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Tuesday, May 15, 2012
FRANCE 24: AFP - Le président de la République sortant, Nicolas Sarkozy, a quitté mardi le palais de l'Elysée après avoir passé ses pouvoirs au socialiste François Hollande.
Après près de 35 minutes d'entretien en tête à tête, Nicolas Sarkozy, main dans la main avec son épouse Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a descendu le tapis rouge jusqu'à la voiture avec laquelle il a quitté la cour d'honneur du palais présidentiel. » | AFP | mardi 15 mai 2012
Valérie Trierweiler may not be a former international supermodel, but she has recently generated as many headlines as the woman she is about to replace, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The soon-to-be new first lady of France has come under the scrutiny of the international press for her unmarried status, marking the first time an incoming French presidential couple are not legally man and wife.
The 47-year-old Trierweiler has covered plenty of political campaigns as a journalist for the glossy weekly magazine Paris Match before becoming part of the story in 2005, when her friendship with François Hollande progressively “deepened”, as she put it in her own words. » | Mehdi Chebil | dimanche 13 mai 2012
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LE FIGARO: François Hollande succède aujourd'hui officiellement à Nicolas Sarkozy. De la cérémonie d’investiture à la nomination de son premier ministre et sa première rencontre ce soir avec la chancelière allemande Angela Merkel, le nouveau président de la République a une journée extrêmement chargée. Suivez la en direct avec la rédaction du figaro.fr » | mardi 15 mai 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: An English language guide for Westerners seeking to join al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been published, with recommendations on how to cope with the hardships and dangers of life as a jihadist.
The guide includes rules such as keeping clean, not using mobile phones and thinking of virgins in paradise when bomber-drones are overhead.
Described as a “must-read” source, it has emerged on the internet less shortly after it was leaked that AQAP had been penetrated by a British spy who managed to smuggle out the latest version of their “underpants bomb”.
The guide was written by Samir Khan, an American who served as the top propagandist for the Yemen-based branch of the terrorist movement, which is considered the most dangerous to the West. He was killed by a drone attack in September, alongside AQAP’s chief ideologue, Anwar al-Awlaki,
Khan writes that he had been under the impression that he would be fighting most of the time after joining. “The reality is not quite like that,” he said.
The first section is titled “cleanliness” and says: “In some cases, you will be staying with a few brothers in a tight room or house”. “In order to avoid unnecessary problems, encourage yourself and your brothers to clean the room(s) on a regular basis. As for yourself, a daily shower is ideal but not possible in many cases.” » | Duncan Gardham | Monday, May 14, 2012
One witness, Frida Holm Skoglund, 20, was so affected by her ordeal that she asked Breivik to leave the courtroom before she would speak. He viewed proceedings via a video link from an adjoining room.
Wearing a headband made of daisies, she described in a low voice how she had pulled a bullet from her wounded leg before leaping into the water to swim the exhausting 600 yards to the mainland.
“I touched my thigh and felt something sharp there,” she said. “I pulled it out and I saw, I felt the bullet. It was not until later that it hurt,” she said.
She had run to the southern tip of the island, leapt into the water and swum. When she turned around around, she saw that those who had hesitated had been shot dead.
The witness [sic] tatements are expected to take up much of the fourth week of Breivik’s trial for the brutal massacre of 77 people in Oslo, and the nearby island of Utoya, last July. Breivik pleads guilty to carrying out the killings, but claims they were “necessary” to alert Norway to the threat he believes is posed by Islamic immigration into the country.
At the end of today’s session the 33-year-old extremist complained to the judge that the psychiatrists who have assessed his sanity will have their statements broadcast on national television, while the testimony he read out on the first day of the trial was not.
“I find it completely unacceptable that my ideological explanation will not be broadcast, while the experts’ testimony allowed broadcast. This will be skewed and will made me look insane,” he said. » | Richard Orange | Malmö | Monday, May 14, 2012
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Raising the spectre of a Greek exit, the German chancellor said “solidarity for the euro” was threatened by the on[-]going political crisis in Athens.
