Abdul Rahman Thanks the Pope for His Intervention

Photo of Abdul Rahman courtesy of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung

An Afghan man who could have faced the death penalty for becoming a Christian has said he would probably have been killed had he remained in Afghanistan.

Speaking to journalists in Italy, where he has been given asylum, Abdul Rahman, 41, thanked Pope Benedict XVI for leading the campaign to have him freed.

He said he never wanted to return to Afghanistan and was concerned for the safety of his family there.

Afghan MPs have condemned his release and said he should have not have left. read it all here: Afghan convert 'would be killed'

Mark Alexander

Is Iran in for it?

With thanks to the BBC

Iran has been given 30 days to return to the negotiating table or face isolation, foreign ministers from the US and five other major powers warned.

"Iran has a choice between isolation brought about through [uranium] enrichment" or a return to talks, Germany's foreign minister said.

His comments reinforced a deadline in a statement by the UN Security Council, which urged Iran to halt enrichment. read it all here: Iran given stark nuclear choice

Mark Alexander

American journalist released

A US reporter held hostage in Iraq for more than two months has been freed.

Jill Carroll, who works for the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor, was abducted by unknown gunmen in west Baghdad on 7 January.

She told Iraqi TV she had been treated well and said she was looking forward to being reunited with her family. Read it all here: US journalist released in Iraq

Mark Alexander

The Western Standard needs your help!

The Western Standard of Alberta, Canada is being sued for publishing the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Being a small publication, they are asking people for support and donations. I received this email from the publisher this morning. I am passing it on in case you feel moved to help them in their cause of fighting for free speech:

Dear Western Standard reader,

Our magazine has been sued for publishing the Danish cartoons, and I need your help to fight back!

As you know, the Western Standard was the only mainstream media organ in Canada to publish the Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

We did so for a simple reason: the cartoons were the central fact in one of the largest news stories of the year, and we're a news magazine. We publish the facts and we let our readers make up their minds.

Advertisers stood with us. Readers loved the fact that we treated them like grown-ups. And we earned the respect of many other journalists in Canada who envied our independence. In fact, according to a COMPAS poll last month, fully 70% of Canada's working journalists supported our decision to publish the cartoons.

But not Syed Soharwardy, a radical Calgary Muslim imam.

He asked the police to arrest me for publishing the cartoons. They calmly explained to him that's not what police in Canada do.

So then he went to a far less liberal institution than the police: the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Unlike the Calgary Police Service, they didn't have the common sense to show him the door.

Earlier this month, I received a copy of Soharwardy's rambling, hand-scrawled complaint. It is truly an embarrassing document. He briefly complains that we published the Danish cartoons. But the bulk of his complaint is that we dared to try to justify it - that we dared to disagree with him.

Think about that: In Soharwardy's view, not only should the Canadian media be banned from publishing the cartoons, but we should be banned from defending our right to publish them. Perhaps the Charter of Rights that guarantees our freedom of the press should be banned, too.

Soharwardy's complaint goes further than just the cartoons. It refers to news articles we published about Hamas, a group labelled a terrorist organization by the Canadian government. By including those other articles, he shows his real agenda: censoring any criticism of Muslim extremists.

Perhaps the most embarrassing thing about Soharwardy's complaint is that he claims our cartoons caused him to receive hate mail. Indeed, his complaint includes copies of a few e-mails from strangers to him. Some of those e-mails even go so far as to call him "humourless" and tell him to "lighten up". Perhaps that's hateful. But all of those e-mails were sent to him before our magazine even published the cartoons. Soharwardy isn't even pretending that this is a legitimate complaint. He's not even trying to hide that this is a nuisance suit.

Soharwardy's complaint should have been thrown out immediately by the Alberta Human Rights Commission, just like the police did. But it wasn't. Which is why I'm writing to you today.

According to our lawyers, we will win this case. It's an infantile complaint, without basis in facts or law. Frankly, it's an embarrassment to the government of Alberta that their tribunal is open to abuse like this.

