Many thanks to Steen for the tip, and to Nemo for the translation.
My Experiences with a Danish Sharia-Zone
by Dan Ritto
On the front page of today’s edition of [Danish newspaper] Ekstra-Bladet you can see the headline ‘Here, sharia law applies’, and a map of the areas of the country where the imams and so-called cultural societies have established an alternative judicial system based on sharia law.
One of these areas is Gellerupparken, where I used to live and participate in what I thought was an effort to integrate immigrants into society. A feature article in the newspaper says that according to experts, these areas will, in the course of 10-15 years, be anti-democratic. I’ll stipulate that depending on what you mean by “democratic”, Gellerup has already turned that corner.
Unfortunately, the criticisms coming from Islam-sceptics like myself are almost always swept off the table with the remark that we are stupid and ignorant. Therefore in the following I will present my credentials and background for talking about conditions in Gellerup, so that the readers themselves can judge whether I am ignorant or not.
When I returned home from seminary in London in 2004, I had no possessions except for some boxes with my books in them — and the clothes on my back. I had no money and no place to live. A couple of months later I got my apartment — in Gellerupparken, because back then as now it was very quick and easy to get an apartment there. On top of that the apartments were actually surprisingly lovely, in spite of the reputation the area had.
After some time I became an active member of the society called ‘Multikulturel Forening’ [Multicultural Society]. I even became its vice-president. But before then, very soon after moving in, actually, I had new neighbours. It was a very nice guy who moved in along with his family — among them a son in a wheelchair. No one in the family spoke any language other that Arabic, so I never got to talk to any of them. But they always greeted me with big smiles and a lot of warmth, and they as well as the master of the house made a fantastic impression. His name was Shaykh Raed Hlayhel. Shaykh Hlayhel was imam in the mosque on Grimshøjvej, but that interested me little back then. Later, when the whole cartoon crisis erupted, I learned with amazement that my good neighbour was one of the imams who travelled and spread lies about Denmark throughout the Middle East.
One day, Hlayhel disappeared from the country. Literally in the dark of night. One day he was there — the next, he was gone. It said in the newspaper that it was because of dissatisfaction with the cartoonists not being punished by the Danish courts. Based on what I saw and experienced leading up to his disappearance, I am pretty sure it happened because he was put under pressure. My guess is that PET [Police Intelligence Service] was involved, but that is pure guesswork on my part.
Shaykh Hlayhel was a good and respected neighbor, but at the same time he was an enemy of my country. That was the first time I experienced the double nature of Islam!
But as I said — at one point I became an active vice-president of the Multicultural Society. And because at that time I was also an active member of Det Radikale Venstre [a very centrist and immigration-friendly party], some of the locals had confidence in me. Ironically, that included some of the hard-core criminals who often sat down to chat when I sat and ate in Bazar Vest [a shopping mall in the area]. Over the next couple of years I learned an awful lot!
Of course I wanted to know about Islam, so I posed a lot of questions. I was told by everybody — the young as well as the old, convicts as well as pensioners — and those active in associations as well as businesses that the Muslims had come to create a new society in this country. They were absolutely candid about that, even proud. Because it will be better than the old ways, they said. And as I am not opposed to improvements, a lot of them told me more about the many blessings of the sharia law. The punishments most of them skipped lightly over, but a concept like ‘dhimmi’ (the rights of non-Muslims under sharia law!), I learned about for the first time up in the Bazar — and what they told me was later confirmed both by the Quran and other sources.
I also learned what they meant when they said ‘multiculture’. Namely that Muslims should live and be judged in accordance with the sharia law and the rest of us by our laws. However — our laws were never to contradict the sharia. This, by the way, was the reason I ran screaming from that Society, because that I would not be party to!
At one point during this period I got the suspicion that there was a direct connection between the imams (or some of them at least) and the groups of young men the media and the police called gangs. Neither then nor now could I prove this, but I notice that Ekstra-Bladet in its feature draws a connection between the upholding of the sharia court system and the youth groups belonging to the culture societies and the mosques. The intelligent reader is encouraged to draw his own conclusions!
