The EU should be stronger and more united. Great Britain should belong to the Union.
Die EU sollte stärker und geeinter sein. Großbritannien sollte der Union angehören.
L'UE devrait être plus forte et plus unie. La Grande-Bretagne devrait appartenir à l'Union.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
US: Muslim Candidate for Irvine City Council Gets Death Threat
LA TIMES: Attorney Todd Gallinger says the threat was sparked by his opponent, Councilman Steven Choi, who has tried to link an Islamic civil rights group to terrorism. Gallinger has worked for the group.
A Muslim candidate for the Irvine City Council said Thursday that a councilman's comment linking an Islamic civil rights group to terrorism has led to a death threat against him. Police said they are investigating.
Attorney Todd Gallinger, a Muslim convert, said a man called his office Tuesday, about three weeks after Councilman Steven Choi spoke at a forum and urged voters not to support a candidate who worked for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The council, which has 35 offices in the United States and Canada, is "a dangerous Islamic organization," Choi told 150 business leaders. Although he did not name Gallinger, the comment was clearly aimed at the 29-year-old lawyer, who has done legal work for the council's Southern California chapter in Anaheim.
Gallinger said the caller thought he was talking to him but told an employee, "I want to cut off your head just like all the other Muslims deserve."
"It's clear that the person was motivated by the political attacks against me by my opponent," Gallinger said.
Police spokesman Rick Handfield confirmed Thursday that the department is investigating the alleged threat.
On Thursday, Choi said he was surprised that someone would threaten Gallinger but did not believe it was inspired by his remarks at the Sept. 19 forum. Gallinger earlier that month had been interviewed about his association with the council on a KUCI-FM radio show.
"It's a ridiculous question," Choi said when asked if the caller was acting because of his comments. "Am I responsible for someone else making a threat to him? No. This is not my intent at all."
He said the media had "escalated the problem" by publishing his remarks, which he said were directed at the council and not individual Muslims. Muslim Candidate for Irvine City Council Gets Death Threat >>> By H.G. Reza and Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer | October 10, 2008
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Gordon Brown's new minister for race relations has attacked sharia courts, insisting that the Muslim community in Britain is not “advanced” enough to have its own legal system.
Sadiq Khan, whose comments will have added impact because he is a Muslim himself, has also warned that the growing number of tribunals based on Islamic codes could entrench discrimination against women.
Khan, who became minister for community cohesion in the government reshuffle this month, said: “The burden is on those who want to open up these courts to persuade us why they should do it.”
His comments contrast with those of figures such as Lord Phillips, the lord chief justice, who said in July that Islamic law could be used to settle marital and financial disputes.
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has said the establishment of sharia courts in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain.
In a wide-ranging interview on race and immigration, Khan, 38, the Labour MP for Tooting, south London, also: Warned that an economic downturn could fuel ethnic tensions. Demanded an increase in benefits for immigrants with larger families.
Admitted that government antiterror laws had caused “problems” in race relations. Called on public bodies to cut translation services to encourage immigrants to learn English.
Khan’s outspoken remarks on sharia courts are likely to cause the most controversy.
The Sunday Times last month revealed that the government had quietly sanctioned a network of sharia judges, empowering them to issue legally binding rulings on disputes including finance, divorce, inheritance and domestic violence. Muslims Rebuffed over Sharia Courts >>> Jonathan Oliver, Political Editor | October 12, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: Joerg Haider, the veteran leader of Austria's far right, was killed in a car crash today, police said.
Mr Haider, 58, who earned worldwide notoriety for making statements sympathetic to Hitler's Nazi regime, suffered fatal head and chest injuries after the car he was driving plunged down an embankment near his home town of Klagenfurt.
Detectives are still investigating the cause of the crash, but said he was driving alone at the time in a government-owned vehicle.
The death of Mr Haider, who was governor of Carinthia province in southern Austria, comes less than a fortnight after a major resurgence in the far right's political support in the country, riding on a wave of anti-immigrant and anti-European Union sentiment.
At parliamentary elections last month, Mr Haider's Alliance for the Future of Austria polled 11 per cent of the vote, while the similarly-aligned Freedom Party, which Mr Haider founded but then split from, polled 18 per cent. The results meant nearly in three Austrians had voiced support for far-right movements, dismaying the country's liberal politicians.
Mr Haider's death may prompt concerns that political support will pass from him to the current Freedom Party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, who is seen as a much more hardline figure. Mr Haider was originally Mr Strache's political mentor, but the two fell out as Mr Haider chose to pursue more moderate policies in recent years.
Mr Haider's spokesman, Stefan Petzner, said that he had been heading to a town near Klagenfurt for a gathering of his family to mark his mother's 90th birthday.
To his supporters Joerg Haider was a patriot who dared to speak uncomfortable truths.
His critics saw him as an ambitious, racist opportunist who used anti-immigrant and pro-Nazi rhetoric to stir up populist sentiment.
What is doubtless is that Haider - whose death in a car crash at the age of 58 leaves a widow and two daughters - had charisma.
Commentators said he worked a room like former US President Bill Clinton, embracing supporters and using the familiar "du" form of address.
Born in the Upper Austrian town of Bad Goisern in 1950, Joerg Haider's parents were very early members of the Nazi party, who moved to Germany where they became party officials.
After the war, they were punished for their affiliations and forced to take up menial work.
Critics say Haider's views were shaped by this background, although he said his family seldom discussed the past. >>> | October 11. 2008
Der Kärntner Landeshauptmann und BZÖ-Chef hat sich am Samstag in den frühen Morgenstunden mit seinem Dienstwagen überschlagen und erlag wenig später seinen Verletzungen.
