Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Friday, January 25, 2008
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Next week, the ruling Islamic conservative party in Turkey will likely succeed in lifting a ban on women wearing head scarves at universities. An end to the ban would infuriate secular elites, but please a growing conservative middle class.
Women at Turkish universities could soon show up in class wearing traditional Islamic head scarves, as the government moves towards lifting a ban on the practice.
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has its root in an Islamist religious movement, reached an agreement with an opposition nationalist party on Thursday to cooperate on legislation to lift the two decade-old ban.
"Agreement has been reached ... the issue of the head scarf was evaluated in terms of rights and freedoms," read a joint statement released by the AKP and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The two parties control enough seats in parliament to end the ban with a vote that could be held as early as next week.
A lift on the ban would anger Turkey's secular elite, who view the wearing of head scarves as a political statement aimed at undermining the nation's secular principles. Turkey to Lift University Head Scarf Ban >>>
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
YNET NEWS: Muslim Brotherhood activists march in Amman to protest Israel's closure on Gaza, and call on Hamas to resume suicide bombings
Reuters
Chanting slogans urging Islamist Hamas militants to resume suicide bombings against Israel, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital on Friday to protest against Israel's blockade of Gaza.
About 8,000 activists from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets to support their ideological allies, the Palestinian Hamas group, and hail militants' success in breaching the Gaza border in defiance of an Israeli blockade.
"The people of Jordan are with Hamas," chanted the crowds who called on the Islamist group to resume a campaign of suicide bombings and intensify rocket attacks against Israel. Jordanians rally in support of Hamas in Gaza >>>
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
ABC NEWS: The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI Wednesday circulated a report on the expected release of a 10-minute anti-Islam film by Dutch far-right Party for Freedom Founder and Chairman Geert Wilders, which is expected to spark global protests and raises the possibility of violence in Europe.
The DHS/FBI report was published in anticipation of a Friday release of the film; however, Wilders himself told a Dutch newspaper yesterday that he needs at least two more weeks to finish the film. So far, no one has seen even as single pre-release frame of the film.
The DHS/FBI report follows weeks of speculation on the reactions to the film that continues to gain momentum in overseas media and online outlets. The DHS/FBI report states clearly in its headline and key findings section that "the film is unlikely to incite violence in the United States but may provoke protests overseas."
The film, however, reportedly will show a Quran being destroyed, which the report states is "tantamount to heresy" in Islam. In the past, Wilders has stated that the Quran should be banned like Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kampf."
A spokesperson for Wilder's political party said he would not be available for comment, and they would neither confirm nor deny whether the Quran will be depicted as destroyed in the film. U.S. Worried Anti-Muslim Film Could Trigger Violence Abroad >>> By Richard Esposito and Christine Brouwer
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Hat tip: Jim Ball for it was on his great website that I first came across this excellent article.
DAILY MAIL: When 30 years ago I resurrected Flashman, the bully in Thomas Hughes's Victorian novel Tom Brown's Schooldays, political correctness hadn't been heard of, and no exception was taken to my adopted hero's character, behaviour, attitude to women and subject races (indeed, any races, including his own) and general awfulness.
On the contrary, it soon became evident that these were his main attractions. He was politically incorrect with a vengeance.
Through the Seventies and Eighties I led him on his disgraceful way, toadying, lying, cheating, running away, treating women as chattels, abusing inferiors of all colours, with only one redeeming virtue - the unsparing honesty with which he admitted to his faults, and even gloried in them.
And no one minded, or if they did, they didn't tell me. In all the many thousands of readers' letters I received, not one objected.
In the Nineties, a change began to take place. Reviewers and interviewers started describing Flashman (and me) as politically incorrect, which we are, though by no means in the same way.
This is fine by me. Flashman is my bread and butter, and if he wasn't an elitist, racist, sexist swine, I'd be selling bootlaces at street corners instead of being a successful popular writer.
But what I notice with amusement is that many commentators now draw attention to Flashy's (and my) political incorrectness in order to make a point of distancing themselves from it.
It's not that they dislike the books. But where once the non-PC thing could pass unremarked, they now feel they must warn readers that some may find Flashman offensive, and that his views are certainly not those of the interviewer or reviewer, God forbid.
I find the disclaimers alarming. They are almost a knee-jerk reaction and often rather a nervous one, as if the writer were saying: "Look, I'm not a racist or sexist. I hold the right views and I'm in line with modern enlightened thought, honestly."
They won't risk saying anything to which the PC lobby could take exception. And it is this that alarms me - the fear evident in so many sincere and honest folk of being thought out of step.
