Not a joke - In Iran, mannequins must wear hijab

'Iranians who violate dress codes for the first time are generally cautioned, but repeat offenders can face court action and "guidance classes".' Do the mannequins go to such classes too?

 

Iran police 'target mannequins' 

 Iranian women are often the target of crackdowns on Western-style dress
Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports.

 

Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said.

 

The move is part of a crackdown on Western influences and enforcement of dress codes in recent years.

 

"Un-Islamic behaviour" has been targeted since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first election in 2005.

 

"Using unusual mannequins exposing body curves and with heads without hijabs [Muslim veils] are prohibited to be used in the shops," police said in a statement carried by Irna.

 

Correspondents say that in the past such campaigns usually only lasted throughout the summer, but last year's crackdown, including on tight trousers for women, was still continuing in the winter.

 

Iranians who violate dress codes for the first time are generally cautioned, but repeat offenders can face court action and "guidance classes".

Jew conspiracy does it again - stops book burner from being culture Czar

If it wasn't for the international Jew conspiracy, Egypt's book-burning culture minister would have become head of UNESCO, culture czar of the UN. That's what Farouk Hosni contends. Other than Jews, everyone things culture czar's should advocate book burning it seems.

 

Farouk Hosny says "European countries and the world's Jews" wanted him to lose. Obviously, he was the ideal candidate, right?

 

Shame on those wicked Jewz.

Report: Vatican knew about Holocaust Denying bishop Williamson when he was reinstated

We sort of knew this already, didn't we? But it is so sad, that we didn't want to admit it.

 

Swedish TV: Vatican Knew About Holocaust-Denier
Swedish TV says Vatican knew about Holocaust-denying bishop when ex-communication lifted
By KARL RITTER
The Associated Press

STOCKHOLM

 

A Swedish TV program to be aired Wednesday claims that top Vatican officials knew that an ultraconservative British bishop was a Holocaust-denier when his excommunication was lifted in January.

 

The program, which was obtained by The Associated Press prior to broadcast, could add new fuel to the controversy over Bishop Richard Williamson.

 

Jews and Catholics worldwide were outraged after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of Williamson, along with three other ultraconservative bishops, in an attempt to bring dissidents back into the mainstream church.

 

The order, dated Jan. 21, came as Sweden's SVT aired an interview recorded two months earlier in which Williamson said he didn't believe any Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II.

 

Vatican officials have said they didn't know about the interview at the time. Benedict later condemned Williamson's remarks and spoke out against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

 

Yet in a follow-up report, SVT says the Vatican had been informed of Williamson's Holocaust-denial shortly after the interview was recorded in November. It doesn't suggest, however, that the pope knew about the remarks.

 

The program singles out Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who had been leading efforts to heal the schism with the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X. The Vatican announced in July that Castrillon Hoyos was stepping down after reaching the customary retirement age of 80.

 

The SVT program says Sweden's Catholic diocese informed the apostolic nuncio — the Vatican envoy to Sweden — about Williamson's remarks and that he in turn informed Vatican officials, including Castrillon Hoyos.

 

"Naturally we passed all the information that we had on to the nuncio. After that I don't really know how it moved along," Stockholm Bishop Anders Arborelius told SVT.

 

In a statement Wednesday, the diocese reiterated that it had sent a report about the content of interview to the Vatican in November 2008.

 

The SVT program says the Vatican envoy, Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig, confirmed off-camera that he contacted several people in the Vatican, including Castrillon Hoyos, immediately after receiving the report in November.

 

Tscherrig did not immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday.

 

In a statement commenting on the program, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said it was "absolutely without foundation to claim or even insinuate that the pope was informed in advance of Williamson's positions."

 

"The pope has explained the reason for the remission of the excommunication as a gesture in favor of church unity and at the same time showed the total groundlessness of the accusations that he (the pope) showed a lack of respect for the Jewish people," Lombardi said.

 

The statement didn't address whether other Vatican officials knew about Williamson's remarks.

 

Castrillon Hoyos said in a newspaper interview Jan. 29 that no one at the Vatican knew about Williamson's views until after the decree had been signed.

