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American Express and Wal-Mart's Bluebird accounts gain FDIC insurance and direct deposit of government checks
Wal-Mart is getting closer to being a bank. It's not making loans yet, but its deposits are now insured.
This morning, American Express and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said their joint Bluebird debit and checking alternative launched last October now comes with $100,000 of FDIC insurance. Bluebird has also added an important convenience: direct deposit of all government payments.
Customers who receive social security payments, military and government pay and tax refunds can now have those funds direct deposited into their Bluebird accounts.
Last year, American Express and Wal-Mart said Bluebird was designed for the tens of millions of Americans who don't use banks calling them the "unbanked, underbanked and the unhappy banked."
Apparently that's a big group.
DMN Personal Finance Columnist Pamela Yip has reported that 12.8 percent of Texans don't have bank accounts.


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James Madison moves on in NCAATHE ASSOCIATED PRESS | March 21,2013DAYTON, Ohio A.J. Davis, who stepped in as a starter because James Madisons leading scorer was suspended for a half, led the way with 20 points as the Dukes beat LIU Brooklyn 68-55 on Wednesday night in the First Four.
The Dukes (21-14) advance to meet top-seeded Indiana (27-6) on Friday night at the same University of Dayton Arena.
James Madison was without suspended starter Rayshawn Goins for the first half but built a big lead. After the Blackbirds (20-14) battled back to take a brief lead, the Dukes surged again to win going away.
Charles Cooke added 15 points and Andre Nation 14 for the Dukes, who hadnt won an NCAA tournament game since 1983 and hadnt played in the big dance in 19 years.
Jamal Olasewere had 20 points and 10 rebounds and C.J. Garner 16 points for the Blackbirds, who have lost in their first game in each of their six trips to the tournament.MORE IN Wire SportsFRISCO, Texas Dez Bryant appeared in the locker room Thursday and seemed to be in a good mood,... Full StoryCHASKA, Minn. Full StorySuspended U.S. national team goalkeeper Hope Solo says she has had shoulder replacement surgery. Full Story
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Scatec Solar, the integrated independent solar power producer, has signed a partnership agreement with Norfund, the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries, to jointly invest in solar power projects to be developed in all countries within Norfund's mandate.
Scatec Solar and Norfund have been partners in the realization of four solar PV projects in Africa totaling 200 MW (three in South Africa and one in Rwanda) and the agreement signed is a formal confirmation of an existing, fruitful partnership. The partnership will provide a framework for collaborative project development and joint investment and under the agreement Norfund and Scatec Solar will jointly realize projects in all countries within Norfund's mandate.


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one who is dangerous, bitter, low self esteem, and destroyer of all that is good in the world.
that white nemesis sure is an ass! why doesnt he leave all us happy people alone and go kill himself.
af mr smiley 3. februar 2006
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Ben Wickstrom started in the construction industry with a summer job at a family friend's company when he was 16.
"I did a little bit of everything that summer," Wickstrom said. "It was a great experience; I learned a lot. There's nothing better than hands-on experience to teach you some things."
He continued working with that company while getting his civil engineering degree. Right out of college, he joined Grand Rapids-based Erhardt Construction and began working his way up — all the way to company president.
Wickstrom succeeded Joe Erhardt, who became chairman.
"We've always valued leadership development," Joe Erhardt said in announcing the change. "Part of that development is having a solid, long-term plan for leadership succession. Ben's promotion to president is part of that plan. He is a proven leader with the vision, energy and drive needed to lead this company forward."
Although the construction industry has yet to fully rebound from the recession, the 49-year-old company had a "pretty decent 2010," Wickstrom said. The Salvation Army's Ray & Joan Kroc Center in Grand Rapids, one of 11 such centers across the country, was a notable project Erhardt wrapped up last year.
"We also completed a lot of public projects in 2010," Wickstrom said. "That's been really critical to our success through the downturn — our ability to do those public projects."
Wickstrom is now starting to see some general activity picking up. Erhardt currently is working on projects for Amway, Grand Valley State University and Saint Mary's Health Care, as well as more public projects across West Michigan.
Wickstrom believes the challenges that face the construction industry are the same as those facing the broader economy, namely figuring out the next opportunities for growth.
"Where is the private-sector investment going to come from to replace the $1 billion of construction that just wrapped up?" he said. "Those cranes are gone — it's going to be awhile before they come back. So I think the challenge we have as a state is to figure out what we need to do to attract industry and business."
Michigan needs business-friendly policies that support existing businesses and industries while attracting new ones, Wickstrom said.
Additionally, everyone could be more "proactive in telling our story as West Michigan," he said.
"We have great community leadership; we have exceptional natural resources; we have an improving public transportation system; we have a talented and diverse work force," Wickstrom said.
The local business community is one of the biggest things West Michigan's construction industry has going for it, he said.
"We have a lot of assets in this community," Wickstrom said. "The spirit of innovation and creativity and entrepreneurial spirit here in West Michigan is alive and well.
"I read all the trade reports, I read all the documentation about the economic turnaround — and when it's coming or when it's not coming. But at the end of the day, what I find most encouraging is our ability to adapt as a community going forward."


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Woman, 21, arrested in purse snatching
Woman took purse in front of Rutter's Farm Store, police say
UPDATED 12:21 PM EST Feb 10, 2013
Spring Garden Township police have arrested a woman in connection with a purse snatching.
Police say she took the purse from another woman while the two were in front of the Rutter's Farm Store on South Richland Avenue in Spring Garden Township.
Police say a person saw the woman's photograph released by the media and spotted her in a vehicle in the 1000 block of South George Street.
Officers arrived to that location and arrested Lauren Ashley Jenkins, 21, of Stewartstown on charges of robbery, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.
Copyright 2013 by WGAL All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Riddle of the Rosenbergs
By Simon Rocker, April 7, 2011
The programme of The Holy Rosenbergs, Ryan Craig's National Theatre play about an Edgware Jewish family, contains a four-page timeline of notable events in Jewish history.
Starting in 1290 with King Edward I's expulsion of the Jews, it ends in 2010 with "Lord Goldstone" going to his grandson's barmitzvah (a mix-up of former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith with Judge Richard Goldstone). In between various wars, pogroms and intifadas come such entries as 1976: Jack Rosenthal's Bar Mitzvah Boy on the BBC and 1992: Katie Michell's RSC production of The Dybbuk. If you can fathom the logic, do tell.
Last updated: 12:03pm, April 7 2011


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Hi-Tech Mower Slices Grass With Laser
Lawn mowers have come a long way since Percy Thrower's push-along boneshakers...you can now relax on one fitted with the Internet!
The ride-on mower looks like something from a James Bond film and even has its own Moonraker-style laser beams.
But the only thing you destroy are blades of grass.
The mower comes complete with leather interior,an on-board computer and even Internet access.
But in reality it's nothing more than a lawn mower!
Built on the chassis of a Mercedes 'Smart' car,it has an revolutionary attachment on the front which literally uses a laser to trim grass to within 1mm of the set cutting height.
Grass level cameras monitor the cut,performed by photons bouning between mirrors,and the grass cuttings are then chopped and dried before being applied back to the lawn where they act as a fertiliser.
The process is virtually noiseless and the Wales-based makers say the laser is specially designed to cut through grass stalks whilst remaining safe for other plants,bushes and anything else which might be exposed to it.
With a 44hp engine,the bright yellow two-seater is approved for use on public roads where it can travel at motorway speeds.
The built in Internet/intranet access enables you to order and pay for all the materials you need online and "perform other administrative tasks" while simultaneously cutting the grass.


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"It is the responsibility of Islam to embrace the liberties required for citizens of a modern state, and not the other way around." Family Security Matters
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Christopher Hitchens answers Ramadam [Video]
Hitches is right, when Islam first got started it drew from the sources from which it conquered. From Egypt Persia all these great places. And there was its spurt, Muslims look longingly at. But soon it became inward-looking, arrogantly assuming it had all the answers within it ~ shutting out new ideas and closed its shop to progression ~ tragically while its followers imagined that it was still open.
For Islam today ~ seeking a way to repair its ego ~ the west is the new Persia, the new Egypt ~ the newest place where it can claim its advancements as its own.
To Hitchens ~ I would much prefer the Pope ~ than the Mullahs!
Tariq Ramadan's Islamic Dreamland [and its eventual revival / below]
Posted by Cole at 10:48 AM 0 comments Links to this post
ABC: Should America Fear Islam [Video]
Its don't question us about Saudi Arabia. But when we need money for a mosque ~ let's face it Muslims know where to go. That there are churches in Egypt is the biggest joke in the world. Only the President can approve them, and to repair them special permission is needed ~ years of red tape! And this apparently is an improvement.
The Egyptian Azhar University Mosque issued a fatwa [2008] that said for a Muslim to contribute to building a church is a sin and like building a barn for dogs, cats and pigs. Its a legal document.
These guys are not playing ball. Regardless of what the so called moderates in the west are saying. The Islamic world paints a very different picture.
The Egyptian Azhar University Mosque issued a fatwa [2008] that said for a Muslim to contribute to building a church is a sin and like building a barn for dogs, cats and pigs. Its a legal document.
These guys are not playing ball. Regardless of what the so called moderates in the west are saying. The Islamic world paints a very different picture.
The real test ~ would be if there is another Islamic attack ~ would Muslims push for another Ground Zero / cultural center there? That would be testing the limits. But would be in line with the methods used during Islamic conquest.
Stop the Islamization of Europe is a 'Neo-Nazi organization ~ hogwash!! Neo-Nazi ~ support Israel ~ normally these two don't go together. Let's go to Koran 9:29 and discuss how peaceful Islam is ~ along with its regular jizya payments! Leave it to Spencer!! The Jaamat-e-Islami is behind the biggest Muslim organization in the UK ~ the Muslim Council of Britain ~ who openly advocate for Shari'a law.
