Thursday, September 25, 2008

French Author in Dock over Rwanda

BBC: A prominent French writer, Pierre Pean, is on trial in Paris accused of inciting racial hatred in a book on the Rwandan genocide.

Mr Pean wrote that the Tutsis had a culture of lies and deceit, and this had somehow spread to the Hutus.

He said it made investigating Rwanda "an almost impossible task". Some 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 1994.

A French rights group, SOS Racisme, filed the lawsuit against Mr Pean.

The case against him is backed by the public prosecutor. It centres on four pages in Mr Pean's book Noires Fureurs, Blancs Menteurs (Black furies, white liars), published in 2005.

In remarks broadcast on French radio on Wednesday, Mr Pean said he "wrote a book on lies, misinformation, which were, I believe, conducted through extremely elaborate methods, whereby a dictatorial regime wanted people to believe in lies".

An investigative journalist, Mr Pean wrote a bestseller about former French President Francois Mitterrand, among other works. French Author in Dock over Rwanda >>> | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
Peres Blasts Iran in UN Address

BBC: Israeli President Shimon Peres has told the UN that Iran is "at the centre of violence and fanaticism" in the world.

In an address to the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Peres said Iran divided the Middle East and held back the chance of peace.

He warned that the Tehran leadership continued to develop enriched uranium and long-range missiles.

Iran is in breach of three UN Security Council resolutions calling for an end to its uranium enrichment programme. Peres Blasts Iran in UN Address >>> | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Clerics’ Debate Underlines Sunni-Shiite Divide

ASSOCIATED PRESS: BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Two of the Arab world's most prominent Muslim theologians have waded into a bitter exchange of barbs, engaging in a debate that is a small-scale rendition of the worsening animosity between the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam.

The fight began early this month when Youssef al-Qaradawi, a Sunni who is one of the best known Islamic television clerics, called Shiites "heretics" and accused them of seeking to infiltrate Sunni societies.

Lebanon's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, shot back that Qaradawi was trying to incite "fitna" — the word for internal civil strife among Muslims that is anathema to followers of Islam.

Centuries-old tensions between Islam's two main branches in the Middle East have flared into the open in recent years, following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the eruption of sectarian killings there.

Though sectarian violence has eased in Iraq this year, it has boiled over in other places, particularly Lebanon, which saw dozens killed in fighting in May between Sunni groups and the Shiite militants of Hezbollah.

Periodic reconciliation efforts, such as a Sunni-Shiite dialogue conference in June in the holy city of Mecca, have done little to ease the deep suspicions of the Mideast's Sunni majority toward Shiites, seen by some Sunnis as a tool for spreading the influence of Persian Iran.

Although many Sunnis in the Arab world had shown admiration for Hezbollah's confrontations with Israel, much of that good will evaporated after the Shiite group turned its guns on Lebanon's Sunnis. Clerics’ Debate Underlines Sunni-Shiite Divide >>> By Bassem Mroue | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Muslim Group Reports Jump in Workplace Bias Complaints

MARKET WATCH: WASHINGTON, DC: (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- A report released today by a prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group shows an increase in American Muslim complaints of workplace bias in 2007.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) report, called "Without Fear of Discrimination," outlines 2,652 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in 2007. That is the highest number of civil rights cases ever recorded in the Washington-based group's report -- the only annual study of its kind. (Note: The higher number of cases is due in part to inclusion of a new category of cases related to mailed, faxed and e-mailed hate messages. Without the inclusion of those cases, the total number of cases dipped slightly over the previous year.) Muslim Group Reports Jump in Workplace Bias Complaints: CAIR: Reports of Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes and Violence Decrease in 2007 >>> | September 14, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Unadulterated Greed!

THE TELEGRAPH: The two most senior figures in the Church of England have launched outspoken attacks on the excesses of capitalism which they claim have led to the current global financial crisis.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, condemned the financial traders who made millions by driving down the share price of leading banks as "bank robbers and asset strippers".

In a powerful speech to City bankers on the effects of the credit crisis on Wednesday, he denounced the "Alice in Wonderland" world of global finance where short-sellers profited by laying bets that shares in HBOS would fall in price.

Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warned in a magazine article that modern devotion to the free market is a form of idolatry and that Karl Marx was right in his analysis of the power of "unbridled capitalism".

