Islamic State Carries Out 1st 'Official' Beheading with Sword.

Islamic State Carries Out 1st 'Official' Beheading with Sword. (JustPasteIt).[GoogleTranslate].

Praise be to Allah who Normans slaves Mujahideen in the land, and enabled them to extend prescribed in Astkhalafhm it, have been set up courts for this purpose, and restored the rights of its people, and set up the border, and has implemented the provisions of Almighty God to mankind, and was thus rampant in the tyrants time the issue of insulting God Almighty , people have dared to insult the Lord of Glory in the markets and streets and houses, what was the Diwan of the judiciary and the injustices in the Islamic state, however, was quick in the application of the ruling on that issue, and this is based on forensic evidence from the Quran and Sunnah according to the judgment scientists' understanding, issuing Court ruling to strike the head of anyone who dares to Lord of Glory and insults "hitting his head with the sword in front of a range of Muslims,"

​​and after the issuance of this rule and published and circulated to residents in the territory of the Islamic state, the Islamic court seized several cases of insulting God Almighty, and then brought in and they recognized themselves Bsabhm Lord of the Worlds, the judge's ruling to strike their heads in front of a gathering of Muslims, Dish rule in yards mandate of the General tenderness, to serve as a deterrent to those who dare to Lord of the earth and the heavens, and thanks to God Almighty, the people today feel a capacity to live and secure, and that the blessing of the application of Islamic law.

Hmmmm.....But, but Muslims Say Beheadings Are An Insult To Islam

A look at the 'future'

HT:

#Saudi Instructor? #IslamicState Carries Out 1st Beheadings w/ Sword http://t.co/uBZL3ReOSk @isin669 @offshore_race pic.twitter.com/hdHCMkyNjj
— маяковский (@moscow_ghost) October 26, 2014

Video - Enforcing Sharia in Raqqa: The Islamic State 'Enforcers' (Part 3)

HT: Vice

Fight against domestic violence stalls in ‘Islamist’ Turkey.

Rise in violence is same as rise of AKP

Fight against domestic violence stalls in ‘Islamist’ Turkey. (HD).

Whenever Hayat reported abuse, either her husband was released by police after a few hours, or she was offered shelter which would have meant her children being taken away.

“Go speak to a hundred women, you’ll hear pretty much the same story. It’s like a pre-destined misery that we’re born to live through,” Hayat, the only name she gives so as to protect her identity, told Reuters.

Turkey, which aspires to join the European Union, has drafted new legislation to try to bring women’s rights in line with European standards. A law sent to Parliament just last month will toughen sentencing for sexual assault.

Officials say the number of shelters has doubled in the past three years and victim support centers have been set up, allowing women like Hayat to receive protection and remain with their children.

But activists and lawyers say there are still not enough, and that an increasingly conservative and authoritarian political culture under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government, means progress is, at best, halting.

Turkey ranked 120th of 136 nations in the World Economic Forum’s 2013 Gender Gap Index, down 15 places since 2006, while a 2011 U.N. report indicated domestic violence rates were almost twice those in the United States, and ten times higher than in some European countries.

“There is a real concrete, open threat to our rights. They want to take them back from us, and we don’t want to give them back,” said Zelal Ayman, an activist with Istanbul-based Women for Women’s Rights (WWHR).

She points to Erdoğan’s strident views on everything from abortion to the number of children women should have, the sort of meddling in private life that may bolster his standing among his pious core supporters but which alienates a more Western-leaning, secularist strain of Turkish society.

In a 2010 speech, he said he did “not believe in the equality of men and women.” Two years later, he likened abortions to the killing of civilians in a military airstrike; activists say abortions all but stopped, since many healthworkers became too frightened to carry them out.

Yıldız Tokman from the Association for Monitoring Gender Equality says Erdoğan’s words have made abortions de facto illegal and women in Turkey less safe.

“Government officials act like small prime ministers, saying that a woman’s place is with her husband. I’m afraid of increasing conservatism. With conservatism, the first victim is always women,” she said.Hmmm.....In Gods name keep Turkey out of Europe. Read the full story here.

