Saturday, April 26, 2014
Greta: Pres. Obama Outfoxed by Putin and His Boys
Interfaith Panel Upset: 9/11 Film Calls Hijackers 'Islamists'
Was bringt uns der Islam?
Yousef al-Khattab
US-Based Revolution Muslim Website Spreading Messages of Hate »
PRAIRIE PUBLIC NEWS: The Jewish Kid From New Jersey Who Became A Radical Islamist » | Dina Temple-Raston | Friday, April 25, 2014
THE WASHINGTON POST: New Jersey man sentenced to prison for extremist Islamic Web posts: A New Jersey man who used his Islamic organization’s Web site to advocate violence against those whose ideals he found offensive to his religion was sentenced Friday to 21 / 2 years in prison — a term that a federal judge said he imposed so people would “understand the line” between free speech and criminal calls for violence. » | Matt Zapotosky | Friday, April 25, 2014
London's Holy Turf War
Since the Woolwich killing, anti-Muslim rhetoric as been at an all time high, and the right-wing Christian Patrols are only exacerbating the rising tensions.
These two marginalised but potentially dangerous London subcultures believe that society has failed their communities enough that they are now taking to the streets to implement or defend their ways of life, according to their opposing politicised and religious ideologies.
The irony being that while their shared aggressive approach has resulted in media coverage and media panic, they ultimately are responsible for and justify each other's existence.
Alex Miller meets the leaders and footsoldiers in Britain's holy street patrols, the Anjem Choudary's followers Muslim Patrol and Paul Golding of Britain First's Christian Patrol, in the same area he lives and works, to find out just how effective their operations are, and how genuine their belief is in the battle for East London's streets.
MAIL ONLINE: Holy Turf War: Muslims and Christians clash on Britain's streets as religious 'vigilantes' from both sides threaten late-night drinkers and women in short skirts to 'cleanse' country: Muslims and Christians 'tribes' patrol capital determined to push views / Muslim patrol supported by hate preacher Anjem Choudary / Christian patrol an offshoot of far right group the English Defence League / Three members of Muslim patrol jailed in December last year » | Paul Donnelley | Saturday, April 26, 2014
Dutch Lap Up Wilders' Hardline Message
And a recent race row - he told supporters a vote for the PVV would mean fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands - may have done him more good than harm.
This talk is too extreme for many - so what explains his appeal to Dutch voters? I took a spin around The Hague on my bike to find out.
Geert Wilders' Moroccan comments provoked an avalanche of criticism. High-profile PVV members quit, accusing their leader of going too far. More than 5,000 people filed complaints to the public prosecutor, calling for Mr Wilders to be charged with inciting racial hatred. (+ BBC video) » | Anna Holligan | BBC News | The Hague | Saturday, April 26, 2014
Lloyds Drops Overdraft Fee On Islamic Accounts
Lloyds Bank has been accused of religious discrimination after offering free overdraft accounts to Muslims.
The bank sent customers a booklet this month explaining new charges.
While many will have to pay up to £80 a month if they go into the red, Muslims were told they would escape the charges. The document said: “We are removing the monthly overdraft management fee of £6 from our Islamic Account, Islamic Student Account and Islamic Graduate Account. So, if you use an unplanned overdraft on these accounts, there won’t be any charges.”
One customer, Anita Milton, a nurse of New Eltham, south London, said: “I can’t believe that they’re thinking of offering one account for Muslims and making everyone else pay for the same service. Do I have to change my religion to get the best deal?"
Barclays, Co-op Bank and RBS said they do not offer alternative bank accounts to Muslim customers. » | Keith Perry | Friday, April 25, 2014
My comment:
What the hell is the matter with the powers-that-be in my country? Have they all lost their cojones, or what?
This is supposed to be Great Britain. What a bloody laugh that is! Little Britain would be a more apt name for it. Anything "great" about this country was lost many years ago. The country is turning into a Third World sh**hole! All because our leaders haven't got the courage to say "NO". Whatever happened to the concept of ONE LAW FOR ALL?
There is no such thing as Shari'ah lite. Ultimately, the monster will grow so strong that it will consume us. Are the powers-that-be so bloody stupid that they can't comprehend that? Kick the idiots that make these ludicrous decisions out! We, the people, want our country back. – © Mark
This comment appears here too.
