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Check here this very interesting article.

The crushing defeat of Muslim forces at Tours in 732 was one of the first of a whole string of disasters for the followers of Mohammed. Chinese-led Uighur Turks had defeated the Arabs in 730 at Samarkand and again in 736 at Kashgar. At the same time (731-732), Khazar Turks invaded Arab lands through the Caucasus and got as far as Mesopotamia before being pushed back. And in spite of years of trying, the Muslim Arabs could make no more headway against the Eastern Roman Empire.

In a century, the Arabs had conquered the largest empire the world had ever seen. Now, internal stresses as well as external enemies had stopped the empire’s explosive growth.

In spite of what they professed—the brotherhood of all believers—the empire was an Arab, not a Muslim, empire. Arabs held the highest positions in both civil and military affairs. In the middle of the eighth century, descendants of Mohammed’s uncle, Abbas, led a revolt in Central Asia. Mainly ethnic Persians, the rebels overthrew the Omayyad Caliph, who claimed descent from Mohammed’s son-in-law, Omar. They founded a new, Abbasid, Caliphate.

In Spain and North Africa (west of Egypt), in the area known as el Maghrib (the West) the natives were also restless. The Libyan Desert separated el Maghrib from the rest of Dares Islam. The Muslims in el Maghrib, mostly African Berbers, had no more use for the Persians than they had for the Arabs. They didn’t recognize the Abbasid Caliph. Instead, various Berber chieftains ruled small sections of the countryside independently, while Arab leaders, who had settled in the cities, ruled city-states. Eventually the Berbers found another descendant of Omar and proclaimed a new Omayyad Caliphate. The Omayyads adopted the Spanish city of Cordoba as their capital.

The new Caliphs at first attempted to revive the holy war against the Christians in northern Spain, but soon found other things to interest them. Spain, long ruled by the Romans, was a more urban—and urbane—place than Africa. The Arabs had brought their own poetry to the country, along with the art and architecture they had picked up from the Persians, and the science and mathematics they learned from the Greeks, the Mesopotamians, and the Indians. The Visigoths had a literature of their own and had adopted the old culture of Rome. Under the Muslims, Christians and Jews had freedom to practice their religions and were able to engage in the learned professions. Many Jews came to Spain from less tolerant countries in northern Europe. Before long, Muslim Spain was a center of civilization, not only in Europe but in the whole Muslim world as well. Writing, painting, architecture, science, and philosophy flourished in Omayyad Spain.

In the other Spain, the tiny principalities of the North, there was less civilization and a good deal less religious tolerance, especially for Muslims who had stolen Christian land.

The other Spain

The Muslims had never conquered all of Spain. The northwest corner, Galicia, was inhabited by dour Celts (called Gallegos by the Spanish), who enjoyed dour Celtic weather. The climate in foggy, rainy Galicia, on the shore of the Bay of Biscay, would have seemed perfectly normal to any Irishman or Scotsman, but it was not inviting to the sun-baked sons of the desert. Just east of the dour Gallegos were the dourer Basques. The Basques spoke the same language their ancestors spoke in the Stone Age. They had defied any attempts to assimilate them by Gauls, Romans, Visigoths, and Franks. They were not going to let the Arabs and Berbers be the first to conquer them.

There has long been a notion in the non-Spanish world that Christians from France gradually pushed the Muslims back. The notion was probably started and spread by the Franks. Any reader of Cervantes’s masterpiece, Don Quixote, knows that Charlemagne and his Franks were never pure heroes to Spanish Christians. The Basques proved it by ambushing and wiping out the rear guard of Charlemagne’s army as it retreated through the pass at Roncevalles. East of the Basques were the incipient kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. And everywhere in that Christian fringe were dukes, counts, and other warlords in more castles than you can count.

For a long time, there was no organized reconquista. There was no organized anything in Christian Spain. The Spanish lords were not only jealous of each other, but they contributed to the fragmentation of Christian Spain by dividing their kingdoms up among their sons.

That situation might have resulted in further Muslim conquests if the Omyyad Caliphate itself had not quickly fragmented into Taifas, independent Berber tribal states. In 1031, a council of Taifa kings formally abolished the caliphate. There was a lot of raiding back and forth. Stealing from someone of the other religion was not considered a sin by either the Christians or the Muslims.

