Saudi Arabia reiterated its call to Criminalize vilification of religious symbols at UNESCO organized meeting.

Saudi Arabia reiterated its call to Criminalize vilification of religious symbols at UNESCO organized meeting. (SaudiGazette).

LILLE, France — Saudi Arabia has reiterated its call on the international community to criminalize any act vilifying religious beliefs and symbols of faith as well as all kinds of discrimination based on religion.

Addressing an international symposium on media coverage of religious symbols based on international law, which started in this French city on Saturday, a senior Saudi official said the Kingdom emphasized years ago that the international community must act urgently to confront ethnic, religious and cultural intolerance, which has become widespread in all communities and peoples of the world.

"We have made it clear that freedom of expression without limits or restrictions would lead to violation and abuse of religious and ideological rights," said Abdulmajeed Al-Omari, director for external relations at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.

"This requires everyone to intensify efforts to criminalize insulting heavenly religions, prophets, holy books, religious symbols and places of worship," he added.

Al-Omari pointed out that such abuses bred intolerance, extremism and human rights violations and contributed to the growing phenomenon of defamation of religions.

The Kingdom is participating in the forum, with representatives from 16 European countries, a number of international organizations led by UNESCO, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Association of Islamic Universities.

Al-Omari said the Saudi participation in the symposium falls in line with its efforts to support the principles of justice, humanity, promotion of values and the principles of tolerance in the world as well as to emphasize the importance of respecting religions and religious symbols.  Hmmm.....It might turn out to be only concerning 'defamation of Islam'.

"Ah ! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira" - Israeli court allows distribution of Charlie Hebdo.

"Ah ! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira" - Israeli court allows distribution of Charlie Hebdo. (MEM).

The Israeli Supreme Court yesterday allowed Yisrael Beiteinu, headed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, to distribute the special issue of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo which contains a cartoon portraying Prophet Muhammad.

In a post on its account Facebook, Israel Beiteinu said: "The decision was taken after the opposition of the Arab parties."

Lieberman considered "the Supreme Court's decision to allow the distribution of the magazine Charlie Hebdo as an important message emphasising that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state which does not bow to threats and violence exercised by Arab Knesset members who are trying to change Israel to an ISIS State [Islamic State], we welcome the right decision taken by the Supreme Court." Read the full story here.

Charlie Hebdo Survivor: "Obama admin’s record on press freedom “an absolute scandal, Glad Obama Didn’t Come to Paris"

Charlie Hebdo Survivor: "Obama admin’s record on press freedom “an absolute scandal, Glad Obama Didn’t Come to Paris" (Newsmax).

Laurent Leger, a Charlie Hebdo staff member who survived the attack that killed several of his co-workers earlier this month, says he is happy President Barack Obama didn’t attend the Paris unity rally that he was criticized for skipping, The Huffington Post reports.

Leger, the satire magazine’s investigations editor, called the Obama administration’s record on press freedom “an absolute scandal,” adding, “It’s very good he didn’t come to the march that day.”

Eight whistleblowers have been prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act during Obama’s term in office - more than double the number of all previous presidents combined.

More than 40 heads of state marched in Paris alongside French President Francois Hollande days after the attack that killed 12 people. Leger said many of those who marched also should have stayed home, and that if the cartoonists who died had been alive they would have lampooned them.

Leger also criticized the British government and media for its stand on press freedom. Great Britain does not allow the press there to report on a secret meeting between former President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which Bush allegedly advocated bombing the Al Jazeera news network’s headquarters. Read the full story here.

Anti-terrorist operation yesterday in Belgian - French Border town.

Anti-terrorist operation yesterday in Belgian - French Border town. HT: DreuzeInfo.


An anti-terrorist operation was launched massive last night Komen, Belgium, in a number of houses where several jihadists were supposed to be hiding.

According to initial reports, police raided 33 different addresses and are looking for suspects, including a woman.

Yesterday around 17:45 thirty houses located along the Grand Rue (Belgium side) were evacuated urgently by the forces of French and Belgian order.

According to preliminary information gathered at the scene, it was a "major operation" to "secure" a house to serve as hideout or weapons cache.

82 people were forced to evacuate their emergency accommodation.

The police were heavily armed and a Belgian demining team was also present at the scene.

