China: 10,000 forced esterilizations on Puning county

Location of Guangdon province. Image via Wikipedia

Doctors in southern China are working around the clock to fulfil a government goal to sterilise — by force if necessary — almost 10,000 men and women who have violated birth control policies. Family planning authorities are so determined to stop couples from producing more children than the regulations allow that they are detaining the relatives of those who resist.

About 1,300 people are being held in cramped conditions in towns across Puning county, in Guangdong Province, as officials try to put pressure on couples who have illegal children to come forward for sterilisation.

The 20-day campaign, which was launched on April 7, aims to complete 9,559 sterilisations in Puning, which, with a population of 2.24 million, is the most populous county in the province.

…In Puning county couples with illegal children and their relatives who apply for permits to build a house are rejected. Illegal children are refused residency registration, a penalty that denies them access to healthcare and education.

Authorities have discovered, however, that those methods have less success than rounding up relatives.

One official said that an investigation would be launched to establish whether authorities in Puning had exceeded their remit.

…The county is under criticism from Guangdong authorities, who want to slow a population growth that is reflecting badly on the entire province. One reason for Puning’s large population is that families in the mainly rural region often have up to three or four children.

Many of those with extra children have left to find factory jobs along the more developed coast, taking advantage of being away from local government surveillance to give birth outside the quotas.

Rules in Puning, as throughout rural China, allow farmers to have a second child if the first is a daughter. After that couples must stop. By the morning of April 12 Puning officials said that they had achieved, in a mere five days, about half of their sterilisation goal after their “education” persuaded people to comply.

Via.

Absolutely terrible.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Chinese officials launch campaign to sterilise 10,000 (telegraph.co.uk)

Abdallah Jarbu: "only a madman would think the Jews are human"

The Hamas Minister for Religious Endowments has again spoken against the Jews and the Zionists, though this time he also adds the Crusaders, US and Europe to his hated enemies. He also says that he wants to prepare a martyrdom operation within Tel Aviv with “Ramallah authorities”.

The beauty of the speaker is at the same level as ever. Really ugly this guy, hein?

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZbebxsmWxUQ&hl=es_ES&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

Tx to An Egyptian.

Related: “Jews are Bacteria, May He Anihilate all this people“.

Iran: Increasing Qods Force presence in Venezuela

What a dreadful photo!!

Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Pentagon’s first report to Congress on Tehran‘s military. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Islamist shock troops deployed around the world to advance Iranian interests, “maintains operational capabilities around the world,” the report says, adding that “it is well established in the Middle East and North Africa and recent years have witnessed an increased presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela.”

Via.

More here and here.

Related: Ahmadinejad is now in Africa, increasing ties with Zimbabwe and Uganda.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A look at the Pentagon’s Iran report (powerlineblog.com)

Blogosphere: Palestinian Zionist Organization is Founded

Image via Wikipedia

For the first time since pre-State days when Zion and Palestine were synonymous terms, a “Palestinian Zionist Organization” has been established – by Arabs.

The latest Arab to show his public support for Israel is Elias Issa, who describes himself as a “European West-Bank Palestinian.” He writes that he chose a unique approach by which to celebrate Israel’s 62nd birthday – namely, by launching the Palestinian Zionist Organization. He says his goal is “to show the world why it must support the Jewish people and to [distance itself] from the terrorist Palestinian government.”

Statements on the new website include warnings that a new PA state, if it were to arise, would “become the most terrorist state in the world… The Palestinians don’t believe in a two-state solution; they only believe in a one-state solution – a land called Palestine [which] does not involve any Jewishness.”

Issa, who now lives in the United States, explains that the international community is blind “to what’s truly going on in this Middle East conflict. [I hope] to make a difference by shining a different kind of light on the Palestinian-Israeli situation.”

The website notes that “more and more Palestinians” are going public in their support for Israel.

Those are good news, but it’s interesting that this hasn’t had a lot of publicity.

South Park 0, RevolutionMuslim.com 1?

Image via Wikipedia

Background here.

According to CNN, there is apparently a debate going on inside the Muslim community after the threats warnings the Islamist webpage, RevolutionMuslim.com, issued against South Park’s creators.

Blogger Bilal el-Houri is agnostic but he grew up in a Muslim family in the mostly Muslim region of the Middle East. He said, “My first thoughts on the episode were “haha!”, but then I realized how deep and complicated this issue is.”

El-Houri said he was quickly reminded of tragedies that ensued from other infamous depictions of Prophet Mohammed. In particular he recalls the Muslim outrage in 2005 following publications of Cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. He said he witnessed in Beirut, Lebanon, crowds take to the streets and burn the building housing the Danish embassy.

“I remember seeing people crashing and burning police cars and ambulances that had nothing to do with Denmark or their cause.” He also recalled how “al Qaeda issued a call to murder Dutch politician Geert Wilders” for his film “Fitna” which was critical of Islam.

El-Houri observed that the “South Park” episode highlighted the fear from “barbaric Muslim retaliation” when a Muslim symbol is featured in the media. He said Muslims should focus on convincing others not to show iconic figure out of “respect to Islam” instead.

El-Houri’s advice to Muslims is to “appreciate free speech” and use its tools to debunk the misconceptions that exist around the world about Islam and showcase the peaceful side of their religion instead of reacting to what others publish or broadcast. “The media makes fun of Jesus, The Pope, politicians and so on, all the time, but you don’t see Catholics burning tires outside Comedy Central’s studios.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali agrees. The “South Park” episode “was not just funny, it wasn’t just witty” she said, but it also addressed what she called the essential issue that “one group of people, one religion, that is claiming to be above criticism, and I hope that in the aftermath of this, that we discuss that.”

