Det Sydkinesiske Hav

Problemer i en overrendt del af Stillehavet - forfatteren hedder Denmark:

Crowded Waters

The superpower battle for regional supremacy in the South China Sea is heating up once again.

By Abraham M. Denmark | June 7, 2011

For the last two years, a quiet showdown has played out over the South China Sea, the body of water bordered by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Taiwan. This little-known body of water is of vast strategic importance: Fully one-third of the world’s maritime trade traverses the South China Sea, and some optimistic estimates of its untapped stores of oil and natural gas would make it a second Persian Gulf. The South China Sea is also a major highway linking the oil fields of the Middle East and the factories of East Asia, with more than 80 percent of China’s oil imports (and large percentages for Japan and South Korea as well) flowing over its waters. As influential Asia-watcher Robert D. Kaplan has put it, the South China Sea’s importance to the region makes it the “Asian Mediterranean.”

Mere HER i Foreign Policy.

Opdatering 14. juni 2011:

Turbulent Waters in the South China Sea

Mounting territorial aggression destabilizes the region and puts the global economy at risk

By Michael Auslin – June 14, 2011

If China were a U.S. congressman, it would be Tweeting threatening pictures of its biceps to its rivals.

Beijing recently warned Vietnam and the Philippines not to explore for oil in disputed waters that China claims, and late last month Chinese naval patrol craft allegedly cut the surveying cable of a Vietnamese seismic research boat. Manila’s recent grievances against China are similarly severe. The Philippine government claims that China has harassed its exploration vessels, illegally unloaded supplies to build an oil rig in disputed waters and sent fighter jets into its airspace.

Mere HER i Wall Street Journal. Artiklen er endnu ikke lagt frem her hos AEI, men det plejer at ske.

Sharia-finansiering i Europa

Islamic “Shariah-Compliant” Banking Takes Root in Europe

by Soeren Kern – May 19, 2011

The European Union is emerging as a major center of Islamic finance, based on Islamic Shariah law, and which critics say amounts to “financial Jihad” by Islamists intent on Islamifying the West.

The spectacular growth prospects for the Islamic financial services industry in many European countries is being fuelled by Muslim mass immigration; despite a difficult economic climate on the continent, Islamic banking is growing faster in Britain, France and Germany than it is in many Islamic countries in the Middle East and Asia.

Mere HER hos Hudson New York.

Befolkningen i Malaysia og Brunei opfordres til ikke at fejre Valentine’s Day: muslimer finder traditionen fornærmelig

Når det gælder globalisering dumper muslimer med et brag. Det findes ikke noget fra andre kulturer, de kan tage til sig. Alt, hvad der kommer fra andre religions folkeslag, er fornærmeligt. Som nu f.eks. Valetine’s Day.  Så derfor har de religiøse myndigheder i to lande, Malaysia og Brunei valgt at bede forretninger og firmaer om at nedtone deres initiativer. Blomsterforretninger, hoteller, restauranter mm. bedes undgå synlige tegn på Valentine’s Day.

Romancer, flirt og lignende er uislamisk og kan medføre uren opførsel. Man advarer om, at det vil virke nedbrydende for moralen. Det er ikke godt for ungdommen og derfor bør Valentine’s Day undgås.

Kan det blive mere idiotisk, spørger jeg bare?

Valentine’s Day er den 14. februar. Måske man skulle dele et par chokoladehjerter ud til de nærmeste?

Kilde: International Herald Tribune.