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France’s Marine Le Pen Would Leave Euro and Slash Immigration

EU Times — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:40:44 +0000

The charismatic Marine Le Pen has campaigned hard against free trade and the European Union, and has pushed the party’s traditional tough line on crime and immigration.

Marine Le Pen said she would balance France’s books if elected president by leaving the euro, slashing immigration, taxing imports and tapping the central bank for cheap loans instead of the debt markets.

The National Front leader, who ranks third in opinion polls, spelt out the financial planning behind her campaign promises just over three months before the first round of the presidential contest on April 22.

Exploiting discontent over globalization and the debt crisis in Europe, Le Pen has sought to lure voters by detailing her plan to knock the country’s bloated public deficit to zero by the end of 2017.

She said she would raise 200 billion euros ($260 billion) over five-years, in large part by restoring the autonomy of the French central bank and getting it to lend to the government at cheap rates in order to slash debt costs.

Her economic nationalism has seen her continue to closing the gap with incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The Ifop poll for Paris Match showed that in the first round, to be held April 22, Socialist candidate Francois Hollande would finish first with 27 percent, followed by Sarkozy with 23.5 percent and National Front candidate Le Pen on 21.5 percent, the poll published today showed today. Another poll however found that Marine Le Pen is more popular than Nicolas Sarkozy which ranks Le Pen as second instead of third.

Mr Hollande is staking out his position as a more reliable, more caring reincarnation of the late President François Mitterrand – without the eloquence or, so far, any clear program.

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Man goes Rampage on Christmas shoppers in Belgium

EU Times — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:04:56 +0000

Killer: Nordine Amrani murdered a cleaning lady in his rented flat before heading off on a bloodthirsty rampage in the center of the Belgian city

Liege killer Nordine Amrani murdered four people and wounded 125 others because he feared being sent to back to prison for a sex crime, his lawyer said today.

The 32-year-old convicted criminal, who was due to marry his long-term girlfriend, used grenades and a semi-automatic rifle to cause carnage in the Belgian city before turning a revolver on himself.

Among his victims was a 45-year-old cleaning lady whom he shot dead near his home on Tuesday morning, as well as a 17-month old baby boy who died in the early hours today.

Defence lawyer Jean-Francois Dister said Amrani, a Moroccan Muslim immigrant, was on parole and was due to answer a summons about ‘sexually molesting’ a young woman.

His Morrocan family lawyer, Abdelhadi Amrani in Brussels, who is not related to the killer, defended Nordine Amrani by saying that he was unfairly treated (oppressed) by the courts even though he felt more Belgian than Moroccan, claiming that “he did not speak a word of Arabic and was not Muslim.”

He knew that he was going to be sent back to prison and had a “grudge against society“, his lawyer Abdelhadi Amrani said on Wednesday.

He is thought to have attacked the unnamed victim after driving alongside her in his van. Its number plate was captured by CCTV.

One of Amrani’s numerous previous convictions was for rape, for which he had been given a two-year suspended sentence in 2003.

If convicted again for a sex crime, he would have had to serve it.

This would have also meant his girlfriend, a nurse called Perrin Balon, finding out about the sex allegations against him.

‘He feared being returned to prison,’said Mr Dister. ‘He called me twice on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning about it.

‘What worried him most was to be jailed again. According to my client it was a set-up by people who wanted to harm him. Mr Amrani had a grudge against the law.

‘He thought he had been wrongfully convicted.’

After Tuesday’s attack, the bag Amrani used to carry his haul of weapons was found to still contain several loaded magazines, as well as a number of live grenades.

An enquiry has been launched into why he had not been under closer supervision while on bail after early release from a sentence of nearly five years.

His weapons were confiscated because of his other criminal offences, yet he managed to obtain a FAL Belgian assault rifle, grenades and other weapons soon after his release in October 2010.

Belgian’s notoriously liberal criminal justice system is already facing questions as to why, in October 2010, the killer had been released from prison three years early after being convicted of firearms and drug offences.

In 2008 he had been found guilty of keeping 10 complete firearms, and an astonishing 9,500 gun parts in his flat, along with 2,800 cannabis plants nearby.

On Tuesday morning, Amrani is thought to have tried to rape the woman cleaner in his flat, where police had found an arsenal of weapons including a rocket launcher, AK47 and Kalashnikov.

Police said he killed her ‘with a bullet to her head’ and then dumped her body in a lock-up shed where he was growing cannabis plants.

He then left money for Ms Balon, with a note that said: ‘Good luck! I love you.’

A police source said: ‘The cleaner had been working in a neighbour’s home. It appears that Amrani had invited her into his own flat to discuss the possibility of cleaning his flat.

‘There were signs of a struggle, and it may be that Amrani had tried to rape her.

‘Whatever happened, she was undoubtedly his first murder victim on Tuesday morning.’

Clean up: Workers this morning started to clean up the debris from the rampage

Cedric Visart Bocarme, the Belgian Attorney General, confirmed that the woman ‘would have been murdered by the killer just before he went to Place Saint-Lambert’.

The attack brought horror to Belgium’s fifth largest city, with crowds of shoppers, many of them children, screaming and running in panic as grenades exploded and shots rang out.

Among the dead was an 18-month-old girl who lost her fight for survival in hospital last night.

The others killed include a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old student and a 75-year-old woman.

Today, a small crowd gathered at the Place Saint-Lambert for a minute’s silence at 12noon, 24 hours after the shooting.

Students at the Saint Barthelemy High School – attended by two of the victims – also joined hands and observed the silence.

Abdelhadi Amrani, another lawyer who worked for the killer but is not related, said he had grown up in foster homes after being orphaned as a child.

‘I remember a man deeply marked by the loss of his parents,’ said Ms Amrani. ‘He lost his father and mother very early. He was marked by fate.

