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Mark Alexander

Christian West pays very high price for Muslim immigrants

YAHOO NEWS: Nearly three-quarters of British firms are banning Christmas decorations in the workplace for fear of being sued, research has shown. A new survey found most bosses are scared to put up festive tinsel and Christmas trees because they might offend non-Christian workers. Law firm Peninsula said the workplace was becoming caught up in the "wave" of political correctness.

"Christmas trees and decorations may well be a thing of the past in many workplaces this Christmas as political correctness culture has spread to the workplace," managing director Peter Done said. Xmas Ban! Firms Scared Of Tinsel

Firms 'ban festive decorations'

BBC backtracks on festive baubles

Jack Straw speaks on behalf of the Angel Gabriel!

Christmas: crucified by do-gooders by Jeff Randall

Sentamu attacks 'move to throw away crib' by Jonathan Petre and George Jones

Mark Alexander

Now don't you upset those Saudi royals lest they throw a tantrum!

THE TIMES: Britain’s broader commercial relationship with Saudi Arabia as well as co-operation in the War on Terror are being threatened by the escalating row over a long-running fraud investigation, according to senior Saudi sources.

The House of Saud’s embarrassment and frustration over the inquiry is said to threaten not only a £10 billion contract to buy Eurofighter combat aircraft from BAE Systems, but other lucrative deals with British defence and industrial companies.

A prominent Saudi businessman told The Times yesterday that it was a huge mistake for Britain to alienate the Royal Family, which controls all government contracts in a country flush with the proceeds of record oil prices.

“Saudi Arabia does not make commercial or defence decisions based on what shareholders or voters think,” he said. “It is run like a family business. If you upset members of the family, they will simply choose another supplier.” Saudi fury at slush fund claim threatens thousands of UK jobs by Richard Beeston

Mark Alexander

France and Germany want deadline for Turkey

BBC: The EU's Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, has urged Germany and France not to step up the pressure on Turkey over its membership bid.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested an 18-month deadline for Turkey to open its ports to traffic from Cyprus to keep its bid alive.

She and French President Jacques Chirac are expected to discuss it on Tuesday.

But Mr Rehn protested, telling Reuters news agency that "strict deadlines do not produce results". EU attacks Turkey deadline plan

Mark Alexander

Egyptian sexologist, Heba Kotb, on sex, foreplay and the "disease of homosexuality"

Arab viewers get frank advice on sex from Egyptian sexologist who happens to be conservative Muslim woman

YNET NEWS: Heba Kotb is a conservative Muslim, wears an Islamic head scarf, and goes on television once a week to talk - frankly and in great detail - about sex.

On her show, "Big Talk," Kotb answers questions from Muslims all over the Middle East about the most intimate bedroom issues with an openness that is shocking and revolutionary in a society where discussing the subject is taboo.

"How do I talk about these issues? Very seriously," the Egyptian sexologist says. "I put on a mask-like face and make sure I speak in the right tone of voice."

She also does it by talking about sex in an Islamic light, arguing that the faith is in favor of pleasure for both men and women, with one important caveat - that it be only in the context of marriage. Sex talks on Muslim TV?

Mark Alexander

Mark Vernon, an author and ex-vicar, reflects on agnosticism

BBC: With religion increasingly polarised, is there any benefit in not knowing if there is a higher power? Mark Vernon - an ex-vicar - explains why agnosticism is his creed.

We are in a period of intense debate about religion. It seems there are believers, secularists and atheists - in their manifold varieties - arguing over their various concerns. Veils. Intelligent design v evolution. Ordaining gays and women. Contraception and Aids.

But there is one voice that is squeezed out, partly because it can equivocate, partly because it tires of the tit-for-tat that the debate is so often reduced to. That is the agnostic. God. Who knows?

Mark Alexander

Kofi Annan on his time at the helm of the UN

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Iraq's national security adviser says he is shocked by UN head Kofi Annan's suggestion that the average Iraqi is worse off than under Saddam Hussein.

Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie also accused the UN of shying away from its responsibility towards the Iraqi people.

The UN secretary general, who leaves office after 10 years on 31 December, told the BBC that the situation in Iraq was now "much worse" than a civil war. Anger at UN chief's Iraq comments

WATCH A BBC SPECIAL: Kofi Annan reflects on time at UN

Mark Alexander

Turkey's train to Europe slows right down

"Turkey is not a European state, and to admit its accession into the Union would change the character of Europe" - Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber

With controversy over Cyprus raging, Turkey's membership in the E.U. fades further into the future

TIME EUROPE EDITION: Early last week, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had reason to be optimistic. During a meeting in Ankara, Pope Benedict XVI said he was in favor of Turkey joining the European Union. This reversed an opinion he had delivered previously as a Cardinal, saying the move would be "a grave error against history." But the good news was short-lived. Just days after the Pope's remarks, Olli Rehn, the E.U.'s Commissioner for Enlargement, recommended that the E.U. suspend a portion of Turkey's membership talks just 13 months after they began. The reason: Turkey's continued unwillingness to open its ports to ships from the Greek-controlled half of the disputed island of Cyprus. Slow Train to Europe by Andrew Purvis

Mark Alexander

Pope's "withdrawal from the debate is a considerable loss for the forces of reason and Western preservation"

MELANIE PHILLIPS: How is it possible that he changed so much, asked a young Islamist girl called Merve Celikkol, who concluded to the New York Times reporters on the ground that the Pope is ‘a hypocrite’. The answer to the charming Merve’s question is clear. He has changed because he has been forced to pacify the Islamic beast, and because support for Turkish entry is clearly in the Pope’s calculation the least he can offer. Papal bull

Mark Alexander

The flip side of Islamic fundamentalism

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: When Polish student Michael Gromek, 19, went to America on a student exchange, he found himself trapped in a host family of Christian fundamentalists. What followed was a six-month hell of dawn church visits and sex education talks as his new family tried to banish the devil from his soul. Here's his story.

"When I got out of the plane in Greensboro in the US state of North Carolina, I would never have expected my host family to welcome me at the airport, wielding a Bible, and saying, 'Child, our Lord sent you half-way around the world to bring you to us.' At that moment I just wanted to turn round and run back to the plane. My Half-Year of Hell With Christian Fundamentalists

Mark Alexander

"There is a stealthy rise of Sharia courts in Britain"

THE TIMES: There is, in a world of uncertainties, at least one comforting and incontrovertible truth. There’s one law for all. isn’t there? Well, no there isn’t. In this country some minority and religious groups have their own courts dispensing justice in commercial cases, neighbour disputes and divorce.

This week there has been a furious debate about whether these courts complement the national law or threaten it. The debate has been stoked by the revelation that in southeast London there is an unofficial Somali court that deals with criminal matters. One UK legal system? Think again by Clive Coleman

Mark Alexander

“We want Turkey to be part of the EU”, Pope tells Erdogan!

THE TIMES: In just three days on his first visit to a Muslim country, Pope Benedict XVI has transformed himself from a hate figure in Turkey into a model of tolerance and politeness spoken of with warmth and affection.

He returned to Rome yesterday, winning more praise for a parting shot that he had “left part of his heart in Istanbul”. Turks warm to model of tolerance and finally learn to love the Pope by Richard Owen and Suna Erdem

Mark Alexander

Der Papst und die Begeisterung der türkischen Presse

Foto dank der NZZ

Benedikt XVI. beendet Türkei-Reise
NZZ: Überschwänglich hat die türkische Presse über den Besuch des Papstes in der Blauen Moschee berichtet, wo Benedikt gemeinsam mit dem Mufti von Istanbul «wie ein Muslim» gebetet habe. Er habe «grosse Sympathien geerntet», schrieb etwa «Hürriyet». Der Papst hat seine Türkei-Reise am Freitag mit einer Messe beendet. Türkische Presse begeistert über Moschee-Besuch des Papstes

Mark Alexander

Our Saudi 'friends' get very tough! Fraud investigation to be halted within 10 days, or contract will be lost to French

THE TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia has given Britain 10 days to halt a fraud investigation into the country's arms trade - or lose a £10 billion Eurofighter contract.

