THE OBSERVER: Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's extraordinary photographs documenting the dramatic decline of a major American city
Sunday, January 02, 2011
CYBERPRESSE.CA: Le chef de la diplomatie canadienne a dénoncé samedi l'usage de la peine de mort et de lourdes peines de prison en Iran, appelant ce pays à améliorer la situation des droits de l'homme.
«Je suis particulièrement préoccupé par le sort incertain de deux Canadiens ayant la double nationalité qui sont toujours détenus en Iran», a écrit Lawrence Cannon dans un communiqué.
M. Cannon cite le cas de Saeed Malekpour, un résident permanent du Canada, qui a été condamné à mort et dont la peine «pourrait être exécutée à tout moment».
Le Canadien d'origine iranienne Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, qui s'est rendu en Iran en 2008 pour rendre visite à sa mère malade, a lui aussi été condamné à mort sous l'accusation de crimes contre l'État. >>> Agence France-Presse | Samedi 01 Janvier 2011
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: The son of an Iranian woman, whose death sentence by stoning for adultery sparked world outrage, demanded Saturday that his mother's verdict be commuted.
In his first public meeting with journalists, Sajjad Qaderzadeh told reporters in the northwest city of Tabriz that he had been freed on Dec. 12 after posting a $40,000 bail and now wants to devote his life to saving his mother.
“We lost our father and we don't want to lose our mother. We demand that her verdict be commuted,” Qaderzadeh told reporters. >>> Nasser Karimi, Tabriz, Iran – The Associated Press | Saturday, January 01, 2011
LE TEMPS: Réfugiés par milliers, destruction des récoltes et transports bloqués: le nord-est de l’Australie faisait face vendredi à de graves inondations, dont le coût est déjà estimé à plusieurs milliards de dollars. Et un autre cyclone était en formation au large de la côte ouest, de l’autre côté du pays
Sur une surface aussi vaste que celle de la France et de l’Allemagne réunies, des dizaines de villes et de villages de l’Etat du Queensland, région agricole et minière, sont depuis mardi envahis par les eaux et coupés du reste du pays.
Les intempéries, provoquées par le récent passage du cyclone Tasha, ont pris la forme d’un véritable déluge d’eau qui a coupé les routes, endommagé les liaisons ferroviaires et perturbé la production de charbon. >>> ATS | Vendredi 31 Décembre 2010
Saturday, January 01, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A car bomb has killed at least 21 people outside a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.
The blast hit worshippers as they emerged from a New Year's mass at the Mass at the Saints Church in the Mediterranean port city in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Nearly 1,000 Christians were attending the service and were just leaving the church when the car exploded at 12.30am on New Year's Day.
Sectarian tensions have been on the rise in Egypt and after the blast, enraged Christians clashed with police and stormed a nearby mosque.
Fights and stone throwing broke out between groups of Christians, Muslims and the police.
Although no one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, authorities in Egypt blamed al-Qaeda for the attack.
Al-Qaeda's Iraq affiliate threatened Egypt's Copts late last year after claiming an attack on a Baghdad church on October 31 that left 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security forces dead. >>> | Saturday, January 1, 2011
LE FIGARO: Les chrétiens d'Égypte visés par un attentat sanglant : Une explosion à la sortie d'une messe, vendredi soir à Alexandrie, a fait 21 morts et 79 blessés. Samedi, les heurts se sont intensifiés entre chrétiens et policiers. >>> Par lefigaro.fr | Samedi 1 Janvier 2011
NZZ ONLINE: Über 20 Tote bei Selbstmordanschlag auf Christen in Ägypten: Bombe explodiert nach Neujahrsmesse in Alexandria >>> sda/afp/dpa/Reuters | Samstag, 1. Januar 2011
WELT ONLINE: Ausschreitungen nach Anschlag auf christliche Kirche: Nach dem Selbstmordattentat mit 21 Toten greifen junge Kopten Sicherheitskräfte an. Beim Begräbnis entlädt sich die Wut auf die Regierung erneut. >>> AFP/dapd/ks/jw | Samstag 1 Januar 2011
LE POINT: Une explosion devant une église copte d'Alexandrie a fait plusieurs dizaines de victimes pendant la nuit du nouvel an.
