Sharia Banking Conquers Europe
All over Europe Islamic banks are establishing branches, Western banks are offering Sharia-compliant financial services, and European governments are trying to outcompete each other in welcoming them. Proponents of banking along the lines of Sharia (Islamic law) claim that the Islamic banking system is “more ethical” than the West’s capitalist system. This is not true. Unfortunately, however, in our age of crashing financial markets, many Westerners – not just the traditional anti-capitalist European left – seem very eager to buy that argument.
Rage Over Benign Comments
The French Catholic websites have been flooded with articles and commentaries on two of Pope Benedict's recent actions: first, the lifting of the excommunication on the four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), an event that has been widely reported in the English-speaking press, and more recently the remark made by the Pope concerning the inefficiency of contraceptives in the fight against AIDS in Africa.
How secular is Turkey really?
The advocates of EU membership for Turkey invariably use two arguments: (a) that Turkey geographically is part of Europe (as if for example Denmark is an American country because of its Greenland territory, or Spain is an African country because just across the water it has some remnants of its old empire…), and (b) that Turkey, a supposedly secular Muslim country, would be an ideal bridge to the Middle East and the Muslim world.
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