Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Hard Time? Manning Awaits Verdict as US Media Label Him Guilty
Monday, July 29, 2013
Shock ‘n’ Roll… Radio DJs Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity Dropped after Ad Boycott
According to a report by Politico, Cumulus Media has decided not to renew contracts with the two talk radio titans at the end of 2013, meaning their radio shows will vanish from more than 40 of its stations across the US. » | Tim Walker | Monday, July 29, 2013
Muslim Converts In Mexico Make Up A Diverse, Fast-Growing Community
“I started looking for Muslims and a mosque when I first arrived,” Louahabi, an English teacher, told Fox News Latino. “At the time, we met at the Pakistani embassy, and there were only about 80 people — most of us were foreigners.”
Now, Louahabi prays alongside hundreds of other Muslims — foreigners and Mexicans alike — at the three-story Muslim Community Educational Center in the city’s upscale Anzures neighborhood.
Friday prayers at the Islamic Center are given in Arabic and Spanish. The crowd is diverse: Mexican converts to Islam, expatriates, embassy staff from the Middle East, Africa, Pakistan and Central Asia. The Islamic Center even fields a soccer team.
The mosque was packed at a service just before the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, this year falling in July.
Many Mexicans who converted to Islam say they’ve been impressed with the religion’s growth in Mexico.
“I used the Internet and books to learn about Islam,” said Mexican convert Alexander Huttanos, an airline pilot who goes by his Islamic name, Ahmed Abbas. “Islam has come a long way in Mexico.”
He actually spent quite a bit of time researching different beliefs and faiths before making a final decision. » | Bernd Debusmann | Monday, July 29, 2013
France Struggles to Separate Islam and the State
France's enforcement of its prized secularism is inscribed in law, most recently in a ban on wearing full-face veils in public. Meant to ensure that all faiths live in harmony, the policy instead may be fueling a rising tide of Islamophobia and driving a wedge between some Muslims and the rest of the population.
Yet ardent defenders of secularism, the product of France's separation of church and state, say the country hasn't gone far enough. They want more teeth to further the cause that Voltaire helped inspire and Victor Hugo championed, this time with a law targeting headscarves in the work place.
A new generation of French Muslims — which at some 5 million, or about eight percent of the population, is the largest in Western Europe — is finding a growing voice in a nation not always ready to accommodate mosques, halal food and Muslim religious dress. Political pressure from a resurgent far-right has increased the tension. » | Elaine Ganley, Associated Press | Trappes, France | Monday, July 29, 2013
Schweiz: Zugunglück in der Waadt
WIKIPEDIA: Kanton Waadt »
WIKPÉDIA: Canton de Vaud »
WIKIPEDIA: Canton Vaud » [Italiano]
WIKIPEDIA: Vaud » [E]
USA TODAY: Trains crash head-on in Switzerland; dozens hurt » | John Bacon | USA Today | Monday, July 29, 2013
EURONEWS: Swiss train crash leaves 40 injured (+ video) »
'Gaddafi's Son May Face Execution after Show Trial in Libya' - Lawyer
First Minister of Scotland: We Will Win Independence Referendum
French Language Police Call Time on 'le binge drinking'
As long as it was seen as nothing more than an antisocial Anglo-Saxon habit, le binge drinking remained just that: an English term. As a sign of the changing times and the reported spread of the practice in France, however, the country's language police have decreed an official new term.
As of now, binge drinking does not happen in France. Instead, anyone consuming large quantities of alcohol in a short space of time with the intention of getting drunk is engaged in beuverie express.
The phrase, which translates literally as "fast drinking", was given the official approval of the culture ministry's general commission of terminology and neology on Sunday. The commission defined the term as "the massive absorption of alcohol, generally in a group, aimed at provoking drunkenness in the minimum amount of time".
