Nice pics walaahi - can't wait to go back insha'allah cuz i been a refugee too long - The Hitlerz don't become refugees, they produce refugeezz !

Mr Castro, I guess you heard the news of China becoming the world's 4th largest economy just behind the USA, Japan and Germany. By 2010, the already dead empire, the old USA, will no longer be number #1.

By offering contract to companies other than USA, this may lead to sanctions imposed on Sudan.

Vatican Warns Italian Women Against Muslim Marriages "The experience of recent years leads us as a general rule to advise against or in any case to discourage these marriages," Ruini said (Reuters) Additional Reporting By Ahmed Fathy, IOL Correspondent CAIRO, December 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Vatican cardinals have warned Italian women against tying the knot with the rising numbers of Muslims in Italy, citing what they say cultural and religious diversities. Church officials say that Italy has seen 20,000 marriages in 2005 between Catholic women and Muslims, whose population touches the one million mark, the BBC News Online reported Monday, December 26. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar General of Rome, had said that cultural differences over issues such as the role of women and education of children make it difficult for Catholic women to marry Muslims. "The experience of recent years leads us as a general rule to advise against or in any case to discourage these marriages," he wrote in a document released last month. "Mixed Catholic and Muslim couples who intend to have a family have other difficulties above and beyond those experienced by other couples, when one considers cultural and religious diversity," wrote cardinal Ruini, a conservative thinker close to late Pope John Paul II. Late Pope John Paul II was the first pope in history to pray in a mosque, when he visited Damascus. His successor, Benedict XVI, has insisted that he is also keen to promote religious and cultural dialogue with the Islamic world. Cardinal Ruini also expressed concern at the growing number of Catholic-Muslim marriages, calling it "intrinsically fragile". "According to the Italian statistics office ISTAT, there were more than 19,000 such marriages in Italy last year," he added. Ruini's warning echoed a similar one last year by Vatican cardinal Stephen Hamao, who wrote about what he called the "bitter experiences" that European women have had in marrying Muslims. Fears Commenting on the warning of Catholic-Muslim marriages, an Egyptian Catholic priest said the move comes in response to concerns over the growing numbers of Muslims in Italy. "The warning expresses fears of the Catholic cardinals that Italian women who marry Muslims would later revert to Islam," priest Kristian Van Spen, professor of philosophy, Cairo University, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, December 27. "In addition, they are also concerned that children born to this marriage will also embrace Islam." "This, consequently, will lead to an increase of the number of Muslims in Italy," he stressed. There are an estimated 1.5 million Muslims in Italy, a country of about 58 million people. Many European voices have been warning of the increasing number of Muslims in Europe. Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci warned in her book "La forza della ragione," which translates as The Force of Reason, that Europe is turning into “an Islamic province, an Islamic colony†and that “to believe that a good Islam and a bad Islam exist goes against all reason.†The Egyptian priest cited a number of motives leading to the marriage of the Italian Catholic woman from a Muslim "In addition to the social pressures, the Catholic woman who marries a Muslim does not have the right to inheritance unless she reverts to Islam," he said. He ruled out any dialogue on marriage between Catholics and Muslims as part of the interfaith dialogue. Observers who monitor Europe's Muslim population estimate that several thousands of men and women revert to Islam each year, according to a report by the Christian Science Monitor Tuesday.

