German Justice Minister Heiko Maas requested that PEGIDA cancel its scheduled march tomorrow night in Dresden . He said that the anti-Islamization group should not exploit the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

In other news, the offices of the Hamburger Morgenpost, a German tabloid, were firebombed after the paper reprinted several Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, RL, Sergei Bourachaga, Steen, The Observer, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Legal Challenge Shows Rocky Path to ECB Money-Printing

A landmark legal opinion this week will remind the European Central Bank of the limits it faces as it advances towards money printing, while a tumbling oil price saps inflation in debt-strained Europe.

With expectations high that the ECB is on the verge of buying government bonds with new money to shore up the economy, an influential adviser to Europe’s top court will give his view on Jan. 14 about an earlier unused bond-buying scheme.

It is the latest chapter in a long-running and increasingly bitter dispute about quantitative easing (QE) between the ECB and Germany, the largest member of the 19-country bloc, that is likely to limit the size or scope of such a programme.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Weighing the Costs for Europe if Greece Exits the Euro

A Greek exit from the eurozone would certainly come at a cost to Europe, but just how expensive would it be?

The amount Athens owes its partners is equivalent to just a tiny fraction of the eurozone’s economy, but some analysts are still worried that a ‘Grexit’ could ultimately cost Europe its single currency.

Global markets plunged at the beginning of last week, seized by a fresh bout of fears that Greece may be forced to leave the euro.

A snap election in Greece on January 25 could bring to power the far-left Syriza party, which wants to abandon the austerity policy imposed by the EU and IMF as part of the country’s 240-billion-euro ($282 billion) international bailout.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Former CIA Chief Facing Potential Charges for Leaking Secret to His Mistress

David Petraeus, the former head of the CIA and one of America’s most celebrated military commanders, is facing potential criminal charges over allegations that he leaked state secrets to his mistress.

Federal prosecutors have recommended bringing charges against Mr Petraeus, leaving Eric Holder, the US attorney general, with the unenviable decision of whether to prosecute a decorated war hero.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Holder, Top US Official in Paris for Terror Talks, Not Seen at Unity March

Attorney General Eric Holder is in Paris to attend a meeting on fighting terrorism, but did not participate in a march with world leaders Sunday to honor the 17 people killed last week in France.

More than 40 world leaders marched arm in arm through Paris to rally for unity and freedom of expression and to honor the victims of the three days of terrorist attacks.

The leaders headed a demonstration of at least tens of thousands of people who converged on the capital after three gunmen last week attacked a newspaper office, kosher supermarket and police.

Among the world leaders attending the event, under extremely tight security, are French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



NYPD Alerted to ISIS Threat Against Cops, Soldiers, Civilians

City police were sent an internal memo reading, ‘Pay close attention to people as they approach and look for their hands as they approach you.’

A new ISIS threat has surfaced with the terror regime calling on its supporters to kill police officers, soldiers, intelligence officers and civilians in the U.S.

City cops were alerted to the threat and ordered to remain vigilant after the sick bulletin’s release on social media Saturday.

“Pay close attention to people as they approach and look for their hands as they approach you,” reads an internal NYPD safety memo the Daily News obtained.

NYPD officials noted that ISIS spokesman Abu Mohamad Al-Adnani’s call to action was similar to one made last September. Saturday’s plea should be taken more seriously “in light of the terror attacks in France earlier this week,” the memo notes.

The video plea opens with news clips of President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron talking about ISIS before Al-Adnani speaks. Cameron plans to visit Obama at the White House later this week.

“Do not let the battle pass you by wherever you may be,” he said. “Strike their police, security and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents.”

Al-Adnani also called for lone wolf attacks, suggesting wannabe murderers who don’t have “an (improvised explosive device) or a bullet” handy, can “smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car.”…

Obama to Host Summit to Fight Violent Extremism

In the wake of terrorist attacks in France and elsewhere, the Obama administration announced Sunday it will host a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism next month.

The Feb. 18 event will “highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups in the United States and abroad to commit acts of violence,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

Officials from the United States and other countries will participate.

Earnest said anti-extremist efforts are “even more imperative” in light of recent terrorist attacks in Ottawa and Sydney, as well as last week’s mass shooting at a satirical magazine in Paris.

The White House announced the summit at the same time as a massive counter-terrorism rally in Paris that drew a number of world leaders, including Attorney General Eric Holder…

Romney Opens the Door to Another Run at the White House

Mitt Romney told donors in New York on Friday that he may run for president in 2016, a development that could upend the Republican field.

After months of saying he had no plans to run for president, his change of heart was due to encouragement in recent weeks from donors and other backers, a Romney adviser told Bloomberg Politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBer2z — wZQ

Cleric Praises European Tolerance towards Muslims, Calls to Purge Tunisia of Shiites

In a video-clip posted on the Internet on December 27, Tunisian cleric Bechir Ben Hassen praises European countries for giving Muslims the freedom to preach belief in Allah. In another video-clip, posted on the Internet on December 24, Ben Hassen delivers a sermon in Tunisia, where he prays that Allah will purge the country of the Shiites, saying that they pose a greater threat to Islam than that posed by the Jews and the Christians.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



After the Attacks, Life Will Go on for Paris’ Christians and Muslims

After this week’s bloody and chaotic events, many Parisians are looking to the future with unease. Nevertheless, optimism and the will to defend French society still prevail.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



‘American on Labor: Italian on Taxes’ Says Bersani

‘Renzi’s 3% clause sent a message to a part of Italy’

(ANSA) — Rome, January 8 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s policies are hard on workers and soft on tax dodgers, former Democratic Party (PD) chief Pier Luigi Bersani said Thursday.

“We’re doing it the American way as far as workers and the Italian way as far as tax evasion,” Bersani, a former premier and a staunch critic of PD colleague Renzi, told LA7 private broadcaster L’Aria Che Tira economic news program.

Bersani resigned as premier after he failed to create a coalition government following February 2013’s inconclusive general election. He has been an outspoken critic of Renzi’s Jobs Act, which he says penalizes workers by removing key protections while failing to combat Italy’s rising unemployment rate. He also blasted the premier over a controversial tax measure approved by cabinet December 24, which he says basically allows the wealthiest to cheat the tax man the most. The controversial measure, called Article 19-bis and promptly dubbed by pundits as a Save-Berlusconi clause, would depenalize tax evasion when the evaded sum does not exceed 3% of declared income.

