Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/31/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/31/2012This, the final news feed for January, was scheduled for posting before I left to go out of town, so there may be urgent breaking news which isn’t included.

If you have been leaving comments that haven’t been approved, it’s probably because Dymphna has not been at the computer. Be patient; when she is feeling well enough, she’ll take care of them (assuming they deserve approval, of course).

Pay attention to some of the news about the financial crisis — important doings are afoot in the EU.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, ESW, Fjordman, Gaia, JP, Kitman, Nick, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Traveling Shoes and Answers

Road RageY’all remember the Baron has a temporary part-time job now, right? This is a 99.9% telecommute situation with occasional face-to-face meetings as necessary. These tête-à-tête confabs will be rare. Given that he hates to sleep anywhere but in his own bed, I, for one, believe his assurances in this regard.

Thus did the Baron put on his traveling shoes this afternoon and head out to meet with his new bosses. He should return by Thursday, maybe even earlier.

Before leaving he scheduled a newsfeed for tonight; it will appear magically at the appointed time. He also asked me to explain why comment moderation will be spotty for the duration — i.e., my time in the chair is limited by the pain in me derrière.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

This new job is such a blessing! While it’s not permanent or full-time, the pleasure the Baron gets from even this partial return to work is delightful to behold. Sometimes I think I ought to tie an anchor to his foot to keep him from floating off…

There’s another aspect to this job: it is one answer to a question I’d reluctantly begun to ponder as the year turned.

Michael Coren on the Shafia Case

Michael Coren talks to Megyn Kelly about the recent verdict in the Shafia murder case. They also discuss the near-universal effort by the Western media and political leaders to deny the nature of Islamic “honor killing”.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

No Christians Wanted in Vollsmose

Cultural Enrichment News

Here’s another story about what life is like for infidels in Vollsmose, a culturally enriched neighborhood of Odense on the Island of Funen in Denmark. The article was kindly translated by our Danish correspondent TB, who includes this note:

Here is yet another article about the situation in Denmark. This time it is about a Christian priest who has been forced out of the former Danish area in Vollsmose, a suburb of Odense. His name is Massoud Fouroozandeh. I have heard him in the radio and read about him in the papers several times. He is a former Muslim, originally from Iran (came here as a refugee when he was 15 years old), and the founder of the Christian Church of Love in Odense.

Massoud is about the most gentle, mild, lovable, tolerant, likeable and friendly person possible. He represents everything the Muslims postulate that Islam is all about. Yet, apparently, by some kind of mysterious and invisible force, he is automatically rejected by the Islamic body when doing what the Muslims keep telling us constitutes the core principle of The Religion of Peace; promoting peace, tolerance and respect towards his fellow man. Now isn’t that just a paradox?

The translation from BT:

Christian priest harassed out of Vollsmose

It may seem peaceful to hang a crucifix in the rearview mirror of your car. But such a thing is not tolerated in Vollsmose. Here it resulted in a burned out car and lethal harassment.

Through the last few days www.bt.dk have revealed how ethnic Danes are suffering smear campaigns in the troubled Odense ghetto, Vollsmose. According to a police officer, nine out of ten burglaries are directed against people with Danish names. Now it turns out that merely to profess to the Christian faith can be fatal in the district. Christian pastor Massoud Fouroozandeh found that out the hard way.

“The problems began a few years ago when I was told by a couple of young immigrants that I should not drive around with the crucifix I had on my rearview mirror,” says Massoud. He was originally born in Iran, from which he fled as a 15-year-old. Of course, it took more to scare the hardened priest, who continued to drive around with his crucifix.

Provocative and unreasonable

“I thought it was provocative and unreasonable, and they obviously should not be allowed to decide what I should and should not do. But a few months later someone torched my car and cut up the seats with a knife. Of course it was because of the crucifix . I was furious, but I would not submit to them.”

Therefore the stubborn priest also placed a crucifix in his new car.

“I believe that one should turn the other cheek, so it was probably my kind of revenge, and I actually felt that it compelled some respect in the neighborhood.”

But the war had only just begun

Massoud thought he had prevailed, but the reality was, that the war had only just begun.

“Bring it on, Baby!”

The video below shows Rep. Allen West speaking to his constituents a few days ago in the 22nd District of Florida. Col. West directed a few choice words at Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and other Democrats:


Hat tip: Nick.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/30/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/30/2012The worsening financial situation in Greece dominated today’s EU summit in Brussels. German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed down from her original proposal for a “budget czar” to oversee Greece and help it meet IMF requirements for a new bailout. Greece’s creditors are expected to have to write down even more of the country’s debt.

Meanwhile, Spain seems to be entering a new recession: newly-released figures show that growth for the final quarter of 2011 slipped below zero.

In other news, a plague of pythons is wiping out the small mammal population in the Florida Everglades. The pythons are not native to Florida, but are descended from pets that either were released by their owners or escaped during some of the big hurricanes of the 1990s.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to CSP, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Kitman, Steen, The Observer, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Ezra Levant on the Shafia Verdict

As we reported earlier today, a jury in Kingston, Ontario convicted Mohammad Shafia, his wife, and his son of murdering four female members of their family.

Below is Ezra Levant’s take on the case. He discusses the willingness of Canadian liberals to tolerate the intolerable when it comes to Islam, as exemplified by the shamelessly biased and bigoted reporting of the Shafia case by the CBC.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

The Dream of Islam

A few days ago Tundra Tabloids posted about a young man in England who was attacked by an angry Kuwaiti at an “Israel Apartheid Week” event. The assailant was evidently attempting to bite the man’s ear off, but missed (go to TT to see the photo; Vlad has the video). The incident occurred almost a year ago, but is in the news again after the acquittal of the biter.

In discussing the story with a fellow Counterjihad activist earlier today, I asked him, “Are ears halal? Especially infidel ears?”

He replied, “I would think if you are trying to hurt them, it’s OK. If you are trying to eat them, it’s not. Sharia is all about intentions, you know.”

Actually, that’s not true.

Diana West: The C-SPAN Interview

Last week Diana West, the author of The Death of the Grown-Up, was interviewed by Brian Lamb on C-SPAN. During their hour-long conversation they discussed Hollywood, the Left, the growing threat of Islamization, the American military’s counterinsurgency strategy, and “nation-building” in the Middle East.

Near the end of the interview you’ll hear a particularly interesting exchange in which Diana points out how neatly the infantilized and politically correct culture of 21st-century America dovetails with the Islamic institution of dhimmitude:


A full transcript of the above interview is available at Q-and-A.org.

Shafia Verdict: Guilty on All Counts

The Shafia Murder

After a lengthy trial in Kingston, Ontario, Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya, and their son Hamed Shafia have been found guilty on four counts each of first-degree murder. The three were convicted of killing Mr. Shafia’s other wife and his three daughters to protect the family from dishonor.

The AP story below reports yesterday’s verdict, and gives extensive background on the history of the case. However, alert readers may notice the prominent absence of two words from the article: Islam and Muslim:

Jury Finds Afghan Family Guilty in Honor Killings

KINGSTON, Ontario (AP) — A jury on Sunday found three members of an Afghan family guilty of killing three teenage sisters and another woman in what the judge described as “cold-blooded, shameful murders” resulting from a “twisted concept of honor,” ending a case that shocked and riveted Canadians.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and using the Internet.

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia’s childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said the evidence clearly supported the conviction.

“It is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more despicable, more honorless crime,” Maranger said. “The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.”

In a statement following the verdict, Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson called honor killings a practice that is “barbaric and unacceptable in Canada.”