La nuit de la Saint-Sylvestre a été endeuillée, en Égypte, par un attentat qui a frappé la communauté chrétienne égyptienne, la plus importante du Moyen-Orient. L'explosion, non revendiquée, s'est produite vers minuit et demi alors que des fidèles sortaient de l'église des Saints (al-Qiddissine), située dans le quartier de Sidi Bechr d'Alexandrie. L'attaque a fait au moins 21 morts et 79 blessés.
L'hypothèse d'une voiture piégée initialement mentionnée par les autorités a été écartée en milieu de journée par le ministère de l'Intérieur, qui a déclaré que le massacre avait "probablement" été perpétré par un kamikaze. La bombe, de fabrication locale, contenait des bouts de métal "pour atteindre le plus grand nombre" de personnes, selon un communiqué du ministère. Le président Hosni Moubarak a condamné dans une allocution télévisée un "acte criminel odieux qui a visé la nation, Coptes et musulmans", et dénoncé, sans plus de précisions, "l'implication de mains étrangères" dans ce massacre. Continuez à lire et vous pouvez écrire un commentaire
>>> Source AFP | Samedi 1 Janvier 2011
Friday, December 31, 2010
THE LAST CRUSADE: Proof that history repeats itself comes with the news that Muslims have initiated their re-conquest of Spain.
The number of Muslims in Spain has climbed from 100,000 in 1990 to over 1.5 million in 2010.
Mosques are being constructed on a grand scale throughout the country.
The city of Barcelona, widely known as a European Mecca of anti-clerical postmodernism, has agreed to shell out nearly $30 million in public funds for the construction of an official mega-mosque with a capacity for thousands of Muslim worshipers.
The new structure in Barcelona will rival the massive Islamic Cultural Center in Madrid, currently the biggest mosque in Spain. An official in the office of the Mayor of Barcelona says the objective is to increase the visibility of Muslims in Spain, as well as to promote the “common values between Islam and Europe.”
In the past decade, more than 1,000 mosques and Islamic prayer centers have sprouted up throughout the once devoutly Catholic country.
Twelve new masjids are scheduled to open in northeastern Spain within the next three months.
The construction of new mosques comes at a time when municipalities linked to the Socialist Party have closed dozens of Christian churches across Spain by the enactment of new zoning laws.
The Barcelona mosque project was announced during a weeklong seminar titled “Muslims and European Values,” sponsored by the European Council of Moroccan Ulemas and the Union of Islamic Cultural Centers in Catalonia.
A representative of the Barcelona mayor’s office who attended the conference told the Madrid-based El País newspaper that the municipality would get involved in the mosque project because “although religion pertains to the private realm, this does not mean it does not have a public role.”
The idea to build a mega-mosque funded by Spanish taxpayers comes after Noureddine Ziani, a Barcelona-based Moroccan imam, said the construction of big mosques would be the best way to fight Islamic fundamentalism in Spain. “It is easier to disseminate fundamentalist ideas in small mosques set up in garages where only the members of the congregation attend, than in large mosques that are open to everyone, with prayer rooms, cafes and meeting areas,” Ziani told the Spanish news agency EFE. Read on and comment >>> TheLastCrusade.org
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LE FIGARO: «La fin de l'euro serait la fin de l'Europe», a expliqué le président lors de ses vœux aux Français. Il souhaite que l'année 2011 soit «utile», la France ne pouvant pas «se payer le luxe d'une année d'immobilisme pré-électoral».
Il avait préparé son texte plusieurs jours à l'avance. Nicolas Sarkozy a apporté un soin particulier au rituel des vœux de la Saint-Sylvestre, après une année 2010 difficile, marquée par la défaite de la droite aux régionales, l'affaire Woerth-Bettencourt, ou encore la delicate réforme des retraites, sur fond de morosité économique.