The New York Post has a point:

Stone told web site Boing Boing that they couldn’t live with themselves if they gave up their freedom of expression by curtailing their humor, but he also admits that the current reality is awful. In a “South Park” episode from 2001, an image of Mohammad passed without incident but that, Stone explained, was before the Danish cartoon controversy, “so it somehow is fine.” Stone added, “Then, after that, now that’s the new normal. We lost. Something that was okay is now not okay.

Perhaps Stone and Parker can console themselves that President Obama has declared that we aren’t at war with “Islamic radicalism” anymore so hopefully no Islamic radicals will feel the need to stab them to death like film-maker Van Gogh.

The BBC has more on the Boing Boing interview:

Speaking in an interview with the Boing Boing website before the 200th show aired, the South Park team defended the scenes. ”We’d be so hypocritical against our own message, our own thoughts, if we said, ‘okay, well let’s not make fun of them because they won’t hurt us,’” said Parker.  ”It matters to me when we talk about Muhammad that I can say we did this… and I can stand behind that,” Stone added. 

“I don’t think it’s going to change the world, but this is how it’s got to be for our show.” 

In 2006, Comedy Central banned Stone and Parker from showing an image of Muhammad in an episode that was intended to be part of a comment on the controversy caused by the publication of caricatures of the prophet by a Danish newspaper. 

An earlier episode, Super-Best Friends (2001), contained an image of Muhammad but passed without comment.  ”It was before the Danish cartoon controversy, so it somehow is fine,” Stone told Boing Boing.

In the end, they have caved in (or was just a joke to confuse “censors”? It doesn’t really has very much to do with Stone’s words, does it?):

Satirical animated TV show “South Park” beeped out the words Prophet Muhammad and plastered its Wednesday episode with the word “CENSORED” after being issued a grim warning by a U.S. Muslim group.

The irreverent comedy show on Comedy Central also substituted a controversial image seen last week of the Prophet Muhammad in a bear outfit with one of Santa Claus in the same costume.

Via.

Here is how they responded to the threat:

We apologize that South Park Studios cannot stream episode 201 at this time.

After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode. We do not have network approval to stream our original version of the show.

We will bring you a version of 201 as soon as we can.

Via.

So, is there really a debate on the Muslim community? Remember than both Hirsi Ali and el-Houri are NOT Muslims now…

Related articles by Zemanta

• South Park airs ‘censored’ episode after threat (thestar.com)
• South Park Airs Censored Episode After Muslim Threat (wired.com)
• South Park Muhammad episode censored (guardian.co.uk)

Palestinian Media Watch: More children’s indoctrination

http://www.youtube.com/v/8dPb1bF-s4M&hl=es_ES&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

Why isn’t this denounced by any international organization?

This is yet another proof of the brainwashing Palestinian MSM are doing to children. Wouldn’t this be a crime?

Germany: video shows German jihadists in Afghanistan

Image by olaf.kellerhoff via Flickr

A few days ago, a new video emerged showing the fighters taking part in target practice at a training camp in Afghanistan. In the 31-minute-long video, the five German-speaking jihadists claimed responsibility for two attacks on American military installations in Afghanistan.

They call themselves the German Taliban Mujahideen and are a relatively new group, according to Yassin Musharbash, an editor at German news portal Spiegel Online and an expert on Islamic terrorism.

“There seems to be between six and 10 German-speaking fighters who are in Afghanistan, apparently acting under the command of the Afghan Taliban,” he said. They appear to have made their first online appearance in the fall.

According to Musharbash’s assessment, the German Taliban Mujahideen (DTM) formed from the scattered remnants of the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), a relatively small group that had been active in Afghanistan for years. The four young men of the so-called “Sauerland” group in Germany also belonged to the IJU. They were sentenced to long prison terms in March for preparing planned terrorist attacks in Germany.

“It’s my impression that the IJU has been mostly destroyed,” said Musharbash. Only a few sporadic traces remain of the group on the Internet. The marauding foreign fighters of the IJU apparently slipped under the wing of the Afghan Taliban. There, the German jihadists were able to form their own brigade, the DTM.

Musharbash speculated that their involvement in the attacks on the American and Afghan bases, referenced in the video, could have been a sort of internship for the men.

“The Afghan Taliban seem to have taken them along on two attacks – that’s what it looks like to me,” he said. “And for their part, the German jihadists made a big propaganda video for the German-speaking public, to show that they’re not just sitting around but actually taking part.”

Germany has warned in the past about Jihadi families.

Background on the Sauerland cell: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Other terrorist linked with them is German Taliban convert to Islam, Eric Breininger.

Related: The Third Generation.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 3 Germans Die in Afghan Clash (nytimes.com)
• Germans killed in Afghan attack (news.bbc.co.uk)
• 3 German soldiers killed in Afghan fighting (msnbc.msn.com)

Indonesia: Govt should reflect on corruption as “lubricant of terrorism activities”

Lists of Bali victims. Image via Wikipedia

The government needed to reflect on a series of failures exposed by the extremists’ recent activities, including poor intelligence and corruption.

“For all the progress that has been made in the last decade in understanding extremist networks and sharing information across the region about them, the ability to detect their activities remains weak,” it said.

“That Dulmatin, one of the region’s most wanted terrorists, could leave the Philippines, arrive in Indonesia and live in Jakarta for at least two years without anyone being the wiser suggests that there is still some way to go in improving basic information gathering and analysis.”

Dulmatin, a bomb-making expert and one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people, had “no difficulty getting a fake local identification card and passport,” it said.

The Aceh group had also used “corrupt police contacts to buy supposedly destroyed weapons… (illustrating) yet again how corruption becomes the lubricant for terrorist activities”.

In the past, experts have also told the Govt to control closely Islamic schools, because they are a very important place of radicalization. They have also denounced the lack of control over “Islamist ideology”.