Death Threats Issued as Sharia Watch Launches in London
HT: regkeane »
Friday, April 25, 2014
'Gays Are a Lost Cause' Says Moderate Muslim
Giuliani: Iran Leader Has 'No Respect' for US Administration
France Unveils Plan to Prevent Radicalisation
The plan of action presented by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve aims to "dissuade, prevent and punish" the radicalisation of troubled French youths.
The government estimates that around 300 French nationals or residents are currently enlisted with jihadist groups in Syria, with a further 130 en route to the country and another 130 having already returned.
Twenty-five French people have died in the conflict.
The movement, which has swept along teens as young as 14 – some of whom are recent converts to Islam – has accelerated in recent months, according to the interior ministry.
Didier Francois, one of the four French journalists who were released from captivity in Syria at the weekend after being held for 10 months by a jihadist group, said some of his captors spoke French.
France is particularly fearful of the threat such people pose to national security upon their return. » | DPA/Paris | Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Hijab Couture
FEW sartorial choices are scrutinised as closely as those of Muslim women. Their clothing is regulated both in countries where Islam is a minority religion, and in those where it is professed by the majority. France bans face coverings, thus outlawing the niqab, which leaves just a slit for the eyes. In Iran, a theocracy, and Saudi Arabia, a monarchy reliant on clerical support, women must wear a hijab (head covering) and abaya (long cloak) respectively. Only last year did Turkey partially ease a ban, dating from Ataturk’s founding of the modern secular state, on female civil servants wearing headscarves.
Most Muslim women want to dress modestly in public, as Islam prescribes. But increasing numbers want to be fashionable, too. That is partly because of the relative youth and rising prosperity of the Islamic world. A growing sense of religious identity also boosts Islamic style. The Islamic revival of the 1970s, and then a shared sense of persecution in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, led many Muslim women to wear their hearts on their sleeves, says Reina Lewis, an academic at the London College of Fashion and editor of “Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies, Mediating Faith”. Many say that Islamic dress is better suited than their country’s traditional garb to modern life. “The hijab helps women be treated for their minds, not their looks,” says Aziza Al-Yousef, a Saudi professor. » | Saturday, April 26, 2014 | Cairo, Jeddah and Riyadh | From the print edition
Close Adviser to Geert Wilders Resigns from Freedom Party
 |
| Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders speaks during an interview in The Hague on April 17th. |
One month from the European elections, Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders suffered another major setback yesterday when one of his closest advisers resigned – suggesting as he left that a row over anti-Moroccan chanting had left his party marginalised.
The Freedom Party has lost its dominant position in the polls and there have been a series of resignations, including the loss of two MPs, since Mr Wilders led the chanting at a rally last month – the first time he’d focused on a particular nationality rather than on “Muslims”.
National outrage, even among his own more conservative supporters, has prompted suggestions that the chanting was a huge political gaffe – which could effectively put paid to plans for a pan-European right-wing Euro-election alliance with Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France. » | Peter Cluskey | Thursday, April 24, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Benjamin Netanyahu Interview: In Full
The Persecution of Tony Blair
ONE of the most hated men in Britain gave a speech on April 23rd that was fated to remind Britons why they so hate him. Listening to Tony Blair talk on “Engaging the Middle East”, at a plush City venue, your columnist could almost sense the gathering invective. The former prime minister’s familiar yet still odd mannerisms— the glottalised accent, designed to erase any trace of his privileged roots, the paddle-wheeling hand movements—seemed almost to invite it, so thoroughly is he reviled. But the main problem was the speech itself, in which Mr Blair showed amazingly little appreciation of this.
The big problem in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere is militant Islam, he suggested, as if this was previously unremarked upon; and the world needs to do something about that, he said, as if it had not tried. Yet Mr Blair, in this self-promoted “keynote speech”, delivered to a small audience of investors and journalists, suggested no new cure for the blight other than “an international programme to eradicate religious intolerance”. That at least sounded better than reinvading those troubled countries; but surely the United Nations is doing something of the sort already?
If Mr Blair appears obsessed with the great scab on his record, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is no wonder. But he will do himself no good by scratching it. He has little credibility, and will probably never have more, on intervention, the Middle East or Islam. He is busted on such issues—and not only with the pacifists who periodically “arrest” him in return for a crowd-funded bounty from ArrestBlair.org, which now stands at £7,414 ($12,438).