Le Monde further qualified "massive absorption" as "more than 4-5 glasses in less than two hours", but failed to elucidate how big a glass or of what. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Monday, July 29, 2013
Pope Francis Reaches Out to Gay People, But Ban on Women Priests Stands
Related »
Rauchen, trinken und essen – während des Ramadan
Es ist die Zeit des Verzichts. Während des Ramadan, des neunten Monats im islamischen Mondkalender, gelten für gläubige Muslime strenge Regeln: kein Essen, kein Trinken und kein Beischlaf mit dem Ehepartner – dies von der Morgendämmerung bis zum Sonnenuntergang. Die «innere Dimension» des Fastens geht noch weiter. Man soll sich gänzlich von Sünde freihalten. So wird die Seele gereinigt und geläutert und die Beziehung zu Gott gefestigt.
Daran halten muss sich jeder geistig zurechnungsfähige Muslim ab der Pubertät. Doch gerade in jungen Jahren scheint Verzicht schwierig – vor allem wenn dieser Pflicht ist. Immer mehr jugendliche Muslime in Ländern wie Tunesien oder Marokko wehren sich gegen das vorgeschriebene Fasten – und zwar öffentlich. » | Michèle Widmer | Montag, 29. Juli 2013
Who Am I to Judge Gay Priests? Pope Francis Makes Surprisingly Open Remarks
Pope Francis reached out to gay people today, saying he wouldn't judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returned from his first foreign trip.
"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Francis asked.
His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten.
Francis' remarks came Monday during a plane journey back to the Vatican from his first foreign trip in Brazil. » | Nicole Winfield | Monday, July 29, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
India's Grand Mufti Seen Enjoying Concert After Declaring Music 'Un-Islamic'
A video clip of Grand Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, the ceremonial leader of Muslims in the state, apparently enjoying an evening of Kashmiri ghazals, musical poems, and Punjabi folk tunes, quickly went viral on YouTube as political leaders accused him of hypocrisy.
"The doublespeak of the Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir is exposed, on the issue of music being un-Islamic," said Digvijaya Singh, general secretary of India's ruling Congress Party. "All religious fundamentalists are experts of doublespeak."
In February an all-girl rock group in Kashmir was forced to disband amid threats from Islamic militants, following the Grand Mufti's statement.
He had proclaimed: "Singing is not in accordance with Islamic teachings. Society cannot be built or developed by doing un-Islamic acts like singing. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi | Sunday, July 28, 2013
Worries Mount as Syria Lures West’s Muslims
More Westerners are now fighting in Syria than fought in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia or Yemen, according to the officials. They go to Syria motivated by the desire to help the people suffering there by overthrowing Mr. Assad. But there is growing concern that they will come back with a burst of jihadist zeal, some semblance of military discipline, enhanced weapons and explosives skills, and, in the worst case, orders from affiliates of Al Qaeda to carry out terrorist strikes. » | Eric Schmitt | Saturday, July 27, 2013
Prince George Should Never Be King of Scots, Says Pro-independence Chairman
Dennis Canavan described the prospect of the newborn child one day being a separate Scotland’s head of state as “an affront to democracy and a complete anachronism.”
The Yes Scotland chairman and former Labour MP said that Scots should instead be offered a second referendum, shortly after next year's vote on independence, asking whether they wanted to retain a hereditary monarchy.
Alex Salmond has tried to persuade Scots to back separation by arguing that the Queen and her successors would automatically remain head of state after separation from England.
But Mr Canavan’s views are shared by other parties who are part of the Yes Scotland campaign for independence, including the Scottish Greens, and a large number of SNP MSPs and members.
Despite the First Minister’s claim the SNP has supported the retention of the monarchy for decades, in 2002 the party published a draft written constitution for a separate Scotland that included a referendum on the issue. Continue reading and comment » | Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor | Sunday, July 28, 2013
Reza Aslan on Christianity and Islam
'Zealot' Author Reza Aslan Responds to Critics
Reza Aslan: ‘Zealot - The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth’
'1984 Is Now!': Germans Protest Berlin's Rôle in NSA Spying on Snowden Day
Snowden Ping Pong: Edward Still in Transit Limbo, as US Issues New Threats
Snowden’s Father Says His Son Is Better Off in Russia
No longer believing that Snowden would receive a fair legal trial by the Justice Department, Lon Snowden — Edward Snowden’s father — decided it was best for his son to stay away from the U.S. “until an administration that respects the Constitution comes into office,” the Associated Press reports. » | Josh Peterson | Tech Editor | Saturday, July 27, 2013
Pope Tells Brazilian Church to Keep It Simple and Reach Out to the Poor
Pope Francis drew hundreds of thousands of flag-waving faithful to Rio's Copacabana beach on Saturday for the final evening of World Youth Day, hours after he chastised the Brazilian church for failing to stem the "exodus" of Catholics to evangelical congregations.