Dulmatin, the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, was shot dead in an internet café in Jakarta, Indonesia last March 9th.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Indonesia must remain vigilant against terrorists (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Afghanistan: Australian forces capture key Taliban figure

Image via Wikipedia

Australian special forces troops from the Perth-based SAS Regiment and the Sydney-based Commando Regiment, along with Afghan police, netted Mullah Faqir and three other fighters north of Tarin Kowt.

His capture on April 12 came just a few weeks after three other bomb makers including senior Taliban commander Mullah Janan Andewahl were caught by Australian forces.

The Taliban strongman and his followers were handed over to Dutch authorities at Tarin Kowt where they were held in a high security prison at Camp Russell before being transferred to local authorities for processing.

A Defence statement said Mullah Faqir was the mastermind behind bomb attacks in the Mirabad Valley during March that wounded four Diggers and three Afghans.

One less jihadist.

Spain: Opinions on Najwa’s hijab

Indonesian text. It says: left image, wrong clothing, right image, right clothing. Image via Wikipedia

El Mundo reports (background here and here):

In the Calvary street, symbolically related to Christianity, a few meters from the City of Pozuelo de Alarcón, lives the small Muslim community of the town, consisting of between 150 and 200 people. In the street you can find Islamic butcher shops food and booths run by Moroccans, in addition to the small mosque, whose chairman is Mohamed, Najwa’s father, the 16 year-old under the neon lights after she was removed from class for wearing the Islamic veil.

“Since ten years ago, the Moroccans have been invading the area because it is the cheapest, but there is no problem with them,” said the clerk in a butcher shop on the street where Najwa’s family live. She has three younger siblings. They live in an old apartment of three rooms in the same street, whose rent costs about 800 euros per month. On the estate where they live -a block of flats with a three-story courtyard-, it’s said that living with them is “very good“, they are people “working“, “very religious“, that “there are no problems (with them).”

The area seems an example of coexistence. Moroccan and Spanish on the street greet each other with a confidence as if they knew each other for a lifetime. “How are you today?” The question is asked by Paqui, an already retired Spanish, to Fatima, his Moroccan neighbor, stuck in the doorway taking the air assisted with a respirator. “Well …“, replies, cocking his head this Moroccan woman who understands that “young Najwa can not wear the veil at school.” “If there are 40 who do not have and one that it has, it’s normal she is not allowed. They have to wear it all or none. When I go to work and I can not wear it, it is the law, it must be respected, “says Fatima, who wears the veil only when she is home. “Not married”, she says, looking as if she needed justification.

Moroccan women in the neighborhood say they most do hijab but “voluntarily”, no one forces them. “This is a matter of religion, we were it because we want, not because of our husbands. “When my daughters want to use it, they will be able to, but I would not force them,” says Zora, who works in the cleaning industry and considers Najaw’s mother, Fatima, as an example of their freedom of choice precisely.

“She didn’t do the hijab until she was over 30, when they had their children,” he says. Zora stresses that no one interferes in their decision. “With the hijab, we comply with the Quran. I told them at work I had to wear it and they told me there was no problem,” continues this woman who does not hesitate to support Najwa.

“It does not hurt anyone, she’s a good girl and has received this very bad. She insists on wearing it and that decision must be respected,” said Zora, which comes with several friends to make her purchases in a shop in the street, that despite the presence of Moroccans, has not become  a ‘ghetto’ at all. “We have been offended by the school’s decision because she is well dressed and going well for each school, there are some that go with pants down or broken and everyone can see evern their private parts,” explains the Moroccan who has been living about ten years in Spain.

Well, if those are not well-dressed they should be reminded about the regulations related to dressing.

Not all Muslims think the same in their neighborhood. “Everyone has the freedom to practice their religion, but in this case above that, there are school rules. You can wear the veil outside and remove it when you arrive to school,” says Khatib, who works at a mobile shop and understands the prohibition of the Institute Camilo José Cela. His friend Farid, who works in the area, doesn’t agree with him. “In Morocco we do not try to convince people about Islam or say to Spanish women who can not wear miniskirts,” he says.

No, they just think that speaking about Christianity to a Muslim is terrorism. Muslims could get converted to Christianity, corrupting their pure souls with Western ideas…

Regulations to be met

“It is the policy of the school and there’s nothing more to speak about,” another Moroccan neighbor said laconically. She wears a veil and prefers to remain anonymous. The Spanish neighbors think mostly that the regulations are there to be met. “These are the rules of the school, if women who go to Morocco have to wear the veil, and if they are given here everything as if they were Spanish, they will have to accept the rules,” insists another Spanish merchant of the area.

Meanwhile, Najwa is still at home, “very angry” and “sad” because if she has to change her school in the end, she will “cease to be with their friends,” says Marian, a cousin of the family, very upset with the decision of the institute.

Wasn’t she taking the decision, “whatever the outcome”?

“Spanish women are not obliged to wear the hijab when they are in Morocco. It is an unfair decision and although there is a regulation there should be exceptions. Wearing the headscarf is not a fad like wearing a hat,” says Marian, who defines Najwa as “very loving” and “friend of her friends“, who are supporting her in this particular ‘fight’.

So, can I enter a mosque without taking my shoes off, and without converting to Islam? Well, there you go, there should be exceptions. I want to see how a mosque looks like.

“Spanish and Moroccan” her cousin emphazises. She defines Najwa’s decision as if she were a Catholic nun. “It’s like a girl who decides to become a nun and dress like them, who’s going to say no,” she asks.

No, this case is as if a Catholic nun who had obligatory veil wanted to go without it. Catholic nuns are older than this girl and if required to take their veil off (for example to have their photos taken), they do it.

