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Formerly "Hudson Institute, New York" Latest ArticlesEuropeans Increasingly Converting to Islam by Soeren Kern • January 27, 2012 at 5:00 am
Irish actor Liam Neeson says he is thinking about becoming a Muslim after undergoing a spiritual awakening in Turkey. Neeson, who was born into a Roman Catholic family in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, told the London-based newspaper The Sun that he was impressed by the religious atmosphere in Istanbul while filming a movie in the city. He said: "The [Islamic] call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing. There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim." Neeson is just one of hundreds of thousands of Europeans who are trading their Christian heritage for the supposed exoticism of Islam. The surge in conversions is contributing to the mainstreaming of Islam in Europe and contributing to the Islamization of the continent.
by Anna Mahjar-Barducci • January 27, 2012 at 4:30 am
In the aftermath of the Tunisian Jasmine revolution, Salafists, as in Egypt, are taking advantage of the new freedoms to be a threat to the growth of democracy. Islamist groups are now flourishing and are trying to transform Tunisia into an Islamic emirate. For now, they did not manage to take over big cities, however they are expanding their control over the Tunisian town of Sejnane with its 5000 inhabitants, located in the country's northwest. According to Tunisian media, a group of about 250 individuals managed to "talibanize" Sejnane , imposing their hardline Islamic rule, without being in any way contravened by the country's security forces. Famous for its pottery artifacts, Sejnane is not different from many other Tunisian towns, in its sidewalk cafés, small shops, a few mosques and dusty roads. However, in Sejnane about 80% of the population lives under the poverty line; unemployment is almost 60% with no sign that this situation may get any better. In this environment, for the last few months a group of Salafists, most of them young, have been imposing Islamic law .
Bangladesh: Heaven for Child and Women Hunting by Mohshin Habib • January 27, 2012 at 3:30 am
Malik 42, a rickshaw-puller, described to his wife Anwara, "If we send our daughter to Middle East, the land of the Emirs, all of our stresses and adversities will fade away. She will get an attractive job over there. A very reliable, kind and rich man came from Dhaka. He will provide everything. In case of money shortage, he will let us a sum of expenditure as credit." So the couple decided to send their only child, Tania, 13, to Dubai to work as a maidservant. At the time they gave their hard-earned $500 to a broker. Nobody knows where Tania is now. Hundreds of young girls are being forced to stow away to go into Indian and Pakistani prostitution, to live a completely sub-human life. In the Middle East, most of the trafficked girls from Bangladesh are subjected of commercial sexual exploitation, perverted sexual abuse in the name of "domestic service." These are common scenarios of the remote areas and even sometimes in the district towns of Bangladesh, where the families are losing their daughters and young boys those are being used for terrible purposes.
Amnesty International Says French Genocide Bill Threatens Free Speech by AK Group • January 27, 2012 at 3:00 am
Human rights group Amnesty International has criticized a bill passed this week in French Parliament to criminalize denial of the 1915 killing of Armenians in Anatolia as genocide, saying the legislation violates freedom of expression. "This bill, if implemented, would have a chilling effect on public debate and contravene France's international obligations to uphold freedom of expression," said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International, according to a statement released by the Amnesty International on Tuesday. "People should be free to express their opinions on this issue -- in France, Turkey and elsewhere." http://www.todayszaman.com/news-269519-amnesty-says-french-genocide-bill-threatens-free-speech.html Turkey Drops Heavily in Press Freedoms Rankings Turkey took a big step backward in press freedom rankings, losing 10 places to place 148th out of 178 countries in the Reporters Without Borders', or RSF, World Press Freedom Index for 2011 made public Wednesday.
British Organization Backing Religious Intolerance by Shiraz Maher • January 26, 2012 at 4:30 am
It is a year since the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was gunned down by his own close protection officer in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. A secular politician who championed women's rights and tried to reform the country's repressive religious ordinances, Taseer riled religious fundamentalists. The point of no return was finally crossed after he took up the case of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy on questionable evidence. While trying to secure her freedom, Taseer also declared his opposition to the constitutional discrimination against the Ahmadi/Qadyani sect, currently declared heretical by the Pakistani state.
