Thursday, April 01, 2010

Silenced in Antwerp

Our Flemish correspondent VH has compiled a report on the latest scandal in Antwerp: Benno Barnard was prevented by Muslims from giving a lecture.

Sharia4Belgium flag

The image above is a detail from a picture on the sharia4belgium website, and shows the jihad flag of the caliphate (with the shahada) flying over the Royal Palace in Brussels.

Here is VH’s translation from De Morgen, interspersed with other material and videos:

Muslims disrupt lecture Benno Barnard at the University of Antwerp

A lecture by the Flemish/Dutch writer Benno Barnard [poet, essayist, playwright, and translator; born in Amsterdam, moved to Flanders in 1976] for the vrijzinnige dienst [liberal service] of the Antwerp University, was disrupted Wednesday night [March 31] by Muslims.

“I was supposed to give a lecture for about fifty students. The lecture on political Islam had the ironic title ‘Long live God, away with Allah,’ and that was for some extremist Muslims enough to disturb it even before I had spoken three sentences,” the writer says. “To my great surprise, at the start of the lecture a lot of Muslims were in the audience. It soon turned out they had not just come down to the auditorium to listen. Via SMS and the website sharia4belgium [a recently-founded franchise of Islam4UK (video), the organization founded by Anjem Choudary (Pat Condell video)] the call went out to disturb the lecture.”

From the website of Sharia4Belgium:

The Islam debate of Benno Barnard

Assalam alaykoem wa rahmatoelah wa barakatoehoe, Dear Muslim brother / sister

The enemy of our religion again has gone a step closer towards their overt insult to Islam and its followers. On Wednesday, March 31, 2010 the vrijzinnige dienst of the University of Antwerp, is organizing a lecture with as title: “The Islam debate: long live God, away with Allah!”

The guest speaker is the Dutch poet Benno Barnard, who is also known as one of the most radical Islam-bashers in the Low Countries, or to say it using their beautiful words: one of the leading Islam critics!

Central to the lecture is “political” Islam, which according to him is the cause of the standoff with Western ideologies, headed by humanism (or vrijzinnigheid [liberalism]) The title however, betrays his intentions, and is yet another slap in the face of the Muslim community!

And this way it is announced on the website Liberales [liberal think tank with close contacts within the University of Antwerp] — translator]:

Benno Barnard on “The Islam debate. Long live God, away with Allah!”

“Of course every Muslim, like any other human being, is a barrel full of influences, of which the Belgians are not the least important. But that same barrel can be filled with explosives through the funnel of tradition… Our confrontation must concern an ideology! Namely that of political Islam, which unfortunately is so difficult to separate from Islam at all.” This is the sixth lecture in the series “Our Values. What future for humanism?” Location: City campus of the University of Antwerp, Rodestraat 14, admission is free.

Do we as Muslims just let this happen or do we answer this pure provocation with a sharp tongue…?

Here is a preview of how our Muslim brothers in the United States deal with such “guests” [on the website they have the video shown below of the attempted speech of Michael B. Oren, Israeli ambassador to the United States, which was made impossible by Muslims at University of California Irvine on February 8, 2010 — translator]:
- - - - - - - - -

Don’t forget that this dien is an amaanah, which Allah ta3ala has placed on our neck! Anyone who reads this call and throws in the towel will be questioned on Yaum Al Qiyaama. “What did YOU do in the defense of your faith?!?”

Sharia4Belgium Group

Returning to De Morgen:

The Rector of the UA Alain Verschoren, emphasizes that the University of Antwerp values active pluralism highly and wants to provide space for all opinions to enter into a dialogue with each other. “I regret that there was no opportunity for dialogue, because the lecture was already disturbed after a only few minutes.”