All warfare in Spain, however, was not Christians versus Muslims. Berber chiefs attacked by other Berber chiefs enlisted Christians to help them. Christian lords, in turn, had no qualms about seeking help from Muslims when facing Christian enemies. The great Spanish hero of this age was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, known as el Cid Campeador. His title is instructive. “Cid” is a corruption of the Arabic “sidi,” meaning lord. “Campeador,” is champion, a tide Christians gave their heroes. A jealous Castilian king had exiled the Cid, so he offered his sword to the Muslims. He deserved his fame as a fighting man, triumphing on field after field. But nevertheless, the Christians were gradually pushing back the increasingly fragmented Muslims. In 1085, the Castilians took Toledo, the old Visigoth capital, now a major Taifa capital.

Then, the Taifa kings did something dangerous. They sought help from Africa, which lost them the services of the Cid. Even worse from their point of view, they lost their independence and the good life.

The Almoravids

The Maghrib, and a good part of West Africa south of the Sahara, was under the control of the Almoravids. While the Muslim rulers of Spain were sipping wine, watching dancing girls, and discussing philosophy, a Tuareg in the Sahara was getting religion. Tuaregs are Berber nomads, people whose hardscrabble life defies comparison. “Tuareg” is an Arabic name (singular: Targui). It means “the forsaken of God,” as “Berber,” which is Arabic from Greek, means “barbarian.” Tuaregs ran the caravans that crossed the desert. One of them, Yana ibn Omar, saw how different life in the Arab cities was from his own existence, in which a pool of clear water was an almost unimaginable luxury. The Muslims of his time, he concluded, were corrupting Islam. Luxury was turning them from God. To set things right, he led an army of Tuaregs against the west African oases, then against the cities of the north. He then founded a dynasty, called the Almoravids.

The Almoravids quickly conquered all the Maghrib and extended their dominion to the black empires of the Sudan. When the Spanish Muslims called on it, the Almoravid Empire was the most powerful Muslim state in the world.

These African puritans took one look at what life was like in Spain and saw that they had a double task: They must not only drive back the infidels, but they must reform their erring brethren as well. An Almoravid Spain had no attraction for the Cid, who went back to fight for the Christians. With him went thousands of Mozarabs, as Christians in the Muslim area were called, and Jews. Barbarians, like the Tuaregs, and later the Turks, had no idea why the Prophet made exceptions for the “people of the Book.” The Castilian king again exiled the Cid, but this time Rodrigo did not return to the Muslim lands. He raised a private army of both Christians and Muslims and carved out a kingdom for himself. For the rest of his life, he was King of Valencia.

When the Cid died, the Almoravids retook Valencia and quite a bit more. But the warriors from the Sahara quickly succumbed to the fleshpots of Al Andulus, as the Muslims called Spain. Once again the back-and-forth raiding resumed and, thanks to the emigration from Muslim Spain, Christian Spain gained manpower, civilization, and even an approach to unity. Reconquista was now a definite Christian aim.

The Almohades

Once again, a Muslim prophet appeared in the backwoods. This time it was Abu Mohammed ibn Tumari, a lamplighter’s son in the Atlas Mountains. He began preaching against luxury and soon converted a man who had a natural talent for military leadership, Abd el Mumin. Abd el Mumin raised an army and took over leadership of the movement. By 1149, he had made himself Emir of Morocco. He founded a new dynasty, the Almohades, and when he died in 1163, he was emperor of a larger territory than the Almoravids held. Apparently unable to learn from experience, once again, a Taifa king invited the African reformers to come to Spain and save his people. They came; they saw; they conquered. By 1172, they controlled all of Al Andulus, and their first order of business was to wipe out the licentiousness of their co-religionists. The Almohades did not succumb to the fleshpots. They kept their capital in the Atlas Mountains. But by 1195 they were ready to take on the infidels. The Almohades’ Emperor Ya’cub gathered an army of Islamic troops from all over Africa and Spain to march against Castile, the largest and most aggressive of the Christian Spanish states.

