Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/30/2012

Poland’s highest court has ruled that kosher and halal slaughter violate the country’s laws against cruelty to animals. The court’s ruling, however, goes against EU laws on religious freedom, and Muslim and Jewish groups say they will appeal the decision.

In other news, the Lesser Prairie Chicken may be listed as a “threatened species” in Oklahoma by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Such a decision could harm the wind farm industry, since the habitat of the chickens is in the same area as the wind turbines. Lesser Prairie Chickens instinctively avoid tall structures, and the growth of wind farms thus reduces their available breeding areas.

Meanwhile, roadside bombs in Afghanistan killed twelve people and wounded sixteen others.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Diana West, DS, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Kitman, Lurker from Tulsa, 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.

Common Sense from Die Presse?

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Is that why the Austrian newspaper Die Presse has published two recent articles that exhibit common sense about Islam?

Or are the Austrian media beginning to come around to the point of view of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff? The authors of these articles say things that sound almost like what you might read here, at a site whose mission is to defend the ramparts of Vienna.

Elisabeth had this to say about these two articles, both of which have been kindly translated by JLH:

Die Presse, a supposedly liberal paper (liberal in the European sense, as opposed to the American context), now and then still permits the publication of the truth outside the religion of multiculturalism, tolerance and mutual inclusion. Detlef Kleinert, a retired correspondent for a German newspaper who lives in Austria, has once again managed to sneak in a commentary that in the eyes of the establishment must be felt as a punch in the head.

I was told that in the face of this commentary, my conviction appears even more ludicrous, since Kleinert’s words are but a very shortened version of my seminars. I can’t disagree.

The second article should be read with the first one in mind. On the less than auspicious occasion of the opening of the Saudi-sponsored, Austrian- and Spanish-supported tolerance center, its Saudi secretary general was interviewed by Christian Ultsch, also of Die Presse. Ultsch has exhibited knowledge of Islamic doctrine in the past, and, though he could have pushed even harder, he was able to expose the general secretary for what he is: a taqiyya artist using his finest painting techniques. Mr. GenSec is the Michelangelo of Taqiyya. Read for yourself.

First, an examination by Detlef Kleinert of Islamic intolerance and violence:

We Muslims Cannot Co-Exist With You

by Detlef Kleinert

Why the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world is increasing. Where sharia reigns, non-Muslims have lost all rights.

In Tahrir Square in Cairo, a recent placard announced: “85 million people want the implementation of sharia.” About 10,000 Salafists had gathered to demand strict adherence to the Koran in the constitution. What this means in practice was explained by a terrorist, after he and others had murdered 60 Catholics in Iraq: “You Christians are all ‘kuffar’ (infidels); we cannot co-exist with you!”

So it is that, worldwide, about 100 million Christians are being persecuted, humiliated, and ultimately murdered. Especially in Islamic countries. The more strictly the Koran is enforced, the more merciless is the systematic displacement, the murderous terror.

Some examples: In Indonesia in recent years, more than 1,000 churches were burned. In the last 30 years in Egypt, more than 1,800 Copts have been murdered for religious reasons. In the Fall of 2011, imams in more than 20 Upper Egyptian mosques called for an assault against churches and the murder of Christians. Security forces withdrew.

Religious Hate Propaganda

Religious hate propaganda is not confined to mosques. It is played on tapes everywhere, in bazaars, in taxis and in private residences. Islam researcher, Rita Breuer: “In most Muslim-leaning countries, it is no longer necessary to be secretive about spreading anti-Christian propaganda. It is acceptable and in many places even in good taste.”

The consequence, according to Breuer: “Equal rights for non-Muslim citizens cannot exist in an explicitly Islamic-tilted country.” Where sharia reigns, non-Muslims have lost all rights. “There has never been an Islamic state without religious discrimination.”

