Obama and Sarkozy Clash on Muslim Headscarf, Turkey-EU Issues

US President Barack Obama (L) and French President Nicolas Sarkozy attend a bilateral meeting at the Prefecture of Caen on June 6, 2009. Obama joins the leaders of Britain and France and hundreds of World War II veterans Saturday to mark the 65th anniversary of D-Day the beaches of Normandy. As star guest of the commemorations, Obama is to deliver a speech before 9,000 people including 200 US D-Day veterans at a clifftop graveyard in northern France which has become a symbol of America's sacrifice for Europe's freedom.


Interesting exchange in a Obama Sarkozy press conference - when a reporter asked about the comments Obama made in Cairo - when he stated that he would support the Muslim woman's right to wear the headscarf - that it contradicted the French position - Obama replied - in a manner as to insinuate that the French were denying Muslims their liberties - almost in a way as to suggest that this was against what France stands for - and by denying Muslims freedom to wear clothing which expressed their religious beliefs - that Muslims would somehow - be excluded from society - he then set the US up - as an example of how - Muslims could be treated in an environment where they as he says had excelled in.

Obama went on to talk about Turkey being a part of the EU - as a bridge between east and west...

The French President waited for a while - and I thought was not going to answer this - after a pause and another question levelled - Sarkozy broke from his deep thought - says let me answer this.

He said - first - the speech in Cairo was very important - then he says - yes - but I agree with Obama on the headscarf issue and the issue of Turkey -

on the headscarf issue - in France we don't stop Muslims women wearing the headscarf - and that he agreed it was the Islamic women's right to wear one - provided that it was her own choice and that she is not being forced to wear one by her family or group 'entourage' around her. But he went on to say that he don't agree that Muslim women should be allowed to wear the headscarf in French schools and other municipal buildings - because of the strict separation of church and state no public servant - is allowed to display any overt religious symbol be they Catholic, Muslim or Jew.

On Turkey - that he agrees with the President that Turkey is an important bridge - and that some sort of alliance should be formed with them - but that he disagreed on the finer points of how to do it - he said that every American President - from Clinton, Bush and now Obama believe that Turkey should be a part of the European Union - that is the stated American position.

But his major concern is about the security of the EU - body of nations, and not to expose it to undo risk - so therefore he went on to say - that Turkey could become a part of a Turkish Russian EU security zone.


I would agree and I think many in the Euro-zone would also - that idea of a Turkish Russia EU security zone is a better one - where Turkey becomes a partner of sorts as well as it covers the US strategic interests - the military bases they have in Turkey - it brings in Russia - a constant worry - but more importantly frees Europe - from the religious restrictions that Turkey no doubt endeavour to impose on it. And perhaps this idea gives the Turkish the freedom to create the Islamized state they dream of - to the point that they are comfortable with - and if there is ever a military coup - this will not destabilize the rest of Europe. In addition - every change to the Turkish legal system doesn't have to come into conflict with European law - important more for those travelling to a Turkey supposedly under the EU flag.

A few years ago the Turkish wanted to re-introduce a law that punished adultery (more aimed at women), it was only through opposition from the EU that they backed down - but think - if an EU citizen in Turkey and commits adultery - or fornicates - just as with the two British women in Dubai - they could find themselves behind bars - for what is considered legal in every other part of the EU - and indeed in the rest of the free world.

We should consider the fact that once Turkey is allowed to become an EU member - whether it will be in a position to prevent the Turkish from introducing these kinds of Islamic laws - especially with the incentive to join - having been overcome.

Sarkozy was no push over today. And told the sometimes dreamy Obama where his limits where.

As for the Obama stance - there was a case in the US - where a Muslim police woman was denied her request to alter her police uniform to include the Islamic headscarf - by the court. Obama likely has a fight in his own country on this one.

To bring up the headscarf issue in Cairo - I thought was a soft target - although I did immediately think of the French position - though I later thought it might be some attempt at placating Turkish PM Erdogan - who altered his country's constitution so that women can wear the headscarf in schools and municipal buildings - he was taken to court - for this an other attempts to blatantly turn Turkey into an Islamic state.

Bulgaria has also had troubles with the Islamic headscarves in state schools - but not before the influence of the Arab NGO's who are basically putting out literature - telling the European Muslims - who are native to Bulgaria - that the young women needed to dress as Muslims do in Arabia and the Middle East - and if they don't they are told - they will go to hell or suffer God's wrath. There was one court case - where a young girl was fighting for the right to wear the black headscarf and Arabian style robes to school - the elephant in the room was - that her representative in the case was the Arab NGO. The Bulgarian side asked if there were no specific wear for men - and the Arab representative was asked whether he believed men and women were equal. The case was decided on basis that - the Islamic clothing was a way to control women and to advertise their subjugated or second class status - with regards to men in Islam - and her request was denied. Where the girl accepted the ban - the Arab NGO wanted to pursue the case.


The French headscarf case was also interesting - as it wasn't a simple headscarf request - Muslims parents were attempting to impose Islamic rules on the school. They among other requests - did not want their daughters to learn biology, or be taught by a 'male' teacher - in French state schools. In EU countries Muslims parents have been reluctant to allow their daughters to go on school trips - for fears (phobias) about modesty. It got to the point in France - where they just had to say 'no' - to all religious expression in state institutions schools included - period - and regardless of religion. The Muslims unfortunately took it the hardest. Mind you Sikhs also complained - as they wear the turbans.

Egypt has taken steps to prevent female medical staff from wearing the face veil in hospitals - a piece of Islamic clothing that 30 years ago was almost unseen in Egypt - the government cited that patients should know who they are being treated by - and that this it supported by international medical standards.

In Kuwait newly elected women not wearing the headscarf - saw fellow male parliamentary members walk out in protest - over the fact that these women showed their hair.

Like so many Muslim women around the world - the right not to wear the headscarf is the considerably bigger issue.

Obama has put his foot in something that he has not sought to understand fully. And Sarkozy was right to challenge him.

Obama Hussein Obama - Cartoon

Times Online

Christians, Hindus and Sikhs forced to pay the Taliban jizya “protection” money

The jiyza is an Islamic protection tax required by the Koran to be paid by all non-Muslims living in a Muslim area - alternatively non-Muslims can choose to convert to Islam or else... The incentive to convert to Islam is thereby increased! 

Non-Muslims in villages along the northern Afghan-Pakistani border are forced to pay the jizya. Lashkar-e-Islam wants a thousand rupee per adult male to allow non-Muslims to live there with the right to travel. In Orakzai area the Taliban take over two stores and various houses owned by Sikhs. Some families are forced to pay up to 20 million rupees ($250,000) in order to stay.

Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Non-Muslims must pay the Taliban protection money if they want to stay in their own homes. Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant Muslim organisation based in Bara, about 10 kilometres south-west of Peshawar, wants Christians, Hindus and Sikhs to pay the jizya, the poll tax for non-Muslims.

Local sources are reporting that non-Muslims are collectively required to pay up in Bara, Chora, Karamna, Bazaar Zakhakhel and the Tirah Valley, which are part of the Khyber Agency, one of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the northern border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The poll tax amounts to a thousand rupees (US$ 12.5) per adult male per year. Women, children and the disabled are exempt.

As a group minorities must raise the money for every member of the community in order to have the right to live in and freely move throughout the area. Should they refuse this kind of protection, they are required to abandon their homes and villages.

In April Lashkar-e-Islam began collecting the jizya in the Federally Administered Tribal Area of Orakzai, using force whenever necessary.

In the village of Feroze Khel, near Merozai, the Taliban took over two stores and various homes to get people to pay up.

Local sources said that some Sikh families were forced to pay 20 million rupees; other families chose instead to abandon their homes and the area to avoid paying.