Very often have I been told that ‘We have our own rules out here’ and that problems are solved without involving the police. Back then I couldn’t imagine sharia courts in the middle of Århus, but today I understand that was what they meant.
At the same time I know that during the ghetto-riots in the winter of 2008 (when the Muhammad-cartoons were reprinted!), the disturbances in Gellerup were directed from within the residents’ communal house, Yggdrasil, where the parents of most of the rioters sat together with a couple of imams. All while cars and dumpsters were set on fire and the ‘youths’ were fighting with the police.
During the 3½ years I lived in the area, I saw AK 47-rifles out in public three times. They were not fired, just taken out. On top of that, a couple of pistols and from time to time knives. My conclusion is that there are enough weapons in circulation out there.
I could go on for a long time describing my experiences in Gellerup, but that shouldn’t be necessary. The point of this whole tale has been to establish by credentials when I talk about Islam, integration and Gellerup, and should be in order now!
Also among the politicians here in Århus the real conditions in Gellerup/Toveshoej are very well known. Two examples: When the local city authorities in Århus some time ago wanted to draw up a plan to beautify the area, a lot of care was taken to obtain the support of the council of imams. During these negotiations the imams (who call themselves ‘The Islamic Societies’— which is exactly the same!) made a few changes. That, along with an ‘understanding’ on the part of the Social Democrats about the building of a mosque in the middle of the area, was what it took to reach an agreement. Only then did the politicians dare propose the plan in the City Council. The imams had to agree to it beforehand!
The other example is the mayor we had until a few weeks ago, Nicolaj Wammen (a Social Democrat). He has been elected mayor here in Århus twice, and both times he had long conversations way in advance of the elections with the previously mentioned ‘Islamic Societies’ — that is, the imams. Wammen got their support, and thus the votes of a majority of Muslims in Århus.
Today, the conditions in the social system in this city are such that women from immigrant families are hugely over-represented among those given an early retirement pension, both compared to all new ‘early pensioners’ and to immigrant women in the rest of the country. Young men from ‘the area’ are very seldom or never given menial jobs when they are on social welfare, as is supposed to happen. I would be breaking the libel laws if I were to claim that this is somehow connected to the talks Wammen held with the imams, so I won’t say that. I’ll just stick to wondering about it!
It must be added that the city council is just now working on a budget that has to cover a 300 million dkr. (about $55 million) deficit — most of which is caused by budget transgressions in the social departments. Now Wammen seeks election to the Danish parliament, and is predicted to become either a top minister in a new government or Helle Thorning Schmidt’s replacement as chairman of the Social Democratic Party should she lose the election. The thought alone is nightmarish!
The power the imams hold in Gellerup is such that the area is already anti-democratic. Contrary to what Ekstra-Bladet seems to think, you don’t have to wait another 10-15 years!
Conditions in the other ghettos mentioned by the newspaper I know nothing about. Yet, like anyone else, I could see that when a certain shop called NETTO on Nørrebro was the target of some aggression, it was a Danish-born imam who ordered the largest criminal gang in the area to discontinue the harassment, after which he himself held talks with Netto. While the gang leader of course sat next to him and looked threatening! In light of the information in Ekstra-Bladet about the implementation of the decisions made by the alternative court system and my own experiences and suspicions from Gellerup, this is very interesting. Again: The libel laws preclude my drawing any conclusions or claiming anything — I just have to wonder about the connection and the obvious authority this imam has in relation to the largest gang on Nørrebro! I am sometimes asked about my change of mind. How I came to change from being a relatively high profile vice-president of Multikulturel Forening to becoming a strong and uncompromising critic of Islam. Now you know. I am critical of Islam because I know both the Muslims and Islam. Given the choice, I have chosen freedom. Because freedom is better than slavery, because light is better than dark — because civilization is better than Islamic barbarity!
