'Dubai has undergone a rapid transformation in recent years, emerging as a five-star trade and tourism destination with its tax-free salaries and year-round sunshine.
It is now one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities with foreign workers and visitors greatly outnumbering the local population.
But it remains a deeply conservative region, and its strict laws have caught out foreigners in the past. Public displays of affection and drunkenness are frowned upon.'
'Nonetheless, three months into the fiscal year, the government remains on course to reduce the budget deficit in line with its forecasts.'
'... in all too many mosques, schools and television programs across the Arab and Muslim world, the public is indoctrinated with the most vile anti-Jewish bigotry. Hatred is idealized to a degree that the average American, and the average Israeli, cannot comprehend or imagine.'
'Chinese villagers have defended their tradition of hanging a live bull from a tree until it dies as part of a ritual to bring them luck and a bumper harvest.
The 'cow-hanging ceremony' has been carried out by the minority Dong people of southern China for almost 500 years and now attracts hundreds of tourists. '
We wish to reiterate that this is not about telling you what your views should be. Indeed, we have all visited the occupied territories and we have all experienced an instinctive and liberal reaction to the humanitarian suffering we have witnessed. You will know that Nick, Simon and I have a consistent track record of being outspoken about illegal settlement activities of Israeli governments and the threat this poses to the two-state solution for which the party has long argued.Yes because the Israelis are entirely responsible for the humanitarian situation in the 'occupied territories'. As for the 'illegal settlement activities of Israeli governments' and how they pose a threat to the two-state solution, I wonder if the Lib Dems are so stupid that they believe that the Palestinian Authority, let alone Hamas, want a two-state solution.
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Police closed the Temple Mount to Muslim and Christian visitors in an effort to prevent clashes between different religious groups.
The closure order came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when many Muslims pray at the Dome of the Rock on the site.
Muslim and Christian MKs attempted to enter the compound Tuesday morning, but police prevented them from doing so.
The Jerusalem Police closed the Temple Mount to Jewish and Christian visitors Tuesday in an effort to prevent clashes between different religious groups.
The closure order came on Tisha B’Av, a Jewish day of mourning that marks the destruction of the Jewish temples that stood on the site, which this year falls during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when many Muslims pray at the Dome of the Rock on the site.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin attempted to enter the compound Tuesday morning, together with MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Jewish Home), but police prevented them from doing so.
“Security assessments were made this morning, and the decision was made by the Israel Police to close the Temple Mount to all visitors, in order to prevent disturbances,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Times of Israel Tuesday morning.
Thousands of Jews visited the Western Wall Tuesday in the plaza below the Temple Mount, and Muslims made a pilgrimage to the Dome of the Rock at the top of the mount.
Asked if Elkin and Moalem-Refaeli didn’t enjoy parliamentary immunity to the police decision, Rosenfeld said, “No visits whatsoever are allowed to the Temple Mount.”
Israel announced on Tuesday new rules to grant some rights to foreign domestic workers, but stressed they must "respect" Judaism and "obey" their employers.
Labor Minister David Finkelstein said that the maids must respect "Judaism and its teachings... and obey the orders of the employers and their family members concerning getting the agreed work done."
A domestic worker "does not have the right to reject a work, or leave a job, without a valid reason," he added in remarks carried by the official JNA news agency.How despicable is that? Why are the United Nations and the OIC not up in arms about this new act of racial hatred by the apartheid state of Israel. Aren't all religions equal? What gives the apartheid state of Israel the right to foist it's religion on foreign workers? Also doesn't that last line sound a little like modern day slavery? Why aren't the Philipine and Sri Lankan governments protesting to the Israelis?
Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday new rules to grant some rights to foreign domestic workers, but stressed they must "respect" Islam and "obey" their employers.
Labor Minister Adel Faqih said that the maids must respect "Islam and its teachings... and obey the orders of the employers and their family members concerning getting the agreed work done."
A domestic worker "does not have the right to reject a work, or leave a job, without a valid reason," he added in remarks carried by the official SPA news agency....
Saudi Arabia gained international notoriety earlier this year over its treatment of foreign domestic workers after the US-backed kingdom beheaded a Sri Lankan maid convicted of killing her employer's baby.
Human Rights Watch said that Saudi authorities put the maid "under duress" to force a confession. Sri Lanka recalled its ambassador to Saudi Arabia after the brutal killing of the maid.
Foreign domestic workers employed in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries sometimes face slave-like conditions under the sponsorship system which ties the maid to her employer.
Around eight million foreign workers are employed in Saudi Arabia, with most of them coming from South Asia and earning low wages.As it's Saudi Arabia not Israel involved, I think we can expect no reaction from the United Nations, nothing from the OIC and a complete lack of interest from the anti-Israel protest groups. Calling Israel an 'apartheid state' is fun, even if it's not true. Where's the fun in doing the same for Saudi Arabia, even if it is an apartheid state. Never confuse the majority anti-Israel protesters for having principles, well unless you count unreasoning hatred of the only Jewish state as a principle.
