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THE EMERGENCE OF THE NEW EARTH DEMOCRACY
By Avi Davis
Imagine for a moment that that you are a creek, gamboling happily through a landscape that the city fathers, in their wisdom, have slated for development. Imagine further that you have been flowing perenially through this same landscape for many thousands of years, far longer than any members of the human communities who are now threatening to turn you into gurgling pipe, have inhabited
the land. Imagine that an attorney, who has stumbled on your case, now wishes to take it on and obtain a restraining order to prevent your redevelopment, not as a cause based on the harmful impact your removal might have on the environment, but rather on your fundamental constitutional right to exist. As the presiding judge deliberates over your case, not only is he required by statutory law to take into account your value to the community, but also your dignity, right to life and ….. your feelings.
Could only happen in a Shel Silverstein children’s book? Think again. According to the citizens of Ecuador or the legislators of Switzerland, this might be a movie coming to a theater near you. In both countries not only are trees, rivers, plants, sheaves of wheat and even wild grasslands being accorded new environmental protections, they are being handed legal identities which provide them with the American equivalent of inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In Ecuador, in late September, the citizens of that country voted by nearly two thirds for a new constitution which included language making Ecuador the first nation to legislate rights for nature. According to Article 7 of the new Constitution “Nature or Pachamama [the Andean earth goddess], where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution. Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognition of rights for nature before the public bodies.”
This means, in essence, that whenever anyone in that country feels that any aspect of nature is threatened by development, pollution or environmental degradation, they can sue the would-be perpetrators in an Ecuadoran court on behalf of the aggrieved natural elements who in themselves have legal standing.
This development follows the release in Switzerland of the findings of a panel of philosophers, lawyers, geneticists and theologians on the meaning of flora's dignity. The panel, in issuing its report , found that “ vegetation has an inherent value and that it is immoral to arbitrarily harm plants by, say, "decapitation of wildflowers at the roadside without rational reason." In the 1990s, the Swiss constitution was amended in order to defend the dignity of all creatures against unwanted consequences of genetic manipulation. When the amendment became the Gene Technology Act, it remained silent on floral protection. But earlier this year, the government asked the ethics panel to correct that oversight by coming up with rules for plants as well.
On the question of genetic modification, most of the panel argued that the dignity of plants could be safeguarded "as long as their reproductive and adaptive abilities are ensured.” In other words, it's wrong to genetically alter a plant and render it sterile.
The panel’s findings, having now passed into law, requiring plant geneticists to undertake rigorous procedures to safeguard plant dignity. It has led to situations which have exposed the Swiss government to ridicule. On October 10, the Wall Street Journal interviewed Dr. Yves Poirier, a molecular biologist at the laboratory of plant biotechnology at the University of Lausanne. "Where does it stop?” he asked. "Should we now defend the dignity of microbes and viruses?"
Seeking clarity, Dr. Poirier recently invited the head of the ethics panel to his university. In their discussion, Dr. Poirier asked where seedless grapes, which cannot reproduce, stand in the dignity hierarchy. The discussion became surreal when some panel members revealed their opinions that plants have feelings.
The United States has not been shielded from the inherent absurdity of this movement. On September 19, 2006, the Tamaqua Borough of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, passed a sewage sludge ordinance that recognizes natural communities and ecosystems within the borough as legal persons for the purposes of enforcing civil rights. It also strips corporations that engage in the land application of sludge of their rights to be treated as “persons” and consequently of their civil rights. One of its effects is that the borough or any of its residents may file a lawsuit on behalf of an ecosystem to recover compensatory and punitive damages for any harm done by the land application of sewage sludge. Damages recovered in this way must be paid to the borough and used to restore those ecosystems and natural communities.
In July I wrote of the alarming anti-human trends within the environmental movement ( see The Rise of the Enviro-Dictatorship ) and the decision of the Spanish government to extend human rights to apes. Much like that decision, the drive for “an earth democracy”, wherein all life forms have equal protection before the law, is a direct assault on classical liberal theories of government which view rights as possessed only by individual human beings. The concept that the Earth has its own set of inalienable rights, is in fact drawn from ancient African, Australian and Latin American tribal traditions which view human beings as belonging to the earth, rather than the other way around.
But the movement does not merely seek to place the Earth and its bio-diversity on the same moral, legal and political footing as human beings. It goes much beyond that, insisting that where human needs and desires are in conflict with the environment, it is the environment’s rights which should always prevail. Therefore potential life saving medications which could be drawn from plants are scotched; irrigation projects which would dam a river but help hundreds of thousands of farmers improve their crop yields are resisted; oil drilling which could reduce dependence on foreign energy supplies and therefore provide a vital plank in the war against terror supporting states, are bitterly denounced.
And no one should ignore the political impulses of this movement. In its efforts to become the Earth’s savior, it has also become anti-Western, anti-corporate, anti-capitalist and anti- free trade in design and intent, focused on punishing the international fiends who have shackled the natural world to the world of finance. As an example, the pro-nature aspects of the Ecuadoran constitution have their roots in resentment towards international companies who have allegedly exploited the country’s natural resources and left pollution and poverty in their wake. But the language in these provisions was written with heavy input from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a far left Pennsylvania-based group providing legal assistance to governments around the world who seek to elevate the legal status of eco-systems to defend against human greed and destructiveness.
