Another Christian tortured to death in Eritrea, AlQaeda kills Sunni leader, Saudi Arabia vs Syria, Algerian bomb (3rd in 1 week), ex-Jihad speaks against Al-Qaeda and other items

More and more keep dying in Eritrea. The deaths are going up. Eritrea is located south of Saudi Arabia, in North Africa. The people who are imprisioned there, are placed in train like karts, in the desert. The believers imprisioned there are dying of the heat, and starvation. More than 10% of the believers in the country are in jail. On 9-11 another Saint got her crown of Matyrdom, and the headline doesn’t show anywhere. Another imprisoned Christian in Eritrea has been martyred. Voice of the Martyrs’ Canada’s Bernie Daniels says, “Nigsti Haile, aged 33, was tortured to death by Eritrean authorities in the Wi’a Military Training center in Massawa.”

She died September 5 after refusing to sign a letter recanting her faith, according to a report from Open Doors USA. Haile, an active member of the Rhema church, was one of ten Christian women who were arrested at a church gathering in Keren eighteen months ago and who have been under severe pressure to deny Christ.

Arabs for Christ – Another Christian tortured to death in Eritrea

RIP.

How many newspapers are going to publish this??

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Al Qaeda group claims killing Iraqi Sunni leader and, instead of asking for justice to be done upone the killers, mourners vow revenge at sheik’s funeral.

Some 1,500 mourners called for revenge Friday as they buried the leader of the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida, who was assassinated by a bomb after meeting with President Bush earlier this month.

[…] “We will take our revenge,” the mourners chanted. “We will continue the march of Abu Risha.”

The sheik was buried one year to the day after he organized Sunni Arab clans into an alliance to drive al-Qaida in Iraq from sanctuaries in Anbar province where the terror movement had flourished since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the second-highest ranking U.S. officer in Iraq, and several high-ranking government officials attended the funeral, including Iraq’s interior and defense ministers and National Security Adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie.

“We condemn the killing of Abu Risha, but this will not deter us from helping the people of Anbar — we will support them more than before,” al-Rubaie declared. “It is a national disaster and a great loss for the Iraqi people — Abu Risha was the only person to confront al-Qaida in Anbar.”

So, instead of confronting Al-Qaeda for a change and to really continue his march, they are going to take revenge.

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Oops, you know, Saudi Arabia is not very happy with Syria about the new US-hosted Israel-Palestine talks:

Saudi Arabia is showing increasing signs of displeasure as Palestinian-Israeli preparatory discussions on a US-hosted multinational peace conference in November meander on without apparent achievements.

According to Agence France Presse (AFP) Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal warned Wednesday, “If this conference does not tackle the key issues such as Jerusalem, the borders, the Palestinians and other issues that were clearly stated in the Arab peace initiative, then the conference will be pointless.”

With time running out for the establishment of a firm basis for the conference, a deepening crisis in relations between Syria and the Saudis is throwing a pall over the upcoming discussions and Lebanese presidential vote.

Frosty relations

Fraught Syrian-Saudi relations plumbed new lows this week with the announcement Tuesday that a scheduled visit by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem to Riyadh had been called off.

Al-Mouallem was scheduled to meet Saudi King Abdullah II and other Saudi officials during a visit designed to ease tensions between the two regional powers in the wake of a public falling out last month.

Ties between Syria and the Saudis have been troubled for some time, with the kingdom feeling that its role in seeking to reconcile Lebanese and Palestinian factions has been undermined by Damascus. [Could it be because Syria is not interested in having peace between its neighbours?? What is gaining Syria with this confrontation?].

Nadim Shehadi from the UK-based think tank Chatham House told ISN Security Watch , “There has been a break in Saudi-Syrian relations for two years, which were sort of restored during the Arab [League] summit in March when President Assad was invited to Riyadh.”

But what do you know? There is also Iran-Iraq question between them:

Both Syria and Saudi Arabia are deeply involved in Iraq, where the correspondence or dissonance between their interests are far from clear, despite Syria’s close relationship with Iran.

Asked if there are differences between the Saudis and Syrians over Iraq, a source close to the situation told ISN Security Watch on the condition of anonymity, “Probably, but it is harder to say because neither of them has very transparent policies […] To the extent that Syria has a relationship with Iran it creates a problem for Saudi Arabia, but it doesn’t seem that in Iraq Syria has been backing the same parties as Iran.”

[…] Saudi Arabia saw the July-August 2006 Lebanon war and subsequent Lebanese political meltdown as opportunities to expand its sphere of political and economic influence in Lebanon, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into government reconstruction funds controlled by the rump anti-Syrian Fouad Siniora administration.

A leaked October 2005 draft report of the UN probe into the murder of al-Hariri fingered prominent Syrian officials with close ties to the Syrian president as involved in the murder plot.

According to the anonymous source, “Saudi Arabia was extremely close to the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated. They suspect a Syrian hand, if not more, in his assassination […] And I think that was a turning point in their relations with the Syrians.”

The fight for Islamic rule is back…

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After the two attacks which took place last week, another bomb attack in Algeria:

A bomb has exploded in front of a police compound in Algeria, killing three people and wounding five others, officials say.

The attack happened in the town of Zemmouri, about 50km (31 miles) east of the capital, Algiers.

It is the latest in a series of bombs attacks in Algeria that have killed more than 50 people in the past week.

The militant group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it was responsible for the earlier blasts.

In the latest attack, the bomb was placed in a plastic bag at the entrance to the compound where police officers and their families live, Algeria’s security forces say.

They said two people had to have their legs amputated after the incident. [INCIDENT!!! You’re a bunch of stupid morons. Three people get killed and five others wounded, including the two which have had their two legs amputated and you call that an INCIDENT???  ]

So far no group has claimed the responsibility for the attack.

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Speaking against Al-Qaeda from Saudi Arabia:

Ahmad al Shayea today.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Ahmad al Shayea is the rarest of truck bombers — he survived his suicide mission in Iraq even though the blast from his bomb was strong enough to kill 12 bystanders.

Ahmad al Shayea survived his truck bomb attack, but not without scarring to his face and hands.

Al Shayea, who was disfigured during the attack, claims al Qaeda tricked him into becoming a bomber by asking him to deliver a tanker truck, which they had rigged with a bomb.

“They told me to take it to an address in Baghdad. As soon as I got there the truck exploded,” said the native of Saudi Arabia. He survived by jumping out of the truck.

Al Shayea renounced terrorism and returned to Saudi Arabia, where he works to convince would-be insurgents and terrorists to give up their deadly ways. [At least that is something…].

“I think God took me out of death to show others what can happen,” he told CNN. “If you join al Qaeda, they will use you, and maybe you will die.” 

 Hear why al Shayea turned his back on al Qaeda »

Al Qaeda propaganda videos glorify so-called foreign fighters in Iraq like al Shayea. It has recruited them from countries all across the Middle East.

Ahmad Al Shayea just after the bombing as he appeared in the Iraqi TV.

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Other news:

Alexander Pichushkin has confessed to killing at least 62 people, with the goal of marking all 64 squares on the chessboard. He has been charged with 49 murders, most committed over the course of five years in a sprawling park on the edge of Moscow. Pichushkin’s first victim was his school friend, whom he strangled and threw into a sewage pit in 1992 because he was “upset” by the friend’s refusal to kill people together with him, said Moscow Chief Prosecutor Yuri Syomin.

Even if the Muslims are challenging the Orthodox Church, Patriarc Alexei is worried about Russia being proselytised by Catholic Church.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II has repeated his insistence that a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI (bio – news) should only take place after adequate preparation– and after the Vatican has complied with demands from the Moscow patriarchate to curb Catholic “proselytism” in the historically Orthodox countries of eastern Europe.

[…] Catholic officials have repeatedly denied such a goal. […] Catholic Church leaders explain that missionary workers aim not to convert Orthodox believers, but to attract the vast majority of Russian people who are not currently active in any church. But the Moscow patriarchate takes the stand that the Russian people are Orthodox, even if they do not attend any church servives.

