Saturday, December 06, 2014
Franklin Graham: 'Islam Is a Religion of War'
Franklin Graham, the fourth of Billy Graham's five children, said he had not softened his stance since he controversially referred to Islam as a "very wicked and evil religion" in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 that brought down the World Trade Centre in New York.
More recently, he criticised The Episcopal Church's National Cathedral in Washington for permitting its first Muslim prayer service. On his Facebook page he wrote: "It's sad to see a church open its doors to the worship of anything other than the One True God of the Bible who sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to earth to save us from our sins."
His views contrast with those of the Pope, who on his recent three-day visit to Turkey was moved to pray alongside Grand Mufti Rahmi Yaran in Istanbul's Blue Mosque. Beside working to build better relations with Muslims, Pope Francis is also reaching out to evangelicals, a move which came about because of his friendship with the late Bishop Tony Palmer, a charismatic of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches.
Franklin Graham told Christian Today that his own views on Islam remained the same as in 2001. » | Ruth Gledhill | Saturday, December 06, 2014
US Express Fears as Isis Takes Control of Northern Libyan Town
It is a warm October evening in Derna, a small town on Libya’s north east coast, 450 miles from the capital, Tripoli.
The main square is packed with young men, brought by a summons from the town’s self-proclaimed emir to swear allegiance to a newly formed Islamic caliphate.
The emir, on a stage just visible through the jumping throng, calls for the crowd to repeat his calls to join the a caliphate, to listen and follow orders, and to acclaim that the Islamic State (Isis) is here to stay.
To each call, they repeat the chant, roaring their support – and with that, the emir declares Derna the first town in Libya to join the Islamic State, making common cause with fighters in Iraq and Syria. » | Chris Stephen in Tunis | Saturday, December 06, 2014
Barack Obama Condemns ‘Brutal Murder’ of American Photojournalist
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| Luke Somers, a 33-year-old British-born US journalist, who has been killed in a failed rescue attempt. |
US president Barack Obama has condemned the “brutal murder” of American photojournalist Luke Somers, who was shot by his al-Qaida captors during a rescue mission by US special forces.
The 33-year-old was shot during the rescue attempt on Saturday morning and died while being transferred to a warship by American troops. A South African teacher being held with him, Pierre Korki, was also killed in the raid.
“On behalf of the American people, I offer my deepest condolences to Luke’s family and to his loved ones,” Obama said in a statement.
“As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located. And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice. » | Martin Chulov in Beirut andEmma Graham-Harrison | Saturday, December 06, 2014
Friday, December 05, 2014
Tabac : l'achat à distance interdit
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Les députés ont voté vendredi, dans le cadre du projet de budget rectificatif 2014, plusieurs mesures réclamées par les buralistes, comme l'interdiction de tout achat de tabac à distance dans un pays étranger et une modification du calcul de la fiscalité.
Pour lutter contre le marché parallèle, les acheteurs sur internet seront désormais passibles d'une peine pouvant aller jusqu'à cinq ans de prison ferme pour trafic en bande organisée. En France, le commerce du tabac relève du monopole des buralistes, mais au moins une cigarette fumée sur cinq n'a pas été achetée dans le réseau officiel et échappe donc aux taxes françaises. » | Source AFP | vendredi 05 décembre 2014
Belgium's Former Queen Fabiola Dies at the Age of 86
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| Passed away: Belgium's former Queen Fabiola, pictured in 2008, has died at the age of 86 at Stuyvenbergh Castle, the palace has announced |
Belgium's former Queen Fabiola has died at the age of 86 at Stuyvenbergh Castle.
A statement from the palace today said: 'Their majesties the King and Queen and the members of the royal family announce with great sadness the death of Her Majesty Queen Fabiola in Brussels this evening.'
Foreign minister Didier Reynders said all Belgians would mourn her passing. 'A page in our country's history has turned,' he told Belgium's RTL television.
King Philippe of Belgium said he was left with 'great sadness' when he heard of the death of his aunt.
Although her exact cause of death has not been confirmed, Queen Fabiola, the childless widow of King Baudouin, had been suffering from osteoporosis for years, and had never fully recovered from pneumonia in 2009.
The former queen, who used a wheelchair, had looked increasingly frail over the past month as she increasingly limited her public appearances.
Fabiola was born in 1928 as Fabiola de Mora y Aragón into an aristocratic family in Madrid, Spain.