Se posant en président «protecteur», comme son entourage l'avait pressenti, il a mis l'accent sur l'importance de l'Europe pendant la crise. Le président a mis en garde contre ceux qui proposent de sortir de l'euro. «L'isolement de la France serait une folie. La fin de l'euro serait la fin de l'Europe», a déclaré le chef de l'Etat. Or «dans la tempête, (elle) a su faire face, certes pas assez complètement et souvent pas assez rapidement, mais l'Europe a tenu et l'Europe nous a protégés», a-t-il affirmé.«Je m'opposerai de toutes mes forces à un retour en arrière qui ferait fi de 60 ans de construction européenne», a-t-il appuyé dans cette déclaration radio-télédiffusée qui était également retransmise par Dailymotion. >>> Par lefigaro.fr | Vendredi 31 Décembre 2010
Voeux du Président Nicolas Sarkozy aux Français pour 2011
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LE MONDE: Au moins deux chrétiens ont péri et 16 personnes ont été blessées jeudi 30 décembre dans dix attentats commis en moins de deux heures contre des maisons appartenant à des chrétiens de Bagdad, a annoncé un responsable du ministère de l'intérieur. "Au total, 14 bombes avaient été posées près de maisons appartenant à des chrétiens. Dix engins ont explosé", a-t-il indiqué.
Ces attaques ont été perpétrées à partir de 19 h 30, heure locale, dans plusieurs quartiers de la capitale irakienne contre une communauté visée à de nombreuses reprises ces deux derniers mois. L'attaque la plus sanglante a eu lieu dans le quartier d'Al-Ghadir, dans le centre de Bagdad, où une bombe artisanale a explosé vers 20 heures, tuant deux chrétiens et faisant trois blessés. Les autres explosions, toutes dues à des engins artisanaux, n'ont fait aucun mort, mais blessé treize autres chrétiens. >>> LEMONDE.FR avec AFP | Jeudi 30 Décembre 2010
WELT ONLINE: Der niederländische Rechtspopulist Geert Wilders plant ein islamkritisches Buch: inspiriert von Thilo Sarrazins "Deutschland schafft sich ab".Der niederländische Rechtspopulist Geert Wilders will 2011 mit einem islamkritischen Buch international und insbesondere in den USA für Furore sorgen. „Das Buch ist vor allem für den amerikanischen Markt bestimmt, und es geht darum, wie wir die Islamisierung weltweit besser bekämpfen können“, sagte Wilders in einem Interview mit der Zeitung „De Telegraaf“.
Der Chef der Partei für die Freiheit (PVV) will mit der Veröffentlichung die weltweite Ausbreitung der von ihm gegründeten „International Freedom Alliance“ zur Zurückdrängung des Islam fördern. „Wir können in den Niederlanden eine ganze Menge tun, aber wir wollen auch international ein Signal an die arabische Welt senden, dass hart zurückgeschlagen wird durch eine Partei, die hier viel zu sagen hat.“ >>> dpa/lha | Freitag, 31. Dezember 2010
NZZ ONLINE: Im Pazifik ist das neue Jahr bereits einige Stunden alt. Die Bewohner von Kiribati haben traditionellerweise als erste auf dem Globus den Jahreswechsel gefeiert. In Sydney gab es wiederum ein grosses Feuerwerk.
Millionen von Menschen haben in Australien und Asien mit zum Teil prachtvollen Feiern das neue Jahr begrüsst. Die Menschen in Ozeanien haben als erste das neue Jahr begrüsst. Für die 6000 Bewohner des Inselstaates Kiribati im Pazifik begann das Jahr 2011 um 11 Uhr MEZ. Sieben Tonnen Feuerwerk >>> afp/ddp | Freitag, 31. Dezember 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Roger Carr, the tycoon who saw through the sale of the 200-year-old British company Cadbury to the US multinational Kraft in February, has been knighted for services to industry in today's New Year Honours list.Sir Roger was praised by the City for getting a good deal for shareholders when the Cadbury sale went through in February. Since then Kraft has announced that it is moving the firm's headquarters to Switzerland to avoid UK tax, at a probable cost of thousands of UK jobs.