Alfonso the Lucky

At the time Castile was ruled by Alfonso VIII, nicknamed the Lucky. After his first meeting with Ya’cub’s army, he was lucky to be alive. The Muslims routed the Christians, and Alfonso made a humiliating peace with Ya’cub. He was lucky to be able to sign a peace treaty. One lucky break was that the old Almohade emperor knew he was dying and wanted to go back to his beloved mountains to die. The other was the result of an earlier stroke of luck, when Alfonso of Castile was able to marry his daughter to Alfonso of Aragon. The King of Aragon died near the time of the battle. His crown went to his son, Pedro II, grandson of Alfonso of Castile. Aragon, on the Mediterranean shore, was a relatively powerful Spanish state, and Pedro was famed as a knight-errant. Continuing the campaign against both Castile and Aragon would take more energy that old Ya’cub wanted to expend.

About this time, an idea originating in the Holy Land came to Spain. The military monks founded in Outremer, the Knights of St. John and the Knights Templars, inspired three orders of Spanish monks: the Knights of Calatrava, the Knights of Alcantara, and the Knights of St. James. Like their crusader counterparts, the Spanish orders were brave, disciplined, and very professional soldiers. Spain had not seen a disciplined military force since the Corps of Slaves, mameluks maintained by the Caliphs, had been disbanded.

Ya’cub finally died in 1199. His son, Mohammed al Nazir, never liked the peace with the Christians and he saw with apprehension that Castile was growing stronger. Alfonso, on his part, felt ready to challenge the Muslims again. He denounced the treaty, and Mohammed al Nazir declared a holy war. The Spanish Christians countered with a holy war of their own. The Archbishop of Toledo persuaded the Pope to declare a crusade against the Muslims in Spain. Both sides began recruiting wildly.

At that moment the Muslim world was relatively peaceful. Mohammed al Nazir was able to recruit unemployed soldiers from as far east as Persia and Turkestan and as far south as Nubia, on the upper Nile. Alfonso’s agents toured the courts of Europe and picked up a horde of knights and men at arms. Most of both armies were cavalry. The Christian strength, as always, was heavy cavalry—mailed horsemen expert with the lance and sword. Muslim strength was in light cavalry—horse archers and javelin men wearing less armor than their enemies but more mobile.

Sancho cuts the chain

Al Nazir’s plan was to draw his enemies away from their bases and confront them with a strong position they couldn’t break through. Soon, their supplies would run out. Logistics were not well developed in the Middle Ages. They’d have to retreat, which would mean they’d scatter, making them an easy prey for his agile horsemen. He fortified the passes of the Sierra Morena Mountains, a little north of the Guadalquivir River and Cordova, and waited. When Alfonso’s allies, his grandson, King Pedro of Aragon, and King Sancho the Strong of Navarre, saw the situation, they advised Alfonso to retreat, but Alfonso wanted to go on.

Then a shepherd appeared and showed the Christians an unguarded path around the passes. The knights made their way over the path and suddenly appeared on the heights above the Muslim army. Al Nazir’s main body was located on some small plains in the midst of hills, a geographical feature called “navas” in Spanish.

Mohammed al Nazir’s luring of the Christian army far away from its bases was a smart strategy, as was confronting it with the fortified passes, but keeping the bulk of his forces on the navas was not. The small plains didn’t provide enough room for his light horse to operate effectively. But the navas were perfect ground for the bone-crushing charges and hand-to-hand melees that were the Christians’ most effective tactics. Even so, the size of the Muslim army was so great the Christians spent two days in prayer before they even moved.

The Muslim army was a great mass. In the center was Mohammed al Nazir. The Emperor stood under a large parasol that served as a standard and behind a stockade of logs bound together with a chain. He held a sword in one hand and a Koran in the other. Around him on all sides was a bodyguard of picked troops. El Nazir was no Alexander the Great, riding at the head of his cavalry striking force. On the other hand, he was in the line of battle—a position no modern head of state or even commanding general would ever find himself in.

The Christian army was divided into the customary three “battles.” Alfonso commanded the center; Pedro of Aragon commanded the left; Sancho the Strong commanded the right. The Christians charged. It was their kind of battle: a wild, hand-to-hand brawl. But there were so many Muslims. It was the largest Muslim army ever seen in Europe, the largest Muslim army that would ever be seen in Europe for centuries hence. The wings commanded by Pedro and Sancho slowly pushed the Muslims into the rocky, wooded hills behind them, where they would lose all their mobility. But in the center, the Muslims, fighting under the eye of the Emperor, drove back the Christians. The Knights of Calatrava were almost wiped out.

“Archbishop, it is here that we ought to die!” Alfonso yelled to the Archbishop of Toledo as he rushed forward.