But there is another cause for this rule. Teenagers are used to wear MP3 or even the mobile headphones inside the cups/veils, whatever (see comments). So  most schools have forbidden them to rest assured that every student is paying attention during the class hours and not listening to music or something.

A commenter answers:

1. In Morocco you cannot eat or smoke in public during Ramadan.
2. A man and woman cannot go hand in hand by the streets.
3. A man cannot wear trousers which do not cover his knees.
4. You cannot enter on the 99% of the mosques (churches are open to everyone at every time…).
5. Bells cannot ring in the few Christian churches that exist.
6. The treatment to women is discriminatory.
7. You can’t use a bikini except on private beaches.
8. Once you cross the frontier there is no security, regarding your private rights.
9. Police stops foreigner vehicles to oblige them to pay for false infractions.

Does anyone know if any of the above quotes are true? I will search for them lately but if someone knows about them, please leave the link in comments.

ABC.es reports that the school’s door yesterday’s morning with stickers with the slogan “No to Islamization. No to the mosque” from far-right party Democracia Nacional (really judeophobic and anti-American too):

Najwa’s three companions arrived yesterday at the school. In solidarity with her, they were carrying the symbolic garment, although they took it off when entering the center. By contrast, the exterior wall of the center has appeared full of stickers with the slogan “Stop Islamisation. NO Mosque”. Several students began to remove the stickers, while a cleaning crew of the City of Pozuelo cleaned the wall.

It was 8.20 am when the three schools arrived. Giving their backs to the reporters and with ease faced cameras and reporters who had come to the place. “I give a shit what they have written in those stickers,” noted one of the minors.

The three children reported that Najwa is ‘very bad‘, “nervous” and “crying all day.”I repeat: wasn’t she the one who said she was wearing it whatever happened?

For this reason, their partners will continue the protest “until this changes.” They warned that they abide by the center’s decision but that they do not understandit: “I see no equality here and has been “superunjust”. It’s a religious thing you can not change, “said one of them. Najwa asked them to stop supporting her because she didn’t want them to “have problems” and “sufferings.” But the girls are determined to continue. “We will risk to the end, we are with her,” reiterated today the three of them. ‘Najwa will never take away the veil again”. 

So, they say they want to “risk everything till the end”. But they take off the hijab when entering the school, so they are supporting Najwa for doing something they are not doing themselves. If they were really “risking blablabla”, they will also enter the school’s premises with the hijab on.  My opinion is that they are really feeling like “heroes” fighting against the bad guys of the school… They have watched to many films I think.

A few meters away, the mother of a high school student, Paqui, spoke visibly upset at the situation, her support for the hijab ban. Being with their head unconvered “is the standard of the institute, we should remember that the school is secular public,” emphasized Paqui, while recalling that not long ago the school removed the crucifixes.  

The students don’t have the same views on the subject. “Education should be secular,” said one of them while removing the stickers. Another one, on the other hand, while performing the same task, added that he felt perfectly about the students’ decision to come to class with their heads covered, because it “falls under the freedom of each one.“ 

The School Board of the Institute decided yesterday to maintain regulations, by 15 votes in favor and two against. The school management also said that she was not expelled and that she has all her educational needs met. 

A professor and head of studies also spoke to reporters stationed at the door of the center. “We will not discuss the matter again until another proposal is presented. The regulation is correct and has been like that for a long time“says the head of studies regarding the rule prohibiting students to attend class with the head covered. 

The case, far from being closed, threatens to spread to other centers, as friends of Najwa said. The three said that she has not yet decided whether to switch to another center where they allow the use of headscarves.

Esperanza Aguirre. El Mundo.es

Esperanza Aguirre (right), the President of Madrid’s Autonomous Community has spoken on the issue:

The president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, warned today that the freedom of schools to adjust their standards of living and functioning “cannot in any way be questioned“, freedom which is also “respected and supported by the Regional Government“.

Aguirre has made these statements in reference to the vote that took place yesterday in the School Board of the Institute Camilo Jose Cela Pozuelo de Alarcon, who upheld the rules of the center that prevents the students from wearing any garment covering their heads and, therefore, the Islamic veil too.

The president has never specifically mentioned the controversy, but she wanted to state “loud and clear” that her government “respects the rules and operating instructions given by the cloister and the school board of each school“, approved “within their own management, to ensure peaceful coexistence and the success of the educational project“.

“What we can not in any way, as has been done these days, is let people question the freedom of each center to regulate their coexistence,” Aguirre stressed.

She insisted that the schools in the Community “will always have the support” of her government in the defense of the regulations that are passed by the cloisters, according to the Organic Law of Education and the decree that regulates Coexistence inside Madrid.

Other comments on the issue:

The president of the National Catholic Confederation of Catholic Student’s Parents (CONCAPAN), Luis Carbonel, expressed today his “respect” to the decision taken by the School Board of the Institute of Camilo Jose Cela Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), which ultimately will not change its rules and not allow entry of a Muslim student with a headscarf, so that she must attend another public school in the locality.

Carbonel declared to Servimedia that “the rules must be obeyed by all Spanish and foreign,” and stated that “decisions of a school board must be respected unless they are contrary to the Constitution” and in this case they are not, he added.

He also recalled that schools have the autonomy to decide on its rules of procedure and noted that “immigrants who come here enjoy the same rights, but have to assume the same obligations, and that means accepting our rules.”

“Like when we go to their country respect its rules and for example you do not enter a mosque footwear, they also have to be respectful to the rules of the host countries, in this case Spain,” Carbonel said.