The body guard ~ comment was out of order. Daisy Khan is speaking to Hirsi Ali as an apostate ~ in other words a traitor. Regardless it shows her level of insensitivity. So 'sensitive' her and her husband are ~ that they had to be taken to court to get rid of the rodents and pests, in the tenement block that they run. Perhaps they should offer to take them to their place. It was only under court order that Imam and Daisy Khan acted / or have been made to act.
Stop the Islamization of Europe is a 'Neo-Nazi organization ~ hogwash!! Neo-Nazi ~ support Israel ~ normally these two don't go together. Let's go to Koran 9:29 and discuss how peaceful Islam is ~ along with its regular jizya payments! Leave it to Spencer!! The Jaamat-e-Islami is behind the biggest Muslim organization in the UK ~ the Muslim Council of Britain ~ who openly advocate for Shari'a law.
The body guard ~ comment was out of order. Daisy Khan is speaking to Hirsi Ali as an apostate ~ in other words a traitor. Regardless it shows her level of insensitivity. So 'sensitive' her and her husband are ~ that they had to be taken to court to get rid of the rodents and pests, in the tenement block that they run. Perhaps they should offer to take them to their place. It was only under court order that Imam and Daisy Khan acted / or have been made to act.
Now its all about American values. When people criticize 'Islam' then its racist. Its hook your buggy up to the nearest thing going. The Daisy Khan couple plan to run the Shari'a Index Project [no doubt] from the Ground Zero Mosque complex, which monitors and promotes the perfect Shari'a around the world. Women are often talked about as the ones who lose the most under Shari'a law, but it is probably the non-Muslims who fair the worst. There is no equality between religions under Islam's laws. Shari'a gives Muslims in all matters. Something that the moderates are comfortable to ignore.
Islam was brought to most Muslims through violence. Almost like the world has never seen. If Daisy khan is from the India region 150 million people were killed to bring 'her' Islam. By her own description she came to Islam through a 'hijacking'. And it is obvious that anything brought to bear with this sort of ferocity ~ could not be questioned. Your life depended on its acceptance. To believe that Islam originated from a peaceful source ~ you would have to ignore significant portions of what the Prophet did and said. And with no acknowledgement of its history or Muhammad's deeds it is being presented anew ~ as something we are wrong not to believe in.
Islam was brought to most Muslims through violence. Almost like the world has never seen. If Daisy khan is from the India region 150 million people were killed to bring 'her' Islam. By her own description she came to Islam through a 'hijacking'. And it is obvious that anything brought to bear with this sort of ferocity ~ could not be questioned. Your life depended on its acceptance. To believe that Islam originated from a peaceful source ~ you would have to ignore significant portions of what the Prophet did and said. And with no acknowledgement of its history or Muhammad's deeds it is being presented anew ~ as something we are wrong not to believe in.
Posted by Cole at 6:41 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Friday, October 8, 2010
Expat Christian Teacher Forced to Flee Maldives, Accused of "Preaching Christianity" After Drawing a Compass For Class
A few days earlier, George, a social studies teacher, had drawn a compass to teach directions to Class VI students. But the students, who knew little English, mistook the drawing to be a cross and thought she was trying to preach Christianity, the source said. The students complained to their parents, who in turn issued a warning to the school.
Imagine when they get to graphs ~ now class this is a graph and this is called the x-axis and this is the y-axis ~ liar ~ no its not ~ you're preaching Christianity!!
You wonder how it is that small children could get so upset about Christianity or anything that might resemble it. The Maldives allows no Christian or otherwise non-Muslim citizens. If you leave Islam ~ you have to leave The Island. But also, right's group Forum 18, has reported that calling someone a Christian in the Maldives has become an extremely derogatory term. Children have a way of picking all the worst words! And 'Christian' happens to be one of them in the Maldives. But with all seriousness Islamophobia in the west, is the real problem! And climate change ~ Maldives President ~ helps put solar panels on his own home/ palace [a welcomed break from signing repressive laws]!
The new law brought in 2009 which bans the building of churches, also put in place restrictions on what expat non-Muslim teachers can teach. In the Maldives they once closed down the central children's library, to remove all offensive [I mean non-Muslim] books from its shelves, most of which were donated by UNESCO. The Little Jewish Princess was one of the books featured as being successfully removed. It was reopened once the library was cleared.
A string of 1,190 islands in the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka in South Asia, the Maldives is the only country after Saudi Arabia that claims to have a 100 percent Muslim population. As per its constitution, only a Muslim can be a citizen of the country. Importing any literature that contradicts Islam is against the law.
Many of the more than 70,000 expatriate workers in the Maldives are Christian, but they are allowed to practice their faith only inside their respective homes. They cannot even get together for prayer or worship in each other's houses - doing so has resulted in the arrest and deportation of expatriates in the past.
Many in Maldivian society, along with religious and political leaders, believe religious freedom is not healthy for the nation's survival..
Authorities in the Maldives last week had to transport a Christian teacher from India off one of the Islamic nation's islands after Muslim parents of her students threatened to expel her for "preaching Christianity."
On Wednesday night a group of angry Muslim parents stormed the government school on the island of Foakaindhoo, in Shaviyani Atoll, accusing Geethamma George of drawing a cross in her class, a source at Foakaindhoo School told Compass.
"There were only 10 teachers to defend Geethamma George when a huge crowd gathered outside the school," the source said by telephone. "Numerous local residents of the island also joined the parents' protest."
The school administration promptly sought the help of officials from the education ministry.
"Fearing that the teacher would be physically attacked, the officials took her out of the island right away," the source said. "She will never be able to come back to the island, and nor is she willing to do so. She will be given a job in another island.
Posted by Cole at 6:17 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Afghans find tons of explosive devices transferred from Iran - Iran dismisses report
Authorities in southwestern Afghanistan have seized 19 tons of explosive devices that had been transferred across the border from Iran, police said.
Nimruz Police Chief Abdul Jabar Purdel said a suspect was detained. Nimruz province, in Afghanistan's southwestern corner, borders Iran and Pakistan
The devices had been placed in 337 boxes inside a 40-foot shipping container transferred from Iran over a bridge linking Afghanistan and Iran, he said.
Nimruz Police Chief Abdul Jabar Purdel said a suspect was detained. Nimruz province, in Afghanistan's southwestern corner, borders Iran and Pakistan
The devices had been placed in 337 boxes inside a 40-foot shipping container transferred from Iran over a bridge linking Afghanistan and Iran, he said.
Posted by Cole at 4:23 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Saudi-Arabia-money-for-yet-another-mosque-in-the-west: 12 Filipino church goers, accused of proselytizing, get conditional release
|All that money for mosques around the world - but not one red cent for a church so foreign workers, in their own country, can worship in without harassment from the Islamo-cops.
Manila (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Saudi authorities have conditionally released the Catholic Filipino migrant worker arrested on 1 October in Riyadh along with 11 other compatriots - released Oct. 3 -, while attending a Mass along with 150 foreigners celebrated by a French priest. At present, the 12 Filipinos have been entrusted to their employers and representatives of the embassy in Manila in Saudi Arabia are negotiating with the authorities for their repatriation. The fate of the others present at the Catholic mass remains unknown.
According Exxedin H. Tago, charge d'affaires of the Philippines Embassy the 12 are not yet completely out of danger. "It is still unclear - he says - if their case was closed. They were accused of proselytizing and if the authorities deem them guilty they could return to jail".
Saudi Arabia forbids the construction of churches, and other non-Muslim temples, the wearing of religious symbols, or hanging of images in homes. The religious police (Muttawa) has tightened controls to impose these laws. Only rarely does the government allow the celebration of Mass in private. The availability of work, however, continues to attract migrants who put up with terrible working conditions, the risk of forced conversions and sexual abuse.
In early September, a Filipino nurse employed at the Kharja Hospital died in hospital after being raped and left dying in the desert by her rapists. Two weeks later, again in Riyadh, three nurses in the National Guard Hospital were abducted and raped while returning from work and are now in serious condition.
A total of 8 million foreigners live and work in the kingdom. According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) from 2007 to 2008, migration to the Middle East has seen an increase of 29.5%.
Posted by Cole at 3:26 PM 2 comments Links to this post
Muslim militia attacks Ethiopian Christians
|Ethiopian Christian pilgrims hold candles during an Ethiopian Orthodox ceremony of the 'Holy Fire' at the Dir Al-Sultan Church held on the roof of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City on April 03.2010
Islam could never take Ethiopia ~ but that is difficult for some Ethiopian Muslims who feel that other Muslims should not be allowed to leave the religion.
Christians in a remote western Ethiopian village have fallen victim to another vicious attack.
25 Muslims recently burned down ten homes and left 80 Christians in Jimma homeless. Since then, they have been prevented from rebuilding their homes and are forced to live under trees. But Jonathan Racho, regional manager for Africa at International Christian Concern (ICC), tells OneNewsNow the episode gets more shocking than that.
"The attackers were led by a local government militia. They set fire to Christians' barns, killing their animals and destroying their harvest," he reports.
The attackers also celebrated by singing near the burned homes. Since the area is largely populated by Muslims, Racho explains the Christians were harassed because they broke two Muslim rules: "Most of the Christians are converts from Islam, and there have been evangelism activities going on there." That means individuals are not allowed to convert from Islam. But if they do, they are not supposed to try to and convert others.
Aside from burning the Christians' homes, Muslim leaders also "told the Christians that if they inform anyone about this incident, then they are going to burn the Christians alive," Racho adds.
So to keep them from exposing the incident, the attackers trapped the Christians in their village for 16 days. They were freed only after one Christian escaped and informed district officials.
Muslim militia attacks Ethiopian Christians (OneNewsNow.com)
Posted by Cole at 3:07 PM 0 comments Links to this post
9/11 link to militant in Europe terror alert [Video]
HAMBURG, Germany (AP)— The Islamic militant whose disclosures under U.S. interrogation in Afghanistan triggered Europe's terror alert is an old friend of a man convicted in the 9/11 attacks and, as the strikes were being planned, frequented the same mosque where the Hamburg-based plotters often met, officials say.
