The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gives the president the ability to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security.” The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president.
The bill does not only add to the power of the president. It also grants the Secretary of Commerce “access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.” This means he or she can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws.
Now, only a project, it has been presented by the Senators Rockefeller (Dem) and Stowe (Rep).
For all of you who are not soccer fans, Seydou Keita is a soccer player from the Barcelona FC which will play the final of the Champions’ League against Chelsea. Here is an excerpt from an interview:
Q: Does your family advise you?
A: They are always behind me. They really educated me that we have to suffer to make a living. We are Muslims and for us, everything is decided by Allah.
Q: So, has Allah already decided the result of the final in Rome?
A: Yes, sure, Allah has already decided it, it’s already written, but we have to do everything in our power to win, as we don’t know which one is going to be the champion.
It’s a pity Allah has not told him… and the rest of the people… so we can just rest so people can use that time to other tasks.
NOTE: Even if you are not a soccer fan, we are in peril of dying after the amount of time they spend on TV or on the radio explaining the preliminaries of the final.
Far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders lost a legal bid Wednesday to stop his pending trial for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims.
“The attorney general is of the opinion that there are no grounds” for a further appeal, the Dutch Supreme Court said in a statement.
Lawyers for Wilders had sought to overturn a ruling by the Amsterdam Court of Appeals in January that he should be prosecuted for a series of public anti- Muslim statements, particularly for comparing Islam to Nazism.
Well, this is nothing that we can consider as surprising. But anyway it something truly interesting that they want this to go to trial. Mr. Wilders has stated:
“I am being prosecuted for saying about Islam what millions of Dutch think. Freedom of expression is at risk of being offered at the altar of Islam.”
The real reason (at least for me) of this trial is that he considers Islam as equal to Nazism. Whatever our special ideas on the subject, this process is judging the personal idea of someone about an ideology/religion. Of course, I count with a just trial (consider me an optimist), in which he can express his own reasons about this. But I don’t know if, being realistic, we can count with that just trial. I fear he is going to be fried.
Just notice that he is labelled as “far-right” everywhere you read about him. Even if he has no link with Nazi parties, with actual far-right parties, etc etc.
NOTE: I really can’t blog often now. I am truly busy, I am sorry for this but life is like it is. Thanks to you all for your interest.
This interview appeared in Spanish newspaper El Ideal de Granada. You know I am not a specialist translating things but this is sufficiently important not to make an effort to traslate it. So I beg your pardon for any mistranslations the piece could have:
Arabist Pedro Martínez Jontávez (born in Jódar, 1933) was yesterday in Granada, to give a conference on Huntington, the US politologue and adviser of the last US President in Arab matters. He has just been awarded by United Arab Emirates as Cultural Personality of the Year, one of the highest awards from the Islamic world. Among other institutions, it was the Department of Arab Literature from the University of Granada, who proposed his name to the award, together with the University of Santiago de Chile. The arabist has the highest distinctions in his profession, and yesterday he received with pleasure the news of his appointment as honour associate of the Granada’s Ateneo.
-What is your own take on having been named as Cultural Personality of the Year by United Arab Emirates?
- I’m truly honored and it’s a great recognition of my works, they insist a lot in that I, personally, and through my works, have tried to build bridges of communication between the Arab world and Spanish and Latinamerican ones. They also say that I have succeeded in uniting the Spanish Arabists and the Hispanist Arabs.
-Are there still any prejudices about the Arab past?
-There are a lot and there is a lingering feeling of animosity which was bigger in past times. Bit by bit, the past from Al-Andalus is being known and valued in a more adequate and accurate way. There is an opinion tide which tries to build a myth of Al-Andalus and against it, there are also tentatives of ending with the myth.
-What concept people widely have of Islam?
-There is an idea growing of a much more monolithical Islam, which represents it through violence, fright and an absolute feeling of submission to religion, something which is an exaggeration and constitutes a prejudiced vision.