"Moderate Iran" - We can read your emails, says Iran’s intelligence minister.

"Moderate Iran" - We can read your emails, says Iran’s intelligence minister. HT: AlMonitor.

“The Intelligence Ministry will confront without reservation terrorist elements or groups that want to challenge the security of the Islamic Republic,” Alavi said. “Sometimes an individual reaches a point at which the Intelligence Ministry has no choice but to act against them.”

In regard to terrorists with links to foreign groups, Alavi said, “When they want to deny taking actions in favor of foreigners, when their emails, Gmail, conversations, texts, exchanges and chats are put in front of them, that’s when they realize nothing is hidden from the Intelligence Ministry and they have no choice but to confess.”

In the transcript provided by Iranian Students’ News Agency, the impression Alavi gave was that the online activity of individuals with suspected terrorist links is monitored before their apprehension. Otherwise, the security services would have to wait until they apprehend suspects and force to give up their passwords, to acquire the incriminating information.

Alavi also said that there were limits to how far Iran’s Intelligence Ministry would go. “The hands of the security agencies are not [so] open that they ensure security in any shape or form,” Alavi said. “Ensuring security in an Islamic system has to be in the framework of Sharia, ethics and the law.”

“Within the sacred Islamic Sharia, people’s private lives are considered,” Alavi said. “Islam does not allow the entrance into a person’s privacy.”Hmmm......But...."Sometimes a dictatorship has to do what it has to do"? Read the full story here.

Videos - 01 May Clashes still ongoing in Istanbul.

Protestor in front or police #TOMA truck. Tense situation here as the stand off at police line. #Istanbul #May1 pic.twitter.com/Q50vVJQc9P

— Sara Firth (@SaraFirth_RT) May 1, 2014

Photo was taken on "the bloody May Day", 1977 in #Taksim. Taksim is the #MayDay Square since then pic.twitter.com/bqE1AIrzxZ v @eskisigibidegil

— Merlinka (@Meralink) April 30, 2014

Image from our LIVE report in #Istanbul on #MayDay via @RT_russian: pic.twitter.com/d57vLxsYjH #May1 #1mayis

— Sara Firth (@SaraFirth_RT) May 1, 2014

Obama's BFF Turkey now considered 'NOT FREE' in Freedom of the Press 2014 report.

Obama's BFF Turkey now considered 'NOT FREE' in Freedom of the Press 2014 report.HT: Freedom of the Press.

 Europe: This region enjoys the highest level of press freedom, but the regional average score registered the second-largest drop worldwide in 2013. 

The Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden were rated the world’s top-performing countries.

Significant decline took place in Turkey, which fell into the Not Free category, as well as in Greece, Montenegro, and the United Kingdom.
A modest numerical improvement was noted in Italy, which remains Partly Free.Read the full report here.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu comments on Twitter ban.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu comments on Twitter ban. (Taz).

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appeared to endorse Turkey's Constitutional Court's ruling on Wednesday that the Twitter ban be restored Anadolu Agency reported

Responding to reporters in New York after the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) group of friends session, Davutoglu said, "court orders need to be respected everywhere across the world."

He added Turkey had asked Twitter to restrict access to the accounts that violated people's rights, however, Twitter refused to do so.

"The Twitter ban was a temporary measure and it does not aim to restrict freedom of expression," he added.

Davutoglu added that Turkey is making progress to normalize relations with Israel, which have been tense since nine Turks aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla were killed by Israeli soldiers in 2010.
Israel's apology to Turkey last year marked the beginning of improvement of relations. Turkey is expecting "positive developments" in the coming days on its second requirement - compensation to the families - Davutoglu said. The third demand from Turkey is the lifting of the Gaza blockade.

Asked whether Turkey was at war with Syria, Davutoglu said, "Turkey's borders have been violated many times...Turkey shot down a Syrian military jet three weeks ago. That is why this is an extremely serious matter that needs to be followed by Turkey," he said.

