Saturday, March 14, 2015
ISIS Vows to Bomb 'White House, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower'
An ISIS spokesman said Thursday that the organization had accepted a pledge of allegiance from the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram, Canada's National Post newspaper reported.
In a 28-minute Arabic-language audio, translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani declared that Boko Haram's move was "a new door opened by Allah" and said jihadists should go to West Africa.
Adnani said ISIS wanted control of numerous cities across the globe, including Jerusalem, Kabul, Rome, and Paris.
The ISIS spokesman warned Jews and Christians that they could either "convert to Islam or pay the ultimate price when your armies are expelled from Muhammad's peninsula, from Jerusalem, and all Muslim lands," Ynet News reported. » | Joel Himelfarb | Friday, March 13, 2015
Copenhagen Attack Cartoonist Lars Vilks Wins Award
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| Lars Vilks has been living under police protection in Sweden |
Lars Vilks received a prize for courage from a free press group, at a heavily secured event in the Danish parliament.
His cartoon offended many Muslims and he now lives under guard in Sweden. » | Saturday, March 14, 2015
Vanuatu: les premières images après le cyclone
Irak: Kurden werfen IS Einsatz von Chemiewaffen vor
Die Kurdenregierung im Irak hat der Extremistenmiliz "Islamischer Staat" vorgeworfen, chemische Waffen eingesetzt zu haben. Der regionale Sicherheitsrat in Erbil erklärte am Samstag, ihm lägen Beweise vor, dass die sunnitischen Extremisten im Januar bei einem Selbstmordanschlag mit einem Auto gegen kurdische Peschmerga-Einheiten Chlorgas verwendet hätten. » | mik/Reuters | Samstag, 14. März 2015
Wuppertal: Polizei löst Hooligan-Demonstration auf
Schnelles Ende des Aufmarschs von Rechtsextremisten: In Wuppertal hat die Polizei Hooligans bei einer Kundgebung von Pegida NRW auseinandergetrieben. Die Beamten schritten ein, nachdem Vermummte erste Böller geworfen hatten. Die Einsatzkräfte versuchten, die Angreifer zurückzudrängen. » | mik/AFP | Samstag, 14. März 2015
Iran's Advances Create Alarm in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
The commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been working overtime recently, flaunting their achievements across the Middle East and flexing muscles as international negotiations over the country’s nuclear programme enter their critical and perhaps final phase.
On Wednesday it was the turn of Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGC’s most senior officer. “The Islamic revolution is advancing with good speed, its example being the ever-increasing export of the revolution,” he declared. “Not only Palestine and Lebanon acknowledge the influential role of the Islamic Republic but so do the people of Iraq and Syria. They appreciate the nation of Iran.”
Last month a similarly boastful message was delivered by General Qassem Suleimani, who leads the IRGC’s elite Quds force — and who is regularly photographed leading the fightback of Iraqi Shia miltias against the Sunni jihadis of the Islamic State (Isis) as well as against western and Arab-backed rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad in southern Syria. “Imperialists and Zionists have admitted defeat at the hands of the Islamic Republic and the resistance movement,” Suleimani said.
Iran’s advances are fuelling alarm in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, where Tehran has been a strategic rival since the days of the Shah, and which now, it is said with dismay, in effect controls four Arab capitals – Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut and in the last month Sana’a in Yemen – which is uncomfortably close to home. » | Ian Black Middle East editor | Additional reporting by Saeed Kamali Dheghan | Friday, March 13, 2015
Special Report from Libya: How Nato's Toppling of Gaddafi Has Turned to Disaster
Tears rolled down Khadija’s cheeks as the 17-seater plane – the whirr of its propellers deafening in the cabin – began its descent into the capital of a country crippled by war. The hope she’d felt of a better future for Libya after the ousting of dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi had long soured into resentment and fear. Now she was flying back into her homeland from exile. An uncle had been killed and she needed to attend his funeral.
“It wasn’t meant to be like this,” she said. “We have lost our dignity. We fought Gaddafi so that we could speak freely. Now it’s the same as before, but with less security.”
Many of her countrymen agree with her. Since the end of the 2011 Nato-backed war that toppled Gaddafi, Libya has fragmented – with two rival governments and their allied armed gangs vying for power. Nascent democracy has been supplanted by a system of repression and fear. Militias have become the most powerful players in a country devoid of the rule of law, of a national army or a police force. Anyone opposing them, be they politician or civilian, is silenced – often at gunpoint.