The armed forces, stricken by the overstretch and consequent cuts wrought by Mr Blair’s adventurism, also resent him; the Foreign Office distrusts him. Even his own Labour Party, filled with self-loathing over the wars it was persuaded to agree to, considers its former leader an embarrassment. “What he needs to understand,” says a senior Labour figure, “is that people do not want to hear from him.” » | From the print edition | Bagehot | Saturday, April 26, 2014
Up to 700 Britons Feared Fighting in Syria
Up to 700 Britons could now be fighting in Syria and police are powerless to stop would-be jihadists heading there, the UK’s counter-terrorism chief has admitted.
But Helen Ball, the police senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, warned anyone who takes part in any form of fighting, even for the Free Syrian Army, will face arrest on their return.
Metropolitan Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ball said it was likely the number of Brits in Syria is now in the “mid” rather than “low” hundreds as previously thought, including some as young as 16.
The warning came as police launched a national campaign to urge mothers, wives and sisters to report on their loved ones and stop them travelling to the war[-]torn country. » | Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | Thursday, April 24, 2014
Tony Blair: Radical Islam Threat 'Spreading'
Related material here and here
Nick Clegg Backs Met’s Call for Muslims to Stop Sons Joining Syria Conflict
Former FBI Agent: CIA Director John Brennan Is a Muslim
Does the President Have an 'Image Problem'?
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Duchess of Cornwall's Brother Mark Shand Dies after Fall in New York
 |
| Mark Shand, the brother of the Duchess of Cornwall, died after a fall outside a New York nightclub |
Mark Shand, the brother of the Duchess of Cornwall, has died after suffering a serious injury to his head in a fall.
The 63-year-old is understood to have slipped in the street outside a bar following a charity event also attended by Princess Eugenie.
Police said he had stepped outside to have a cigarette when the accident happened. Other sources said he had been drinking and suffered from dizzy spells due to blood pressure medication.
He was taken to hospital in New York where he was being treated for serious head injuries. Clarence House later confirmed he died from his injuries. Mr Shand is survived by his daughter, Ayesha, 19, and his French wife, Clio.
In a statement, Clarence House said: "It is with deep sadness that we have to confirm that The Duchess of Cornwall's brother, Mark Shand, has today passed away in New York. » | Rosa Prince | Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Miriam Clegg: Men Who Look After Children Have 'More Cojones'
My comments:
Comment 1: A man changing nappies whilst wearing his pinnie is good experience for him, and will stand him in good stead when he has to go to war.
Warning: We emasculate our men at our peril! – © Mark
This comment also appears here
Comment 2: Our civilisation was doing far better when women did what they were good at: looking after the family and children, and home-making. What is there about civilisation as it is today that makes you think that these feminists have improved anything? Take a look around you! People are badly-dressed, people behave badly, people have no manners, houses are no longer homes for the most part. People don't entertain. The divorce rate has gone throughout the roof, etc. Please show me evidence to the contrary. I'll be only too pleased to concede defeat if you are right. – G Mark
This comment also appears here
Tony Blair: West Must Take Sides against Growing Threat of Radical Islam
THE GUARDIAN: In keynote speech on Middle East, former PM blames Islamic extremism for failures of western intervention in region
Western military intervention in the Middle East has so far failed due to the distorting impact of an Islamic extremism so opposed to modernity that it could yet engender global catastrophe, Tony Blair warned on Wednesday in a keynote speech on the state of politics in the Middle East.
With support for intervention ebbing fast, especially in Britain, Blair urges a wilfully blind west to realise it must take sides and if necessary make common cause with Russia and China in the G20 to counter the Islamic extremism that lies at the root of all failures of western intervention.
He admits there is now a desire across the west to steer clear at all costs following the bloody outcomes in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan, but says the extremism still represents the biggest threat to global security in the 21st century, saying it is holding back development across Africa and the Far East.
In a speech to Bloomberg in London on Wednesday, the former Labour prime minister claimed the west was reluctant to look unflinchingly at Islamic extremism because the world of politics is uncomfortable talking about religion.