“No, sire, it is here that we should live and conquer,” the churchman replied. He pointed out that the Muslim horsemen had been stopped by Alfonso’s infantry spearmen, and the Knights of St. James were slashing into their flank.

Alfonso’s standard, following the King, pressed forward. The Muslims slowly fell back. But it was Sancho the Strong, not Alfonso, who reached the stockade first. Sancho demonstrated why he had his nickname. He chopped through the chain stockade and burst into Al Nazir’s bodyguard. The royal parasol, sheltering the Emperor from the sun, went down.

“Shah mat,” Persian chess players used to say, the origin of our “checkmate.” “The king is dead,” meaning the game is over. At the Navas of Tolosa, the game was over. The Muslim army panicked and tried to flee. Most of them didn’t get far. The slaughter was terrific. It almost wiped out the warrior aristocracy not only of Muslim Spain but also of North Africa. The losses hurt Egypt and Arabia and were felt as far as Central Asia.

On to America

The aftermath of such a horrendous battle seemed incongruous. The Christian army took a few towns and castles and went home. Pedro of Aragon was killed in battle the next year, Alfonso of Castile died a year later, and Christian Spain went back to its intra-communal feuding.

The Muslim threat was over. The Almohade Empire in both Spain and Africa began to fall apart immediately. It was extinct 50 years after the battle. The Muslim Taifa states paid tribute to the Christian kings. Most importantly, the Christians held the central plateau of Spain, containing the headwaters of all the Spanish rivers and the intersections of all the roads. Geography had always been a strong force against centralization in Spain. That obstacle was now removed.

The Muslim states slowly were wiped out until only Grenada, in the far south, remained. Less than three centuries after the fight on the Navas of Tolosa, Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon, and Spanish unity was almost achieved. Ferdinand and Isabella then invaded Grenada and drove the last Muslim ruler out of Spain. That was in 1492. The Spanish then looked for new worlds to conquer. They found them across the Atlantic.

Source: War & Games

Een secretaresse op de Belgische ambassade in Teheran die eind 2004 werd verkracht en urenlang gefolterd, daagt met de hulp van overheidsvakbond ACOD Buitenlandse Zaken voor de rechtbank. Het ministerie beoordeelde de zaak eerst als een arbeidsongeval, maar stapte daar later van af. Met alle gevolgen van dien voor de vrouw.

Omdat Buitenlandse Zaken de steven wendde, verloor de vrouw elk recht op financiële bijstand, moest ze afzien van dringende medische ingrepen en zien rond te komen met 600 euro per maand. Ze zag zich verplicht om tegen het advies van de dokter in weer aan het werk te gaan, deze keer op de ambassade in Kampala.

A.B. werkt sinds 1985 als secretaresse voor de Belgische diplomatie. Voor ze in februari 2003 aan de slag ging op de ambassade in Teheran, was ze verbonden aan die in Belgrado en New York.
In de nacht van 15 op 16 oktober 2004 werd A.B. op straat lastig gevallen door een groepje Iraanse mannen. Die waren haar gevolgd tot bij haar flat, in een gewoonlijk goed bewaakte compound in Teheran. Een van de mannen drong de flat binnen, verkrachtte de vrouw en bleef haar urenlang mishandelen. A.B. bleef achter met onder meer een neusfractuur, moest een dringende oogcorrectie ondergaan en leed aan post-traumatische stress.

De alleenstaande vrouw kreeg aanvankelijk alle steun van het ambassadepersoneel en ook van de personeelsdienst op het hoofdbestuur van Buitenlandse Zaken in Brussel. Die nodigde haar uit om alle medische facturen door te sturen, aangezien haar verblijf in de Iraanse hoofdstad onlosmakelijk voortvloeide uit haar functie.

Op 8 augustus 2005 ontving de vrouw een brief van de personeelsdienst van Buitenlandse Zaken, die liet weten dat ze het voorval bij nader inzien dan toch niet kon aanvaarden als arbeidsongeval. Het misdrijf, zo staat er, vond plaats buiten de kantooruren en ook niet tijdens een verplaatsing van of naar het werk.