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father’s first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn’t call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, “We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn’t commit the murder and this is unjust.”

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, “I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother.”

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, “I did not drown my sisters anywhere.”

Hamed’s lawyer, Patrick McCann, said he was disappointed with the verdict, but said his client will appeal and he believes the other two defendants will as well.

But prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis welcomed the verdict.

“This jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family in the most troubling of circumstances,” Laarhuis said outside court.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/29/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/29/2012Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, says that his government is planning to begin peace talks with the Taliban. The latest reports say that the Saudis will act as intermediaries, and the talks will be held in Saudi Arabia.

In other news, a prominent American economist says that the Eurozone may well collapse this year, and almost certainly in the next three to five years.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, KGS, Kitman, The Observer, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Breivik: Al Qaeda’s Man in Oslo?

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends a translation of the latest news on Anders Behring Breivik from the Norwegian media. The translator includes this note:

This is an important story, because it shows us that Breivik was taking advantage of various Al Qaeda methods, and that he was thinking along the same lines as other Al Qaeda operatives.

The translated article from today’s VG Nett:

Breivik behaves in accordance with Al Qaeda manuals

During his six-month prison stay, Anders Behring Breivik has behaved in accordance to his own manifesto — which was clearly inspired by Al Qaeda.

Several of the chapters in Breivik’s manifesto resemble the manuals of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

According to Knut Bjarkeid, the chief warden at Ila Prison, Breivik behaves exactly like he described he would in his 1500-page manifesto.

“Yes, exactly to the letter,” the Ila warden says.

Meeting ban

He recognizes Breivik’s behavior from the Al Qaeda manual on how to behave in captivity, and he believes Breivik is inspired by it.

“Breivik is friendly, he’s interested in other people and he tries to establish relationships,” says Bjarkeid.

As a consequence the prison has issued instructions to its staff not to spend any time alone with him.

“Our staff never spends any time on a one-to-one basis with Breivik. There are always several guards present. All communication with Breivik is recorded, logged and analyzed.”

Breivik’s stay at Ila is regulated by basic rules for high-security prisoners, plus an additional 130 individual rules that the prison has chosen to implement.

CCTV surveillance is one of those security measures. Breivik is, however not kept under CCTV surveillance inside his cell, Bjarkeid emphasizes.

“All contact with Breivik is governed by strict rules. We have decided to set aside normal procedures that would have allowed the staff to use their own judgment. There are procedures that dictate how many guards need to be present outside his cell door whenever he’s let out, and where these guards are to be positioned. There are also procedures that dictate what Breivik can and cannot see in relation to these measures. There are written procedures that we follow when he’s having showers, and when his lawyers are visiting,” the warden says.

“In order to look after our employees’ best interests, we facilitated frequent conversations with the prisons own psychologists in the initial stages.

“The psychologists advised them on how to address Breivik, how to interrupt him and how to end a conversation,” Bjarkeid says.

Uses the network

Franck Orban, a researcher employed by the Correctional Education System, believes that Breivik must have had access to Al Qaeda manuals available on the internet.

“It is difficult to say with a hundred percent certainty whether he has read the manuals for imprisoned jihadists, but several elements of Breivik’s manifesto bears semblance to the Al Qaeda rhetoric.”

“This suggests that he has had access to them,” Orban says.

“As a result, his perception of prisons may have been influenced by that of militant Islamists, which is a paradox, since Breivik’s image of reality is completely different from theirs.”

In his manifesto Breivik describes how to use the time in prison to build an organization and how to recruit fellow prisoners for the “cause”.

This is a well-known strategy used by Al Qaeda all over the world.

“Prison plays an important part in Breivik manifesto. It is an arena where new followers can be recruited. Maybe he envisions a type of community within the prison, but there are no guarantees that he will get to spend that much time with the other inmates,” Orban says.

Two Al Qaeda manuals have been translated into English and posted on the internet.

Both are featured on websites that are hostile to Islam, and which Breivik has visited.

The well-known terrorist researcher Magnus Ranstorp also sees several similarities between Breivik’s manifesto and the strategy employed by Al Qaeda.

“It is highly likely that he has come across these manuals. We can at least conclude that there are several striking similarities,” Ranstorp says to VG.

The Al Qaeda manuals

There are several similarities between the Al Qaeda manuals and Breivik’s own manifesto, and what Breivik has told police in interrogations:

YouTube Cracks Down on British Freedom

The British Freedom Party reports that YouTube has just shut down the party’s channel for violating the company’s terms of service. The reason? BF had the temerity to post a copy of Geert Wilders’ film Fitna.

The horror!

Here’s the report from the BF website:

Censorship of Geert Wilders’ Film Fitna — Does YouTube Follow Sharia Law?

The British Freedom YouTube account has been suspended because it included Geert Wilders’ controversial film Fitna. British Freedom received the following message from YouTube:

“The YouTube Community has flagged one or more of your videos as inappropriate. Once a video is flagged, it is reviewed by the YouTube Team against our Community Guidelines. Upon review, we have determined that the following video(s) contain content in violation of these guidelines, and have been disabled:

“Fitna — The Geert Wilders Movie — YouTube.mp4 — (BritishFreedomTV)


“We encourage free speech and defend everyone’s right to express their points of view even if unpopular. But YouTube does not permit hate speech. “Hate speech” means content that promotes hatred or violence against members of a protected group (race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity). Sometimes there is a fine line between what is and what is not considered hate speech. If you’re not sure whether or not your content crosses the line, don’t post it.”

It seems that YouTube which claims to encourage free speech could be accused of basing its understanding of such freedom in accordance with principles of sharia. Sharia does not allow the criticism or negativity towards the holy book of Islam. The website fidh.org reports that a man in Afghanistan was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment “for having distributed a document criticising the Koran and its views on women’s rights”. Would YouTube censor a video that pointed this out? Fitna is simply a film that quotes the Koran and then shows how some people have interpreted those quotes. To call it ‘hate speech’ indicates a political agenda and an attempt to stifle debate.

Why has British Freedom been specifically targeted? There are many YouTube channels that contain the film Fitna which can be found quite easily by a simple search. Has British Freedom been targeted because it is a political party? The OIC is already trying to meddle in the internal affairs of Western democracies via its global campaign against free expression. The very nebulous and ill defined term ‘Islamophobia’ is often used to restrict debate with regard to subjects that discuss issues relating to political Islam. The Secretary General of the OIC, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, has specifically referred to Western politics. Does this mean that there is now an organised campaign against specific political parties and if such a campaign exists has YouTube inadvertently found itself embroiled in it? Has YouTube now sided with the OIC and accepted its narrative? If the public are prevented from making informed decisions at election times due to politically motivated censorship then democracy looses all its true meaning.

Islamonausea, Not Islamophobia

Nicolai Sennels’ latest essay has been published at Jihad Watch. Some excerpts are below:

Islamonausea, not Islamophobia
by Nicolai Sennels


We should stop using Muslims’ self-chosen word — “Islamophobia” — by which they paint themselves into a corner of being feared: it destroys communication. Instead of such a divisive term, we should insert a more approachable and factual word that preserves opportunities for bridge-building and learning: “Islamonausea.” This does not render communication impossible, but enables visitors to our Western cultures to notice aspects of their behavior that make us sick.

It’s no wonder that Muslims use the word “Islamophobia” so often. Lacking convincing arguments, charm or constructive contributions to their surroundings, being feared is the only way to gain at least some kind of respect. The term Islamophobia, fear of Islam, points to what Muslims want, not to what non-Muslims feel. Who is afraid of Islam, anyway?