Stock markets around the world fell sharply with fears mounting that a euro break-up could lead to renewed financial turmoil. The FTSE-100 index of Britain’s major companies fell by two per cent to 5465, with bank shares hit particularly hard.
The cost of Spanish government borrowing also hit a record high since the single currency was introduced because of concerns that the crisis will spread.
Today, François Hollande, the new French president, will be sworn in and, in an indication of the concern gripping Europe, will almost immediately travel to Berlin to hold talks with Mrs Merkel that will be dominated by Greece’s plight.
Attempts to form a new government in Athens have been thwarted for the past nine days, although the country’s president will meet all major parties this afternoon to discuss the forming of a “technocratic” administration rather than a coalition.
An out[-]going Greek minister warned that the country could descend into “civil war” amid the chaos of a euro exit. “If Greece cannot meet its obligations and serve its debt the pain will be great,” Michalis Chrysohoidis was quoted as telling a local radio station. “What will prevail are armed gangs with Kalashnikovs and which one has the greatest number of Kalashnikovs will count … we will end up in civil war.” » | Robert Winnett, David Blair and Bruno Waterfield | Monday, May 14, 2012
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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Newsweek has depicted Barack Obama with a rainbow halo, labelling him America’s “first gay president”.
The accompanying article, written by openly-gay conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, asserts that the US president’s choice to “come out” in favour of gay marriage was well calculated.
In a statement about his piece, Mr Sullivan argued that there are similarities between Mr Obama and the homosexual community.
“He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family.” » | Amy Willis, Los Angeles | Monday, May 14, 2012
Andrew Sullivan’s article »
Related here and here
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Gulf leaders gathered in Riyadh on Monday to discuss developing their six-nation council into a union, a Saudi proposal likely to start with the kingdom and unrest-hit Bahrain.
But the proposed union between the regional kingpin Saudi Arabia and the fellow Sunni-ruled kingdom of Bahrain has been slammed by legislators in Shiite Iran.
The exact nature of this union, first floated by Saudi King Abdullah in December, remains unclear, but Bahraini State Minister for Information Samira Rajab said it could follow the "European Union model."
Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat quoted a Gulf Cooperation Council official as saying that the summit might lead to a "declaration of intentions on a union between Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar" which Kuwait might join.
Remaining GCC members, the United Arab Emirates and Oman - whose respective leaders Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan and Sultan Qaboos are not attending the Riyadh talks - would later join the union, the daily added.
Bahrain Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman said on Sunday the "option of a (GCC) union has become urgent," adding that these nations must cooperate to ensure security in the region. » | Agencies | Monday, May 14, 2012
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There are many things Alexis Tsipras likes about Germany. The leader of Greece's Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) party drives his BMW motorcycle to work at the Greek parliament in the morning, Germany's über-leftist Oskar Lafontaine is one of his political allies, and when it comes to his daily work, his colleagues have noticed a certain tendency toward Prussian-style perfection.
Tsipras could easily count as a friend of the Germans, if it weren't for the German chancellor. Greek magazines have frequently caricatured Angela Merkel dressed in a Nazi uniform, because she imposes her fondness for balanced budgets and austerity on the rest of Europe. The Greeks, says Tsipras, want to "put an end" to the Germans' requirements and their "brutal austerity policy."
Tsipras is the new political star in Athens. While the country's washed-up mainstream parties struggled for days to form a new government, the clever young politician has been dominating the headlines with his coalition movement of Trotskyites, anarchists and leftist socialists.
In the recent elections, Tsipras' Syriza party advanced to become the second-largest political force in the country, and Tsipras is making sure his gray-faced opponents from the Greek political establishment know it. Surrounded by cameras and microphones, he stood in the Athens government district last Tuesday, put on his winner's smile and called upon the two traditional parties, the center-left Socialists (PASOK) and the conservative New Democracy, to send a letter "to the EU leadership" and cancel the bailout deal that Athens made with the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Tsipras knows what many Greeks are thinking. At the end of last week, his poll numbers rose to a new record level of almost 28 percent.
