I've just completed a two-week speaking tour of Australia, hosted by the Q Society, an Australian human rights group. While there, I heard the Q Society's Vickie Jansen report on the situation on the ground in Australia: "La Trobe University has its Muslim-only toilets and prayer rooms. The group Aussie Muslims is campaigning for exclusively Muslim prayer rooms in a western Australia hospital on the basis that they need to avoid the idolatry that may occur if they share. Our public schools are adapting to a Muslim Perspectives curriculum project in which, among many other things, not just female-only swimming is recommended for our Muslim students, but exclusively Muslim-only swimming (these are all sounding much like apartheid practices). Some public schools are catering to diversity by ensuring truckshops [cafeterias] are exclusively halal."

This coincides with similar initiatives in the US, where (until public attention compelled them to take it down) the Muslim Brotherhood group known as the Muslim Students Association's website featured a "Muslim Accommodations Task Force" page. It included PDFs of pamphlets titled "How to Achieve Islamic Holidays on Campus," "How to Establish a Prayer Room on Campus" and "How to Achieve Halal Food on Campus."

The demands of Muslim groups all over the Western world for separate facilities are in the service of a supremacist ideology that emanates from the Koranic assertions that Muslims are the "best of people" (3:110), while unbelievers are the "vilest of created beings" (98:6). Unbelievers are unclean (9:28) which leads to the conclusion that Muslims should avoid contact with them. Every capitulation made to demands for Muslim accommodation only feeds these supremacist notions, working directly against the principles of equal justice and equal rights for all.

Nevertheless, Left-leaning Western politicians are eager to accommodate these demands. While I was in Australia, the Deputy Premier of Queensland, Andrew Fraser, denounced the Q Society for fliers protesting against the sale of halal meat that was not labeled as such, and the introduction of misleading and whitewashed material about Islam into Australian schools. "Modern Australia has a proud multicultural heritage," thundered Fraser. "This kind of prejudicial rubbish has no place anywhere, let alone here in Queensland." So in Fraser's view, to advance an apartheid-like systems that institutionalize the oppression of women and non-Muslims serves Australia's "proud multicultural heritage," but to resist that system in the name of freedom and equality of rights for all is "prejudicial rubbish."

In reality, such demands are part of the stealth jihad that endeavors to advance Islamic law in Western countries through nonviolent means and what better way to accomplish this than by playing on the West's fears of racism and bigotry to win concessions as a victimized group? The irony here is that the Australian and American politicians who allow themselves to be used in this way are abetting the advance of a system that is far more repressive and ridden with inequalities than anything in any modern Western country. But they will probably only realize this when they themselves fall victim to that system, as - if it continues to advance - they certainly will.

Mr Sarvari told the Iranian student news agency ISNA: 'Soon we will hold a military manoeuvre on how to close the Strait of Hormuz. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.'

Parviz Sarvari, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security Committee, said his country was preparing to close off the crucial Strait of Hormuz as part of a military exercise. Around a third of all shipped oil passes through the four mile-wide Strait between Oman and Iran and US warships patrol the area to ensure safe passage. Most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq - together with nearly all the liquefied natural gas from lead exporter Qatar is transported through the channel.

Iran has warned it will respond to any attack by hitting Israel and US interests in the Gulf and analysts say one way to retaliate would be to close the Strait of Hormuz.

"In the past three decades, or so, many of the mainline Christian churches have slipped away from their foundation on the Holy Scriptures and adopted more and more secular tenets and leftist, politically correct, philosophy until they have become only a shadow of the true followers of Christ," he penned on Tuesday. "In my opinion, those denominations can no longer claim to be 'Christian' churches simply because - they are not." A few years ago, the US Army veteran had left his own denomination for the same reasons, seeing that it had chosen to forsake the tenets of the Bible and the Good News of the Gospel. Though he admitted that he was in no way a "better Christian than any other follower of Christ," he believed that many of the mainline denominations in America today were nothing more than social clubs with franchises nationwide.

