Monday, February 23, 2015
My Friend the Suicide Bomber: Meet the Men Recruited to Kill
It’s Absurd to Deny Jihadis Act in the Name of Islam
But no policy can be effective without an honest diagnosis of the problem it is intended to address.
That is why Barack Obama’s statement to last week’s global summit on extremism was so disappointing. Coming from a man who ridicules the proposition that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, Obama’s claim that “No religion is responsible for terrorism, people are responsible for terrorism”, combined mendacity with hypocrisy.
The jihadis may indeed be “madmen”, as Obama said; but to deny they act in the name of Islam is as absurd as denying the crusades were fought under the banner of Christianity.
Nor was Obama on more solid ground in blaming Islamic extremism on poverty and disadvantage. Few claims have been as decisively rejected by social scientific research; and so has the claim that the radicalisation of Muslim youth in western countries is caused by social exclusion. (+ video) » | Henry Ergas | Columnist | Sydney | Monday, February 23, 2015
Oman: Heikler Thronwechsel
Jahrzehntelang galt Oman als ein von allen Seiten geschätzter Vermittler. Unterhändler aus Teheran und Washington bahnten 2003 in Maskat die jetzigen Atomverhandlungen an. Bei heiklen Geiselbefreiungen laufen oft die Fäden in der omanischen Hauptstadt zusammen. Überdies müht sich Oman als Mitglied des Golfkooperationsrates stets um politischen Ausgleich zwischen Iran und den übrigen Monarchien am Golf.
Vielleicht war es ein Segen für das Land im Osten der Arabischen Halbinsel, dass seine Ölvorkommen nicht so üppig sind wie bei den ganz Großen nebenan. Und so nutzte Sultan Qaboos, der sich 1970 an die Macht putschte, seine absolute Autorität und die 5,5 Milliarden Barrel Bodenschätze, um aus seiner ramponierten Heimat mit damals zehn Kilometern geteerter Straße und einem tobenden Bürgerkrieg einen modernen Staat zu formen, dessen Einwohner noch nie zuvor so lange in Frieden gelebt haben. » | Quelle: ZeitOnline | Freitag, 20. Februar 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
US Security Chief Warns Shoppers After Terror Threat
He said he took the threat by the Somali-based group al-Shabab seriously.
In a video, the group urged followers to carry out attacks on shopping centres in the US, Canada and the UK.
Al-Shabab was responsible for the 2013 attack on Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people.
Mr Johnson told CNN that the threat was part of "a new phase" of terrorism in which attacks would increasingly come from "independent actors in their homelands".
"Anytime a terrorist organisation calls for an attack on a specific place, we've got to take that seriously," he said.
In the video, a man with a British-sounding accent and full face covering calls on supporters of al-Shabab to attack "American or Jewish-owned" Western shopping centres. (+ BBC video) » | Sunday, February 22, 2015
Al Shabaab Calls for Attack on Mall of America in New Video
According to Fox 9, the mall is one of three similar targets the terror group specifically names, including West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Oxford Street shopping area in London.
The video purportedly shows 6 minutes of graphic images and the terrorists celebrating the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, that killed more than 60 people.
The narrator, his face wrapped in a black-and-white kaffiyeh-type scarf and wearing a camouflage jacket, spoke with a British accent and appeared to be of Somali origin. He accused Kenyan troops in Somalia of committing abuses against Somali Muslims.
He ended the video by calling on Muslim men to attack other shopping malls in Western countries. (+ FoxNews video) » | FoxNews.com | Sunday, February 22, 2015
Al-Shabaab Calls for Attacks on Oxford Street and Westfield Centres in New Terror Threat
Islamist terrorists have called for attacks on London’s Oxford Street and the Westfield shopping centres in the latest jihadist threat to the UK.
A video released by the Somalia-based fanatics al-Shabaab called on its followers to “hasten to heaven” by attacking some of the country’s busiest shopping areas.
It also threatened venues in America and Canada as well as “Jewish-owned” centres.
Counter-terrorism police in the UK were assessing the video while the head of US homeland security warned shoppers to be “particularly careful”.
The video, which lasts more than an hour and was released over the weekend, centred o[n] the fall out from al-Shabaab’s attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Kenya in 2013 that left 62 people dead and more than 100 injured.
