Austrian president defends country’s New Year baby from Islamophobic abuse

Baby Asel Tamga with her mother alongside her father. (Facebook/ Klaus Schwertner)
Updated 08 January 2018
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Austrian president defends country’s New Year baby from Islamophobic abuse

Austria’s president was forced to intervene after the first baby born in the country in 2018 was subjected to online abuse when it emerged the new-born’s parents were Muslim.
President Alexander Van der Bellen on Saturday welcomed baby girl, Asel, when she was born in the early hours of New Year’s Day in Vienna.
“Welcome, Dear Asel!” Van der Bellen wrote in a Facebook post, adding to those who left abusive messages that “all men are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” and speaking out against “hatred and agitation.”
After being named “the first Viennese baby” of the year, with her photo appearing in local media — her mother, who was wearing a hijab, alongside her father, baby Asel Tamga received hundreds of Islamophobic comments on social media.
“I’m hoping for a cot death,” one user wrote on Heute news’ Facebook page, it reported.


US ambassador accuses Poland parliament speaker of insulting Trump

Updated 2 sec ago
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US ambassador accuses Poland parliament speaker of insulting Trump

Tom Rose said the decision was made because of speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty’s “outrageous and unprovoked insults” against the US leader
“We will not permit anyone to harm US-Polish relations, nor disrespect (Trump),” Rose wrote on X

WARSAW: The United States embassy will have “no further dealings” with the speaker of the Polish parliament after claims he insulted President Donald Trump, its ambassador said on Thursday.
Tom Rose said the decision was made because of speaker Wlodzimierz Czarzasty’s “outrageous and unprovoked insults” against the US leader.
“We will not permit anyone to harm US-Polish relations, nor disrespect (Trump), who has done so much for Poland and the Polish people,” Rose wrote on X.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded the same day, writing on X: “Ambassador Rose, allies should respect, not lecture each other.”
“At least this is how we, here in Poland, understand partnership.”
On Monday, Czarzasty criticized a joint US-Israeli proposal to support Donald Trump’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I will not support the motion for a Nobel Peace Prize for President Trump, because he doesn’t deserve it,” he told journalists.
Czarzasty said that rather than allying itself more closely with Trump’s White House, Poland should “strengthen existing alliances” such as NATO, the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
He criticized Trump’s leadership, including the imposition of tariffs on European countries, threats to annex Greenland, and, most recently, his claims that NATO allies had stayed “a little off the front lines” during the war in Afghanistan.
He accused Trump of “a breach of the politics of principles and values, often a breach of international law.”
After Rose’s reaction, Czarzasty told local news site Onet: “I maintain my position” on the issue of the peace prize.
“I consistently respect the USA as Poland’s key partner,” he added later on X.
“That is why I regretfully accept the statement by Ambassador Tom Rose, but I will not change my position on these fundamental issues for Polish women and men.”
The speaker heads Poland’s New Left party, which is part of Tusk’s pro-European governing coalition, with which the US ambassador said he has “excellent relations.”
It is currently governing under conservative-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki, a vocal Trump supporter.
In late January, Czarzasty, along with several other high-ranking Polish politicians, denounced Trump’s claim that the United States “never needed” NATO allies.
The parliamentary leader called the claims “scandalous” and said they should be “absolutely condemned.”
Forty-three Polish soldiers and one civil servant died as part of the US-led NATO coalition in Afghanistan.