“Het gevolg was dat de dame een deel van de ontvangen sommen moest terugstorten, een psychotherapeutische behandeling moest staken en afzien van een geplande neuscorrectie”, zegt Tom Roose van de socialistische overheidsvakbond ACOD. “Ze viel terug op een vervangingskomen van 600 euro. Hoewel A.B. door een neuropsychiater een jaar ziekteverlof voorgeschreven kreeg, zat er voor haar niks anders op dan weer aan het werk te gaan en een nieuwe diplomatieke missie te aanvaarden, nu in Kampala.”

Eind 2005 ontwikkelt zich een snel verzurende correspondentie tussen de vrouw en de personeelsdienst van Buitenlandse Zaken. Daar argumenteert men nu dat de vrouw slachtoffer werd van een geëscaleerde inbraak. “Onzin”, zegt Roose. “De dame blijft erbij dat ze haar belager geld aanbood om de gruwel te doen stoppen. Er werd die nacht in de flat ook niks gestolen: geen geld, geen juwelen, ook haar laptop niet.”

De discussie over de vraag of het nu diefstal was of niet, hangt samen met die over de vraag of het gebeurde als een arbeidsongeval moet worden beoordeeld. “Uiteindelijk hebben wij moeten ontdekken dat de ambassade verzuimde om in Teheran de zaak juridisch op te volgen”, zegt Roose. “Er werd van Belgische zijde geen enkele hulp geboden om de daders op te sporen, stukken uit het Iraanse strafdossier werden achtergehouden, de dame zag zich verplicht om in Teheran zelf een advocaat aan het werk te zetten. Op eigen kosten, nog eens. Voor de Verenigde Naties voert België graag het hoge woord om verkrachtingen in conflictgebieden aan te kaarten. Het geval van A.B. laat zien hoe het er in de praktijk binnen de eigen administratie aan toegaat. Misschien kan mevrouw A.B. als spreekster worden uitgenodigd door de VN?”

Bij Buitenlandse Zaken zit men verveeld met de kwestie, die vooral zou voortvloeien uit het statuut van de vrouw. “Het Belgische ambassadepersoneel in het buitenland wordt verondersteld 24 uur per dag in functie te zijn”, zegt woordvoerder Marc Michielsen. “Deze dame had helaas geen statutaire, maar een contractuele verbintenis. Daardoor gold dat principe voor haar niet.”

Off the record is te vernemen dat alles begon bij een Franstalige ambtenaar op de personeelsdienst, die halfweg 2005 bij het vertalen van het woord ‘verkrachting’ (viol) een letter vergat, er ‘vol’ (diefstal) van maakte en achteraf weigerde de eigen fout te erkennen. “Men kwam gaandeweg in een strikt juridische context terecht”, zegt Michielsen. “Misschien is zo wat voorbijgegaan aan het trauma waar deze dame mee verder moet.”

ACOD grijpt de zaak aan om te wijzen op een structureel probleem: het ontbreken van een verzekering voor een deel van het Belgisch ambassadepersoneel in het geval van geweldsdelicten, aanslagen of natuurrampen. “Men stuurt mensen naar gebieden waarvan men tegen andere Belgen zegt dat het ten strengste af te raden is om erheen te reizen, maar men voorziet geen bijstandsverzekering”, zegt Roose. “Geen enkele Belgische werkgever stelt zijn personeel aan zulke risico’s bloot. Het is toch al te duidelijk dat A.B. omwille van haar baan in Teheran woonde?”

De ACOD daagde Buitenlandse Zaken vorig jaar voor de arbeidsrechtbank. Die oordeelde in een tussenvonnis dat het arbeidscontract van A.B. niet of onvoldoende specifieert of de dame enkel tijdens de kantooruren of ook daarbuiten werd verondersteld “beschikbaar te zijn voor de ambassade”. Een eerste zitting is gepland voor 7 mei. (Douglas De Coninck)

Bron: De Morgen

By David Haldane, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The Mormon Church has to be among the most outgoing on earth; in recent years its leaders have reached out to, among others, Latinos, Koreans, Catholics and Jews.

One of the most enthusiastic responses, however, has come from what some might consider a surprising source: U.S. Muslims.

“We are very aware of the history of Mormons as a group that was chastised in America,” says Maher Hathout, a senior advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles. “They can be a good model for any group that feels alienated.”

Which perhaps explains an open-mosque day held last fall at the Islamic Center of Irvine. More than half the guests were Mormons.

“A Mormon living in an Islamic society would be very comfortable,” said Steve Young, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attending the event.