The current capacity of wind power connected to the transmission system that we forecast for is 5.5GW (Jan 2013). This capacity is expected to continue to increase during 2013/14 and could reach 32GW of wind generation capacity by 2020.5.5GW, is that a lot?
'Way back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here’s what he said:
The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? It’s even more specific than Golda Meir’s statement. It reaffirms what I have written on this subject. And it is hardly the only such statement of its kind. Arafat himself made a very definitive and unequivocal statement along these lines as late as 1993. It demonstrates conclusively that the Palestinian nationhood argument is the real strategic deception – one geared to set up the destruction of Israel.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.
In fact, on the same day Arafat signed the Declaration of Principles on the White House lawn in 1993, he explained his actions on Jordan TV. Here’s what he said: “Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel.”
No matter how many people convince themselves that the aspirations for Palestinian statehood are genuine and the key to peace in the Middle East, they are still deceiving themselves.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, in the history of the world, Palestine has never existed as a nation. The region known as Palestine was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their ancestral homeland. It was never ruled by Arabs as a separate nation.'
The hot weather has prompted Rabbi Alan Kimche, one of London's leading orthodox rabbis, to warn his congregation about dehydration during a fast, which is due to begin on Monday night for 25 hoursNo background to the fast? I wonder why, oh yes because yesterday was Tisha B'Av: an annual Jewish fast day which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem and the subsequent exile of the Jews from the Land of Israel.
'Islam, on the other-hand, is still going through its 'dark ages'. Thought-competition is being brutally suppressed in many Muslim-majority countries as Saudi-funded brands of ultra-austere Islam proliferate. The Saudi state continues to spend a large portion of its petrodollars building mosques around the world yet, ironically, according to Sharia law, non-Muslim religious structures are not allowed to be built inside its own lands. It takes years of red tape for existing churches in other Arab Nations such as Egypt to be even allowed to be repaired and this puts the houses of worship of any competing memeplex in a state of permanent decline.'A fascinating article, have a read at The Commentator
'Despite irrefutable evidence that the girls were being sexually abused, no one — according to a report published by the House of Commons on June 5 — acted to draw all the facts together, apparently due to fears by police and social workers that they would be accused of racism against Muslims.
...
Evidence presented to us suggests that there is a model of localized grooming of Pakistani-heritage men targeting young White girls. This must be acknowledged by official agencies, who we were concerned to hear in some areas of particular community tension, had reportedly been slow to draw attention to the issue for fear of affecting community cohesion. The condemnation from those communities of this vile crime should demonstrate that there is no excuse for tip-toeing around this issue. It is important that police, social workers and others be able to raise their concerns freely, without fear of being labelled racist."
These allegations have been confirmed by the imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation, Taj Hargey, who says race and religion are inextricably linked to the spate of grooming rings in which Muslim men are targeting under-age white girls.
Writing in the Daily Mail on May 15, Hargey states: "Apart from its sheer depravity, what also depresses me about this case is the widespread refusal to face up to its hard realities. The fact is that the vicious activities of the Oxford ring are bound up with religion and race: religion, because all the perpetrators, though they had different nationalities, were Muslim; and race, because they deliberately targeted vulnerable white girls, whom they appeared to regard as 'easy meat', to use one of their revealing, racist phrases."
"But as so often in fearful, politically correct modern Britain," Hargey continues, "there is a craven unwillingness to face up to this reality. Commentators and politicians tip-toe around it, hiding behind weasel words. … Part of the reason this scandal happened at all is precisely because of such politically correct thinking. All the agencies of the state, including the police, the social services and the care system, seemed eager to ignore the sickening exploitation that was happening before their eyes. Terrified of accusations of racism, desperate not to undermine the official creed of cultural diversity, they took no action against obvious abuse."
According to Hargey, "Another sign of the cowardly approach to these horrors is the constant reference to the criminals as 'Asians' rather than as 'Muslims.' In this context, Asian is a completely meaningless term. The men were not from China, or India or Sri Lanka or even Bangladesh. They were all from either Pakistan or Eritrea, which is, in fact, in East Africa rather than Asia."
He also says the grooming rings in Britain are actually being promoted by imams who encourage followers to believe that white women deserve to be "punished." He writes that Muslims in Britain "have been drip-fed for years [with] a far less uplifting doctrine, one that denigrates all women, but treats whites with particular contempt. In the misguided orthodoxy that now prevails in many mosques, including several of those in Oxford, men are unfortunately taught that women are second-class citizens, little more than chattels or possessions over whom they have absolute authority."
Hargey points to a telling incident in the trial when it was revealed that Mohammed Karrar branded one of the girls with an "M," as if she were a cow. He writes, "'Now, if you have sex with someone else, he'll know that you belong to me,' said this criminal, highlighting an attitude where women are seen as nothing more than personal property. The view of some Islamic preachers towards white women can be appalling. They encourage their followers to believe that these women are habitually promiscuous, decadent and sleazy — sins which are made all the worse by the fact that they arekaffurs or non-believers. Their dress code, from mini-skirts to sleeveless tops, is deemed to reflect their impure and immoral outlook. According to this mentality, these white women deserve to be punished for their behavior by being exploited and degraded."'