I first came across this in the United States, where the cancer has gone much deeper. As a screenwriter [at which Fraser was almost as successful as he was with the 12 Flashman novels; his best-known work was scripting the Three Musketeers films] I once put forward a script for a film called The Lone Ranger, in which I used a piece of Western history which had never been shown on screen and was as spectacular as it was shocking - and true.
The whisky traders of the American plains used to build little stockades, from which they passed out their ghastly rot-gut liquor through a small hatch to the Indians, who paid by shoving furs back though the hatch.
The result was that frenzied, drunken Indians who had run out of furs were besieging the stockade, while the traders sat snug inside and did not emerge until the Indians had either gone away or passed out.
Political correctness stormed onto the scene, red in tooth and claw. The word came down from on high that the scene would offend "Native Americans". The last testament of Flashman's creator: How Britain has destroyed itself >>> By George MacDonald Fraser
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
DUTCH NEWS: Moroccan organisations in the Netherlands have called on the public prosecution department to take legal action against anti-immigration MP Geert Wilders for discrimination against Muslims.
The department received 40 complaints about Wilders last year but has not yet said if any of them will lead to legal action.
'We want to force the issue,' Mohamed Rabbae of Moroccan organisation LBM told news agency ANP.
Meanwhile, noted criminal lawyer Gerard Spong and 30 students from Amsterdam university are working on their own formal complaint against Wilders for spreading hatred. [Source: Public prosecutor urged to act on Wilders >>>]
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Ankara - Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis has called on Turkey to re-open a Greek Orthodox seminary near Istanbul as a pre-condition for Turkish EU membership.
Mr Karamanlis is in Turkey for a three-day visit, the first such visit by a Greek leader in 50 years. Turkey closed the seminary during the 1971 conflict over Cyprus.
The Greek Orthodox Church says it cannot survive in Turkey without a seminary. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he is working on a solution. He also called on Greece to respect the rights of its Muslim minority. [Source: Greece wants Turkey to re-open Istanbul seminary]
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
ARAB NEWS: It has unfortunately become a regular headline in our newspapers. We learn of people beaten up by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — for short, the commission. The details of the beatings and the reasons for them can be dealt with later but the outstanding fact that strikes us is that people were assaulted with a severity that lands them in hospitals and, in two reported cases, killed those who were assaulted.
The latest of these reports concerns a boy from Najran who was attacked by the commission. Allegedly — and I am quoting from the newspaper report, the boy “confronted the men over a violation supposedly committed by his brother.” In other words, he was not the target; he was simply defending his brother. According to the boy, four members of the commission “insulted him and banged his head against a car until he became unconscious.” Denial Is No Defence >>> By Abeer Mishkhas
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
DUTCH NEWS: MP Geert Wilders has been told he may have to leave the Netherlands temporarily when his short firm over the Koran is completed, the anti-Islam campaigner says in an article he has written in Wednesday's Volkskrant.
Wilders says the warning came from the government's terrorism tzar Tjibbe Joustra.
The film was due to be ready for screening at the end of this month but has been delayed for several weeks, says Wilders. [Source: Wilders warned he may have to leave]
This is the comment I have left with the newspaper. It will be interesting to see if it gets published. Is freedom of speech still alive and kicking?
Geert Wilders is a courageous politician in a sea of craven fools!Mark Alexander (Paperback)
What he is stating is so obviously correct; yet most of the other Dutch politicians are afraid of telling the people that he is right.
A politician is a public servant: He is elected into office in order to serve the best interests of the people. He believes - rightly in my view - that the Netherlands and Europe is under threat from Islam. It is therefore his duty to inform the vast majority of people who have far less understanding of the problem than he.
As has been written in the UK's 'Daily Telegraph', Holland is governed by people who are fearful of Islam. It would have been more accurate to have stated that ALL Western nations are being governed by people who are fearful of Islam! For all Western governments surely are.
I applaud the courage of Geert Wilders! We need more politicians like him. Would that there were many, many more. Then, perhaps, the West would have a better chance of survival. - ©Mark
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
A FUTURE IN FREEDOM (DUTCH BLOG): Some of the calls for self-censorship in the Netherlands are absolutely chilling. What to think about a self-proclaimed Islam expert who in free newspaper DAG states: "To prosecute Wilders for his film is the only way to make it clear abroad that Wilders's views are not those of the Dutch authorities"? Or that split-tongued wolf in sheep's clothing Tariq Ramadan, who in the same article says that "Comparing the Qur'an to Mein Kampf is an extreme insult," the only purpose of which is to "unleash outrage, and, consequently, media attention"? If Ramadan were right, does it not prove Wilders's initial point that this book is at the root of a religion annex political ideology deeply intolerant of criticism and apostasy? And if the comparison with Mein Kampf is indeed so outrageous, why is it that this book is so widely distributed in the Muslim world?
