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BERLIN (Reuters) - The good guy in the Wachowski brothers' latest cinematic adventure is a "terrorist" at war with the British government. The masked crusader makes homemade bombs, which he plants on London's subway system, and condones violence in pursuit of justice. The Orwellian authorities rule chiefly by fear. With "V for Vendetta", the scriptwriters who brought us "The Matrix" may be asking for trouble. Starring a shaven-headed Natalie Portman as the foil to the mystery man known only as V, the film is based on a 1980s graphic novel warning readers about the danger of lurching to the political...

WAKE UP AMERICA! … it’s that wonderful Thanksgiving – Christmas season that defines so much of what is "AMERICA”. But wait just a darn minute here... Amid all the traditional crass commercialism and stress and the tendency to buy and eat too much....the Godless loonies are pissin’ in our Christian punchbowl AGAIN. “Politically Correct” my Red State Religious Zealot rear end! … November 2 – WE WON. It’s time to TAKE BACK CHRISTMAS! .....This is a perfect project for Jim Robinson’s Freeper Army … give form and void to these black robed cockroaches that are quite effectively eroding the foundation...

Second of two parts. What is the artist's role in society? Artists have been debating the question throughout history. The former U.S. poet laureate said he thought about the election results all day -- "when I could think." "The question of how the rest of us should behave seems pressing," he said. "Erosion of civil liberties? The courts? Further and deeper predations on the environment? It's hard to see how the Endangered Species Act will survive, except perhaps in name. An interesting indicator of the intentions of that Bush clique will be to see whether they punish Republican dissenters like...

Film-maker's funeral sparks violence From Anthony Browne in Amsterdam RELIGIOUS violence flared yesterday as thousands turned out to line the streets at the funeral of Theo van Gogh, the murdered film-maker and vocal critic of Islam. Two Dutch churches were attacked by arsonists, in seeming retaliation for earlier attacks on mosques, while an opinion poll showing that 40 per cent of Dutch people no longer considered Muslims welcome underlined a rapid deterioration of tolerance in the previously liberal Netherlands. Mr van Gogh, whose last film, Submission, criticised the treatment of women under Islam, was cremated in an upbeat ceremony broadcast...

November 6, 2004 Canadian Muslim community dealing with fallout from leaders' remarks By STEVE MERTL VANCOUVER (CP) - Analysts linked to the intelligence community say they worry North America's Muslim community is being radicalized, but some Canadian Muslims reject suggestions their community is monolithic or intolerant. The concern over radicalization surfaced last month amid reaction to intolerant remarks from two Muslim leaders and reports that one of the men's followers turned up dead with Muslim rebels in Chechnya. The incidents triggered a predictable spasm of outrage and demands the "Muslim community" distance itself from those viewpoints. Critics say moderation within...

If you look closely, what is inside your child's textbooks may shock you. They are full of evolution theories, and many liberal historians are rewriting American history as well. But there is even more. How Islam is portrayed in today's textbooks is a subject of concern also. The familiar images of Islam include praying at Mecca, and the prophet Muhammad, a man Muslims say is the messenger of God. But this is not the whole story. When all is said and done, the story of Islam is being told and taught to our nation's school kids in their textbooks. But...

Looking in The Eyes of evil “You attacked us in Somalia; you supported the Russian atrocities against us in Chechnya, the Indian oppression against us in Kashmir, and the Jewish aggression against us in Lebanon” “Under your supervision, consent and orders, the governments of our countries which act as your agents, attack us on a daily basis” “These governments steal our Ummah's wealth and sell them to you at a paltry price” These quotes from Usama bin Laden could be considered to be one of two realities, either Usama bin Laden is a mad man who is in complete disillusionment...

Friday, September 10, 2004 We Are So Sorry for 9-11 This September 11 marks the third unforgettable anniversary of the worst mass murder in American history. After September 11, many in the Muslim world chose denial and hallucination rather than face up to the sad fact that Muslims perpetrated the 9-11 terrorist acts and that we have an enormous problem with extremism and support for terrorism. Many Muslims, including religious leaders, and “intellectuals” blamed 9-11 on a Jewish conspiracy and went as far as fabricating a tale that 4000 Jews did not show up for work in the World Trade...

The message of terrorism is itself a weapon. We must work to defuse it. Did you buy a paper? I asked my daughter. No, she said with a grimace and shudder. "I couldn't face it, I didn't want to read about it." The "it", of course, was Beslan, and hundreds of children like my daughter's children, like your children, lying in that charnel-house of a gym. The first day of school, the crisp new uniforms, the songs and clasped hands, then terrible fear and death. A universal nightmare seemingly beyond scripting or imagining. But now that we have seen it...

