Anti-Semitic incidents on the rise in GermanyAccording to the
Spiegel and many other sources, anti-Semitic incidents and even violence in German schools are on the rise to such an extent that the authorities are worried. Jewish school children are being assaulted and terrorized on their way to school. Many have had to move to Jewish schools. Even regular teachers are being called "Jews" as an insult. The rise in quite clear and remarkable compared to just last year.
The new anti-Semites are not only the traditional extreme right-wing activists. A new phenomena of children of "non-German origin", in other words children of Turkish and Arab origin terrorizing their Jewish counterparts in regular schools has become common-place. Things that were a definite taboo in the post-war German society are being expressed openly by these youngsters.
Politicians don't seem to know what exactly to do. A Member of the Parliament,
Peter Trapp from the Christian Democratic Party submitted an official query about the issue but is still waiting for a reply complaining that this seems to take unusually long. One cannot help but wonder if it would take this long if the perpetrators of the incidents were only right-wing. Might it be that because of the Muslim involvement the issue is considered too sensitive? Are the Germans sitting on a potential pile of dynamite?
Meanwhile police have to escort some harassed children to their classes...
Famous Syrian poet: Islam destroying itselfAli Ahmad Said, known as Adonis, a 2005 candidate for the Nobel Literature Prize, left his native country in the 1950's following political persecution. He lives in Paris working as a writer, literary critic and translator.
Lately Adonis commented on Islam and modernization in various
TV interviews on different
stations translated by
MEMRI. He worries that if Islam takes over and no Western influence is left, in fact nothing will be left. No commerce or culture - only the mosque. He claims that even Arab nationalism is based on religion, and everything in the society has been penetrated by religious thoughts.
Those of us in the West, who don't think any dangers are hidden in Islam not adapting itself to the Western way of life, would do well to listen Adonis's words. After all, they come from within.
Has Jimmy Carter lost it?As he writes in
courant.com, it looks like the answer is a definite yes. The former president comments on his book "Palestine:Peace, not Apartheid" and his reasons for writing it. In the world according to Carter, Palestinians have worse lives than black citizens had during the worst apartheid years of South Africa. Carter conveniently chooces to forget that the Palestinians were granted autonomy, have the right to chooce their own leaders and receive more money from the European Union than any other people has ever received. They choce Hamas, not the Israelis.
According to Carter, roadblocks and other restrictions put on the Palestinian population are bad. He omits to mention that these were only put in place because of the suicide bombers and other terrorists. He forgets to mention that the Palestinian leaders haven't build one single hospital or school with all the financial support they receive. Their only interest is to further fuel the miserable existence of their constituency and hence the Palestinian - Israeli conflict.
Carter worries me because he is influential and because he is quite mainstream.
To not to see the differences between the Israeli restrictions and terrorim; to not see the difference between apartheid and self-preservation; to not to see the differences between an accidental death caused by a soldier or by a cunning terrorist...
Yes, he has lost it.
Algerian author on IslamDr. Kamal Nait-Zerrad of Algerian origin is the professor of Berber civilization at the French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations. He has both written several reference articles and translated parts of Koran.
He recently wrote for an
Algerian-Berber web site about the danger Islam poses to the secular French society. He argues (translation in
MEMRI's
web site) that religion must adapt itself to the modern society and this has not happened in the case of Islam, which is what makes it potentially dangerous.
His contribution is certainly relevant and timely; he calls for Islamic reformers - hopefully they will appear sooner rather than later.
On the virtues of microcreditMicrocredit is a small loan given for the purpose of starting a usually very grass-roots small business. It is a relatively new concept and a huge help for local development in the Third World countries. One of its pioneers, the Bangladeshi "banker"
Muhammad Yunus, will now receive the Nobel Peace Prize for spreading the idea. Whereas it has long been though that development can be achieved by giving alms to the poor, now microcredit challenges this by actually imposing capitalist concepts on the development aid. And it works too.
Myself no fan of capitalism, I have to admit that giving a loan for the poor to start a productive business is much better than giving continuous aid and no work. Every man has the human need to be able to produce and sustain himself. Microcredit is enabling him to do just that with his dignity intact. Small loans are giving power to the people. This is especially important for women. In many cultures it has been impossible for women to start businesses and banks have literally refused to give them loans. Microcredit enables women to run their businesses independently of their husbands and fathers. Studies show that where women run their business, earned income goes to family expenses, not for instance to alcohol.
The Nobel thus goes to the right address...Congratulations to the winner!
Iran's "Holocaust Conference"Iran is organizing a conference next week offering a platform to Holocaust deniers. Despite the anger the plan has caused, the world seems to be powerless to stop it. Iran's president has publicly called the Holocaust a myth.
The organizing of the conference has caused anger especially in Germany where Holocaust denial is a crime. Although some have argued that no debate should be held on the issue since in any case Iran's conference cannot be taken seriously, it is nevetheless distressing that nothing could be done to stop the event from happening.
More on this in
Deutsche Welle.
Egyptian blogger wrongfully arrestedThe organization "Reporters without Borders" recently reported Egypt to be among the worst offenders of freedom of expression. Shortly after the release of this report, the well-known blogger Kareem Amer was arrested. His writing can be viewed at a
reformist web site and his own
blog. Kareem Amer is a reformist and has lately concentrated on the growing problems between the Copt Christian minority and the Muslim majority.
I kindly ask my readers to sign an on-line
petition to release this blogger immediately! The petition has been put up by the
American Islamic Congress and
HAMSA organization.