Our lawyers tell us we're going to win. But not before we have to spend hundreds of hours and up to $75,000 fighting this thing, at our own expense. Soharwardy doesn't have to spend a dime - now that his complaint has been filed, Alberta tax dollars will pay for the prosecution of his complaint. We have to pay for this on our own.

Look, $75,000 isn't going to bankrupt us. But it will sting. We're a small, independent magazine, not a huge company with deep pockets. All of our money is needed to produce the best possible editorial product, not to fight legal battles. This is clearly an abuse of process designed to punish us and deter other media from daring to cross that angry imam in the future.

One of the leaders in Canadian human rights law, Alan Borovoy, was so disturbed by Soharwardy's abuse of the human rights commission that he wrote a public letter about it in the Calgary Herald on March 16th. "During the years when my colleagues and I were labouring to create such commissions, we never imagined that they might ultimately be used against freedom of speech," wrote Borovoy, who is general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Censorship was "hardly the role we had envisioned for human rights commissions. There should be no question of the right to publish the impugned cartoons," he wrote.

Borovoy went even further - he said that the human rights laws should be changed to avoid this sort of abuse in the future. "It would be best, therefore, to change the provisions of the Human Rights Act to remove any such ambiguities of interpretation," he wrote. That's an amazing statement, coming from one of the fathers of the Canadian human rights movement.

I agree with Borovoy: the law should be changed to stop future abuses. But those changes will come too late for us - we're already under attack. The human rights laws, designed as a shield, are being used against us as a sword.

We will file our legal response to Soharwardy's shakedown this week. And we will fight this battle to the end - not just for our own sake, but to defend freedom of the press for all Canadians.

Do you believe that's important? If so, I'd ask you to help us defray our costs. We're accepting donations through our website. It's fast, easy and secure. Just click on http://www.westernstandard.ca/freedom

You can donate any amount from $10 to $10,000. Please help the Western Standard today - and protect freedom for all Canadians for years to come.

Yours gratefully,

Ezra Levant
Publisher

P.S. Remember, Soharwardy's complaint will be prosecuted using tax dollars and government lawyers. We have to rely on our own funds - and the generous support of readers like you.

Please help fight this case.

Mark Alexander

Abdul Rahman in Italien

Für das Foto, dankt man der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung

Streit wegen Rahmans Freilassung

Der zum christlichen Glauben übergetretene Afghane Abdul Rahman hat seine Heimat verlassen. Er traf am Abend mit einem Flugzeug in Italien ein. Dies bestätigte der italienische Ministerpräsident Silvio Berlusconi. Italien hatte dem 41-Jährigen Asyl angeboten, nachdem er wegen seines Übertrittes mit dem Tode bedroht worden war. Lesen Sie den ganzen Artikel hier: Christlicher Afghane in Italien

©Mark

Italy may become Abdul Rahman's new home

Italy is considering granting asylum to Abdul Rahman, the Afghan man who was released from jail yesterday in Kabul, where he had faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity.

He was staying in a safe house last night after prosecutors dropped the case against him under intense international pressure. But Mr Rahman will have to flee the country for his own safety, after several leading Muslim clerics called on Afghans to kill him.

Mr Rahman appealed for help to leave Afghanistan, and he is thought most likely to go to Italy, where the Foreign Minister, Gianfranco Fini is to ask the cabinet today to grant him asylum. Read all the article here: Italy may offer asylum to Afghan Christian convert

Mark

Britain always needs a Caspar

With thanks to PBS.org

"America never had a wiser patriot, nor Britain a truer friend." - Margaret Thatcher

Caspar Weinberger, who died yesterday aged 88, was US Secretary of Defence under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987, and a loyal friend to Britain during the Falklands War.

Weinberger had a special admiration for Winston Churchill from the time when he had served as an Army officer in the Second World War, and often cited him as a significant influence. When Argentina invaded and occupied the Falklands in April 1982, Weinberger came down strongly on Britain's side and supported Margaret Thatcher's government when it decided to retake the islands.