The clause caused an uproar because it raised suspicions that former center-right premier Silvio Berlusconi could use it to avoid the consequences of a 2013 tax-fraud conviction and subsequent ban from public office. “The clause says if you declare one million euros, you can dodge up to 30,000 euros, including by issuing false invoices,” Bersani said. “With this 3% (clause), Renzi has sent a message to a certain part of Italy,” he went on. “In this country, being soft on the tax issue is like giving an alcoholic a drink — if we don’t straighten this out, we will never have money for investments”.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Attack on German Newspaper Raises Tension Before Anti-Islam Rally

BERLIN, Jan 11 (Reuters) — A Hamburg daily that reprinted satirical cartoons from French newspaper Charlie Hebdo was hit by arsonists at the weekend, raising security concerns in Germany on the eve of a planned mass rally against Islam in the city of Dresden.

Islamist militant attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher deli in Paris this week that killed 17 people have fuelled fears of similar assaults in other European countries and prompted a warning from German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

“I am very concerned about well-prepared perpetrators like those in Paris, Brussels, Australia or Canada,” he told the mass-circulation newspaper Bild am Sonntag. There were about 260 people in Germany regarded as dangerous Islamists, he said.

Attacks Highlight Problem of Radicalism in French Prisons

At least two of the gunmen who unleashed terror on France are believed to have been radicalised in prison, a fertile ground for extremism that authorities are struggling to contain.

Both Mohamed Merah, the Al-Qaeda militant who shot dead seven people in a series of 2012 attacks, and Mehdi Nemmouche, last year’s Brussels Jewish museum killer, were radicalised in jail.

And in the latest attacks, Cherif Kouachi, one of the brothers who massacred 12 people in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine, came under the influence of Djamel Beghal, a known figure of French radical Islamism, when serving time in the Fleury-Merogis prison.

…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Barry Shaw: “Kristallnacht for French Jews”

3PM today, a massive rally will be held under tight security in Paris in solidarity with the 17 lives lost and many wounded in the Jihadist attacks at satiric French weekly, Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket Hyper Cacher. 40 world leaders will attend in unity with France and the French people. Among them, US Attorney General Eric Holder, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Andrea Merkel, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, The King and queen of Jordan, PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The Israeli delegation headed by PM Benjamin Netanyahu includes Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Economy Minister Naftali Liberman.

Four Jews lost their lives in the Hyper Cacher, attack, including one who attempted to wrest the AK-47 from Amedy Coulibaly, a French convert to Islam at the start of his rampage.

Netanyahu offered the protection of Aliyah for French co-religionists following the Jewish supermarket attack, “I want to tell all French and European Jews: Israel is your home. If the world doesn’t wake up, terrorism will hit other places.”

The Prime Minister’s offer resonated with Daniel Hayek, political commentator for Israel’s i24news channel and the editor of the French edition of Hamodia — a religious newspaper published in Israel . cited by Ha’aretz, said:

The general French society experienced a shock now that the Jewish community France experienced in 2006, with the murder of Ilan Halimi, and in 2012, with the murders in the Jewish school in Toulouse. Many of us, Jews who lived in France [at the time], understood that even when French authorities want to deal with the problem, they are not really capable. Therefore, in 2014 there was the all-time record for the number of Jewish olim from France to Israel. 7,000 people understood that in France today there are so many terrorists, and that there is fear of dealing with the problem.

Barry Shaw of The View from Israel blog, who will be a guest of today’s Lisa Benson Show wrote in his blog post on the Hyper Cacher attack, Kristallnacht for French Jews:

For French Jews, January 9, 2015, was Kristallnacht, a seminal watershed of no return.

That was the day that the Islamic fever that had infested France and most of Europe turned its fury away from attacking a satirical magazine that poked fun at them to its greatest enemy — Judaism.

In Paris, a gunman, linked to the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo massacre who had shot a policewoman in the back the previous day, selected a Jewish target for headline effect. He attacked the Hyper Casher Jewish supermarket gunning down four shoppers in his assault.

The French Jewish community had warned of their fears that the summer rise in anti-Semitic incidents were leading to deadly violence. At that time hundreds of Muslims, backed by radical leftists, had rampaged through the streets of Paris toward synagogues with fearful Jews sheltering inside. These Jews were the maelstrom of anti-Israel hate during the Gaza conflict that necessitated channeling its expression toward the local Jews.

Let’s be honest, Islamists hate Judaism in all its forms — Israel, Zionism, and, quite frankly, Jews.

BBC Reporter Slammed for Anti-Semitic Comments at Paris March

Jewish rights groups angered after BBC interviewer claims ‘Palestinians are suffering at Jewish hands’ during Paris rally.

Jewish rights groups have expressed their shock and outrage after a BBC news correspondent made comments claiming that Palestinians “suffer at Jewish hands” during Sunday’s mega demonstration against terrorism in Paris, with some accusing him of blatant anti-Semitism.

BBC reporter Tim Wilcox was interviewing a French Jewish woman at the Paris mega rally, held after Islamist terrorists murdered 17 people in a string of attacks, including at a kosher grocery store. The latest attack on France’s embattled Jewish community has left French Jews feeling understandably shaken, yet after hearing the woman’s fears that Jews are being targeted in Europe, Wilcox interjected, saying: “many critics though of Israel’s policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well.”

His interviewee, clearly taken aback by the question, begins to respond by telling him that the two issues aren’t comparable, at which point Willcox interrupts again: “but you understand everything is seen from different perspectives?”…

Criminal Mindset Behind French Jihad Attacks

Behind the Charlie Hebdo Massacre, the martyr finale of the Kouachi Brothers and the deadly anti-Semitic hostage standoff at the Kosher Market in Paris by Amedy Coulibaly is a factor that the mainstream talks little about: the criminal mindset of Jihadists in France and throughout the EU. Watch this MEMRI video of Coulibaly made shortly before the Jewish super market attack in he declares his connections to the Kouachi Charlie Hebdo massacre. In the wake of this week’s sorrow over the victims of Islamic terrorism by the Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly have come some revelations about their criminal records, as well as those who previously committed barbaric murders of French Jews.

