http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/009143.php
Turkish ruling party cracks down on alcohol
A Let-Them-Into-the-EU Alert from AFP, with thanks to Fjordman:
Turkey's Islamist-rooted governing party has begun a crackdown on alcohol in the
local districts it controls, in a move which has sparked heavy criticism in the
majority Muslim, though strictly secular, EU candidate country.
Justice and Development Party (AKP) mayors in Ankara, the capital and symbol of
the Turkish secular republic, have banned alcohol from local government cafes and
restaurants citing a need to protect family values.
They are also refusing to issue new sales licences, while extensions to existing
permits are getting bogged down in interminable bureaucratic delays.
Turkey is officially 99 percent Muslim and Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol.
In general, however, Turks follow a more moderate interpretation of the Koran
holy book and the sale and consumption of alcohol is legal under licence.
(interesting comments at site).
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Emirates_Gay_Wedding.html
Saturday, November 26, 2005 · Last updated 9:56 a.m. PT
Gay newlyweds face penalties in Emirates
By JIM KRANE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- More than two dozen gay Arab men - arrested at what police called a mass homosexual wedding - could face government-ordered hormone treatments, five years in jail and a lashing, authorities said Saturday.
Snip
Most cases of homosexual behavior are taboo and violate Emirati laws based on Islamic sharia. Azouri suggested that other countries with laws based on religion, including Christianity and Judaism, would also ban gay behavior and marriage.
Snip
"It's not about freedom of opinion, it's about respecting religion which forbids this type of behavior," he said.
Snip: Samudra, who appeared with his head covered by a sarong, said he believed the blasts were a "balanced" response to the alleged atrocities inflicted on the Muslim world by the West. Ali Gufron, a second militant sentenced to death, said he "was truly proud to be called a terrorist."
Snip: The men who planned and carried out the September 11 attacks have often been depicted in the press as being "medieval fanatics". In fact, it would be more accurate to describe them as confused but highly educated middle-class professionals. Mohammed Atta was an architect; Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's chief of staff, was a pediatric surgeon; Ziad Jarrah, one of the founders of the Hamburg cell, was a dental student who later turned to aircraft engineering; Omar Sheikh, the kidnapper of Daniel Pearl, was a product of the London School of Economics.
As the French scholar Gille Kepel puts it, the new breed of global jihadis are not the urban poor of the third world so much as "the privileged children of an unlikely marriage between Wahhabism an Silicon Valley, which [Ayman] al-Zawahiri visited in the 1990s. They were heirs not only to jihad and the umma but also to the electronic revolution and American-style globalization."