MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By David Kerr – “New research suggests there are now more practising Muslims in France than practising Catholics.

While 64 percent of French people describe themselves as Roman Catholic, only 2.9 percent of the population actually practice the Catholic faith. That compares to 3.8 percent of the population who practice the Muslim faith. The research was carried out by the French Institute of Public Opinion on behalf of the Catholic newspaper La Croix.

More worrying for Islamic authorities in France is the finding that only 41 percent of the country’s 6 million Muslims actually describe themselves as ‘practising,’ although 75 percent are happy to label themselves ‘believers.’ Seventy-percent also claim to observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Most French Muslims hail from the country’s former colonies in North and sub-Saharan Africa.

There is also further evidence that mosques are being erected at a much faster rate than Catholic churches. Mohammed Moussaoui, President of the Muslim Council of France, last month estimated that 150 new mosques are currently under construction across the country.

By contrast, the Catholic Church in France has built only 20 new churches during the past decade, and has formally closed more than 60 churches. Many of these are now destined to become mosques, according to La Croix.

Research in 2009 by the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research suggested that nearly 500 new mosques were built between 2001 and 2006, taking the present total to over 2,000. Many of these new buildings, however, were erected to re-accommodate local Islamic communities who had previously been using temporary accommodation – the so-called ‘Islam of the basements.’

One of France’s most prominent Muslim leaders, Dalil Boubakeur, who is the head of the Grand Mosque of Paris, recently called for the number of mosques in the country to be doubled again – to 4,000 – to meet growing demand.” Read more.

By Henry Samuel – “Claude Guéant said that ban could later be extended to the rest of France, in particular to the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Marseilles, where ‘the problem persists’.

He promised the new legislation would be followed to the letter as it ‘hurts the sensitivities of many of our fellow citizens’.

‘My vigilance will be unflinching for the law to be applied. Praying in the street is not dignified for religious practice and violates the principles of secularism,’ the minister told Le Figaro newspaper.

‘All Muslim leaders are in agreement,’ he insisted.

In December when Marine Le Pen, then leader-in-waiting of the far-Right National Front, sparked outrage by likening the practice to the Nazi occupation of Paris in the Second World War ‘without the tanks or soldiers’. She said it was a ‘political act of fundamentalists’.

More than half of right-wing sympathisers in France agreed with Marine Le Pen, at least one poll suggested.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s party denounced the comments, but the President called for a debate on Islam and secularism and went on to say that multiculturalism had failed in France.

Following the debate, Mr Guéant promised a countrywide ban ‘within months’, saying the ‘street is for driving in, not praying’.

In April, a ban on wearing the full Islamic veil came into force. Holland today became the third European country to ban the burka, after Belgium, despite the fact fewer than 100 Dutch women are thought to wear the face-covering Islamic dress.

Yesterday, Mr Guéant said the prayer problem was limited to two roads in the Goutte d’Or district of Paris’s eastern 19th arrondissement, where ‘more than a thousand’ people blocked the street every Friday.

However, a stroll through several districts in Paris on a Friday suggests that Muslims spill into the streets outside many mosques.” Read more.

Flashback: In France, far right seizes on Muslim street prayers – “A call to prayer goes up from a loudspeaker perched on the hood of a car, and all at once hundreds of Muslim worshippers touch their foreheads to the ground, forming a sea of backs down the road. The scene is taking place not in downtown Cairo, but on a busy market street in northern Paris, a short walk from the Sacre Coeur basilica. To locals, it’s old news: some have been praying on the street, rain or shine, for decades. But for Marine Le Pen — tipped to take over from her father this weekend as leader of the far-right National Front party — it is proof that Muslims are taking over France and becoming an occupying force, according to remarks she made last month.” Read more.

Michael Coren of Canada’s Sun News interviews Robert Spencer and explains why Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent comment regarding Islamism was telling it like it is …

Related: Swiss Member of Parliament Has Had Enough!

“Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Thursday that the Palestinians will submit a bid for full membership at the United Nations Security Council on September 23, but said that they would be open to other suggestions.

The remarks by Malki put an end to speculation that the Palestinians might avoid a showdown with the United States by sidestepping the Security Council and going directly to the UN General Assembly to seek a lesser status of a non-member observer.

Malki said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will personally submit the Palestinian request for membership to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after addressing the General Assembly on the afternoon of Sept. 23. In the meantime, he said the Palestinians would listen to suggested alternatives.

‘We will see if anyone carries with him or her any credible offer that will allow us to look into it seriously and to be discussed in the Palestinian leadership. Otherwise, on the 23rd at 12:30, the president will submit the application,’ Malki told foreign journalists in Ramallah.

The U.S. does not wield veto power in the General Assembly, and a Palestinian bid there would be expected to win majority approval.” Read more.

Netanyahu says he’ll address UN ahead of PA statehood vote – “After weeks of deliberation, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that he would go to a United Nations General Assembly meeting next week to discuss the Palestinian statehood bid. Speaking at a press conference with visiting Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas, Netanyahu said he will ‘speak the truth to those who want to hear it’ at the UN General Assembly. Netanyahu said that the General Assembly is not ‘the place where Israel generally gets reasonable hearing,’ but it was nonetheless important to present Israel’s position.” Read more.