Obama dares Holocaust denier Ahmadinejad to visit Buchenwald concentration camp

U.S President Barack Obama today called on Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit a former concentration camp for himself

Barack Obama had called on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit a former Nazi concentration camp so he can see evidence of the Holocaust for himself.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who called the Holocaust a 'great deception' should visit the Buchenwald concentration camp so he can see the crimes Nazis committed, Mr Obama said.

In an interview in Germany before making his own trip to the site, the American President was asked what he thought the Iranian leader could learn from visiting the camp.

U.S. President Barack Obama and German chancellor Angela Merkel walk with holocaust survivors Elie Wiesel, right, and Bertrand Herz at the former Buchenwald concentration camp

'He should make his own visit,' Mr Obama said. 'I have no patience for people who would deny history. And the history of the Holocaust is not something speculative.'

Mr Ahmadinejad this week called the Holocaust a 'great deception' during a speech containing his latest verbal assault on Israel, which the Islamic republic does not recognise.

The American President looks solemn as he walks around the site where thousands were murdered

President Obama added the international community has an obligation to stop genocide, even when it is inconvenient and to recognise crimes against humanity.

Mr Obama said his administration was currently working to end the genocide in Sudan, where President Omar al-Bashir has expelled humanitarian workers.

The American leader made the comment ahead of his visit to the German concentration camp, which his great-uncle helped liberate.

His visit to Buchenwald comes just hours after he made a historic speech in Cairo where he reached out to the Muslim world.

In his speech, Mr Obama sought a fresh start in America's relations with the followers of Islam and issued a scathing indictment of those who question the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust had taken place

Meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Dresden, Mr Obama said that perpetuating the myth that it did not happen bred hatred and ignorance.

'Threatening Israel with destruction or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews is deeply wrong and only serves to evoke in the minds of the Israelis this most painful of memories, while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve,' he said.

Mr Obama and Mrs Merkel walked together through the gate of Dresden Castle, but the U.S leader made no mention of the destruction allied forces unleashed on the city in the Second World War.

On February 13, 1945, British and American bombers pounded the defenceless city, igniting a firestorm which killed 25,000 people.

Aides said Mr Obama did not plan to address the firebombing, and was in Dresden at the invitation of the German leader.

The leaders headed into an ornate room to sign books - he wrote 'Greetings from the people of the United States!' - for Saxony and Dresden.
Minutes later, they retreated to hold private talks, primarily on the nuclear stand-off with Iran and the slumping global economy.

Following today's meeting the U.S. President was heading on to to France for tomorrow's 65th anniversary of the Allies' D-Day invasion.

Obama and Merkel shake hands following today's meeting at Dresden Castle

The Buchenwald stop - Mr Obama is the first U.S. president to visit the forced labour camp - was also personal.

His great-uncle Charlie helped liberate a nearby satellite camp, Ohrdruf, in early April 1945 just days before other U.S. Army units overran Buchenwald.

'It was full of people,' Charlie Payne, now 84, recalled of Ohrdruf by phone from his Chicago home.

The two leaders discusses a raft of issues including peace in the middle east

'The people were in terrible shape, dressed in rags, most of them emaciated. Practically skin and bones.'

Ohrdruf no longer stands. But Buchenwald's main gate, crematorium, hospital and two guard towers have been kept as a memorial.

Elie Wiesel, a 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, author and Holocaust survivor, who as a boy was taken to Auschwitz, then to Buchenwald, will accompany the President.

Wiesel's father died in 1945 three months before liberation.

Obama will visit Buchenwald, pictured here in 1945, where an estimated 56,000 people perished

Following the tour, Mr Obama was flying to Landstuhl medical hospital for private visits to U.S. troops recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And he will end the day in Paris - reuniting with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha, who planned a brief holiday there after the Normandy ceremonies.

Tomorrow's observances at the U.S. cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer will also evoke family memories. Mr Obama's grandfather, Stanley Dunham, came ashore at Omaha Beach six weeks after D-Day.

Daily Mail

Troubled Pakistan region hit by suicide bomb at Sunni mosque that kills 40 people

A suicide bomber has killed 40 people attending Friday prayers at a mosque in a restive area of northwest Pakistan

>> A roadside bomb hit an army convoy killing seven security personnel

The attack took place in the Upper Dir district, close to Swat Valley, where the army has been conducting a major offensive against the Taliban.

Yusuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, said such incidents would not "deter the government from its resolve to eliminate this scourge (of terrorism) from the country".

Atif-ur-Rehman, a local official, said: "The suicide attacker managed to enter the mosque and was trying to get into the middle of the crowd".

"Villagers, even women, came out of their homes and they're having to identify their dead relatives through their clothes," he added.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the Sunni Muslim mosque.

Bombs regularly target mosques in Pakistan, where more than 1,900 people have been killed in a wave of extremist bombings since government troops besieged a radical Islamabad mosque in July 2007.

Police also arrested suicide bombers in Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi, according to the interior minister, Rehman Malik, as US special envoy Richard Holbrooke consulted the country's leaders on what needs to be done once the army eliminates the Taliban in Swat valley.

The military says more than 1,200 militants and 90 soldiers have been killed since the army swung into action in late April, while the militants have carried out bomb attacks in Lahore, and northwestern cities.

The military expects to stay in the region at least another year, largely because the area lacks a solid police presence. The offensive has also covered the areas of Buner and Lower Dir.

Telegraph

Pakistani MP injured in parcel bomb blast

Karachi, June 5 (IANS) A Pakistani parliamentarian and three members of his family were injured in a parcel bomb blast at his residence here Friday, police said.

Police said Yakub Bizenjo, his mother, brother and daughter were injured and had been admitted to hospital.

The parcel had been despatched from Bizenjo's Turbat constituency in Balochistan and was delivered to his Defence Phase-6 neighbourhood here by a transport company. It exploded while it was being opened, police said, advising people to be extremely careful while opening such packages.

Bizenjo is the lone representative of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP) in the 340-member National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

President Asif Ali Zardari Friday strongly condemned the blast, even as he asked after the welfare of the injured.

He also directed that a report be submitted to him at the earliest and those responsible be arrested.

Dutch MP Wilders banned from Britain set to be big winner in European elections

A Dutch MP banned from Britain for his anti-Islamic views has won more than 15 per cent of the vote in Holland's European Parliament elections, exit polls have shown.

Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party are to take four of the 25 Dutch seats in the European assembly as right-wing and fringe parties were set to gain all over Europe.

The results are giving credence to the theory that the economic downturn, cynicism over the union's eastward expansion and worries about relations between Muslims and non-Muslims are fuelling a voter backlash against mainstream politicians.  Thinking has changed! PC as an end in itself will no longer suffice.

Geert Wilders, left, and another party official celebrate their election results at The Hague yesterday

Wilders was barred from entering Britain by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in February after it emerged he planned to show a short film he had made linking the Koran to terrorism.

Mr Wilders, 45, was classed as someone considered likely to incite hatred and his visit a threat to 'community harmony and therefore public security'. [..]

The anti-European United Kingdom Independence Party was also expected to benefit from voter anger at the economic crisis and recent revelations that lawmakers sought public reimbursement for items ranging from horse manure to swimming-pool repairs.

Ivano Chiesa, a 49-year-old hotel proprietor in London, said that he'd voted for the UKIP.

'I don't think our laws should be from Brussels, it's worse than the Parliament here. They really abuse the system,' Chiesa said, leaving a polling station in central London's Bloomsbury district.

Wilders' party was second only to the Christian Democrats, which got nearly 20 per cent of votes, according to the poll.

At a rowdy celebration, he said his party's success was a vote against a sprawling and costly EU.

'People have had enough of Europe as it is now - a big Europe with Turkey possibly joining - that we spend billions on each year,' he said.

Wilders, whose party was contesting European elections for the first time, won support from Protestant and Catholic voters disenchanted with what's perceived as the growing influence of the nation's 800,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants from Morocco and Turkey.