The award is doubly controversial because Sir Roger also chairs Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, which recently announced a 7 per cent price hike. Soon after that announcement, Centrica raised its full year profit forecast to more than £2.2bn. The regulator, Ofgem, is holding an inquiry into whether major energy companies are "lining their pockets". >>> Andy McSmith | Friday, December 31, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A majority of Estonians are embracing the joining of their economy to the eurozone on Saturday in spite of the deepening crisis of confidence in the single currency.
The Baltic country becomes the 17th member of the euro and the first from the former Soviet Union. Some 85m euro coins featuring a map of Estonia and 12m banknotes have gone into circulation, starting a two-week phase out of the national currency, the kroon.
Joakim Helenius, chief executive of Trigon Capital, an asset management company, said that 20 years after breaking away from the Soviet Union the euro was a "symbol of hope" for many Estonians, adding, "It symbolises that Estonia has emerged as a full member of the European family."
After a year of convulsions and ever-direr predictions that the euro cannot survive, the majority of Estonians still support joining. A recent, admittedly small, poll showed that 52 per cent backed the move although that was slightly down from November. The Finance Ministry blamed the slippage on an early case of nostalgia for the kroon. >>> Martin Banks in Brussels | Friday, December 31, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: As they welcome the new year, we'll be keeping you up to date with the celebrations as they happen
Hi-Fi Hymn Book >>>
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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The terrorist threat to Britain is "as serious as it has ever been", David Cameron warns today.
In his new year message, the Prime Minister says that the security services are facing a daily struggle to stop plots that would "do terrible harm to our people and our economy".
The risk of terrorism has been demonstrated by the arrest this month of nine men accused of plotting a Christmas bombing campaign with targets including the London Stock Exchange and Big Ben, Mr Cameron declares.
He also suggests that Britain faces fundamental questions about why young Muslims continue to be drawn into violent extremism. The Islamic community must help address how their minds are "poisoned", he says.
Mr Cameron's stark message comes amid a prolonged row between Coalition ministers over anti-terrorism laws, with the Liberal Democrats pressing for some of Labour's contentious security measures to be watered down.
Mr Cameron says: "For many years now, we have been aware of the threat we face from international terrorism. Recent arrests show that that threat is still very much with us. And it is as serious today as it ever has been." >>> James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Friday, December 31, 2010
Politically correct goggledygook from the fresh-faced Mr. Cameron. “International terrorism” indeed! Surely you must mean Islamic terrorism, Mr. Cameron. This is the threat we face. Another name for it is the Jihad. If we are to have a brighter, more secure future in Britain, nay in the West, we shall have to start calling things by their real names. Euphemisms just won’t do.
The facts are as plain as the nose on your face, Mr. Cameron. We have one almighty, herculean task ahead of us if we wish to get the better of all the Muslims in our midst who so clearly wish to destroy our free way of life. So get real, Mr. Cameron! Get real!
By the way, Mr. Cameron, you say that the “overwhelming majority of British Muslims detest this extremism”. What evidence do you have to say this? Isn’t this just spin and platitude? – © Mark
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A friend of Kate Middleton was interviewed under caution for claiming on Facebook that she planned to shoot illegal immigrants.
Emma Sayle, 32, posted a message that read: "Just had a two-hour shooting lesson. She will now be using this skill on the top of East London high rises to help with the UK's illegal immigrant problem."
One person who read the comment reported Miss Sayle to police. A file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service but Scotland Yard said yesterday that the investigation has been dropped and no further action will be taken.
Miss Sayle is the leader of The Sisterhood, an all-female rowing crew which counted Miss Middleton among its members.
She dismissed the complaint as "pathetic", saying it was "created by someone who's obviously got a grudge".
In a second posting on Facebook, she wrote: "Just had a call from the old bill demanding I go in as someone has reported me for apparently making racist comments... hahaha... using my new found gun skills to control the UK's illegal immigrant population is not what I call racist."
