Europe: The halal market grows

This is Beurger King Muslim, a fast-food clone with an important difference: it is halal, serving hamburgers and fries that conform to Muslim dietary laws.

“I used to go to McDonald’s once a week, but all I could eat was the Filet-O-Fish sandwich,” said Ms. Guenineche, a fashionable French-Algerian girl in low-slung jeans and a tight top who, despite wearing her long hair loose, eats only halal. “Now I come here.”

American fast-food restaurant chains have long tailored their menus to local tastes and habits around the world, but one market they have largely missed is the growing Muslim population in Europe, five million strong in France alone. Europe’s observant Muslims have had to thread their way through a world laden with pork-filled wursts and bloody beefsteaks, taking meals outside their homes at the occasional kebab shop instead.

Now there is Beurger King Muslim, whose name is a play on that of the famous American hamburger chain and the French slang word “beur,” which means “Arab.” The restaurant’s logo is a globe with a burgundy ring around it and the Arab world covered by the letters BKM, which are also the initials of the restaurant’s three founders, Morad Benhamida, Abdelmalik Khiter and Majib Mokkedem.

But not only in France the halal market is booming. UK’s largest supermarkets chain has launched halal meat counters:

Store manager Emma Grant, said: “Demand in the store for Halal products is high and customers are delighted with the quality of the foods they can find here. The launch of the new counter means greater local choice and convenience for new and existing customers.”

This is the second Halal Meat Counter that the Birmingham-based National Halal Food Group has opened for Tesco customers within the region. Chief Executive Muhammed Yaquoob, said: “The launch of the counter in Hodge Hill means that customers can readily obtain a range of high quality meats which meet specific spiritual requirements.

Well, the market is just answering to new demands. This is just another evidence of the change that is happening. I don’t think forbidding it is the solution, despite being a result of the application of Sharia Law. Whatever the reasons for opening halal shops and restaurants, this could be just another cause of “ghettoizing” more the Islamic communities. This has two consequences: radicalization and lack of assimilation in the country.

Photo | Facebook.

France: middle-class Muslims fueling halal boom market

Image by Omar Omar via Flickr

A boom in sales of halal products, including alcohol-free bubbly and goose liver paté approved by Islamic law, is being driven by the emergence of an affluent middle class of young Muslims in France. Known as the beurgeois – a play on bourgeois and the word beur, slang for a French person of North African descent – these new consumers are behind a rapidly expanding and highly profitable market in halal food and drinks.
With spending power worth an estimated €5.5bn a year these under-40s are forcing international food suppliers to cater for their demands. Younger members of France’s estimated 5 million-strong Muslim community – with whom relations have been strained by the recent debate on national identity and threats by Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-of-center government to ban the burqa – are asserting their economic muscle. As one French website put it, halal is “very good business” for French companies.

The problem is not that they buy and consume halal products (besides the suffering animals get when they are slaughtered with halal methods). The problem would be when they would like everyone else to eat the same (pork restrictions or alcohol ban in quarters mostly inhabited by Muslims for example).

Anyway, seeing Shariah Law introducing itself on France because “it is a good business”, doesn’t make me feel comfortable. It gives me the creeps… really.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Middle-class Muslims fuel French halal boom (guardian.co.uk)

Afghanistan: identities of French jornalists, hostages of the Taliban, released

Taponier (left) and Ghesquière (AFP).

The Committe to Protect Journalists explains in their official webpage the situation they are in.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the new demands made by a Taliban group that is holding captive two French television journalists, Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier, translator Mohammed Reza, and the group’s driver. They were taken in Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul, in December.
…In a statement on one of their Web sites, the Taliban said they sent the Afghan government a list of detainees whose release they demanded in exchange for the French prisoners. “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan submitted a list of very ordinary prisoners to the French government for release in exchange for the two French citizens and their Afghan colleagues. But the French government showed no interest, consideration or compassion for the release of its citizens. There is no other option.

“If those involved in this issue do not show swiftness and urgency, then the life of the French will face danger,” said the Pashto-language statement, which was widely translated by Afghan and Pakistani news outlets.