He claims: "For the last 40 to 50 years, there has been a steady stream of funding, proselytising, organising and promulgating coming out of the Middle East, pushing views of religion that are narrow minded and dangerous. Unfortunately we seem blind to the enormous global impact such teaching has had and is having. Read on and comment » | Patrick Wintour, political editor | Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Lavrov: If We're Attacked, We'll Certainly Respond
Teenage Europeans Joining Jihad in War-torn Syria
Attorney General: Rise of Fundamentalism Is 'Damaging' Christianity
Christians are increasingly reluctant to express their religious views because they are being “turned off” by the “disturbing” and “very damaging” rise of religious fundamentalism, the Attorney General has said.
Dominic Grieve said that atheists who claim that Britain is no longer a Christian nation are “deluding themselves” and must accept that faith has shaped this country’s laws and ethics.
He said that 1,500 years of Christian values are “not going to disappear overnight” and said that many people remain believers even if they choose not to go to Church.
However, he warned people are being discouraged from openly declaring their beliefs because of the “deep intolerance” of religious extremists of all faiths, including Islam and Christianity.
He told The Telegraph: “I do think that there has been a rise of an assertiveness of religious groups across the spectrum. That is why those with softer religious views find it disturbing and say they don’t want anything to do with it.” » | Steven Swinford, and John Bingham | Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Iranian Prison Guards Ordered to Beat Up Inmates, Letter Says
Political prisoners in Tehran's Evin prison have allegedly been subjected to humiliating physical abuse, including being forced to run a gauntlet of guards armed with batons, it has emerged.
Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, has been silent despite chilling details being revealed by prisoners and their families about how Thursday's disturbances marked a dark episode in one of the country's most notorious prisons.
Dozens of inmates held in Evin's ward 350, including journalists, lawyers and opposition members, were injured, with some suffering skull fractures, broken ribs, wounds and swelling on their bodies after guards and intelligence officials created a tunnel and made prisoners run through it as they beat them with batons, according to opposition sources.
Emad Bahavar, who is serving a 10-year sentence because of his political activities, recounted some of the horrific moments in a letter sent out of jail and published on an opposition website, Kaleme, on Tuesday. » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Salman Rushdie and The Satanic Verses Affair
Where Would You Rather Live – Great Britain or Little England?
This Easter we find ourselves in the middle of a European election campaign in which the question at the heart of the European debate is finally being addressed: should Britain remain a member of the EU, or is it time to leave?
The isolationists have been allowed to peddle their myths unchallenged for decades. Of all Nigel Farage's far-fetched claims – and there are many – the most outlandish is the idea that Ukip's call for an exit is the insurgents' battle cry. European withdrawal is presented as a great revolutionary promise, held in stark contrast to the status quo upheld by a homogeneous political elite.
What poppycock. For a start, Farage is every bit the professional politician he enthusiastically reviles. He and I were elected to the European parliament on the same day in 1999. I left after five years. The Ukip leader is still there. More important, there is nothing remotely new about his party's ambitions. Ukip is simply the fresh face of a long-standing Eurosceptic establishment, supported by many in the Tory party and significant parts of the press.
The sceptics' free run over this debate must now be challenged. On 22 May every gain they make will propel Britain closer to the door. We risk finding ourselves drifting further and further away from our biggest export market, jeopardising our still fragile economic recovery and threatening millions of jobs. At a time when the world's economic powerhouses are reaching beyond their own borders and working more closely with their neighbours, we will be turning away from ours.
If we end up stumbling out of the EU our police will be denied the cross-border co-operation they enjoy at present – in effect asking them to keep us safe with one hand tied behind their back. At every international summit and on each of the great dilemmas thrown up by globalisation, climate change, trade, global finance, terrorism and organised crime, Britain will be increasingly isolated, its influence diminished in the world. » | Nick Clegg | Monday, April 21, 2014
THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: European elections: some things are bigger than Ukip: Europe is not going away so our European election campaigns should contain a debate about policy » | Monday, April 21, 2014
Monday, April 21, 2014
Muslims Must Accept Britain's Christian Values, Says Former Home Secretary
 |
| Former Labour home secretary Jack Straw |
Muslims must accept that Britain is built on Christian values, a former Home Secretary has said, in the wake of mounting evidence that a group of schools have been taken over in a ‘Trojan Horse’ plot by radical Islamists.
It is “inevitable” that many Muslim communities will not integrate with the rest of British society but it must be made clear that attempts to isolate Muslim pupils from the rest of society are unacceptable, Jack Straw said.