By Leila Fadel – “TRIPOLI, Libya — For decades, bearded men in Libya were afraid to walk in the streets or go to the mosque, worried that to be seen as an Islamist would land them in prison, or worse.

As Libya’s leader, Moammar Gaddafi regarded Islamists as the greatest threat to his authority, and he ordered thousands of them detained, tortured and, in some cases, killed. The lucky ones fled the country in droves. But with Gaddafi now in hiding, Islamists are vying to have a say in a new Libya, one they say should be based on Islamic law.

Although it went largely unnoticed during the tumultuous civil war the regime lost last month, Islamists were at the heart of the fight, many as rebel commanders. Now some are clashing with secularists within the rebels’ Transitional National Council, prompting worries among some liberals that the Islamists — who still command the bulk of fighters and weapons — could use their strength to assert an even more dominant role.

‘We don’t want any vacuums or for those Islamists to steal the revolution,’ said a senior rebel leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal rifts.

Among the Islamists in the rebel ranks, a small fraction were militants who had previously waged war abroad. Some had fought Islamic wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya and Kosovo under a militant banner; some ended up in the arms of more extreme groups such as al-Qaeda. The city of Derna, a key bastion of resistance against Gaddafi in eastern Libya, was home to dozens of Libyan fighters who fought in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.” Read more.

US Intelligence Report Says Libyan Jihadists Planning to Subvert Post-Gadhafi Gov’t and Create an Islamist State – “Jihadists among the Libyan rebels revealed plans last week on the Internet to subvert the post-Moammar Gadhafi government and create an Islamist state, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. U.S. officials said spy agencies are stepping up surveillance of Islamist-oriented elements among Libyan rebels. A government report circulated Tuesday said extremists were observed ‘strategizing’ on Internet forums about how to set up an Islamist state in Libya after the regime of Col. Gadhafi is defeated.” Read more.

Will Obama placate yet again to ‘Muslim sensitivities’ and refrain from vetoing Palestinian membership on September 20th?  Contrary to what al-Faisal believes, there will be ‘another war in the region‘ regardless of whether or not the US exercises its veto power, and I think we all know what will happen to Saudi Arabia sooner rather than later if the ‘special relationship’ between the oppressive desert kingdom and the land of the free ceases to exist …

By Chris McGreal – “A FORMER head of Saudi Arabian intelligence and ex-ambassador to Washington, Turki al-Faisal, has warned that an American veto of Palestinian membership of the United Nations would end the ‘special relationship’ between the two countries, and make the US ‘toxic’ in the Arab world.

The warning comes as Washington is scrambling to avoid a scenario where it alone casts a veto in the UN Security Council against the Palestinian bid for recognition of statehood, which is expected to be formally requested next week.

The US is putting considerable pressure on the Palestinians not to submit the request, and on Britain – the only other permanent member of the Security Council that has not publicly supported the Palestinian request – to also exercise its veto if necessary.

Mr Faisal says in an article in The New York Times that the US will jeopardise its close ties with Saudi Arabia and further undermine its position in a changing Arab world if it again sides with Israel.

‘The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region,’ Mr Faisal says.

‘Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to co-operate with America in the same way it historically has. With most of the Arab world in upheaval, the ‘special relationship’ between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims, who demand justice for the Palestinian people.’ He adds: ‘Saudi leaders would be forced by domestic and regional pressures to adopt a far more independent and assertive foreign policy.’ Read more.

By Adrian Blomfield – “Since the tiny state was founded in 1948, Israel has always regarded itself as a vulnerable bastion of civilization in a hostile region bent on its destruction – ‘a villa in the jungle’, as Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, has put it. But in recent years, Barak’s crude metaphor had seemed less apposite, even as Israel’s interminable conflict with the Palestinians ground on unresolved. Indeed, the jungle seemed to be pushed back in places and tamed in others.

Israel has been at peace with Egypt, its oldest Arab ally, since Jimmy Carter’s triumphant summit at Camp David paved the way for a treaty that has been in many ways the bedrock of the country’s security, guaranteeing peace on its remote southern border. Jordan eventually followed suit, signing a peace treaty of its own, while Turkey strengthened another vital alliance, giving Israel the support of a heavy-hitting Muslim power in the region.

The rest of the Arab world still seemed implacable, but one by one its dictators, despite the anger of their populations, found it pragmatic to reach an accommodation of sorts with Israel, tolerating the interloper in their midst even if not accepting it. Even Syria, which technically remains at war with Israel, found it preferable to keep the peace despite the continued Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, captured during the Six Day War of 1967.

But, with alarming speed, all these gains now seem in jeopardy, leaving Israel terrified that the jungle is creeping back once more. This month has already proved one of the most nettlesome in Israel’s recent history – with worse to come before it is over, as the Palestinian leadership heads to the United Nations with a potentially explosive application for statehood.” Read more.