The media largely repeat -- uncritically at that -- the same message put forward by "experts" and by the Dutch government: even though freedom of speech is our constitutional right, we have a duty towards society to preserve respect and tolerance vis-à-vis all people living in this country. Prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende in an interview on Friday once more bored the Dutch people with it, in the process subordinating free speech to some vaguely defined notion of "responsibility". It led public television channel NOS to conclude (NL), again uncritically: "Balkenende pointed at our tradition of freedom of speech, within which people treat each other with respect." No "buts": we want freedom of speech >>> By Mark Bogaers
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
TIMESONLINE: Pope Benedict XVI today said the media were too often used irresponsibly to spread "violence and vulgarity" and impose "distorted models" of social and family life. He urged the world's communicators instead to adopt what he called "info-ethics".
In a message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Communications Day, Pope Benedict said the media often sought to create reality rather than report it, with agendas dictated by "the dominant interests" of the day. "This is what happens when communication is used for ideological purposes or for the aggressive advertising of consumer products. When communication loses its ethical underpinning and eludes society's control, it ends up no longer taking into account the centrality and inviolable dignity of the human person" he said.
He added "For this reason it is essential that social communications should assiduously defend the person and fully respect human dignity. Many people now think there is a need, in this sphere, for 'info-ethics', just as we have bioethics in the field of medicine and in scientific research linked to life." He said the media "in order to attract listeners and increase the size of audiences, do not hesitate at times to have recourse to vulgarity and violence and overstep the mark". Pope attacks media for ‘distorted morals’ >>> By Richard Owen in Rome
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Hat tip to Always On Watch for this excellent video.
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
THE TELEGRAPH: A politician has warned that a "fear of Islam" is governing Holland after he delayed the release of a short film attacking the Koran.
Geert Wilders, 44, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, who compares the Muslim holy book to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, sparked government panic after saying the anti-Islam film would be released tomorrow.
As Dutch police prepared for a weekend of riots and Mr Wilders was told by the authorities that he would have to leave country, he launched a new attack on "intolerant" Islam while announcing that his 10-minute film attacking the Muslim faith would be postponed for two weeks. Holland 'governed by fear of Islam' >>> By Joan Clements in The Hague
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Sex, politics, fame and public office: Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni, the president and the pop star, are everywhere these days. It's the latest soap opera from the cradle of modern democracy.
Every French television news program is reporting the same story these days, while a look at the Internet or the morning papers offers fewer surprises than a croissant and a café au lait: "Are they married?" "Will Carla travel with him to India for a state visit?" "A secret honeymoon in Italy?"
The stories about the private amours of French President Nicolas Sarkozy continued to circulate (more...) over the weekend. There wasn't a single rumor or bit of speculation about the president and his new girlfriend that wasn't being printed, broadcast or downloaded somewhere in France. By this point, it should come as no surprise that the French president's omnipresence in the media has finally reached a saturation point. "It's a veritable 'Sarkonami,' a tidal wave that washes away everything in its path; his appearances are practically drowning us," the Catholic newspaper Le Croix wrote derisively. "Soon we will need only three television shows every day: Sarko in the Morning, Sarko at Noon and Sarko in the Evening."
Nevertheless, the spin doctors at the Élysée Palace continue to dream up new episodes of the Sarko Show, using the marketing rules of the previous evening's programming as their guideline. "We are here so that we can spend the next five years writing a story with the French," says Cathérine Pégard, the president's PR advisor and media trendsetter. The script for this love story between the people and their sovereign is updated daily. "To be truly in touch with the French people, Sarkozy must be as mobile as possible," says Pégard, "which is why he is compressing the episodes, thus creating the impression of doing many things at the same time, or at least more than most people." 'Sarkozy Is Busy Dismantling the Fifth Republic' >>> By Stefan Simons in Paris
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
THE FIRST POST: Hope and change? The Illinois senator is offering nothing new, argues CHARLES LAURENCE
So, Barack Obama looks more and more like a Hillary Clinton-beater after a national Zogby poll published yesterday puts him within a tantalising point of the former First Lady. And his prospects seem all the better because he is taking votes from Hillary's core support of women and blacks, while appealing to a new generation of young voters.