Her Twitter page features a link to an article on a Right-wing website headed "Australia says no to Muslims". >>> Anita Singh | Friday, December 31, 2010
FOX NEWS: Sharia (Islamic Law) Not O.K. in Oklahoma: Oklahoma State Representative Rex Duncan wants to make sure no judge ever uses Sharia (Islamic law) to decide a case in Oklahoma. >>> Douglas Kennedy | Friday, June 25, 2010
America At Risk – Newt and Callista Gingrich – Citizens United Productions >>>
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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama's family holiday in Hawaii is reportedly costing at least $1.5 million (£1 million) as mainland America is battered by storms.
The calculation of Mr Obama's holiday costs included $63,000 for his wife's early flight out, and $16,800 to house Secret Service agents and Navy Seals in beach front accommodation for two weeks.
There will be a further hotel bill estimated at $134,400 for 24 White House staff staying in the Moana Hotel at a rate of $400 a day.
The estimate, by the Hawaii Reporter, also included $250,000 for local police overtime, $1 million for the president's own round trip flight to Hawaii on Air Force One, and $10,000 for a local ambulance to accompany the presidential motorcade. >>> Nick Allen, Los Angeles | Thursday, December 30, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: At least two Christians were killed and 12 people wounded in a series of attacks on Christian homes in Baghdad, according to Iraq's interior ministry.
The worst attack was in the central Baghdad district of Al-Ghadir, where a homemade bomb exploded around 8pm (1700 GMT), killing the two Christians and wounding three others, including one Christian, an official from the ministry said. >>>Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Thursday, December 30, 2010
AFP: TANGIERS, Morocco — Novelist Abdellah Taia, who has won acclaim in France and readers abroad, has challenged a taboo in his native Morocco and won't back down: he is the first writer to come out as gay in a country that bans homosexuality.
For 37-year-old Taia, who has lived in Paris for the last decade, being homosexual and Muslim are not mutually exclusive. He "feels Muslim" and is from a country where Islam is the state religion.
"I am the first Moroccan writer who has spoken openly about his homosexuality, to acknowledge it, but without turning my back on the country I'm from," he said."My homosexuality, I already felt it from the age of 13, at school.
"But despite this, I feel Muslim. There is no incompatibility between Islam and choices of sexual identity," he told AFP on a recent visit back to Morocco. >>> Omar Brouksy | Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A Moscow judge ignored pleas for leniency on Thursday evening and handed Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oil tycoon, a 14-year sentence for embezzlement.Judge Victor Danilkin gave the former head of oil group Yukos exactly what the prosecution had asked for. The sentence will be counted from Mr Khodorkovsky's 2003 arrest, meaning that he and business partner Platon Lebedev could be released in 2017.
The Russian prison service said it had not yet been decided where the two men would serve the sentence. Both were due to finish eight-year sentences for tax evasion next year.
Defendants' lawyers immediately blamed Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, for the harsh sentence. Mr Putin, who as president turned against Mr Khodorkovsky, said in a reference to the former oligarch that "thieves should sit in jail".
In a statement read out by his lawyer, Mr Khodorkovsky said: "You cannot count on the courts to protect you from the whim of bureaucrats in Russia."
International reaction was again damning. Mr Khodorkovsky is widely viewed as a political prisoner and symbol of a corrupt Russian judicial system. A senior official from the US administration said that the sentencing would complicate Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation. Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, said: "The impression remains that political motivations played a role in this trial. This contradicts Russia's frequently repeated intention to pursue full adoption of the rule of law." >>> Roland Oliphant in Moscow | Thursday, December 30, 2010
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ZEIT ONLINE: Das ungarische Mediengesetz tritt pünktlich zur EU-Ratspräsidentschaft des Landes in Kraft. Berlin hofft auf Änderungen, doch Ungarn gibt sich unbeeindruckt.