Wilders had urged voters to reject EU involvement in immigration policy and said Turkey should not join the 27-nation bloc.

'Turkey as (an) Islamic country should never be in the EU, not in 10 years, not in a million years,' Wilders said after voting.

But Dutch IT manager Olivier van der Post, 40, rejected Wilders' vision.

'I didn't vote for Wilders ... History has shown that if you want prosperity you must open your borders, not close them,' he said after voting in Voorburg, a leafy village on the outskirts of The Hague.

About 375 million voters across the 27-nation European Union are voting Thursday through Sunday, appointing candidates to 736 seats on the assembly in the second-largest election in the world after India's.

Official results will be announced in Brussels only after voting throughout the bloc is completed.

The NOS poll showed voter turnout in the Netherlands at around 40 per cent, unchanged from the last European elections.

The 736-seat European Parliament has evolved over the past 50 years from a consultative legislature to one with the right to vote on or amend two-thirds of all EU laws including on immigration, the environment, transport, consumer protection and trade.

But polls continent-wide consistently show that voters consider their MEPs to be overpaid, remote and irrelevant in their daily lives.

Such voter disinterest typically fuels low turnouts and stronger-than-usual showings for protest candidates from the hard left and right of the political spectrum.

Daily Mail

Convert to Islam who starved daughter 7 to death, begins

'Starved to death': Khyra Ishaq, 7, died from an infection and is said to have been starved for weeks or possibly even months

I can only guess that this woman - a convert to Islam was trying to obey her man - the man not the child's father is also on trial. A neighbour reported that the child would go next door - to steal bread she threw out for the birds in her backyard. She should have called the police then.

A seven-year-old girl was deliberately starved to death while being kept as a prisoner in her own home by her mother and partner, a court heard today.

Birmingham Crown Court was told that Khyra Ishaq died from an infection after being starved over a period of weeks or possibly even months.

Opening the case against Angela Gordon and Junaid Abuhamza, prosecutor Timothy Raggatt QC said Khyra had been starved to a point that was almost unique in the experience of British medical staff.

Addressing the court at the start of a six-week trial, Mr Raggatt told jurors: 'It's highly likely that you will find some of what you will hear distressing and disturbing.

'The actual means or process which resulted in Khyra's death was brought about by a series of actions that were in effect the deliberate and calculated starvation of that little girl over a period, certainly of weeks, and very possibly months.'

Junaid Abuhamza, 30, and 34-year-old Angela Gordon, both of Handsworth, Birmingham, deny murdering Khyra on May 17 last year.

Mr Raggatt said that the jury would be shown a photograph of Khyra when she was developing in a normal way and another photograph of her taken shortly after her death.

'The purpose of that will not be to shock you,' Mr Raggatt said.

'There is a clear and proper purpose to do that and it's this - they show as clearly as we possibly can the reality of what happened here.'

Mr Raggatt, who suggested the jury may have seen such photographs in the context of famine in Africa, went on: 'The cruelty and maltreatment of that little girl, you may well come to think, was both ultimately calculated and obviously deliberate.'

Gordon and Abuhamza had a duty in law to care for Khyra, but had betrayed that duty in every possible sense, the prosecutor alleged.

The jury was told that Abuhamza, who denies murder, had pleaded guilty on Wednesday to child cruelty charges relating to five other children.

Gordon denies murder and five charges of child cruelty alleged to have been committed between December 2007 and May 17, 2008.

Daily Mail

US needs to join Islam to be friends of Afghanistan, Al-Jazeera reports anti-US feelings high: Video

Why is it always - people have to 'join' Islam - as virtually no one believes that the US is asking Afghans to leave Islam - it is amazing how Muslims would show such callousness with respect to the beliefs of others.

That women have improved rights barely squeezed into their report.

The US should really be putting its efforts into places like South America and even Africa (Obama should remember these Arabs - are killing Black Africans - like his own father!!) - and in particular South America - if they were to build schools and roads down there - a lot of people would going to be happy - and you would get little or none of this ungrateful talk. Its America's backyard - and the more it looks overseas - and when it applies pressure - for instance - on the EU to take Turkey - and as the Europeans have already said - hey - look at your backyard!! Mexico is no shining example. At the moment it is so disordered and weakened - it is viewed as a route for Arab Islamic terrorists.

Along with the $$billions going in to build up Islamic areas - the madrassas will still be pumping out young men whose minds are full of hate - who can do nothing more than pull a trigger and recite the Koran. Its a black hole!

Jews Deserved Their Annihilation By Hitler, Says Dr Wafa Musa: Video

Muslim women delight in hatred - and offer their babies up for the cause.




LiveLeak Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas/Gaza) :
Egyptian Psychologist Dr. Wafa Musa: The Jews Deserved Their Annihilation by Hitler.

Also includes mothers showing off their future martyr's.
Adolf Hitler, The Mufti Of Jerusalem And Modern Islamo Nazism

See how intense hatred of the Jews existed in the Muslim world - before the establishment of Israel and the Palestinian problem of today. The reason for the violence can only be an excuse.

Private William Long's Father Interview _ US Marine Shot at Recruitment Center: Video

Backwards Pakistan: 12-year old Christian girl kidnapped at gunpoint forcibly married and converted to Islam - police ridicule her mother

Just to let you know the kind of country he presides over - and where you tax $$ are really going!!

Police ridicule Christian mother for kidnapping complaint; others demand money, labor.

LAHORE, Pakistan, June 4 (Compass Direct News) – The Christian mother of a 12-year-old girl in Punjab Province who was kidnapped, coerced into converting to Islam and forcibly married to a 37-year-old Muslim hopes to recover her daughter at a court hearing next week.

The reaction of Pakistani law enforcement authorities to Sajida Masih’s complaint so far – ridiculing her and asserting that there is nothing she can do because her daughter is now a Muslim – does not encourage her hopes of recovering her daughter Huma at next Thursday’s (June 11) hearing.

Masih said that Muhammad Imran abducted Huma at gunpoint on Feb. 23 from Hanif Kot village in Gujranwala district, forcibly converted her and then married her. Imran has since disappeared along with his first wife, three children and new child-bride.

Masih, who worked alongside Imran as a farmhand, said the kidnapping occurred on her son’s wedding day. Masih said that when she sent Huma and the child’s aunt out of their home to see if transportation had arrived for the wedding party, Imran – who had helped in preparing for the ceremony – was waiting and told her to sit on his motorbike.

Huma did not understand and, with her concerned aunt tightly holding her hand, she refused.

Masih’s attorney, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said Imran took out a pistol and told Huma that he would shoot her as well as her parents if she did not obey; he also pointed the weapon at her aunt and said that he would kill her. Huma got onto the bike with him; her family has not seen her since.

Masih immediately ran to the owner of the farm where she and Imran work, Khan Buhadur, who told her to first finish the wedding and then see him in the evening. Masih’s attorney said that when she and relatives went to Buhadur after the ceremony, however, he said only that Imran had fled with his family along with the girl, and that he did not know where they were.

Suspecting that Buhadur was complicit in the kidnapping, Masih went to Sadar police station in Gujranwala. Police officers first ridiculed her, the attorney said, and then told her to go back to Buhadur because “only he could do something.” For several days officers and Buhadur shuttled her back and forth between them.

Unable to get police to register the case, Masih submitted a report with the help of a lawyer and took it to the police station, where officers consigned it to the dustbin.

Three days after the kidnapping, police finally registered a First Information Report (FIR) on Feb. 26 – but changed the age of the kidnapped girl from 12, as her mother reported, to 16. Moreover, Investigating Officer Niaz Khan told Masih that the FIR was useless since she was too poor to hire a lawyer, and that she should try to reach an out-of-court agreement with Buhadur – implying that he knew of the child’s whereabouts.

