Sur JihadWatch :

On Sunday 25 March, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported in its print edition (not available online) that the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, the communist Fausto Bertinotti, has had removed a painting showing a scene from the Battle of Lepanto from the hall in which he receives visitors to this lower house of parliament.

A letter from a reader of Giuliano Ferrara’s daily Il Foglio first brought the news to public attention, after which the story has also been picked up by Il Giornale. According to the latter newspaper, the painting has been replaced by a picture of a roe deer.

Confronted with the matter, Bertinotti says it is a gesture of peace and dialogue, the painting’s title being « Naval battle between Christians and barbarians », but an anonymous insider reveals it was done to avoid offending Muslims.

The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7, 1571. The Holy League, comprised of the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, Spain, Genoa, and others, defeated the Ottoman Turks in a decisive sea battle that significantly diminished the jihadists’ chances to subdue all of Europe. Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote (before Pierre Menard wrote it, that is), lost a hand in the battle, earning him the sobriquet el manco de Lepanto.

Tres bon article sur NRO, concernant les reductions de CO2 publiees par l’Agence europenne de l’environnement.

C’est reparti, Doudou Diène, rapporteur spécial de l’ONU contre le racisme en remet une couche au moment où Christophe Blocher ouvre le dialogue avec le musulmans. Accusée d’être raciste, la Suisse est priée par le technocrate de prendre des mesures. Apparemment il n’a pas saisi que l’antiracisme institusionnalisé ne fait qu’inviter un peu plus au racisme. Réaction comique du côté de l’UDC par la bouche de Roman Jäggi, porte-parole du parti, qui a déclaré pouvoir éventuellement accepter «qu’un représentant de l’ONU nous fasse des critiques puisque nous sommes maintenant membres de l’ONU, mais c’est quand même le comble que ces remarques viennent d’un Sénégalais ». Entre les agrariens primaires et le technocrate sénégalais, une belle histoire d’amour semble se profiler, et ensemble ils contribueront certainement au renforcement effectif du racisme insupportable des Suisses.

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Quelques résultats, encore vagues, de la réunion convoquée par Christophe Blocher avec des représentants du monde musulmans.

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A l’heure où l’actuel squatter et (Dieu merci) très prochain SDF de l’Elysée profite de ses derniers jours pour sortir les deux volumes de ses impérissables chiraqueries, à savoir ses sempiternelles variations et avertissements sur les “méfaits” du libéralisme, sorties, ironie du calendrier,… le jour même du 50e anniversaire de l’Europe qui nous a rendus riches …

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At least six people were killed Tuesday when the wall of a large cesspool collapsed, flooding the northern Gaza Beduin village of Umm Naser with mud and raw sewage, Palestinian medical officials said.

Widow attends massacre trial wearing Mohammed

cartoon

26 March 2007

MADRID – The widow of a man killed in the Madrid bombings attended the trial of Islamic radicals with a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed with a bomb on her T-shirt.

The judge in charge of trial on Monday asked security guards to check the woman’s T-shirt and ordered the cameras to halt live transmissions.

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27 March 2007

AMSTERDAM – Former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now in danger in the US as well. Her security has been stepped up for the past three weeks. Because of concrete threats, she is now receiving the same level of protection as she previously needed in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant reports.

Hirsi Ali had more freedom of movement when she first arrived in the US last September. Her lack of freedom in the Netherlands was one of the reasons for her move.

The forced isolation made it impossible for her to continue in her position as MP at the time, she said. The Liberal VVD politician had to travel by armoured car in the Netherlands, accompanied by six bodyguards. In the US just two security workers, who kept an eye on her from a distance, sufficed.
Hirsi Ali’s protection is carried out by American security personnel commissioned by the Dutch Justice department. Hirsi Ali works at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, a think-tank that has close ties with the Republican party.

As in the Netherlands, the threats against her come from Muslim extremists. (Lire la suite…)

Le sous-titrage en français de la vidéo par notre honorable correspondante et collaboratice Pistache.

Un boulot énorme, 1h 39 min.

Dès l’école élémentaire… Ou pourquoi des maitresses ont banni les Legos de leur programme d’ »after-school ».

 Banning Legos
And building a world where “all structures will be standard sizes.”

By John J. Miller

Perhaps you’ve heard about the schools that have banned tag ( Jouer a chat). Or dodgeball ( genre de balle au chasseur ou ballon prisonnier). Or stories about pigs.

If so, you won’t be surprised to hear that the Hilltop Children’s Center in Seattle has banned Legos.

A pair of teachers at the center, which provides afterschool activities for elementary-school kids, recently described their policy in a Rethinking Schools cover story called “Why We Banned Legos.” (See the magazine’s cover here.)

It has something to do with “social justice learning.” (Lire la suite…)

Le Wall Street Journal se pose la question, ainsi que de nombreux observateurs qui ont du mal à trouver un fil conducteur au volte-face récent de la Russie vis-à-vis de son client nucléaire , l’Iran.

Little Sweaty Fist
Why is Putin now getting tough on Iran?

