Germany: Merkel calls for 'bilingualism and integration' for Turkish immigrants

Image by arne.list via Flickr

Is assimilation the same as “bilingualism and integration”? Has Merkel really softened her stance as I feared some days ago?

She said both languages should be taught, highlighting the importance of bilingualism and the integration of immigrants into German society.

“What is unacceptable is for this to be an excuse for Turks living in Germany not to learn the German language. The language of the country one lives in is the precondition for good integration,” said Merkel, stressing that the goal was not assimilation.

“This is about everybody keeping their roots, their culture and their belief, but those of the third and fourth generation living in Germany should be able to participate in our social life.”

via Merkel calls for ‘bilingualism and integration’ for Turkish immigrants | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 29.03.2010.

Balkans: Times' Journalist Stands By Radical Islam Claims

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This is an update on this story:

The author of a disputed text published in the British newspaper The Sunday Times has told Balkan Insight that he did indeed speak with the head of the Macedonian Islamic Community, Sulejman Rexhepi, while Rexhepi’s office has claimed that the leader did not speak with the journalist and did not make any claims about the control of Skopje mosques by radical Islamists.

Bojan Pancevski, the author of the text about radical Islam that appeared in the British paper, said that he has the recordings of his conversations with three officials from the Macedonian Islamic Community, IVZ, including Sulejman Rexhepi.

“They all confirmed to me that four mosques were not under the IVZ control. I got the impression that they wanted this to be known in public,” Pancevski said.

via Journalist Stands By Radical Islam Claims :: BalkanInsight.com.

Two questions:

1. why doesn’t Pancevski publishes the most relevant parts of the recordings?
2. If those recordings are true, why that change in Mr Rexhepi’s statements? Has he been menaced by extremists?

Netherlands: Online Muslim sex shop launched

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Candid but demure, an online sex shop for Muslims has been launched in the Netherlands to tap into a demand for erotica that does not offend Sharia law.

“We had about 70,000 hits in the first four days,” founder Abdelaziz Aouragh told AFP of his site that went online last week and claims to be the world's first erotic webshop for Muslims.

The 29-year-old Dutch national said it targets married Muslim couples as an alternative to sites “that focus on pornography and the extravagant side of erotica” — things forbidden in Islam.

The home page of El Asira, which means “Society” in Arabic, is a sober black and grey street with a line down the center, inviting women to enter on the left and men on the right.

Once inside, clients can browse in Dutch, Arabic or English through more than a dozen products, mainly massage oils, lubricants and tablets that claim to act as aphrodisiacs.

All ingredients are halal, or “permissible under Islam”, said Aouragh, and conspicuously absent are dildos, vibrators and any type of pornography.

“Most of the other products out there have pictures of naked people or foul language — it was very difficult to find ones that I could use in my business,” he said.

Instead, the website shows only photos of boxes, tablets, tubes and bottles — mainly in pink or blue with the brand’s logo, a black flame.

via AFP: Online Muslim sex shop launched in the Netherlands.

I don’t have any opinion on this. If they don’t try to oblige non-Muslims to enter there or to transform other sex shops the ways this one is, I don’t mind whatever other people do inside their bedrooms.

Somalia: march against al-Shabab militants

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They protest the Al-Shabab’s move to destroy some clerics’ tomb:

Hundreds of Somalis have marched through the streets of Mogadishu, protesting against al-Shabab militants.

The protesters, mostly women and children and wearing traditional white clothes, chanted slogans denouncing the al-Qaeda-inspired group.

The BBC’s Mohammed Olad Hassan says this is only the second public demonstration against al-Shabab, which controls much of southern Somalia.

The protesters shouted their support for the UN-backed government.

Mohyadin Hassan Afrah, who helped organise the protest in one of Mogadishu’s few government-controlled districts, says people were upset at a move by al-Shabab to destroy the tombs of revered Sufi clerics.

via BBC News – Somalis in rare march against al-Shabab militants.