“Xenophobia,” an irrational fear of that which is strange or foreign, also doesn’t work. Aversion to Islam doesn’t come from unfamiliarity with the religion; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. There’s no reason to fear being called a racist, either, since neither Islam nor Muslims are a race.

Our language needs a term that describes what many critically thinking people feel about Islam according to their own terms, not according to what Muslims wish us to feel or what the PC establishment diagnoses to scare us into allowing more voters for the Left into our countries. We need a term that simultaneously invites Muslims to realize what they need to change about their behavior and religion if they wish to advance from an embarrassing last place in the evolution of civilizations and to earn some real respect among the world community.

Natural reaction

As in many other nauseating situations, Islamonausea is a normal and natural reaction to something abnormal, not vice versa.

The nausea reflex is innate, and it is biologically natural and healthy to experience emotional and bodily discomfort with anything that is unpleasant, unhealthy or harmful.

There is nothing phobic or racist in feeling nausea when hearing about the Islamic massacres performed by Muhammad and his many devout copycats through history and all over the world today. The same goes for Muhammad’s sexual relationship with a nine-year old girl, and the cutting off of limbs and stonings in the name of Allah and his Sharia laws.

Thinking of Muslims’ epidemic practice of forced inbreeding (which damages intelligence and increases the risk of psychiatric diseases) -- often many generations in a row -- one may also experience unpleasant feelings in the abdomen. There is also no shame in feeling nausea when hearing about the extreme social control, violence and murderous examples made to keep and scare hundreds of millions of their women from enjoying their human rights to chose their own sexual partners, clothing and lifestyle.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/28/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/28/2012A mob of more than 3,000 Muslims attacked Coptic Christians in a village near Alexandria, Egypt, looting businesses and homes and then burning them down. The pretext was an accusation that a Coptic man had an “intimate” photo of a Muslim woman on his cell phone.

In other cell phone news, North Korea has made the possession or use of a cell phone a “war crime” during the period of mourning for the late Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JP, KGS, Kitman, Mary Abdelmassih, Nick, Nilk, Steen, TB, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Is the Mass Murderer Anders Behring Breivik Insane? Part 2

Two weeks ago the official psychiatric report on Anders Behring Breivik was leaked to a major newspaper in Norway. Below is the second part of Fjordman’s three-part analysis of the report.

Part 1 is here.


Fjordman

Is the Mass Murderer Anders Behring Breivik Insane?

Part 2: Narcissism, Paranoia, and an Elaborate Fantasy World


by Fjordman

When Anders Behring Breivik was eighteen years old he suddenly dropped out of the final year of high school, allegedly to pursue a political career and other, more important objectives than studying. This career never materialized, however. Breivik claims that he held a prominent position in the Progress Party in Oslo, but was unfairly squeezed out by jealous rivals. Everybody else in the PP tells a different story: they say he was a rather nondescript local member who never made much of himself.

Oslo terror attack

His grades and results from high school indicate that he is of at least average and possibly slightly above average intelligence, although he is not the magnificent genius he thinks he is. Breivik brags about supposedly making multiple millions from his business ventures, thanks to his great intelligence and incomparable commercial skills as a salesman. Yet publicly available information indicates that he was a business failure.

The only thing I can recall of my first impression from the few emails I received from him was that I was dealing with a man with an unrealistic and grossly inflated self-image. This was obviously more true than I could possibly have imagined. Breivik was an uninteresting person who desperately wanted to be interesting.

The court-appointed psychiatrists Torgeir Husby and Synne Sørheim spent four months preparing their report, during which time they had thirteen long conversations with Breivik and read the police case documents. Their diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia. Husby did not doubt his conclusion. An extended panel of experts from the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine reviewed the report and approved it “with no significant remarks”.

Psychiatric report on Anders Behring Breivik

Schizophrenia is a group of severe mental disorders characterized by distorted perceptions of reality with unusual thought patterns and withdrawal from reality. The paranoid type of schizophrenia is often characterized by delusions of persecution or grandeur combined with unrealistic and disorganized thinking, irrational statements about unshakable beliefs, diminished emotional expression or emotional blunting, and shifts to bizarre behavior, all accompanied by significant personality changes and a deterioration of social relationships. Common symptoms include a refusal to touch certain people or things and staring at people without blinking, as if you are looking at something else. Those suffering from schizophrenia may also experience hallucinations such as hearing voices.

A number of these symptoms were arguably present in Anders Behring Breivik during recent years.

The psychiatrists Husby and Sørheim highlighted the bizarre ideas Breivik betrays about his own imagined importance. They suspect that he experiences certain types of hallucinations such as hearing voices, but they cannot prove this conclusively. Throughout the interrogations he repeatedly shifted between referring to himself in singular or plural, and systematically referred to the so-called Knights Templar as “we,” not “I.” He has created a grand organization, complete with medals and awards for its great heroes, the chief of which is Breivik himself. ABB takes this idea seriously, distributes staged photos of himself wearing the many medals he thinks he deserves for his courage, and calls himself a future Pan-European Grand Master Knight Commander.

He has told the police that Knights Templar Norway is the highest military and political authority in the country. He says there is a high degree of separation between the individual cells of the Knights Templar, He claims to be a judge in the organization, and is also Commander of Norway. He has issued entirely unrealistic “demands” that must be fulfilled before he will reveal information about other alleged terror cells. Breivik has suggested that Knights Templar have around 80 cells in Europe, and two other active ones in Norway. According to him, the national authorities can save hundreds of lives if they give in to his (often utterly ridiculous) demands.

Breivik returns again and again and again to a discussion of the organization Knights Templar, which probably does not even exist. In doing so he repeatedly alternates between talking about “I” and “we,” thus displaying an apparent fundamental confusion about his own person and how it relates to the rest of the world.

After the initial psychiatric report was completed and he was allowed to read it for himself, Breivik then claimed that literally 80% of the recorded conversations it contained never took place as described in the official report.

Unless we assume that both of these respected and experienced psychiatrists are purposefully lying — which I do not — there are at least two ways this can be interpreted.

One is that Breivik is simply lying in order to deceive the justice system. Such a possibility cannot be entirely discounted. We know that he can be a clever manipulator who managed to deceive everybody around him while planning his deadly attacks.

When is a Swede Not a Swede?

A reader in Sweden just sent us this brief essay about the bias and dishonesty of the Swedish media:

There was an article yesterday in the Swedish newspaper Vestmanlands Läns Tidning by the Migration minister Erik Ullehag. It made the claim that hatred and violence against Jews are increasing among Swedish youth.

This is, of course, true — if you buy the politically correct idea that you are Swedish from the moment you get a Swedish passport. The migrants and the left-wing media and politicians stick to that definition when crimes such as murder, rape, harassing Jews, theft and burglary are committed.

The media don’t employ that definition, however, when there is a case of ‘hate crime’ or discrimination, such as Muhammad cartoons or pork for lunch at a school. Those events are racism.

There is always the option to use expressions such as “white”, “Aryan”, “Caucasian” or “Swedish ethnicity”, but those are not part of the politically correct vocabulary. The media and politicians use accurate descriptions when the purpose is to whitewash Islam.

Foreign news items are selected in a similar manner. Attacks on Israel get little or no coverage in the media, but an action like the ship to Gaza is described as if Israel were trying to starve the Palestinian population and force them to leave their ‘homeland’.

Jan Lewenhagen wrote in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter about Germany: “One in five Germans is anti-Semitic”. And then he rants about a case of neo-Nazis committing ten murders. He doesn’t suggest that the new anti-Semitism might be the result of the Muslim population that is growing rapidly in Germany.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/27/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/27/2012The Dutch cabinet has now approved a burka ban, and as soon as Parliament gives its final approval the ban will become law. The Netherlands thus becomes the third European country to ban the burka, after Belgium and France.

