Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Islamic Emergency Defence — which pledges to defend Muslims in a “swift and Islamic manner” — has seen splinter groups rise up in Blackburn, Luton and East London.
Its website gives an “emergency hotline” number for Muslims to report attacks rather than call police.
One IED member said he would not be afraid to stand up to people who were anti-Muslim. » | Jonathan Reilly | Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
The two men came from different backgrounds, but shared a belief in Allah and a common goal: power. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Abdullah Gül, now respectively prime minister and president of Turkey, have worked together since the 1990s and their alliance has helped political Islam attain more power than ever before.
The current protests in Turkey, though, are threatening to break that alliance apart. Elements of Turkish society have risen up against their government and called on Prime Minister Erdogan to resign. Yet even as protesters and police clash in the streets, another power struggle is taking place in Ankara. President Gül is increasingly seeking to distance himself from his former political ally.
Erdogan and Gül are different in both background and character. Erdogan worked hard to get where he is today. As a child, he sold sesame rings in Istanbul's port neighborhood of Kasmpasa. He was also an avid soccer player, earning himself the nickname "Imam Beckenbauer." Although he managed to attend university and later became Istanbul's mayor, Erdogan was never able to conceal his simpler origins -- nor did he want to. He is moody, temperamental and unrestrained, qualities that may well be his undoing in the current crisis.
Gül, on the other hand, comes across as being diplomatic and moderate. Unlike Erdogan, he speaks English. Gül's parents were relatively well-to-do, sending their son to study economics in Istanbul and London. Gül worked as a manager for an Islamic bank in Saudi Arabia before being elected to Turkish parliament in the 1990s as part of the Islamist Refah movement. » | Maximilian Popp in Istanbul | Tuesday, June 25, 2013
BBC: EU foreign ministers have backed a German proposal to postpone further EU membership talks with Turkey for about four months.
The EU-Turkey talks had been scheduled to resume this Wednesday.
But Germany, Austria and the Netherlands have criticised Turkey's crackdown on anti-government protests.
Turkish police arrested at least 20 people in the capital Ankara on Tuesday, suspected of attacking police during the recent unrest in Istanbul.
Turkish media say the suspects are also accused of belonging to a "terror organisation".
Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle played down tensions with Turkey on Tuesday, saying he had had a "really good, constructive" discussion with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday evening.
Mr Davutoglu was upbeat, saying he saw "no obstacle" to reopening Turkey's talks with the EU eventually.
Turkey began accession negotiations with the EU in 2005, at the same time as Croatia, which will join the 27-nation bloc next week.
But Turkey's talks have been stalled for three years, and an EU Commission report on Ankara's progress last October highlighted numerous concerns about democracy and human rights.
Like all would-be member states, Turkey has to satisfy a detailed set of EU requirements, called the acquis. Last year Turkey received 856m euros (£727m; $1.1bn) in EU aid to help it make the necessary institutional reforms.>br />
Diplomatic tussle
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel wants Turkey to have a privileged partnership with the EU, rather than full EU membership. She hopes to win re-election in September - before the talks with Turkey resume.
Last week Germany summoned the Turkish ambassador in a row over Turkey's membership bid.
The two countries had earlier exchanged angry words in connection with the Turkish police action against demonstrators. Turkish police have used water cannon and tear gas against protesters - a crackdown widely seen to have fuelled anger against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. » | Tuesday, June 25, 2013
BBC: Germany's justice minister has written to British ministers seeking information about allegations of mass surveillance by British intelligence.
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger asked if the surveillance by GCHQ was legal and if Germans were targeted.
Previously she had said the gathering of vast amounts of global data sounded like a "Hollywood nightmare".
Meanwhile, civil rights group Liberty demanded an inquiry into whether its communications were accessed illegally.
The Foreign Office said it does not comment on intelligence matters. Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament two weeks ago, though, that British security agencies uphold the law at all times.
Evidence leaked by Edward Snowden to the Guardian suggests that GCHQ is able to tap into and store internet data from fibre optic cables for 30 days in an operation called Tempora.
And GCHQ is also said to have accessed information about UK citizens from the US National Security Agency's monitoring programme, Prism.
'Germans fear spying'
GCHQ has insisted it is "scrupulous" in complying with the law.
Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger's request for more information from the British government came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced unease at the allegations in the Guardian.
The letters Ms Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger sent to Home Secretary Theresa May and Justice Secretary Chris Grayling urged them not to lose the principles of civil rights.
She wrote: "In our modern world, the new media provide the framework for a free exchange of opinions and information. Transparent governance is one of the most important prerequisites that a democratic state and the rule of law requires."
The BBC's Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans said the letters asked four main questions: On what legal basis the spying program was executed; whether general information is collected and does it need a specific reason or is a more general trawl; whether judges had approved the measures; what data was kept and was it on German citizens.
Our correspondent said it is a real and potent issue in Germany because under the Nazi and Communist regimes spying on citizens was widespread and feared. » | Tuesday, June 25, 2013
To this day, Russians have differing opinions on the country's last tsar, Nicholas II, who was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
Some call him a model statesman and even a martyr - while others dismiss him as a faceless politician who ruined his country.
He's referred to as both Nicholas the Slaughterer and the Tsar-Martyr. So what was the real story behind the last emperor?
REUTERS UK: President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Tuesday a former U.S. spy agency contractor sought by the United States was in the transit area of a Moscow airport but ruled out handing him over to Washington, dismissing U.S. criticisms as "ravings and rubbish".
His refusal to hand back Edward Snowden risked deepening a rift with the United States that has also sucked in China and threatens relations between countries that may be essential in settling global conflicts including the Syrian war. » | Reuters | Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Documentary presented by Rageh Omaar which reveals the lives, hopes and fears of the young generation of Tehran, the most intriguing, talked about but least understood city in the world today.