Chaos: Police watch out for the gunman as paramedics attend to the injured

‘I would add he was a very smart boy, gifted.

‘Nordine often spoke of his desire to start a family. He was to be married to a nurse in Liege.’

Commenting on Amrani’s background, Ms Amrani said: ‘He did not feel at all Moroccan. He did not speak a word of Arabic, and was not Muslim. What he said is that he felt like a Belgian.

‘He was crazy about weapons, but as a collector.

‘He felt he had not had much luck in life and felt unfairly treated by the courts.

‘This was the fed-up cry of a tormented soul – he was estranged from justice, and against society.’

A 17-month-old baby boy called Gabriel became the fourth victim after dying in hospital late on Tuesday night despite undergoing hours of emergency treatment.

Gabriel was in the arms of his mother when he was hit by a bullet in the back of the head. The child and his parents were at the bus stop just below the walkway from where Amrani opened fire.

Belgium's King Alert II, centre, and his wife Queen Paola arrived in Liege last night to visit the injured

Amrani had been due to attend a police interview in the late morning but never showed up.

Instead he left his apartment armed with a Belgian-made FN- FAL automatic rifle, a handgun and up to a dozen grenades carried in a backpack.

He drove the five-minute journey from his 1930s apartment building the Residence Belvedere and parked his white van in Place St Lambert.

He walked onto a raised walkway above a bus stop where lunchtime shoppers were thronging for the opening of a Christmas market.

From his 15ft high vantage point he lobbed three hand grenades towards a busy bus shelter before opening fire on the crowd. A 15-year-old boy died instantly while the baby of 17 months and a 17-year-old boy succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

Five people are still fighting for their lives, including a 75-year old woman who was initially declared dead on arrival at hospital.

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Girl Gang Freed after Attacking Couple because They Weren’t Used to Drinking

EU Times — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:01:57 +0000

Attack: Three of the young women can be seen setting upon Rhea Page, 22, in the centre of Leicester. Despite leaving her traumatised, they were handed suspended sentences

A gang of Muslim women who attacked a passer-by in a city centre walked free from court after a judge heard they were ‘not used to being drunk’ because of their religion.

The group – three sisters and a cousin – allegedly screamed ‘kill the white slag’ as they set upon Rhea Page as she waited for a taxi with her boyfriend.

Miss Page, 22, was left with a bald patch where her hair was pulled out in the attack and was left ‘black and blue’ after suffering a flurry of kicks to the head, back, arms and legs while motionless on the pavement.

Ambaro Maxamed, 24, students Ayan Maxamed, 28, and Hibo Maxamed, 24, and their 28-year-old cousin Ifrah Nur each admitted actual bodily harm, which carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

But Judge Robert Brown gave them suspended jail terms after hearing mitigation that as Muslims, the women were not used to being drunk. The Koran prohibits Muslims from consuming alcohol, although Islamic teachings permit its use for medicinal purposes.

After the sentencing, Ambaro Maxamed wrote on her Twitter account: ‘Happy happy happy!’, ‘I’m so going out’, and ‘Today has been such a great day’.

Yesterday Miss Page, a care worker, called the sentence ‘disgusting’ and said the gang deserved ‘immediate custody’.

‘It’s no punishment at all,’ she said. ‘And for them to say they did it because they were not used to alcohol is no excuse. If they were not supposed to be drinking then they shouldn’t have been out in bars at that time of night.

‘Even after the police came and they all ran away, one of them came running back to kick me in the head one last time.

‘I honestly think they attacked me just because I am white. I can’t think of any other reason.’

Miss Page was treated for bruises and grazes after the attack in June last year as she walked to a taxi rank with boyfriend Lewis Moore, 23, in Leicester city centre.

At the time she worked caring for people with autism and learning difficulties but gave up the job after repeated absences because of stress and flashbacks.

She is still having counselling and suffers panic attacks.

She said: ‘We were just minding our own business but they kept shouting “white bitch” and “white slag” at me. When I turned around one of them grabbed my hair then threw me on the ground.

‘They were taking turns to kick me over and over. I thought they were going to kill me.’

Yobs: Sisters Hibo and Ambaro Maxamed, both 24, who attacked Rhea. They were both given six month suspended jail sentences

Girl gang: Ayan Maxamad, 28, left, and her cousin Ifrah Nur, 28, who were also involved in the attack in Leicester

None of the defendants was charged with racial aggravation. Nur claimed Mr Moore, a fence builder, had been racially abusive, but this was not accepted by the prosecution.

Gary Short, mitigating for Ambaro Maxamed, said the attack was down to alcohol. He said: ‘Although Miss Page’s partner used violence, it doesn’t justify their behaviour.

‘They’re Somalian Muslims and alcohol or drugs isn’t something they’re used to.’

The four women, who all live in Leicester, were each sentenced to six-month jail terms, suspended for 12 months, at Leicester Crown Court last month.

Hibo Maxamed also received a four-month curfew between 9pm and 6am, while the others were ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Brown said that ‘those who knock someone to the floor and kick them in the head can expect to go inside’.

But he said he accepted the women may have felt they were the victims of unreasonable force from Mr Moore as he tried to defend his girlfriend, and handed the defendants a suspended sentence.

Speaking at her home, Hibo Maxamed said: ‘I’m not proud of it, it’s not something I want to talk about. I just want to get on with my life.’

When asked if she wanted to apologise, she replied: “What, to the public? I really don’t care.”

Victims: Rhea, 22, was with her partner Lewis Moore, 23, when she was attacked. He tried to defend her, the court was told

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Protests Erupt in Serbian town against immigrants after Gang Rape

EU Times — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:06:11 +0000

The brutal gang rape of a British woman by five Afghan refugees has sparked a massive protest against illegal immigrants in a Serbian spa town.