From the Vlaams Belang [Flemish Interest] website:

When Barnard took the floor, there was hell to pay. Someone shouted, “You must not make jokes about Islam.” Then a group of about eighty foreigners started chanting “Allahu Akhbar”. The youngsters stormed the stage and the debate was canceled, ended before it even began. Those worried about the rise of Islamic headscarves should definitely look at the video (see below) of the action. After the headscarves, now also men in long robes with long beards and turbans are on the rise. And all this under the banner of “religious freedom”, “multicultural enrichment” and “tolerance,” “peaceful” Islam.

This is a video of what happened at the University of Antwerp:


Returning to De Morgen:

Police spokesman Fons Bastiaenssens confirms that a little after eight in the evening they received a message about the disruption at the university. Upon arrival, the police escorted some twenty Muslims out of the building. In the end the incident included some shouting, but there was no violence. There were no arrests.

Antwerp Mayor Patrick Janssens [SP.a., Flemish Socialist Party] is outraged. At the local TV channel (ATV), he compared the incident to “a meeting of OPEC that ended in a quarrel”.

Continued from the Vlaams Belang website:

Benno Barnard responded in shock: “Without the police and my own bodyguards I would have been in the hospital now. Free speech is stifled by terror. This is not the future, but the present in our cities…” After our distinct campaign with the Islam-green poster anyone who would still ask, “Why Flemish Interest?” thus gets the reply: Because of this!

Returning to De Morgen:

Benno Barnard himself is considering filing a complaint against unknown people for threats and intimidation. The University of Antwerp is considering filing a complaint because the right to free speech was violated.

Sharia4belgium also has a Youtube channel.

15 comments:

Juniper in the Desert said...

I cannot understand why, especially in the case of Michael Oren but also these other people, they let this scum into the lecture!

People should be vetted and given numbered tickets that match photos of them. Its crazy! Block the islamonazis, keep them out! Out!

In Hoc Signo Vinces† said...

In the U.K. for 30 years they barred the way of the indigenous lower social stratum from entering University.

The political elite favoured the scum of the jihad.

Anonymous said...

4Symbols,

What do you mean by "barred the way of the indigenous lower social stratum from entering University"? How did they bar it and who are they?

Anonymous said...

I don't know doom and gloom. I know someone who is relatively poor and graduated uni in the UK.

Unknown said...

Hi.
Here's the you tube video.
Off course the police arrested nobody.
Will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQWjmHl7U9Y&feature=player_embedded

Unknown said...

Hi .
One more story:
A group of Muslims has caused commotion in the Mezquita, the monumental mosque / cathedral in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba. Six of them were ignoring a ban on Muslim prayer.

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/921/Kanaal-Nieuws/article/detail/1088185/2010/04/02/Moslims-schoppen-keet-in-kathedraal-Cordoba.dhtml

Anonymous said...

Will,

I can't read it, so let me guess - they want the mosque back. Every land the Muslims conquered by force belongs to the Muslims forever - that's what, for instance, Hamas charter says about Israel. True for Andalusia as well.

In Hoc Signo Vinces† said...

In hoc signo vinces

"White teenagers are less likely to go to university than school-leavers from other ethnic groups - even with the same A-level results, according to official figures.

The gap is widest among male teenagers from poor backgrounds, raising fresh fears that working class boys are becoming the education "underclass" in England.

According to a Government report, just over one-in-20 white boys from poor homes goes on to university."

Source

Classical Liberal said...

Will,
Not to pick nits, but the "Mezquita" in Cordoba (which is really quite beautiful) is not a mezquita, which is Spanish for "mosque," but is a Catholic cathedral. Yes, before the Reconquista it was a mosque, but before the Muslim invasion of the 8th century it there was a church on that location, as I recall.

And yes, doom-and-gloom, the Muslims want it back. They're always proposing that Muslims should be able to have Muslim prayers in this Catholic church. Just for good community relations, you know.

Unknown said...

Hi Classical Liberal.
Yes you're right before being a Mosque ,there stood a christian Temple there.
Two arrested after fight in Cordoba's former mosque
Will.
MFS-The Other News

Cole said...

