Cartoon do Mickey com barba causa turbulência no Egipto

An Egyptian Christian telecom mogul has angered Islamic hard-liners by posting an online cartoon of Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie in a face veil.
The ultraconservative Islamists, known as Salafis, called the cartoon posted by Naguib Sawiris on Twitter a mockery of Islam. They launched an online campaign calling on Muslims in Egypt to boycott Sawiris' mobile phone company Mobinil. Shares of Mobilnil and Orascom Telecom, which Sawiris founded, both fell Monday on the Egyptian stock exchange.
Sawiris, who is also a politician, promotes a secular Egypt. He owns media companies and after Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11, he launched a political party that calls for separation of state and religion.
After the cartoon posted a few days ago stirred complaints on Twitter, Sawiris tweeted an apology on Friday and claimed he was joking.
"I apologize for those who don't take this as a joke; I just thought it was a funny picture; no disrespect meant. I am sorry," he tweeted.
But new Facebook groups cropped and quickly gained more than 60,000 followers, calling for a boycott of his widely used cell phone company.
Named "We are joking Sawiris," the Facebook group said: "If you are really a Muslim, and you love your religion, boycott his projects. We have to cut out the tongue of any person who attacks our religion."
At least 15 Salafi lawyers have filed lawsuits accusing Sawiris of religious contempt, an official at the prosecutor general office said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Ver notícia no LaCrosseTribune

Os países mais perigosos do mundo para as mulheres

Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan are the world's most dangerous countries for women due to a barrage of threats ranging from violence and rape to dismal healthcare and "honour killngs", a Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll showed on Wednesday.
India and Somalia ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, in the global perceptions survey by TrustLaw, the Foundation's legal news service.
TrustLaw asked 213 gender experts from five continents to rank countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by six risks: health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking.
Following are key facts on each of the five countries, ranked in order of danger. [...]

Ver notícia noTrustLaw

Polícia 'cobriu' campanha violenta para tornar a área de Londres 'Islâmica'

Victims say that officers in the borough of Tower Hamlets have ignored or downplayed outbreaks of hate crime, and suppressed evidence implicating Muslims in them, because they fear being accused of racism.

The claims come as four Tower Hamlets Muslims were jailed for at least 19 years for attacking a local white teacher who gave religious studies lessons to Muslim girls.

The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than a dozen other cases in Tower Hamlets where both Muslims and non-Muslims have been threatened or beaten for behaviour deemed to breach fundamentalist “Islamic norms.”

One victim, Mohammed Monzur Rahman, said he was left partially blind and with a dislocated shoulder after being attacked by a mob in Cannon Street Road, Shadwell, for smoking during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan last year. [...]

Ver notícia no Telegraph

Véu islâmico retirou sonho olímpico às mulheres iranianas

Imediatamente antes do início do jogo de qualificação diante da Jordânia, chegava a notícia: a selecção feminina do Irão tinha sido banida pela FIFA por causa do véu islâmico.

O sonho de o Irão ter uma equipa a competir no torneio de futebol feminino nos Jogos Olímpicos de 2012, em Londres, foi destroçado por uma decisão inesperada: o véu islâmico que as jogadoras usam durante as partidas infringe as regras da FIFA. A notícia foi conhecida instantes antes do início do jogo de qualificação diante da Jordânia, e a partida já não se realizou. No relvado, as jogadores já tinham alinhado para o começo da partida, e algumas receberam com lágrimas e consternação o facto de serem impedidas de jogar.

As futebolistas iranianas jogam com um fato de corpo inteiro e um lenço na cabeça. A responsável pelo futebol feminino da Federação iraniana, Farideh Shojaei, disse à agência Reuters que já tinham sido feitas alterações ao equipamento das mulheres no ano passado, após uma decisão da FIFA. “Fizemos as correcções solicitadas e já jogámos um encontro depois”, disse a responsável, sublinhando que se acreditava que tivesse sido aprovado pelo organismo dirigido por Joseph Blatter. [...]

Ver notícia no Público

O regresso da poligamia? Mais de 187.000 mulheres turcas dividem o marido com outra pessoa

«Una mujer saludable que analiza por lo que tiene que pasar en caso de divorcio debería, en mi opinión, considerar la poligamia como forma de salvación». Estas palabras serían polémicas en cualquier contexto. Lo son mucho más porque quien las ha pronunciado, Sibel Üresin, es una conocida consultora familiar que asesora al ayuntamiento de Estambul.