France Television, which owns France 3, had been withholding the identities of Ghesquière, 47, and Taponier, 46, explaining that it was doing so to protect their safety. After the release of the video, the France 3 Web site said, the families of the hostages gave permission for the release of names and photographs of the two French journalists. 

Related: Taliban threaten to kill 2 French journalists.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Taliban Asks France to Arrange Detainee Swap (abcnews.go.com)
• Taliban wants detainee swap with France (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Taliban militants threaten to kill kidnapped French journalists (cnn.com)
• French TV bends to Taliban, airs hostage pleas (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Afghanistan: Taliban threaten to kill 2 French journalists and their Afghan translator

Image via Wikipedia

Afghan Taliban militants, holding two French journalists since December, have said in a video they’d kill the captives if France doesn’t meet their demands.

The Taliban demands include the release some detainees in France, CNN reported.

The two journalists were shown separately in video clips posted online, the report said.

A statement said the journalists, their translator and driver would be killed if the video is not shown on French television, the report said. Only the voices of the journalists are heard on the video.

The Taliban in a written statement said it has submitted a list of the “most ordinary detainees to the government of France for release as an exchange for the two Frenchmen and their Algerian colleague,” the CNN report said. “There is no other option for the release of the said detainees except the option of detainees exchange.”

So it’s once again the same: do what we’re telling you or else… CNN has reported that the French Government has said nothing about the matter. 

Related articles by Zemanta

• French TV bends to Taliban, airs hostage pleas (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Taliban wants detainee swap with France (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Taliban Release Video of 2 French Hostages (abcnews.go.com)

PS: The blog at blogetery has been inactive all morning. It is a very good free platform when it’s active, but I can’t really rely on it any more. 

I will upload the posts I had written in blogetery in the wordpress.com blog to have them all in one place. 

France: Citizenship will be denied to Moroccan man who forces wife to wear niqab

France denies citizenship to Moroccan man who forces wife to wear full veil | World news | guardian.co.uk

France is to refuse to grant citizenship to a Moroccan man who forces his wife to wear the full veil, arguing that his adherence to a strict strand of Islam is incompatible with the country’s values, the immigration minister said today.

Eric Besson said he had signed a decree explaining that the man, whose identity was not made public, was being denied citizenship because his behaviour towards his French wife (!!) contravened secularism and women’s rights.

“It emerged during the inquiry and the interview process that this person forced his wife to wear the full veil, deprived her of freedom of movement with her face exposed and rejected the principles of secularism and equality between men and women,” Besson said in a statement.

Really good news!!

Tags: Women in Islam , Islamic veil , France , secularism , Islam , Human Rights , Eric Besson

France: Sarkozy backs off “burqa ban”, says that no one “can be stigmatised”

In the end, they are not at all “closely moving to ban the burqa”:

The French Government aims to outlaw the wearing of full veils on state premises and on public transport.President Sarkozy laid down future action on the burqa, as it is popularly known, on Wednesday in an attempt to end a feud in his centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and calm passions in and outside France’s large Muslim population. Following the controversy, France is backing away from an outright ban on Muslim women covering their faces.

Mr Sarkozy, all main parties and most of the public are opposed to women wearing full veils but, after six months of parliamentary hearings, it has become apparent that a blanket ban would be unworkable and likely to backfire.

In Wednesday’s New Year speech to MPs, the President sought to quash an attempt by Jean-Francois Cope, his party’s Parliamentary leader, to rush through an “anti-burka law”. Mr Cope, who is in dispute with the UMP leadership, has tabled a Bill under which women who wear full veils anywhere in public would face a £670 fine. Their husbands or other accompanying men would also face fines.

… “The full veil is not welcome in France because it is contrary to our values and contrary to the ideals we have of a woman’s dignity. No-one can doubt my firmness on this,” he told the MPs. “But it is vital to conduct ourselves in a way that no-one feels stigmatised. We must find a solution which enables us to win the widest support.”

via Sarkozy aims to outlaw niqab on public transport but outright ban is ‘unworkable’ – Times Online.