The pair's attacks came following a tumultuous week in which four major financial institutions went bust or were taken over, triggering multi-billion pound government rescue plans to steady the markets, after traders targeted banks that had been weakened by exposure to unrecoverable mortgage debts and a reduced ability to borrow money.

The billionaire Wall Street hedge fund manager John Paulson was one of those who made money by betting that the share price of HBOS, Britain's largest mortgage lender, would fall. The activities of such short-sellers - now temporarily banned - led to a collapse in the bank's shares last week and it had to be bought out by Lloyds TSB.

Speaking to the Worshipful Company of International Bankers, Dr Sentamu said: "Those who made £190million deliberately underselling the shares of HBOS, in spite of its very strong capital base, and drove it into the bosom of Lloyds TSB, are clearly bank robbers and asset strippers.

"We find ourselves in a market system which seems to have taken its rules of trade from Alice in Wonderland, where the share value of a bank is no longer dependent on the strength of its performance but rather on the willingness of the Government to bail it out, or rather on whether the Government has announced its intentions so to do." Archbishops of Canterbury and York Blame Capitalism Excesses for Financial Crisis >>> By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
Stop the Islamization of Europe! Stop the Islamization of the West!

This essay is being re-published today. It was originally published on November 28, 2005. Despite the enormity of the problem, nothing has been done about the increasing Islamization either of Europe or America. It is high time for something to be done about it though; it is high time for one of our politicians to bite the bullet. The hour is late. - Mark

The West is being Islamized before our very eyes! It is happening in such subtle ways that it is sometimes imperceptible to those who are not looking out for it. But much of the time, what is happening is plain to see. Each and every concession we make to Muslims is a further nail in the coffin of liberal democracy. Each time we consider granting Muslims a public holiday, each time we consider curtailing our own freedom of speech to appease them, we are assisting Muslims to further Islamize our home countries. Be sure of that!

Western governments should not be powerless to deal with this, but evenso they seem to be: They lack the will and determination to stop the rot.

Political correctness, of course, has taken its toll on the West. So has the ridiculous concept of multiculturalism. Add to this a deep-seated guilt complex, a pervasive attitude of self-denigration, extreme tolerance, and an army of apologists for Islam, and we have a catastrophe in the making!

One of our greatest mistakes is to think of Islam as just another one of the world's great religions. We shouldn't. Islam is politics or it is nothing at all, but, of course, it is politics with a spiritual dimension, politics all wrapped up in a deity.

What is the nature of the politics of Islam? Well, that's an easy one to answer: It is little different from the politics of a totalitarian state, little different from the ideologies of Nazism or communism, different only in detail rather than style. Both Nazism and communism used the purge to try and 'cleanse' society of what it considered undesirable. Islam always does the same. Both of those tolerated only a single political party. Islam generally does the same, and certainly, where it doesn't, insists that all parties be Islamic ones. This, of course, gives the establishment the power to coerce the people. G. H. Sabine, in his book, A History of Political Theory, tells us this about Nazism and communism:
...the party was a self-constituted aristocracy which has [sic] the mission partly of leading, partly of instructing, and partly of coercing the bulk of mankind along the road that it must follow. Both were totalitarian in the sense that they obliterated the liberal distinction between areas of private judgment and of public control, and both turned the educational system into an agency of universal indoctrination. In their philosophy[,] both were utterly dogmatic, professing, the one in the name of the Aryan race and the other in the name of the proletariat, a higher insight capable of laying down rules for art, literature, science, and religion. Both induced a frame of mind akin to religious fanaticism. In strategy[,] both were reckless in their assertions, boundless in their claims, abusive toward their opponents, prone to regard any concession on their own part as a temporary expedient and on a rival's part as a sign of weakness. The social philosophies of both agreed in regarding society as in essence a system of forces, economic or racial, between which adjustment takes place by struggle and dominance rather than by mutual understanding and concession. Both therefore regarded politics as merely an expression of power.
So much in Islam resembles those two despicable ideologies. The ruling party in Islamic countries coerces the people along the road that it must follow. This is particularly easy to observe in Iran today. Islam, too, tries to obliterate the liberal distinction between areas of private judgment and of public control. We see this in all Islamic countries. Similar to Nazism and communism, Islam also turns the educational system into an apparatus of the state for the purpose of universal indoctrination. One would be justified in using the term 'brainwashing'.