Hamburg security officials in August shuttered the Taiba mosque, known until two years ago as al-Quds, because of fears it was becoming a magnet for homegrown extremists who, unlike foreigners, could not be expelled from the country.
Ahmad Wali Siddiqui, a 36-year-old German of Afghan descent arrested by the U.S. military in July in Afghanistan, has emerged as the latest link between Germany and al-Qaida's worldwide terror campaign. Siddiqui is believed to have been part of the Hamburg militant scene that also included key 9/11 plotters.
Intelligence officials say he was a friend of Mounir el Motassadeq, who was convicted by a German court in 2006 of being an accessory to the murder of the 246 passengers and crew on the four jetliners used in the 2001 terrorist attacks, and also frequented the al-Quds mosque.
Posted by Cole at 2:23 PM 0 comments Links to this post
A View From Israel: Madman or prophet?
|A muslim reads the Koran during Friday prayers at the 'Centrum Moschee Hamburg' (Central Mosque) in the northern German town of Hamburg October 8, 2010
Meanwhile, Western governments will need to focus not on banning the Koran entirely, but rather, on thwarting those extremists who selectively use parts of it to incite to violence. Those who fight against radical Islam cannot sit in the dock while radical provocateurs remain in the viewers' gallery.
Most would not even admit there are violent verses in the Koran in which to draw upon. The Dutch court case for one is based on not whether these violent verses exist, but that Wilders is simply being hateful and whether Muslims have become offended by hearing it. By hearing their own words, their own scripture played back to them.
To defend the Islam of today is to defend a dual system. While Muslims discriminate, segregate and marginalize non-Muslims in the name of Shari'a ~ the religion of Islam is being marketed as one of tolerance and peaceful co-existence. And if we don't say how good it is that Saudi doesn't have churches, or how good it is that Egypt and Pakistan don't offer the same rights and protections to their non-Muslims citizens, and how good it is that the Maldives now allows no churches [from last year], temples.., and no non-Muslim citizens [from 2 years ago] ~ then we are called hateful. But this duality is a part of an expansionist view ~ with the aim to make us the new Dhimmis or to force us to take the position of Muslim as to avoid the degrading status. Here is Islam's peace. Its ultimate aim must be to have no one else to degrade or subjugate ~ if and when Islam conquers the world. But for now ~ that's just God's will!
Some call him "flamboyant and extremist," while others regard him as the "second best politician" in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders, the controversial leader of the Dutch "Party for Freedom," which became the third most dominant political party in the June 9 elections, is on trial for allegedly inciting racial hatred against Muslims.
Wilders has repeatedly called for the Koran to be banned, comparing it to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, and faces a hefty fine or a maximum of one year and three months imprisonment if convicted by the Amsterdam court.
The Koran may feature incendiary messages and calls for bloody murder in numerous verses, his critics say, but Wilders' approach that all of Islam is radical and violent is flawed. Rather, it is the extremists who selectively choose the Koran verses that fit their worldview, while blatantly ignoring the nonviolent passages that call for harmony and conciliation.
Here are just a few examples – offensive and conciliatory – from among a multitude of each nature found throughout the Koran: Sura 47, 4 cries, "When ye encounter the infidels, strike off their heads till ye have made a great slaughter among them..." And Sura 25, 54 demands, "Give not way therefore to the infidels, but by means of this Koran strive against them with a mighty strife."
But Sura 60, 8 clearly confirms "God doth not forbid you to deal with kindness and fairness toward those who have not made war upon you on account of your religion..." The Koran further emphasizes in Sura 8, 63: "And if they lean to peace, lean thou also to it..."
Clearly, the text is extremely offensive to infidels (whoever they may be) but at the same time calls on Muslims to value and respect them.
Posted by Cole at 11:45 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Vatican Synod Mulls Middle East Christian Exodus
|Pope Benedict XVI, celebrates a Mass at the Church of the Holy Cross in Nicosia, Cyprus, Saturday, June 5, 2010
Great article. The Egyptian Church alone, is weak for example. But if the Middle Eastern churches come together, with churches around the world, including Western support ~ then they will have a stronger voice for more rights and freedoms ~ basic protections under the law ~ which are for the most part only offered to Muslims. To get over any sort of lingering western guilt whatever that is ~ and start dealing with the situation on the ground.
"The whole discussion of the civic duty of the Christian ... is totally new for the region as a whole. For 13 centuries, Christians in the Middle East have been made to live in a kind of socio-economic ghetto," he told Reuters Television in Rome.
And with support ~ others can more easily add their voice. We should say religious Apartheid is simply unacceptable in the modern world. And religious laws cannot be used as a justification, to deny others basic rights.
PARIS (Reuters) -- With Christianity dwindling in its Middle Eastern birthplace, Pope Benedict has convened Catholic bishops from the region to debate how to save its minority communities and promote harmony with their Muslim neighbours.
For two weeks starting on Sunday, the bishops will discuss problems for the faithful ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and strife in Iraq to radical Islamism, economic crisis and the divisions among the region's many Christian churches.
They come from local churches affiliated with the Vatican, but the relentless exodus of all Christians -- Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants -- has prompted them to take a broad look at the challenges facing all followers of Jesus there.
While conditions for Christians vary from country to country, the overall picture is dramatic. Christians made up around 20 percent of the region's population a century ago, but now account for about five percent and falling.
"If this phenomenon continues, Christianity in the Middle East will disappear," said Rev. Samir Khalil Samir, a Beirut-based Egyptian Jesuit who helped draw up the working documents for the October 10-24 synod at the Vatican.
"This is not an unreal hypothesis -- Turkey went from 20 percent Christian in the early 20th century to 0.2 percent now," he told journalists in Paris. The Christian exodus since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion "could bleed the Church in Iraq dry."
Posted by Cole at 5:03 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Dutch queen approves coalition backed by anti-Islam party
|Dutch Queen Beatrix officially opens the new parliamentary year with a speech outlining the caretaker government's plan and budget policies for 2011 in the 13th century "Hall of Knights" in The Hague September 21, 2010.
The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix has given the go-ahead for Liberal party leader Mark Rutte to form a cabinet. The minority government, relying on an anti-Islam party for support, is not expected to last a full term.
The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix has asked the leader of the liberal WD party, Mark Rutte, to form a government following months of coalition negotiations.
Rutte is to lead a center-right coalition with the country's Christian Democrat party (CDA), which will rely on the anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) for parliamentary support.
"Her Majesty the Queen met Mr Rutte at her palace this evening," the Dutch government's communication service said early on Friday. "The Queen asked him ... to form a cabinet as soon as possible."
According to the coalition deal agreed last week, the PVV is to remain outside of government.
However, the party, which is led by controversial politician Geert Wilders, has agreed to back coalition legislation in exchange for a say in policy making.
Wilders last week said that the government accord would result in a ban of face-covering veils such as the burqa - and a halving of immigration.
An official appointed by the queen approved the government deal on Thursday, saying that the cabinet would be able to rely on "fruitful cooperation" from the legislature.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Dutch queen asks Liberal leader to form cabinet
Reuters) - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on Thursday asked Liberal leader Mark Rutte to form a cabinet, the Dutch news agency ANP reported.
Rutte will head a centre-right coalition with the Christian Democrat party, supported in parliament by the anti-Islam Freedom Party of Geert Wilders.
It will be the first post-war minority government and Rutte will be the first Liberal prime minister since 1918.
The government aims to cut the budget by 18 billion euros ($25 billion) and get the state deficit to within European Union limits by 2013. It also aims to ban face-covering veils such as the burqa and to make immigration rules stricter.
Political analysts see only a small chance of this government serving a full four-year term.
Rutte will head a centre-right coalition with the Christian Democrat party, supported in parliament by the anti-Islam Freedom Party of Geert Wilders.
It will be the first post-war minority government and Rutte will be the first Liberal prime minister since 1918.
The government aims to cut the budget by 18 billion euros ($25 billion) and get the state deficit to within European Union limits by 2013. It also aims to ban face-covering veils such as the burqa and to make immigration rules stricter.
Political analysts see only a small chance of this government serving a full four-year term.
Posted by Cole at 4:11 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Israel Braces for Ahmadinejad Big Stone-Throwing Adventure
|Workers in a southern suburb of Beirut prepared posters ahead of a visit by Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Lebanon next week.
Hezbollah's television station, Al Manar TV, reports that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hopes to find time during a visit to Lebanon next week to throw a rock at Israel.
The Lebanese channel's report, "Ahmadinejad to Throw Stone Toward the Israeli Enemy," suggests that Iran's president might take part in what for him could be the ultimate photo-op:
During his two-day visit, Ahmadinejad will take part in various events to be held near the Lebanese border with occupied Palestine. In one of those events, an inauguration of a garden, the president is slated to make a symbolic gesture and throw a stone towards the Zionist entity, London-based Arabic-language al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported.On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the State Department had warned the Lebanese government about the risks of the visit by Iran's best-known Holocaust-denier.
Ahmadinejad's busy schedule will also include a visit to south Lebanon, where he will inaugurate an Iranian center in the Maroun al-Ras village where tough battles were fought during the Second Lebanon War.
At a briefing on Tuesday, a State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said, "The issue of the prospective travel of President Ahmadinejad to Lebanon did come up" in a meeting at the United Nations last month between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Lebanon's president, Michel Suleiman. Mr. Crowley said Mrs. Clinton had "expressed our concern about it given that Iran, through its association with groups like Hezbollah, is actively undermining Lebanon's sovereignty. But again, we respect that these are judgments for the Lebanese Government to make."
Asked about the possible stone-throwing, the spokesman added:
I don't normally recommend travel arrangements for President Ahmadinejad. We certainly would hope that Iran would play a constructive role in the region. Throwing stones, whether they're literal or figurative, I would not consider constructive.The Beirut daily An Nahar reported on Wednesday that "embassy sources refused to confirm the Iranian President's trip to southern Lebanon."