Rita Breuer, who has long been active as an aid worker in Islamic countries, also explains Islamic hate of Christians theologically. Sura 4, verse 171 says unmistakably: “Jesus, son of Mary, is the envoy of Allah.” Naturally, the religious founder of Christianity, God’s son, cannot, may not be more divine than Mohammed, who was “only” a human being. Therefore, belief in Jesus Christ challenges the entire Islamic belief structure. So the “idolaters,” according to sura 9, verse 17, “will abide forever in the fire.”

Religious Freedom is only Theoretical

Here there is nothing of the compassion which Mouhanad Khorchide believes he sees in Islam. (“Islam is Compassion,” Herder Publications). And when he says contemporary Muslims should regard the Koran in a historical context, that may apply to educated Muslims in Western lands. But, where Islam is the state doctrine, other principals are in control.

In Turkey, for example, where there theoretically is religious freedom. Rita Breuer: “In nominally laicist Turkey, you can observe an outright hysterical persecution of the Christian mission and whatever it is assumed to be.” In 2007 in eastern Turkish Malatya, two Turks who had converted to Christianity and a German pastor were “gruesomely butchered.”

It’s not an isolated case. In sharia, apostasy — dropping out of the Islamic faith — is punishable by death. In many Islamic countries, apostates are under sentence of death; elsewhere, the “merciful” representatives of the faith call for lynch justice. In Egypt, for example, “many imams call the faithful to the killing of converts,” says Breuer. “Whoever follows their call need fear no punishment.”

However, while it is churches in the Western world that preach tolerance and many theologians babble about a “dialogue between equals,” the climate of hostility finds ever more adherents in the Islamic world. Breuer: “The wave of re-Islamization in the Islamic world and renewed politicization of religion is like a creeping poison for the inter-religious climate, and works considerably to the disadvantage of Christians.”

The liberals have not prevailed in the internal Islamic dispute — the radical Islamists have. There is no question — this will also have its effects on the varied trends in Islam in the Western world.

Pseudo-Dialogue is no Good for Anyone

And let us not forget: the sham dialogue here at home is not helping endangered Christians in the Islamic world. They are directed to a clear position taken by Western churches. It is like a denial of reality, when theologians — as in the Catholic Church in Vienna — repeatedly paint a positive and idealized picture of Islam. An Islam which is compatible with Christian values — the “true Islam of peace and freedom, of equal rights for all people, of tolerance and pluralism.”

Except, as Rita Breuer knows, “This allegedly true Islam does not exist.” On the contrary, the hate campaign against Christians is growing, here as well. “Even though actively militant Muslims are a minority, passive acceptance of violence is very high.” This is a sentence which should make everyone ponder migration and integration.

Next, an interview with the general secretary of the new King Abdullah center in Vienna:

The Professional Complainers of Islam

Pat Condell talks about Islamophobia Awareness Month:

Hat tip: Tundra Tabloids.

Gay Paree — For Muslims

When I read about Ludovic Lütfi Zahed’s quixotic project, my first thought was: “Suicide by fatwa”.

But if he is serious, and his gay mosque flourishes, what happens next? Will millions of (ostensibly straight) devout Muslims in France ignore his actions, and leave him alone? Or will they react as they would in, say, Peshawar? And if they do act against him, how will the French authorities respond?

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Below is an article on the same topic from Hürriyet Daily News:

Mosque for Gays to Open in France

Daily Hürriyet reporter Arzu Çakir Morin has conducted an interview with an unusual Muslim man in France, who has been trying to open a “mosque for gays.”

“When I was 12 years old, I started exploring Islam and performing prayers. At first, I was impressed by the Salafists in Algeria, afterwards I became distant from them because of the terrorist attacks they performed,” Mohammed Ludovic Lütfi Zahed said, explaining his approaching to Islam.

“After my first night with a man, I realized that I was gay. I have found out that I had been pushing down my feelings with the help of Islam,” he said.

Çakir questioned the reason why Zahed felt he needed a “mosque for gays.”

Europe’s Takeover by Islam: German, Part 1

A few weeks ago we presented a subtitled version of a four-part Israeli documentary about the Islamization of Europe. For readers who understand German, here is Part 1 of the same series subtitled in German

Many thanks to Der Prophet des Islam for the translation.

