Oh, well, they support them... if they weren't so scared!!!

Via.

At least, they admit they are scared. Others would have spoken about "respect" for other beliefs... just after they have been threatened...

Iran is expanding its diplomatic and economic ties with Venezuela but has no military presence in the South American country, a US general said on Tuesday.
The comments came as Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez denied allegations from the Pentagon that members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force were stationed in his country.
The leftist leader, who often heaps scorn on the United States, called a recent report "absolutely false" at a military ceremony.
The head of US Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser, said Iran was bolstering its relations with Venezuela.
"We see a growing Iranian engagement with Venezuela," Fraser told reporters.
Iran has a "diplomatic, commercial presence" but, "I haven't seen any evidence of a military presence," he said.

It would be somewhat helpful if they just firstly agree, then write the reports and then speak in public, instead of publishing reports and after critizise those same reports. In this case, the report says just the opposite to what this guy says. There is no middleground here: or Iran has military presence in Venezuela or it hasn't.

What they don't get is that each error diminish their capacity to convince people about what they say. And that's not really helpful...

Ahmad Sani Yerima. Image from Wikipedia.

The quiet marriage of former Zamfara State governor and Senate Minority Whip, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima to a 13-year old Egyptian girl, has continued to attract condemnation by the womenfolk.
A coalition of women groups yesterday took its protest to the Senate, urging the Senate President, David Mark leadership of the Upper House to suspend him for marrying an underaged girl.  

The coalition, led by Dr. Mma Nkwocha, comprised the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Women Rights Advancement and Pro-tection Alternative (WRAPA) and the Global Association of Women Attorneys (GAFA).
In a swift reaction to the protest, Senators Chris Anyanwu, Emem Uffot Ekaette, Nkechi Nwaogu and Patricia Akwashiki pledged to provide support to the group in its advocacy against the act.

In addition to the call on the Senate leadership to suspend Yerima, the coalition urged his constituents in Zamafara Central Senatorial District to recall him from the Senate.
But Chair of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze, said at a briefing session yesterday that those opposed to Yerima’s marriage should go to court.

El Mundo:

Najwa's family has announced they will appeal the decision of the Institute of forcing the schoolgirl to leave the center due to her going to class with a veil and is ready to go to court to defend her right to religious freedom, has said their lawyer, Ivan Jimenez Aybar.

The lawyer, Professor of Ecclesiastical Law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, has confirmed that Najwa will resume classes tomorrow, "where she can", that is, at the Institute Gerardo Diego de Pozuelo de Alarcón.

The lawyer has indicated that Nawja has been assigned the center after the one which was closer to home, IES San Juan de la Cruz, changed the internal rules quickly to prevent the girl came to class wearing the veil.

Jiménez-Aybar has considered that the decision to "expel" Najwa IES Camilo José Cela is disproportionate and violates her "dignity" and her right to religious freedom, and stressed that from a legal standpoint, the decision is not solid, because it does not point out any fundamental right to justify the cut in the right to education of the child.

Yes, equality of students before the law!!

Background:
16-year-old removed from class from wearing the hijab.
School confirms hijab prohibition.
Opinions on Najwa's hijab.
National Federation of Muslims will take legal action against the school on Najwa's hijab affair.
Najwa's veil: an analysis.

Hugo Chavez is starting to use Twitter to counter his opponents online, forcing a president who often talks for hours to sum up each thought in 140 characters or less.

Chavez urged Venezuelans to watch his newly created account - chavezcandanga - after midnight Tuesday, saying "at that point is when I let loose."

His first tweet in Spanish popped up at 14 minutes after midnight: "Hey how's it going? I appeared like I said I would: at midnight. I'm off to Brazil. And very happy to work for Venezuela. We will be victorious!!"

By late Tuesday, the socialist leader had more than 18,000 followers before posting a single tweet, and that increased to more than 23,000 early Wednesday.

It has already been erased:

Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's top deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri had appeared on Facebook, but the social networking site later removed those pages.