Is it so difficult to understand that anyone can carry anything inside a burqa, that there are serious difficulties when identifying people under the burqa? It seems it is.

Also that part about “stigmatising” always makes me laugh. Wearing a blanket is also a stigmatisation of the woman who wears it: it means that men can be attracted to her, so she is sinning, because she is not being modest enough (1, 2). Of course, normally, Islamic women do not think of this as insulting, they just consider they “feel respected“.

Before: Fadela Amara: The burqa is a prison, a straitjacket, “Allah’s revenge” on Sarkozy for proposing “burqa ban”?, Fadela Amara: more on the burqa ban, Sarkozy’s UMP studies burqa’s prohibition on public places, Curb on veil in Egypt, backed by Islamic clerics, French opposition takes stand against burqa ban,

France: moving closer to banning full Muslim veil

Marianne

An interesting piece which WaPo run some days ago about UMP’s project of banning full Muslim veil:

In a country whose national emblem is Marianne, a bare-chested woman, there is deepening concern over the all-encompassing garb, often black or brown and worn with gloves, attire typical in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Here, it is widely viewed as a gateway to radical Islam, an attack on gender equality and other French values, and a gnawing away at the nation’s secular foundation.President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the door to a possible ban in June, telling a parliament session in Versailles that such dress “is not welcome” in France. A parliamentary panel set to work in July on a six-month mission gathering information on the garments.

A Widow's Black burqa

On Tuesday, the head of Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party in parliament’s lower house, Jean-Francois Cope, jumped the gun before the panel’s report was finished, and filed draft legislation on a ban. “No one may, in spaces open to the public and on public streets, wear a garment or an accessory that has the effect of hiding the face,” the draft text reads.

The document cites public security concerns, thus includes all face-covering clothes, in a bid to head off challenges from those who might claim such a law would violate constitutional rules on individual rights – a major concern along with how such a law would be enforced. It foresees fines for those who break the law.

The initiative, unlikely to go to debate before spring, would be the second time France targets Muslim dress. A 2004 law born in acrimony bans Muslim headscarves and other “ostentatious” religious symbols in the classrooms of French public schools. Sarkozy’s party dominates parliament and the president reiterated Wednesday his wish for a law on full veils, though it’s too early to say whether it will pass.

Europe’s growing Muslim population has bred tension across the continent. Wariness is pervasive since deadly attacks in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005 by Islamic radicals living in Europe. And some non-Muslims sense a threat by a foreign culture to their way of life. It took only four minarets on Switzerland’s 200 mosques to push the Swiss to vote “no” to minarets in a November referendum.

via France moves closer to banning full Muslim veil – washingtonpost.com.

Before: Fadela Amara: The burqa is a prison, a straitjacket, “Allah’s revenge” on Sarkozy for proposing “burqa ban”?, Fadela Amara: more on the burqa ban, Sarkozy’s UMP studies burqa’s prohibition on public places, Curb on veil in Egypt, backed by Islamic clerics, French opposition takes stand against burqa ban.

Marianne | Detail from Delacroix’s Freedom Leading the People, 1830.

France: imam expelled for inciting violence against the West

France has deported a Muslim preacher to Egypt for making public speeches inciting violence against the West.

Announcing the move, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux described Ali Ibrahim el-Soudany as a “dangerous individual”.

Mr Soudany, who had for months been preaching at a mosque near Paris, was expelled on Thursday, officials said.

Mr Hortefeux said the Egyptian citizen had been “calling for a fight against the West, spurning the values of our society and inciting violence“.

via BBC News – France expels ‘dangerous imam’ for inciting violence.

Well done!

AQIM: 20-day dayline for French hostage’s life

What will they ask for the three Spanish volunteers also in their power?

Al-Qaida’s North Africa offshoot demanded the release of four of its members in exchange for a French hostage it kidnapped two months ago, in a message posted on militant Web sites Monday that gave a 20 day deadline.Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb said that their only condition for the freeing of Pierre Camatte is the release of four members of the group arrested by Mali several months ago.