Therefore we should not mistake the political motor which generates the movement for an earth democracy. This ostensibly pro-environment ideology is actually anti-human in purpose. In seeking to impose collective liability on humanity for restoring damaged relations with the larger natural community, it sweeps aside the notion of human exceptionalism and ridicules any notion that natural resources have a vital role to play in the continuing welfare and progress of mankind. Environmental protection for the benefit of the human race is one thing. But the protection of the environment for its own sake is in fact a threat to human freedom and will result, ironically, not in advancing Nature’s dignity, but in an unrelenting assault on the very concept of humanity itself.
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance.
He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
Mentally Retarded Convert To Islam Was Groomed Over The Internet To Become A Suicide Bomber
 Bomber with mental age of ten groomed by Muslim fanatics-David Williams and Colin Fernandez
A British Muslim convert with a mental age of ten was groomed over the internet by extremists into becoming a suicide bomber who tried to blow up a packed restaurant. Anti-terror investigators believe Pakistani radicals targeted Nicky Reilly, 22, because of his history of mental illness. A plot was hatched involving the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter, where 50 diners, many with their children, were enjoying the half-term break on May 22 this year. Reilly entered Giraffe’s toilet and tried to assemble nailbombs from chemicals in bottles, but thankfully he had problems with the lock and three exploded in his hands. He was arrested when he staggered outside with serious facial injuries in the blast on May 22. Yesterday, Reilly, who has changed his name to Mohammad Abdul-Aziz Rashid Saeed-Alim, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to preparing a terrorist attack and attempted murder. After the attack police searching his home in Plymouth found a suicide note in which he quoted Osama Bin Laden and evidence that other possible targets had been a police station and a shopping centre. A large number of extremist websites and a video titled ‘homemade bombs’ were found on his computer. He had gone online to find out how to make bombs and discuss targets with chatroom contacts in Pakistan. (Dailymail.co.uk)
French President Nicolas Sarkozky Advocates The Teaching Of Arabic Language And Culture In French Schools
Sarkozy: “Arabic Is the Language of the Future”-Tiberge
The French government is strongly advocating the teaching of Arabic language and civilization in French schools. Not surprising, considering the number of Arabs and Muslims in France, and the unctuous deference with which they are treated by officials, beginning notably with Nicolas Sarkozy, who cannot praise enough the splendor of Arabic contributions to the world. The French National Assembly was the scene of a meeting earlier this month of the first Conference on the Teaching of Arabic Language and Culture, attended by a variety of interested parties. There was much wearisome blather about the need for "dialogue." In his message to the participants, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Arabic the "language of the future, of science and of modernity," and expressed the hope that "more French people share in the language that expresses great civilizational and spiritual values."
"We must invest in the Arabic language (because) to teach it symbolizes a moment of exchange, of openness and of tolerance, (and it) brings with it one of the oldest and most prestigious civilizations of the world. It is in France that we have the greatest number of persons of Arabic and Muslim origin. Islam is the second religion of France," Sarkozy reminded his listeners. He proceeded to enumerate the various "advances in terms of diversity," the increase in Muslim sections of cemeteries, the training of imams and chaplains and the appointments of ministers of diverse backgrounds. "France is a friend of Arabic countries. We are not seeking a clash between the East and West," he affirmed, emphasizing the strong presence of Arab leaders at the founding summit of the Union for the Mediterranean, last July 13. "The Mediterranean is where our common hopes were founded. Our common sea is where the principal challenges come together: durable development, security, education and peace," added the French president. (BrusselsJournal)
Mosques Appearing In Main City Centres As Muslim Population Increases In Europe
 CONFRONTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
Europe's Mosques Move from Back Alleys to Boulevards-Ulrike Knofel
There are plans to build several hundred new and often magnificent mosques throughout Europe -- particularly in Germany. Architecture has become the field of a fierce ideological battle about the visibility of Europe's 16 million Muslims.