 

"We absolutely didn't know anything about this Williamson," he told the Corriere della Sera.

 

Castrillon Hoyos had been head of the Pontifical "Ecclesia Dei" Commission, which was charged with reconciling with the Society of St. Pius X. In announcing his retirement on July 8, the Vatican said that effort would now be headed by Cardinal William Levada, the highest-ranking U.S. churchman in the Vatican hierarchy.

 

Levada heads the Vatican's powerful orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Benedict headed for decades before becoming pope in 2005.

 

"(The pope) recognized with candor the limits of internal and external Vatican communication, and gave a new status to the Ecclesia Dei Commission, just to guarantee a better and safer way in dealing with matters relating to relations with traditionalists," Lombardi said in the statement Wednesday.

 

"To relaunch the 'Williamson case' can only serve to continue to create confusion for no reason," he said.

 

In last year's Swedish interview, Williamson denied that 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. He said about 200,000 or 300,000 were murdered and none were gassed.

 

Williamson later apologized for his remarks, saying he would never have made them if he had known "the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise." But he did not say his comments had been erroneous, nor that he no longer believed them.

Farcical UN circus brings Gaddafi in a tent, but US town bans it

What is needed is for a group like ISM to go to this town and stop the demolition of Gaddafi's tent. 

 

US town bans Libyan leader's tent

US officials have ordered workers to stop the construction of a tent for Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi near New York, a local attorney says.

 

The erection of the tent "violated several codes and laws of the town of Bedford", attorney Joel Sachs says.

 

It also emerged the Bedouin-style tent was being set up on property rented from real estate mogul Donald Trump.

 

Col Gaddafi had reportedly planned to use the tent for entertaining during the UN General Assembly in New York.

 

Libyan officials have so far not publicly commented on the issue.

 

Col Gaddafi - who arrived in New York on Tuesday - traditionally shuns official residences during his trips abroad.

 

Trump's statement

 

Bedford town attorney Joel Sachs said officials had given "a stop work" order to teams pitching Col Gaddafi's tent in the town, about 30 miles (48km) north of New York.
 
There is no such thing as diplomatic immunity when it comes to complying with local laws

 

But he said the workers did not speak English and the order was then issued to the property caretaker.

 

"There is no such thing as diplomatic immunity when it comes to complying with local laws and ordinances," Mr Sachs was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

 

"This is a private piece of property and they have to comply with the laws of this municipality."

 

Mr Sachs said the authorities in Bedford had learned of Col Gaddafi's plans from the US secret service.

 

Col Gaddafi is due to make his first visit to the UN General Assembly

 

Meanwhile, Mr Trump said in a statement that part of the estate "was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship to Mr Gaddafi".

 

"We are looking into the matter," the statement added.

 

Last week, Libyan officials agreed not to pitch Col Gaddafi's tent in the grounds of a Libyan-owned property in the New Jersey town of Englewood because of opposition from local residents.

 

They protested against the warm welcome given in Libya to the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, following his release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

 

Dozens of families in New Jersey lost loved ones when Pan Am flight 103 blew up over Scotland.

Obama, Bibi and Abbas at the Summit of the absurd

Another drama in the aimless "peace" process has been enacted...

 

The summit of the absurd: Middle East process without peace

09/23/2009

http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000776.htm

Eugene Ionescu or Samuel Becket could have written a play called "The Middle East Peace Process." Yesterday, in the Yet Another Middle East Summit that took place at the UN, we witnessed another scene in that play. Vladimir, Estragon and Godot himself appeared on the stage, said the same old things, provided the usual photo op, and departed to polite applause.

Over and over we hear the same pronouncements about the urgency of peace, about the final status agreement that is within reach, about the confidence building measures, about the need to compromise and make painful sacrifices, about the willingness to take risks for peace. We see the same photos of handshakes, tableaux that are repeated without end. The play has been running so long that all the actors have changed. Vladimir is played by Benjamin Netanyahu replaced Ehud Olmert, who replaced Ariel Sharon, who replaced Ehud Barak, who replaced Benjamin Netanyahu in his first appearance, who replaced Shimon Peres, who replaced the original Yitzhak Rabin, Estragon is ably portrayed by Mahmoud Abbas in place of Yasser Arafat, and Barack Obama replaced George Bush the Second, who replaced Bill Clinton, who replaced George Bush the First. Life, after all, must go on.

