Third Night of Ramadan Rioting in Capital of Europe

It looks as if immigrants youths want to turn nightly rioting during the Islamic holy month of ramadan into an annual tradition. Around 8:30pm last night violence erupted again in Brussels, the capital of Europe. The riots centered on the Brussels Marollen quarter and the area near the Midi Train Station, where the international trains from London and Paris arrive. Youths threw stones at passing people and cars, windows of parked cars were smashed, bus shelters were demolished, cars were set ablaze, a youth club was arsoned and a shop was looted. Two molotov cocktails were thrown into St.Peter’s hospital, one of the main hospitals of central Brussels. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fires at the hospital, but youths managed to steal the keys of the fire engine.

During the month of ramadan Muslims are required to fast during the day and are only allowed to eat after sunset. As Esther pointed out “What should be noticed about the riots is that they start after sunset. Besides the fact that they start after dark, it also gives the rioters enough time to break their fast and enjoy the traditional family meal. Sunset is around 7:30pm.” Tuesday’s and Monday’s riots began around 8:30pm.

Last night the police arrested 45 rioters. One of them will be prosecuted for assaulting the owner of a shop. Philippe Close, the chef de cabinet of the Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, said that the authorities would continue their efforts to defuse the situation in a peaceful manner, but he announced that the police will be less complacent in future, “since we cannot tolerate that this [Marollen] neighbourhood falls victim to a problem from outside the neighbourhood.”

The immigrant youths claim that they are upset by the death of Fayçal Chaaban, a 25-year old criminal, in a Brussels prison last Sunday. Yesterday morning the authorities announced they would hold a meeting with the youths to hear their grievances about security in prison, but the meeting, which was due last night, could not take place because of the riots.

The authorities are especially nervous since the Belgian municipal elections are being held on Sunday October 8th. It is likely that the elections will be won by anti-immigrant, “islamophobic” parties. Since ramadan will not be over on October 8th and many immigrants might perceive a victory of the indigenous right (as opposed to their own far-right) as an insult, Muslim indignation over the election results in major cities may spark serious disturbances. According to a poll published today the Vlaams Belang party is set to win 38.6% of the vote in Antwerp (compared to 33,0% in the previous municipal elections six years ago).

-from The Brussels Journal-

Berlin Opera Cancels Mozart Show Featuring Severed Muhammad Head

BERLIN — A leading opera house canceled a 3-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free speech.

In a statement late Monday, the Deutsche Oper said it decided "with great regret" to cancel the production after Berlin security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" because of the scene.

After its premiere in 2003, the production by Hans Neuenfels drew widespread criticism over the scene in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha. The disputed scene is not part of Mozart's original staging of the 225-year-old opera, but was an addition of Neuenfels' production, which was last performed by the company in March 2004.

"We know the consequences of the conflict over the (Muhammad) caricatures," Deutsche Oper said its statement announcing the decision. "We believe that needs to be taken very seriously and hope for your support."

On Tuesday, Deutsche Oper director Kirsten Harms said security officials had recommended, but not ordered, that she either cut the scene or pull the entire production from the 2006-2007 lineup.

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Bush Pledges U.S. Will Stand With Free Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — President Bush welcomed Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House Tuesday ahead of a three-way meeting with Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, whom Karzai says must do more to close extremist schools that teach terror.

Bush said Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants are trying to shut down Karzai's government because they see a threat from democratic institutions. Bush said Afghan forces are working with soldiers from dozens of nations under the NATO banner to make sure that the Taliban can't regroup.

"We've adjusted tactics and we're on the offense to meet the threat and defeat the threat," Bush said in a press conference with the Afghan leader.

"Our country will stand with the free people of Afghanistan," Bush added. "I know there are some in your country who question whether or not America has the will to do the necessary work to help you succeed. We've got that will."


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That is some smoking jacket Karzie is wearing.

Religion of Peace: Exhibit #1977

Afghan women's affairs chief dead

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- Gunmen riding motorcycles shot dead the head of a women's department in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Monday, a security official and a relative said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting of Safia Ama Jan. Taliban insurgents have killed numerous government officials as part of their war against the government and foreign forces supporting it.

Ama Jan was on her way to work, getting into a car outside her house, when the gunmen struck, said her nephew, who identified himself as just Farhad.

"She died on the spot," he told reporters.

Farhad declined to speculate on the identity or motive of the gunmen, except to say: "We had no personal enmity with anyone."

Ama Jan had served as the head of the province's women's affairs department since shortly after U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban in 2001.

A security official said no arrests had been made and an investigation had been launched.

Kandahar was the Taliban's main bastion of support during the 1990s when the militia emerged from Islamic schools on the Pakistani border and swept to power in Kabul.

The province is at the heart of an increasingly vicious Taliban insurgency.

Pope Meets With Muslim Diplomats

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI told Muslim diplomats Monday that "our future" depends on dialogue between Christians and Muslims, an attempt to ease relations strained by his recent remarks about Islam and violence.