Just a few minutes ago, Mubashra Ilyas was still standing on her dusty construction site. Now the 30-year-old architect is striding through a gallery in the back courtyard of a building in Berlin's Mitte district in elegant black boots. As the room slowly fills up, Ilyas continues to stand out: She's the only woman wearing a headscarf. The topic of the evening's discussion is "Mosques, Migration and Myth," and Ilyas doesn't want to miss it. She designed the first mosque to be built in eastern Berlin -- the first in all of eastern Germany, in fact -- and it's just about finished. The official opening is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 16. The next few hours at Berlin's Aedes Architecture Forum will be spent discussing the issues of how "back alley mosques" will soon become a thing of the past, the aesthetics of the new mosques and traditional versus modern styles. The real issue of debate, however, will be the fact that, stone by stone and minaret by minaret, Muslims in Germany want to become more visible -- they are no longer content to have their places of worship largely hidden from public view. In architectural terms, they want to be part of the cityscape in a way they have never been before. In fact, if you wanted to give a name to the topic of discussion, it wouldn't be wrong to call it "confrontational architecture," as the passions it excites clearly show just how large the rift is between the immigrant community and the German majority. Erecting vocal symbols of Islam could change society in ways that no one can yet imagine. In the face of this development, some are calling for calm, while others are warning fellow citizens about the growing influence by fundamentalist groups. Both standpoints are understandable -- which makes every dispute particularly touchy. No country in Europe can simply dodge the debate. Immigration to Germany already has a 50-year history, and the time has now come for German society to finally integrate its Muslims, whose religion continues to be foreign to the average German. At the same time, Germany must not weaken its own values by practicing misguided tolerance or putting up with ideological attacks against the West's fundamental order in the name of encouraging religious freedom. Still, harboring prejudices is equally unacceptable. The situation is only getting touchier, and there is a lot at stake. Mosques are symbols of this, too. (SpiegelOnline)
New Minister For Race Relations Opposes Sharia Courts
Muslims rebuffed over sharia courts-Jonathan Oliver
Gordon Brown's new minister for race relations has attacked sharia courts, insisting that the Muslim community in Britain is not “advanced” enough to have its own legal system. Sadiq Khan, whose comments will have added impact because he is a Muslim himself, has also warned that the growing number of tribunals based on Islamic codes could entrench discrimination against women. Khan, who became minister for community cohesion in the government reshuffle this month, said: “The burden is on those who want to open up these courts to persuade us why they should do it.” His comments contrast with those of figures such as Lord Phillips, the lord chief justice, who said in July that Islamic law could be used to settle marital and financial disputes. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has said the establishment of sharia courts in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain. In a wide-ranging interview on race and immigration, Khan, 38, the Labour MP for Tooting, south London, also: Warned that an economic downturn could fuel ethnic tensions. Demanded an increase in benefits for immigrants with larger families. Admitted that government anti-terror laws had caused “problems” in race relations. Called on public bodies to cut translation services to encourage immigrants to learn English. Khan’s outspoken remarks on sharia courts are likely to cause the most controversy. (Timesonline.co.uk)
North Korea Delisted From US Terror List
US removes North Korea from terror list, saving nuclear deal - Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor
The failing North Korean nuclear deal appears to have been saved from collapse after the United States agreed to remove the isolated dictatorship from its list of terrorist states. But the move has alienated the government of Japan, which opposes such concessions until Pyongyang has told the truth about Japanese citizens which it abducted during the Cold War. The fragile agreement on North Korean nuclear disarmament, finally agreed last year after four years of tortuous negotiation, had appeared to be in danger after North Korea threatened to reactivate the plutonium reactor where it has generated the material for an unknown number of nuclear warheads. It accused the Bush administration of reneging on an agreement in June to “delist” North Korea from the registry of countries regarded as state sponsors of terrorism. But the US demanded that it first agree to allow international inspectors to visit suspected nuclear sites to confirm that North Korea has owned up to the full extent of its nuclear programme. According to US and South Korean media reports, and informed sources in Tokyo who spoke to The Times, American and North Korean negotiators reached a compromise agreement in Pyongyang last week. President Bush will agree to delisting, reportedly as early as today, in return for North Korea’s agreement on steps to be taken to verify its nuclear declaration. The details of the “verification protocol” are still unclear, and will be scrutinised by those who suspect Mr Bush of caving into the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il. Conservatives, including some of the president’s former neo-con supporters, object on principle to the deal of cutting a deal with a regime which they regard as murderous, illegitimate and inherently untrustworthy. Yesterday, South Korea’s foreign minister confirmed that a compromise had been made on one of the most contentious elements of the nuclear negotiations – a US claim that North Korea has a secret uranium enrichment programme, apart from the plutonium reactor which it publicly acknowledges. (TimesOnline.co.uk)
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
Should Teachers Be Wearing Their Candidate In The Classroom?
Buttons and Bows-Stanley Fish
Campaign buttons are a staple of any political season, but this year they are also central to yet another dispute about the rights of classroom teachers. The dispute has both a K-12 and a college version. In New York City, Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein announced that his administration would enforce a longstanding policy prohibiting teachers from wearing campaign buttons when they are at work. In Illinois, the state university ethics office stated in its newsletter that faculty are barred not only from wearing campaign buttons in the classroom, but also from placing political bumper stickers on their cars and attending political rallies on campus. Reaction was swift and predictable. In a letter to Chancellor Klein, United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten noted that teachers have always “been allowed to express their opinions as citizens, political and otherwise, on their lapels.” American Association of University Professors President Cary Nelson (an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana) issued a statement deploring the “chilling effect on speech” of such rules, which, he says, amount to “interference with the educational