In other news, Treasury Secretary says that the United States is willing to back increased funding for the IMF’s euro-rescue capability, provided that Brussels goes first, and bolsters its own emergency bailout fund.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JP, KGS, Nilk, Steen, The Stonegate Institute, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Marine Corps Terrorist Wannabe Gets 25 Years

Lance Corporal Yonathan Melaku, a Marine Corps reservist, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for a series of incidents in the fall of 2010 when he fired shots at Washington-area military installations.

Cpl. Melaku, a naturalized US citizen originally from Ethiopia, videotaped himself shouting “Allahu akhbar!” after firing shots at the US Marine Corps museum, and attacked other sites, including the Pentagon. He wasn’t caught, however, until the following June, when he was picked up acting suspiciously at Arlington National Cemetery. He fled from police, and during the chase dropped a backpack containing spent 9mm shell casings, clear plastic bags of ammonium nitrate, spray paint, and a spiral notebook in which he had written references to the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and other terrorist topics.

A later search of his home turned up a list of items used to make improvised explosive devices, as well as a laptop computer holding documents concerning bomb-making.

Cpl. Melaku admitted attacking the military installations, and has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. The videotapes he took of his crimes have now been released, and excerpts are included in the FOX News report below.

Norway Renames Itself

Cultural Enrichment News

Can you guess the most popular name for newborn “Norwegian” boys in Oslo and environs?

Hint: It’s not “Erik” or “Bjørn”.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends his translation of an article about the latest trend in baby names. The translator includes this note:

Here’s some more statistical data that confirms what most of us have known for a long time: Norway is undergoing demographic change at breakneck speed.

Some people apparently find this fact very pleasing.

The translation from Human Rights Service:

Mohammed now also the most popular name in Romeriket

27.01.12: According to SSB’s annual statistics of names, Mohammed in various spellings has for several years been the most popular name in Oslo. Now two other municipalities in Romeriket [traditional district located north-east of Oslo], Nittedal and Lørenskog have caught up with Oslo. This fact pleases the mayor of Lørenskog.


By Hege Storhaug, HRS

According to SSB’s [Statistisk sentralbyrå, the Central Statistics Bureau] yearly statistics of names, Mohammed in various spellings is yet again the most popular name in Oslo. On a national basis the name comes in at number 38. What’s new this year however is that two of Oslo’s neighbouring municipalities, Lørenskog and Nittedal have caught up with the capital and the name Mohammed is now also the most popular name among newborn baby boys in these two municipalities. This is something that the mayor of Lørenskog finds very pleasing, according to the local newspaper Romerikets Blad:

The Shafia Case Goes to the Jury

The murder case against Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and his son Hamed has been going on for several months in Kingston, Ontario. The three defendants are charged with four counts each of first-degree murder for an “honor killing” that took the lives of Mr. Shafia’s three teenage daughters and his other wife in a polygamous marriage.

The case has finally been wrapped up and is about to go to the jury. The report below from FOX News gives an overview of the Shafia trial, and includes extensive comments by Michael Coren.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Dubious Privileges for Islam in Hamburg

The city of Hamburg is the first federal administrative unit in Germany to make a treaty with its Muslim community.

The analogue for the action is the relationship between the German government and the state church. However, as the commenters on the article below point out, the arrangement between the government and German churches was never intended to be, nor should it be, a model for dealing with an alien political ideology that is hostile to the German government, culture, and people.

Many thanks to JLH for translating this piece from Citizen Times:

Muslim Organizations Press for Recognition

January 26, 2012 by the Citizen Times Team

Hamburg to be first federal state [Land] to make an agreement with Islamic organizations

Centrum Mosque on Böckmanstrasse in St. Georg, HamburgAs reported at the Wedel-Schulauer Tageblatt blog, Hamburg is about to be the first federal state to conclude an agreement with three Muslim umbrella organizations: Shura (Council of Islamic Communities), DITIB (Turkish-Islamic Community) and the Organization of Islamic Culture Centers (VKZ). Questions such as mosque construction, religious funerals, Islamic religious instruction and the administration of day care centers will be regulated. The goal is to have the agreement in effect before summer break, said Hamburg spokesman Jörg Schmoll.

The agreement goes back to suggestions in 2006 and then mayor Ole von Beust (CDU). But in contrast to the two large Christian congregations and the Jewish community, Muslims are not organized in a public, legal entity. So there has been no partner for the Hamburg senate that can speak for all Muslims.

Controversial Islamic Organizations

“We regard ourselves as representatives of nearly all Muslims in Hamburg and as such would gladly assume the role of negotiating partner,” Zeceriya Altug, chair of DITIB North says to Welt Online. From the official side and by many Muslims, however, this is doubted, indeed, contested. For instance, DITIB is regarded as the religious-political arm in Germany of Turkish Premier Erdogan. In the German-Islamic Conference (DIK)*, for this reason, prominent individuals of Muslim extraction are always included.

Integration policy spokesman for the SPD, Kazim Abaci, says that it is still doubtful whether an agreement will come out of the talks. The crucial political point remains whether organizations qualify as religious communities in the sense of the constitution. A further problem: Sunnis, Shi’ites and Alevites have a difficult time finding a theological consensus.

Equality within and without?

Since yesterday a draft by the organizations is before Hamburg’s citizen parties. A Welt Online commentary reports it as a “symbolic milestone on the way to equal rights.” The paper in fact speaks of the acceptance of all arrangements within the faith community, explicitly also concerning homosexuals. What does not seem to occur to Welt writer Eva Eusterhus is that this version allows recognition of homosexuals only within the umma — the greater Muslim community.

The ordinary citizen cannot view the paper on the websites of the Islamic organizations mentioned. Transparency is apparently not seen as a part of integration.

Hamburg Muslims appear less than ready for integration

“This is Not a Threat, It's a Warning”

As reported here last weekend, a group of protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Oslo a week ago to protest the presence of Norwegian troops in Afghanistan.

In the video clip below, a culturally enriched demonstrator harangues the crowd and threatens the people of Norway, afterwards receiving the expected “Allahu akhbar!” as a response.

Many thanks to Cecilie for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/26/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/26/2012Last October a violent incident occurred just before the end of a football game between a Muslim high school and a Christian high school in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Four of the Muslim players mobbed and assaulted the quarterback of the Christian team, sending him to the hospital with a concussion.

The four young assailants have now been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. Their attorney says the boys were only charged because they are Arab-Americans, and that the police and prosecutors are motivated by racial animus. The police, however, are sticking by their decision to charge the players.

In other news, two Copts were killed in a village in Upper Egypt for refusing to pay extortion money demanded by a Muslim tough. It seems the extortionist was exacting a sort of unofficial jizya from the Christians, and imposed the relevant sharia penalty when they refused to pay.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to AC, Anne-Kit, Diana West, Fjordman, Gaia, JP, Kitman, Mary Abdelmassih, McR, Nilk, TV, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The Saga of Omar Khadr

Omar Khadr is a “Canadian” Al Qaeda terrorist who has been in Guantanamo for the last ten years, ever since he killed an American medic in Afghanistan.

In the video below, Ezra Levant and Michael Coren discuss the political uses to which Canadian liberals have put this “child soldier”, and young Master Khadr’s own adroit manipulation of the media:


Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

Satanic Censorship

Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, has been under a death fatwa from Iran for more than twenty years. Mr. Rushdie was recently invited to take part in the Jaipur Literary Festival in India, but had to cancel his appearance after determining that the Indian government would be unable to guarantee his safety.