The sentiment is echoed by Muslims. “When I go to a Mormon church I feel at ease,” said Haitham Bundakji, former chairman of the Islamic Society of Orange County. “When I heard the president [of LDS] speak a few years ago, if I’d closed my eyes I’d have thought he was an imam.”

Though the relationship has raised eyebrows and provided ammunition for critics of both religions, Mormons and Muslims have deepening ties in the United States.

What binds them has little to do with theology: Mormons venerate Jesus as interpreted by founder Joseph Smith, while Muslims view Muhammad as god’s prophet. Based on shared values and a sense of isolation from mainstream America, the connection was intensified by 9/11 and cemented by the Southeast Asia tsunami. It is especially evident in Southern California, with large Mormons and Muslim populations.

The Mormon Church has become the biggest contributor to Buena Park-based Islamic Relief, touted by its administrators as the West’s largest Muslim-based charity. Relief officials say the church has donated $20 million in goods and services since the 2004 tsunami, equal to about 20% of the charity’s annual budget.

Brigham Young University in Utah, the church’s major institution of higher learning, features what is thought to be one of the world’s best programs for translating classic Islamic works from Arabic to English. Though created primarily for academic purposes, the results have impressed Muslims flattered by the close attention.

“It shows they have a keen interest in the Muslim world,” said Levent Akbarut, a member of the Islamic Congregation of La Cañada-Flintridge.

And Mormons and Muslims say they often are co-hosts of educational and social programs at which, though some may be angling for long-term doctrinal influence, very little open proselytizing of each other seems to take place. “We have a very close and friendly relationship,” said Keith Atkinson, West Coast LDS spokesman.Mormons “explain our faith to anyone who will listen” and “treat Muslims like anybody else,” said Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, one of the church’s top governing bodies in Salt Lake City. But Oaks added that “we don’t preach to people who would be disenfranchised” or likely offended by the effort.

Arnold H. Green, a history professor at BYU, has traced how early Mormons in the 19th century were hounded by accusations that church founder Smith was the American Muhammad. The first Mormons angrily denied any connection to the Muslim prophet but gradually accepted some comparisons, particularly that both religions were founded by post-Christian prophets with strong sectarian views. “As the church grew into a global faith,” Green wrote in a 2001 essay, “its posture toward Islam became . . . more positive” until, today, “the two faiths have become associated in several ways, including Mormonism’s being called the Islam of America.”

Both religions strongly emphasize family. They tend toward patriarchy, believing in feminine modesty, chastity and virtue. And although Islam discourages dancing involving both sexes, Mormons report that church-sponsored “modesty proms” commonly draw Islamic youths.

Both faiths adhere to religion-based health codes, including prohibitions against alcohol, but Mormons and Muslims share something more: membership in quickly growing minority religions that many other Americans have sometimes viewed with suspicion and scorn.

“We both come from traditions where there has been persecution in the past and continues to be prejudice,” said Steve Gilliland, LDS director of Muslim relations for Southern California. “That helps us Mormons identify with Muslims.”

A recent national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that although a thin majority of those polled expressed positive opinions of Muslims and Mormons, the number was significantly less than those favoring Roman Catholics or Jews.

More than half the respondents said they had little or no awareness of the precepts and practices of either faith. But 45% saw Islam as more likely than other religions to encourage violence, and 31% said that Mormons weren’t Christian.

Armand L. Mauss, a Mormon and professor emeritus of sociology at Washington State University specializing in religious movements, said that unlike mainstream Christians and Jews, Muslims and Mormons “tend to make fairly stringent demands for religious conformity on their members.” These practices, he said, include discouraging marriage outside the religion and observing dietary laws, such as the Mormon prohibition against tobacco, alcohol and caffeine.

But the clincher, according to Mauss, is that both communities “have been stung in recent years by the recurrence of scandals over which they have no control.” For Muslims, the obvious example is 9/11.

Zohreh Kabiri-niat and her sister Azar (who is usually known as Akram) are facing execution by stoning, for “adultery,” a charge they deny. They were arrested on 4 February 2007 after claims that they had had “illicit relations”.They were initially sentenced, along with a third sister and two men, to flogging, with this sentence reportedly being carried out. However, a fresh charge of “committing adultery while being married” was then brought against Zohreh and Azar. They were both found guilty and their sentence of death by stoning was then approved by the Supreme Court.

