Germany: Merkel against Erdogan's initiative of Turkish schools' net

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Some days ago Erdogan stated he wanted Turkish people abroad not to integrate in those countries, but to influence their policies.

German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has showed her opposition to Turkish Preisdent Erdogan’s initiative, of creating a Turkish schools’ net in Germany with teachings imparted in Turkish language, because that would fuel discrimination.

“The idea that all Turkish schoolchildren should study in Turkish schools is not acceptable”, says Merkel in an statement published by German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse, a few days before her visit to Ankara.

German Government’s chief considers that the ideal solution is that “children and teenagers of Turkish origins go to German schools” to make it easy their integration in Germany, where more than 2.5 million of Turkish origins live.

via Merkel rechaza crear colegios turcos en Alemania | FACTUAL.es – Diario digital libre.

Turkish community in Germany is also against Erdogan’s proposed measure.

So Erdogan’s measure has not been very welcomed, has it? Hope that she is not convinced while in Turkey of the contrary…

Bulletin of the Oppression of Women March 10 – March 25, 2010

This is a blogpost written by Political Islam.com ®. I have only added links to the posts written by me.

March 10, 2010Saudi Arabia
This report reviews the current attempts to reduce escalating conflicts over child bride marriages and in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Egypt
In Egypt religious conservatism is growing.

March 11, 2010
Canada
Federal immigration officials say there’s little they can do to stop “child brides” from being sponsored into Canada by much older husbands who wed them in arranged marriages abroad.
Palestine
There have been over thirteen honor killings in two months in Palestine. (T&P post on this here).
Pakistan
A Christian girl working as housemaid was raped by the son of her Muslim employer. When she threatened to report him to police, she was burnt by the rapist and his sister. Also HERE.

Quebec: New Law forbids niqab on communication and identification grounds

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Muslim women will be forced to uncover their faces if they want services from the Quebec government, according to landmark legislation tabled Wednesday in the province.

In tabling the bill, Quebec delves into sensitive territory where governments in Canada have largely avoided treading: setting hard-and-fast rules for accommodating minorities.

The bill says people obtaining – or delivering – services at places like the health-or auto-insurance boards will need to do so with their faces in plain view.

Face-coverings won’t be tolerated if they hinder communication or visual identification.

Premier Jean Charest characterized the legislation as a defence of two valued principles, gender equality and secular public institutions.

via The West, Islam and Sharia: Quebec: New Law — No Niqab “Two words: Uncovered face”.

This is a good decision. There has been several crimes which have been unresolved precisely because no one could recognise the person inside burqas/niqabs. Of course, Muslim groups have predicted “disastrous results” if this is passed. They say that they “will isolate more this women”. So that means they are isolated now. Not shocked anyhow, no one wants to be speaking with someone who can be Fathima or Achmed…

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Algeria: Israeli 'kidnapped by Al-Qaeda'

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The Algerian government believes an Israeli man has been kidnapped by Al-Qaeda after entering the country on a Spanish passport. According to a report in the Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat, the man was abducted in a desert region of the country by an extremist Islamist group linked to the terror group.

It is not clear whether the man had dual citizenship or why he was travelling in Algeria, but there were reports in the Israeli media that he had contacted his family who had notified the Israeli foreign ministry.

Islamist militant organisations often only reveal the identity of their hostages days after their kidnappings take place.

via Algeria: Israeli ‘kidnapped by Al-Qaeda’ – Adnkronos Security.

(via)

Breaking: S.Korean ship sinking, North attack suspected

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A South Korean naval vessel with more than 100 aboard was sinking on Friday in waters near North Korea and Seoul was investigating whether it was hit in a torpedo attack by the North, South Korean media said.

Broadcaster SBS said many South Korean sailors on the stricken vessel were feared dead.

via Reuters AlertNet – S.Korean ship sinking, North attack suspected-media.

(via)

More here:

1,500-ton ship carrying 104 crew members went down around 9:45 p.m. near a South Korean island in the Yellow Sea, prompting an emergency meeting of security-related Cabinet ministers.

Seoul’s Navy officials refused to give details, but said a South Korean vessel fired at a ship toward the North later in the evening, indicating possibilities of a possible torpedo attack from the North. Local residents reported having heard gunfire for about 10 minutes from 11 p.m.

(via).

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CIA Expert: 'Headley plea revealed Qaeda's European links'

Well, at least some information Headley has given is, apparently, being useful:

Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley‘s plea bargain, under which he confessed to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks, throws light on close links between the Al Qaedaand the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, according to former Central Intelligence Agency expert Bruce Riedel.

Headley’s story showed in clear contours the close relationship between Al Qaeda and the Pakistani militant group LeT, Riedel, who led the review of the Obama administration’s Af-Pak strategy, was quoted as saying by The New York Times.

Revelations in Headley’s plea agreement around Al Qaeda’s European cell were particularly disturbing, said Riedel, who was also a member of the National Security Council in the Clinton administration and is now at the Brookings Institution.

They showed that “Al Qaeda still has a significant operational infrastructure somewhere in Europe,” he said.

The paper said the plea agreement released last week showed that Headley moved effortlessly between the US, Pakistan and India [ Images ] for nearly seven years, training at a militant camp in Pakistan on five occasions.

via ‘Headley plea revealed Qaeda’s European links’: Rediff.com India News.