From the first, he was in touch with Britain's ambassador in Washington, Sir Nico Henderson, saying that America could not put a Nato ally and long-standing friend on the same level as Argentina and that he would do his best to help. Read the rest of the obituary from The Telegraph here: Caspar Weinberger (1917 - 2006): America's erstwhile Secretary of State

FROM THE TIMES: CASPAR WEINBERGER was the US Secretary of Defence who built up the huge arsenal with which President Reagan confronted the military might of the Soviet Union in the last decade of its existence.

He was not the only American who believed passionately that the price of safety in the modern world was to sink dollars into arming men and developing ever more complex weapons systems. But he was more intelligent, more sophisticated and genuinely tougher than most of America’s hawks. American Secretary of Defence who created the military machine with which Ronald Reagan faced down the Soviet Union

Mark

No babies? No future!

News about the dwindling brithrates in Europe is enough to send anyone into a depression! No bonny babies like this one? No future!

With thanks to iVillage.com

Muslims in Europe are having babies; and their numbers in Europe are therefore increasing rapidly. Non-Muslims, however, are not. Their numbers decline by the year.

What has gone wrong with people's thinking? It seems that the educators have a lot to answer for. Girls in the education system have been pumped and primed with the idea that they can only be fulfilled outside of the home. Having a 'career' has been the buzzword for several decades. The policy of equal pay for women - not that I am advocating anything else! - has also played no small part in contributing to the small number of babies being born. By giving women equal pay, it has simply become too expensive for them to stay home and procreate.

How much more fulfilled women are, though, is a matter of speculation. But for sure, it can be said that the West in general, and Europe in particular, is paying a very high price for this kind of liberation.

The fact of the matter is clear to see: We are faced with the 'green peril': Islam. Muslims will not be slow to have more babies, and will therefore swell the population. This, of course, will change the demographics of Europe, and it will ultimately change the politics of the continent, too.

The reality is this: Without babies, we cannot survive. It was Churchill who said: There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies. And no finer, truer words have been spoken!

Italian women shun 'mamma' role

EU states are trying to understand why the birth rate is falling - and if anything can be done to stem the decline. All this week, the BBC News website is asking women in various countries about how they feel about being asked to have more babies, and how easy or difficult they find combining motherhood and work.

Here, the BBC's Rome correspondent Christian Fraser asks why Italy - a predominantly Roman Catholic country that has always loved children - has stopped having them.

Dwindling Germans review policies

In the latest in our series about motherhood and the role of the state in encouraging couples to have more children, the BBC's Tristana Moore in Berlin has been meeting women to find out why Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe.

"Some German mothers say they are thought selfish for wanting to work." Perhaps there is some truth in this statement.

The EU's baby blues

Birth rates in the European Union are falling fast.

In the first of a series about motherhood and the role of the state in encouraging couples to have more children, the BBC News website's Clare Murphy asks why governments are so concerned about the size of their populations.

Mark

Dhimmi of the month?: News anchor wins the honour of Muslims

Channel 4 news anchor Jon Snow was among the winners at the Muslim News Awards for Excellence.

Snow received the media award for his work "travelling extensively in the Muslim world, taking an in-depth look at events and developments".

Other winners included the solicitor for radical cleric Abu Hamza, Muddassar Arani, who took the citizenship award.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praised the contribution of Muslims to British society, in a speech at the ceremony.

'Celebrate success'

Mr Straw said: "British Muslims are where Britain and Islam intersect. Celebrating their success is the best way of showing that these two identities can and do thrive in the same place and in the same person. Read the full article here: TV news anchor wins Muslim honour: Jon Snow was recognised for his reporting of the Muslim world

©Mark

Islam is a greater threat than Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union

Dennis Prager, in today's Townhall.com, writes that Islam is a greater threat than Germany was in 1939 and the Soviet Union subsequently.

In stating this, he agrees with my analysis in my book, The Dawning of a New Dark Age.

It is well worth your time to read his excellent article, The Islamic threat is greater than German and Soviet threats were.

I should like to take this opportunity to remind you that my book is available in paperback and hardback versions. Please see here:


Dawning of a New Dark Age: A Collection of Essays on Islam

©Mark Alexander

The unbelievable Tony Blair falls for the unbelievable!

"The most remarkable thing about reading the Koran - in so far as it can be truly translated from the original Arabic - is to understand how progressive it is. I speak with great diffidence and humility as a member of another faith. I am not qualified to make any judgements.