European Court of Human Rights Protects Arch-Terrorist by Mohshin Habib • January 26, 2012 at 4:00 am
The radical Islamic cleric – an iconic figure to the Jihadists and widely believed to have been right hand to Osama Bin Laden in Europe -- Abu Qatada (original name, Omar Othman) won his appeal at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights on January 16 against being deported from the UK to Jordan, where he has been convicted in absentia of terror two major terrorism plots. Abu Qatada arrived in Britain on a forged United Arab Emirates passport in 1993, and has been in and out of prison since 2002 when he was arrested under the anti-terrorism law. Before that he was caught red-handed by the British police with an envelope for the Chechnyan Mujahdieein [Islamic holy warriors] containing 805 British pounds. He has been a focal point of extremist fund-raising, recruitment and propaganda.
UN Cyprus Talks Yield No Result by AK Group • January 26, 2012 at 3:00 am
Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders on Tuesday wrapped up two days of United Nations-mediated talks on reuniting their ethnically divided island, but a Greek Cypriot source said there had been no concrete results. Hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Derviş Eroğlu met near New York to discuss progress in talks started in 2008. Both sides agree, on paper, to re-linking Cyprus under a federal umbrella, but differ on how it is to work. The UN is focusing on the electoral system in a future federated Cyprus, how to potentially settle property claims from thousands of people internally displaced, and future citizenship on an island whose demographics have shifted massively since division in 1974. "There was not any result," the Greek Cypriot source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said after the latest talks ended at an estate in the Long Island town of Manhasset. "We haven't managed to achieve new convergences." Turkish Cypriot officials could not immediately be reached for comment and UN officials had no immediate comment.
Turkish Women Victims of "Permitted" Rape by Veli Sirin • January 25, 2012 at 5:00 am
At the beginning of the New Year, as reported in the daily newspaper Haber Türk (Turkish News) of January 6, 2012, E.D., a 25-year old man in the northwestern Turkish city of Bolu, took his 11-year old "wife," Z.Ç., to the hospital because she suffered pain. The news story identified the couple only by their initials. The doctor diagnosed the girl as eight months pregnant by her "husband." Whether the girl was in a condition to consent to sexual relations is obviously questionable. One would more probably assume she was raped by the 25-year old. Marriage to an 11-year old girl is illegal in Turkey, but such cases are a constant in the country's life. The doctor called for the girl to be kept in the hospital for in-patient care, but her "spouse" refused, and the couple returned to their village, Alpagut, near Bolu. The hospital released them after the girl signed a document declaring her wish to leave the facility. Two days afterward, the governor of Bolu province stated that he had spoken with health authorities who assured him the girl must have been older than 11, given her bone structure.
The New Hypocritical Stance of of Mahmoud Abbas by Khaled Abu Toameh • January 25, 2012 at 4:45 am
The Palestinian Authority has expressed outrage over the arrest of Hamas officials in the West Bank by the Israel Defense Forces -- even though the Palestinian Authority itself has also been arresting Hamas supporters in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority claims that the Israeli arrests are aimed at sabotaging the "reconciliation" process between Fatah and Hamas. But the truth is that the Israeli clampdown on Hamas in the West Bank is first and foremost designed to help Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The Palestinian Authority is fighting Hamas in the West Bank because it fears that the Islamist movement is working to undermine Abbas and Fayyad. Israel is fighting Hamas to prevent terror attacks and stop the movement from toppling the Palestinian Authority. Abbas alone cannot fight Hamas; he needs Israel's help -- and gets it. He knows that without the Israeli security crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank, his regime would not be able to remain in power for one day.
by Anna Mahjar-Barducci • January 25, 2012 at 4:00 am
Russia has vowed to block any military intervention in Syria. The last warning came from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who, during a press conference in Moscow, repeated that Russia will veto any attempt to obtain UN approval for deploying military measures against Syria. He added that, "If some people intend to use force at any cost… they must do it on their own initiative and confronting themselves with their own conscience. But they will never obtain the authorization of the UN Security Council." Of course, as it is fully expected that if Syrian President Bashar Assad is overthrown, the Muslim Brotherhood will take over Syria, Russia's determination to protect him should probably be welcomed.