The contract supports up to 50,000 British jobs and there are now fears that the deal may go to France.

The Saudi government is on the verge of cancelling the contract - an extension of one brokered by Margaret Thatcher 20 year ago - because of a Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations of a slush fund for members of the Saudi royal family, according to authoritative sources.

Tony Blair has been told that the deal faces the axe in 10 days unless he intervenes to bring the two-year investigation to a close.

The Saudis are said to be "outraged" by the probe into the activities of companies linked to BAE Systems. The investigation concerns alleged illegal payments made to members of the Saudi royal family and their agents. Halt inquiry or we cancel Eurofighters

Balancing the law against 50,000 jobs

Probe 'threat' to British firms

Saudis pressure stops investigation. Profit wins the day.

Mark Alexander

Britain in a Fix: The White Flight Reality

THE TELEGRAPH: Seeing something you have written as semi-fiction transformed into fact before your eyes is an odd feeling. In my new book, Time To Emigrate?, written as a letter, I explain to an imaginary, liberal-minded daughter-in-law that she is wrong to deny the existence of white flight from inner-city areas, and to ignore the dangers of ethnic mini-states forming around us.

Days later, at a conference on race organised by the Commission for Racial Equality, which he chairs, a real-life Trevor Phillips spoke of a crisis as white minorities bolt from ethnic areas, and warned of the emergence of separate and isolated communities. Phillips has made similar noises before, but never so boldly. White flight is a fact of British life

Mark Alexander

"Christmas" wird in den USA wieder gefeirt!

Foto dank der NZZ

In den USA setzen sich die Weihnachts-Traditionalisten durch

NZZ: Der amerikanische Einzelhandelsriese Wal-Mart verbannt die christliche Tradition nicht mehr aus seinem Weihnachtsangebot. Nachdem im letzten Jahr die Vermeidung des Wortes «Christmas» eine landesweite Protestkampagne ausgelöst hatte, wird die Säkularisierung des Festes nun widerrufen. Dieser Trend setzt sich auf bei Firmen und Behörden durch. Es wird wieder «Christmas»

Mark Alexander

Papst betet Richtung Mekka!

Papst betet in Istanbul in der Blauen Moschee
NZZ: In einer grossen Geste der Versöhnung mit dem Islam hat Papst Benedikt XVI. am Donnerstag in Istanbul die Blaue Moschee und damit erstmals eine muslimische Gebetsstätte besucht. Zuvor hatte sich Benedikt mit dem Oberhaupt der orthodoxen Christen getroffen.

(sda)«Lasst uns für die Brüderlichkeit und die ganze Menschheit beten», sagte Benedikt und verharrte andächtig Seite an Seite mit dem Mufti von Istanbul vor der Gebetsnische in Richtung Mekka. Grosse Geste der Versöhnung

In pictures: Pope in Istanbul

Mark Alexander

First we have "red roses for a blue lady". Now we have a blue mosque for what must surely be a blue pope!

Photo courtesy of the BBC

During his tour of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the pontiff turned towards Mecca in a gesture of Muslim prayer. - BBC

BBC: Pope Benedict XVI has visited one of Turkey's most famous mosques in what is being seen as an attempt to mend relations with the Muslim community.

During his tour of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the pontiff turned towards Mecca in a gesture of Muslim prayer. Pope makes Turkish mosque visit

WATCH VIDEO: Pope visits Turkish mosque

Mark Alexander

Islam, the "religion of peace": Senior Muslim cleric calls for death of Azeri writer
This is yet more evidence of the compassion and mercy of Islam! It also shows how dedicated Muslims are to freedom of thought and expression. And this is the 'religion' our political leaders want to swamp Europe with by allowing Turkey to accede to the European Union! Doesn't it beggar belief that a 'holy' man can call for an innocent man's death? The man's greatest 'crime' is expressing what he thinks.