BY BRET STEPHENS
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

« This is very easy to understand, » said Russian President Vladimir Putin last year, explaining his idea of an energy policy. « Just think back to childhood when you go into the street with a sweet in your hand and another kid says, Give it to me. And you clutch your little sweaty fist tight around it and say, What do I get then? »

So why, when it comes to the Iranian nuclear file, has Mr. Putin finally opened his little sweaty fist, signing on–with no apparent compensations–to additional U.N. sanctions on the Islamic Republic while calling a halt to Russia’s construction of the nuclear reactor at Bushehr?

That’s the $64,000 question to which nobody seems to have anything better than a partial answer. Nearly from day one of his presidency, Mr. Putin has been Iran’s best friend at the U.N. and, not so coincidentally, the leading supplier of its advanced conventional weapons. In 2000, the Kremlin tore up the so-called Chernomyrdin Agreement, a secret protocol negotiated by then Vice President Al Gore, in which Russia pledged to stop selling arms to Iran within five years. In 2002, deputy foreign minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov went out of his way to state that « Russia does not accept President George W. Bush’s view that Iran is part of an ‘axis of evil.’ »

Since then, Russia has openly supplied Iran with sophisticated surface-to-air missiles. There are reliable reports that Russia has also assisted Iran covertly with its ballistic-missile technology. The Bushehr deal, itself valued at $1 billion, was intended as just the first of five planned reactors, worth $10 billion. Russian diplomats have diluted to near-insignificance the sanctions imposed so far by the U.N. In January, Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov paid a call on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. It seems the meeting went well: « The Islamic Republic, » said the Ayatollah, « welcomes all-out promotion of relations with Russia, believing the capacity for expansion between the two sides is higher than expected. » (Lire la suite…)

Muslim singer YUSUF ISLAM reportedly refused to speak with the female guides at a German event over the weekend (24-25MAR07) because they weren’t veiled – despite accepting an honour for building bridges between Eastern and Western cultures.

The star, formerly known as CAT STEVENS, received a special prize at the Echo Awards last night (25MAR07) in Berlin for his musical, social and political work and was praised as a bridge-builder between the West and the Islamic world.

However, when the FATHER AND SON singer, 58, rehearsed his appearance the day before the prize giving (24MAR07), he acted rather narrow minded, according to German publication B.Z.

When the hostesses approached Islam, who arrived with his management and his veiled wife FAEZIA, telling him that they were his guides, he simply ignored them and didn’t even take a look at the women.

Islam’s manager explains, “Mr Islam doesn’t speak with women except his wife. Least of all if they don’t wear a headscarf. Things like that only happen via an intermediary.”

Pour ceux qui soutiennent et même chérissent ce petit îlot de liberté et de démocratie dans cet océan de tyrannie et de fanatisme qu’est toujours le Moyen-Orient (et qui à
présent appelle ouvertement à sa disparition!), l’apparente augmentation des scandales politico-financiers qui secouent l’Etat hébreu et réjouissent tant ses ennemis ces derniers temps n’est, il est vrai, pas trop rassurante.

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La situation internationale (Iran) étant tendue, il est de tradition qu’eXc vous offre une détente méritée.

POURQUOI LES HOMMES AIMENT LA VW COCCINELLE 

Original: Ronny Gordon

Intéressant entretien, dans le Jerusalem Post, de l’historien classique et militaire Victor Davis Hanson sur Israël et le Moyen-Orient.

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No Sex, Please, We’re French

By STEPHEN CLARKE

Paris

“THE French claim to be a nation of rebels. They guillotined Louis XVI in 1793, they had uprisings in 1848 and 1871, and they boast that they maintain this noble tradition of protest in their habit of rioting every time there are rumblings of political discontent. In fact, though, their heyday of revolution is over. Twenty-first century France rebels against change, not for it. (Lire la suite…)

Tehran’s Hostages
Iran’s act of war against our British allies.

WSJ, Monday, March 26, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT Advocates of engagement with Tehran often claim that the Islamic Republic long ago shed its revolutionary pretensions in favor of becoming a « status quo » power. They might want to share that soothing wisdom with the families of the 15 British sailors and marines kidnapped Friday in Iraqi territorial waters by the naval forces of the elite, and aptly named, Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

In an earlier day, what Iran has done would have been universally regarded as an act of war. It was a premeditated act, carried out only hours before Britain voted to stiffen sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program in a unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution. Iran captured a smaller detachment of British forces in the same waters in 2004, claiming they had strayed across the Iranian border. It beggars belief–as well as an eyewitness account of the incident reported by Reuters–that the British would make that mistake twice, assuming they made it the first time. (Lire la suite…)

« The position of moderate Muslims is that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Do you buy that? » Simon asks.

« No, absolutely not. By completely being in denial about it’s like an alcoholic basically. Unless an alcoholic acknowledges that he has a problem with alcohol, he’s never gonna be able to go forward, » Butt argues. « And as long as we, as Muslims, do not acknowledge that there is a violent streak in Islam, unless we acknowledge that, then we are gonna always lose the battle to the militants, by being in complete denial about it. »