So, instead of confronting the real danger, he is just quarrelling with other Christian denomination. Just work, Patriarc! If you believe your religion is the best, promote it, instead of groaning every year several times about it…

This is dedicated specially to blablablabla Chávez, than man…

Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas has urged the Venezuelan government to show respect for critics of constitutional changes proposed by President Hugo Chavez.

Cardinal Urosa insisted that “no persons of groups should be disregarded or execrated simply because they disagree with the proposal.” He said that the proposed constitutional amendments deserve serious discussion, and encouraged a respectful hearing for all reasoned points of view.

In an implicit criticism of Chavez, who has charged that the country’s Catholic hierarchy is stirring up opposition to his government, the cardinal said that dissident political views should be heard without rousing “the ghosts of insurrection and destabilization.”

 Eat that Chávez, you, moonbat!

Remember the F1 scandal?

McLaren received a systematic flow of information from a spy within rivals Ferrari for nearly three months this year, the FIA has revealed.

Drivers Fernando Alonso and Pedro de la Rosa were aware of the information.

Hey, what a coincidence!!! Only the Spanish drivers were aware of the information. Why not the rest of them?? Oh, yeah, there’s Hamilton “I’m-calling-my-father-to-defend-me-from-Fernando-Alonso“…

Hmm, this does not smell very good to me…

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South Korean hostages, German plot, UK, Islamic extremism, Mother Theresa, Iranian human bombs and UNSC in Sudan

 More on the liberation of South Korean hostages: remember the guy who was killed by 10 shots and whose death was blamed on natural causes? Well, really it was not because of natural causes, it was because he did not submit himself to Allah.

The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.

“Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten,” reported Park Eun-jo, pastor of the hostages’ home church, Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, just south of the South Korean capital Seoul.

“I heard from the hostages that they were threatened with death,” he added, according to Christian Today Korea. “Especially it is known that the reason Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was murdered was because he refused the Taliban’s demand to convert.”

Infidels Are Cool » Blog Archive » Convert or Die: South Korean Pastor chose death

Is there anything wrong about this??? Well, yeah, have you considered that there is no video showing us the faces of these hostages during their kidnapping asking for release?

But hey, what do you know?? There are idiots -this time is Canadian, but intelligence is not a consequence of nationality so tomorrow it would be from other country- saying that this should be the signal for other countries to start negotiating with the Talibans.

The hostage agreement reached last week between the Taliban and South Korea has profound implications for all countries fighting in Afghanistan. It puts the lie to those, including the current Canadian government, who say it is impossible or counterproductive to strike a deal with the Islamist insurgents. Clearly South Korea found the talks quite productive.

Hey, the Talibans are going to be exultant because of the results of their actions… What a moron!!!

Hehe: at least, one of the kidnappers has had what he deserved. He was already preparing an assault on a police post.

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About the German plot: German police is searching for 10 more people, both inside Germany and abroad:

BERLIN (AFP) – German police have launched an international hunt for 10 accomplices of the three men held over a foiled Islamist plot to blow up airports and US installations in Germany, a top official said Thursday.

“Terrorist attacks need preparation. We are trying to identify all of those who were working in the shadows,” Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning told ARD television.

Police were searching for “the 10 people who were behind this” within Germany and abroad, he added.

 

The arrests were made at a vacation home, pictured, in Oberschledorn. The suspects had rented the house to store chemicals to make explosives, officials said, and were preparing to leave when security forces swooped in.

But there is more about the already detained:

Newspapers reported on Thursday that investigators believed Fritz Martin G. to have been the ringleader of the plotters.

He had been living in Neu-Ulm, a town in southern Germany seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicals, and was involved in a mosque there which German police have long believed to be a base for extremists planning attacks.

Investigators said an Islamic centre in nearby Ulm was among more than 30 places the police raided early Wednesday. Offices seized documents and computers they hope can point them to those who helped to organise and finance the well-advanced bomb plot.

The three main suspects, pictured in the press wearing blue prisoner overalls, appeared before an investigating judge in Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany on Wednesday.

The authorities have said the men gathered at their Sauerland hideaway on Sunday to start making bombs to use in “massive attacks” with the 12 drums of hydrogen peroxide (left) they had stashed in the garage. 

Sources close to the case told AFP the police were looking into the group’s plans to use military detonators to set off bombs because this could provide important clues in the investigation.

They also phoned British colleagues.

Several calls to British numbers are said to been made from mobile telephones linked to two of the men being questioned in Germany. One is said to have been a “known” number.

Remember that there were also 8 people detained in Denmark accused of preparing more Islamist terrorist attacks? Well:

“On August 31, 2007, the Islamist website {name removed}, hosted by SiteGenie LLC in Rochester, Minnesota, posted a document calling for “martyrdom [i.e., suicide] operations” in Denmark. The author, who identified himself as a member of Al-Qaeda, urged the Muslims not to forget the incident of the Danish cartoons, and promised the people of Denmark that the “brigades of martyrdom seekers are on their way… and will soon carry out blessed operations” in their country. He called on the Muslims to register on the site as candidates for these suicide operations.

Once again this means only one thing: they can go from one place to another and they can communicate to each other, very easily. And we are all menaced, whatever the policy our Governments make.

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Elder of Ziyon has an appaling story which happened in London. A woman enters a café in Edgware Road near Marble Arch and asks for a juice. She sits down and waits for it, noticing she is the only female customer. When the waitress brings it to her, she complaints because it was fermented and tells the woman it needed to be conserved in a refrigerator.

But the waitress answers “No– English”. So exasperated, she shouts:

Is there no-one working here who speaks English? This is Paddington – this is still a London neighbourhood.’
A well-dressed man came over and said ‘I speak English.’ I thought he was going to intervene on my behalf but instead came out with this astonishing observation:
‘You are a racist! You are a racist ape! Look at you– you are an ape!’[…] Shocked, I glared at him, but he had to finish things off : ‘You want them to speak Hebrew, don’t you?’

😯 This man has a problem with geography…

I got up from my seat and went over to him and at the top of my voice said I would be proud to speak Hebrew if I could, it being the language of the Torah and of an ancient culture going back six-thousand years. [Heh, imagine the face of the moron…:twisted: ].
He then embarked on a tirade at me about the ‘five million Indians’ slaughtered in genocide in America. [Of course, Muslims have never killed a poor fly in their whole history…]. Meanwhile, the men in the café were in various states of laughter at me, and exhibiting great admiration for him.
Believe it or not, the server had in the meantime brought me a fresh juice which I calmly drank with my very un-Hebrew ham and cheese sandwich, and then I left. I wandered over to the flower shop and found myself commiserating with what seemed to be two Englishwomen who lived in a permanent state of fear in a neighbourhood they had called their own for generations. They told me I must have been mad going into that shop, as ‘all the establishments in Edgware Road are off-limits to us now.’

😯 Not surprised then that the British are going abroad in something very similar to an stampede.

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Once again all of these stories makes this come true:

ejem… I feel this is insulting for the poor pig…

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NYT has run a story critisizing Mother Theresa, and feeling disgusted because normal US nationals know Calcutta not because of its beautiful buildings and educated middle class, but because of her. So what is the problem with her and the liberal media around the world?

As a doctor, I can only shake my head at those sophisticated critics that lament her hospices don’t meet the year 2000 standards of university hospitals. They ignore the question: If Mother Teresa’s hospice was not there, where would the people go? To other Indian hospices? To University hospitals, with private beds and gourmet meals?

… The rest off the criticisms similarly show a strange envy of the good. But why Mother Teresa? Why not slime American born Ram Dass and the Indian doctors and who helped wipe out small pox in India? Or slime Mother Wichiencharoen, a Buddhist nun, for her shelters in Bangkok?But we all know why, don’t we? The NYTimes doesn’t like Catholics.

It’s the sex stupid.

Mother Teresa opposed abortion and promoted chastity. How dare she impose her rigid Catholic morality on poor Hindus, (whose religion, by the way, also opposes abortion and promotes chastity).
But the editors of the NYTimes can’t have a rich American slime Mother Teresa, so they find an Indian born woman to do it.
So let’s destroy the reputation of Mother Teresa, and we won’t feel so guilty at our next cocktail party.