Joven –apenas 35 años–, siempre ataviada con un inmaculado velo, Üresin es una figura recurrente en los debates televisivos que tratan cuestiones sobre familia e Islam.

Como especialista, imparte seminarios sobre comunicación dentro de la familia para las municipalidades más conservadoras de Estambul, como Eyüp o Fatih. De ahí lo chocante de sus declaraciones: «Si yo fuese hombre, habría sido polígamo», dijo ayer [...].

Ver notícia no ABC 

Igreja cristã ortodoxa demolida no Norte de Chipre

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expressed its concern over the demolition of the 200-year-old Greek Orthodox Chapel of Saint Thekla in the village of Vokolida, in the area of the Republic of Cyprus under the control of the Turkish troops and administered by Turkish Cypriot authorities.  The church was demolished on May 2, 2011. USCIRF calls on local Turkish Cypriot authorities to commit to rebuild the church.

“Local Turkish Cypriot authorities have generally failed to take adequate measures to protect religious places of worship from vandals and looters.” said USCIRF Chair, Leonard Leo. “Allowing the demolition of the Saint Thekla chapel exemplifies the ongoing disrespect and violations by Turkish troops and local Turkish Cypriot authorities for the religious freedom and heritage of Greek Orthodox and other religious minority communities in the northern part of Cyprus,” continued Mr. Leo.

A USCIRF delegation travelled to northern Cyprus in February 2011 and saw firsthand the decrepit state of numerous Christian Orthodox churches caused by a prohibition on religious minority groups against repairing their places of worship.  [...]

Ver notícia da US Commission on International Religious Freedom

Confrontos entre cristãos e muçulmanos no Cairo fazem dez mortos e uma centena de feridos

A violência entre os dois grupos religiosos lançou o caos durante a noite no densamente populado bairro de Imbaba, na capital, após o ataque de muçulmanos a uma igreja, depois de se ter sabido que uma mulher cristã que queria converter-se ao islão teria sido ali encerrada.
O primeiro-ministro Essam Charaf adiou a visita que tinha marcada para os Emirados Árabes Unidos e Bahrain, segundo está a avançar a televisão estatal egípcia. Os confrontos levaram a que o exército e a polícia anti-motim tivesse de actuar, tendo sido confirmado já que 190 pessoas vão ser julgadas em tribunal militar devido a estes confrontos.
"O Conselho Supremo Militar [que exerce provisoriamente o poder no país, desde a deposição de Hosni Mubarak, a 11 de Fevereiro] decidiu enviar para julgamento no Tribunal Supremo Militar todos aqueles que foram detidos durante os incidentes de ontem, ou seja, 190 pessoas", foi anunciado pelo organismo na sua página na rede social Facebook.
Também no mesmo bairro de Imbaba uma outra igreja foi incendiada  [...].


Ver notícia no Público

A emigração muçulmana transforma a Finlândia

As in other European countries (here and here), the politically correct guardians of Finnish multiculturalism have tried to silence public discussion about the escalating problem of Muslim immigration.
In March 2009, for example, Jussi Kristian Halla-aho, a politician and well-known political commentator, was taken to court on charges of "incitement against an ethnic group" and "breach of the sanctity of religion" for writing that Islam is a religion of paedophilia. He was referring to the Islamic prophet Mohammed, who is believed to have married a six year old girl and consummated the marriage when she was nine.
A Helsinki court later dropped the charges of blasphemy but ordered Halla-aho to pay a fine of €330 ($450) for disturbing religious worship. The Finnish public prosecutor, incensed at the lower court's dismissal of the blasphemy charges, appealed the case to the Finnish Supreme Court, where it is now being reviewed.
Halla-Aho, the best-known political blogger in Finland, maintains a blog entitled Scripta, that deals with issues such as "immigration, multiculturalism, tolerance, racism, freedom of speech and political correctness." His blog has between 3,000 and 6,000 readers a day. According to Halla-aho, immigration is a taboo topic in Finland. He has received death threats because of his web columns, which criticize the number of immigrants coming to Finland and argue that Muslims cannot be integrated. [...]

Ver artigo no Hudson New York 

Tribunal da Jordânia quer julgar cartoonista dinamarquês que caricaturou Maomé

A Jordanian court will begin this month the trial of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard over a controversial caricature of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, but it was unclear if he will attend.
Zakarya Sheikh, spokesman for a group of local media outlets that sued Westergaard in 2008 for depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, said on Thursday the artist and others have been summoned by a magistrates' court in Amman to stand trial on April 25."
A copy of the subpoena obtained by AFP says Westergaard "is accused of the crime of blasphemy." [...]