“We give France and Mali 20 days from the date of issuing this statement to respond to our legitimate demand otherwise the two governments will be fully responsible for the French hostage’s life,” it said in a statement dated Sunday.

The group announced last month its kidnapping of Camatte in Mali Nov. 25 and three Spaniards in Mauritania five days later.

… The group has not yet set conditions for the release of the three Spaniards who had been travelling at the tail end of a convoy distributing aid to poor villages along the coast of Mauritania when they were abducted.

In its earlier statement, the group said the kidnapping was in retaliation for “the Crusaders’ war against Muslims and Islam everywhere and the killing of innocent people and occupying their lands.”

via The Canadian Press: Al-Qaida North Africa branch demands release of 4 imprisoned members for French hostage.

https://teaandpolitics.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/aqim-the-kidnapped-volunteers-will-be-treated-according-to-islamic-law/

France: opposition takes stand against burqa ban

This is an update on this story:

France’s opposition Socialists on Wednesday came out against calls for a law banning the full Islamic veil but said Muslim women must be discouraged from wearing the burqa.The announcement by the Socialists came after President Nicolas Sarkozy left open the prospect of legislation to ban the veil and ahead of a much-awaited parliament report on the loaded issue to be released at the end of the month.

… “We are totally opposed to the burqa. The burqa is a prison for women and has no place in the French Republic,” Socialist Party speaker Benoit Hamon said. “But an ad hoc law would not have the anticipated effect.”

The Socialist spokesman nevertheless called for action.

The wearing of the full veil reflects a “shift away from a certain type of (moderate) Islam”, he said, adding: “We must use all of the legal instruments at our disposal to ensure that this behaviour is condemned when it is encouraged.

via AFP: French opposition takes stand against burqa ban.

But not only burqa’d women will be punished, but any person who has the face completely covered will be fined with €750.

France: Father kills his three daughters, then shoots himself

They were of “Moroccan origin” and he had served a prison term after “assaulting his wife“, because she wanted to have a divorce (who wouldn’t?):

Firefighters have made an eerie discovery in the French town of Haguenau.At the house firefighters discovered three girls, who, according to police, all had had their throats cut.

They were sisters, aged five, 11 and 13 years.

The charred corpse of a man who probably was the girls father, was also found in the rubble of the burning house.

The family is of Moroccan origin, and the parents were separated for a few months ago.

The daughters, who lived every day with their mother, had celebrated New Year with his father.

He had recently been released from prison after serving a sentence of 15 months in prison for assault on his wife.

It is the police theory that the father killed his three daughters Friday, before he set fire to the house and shot himself.
Google Translate from Ekstrabladet.dk.

Under “Latest News from Alsace, the husband had taken his wife by force in the forest of Haguenau and have practiced violence to force her to abandon the separation.

His wife, a hospital employee, had left home August 31 with their three daughters.

After his release November 5, the father had obtained a right of access to his daughters, but he was prohibited from approaching his wife, who lives in the same city.

(via)

Loving man: first assaults his wife, then kills daughters on one of the few days they were together, by cutting their throats.

Afghanistan: Two French journalists kidnapped

2010 begins as 2009 finishes… unhappily:

Suspected Taliban militants kidnapped two French journalists working for France’s public television broadcaster and three Afghan companions in the east of the war-torn country, a colleague said Thursday.Gunmen snatched the group as they were travelling around 60 kilometres (38 miles) from the Afghan capital on Wednesday, a French journalist working with them told AFP.

Criminal groups and Taliban insurgents have kidnapped several dozen foreigners, many of them journalists, since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul, sparking a nine-year insurgency.

via AFP: Two French journalists kidnapped in Afghanistan.

France: Sarkozy’s UMP studies burqa’s prohibition in public places

A Widow's Black burqa

They don’t want the Constitutional Council or the European Tribunal to modify the law. From Le Figaro (Translation T&P):

[The law] will be founded on the “need to being able to identify all the people in public places (hospitals, public transports…)“. This prohibition will have “the advantage of being applicable and will answer the problems facing public service agents“. The Minister, Hortefeux, has also suggested to make the integral veil a criterion of integration in the national community. “Nothing would be more normal than refusing residence status systematically to people wearing this garment and to her husband. Naturalization, that is, the entry in this national community, doesn’t look to me as desirable in that case“. Nowadays, around 1900 women wear the niqab and 3/4 of them are France. “But we must underline that we don’t support the radical communitarism“, the Minister insisted.

