by local villages against municipal authorities when more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes. Chinese Blogger Beaten to Death by Government Officials >>> By Duncan Riley

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Dynamite Radio Broadcast!
LISTEN HERE: The Gathering Storm Weekly Storm Report
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Bin Laden’s Son Seeks Life as UK Country Gentleman
WORLDNETDAILY: The fourth son of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who attended terror-training sessions in Afghanistan with his father, may soon take up residence with his British wife at her English country home, where the two plan to have a child with a surrogate mother and become peace activists, if his recent request for a visa is approved.

Omar Bin Laden, 26, who met Jane Felix-Browne, 52, in September 2006 when the Englishwoman was vacationing in Egypt, has been interviewed by British Embassy officials in Cairo, the London Daily Mail reported.

Felix-Brown, then a grandmother, surprised many last year when she announced she had become daughter-in-law to the mastermind of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on New York City and Washington, D.C. The pair hid their marriage – the sixth for Felix-Brown and the second (concurrent) marriage for bin Laden – initially.

Last July, when interviewed by the Daily Mail on her way to rejoin her new husband in Egypt, Felix-Brown expressed skepticism over her father-in-law's role in the terror attack.

"I mean, do you know - beyond all doubt – that he did it? If so, I'd like you to show me the evidence. I don't think it's nice to make assumptions about someone when you don't know the facts," she said.

At the time, Felix-Brown – who has since changed her name to Zaina Al Sabah Bin Laden – expressed a desire to eventually settle in Saudi Arabia and said she had no problem with her husband having another wife and child.

"I'd set up another home nearby, and he would come and go between the two," she said. "It is quite normal, really. I don't mind at all – why should I? I'm not jealous of his wife. I have spoken to her. Lots of married men in this country have girlfriends. At least he is being honest."

Unfortunately for bin Laden's first wife, British immigration officials care less about "honesty" than polygamy and are requiring proof bin Laden has obtained a divorce in Saudi Arabia before allowing him to move to Felix-Brown's $1.1 million home in Moulton, Cheshire, in Britain's rural northwest.

"We have been told there will not be a problem as long as we can provide the original documents from his divorce from his first wife. And that should be done in a week," said the second Mrs. bin Laden. Bin Laden's son seeks life as UK country gentleman: Applies for visa to live with Brit wife, have child, become activist for peace >>>

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Amerika ist nervös
DIE ZEIT: Die USA nehmen zwar großzügig Immigranten auf, aber sie werfen sie auch ebenso leichtherzig wieder hinaus

Derzeit bereitet sich die amerikanische Immigrationsbehörde auf einen Großeinsatz vor: Rund 200.000 Ausländer, die in Haft sitzen, sollen in diesem Jahr abgeschoben werden, ein Viertel mehr als im Vorjahr. Der Großteil hatte eine Aufenthaltserlaubnis, einige sogar eine Green Card, die unbefristet gilt. Aber wer in Amerika für mehr als ein Jahr ins Gefängnis muss, wer Drogendelikte, Einbrüche, eine Vergewaltigung oder andere Gewalttaten begeht, der sitzt nach Verbüßung der Haftstrafe im Flugzeug.

Das dauert manchen Kommunen sogar zu lange, sie wollen nicht die Haftkosten für Ausländer tragen. Deshalb hat die Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, die dem Department of Homeland Security untersteht, das Verfahren beschleunigt: Wer wegen eines Verbrechens einsitzt, das nicht mit Gewalt verbunden war — Drogen, oder die Verletzung von Auflagen, die mit dem Immigrantenstatus einhergehen — dem sollen die letzten Haftmonate erlassen werden. Statt dessen geht es gleich nach Hause. Zwar wird die Abschiebewelle erst einmal 200 Millionen Dollar kosten, aber langfristig hofft die Agency, das mehrfache davon durch weniger Gefängniskosten zu sparen.

Öffentliche Empörung darüber, kriminelle Ausländer zu deportieren, ist in den USA undenkbar. Sogar eingebürgerte Amerikaner können abgeschoben werden, wenn sie bei der Einwanderung falsche Angaben gemacht haben. Amerika nimmt zwar großzügig Immigranten auf, es wirft sie aber auch ebenso leichtherzig wieder hinaus. Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts, als die Nordstaaten die Sklaverei abschafften, wollte die American Colonization Society sogar freie Schwarze nach Afrika ausbürgern, ins eigens dazu gegründete Liberia. Der erhoffte Massenexodus blieb jedoch aus. Hingegen schafften es die USA, 1882 die chinesischen und 1942 die japanischen Immigranten abzuschieben, und 1924 die Grenzen für Slaven und Juden weitgehend zu schließen. Nach den Attentaten des 9/11 ließ das Department of Homeland Security 5000 Moslems abschieben — auf Verdacht. Und im Moment gibt es eine starke Stimmung gegen mexikanische Zuzügler. Amerika ist nervös >>> Von Eva Schweitzer

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David Crossland, Editor of SpiegelOnline, Gives His Views on Integration
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Germany is doing a bad job of integrating its immigrants, argues SPIEGEL ONLINE editor David Crossland, who was born in Bonn to English parents. He argues that rather than rail against "criminal young foreigners," the country ought to be doing more to welcome its minorities. They are, after all, here to stay.

"Germany is not a country of immigration," Roland Koch said this month as he sought to revive his campaign for a third term as governor of the western state of Hesse by calling for a crackdown on "criminal young foreigners."

