Far more Christian than Muslim migrants worldwide, Pew study says
Christians far outnumber Muslims as migrants around the world, including in the European Union where debates about immigration usually focus on new Muslim arrivals, according to a new study issued on Thursday.
Of the world’s 214 million people who have moved from their home country to live in another, about 106 million (49 percent) are Christians while around 60 million (27 percent) are Muslims, the study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said.
Only 3.6 million Jews around the world have moved across international borders, the study said, but that is 25 percent of the world’s Jewish population, by far the highest proportion on the move of any faith group.
“Many experts think that, on the whole, economic opportunities – better jobs and higher wages – have been the single biggest driver of international migration,” it said.
“At the same time, religion remains a factor in some people’s decisions to leave their countries of birth and their choices of where to go.”
The study defined migrants as people living in another country in 2010 for over a year, including estimates of illegal immigrants and long-term refugees including Palestinians and their descendants.
“Perhaps contrary to popular perception, … Christian immigrants outnumber Muslim immigrants in the European Union as a whole,” the report said, indirectly referring to far-right parties that have long campaigned against Muslim newcomers.
Jewish Orthodoxy spreads in the Israeli military
Roni Daniel saw the writing on the wall in a toilet.
A former infantry commander who fought in three Middle East wars and now the dean of Israeli defense correspondents, Daniel recently visited military headquarters in Tel Aviv. There, a urinal that uses a motion detector to clean itself was signposted: “Forbidden on the Sabbath.” Troops, he realized, were being ordered to defer to Orthodox Jewish curbs on the use of electricity between Friday night and Saturday night.
For Daniel, and for millions of other Israeli citizens, the sign is symbolic of creeping change in an institution long cherished as a bastion of national unity. An increasing number of conscripts are Orthodox Jews – mirroring the growth of the minority in Israeli society at large. Some religious troops view military service through the prism of their own piety – either as the realization of a messianic vision that sees Jews conquering biblical lands or as an institution that should be subordinated to rabbinical writ.
For secular Israelis, already worried about the role of religion in the Jewish state, that threatens not just the military but the country itself.
“In my time, the skullcap-wearers came to the military and served alongside me. They lived their lives as they pleased, we respected them, and they also respected our lifestyle,” said Daniel, who is 64 and secular. “Today’s generation, to a degree, joins up with the object of imposing its lifestyle on others – to dictate how to behave. It’s a crawling annexation.”
Israel Defense Forces top brass say religion is not threatening the chain of command. “No rabbi will run any of my units,” chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, told Israel’s top-rated Channel Two news last month.
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Sorry I forgot to mention.
As a non religious person I do not think
you can judge any religion based on
crazy peoples’ actions at the margin.
Netanyahu’s gift to Obama: tale of ancient Persian plot against the Jews
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed President Barack Obama a gift on Monday that spoke volumes about Israel’s tensions with Iran – an ancient Hebrew tome about a Persian plot to annihilate Jews.
It’s called the Scroll of Esther, a tale of palace intrigue featuring a Jewish beauty who charms a Persian king into foiling an evil adviser’s genocidal plans for her people some 2,500 years ago.
“Then too, they wanted to wipe us out,” Netanyahu told Obama, according to an Israeli official.
Jewish faithful gather in synagogues on Wednesday to read the parchment text, popularly known as the Megillah, on the eve of the Jewish costume holiday of Purim, a celebration of salvation and of turning the tables on one’s foes.
“And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them,” one of the verses says.
Netanyahu, who has called Iran’s nuclear program a threat to the Jewish state’s existence, made a point of telling reporters after his White House meeting with the president that he had given the Megillah to Obama.
The Israeli leader, in a frosty meeting with Obama last May, lectured the president on Jewish history and criticized his approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I guess, Obama should have offered Netanyahu a copy of “How Empires Fall” by Schell
More than half of Americans back Obama’s Koran apology – poll
More than half of Americans support President Barack Obama’s apology for U.S. troops burning copies of the Koran, an incident that triggered a spate of bloody protests and attacks on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday, 56 percent of those surveyed backed Obama, who has been criticized by U.S. Republican presidential candidates for apologizing to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Twenty-three percent disagreed.
While the spasm of violence that erupted following the incident on a NATO base in Afghanistan does not appear to have significantly altered Americans’ perspective on the war, 66 percent of those polled also said Washington should bring its troops home immediately.
Obama’s formal apology and the debate that decision created have underscored the delicate course the president must tread in his campaign for re-election in November.