According to Ian Black, The Guardian's Middle East editor, "observers in Beirut said one possibility was that he would only visit Iranian-financed reconstruction projects and not go right up to the Israeli border for the stone throwing — on obvious security grounds."
As Mr. Black reported:
Posters welcoming Ahmadinejad in Arabic and Persian have already appeared in the area amid reports that the Iranian leader, with a business delegation in tow, will bring investment, financing for oil exploration and a controversial offer to sell weapons to the Lebanese army.Last week, Aluf Benn, a columnist for Haaretz newspaper, suggested that the advanced warning of Mr. Ahmadinejad's visit to the nation's border should give Israel's government time to prepare an operation to capture him, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that, as he has said in the past, Mr. Ahmadinejad "is preparing a second holocaust against the Jewish people."
Iranian embassy officials in Beirut have refused to confirm details of the southern leg of the trip, but Hezbollah is said to be massing supporters to welcome Ahmadinejad as a hero of the resistance.
NY Times
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France burqa ban passes last legal hurdle
PARIS (AFP)— France's top legal authority Thursday approved a law banning full-face veils in public, the last hurdle for the ban, which aims to protect women's rights but has been criticised as stigmatising Muslims.
The Constitutional Council, which had previously warned that banning the veil may be unconstitutional, said it approved the version of the bill which has been passed by both houses of parliament, after a final review.
It judged however that the ban, due to enter force early next year, would be unenforceable in public places of worship, where it may violate religious freedoms.
"The ban on covering the face in public places cannot constrain the practice of religious freedom in places of worship that are open to the public," the council said in its judgement.
Apart from this, the council "judged that the law conforms to the constitution," it wrote.
The text makes no mention of Islam, but President Nicolas Sarkozy's government promoted the law as a means to protect women from being forced to wear Muslim full-face veils such as the burqa or the niqab.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon immediately hailed the judgement as "an important decision to affirm the values of the Republic with respect for freedom of conscience and religion," in a statement.
Posted by Cole at 11:55 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Bangladesh: 12-year-old girl commits suicide, three hours after being forced into marriage
A 12-year-old girl has committed suicide within three hours of being forced into marriage.
Aduri Begum, of Bakultala village under Kaunia Upazila in Rangpur was a class five student of Udirpar Ananda School.
Aduri's father Anwarul Islam arranged her marriage to Enamul Haque, son of Abdul Jabbar of Nazirdah village, against her will and her other relatives. The wedding took place on Monday night and while the wedding feast was going on, Aduri consumed poison. Kaunia officer-in-charge Krishna Kumar admitted the incident and told that the body had been sent for autopsy.
Upazila Women Affairs Officer Kawsara Parvin said the Upazila Executive Officer rushed to the spot after the locals had informed. But since the marriage was already over, he just the collected a bond from Aduri's father, which stated that Aduri will be handed over after she turns 18.
Aduri Begum, of Bakultala village under Kaunia Upazila in Rangpur was a class five student of Udirpar Ananda School.
Aduri's father Anwarul Islam arranged her marriage to Enamul Haque, son of Abdul Jabbar of Nazirdah village, against her will and her other relatives. The wedding took place on Monday night and while the wedding feast was going on, Aduri consumed poison. Kaunia officer-in-charge Krishna Kumar admitted the incident and told that the body had been sent for autopsy.
Upazila Women Affairs Officer Kawsara Parvin said the Upazila Executive Officer rushed to the spot after the locals had informed. But since the marriage was already over, he just the collected a bond from Aduri's father, which stated that Aduri will be handed over after she turns 18.
Posted by Cole at 11:37 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Algeria: '500 Al-Qaeda offspring born in northern mountains'
Let's hope the best for these children most of whom, reportedly have been abandoned by their fathers.
Algiers, 4 Oct. (AKI) - Some 500 children have been born to Al-Qaeda militants in the mountains of northern Algeria, according to the head of the country's national reconciliation commission, Marwan Azzi
The children are aged between five and 15 were born to militants hiding out in Algeria's rugged and mountainous Kabylie region, according to Azzi.
"Our commission has received 100 files on these cases and so far we have managed to get 37 couples to marry in order to legitimise children born out in the mountains," Azzi was cited as telling pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi.
In the 1990s, the children's parents first fought for the feared Algerian Islamist armed group GIA, then for the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
The GSPC in 2007 aligned itself with Al-Qaeda to form the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Many of the children's fathers have now laid down their arms handed themselves in to Algeria's authorities, taking advantage of a government amnesty, Azzi said.
Algiers, 4 Oct. (AKI) - Some 500 children have been born to Al-Qaeda militants in the mountains of northern Algeria, according to the head of the country's national reconciliation commission, Marwan Azzi
The children are aged between five and 15 were born to militants hiding out in Algeria's rugged and mountainous Kabylie region, according to Azzi.
"Our commission has received 100 files on these cases and so far we have managed to get 37 couples to marry in order to legitimise children born out in the mountains," Azzi was cited as telling pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi.
In the 1990s, the children's parents first fought for the feared Algerian Islamist armed group GIA, then for the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
The GSPC in 2007 aligned itself with Al-Qaeda to form the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Many of the children's fathers have now laid down their arms handed themselves in to Algeria's authorities, taking advantage of a government amnesty, Azzi said.
Posted by Cole at 10:59 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Yemen: Al-Qaeda operatives have killed '50 security agents'
|Policemen stop cars near the British embassy in Sanaa after a rocket attack targeted a vehicle carrying the deputy chief of the British mission in Yemen October 6, 2010
Sanaa, 7 Oct. (AKI) - Fifty high-ranking security agents have been killed by Al-Qaeda insurgents so far this year, according to Yemeni web site Barakish, which cited an unnamed interior ministry source.
The source confirmed that Al-Qaeda was behind Wednesday's rocket attack on a convoy that failed to harm Britain's number-two diplomat in Yemen.
Also on Wednesday, a Yemeni security guard shot dead a Frenchman contracted to the Austrian oil and gas company OMV, the company said.
A British national was also injured in the attack outside the capital and taken to hospital.
Armed militants on Sunday bombed the residence of Yemeni prime minister Mohammad Ali Majur. The attack caused little damage and no injuries, while the militants escaped, according to the report by Arabic website Elaph.
The violence has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the interim government's US-backed campaign against Al-Qaeda militants. The militants who have found a haven in parts of the rugged, mountainous country where the central government's control is weak.
Yemen currently faces two insurgencies. Since 2005 separatist rebels in the north known as the Al-Houthis have been fighting government forces, while Al-Qaeda and tribal militants have launched a series of attacks in the south.
Posted by Cole at 10:50 AM 0 comments Links to this post
10 killed in bombings at Muslim Sufi shrine in Pakistan
Reporting from Islamabad — Two suicide bombers attacked crowds of Pakistanis visiting a Sufi Muslim shrine in the country's largest city, Karachi, Thursday night, killing at least 10 people and wounding 65 others in an attack that reminded the nation of extremists' ability to strike virtually at will.
The blasts appeared to be timed to coincide with when crowds are largest at a shrine for Abdullah Shah Ghazi, a revered 8th-century saint of the Sufi doctrine of Islam. The shrine sees its biggest crowds on Thursday nights and draws people from throughout Karachi and the rest of Sindh province.
Television footage showed grisly images of pools of blood on the shrine's concrete and wailing children in bloodied tunics being rushed to local hospitals.
President Asif Ali Zardari, who was in Karachi on Thursday, condemned the attack.
"The relentless attacks on ordinary Pakistani citizens by those who want to impose an extremist mindset and lifestyle upon our country will not deter our government," said one of Zardari's top aides, Farahnaz Ispahani. "We remain committed to fighting these murderers and expelling them from our land."
|An injured blast victim child arrives at a hospital in Karachi on October 7, 2010 following two bomb explosions at the entrance of the shrine to Sufi saint Abdullah Shah Ghazi
Posted by Cole at 10:34 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Saudi human rights groups against the marriage between a child bride, 13, and a 50-year-old man
Saudi human rights group seems a contradiction in terms. In any case they are on the job, bravely against the law as laid down by the clerics. Dealing with the issue of child marriages.
The issue of child brides has become a major controversy in Saudi Arabia, pitting supporters of a ban against those who defend it, citing the behaviour of Muhammad himself.
A 12 year old girl died in Yemen while giving birth, as a result of one of these bogus marriages. A 13 year old with a 50 year old man ~ like catching fish in a barrel. Serious disrespect for the child.
It is not enough to say that Muhammad's actions with at least one child, could be attributed to the period, because the Hadiths show he desired to marry another, but died before, the child could reach 5, as she was only two, time in this case was not an excuse. The Mongols, another marauding group with religious overtones, also had rules on marriage, which I am afraid were far more respectable than those of Islam, they would allow their children at 10 to select a mate, from other 10 year olds, usually from a nearby village, and at 15 the two would be united. And Jesus who lived 500 years before Muhammad, it would have been unthinkable, to consummate a relationship with a child. He asked his disciples to allow the children, to come up to him. Never for his own predatory desires.
If you calculate Aisha's age in solar year, rather than lunar, she could very well have been 5 years old ~ when Muhammad brought her into his home.
Riyadh (AsiaNews) – Saudi human rights groups stepped up their fight against child brides. Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission (HRC) announced that it intends to organise a forum on child marriages with relevant government departments. Its goal is to have a law in place that would set a minimum age for marriage.
The initiative comes a few days after Saudi daily Al-Watan reported the marriage between a 13-year-old girl and a 50-year-old man. The child studied at a Qur'anic school in Najran before her father married her off to a retired man despite opposition from her grandfather and other members of the family.
The child's grandfather expressed his disgust over his son, saying that no one in his family is talking to him and they all feel sorry for the child, who he says was clearly brainwashed. By contrast, the father claims that objections from other relatives were simply due to a family dispute.