The Masih family learned from a friend of Imran, identified only as Javed, that Huma had converted to Islam and had married the fugitive father of three. Javed further said that Imran had told him police would do nothing as he had paid them 50,000 rupees (US$620).

The family subsequently received a court notice, the attorney said, stating that Imran had requested nullification of the FIR on Huma’s abduction, claiming she was an “adult” and had “willfully” converted to Islam and married him.

According to Huma’s birth certificate, issued by St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Gujranwala, she was born on Oct. 22, 1996. The attorney said that Imran had submitted a fake birth certificate stating she was born on Dec. 23, 1990, which would make her 18 years old. The legal marriage age for girls in Pakistan is 16.

Only then did Masih obtain the pro bono services of the lawyer who is now handling the case.

A hearing on the case had been scheduled for May 6, but because of a change of judge a new date was set for June 11. Unwilling to wait, the family and their lawyer went with a court bailiff to a factory owned by Buhadur in Gujranwala on May 14, hoping to get help in recovering Huma, but Buhadur did not cooperate.

Buhadur had been demanding that Masih pay him 100,000 rupees (US$1,240) that she had supposedly borrowed from him, but this demand only surfaced after the kidnapping – an implied attempt to extort money from her in exchange for information on the whereabouts of her daughter, according to the lawyer. Buhadur withdrew this pressure on Masih after the visit from the court bailiff and efforts by the attorney.

At a meeting of villagers on May 16 at the Sadar police station, Buhadur said that Imran owed him money and that he would inform officers if he learned anything of his whereabouts.

Another land owner, Karamat Ali Saroyya, subsequently called Masih saying that Huma was in Muridke, near Lahore, but when Masih and her lawyer set out again and met with Muridke police, they were unable to find her.

Saroyya later demanded that Masih work his fields for one year in order to get her daughter back.

Masih’s lawyer and other legal representatives said police and officials at the Municipal Corporation’s office, which keeps birth and death records, have been reluctant to help, saying that Huma had converted and that therefore there was no reason that she should be returned to non-Muslim parents.

75% Turkish believe EU plans to break Turkey up: Video

Very interesting Press TV video here

It shows how the Turkish believe that the EU wishes to break Turkey apart - totally new one !!

More polls below: Armenia, along with USA and Israel is one of the most hostile states towards Turkey


Reuters Blogs: Turkey, the EU and a love-hate relationship

French President Nicolas Sarkozy opens a jack-in-the-box decorated with the EU flag, a boxing glove springs out and knocks out the teeth of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan .

“No more empty promises to Turkey,” a snickering Sarkozy says. The cartoon in daily Milliyet darkly panders to what most Turks feel these days are the European Union’s true intentions towards Turkey’s EU quest — no matter how many obstacles thrown at its wheels Turkey surmounts on the long and winding road to Brussels, it will ultimately be denied entry at the gates of the promised land .

A survey last weekend by Bahcesehir University in Istanbul showed that 80 percent of Turks believe that even if Ankara meets all political and economic requirements for EU accession, the EU will still not accept it as a member.

The study was published ahead of the June 4-7 European Parliament vote, in which Turkey’s bid to join the EU has become an election issue in some EU countries to the chagrin of the Turks, always sensitive about their self-image in the West .

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Sarkozy of France have used the campaign trail to reiterate their opposition to Turkey’s full EU membership, saying Ankara instead should be given a “privileged partnership”; Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and his British counterpart David Miliband joined voices to stress the “strategic interest” of accepting Turkey into the bloc .

Election issues can be notoriously short-sighted, but at the heart of the debate is the very idea of Europe and where it should draw its borders as it strives to tackle new challenges such as globalisation, climate change, nuclear proliferation, energy dependency, the rise of China and other powers or security .

Is Turkey — a predominantly Muslim country of 72 million people with a per capita income of only one-third that of the 27-nation bloc — too poor and too culturally different to fit into the EU? Do “Little Europeans” from Paris to Berlin, aghast at the prospect of a EU bordering Iran, Iraq and Syria really want a fortress and “Christians-only” Europe? Can Europe afford losing Turkey?

Enlargement-fatigue and a Lisbon Treaty in intensive care have narrowed politicians’ sights, but the wider question over the future of Europe will not go away.

Ankara’s lack of progress in key areas such as clipping the power of the military and expanding freedom of expression since accession negotiations began in 2005 has consumed much of the debate of late. But again, what are four years in a country which has changed beyond recognition since the 1980s by throwing open its markets to foreign investors, shattering long-held taboos and democratically electing former Islamists as president and prime minister without witnessing a military coup?

Those who back Ankara’s full membership say Turkey has enormous benefits for the bloc — it is a secular democracy with a vibrant market economy, NATO’s second-largest army, a strategically positioned energy hub between the West and the East, and a rising regional power with bridges to the Muslim world .

Those against it shudder at its sheer size — by 2050 Turkey’s fast growing population will reach 100 million –, are troubled by its authoritarian ways, awed by its Islamic identity and horrified at its treatment of minorities and news of honour killings that feed the view of the “barbarian Turk” .

Turks insist that joining Europe is the culmination of founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s drive to modernise the country and say Europe without a city like Istanbul will never fully be Europe.

Brussels says banning Youtube, prosecuting Nobel laureate writer Orhan Pamuk for “insulting the Turkish nation” and meddlesome generals are incompatible with European values of tolerance, freedom and rule of law .

In any case, if Turkey is to join Europe — there are more than 80,000 pages of European laws and regulations before that happens — it would take decades rather than years. By then both Europe and Turkey will be quite different from what they are today. Sarkozy and Merkel will be long gone from the stage .

History of course carries its weight. After all, Ottoman Turks stormed twice as conquerors into Europe, hammering at the very gates of Vienna, and European powers occupied large parts of today’s Turkey after the collapse of the empire .

The survey by Bahcesehir University also highlighted Turkey’s own ambivalence toward Europe — aspiring to be a part of it but harbouring dark suspicions towards it as well .

Three out of four Turks believe the EU is trying to dismember Turkey and 81 percent believe the bloc’s goal is to spread Christianity. However, 57 percent said they wanted full EU membership for Turkey .

But again, can Turkey afford to lose Europe?

Yes!! It is just next door !!


Armenia, along with USA and Israel is one of the most hostile states towards Turkey


/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia, along with USA and Israel is one of the most hostile states towards Turkey, says public opinion poll, conducted by Bahcesehir University (Istanbul). According to poll results, 64% of Turkish citizens would be reluctant to be neighbors with Jews and 52% won’t wish Christians to be their neighbors. 52% of Turkish citizens wouldn’t like to be friends with US.

Turkish people believe that Israel is directly responsible for the majority of global problems of today’s world. USA and richest EU member states share the second and third positions in “intolerance” ranking.

Religion plays one of the most important roles in the lives of Turkish citizens aged 15-18. 62% consider themselves Islamists, and only 18% support the temporal government.

Kurdish Labor Party (PKK), according to respondents, is a major threat to Turkey, and the army’s still the most popular institute of Turkish society, Milliyet reported.

Statement of Attorney General Eric Holder on Department of Justice’s Outreach and Enforcement Efforts to Protect American Muslims

A mono-a-mono!!

One question did Obama - see one single woman in Arabia that his did - not bring himself !!

So I guess this - somehow - will show Muslim nations that they should respect the rights and freedoms of their citizenry - regardless of whether they choose to be Muslim or not - or whether they are a man or woman !!


U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder released the following statement relating to President Obama’s historic speech today in Cairo, Egypt:

"The President's pledge for a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim community takes root here in the Justice Department where we are committed to using criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans. A top priority of this Justice Department is a return to robust civil rights enforcement and outreach in defending religious freedoms and other fundamental rights of all of our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the housing market, in our schools and in the voting booth.

"There are those who will continue to want to divide by fear - to pit our national security against our civil liberties - but that is a false choice. We have a solemn responsibility to protect our people while we also protect our principles."