Ver notícia no France 24 

Congolês apresenta queixa contra "Tintin no Congo"

"Tintin no Congo", segunda aventura de Tintin, "velha" de 77 anos, volta a ser alvo de acusações de racismo, desta vez por parte de um congolês, residente na Bélgica, que avançou com um processo no Tribunal de Primeira Instância de Bruxelas contra a sociedade Moulinsart, que gere os direitos da obra de Hergé, exigindo a sua imediata retirada de circulação.
O autor da queixa, Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu, considera o álbum "racista e xenófobo", acrescentando que "foram estas teses racistas que serviram de suporte às descriminações sociais, às segregações étnicas e a actos de violência como os genocídios". E acrescenta que Hergé reconheceu que o álbum podia ter essa leitura quando disse "que, na sua época, não podia deixar de considerar os negros como crianças grandes", afirmando "não ser mais racista que os seus contemporâneos", reclamando, por isso, indemnização de um euro.
Esqueceu-se, no entanto, de que Hergé também afirmou "não gostar dos colonialistas", fez diversas alterações quando remodelou o álbum para a versão colorida, em 1946, e que condenou claramente o tráfico de escravos negros em "Carvão no Porão". [...]

Ver notícia no JN

‘Os britânicos precisam de ser ver como uma única nação‘ diz Ministra da Segurança britânica

It is not enough for Muslims to “rub along” without breaking the law, they must be persuaded that their long-term future lies in Britain, the Security Minister has said.
Baroness Neville-Jones told the Daily Telegraph that that at the same time the government need to persuade the majority of the population that the UK is a single nation.
The minister said there needed to be a new approach in which people did not simply “rub along together and as long as people obey the law that’s quite sufficient.”
“I think it’s a common experience now that we know less about each other than we used to and I think there’s a very strong feeling that we need to understand each other and we need to be working together as a nation,” Lady Neville-Jones added.
“[We are] trying to convince minorities in this country that they actually do have a long term future here and that it’s their country as much as anybody else’s,” she said in an interview.
It is also important to “convince the majority population we are a single nation,” she added

Ver notícia no Telegraph

Jovens bilingues com desempenho pior na escola

Researcher Reza Kormi-Nouri's study shows that bilingual children have a linguistic head start when they first go to school, but fall behind as they get older. His study, published in the 'Bilingualism: Language and Cognition' journal, runs counter to previous previous findings in the field.
"It's surprising because until now we believed it was the other way around: that bilingual children do worse in the first years of school but then catch up," said Kormi-Nouri in a release.
Kormi-Nouri carried out two types of tests in Iran on bilingual and monolingual children aged between 7 and 12-years-old. All of the children were tested in Persian, the language used in school. At home, the bilingual children spoke either Turkish or Kurdish.
The children were first given three minutes to come up with as many words as possible starting with a certain letter or relating to a particular category.
The younger bilingual children matched the single-language children in the letter test and scored higher in the category test. As they grew older, however, the bilingual children were overtaken, and Kormi-Nouri noted that the discrepancy widened with age.  [...]

Ver notícia no The Local

Cristãos coptas do Egipto sofrem mais ataques

Copts in Egypt are begging for Egyptian Armed Forces protection today after a Muslim mob of several thousand attacked their church in the village of Soul, about 30 kilometers from Cairo, last night. The Church of St. Mina and St. George was torched, and its clergy are unaccounted for. The fire department and security forces failed to respond to Coptic pleas for help during the arson attack.

According to a report from the Washington-based Coptic American Friendship Association, the mob, chanting “Allahu Akbar,” pulled down the church’s cross and detonated a handful of gas cylinders inside the structure. The ensuing fire destroyed the church and all its contents, including the sacred relics of centuries-old saints. It is reported that a romantic relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman, which sharia forbids, and the refusal of the woman’s father to kill her to restore the community’s “honor,” aroused the Muslim ire. An account of this incident is here. (I also received a message from a Coptic friend that this week members of the Muslim Brotherhood, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” stormed a Christian school on Thabit Street in downtown Asyut and attempted to take it over. Egyptian security forces, including an army unit, intervened and routed out the Brotherhood members. The school had been built by Presbyterian missionaries in the early 1900s, and is now directed by Presbyterian Pastor Naji. Christian leaders from this southern area expressed a deepening sense of insecurity as the Muslim Brotherhood emerges from the underground.) [...]