BBC: One of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

The call on Muslims to murder Rafiq Tagi, who writes for Azerbaijan's Senet newspaper, echoes the Iranian fatwa against Indian writer Salman Rushdie.

It was issued by the conservative Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fazel Lankarani. Iran issues fatwa on Azeri writer

Mark Alexander

Don't send the wrong signal to Turkey, warns Cock Sparrow

Photo courtesy of the International Herald Tribune

For a man who has shown, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he has zero understanding of Islam, this warning is pretty rich! He, with his big buddy, Bush, have cocked up BIG time in Iraq, because they tried to bring democracy to a country, nay to a region, which it is not possible to bring democracy to. Now, the same little Cock Sparrow wishes to cock up in Europe too! Now he wants the Europeans to accept his version of how events should unfold, he want us Europeans to accept Turkey into the Union. He says it would be a serious mistake for Europe, long-term, not to allow Turkey to accede. Well, have I got news for Cock Sparrow! He didn't understand Islam then (when he entered Iraq), and he doesn't understand Islam now, either. He has cocked up in Iraq; now, he wants to cock up in Europe, too! Don't listen to the man, folks! He has shown us what he understands about Islam: NOTHING, ZILCH, NIX! His views do not deserve to be listened to!

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: RIGA, Latvia: Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said Wednesday that it would be a "serious mistake" to send Turkey a negative message on its bid to join the European Union. Blair warns of sending wrong signal to Turkey on EU bid

EU urged to freeze Turkey talks

Mark Alexander

Saudis get tough! Threat to sue tobacco firms for full cost of patients' treatment

BBC: Saudi Arabia has warned that it will sue global tobacco firms unless they pay the full cost of treating patients suffering from smoking-related illness. Saudi warning over tobacco firms

Mark Alexander

Further evidence of New Dark Age: Shari'ah law gains foothold in Britain!

THE TELEGRAPH: Islamic sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain, a report claims.

Sharia, derived from several sources including the Koran, is applied to varying degrees in predominantly Muslim countries but it has no binding status in Britain.

However, the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes by Joshua Rozenberg

Mark Alexander

Pope does U-turn on Turkey's accession to the EU. Islam is a "religion of peace", he says

BBC: ... The Pope told the prime minister he wanted to visit Turkey because it was a bridge between religions and cultures.

"I want to reiterate the solidarity between the cultures," he said. "This is our duty."

During his airport meeting with Mr Erdogan, the pontiff gave Turkey support for its bid to enter the European Union, the prime minister said. Pope begins landmark Turkey visit

NZZ: Papst Benedikt XVI. ist es zum Auftakt seines Besuches in der Türkei offenbar gelungen, seinen Gastgeber positiv zu stimmen. Ministerpräsident Erdogan interpretierte Aussagen des Papstes als Zustimmung zum EU-Beitritt der Türkei. Auch sei dieser der Auffassung, dass der Islam eine «Religion des Friedens» sei. Erdogan erfreut über Papst-Aussagen

Times Online Slide Show: The Pope visits Turkey

Mark Alexander

Pope strikes conciliatory chord in Turkey

THE TIMES: Turkey welcomed the Pope with swept streets, statues and bomb sniffer dogs today, signs of the excitement and hostility that are expected to accompany his first visit to a Muslim country.

The flags of the Vatican and of Turkey flew side by side along the highway leading from Ankara's airport into the city centre as bomb disposal teams scoured bridges and tunnels for explosives. Roads were closed and police in camouflage set up roadblocks. Snipers manned the rooftops.

The official business began immediately, and reflected the awkwardness that is expected to accompany the entire trip. Landing in Ankara at 1pm local time, Pope Benedict XVI was due to have a short, passing meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was on his way to the Nato Summit in Riga. Pope seeks brotherhood in hostile Turkey

Mark Alexander

EU-Turkey talks halted

BBC: Talks between the EU and Turkey over Cyprus have broken down without agreement, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has said.