Cherif Kouachi was arrested in 2005 before he could travel to Iraq. He was part of the “Buttes-Chaumont network” that helped send would-be jihadists to join Al Qaeda. While in detention awaiting conviction, Kouachi met Djamel Beghal in 2006l, who attempted an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Paris in 2001 and was an Al Qaeda recruiter. Beghal was a disciple of notorious UK- based hate mongers, Abu Hamza al-Masri and Abu Qatada.

European Jews Split on Dangers of Nationalist Backlash to Terror

Jews, both in Europe and around the world, are split on the possible dangers of a surge in nationalist sentiment on the continent as a result of terror attacks by Islamic radicals. As far right parties make political hay out of last week’s attacks against the iconoclastic Charlie Hebdo magazine and the HyperCacher supermarker in Paris, some Jewish figures have warned that increasing support for such groups could pose dangers for other minorities. Others, however, see such worries as overblown, asserting that a precipitous rise of fringe parties will not come of last week’s violence.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Ex-Governor of Sardinia Ordered by Court to Pay Damages

Headed government that tried to save water company

(ANSA) — Cagliari, January 9 — Italy’s Audit Court on Friday ordered the former president of Sardinia Renato Soru, as well as several other regional officials, to pay damages after convicting them of abusing public accounts.

The case involved an attempted rescue using more than 800,000 euros in public money of a company that built water systems.

The regional government had taken over the company in 2007, but it was later wound down.

Soru was ordered to pay more than 337,000 euros while other officials were assessed smaller amounts.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



French Army May Protect Jewish Sites, Community Leader Says

Jewish schools and synagogues will be protected “if necessary” by the French army, a leading figure in the country’s Jewish community said after meeting with President Francois Hollande on Sunday.

“He told us that all the schools, all the synagogues will be protected, if necessary, on top of the police, by the army,” said Roger Cukierman, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, of his meeting with Hollande.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



French PM Mounts ‘War’ on Terrorism

After the sieges that resulted in the deaths of three gunmen and four hostages, French Prime Minister Valls said his country was in a war against terrorism. Valls called his country’s response to the attacks ‘beautiful.’

As Paris prepares for peace rallies in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, France’s Prime Minister said his nation is not at “war” with a particular religion, but against terrorism.

“Terrorism wants to divide us, fracture us,” prime minister Manuel Valls said Saturday.

But, Valls added, “the most beautiful answer is the one the French people have been giving since Wednesday with spontaneous rallies everywhere.”

Mass peace rallies have been planned across the French capital on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron are among the many world leaders from Africa, Europe and the Middle East expected to travel to the French capital.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



German Newspaper That Reprinted Muhammad Cartoons Firebombed

Arson attack on offices of Hamburg tabloid that published Charlie Hebdo cartoons on front page after Paris massacre

A German newspaper that reprinted the Muhammad cartoons from the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo has been the target of an arson attack. “Rocks and then a burning object were thrown through the window,” a police spokesman said. “Two rooms on lower floors were damaged but the fire was put out quickly.”

The regional tabloid daily, the Hamburger Morgenpost, had splashed three Charlie Hebdo cartoons on its front page after the Paris massacre, running the headline “This much freedom must be possible!”

No one was hurt in the attack in the northern port city, which police said occurred at about 1.20am on Sunday. Two people were detained and an investigation has begun, police said.

The police said it was too soon to say whether there was a connection between the attack and the newspaper’s publication of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. Police declined to provide further information about the suspects.

No one at the Hamburger Morgenpost, known locally as the Mopo and which has a circulation of around 91,000, could immediately be reached for comment. “Thick smoke is still hanging in the air, the police are looking for clues,” the newspaper said in its online edition.

Media reports said the newspaper’s publishers had ordered private security protection for the building in the western district of Othmarschen. German news agency DPA reported that the attack had been launched from a courtyard of the building and hit the newspaper’s archive room where some records were destroyed…

— Hat tip: Sergei Bourachaga [Return to headlines]



German Paper Hit by Hebdo Arson Attack

A German newspaper in the northern port city of Hamburg that reprinted Mohammed cartoons from the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo was the target of an arson attack early Sunday, police said.

“Rocks and then a burning object were thrown through the window,” a police spokesman told AFP. “Two rooms on lower floors were damaged but the fire was put out quickly.”

The regional tabloid daily, the Hamburger Morgenpost, had splashed three Charlie Hebdo cartoons on its front page after the massacre at the Paris publication, running the headline “This much freedom must be possible!”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Germany: Tens of Thousands Rally Against Anti-Islam Group

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets Saturday in the German city of Dresden in a rally against the anti-Islamic marches that are expected to keep growing after this week’s jihadist violence in France.

Organisers said they estimated the turn-out at around 35,000, nearly double the 18,000 counter-demonstrators who protested last Monday against the weekly marches held in east Germany by the so-called Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (PEGIDA). The movement opposes what it claims to be the Islamisation of Europe.

“I didn’t come because I am against the people going to the PEGIDA demonstrations, but because I am not afraid of people whose skin colour o customs are … different than mine,” Dresden’s conservative Mayor Helma Orosz said.

During the counter-protest, which included a minute of silence for the 17 victims in France, demonstrators carried signs emblazoned with the words “Help refugees”, “We all laugh in the same language” and “Germany is for everyone”.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



German Minister Calls for Anti-Islam Rally to be Canceled

BERLIN — Germany’s justice minister is calling on organizers of anti-Islam rallies in Dresden to cancel a planned protest Monday out of respect for the victims of the terror attacks in France. The weekly rallies are organized by a group called the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, or Pegida.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



German Justice Minister Maas Urges Cancellation of PEGIDA Rally

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas has urged the “anti-Islamization” group PEGIDA to call off a march planned for Monday. He accused the group of “exploiting” jihadi killings in France.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



German Newspaper Target of Arson Attack After Printing Charlie Hebdo Cartoons

A German newspaper in the northern city of Hamburg that reprinted Prophet Muhammad cartoons from French paper Charlie Hebdo has been the target of an apparent arson attack. Authorities said no one was injured.

Police said “rocks and then a burning object” were thrown through rear court-yard windows into archive rooms of Hamburg’s daily newspaper, the Hamburger Morgenpost around 0200 a.m. local time (0100 UTC).

Two people seen acting suspiciously in the area had been taken into custody, as authorities investigated further, police added, refusing to give more information about those detained.

The investigation had been handed to Hamburg city state’s protection service.

Hebdo massacre connection?