Francis headed into the final hours of his first international trip riding a remarkable wave of popularity. By the time his open-sided car reached the stage for the vigil service on Saturday night, the back seat was piled high with football jerseys, flags and flowers tossed to him by adoring pilgrims lining the beachfront route.
The vigil capped a busy day for the pope in which he drove home a message he has emphasizsed throughout the week in speeches, homilies and off-the-cuff remarks: the need for Catholics, lay and religious, to shake up the status quo, get out of their stuffy sacristies and reach the faithful on the margins of society or risk losing them to rival churches.
In the longest and most important speech of his four-month pontificate, Francis took a direct swipe at the "intellectual" message of the church that so characterised the pontificate of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Speaking to Brazil's bishops, he said ordinary Catholics didn't understand such lofty ideas and needed to hear the simpler message of love, forgiveness and mercy that he said was at the core of the Catholic faith.
"At times we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people," he said. "Without the grammar of simplicity, the church loses the very conditions which make it possible to fish for God in the deep waters of his mystery." » | Associated Press in Rio de Janeiro | Sunday, July 28, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Nach Ermordung Brahmis: Tunesier protestieren gegen Islamisten
Nordkorea feiert mit riesiger Militärparade
Proteste gegen NSA: "Stop watching us!"
North Korea Stages Largest Ever Military Parade
President Obama Hosts an Iftar Dinner
Ramadan Message from Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister
Ramadan 2013: Message from David Cameron
Violence Returns to the Streets of Cairo
Friday, July 26, 2013
BBC Documentary: Who Gets the Best Jobs?
Rand Paul: Obama's Plan to Arm Syrian Rebels Means Siding with Terrorists
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Pope Gives Address on Copacabana Beach – Live
Bradley Manning 'Betrayed His Country' - Prosecutor
Pte First Class Bradley Manning knew al-Qaeda militants would see the material, a prosecutor said in closing arguments at his court martial.
Pte Manning has already pleaded guilty to 10 of the more than 20 counts he faces, and could face life in prison.
The case is considered the largest-ever leak of secret US government documents.
Last week a military judge refused to dismiss the most serious charge against Pte Manning, aiding the enemy, which carries a life sentence. » | Thursday, July 25, 2013
Full Moon 'Disturbs a Good Night's Sleep'
Researchers found evidence of a "lunar influence" in a study of 33 volunteers sleeping in tightly controlled laboratory conditions.
When the Moon was round, the volunteers took longer to nod off and had poorer quality sleep, despite being shut in a darkened room, Current Biology reports.
They also had a dip in levels of a hormone called melatonin that is linked to natural-body clock cycles.
When it is dark, the body makes more melatonin. And it produces less when it is light.
Being exposed to bright lights in the evening or too little light during the day can disrupt the body's normal melatonin cycles.
But the work in Current Biology, by Prof Christian Cajochen and colleagues from Basel University in Switzerland, suggests the Moon's effects may be unrelated to its brightness. (+ video) » | Michelle Roberts | Health editor | BBC New Online | Thursday, July 25, 2013
Muslim Demographic Bomb: Muslims Are Not a Minority
In the UK more people attend mosques than the Church of England, that makes Muslims the largest functioning religious group there. Mohammed was the most popular baby name last year, ahead of Jack and Harry. In France, in this generation, more mosques have been built than Catholic churches and in southern France there are already more mosques than churches. Mohammed-Amine is the most popular double name, ahead of Jean-Baptiste, Pierre-Louis, Leo-Paul and Mohammed-Ali.