Jörg Haider ist tot. Der Kärntner Landeshauptmann kam in der Nacht mit seinem Wagen von der Loiblpass-Bundesstraße in der Ortschaft Lambichl ab und erlitt bei dem Unfall tödliche Kopf- und Brustverletzungen. Nach Angaben der Ärzte hatte er keine Überlebenschance. Haider wurde 58 Jahre alt, er hinterlässt eine Frau und zwei Töchter. >>> | 11.10.2008
Der Tod Jörg Haiders hinterlässt ein politisches Vakuum in Österreich
Jörg Haider war ohne Zweifel jene Figur auf der politischen Bühne Österreichs, die im In- und Ausland am meisten polarisiert hat: Charismatisch, intelligent, aggressiv – aber zugleich unberechenbar, unstet und rasch beleidigt. Ein «political animal» mit ausgeprägten Instinkten für die Medien: Für ihn war es völlig egal, ob die News schlecht oder gut waren, Hauptsache man war auf der Titelseite. Für Schlagzeilen war ihm alles recht – auch enge Kontakte zu zwiespältigen nahöstlichen Potentaten. Jörg Haider war ebenso brillant wie hochgefährlich. Virtuos spielte er auf dem Klavier der österreichischen Seele: Das mehr als zwiespältige Verhältnis zu den Jahren 1938 bis 1945, die Verdrängung der NS-Verbrechen, an denen sich Österreicher überproportional beteiligt hatten, das jahrelang gepflegte Selbstverständnis Österreichs als «erstes Opfer Hitlerdeutschlands», das schäbige Verhalten gegenüber den Opfern in der Nachkriegszeit – Haider machte sich diese zwiespältigen Gefühle zunutze, mit Auftritten vor Kameradschaftsverbänden alter Kämpfer der Waffen-SS («anständige Menschen, die Charakter haben und ihren Überzeugungen bis heute treu geblieben sind») und gezielt verharmlosenden Äusserungen zur NS-Zeit oder antisemitischen Witzeleien, wie sie an manchen Stammtischen goutiert werden.
Haider profitierte gleichermassen von ganz anderern Regungen: Dem Neid und Hass der Zukurzgekommenen, dem Argwohn des Kleinbürgers gegen «die da oben» und dem Misstrauen des Provinzbewohners gegen das weit entfernte, als überheblich und elitär empfundene «Wien». Seinen grössten Erfolg verzeichnete Haider bezeichnenderweise in den 90er Jahre, als seine Freiheitliche Partei (FPÖ) vom allgemeinen Überdruss gegen die Erstarrung und Verkrustung in der grossen Koalition profitierte. Meinungsforscher sprechen von einem «Dejà vu» – aus den Nationalratswahlen vor zwei Wochen sind die beiden Rechtsparteien nach dem Scheitern der letzten grossen Koalition siegreich hervorgegangen. >>> Von Charles E. Ritterband, Wien | 11. Oktober 2008
NZZ Online: Österreichischer Bundeskanzler über Tod Haiders bestürzt
Gusenbauer kondoliert den Hinterbliebenen des Politikers
Der österreichische Bundeskanzler Alfred Gusenbauer ist nach eigenen Worten «sehr betroffen» über den Unfalltod des Kärntner Landeshauptmannes Jörg Haider. Haider habe die gesamte innenpolitische Landschaft Österreichs über Jahrzehnte hinweg geprägt, erklärte Gusenbauer in einer ersten Stellungnahme. >>> (ap) | 11. Oktober 2008
TAGES ANZEIGER: Haider war unterwegs zum Geburtstag der Mutter
Der Rechtspopulist Jörg Haider ist tot. Der Kärntner Landeshauptmann kam in der Nacht auf heute mit seinem Auto von der Strasse ab und überschlug sich mehrmals. Österreichs Politiker sind bestürzt.
Der 58-jährige Haider wollte ins Bärental, um den 90. Geburtstag seiner Mutter zu feiern. Am Samstag, kurz nach Mitternacht, verlor er am Ortsausgang von Klagenfurt die Kontrolle über den Wagen und verunglückte tödlich. Politiker aller Couleur trauerten in Österreich um Haider und sprachen der Familie ihr Beileid aus.
Haider war nach dem Unfall eingeklemmt und erlitt schwerste Kopf- und Brustverletzungen – wahrscheinlich war auch die Halswirbelsäule gebrochen; der linke Arm war fast vollständig abgetrennt. Weil noch ein Funken Überlebenschance bestand, ordnete die Notärztin die Einlieferung ins Spital Klagenfurt an. Noch auf dem Weg gegen 1.30 Uhr verstarb Haider im Alter von 58 Jahren.
Der Kärntner Landeshauptmann hatte dieses Wochenende ganz für seine Familie reserviert. Alle zusammen wollten den 90. Geburtstag von Haiders Mutter feiern, wie der «Kurier» in seiner Onlineausgabe schreibt. Seinen letzten Termin absolvierte Jörg Haider am Abend in Velden, wo ein neues Gesellschaftsmagazin vorgestellt wurde. Etwa eine halbe Stunde nach Mitternacht verabschiedete sich der Landeshauptmann: «Fahr nach Hause, du hast frei», sagte er noch zu seinem Chauffeur Friedl Schager. >>> | 11. Oktober 2008
leJDD.fr: Jörg Haider est mort
Le leader de l'extrême droite autrichienne s'est tué dans un accident de voiture dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi, près de sa ville natale de Klagenfurt. Jörg Haider, qui avait conduit l'extrême droite au gouvernement dans la cadre d'une coalition avec les conservateurs, avait effectué un retour spectaculaire sur la scène nationale lors des élections législatives du 28 septembre.
"C'est pour nous comme la fin du monde". L'extrême droite autrichienne est endeuillée, comme en témoignent ces propos tenus par l'un de ses dirigeants, Stefan Petzner. Son leader charismatique, Jörg Haider, s'est tué dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi dans un accident de voiture, près de sa ville natale de Klagenfurt. Agé de 58 ans, le dirigeant populiste a perdu le contrôle de son véhicule. Haider, qui était seul dans la voiture, a été mortellement touché à la tête et au torse. Il se rendait à une fête de famille à l'occasion des 90 ans de sa mère. Selon les premiers éléments de l'enquête, il roulait "nettement plus vite" que les 70km/h autorisés à cet endroit. Le président autrichien, Heinz Fischer a salué "un homme politique de grand talent", qui a, à la fois, ravi et ulcéré ses contemporains. >>> Par Marianne ENAULT (avec Reuters) | Samedi 11 Octobre 2008
Al-Jazeera: On Jörg Haider’s Death
WASHINGTON POST: Obituaries: Jörg Haider Made Far-Right Party A Force in Austria
Jörg Haider, a divisive Austrian political figure who rose to prominence as the leader of a far-right movement that was often seen as sympathetic to the country's shadowy Nazi past, died Oct. 11 in a car accident near the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt. He was 58.
Mr. Haider was passing another car when his Volkswagen Phaeton left the road, struck a pillar and overturned. He died on the way to a hospital. There was no immediate suspicion of foul play.
The charismatic Mr. Haider single-handedly made the ultra-conservative Austrian Freedom Party a force in national politics with his fiery rhetoric against immigrants, the European Union and the euro, the EU's continent-wide currency. He led the most successful far-right party in Europe, far outpacing the political success of France's National Front.
Handsome, photogenic and perpetually tanned, Mr. Haider was known to his supporters as the "Alpine Rambo," partly for his prowess as a mountain climber and skier and partly for his confrontational style.