A terrorist dressed in army fatigues and his face covered then warned: “Can you imagine what a dedicated mujahideen (soldier) in the West could do to the American and Jewish-owned shopping centres across the world.” » | Tom Whitehead, and Peter Foster | Sunday, February 22, 2015
Kleines Mädchen wird für Boko Haram zur Selbstmordattentäterin
Sieben Jahre jung war das Mädchen, das bei einem Anschlag fünf Menschen getötet hat. 19 weitere Menschen seien verletzt worden, als der am Körper des Mädchens befestigte Sprengsatz am Sonntag auf einem Markt der Stadt Potiskum explodierte, sagte ein Mitglied einer Bürgerwehr. Weiter lesen und einen Beitrag hinzufügen » | Sonntag, 22. Februar 2015
Islamic 'Radicals' at the Heart of Whitehall
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| Lady Warsi arrives in Downing Street on July 6, 2010 |
Entryism, the favourite tactic of the 1980s’ Militant Tendency, is when a political party or institution is infiltrated by groups with a radically different agenda. Since Militant’s Trotskyites were expelled from the Labour Party, the word has rather fallen out of fashion.
But now, according to one Muslim leader, Islamic radicals are practising entryism of their own — into the heart of Whitehall – courtesy of a woman who was until recently a government minister.
Baroness Warsi, the first Muslim woman to sit in Cabinet, handed official posts to people linked to Islamist groups, including a man involved in an “unpleasant and bullying” campaign to win planning permission for the controversial London “megamosque” proposed by a fundamentalist Islamic sect.
He sits – alongside other radicals or former radicals and their allies – on a “cross-Government working group on anti-Muslim hatred” set up by Lady Warsi and Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister.
Some members of the group are using their seats at the table to urge that Whitehall work with Islamist and extremist-linked bodies, including one described by the Prime Minister as a “political front for the Muslim Brotherhood”. Some are also pressing to lift bans on foreign hate preachers from entering Britain, including Zakir Naik, who has stated that “every Muslim should be a terrorist”. » | Andrew Gilligan | Sunday, February 22, 2015
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anti-terrorism chief quits over failure to expel suspects: Senior official quits over fears scheme to deport terrorists isn’t working » | Robert Mendick and Robert Verkaik | Saturday, February 21, 2015
Austrian Islam Bill Stirs Feelings of Alienation
DPA - Amid Europe-wide debates on extremism and integration, Austria is changing its law governing Islam. However, the changes risk deepening the rift between Muslims and the majority population.
"Muslims feel they are misunderstood and under suspicion," the Austrian Islamic Community, an umbrella organization, has said about the planned Islam law and the restrictions it contains.
On Wednesday, the bill is expected to pass in the Austrian parliament with the majority of social democrats and conservatives. Despite the current frictions, the Islamic community was a main driver behind the project to update the rudimentary law that had governed relations between the state and Islam since 1912.
The bill contains several provisions that will make life easier for the nearly 600,000 Muslims among Austria's 8.6 million inhabitants, the second-largest religious group behind Catholics.
For example, Muslim clerics gain the right to visit hospital patients, soldiers and prisoners. In addition, schools and other public institutions will have to offer food in line with Muslim rules.
On the other hand, the bill stresses that national law stands above Muslim sharia law, a provision that is absent in Austrian laws governing other religions. » | Albert Otti and Alkimos Sartoros | Sunday, February 22, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Muslim Dutch Mayor to Muslims: Accept Western Values or Leave
The Muslim mayor of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said this week that Europe has no place for extremists who are not willing to live within the bounds of its norms.
Speaking to CNN's Michael Holmes on Wednesday, the mayor, Moroccan-born Ahmed Aboutaleb suggested that those Muslims who don’t embrace values should leave Europe.
"You are not forced to be with us, it's a choice," he said. "Work with us together to construct a 'we society.'"
"But if you want to stand out of the 'we community,' you threaten us, you go to Yemen to learn how to use a Kalashnikov and to come back to threaten the society, well you are not part of my 'we society,' you better leave," added Aboutaleb.
