Merkel: Stand up for Christian Values.

[Danno 1,228]

Merkel urges Germans: stand up for Christian values

(Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans debating Muslim integration to stand up more for Christian values, saying Monday the country suffered not from "too much Islam" but "too little Christianity."

Addressing her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, she said she took the current public debate in Germany on Islam and immigration very seriously. As part of this debate, she said last month that multiculturalism there had utterly failed.

Some of her conservative allies have gone further, calling for an end to immigration from "foreign cultures" -- a reference to Muslim countries like Turkey -- and more pressure on immigrants to integrate into German society.

Merkel told the CDU annual conference in Karlsruhe that the debate about immigration "especially by those of the Muslim faith" was an opportunity for the ruling party to stand up confidently for its convictions.

"We don't have too much Islam, we have too little Christianity. We have too few discussions about the Christian view of mankind," she said to applause from the hall.

Germany needs more public discussion "about the values that guide us (and) about our Judeo-Christian tradition," she said. "We have to stress this again with confidence, then we will also be able to bring about cohesion in our society."

References to the CDU's Christian roots and "Christian view of mankind" are standard in party convention speeches, but the phrases have become more frequent in recent months as Germany has been gripped by a heated debate over Islam and immigration.

DEFINING CULTURAL IDENTITY

The debate began last summer when former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin published a bestselling book arguing that Muslim immigrants were simple-minded welfare spongers who threatened the country's economy and its long-term future.

President Christian Wulff, a Christian Democrat, fueled the controversy last month by saying Islam "belongs to Germany" because of the four million Muslims who now live there.

Merkel has sharpened her rhetoric on immigration in recent weeks while avoiding the toughest tones coming from the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

But her party looks set to pass a resolution Tuesday stressing that German culture has Judeo-Christian roots, an idea that critics say aims to marginalize Islam.

The resolution says Germany's cultural identity is based on the "Christian-Jewish tradition," ancient and Enlightenment philosophy and the nation's historical experience.

"We expect that those who come here respect them and recognize them, while keeping their personal identity," it says.

The term "cultural identity" (Leitkultur) is the CDU's answer to multicultural policies favored by the left-wing opposition, especially the Greens, which Merkel said has failed.

<snip>

http://in.reuters.com/article/idINTRE6AE3K520101115

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_britain_terror_arrests

12 men arrested in suspected UK terrorism plot

LONDON – In the biggest anti-terrorist sweep in Britain in nearly two years, police have arrested a dozen men accused of plotting a large-scale terror attack on targets inside the United Kingdom.

The suspects, who ranged in age from 17 to 28, had been under surveillance for weeks and were believed to have links to Pakistan and Bangladesh, security officials said.

The arrests come amid growing concerns in Europe over terrorism following a suicide bombing in Sweden and reported threats of a terror attack on a European city modeled on the deadly shooting spree in Mumbai, India.

Police swooped in before dawn Monday in coordinated raids on houses in four cities — London, the Welsh city of Cardiff and the English cities of Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent. The officers were unarmed, suggesting any planned attack was not imminent.

The raid, a joint operation by Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 and police, was the largest since April 2009, when 12 men were detained over an alleged al-Qaida bomb plot in the northern city of Manchester.

Counterterrorism officials declined to give more details of the latest alleged plot, saying only that the men had been under surveillance for several weeks. No details were given as to whether explosives or arms were found, and searches were under way in the homes where the arrests took place.

"The operation is in its early stages so we are unable to go into detail at this time," said John Yates, Britain's senior counterterrorism police officer.

Still, he said Monday's raids, involving a dozen suspects across the U.K., indicated they were planning something big.

"This is a large scale, pre-planned and intelligence-led operation involving several forces," Yates said.

Police have up to 28 days to question the suspects before they must be charged or released.

The men are thought to be British nationals with links to Bangladesh and Pakistan, according to a counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Britain is home to large Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.

The arrests were not believed to be part of any planned holiday season attack, said a British security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said the terror suspects arrested in Britain were not threatening U.S. targets.

"As far as I know, we have not yet found any connection between those arrests and any threats to the United States," Napolitano said in an interview with news anchor Diane Sawyer Monday night on "ABC World News."

Iraqi officials claimed last week that captured insurgents believed the Dec. 11 bombing in Stockholm was part of a series of attacks planned for the Christmas season.

Those claims were rejected by both British and German officials, who insisted there are no specific threats to their countries over the holiday period.

In October, the U.S. State Department advised American citizens living or traveling in Europe to be wary amid reports that terrorists were planning a Mumbai-style attack on a European city.

Some of the details of a Mumbai-style plot directed at cities in Britain, France or Germany came from Ahmed Siddiqui, a German citizen of Afghan descent who was captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in July. More than 170 people were killed in the 2008 attack in the Indian city of Mumbai.