But as an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, rather as reformers attempted with the Christian Church centuries later. It is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and way ahead of its time in attitudes to marriage, women and governance.

Under its guidance, the spread of Islam and its dominance over previously Christian or pagan lands was breathtaking. Over centuries it founded an Empire, leading the world in discovery, art and culture. The standard bearers of tolerance in the early Middle Ages were far more likely to be found in Muslim lands than in Christian ..."

No, Tone, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is precisely how regressive it is! What have you bin smokin’?

How can you possibly stand before an audience of educated, intelligent people and pronounce such balderdash?

If the Koran is so "progressive", and so "ahead of its time", then how come Muslims are so backward? How come Muslims wish to kill apostates, people who can no longer stomach the lies, the myths, the fairy stories propagated by the prophet of Islam? How come women, if they are not obedient, have to be beaten until they are prepared to be submissive to their husbands? How come women should be stoned to death for the ‘serious crime’ of adultery (while the men, the adulterers, will miraculously get away with it)? How come the Muslim world has contributed virtually nothing to human endeavour for approximately five hundred years? How come rates for adult illiteracy are so high in Muslim lands? How come? How come? How come?

Oh, and by the way: About that 'abhorring superstition' bit… Didn’t you know, Tone, that Muslims believe in Jinns? And didn’t you know, too, that they believe that two angels sit permanently on each person’s shoulders? The one on your left shoulder taking down notes on your bad deeds, and the one on your right shoulder taking down notes on your good deeds?

For God’s sake (not Allah’s), get real, will you?

You have disgraced yourself, and you have disgraced your office, too! It’s surely time for you to spend more time with your family now. It awaits you!

©Mark Alexander

Vatican Rethinks the Crusades
Image courtesy of Genealogy Source

THE Vatican has begun moves to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference at the weekend that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the “noble aim” of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity.

The Crusades are seen by many Muslims as acts of violence that have underpinned Western aggression towards the Arab world ever since. Followers of Osama bin Laden claim to be taking part in a latter-day “jihad against the Jews and Crusaders”. Read all of Richard Owen's article here: Vatican change of heart over 'barbaric' Crusades

Mark

Prince Charles shares his wisdom on Islam in Saudi Arabia

The meaning of God's word must be interpreted "for this time" as well as "for all time", Prince Charles has said in a speech to an Islamic university.

He became the first westerner to address the Imam Muhammad bin Saud University, in Saudi Arabia, which has worked to counter radicalisation.

Last week, in a speech to Egyptian scholars he talked about the row over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

It showed the danger "of our failure to listen" to others' views, he said.

The prince and the Duchess of Cornwall are in Riyadh as part of a two-week tour of the Middle East.

In his speech at the university, the prince spoke about the importance of interpreting religious texts. Read the article here: Prince's call over 'God's word'

Mark

Bangladesh's 'democracy' threatened by extremism

GAZIPUR, BANGLADESH — Nobody noticed the suicide bomber. He seemed to be an ordinary tea hawker: the poorest of the poor, dressed in dirty clothes and carrying a pair of tea flasks -- a common sight in the streets of Bangladesh.

As he tried to enter the local government headquarters, two policemen stopped him. His behaviour suddenly changed. "I will teach you a lesson," he shouted. He put down his tea flasks and yanked a wire device from one of them. There was a deafening explosion, and a crowd of people fell to the ground, covered in blood.

Mohammed Nurul Amin, a prominent lawyer, was just a few feet away. He was walking to a rally to protest a suicide bombing that had killed and injured dozens of lawyers just two days earlier in the same town. But as he tried to protest against one suicide bombing, he was caught in the devastation of another. "I couldn't imagine that he was carrying a bomb, even when I saw him pulling the wire from the tea flask," Mr. Amin said. Read all of Geoffrey York's article here: Extremism exploding in Bangladesh: Islamic militants turn to suicide bombings in threat to country's secular democracy

Mark

Adherents of the 'Religion of Peace' show their compassionate side!

