Wednesday, January 18, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: In bid for improved rights, six same sex couples will attempt to get married in South Carolina on the eve of the GOP primary
For this couple, however, the normal pre-marital concerns about lost rings, rowing families and too-revealing speeches will be overshadowed by the certain knowledge that their request for a marriage licence will be denied.
Alyssa Weaver and Michel McIver are one of six same-sex couples attempting to get married in South Carolina, where gay marriage is illegal. The couples will attempt to get marriage licences as part of the Campaign for Southern Equality's bid for improved LGBT rights in America.
"We want to get married for the same reasons as any other couple," Weaver, a nursing student, told the Guardian.
"We love each other, we're in a long-term committed relationship, we want to be with each other for the rest of our lives, and on a practical note we want the same legal protection that every other couple is entitled to by getting married."
Three couples, including Weaver and McIver, will request marriage licenses in Greenville on Tuesday afternoon. Three more will try on Wednesday.
The bid takes place as Republican candidates for president – most of whom are openly opposed to gay marriage – compete for votes in the state ahead of the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
Weaver said the fact she and McIver, who works in mental health, are prevented from marrying "reinforces the fact that legally we're second class citizens".
"It's also a civil rights issue," she said. "We're citizens of the US, we're grown adults, we work and go to school and are productive, yet the government and society as a whole is telling us we're not the same, we're not as good." » | Adam Gabbatt | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Nur anderthalb Jahre hat Viktor Orbán gebraucht. In dieser kurzen Zeit ist es dem ungarischen Regierungschef gelungen, sein Land umzukrempeln. Bürgerrechte und Pressefreiheit wurden eingeschränkt, die demokratische Gewaltenteilung ausgehebelt, eine Verfassung im Geiste des autoritär-nationalistischen Horthy-Regimes der Zwischenkriegszeit verabschiedet. Ungarn ist in der EU derzeit politisch isoliert und steht am Rand des Staatsbankrotts. Nun hat auch noch die EU-Kommission Klage eingereicht. Brüssel hält die Verfassungsreform Orbáns für einen Verstoß gegen EU-Recht - und droht damit, dem finanziell schwer angeschlagenen Land keine Hilfsgelder zu bewilligen. Eine bemerkenswerte Entwicklung für das frühere Modell- und Musterreformland, an dem sich andere Staaten der Region viele Jahre orientiert hatten.
Orbán selbst, einst ein vielbewunderter Politiker, gilt inzwischen als obskure Mischung aus Wladimir Putin und Hugo Chávez. Doch der kleine Mann aus dem kleinen nordwestungarischen Dorf Alcsútdoboz ist keineswegs nur ein Kuriosum. Orbán und sein Ungarn stehen vielmehr für das, was sich in großen Teilen Mittel- und Südosteuropas abspielt.
Aber nicht nur die fragilen Ökonomien der Region sind noch immer oder schon wieder bedroht. Viele Länder Mittel- und Südosteuropas finden auch nicht zu politischer und sozialer Stabilität. Die osteuropäischen Gesellschaften haben zwei Jahrzehnte ununterbrochener Reformen und harter Austeritätspolitik hinter sich. Nun sind die allermeisten Menschen in der Region zutiefst erschöpft, Demokratiemüdigkeit, Euro-Skeptizimus und Abneigung gegen den einst vergötterten Westen wachsen erschreckend schnell.
"In vielerlei Hinsicht läuft in Osteuropa ein ähnlicher Prozess der Desillusionierung ab wie im Sozialismus der siebziger und achtziger Jahre", sagt der ungarische Wirtschaftswissenschaftler und Publizist László Lengyel. "Die Gefahr dabei ist, dass ganze Gesellschaftsschichten oder Regionen wie Ostpolen, die Ostslowakei und Ostungarn der Hoffnungslosigkeit und dem Extremismus zum Opfer fallen." » | Von Keno Verseck | Dienstag 17. Januar 2012
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: EU Takes Legal Action Against Hungary: The European Commission has launched legal proceedings against Hungary, accusing it of breaching EU treaties with laws that undermine the independence of the justice system and central bank. The case could delay the payment of international aid needed to shore up Hungary's economy. » | cro -- wth wire reports | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The European Court of Human Rights has blocked the extradition of Jordanian national Abu Qatada, who is alleged to have been Osama bin Laden's right-hand-man in Europe.
The court also said it would be willing to consider diplomatic assurances from Jordanian authorities that Abu Qatada would not be tortured.
But Amnesty International says that is a position it finds disappointing.