SC&A writes:

We are not all Mother Teresa. That said, because we are not all Mother Teresa, we ought not diminish her status so that we might be her equal. The ability to reach within and bring the very best of who we are isn’t easy. If it were, we’d all be heroes.

We live in a world that trivializes goodness and and character. The virtues of money, sex and inflexibility are celebrated and extolled. ‘Take no prisoners’ has come to define not only political agendas, but moral ones as well. Success often means trading in values that might actualize the very best of who we are, for values that will clearly enslave us.

We do have the ability to reach that part of ourselves that is the best of ourselves and if we choose, we can make that self actualization as natural as breathing. Who we are won’t change- in fact, we can choose to reach out to our own unique potential and evolve into our best selves. Each of us has within our grasp, the opportunity to be our own expression of Mother Teresa.

Read it all: it’s really worth your time.

I have said around the world because in Spain it was El País (yes, you all know how much I love that newspaper) the liberal MSM which was worried about how on earth someone with doubts could be made saint… because she had lost her faith. 😯 Of course, what the article’s writer did not know is that Nowak -secretary of the Congregation for the Saints’ Cause- said: “It is a phenomenon which happens to every great mistic and spiritual teacher, as Saint Teresa of Jesus or Saint Juan de la Cruz, called spiritual night or senses’ night.  They are special periods of the spiritual life of the people who feel themselves abandoned by a God who they feel is very far from them“.

😈 Oh, yeah, but they are independent and objective. Yeah, without doubt…

And, while these liberal media are critisizing and diminishing her so much, the Feast the Missionaries of Charity have given in her honor and her tomb were full of people to mark the 10th anniversary of her death. In the ocassion, Sister Nirmala Joshi, her succesor as Head of the MofC, said:

Only those of an advanced level of spirituality” experience this, Sister Nirmala said, calling it a sign of being close to God. It is like being close “to the sun and so blinded by the brilliance,” she explained.

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Iranian 40.000 human bombs. See the video inside (in English). Is this what gender equality means for the Iranian aytollahs?

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Lastly, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he was “shocked and humbled” by a visit to a refugee camp in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region. Hmm, for someone who has been for so many years in the UN, saying that is errr, well, not very trustful… How on earth he did not know this? For a complete roundup of news regarding this, you can read Passion of the Present.

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Beslan, China on hacking, 100th birthday for helicopters, Nike campaign, Ireland, Martyrs’ Monument, Iran and other items (+)

I forgot to write about the Beslan’s anniversary. So I’m linking to Pastorius’ post at IBA about it.

Chechneyan Muslims (with connection to Al Qaeda) stormed an elementary school in Beslan, Chechneya, taking over 1,100 teachers and students hostage. During the ensuing standoff with police, the Jihadis raped young girls, shot teachers, strung the entire school with explosives, and forced children to drink urine.

From the comments:

Beslan is not in Chechya, but in Ingushetia. It is a small autonomous district populated by related but different people, chrystian by their faith.

RIP. And let’s see if Putin learns something…

Infidels are Cool has also another very good post on the subject.

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China denies hacking Pentagon’s computers:

“Some people make groundless accusations against China” that its military attacked the Pentagon, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular news briefing.

“China has all along been opposed to and forbids criminal activities undermining computer networks, including hacking,” she said. “China is ready to strengthen cooperation with other countries, including the U.S., in countering Internet crimes.”

The Financial Times report said the Pentagon was still investigating how much information was stolen, but cited an unnamed person as saying that most of it was probably unclassified.

[…] The Pentagon warned earlier this year that China’s army is emphasizing hacking as an offensive weapon. It cited Chinese military exercises in 2005 that included hacking “primarily in first strikes against enemy networks.”

The Associated Press reported in July that the State Department was trying to recover from large-scale network break-ins affecting operations worldwide. The hackers appeared to target the department headquarters and offices dealing with China and North Korea, it was reported.

However, experts have said that China is home to a large number of insecure computers and networks that hackers in other countries could use to disguise their locations and launch attacks.

Well, it’s a good way to disguise an attack from other people, such as terrorists… BUT for China is a golden oportunity: not only they can claim they are innocent, but they can do it and blame others! AND they have been trained for that…

Also UK has complained because the caring and loving and peaceful Taliban are using Chinese-made weapons. This is the most laughable line in all the article: The authorities in Beijing have promised to carry out an investigation. Bet they will say they are sold without permission?

(+) It appears that UK computers have also being hacked from China. What is happening here???

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This year helicopters are 100 years old. See the image gallery from CNETNews.com. The first helicopter was something like this:

In 1907, only a few years had passed since the Wright brothers’ first flight, and automobiles had yet to make much headway against horse-drawn carriages. In France, a number of tinkerers were trying out another novel mode of mechanical locomotion: the helicopter. Well, something vaguely resembling modern helicopters, anyway. But the contraptions did count as the first successful steps, however brief, along the way to manned flight powered by rotary wings. And that makes 2007 the centennial of the helicopter.

Designs by Maurice Leger, Jacques and Louis Breguet, and Paul Cornu all got off the ground in 1907–just barely, and for just a very few seconds. These earliest machines also tended to require steadying from people on the ground. Cornu’s craft, shown here, got airborne in November of that year for as long as 20 seconds at an altitude, if you can call it that, of somewhere between knee-high and eye level. It featured two rotors at opposite ends of the airframe that turned in opposite directions to balance out the torque.

Caption text by Jonathan Skillings, staff writer, CNET News.com Credit: Branger/Getty Images

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New Nike’s marketing campaign. “Being Spanish is not an excuse, it’s a responsibility“.

Just wait and see: all the nationalists from all the autonomous Communities, which call themselves “historic“, are going to boicot Nike…, calling it a “remnant of imperialistic Spain“. 😈

[the man in the picture is Spanish tennis-player Rafael Nadal…]

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Ireland to allow police to wear turbans?

If the uniform requirements of the Garda Reserve were to be waived for a Sikh officer, then they would have to be waived for everyone else who pleaded cultural or religious custom. Male Jewish officers would be allowed to wear the yamulke instead of the cap; female Muslim officers (if their husbands allowed them out) would wear the veil instead of the cap; some might even cover their uniforms with a burqa. Buddhist members (although I’m not sure if their beliefs would allow them to join a force which might be required to use even limited violence against violence) would be able to wear a yellow robe. The possibilities are numerous, and while they might make for a more colourful air around the Phoenix Park and Harcourt Square, it would be the end of uniformity and the discipline it both implies and requires.

Even more to the point, it would further endorse our skewed version of multi-culturalism. The idea of having people of various cultural traditions and ethnic minorities in our defence and garda forces is to ensure integration, not reinforce difference.

I hope they are not revising their previous policy about the uniform…

As Steve says:

Britain opened that Pandora’s Box many years ago when Sikhs were first allowed to ride motorbikes without crash helmets and to work on building sites without hard hats. Their heads are no harder than anyone else’s but health and safety, it seems, took second place to religious feeling.

This reflects our peculiar attitude to cultural minorities which, as I have said before, is a legacy of the Empire. The British establishment would prefer to do deals with the leaders of minority groups than ask them to integrate.

The Met, with its fourteen different minority pressure groups and its concessions to religious demands, is hardly a model to emulate either.

Bad thing altogether. A uniform, as its name says, is to make everyone being the same, to uniform, make all of them of one form, whaever their background. 👿

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from the Persecution Blog: the Martyr’s monument:

More than 70 million Christians have been martyred for their faith since 33 AD. This year an estimated 160,000 believers will die at the hands of their oppressors and over 200 million will be persecuted, arrested, tortured, beaten or jailed. In many nations it is illegal to own a Bible, share your faith, change your faith or allow children under 18 to attend a religious service.

Here is a photo of the monument:

1. See more photos of the monument here.

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More on Iran: Haleh Esfandiari leaves Iran. by Vicki. But as she says:

Continued prayers for the other Iranian-Americans still detained in Iran: Ali Shakeri and Kian Tajbakhsh, who are still imprisoned, and Parnaz Azima, who is free on bail but is being prevented from leaving Iran.