The Nord-Eclair newspaper writes, according to a Belgian judicial source, there was a link between this operation and the arrest of a jihadist Tuesday afternoon in Lille in possession of a machine pistol.

His arrest would have led to the houses of Komen.

"We have to put it all together from different sources. We do not currently provide hope for, in consultation with the prosecutor, we decided to give complete information Wednesday " , said the deputy prosecutor Frederic Bariseau Belgian RTBF.

The side of the French court, it has refused to comment on this.

It could be it is not an anti-terrorist operation but a crackdown in the mid arms traffickers. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the two media are closely related, the shooter Montrouge and hostage taker door of Vincennes, Amedy Coulibaly, had bought his weapons in Belgium.

Thirteen people were arrested. 

Five were charged with "membership of a terrorist group." 

Three were detained and are scheduled to appear Wednesday before the Brussels Council Chamber. 

Two jihadists were arrested in France and Belgium requests extradition. 

Another suspect, suspected of having links to that cell, was arrested Saturday in Athens. 

One of the two men wanted in Spain after the antijihadiste operation in Belgium was actually under electronic bracelet in Belgium and surrendered Tuesday to the local police, said the prosecutor.

Turkey: 7,833 suspects on govt list for ISIL links.

Turkey: 7,833 suspects on govt list for ISIL links.(Taz).

Turkey’s will to fight terrorism should not be questioned especially since the country itself has been affected by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group in various ways, Turkish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, Anadolu agency reported.

Addressing a weekly briefing at the ministry’s headquarters in Ankara, spokesperson Tanju Bilgic said Turkey had so far deported 1,056 people who came from abroad and tried to enter Syria illegally.

"We have a list that contains 7,833 people from 90 countries, who are suspected of trying to join ISIL," Bilgic said.

EU’s law-enforcement agency Europol estimates there are between 10,000 and 12,000 foreign fighters who have been recruited recently by the ISIL terrorist group. An estimated 2,500 of them are of European origin.

The spokesperson refuted claims that after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, Turkey became a "transitional" country for foreign fighters to join ISIL's terrorist activities in Syria.

"Turkey has been affected by ISIL terror in various ways," Bilgic said. "Therefore, Turkey's will to fight terrorism should not be questioned."

“The bloody-minded regime in Syria caused ISIL to take advantage of the vacuum in the country," he said. "Therefore, the root cause of the ISIL terror has to be removed and a democratic regime has to be established."

Video - IsraellyCool's Brian Of London on the voice of Israel discussing Anjem Choudary interview.

Related: Soundcloud: Radical Islamic Cleric Anjem Choudary vs. Rabbis Ari & Jeremy

"Religion of Peace" - Insults under name of freedom lead to violence under name of religion - Rouhani

"Religion of Peace" - Insults under name of freedom lead to violence under name of religion - Rouhani. (Taz).

If insulting is promoted under the name of freedom, violence under the name of religion can not be stopped, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said, the president’s official website reported Jan. 21.

“Fanaticism gun always is filled with insults,” Rouhani said, condemning publish of Prophet Mohammad cartoon by French Charlie Hebdo magazine.

Iranian president’s remarks come nearly two weeks after an attack on the office of Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 people dead. Al-Qaeda affiliates claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the Paris shooting, the French magazine once again published a cartoon last week, depicting Prophet Muhammad on the cover of its new edition.

Rouhani invited Muslims to hold public peaceful protests regarding the published cartoon.

“All should understand that Muslims do not neglect their identity and never permit anybody to abuse their sentiments,” Rouhani said.

He also condemned terror acts under the name of Islam, calling Muslims not to permit anyone to shed innocent blood under their name which harms reputation of the prophet.

He also criticized limitations imposed against Muslim minorities in certain countries.

In similar statements on Jan. 20, Rouhani said that “the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns terror, violence and extremism under the pretext of defending religions as well as insults, blasphemy and provoking the sentiments of followers of other religions in the name of defending freedom.”

He said that Iran is the flag-bearer of fighting violence, extremism and terror both in word and in deed, and supports countries plagued with terrorism. Hmmm.......“Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity. On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be,” Pope Benedict XVI.