A government official downplayed reports that the latest raids were part of larger terror concerns across Europe.

"Although serious, we believe this raid may have been a one-off and not necessarily related to larger European terror plot concerns," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Another government official said other plots being monitored within Britain had threads that linked back to the Europe-wide plot reported in October, but that there were no credible reports of a specific Christmas terror plot.

In the U.S., White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters he did not know of any American connection to Monday's arrests.

Europe has been the target of numerous terror plots by Islamist militants. The deadliest was the 2004 Madrid train bombings, when shrapnel-filled bombs exploded, killing 191 people and wounding about 1,800. A year later, suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in London aboard three subway trains and a bus.

In 2006, U.S. and British intelligence officials thwarted one of the largest plots yet, a plan to explode nearly a dozen trans-Atlantic airliners.

[blahblahbl.. 1]

Go, Merkel!

[Jenn! 918]

welcome blahblahbl.. you found your way to the p&r forum really fast!

[The_Dude 1,142]

welcome blahblahbl.. you found your way to the p&r forum really fast!

Sock puppets usually do.

[Ban Hammer 13,519]

welcome blahblahbl.. you found your way to the p&r forum really fast!

i'm sure eric knows his way around quite well.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

What are the Christian values she has in mind?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

What are the Christian values she has in mind?

Not exactly sure, but I bet they don't include honor killings and/or suicide bombers.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Sofiyya, on 21 December 2010 - 06:13 PM, said:

What are the Christian values she has in mind?

Not exactly sure, but I bet they don't include honor killings and/or suicide bombers.

No?

[Leviticus 21:9] And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the #######, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

[Exodus 21:17] And he that curseth his father, or mother, shall surely be put to death.

[Leviticus 20:9] For every one that curseth his father or mother shall surely be put to death.

Some Christians take their Bible seriously.

Muslim Victim Of Christian Honour Killing Buried Today

Oct.09, 2008

Earlier on in the week I reported on the case of Mariam Atef Khilla an Egyptian Coptic Christian who had converted to Islam three years earlier and married a Muslim man. Her brother Rami Atef Khella tried to convince her unsuccessfully to divorce her Muslim husband . When she refused Rami Atef Khella broke into her Cairo apartment and sprayed his sister and her family with gun-fire.In the resulting carnage Ahmed Saleh, Mariam’s husband was killed.

Ahmed Saleh’s funeral was conducted today and his wife Mariam Atef Khilla and daughter 18-month daughter Nora remain hospitalised in a serious condition:

“Hundreds lined up for the funeral of a Muslim man killed by his Christian brother-in-law, which was held amid tight security Wednesday night.

Security forces shut off the street from both ends and ordered the closure of all the shops lining the funeral’s pathway.

Ahmed Saleh was killed by his wife’s brother Rami Atef Khella, 28, who was angered by his sister’s conversion to Islam three years earlier. Khella also shot his sister, Miriam, 25, and the couple’s 18-month daughter, Nora, who are in critical condition in the hospital.

The shooting occurred in the suburb of Al-Ameriya Tuesday when Khella cut the electricity of Ibrahim Abdulrahman street causing a blackout before descending on the couple’s apartment and opening fire on the family.

Khella was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday morning and confessed to the killing. He stated that his father and uncle did not participate in the actual crime, but it was his uncle, Raafat Khella, who drove him away from the scene after waiting for him in a car at the end of the road.

The accused told police that he had purchased the gun used in the crime after failing to convince his sister to divorce Saleh.

AFP had reported that “Khella had been searching for his sister for about two years, after she left her home province with her Muslim husband and came to Cairo.”

Saleh’s father told Al-Dostour newspaper, “I want justice for my son because he did nothing wrong. All he was guilty of was marrying the woman he loved.”

He added that after his son married Miriam her family threatened to kill them which caused him to report the affair to the state security apparatus, which made Miriam’s family sign an affidavit to not come near her or her husband.” (Source: Daily Egypt News)

Murdered in name of family honour

The Guardian, Thursday 23 June 2005

Faten Habash's father wept as he assured his daughter there would be no more beatings, no more threats to her life and that she was free to marry the man she loved, even if he was a Muslim. All he asked was that Faten return home.

Hassan Habash even gave his word to an emissary from a Bedouin tribe traditionally brought in to mediate in matters of family honour, a commitment regarded as sacrosanct in Palestinian society. But the next weekend, as Faten watched a Boy Scouts parade from the balcony of her Ramallah home, the 22-year-old Christian Palestinian was dragged into the living room and bludgeoned to death with an iron bar. Her father was arrested for the murder.

"He gave me his word she would not be harmed," said Ibrahim Abu Dahouq, the Bedouin mediator. "He was crying and begging her to come home. They were even telling me that for their daughter to leave their house as a bride would be an honour for them. We never believed that love would lead to death in this ugly way." . . .