Related articles by Zemanta

• In Morocco, a Crackdown on Christian Aid Workers (time.com)

UK: Islamist organization receives funds secretly

Image via Wikipedia

Fundamentalist organization “Islamic Forum of Europe” has close links to Muslim Aid, a charity foundation which was giving money to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It seems it continues its infiltration on Twoer Hamlets

As readers of the paper, this blog and viewers of Channel 4’s Dispatches will know, very disturbing things are going on at Tower Hamlets, the east London council which has fallen under the influence of an Islamic supremacist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe, based at the hardline East London Mosque.

The Labour council leader, Lutfur Rahman, squirmingly refuses to deny that he was elected to his job with the IFE’s help. Several key officials and councillors are closely linked to the IFE. Various organisations controlled by the IFE, including a youth group called the Osmani Trust, have been given enormous amounts of council money.

The Osmani Trust, run by leading figures in the IFE, is a recent merger of two IFE youth organisations, Blyda and Elite Youth. Part of its purpose, according to critics, is to take vulnerable young people off the streets and imbue them with the values of the IFE.

The man in charge of its project working with local gang members, Muhammad Rabbani, is the same person who trains young IFE recruits. Last year, he told them: “Our goal is to create the True Believer, to then mobilise these believers into an organised force for change who will carry out dawah [preaching], hisbah [enforcement of Islamic law, eg Sharia law] and jihad. This will lead to social change and iqamatud-Deen [an Islamic social, economic and political order.]… We have to bear in mind that victory is for Islam and Muslims.”

Despite the exposure of all this, the council’s cabinet brazenly decided on April 7 to hand another £500,000 to the Osmani Trust. Perhaps aware of what it might do to the Labour vote at next month’s election, the decision was taken in secret – only to be notified to the public once Labour was safely back in power. But I’ve been leaked the papers. Sorry, chaps!

In September 2008, Tower Hamlets decided to spend £3.3 million on building the Osmani Trust a new youth centre, even though there is already an existing, secular youth centre just round the corner, recently refurbished by the council at massive public expense. This sum then mysteriously rose to £4 million. It then mysteriously rose again, in June 2009, to £4.4 million.

This month, the Osmani Trust was secretly granted yet another half-million, taking the total council contribution to this project to £4.9 million – nearly 50% higher than the original amount. It will be given in the form of four and a half years’ free rent on the premises the council has just built them and is supposedly because the Osmani Trust has agreed to raise a similar amount from its other income for fixtures and fittings of the new building.

In fact, of course, quite a lot of the Osmani Trust’s “other income” also comes from… Tower Hamlets council. Last year Blyda and Elite Youth together scored a handy £400,000 worth of grants from the council, excluding money for the new building. They got a further £365,000 from other public sector bodies, including the NHS and the Big Lottery Fund. Nearly 70 per cent of their funding comes from the public purse.

As well as being done in secret, the decision to give the extra half-mill was taken under an unusual “urgency procedure”. So the alternative explanation for the council’s action, of course, is that they are anticipating defeat – and need to shovel as much public money as they can into the Islamists’ coffers before that happens.

Whatever the reason, the continued willingness of Tower Hamlets council to act as a paymaster for Islamists needs to be exposed to the public while they still have a chance, at the polls, to stop it.

Source.

Background on Tower Hastings here and here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Radicals with hands on the levers of power: the takeover of Tower Hamlets (telegraph.co.uk)
• The infiltration of Labour (telegraph.co.uk)
• Backlash at the mosque (telegraph.co.uk)
• Islamic radicals ‘infiltrate’ the Labour Party (telegraph.co.uk)
• Watch out: democratic Muslims about | Inayat Bunglawala (guardian.co.uk) [Very interesting the comments, much more than the article itself).

Afghanistan: gunmen kill Kandahar official praying in mosque

Suspected Taliban gunmen burst into a mosque and gunned down the deputy mayor of Kandahar at his prayers, officials said Tuesday — a brazen attack that underscored the immense challenges faced by Western forces as they push to restore law and order in the volatile southern city.
Kandahar and its surrounding districts are the focus of an expected drive this spring and summer to try to expel the Taliban and establish credible governance in Afghanistan‘s second-largest population center. The operation is already in its early stages.
In the meantime, serving as a municipal or provincial official in Kandahar has become one of the country’s most hazardous occupations. Azizullah Yarmal, the deputy mayor killed Monday night, was the latest in a roll call of local dignitaries marked for death in recent months by insurgents.
“Measures are being taken to strengthen the government system in Kandahar; therefore the enemy is trying to target government officials to slow this process,” said Zalmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
The assassination took place during evening prayers at the Sadozo Mosque, near one of the city’s most crowded markets. Dozens of worshipers were present, but Yarmal was clearly the target. He was shot multiple times, witnesses and officials said. The assailants escaped.
“He didn’t have any enemies,” said Ayubi. “He was a devout and sociable person.”
The attack came less than two months after the slaying of Majid Babai, a popular cultural affairs minister for Kandahar province. Gunmen on a motorbike cut him down Feb. 24 as he walked on a Kandahar street.

“We want Islam and the Taliban”, said a red-bearded man the other day. He really has a bad taste…

Related articles by Zemanta

• Kandahar deputy mayor shot dead (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Kandahar vice-mayor killed in mosque (cbc.ca)
• Insurgents suspected in slaying of Kandahar deputy mayor (ctv.ca)
• Afghan Deputy Mayor Slain While Praying (abcnews.go.com)
• Deputy Mayor of Kandahar Is Killed (nytimes.com)

US: Revolutionmuslim.com attacks South Park’s creators

Cover of South Park – Bigger, Longer & Uncut

The radical Islamic Web site Revolutionmuslim.com is going after the creators of the TV cartoon series “South Park” after an episode last week included an image of the Prophet Mohammed in disguise.

Revolutionmuslim.com, based in New York, was the subject of a CNN investigation last year for its radical rhetoric supporting “jihad” against the West and praising al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Its organizers insist they act within the law and seek to protect Islam.