Aboutaleb drew headlines around the world in the wake of last month's attack on the editorial staff of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, when he said, "if you don't like it here because you don't like that humorists who make a newspaper -- yeah, if I can say it like this, get lost!" » | Elad Benari, Canada | Friday, February 20, 2015
Silence! Political Correctness Hampering ‘Free Speech’ in UK Universities
Tolerance Test: Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism on the Rise in Europe
«Mein Kampf» sera bientôt dans les kiosques
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| La nouvelle édition sera composée du texte original et de 5000 commentaires d'historiens. |
Interdit depuis 1945, Mein Kampf sera disponible dans les librairies allemandes dans moins d’un an. L’Institut d’histoire contemporaine (IfZ) a annoncé hier la réédition commentée du livre d’Adolf Hitler en janvier 2016. Les droits tomberont dans le domaine public à la fin de l’année.
La nouvelle édition comptera 2000 pages au total (avec près de 800 pages consacrées au texte original) agrémentées de 5000 commentaires d’historiens. On ne connaît pas encore son prix. » | De Christophe Bourdoiseau Berlin | samedi 21 février 2015
German Anti-Islam Group Pegida Marches in Britain
The cameras are still rolling at Byker Grove. These days, though, they are set high above the security fence at the edge of the grounds, next to signs warning off intruders. When the children’s soap finished its run, in 2006, producers abandoned the Victorian mansion where it was filmed.
Children will soon be running around the grounds again. Not PJ and Duncan, the youth club teenagers played by Ant and Dec, but students of an Islamic academy that is planned for the site, Benwell Towers.
Not everyone is happy with the proposal, however. In fact, when the Bahr Academy bought the property two years ago, the English Defence League, a far-Right group that has often clashed with police, staged its biggest-ever demonstration. It claims 5,000 members marched through Newcastle that day.
As tensions rose, someone hung a pig’s head from the gates, a calculated attempt to offend. The protesters seemed to favour an empty shrine to Nineties television over a faith school. Work on the site has now begun but it remains controversial, hence the security cameras.
So it was not such a surprise to learn that another march was planned for the city, next weekend. That is, until Geordies discovered the identity of the group behind the demonstration: Pegida, a populist anti-Islam movement – in Germany. It only held its first march against the “Islamisation of the West” in the German city of Dresden last October; now, it seems, it is ready to spread its message internationally.
Branches have been set up in several other countries, including France and Spain, and the Newcastle demonstration next Saturday will be its first in Britain. If it is successful, more marches are planned, for Birmingham and London, as well as Bathgate in Scotland. Read on and comment » | Tom Rowley | Saturday, February 21, 2015
French Icon Brigitte Bardot On Trial Again For Blasphemy Against Islam
Now, the prosecutor, Anne de Fontette, wants a heftier fine and a tougher sentence: the equivalent of $24,000 and a two month (hopefully) suspended jail term.
What crimes has Bardot committed in the land without a First Amendment, in the land of Hate Speech laws that are being slickly exploited by non-persecuted Muslims?
Bardot has written: “I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country.”
Bardot, seventy[-]nine, is an avid animal rights activist and abhors the slaughter of animals for any purpose, including religious ones. But mainly, she laments “the Islamization of France.” » | Dr. Phyllis Chesler | Friday, February 20, 2015
Hass auf Muslime erreicht neuen Höhepunkt
Es ist eine schöne Geste. In Oslo wollen morgen Samstag über achthundert junge Muslime eine menschliche Schutzkette um eine Synagoge errichten. Die Idee des erst 17-jährigen Initiators kommt nicht von ungefähr. «Wir sind nicht alle Terroristen», lautet die Aussage, die dahintersteckt. Denn das ist im Volk und bei Toppolitikern aus der Mitte nicht mehr selbstverständlich.
Rechtspopulisten vor Sieg
Die Stimmung gegenüber Muslimen hat sich in Skandinavien und ganz besonders in Dänemark seit den New Yorker Anschlägen von 2001 und der Mohammed-Karikaturen-Krise mit Ausschreitungen in der islamischen Welt gegen Dänemark 2006 erheblich verschlechtert. … » | Von André Anwar | Stockholm | Freitag, 20. Februar 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
Obama’s Elementary Errors on Islam
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| President Barack Obama addresses the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism on Feb. 18. |
The three-day White House conference on “violent extremism” exposed anew Obama’s inability or unwillingness to understand the challenge of Islamist terrorism, let alone to lead the fight against it.