Die Eroberung Europas durch den Islam…

…ist eine 4-teilige Dokumentarserie von Zvi Yehezkeli und David Deryi über die Islamisierung Europas.

Der Filmemacher ist ein arabisch sprechender Israeli dessen äussere Erscheinung und makelloser arabischer Akzent genügten, um ihm freien Zugang in verschiedene muslimische “no-go” Gebiete in Schweden und Frankreich zu verschaffen und gewährten ihm einen Insider-Einblick in die islamische Geistesverfassung des Grossraumes Europa.

Der Originaltext ist in Hebräisch und wurde ins Englische übersetzt. Der Prophet des Islam präsentiert die Serie nun mit deutschen Untertiteln.

1. Teil: Isolation

Bringing it to a Boil

Autumn Fundraiser 2012, Day Five

This week’s “Aftermath” fundraiser theme has produced a lot of gloom and grimness — especially when considering the aftermath of the recent presidential election. And just think how much worse it could get if we were to focus on, say, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in New York City.

So, for a change of pace, this morning I’ll veer off into a different sort of aftermath, one that is more mundane and even has a happy ending. It will also tell our readers what their generous donations actually pay for here in the drafty old halls of Schloss Bodissey.

“But Baron,” you say, “we already know what you spend our donations on: wine, women, and song! OK, maybe not women, not at your advanced age. But I’ll bet you’re awash in Chateau Plonque while you and Dymphna get down and boogie all night with the stereo turned up full blast.”

Well. Yes, that does sound nice. And every now and then a bottle of Chianti from the wine section at Food Lion certainly helps take the edge off reading about the Muslim Brotherhood, or the prospect of four more years of ObamaNation. Pass that bottle again, would you…

However, sometimes more urgent necessities intervene. One such moment arrived a couple of months ago, late on a Thursday night, when our electric water heater suddenly developed a breach in its containment vessel. The heater is in our mud room — I don’t know if that’s a regional expression or not; it means a grubby little room between the back porch and the main house where you keep your boots and antifreeze and so on. When I went out there to get something, I put my bare foot into a squishy puddle of water where no water had any right to be.

I quickly tracked the flow back to its source: the top of the water heater where the outflow pipe exits the tank. I turned off the water valve, cut the breaker on the heater, and then Dymphna and I gathered as many rags and towels as we could find to pile around the base of the tank.

That heater held forty gallons, however, and by the time it bled out the following morning it had exceeded the capacity of all those rags. The floor of the mud room was sodden from wall to wall. It looked like a duck pond in training.

I called the main plumbing outfit in the small town nearest us as soon as they opened. They’re pretty good about fast action in emergencies, and the woman at the desk managed to track down a forty-gallon heater in Charlottesville, and then sent a guy out to install it that afternoon — we didn’t have to wait until Monday, thank the Lord!

The old heater was inside a cabinet, which had to be dismantled first. Then the new heater was brought in, and a couple of hours later we had hot water again.

Thanks to the generosity of Gates of Vienna readers, that is. We still had enough money in the bank account left over from the summer fundraiser to write the check for that water heater.

Since the old heater was in bad shape — we had to take 30-second showers or baths in a half-filled tub — we now have the luxury of an ample hot water supply.

All of our generous readers may picture me now, sitting in a tub full of steamy hot water, still wearing my pickelhaube whilst pushing my rubber duckie around in a billowing cloud of lavender-scented bubble bath.

That’s your doing. It’s your donation dollars at work.

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The story of the Great Schloss Bodissey Boiler Explosion doesn’t end there, however. The aftermath continued for almost a week.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/29/2012

The poet Mohammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami has been sentenced to life in prison in Qatar for insulting the emir. The trial was held in secret, and the defendant was not allowed to have counsel. He has a week to appeal his conviction.

In other news, the UN General Assembly voted to upgrade the non-member observer status of “Palestine”. The United States voted against the resolution, but many Western countries, including Italy, voted in favor of it. Others such as Britain abstained from voting to avoid angering their Muslim minorities.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, JP, KGS, Kitman, McR, 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.