Davutoglu said he would seek support for Turkey's bid to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the term 2015 and 2016 during his visit in New York.
Turkey served as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2009 and 2010.
Five permanent members of the council are; U.K. U.S., China, France, Russia. The 10 non-permanent seats are filled by members of the UN General Assembly, with five countries elected each year for two years.

Turkish Interior Ministry planning to dismiss all reassigned police officers.

Turkish Interior Ministry planning to dismiss all reassigned police officers.(TZ).

Having conducted a sweeping purge in the police force resulting in the reassignment of nearly 15,000 police officers since a major corruption and bribery probe became public on Dec. 17 of last year, the Interior Ministry is now preparing to dismiss the reassigned officers in the upcoming weeks, sources close to the ministry claim.

The sources, who preferred to remain anonymous due to security concerns, told Today's Zaman that the Interior Ministry is planning to launch a new initiative in which it will dismiss all reassigned police officers from their posts over the next few weeks.

The police officers had been reassigned on the grounds that they were linked to the faith-based Hizmet movement, inspired by the principles of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. 

The government has launched a large-scale defamation campaign against the movement, which it has accused of being behind the Dec. 17 corruption scandal.After 400 reassigned police officers -- including former Police Chief Ramazan Akyürek, who served as head of the National Police Department's intelligence unit, former Muş Police Department Chief Muharrem Durmaz and Hami Güney, formerly deputy chief of the Ankara Police Department -- were dismissed from their posts recently, the sources revealed that the ministry has also prepared a new 1,000-person dismissal list on the orders of Interior Minister Efkan Ala.

The ministry has already approved the list and sent it to the National Police Department's personnel department and is planning to dismiss those on the list over the next few weeks.Read the full story here.

Related:

Turkish police now working with packed suitcase, at least 2,500 police, including top officers, replaced since mid-December.

Turkish police now working with packed suitcase, at least 2,500 police, including top officers, replaced since mid-December.

Turkish police now working with packed suitcase, at least 2,500 police, including top officers, replaced since mid-December.(HD).

Turkish authorities pressed on with a massive purge of police on Thursday, removing 159 officers and four department heads from their posts in a single city, local media reported.

The shakeup in the western province of Bursa came on the heels of a similar round of sackings or reassignments in the main cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir on Wednesday.

Two police department heads in Ankara were also removed from their posts on Jan. 23, reports said.

At least 2,500 police, including top officers, have been replaced since the graft scandal erupted in mid-December.

Dozens of prosecutors, including senior lawyers involved in the investigations into alleged money laundering, gold smuggling and bribery in real estate deals, have also been sacked.

The purges, coupled with legislation aimed at increasing government control on the judiciary and the Internet, have raised deep concern at home and abroad about the state of democracy in the majority Muslim country.Hmmmm......Erdogan : "I'm not a dictator. It's not even in my blood,"...Police, Judges, prosecutors purged..........He got a blood transfusion recently?

Related: Erdogan on Democracy .

French Green EP member says Erdoğan dodged corruption questions with success stories.

French Green EP member says Erdoğan dodged corruption questions with success stories.(TZ).

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the co-chairman of the Greens Party in the European Parliament (EP) and a prominent political figure in Europe, has said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during his visit to Brussels on Tuesday, avoided giving a response to questions about an ongoing corruption scandal and instead spoke about his government's successful practices over the past 11 years.

Speaking to France's Europe 1 radio channel, Cohn-Bendit elaborated on Erdoğan's controversial visit to Brussels, saying Erdoğan refrained from giving answers to questions on the corruption investigation in Turkey which became public on Dec. 17 following a wave of detentions, preferring instead to talk about Turkey's growing economy.

“We asked him about the corruption investigation. He said Turkey's economy has growth by 4 percent, that they are continuing to build schools and that his government is the most successful one in terms of environmental issues compared to the previous governments. In short, he said there cannot be corruption in a country that has a growing economy,” Cohn-Bendit said.

On a question about police officers being removed from their posts since the scandal broke, Erdoğan claimed that “my parliament” has legislative powers and has removed only a few hundred police officers out of thousands, Cohn-Bendit said.

According to the EP member, tensions increased when the Egyptian coup was discussed.

