Fjordman

Iran to mark U.S. embassy seizure anniversary with parades

I wonder whether they have invited Jimmi Carter? He could bring his Peace Prize (courtesy of my country), and listen to speeches about nuking Israel:

Iran to mark U.S. embassy seizure anniversary with parades

Iran’s Ministry of Education announced on Sunday that 20 million students in primary and secondary schools across the country will chant “Death to America” on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. “Students across the country will be ringing school bells with chants of Death to America on Wednesday, November 2, and special programs will be held in schools”, said a statement by the public relations department of the Ministry of Education, carried by the Persian-language website Aftab, which belongs to the State Expediency Council. The anniversary ceremonies are being held two days earlier this year, as November 4 falls on Friday, the Muslim Sabbath. “There will be a statement on the November 4 anniversary condemning the warmongering policies of the U.S. and the Zionist regime”, the Education Ministry statement said. On November 4, 1979, Iranian “students” led by a close confidante of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took approximately seventy Americans captive. The incident triggered the most profound crisis of the Carter presidency and lasted 444 days. Many of the hostage-takers went on to become major political figures in Iran in subsequent years. “A series of activities are planned to mark the occasion, which will include parades, cultural and arts contests, essay-writing competition and newspaper production by students, and all will be centred on the themes, ‘Why Death to America and Zionists?’, ‘Hating the Great Satan America’, ‘The Role of Students in the Scientific Development of the Country’ and ‘Quest for Justice at the Heart of Domestic and International Issues’.”

posted by Unknown @ 8:20 PM 1 comments

Islam dissident backs PM in dispute

Islam dissident backs PM in dispute

European leaders should step forward and support Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's refusal to meet with eleven Muslim ambassadors to discuss press coverage of Islam, Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali said on Sunday. Somalian-born Hirsi Ali, who is considered one of northern Europe's staunchest Islam opponents, has lived under police protection for a year, ever since Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered for his critical film on women in Islam, which Hirsi Ali penned. Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported that the 36-year-old politician and debater supported whole-heartedly the paper's decision to call for and print cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed last month, an action considered blasphemous by devout Muslims and an unneeded provocation by many Danish politicians and journalists.

The ambassadors of eleven Muslim countries have deplored the newspaper's decision and asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is also the minister of press issues. Rasmussen, however, declined to meet the ambassadors, saying that if they had the slightest understanding of the workings of Danish society, they would know that he had no desire or powers to change the newspaper's editorial policies. 'The Danish prime minister's reply to the ambassadors should be an example for every European leader,' Hirsi Ali told Jyllands-Posten's reporter. 'The prime minister steps forward to tell Muslims loud and clear that the freedom of expression is a deciding factor for a free society, and that a prime minister in a free society neither can nor wishes to regulate what newspapers do or do not do. The fact that he makes a special point of explaining this to the ambassador from Turkey - which is seeking entrance to the EU - is an expression of true statesmanship.'

Hirsi Ali, who says she suffered physical violence at the hands of her Islamic teacher in her country of birth and had to escape from her family when they tried to have her married against her will, criticises Islam as a totalitarian religion, which makes a special point of debasing women. She said Jyllands-Posten had made the right decision to print the caricatures of Mohammed, and urged media in other countries to do the same. 'It's necessary to taunt Muslims on their relationship with Mohammed, because otherwise we will never have the dialogue we need to establish with Muslims on the most central question: Do you really feel that the prophet Mohammed is completely infallible, and that every Muslim in Europe in 2005 should follow the way of life the prophet had 1400 years ago, as the Koran dictates? The provocation is necessary to spark the debate,' Hirsi Ali said.

Religious headscarves unwanted in Denmark

According to a survey, carried out for the free daily Metroexpress nearly one in two Danes believe that religious headscarves, as often wore by Muslim women, should be banned in Denmark. The Danish People's Party have decided after seeing the surveys results, to once again propose a new parliamentary law banning the wearing of headscarves in schools. Four years ago, they attempted to impose a similar ban but were not supported in parliament by any other party. The Social Liberals have already announced they would not support any ban on religious headscarves. Likewise, the Lord Major of Århus Louise Gade said that any ban in Århus would only be introduced against her strong opposition. "There are far more important things to take issue with than what clothes people wear," she said.

Minister complains of pampered immigrants

Immigrants and foreigners in Denmark are being pampered by the social services and therefore cannot find work, the Employment Minster told reporters today. Employment Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen is demanding that social workers and their bosses focus far more on getting people into jobs, as only one in five interviews between clients and social workers are centred around job seeking. The president of the Social workers Union told reporters that his members are doing everything humanly possible to find work for immigrants; the problem is that jobs for them simply do not exist.

posted by Unknown @ 3:21 PM 1 comments

Islam vs. Free Speech: The Case of Denmark

Since the murder of the Islam critical Dutch film director Theo van Gogh, Danish artists have become fearful of criticising Islam. Author Kåre Bluitgen is due to publish a book on the prophet Muhammad, but so far no one had agreed to illustrate the work through fear of reprisals from Islamic extremists. Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten responded by asking 40 illustrators to make drawings of Muhammad. Twelve illustrators heeded the newspaper's call, and sent in cartoons of the prophet which were published in the newspaper. Some Muslims took offence, as pictorial depictions of Muhammad are banned in Islam. 'This type of democracy is worthless for Muslims,' Imam Raed Hlayhel wrote in a statement. 'Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation. The article has insulted every Muslim in the world. We demand an apology!' Jyllands-Posten described the cartoons as a defence for 'secular democracy and right to expression'. It is not the first time Hlayhel has created headlines in Denmark. One year ago, he infuriated the nation during a Friday prayer session by insisting that Muslim girls should cover themselves from head to toe, and neither wear perfume nor go to the hairdressers if they want to have any chance of going to heaven.