The marriage contractor, Sheikh Saad Al-Yami, told the media that the girl had accepted the marriage. However, HRC President Bandar Al-Iban called it a "clear violation of this child's rights and humanity at a time when she needs to enjoy the care of her family, her education and her normal life as a child".
The issue of child brides has become a major controversy in Saudi Arabia, pitting supporters of a ban against those who defend it, citing the behaviour of Muhammad himself.
At the beginning of the year, the HRC set up a committee to look into the issue. It has also called on official bodies to set a minimum age of marriage based on studies presented by the childhood committee at the Ministry of Health.
It has also tried to unite society against child marriages, even individual cases, commending the role of the media in bringing into the public domain reports of violation of children's rights.
The issue of child marriages came up again when the Shura Council called on its committee dealing with social affairs, family and youth to study the issue and submit a report to the council for discussion.
Posted by Cole at 9:02 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Hitchens vs. Ramadan: "Is Islam a religion of peace?"
Ramadan believes that in its ideal form, Islam is what allows us to save ourselves from ourselves — that is, from all those human qualities which we abhor. This process, he claimed, is jihad. Ramadan believes that jihad is one of the many terms that Americans and the West misunderstand. At this point, I could not help but be reminded of the defense that Communists give when confronted with the horrors perpetrated in the name of their political philosophy throughout the 20th century. That was not the "real" Communism, they say.
Islam can be compared to Communism ~ because it aims to control all the parts all the time. And it is natural to have a breakdown. Because if you don't have a leader in control, then who controls the parts, Bin Laden, Sheik someone or other or the Saudi King ~ so you get all these people taking islamic law into their own hands and you get this whole controlled mess.
Spookily, being in the Islamic world you do get the feeling that this is a religious Communism. As for the 'real' Islam ~ Muslims in the west seem to hold the key to this ~ they continuously attempt to present this real Islam ~ that exists nowhere in the Islamic world. I think they get a little confused into thinking that islam and humanity are one. Rather than it is that they, most without the freedom not to, act in accordance with the Islamic doctrine or restrictions. Highlight restrictions.
Ramadan believes that in its ideal form, Islam is what allows us to save ourselves from ourselves — that is, from all those human qualities which we abhor.
And this fine note defines the Western society from the Islamic ~ just who decides what we abhor?
For Ramadan for the west to acknowledge Islam as apart of it ~ it should make laws based on ethics ~ ethics decided not by any god of course ~ his god. Out goes individual freedoms, rights based on man made laws ~ drowning 'We the people' ~ and paving the way for a New Egypt at least in theory, where Christians who were once the majority, live as second class citizens, as their religious beliefs are what Muslims abhor.
A few days after author Christopher Hitchens announced to the world that he had an advanced and deadly cancer, the 92nd street YMCA in Manhattan announced that it would be hosting a debate between the pugnacious author and Tariq Ramadan, the infamous Islamist apologist and progeny of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. The pair met to spar over the question: "Is Islam a religion of peace?" I bought my tickets not knowing whether Hitch would be up to the task considering his condition; it was a leap of faith.
The event, which was simulcast to several Jewish community centers in Colorado, Rhode Island, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Chicago was moderated by The New York Times religion correspondent, Laurie Goodstein. The debate was supposed to have taken place over three years ago, but for whatever reason, Dr. Ramadan withdrew. Hitchens, being who he is, attempted to re-stage the canceled encounter by unexpectedly confronting Ramadan at a literary festival in Mantua, Italy later that year. Hitchens asked some very good questions, but the short exchange only whet the appetite for more.
Finally, after much anticipation, the world was treated to a discussion on this consuming question. To add even greater significance, the debate took place at a venue 110 blocks from where the proposed "Ground Zero" mosque may soon be built.
Ms. Goldstein briefly introduced the speakers and even more briefly introduced the rules. It was a rather informal debate with guidelines for times but not strict limits.
Hitchens began by declaring that Islam could not be a religion of peace because there is no such thing as a religion of peace simply by definition. Religion and peace are incompatible because, at its core, religion is a war on reason. Religion, especially Islam, professes to be the vehicle by which humans achieve salvation, but humans also rely on it to think for them. Islam, like any other religion, is a flawed attempt by flawed people to create (or arrive at) a final and a definitive answer to everything. Thus, according to Hitchens, its totality is totalitarian. Not coincidentally, religion's manifestations are often correspondingly totalitarian, and brutally so.
Posted by Cole at 8:13 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Radical Islam has 'outspent, outmanoeuvred, out-strategised' democracies: Blair
|sun sets behind a minaret in the centre of Riyadh March 1, 2008. Home to Islam's holiest cities of Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia regards itself as the guardian of Islam and is often closed off to foreigners
"The practitioners of extremism are small in number. The adherents of the narrative stretch far broader into parts of mainstream thinking," Blair said.
That's true and the narrative did not start with Sept. 11, it has been around for years ~ it is only now that we are hearing it.
We should accept that hostility, takes many forms.
We might perhaps look at a broader picture ~ firstly we are already guilty of being non-Muslim ~ so that whatever can be attributed to this, fact or fiction, adds to the belief that it would be better if the world was an Islamic one.
Going back: I question how they would have attacked India all those years ago ~ on what grounds ~ to gather support, first they would have had to vilify the Hindus and Buddhists. This could be the Islamic way. That the need to fight to bring Shari'a needs firstly justification. This insidious Islamic narrative could be a prelude to this.
The Muslim world already struggles with live and let live ~ if non-Muslim are allowed in any nation ~ they are 'kept' as second class citizens. Perhaps Muslims have been taught to see the world from this perspective. In this sense defeating the narrative may not be possible.
And there is the very poignant Islamic distinction ~ Dar al Islam, the conquered lands or lands of Islam, and Dar al Harb the unconquered lands of war. Clearly the narrative aims to dehumanize those in Dar al Harb ~ western women's rights, western decadence and so on.. are all legitimate targets.
New York, Oct 7(ANI): Radical Islamist extremists have "outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised" democracies around the world, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has claimed.
Speaking in New York to thinktank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Blair said that warnings of 26/11 Mumbai-style terror plots against Europe should remind people that they remained under threat.
He said that it was "absurd" that some people were surprised at how powerful Islamist extremist groups were, given the amount of funding they received and indoctrination they spread.
"Measure, over the years, the paucity of our counter-attack in the name of peaceful coexistence. We have been outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised," The Telegraph quoted Blair, as saying.
The former Prime Minister further called for a 'fresh confrontation' saying that it would be impossible to defeat extremism "without defeating the narrative that nurtures it".
"The practitioners of extremism are small in number. The adherents of the narrative stretch far broader into parts of mainstream thinking," Blair said.
"It is a narrative that now has vast numbers of assembled websites, blogs and organisations," he added. (ANI)
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German Muslims must obey law, not sharia: Merkel
|Muslim men, most of them either Turkish or Arab immigrants, attend midday prayers at the Omar Mosque in the immigrant-heavy district of Kreuzberg on September 21, 2010 in Berlin, Germany
"Now we obviously also have Muslims in Germany. But it's important in regard to Islam that the values represented by Islam must correspond with our constitution," said Merkel.
"What applies here is the constitution, not sharia."
(Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday Muslims must obey the constitution and not sharia law if they want to live in Germany, which is debating the integration of its 4 million-strong Muslim population.
In the furor following a German central banker's blunt comments about Muslims failing to integrate, moderate leaders including President Christian Wulff have urged Germans to accept that " Islam also belongs in Germany."
The debate comes against a backdrop of U.S. and British concerns over the threat of terrorist attacks by militant Islamists living in Germany, with Berlin toning down such fears.
Merkel faces corresponding discussions inside her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) about whether she is conservative enough, and the center-right leader's latest comments seemed directed at those who think Wulff went too far in appeasing the Muslims.
Posted by Cole at 2:02 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Bulgarian Muslims: Anti-Islam Hit Is Interior Minister's PR
|Blagoevgrad Regional Mufti, Aydan Mohamed, demands apologies from Bulgarian authorities over the raid of an Imam's house in southern Bulgaria
The police informs they found a large number of propaganda brochures with radical Islam content, promoting religious hate and change of the Bulgarian constitution while, according to [Imam] Kamber, these were 1 000-years-old Islam books about purity, prayer, marriage and divorce.
The Imam reiterated there is no terrorism in Islam which forbids killing innocent victims...
Bulgarian Imams are staging a national meeting to issue a joint declaration asking the authorities and Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, for official apologies.
The statement was made Thursday in a TV interview by the Blagoevgrad Regional Mufti, Aydan Mohamed in the village of Lazhnitsa, just one day after the Bulgarian National Agency for State Security (DANS), the anti-mafia police, and the Prosecutor's Office carried out a special operation against the alleged illegal Bulgarian branch of the extremist Al Waqf al Islami Foundaton.
The operation stirred strong tensions in Lazhnitsa prompting many of the villagers to gather in front of the raided house of Imam, Mohamed Kamber, as a sign of support.
Kamber told the TV reporter he is outraged and offended and will seek justice after the authorities complete the probe of the seized documents. The police informs they found a large number of propaganda brochures with radical Islam content, promoting religious hate and change of the Bulgarian constitution while, according to Kamber, these were 1 000-years-old Islam books about purity, prayer, marriage and divorce.
Posted by Cole at 1:52 AM 1 comments Links to this post
Large-scale Hit on Radical Islam Launched in Bulgaria
|Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, informs a special operation, aiming at halting the activities of the illegal branch of the radical Muslim Foundation Al Waqf al Islami, has been ongoing for months now
Bulgarian investigators are raiding Wednesday several houses in the Velingrad municipality in the search for extremist Islam propaganda materials, the Prosecutor's Office in the southern city of Pazardzhik informs.
The raids are part of a large-scale police operation launched in Bulgaria aiming at halting the activities of the illegal branch of the radical Muslim Foundation Al Waqf al Islami. The operation is taking place in southern Bulgaria, in the regions of Pazardzhik, Blagoevgrad and Smolyan.