One-Sided Indoctrination in Montreal Schools

The following guest-essay by Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney was published previously in a somewhat shorter form at FrontPage Mag.

Freedom of Expression Challenged in Montreal Classroom
by Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney

Indoctrinating high school students with anti-American and socialist bias is just the beginning when it comes to losing our right to freedom of expression

It has just come to my attention that the Bush-bashing 2004 documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, written and directed by American liberal filmmaker and political commentator Michael Moore, has been added to my daughter’s high school curriculum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Surprisingly, no other viewpoints were presented to counterbalance this extremely anti-American biased film, in which Moore directs all his disapproval against American society. By showing only one side, the school has not only endorsed Moore’s film and all it represents, but it has also denied its students freedom of expression.

Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 accuses former President George W. Bush of looking the other way while terrorists were plotting 9/11 and while they were reorganizing after the attack, for his own political and financial gain. No blame is placed on al-Qaeda or any other Islamic terrorist group, which suggests that the United States is as morally corrupt as al-Qaeda, the Taliban or any other jihadist terrorist organization. The students of Current Politics walked out of this film with a very one-sided biased viewpoint, hating America. And this view is further reinforced by a socialist agenda that is being pushed in class by the same teacher who, like the multi-millionaire Moore, is against the capitalist nature of American society.

Is this how we want to raise our children, exposing them to only one narrow viewpoint that hates Western values? We live in a country that gives us the right to express our opinions and beliefs freely without censorship. So why not expose students to a fuller spectrum of thought with alternative views? This is especially significant today, when Western values such as free speech are being threatened — as evidenced by last year’s adoption of hate speech laws in the form of UN Resolution 16/18, thanks to the support of the Obama administration.

This resolution, sponsored by the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which consists of 57 Islamic states, seeks to restrict free speech by criminalizing any criticism of Islam, whether that criticism is true or false. Here’s some context for the OIC: its main goal has been to make Islamophobia an international crime. For decades it has been relentlessly pursuing UN resolutions that would criminalize any speech about Islam. Finally in 2005, the OIC drafted its “ten-year plan” that lists the many challenges Islam must overcome, free speech being one of them.

According to author and expert on Islam Robert Spencer, “punishing those who criticize Islam is in accord with classic elements of Islamic law, which mandates that criticism of Allah or Mohammed or the Koran is punishable by death.” Shariah or Islamic Law, which forbids any criticism of Islam, has therefore been implemented with the adoption of this resolution. Although not “legally” binding and not proclaimed into full force — not just yet — this resolution could very likely become international law if it passes repeatedly in future years, especially if it passes in more than one UN body. In fact, earlier this year, UN Resolution 16/18 passed once again in the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council, as Resolution 19/25.

For those of us living in Western democracies who think we need not worry about losing our right to free speech, under the naïve assumption that it is fully and permanently protected by our country’s set of rules that govern speech laws (like the First Amendment in the US or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) — well, think again. These sets of rules do not necessarily grant our rights and freedoms permanent immunity from the implacable resolve of Islamic organizations such as the OIC that seek to restrict our freedoms with their Shariah agenda. There are ways around the First Amendment that could make this resolution legally binding, thereby reducing free speech protection. According to Robert Spencer, “all it takes is five judges on the Supreme Court and the First Amendment can be effectively defanged.”

Shame on the British Government!

Below is a subtitled video of Alain Wagner’s speech in Paris last Saturday (November 24, 2012) condemning the British government’s political persecution of Tommy Robinson.

The occasion was a demonstration in solidarity with Tommy in front of the statue of Sir Winston Churchill, with several different anti-sharia organizations in attendance.

A translated transcript is below, followed by the original French:

Hello and thank you for coming.

We are gathered here to talk about Tommy Robinson, an advocate of human rights who denounces Sharia law in his country and the fact that political activists and religious leaders threaten the safety of their citizens, the security of their country, and at the same time the security of democracy, freedom of expression, to which we are all committed.