Wenn die konservative Regierung in Ungarn am kommenden Samstag die protokollarische Führungsrolle in Europa übernimmt, dürften die Staats- und Regierungschefs in so mancher europäischer Hauptstadt zutiefst beunruhigt sein. Grund sind die reichlich unorthodoxen Maßnahmen, die das Kabinett unter Führung von Ministerpräsident Viktor Orbán jüngst erlassen hatte. Dazu gehören neben einer Sondersteuer für Unternehmen auch ein neues Presserecht, das europaweit für Empörung gesorgt hat. >>> dpa, Reuters, AFP | Donnerstag, 30. Dezember 2010
LE TEMPS: Le mouvement islamiste, qui dirige la bande de Gaza d’une main de fer, est de plus en plus critiqué par les Palestiniens du territoire sous blocus israélien. Mais le dire ouvertement peut mener à la prison
Des drapeaux verts, celui de l’islam et… du Hamas, par milliers: de Beit Hanoun, dans le nord, à Rafah, au sud, personne, dans la bande de Gaza, ne peut ignorer que le mouvement islamiste palestinien qui domine le petit territoire côtier a célébré le 14 décembre ses 23 ans d’existence. On en était, en 1987, aux frémissements initiaux de la première Intifada. Que d’eau a coulé depuis lors…
Le Hamas contrôle le territoire d’une main de fer. Tout le monde le dit ou, en tout cas, le pense. Car une chape de plomb a recouvert les esprits. «Si la moindre critique peut vous mener en prison parce que vous avez été dénoncé par un voisin que vous croyiez votre ami, eh bien! la plupart des gens choisissent de se taire, résume un habitant de Nusseirat, dans le centre de la bande. Ils veulent contrôler nos vies, jusqu’à nous empêcher de boire de l’alcool. Ils mettent leurs hommes à tous les postes. Alors, la population fait le gros dos, affecte de s’islamiser, tout le monde va à la mosquée le vendredi, prie tous les jours. Les gens s’adaptent.» >>> Baudouin Loos envoyé special du Temps à Gaza | Mardi 28 Décembre 2010
BBC: Three men have been charged in a Danish court with attempting to carry out an act of terrorism.
They were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of plotting to attack the offices of a newspaper which printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
A fourth man has been released while a fifth, arrested in Sweden, is still being held in Stockholm.
The three men were remanded in custody for four weeks by a court in Glostrup, west of Copenhagen.
For the first two weeks they will be held in isolation, according to Lykke Soerensen, who heads the legal department of Danish intelligence agency PET.
She told the TV2 channel that isolation was necessary because of concerns that the three men might try to "affect the investigation and affect the witnesses". >>> | Thursday, December 30, 2010
BBC: A Polish judge has jailed a Swedish man for two years and eight months for plotting the theft of the "Arbeit macht frei" Auschwitz entrance sign.
Anders Hoegstroem, a former neo-Nazi leader, admitted theft under a plea bargain last month and will be moved to Sweden to serve his sentence.
The infamous sign was stolen in December last year and recovered in three pieces three days later.
The judge in Krakow also jailed two Poles for up to two-and-a-half years.
One of the pair, named as Andrzej S, apologised in court for the offence, Polish media report.
The 5m (16ft) wrought-iron slogan which translates as "Work sets you free" is a potent symbol of many of the Nazi-era atrocities. During the Nazi Holocaust, 1.1 million people - most of them Jews - were murdered at Auschwitz. >>> | Thursday, December 30, 2010
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Un restaurant de l’archipel des Maldives qui avait accroché des décorations de Noël a provoqué des manifestations d’hostilité parmi la population de cet archipel où l’islam est la seule religion officielle, a indiqué jeudi la police. Les guirlandes incriminées ont été retirées et le restaurant a présenté ses excuses. Le Jade Bistro, situé dans la capitale Malé, était orné de boules et de guirlandes de Noël pour mettre en avant «des dîners de fêtes». Il avait également proposé un menu spécial Noël - sandwiches à la dinde et bûche - mais selon les autorités locales, ce sont les décorations qui ont provoqué la colère de la population.
