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Still Austria.

   

I take it then you meant Bambi the movie and not 'Bambi' in a rhetorical reference to deer. No, I do not advocate watching a movie for research. That's why I take exception to people who get their opinions from Michael Moore movies.



No, but if he says he is a Bible-believing man I should be able to fathom his actions from knowing how the Bible advises people to act in certain situations. But from what I know of the Bible I can say that Bush is not exactly the Bible-thumper he often paints himself as.



Then you understand the desperation of the Germans when they conquered Europe? Or the desperation of the Japanese when they raped Nanking?

   

Cool. Then you know what it means when you invite a Muslim over for dinner and he doesn't put any salt on his food?

   

If you studied their religion you'd know exactly how significant this is.

A Muslim who eats salt at your table cannot do you harm without offending Allah. Traditionally, then, a Muslim will eat salt with those he truly cares for as a gesture of goodwill, even if eating salt is distasteful to him personally.

Muslim rules about hospitality are very strict.

A Muslim who invites you into his home also swears to protect you with his own life while you are a guest in his home and abiding by the rules of his household.

Little known to some people is that there is a Greek Orthodox monastary in Saudi Arabia that no Muslim would dare violate.

When Mohammed was on the run the Greek monks took him in and sheltered him and when his enemies came to kill him the Greek monks took up their swords and went out and slaughtered the enemies in order to protect their guest.

Every Muslim knows that they are expected to live up to at least this standard that was set by infidels who sheltered the Prophet.

Knowing all of this, a Muslim who sits at your table and refuses your offer of salt is clearly intending to do you harm and is present as a guest in your home as a deception, which is halal if you are an infidel.

   

A reader has sent this letter into The Times, saying that France should follow Britain's example.


Letters to the Editor



The Times November 09, 2005

Britain and French riots



Sir, Had France emulated the British pattern and established a network not just of open and continuing contact with its minority communities, as has been created by our Home Office, but also of lively interfaith interaction, her people would not today be suffering so shocking a rash of violence.

National leaders have time and again manifested their concern that, to quote the Queen in her Christmas broadcast last year, “there is so much to be gained by reaching out to others . . . diversity is indeed a strength and not a threat”. This was given practical voice at a meeting last week of the Three Faiths Forum (of Muslims, Christians and Jews) where a senior Home Office official outlined the national machinery of consultation which has been developed to listen to the new and minority communities and to act on perceived inequality and injustice.

With the close and committed understanding of the British Ambassador to France, Sir John Holmes, over the past year, two seminars were held at the British Embassy in Paris in which we have sought to share our experience in the field of reasoned and open dialogue between communities. We continued this dialogue in London through the good offices of Ambassador Gérard Errera. However, in general it seems difficult for France to recognise that Britain can be a role model. This is a great pity since we have so much of value to share with them at this time of challenge.


SIR SIGMUND STERNBERG
The Three Faiths Forum
London NW5

   

Times Online November 09, 2005

French footballers condemn handling of riots
By Sam Knight and agencies




Lilian Thuram (Jon Dimis/AP)

Top French footballers spoke out today against their Government's heavy handling of the riots that have ripped through France's impoverished housing estates over the last twelve days.

Responding to the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been accused of aggravating the crisis by calling the young, mostly-immigrant protesters "scum", Lilian Thuram, one of France's most respected sportsmen who grew up in a poor suburb, said: "I am not scum".

"I grew up in the suburbs and I feel very close to these youths," said Thuram, a senior figure in the French squad which is currently in Martinique. "The situation makes me sick. Nobody is asking the right questions. Nobody is trying to look at the real problems."

"The most dangerous people are not those who are messing up the suburbs. You really need to think deeply about the root causes," said Thuram, who is a member of France's Haut Conseil a L'Integration, which suggests ways to integrate immigrant communities into mainstream French life.

"The real political debate is how to live together, how to provide jobs," he said. "That’s fundamental. When people have jobs, there are fewer problems."


Lilian Thuram in action for France against Spain.

Thuram, who was born in Guadaloupe, is part of the golden generation of French footballers, many of whom are descended from immigrants from French colonies, that was celebrated as a symbol of the country's racial integration when they won the World Cup in 1998 and the European Cup in 2000.

Thuram's comments were supported by other members of the French team today. Seven members of the current squad, including Thierry Henry, the Arsenal striker, were raised in the tough suburbs of Paris where the violence started nearly two weeks ago.

Henry declined to speak about the riots today, but Eric Abidal, a defender who grew up in La Duchere, a suburb of Lyon, said that the orgy of car-burning and clashes with police that has spread across France was a consequence of endemic unemployment and long-held distrust.

"We have reached breaking point," said Abidal, 26. "This situation is anything but new and a solution is still to be found."

The footballers expressed their frustration on the first full day of the state of emergency that was declared in France yesterday.

Last night, police began enforcing curfews after President Chirac activated an emergency law last used in the 1960s in an attempt to end the riots, which have spread to become the worst civil unrest in France since 1968.