We are here to say that the British government is unworthy of a democratic country, and violates the freedom of expression of its citizens, locked them up in prison to prevent them from telling the truth, lock them up in prison in violation of the basic rights of citizens in the EU.

Today in Britain, Human rights are violated. Shame to Britain ! The country of Democracy, of the Parliament, which now behaves as a country of the communist era. And throw in prison people who have done nothing but expressing themselves, giving their opinions on what is right, which is part of human rights, and thus locking people up for crimes of opinion, in isolation in harsh conditions, while at the same time they release terrorists. Tommy Robinson is a political prisoner. Today, in a democratic country we have political prisoners. We are here to show our support and say to the British government: “we know what you’re doing”. Britain is a country that has signed international agreements. This is Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights signed by Britain. This is an international treaty that Britain is required to comply with. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right includes freedom to express opinions and freedom to receive and impart information and ideas, without any interference from a public authority.

Out of Wandsworth — For Now

Tommy Robinson is being moved from Wandsworth to Bedford. Here’s the latest news from the EDL:

Update from Tommy

Tommy was at Luton Magistrates today for failing to hand his passport in on time, relating to a football incident. The Judge threw it out and said it was a waste of time.

One down and several more to go! But the good news is that from Luton Magistrates he has been moved to Bedford Prison until his January hearing, when he will more than likely end up back at Wandsworth.

He is en route from the Court to the Prison and should be arriving about 1730 UK time [i.e. about 15 minutes from the time of this posting].

Local leaders of the EDL say they will be arranging demos outside Bedford Prison for Tommy.

Tommy Robinson: Fanfare for the Common Man

Our British correspondent JP sends his contribution to the Free Tommy movement.

As he says, “The following quotation seems appropriate to Tommy Robinson’s incarceration — ‘abilities and enthusiasm of the common man’.”

From On War, by Carl von Clausewitz, Everyman’s Library, 1993, pp.9-10:

States wishing to preserve their independence must become more efficient in tapping the energies of their populations. Elites existed in every society, and were justified so long as they strengthened the community, remained open to talent, and rewarded merit. But nothing could justify the continuation of privilege that protected mediocrity while depriving the state of the abilities and enthusiasm of the common man.

Starting to Clear Away the Mess

Autumn Fundraiser 2012, Day Four

The Situation

It’s Day Four of our Autumn Quarterly Fundraiser. I was feeling rather down about the level of donations during the first part of our bleg; things were slower than usual and I wondered if post-election depression had set in. Were our readers truly bummed by Obama’s re-election? Had they finally thrown in the towel, essentially saying “what the hell; my efforts make no difference?”

Then the Baron wrote his begging post yesterday and things picked up today. I am most heartened by those who read his words and responded so promptly; y’all provided a real boost when he needed it. Not that we’re yet at our usual quarterly level we need to survive, but it looks a lot more hopeful than it did when he wrote his piece early yesterday morning.

Here’s the main problem from my point of view: Gates of Vienna is the Baron’s central reason for getting up in the morning. It is his child, his present and his future; in it is contained his intense hope that Gates of Vienna’s contribution to the larger effort to salvage our culture will make a difference. No, we do NOT work alone, nor would we ever want to do that. How sad that would be, to feel that Gates of Vienna was just about him.

There are so many people streaming through the Gates from all over the world! This phenomenon never fails to amaze and to move me: that each year the numbers of knowledge-brokers who show up, information in hand and ready to share, increases so remarkably. Yet I also can’t help but notice the price he pays, the toll it is taking on the Baron over time.

My favorite philosopher said that the worst thing about poverty is the way it limits your choices. In this case, the lack of funding he’d need simply to hire an assistant, someone who would be the first filter for the mountains of emails and information that comes over the transom in order to get it in shape more quickly so that it could be disseminated that much faster. Alas, that’s not going to happen. We are not independently wealthy, nor are we ever likely to be funded by wealthy groups, given our outspoken views on cultural issues. Of necessity, we remain dependent on our donors to keep the lights on.