The Hamburger Morgenpost had printed three Charlie Hebdo cartoons following last Wednesday’s massacre in Paris. The Morgenpost headline on Thursday had read, “this much freedom must be possible.”

The “key question” authorities said early on Sunday was whether there was a connection between with the reprinting of the caricatures, adding that it is “too soon” to confirm such speculation.

“Thick smoke is still hanging in the air, the police are looking for clues,” the Hamburger Morgenpost wrote briefly in its online edition early on Sunday.

The German news agency DPA reported that contents in the newspaper’s archive rooms were destroyed in the apparent attack. No one had been injured in the incident.

“Two rooms on the lower floors were damaged but the fire was put out quickly,” police said.

jlw/ipj (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



German Minister Urges Anti-Islamic Group to Call Off March

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas urged an anti-Islamic movement to call off a planned march on Monday, saying it had no right to “exploit” the killings by jihadists in Paris.

Maas, the most outspoken German cabinet member against the so-called “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” (PEGIDA), told the daily Bild in its issue to be published Monday that he found the right-wing populist group “hypocritical”.

“If the organisers had a shred of decency they would simply cancel these demonstrations,” he was quoted as saying…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Hollande Asked Netanyahu Not to Attend Paris Memorial March

Absence sought as part of attempt to keep Israeli-Palestinian conflict out of European show of unity; After Netanyahu insisted on coming, French made it clear Abbas would be invited as well.

French President Francois Hollande conveyed a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend asking him not to come to Paris to take part in the march against terror on Sunday, according to an Israeli source who was privy to the contacts between the Elysees Palace and the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. The fact that this message had been conveyed was first reported by Channel 2…

Hugh Fitzgerald: From a Friend in Southern France

Hollande has been pathetic throughout. His speech last night was beyond pitiful. Like getting a moralistic lecture about your overdraft from the assistant bank manager.

Current social plan: we are one. No, really. Really we are. We are all nice and good when we are together. Islam is just another religion, and can be accommodated, integrated, in spite of centuries of evidence to the contrary. Negotiate with your executioner. We just have to keep calm and carry on believing the loony narrative that we can live together with a value system that seeks our destruction.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Italy’s Tax Burden Up to 40.9% in Third Quarter

But tax revenue-to-GDP ratio fell in first nine months of 2014

(ANSA) — Rome, January 9 — Italy’s tax-revenue-to-GDP ratio climbed to 40.9% in the third quarter of last year, up 0.7 of a percentage point on the same period in 2013, Istat said Friday. But the national statistics agency added that the tax-to-GDP ratio was 40.7% for the first nine months of 2014 as a whole, down 0.2 of a percentage point with respect to equivalent period in 2013.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Marine Le Pen: France’s Iron Maiden

In the beginning, she was just daddy’s daughter. In the dynastic Front National, now the third largest political force in France, few would have thought, a decade ago, that Marine Le Pen could take the reins of the far-right party that once almost brought her father, raging and foaming, to the threshold of power in the 2002 French presidential elections.

Born in 1968, Marine is old Le Pen’s youngest daughter, and nothing seemed to prepare her for taking over the most reactionary and macho-like party in France. She was also a candidate in the 2012 French presidential election, ten years after her father.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Only One in Ten Swedes Trusts Religious Leaders

Just one in ten people living in Sweden trust the country’s religious leaders, while medical staff and judges remain among the most respected professionals, according to a new opinion poll.

The disquiet towards Sweden’s religious leaders emerged in an annual survey conducted by pollsters WINS/Gallup International, which gathers statistics on national perceptions, opinions, and expectations each year.

With questions about respect for various professional groups featuring in the poll for the first time, only one in ten people said they trusted religious spokespeople, while seven out of ten reported distrusting the figureheads and the rest said they did not know.

The results were released in the week that three Swedish mosques suffered suspected arson attacks.

The survey also suggested low support for politicians, with just two in ten people reporting trust for members of parliament, just months after Sweden’s latest general election.

One in four people said they trusted journalists.

Just over half of respondents said they trusted Sweden’s military, which has been in the spotlight in recent months after it failed to track down a rogue foreign submarine spotted in the Stockholm Archipelago before it left Swedish waters.

Medical staff, judges and teachers were among the most respected professionals, with more than seven out of ten people questioned saying that they felt they could trust these groups.

As in previous years, pollsters also asked questions about happiness. Across the globe, seven out of ten survey participants (seventy percent) said they were “happy” or “very happy”, a jump of ten percentage points compared to last year.

But in Sweden, happiness levels remained similar to at the end of 2013, with just over six out of ten people reporting being “happy” or “very happy” with their lives.

Fiji topped the list as the happiest country in the world in 2014, with 93 percent of people living there saying they were satisfied with their lot.

In Europe, Sweden’s neighbour Finland scored highest, with 80 percent of people reporting happiness.

Across the continent there were concerns that European economies would continue to struggle, with around eight out of ten people believing 2015 will be the same as or more difficult than 2014 in terms of economic prosperity.

64,000 people from 65 different countries took part in the poll.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Paris Attacks Boost Support for Dutch Anti-Islam Populist Wilders

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) — Support for the anti-Islamic Freedom Party of Dutch populist Geert Wilders has jumped to its highest level in more than a year after the Islamist militant attacks in Paris.

Wilders, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, said after the Paris bloodshed that the West was “at war” with Islam, drawing a rebuke from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Sunday.

If elections were held now, his party would be the single largest in the Netherlands, with 31 seats in the 150-member parliament, more than twice as many as it won in the last elections, according to a Sunday poll.

The governing Liberal and Labour parties, damaged by persistent sluggish growth, would have just 28 seats between them, compared to the 79 they held after the 2012 elections.

People Around the World Join Rallies to Honor Paris Victims

People gathered in cities around the world on Sunday to honor the 17 victims who died during three days of bloodshed in Paris last week, and to support freedom of expression.

The biggest event was in Paris, where tens of thousands of people, including more than 40 world leaders, streamed into the heart of the city for a rally of national unity, days after the attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, police officers and a kosher grocery.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Poland to Invest Half Billion to Restructure Mining Group

Kompania Weglowa to be liquidated

(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Poland will invest 2,3 bln zloty (530 mln euros) in 2015-16 for restructuring the state owned coal mining group Kompania Weglowa, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz announced at a press conference.