On Sunday, Revolutionmuslim.com posted an entry that included a warning to South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone that they risk violent retribution – after the 200th episode last week included a satirical discussion about whether an image of the prophet could be shown. In the end, he is portrayed disguised in a bear suit.

The posting on Revolutionmuslim.com says: “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.” (Sounds like Al Capone to me…).

Theo van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered by an Islamic extremist in 2004 after making a short documentary on violence against women in some Islamic societies. The posting on Revolutionmuslim.com features a graphic photograph of Van Gogh with his throat cut and a dagger in his chest.

Supporting freedom of speech for them (calling for murder of other persons is OK) but not for the others (laughing about their beliefs is not).

More commentary here.

The Jawa Report has investigated the owner of RadicalMuslim.org, named Zack Chesser aka Abu Talhah al-Amrike and thinks that he is violating the terms of service of wordpress.com, which expressly say:

the Content is not pornographic, libelous or defamatory (more info on what that means), does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;

Of course, they are incinting violence.

Their abuse policy states:

• Personal threats
• Calls to violence
• Impersonation of a private person

You can write protesting the existence of “The Mujahid Blog” (anonymoused) to this mail adress: abuse-report at wordpress dot com.

Why that doesn’t surprises me?

Now they say that they were not asking for violence but just for protests. But one of the founders of the website, says that the “Q’uran commands Muslims to terrorise disbelievers”. Religion of Peace, hein? At least, not for this guy…

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed_edition&videoId=showbiz/2010/04/21/ac.griffin.south.park.threat.cnn

More here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Radical Islamic Site Threatens Creators of South Park (dvorak.org)
• South Park creators will “probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh” (hotair.com)
• South Park creators being threatened by radical Islamic site (inquisitr.com)
• Animated TV show South Park draws anger of radical Muslim website (network.nationalpost.com)

Turkey: the AKP’s foreign policy, another example of growing Islamism

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan via last.fm

More about this which is one of the most worrying things happening in foreign policy now, whatever Estonian president chooses to think:

The AKP, however, viewed Turkey’s interests through a different lens – one colored by a politicized take on religion, namely Islamism. Senior AKP officials called the 2004 U.S. offensive in Fallujah, Iraq, a “genocide,” and in February 2009, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan compared Gaza to a “concentration camp.”

The AKP’s foreign policy has not promoted sympathy toward all Muslim states, rather, the party has promoted solidarity with Islamist, anti-Western regimes (Qatar and Sudan, for example) while dismissing secular, pro-Western Muslim governments (Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia). This two-pronged strategy is especially apparent in the Palestinian territories, where at the same time that the AKP government has called on Western countries to “recognize Hamas as the legitimate government of the Palestinian people,” AKP officials have labeled Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the “head of an illegitimate government.”

According to diplomats, Abbas’ last visit to Ankara, in July 2009, went terribly.

As the cancelled military exercises with Israel show, the AKP’s a la carte, moralistic foreign policy is not without inherent hypocrisies. An earlier example came in January 2009, when, a day after Erdoğan harangued Israeli President Shimon Peres, as well as Jews and Israelis, at the World Economic Forum in Davos for knowing “well how to kill people,” Turkey hosted Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha in Ankara.

This is a dangerous position because it suggests – especially to the generation coming of age under the AKP – that Islamist regimes alone have the right to attack their own people or even other states. In September, Erdoğan defended Iran’s nuclear program, arguing that the problem in the Middle East is Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

Some analysts have dismissed such rhetoric as domestic politicking or simply an instance of Erdoğan losing his temper. But Erdoğan is an astute politician, and he is now reacting to changes in Turkish society. After seven years of the AKP’s Islamist rhetoric, public opinion has shifted to embrace the idea of a politically united “Muslim world.”

 So, now Turkish citizens are more pro-Islamist than when they voted him? Do I need to remind that Saudi Arabia has awarded Erdogan with King Faisal International Prize for “services to Islam by defending the Islamic nation”?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Arab League chief urges closer ties with Iran (sfgate.com)

Iraq: two top AQ terrorists killed

Two terrorists, who were two of the most wanted men, were killed two days ago:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri at a news conference and showed photographs of their bloody corpses. U.S. military officials later confirmed the deaths, which Vice President Joe Biden called a “potentially devastating blow” to al-Qaida in Iraq. 

The organization has proven resilient in the past, showing a remarkable ability to change tactics and adapt — most notably after its brutal founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed nearly four years ago in a U.S. airstrike. Still, some analysts contend, the group was far stronger then and would likely have a harder time now replenishing its leadership and sticking to a timetable of attacks.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=us/2010/04/19/bts.wh.biden.al.qaeda.deaths.cnn

Another terrorist was killed yesterday: Ahmed al-Obeidi.

Afghanistan: Taliban filmed swarming over abandoned US base “Valley of Death”

Footage of Taliban fighters swarming a former U.S. military mountain-top base in Afghanistan has been aired on a major satellite TV station.
Just days after American forces withdrew from the Korengal Valley – which has seen some of the toughest fighting in the Afghan war – armed insurgents can be seen over-running the area.
The video, which was shown yesterday on Al-Jazeera television, will be seen as a morale boost for Taliban fighters – even though the U.S. insists the area has no strategic value.
American soldiers spent five years defending the base, which the U.S. dubbed the ‘Valley of Death’ after 42 servicemen were killed in battle.
Taliban fighters said they wanted to see how the troops lived – and collected the abandoned fuel and ammunition, which they say they will use against the U.S. who they have pledged to follow and fight.
The footage shows men walking through the former U.S. base, which was strewn with litter and empty bottles, and sitting atop sandbagged gun positions overlooking the steep hillsides and craggy landscape.
Locals also visited the site. One who was interviewed said: ‘We don’t want Americans, we don’t want Germans or any other foreigner.
‘We don’t want foreigners, we want peace. We want Taliban and Islam – we don’t want anything else.’
But a U.S. military spokesman said ammunition had been evacuated and the fuel handed over to local residents.
Another man identified by Al-Jazeera as a local Taliban commander said the militants intended to use the base for attacks on U.S. forces.
Major TG Taylor, a spokesman for U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, said the Americans destroyed major firing positions and observation posts before they left, and if militants tried to use the base ‘we have two companies that can do an air assault there anytime we want’.

