Titles:
- Sweden insults Islam
- Saudi awards Turkey's Erdogan for 'service to Islam'
- Whitehouse offers warm condolences for Tantawi
- 'Grim' prospects for crippling UN Iran sanctions: Israel
- U.S. Security fiasco makes, Pakistanis lawmakers into heroes
News Detailes:
Sweden insults Islam
At least three Swedish newspapers republished a disrespectful cartoon after the alleged plot to murder the Swedish caricaturist was unveiled in Ireland. The drawing was published Wednesday in Stockholm papers Dagens Nyheter and Expressen and the Malmo daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet. Sydsvenska Dagbladet says it printed the controversial drawing as part of its news coverage of the alleged plot to kill its creator, Lars Vilks. The Aftonbladet tabloid, which published the drawing in 2007, refrained from republishing it Wednesday, with Chief Editor Jan Hellin insisting "the picture has no news value today." "Publishing the same picture now would ... only increase the level of conflict and provocation in a situation that requires enlightenment, discussion," he wrote. Sweden once a peaceful nation that prided itself on tolerance and freedoms has become a harbinger of bigotry against Islam.
Saudi awards Turkey's Erdogan for 'service to Islam'
Saudi King Abdullah presented Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with one of the country's most prestigious prizes on Tuesday for his 'service to Islam'. Erdogan earned the King Faisal International Prize for having "rendered outstanding service to Islam by defending the causes of the Islamic nation, particularly the Palestinian cause and the just rights of the Palestinian people," said Abd Allah al-Uthaimin of the prize-awarding group. "At the international level, he was a leading Muslim founder of the call for rapport between civilisation and a passionate advocate of constructive dialogue, openess, and principles of international understanding and cooperation." The reality is that Erdogen is being rewarded for his efforts to reform Islam similar to Christianity. Two years ago his government embarked on a project to revise thousands of hadith under the supervision of a Roman Catholic priest Felix Koerner.
Whitehouse offers warm condolences for Tantawi
The White House on Wednesday offered its condolences following the death of Sunni Islam's top cleric, who last year hosted President Barack Obama's landmark speech to the Muslim world. Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, 81, died of a heart attack earlier Wednesday in Saudi Arabia. "We express our deepest condolences on the passing of Egyptian cleric Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs in a statement. "As the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar University, he was a voice for faith and tolerance who was widely respected in Muslim communities in Egypt and around the globe, and by many who seek to build a world grounded in mutual respect. "Sheikh Tantawi graciously hosted President Obama last June in Cairo, and we remember well his hospitality. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who mourn him on this day." Amongst the edicts that made Tantawi popular amongst Western governments was his ruling permitting banks to pay interest ,his support for France to outlaw the wearing of headscarves and his and supported the building of an underground barrier to deprive Gaza of vital supplies.
'Grim' prospects for crippling UN Iran sanctions: Israel
Israel's UN ambassador on Tuesday said prospects for crippling UN sanctions against Iran were "grim" because Russia and China want to use diplomacy to convince Iran to scale back its nuclear ambitions. "The chances now seem grim regarding sanctions that will be crippling," Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told reporters here. She said Russia and China, two veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, "are still looking to the diplomatic track" and appear reluctant to back a new round of tough sanctions proposed by Washington and its Western allies. "The Chinese and the Russians still hope that diplomacy will work. They do not want to inflict any harm on the Iranian people," she added. Shalev said that if the 15-member council was unable to agree on crippling sanctions, then Israel "will look to the countries themselves" to slap additional bilateral sanctions. On Monday, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom called on the Security Council to impose "crippling" sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance. "The time has come to impose crippling sanctions on the Iranians and I asked to put the 300 leaders of the Revolutionary Guards that are controlling Iran these days on the (UN sanctions) blacklist," he told reporters after meeting with UN chief Ban Ki-moon
U.S. Security fiasco makes, Pakistanis lawmakers into heroes
A tour of the United States arranged by the State Department to improve ties to Pakistani legislators ended in a public relations fiasco when the members of the group refused to submit to extra airport screening in Washington, and they are now being hailed as heroes on their return home. "People should be thankful, you made them so proud," said Hamid Mir, the host of a popular national talk show, during an interview in his studio on Tuesday with four of the six politicians, who railed against the security precautions at Ronald Reagan National Airport. Meetings with the Obama administration's top policy makers on Pakistan, including the president's special representative, Richard C. Holbrooke, and visits to the Pentagon and the National Security Council, did not allay the anger the politicians said they felt at being asked to submit to a secondary screening on Sunday before boarding a flight to New Orleans. They declined to be screened and did not board the flight. Pakistan is one of 14 mostly Muslim countries whose citizens must go through increased checks before they fly into the United States, a procedure mandated by the Obama administration. One of the parliamentarians Akhunzada Chitan, told Mr. Mir on his "Capital Talk" program, "Going through a body scan makes you naked, and in making you naked, they make the whole country naked." Time and time again the US has humiliated Pakistanis to the point that even Pakistani parliamentarians are not safe. With the whole country against America, why is it that Zardari and Kiyani continue to extend all forms of support to the American crusader.