“This process will lead to consolidation of the energy sector with our mining industry,” Kopacz said as cited by PAP agency.

Poland will spend 1.4 bln zloty (0,32 bln euros) in 2015 and additional 0.9 bln (0,2 bln euros) in 2016 for Kompania’s 14 mines, the Economy Ministry specified in a note.

The restructuring plan foresees the liquidation Kompania Weglowa and the division of its assets between 9 viable mines under a new company to be controlled by the state-owned coal trader Weglokoks. Energy sector firms will be able to join the shareholder list, the Ministry said. The plan envisions moving 6000 miners from the 5 unviable mines set for closure to other assets.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Spain: Survey: Podemos Has Strong Majority

Movement of ‘indignados’ across-the-board group

(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 9 — The unstoppable rise of the party of ‘indignados’ Podemos continues. If Spain voted today, the party would be the strongest force and win ahead of the conservative Partido Popular in government, well ahead of the Partido Socialista Obrero (Psoe) and new leader Pedro Sanchez, according to a poll carried out by My World for Cadena Ser radio of the Prisa group. The survey found that the party led by Pablo Iglesias, with his trademark ponytail, would win 27.5% of the vote, followed by PP with 24.6% and Psoe with 19%.

Both PP and Psoe dropped percentage points from the last political elections in November, according to the poll, with the cabinet party losing 20 points and the socialists 10. Together, they would total 43.6% of the vote and could only govern in a coalition with other political parties.

And amid the political earthquake caused by the traditional turnover between the two main parties, the survey registered a tight competition between the constitutional movements vying to dominate the centre: Union Progreso y Democracia (PyD), the party of Rosa Diez, the fourth political party with 5.5%, closely followed by Ciudadanos, the Catalan party led by Albert Rivera, which would get 5% in its national debut.

The fact that the rise of Podemos attracts voters on the left from Izquerda Unita (IU) is shown by the fact that the party dropped to sixth place with only 3.7%, half of those obtained in national elections in 2011.

But the anti-establishment party is not only stealing votes from the left and Socialists but — according to Muy World analysts — also winning over those who cast blank ballots or did not head to the polls. It also attracts protest votes from previous PP backers, given that 10% of former supporters said they were willing to back Podemos in the survey.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Sweden Confirms 2nd Submarine Search

Sweden’s military says it carried out a second submarine search just a week after calling off a major hunt for a suspected underwater intruder in the Stockholm archipelago in October.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



The Swede Who Embodied La Dolce Vita

The actress Anita Ekberg, who has died aged 83, is likely to be remembered for a single scene in which she cavorts in Rome’s Trevi Fountain, exhibiting her curvaceous charms to an urbane Marcello Mastroianni in Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Tourists in Paris Shaken by Terror Attacks

The terror attack that struck Paris this week was not enough to deter many tourists from visiting, though tourist officials are concerned that those from further afield may think twice before coming to the City of Light.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



‘Unprecedented’ Rally is Largest in France’s History, Officials Say

France’s Interior Ministry said the Paris rally for unity against terrorism Sunday was the largest demonstration in France’s history—a march organized to show harmony after three days of attacks that left 17 dead.

Calling the rally “unprecedented,” the ministry said the demonstrators were so numerous they spread beyond the official march route, making them impossible to count.

French media estimate up to 3 million are taking part, more than the numbers who took to Paris streets when the Allies liberated the city from the Nazis in World War II.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



‘We Are Charlie’: Across France, Nearly 4 Million March to Honor Victims of Terrorist Attacks

At least 3.7 million people including more than 40 world leaders are marching throughout France on Sunday in a rally of national unity to honor the 17 victims of a three-day terror spree that took place around the French capital.

The French Interior Ministry said the rally for unity against terrorism is the largest demonstration in France’s history, more than the numbers who took to Paris streets when the Allies liberated the city from the Nazis in World War II.

The ministry said between 1.2 million and 1.6 million marched the Paris streets. But it said a precise account is impossible given the enormity of the turnout in the capital.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Young French Muslims Fear Attack After Paris Shootings

“I’m afraid there will be backlash,” 24-year-old Justin told Newsbeat from the northern Paris suburb of Saint Ouen.

It’s part of a region in Paris with a large Muslim population.

“Some of my Muslim friends have received a few negative comments. I hope it stops,” Justin said.

A number of mosques have already been attacked in France, and there’s been an explosion at a kebab shop next to a mosque in Paris.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Egypt Officer Kidnapped by Militants in Sinai

Anonymous militants kidnapped a police captain on the highway between the cities of Rafah and Al-Arish in Egypt’s North Sinai on Sunday afternoon, reported Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website.

Egypt’s security forces have been facing a decade-long jihadist militant insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, with militant attacks increasing over the past year and expanding into Cairo and the Nile Delta, killing hundreds of army and police personnel. The military has also announced the killing and arrest of hundreds of militants.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Egypt Student Gets 3-Year Jail Term for Atheism

An Egyptian court has sentenced a student to three years in jail for announcing on Facebook that he is an atheist and for insulting Islam, his lawyer said Sunday.

In December 2012, a 27-year-old blogger, Alber Saber, was sentenced to three years in jail on charges of blasphemy.

And last June, a Coptic Christian man was sentenced to six years in jail for insulting Islam.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Morocco Snubs Paris March Due to Presence of Prophet Cartoons

Morocco’s Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar snubbed the mammoth march against extremism through Paris on Sunday due to the presence of “blasphemous cartoons depicting the Prophet”, the ministry said.

He nevertheless went to the Elysee Palace to present the country’s “sincere condolences to the French president and to the French government following the despicable attacks in France this week.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Tunisian Cleric Bechir Ben Hassen: Anyone Cursing the Prophet Muhammad Should be Executed

In a sermon excerpt posted on the Internet on January 10, 2015, Tunisian cleric Bechir Ben Hassen declared that anyone cursing the Prophet Muhammad should be punished by death. Sheikh Ben Hassen recently posted online a video message recorded opposite the International Criminal Court in the Hague, in which he praised European democracy, tolerance, and freedom of speech

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Tunisia: Unions Sound Alarm on Indebted Welfare

Hefty deficit forecast, urgent measures necessary

(by Diego Minuti) (ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 9 — Tunisia’s welfare and assistance funds are heavily indebted, according to estimates issued by Ugtt, the country’s top union as well as a very important ‘political’ actor, leading to a potential hefty deficit at the end of 2015, which could put an entire system that is vital to a significant part of the population on its knees.

