…. As Debate Spreads Across Europe
Theo van Gogh's murder and the violent reaction to it have reverberated throughout Europe. The episode is emerging as a microcosm of continent-wide tensions between unassimilated immigrants and resentful host populations, between religious fundamentalism and Europe's prevailing secularism, and – within Islam – between radical Islamists and the majority of moderate Muslims who bear the brunt of the popular backlash against jihadist violence. Dutch police this week confirmed the link between Bouyeri and the Al Qaeda-linked Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group and the Hofstad Network, part of the extreme Islamist al-Takfir wa al-Hijra (Excommunication and Self-Exile) movement.

Some observers fear that violent popular reaction to such outrages could prompt otherwise moderate Muslims to identify with radical groups. "Because these small (extremist) groups are ready to resort to violence, it gives them tremendous exposure,” Gilles Kepel, author of The War for Muslim Minds, told the Financial Times. “Holland's response to the provocation means that people are setting fire to mosques. And this will lead to radicals being able to secure the solidarity of the Muslim masses," he suggested.

Europe must avoid a clash of civilizations after van Gogh's murder, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder argued this week, urging Germany's Muslims to make a public stand in support of "our democratic rules." "We have to insist that our readiness to integrate people be matched by a will to integrate on the part of those who come to us," Schroeder said on Saturday, adding that a democracy "cannot tolerate parallel societies."

"We must not let ourselves be dragged into a battle of cultures, of civilizations, by these crimes," Schroeder said. "The many Muslims who live and want to live with us cannot stand aside indifferently. They must clearly and unmistakably stand up for our legal system and our democratic rules of play." Some 3.5 million Muslims, mostly of Turkish origin, live in Germany.

In a similar vein, Danish Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen said on Monday that he was determined to root out Islamic extremism. "Let's call the kettle black and admit that there are some young Muslims of immigrant origin who have not understood the [democratic] principles on which Danish society is based.”Our schools are already supposed to educate the students on the topic of democracy, but … we have not succeeded everywhere to do so," he added. Rasmussen instructed the country's education ministry to examine ways of instilling principles of freedom of expression, democracy and women's rights in young Muslim students.

As if spontaneous response to Chancellor Schroeder's plea, some 20,000 demonstrators marched in the German city of Cologne on Sunday to protest against violence in the name of Islam. The march, organized by the Islamic-Turkish Union, had two separate starting points -- a mosque and a cathedral -- but converged in the city centre for a rally under the slogan of "Hand in Hand for Peace and Against Terror."

One commentator, the Middle East Forum's Daniel Pipes, described the Cologne demonstration as a Azar Nafisi and Bassam Tibi. A further indication is the recent international petition by 2,500 Muslim intellectuals from 23 countries calling for a ban on Islamist clerics' incitements to violence and specifically naming such "sheikhs of death" as Al-Jazeera's Yusuf Al-Qaradawi.

In addition to van Gogh's murder, other recent events have led European commentators to question the robustness of the continent's liberal culture, particularly the much-vaunted celebration of diversity that lies at the heart of an emerging, albeit embryonic, European identity. The European parliament's objections to the private religious convictions of proposed justice commissioner Rocco Buttiglione forced the resignation of the entire European Commission, prompting accusations of http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1369418,00.html secular intolerance. A week later, a Belgian court banned the right-wing anti-immigration Vlaams Blok, the largest Flemish political party, after ruling that it was a racist organization. And European soccer was shocked by racist taunts directed at England's black players during a “friendly” match with Spain in Madrid.

Such “apparently unconnected events ought to force Europeans to look a bit harder at the decay in their own societies,” says Gerard Baker of the London Times, “[e]ven as the authorities go to absurd lengths to justify politically correct tolerance of those intent on destroying the very foundations of free societies; even as they seek, by contrast, to eliminate traditional Christian values and principles from European public discourse; even as they try to block American attempts to bring about a better, more enlightened, world for the people of Iraq and the broader Middle East...”

Part of the problem lies with European secularists' “identity protectionism,” argues dissident Muslim commentator Irshad Manji. The mass immigration of Muslims is bringing faith back into the public realm and creating a post-Enlightenment modernity for Western Europe. This return of religion threatens secular humanism, the orthodoxy that has prevailed since the French Revolution.” " Militant Islam is only a tiny force in Europe yet it is dangerous because many societies on this continent have elevated their defencelessness into a virtue" argues the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Such sentiments find an echo in another leading German newspaper Die Welt which criticizes European “appeasement” towards radical Islamists, suggesting that a fetish of multiculturalism has led politicians to show excessive tolerance to the intolerant. “What else needs to happen before the European public and its political leadership realize there is a sort of crusade, a particularly perfidious systemic attack by fanaticized Muslims focused on civilians and aimed against our free, open, Western societies?,” asks Mathias Doepfner. Europe is “curling up in the multicultural corner instead of defending the values of liberal society,” Doepfner argues, while facing a conflict that will “probably last longer than the great military conflicts of the last hundred years as it is led by an enemy who cannot be restrained by tolerance and accommodation.”

But Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot contends that now Europeans are moving away from complacency. “Europe, like the US, is faced with extremists whose ambition is to destroy democracy, fundamental freedoms and human rights,” he says. “In the totalitarian utopia of the jihadists, there would be no place for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, or equality between men and women. We would enter a new dark age.” ”Europeans of the Islamic faith, ordinary people with jobs and families, are as horrified as anybody else” by the van Gogh killing, Bot insists.

Ukraine on the Brink as "North Korean"-Style Election Disputed
A combustible situation is developing in Ukraine, as the country's electoral commission prepares to announce the final result of the contested presidential election and the pro-western opposition leader called on army and police units to join thousands of pro-supporters braving sub-zero temperatures and snow to contest the official results. Amid growing popular unrest over the initially declared results of Sunday's presidential election, in scenes reminiscent of the 1989 revolutions that overthrew communism, Western governments voiced strong criticism of Ukrainian authorities Wednesday, accusing the regime of gross electoral violations.

The head of the European Parliament's observer mission, Marek Siwiec, expressed his incredulity that all of the extra voters who voted in the runoff voted for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. "It is against common sense," Siwiec said in Brussels. "If you get this figure, that in some districts 99-point-something percent of people came and voted, it reminds me a little bit of the North Korean example, not a European one."

The official Central Election Commission had already declared Yanukovych the winner against opposition candidate and former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, although exit polls suggested the opposite. Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called for negotiations involving all parties after Yushchenko took a “symbolic” oath of office. "We are ready to negotiate only about the peaceful handing over of power to Yushchenko by Kuchma,'' said pro-Yushchenko legislator Mykola Tomenko before a crowd holding vigil in Kiev's central Independence Square.

The European Union urged Ukraine to review the election results. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who holds the EU's rotating presidency, told Ukraine's outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, that the EU doubted the outcome "reflected the will of the Ukrainian electorate." European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned of “consequences” for political and trade relations with Ukraine “if there is not a serious, objective review,'' of the election.

As a third day of mass protests began on Wednesday, Vaclav Havel, former Czech president and leader of the country's 1989 "Velvet Revolution," urged Ukraine's democrats to maintain their demonstrations against the disputed election. "All respected domestic and international organisations agree that your demands are justified. Therefore I wish you strength, endurance, courage and fortunate decisions," Havel said.

Many protesters openly called for the peaceful overthrow of the government, citing the Georgian “Rose Revolution,” which ousted Eduard Shevardnadze a year ago, and Serbian revolt against Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer urged the Ukrainian government to make “the necessary corrections," noting that election monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had found "violations of the basic standards for free, fair and democratic elections that have led to justifiable doubts about the official results."

Germany's conservative opposition urged Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to engage with Moscow on the crisis. If Russian president Vladimir Putin were a "convinced democrat," then Schroeder could persuade Russia to take the view that "democratic principles in the Ukraine should be upheld," said Wolfgang Schaeuble, the Christian Democrats' foreign policy expert.

The United States is "deeply concerned over the elections in Ukraine," said US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. He added that should the elections prove "fundamentally flawed," the US would review its relations with Ukraine and consider sanctions against individuals engaged in vote fraud.

Last week, the US Senate passed a resolution that threatened targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for electoral manipulation. Only Russian President Vladimir Putin and neighbouring Belarus dictator Alexandr Lukashenka congratulated Yanukovych, in Putin's case even before the election commission had announced the results. Putin's stance could complicate matters at this Thursday's EU-Russia summit which was intended to launch a new partnership deal.

Zimbabwe To Restrict Foreign Funding for NGOs
Zimbabwe is close to passing a law to restrict foreign funding of human rights groups, after a Tuesday night legislative session saw President Robert Mugabe's majority Zanu-PF party vote down last-minute amendments sought by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The legislation requires the country's 3,000 voluntary organizations to register with a state commission or be closed, have staff arrested and assets seized. Groups not registered with the Social Welfare Ministry will be deemed illegal when the law comes into force. “It attacks the churches, human rights organisations, trade unions, everything,”said David Coltart, legal director of the opposition MDC.

Introducing the Bill, President Mugabe declared that “we cannot allow them [voluntary organizations] to be conduits of foreign interference in our national efforts.” The Private Voluntary Organizations Bill will probably pass on Thursday when Parliament reconvenes again Thursday. The bill requires state approval for receipt of foreign funds for all private associations and charities, including churches. Organizations with overseas links are banned from addressing "issues of governance or rights." The ruling Zanu-PF has frequently accused Western-linked NGOs of siding with the opposition.

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