EU officials have said that a failure to break the impasse could lead to the collapse of Turkey's EU membership bid.

The EU had given Turkey until 6 December to open its ports to traffic from Cyprus, whose government Turkey refuses to recognise. Cyprus row halts EU-Turkey talks

Mark Alexander

Saudi Royal Family "incandescent with rage"

THE TELEGRAPH: Shares in BAE Systems fell 3pc this morning amid fears the government of Saudi Arabia may hand a £76bn deal to build fighter jets to a French rival.

The Saudis are understood to be poised to hand BAE’s Eurofighter contract to France’s Dassault because of the Serious Fraud Office’s probe into allegations that BAE officials have in the past bribed members of the Saudi royal family in order to win contracts.

Such a move, which the Saudis have threatened to do, would hit the company’s share price hard. The company’s shares have already fallen back from highs of 425p earlier this month and sunk to 392p, below the psychological threshold of 400p today. BAE feels Saudi wrath over bribe inquiry by James Quinn

BAE admits Saudi Eurofighter fear

Mark Alexander

A war to the death!

THE TELEGRAPH: Who would have thought it? Half of Europe – the half that was so smug about having buried God several generations ago – is waiting in real trepidation for the outcome of a theological argument. When Pope Benedict XVI flies to Turkey tomorrow, he will embody the most potentially incendiary confrontation between Islam and the West since the defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683 brought an end to Islamic conquest in Europe.

The Pope will take with him an understanding that at the root of our problems in dealing with the Islamist death cult, there is a fundamental debate to be had about the role of human reason in political affairs.

The remarks he made in a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, which implied that Islam rejected rationality while Christianity saw it as essential to faith were contentious (and almost certainly designed to be so), but they raised a question that almost no Western government has the courage to ask, let alone answer. How is a liberal democracy to deal with an illiberal religious minority in its midst? We are in a war to the death - craven concessions won't win it

Mark Alexander

Anxiety over Pope's visit to Turkey

THE TIMES: The Vatican is so anxious about the Pope’s safety during his trip to Turkey this week that it has vetoed use of the traditional “Popemobile”.

Instead, Pope Benedict XVI will travel in an armour-plated car, with several similar vehicles used as decoys, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the former papal spokesman, said.

Officials have also drawn up contingency plans for him to wear a bulletproof vest beneath his papal vestments as Turkish authorities mount a huge security operation including rooftop snipers, special forces, helicopters and navy speedboats.

Before his first visit to a Muslim country, the Pope tried to defuse further protests yesterday, sending “cordial greetings” of “esteem and sincere friendship” to “the dear Turkish people” when he addressed pilgrims from his window above St Peter’s Square during Angelus prayers.

Papal aides confirmed that, in a conciliatory gesture to Muslims, the Pope had altered his official programme to include a visit to the Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet, in Istanbul. Popemobile gives way to armoured car on visit to 'minefield' by Richard Owen

Young and old of Istanbul are happy to roar their disapproval

20,000 Turks protest over visit by Pope by Malcolm Moore

Mark Alexander

Turkey's bid to enter the EU is proving more difficult than expected

BBC: Few issues divide the Europeans as much as Turkey.

Divisions are becoming ever more apparent as the European Union nears the moment of truth in relations with its biggest and poorest applicant country, which also happens to be Muslim.

For EU leaders meeting in Brussels on December 14-15, the question will be how to punish Turkey if it fails to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus. Turkey's promise to do so allowed it to open EU membership talks a year ago.

This week, several European commissioners pushed for the consequences to be spelled out in the Commission's progress report on Turkey.

According to officials, they were Markos Kyprianou of Cyprus, Stavros Dimas of Greece and Jacques Barrot of France.

Others - like Viviane Reding of Luxembourg, Louis Michel of Belgium and Jan Figel of Slovakia - raised serious concerns about the cost of integrating Turkey and the human rights situation.