Less than a fortnight after Osama bin Laden came on Facebook, The Sun revealed that al-Zawahiri, who has a 16.5 million-pound price on his head, also appeared on the site.

Facebook said: "These pages have been removed."

Two more pages linked to the Taliban were also removed.

Zawahiri's page had a photo of him with a semi-automatic rifle in the background and videos included a truck bombing in Afghanistan. It could be found through a Voice of Jihad site that included film clips calling for attacks on Britain and the US, the media report said.

Hey, I'm Al-Zawahiri, don't you want to be my FB friend?

I don't normally copy entire articles but in this case I'm making an exception. Ynet News:

A few weeks back, the well-known author Alfonso Ussia wrote in Spain’s La Razón about a young Catalan woman picked up by Israeli police in Ramallah. Ussia relates that she was presumably campaigning against the Jewish state while holding an expired entry visa on her Spanish passport. Had she been in an Arab state doing something similar, writes Ussia, she would be - most probably - stoned to death in the public square. Instead, Ariadna Jové Martí was sent in good health back to Spain, with an airplane ticket – probably paid for by the State of Israel.
How was all this viewed in Spain? The Foreign Relations Office expressed outrage to Israel’s diplomats over the affair, while the press got busy lambasting the Jewish state. All this, as Ussia rightly points out, while ignoring or justifying every ignominy of any other country around the globe.
Are Israelis aware of the Israel-bashing and demonizing carried out in the Iberian press?
Do they know, for example, the case of Madrid’s El País? With 430,000 daily copies and an Internet readership of over two million, El País is considered the “leader of the mainstream press in Spain.” And alongside every single article about Israel on the website of this pre-eminent newspaper is a profile of Israel that lists Tel Aviv as the country’s capital.
In its section “Corresponsales” (reporters), El País explains that reporter Juan Miguel Muñoz reports from “Jerusalem, Near East.” No other reporter is identified like this as based in a geographic area; they are all in a named country (except those who report on the EU from Brussels).
ReVista de Medio Oriente, a Spanish media watchdog organization, asked El País’ editors why this different treatment of Israel. About their placement of Israel’s capital in the “Near East,” they said that Muñoz “reports from Jerusalem on Lebanon and Syria too” - hardly a convincing answer on the face of it, and even less so because the reporter almost never writes about those countries but writes practically daily on Israel. About Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel, the editors told ReVista that the “directive to maintain this designation the way it is comes from the paper’s directors and can’t be changed.”
Analysis of Muñoz’s biased reporting has been published at ReVista for two years and recently, a further, in-depth review examined all his articles in El País during an arbitrarily-selected three week period in January and February of 2010. The study showed that Muñoz mainly picked up material from the “local press” (as he calls the Israeli press) and re-wrote it in Spanish. He selectively chose topics that cast Israel in a negative light and presented them without context, creating an image of a nation populated by lunatics and killers.
In this vein, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is portrayed continuously as cynically posing for the press, and his concerns about Iran are all cast as politically motivated rather than justified on security grounds.
In two such articles (February 7th and 10th) Muñoz includes not even one sentence on Iran’s threats to world order. Although many nations in the West and Middle East are increasingly alarmed at the peril posed by a nuclear Iran, to read and believe Muñoz is to conclude only Netanyahu has problems with Iran (and they are actually just political posturing). “Benjamin Netanyahu has a fixation: To stop Iran’s nuclear program”, Muñoz writes. “Possessing atomic weapons, and not a signer of the Non Proliferation Treaty, Israel will not accept losing the monopoly in the Middle East.”