From FFDB:

Iran President Ahmadinejad states he has “PROOF” that the United States will NOT attack Iran.

But, not to be seen as WEAK, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls the United States and West names – “drunken and arrogant” and says that Iran would never yield to Western pressure over its nuclear program.

And this is how Iran could inflict pain on Western countries:

Other interesting fact: new Head of the Revolutionary Guard IS one of the Iranian who kidnapped US Nationals on Nov 4th, 1979.

The appointment of somebody who was involved in taking US hostage, as the commander of a 200,000 strong military force can be interpreted as a provocation in the current cold war between Tehran and Washington. The important question to ask is: how long before such provocations turn into open confrontation? With the massive breakdown in communications and trust between both sides, one could be forgiven for fearing the worst.

Some quotes from Jafari here. Just read them: peaceful, loving guy…

Meanwhile, the former Head of the Revolutionary Guard has stated: “There are 200,000 vulnerable American forces in the region and we have information about all their bases”. 😯

Ayatollah Mojtahedi. “I wish I was a chick“. 😯 He says that then, all the taxis would stop when he wants one.

Ahmadinejad:

“Iran’s telecommunication service should transfer the message of our revolution across the whole world….He said it’s vital that we complete this network of communication and from inside these networks, love, hope, faith and modesty should be suggested and the message of Islamic revolution should be transferred througout the world.”

😯

Do you remember Khatami shaking hands with a young lady in Italy and the following scandal? Well, he has a legal suite awaiting for him at court. 😀

And lastly, a link to laugh about Ahmadinejad:

Hi, my name is Mahmoud Admadinejad. I know it is hard to pronounce so you guys can just call me “Spanky.” After all that is what my Iranian school yard chums nicknamed me.
Listen, I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I’m not all that bad of a guy. Sure the Bush administration is out to paint me as a tyrant and a fascist, but hey, we all know he is really the evil one. Right? Good, now that we have the pleasantries aside, I have some important things to talk about with you, the American people.
If you’ve been too busy ogling scantily clad women in the streets of your American cities you might not have noticed that I’ve been spending some time with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But our alliance isn’t about taking over the West or usurping America’s place in the world, and it isn’t even about how good “Vladi” looks without his shirt off.
Umm, not that I’ve noticed or anything…I just…err…we were just attending this Democratic debate and well…don’t ask, don’t tell.

😆 Just read it all…

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Other interesting posts to read:

Terrorist attack hits Pakistan. by Sheik Yermami.

5000 new rifles, but no milk from Venezuela. by John Lilyea.

The Dying Soar of a Syphilitic Hunchback. by Scipio. About Russian situation. A very interesting post, really.

Danish police arrest suspected terrorists. by Astute Bloggers.

Abortions on demand in the UK. by David Vance. “in some cases, with the procedure just being carried out by a nurse“. 😯 And the health of the mother how is protected is these cases? -the unborn, well, I even don’t mention that little detail. But as abortions are mostly done to protect the mothers’ health…-.

His “Crime”? He wasn’t a Muslim. by Jeremayakovka. WARNING! Extremely graphic image of this slaughter in Southern Thailand. 😦 😡

Last but not least, to laugh a bit, read this post by Kate. 😆

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Opium in Afghanistan, HR group sues Yahoo over China, Italy, Spain, Islamism, Turkey, terrorism, Greek fires (+), Israel and Pastorius’ reflections

As I wrote some months ago:

Opium production in Afghanistan has soared to record levels, with an increase on last year of more than a third, the United Nations has said.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime report says the amount of opium produced there has doubled in the last two years. It says Helmand province is now the biggest single drug-producing area in the world, surpassing whole countries such as Colombia. Afghanistan now accounts for more than 93% of the world’s opiates.

Despite billions of dollars of aid and tens of thousands of international troops, the report says 193,000 hectares of opium poppies are being grown in Afghanistan.

[…] The report says growing opium poppies is now closely linked to the insurgency and the instability in the south. And what is to be done? The report recommends more determined efforts to bring that security. It urges the government to get tough on corruption, which it says is driving the drugs trade and it lists poor governance, a weak judiciary and failing eradication programmes for these new frightening record levels.

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World Organization for Human Rights has sued Yahoo! over its policy in China: Look at Yahoo!’s hypocrisy:

Yahoo is being sued by the World Organization for Human Rights for sharing information about its users with the Chinese government. The information has led to the arrests of writers and dissidents. One journalist cited in the case was tracked down and jailed for 10 years for subversion after Yahoo passed on his e-mail and IP address to officials.

In its 40-page response to the lawsuit, filed with a federal court in San Francisco, Yahoo acknowledged releasing information to the Chinese government. But it argued that there was little connection between the information the firm gave and the ensuing arrests and imprisonment of its users.

[…] But Morton Sklar of the World Organization for Human Rights said the company had failed to meet its ethical responsibilities. “Even if it was lawful in China, that does not take away from Yahoo’s obligation to follow not just Chinese law, but US law and international legal standards as well, when they do business abroad,” he said.

Barely, Yahoo! claims this is a merely political case. 😡

At the same time, Angela Merkel reminds China the West would like to see progress on freedom of the press and Human Rights’ matters (where it has not progressed really):

“The world will be looking at China to a greater extent than it has in past years,” Merkel said. “And people will also be looking at how China presents itself in terms of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”

Chinese critics of Beijing welcomed Merkel’s remarks.

“Unlike her predecessor Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel does not run and hide from this topic,” former university professor and dissident Liu Xiaobo told Deutsche Welle. “She tells it like it is. The pressure she’s put on the Chinese government has already had significant effect.”

Well done, Merkel!

It’s logical, by the way, Merkel’s position. Looks like that the Chinese Government has hacked Merckel’s chancellery and three other Berlin ministries h/t Barcepundit.

Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, discovered the hacking operation in May, the magazine reported in its new edition, published Monday.

The Chinese government has vehemently denied the report, with the Chinese Embassy in Berlin describing the accusation of state-controlled hacking as “irresponsible speculation without a shred of evidence.”

But Prime Minister Wen Jiabao assured Merkel that measures would be taken to “rule out hacking attacks.” During a news conference in Beijing on Monday, Merkel didn’t comment on the specific allegation but said it was important that “common rules of the game” were observed in a globalised economy.

Well, there has been reports before about industrial spying on Canada, also vehemently denied by China. And on Australia, where they have targeted exiled dissidents.

So worried about foreign lands and yet China is searching for 8 kgs of “missing” uranium. Take a little more care about things which are really dangerous and stop targeting dissidents and foreign governments… 😡

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In Italy, a mother pregnant of two daughters, went to a clinic to see the state of both fetuses. In the clinic, she was informed that one of them has Down Syndrome so she asks for the abortion of that fetus. In the operation, the fetuses change places and the healthy one is finished. After that, she asked again for the abortion of the unhealthy one, which was done by injecting a solution of digoxine. This method which causes a cardiac stop, is used only in grown-up fetuses, while in this case, they were in the 30th week of pregnancy. The scandal in Italy is great. For a link in English, click here.

Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has already condemned the abortion of the twins:

L’Osservatore Romano reported: “Two girls have died, assassinated as a consequence of selective abortion. A radical decision has brought about another abortion, that of the little sister that still had life.” No one “has the right to eliminate another life. No person has the right to take the position of God. Not for any motive.”

But that’s not all. In Spain, as I wrote days before, there is a “problem“: doctors working in public health system are not practising abortions as they think it’s a matter of conscience and have objected. Some leftist MSM -specially world-known as very objective El País– began saying that people had a lot of problems to get themselves an abortion, with statements like: “They told me abortion was a crime“, “Leny and Fátima had succeeded in achieving their right (¿? Really didn’t know that was a right) to have an abortion in private clinics paid with public money” or “I had to go to have it to another Autonomous Community“.

There are three causes for legal abortion in Spain: rape, grave illnesses of the fetus or grave danger for the physical or psychological health of the mother. More than 98% of all the abortion held in Spain use this last cause.