Turning Point
Two years after the government in Athens requested the first emergency loans in Brussels, the European debt crisis is reaching a turning point. Europe and the international community pumped about €240 billion ($312 billion) into the Balkan nation, government employees were let go, pensions were slashed and a series of restructuring programs were approved.
But even though the country is virtually being governed by the European Commission and the IMF, Greece's debts are higher than ever and the recession is worsening. As the political situation becomes increasingly chaotic, new elections seem all the more likely.
At the Chancellery in Berlin, the television images from Athens now remind Merkel's advisers of conditions in the ill-fated Weimar Republic of 1919-1933. Back then, the Germans perceived the Treaty of Versailles as a supposed "disgrace." Now, the Greeks feel the same way about the austerity measures imposed by Brussels. And, as in the 1920s in Germany, the situation in Greece today benefits fringe parties on both the left and the right. The country's political system is unraveling, and some advisers even fear that the tense situation could lead to a military coup.
Greece has been in intensive care for years, but the patient, instead of recovering, is just getting sicker and sicker. In a confidential report, which SPIEGEL has seen, experts from the IMF arrive at a devastating verdict. The country, they write, has only "a small industrial base" and is characterized by "structural incrustations" and an "excessively large role of the public sector." » | SPIEGEL Staff | Monday, May 14, 2012
BBC: Racial and cultural factors cannot be dismissed as playing a part in the Rochdale sex grooming case, the out-going head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said.
Trevor Phillips told The Andrew Marr Show it is "fatuous" to deny racial and cultural factors. Nine men of Pakistani and Afghan origin were jailed for offences including rape last week.
Mr Philips also said he was worried that in a closed community people may have been afraid to speak out about what was happening. Watch BBC video » | Sunday, May 13, 2012
Related »
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Claims that ethnicity was not a factor in the Rochdale sexual grooming case are "fatuous", the head of the equalities watchdog said today.
Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the fact that the men convicted were Asian and their victims white could not be ignored.
He expressed concern that the men came from closed communities which may have turned a blind eye to what was happening - either out of fear or because the girls concerned were from a different community.
And he said it would be a national scandal if it turned out the authorities had failed to intervene to protect the children because of fears that it would lead to the "demonisation" of the Asian community.
A gang of nine Asian men was last week found guilty of plying girls as young as 13 with drink and drugs so they could "pass them around" and use them for sex.
Following the trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Greater Manchester Police sought to play down suggestions of any racial element to the case. » | Sunday, May 13, 2012
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Sunday, May 13, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI may reach a decision by the end of May to allow the ultraconservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) to rejoin the Catholic church, SPIEGEL has learned.
At a meeting this coming Wednesday, the four cardinals of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which oversees Catholic Church doctrine, plan to agree a proposal for reuniting the society with the Catholic Church, and will it submit it to the pope.
The Swiss-based SSPX, rejects some of the reforms made at the historic 1962 Second Vatican Council. It defied Rome in 1988 by illegally consecrating four bishops, which led to their excommunication by the late Pope John Paul. » | SPIEGEL | Sunday, May 13, 2012
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Environ 10'000 personnes se sont rassemblées dimanche pour commémorer le 67e anniversaire de la libération du camp de concentration nazi de Mauthausen.
Les manifestants, venus de plus de 50 pays ont rendu hommage aux dizaines de milliers de déportés victimes des crimes de la dictature nazie et ont témoigné de leur volonté de lutter «contre le fascisme, le racisme et toute forme de discrimination», a déclaré le président du Comité autrichien Mauthausen (MKÖ), l'Autrichien Willi Mernyi.
Même si le camp de concentration de Mauthausen n'a pas été un camp d'extermination, comme ceux d'Auschwitz, Maidanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno ou Belzec, tous situés en Pologne, 15.000 juifs et des centaines de roms y ont trouvé la mort, sans compter les milliers de juifs hongrois décédés en 1945 durant «les marches de la mort» jusqu'à Mauthausen. » | afp/Newsnet | dimanche 13 mai 2012
Anfang Mai erhielt die Islamkritikerin und Publizistin Ayaan Hirsi Ali den Freiheitspreis des Verlags Axel Springer, den ihr Verlegerin Friede Springer in Berlin überreichte. Hirsi Ali, deren Familie sie genital verstümmeln ließ und zwangsverheiraten wollte, war einst aus Somalia geflohen und hatte in den Niederlanden nicht nur Asyl gefunden, sondern auch Heimat.