Turkey's strongest advocates were Peter Mandelson of the UK and Charlie McCreevy of Ireland.

Germany's Guenter Verheugen even argued that Turkey should be treated as a special case.

That is hardly the official German line, but as a former enlargement commissioner, Mr Verheugen was bitterly disappointed when the Greek Cypriots rejected a UN plan that would have led to the reunification of the island in 2004, just days before Cyprus was welcomed into the EU. Turkish bid exposes EU rifts

Mark Alexander

I smell victory!

BBC: British Airways is to review its policy on uniforms in the wake of a row over a worker ordered to stop wearing a cross.

On Monday, Nadia Eweida, 55, from London, lost her appeal against a decision saying she could not wear the cross visibly at the check-in counter.

The airline's chief executive Willie Walsh said it had become clear BA's uniform policy needed to change "in the light of the public debate".

He said BA would consider allowing religious symbols worn as lapel badges.

He said it was unfair that BA had been accused of being anti-Christian.

Ms Eweida said she was effectively forced to take unpaid leave after refusing to hide the cross symbol she wore round her neck when people of other faiths were allowed to wear visible religious symbols such as headscarves. BA uniform review after cross row

WATCH BBC VIDEO: BA review after cross row

BA to review uniform policy after outcry at ban on cross

Cross to bear

BA responds to backlash by lifting ban on small crosses

Mark Alexander

Muslims think Allah owns England!
With many thanks to Eleanor for drawing this excellent article to my attention:

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE.COM: The oldest Jewish cemetery in England is in Mile End, in the heart of the East End of London. It was created exactly 350 years ago on the orders of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, who, overruling his own council, officially readmitted Jews to England for the first time since their expulsion in 1290. I came across it recently while visiting Queen Mary University, where I had once taught history, to give a public lecture.

The disused cemetery is now marooned on the Queen Mary campus, which is itself an island in the East End, an area long since abandoned by Jews and now populated mainly by Muslims. With its graves dating back to the 1660’s, Mile End is thus a reminder both of the continuity of Jewish life in Britain and of its precariousness. And the reminder is timely, for today the atmosphere in England has become less hospitable for Jews than at any time since Sir Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts marched through the East End in the 1930’s.

You do not have to go far from Queen Mary University to discover one reason why Jews—and not only Jews—are feeling insecure. Less than a mile away stands the East London Mosque, whose chairman, Muhammad Abdul Bari, is also secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain. This makes him, in effect, the chief spokesman for British Muslims. On the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Bari told the Sunday Telegraph:

Some police officers and sections of the media are demonizing Muslims, treating them as if they’re all terrorists—and that encourages other people to do the same. If that demonization continues, then Britain will have to deal with 2 million Muslim terrorists—700,000 of them in London.

In fact, far from demonizing Muslims, the police have gone to inordinate lengths to accommodate their sensitivities. Scotland Yard now consults self-appointed community leaders like Bari before mounting anti-terrorist operations in “Muslim areas”—thereby risking the possibility that secret information might leak out and compromise public safety. Since the London bombings of July 7, 2005, which killed 53 people, the police have been obliged to keep thousands of Muslims under surveillance while investigating up to a hundred separate conspiracies to commit terror. But rather than expressing shame that such unprecedented measures have been necessary, “moderate” Muslim leaders like Muhammad Abdul Bari have responded with thinly veiled blackmail. As often as not, British support for Israel is invoked as high on the list of Muslim grievances. The message is simple: unless Britain withdraws that support, every Muslim will become a potential suicide bomber.

Such implicit threats have had their effect on the non-Muslim majority. At a dinner after my lecture, a professor remarked, as if it were a generally accepted platitude: “Of course, the only terrorist state in the Middle East is Israel.” Nobody contradicted him. The delegitimization of Israel in the British academic world has become one aspect of a new and more powerful wave of outright anti-Semitism, a phenomenon that has been greatly accelerated by the response to last summer’s war in Lebanon.