So the Spanish Ombudsman, Enrique Múgica, has begun an investigation about the “great difficulties to have a free-willing interruption of pregnancy practised in the public health system“. He also asks to “adopt the pertinent measures to let the users have the guarantee the attention in the Community of residence and in the main hospitals of the National Health System“. So how are they going to do that? Are they going to hire pro-abortion doctors? Or are they going to make pro-life ones make abortions against their conscience and will? I really have a bad feeling about this…

Meanwhile, the Spanish Schools’ Council has passed a resolution by which the State can educate the children on affective-sexual matters without any consentment from parents ( 😯 ). But at the same time, “it rejected to include Cervantes in the minimum required to pass Literature, the Catholic Kings in History and the inversion of €1000 millions in the infants’ education from o-3 years-old (which was in the PSOE’s electoral program) and to liberalise the prices of the books (as stated in the Law passed in the terms requested in this respect from the Culture’s Ministry)”.

Regarding immigration, Zapatero denies it (hmm…) but French Prime Minister maintains that he is totally repented from the immigrants’ regularization.

Zapatero spoke yesterday about the statements of French PM, François Fillon, about the content of the summit between both of them last July in Madrid, to contradict his ally and ask for an immediate rectification which has not happened and most probably, won’t in the future. Fillon has stated that Zapatero admitted then that the regularization of more than 600.000 immigrants in 2005 was an error of which he repented “bitterly” and that he won’t make more in the future (repentance and modification of behaviour: we’re on the right track! Eehh, no, not quite). The President contradicted yesterday French PM, insisting on all the good things that his policy of open borders have brought and said that France was going to “make things clear because it was all probably a bad interpretation”. Sources near Fillon assured EL MUNDO that «there hasn’t been nor there is going to be any rectification in any way». The more similar to tinging his words, was some statements made by the entourage of the French PM, according to which Fillon understands that Zapatero supported the policy of “papers for all” because “he had no options… because of circumstances” (there is always another option, even if it’s very difficult or harder to follow. And in this case, there is). It is not clear if Zapatero has or hasn’t a communication problem or of interpreters when he has to speak about his analysis and compromises over immigration, as Zaplana (PP, center-right) laughed about yesterday, but it is clear that the President puts at risk again the diplomatic relations between France and Spain, because of the massive regularization which affected all Europe because of its awful “calling” effect.

Look here, I do not know who is responsible for this misunterstanding. But if he is not a total idiot -and I don’t think he is, he is just convinced he is going to save Spain from fascism (¡!), yeah I know…-, he knows he was stupid enough to let a lot of immigrants without any kind of control (not even medical, and there are illnesses which did not existed in Spain, which have appeared afterwards). Border control is not a characteristic of being a fascist, it’s just a consequence of common sense. Does Spain need immigrants? I really don’t know, but it’s possible. But what is certain is that we need some kind of immigrants, not every immigrant in the world. Ergo, select them according to the needs here and their qualifications -if we need truck drivers and the people who come are cookers, they are going to be jobless… with all the dangers that implies-. So, please, stop blaming others for your own bad policies’ results, move your ass and begin working on something more profitable than in denying what it’s clear as clean water: it was a HUGE ERROR.

[A friend of mine told me: With all my heart aching, I have to acknowledge that I trust more Fillon than Zapatero… Ejem].

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Christianity’s greatest menace:

Christians around the world suffer daily because of their faith, and it seems the persecution is intensifying.

CBN News looks at the top two offenders– North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Countries that persecute Christians usually fall into two camps: those with communist governments and those where Islam as the dominant religion.

That is: where there is no freedom, no respect for Human Rights…

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Looks like that Chávez has bought both the military and the Majors from… Evo’s paradise:

One of the accomplices of Hugo Chávez, the head of one ghost Ministry of all that Venezuela has nowadays, has stated to Venezuelan press that Hugo Chávez’s regime has given $6 millions to pay Bolivian military. Meanwhile, the sheepy Bolivian President, Evo Morales, has been photograpphed while giving money checks to Bolivian majors who are Venezuelan friends. The shameless says: “Chávez gave me the money to give it away“.

They do not refer to woodcutters. I wonder if this has something to do with it h/t Kate. 😈

But Chávez wants also to infiltrate himself in other weak South-American democracies, like Ecuador or Paraguay. In the latter, the so-called “Yearly operative Planning of the Foreign Relations Ministry of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” (wow, what a name 😯 ), reveals that he wants to give “Bolivarian indoctrination” to Armed Forces, energetic firms, students and peasants; even it speaks of the recruitment of young doctors from rural areas.

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USA and Europe: Another terrorist attack inevitable. h/t Extreme Centre: Newsweek interviews Redd, Head of the US National counterterrorism center. An excerpt:

Tell us about the threat that emerged earlier this year.
We’ve got this intelligence threat; we’re pretty certain we know what’s going on. We don’t have all the tactical details about it, [but] in some ways it’s not unlike the U.K. aviation threat last year. So we know there is a threat out there. The question is what do we do about it? And the response was, we stood up an interagency task force under NCTC leadership. So you have all the players you would expect: FBI, CIA, DHS, DIA, DoD, the operators—the military side comes into that—participating in an integrated plan, but integrated in a much more granular and tactical way than we’ve ever done before. This is my 40th year in government service, 36 in uniform and almost four as a civilian. This is revolutionary stuff, and it is affecting the way we do business.

Earlier this summer, there was talk that people were picking up chatter that reminded them of the summer before 9/11. The Germans basically said this is like pre-9/11. They said, “We are very worried.” What do you make of this?
We have very strong indicators that Al Qaeda is planning to attack the West and is likely to [try to] attack, and we are pretty sure about that. We know some of the precursors from—

Attack Europe?
Well, they would like to come West, and they would like to come as far West as they can. What we don’t know is…if it’s going to be Mark Hosenball, and he’s coming in on Flight 727 out of Karachi, he’s stopping in Frankfurt, and he’s coming on through with his European Union passport, and he’s coming into New York, and he’s going to do something. I mean, we don’t have that kind of tactical detail. What we do have, though, is a couple of threads that indicate, you know, some very tactical stuff, and that’s what—you know, that’s what you’re seeing bits and pieces of, and I really can’t go much more into it.

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Yesterday I wrote about Abdulah Gül’s being named new Turkish President. Today I read dissapointing news from French PM Sarkozy:

If this essential inquiry on the future of our Union is undertaken by the 27 member nations, France will not oppose the negotiations between the EU and Turkey that are to take place in the months and years to come,” said the French president addressing the 15th Conference of Ambassadors.
These new discussions must, he stressed, “be compatible with the two visions of future relations between Europe and Turkey, i.e., membership in the EU, or as close an association as possible.”

French blogger Tiberge writes commenting this:

It isn’t clear what Nicolas Sarkozy means by a “close association”, but it is clear that he accepts Turkey as much more than a trading partner or a tourist attraction. A close association implies an alliance, with attendant loyalties and military implications.

With Islamist Gül in the Presidency? Uuuuuuuuuuuyyyyyyyyy, Sarko….

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More about Greek fires: from NYT:

“Up the hill, workers were preparing the grave for Athanasia Karta-Paraskevopoulou, a 35-year-old teacher, and the four children she shielded as the flames closed in on them: Angeliki, 15; Maria, 12; Anastassia, about 10; and Constantinos, 5. They had been on vacation from Athens”.

Requiescat in Pace. She was brave enough and she died to protect these children, while they were waiting for rescue. Unluckily, it ended in a very sad way.

And it is more worrying as:

The danger had by no means passed. In the village of Grillos, just over a ridge from here on the western peninsula, a couple who own a restaurant watched in tears as flames advanced from three directions while fire trucks spewed water in the flames’ path.

“All we need is one of those,” said one owner, Iannis Drakopoulos, 72, as a Russian plane carrying an industrial-sized water bucket passed. “If he dropped it here, it would all have been fine.”

In Artemida and here in Makistos, the flames were already out, and Monday was instead a day for tallying the damage and preparing to bury the dead.

[…] The descriptions from people who saw it were the same: flames moving at an unimaginable rate and no one apart from the police to help.