The essence of this postmodernist drama is that there is really no metanarrative. There is no plot. There is no progress, because there is nothing to progress towards. It is pointless diplomatic Dadaism. It cannot progress because of the "Human Condition" or in this case, the condition of the Middle East.

Continued here: http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000776.htm

Latest Al-Qaeda hit: Obama to be brought down by Muslim nation

Coming soon to a theater near you.

Al Qaeda predicts Obama's fall by Muslim nation

23/09/2009

 

CAIRO (AP) - Al Qaeda on Tuesday released a new 106-minute long video predicting President Barack Obama's downfall at the hands of the Muslim world.
The Arabic-language video, entitled "The West and the Dark Tunnel," is part of series of messages by the organization marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Bin Laden released a short message of his own on Sept. 14.

 

Like similar long messages on previous anniversaries, it featured testimony from several leading Al Qaeda figures intercut with news footage from the past year.

 

As in the past, Al Qaeda attempted to conflate Obama with his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was widely disliked by Muslims for his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Many analysts believe that Al Qaeda has been alarmed by Obama's comparative popularity in the Middle East, especially following his landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in June.

 

"America has come in a new, hypocritical face. Smiling at us, but stabbing us with the same dagger that Bush used," said Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri in the message. "God willing, your end will be at the hands of the Muslim nation, so that the world and history will be free of your crimes and lies," he said addressing Obama at the end of the two-part video.

 

The message also featured several appearances of Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, an American who grew up in southern California, converted to Islam and joined Al Qaeda. He was charged with treason in 2006 and there is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

 

Gadahn's remarks celebrating the defeat of Bush and ridiculing Obama suggest the video was made in late August or early September. "The important question is will Obama and his Democrats learn from his predecessor's mistakes or will they go on repeating them until they too leave office in humiliation and disgrace," said the heavily bearded American, dressed in a white robe.

 

"Unfortunately for the Democrats, and judging by their first seven-and-a-half months at the helm of the sinking American ship, the prognosis doesn't look good," he said. The message included a lengthy section on U.S. prisons and torture facilities and showed footage of what appeared to be an American torturing an Afghan for information by dunking his head into a bucket of water.

 

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist Web sites, identified the person conducting the torture as Jonathan Keith Idema, who also appeared in last year's Al Qaeda video.

 

The message also discussed the progress of the various jihadi movements around the world, in particular Taliban victories against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

 

The video's strident anti-American tone and detailed enumeration of what it describes as the U.S. crimes was in sharp contrast to the earlier bin Laden message, which appeared to be an appeal to the American people to sever their ties with Israel and end the war with Al Qaeda.

 

Ahmadinejad Unwelcome at New York Hotel

This is somewhat remarkable, since NY hotels have put up with a variety of unusual and unsavory characters including King Saud and Fidel Castro.

 

 NYC hotel cancels banquet after learning Ahmadinejad on guest list

New York's Helmsley Hotel said on Friday it canceled a banquet set for next week when it learned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was on the guest list, saying the man who called the Holocaust a lie was not welcome.

 

Ahmadinejad was due in New York next week to attend the UN General Assembly, and his public appearances outside the meeting have generated controversy in recent years.

 

"As soon as Helmsley corporate management learned of the possibility of either the Iranian mission or President Ahmadinejad holding a function at the New York Helmsley Hotel, they immediately ordered the cancellation of that function," hotel spokesman Howard Rubenstein said in a statement.

 
"Neither the Iranian mission nor President Ahmadinejad is welcome at any Helmsley facility," the statement said without saying why.

 

A group called United Against Nuclear Iran told the hotel that Ahmadinejad was on the guest list, he said.

 

The New York Post reported the banquet was booked months ago by an Iranian student group.

 

Ahmadinejad on Friday called the Holocaust "a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim" in comments to worshipers at Tehran University