Category Archives: Burka debate
France is at immediate risk of a major terror attack by Islamist radicals and has reinforced urgent security measures introduced last week, officials say.
France is at immediate risk of a major terror attack by Islamist radicals and has reinforced urgent security measures introduced last week, officials say.
Asked about reports that an attack might be imminent, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said on Monday that the threat was real and that “we have stepped up our vigilance”.
Separately, a source close to the Interior Ministry confirmed that police were investigating reports that a female suicide bomber might be preparing a strike in Paris, but added: “That’s not necessarily the most worrying thing.”
Instead, the source explained, Paris was concerned with intelligence received from an allied foreign spy agency that al-Qaeda’s North African branch, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was planning an “imminent” attack in France.
“It’s a threat which we think might target transportation,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity and without giving further details except that the warning was received on Thursday last week.
The Interior Ministry played down the specific risk to transport, insisting that the threat was “against totally undefined targets”.
Meanwhile, according to a police source, authorities have learned that two dormant Islamist networks in France have been revived to receive and host groups of jihadi radicals returning from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Separately, officials from Paris’s Grand Mosque confirmed that their rector, Dalil Boubakeur, had been placed under police protection and provided with an escort as he moves about the city. Continue Reading →
Foiled: woman bomber’s plot to blow herself up in central Paris
Ian Sparks in Paris This is London:
20.09.10
A female suicide bomber plotted to blow herself up in Paris last week, French spy agencies have revealed.
Intelligence services uncovered and thwarted the threat which was planned for a “busy part of Paris” on Thursday, RTL radio said.
French domestic intelligence chief Bernard Squarcini warned at the weekend that France‘s burka ban had “seriously increased” the risk of a major terrorist attack.
Mr Squarcini said “all the red lights were flashing” over the likelihood that Islamist extremists would bomb French cities.
The risk was as high as in 1995 when a bomb planted by Algeria‘s Armed Islamic Group killed eight and wounded 80 more at the Saint-Michel Metro station.
Mr Squarcini warned: “France’s role in Afghanistan, its foreign policy and the debate over the law banning the burka have all increased the risk.”
The alert over the female suicide bomber was revealed to RTL radio on Monday. The station said: “The intelligence service learned last Wednesday night that a female suicide bomber was plotting to commit a terrorist act in a busy part of Paris on Thursday. Continue Reading →
Italy proposes ban on veils similar to France.
Italy: Xenophobic party tables anti-burqa bill
Rome, 17 Sept. (AKI) – Italy’s anti-immigrant North League party on Friday introduced a bill to the lower house of parliament that would ban the burqa. Wearing the burqa will be punishable by a year in prison, fines of 150 to 300 euros for the wearer and 30,000 euros for anyone forcing a woman to don the face-concealing Islamic garment.
Anyone coercing a minor or a disabled woman into wearing a burqa will be eligible for a 60,000 euro fine.
If a woman is wearing the burqa of her own volition, the 150-300 euro fine can be reduced, if she agrees to do community service aimed at better integrating Muslim immigrants.
“This bill represents a step forward because we are not just facing a problem of public order, but – we believe – an offence to women’s dignity,” said Northern League member of parliament Carolina Lussana, presenting the bill to journalists.
“It is also a violation of the principle of equality between men and women enshrined in our Constitution,” she said.
The bill is likely to draw criticism from many Muslim immigrants, but 73 percent of Italians believe the burqa should not be allowed to be worn in public places, according to a recent poll by Panel Data.
The right-leaning Northern League’s bill came just days after France’s upper house of parliament, the Senate, voted by 246 to one to ban the burqa.
Under the new French law, women will be fined or jailed for covering their faces in public.
Murdering Muslim Male hides under burka
CTV News:
Toronto Police help in search for murder suspect
View larger image
Windsor Police have released these undated photos of Mohamud Abukar Haji, 27.
Updated: Wed Aug. 11 2010 3:22:07 PM
ctvtoronto.ca
Toronto Police are helping their Windsor colleagues search for a murder suspect by plastering a reward poster in the Eglinton Avenue West and Weston Road area.
Windsor Police have issued a Canada-wide arrest warrant for Hagi on a charge of first-degree murder.
The 27-year-old is being sought in connection with the Dec. 22, 2007 death of Luis Acosta-Escobar, who was found dead of gunshot wounds near a Windsor nightclub.
Det. Wayne Parsons of the Windsor Police’s major crimes branch told CTV News on Wednesday that they know Hagi took a cab to Toronto in the hours after Escobar’s death.
“He was anxious to get out of town,” Parsons said.
They know Hagi had approached people on the street, including an off-duty firefighter, and offered them a large amount of cash to be driven to Toronto, he said. Continue Reading →
Security officials are afraid to look out for our safety
By David Harris, Citizen Special August 11, 2010 7:54 AM
Undue deference to Islamic face coverings poses a threat to airport security, writes David Harris.
Photograph by: Christopher Furlong, Getty Images, Citizen Special
When government ministers decide to sound ministerial, the result can be a strange mixture of decisive sounds and ambiguous noises. You could hear it during John Baird’s shambolic finale as transport minister, when he struggled with security checks of face-veiled air passengers.
“One hundred per cent of people must be verified at the gate,” Baird declared. “There is one law for all.”
It seems like straightforward government policy. But is it?
Sadly, there is a troubling ambiguity hidden in the government’s approach. To understand why it matters, remember the background — including the hidden background — of this episode.
Despite a burgeoning bureaucracy and millions spent monitoring aviation screening, it took a smudgy YouTube video to awaken the government to the fact that face-veiled passengers appeared to be bounding onto planes without necessary security checks. The tentative verdict: Some airport security staff, confronted by unco-operative masked travellers or their male handlers, simply give up and allow boarding without face identification.
Liberal party shuts down investigation into security at airports
BREAKING NEWS: Ignatieff Liberals shut down Conservative government’s bid to study airport security screening
Today, at the request of Conservative MPs, the House of Commons Committee on Public Safety reconvened to discuss recent media reports that suggested some individuals routinely board aircraft without being visually identified.
In an astonishing act, the Ignatieff Liberals, led by Mark Holland took over the Chair position of the Committee and proceeded to unilaterally shut the meeting down.
The safety and security of Canadians remains a top priority for Our Government. Shockingly, it is such a low priority for the Ignatieff Liberals they refuse to even discuss it.
Instead, Liberal Committee members chose to play partisan games, use delay tactics and cancel the meeting altogether.
By failing to take this security and public safety issue seriously, the Ignatieff Liberals show yet again they’re not in it for Canadians, they are only in it for themselves.
Click more for French: Continue Reading →
Solution to the world wide burka debate
Well, its debated at least in the parts of the world where debate is allowed. Of course, in much of the Islamic world, there is no debate on it. Women must wear it and the degree of severity is increasing, not decreasing.
I have taken the position that making some kind of garment illegal is a bad idea, contrary to purpose, and sets a dangerous precedent. Instead, governments should do, what they should do in general far more often, which is let the private sector determine what is in it’s own interest.
If the government simply does not interfere in our rights to not let burka clad or face covered women into our own homes, stores, businesses, taxis or mass transit etc. then these coverings become so inconvenient that they will not be worn. We need the same rights we have always had to determine our own interests. Precedents like the smoking bans in private bars have set the stage for governments to determine all that goes on inside. As a consequence, Muslims demand the right not only to do what they want in private space, but are beginning to demand we do not do what we want in private space. In this issue, as in so many, less government and regulation means less problems.
Thank you very much Tundra Tabloids for mocking up this sign for me so quickly.
Eeyore for Vlad