[…] The fire reportedly came over a ridge first to Makistos, a village of 60 homes. Antonios Kokkaliaris, 80, a farmer, said he had been reading his newspaper, underlining parts he liked, when he heard the bell in St. John’s church ring. “I went out and I saw the flames before me and people running,” he said. He could not leave, he said, because his wife, Koula, 82, is severely disabled. “I told her, ‘Stay put, we’re going to fight this out.’ I grabbed onto the hose and I started dousing left, right and center.”

The town emptied, with only him, a herdsman and Mr. Dimopoulos with his wine staying behind. Mr. Kokkaliaris managed to douse his home, and two next door, well enough that the fires howled past, leaving his house intact.

But when it was over, he did not feel relief.

“I was disappointed, honestly,” he said, “because not only was there no one to help me, there was no one in sight. ‘Am I just standing here alone? What happened to all my townspeople? What is the purpose of life if I am all alone?’ ”

I can only say: 😯 A brave old man.

But we continue:

The region normally produces 10,000 tons of oil, but nearly all the olive trees are now destroyed, along with countless livelihoods. Charred donkeys and chickens litter ruined farms.

“This village is literally wiped out,” Ms. Bammi said. “It’s not just those who have been killed. Those who are left have no fields to work in, no olive trees. They have nothing to look forward to.”

It is already a tragedy. And if finally it’s proved they did that with mobile phones, well, the punishment for these bastards must be … great.

More from the Astute Bloggers:

DAY 4 of deadly fires: Fires rage in Greece as SEVEN PEOPLE CHARGED WITH ARSON.
They remain nameless. Why? Those depraved savages set a country on fire, the public deserves to know no matter who it is. I have searched all news sources. Any Atlas readers have a clue?

Well, can it be because they can be charged with terrorism? I really don’t know. Seems strange to me too.

(+) If you want to read a magnificent post about the political consequences of the Greek fires, just go over to Cassandra’s blog.

The other usual suspects in the EU are exploiting the crisis to call for more integrated emergency cooperation, in other words: continued deepening of federal structures. Strangely, among the first countries to send fire-fighters and airplanes were Israel and Switzerland; both countries aren’t EU members.

The press from hell continues: “‘The village of Artimeta in the Peloponnese has become known as the ‘crematorium’, says the BBC’s Malcolm Brabant who is in the village near the town of Olympia.” I have serious doubts about this piece of atheist cynicism! Considering the fact that Greece is 96% Orthodox, a Christian denomination prescribing interment, I ‘d be surpised if most Greeks even know what a crematorium is, as the first is still to be build; it’s highly unlikely that local Greeks would describe a much loved village in such terms!

😯

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Chaim writes that “More than 5000 Kassam rockets have been fired at Israeli targets from the Gaza Strip which Israel abandoned to the PLO two years ago, the Sharon government brutally throwing thousands of Jews out of their homes“. Very critical of Olmert as ever:

Israel’s government, as any other government, has an obligation to defend its people. As long as Ehud Allmerde and his cohorts are running at the top they are going to do little more than a few symbolic gestures to make it look like they are defending Israelis. Rather, they seem obsessed with appeasement. Obsessed with a policy that invariably has failed miserably time and again. They seem intent on giving everything up to the terrorists, little realizing that the more they give, the less they get and the more is demanded!

Olmert spoke on Tuesday 28th with Mahmoud Abbas to “agree on measures against terrorism“. As I linked yesterday, this policy is not going to bring them any good.

Meanwhile, Israeli leaders are building themselves shelters to protect them in case of attack. Everyday’s tale…

Also, on related news, the Israeli government’s tourism ministry has reached an agreement to cooperate with the Vatican’s new charter-flight service for pilgrimages to the Holy Land, the Ynetnews agency has reported.

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And now for the thinking post of the day. Pastorius has written it -the scene of Patton is priceless-:

[…] you have to ask yourselves, do you want a world which is ruled by men, or by women?
Hmm???
Obviously, rationality is not arbitrated by force.

Read it all. It’s worth it. (Chauvinist males: this post is not very recommended for you 😈 ).

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Taliban: One South Korean dead; more to follow if demands not met – CNN.com

 

One of 23 South Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban has been killed, and militants have threatened to execute 14 others, a local official and a Taliban spokesman told CNN on Wednesday.

The covered body of a South Korean hostage is transported in a police truck in Afghanistan.

There had been conflicting reports on whether eight of the remaining 22 hostages had been released, but officials in Seoul believe the remaining 22 hostages are in Taliban custody.

Police in southeastern Ghazni province confirmed that the dead man’s bullet-riddled body was found in the Qara Bagh district, where the Koreans were kidnapped July 19.

The man was identified as Bae Hyng-Kyu, 42, a pastor at the church attended by the hostages and the leader of their group, according to a South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman.

“We found a male dead body of a South Korean who has got 10 bullet holes in his body, bullet holes from head to toe,” said provincial police chief Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadzai.

Khawaja Mohammad Siddiqi, the district governor of Qara Bagh, told CNN the executed hostage had been very ill and could not be moved to a hospital.

Siddiqi said Taliban militants are holding the remaining Korean hostages — most of whom are women — in three different locations.

The 14 hostages could be executed by early Thursday if Taliban demands by aren’t met, Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi said.

Taliban: One South Korean dead; more to follow if demands not met – CNN.com

According to Spanish press, one of the South Korean representatives in the negotiations said he was killed because “he was ill and unable to walk, so the Taliban shot him“. Another one said “he has died because of natural causes“.  Of course, if they shoot anyone 10 times, you will be dead, that’s natural. But it is not to be shot ten times.

[Now, look at the photo above. Is it my eyes or this Afghan policeman is just laughing? Imagine what catastrophe would have happened if a US/UK/Western soldier in general would have been laughing while transporting a Muslim killed this way by Christian/Jewish/… terrorists…].

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Christian persecution: the silent MSM

The other day my friend Chaim pointed me to one of his posts -that I don’t find now 🙂 – which linked to this one from Pamela @ Atlas Shrugs:

Believers in Jesus said to be nailed to crosses, tied with ropes, set ablaze

Christians in Iraq, including converts from Islam and people involved in mixed-faith marriages, are being crucified by Muslim terrorists, according to a Dutch member of Parliament studying the war-torn country.

Several Iraqi Christians “are nailed to a cross and their arms are tied up with ropes. The ropes are put on fire,” Joel Voordewind told BosNewsLife, an online news agency focusing on Christians and Jews in difficult circumstances.

Today the Voice of the Martyrs website has reported about Muslims confessing a Church attack in Pakistan… and the Christians forgiving them:

Muslims have confessed and apologized for attacking a church in Pakistan’s Punjab region on June 17, but have offered no compensation for injuring Christians and damaging their church building.

According to Compass Direct News, seven Christians were wounded and Christian literature was destroyed at the Salvation Army church in Chak 248, a village 20 miles north of Faisalabad.

The perpetrators admitted that a Muslim resident had planned to burn a page of the Quran—punishable with life imprisonment under Pakistani law—and blame the Christian community.

Compass reports that a notarized affidavit from Faizur Rehman, one of the 41 Muslims originally accused in the attack stated, “We are sorry and promise that this will not happen in the future.”

The lawyer representing Christians told Compass both parties had dropped court cases which accused each other of violence. “The Christian people have forgiven them. This is called impunity,” he added.

Hmm, this is magnificent. The zenit of Christiano-phobia/hate. And have you seen it published? I haven’t… 😦

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"New" Tridentine Mass not Anti-Semitic

 Whatever media outlets have been saying, there will be no prayer for the conversion of the “perfidious Jews“.

Letter on 1962 Missal Not Anti-Semitic

Document to Be Released Saturday VATICAN CITY, JULY 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).-

Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter concerning the Roman Missal promulgated by John XXIII in 1962, will not reinstate a prayer for the conversion of “perfidious Jews.”

 The Vatican press office announced today the Pope’s letter issued “motu proprio,” on his own initiative, is titled “Summorum Pontificum,” and will be released Saturday at noon, accompanied by an explanatory letter.

Several media reports erroneously contend that the letter could in effect reinstate a prayer offensive to Jews from the Good Friday liturgy of the Tridentine Mass, which dates back to 1570. The prayer stated: “Oremus et pro perfidies Judaeis” (Let us pray for the perfidious Jews).

