Specifically, when I wrote: “Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff did not agree to speak at the event in Aarhus, nor did she discuss her possible attendance at the event with the organizers. In fact, she was never even contacted by the organizers.”
I now know that Elisabeth was in fact contacted by one of the organizers. His name is Steve Simmons, and he represents the English Defence League and the European Freedom Initiative. It was in those two capacities that he contacted Elisabeth.
She and I have just learned that Mr. Simmons is also in charge of the Danish Defence League (or is at least the administrative contact for DDL website), and the DDL is the group organizing the March 31 event in Aarhus.
So what I stated was incorrect. I apologize to Steve Simmons, the Danish Defence League, and EFI for posting inaccurate information. Many thanks to the people who drew the error to my attention.
The rest of what Elisabeth and I wrote is true. In brief:
- At no time did Elisabeth confirm her attendance at the March 31 event in Aarhus.
- Her name was used without her permission in promotional materials for the event.
- Her image was used without her permission in several videos promoting the event.
Once again: The name, photos, and videos of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff should promptly be removed from any materials promoting the Danish Defence League event in Aarhus of March 31. These are being used without her permission. She will not be attending this event.
On March 31, 2012, a group of Counterjihad activists will meet in Aarhus, Denmark for “a public meeting to talk about issues such as Sharia Law, Halal, Immigration and the continuing Islamification of Europe”. The meeting is being sponsored by the European Freedom Initiative and will be hosted by the Danish Defence League.
The event has no website. It does, however, have a Facebook page, and on it you will notice that Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is listed is one of the scheduled speakers.
This information is incorrect.
Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff did not agree to speak at the event in Aarhus, nor did she discuss her possible attendance at the event with the organizers. In fact, she was never even contacted by the organizers.
When she learned that her name was being used in promotional materials as a confirmed speaker, she wrote to the contact address for the website displaying the flyer and asked that her name be removed. No response was forthcoming, and the information on the Facebook page has not been updated.
Therefore she has asked me to correct the record here at Gates of Vienna: Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is NOT speaking in Aarhus on March 31, nor will she be attending the event.
Elisabeth’s full statement about this unfortunate situation is below:
Back in early January I was contacted by a member of the English Defence League who asked whether I would tentatively be willing to attend a demonstration in Aarhus in late March.
I checked my calendar and told him that as of that moment, I was available. At no time did I voice an agreement to attend.
In the interval since, I have not heard from anyone involved in organizing this event, nor did I ever agree to attend. In fact, the greater my inability to obtain any reliable information about the event, the more I was certain I would not travel to Denmark.
Additionally, I have asked those who seemed to have contact with organizers to immediately remove my name from posters, flyers, online advertisements and YouTube announcements. As of this writing, my request has not been honored.
The organizers have thus used my name without my approval and without my confirmed attendance.
I will repeat my stand on this demonstration: I will NOT attend the planned demo in Aarhus on March 31, 2012, and have never planned to do so.
10 comments:
More Leftist infiltration, baiting true counterjihadists into showing up,whereupon the Leftist/Fakebookers commit some outrage, video of which is sent to the state-controlled media, smearing the true counterjihadists by association?
Avoid like the plague and expose the leftist perps quickly.
First time for me on this blog; writing from Italy to beg all the counterjihadist movements not to start "war" on each other. Our common enemy is Islam.
Anonymous, this is not war on other counterjihadists. This is infiltration. Genuine Nazis have been urged to attend the Aarhus event, and to disregard their dislike of the "all too tolerant" EDL. Link (in Danish) here.
There is a lot of confusion about the Aarhus event, and no clear answers are forthcoming. I discourage attending.
@ anon who says he's a first time commenter from Italy--
Elisabeth's statement is not a war, blog-induced or otherwise.
Surely, as an Italian & a EU citizen you know the special vulnerability ALL of you face for purported "hate speech" violations? You know the sadly familiar tactics of the Left, including guilt-by-association, right?