Ver notícia no National Review Online

Ministro (cristão) paquistanês das minorias assassinado

Shahbaz Bhatti was Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities and today he paid the price for belonging to the most despised Pakistani minority of all: Christians. He was shot dead in his car for the crime of campaigning to reform the country’s medieval blasphemy laws. Those laws are used to make life hell for Christians – but that doesn’t seem to bother Britain and the EU, which pour millions of pounds into Pakistan and don’t make a big deal out of anti-Christian persecution.
I don’t recall an enormous fuss being made, either, when Egypt last week acquitted the suspected murderers of six Coptic Christians mown down as they left Mass in Nag Hammadi in January. That was the “justice” handed out to Christians in Mubarak’s Egypt. If the Muslim Brotherhood seize power, this sort of case won’t even come to court.
Thank God, then, for our allies in Afghanistan. Following intense and secretive diplomatic pressure, they have magnanimously decided not to execute a man who converted to Christianity. So, you see, we did bring freedom to the Afghan people after all!

Ver notícia no Telegraph

O multiculturalismo em retirada

At long last a European politician, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, lifted the curtain on the pernicious dimensions of multiculturalism. After several decades of home grown terrorism and an acceptance of separation by Muslim groups in the United Kingdom, the prime minister said, “enough.”

A new course will be charted that moves from accommodation to integration. There may be a risk of xenophobia with the Cameron approach, but it is a worthwhile trade-off if terrorist impulses are thwarted.

Mr. Cameron called his strategy “muscular liberalism,” to wit: confronting extremist Islamic thought and challenging those efforts that attempt to undermine Western values. For example, the prime minister made special mention of zero tolerance for the subjugation of women, a practice permitted because of Islamic separation and application of sharia.

The notion that different groups within a society should be encouraged to pursue their own cultural paths is a formulation based on religious tolerance. But as George Santayana, among others, noted the first duty of the tolerant man is to exercise intolerance for intolerance. In other words, a proverbial line in the sand must be drawn when religious groups use societal tolerance to promote intolerance. 

Ver artigo em Family Security Matters

Líder democrata-cristão holandês sublinha falhanço do multiculturalismo

Christian Democrat leader Maxime Verhagen on Monday said the multicultural society has failed. He was speaking during the recording of tv show Nova College Tour, reports the Algemeen Dagblad.
Verhagen told the programme the Dutch no longer feel at home in their own country and immigrants are not entirely happy here either.
The minister wants the Dutch to be prouder of their country like people in the US where they first say they are American and then where they originally come from, says the paper.
He follows his European colleagues in declaring multiculturalism a failure. German chancellor Angela Merkel, British prime minister David Cameron and French president Nicolas Sarkozy have all said the same, the paper states.

 Ver notícia no DutchNews.nl

O multiculturalismo falhou, diz o Presidende francês

French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Thursday that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.
"My answer is clearly yes, it is a failure," he said in a television interview when asked about the policy which advocates that host societies welcome and foster distinct cultural and religious immigrant groups.
"Of course we must all respect differences, but we do not want... a society where communities coexist side by side.
"If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France," the right-wing president said. [...]

Ver Google News

Ministros da UE discordam sobre texto com referências a perseguições a cristãos

A row over specific references to Christianity has prevented EU foreign ministers from agreeing a joint declaration condemning religious persecution, despite a recent spate of attacks on minorities in Iraq and Egypt.

Instead, a draft text which called on EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to come up with "concrete proposals" to boost freedom of religion was sent back to the drawing board on Monday evening (31 January).

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini led opposition to the text which "firmly" condemned the "acts of terrorism targeting places of worship", claiming the document showed an "excess of secularism".

"The final text didn't include any mention of Christians, as if we were talking of something else, so I asked the text to be withdrawn," he told reporters in Brussels. [...]