Relentlessly derogatory 

In the Muñoz rendition, Israel is overbearing and unreasonable and Iran doesn’t seem to deserve sanctions or isolation. The only mention of Iran’s policies is: “In any case, it doesn’t seem to be sufficient for Israel that President Mahmud Ahmadinejad agrees to have the uranium enriched in Russia and France”.
Another Muñoz story on February 7th lashes out at Netanyahu’s family with familiar interjection of editorial comment; his 15-year-old son, described as a “know-it-all”, is ridiculed for winning a Bible contest; and his wife Sara is judged as guilty of being a tyrant with her house help. “On the stage (of the child’s contest) the image was perfect: flag, religion and army, since, for the idyllic picture to be complete, his brother Yair showed up dressed in khakis.” Muñoz’s stereotype of the Likud leader’s family is crudely signaled as nationalistic, religious and militaristic.
Two more articles (on the 1st and 2nd of February) deal with white phosphorus allegedly used “profusely” in the Gaza war, and two officers being “disciplined” for that, according to the “local press.” Although the army denied that the officers were disciplined about white phosphorus use, and although the report sent to the UN doesn’t mention white phosphorus in this regard, Muñoz repeated a Ha’aretz article by Anshel Pfeffer to serve his purpose of vilifying Israel as much as possible, regardless of the accuracy of the information he repeated.
To complete the lineup, Muñoz reports on a fashion model who refused to serve in the army, only saying that army leaders attacked her mercilessly and publicly for her action but never producing any context to explain the army’s point of view, which is that all citizens are required to serve.
All in all, like Ms. Jové Martí, Muñoz enjoys Israel’s hospitality while indulging consistently in biased reporting in his native language unbeknownst to his naïve hosts. His reporting on Israel is relentlessly derogatory, typified by omissions of key information, lack of context and informational errors. In his rendition, Israel is violent, irresponsible, or plain ridiculous. In contrast, his treatment of Hamas is always respectful and understanding. 

As Mr. Ussia writes about the Jové Martí story, perhaps Israel should encourage Muñoz to live permanently in one of the other Near East countries he covers, whose oppressive policies he almost totally ignores. At least then he wouldn’t be able to enjoy living in Israel while making any “insignificant thing something big against Israel” as Ussia writes.
Perhaps when El País reports on Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and Muñoz gets his facts straight on the Middle East as a whole, Israel could consider welcoming Muñoz back.  

Background:
Dor Chabab hosts event about Spanish Jews at the Center for Jewish history (theblogmocracy.com).
Spanish Amnesty International's campaign for Judeophobia in schools.
A New Judeophobia has replaced the old one.
Judeophobia in Spanish MSM: El Mundo' interview with David Irving.
Judeophobia supported by Spanish Govt.

THE British Ambassador to Yemen escaped unharmed after an explosion near his car today, the Foreign Office confirmed.
The blast happened as Tim Torlot, 52, travelled to work in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a.

The Foreign Office was unable to confirm reports that a suspected suicide bomber died in the explosion.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We can confirm that there was an incident in Sana'a this morning.

"There was a small explosion beside the British Ambassador's car. He was unhurt. No other embassy staff or British nationals were injured. "The embassy will remain closed to the public for the time being. "We advise all British nationals in Yemen to keep a low profile and remain vigilant. We are working urgently with the Yemen authorities to investigate what happened."

The blast comes after Yemen became a focus of international concern about al-Qaeda activity after the man suspected of attempting to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was reported to have told FBI investigators that he was supplied with his bomb by al-Qaeda members in Yemen.

Lesueur, a general delegate at the Thomas More Institute, said the EU had a role to play in putting an end to the conflict between Morocco and Algeria over Western Sahara, a 266,000 square-kilometre territory that has been a bone of contention between the two countries.

According to him, the new distribution of portfolios within the European Commission should accelerate progress, as several commissioners are concerned by the issue. He also proposed to appoint a coordinator.

"We urge the EU to reinvest itself in the region and place its relations with the Maghreb at the top of its agenda," he said.

Moreover, "the EU should help projects and business development," he said, stressing the importance of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), launched in 2008 under the French EU Presidency.

On migration, Lesueur explained that Morocco had problems similar to those faced by Europe in dealing with its southern neighbourhood. As sub-Sahel migrants move north to reach Europe, "Maghreb countries are transforming themselves into transit countries, and are also slowly turning into host countries," he said, remarking that thousands of Senegalese are currently living in Algerian capital Tangiers.

Via.