Faten Habash's murder was unusual because she came from the Christian minority in the Palestinian territories. Her desire to marry a young Muslim, Samer Hamis, so infuriated her family that the couple decided to elope to Jordan.

Faten's father enlisted the family priest to stop his daughter on the grounds that, even though she was 22, all women are legally regarded as minors under the authority of their male relatives. The Palestinian authorities returned Faten to her home where she was beaten and her pelvis broken as she was either thrown from a window or jumped trying to escape. She spent six weeks in hospital. She sought protection under an ancient Bedouin formula for resolving disputes, known as Tanebeh. Abu Dahouq, a lawyer for the Dawakuk tribe, negotiated with the Habash family.

Mr Dahouq said: "Faten believed she had received a guarantee of security." Two days later she was murdered. "This family had no honour, no manners, no ethics," he said. "And the girl was as honourable as could be. All she wanted to do was marry this man she loved. I think the people in her church also have responsibility for this killing. They told this family that their daughter brought shame, so that makes them part of the crime."

The family priest, Father Ibrahim Hijazin, declined to talk about Faten's killing other than to say he called the Palestinian authorities to prevent her from reaching Jordan. But he says other families would have reacted as hers did. "There is no interfaith marriage among Arabs. Catholics here are Christian by faith and Muslim by culture, and in this community it is forbidden for Christians to marry Muslims. It's not good. It's a tribal mentality. I don't accept it, but it is the culture," he said.

The repercussions of Faten Habash's murder are still being felt; the man she loved is in protective custody after threats from the Habash family. . . .

The Bedouin mediator says the Habashes have dishonoured his tribe by breaching the pledge that Faten would not be harmed. "The crime is not against the girl, the crime is against our family," said Mr Abu Dahouq. "Since they have broken their word, we have the right to retaliate. There will be a reaction for betraying their religion and betraying us."

After Faten's murder, several hundred Palestinian women held a vigil in Ramallah to demand an end to honour killings.

The Palestinian women's affairs minister, Zuhaira Kamal, called for a change to the law to allow women over 18 to marry without the consent of a male relative and reform of the old Jordanian legislation that frees the killers after a few months. But MPs have resisted the move.

"They're very traditional there," said Mrs Abu Dayyeh Shamas. "They say these are our traditions, that a man who is in a moment of anger is driven to do these things. It gives a message to the community that you can kill without punishment. We have a lot of complaints from women that their husbands are having affairs. We ask these MPs if they think these women should be allowed to kill their husbands. They can't answer that question." . . .

Edited December 22, 2010 by Sofiyya

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Not exactly sure, but I bet they don't include honor killings and/or suicide bombers.

No Christian terrorists? Meet George Habash, one of many.

Obituary: George Habash

By Crispin Thorold

BBC News, Amman

For decades George Habash was one of the most important Palestinian militant leaders.

In 1967 he founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - at one time the most notorious of the many Palestinian factions.

The group and its leader pioneered the tactic of hijacking aeroplanes, to try to achieve political objectives.

For many years the PFLP was very influential within the PLO, second only to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

George Habash was born into a Christian family in Lydda (present-day Lod) in Palestine around 1926. His family fled their home in 1948, when Israel was founded. Soon afterwards George Habash enrolled at the American University of Beirut where he studied medicine.

'Revolutionary violence'

However, from an early age politics was Dr Habash's passion. He was an Arab nationalist and was active in the "Youth of Vengeance" group, which advocated violent attacks on traditional Arab governments.

Inspired by the pan-Arab message of the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, George Habash believed for many years that unity between Arab states could bring about the "liberation of Palestine".

After Israel's resounding victory against Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the Six Day War in 1967, pan-Arabism appeared to have been destroyed.

Soon afterwards George Habash formed the PFLP. The group's inaugural statement said that, "the only language which the enemy understands is that of revolutionary violence".

Within the year the PFLP had delivered on its threat of violence. In July 1968 the group hijacked an El Al aeroplane en route from Rome to Tel Aviv.

A new tactic in the Palestinian "resistance" had been born.

Internationalisation

Over the next decade the PFLP would carry out some of the defining attacks of the era. These catapulted the Palestinian cause onto the international news agenda, but did not always generate sympathy for the Palestinians.

Many people in Israel and the West thought that George Habash was a terrorist. For many Palestinians and Arabs he was a patriot.

In September 1970 four Western jets were hijacked by the PFLP. Three of them landed at a Jordanian airstrip - an act that triggered a civil war in the country and led to Dr Habash, and the rest of the Palestinian leadership, fleeing Jordan.

From its new base in Lebanon, and later Syria, the PFLP remained an active militant group.