Mr. Haider's parents had been members of the Nazi party, and he sometimes praised aging Third Reich soldiers at their reunions. But he also mixed easily with a younger generation in nightly visits to discos to recruit new party members.
His rallies attracted throngs of young people who responded to Mr. Haider's pleas to banish immigrants and to challenge Austria's two long-reigning parties, the Social Democrats and the more conservative People's Party.
"People are fed up with the old parties that never live up to their promises," he said in his campaigns. "They want action on everyday problems, whether it is job security, housing or uncontrolled immigration."
At times, Mr. Haider's followers would start singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," an anthem from the musical "Cabaret" that symbolized the Nazi takeover of Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. >>> By Matt Schudel, Washington Post Staff Writer | Sunday October 12, 2008
THE HUFFINGTON POST: Jörg Haider Was Speeding at Twice the Limit
VIENNA, Austria — Far-right politician Joerg Haider was speeding at more than twice the posted limit before the car crash that killed him, investigators said Sunday as his grief-stricken party appointed a successor.
Flowers, notes and other tributes piled up at the scene of the crash that killed the former leader of the Freedom Party, whose anti-immigration stance and provocative praise of the Nazi era once led the European Union to slap Austria with diplomatic sanctions.
Police reconstructing Saturday's accident in the southern province of Carinthia, where Haider was governor, said the speedometer in the wreckage of Haider's high-powered Volkswagen Phaeton limousine was stuck at 142 kph (88 mph).
The speed limit at the crash site is just 70 kph (43 mph), and it drops to 50 kph (31 mph) just 100 meters (yards) further down the road in the direction Haider was heading.
Prosecutor Gottfried Kranz said the high speed appeared to be the main factor in the crash that killed the 58-year-old politician.
"Any speculation about other causes of the accident is weak," Kranz said, adding that the car was technically sound and police had no reason to suspect foul play. >>> William J Kole, AP | October 12, 2008
THE EARTH TIMES: Stefan Petzner Named as Successor to Jörg Haider
Vienna - Austria's right-wing populist Alliance for the Future of Austria party on Sunday named Stefan Petzner as it new leader following the death of Joerg Haider on Saturday, the Austrian news agency (APA) reported. Petzner, 27, had been Haider's spokesman since 2004.
…
"They are big shoes to fill, but I will keep moving, not stumble," Petzner was quoted as saying. On Saturday he had reacted to the news of Haider's death, saying, "For us, this is like the end of the world." >>> DPA | October 12, 2008
DEUTSCHE WELLE: Haider's Death Unlikely to Reunite Austrian Right
Austria's right-wing populist Alliance for the Future of Austria party named a new head. But experts say the change in leadership probably won't lead to a political shake-up in the Austrian right in the near future. >>> | 12.10. 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: Obituary: Jörg Haider
Austrian politician whose populism exploited his nation’s latent passions and earned him international notoriety
Jörg Haider , who died in a car accident on Saturday aged 58, was a Right-wing Austrian politician whose notoriety far exceeded his influence on national events.
Despite the fact that he never held office in an Austrian government, Haider’s gift for self-publicity, and his willingness to venture into territory that others saw as taboo, ensured that he became better known outside his own country than any Austrian politician of his generation.
Precisely what he stood for, however, never became entirely clear. In essence Haider was a populist, appearing to exploit whatever latent passions, fears and insecurities he could detect in his fellow countrymen at any given time. But he did so without much regard for that vital ingredient, judgment.
Thus he was able to describe the Nazi concentration camps as “penal camps” and SS officers as “upstanding men of character”. Although he later recanted, it was no wonder that he was vilified as a “fascist”, a “racist” and a “neo-Nazi”. He was often accused of anti-Semitism, and he formed a friendship with Saddam Hussein.
That he survived as a political figure was due to his boundless ambition allied to a considerable personal charm. Haider had been a talented actor in his youth, and he developed into a master showman who constantly reinvented himself: the clean-cut young man; the Porsche-driving playboy dressed by Armani; the honest son of the soil. >>> | October 13, 2008
Even the Politically Correct Swiss Fall Foul of Libyan Authories
Photo of Hannibal Gaddafi, Colonel Gaddafi’s son, courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Libya is to withdraw assets from Swiss banks, estimated at $7bn, as a diplomatic row over the arrest of the Libyan leader's youngest son escalates.
Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife were detained in Geneva for assault in July, but the charges were later dropped.
The state-run news agency Jana also said that Libya was halting oil shipments to Switzerland.
An unnamed foreign ministry official said it was for the "poor treatment of Libyan diplomats and businessmen".
All kinds of economic co-operation with Switzerland are to be stopped until Geneva clarifies its motives, Jana quotes him as saying.
Compensation
The BBC's Rana Jawad in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, says Libya had previously demanded an apology from Swiss authorities for the arrest of Muammar Gaddafi's son. Libya ‘to Pull Swiss Bank Assets’ >>> | October 10, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: The world's first Islamic helpline has opened in Abu Dhabi, to help Muslims solve their religious dilemmas.
A team of 48 muftis man the telephones from 8am until 8pm delivering fatwas, or formal rulings based on Islamic law.
The service is used by Muslims all over the world, and organisers say it takes about 3,700 calls a day, including queries from Britain.
Mufti Abdulrahman Ammoura, 48, is more accustomed to dispensing advice at a mosque, but he joined the helpline staff to reach a wider audience.
He said: "The hardest questions I am asked involve sex. I feel shame, but I have to answer the questions because it is my duty."
One recent dilemma came from a married woman whose alcoholic husband had turned violent, hitting her and forcing her to have sex. She wanted to know if she should seek a divorce.
Mr Ammoura told the Times: "I said, 'No - it is better for him to find help'. A woman living alone with children could face too many problems."
His advice now counts as an official fatwa in the United Arab Emirates, under new rules issued by the General Authority for Islamic Affairs and Endowments.
The UAE Government established the call centre three months ago in an attempt to root out extreme interpretations of Islam.
Morocco's King Launches Offensive against Radical Islam
THE EARTH TIMES: Rabat, Morocco - Islamic law allows men to wed girls as young as nine years, because marriages to younger women often work out better - or so claims Moroccan theologist Mohammed Maghraoui. The fatwa (opinion on religious law) issued by Maghraoui in Marrakesh in early September confirmed what King Mohammed VI already knew: that Islamist fundamentalism was on the rise in the traditionally relatively liberal north African country.
The Superior Council of Ulemas (Islamic scholars) condemned the fatwa, and Maghraoui's website as well as dozens of Koranic schools linked to him were closed.