The festival organizers arranged for the author to participate instead by a satellite video link. However, at the last moment, as Mr. Rushdie was on his way to the studio to begin his talk, the Jaipur police warned the organizers that they would be unable to prevent violence if Mr. Rushdie spoke as scheduled.

That was too much for the festival leaders, and they cut the video link to avoid inciting the Muslim mob that had gathered outside the venue.

Here’s a TV news report about what happened:


Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

Race-Based Gang Attack in Perth

Cultural Enrichment News

We’ve featured a number of articles recently about racially-motivated larceny and violence in Britain and Denmark. Other stories about similar events in Norway, France, Germany, and Sweden have been included in the news feed — although in the case of Sweden, one has to read between the lines to detect the ethnic component of most crimes, since the media go to great lengths to avoid giving any clue about the racial or religious background of criminals.

The attackers in all these cases are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants, usually from Africa, the Arab world, or South Asia. Their modus operandi is to converge in groups of five to twenty “youths” on a white native of their host country, choosing their victim for his exposed position and relative helplessness.

In the stories from Denmark, whites are also singled out as targets for burglaries, in preference to the burglars’ more culturally enriched neighbors.

Media reports of these incidents typically describe the attacks as “inexplicable” or “random”. Police spokesmen often tell reporters that the perpetrators’ motive is unknown. Despite the obvious racial animus behind most of the crimes — including the expression of racial epithets while the victim is being beaten or stabbed — there seems to be a widespread reluctance to discuss race when the attackers are “brown” and the victim is white. A cone of silence descends over the press and the authorities. Under those circumstances, from their point of view, race simply doesn’t exist.

The news report below from Perth is refreshingly different. Australia, like the rest of the West, is crippled by Political Correctness, but the disease does not seem to have terminally metastasized to the extent it has in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Notice that the police sergeant speaks frankly about the deliberate targeting of a white kid by the black gang who beat him up.

Here’s the story from Perth Now:

Bashed Teen Speaks of Terror

A PERTH teenager has spoken of his terror after he was violently bashed by a gang of thugs who repeatedly kicked him and stomped on his head after being racially taunted.

Perth detectives are hunting up to 20 youths, believed to be of African descent, who were involved in the attack in the city at 11.30pm last night.

Two males - aged 16 and 17 - have already been charged, but police have not ruled out further charges being laid.

This afternoon, 19-year-old James Claxon told how a night out with mates turned into a nightmare when he was allegedly set upon by the gang, attacked and robbed of his wallet and mobile phone.

Mr Claxon said he and four friends had just got off a train and had been walking through Forrest Place towards a city nightclub when they were confronted by the group.

“They were walking through in the same proximity and they’ve basically started running at us and they caught me and have beaten me up and stolen my things,” he said.

“The only thing I heard before they caught me was: ‘Who are these white c**ts?’ It was totally unprovoked.

“They kicked me in the head a few times, stomped on my head a few times, kicked me in the kidneys and the ribs. It was mostly around the head and the ribs.

“I was probably out cold for two minutes before my mates picked me up and dragged me towards a taxi to get to hospital.”

Mr Claxon sustained facial injuries, including a bruise of shoe tread in the side of his face, and was taken to Royal Perth Hospital for treatment, but discharged yesterday morning.

He said he was stunned by the assault.

“It’s surreal to think that someone could actually do that to me. To think that another person would seek out to hurt me and steal my things is incomprehensible,” he said.

“Mostly I’m just happy I’m still here to be honest. It could have been a lot worse.”

Detective Sergeant Steve Coelho said the gang appeared to have been walking from the McIver train station on a “rampage” last night.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/25/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/25/2012Navy SEALs stormed a pirate compound in Somalia and rescued two hostages, an American woman and a Danish man. Nine of the hostage-takers were killed during the operation. Meanwhile, a different group of Somali pirates chopped off the arm of the captain of a Vietnamese ship in an effort to hasten the payment of ransom.

In other news, the Fed says that it will maintain near-zero interest rates at least through the end of 2014.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to A. Millar, AC, CSP, Fjordman, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Kitman, Mary Abdelmassih, Nick, Nilk, The Observer, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Multiculturalism and Hypocrisy

The national Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen recently smeared Fjordman on more than one occasion. They accused him of promoting an ideology of hatred, likened him to a Nazi, and published quotes attributed to him which in fact he never spoke or wrote.

Fjordman then sent a response to the newspaper, which it refused to publish.

He later published his response via Snaphanen. With the help of our Norwegian correspondent The Observer, Fjordman’s reply has been translated into English. Fjordman has also included an introduction to the unpublished piece.


Fjordman

In December 2011, the journalists Nina Johnsrud and Tore Letvik from the national Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen published an article in which I was accused of putting ideas about “breeding stations” into Breivik’s mind. I challenged them to find a single quote I have ever published about breeding stations. They obviously couldn’t find any, since this is a lie.

The newspaper never published a correction or apology for this lie, however, for the simple reason that they are not dealing in honest journalism. This was a smear campaign of character assassination against my person, since the political Left in particular has declared me to be Public Enemy Number Two, second only to Anders Behring Breivik. They don’t look at the ball; they just want to take the man. In a strange way, I take this as a compliment. My critics are utterly incapable of defeating any of my main arguments, and they know it, so they don’t even try.

The same newspaper directly compared me to Heinrich Himmler and the SS. I’ve been compared to Nazi leaders several times in the mainstream press.

The ruthless Himmler was “the prime architect of the Holocaust. More than any other individual, Himmler was the man who created the network of state terror by which the Third Reich suppressed its opposition, eliminated its internal enemies, and compelled obedience from the German citizenry.”

He oversaw all police and security forces, including the Gestapo — the Secret State Police — and the SS, Adolf Hitler’s elite bodyguard. He was personally responsible for organizing the genocide of millions of people, partially through the use of gas chambers, and for creating a totalitarian system of brutal state suppression. Dagsavisen claims that I promote “the same” policies today.

Dagsavisen has intimate historical and ideological bonds to the Labor Party. Today it is no longer explicitly Labor’s propaganda outlet, as it once was, but it would be fair to say that the newspaper’s views still closely mirror those of the Social Democrats and the labor unions. Its editor-in-chief Arne Strand has long been associated with the Labor Party, and represented the government of former Labor Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. It is tempting to see this article as a deliberate hit-piece against my person, one that will probably be applauded by the ruling parties.

Dagsavisen’s other chief editor, Kaia Storvik, used to be an active Communist and a member of the Red Youth, the revolutionary youth league. She is now known for lamenting how hard it is to get people convicted in court for saying racist things, especially since her country and the Western world are swarming with white racists.

Dagsavisen received over 40 million kroner in state subsidies in 2011 alone, more than any other newspaper in the country. The newspaper has been on life support for years, and would most likely go bankrupt without this continuous blood transfusion that is forcibly sponsored by Norwegian taxpayers of all political colors.

The far-Leftist newspaper Klassekampen (“The Class Struggle”) also receives tens of millions every single year in press support. This press support is supposed to ensure “diversity” in the mass media, but in reality it supports a diversity of left-wing views. There are practically no conservative media outlets in Norway.

It is well-documented — and grudgingly admitted by the press themselves — that journalists in Norway as well as in neighboring Sweden and Denmark are considerably more left-leaning in their ideological views and political sympathies than is true of the general population. In fact, judged by the data I have seen, this strong left-wing media bias exists throughout most of the Western world, not just in the Scandinavian or Nordic countries. If this allegation is correct, this represents a major systemic problem for Western societies.

