Liberty Alliance

The Liberty Alliance Project was an organization formed in September 2001 to establish standards, guidelines and best practices for identity management in computer systems. It grew to more than 150 organizations, including technology vendors, consumer-facing companies, educational organizations and governments. It released frameworks for federation, identity assurance, an Identity Governance Framework, and Identity Web Services.

By 2009, the Kantara Initiative took over the work of the Liberty Alliance.

History

The group was originally conceived and named by Jeff Veis, at Sun Microsystems based in Menlo Park, California. The initiative's goal, which was personally promoted by Scott McNealy of Sun, was to unify technology, commercial and government organizations to create a standard for federated, identity-based Internet applications as an alternative to technology appearing in the marketplace controlled by a single entity such as Microsoft's Passport. Another Microsoft initiative, HailStorm, was renamed My Services but quietly shelved by April 2002. Sun positioned the group as independent, and Eric C. Dean of United Airlines became its president.

Q Society of Australia

The Q Society of Australia Inc. is a volunteer-run Islam-critical organisation. As a not-for-profit association it was incorporated in Victoria in December 2010, but is now active with local groups and supporters in all states. The 'Q' is said to relate to the Melbourne suburb of Kew, where the initial planning meetings were held. The association is led by an annually elected board. The president for the 2013/14 business year is Debbie Robinson. She is assisted by Deputy President Andrew Horwood. Islamic researcher, blogger and American author Robert Spencer is a board member and the international patron of the association. Q Society is aligned with the international SION (Stop Islamisation Of Nations) movement.

Activities

Petition Alma Road Community House, East St Kilda, Melbourne

A number of Muslim men had met for some time at Alma Road Community House in East St Kilda for Friday prayers. The single-storey 3-bedroom house was used mainly by local mother groups and other social activities. Q Society was approached by residents (in this Jewish neighbourhood) when it became known that this community house was listed on the website of a radical Islamic organisation. Port Philip council published plans to increase the number of persons allowed from 40 to 100 and rededicate the house as formal 'place of assembly'. Since most members of the prayer group were not local residents but taxi drivers from across Melbourne, locals were concerned about the ramifications of this planning proposal. Q Society circulated a petition to object to the proposed increase and re-dedication, which was supported by about 600 signatories, including members of the local orthodox Jewish community.

Alliance

An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called allies. Alliances form in many settings, including political alliances, military alliances, and business alliances. When the term is used in the context of war or armed struggle, such associations may also be called allied powers, especially when discussing World War I or World War II.

A formal military alliance is not required for being perceived as an ally—co-belligerence, fighting alongside someone, is enough. According to this usage, allies become so not when concluding an alliance treaty but when struck by war.

When spelled with a capital "A", the word "Allies" usually denotes the countries who fought together against the Central Powers in World War I (the Allies of World War I), or those who fought against the Axis Powers in World War II (the Allies of World War II). The term has also been used by the United States Army to describe the countries that gave assistance to the South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Liberty

Liberty, in philosophy, involves free will as contrasted with determinism. In politics, liberty consists of the social and political freedoms enjoyed by all citizens. In theology, liberty is freedom from the bondage of sin. Generally, liberty seems to be distinct from freedom in that freedom concerns itself primarily, if not exclusively, with the ability to do as one wills and what one has the power to do; whereas liberty also takes into account the rights of all involved. As such, liberty can be thought of as freedom limited by rights, and therefore cannot be abused.

Philosophy

Philosophers from earliest times have considered the question of liberty. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180 AD) wrote of "a polity in which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed." According to Thomas Hobbes, "a free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindered to do what he hath the will to do" (Leviathan, Part 2, Ch. XXI).

Geert Wilders

Geert Wilders (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɣeːrt ˈʋɪldərs], born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician and the founder and leader of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid – PVV), which is a political party in the Dutch parliament. Wilders is the Parliamentary group leader of his party in the Dutch House of Representatives. In the formation in 2010 of the Rutte cabinet, a minority cabinet of VVD and CDA, he actively participated in the negotiations, resulting in a "support agreement" (gedoogakkoord) between the PVV and these parties, but withdrew his support in April 2012, citing disagreements with the cabinet on proposed budget cuts. Wilders is best known for his criticism of Islam. Wilders' views regarding Islam have made him a controversial figure in the Netherlands and abroad, and since 2004 he receives permanent personal protection by armed bodyguards.

Raised a Roman Catholic, Wilders left the church at his coming of age. His travels to Israel as a young adult, as well as to neighbouring Arab countries, helped form his political views. Wilders worked as a speechwriter for the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie – VVD), and later served as parliamentary assistant to party leader Frits Bolkestein from 1990 to 1998. He was elected to the Utrecht city council in 1996, and later to the House of Representatives. Citing irreconcilable differences over the party's position on the accession of Turkey to the European Union, he left the VVD in 2004 to form his own party, the Party for Freedom.