Her godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain. She became queen of Belgium when she married King Baudouin in 1960. » | Annabel Fenwick Elliott for MailOnline | Friday, December 05, 2014
Luke Somers: Yemen Hostage's Family in Video Appeal
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| The journalist was abducted in Yemen in September 2013 |
In the online statement, his mother, Paula Somers, says: "Please... give us an opportunity to see our Luke again."
A man identifying himself as Mr Somers, who was abducted in 2013, appeared in a separate video on Wednesday, saying his life was in danger and asking for help.
The US has revealed it tried to rescue him last month.
"Regrettably, Luke was not present, though hostages of other nationalities were present and were rescued," the National Security Council said on Thursday.
In a video posted on YouTube, Mr Somers' mother and brother said he was "only trying to do good things for the Yemeni population".
"Luke is only a photojournalist and is not responsible for any actions the US government has taken," his brother, Jordan, said.
Noting that her son "appears healthy" in his captors' video, Paula Somers said: "We thank you for that." (+ video) » | Friday, December 05, 2014
Bill Maher: Comparing My Islam Criticism to Nazi Propaganda Is ‘Beyond Stupid’
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| Bill Maher |
Speaking with Sally Kohn, Maher discussed the controversy over his upcoming speech, scheduled to be delivered at University of California Berkeley on Dec. 20, which has raised the ire of students who created a petition to disinvite him.
The comedian has been under fire for comments he made during a contentious episode of Real Time in early October when Maher told a panel, including actor Ben Affleck, Islam is “the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f*cking kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book.”
Calling the petition a “bullshit thing,” Maher addressed the students at the university — currently celebrating the anniversary of Free Speech Movement protests on campus 50 years ago — saying liberalism shouldn’t “squelch free speech.” » | Tom Boggioni | Friday, December 05, 2014
Alaskan Muslims Raising the Roof of State's First Mosque
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| The nearly-completed mosque. |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska’s first mosque has risen quietly over the last few years in a gravel lot in a South Anchorage commercial district, a neighbor to a Korean Presbyterian church, a couple of auto repair garages, a drive-through Chinese restaurant and a Sons of Norway hall.
A few weeks ago, Sam Obeidi, vice president of the Islamic Community Center Anchorage Alaska, turned a key and pushed open the mosque’s door, flipping on a light in a hallway that smelled of drywall plaster and new carpet.
Palestinian by birth, Obeidi came to Alaska as a teenager to join his father, a refugee, who settled in Anchorage in the 1960s. In those days, Muslims met and prayed in his father’s home. Obeidi’s family now owns a frame shop and gallery. He has been involved with the mosque-building project for the last five years of an effort that began 15 years ago.
Anchorage Muslims have so far raised $2 million to build the 15,000-square-foot facility, and must raise $1 million more before the prayer hall is completed and two minarets are placed on the mosque’s roof. » | Julia O’Malley | Friday, December 05, 2014
“Counter Jihad Coalition” Takes to the Streets to Warn People About Islam
Regardless of 9/11/01 and 9/11/12, and despite the fact that Americans are being beheaded by ISIS, if you dare suggest that the Islamic State is getting their killing orders directly from the Quran you are called ‘intolerant’ and ‘Islamophobic’. Meanwhile, ISIS is becoming more and more popular on social media and posters saying ‘ISIS is Here’ were seen in the original Ferguson riots. » | Ann-Marie Murrell | Friday, December 05, 2014
France to Pay $60m over Nazi Rail Deportations
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| Jews, many of them Polish, getting off the train in Pithiviers, central France in 1941 |
France has agreed to pay $60 million in compensation to hundreds of American survivors of the Holocaust who were deported to Nazi death camps using the country's trains.
The money will also be available to thousands of descendants of those who were transported on freight cars belonging to the French state rail company SNCF.
It follows a long legal battle after the US state of Maryland barred SNCF from bidding for contracts on a $3 billion transport project there.
There are around 250 survivors in the US who will be eligible for the reparations. They could receive up to $100,000 each, and spouses or heirs of survivors who have since died could get several tens of thousands of dollars. » | Nick Allen, and agencies | Friday, December 05, 2014
Großaufgebot der Polizei prüft salafistischen Verein
BREMEN – Erstmals in Deutschland hat Bremen einen mutmaßlichen Unterstützerverein der Terrormiliz Islamischer Staat (IS) verboten. Mehr als 200 Polizisten durchsuchten am Freitag die Räume des salafistischen Kultur & Familien Vereins (KuF) im Stadtteil Gröpelingen, eine Moschee und 17 Privatwohnungen, wie Innensenator Ulrich Mäurer (SPD) nach dem Einsatz berichtete. Festnahmen gab es nicht, die Aktion verlief friedlich. Die Beamten stellten die Personalien von 53 Menschen fest, sie beschlagnahmten rund 12.000 Euro an Vereinsvermögen und fanden mehrere Waffen. » | Freitag, 05. Dezember 2014
German Far-Left Party Takes State Parliament
Germany's far-Left party has returned to power in a state government for the first time since the Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, stoking heated debate about its communist roots.