Several hundred people have protested in northern Afghanistan against a decision to dismiss a case against a man who converted to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman's case has been handed back to the attorney-general because of gaps in the evidence, an official said.

The decision to release Mr Rahman came amid mounting international criticism over the issue.

Mr Rahman, a Christian for 16 years, was charged with rejecting Islam and potentially faced the death penalty.

Afghanistan's legal system is built on Islamic Sharia law, and Mr Rahman could have faced execution if he had refused to renounce Christianity. Read it all here: Afghans protest against convert: Many Afghans are not happy with the decision to dismiss the case

Mark

Cherie Down Under but certainly not down in the mouth!

Not all outgoing leaders are spent forces. It was in his last days in office that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War - arguably the greatest political achievement, as measured by its contribution to human happiness, of the 20th century. No one watching Reagan in Berlin as he demanded "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall" would have seen a lame duck.

Tony Blair, however, is no Reagan. As his end approaches, he must be wondering where his opportunities went. It was no mean achievement to win three consecutive elections; but what did he do with it? Mr Blair's position after 1997 was the strongest of any prime minister in 100 years. He had total control of his party, an unassailable Commons majority, a broken opposition and the goodwill of the country. Read the rest here: Blair has reached his Major moment

Mark

Abdul Rahman set to be freed

An Afghan man charged with converting to Christianity is set to be released from jail while his case is reviewed.

Abdul Rahman's case has been handed back to the attorney-general because of gaps in the evidence, an official said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that while the attorney-general looked at the papers, Mr Rahman did not need to be detained. Read the rest here: Afghan convert set to be freed

Mark

Pope appeals for clemency for Abdul Rahman

Pope Benedict XVI has asked the Afghan president to show clemency towards a man facing possible execution for converting to Christianity.

Abdul Rahman has been charged with apostasy, a religious offence.

The Vatican said the pontiff had appealed to President Hamid Karzai to respect human rights guarantees enshrined in the Afghan constitution. Read the rest here: Pope makes Afghan convert appeal

And this from Reuters

Mark

Blair says Koran is progressive and ahead of its time

There have been some who have doubted that Tony Blair could have said the things he did about the Koran being a progressive book, one ahead of its time. To put such doubts to rest, I have placed a link to the whole speech made to the Foreign Policy Centre on Tuesday, March 21, 2006.

"... This terrorism will not be defeated until its ideas, the poison that warps the minds of its adherents, are confronted, head-on, in their essence, at their core. By this I don't mean telling them terrorism is wrong.

I mean telling them their attitude to America is absurd; their concept of governance pre-feudal; their positions on women and other faiths, reactionary and regressive; and then since only by Muslims can this be done: standing up for and supporting those within Islam who will tell them all of this but more, namely that the extremist view of Islam is not just theologically backward but completely contrary to the spirit and teaching of the Koran.

"The most remarkable thing about reading the Koran - in so far as it can be truly translated from the original Arabic - is to understand how progressive it is. I speak with great diffidence and humility as a member of another faith. I am not qualified to make any judgements.

But as an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, rather as reformers attempted with the Christian Church centuries later. It is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and way ahead of its time in attitudes to marriage, women and governance.

Under its guidance, the spread of Islam and its dominance over previously Christian or pagan lands was breathtaking. Over centuries it founded an Empire, leading the world in discovery, art and culture. The standard bearers of tolerance in the early Middle Ages were far more likely to be found in Muslim lands than in Christian ..." Read the whole speech here: Tony Blair's speech to the Foreign Policy centre

Mark

Blair praises the Qur'an

I first came across this item on Robert Spencer's excellent website, Dhimmi Watch this morning. The original article is to be found here: The Qur'an "is practical and way ahead of its time".

The item is not for the weak of stomach!



"The most remarkable thing about reading the Koran – in so far as it can be truly translated from the original Arabic - is to understand how progressive it is ... I speak with great diffidence and humility as a member of another faith. I am not qualified to make any judgements. But as an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, ..."

Really, Tony? Is this why apostates like Abdul Rahman have to be put to death under Islamic, or Shariah, law? Is this what you call progressive? Is this what you call 'being ahead of its time'?

Mark