In some ways, the new anti-Semitism is much like the old. Consider Jenny Tonge, a legislator from the Liberal Democratic party who gained notoriety two years ago by empathizing publicly with Islamist suicide bombers. She thereby distinguished herself even among the ranks of her fellow Liberal Democrats, who have seized on resentments against Israel and the U.S. with all the zeal of a third party struggling to get noticed in a two-party system. Removed from her party post, though by no means disgraced, she was subsequently honored with a peerage. This summer’s war in Lebanon enabled her to go a crucial step beyond extolling suicide bombers by attacking not only Israel but Jews in general. “The pro-Israel lobby has got its grips on the Western world,” she said in a speech at a party conference in September. Pausing for effect, she added: “its financial grips.” Another pause. “I think they’ve probably got a certain grip on our party.”

The background to this heavy hint about undue Zionist influence on party politics was a scandal involving not the Liberal Democrats but Labor. In particular it was an allusion to Michael Levy, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s special envoy to the Middle East and until recently the Labor party’s chief fund-raiser. In July, during the course of a police investigation into possible corruption, Lord Levy was briefly arrested. (It is unclear whether he will actually be charged with any crime.) The fact that he is Jewish is, of course, irrelevant to the case—but not to Jenny Tonge’s inflammatory insinuation that Jewish money is corrupting British politics. Even so, she got away with it.

A second example comes from the other side of the political spectrum. Sir Peter Tapsell, a senior Conservative member of parliament, claimed at the height of the Lebanon crisis that Blair was colluding with President Bush “in giving Israel the go-ahead” to commit “a war crime gravely reminiscent of the Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter of Warsaw.” This obscene equation, another staple of the anti-Semites, was uttered during a televised debate on the floor of the House of Commons. Yet Tapsell, too, got away with it, including in the conservative press; following his lead, the Telegraph published a cartoon depicting two scenes of devastation, one labeled “Warsaw 1943” and the other “Tyre 2006.”

Not only do the Tapsells and Tonges go unreprimanded these days, they are admired and imitated. The loathing of Israel, once confined to oppositional groups, has penetrated to the very core of the British establishment. At the height of the Lebanon war, two peers of the realm reportedly came to blows within the hallowed precincts of the House of Lords. Apparently, Lord Janner, a prominent spokesman for Jewish causes, said something about Israel’s right to self-defense that so enraged the octogenarian Field Marshal Lord Bramall that he was moved to assault his seventy-eight-year-old interlocutor. One might have supposed that, like misogyny, anti-Semitism had ceased to be a characteristic vice of the English upper class; this incident suggests that it is back with a vengeance. Allah's England by Daniel Johnson

Mark Alexander

Happy Thanksgiving to One and All!
I should like to take this opportunity to wish all my visitors Stateside a VERY HAPPY and BLESSED THANKSGIVING.

Image courtesy of Google Images

Mark Alexander

The Pope and the Archbishop: "serious obstacles towards re-establishing the unity of the two Churches"

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Pope Benedict XVI has warned the Archbishop of Canterbury the Anglican community's difficulties had put a strain on the Churches' relationship.

Dr Williams, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Church, is on his first official visit to Rome. Pope warns Archbishop of 'strain'

Mark Alexander

The Lebanon: A country drawn in different political directions

BBC: Lebanon is the most politically complex and religiously divided country in the Middle East, which is what makes it such a potentially explosive factor in an unstable region.

Tiny Lebanon baffles outsiders. Even people in the Middle East find its politics confusing.

Set up by France after World War I as a predominantly Christian state, Lebanon is now about 60% Muslim, 40% Christian.

It has 18 officially recognised religious sects and sharing power between them has always been a complicated game.

Lebanese Muslims have tended to look east for support from the other Arab states and from Iran. The Christians have tended to look west to Europe and the United States. The Lebanese crisis explained

Mark Alexander

Pierre Gemayal has been murdered. Lebanon is plunged into crisis

Photo courtesy of the BBC

BBC: Pierre Gemayel, a leading anti-Syrian Lebanese minister and Maronite Christian leader, has been killed in the capital, Beirut.

