Kennedy’s Endorsement: Kiss of Death for Barack Hussein Obama?
Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: Forgive me if I glaze over at the mention of British domestic politics. Given the stupendous drama of events across the pond, Westminster life seems to be played out on - how can I put this? - rather a small stage.

But this sense of being trapped in a Lilliputian landscape seems not to be confined to those of us who are American-born, to judge by the swathe of British commentators who have taken off to the US to pronounce on Super Tuesday, which they view, almost unfailingly, through the prism of their home-grown assumptions. In all the excitement of the coverage here, I fear there are some recurrent misconceptions.

Misunderstanding number one: Teddy Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama was an unambiguous coup which moves him several light years closer to the White House.

To the British media (especially the Left-liberal contingent), Teddy is the last remaining link to the great lost leaders, John and Bobby Kennedy, as indeed he is to what is left of the American baby boomer generation which did not swing to the Right during the 1980s.

He certainly represents an important part of the Democratic establishment whose abandonment of the Clintons is significant.

But what Teddy represents to the vast majority of American voters is ultra-liberalism. (More scope for confusion here: Americans use the word "liberal" to mean fairly hardcore Left-wing, not, as we do, to suggest tolerance or middle-of-the-roadness.)

For Obama to be endorsed by Teddy Kennedy is a bit like a prospective Labour leader being endorsed by Tony Benn. Kennedy's kiss of death for Barack Obama >>> By Janet Daley

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Arbeitet Herr Präsident Sarkozy überhaupt? Am Sonntag waren Nico und Carlita im Garten von Schloß Versailles an der Sonne am Turteln!
Ja, Herr Präsident! >>>
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L’annonce du mariage du chef de l’Etat avec Carla Bruni n’a pas calmé la polemique sur la surexposition de sa vie privée
Debré invite Sarkozy à «la retenue» >>>
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Defacing Images in Adverts in Saudi Arabia
ARAB NEWS: JEDDAH, 3 February 2008 — Have you ever wondered why some advertisements in Jeddah show people’s faces while others have the faces marked out?

Well, you aren’t alone. Even the responsible authorities wonder why some advertising agencies still produce signs where the faces of the people in the advertisements are digitally blurred out.

The habit of defacing images stems from a traditional aversion in Saudi Arabia toward depicting the human face in images, such as advertising billboards. But Saudi authorities say there is no law against showing advertisements without the alterations.

“There is no rule or regulation that enforces the deformation of a human figure or face in any advertisement,” Ahmad Al-Zahrani, an official at the Ministry of Information and Culture, told Arab News yesterday.

Nevertheless, some advertising agencies appear averse toward depicting human faces. “What is happening is self-imposed censorship,” said Qaswara Al-Khateeb, head of the advertising committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Khateeb says ad agencies tend to deface their signs in order to avoid any complaints from people, especially authorities, who might use this as a pretext for having the ads removed, or for otherwise getting the agency in trouble.

He said that since most agencies are foreign owned, they tend to be extra cautious in matters that might be interpreted locally as a violation of religious or cultural mores. Is Defacing of Images in Outdoor Adverts Forced? >>> By Hasan Hatrash

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UN Call for Saudi Women’s Rights
Photo of Saudi women courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Women in Saudi Arabia should be allowed more basic freedoms, according to a UN anti-discrimination committee.

It says the practice of needing a man's permission to marry, work, travel or be educated should end.

In a report, the committee also says there should be more laws offering protection to women.

But the Saudi government, in submissions before the report was published, said there was no discrimination against women.

Victims of crime

Overall the UN is very critical of Saudi Arabia's approach to women's rights. It even expresses concern about the Saudi state's understanding of the idea of equality - saying similar rights for men and women is not the same as equal rights.

The UN highlights the situation of women who have been victims of crime. In a recent case, a woman who was gang raped was initially sentenced to jail and lashes.

The court found she was wrong to have been with a man who was not her relative at the time of the attack.

The UN report says social attitudes and the system of male guardianship deter women from reporting crimes and lead to a patriarchal system. UN call for Saudi women's rights >>> By Frances Harrison, Religious affairs reporter

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Geert Wilders's New Anti-Islam Film

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The ‘Religion of Love and Unlimited Compassion’ Sends Downs-Syndrome Women to Their Deaths as ‘Martyrs’
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: SENIOR American military officials have produced photographs that they said showed the bodies of two women suicide bombers who attacked two popular pet markets, causing Baghdad's deadliest blasts in months.