In addition, Islam also lays down rules for art (no depiction of the human form is allowed, for example), for literature (all is censored), for science (nothing discovered may contradict the Qur'an or Ahadith, or the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), and certainly for religion (no religion is accepted of man except Islam). Where Jews and Christians live in Islamic countries, they are given protection in return for a high tax known as the jiziyah, but are given dhimmi status, which means, in effect, that they are subdued and given second class status.

Islam also induces a frame of mind akin to fanaticism. That this is so is self-explanatory. Islam is also reckless in its assertions, and boundless in its claims. Example: All the world belongs to Allah; therefore it is the duty of all Muslims to Islamize it. In Islam, too, adjustment takes place by struggle and dominance. Note the Jihad.

A remarkable similarity is this: Islam is also inclined to be abusive to its opponents (they are infidels and unclean), and is prone to regard any concession on its own part as a temporary expedient and on a rival's part as a sign of weakness. And Islam, too, regards politics as an expression of power. Oh, and we shouldn't forget that Islam is profoundly anti-Semitic!

Aren't the similarities just remarkable?

What is troubling is this: Islam is closing in on us. We have so many unassimilated Muslims living in Europe, and an ever growing number living in the States, too. In fact, millions and millions of Muslims live in the West today. But the West has no strategy for dealing with the fall-out. We saw this recenty in France when their cities burnt night after night. The mayhem Muslim immigrants caused there was enough to make anyone's hair stand on end! But what has France done about it? It has unveiled a series of measures to appease the Muslim immigrants, and has ignored the fact that this was an uprising caused in no small part by the Islamic community flexing its ever strengthening muscles.

If we in the West wish to ensure the survival of our own civilization, wish to ensure that our children will be able to live as freely as we have been able to do, wish to ensure that people are free to choose their religion in the West, but just as free not to choose one, then we have a lot of thinking to do!

I would suggest that we start by asking one simple question: Should we regard Islam as a mere religion, or should we start to see it for what it truly is: A political ideology with megalomaniacal aspirations? A political ideology with a spiritual dimension which will stop at nothing until the West is no more, until the West has been brought into Dar ul Islam, or the 'House of Islam', until the West has been well and truly Islamized. To ignore this fact is tantamount to playing fast and loose with our children's future freedoms and security. In fact, it is negligent of their future well-being!

©Mark Alexander

All rights reserved

US Ex-officials Want Good US Relations with Islam

THE JERUSALEM POST: The next US president should speak out for better relations with the Muslim world in his inaugural address and pursue an accord between Israel and the Palestinians within three months of taking office, a diverse coalition of 34 former US officials and civic leaders said in a report being issued Wednesday.

The proposals, which include diplomatic engagement with Iran, are designed to reverse Muslim extremism and enhance US international security. They are based on the conclusion that improving US relations with Muslim countries and communities is critical, the report said.

Also, it said, the new president should reaffirm immediately a US commitment to prohibit all forms of torture.

On promoting democracy among the Arabs, a hallmark of President George W. Bush's foreign policy, the report envisioned a cautious role for the United States: improving governance and civic participation without imposing a particular set of institutions, parties or leaders.

Bush's war on terror, the report said, has been inadequate and sometimes counterproductive. It recommends "partnership" with Muslims committed to nonviolent political and economic development to reverse extremism and promote reform within authoritarian governments. [Source: JP] AP | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
CAIR Seeks Probe of 'Radical Islam' DVD

ASSOCIATED PRESS: A U.S. Muslim advocacy group Tuesday asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether a nonprofit group that distributed a controversial DVD about Islam in newspapers nationwide is a "front" for an Israel-based group with a stealth goal of helping Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

The promoters of "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" denied trying to promote any presidential campaign. They said it's also incorrect to tie the DVD campaign to Jerusalem-based educational group Aish HaTorah International, although current and former employees are involved with the project.

The Council for American-Islamic Relations asked the FEC to investigate the DVD distribution, which targeted about 28 million households mostly in battleground election states.

The DVDs — which critics call anti-Muslim propaganda — were inserted this month into more than 70 newspapers and paid for by the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit founded in 2006. The group's focus is "the most urgent threat of radical Islam." It has declined to identify board members or its funding.