Alice Wyss, a researcher at the UK-based rights organisation, discussed the Abu Qatada case with Al Jazeera's Felicity Barr.
Related »
BRITISH HUMANIST ASSOCIATION: A talk organised yesterday by the Queen Mary Atheism, Secularism and Humanism Society on ‘Sharia Law and Human Rights’ had to be cancelled after threats of violence.
The President of the Society, describes what happened:
‘Five minutes before the talk was due to start a man burst into the room holding a camera phone and for some seconds stood filming the faces of all those in the room. He shouted ‘listen up all of you, I am recording this, I have your faces on film now, and I know where some of you live’, at that moment he aggressively pushed the phone in someone’s face and then said ‘and if I hear that anything is said against the holy Prophet Mohammed, I will hunt you down.’ He then left the room.» | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
‘The same man then began filming the faces of Society members in the foyer and threatening to hunt them down if anything was said about Mohammed, he added that he knew where they lived and would murder them and their families. On leaving the building, he joined a large group of men, seemingly there to support him. We were told by security to stay in the Lecture Theatre for our own safety. On arriving back in the room I became aware that the doors that opened to the outside were still open and that people were still coming in. Several eye witnesses reported that when I was in the foyer a group of men came through the open doors, causing a disruption and making it clear that the room could not be secured. Unfortunately, the lack of security in the lecture theatre meant we and the audience had to leave and a Union representative informed the security that as students’ lives had been threatened there was no way that the talk could go ahead.
Rival presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s Iowa coalitions director, Jamie Johnson, sent out an email saying that children’s lives would be harmed if the nation had a female president. [...]Johnson, who remains on Santorum’s staff, complained that the email was “blown out of proportion” and should not be held against him because it was sent from a personal email account. » | Marie Diamond | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
“The question then comes, ‘Is it God’s highest desire, that is, his biblically expressed will, … to have a woman rule the institutions of the family, the church, and the state?’" Johnson’s email said.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir Salman Rushdie's name has been dropped from an Indian literature festival amid fears for his safety after threats of protests by the country's most influential Islamic seminary.
Sir Salman has spoken at Jaipur in the past without controversy but his scheduled appearance at this year's festival, which opens on Thursday, was seized on by political parties after the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary – one of Islam's most powerful bodies – called on the government to revoke his visa or stop him entering the country.
The seminary's head Abul Qasim Nomani said the author could never be forgiven for the 'blasphemy' contained in his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which provoked outrage throughout the Islamic world.
He went into hiding after the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian Shia leader, issued a fatwa calling for his death over claims made by the novel's narrator that disputed verses in the Koran had been disclosed by the Archangel Gabriel.
The novel was banned throughout the Islamic world, including India, which has a Muslim population of just under 180 million. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
How surprising! This is the religion of peace and love and tolerance and forgiveness we are talking about, isn't it? This must surely be a very unusual decision for Muslims! – © Mark
This comment also appears here
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BBC – NEWSNIGHT: Dutch former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who has received death threats for her defiance of Islam, said Muslims "needed to unite for freedom and change" in women's rights.
She told Emily Maitlis there was a need to separate Islam and Sharia law from politics. Watch video » | Broadcast on Monday, March 28, 2011
BBC: There has been a rapid rise in the use of Sharia law to settle legal disputes in the UK, with the number of cases being dealt with by informal courts trebling in recent years, according to the largest Sharia body.
The courts have no legal standing, but many Muslims and some non-Muslims see them as a quicker and more efficient way to resolve disagreements.
But there is also opposition from some groups who argue that the practice discriminates against women, as the BBC Asian Network's Divya Talwar reports. Watch video » | Monday, January 16, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Sadakat Kadri says religious courts, such as the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, could benefit the community as a whole
Sadakat Kadri told the Guardian that so-called "sharia courts", such as the Muslim arbitration tribunal, were good for "the community as a whole" by putting Sharia on a transparent, public footing and should be more widely accessible to those who want to use them.
Kadri said they played a role in safeguarding human rights: "It's very important that they be acknowledged and allowed to exist. So long as they're voluntary, which is crucial, it's in everyone's interests these things be transparent and publicly accessible. If you don't have open tribunals, they're going to happen anyway, but behind closed doors."
In 2008, Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, sparked controversy when he appeared to suggest that sharia law should be more widely adopted.
In fact, under the Arbitration Act 1996, the rulings of religious bodies, including the Muslim arbitration tribunal, already have legal force in disputes involving matters such as inheritance and divorce.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, has long opposed the use of sharia in the UK, and argued the rule of law "must not be compromised by the introduction of a theocratic legal system operating in parallel".