More information here:

at least eleven protestors have been sentenced to death by the Iranian Judiciary following unfair trials and insufficient evidence justifying any punishment, let alone executions. Seven of the protestors on death row have been identified as: Mohammad Amin Valian, a 20 year student; Abdolreza Ghanbari, a 47 year old teacher; Motahareh Bahrami and Mohsen Daneshpour Moghaddam (husband and wife) and their son, Ahmad Daneshpour, together with two of their close friends, Rayhaneh Haj Ebrahim and Hadi Ghaemi (not related to the Campaign’s executive director of the same name).

After the 12 June 2009 presidential elections, thousands were arrested, hundreds were tortured, and dozens killed. Some authorities bluntly advocated for the use of violence against peaceful protesters and even killing them. Some had command responsibility for those who shot innocent people on the streets. Some had direct responsibility for what happened to dozens of arrested protesters in Kahrizak Detention Center, which resulted in the death of at least four of the detained.

The Campaign appeals to the Iranian authorities, that instead of sending innocent people to death row, they should hold responsible those who perpetuate violence in society–in order to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Until we fully know the role individuals and institutions had in directly or indirectly masterminding and participating in the systematic and deadly crackdown, we cannot ensure that such brutality will not occur again.

Boston.com:

…The atmosphere has only gotten more tense since the arrival in power five years ago of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who famously proclaimed in a 2007 speech at Columbia University that there are no homosexuals in his country. An official memo sent to government departments last year called on employees to either marry or resign — a step seen as aimed at seeking to weed out homosexuals.

Alireza Naimian is one of the lucky ones. After 2 1/2 years in Turkey, he has won acceptance through the U.N. for resettlement in the United States. Sitting in his ground-floor apartment he describes the event that eventually led to his flight: One day in 2007, a group of paramilitary Basijis who noticed his long hair as he traveled in a cab in the northern Iranian town of Roodehen detained him, took him to his home and brutally raped him. 

...Many are placed by the Turkish government in Kayseri and nearby towns, where they form a precarious community, overshadowed by a larger influx of thousands of Iranians fleeing the political crackdown since June's disputed presidential election. In this conservative region of Turkey, they try to lay low, fearing harassment as they wait in hopes of resettlement.

"Police here tells us to stay indoors when we report violence against us," said Roodabeh Parvaresh, a 32-year-old lesbian who has been in Turkey for over two years.

...Another lesbian, Hengameh, who refused to give her full name to avoid publicity, said she was severely beaten by two Turkish youths soon after arriving in the country a year ago.

Still, Turkey provides an escape from their lives in Iran, where homosexuals can face threats from every direction -- from the state, from co-workers or security officials who harass them or try to blackmail them into sexual favors.

There is no authoritative figure for the homosexual population in Iran. However, recently published data based only on psychological reports of recruits for compulsory military service or for sex change operations put the number of gay men at 200,000 in a country of 66 million, Ghahraman said. Sex changes are legal in Iran, and many gays resort to them as the only way to live with their partners or avoid the harsh penalties.

 Via.

The videos, to be broadcast Monday on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, appear to support Abdulmutallab's statements to the FBI that there are "others like me" who also trained with him in Yemen to carry out attacks against U.S. and western targets.

The tape also includes an apparent martyrdom statement in Arabic from the 23-year old Nigerian justifying his actions against "the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He says, "the enemy is in your lands with their armies, the Jews and the Christians and their agents." He reads several passages from the Koran and adds, "God said those who punish you must be punished."

Abdulmutallab was arrested on Christmas Day in Detroit after he allegedly attempted to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines jet. He has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges but U.S. authorities say he is now cooperating in the investigation.

Background:
Nigerian terrorist threatens to explode powdery substance near Detroit.
Qaeda-linked group takes responsibility for NWA attack.
Christmas Day bomber aka "Pantybomber" invited Jihad cleric to adress British students.
Pantybomber's father, an extremist himself, worried about losing Western investments.
London breeding Islamic terrorists.

Analysis: where will study Najwa now?