process.” He asks why “students can exercise their constitutional rights and attend rallies and wear buttons advocating candidates, but faculty cannot?” There’s a lot to sort out here, and we might begin by separating the real issues from the silly ones. It is silly (and unconstitutional) to dictate what faculty members can put on their cars, especially at a state university like Illinois where the parking lots are the size of Rhode Island and the odds of a student knowing which car belongs to which professor are next to nothing. At a more intimate liberal arts college, students might be aware of what cars their teachers drive, but it is unreasonable to require that students be shielded from any knowledge of professors’ political views, unless you want to say that faculty members can’t write letters to the editor because students might read them, and no one wants to say that. The ban against attending political rallies is a closer call. On a campus with a small number of students and faculty, all of whom interact daily in a limited number of courses, there might be a worry that going directly from a rally into a classroom would run the risk of blurring the line between pedagogy and politics. But again the risk seems too attenuated to justify a policy designed to minimize it. Joseph White, president of the University of Illinois, seems to agree, for on Oct. 6 he clarified (or, rather, backed down from) the ethics office’s memo and announced that university employees may “attend political rallies, provided that the employees are not on duty” and may also “display partisan bumper stickers on their vehicles.” (I would ban bumper stickers on aesthetic grounds, but that’s besides today’s point.) That leaves the campaign buttons. On that matter, which is the real deal, White says that university employers may wear them so long they are not “on duty nor in the workplace.” While there might be an argument about what is or is not “in the workplace,” classrooms surely are. So presumably the ban on professors wearing political buttons in class stands. Some of those protesting the restriction want to assimilate it to the attempt to regulate bumper stickers. Sherman Dorn acknowledges (on his blog) that “you can’t use public property to support candidates,” but “I assume,” he says, that “faculty buy their own clothes, so they’re festooning personal property” in the same way they festoon their personally owned vehicles. (fish.blogs.nytimes.com)
Islamofascism In Full Bloom At Ohio State University
Ohio State and the Muslim Brotherhood-Patrick Poole
It’s October, and the leaves are beginning to turn around the campus of the Ohio State University. But as predictably as falling leaves turn the green grass of the Oval brown, Islamofascism flowers into full bloom on the Ohio State campus just in time for the third Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. And this time, Ohio State students are footing the bill. The event in question is a Ramadan celebration hosted by the newly-formed OSU chapter of the Muslim American Society (MAS) – paid for out of Student Activity Fund fees. The OSU-MAS “Reflections on Ramadan” event promised to “provide a chance for students to celebrate and reflect on the month of Ramadan and how it's celebrated among students locally and internationally”. What the Ohio State Union website failed to mention, however, is that federal prosecutors stated in an appeals court brief last December that MAS was “founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America”. The prosecutors also observed that the Muslim Brotherhood’s credo states that:
Allah is our goal
The Qur'an is our constitution
The Prophet is our leader
Jihad is our way
and death in the path of Allah is our highest goal
The Chicago Tribune published an extensive investigative report in September 2004 documenting MAS’s origins and leadership from the international Muslim Brotherhood network. As the active arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been the ideological incubator for virtually every single Islamic terrorist organization, from HAMAS to Al-Qaeda, MAS has boldly followed in the footsteps of its parent. (Frontpagemag.com)
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Muslim’s Complain Of ‘Alleged’ Harassment At Glasgow Airport
Protest over Muslim 'harassment'
A protest has been staged outside Strathclyde Police headquarters over alleged "harassment" of Muslim travellers at Glasgow Airport.
About 60 demonstrators claimed that Pakistani and Afghan passengers had been "interrogated" for up to three hours by officers from Special Branch. They accused police of operating "discriminatory policies". Strathclyde Police said it welcomed dialogue over the implementation of terrorism legislation. President of the Scottish Afghan Society, Mohammad Asif, said Strathclyde Police had a duty to treat Muslim passengers like "human beings". "Muslim community members have been singled out for questioning for no apparent reason other than being Afghan or Pakistani," he said. "This treatment is unacceptable in a democracy and we are fed up with the discriminatory policies of Strathclyde Police Special Branch. "We cannot bear the psychological torture anymore. The authorities treat us like terrorists, as well as putting pressure on Afghans to become informers and spies, but we are not going to be intimidated and pressurised." (News.bbc.co.uk)
 BBC Chief Mark Thompson Says That Islam Should Be Treated More Sensitively Due To Muslims Being A Minority
BBC boss says Islam should be treated more sensitively than Christianity-Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Islam should be treated more sensitively by the media than Christianity, according to the director general of the BBC.
Mark Thompson claimed that because Muslims are a religious minority in Britain and also often from ethnic minorities, their faith should be given different coverage to that of more established groups.
His comments come after the comedian Ben Elton accused the BBC of being scared of making jokes about Islam, while Hindus have claimed it favours Muslims over other religions.
But Mr Thompson, speaking at the annual public theology lecture of the religion think-tank Theos, insisted the state broadcaster would show programmes that criticised Islam if they were of sufficient quality.
The director general, whose corporation faced accusations of blasphemy from Christians after it allowed the transmission of the musical Jerry Springer -The Opera, also said his Christian beliefs guided his judgments and disclosed that he had never watched the Monty Python film Life of Brian which satirises the story of Jesus. In his speech last night, Mr Thompson claimed there are now more programmes about religion on BBC television and radio than there have been in recent decades, whereas coverage has declined on ITV. But asked whether it was correct that the BBC "let vicar gags pass but not imam gags", as Elton claimed, he admitted it did take a different approach to Islam, which has 1.6million followers in Britain, compared to its approach to the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church. (Telegraph.co.uk)
ANTISEMITISM
The Emerson Fellowship Allows Students To Counter Anti-Israel Propaganda On Campus In Canada And The US
Emerson Fellows defend Israel on campus By RIVA GOLD, Special to The CJN
TORONTO — StandWithUs has big plans this year to revitalize Israel’s image at Concordia University, York University, the University of Victoria and 37 other campuses across North America.