He said: "There can be no convincing case made for it to have even a toe-hold in western societies that have developed a mature and far superior legal system. I regard any legal system based on a theocratic model as being dangerous and innately unjust. There is no escaping the fact – whatever interpretation you put on it — that sharia treats women differently from men[.]" » | David Shariatmadari | Sunday, January 15, 2012
ON ISLAM: TUEBINGEN, Germany – One of Germany's oldest university [sic] has opened the country's first department of Islamic theology to educate a new generation of enlightened Muslim preachers, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported.
“Religion needs to be thought through,” Education Minister Annette Schavan, who is herself a graduate in Catholic theology, said.
Opening the theology department at Tuebingen University, Schavan said the department was a “milestone for integration” of Muslims who make up 5 percent of the population.
The course, to start at the University of Tu[e]bingen, will offer bachelor programs in Islamic studies.
Though the teaching will be conducted in German, Arabic, the language of the Qur’an, will be a compulsory subject.
The three professors at the department had to satisfy an Islamic advisory council that they were devout Muslims.
Tu[e]bingen department is one of four new centers in Germany dedicated to the study of Islamic theology.
Tuebingen, a public university where tuition is free, is one of Europe’s leading centers of academic Christian theology. » | OnIslam & News Agencies | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
WIKI: Tübingen University »
Perry made the statement during a spirited debated between Republican presidential candidates in South Carolina Monday night.
Most of Turkey was fast asleep during the live broadcast, and Turkish newspapers had already gone to print by the time Perry declared that Turkey had moved "far away from the country I lived in back in the 1970s United States Air Force. That was our ally that worked with us, but today we don't see that."
The Texas governor also argued that it was time for Washington to cut foreign aid to Ankara.
A spokesman for Turkey's foreign ministry fired back Tuesday, accusing Perry of making "baseless and improper claims."
In a statement e-mailed to CNN, Selcuk Unal said presidential candidates should "be more informed about the world and be more careful their statements." Read on and comment » | Ivan Watson and Yesim Comert | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
THE SUN: A BRITISH soldier turned Islamic extremist has been arrested on suspicion of fraud.
Radical convert Abu Jibreel — who says drinkers should be whipped — is alleged to have pocketed donations for foreign war victims he collected outside mosques.
Ex-Irish Guard Jibreel, 39, formerly called Paul Steven Mellor, was arrested in Leyton, East London, over allegations of fraud and false misrepresentation.
He was quizzed by detectives yesterday [December 22, 2011] over claims he used a fake ID to collect cash by saying it was for victims in civil war-torn Somalia and Libya.
Cheshire-born Jibreel — one of hate preacher Anjem Choudary's acolytes and a one-time member of the banned Muslims Against Crusades group — is then alleged to have stolen the money. » | Mike Sullivan | Friday, December 23, 2011
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THE JERUSALEM POST: Despite Breivik attacks, police security chief says home-grown Islamic extremism poses higher threat than right-wing extremists.
OSLO - Radical Islam remains the most serious threat faced by Norway despite the attacks by an Islamophobe extremist who killed 77 people last summer, the chief of the security police said on Tuesday.
Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway's Police Security Service, said her agency would focus on broad-based dangers from home-grown Islamic extremism even though threats against public officials have risen since the July attacks, which targeted Norway's left wing.
"In recent years we have seen a development in which (Muslim) people raised in Norway become radicalized, and for whom Norway and Norwegian society are the enemy," she told a news conference.
"These people have a lot of contact with extreme Islamists abroad. They travel to training camps in conflict areas and they travel to participate in armed combat before returning to Norway."
Responding to critics who have said the police are neglecting the threat from right-wingmilitants like Anders Behring Breivik, who admitted carrying out the July 22 attacks, she said the threat they represent is far smaller. » | Reuters | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
THE JERUSALEM POST – EDITORIAL: Norway’s challenge: Europe’s fringe right-wing extremists present a real danger to society. But Oslo’s devastating tragedy should not be allowed to be manipulated by those who would cover up the abject failure of multiculturalism. » | JPOST EDITORIAL | Sunday, July 24, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Cleric cannot be sent back to Jordan as 'there remains a real risk that evidence obtained by torture will be used against him'
The European court of human rights [sic] (ECHR) ruled there would be a breach of his right to a fair trial "given the real risk of the admission of evidence obtained by torture at his retrial".