Never picked up for traditional distribution, "Obsession" features scenes of Muslim children being urged to become suicide bombers, 9/11 carnage and interviews with critics of Islam. Muslim Group Seeks Probe of 'Radical Islam' DVD >>> By Eric Gorsky | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
Police Accused of Alleged Brutality at Cologne Anti-Islam Rally

DEUTSCHE WELLE: Allegations of police brutality and human rights abuses by law enforcement officers in the German city of Cologne have surfaced in a news report.

The alleged abuses, including putting children and adolescents in cages, are supposed to have taken place during a demonstration against a far-right "Stop Islam" conference in Cologne last weekend.

The police were confronted before, during and after the event -- eventually abandoned on public safety grounds -- by extreme leftists who attempted to reach the square during the planned rally by anti-immigrant group Pro Cologne.

Der Spiegel magazine alleged on its Web site that hundreds of protestors, including 72 teenagers and three children, were taken to a detention center in the nearby town of Bruehl, and some had to stay in open air cages despite the cold temperatures.

The protestors said about 30 of them were kept in a 36 square-meter (388-square-foott [sic]) cage, and some of the teenagers were not allowed to call their parents or use the toilets, Der Spiegel Online said, adding that a lot of them were not released until the early hours of Sunday morning. Police Accused of Alleged Brutality at Cologne Anti-Islam Rally >>> | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Muslim French Justice Minister Rachida Dati at Yad Vashem

EUROPEAN JEWISH PRESS (EJP): JERUSALEM---As part of a 3-day official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, French Justice Minister Rachida Dati went to the Western Wall and toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem on Sunday.

At Yad Vashem, Dati laid a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance, visited the Hall of Names and the Children's Memorial before signing the guestbook. French Justice Minister Rachida Dati at Yad Vashem >>> By John Milner | September 21, 2008

EUROPEAN JEWISH PRESS (EJP):
Auschwitz Album in Farsi Uploaded to Yad Vashem Persian Website: JERUSALEM---A new online exhibit of the Auschwitz Album, the only surviving visual evidence of the process of mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkena [u], has been uploaded to Yad Vashem’s Persian website. >>> By John Milner | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone

Or, as the old saying goes, ‘You never miss the water 'til the well runs dry.’ - Mark

FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS: "The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable." James Madison

My mother used to say that it’s better to go from being poor to being rich than from having been rich and become poor because you don’t yearn for what you’ve lost. However, my experience has been that if you’ve always been free from want, you might not ever gain an appreciation for what was taken for granted. In any event, it wasn’t until I reached middle age that I began to understand what for me truly constitutes being rich and it wasn’t until 9/11 that I really gave much thought to how quickly it could be taken away.

During World War II, when peace and stability were shattered by acts of physical aggression initiated by the axis powers, Franklin Roosevelt gave a speech on what he referred to as the four freedoms.

“In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression...The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own...The third is freedom from want, which...means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants...The fourth is freedom from fear, which...means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor.” You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone >>> By Nancy Silvato | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Steven Spielberg Joins Campaign to Prevent Gay Marriage Ban

Photobucket
Steven Spielberg considers that the ban will “legalize discrimination”. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: Steven Spielberg and his wife have become the latest Hollywood celebrities to help bankroll a bid to defeat a referendum seeking to outlaw gay marriage in California.

The director and Kate Capshaw have donated $100,000 to a campaign to defeat a controversial ballot initiative that will be voted on during the November 4 election.

The measure, known as proposition 8, seeks a ban on same-sex marriage in the wake of the landmark California Supreme Court ruling in May that overturned a previous ban on gay weddings.

The effort to defeat the ban has already attracted the financial backing of actor Brad Pitt, who last week also donated $100,000 to opponents of the proposition.

"By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation," Spielberg and Capshaw said in a statement.

"Such discrimination has no place in California's constitution, or any other."

Marvin Levy, Spielberg's spokesman, later added: "Obviously, he's hopeful that this proposition can be defeated, and that everyone has the same rights."

Same-sex marriage is legal in only two US states - California and Massachusetts, where gay weddings have been legal since 2004. Steven Spielberg Joins Campaign to Prevent Gay Marriage Ban >>> | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
Online Petition on Downing Street Website: Stop Sharia Law Being Used in the UK

Sign Petition >>>
Iran: Death Penalty for Man Accused of Homosexuality

AKI: Tehran - Nemat Safavi, arrested almost three years ago at the age of 16, has been condemned to death by a court in Ardebil, in the northwest Iranian Azerbaijan region.