Robert Spencer talks to Savage about the Jihadist attack on the US military recruitment center: Audio

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch spoke to Michael Savage last night on the June 3, 2009 broadcast of the Savage Nation. They discussed the Jihadist attack by Carlos Bledsoe (aka Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad) on the Army recruiting center outside of Little Rock, Arkansas.

According to Spencer - once Carlos Bledsoe converted to Islam - he left his studies at university where was doing a business degree - to join the world Islamic jihad. He travelled to Yemen where he was schooled under a radical Islamic cleric - and of course returned to the US to exercise his new found faith and jihadist vision.

Obama delivers tensed speech from Cairo to a retrogressive Muslim world

President Obama spoke at Cairo University on Thursday June 4 2009.

Obama does his best in delivering a speech directed at the Muslims world - he seemed to dig up every - positive connection Islam has had with America in its entire history carefully leaving out the negative (like the jihad attacks on America's maritine vessels by Muslim nations in the Mediterrean, when the first US President was an abassordor in France - a Libyan diplomat told him that the burning and kidnapping of American ships and sailors was - because they were non-Muslim infidels) . He spoke about the number of Muslim Americans there are - neglecting to mention - that a majority of them - are Black Muslims - under the Nation of Islam.

Though I couldn't help getting the feeling of tiredness - the problem of addressing the fact that the Islamic world needs to change - seemed to loom large. Compared to his other speeches - could almost produce a headache - like he was trying to deal with - not the weight of the world - but the weight of the Islamic world - in the end he was reaching out to the young people - as a kind of a hope for change - that without saying it - almost an abandonment of the older people who are entirely infused in the traditional Islamic way of thinking - that is to say - the world - and everybody in it should be brought under Islam - that respect for women - and respect for the right to freely choose ones religion - and the need to progress in the scientific arena and education (outside of the Koran) - was totally lost of them - but the young could see it differently - and move their countries out of their infantile existence - where the Islamic state and the clerics foist their will on the individual.


Islam at the moment is like self-contained delusion - it brags about its growth - but it is almost entirely through its own birthrate that it grows - Egypt's population - doubling within 30 odd short years - and last year there were riots for food - and police escorts to deliver bread. Turkey's has more than tripled since the 40's and by almost 6 times since the 1920's - minus its Christian population that would have made up likely more than 15% at the time.  

As Obama stood today in Cairo's grand mosque he looked guarded - with arms constantly folded - he must have had at least one thought for his own self - if he were raised Egyptian with a Muslim father - and the imprisonment and torture he would have underwent as an apostate from Islam - more though - he might have thought of the Coptics that he mentioned - how many years of oppressive Islamic rule did it take to drive their numbers down to a mere 10% of the population - and as it stands today - the Islamic government in Egypt has not finished forcibly converting Copts to Islam - or preventing all those who would publical acknowledge that they left Islam from legally doing so.

How does Obama address the fundamental belief that the right to subjugate and eventually wipe out - all non-Muslims - is an integral part of Islamic belief - in a way that makes Muslims see its time for change - he did however say - that this is how it used to be - but now - in the modern world these things need to change.

Points 

Islam represents a big weight on the world - an arrogance - coupled with a retrogressive mindset - and an insistence - that those who don't respect this - are simply hateful.

Obama touched on some significant issues like the rights of women - 40% literacy rate across the Arab world - yet Saudi's spend $$ billions on funding Islamic studies in EU and US universities. Clearly the aim is not progress. Freedom of religion - and the mention of the Coptic Christians in particular - was significant in Egypt where - children of those who convert to Islam (say for a quick divorce) are forcibly converted to Islam - ensuring the eventual eradication - of the Copts who once were in the majority.

It is not the west that demotes Islamic women - who wear the headscarf - it is the Islamic belief that women are worth only half that of a man -- though not in America where all are equal under the law - a luxury to state in a place where religious and state laws are separate!! -- and more Muslim women in the Islamic world are fighting for the right not to wear the Islamic headdress - a touch bit out of touch here. Parliamentary members walked in at least two Islamic states - the last being Kuwait - because elected women lawmakers did not wear the scarf. And where he stood in Egypt if women don't wear it they are scorned in the streets - Obama should lay off that one. 

Islam is the world's headache - here Obama promises to reach out to the Islamic world - in areas of science, technology and education - while seemingly ignoring - his own backyard - South America's - largely Catholic nations. It seems - here efforts might be appreciated more.

Obama - a Christian - with the name Hussein - in any Muslim nation would have been imprisoned - for not practising his religion - never mind being President of one of these countries - he would have been - instead trying to cope with his last torture session - by the Shari'a law cops - and looking for ways to keep he and his family out of the police sights. That is the reality for converts from Islam in the Egypt he stood in.

Obama has said - we must acknowledge our common humanity - but Muslims within their own insular region - have concluded that Islam is somehow a replacement for that humanity - and by extension - the humanity of those without Islam - is the lesser. A dangerous Nazi scenario - emerges here. Dehumanization before the assault - say of Israel - then the west.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto to you - was applauded by the Egyptian audience - is a Christian message. Obama spoke about those nations who subjugate - their minorities - are doomed to fail. In a few words condemning Arab and Muslim actions around the world - highlighting the stark differences between western repression of minority groups - where it exist - is largely rejected as the highest of ideals - whereas in the Islamic world the opposite is true - the subjugation, repression and forcible conversion of others - is often taken as the highest ideal - as Shari'a law permits these things.

If by assisting the Muslims world - to engage more in a world that is fast leaving them behind - is to raise aspirations - among Islamic youth - of further Islamic conquests - and unbending insistence that all should follow Islam - then we will have trouble in future - but on the positive - a more educated Muslim population might better understand why we will oppose its repressive requests - and why we will insist that freedoms of religion and the rights of the individual should be upheld.

Today in Indonesia hundreds of churches are burnt or forcibly closed and minority Islamic sects are attacked - Obama was right to say - when I was young in Indonesia - Christians worshipped openly there - and that's how the Islamic world should be once again.

2,000 bogus colleges in UK, could allow Islamist radicals to gain entry

Video link here

MORE than 2,000 fake colleges have been running in the UK, sparking fears terrorists may have used them to sneak into the country.

And Immigration Minister Phil Woolas admits he has “no clue” how many bogus students are living here.

Mr Woolas revealed the Government does not know how many visa cheats there are, but there could be tens of thousands.

He told his fellow MPs: “It is best not to guess if you are not sure.”

Mr Woolas did reveal there had been 4,000 colleges registered but after a crackdown there were now only 1,600 left.

At a home affairs committee hearing yesterday, Tony Millns, boss of education organisation English UK, described bogus colleges as a “disgrace”and there could “easily” be tens of thousands of false students in the UK.

And he warned new colleges can still operate for six months before they have to be fully accredited, giving time for people on rogue visas to enter.

The loophole has led to fears hundreds of fanatics from the al-Qaida and Taliban heartlands in Pakistan may be here.

Eleven Pakistani men face deportation after being held over the alleged Easter bomb plot.

None was charged with terrorism offences but 10 of them held foreign student visas.

Home Office officials say new electronic controls are being introduced to count those coming in and out of the country.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “We’re taking robust action against both bogus colleges and those who seek to enter this country to study illegitimately.”

Daily Star

Muslim nations feel pin prick as UN expert challenges restrictions on free speech around Islam and Shari'a practises

Under Islam the woman has half the rights of a man - but in her lowly status - she somehow carries the honor of the family - which is used to justify honor killings. These and other abhorrent Islamic practises are all protected under Shari'a law - and with the mere mention of the word "Shari'a" banned in the UNHRC - these nations are free to act without criticism or more "defamation" of their religious practises which blatantly contradict universal human rights norms.