Belgium, 50 percent of newborns are Muslim and empty Belgian churches are being turned into mosques. The most popular baby name is Mohammed and of the top 7 baby names, 6 were Muslim. A quarter of Amsterdam, Marseilles and Rotterdam and a fifth of Stockholm is already Muslim. The most popular baby name in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and The Hague is… Mohammed.
Europe’s Muslim population doubled in the last generation, and is set to double again. By 2025, (a decade and a half away), a third of all births in the EU will be Muslim. The demographic writing is already on the wall. A third of Muslims in France and Germany are teenagers or younger, as compared to a fifth of the native population. A third of Muslims in the UK and Belgium are under 15 versus a fifth of the native population. Counting all age groups, they’re a minority. But in generational demographics, Muslims are swiftly becoming a majority. » | Daniel Greenfield | Thursday, July 25, 2013
'NSA Criminals, Surveillance Not Part of My America' - Pete Ashdown
Syria Civil War Death Toll Passes 100,000 People
Insulting the French President No Longer a Criminal Offence
Being rude to the French president is no longer an offence after parliament amended legislation dating back to 1881 in favour of freedom of speech.
Previously any rude remark risked a fine and criminal conviction for "offending the head of state". But the change was pushed through after criticism from the European court of human rights.
In March, the court ruled that France had violated the right to freedom of expression after giving a criminal conviction to a man holding a cardboard sign telling the then-president Nicolas Sarkozy to get lost.
Hervé Eon, 61, a left[-]wing activist, held up his sign as Sarkozy's motorcade drove past during a presidential visit to Laval, western France, in 2008. The small A4-sized cardboard sign did not feature Sarkozy's name but said simply: "Casse-toi pov'con." » | Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | Thursday, July 25, 2013
Spanien: Überwachungskamera filmt die Zugentgleisung
Papst Franziskus begeistert die Massen
France: Muslims Attack Police for Enforcing Burqa Ban
Police in the suburbs of Paris are working to restore order after hundreds of Muslims went on a rioting spree to protest the simple identity check of a Muslim woman who was wearing a full-face Islamic veil.
It is against the law to wear the face-covering niqab or the body-covering burqa in public spaces in France; violators are subject to fines of up to €150 ($200).
The latest round of violence erupted the evening of July 19 in Trappes, a gritty suburb situated 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Paris. Trappes has 30,000 inhabitants, many of whom are Muslim immigrants.
Police say a crowd of possibly 400 Muslims gathered outside the Trappes police station in response to the arrest on July 18 of a man who had assaulted a police officer during an identity check on his wife, who was entirely veiled.
The niqab-wearing woman in question is 20-years-old; her 21-year-old husband, a convert to Islam, reportedly objected to the policeman interrogating his wife, and allegedly tried to strangle him, an act that lead to his arrest. Muslims insist the man was provoked.
After police in Trappes rejected Muslim demands to release the husband, the mob went on a rampage, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at police, pelting police with firecrackers from rooftops, burning cars and trucks and destroying public property, including several bus stops, before being repelled by riot police.
A nine-minute video on YouTube shows police helicopters buzzing overhead amid burning cars and trash bins, as well as a building that was torched. Photos of the unrest can be viewed here and here.
Although no one died in the disturbances, five people were injured, including four police officers and a 14-year-old boy, who lost his eyesight from a projectile. » | Soeren Kern | Thursday, July 25, 2013
Scores Dead in Spanish Rail Disaster
Nazi Posters in Germany
Typical Republican Hypocrisy On Asylum Seekers
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
The Islamic Future of Britain
Britain is in denial. There is no real public debate on a historic event that is transforming the country. Mention of it occasionally surfaces in the media, but the mainstream political class never openly discuss it.
What is that historic event? By the year 2050, in a mere 37 years, Britain will be a majority Muslim nation.
This projection is based on reasonably good data. Between 2004 and 2008, the Muslim population of the UK grew at an annual rate of 6.7 percent, making Muslims 4 percent of the population in 2008. Extrapolating from those figures would mean that the Muslim population in 2020 would be 8 percent, 15 percent in 2030, 28 percent in 2040 and finally, in 2050, the Muslim population of the UK would exceed 50 percent of the total population.