The 38-year-old woman – who bravely managed to film the attack on her mobile phone – was repeatedly raped after befriending a group of Afghan men in a park in Banja Koviljaca.

Despite handing the video footage to police, only one alleged attacker – identified by police only as Abdurashid D., 25 – has been arrested.

Now local mothers have told police they are boycotting local schools from next week (nov 7) unless they clear out a local refugee centre containing more than 2,500 illegal immigrants which was built to hold just 120.

“These people are always hanging around the parks and streets during the day causing trouble,” said one mum.

“They have no respect for us, no respect for women and we want them gone because they have no right to be here.

“My daughter isn’t going to school again while four refugee rapists are still on the streets,” she added.

The British victim had travelled to Serbia after striking up a Facebook friendship with a man who told her he lived in a town called Lozinca.

When she couldn’t find him, the woman flew on to the spa resort Banja Koviljaca where she began chatting to three Afghan men in a local park.

But when they invited her for a drink at a local hotel, they met up with two other men and she was dragged behind the building and raped repeatedly.

Her harrowing phone video footage of the attack – which was handed to the police – is said by local media to show the faces of three of her attackers clearly.

Police said that Abdurashid D. has admitted sex with the woman, but claims it was consensual, although he was unable to explain medical evidence showing injuries suffered by the woman.

The rape occurred last week (27 Oct), but police only revealed the details after the woman had returned to the UK on Monday.

The case has shocked locals in the region, which is the most popular spa resort in the country and regarded as one of the mainstays of Serbia’s tourism business.

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170000 Muslims celebrated holiday on the streets of Moscow

EU Times — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:01:07 +0000

Celebrating the muslim festival Eid al-Adha in Moscow

The four-day Eid al-Adha religious festival is underway, with millions of Muslims traveling around the world to visit family and loved ones. The holiday is also widely celebrated across Russia.

Known as Kurban Bairam in Russia, the festival marks the end of Hajj, the annual Mecca pilgrimage, and commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son to God.

A huge number of worshipers have gathered outside the main mosque in Moscow. Police say more than 170,000 people have taken part in the celebrations. The prayers will be offered in four mosques across the Russian capital.

The celebrations are also taking place in traditionally Muslims regions of the country, such as Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Dagestan, Chechnya and others.

According to the Russian Council of Muftis, there are about 20 million Muslims in Russia with 1.5 million living in Moscow.

President Dmitry Medvedev has extended his wishes to Russian Muslims, praising Kurban Bairam as a holiday that refers to the spiritual roots of Islam and calls for kindness, mercy and justice.

Eid al-Adha is the second most-important festival of the year for Muslims and is marked with prayers of thanksgiving and celebrations.

The holiday is traditionally marked by the ritual of animal sacrifice which originates in the sacrifice of Abraham.

However this year Russia’s Muslim religious authorities urged the faithful not to carry out the ritual in Moscow, but in certified areas outside the city.

Last year, the ritual of animal sacrifice caused some controversy as the local residents complained when the ritual took place in the streets or in the residential areas.

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Lukashenko set to build “Qatari island” in Belarus

EU Times — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:26:29 +0000

In addition to the so-called “Qatari island”, the new Belarus’ friends from the East would be given Kastrychnitskae and Petrykauskae potassium salts deposit, an iron ore deposit, land and much more.

Charter97.org website has got at its disposal a protocol of Lukashenka’s instructions following his visit to Qatar on August 15-16. The document is intended for the “Official Use Only”.

Thus, until October 31 2011 the borders of the land parcels for “Qatari Island” in Belarus should be defined, and a memorandum of understanding on realization of this project should be prepared. The project is supervised by the National bank and a private unitary enterprise “Tekhnologii upravleniya” (“Management techniques”), who are ordered to prepare a legal framework for setting up for set up zones “with maximally favourable regime for functioning financial and banking centres, including Islamic structures.”

The Qatari have been promised a share in the new enterprises for potash fertilizers mining in Kastrychnitskae and Petrykauskae potassium salts deposit, as well as development of iron ore deposits in Belarus.

Until October 31 the companies Qatar Holding and Qatar Airways are to be offered a variant of buying or placing in their management “Brest” airport, as well as a possibility of organising a direct air flight between Minsk and Doha.

The so-called ruling family of Qatar, which is to be given land parcels “for possible construction of residences and organising hunting lands there”, has not been neglected as well.

The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in cooperation with the Qatari Fund of Education, Science and Social Development, are ordered among other things to create a certain “Excellence Centre”.

The seriousness of intentions is supported by participation in joint projects of the symbolic figure, the “purse” of Lukashenka’s family, Vladimir Peftiev (Uladzimir Peftsiyeu). His private unitary enterprise “BT Telecommunications” subjected to the EU sanctions, is to take part in the project on establishing of a joint venture between Belarus and Qatar for manufacturing complex fertilizers in Qatar, as well as a joint venture manufacturing complex fertilizers in Belarus.

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Obama Warned Now Heads World’s Most Dangerous Drug Cartel

EU Times — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:57:44 +0000

A scathing report authored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the United States President’s role in protecting the Afghanistan drug trade essentially labels Barack Obama as the most powerful drug cartel leader our world has ever known.

Speaking at a conference this week on communicable diseases Lavrov lashed out over Obama’s refusal to eradicate Afghanistan’s poppy crop and stated, “It is hard for us to understand why our American partners don’t want the International Security Assistance Force to do this. This issue is crucial to the fight against the drug threat and, consequently, the spread of HIV/AIDS.”

Enraging Russian authorities the most was Obama’s 2009 decision to stop the eradication of Afghanistan’s poppy crop and, instead, order American military forces to actually begin protecting not only the fields where these dangerous drug plants are grown, but also protecting the transporters and manufacturers who turn it into heroin.