It is the first time that the Strasbourg-based court has found that an expulsion would be in violation of European convention on human rights article six, the right to a fair trial.
The cleric, also known as Omar Othman, featured in sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the 9/11 bombers.
Law lords ruled almost three years ago that Qatada, described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", could be sent back to Jordan, but he appealed to the court in Strasbourg, claiming he would be tortured if sent home.
But in a landmark judgment in February 2009, five law lords unanimously backed the government's policy of removing terror suspects from Britain on the basis of assurances from foreign governments.
The ECHR has now said in this case such a move would breach Qatada's right to a fair trial. » | Press Association | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Abu Qatada cannot be deported to Jordan, European judges rule: Abu Qatada, once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe”, cannot be extradited to Jordan, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. » | Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Kim Jong-nam, eldest son of Kim Jong-il, describes succession as 'a joke' and predicts the regime will collapse in new book
The book says that Kim Jong-nam – who has never met the new leader, his half-brother Kim Jong-un – described the dynastic succession as "a joke to the outside world", and said even his father had originally opposed the hereditary transfer of power.
"The Kim Jong-un regime will not last long," Kim Jong-nam is said to have written, forecasting a power struggle. "Without reforms, North Korea will collapse, and when such changes take place, the regime will collapse."
He added: "I think we will see valuable time lost as the regime sits idle fretting over whether it should pursue reforms or stick to the present political structure."
The claims emerge in a book by Yoji Gomi, a journalist with Tokyo Shimbun, who said he exchanged emails with Kim Jong-nam over seven years. The date of the remarks on the regime is unclear.
Gomi, who lived for years in Seoul and Beijing, said he met Kim three times in total, once in 2004 and twice in 2011.
"He gave me a very good impression. He's very gentle and friendly," Gomi said. » | Jonathan Watts and Tania Branigan in Beijing | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Kim Jong-un's brother says North Korea heading for collapse: The eldest brother of North Korea's new leader says reforms needed to avert the collapse of the country's economy will lead to the end of its Stalinist regime, according to a book to be published this week. » | Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Archbishop Timothy Dolan said that things had gone so wrong that people who waited until they were married before losing their virginity felt like deviants.
He blamed reality TV shows such as Jersey Shore - which reduce sex to 'animal rutting' - for flipping the Biblical teachings on their head.
Given the state of things, God’s word on sexual responsibility has now become 'counter cultural' as opposed to what it meant in the 1960s, he said.
Archbishop Dolan, 61, is one of the most powerful figures in the American Catholic church and is known for taking a tough moral line on a range of issues.
In his sermon at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, he said that practicing Catholics are branded holier than thou just for what they believe.
He claimed that the values of society had gone upside down and that the sexual promiscuity which was considered risque in the 1960s is now the norm.
The Catholic leader said: 'The one who, with God’s grace and mercy, tries his or her best to be pure and chaste is often thought of not as a hero, not a saint, but as a freak in our culture today.
'The biblical teaching on sexual responsibility is counter cultural.
'Anyone who tries his or her best to live it can expect a lot of temptation and even ridicule and criticism.' » | Daniel Bates | Monday, January 16, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: British tennis player wears rainbow-coloured hairband in Australian Open match in Margaret Court arena
The London teenager was playing a first-round match on the court named after Australia's most decorated female player, Margaret Court, an evangelical Christian who has created widespread controversy, especially over the past month, with her provocative views on homosexuality.
Robson, 18 next Saturday, was one of five British players who lost on the first day of the tournament but her trickiest assignment was fielding questions afterwards about her hairband. She claimed not to be making a political statement, and said she was unaware of a call by gay rights activists to take rainbow-coloured flags into the Margaret Court Arena.
"It was just a rainbow-coloured hairband," Robson said. "I didn't see anything about a protest today. I wore it because I believe in equal rights for everyone. That's it."
She did, however, know of the recent comments Court had made, which were reported here and internationally because of her standing in the game. Her stand will be seen in a favourable light by those critics of Court astounded by her insensitivity on a subject that is regularly an issue in women's tennis. » | Kevin Mitchell in Melbourne | Monday, January 16, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Kabir Ahmed denies threatening gay people with 'Death Penalty?' leaflets in first UK prosecution of its kind
Kabir Ahmed said he handed a leaflet called "Death Penalty?" to a passing policeman and put them through letterboxes around the Madeley Street area of Derby in July 2010 because he was spreading the word of God as taught through Islam.
He said: "My intention was to do my duty as a Muslim, to inform people of God's word and to give the message on what God says about homosexuality."