The pontiff quoted from his predecessor, John Paul II, who had close relations with the Muslim world, when he described the need for "reciprocity in all fields," including religious freedom. Benedict spoke in French to a roomful of diplomats from 21 countries and the Arab League in his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo in the Alban Hills near Rome.

After his five-minute speech in a salon in the papal palace, Benedict greeted each envoy individually, clasping their hands warmly and chatting for a few moments with every one.

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Massive Anti-Hezbollah Rally Held North of Beirut??

BEIRUT, Lebanon — An anti-Syrian Christian leader dismissed Hezbollah's claims of victory in its war with Israel as tens of thousands of his supporters rallied Sunday in a show of strength that highlighted Lebanon's sharp divisions.

The rally north of Beirut came just two days after a massive gathering by the rival Shiite Muslim Hezbollah that attracted hundreds of thousands. The two sides have been at sharp odds over the future of the Lebanese government since this summer's Israeli-Hezbollah war.

Samir Geagea, a notorious former leader of a Christian militia, scoffed at Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's declaration that his guerrillas achieved "a victory" against Israel.

"I don't feel victory because the majority of the Lebanese people do not feel victory. Rather, they feel that a major catastrophe had befallen them and made their present and future uncertain," he said.

Hezbollah's fight with Israel sent its support soaring among Shiites. But a large sector — particularly among Christians and Sunni Muslims — opposes Hezbollah and resents it for provoking the monthlong fight by capturing two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

The war killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians and left part of the country's infrastructure in ruins, causing billions of dollars in damage to the economy.

Geagea, who served more than a decade in prison on multiple counts of murder dating to the 1975-90 civil war, backs the Western-leaning government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. His party is a member of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon.

Geagea's supporters, waving his pictures and the white, red and green flag of his Lebanese Forces Party, arrived in buses and cars at the shrine of the Virgin Mary in the town of Harissa, about 15 miles north of Beirut.

Addressing his supporters after a mass to commemorate Christian militiamen killed in the civil war, Geagea rejected Nasrallah's vow to keep his weapons, saying the guerrilla group was blocking the establishment of "a strong and capable (Lebanese) state" for which Nasrallah was calling.

"When we find a solution to (the issue of Hezbollah's) weapons, then it will be possible to establish the state as it should be," he said.

Geagea, who backs Hezbollah's disarmament, implicitly accused the Iranian- and Syrian-backed group of running "a state within a state" in south Lebanon.

"How can a state be established while there is a mini-state (within its borders)? How can this state be established while every day arms and ammunitions are smuggled (to Hezbollah) under its (the state's) nose?" he said.

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Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah Appears at 'Victory' Rally

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah made his first public appearance since his group's war with Israel began July 12, taking the stage Friday at a rally by hundreds of thousands of his supporters in Beirut's bombed-out suburbs.

Nasrallah had called the rally to celebrate the "divine and historic victory" over Israel, and supporters packed a lot for an expected speech by the guerrilla leader.

The crowd — waving hundreds of yellow Hezbollah flags — roared as Nasrallah appeared waving to the crowd, flanked by his bodyguards. An announcer said, "The leader has arrived."

Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahhal said Nasrallah would deliver a "landmark historic speech" addressing international calls for his group's disarmament and the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon, which for years has been controlled by the militant group.

The U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended fighting between the guerrillas and Israel on Aug. 14 calls for stripping Hezbollah of its weapons, but Nasrallah has been defiant.



One Shiite woman, Mira Ali, said she came in response to Nasrallah's "religious order." The 42-year-old, wearing a black shirt and pants, waved a Hezbollah flag and said: "We are with him (Nasrallah). I am here to say no to disarming Hezbollah."

Security had been stepped up in Beirut in advance of Nasrallah's arrival. Israel had threatened to kill Nasrallah during its offensive, but an attempt to assassinate him now was considered unlikely since it would risk plunging the region back into conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would not say in comments published Thursday whether Nasrallah remained a target. "There is no reason for me to notify Nasrallah through the media how we will act. We will not give him advance notice. He is holding a victory march because he has lost," Olmert told the Israeli newspaper Maariv.

The rally was being held at a barren 37-acre lot about a mile from the guerrilla group's flattened headquarters. Thousands had arrived at the site from the south by foot, in buses and in cars, chanting Nasrallah's name and waving Lebanese and Hezbollah flags. Members of Christian parties and pro-Syrian groups in northern Lebanon also traveled to the capital to participate.

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Religion of Peace: Exhibit #1976

NABLUS, West Bank — Two West Bank churches were set afire early Sunday as a wave of Muslim anger over comments by Pope Benedict XVI construed as anti-Islam grew throughout the Palestinian areas.

In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, a stone church built 170 years ago was torched before dawn and its entire inside was destroyed, local Christian officials said. In the village of Tubas, a small church was attacked with firebombs and partially burned, Christians said. Neither church is Catholic, the officials said.

On Saturday, Muslims hurled firebombs and opened fire at five churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to protest the pope's comments, sparking concerns of a rift between Palestinian Muslims and Christians.

Christians are believed to number about 50,000 people in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, about 2 percent of the total Palestinian population. Relations are generally good and the Palestinian Authority has made considerable efforts to ensure their political representation, though tensions periodically flare up.