The photographs showed the lifeless faces of two dark-haired women with oblique eye fissures, a wide gap between the eyes and a flat nose bridge - characteristics consistent with Down syndrome.

The commander of US forces in Baghdad, Major-General Jeffery Hammond, said: "There are some indications that these two women were mentally handicapped.

"From what I see, it appears that the suicide bombers were not willing martyrs - they were used by al-Qaeda in Iraq for these horrific attacks.

"These two women were likely used because they didn't know what was happening and they were less likely to be searched." Suicide bombers had Down syndrome, photos show >>> By Garrett Therolf and Ned Parker in Baghdad

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Les coulisses du mariage présidentiel
Photo de ‘Carlita’ grace au Journal du Dimanche
LE JOURNAL DU DIMANCHE: Nicolas Sarkozy et Carla Bruni-Tedeschi se sont mariés samedi matin à l'Elysée. Sans fastes, sans photographes, en petit comité. En perte de vitesse dans les sondages, selon lesquels les Français lui reprochent son côté "people", le chef de l'Etat a pour une fois fait dans la discrétion. La chanteuse, elle, doit désormais endosser le rôle de première dame.

Il n'aura pas enlevé son alliance longtemps. Trois mois et demi après avoir divorcé de Cécilia, Nicolas Sarkozy, 53 ans, a épousé hier, à 11 heures du matin, à l'Elysée Carla Bruni-Tedeschi, 40 ans. Troisième mariage pour le chef de l'Etat, premier pour l'ex-mannequin devenue chanteuse. La rumeur courait depuis la veille. Le communiqué officiel de la présidence de la République est tombé à 18 h 30: "Madame Carla Bruni-Tedeschi et Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy annoncent qu'ils se sont mariés ce matin, en présence de leurs familles, dans la plus stricte intimité." Deux lignes et demie volontairement sobres qui viennent conclure le premier couplet d'une romance débutée en fanfare et sur papier glacé, début décembre.

Cette fois-ci, promis-juré, affirme l'entourage du nouveau marié: "Aucun photographe, ni officiel, ni people, n'était présent à la cérémonie civile." Pour tromper ceux qui étaient en planque depuis l'aube, la voiture du président est sortie de l'Elysée peu avant 10 heures par le faubourg Saint-Honoré, en direction de l'UMP. Pendant ce temps-là, les invités rentraient discrètement à l'arrière par la grille du Coq. La cérémonie qui s'est déroulée dans le salon vert, contigu au bureau présidentiel, situé au premier étage du palais, a duré dix minutes, montre en main.

Célébrée par le maire du 8e arrondissement de Paris, François Lebel, en présence d'une trentaine de proches dont la mère - Dadu -, et les fils du président, la mère de la désormais première dame de France, Marisa, et sa soeur, la comédienne et réalisatrice, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, ainsi que ses quatre témoins. Pour lui, Nicolas Bazire, l'ancien directeur de cabinet - et de campagne - d'Edouard Balladur, et Mathilde Agostinelli, responsable de la communication de Prada en France. Pour elle, les comédiennes Marine Delterme - compagne de l'écrivain Florian Zeller - et Farida Khelfa. Quelques rares collaborateurs assistaient aux épousailles. Certains avaient été prévenus le matin même...

Pour garder le secret, les bans n'avaient pas été publiés contrairement à la loi, Nicolas Sarkozy ayant obtenu une dispense du procureur de la République. Il est ainsi devenu le deuxième président français, après Gaston Doumergue en 1931, à se marier à l'Elysée. Le deuxième aussi à épouser une Italienne. Raymond Poincaré avait convolé civilement avec une transalpine, Henriette Adeline Benucci, le 17 août 1904. Les coulisses du mariage présidentiel >>> Par Florence Murraciole et Virginie Le Guay

WELT ONLINE:
In diesen Clan hat Sarkozy hineingeheiratet

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Große Demonstration in Ankara gegen Aufhebung des Kopftuchverbots
Foto dank der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung
NZZ Online: Gegen 120'000 Menschen haben am Samstag in Ankara gegen Pläne der türkischen Regierung protestiert, das Kopftuchverbot zumindest an den Hochschulen des Landes abzuschaffen.