The spokesperson of the Pazardzhik Prosecutor's Office told Darik radio they have started a pre-trial procedure against an alleged leader of a group in 2008-2009, which was plotting a coup in Bulgaria and forceful constitutional changes.
Three operations are taking place in the Smolyan Region, but the Deputy Regional Prosecutor declined offering details over classified information, only confirming the operations aim at locating individuals with ties to the Islamic Foundation.
Al Waqf al Islami has at least 8 addresses in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv, the Chair of the local Mosque Board of Trustees, Ashim Assan says, adding branches of the Foundation abound in southern Bulgaria. According to Assan, Al Waqf al Islami is affiliated with Al Queda and operates in Bulgaria since 1997.
"At the time, thanks to then Prime Minister, Ivan Kostov, and his wife's Foundation "Future for Bulgaria," radical Islam was able to settle in the country. Later, the Three-Way Coalition cabinet provided political cover-up, because Al Waqf al Islami sponsored one of their members – the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS)," Assan stated.
Posted by Cole at 1:48 AM 0 comments Links to this post
North Caucasus: Ingushetia Islamic Militants Announce Moratorium On Killing Police ~ As To Allow Them To Join Their Islamic Struggle
|Police officers stand at a checkpoint near the border with Ingushetia, where a suicide bomber blew himself up near the village of Chermen, on August 17
The statement contains greetings "to all mujaheds of the Caucasus" and calls on Allah "to strengthen our unity."
Ingushetian President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said 400 police officers have been killed in Ingushetia over the past five years
In a statement dated August 29, but posted to the Internet only on October 5, the Ingushetian wing of the North Caucasus insurgency announced a moratorium on killing police officers.
But at the same time, its members conflated with the concept of jihad the ongoing campaign to wrest back from North Ossetia lands considered historically Ingush. They warned that they had already started "working on the Ossetians," whom they brand nonbelievers and Russian stooges.
A 15-minute video clip of the unidentified qadi (Shari'a judge) of the Ingushetian jamaat of the Caucasus Emirate proclaimed three years ago by Doku Umarov reading the statement in Ingush, together with a Russian translation, was posted on October 5 on hunafa.com, the Ingush jamaat website.
The statement argues that it is incumbent on all true believers to wage jihad, and that the Ingush are justified in waging jihad to win back control of their lands, even though fellow Ingush living in North Ossetia may suffer in the process. It appeals to those Ingush to "be patient" and "not to organize [protest] meetings."
The statement then announces the "temporary" moratorium on killing police, "not because we do not have the strength to kill them in their homes, but because we hope that they will reconsider and show understanding for our position." Speaking on October 2 at an antiterror protest meeting in Nazran, Ingushetian President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said 400 police officers have been killed in Ingushetia over the past five years
Posted by Cole at 1:30 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Fighting For Survival In Northern Afghanistan [Video]
Fifty Afghan militiamen are putting their lives on the line to keep the Taliban out of their village. But without support from the government in Kabul, they might be forced to give up their fight. RFE
Posted by Cole at 1:18 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Fuel Tankers For NATO Forces In Afghanistan Torched [Video]
WATCH: Gunmen in Pakistan attacked and set fire to at least a dozen trucks carrying fuel for NATO operations in Afghanistan, killing one man in the fourth such attack in six days. Firemen extinguished the fire, while security forces cordoned off the area in an effort to apprehend the attackers. (Reuters Video)
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the latest arson attack in Pakistan on tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
Police said gunmen attacked and set on fire about a dozen tankers in the southwestern city of Quetta. A truck driver was also killed in the attack.
A police official described the scene of the attack: "Early in the morning at prayer time, two vehicles with armed men arrived here. They first fired in the air. The firing caused a stampede with people running for their lives. Then, one of the vehicles went in and someone threw some substance that set the vehicles on fire."
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Azam Tariq, said the attack was carried out by local militants.
The October 7 assault was the latest in a series of attacks on supply trucks heading for Afghanistan since Pakistan shut a key border crossing to international forces last week.
Tajiks Stopped From Traveling To Iran, Pakistan For Religious Courses At Madrasahs
|Many thousands of Tajiks study at religious schools abroad, including at least 4,000 in madrasahs such as this one in Pakistan
"We have opened our own religious university, and we prepare our mullahs right here," Rahmon said, and implored parents to bring any of their children studying abroad home, "otherwise the majority of them would turn into extremists and terrorists in five, 10 years time."
Dozens of Tajik students, professors, and scholars were taken off a Tehran-bound plane at Dushanbe's airport as they were traveling to Iran on various religious education programs, officials in Dushanbe have said.
Officials removed the group from the plane on September 4, but did not publicly comment on the issue until today. [September 08, 2010]
Education Ministry officials said the authorities had acted because they did not have enough information about the aim of the trip to Iran.
Rajabali Sangov, head of the ministry's department of international relations, told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that the ministry received a vague letter from the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe informing them that 71 Tajik students and professors, among others, were traveling to Iran to undergo short-term educational courses.
He said the letter came only the day before the group was planning to get on a flight to Tehran. Sangov said the ministry found out that none of the group had official permission from the relevant authorities to leave their studies or jobs to go abroad.
"If they were indeed going with educational programs, why didn't they inform the Education Ministry about their plans?" Sangov asked.
"After all, the ministry is in charge of educational matters and projects in Tajikistan. Besides, most of them are students and teachers and they were going away at the beginning of the academic year," he added.
"They should have informed education officials that they were going to be absent for some time. They were to spend one month in Iran, and we don't know what exactly they would study there."
'Bring Them Home'
It's not the first time Tajik officials have stopped students from traveling abroad to study at foreign religious schools.
Late last month, the ministry canceled its earlier decision to send 10 Tajik students to Pakistani madrasahs, citing "technical" reasons and a "lack of clarity" in their learning programs.
The moves came days after President Emomali Rahmon urged parents to remove their children from foreign madrasahs.
During a trip to southern Khatlon province shortly before the new academic year started, Rahmon said foreign madrasah graduates could pose security threats to the country.
"We have opened our own religious university, and we prepare our mullahs right here," Rahmon said, and implored parents to bring any of their children studying abroad home, "otherwise the majority of them would turn into extremists and terrorists in five, 10 years time."
"They don't only study religion there," the president said. "They will come back and create problems for the nation and government."
Religious Renaissance
People in the predominantly Muslim country have attained considerable religious freedom since the collapse of communism nearly two decades ago.
Tens of thousands of mosques have been built, thousands of Muslims have been given an opportunity to perform the hajj pilgrimage each year, and major celebrations in the Islamic calendar have been approved by the government as public holidays.
At least 20 official Islamic madrasahs and an Islamic university operate in the country. In addition, hundreds more students attend religious schools in countries like Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
However, Rahmon's secular government has come under criticism in recent years for restricting Islamic practices.
Security and law enforcement agencies have conducted raids on mosques and private houses to prevent mullahs from running unsanctioned religious classes. Officials have outlawed the Islamic head scarf, or hijab, in schools and public offices.
And this week, Tajikistan's Council of Islamic Ulema, a pro-government independent religious body, urged imams not to call children and students for prayers in mosques.
The council insists its only aim is not to harm school attendance, as some prayers take place during school hours. Yet the call has outraged some imams, who say the authorities are unhappy with the steadily increasing number of children turning up for mosque prayers.
Importing Extremism?
The authorities have repeatedly highlighted the threat of extremism and terrorism posed by graduates of foreign religious schools, notably by those who attend unofficial madrasahs.
Authorities say officially 2,000 Tajiks are studying at foreign madrasahs through educational grants and quotas, and intergovernmental agreements.
But regional media estimate that several thousand more students have been sent privately to foreign religious schools. An estimated 4,000 Tajiks reportedly study in Pakistani madrasahs alone.
Tajikistan's embassy in Islamabad has repeatedly expressed its concern that some of the students have ended up in underground schools run by extremist groups.
Tajikistan has banned a number of religious groups, including the Salafi movement, which the government claims is being run by foreign madrasah graduates with radical ideas.
Many such graduates, however, insist the authorities' fears are baseless.
Dushanbe resident Said Muhammad Ghozi says he studied in a madrasah in Pakistan along with his four brothers in the 1990s. Now his sons and several of his nephews study at the same religious school.
"We didn't study anything remotely radical there," Ghozi said. "Our educational program solely focused on Islam and also on computer studies."
Many others in Tajikistan, however, share the government's concerns.
Abdullo Rahnamo, a Dushanbe-based analyst of religious and social issues, says that unfortunately, there have been real security threats posed by graduates of foreign schools, particularly those who attend underground schools, and promote the ideas of different religious sects upon their return.
Radio Free Europe
Posted by Cole at 12:56 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The Roots Of The Taliban [Audio]
Published 9 September 2010
Click on image to play
In this audio slide show, David Edwards, an anthropology professor who has studied the politics and culture of Afghanistan for 30 years, describes the roots of the Taliban in refugee camps and madrasahs, and explains why he has little hope that its leaders will compromise for peace.
Video link
- Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Posted by Cole at 4:59 PM 1 comments Links to this post
Times Square bomber, took the oath to become a US citizen, but said he did not mean it [Video]
US Muslims vs. Europe's Muslims debate.... there is no difference.
Some get along, some conspire to impose Sharia, while a few attack.
Posted by Cole at 4:13 PM 0 comments Links to this post
UK Muslim fanatics want new opposition leader's head
|Labour Party leader Ed Miliband (R) meets members of the Manchester United academy at the club's Carrington Training Ground
NEW Labour leader Ed Miliband is a top target for Muslim fanatics.
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary issued the chilling warning just days after Miliband became the first Jewish politician to lead the Labour Party.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sunday, the firebrand extremist said "Red Ed" faced being targeted over his views on Israel.
He said last night: "I think he set out his stall when he said the Government should continue their war in Afghanistan and that he supported the state of Israel.