Samantha Banks
The international educational organization has trained select students as Emerson Fellows to make university campuses more Israel-friendly. The Emerson Fellowship, now in its second year, empowers students attending universities with strong anti-Israel sentiment to become stronger advocates for Israel through the support of philanthropists Rita and Steve Emerson. “My first year at York was a big eye-opener for me when it came to the intensity of anti-Israel propaganda on campus,” said Anna Neuman, right, the Emerson Fellow at York. “I remember the first time I walked through Vari Hall [York’s main entrance] and saw the Israeli Apartheid Wall,” an exhibit erected by anti-Israel campus groups. Neuman plans to use the training and expertise she gained from the program to help all supporters of Israel voice their opinions safely on campus. In September, she helped bring Amir Gissin, Israel’s consul general in Toronto, to York to discuss the concept of “rebranding” the image of Israel both on and off campus. At Concordia, Emerson Fellow Samantha Banks, who is also president of Hillel Montreal, hopes to eradicate misconceptions about Israel in the student community. “Concordia’s well-documented history [of conflict] does not reflect the current climate on campus,” Banks said. “We have established a much more comfortable and secure environment, and I want to show new and old students alike how vibrant and expressive we are today.” Banks’ plans include a mock UN Security Council, meetings with election candidates, and positive marketing campaigns such as Tel Aviv 100. (cjnews.com)
Financial crisis? That will be the Jews’ fault-Anshel Pfeffer
A new anti-Jewish conspiracy theory was spawned on the internet this week, latching on to a wave of antisemitic online comments blaming Jewish financiers for the global credit crunch and then exploiting it. According to the latest false theory, Jewish executives at Lehman Brothers sent $400 billion (£230bn) to Israel before the bank collapsed last month. The story originated last Friday on an American website, tbrnews.org, and was linked to by high-traffic sites such as rense.com, belonging to Jeff Rense, a former journalist and talk-show host who has regularly published conspiracy theories relating to Jews and Israel. Masquerading as an authentic news report under the headline "$400b Sent To Israel Ahead Of Lehman BK", it carries the byline "The Voice of the White House" and a Washington DC dateline. The bogus report details how "huge amounts of money" were "frantically" transferred to Israel. "It is not necessary to mention that the senders are all Jewish," says the "report", which goes on to explain how Israeli banking laws make it impossible for American authorities to track down the money and that "if the sticky-fingered ones decide to make a quick flight to Israel ahead of FBI investigators, like their new accounts, they are entirely safe", as "Israel does not extradite its citizens". The writer claims that "all this" is well known to US law-enforcement agencies. To lend authenticity to the story, it has been juxtaposed with a genuine report from the New York-based Bloomberg news service about how Lehman Brothers lost more than $400bn in assets in the months before its bankruptcy. Like similar theories, the "report" was quickly picked up by a range of antisemitic and conspiracy websites and blogs around the world. Yet that story is merely the latest and most sophisticated example of the surge in antisemitic comments being made on internet forums and comment pages blaming the Jews and Israel for the current financial crisis. Other enemies of Israel have also got in on the act, with Hamas in Gaza blaming the crisis on "bad administrative and financial management and a bad banking system put into place and controlled by the Jewish lobby". Groups monitoring antisemitism, such as the American Anti-Defamation League, have reported hundreds of such messages, all suggesting that the Jews control the international finance system. Many of these comments mention the Jewish founders of some of the major American banks. In many cases, these messages were posted on popular mainstream websites, where editors are usually quick to delete them. (community.thejc.com)
Simon Wiesenthal Centre Protests Holocaust Denier Manfred Roeder’s Speaking At The Racist Organisation Alianza National’s Party Headquarters
 Simon Wiesenthal Centre protests Holocaust denier public appearance in Spain-EJP
PARIS (EJP)---An International Jewish human rights organization has protested to Spain against the appearance on Friday in Valencia of convicted German Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier Manfred Roeder.
Roeder was invited to speak at the extreme-rightist and racist Alianza Nacional party headquarters on the subject: "My Life for the Reich". In a letter to Spanish Interior Minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the Paris-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre's director for international relations, Shimon Samuels, noted that the event is billed as "Europe Arise – Manfred Roeder in Valencia... to awaken European youth from its forced lethargy since 1945". The letter continued, "a young Hitler Youth defendant of Berlin in 1945, jailed in 1982 as a 'terrorist' for the attacks by his 'Deutsche Aktionsgruppen' neo-Nazi organization on asylum seekers' hostels, Roeder was released in 1990. Imprisoned once again in 2005 for incitement to hatred, he has been associated with the American Ku Klux Klan and, reportedly, with Iranian campaigns against the West."
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre called upon Spain’s Interior Minister "to abide by Spain's commitments under anti-racist provisions of the European Union, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe." "The Pact of Moncloa, which ensured the return of democracy to Spain, is betrayed by the polluting presence of Manfred Roeder on Spanish soil. Neither should the youth of Spain be tainted by such voices of racist, anti-Semitic and anti-migrant incitement." (ejpress.org
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
US And Czech Republic Sign Agreement On Fighting Terrorism
ČR, US sign agreement on cooperation in fighting terrorism-in National
Prague, Oct 14 (CTK) - Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer and U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic Richard Graber Tuesday signed an agreement on cooperation between Czech and U.S. law enforcement bodies and security forces in fighting terrorism, Langer's spokeswoman Jana Malikova told CTK Tuesday. The signing of the agreement has been one of the conditions of visa-free relations with the United States. The agreement concerns cooperation between the Czech and U.S. counter-terrorism centres. According to international law experts, no commitments generally ensue from the legally non-binding agreement. The text of the agreement will not be released as it includes sensitive specific information on operative cooperation. According to diplomatic sources, U.S Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is scheduled to have talks in Prague at the end of October. The decision on visa lifting is expected to be announced on November 17. The Czech Republic is yet to sign with the United States an agreement on the exchange of information about the persons who were convicted of serious crimes in the past. The Czech ministry said in summer it hoped to sign this agreement in mid-September, however, talks on it have not yet been completed. The international agreement requires ratification by Czech parliament and signature by the president, but visa-free relations may start even before ratification. Czechs will be included in the U.S. visa waiver programme at the beginning of next year at the latest, Czech ambassador to the EU Milena Vicenova said today. After the U.S. visa requirements are lifted Czechs travelling to the country will have to get registered with the ESTA system through the Internet. The ESTA system also covers EU countries that have visa-free relations with the United States. http://www.praguemonitor.com
Islamic Jihad Training Women In Gaza To Become Suicide Bombers
 Just married and determined to die
There is a ceasefire in Gaza, but the BBC has found evidence of militant groups preparing for a return to violence. One group, Islamic Jihad, is training female suicide bombers.