Some weeks later, just as Moroccans were marking the revelation of the Koran to Prophet Mohammed at the close of the holy month of Ramadan, King Mohammed launched his second religious reform.
The faith of Moroccans needed to be preserved from "extremist impulses," the monarch said in the northern city of Tetouan, announcing a string of measures towards that end.
As the Amir al-Mu'amin or Commander of the Faithful, the 45-year-old king, who is believed to descend from Prophet Mohammed, is the official leader of Moroccan Muslims.
The new reform followed an initial one carried out after Islamist militants killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers, in Casablanca in 2003.
That reform restructured the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in an attempt to place preachers at the country's 40,000 mosques under tighter control.
SCOTSMAN: THE Church of Scotland last night welcomed the possibility of introducing sharia law courts in Scotland.
Rev Ian Galloway, convener of the Church and Society Council, said sharia courts had been unfairly portrayed following the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments in February that it "seems unavoidable" that parts of Islamic sharia law would be adopted in the UK. Church of Scotland Backs Islamic Sharia Law Courts >>> | October 10, 2008
Nicolas Sarkozy Affair Revealed in Notes of Ex-spy Chief Yves Bertrand
Photo of Nicolas Sarkozy courtesy of the Times Online
TIMESONLINE: President Sarkozy had an affair with the wife of one of his present Cabinet members about four years ago, when he was serving as Interior Minister, according to the former head of French police intelligence.
The alleged episode was one of a multitude of damaging secrets reported yesterday from the private notebooks of Yves Bertrand, who was central director of the powerful Renseignements Généraux (RG) spy agency for 12 years until 2004.
The police chief, whose shadowy service had long been a political tool for French rulers, also recorded in 2003: “Chirac has been for a facelift in Canada.”
The diaries, packed with potentially explosive accounts of drug-taking, illicit sex, blackmail and corruption among French leaders, were seized by judges recently as part of an investigation into dirty tricks. They were leaked to Le Point, a news magazine.
Mr Bertrand, 63, also recorded intimate details of the private life and family of Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister and candidate against President Chirac in the election in 2002.
His regular informants included journalists who were paid, said Le Point. “These notebooks are a terrifying journey under the skirts of the Republic,” said the magazine, which quoted only edited excerpts.
“One could laugh if this exercise in underhand police work had not sometimes broken careers, thwarted democracy and sometimes destroyed lives,” it said.
Key names were omitted by Le Point, but its summary of the notebooks appeared to confirm an assumption that after 2002 the RG was working for President Chirac to undermine Mr Sarkozy when he took over the Gaullist movement and made a bid for the presidency.
MAIL Online: The BBC has been flooded with 145 complaints after screening a gay kiss on EastEnders before the 9pm watershed.
The 'offensive' scenes were screened on Tuesday's episode of the soap and showed Christian Clarke (John Partridge, 36) and Lee Thompson (Carl Ferguson, 27) engage in a passionate kiss.
In a statement the BBC defended itself by saying it was down to parents to decide whether the content of the show was suitable for children to watch.
But some viewers were left deeply unimpressed.
One viewer wrote on the BBC’s Points Of View internet messageboard: 'I am appalled by the display of homosexual kissing before the watershed shown on EastEnders.
NZZ Online: In der nordisraelischen Stadt Akko, in der sowohl jüdische als auch arabische Bürger leben, ist es am Jom Kippur, dem jüdischen Buss- und Bettag, an dem Gläubige weder essen noch trinken, zu massiven Ausschreitungen zwischen den beiden Bevölkerungsgruppen gekommen. Ausschreitungen in Nordisrael: Zusammenstösse zwischen jüdischen und arabischen Jugendlichen>>> gsz. Jerusalem | 9. Oktober 2008
From the Religion of Infinite Pleasure and Fun: Salsa Dancing Violates Shari’ah
AL ARABIYA NEWS CHANNEL: RABAT - Marrakesh will host its first international salsa festival amid controversy as officials and religious leaders expressed dismay over the city’s hosting of a festival devoted to the sexy Latin dance.
The festival, which runs Oct. 8-12, features 100 dancers from Cuba, Mexico, Los Angeles, New York, Oslo, Milan, including Francisco Vasquez and Alex da Silva, choreographers for Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. The contestants will also give salsa classes to students of Moroccan universities.
But some locals voiced objections that the dance is un-Islamic and violates local social norms.
One Islamic scholar said the salsa festival violates sharia Islamic law. Mohamed Al-Taweel, pprofessor of jurisprudence at the University of al-Karaouine said that the festival is sinful for a number if reasons, no the least of which is the mingling between men and women.
Parents Outraged Over Baby Doll They Say Mumbles Pro-Islam Words
FOX NEWS: A doll some are claiming utters pro-Islam and even satanic words has outraged some parents in Oklahoma.
People insist they can hear Fisher-Price's "Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Cuddle and Coo" mumbling "Islam is the light" and "Satan is king," according to KJRH.com.
"There's no markings on the box to indicate there's anything Islamic about this doll," said Gary Rofkahr of Owasso, Okla., who was at work when another man brought the toy in to show his colleagues.
Rofkahr said he found various versions of the doll at local Target and Wal-Mart stores, which have since pulled the toys from their shelves, reported KJRH.com.
Fisher-Price and parent company Mattel didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. A Target representative said the company has no plans to recall the doll completely. [Source: Fox News] | October 9, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: Talking Fisher-Price ‘Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo’ Dolls Accused of Promoting Islam
Image of the ‘Little Mommy Cuddle ‘n Coo Doll’ courtesy of The Telegraph
The Fisher-Price Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo is meant to make realistic baby sounds and occasionally cry out for its "mama".
But some parents claim that one of its noises sounds just like "Islam is the Light", and have complained to Mattel, which owns Fisher-Price.
Some shops in the US have removed the doll from shelves after complaints from customers, according to reports. It is available in Britain for £19.99.
A spokesman for Fisher-Price insisted that the doll was not pushing pro-Islamic messages, adding that the sound some parents were hearing was caused by an accidental distortion of the doll's soundtrack. >>> By Matthew Moore | October 13, 2008
ASSOCIATED PRESS: VIENNA, Austria — Human rights experts on Tuesday expressed concern about a special facility holding suspected criminal asylum seekers in the mountains of southern Austria.
Joerg Haider, right-wing governor of Carinthia province, said Monday that the facility in a former childrens' home was a security measure to protect the people of Carinthia.
The building houses five men, but has a capacity of 50 and has been in use for about a week, his office said.