Peter Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor PARIS – Mary Fallot looks as unlike a terrorist suspect as one could possibly imagine: a petite and demure white Frenchwoman chatting with friends on a cell-phone, indistinguishable from any other young woman in the café where she sits sipping coffee. And that is exactly why European antiterrorist authorities have their eyes on thousands like her across the continent. NOW, LISTEN: When Mary Fallot converted, her surprised co-workers asked if she had a Muslim boyfriend. Actually, she explained, she was drawn to Islam by the answers it provided. Ms. Fallot is a recent convert to Islam. In the eyes of the police, that makes her potentially dangerous. The death of Muriel Degauque, a Belgian convert who blew herself up in a suicide attack on US troops in Iraq last month, has drawn fresh attention to the rising number of Islamic converts in Europe, most of them women. "The phenomenon is booming, and it worries us," the head of the French domestic intelligence agency, Pascal Mailhos, told the Paris-based newspaper Le Monde in a recent interview. "But we must absolutely avoid lumping everyone together." The difficulty, security experts explain, is that while the police may be alert to possible threats from young men of Middle Eastern origin, they are more relaxed about white European women. Terrorists can use converts who "have added operational benefits in very tight security situations" where they might not attract attention, says Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm. Ms. Fallot, who converted to Islam three years ago after asking herself spiritual questions to which she found no answers in her childhood Catholicism, says she finds the suspicion her new religion attracts "wounding." "For me," she adds, "Islam is a message of love, of tolerance and peace." It is a message that appeals to more and more Europeans as curiosity about Islam has grown since 9/11, say both Muslim and non-Muslim researchers. Although there are no precise figures, observers who monitor Europe's Muslim population estimate that several thousand men and women convert each year. Only a fraction of converts are attracted to radical strands of Islam, they point out, and even fewer are drawn into violence. A handful have been convicted of terrorist offenses, such as Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" and American John Walker Lindh, who was captured in Afghanistan. Admittedly patchy research suggests that more women than men convert, experts say, but that - contrary to popular perception - only a minority do so in order to marry Muslim men. "That used to be the most common way, but recently more [women] are coming out of conviction," says Haifa Jawad, who teaches at Birmingham University in Britain. Though non-Muslim men must convert in order to marry a Muslim woman, she points out, the opposite is not true. Fallot laughs when she is asked whether her love life had anything to do with her decision. "When I told my colleagues at work that I had converted, their first reaction was to ask whether I had a Muslim boyfriend," she recalls. "They couldn't believe I had done it of my own free will." In fact, she explains, she liked the way "Islam demands a closeness to God. Islam is simpler, more rigorous, and it's easier because it is explicit. I was looking for a framework; man needs rules and behavior to follow. Christianity did not give me the same reference points." Those reasons reflect many female converts' thinking, say experts who have studied the phenomenon. "A lot of women are reacting to the moral uncertainties of Western society," says Dr. Jawad. "They like the sense of belonging and caring and sharing that Islam offers." Others are attracted by "a certain idea of womanhood and manhood that Islam offers," suggests Karin van Nieuwkerk, who has studied Dutch women converts. "There is more space for family and motherhood in Islam, and women are not sex objects." At the same time, argues Sarah Joseph, an English convert who founded "Emel," a Muslim lifestyle magazine, "the idea that all women converts are looking for a nice cocooned lifestyle away from the excesses of Western feminism is not exactly accurate." Some converts give their decision a political meaning, says Stefano Allievi, a professor at Padua University in Italy. "Islam offers a spiritualization of politics, the idea of a sacred order," he says. "But that is a very masculine way to understand the world" and rarely appeals to women, he adds. After making their decision, some converts take things slowly, adopting Muslim customs bit by bit: Fallot, for example, does not yet feel ready to wear a head scarf, though she is wearing longer and looser clothes than she used to. Others jump right in, eager for the exoticism of a new religion, and become much more pious than fellow mosque-goers who were born into Islam. Such converts, taking an absolutist approach, appear to be the ones most easily led into extremism. The early stages of a convert's discovery of Islam "can be quite a sensitive time," says Batool al-Toma, who runs the "New Muslims" program at the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, England. "You are not confident of your knowledge, you are a newcomer, and you could be prey to a lot of different people either acting individually or as members of an organization," Ms. Al-Toma explains. A few converts feel "such a huge desire to fit in and be accepted that they are ready to do just about anything," she says. "New converts feel they have to prove themselves," adds Dr. Ranstorp. "Those who seek more extreme ways of proving themselves can become extraordinarily easy prey to manipulation." At the same time, says al-Toma, converts seeking respite in Islam from a troubled past - such as Degauque, who had reportedly drifted in and out of drugs and jobs before converting to Islam - might be persuaded that such an "ultimate action" as a suicide bomb attack offered an opportunity for salvation and forgiveness. "The saddest conclusion" al-Toma draws from Degauque's death in Iraq is that "a woman who set out on the road to inner peace became a victim of people who set out to use and abuse her."

Castro He ended up winning but I've not seen any of those "promises" come true. That explains why majority of Canadians believe politicians lose in touch with the public after they were voted into office. I voted last election for the Liberals for fear of Conservatives coming to power. And that might be my last vote in Canadian politics. Liibaan I won't vote for anybody. No Islamic Party, no vote from me. You never know sxb, Canada might be the first Western country to have an Islamic party.

liberals...i'd rather have them cheat the system and pocket the $$$ then have the conservatives turn canada into a freaking copy of america by makin healthcare and other services private. Under the Liberal watch, brivate health care services are popping up everywhere.

Pro-Islamist words dubbed a 'smear' The incendiary words came flying out of an exuberant, cheering crowd, words exalting the rise of Islamic power in Canadian politics. Now they're being called an election smear that involves Islam and might have lasting repercussions for Muslims who have only recently become active in Canadian politics. The fiery phrases, immediately attributed to Omar Alghabra – the rookie candidate who had just won the Liberal party nomination in Mississauga-Erindale – were soon making the rounds on the Internet, then became the subject of a news release from an outspoken group that seeks to expose radical Islam. "This is a victory for Islam ... Islamic power is extending into Canadian politics," Alghabra was reported to have said. The problem is that Alghabra and others who were there – including outgoing Mississauga MP Carolyn Parrish – insist he didn't say them. A Toronto Star reporter covering the event also heard no such thing. Toronto Star, 23 December 2005 See also Globe & Mail, 21 December 2005 For earlier coverage, see for example here here here and here Posted on Friday, December 23, 2005 by Martin Sullivan in Right Wing, Resisting Islamophobia, Canada | Comments Off Muslim conspiracy to rule world just nonsense "Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld et al have been raising the spectre of a worldwide Islamic rule by a caliph, as envisaged by Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab Zarqawi and other terrorists. The chances of a caliphate coming are zero. But raising its spectre helps keep Americans scared." Haroon Siddiqui in the Toronto Star, 15 December 2005 Posted on Friday, December 16, 2005 by Bob Pitt in Right Wing, USA, Resisting Islamophobia, Canada | Comments Off French problem affects rest of Europe as well "France is proudly mono-cultural, insisting that its residents shed all their identities and 'be French'.... Yet, when facing social problems, the French attribute them to their pluralism. To a lesser degree, Germany and others do the same. 'Multiculturalism has failed, big time', said Angela Merkel, on her way to becoming chancellor. But Germany never had a policy of recognizing all cultures. What it has is an immigrant population that long ago ceased to be only white and Christian. That's what she was complaining about. So was former chancellor Helmut Schmidt, 85, saying of the 2.6 million Turkish Germans, that it had been a big mistake to have let them in. "Immigration was fine until the wretched Muslims came! "A second theme coursing through public debate concerns the adaptability or otherwise of immigrants/Muslims: 'They do not integrate.' 'They do not fit in; they cannot fit in.' 'They live in France but are not of France' (or Germany, Holland, Belgium, etc.). 'They don't consider themselves French' (or German, Dutch, etc.). But it is the French, the Germans and others who deny jobs to Arabs/Turks/Muslims because of who they are, while the latter cry out to be treated as the French/German/Dutch citizens and long-time residents that they are. "This is a neat trick. You won't let them forget their ethnic/religious identity but blame them for keeping it. You won't give them jobs but blame them for not having any. You build barriers to integration but blame them for not integrating. You pursue policies of social and economic segregation that produce poor, crime-riddled ghettoes, but you accuse them of domestic Balkanization." Haroon Siddiqui in the Toronto Star, 13 November 2005 visit: http://www.islamophobia-watch.com