So, they don’t protest beheadings, floggings, stonings, etc., but Al-Shabab’s “move to destroy some clerics’ tomb”. Of course, a corpse’s exhumation without the necessary respect for the remains is something despicable, but it is not going to feel anything. But those acts of torture will certainly cause pain, suffering and in some cases, a terrible death.

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US: Republican candidate for Tennessee Vijay Kumar on Jihad

First, Islam was conceived as a world empire to govern all mankind. It teaches that all the world, and everyone and everything in it, already belongs to Islam–some people just haven’t been made to understand that. Until they have, according to Islam, they are considered “infidels” and inferiors. Put another way, the Islamic view is that all of us in the world are subjects of the Islamic Empire, and those of us who do not acknowledge our subjugation to it must be overcome and brought to submission, through conversion or force. No other religion in the world has such a purpose of world conquest and domination.

Second, Islam does not allow any introspection or self-criticism. It calls for total acceptance, total submission. The very word “Islam” means “submission,” and the word “Muslim” means “one who submits.” The other side of submission, of course, is domination. Islam seeks to dominate every individual and every nation into submission. In that, it shares a key element of slavery, which the civilized world has properly decried and abolished. Such submission is a political act. I am a freeman, and I refuse to submit to Islamic hegemony.

Third, Islam does not have any exit policy for its believers. The act of submission required to become a Muslim is held to be final, irrevocable, and permanent. So criticizing or questioning Islam or its teachings or leaders, or attempting to leave Islam, all are considered severe crimes against Islam, punishable by death.

In contrast, non-Islamic religions allow for dissenting views, introspection, and reasoned debate. In non-Islamic religions, if you so choose, you can leave the faith you were born into without being threatened with physical violence or death. In Islam, both criticism of the faith and apostasy are capital offenses.

All of that is what drives Jihad: Jihad is a permanent war against the unbeliever and his land to bring about his submission. It has been going on for fourteen centuries all over the world, which is why I coined the term “Universal Jihad.” Islam’s Universal Jihad is the single greatest threat to Western civilization and to the entire non-Islamic world in general. It is more dangerous than Nazism and Communism combined.

via The Wrong Way to Fight Jihad.

Anyone from Tennesse?

His page is here.

Iraq: Bomb placed outside Christian home kills 3-year-old

Terrorists on Mosul’s streets. Image via Wikipedia

The persecution continues and no one does nothing. Is Ban Ki-Moon going to do a little trip there to critizise the terrorists and the inaction of Iraqi Govt in protecting Christians there?

A bomb was placed outside a Christian family’s home in Mosul, killing a three-year-old child, injuring the other members of the family, and destroying the home. The bombing was the latest in a long series of murderous attacks on the city’s Christian minority.

via Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : Mosul: Bomb placed outside Christian home kills 3-year-old.

Before:

1. Catholic student kidnapped, intimidation campaign continues.
2. Deacon wounded by gunfire in Mosul.
3. 75-year-old Christian shot dead in Mosul.
4. Church leaders plead for Govt protection in Mosul.
5. Mosul Christians protest demanding Govt action.

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EXCLUSIVE: Iran Nuclear Scientist Defects to U.S. In CIA 'Intelligence Coup'

Good news!

The officials were said to have termed the defection of the scientist, Shahram Amiri, “an intelligence coup” in the continuing CIA operation to spy on and undermine Iran’s nuclear program.

A spokesperson for the CIA declined to comment. In its declassified annual report to Congress, the CIA said, “Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons though we do not know whether Tehran eventually will decide to produce nuclear weapons.”

Amiri, a nuclear physicist in his early 30s, went missing last June three days after arriving in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage, according to the Iranian government. He worked at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University, which is closely connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to the Associated Press.

via EXCLUSIVE: Iran Nuclear Scientist Defects to U.S. In CIA ‘Intelligence Coup’ – ABC News.

Has the Saudi Govt collaborated in this defection? And if that’s the case, will that affect to Saudi relations with Iran?

Azerbaijan: police foils terror attack in capital

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Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry has arrested members of a gang, which it says were planning terror attacks in the capital, Baku, the Azerbaijani news agency, News.az, reported Tuesday.