Middle East correspondent Paul Wood went to meet a Palestinian woman who has volunteered.
The young, veiled woman was sitting quiet and still as the room bustled around her. The black flag of Islamic Jihad was pinned on the wall behind her and two Kalashnikovs were carefully placed in camera shot. Her husband, an Islamic Jihad fighter himself, tied on her "martyr's" headband. Umm Anas - not her real name - had just graduated from a programme to train female suicide bombers in Gaza. Our meeting was a highly-orchestrated propaganda event laid on by Islamic Jihad. It was almost theatre - and certainly Israel accuses the Palestinian leadership of manipulating young women like 18-year-old Umm Anas. Yet, although she nervously twisted her wedding ring, Umm Anas did not appear to be a cipher. She was articulate - more so than the men staging the event - and she knew her own mind.
Secret ambition
When she spoke of becoming a suicide bomber, Umm Anas's voice was strong and steady: "This is a gift from God. "We were created to become martyrs for God," she continued, her eyes burning behind the full face veil.
I take each step carefully because I know I am going to sacrifice myself
Umm Anas
"All the Palestinian people were created to fight in God's name. If we just throw stones at the Jews they get scared. Imagine what happens when body parts fly at them." The bomb belt which she hopes will end her life - and kill many Israelis - rested on the table next to us. Her main motivation in becoming a suicide bomber appears to be religious rather than nationalistic - the fulfilment of a long-held ambition. Even getting married recently hadn't changed her mind. "When my husband married me, he knew my way of thinking. He knew exactly who I am and based on this he decided to marry me. Marriage doesn't give me a second's doubt."
I asked if that would alter if she became pregnant. "I would wait until I delivered the baby," she said. "I would give him to my parents and ask them to look after him... Then I would leave them and the baby would remain behind as a piece of me." (news.bbc.co.uk)
Hamas Sets It Sights On The Israeli City Of Akko
Hamas: 'We Will Soon Liberate Akko'-Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Hamas, which violently overthrew Fatah and took control of Gaza last year, now threatens to take control of the Israeli Galilee city of Akko. The terrorist organization held a mass march in the Gaza city of Jebalya on Saturday night, expressing solidarity with the Arab residents of Akko in their struggle against the "Zionist conquerors." The main speaker, Hamas party whip in the Palestinian Authority legislature Mushir Al-Masri, fired up the masses with his promise that, "The moment of victory is coming closer, and the day will soon come when soldiers of Hamas and the Al-Kassam Brigades will liberate Akko, with the help of Allah." "The enemy will be crushed on the walls of Akko," Al-Masri railed, "just like the other invaders in past history... The normalization and the negotiations will never cause us to forget even one inch of our stolen land of Palestine." In sharp contrast, Chief Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar, accompanied by President Shimon Peres and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, visited with local Jewish and Arab leaders in Akko on Monday morning, trying to find ways to restore calm to the troubled city. Police Commissioner David Cohen said Monday morning that that 64 people - 27 Jews and 37 Arabs - had been arrested as a result of the Akko riots of the past few days, and that 34 are still in custody. The police have received 85 complaints of damage done to their cars; hundreds of Arabs rampaged in a Jewish neighborhood on Yom Kippur, smashing cars and store windows. (INN)
Al-Qaeda Refutes Reports Of Its Demise And Outlines Plans For The Continued Jihad
Al-Qaeda Outlines Its Strategy Seven Years After 9/11-By Abdul Hameed Bakier
On the seventh anniversary of 9/11, jihadi internet forum members posted a variety of messages recalling and celebrating al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks in the United States, or, as the jihadis refer to it, “the victorious invasion of Manhattan.” One frequent poster and well-known member of the jihadi forums posted a protracted analysis of the situation as it exists at the moment entitled “Al-Qaeda’s Strategy on September 11, 2008, and the Onset of its Great Scheme” (alhesbahweb.net, September 12). The posting was written by a Salafi-Jihadi using the nickname “Asad al-Jihad2.” Famous among jihadi forum chatters for his active role in the Salafi-Jihadi global movement, al-Jihad2 is believed to be the Egyptian Muhammad Khalil al-Hakaima, media coordinator for al-Qaeda (iiacome.blogspot.com, September 12; see also Terrorism Focus, October 10, 2006; October 24, 2006). Al-Hakaima was a member of Egypt’s Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group - GI) before breaking ranks with the group and joining al-Qaeda (see Terrorism Monitor, October 10, 2006). Another forum member, claiming to be a reporter for the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), posted the article on behalf of al-Jihad2. Beginning with a review of the battles in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora region, the post claims al-Qaeda succeeded in scattering the U.S. army all over the world, hence disrupting its plans to reshape the Middle East. The U.S. onslaught on the Middle East drove Muslims to rise up and join al-Qaeda, says al-Jihad2, adding, “We are tired of analysts who claim al-Qaeda will be terminated soon. Don’t they have a sensible man to admit that al-Qaeda won in every field of confrontation?” Several times the post also ridicules a July 28 Rand Corporation report entitled “How Terrorist Groups End: Implications for Countering al-Qa’ida.” The report suggested the United States abandon its heavy reliance on military force in its counterterrorism strategy to pursue an approach emphasizing policing and intelligence gathering.[1] (jamestown.org)
Hamas Jihadist Website AqsaTube Has Been Removed From Its French Provider
 French ISP takes Hamas website offline-Amir Mizroch
Following a report in The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, the jihadist Web site AqsaTube, a video-sharing platform modeled on the popular YouTube, has been taken off-line by its French internet service provider OVH.
