Close Ties to Goldman Enrich Romney’s Public and Private Lives

http://pix04.revsci.net/H07707/b3/0/3/0806180/408942806.js?D=DM_LOC%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.themuslimtimes.org%252Fwp-admin%252Fpost-new.php%26DM_CAT%3DNYTimesglobal%2520%253E%2520General%26DM_EOM%3D1&C=H07707When Bain Capital sought to raise money in 1989 for a fast-growing office-supply company named Staples, Mitt Romney, Bain’s founder, called upon a trusted business partner: Goldman Sachs, whose bankers led the company’s initial public offering. When Mr. Romney became governor of Massachusetts, his blind trust gave Goldman much of […]

Cabinet backs the burka ban

The cabinet on Friday voted to ban burkas and other face-covering garments from public places. Once the legislation has passed through parliament, the Netherlands will become the third country in Europe to ban the Islamic garment, after France and Belgium. The ban will apply to people wearing balaclavas and full-frontal […]

NYPD takes heat for a documentary

The New York Police Department is facing intense scrutiny following revelations Monday that afilm about the threat of radical Islam was screened to nearly 1,500 officers during training. Critics of the 2008 documentary “The Third Jihad” have denounced it as “anti-Islam“ and ”hate-filled.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations called it […]

Dutch Press Review 9 January 2011

This morning’s papers are dominated by two events: skater Sven Kramer takes his fifth European title and the queen donned a headscarf to visit a mosque in Abu Dhabi and – predictably – raised the ire of far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders. All of this morning’s papers (except nrc.next) lead with a […]

Dutch burqa ban draws widespread criticism

The burqa ban passed by the cabinet today is drawing mostly negative reactions, both among Muslim organisations and political parties. A large Turkish interest group, IOT, says the government hasn’t considered the ban’s consequences. “Women who currently only venture outside, or are allowed to go outside, wearing a burqa, will […]

‘Controversial religious affairs minister must go’

The Jakarta Post Rights activists and religious leaders have urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to dismiss Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali for his frequent statements that could fuel persecution against minority groups in the country. “Suryadharma doesn’t deserve the post because he has encouraged discrimination against Shiite by saying that […]

The religious case for legalized abortion

Credit: Washington Post Religious leaders have been in the forefront of the movement for abortion rights for more than fifty years, advocating for women to be able to make their own moral decisions. Leaders of all faiths should offer their counsel compassionately, competently, and justly to individuals and to families. […]

I Disclose … Nothing

Cret: Newyork Times: IN New York and a growing number of American cities, diners are encountering sanitary grades in restaurants’ windows — A, B or C. That system is an example of helpful disclosure, researchers say: information that is simple and comprehensible, important to recipients and easily acted upon. I […]

US-Iran: A long game with pitfalls

Source: Asia Times. A report by a Washington think-tank focuses on the pros and cons of a “long game” between the United States and Iran, centered on sanctions, arms control and regime change. The authors argue – not necessarily on a sound basis – that time will give Tehran the […]

The Iranian oil embargo blowback

Credit: Asia Times By Pepe Escobar If the sorry parade of European poodles – or what analyst Chris Floyd delightfully dubbed Europuppies – had any understanding of Persian culture, they would have known that blowback for their declaration of economic war in the form of an Iranian oil embargo would […]