Al Shabaab recruited dozens of Americans: U.S. report
An al Qaeda-affiliated group in Somalia, al Shabaab, has recruited more than 40 Muslim Americans to its battle in the war-ravaged country and at least 15 have been killed, a congressional report said on Wednesday.
U.S. officials have become increasingly worried about the group, particularly after capturing an al Shabaab commander who had allegedly been a liaison with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an active Yemeni group that has tried to strike the United States.
So far, al Shabaab has conducted only limited attacks outside of Somalia, notably the twin bombings in Uganda that killed 79 people watching the World Cup final last year. The group has waged a long, violent battle to control Somalia.
Republican Peter King of New York, chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, has been holding a series of hearings to probe concerns about Muslim Americans becoming radicalized and joining militant groups.
A report by his staff found that more than 40 Muslim Americans and 20 Canadians have been recruited to al Shabaab and at least 15 Americans were killed in fighting, including three suicide bombers.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Feisal Omar (Somali men parade as members of al Shabaab in the capital Mogadishu, March 5, 2011)
Dutch vote to ban ritual animal slaughter, Jews and Muslims unite in protest
The Dutch parliament voted on Tuesday to ban ritual slaughter of animals, a move strongly opposed by the country’s Muslim and Jewish minorities, but left a loophole that might let religious butchering continue. The bill by the small Animal Rights Party, the first such group in Europe to win seats in a national parliament, passed the lower house of parliament by 116 votes to 30. It must be approved by the upper house before becoming law. It stipulates that livestock must be stunned before being slaughtered, contrary to the Muslim halal and Jewish kosher laws that require animals to be fully conscious.
“This way of killing causes unnecessary pain to animals. Religious freedom cannot be unlimited,” said Marianne Thieme, head of the Animal Rights Party, said before the vote. “For us religious freedom stops where human or animal suffering begins.”
In a rare show of unity, the Netherlands’ Muslim and Jewish communities — numbering about 1 million and 40,000 respectively in a total population of 16 million — have condemned the proposed ban as a violation of their religious freedom. “The very fact that there is a discussion about this is very painful for the Jewish community,” Netherlands Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs told Reuters. “Those who survived the (second world) war remember the very first law made by the Germans in Holland was the banning of schechita or the Jewish way of slaughtering animals.”
Uca Octay of Rotterdam’s Islamic University said: “We will have to import halal meat from neighboring countries or find another way to meet the needs of the Muslim population. Becoming vegetarian could be an option as well.”
The law said religious groups could continue ritual slaughter if they proved it was no more painful than stunning, but it was not clear how to do this. The Jewish community has challenged a study on animal pain used to support the ban.
Chief Rabbi Jacobs said the exemption in the law stipulated “that we must prove the animal slaughtered the Jewish way suffers less or the same as with stunning, but this absolutely impossible to prove. You can’t ask the animal how it feels afterwards. Nobody can prove this.” He said that he’s been getting calls from many people in his constituencey to ask what the ban could mean for them. “Old people are scared and young people who are just married are calling me to ask if they should stay here, today it is the schechita and tomorrow what, circumcision? People are afraid.”
“Holland is a sophisticated country and other countries look to Holland as an example, and we are afraid of the domino affect, that other countries will follow. This is the reason so many countries are watching the Netherlands today, ” he said.
Speaking as a Jew, I would like to offer my support in your decision to abolish as unlawful the Kosher Slaughter method.
This slaughtering method inflicts a lot of unnecessary pain upon the slaughtered animal, which can and should be prevented.
Rabbis have been finding all sorts of ways to bend and go-around the orthodox Jewish traditions and laws, in order to enable acceptance of modern comforts into Jewish way of life. This important issue should be no different.
It’s time to stop this barbarous ceremony! It’s more than possible to be a Jew without it!
My congratulations on your initiative to reduce pain!
Evangelical Christians from Global South see expanding influence
A survey of evangelical Christian leaders found a Global North-South split on how they see their prospects.
The 2010 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life revealed optimism among 58 percent of evangelical leaders in the Global South – sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East/North Africa, Latin America and most of Asia. But 66 percent of leader in Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand tended to be pessimistic about evangelicals’ influence on society.
The Global Survey of Evangelical Protestant Leaders polled 2,196 leaders, finding splits on such issues as whether belief in God was required to be a moral person. There was near-universality on the Bible being the word of God.
The story on the survey, Evangelicals split on faith’s influence-survey, also revealed a more conservative bent in the South.
This is getting bad.Wake up america,get back to your bible and gods word.Time is short.This is all wrong!Jesus didn’t say to do this.
from Photographers Blog:
Srebrenica: The story that will never end
I've been to more than one hundred mass graves, mass funerals and witnessed the long, exhaustive process of victim identification. I took pictures of bones found in caves and rivers, taken from mud, recovered from woods and mines or just left by the road.
Most of these terrible assignments were around the small, used to be forgotten at-the-end-of-the-road town called Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia.