The case has since then escalated in severity. Death threats have forced daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten to hire security guards to protect its employees. Journalists and editors alike have received threats by email and the telephone. Editor Juste said the cartoons had been a journalistic project to find out how many cartoonists refrained from drawing the prophet out of fear. 'We live in a democracy,' he said. 'That's why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to. Satire is accepted in this country, and you can make caricatures. Religion shouldn't set any barriers on that sort of expression.' Juste's opinion was not shared by Århus imam Raed Hlayhel, who gave an interview to the Internet edition of Arabic satellite news channel al-Jazeera telling that he considered the cartoons derisive of Islam, and described one of the drawings as showing Muhammad wearing a turban-like bomb. Several thousand Muslims demonstrated in Copenhagen against the treatment of Muslims in general and the images of Muhammad published by the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in particular. "We fear that this could lead to violence and extremism, and that young people can decide to carry out extremist acts. We call upon the government to ban degradation of religions and hope that Jyllands-Posten will respond to just criticism," said Danish Muslim Katja Hansen.

Pictures of bombs exploding over of Danish daily Jyllands-Posten and blood flowing over the national flag and a map of Denmark are among the images circulating on the Internet. Daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported that the collages showed pictures of various tourist attractions in Denmark and stated that 'The Mujahedeen have numerous targets in Denmark - very soon you all will regret this', amongst other things. Another picture showed soldiers, armed with bombs, over a map of Denmark, with blood spattered over parts of the country. Recently, four young men between 16 and 20 years of age were taken into custody yesterday in Brøndby, a suburb of Copenhagen, charged with planning terrorism. The police say that the action was planned for 'a European target within the near future', and some of the items found indicated that it was likely a suicide bombing that was in the works. The four arrested are described as inconspicuous and well-behaved young men. All four are born and bred in Denmark, although only one has Danish citizenship. Their friends and relatives had become bemused in recent weeks as the boys had begun to meet at various mosques to pray, adopting a radical tone that was worrying to some of their relatives.

A number of Muslim countries with embassies in Denmark have sent a protest to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen about the caricatures. 'We are hoping for understanding about Muslims' feelings about Muhammad and an apology from Jyllands-Posten,' said Mascud Effendy Hutasuhut, minister counsellor at the Indonesian Embassy. The Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Turkish ambassador to Denmark fully supported the move. In a letter, they urged PM Rasmussen to call the newspaper to account for "abusing Islam in the name of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression." Liberal party foreign spokesperson Poulsen says EU candidate country Turkey's approval of the letter underlines how important it is for Turkey to live up to freedom of expression demands. Prime Minister Rasmussen denied the ambassadors’ request. 'This is a matter of principle. I won't meet with them because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to do so,' said Rasmussen. 'As prime minister, I have no power whatsoever to limit the press - nor do I want such a power,' he said. 'It is a basic principle of our democracy that a prime minister cannot control the press.' 'Some people say that the press needs to be constructive, and sometimes I also think that'd be nice. But who's to say what's constructive? That's an unfair demand to make. The press needs to be critical - I need to bear that as prime minister and religions must do so as well,' he said.

International Muslim organisations are to take over the discussion about whether a Danish newspaper was in its rights to print caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. After Rasmussen also refused to meet with the ambassadors, Egyptian Ambassador Mona Omar Attia said in a Danish news broadcast on Tuesday that the group planned to meet to discuss contacting other parliamentary leaders, some of whom had urged the PM to hear the ambassador's complaints. After meeting at the Saudi Arabian Embassy on Wednesday, however, the group said they had decided to let international Muslim groups take over the cause, allowing groups such as the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to try to influence the prime minister. The conference represents 56 member states and has already sent a letter of protest to the government. 'It's out of our hands,' said Attia after the meeting. 'Now it is moving up to the international level. Therefore, we will not try to contact Denmark's political leaders. 'One could imagine that the Arab League will weigh in soon,' she said.

When some Muslims complain about their religion being slighted, the entire Islamic world seems to support them. Unfortunately, the same is not the case with the infidels using their freedom of speech. They are too frequently left to fight alone, with little support. This needs to change. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), with dozens of member states backed by Saudi oil money, is now up against one newspaper and the government of a nation of just above 5 million inhabitants. But what is at stake is nothing less than the very concept of freedom of speech and thus democracy itself, an issue far greater than Denmark. It is totally unacceptable that Muslims try to intimidate the citizens of free nations from speaking their minds, and it is time that this is made clear in no uncertain terms. As an expression of solidarity, you can send in this draft message:


I would hereby like to express my support for the newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishing cartoons of Islam’s prophet Muhammad. Freedom of speech is the lifeblood of a democratic society, and cannot be tampered with. Muslims in Denmark freely exercise this right, even to say things that people in Denmark find greatly offensive. A leading Danish mufti in 2004 said that Danish women not wearing the veil “were asking for rape.” Another imam wanted to import the sharia concept of blood money to Denmark, and pay the equivalent of 100 camels for a man’s life. If Muslims in Denmark think these are acceptable statements, they cannot by any right claim to be offended by a few simple drawings. At least not if they really mean that Islam is compatible with Western democracy. Jyllands-Posten should know that this case is being followed by individuals from all around the world, and that you have the support of thousands of people who don’t want to see their freedom slip away. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen should also be commended for his clear and principled stand in this case, as Dutch ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali points out. In an age where too many political leaders shy away from defending the basic values of our societies, it serves to Denmark’s credit to have a leader who still possesses a backbone.