Afghanistan and other foreign policy issues are sure to take a backseat to the economy in the campaign but Obama is loath to give Republicans more ammunition in the crucial months before the elections.
The poll, conducted from March 2 to March 5, showed that far more Democrats supported Obama’s apology, with 76 percent of them saying Obama made the right decision.
Only 37 percent of Republicans backed the apology, and almost half said Obama was not right to do so. Some 53 percent of independents supported the apology.
bs – there is not a legit poll out there that shows overwhelming support for obozo apologizing for this… he caused more deaths, and it now looks like he may have even caused a soldier to flip out and go retaliate for some of the afghans murdering our troops after his apology. Reuters used to have a solid reputation at reporting… sad how down hill they have gone.
French PM suggests Jews and Muslims give up kosher and halal meat laws
France’s prime minister urged Muslims and Jews to consider scrapping their halal and kosher slaughter laws on Monday as President Nicolas Sarkozy and his allies stepped up their efforts to woo far-right voters.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon made the suggestion after Sarkozy called at the weekend for butchers to clearly label meat slaughtered according to religious laws and his allies warned immigrants might impose halal meat on French schoolchildren.
Fillon and other conservative leaders linked this tough stand on ritually prepared meat to issues such as immigration and French identity that the far-right National Front uses to tap into resentment against Europe’s largest Muslim minority.
“Religions should think about keeping traditions that don’t have much in common with today’s state of science, technology and health problems,” Fillon told Europe 1 radio while discussing the two-round presidential election ending May 6.
The “ancestral traditions” of ritual slaughter were justified for hygienic reasons in the past but were now outdated, he said. “We live in a modern society.”
Mohammad Moussaoui, head of France’s Muslim Council, said ritual slaughter was no more painful than modern methods and labelling meat as being prepared “without stunning” would feed resentment against the two minority religions using it.
“It will stigmatise Muslims and Jews as people who don’t respect the interests of animals,” he said. “That will raise tensions in society.”
The French would. What good are the French anyway????????????
Thai Buddhist temple festival puts magic back into tattoos
Shrieks and wails hang in the air as thousands of tattoo devotees pack into a Thai Buddhist temple for an annual festival they believe renews the protective magic in the elaborate designs on their skin. Crowds seethed through the temple grounds, with men roaring, hissing and screaming while imitating the creatures tattooed on their bodies, as if they had been possessed by them. One pecked towards the ground as if he was a chicken, others flung up their arms and danced.
The yearly ceremony took place at the weekend at Wat Bang Phra in Nakon Pathom, 80 km (30 miles) west of Bangkok, which is known for magically charged tattoos and amulets said to protect their bearers against danger. While honouring the founding masters of the Buddhist temple, the gathering is also seen by believers as an opportunity to “recharge” their tattoos.
“You get many things: to pay your respects, to make your body and spirit happy, to worship our masters,” said Nakhom Tonghum, 35, who had a tiger tattoo on his back and chest.
The tattoos vary from legendary heroes from epics such as the Ramayana to mythical creatures or Pali and Sanskrit writing. In most tattoos, animals such as panthers, tigers and snakes are intricately woven into magical signs and scriptures.
“I’m a believer. I like this,” said Akkaporn Silom. He said that when possessed, it’s an out-of-body experience and one goes numb and gets goosebumps.
Not all Thai Buddhists believe in the mystical powers of protection of the sacred tattoos, known as Sak Yant. But many do, and an increasing number of Westerners are also being enticed by the purported magic.
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Sarkozy courts French far-right talking about immigration, halal meat, Christian roots
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has marked a rightward shift in his re-election campaig, pledging to cut the number of immigrants and calling for clear labelling of halal meat in a bid to entice voters away from the National Front. Speaking to thousands of flag-waving supporters at a rally in the western city of Bordeaux, Sarkozy vowed to defend secular values in France – which has Europe’s largest Muslim minority – and to send a tough message on law and order if he wins a fresh five-year term in a two-round election in April and May.
Despite rebounding in polls since launching his campaign last month, Sarkozy trails Socialist rival François Hollande.
“We must reduce the number of arrivals on our territory,” Sarkozy said on Saturday, pledging to end the automatic right of immigrants to be joined by their families. “You are not welcome in France if you are only coming to receive welfare. Everyone thinks it: it is time for republicans to say it.”
“Those who come with the intention of not respecting our laws and our customs, of not respecting the property of others, of not sending their children to school, of not making an effort at integration, they are not welcome on French soil,” he said.