(sda/dpa) Unter den Demonstrierenden, die Schilder mit Aufschriften wie «Die Türkei ist nicht der Iran» trugen, waren auch zahlreiche Frauengruppen. Das Kopftuchverbot gilt der laizistischen Opposition als ein Symbol für die von Republikgründer Mustafa Kemal Atatürk verfügte Trennung von Staat und Religion in der Türkei.

Die islamisch-konservative türkische Regierungspartei AKP von Ministerpräsident Recep Tayyip Erdogan hatte am vergangenen Dienstag eine Vorlage zur Abschaffung des Kopftuchverbots im Parlament eingebracht. Über die dafür erforderlichen Verfassungsänderungen soll im Laufe der Woche abgestimmt werden. Gegen 120'000 Menschen demonstrieren in Ankara: Protest gegen Aufhebung des Kopftuchverbots >>>

BBC:
Turks protest over headscarf plan By Sarah Rainsford

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Shariah Law in Britain
THE SUNDAY EXPRESS: A SECRET network of Islamic divorce courts is ordering unofficial punishments for women in Britain.

Back street councils are meting out sharia justice at weekly gatherings to deal with troubled marriages and financial arguments.



Senior Muslims are demanding that the law should be officially recognised and imposed on British citizens.



In strict Islamic societies the law allows people to be stoned to death in public, be beheaded or have their limbs amputated, sometimes for minor crimes.



Even though the rulings are not recognised by British law, women face losing their children if they choose to remarry after a judgment is made.



We want to know what YOU think about Sharia law. Should this harsh justice system be used in Britain? Perhaps you feel is it completely barbaric or maybe you feel it is a warranted form of justice.



Have YOUR say NOW!

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Nico et Carlita
"Do you see how beautiful she is ? And she has got brains too. That makes a change." - Sarkozy to Blair
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The discreet marriage of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni, the Italian model-singer, drew shrugs in much of France today but not in Neuilly, the opulent western Paris suburb where the President was mayor for 19 years.

In cold sunshine on the street market, Jean Sarkozy, the President's 21-year-old son, was congratulated by Sunday morning shoppers who wished their best for Sarko and his Italian third wife. Student Sarko, the second son from Mr Sarkozy's first marriage, was one of 20 present at the Saturday ceremony on the first floor of the Elysée Palace.

"I hope it will go better for my father now," Jean told The Times as he tasted olives from a market stall. "Things have been pretty difficult lately."

Mr Sarkozy was canvassing for David Martinon, 36, his father's spokesman, who is running for Mayor of Neully in council elections next month. The polls in all 36,000 French councils are the first electoral test of the presidency and Mr Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement fears that the "Carla effect" will add to their woes.

Jean Sarkozy's hopes for a turn in his father's fortunes are shared at the Elysée, which has felt the strain since November. That month, Mr Sarkozy, just divorced from Cécilia Ciganer, met Ms Bruni and threw himself into a very public courtship while his ratings plumetted. The UMP also hopes that the wedding will close a turbulent chapter and that France will soon forget a glitzy romance that tarnished the president's image. Sarko's son: I hope things will be better for dad now he's married >>> By Charles Bremner, of The Times, Paris


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Is Barack Hussein Obama Really Smart, Intelligent, or Handsome?
The Black Kennedy: But does anyone know the real Barack Obama? >>> By Peter Hitchens
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Disgusting! Now even Polygamous Marriages are Legal! Muslims Rejoice! Oh, What a Slimy Government! Eurabia, Here We Come!
If the British eclectorate buy into this , then they deserve all they get!

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Husbands with multiple wives have been given the go-ahead to claim extra welfare benefits following a year-long Government review, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, the decision by ministers means that polygamous marriages can now be recognised formally by the state, so long as the weddings took place in countries where the arrangement is legal.

The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law. Ministers estimate that up to a thousand polygamous partnershipsexist in Britain, although they admit there is no exact record.

The decision has been condemned by the Tories, who accused the Government of offering preferential treatment to a particular group, and of setting a precedent that would lead to demands for further changes in British law.

New guidelines on income support from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) state: "Where there is a valid polygamous marriage the claimant and one spouse will be paid the couple rate ... The amount payable for each additional spouse is presently £33.65."

Income support for all of the wives may be paid directly into the husband's bank account, if the family so choose. Under the deal agreed by ministers, a husband with multiple wives may also be eligible for additional housing benefit and council tax benefit to reflect the larger property needed for his family.