I would also like to condemn the actions made by the ambassadors of several Muslims countries in this case, and those of Turkey in particular. The behavior of the Turkish government is incompatible with that of a nation with a desire to become a part of a Western community such as the EU. If Turkey thinks that the EU shouldn’t be a Christian club, than Turkey should respond in kind by withdrawing from all “Islamic clubs” such as the OIC. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has earlier stated that anti-Islamism should be viewed as a ”crime against humanity”, has pushed for criticism of Islam to be treated as racism within the EU and is now backing an effort to curtail the freedom of speech of the citizens of an EU nation. These actions are not those of a secular politician such as Ataturk, but more closely mirror the attitude of the Ottoman sultans of old. They indicate that a Turkey within the EU would threaten the freedom of European citizens, and clearly demonstrate that Turkey is not yet ready to become a part of the European community.


Suggested email addresses:

Newspaper Jyllands-Posten:

jp@jp.dk , debat@jp.dk

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen:

stm@stm.dk

Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, Copenhagen, Denmark:

turkembassy@internet.dk

Office of the Turkish President:

cumhurbaskanligi@tccb.gov.tr

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC):

info@oic-oci.org , cabinet@oic-oci.org

posted by Unknown @ 1:18 PM 6 comments

Europe: Trick or Treat or Ramadan Sweets?

Poor Europeans: We don't believe in our own culture anymore, and our continent has become a battlefield for competing "cultural imperialisms": American and Islamic ones. I know which one I would choose, but quite a few among our chattering class seem to object less to the increasingly prominent Ramadan celebrations than to Halloween. A sign of the times? Which candies will our grandchildren be eating 50 years from now? Will it be "trick or treat" or Ramadan sweets? And which sheets will our daughters be wearing? A burka or a "Casper the ghost" costume? They sure look similar, don't they? Perhaps it's the ultimate proof that all cultures really are equal, so why care? After all, it's just another piece of cloth, isn't it?

Some Europeans Aren't Fans of Halloween

It's almost Halloween and all those ghosts, goblins, tricks and treats are giving Hans Kohler the creeps. So the mayor of Rankweil, a town near the border with Switzerland, has launched a one-man campaign disparaging Halloween as a "bad American habit" and urging families to skip it this year. "It's an American custom that's got nothing to do with our culture," Kohler wrote in letters sent out to households. By midweek, the mayors of eight neighboring villages had thrown their support behind the boycott. So had local police, annoyed with the annual Oct. 31 uptick in vandalism and mischief. Although Halloween has become increasingly popular across Europe complete with carved pumpkins, witches on broomsticks, makeshift houses of horror and costumed children rushing door to door for candy it's begun to breed a backlash. Critics see it as the epitome of crass, U.S.-style commercialism. Clerics and conservatives contend it clashes with the spirit of traditional Nov. 1 All Saints' Day remembrances. Halloween "undermines our cultural identity," complained the Rev. Giordano Frosini, a Roman Catholic theologian who serves as vicar-general in the Diocese of Pistoia near Florence, Italy. Frosini denounced the holiday as a "manifestation of neo-paganism" and an expression of American cultural supremacy. "Pumpkins show their emptiness," he said. In Sweden, even as Halloween's popularity has increased, so have views of the holiday as an "unnecessary, bad American custom," said Bodil Nildin-Wall, an expert at the Language and Folklore Institute in Uppsala.

posted by Unknown @ 3:28 PM 3 comments

Is Sweden Superior?

An American friend of mine once noted that Swedes actually seem to believe their own propaganda about being the world's model nation. She's right. Here are a couple of comments on my blog from a Swedish reader who is puzzled about why I write so many critical posts about the situation in Sweden. His conclusion is that I do this because I suffer from an inferiority complex vis-a-vis Swedes. Notice that there isn't even a hint of irony in this thinking:

Reading your comments on Sweden it's pretty obvious that you have a serious inferiority issue vis-a-vis Sweden. I though most Norwegians had put this behind them. Proof that not only many Norwegians, but also many Danes, seem to have a serious complex of some kind vis-a-vis Sweden. Here in Stockholm no one cares one iota about Norway on Denmark. And if we have something to say about either of them, it's mostly nice neighbourly things.