Send an appeal to the Iranian authorities to stop the stoning of Zohreh and Azar Kabiti-niat

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I am ashamed as a European. As someone who knows in his heart that what has been done to Serbia is a fundamental violation of the very nature of not just the international system, but, of the values that hold up the European construction. I am ashamed, because if recognising this act of ethnically-motivated secession from a democratic, European state is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

Remarks Before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament

by H.E. Mr. Vuk Jeremić

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia,

Strasbourg, 20 February 2008

Dear Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished MEPs,

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I stand before you this afternoon as a proud European, and as an ashamed European.

Proud because my heritage, my culture, my beliefs, and my history bind me to a constellation of nations that, at the onset of the 21^st century, reconciled themselves, and created something so magnificent that one could say: “there has truly never been anything else like it in the history of the world”.

Winston Churchill equated the feeling I am trying to describe to you with a “sense of enlarged patriotism”. That was his vision of Europe, and Jean Monet’s vision of Europe, and Konrad Adenauer’s vision of Europe. It is a vision I proudly share. For the peoples of Europe, between whom rivers of blood have flowed without mercy, chose to end the feuds of a thousand years. And they sought to eliminate from their shores a zero-sum approach to the conduct of regional politics.

How could I not be proud? How could I not, until just a few days ago, without the faintest shadow of a doubt, support the aspirations of my country to join the European Union, and therefore welcome the EU’s commitment to the incorporation of Serbia and all the Western Balkans within its welcoming boundaries?

But I am also a deeply ashamed European. Tacitus wrote: Deserta faciunt et pacem appellant: “They create a desolation and they call it peace”. That is what some European Union countries have done to the Republic of Serbia, to a small, peace-loving, democratic country in Europe, a founding member of the United Nations, an original signatory to the Helsinki Final Act, and a pillar of stability in Southeast Europe.

Creating desolation out of the promise of a European future. This is what the governments of some of your countries have done by recognising the unilateral, illegal, and illegitimate declaration of independence of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Serbia’s southern province of Kosovo and Metohija.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am ashamed not as a Serb—for in the negotiating process on the future status of our province of Kosovo, we did nothing but demonstrate good faith and understanding for the legitimate rights of the other side. In fact, since the democratic overthrow of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, we have done almost everything right. We have overcome almost every obstacle. We have fulfilled almost every condition. We have embraced almost every standard. And we have taken on every challenge to our future with an optimism that thinkers like Alexis de Tocqueville thought had departed the Old Continent long ago.

I am ashamed as a European. As someone who knows in his heart that what has been done to Serbia is a fundamental violation of the very nature of not just the international system, but of the values that hold up the European construction.

I am ashamed, because if recognising this act of ethnically-motivated secession from a democratic, European state is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.

I am ashamed, because I see how the bedrock of values that make us who we are is being trampled underfoot. Because I see how my fellow Europeans are trying to construct the future on a foundation of sand and rubble.

And I am ashamed, because for all the talk about reason and Enlightenment, for all the pious declinations on the common good and solidarity, Europe is rapidly becoming just another place where might makes right.

Some may say I have exaggerated. Well, let us turn to the matter at hand.

The institution with primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security is, according to the United Nations Charter, the Security Council. And, in 1999, following the 78-day bombing of my country, it adopted a resolution—still operative today—that conferred upon the UN the authority to administer Serbia’s southern province of Kosovo, and explicitly and unambiguously reaffirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of my country. When Serbia was ruled by a tyrant, Kosovo was a confirmed part of Serbia.

It said so in Security Council Resolution 1244. And it went further than that. It placed a Chapter VII obligation—a binding obligation—on all the member-states of the United Nations to respect the borders of my country.

And now, when Serbia is a democracy, some European nations are prepared to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. They say, in effect, we did not punish the tyrant, but now we will punish a democracy—a European democracy—and we expect its citizens to take it.

They say Kosovo can be independent, while saying that 1244 in its entirety still applies, including, presumably, that part that reaffirms Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo. And they send an EU-led mission to our province without the approval of the Security Council, even though paragraphs 5 and 19 of 1244 make it abundantly clear that only the Security Council can do that.

And yesterday, at an emergency session of the Permanent Council, no European ambassador could explain to anyone with any degree of reason why what is being done to Serbia is not a violation of the core principles of the Helsinki Final Act.