On the first Good Friday after his election to the papacy in 1959, Pope John XXIII eliminated the adjective “perfidious” from the prayer. Since then the expression “Let us pray for the Jews” has been used.

That same year, he also eliminated from the rite of baptism the phrase used for Jewish catechumens: “Horresce Jusaicam perfidiam, respue Hebraicam superstitionem” (Disavow Jewish unbelieving, deny Hebrew superstition).

Also eliminated were similar formulas for those converting from idolatry, Islam or a heretical sect.

The 1962 missal was promulgated with an apostolic letter issued “motu proprio” by John XXIII “Rubricarum Instructum.” The missal does not make reference to “perfidious Jews.” On Good Friday in 1963, John XXIII underlined the importance of this decision when the old formulation of the prayer for the Jews was read. The Pope interrupted the liturgy and asked that that the liturgical invocations begin again from the beginning, following the new text.

The Roman Missal adopted by Pope Paul VI in 1969, and put into effect in 1970, reformulated the prayer. It reads: “Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. “Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your Church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption.

The World Seen From Rome

And also this Mass, as Benedict XVI has said in his own letter presenting it, will not be compulsaory. But as the Pope explains regarding “Summorum Pontificum”:

The use of the old Missal presupposes a certain degree of liturgical formation and some knowledge of the Latin language; neither of these is found very often. Already from these concrete presuppositions, it is clearly seen that the new Missal will certainly remain the ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, not only on account of the juridical norms, but also because of the actual situation of the communities of the faithful.

Jews have to consider they are not the only ones mistreated by the MSM (I know you know it, Chaim, but it is really necessary given the reactions of these past days of your fellow Jewish bloggers). Catholics also are. MSM tend not to consider us as normal citizens but as remnants of a violent and unjust past, without even considering those violent and unjust deeds were (and are if done now) in fact, a transgression of the greater mandate Christ gave us: love thy enemy.

One of the most important examples of that is the Spanish Inquisition. I’m not going to defend it as an institution which was headed to condemn people based in their creed or beliefs. But we have to consider it, not comparing it with our ideas now, but with the religious persecution which took place alongside Europe during the XVIth and XVIIth century.

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Where is the international community

 when it’s needed??

Lina Joy is a Malaysian woman who converted to Christianity and wanted to marry a Christian man. Before she was a Christian she was a Muslim. As we all know, it is not allowed, according to the Sharia, to leave Islam.

Source: Stone Her! « Michael P.F. van der Galiën

Go over to read it. it’s disgusting: the Malaysian court has voted that a Muslim cannot convert. So this brave woman will be probably condemned to death.

And the Muslim cheered at hearing the verdict:

“The issue of apostasy is related to Islamic law, so it’s under the sharia court. The civil court cannot intervene.”

Disgusting.

Now, where is the international condemnation for this?

[En español]

del.icio.us tags: Malaysia, Lina Joy, Christianity, Christian persecution, Islamism, apostasy

Technorati tags: Malaysia, Lina Joy, Christianity, Christian persecution, Islamism, apostasy

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Saudis arrest Christian for entering Mecca: Spanish expatriates in Saudi Arabia

Saudi officials have arrested a man in Mecca for being a Christian, saying that the city, which Muslims consider to be holy, is off-limits to non-Muslims.Nirosh Kamanda, a Sri Lankan Christian, was detained by the Saudi Expatriates Monitoring Committee last week after he started to sell goods outside Mecca’s Great Mosque.

After running his fingerprints through a new security system, Saudi police discovered that he was a Christian who had arrived in the country six months earlier to take a job as a truck driver in the city of Dammam. Kamanda had subsequently left his place of work and moved to Mecca.

“The Grand Mosque and the holy city are forbidden to non-Muslims,” Col. Suhail Matrafi, head of the department of Expatriates Affairs in Mecca, told the Saudi daily Arab News. “The new fingerprints system is very helpful and will help us a lot to discover the identity of a lot of criminals,” he said. [Note: if you are a non-Muslim entering Mecca you’re a criminal…]

Similar restrictions apply to the Saudi city of Medina. In a section entitled, “Traveler’s Information,” the Web site of the Saudi Embassy in Washington states that, “Mecca and Medina hold special religious significance and only persons of the Islamic faith are allowed entry.”

Highway signs at the entrance to Mecca also direct non-Muslims away from the city’s environs.

Saudis arrest Christian for entering Mecca | Jerusalem Post. h/t El Rejunte.il.

Hmm, yes, I know of those signs. There are several Spanish in Saudi Arabia writing blogs. They are very informative about a country that releases so little information. For example, Destructor, from The fucking croqueta –croqueta is a very well-known meal in Spain, although I do not know how to translate it; if someone knows he/she can leave it in comments– has a post about this sign:

A very clear image… So, he says:

Do you imagine this in Europe? We would have to bear thousands of absurd complainings from the friends of the Muslim Humanity. I support the idea of beginning a platform not to let Muslims enter in Saint Places like Rome, Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Liébana, Valladolid, etc.

 I would only announce it, saying that this is a reciprocity matter.

Crispal, from In Partibus Infidelium, writes about Saudi Arabian violations of Human Rights:

A detailed report by the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) on the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia has cited violations of the rights of women, prisoners and workers as well as injustice in law courts, discrimination against non-Saudis and forced confessions from those detained by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The report also noted that domestic violence had reached an alarming level.

The 67-page report by the nongovernment body was released two days ago and is the first to be published by a human rights body in Saudi Arabia. It is the result of extensive studies carried out in the Kingdom since the NSHR’s establishment on March 9, 2004.

According to the organization, over the past three years, it has received over 8,570 complaints from citizens and residents.

An NSHR spokesperson said that its report was based on findings related to complaints it had received, reports in the media and reports submitted by foreign human rights organizations. The violations listed in the report were against both local and international treaties which the Kingdom has signed.

Go on reading. It’s ahem, a shame.

And lastly, but not least -there are others, that I would link other day– there is Stuck in Riyahd. He posts about how Spanish -whatever some Catalanists say – soccer team Barça is very famous over there. They have posters of it, but with the crucifix conveniently removed, as Equisese says “for preventing the loyals to Islam from being contaminated”:

Tags: Saudi+Arabia, Human+Rights, Human+Rights+violations, Mecca, Christianity, Medina

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Turkey’s fight against Islamism

Some days ago 3 Christians were killed after being tortured in the central city of Malatya:

The three victims — a German and two Turkish citizens — were found with their hands and legs bound and their throats slit at the Zirve publishing house in the central city of Malatya.
Police detained four youths, aged 19-20, and also suspect a fifth, who underwent surgery for head injuries sustained apparently in trying to escape by jumping from a window at Zirve, authorities said.
The five suspects had each had been carrying copies of a letter that read “We five are brothers. “We are going to our deaths. We may not return,” according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.

[…] In February 2006, a Turkish teenager shot a Catholic priest dead as he prayed in his church, and two other Catholic priests were attacked later that year. A November visit by Pope Benedict XVI was greeted by several nonviolent protests. Earlier this year, a suspected nationalist killed Armenian Christian editor Hrant Dink.

[…] The manner in which the victims were bound suggested the attack could have been the work of a local Islamic militant group, commentators said, and CNN-Turk television reported that police were investigating the possible involvement of Turkish Hezbollah — a Kurdish Islamic organization that aims to form a Muslim state in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast.
Turkish Hezbollah — which has been known to “hog-tie” its victims while torturing them — takes its name from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, but has no formal links to it. Turkish authorities recently said they were witnessing an increase in the group’s activities.

The Middle East Times [h/t The Belmont Club] reported about the torture inflicted on the victims:

“He had scores of knife cuts on his thighs, his testicles, his rectum, and his back,” Ugras said. “His fingers were sliced to the bone. “It is obvious that these wounds had been inflicted to torture him,” he said.

[…] The abuse lasted for three hours as the five men detained at the crime scene interrogated the three on their missionary activities, they said.

But there is another thing to worry about h/t NoisyRoom.Net:

Even though both Turks who died on Wednesday had abandoned Islam and converted to Christianity, Ugur Yuksel was buried as a Muslim.