Aux Maldives, une destination touristique de l’océan indien prisée des Occidentaux, les autres croyances en dehors de l’islam sont interdites aux citoyens et les étrangers ne doivent pas les exhiber en public. >>> ATS/AFP | Jeudi 30 Décembre 2010
THE NEW YORK TIMES: JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — It is an architectural absurdity. Just south of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Muslim world’s holiest site, a kitsch rendition of London’s Big Ben is nearing completion. Called the Royal Mecca Clock Tower, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the world, the centerpiece of a complex that is housing a gargantuan shopping mall, an 800-room hotel and a prayer hall for several thousand people. Its muscular form, an unabashed knockoff of the original, blown up to a grotesque scale, will be decorated with Arabic inscriptions and topped by a crescent-shape spire in what feels like a cynical nod to Islam’s architectural past. To make room for it, the Saudi government bulldozed an 18th-century Ottoman fortress and the hill it stood on.The tower is just one of many construction projects in the very center of Mecca, from train lines to numerous luxury high-rises and hotels and a huge expansion of the Grand Mosque. The historic core of Mecca is being reshaped in ways that many here find appalling, sparking unusually heated criticism of the authoritarian Saudi government.
“It is the commercialization of the house of God,” said Sami Angawi, a Saudi architect who founded a research center that studies urban planning issues surrounding the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and has been one of the development’s most vocal critics. “The closer to the mosque, the more expensive the apartments. In the most expensive towers, you can pay millions” for a 25-year leasing agreement, he said. “If you can see the mosque, you pay triple.” Read on and comment >>> Nicolai Ouroussoff | Wednesday, December 29, 2010
HUDSON NEW YORK: The city of Barcelona, widely known as a European Mecca of anti-clerical postmodernism, has agreed to build an official mega-mosque with a capacity for thousands of Muslim worshipers. The new structure would rival the massive Islamic Cultural Center in Madrid, currently the biggest mosque in Spain. An official in the office of the Mayor of Barcelona says the objective is to increase the visibility of Muslims in Spain, as well as to promote the "common values between Islam and Europe."
The Barcelona mosque project is just one of dozens of new mosques that are in various stages of construction across Spain. Overall, there are now thirteen mega-mosques in Spain, and more than 1000 smaller mosques and prayer centers scattered across the country, the majority of which are located in Catalonia in northeastern Spain.
The Muslim building spree reflects the rising influence of Islam in Spain, where the Muslim population has jumped to an estimated 1.5 million in 2010, up from just 100,000 in 1990, thanks to massive immigration. The construction of new mosques comes at a time when municipalities linked to the Socialist Party have closed dozens of Christian churches across Spain by way of new zoning laws that several courts have now ruled discriminatory and unconstitutional. It also comes at a time of growing anti-Semitism in Spain.
The Barcelona mosque project was announced during a weeklong seminar titled " Muslims and European Values," jointly sponsored by the European Council of Moroccan Ulemas [Muslim religious scholars], based in Brussels, and the Union of Islamic Cultural Centers in Catalonia, based in Barcelona. A representative of the Barcelona mayor's office who attended the conference told the Madrid-based El País newspaper that the municipality would get involved in the mosque project because "although religion pertains to the private realm, this does not mean it does not have a public role." >>> Soeren Kern | Thursday, December 30, 2010
NEW YORK POST: If 2010 was the year America finally woke up to political Islam's ne farious reach on US soil, with luck 2011 will be the year we launch an offensive against it. One way to begin that process is through hearings that Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the new chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, plans to hold on American Muslim radicalization.
Attention to this issue offers an opportunity for American Muslims to confront the radicalization problem and provide solutions -- as only they can.
My group, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, believes these hearings will shed light on the diversity of American Muslims, giving our community a chance to step from behind the veil of Muslim victimization and address head-on the need for long-overdue ideological reforms. >>> M. Zuhdi Jasser * | Thursday, December 30, 2010
* M. Zuhdi Jasser, a physician and a former US Navy lieutenant commander, is the founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. info@aifdemocracy.org
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A number of palaces of Russia's super-rich have been revealed by the magazine Forbes, including a mysterious 18th century style estate built since the mid-2000s which is standing empty and no one knows who built it.