Data elaborated by the research office of Ugtt left little doubt about the situation of the three main Tunisian welfare funds.

According to the union, the Cnss (National social security fund) at the end of 2015 will total a budget deficit worth 390 million dinars; the estimated deficit for the Cnrps (National pension and welfare fund) will be worth 285 million; that of Cnam (National insurance company) will be 70 million.

These are hefty sums by Tunisian standards, which endanger the three institutes in the future, not as much in terms of pension payments but because they will force the government — after previous ones started to think about it — to adopt measures or social policies that have been extremely important for millions of Tunisians will be doomed to failure.

The country is going through a long economic crisis that started well before the fall of Ben Ali’s regime and translated in time in a considerable contraction of job opportunities.

Young Tunisians are suffering the most as the labor market is unable to absorb their demand and potential while the lack of an income forces them to seek their family’s support. The elderly are often those providing an income, thanks to their pensions which are quite low but guaranteed.

But in order for this to continue, urgent measures are necessary, the most likely being raising the retirement age.

This small but substantial revolution would however produce effects in the medium and long term given that it would take time to become effective — something that the Cnss, Cnrps and Cnam perhaps cannot afford today with as only possibility asking the State to cover the deficit.

But the serious situation calls for choices that will likely be unpopular and could be a further obstacle in the already difficult path of the new government.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



Charlie, Muhammad, And the Saudi 1000 Lashes of Raif Badawi

by Denis MacEoin

“My commitment is… to reject any repression in the name of religion… a goal we will reach in a peaceful and law-abiding way.” — Raif Badawi.

If he ever leaves prison, his life will have been destroyed — by voyeurs as sexually twisted as those of ancient Rome.

“Our Prophet,” Malik said, “would have been crystal clear and unequivocal in condemning [the Charlie Hebdo massacre]. But his statement points out why there is a problem. Malik was — quite innocently, I am sure — completely wrong. Muhammad did the same thing — many, many times.

Today we all are Charlie, and we are all Raif.

His first 50 lashes were administered Friday. After the noon prayers, outside the mosque, Saudi writer and blogger Raif Badawi, 30, received a sentence perhaps worse than death. Accused of “insulting Islam,” he is to receive 1000 lashes: 50 per week for 20 weeks — nearly half a year. “The lashing order says Raif should ‘be lashed very severely,’“ a twitter notice read. “If they lash him again next week we do not know if he is going to survive. He has no medical assistance,” another notice said.

After that, he is to spend ten years in prison and pay a fine of $266,000. If he ever leaves prison, his life will have been destroyed — by voyeurs as sexually twisted as those of ancient Rome.

His wife and three children have been given asylum in Canada. Her family has filed for divorce on the grounds of his supposed apostasy.

— Hat tip: RL [Return to headlines]



Female French Terror Suspect Seen in Turkey

The common law wife of one of the gunmen behind the Paris terror attacks has traveled through Turkey and disappeared near the Syrian border, according to a Turkish intelligence official.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



ISIS Communications Claim Paris Attacks ‘Just the Beginning’

The German newspaper Bild said Sunday that US intelligence had intercepted communications in which Islamic State leaders said the Paris attacks were just the prelude for a wave of Islamist violence in Europe. It also reported that the Kouachi brothers had contacts in The Netherlands.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



School and Work: The Problems of the Young Refugees of Mosul

The war is drying up Kurdistan’s budget: it must pay for the soldiers, the weapons, the police checks on the roads. Between war and new economic and social problems (oil prices, new refugees) it risks a crisis. And the young people, refugees and non-refugees, are struggling to find work. In the schools Kurdish is spoken, while the children of Mosul speak Arabic. People who evoke the most compassion are the elderly: nothing to do all day, a different climate from that to which they were accustomed, their existence turned upside down…

Benata (AsiaNews) — Early in the morning, Msgr. Rabban al-Qas, the Chaldean bishop of Duhoc, leads us to Benata, the mountains of Kurdistan, to meet new refugees.

The arrival of refugees in the region of Duhoc has doubled the number of Christians: from 15,000 to 30,000. But here many Yazidis have come as well, who fled to the mountains of Syria and then returned to Iraq. Most of the Christians come from Mosul and the surrounding villages. Some of them managed to escape immediately, the night of Friday, June 6, after the loudspeakers of mosques had issued the ultimatum to Christians. In a sense, they are among the lucky ones: they were able to leave with the car, taking some goods with them. The day after the Islamic Army (IA) set up roadblocks and plundered Christians who wanted to leave. Matteo, 50, a government employee, had to start walking in the night, along with his wife, his disabled sister-in-law and their three children: Martin, 15, and twelve-years-old twins, Alan and Albert (pictured). To flee to Qaraqosh — when it was still free — he had to carry his sister-in-law on his back and walk for miles.

Thanks to the acquaintances of friends, he arrived in Duhoc and then Benata. Fr. Samir, the parish priest who in those days organized as could the arrival of streams of refugees, has found a place for them in the parish, in the catechism hall. The room is full of mattresses; in a corner there are stacked suitcases, boxes, buckets. All six people live in that room. The kitchen is in another room for catechism; the bathroom is a closet with no windows to the outside.

From there one hears the two sisters talk: with snow on the ground and cold weather, the disabled woman, helped by her sister, takes a bath with freezing cold water. The sister brings the woman into the common room all wrapped in a blanket, and lays her on a mat and places a gas space heater near her to warm her up. Fr. Samir spreads his arms helplessly: there is no hot water.

Almost in front of them are hosted two other families: a mother, daughter, brother-in-law and friend. The rooms were about to be demolished to build a new rectory, but the bulldozer that arrived for the demolition did not work. Three days later the emergency broke out and the building — rather old — became the home of all of them.

The Christians who fled in June found decent accommodation. Those who escaped in August found themselves having to find more precarious solutions. Many Yazidis, for example, who arrived here after fleeing, sieges on Mount Sinjar, and then more fleeing, have found hospitality in an old tourist village abandoned for decades, with doors and windows smashed. The parish has put doors and windows on the houses and now dozens of Yazidi families live there. Yazidis have large families. But they have lost many children during this exodus: young children because they died of thirst and hunger; daughters because they were abducted by the IA and forced to marry militiamen. There are girls who have preferred suicide rather than to fall into the hands of their spouse-butcherers. Curiously, the church of this area is dedicated to the Mother of the seven Maccabbee sons, who urged her offspring to remain firm in the faith, even at the cost of martyrdom.