UN Pushes for Cyprus Deal Before Mid-Year by AK Group • January 25, 2012 at 3:00 am
The United Nations held six hours of "intensive" talks on Monday with the leaders of ethnically split Cyprus as it began a new attempt to break a deadlock in peace talks crucial to Turkey's bid to join the European Union. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened a two-day meeting with the partitioned island's rival leaders near New York City to discuss progress in talks started in 2008. Alexander Downer, the UN special envoy to Cyprus who oversees peace talks, said Ban spent nearly six hours with the two leaders. "I think the best way to describe the talks today is that they have been intensive right from the very beginning," he told reporters. "The secretary-general made clear his expectations this morning that he is looking for the leaders to make decisive moves. " Mediators want a deal ending decades of separation between ethnic Greeks and Turks on the Mediterranean island before Greek Cypriots, who represent the whole island internationally, take over the EU presidency in July.
Planning Genocide in Plain Sight by Lawrence Kadish • January 24, 2012 at 5:00 am
When a group of high-ranking Nazi bureaucrats sat down 70 years ago today (Jan. 20, 1942), they didn't plot the death of 6 million Jews; they aimed at 11 million. Dubbed the Wannsee Conference, after its location, it was chaired by SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, who brought together some of the most efficient managers of mass murder history has ever seen. The 90-minute agenda was direct, having been transmitted by Hitler to his deputy, Reich Marshal Herman Goering, and then onto Heydrich: "Make all necessary preparations" for a "total solution of the Jewish question" in all territories under German influence, coordinate the role of all government organizations in accomplishing that goal — and then submit a "comprehensive draft" for the "final solution of the Jewish question." In other words, for the first time, the administrative, industrial and transportation resources of an entire nation would be deployed for the purpose of genocide.
Former German President to Praise Anti-Israel Theologian by Malcolm Lowe • January 24, 2012 at 4:45 am
Since 1992, the German concern Media Control has awarded an annual prize, known as "Deutscher Medienpreis." According to the company website, it is given "to a person who had outstanding importance in the media during the past year." Remarkably, the list of yearly awardees has mostly lived up to that ambitious description, including many illustrious and deserving personalities. Until this year, that is. Four awardees were named for the 2011 prize in a press announcement on January 13, 2012. While three seem to be meritorious enough, the fourth is a Palestinian pastor who has devoted all his theological energies to delegitimizing the State of Israel. No, he does not just oppose "the occupation." He maintains that Israel is a foreign European body that lacks his own DNA connection to the people of the Bible. Moreover, Media Control has lined up a former President of Germany, Prof. Roman Herzog, to come and praise him.
by Peter Martino • January 24, 2012 at 4:00 am
Hungary is almost broke. That is the country's great tragedy. It needs financial help from the other members of the European Union (EU), who are already helping EU states in financial difficulties, and from the IMF. But both the EU and the IMF refuse to come to Hungary's aid because they dislike the new Hungarian Constitution and a series of new laws that came into effect on January 1st. Last week, the European Commission initiated legal proceedings against Hungary over its new constitution and legislation. It gave Hungary one month to enact changes with regard to the independence of the central bank, the judiciary and the national data protection authority, or else face the prospect of being fined by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU's supreme court. American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also voiced concern over democratic freedom in Hungary.
Turkish Ties with France Face Crucial Test on 'Genocide' Bill by AK Group • January 24, 2012 at 3:00 am
Turkey could downgrade its diplomatic ties with Paris and cut cooperation in education and culture as part of a second round of sanctions against France if the country's Senate approves a bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide today. The French Senate is set to discuss the bill Monday at 3 p.m. local time. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu canceled a trip to Brussels, where he was supposed to meet with European Union foreign ministers to discuss the Arab Spring, a diplomatic source said. "He wanted to stay in Ankara to speedily evaluate the voting results of the French Senate and take necessary actions. Relations will never be the same. We have made it very clear that they are about to lose the friendship of Turkey," the source told the Hürriyet Daily News over the weekend, confirming that the package of sanctions was almost finalized.
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