"Their pastors 'preach' feel good 'sermonettes' about the environment and things like 'social justice.' In my opinion, that is not the mission of a church that purports to follow Christ. In fact, Christ, Himself, spelled out the mission of the church in what we refer to as The Great Commission." The Great Commission stated in Matthew 28:18-20 reads: "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

That commission from Christ is the sole reason why the church exists today, Longstreet stressed. "To fulfill that mission the church must stand firmly upon the foundation of the Holy Scripture and the teachings of the Christ. That means insisting that the standard(s) set by Christ are, and remain, the guiding force behind everything the church does ... that means pastors are compelled to preach that those things the Scripture marks as sin are duly, and publicly, noted from their pulpits as SIN. If a church is reluctant to do this, or refuses to do this, then, in my opinion, that church is not a Christian church."

The conservative commentator lamented that in America, pastors were afraid of preaching from the Scriptures, worried about the consequences - lawsuits, slander, or even embarrassment. "It is a very real threat, especially to the evangelical church in America," he added. "As a result, those churches which hold true to the Gospel, now feel that they must consider meeting in secret for Bible classes, for worship services, or other Bible centric gatherings."

Britain's rejection of last week's agreement, backed by the EU's other 26 leaders, gave Merkel respite from foreign media caricatures casting her as a Kaiser or Fuehrer intent on dominating Europe. But she won only fleeting relief, as US magazine Newsweek brought out a cover warning: "Achtung! It's Angela!"

While mainland Europe looks aghast at Britain's growing euroscepticism, polls suggest Germans are growing weary of the euro zone and are less impressed by their chancellor's crisis management than post-summit headlines first suggested. Even her allies warned Merkel not to assume easy passage of decisions taken at the summit, such as handing over some budget sovereignty to Brussels and moving up the launch of the euro zone's permanent bailout mechanism by a year, to mid-2012.

"The Bundestag (parliament's lower house) will study whether constitutional problems could arise from the EU Commission or a European currency commissar intervening directly in national budgets and parliament's control of the budget," said Bundestag speaker Norbert Lammert from Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

In a country whose Constitutional Court subjects such things to close scrutiny, Lammert called it "very ambitious" to expect parliament to approve the new bailout fund, or European Stability Mechanism (ESM), fast enough to bring it into effect a whole year ahead of schedule.

Netanyahu made the announcement on the 30-day anniversary of the passing of his father-in-law, Shmuel Ben-Artzi, who was a respected Israeli poet and Bible teacher. Ben-Artzi used to attend the regular Bible studies hosted by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

"Ben-Gurion understood that the Book of Books is our mandate for our country," Netanyahu said. "He viewed the Bible as the wondrous story of the Jewish people, the unique spiritual, cultural and historic heritage of our people, and also as one of the cornerstones of all of human culture."

The father of Netanyahu's Likud Party, Menachem Begin, also used to host regular Bible studies at the prime minister's residence. Netanyahu said he wanted to reinstate that practice in order to encourage love of the Bible among government officials, and by extension, the nation.

While the protests attracted fewer people than the 10,000 who turned out on November 2 to shut down Oakland's port, organisers declared victory and promised more demonstrations to come. "The truckers are still here, but there's nobody here to unload their stuff," protest organiser Boots Riley said. "We shut down the Port of Oakland for the daytime shift and we're coming back in the evening. Mission accomplished."

Organisers called for the "Shutdown Wall Street on the Waterfront" protests, hoping the day of demonstrations would cut into the profits of the corporations that run the docks and send a message that their movement was not over.

The longshoremen's union did not officially support the protests, but its membership cited a provision in its contract that allowed workers to ask to stay off the job if they felt conditions were unsafe. Some went home with several hours' pay while others left with nothing. The movement, which sprang up this autumn in New York against what it sees as corporate greed and economic inequality, is focusing on the ports as the "economic engines for the elite". It comes weeks after police raids cleared out most of their tent camps.

Now Germany, the US, China, Japan and Canada have all expressed major doubts about the plan. The German Bundesbank said it will give the IMF more money only if other EU and non-EU countries do the same. However, President Obama said Europe has "enough resources" to deal with the problem on its own.

The plan is for the 17 eurozone countries to provide 125 billion pounds but EU officials said the Bank of England could be asked to contribute some of the balance. But Foreign Secretary William Hague has vowed that British taxpayers will not have to pay more to help the IMF prop up the eurozone. "We wouldn't agree to the IMF to use extra funding specifically designated to help the euro," he said.