- Where will study Najwa from now?
- The girl's father says she will not change schools and that she's not going to stop wearing the veil. However, the institute Camilo Jose Cela de Pozuelo does not allow its students to attend class with their heads covered. The Community of Madrid has offered the family another institute in which it is permissible to do the "hijab" but have not yet received the request for Najwa's family to make the change.

- What is the deadline for the family to chose one of those two options?
"There is no deadline for these cases. However, when Najwa is finally medically able to return to school (she suffers from anxiety), she must choose between returning to Camilo Jose Cela without a veil or accepting the transfer.

- What would happen if she does not opt for either of them?
- Najwa is 16 and has yet to finish 4th of ESO, the final year of compulsory education, therefore, her parents are required by law to send her to class and end this cycle. In the event that Najwa does not choose either of the two solutions she has been offered and therefore fails to come to school Camilo Jose Cela, the established protocol for school absenteeism will be launched.

The ministerial conference of the Alliance of Civilizations, to be held in Cordoba on 3 and 4 May as part of the Spanish EU presidency, will address the impact of the crisis provoked by the Swiss decision to ban the construction of minarets in mosques.

The meeting will take the title Religious freedom in democratic societies and with the participation of some 300 people, including ministers, religious scholars and leaders of EU countries, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for organizing the event.

Among the guests will have a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, who will present the impact it is having the measure in his country on the minarets in the Muslim worship centers.

Most Swiss citizens approved the ban on building minarets in a referendum held on 29 November.

The Swiss Government has been saying that this decision should not be interpreted as an attack against Islam or its adherents, although it has caused great unrest in Muslim countries and has encouraged far-right parties in other European countries to go in the same direction.

A meeting of delegates will attend Córdoba candidate countries for accession to the EU, the EU institutions and the Council of Europe.

Also invited to the bishops of the eight cities of Andalusia and the representatives of the major religious communities.

The conference will feature several panels, which will discuss issues such as pluralism of faiths, the role of religious leaders and combating radicalization and religious extremism.

It is not yet confirmed attendance of Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos s deputy for Córdoba.

Moratinos organized in the capital of Córdoba in October 2007 a meeting to discuss a religious intolerance and discrimination against Muslims in Western countries. It was held on that occasion by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The Alliance of Civilizations was initiated by Spain and Turkey in 2004 to help foster understanding between religions and cultures.

The group of friends of the Alliance, integrated into United Nations, has around one hundred countries.

Why religious freedom is not analysed in un-democratic societies, for example, in Islamic societies? Why always democratic countries should under the microscope, while huge Human Rights violations are taking place in other parts of the world, without anyone caring about them because the place they are happening are not democratic countries?

Really fed up of hypocrisy...

Washington Times:

Qods forces in Afghanistan are working through nongovernmental organizations and political opposition groups, the report says. Tehran also is backing insurgent leaders Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ismail Khan.

"Arms caches have been recently uncovered [in Afghanistan] with large amounts of Iranian-manufactured weapons, to include 107 millimeter rockets, which we assess IRGC-QF delivered to Afghan militants," the report says, noting that recent manufacture dates on the weapons suggest the support is "ongoing."

"Tehran's support to the Taliban is inconsistent with their historic enmity, but fits with Iran's strategy of backing many groups to ensure that it will have a positive relationship with the eventual leaders," the report says.

In Iraq, Qods forces are supporting terrorists through Iranian embassies. The report says the outgoing Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, is a member, as well as the new ambassador in Baghdad, Hassan Danafar.

Iranian support for Shi'ite militants in Iraq has included the supply of armor-piercing explosively formed projectiles, as well as other homemade bombs, anti-aircraft weapons, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives.

The report says the elite Iranian fighters are controlled by Iran's government, despite efforts by the group to mask Tehran's control.

Complete report here (PDF).

Background: Iran increasing Qods' force in Venezuela.

DW:

Of the 350 preliminary investigations into suspected Islamist terrorists, 220 inquiries are currently being handled by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), and "almost half of those are aimed at finding the perpetrators of attacks on German troops in Afghanistan," BKA chief Joerg Ziercke said.