The gang members were arrested on 16 March, the National Security Ministry press service reported late on Monday.

Several Azerbaijani citizens and one Russian citizen are being kept in detention by decision of the court.

The investigation to identify and arrest other members of the organized group is continuing.

The members of the group are charged with smuggling weapons, ammunition and explosives and with drugs offences.

via Azerbaijan foils terror attack in capital – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.

It’s interesting that they are charged with weapons-related charges and drug offences. One more proof that they are very much linked.

The weapons are said to have been hidden in a kindergarten and near a secondary school, not bothering the arrested the possible explosion of the weapons and the subsequent toll of killed in the area.

Pakistan: Police turns blind eye over repeating cases of kidnapping and rape of Hindu girls

If someone thought that Christians were the only ones suffering from persecution in Pakistan, he/she is truly wrong:

Officials have no information regarding Nandini’s whereabouts, who was kidnapped in December last year, and the accused named Younis has not been arrested despite the fact that there is a first information report (FIR) registered against him.

It is not an isolated case where Hindu families have been left with little choice than to lament over their fate, with no help in sight from the authorities.

Several Hindu families, which are at the receiving end of the government’s apathy, are awaiting justice for years but there’s no one to listen to their plight.

According to Roshni Research and Development Welfare Organisation (RRDWO), a non-government organisation (NGO), a research has shown in majority of cases involving the minority community, police only provide lip service and do not seriously hunt down the criminals.

The NGO’s President, Muhammad Ali, cited another case of a 17-year-old Hindu girl, who was kidnapped and raped by four men, in January this year. All the four accused were granted pre-arrest bail by a session court.

“Rape is a non-bail able offence in Pakistan and this is against criminal procedure and the law,” The Daily Times quoted Ali, as saying.

via Police turn blind eye to rampant kidnapping and rape of Hindu girls in Pak’s Sindh province – Oneindia News.

Zimbabwe: "indigenization" squeezes foreign firms

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Have you heard any NGO crying about racism and robbery on this one?

The Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act was passed by parliament in 2007. But only last month was the new law actually implemented by the publication of specific regulations. These require companies valued at $500,000 or more to “cede” a 51 percent share to black Zimbabweans.

The outcry that followed was understandable. Mugabe’s government has a reputation for seizing other people’s property. Over the past 10 years vast tracts of productive farmland have been occupied by Mugabe’s supporters and allocated to the president’s cronies. Despite the formation of the power sharing government, land is still being grabbed and commercial farmers —black and white — are being dispossessed.

The new indigenization law is widely seen as Mugabe’s bid to please middle-class supporters. The new legislation reserves key sectors of the economy for indigenous ownership including the production of food and cash crops, transportation, bakeries, retail and wholesale trade, and estate agents.

Mugabe’s partners in government, the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, say they don’t oppose the indigenization law in principle but revisions are required to its regulations, including arbitrary quotas, which are likely to scare off investors.

The German ambassador to Harare, Albrecht Conze, said this month that German investors — among the most prominent in the region — would be looking elsewhere unless there was a change of heart in government.

via Zimbabwe indigenization squeezes foreign firms.

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Muslims demand 2014 Winter Olympics be canceled or moved unless Russia bows down

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A Muslim diaspora is demanding the Sochi 2014 Olympics be canceled or moved unless Russia apologizes for the 19th century deaths of many of their ancestors in the location where the Winter Games will be held. The Circassian diaspora, Muslim indigenous people from the northwest Caucasus now scattered across the globe, join a swelling list of opponents to the Games — from environmentalist group Greenpeace to Amnesty International. Circassians argue the Sochi Games are as insensitive as hosting a sporting competition on the grounds of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. 2014 marks 150 years since a tsarist military campaign wiped out 300,000 Circassians in and around Sochi. Although recorded by Russian imperial historians in 1864, no nation has recognized the deaths as genocide. Deportations and turmoil led many Circassians south to Turkey and elsewhere, and their seven million or so descendants are spread across the world from the United States to Jordan to Israel. About 700,000 remain in the northwest Caucasus.

via Nitemare Debates Islam and Creeping Sharia.

