Probing the Infidel World

Most of us have become familiar in recent years with the concept of a terrorist “probe”, an operation mounted to test the defenses of the West and perhaps throw a feint to keep our security forces off-balance.

The most famous probe was the “Syrian musicians” on Flight 327, as reported by Annie Jacobsen in Terror in the Skies. Ms. Jacobsen persisted in the face of government spokesmen and the media who ridiculed and vilified her in an attempt to cover up official incompetence, but the reality of what she wrote about was later confirmed by independent investigation. The terror operatives of Flight 327 were apparently seeing how far they could go in a dry run, simulating the assembly of an explosive device in the restroom of the aircraft using components brought on board separately by the “musicians”.

The infamous “flying imams” were a different sort of probe. Unlike the Syrian musicians, their activities were clearly intended to arouse public suspicion and be exposed, so that CAIR-funded lawsuits could intimidate passengers into ignoring suspicious behavior, and force the government to relax its security procedures on airliners.

In addition to these obvious incidents, Muslims engage in other forms of probing on all fronts of their interactions with the West. Islam is, after all, an entire way of life, and the terror attack is just one aspect of the war that is constantly being waged against the kuffar. In every possible arena of conflict — political, legal, cultural, and military — Islam continually pushes the envelope, testing the limits of infidel tolerance and searching out weaknesses.

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Every morning I sit down at this computer with a cup of coffee and make my way through a huge batch of emails. Many of them are tips sent in by our dedicated army of tipsters, who scour the global news outlets and send us anything that looks interesting. This flood of articles sometimes juxtaposes seemingly disparate pieces of information, and patterns emerge that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Today was no exception. Four articles that have nothing to do with one another came through this morning in rapid succession, and made me think of probes.

Here’s the first one. According to AKI:

Turkey: Spanish PM to Attend Ramadan Dinner With Erdogan

Istanbul, 15 Sept. (AKI) — Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will attend a fast-breaking Ramadan dinner or ‘iftar’ with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Istanbul on Monday.

Iftar is the meal in which Muslims break the fast at the end of the day.

According to Turkish media reports, Zapatero (photo) will share the meal with Erdogan and 2,500 guests and the two leaders are expected to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues.

Erdogan and Zapatero are co-chairs of the United Nations-led Alliance of Civilisations initiative, aimed at improving dialogue and understanding in order to counter extremism.

So why might this be considered a probe? Mr. Erdogan invited Mr. Zapatero to an iftar dinner; what’s the big deal?
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To the average bozo Western politician, it’s no deal at all. It’s another rubber-chicken occasion; you go, you eat, you press the flesh, you ask favors and do people favors — it’s business as usual.

But not to Muslims.

When a kafir comes to an iftar dinner, it’s a signal to Muslims that the infidels have conceded their own inferior status as dhimmis. They have acknowledged the supremacy of Islam.

You can bet that’s the signal received by TV viewers across the Muslim world when they see Mr. Zapatero doing his little multicultural dance on the nightly news.

Think about it: do you ever see a Muslim prime minister or head of state attending a Mass, or a Passover Seder, or a Christmas dinner? No, you don’t, not unless it’s one of those “interfaith” occasions done up with full multicultural regalia and politically correct piety, where every faith is represented. If a Muslim attended an event dedicated solely to the ritual observances of another religion, he would be an apostate. That’s why he won’t do it.

So it’s a probe. “Let’s see if the kafir will bow to us: that tells us how far we may push him in the direction of what we want.”

Here’s another example, this one from the USA:

For First Time, Plainfield Schools to Close for Islamic Holiday

PLAINFIELD —City schools will be closed for an Islamic holiday for the first time in district history when Eid ul-Fitr is celebrated Thursday, Oct. 2.

Eid ul-Fitr is the Islamic holy day marking the end of Ramadan, a currently continuing period of sunrise-to-sunset fasting and religious observance representing the holiest month of the Islamic calendar. The school board voted to include the off day on the 2008-09 district calendar during an April meeting.

“We believe in celebrating the diversity of our students, staff, parents and community, and we are excited to embrace this holiday,” said district information officer Eric Jones. “I think it’s a testament to what the Plainfield Public Schools is all about — we believe in celebrating who we are.”

In this case the infidel thinks he’s celebrating diversity, but the Muslim knows that he’s just moved another small step closer to full official recognition of the Islamic religion in the state of New Jersey. The probing nature of the occasion is made obvious by the next paragraph:

School board member Rasheed Abdul-Haqq was instrumental in an April push to have both Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, a December holy day on the Islamic calendar, included as being districtwide off days. Only the former was included on the calendar, but Abdul-Haqq said he hoped Eid al-Adha — a festival day of celebration and feasting referred to as “The Big Eid” in many heavily Muslim countries around the world — will ultimately be reconsidered as a districtwide off day.

