Stockholm gives go-ahead for new mosque

The Muslim population in Rinkeby, an area where many immigrants have congregated, has long requested the construction of a mosque, and Stockholm has now identified a suitable location.

The Muslim population in Rinkeby, an area where many immigrants have congregated, has long requested the construction of a mosque, and Stockholm has now identified a suitable location.

Representatives of six Swedish political parties published a joint editorial in Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper on Saturday in support of the new house of worship.
The six politicians hope that a mosque might stimulate the local economy and increase security in the area, pointing to the mosque built in Södermalm in the 1990s as an example of a similar success story. They also emphasize it is important for the parties to maintain a broad coalition to stand behind the mosque construction in order to combat prejudice.
“The mosque will be built on the site where the former administrative building for Rinkeby stood. During the spring, the City of Stockholm...will earmark this site as a location for the Swedish Islamic Association (Islamiska förbundet) to build a mosque. It is a positive addition to Rinkeby and to Stockholm,” they wrote in DN.
 
Source: ABNA

German federal prosecutors probe Mossad death squad affair

erman federal prosecutors have launched a preliminary investigation into the use of German passports by a Mossad death squad responsible for the murder of a senior Hamas leader in Dubai, press reports said Friday.

The probe is to focus on the use of a German passport by a Mossad agent after documents indicated that the German passport allegedly used in the Dubai attack, carrying the name Michael Bodenheimer, was not falsified.

It was reportedly obtained by a Mossad agent in Germany, using documents

showing him to be the descendant of a family that fled the country during the Nazi era.

Last week, Cologne prosecutors initiated also proceedings to investigate possible passport fraud.

Cologne was the city where the suspect applied for the German passport.

The Mossad case is a tough balancing act for Germany, a staunch ally of Israel.

For years, Berlin has, along with other Western governments, remained silent about

the killer squad activities of Mossad.

German authorities have remained tight-lipped in the wake of the Hamas murder

scandal amid mounting public demands for a major investigation of the issue.

Two German opposition parties have called for a parliamentary probe of the affair.

Germany's foreign intelligence service BND has so far refused to react to Arab press reports which alleged that the German national was implicated in the killing of al-Mabhouh.

The Hamburg-based weekly news magazine Der Spiegel identified the

German suspect as 43-year-old Michael B.

Mossad death squads have in the past used German passports for secret operations

although some of them had been forged, according to press reports.

Germany and Israel have a very deep military and intelligence cooperation whose details remain highly secretive to the German public.

Norway: Education minister against hijab in elementary school

Norwegian Eduction Minister Kristin Halvorsen (SV, Socialists) wants hijabs out of elementary schools.


"I think children-hijab are absolutely undesirable, because it hampers the children's development and their chances of making independent choices," Halvorsen Said.

Helga Pedersen (Ap, Labor) said yesterday that she would consider a ban on hijab in elementary schools. The proposal is already supported by the FrP (Progress Party)

The SV leader and education minister doesn't hide that she's against the Muslim head-dress.

"Hijab in elementary school in Norway is something that appeared in recent years. I see it as coercion of small children, and it hinders them from participating equally with other children in Norwegian schools," says Halvorsen.

"I can't see that there's any religious reason for putting hijab on little girls. Neither is it a tradition in Muslim countries to treat little girls like adult women," says Halvorsen.

New waves of Islam phobia have started in recent years in Europe, especially after The September 11 attacks.

Shimon Peres Depicted Bowing to Erdogan

Israel is turning a blind eye to a huge poster showing its President Shimon Peres seemingly bowing to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was unfurled from a crane in an Ankara suburb on Sunday.

Israel is turning a blind eye to a huge poster showing its President Shimon Peres seemingly bowing to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was unfurled from a crane in an Ankara suburb on Sunday.

Neither the Israeli President’s Residence nor the Foreign Minister would comment on the poster, which superimposed an image of a bowing Peres in front of Erdogan, over the caption “Erdogan, a leader whom the world bows down to.”

While at first glance this seemed to be Turkish retribution for the public hazing of Turkey’s ambassador to Israel in January, when Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon sat him on a lower chair and reprimanded him over an anti-Semitic television show broadcast in Turkey, the Turkish press reported that Erdogan’s office had the poster taken down before Erdogan appeared at the site to inaugurate a new road network.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the poster, with some diplomatic officials in Tel Aviv saying it obviously came from the top, while others said it was quite possible that this was an independent act of protest that was not choreographed by the government.

One diplomatic official in Tel Aviv termed the incident “scandalous,” saying that it demonstrated a great deal of disrespect both for Peres and for Israel.

Relations between Erdogan and Peres reached a nadir in January 2009, after Operation Cast Lead, when the two had an angry exchange at the World Economic Forum in Davos, with Erdogan at one point storming off the stage after telling Peres, “When it comes to killing, you know well how to kill.”

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais that was published Monday, Erdogan said that the Davos incident – which made him a hero in much of the Arab world – ushered in a new Turkish approach to foreign policy. “That opened a new approach to foreign relations,” he said. “We have a philosophy of strength. It is a foreign policy with a backbone.”

Source . Ahlul Bayt News Agency 

Over 2,000 people rally in Berlin against German troops in Afghanistan

More than 2,000 people rallied in Berlin on Saturday to protest against German military deployment in Afghanistan, according to news reports.

Organized by peace groups and the opposition Left party, demonstrators called for the immediate withdrawal of all German and other NATO soldiers from the war-stricken country.

Protesters held up banners saying "No more soldiers. Give peace a chance - troops must leave Afghanistan."

The German government has approved plans to boost its troop size in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 5,350.

The decision of the center-right cabinet is expected to be authorized by the German parliament next week amid mounting public opposition to the Afghan war.

As part of the new Afghan mandate, around 500 of those troops are to be dispatched directly to join the 4,500-strong German military force contingent, based mostly in northern Afghanistan and Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

In addition, some 350 soldiers would be maintained as a "flexible reserve", to be
used to provide extra security in political events like the parliamentary election, scheduled for fall.

Berlin had faced tremendous pressure by its key NATO allies, among them the US and
Britain, to sent more troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and al-Qaeda
insurgency.

Imam Khomeini’s anthology rendered into Turkish

Versified Turkish translation of poetry anthology of Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been published in Turkey.

According to a report by the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO), the book was translated by two professors of Istanbul University’s Persian Language and Literature Department and published by Qoqnous Publishing House.

The Turkish people have always considered Imam Khomeini a political and religious leader while his mystic and literary personality has remained unknown.

This is for the same reason Iran’s Cultural Office published the Turkish version of the book to introduce the mystical and literary aspects of the late Imam's characteristics.

Imam’s works and political divine will has so far been translated into various languages.