Conviction was not a "mandatory prerequisite" for being sent to the facility, Haider's spokesman Stefan Petzner said. The inmates would be "under constant observation so that no criminal acts can be committed," he added.
But he said no one's rights were being violated.
He would not provide specific details on the five in the facility, but confirmed a media report that the men are asylum seekers from Georgia, Kazakhstan and Gambia. He did say some in the group had been convicted, but did not say of what.
"With this security precaution, we are protecting the Carinthian population," Haider said at a news conference Monday. He added that the number of criminal asylum seekers was on the rise. Carinthia currently has about 900 asylum seekers.
The building is in a secluded pasture at an altitude of about 3,900 feet (1,200 meters).
"It's a perfectly normal establishment far away from civilization in a secluded area so they can't get up to anything," said Petzner. "You shouldn't think of this as a prison surrounded by barbed wire."
AFTENBLADET.NO: The police department is considering whether the head-wear, hijab [,] should be allowed to be [sic] work with the police uniform. The Police Joint Union says the hijab doesn’t belong with the uniform.
“We have very stringent regulations. It is not allowed to wear personal items that signify political or value-related standpoints. Use of the hijab would be in conflict with this principle,” says Arne Johannessen, leader of the Police Joint Union to NRK.
The question of use of the hijab in the police was raised a week ago. A 23-year old woman from Sandnes in Rogaland wrote a letter to the Police department, asking how this would be viewed, were she to wear a hijab with the police uniform.
The armed forces allow use of the hijab. It is also used in conjunction with the police uniform in Great Britain and USA.
Johannessen admits that use of the hijab might make it easier for the police in their contact with muslim women, but thinks this argument doesn’t hold its ground against the principle of the matter. [Source: Aftenbladet] | October 8, 2008
Muslim Inmates Offered Fresh Bedding and Clothing after Sniffer Dog Searches
MIRROR: Muslim inmates are being offered fresh bedding and clothing after sniffer dog searches - because the animals are considered unclean in Islam.
They are allowed to request replacements if the animals' saliva touches garments and linen.
Ministry of Justice spokeswoman Rosemary Hanna explained: "We are aware that if dog saliva comes into contact with the clothing or religious artefacts of a Muslim, it renders these items defiled. As such a prisoner must be allowed to change clothing if this occurs.
"Also, bedding should be changed where the prisoner feels that it has been defiled."
The practice follows a complaint from an illegal immigrant awaiting deportation at Dover prison in Kent but is now in place nationwide.
Dhimmi Alert! Pupils and Parents to Gather for Assembly to Celebrate Muslim Festival
WALES ONLINE: PARENTS and pupils will gather together for a special school assembly to celebrate the religious festival of Eid.
Mount Stuart Primary School in Butetown, Cardiff organises the assembly every year.
Eid is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.
Yvonne Scott, acting headteacher of the school, said: “It is always a lovely event. We are a multi-faith school. We celebrated harvest recently and now we are all coming together to celebrate Eid. Many of our pupils had days off to celebrate the religious festival so this is our first opportunity. Many parents come to the school for the special assembly and it is very social event.” [Source: Wales Online] By Moira Sharkey | October 8, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: Two NHS doctors planned a campaign of "indiscriminate" murder involving at least four car bombs but turned their mission into a suicide attack when their plans went awry, a court has heard.
Bilal Abdulla from Iraq and Moahmmed Asha [sic] from Jordan were part of a terrorist cell of Islamic extremists who tried to launch attacks on busy urban areas including a night club in central London, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
But the men allegedly turned their plans into a suicide attack after the first mission failed and a third member of the cell died after driving a burning Jeep into Glasgow airport.
"These men were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and a wholescale" level, said Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting.
"Attacks such as these: the terrorist would call them 'spectaculars'" he added.
But he said the most shocking aspect of the case was that the plot was carried out by two doctors, who had dedicated themselves to saving lives.
"Apart from the shocking nature of the activity these two defendants were engaged in, the extraordinary thing about this case is that both men are doctors," Mr Laidlaw said.
"Having studied at universities in their homelands they sought and obtained work in British hospitals to complete their medical training.
Queen's Composer Attacks 'Dumbing Down' of British Society
Photo of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: The Queen's composer has launched a stinging attack on the "dumbing down" of British society, singling out the commercialisation of art and Damien Hirst for particular criticism.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, whose official title is the Queen's Master of Music, described Hirst's work - which recently raised £111 million at auction - as "manufactured artefacts without content."
In a speech to the conference of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, he also criticised politicians and educationalists and warned that the country was in an "age of commercial depravity and irresponsibility".
He expressed concern over the perception that classical music was elitist, which he described as inverted snobbery, and said politicians had dumbed down so much they were "almost below the horizon". Queen's Composer Attacks 'Dumbing Down' of British Society >>> By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent | October 9, 2008
Austrian President: No Need for Concerns about Muslim Community
UAE DAILY NEWS: Austrian President Heinz Fischer said he strongly believed Austria will always be home for multicultural, multi-faith and multi-ethnic co-existence and a model for tolerance, love and harmony among all citizens who follow Islam, Christianity and other faiths of the world.
"Austria will however remain a European country leading openness and dialogue among representatives of the three major faiths Islam, Christianity and Judaism and other cultures and ethnicities based on common aspects", remarked Fischer in a statement to WAM at a reception he held last night for the third year on the occasion of Eid el Fitr.
He said that the message he wanted to get across to Austrians and members of the Muslim community on the occasion is that the new Austrian cabinet will soon be formed and that he hopes it will be a national unity cabinet representing all parties and trends.
Austria, he added will always be prepared to continue dialogue and rapprochement among representatives of followers of faiths and cultures with a focus on commonalities and historical and close relationships and cooperation between Austria and Islamic world. Austrian President: No Need for Concerns about Muslim Community >>> Yusuf | October 2, 2008
Sharia Courts Set to Bring Muslim Law to Bear in Scottish Cities
THE SCOTSMAN: SECRET talks are under way to bring Islamic sharia law courts to Scotland, The Scotsman has learned.
Qamar Bhatti, director of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT), which runs the courts, admitted discussions were taking place with lawyers and Muslim community groups in Scotland.
The group is believed to be aiming to set up courts in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In September it emerged that five sharia courts, ruling on civil cases from divorce to domestic violence and financial disputes, had been operating for more than a year in London, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester and at MAT headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
The courts have legal powers, with their decisions enforceable through the county courts or high courts.
However, concerns have been raised about the establishment of a "dual legal system".
Women's domestic violence groups have also voiced fears, saying traditional sharia law arbitration is "dangerous and inappropriate" in cases of abuse.