Since the US war against Afghanistan was launched the Bush administration paid American contractors and Afghan security personnel hundreds of millions of dollars to slash and burn individual poppy fields. Upon taking office, however, Obama regime officials stated bluntly that those efforts to eradicate Afghanistan’s poppy fields had failed and ordered their destruction stopped.

In late 2001 when the US invaded Afghanistan they accounted for 12% of the world’s opium production. By 2008, it accounted for 93% and the United Nations has reported this week that Afghanistan opium production is set to rise another staggering 61% this year.

As a virtual flood of Afghan heroin continues to devastate children and families, Russian officials publicly blame America for this plague because almost all this deadly drug comes from US-dominated Afghanistan and leading Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin to warn this past week that Russia will reject the US presence in Afghanistan after its current UN mandate expires.

Not being told to the American people about Obama’s reason for protecting the global drug trade was his being able to use the money gained from this ‘death business’ to save the US economy from complete collapse in 2009 shortly after he took office.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, reported on this in December 2009 when he publically stated that he had seen the evidence that proceeds of the global drug trade were “the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks on the brink of collapse in 2008. He said that a majority of the $352 billion (£216 billion) of drugs profits was absorbed into the global economic system as a result.

Russian officials note that as Commander in Chief of all US military forces, administrative head of all US intelligence agencies, and the head of all US law enforcement, Obama singlehandedly controls the world’s largest known drug manufacturing, transporting and distribution network estimated to be worth nearly $1 trillion.

And long known to everyone in the world (even those American who choose to face the truth) is that Obama’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has an over 50 year long association with being the most powerful and dangerous global drug cartel and has (ironically) been blamed as being solely responsible for the massive crippling of American’s largely black inner cities due to drug violence.

Even worse, new reports surfacing in the United States are now showing that the Obama regime, in order to protect their CIA drug trafficking routes into the US, has been supplying Mexican drug cartels with thousands of weapons in exchange for protection with some of these guns being reported found in the home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez and others proved to used in the killing of US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry this past summer.

Not just to Mexico either has the Obama regime been sending thousands of weapons, but to his hometown of Chicago too where US reports are showing that the drug gangs in that large American city are being armed courtesy of the US government.

And in what can only be described as irony turning into farce, Obama’s 2008 election promise not to interfere with US State’s medical marijuana laws was broken this past week when he ordered his regime to launch an assault on medical pot dispensaries, vowing to shut down establishments licensed and regulated by State and local governments….while at the exact same time he has steadfastly refused to prosecute or jail one single Wall Street bankster responsible for looting the American people of over $9 Trillion of their wealth.

Not being understood by the millions of sick Americans who have benefited from medical marijuana, is that when it comes to the point that their wellbeing is cutting into the illegal drug profits made by the CIA for the elites of their country, their personal welfare means absolutely nothing at all.

President John F. Kennedy once said about America, “This nation was founded by many men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” One cannot but help think what he would say now about the people he gave his life to save, but have squandered it all away by allowing drug lords and despots to rule over them?

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Muslim immigrants want Switzerland to change national flag

EU Times — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:01:57 +0000

A group of Muslim immigrants wants to force Switzerland to abandon the current flag – a white cross on the red background. They say that it violates the rights of the representatives of non-Christian confessions. They seem to have been hurt by the recent ban on minarets construction. However, their proposal is unlikely to be welcomed by the native Swiss and will only increase the number of votes in favor of the treasury of the local far-right People’s Party.

The first suggestion to remove the cross from the Swiss flag was made not by a Muslim, but (judging by the name) an ethnic Croat and Catholic vice-president of the association of immigrants Secondos Plus Ivica Petrushich. “The cross does not fit today’s multicultural Switzerland,” he said. The organization of the Turkish, Albanian and other immigrants from Muslim countries followed with a similar initiative. Instead, they suggested using a green-yellow-red flag of Helvetic Republic that existed at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. It has no cross on it.

It is hardly coincidental that the issue of replacing the flag was raised by the representatives of immigrant organizations. Today, over 20 percent of seven million-strong Swiss population is immigrants. Naturally, the Muslims will be more than others insistent on replacing the flag. There are nearly 400,000 of them (more than five percent of the population). The largest “ethnic Muslim” community is Albanian, followed by the Turkish one. Arabs and Bosnian Muslims also reside in Switzerland. Many of them certainly do not like the cross.

The vast majority of Swiss Muslims virtually broke off with the religion of their ancestors. No more than 50 thousand of the faithful pray five times a day. However, women in headscarves have become an integral part of the cityscape of Zurich or Geneva. Furthermore, the birthrate in religious Muslim families is much higher than among the other population. Finally, all Swiss followers of Islam are not natives, but immigrants and their descendants. Their support of changing the appearance of the flag is, to say the least, ambiguous.

Apparently, this circumstance was taken into account by the head of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland Mayzar Hisham, who called the idea of changing the flag “counterproductive.” He said that they did not demand anyone to change the ancient traditions of their countries. It is hard not to agree with his words. The relations of the indigenous Swiss and immigrants have already passed a difficult strength test. The desire to change the flag will only add fuel to the fire. Two years ago the Muslim community wanted to attach minarets to the existing mosques. However, Switzerland is different from all other countries in a way that each more or less relevant issue is solved by holding a referendum. Negotiations with the government officials were not sufficient, and they had to ask the opinion of the population. This opinion was not in favor of the Muslim immigrants.

