Peres To Panetta: Iran Striving For Islamic Middle East Empire

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, INN – “The world must not let Iran take control of the Middle East, President Shimon Peres told U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta at the Pentagon Monday.

‘I respect the diplomatic process, but the clock is ticking and Iran continues to race towards manufacturing a nuclear weapon while it also continues to lie and deceive,’ the president warned. He was quoted by Israel’s Channel 2 television.

‘It is a country of ayatollahs, and Iran is the only country in the Middle East that has imperialistic desires in the name of religion. No responsible country in the world can accept a situation in which the Middle East will be sacrificed for Iranian hegemony.’

While rejecting the ability of the ‘diplomatic process’ to stop Iran, President Peres reiterated his belief in talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He told the Secretary of defense that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new national unity coalition ‘definitely will help improve the chances for peace.’ He again said that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is ‘a serious partner for negotiations.’

PA officials said this week that it is open for ‘talks’ but not for negotiations because Israel must accept its conditions for the creation of the Palestinian Authority as a new Arab country that it wants established within Israel’s borders.

Panetta did not publicly respond to President Peres’ comments on Iran and limited his response to reminding him of the ‘strong relationship’ between the United States and Israel and that the U.S. Army’s objective is ‘to ensure a better future for our children.’

He also congratulated Peres on his receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to present the award on Wednesday.” Source – INN.

Indonesia: Twenty Churches In Aceh Face Threat Of Demolition

The Jakarta Post – “Twenty churches in Singkil regency, Aceh, have been closed down and are likely to be demolished by the local administration.

According to a lawmaker from House of Representatives Commission III on human rights, Eva K. Sundari, the commission received complaints about the forced closure of 20 churches from the United North Sumatra Alliance on Monday.

The core of the problem is the contradictory regulations between the 2007 gubernatorial decree on the guidance of the construction of houses of worship and the 2006 joint ministerial decree governing the construction of houses of worship.

‘Under the ministerial decree, a house of worship can only be built if it has secured the approval of 90 worshipers while the gubernatorial decree requires the approval of 150 worshippers,’ Eva said Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

The ministerial decree also requires the approval of 60 local residents of different faiths.

Worse still, Eva said, was a local edict that forbade Muslims from approving the construction of houses of worship other than mosques, which made it impossible for the churches to fulfill the requirements.

Not only have new churches been forced to close but also the Pakpak Dairi Protestant Church, which was established in 1932. It too is likely to be demolished, she said.

‘Guidance from the home minister is needed so that the local consultative forum and the police can be fair and neutral for all citizens and not bow down to intolerant groups,’ she said.” Source – The Jakarta Post.

Moderate Indonesia? – “Indonesia — the world’s largest Muslim country by population (with over 200 million Muslims constituting a demographic of just under 90 percent of the population) — is often held up as an example of a modern, moderate Islamic democracy. Indeed, this is precisely how David Cameron — the current UK prime minister — characterized Indonesia in a visit to the capital Jakarta back in April, addressing students there with the following remarks: ‘The people of Indonesia can show through democracy there is an alternative to dictatorship and extremism. That here in the country with the biggest Muslim population on the planet, religion and democracy need not be in conflict.’ But is this conventional wisdom accurate?” Read more.

Flashback: Massive Increase of Radical Islamism Spreads Throughout Indonesia, Including ‘Top-Quality’ Universities – “The suicide bombing of a church in Central Java on Sept. 25 pointed not only to a new level of attacks on religious minorities in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country but to a political bent that accommodates Islamist extremism. ‘Radicalization of Islamic teachings and understanding is a problem in Indonesia,’ admitted Dr. H. Nasaruddin Umar, director general of Islamic Community Guidance under the Ministry of Religious Affairs. ‘There’s a need to re-explain the concept of jihad.’ Pino Damayanto, aka Ahmad Yosepa Hayat, who blew himself up wounding over 20 members of the Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (Bethel Full Gospel Church) in Solo on Sept. 25, apparently believed it was his religious duty to kill ‘the enemies of Islam,’ according to his understanding of ‘jihad.’” Read more.