HOW THE ISLAMIC CONGRESS RATES OUR MPS Back in April, the CIC flexed its electoral muscle by issuing what it called "Canada's first election research report card," grading all 301 MPs on their performance in Ottawa over the last four years. They were assessed against a position paper on 10 national and 10 international issues, including, of course, their position toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as defined by the aforesaid CIC. Then it takes some shots, of sorts, at the Martin government: "Current Canadian policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ... is more of the Israel-cannot-do-wrong, and thus is less balanced than under previous administrations." Nonetheless, it reports, 42 Liberal MPs out of a total of 85 MPs get "A" ratings on its report card, including Paul Martin and Cabinet members Bill Graham, Reg Alcock, Ralph Goodale and John McCallum. Joe Volpe and Pierre Pettigrew merit Fs. By contrast, all 14 NDP members get As, while only six Conservatives receive As and 69 Fs, and 23 Bloc MPs get As and one an F. RIDINGS WHERE MUSLIMS HAVE MOST CLOUT According to the extensive CIC research, of the 101 ridings where Muslim voters can cast "swing votes," seven of the top 10 are in the Greater Toronto Area, two in Montreal and one in Ottawa. The riding with the most Muslims, 13.5%, is Don Valley West, Toronto, followed by Don Valley East, 12.5%.

Here is an article from the aftermath of the last election. How the Muslims won the election Islamic Congress takes credit for helping Liberals fend off Tories Gillian Cosgrove Saturday, August 07, 2004 As the pundits are still noting, the big losers in the federal election were the Liberals, who nearly blew it, and the socialists, whose boastful rhetoric did not garner them nearly as many seats as they expected. The winners were the Bloc Quebecois, big time, and the Conservatives, to a more modest degree. But there was another, hitherto unacknowledged, winner: Canada's 700,000-member Muslim community, which now ranks as the second-largest religious bloc in Canada after the Christians and is growing rapidly. On June 28, Muslims delivered the vast majority of their votes to the Liberals, especially in greater Toronto where, led by Colleen "Baghdad" Beaumier, an apologist for the deposed Saddam regime in Iraq, they beat back the upstart Conservatives and NDPers. In this process, Muslim leaders claim, with statistics on their side, Muslims did nothing less than to "save" (at least in their eyes) Canada from the Conservatives. To put it bluntly, Muslims now hold the balance of power in at least 100 ridings. If you doubt all this, check this headline on a post-election "media communique" issued by the Canadian Islamic Congress: Muslim Vote Helps Save Canada from Conservative Government: More than 80 per cent of Eligible Canadian Muslims Voted -- with Liberals the Overwhelming Favourite. According to a CIC exit poll, 71% of Muslims voted Liberal; 23% opted for the NDP; 3% for the Bloc Quebecois, with the remaining 3% spread among the Conservatives, Greens and independent candidates. Dr. Mohamed Elmasry, CIC's national president, finds it significant that 88% of Muslim voters younger than 25 bothered to cast ballots, with more voting for the NDP than usual, and the percentage of Muslim women casting ballots -- eat your heart out Osama bin Laden! -- was slightly higher than that of men. The good doctor sums up the CIC's response to the election result: "It's a very good day for democracy in Canada." Ms. Wahida Valiante, CIC national vice-president, chimes in: "CIC took a leading role to engage Muslims in this election.... But now we must HOLD EVERY MP ACCOUNTABLE TO THE ELECTORATE THAT PUT HIM THERE. The REAL work has just begun." A CIC research document stresses that, FOR THE FIRST TIME, there were more than 100 ridings in Canada "where Muslims hold a significant 'swing vote' of between 1.8% and 13.5%."