Ahmed, who is married with a nine-month-old daughter, is on trial at Derby crown court charged with stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, in the first prosecution of its kind since legislation came into force in March 2010.
At the opening of the trial last week the jury of seven men and five women were shown the Death Penalty? leaflet, which shows an image of a mannequin hanging from a noose and saying homosexuality is punishable by the death penalty under Islam.
The leaflet states: "The death sentence is the only way this immoral crime can be erased from corrupting society and act as a deterrent for any other ill person who is remotely inclined in this bent way."
It continues: "The only dispute amongst the classical authorities was the method employed in carrying out the penal code," and then goes on to offer burning, being flung from a high point such as a mountain or building, or being stoned to death as suitable methods. » | Press Association | Monday, January 16, 2012
Is it permissible to sit in a cafe and read Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf?" British publisher Peter McGee, 51, has no doubt. "Of course it is. It's long overdue that a broad public should get the opportunity to deal with the original text."
And because McGee is so sure he's right, he plans to serialize extracts of the book in three small 15-page brochures with an initial print run of 100,000 copies each. The front cover features a photo of Hitler with a black bar obscuring his eyes and a headline that translates to "The unreadable book."
The plans could trigger opposition from Bavarian civil servants, though. Contrary to common belief, "Mein Kampf" is not banned in Germany. But the state of Bavaria, which seized Hitler's assets after his death, owns the copyright to his infamous treatise and has so far consistently prohibited efforts to reprint it.
McGee likes a fight and is no stranger to scandal. In 2009, he published reprints of vintage Nazi newspapers like Der Angriff and Völkischer Beobachter with print runs of up to 300,000, delivered alongside comments from historians. » | Martin U. Müller and Florian Zerfaß | Monday, January 06, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Parts of Mein Kampf to be published in Germany: A British company plans to break one of the great taboos of Germany by publishing excerpts of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. ¶ Starting in two weeks Albertas Press, a London based publishing house, will print sections of the book in German with critical commentaries printed alongside. The company plans to print three 15-page editions, each with a print run of 100,000. ¶ Witten by Hitler as he served a jail sentence for his role in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Mein Kampf has not been published in Germany since the end of the Second World War. In the book Hitler mixes autobiographical elements and expositions of his political thesis, outlining his hatred of communism and Jews, and his conviction that Germany was destined to fight the "Judeo-Bolshevik regime" of the Soviet Union. » | Matthew Day | Monday, January 16, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Christian Wulff, qui présentait jeudi ses vœux pour 2012 au château de Bellevue, est apparu plus que jamais comme un président en sursis. L'ONG Transparency International et l'association de la presse allemande ont boycotté l'événement.
La chancelière, Angela Merkel, continue de soutenir à bout de bras et s'est fendue d'un sourire chaleureux. Mais sur Internet, dans les talk-shows télévisés, dans la presse et dans les conversations à Berlin, le président n'est plus qu'une «Witzfigur», un objet de plaisanterie comparé à Mickey Mouse ou à un gamin, trop immature pour la fonction. Les rumeurs de succession vont bon train. » | Par Patrick Saint-Paul | vendredi 13 janvier 2012
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Psychiatric reports on Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right extremist who killed 77 people last July, reveal new details about his comfortable life in prison, his UK links, and his total lack of remorse.
"I interpret his deviant statements as an expression of an extreme ideology, not as a psychotic view of reality," she writes.
"He has built a lot of his ideology on the British, or rather English, movement, and has not sought contact with Norwegians of the same ideology."
Torry Pedersen, editor of the Verdens Gang newspaper, decided to publish the full texts of four official psychiatric reports on Breivik this Sunday, despite a warning from police that frequent press leaks were harming the investigation. » | Richard Orange | Sunday, January 15, 2012
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Mitt Romney’s rivals are seeking to exploit doubts about his faith, values and business record in a last ditch bid to stop him claiming a third straight primary victory in the race to decide which Republican will face Barack Obama in November.
His more conservative opponents are splitting the vote in a state where six out of ten Republicans are evangelical or born again Christians, while Mr Romney's superior organisation and fund-raising is expected to pay dividends.
But South Carolina is known for surprises, and undercurrents of anti-Romney sentiment, based on his Mormonism and his previous support for abortion, could yet cripple his chances.
David Woodard, a professor of political science at Clemson University who has advised numerous presidential campaigns in South Carolina, said: "It is too early to put a crown on him."