First of all: I decided from the outset of this blog that Fjordman would be a Scandinavian blog, not a Norwegian one. I did this beacuse Scandinavia encompasses both one of the strongest anti-dhimmi nations in Western Europe, Denmark, and perhaps the most pathetic dhimmi nation of the Western world, Sweden. This makes it more interesting for outsiders to read my blog. Besides, being Norwegian, I can easily read Swedish and Danish newspapers as well as my own. I won't bother my international readers with Scandinavian family fights. They date back centuries, as is usually the case in Europe. I could for instance point out that Norway's national savings now exceed Sweden's national debt. Put in simple terms, Norwegians can buy Sweden, one hundred years after our independence. Not that we would want to, of course. Who wants to buy Malmö, anyway? You guys can keep it. Sweden is the largest of the Scandinavian countries, and usually the one that outsiders know best. That is true. Unfortunately, I suspect that the days of Sweden being a model for the rest of the world are long gone. Today, it is more an example of dhimmitude, immigration insanity and politically correct repression of free speech. The "Swedish Model" has become something negative, not something positive. That doesn't prevent leading leftists from clinging on to their now collapsing system:

“Sweden is fantastic!”

“When will Swedish business and the Swedish right feel proud of Sweden?” - Helle Klein, writing on her Aftonbladet-hosted blog under the headline “Sweden is fantastic!” It is, I have always maintained, the Fox News of Swedish print journalism. This is the second time in just over a week that Klein has accused the Swedish right of not possessing sufficient ‘pride.’

Some visitors may still believe the propaganda, too:

Nordic welfare states working just fine

Sweden is home to one of the world's most generous social-welfare states. Here, each parent will get eight months off from work per child, at 80 percent of salary. That's just one of the gold-plated social benefits available to Swedes, who pay some of the world's highest taxes in return. The Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland are thriving, despite having even more generous government benefits and higher taxes than their European peers. This is not to say that the Nordic systems are problem-free. Sweden, for example, is grappling with huge abuse of its generous sick-leave policy. In recent years, it also has admitted large populations of poor, uneducated immigrants, many of whom are failing to assimilate and living on public aid.

But even the official numbers show that the Swedish economic model is in serious trouble:

New Study: 80’s Generation Worse Off

Young adults born in the 1980’s have an appreciably lower standard of living in Sweden than older generations. That’s according to a report published by Statistics Sweden. The report suggests that main reasons behind the gap in living standards are a general demand for higher qualifications, a lack of cheap available housing and mass unemployment during the 90s and early 2000s when the number of available jobs shrunk some 10%. The statistics show that fewer young adults can afford to own a car or take overseas holidays compared to previous generations. More of them are in debt and suffer from symptoms of stress - brought on by low job security.

“Official figures do not tell the whole story”

Sweden had the second highest growth rate in the world from 1890 to 1950, but since the tax rate rose from 20 % in 1950 to 50 % in 1980 we have fallen behind. For example, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Sweden was the fourth richest country per capita in the world in 1970 whereas now it is down to number 14.

I believe what triggered the tirade about an inferiority complex was my suggestion that Norway should impose stricter control over our shared border with Sweden, to prevent that country's problems from dragging us down, too:

Swedish Welfare State Cracking?

Are we seeing some major cracks in the Swedish welfare state, with its 25% real unemployment rate? If so, what happens when it collapses? Isn't it likely that this will trigger a flood of "welfare tourists" to neighboring countries? Given that Finland is beyond political correctness and hardly accepts any immigration at all, and that Denmark is increasingly fed up, the weakest link among Sweden's neighbors is Norway. We share a very long border with Sweden, which is among the least protected borders in the world. Our significant oil wealth and naive politics make us an attractive destination. How are we going to respond to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people suddenly moving here? This question hasn't even been asked, much less debated, by a single political leader in this country.

This isn't just something I made up. In Denmark, right-wing politicians are already debating the problem of immigrant "welfare tourists" from Sweden. Some even claim that Sweden poses a threat to Denmark as large as that of a possible Turkish EU membership:

DF wants to fence Sweden out

The Danish People's Party (DF) wants to downsize the expansive cooperation between the Nordic countries in order to protect the Danish welfare system, national broadcaster DR reported. DF MP and spokesman on foreign affairs Søren Espersen said Danish emigration to Sweden was pressing the Swedish welfare system, just as many Swedes had moved to Denmark to receive social benefits there. Espersen said DF should work towards having Denmark withdraw from Nordic cooperation, which allows any citizen of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland or Iceland to move to any of the other countries and gain full access of their social security systems. Espersen said he would take the matter up in the Nordic Council, a government-level organ supervising the nations' cooperation. The Liberal Party' representative in the Nordic Council, MP Kristian Pihl Lorentsen, said he agreed with Espersen. 'It's obvious that if Sweden runs a much more lax refugee and foreigner policy than Denmark, we can't live with foreigners moving to Denmark after an obligatory stint in Sweden,' he said.

I hope Swedes enjoy your superiority. Something tells me you are going to need it soon.

posted by Unknown @ 3:13 PM 6 comments

Second night of rioting in Paris

Silent march follows Paris riots

Hundreds of people have taken part in a silent march through a suburb of Paris in memory of two teenage boys whose deaths sparked two nights of violence. Angry crowds clashed with police on Thursday and Friday nights, throwing stones and setting cars alight in the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. The crowds blamed police for the deaths of the two boys, electrocuted when they climbed into an electrical station. Reports said the boys had been trying to evade police - who deny this. The authorities in Paris say no officers were chasing them at the time of their deaths. Police detained 14 people after Friday night's clashes, which officials said saw 15 police officers and one journalist injured, and a shot fired at a police van. Thursday's violence broke out after youths attacked firefighters who had been called in to help the two victims, who were aged 15 and 17, and a third youth who received serious burns.