Muslims including Somalis traditionally voted for the Liberals, but recent Liberal moves to support Israeli policies in the UN and voting down the establishment of the first Islamic Shariah court in Ontario has raised some questions of the benefits of voting for the Liberals to office. Self elected Muslim organizations including Muslim Canadian Congress wants us to vote for the NDP while the Canadian Islamic Congress want us to shun voting for the Liberals. Will you vote or will you not vote? Globe and Mail - Martin runs risk of losing Muslim vote by John Ibbitson Paul Martin probably thought it would be nothing but a meet-and-greet. Instead, he got bushwhacked. All four federal party leaders attended a reception last night sponsored by the Canadian Arab Federation. For the Liberals, in particular, this was to have been an opportunity to solidify electoral support in the Arab-Canadian community. Fat chance. The Prime Minister sat uncomfortably as Faraj Nakhleh, acting president of CAF, rebuked him for claiming, as he did in a recent speech, that "Israel’s values are Canada’s values." "Canada does not share common values with some countries, like Israel, who break international law and whose human-rights record is clearly questionable," Mr. Nakhleh retorted, before moving on to criticize the Liberal anti-terrorism legislation, in which he said "human rights and civil liberties [have been] bartered to gain no more than a false sense of security." (...) That the Martin government has tilted Canadian policy in a more pro-Israeli direction is beyond debate. Over the past year, Canada has changed its position on three United Nations resolutions criticizing Israeli policy toward Palestinians. The changes reflect a position more supportive of Israel. (...) "We’re seeing a worrying shift," Mr. Nakhleh said yesterday in an interview. "And we’re concerned about it." It needs to be noted that the wording of some of these resolutions is gratuitously anti-Israeli, and that the Martin government has worked successfully in some cases to improve it, making it possible for Canada to vote in support. Nonetheless, politics is perception. The Liberals have always taken the Arab-Canadian and Muslim vote pretty much for granted, because the Conservatives have traditionally been strong supporters of Israel. But the changed UN votes, the anti-terrorism legislation (which many Muslim Canadians fear targets their community), and the notorious government failures that led to the deportation and torture of Maher Arar, have strained that support to the breaking point. (...) It is a political fact of life that Canada’s Jewish community is affluent, organized and influential, while Arab and other Muslim Canadians are generally poorer and more faction-ridden. (...) But Muslim Canadians make up about two per cent of the Canadian population, while Jewish Canadians make up only one per cent. And the trend line is all one way, since Indian, Pakistani and Arab Muslims are major sources of new immigrants. Which suggests a fascinating political question: Will the election of 2006 be the first in which ignoring the Arab and Muslim vote cost the Liberals seats?

Dec. 23, 2005, 7:09PM U.S. about to awaken to a nightmare in Ethiopia Rampant thuggery has ended hopes of democracy By DULA ABDU While the West celebrates the joys of Christmas, Africa's oldest independent nation, Ethiopia, is submerged in apocalyptic violence sponsored by the regime. The Daily Telegraph of London recently described repression of the opposition and the media as exceeding anything in the recent history of the continent of Africa, including that of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the apartheid era of South Africa. According to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, paramilitary units continue to use random searches, beatings, mass arrests and lethal force against peaceful protesters. In Ethiopia, a crime against humanity is unfolding while the world either vacillates or lacks the will to stop it. In the face of threats, escalating violence by government forces - and without the protection of coalition forces - 26 million Ethiopians voted for the candidates of their choice last May. Unfortunately, many if not most of these duly elected representatives are in jail charged with treason, primarily for running in opposition to the regime. The charge is nothing more than an attempt to silence the opposition that won more than 80 percent of the popular vote in May. The regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has launched what the Daily Telegeraph correspondent describes as "a systematic onslaught against the majority of the Ethiopian people," save his Tigrean minority tribe in the north, after the Ethiopian people overwhelmingly rejected his regime in the last election. U.S. policy toward Africa is paradoxical. This country wants Africa's mineral resources and huge market potential, but ignores serious human rights abuses. It harbors dictators like Meles of Ethiopia to the detriment of its long-term interests. These interests include more than 100,000 U.S. jobs and an emerging market of 700 million consumers. The Bush administration's rhetoric about democracy is confined to the sands of Iraq and to the mountains of Afghanistan. In Africa, even the rhetoric for democracy is subdued. Like the Clinton administrations before it, the Bush administration has failed to see that lack of human rights and democracy endanger Africa's economic potential and world stability. Clinton tried to wine and dine Africa's dictators to nudge them to move toward democracy, but he was disappointed. The Bush approach is worse; there is a near-total disregard for human rights and crime against humanity in Africa. Washington's response is lukewarm compared to that in Europe. The lack of a comprehensive global policy to fight terrorism and to foster democracy bedevils U.S. foreign policy, forcing it to turn a blind eye to tremendous crimes against humanity in Darfur, Ethiopia and other places in Africa and Asia. Since the May election Ethiopia - once a stable U.S. ally - has been racked with violence and turmoil. According to European Union research and investigation, the ruling Ethiopian Revolutionary Democratic Front lost the May election but decided to cling to power at any cost. The resulting cost to the Ethiopian people has been tremendous suffering. As random killings, beatings, lootings and mass arrests continue, the country is gripped in fear. The joy of a 90 percent voter turnout last May is turning into a nightmare. To add insult to injury, the independent media have been banned; state-owned television has shown pictures of journalists on the air as criminals wanted for treason for pieces they wrote against the regime's excess and oppressive conditions. So far, 89 people have been shot at point blank range for participating in peaceful street demonstrations and close to 70,000 have been arrested as possible foes and put in remote prisons, where the death toll is mounting. According to the British newspaper The Observer, a number of people have died while in custody of government forces. Ethiopia, with more than 70 million people, has become a prison camp while the world has turned a blind eye. Prior to the recent crackdown and election fraud, Meles was even touted as one of Africa's rising leaders. His nemesis, Isias Afeworki of Eritrea, has also been listed as one of them. The United States recently placed sanctions on Eritrea. Both Isias of Eritrea and Meles were the one-time darlings of Jimmy Carter and other well-known Western leaders. This has given way to inertia in the West in stopping this crime against humanity from unfolding. If left untended, Ethiopia will implode, and the result will be a nightmare for the United States in its efforts to fight terrorism in the region, as well as for U.S. economic interests across Africa. The Bush administration needs to rein in Meles - not only for the sake of human rights, or democracy - but also to preserve its own strategic interest and to stop terrorism from spiraling out of control in the Middle East and in Africa. Abdu, originally from Africa, is a Houston-based writer on foreign policy.