AqsaTube (www.aqsatube.com) featured videos inciting against Israel, glorifying terrorism (the "resistance") and preaching the doctrines of radical Islam.
According to the BBC, OVH initially denied hosting AqsaTube, but later confirmed that it had hosted the Web site and had now taken it off-line.
The disappearance of AqsaTube follows Google's removal of its AdSense program from the Web site following a query filed by the Post to Google Israel.
AqsaTube's format and design were strikingly similar to the American YouTube's. Its name and graphic logo were also similar to YouTube's, and without a doubt were inspired by them, although the format of the site has similarities to other video-sharing platforms on the net.
According to the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), which tracked the site and alerted the Post to its existence, the Hamas version of YouTube was devoted entirely to propaganda and incitement. AqsaTube was listed under the name of Abu Nasser Skandar from Dubai, hosted by OVH. Reuven Ehrlich, head of the ITIC, welcomed the news that AqsaTube had been taken off-line. "Israel can't fight Jihadi Web sites themselves, but it can fight their service providers," he told the Post.
According to the ITIC, AqsaTube was only one of over 20 Web sites, in eight languages, managed and directed by Hamas.
According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, most AqsaTube users were from Saudi Arabia, followed by Iraq and Germany. It had more users in Israel than in the Palestinian territories. (Jpost.com)
Radical ENVIRONMENTALISM
How Green Activist Mark Lynas Has Been Branded A ‘Heretic’ By Eco-Colleagues
Mark Lynas: the green heretic persecuted for his nuclear conversion
The climate change expert Mark Lynas has been scorned by eco-colleagues for daring to speak up for atomic power
I know I should be furious. The EDF takeover of British Energy means that four nuclear power stations could now be built around the UK, the first nuclear new build in a generation. As a long-standing Green party member, one who chops his own wood, grows his own leeks, keeps chickens and puts the kids in washable nappies, antinuclear indignation should spring easily to my lips. After all, energy is something I care about. The last time I checked my carbon budget, I came in at a fifth of the national average. I rarely fly, even when booked to address faraway audiences about my personal obsession, climate change – a subject I’ve covered in three books. Whenever the word “nuclear” comes up at my talks, a shudder runs through the room. Because everyone knows that real environmentalists loathe nuclear power. It is just evil. Full stop. Except, well, I don’t believe that any more. Just a month ago I had a Damascene conversion: the Green case against nuclear power is based largely on myth and dogma. My tipping point came when I discovered just how much nuclear power has changed since I first set my mind against it. Prescription for the Planet, a new book by the American writer Tom Blees, opened my eyes to fourth-generation “fast-breeder” reactors, which use fuel much more efficiently than the old-style reactors, produce shorter-lived waste and can also be designed to be “walk-away safe”. Best of all, these new reactors – prototypes of which have already been tested – can produce power by burning up existing stocks of nuclear waste. As Blees puts it: “Thus we have a prodigious supply of free fuel that is actually even better than free, for it is material that we are quite desperate to get rid of.” Who could object to that? Just about everyone on the eco-scene, it turned out. I began to receive e-mails from friends and colleagues warning me off the topic. Did I really want to risk my entire reputation by alienating the green movement? The backlash to my first magazine article on the subject prompted my inbox to collapse, the blogs to drip with venom, the dirty looks to multiply. (Timesonline.co.uk
Society and CULTURE
Meet The New ‘Unschooling’ Parents
The Anti-Schoolers-Penelope Green
ONE morning early last month, long after that frantic hour between 7 and 8 when most New York City parents were hustling their 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds out the door and into their first day of kindergarten, Benny Rendell, the 5-year-old son of Joanne Rendell, a novelist, and Brad Lewis, a New York University professor, lay sprawled asleep in his bed, enjoying what his mother described as his first day of unkindergarten. Benny stayed asleep, as is his habit, until well past 11 a.m., while his mother, whose first book, “The Professors’ Wives’ Club,” was just published by NAL Accent, worked on her new novel. When Benny awoke, he and his mother slowly made their way to a friend’s house in Brooklyn, with Benny reading the subway stops out loud on the way, and counting out change at a vegetable stand. They spent the afternoon in a Fort Greene backyard; while Benny played with his pals in the mud, the grown-ups looked on, and shared a cold one. Ms. Rendell, 34, and Mr. Lewis, 51, are no slouches in the academic department — with two Ph.D.’s and an M.D. between them, the two fell in love at an academic conference and Mr. Lewis is now a faculty in residence in one of N.Y.U.’s only residential colleges. Nonetheless, they have made the semi-radical (for New York, anyway) and anti-academic choice to keep Benny out of the school system, for now. They are part of a community of like-minded parents who are opting to enrich rather than formally educate their not-yet-school-age children (6 is the age that New York City law requires parents to register their children as home-schooled). They discovered one another through the New York City Home Educators Alliance (nychea.org), a home-schooling bulletin board. Benny’s parents aren’t home-schooling in the traditional sense, by hewing to a curriculum, nor are they strictly “unschooling,” that is, following the teachings of John Holt, a progressive educator who promoted a child-led learning movement