The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Thursday, October 09, 2008
THE SCOTSMAN: SECRET talks are under way to bring Islamic sharia law courts to Scotland, The Scotsman has learned.
Qamar Bhatti, director of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT), which runs the courts, admitted discussions were taking place with lawyers and Muslim community groups in Scotland.
The group is believed to be aiming to set up courts in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In September it emerged that five sharia courts, ruling on civil cases from divorce to domestic violence and financial disputes, had been operating for more than a year in London, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester and at MAT headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
The courts have legal powers, with their decisions enforceable through the county courts or high courts.
However, concerns have been raised about the establishment of a "dual legal system".
Women's domestic violence groups have also voiced fears, saying traditional sharia law arbitration is "dangerous and inappropriate" in cases of abuse.
Last night Bill Aitken, the Scottish Tory justice spokesman, said: "Informal private arrangements between individual members of the Muslim community are one thing, but in criminal matters Scottish courts must have total jurisdiction. "Matters of divorce and domestic violence require to be determined by conventional courts. We cannot have private arrangements when human rights are an issue."
The move to establish sharia courts has sharply divided opinion among Scotland's Muslims.
Some defend the right of the Muslim community to rule on its own affairs. But others say MAT has not consulted them and there is no demand for sharia courts.
Aamer Anwar, a Glasgow-based civil rights lawyer, said: "Those using sharia law are fully entitled to religious freedom as long as it doesn't conflict with criminal law. Because it happens to be Islamic , people jump to the conclusion it is barbaric.
"It is down to the community to decide for itself."
Commenting on criticisms over domestic violence, he said: "The woman has full entitlement to go before any court or to the police. With sharia law, when domestic violence is raised it always runs into a fanfare of hysteria."
Noman Tahir, of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said there was no groundswell of support for sharia courts in Scotland.
"Currently, Scottish Muslims resolve civil matters through the courts or voluntary third-party arbitration with Islamic scholars and imams," he said. "This has worked well for many years and we are not aware of any unhappiness with these arrangements or calls for change."
A spokeswoman for Shakti Women's Aid, which supports black minority ethnic women, said it was not in favour of the courts in Scotland.
"Cases of domestic abuse and divorce should be heard within the Scottish judicial system," she said. "We fear that many female victims of domestic abuse may be pressurised by their families and partners to accept the rulings of the sharia court as final and prevent them from seeking legal assistance from the Scottish court system, which might force them to continue living within abusive relationships."
John Scott, a human rights lawyer, said: "There is a place for sharia law, but we need to be careful those aspects unfavourable to women are not allowed to dominate.
"I have less concern about fears over a dual legal system than aspects which are inconsistent in practice with equality issues. But such courts cannot be set up unsupervised and they would need to be monitored." Sharia Courts Set to Bring Muslim Law to Bear in Scottish Cities >>> By Shân Ross | October 9, 2008
RELATED - EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS:
Sharia Law Set for the Capital >>> | October 9, 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, October 08, 2008
ASSOCIATED PRESS: VIENNA, Austria — The biggest winner in Austria's elections got the president's approval Wednesday to begin forming a coalition government that they have promised will exclude the country's powerful far-right parties.
But it remains to be seen if the center-left Social Democrats' resistance to the right will work in the winning party's favor.
The Social Democrats won the most votes in parliamentary elections Sept. 28, with 29.3 percent. Wednesday, President Heinz Fischer asked the party's leader, Werner Faymann, to try to form what Fischer called the "decisive" government the country needs.
Complicating Faymann's task is the resounding success of the two far-right parties — the Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria, which took third and fourth place in the election. Their combined total of 28.2 percent puts them nearly on an equal footing with the Social Democrats — and has made them difficult to ignore.
Faymann has rejected forming a coalition with either far-right party. He stuck by that stance Wednesday but acknowledged it could hamper his efforts to forge a government.
"It's a tactical drawback but I believe it's an advantage for the country," he said.
Animosity between the rightist leaders made it appear unlikely at first that they would consider collaborating with each other. But the two men met Wednesday in an apparently successful attempt to warm relations.
"It was a get-together of winners," Joerg Haider, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Austria, said in a statement afterward.
The atmosphere in the meeting was positive and constructive, the statement said. It also said the parties do not "reject taking responsibility for creating a new government." Austrian Social Democrats Asked to Form a Government >>> By Veronika Oleksyn | October 8, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
CBN NEWS: Several recent studies have shown that American students are alarmingly ignorant about U.S. history and world events.
Experts have contributed the problem to everything from failing schools to substandard teachers.
But what about content?
For instance, did you know that Muslims discovered America? Or that Jerusalem is an Arab city? That's just some of the "history" that students in America's K-12 classrooms have been taught in recent years--with the help of taxpayer money.
A new report by the non-profit Institute for Jewish and Community Research finds that American high school and elementary textbooks contain countless inaccuracies about Christianity, Judaism, Israel and the Middle East.
The Institute examined 28 of the most widely-used history, geography and social studies textbooks in America. It found at least 500 errors.
One book ignored the Jewish roots of Christianity, saying the faith was founded by a "young Palestinian" named Jesus.
Another stated as fact that the Koran was revealed to Mohammed from God.
Yet another said ancient Jewish civilization contributed "very little" to to the arts and sciences.
Textbooks like these are used by millions of schoolchildren in all 50 states. Sandra Stotsky--now an endowed chair at the University of Arkansas--has seen some of them firsthand. Public Schools Teach the ABCs of Islam >>> By Erick Stakelbeck, CBN News Terror Analyst | October 8, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
TIMESONLINE: A few months ago Abdulghappar Turkistani wrote from his cell in Guantanamo Bay of his yearning to see the sun and feel the air.
Now a US federal judge has ruled that Turkistani, and 16 other Chinese Muslims held prisoner for seven years, must be set free and released into the United States from the naval facility in Cuba.
The decision drew delight from other Uighurs, from north-western China’s Xinjiang region, now living in the United States, swift condemnation from the administration and anger from China which regards them as members of a terrorist organisation bent on separatism.
In a stern rebuke of the US government, District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said it would be wrong to continue holding the detainees since they no longer are considered enemy combatants. The must be released by Friday, he ruled.
He said: “I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for the detention.”
His words drew cheers and applause from local Uighur residents in Washington and from human rights activists packed into the US District courtroom.