More here:

The United States said the Mumbai attacks had shown that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba was out to “fill the gap” created by a “diminished Al-Qaeda” and a “decisive” action was needed from all countries of South Asia, including Pakistan, to defeat it.

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Saudi Arabia: AQ plot against oil facilities, uncovered

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The Saudi Interior Ministry announced yesterday that it had uncovered a plot to attack Saudi oil facilities and arrested 113 suspected members of al-Qaeda.  The 113 militants reportedly were organized into three cells and had been planning suicide attacks on oil and security facilities in Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing Eastern Province.  Fifty two of the suspects were from Yemen, which has become the primary base for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula after many cells based in Saudi Arabia were uprooted in previous Saudi crackdowns.

via Al Qaeda Plot Against Saudi Oil Targets is Foiled | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News..

From Yemen? From this Yemen? Who would have thought that, eh?

Somalia: private security contractors repel pirate attack, kill one pirate

This happened two days ago:

Seven pirates armed with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades twice tried to board the Panamanian-flagged MV Almezaan 60 miles off the Somali coast.Private security contractors on the merchant ship, owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates, fired back, repelling both attacks, and the pirates fled. No-one on the cargo vessel was injured.

Soldiers from a Spanish navy warship (frigate Navarra) deployed as part of the EU naval force (NavFor) fighting piracy later boarded the pirates’ boats and found one of the men dead.

(via)

Good news.

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Bin Laden warns US not to kill alleged 9/11 chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed

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Or else:

Osama bin Laden threatened al-Qa’ida would kill any Americans it takes prisoner if accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is executed, according to an audiotape aired on al Jazeera today.

Senior US officials may recommend that Mohammed, who was being held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be prosecuted in a military trial, officials said in March.

…”This message is about our prisoners who you are holding,” bin Laden said in the tape, complaining that US President Barack Obama was still following “his predecessor’s steps” on many issues including on al-Qa’ida detainees such as Mohammed.

“The White House has expressed its desire to execute him. When America makes this decision, it will have made a decision to execute whoever of you is held prisoner by us,” bin Laden said in the recording.

There was no immediate comment from Washington.

via Bin Laden warns US not to kill alleged 9/11 chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed – Asia, World – The Independent.

Oh, well, is anyone surprised by this tape?

Me neither. I think Bin Laden is no longer alive (why no longer he records videos?), but AQ needs his presence to instill “terror on unbelievers”. Anyway, this proves (again) that AQ is no more than a Mob style organization: don’t do that or else. Dont do this or else.

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Burma: persecution on Karen people, another unmentioned subject on international press

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The Karen people of Burma have been fighting for independence for over 60 years. Far from gaining freedom, though, the Karen people have instead become the victims of massive genocide.

Many of the Karen people are Christians, and it has become apparent that the ethnic cleansing taking place at the hands of the Burmese government is a direct attack against Christians. Patrick Klein of Vision Beyond Borders says once the military has finished off the Christians, they will likely move on to Buddhists.

“We could see, in the next couple of months or a year, a huge genocide of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people slaughtered, because the government wants to present this image that everybody in Burma is supportive of the military government; that is not true,” says Klein. “The only ones that support it are the military.”

Klein says reports show that over 500,000 have already been killed either as a direct result of military violence or from lack of medical care afterward. 150,000 Burmese refugees wait anxiously in Thailand while another million are stuck at the border of Myanmar and Thailand.

…”UN employees reported that over 3,300 villages have been burned to the ground,” says Klein. “It’s surpassing what happened in Rwanda and Darfur, and yet nobody seems to notice.”

via Mission Network News.

I think these attacks are aimed at anyone who is not supporting the Military Junta. But whatever the cause (and it could very well be Christianity), it’s alarming this doesn’t get the UN to condemn Burma. It has proved absolutely unable to do anything sound there, but at least it would underline the problem there, wouldn’t it?

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Jihad Jane: nothing new under the sun

Autonomous Mind cites a precendent of the Jihad Jane case.

There is a difference somehow: Anne-Marie Murphy actually married a Jordanian Arab and didn’t know his husband was actually a terrorist. Jihad Jane knew perfectly well what she was doing. Difference that the author rightfully points out.

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China: Missing Rights Activist possibly tortured after family escaped to US

a demonstration in Hong Kong to demand information about Gao Zhisheng's whereabouts on 4 Feb 2010

Certain that Chinese authorities are torturing Christian human rights activist Gao Zhisheng following the escape of his family to the United States, advocacy group China Aid Association (CAA) today urged the international community to take action on his behalf.

Earlier this year Gao had authorized CAA to release his account of 50 days of torture by state-sponsored thugs in September and October of 2007. Gao had written the account in November 2007 while under house arrest in Beijing after prolonged beatings and electric shocks on his mouth and genitals.

“Every time when I was tortured,” Gao wrote, “I was always repeatedly threatened that if I spelled out later what had happened to me, I would be tortured again, but I was told, ‘This time it will happen in front of your wife and children.’”

via Compass Direct News.

There is a page demanding information about his whereabouts, where everyone can sign the petition demanding information to the Chinese authorities.

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