The mass media are the eyes and ears of modern societies. If they do not function properly, citizens will find it very hard to maneuver rationally and deal in a sensible manner with the challenges they face. This can be compared to being confronted by a hungry polar bear, whereas your eyes and ears keep telling you that this is actually a cozy teddy bear who just craves a little love and understanding.

Militant Islamic organizations and other hostile outsiders keep bragging about how they are going to colonize and conquer Western countries. They must be amazed by the near-total lack of resistance they face. One of the main reasons for this is that a heavily biased press of Globalists and Multiculturalists, who daily feed the masses a deeply distorted image of reality, where problems are the result of white racism and xenophobia.

Hilde Haugsgjerd is now chief editor of the newspaper Aftenposten, which used to be considered a conservative paper. She warns against a “hate ideology” that is hostile to Islam. Haugsgjerd is the former party leader of the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist Red Electoral Alliance, and was once married to married to the Communist activist Sigurd Allern. He was for many years editor-in-chief of the radical newspaper Klassekampen, whose editors and writers were enthusiastic apologists for brutal Marxist regimes. Allern later became professor of journalism at the University of Oslo, where he can shape the minds of young and aspiring future journalists.

Jens Stoltenberg’s Labor-led government spends one billion kroner annually on often expensive professional communications advisers. This is a substantial sum for such a small country, especially considering that the Labor Party already receives largely favorable press coverage from many journalists, including the state broadcaster NRK.

In a debate published at the website of the newspaper Dagsavisen, commenter Ben Økland called me virtually every bad name in the book. He represents the Norwegian Greens, where writer Øyvind Strømmen is also a leading member. Økland terms people such as myself a “plague epidemic” of mentally deranged people and psychiatric cases who spread “poison” and “pollute society”, with our hateful paranoia acting like toxic waste.

An honorary member of the Greens in Norway is Johan Galtung, a founder of so-called “peace and conflict studies”. He is well-known for his sometimes highly controversial statements, and has been accused of acting as an apologist for brutal and repressive Communist regimes during the Cold War. Galtung looks forward to the possibility that all of Europe could become Islamic. This can bring many positive things to the continent and dilute that pesky individualism, of which there is still too much there, or so he thinks. Yet in his view it is crucial that native Europeans quietly accept this inevitable tide of history and do not attempt to resist the Muslim takeover of their continent in any way, as this could trigger Islamic radicalization.

These comments about an easily recognizable individual citizen — me — were published under an essay written by the journalist Halvor Finess Tretvoll. I pointed out that Dagsavisen is operating dangerously close to a libel suit. By email he responded that they believe in free speech. Free speech is good. Since I have controversial opinions myself, I respect that principle very much.

However, Tretvoll refused to publish my reply, although he admitted that I had stayed within the normal limits for such a reply, and couldn’t find any factual errors in what I wrote. The problem is that I had dared to utter some critical comments about leading Labor Party figures.

So, free speech to Dagsavisen means that they can publish accusations that I inspire mass murder, that I am just like Nazi criminals who were responsible for organizing genocide, and that I represent a plague epidemic of delusional people whose paranoia is like toxic waste to society. Yet they refuse to publish a short reply by me.

When I contacted them for a reply, Dagsavisen at first wanted to interview me. I said no. One does not reward a newspaper for writing crap about oneself by giving them an interview in return. Anders Behring Breivik’s defense lawyer Geir Lippestad earlier singled out the dissident writer Hans Rustad and me as morally “responsible” for ABB’s mass murder of 77 people. The newspapers VG and Dagbladet in particular went a long way towards legitimizing this claim. VG still had the nerve to ask me for an interview immediately afterwards. I told them to get stuffed.

VG then proceeded to publish an article based on my confidential police statement, in which they used lies and distortions to present me as having egged Breivik on by email while he was preparing his terror attacks. I told them in no uncertain terms that I have no interest in making money for them by being urinated upon in public, and then granting them an interview explaining to the general public how it’s like to be urinated upon in public.

The same principle applies to Dagsavisen: I exercised my right to reply, but in writing only. I am a writer. They reluctantly agreed to this. Since the original article was a long attack on my character, I wanted a long essay in return. I reluctantly agreed to write a shorter text as a start. This was then rejected.

When a newspaper compares me to the SS and Heinrich Himmler, who organized one of the worst genocides in modern world history, and also publishes comments comparing me to a plague epidemic and toxic waste, they are obliged to present strong arguments justifying their decision not to publish a brief explanation of why I write what I write.

Since they never provided me with a satisfactory explanation, I therefore am publishing my suggested reply below in English translation. The original Norwegian text was published at the blog Snaphanen.

I am deeply grateful to The Observer for his translation:

A National Tragedy

Cultural Enrichment News

The culturally enriched Vollsmose neighborhood has been in the news yesterday and today. Ethnic Danes have increasingly been subject to harassment and attacks by gangs of “youths” in the area.

Our Danish correspondent TB has this to say about what’s happening:

The situation in Vollsmose is a national tragedy, if you ask me. And the stories keep coming in: the next one is about a couple who almost got themselves killed for talking to the police.

All these stories are reaching Christiansborg [Parliament] now. The Danish People’s Party have started to raise these issues at the highest levels.

Here is the most recent report from the Islamic Enclave Vollsmose of Funen. Pay close attention to the reaction of the police officers in the car when the shooting starts. They simply leave this poor couple unarmed and uncovered in the middle of the battle zone.

Think about it. What a signal to send to the ‘Representatives of The Religion of Peace’!

TB has kindly translated another article, this one from today’s B.T.:

Ethnic Danish couple was seen talking to the police — almost killed.

Smear campaign in Vollsmose: 'They tried to kill us'.

Danish couple in Vollsmose

[Photo caption: The couple do not dare to reveal themselves, even though they both have moved out of Vollsmose. (Photo: Sonny Monk Carlsen).]

A Danish couple was nearly killed because they spoke with the police in Vollsmose. Now they have moved out of the area.

It was nearly fatal for two ethnic Danes to talk to police in Vollsmose. Not only were they fired upon with automatic weapons, over the next two years they were attacked with stones, vandalism and harassment.

The couple wishes to remain anonymous, but have chosen to tell about their lives in the Vollsmose ghetto after www.bt.dk yesterday reported how the ethnic Danes are targets in a burglary smear campaign. A smear campaign where nine out of ten of the 150 burglaries that have hit the district of the past four months — according to a police officer — were aimed directly against ethnic Danes.

The young couple’s nightmare began on Thursday 13 August 2009, as they walked up the Vollsmose Alle. The district was in flames that day after a 19-year-old immigrant had tried to run away from police and then crashed his BMW.

“Suddenly a police car came rolling towards us — lights out. The officer rolls down the window and asked if a lot was burning down, where we came from. I could confirm that it did,” says AH, who — at that time — had only lived in Vollsmose for about a month.

“As I answered the officer shots started coming in. Someone was actually shooting at the police! My boyfriend and I threw ourselves to the ground and crawled into the bushes behind us. Then we heard the police car screeching, while it backed away from the scene.”

Frightened, the couple kept lying there until the danger had passed and then hurried home.

“I was thinking: ‘can we live in such a hell ?’ But we agreed that the rioters should not be allowed to scare us away.”

A 35-year-old man was later jailed for firing 8-10 shots at the police with an automatic weapon. After that the trouble in the area calmed down for a short time. But the nightmare for AH and HH had only just begun.