So we are fortunate that the Baron has a talent for organizing information, not to mention the many streamlining tricks and shortcuts he’s developed in order to continue this as a one-person operation. It has gotten to the point, though, that sometimes now he has to turn down requests, or asks those who would contribute their ideas to wait in line while he deals with what is in front of him. It can be a long wait. Some things simply fall through the cracks, but it can’t be helped. He already works seven days a week never less than twelve hours a day, and often more. If he didn’t have that stamina, or if he didn’t have the skill for creating shortcuts and workarounds, or if he didn’t believe deeply in what he does, Gates of Vienna wouldn’t be able to maintain the output it does with the consistency that it does.

When you donate money to keep this project going, you are energizing him and you’re building on the certainty he has that what he’s doing is exactly what he should be doing. Most important, you are pushing back against a determined enemy who would like to shut us (and other Counterjihadists) down permanently.

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I asked for the theme we’re using for our Autumn Fundraiser: the Aftermath. Among other things, I wanted to focus on the disaster of the recent presidential campaign and its likely effects on conservatism in this country. Not Republican office holders but conservative citizens who care deeply about preserving what is left of our Constitution.

Like many conservatives who voted for Mitt Romney, I did so only because I wasn’t given another choice. I swore that if he lost — and given his utterly inept campaign, I didn’t think he deserved to win — then I would be joining the millions of other frustrated, angry people on the right who are sick unto death of the current Republican Party. Along with them, I would find some other way to eject from power the malignant socialist juggernaut bent on smashing our republic.

Bill Whittle spoke recently to a group gathered for David Horowitz’ Restoration Weekend. What he had to say aligns exactly with the feelings of many of us who watched Mitt Romney fumble repeatedly, as though he were bent on losing. I love this fantasy of Whittle’s — what a conservative president, would say were he in charge:

Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/28/2012

Germany is about to outlaw sex with animals. The old law against bestiality was repealed in 1969, but a recent craze for barnyard romance plus the rise of animal “pimping” has made the new law necessary. Zoophile advocacy groups are protesting the government’s decision.

In other news, as a solution to its fiscal difficulties, the city of Detroit is considering dissolving itself and merging with the surrounding Wayne County.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, Steen, The Observer, TV, 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.

No Halal for Eskilstuna Schools

Not all Swedish schools are willing to surrender to the demands and provide halal food in their cafeterias. The school commissioner in this news story from Eskilstuna says that the food they serve is adequate for all children, and refuses to consider the additional expense and trouble of providing halal.

Needless to say, local Muslims are unhappy with his “intolerance”, and are threatening a lawsuit.

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

For Slandering Islam, Terry Jones Must Die

Pastor Terry Jones, the pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has been sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court. Also sentenced along with Rev. Jones were Mark Basseley Youssef, the maker of the notorious Mohammed movie, and six other U.S.-based Egyptian Christians, including a woman who converted from Islam to Christianity.

Everyone should note that this judicial farce was composed and performed in glorious utopia of post-revolutionary Egypt, the Jewel of the Arab Spring, the new democratic heartland of the recently freed Arab world, a land ruled with justice and mercy by none other than President Mohamed Morsi of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the darling of President Barack Hussein Obama.

The charge against the eight defendants, which carries a death sentence under Egyptian law, was “harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam, and spreading false information”.

Anyone who is familiar with shariah will recognize the above as ghiba, or slander, under Islamic law. Insulting Islam or the prophet is a form of ghiba, and is punishable by death.

To better understand what this means in an Islamic context, I’ll resort, as I often do, to ’Umdat al-salik wa ’uddat al-nasik, or The reliance of the traveller and tools of the worshipper. It is commonly referred to as Reliance of the Traveller when cited in English.

My citations are from the Revised Edition (published 1991, revised 1994) of “The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law ’Umdat al-Salik by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (d. 769/1368) in Arabic with Facing English Text, Commentary, and Appendices”, edited and translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller.