"It's not just his faith that's the problem. It's his moderation and his history that make it hard for him to fit down here. That doesn't mean he can't win, but he is from Massachusetts and we're talking about the great-great-grandchildren of the people that fired on Fort Sumter," he said, referring to a famous Civil War battle.
At a campaign appearance over the weekend, a voter asked Mr Romney bluntly if he believed in Jesus Christ – a question which reflected the fact that 50 per cent of Americans do not believe the Church of the Latter Day Saints to be Christian.
"Yes, I do," the candidate replied, adding: "I happen to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and my saviour, but I know other people have differing views, and I respect those views and don't believe those qualify or disqualify people for leadership in our nation." Read on and comment » | Alex Spillius, Greenville, South Carolina | Sunday, January 15, 2012
THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won endorsement on the third ballot on Saturday at an invitation-only meeting of evangelicals held at the Brenham, Texas, ranch of Nancy and Paul Pressler, an evangelical leader told The Washington Times on condition of anonymity.
“The vote counters refused to tell the total votes because the message was that they are unifying behind one candidate,” the leader told The Washington Times.
The meeting’s purpose was to see if born-again Christians could find a candidate around whom to coalesce in a desperate effort to stop what has been perceived as the Mitt Romney juggernaut. The Presslers originally backed Texas Gov. Rick Perry. » | Ralph Z. Hallow | Saturday, January 14, 2012
HT: Robert Spencer @ Jihad Watch »
Saturday, January 14, 2012
STONEGATE INSTITUTE: German authorities have officially confirmed that they are monitoring German-language Internet websites that are critical of Muslim immigration and the Islamization of Europe.
According to Manfred Murck, director of the Hamburg branch of the German domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), his organization is studying whether German citizens who criticize Muslims and Islam on the Internet are fomenting hate and are thus criminally guilty of "breaching" the German constitution.
The BfV's move marks a significant setback for the exercise of free speech in Germany and comes amid a months-long smear campaign led by a triple alliance of leftwing German multicultural elites, sundry Muslim groups and members of the mainstream media, who have been relentless in their efforts to discredit the so-called counter-jihad movement (also known as the "Islamophobes") in Germany.
Opinion polls show that growing numbers of ordinary German citizens are worried about the consequences of decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged mass immigration from Muslim countries.
Germans are especially concerned about the refusal of millions of Muslim immigrants to integrate into German society, as well as the emergence of a parallel legal system in Germany based on Islamic Sharia law.
In an effort to reverse this tide of public opinion, the guardians of German multiculturalism have been working overtime to regain the initiative by accusing the critics of Islam of engaging in hate speech to try to intimidate the so-called "new right" into silence.
The media campaign has been led by two financially troubled newspapers, the Berliner Zeitung and its sister publication, the Frankfurter Rundschau, as well as Der Spiegel, a leftwing magazine based in Hamburg that has long served as the mouthpiece for German multiculturalism.
In a January 4, 2012 interview with the Berliner Zeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau, Murck said the owners of anti-Islam blogs "have a disturbed relationship to the democratic constitutional state" and often promote "infringements of human rights protected under our constitution."
Murck continued: "I also see evidence of criminal relevance, such as making threats and public invitations to crime." He said criticism of Muslims and Islam constitutes "an attack against the freedom of religion, which is protected by Article 4 of the Basic Law."
PI's motto reads "Against the Mainstream, Pro-American, Pro-Israel, Against the Islamization of Europe" which encapsulates everything the German left abhors. » | Soeren Kern | Thursday, January 12, 2012
HT: Robert Spencer @ Jihad Watch »
THE GUARDIAN: Standard & Poor's strips France of its AAA credit rating, rekindling fears in the markets over future of single currency
Europe has been plunged into a fresh crisis after France was stripped of its coveted AAA credit rating in a mass downgrade of nine eurozone countries by the ratings agency Standard & Poor's.
S&P said austerity was driving Europe even deeper into financial crisis as it also cut Austria's triple-A rating, and relegated Portugal and Cyprus to junk status.
The humiliating loss of France's top-rated status leaves Germany as the only other major economy inside the eurozone with a AAA rating, and rekindled financial market anxiety about a possible break-up of the single currency.
S&P brought an abrupt end to the uneasy calm that has existed in the eurozone since the turn of the year by downgrading the ratings of Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain by two notches. Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia were all cut by one notch.
The agency said that its actions on eurozone ratings were "primarily driven by insufficient policy measures by EU leaders to fully address systemic stresses". It added that fiscal austerity alone "risks becoming self-defeating". » | Larry Elliott and Phillip Inman | Friday, January 13, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Newt Gingrich has launched a new political attack advertisement against his Republican rival Mitt Romney – accusing him of speaking French.