Last night Bill Aitken, the Scottish Tory justice spokesman, said: "Informal private arrangements between individual members of the Muslim community are one thing, but in criminal matters Scottish courts must have total jurisdiction. "Matters of divorce and domestic violence require to be determined by conventional courts. We cannot have private arrangements when human rights are an issue."
The move to establish sharia courts has sharply divided opinion among Scotland's Muslims.
Some defend the right of the Muslim community to rule on its own affairs. But others say MAT has not consulted them and there is no demand for sharia courts.
Aamer Anwar, a Glasgow-based civil rights lawyer, said: "Those using sharia law are fully entitled to religious freedom as long as it doesn't conflict with criminal law. Because it happens to be Islamic , people jump to the conclusion it is barbaric.
"It is down to the community to decide for itself."
Commenting on criticisms over domestic violence, he said: "The woman has full entitlement to go before any court or to the police. With sharia law, when domestic violence is raised it always runs into a fanfare of hysteria."
Noman Tahir, of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said there was no groundswell of support for sharia courts in Scotland.
"Currently, Scottish Muslims resolve civil matters through the courts or voluntary third-party arbitration with Islamic scholars and imams," he said. "This has worked well for many years and we are not aware of any unhappiness with these arrangements or calls for change."
A spokeswoman for Shakti Women's Aid, which supports black minority ethnic women, said it was not in favour of the courts in Scotland.
"Cases of domestic abuse and divorce should be heard within the Scottish judicial system," she said. "We fear that many female victims of domestic abuse may be pressurised by their families and partners to accept the rulings of the sharia court as final and prevent them from seeking legal assistance from the Scottish court system, which might force them to continue living within abusive relationships."
John Scott, a human rights lawyer, said: "There is a place for sharia law, but we need to be careful those aspects unfavourable to women are not allowed to dominate.
"I have less concern about fears over a dual legal system than aspects which are inconsistent in practice with equality issues. But such courts cannot be set up unsupervised and they would need to be monitored." Sharia Courts Set to Bring Muslim Law to Bear in Scottish Cities >>> By Shân Ross | October 9, 2008
Austrian Social Democrats Asked to Form a Government
ASSOCIATED PRESS: VIENNA, Austria — The biggest winner in Austria's elections got the president's approval Wednesday to begin forming a coalition government that they have promised will exclude the country's powerful far-right parties.
But it remains to be seen if the center-left Social Democrats' resistance to the right will work in the winning party's favor.
The Social Democrats won the most votes in parliamentary elections Sept. 28, with 29.3 percent. Wednesday, President Heinz Fischer asked the party's leader, Werner Faymann, to try to form what Fischer called the "decisive" government the country needs.
Complicating Faymann's task is the resounding success of the two far-right parties — the Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria, which took third and fourth place in the election. Their combined total of 28.2 percent puts them nearly on an equal footing with the Social Democrats — and has made them difficult to ignore.
Faymann has rejected forming a coalition with either far-right party. He stuck by that stance Wednesday but acknowledged it could hamper his efforts to forge a government.
"It's a tactical drawback but I believe it's an advantage for the country," he said.
Animosity between the rightist leaders made it appear unlikely at first that they would consider collaborating with each other. But the two men met Wednesday in an apparently successful attempt to warm relations.
"It was a get-together of winners," Joerg Haider, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria, said in a statement afterward.
The atmosphere in the meeting was positive and constructive, the statement said. It also said the parties do not "reject taking responsibility for creating a new government." Austrian Social Democrats Asked to Form a Government >>> By Veronika Oleksyn | October 8, 2008
CBN NEWS: Several recent studies have shown that American students are alarmingly ignorant about U.S. history and world events.
Experts have contributed the problem to everything from failing schools to substandard teachers.
But what about content?
For instance, did you know that Muslims discovered America? Or that Jerusalem is an Arab city? That's just some of the "history" that students in America's K-12 classrooms have been taught in recent years--with the help of taxpayer money.
A new report by the non-profit Institute for Jewish and Community Research finds that American high school and elementary textbooks contain countless inaccuracies about Christianity, Judaism, Israel and the Middle East.
The Institute examined 28 of the most widely-used history, geography and social studies textbooks in America. It found at least 500 errors.
One book ignored the Jewish roots of Christianity, saying the faith was founded by a "young Palestinian" named Jesus. Another stated as fact that the Koran was revealed to Mohammed from God.
Yet another said ancient Jewish civilization contributed "very little" to to the arts and sciences.
Textbooks like these are used by millions of schoolchildren in all 50 states. Sandra Stotsky--now an endowed chair at the University of Arkansas--has seen some of them firsthand. Public Schools Teach the ABCs of Islam >>> By Erick Stakelbeck, CBN News Terror Analyst | October 8, 2008
US Judge Orders Release of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay
TIMESONLINE: A few months ago Abdulghappar Turkistani wrote from his cell in Guantanamo Bay of his yearning to see the sun and feel the air.
Now a US federal judge has ruled that Turkistani, and 16 other Chinese Muslims held prisoner for seven years, must be set free and released into the United States from the naval facility in Cuba.
The decision drew delight from other Uighurs, from north-western China’s Xinjiang region, now living in the United States, swift condemnation from the administration and anger from China which regards them as members of a terrorist organisation bent on separatism.
In a stern rebuke of the US government, District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said it would be wrong to continue holding the detainees since they no longer are considered enemy combatants. The must be released by Friday, he ruled.
He said: “I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for the detention.”
His words drew cheers and applause from local Uighur residents in Washington and from human rights activists packed into the US District courtroom.
The 17 Uighurs were officially declared no longer "enemy combatants" by the government earlier this year, but officials had maintained they could continue to hold the men at Guantanamo Bay if no other country accepted them. Only Albania has agreed to take the Uighurs, welcoming a group of five who were flown there from Guantanamo Bayin 2006 and who now live in refugee accommodation with no possibility of returning to their families any time soon.
Barbara Kay: We're Losing Ground Fast to the Soft Jihad
I do not agree with Barbara Kay on all points, especially when she says that Islam is a private faith (it clearly isn’t, and doesn’t purport to be), but this is well worth reading.
NATIONAL POST (CAN) / FULL COMMENT: The first great jihad petered out with Islam’s expulsion from Spain in 1492, the second in 1683 with the decisive (and to Islamists, still freshly humiliating) defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Vienna.
We’re presently experiencing the terror-focused third great jihad, which seeks to recreate the triumphalist dynamics of Islam’s muscular 7th-century ascendancy. How or when this great jihad will end we cannot say, only that realism insists it will not be soon and that the mission to replace secular democracy with Islam proceeds apace inside our borders as well as abroad.