Europol Head: "3,000 to 5,000 EU nationals jihad returnees pose unprecedented threat"

Europol Head: "3,000 to 5,000 EU nationals jihad returnees pose unprecedented threat" (Rudaw).

LONDON - Thousands of European nationals have returned from fighting in Syria and Iraq, the head of the European law enforcement agency (Europol) said, adding that the threat of home-grown terrorism in Britain at its peak.

“We are talking about 3,000 to 5,000 EU nationals who are potentially a threat,” Rob Wainwright, the British head of Europol, told the Home Affairs Select Committee in Britain.

“Clearly, we're dealing with a large body of mainly young men who have the potential to come back and have the potential or the intent and capability to carry out attacks we have seen in Paris in the last week,” he explained.

The warning comes just a week after French Islamist gunmen killed 17 people over three days in Paris, prompting the French government to declare war on terror by deploying thousands of troops and police officers across the country to protect religious and government sites.

On Monday, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that his Cabinet would try to give the authorities the power to access communication details of suspected terrorists who might pose a threat to British security.

He said that, through introducing a piece of legislation, the government should close “the safe spaces” used by suspects to communicate with each other.

The British premier said that such powers would be justified to counter “the growing threat to the UK.”

“That is the key principle. Do we allow terrorists the safe spaces to talk to each other? I say 'no we don't,’” he said.

In 2012, British Home Secretary Theresa May proposed the Draft Communications Data Bill that would have obliged companies to store for 12 months personal communications such as social media messages, Internet voice calls, emails and phone calls, but the bill was blocked by the Liberal Democrats.

Hundreds of British citizens of Muslim background are believed to be fighting with ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

FT: "Erdogan’s Turkey drifts away from the West"

Source picture

FT: "Erdogan’s Turkey drifts away from the West". (FOT).

Turkey under the electorally sanctioned dominion of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is becoming ever more surreal for many of its people, and an increasingly unreliable partner for its allies in Nato and the EU.

Mr Erdogan, elected president last year after three terms as prime minister, is focused on winning the next general election this summer, which would give him 10 successive victories at the polls. Securing triumph for his neo-Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) and cementing his hold on power eclipses all other considerations but in ways that can be both disturbing and bizarre.

Already facing criticism about Turkey’s reluctance to commit to the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), the government has Timposed a court-ordered ban on reporting of documents that allegedly prove the country’s main spy agency sent arms to Syrian rebels last year, some of which may have ended up in the hands of Jabhat al-Nusra, the local chapter of al-Qaeda.

The well-founded suspicion of arms shipments does not just reflect badly on Ankara. The US and European powers advocated the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime but declined to provide mainstream Syrian rebels with the means to do so. Instead, it largely outsourced support for the rebellion to the Gulf countries and Turkey, which became a jihadi pipeline into the Syrian war — one that could now blow back.

But Turkey’s failure to adopt a robust policy against Isis — by, for example, making its bases available to coalition warplanes — is another matter. Mr Erdogan wants to avoid any chance of Isis reprisals inside Turkey. But from his point of view, Isis and Nusra are fighting against three enemies: the Iran-backed Shia axis that stretches from Baghdad to Beirut; Syrian Kurdish insurgents allied to the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) that has waged a 30-year struggle against Ankara; and the Assads. Yet Mr Erdogan and his handpicked successor as premier, Ahmet Davutoglu, are wriggling on the hook of a failed foreign policy.

It is not just that their neo-Ottoman fantasy of regaining leadership of the Arab world, through allies like the Muslim Brotherhood, has gone up in flames. Mr Erdogan evidently admires Vladimir Putin. He has had little to say on Russia’s push into Ukraine, but periodically suggests Turkey should join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation rather than the EU, and vituperates against Nato allies. (They “look like friends but they want us dead”, he said last year). But it is not just what he does, it is the way he does it.

One might think that his liberal use of illiberal bans merely amplifies the news he is trying to suppress. But Mr Erdogan’s calculus is domestic. In November, when the cost of his kitschy new palace, four times the size of Versailles, threatened to turn into a scandal, the president announced that Muslim explorers discovered America three centuries before Columbus. That certainly changed the subject.