The initiator of the referendum two years ago was the ultra-right Swiss People’s Party that called to stop the “creeping Islamization”. A deputy of the Swiss Parliament Ulrich Shlyuer said that minarets were a political symbol of the implementation of Islam. Step by step, Sharia was conquering Switzerland, acting in parallel with the Swiss law. Statistics show that the degree of religiosity of the local Muslim population is exaggerated, but for the ordinary Swiss even a hint of a violation of their habitual way of living was sufficient.

The results of voting on November 29, 2009 shocked Europe. 57.5 percent of the Swiss population was in favor of a ban on construction of minarets. At the same time kosher and halal slaughter of animals was banned (because of cruelty). Islamic organizations, human rights activists, and many European politicians expressed their outrage. However, the law came into force. The EU could not influence Switzerland as it is not its member.   Many of those dissatisfied with the verdict (including indigenous Europeans who had departed from the religion) were eager for revenge, and eventually decided to strike from the other side. They inquired why the flag of the Swiss Confederation had a Christian cross on it if construction of minarets was banned. Allegedly, it violated the rights of not only Muslims but also non-believers. That is why the red-green-yellow flag of the Helvetic Republic would be better.

Would the majority of the Swiss agree with this point of view?  Unlike neighboring France and Germany, the Swiss society is rather conservative. While there is no case of absolute religiousness of the Swiss society, the number of believers in Switzerland is higher than in the neighboring countries. This can be partially explained by a high proportion of rural population scattered along numerous mountain valleys in 20 cantons and six half-cantons of the country. Approximately half of the indigenous Swiss are Catholics; a little fewer are Protestant Calvinists. The cross on the flag is something that unites the country, and does not divide it.

As for the flag, the current symbol was first used in Switzerland in 1339, when the union of separate cantons just started to take shape. It achieved its official status in 1848, when the last standoff on this land ended, crowned with a robust Swiss Confederation. To some extent, it is a symbol of freedom and peace, a path to which took many centuries and numerous wars.  The Helvetic Republic, whose flag is offered instead of the current one, is not particularly respected by the Swiss. It was created by Napoleon who occupied the country and decided to build entities supervised by the French on its territory. For the free-spirited Swiss this flag is a symbol of oppression.

Not to mention the fact that the combination of green, red and yellow colors is characteristic mainly of African countries. In Europe, only Lithuania has a similar flag.   Do the immigrants have a right to teach the Swiss tolerance? For over 160 years there has been no bloodshed on this territory. This is all the more surprising considering that the country is multinational. Nearly three-quarters of the indigenous Swiss speak German, one-fifth speaks French, five or six percent speak Italian, and a little less than one percent – the Romansh language. All these languages have the official status, but there is one dominant language group in each canton (with rare exceptions). They managed to combine small mono-national “houses” with a multinational one. The country is not threated by a collapse.   Encroaching on the foundation of the state, immigrants cause a reaction from the German Swiss, French Swiss and Italian Swiss.

Ultra People’s Party is gaining popularity among all of them. Its symbol is three white sheep (the number of the top three language groups), kicking the fourth, black one. This is a clear hint to what should be done with immigrants. Four years ago, the party secured 29 percent of the Swiss votes, and it was a shock to Europe. In the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 23, the result may be even higher.

As is evident from the story with the restrictions on ritual slaughter of animals and minarets construction, the Swiss are not afraid to challenge the infamous political correctness. A ban on wearing the veil is to follow. The more you attempt to encroach on the foundation of the Swiss state, the stronger will be the response. It took Switzerland and its people too long to achieve stability and peace of mind to just give up on their values.

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£2.5 billion benefits bill for EU migrants

EU Times — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:06:52 +0000

The UK could face an extra £2.5bn benefits bill for EU migrants.

Eurocrats have ordered Britain to pay up to £2.5 billion more a year in handouts to people from across the EU, sparking fears of an explosion in “benefit tourism”.

The European Commission has accused the UK of breaking EU laws giving foreigners access to our multi-billion-pound welfare system – and has set a two-month deadline for Britain to open up access or face court action.

If the commission gets its way, people from the 26 other EU states will be able to travel to Britain, claim they are now living here and immediately qualify for a range of benefits without ever having paid into the system.

The Eurocrats’ “reasoned opinion”, issued yesterday, said: “The UK has two months to inform the Commission of measures it has taken to bring its legislation into line with EU law.

“Once again we see the European Commission telling us how to run our country and people are becoming sick and tired of it” said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

“Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the UK to the EU’s Court of Justice.”

Estimates of the cost to British taxpayers of the extra benefits have ranged between £700million and £2.5billion a year.

But critics savaged the latest intrusion into Britain’s domestic affairs by unelected bureaucrats.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: “Once again we see the European Commission telling us how to run our country and people are becoming sick and tired of it.

“If the EC gets its way then there will be a far greater burden on the British taxpayer as more money will need to be found for the social security system.’’

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Truth about how UK Muslim men exploit polygamy benefits revealed

EU Times — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:51:45 +0000

Two experienced Lancashire social workers say that in their estimation there are 20,000 bigamous or polygamous unions in the UK.

Ghulam is a taxi driver who lives in Blackburn, a once-booming textile town in Lancashire. He has a terrace house near his local mosque (one of 53 in the area), a silver Nissan car and a very complex private life.

For he has so many children that he struggles to remember their names, and five wives from various countries, including Yemen, Egypt, Turkey and his own birthplace, Pakistan.

Ghulam’s latest bride is a shy 20-year-old called Hafeza. He brought her to Britain from Morocco, soon after his 45th birthday earlier this year. They married in an Islamic wedding ceremony called ‘the Nikah’ in her village, with Hafeza’s pleased parents among the guests.

Thirty miles across the Pennines in Yorkshire, pizza delivery driver Wasim, 27, has an equally complicated domestic life.

He lives in a part of Dewsbury called Savile Town, a network of 11 terrace streets dominated by one of the biggest mosques in Europe, where most residents are Asian with origins in Pakistan or India.

