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European Council urges Israel to release detained Hamas ministers alongside release of abducted IDF soldier Shalit; ‘Israel must put an end to all activities which are contrary to international law, including settlement activities and construction of barrier on Palestinian land Ronny Sofer Published: 12.18.06, 12:35 The European Council called on Monday for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to meet in the near future. The Council urged Israel to release the detained Hamas ministers and parliament members and at the same time called on the Palestinians to release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. The European Council reiterated...

Deutsche Welle has an interesting little roundup of European press reaction to Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, most of which appears to condemn the Israeli actions as “disproportionate.” As a corollary, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (of Spanish Flee fame) went on record stating that the results of the Israeli response to the agents of radicalization, fanaticism, conflict and instability will be “radicalization, fanaticism, conflict and instability.” The European reaction is instructive for several reasons: First, because it is indicative of the extent to which nationalism and national feeling has declined – there is simply little understanding of why...

Peter Handke, perhaps the most preeminent and creative European playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist alive today, has recently been embroiled in a cultural scandal that involves character assassination (his) through ad hominem attacks and calumny, censorship by a faceless theatre bureaucrat, and the relentless abuse of the Parisian bien-pensants, those guard dogs of French palatial conformism. Like in America, getting out of the core political line in France leads to either being utterly ignored or, when famous, being dragged into the mud and punished for crime of lese-majesty. The confluence of intellectual cowardice, financial and strategic interests, and navel-gazing, backslapping...

The sex industry, which is legal in Germany, is anticipating a bonanza of lonely customers from abroad, travelling to attend the World Cup soccer tournament taking place June 9 to July 9. So the Pascha Brothel in Cologne, which boasts of being the largest bordello in Europe and the only business of its kind to offer a money-back guarantee to dissatisfied customers, wanting to welcome customers from all 32 participating countries, placed a 9-story tall advertising poster on its high-rise building, featuring a smiling blonde removing her bikini, above the flags of all 32 countries, captioned with a paraphrased version...

In The Force of Reason, the controversial Italian journalist and novelist Oriana Fallaci illuminates one of the central enigmas of our time. How did Europe become home to an estimated 20 million Muslims in a mere three decades? How did Islam go from being a virtual non-factor to a religion that threatens the preeminence of Christianity on the Continent? How could the most popular name for a baby boy in Brussels possibly be Mohammed? Can it really be true that Muslims plan to build a mosque in London that will hold 40,000 people? That Dutch cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

Belgrade, Feb 6, IRNA The leader of the Islamic community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mustafa Ceric, has said that the publishing of cartoons with offensive contents for Muslims in some European countries shows that Europe should be treated for an illness called 'Islamophobia', reported the Croatian news agency HINA. According to the agency, the Bosnian media on Saturday quoted the Islamic dignitary as saying in Sarajevo that 'it is really ugly what kind of messages are being sent these days to Muslims in Europe'. Europe's attitude towards the highest values of Muslims, expressed through a minor newspaper in Denmark, would hardly be...

Friday, February 03, 2006 - 05:35 PM TUNIS, (SANA) The Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mustafa Ceric called on Friday for standing by Syria in the face of pressures put on her. “ What Syria is exposed to and what is going on in Iraq and Palestine disturb us in the west,” the Mufti said in an interview with Tunisian al-Shorok newspaper, adding: “There would be no peace in the west without the realization of peace in the east.” “What the world had offered to Jerusalem during 50 years of occupation?” the Mufti inquired, indicating that the city of...

Several terror groups have targeted Danish citizens and issued warnings. Intelligence services in Denmark are concerned An Al-Qaeda affiliated terror group issued a grim warning to Danish citizens on Thursday: 'You will see your own blood as an answer, and that is revenge from our prophet,' the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, which has been active in Iraq, wrote to a London-based homepage. Another group based in England, Al Ghurabaa, called for a demonstration in front of the Danish embassy in London. Two extremist groups in the Palestinian occupied territories also issued warnings to citizens from Denmark, as well as Norway...

Brussels - After two weeks of violent urban unrest in France, Muslim communities in the country will face long-term retaliation, a Euro MP said Thursday, urging the French government to take action and condemn revenge attacks against Moslems. French politicians had failed to give immediate assurance that they would support the country's unity, leaving citizens in a state of disarray and shock, British socialist MEP Claude Moraes said. With no ethnic monitoring, France could not know the level of discrimination in the country, Moraes said, comparing the situation in France with Britain. French police also had no guidelines for dealing...