One even claimed ending the rebate was a suitable alternative to "a declaration of war" involving tanks and Kalashnikov rifles. In a further salvo, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso accused Britain of risking the "integrity" of the EU's single market. Demands to scrap the UK's rebate - worth 2.7 billion pounds this year - were raised during a debate in the European Parliament about last week's tumultuous EU summit. It failed to reach a deal after Mr Cameron blocked plans for new EU powers of "economic governance" without safeguards to protect the City of London.

Yesterday cracks in the anti-British alliance began to show when Sweden's government signalled it may not back the new eurozone "fiscal compact". Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said: "It is very clear that we do not have all the facts and unless we have that, it's tough to make a final verdict."

It includes spending 118 million pounds to demolish and build a new office block near to their Brussels headquarters and to buy another. A further 13.5 million pounds will be spent on buying and renovating a building that currently belongs to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg - the Parliament's second home that it uses only 10 times a year for four days at a time.

Britain's Conservative MEPs, who opposed the proposal, condemned it last night. Leader Martin Callanan said: "The euro is on a life support machine, the whole of the continent is in crisis, and some MEPs are getting on with what they do best - making their own lives more comfortable."

Supporters of the Brussels scheme say the extra space is for an ever-growing number of staff, partly driven by the arrival of 18 new MEPs as a consequence of the Lisbon Treaty.

The euro rescue deal appeared to be in serious trouble last night as the single currency crashed on international money markets. As doubts emerged in several countries over whether an agreement struck late last week will ever come into force, Germany's Angela Merkel sent the euro into a tailspin as she ruled out beefing up a bailout fund for debt-stricken eurozone economies.

Ratification of a deal creating an effective single EU economic government appeared fraught with difficulty last night in Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Finland and the Czech Republic. There are even doubts over whether France will implement the package after its main opposition party - currently on course to oust Nicolas Sarkozy in elections in April - rejected the deal.

Amid bitter recriminations in Brussels over David Cameron's decision to veto last week's attempt at a new EU-wide treaty, senior figures said they would now try to strip Britain of its annual EU rebate in an act of vengeance.

A Jerusalem engineer ordered the city to close the bridge that leads from the Western Wall Plaza to the Temple Mount, the only entrance for Jews and tourists to visit the holy site. He ruled that the Rambam Bridge, also known as the Mughrabi Bridge, is too dangerous to use, partly because the wooden structure is flammable. It was built after the older stone bridge collapsed in a snowstorm in 2004.

The closure of the wooden bridge this week, barring Jews from the holiest Jewish site in the world, shocked Jews in Israel and around the world. National Union Knesset Members Aryeh Eldad and Uri Ariel said the situation as unacceptable and that they would arrive at the site Wednesday morning in order to ascend to the Temple Mount.

Israeli media reports said Israel would consult with the king of Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, on the future of the bridge. Lo and behold, the city of Jerusalem found a solution. A fire truck was brought to the bridge Wednesday morning so firefighters can put out a fire in case the bridge goes up in smoke.

Yesterday, the south of England and Wales bore the brunt of the severe weather. Roads were flooded, trees toppled, power lines cut and ferry crossings disrupted. Up to 40mm (1.6 inches) of rain fell in some areas overnight on Monday, driven by winds of up to 70 mph. But forecasters said a storm of even greater intensity would head in from the Atlantic tomorrow night. One of the stormiest periods the UK has seen for several years was set to unleash heavy rains, strong winds and snow in some areas - including the North Yorkshire/Durham border which is already under snow.

The sources said that among those arrested and interrogated so far are some of Khamenei's bodyguards. The sources conveyed that those arrested tried to convince Khamenei to visit Mlard missile base in western Tehran on November 12th.

It should be mentioned that on that day a huge blast took place in this military base, which killed among others the head of ballistic missiles production and development unit.

Khamenei was assured that the base is safe when he was to attend a launching ceremony of a new missile. It is said also that Khamenei ordered to investigate his son, "Mojtaba Khamenei," who is considered a leading businessman and close assossiate with many military leaders. Reports indicate that some of the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards were seeking a military coup against the Supreme Leader. Following his death, these officers planned to announce an interim ruling council and declare a state of extreme emergency in the country. This council was expected to be presided over by Mojtaba Khamenei.