So leftist newspaper Publico writes:

France is nearer today to the prohibition law against burqa, hijab and all the forms of Islamic veil, confirming the obsessive moment it lives in its relastionship with the 8 million people of Arab culture or Muslim religion living in their soil.

Well, first, no one has spoken of a total prohibition of Islamic veils BUT of full veils. Secondly, some French Socialists are also  supportive of a total ban of burqa and niqab, seen as a absolutely against women’s basic rights. Thirdly, no one could ever consider than in a socially backward culture as these women are living, in which they can’t even walk alone in the streets, etc, etc, they are going to recognise they are using this garment because they are obliged to.

Spain: AQIM speaks about Islamists imprisoned in Spain

This is an update on this story (1, 2, 3, 4). El Mundo:

Sources of the Penitentiary Institutions in Spain reported yesterday that there are 64 Islamists imprisoned in Spain, most of them condemned by Jihadist activities related to March 11th bombings, and with Police Operations called “Nova” and “Dátil”.

Nearly a dozen Islamists condemned by their role on March 11th bombings, are imprisoned, among others,Jamal Zougam, who was an active player in the massacre.

Islamists related to March 11th bombings were accused of being “members of cells or terrorist groups, Jihadist-related, who, using violence as a mean to achieve their targets in all their activities, want to end every democratic regime and eliminate the culture of Western Christian tradition. They also want to impose an Islamic state under Sharia Law, that is, the Islamic Law in its most radical, extreme and less common expression”.

In “Operación Nova”, the Third Section of the Criminal Tribunal from the National Court published on Feb 2008 a sentence in which 20 Islamists were condemned to 173 yearsin prison. The charges were belonging and colaborating with terrorist organization.

Lastly, “Operación Dátil” ended with a sentence of the same tribunal on Sept 2005. It condemned 18 person, among others Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, aka “Abu Dahdah”. He was considered as the leader of an AQ cell in Spain. He was also condemned on conspiration charges related to Sept 11 2001 attacks on US.

ABC.es:

In the text, the criminals announce they will “not stop” in “our will to combat and kill you and we will resist your attacks to help our tortured imprisoned [fellows] in your prisons”. In Spanish prisons there are around 60 Jihadist prisoners and some of them belong to the Salafist school. Linked to the latter, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat was born, group which was later transformed into AQIM.

…Even if officially there are no proofs of financial payments from the Governments, it is true that the terrorists have only freed the hostages after their financial demands were fully satisfied. One of the organizations which has mediated in some of AQIM kidnappings is the foundation directed by Seif El Islam, Muamar El Gadaffi’s son, who has a “widespread net” in the Sahel’s area, although in the last kidnappings another channels have also been used. France and Spain will work together in the negotiation’s area for obvious reasons: French Administration knows well the area because of its condition of former metropoly.

AQIM: “The kidnapped volunteers will be treated according to Islamic Law”

This is an update on this story. ABC.es:

According to AQIM, the “mujahideens” (radical Islamic fighters) who perpetrated “these operations” “are already in their “security bases”, in a non-located region and again, as in yesterday’s message, they say that they terrorist group will publish later the “legitimate demands of the mujahideens”.

The note also sends a message to the “crusaders”, a denomination that Al-Qaeda normally uses for Western countries, and adds that the kidnapped’s security only depends of the “combattants and their Muslim brothers”. The press release finishes with the normal calls for Jihad and in favor of the liberation of their imprisoned comrades.

Meanwhile, two of the March 11th bombings’ victims’ associations have asked the Government to be firm against Al-Qaeda.

Spain: AQ acknowledges they kidnapped a French and 3 Spanish volunteers

ADN.es:

Terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) has acknowledged today that they kidnapped the three Spanish voulunteers, last Nov 29th, according to a press release they have issued today.