Nemat has not killed anyone, stolen anything or even carried out any political activism.

Nemat has been accused of having homosexual relations.While that was not stated during the court case, he was accused of "sexual relations that were not admitted".

A year ago, on a visit to Colombia University in New York, Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said "there were no homosexuals" in Iran in response to a question from a student. [Source: AKI] | September 23, 2008

Hat tip: Infidelesto @ Infidels Are Cool

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Malaysian Blogger Jailed for Insulting Islam

NEW ZEALAND HERALD: Malaysia's leading blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin has been ordered to spend two years in detention under internal security laws after being accused of insulting Islam.

His wife, Lee Abdulah, said the founder of the controversial Malaysia Today website had been sent to the Kamunting detention centre in northern Perak state under a detention order signed by the Home Minister.

Abdulah said police had told her "he will remain there for two years with no trial". [Source: NZ HERALD] September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Hunger Striking lllegal Immigrants in Belgium in Critical Condition

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Groups of illegal immigrants in Brussels have been staging hunger strikes for months following the rejection of their applications for residency permits. A doctor warns that their condition is now critical.

Rajendra Debkota, 50, an agricultural engineer from Nepal, can barely walk after 78 days of fasting. He's clearly in pain. When asked if he will continue his hunger strike, he responds: "I'm alone with my body. I can't think about what I'll do today or tomorrow."

Debkota and seven other people on hunger strikes are being cared for at the Latin America House in Brussels. They come from Nepal, the Ivory Coast, Congo, Guinea, Brazil and Iran. The hunger strikes are being conducted by illegal immigrants or asylum seekers whose applications for residency permits to stay in Belgium are pending or have been rejected. In recent years, hunger strikes and other protests have become a common way for illegal immigrants to try to stay in the country. Hunger Striking lllegal Immigrants in Belgium in Critical Condition >>> By Petra de Koning in Brussels | September 23, 2008

MAIL Online:
Spain Will Pay Jobless Migrants to return Home >>> | September 22, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
How Syria's Assad Is Steering His Country out of Isolation

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Washington still counts him as part of its axis of evil, but Europe and Russia -- and, more recently, even archenemy Israel -- are courting him as a negotiating partner. The ruler of Damascus, Syrian President Bashar Assad, wants to lead his country back to the international community.

Bashar Assad will never be a charismatic politician like Barack Obama or a populist leader in the style of Fidel Castro. Forced into politics by his über-father, Hafez Assad, the "Lion" of the nation, the 43-year-old former ophthalmologist consistently comes across as stiff and awkward on the international stage.

He always gazes into the distance during public appearances, as if he wanted nothing to do with politics and would much rather be someplace else. Even today, after leading his country for eight years, Assad still gives the impression that he longs to return to treating patients in his former practice in London or attending an ophthalmologists' conference. At state receptions, the tall president stands stiff as a board, as if he had swallowed a giant pencil, shifting his weight from one leg to the other, a lost flamingo in the palace of power.

But anyone who sees Assad as a political lightweight, as someone easily manipulated by his advisors and a marginal figure ridiculed or at best ignored by the major players on the world stage is making a mistake. Syria is in the process of becoming a decisive force in the Middle East once again. How Syria's Assad Is Steering His Country out of Isolation >>> By Erich Follath | September 23, 2008

SPIEGELONLINE PHOTO GALLERY: Wooing the Pariah >>>

TIMESONLINE:
Fears Grow in Lebanon as 10,000 Syrian Troops Arrive on the Border: Syria has massed thousands of troops along its border with northern Lebanon in what officials in Beirut fear is a prelude to the first incursion since Syrian forces pulled out three years ago.
Although Damascus insists that its forces are conducting an antismuggling operation, the Lebanese Government is eyeing the moves with unease, believing that the unusual scale of the deployment has more to do with tensions between the two countries over recent sectarian clashes in northern Lebanon.
>>>
By Nicholas Blanford in Hekr Janin | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Creationism: Taking on Darwin in Turkey

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Fundamentalist Christians in America are not the only ones leading a crusade against Darwin. Creationism and "intelligent design" are becoming increasingly popular among Turkey's Muslims, too.

The man who wants to save the world goes by the name of Harun Yahya and resembles an actor from the age of silent films. He wears a white silk suit, gold cufflinks and has a finely trimmed beard on his chin. "In 20 years," he says in serious tone, "humanity will enter a golden age."