The Left Party, widely seen as the successor to the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that once ruled East Germany, will head the government of Thuringia after the state parliament narrowly voted to approve a new coalition.
The new state prime minister, Bodo Ramelow, used his first speech in parliament to apologise to victims of the former communist regime, and said he wanted to "reconcile rather than divide".
Thousands of people braved sub-zero temperatures on the streets of the state capital, Erfurt, on Thursday night to protest against the expected result of the vote.
Angela Merkel predicted the decision would be "bad news" for Thuringia, while the German President, Joachim Gauck, broke with the traditional neutrality of his role to speak out against it. » | Justin Huggler, Berlin | Friday, December 05, 2014
NORD-WEST ZEITUNG ONLINE: Ramelow ist Thüringens neuer Ministerpräsident: Der 58-jährige Bodo Ramelow erhielt im zweiten Wahlgang 46 von 90 gültigen Stimmen. Damit stellt die Linke 25 Jahre nach dem Mauerfall erstmals einen Ministerpräsidenten in Deutschland. Bei der Wahl lief aber nicht alles glatt. » | Freitag, 05. Dezember 2014
Bahraini Activist Zainab al-Khawaja Sentenced over King's Photo
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| Zainab al-Khawaja has been detained several times since 2011 |
A court gave her the option of paying a fine to remain at liberty until her appeal.
Ms Khawaja, who comes from Bahrain's most prominent dissident family, faces other cases next week.
Amnesty International said it would consider Ms Khawaja "a prisoner of conscience" if she were jailed.
"Tearing up a photo of the head of state should not be a criminal offence," Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Said Boumedouha said. » | Thursday, December 04, 2014
Teetotal Muslims Partly to Blame for Decline of Pubs, Tory Peer Says
Muslims are partly to blame for the decline in the number of pubs in Britain because they are teetotal, a Conservative peer has said.
Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, who was previously a director at one of Britain's biggest brewers, said that the "tides of history" have led to large numbers of Muslims in Britain's cities who do not drink.
He said that "socioeconomic change" is more responsible for the decline of pubs than "rapacious" pub chains.
He said: "I identify three fundamental features behind this. The first is the rapid rate of socioeconomic change in Britain. Twenty-five years ago, the company of which I was a director would have operated probably a dozen pubs in Kidderminster, the home of the carpet trade. » | Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent | Thursday, December 04, 2014
Thursday, December 04, 2014
«Ihr seid Juden, ihr habt Geld»
Nach dem brutalen Überfall auf ein junges Paar bei Paris ist die Debatte um den Antisemitismus in Frankreich wieder voll entbrannt. Präsident François Hollande verurteilte die «unerträgliche Gewalt» gegen die zwei jungen Menschen, die wegen ihrer jüdischen Religion gezielt überfallen und ausgeraubt worden waren. Der Staatschef und sein Premierminister Manuel Valls riefen zum Kampf gegen Antisemitismus auf.
Hollande hob im Elysée-Palast hervor, im Kampf «gegen den Rassismus, gegen den Antisemitismus» dürfe nicht so getan werden, «als hätten wir nichts gesehen». Der Überfall zeige, dass «das Schlimmste existiert». Dadurch werde das Beste an Frankreich «verletzt, beschädigt». Regierungschef Valls verurteilte die «Gräueltat» in einer Twitter-Botschaft. Der Überfall sei der «widerwärtige Beweis», «dass der Kampf gegen den Antisemitismus jeden Tag geführt werden» müsse. » | ajk/AFP | Donnerstag, 04. Dezember 2014
TAGES ANZEIGER: Israel einfach: Französische Juden wandern zu Tausenden nach Israel aus. Nie waren es mehr. Sie gehen, weil sie die offenen Anfeindungen nicht mehr ertragen. » | Von Oliver Meiler, Korrespondent | Donnerstag, 14. August 2014
TAGES ANZEIGER: «Die hässliche Fratze des Antisemitismus» : In Europa nimmt der Antisemitismus neue Dimensionen an. Auch Schweizer Juden erhalten deutlich mehr Hassbriefe und werden auf sozialen Medien offen angefeindet. » | Von Felix Schindler, Redaktor Inland | Donnerstag 14. August 2014
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