The bloody siege of a Russian school by Chechen rebels brought widespread condemnation and soul-searching in the Islamic world yesterday. Arab newspapers and television broadcasts were full of dramatic photographs of the children killed and injured in the siege by Islamic rebels demanding Chechen independence from Russia. Commentators and clerics put a harsh spotlight on those who kill and maim in Islam's name. "What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government?" Egypt's top Muslim cleric, Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, asked during a sermon in Banha, 30 miles north of...

A List Foreigners Hostage in Iraq By The Associated Press Insurgents in Iraq (news - web sites) have kidnapped dozens of people in their campaign to drive out coalition forces and hamper reconstruction: HELD HOSTAGE _Twelve Nepalese workers. Kidnapped August 23, four days after crossing border while working for Jordan-based construction company. Iraqi militant group claimed responsibility. _Aytullah Gezmen, of Turkey. Kidnapped July 27 or 28. Worked for Bilintur, Turkish company providing laundry service for Jordanian firm in Iraq. _Mustafa Koksal and Durmus Kumdereli, Turkish truck drivers. Kidnapped Aug. 14 outside Mosul after delivering water to U.S. base in Baghdad....

The Muslim imam who gave a closing benediction at the Democratic National Convention in Boston also served as a character witness to Sami al-Arian, the Florida professor indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on 50 counts of terror-related charges. On the second day of the Democratic National Convention, Imam Yahya Hendi said the closing prayer of the night with some verses from the Quran. Yet, last July, the 9-11 commission heard testimony from terrorism expert Steven Emerson that Hendi, one of the top Islamic clerics in the U.S., backed al-Arian – head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in North America....

Has any generation in history ever banged on about itself more and with less merit than the baby boomers? Oh good, another 1960s retrospective. And another. And another. You can't move for celebrations of "the decade that changed the world forever". Tate Britain is honouring the art of the swinging decade in an exhibition starting at the end of the month. BBC Four is a week into its Summer in the Sixties season, while the Sunday Times magazine is devoting acres to the 10 years that shook the planet. Why this surge of interest? Has a milestone passed? Or is...

The long-dreaded 2004 Olympics in Greece will be the ultimate crossroads for sports and politics in this new and vicious century. The recent photos of cruelty at the Abu Grahaib all-american prison in Baghdad have taken care of that. Yes, sir. We have taken the bull by the horns on this one, sports fans. These horrifying digital snapshots of the American dream in action on foreign soil are worse than anything even I could have expected. I have been in this business a long time and I have seen many staggering things, but this one is over the line. Now...

Torture Existed Before Abu Gharib, But Why No Coverage?When the Abu Ghraib prison abuse crisis exploded, I analyzed the reactions coming from the Arab World. In an election year, the stakes are high for all parties involved. Each side wants a convenient "truth". The Bush Administration talked about "bad apples." While on the offensive, the opposition talks of a "systemic problem." President Bush went on Arab TV, while his opponents rushed to speak on behalf of the "humiliated Arab world." But as General Abuzeid put it since Day One, it sounds as if "the issue is making more noise in...

Every time we worry about whether the American people will have the heart and will to see this worldwide struggle against terror through, we realize that we needn’t worry. Because we will soon enough be reminded of the nature of the threat against us, and of the character of our enemy in this struggle — whether in Iraq or Afghanistan, at home or around the world. It happened again yesterday: another bloody beheading for the edification of Web watchers everywhere. This — and worse — will continue to happen until these people are utterly defeated. Until they are, they will...

frame grab taken from web site video footage May 11, 2004, shows a man, who identified himself as Nick Berg of Philadelphia (C) seated in front of his five masked captors moments before he was executed. Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq beheaded an American civilian and vowed more killings in revenge for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, an Islamist Web site said on Tuesday. After one of the masked men read out a statement, they pushed Berg to the floor and shouted 'God is greatest' above his screams as one of them sawed his head off with a large knife...

Video on Islamic militant Web site appears to show beheading of American

The University of Texas at Austin would appoint a senior diversity officer, require a cross-cultural course and rearrange statues of Confederate leaders under a new proposal that aims to fix strained race relations. The recommendations, announced Monday by UT President Larry Faulkner, are a response to a report submitted in January by a task force on "racial respect and fairness." The task force was formed in response to incidents of racial insensitivity at UT. "We'd like to position UT to be a more positive agent in developing students' knowledge and skills so they can work across cultural boundaries in a...

Bush's Backing of Rumsfeld Shocks and Angers Arabs Mon May 10, 4:52 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Firouz Sedarat DUBAI (Reuters) - Arab commentators reacted with shock and disbelief on Monday over President Bush (news - web sites)'s robust backing of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld against calls for his resignation. Critics had called for him to quit after the furor over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners but analysts, editors and ordinary Arabs were united in their condemnation of Bush who said the United States owed Rumsfeld a "debt of gratitude." "After the torture and vile...