The 17 Uighurs were officially declared no longer "enemy combatants" by the government earlier this year, but officials had maintained they could continue to hold the men at Guantanamo Bay if no other country accepted them. Only Albania has agreed to take the Uighurs, welcoming a group of five who were flown there from Guantanamo Bayin 2006 and who now live in refugee accommodation with no possibility of returning to their families any time soon.
The men had been left in limbo because of the dilemma of where they would go after their release. US Judge Orders Release of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay >>> Jane Macartney in Beijing | October 8, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
I do not agree with Barbara Kay on all points, especially when she says that Islam is a private faith (it clearly isn’t, and doesn’t purport to be), but this is well worth reading.
NATIONAL POST (CAN) / FULL COMMENT: The first great jihad petered out with Islam’s expulsion from Spain in 1492, the second in 1683 with the decisive (and to Islamists, still freshly humiliating) defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Vienna.
We’re presently experiencing the terror-focused third great jihad, which seeks to recreate the triumphalist dynamics of Islam’s muscular 7th-century ascendancy. How or when this great jihad will end we cannot say, only that realism insists it will not be soon and that the mission to replace secular democracy with Islam proceeds apace inside our borders as well as abroad.
We must know the enemy within to fight him. Unfortunately, our reigning establishment prefers not to confront the awkward civic triage such awareness would entail and so affects ignorance of the problem. But we cannot challenge and disarm Islamists if their presence is not acknowledged.
Islam is a private faith, Islamism an ugly political ideology. Islamists’ hegemonic mission demands a choice between hard jihad — the 9/11, suicide-bomber way — and soft jihad, far more appealing to Westernized, educated Islamist ideologues.
Exploiting Westerners’ naïveté and obsessive race guilt, soft jihadists deliberately blur the line between the religion of Islam (which on no account must be “offended” in the West) and the demonstrably offensive political imperialism of Islamism.
Soft jihad cannot succeed without the complicity of naive elites, bedazzled by their own boundless compassion and humanity. Sadly, of these “useful idiots” in the corridors of wealth and power the West offers an embarras de richesses.
How does one recognize a soft jihadist? An infallible sign is her or his promotion of official shariah law.
A moderate Muslim seeks to live in a “state of Islam” within a nation to which he freely gives allegiance; an Islamist strives to live in “an Islamic state,” as only Islam claims his allegiance. In non-Muslim states, therefore, an Islamist cannot be content with less than official shariah. Barbara Kay: We're Losing Ground Fast to the Soft Jihad >>> Posted by Kelly McParland | October 8, 2008
Read my essay:
’Islamism’: A Concept Invented by the Infidel for the Infidel >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Canada) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Canada) >>>
WIENER ZEITUNG: Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent of British quality newspaper Sunday Telegraph, has spoken with Heinz-Christian Strache, the FPÖ leader whose party did well in Austria's September 28 general election, about Europe's "Islamisation" and misinterpretations of Nazi gestures.
Ever since the general election, they have been subjects of fierce debate in the country's beer-cellers and cafes. When does raising three fingers in the air make you a fascist - and when does it just mean "three beers please?"
Ask Strache, whose far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) won close to a shocking 20 per cent of the vote, and he rolls his eyes in a way that looks at once weary and slightly scary. The photo in which he is shown holding up three fingers does not, he insists, depict a neo-Nazi gesture - that's just a "misinterpretation" put about by liberals.
Lest I prove to be one of the numerous people who are sceptical about his denial, he invites me to try it myself.
"Go on, imagine that you are in a bar, where the music is very loud and where the bartender can't hear your voice," he says. "What sign do you make if you want to order three beers?"
Sure enough, I raise my hand and find it outstretched in a very similar fashion to how Strache does it. "You see?" he grins, warming to his theme. "Now imagine you are holding your arm out for a taxi in the street. Does that make you look like you're raising your arm like Hitler?"
Whatever the truth of the matter, it isn't the only thing on which Strache claims that people have got the wrong end of the stick about recently. When other photographs surfaced of him wearing army fatigues and clutching a gun, he claimed that it wasn't a neo-Nazi training camp as alleged, but just a day out paintballing.
And when it was alleged that some of his fellow "paintballers" were known extremists, he claimed that they were old acquintances with whom he no longer associated.
And, by the way, he tells me, that three-fingered salute, it's not a neo-Nazi thing at all but a secret signal that people used in the former East Germany to imply that they were against Communism. Why he didn't just say that in the first place hasn't been explained.
Yet for all that, Strache asks for benefit of the doubt a lot, and it seems as though a large percentage of the Austrian public is willing to give it to him. Campaigning on the basis of hardline anti-immigration and anti-EU themes, his Freedom Party polled 18 per cent of the parliamentary vote, while the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), a splinter of the Freedom Party run by Strache's one-time mentor Jörg Haider, picked up a further 11 per cent.
Combined, it means that nearly one-third of Austrian voters now back extremist parties, making them contenders for a major role in government and prompting fears of a far-right revival across Europe.
Adding to the discomfiture of more-liberal Austrian politicians is that most of the far-right's votes have come at the expense of the mainstream Social Democrats and conservative People's Parties, whose ruling coalition is seen as having ignored rising discontent over immigration and crime - and what many Austrians say is a glaring link between the two.
There is no fear of such politically-correct coyness in Strache's case. He wants wayward foreigners who scrounge from Austria's generous benefits system deported and advocates a ban on the building of all mosques to prevent the continuaton of alleged creeping Islamisation. He also claims that Austria's gentle, law-abiding children are being robbed, beaten up and sexually harassed by gangs of rapacious immigrants from Turkey and elsewhere.
"In some school classes, just two out of 30 children are Austrian, and they are confronted with racism every day," he says. "It is inverse racism. Austrian youths are beaten up in discos." I'm Not a Nazi and I Like Kebabs, Says FPÖ Leader Strache >>> | October 7, 2008
IRISH TIMES:
Social Democrats Asked to Lead Austrian Coalition >>> | October 8, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Despite their worst defeat in postwar history, Austria's Social Democrats and conservatives are preparing to enter into a second coalition government. But gains made by the country's far right, suggest the future could be dim for Austria's two mainstream parties.
No one pays much mind to the short, elegant man standing at a taxi stand in front of Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace, once home to the Habsburg dynasty. With his salt-and-pepper hair, alert eyes and bushy eyebrows, he spends a full 20 minutes standing among the people without being recognized. He's on his mobile telephone trying to build a new government for Austria.