Als Parlamentsabgeordnete kritisierte sie den laschen Umgang der Politik mit integrationsunwilligen Muslimen und erhielt Morddrohungen. Die Stimmung drehte sich gegen sie, weil man ihr vorwarf, bei den eigenen Einwanderungsangaben geschummelt zu haben. 2006 ging sie nach Amerika ans konservative American Enterprise Institute. Die so fragile wie furchtlose Frau ist mit dem britischen Historiker Niall Ferguson verheiratet. Er brachte ihr kurz vor der Preisverleihung ihr kleines Schwarzes samt High Heels. Sie lachte und sagte: "Thank you, darling sweet." Man denkt an Leonhard Cohens "She called it love, I called it service". » | Von Andrea Seibel | Sonntag, 13. Mai 2012
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LAS VEGAS SUN: Physical intimacy is not simply a biological action and reaction. It is bigger than that. It is more about the value system that one prefers and adopts because it affects not only the individual, family and the society but human civilizations and cultures as well as the rise and fall of nations.
On the one hand are Freudian followers who argue that civilization is a byproduct of repressed sexuality and on the other hand are those who in the words of J.D. Unwin believe that “in human records there is no instance of a society retaining its energy after a complete new generation has inherited a tradition which does not insist on pre-nuptial and post-nuptial continence.”
Unwin, a sociologist at Cambridge University, published “Sex and Culture” in 1934. He studied 86 societies and found no exceptions to the rule that the cultures flourished during eras that valued sexual fidelity and discipline. He demonstrated through empirical data that whenever sexual mores loosened, the societies declined, and whenever they followed rigid sexual discipline they rose again.
In our recent history, the fall of the Soviet society offers a recent example where Vladimir Lenin espoused a “glass of water” theory about sex, explaining that sexual desire is just like desire for food or water. The theory collapsed, and with it collapsed the Soviet society.
However, new interpretations are being offered to explain the Freudian ideas. Barbara Ehrenreich, a widely read and award-winning author of 21 books, wrote not very long ago that sex, preferably among affectionate and consenting adults, belongs squarely in the realm of play. This “de-moralization” of sex is promoting a new sexual ethics that legitimizes and justifies everything in the name of pleasure and freedom.
What was presented as his personal opinion by President Barack Obama about same-sex marriage is an effort to legitimize the de-moralization of sex to develop a new culture where every sexual activity is fine as long as individuals engaged in the act have their consent and pleasure. » | Dr. Aslam Abdullah | Sunday, May 13, 2012
WSBT.COM: KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) - Kansas lawmakers have passed legislation intended to prevent the state courts or agencies from using Islamic or other non-U.S. laws in making decisions, a measure critics have blasted as an embarrassment to the state.
The legislation, which passed 33-3 in the state Senate on Friday and 120-0 previously in the House, is widely known in Kansas as the "Sharia bill," because the perceived goal of supporters is to keep Islamic code from being recognized in Kansas.
The bill was sent to Republican Governor Sam Brownback, who has not indicated whether he will sign it.
In interviews on Saturday, a supporter of the bill said it reassured foreigners in Kansas that state laws and the U.S. Constitution will protect them. But an opponent said the bill's real purpose is to hold Islam out for ridicule. » | Kevin Murphy | Reuters | Saturday, May 12, 2012
The election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a western German state with a bigger population than the Netherlands and an economy the size of Turkey, was held 18 months before a national election in which Merkel is expected to fight for a third term.
She remains popular in Germany for her steady handling of the euro zone debt crisis, but the sheer scale of her party's defeat leaves her vulnerable at a time when a backlash against her insistence on fiscal discipline is building across Europe.
According to first projections, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) won 38.8 percent of the vote and will have enough to form a stable majority with the Greens, who scored 12.2 percent.
