Gates of Vienna News Feed 7/19/2008

Slim pickings tonight. Once again, tipsters are taking the weekend off — all except for TB, who neither sleeps nor takes vacations. Oh, and also Provocateur Jim, who contributed one of these.

• Photographer Detained After Filming Taliban Execution of Two Women in Afghanistan
  
• Denmark and the Muslim Immigration Crisis
  
• Wall Street Journal Smears Belgian Vlaams Belang Party
  
• Campaign to Boycott Saudi Newspapers Not Defending Prophet Mohammed

Details are below the fold.
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Photographer Detained After Filming Taliban Execution of Two Women in Afghanistan

The Afghan journalist who filmed and photographed the July 12 execution of two women by the Taliban says he was detained and held for two days by authorities in Afghanistan for suspected ties to terrorists.

The footage and photographs of the executions were distributed by the Associated Press and widely circulated on the Internet, giving rise to suspicions that the photographer, Rahmatullah Naikzad, was connected with the Taliban.

In an exclusive telephone interview, Naikzad told FOXNews.com that he turned himself in to Afghan authorities early this week and was held in custody and investigated for 48 hours. He said officials “asked me why I went to the Taliban at night — how come they didn’t harm me.”

Naikzad said he has no ties with the Taliban, and he gave the following account of why and how he became witness to the executions.

He said the Taliban issued a press statement calling all media outlets in the province of Ghazni, which has a large Taliban presence, to cover them “carrying out the Shariah” on a few burglars in their custody. Naikzad said he believed the Taliban would be cutting off the limbs of their prisoners, according to strict Islamic law.

He said he and other journalists were reluctant to go because of security concerns, but that an unknown person who identified himself as a member of the Taliban contacted him directly on his cell phone and assured him of his safety.


Denmark and the Muslim Immigration Crisis

In 1978-9 I was living and studying in Denmark. But in 1978 — even in Copenhagen, one didn’t see Muslim immigrants.

The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism one in development since the conservatives had lost power in 1929 — a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other western nation at the time.

The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism.

Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies — it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant: generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education. It was determined to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism.

How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets -all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite?

By the 1990’s the growing urban Muslim population was obvious — and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was obvious.


Wall Street Journal Smears Belgian Vlaams Belang Party

The Journal’s editorials are often excellent. However, their news articles are often written by journalists who have the typical leftwing bias. In Saturday’s edition we see how John Miller has smeared Vlaams Belang, the party in Belgium that looks out for the interests of the Flemish people:


Campaign to boycott Saudi newspapers not defending Prophet Mohammed

AMMAN — A Saudi journalist has launched a campaign on the FaceBook Website to boycott local and Arab newspapers unless they set a full page for defending the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in the face of anti-Islam attacks from the west.

The campaign is launched after news from Denmark said that a number of newspapers plan to reprint the cartoons demeaning the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and new ones will be published in September.

Commentary from TB: “I have heard absolutely nothing of any effort from Danish newspapers to launch this campaign. But the Jordanians apparantly like spreading rumors about this… Could be extremely funny if they start a new meltdown because of this, could it not?”