He said Erdoğan criticized the EU for not condemning the coup that took place on July 3 and reminded the union that it had maintained its silence when the Muslim Brotherhood had made mistakes.

“Erdoğan said the Muslim Brotherhood had earned half of the votes and I reminded him that Hitler also came into power with the help of the votes that he received. … He said ‘I'm the people! ... The people stand by me. My nation is the victim of an international plot',” Cohn-Bendit said.He also defined Erdoğan as a “leader who has never doubted himself.”Hmmmm....."L'Etat C'est Moi" - "I'm the people"...........They're continuing to build schools? 

Erdogan Builds 17,000 New Mosques, No New Schools During Last 10 Years

Erdogan's 'Stalinist' purges - state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation axes 800 reporters, stirs reaction over press freedom

Erdogan's 'Stalinist' purges - state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation axes 800 reporters, stirs reaction over press freedom. (TZ).


The state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) has fired some 800 correspondents without providing any specific reason, news wires reported on Tuesday. The dismissed reporters were mostly contractual or freelance workers who don’t have any right to severance or compensation payments.

Aydın Journalists’ Solidarity Association (AGD) Chairman Mehmet Aydın said the public broadcasting company’s decision victimizes a large number of journalists throughout Turkey. In a written statement on Monday, Aydın said the reporters were left helpless in the middle of the winter due to TRT’s mass layoffs and demanded that measures be taken to help them with the financial difficulties they will experience as a result of the surprise dismissals.

He said these journalists had already been working under demanding conditions and were in a bad economic situation due to low wages. A large portion of the press in the country are employed in such a way that they are deprived even of the social rights guaranteed under Press Labor Law No. 212 because they are not full-time employees, he said, adding that such a large number of job cuts only aggravates the situation. “We strongly condemn the TRT administration for ruthlessly and categorically victimizing our colleagues at such a time when the army of jobless reporters is growing like an avalanche,” he said.

Yozgat Journalists’ Association (YGC) President Osman Hakan Kiracı also criticized TRT’s decision and said that they are watching the government’s negative practices against the press, which he said had accelerated since Dec. 17 when a corruption probe implicating some members of the government became public, with great concern.

He mentioned the proposed new Internet law, which entitles the maritime affairs and communications minister as well as the head of the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) to block websites without first obtaining a court order, as well as the Turkish Airlines (THY) decision to halt the distribution of newspapers on its flights from media outlets that have been critical of the government. He said that the TRT’s massive dismissals are the latest example of the government’s increasing pressure on the freedom of expression.

THY stopped purchasing the Zaman daily, the highest-selling paper in Turkey, as well as the dailies Bugün, Today’s Zaman and Ortadoğu last month. Kiracı characterized this decision as an undemocratic practice.Hmmmm......Erdogan : "I'm not a dictator. It's not even in my blood,"...Police, Judges, prosecutors purged..........He got a blood transfusion recently?

Related: Erdogan on Democracy .

64 journalists under arrest, and another 123 are facing trial on charges of terrorism Turkish main opposition announces.

64 journalists under arrest, and another 123 are facing trial on charges of terrorism Turkish main opposition announces.(HD).

             

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu referred to the Turkey Journalists’ Labor Union’s (TGS) July 22 assessment that 59 journalists had been removed from post for their news reports on the Gezi Park unrest. DHA photo

--> There are 64 journalists under arrest and another 123 are facing trial on charges of terrorism, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has announced, with the party’s leader underlining that Turkey ranks 154th out of 179 countries in media freedom.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu released the outcome of the party’s research into all journalists that have been facing prosecution, presenting the “Report on Imprisoned Journalists” today at a press conference at the party’s headquarters.

Kılıçdaroğlu also referred to the Turkey Journalists’ Labor Union’s (TGS) July 22 assessment that 59 journalists had been removed from post for their news reports on the Gezi Park unrest.

“We are experiencing a process in which the government and the police audits together, [in which] the media bosses are under the rule of political authority and publish the news that the political authority accepts,” he said, adding that those in power, as well as media bosses, were also instituting censorship or driving journalists to engage in self-censorship. “We have gone 105 years back in time.”