Similarly, his recent practice of greeting visiting dignitaries to the palace with an honour guard of 16 soldiers dressed up as Turkic warriors from bygone empires is beyond satire. But he can keep a straight face because the story is not the palace itself — and unlike the metropolitan Twitterati of Turkey who erupt in melancholy scorn at these spectacles, his followers get their news from supine TV stations.

Yet even if his focus is domestic and tactical, such erratic and authoritarian behaviour may force the west to rethink its alliance with Mr Erdogan’s Turkey. Symbolism, moreover, even of the faux-Ottoman pantomime variety, ultimately needs substance. Hmmmm.....Once the Financial Times start taking aim at Erdogan, you may say investment is going towards dark times.

Source: The Financial Times

Soundcloud: Radical Islamic Cleric Anjem Choudary vs. Rabbis Ari & Jeremy

HT: VoiceOfIsrael.

Video - Iranians Protest the Charlie Hebdo Cartoons: "Kick Out the French Ambassador"

Twitter refuses to disclose user identity To Turkey to protect freedom of expression.

Twitter refuses to disclose user identity To Turkey to protect freedom of expression.(TZ).

Twitter, the phenomenal microblogging website, is on Turkey's agenda mainly because the government is waging a war on the anonymous whistleblower Fuat Avni (@fuatavnifuat), but the resilience Twitter has shown in protecting user information is not only limited to cases in Turkey, the company says.

Nu Wexler, from Twitter's public policy communications department, told Today's Zaman that Twitter has never shared any user information with the Turkish government, as stated in the transparency reports of the company on its website. These reports display information about government requests to Twitter, including how much information a particular government asks for. In the first half of 2014 only, Turkey requested content removal with 65 court decisions as well as the user information of 24 accounts.

Wexler says Twitter does not comment specifically on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons, but they have legal guidelines for certain information that requires court decisions. "Our transparency report shows we have never turned over private user data to the Turkish government," said Wexler. In a recent example, Turkey asked Twitter to remove the account of the BirGün daily. Read the full story here.

Video - Palestinian islamists burn French flag in a protest in Gaza City

Video - Pat Condell: "Islam has Nothing to do with Islam"

Video - Man Curses Allah and then this happens.

- Watch More Funny Videos Christian Disrespects Allah In Muslim Bakery, Gets Knocked Out With One Punch

It is never a good idea to offend Allah in a Muslim-run bakery loudly.You can see what the consequences may be. Source

Meet the honor brigade, an organized campaign to silence debate on Islam

Asra Q. Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, is the author of “Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam.”

Meet the honor brigade, an organized campaign to silence debate on Islam. (CJR).
By Asra Q. Nomani January 16 .

“You have shamed the community,” a fellow Muslim in Morgantown, W.Va., said to me as we sat in a Panera Bread in 2004. “Stop writing.”

Then 38, I had just written an essay for The Washington Post’s Outlook section arguing that women should be allowed to pray in the main halls of mosques, rather than in segregated spaces, as most mosques in America are arranged. An American Muslim born in India, I grew up in a tolerant but conservative family. In my hometown mosque, I had disobeyed the rules and prayed in the men’s area, about 20 feet behind the men gathered for Ramadan prayers.

Later, an all-male tribunal tried to ban me. An elder suggested having men surround me at the mosque so that I would be “scared off.” Now the man across the table was telling me to shut up.

“I won’t stop writing,” I said.

It was the first time a fellow Muslim had pressed me to refrain from criticizing the way our faith was practiced. But in the past decade, such attempts at censorship have become more common. This is largely because of the rising power and influence of the “ghairat brigade,” an honor corps that tries to silence debate on extremist ideology in order to protect the image of Islam. It meets even sound critiques with hideous, disproportionate responses.

The campaign began, at least in its modern form, 10 years ago in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, when the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — a mini-United Nations comprising the world’s 56 countries with large Muslim populations, plus the Palestinian Authority — tasked then-Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu with combating Islamophobia and projecting the “true values of Islam.” 

During the past decade, a loose honor brigade has sprung up, in part funded and supported by the OIC through annual conferences, reports and communiques. It’s made up of politicians, diplomats, writers, academics, bloggers and activists.