Geneva - Islamic states have fired back at a United Nations- appointed special expert on freedom of expression, who said that speech should not be restricted in order to protect religion. "Restrictions should never be used to protect particular institutions or abstract notions, concepts or beliefs, including religious ones," wrote Frank La Rue in his report presented to the Human Rights Council, which started its 11th regular session this week.

He was engaged in an open discussion on his report with diplomats on Tuesday and Wednesday.

La Rue, a Guatemalan human rights jurist, said restrictions to prevent intolerance should only be applied to "advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence."

He also called on the council, and the UN General Assembly in New York, not to adopt resolutions that support the idea of defamation of religion.

At its previous session in March the council adopted, in a blow to European nations, a resolution condemning the so-called defamation of religion as a human rights violation.

Addressing La Rue at the current session, Pakistan's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Zamir Akram, speaking on behalf of the 57 member- states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), slammed La Rue for not reporting on the "abuses of this freedom."

He said La Rue only focused on "the promotional aspect of this right."

The African Group, led by Egypt, also said it opposed La Rue for not focusing more on the "abuse" of freedom of speech and for not listing incidents of racial and religious incitement against migrants. The Arab Group made similar comments.

Pakistan's ambassador said the OIC would monitor the expert and "take an appropriate course of action" if he deviated again from the mandate they wanted him to implement.

The special expert began his term last year and has three more to go. The council, a 47 member state body, could vote him out of the voluntary position early. His report received the backing of European Union members and the United States. [..]

DPA


Dangerous attack on special rapporteur

ARTICLE 19 and CIHRS (see below) - The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank La Rue, has come under extraordinary attack while presenting his first annual report to the eleventh session of the Human Rights Committee in Geneva on 2 June 2009. ARTICLE 19 and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) condemn these attacks and express our support for the work of the Special Rapporteur.

We express our deep concern about the comments of certain states during the interactive dialogue on the first annual report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Mr Frank La Rue, which was presented on 2 June. We are alarmed by the nature of the responses of Egypt (on behalf of the African Group), United Arab Emirates (on behalf of the Arab Group), Pakistan (on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference), and individual delegations such as Algeria, Egypt, Malaysia, Sudan and Yemen to the Rapporteur’s report.

These states attacked the Special Rapporteur and his report on the grounds that the content of the report deviates from the Special Rapporteur’s mandate and violates the Code of Conduct for special procedure mandate-holders. In particular, these states opposed the Special Rapporteur’s conclusion that the concept of “defamation of religions does not accord with international standards on freedom of expression,” as well as his reference to a joint declaration of the holders of similar mandates of other regional human rights bodies which expresses the same conclusion.

Many of these states concluded their statements on the report of the Special Rapporteur by threatening to have Mr La Rue stripped of his position as a Special Rapporteur, unless he conforms to their interpretation of his mandate. We view this attack on the Special Rapporteur by these states as an attempt to intimidate the mandate-holder from exercising his independence and his own right to freedom of expression. We also view it as part of a larger attempt to use the Code of Conduct of Special Procedures to erode the independence of all Special Procedures mandate holders at the Human Rights Council.

ARTICLE 19 and CIHRS support the opinion expressed by many delegations reminding Human Rights Council member states that, under the Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate-Holders, Special Rapporteurs must be independent in carrying out their mandate. Such independence must include the freedom to comment upon the subject of resolutions previously adopted by UN human rights bodies which, in their view, are contrary to established principles of international human rights law.

We strongly urge Human Rights Council member states to support the work of the Special Rapporteur, Frank La Rue, and the independence of Special Procedures mechanisms more generally.

ARTICLE 19 is an independent human rights organisation that works around the world to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression. It takes its name from Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees free speech.

CIHRS is an independent, regional NGO based in Cairo, Egypt, with offices in Paris and Geneva. CIHRS attempts to analyse and address the legal and cultural challenges to implementing universal human rights standards throughout the Arab region.

Obama lands in Mideast to bin Laden blast

RIYADH (AFP) — President Barack Obama launched a landmark Middle East trip on Wednesday to reach out to the world's Muslims, but earned a swift rebuke from Osama bin Laden in a stinging new audiotape.

Obama arrived in Riyadh to a red-carpet welcome and a kiss on both cheeks from Saudi King Abdullah, a key regional power broker who also serves as protector of the two holiest sites in Islam.

But minutes after Air Force One touched down, Al-Jazeera television aired a new tape from the Al-Qaeda chief, hot on the heels of a statement from his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri who lashed out at Obama's "bloody messages".

Joining a battle for the hearts and minds of the Arab world, bin Laden accused Obama of perpetuating former president George W. Bush's policies of "antagonising Muslims."

Obama and King Abdullah are to hold talks at the monarch's sprawling farm outside Riyadh, which represent Obama's first foray into tricky personal diplomacy in the region, after a flurry of talks with Middle East leaders in Washington.

On Thursday, Obama will travel to Egypt, another pillar of the Arab world, to deliver a personal appeal for reconciliation to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, and hold his first talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

King Abdullah has been seeking to relaunch a 2002 Arab-backed Middle East peace initiative, which has been praised by the Obama administration.

But it was unclear whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tough stand on settlements would scupper US hopes of convincing the Arab world to make concessions towards Israel to inject momentum into the process.

Obama signalled in an interview with National Public Radio before leaving Washington that he would keep pressing Israel on the issue, despite an emerging rift between the two close allies.

"I've said very clearly to the Israelis both privately and publicly that a freeze on settlements including natural growth is part of those obligations."

The Saudi initiative calls for full normalisation of relations between Arab states and Israel, a full withdrawal by Israel from Arab land, the creation of a Palestinian state and an "equitable" solution for Palestinian refugees.

Obama was also expected to use the talks with King Abdullah, whose country is OPEC's top exporter, to push for stability in oil prices and production.

The US president's trip comes amid a building confrontation between his administration and the Israeli government over West Bank settlements and Netanyahu's refusal to publicly endorse a two-state solution.

It also coincides with rising concern in the largely Sunni-ruled region over Shiite Iran's nuclear drive.

Anticipation mounted ahead of Obama's arrival for his first major foray into the Middle East, following a surprise visit of a few hours to Baghdad in April.

"King-Obama summit, key to global stability," Saudi newpaper Okaz proclaimed.

Egypt's state-owned Al-Rose al-Youssef warned Obama not to lecture.

"Don't be biased towards Israel, don't interfere in countries' internal affairs and don't give lessons in democracy," it said.

Obama's speech on Thursday at Cairo University fulfills a campaign promise to address the of giving an address to the Muslim world after relations soured over the deeply unpopular Iraq war, the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and the Bush-era stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

In Israel, there was concern the president's outreach to Muslims could come at the expense of the US-Israeli alliance.

"The American president has the right to try to reconcile with the Muslim world and compete with Al-Qaeda or Iran for its heart," said Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, a close Netanyahu ally.

"We have to make sure that this will not harm our common interests."

The son of an Kenyan father with Muslim heritage, Obama spent part of his childhood in majority-Muslim Indonesia. His middle name Hussein, which sometimes was seen as a liability on the campaign trail, doubtless will be viewed more charitably in many venues during his Middle East travels.

But some democracy campaigners in Egypt raised concerns at Obama's choice of venue for his major address, saying it rewarded an authoritarian regime wit ha poor human rights record.

The White House vowed to unleash all its technological and communications clout to ensure that as many people as possible see and hear the historic address, even through social networking sites.

British hostage Edwin Dyer executed by al-Qaeda's North African wing

Five years ago the Islamic terror group that today styles itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was on the verge of collapse, running short of weapons, money and men for its fight against Algeria's military.

Then, in a calculated move in 2004, its leaders reached out to al-Qaeda's core commanders, promising to carry the torch of anti-Western jihadism across the far reaches of the Sahara.

