Salon.com > Teri Schultz

Why are Europeans waging jihad in Syria?

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:25:00 +0000

BRUSSELS, Belgium — A man looks deep into the camera and pleads, in Arabic: “You, there in Europe, watching this video. I’m calling you.”

With urgency in his voice, he refers to children being murdered and women being raped at the hands of the enemy.

“We really need you here. This is your opportunity for paradise.”

“Paradise” via the distinct possibility of death on a Syrian battlefield, he means.

The man is calling for recruits to join the Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate that makes up part of Syria’s fragmented armed opposition fighting the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

As unappealing as that “opportunity” may sound to the average European, the message has resonated with hundreds of youths here who have disappeared from their schools and homes and turned up in Syria.

The next global trade war

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:15:00 +0000

BRUSSELS, Belgium --; Prepare for extreme turbulence between the European Union and the rest of the world.

Not usually accused of being unilateralist and unwilling to negotiate, the EU has sparked what is shaping up to be the next big international trade dispute.

On Jan. 1, the EU will require airlines operating out of all airports in its 27 member states to financially offset their flights' carbon dioxide emissions. The move brings aviation into the EU's existing "Emissions Trading Scheme" (ETS) that has been applied to many other industries since it was first implemented in 2005.

EU Environment Commissioner Connie Hedegaard says it's high time "the polluter-pays principle" applies in the skies too.

"How can we ever hope to make ordinary citizens of the world play their part in tackling climate change," she writes on her website (in English and Chinese), "if the financier from Hong Kong or London or the business man from Guandong [sic] or Frankfurt is not asked for any contribution whatsoever in respect of the significant emissions that he incurs on an intercontinental flight?"

Where’s the outrage in Norway?

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:01:00 +0000

OSLO, Norway -- In Anders Behring Breivik's sickest fantasies, he never dreamed he'd be able to blow up downtown Oslo, sail smoothly in a fake police uniform to Utoya island and have 87 unhindered minutes to slaughter his teenage targets.

Even Breivik, on a drug-fueled mission to destroy everything his country stands for, had faith in Norwegian law enforcement. "He was surprised that he reached the island," Breivik's attorney Geir Lippestad told a news conference. "He was expecting to be stopped earlier by the police or someone else during the actual day.... He thought he would be killed after the bombing."

It's widely reported that traumatized survivors of the massacre screamed "Why didn't you come earlier?" when police finally did arrive on Utoya, 58 minutes after they say they received the first notification that an armed madman was on the loose.

But these anguished cries are among very few early outbursts of anger by Norwegians against law enforcement.