Under German law, attacks on German nationals anywhere are a crime and must be investigated if a complaint is made.

However, according to Guido Steinberg, an analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the upsurge in proceedings against Islamist terror suspects is not only due to attacks on German soldiers in Afghanistan that are prosecuted here in Germany.

"A kind of German jihadist scene has emerged since 2006, and that is also why the number of people under scrutiny has risen," Steinberg told Deutsche Welle.

The BKA considers about 1,100 people in Germany to be part of an "Islamist terrorist personnel potential."

"Nationwide, security forces have an eye on 127 potentially threatening individuals," Ziercke told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper on Monday.

Since the beginning of last year, there has been an increase in the number of Germans travelling to Islamist training camps, Zierke said. "More than 30 young Germans went to Afghanistan or Pakistan in 2009." 

"There's a German community in the area now. A group of 10-12 people is trying to lure others with German-language propaganda," he said.

"Unfortunately, they are successful."

Related:
German police investigates Taliban attacks in Afghanistan.

Background:
Video shows German jihadists in Afghanistan.
German intelligence warns of Jihadi families.

South Korea's defense minister says a torpedo was the likely cause of an explosion that sank a warship near the tense border with North Korea last month.

Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told reporters Sunday that he believes a bubble jet effect caused by a heavy torpedo is the most likely cause of the disaster.

A bubble jet is a powerful shock wave and high-pressure gas bubble resulting from an explosive device detonating beneath a vessel.

Kim was also quoted by the French news agency as saying "various other possibilities are also under review."

Investigators say there is evidence that the 1,200-ton Cheonan patrol ship exploded because of a strong impact from the outside. Seoul has refrained from blaming Pyongyang for the incident until its experts carry out a thorough investigation. Pyongyang has denied any involvement. South Korea raised the front section of the warship with a large crane Saturday.

A body was found inside the recovered section, bringing the official death toll to 40. Six sailors remain missing and are believed dead. The coast guard rescued 58 crew members from waters near the blast site.

There were 104 sailors on board the ship when it exploded and sank March 26 during a regular patrol in the waters near the disputed border with North Korea.

North Korea Saturday warned the United States and South Korea that it will employ "all means, including the nuclear deterrent" if they intrude into its territory. The state-run Korean Central News Agency quotes army chief Ri Yong-Ho as saying North Korea's armed forces are "fully ready to frustrate any provocation of the aggressors at a single blow."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday urged Pyongyang not to "engage in provocative actions," and said she hopes there is no "miscalculation" or action that could lead to conflict.

AINA:

On March 30 an administrative judicial court in Egypt dismissed a lawsuit filed by Mrs. Camilia Lutfi, mother of the Coptic Christian twins boys Mario and Andrew (right), against the Interior Minister, and the director of the Civil Status Department for refusing to re-instate the Christian religion on their birth certificates, and invalidate those which were forcefully changed to "Islam" in 2005 by their father Medhat Ramsis Labib, who had converted to Islam.

After his conversion, Andrew and Mario became Muslims in what is called "Islamization by dependence," by which children follow the religion of a converted parent (to Islam only) until they reach the age of puberty (fifteen), because Islam is "the best among all religions," according to Egyptian Court rulings.

The purpose of Lutfi's litigation was to restore back to her twins their identity as Christians, before reaching the age of 16 in June, when they will have their national ID cards issued. Camilia said that because of the developments in their case, her worst nightmares would materialize, in which they would have Islam as religious affiliation on their ID cards. "If they change to Christianity after that, they will be considered apostates," she told Freecopts advocacy. She expressed her surprise at the intransigence of the judiciary in dealing with the issue of her sons, especially after they have already reached the legal age of 15-years, when they can choose their own religion. "The boys have lived this tragedy for the last ten years, through no fault of their own."

ElYoum 7 Newspaper reported that 15-years-old Mario and Andrew were extremely disappointed with the court verdict, saying "faith is not by force, we want to remain Christians and we do not wish to become Muslims." Both boys are practicing Christians and were consecrated last year as deacons in their regular church in Alexandria.