A losing bet in Ethiopia Saturday 24 December 2005. By Mike Clough, the Los Angeles Times Dec 18, 2005 — ETHIOPIA IS edging toward renewed conflict with Eritrea that could result in tens of thousands of deaths and spark a civil war that would claim many more lives. But the Bush administration, a strong supporter of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, appears to have neither the vision nor the will to avert catastrophe. It would not be the first time Africans died because U.S. policymakers failed to recognize the dangers of backing a ruthless, doomed regime. In the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the U.S. supported former President Mobutu Sese Seko’s tyrannical rule almost to its bitter end - and more than 2 million people died in the internal wars that followed. In Liberia, the U.S. looked the other way as Samuel Doe, an illiterate thug without popular support, brutalized his population and stole the 1985 election - and tens of thousands subsequently died. And in Sudan, the U.S. continued to give economic and military aid to then-President Gaafar Nimeiri as he fought a long civil war in which more than 2 million eventually died. In all these cases, U.S. policymakers, despite clear evidence to the contrary, insisted that continued aid and support - and quiet diplomacy - were the best ways to reform a troubled client. Then, when that lie became untenable, the U.S. walked away, leaving Africans to pay the consequences. Ethiopia is not yet Zaire, Liberia or Sudan, but the situation is dangerous because not only is unrest inside Ethiopia growing, military tensions on Ethiopia’s border with Eritrea are increasing. The two countries fought a war in the late 1990s. Meles has been a U.S. client since 1991, when his rebel movement seized power. He is good at talking the language of democracy and development - and even more adept at manipulating Western fears of terrorism. Parliamentary elections held in May were supposed to cement Meles’ claim to be a democratic reformer. Instead, they revealed his lack of national support. According to official tabulations, disputed by opposition parties, Meles’ ruling party won a majority of seats. But as Human Rights Watch reported on the eve of the May elections, Meles squashed political dissent in Oromia, the country’s largest region, thus denying voters there a real choice in the elections. Most experts on Ethiopia believe that if the Oromo Liberation Front, which was forced to leave the country in 1992, had participated, it would have won a majority of votes in the region. That would have left Meles and his party with only a minority of parliamentary seats. Since the elections, there have been two waves of protest in the Ethiopian capital. Both times government forces shot scores of protesters and locked up opposition figures. The government is now planning to put opposition leaders who have refused to take their parliamentary seats on trial for treason. It has also arrested many independent journalists. There are also reports of growing restiveness in the countryside, especially in Oromia. Meles will be unable to maintain his monopoly on political power. His base, the Tigrean ethnic community, makes up less than 10% of the population. As the demand for democratization grows, he will have to either share power or increase repression. Given that most Ethiopian soldiers are drawn from disaffected ethnic groups, Meles can’t count on security forces to stifle opposition. Eritrea’s intentions complicate the situation. It may decide the moment is right to launch a war to take back disputed territory it lost in the last war. In the past, Meles has wagged the Eritrean dog to rally Ethiopians behind him. But if war breaks out, his opponents might move against him, perhaps causing the Ethiopian army to disintegrate. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s unwillingness to talk to the Ethiopian opposition and pressure Meles to permit real democratization has undercut opposition moderates and greatly increased the prospects of war. After the elections, the Oromo Liberation Front abandoned its sporadic and ineffective struggle against Meles and sought a peaceful accommodation. In October, it asked Rice to support Norwegian efforts to get the negotiations going. But the Bush administration rebuffed its entreaties and instead dispatched a mid-level State Department official to persuade Meles to avoid war with Eritrea and make some internal conciliatory gestures. Washington’s refusal to deal with the Oromo Liberation Front is bewildering. The party is one of the few in the Horn of Africa to bridge the Christian-Muslim divide, and there is a strong democratic tradition in Oromo civil society. It has never adopted terrorism as a tactic. If the Bush administration continues to bet on Meles, it shouldn’t forget that the lives of millions of Africans were lost in the Congo, Liberia and Sudan because of similar misjudgments. /* Michael Clough has worked on U.S. Africa policy for nearly three decades. Most recently, he was the Africa advocacy director for Human Rights Watch./