Yahya says that he discovered these joyful tidings in the Bible and the Koran. He maintains that it is a "scientific fact" that Jesus and Mahdi, the Muslim messiah, will return to mankind to solve all global conflicts. Beforehand, however, he says that these two heavenly emissaries will have to tackle another challenge: They must eradicate the heresy of British naturalist Charles Darwin, who postulated that all life arose from a process of natural selection.

As Yahya sees it, Darwinism is the root of all the world's evils. In order to help rid the world of this theory, he has had thousands of copies of The Atlas of Creation printed and shipped around the world. This large-format 800-page tome aims to prove that there never was a natural evolution of species. Instead, it contends that all forms of life on earth have remained unchanged for millions of years. Brightly colored illustrations of fossils have been included so as to document the lack of so-called transitional forms.

Yahya, 52, a onetime student of architecture, is without a doubt his country's most colorful adherent of creationism. He claims that he has already sold 8 million copies of his various books. Last year, thousands of copies of The Atlas of Creation were delivered -- on an unsolicited basis -- to schools around Europe. The identity of the person or institution footing the bill for this initiative remains unclear.

In addition to Yahya, who is currently being prosecuted "for illegal personal gain," there are other vehement opponents of evolution in Turkey. One of these is Kerim Balci, a journalist who works for the pro-government newspaper Zaman. His message: "God isn't the one who's dead; it's Darwinism." Taking on Darwin in Turkey >>> By Daniel Steinvorth in Istanbul | September 23, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Ahmadinedschad prophezeit Untergang der USA

WELT ONLINE: Der iranische Präsident Mahmud Ahmadinedschad hat sich in seiner Rede vor der UN-Vollversammlung einmal mehr aggressiver Rhetorik bedient: Diesmal beschimpfte er die Israelis als "zionistische Mörder" und attackierte das "amerikanische Imperium". Die US-Delegation hatte schon zuvor den Saal verlassen.

Der iranische Präsident Mahmud Ahmadinedschad hat das Atomprogramm seines Landes vor der UN-Vollversammlung mit scharfen Worten verteidigt. Einige „schikanöse Mächte“ versuchten mit politischem und wirtschaftlichem Druck, Teheran das Recht auf friedliche Nutzung der Kernenergie zu nehmen, kritisierte der Staatschef am Dienstag in New York. Dies seien genau die Mächte, die selbst ganze Generationen von tödlichen Atomwaffen herstellten und für die Tragödien in Hiroshima und Nagasaki verantwortlich seien, erklärte Ahmadinedschad, ohne die USA ausdrücklich zu nennen. Die amerikanische Delegation hatte Medienberichten zufolge für die Rede den Saal verlassen. Vor dem UN- Hauptquartier demonstrierten einige hundert Menschen gegen den Auftritt und riefen: „Ahmadinedschad raus aus der Uno!“ Ahmadinedschad prophezeit Untergang der USA >>> | 24. September 2008

YAHOO! NEWS:
Iran's Leader Says 'American Empire' Near Collapse >>> By Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press Writer | September 23, 2008

DIE PRESSE:
Proteste gegen Ahmadinejad in New York: Der iranische Präsident Mahmud Ahmadinejad traf in New York den UNO-Generalsekretär Ban Ki-moon. Jüdische Gruppen protestierten vor dem Hauptquartier der UNO. >>> 23. September 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe) >>>
A Question of Trust in Pakistan, the Land of the Conspiracy Theory

THE TELEGRAPH: Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, met President George W Bush yesterday on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.

Mr Zardari is seeking to mend fences with his ally in the "war on terror" after his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, was less than candid about the Muslim state's covert support for the Afghan Taliban.

But Mr Zardari faces an even greater challenge at home, where many Pakistanis see the rising tide of Islamist violence as part of a foreign conspiracy or, even, something to be supported if it harms America.

Western observers thought that Saturday's bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, which killed 53 people and wounded more than 260, would shock ambivalent Pakistanis into supporting their government's crackdown on home-grown terrorists. But it has merely highlighted just how confused and conspiracy-riddled is Pakistan's popular opinion.

Many I met on the streets of the capital believe the blast was caused by a "foreign hand", a reference that usually denotes anyone from India, Afghanistan, Israel and Russia to the United States. A Question of Trust in Pakistan, the Land of the Conspiracy Theory >>> By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad | September 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>