In 2007, as part of this playbook, the OIC launched the Islamophobia Observatory, a watchdog group based in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, with the goal of documenting slights against the faith. Its first report, released the following year, complained that the artists and publishers of controversial Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad were defiling “sacred symbols of Islam . . . in an insulting, offensive and contemptuous manner.” The honor brigade began calling out academics, writers and others, including former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly and administrators at a Catholic school in Britain that turned away a mother who wouldn’t remove her face veil.

“The OIC invented the anti-‘Islamophobia’ movement,” says Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and a frequent target of the honor brigade. “These countries . . . think they own the Muslim community and all interpretations of Islam.”

Alongside the honor brigade’s official channel, a community of self-styled blasphemy police — from anonymous blogs such as LoonWatch.com andIkhras.com to a large and disparate cast of social-media activists — arose and began trying to control the debate on Islam. This wider corps throws the label of “Islamophobe” on pundits, journalists and others who dare to talk about extremist ideology in the religion. Their targets are as large as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as small as me.

The official and unofficial channels work in tandem, harassing, threatening and battling introspective Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere. They bank on an important truth: Islam, as practiced from Malaysia to Morocco, is a shame-based, patriarchal culture that values honor and face-saving from the family to the public square. Which is why the bullying often works to silence critics of Islamic extremism.

“Honor brigades are wound collectors. They are couch jihadis,” Joe Navarro, a former supervisory special agent in the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit, tells me. “They sit around and collect the wounds and injustices inflicted against them to justify what they are doing. Tragedy unites for the moment, but hatred unites for longer.”

In an e-mail exchange, the OIC’s ambassador to the United Nations denied that the organization tries to silence discussion of problems in Muslim communities.

The attacks are everywhere. Soon after the Islamophobia Observatory took shape, Sheik Sabah Ahmed al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, grumbled about “defamatory caricatures of our Master and Prophet Muhammad” and films that smear Islam, according to the OIC’s first Islamophobia report.

The OIC helped give birth to a culture of victimization. In speeches, blogs, articles and interviews widely broadcast in the Muslim press, its honor brigade has targeted pundits, political leaders and writers — from TV host Bill Maher to atheist author Richard Dawkins — for insulting Islam. Writer Glenn Greenwald has supported the campaign to brand writers and thinkers, such as neuroscientist and atheist Sam Harris, as having “anti-Muslim animus” just for criticizing Islam.

“These fellow travelers have made it increasingly unpleasant — and even dangerous — to discuss the link between Muslim violence and specific religious ideas, like jihad, martyrdom and blasphemy,” Harris tells me.

Noticing the beginnings of this trend in December 2007, a U.S. diplomat in Istanbul dispatched a cable to the National Security Council, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and various State Department offices. The cable said the OIC’s chief called supporters of the Danish cartoons of Muhammad “extremists of freedom of expression” and equated them with al-Qaeda.

Most of the criticism takes place online, with anonymous bloggers targeting supposed Islamophobes. Not long after the cable, a network of bloggers launched LoonWatch, which goes after Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists and other Muslims.

The bloggers have labeled Somali author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a born Muslim but now an atheist opponent of Islamic extremism, an “anti-Muslim crusader.” Robert Spencer, a critic of extremist Islam, has been called a “vicious hate preacher” and an “Internet sociopath.” The insults may look similar to Internet trolling and vitriolic comments you can find on any blog or news site. But they’re more coordinated, frightening and persistent. Read more at Washington Post

Turkish 'Antisemitic' magazine replies to anti-Islam Charlie Hebdo campaign.

Karikatür tweetlemediğimi söyleyenlere gelsin.. :) Daha fazlasını görmek isteyen de @cafcafdergisi alsın.. ;) pic.twitter.com/THEh5Edey0
— Ahmet Altay (@ahmetaltay) January 17, 2015

Translation:

Source: Creative Director II II cartoonist illustrator.  https://twitter.com/ahmetaltay

Turkish 'Antisemitic' magazine replies to anti-Islam Charlie Hebdo campaign. (Taz).

Turkish 'satirical' magazine Cafcaf, the only publication in Turkey which places emphasis on Islamic values, has hit back to the Charlie Hebdo arrogance with a unique cover, IRNA reported.

Cafcaf magazine has responded to Hebdo with an equally moving magazine cover in French – who have massacred human rights in the name of liberal, modern Europe - saying “Non, rien n'est pardonne” translated as “NO, nothing has been forgiven”.