National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, running third in polls with nearly 20 percent, sparked a scandal last month by claiming that almost all meat in Paris was halal – killed according to Islamic norms by cutting the animal’s throat and letting its blood drain out. Meat industry association, Interbev, denied this.
Sarkozy appeared to court Le Pen’s supporters by echoing remarks from his hardline Interior Minister Claude Gueant on Saturday rejecting “multiculturalism” and suggesting school canteens should not serve halal meat.
“Let’s recognise everyone’s right to know what they’re eating, halal or not. I’d like to see, therefore, the ticketing of meat according to its method of slaughter,” Sarkozy said. “We have to consider our holidays, the church and cathedral towers in our villages and towns, our eating habits, our morality, as aspects of our civilisation not just our religion: the civilisation of the French Republic.”
Too late, Snarko. Madame Le Pen has that all sewn up.
Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood sets up political party to contest June polls
Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood has teamed up with other Islamists to establish a new political party that is set to be a leading player in the country’s first elections since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising. Islamist and secular parties will vie in June elections for seats in a national assembly that will draft a new constitution for the North African country.
Political analysts say Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood is likely to emerge as the most organised political force and a leading player in the oil-exporting country where Islamists, like all dissidents, were harshly suppressed for 42 years.
Post-uprising elections have already brought Islamists into government in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco since October and they are likely to perform well in Libya, a socially conservative country where alcohol was already banned before the revolution.
Lamine Belhadj, who heads the committee that is working to set up the new party, told Reuters at a conference on Friday it would bring together Islamists of different stripes. “This is the founding conference of a national, civil party with an Islamic frame of reference. It is being established by the Muslim Brotherhood and many independents who are not affiliated with any Islamic organisations,” he said.
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For some Afghans, suicide bombs are best answer to U.S. troops’ Koran burnings
Matihullah, 24, had always dreamed of becoming a lawyer. Then news spread that Western soldiers had burned many copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base in Afghanistan. He gave up his studies and embarked on a new mission in life — to become a suicide bomber.
“Since the desecration and burnings of holy books of the Koran, I have been burning with the desire of revenge. It is running in my blood,” said Matihullah, wearing the traditional white skull cap worn by many Afghans. “I have two other brothers to take care of our family and I feel very proud to get my revenge.”
The desecration of the Korans, which the United described as unintentional, triggered widespread protests in which 30 people were killed. Afghan security forces turned their weapons on American soldiers. Two senior U.S. officers were shot dead at their desks in the heart of the Interior Ministry by what Afghan security officials said was a police intelligence officer, stunning NATO and the Kabul government.
The incident also raised the possibility that Afghanistan could see more suicide bombings — one of the Taliban’s most effective weapons — by those who have concluded that is the only way justice can be served.
“I couldn’t do any harm to the Americans by protesting and throwing stones,” said Matihullah. “I want to put on the suicide vest and blow them apart.”
See also:
British and Italian war graves desecrated in Libya in anti-Christian outburst
Libya’s leadership has apologised after armed men smashed the graves of British and Italian soldiers killed during World War Two, in an act of vandalism that appeared to be directed against non-Muslims. Amateur video footage of the attack, posted on social networking site Facebook, showed men casually kicking over headstones in a war cemetery and using sledge hammers to smash a metal and stone cross.
One man can be heard saying: “This is a grave of a Christian” as he uprooted a stone headstone from the ground. Another voice in the footage says of the people buried in the cemetery: “These are dogs.”
The attack happened in the eastern city of Benghazi, near where British and Commonwealth troops fought heavy battles against German and Italian forces during the 1939-45 war.
The National Transitional Council (NTC), Libya’s interim leadership since last year’s uprising forced out Muammar Gaddafi, said it would pursue those responsible. “The NTC apologises for the incident with the foreign graves, especially the British and Italian graves,” the council said in a statement. “This action is not in keeping with Islam.”
The NTC has close ties with Western countries after a NATO bombing campaign helped it to oust Gaddafi, and most ordinary Libyans feel no animosity towards the West. However, a minority of hardline Islamists, who are opposed to any non-Muslim presence and in some cases have formed into heavily-armed militias, have gained ground since Gaddafi’s 42-year rule ended last August. The government in Tripoli has struggled to assert its authority over these groups.
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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This is simply because Christain are being prescuted at what they call “Muslim countries” Middle east, while the land is land of God only.
You just have to watch TV to understand why this is hapaning around you .No body wanted to leave their mother land but supriorty of other faith, or becuse they think their faith is the only faith right is forceing Christans to leave,as they are being killed ,ripped, and murdered as their god ordered them to do so in 26 ayat.