Elisabeth is steering a difficult course during this time from here to the EU Court. I do not envy her journey, full as it is of hidden rocks and snags. Like her original accuser, who set her up, there are many others who'd like to see her end in jail and ignominy.
Thus, we will do all in our power to protect her. Since she wanted this posted and felt it was imperative to set the record straight re her so-called attendance in Aarhus, we obliged by posting her concerns in her own words. For the record.
What has that to do with a blog 'war'? Where are these battle lines being drawn that you seem to fear?
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Another occasional essayist here, Prospero, ends his emails with a tag line from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
Bonhoeffer paid with his life for living those beliefs. We want to ensure that Elisabeth Sabbaditsch-Wolff and others like her do not meet the same fate.
Her reasons are honored and she must be protected but PLEASE no war created because of this between different counter jihadists. We hava common goal after all.
Its sad theres been cuts in connection-chain sp shes not coming and I wont be meeting ESW in Aarhus. I will give a small speech there myself and hoping to give a little drop of effort from mine and FDL behalf to this meeting.
Mimosa /FDL
I am the organiser of the Aarhus meeting and i can prove 100% that ESW was in talks with me to come to Aarhus and Henrik was the person who said he arranged funding for the flights. so can we please stop this nonsense and get back to the real fight we are in?
Steve, first one thing:
One doesn't quote private conversation in public without mutual consent. That's a breach of confidentiality, destroys confidence.
Then back to details: It is true that we talked about this, sure. But we were also waiting for the DDL to get back with practical details, expecting to find a round of honourable people with no past or present extremist links, a transparent public record, with skill and willingness to tackle problems as they were identified, and of course reacting with disgust if Nazis turn out to have been invited.
That did not materialize.
Then it turns out that DDL more or less is you. That is fair enough, but I think it would be nice and transparent if you had made that clear in advance.
Henrik. If i am called a liar i will use anything at my disposal to disprove that,even private conversations. You would do the same. You are wrong stating that the DDL "is more or less you" . How ridiculous! The Danish Defence League is autonomous. I am glad that you admit that you lied about my conversations with you regarding funding for ESW and i have to challenge your claims that the DDL is made up of nazis.
Some firm proof would be good!
All i can say is thank you for your help organising the Aarhus demo but you have done more harm than good. I wonder why?
From the get-go, our first commenter nailed Elisabeth's concerns about what might transpire:
More Leftist infiltration, baiting true counter jihadists into showing up, whereupon the Leftist/Fakebookers commit some outrage, video of which is sent to the state-controlled media, smearing the true counter jihadists by association?
Avoid like the plague and expose the leftist perps quickly.
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Up until that comment I hadn’t paid much attention Elisabeth’s experience of being stonewalled regarding her request. It seemed pretty straightforward: one has a right to request one’s face & name be removed from publicity for an event one has decided not to attend. Perhaps they were ignoring her request, or perhaps they’d simply overlooked it.
But just now I checked the Facebook page for this group. You know what? Even after this public request, her name is still on the list of speakers:
Aarhus Demo Page
What does the point-blank refusal to remove her name signify? I have no idea.
How does she get them to respect her decision? Haven’t a clue.
But it’s clear now that commenter "66chevelle" was more prescient than they could've known or I would've believed.
Hmmm...I'm beginning to understand why Elisabeth was concerned.. Her demand is not trivial given her future court appearance. In her case, or in the case of anyone who fears strikebacks from overbearing judiciaries, it’s always wise to err on the side of caution until things are fully resolved.
For speakers like Mimosa, I hope the demo in Aarhus is a great success. To anyone who wishes to participate, may it be a great day for all of you.
If Elisabeth herself had decided it was a good idea to attend, I'd have wished her equal success.
I had no hand in her eventual determination to decline and didn't become involved until she expressed concern about her name continuing to remain on that roster despite her written requests. Now that I can see it remains there, I'm worried for Elisabeth...
My apologies to Elisabeth - Her name has now been removed from the list of speakers- we are in the process of removing her name from all promotional material although this may take a few days. As i said to Elisabeth on skype i respect her decision not to attend and wish her all the best.
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