Of course, they don’t recognise the Armenian killings by Turkey as genocide (of course, a Muslim cannot commit genocide as Erdogan said) but they want the rest of the world to consider this as genocide. Of course, the consideration of these killings as genocide is something that should be done by historians, not by politicians. Greenpeace and Amnesty International are not associations of historians, are they?

Because sports are something indecent and infidel-ish:

Before: Amnesty International’s campaign for Judeophobia in schools.

Syria: Influence Of Islam Grows

Some days ago, it was the Balkans.

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Today, banners calling on women to wear headscarves or on Muslims to show devotion to the prophet Mohammad are displayed in much of Damascus. Many restaurants refrain from serving alcohol and men praying at the sides of streets have become a common sight.

“Syrian people have always been observant, but religious devotion was moderate and open, and more focused on the essence of religion rather than appearances,” said Wael al-Sawwah, a Damascus-based author and researcher.

“What is happening in Syria today is a drift towards fundamentalism,” he added.

Sawwah believes that this trend is mainly the result of the spread of Wahhabism, a conservative strand of Islam coming from Saudi Arabia. He said that large numbers of Syrians left to work in the Gulf in the 1970s and 1980s and returned as adherents to the strict Islamic values of these societies.

Even officials have started worrying about the impact of religion in Syrian society.

In January, Buthaina Shaaban, an adviser on media and political affairs to President Bashar al-Assad, warned at a Baath party meeting against “the growth of religious fanaticism”.

via Influence Of Islam Grows In Syria | Eurasia Review.

Syria is now allied with Iran. Will they just adopt the same theory as Talibans in Afghanistan?:

… A Taliban (Sunni) commander who has been trained in Iran (Shia) said last week: “Our religions and our histories are different, but our target is the same — we both want to kill Americans.”

Indonesia: Conference of gays and lesbians blocked by Islamic extremists

Coat of arms of the Indonesian city of Surabaya. Image via Wikipedia

More from moderate Indonesia:

An international conference of gays and lesbians, scheduled to run from 26 to 29 March in Surabaya (East Java) has been cancelled due to protests by a group of Muslim extremists, despite the approval of local authorities. The protest took place yesterday in front of the Grand Mercure Hotel in Surabaya hosting the meeting organized by the International Association of gay, lesbian and transgender (ILGA). The police have asked 200 participants to stay at the hotel until the conclusion of the unrest, especially to ensure the safety of foreigners. The conference should have been completed on 29 March. It is the first event for gays and lesbians to be held in Indonesia and the fourth in Asia.

“We are very sorry for the way things went – said Rafael Dakosta, Indonesian ILGA coordinator – we had already prepared everything when the police asked us to stop the conference for security reasons.” Dakosta says he had several discussions with the protesters in an attempt to stop the protest and ensure the safety of foreign participants.

via INDONESIA Java, Conference of gays and lesbians blocked by Islamic extremists – Asia News.

Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs has defended very few days ago Islamic blasphemy law in the country, because if not, they could “stablish new prophets, new religions and new angels“. And they really wanted to do an LGTB meeting in a country like that?

Greece: Athens bombing kills 1, injures 2

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A bomb blast in central Athens killed a 15-year-old Afghan immigrant boy and injured his mother and sister late Sunday, Greek police said.

The bomb was detonated at 11:15 p.m. outside the state-run Greek Society of Business Management, Euronews.net reported Monday.

Witnesses told Greek television stations the 45-year-old Afghan mother and her son and 10-year-old daughter routinely went out late at night to forage through garbage, a correspondent for China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

Various left-wing and anarchist groups generally give advance warning of bombings in the city, but neither police nor the media was tipped off about Sunday’s blast, the reports said.

Last week, a guerilla group claimed responsibility for three small bomb blasts in the city.

via Athens bombing kills 1, injures 2 – UPI.com.