http://www.youtube.com/v/BsyNvgDvvQw&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0×999999&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

Related articles by Zemanta

• US military: No threat from abandoned Afghan base (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Loose ends in Afghanistan (timesunion.com)
• Nato pulls out of Taliban valley (news.bbc.co.uk)
• U.S. forces leave Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley (ctv.ca)

Yemen: supporting the child bride laws

This is an update on this story:

Sheik Mohammed Hamzi, an official of the Islamist Yemeni opposition party Islaah and the imam of the Al-Rahman mosque in the Yemeni capital of Sana, is one of those who staunchly opposes a legal ban on child marriage.
Although he emphasizes that a woman should not get married before she is physically and mentally ready and that she herself needs to accept the marriage, he believes a law that prohibits child marriage constitutes a rights violation.  
“I am against the child marriage law because it restrains the freedom of others. When a certain age [for marriage] is set, it violates the rights of others. For example, imagine a young man of 13 or 14 years of age who wants to have sex. … This is a violation of his rights,” Sheik Hamzi told The Times in an interview at his Sana home last week.

The fact that girls are abused, raped (see Nojoud’s case – 1, 2, 3-) and even killed is not important. The important thing is that some kind of teenager with pimples could have his “rights” to having sex diminished. Let’s get this right: none of these girls are married to a 15 year-old boy. They are married to full-grown adults (even old guys) who want to have a very obedient girl at home.

Hazmi dismisses claims by rights groups that there is a problem with child marriages in his country. He said the child-bride cases that have been reported in the media were merely isolated incidents.
“Just ask my mother and sisters how many times they’ve found a little girl getting married at the marriages they’ve attended,”  he said. “Not many.”
The country’s Ministry of Social Affairs, on the contrary, says child marriages are common in Yemen. According to a 2009 report by the ministry, a quarter of all females in Yemen marry before the age of 15. (Of course, this means that they are so few, doesn’t it).
To Hazmi, however,  women’s- and children’s-rights activists are putting a few isolated cases of  child marriage in the spotlight to rally support for the law.
“There is no problem here with child marriage,” he said. “These cases of young girls getting married are exceptions. These organizations that are promoting for this law couldn’t find any examples except for those of Nujoud and Elham.”  (NOTE.- Some days ago another 11-year-old girl was also hospitalised after suffering from genital injuries. If I, that have no ground or deep knowledge of the problem but just what I read, have found another case, which happened very few days ago, imagine someone who has access to the data base of the Interior Ministry. In fact, around 50% of Yemeni girls are married before 18).
Hazmi said the groups that are campaigning for the law were harmful to the country, trying to promote a “Western agenda” in Yemen.
“It’s all a Western agenda they are following,” he said. “They get paid from the West to make us to believe in Western culture. This is very bad because our culture is different here.”
The best that could happen, in his opinion, is that the government shuts them down.
“No one wants to marry these women’s-rights activists anyway,” he said. “They’re just depressed that they are not married and jealous.”

Oh, please, this is soooo old an argument. Every woman who wants basic rights is because is ugly and doesn’t have any gorgeous guy this one to marry. But it’s interesting that chauvinist male pigs always use the same type of reason to deny women’s rights. “There are no males to marry these women, that’s why we marry prepubescent girls, in fact 1 out of four”. Doesn’t it sound ridiculous?
By the way, this guy is absolutely disgusting. No wonder he has to marry girls, because I seriously doubt that a full-grown woman would consent to be with him. Of course, he would only have to say that she is very ugly for him and is jealous about it…
Anyway, for me it’s worse to see women demonstrating against child brides ban, than seen this bearded lazy imam speaking against them.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Another Dead Child-Bride (kristof.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Brides of Death: Yemen Child Dies from Rupture of Sex Organs after Marriage (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)
• Dead Yemeni child bride tied up, raped, says mom (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• 13-year-old Yemeni bride dies of bleeding (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Bride, 11, Hospitalized with Genital Injuries (abcnews.go.com)

Iran: "Women who don’t dress modestly, the cause of earthquakes"

Image by National Media Museum via Flickr

“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair. “What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?” Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon last week. “There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes.” Seismologists have warned for at least two decades that it is likely the sprawling capital will be struck by a catastrophic quake in the near future. Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830.

The Guardian.

I would like to see the empirical evidence that leads this mullah to that conclusion…

Rob:

“If promiscuous women can cause earthquakes, what kinds of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s behavior might cause a nuclear bomb to detonate or be detonated?

Peace and love, of course…

Related articles by Zemanta

• Quakes ‘blamed on immodest women’ (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Scantily-dressed women cause earthquakes, Iranian cleric says (telegraph.co.uk)
• Earthquakes Caused by Scantily Clad Women, Not Earthquake Machines Sez Iranian Cleric (dvorak.org)
• Iranian cleric: Promiscuous women cause quakes (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Bitches: Is There Anything That Isn’t Their Fault? (slog.thestranger.com)
• Iranian Cleric: Promiscuous Women Cause Earthquakes (alan.com)
• Iranian cleric would like you sluts to stop causing Earthquakes (trueslant.com)

Spain: school confirms hijab’s prohibition

This is an update on this story:

The Centre’s management announced that the Board of Education of the Secondary Education School “Camilo José Cela” has “decided to maintain the internal rules unchanged“, according to a statement written by its director, Eduardo de Bergia. The center expelled a student from a Muslim background last week after she attended class with the veil.