Second night of rioting in Paris

Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze in a suburb of Paris early Saturday in a second night of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers died fleeing police. Firefighters intervened around 40 times on Friday night in the northeastern suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where many of the 28,000 residents are immigrants, mainly from Africa, police and fire officers said. Unidentified youths fired a shot at police but no one was hurt, police said. A police trade union called for help from the army to support police officers. "There's a civil war underway in Clichy-Sous-Bois at the moment," Michel Thooris, an official of police trade union Action Police CFTC, said. "We can no longer withstand this situation on our own. My colleagues neither have the equipment nor the practical or theoretical training for street fighting," he said.

September Diary

In Le Figaro daily dated Feb 1, 2002, Lucienne Bui Trong, a criminologist working for the French government's Renseignements Generaux (General Intelligence — a mix of FBI and secret service), complains that the survey system she had created for accurately denumbering the Muslim no-go zones was dismantled by the government. She wrote: 'From 106 hot points in 1991, we went to 818 sensitive areas in 1999. That's for the whole country. These data were not politically correct.' Since she comes from a Vietnamese background, Ms. Bui Trong cannot be suspected of racism, of course, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to start this survey in the first place. The term she uses, 'sensitive area,' is the PC euphemism for these places where anything representing a Western institution (post office truck, firemen, even mail order delivery firms, and of course cops) is routinely ambushed with Molotov cocktails, and where war weapons imported from the Muslim part of Yugoslavia are routinely found. The number 818 is from 2002. I'd go out on a limb and venture that it hasn't decreased in two years. Note the French govt's response to these unpleasant statistics — they stopped collecting the statistics!

The unreported race riot in France

Fredric Encel, Professor of international relations at the prestigious Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Paris and a man not known for crying wolf, recently stated that France is becoming a new Lebanon. The implication, far-fetched though it may seem, was that civil upheaval might be no more than a few years off, sparked by growing ethnic and religious polarization. In recent weeks, a series of events has underlined this ominous trend. On March 8, tens of thousands of high school students marched through central Paris to protest education reforms announced by the government. Repeatedly, peaceful demonstrators were attacked by bands of black and Arab youths--about 1,000 in all, according to police estimates. The eyewitness accounts of victims, teachers, and most interestingly the attackers themselves gathered by the left-wing daily Le Monde confirm the motivation: racism. Some of the attackers openly expressed their hatred of "little French people." One 18-year-old named Heikel, a dual citizen of France and Tunisia, was proud of his actions. He explained that he had joined in just to "beat people up," especially "little Frenchmen who look like victims." He added with a satisfied smile that he had "a pleasant memory" of repeatedly kicking a student, already defenseless on the ground. Another attacker explained the violence by saying that "little whites" don't know how to fight and "are afraid because they are cowards." Rachid, an Arab attacker, added that even an Arab can be considered a "little white" if he "has a French mindset." The general sentiment was a desire to "take revenge on whites."

Stoning in France

The alleged murderer of a 23-year-old Tunisian woman, whose stoned body was discovered on October 20, has been placed in police custody. The suspect, 18, arrested Sunday at his home, is an old acquaintance of the victim. He will be presented before the examining magistrate today.

Is France on the way to becoming an Islamic state?

France is facing the problem that dare not speak its name. Though French law prohibits the census from any reference to ethnic background or religion, many demographers estimate that as much as 20-30 per cent of the population under 25 is now Muslim. The streets, the traditional haunt of younger people, now belong to Muslim youths. In France, the phrase "les jeunes" is a politically correct way of referring to young Muslims. Given current birth rates, it is not impossible that in 25 years France will have a Muslim majority. The consequences are dynamic: is it possible that secular France might become an Islamic state?


Holocaust lessons meet Muslim rebuff in France

"Filthy Jew!" schoolchildren howl at a classmate. "Jews only want money and power," they tell their teachers. "Death to the Jews" graffiti appear on school walls outside Paris and other French cities. These are not scenes from the wartime Nazi occupation or a fictional France where the far-right has taken control. Outright anti-Semitism like this is a fact of life these days in the poor suburbs where much of France's Muslim minority lives. The outspoken book "The Lost Territories of the Republic" opened France's eyes to classrooms where some Muslim pupils openly denounced Jews, praised Hitler and refused to listen to any non-Muslim teacher talking about the history of Islam.

Will Muslim Immigration Trigger Wars in Europe?

Yes, I’m pretty sure this immigration will trigger wars in Europe. This continent has simply lost control over its own borders, and the native population is being replaced at an astonishing rate in many of its major cities. Europe has a rather violent history, and migrations of this magnitude have usually triggered wars between the original population and the newcomers. The situation becomes even worse when we enter another factor: Islam. The Islamic world is at war with pretty much everybody, everywhere. Both Thailand and the Philippines, countries where the Muslim population is not much larger than it is in some Western European countries, are facing war.

posted by Unknown @ 7:04 PM 8 comments

A Separate Peace: The Blade Runner Century

I sometimes fear that we are witnessing the second fall of Rome, and that chaos will ensue, the new Dark Ages. This will be the "Blade Runner" Century, where people will retreat into their little fortresses in their own separate peace and try to keep anarchy at bay.