Werner Faymann wants to be the country's next chancellor. Faymann, touted as "the new choice" on campaign posters, also happens to be the man the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) can thank for capturing only 29 percent of votes in that country's parliamentary election -- the worst outcome for the party since the end of World War II. The potential chancellor, as the behind-the-scenes coordinator of his party's failed coalition with the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), as transportation minister and, since June, as head of the SPÖ, bears a large share of the responsibility for the disaster.
But now it's time for Faymann to put things right. Facing a tight schedule, he barely has enough time to sit down for a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice at Café Griensteidl. "The council of ministers, committee meetings, the party leadership," says Faymann, noting that they all want something from him now, and yet he doesn't try to create the impression that his hectic schedule is something he regrets. We need a reasonable government, quickly, he says, pointing out that the old "coalition of disagreement has been voted out of office."
Formally, at any rate. Only an hour earlier, these lame-duck politicians were sworn in a second time, at a ceremony with all the pomp and circumstance of the Habsburg court, and Werner Faymann was in the thick of it. The entire group had to appear once more in the Maria Theresia Room of the Hofburg Palace, under crystal chandeliers, gilded stucco and tapestries: the ministers from the two major parties, the SPÖ and the ÖVP, who, for a little less than 18 months -- a shorter tenure than that of any other cabinet in Austria's Second Republic -- were part of a coalition government racked by vicious feuds.
Now they are taking a new oath of office, pledging to do the best possible job until a new government has been formed. Judging by their high spirits, one would think they were teenagers on a class trip. Hapless outgoing Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer watches the spectacle with a stony expression on his face. Instead of Gusenbauer, his fellow party member Faymann steps into the spotlight at the end to praise the electorate: "The public has a strong sense for when a politician is acting in a constructive way." Will the Far Right Doom Austria's Mainstream Parties? (Part 1)>>> By Walter Mayr in Vienna | October 8, 2008
'I'll Pop Open a Bottle of Champagne the Day There Is No Longer an Israeli Ambassador in Vienna' (Part 2) >>> By Walter Mayr in Vienna | October 8, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
PROFIL (AT): Österreichs Jungwähler: 'Verrückt nach Rechts' / Das wichtigste Wahlmotiv: die Ausländer
In der Generation unter dreißig wählte fast jeder zweite Österreicher FPÖ oder BZÖ.
Erwin E., 18, war „kein großer Lerner“, deshalb verließ er die Schule. So kam es, dass er die Frage nach seinem Beruf heute so beantworten kann: „Dasselbe, was der Strache früher gemacht hat.“ Zahntechniker also. Für einen jungen Mann, der sein Auto mit einem FPÖ-Bären aufputzt und Zigaretten mit einem Strache-Feuerzeug anzündet, ist das durchaus eine glückliche Fügung. Erwin E. hat blau gewählt. Reinhard S.*, 17, geht ins Gymnasium. Auf seiner Computerfestplatte gibt es ein Foto, auf dem er mit FPÖ-Parteichef Heinz-Christian Strache wie mit einem Popstar posiert. Das Bild entstand nach einer Wahlkampfveranstaltung auf dem örtlichen Hauptplatz. Schon bei der niederösterreichischen Landtagswahl hatte Reinhard die FPÖ angekreuzt. Und jetzt, bei der Nationalratswahl, wieder. Erwin und Reinhard finden, dass Strache „die Themen am besten vertritt“: Sie meinen „Ausländerstopp“, „Asylmissbrauch“, „Heimatschutz“. Und so wie sie denkt längst nicht mehr nur eine radikale Minderheit. Trocken konstatiert Peter Ulram, Chef des Meinungsforschungsinstituts GfK, offenbar habe „niemand von den anderen Parteien eine Antwort auf das Lebensgefühl der Jungen gefunden“. Ulrams Daten zufolge kam das dritte Lager – FPÖ und BZÖ zusammengenommen – in der Altersklasse der unter 30-Jährigen auf 43 Prozent. Noch deutlicher war das Rechts-Votum der Erstwähler: 44 Prozent der 16- bis 19-Jährigen stimmten für FPÖ-Chef Heinz- Christian Strache, drei Prozent für dessen politischen Ziehvater Jörg Haider (BZÖ). Fast jeder Zweite wählte rechts. SPÖ und Grüne, die sich von einer Senkung des Wahlalters am meisten versprochen hatten, sind bei den Jungen abgemeldet (siehe Grafik). Laut GfK-Wahltagsbefragung waren die Roten in der Generation unter dreißig nur für jeden Zehnten wählbar. „Das ist die Partei, die Geld, das nicht da ist, für Leute ausgibt, die nix hackeln wollen“, ätzt die 17-jährige Kremser Schülerin Tanja. Das klingt auch ziemlich rechts; dabei ist sie „eine Grüne“. Jugend am rechten Rand: Fast jeder zweite Österreicher unter 30 wählt FPÖ/BZÖ >>> Von Marianne Enigl und Edith Meinhart | 7. Oktober 2008
LE FIGARO:
L'extrême droite autrichienne séduit les adolescents : Environ 40 % des moins de 18 ans ont voté pour le FPÖ de Heinz-Christian Strache.
Il y avait pourtant des «super-prix» à gagner, comme des places de concert ou des iPods, sur le site Internet des jeunes sociaux-démocrates ! Un «jeu-online» du «Candidat à la chancellerie» sur celui des conservateurs. Des «speed datings», organisés près de l'Opéra de Vienne, pour mieux connaître les candidats Verts… C'est cependant l'extrême droite que les 16-18 ans, qui votaient dimanche pour la première fois en Autriche, ont plébiscitée.
Avec l'abaissement de l'âge légal pour voter à 16 ans adopté l'an dernier, quelque 183 000 jeunes Autrichiens de moins de 18 ans ont mis, pour la première fois, leur bulletin dans l'urne. Mais les adolescents, très convoités par tous les partis, n'ont pas gobé tous ces «bonbons électoraux» : «Louer un politicien» pour une soirée, comme l'ont proposé par exemple les sociaux-démocrates, très peu pour eux ! >>> Stéphane Kovacs | 30.09.2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe) >>>
It’s high time for this ridiculous, dangerous government to be put out to graze! The bloody lot of them! This government clearly believes in rewarding the trouble-makers, while it assiduously ignores the good people in the community who just go about their daily lives without causing trouble. In the new Britain, it seems that the more noise a community makes, the more attention it gets, the more money is thrown at them, the more concessions they get. As the old saying goes: It’s the sqeaking gate that gets the oil.
The fact that Islam is trying to destroy Western civilization, only to replace it with a dark-age mentality and barbarism seems totally to have passed these tossers by.