Mr Gemayel, 34, was shot in his car in a Christian suburb and rushed to hospital, where he died. Lebanese Christian leader killed

BBC: Pierre Gemayel was a scion of one of Lebanon's most prominent Christian political dynasties - although he himself never touched the peaks of power and influence reached by his forebears. Obituary: Pierre Gemayel

WATCH VIDEO: Lebanese minister assassinated

Mark Alexander

Europe starts its tilt rightwards
With thanks to Heather for alerting me to this article.

NPR: A mood of nationalist introspection is sweeping over Europe.

The Sept. 11 attacks, the bombings in Madrid and London, the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, the French ghetto riots and violent reactions by many Muslims to the Mohammed cartoons published by a Danish paper, are producing an anti-immigrant backlash bordering on xenophobia. Europe Looks Inward, Tilts to the Right

Mark Alexander

Ultimatum an die Türkei

NZZ: Spätestens nächste Woche muss die Türkei ihre Flughäfen und Häfen für Flugzeuge und Schiffe aus Zypern öffnen. Das fordert die EU, die ihren Zeitplan für die Verhandlungen mit der Türkei einhalten will. EU setzt der Türkei ein Ultimatum

Mark Alexander

Annan and Tutu make fools of themselves!

Photos courtesy of the BBC

BBC: It was an appropriate venue: an Ottoman Palace on one bank of the Bosphorus, with a view on to a vast bridge linking East and West.

"If we are to build bridges between civilisations, what better place to begin!" UN Secretary General Kofi Annan remarked in his opening address.

He was speaking to a group of 20 prominent world figures meeting in Istanbul to present him with the findings of more than a year of work.

The high-level group includes Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Myth and reality feed West-Muslim gulf

Mark Alexander

British Airways employee loses fight to wear crucifix

BBC: A British Airways (BA) employee has lost her fight to openly wear a cross necklace at work at Heathrow.

Nadia Eweida, 55, of Twickenham, has been on unpaid leave since her bosses told her she could not visibly wear her cross at the check-in counter.

She found out she had lost her appeal against the decision by BA when she met with the airline bosses on Monday. Woman loses fight to wear cross

WATCH VIDEO: BA defends jewellery ban

Mark Alexander

Tony Blair & Co show they have no respect for taxpayers' money. It's theirs for the spending!

THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair faced accusations last night that he is wasting nearly £7 billion of taxpayers' money on a failing war on terror after announcing massive sums of British aid to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the last three days, the Prime Minister and Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, have trumpeted special funding to the three countries totalling £844 million.

This is in addition to the estimated £5 billion cost to British taxpayers of the Iraq war so far, and the £1 billion spent to date on the British deployment in Afghanistan.

The funding announcements came just days after Mr Blair admitted in an interview with al-Jazeera, the English language Arabic television channel, that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a "disaster".

No 10 officials have since dismissed the response as a slip of the tongue. But yesterday Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, said military victory in Iraq was no longer possible. Anger at £7bn cost of war by Toby Helm and Brendan Carlin

Throwing good money after bad governance

Mark Alexander

"New life in these Christian soldiers"

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Reports of the death of Christianity in this country have been much exaggerated, by me among many others. Even the dear old Church of England is showing a few signs of revival. Some might attribute this change to the Holy Spirit, blowing where it listeth in that irritating way it supposedly has. I would attribute it to competition, pure and simple.

The example of Islam in this country, for better and for worse, has powerfully concentrated Christian minds. Confronted with Muslim convictions, Christians — and particularly Anglicans — find themselves and their own faith renewed. There is nothing like a strong consciousness of a different identity for clarifying one’s own. Years of milksop tolerance and ecumenical dither have given way, here and there, to a new conviction. The church strikes back! Hallelujah, they're standing up for Jesus by Minette Marrin

Mark Alexander