In other words: “We’re not done. The success of this probe will cause us to probe further, and then further still.”

Abdul-Haqq, who is Muslim, said he felt the step to have the one off day still represented a move in the right direction for the district.

Yes indeed. One small step in the direction of full sharia.

It’s happening all over the place:

“It is getting more and more common… the number of schools (to do so) is increasing every year,” said Javed, who added that many local school districts that may not close school for Islamic holidays do not penalize Muslim students who do not attend school those days. “I think this is a positive, that the communities are integrating and recognizing other people’s beliefs, respecting other people’s religions… I think of it as a good thing for this country.”

A probe here, a probe there. Find the weak point, and probe a little further there. If the probe meets resistance, try another location.

This story from Switzerland seems innocuous enough. There’s good money to be made from the manufacture of halal foods, so what’s wrong with a commercial operation doing business with Muslims? Money has no religion, right?

According to Der Spiegel:

Why a Swiss Village Makes Halal Pastry

A Swiss village is churning out puff pastry that adheres to strict Islamic food guidelines and is exported half way across the world. It’s all part of the growing global demand for halal food products.

Walter Leisi is holding two rolled cylinders of dough in his hands, each wrapped in glossy foil, one labeled in French and the other in Arabic. Each package contains the same puff pastry, a concoction of 196 layers of flour, margarine, butter, water and salt — the same, but for one difference, a tiny but decisive difference: one is preserved with alcohol and the other with potassium sorbate.

They taste the same, but they smell somewhat different. The dough preserved with potassium sorbate smells “slightly more cheesy,” says Walter Leisi, 63, a jolly Swiss man wearing a purple short-sleeved shirt and a gold watch. Leisi is the director of a Nestlé plant in the Swiss town of Wangen bei Olten. He is also the inventor of Leisi-Quick, the world’s first ready-made puff pastry, which is packaged on baking paper and sold in refrigerated, but not frozen, form and is thus ready for baking. The factory produces more than 41,000 tons of freshly made dough a year, an enormous quantity.

But in the case of Leisi-Quick, the real issue is not taste or smell, but God’s will.

More and more Muslims are choosing a devout lifestyle, and this includes strict observance of the dietary restrictions in the Koran, which classify food as being either “halal” or “haram,” allowed or forbidden. Pork, blood and alcohol are haram.

From an Islamic point of view, an infidel business has decided to conform with the dictates of sharia, and follow halal guidelines. Just as in the case of sharia finance, a Muslim hears an infidel submitting to the will of Allah.

It doesn’t matter that the kafir businessman thinks he’s done no such thing. To the servants of profit it’s a purely commercial decision, but to the servants of the Prophet it’s a concession to Islam.

It’s another successful probe.

The final example has nothing directly to do with Islam. No Muslims are involved in it. But when I read the story, it made me think of all these different probes.

Many of our readers have heard about the new Swedish law mandating government surveillance of all emails, phone calls, and other telecommunications. But according to The Copenhagen Post, the effects of Den Svenska Storebror will reach far beyond the borders of Sweden:

Journalists Union Warns of Swedish Surveillance

The Danish journalists union has told its members to inform each other that as of next year much of their correspondence can be intercepted by Swedish authorities

A new Swedish anti-terror law that takes effect on 1 January will allow the country’s intelligence services to monitor all correspondence going in and out of the country and may include phone calls placed entirely within Denmark, according to the Danish Union of Journalists (DJ).

DJ has told its members to stipulate in all their phone calls, emails and other correspondence to Sweden that the material may be listened to or read by the Swedish authorities.

The union has also indicated that some emails and phone calls within Denmark may be at risk of being intercepted if the signal passes through Swedish air- or cyberspace.

Mogens Blicher Bjerregaard, DJ’s president, said the new law will result in many reporters’ sources ‘clamming up’ for fear of reprisals.

To be fair, the Swedish government has mounted this ambitious operation in order to intercept communications by terrorists and other enemies of the State. But whenever a government votes itself powers such as these, they are inevitably used to monitor and intimidate ordinary citizens. Any tool designed to spy on criminals can just as easily be used to suppress dissent and keep Sven Svensson in line.

Since Sweden has the most exacting Multicultural regime in the world, expect politically incorrect dissidents to be surveilled and harassed. When people become afraid that the government is listening in on their every conversation, they will be that much less likely to object to the party line. They’ll be that much more inclined to shut up and resign themselves to whatever is coming their way.

And, needless to say, what’s coming their way is an Islamic probe. And then another one. And then another one after that…

All those probes are looking for infidel soft spots, and the softest infidel spot of all is now the entire nation of Sweden.


Hat tips: C. Cantoni, Fausta, JD, and TB.