The statement, borrowed from former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, is untrue. Some 15 million people, or just under a fifth of the German population, have an immigrant background. The real message is: "We don't want Germany to be a country of immigration."

"Foreigners" -- they're often called that here even if they and their parents were born here -- get that message loud and clear in their everyday lives. That steely look of disapproval in shops when a customer expresses an enquiry in accented or broken German. The difficulty of finding an apartment to rent if your surname isn't Müller.

Just speaking English can get you into trouble on a Berlin S-Bahn train. A number of youths, presumably of far-right persuasion, glared at me during a recent ride through the east of the city. One muttered "piece of shit," while another shouted "nigger!" before rushing out -- and I'm white.

I'd hate to be living here if I had brown or black skin. Statistics on racist assaults prove that parts of eastern Germany are no-go zones for ethnic minorities. Germany’s Homegrown Intolerance >>> By David Crossland

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Saudi Arms Corruption Denied
DAILY EXPRESS: Claims British civil servants had "connived" in corrupt arms deals with Saudi Arabia for more than 30 years have been denied by Defence Secretary Des Browne.

But recently-discovered documents in the National Archives show Ministry of Defence officials made clear in 1976 the Saudis expected "appropriately discreet arrangements" to be made for payments.



The then head of defence sales at the MoD, Lester Suffield, said that although they were described as "technical consultancy" fees, they were designed to "sway" decisions on the award of arms contracts.



He warned the scale of the payments, which could account for 10% of the total value of a contract, would become "enormous" unless they could somehow be restrained. Saudi Arms Corruption Denied >>>

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This Stupid, Craven, Untrustworthy Government!
Jacqui Smith and her craven associates really are the giddy limit! She, along with her other ridiculous cronies in the cabinet, want to re-brand Islamic terrorism as “anti-Islamic activity”. This woman is out of her depth in her position. She clearly doesn’t understand the so-called religion of Islam – the old name for it, Muhammadanism, would be a more accurate term – since she doesn’t seem to understand that the correct term for ‘Islamic extremism’ / ‘Islamic terrorism’ is the JIHAD.

Surely this woman must know by now what the word ‘Jihad’ means ‘struggle in the way of Allah’ to conquer the whole world for him. In other words, it’s a ‘holy war’; and no amount of re-branding will change that FACT! Or could it be that Jacqui is practising a little dissimulation for the purpose of winning the Muslim voters over to NuLabour?

By the way Jacqui, there is absolutely NOTHING “anti-Islamic” about “Islamic terrorism”; indeed, the Jihad is the essence of Islam! - ©Mark

DAILY MAIL: Ministers have adopted a new language for declarations on Islamic terrorism.

In future, fanatics will be referred to as pursuing "anti-Islamic activity".

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that extremists were behaving contrary to their faith, rather than acting in the name of Islam.

Security officials believe that directly linking terrorism to Islam is inflammatory, and risks alienating mainstream Muslim opinion.

In her first major speech on radicalisation, Miss Smith repeatedly used the phrase "anti-Islamic".

In one passage she said: "As so many Muslims in the UK and across the world have pointed out, there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief.

"Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic'.

Another section referred to enlisting the Muslim community against "anti-Islamic activity".

Her words were chosen to reflect new Government strategy on labelling the terrorists and their recruiting agents.

The shift follows a decision taken last year to stop using the phrase "war on terror", first adopted by U.S. President Bush.

Officials were concerned it could act as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, which is determined to manufacture a battle between the values of Islam and the West.

The strategy emerging across Government is to portray terrorists as nothing more than cold-blooded murderers who are not fighting for any religious cause.

Al Qaeda inspired terrorism is instead being described by key figures as "more like a death cult". Government renames Islamic terrorism as 'anti-Islamic activity' to woo Muslims >>> By James Slack

THE TELEGRAPH:
Tories attack Islamic terrorism re-branding

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Political Correctness: An Australian Perspective

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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Sarkozy Sparks French Debate over God and Faith
Hat tip to Always on Watch for drawing this story to my attention at Infidel Bloggers’ Alliance:

REUTERS: PARIS - President Nicolas Sarkozy's increasingly frequent and positive references to God and faith have drawn fire from critics who accuse him of violating France's separation of church and state.

Sarkozy, a taboo-breaker whose whirlwind love life has distracted the media for weeks, broke with traditional presidential reserve about religion to stress France's Christian roots in a speech in a Rome basilica just before Christmas.

In Riyadh on Monday, he hailed Islam as "one of the greatest and most beautiful civilisations the world has known" and described his Saudi hosts as rulers who "appeal to the basic values of Islam to combat the fundamentalism that negates them".

His praise for a kingdom that enforces and propagates a strict version of Islam, during a visit aimed at securing lucrative export contracts, was the last straw for his critics.

"This is not respect for the separation of church and state," Socialist opposition leader Francois Hollande said.

"This is an ideological stand that makes religion into an instrument to promote French products civilian nuclear plants for Muslim countries," he said. "Mixing religion and foreign policy is illogical and wrong."

Jean-Louis Debre, a leading Gaullist who is now head of the Constitutional Council, indirectly chided Sarkozy by saying the 1905 law separating church and state was a good one and that it was "opportune to make sure its balance is not upset". Sarkozy sparks French debate over God and faith >>>

If you would like to COMMENT on this story, you can do so HERE

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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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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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