Even during the aftermath of the Sept. 12, 1980, coup, only 31 journalists were arrested, Kılıçdaroğlu said, calling the government’s current attitude on the matter a “police state mentality.”

“Mr. Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] has turned the country into a half-open penitentiary and made it impossible to live for journalists,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, while noting the approach of Journalism Day, which is marked on July 24 in Turkey.

“Journalism is a public duty. Only in a country in which a journalist can work freely can we talk about democracy,” he said. “I call out to media bosses: Leave the kitchen of the newspaper alone, when you apply censorship on them, when you lay them off from work, someday we will bring you to account,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The CHP took up the matter following a joint press conference between Erdoğan and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in February in which the former responded to a German correspondent’s question about arrested journalists by saying: “The number of arrested journalists is not more than the number of fingers on one’s hand. Those journalists were not arrested for their journalism.”

CHP deputies Veli Ağbaba, Özgür Özel and Nurettin Demir, who conducted the survey, also attended today’s press conference. Hmmmm.......“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.” ― Bruce Coville.Read the full story here.

Erdoğan, Obama discuss Turkish protests and free press.

Erdoğan, Obama discuss Turkish protests and free press.(HD).

U.S. President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on June 24, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç told reporters following a Cabinet meeting."I know that the conversation was very positive," he said.

The White House said the conversation is about the importance of free expression, following days of violence in anti-government demonstrations.

The two leaders also discussed Syria, and the need to provide more support to rebels both sides support, after Washington signaled it was ready to provide military aid to fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad.

The White House said in a statement that Erdoğan described the situation over Gezi protests.

"The two leaders discussed the importance of nonviolence and of the rights to free expression and assembly and a free press," the statement said.

Arınç said Obama's call was made at 5 p.m. local time and the conversation lasted about one hour. The White House said in a statement that Erdoğan described the situation in Turkey, where a sit-in to save Gezi Park prompted a police crackdown on May 31.

“The two leaders discussed the importance of nonviolence and of the rights to free expression and assembly and a free press,” the statement said. Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said the conversation was very positive.

Washington has been very vocal from the start of the protests. Both the U.S. State Department and the White House issued more than a dozen statements calling for restraint and respect for freedom of assembly.

The two leaders also discussed Syria and the need to provide more support to the rebels both sides support, after Washington signaled it was ready to provide military aid to fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad.

The White House statement said the leaders also discussed Syria “including the regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own people.” The conversation, which several officials described as lengthy, also focused on a shared Turkish-U.S. “commitment to pursuing a political solution [and] the need to provide additional support to the opposition.” Hmmmm.......'The two leaders discussed the importance of nonviolence and of the rights to free expression and assembly and a free press."Anyone believing this i've got a Bridge for sale.Read the full story here.

Don't you love the 'Body Language'?

Germany proposes delaying EU-Turkey talks over Erdogan's heavy handling of protests

Germany proposes delaying EU-Turkey talks over Erdogan's heavy handling of protests.(AA).

Germany proposed on Monday postponing a new round of European Union membership talks with Turkey by about four months to signal EU displeasure at Ankara's handling of anti-government protests.

The EU had planned to revive Turkey's EU ambitions on Wednesday by opening a new chapter, or policy area, in its EU membership talks - the first opened since 2010.

But Germany, supported by several other EU states, is blocking the plan over Turkey's handling of anti-government protests that swept its cities after police used teargas and water cannon to disperse a demonstration against redevelopment of an Istanbul square.

Two weeks of clashes with police have left four people dead, including a policeman, and some 7,500 injured.

A delay in opening the new chapter would raise new doubts about whether Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country of 76 million people, will ever be admitted to the European club.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Berlin had given the compromise proposal to Ireland, current holder of the EU presidency, which would discuss it with other EU states.

"We cannot say today if this proposal will fly. We are doing our best to come to a good solution," he told reporters at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg.

Westerwelle declined to give details of the proposal, but a German diplomat said it was for the EU to agree now to open the new chapter but to delay holding a meeting with Turkey to launch it until later this year.