Wasim has three wives, the first of whom lives with him and their three teenage sons. His other two wives have separate houses in Savile Town, one down the road and another round the corner. He visits each two nights a week.

The women have had several of Wasim’s children and he hopes the youngest bride (aged 19) will soon present him with another baby.

I learned of Ghulam and Wasim this week while investigating a subject that is taboo in politically correct Britain. It is the huge rise of bigamy (having two wives) and polygamy (more than two) in our Muslim communities.

The issue was recently bravely highlighted by Baroness Flather, a crossbench life peer who was herself born in Lahore, now part of Pakistan.

She warned the Lords (and also wrote an article for the Mail on the subject) about how our shambolic benefits system is being exploited by men hailing from Pakistan and other Muslim nations who indulge in multiple marriages — with taxpayers forced to foot the bill.

As Baroness Flather explained: ‘The wives are regarded by the welfare system as single mothers, and are therefore entitled to a full range of lone parent payments.

‘As a result, several “families” fathered by the same man can all claim benefits, as they are provided for by the welfare state, which treats them as if they were not related,’

The issue was recently bravely highlighted by Baroness Flather

Lady Flather also lamented the reluctance of politicians to address the issue: ‘It is certainly difficult to discuss this phenomenon of serial marriage and exploitation of the benefits system, with few people in Britain seeming to want to confront the disturbing truth.’

Two years ago, another peer, Baroness Warsi, born in Dewsbury to Pakistani parents, and now a Coalition Cabinet Minister, also voiced her concerns. She said cultural sensitivity was stopping politicians addressing the problem.

Yet this week I found those — from within the heart of the Asian communities — who were prepared to speak out.

Although the Government says there are only 1,000 such bigamous or polygamous unions in the UK, two experienced Lancashire social workers — one of Indian-English heritage and the other with Pakistani origins — told me that, although it’s difficult to be precise, in their estimation the figure is closer to 20,000.

The social workers said the multiple marriages are encouraged by a welfare system which allows a second, third or fourth wife to be treated as a single mother who gets a house and an array of other state payments for herself and her children.

Controversially, it means that a man can take a new spouse (from anywhere in the world), sire any number of children with her, and yet have no responsibility for this family’s upkeep or care.

To avoid breaking Britain’s matrimony laws, the men marry their extra ‘wives’ in an Islamic Nikah ceremony, either in their own homes or a mosque.

These marriages are not recognised officially, so they do not appear in government statistics or have any status under the law. They also do not count when assessing welfare payments.

Another technique is for a couple to marry legally under British law but then divorce, leaving them then to have a Nikah ceremony and continue living together. The woman will then be entitled to welfare payments as a single mother and the man can then bring another woman from abroad and legally marry her in Britain.

Men also cheat the system by bringing brides from abroad as nannies for their children, or as carers for a sick relative. The bride gets a year’s visitors’ visa, disappears into a tight-knit local community, and is entitled to receive welfare hand-outs.

While it has long been a cliche for men to complain that their wives and children take up most of their income, the reality for polygamous husbands is that the more babies he sires, the more money pours in for him and his wives.

As Tariq Ali, the 45-year-old co-founder of Project BME (Black Minority Ethnics), a charity based in Darwen, Lancashire, admits: ‘There are thousands of bigamous and polygamous marriages in the UK’s Pakistani community — the same community into which I was born.

‘Every single man of my age who I bump into seems to have a third, fourth or fifth wife.

‘The issue is going unreported but in the Asian communities this is becoming a way of life. I think the number of polygamous relationships must be 20,000.

‘The men find second wives in the UK as well as any Muslim country abroad. The new favourite places to find women are Turkey and Morocco, because the men can drive there by car to meet them and bring them back.’

His colleague, Zed Ali, the manager of Project BME, added: ‘These arrangements satisfy a man’s sexual desires when he is trapped in an unhappy or sexless arranged marriage with a first wife and their families don’t countenance a divorce.

‘The first wives often accept the situation as a compromise. There is a limitless number of girls living in Muslim countries wanting to come to the UK for what they, and their parents, think is a better life even as a second, third or fourth wife.

‘What’s more, they are virgins — which the men like. But it means British laws are being abused, and something should be done by the Government. A first step would be the registration of Nikah weddings in this country at least.’ This would prevent many bigamous marriages.

Baroness Warsi said cultural sensitivity was stopping politicians addressing the problem

Officially, bigamy and polygamy are punishable by up to seven years in prison. It was declared illegal in England and Wales in 1604, when the Parliament of James I took action to restrain ‘evil persons’ marrying more than one wife — on penalty of death.

But officialdom now turns a blind eye because of cultural sensitivities.
A 2007 Government report estimated there were 1,000 bigamous or polygamous marriages in England and Wales.

It claimed that men living in a harem arrangement, with their wives under the same roof, were each claiming state handouts of £10,000 a year for the spouses through income support, housing and child benefits.

But the report ignored the thousands of men squeezing more money from the state by having a string of wives living in separate homes, all claiming benefits intended for single mothers and their children.

Those women are eligible for full housing benefit — reaching £106,000 a year in some parts of London — and child benefit paid at £1,000 a year for a first child, and nearly £700 for each subsequent one. Little wonder there has been an increase of foreign brides.

Lady Flather believes this free-for-all should be reduced — by giving full benefits to a woman’s first two children, three-quarters for the third and half for the fourth child. Then there should be no more benefits for any extra children.

It was also wrong, she said, that families were moving to ever larger taxpayer-funded homes, simply by expanding the number of children they have. Yet tackling this phenomenon will be difficult.

I was told this week that even the mosques’ preachers — the imams themselves — have second or third wives, some chosen from among their own worshippers.