“There is Nothing Left for us Danes”

Cultural Enrichment News

Below is a follow-up to last night’s post about burglaries targeting native Danes in Vollsmose, a culturally enriched neighborhood of Odense.

Many thanks to TB for the translation from B.T.:

A victim of the burglary smear campaign in Vollsmose

Rene: "I dare not live here anymore”

Danish resident of Vollsmose

[Photo caption: Rene Larsen has lived in Vollsmose for more than 29 years. Now he has decided to move after having been exposed to both burglary and assault. (Photo: Sonny Monk Carlsen).]

Imagine living a life where you hardly dare open the door when someone knocks on it. A life where you have to change your route to get home in safety, and where the fear of being assaulted constantly fills your thoughts.

Then you know what it is like to be 55-year-old Rene Larsen in Vollsmose in the year 2012.

“Who are you?”

His voice trembles and fear illuminates the eyes of the middle-aged man in Vollsmose who just opened the door a crack when www.bt.dk knocked at it. In his right hand he conceals a shovel, which always lies next to the door in the event that he has to defend himself.

“Oh, you’re just reporters,” sounding like relief from the 55-year-old single disabled retiree Rene Larsen. He puts down his ‘weapon’ and invites us inside. Immediately he starts to talk about the life as a Dane in the troubled ghetto.

Vollsmose was amazing.

“I came here 29 years ago. At that time it was a fantastic place where everybody knew each other. People were friendly and invited one another inside. I remember that sometimes it could take several hours just to buy a package of bread in the local shop, as there was always someone you just had to talk to or drink a beer with,” he says.

But this is no longer the case.

“Well, It began about ten years ago when they started to shut down everything out here that was Danish. There is nothing left for us Danes. Today no one says hi to each other. You are almost looked down upon as a Dane, and you do not feel welcome anymore,” he says.

The atmosphere in the neighborhood has also become more brutal, a fact which Rene has experienced on several occasions.

“The first time I was assaulted was eight years ago. They broke my femur. Four months ago I was beaten up on a path while I was driving on my electric scooter. They stole all my money”.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/24/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/24/2012Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and almost killed this time last year, made her final appearance in Congress tonight when she attended President Obama’s State of the Union address. She was greeted warmly by members of both parties.

In other news, President Obama said that he is leaving no options off the table, including the use of force, when dealing with the possibility of Iranian nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the captain of the stricken Costa Concordia cruise ship says that he was ordered by the management of the cruise line that employs him to sail through the narrow strait next to the island of Giglio, where his ship ran aground.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Caroline Glick, CSP, Kitman, LAW Wells, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Driving the Danes Out of the Area

Cultural Enrichment News

We’ve posted several times in the past about Vollsmose, a culturally enriched neighborhood of Odense on the Island of Funen in Denmark. A de-facto sharia regime exists in Vollsmose. Neighborhood “youths” harass ethnic Danes and burn cars owned by non-Muslims. Local gangs have been known to shoot at the police.

Our Danish correspondent TB has translated a report on the latest chapter in the ethnic cleansing of the Danes from Vollsmose. In this case, the enrichers’ weapon of choice is burglary, used specifically to target “persons of Danish background” who live in the area.

The translator includes this note:

Pay attention to the Officer in Charge. He is absolutely clueless (or pretending to be?), and his last comment is quite appalling. We are talking about ethnic cleansing here, and he just want to investigate it like any other case.

No wonder the officer who speaks up here wants remain anonymous.

The translated article from yesterday’s B.T.

Police officer: They want the Danes out of the area.

Danes suffer burglary smear campaign in Vollsmose

If your surname is ‘Hansen’ or ‘Nielsen’, and if you live in the Vollsmose neighborhood in Odense, your risk of becoming a victim of a burglary is significantly larger than if you had had a more foreign-sounding surname.

A true intruder smear campaign against ethnic Danes has spread in the troubled district during recent months.

“There is a kind of racism happening out there, where we find that more and more Danes are being chased out of the neighborhood. We have seen a sharp increase in burglaries in the area. Approximately 150 the last four months alone. What is special, though, is that nine out of ten burglaries are directed against ethnic Danes,” a cop at Funen Police explains. He do not want to reveal his identity, out of fear of losing his job. His name is known by the editors of this article. The officer believes that someone is trying to drive the remaining ethnic Danes out of the area.

“Several of the young offenders explicitly said that they want Vollsmose for themselves. Last year we had contact with a Danish family who reported many incidents. The result of the reports: The family’s apartment was vandalized on a weekly basis until they finally gave up and moved out of the area.. Additionally, many of these burglaries resemble real vandalism. It seems like it is a kind of revenge.”

The officer criticizes the authorities’ lack of real handling of the problem. He believes that they are trying to cover up the developments simply because they are controversial.

“Everyone knows it, and it is now an open standing joke among us colleagues (in the police) that when we hear about a burglary, then it’s probably against ethnic Danes. And, unfortunately, we are right almost every time. Why they shut down the discussion I do not know, but I guess it is because it is politically sensitive stuff.”

Ideologies That Have No Basis in Reality

Utøya memorial

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated a surprising op-ed about the official state ideology in Norway, which failed so miserably in the wake of the Breivik massacre.

The translator includes this note:

I have translated an op-ed by Ole Gjems Onstad which brilliantly exposes some of the totalitarian traits found within the Labour Party in Norway. It paints a very clear picture of an ideology that demands obedience and detests dissent.

This op-ed also brilliantly exposes the bizarre consensus mentality that is forced upon the people of Norway. In a scary kind of way it has similarities to the obedience culture found in places like North Korea.

One possible explanation for such a refreshing expression of opinion may be that the article below was published on the BI Business School website. BI is an independent institution, and not an arm of the government — a relative rarity in Norway:

Ideologies that have no basis in reality

An op-ed on the terrorist attack at Utøya by Ole Gjems Onstad

We have felt pride in having a penal code that focuses on illnesses and disregards personal responsibility.

Now we are unable to punish Norway’s worst mass murderer in modern times.

It is quite possible that Norwegian prosecutors would be unsuccessful in bringing Hitler and Stalin to justice. Would a Norwegian court accept that these dictators were sane, in a psychiatric sense?

Utøya has exposed Norway as an ideological country. The ideology that AUF [Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking, the Labour Party’s youth organization] espouse has contributed to a penal code that has made it impossible to punish the man who killed them. That’s not a reward worthy of their efforts; it’s bitter irony.

The Labour Party has often chosen to normalize psychotics and rehabilitate murderers rather than protect the public. Now that the murderer has been sentenced to undergo treatment, it’s unlikely that he will be released soon, but the possibility is still there.

Sanctimonious Norway

Because of our oil wealth, being Norwegian often means being sanctimonious. Norwegian ideologies rarely meet reality: We are progressive and humane; we treat where others chose to punish.

Psychology teaches us that in time of crisis defence mechanisms are strengthened. Many representatives from the ideological Norway now say that we must stand by the principles in extreme situations.

Comfortable life

Norway houses its biggest mass murderer in a comfortable prison where he has three rooms: one for work, one for training and one for recreation and rest. He has two defence attorneys. No one knows what the final bill will be. When murdering so many, publicly paid defence attorneys have a lot of things to cover.

The prison administration keeps stressing that the mass murderer is of course entitled to the exact same treatment as the other prisoners. A well-known Norwegian defence attorney said in a TV talk show that the killer must be treated with respect. Such statements are ideologically correct in Norway, but they may also be regarded as confused, alienated, and blind.

To recognize the inner thunder

Part of the Norwegian ideology that has been exposed through Utøya is the fear of being angry. The fact that so few have demanded retaliation is considered positive. The desire for revenge is primitive and worthy of condemnation.