Now, you don't need to actually commit a crime to be hauled away to a detention center and held without charges while you are tortured; you just need to appear suspicious by sympathizing with anti-government views to be labeled a domestic terrorist. So, what makes you a terror suspect in America? Here are 10 ridiculous things that make you a terrorist according to "officials" running the US government:

TEA PARTY ACTIVISTS: The political Left demonized peaceful Tea Party activists as right-wing extremists, leading to the second most powerful official in the US government, VP Joe Biden, to liken them to terrorists. Do you sympathize with those who are angry about bank bailouts on the backs of taxpayers? Well, you're likely a terrorist in the eyes of the State.

OCCUPY ACTIVISTS: Now, the "Occupy" movement, said to be made up of left-wing extremists, is enjoying the same treatment as the Tea Party's right-wing extremists. The United Kingdom has officially labeled "Occupy" demonstrators as domestic terrorists. The US hasn't gone quite that far, but the violent Police State did spy them in search of "domestic terrorists." Watch out, you may be a terror suspect if you sympathize with the 99%.

7 DAYS OF FOOD: The Department of Justice and FBI considers you a terrorist threat if you have more than 7 days of food stored, as explained by Rand Paul on the Senate floor:

Paul was referring to an official FBI/DOJ flyer given out to business owners to help them identify potential threats. And recently, Federal agents went to food storage facilities demanding customers lists, while citizens were harassed by the government with door-to-door "assessments" of their preparedness.

MISSING FINGERS: The document referred to by Rand Paul above, also claims that if someone is missing a finger or has burn marks, they're more likely to be a terror suspect.

BUYING FLASHLIGHTS: Also from the same official source, if you're buying night-vision devices including flashlights, you should be considered a terror suspect.

PAYING CASH AT HOTELS: Watch out if you want to pay with cash for hotel rooms. This DHS commercial indicates that you're a terror suspect if you do: The DHS has also launched their citizen spy program for hotels and has sent them hotel protection guidelines which lists suspicious activities like persons carrying observation equipment or standing around in the same area.

TEXTING PRIVATELY IN A PUBLIC PLACE: According to this DHS commercial for their citizen spy program, if you're texting while sitting in a public park, but trying to keep it concealed from people who pass by, you should be reported for suspicious terrorist activity.

RON PAUL STICKERS: A 2009 law enforcement report from the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) labeled Ron Paul supporters, Libertarians, and people sharing movies about the Federal Reserve as "domestic terrorists." When supporters of a political candidate who stands for peace and freedom become terror suspects, America is in big trouble.

BELIEF IN CONSPIRACIES - Obama's Information Czar, Cass Sunstein, has identified those who hold conspiracy theories as targets for online "cognitive infiltration." Do you question the motives for war? Question the motives of the private Federal Reserve bank? Question any government policies? Chances are you already have been marked as a suspect.

OWN PRECIOUS METALS - Despite the fact that the Federal Reserve paper note (ie the dollar) is only sustained by faith, you could now be a suspected terrorist if you would like to preserve your wealth with something that holds real value like precious metals. And forget about establishing an alternative currency made from silver or gold like Bernard von NotHaus as you may be lumped into a "unique form of terrorism."

And now the bonus round for being registered as a potential terrorist:

#11- OWNING GUNS AND AMMO. Let's face it: you disagree with the American government colluding with international banks to rob you blind AND you've armed yourself? This is also why returning veterans have been labeled potential terrorists - they have guns, know how to use them, and may be angry about the lies that sent them to war.

German arms companies are also delivering ordnance to several countries in the close vicinity of the People's Republic of China, which corresponds to western efforts to force back or, at least, limit Beijing's influence. The Arms Export Report also points out that last year, Berlin had issued permits for the delivery of firearms to the Arabian Peninsula countries - weapons that had been used this year against demonstrators.

Among the customers of expensive arms supplies are the indebted countries of the southern Euro zone, such as Portugal and Greece, who, already deep in a crisis, had been offered and accorded hundreds of millions of Euros worth of arms deliveries in 2010. Germany has now become the world's third largest arms exporter.