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Russia: death toll rises to 38, another device didn't explode

This is an update on today’s Moskovite terrorist attacks:

Arab League summit: Pro-Israel Berlusconi kisses Ghaddafi's hand

The fiercely pro-Israeli Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was among the guests at the controversy-filled Arab League summit in Libya with the supposed aim of forming a unified strategy against Tel Aviv’s illegal settlement plans in Palestinian territories.

At one point, according to reports, Berlusconi, whose country ruled Libya for over three decades after 1911, stooped to kiss Gaddafi's hand upon arrival at the summit.

Fourteen Arab leaders and three foreign quests attended the two-day summit, which kicked off on Saturday in the Mediterranean city of Sirte.

Italy has become a firm European supporter of Libya since a 2008 formal apology to Tripoli for the decades of colonial rule. The apology led to a number of accords which has cemented bilateral ties.

via Pro-Israel Berlusconi kisses Ghaddafi at Arab meet.

I thought that Moratinos was going to be noticeable for fooling himself.

Is this the result of old age or what?

(via).

Photo | Press.tv.

Venezuela: Chávez could "suspend" next elections

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As the Venezuelan opposition is rising in the polls for parliamentary elections next September, the government of Hugo Chávez also tightened the siege against the opposition leaders and the media critics. The latest poll by Alfredo Keller & Associates, which had access by ABC, conducted between February 26 and March 14, ensures that the intention to vote in parliamentary elections favors the opposition candidates with 43% and the “chavistas” candidates 31%. The projection of the valid votes would give a victory to the opposition with 58% while Chavez achieved 42%. So Chávez could “suspend” the next elections.

via Diplodemocracia: El «comandante» se plantea suspender las legislativas/ Chavez is about to suspend next elections.

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Spain: Moroccan man arrested for having his wife locked in an appartment in Viladecans

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Catalan Autonomous police, Mossos d’Esquadra, have arrested a 39-year-old man as an alleged author of an illegal detention crime after having his wife locked in during more than a year, in a property in Viladecans (Barcelona), according to policial sources.

The victim, of Maghrebi origin, lived in the bottom floor of a property at Joan Fivell st. She only had access to a bedroom and a bathroom, where he leaved the wife alone and defenseless for days, according to Spanish newspaper ADN.

The Mossos received a call on Thursday informing that there was a woman who could be locked in an appartment there. Where they arrived at the scene, they discovered that the room had locks and ranges. The 27-year old woman, who was freed, told the officers, using an interpreter, that she has been locked for more than a year in that room.

The victim was evacuated to the Viladecan’s Hospital because she suffered from anxiety and the social services took her to a shelter home. The Mossos arrested last Saturday night 39-years-old Mohammed K., on illegal detention charges.

via Detenido un hombre por encerrar a su mujer en casa durante más de un año – 20minutos.es.

Turkey, Syria, and Iran call the OIC for an emergency meeting about Israel

The governments of Turkey, Syria, and Iran announced on Tuesday that they were calling for the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to hold an emergency meeting on recent Palestinian-Israeli developments.

…The emergency meeting, either to be held in Damascus or in Istanbul, is to discuss the latest developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel‘s attempts to judaize and annex the religious shrines in the occupied Palestinian territories, the report said.

via -Turkey, Syria, and Iran: A New Islamist Axis Rises Up Against Israel | ANSWERS For The Faith.

I haven’t found the OIC’s answer. That meeting is going to be very interesting.

Anyway, this confirms (again) the shift that Turkey is experiencing under Erdogan. Turkey has been a traditional ally of Israel, till AKP rose to power.

Indonesia: Government Defends Indonesia’s Blasphemy Law

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Jakarta Globe: Indonesia’s Religion Minister Defends Indonesia’s Blasphemy Law

– Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali: “The consequences [if the law is annulled] are that people, figures, could establish new religions, declare new prophets, new angels”

via Indonesia: Government Defends Indonesia’s Blasphemy Law :: Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.).

A very logical defense… the people would just begin believing in other things, wouldn’t they?

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