The conference was billed as a global event bringing together people of different views from more than 60 countries. In practice, however, it acted more as an echo chamber for Obama’s politically correct approach.
“Violent extremism” is misleading, to say the least. (Is there extremism without violence?) The generic term obscures the fact that we face a specific form of terrorism rooted, nurtured and waged in the name of Islam.
Obama did defend his evasion: “Al Qaeda and ISIL [a k a ISIS] and groups like it . . . try to portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam,” he said. “We must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie.” Operatives of al Qaeda and ISIS “are not religious leaders — they’re terrorists,” he said.
In fact, these terrorists now call their outfit the Islamic State, or IS, under a caliph. And no higher authority has the legitimacy and power to challenge their claim.
Islam has no mechanism for excommunication. Individuals can leave the ummah and be regarded as apostates (murtad). But no one who swears he is a Muslim can be excluded.
Even very bad Muslims are still Muslims as long as they haven’t thrice publicly rejected the two testimonies. (The two testimonies are accepting the oneness of God and that Muhammad is His Prophet.) Thus, neither Obama nor anyone else is qualified to decide who is a Muslim — or what is “true Islam.” » | Amir Taheri | Friday, February 20, 2015
Hitler's Hidden Drug Habit: Secret History
Putin's Growing Tensions With The West
Putin-Rede: "Niemand ist Russland militärisch überlegen"
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| Russlands Präsident Putin: Militärische Stärke als Argument |
Moskau - Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin hat eine deutliche Warnung in Richtung Westen ausgesprochen. "Niemand sollte die Illusion haben, dass er eine militärische Überlegenheit gegenüber Russland erreichen könnte", zitiert ihn die Agentur Interfax. "Wir werden immer eine passende Antwort auf sämtliche solcher Abenteuer haben", sagte er demnach in einem Grußwort anlässlich eines Feiertags für die "Verteidiger des Vaterlandes" in der kommenden Woche. » | mxw/Reuters | Freitag, 20. Februar 2015
Russian Tensions Could Escalate into All-out War, says Nato General
Tensions with Russia could blow up into all-out conflict, posing “an existential threat to our whole being”, Britain’s top general in Nato has warned.
Gen Sir Adrian Bradshaw, deputy commander of Nato forces in Europe, said there was a danger Vladimir Putin could try to use his armies to invade and seize Nato territory, after calculating the alliance would be too afraid of escalating violence to respond.
His comments follow a clash between London and Moscow after the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, said there was a "real and present danger" Mr Putin could try to destabilise the Baltic states with a campaign of subversion and irregular warfare.
The Kremlin called those comments “absolutely unacceptable". » | Ben Farmer, Defence Correspondent | Friday, February 20, 2015
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Britain cannot defend itself against Putin's military might, top brass warn: Former RAF chief says that Britain's defences have been 'decimated' and would not survive a Russian air attack » | Camilla Turner | Friday, February 20, 2015
Saudi King Salman Showers His People with Cash
Riyadh: European leaders are still battling over austerity. The US Congress is gearing up for another fight over the budget. But in Saudi Arabia, there are no such troubles when you are king - and you just dole out billions and billions of dollars to ordinary Saudis by royal decree.
Not surprisingly, Saudis are very happy with their new monarch, King Salman.
"It is party time for Saudi Arabia right now", said John Sfakianakis, the Riyadh-based Middle East director of the Ashmore Group, an investment company, who estimates that the king's post-coronation giveaway will ultimately cost more than $US32 billion or $41 billion.
Since Salman ascended the throne of this wealthy Arab kingdom last month, he has swiftly taken charge, abolishing government bodies and firing ministers. But no measure has caused as much buzz here as the giant payouts he ordered to a large chunk of the Saudi population.