But it is natural to wish revenge on someone who caused so much pain. If there was ever a day in modern Norwegian history when it was appropriate to recognize this inner thunder, it was on July 22, 2011.

When it happened, the police lacked the masculine aggressive assertiveness that could have changed the outcome. Only afterwards have the police become indignant — of those who criticize their indecisiveness

Not permitted to become angry

Monday, January 23, 2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/23/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/23/2012The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt met with the US ambassador in Cairo and reassured her that sharia guarantees personal freedom for all people. There’s no word whether the honorable ambassador was veiled during her meeting with the illustrious Mohammedan gentlemen.

In other news, more bodies have found in the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, bringing the death toll to fifteen. Seventeen people remain unaccounted for.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Fjordman, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, JP, KGS, Kitman, Nick, Nilk, The Observer, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

More on Croatia and the EU

Croatian flag: part of the EUSSR

Our Croatian correspondent Vortac sends this follow-up on last night’s post about the referendum on Croatia’s accession to the EU:

I would guess the situation is probably more or less the same in all other ex-communist European countries, which, like Croatia, probably joined the EU for the same reasons.

The all-corrupting aspect of the welfare state is to blame here, since it’s almost impossible for any government to remain uncorrupted when it’s raising (and distributing) billions of unearned dollars in the form of credits and loans. In the case of Croatia, a good part of that money was used to support the welfare paradigm, meaning it was spent on pensions, social benefits, and on a huge state administration.

The ratio between the employed and pensioners in Croatia is about 1.2:1 now, meaning the number of pensioners almost equals the number of the employed, which is of course unsustainable. We also have to bear in mind that many of the employed are in fact working in the public sector, meaning they are by and large also supported out of the state budget, and are not really contributing to the economy.

In effect, we have created a super-welfare state here in Croatia, even worse than in the EU, and of course it’s very hard for the electorate to vote against it, since almost everyone is made dependent, which in turn creates the need for even more debt and even more loans — again resulting in even more corruption.

Additional reading

Wikipedia:

Since 2009, negative trends persisted in Croatia with jobs in the industry declined further by 3.5%.[84] Number of unemployed and retired persons combined exceeded number of employed in August 2010, as it fell to 1.474 million.

The Croatian Times:

Achieving the Aims of Muslims

Abu Qatada, who was once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe”, cannot be extradited to Jordan after he is released from prison in Britain, thanks to the ever-solicitous European Court of Human Rights.

This has understandably caused an uproar among the British public. As one blogger put it, “We are stuck with our own criminals, our own dregs. We should not be stuck with foreigners whose presence here is a threat to our well-being.”

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading these clips of Abu Qatada:

A Very Dangerous Process

Our German translator JLH sends his translation of an article from Citizen Times by Marco Pino about the recent controversy in Germany over the writings of Michael Stürzenberger, as well as the shakeup in Die Freiheit and the departure of popular writers from Politically Incorrect.

The translator includes this overview of the situation:

After investigating, I discovered that Michael Stürzenberger’s “research paper,” published in October in PI, caused such an upset that the head of his state branch of Freiheit suspended him from his leadership position. Whereupon he ran for and won a position in the national leadership. At which point Pino and others bailed out, and Pino also left PI.

There were eight provisions in the research paper, proceeding from less to more severe, depending on the reaction of the Muslims, the last finally demanding abrogation of the religion and deportation of those unwilling to seek some other ideology. This has led to comparisons with the Nazi publication Der Stürmer, etc. And to the article to which Pino is replying.

I include the most talked-about part of Stürzenberger’s article — his equivalent of the 95 theses — which seems to lie at the bottom of so much that has happened since. The dissolution of Die Freiheit continues, with the youth organization of the party leaving the party and becoming independent, as announced by its head, Christopher von Mengersen.

I have not paid much attention to the articles by different PI authors, but Stürzenberger has seemed to me to be a talented interviewer in their videos.

It’s all too bad.

Below is the translated article from Citizen Times, via Europe News, followed by a portion of Michael Stürzenberger’s article:

Marco Pino: Open Letter to Steven Geyer: “Islam Criticism is Necessary!”

From Citizen Times January 10, 2012


Dear Mr. Steven Geyer,

In the past week, in a series of articles in the Dumont media, you renewed your frontal attack on the Islam-critical scene in Germany. In the center of our reporting is the internet site, Politically Incorrect (PI) and one of its most important authors, Michael Stürzenberger. You critique in particular his “research paper against Islamization” and identify in it an extremist approach, referring to investigations of the prosecuting attorney’s office in Munich for ethnic harassment, including activities of the security service directed against PI and similar internet sites.

As you know, I was a PI author for a long time and ceased this activity in October of last year. Since then, I have been writing a column for the internet site “Citizen Times”. As you also know, I was a member of the party Die Freiheit and left it in December of last year.

A substantial reason for my withdrawal as PI author and from Die Freiheit was that very “research paper against Islamization” by Michael Stürzenberger. I have criticized the research paper several times and exhaustively (see my “Open Letter to Michael Stürzenberger” as well as other publications in Citizen Times). I share the specific point in your criticism that the attitude documented in the research paper is a fatally flawed path.

For that very reason, I am surprised at your completely one-sided, less-than-truthful report, which in my eyes justifies the charge of blanket harassment of an entire population group. The impression arises that you are using PI and Michael Stürzenberger as examples in order to criminalize a whole spectrum of opinion. This form of reportage is no less deserving of criticism than the research paper by Michael Stürzenberger.

The truth is this: Within the readership and the authors of PI, as well as in the Islam-critical scene in general, there is a broad spectrum of opinion. Not only I, but many others as well within this broad spectrum have criticized Michael Stürzenberger for the above-mentioned publication (as is also apparent, for example, in the numerous departures recently suffered by the political party Die Freiheit).

Indeed, there is much to criticize in PI, especially the frequent, overly generalized, unsophisticated representation of Muslims. Actually, you are no better than that when you report on Islam-criticism so unsophisticatedly and in such sweeping terms. You draw a distorted picture that has nothing to do with reality.

I challenge you, therefore, to abandon this type of reportage in the future and to differentiate varied authors and their varied viewpoints.

Further, I take the liberty of making the following observation: Your obvious attempt — using one-sided reporting and verbal stigmatization (e.g., ideas like “Islam-hater”) — to represent Islam-criticism as political extremism and silence it, is a very dangerous process, which in the long run could even endanger the peaceful co-existence of people in Germany. As yet (there is no question!) the Islamic cultural sphere has experienced no comprehensive process like the Enlightenment in the West. Also among Muslims living here, strict religious, orthodox and fundamentalist perspectives are far more common than among Christians and adherents of other religions and cultural spheres.

Islam-criticism is therefore necessary, and provides an important contribution to integration. It is quite regrettable that the German media — especially politically Left media like the DuMont Group — fulfill this responsibility only barely, or not at all. It is especially noticeable considering the fact that criticism of religion had been the domain of the Left for decades, who thereby made an important contribution to the philosophical enlightenment in our society (especially in regard to the equal rights of women). When it comes to Islam, however, the Left, with few exceptions (for example, Alice Schwarzer, Thilo Sarrazin) seems to be completely overtaxed morally — caught in its self-constructed automatic reaction of instantly perceiving criticism of anything foreign as xenophobia (and therefore unthinkingly as “rightist). The result is a fateful form of political blindness, giving rise to a fatal hyper-tolerance which turns a blind eye even to anti-freedom, ultra-religious and politically totalitarian trends, the moment they appear in the costume of the “foreign”.