In a couple of days we will elect new members of Parliament. The choice is very simply between [the current government] and a government dependent on Det Radikale Venstre, Socialistisk Folkeparti and Enhedslisten, three parties with the common trait that they either do not understand the danger that creeping sharia poses or — as is the case with Enhedslisten — even support it. Not to mention characters such as Nicolaj Wammen!
To me it is a very easy choice to make.
15 comments:
Great article. Thanks for writing it. :)
When I read your comment, "I was also an active member of Det Radikale Venstre [a very centrist and immigration-friendly party]....", I think how ironic that a group whose name includes the word radical is considered to be centrist.
Good luck with those elections! :)
Thanks for posting this story. I think it is by no means unusual. But lets be realistic. Everyone in Denmark knows this stuff. Even if it is not printed in newspapers or magazines or on TV. They can see it with their own eyes. Denmark is a small country -- you cannot hide this.
My conclusion is that a great many Danes WANT THIS. They WANT to be subject to cruel and barbaric people. Now, among this subjugation, there are winners and losers. Losers are young Danish men, who will be semi-slaves and even if they convert to Islam, will be nothing compared to the conquerors.
Who would "win" in this instance? Why politicians riding votes, and of course those women wanting cruel domination above all else, finding their own mild men icky and sexless.
It is a stupid short-term move, but that's human nature. Every group does it, and here you can see it. The dominant elites and a substantial group of Danish voters want this. Which is why it continues.
Islam in Europa translated the article Dan Ritto is linking to. You can read ithere.
There's nothing so valuable as a leftist with an incompletely installed brain chip or the intelligence to admit the evidence of his eyes that over-rules the chip (quite rare). He spends time in the belly of the beast, trusted by Muslims who think "Here's another useful idiot we can use" and he therefore has information that confirms what conservatives have guessed when he crosses from the dark into the light. No conservative spy could be convincing as a leftist sheep so that one sheep who balks at being shorn is a treasure. He has great leftist credentials, yet becomes a truth recognizer and teller. Maybe he can reach some other lefties with faulty chip installation?
Whiskey, you are correct. A la Sherlock Holmes, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
As it is impossible that most Danes don't see what is plainly there to be seen, don't have access to the web, don't know about the nature of Islam and its history, and don't understand the objectives of the political parties for which they vote, THEREFORE, they want what they understand and do nothing to oppose. This is so, even though it seems improbable that civilized, educated Westerners could enthusiastically embrace short-term suicidal ways of acting.
In Liberal mindset the way to get people to embrace similar liberal thinking is to assimilate them.
This is accomplished by giving them a piece of our neighborhoods and then accommodating their culture. Oh, wait, I thought that assimilation was them accommodating our culture? Uhm... no... we don't want to force them, we just want them to come to embrace our ideologies all on their onw... okay, so, we're going to go ahead and accommodate ourselves to their ideologies.
And we wonder why our methods are unsuccessful?
Islamic ideology is very clear in their intent to assimilate us into their culture, not the other way around such as Liberals hope to believe. The liberal thinking above shows how liberal thinking fails, and instead finds us assimilated to them through our very own assimilation methodology.
Crazy.
You really think they want it? So if the following proposals were put to a national vote..
1.Ban all further third world immigration and asylum.
2.Repatriate all third world immigrants and their descendents.
3. Outlaw Islam. Demolish all Mosques.
.. that the majority of Danes, given the chance, in the privacy of the voting booth, would vote against these measures? Even #1?
Of course we'll never know because the Danish people would never be permitted to have the chance to make those decisions.
Mr. Dyer, you're correct that there won't be an up or down vote like that but Dane's have had the opportunity to vote for the Danish People's Party, which is clearly the next best thing. "[S]tricter policies on immigration" are one of their key policies but it only won 13.9% in the 2007 elections.
It's support is growing but it's still not in the government. Danes do not consider the issue of immigration to be that important it seems. No need to rush matters where immigration is concerned.
That party represents a chance to vote for a tendency. Immigration seems like a matter of immediate inundation to me but let's say it's possible for Danes to see it differently from me. It's a hard concept for me to grasp, but there you are.