In the new Libya, just as in the old, speaking out against those wielding power is enough see you threatened, or killed. There was, many admit, a “golden age” in the months immediately after the end of Gaddafi’s 40-year-rule. But it was not long before factionalism began to spin out of control. Now that brief, optimistic interregnum is spoken of nostalgically, as thought [sic] it were a distant era. (+ video) » | Ruth Sherlock, video by Sam Tarling | Saturday, March 14, 2015
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: I don't regret helping overthrow Gaddafi, says David Cameron after Coptic Christian beheadings: Prime Minister defends Britain's involvement in Libya after 'monstrous' killings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by Isil » | Ben Riley-Smith, Political Correspondent | Tuesday, February 17, 2015
THE GUARDIAN: We won't abandon Libya after killings, says David Cameron: Prime minister says Britain right to help oust Gaddafi and pledges support to Libya in the wake of ‘brutal, senseless murders’ of Coptic Christians » | Rowena Mason, political correspondent | Tuesday, February 17, 2015
4bitNEWS: Cameron took the glory for toppling Gaddafi – where is he now as Libya implodes? » | Editor | Wednesday, August 06, 2014
CROSSING THE LINE 2
Israel is under assault on North American college campuses today like never before. Anti-Israel activities to alienate, demonize, and delegitimize Israel are increasingly crossing the line into anti-Semitism, in the form of hate speech, harassment and intimidation.
Crossing the Line 2 is a new documentary that reveals the rise of anti-Israel activity and anti-Semitic rhetoric on North American university campuses, and demonstrates when reasonable criticism of Israel ‘Crosses the Line’ into anti-Semitism.
To host a screening of ‘Crossing the Line 2’ at your home, school, synagogue or community center, click here.
Be prepared for anti-Israel activity on campus. Get educated about Israel »
Friday, March 13, 2015
Pope Francis Hints at 'Brief' Papacy
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| Pope Francis praised Pope Benedict's decision to resign in 2013 |
The pontiff made the comments during a interview with Mexican television, marking the second anniversary of his election.
"I have the feeling that my pontificate will be brief. Four or five years; I do not know, even two or three," he said.
He praised Pope Benedict's decision to step aside in 2013 as "courageous".
"Benedict should not be considered an exception, but an institution. Maybe he will be the only one for a long time, maybe he will not be the only one.
"But an institutional door has been opened," he told the Televisa channel. » | Friday, March 13, 2015
Gerüchte um russischen Präsidenten: Schweizer Medien berichten über angebliches Putin-Baby
Tessin/Moskau - Das Rätselraten über Wladimir Putin hält an: Seit Tagen kursieren Gerüchte, der russische Staatschef sei schwer erkrankt - und nun soll er sogar Vater geworden sein: Die russische Spitzensportlerin Alina Kabajewa, Olympiasiegerin im Kunstturnen 2004, soll in einer Schweizer Privatklinik bei Lugano ein Kind geboren haben, meldet das Boulevard-Portal "Blick Online". Der angebliche Vater: Putin.
Putins Privatleben wird streng abgeschirmt, Gerüchte über eine Beziehung zu der 32-jährigen Kabajewa gibt es aber schon seit Jahren. Der italienischsprachige Radiosender RSI aus dem Tessin meldet, Kabajewa habe zwei Zimmer in der Klinik reservieren lassen. Die "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" erhielt auf eine Anfrage an die Direktorin der Klinik jedoch eine ernüchternde Antwort: "Es entspricht nicht unserer Praxis, auf solche Anfragen zu antworten." Dafür äußerte sich ein Sprecher des Kreml, der die Gerüchte als haltlos bezeichnete. » | mxw/heb/Reuters | Freitag, 13. März 2015
Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau Face Off Over Niqab Debate
Niqabs ‘Rooted in a Culture That Is Anti-women,’ Harper Says
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| Prime Minister Stephen Harper answers a question during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Tuesday, March 10, 2015. |
The Prime Minister was responding in the House of Commons to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who has sharply criticized the Tories for seeking to ban the covering of women’s faces when they are swearing a citizenship oath and has accused Mr. Harper of Islamophobia.
Mr. Trudeau responded outside the Commons Tuesday by declaring that “this government is doubling down on the politics of fear.”