He is not the president of anyone and as a Somali citizen, I regard him as war criminal and warlord who deserves to be brought to Islamic court to face the reward of the crimes he commited in 1999 civil war in Puntland. Agreed. But would you also support bringing Riyaale to justice for the crimes he commited during his work for the NSS. An organization that is responsible for the murder, torture and rape of many Somali citizens. If making him a president is part of Somaliland's effort to bring different ethnic communities closer together, why is southern Somalia is not allowed to do the same sxb? To tell you the truth sxb, I be very happy to see warlord Yusuf behind bars. Similarly I expect you to do the same if you want to see equal justice to work in Somalia

The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in Egypt's parliament, has echoed Iran's president in describing the Holocaust as a myth. "Western democracy has attacked everyone who does not share the vision of the sons of Zion as far as the myth of the Holocaust is concerned," Mohamed Akef said in a statement on Thursday. Akef cited as evidence of Western intolerance the cases of Roger Garoudy, the writer who was convicted in France in 1998 of questioning the Holocaust, and David Irving, a British historian who faces similar charges in Austria next month. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, caused an international uproar when he said in a speech on 14 December that the Holocaust was a myth. An estimated six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their allies between 1933 and 1945. Last week Mohamed Habib, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood, asked about Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust, said reports of Nazi attempts to wipe out European Jews might have been exaggerated. "We don't have confirmed things to enable us to prove this matter or refute it," he said. "It needs documentation but what one can be sure of is that there were attacks on the Jews but not by means of gas chambers or perhaps not in these numbers or on this scale." But Habib said the debate was irrelevant to the situation of the Palestinians. "What the Jews propagate about there being a Holocaust has nothing to do with the way they treat the Palestinians on the land of Palestine," he said. US democracy Akef, whose group won 88 of the Egyptian parliament's 454 seats in elections in November and December, made his comment in an attack on the assertion by the US that it is promoting democracy in the Middle East. "Western democracy has attacked everyone who does not share the vision of the sons of Zion as far as the myth of the Holocaust is concerned" Mohamed Akef, head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood He said the US campaign was a cover for promoting its own interests and those of the Zionist movement in the region. "American democracy ... steers the world into the American orbit delineated by the sons of Zion, so that everyone must wear the Stars and Stripes hat and keep away from the Zionist foster child," he wrote in his weekly statement. Palestine He accused the US House of Representatives of hypocrisy when it threatened to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if the Islamist movement Hamas takes part in elections in January. He also criticised Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, for saying that Europeans might think twice about aid to the Palestinians if Hamas members were in parliament. Hamas says it is an extension of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928 and which renounced political violence inside Egypt decades ago. Hamas believes in armed struggle to replace Israel with an Islamic state. Reuters

another international joker along the lines of Berlusconi, Putin, Kim Jong Il You might wanna add Bush and Blair to your list of international jokers.

^Real african. Some folks here adore heavy dudettes.

Large eyes and plump lips.

Very helpfull topic for those of us striving to become Entrepreneurs. Good luck friends.

Liibaan sxb, I believe Waxarcade is the direction of Afgooye. Soomaal, thanks for the info. I hope to travel one day from Raascaambooni to Raascaseeyr. Proud to be Somalian.

Dutch MP plans third anti-Islam film 12/16/2005 7:00:00 PM GMT A Somali-born Dutch MP, who collaborated with slain director Theo Van Gogh on an anti-Islamic film, is working on a third instalment of the “Submission†series. "Submission I was about women, the second part will be about men, not only homosexuals ... In the third instalment God himself will answer their questions," Hirsi Ali told German newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer. "That will be the hardest part. Who could play Allah? Also you need actors that are not afraid to take on the job," she added. She had already said that the actors and director involved in the sequels would all remain anonymous. Ali received death threats after her work on Submission I, which claims that Qur’an allows domestic violence against women in Muslim communities. She had co-written Submission II with Van Gogh before he was killed just two months after the film was shown on national TV. Ali is an outspoken critic of Islam and describes herself as a "lapsed" Muslim. Source: BBC

Anyway Juma I have one advice for you mate, go to the nearest mirror to you, and have a deep look on your face,"if you have one", then if you have an aunce of dignity you would not deffend thoes barbaric people you long deffended. If he stops defending "those barbaric people", will you also start a second thread which highlights the crimes commited by the evil dictator Siyad barre, Warlord Yusuf and all the other rebel groups in Somalia. Sxb, I don't think you will gain sympathy by playing the victim card in a society that are all victims. As far as I'm concerned USC is one of the many groups in Somalia that are responsible for much if not all the killings and the destruction in our country.

Desperate cries for attention, Hargeisa style! The above article is an example of the culture of lies thats gaining ground in Hargeisa.