The advertisement by Mr Gingrich tries to draw an unflattering parallel with another Massachusetts politician, John Kerry, the Democrat who lost to George W Bush in 2004.
"The French Connection" paints Mr Romney as another tax-raising, moderate, elitist who will "say anything" to get elected – "anything". Over Parisian accordion music, it continues: "And just like John Kerry he speaks French too."
It then delivers its coup de grace: a clip of a promotional video Mr Romney recorded for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, which he served as chief executive.
"Bonjours, je m'appelle Mitt Romney," he says.
The snippet has already been used several times in a documentary, "When Mitt Romney Came To Town", released by supporters of Mr Gingrich to expose Mr Romney's "predatory" record as head of the corporate buy-out firm Bain Capital.
That attempt to denigrate Mr Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has apparently backfired, with several prominent party figures deriding Mr Gingrich for attacking capitalism and free enterprise.
But Francophobic attacks on Mr Kerry worked in 2004 when feelings about French opposition to the Iraq war were running high. Republicans even said the senator "looked French" when it was learnt he had relatives in the country. » | Alex Spillius, Greenville, South Carolina | Friday, January 13, 2012
Newt, you're full of sh**! To attack a man for being able to speak French is low down. It shows that you have no style or class. You're a populist; and there should be no room for populists in the White House.
If you can't get to the White House on your own merits, then you don't deserve to be there. So go on home, and wait till the next election. By then you might have grown up. – © Mark
Friday, January 13, 2012
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"Lang lebe Tunesien! Lang lebe das tunesische Volk! Lang lebe die Republik!" Das waren die letzten Worte, die die Tunesier vor genau einem Jahr von ihrem damaligen Präsidenten Zine el-Abidine Ben Alihörten. Die TV-Ansprache am Abend des 13. Januar 2011 war der letzte verzweifelte Versuch des strauchelnden Diktators, das Ruder herumzureißen, das aufgebrachte Volk auf den Straßen zu besänftigen und sich an der Macht zu halten.
Es nutzte nichts: Keine 24 Stunden spatter musste der seit 1987 amtierende Alleinherrscher das Land verlassen.
In einer spektakulären Flucht setzte sich Ben Ali gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Leila per Flugzeug nach Saudi-Arabien ab. Der 75-Jährige war der erste arabische Autokrat, der 2011 nach einem Volksaufstand seinen Hut nehmen musste.
Ein kaum drei Sekunden langer Fernsehausschnitt ist seither das einzige Lebenszeichen Ben Alis. Er zeigt ihn Schulter an Schulter mit dem ehemaligen pakistanischen Präsidenten Pervez Musharraf im Gebet während der Trauerfeier für den verstorbenen saudi-arabischen Kronprinzen Sultan Bin Abd al-Asis Ende Oktober vergangenen Jahres. Der gestürzte Staatschef wirkt auf den kurzen Bildern rüstig, das Haar wie stets schwarz gefärbt. Dieser Eindruck widerspricht Gerüchten über seinen schlechten Gesundheitszustand. Angeblich soll Ben Ali schon im Februar 2011 einen Schlaganfall erlitten und zeitweise im Koma gelegen haben. Offiziell bestätigt wurden diese Meldungen jedoch nie. » | Von Christoph Sydow | Freitag 13. Januar 2012
Outside is the Judean Wilderness, the Dead Sea shimmers in the distance. Naomi Machfud is sitting inside the self-built house, dreaming about making the world disappear. She wants to cover up her face with a veil, she says, her mouth, her nose and her eyes. A black veil, without even a vision slit, one that swallows every glance and submerges the world in darkness. The veil is the pinnacle of zniut, or modesty, the closest a person can get to God. But, she says with a sigh, "unfortunately I'm not that far yet."
But Machfud, a 30-year-old woman with six children, has already created an insulating layer of material between herself and the outside world. She is wearing a wool robe, an apron, a blouse, three floor-length corduroy skirts, a black skirt and trousers. She has a piece of black wool material wrapped loosely around her head. Underneath it is a tight, black veil, and underneath that is a pale pink veil. Not a single hair is visible. She is wearing a pair of earrings, but she takes them off when she leaves the house.