“The biggest problem,” explains Fr. Samir, “is that all these people have little to do during the day. Especially the youth and the girls do not have school or work.”

At first glance Kurdistan seems to be in full development. But the war is sucking away many funds and the budget of the region is creaking: it is necessary to pay for the soldiers, the weapons, the police checks on the roads. In addition, the government in Baghdad, which should cover 17% of the region’s budget, for years has not paid a single dinar to the coffers of the autonomous region. To this is added the fall in oil prices. Between war and new economic and social problems (oil prices, new refugees) it risks a crisis. And the young people, refugees and non-refugees, are struggling to find work.

Then there is the problem of school: those in the region of Mosul speak Arabic; here the schools use the Kurdish language and not everyone can speak it. Added to this are other tensions.

Matteo’s twin sons, who are very good at school, were happy when they were accepted to middle school (their third year). To save their father the cost of transport by bus, they decided to make every day a half hour walk one way and half an hour to return. Unfortunately, at their school, someone burned a Kurdish flag and then, all of the “Arabs”, as they call those of Mosul, were expelled from school. Now these two smart boys are forced to stay home and not to study, even though they were even learning English well.

Another refugee center is close to a kindergarten and a school. Here, too, there are families from Mosul. The school has been adapted to accommodate one family per classroom. Among them are also two sisters. One of them challenged an Isis militiaman that wanted to force her to become a Muslim. But she said: I was born a Christian and I will die a Christian. And the militiaman let her go. She is a joyful woman, lively and determined.

The people who evoke the most compassion are the elderly: nothing to do all day, a different climate from that to which they were accustomed, their existence turned upside down … Those visited all seem a bit lost.

Fr. Samir tells the of the frenzy in the first days of June and that grew until August: “Every day there were dozens and dozens of people. The kindergarten of the parish had become the sorting center. We had whole families show up and sometimes only children, brought by some good person. They were given directions on where to go. If the place indicated was already occupied, they were shown another. From place to place, one family came to the border with Turkey, in the high mountains. For a week they had to live in their car: they had run out of petrol, and the place was deserted.”

The priest is full of gratitude: “All were generous: many Christians of Duhoc have hosted whole families (“you are Christians, and so are our brothers”). Many have offered cars, goods, mattresses, chairs or have offered the money to buy them. Much aid has come from the Chaldeans abroad: Austria, America, Australia. A lot of support has come from the European churches and particularly the Italian one, and also from you of AsiaNews. Thank you all”.

(End of Part Three)

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Turkish Gov’t Unveils Incentives to Encourage Procreation

The government has unveiled a new incentive program to encourage working women to have more children, in a bid to avoid the decline of the Turkish population.

Under the new plan, the government is pledging 300 Turkish Liras for a couple’s first child, 400 liras for the second, and 600 liras for the third, while easing conditions for new mothers to return to their jobs after maternity leave.

“Mothers [working in public office] will be able to continue to be promoted in their positions even in their unpaid leave after birth. We will also make arrangements for part-time work for mothers. After the end of maternity leave, mothers with one child will have the right to work part-time for two months, mothers with two children for four months, and mothers with three or more children for six months. They will receive full wages while working part-time,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at a press conference on Jan. 8…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Turkish PM Says Islamophobia Should Prompt Similar Reaction as Paris Rally

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday hailed the unprecedented rally against terror in Paris as a strong message to the world, adding he would expect a similar reaction to attacks on Muslims and Islamophobia.

Davutoglu joined dozens of other world leaders at the march in Paris to mourn the victims of the three days of terror by Islamists that began with the slaughter of 12 people at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The presence of Davutoglu, one of the top Muslim leaders to attend the rally, was seen in Turkey as hugely symbolic given that Charlie Hebdo had often lampooned the Prophet Mohammed.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Indonesia: Aceh Teacher Who Took Students to Church is Accused of Proselytising and Threatened

Rosnida Sari, a Muslim teacher, asked a priest to tell her students the story of his church’s construction. This was followed by a press campaign fomented by Islamic fundamentalists, who “recommended” her to leave. In response, civil society groups have come out in support of the woman, who “teaches pluralism and tolerance.”

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Islamic extremists in the Indonesian province of Aceh have “recommended” a Muslim teacher leave the country, after accusing her of “proselytizing” among her students.

Rosnida Sari, who is Muslim, is in the eye of the storm after she brought some youths to visit, voluntarily, a local Catholic church and talk to the priest.

For the local press, which has carried out a real campaign against the teacher, the “real reason” behind the visit was the woman’s desire to see young people abandon Islam and convert to Christianity.

As a result of the situation, the teacher has been the object of very serious threats. Now, “she is terrified and plans to leave Aceh,” her colleagues said.

Civil society groups have spoken out on her behalf. A group of NGOs called on Indonesia’s newly elected president, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, to protect the woman, who “teaches only pluralism and interreligious respect”.

The Religious Affairs Minister “must take immediate action to calm tensions” in the area, they said.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has often been the scene of attacks or acts of intolerance against minorities: Christians, Ahmadi Muslims or people of other faiths.

In Aceh, Islamic law (Sharia) is enforced, the only Indonesian province to do so. This is the result of a peace agreement between the central government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

However, more radical and extreme versions of Islam are growing in many other parts of the country, like Bekasi and Bogor in West Java.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



New Delhi Imposes Direct Rule in Indian Kashmir

Indian Kashmir was brought under New Delhi’s direct rule Friday after political rivals failed to agree on a power-sharing coalition, more than two weeks after elections in the country’s only Muslim-majority state.

A federal government spokesman confirmed that President Pranab Mukherjee had placed Governor N. N. Vohra in charge of the state, the day after the acting chief minister stepped down.

“The president has approved the governor’s rule for the state,” home ministry spokesman M.A Ganapathy told AFP after Vohra had made an official recommendation to Mukherjee…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Thanks to Nepal, New “Silk Road” To Bring Chinese Goods to Europe

Beijing and Kathmandu sign deal that includes the construction of a “corridor” to ship Chinese-made goods through Nepal territory. A new railway line linking the two countries and India is also in the works.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Nepal will become a “corridor” for Chinese goods destined for Eurasia thanks to an agreement signed with China. Both nations expect to benefit from the new “economic Silk Road”.