We must know the enemy within to fight him. Unfortunately, our reigning establishment prefers not to confront the awkward civic triage such awareness would entail and so affects ignorance of the problem. But we cannot challenge and disarm Islamists if their presence is not acknowledged.
Islam is a private faith, Islamism an ugly political ideology. Islamists’ hegemonic mission demands a choice between hard jihad — the 9/11, suicide-bomber way — and soft jihad, far more appealing to Westernized, educated Islamist ideologues.
Exploiting Westerners’ naïveté and obsessive race guilt, soft jihadists deliberately blur the line between the religion of Islam (which on no account must be “offended” in the West) and the demonstrably offensive political imperialism of Islamism.
Soft jihad cannot succeed without the complicity of naive elites, bedazzled by their own boundless compassion and humanity. Sadly, of these “useful idiots” in the corridors of wealth and power the West offers an embarras de richesses.
How does one recognize a soft jihadist? An infallible sign is her or his promotion of official shariah law.
A moderate Muslim seeks to live in a “state of Islam” within a nation to which he freely gives allegiance; an Islamist strives to live in “an Islamic state,” as only Islam claims his allegiance. In non-Muslim states, therefore, an Islamist cannot be content with less than official shariah. Barbara Kay: We're Losing Ground Fast to the Soft Jihad >>> Posted by Kelly McParland | October 8, 2008
I'm Not a Nazi and I Like Kebabs, Says FPÖ Leader Strache
WIENER ZEITUNG: Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent of British quality newspaper Sunday Telegraph, has spoken with Heinz-Christian Strache, the FPÖ leader whose party did well in Austria's September 28 general election, about Europe's "Islamisation" and misinterpretations of Nazi gestures.
Ever since the general election, they have been subjects of fierce debate in the country's beer-cellers and cafes. When does raising three fingers in the air make you a fascist - and when does it just mean "three beers please?"
Ask Strache, whose far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) won close to a shocking 20 per cent of the vote, and he rolls his eyes in a way that looks at once weary and slightly scary. The photo in which he is shown holding up three fingers does not, he insists, depict a neo-Nazi gesture - that's just a "misinterpretation" put about by liberals.
Lest I prove to be one of the numerous people who are sceptical about his denial, he invites me to try it myself.
"Go on, imagine that you are in a bar, where the music is very loud and where the bartender can't hear your voice," he says. "What sign do you make if you want to order three beers?"
Sure enough, I raise my hand and find it outstretched in a very similar fashion to how Strache does it. "You see?" he grins, warming to his theme. "Now imagine you are holding your arm out for a taxi in the street. Does that make you look like you're raising your arm like Hitler?"
Whatever the truth of the matter, it isn't the only thing on which Strache claims that people have got the wrong end of the stick about recently. When other photographs surfaced of him wearing army fatigues and clutching a gun, he claimed that it wasn't a neo-Nazi training camp as alleged, but just a day out paintballing.
And when it was alleged that some of his fellow "paintballers" were known extremists, he claimed that they were old acquintances with whom he no longer associated.
And, by the way, he tells me, that three-fingered salute, it's not a neo-Nazi thing at all but a secret signal that people used in the former East Germany to imply that they were against Communism. Why he didn't just say that in the first place hasn't been explained.
Yet for all that, Strache asks for benefit of the doubt a lot, and it seems as though a large percentage of the Austrian public is willing to give it to him. Campaigning on the basis of hardline anti-immigration and anti-EU themes, his Freedom Party polled 18 per cent of the parliamentary vote, while the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), a splinter of the Freedom Party run by Strache's one-time mentor Jörg Haider, picked up a further 11 per cent.
Combined, it means that nearly one-third of Austrian voters now back extremist parties, making them contenders for a major role in government and prompting fears of a far-right revival across Europe. Adding to the discomfiture of more-liberal Austrian politicians is that most of the far-right's votes have come at the expense of the mainstream Social Democrats and conservative People's Parties, whose ruling coalition is seen as having ignored rising discontent over immigration and crime - and what many Austrians say is a glaring link between the two.
There is no fear of such politically-correct coyness in Strache's case. He wants wayward foreigners who scrounge from Austria's generous benefits system deported and advocates a ban on the building of all mosques to prevent the continuaton of alleged creeping Islamisation. He also claims that Austria's gentle, law-abiding children are being robbed, beaten up and sexually harassed by gangs of rapacious immigrants from Turkey and elsewhere.
"In some school classes, just two out of 30 children are Austrian, and they are confronted with racism every day," he says. "It is inverse racism. Austrian youths are beaten up in discos." I'm Not a Nazi and I Like Kebabs, Says FPÖ Leader Strache >>> | October 7, 2008
Will the Far Right Doom Austria's Mainstream Parties?
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Despite their worst defeat in postwar history, Austria's Social Democrats and conservatives are preparing to enter into a second coalition government. But gains made by the country's far right, suggest the future could be dim for Austria's two mainstream parties.
No one pays much mind to the short, elegant man standing at a taxi stand in front of Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace, once home to the Habsburg dynasty. With his salt-and-pepper hair, alert eyes and bushy eyebrows, he spends a full 20 minutes standing among the people without being recognized. He's on his mobile telephone trying to build a new government for Austria.
Werner Faymann wants to be the country's next chancellor. Faymann, touted as "the new choice" on campaign posters, also happens to be the man the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) can thank for capturing only 29 percent of votes in that country's parliamentary election -- the worst outcome for the party since the end of World War II. The potential chancellor, as the behind-the-scenes coordinator of his party's failed coalition with the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), as transportation minister and, since June, as head of the SPÖ, bears a large share of the responsibility for the disaster.
But now it's time for Faymann to put things right. Facing a tight schedule, he barely has enough time to sit down for a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice at Café Griensteidl. "The council of ministers, committee meetings, the party leadership," says Faymann, noting that they all want something from him now, and yet he doesn't try to create the impression that his hectic schedule is something he regrets. We need a reasonable government, quickly, he says, pointing out that the old "coalition of disagreement has been voted out of office."
Formally, at any rate. Only an hour earlier, these lame-duck politicians were sworn in a second time, at a ceremony with all the pomp and circumstance of the Habsburg court, and Werner Faymann was in the thick of it. The entire group had to appear once more in the Maria Theresia Room of the Hofburg Palace, under crystal chandeliers, gilded stucco and tapestries: the ministers from the two major parties, the SPÖ and the ÖVP, who, for a little less than 18 months -- a shorter tenure than that of any other cabinet in Austria's Second Republic -- were part of a coalition government racked by vicious feuds.