"It's the same old thing – the occupation of Muslim land. What's the difference?
"The whole issue of Israel is something which is in the minds of the Jews, so people will see him as just another person that supports the occupation of Muslim lands. That's maybe a factor in people's minds."
Choudary, 43, also hit out at the Milibands' Jewish origins.
Posted by Cole at 4:00 PM 1 comments Links to this post
France charges man for burning, urinating on Koran, but let's celebrate 'piss on Christ'
Piss Christ
If Muslim continue to insist that all others live under their religious laws ~ we may see similar protests. It is seems that to get around the stumbling block, is to also do the same to the Bible. No one would be charged for defiling a Bible. These laws are for Pakistan. There because a person is non-Muslim and touches the Koran, land themselves 25 years in prison [narrowly escaping the death penalty].
Apparently, its vandalism. Your copy ~ you burnt it!!
Might the blogger be protesting these sorts of things ~ especially the threat of violence used to keep people in line with Islamic laws.
STRASBOURG, Oct 5 (Reuters) - A blogger who filmed himself burning the Koran and urinating on it to put out the flames is to appear in court in eastern France, charged with incitement to religious hatred, legal sources said on Tuesday.
Threats in September by a Florida preacher to hold a high-profile protest burning of the Koran sparked global outrage among Muslims, and triggered violent protests in Afghanistan in which one protester was shot dead.
The book-burning subsequently was cancelled, after U.S. President Barack Obama warned it could endanger lives and act as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda.
In the film, which was posted on the Internet, the 30-year-old blogger from Bischheim near Strasbourg is seen sitting in his living room wearing a devil's mask and tearing pages out of a copy of the Koran to make paper airplanes.
He then throws the airplanes at two upended boxes, arranged to look like the Twin Towers in New York, before burning the book on his balcony and urinating on it.
If Muslim continue to insist that all others live under their religious laws ~ we may see similar protests. It is seems that to get around the stumbling block, is to also do the same to the Bible. No one would be charged for defiling a Bible. These laws are for Pakistan. There because a person is non-Muslim and touches the Koran, land themselves 25 years in prison [narrowly escaping the death penalty].
"He claims full responsibility. He says he's not a right-wing extremist but that in France he can burn the Koran, just as he can burn a Winnie the Pooh book, without worrying about the consequences," Strasbourg deputy prosecutor Gilles Delorme told Reuters.
The Strasbourg blogger gave no explanation for his act, Delorme said, but the incident is the latest in a spate of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim acts of vandalism in the city since the start of the year.
Apparently, its vandalism. Your copy ~ you burnt it!!
The incident comes when the country is already on heightened alert for potential attacks, following the kidnapping last month of five French hostages in Niger by al Qaeda's North African arm and a number of bomb threats across the capital Paris.
Might the blogger be protesting these sorts of things ~ especially the threat of violence used to keep people in line with Islamic laws.
STRASBOURG, Oct 5 (Reuters) - A blogger who filmed himself burning the Koran and urinating on it to put out the flames is to appear in court in eastern France, charged with incitement to religious hatred, legal sources said on Tuesday.
Threats in September by a Florida preacher to hold a high-profile protest burning of the Koran sparked global outrage among Muslims, and triggered violent protests in Afghanistan in which one protester was shot dead.
The book-burning subsequently was cancelled, after U.S. President Barack Obama warned it could endanger lives and act as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda.
In the film, which was posted on the Internet, the 30-year-old blogger from Bischheim near Strasbourg is seen sitting in his living room wearing a devil's mask and tearing pages out of a copy of the Koran to make paper airplanes.
He then throws the airplanes at two upended boxes, arranged to look like the Twin Towers in New York, before burning the book on his balcony and urinating on it.
Posted by Cole at 3:43 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Islamic flag over the White House: Radical Muslims want America ruled by Shariah
It's fair to conclude that this experiment in engagement with Islam has failed.
If the hope is that everyone in America will be Muslim ~ otherwise that the US should fall ~ what can we do?
In the Middle East after prayers ~ there is a prayer for the west's destruction. A year or so back, a leading Saudi cleric said during the Hajj period, Muslims should no longer pray for the destruction of the West/ unbelievers. Doubtful if the word got out.
Islamists say the Koran is destined to rule America. In fact, the Muslim takeover of the White House is not just an unfolding action plan but a directive from Muhammad himself.
In an interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week," British radical Muslim activist Anjem Choudary made clear what he and his Islamist brothers have planned for the West. "We do believe, as Muslims, the East and the West will one day be governed by the Shariah," he said. "Indeed, we believe that one day, the flag of Islam will fly over the White House." He then quoted a hadith, or saying of Muhammad, as related by 10th-century Muslim scholar Al-Tabarani, that "the final hour will not come until Muslims conquer the White House." Another version of the saying goes, "A small portion of Muslims will rise and conquer the White House."
Many Americans believe this conquest is well underway, if not already secretly completed. President Obama was concerned enough about perceptions of his faith to address the question at one of his recent "backyard discussions" in New Mexico. Mr. Obama said he is "a Christian by choice," which may or may not assuage the concerns of those who believe he is a Muslim by birth.
Posted by Cole at 3:18 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Court hears Muslims' complaints against lawmaker
The case is seen as a test of how far a politician can go in speaking negatively about a religion without unlawfully infringing on religious freedom. He has never called for violence.
Unlike Muslims, who regularly call for violence ~ often under cover of reciting the Koran.
But others believe Wilders has crossed the line, for example when he says that "If Muslims want to stay here, they must tear out half the Quran and toss it."
A provocation statement, but there ARE parts of the Koran that call for violence, discrimination and hatred of non-Muslims ~ at times mentioning these target groups by name. It poses a real problem if people think it is true and believe they should act on them.
At Wednesday's hearing, the judges viewed Wilders' short film "Fitna," which juxtaposes Quranic verses with images of terrorist attacks to argue that Islam is an inherently violent religion. Its release in 2008 prompted demonstrations in the Muslim world.
Let's not forget some Muslims were saying that besides the picture of the Prophet, Wilders' Fitna film could have been made by them. Because as they have repeatedly told us they justify acts of violence with passages from the Koran.
Wilders is criticized for talking about immigration ~ but how is this immigration taking place ~ through marriage ~ generation after generation the family reunification right is used to help others immigrate through marriage ~ integration is the last thing on their minds ~ for the majority. Stop the marriage immigration and you will probably see a more integrated group of Muslims in Europe. Because their lives, spouses, children and their minds will be here.
Almost every EU country has revised these marriage allowances ~ Denmark has taken the furthest steps back in 2002. This new Dutch government plans to make a slightly more flexible system ~ similar to Denmark's restrictions. [Flexible: for example, if you are marrying an American or Japanese citizen you would not face the same restriction.]
The multicultural system fell apart ~ because inclusive meant ~ excluding the majority.
AMSTERDAM (AP)— Muslims in the Netherlands say that remarks by politician Geert Wilders have poisoned attitudes toward them, making them feel unwelcome and at risk, according to complaints disclosed at his hate speech trial Wednesday.
"My family and I no longer feel safe in the Netherlands because Mr. Wilders is continually making hateful remarks about Islamic Dutch people," said one complaint read out by the judge. "It's getting scary. ... Soon the kids won't be able to say that they're Muslim or half-Moroccan," wrote the citizen, whose name was not released.
Dozens of similar complaints filed with public prosecutors eventually led them to file charges against Wilders, citing frequent statements he has made comparing Islam to Fascism, calling for a ban on Muslim immigration and for banning the Quran.
Wilders is charged with inciting discrimination and hatred and with insulting a people on religious grounds, punishable with up to a year in jail and a fine.
Posted by Cole at 2:44 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Al Jazeera guest ~ if you hate Islam then you hate Muslims, and what of those who have left Islam? Its a Sir Thomas More situation emerging, but Shari'a law is behind the court [Video]
Probably it would be seen as being too offensive to talk about Muslim treatment of others ~ why look to America for examples ~ when you could look to Egypt or any Muslim country which permits non-Muslim to hold citizenship, Afghanistan has been declared Jew-free and probably Christian free, the Maldives allows no non-Muslim citizens and neither does the God Father Saudi Arabia. Is this not radical? And where Muslim nations do allow their citizens to be non-Muslims they are required to be second class citizens. This is not the radical fringe ~ this is mainstream Islam.
And because they have never been allowed to question these things in the public sphere ~ without thought ~ think it is best for us also.
Posted by Cole at 11:49 AM 1 comments Links to this post
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Northwest NEWS
ebruary 15, 1999
More home & garden
Local dentist takes part in 'Smiles for Life' program
Dentists across the country are kicking off "Smiles for Life," a tooth-whitening campaign that will raise funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Dale Travis, a Woodinville dentist, is taking part in the program again this year. From Feb. 13-Mar. 15, he will provide dental whitening services free of charge in exchange for a charitable contribution to the Smiles for Life Foundation, which in turn will contribute the money to St. Jude Hospital. For more information on "Smiles for Life," call Dr. Travis at 425-483-5959; or you can call in United States or Canada toll-free 877-4 SMILES.
Cottage Lake Auxiliary receives yearly report
During the year 1998, Cottage Lake Auxiliary gave a total of 1,303 hours of volunteer time and $7,572 to Children's Hospital. The money came from sales of quiet books, knit blankets, sweaters, and crochet items. The auxiliary also donated $2,860 to the Telethon and sold calendars. All contributions from Cottage Lake Auxiliary go towards free and partial pay care at the hospital. The sewing group still meets on Mondays, and they welcome visitors who like to draw, color, sew, or just talk. Bring a sandwich. For additional information, call 483-3565.
Exercise classes
The Multiple Sclerosis Association of King County is opening its hydrotherapy and yoga classes to seniors and people with all types of physical disabilities. If you have arthritis, fibromyalgia, muscular dystrophy, are recovering from a stroke, etc., you may benefit from low-impact water exercise or yoga under the guidance of a trained instructor. Hydrotherapy classes are held in the mornings and afternoons at six locations throughout King County. Yoga classes are offered in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and in Bellevue. Call 206-633-2606 for more information.