In the press release they also acknowledge the kidnapping of another volunteer, a French national. He was taken captive on Nov 25th,

the message was read by a person who identified himself as Salab Abu Mohammed, an AQIM’s speaker.

According to Al-Yazira, Abu Mohammed assured that his organization will send mails to Spanish and French Governments about the conditions to free the 4 captives.

😡 We’ll see what those conditions are…

Coca-Cola Co defends the famous drink is “halal“

(Translation: T&P)

Everything began two years ago by a growing rumour: Coca-Cola contained alcohol. Muslim sites, forums and articles spread the rumour. Associations and citizen media, for example Al-Kanz blog, a very fashionable one at that time, began asking questions once and again about the beverage. And received an standard answer: “Our beverages are known by Gvt’s authorities to be non-alcoholic in every country“.
But this wasn’t satisfactory. French legislation considers that a beverage is “non-alcoholic” if it contains less than 1,2% of alcohol.
So they asked, what is Coca-Cola’s “secret ingredient”? After some doubts, Coca-Cola France decided to call “the certification’s authority from Paris’ mosque“, explains Philippe Marty, the firm’s speaker. They ordered an analysis of Coca-Cola by an independent laboratory. “So, we have guaranteed that Coca-Cola doesn’t contain alcohol and, therefore, is halal“, says Sid Cheikh, the certification’s chief at the mosque. He added that “ so many unfounded accusations were done without any religious basis. This is more political. But the people worry because of their notoriety“.

link: Le Figaro – France : Coca-Cola sous la pression d’associations musulmanes

France: Fadela Amara on the burqa ban

It’s always good to see a Muslim speaking about women’s rights and not saying “the Prophet told me…”

A ban on wearing the all covering burka in France would stem the spread of what French minister Fadela Amara called the “cancer” of radical Islam, a report quoted her as saying Saturday. The Muslim minister for urban regeneration told the Financial Times newspaper that the head-to-toe body covering and veil represented the “oppression of women, their enslavement, their humiliation.“
Amara, who is of Algerian descent, said France was a beacon for an enlightened Islam at ease with modernity, so it was necessary to fight the “gangrene, the cancer of radical Islam which completely distorts the message of Islam.”
(…) “Those who have struggled for women’s rights back home in their own countries — I’m thinking particularly of Algeria — we know what it represents and what the obscurantist political project is that lies behind it, to confiscate the most fundamental of liberties,” she said.

link: France 24 | Minister says burqa ban would stop ‘cancer’ of radical Islam | France 24

Specially Algeria knows what means to fight Islamic extremists. Even today, people are feeling the conservative pressure, specially in matters related to women’s rights, nightlife and Islamic dress.

Anyway, she has not been the only French UMP politician to support the burqa ban. Bernard Debré has already supported the ban:

Do you agree with the law against the burqa?
I agree that a law is necessary. The burqa represents everything which is unnaceptable for women. It’s a humiliation for the women and for the rest of the people who see those chained girls. Perhaps it’s acceptable in Muslim countries but certainly not in France. Even if it would only affect 300 women, it must be regulated. We are seeing it with the last affair of the burkini, that is, that women who presented herself in a local public swimming-pool. There are rules of hygiene and well-being in public swimming-pools which are universally applied. And that can’t be disputed.

Compare this with UK or Spain‘s answers to the Islamic women’s dress.

Iran: the mass trial and crackdown on dissidents and people from other faiths continue

This is an update on this story:

Some 25 people have gone on trial in a Tehran revolutionary court over their alleged involvement in provoking the unrest that erupted after the disputed June 12 presidential election.
The identities of the protesters and opposition supporters were not disclosed as the trial opened on August 16. They are the third such group to face prosecution in a mass trial since the postelection unrest.
According to the IRNA new agency, some of the detainees were accused of moving toward overthrowing the Islamic system, participating in illegal demonstrations, vandalizing public property, and using handmade bombs and grenades during the protests.
The proceedings have been criticized by Iranian opposition and the international community as “show trials.”
Over 110 people, including many political activists, journalists, and lawyers, have appeared in two previous court trials, most of them facing charges such as acting against national security.