The court explained in its verdict, which was issued on April 14, that Camilia Lutfi has not presented a verdict from a relevant court (it did not say which court) proving the change of her sons' religion from Islam to Christianity. "How come that when their father changed their religion from Christianity to Islam, he required no court verdict, and now that they want to revert back to Christianity, the court requires a verdict?" she told Freecopts.

Although the mother's lawyers presented to the court a portfolio containing 15 different certificates proving they are Christians, contradicting what was written on their birth certificates, the court said in its reasoning that it does not recognize the validity of a certificate issued by the Church as a document of change of religion from Islam to Christianity, as "churches by law are not competent to issue such certificates." The courts only accept certificates of religion change from Al-Azhar (the Muslim theology school in Cairo). Moreover the Court said that there is no law to force the Interior minister and the Civil Status Department chief to change the religion of the boys on their documents without a court ruling to this effect.

Hmm, what marvellous freedom of religion there is in Egypt, hein? And this is happening NOW, not 500 years ago. Just as we speak. Of course, CNN, BBC or El País will not run a piece on these two teenagers. But their case exist (as it exists in other cases, some of them known, some of others unknown), nonetheless.

Muslims in the French city where a woman was fined for driving wearing a burqa complained of being stigmatised by the affair on Sunday as the political repercussions rumbled on.

With the government planning to ban wearing the burqa in public, the fining of the French woman took a political turn when a minister threatened to punish her Muslim husband for offences including polygamy.

“The Muslims of Nantes...are worried by this systematic stigmatisation which goes against the values of the republic,” the collective of Nantes mosques said in a statement.

The association “considers that the stopping of a driver is a judicial procedure and is angry at how such an event has been turned into being all about Islam”.

Just to prove the stupidity of Ayatollah Sedighi's claims that "unmodest women" produce the earthquakes, a new initiative is born:

that point of view doesn’t sit well with Blag Hag blogger Jen McCreight.

The student from Indiana has launched a Facebook campaign against Mr Sedighi’s comments, asking women across the world to wear their most revealing outfits to test the cleric’s theories.
The campaign is called called Boobquake – and today is Boobquake Day.

“On Monday, April 26th I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own… the one usually reserved for a night on the town,” says organiser Jennifer McCreight on the Facebook page.
“I encourage other female sceptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts.

“With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake.”

  A very good idea!!!

Telegraph:

"Your only hope for rescue is the destruction of the Jews before they destroy you!" Hitler said in a 1942 message, one of thousands broadcast across the Middle East in an attempt to woo the Arab world.

In a broadcast aimed at provoking an anti-Semitic uprising in Egypt, he said: "A large number of Jews who live in Egypt, along with Poles, Greeks, Armenians and Frenchmen, have guns and ammunition.

 "Some Jews in Cairo have even asked the British authorities to set up machine guns on the roofs of their houses," he claimed.

But the Nazi's wartime broadcasts had remained a largely hidden chapter in the history of the war until the transmissions were unearthed by a US scholar, who believes they have fuelled continuing unrest in the Middle East.

"The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians would have been over long ago were it not for the uncompromising, religiously inspired hatred of the Jews that was articulated and given assistance by Nazi propagandists and continued after the war by Islamists of various sorts," said Jeffrey Herf, a history professor at the University of Maryland.

In his new book, "Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World", Mr Herf argues that Nazi propagandists offered a message that neatly dovetailed with underlying prejudice. "Islamic fundamentalism, like European totalitarianism in the 20th century, was and is a mixture of very old and very modern elements.

"It is also a product of a mixture of some indigenous currents in the history of Islam with the hatred of democracy, liberalism and the Jews that were so central to National Socialism.

 Really interesting book.

De Tea and Politics

Oezkan does not want to be regarded as "a token immigrant"

Ayguel Oezkan, the designated social minister in Lower Saxony who is set to be Germany's first Muslim minister of Turkish origin, has caused controversy by calling for a ban on crucifixes in state schools.