-Is there a mistaken idea of Islam?
- Arabic Islam is still a great unknown thing in a world where it’s seen through ignorance, mistrust and prejudices. We don’t know to distinguish between Arab and Muslim and we call them all “moros”. In Spain, a great public intelectual debate about what is and what was Al-Andalus is needed, what means the “Spanish” identity (well, they would say everything except the Catholic Church which is very bad and including Islam of which nearly nothing remains, except some buildings, which were so civilised as not to destroy them, something which is the opposite to what Iran is doing with Dario’s tomb and other pre-Islamic buildings). Al-Andalus is a treasure, a mine of values that we haven’t been able to take advantage of.
-What do you think about the project of the Alliance of Civilizations?
-As an idea and project, it’s useful, justified and necessary, although “alliance” is not the most accurate term for it. Moreover, it’s linked to political objectives. There’s no plan, no strategy, and they have not taken into account the Spanish Arabism, something that I consider an affront. And I speak from the independent and free position of not belonging to any political party (but from a position of someone who has been awarded a highest Arabic award in cultural affairs).
-Why Western countries try once and again to impose their democratic models to the Arab world? (Arab world has never tried to impose anything on others, not even by the sword… )
-Because that’s what they have tried to do ever. Studying the relationship between West and East through history, you can see that there were not only conflicts, but those were the more important times at all. Another reason is linked to the new power strategy, that of the new world order after the fall of the communist enemy and the creation of the enemy “Islam”. The activity of radical islamic minor groups can’t be ignored (wow, what a concession!! That can be acknowledged by reading the newspaper), but Western countries only allow one kind of terrorism, the islamic one, but no one can speak about State terrorism or make the error of saying that Israel is performing State terrorism (Gee, see? no mention to Iran with Hamas or Hizbullah or to Yemen and United Arab Emirates and the “grants” given to several Sept. 11 terrorists). Moreover, they are not islamic movements(now, they are not islamic, but before they were radical islamic…) but islamist, just the same that we should distinguish between popular and populism.
-What importance has García Lorca’s books in the Arab poetry?
-They consider him as a reknown Andalusian poet. Lorca is for Arabs an icon, an angel, a night confidant, a refuge, and with him, the Andalusian iconography recovers the references to the Mediterranean. Lorca is not only a treasure for the left but also for the entire humanity. All his works have been translated to Arabic, including his plays.
A Saudi Arabian court sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to four months imprisonment, 40 lashes, and deportation from the country for having two men not related to her in her home.
This incident occurred last year, but the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, was sentenced only recently. She was dining with two unrelated men, “Fahd” and “Hadian.” She nursed Fahd when he was young, while Hadian accompanied Fahd and brought her bread.
Because she was with two men not related to her, the country’s religious police arrested both men (and sentenced both of them to several lashes and prison terms).
According to Islamic law, if a woman nurses a boy then he is considered to be a son. However, this interpretation didn’t sway the “Mutaween” or “The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” religious police.
Unbelievable… except for the fact that we are speaking about Saudi Arabia… What a bunch of idiots!! What do they think this 75-year-old woman (in fact, an OLDIE) was doing with this two guys? Having sex? They were bringing her bread, you frigging idiots.
Fallujah, Iraq February 15, 2009 An al-Qaeda terrorist implicated in the rape of four Jordanian women has been arrested.
Paris, France Feb 10, 2009 (Reuters) A Pakistani man is on trial in France for setting his ex-girlfriend on fire after she refused to marry him. Update February 13. My post on the subject here.
Jedda, Saudi Arabia February 11, 2009 Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to a year in jail and 100 lashes for committing adultery. My post on the subject here.
Buffalo, NY February 17, 2009 The founder and CEO of Bridges TV, a Muslim TV channel, is charged with a gruesome murder, the beheading of his wife.