An extraordinary meeting For Muslim leaders to admit Islam is in crisis is a bold move, to act on it would be revolutionary, writes Brian Whitaker Monday December 12, 2005 The opening session of the Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference in Mecca, western Riyadh. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AFP/Getty Leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries met in Saudi Arabia last week for an event billed as "The Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference". The title was quite a mouthful and it failed to set the western media alight with excitement, but the event itself was extraordinary in every sense of the word. Speaker after speaker acknowledged that the Muslim world is beset with challenges on an ever-widening range of issues. It is suffering from a deep-seated social, economic and religious malaise with which it has so far proved incapable of dealing. In the words of the summit's final communique: "The Islamic nation is in a crisis". Such thoughts are not new, but to hear the confessions of failure expressed with such frankness, by the very people who have been presiding over the mess - and broadcast to millions around the Muslim world - was little short of revolutionary. Equally extraordinary was the fact that these discussions took place in Saudi Arabia - home to some of the world's most reactionary Muslim clerics - at the behest of the Saudi king. The outcome was a 10-year plan that amounts to nothing less than an attempt to modernise Islam or, as one of the conference papers put it, to "revamp existing mindsets". In preparation for the summit, which was held under the auspices of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), three panels of experts had examined the problems in detail. One panel looked at political and media issues, another looked at economics, science and technology, while the third panel considered Islamic thought, culture and education. Among the many things in its reports, the political panel said it could see no conflict between Islamic and contemporary universal values. "The message of Islam is a role model for all people to establish the values of equality, justice, peace and brotherhood," it said. Islamic concepts of good governance are "compatible with democracy, equality, freedom, social justice, transparency, accountability, anti-corruption and the respect for human rights". With the issue of terrorism in mind, the panel on Islamic thought attacked "reckless fatwas by people who were not qualified to speak in the name of Islam" and stressed the need "to establish a moderate Islamic discourse which is bound to time, place and circumstances and one that is explained in contemporary language". Educational curriculums should be revised in the light of this, the experts added. Recognising that the rights of women are "clearly espoused in Islam", the experts called for "an effective strategy for the integration of women in society". In response to the intolerant bigots who claim that their version of Islam is the only correct one, they argued that multiple schools of thought "reflect the rich nature of Islamic thought" and called for dialogue with other religions to redress "the existing lack of mutual understanding among cultures and civilisations". During the conference itself, there was also a good deal of interest in a suggestion by the prime minister of Malaysia that Hadhari ("civilisational") Islam could offer a way forward. This concept - which focuses on economic and technological development, social justice and religious tolerance within an Islamic framework - has been actively promoted by the Malaysian government as a way of countering extremism. The fact that the summit aired all these issues so freely is certainly a big step in the right direction, but it is one thing to talk the talk and another to walk the walk. Hopes for success of the action plan are pinned mainly on the OIC, which is the world's largest Muslim body operating at an inter-governmental level. Founded in 1969, the OIC has 57 member-countries and is sometimes mockingly referred to as the "Oh, I see" on account of its usually passive response to momentous events. It is plainly not up to the challenge at present, but the aim is to revitalise it with a new constitution and a new headquarters in Jeddah. It already has a new and reportedly highly effective secretary-general in the shape of Ekmelettin Ihsanoglu, a Turkish historian. King Abdullah, the new ruler of Saudi Arabia, who is currently flush with cash from high oil prices, also seems happy to bankroll much of the reform effort. Less optimistically, the record of regional organisations in the Middle East does not augur well for a revival of the OIC. The Arab League, for instance, has been bedevilled by the conflicting interests of its members who tend to put their own sovereignty before the common good. If the Arab League cannot get its act together with only 22 members, the prospects for united action by the OIC, with 57 members, do not look particularly bright. On the other hand, it is just conceivable that the leaders who attended last week's summit have been so scared by what they heard that this time they may feel impelled to act. One of the issues considered by the summit was what to do about the "reckless" fatwas issued by militant or unqualified clerics. The proposed solution is to develop "a credible international Islamic reference based on collective and organised jurisprudence". This would be done through the Islamic Fiqh Academy - an offshoot of the OIC which, again, would have to be reorganised and revitalised. In theory this could be very useful if, for example, the academy was able to address misunderstandings of the term "jihad" by coming up with a definitive ruling. However, the academy has been in existence since 1981 and has tended either to steer clear of controversial topics or to make bland statements about them. With sincere effort and a little ingenuity such problems might be overcome, but a couple of incidents during the summit raised doubts about how much will there really is to join the modern world. President Hosni Mubarak arrived late, having been busy in Egypt rounding up opposition supporters and rigging the parliamentary elections. Meanwhile, Saudi newspapers reported that an Indian living in the kingdom had been sentenced by an Islamic court to have his eye gouged out. The man had got into a fight with a Saudi who lost his sight in one eye several weeks later. As the archaic adage goes: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