Local exhibitors take part in Northwest Flower & Garden Show
The 1999 Northwest Flower and Garden Show returns Feb. 17-21 at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle. Northshore participants include Molbak's "A Woodland Sanctuary," designed by Bob Chittock. Another area exhibitor is Linda Fraser of LBL Landscape Group, Inc., also of Woodinville. Her garden is entitled "A Tranquil Garden Room." Other area exhibitors include Woodinville's Cottage Creek Nursery and Little Baja of Washington, and Munro's Nursery and Pacific Topsoil, both of Bothell. For details and ticket prices, call the show hotline at 1-800-229-6311.


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- Table View
- List View
1-900-A-N-Y-T-I-M-Eby Tracy Price-Thompson
From the award-winning, nationally bestselling African-American author Tracy Price-Thompson, a sexy, thrilling new novel featuring a working woman whose obsessive clients are determined to get her all to themselves.Tracy Price-Thompson has been awarded with numerous honors for her steamy, action-packed, and culturally relevant writing. She received a Hurston/Wright Award for her insightful short story, "Other People's Skin" and for her heart-wrenching novel, A Woman's Worth. The Romantic Times Book Club named Knockin' Boots the Best Erotic Romance of 2005. Now Price-Thompson returns with an exciting pageturner sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats. In Untitled, a woman turns to phone sex in order to satisfy some of her most erotic fantasies. Blessed with a silky voice, a kinky wit, and the ability to construct erotic portraits through words, she lulls men into her fantasies and builds a colorful clientele base as a phone sex worker. Her distinctive voice allows her to enthrall her clients with sexual trysts that are limited only by her imagination. But intimate attachments can be formed in many ways, even through a phone line, and to her surprise anonymous sex is not always anonymous. Her sumptuous voice and her phone skills are so captivating that two of her clients become obsessed with meeting her in the flesh. They both relentlessly track her down--one seeking her love, the other seeking her life.
Black Coffeeby Tracy Price-Thompson
"I may be a supersoldier but I sure as hell ain't no Superwoman. Yes, it's true my hand is steady, I have the eye of a marksman, and I can hit a moving target dead center at four hundred meters, but when it comes to making clever love decisions, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. While I look pretty lofty in my spit-shined combat boots and razor-sharp battle dress uniform, like a lot of young sisters from the 'hood, I've taken a few wrong turns down the back alleys of life."Meet Sergeant Sanderella Coffee, who has just completed a three-year overseas tour and is now reporting to a military installation in Virginia. She is a single mother whose goal is to attend the Army's prestigious Officer Candidate School, which will guarantee a better life for her and her children. Sandie meets a man who matches her ambition and determination step for step in the form of Drill Sergeant Romulus Caesar, who literally marches into her life and turns it upside down. They fall in love, and Rom is everything Sandie could want--supportive, confident, self-reliant--but he's also married. Because of the military's tough policy on fraternization and adultery, Sandie could find her carefully orchestrated career slipping away like sand in a breeze.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Chocolate Sangria: A Novelby Tracy Price-Thompson
Juanita Lucas is a young woman living in a housing project in Brooklyn. Although she has a very light complexion, she is proud of her blackness, even as she takes a beating from the very sistahs she tries so hard to emulate. Her only friend, Scooter Morrison, is an upwardly mobile brother who also happens to be young, gifted, and gay. Then a chance encounter with two fine Puerto Rican men changes Juanita's and Scooter's lives in ways they could never have imagined. There is Conan, a hardworking man who wrestles with both his love for Juanita and his guilt over his brother's death; and Jorge, an unscrupulous bad-boy thug who has no problem using what he's got to get what he wants, until he comes dangerously close to getting scorched by his own flames. Fast-paced, suspenseful, and unpredictable, Chocolate Sangria explores the hearts of two lovers who get caught in the great cultural divide-- and the devastating consequences of keeping secrets, telling lies, and betraying those you love.
Gather Together in My Nameby Tracy Price-Thompson
From the nationally bestselling and Hurston/Wright award-winning author Tracy Price-Thompson comes a heartbreaking story of loyalty and love that goes beyond the ultimate sacrifice. Coming of age in the heart of crime-ridden Brooklyn, Shyne Blackwood is one in a set of triplets born into poverty and great tragedy. While his brothers are raised to seek a life of promise, Shyne's path veers early on. A street-seasoned hustler, he becomes known as a liar, a thief, and ultimately, a killer. Personifying many of the negative stereotypes attributed to black men, Shyne is accused and convicted of the brutal murder of a child, and an entire city demands vengeance as he's sent to death row in a cold New York state prison. On the eve of Shyne's execution, five people travel to Quincy Correctional Facility to witness the event. As the clock counts down to midnight, and while everyone has long since abandoned Shyne to his fate, a secret at the heart of this unthinkable crime remains to be discovered. It is a secret that will test the bonds of family, the strength of one man's character, and the redemptive power of a love worth dying for.
Knockin' Bootsby Tracy Price-Thompson
Bestselling author Tracy Price-Thompson returns with another steamy novel, packed with wife swapping, down-low desires, racial self-hatred, and sexual swinging. . . .Kevin Lawson has a secret. This hard-charging army sergeant is drawn to seedy sex dens, adult bookstores, and kinky encounters with multiple partners. To hide his cravings, Kevin uses his wife to solicit bedroom playmates and to indulge his ever-growing fantasies. A preacher's daughter, college graduate, and ex-stripper, "Freak Nasty" Fancy Lawson has done it all and loved every moment of it. But now Fancy must face the truth of her husband's sexual addiction or risk losing the one constant in her ever-changing world.Emile Pinchback is a dark-skinned brotha with issues, especially when it comes to his bootylicious, ghetto-fabulous nubian sistahs. He worships at the feet of the slender, blond-haired Becky Ann. But once he looks past her milky skin and into her heart, his racial stereotypes are blown wide open.Sexy and full of Brooklyn spice, Sparkle Henderson loves on the black-hand side or not at all. Just a whiff of jungle fever can send her flying into a rage, but when she's caught in a web of sexual trickery, she finds love in a strange place and is forced to reexamine her beliefs.With a fresh look at love and lust in uniform, Tracy Price-Thompson's sensual characters come alive in this erotically-charged page-turner of urban life.From the Trade Paperback edition.
My Blue Suede Shoesby Tracy Price-Thompson Taressa Stovall
A powerful collection of novellas by four leading African-American women writers, each tackling the terror of domestic violence.In Other People's Skin, Tracy Price-Thompson and TaRessa Stovall, along with writers Elizabeth Atkins and Desiree Cooper, took on intra-racial prejudice. The second book in their successful Sister4Sister Empowerment Series once again offers hope and healing, this time from the nightmare of abuse. In Desiree Cooper's Breakin' It Down, a highly successful talk show host, haunted by the abandonment and self-loathing she felt as a child, is shocked to find herself inflicting the same abuse she experienced on her seven-year-old daughter. Tracy Price-Thompson's Brotherly Love goes deep into the disturbing relationship between a beautiful, accomplished teenage girl and the seemingly dutiful brother who raised her after their parents' death. TaRessa Stovall's Breakin' Dishes reveals the turmoil behind the scenes of a picture-perfect marriage as an angry wife beats her cheating husband. And in Elizabeth Atkins's The Wrong Side of Mr. Right, an outwardly beaming bride-to-be comes to terms with the inner turmoil brought on by her emotionally abusive fiancé. In all four novellas, redemption and hope appear when a pair of blue suede shoes enters each woman's life, helping her to overcome her challenges and stop the cycle of abuse.A raw, engaging, and enlightening collection from beginning to end, My Blue Suede Shoes is as informative as it is entertaining.
Other People's Skinby Tracy Price-Thompson Taressa Stovall
In Other People's Skin, Tracy Price-Thompson and TaRessa Stovall, along with fellow authors Elizabeth Atkins and Desiree Cooper, take on one of the most controversial topics within the African-American community: the self-hatred caused by intra-racial prejudice and the ongoing obsession with skin tone and hair texture. In other words, the skin/hair thang among black women. It begins with TaRessa Stovall's "My People, My People," in which a successful advertising executive acquires firsthand knowledge of prejudice when her clients insist on using light- rather than dark-skinned models. Next comes Tracy Price-Thompson's award-winning story "Other People's Skin," a tale set in 1970s Louisiana, where a dark-skinned young woman must come to terms with the bigotry of her light-skinned family. "New Birth," by Desiree Cooper reveals the intense roles that money, class, and skin color play in the intra-racial relationship between Catherine, a wealthy, light-skinned lawyer, and Lettie, her dark-skinned house cleaner. Finally, Elizabeth Atkin's "Take It Off" tells the story of a biracial girl who hides her coarse, braided hair from her friends at a mixed-race university in Detroit. Other People's Skin is the most innovative and varied anthology of sisterhood and unity to date. Each novella entertains, challenges, and, most important, offers healing to the reader -- no matter what her race, skin tone, or state of mind.
A Woman's Worthby Tracy Price-Thompson
Bestselling novelist Price-Thompson is back with a compelling novel about a father's love, a mother's shame, and the daughter for whom they're willing to sacrifice everything.
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As the philosophy and science failed in their attempt to provide a comprehensive worldview and meaning in the 20th century, Humanities disciplines restarted discussing the role of religion and spirituality. Nowadays, sociologists are discussing the return of the sacred; Psychiatrists are discussing the role of spirituality in the rehabilitation of psychiatric problems; Philosophers are talking about Post-modernism and new age spirituality.
In this first meeting of the International Conference on Humanities, titled ìThe Spiritual Quest in Humanitiesî we will be discussing the subject with all its aspects. We invite you to join us in this intellectual endeavor of rethinking the ways in which spirituality can contribute to Humanities disciplines.