The ruling could cost taxpayers millions of pounds. Ministers launched a review of the benefit rules for polygamous marriages in November 2006, after it emerged that some families had benefited financially. Multiple wives will mean multiple benefits >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH:
Have Your Say: Should Multiple Wives Get Recognition from the State?

MY COMMENT TO THE TELEGRAPH:

Only this week, it was reported that people on invalidity benefits were costing the government billions, and an (ex-)investment banker had been called in to advise on how significant savings could be made.

Now the government announces this twaddle! And how much is this going to cost the taxpayer?

It appears that Gordon Brown hasn't learnt one basic lesson about government: Governments don't have ANY money; they have only the taxpayers'.

This is a Christian country - only just, perhaps, but still, nevertheless. Polygamy is outlawed; and so it should be. It is an unseemly practice.

Encouraging polygamy in this way is accelerating the Islamization of our country. Moreover, why should one group of people be entitled to more state benefits than another one? Is this what they call British fairplay? - ©Mark

MAIL ON SUNDAY:
Husbands with multiple wives to get extra benefits after Government go-ahead

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Bling, Bling! The Bride Wore White!
Photo of Carla Bruni courtesy of Google Images
The SUNDAY OBSERVER: President Nicolas Sarkozy and model Carla Bruni married yesterday following a whirlwind romance that has divided France, reports Jason Burke in Paris

And so, in the intimacy of his own home, Nicolas Sarkozy, 53, Co-Prince of Andorra, Commander of the Ordre de Léopold, Grand Master of the Legion d'Honneur, sixth President of the Fifth French Republic, divorced father of three, said 'I do'. And Carla Bruni, successful singer songwriter, former top model, heiress to the fortune of an Italian tyre manufacturer, 40-year-old single mother, said 'I do' too. And afterwards everyone stayed for a glass of orange squash.

'It was exceptional,' François Lebel, the mayor who conducted the ceremony, said with considerable understatement. 'I married two electors of the 8th arrondissement who live at 55, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré [the Elysée palace]. The bride wore white, she was ravishing, as usual... The groom wasn't bad either.'

Lebel said the ceremony, which took place at 11am on the first floor of the palace, lasted about 20 minutes and was 'a moment of family intimacy for the young newlyweds, of great simplicity and a lot of evident affection and emotion between the spouses'. Around 20 people were present.

Sarkozy, who was dressed in suit and tie for his marriage, could not devote the entire day to celebrations as he was distracted by a breaking crisis in Chad, the former French colony in central Africa. As rebels penetrated Chad's capital, Sarkozy called a meeting at the Elysée Palace and spoke by telephone with Chad's President.

Quite whether the well-wishers will include 63 million fellow French citizens - or even the 53 per cent of voters who elected Sarkozy president in a hard-fought election last year - remains to be seen. The frenetically energetic right-winger's approval ratings have plunged in recent weeks, partly due to his failure to boost the French economy as promised but equally because of widespread disapproval of his disregard for long-held traditions. 'The bride wore white; she was ravishing, as usual. The groom wasn't bad either' >>>

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Walid Shoebat: A Palestinian’s Journey
With many thanks to Always On Watch for drawing my attention to this important video:


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Always On Watch and WC Guests on Fausta’s BlogTalkRadio Show
Great Radio Show
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Pakistan’s Foreign Office to Take the Matter of Geert Wilders’ Anti-Islam Film to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference
THE POST (PAKISTAN): LAHORE: After the unveiling of a Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders' conspiracy against Islam by Channel 5, the Foreign Office declared they would take the matter to Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). 



Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq, in an exclusive interview with Channel 5, said Pakistan had informed the Dutch government about the severity of the outcomes of this plot. We will take the matter to European Union, Pope Benedict and several other forums. Dutch MP’s anti-Islam movie | Issue to be taken up with OIC: FO >>>

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Carla and Nicolas Tie the Knot
Photo of Nicolas and Carla courtesy of Google Images
THE TELEGRAPH: French president Nicolas Sarkozy has married ex-supermodel Carla Bruni in a "secret" ceremony at the Elysée Palace in Paris.

The wedding took place just two and a half months after they met, and three and a half months after he divorced his second wife.

They were married at 11am with François Lebel, mayor of Paris's fashionable 8th arrondissement - in which the palace is situated - officiating.