Ver notícia no EUObserver

Número de muçulmanos no Reino Unido vai duplicar para 5, 5 milhões em 20 anos

The Muslim population in the UK will almost double to 5.5million within 20 years, it has been claimed. Immigration and high birth rates will mean nearly one in ten Britons will be Muslim by 2030, according to a worldwide study about the spread of Islam. And the forecasts mean Britain will have more Muslims than Kuwait.
From 1990 to 2010 the number of followers of the Islamic faith around the world increased at an average rate of 2.2 per cent annually. Last year there were 1.57billion around the world. 
The British increase in the Muslim population from the current 2.8million will be mainly driven by immigration, according to figures prepared by a Washington think tank. Projections by the respected Pew Research Centre said the 40 years between 1990 and 2030 will see a fivefold rise in Britain.
In 1990 there were 1.1million Muslims in Britain, representing two per cent of the population.
By last year that figure had risen to 2.8million, or four per cent. By 2030 the number will hit 5.5million - eight per cent of an estimated 68million population, Pew researchers said. [...]

Ver notícia no Daily Mail

Maiores cidades da Finlândia criam ‘ghettos multiculturais‘ pelos fluxos migratórios

In recent years, Finland’s largest cities have developed areas where more than a fifth of the population is of foreign origin. In these city parts, the changeability of people is great, and the original Finnish population continues to decrease.

In Helsinki’s Itäkeskus and other eastern residential areas, for example, more than one fifth of the population have foreign backgrounds, and their number is increasing by about one percent every year.
For her soon-to-be checked doctoral thesis for the University of Helsinki’s Geography Department, researcher Katja Vilkama studied cities’ immigrant concentrations.
According to Vilkama, areas like Itäkeskus are entryways into Finnish society. However, once immigrants start to earn more and become familiar with Finnish society, they often leave these city areas behind.
Vilkama found the population in such areas to be very mobile, as people were continuously moving in and out. In the Helsinki region, about one in five immigrant families moves areas every year. Estonian immigrants are especially prone to move, says Vilkama.
In fact, there are more people with foreign backgrounds leaving immigrant-heavy areas compared with the number of Finns moving out. However, as both sections of the population are replaced mostly by new immigrants, the number of Finns continues to diminish in these areas.

Ver notícia no YLE. fi

Cidade de Helsínquia acaba com horários específicos para muçulmanas em piscinas públicas

City of Helsinki will stop providing special hours for Muslim women to use the public swimming pool in Jakomaki. Later, the slot time for the Muslim women will be open to all women.  Other swimmers have criticized the practice, according to Teemu Raatikainen, manager of the swimming pool.  Previously, a swimming pool on Saturday morning Jakomaki provide specifically for Muslim women. Women were following the swim session class for young Muslim girls. The pool reopened on Wednesday (5 / 1) after closed due to renovations. From now on, the pool will be open to all women – and closed to the men – every Tuesday night.  The decision to give a specific time for Muslim women is a controversial decision in Jakomaki. [...]

Ver notícia no Homedailynews

A difícil relação da Turquia com o Pai Natal

Casi con toda certeza, Santa Claus es de origen turco. Pero eso parecían ignorarlo la veintena de jóvenes que la pasada Nochevieja se reunieron frente a la Universidad de Estambul para apuñalar un Papá Noel hinchable de tamaño natural, a modo de protesta contra las «celebraciones del imperialismo cultural occidental» de Año Nuevo.

Los estudiantes eran miembros de la Asociación Juventud Anatolia, un grupo ultranacionalista de sesgo islamista que considera que el islam suní es la única religión verdaderamente «turca». «Hay un hadice (un relato oral de las enseñanzas de Mahoma durante su vida, según la tradición musulmana) que dice: "No seáis como judíos o cristianos". Esto nos enseña qué enormes problemas pueden ocurrir en caso de comportarnos como ellos», declaró el portavoz del grupo, Güven Günduz.

«Ningún musulmán debería respetar las absurdas celebraciones que se realizan bajo el nombre de «Navidad» y que no tienen equivalente en nuestras creencias y cultura», afirmó.

 

Ver notícia no ABC

Atentado numa igreja cristã copta de Alexandria matou 21 pessoas

 Uma explosão, esta madrugada, numa igreja copta de Alexandria, no Egipto, matou 21 pessoas e feriu perto de meia centena. As autoridades acreditam que se tratou de um atentado suicida e, pouco depois do incidente, registaram-se confrontos entre cristãos e muçulmanos naquela cidade.
As primeiras informações indicavam que a explosão teria sido causada por um carro armadilhado, mas já esta manhã o Ministério do Interior egípcio corrigiu a informação. Segundo um porta-voz, não há sinais de que a detonação tenha tido origem em nenhum dos carros que foi destruído e “é provável que o engenho que causou a explosão tenha sido transportado por um bombista que morreu no meio da multidão. [...]

Ver notícia no Público

Feliz Ano Novo de 2011!