Gordon, your colour is YELLOW! And it's the colour of all those who serve you. - ©Mark
DAILY EXPRESS: YOUNG Muslims will get direct access to Cabinet Ministers in a £1.3million “community cohesion” initiative, it emerged yesterday.
The new Young Muslim Advisory group is the brainchild of Children’s Secretary Ed Balls and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.
But a row erupted last night over the appointment to it of a member of the Socialist Worker Party.
Also, the Government was forced to admit that there were no similar groups for Christians, Jews or Hindus.
Tory cohesion spokeswoman Baroness Sayeeda Warsi blasted the group as yet another example of Labour’s “state multiculturalism” which she said fostered a “divided Britain”.
Outrage centred on the appointment of Sabiha Iqbal, 17, to the group.
She is a member of the tiny Trotskyite sect that has “expressed solidarity” with Hezbollah terrorists, while trying to forge links with hardline British Muslims.
Ms Iqbal, from Bradford, is studying at Leeds university.
Last night Ms Blears defended inviting her appointment. She said: “If you don’t want to change the world at 17, that’s a shame. This group is made up of people with a wide range of beliefs. Getting them around a table to talk is all about democracy in action.”
Mr Balls said he had hope for Ms Iqbal as a “role model”. Ms Iqbal believes Muslims are often “greatly misrepresented” and says she wants to support a diverse community through “understanding, acceptance and empathy”. Muslims Get £1.3m Hotline to Cabinet >>> By Gabriel Milland, Political Correspondent | October 8, 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 TELEGRAPH: The Thai military has been called on to the streets of Bangkok after a day of violence by anti-government protesters sparked fears of a coup.
A military spokesman said that soldiers would help the police to restore order after a woman was killed by a car bomb, shots were fired at riot police and there were repeated clashes between police and demonstrators, which left 190 people injured.
The bombing occurred during the afternoon outside the offices of the Chart Thai party - a member of the governing coalition - less than a mile from parliament where clashes occurred earlier in the day. The victim, who was driving a white car, has not yet been identified. Thai Army Deployed in Bangkok after Bomb Leads to Coup Fears >>> By Thomas Bell in Bangkok | October 8, 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) >>>
*May the bastard choke on each and every mouthful of Beluga caviar and each truffle he eats! And may he drown in Champagne!
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
AKI: New York - A controversial novel about the Muslim Prophet Mohammed's child bride was released in the US this week , despite a firebomb attack against its British publisher.
Beaufort Books published The Jewel of Medina by American journalist Sherry Jones after Random House dropped it amid fears its publication could incite violence.
The novel has been denounced by Muslim fundamentalists as an "insult" to Islam. It traces the life of the Prophet Mohammed's child bride Aisha from the age of six until his death.
Denise Spellberg, professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas, criticised the novel as a disrespectful misrepresentation of history, warning Random House its publication would be "a national security issue."
It's uncertain if the book will be published in Britain after the firebomb attack last month on the London home of Martin Rynja, the novel's UK publisher.
Three male Muslims aged between 22 and 40 were last Friday charged over the attack on Rynja's house in Islington, in north London.
Beaufort Books said it had decided to bring forward The Jewel of Medina's release date so it could be assessed on its merits as literature.
"We felt that ... it was better for everybody ...to let the conversation switch from a conversation about terrorists and fearful publishers, to a conversation about the merits of the book itself," said Beaufort Books president Eric Kampmann. Islam: Prophet Bride Novel Published in US >>> | October 7, 2008
Beaufort Books >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Obama Muslim Gaffe >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
THE EARTH TIMES: Vienna - A youth leader of the Austrian right-wing Freedom Party was found guilty Monday of inciting religious hatred against Muslims, and received a suspended prison sentence. As the leader of the Freedom Party's youth organization in Graz, Michael Winter, 20, had suggested in a newsletter last year that that Turkish Muslims were in the habit of committing bestiality.
The defendant's mother Susanne Winter is also set to stand trial this autumn for stating earlier this year that Islam's prophet Mohammed was a paedophile. Austrian Right-wing Politician Found Guilty of Insulting Muslims >>> DPA | October 6, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
CNN: NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenyan immigration officials on Tuesday questioned the author of a book that is highly critical of Sen. Barack Obama, Kenyan police said.
Jerome Corsi, who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," left the immigration building in Nairobi several hours later and went to the airport, according to a Corsi assistant who spoke to CNN.
The assistant, who did not give his full name, said Corsi had been picked up before he was able to hold a news conference about the release of his book in Kenya. He said Corsi was not detained, but that Kenyan authorities said one of his immigration forms was missing. Anti-Obama Author Questioned by Kenyan Officials >>> | October 7, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
YAHOO! (UK & IRELAND): Human evolution is grinding to a halt, according to a leading genetics expert.
The gloomy message from Professor Steve Jones is: this is as good as it gets.
Prof Jones, from the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London, believes the mechanisms of evolution are winding down in the human race.
At least in the developed world, humans are now as close to utopia as they are ever likely to be, he argues. Speaking at a UCL Lunch Hour Lecture in London, Prof Jones said there were three components to evolution - natural selection, mutation and random change.
He said: "In ancient times half our children would have died by the age of twenty. Now, in the Western world, 98% of them are surviving to the age of 21. Our life expectancy is now so good that eliminating all accidents and infectious diseases would only raise it by a further two years. Natural selection no longer has death as a handy tool."
Mutation rate was also slowing down, he said. Although chemicals and radioactive pollution could cause genetic changes, one of the most important mutation triggers was advanced age in men. "Perhaps surprisingly, the age of reproduction has gone down - the mean age of male reproduction means that most conceive no children after the age of 35," said Prof Jones. "Fewer older fathers means that if anything, mutation is going down."
Random alterations to the human genetic blueprint were also less likely in a world that had become an ethnic melting pot, according to Prof Jones. Human Evolution Coming to a Halt >>> Press Association | October 7, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
THE GUARDIAN: Jeremy Paxman has accused the BBC of "fawning" over the royal family, claiming that in the past the corporation has seen itself as "a courtier".
Speaking on an edition of Radio 4's The Archive Hour which will air on Saturday October 11, the Newsnight presenter said the BBC did not know whether to "report" or "celebrate" events such as the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations and the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker-Bowles.
"While the BBC does report royal matters pretty straightforwardly, as it should, there is still a fawning taste, a fawning sense to the tone of voice it adopts when dealing with the heir to throne and his family," Paxman said.