Mr Sarkozy, 53, and Miss Bruni, 40, exchanged vows in a state room on the first floor of the presidential palace after a highly-publicised whirlwind romance.

Mr Lebel said: "I married two voters from the 8th arrondissement, who live at 55 rue du Faubourg St Honoré," referring to the address of the palace, which is next door to the British Embassy.

"Historically, this is the first time in the history of the Republic that a president has married in the course of his term. It's the first time a president has married at the Elysée," he said.

"Carla married in white and looked ravishing," Mr Lebel added.

Now the controversial model, whose past loves include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, will be France's First Lady.

Suggesting that the wedding was a last minute, spontaneous affair, Mr Sarkozy announced the cancellation of a visit to the military base at Creil, north of Paris, due for Saturday afternoon.

One of the reasons for the sudden marriage was apparently next month's planned state visit to Britain, with Mr Sarkozy concerned about being a guest of the Queen at Windsor Castle with only a "live-in lover" to accompany him.

Witnesses were Prada executive Mathilde Agostinelli - a close friend of the previous Madame Sarkozy - and Nicolas Bazire, managing director of Groupe Arnault and one of the richest men in France. France's Nicolas Sarkozy marries Carla Bruni >>> By Peter Allen in Paris

REUTERS:
Sarkozy marries Bruni at the Elysee By Crispian Balmer and Sudip Kar-Gupta

LE FIGARO:
Nicolas Sarkozy a épousé
Carla Bruni ce matin De Samuel Potier

LE MONDE:
Nicolas Sarkozy et Carla Bruni se sont mariés samedi matin à l'Elysée

EUROPE 1:
Nicolas Sarkozy et Carla Bruni maries

SUEDDEUTSCHE:
Hochzeit, na endlich: Seit Wochen wird ... spekuliert, Bruni erwarte ein Kind

NZZ Online: Nicolas Sarkozy und Carla Bruni haben geheiratet: Der französische Präsident vermählt sich mit der Sängerin >>>

BLICK:
Sarkozy hat gerade eine Scheidung hinter sich, Bruni, die sich selbst als sexuell massloss bezeichnet, hat schon ganz andere Alpha-Männchen in die Wüste geschickt: Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton oder Donald Trump können ein Lied davon singen. Und wahre Liebe dauere bei ihr sowieso «nie länger als drei Monate». – Blick

Ex-Frau Cécilia: [Nicolas Sarkozy ist] «unfähig zu lieben» - Blick

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Poppycock! Merde! Quatsch!
A historian from ‘New York University’ considers Islam to be a “positive force”! David Levering Lewis believes that the ‘triumph of the Franks’ to be a ghastly defeat (for the Muslims)!

"Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours" by Carl von Steuben, painted between 1834 and 1837. Image courtesy of The Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Sometimes, when a fine historian ventures outside his specialty, prodigies of fresh insight ensue. More often -- and particularly when the scholar carries into one era the baggage of another -- the results are worse than disappointing.

These days, we so urgently require a better understanding of Islam and its origins that it would be edifying to report that the distinguished historian David Levering Lewis' new book is an example of the former. Unfortunately, "God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215" falls into that second category with a nearly discernible thud.

Lewis, 71, is a distinguished social historian, particularly of the 20th century United States. Both volumes of his magisterial biography of W.E.B. Du Bois won the Pulitzer Prize for history. However, he is neither a medievalist nor a scholar of Islam origins, and some -- though not all -- of this book's shortcomings originate there.

The more fundamental problem is that "God's Crucible" is as much the product of an enthusiasm as it is an idea. Like many a writer and artist before him, Lewis is in thrall to an idealized Umayyad Spain, that island of comparative tolerance and intellectual freedom, undoubted prosperity and physical beauty that ornaments the medieval landscape. Even now, al-Andalus seems more poem than place, site of the Alhambra, the great Mosque of Cordova, the patio houses of Granada and home to Averros and Maimonides. The problem is that Lewis is intent on making a general case with a society that stands as such an exception to other states of its era, whether Muslim or Christian. In fact, Umayyad Spain benefited from any number of unique factors: the extraordinary statecraft of its founder, Abd al-Rahman I, and some of his more able successors, the necessity of maintaining a balance of power in an unusually polyglot population and Spain's physical distance from contemporary centers of Muslim and Christian power.