A debate over reasonable accommodation in Canada is playing out again, this time over the niqab. Mr. Harper is arguing, as a Conservative fundraising e-mail recently put it, that is “not the way we do things here,” while Mr. Trudeau is championing religious freedom as protected by the Charter of Rights.
Some Muslim women wear face-covering niqabs in public, and the Liberals defend their right to wear the veil during citizenship ceremonies. Mr. Harper, whose government is appealing a Federal Court ruling that would allow people to cover their face while reciting the oath of citizenship, strongly disagrees. » | Steven Chase | Ottawa | Pub. Tuesday, March 10, 2015 | Updated: Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Young Canadian’s Conversion to Radical Islam Leaves Family Devastated
His father thinks he’s lost. His brother holds out hope. But no one in Harun Abdurahman’s family knows how to turn around the young Canadian man who has become an unapologetic supporter of the Islamic State terrorist group.
Born in Ontario to a Christian family steeped in military tradition, the Manitoba resident told the Star in an earlier interview that he believed last fall’s terror attacks on Parliament Hill and in Quebec were “justified” retribution for Canadian military aggression against ISIS.
“I think a lot of Canadians need to wake up and understand that we’re doing this and worse to other people in other countries,” said Abdurahman, who agreed to be identified only by an online pseudonym that he has adopted.
He spoke about his convictions, his belief that all Muslims should emigrate to Syria and Iraq, where the Islamic State has declared a caliphate governed by Sharia law and of learning that he was under investigation by Canadian spies who saw him as a potential threat to national security.
But this turn of events has also had a devastating impact on Abdurahman’s family. Beginning last December, Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents interviewed his ex-girlfriend and older brother in Ontario as well as his father, who is a serving member of the Royal Canadian Air Force in Alberta. The agents carried with them a thick file on the young man.
This week, however, the spy agency told family members they had intensified their investigation. » | Allan Woods | Quebec Bureau | Sunday, March 08, 2015
Leading Politician Says Canada Could End Up Treating Muslims As It Did Jews in the ’30s and ’40s
THE WASHINGTON POST: In a dramatic speech Tuesday evening, the leader of Canada's Liberal Party, Justin Trudeau, criticized the Canadian government for its rhetoric over the threat of Islamist-related terrorism – and compared the country's treatment of its Muslim minorities with restrictive policies against Jews prior to and during World War II.
Speaking in Toronto to alumni of McGill University, Trudeau, who will compete with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an election later this year, discussed Canada's idea of liberty. At one point, he listed a number of historical moments when his country had failed in that ideal, including the Chinese head tax (a fixed fee charged to every Chinese immigrant) and the internment of Ukrainian, Japanese and Italian Canadians during the world wars. » | Adam Taylor | Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Harper Says Majority of ‘Moderate Muslims’ Support View on Niqab Ban
The Prime Minister, who upset some Muslim Canadians this week by saying the face-covering niqab is “rooted in a culture that is anti-woman,” stood up in the Commons Wednesday to enumerate support for his government’s campaign to ban the use of the veil when taking the oath of Canadian citizenship. A small minority of Muslim women wear the niqab in Canada.
He listed groups such as the Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations, which, Mr. Harper told the Commons, have declared: “Most Canadians believe that it is offensive that someone would hide their identity at the very moment where they are committing to join the Canadian family.” » | Steven Chase | Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Heresy! Muslim Prayers in Church of England Parish
A Church of England vicar is facing a storm of protest from traditionalist Christians after allowing a Muslim prayer service to be held in his church.
Dozens of Muslims took part in the “Inclusive Mosque” event at St John’s church, Waterloo in central London, in what is thought to have been the first time a full Islamic prayer service has been held within the Church of England.
The vicar, the Rev Canon Giles Goddard, a prominent liberal cleric, joined in the event, reading a passage from the Bible and inviting the congregation to give thanks to “the God that we love, Allah”.
Canon Goddard, described the service, on Saturday, as “very moving” and said it was simply an expression of the church’s desire to offer people a “place to pray”.
But evangelical clerics were angered by the service which they said marked a breach with canon law which forbids any variation from the official liturgy if it contains “any departure from, the doctrine of the Church of England in any essential matter”.
It was also “offensive” to Christians being persecuted for their faith around the world, they said. » | John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor, video source YouTube | Friday, March 13, 2015
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