'Arrogance has become a habit of the European culture, who have placed themselves above others in a position where they are free and unquestionable and in turn, have elicited a significant response from the entire world,' the magazine said in a statement.

Charlie Hebdo, in their latest publication had put a caricature depicting the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) shedding a tear and holding up a sign saying “Je suis Charlie”, the message of solidarity with the victims. Above the cartoon are the words, “All is forgiven”.

Cafcaf, in answer to Charlie Hebdo, showed pictures pointing to those who have been oppressed in Afghanistan, Gaza, Chechnya, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and China, with a Palestinian child in the front middle, all whose blood is still being spilt, saying nothing will be forgiven.

A weekly publication, the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo saw a reprint of 3 million magazines. Hmmm.....Seems Cafcaf's 'Cartoonist' has a nasty 'Antisemitic' streak

Video - Algerian Imam Justifies Paris Attacks: Violence Begets Counter-Violence

Saudi OIC Muslim leader organizing 'legal action against Charlie Hebdo' over Mohamed cartoons.

Saudi OIC Muslim leader organizing 'legal action against Charlie Hebdo' over Mohamed cartoons.(Independent).

The Saudi Arabia-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is planning to sue the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo following its publication of a front cover depicting the Prophet Mohamed.

It comes as demonstrations against the controversial image on last week’s “survivor” issue turned violent in Niger, Pakistan and Algeria, while the Iranian authorities banned a daily newspaper for a front-page headline allegedly offering Charlie Hebdo its support.

In Saudi Arabia, the former culture minister and now head of the Jeddah-based OIC condemned the new edition of Charlie Hebdo as “an idiotic step that requires necessary legal measures”.

Iyad Madani told a Saudi newspaper: “OIC is studying Europe and French laws and other available procedures to be able to take legal action against Charlie Hebdo.

“If French laws allow us to take legal procedures against Charlie Hebdo, OIC will not hesitate to prosecute the French magazine.”

On his personal Twitter feed, Madani added: “These cartoons have hurt the sentiments of Muslims across the world.

“Freedom of speech must not become a hate speech and must not offend others. No sane person, irrespective of doctrine, religion or faith, accepts his beliefs being ridiculed,” he said.

In Gaza, Muslims scrawled graffiti on the walls of the French Cultural Centre. In addition to statements praising Mohamed and declaring him off-limits for ridicule or satire, the vandals also wrote: “To hell, to a miserable destiny, French journalists.”

Palestinians burning French flag at the Temple mount

EU "considering a ban on Islamophobia" after Paris attacks

EU "considering a ban on Islamophobia" after Paris attacks.(Commentator).

After the Charlie Hebdo and related attacks, the European Union is being presented with proposals to ban Islamophobia, so as to stem a perceived backlash against Muslims. Eurocrats are sympathetic but do not believe they are practicable.

Diplomatic and NGO sources in Brussels say that the European Union is now considering proposals from Muslim groups to strengthen laws against "hate speech" following the fatal attacks in Paris at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish Supermarket.

The proposals are based on fears that the attacks by Islamists could provoke a backlash against Europe's growing Muslim community, leaders of which uniformly condemned the killings, while simultaneously protesting against denigration of Muhammed.

Mainstream Muslim leaders have close contacts with the European Union and its related institutions, as do the leaders of other faith groups.

The sources, consulted in the last two days, who insisted upon anonymity, said that senior EU officials were sympathetic to calls for libel and hate-speech laws to be strengthened, but were sceptical of getting support from member governments or from the European Parliament where Right-leaning parties increased their presence at last year's European elections.

One well-informed member of a non-governmental orgainsation in Brussels said:

"The conversation is going on. In fact, it's the only game in town after Paris. But you aren't going to get anyone to go on the record right now. Everyone's too scared, and I don't mean scared of the Islamists, I mean scared of being accused of being politically correct, even if they are. "

"The Jewish groups are terrified, but let's face it, how many Jews are there in Europe against the number of Muslims? But, yes, they are considering a ban on Islamophobia".

In 2003, the EU suppressed a report on anti-Semitism in Europe which concluded that attacks on Jews were mainly perpetrated by young Muslims. Hmmmmm.....He was 100% right, and that's why Turkey went to the march.