Ayguel Oezkan has created waves before even taking office as social minister in the north-western German state of Lower Saxony.
The 38-year-old, who is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said in an interview on Saturday that crucifixes have as little place in state schools as do headscarves.
"Christian symbols do not belong in state schools," Oezkan told  German magazine Focus, adding that "schools should be neutral places where children can decide their religious orientation on their own. Just as head scarves do not belong in classrooms."
Comments spark criticism from conservatives
Oezkan's comments have ruffled feathers in her own conservative party.

Image via Wikipedia

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Wulff says the cross and the CDU are 'inseparable'
Lower Saxony state premier, Christian Wulff, distanced himself from the designated minister's remarks
"Christian symbols, above all the crucifix in schools, are welcomed by the state government in Lower Saxony in keeping with the practice of tolerant education on the basis of Christian values," Wulff told news agency dpa.
for integration, was openly critical.
"[Oezkan's remarks] are as absurd as they are appalling," Mueller said in a statement. "Politicians who want to ban the cross in state schools should think twice about whether representing a Christian party is the right choice. The crucifix is the foundation of our identity, culture, and values," he added.

At least, she hasn't asked for the ban on crucifixes while defending the veil.

That said I don't know what is the legislation on Germany regarding religious symbols in schools. But isn't it a little bit "curious" that someone who is Muslim is named minister by a Demochristian party as the CDU?

Global Post:

The orphanage (run by the expelled missionaries in the Atlas Mountains) had been operating for 10 years without any problems. What changed? Authorities appeared to be reacting to claims made by an extremist imam, who accused the orphanage of not respecting adoption procedures.

In most deportation cases, authorities don't even give a reason, though it's usually clear that those being deported are suspected of proselytizing. In fact, the proselytizing charge applies only to non-Muslims.

Even though Morocco is a much more tolerant country than, say, Saudi Arabia in terms of freedom of religion, it nonetheless imprisons anyone trying to “shake the faith of Muslims” for up to three years.

...Why is Morocco developing a harder stance toward Christians? King Mohamed VI is responding to the pressure of not only Islamists but also from other conservative parties.

Already in 2005, Abdelhamid Aouad, a nationalist member of parliament, raised the issue on the floor of parliament, asking the minister of Islamic affairs what the government was doing about the massive evangelization underway. Repeatedly the minister told him that there was nothing to worry about.

Aouad declared, without proof, that the evangelists’ ultimate goal was to convert 10 percent of the Moroccan population by 2020. An Islamist center mentioned that 150,000 Moroccans had been converted by Christian missionaries. Both unfounded allegations are clearly being used as scare tactics to shape public opinion.

Hard statistics are tough to get, but there are allegedly between 150 to 800 missionaries and from 7,000 to 58,000 converts in Morocco. The discrepancy in numbers can be explained by the fact that missionaries and converts have had to go underground in order to stay protected.

The regime has devoted time and energy to fight off this supposed wave of conversion through for example a zero tolerance policy and the creation of a cell devoted to monitoring the phenomenon.

While the plight of foreign Christians is bad, the one of Moroccan Christians is even worse. The Moroccan constitution guarantees the free practice of all religions and King Mohamed VI was crystal clear when he stated that people of the three religions — Islam, Judaism and Christianity — can freely and safely express themselves in the kingdom.

But Moroccan Christians are banned from entering official churches and have to pray in hiding. They also have to be married and buried under Muslim law.

Wow, and this is "religious freedom"? That same freedom they are telling Spanish MSM, that is so flourishing in Morocco in the Najwa's veil case?

Background: "Christian proselitism is terrorism", ulemas say.

Spanish frigate Victoria.

The Spanish frigate is participating in the so-called Operation Focus inside the Operation Atalanta, the EU operation to control and monitor the pirates from theSomali ports in which they operate. This morning, a helicopter from the Victoria located a whaler, who was used as the mother ship, and several suspicious skiffs. Upon reaching the area to inspect the boats, the military have seized the frigate weapons and other material for acts of piracy. Aftwerwards and following the instructions of command of Operation Atalanta, they went to destroy the mother ship.

Photo: Telecinco.