The two left-leaning parties had run a fragile minority government for the past two years under popular SPD leader Hannelore Kraft, whose decisive victory on Sunday could propel her to national prominence.
Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) saw their support plunge to just 25.8 percent, down from nearly 35 percent in 2010, and the worst result in the state since World War Two.
"This is not a good evening for Merkel," said Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University. » | Stephen Brown | Reuters | (Reporting by Stephen Brown and Tom Kaeckenhoff in Duesseldorf; Writing by Noah Barkin,Madeline Chambers, Sarah Marsh in Berlin) | Sunday, May 13, 2012
REUTERS DEUTSCHLAND: Rot-Grün gewinnt in NRW - Debakel für die CDU » | Sonntag, 13. Mai 2012
Lien en relation avec cette vidéo »
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Mitt Romney, probable opposant de Barack Obama à la présidentielle américaine de novembre, a passé samedi un grand oral à la Liberty University, un bastion des chrétiens évangéliques qu'il courtise.
Son discours intervient trois jours après la prise de position du président en faveur du mariage gay.
Levée de fonds
Dans un stade plein à craquer, devant plus de 20'000 personnes et environ 6000 jeunes diplômés, l'ex-gouverneur du Massachusetts a suivi les traces d'autres candidats républicains, comme Ronald Reagan ou George Bush père. Eux aussi avaient pris la parole dans cette université de Virginie (est) fondée par le pasteur télévangéliste Jerry Falwell, mort en 2007.
Quelques heures après la partie de basket de Barack Obama avec George Clooney à Los Angeles après une réunion de levée de fonds et trois jours après ses déclarations en faveur du mariage homosexuel, le discours solennel de Mitt Romney dans la plus grande université chrétienne du pays semblait destiné à lui faire prendre le contre- pied du président. » | ats/Newsnet | samedi 12 mai 2012
MAIL ONLINE: The economic crisis across Europe has perhaps been most keenly felt in Greece, where people have taken to the streets in violent and emotional protests against the austeri[t]y measures imposed on the nation. / In this heartbreaking dispatch from the streets of Athens, SUE REID finds mothers who have been forced to sell their own children in the battle for survival.
Once a month, usually on a Saturday, Kasiani Papadopoulou packs a bag with children’s presents and takes the bus from her one-bedroom flat in a dusty suburb of Athens up into the cool hills outside the Greek capital that overlook the sea.
The 20-mile journey is an emotional one for her, but she would not stop making it for anything in the world.
A young widow of 30, she travels to see her two daughters and son — aged 14, 13 and 12. Kasiani was forced to give them away a year ago when her money ran out and she was unable to pay for their food, her rent or send them to school with shoes or books.
At the charity home where the three are now cared for, the children excitedly shout ‘Mama’ as they run down the steps to greet her. Her eldest daughter, Ianthe, hugs her tightly and gives her a kiss.
When, a few hours later, it is time to say goodbye, Kasiani is always close to tears. The youngest, Melissa and Markos, cling to her before she leaves to go home alone.
‘It is not easy for a mother to leave her kids,’ she says to me, her voice cracking with emotion when I spoke to her this week in Athens.
‘At Christmas, at Easter, on their birthdays, I am always so sad because I do not see them. Some people judge me over what I’ve done — even my own family and neighbours — but they do not understand the truth. I’ve done what is best for my children.
‘I cannot count the number of doorbells I have rung of government departments, asking officials to help me and my family. They make promises but do nothing. They have no money either. Our country is in crisis.’
Kasiani’s children were born in a country which has been brought to its knees by crushing debt. This was built up by Greece’s huge profligacy after joining the European Union and then milking the system for everything it could get.
The public sector wage bill doubled in the past decade as perks and fiddles reminiscent of Britain in the union controlled 1970s flourished. Paying taxes became optional for the middle and upper classes and corruption was rife.
Until two years ago, the big fat Greek gravy train carried on racing towards the buffers. Even pastry chefs and hairdressers were listed among the 600 ‘professions’ allowed to retire at 50 (with a state pension of 95 per cent of their final year’s earnings) on account of the ‘arduous and perilous’ nature of their work.