Contrast those Muslim birth rates with the non-replacement birth rates of native Europeans, the so[-]called deathbed demography of Europe. For a society to remain the same size, the average female has to have 2.1 children (total fertility rate). For some time now, all European countries, including Britain, have been well below that rate. The exception is Muslim Albania. For native Europeans, it seems, the consumer culture has replaced having children as life’s main goal.
These startling demographic facts have been available for some time (see ‘Muslim Population “Rising 10 Times Faster than Rest of Society”’, The Times, 30 January 2009. Also the work of the Oxford demographer David Coleman). But on this historic transformation of the country there is silence from the political establishment.
Not everyone agrees with these demographic figures. Population projection, some say, is not an exact science. Perhaps the Muslim birth rate will drop to European levels.
But this seems to be wishful thinking. For years it was believed that Muslims would enter what is known as “demographic transition”, with European Muslim birth rates falling to native European levels. But that demographic transition has not happened. In Britain, for example, the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities continue to have significantly higher birth rates than the national average, even after more than 50 years in the country. » | Vincent Cooper | Thursday, June 13, 2013
David Cameron: 'I Want to Export Gay Marriage Around the World'
The Prime Minister spoke of his pride at legalising same sex marriage, just a year after explicitly giving a personal guarantee to do it by 2015 to a reception for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-sexual community at 10 Downing Street.
Mr Cameron told guests at the same reception one year on that Britain was now “the best place to be gay, lesbian or transgender anywhere in Europe”.
He added: “That is a great achievement. That’s not my measure; that is an internationally recognised measure. But there’s still a lot more work to be done.”
Thanking the ministers and civil servants who helped to pass the legislation into law despite objections from the Tory Right, he said: It’s been a real pleasure to work with you and to deliver this landmark social change for our country, which to me still comes back to the simple word of commitment.”
He said that he wanted to "export" same sex marriage around the world so other countries could follow suit. » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Wednesday, July 24, 2013
My comment:
Proud. Proud. Proud. Proud. Proud. Proud. For God's sake, how many times does one have to read the word 'proud' in one short article? What on earth is there to be so proud of in this legislation? I am not against gay marriage per se, but I find it very strange indeed that a supposedly straight prime minister should be so proud of his achievement in reversing centuries, nay millennia, of tradition and practice. I am left asking myself two simple questions: Is David Cameron a closet gay, or does he have a gay past? Why else would he be so "proud" of his achievement?
As for exporting the concept of gay marriage to the rest of the world, I suggest he start with Saudi Arabia and Iran, and see how far he gets. I do believe that he will be sorely disappointed by the short shrift he and his team will be given.
Has this man ever left the south-east of England for any length of time? Does he understand anything about attitudes to homosexuality in many other parts of the world, the Islamic world in particular?
This prime minister has got to be either foolish or delusional if he thinks that he is going to be able to convince many other countries to follow his lead. One doesn't even have to go as far as Saudi Arabia or Iran. One need go only as far as Poland or Russia to see how differently homosexuality is viewed. Those people do not share the views of the chattering classes in Islington and its environs.
Now that he has passed this legislation of which he is so "proud," could he perhaps now concentrate on matters which are far, far more important to the vast majority of people in this country? There are many who are not only struggling financially, but who are having great difficulties putting food on the table for their children. The country's finances are in a very sorry state. Those who have worked hard to save all their lives are seeing their hard-earned savings being eroded before their very eyes. And all this prime minister can be proud of is the legalisation on gay marriage.
Given the current change in the British demographic, it is extremely doubtful that gay marriage will remain legal for long. With the growing Muslim population of the United Kingdom, it will not be long before this country becomes a Muslim majority country. Time will tell then how long gay marriage will remain legal! Sharia law will surely turn this legislation on its head at the earliest convenience.
If only our leaders and politicians had the intelligence, foresight, and spunk to deal with the major, burning issues of our time! – © Mark
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