These included grants to professional associations, literary and sports clubs; investments in water and electricity; and bonuses worth two months of salary to all government employees, soldiers, pensioners and students on government stipends at home and abroad. Some private companies followed suit with comparable bonuses for their Saudi employees, putting another few billion dollars into people's pockets. » | Ben Hubbard | Friday, February 20, 2015
USA: Obama bekämpft Jihad-Tourismus mit Bürokratie
Washington. Am Donnerstag war Barack Obama in seinem Element. In seiner binnen 24 Stunden zweiten Rede zur Frage, wie sich der Reiz von Terrorgruppen auf junge Menschen vermindern lasse, appellierte der Präsident in der Sprache des einstigen Universitätsprofessors an die in Washington versammelten Vertreter von knapp 60 Staaten und internationalen Organisationen: „Wir alle haben die Verantwortung, die Vorstellung zurückzuweisen, dass der IS den Islam repräsentiert. Die Vorstellung, dass der Westen im Krieg mit dem Islam sei, ist eine hässliche Lüge.“ » | Vom Korrespondenten der Presse Oliver Grimm | Donnerstag, 19. Februar 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Obama Accused of Skirting Islamic Extremist Threat, at ‘Summit without Substance’
"Sadly, this was a summit without substance," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "Americans understand we are not at war with Islam. But, we will not defeat these fanatics if we refuse to define them for what they are -- violent Islamist extremists."
The president and top officials in his administration, as they have before, generally avoided using the term "radical Islam" during the summit. Instead, Obama argued that groups like the Islamic State "use Islam to justify their violence" and that to accept that connection would be to embrace the "terrorists' narrative." (+ FoxNews video) » | FoxNews.com | Thursday, February 19, 2015
Return of the Religious Police Worries Reformers in Saudi Arabia
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| Saudi women shopping in Riyadh |
The violation of modesty might seem technical, but this was Saudi Arabia, and the religious police were having none of it.
They swept through Riyadh's Marina Mall, going through shops with names like "Princesses' Island" and "My Scarf" which specialise in abayas, the all-enveloping, shapeless gown that Saudi women must by law wear in public, and tore down any that weren't black.
Black is the colour stipulated for abayas, but as Saudi society has become more cosmopolitan, women have begun to experiment.
First dark patterns emerged, then a few diamante adornments, then the occasional striped sleeve; finally - the step the religious police thought was taking it too far - abayas of whole different colours, like brown, and dark blue.
The cloaks still hid every vestige of a woman's anatomy: only not in the same monotone.
"It was very annoying," said one shop assistant, who requested that he not be identified to prevent further raids. "They did cause a big problem. However, it is the law I suppose, so we just have to put up with it."
The attack on the Mall was not, women's rights and other activists say, a one-off. It happened shortly after the death of 90-year-old King Abdullah at the end of January, and may have been a sign that the once-feared religious police which he spent years trying to rein in felt they were now in the ascendant again. » | Richard Spencer, Riyadh | Thursday, February 19, 2015
La beauté iranienne à travers le voile
La beauté iranienne à travers le voile by LePoint
L'organisation État islamique menace l'Europe d'un "chaos" en Méditerranée
Le message est clair. L'État islamique menace l'Europe d'envoyer des milliers de barques remplies de migrants vers les côtes italiennes en cas d'intervention militaire en Libye. L'information a été révélée par le quotidien italien Il Messagero qui s'est procuré des écoutes téléphoniques auprès de la police, rapporte Le Figaro. Dans ces enregistrements, les djihadistes parlent de "500 000 migrants" qu'ils enverraient par bateaux vers l'Italie.
Le pays est en première ligne, à 350 kilomètres seulement des côtes libyennes. Son ministre des Affaires étrangères a fait savoir lundi dernier que la Libye devait être "la priorité absolue". Le pays redoute l'installation d'un "califat" en Libye et a averti que le temps était compté pour une solution politique, face au renforcement de l'organisation de l'EI. » | jeudi 19 février 2015
Der kurzsichtige Terrorfürst
Die Jihadisten-Miliz Islamischer Staat (IS) sorgt mit ihren Gräueltaten weltweit für Schlagzeilen, doch über ihren öffentlichkeitsscheuen Chef Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi ist wenig bekannt.
Einem Rechercheteam von «Süddeutscher Zeitung», WDR und NDR ist es nun nach eigenen Angaben gelungen, dank Dokumenten und Zeugenaussagen ein genaueres Bild des irakischen Jihadisten zu zeichnen. Wie die «SZ» am Donnerstag berichtete, war al-Bagdadi demnach schon früh machthungrig. Der «Weltspiegel extra» porträtierte den Terroristen. » | spu/AFP | Donnerstag, 19. Februar 2015
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