Now drastic austerity measures imposed by Eurozone finance leaders mean that benefits, state pensions and pay rates have been pared to the bone as taxes are hiked heavenwards in a last ditch attempt to balance the books and stop the country going bankrupt. Read on and comment » | Sue Reid | Friday, May 11, 2012
Hans ist 80 Jahre alt, Rheinländer und seit April Muslim. Warum er zum Islam übergetreten ist? "Das hat sich so ergeben", sagt Hans lakonisch im Singsang-Dialekt seiner Heimat. Hans ist die Hauptfigur eines der unzähligen Videos, mit denen Salafisten im Internet für ihre Sache werben.
Pierre Vogel, einer der bekanntesten Anführer dieser fundamentalistischen Bewegung in Deutschland, hat das Video auf seine Webseite gestellt. 15 Minuten lang soll Hans im Interview mit einem Salafisten Auskunft über seinen Weg zum Islam geben. Konkret sieht das so aus, dass der Fragende Suggestivfrage an Suggestivfrage reiht, die Hans meist nur mit einem kurzen "Ja" beantwortet. Dazwischen spricht Hans das islamische Glaubensbekenntnis, das dem alten Mann nur zögerlich über die Lippen geht.
Quintessenz des Gesprächs: Bei Hans im Haus lebt seit mehreren Jahren eine muslimische Familie, deren Oberhaupt Timor ihn schließlich vom Übertritt überzeugt habe. "Das war eine Überraschung auf Gegenseitigkeit", erzählt Hans, "man hatte sich kennengelernt, und ich kann nur Positives über die Leute sagen." » | Von Christoph Sydow | Donnerstag, 10. Mai 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama's surprise announcement that he supports gay marriage resonated through the American political landscape last week, writes John Avlon. It was a profile in courage moment from the American president - but one loaded with political risk.
Consider the fact that just the previous day the citizens of North Carolina voted to ban gay marriage and all forms of civil unions by a 20-point margin, enshrining unequal treatment in their state constitution.
This is not an unusual result when gay marriage has gone to the voters in the past – more than 30 states have taken the same step, while in the half dozen states where marriage equality is legal it has been achieved via state legislatures or judicial decision.
In other words, gay marriage might be morally right, especially in the eyes of the progressive base, but it is a proven loser at the ballot box. And the Obama campaign has bet big on winning North Carolina in November, deciding to hold their Democratic convention there in August. Read on and comment » | American Way: John Avlon | Saturday, May 12, 2012
Several men have been arrested by Greater Manchester Police on suspicion of sexually abusing the same girl.
The alleged abuse is believed to have taken place over a six-year period when the girl was in her teens.
Sources who spoke to the Manchester Evening News described her as ‘extremely vulnerable’. Detectives have carried out video interviews with the girl, who told them she knew the men only by nicknames.
A string of suspects were tracked down by officers and a number of arrests have now been made.
The men are thought to be from Asian and Afro-Caribbean backgrounds.
It comes just days after nine Asian men from Rochdale and Oldham were jailed over the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13-years-old. » | Julie Henry | Saturday, May 12, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
THE GUARDIAN: Normally high-profile wife of King Abdullah has lowered her visibility as nation remains at crossroads of reform
Queen Rania has scaled back her public activities sharply since facing damaging criticism last year that she was playing too prominent a role in running Jordan.
Rania, now 41, married Prince Abdullah in 1993, six years before he ascended the throne. Stylish and tall, in 2005 she was voted the third most beautiful woman in the world and hailed by Oprah Winfrey as an "international fashion icon" who also speaks up for women's rights.
On her Twitter account, followed by over 2 million people, she describes herself as "a mum and a wife with a really cool day job".