One female health visitor in Lancashire, whose parents were born in Pakistan and came here in 1971, explained: ‘My sister has been asked by her own imam in Manchester to marry him as his second wife.

‘She is 38 and went to school here. She played netball, socialised normally, and had British friends. But her marriage to a British Asian broke down when she became very fundamentalist about religion and wanted to wear a burka. Then she turned to the mosque for advice.

‘The imam, who recently arrived from Africa, suggested a bigamous marriage to him would be the solution. My family are horrified, but plenty of imams in the UK have more than one wife.’

A little later in the day, I was introduced to Javeria, a 26-year-old British-born Muslim who is the second wife of a 29-year-old man in Rochdale, Lancashire.

He was also born in Britain and has a first wife, with whom he had an arranged marriage organised by his parents when he was 21. The forced union was an unhappy one, and they had no children. Javeria originally met her husband at an Islamic community gathering.

‘I was under pressure from my mother to get married,’ she says. ‘Most girls in my community are wives by 22, even here in the UK. I was prepared to compromise because I liked him.

‘I knew from the start there would always be his first wife and he would not divorce her.’

Javeria and her new husband had a small Nikah ceremony at her parents’ house conducted by the local imam.

Now she lives in a block of flats with her two children, aged five and three, and works in a bank as a cashier.

Her husband, meanwhile, lives half a mile away with his first wife and their three children in a semi-detached house with a garden. He visits Javeria three nights a week.

‘His first wife knows about me and is pleased because the arrangement gives her freedom from him and it also gives me freedom to pursue my career. He is devoted to his children. But he does not have to pay for my family.’

She adds: ‘I get tax credits because I am on low pay and have young children. I also get housing benefit, because the council says I need three bedrooms for myself and the kids. The child benefits for our son and daughter are paid into my account.’

But, of course, not all multiple marriages work this well.

Each year, London solicitor Anne-Marie Hutchinson, of family law firm Dawson Cornwell, advises around 20 Muslim women who have married in a Nikah ceremony — many of them second or third wives now facing marital breakdown.

‘These women are left unprotected,’ she explains. ‘They cannot claim matrimonial rights. They get no maintenance payments or share in their husband’s pension contributions. They are not wives in the eyes of the British legal system.’

No one knows that better than one Bangladeshi-born mother of three children who works in a care home in Slough, Berkshire. Orpita contacted me through her lawyer when she heard I was writing about multiple marriages in the Muslim community.

She was deserted by her husband of 20 years when he went on holiday to Bangladesh and returned to say he was about to marry a girl of 19, called Saba, in a Nikah ceremony, and wanted to bring her to Britain as his second wife.

Despite the pleas of Orpita and her children, one a teenage boy who — in fury at the betrayal — hit his father in the face, the husband told the British immigration authorities that Saba was from his home village and was to be a nanny for his children. They needed, he lied to them, a caring person who understood his family’s cultural heritage.

They officials believed him and, after the Nikah in Bangladesh, Orpita’s husband set up home with his second wife two years ago in Maida Vale, North London. They now have a one-year-old baby.

‘I am only just recovering from the shock,’ says Orpita. ‘We are not divorced, because I will not allow it. When he walked out, he said the state could look after me and that was how it worked in Britain.

‘All over the place, in London’s East End, in Yorkshire towns, down the road, across the street, I see Muslim men taking second or third wives. I cannot count the number of times I have been approached to be a second wife myself by Bangladeshi men who know I am now on my own.

‘This bigamy and polygamy is destroying families. Children grow up angry and bewildered. Many rarely see their own fathers because they have so many wives to visit.’

Then, she tucks a scarf around her head and adds, sadly: ‘It is a tragedy for everyone in this country, whether they are Muslim or not.

‘And it is the crazy welfare system that encourages it all to happen.’

Some names in this article have been changed.

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Veil Woman to Run for President in France

EU Times — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:27:30 +0000

A Frenchwoman who wears an Islamic face veil, despite a nationwide ban, wants to run for president.

A Frenchwoman who wears an Islamic face veil, despite a nationwide ban, wants to run for president in next year’s elections.

Kenza Drider said she wants to defend the rights of all French women.

She is among a group of women mounting an attack on the law that has banned Muslim face veils from the streets of France since April. They want to prove the measure contravenes fundamental rights.

The law’s backers, including president Nicolas Sarkozy, say the veils imprison women.

Ms Drider said she plans to declare her candidacy on Friday in Meaux, a city east of Paris run by top conservative politician and Sarkozy ally Jean-Francois Cope, who championed the veil ban.

Two other women stopped for wearing veils are facing trial on Friday, also in Meaux.

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French Policeman Convicted for Releasing Video of Bus Attack

EU Times — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:32:46 +0000

In December 2008 a group of Muslims launched an unprovoked attack on a young Frenchman on board a bus in Paris. As they beat him, they shouted insults like “fils de pute” (son of a bi**h) and “Français de merde” (French sh*t). Interestingly, French mainstream media reports mention the first of these insults but not the second.

The whole incident was captured by the bus’s on-board camera. A policeman later published the video on his Facebook page. When the video spread around the internet, the policeman was charged with “violation of professional confidentiality”. He has just been convicted and sentenced to two months in prison (suspended) and will be required to pay 5000 euros in compensation to the victim of the attack.

The perpetrators of the attack were also caught and convicted.

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Swedish police to learn polite Arabic

EU Times — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:44:33 +0000

Police who patrol Malmö’s Rosengård district are being offered a special Arabic language class to help them better understand and communicate with local residents in the predominantly immigrant area.

So far 45 officers have signed up for voluntary twelve-week class, which will provide training on a number of common greetings and pleasantries in Arabic, the local Skånska Dagbladet newspaper reports.