The international criminal court said the most terrible crimes of genocide were committed in Srebrenica area when the Bosnian Serb forces massacred thousands of Muslims after the enclave, ironically under U.N. protection as a safe heaven, was overrun by an army led by its ruthless commander.
Ratko Mladic, a typical officer from what used to be the Yugoslav people's army, was the commander of the forces that overran the enclave. He commanded what he said was the revenge upon the Turks for the events from the early 19th century. Thousands of white Muslim gravestones at the terrifying and extremely sad Srebrenica memorial remain as a symbol of that “revenge”. Thousands are still missing, their bones hidden in heavy Bosnian soil.
Youth volunteers sought for campaign against bigotry
Two U.S. State Department employees — one who speaks out against anti-Semitism, the other against Islamaphobia – have teamed up to promote a global campaign to get young people to combat racial, ethnic and religious bigotry by volunteering their time for people unlike them.
“For instance, a young Jewish person could volunteer five hours at a clinic that services a Muslim community. Or a Muslim could volunteer several hours to read books to a Christian pre-school. The list goes on and on,” said Hanna Rosenthal, the State Department’s special envoy focused on anti-Semitism.
The campaign, “2011 Hours Against Hate,” grew out of Rosenthal’s friendship with Farah Pandith, the State Department’s special representative to Muslim Communities. Attending a conference two years ago in Kazakhstan, the two arranged to swap speeches decrying hatred against Jews and Muslims, catching the the ear of conferees.
They were accompanied by young people from six non-governmental organizations who asked them to promote deeds, not just statements. They said they were inspired by U.S. President Barack Obama’s call for more volunteerism and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appeals for ”citizen diplomacy.” The concept also paralleled Europe’s declaration of 2011 as the year of volunteerism.
So, on February 17 at another conference in Vienna, the two introduced their idea.
“Over a dozen ambassadors came up to us and said, ‘This is great. We want something for our governments to do to reach out to our younger generation.’ We’re seeing young people embrace this wholeheartedly,” Rosenthal said in a conference call with reporters.
“One can look at this and think this is a gimmick … and it’s not. It’s beyond religion. It’s about gender, it’s about race, it’s about ethnicity,” Pandith said.
Israeli rabbis tell Jews not to sell homes to Arabs, Netanyahu disagrees (updated)
Dozens of Israeli rabbis, some of them civil servants, issued an appeal on Tuesday telling locals not to sell or rent property to non-Jews, drawing condemnation from lawmakers and human rights activists. The open letter underscored Jewish-Arab tensions that have deepened along with Israel’s deadlocked Palestinian conflict, as well as more recent demographic fears triggered by an influx of illegal African migrants.
“The land of Israel is intended for the people of Israel,” Yosef Shainin, chief rabbi of the southern port city of Ashdod and one of the 41 signatories, told Israel’s Army Radio when asked about the letter.
Obtained by Reuters ahead of its planned publication in synagogues and religious journals, the letter quotes warnings by ancient sages that living with non-Jews can lead to “sacrilege.” Other concerns for property values are also raised. Another signatory, Chief Rabbi Mordechai Nagari from the Maale Adumim settlement, said: “If you allow Arabs into Jewish neighborhoods, you are asking for feuds to ensue.”
While religious edicts are commonplace and often ignored in predominantly secular Israel, the letter was unusual as several of the rabbis were state-funded municipal chaplains — in Nagari’s case, of a settlement in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians have been struggling for statehood.
The Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and opposition lawmakers demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemn the letter and discipline those rabbis.
from The Great Debate:
Islamophobia and a German central banker
How do you reconcile the traditions of many Muslim immigrants with the freedoms and values of 21st century Western Europe?
It's a question that has led to periodic outbursts of vigorous debate from France to Holland and Switzerland. In Germany, the discussion has been relatively subdued. Until now.
Why? A passage in a book considered so unsettling that its author, Thilo Sarrazin, was forced to resign from the board of Germany's central bank this month, provides part of the answer.
Criticism of Islam and Muslim immigrants, he writes, is wrongly seen to "equal Islamophobia which equals racism which equals anti-Semitism which equals right-wing radicalism which equals national socialism (Nazism)." In a country deeply ashamed of its 1933-1945 Nazi past, that's enough to mute debate.
Sarrazin's book, "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany abolishes itself), came under withering assault from Germany's political and intellectual elite even before its publication and (judging from some of the comments) even before many of the critics waded through its 461 dense, statistics-laden pages.
It is not an anti-immigration, anti-Islam tirade, it is an argument against a combination of flawed immigration and social welfare policies that, according to Sarrazin, have tended to attract a sizeable number of immigrants more interested in living off generous government handouts than in finding a place in the labour market, climbing up the economic ladder and integrating into German society.