In the past Jordan's carefully-controlled media would report on two or three different royal appearances a day. Now the queen is mentioned less frequently, typically visiting a school or hospital or programmes for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Plans for the creation of a Queen Rania Foundation – modelled on one run by Sheikha Mozah, the glamorous consort of the emir of Qatar – have been quietly shelved. » | Ian Black in Amman | Friday, May 11, 2012
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Die meisten muslimischen Gemeinden in Deutschland sind nach ethnischer Zugehörigkeit organisiert. Der Salafismus überschreitet diese Grenze - und viele andere auch.
Was Mitte der neunziger Jahre die Sicherheitsbehörden auf den Plan rief, ist nicht erst seit der Koranverteilaktion in deutschen Fußgängerzonen zum gesellschaftspolitischen Thema geworden: Innerhalb weniger Jahre hat sich der Salafismus zu einer Gegenkultur vornehmlich junger Erwachsener und Jugendlicher entwickelt, in der sich Weltflucht, saudi-arabische Missionierungspolitik und Ablehnung von Aufklärung und westlicher Zivilisation treffen. Der Bundesverfassungsschutz weist zu Recht auf die Verbindungen der salafistischen Szene zu internationalen Terrororganisationen vom Schlage Al Qaidas hin. Doch jenseits seiner Funktion als Ideologie zur Rechtfertigung religiöser Gewalt sollte der Erfolg des Salafismus in Deutschland vor allem als politisches Thema begriffen werden.
As-salaf as-salih - das ist die arabische Bezeichnung der „frommen Altvordern“. Gemeint sind damit die ersten drei Generationen der Anhänger Mohammeds, die als perfekte, islamische Gemeinschaft vorgestellt werden. Von ihnen leitet sich der Begriff Salafismus her. Salafisten folgen keiner der vier Rechtsschulen des Islam. Das trennt sie von den meisten anderen Islamisten. Koran und Sunna gelten ihnen als alleinige Quellen für das islamgemäße Leben des Einzelnen und der Gemeinschaft. Ziel ist, dem perfekten Vorbild des Gottgesandten Mohammed nachzueifern: von Gebet und Kleidung über Familienleben und Sexualverhalten bis hin zu Essgewohnheiten und Zahnpflege. Abweichendes Verhalten gilt bereits als Anzeichen fehlgeleiteter Anbetung des einzigen Gottes. » | Von F. W. Horst* | Donnerstag, 10. Mai 2012
* Der Verfasser studierte Terrorismusforschung am Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC) und forscht über Salafismus am International Institute for Counterterrorism (ICT) in Israel.
THE GUARDIAN: Muslim groups report upsurge in hate mail and abusive phone calls since conviction of nine men over child sex ring
Far right groups are exploiting the conviction of nine men who were part of a gang which groomed girls for sex to create a "climate of hate" against Muslims, community leaders have warned.
Muslim groups say they have seen an upsurge in hate mail and abusive phone calls since the trial ended this week and community leaders are bracing themselves for more Islamophobic attacks on individual Muslims and mosques across the UK.
"We are already receiving hate mail and hate phone calls even though we issued a very strong statement condemning those involved," said a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain. "If it can happen to MCB, you can just imagine what ordinary Muslims are facing as they go about their day-to-day business." » | Matthew Taylor and Haroon Siddique | Friday, May 11, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Cuba could pass legislation allowing same-sex marriage later this year, according to the daughter of President Raúl Castro.
Mariela Castro, the country’s premier sexologist, made the remarks one day after US President Barack Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage, but said Cuba still needs to be "more revolutionary" in its treatment of gays.
Ms Castro said she "has the hope that this year" parliament will pass legislation to legalise gay marriage in Cuba, although the bill under debate by lawmakers here "sad to say is not everything that we would have hoped for."
Castro looked to another of its neighbours, Argentina, as the model after which she would have liked to pattern Cuba's gay rights agenda. » | Source: agencies | Friday, May 11, 2012
NTN24NEWS.COM: Cuba poised to pass gay marriage law: Castro daughter – Famed sexologist Mariela Castro, daughter of the Cuban president, said Thursday she expected her country this year will pass a same-sex marriage law, although she said Cuba still needs to be "more revolutionary" in its treatment of gays. » | Authored by: VALERIA COVO/AFP | Thursday, May 10, 2012
It's the oldest and most respected major religion in South Korea. And now it's been spectacularly brought into ill-repute after senior monks from the largest Buddhist order in the country were caught red-handed setting a bad example by indulging in a cheeky little poker game.