Turkey: Islamists Bar Woman From Public Bus, ‘You Are Causing Us To Sin’

To the Islamist mind, a woman’s uncovered head is sinful. But killing a non-Muslim for Allah? Splendid. As Turkey’s government pushes Islam down the collective throats of each and every citizen, expect more public displays of disgorge in the future …

“The worst sin and distraction from virtue that I have left for man is woman” – Prophet of Islam, Mohammed, Sahih AlBukhari, 5096

Hurriyet Daily News – “A Turkish woman claimed she was prevented from boarding a public bus by a group of Islamists because her outfit would ’cause them to sin,’ according to a report by daily Evrensel.

Yağmur Yılmaz, 21, said she left home on June 3 to go to work, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.

Yılmaz said she walked to a stop in Istanbul’s Edirnekapı district to get on a bus going to Fatih district, where she worked. A group of around 15 men and women clad in burqas, cloaks and turbans who were on the bus blocked Yılmaz’s path, saying she could not get on the vehicle. Yılmaz said she told the group it was everybody’s right to board the bus, to which the women from the group replied, ‘We would sin if you get on this bus, you are causing us to sin.’

The men in the group also harassed Yılmaz, she claimed, saying: ‘Look at her. Her head is not covered, shame!’

‘Nobody in the bus did anything about it, not even the driver,’ Yılmaz said. ‘There were other ‘uncovered’ women waiting at the stop, but they just stood by idly.’

Yılmaz told Evrensel that she had been using the same bus route for a long time and that it was the first time that she encountered such an incident. ‘I was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt because it was a Sunday [when many workers can wear more casual clothes], but no one would have the right to do such a thing even if I were wearing a skirt or a dress.’

Yılmaz said she was startled by the incident, meaning that she was unable to take the bus’ license plate number to file a complaint. ‘I wanted the public to learn about it,’ she said. ‘It was a shameful act and should not have happened in the first place.'” Source – Hurriyet Daily News.

Saudi Arabia Set To Clash With OPEC Over Output As Iran Presses For Decreased Production (And Higher Prices)

The Sunni push comes to shove …

By Guy Chazan, FT – “Saudi Arabia is on course for a showdown with fellow Opec members at this week’s meeting of the global oil cartel, after it called for a higher output target despite the recent drop in crude prices.

‘Our analysis suggests that we will need a higher ceiling than currently exists,’ Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, said in an interview with the Gulf Oil Review.

Oil prices have fallen sharply over recent months, from a four-year high of $128 a barrel in March to about $100 amid concern about the eurozone debt crisis and the slowdown in the global economy.

Fellow Opec member Iran has blamed Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates for the price drop, accusing them of producing too much oil.

Opec, which supplies 40 per cent of the world’s crude, normally responds to a sharp drop in prices by curbing production. However, Saudi Arabia’s current policy objective now is to prevent crude rising much higher than $100 a barrel…” Read more.

Saudi-Iran Rivalry Looms Over OPEC – “Iran and other states are expected to press Saudi Arabia to scale back its record output when OPEC meets next week in Vienna, or face the risk of a new oil-price collapse. Much has changed since the group last met in December and managed to put aside its differences to agree to collectively produce 30 million barrels a day. For one thing, oil prices in London have fallen below $100 a barrel as the world economic outlook has worsened. For another, world powers have raised the pressure on Iran’s nuclear program while urging Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to make up for any Iranian shortfall. The combination of these factors has sown discord in OPEC, with several members fretting over the current output level. Yet despite the rhetoric, few analysts expect OPEC to make dramatic shifts next week. OPEC is currently pumping nearly 6% above its production ceiling, according to most estimates. Nearly all of the excess comes from Saudi Arabia…” Read more.

Flashback: Report: Well-Connected Saudi Businessman Says Saudi Arabia Is Planning To Bankrupt Iraq And Iran – “Barton Biggs, the storied hedge fund manager who runs Traxis Partners, recently had an interesting encounter recently over lunch with a Saudi businessman who explained to him the real motivations behind Saudi Arabia’s ramp up in oil production and why oil prices will likely continue to fall as a result for an extended period of time. It’s all part of a plan hatched by the Saudi royal family… ‘Our two most dangerous enemies are Iraq and Iran. Both are Shia, and both are trying to destabilize the Arab world and our Sunni kingdom by funding terrorism. Our only weapons against them are our wealth and our oil. Their current vulnerability is their financial fragility. Their financial reserves are a fraction of ours, and they desperately need money to prop up their economies… we will gradually increase our production with the objective of breaking the price of crude down to sixty dollars a barrel.” Read more.