Now, the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid announced that, if the child wants to keep going to school with the veil, they will search “immediately” for another one, near the current center, in which they permit her go with the veil according to its internal rules, reported the deparment’s official sources.

After an hour and a half meeting, the School Board, formed in addition to the permanent members (director, head teacher and secretary), by representatives of teachers, pupils, parents and administrative staff, decided to leave the article 32 of the regulations which states: “Inside the building it’s not allowed to use caps or any other garment that covers the head.”

The announcement made by the center just after the meeting, in addition to explaining their position, points out that “most of the students are underage”, and that “the center does not have permission from their legal representatives to let them being interviewed or have their pictures taken”, following the media expectation that has raised the case and that has caused journalists crammed into the gates of the Secondary School from early in the morning.

One of the members of the School Council, the Councillor for Education from Pozuelo de Alarcon, Maria Jesus Castillo, told the media present when the meeting was over, that the vote had been “secret” and that at all times “the autonomy of center has been respected”.

Thus, the 16-year-old, who is unable to attend class since last week, has to make a decision. So, she could be changed to a center at 300 meters from its present one or abandon the Islamic hijab and stay in her current class with her colleagues.

As educational sources explained, the first option would be considered if the schoolgirl, as noted in recent days, maintains her stance of wanting to study at the center with his head covered. In this case, the Department of Education has offered another Secondary School not far from where she is studying. 

Indeed, the Councillor for Education, who is also chairman of the School Board raised the possibility of her going to the Secondary School San Juan de la Cruz, located on the street with the same name, near the Camilo José Cela. This center, unlike the IES Camilo José Cela, doesn’t have any rule that ban students to attend classes with their heads covered (whatever it’s a hat, scarf or hood, for example), so there would be no problem for her to be enrolled immediately, even at mid-year.

Another option is that the student eventually resigns to go to class without a veil, as she has done so far, to remain in her school. By now, as today explained the father, the child is receiving counseling for “depression” and it is unclear what decision she will take.

Meanwhile, Spanish Minister of Education, Ángel Gabilondo has supported the banning of crucifixes and the admittance of hijabs, because the latter “doesn’t offend to anyone”. A minister of the self-called “more feminist Government of the Spanish history” is not offended by a symbol of masculine dominance over the women. ABC continues:

The Education Minister, Angel Gabilondo, supported today the school attendance of girls expelled from the Secondary School Camilo José Cela in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) because of having their head covered with the Islamic “hijab” because in his opinion the right to education “is above every one else in this matter“.

In statements given to the media after attending the delivery of the master scholarships of the Spanish Social financial entity “la Caixa”, Gabilondo said that “each person’s right to their own image, freedom of religion and, mainly, the right to education, are above this controversy“. “I support the children’s right to attend class,” he said.

Regarding the possibility that the future Religious Freedom Act will be governing these aspects, the minister said that “one can not compare the identification of a group in a secular society, as established by the Constitution, with a particular and personal measure.” “The law is not going to get into these things,” settled.

The minister’s opinion conflicts with the views expressed by those responsible for Education in the Community of Madrid. If at first, the Department’s Chief, Lucia Figar, merely stated that the Regional Executive respected the internal rules of this morning, Francisco Granados has raised the tone. Granados, Chief of Interior, Presidence and Justice of the Community, said that parents who want their daughters wear the veil will have to choose schools in which hijabs are allowed and added that the Community is against the use of this garment .”We believe it is an element of differentiation and discrimination is wrong to encourage.”

Also mentioned this controversy the Ombudsman for Children, Arthur Canalda, which has recommended the institute responsible for addressing this issue from “a human point of view.” Canalda understands that regarding the current legislation, one has to be lenient with the “hijab”. “Either it’s a free issue or the veil is changed” he said. The Ombudsman has tried to get away from the general debate and has recommended to meet “the personal situation of these girls.”

Cambodia: 17 April 1975

Last Saturday marked the 35th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power in Cambodia. You can read the absolutely great record of a Cambodian woman, who managed to survive the genocidal Govt:

The Khmer Rouge, I understood later, intended to eliminate the rich, the intellectuals, and anyone educated – like doctors, engineers and professors, the majority of whom tended to live in the city. For the Khmer Rouge these people were part of a dictatorial and corrupt regime that exploited the poor, and they sought to destroy everything they thought belonged to this world: buildings, luxury cars, villas, refrigerators.
…Everyone became quiet for a long time while wondering who would be the next victim. My heart was heavy with sorrow for the families of the deceased. Moreover, I had almost lost my daughters in the jungle during this same journey – a story too long to describe here.
With time, more and more of the new people died – from hunger, disease, from a plague of sheer exhaustion, but most of all from the massacres perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. They killed people on perfectly ridiculous pretexts: wearing spectacles, knowing how to read or how to open the door of a car, even for having a white mark on the wrist (a sign of having worn a watch). For the Khmer Rouge, these were all signs that the person concerned belonged to a rich, dictatorial class.
It was common to see a man whose face was pale, trembling with fear, being paraded through the village with his hands bound behind the back, guarded on either side by Khmer Rouge cadre carrying large machetes. It was terrifying: everyone knew that they were going to decapitate this man. The scene served its purpose of warning us that the Khmer Rouge wielded absolute power. We lived from one day to the next. We had no idea what might happen to us in the night or on the following day.

Read it all.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Genocide charges for Khmer Rouge (news.bbc.co.uk)