Lewis sets out to show that the failure of what he calls "the jihad east of the Pyrenees" is "one of the most significant losses in world history." He argues that the Frankish defeat of the Islamic invaders at Poitiers in 732 and the subsequent poetic glorification of Roland's sacrifice to cover Charlemagne's retreat from his own incursion into Spain were "pivotal moments in the creation of an economically retarded, balkanized and fratricidal Europe that, by defining itself in opposition to Islam, made virtues out of hereditary aristocracy, persecutory religious intolerance, cultural particularism and perpetual war . . . 'winning' at Poitiers actually meant that the economic, scientific and cultural levels that Europeans attained in the 13th century could almost certainly have been achieved more than three centuries earlier had they been included in the Muslim world empire."

In other words, the West would be better off if it had been incorporated into an all-conquering Islamic empire in the early Middle Ages. God’s Crucible >>> By David Levering Lewis

WELT ONLINE:
Wie schade, dass Europa nicht islamisch ist

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I'll Be President of Europe If You Give Me the Power – Blair
Photo of Sarkozy and Blair courtesy of TimesOnline
For God’s sake, don’t give Tone the power. I’m sure that the people are fed up with this man already. Do we really have to be subjected to another term (or perhaps two?) of this man ruling over us? And in any case, where’s the democracy in all of this? If there really is to be a president of Europe, a position many people would dispute should ever come about, then we, the people, should be given a vote on who should fill that position. After all, Europe is supposed to be a democracy, isn’t it? Europe is not supposed to be a cronyocracy.

THE GUARDIAN: Former PM consults old Downing Street allies on campaign for new EU role

Tony Blair has been holding discussions with some of his oldest allies on how he could mount a campaign later this year to become full-time president of the EU council, the prestigious new job characterised as "president of Europe". Blair, currently the Middle East envoy for the US, Russia, EU and the UN, has told friends he has made no final decision, but is increasingly willing to put himself forward for the job if it comes with real powers to intervene in defence and trade affairs.

Blair, who is being actively promoted by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, recognises he would need to abandon his well-paid, private sector jobs if he won. His wife Cherie - often portrayed as seeking ever more wealth and well-paid consultancies for her husband - is understood to be supportive of him accepting the job.

Some Blair allies also say that he now recognises that as envoy in the Middle East he is not going to be allowed to become the key player in furthering Israeli-Palestinian talks this year, and will be reduced to a role of supporting political development in Palestine and boosting its economy.

The president of the European council of ministers is a post created under the Lisbon treaty. The president will be the permanent chair of the council of ministers, Europe's chief decision-making body.

Jonathan Powell, Blair's Downing Street chief of staff, is among the former lieutenants he has met to discuss a bid for the European role. I'll be president of Europe if you give me the power – Blair >>> By Patrick Wintour, political editor

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
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Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, Faces Death Threats
At least one Church of England prelate is willing to tell the truth about the dangers of the growth of Islam in the United Kingdom. When will the Archbishop of Canterbury come to terms with reality?

Our problems with Islam are growing apace. They can be likened to a snowball rolling down a snowy hill, gathering mass and speed as it goes.

Only because of weak and cowardly leadership is the free world allowing this to happen. - ©Mark

TIMESONLINE: The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, is under police protection after he and his family received death threats over his claim that parts of Britain had become “no-go areas” for non-Muslims.

The Bishop is also facing anger from the most senior members of the Church of England hierarchy for his comments on Islam.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has made Islam a priority of his archiepiscopate and set up a Muslim-Christian forum to promote relations between the faiths in 2006. One senior cleric told The Times yesterday: “The Bishop of Rochester is in effect threatening to undo everything we have done.”

The cleric said that some congregations in cities such as Leicester, where interfaith work was a priority, were increasingly wary of donating money towards this work. Church leaders in towns with a large Muslim population were anxious that relations with their neighbours were being undermined.

Dr Nazir-Ali was in India when staff at his home in Rochester took a number of phone calls threatening his family and warning him that he would not “live long” if he continued to criticise Islam. He has been given an emergency number at Kent Police, along with other undisclosed protection measures, and said that the threats were being taken “seriously”.

Speaking to The Times, Dr Nazir-Ali, who is on the conservative evangelical wing of the Church and is Britain’s only Asian bishop, said: “The irony is that I had similar threats when I was a bishop in Pakistan, but I never thought I would have them here. My point in saying what I did was that Britain had lost its Christian vision, which would have provided the resources to offer hospitality to others.” Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, faces death threats >>>

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