According to experts, under the terms of the deal signed at the end of December 2014, China will be able to ship goods through the Himalayan nation, with Nepal earning transit fees.

For some analysts, the move has a geopolitical motive as well because it will enable Beijing (and Moscow) to bypass the United States’ new Asia strategy by which Washington hopes to boost its influence in the area through bilateral agreements with Japan and India.

In Beijing, plans are also being drawn up to strengthen the country’s railway system. The Chinese government wants in fact to extend the Qinghai-Tibet railway and link the two inland provinces to Nepal and South Asia.

At present, the train only links Lhasa to Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city, 253 kilometres from the Nepali border.

With Nepal’s agreement, two new lines should be built: one to Rasuwagadhi, Nepal, and the other up to Yadong on the Indian-Bhutanese border.

For Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a Beijing-Kathmandu-New Delhi trilateral development partnership would also serve as a confidence-building step.

“Nepal is uniquely located between two large neighbours,” he said. “We want Nepal to develop good relations with both the countries,” adding, “Nepal and India are also reinforcing their relations for mutual benefit and we encourage positive interaction.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



These Crimes Have Everything to Do With Islam

by Paul Sheehan

When French president Francoise Hollande addressed the nation on Friday in the wake of terrorist attacks that left 20 dead, he uttered the predictable mantra: “These fanatics have nothing to do with the Muslim religion”.

His comment is understandable given that France has more than five million Muslims, a stagnant economy, 24 per cent youth unemployment and endemic social alienation among young Muslims.

His comment is also nonsense. A de facto world war is under way and it has everything to do with Islam. It is not thousands of lone wolfs. It is not un-Islamic conduct. It involves thousands of Muslims acting on what they believe is their religious duty to subjugate non-believers, as outlined in the Koran.

And the problem is growing, not contracting. There was once a tradition among young Australians to travel overland from Singapore to London. That route has become a hell-hole:…

‘The Heart of the Muslim’

By Howard Feldman

Acccording to the South African Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) freedom of speech has its limits — especially when “connected to the heart of the Muslim.” In a statement that would confuse even the most intelligent amongst us, we are left wondering, despite the assertions condemning violence, where they stand on the matter

[…]

But I remain hopeful. Despite the lack of satisfactory condemnation of these horrors, I believe it is poor and culpable leadership in the Muslim community in South Africa that is to blame for our perception. I still believe that this is not what most Muslims want. I believe that there is a rejection (albeit somewhat silent) of the violence that is being seen not only in Paris and in the rest of Europe, and not only in the Middle East, but across Africa where many are on the rampage and so many are dying daily. And I pray that I am not wrong. I am certain I cannot be, because the consequences are too horrible to contemplate.

[No, they are NOT too horrible to contemplate. We contemplate them here all the time. And if I may say so, Mr. Feldman, a failure to contemplate certain consquences is what sent millions of your people up the flue at Auschwitz and other Mitteleuropa garden spots. — PW]

China Vows to Double Trade With Latin America ‘Within 10 Years’

President Xi pledged to double annual trade during a Forum in Beijing with leaders and ministers from about 30 nations from Latin America and the Caribbean. The two-day meeting aims to boost cooperation on security, finance, infrastructure, energy and technology.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — President Xi Jinping pledged yesterday to double annual trade between China and Latin America to US$500 billion over the next 10 years, saying the partnership would have a significant impact on the world economy. “The relationship between China and Latin America is on an upward trend,” said Xi. “Mutual political trust between the two has also been boosted.”

Analysts said China’s interest in the region was partly due to its energy needs, with some saying investment there was less risky than in Africa. The two-day forum aims to boost cooperation on security, finance, infrastructure, energy and technology over the next five years. China’s trade with Latin America totalled US$261.6 billion in 2013.

On Wednesday, China agreed to invest more than US$20 billion in struggling Venezuela following talks between Xi and the country’s President Nicolas Maduro. China has loaned the country more than US$40 billion over the past five years, some of which has been paid back through oil deliveries.

Xie Tao, a professor of international studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said Beijing’s moves highlighted Washington’s waning economic influence in the region, despite its continued heavy political clout. “Exports of Chinese manufactured goods to these countries are growing, reducing the demand there for US goods,” Xie said. Furthermore, Xie said Latin American countries were less suspicious than those in Southeast Asia of China’s rise, but the ties between Beijing and Latin America were unlikely to be more than economic.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]



Kosovo to Pay for Mass Deportation of Migrants From EU

Koha Ditore, ‘20 thousand Kosovars emigrated illegally in 2014’

(ANSA) — TRIESTE — According to Koha Ditore daily, Germany, Austria and Switzerland have asked Kosovo government to finance mass deportation of at least one thousand illegal migrants with Kosovar citizenship.

The daily cited internal sources according to which Kosovo embassy in Germany has already contacted travel companies to purchase air tickets for 1000 migrants on relation Germany-Kosovo.

According to the estimate of the Pristina-based newspaper, around 20 thousand Kosovo citizens expatriated illegaly towards the EU in 2014. German ambassador to Kosovo reportedly announced that Germany will start declining asylum applications from Kosovo in order to discourage further inflow of illegal immigrants.

— Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]



German Army Must Promote More Women Generals

The Germany army must introduce quotas to boost the number of female officers, the country’s Defence minister said.

Ursula von der Leyen said she was embarrassed that the army currently only has one female general.

“She is the only one in the history of the Bundeswehr. This is a lousy proportion. So we have to consider quotas with clear timelines,” she said, to Spiegel magazine.

The proposal, just months after Ms von der Leyen admitted the German military is facing equipment shortages so severe it cannot honour all its Nato commitments, are likely to cause controversy.

— Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]



Turkey’s Media Watchdog Fines Three Channels on Sexual Content Grounds

The TV 2 station was fined over a series titled “Oh, We Women” (Ah Biz Kadinlar), for showing dialogue between two women about strawberry-flavored condoms.

Turkey’s media watchdog has fined three television stations on the grounds of having broadcasted movies containing sexual content.

The Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) fined three channels 12,353 Turkish Liras each for showing a naked woman’s body, broadcasting pornographic scenes, and containing dialogue about condoms. Two of the three fined stations were premium subscription channels…