"They do not treat them in the way they would treat other members of the public, to which it might equally reply that they are not other members of the public." Jeremy Paxman Attacks BBC’s Royal Coverage >>> Ben Dowell | October 7, 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 GUARDIAN: Iran's biggest motor manufacturer is to take the country's gender sensitivity to new levels by producing a car specially for women.
It will be fitted with features common on the international market but seen as female-specific in Iran's male-dominated culture. These include an automatic gearbox, electronic parking aids, a navigation system and a jack designed to make it easier to change a wheel, suggesting that women drivers lack the mechanical competence of their male counterparts. Alarms may also be installed to warn of flat tyres. The vehicle will be painted in soft "feminine" colours and include interior designs tailored to women's tastes. There will also be audiovisual entertainment systems for child passengers.
Iran Khodro, the state-backed manufacturer, said it would put the first models on sale next June to coincide with Iranian women's day. The car will be part of the Samand range, which has been exported to allied countries such as Syria and Venezuela. However, the women's car will initially be aimed solely at the Iranian domestic market. In Gender-sensitive Iran, a Car Designed Specifically for Women >>> Robert Tait and Noushin Hoseiny | October 7, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
TIMESONLINE: At a Christian 'boot camp' in the US, those struggling to reconcile faith and sexuality are taught to overcome gayness
"How many of you are in need of some hope here tonight?” A murmur passes through the dark auditorium, pleasing the man with the microphone. Heads nod. “How many of you are at the end of your rope?” he continues. “How many are ready for an encounter with the Lord?” The man on stage, dressed in chinos and a crisp white shirt, is Alan Chambers. The clean-cut, married father of two is the leader of Exodus International, an organisation that believes it can help people to “find freedom from homosexuality through the love of Jesus Christ”.
Exodus is one of the ministries of the so-called “ex-gay” movement, a controversial fundamentalist Christian campaign that encourages gay people to renounce their sexuality. This, its annual conference, promises “an amazing week of breakthroughs, transformations and healings”. A Christian rock band begins to play and the 800 men and women who moments earlier seemed to have only awkwardness in common begin singing and clapping in unison. Eyes closed, they raise their hands above their heads, uplifted by the hope of being reborn.
Chambers later returns to the stage and stands before them, triumphantly heterosexual. He tells the crowd that he won't judge homosexuals, even if their own churches have, because he used to be one himself. In the hushed auditorium, he describes his first experience of a gay bar. “It was almost as if I'd grown up handicapped and everyone else was handicapped, too. But it was a counterfeit. I was fooled.”
“Am I in denial?” he asks. “Absolutely. I live a life of denial and I love it. I didn't choose my same-sex feelings but I do choose how I'm going to steward them. Freedom is possible.” At Exodus people are not gay; they “struggle with same-sex attraction” (SSA).
“The opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality,” says Chambers, sagely. “It's holiness.” Speech over, he asks people to come forward to be prayed for. A boy of no more than 16 steps up, hanging his head. When he returns from the stage to the sound of applause, his stony-faced father nods in approval. His mother weeps.
Welcome to ex-gay boot camp. The Camp that 'Cures' Homosexuality >>> Lucy Bannerman | October 7, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
TIMESONLINE: Far worse than the threat from international terrorism is the aggressive process of secularisation that has gripped our country, and most of Europe, and which is becoming ever more frenzied. For example, I guess not many people are aware that it is against the law for state schools to teach the Christian faith as true. Teachers are allowed only to teach about religions. This is atheism by decree, for the only perspective from which one can teach about all religions is the secular perspective. So our children are not brought to a sense of holiness and awe, but are merely taught the meanings of religious terms as sociological descriptions. This deprivation of the spiritual is a form of child abuse.
And then there are the Sexual Orientation Regulations which make it illegal to discriminate on moral grounds between forms of sexual coupling. One might put this epigrammatically: what was once a mortal sin is now only a lifestyle choice. I supported the Homosexual Reform Act back in the 1960s on the grounds that it is not right to criminalise people on the grounds of their sexual orientation.
But the many people who believed that homosexuality should be decriminalised never intended that this should create the proselytising Gay Liberation Movement. The Act decreed that homosexual acts should be “between consenting adults in private” Between means involving two; adult meant 21; and private means behind locked doors. But now the love which once dare not speak its name, shrieks at us in high camp from decorated floats along the high street.
Similarly with abortion law reform, the public was told by its supporters that legalised abortion would abolish the damage to women's health at the hands of the back street abortions. No one at the time thought that a humane Act designed to remove an identifiable evil would lead to abortion on demand, abortion in fact as merely another form of contraception. So now 200,000 embryos every year are ripped, untimely, from the womb just because people fear that a child would interfere with their lifestyle. Beware the Dark Side of the New Moral Consensus >>> Peter Mullen* | January 18, 2008
*The Rev Dr Peter Mullen is the chaplain to the Stock Exchange and rector of St Michael’s, Cornhill. He is the man who has got himself into hot water over these comments
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) >>>
TIMESONLINE: New research claims Bible's negative stance on women is a myth
Delilah is dangerous, Jezebel, wicked, and as for Eve... Whether they are temptresses, harlots or simply Old Testament chattels, women (it is often argued) get a raw deal in Scripture, with the odd saintly exception (the virgin Mary).
But new research into Biblical women shows that the majority receive positive or matter-of-fact write-ups. Words such as "blessed", "righteous" "outstanding" and - of course - "beautiful" crop up in descriptions of 60 of the Bible's 175 female characters, according to research from The Bible Society.
"Some people have the impression that the Bible is very negative about women," says David Ashford, the Society's Media and Development Officer.
Ashford's research, based on analysing the words used to describe Biblical females, found that "there are four times as many saints as there are sinners," and that "individual women are often described in the Bible in glowing terms."
"Wisdom is described as a female attribute in many texts. And some scholars believe that the Song of Deborah, which was probably composed by a woman, is one of the oldest pieces of literature within the Bible (Judges 5)." Jesus, he adds, had a liberated attitude to women, unusual for his era: "John 4.27, for example, shows that Jesus broke social conventions that discouraged conversations with women. Similarly, the gospel of Luke has long been referred to as the 'gospel of women' for its strong positive portrayal of women in the life of Jesus."
Hang on, what about the Jezebels, and Biblical harlots? Where do they fit the narrative? "Only 13 women are described negatively with terms such as 'nagging, intimidating lustful or provocative'" asserts Ashford, whose list of Bible heroines includes Sarah, Ruth and Mary, while Jezebel, Delilah fall into the villain camp.