I don't always think like that, but in dark moments, I do, yes. Looks like I'm not the only one:

A Separate Peace

I think there is an unspoken subtext in our national political culture right now. In fact I think it's a subtext to our society. I think that a lot of people are carrying around in their heads, unarticulated and even in some cases unnoticed, a sense that the wheels are coming off the trolley and the trolley off the tracks. That in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can't be fixed, or won't be fixed any time soon. It's beyond, "The president is overwhelmed." The presidency is overwhelmed. The whole government is. And people sense when an institution is overwhelmed. Citizens know. If we had a major terrorist event tomorrow half the country--more than half--would not trust the federal government to do what it has to do, would not trust it to tell the truth, would not trust it, period.

I think those who haven't noticed we're living in a troubling time continue to operate each day with classic and constitutional American optimism intact. I think some of those who have a sense we're in trouble are going through the motions, dealing with their own daily challenges. Our elites. I have a nagging sense, and think I have accurately observed, that many of these people have made a separate peace. That they're living their lives and taking their pleasures and pursuing their agendas; that they're going forward each day with the knowledge, which they hold more securely and with greater reason than nonelites, that the wheels are off the trolley and the trolley's off the tracks, and with a conviction, a certainty, that there is nothing they can do about it. I suspect that history, including great historical novelists of the future, will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble. And that they consciously, or unconsciously, took grim comfort in this thought: I got mine. Which is what the separate peace comes down to, "I got mine, you get yours." Not all of course. There are two groups. One has made a separate peace, and one is trying to keep the boat afloat. I suspect those in the latter group privately, in a place so private they don't even express it to themselves, wonder if they'll go down with the ship. Or into bad territory with the trolley.

posted by Unknown @ 12:41 AM 4 comments

Toward a Virtual Caliphate

Toward a Virtual Caliphate

Most interesting, however – but certainly least noticed – is a diverse body of "superstar" religious scholars whose efforts might serve as a more metaphorical embodiment of the caliphate. For this group, the caliphate is not so much a political institution attached to sovereign territory, but rather an ideal of pan-Islamic ecumenicism – a moderate and relatively inclusive form of lowest-common-denominator orthodoxy. In their minds, this community of shared knowledge and religious interpretation is explicitly designed as an antidote to bin Laden and the radical jihadis. Given the means of its establishment and propagation, such a tendency might perhaps best be thought of as a "virtual caliphate." The figure at the forefront of this movement is Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based Egyptian religious scholar who trained at the venerable institution of Al-Azhar in Cairo – the Oxford of the Islamic religious sciences. Perhaps the worst thing the West could do is to cast figures such as Qaradawi as part of the problem simply because his views don't precisely correspond with US goals. While increased recruitment into the Qaradawi camp will not by any means produce a generation of Muslims favorably predisposed to US foreign policy, it will represent a consolidated, critical mass of influential and respected Muslims with whom meaningful dialogue with the hope of tangible progress can take place.

posted by Unknown @ 12:36 AM 1 comments

Human rights in Afghanistan 'of great concern'

Human rights in Afghanistan 'of great concern'

Escalating violence, torture and forced child marriages are some of the rights abuses still blighting Afghanistan four years after the removal of the fundamentalist Taliban government, the United Nations says. The situation of women, denied basic education and healthcare under the Taliban, had improved only in certain respects, with more of them in the paid workforce and education system. "However, the stark reality is that women in Afghanistan, especially outside of Kabul and urban areas, and particularly among the poor, are generally still viewed as the property of men," the report says. Another major concern is child marriage, which some estimates say makes up more than 40 percent of all marriages in Afghanistan. "Girls as young as seven years of age are made to marry much older men, sometimes 30 to 40 years older," often to settle debts or disputes. The practice is in part to blame for regular reports of cases of self-immolation, with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission saying that there had already been 85 cases this year.

Karzai under pressure over editor's jailing

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was under growing pressure on Tuesday to intervene in the case of an editor jailed for two years for blasphemy after clerics accused him of questioning Islamic law. The world's top media rights groups joined Afghan journalists in urging Karzai to intercede after a court sentenced Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of the monthly magazine Haqoq-e-Zan (Women's Rights), at the weekend.
Nasab, 50, was arrested at the beginning of the month after conservative clerics complained about his magazine to the Supreme Court, which in turn asked the public prosecutor's office to arrest him. Articles, including some by an Iranian scholar, criticized the stoning of Muslims who convert to another religion and the use of corporal punishment for offenses such as adultery, Reporters Without Borders said.

posted by Unknown @ 3:03 PM 1 comments

Iran: Time to end appeasement?

We will use force, Blair warns Iranians

Tony Blair delivered his strongest warning to Iran last night, saying Teheran would not be allowed to become a "threat to our world security". Speaking at a European summit at Hampton Court, west London, a visibly angry Mr Blair said Iran would be making "a very big mistake" if it believed western leaders were too preoccupied with other issues to deliver a strong response. Western frustration with Iran has been building up for months, particularly over Teheran's nuclear programme, its support for Palestinian radicals and suspicions that it has passed bomb-making technology to Iraqi insurgents.