Given that, however, Danes appear to have no urgency on the matter of immigration at all. It's just one of many issues. As with all other European nationalist or populist parties, Danes keep their fingers firmly locked about the windpipes of their own nationalist party.
Looking at the other side of that coin, by way of contrast, I see a solid majority of Danish voters clustered around the clueless, sell-out multiculturalists like bees their queen.
Whatever Danes might do in a hypothetical straight-up vote, they're acting like sleep walkers where they have a chance to suggest they are wanting a change of direction.
Mr. Bunny, Do the Danish People's Party get the same air time and respect and legitimacy as the Liberal and "Conservative" parties get?
We're talking about voting for a stigmatized third party in PCMC controlled, duopoly state.
Lets not pretend it's just another choice. It means going against 30 years of brain washing. It means going against what you've always been taught in school, every moral lesson you've ever learned from every film and tv show you've ever seen, every magazine article or contemporary book you've ever read. It means going against what your parents probably taught you or your preacher sermoned. It means being garbage, a scumbag, mentally ill. It means ridicule, scorn, intimidation and sometimes physical assault.
It means being a heretic in a time of strict orthodoxy. Lets cut them some slack. But I share your frustration.
The dualism of Islam means there are no good Muslims. We can never trust them. They can never truly be our friends.
Muslims and Muslimas, if you do not wish to kill us, renounce Islam and join the civilized world.
This is from an unattributed email. Can it be true?: "THE NETHERLANDS, where six per cent of the population is now Muslim, is scrapping multiculturalism:
The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.
A new integration bill, which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16, reads: "The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. In the new integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role. With this change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society."
The letter continues: "A more obligatory integration is justified because the government also demands that from its own citizens. It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands..."
The new integration policy will place more demands on immigrants. For example, immigrants will be required to learn the Dutch language, and the government will take a tougher approach to immigrants who ignore Dutch values or disobey Dutch law.
The government will also stop offering special subsidies for Muslim immigrants because, according to Donner, "it is not the government's job to integrate immigrants." The government will introduce new legislation that outlaws forced marriages and will also impose tougher measures against Muslim immigrants who lower their chances of employment by the way they dress. More specifically, the government will impose a ban on face-covering Islamic burqas as of January 1, 2013.
Holland has done that whole liberal thing, and realised - maybe too late - that creating a nation of tribes will kill the nation itself."
@laine: very interesting, can you point me to the original Dutch source? Thank you very much in advance.
Sorry, this came without an attributed source so for all I know it is wishful thinking. I was hoping a European might know something since it mentions a June date and a specific name for the Dutch interior minister. However, I would have expected even our left wing media to gasp at this if authentic since they report every European divergence from multicult worship so far. Maybe some blogger wrote what the Dutch interior minister SHOULD say and someone else passed it on not noticing it was a fantasy? It does sound too good to be true, but since Geert Wilders has been pushing for this kind of thing, I thought there was a chance...
Laine -
You're correct. Time permitting, and in the hope that mine is not the last post in this thread, I'll try to provide the source.
As for the other discussion, I'm with Rex on this one. Whiskey concluded prematurely:
"you cannot hide this.
My conclusion is that a great many Danes WANT THIS."
Wrong conclusion in my opinion. One can in fact "hide" this. That's what the whole MSM and the welfare state apparatus' energy is aiming at, i.e. to make it easy for people to "hide" this. Think of an all too human mental capacity called "denial". Add some social pressure to this capability (people over here, in Holland, still lose their jobs when they show their support of the PVV, and a fair measure of day-in day-out media propaganda.. Also take into account the fact that most of the visible problems with Islam are compartmentalized in certain areas of the big cities. So even in a comparable situation in my city (Amsterdam, Holland), there are still enough places where you don't see too many Muslims, places where people can act out their urge to deny and look the other way.
Kind regs from Amsterdam,
Sag.
Europe closed its eyes to a threat to its existence once before - it's doing it again.
Just FYI, I linked to your article from mine: Danish No-Go Zones
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