As for the rest, those women who fall somewhere in between "the sinner" and "the saint" are described in "neutral" matter-of-fact terms - mother of, sister of, neighbour of etc. Those who do not receive both positive and negative descriptions, for example Miriam in the Old Testament who in Exodus is described as "Prophetess" but by the book of Numbers is marked down as a sinner for questioning, along with Aaron, the authority of Moses. Is the Bible Sexist? >>> Bess Twiston Davies | October 6, 2008
Top Ten Biblical Women >>> | October 6, 2008
The Biblical Male and Housework >>> | October 6, 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) >>>
Monday, October 06, 2008
SUNDAY MERCURY: A ranting hate preacher is touring the Midlands in an attempt to radicalise young Muslims and promote extremism.
Abu Waleed - a disciple of hook-handed fanatic Abu Hamza - told audiences in Birmingham, Derby and Leicester that they should rise up against Britain.
And the bile-filled lecturer even joked about Al-Qaida handing out suicide-bomber backpacks in youth centres and snooker halls.
In video clips posted on popular website Youtube, Waleed mocks the British intelligence services and warns they have underestimated the strength of the violent jihad movement in the UK.
“MI5 got it wrong when they said there is 2,000 so-called radicals within Britain and they all got trained in Afghanistan,” he told his followers.
“Really? And you’re supposed to be intelligence and you saw them all go there and come back. What are you going to do about it now?
“They say Muslim groups will be given £70 million to help tackle extremism in ungoverned places. What are ‘ungoverned places’?
“Internet chatrooms, snooker halls, youth centres? As if there’s going to be someone there from Al-Qaida saying, ‘I’ve got a couple of rucksacks there in the back, do you want one, what size are you?’. Obviously not.”
More than 140 extremist speeches organised by the Islam4TheUK group are currently being aired on YouTube, including Waleed’s series of lectures called Youth Sparks of Fire.
Islam4TheUK is an off-shoot of the banned Al Muhajiroun sect, headed by crazed cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, who was exiled to Lebannon for supporting terrorism.
Waleed talks about the “war on Islam” being waged by Britain and urges his followers to reject the laws of the UK. Sunday Mercury Exposes Birmingham Preacher of Hate >>> By Ben Goldby | October 4, 2008
NB: Be sure to watch the accompanying video (which, unfortunately, I cannot embed).
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 GUARDIAN: Rev Peter Mullen joked about homosexuals and Islam on an internet blog
A Church of England vicar could face disciplinary action for saying gay men should have "sodomy" warnings tattooed on their bodies.
The Rev Peter Mullen, the chaplain to the London Stock Exchange, made the remarks on his blog, which has since been removed from the web under an agreement with diocesan officials.
Mullen, 66, wrote it was time for religious believers to recommend the discouragement of homosexual practices in the style of cigarette packet warnings.
"Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan sodomy can seriously damage your health and their chins with fellatio kills."
In a previous posting Mullen anticipated an "agreeable carnage" at the start of the annual Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
"They usually manage to stampede and slaughter quite a few hundred of their co-religionists. Just imagine for a moment what a field day the BBC and the leftwing press in England would have if anything even remotely as bad as that happened in Vatican Square at Christmas or Easter."
Mullen criticised the lack of jokes about Islam in the media, remarking that adherents "certainly lend themselves to ridicule: sticking their arses in the air five times a day. How about a few little choruses, 'Randy Muslims when they die/Find 70 virgins in the sky'?" Vicar Could Be Disciplined for Blog Slurs against Gays and Muslims >>> Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent | October 6, 2008
THEINDEPENDENT:
Clergyman Apologises over Call to Tattoo Gay People: A Church of England clergyman who wrote that gay men should be forced to have "sodomy" warnings tattooed on their bodies issued a "full and complete" apology for his remarks today.
The Rev Peter Mullen said his remarks were "injudicious" and had caused offence.
"I did not intend to cause any upset but I realise that the remarks were injudicious and I have caused offence. I want to issue an apology," he said.
In a statement, he said: "I did not intend to cause offence when I made some joking remarks about homosexuals.
"I was not actually meaning to criticise individual homosexual persons, but the promoters of gay culture.
"However, my remarks have caused offence and for this I am sorry and make a full and complete apology." >>> PA | October 7, 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) >>>
DIE PRESSE: ÖVP-Chef Pröll hat bei FPÖ-Obmann Strache einen "Antrittsbesuch" absolviert. Über eine mögliche Koalition soll nicht gesprochen worden sein. Strache sieht jedoch ein Abgehen von der "Ausgrenzung" seiner Partei.
ÖVP-Obmann Josef Pröll hat sich am Montag mit FPÖ-Chef Heinz-Christian Strache getroffen. Eine mögliche Regierungszusammenarbeit sei dabei jedoch kein Thema gewesen, betonten danach beide Seiten: "Es gab weder Vereinbarungen noch Zusagen, auch nicht über weitere Termine".
Über den Inhalt des 45-minütigen Gesprächs sei "ansonsten Stillschweigen vereinbart" worden, hieß es aus ÖVP-Seite. Immerhin: Man habe sich "mit der Analyse der nach dm Wahlergebnis eingetretenen Situation befasst" und habe "weiters festgestellt, dass die Regierungsbildung unter diesen Voraussetzungen nicht einfach wird". Es sei ein "interessantes Gespräch" gewesen.
Strache erklärte, er habe den Eindruck, dass die ÖVP von ihrer "Ausgrenzung" der FPÖ abgehe und eine "atmosphärische Normalität" einkehre. Der FP-Chef ortet ein "neues Politkapitel" und eine "Bereitschaft des Miteinander". Der "Antrittsbesuch" Prölls als neuer ÖVP-Obmann sei "politische Normalität". Strache trifft Pröll und ortet "Bereitschaft des Miteinander" >>> | 6. Oktober 2008
Foto Galerie:
Josef Pröll: Der neue starke Mann der ÖVP >>>
WIENER ZEITUNG:
Pröll/Strache: "Interessantes" Gespräch >>> | Montag, 06. Oktober 2008
WELT ONLINE:
Die neue Hoffnung der Konservativen in Österreich: Josef Pröll, der neue Obmann der ÖVP, kommt zwar vom Bauernbund, gilt aber als liberal - Und er ist ein Verfechter der großen Koalition >>> Von Reinhard Engel | 1. Oktober 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe) >>>
MAIL Online: Within hours of his appointment, the new Immigration Minister indicated that the influx of arrivals from overseas will finally be brought 'under control'.