With the blessing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of Osama bin Laden's key lieutenants, what was the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat became al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Since then, terror experts have expressed alarm at the group's widening reach, growing from a nationalist campaign only in Algeria to now spread far south across North and West Africa.

Its goals are now "the same goals as al-Qaeda the mother", its current leader, Abdelmalek Droukdal, has said.

This has included the kidnapping of Westerners, including a group of European tourists in Algeria in 2003, two Austrians in 2008 and Mr Dyer and his group this year.

Ransoms have been paid for many hostages, earning the group both money and kudos to attract fresh fighters, although its forces are thought to number in the hundreds rather than thousands.

Its area of operations, the largely unpoliced emptiness of the Sahara desert including parts of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger, could become another training zone for foreign jihadists.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has also adopted suicide bombing as a key tactic.

Twin attacks in Algiers in December 2007 killed 41 people including 17 United Nations staff.

There are fears that the group is also nurturing al-Qaeda-like cells in France, Spain and even the United Kingdom, although security analysts doubt whether they have the capacity yet to mount large-scale terror attacks.

Telegraph

Britons Sally Antia and Mark Hawkins jailed in Dubai for adultery

Can you believe she is locked up - for adultery - in Dubai! 

I've never been owned - but with this case you definitely get that owned feeling !!

Sally Antia has lived in Dubai for more than a decade


A British couple have been jailed in Dubai for two months for committing adultery.

Sally Antia, 44, was arrested with Mark Hawkins, 43, a construction manager from Manchester, as they left the five-star Radisson Blu Hotel on May 2.

They were today sentenced to two months in jail, to be followed by deportation. They will be released in four weeks' time, after the judge took into account the one month they have already spent in custody.

Mr Hawkins’s lawyer said his client was pleased with the sentence, which would allow them to return home soon.

It is understood that Mrs Antia’s husband, Vincent, 48, also believed to be British, had informed police in Dubai of his wife's relationship with Mr Hawkins. Divorce proceedings are under way between the couple.

Mrs Antia wrote recently on her page on the networking website Friends Reunited: “Living in Dubai for the last 12 years. Married with two girls now aged 11 and 13. Enjoying the sunshine, but often home to watch a match. Massive Red fan. Happy and healthy ... what more can you ask for?”

Her detention will prompt criticism from those who reject the United Arab Emirates’s practice of combining civil and criminal law with Sharia, which is identified in the constitution as the main source of legislation. Social laws, such as family law and succession, all fall under its direct influence, making adultery illegal in the UAE. The maximum punishment is a year in jail followed by deportation.

Another British woman, Marnie Pearce, served a three-month prison sentence earlier this year and lost residency rights with her two young sons after her Egyptian former husband accused her of cheating on him while living in Dubai.

Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK Director, said the pair should not have been arrested and did not deserve to be imprisoned. “Sally and Mark should not be in jail right now and should never have been facing criminal charges in the first place," she said. “Quite simply, the sex lives of consenting adults shouldn’t be a criminal matter. Sally and Mark should be released, immediately and unconditionally.”

Times Online

Egypt: Heavy security in Cairo ahead of Obama visit

Cairo, 2 June (AKI) - Egyptian authorities have introduced tight security measures in the country's capital, Cairo, ahead of US president Barack Obama's visit to the Middle East. Two days before his arrival, the centre of the capital is reported to be largely closed because of the event.

On the eve of his visit, president Obama told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that the United States can be a "role model" to the Muslim world.

"The thing that we can do most importantly is serve as a good role model," he said.

He also said he was "going to be able to get serious negotiations back on track" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Not only is it in the interest of the Palestinian people to have a state, it's in the interest of the Israeli people to stabilise the situation there," he said.

"And it's in the interest of the United States that we've got two states living side by side in peace and security."

Obama spoke on the eve of a trip to Europe and Egypt, where he plans to deliver a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world.

He said he hoped his visit would begin a new relationship between America and the wider Muslim community.

Meanwhile, security is tight in the Egyptian capital.

The Islamic Al-Azhar University has announced it will postpone all exams until next week. Cairo University and Ain Shams University will also be closed as well as several government offices.

Police will be stationed across the city and heavy security will be in place at the airport where Obama will be greeted by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Many Egyptian Muslims are angry at a decision by authorities to close the Sultan Hassan Mosque during the president's visit.

Egyptian MP, Muhsin Radi, who is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, on Monday lodged a protest with the head of Al-Azhar, Sayd Tantawi, and members of the government about the historic closure of the Cairo mosque because of the event.

"Police have prohibited the faithful from entering the mosque during their prayer time to prepare for Obama's visit," the MP told Arab TV network, Al-Arabiya.

"They have stopped them from praying and this is banned by Sharia (law). Police have imposed the ban around the mosque and also closed shops that are near the place of worship from tomorrow.

"They have created a red line around the building that no-one can cross."

Zawahri urges Egyptians to reject "criminal" Obama, throws in 'crusader' for good measure

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command urged Egyptians not to be seduced by the 'polished words' of what he called the criminal Barack Obama when the U.S. President makes a speech in Cairo seeking to repair ties with the Muslim world.

"O, Egypt's free, righteous and honorable people and mujahideen; stand united in the face of this criminal," Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, said in an audio recording posted on an al Qaeda-linked Islamist website.

"(Obama's) bloody messages have been received and are still being received and they will not be concealed by public relations campaigns or theatrical visits or polished words."

Obama has chosen Egypt to make an address to the Islamic world that he had promised for early in his presidency. He will seek to dispel resentments inflamed by U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington by militant Islamists.

The 'war against terror' waged by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush was seen by critics in the Muslim world as an anti-Islamic campaign. Obama, with his markedly more reserved style, seeks to rid himself of that burden while enlisting the support of Arab countries in confronting Islamist militancy.

He is also moving to close the Guantanamo bay detention center, a focus of anger in the Muslim world.

"The speech will outline his personal commitment to engagement, based upon mutual interests and mutual respect," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "He will discuss how the United States and Muslim communities around the world can bridge some of the differences that have divided them."

Zawahri said Obama, whose father was a Muslim and who lived in Indonesia as a boy, was not welcome in Egypt.

CRUSADER PLOY

"Does (a group of) people in Egypt, who are raging flames and fuel, hear my cry," he said, reciting a poem composed during the British occupation of the North African country.

"(Obama) came seeking, through a ploy, to win what he had failed to acquire in the battlefield. After the mujahideen foiled America's crusader projects in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia."

A video accompanying the recording showed a still photograph of Zawahri and footage of Obama on a visit to Israel, alongside an extract from a speech in which he pledged commitment to the security of the Jewish state.

The success of Obama's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, such as promoting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and halting Iran's nuclear program, may hinge on how well Obama is able to improve broader U.S. relations with the Islamic world.

Listing famous Egyptian Islamic and national figures and militants, Zawahri included one of the 19 al Qaeda suicide bombers who carried out the 2001 attacks on U.S. cities and the assassin who killed Anwar al-Sadat, the Egyptian President who signed Cairo's peace deal with Israel.

Paris Hilton looks for a friend in Middle East

Question is will she put on a burqa!!

Really can't help but being a little worried - some of those people are - just a little religious nuts!

E! Online

This is starting to seem pathetic.

Having apparently exhausted opportunities for friendship in the U.S. and Britain, Paris Hilton is already making plans to find a stranger willing to become her best friend forever—or at least until the cameras stop rolling.

The current installment of the show—in which she tells E! Online's Watch With Kristin that she will be stricter judge of friend material—premieres today on MTV.

If that doesn't pan out, Variety reports the next iteration of Paris Hilton's My New BFF will land the Hollywood celebutante in the United Arab Emirate of Dubai. Hilton and BFN (Boyfriend For Now) Doug Reinhardt will spend 17 days getting to know the culture, the mores and the lucky ladies vying to befriend Paris before she heads back to Los Angeles to make the final choice.