“It’s about dealing with immigrants in a more dignified and little more civil manner,” local police chief Bengt Hersler told the newspaper.

According to Hersler, the course was arranged at the request of officers who have pushed the department to provide them with the tools to better communicate with Rosengård’s residents, many of whom are immigrants and have Swedish as a second language.

In addition to teachings in basic Arabic, the tailor-made course will also offer lessons on Muslim culture and traditions to help officers better understand some of the cultural differences that can lead to misunderstandings in dealings with local residents.

“We’re looking to broaden our knowledge, Said Hersler.

“Ever time we speak, we express ourselves from within our own culture. Even if you speak the same language, there’s no guarantee that people understand each other.”

The tailor-made course, arranged by studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, will be held during participants’ free time and will focus on phrases that officers would likely be able to use in their everyday work.

“They obviously aren’t going to learn the whole language,” Lena Gustafsson from Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan told the newspaper.

While no follow up course is currently planned, Hersler told the newspaper that, if the Arabic language and culture class proves successful, a follow-on may be arranged.

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Ethnical issue becomes Britain’s No.1 problem

EU Times — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:07:58 +0000

Still reeling with shock and anger over the worst rioting in decades, Britain has turned to a tough reckoning with the perpetrators, with courts sitting through the night and the police saying Thursday that over 1,200 people had been arrested, the bulk of them in London.

But, despite an apparent lull in the rioting that has ravaged London and other major cities, concern was growing about many of the ethnically segregated districts battered by the rampages, particularly Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, where the police and political leaders worried about a potentially explosive new pattern of interracial violence that could be set off by the past days and nights of mayhem, reports New York Times.

Police continued to make arrests linked to the disturbances, with the number of arrests in London alone climbing to 820. Courts were staffing around the clock to process alleged looters, vandals and thieves – including one as young as 11.

Even as Cameron promised not to let a “culture of fear” take hold, tensions flared in Birmingham, where a murder probe was opened after three men were killed in a hit-and-run drive as they took to the streets to defend shops from looting, says San Francisco Chronicle.

Outside the capital, in England’s second-largest city, Birmingham, police started a murder investigation into the deaths of the three men hit by a car. Residents said the dead men, ages 21 to 31, were members of Birmingham’s South Asian communities who had been patrolling their neighborhood to keep it safe from looters.

“They lost their lives for other people, doing the job of the police,” witness Mohammed Shakiel, 34, said. “They weren’t standing outside a mosque, a temple, a synagogue, or a church – they were standing outside shops where everybody goes. They were protecting the community”, informs Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Sharia law in bid to conquer London

EU Times — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:39:51 +0000

Islamists are trying to enforce their severe Sharia law code of conduct in London, to drag “enveloped in sin “ Britain to a sin-free society by any means – from abstention to amputation.

They’ve started a campaign to make certain areas of London and other cities Islamic law-controlled zones – starting with Walthamstow, East London. They do believe that Islam and Sharia are unstoppable in Europe.

“Muslims will be commanding good and forbidding evil, presenting Islam as an alternative, to the Muslim and non-Muslim community. Ultimately we believe that Muslims can live together, trade according to the Sharia, resolve their problems according to the Sharia, and even police themselves, to a large extent. Hopefully one day we will have Islamic Emirates which will have authority locally, security locally, and even provide welfare locally,” day-dreams Anjem Choudary, spokesperson for Muslims Against the Crusades.

Choudary and his friends are fly-posting parts of London with a large Muslim population. They want to ban drinking, gambling, and playing music. And they say they’ve got bands of young men ready to patrol and enforce Sharia law, by any means.

“Enforcement should initially be on the level of inviting and forbidding verbally. But if someone has the capability to forbid what essentially is evil, like pornography or prostitution, he should do so,” says Sharia supporter Abu Izzadeen, meaning physical rather than verbal preaching. “I believe prostitutes that are near the mosque, they should be run out of the area.”

These Muslims say British society is broken: riddled with drugs, crime and prostitution. Because of that, they firmly believe members of the communities they are targeting will welcome Sharia law. But the word on the street about the campaign tells a different story.

“If you don’t like the laws of the place you live, then find somewhere you do appreciate the laws. All of these things are completely legal in this country,” one British man told RT.

“This isn’t India or Pakistan. This is England, we’ve got our own laws. People haven’t got a right to come in here and bring their own laws,” one woman declared.

“I think that’ll cause nothing but trouble,” a market trader concluded.

Councillor Martin Easom agrees, saying this could destroy community cohesion.

“We’ve got squads going round the borough, taking down the posters as soon as they’re put up, because we do not want these posters around the borough, they do not represent the views of our borough, they have no place in Waltham Forest,” Martin Easom, chief executive of Waltham Forest Council, stated.

Citizen equality campaigners say the Sharia supporters should not be considered a religious movement, but a far-right political organization – with a poster campaign designed to divide and conquer communities.

“Their danger lies in dividing communities and people, creating mistrust, and particularly among non-Muslims towards moderate Muslims,” Anne Marie Waters of One Law for All movement, said.

“I think this is part of their aim, to create mistrust, so they can then turn to moderate Muslims and say, look everyone hates you, we’re your friend, turn to us. It’s a very dangerous thing, and it’s a political tactic to increase their own power,” she explained.

Undeterred by his opponents, Choudary and his group plan what they see as the beginning of an Islamic Emirate, not just in the UK, but all over Europe.

The police have mobilized to take those posters down as fast as they appear. But Choudary and his group have formed bands of enforcers to make sure Sharia law is adhered to, verbally or physically. And in other parts of London, women have already been harassed for not covering their heads. Should these Muslims ever get their way, Britain’s traditional way of life would become a risk, rather than a civil liberty.

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