Phil Woolas dropped broad hints that he supports a policy of 'balanced migration', and an upper limit on migrant numbers.
The outspoken MP added: 'Community cohesion is crucial. After the economy, this is probably the biggest concern facing the population.'
Campaigners gave Mr Woolas's remarks a cautious welcome as a sign that Labour is at last preparing to abandon its controversial 'open door' policy.
They have also been heartened by his strong track record as a politician willing to confront uncomfortable subjects.
In the past, he has warned that first-cousin marriages in the Pakistani community are increasing the risk of birth defects, and that Muslim women wearing the veil could spark 'fear and resentment' among non-Muslims.
The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, who has faced down BNP activists in his own constituency, told the Sunday Times on Sunday that it was vital to 'provide confidence to the indigenous population that migration is under control'. Migrants Arriving from Overseas Will Be Brought 'Under Control' Hints New Immigration Minister >>> By James Slack | October 6, 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) >>>
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM: Imagine Dodger Stadium full of loud and whooping fans cheering on, not baseball, but your weekly stoning and flogging of adulterers, thieves and other errant citizens of southern California.
This is America under Islamic law, or Shari’a, a system that everyone should fear. Or so, Alan Kornman, director of the United American Committee (UAC) thinks. He continues to fundraise for a freeway billboard in Florida stating, “Shari’a Is Hate,” to educate America before it’s too late.
As Kornman argues, "under Shari’a law if you are accused of stealing, a hand and foot from opposite sides are amputated. If you are caught having an affair, the woman is stoned to death and the man is given 80 lashes. If you change religions, you can be charged under apostasy laws and given the death sentence by a legal Sharia court.”
The implementation of Shari’a is much more subtle than the quotation from Kornman suggests, however.
Through Shari’a, Islamists govern the private lives of individuals as well as regulate the social, political, and economic aspects of society. Islamism crosses national borders, with the final goal of asserting the Muslim ummah globally, with all non-Muslims as second class citizens. It is a totalitarian ideology, and Islamists do want to make Europe and the US Islamist states.
Don’t wait for floggings in your local neighborhood. "Sharia Is Hate" >>> By Supna Zaidi | October 6, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
FAITH FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL: Geert Wilders: I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario from becoming a reality.
My short lecture consists of four parts.
First, I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, I will talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close, I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome’s ancient buildings and maybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they still look very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.
But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitors see – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer,walk threesteps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighbourhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark serve only halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam, gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear “whore, whore.” Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can in many cases no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England, Sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighbourhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25% of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favour of a worldwide caliphate. A Dutch study reported that half of Dutch Muslims admit they “understand” the 9/11 attacks.
Muslims demand what they call “respect.” And this is how we give them respect. Our elites are willing to give in. To give up. In my own country we have gone from calls by one cabinet member to turn Muslim holidays into official state holidays, to statements by another cabinet member that Islam is part of Dutch culture, to an affirmation by the Christian-Democratic attorney general that he is willing to accept Sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behaviour, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. Some prefer to see these as isolated incidents, but I call it a Muslim intifada. I call the perpetrators “settlers.” Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighbourhoods, their cities, their countries.
Politicians shy away from taking a stand against this creeping sharia. They believe in the equality of all cultures. Moreover, on a mundane level, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
Our many problems with Islam cannot be explained by poverty, repression or the European colonial past, as the Left claims. Nor does it have anything to do with Palestinians or American troops in Iraq. The problem is Islam itself. Geert Wilders: A Wise Warning from Europe about America’s Future >>> By Geert Wilders | October 6, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS (ARUTZ SHEVA): After much speculation that he was killed in an American airstrike, al-Qaeda's American-born spokesman Adam Gadahn (AKA "Azzam the American") has shown up in a new video released this past weekend. While focusing on Pakistan, he makes several references to the "Zio-Crusader" enemy and calls on Muslims to set aside their temporal national, ethnic or tribal differences for the sake of unity in the jihad for Islam.
The convert to Islam, born Adam Pearlman, is wanted by the FBI for his alleged role in developing al-Qaeda propaganda in Pakistan. In addition to Gadahn, the new recording also contains video of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the chief al-Qaeda terrorist responsible for coordinating with the Taliban, as well as audio of Osama Bin-Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.
In the video, filmed by al-Qaeda's media arm al-Sahab, Gadahn ridicules the new Pakistani government as a puppet of the Crusaders and Jews. He and others appearing in the video call on Pakistan's soldiers and people to refuse to aid in the fight against the jihadists and to attack caravans belonging to Western forces traveling through Pakistan. The soldiers are called upon to disrupt anti-jihad operations and to work for the imposition of Islamic law in Pakistan.
Gadahn states that jihadist victory in Indian Kashmir and in Afghanistan has been prevented thus far by Pakistani "hypocrites" fighting against the jihad. Kashmir is mentioned several times, with calls to liberate the jihad in Kashmir from the control of the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency. In addition, he says, the West's main concern is that nuclear-armed Pakistan not fall to the jihadists - an outcome al-Qaeda is seeking to foment with the help of local cells. Al-Qaeda’s American Spokesman Is Alive and Kicking >>> By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz | October 6, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
BBC: Pope Benedict XVI has opened a synod of more than 200 cardinals and bishops from around the world to examine the modern lack of interest in the Bible.
The Pope lamented what he called the harmful and destructive influence of some forms of modern culture.
This, he said, had decided that God was dead, and man was the sole architect of his destiny and master of creation.
The synod is an advisory body of the Roman Catholic Church, which meets once every three years.
The three-week long proceedings opened with a solemn Mass celebrated by the Pope at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls.
French trip
Growing indifference to religion, particularly in Europe, is a source of concern to the Pope.
He visited France last month, and was clearly referring to that country when he pointed out in his homily that nations once rich in the Christian faith and in vocations for the priesthood seem to be losing their Christian identity.
To mark the opening of the synod, Italian state television will be broadcasting a marathon reading of the whole Bible for the next six days and nights.
The Pope himself will start off the reading with the Book of Genesis.
He will be followed by hundreds of other readers, including Italian politicians, celebrities from the world of entertainment and sport, as well as ordinary Italians - who have never been such enthusiastic readers of the Bible as Christians in Protestant countries. [Source: BBC] By David Willey, BBC News, Rome | October 5, 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) >>>
REUTERS: VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict said on Monday that the global financial crisis showed that faith in God trumped a lifetime spent pursuing material wealth.