They could not explain to me why what they are doing is not setting a dangerous, precedent that will create very troubling consequences to the stability of Europe and the whole world.

Recognising the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia legitimises the doctrine of imposing solutions to ethnic conflicts.

It legitimises the act of unilateral secession by a provincial or local entity.

It transforms the right to self-determination into an avowed right to independence.

It legitimises the forced partition of internationally-recognised, sovereign states.

And it violates the commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes in Europe.

It even resurrects the discredited Cold War doctrine of limited sovereignty.

By the actions of some European Union member-states, every would-be ethnic or religious separatist across Europe and around the world has been provided with a tool kit on how to achieve recognition. Does anyone in this room think that the Kosovo Albanians are the only group in the world with a grievance against their capital?

Do any of you honestly think that just by saying that Kosovo is sui generis, you will make it so? That there will be no consequences to the stability and security of the international system, just because you say it won’t?

Is this the way proud Europeans behave? Is this the way European values are put into practise? Is this the way to treat friends?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Notwithstanding everything I have witnessed and all that my country has gone through, I have not lost faith in Europe, even though I am ashamed by the actions of some within it.

I have not lost faith in Europe because I still hold out a measure of hope that Europe will live up to its values; that Europe will pause for a moment and recall the principles that drive its own decision-making in Brussels and Strasbourg. I’m talking about compromise, concession, and consensus-building. That’s how it works: by engaging in a process of deliberate, patient, and sustained, good-faith negotiations until a compromise is struck that all stakeholders can abide by.

In the case of Kosovo’s future status, only a solution that is acceptable to the sides can be viable, sustainable, and lasting.

Only a negotiated solution can pave the way towards a common, European future.

Only such a solution can consolidate the regional gains made, reinforce the geo-strategic priorities achieved, and restore the drive for change in Southeast Europe.

The imposition of a one-sided outcome—the recognition of an independent Kosovo—does the opposite. It sets back the achievements of European visionaries in our region; it uncouples the Western Balkans from its future in Europe; and it fosters a view throughout the region that Europe is in the business of imposing outcomes.

This is where we are. It’s a shameful place to be. And it’s not where we should be.

Where we are is at the precipice, facing down into the shadows of uncertainty. Uncertainty over the future of the Western Balkans. Uncertainty over democracy in Serbia. Uncertainty over the safety of the Kosovo Serbs. And uncertainty over the fate of our holy sites—the central element of our national identity.

Yet we also face forward. We can see beyond the break, and beyond the discord. We can still see Europe for what it is, for what it can become, for what it can accomplish.

But also for what it can harm: the dreams of a proud, democratic, European country that has surmounted more obstacles since October 2000 than most other nations have in a hundred years.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I assure you, with the fortitude of a unified nation, Serbia will not go quietly. We shall strive for what is just, for what we believe in, for our future, for what is rightfully ours.

The Republic of Serbia shall not tolerate this illegal act of secession. Our Government and National Assembly have declared this action by the authorities in Pristina null and void. And we shall undertake all diplomatic and political measures designed to impede and reverse this direct and unprovoked attack on our sovereignty.

As a responsible member of the international community committed to the peaceful and negotiated resolution of disputes, the Republic of Serbia will not resort to the use of force. For violence cannot bring a peaceful settlement to any crisis. Violence only destroys—lives, property, hope, ambitions. It destroys everything and creates desolation.

We are for peace. We are for agreement. We are for concord. We are Europeans.

Kosovo shall remain a part of Serbia forever.

Source: Voices from Russia

Here is a list of articles helping people having problems with pornography:

• Part 1: March 3, 2007 — In your family?
• Part 2: March 10, 2007 — Protecting homes from pornography
• Part 3: March 17, 2007 — Young and trapped
• Part 4: March 24, 2007 — Dual relationship with family, fantasy
• Part 5: March 31, 2007 — Finding recovery from porn addiction
• Part 6: April 14, 2007 — Fight to stop porn
• Part 7: April 21, 2007 — Defending the home against pornography

• Special report: Nov. 29, 2003 — The silent sin: enslavement of pornography

See here and here on YouTube.

Today several newspapers around Europe published a new cartoon of Mohammed. This came one day after the Danish authorities arrested several men who were planning the assassination of Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist behind the drawing.

Will this lead to more demonstrations here and in the Muslim World?

More here.