Robert Spencer: Iran Calls for a New Holocaust

Ahmadinejad also made it clear that, like Hamas, he did not view the Palestinian conflict with Israel as one of nationalism, but of religion: “Anybody who recognizes Israel,” he warned, “will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury, any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world.” Ariel Sharon has issued a call of his own: expel Iran from the UN: “A country that calls for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the United Nations.” If Ahmadinejad and his gang are to see that the anger of the civilized world against his criminal regime is genuine, world leaders should heed Sharon’s recommendation -- and also work quickly to defuse Iran’s nuclear program. Since the jihad Israel faces is the same jihad that threatens so much of the world today, this great “victory for the Islamic world” will only herald even larger cataclysms to come.

Khomeini's speech on the day of celebration of the birth of Muhammad: 1981

Why do you only read the Quranic verses of mercy and do not read the verses of killing? Quran says; kill, imprison! Why are you only clinging to the part that talks about mercy? Mercy is against God. The prophet has [had] sword to kill people. Our [Holy] Imams were quite military men. All of them were warriors. They used to wield swords; they used to kill people. We need a Khalifa who would chop hands, cut throat, stone people In the same way that the messenger of God used to chop hands, cut throats, and stone people. In the same way that he massacred the Jews of Bani Qurayza (4) because they were a bunch of discontent people. If the Prophet used to order to burn a house or exterminate a tribe that was justice.

RAFSANJANI SAYS MUSLIMS SHOULD USE NUCLEAR WEAPON AGAINST ISRAEL

One of Iran’s most influential ruling cleric called Friday on the Muslim states to use nuclear weapon against Israel, assuring them that while such an attack would annihilate Israel, it would cost them "damages only". "If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world", Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd. "Jews shall expect to be once again scattered and wandering around the globe the day when this appendix is extracted from the region and the Muslim world", Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani warned.

Iran's Missiles Can Now Hit Europe, Rafsanjani Says

"Now we have the power to launch a missile with a 2,000-kilometer range. Iran is determined to improve its military capabilities." "If the Americans attack Iran, the world will change. . . . They will not dare to make such a mistake," Rafsanjani was quoted as saying in a speech at a national security exhibition.

Bush: Iran has right to civilian nuclear program

President George W. Bush on Tuesday said Iran had a right to a civilian nuclear program if it did not gain expertise or materials to build an atomic weapon. The United States last month explicitly accepted for the first time that Iran could develop civilian nuclear programs, backing an EU proposal.

Pakistan Admits Rogue Scientist Aided Iran

After years of denials, Pakistan admitted Thursday that its top nuclear scientist sold crucial equipment to Iran. The admission by the Pakistani information minister was the first public acknowledgment that Abdul Qadeer Khan provided Iran's secret nuclear program with centrifuges, a crucial component needed to enrich uranium and produce nuclear material for warheads.

Iran prepares war plans, to strike bases in case of US mobilization

Iran has identified seven US bases in the region to attack in case there is the smallest sign of American mobilisation to its borders. The Iranian leadership is absolutely confident of prevailing over any US attack alone, and it assesses that the American military is “very tired” and cannot run a big military campaign against Iran for long.

Iran opens garrison to recruit suicide bombers against West

A senior officer in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told a hard-line weekly close to Iran’s ultra-conservative President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the new “Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison” would recruit individuals willing to carry out suicide operations against Western targets.

posted by Unknown @ 1:35 PM 0 comments

Four suspected suicide bombers arrested in Copenhagen

A few months ago, I lamented the lack of political blogs in English from Denmark, probably the one Western nation with the most open and mainstream debate about issues related to Islam and Muslim immigration. Now, a few of my favorite bloggers in Danish have established a promising group blog called Viking Observer. Bookmark it:

Four suspected suicide bombers arrested in Copenhagen

Four young men between 16 and 20 years of age were taken into custody yesterday in Brøndby, a suburb of Copenhagen, charged with planning terrorism. The four young men are all of middle-eastern descent, but have grown up in Denmark. Three of them live with their parents, while the fourth recently moved into his own place. Only one of them is a Danish citizen. "We are talking about four young, introspective men, who are very tied up in their religious lives. You can see it in their lifestyle, their dress and their movement around the mosques of Copenhagen." Danish police said they had arrested four Muslim men on Thursday under an anti-terrorism law after a tip-off from a Balkan country that they were involved in planning a terrorist attack. "We believe we can prove a connection between the two people in the Balkan country and the four men in Denmark and have reasons to believe that they were about to plan a terror attack some place in Europe," Skovgaard said. He said the possible attack could have been aimed at Denmark, which has more than 500 troops serving with U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Bosnian police last week arrested three people in Sarajevo on suspicion of preparing terrorist activities. According to Sarajevo's Dnevni Avaz daily newspaper, one of the three suspects was an 18-year-old who was preparing a suicide bomb attack on the Sarajevo embassy of an European Union country. A Turkish, Swedish and a Bosnian national were apprehended over suspicion that they were preparing terrorist activities.

Suspected suicide terrorists arrested

Four quiet, well-behaved teenagers were arrested in Copenhagen on Thursday, on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. The boys, who are aged between 16 and 20, are all of Mid-Eastern descent and deeply devout Muslims. The police say that the action was planned for 'a European target within the near future', and some of the items found indicated that it was likely a suicide bombing that was in the works. Swedish newspaper Expressen reported on Friday that possible targets were the US or the British embassy in Sarajevo. The four arrested are described as inconspicuous and well-behaved young men. 'They are deeply religious and very responsible,' said Bro. All four are born and bred in Denmark, although only one has Danish citizenship. The police said none of them came from deeply religious families. Their friends and relatives had become bemused in recent weeks as the boys had begun to meet at various mosques to pray, adopting a radical tone that was worrying to some of their relatives.