The alleged plot by Islamic radicals to take control of a series of schools in Birmingham is the product of a little-understood power struggle between Muslim denominations, Mr Straw, the MP for Blackburn said.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted, is to take personal charge of the schools watchdog’s probe into allegations that radical Islamists had sought to infiltrate the governing bodies of secular schools.
It is claimed head teachers were pressurised into segregating pupils, abandoning “un-Islamic” sections of the GCSE biology syllabus and neglecting non-Muslim pupils. » | Matthew Holehouse, Political Correspondent | Monday, April 21, 2014
David Cameron Christianity Claim Backed by Religious Groups
 |
| Mr Cameron has spoken of the "peace" he has found in Christianity |
Hindu Council UK said it was "very comfortable" with the description. The Muslim Council of Britain said the UK was a largely Christian country.
He said the UK must be "more confident" about its Christianity, a view Downing Street says he has stated before.
It comes after a group of public figures warned the PM risked causing "alienation" with his comments. » | Monday, April 21, 2014
India's Elders Lift Ban on Inter-caste Marriages
One of India’s most influential tribal councils has lifted a ban on inter-caste marriages in a move hailed by campaigners as the start of a social revolution.
India’s more than 800 million Hindus are born into rigid castes which determine their opportunities in life and their social status.
Those who defy traditional barriers to marry someone from below their own caste are often shunned and occasionally murdered – there are more than 1,000 honour killings in India every year of those who cross caste and religious divides to marry for love.
Most of the killings have been in northern India where Hindus from the Jat tribe – traditionally regarded as peasant warrior – also forbid marriages between those from the same sub-caste or gotra, which they regard as incest. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi | Monday, April 21, 2014
Iran : Rohani admet qu'il y a encore beaucoup à faire pour les droits des femmes
"Aujourd'hui, les femmes bénéficient de nombreux droits, mais il existe toujours des insuffisances dans les droits des femmes et l'égalité entre les sexes." Pour la journée nationale de la femme en Iran, le président Hassan Rohani a estimé que les femmes ne pouvaient être considérées comme des citoyens de seconde zone. Il s'exprimait devant des représentantes de "l'élite féminine" du pays selon les médias, qui ont chaudement applaudi son discours.
M. Rohani, élu en juin 2013 avec le soutien des réformateurs et des modérés, prône une plus grande ouverture politique, culturelle et sociale en Iran, régulièrement critiquée par les organisations internationales de défense des droits de l'homme pour les discriminations dont sont victimes les femmes. La Journée de la femme est célébrée en Iran le jour anniversaire de Fatima, la fille du prophète.
"L'injustice et la violence contre les femmes doivent cesser", a-t-il plaidé. "Selon les règles islamiques, l'homme n'est pas le premier sexe ni la femme le second sexe, [...] les femmes sont aux côtés des hommes et les deux sont égaux." (+ vidéo) » | Source AFP | dimanche 20 avril 2014
Assad besucht zurückeroberte Stadt Maalula
Der syrische Präsident Baschar al-Assad hat am Ostersonntag ein kürzlich von seinen Truppen zurückerobertes christliches Dorf besucht. Wie die amtliche Nachrichtenagentur Sana berichtete, besichtigte Assad in Maalula 60 Kilometer nordöstlich von Damaskus Schäden an Kirchen und Klöstern.
Rebellen, darunter Kämpfer der dem Terrornetzwerk al-Qaida nahestehenden Nusra-Front, hatten das Dorf im vergangenen Jahr mehrmals besetzt. Am Montag wurde es von Regierungstruppen eingenommen, die die Rebellen in die umliegenden Dörfer zurückdrängten.
Für die Regierung hatte die Rückeroberung auch einen wichtigen symbolischen Wert: Sie bemüht sich, als Beschützer religiöser Minderheiten, inklusive der Christen, wahrgenommen zu werden. Assad verfolgt mit seinem Besuch also durchaus propagandistische Ziele. In einem Konflikt, der bereits neun Millionen Menschen zur Flucht gezwungen und mittlerweile unzählige Opfer gefordert hat, versucht er sich gegenüber der Öffentlichkeit als Garant für den Schutz von Minderheiten zu inszenieren. » | AP/ds | Montag, 21. April 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)