The Case of Mumia Abu Jamal, by Terry Bisson (from New York Newsday, 1995) In 1978, Philadelphia Mayor (and ex-police chief) Frank Rizzo blew up at a press conference, threatening what he called "the new breed" of journalists. "They [the people] believe what you write and what you say," said Rizzo, "and it's got to stop. One day--and I hope it's in my career--you're going to have to be held responsible and accountable for what you do." What the "new breed" was doing in 1978, and is still doing today, was exposing police misconduct. A cop had been killed in a confrontation between Philadelphia police and the radical MOVE organization (the same MOVE that was fire-bombed by the city seven years later), and the police version of who shot first hadn't been accepted without question. Rizzo feared a new trend, and he was right. The trend has continued. Today, the Mollen Commission, the NYPD "party"in DC, the Rodney King case and hundreds of other local scandals have exposed the dark underside of police misconduct nationwide. Ironically, the most prominent of the "new breed" of journalists at whom Rizzo's outburst was directed is awaiting execution on Pennsylvania's Death Row, the victim--many believe--of a police frame-up. Mumia Abu-Jamal began his journalism career with the Black Panther Party. The Panthers were the original "affirmative action" employer, and Mumia (then Wesley Cook) was Minister of Information for the Philadelphia chapter at age 15, writing for the national newspaper. A heady beginning for a West Philly kid. After the Panthers fell apart (helped by a stiff dose of FBI harassment) Mumia turned to broadcasting. He had the voice, the writing talent and the ambition, and by age 25, he was one of the top names in local radio, interviewing such luminaries as Jesse Jackson and the Pointer Sisters and winning a Peabody Award for his coverage of the Pope's visit. He was president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, called "one to watch" by Philadelphia magazine. But Mumia was still a radical. The Philadelphia Inquirer called him "an eloquent activist not afraid to raise his voice," and this fearlessness was to be his undoing. His vocal support of MOVE's uncompromising life-style lost him jobs at Black stations, and he was forced to moonlight to support his family. The mayor's outburst marked the beginning of a campaign of police harassment that included such subtleties as a cocked finger and a 'bang bang' from a smirking cop, and escalated to a late-night police beating of Mumia's brother on the street. Mumia was driving a cab that night. It is undisputed that he intervened. It is undisputed that both he and officer Daniel Faulkner were shot, and that Faulkner died. What is in dispute is who killed Faulkner. Mumia says it was someone else, and several witnesses saw another shooter flee the scene. Mumia's legally registered .38 was never decisively linked to Faulkner's wounds. Mumia's murder trial was a policeman's dream. Denied the right to represent himself, he was defended by a reluctant incompetent who was later disbarred (and who has since filed an affadavit in Mumia's support detailing his delinquencies). Mumia was prosecuted by a DA who was later reprimanded for withholding evidence in another trial. He was allowed only $150 to interview witnesses. But best of all was the judge. A life member of the Fraternal Order of Police, branded as a "defendant's nightmare" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Judge Albert F. Sabo has sentenced more men to die (31 to date, only two of them white) than any other sitting judge in America. A fellow judge once called his courtroom a "vacation for prosecutors" because of bias toward convictions. Sabo wouldn't allow Mumia to defend himself because his dreadlocks made jurors "nervous." Kept in a holding cell, he read about his own trial in the newspapers. A Black juror was removed for violating sequestration, while a white juror was given an court escort to take a civil service exam; in the end all the Black jurors but one were removed. A policeman who filed two conflicting reports was never subpoenaed (he was "on vacation"). Mumia's Black Panther history was waved like a bloody flag: Had he said, "All power to the people?" Yes, he admitted, he had said that. Character witnesses like poet Sonia Sanchez were cross-examined about their "anti-police" writings and associations. Thus with Judge Sabo's help, an award-winning radical journalist with no criminal record was portrayed as a police assassin lying in wait since age 15. After Mumia's conviction, Sabo instructed the jury: "You are not being asked to kill anybody" by imposing the death penalty, since the defendant will get "appeal after appeal after appeal." Such instruction, grounds for reversal since Caldwell vs. Mississippi, was allowed in Mumia's case. Mumia's appeals have so far gone unanswered. After being on Death Row for thirteen years, he is now the target of a police-led smear campaign. Last year NPR's "All Things Considered" canceled a scheduled series of his commentaries after the Fraternal Order of Police objected. Mumia's book, LIVE FROM DEATH ROW, has been greeted with a boycott and a skywriter circling the publisher's Boston offices: "Addison-Wesley Supports Cop Killers" Officer Faulkner's widow has gone on TV claiming that Mumia smiled at her when her husband's bloody shirt was shown--even though the record shows that Mumia wasn't in the courtroom that day. Mumia and his supporters want only one thing--a new trial, with an unbiased judge and a competent lawyer. Defense attorney Leonard Weinglass has entered a motion to have Judge Sabo removed from the case because he cannot provide even the "appearance of fairness." The struggle became a race against time last month, when Pennsylvania Governor Ridge, though fully aware of the many questions in the case, signed a death warrant scheduling Mumia for execution August 17. Mumia Abu-Jamal was not surprised. Several of the essays in his book deal with America's frantic "march toward the death chamber." As he wrote several years ago in the Yale Law Journal, "states that have not slain in a generation now ready their machinery: generators whine, poison liquids are mixed, and gases are measured and readied." Unless Mumia Abu Jamal's final petition is answered, and he gets the fair trial he deserves, America will see its the first explicitly political execution since the Rosenbergs were put to death in 1953. Frank Rizzo's angry threat will be fulfilled, for one "new breed" journalist at least. It will stop. We won't hear any more criticism of the police from Mumia Abu-Jamal. Forever. In 1978, Philadelphia Mayor (and ex-police chief) Frank Rizzo blew up at a press conference, threatening what he called "the new breed" of journalists. "They [the people] believe what you write and what you say," said Rizzo, "and it's got to stop. One day--and I hope it's in my career--you're going to have to be held responsible and accountable for what you do." Mumia must live campaign. http://www.callnetuk.com/home/mumia/first.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------------