Denmark has been threatened quite recently because of the cartoons of Muhammad published by newspaper Jyllands-Posten:

Holy war against newspaper

Bombs exploding over pictures of Danish daily Jyllands-Posten and blood flowing over the national flag and a map of Denmark are among the images circulating on the internet after the newspaper printed twelve cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed last month. Daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported that the internet collages, posted in the name of an unknown organisation calling itself 'The Glory Brigades in Northern Europe', showed pictures of various tourist attractions in Denmark and stated that 'The Mujahedeen have numerous targets in Denmark - very soon you all will regret this', amongst other things. Another picture showed soldiers, armed with bombs, over a map of Denmark, with blood spattered over parts of the country.

But even before this, the country has been mentioned as a target because of its active involvement alongside the Americans in Iraq:

Denmark: Three out of four expect terror attack

The fear of terror related to Denmark's presence in Iraq, however, failed to shake Danes support for the nation's 500 soldiers stationed near the southern city of Basra. Half of those asked, 50 percent, said that it was the correct decision to participate in the war against Iraq. Forty-three percent were against. Despite the split opinion on sending troops to Iraq, 75 percent said that Danish soldiers should either remain in Iraq until there was no longer a need for them or that a date for their withdrawal should be set.

posted by Unknown @ 12:31 PM 1 comments

Beyond homesickness: Western wives in Egypt

Beyond homesickness: Western wives in Egypt

With Karen's niqab (veil) covering up most of her face, you can still see bitterness in her eyes. You can hear resentment in her voice as she tells her story. She refuses to have her real name and nationality published, but she claims to speak on behalf of many Western women living in Egypt, married to, or divorced from, Egyptians. After converting to Islam, Karen moved to Egypt with a few other women who shared with her idealistic ideas about living in a Muslim-majority country. They were soon confronted with the reality about the people's "ignorance of Islam" and deviation from its teachings. Her first year as a foreigner on her own in Cairo was the most difficult. "I have never felt as lonely as I felt here in this city with 16 million people," she says. "Being a woman as well as a foreigner put me in a double disadvantage. It's a men's country, [where] men don't take women seriously ... and tend to take advantage of them." She decided she couldn't stay in Egypt unless married and she accepted a marriage offer by an Egyptian man, a decision that she regrets. "Marriage itself is difficult, cross-cultural marriage is more difficult, and when you don't understand the other's culture, you have a third degree of difficulty." Cultural differences resulted in her divorce. Egypt's culture, in Karen's opinion, is one of manipulation, not directness. "Egyptians are obsessed with covering their back. In the West we are direct because we have a system that covers us up." As a result, she says, "The [Egyptian] husband [of a Western woman] thinks, 'My wife is not respecting me' when all what she is doing is being direct." Cultural differences made Karen feel "oppressed" in her marriage: "The Western woman enters the relationship on a 50-50 basis, whereas men in Egypt tend to be brought up to feel they are superior to the girls in the family.

posted by Unknown @ 9:02 PM 6 comments

Turkish government backed Ambassador

Turkish government backed Ambassador

The Turkish Foreign Ministry fully supported the Turkish ambassador to Denmark when he, together with 9 other ambassadors, asked the Prime Minister to intervene in a case involving the media. A daily Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, had published a number of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. The letter urged Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to call the newspaper to account for "abusing Islam in the name of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression." Liberal party foreign spokesperson, Troels Lund Poulsen, says EU candidate country Turkey's approval of the letter underlines how important it is for Turkey to live up to freedom of expression demands.

Turkish PM: "Anti-Islamism is crime against humanity"

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that anti-Islamism must be treated as a crime against humanity just like anti-Semitism, the Turkish daily Zaman reported on Tuesday, September 6. Addressing the sixth meeting of the Eurasian Islamic Council meeting in Istanbul Monday, September 5, Erdogan said his government has added an article to the declaration in the European Council regarding Islamophobia stipulating that anti-Islamism be accepted as a crime against humanity.

"The Fall of Europe" by Ali Sina

Anti-Islamism as well as anti-Semitism will be dealt with within the framework of legal proceedings. The Council reports will include anti-Islamist movements. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) will closely monitor these movements.

The European Court of Human Rights Kneels to Islam

The applicant was prosecuted under Article 175 §§ 33 and 4 of the Criminal Code for publishing insults against “God, the Religion, the Prophet and the Holy Book”. The applicant alleged that his conviction and sentence had infringed his right to freedom of expression. he issue for the Court to determine was whether the interference had been “necessary in a democratic society”. However, the present case concerned not only comments that were disturbing or shocking or a “provocative” opinion but an abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam. Believers could legitimately feel that certain passages of the book in question constituted an unwarranted and offensive attack on them. In those circumstances, the Court considered that the measure in question had been intended to provide protection against offensive attacks on matters regarded as sacred by Muslims and had therefore met a “pressing social need”.

posted by Unknown @ 1:44 PM 4 comments