Hundreds of palaces have been built in the Russian countryside in the last 15 years when newly rich oligarchs began looking for ways to display their stupendous – and often ill-gotten – wealth. The village of Zukovka, on the Rublovka highway west of Moscow, is dotted with immense country residences: mock medieval castles, imitation 19th century mansions, and huge Swiss chalets crouch behind three meter high fences and security cameras. But their owners are secretive and hide their mansions inside exclusive settlements screened by trees and guarded by police. >>> Roland Oliphant in Moscow | Wednesday, December 29, 2010
By contrast, for this former oligarch, life isn't quite so rosy:
THE TIMES: Brutal gulag and hard rations await tycoon found guilty twice >>> Tony Halpin, Moscow | Wednesday, December 29, 2010 (£)
THE GUARDIAN: Mikhail Khodorkovsky sentenced to 14 years in prison: Jailed former oligarch given six more years for theft and money laundering after widely condemned trial >>> Mark Tran and agencies | Thursday, December 30, 2010
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Russian Judge Extends Term for Tycoon by 6 Years: MOSCOW — Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the Russian tycoon who was imprisoned after defying Vladimir V. Putin, was sentenced to another six years behind bars on Thursday. It was a stiff term that was considered an unambiguous signal that Mr. Putin was not loosening control over the country in advance of presidential elections that he might enter. >>> Clifford J. Levy |Thursday, December 30, 2010
ZEIT ONLINE: So wie der Urteilsspruch ruft auch das Strafmaß für Chodorkowskij massive Kritik hervor. Die Bundesregierung und die USA zweifeln am Rechtsstaat in Russland.
Die Hoffnung von Michail Chodorkowskij auf eine baldige Freilassung hatte sich spätestens am vergangenen Montag verflüchtigt: Da wurde er von einem Moskauer Gericht erneut für schuldig gesprochen, schuldig des Betrugs und der Geldwäsche. Seit wenigen Stunden ist auch klar, wie lange er dafür noch hinter Gitter verbringen muss: Wie sein ebenfalls verurteilter früherer Geschäftspartner Platon Lebedjew wird auch der frühere Öl-Unternehmer vermutlich erst im Frühjahr 2017 wieder auf freiem Fuß sein. Weiter lessen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> dpa, AFP | Donnerstag, 30. Dezember 2010
FOX NEWS: MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A leader of Somalia's Islamist insurgency threatened to attack America during a speech broadcast Monday.
"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country," said Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf.
Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment. About 20 have traveled to Somalia for training and at least three were used as suicide bombers inside Somalia. Al-Shabab holds most of southern and central Somalia and has the support of hundreds of foreign fighters, mostly radicalized East Africans.
It seeks to overthrow the weak U.N.-backed government, which is protected by 8,000 Ugandan and Burundian African Union peacekeepers. >>> Associated Press | Monday, December 27, 2010
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Only half of British adults are confident that Britain can now be described as “a Christian country”, according to research.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has written to David Cameron urging him to review laws that have seen Christians forced to abandon their faith in public.
He warned that reforms introduced under Labour promoted “tolerance, equality and fairness” at a cost of eroding Christianity as the foundation of British culture and society.
The warnings follow a series of court cases in which the beliefs of Christians have come into conflict with the state authorities.
A ComRes poll of 1,000 adults, conducted for Christian Concern, found that 72% of adults thought Christians should be able to refuse to act against their beliefs without being penalised by their employers.
But only 50% said they were confident that Britain can now be described as “a Christian country”, according to the survey, released for the Not Ashamed campaign, which Lord Carey supports.
In the letter to the Prime Minister, Lord Carey said Christians were too often "ridiculed” and dismissed as relics of “a bygone age”. >>> Tim Ross, Religious Affairs Editor | Tuesday, December 28, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: Men arrested in connection with suspected plot to attack a newspaper that published cartoons of Prophet Muhammad
Denmark's intelligence service has arrested four people suspected of planning an "imminent" terror attack against a newspaper that printed the controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoons.
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service, known as Pet, said three of the four men were residents of Sweden and had entered the country last night.
Jakob Scharf, the head of Pet, said "an imminent terror attack has been foiled". He described some [of] the suspects as "militant Islamists". >>> Associated Press | Wednesday, December 29, 2010
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