It was also at the forefront of the internationalisation of the tactics of terror. In May 1972 George Habash brought together members of the Irish Republican Army, the Baader Meinhof Group, and the Japanese Red Army for a meeting at a refugee camp in Lebanon.

In the same month members of the PFLP and the Japanese Red Army murdered 26 people at Israel's international airport in Lod.

In 1976 the PFLP and the Baader-Meinhof Gang hijacked an Air France flight bound for Tel Aviv, landing the plane in Entebbe, Uganda. The siege only ended when Israeli commandos stormed the airport.

Opposition to Oslo

George Habash and Yasser Arafat had a long-standing rivalry. The tensions between them are cited as one of the reasons why Dr Habash founded the PFLP.

After the 1970s, Habash was increasingly marginalised

When Fatah, which was led by Yasser Arafat, attempted to build support for the Palestinian cause amongst Arab states in the 1970s, the PFLP turned to Russia and China.

By the 1990s Yasser Arafat was negotiating with the Israelis. The PFLP rejected political compromise with Israel and continued to promise to replace it with a secular, democratic Palestinian state.

George Habash was vehemently against the Oslo Accords that were signed by Yasser Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin in1993.

After Oslo Dr Habash refused to go to the Palestinian territories, even though he was given clearance by Israel to travel there for a meeting in 1996. He believed that if he set foot in the territories he would be legitimizing the Oslo process.

By the time George Habash resigned his leadership of the PFLP in April 2000 the group had been marginalised. The secular Marxist militant group was losing ground to radicals of an altogether different type - Islamist groups like Hamas.

After years of fighting for a Palestinian state George Habash died in the Jordanian capital. Shortly after his death his wife said that he had been watching the latest news from Gaza closely.

"While he was suffering, the doctors used to tell him, you are feeling pain with the people of Gaza", Hilda Habash said.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

BTW, the most prolific suicide bombers on the planet and the inventors of the suicide bomber vest is a Sri Lankan terrorist group called the LTTE aka the Tamil Tigers. Their leader is a Christian.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Sofiyya

[Dan and Judy 614]

Sock puppets usually do.

Hey I learned a new word

I thought lambchop was a sock puppet

but she went baaa baaaa

live and learn

[james&olya 1,121]

BTW, the most prolific suicide bombers on the planet and the inventors of the suicide bomber vest is a Sri Lankan terrorist group called the LTTE aka the Tamil Tigers. Their leader is a Christian.

You would think that hearing facts like these would take the wind out of the sails of some of the haters here. I am starting to see that they really don't care much about facts though. It seems that ideologues, no matter what the ideology, are immune to facts and reason. It is too bad that so much of the news media is becoming dominated by these right wing ideologues. The many weak-minded out there just accept all the BS as fact and cannot be dissuaded because they like justification to continue believing in their ignorant and racist ideas.

For all of you out there that are irritated by Sofiyya's posts, could you at least have the decency to clearly and unambiguously acknowledge that it is the act of terrorism itself that is wrong and that terrorist does NOT equal muslim any more than does terrorist equal christian. You can rail against the 'other' group out there all you want but the only group you have a chance to change is your own. The true patriot is the one that seeks to clean up the problems of his own country so that all within can hold their heads a little higher. Surely we can all agree about that?

[Danno 1,228]

You would think that hearing facts like these would take the wind out of the sails of some of the haters here. I am starting to see that they really don't care much about facts though. It seems that ideologues, no matter what the ideology, are immune to facts and reason. It is too bad that so much of the news media is becoming dominated by these right wing ideologues. The many weak-minded out there just accept all the BS as fact and cannot be dissuaded because they like justification to continue believing in their ignorant and racist ideas.

For all of you out there that are irritated by Sofiyya's posts, could you at least have the decency to clearly and unambiguously acknowledge that it is the act of terrorism itself that is wrong and that terrorist does NOT equal muslim any more than does terrorist equal christian. You can rail against the 'other' group out there all you want but the only group you have a chance to change is your own. The true patriot is the one that seeks to clean up the problems of his own country so that all within can hold their heads a little higher. Surely we can all agree about that?

With all that talk about weak minded people being mislead...

Waddo you say we place a little bet over who gets praise for the next bomb going off... Jesus Or Muhammad?

Ya in?

Didn't think so.

[james&olya 1,121]

With all that talk about weak minded people being mislead...

Waddo you say we place a little bet over who gets praise for the next bomb going off... Jesus Or Muhammad?

Ya in?

Didn't think so.

I don't personally follow either but I don't think that either should be credited/blamed for any bombs. Rather, it is the malevolent among us in every society that soon discover how easy it is to twist religious belief to justify their murderous intent. Too many are weak-minded and all too ready to accept all sorts of obvious BS. I hope you are smart enough not to get sucked into that!