Iran Begins Another Mass Trial Over Postelection Turmoil – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2009

Clotilde Reiss has already been freed (don’t know what has France done about this France has had to pay a bail of several hundreds of thousands euros).

But the French student has only been released on bail and can’t return to France by now. Her father has said that she seems to be in good health after speaking with her on the phone.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad has condemned Europe for not congratulating him on his “victory”:

“You have clearly interfered in Iran’s internal affairs and were naïve enough to think that you can damage the system but with God’s help you failed,” Ahmadinejad said.

The EU and US have not acknowledged Ahmadinejad’s re-election. They have also decried the country’s harsh response towards the protests that took place over the alleged election fraud as well detained dissidents.

“You (world powers) will be held accountable for this ballyhoo you made in the world,” the president said. 

Of course, no one speaks about the Christian crackdown (not even Christians form other parts of the world):

Authorities crack down on Christians in Iran

Shahnam Behjatollah
Photo from Compass Direct

More than 30 Christians were arrested in recent weeks in Iran, according to an August 11 report from Compass Direct. In the city of Rasht, eight Christians were detained after two separate rounds of arrests on July 29 and 30. Seven of the believers have since been released. On July 31, police raided a meeting of approximately 24 Christian converts from Islam in the village of Amameh, north of Tehran. Officials confiscated books, CDs, computers, cell phones and passports and arrested all of the believers present. While most were released the same evening, seven of them — Shahnam Behjatollah (34) and six others identified only as Shaheen, Maryam, Mobinaa, Mehdi, Ashraf and Nariman — were still being held in an unknown location at last report. Police have questioned their families and have told them to prepare to pay bail. The detained believers have not been allowed contact with their family members. On August 7, some of the same Christians who had been earlier detained and released were re-arrested and interrogated by authorities.

No one speaks either of the last Baha’is trial in Iran but a lot of MSM have reported that he has named three women to be Ministers on his Government (wow, this is truly supportive of women’s rights, isn’t it?). What they have failed to underline is that he has also named this other guy:

He also said Heydar Moslehi, now an adviser to Ahmadinejad on clerical affairs, would be nominated as new intelligence minister.

Heydar Moslehi is what Western MSM call a “hard-line” or an “ultraconservative”:

Ahmadinejad has already taken de facto control of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry after purging it of officials deemed insufficiently loyal. On Sunday, he nominated Heydar Moslehi, a mid-ranking cleric, to lead the ministry, which controls a vast trove of data on Iranians as well as an extensive human and electronic surveillance infrastructure. Moslehi served as an advisor to Ahmadinejad on clerical affairs and is close to Khamenei.

 Is this (another) attempt to whitewash the regime, after everyone has seen its evil?

Regarding Kharroubi, the regimen has banned his newspaper after it “printed claims that some election protesters were raped or tortured in custody”.

Spain: France extradites Said Rehou, linked to March 11th bombings*

(Translation from T&P)

French authorities have extradited this Wednesday Moroccan Said Rehou, who is accused by national Court on charges of terrorism. In his Madrid’s house, Islamists linked to Madrid’s bombings (March 11th, 2004) and Casablanca’s attack on May 2003, met to see videos related to Jihad.(…) Said Rehou was born in Casablanca on June 14th, 1982. It seems he belongs to a cell created in Spain in 2002 under the orders of Abdelai Mourrafik. Their goal would be to recruit mujahidines to carry on Jihad attacks against Morocco, Spain and other countries.

via Francia entrega a Said Rehou, vinculado a los atentados del 11-M en Madrid – MSN Noticias – Noticias.

More here.

*More here:

National Court’s Judge Eloy Velasco has imprisoned Moroccan Said Rehou, extradited by French authorities because of his alledged links with Islamist terrorism through the so-called Nova Operation, according to investigation sources.

technorati tags: Spain, France, Said_Rehou, Islamism, Jihad, Casablanca, terrorism, Morocco