Now they are taking a new oath of office, pledging to do the best possible job until a new government has been formed. Judging by their high spirits, one would think they were teenagers on a class trip. Hapless outgoing Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer watches the spectacle with a stony expression on his face. Instead of Gusenbauer, his fellow party member Faymann steps into the spotlight at the end to praise the electorate: "The public has a strong sense for when a politician is acting in a constructive way." Will the Far Right Doom Austria's Mainstream Parties? (Part 1)>>> By Walter Mayr in Vienna | October 8, 2008
Jugend am rechten Rand: Fast jeder zweite Österreicher unter 30 wählt FPÖ/BZÖ
Foto von Heinz-Christian Strache dank dem Online Magazin Österreichs Profil
PROFIL (AT): Österreichs Jungwähler: 'Verrückt nach Rechts' / Das wichtigste Wahlmotiv: die Ausländer
In der Generation unter dreißig wählte fast jeder zweite Österreicher FPÖ oder BZÖ.
Erwin E., 18, war „kein großer Lerner“, deshalb verließ er die Schule. So kam es, dass er die Frage nach seinem Beruf heute so beantworten kann: „Dasselbe, was der Strache früher gemacht hat.“ Zahntechniker also. Für einen jungen Mann, der sein Auto mit einem FPÖ-Bären aufputzt und Zigaretten mit einem Strache-Feuerzeug anzündet, ist das durchaus eine glückliche Fügung. Erwin E. hat blau gewählt. Reinhard S.*, 17, geht ins Gymnasium. Auf seiner Computerfestplatte gibt es ein Foto, auf dem er mit FPÖ-Parteichef Heinz-Christian Strache wie mit einem Popstar posiert. Das Bild entstand nach einer Wahlkampfveranstaltung auf dem örtlichen Hauptplatz. Schon bei der niederösterreichischen Landtagswahl hatte Reinhard die FPÖ angekreuzt. Und jetzt, bei der Nationalratswahl, wieder. Erwin und Reinhard finden, dass Strache „die Themen am besten vertritt“: Sie meinen „Ausländerstopp“, „Asylmissbrauch“, „Heimatschutz“. Und so wie sie denkt längst nicht mehr nur eine radikale Minderheit. Trocken konstatiert Peter Ulram, Chef des Meinungsforschungsinstituts GfK, offenbar habe „niemand von den anderen Parteien eine Antwort auf das Lebensgefühl der Jungen gefunden“. Ulrams Daten zufolge kam das dritte Lager – FPÖ und BZÖ zusammengenommen – in der Altersklasse der unter 30-Jährigen auf 43 Prozent. Noch deutlicher war das Rechts-Votum der Erstwähler: 44 Prozent der 16- bis 19-Jährigen stimmten für FPÖ-Chef Heinz- Christian Strache, drei Prozent für dessen politischen Ziehvater Jörg Haider (BZÖ). Fast jeder Zweite wählte rechts. SPÖ und Grüne, die sich von einer Senkung des Wahlalters am meisten versprochen hatten, sind bei den Jungen abgemeldet (siehe Grafik). Laut GfK-Wahltagsbefragung waren die Roten in der Generation unter dreißig nur für jeden Zehnten wählbar. „Das ist die Partei, die Geld, das nicht da ist, für Leute ausgibt, die nix hackeln wollen“, ätzt die 17-jährige Kremser Schülerin Tanja. Das klingt auch ziemlich rechts; dabei ist sie „eine Grüne“. Jugend am rechten Rand: Fast jeder zweite Österreicher unter 30 wählt FPÖ/BZÖ >>> Von Marianne Enigl und Edith Meinhart | 7. Oktober 2008
A Load of Balls from Ed Balls! Now Young Muslims Will Get Direct Access to Cabinet Ministers!
Photo of Ed Balls courtesy of the Daily Express. He believes that Muslims are often “greatly misrepresented”.
It’s high time for this ridiculous, dangerous government to be put out to graze! The bloody lot of them! This government clearly believes in rewarding the trouble-makers, while it assiduously ignores the good people in the community who just go about their daily lives without causing trouble. In the new Britain, it seems that the more noise a community makes, the more attention it gets, the more money is thrown at them, the more concessions they get. As the old saying goes: It’s the sqeaking gate that gets the oil.
The fact that Islam is trying to destroy Western civilization, only to replace it with a dark-age mentality and barbarism seems totally to have passed these tossers by.
DAILY EXPRESS: YOUNG Muslims will get direct access to Cabinet Ministers in a £1.3million “community cohesion” initiative, it emerged yesterday.
The new Young Muslim Advisory group is the brainchild of Children’s Secretary Ed Balls and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.
But a row erupted last night over the appointment to it of a member of the Socialist Worker Party.
Also, the Government was forced to admit that there were no similar groups for Christians, Jews or Hindus.
Tory cohesion spokeswoman Baroness Sayeeda Warsi blasted the group as yet another example of Labour’s “state multiculturalism” which she said fostered a “divided Britain”.
Outrage centred on the appointment of Sabiha Iqbal, 17, to the group.
She is a member of the tiny Trotskyite sect that has “expressed solidarity” with Hezbollah terrorists, while trying to forge links with hardline British Muslims.
Ms Iqbal, from Bradford, is studying at Leeds university.
Last night Ms Blears defended inviting her appointment. She said: “If you don’t want to change the world at 17, that’s a shame. This group is made up of people with a wide range of beliefs. Getting them around a table to talk is all about democracy in action.”
Mr Balls said he had hope for Ms Iqbal as a “role model”. Ms Iqbal believes Muslims are often “greatly misrepresented” and says she wants to support a diverse community through “understanding, acceptance and empathy”. Muslims Get £1.3m Hotline to Cabinet >>> By Gabriel Milland, Political Correspondent | October 8, 2008
Thai Army Deployed in Bangkok after Bomb Leads to Coup Fears
THE TELEGRAPH: The Thai military has been called on to the streets of Bangkok after a day of violence by anti-government protesters sparked fears of a coup.
A military spokesman said that soldiers would help the police to restore order after a woman was killed by a car bomb, shots were fired at riot police and there were repeated clashes between police and demonstrators, which left 190 people injured.
The bombing occurred during the afternoon outside the offices of the Chart Thai party - a member of the governing coalition - less than a mile from parliament where clashes occurred earlier in the day. The victim, who was driving a white car, has not yet been identified. Thai Army Deployed in Bangkok after Bomb Leads to Coup Fears >>> By Thomas Bell in Bangkok | October 8, 2008