that is a wildly democratic subset of the home-schooling world. Rather, theirs is an ad hoc, day-by-day exploration into what it means to be a stay-at-home parent and child in an accelerated culture like New York. In a city where the race to be on top can start in infancy, the disconnect between these parents’ choices and the New York City norm is vast, as Ms. Rendell learned recently. A few weeks ago, Ms. Rendell wrote an essay about Benny’s first day of “unkindergarten” — complete with an evocative description of that hot afternoon and the beer the parents enjoyed — for the hip online parents’ magazine, Babble (babble.com). Its editor in chief, Ada Calhoun, published the piece under the magazine’s personal essay rubric, the coyly named Bad Parent. (Past columns have included essays about fighting in front of one’s children and, last week, a mother’s embrace of fast food.) Despite the column’s reputation and mandate as a forum for parents to discuss choices made outside the mainstream, Ms. Calhoun said, Ms. Rendell’s essay drew howls of protest from readers, and broke the record, at nearly 200, for the number of its comments. (NYtimes.com)
On The Dethronement Of G-d And The Age Of Irrationality
The false faith of scientific reason-Melanie Phillips
Jewish Chronicle, 17 October 2008
It is an article of faith (except, of course, among those who actually have a faith) that the dethronement of God by the apostles of secularism has ushered in an age of reason. Belief in the Almighty is now widely held to be a priori evidence of primitive stupidity.
In fact, we are living in a deeply irrational age, where millions are putting their faith in such mumbo-jumbo as astrology, parapsychology, paganism, witchcraft or conspiracies between sinister groups and extra-terrestrial forces. All of which goes to prove the truth of the old adage that when people stop believing in God, they will believe in anything.
Nevertheless, the belief has taken hold that religious faith is inimical to reason, as defined and exemplified by the scientific mind. Such belief expresses itself in the near God-like status afforded to Professor Richard Dawkins — the Savonarola of atheism — on the basis of his aggressive contention that evolution accounts for the origin of life, and that anyone who believes the world had a creator and a purpose should be exiled altogether from intelligent discourse
Interestingly, over the past few months Dawkins has been meeting his match in a remarkable Oxford mathematics professor called John Lennox, who argues for the existence of a creator on the basis of science — and demonstrates that, on his own scientific terms, Dawkins’s arguments fail the test of reason.
Next week, the two of them will slug it out in a debate freighted with historic resonance at Oxford’s Natural History Museum — the very place where, in 1860, Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, tried to pour scorn on Darwin’s Origin of Species, only to be savaged by ‘Darwin’s bulldog’ TH Huxley. I wouldn’t put money on the same outcome this time.
The fact that secularism has taken on the characteristics of religious fanaticism, in espousing dogma inimical to human flourishing and punishing dissenters in order to slam the lid on debate, is explored in a timely monograph by Herbert London, president of the Hudson Institute, the influential American think-tank.
This institute is a front-line combatant in America’s culture wars, in which it seeks to defend the values of western civilisation against the onslaught from those trying to destroy it. In his book,America’s Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion, London argues that the rise of secularism has so hollowed out Western society that it has left it acutely vulnerable to the predations of radical Islam.
The decay of religion, he says, has given rise to moral relativism, which regards all beliefs and principles as being of equal value and truth as a relative concept. This has given rise to multiculturalism, which masquerades as the promotion of equal rights but is actually a disguised form of cultural and national self-loathing.
This in turn lies behind the idea that nations are illegitimate or passé, and that the world’s problems can all be solved by everyone on the planet coming together to harness the power of reason to arrive at a solution. But, in robbing people of their national identity and capacity to believe in anything except the fiction that reason trumps all, this is an essentially irrational negation of self-interest.
No less irrational is the overreach of science which, as London writes, has been hijacked by secular fundamentalists who want to supplant religion by asserting that only in science can truths be found.
Such ’scientism’ — as this overreach is termed — goes beyond the ability of science to explain the nature of the world around us and claims to tell us how life began. Yet the assumption that science provides a complete theory of knowledge is itself fundamentally unscientific.
Science generates more questions than it can answer. The more science unravels the mysteries of the world for us, the more mysterious it becomes. And, as the many scientists who are also religious believers demonstrate, there is no inherent conflict between religion and science.
The dogma that science provides the answer to every question and so supplants religion has led to a junking of the moral codes deriving from Judaism and Christianity that underpin western society.
This loss of cultural nerve has created an unwitting collusion between secular zealots and the Islamists who have declared war upon western civilisation, and who believe — correctly — that a secular west will be unable to resist them.
Science, rationality and the pursuit of truth are intimately related to the religious traditions of the west. If those traditions are not defended from within against the threat from without, this will be how the west was lost. (JewishChronicle)
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