-from-

Noam Must Be Proud

Earlier, Chavez initiated a verbal assault on President Bush, calling him "the devil" during an insult-riddled address to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

"The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, gesturing to where Bush had stood during his speech on Tuesday. "He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world."He later said he was referring to President Bush when he spoke of the devil.

Chavez held up a book by American leftist writer Noam Chomsky "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance" and recommended it to everyone in the General Assembly.

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Israel gets 'sign of life' from captive soldier

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli officials Wednesday said that a "sign of life" had been received from Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants.

The officials did not specify what sort of contact had been made.

Shalit, 19, was kidnapped June 25. Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups took responsibility for his abduction from an Israeli border post near Gaza.

This is good news.

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"Muslims can convert to Christianity here!"

LAUREL
-- "Muslims can convert to Christianity here!" read the sign Monday in front of
the Congregational Church on Laurel Road.

It was an invitation that the church's pastor, K.C. McCay, admitted he didn't expect anyone to accept.

But coming on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it was bound to stir a response.

And it did.

"If church leaders are really interested in saving people, they would find much less offensive ways to do it," said Ahmed Bedier, director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Religious leaders are adding fuel to the fire. It's a shame.

"The group plans on taking photos of the sign to document the incident, as it did in 2003 when a Jacksonville minister posted a sign stating that the Prophet Muhammad advocated violence.

McCay, who has been a pastor at the church for five years, said 9/11 never entered his mind when he placed the message on the road-side marquee. Instead, he was responding to a Texas man, whose name he said he did not remember, who recently called on Christians to convert to Islam.

-from the Herald Tribune-

This Is the Man the Anti-War Crowd Says We Should Have Left In Power

It seems their blind hate for President Bush trumps all. They would rather an entire country suffer under a dictator that has time and time again, kidnapped, murdered and tortured thousands of his own countrymen. I think it sickening that people put politics first, even over what is right. And removing Saddam from power was right, Bush Sr. and Clinton dropped the ball, this should have been done long ago.

A Kurdish villager testified Tuesday that he fled an attack by Saddam Hussein's forces 18 years ago, leaving behind his mother and two sisters. Years later, their identity cards were discovered in a mass grave, he said.

"Congratulations! you are in a cage, Saddam," witness Ghafour Hassan Abdullah said as he stared at the ousted president. Saddam later lashed out at "agents of Iran and Zionism" in the courtroom and vowed to "crush your heads."


"At night, I heard the screaming of women and children," he said. He said he fled to neighboring Iran, but that his mother and two sisters went missing. Years later, their ID cards were found in a mass grave near Hatra, he said.

Abdullah asked rhetorically why the Kurds, a non-Arab minority, was suppressed under the ousted regime.

"Why? Because we are Kurds. Why did all disasters befall on us? Because we are Kurds."

...

Another witness, Kurdish farmer Mahmoud Hama Aziz, said he lost a brother in fighting with Iraqi forces in 1987, months before their village was razed.

"They (Iraqi forces) stole everything in the village, then burned it down," he said in Kurdish, through an Arabic translator.

He said he fled with two friends to the Iranian border, leaving behind a sister-in-law and her five children who later went missing. In 2004, he identified bodies of four of them found in a mass grave in northern Iraq.

...

A third witness, Omar Khudhir Mohammed Amin, 53, said he lost 19 members of his family — including his four brothers and sisters and their children — in the offensive.

"The court in Sulaimaniyah asked for me. I went there and was shown their IDs. They showed me six IDs that belonged to my relatives. I told them I want to visit them, but court officials told me they are in a mass grave in Hatra," he said.

-from Foxnews.com-

I remember Neil K. Lai

Seeking Political Stability

In 1958, Neil K. Lai left Shanghai by himself at the age of 16. His father was dead, and his mother wanted Neil to flee for security to Hong Kong. Their family had been turned upside down by the Communist Party rule that started in 1949. Mr. Lai's father, a former factory owner, had been branded a capitalist. Neil Lai worked for two years in his uncle's tailor shop in Hong Kong before attending night school. He learned English, which landed him a series of relatively well- paying jobs through the mid-1970's. But the sight of Vietnamese boat refugees in the waters around Hong Kong made him realize that the Asian political situation was unstable. So at the age of 34, he came to the United States to study at a community college in Arizona. He transferred to Arizona State University, where he studied accounting a skill that eventually led to his job at the New York State Office of Taxation and Finance. Mr. Lai wanted his two teenage children to maintain straight A's in school. "His experience had told him education is a path to success," said his wife, Yvonne.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 13, 2001.

Hamas, Hezbollah, Their Civilian Shields and an Office Chair

Here's a shot taken from time.com, the photo caption reads:

Thursday, September 7, 2006

A Palestinian militant aims his rifle at Israeli troops during an Israeli army raid in the village of Qabatiya, near the West Bank town of Jenin. Three Palestinians, including a wanted militant, were killed Thursday when Israeli troops raided the West Bank town, Palestinian hospital officials said.

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