Looks like Sharia4Belgium site has been pulled down ~ not sure for what reason.

Afonso Henriques said...

Gabrielos, I would answer you more or less. I'd defy you to keep around here for 2 weeks or so to "understand this better". But then I read that you're no Westerner, you're a Greek.

Well, if you're a Greek and you can't understand the current situation of the European Civilisation (as you're probabily bombarded with the painfull situation of Western Europe and America), I will just dismiss you as a far leftist.

Look at Kosovo, Cyprus, Macedonia or your own damn History.

Anonymous said...

Gabrielos,

I don't see mass conversion to Islam happening any time soon in Europe, but let's look at an example of a demographic process - Israel.

In 48 Arab Israeli citizens made 10% of the population. Today, roughly 60 years later, they are 20% of the population, in schools (under 18) they are 25% of the pupils - this in spite of waves of Jewish mass immigration into Israel.

How did this happen? Mainly through higher birth-rate, but not solely.

There was Arab immigration into Israel by way of family reunions. At some point the Arabs started using it as a tool for mass immigration, which the government is trying to stop within the boundaries of the law (not naturalizing spouses from nations or peoples that are hostile to or in a state of war with Israel). However, our supreme court might overturn parliament decisions. Note that if the court decides Israel must allow all family reunions, then not only we will have to take in large numbers of Arabs, but also Arabs who are declared enemies of Israel and want it destroyed. How's that for common sense? I don't have the official numbers in front of me, but it seems like most Arab singles in Israel coincidently just happen to fall in love with Arabs living across the border, mainly in the West Bank and Gaza.

There are also other ways of immigration - political asylum, and resettling threatened Arab allies in Israel (such as Palestinian collaborators and some Christian Arabs from the South Lebanese Army), but these are small insignificant numbers.

Of course, there's also illegal immigration in significant numbers.

But the biggest factor in the process of demographic change is birth rate. The majority of Arabs are Muslim and the Muslim birth-rate is higher than either the Jewish or Christian birth-rate. Not only the Arab minority is rapidly growing, but the Christian percentage in it is decreasing. The significant growth is among the Muslims.

In addition we have Sudanese refugees fleeing into Israel, which began as a trickle, but has turned into a flood. Some of them are Christian and some Muslim.

Note that the Israeli situation has 2 advantages over the European one: 1. there was Jewish mass immigration into Israel, 2. the Jewish birth-rate is higher than in West Europe, it's somewhat above replacement level, furthermore it grew somewhat in recent years. Still the Arabs, most of which are Muslim, will soon become 25% of the population, that is more than double their numbers within 60 years.

Continued below...

Anonymous said...

Continued...

The Euros allow all the following in large numbers:

1. Regular immigration.
2. Family reunions.
3. Asylum seekers.
4. Various forms of illegal immigration.

While at the same time European birth-rate is below replacement level, and many Europeans immigrate from their countries rather than into their countries.

If these policies continue then the math is simple - it might take 50 years, a 100 years, 120 years, but eventually the Muslims will become a majority. There is no good reason to allow it to happen. Muslim majority countries - and there sure are many of them, and new ones are popping up every decade - are extremely oppressive and are not at all the ultra-tolerant pluralistic multi-cultural liberal secular democracies the Left is advocating. Not even Indonesia, though it's certainly better than Saudi Arabia.

But anyone trying to stop these insane policies is declared a racist, xenophobe, fascist, Nazi, or in your moderate case just a delusional paranoid, is demonized in the media, silenced in the academia, put to trial for hate speech, has to live under heavy security measures to protect his or her life, and occasionally murdered.

Gabrielos said...

He he Afonso I suppose you are a Spaniard, that is one more reason to know better than that. I wonder if you ever have looked at a map of Europe or really read history.

However Westerner is really just a cultural identity not a geographical or racial one but even in these terms I am more westerner than u can swallow.

And why u dismiss me as a far leftist it would be better to dismiss me with arguments pal!!!