Gambling in the country is illegal everywhere except for inside just one casino that's in the north east of the country. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that these monks - who are from the Jogye Order - seen here smoking, drinking and flipping playing cards on the floor of a luxury hotel room are flouting the law.
As soon as the footage was aired on national TV yesterday, 6 of the 8 monks in the room offered to resign. Leader Master Jinjea, a high-ranker from the order -- who wasn't even there at the time - said on local TV 'Those monks committed a foolish act and I confess my sin for their wrongdoings'
It was a fellow monk who secretly shot the footage and then tipped off the police and the media. Do you reckon he's taken himself off for a long holiday right now?
I'm Marverine Cole. That's all from me for now but for more news check out our website: ibtimes.co.uk
Jemajem is a young, dark-eyed militant leader who bears the self-important nom de guerre of "the Guevara of south Yemen". Based in the impoverished port of Aden, he belongs to the Hirak group of activists, who have been calling for south Yemen to be allowed to secede from the north for half a decade.
It's not hard to see why he thinks an independent future for the south would be better than its current situation. Sadness and poverty settled on Aden many decades ago. The streets are littered with piles of rotting fish and festering rubbish, while haggard men sit on pavements chewing qat to stave off the boredom of unemployment. Cliffs of volcanic rock are crowded with migrants' illegal shacks made of breeze blocks and corrugated iron.
But beneath this layer of grime is a tale of outside interference in Yemen that is likely to bring further conflict and exacerbate the divisions within the country. Shortly after the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was toppled last November in the Arab spring, Jemajem was approached by an intermediary working on behalf of what the man described as a "friendly country" known for its international support for revolutionary causes.
Jemajem was frustrated: although Saleh had gone, the separatists had not achieved any of their demands. But help was at hand, the man told him. Was he interested? "Of course I was," said Jemajem. "I would take money from the devil if he could help my nation. A drowning man will hang on to a straw."
His encounter with what turned out to be the Iranians is remarkable in itself, but it illuminates the much bigger tale of foreign interference in Yemen, of how the conflicts between the Gulf states and Iran, the US and al-Qaida have reduced parts of Yemen to rubble and are pushing Yeminis into the arms of the jihadis. » | Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Aden | Thursday, May 10, 2012
A course for US military officers has been teaching that America's enemy is Islam in general and suggesting that the country might ultimately have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina without regard for civilian deaths, following second world war precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.
The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to the material. The FBI also changed some agent training last year after discovering that it, too, was critical of Islam.
The teaching in the military course was counter to repeated assertions by US officials over the past decade that America is at war against Islamic extremists, not the religion itself.
"They hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit," the instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley, said in a presentation last July for the course at Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. The college, for professional military members, teaches mid-level officers and government civilians on subjects related to planning and executing war. » | Associated Press in Washington | Friday, May 11, 2012
The shoe attack, which came as a coroner presented more autopsy reports on the mostly-young victims of the July massacre at Utoya island was followed by applause, "bravos" and tears among onlookers in the courtroom, and led to a temporary suspension of proceedings on the 17th day of the trial.
The black shoe did not hit Breivik but landed on one of his lawyers, Vibeke Hein Baera, who sits between the accused and the onlookers.
"Luckily, it was just a shoe," Hein Baera said.
The attacker, a man of Iraqi origin whose brother was one of the 69 people Breivik shot dead on Utoya on July 22, was quickly brought under control by security guards and escorted out of the courtroom as he continued to shout in English: "Go to Hell!"
When the proceedings resumed a few minutes later, Breivik addressed the onlookers. » | Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali is to receive an award from the German publishing house Axel Springer for “her courage and commitment to freedom as a women’s rights campaigner and critic of Islam.” She will be awarded the prize of €25,000 in Berlin on Thursday. » | Source: The Washington Post and Associated Press | Thursday, May 10, 2012
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