France's official state of emergency began at midnight and poor weather and the new measures conspired to bring a reduction in the violence, with only 617 vehicles burned last night compared to 1,173 the night before.

Nonetheless, there were reported outbreaks of petrol bombings and vicious fighting with police in 116 towns. Police made 280 arrests. There were even isolated cases of car-torching in Berlin and Cologne in Germany, although police said it was too early to tell whether the events were connected.

Today, the Interior Ministry said the use of the emergency law, which was enacted in 1955 to suppress riots in Algeria, a French colony at the time, and the detention of 1,830 youths was bringing the violence under control.

"The arrests are bearing fruit," said a spokesman. "It’s clear there has been a significant drop, but we must persevere."

Under the state of emergency, which is due to last for 12 days, regional authorities can declare curfews, order house searches, prohibit public assembly and put people under house arrest. Curfew breakers will be liable to up to two months’ imprisonment.

Alongside the activation of the law, which was criticised yesterday as "a message of war" by France's largest teachers' union, Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister, announced a multimillion-pound set of initiatives designed to alleviate the distress of immigrant communities.

The package includes the creation of a national anti-discrimination agency and 20,000 jobs with local government bodies for estate dwellers. The Prime Minister told parliament: "We must be clear — the Republic is at a moment of truth. What is in question is the effectiveness of our model of integration."


thetimesonline.co.uk

   

Riots in Belgium (another area of "Old Europe" that thought it would be safe from Muslim attacks because it opposed the Iraq War.)





Arrests, injuries as unrest continues across Belgium


9 November 2005

BRUSSELS — In the third successive night of unrest in Belgium, vandals torched cars, trucks and cellars in Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent on Tuesday, while two suspected arsonists were arrested after they were admitted to hospital for burns injuries.

Belgian police suspect agitators are committing copy-cat acts to the arson attacks witnessed during heavy rioting in France in the past two weeks.

However, a spokesman for the federal government's crisis centre said each case was an "isolated" incident and that there were no large gathering of youths. The crisis centre also said there were no clashes with police.

Despite the assurances, Ghent police are taking the attacks very seriously, but also warned against overreacting: "This does not make a Paris of Ghent".

Police commissioner Steven de Smet and immigrant youths had together reached the same conclusion earlier on Tuesday, but unrest was still reported in the Flemish city overnight.

The Ghent public prosecution office said two car fires were reported within minutes of each other, but only one is being treated as an arson attack.

That car was located in the Kriekerijstraat in Sint-Amandsberg. The other fire, on the Hogeweg, was accidental.

"It is an exceptional coincidence that the burning of both cars happened directly after each other, but they are not connected," Mayor Frank Beke said.

Of course not. The mayor then went on to a presentation of a nice bridge for sale in New York.

Police have a description of the Kriekerijstraat arson suspects, newspaper 'Het Nieuwsblad' reported on Wednesday.

Police commissioner De Smet is taking the arson attack very seriously and said police will conduct a very thorough investigation. "But we must not panic either. For now, we cannot say there are indications of systemic violence."

Meanwhile, two male youths were arrested in Antwerp for an arson attack in the Van Kerckhovestraat. The suspects are Belgian citizens of immigrant background aged 17 and 19.

"We have sufficient indications that they were involved in the arson," Antwerp public prosecution official Dominique Reynders said.

The suspects were admitted with burns injuries to the Stuivenberg Hospital shortly after the blaze. It is suspected that they were injured by their own firebomb.

Their condition has been described as "not best", but both have been arrested and placed under surveillance.

The 19-year-old suspect is reportedly known to police for assault, vandalism and unruliness. His underage companion is not known to police.

Also in Antwerp, a truck fire was reported at a Lidl supermarket car park on the Zeelandstraat at about 10.30pm. The flame then spread to a bus. A witness saw three people running away from the blaze.

Prosecution official Reynders said Antwerp authorities have imposed a policy of zero tolerance, stressing that every incident, however petty, will be prosecuted.

In the Belgian capital Brussels, up to 15 vehicles and two cellars are reported to have been burnt, but order was restored to the city at about 11pm. A massive police presence was visible in the city to ward off unrest.

However, the fire brigade was called out on various occasions. The first series of arson attacks was reported at about 8pm and the second was reported at about 10pm.

A fire was deliberately lit in the cellar of a social housing complex on the de Albert I Square in Anderlecht. The same occurred in a residence on the Willemans Ceuppensstraat in Vorst.

A small truck was torched in the Sergeant De Bruynstraat in Anderlecht in the vicinity of the Clemenceau train station. A car was also torched on the Lemmensplein in Anderlecht.

Two vehicles were set ablaze on the Mariemontkaai and the Edmond Machtenslaan in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. Another vehicle was torched in Andennestraat in Sint-Gillis, where rubbish was also set on fire.

www.expatica.com . . .

   

Their religion is their culture and vice versa. I had thought that was pretty obvious.

   

You guys should count your blessings.

Wwwwwhy cccccaaaan't we all jjjjjjust get along?

   

They can burn all the French cars they want, but when they start burning good German cars, we need to kick their asses.

   

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