Obama has hijacked Bill Clinton's pitch of 'Hope and Change', and it is working on Americans who take their politics from bumper stickers and paid TV spots. But do they know really who they are voting for?
The 46-year-old Senator from Illinois says he is the Washington outsider. Really? He may have only a couple of years' Senate experience, but his greatest asset is a well-calculated role in the Democratic Machine. From Illinois to Iowa, he has always kept ahead by staying in line with the power brokers and casting the right vote, or none at all.
He claims to be committed to change. But he flip-flopped on President Bush's 'war on terror' Patriot Act, which curbs civil liberties, targets immigrants and has unleashing domestic spying. At first - in 2003 - he joined the chorus condemning it as a step towards the prediction that "when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." By 2006 he was voting for its re-authorisation.
At least he voted: he has abstained on an astonishing 166 issues to avoid leaving a trial which might impede his presidential ambitions.
He once told the National Organisation of Women that he did "not support" the repeal of the Defence of Marriage Act. But with gay and new-generation votes at stake, he now believes "in the need to fully repeal the Defence of Marriage Act". In Chicago, he wanted to ban handguns. Now he supports gun 'freedom'. Once he opposed capital punishment. Now, inevitably, he wants more care taken with the lethal injections.
This is not change; this is business as usual, the careerist maneuvering of an oily old-style politician, albeit dressed in a fresh coat of paint. Obama is just another machine politician >>> By Charles Laurence
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
THE TELEGRAPH: The Taliban-style intimidation of Afghan newspapers came to the surface after a journalist was sentenced to death for distributing an article deemed to have "insulted Islam".
Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh's crime was to have passed around a piece taken from a website questioning why Muslim women cannot have multiple husbands in the same way as their menfolk can legally take four wives.
Mr Kaambakhsh, who works for "The New World", a newspaper in Afghanistan's northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, was prosecuted for downloading this article, apparently gleaned from an Iranian website, and distributing it to his friends.
On Tuesday, a court found him guilty of "insulting Islam" and sentenced him to death. Afghan journalist gets death for insulting Islam >>> By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
DAILY MAIL: A story based on The Three Little Pigs has been rejected by a Government-backed awards event because it might offend Muslims... and builders.
The digital book, retelling the classic children's tale, was criticised by judges who said "the use of pigs raises cultural issues".
They also claimed the award-winning CD-rom, entitled The Three Little Cowboy Builders, might "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)".
The "virtual" book is designed for use on computers and interactive whiteboards and aimed at primary school children.
Its publishers, Shoo-Fly, insist there is nothing offensive in it. 'Three Little Pigs CD' banned from Government-backed awards for offending Muslims and builders >>> By Sarah Harris
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
BRUSSELS JOURNAL: “Geert Wilders is evil, and evil has to be stopped.” These are the words of Doekle Terpstra, a member of the board of directors of Unilever Nederland. Last week Mr Terpstra founded an Anti-Wilders Movement. He told De Telegraaf newspaper (2 December): “It is important that the indigenous Dutch, too, rise in order to stop Wilders.” Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch multinational which manufactures and sells nutrition, hygiene and personal care products on five continents.
Geert Wilders is the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV). He is an outspoken opponent of Islam and is living in hiding following death threats by Jihadists. Mr Wilders was one of the victors of the November 2006 general elections when his new party won 9 out of 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament. Recent polls indicate that the popularity of Geert Wilders’ PVV is increasing.
Mr Wilders has been accused of “Islamophobia” after calling the Koran a “fascist” book. He wants the Koran to be outlawed in the Netherlands because it “incites to hatred and killing and therefore has no place in our legal order.”
Last week Mr Wilders announced that he is launching a movie about Islam next month. Doekle Terpstra responded, saying the politician was abusing freedom of speech. Mr Terpstra launched an appeal to his countrymen to stop the PVV leader from preaching his “evil message.” To De Telegraaf, the largest paper in the Netherlands, he said that “Geert Wilders is evil, and evil has to be stopped.” Following Mr Terpstra’s appeal the death threats against Mr Wilders have intensified dramatically. In Gouda anti-Wilders activists painted swastikas and the slogan “Wilders must die” on the walls of a school.
Meanwhile pro-Wilders groups have begun a boycott of Unilever products because Mr Terpstra, though a former leftist trade unionist, is today a member of the board of directors of Unilever Nederland. Dutch Unilever Director Wants Wilders Stopped >>> From Thomas Landen
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)