Immigrants from Muslim parts of former Yugoslavia, from Arab and North African countries and from Turkey (the largest group) "are the core of the integration problem," Sarrazin writes, citing dismal statistics on scholastic achievement, unemployment, dependence on welfare payments, crime and reluctance to learn German, an essential step towards integration. In contrast, immigrants from Asia or India were doing particularly well in integrating and in making economic progress.
Komment:
… “ethnic” means native, as opposed to immigrants who are not citizens. As to the shrinkage, there are projections that each successive generation will be around 39% smaller …
So, ethnic means native. Then how many ethnic Americans are left? It seems like America has done pretty well without them.
And again: Why can’t the Germans solve the problem by offering the immigrants (or Gastarbeiter) a realistic possibility of citizenship with the rights and responsibilities that come with it?
German central banker in row over Muslims and Jews resigns
A German central bank board member who caused outrage with remarks about Muslim immigrants and Jews resigned on Thursday after coming under pressure from political leaders including Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Bundesbank said Thilo Sarrazin, 65, who accused Turks and Arabs of exploiting the welfare state, refusing to integrate and lowering the average intelligence, would leave his post at the end of the month.
Sarrazin confirmed he had stepped down during a book reading in Potsdam near Berlin. “I found it too risky in the current atmosphere … to stand up to the entire political and media establishment. That would be presumptuous and would not have worked,” he said. “So, a strategic retreat and now (I will) work on the topics that are important to me.”
He had already been relieved of some of his central bank responsibilities over remarks he made last year about immigrants but the strict independence of the central bank made it difficult to have him removed.
Sarrazin’s resignation, announced late on Thursday, means President Christian Wulff will no longer have to decide whether to approve the bank’s request to remove him, an awkward choice that threatened to expose Merkel to a backlash from conservative voters.
The Financial Times Deutschland newspaper wrote “Sarrazin does away with himself” — a play on the title of his new bestselling book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany does away with itself).
Q+A – Why Sarrazin comments on Jews, Muslims cause outcry in Germany
German central banker Thilo Sarrazin has divided public opinion with remarks about Muslim immigrants and comments about the genetic make-up of Jews, prompting calls for him to step down.
Leading politicians have called for the Bundesbank to dismiss the 65-year-old, who has dominated headlines in the public furore surrounding the launch of his book, “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany does away with itself).
The Bundesbank has met to discuss Sarrazin’s fate this week, but has yet to announce a formal decision.
Following are some questions and answers about the case and why it has sparked such outcry in Germany.
WHAT CAUSED THE CONTROVERSY?
The same utilitarian argument made Thilo Sarrazin have been used against other minorities in other countries, including the United States. Fortunately, one’s worth as a human being goes beyond his usefulness in a commercial society.
Nonetheless, leaders of minorities around the world have a responsibility to further the education of their members. Moreover, each country has a responsibility to remove ALL roadblocks to minority education. Indeed, even with all the doors open, learning is long and tedious, and with no shortcuts for anyone.
Families that have invested in the education of their children know this, and also know that the desire must be planted early on in the child. Since many parents themselves do not see the significance of learning, this important ingredient of education is often missing. Community and church leaders can help in this regard.
In the end, it is all worth it as an informed human being is good for all of us, not just for those that invested in his education. Regarding his race or national origin, it is of concern to one no.
As for Sarrazin, like all bigots, he should be ignored. Those who think that perhaps he means well for Germany, should reflect that he has offered no solutions, whatsoever, with his criticism. This is the prime indication that his intentions are not honorable. By themselves then, his comments are both inflammatory and racist.
from Fan Fare:
Hollywood and religion. Double standards, or fair game for satire?
Should all religions be taboo when it comes to comedy and satire?
Comedy Central -- the same TV network that managed to both anger and bow to Muslim sensibilities in April by airing and later censoring a "South Park" episode portraying the Prophet Mohammad -- is now at the center of a pre-emptive storm over plans to develop a comedy show about Jesus.
A new coalition of family and religious groups Citizens Against Religious Bigotry has called on Comedy Central not to air the animated series "JC" and asked advertisers to refuse to sponsor it.
The show, billed as being about Jesus trying to live as a regular guy in New York City, is still in the development stage, is not on the air yet, and has not yet been given a green light by the network.
Still, Parents Television Council president Tim Winters called the series offensive, labeled Comedy Central as bigoted and said he was fed up of Hollywood "using the notion of being offensive to everyone as cover" for its comedy targets.
"Comedy Central has consistently demonstrated behavior that is shockingly anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and patently offensive to African Americans, Hispanic Americans and many others," Winters said on Thursday, adding that he was happy to join the new coalition. Its other members include the Media Research Center, Family Research Council, talk radio host Michael Medved, the Catholic League and the American Alliance of Jews and Christians.
“The advertising community needs to open its eyes to the fact that they are the ultimate consumer when it comes to television. They hold the checkbooks and they have the power to push back when program content conflicts with the values of their customers," Winters said.
Whatever happened to the old proverb that God is a comic playing to an audience that’s too scared to laugh?
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