Ankara, Turkey February 12, 2009 A daily Hurriyet website poll shows that four out of ten Turkish women are victims of physical abuse by their husbands and only a fraction report it to authorities.
Amman, Jordan AP, February 11, 2009 A Jordanian man has been arrested for stabbing to death his elder sister because he thought she was having an affair.
Queens, NY February 14, 2009 Afghan diplomat Mohammed Fagirad was charged with beating his wife “like a dog” for more than 15 hours. My post on the subject here. More in Findalis’ blog.
Murrieta, Calif. February 13, 2009 Muslim polygamist Mansa Musa Muhummed gets life terms for torturing his families. My post on the subject here. More information here.
Watford, UK January 12, 2009 Ibrahim Mansouri has been sent to jail for repeatedly raping and stabbing a pregnant teenager.
Hamburg, Germany February 13, 2009 A German Afghan man was sentenced to life in prison for an ‘honour killing’ of his 16 year old sister. More information here.
Somerset, UK February 14, 2009 A Muslim girl who wanted to be baptized a Christian was fleeing an arranged marriage in Pakistan.
Sana,Yemen The new law that moves to reduce child marriages is not consistent with Islamic Sharia law contends Yemini deputy. Just remember Nojoud’s case (here, here and here).
Lahore, Pakistan February 14, 2009 Each year an estimated one million pregnant Pakistani women are physically abused at least once during pregnancy by their partners says Prof. Unaiza Niaz, president of the Women Section of World Psychiatric Association and director of the Institute of Psycho-Trauma Pakistan.
Karachi, Pakistan February 23, 2009 A man gave himself up after axing his sister to death in an honor killing. He accused his elderly sister of having illicit sexual relations.
Kuala Lumpur February 15, 2009 Muslim women around the world are facing a crisis over violence against them.
Yemen October 23, 2008 Yemini Muslim cleric Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani defends the inferiority of women. More here.
So this guys says: the Surah begins with “men are better than women” and it finishes with “you can beat here” Ohh, what a beautiful verse ( ). Then he goes on saying that the men should pay the bills and that the women shouldn’t. So, he is paying the bills to be allowed to beat her!!! After he goes on ranting why women are not equal to men (the latter can’t give birth to a son!!) to finish saying that women tell him that “it’s marvellous that Islam recongizes our different condition”.
Hmm, yeah, definitely marvellous…
NOTE: Yesterday I posted about Honor Killings but I forgot to translate it to English. It is now up in English. Sorry for the inconveniences.
“Using both hands to squeeze her windpipe he told her to read her Koran adding “Read whatever other stuff you need to read now. This is your final hour“.
Now it says:
“In the early hours of the following morning he attacked her again, telling her ‘This is your final hour’, but left after she made a desperate call for help to his brother, threatening to return with a knife and ’slaughter’ her”.
The reference to the Koran, which was proved in the criminal process held after he killed his wife, 26-year-old Sabina Akhtar, after he accused him of cheating on her and after she predicted she was going to end his life this way, was supressed, although the Daily Mail has not given any reason for the change: The days before the killing were truly hard:
Terrified, and with no relatives in Britain except one aunt, Ms Akhtar kept quiet about the attacks until July last year when over two days of violence Mannan repeatedly lifted her by her throat, threw her to the floor and kicked her in the stomach.
As she fought for breath Mannan would also grab her hair, saying: ‘Your opinion does not count here. If you don’t listen then one day I will kill you just like this. One day you will die in this way.’
Ms Akhtar went to police on July 10 but no formal complaint was recorded due to her ‘confusion’ and language difficulties.
The family of a young mother stabbed to death by her abusive husband yesterday condemned the authorities for missing repeated opportunities to put him behind bars. Sabina Akhtar, 26, had told police that Malik Mannan had beaten her 25 times, and predicted he would kill her if he had the chance. However, prosecutors decided not to charge him, even though he had repeatedly breached bail conditions by pestering her and calling at her home.