Omaar and director Paul Sapin spent a year arranging the permissions and contacts for the film, who include a renowned female photojournalist, a woman who is the CEO of an international transport company, the editor of a youth magazine, the staff at a drug rehab centre and a pop star.
What do we really know about the Islamic Republic of Iran, aside from a Cold War rhetoric of politicians on both sides each accusing the other of evil? Rageh Omaar embarks on a unique journey inside what he describes as one of the most misunderstood countries in the world, looking at the country through the eyes of people rarely heard -- ordinary Iranians. It took a year of wrangling to get permission to film inside Iran but the result is an amazing portrayal of an energetic and vibrant country that is completely different to the usual images seen in the media.
AL JAZEERA: Transcript: Emir's speech » | Tuesday, June 25, 2013
AL JAZEERA: A new ruler for a transformed country: Qatar's emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, turns over control of a transformed country 18 years after taking power. » | Monday, June 24, 2013
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINER ZEITUNG: In Bayern, Baden-Württemberg und Sachsen hat die Polizei mehrere Wohnungen duchsucht. Zwei Männer stehen unter Verdacht, einen Anschlag mit ferngesteuerten Modellflugzeugen geplant zu haben.
Zwei Männer stehen im Verdacht, einen Terroranschlag mit ferngesteuerten Modellflugzeugen geplant zu haben. Gegen die beiden Verdächtigen tunesischer Herkunft werde ermittelt, teilte die Bundesanwaltschaft am Dienstag in Karlsruhe mit. Eine offizielle Festnahme habe es aber nicht gegeben. Die Beamten stellten seit den frühen Morgenstunden unter anderem technisches Gerät sowie Unterlagen sicher. » | Dienstag, 25. Juni 2013
Heute morgen verkündete Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani auf seinem Haussender al-Jazeera Historisches: «Ich will die Verantwortung an eine neue Generation übergeben», sagte der Emir von Katar. Es ist das erste Mal ist, dass in der arabischen Welt ein Herrscher frühzeitig und freiwillig die Macht abgibt. Von nun an soll sein Sohn und Kronprinz Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani über die kleine arabische Halbinsel am Persischen Golf herrschen.
Auch wenn es keine gesicherten Angaben gibt, besteht das Gerücht, dass gesundheitliche Gründe Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani zu diesem Schritt bewogen. Von einem Nierenproblem ist die Rede. Dem 61-Jährigen liegt offenbar viel daran, dass die Machtübergabe innerhalb der Familie in geordneten Bahnen verläuft. Seit Monaten wurde der Wechsel vorbereitet: «Es ist Zeit, ein neues Kapital aufzuschlagen», sagte Hamad heute Morgen. Bei der Bestimmung seines Nachfolgers hatte er die Qual der Wahl: Der Emir hat 27 Kinder mit drei verschiedenen Ehefrauen gezeugt. » | Tagesanzeiger.ch/Newsnet | Dienstag, 25. Juni 2013
LE POINT: Brahim Bahrir, un Parisien de 35 ans, avait poignardé deux policiers à Bruxelles en 2012 pour se venger de l'interdiction du port du niqab en Belgique.
La justice belge a condamné mardi à 17 ans de prison un Français proche de la mouvance islamiste qui avait poignardé deux policiers à Bruxelles l'an dernier, une semaine après des échauffourées avec les forces de l'ordre sur fond d'islamisme radical. Brahim Bahrir, un Parisien de 35 ans de confession musulmane, était arrivé à Bruxelles à bord d'un Thalys le 8 juin 2012. Quelques heures plus tard, alors que trois policiers effectuaient un contrôle de routine dans une station de métro de Molenbeek, un quartier populaire de Bruxelles, il s'était précipité sur eux, avait sorti un couteau et porté des coups à deux d'entre eux, un homme et une femme, les blessant légèrement. » | Source AFP | mardi 25 juin 2013
THE GUARDIAN: State-run People's Daily says whistleblower has exposed US hypocrisy after Washington blamed Beijing for his escape
China's top state newspaper has praised the fugitive US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden for "tearing off Washington's sanctimonious mask" and rejected accusations Beijing had facilitated his departure from Hong Kong.
The strongly worded front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist party, responded to harsh criticism of China from the US for allowing Snowden to flee.
The Chinese government has said it was gravely concerned by Snowden's allegations that the US had hacked into many networks in Hong Kong and China, including Tsinghua University, which hosts one of the country's internet hubs, and Chinese mobile network companies. It said it had taken the issue up with Washington.
"Not only did the US authorities not give us an explanation and apology, it instead expressed dissatisfaction at the Hong Kong special administrative region for handling things in accordance with law," wrote Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Science in the People's Daily commentary.
"In a sense, the United States has gone from a 'model of human rights' to 'an eavesdropper on personal privacy', the 'manipulator' of the centralised power over the international internet, and the mad 'invader' of other countries' networks," the People's Daily said. » | Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing and agencies | Tuesday, June 25, 2013
THE CHRISTIAN POST: It's illegal for Christians to pray in public school, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. But in Michigan, Muslims are being given special prayer privileges by school administrators, raising questions as about due process, equal protection, and freedom of speech for followers of the faith of America's Founding Fathers.
Stirring up the Constitutional storm, once again, is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Michigan chapter, which has reached a "negotiated" settlement with the school board in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, which will give Muslim kids so-called "prayer accommodations" in Dearborn Public Schools. » | Gene J. Koprowski | Christian Post Contributor | Monday, June 24, 2013
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