Unlike previous installments, this round will not feature alcohol, bad language or skanky outfits. So it could just be watchable.

LOS ANGELES, June 2 (Reuters) - Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton is bringing her reality show search for a new best friend to Dubai, where her hard-partying style will be reined in a notch to accommodate Middle East sensibilities, the production company behind the series said on Tuesday.

Production on the latest version of "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" will begin later this month in Dubai and take 17 days, Ish Entertainment said.

As in the U.S. and British versions of the program, the show will revolve around a group of contestants trying to win Hilton's affection and the title of her "best friend forever," or "BFF" to use text-messaging lingo.

"We're very aware we are not making the same show we would make in Los Angeles," said Ish co-founder Michael Hirschorn.

Despite the high alcohol content often found in similar reality shows, Hirschorn said that to respect the local mores of Dubai, alcohol may be nixed from the program.

He added that the idea for the show intrigued him.

"I was excited about the sheer, 'Oh my God, what's going to happen' factor," Hirschorn said.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp will distribute the show internationally, and the program will likely air in Arab countries and possibly in the U.S. on cable channel MTV or on the TV Guide Network, which is owned by Lions Gate.

No air date has been set for the show starring Hilton, who has never before been to Dubai.

Hilton, 28, is the daughter of Rick and Kathy Hilton of the Hilton hotel family, and is a favorite of the paparazzi everywhere. Her show "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" began last year on MTV and was soon followed by a British version.

Pakistan Christians who stored neighbors belongings, accused of defiling the Koran because it was in their house, Islamic radicals storm courtroom

Pakistani Christians

How many non-Muslims in the West have a Koran among their books!!

The average person simply wont know all these laws.

Here - a Christian thing - to help a neighbour - who had to be in some difficulty - has now turned into the possibility that they could spend the life in prison - and they would have got the death penalty if blasphemy had been proven. So utterly incredible!

ISTANBUL, May 29 (Compass Direct News) – Radical Pakistani Muslims in a town outside of Lahore this month overran a courtroom in hopes of swaying a judge in a “blasphemy” case against a Christian couple, and a member of the prosecution later threatened to kill the wife.

Some 50 molvis (Muslim clergy) on May 14 burst into the courtroom in Mustafabad, where a bail hearing was taking place in the case against Munir Masih and his wife Ruqiya Bibi, according to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS).

“Nobody could stop them as they rushed into the court,” said CLAAS’s Tahir Gull, sole representative for the accused. “They said, ‘No non-Muslim has the right to keep a Quran in his house, they have done this so they are liable to be punished.’”

Masih and Bibi, both in their 30s, were originally accused under section 295-B of Pakistan’s penal code with defiling the Quran by touching it with unwashed hands on Dec. 8 of last year. Masih was taken to prison and remained there until Jan. 22, when a Muslim neighbor who had asked him to store some of his possessions, including his Quran, testified on his behalf and the case was dropped.

The complainant, Mohammad Nawaz, subsequently filed another accusation on Feb. 12, this time under 295-C, blasphemy against Muhammad, Islam’s prophet. This charge carries a death sentence, whereas defiling the Quran calls for life imprisonment.

Despite pressure from the crowd of clerics, Judge Shafqat Ali – also a molvi – granted the couple bail. Following the hearing, however, a member of the prosecution team approached Bibi outside the courtroom and threatened to kill her.

“Ruqiya was waiting outside the court,” said Gull, “and one man came and said, ‘Whatever the decision, we will kill you.’”

A prosecution lawyer read portions of the Quran while presenting his case, he added.

“He was not explaining the law in which the accused were charged,” said Gull. “He was trying to influence the court religiously.”

Charges of blasphemy are common in Pakistan and particularly incendiary, often leading to strong shows of religious zeal. It is not uncommon for sections 295-B and 295-C of the Pakistani penal code to be invoked in retaliation for personal grievances.

“It is very easy to grab any person for religious reasons,” said Parvez Choudhry, chairman of Legal Aid for the Destitute and Settlement, who specialize in blasphemy cases. “There are many personal cases involving property, or money, or business that motivate the complainant against the accused person. All the cases are falsely charged.”

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have come under heavy fire from international rights groups. Any private citizen can file blasphemy charges, destroying reputation and livelihood. The charge can possibly lead to the death penalty in the conservative Islamic country.

Masih, who before his initial arrest had been a day laborer, is no longer able to find work due to the stigma of the blasphemy accusation.

“There is a need to repeal these sections [295-B and 295-C],” said Choudhry. “This is considered a draconian law.”

Section 295-C carries a death sentence for anyone found “by words or visible representation or by an imputation or insinuation, directly or indirectly, [to have] defiled the name of the Muhammad of Islam.”

Choudhry suggested that just correcting the vagueness of this definition would go a long way toward reducing its frequent misuse.

“The word ‘indirect’ should be repealed – this is wrong, unconstitutional,” he said. “They have no value in the Evidence Act of Pakistan. The Evidence Act states that there needs to be direct evidence for a conviction.”

The next court date has not yet been assigned, but Gull said he is confident about securing an acquittal.

“We have a good case on our side,” he told Compass. “I am very optimistic.”

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Kuwait: MP's walkout in protest of women lawmakers not wearing the veil

The last time Parliament members walked out in protest of women members not wearing veils.

(ANSAmed) - DUBAI, JUNE 1 - The appeal to "overcome differences and to turn the page for the good of the country" from the Emir of Kuwait to politicians during the inauguration of the new national assembly found its first hurdle after a few minutes, when 14 MPs left Parliament to protest against the two female MPs who were not wearing veils and the government not presenting their economic programme, reports Kuwait Times. Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al Sabah urged members of both the executive and legislative branch, whose differences have cost the oil-rich country six governments and three elections in the past three years, to "contribute to the new climate of political change", looking towards globalisation, the only way to "raise Kuwait to the position of a modern country". The fundamentalist and tribal MPs, two groups that did not do well in the May 16 elections, walked out of Parliament, protesting against a lack of respect for Koranic laws which state that women must wear veils, and a 5-year delay for a strategic economic plan.

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Arson attack on a (so-called) "deviant" Ahmadiyah mosque in South Jakarta

Muslim man shouts Allahu Akbar (God is great) during a demonstration against the Muslim sect Ahmadiyya in front of the presidential palace in Jakarta April 20, 2008

Moderate Indonesia - just last year there were several days of protests calling the government to outlaw the Islamic sect Ahmadiyya - an Islamic group which has denounced violent jihad (but still believe in the supremacy of Islam). In a compromise the government banned the group from spreading their religion - likely that means that it is illegal for any new members to join. An Ahmadiyya member is one of eight Muslims to ever be awarded the Nobel Prize and one of those eight went to Yasser Arafat - this compared to more than 150 being awarded to those of Jewish descent. Out of over 1 billion people less than 10 Muslims have earned the prize. Many Muslims do not consider Ahmadiyya to be Islamic.


A mosque belonging to the "deviant" Islamic sect Jamaah Ahmadiyah in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, has been damaged in an arson attack. There were no injuries in the incident.

Kebayoran Lama Police chief Comr. Makmur S said that the incident occurred during dawn prayers on Tuesday.

Witnesses told police that eight Ahmadiyah members were performing the dawn prayer on the second floor of the two-story building, when two men sprayed the mosque with gasoline from a jerry can and lit the fire. The fire damaged a rug, a chair and a bicycle.

Makmur said the two men had been seen near the mosque on Monday evening.

“[Ahmadiyah] members were suspicious of the men and called the police for protection. We guarded the mosque until 10 p.m.; who would've known they'd come back at dawn,” he said as quoted by kompas.com.

Makmur said the mosque had often received threats.

The government, through a joint ministerial decree, has banned members of Jamaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) from propagating their religious teachings, but they are allowed to maintain their faith and perform their daily religious duties. (dre)

The Jakarta Post