The official launch would be after the EU issues its annual report on Turkey's progress in bringing its laws into line with EU practice and on human rights, due in mid-October.Read the full story here.More here.

A Country Divided: Where Is Turkey Headed?

 A Country Divided: Where Is Turkey Headed?HT: Spiegel.

The self-confidence of AKP supporters is also evident in the bearing of those conservative and economically successful Anatolians and Black Sea Turks who have done well in Istanbul. They have established a zone of mosques and minarets in their neighborhoods, creating a different Istanbul, a city where bikini ads are painted over and store owners are called upon to stop selling alcohol. 

It is a city where members of the new Muslim bourgeoisie are building mansions in the neo-Ottoman style so that their wealth doesn't look European. In districts like Fatih and Sultanbeyli, there is growing pressure on residents to behave in ways that reflect religious norms. "From one day to the next, all female kindergarten teachers were wearing veils," says a mother who was dropping off her children at an Istanbul daycare center. "They call us dirty whores, just because we're wearing short sleeves and short skirts," two female pupils from Pendik, an Istanbul suburb, reported last week.
Modern Turks feel as out of place in these areas as conservatives feel in the liberal quarters in the western part of the city. When a foreign TV crew pointed its camera at a rural family at the Kabata boat landing below Taksim Square a few days ago, a young Turkish woman wearing modern clothing berated the journalists in English, saying: "You shouldn't constantly be filming these people. That's not the real Turkey."
The search for what, exactly, the definition of "real Turkey" is began decades ago. The revolution that Atatürk visited on the rump state of the Ottoman Empire was one of the radical cultural shifts of the 20th century. 
He replaced Arabic script with the Latin alphabet, and Islamic law and the sultanate with Western ideas. He introduced voting rights for men and women, created a secular education system and barred Turks from wearing Turkish trousers, headscarves and the traditional fez in government offices and universities. His methods were often heavy-handed, but his contribution to modernization is undisputed.Hmmm....Unilke Obama's BFF Erdogan, who made it clear from the very beginning what his ultimate goal was: in 1994, when he was the mayor of Istanbul. “I am a servant of Shariah.” Read the full story here.

World From Berlin: Turks 'Have Simply Had Enough'

World From Berlin: Turks 'Have Simply Had Enough'.HT: Spiegel.

With his efforts to quash the protest movement on Taksim Square in Istanbul on Tuesday, German editorialists fear Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has become an "autocrat." Some argue he is threatening his country's very future.

Istanbul's most important square was clouded in tear gas and drenched by water cannons as police moved to clear it of protesters on Tuesday, escalating tensions that have been brewing since demonstrators began camping out at the site two weeks ago. Dozens of injuries have been reported by demonstrators.
By Wednesday morning, only police and bulldozers could be seen on Taksim Square, and barricades and debris from the protests had already been cleared away. Although local officials had assured they didn't want to clear the protest camp at Gezi Park, activists claimed police entered during the night. Hundreds remain camped out in the park.

Hours earlier, in a televised speech before members of parliament with his Justice and Development Party (AKP), Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an end to the protests at Taksim Square and elsewhere across Turkey. "For those who want to continue, it is over," he warned. Starting immediately, there would be "no tolerance," he said. Erdogan has also said he would meet on Wednesday with protest leaders.
Tuesday's crackdown has drawn criticism from the international community. "With its reaction to the protests so far, the Turkish government is sending the wrong signal -- both within the country and to Europe," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin on Wednesday. The foreign minister described freedom of speech and assembly as "inalienable" basic rights in every democracy. "We expect Prime Minister Erdogan to de-escalate the situation in the spirit of European values, and to seek a constructive exchange and peaceful dialogue."
The developments come at an awkward time for the European Union, which is considering steps later this month to move forward accession talks with Turkey that have been largely stalled since 2005. The rotating Irish EU presidency has been pushing for at least one more of the 35 negotiating chapters to be opened. So far, only one has been completed, with accession talks largely hindered by a failure to reach a deal over divided Cyprus.
 From the left to the right across the political spectrum, editorialists at leading German newspapers are roundly critical of Erdogan's heavy-handed response to the protests, with a number ridiculing the Turkish leader as an "autocrat."


Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Ever since he became prime minister, an air of distrust has surrounded Ergodan. How democratic is this man? Initially, it was Erdogan's religious roots that fueled this distrust, especially the religious character of his moderate Islamist AKP. Fears of an Islamization of Turkey dominated the first phase of a reign that has already lasted for 10 years. During this time, he used brutal means to force the military stronghold of the generals under the primacy of politics. He played with Turkey's Islamic character, particularly in terms of foreign policy. He wanted to make Turkey an example for a secular but still Islamically molded society. It was to take on a leadership role in the region."

"Today it is clear that it Islam isn't really Erdogan's greatest temptation. It is power itself -- a pure lust for power that has gone to his head. 

Erdogan has continuously expanded his power base. His party men now hold positions in justice and in the business sector and the media seem to try to outdo each other in glorifying him. There doesn't appear to be any opposition left within the apparatus. ... Erdogan is playing a dangerous game. ... At the most important moment of his time governing, he has decided to become a total autocrat."

 The conservative Die Welt writes:

"Taksim Square will go down in history not as an environmental project, but as the scene of a clash of cultures that divides the Western-oriented secular Turkey from the Islamic-conservative Turkey. Here, tensions are being discharged that run right through Turkish history -- before and especially after the founding of the Turkish state by Kemal Pasha 'Atatürk,' a revolutionary act that shattered the country's traditional forms and remains traumatic today."Read the full story here.

Sharia Über Alles.

Sharia Über Alles.HT: AmericanThinker.By Andrew G. Bostom.

Despite a number of (deliberately?) mitigating biases, both methodological and interpretative, the latest Pew Research Forum report, "The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society," released April 30, 2013, confirms the broad appeal of the totalitarian Sharia, Islam's religio-political "law," across Islamdom.

The data were pooled from surveys conducted between 2008 and 2012, representing, as touted by Pew, "a total of 39 countries and territories on three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe." 
Collectively, the surveys included "more than 38,000 face-to-face interviews in 80-plus languages and dialects, covering every country that has more than 10 million Muslims." Pew did acknowledge this important caveat about Muslim populations not surveyed because, "political sensitivities or security concerns prevented opinion research among Muslims." Notably excluded countries were Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, and Iran -- all Islamic states, governed by the Sharia, Saudi Arabia and the Sudan under Sunni Islam, the third, Iran, being the world's largest Shiite Muslim state.
Responses to four related questions on the Sharia, comprise the surveys' salient -- and pathognomonic -- findings. The questions were, 

• "Do you favor or oppose making sharia law, or Islamic law, the official law of the land in our country?", and these three internally validating (and equally edifying) queries, 
• "Do you favor or oppose the following: punishments like whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery?", 
• "Do you favor or oppose the following: punishments like whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery?", 
• "Do you favor or oppose the following: the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion?" Summary data from the nations with the five largest Muslim populations (as per 2010) surveyed, Indonesia (204 million), Pakistan (178 million), Bengladesh (149 million), Egypt (80 million), and Nigeria (76 million), revealed:Read the full story here.

Canada - To serve and restrict: Beware of police diversity units that threaten rabbis.

Canada - To serve and restrict: Beware of police diversity units that threaten rabbis.HT: SunNewsNetwork.By Brian Lilly.

In Canada you have free speech - at least until the authorities say you don't - and this week one such authority used his power to trample all over that fundamental freedom.

A talk at a synagogue just north of Toronto had to be moved after a member of the "diversity unit" of the York Regional Police Force essentially threatened the rabbi in charge. The synagogue had been rented by a group called the Jewish Defence League so they could host free-speech advocate and anti-jihadist Pamela Geller.

Insp. Ricky Veerappan, one of York Region's finest, decided he didn't like what Geller might say so he paid a visit to Rabbi Mendel Kaplan of the Chabad Flamingo synagogue.