Both of them were from Bangladesh, although they were living in UK.
But there are even more related news:
Egypt: 60-year-old Christian man is stabbed to death by the brother of a young Muslim woman with whom it seems he was having an affair.
Pakistan: 22-year-old Saira Jatoi and 30-year-old Mohammad Ismail Soomro (photo), are in hiding after the local jirga condemned both of them to death. Their wedding was deemed un-Islamic and against her family’s honor because she was engaged to another man, engage made up by her family. They already have a 1-year-old son, but it’s been ordered that anyone who finds them has to report it to his tribe so they can finally carry on the honor killing.
Pakistan: another 26-year-old woman was killed in the name of honor. Very similar to the last case, Quratul Ain, eloped to marry the man she loved instead of marrying the one her own family has chosen for her. She was murdered by two armed men who called on the shelter house they were, while her husband was in the bathroom. When he heard the shots and her screams, he went out but it was already too late. They have been already menaced by her family, who had also disowned her because of the wedding. Both of them came from the Iranian Balochistan.
Every day, women are under attack by Islamic supremacism that supports and approves of the oppression, mutilation, and murder of women. According to leaders and followers of Islamic supremacism, they have the right to commit violence against women. Islamic supremacism views oppression of women as a legitimate “right,” violence against women as a legitimate “right,” and murdering women as a legitimate “right.”
Humanity’s inalienablehuman rights include equality and liberty, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, and the freedom to pursue happiness. No one has the “right” to oppress women, no one has the “right” to violence against women, and no one has the “right” to murder women. Humanity must defy the dark and twisted vision of Islamic supremacists who believe that they can act without challenge and without consequences.
Hmm.. yeah right. Let’s see how many people mentions this reality tomorrow, the so-called International Women’s Day.
An education expert is warning that some American textbooks present a biased view of Islam and offer a sugarcoated picture of Islamic extremism, a trend that has parents worried about what’s being taught in public schools.
In numerous history textbooks, “key subjects like jihad, Islamic law, the status of women are whitewashed,” said Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, an independent group that reviews history books and other education materials.
Cindy Ross, the mother of a junior high school student in Marin County, Calif., said she couldn’t believe her eyes when she read her son’s textbook last school year.
“I was very shocked by what I saw, looking through the book,” she said — shocked at how Islam was portrayed in her son’s seventh grade history text.
“What did strike me was that all the other religions seemed to be lumped together, where there is an inordinate emphasis on Islam specifically,” Ross said.
Well, this is not stricking at all, specially after knowing that both the Catholic Church (Ohhh, Myyyy) and the Muslims have agreed to erase everything which portraits them in a bad light from history books.
Absolutely shameful. Hiding people’s defects is not the best way to promote peace and justice. It’s just the opposite. Inquisitions, witch hunting, etc have existed, whatever the textbook says.
(UPDATE): Always on Watch has more about the US textbooks whitewashing Islamic extremists.
While Zapatero is worried about his sexual health, so much that he actually suffers lapsus linguae in the less appropriate moments, and Moratinos (Spanish FM) says that “not everything is going wrong” (thank God, we still are alive… ), Spanish people have other kind of worries. According to the last official statistics via Twitter, 75.2% of Spanish people are worried about their jobs and the possibility of losing them, while 54.4% are worried about financial difficulties.
Speaking about the divorce between the political elites and citizens…
This fortnight’s poll: priorities in the fight against Islamism
Fareed Zakaria says we don't have to be very worried by the Talibans as they don't advocate Global Jihad. Do you agree? Vote in this fortnight's poll!!
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). Then he goes on saying that the men should pay the bills and that the women shouldn’t. So, he is paying the bills to be allowed to beat her!!! After he goes on ranting why women are not equal to men (the latter can’t give birth to a son!!) to finish saying that women tell him that “it’s marvellous that Islam recongizes our different condition”.
), Spanish people have other kind of worries. According to the 
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