More in Kattolikko Pensiero.

The Turkish PM Erdogan considered this “a brutality“. But the fact that he have elected his friend Abdullah Gül to substitute him (Erdogan is retiring from active politics) has caused a terrible political storm.

Gül is what MSM call a moderate Muslim. His wife wears the veil -she could not study at University because of that- and his daughter wears a wig instead of hijab, not to show her hair attending the Unversity classes. [In the Atatürk founded state, based on modern secularism, women who wear hijabs are forbidden to attend any official/public gathering/office.

Lots of Turks began demonstrating against the naming of Gül h/t C&R. The Jawa Report has a video in this post.

The Turkish Army, guardian of the secularism, spoke to warn against any movements that would make secularism disappear from Turkey. The Government told the Army that the military chief answers to the Prime Minister…

And the EU “warned Turkish Army over vote“:

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the controversy was a test case for
the military to respect democracy.

So it is true that they are seeing it better an moderate Islamist Turkey than a military held secular Government. I wonder what they would say if any Catholic country would be in the same position…

At the same time,I think they are searching for a reason not to admit Turkey in EU. I mean, if Turkey would be a real stable secularist country with no kind of influence from Islamists, EU would have it really tough not to admit them. But as it is, there are great majorities both in Germany and France -here it would really depends on who wins the Presidential election, as Ségoléne has announced she would support Turkey’s admittance into the EU- that do not like Turks in the EU. If a coup happens or Islamist influence grows, it is going to be plainly difficult… to tell them EU admits them… [remember Gül was the one who said that, if Turkey wasn’t admitted, the EU would be considered as “a Christian club”?]

More about this at Town Commons who points out that ten years ago, the Army ousted Islamist premier Necmettin Erbakan’s government, in which Gul also served, with strong public backing and without tanks on the streets, something which forgets to tell the Economist when writing about Gül. He also comments about this:

I am unsure how to feel about the EU’s warning. On one hand, it is comic for being utterly meaningless. There is no military threat behind it, and it is pretty clear that the EU will not forgo a single euro in trade over it. On the other hand, it is rather ironic for being issued in protection of Islamists. If Gates of Vienna’s compelling arguments on Islamicization in Europe and its likely course are accurate, this continued EU willingness to do business with and support Islamists may be biting them sooner rather then later.

More about demonstrations against Islamism in Turkey from Gateway Pundit. Jim has posted a lot of photos, like the one on the right.

Newsbusters also wrote about this: How will media Report Massive Turkish Protests Against Islamic-Rooted Government? h/t Custos Fidei.

More about the demonstrations in NYT, Deutsche Welle.

It’s curious that International MSM pictures these huge demonstration (1 million according to Turkish TV) as “elite” demonstrations… and that the demonstrations are considering the Islamists as inferior human beings.

Turkish political tensions hit currency ahead of court ruling.

Tulay Tugcu, president of the Constitutional Court, said she hoped for a ruling on Friday’s contested first-round vote before the second round is held on Wednesday.
If the court’s 11 judges rule in favor of the plaintiff, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the election will be annulled and early elections will be called in 45 to 90 days.
The CHP based its complaint on a technicality, saying the 550-member parliament should have had a quorum of 367 to open the session for a presidential election — the number of votes required for a candidate to be elected in the first round.

Other news about Turkey:

• Turkey warned Canada US against using term genocide regarding Armenians. Canadian Prime Minister Harper was warned through diplomatic channels last week that “repeating these claims annually will not help in normalizing Turkey-Armenia relations and will harm Turkish-Canadian bilateral relations as well.” “We hope that the Canadian PM will not repeat this year what he did last year,” a high-level Foreign Ministry official said, the Turkish Daily News reports. [To read more about Armenian genocide, go over to Fausta’s blog].
• Turkish Islamists in Germany h/t Jihadi du Jour: Welt am Sonntag: What do you think about the influence of Islam on the western world? Notker Wolf: There are certainly some groups that have set the islamization of Europe as their goal. I think that in itself is a serious thing. In Germany the Turkish association Ditib recently demanded that the «Word on Friday» be broadcast on public television. I only wonder: How can it be that these people demand all rights in Germany for themselves, while at the same time Christians are seriously discriminated in Turkey? Why are we, Christians, not allowed a theological faculty in Turkey? Why are we not allowed to have any church property there? Meanwhile, the mayor of Munich even breaks building regulations to approve a mosque, just to win the votes of the Turks. That is unbelievable! Tolerance is good, but it doesn’t mean we should surrender.
• Turkey’s stocks, currency tumble on election fears (also on BBC, BBC) : The ISE National 100 index dropped 5.7% to 44,208.58, with Turkcell losing 2%, Finansbank down 1.7% and Alcatel Teletas losing 5.8%. The dollar gained as much as 4%, and climbed 2.7% to 1.3640 lira in morning trading.
  The staunchly secular military, which has led three coups since 1960, is upset that the leading presidential candidate, Abdullah Gul, has an Islamist past. In a statement made Friday evening, the military said it would act to defend secularism.
  Serhan Cevik, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, called the military’s statement “harsh” and “unexpected.”
  “Even though reasons behind this blunt declaration are open to debate, there is no doubt that even ‘post-modern’ statements undermine institutional reforms to demilitarize the political landscape and thereby Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Union,” Cevik said in a note to clients.

Others blogging about this: Desde el Exilio.

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HazteOir.org – For Father Nguyen Van Ly and all Vietnam’s prisoners for political and/or religious causes

 

El Padre Nguyen Van Ly, sacerdote vietnamita activista pro derechos fundamentales y defensor de la dignidad de toda persona, que ya ha pasado 14 años de su vida en prisión, pasará otros ocho años encarcelado, junto a otros cuatro compañeros, por el delito de “propaganda contra el régimen comunista”. Pide a la embajada de Vietnam en España su liberación inmediata. Según han informado diferentes fuentes, el pasado 30 de marzo, el sacerdote Nguyen Van Ly, junto a otros cuatro imputados, fueron condenados por un tribunal de Hue, en Vietnam central, por el delito de “propaganda contra el régimen comunista”, lo que, a juicio de los analistas, es el primer peldaño de una inminente escalada de la opresión política y religiosa en ese país.

Source: HazteOir.org – Exige la libertad del Padre Nguyen Van Ly y de todos los presos vietnamitas por motivos políticos y/o religiosos

_________________

The Spanish Catholic platform HazteOir.Org is today asking for your signature to help Catholic Priest Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Vietnamese activist pro-Human Rights who has already spent 14 years of his life in prison and who has been condemned to another 8 years, with another 4 companions, because of “preaching against the Socialist regime“. They are collecting the signatures to send them to the Vietnamese Embassy in Spain to ask for his immediate liberation.

Some analysts have said that this resolution is the first step to an inminent escalation in the political and religious opression in that country.

 If you want to help, click on the link and sign the letter.

del.icio.us tags: Vietnam, Nguyen Van Lym, Human Rights, freedom of expression, distatorship, communism

Technorati tags: Vietnam, Nguyen Van Lym, Human Rights, freedom of expression, distatorship, communism

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Khadaffi: "Christianity is not a true religion"

h/t E-nough!: Islam’s war against the West

Speaking at an Islamic rally in Niger, Libya’s Colonel Muammar Qaddafi claimed that Jesus was not crucified, and that Christianity is not a true world religion. “Christianity is not a faith for people in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas,” Qaddafy said. He said that Islam is the only faith that is destined to have worldwide application, and “all those believers who do not follow Islam are losers.”

The Libyan leader said that Jesus was a prophet sent to the people of Israel. He was not crucified, Qaddafy claimed, because another man with a similar appearance was executed in his place. Qaddafy said that he was hoping to correct popular misunderstandings about the history of religions, to demonstrate that only Islam is true.

Just read it all in the link above.



Other quotes from Khadaffi:

1. Compensations for going non-nuclear.
2. Khadaffi wants to be compensated (to stop immigration in Europe).
   
   

Technorati Tags: Khadaffi, Lybia, Christianity, Islam, Islamism.

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