Kaplan is one of the chaplains of the York Regional Police, and Veerappan made it clear that if Geller appeared at the synagogue then Kaplan would lose his position. Rabbi Kaplan's response should have been to show Veerappan the door and remind the inspector that we live in a free country and until someone breaks the law they are innocent.

Unfortunately, he did not. He understood the implied threat and told the event organizers that the booking was cancelled.

"Some of the stuff that Ms. Geller speaks about runs contrary to the values of York Regional Police and the work we do in engaging our communities," Veerappan told QMI Agency.

Quite frankly inspector, you offend me but you are still in your job.

Police are supposed to enforce laws, not enforce unwritten and vague "values" of the community.

Veerappan told QMI Agency some members of the Muslim community complained to him that Geller would be speaking and he stepped in.

What Veerappan has done is assume Geller will commit a crime and acted to make sure she could not do that.It's not like she was planning a terrorist attack that had to be stopped, she was simply going to speak about radical Islam and jihad.

Fortunately for free speech, the organizers have found a new venue, the Toronto Zionist Centre - the talk will go on albeit outside of the jurisdiction of York Region's values enforcers.

That a police officer threatened a rabbi if he did not cancel an event with a speaker the cop did not like should outrage everyone.

My friend Salim Mansur wrote to York Region Police Chief Eric Jolliffe to demand better.

Mansur started off by telling the chief that he was a Muslim and a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario.

"I am appalled that in this day and age we continue to hear regularly how the liberal democratic tradition of Canada and the West is being systematically shredded by institutions sworn to protect it," Mansur wrote.And he's right.

It's shocking that Prof. Mansur needs to school a police chief in Canada about freedom of speech, but clearly it needs to be done.

From the recent Whatcott decision at the Supreme Court (it said even speech that is true can be hate speech) to vexatious complaints about values, free speech is under attack in Canada. If we don't stand up and defend it, we're going to lose it.Read the full story here.

Video - Canada's 'speech censors' - Canadian police tried to censor Pamela Geller by preventing her from speaking at a Toronto area synagogue.

Video - Canada's 'speech censors' - Canadian police tried to censor Pamela Geller by preventing her from speaking at a Toronto area synagogue.

Pamela Geller joins Ezra Levant to discuss the Canadian police who tried to censor her by preventing her from speaking at a Toronto area synagogue.HT: SunNewsNetwork.

There are no political executions in Iran......."The people who go against the Islamic System get executed."

There are no political executions in Iran......."The people who go against the Islamic System get executed."(TI).There are no political executions in Iran, head of Iran's judicial system Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani said, Mehr reported.

"The people who go against the Islamic System get executed. And these executions have no political context.

Larijani's remarks came out as response to the new U.S. State Department's report regarding the human rights situation in Iran.

"According to the laws of the Islamic Republic, there is no execution punishment for those who act against national security," Larijani said. "If there are claims regarding the people who were executed in Iran for these reasons, we would like to hear these names."

Larijani further said that the prepared report was based on the information from opposition in Iran, and it showcases the obvious weakness of the document.

"When we see the hard situation with human rights in such prisons as Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the photos of these prisons as well, we can tell just how the U.S. assesses human rights," Larijani said.

"The U.S. itself has officially said that it wires the phones of its own people. If so, then how it can ask for others to watch over the human rights issues?," Larijani noted.

He added that the U.S. uses the human rights issue in its report, to put the upcoming elections in the Islamic Republic under question.

In September, the Iranian Interior ministry announced that the country will hold the 11th presidential election on June 14, 2013.

The voters will select the successor of the current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is not able to participate in the elections for the third term according to the country's constitutional laws.

The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term in a national election and the Guardian Council vets the candidates for qualifications.

Larijani said that the U.S. in its report says that Iran does not change the course, and does not allow for the democratic government to take over. "In Iran there are elections that take place every year, and all groups and political parties participate.
However there are countries which never even hold elections, and the U.S. and Western states support them," he noted. Larijani added that Iran has always held elections, which were always free and democratic, and the people have always been actively participating in them.Hmmmm......Don't you love the Quote? "The people who go against the Islamic System get executed."Read the full story here.