"We see it now in the collapse of the great banks that money disappears, it's nothing," the Pontiff said.
The global financial turmoil, the worst since the Great Depression, has wiped away hundreds of billions of euros (dollars) in shareholder wealth and felled banking institutions that just months ago seemed untouchable.
The pontiff, using a biblical metaphor, said people who ignored the word of God to pursue wealth had effectively built their homes on sand instead of on a solid foundation of faith.
It was a possible reference to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, which triggered the financial crisis.
"Whoever builds his life on this reality, on material things, on success ... builds (his house) on sand. Only the word of God is the foundation of all reality," he said. [Source: Reuters] Writing by Phil Stewart; Editing by Sami Aboudi | October 6, 2008
ASSOCIATED PRESS:
Pope: Financial Crisis Shows Futility of Money >>> | October 6, 2008
THE ECONOMIC TIMES (INDIA):
Financial Crisis Shows Need for Religion in Politics: Vatican: VATICAN CITY: The financial crisis sweeping the world economy proves the need for religion in politics, Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said on Tuesday.
"Politics needs religion," Cardinal Bertone said in a speech published by the Vatican mouthpiece L'Osservatore Romano. "When instead God is ignored, the ability to respect rights and recognise the common good begins to disappear."
Bertone, the Vatican's top diplomat and Pope Benedict XVI's right-hand man, told a conference sponsored by the US-based Aspen Institute: "Where people look solely for short-term profit, identifying it with good, they end up erasing the benefit itself."
The prelate said the "current financial crisis" and the "tragic outcomes of all political ideologies" were symptomatic of this lack.
He added: "To manage globalisation, politics not only needs an ethic inspired by religion, but also it needs for this religion to be rational. For that too, politics needs Christianity." >>> IST, Agencies | September 30, 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) >>>
YNET NEWS: Zealots accused of beating Jerusalem woman for allegedly consorting with men, torching store selling MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography. 'It's very similar to what you hear about in countries like Iran,' says novelist Naomi Ragen
In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the internet.
In recent weeks, self-styled "modesty patrols" have been accused of breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for allegedly consorting with men. They have torched a store that sells MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography.
"These breaches of purity and modesty endanger our community," said 38-year-old Elchanan Blau, defending the bearded, black-robed zealots. "If it takes fire to get them to stop, then so be it."
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews are dismayed by the violence, but the enforcers often enjoy quiet approval from rabbis eager to protect their own reputations as guardians of the faith, community members say. And while some welcome anything that keeps secular culture out of their cloistered world, others feel terrorized, knowing that the mere perception of impropriety could ruin their lives.
"There are eyes and ears all over the place, very similar to what you hear about in countries like Iran," says Israeli-American novelist Naomi Ragen, an observant Jew who has chronicled the troubles that confront some women living in the ultra-Orthodox world.
The violence has already deepened the antagonism between the 600,000 haredim, or God-fearing, and the secular majority, which resents having religious rules dictated to them. Jewish 'Modesty Patrols' Sow Fear in Israel >>> AP | October 6, 2008
YNET NEWS:
Wrong Kind of Modesty: Growing Modesty Requirements in Religious World Have Nothing to Do with religious Law >>> Uri Orbach | January 14, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
YNET NEWS: Country's Industrialists Association says Jewish state trying to claim ownership of traditional Lebanese delicacies like tabouleh and hummus, plans international food-related suit
Lebanon is planning on filing an international law suit against Israel for violating a food copyright, Fadi Abboud, president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, told the al-Arabiya network.
The Lebanese claim is that Israel markets original Lebanese food like tabouleh, kubbeh, hummus, falafel and fattoush which the Lebanese considered their trademarks prior to the establishment of the Jewish state.
Abboud explained that the fact that Israel has been marketing Lebanese delicacies under the same names and ingredients around the world has caused great losses to Lebanon, and that while, “the full extent is unknown, it is estimated at tens of millions of dollars annually.” Lebanon: Israel Stole Our Falafel >>> Roee Nahmias | October 6, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
DAILY EXPRESS: ALL telephone calls, emails and text messages in Britain will be monitored under new Government snooping plans.
A £12billion identity database at the GCHQ spy centre could even log every website visited by computer users nationwide.
Hundreds of bugging probes will be installed in the telephone system and computer networks to monitor communications traffic.
GCHQ has already been handed £1billion of taxpayers’ cash to begin developing the database.
After the top-secret plans were leaked yesterday critics accused the Government of stalking the public. Michael Parker of anti-identity card group No2ID said: “It is a shocking intrusion into privacy. This is stalking. If an individual carried out this sort of snooping, it would be a crime.”
Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said the proposal marked “a substantial shift in the powers of the state to obtain information on individuals”. And after a series of embarrassing security blunders including the loss of child benefit records for every family in the country, he questioned Whitehall’s competence to keep such data. He said: “Given the Government’s poor record on protecting data and seeing how significant an increase in power this would be, we need to have a national debate and the Government would have to justify its need.”
The plan for the biggest surveillance system in British history is being spearheaded by GCHQ director Sir David Pepper. Spies Will Tap in to ALL Emails and Calls >>> By Macer Hall, Political Editor | October 6, 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 TELEGRAPH: Here is something the Government told us would never happen. When Britain signed up to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) six years ago, critics pointed out that an individual could be extradited to another EU state to face prosecution for something that is not a crime in Britain and had not even been committed in the requesting country. Ministers dismissed such concerns as fanciful, but it has come to pass.
An Australian teacher is currently in jail in London, following his arrest at Heathrow airport by British police acting on a warrant issued by the German authorities.
Gerald Töben, 64, is wanted in Germany for the offence of "Holocaust denial". It used to be a fundamental protection in British law that no one would be sent for trial in another jurisdiction for something that is not an offence here. It was called the principle of dual criminality. However, when the EAW was drawn up this principle was removed for a list of 32 offences, which include the crimes of "racism and xenophobia".
These offences have no equivalent in this country; but it is now clear that denying the Holocaust, or "defaming the dead", falls into the category. Moreover, Töben did not physically commit the alleged offences in Germany or even within the EU.
The arrest warrant, issued in 2004, alleges that he had carried out from Australia (where it isn't a crime either) "worldwide internet publication" of material that denied, approved or played down the mass murder of Jews perpetrated by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Nobody Is Safe from the Long Arm of EU Law >>> By Philip Johnston | October 5, 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) >>>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)