Machfud is a Jewish woman married to a Jewish man. They live in a settlement in the West Bank, but she dresses as if she lived in Afghanistan. In Israel, the veiled women are referred to as the "Taliban," while they refer to themselves as women of the shawl. Machfud claims that there are thousands of women like her, but it is more likely that they number in the hundreds. They are usually seen in Jerusalem's ultra-orthodox Me'ah She'arim neighborhood, black, shapeless figures, holding the hands of their daughters, who look like miniature versions of their mothers.
One could call these women crazy. Or one could see them as the product of a religious community that is becoming more and more extremist. Gender Separation in Public » | Juliane von Mittelstaedt | Friday, January 13, 2012
Sentences of at least six months in labour camps are also apparently being given to those who didn't go to the organised mourning events, while anyone who criticised the new leader Kim Jong-un is also being punished.
Those who tried to leave the country, or even made a mobile phone call out, were also being disciplined, it has been claimed.
Daily NK says a source has claimed that 'criticism sessions' - which began after the official period of mourning - have now finished and tough sentences are being given out.
The informant from North Hamkyung Province told the website: 'The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labour-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organised gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine.'
The source claimed the criticism sessions created a 'vicious atmosphere of fear', which meant the new leader, Kim Jong-un, was being accused of preying on the people now that he has taken power.
It is unclear how many people face incarceration but the figure could be many thousands. Read on and comment » | Daily Mail Reporter | Friday, January 13, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A German chemistry teacher is under police investigation for allegedly constructing pipe bombs in class and detonating them in front of pupils by using sparklers.
The 39-year-old teacher, who has not been named, apparently taught the children how to make gunpowder and load it into the metal pipes about the size of a one-litre bottle. The bombs were then set off at a nearby heath by using sparklers for detonators, with the resulting explosion so powerful that the pupils felt the shock wave in their stomachs.
According to a report in the German newspaper Lu[e]becker Nachrichten, the teacher constructed bombs for pupils from 2009 to 2011 at a Waldorf school in Lubeck. Waldorf schools, based on the teachings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, take an unorthodox approach to education, stressing creativity and giving teachers considerable leeway in what they teach.
"No syllabus in the world contains something like this," the mother of one of the students said. » | Matthew Day | Thursday, January 12, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Dutch Queen Beatrix has sparked a far-right outcry in her country after being pictured wearing a red headscarf on a visit to a mosque in Oman.
She was quoted by reporters with her on a state visit to Oman, where television pictures showed her at the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque sporting a red headscarf draped over her traditional black hat.
She had also worn a headscarf during a visit to Abu Dhabi a few days earlier on the trip accompanied by her son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Maxima, who wore a turquoise headscarf in Oman. » | Thursday, January 12, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Thousands of foreign gay couples who wed in Canada are not legally married, a government lawyer argued in a case involving two lesbians seeking a divorce, according to court documents.
The case that prompted the government's position involves two women, one from Florida and the other from Britain, both in their early thirties, who wed in Toronto in 2005 but are now seeking a divorce.
Department of Justice lawyer Sean Gaudet said in a documented response to their application that they cannot be granted a divorce because they were not married in the first place. » | Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
LIBÉRATION: Le président américain a entamé mercredi à Chicago une série de réunions de levée de fonds pour sa campagne présidentielle.
M. Obama, qui entamait une série de trois réunions de levée de fonds pour sa campagne dans son ancien fief, a affirmé que les républicains du Congrès et les candidats à l'investiture du parti pour la présidentielle du 6 novembre n'avaient pas de stratégie pour créer des emplois ou protéger la classe moyenne. » | AFP | mercredi 11 janvier 2012
Seoul - Die Propaganda-Maschine für Kim Jong Un läuft wie geschmiert. Als "Genie der Genies" hatte das Regime in Pjöngjang den neuen Machthaber präsentiert, samt schneidiger Bilder: Kim Jong Un im Panzer, auf dem Pferderücken, am Gewehr. Doch nun kommen Misstöne - ausgerechnet aus der eigenen Familie. Der ältere Bruder des neuen nordkoreanischen Diktators sieht diesen lediglich als "Symbol" an der Spitze des Staates.
Sein Halbbruder werde von der herrschenden Elite zur Machtsicherung benutzt, schriebKim Jong Nam in einer E-Mail an die japanische Zeitung "Tokyo Shimbun". "Ich frage mich, wie ein junger Erbe nach lediglich zwei Jahren Ausbildung in der Lage sein soll, die absolute Macht zu übernehmen", schreibt der im Ausland lebende Kim Jong Nam in der Mail vom 3. Januar, die nach Angaben des Blatts authentisch ist. » | jok/AFP/dpa | Donnerstag 12. Januar 2012
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