When the Muslim Brotherhood talking heads on TV tell us that there is no single version of shariah, but lots of different versions, they are engaging in sacred misdirection (kitman) — a perfectly lawful action under shariah. In actuality, Al-Misri’s codification is officially considered an authoritative source on Sunni Islamic law, because it is certified as such by Al-Azhar University in Cairo. There is no higher authority on Sunni Islamic doctrine than Al-Azhar; it is the closest equivalent to the Vatican that can be found in Islam.

Let’s take a quick look at what “slander” means to a devout Muslim. The following is from Reliance of the Traveller, book R. “Holding one’s tongue”, Section 2.0, “Slander (Ghiba), r2.1 (page 730):

Slander and talebearing are two of the ugliest and most frequently met with qualities among men, few people being safe from them. I have begun with them because of the widespread need to warn people of them.

r2.2:

Slander (ghiba) means to mention anything concerning a person that he would dislike…

r2.3:

As for talebearing… it consists of quoting someone’s words to another in a way that worsens relations between them.

This is not the common Western understanding of slander. According to the Islamic definition, to slander someone is to say something about him that he would not like.

Continuing with “Evidence of Prohibition”, r2.4:

The Lean Years

Autumn Fundraiser 2012, Day Three

As Dymphna mentioned on Monday, the theme of this quarter’s fundraiser is “Aftermath: In the Wilderness”. The proximate inspiration for this week’s theme was the recent reelection of Barack Hussein Obama, which has cast old-fashioned liberty-loving conservatives like us into something resembling the outer darkness.

But our theme has, as usual, expanded into other areas. My own aftermath might be said to have begun in 2006, when I lost my programming job. It wasn’t because of my “Islamophobia” — the blog was just getting started in those days — but a result of corporate changes in the company where I worked, plus the need to be closer to home to take care of Dymphna as her illness progressed. New programming jobs in our local area are rarer than hen’s teeth, so I’ve had to eke out a living as a sole proprietor doing a variety of things, taking whatever opportunities come along.

Which brings me to why we have to annoy our readers by begging for money for a week once a quarter.

I know at least four people in Britain who have lost their jobs after being outed as Counterjihad activists. Several others on the Continent are in the same boat. I’m also aware of three people here in North America whose jobs are at risk for similar reasons.

In other words, my situation is not that bad, relatively speaking. I have no career left to worry about, and I can write what I want — for the time being, as long as the First Amendment holds. But when I went fully public several years ago I effectively foreclosed any possible employment opportunities for myself doing anything other than menial jobs. A quick background search on my name would turn up all those dangerous Islamophobes I hang out with. Not to mention Breivik — with whom I never hung out, but that makes no difference, of course.

So, given my advanced age, plus the indelible stain with which I have sullied my name, I’ll be staying in this line of work from now on, supplementing it with whatever editing and programming jobs come my way via other members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

This is why we hammer on our readers once a quarter. If you like what we do, and think it is worthwhile, and want to see it continue, please make the tip cup on our sidebar clink with whatever mite you can spare after the government has vacuumed up most of your paycheck.

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If you want to see how bad an aftermath can get — in this case, the aftermath of July 22, 2011 — look at Norway. As The Observer reported yesterday, academics in Norway risk their careers if their writings are translated for Gates of Vienna, or even cited here with approval.

Malmö Firemen on Strike Against Cultural Enrichment

The “youths” of Rosengård, a culturally enriched neighborhood in the southern Swedish city of Malmö, regularly set fires and then attack the fire brigade when it arrives to put out the flames. Now Malmö’s firemen are considering a “sick-out” to protest these impossible working conditions.

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

Transcript:

Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/27/2012

A 10-year-old girl attracted the attention of the Finnish authorities by downloading an album by her favorite pop star from the Pirate Bay website. After tracking her IP address, the Helsinki police showed up at the door of her family’s apartment. Her parents are now liable for a €600 fine, and the police have confiscated her Winnie-the-Pooh laptop.

In other news, the violent protests against President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood continued in Cairo and smaller towns across Egypt. Meanwhile, Muslims in Malaysia have demanded that the singer Elton John be banned from entering the country because of his “immoral” behavior.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, RE, Seneca III, 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.

Bill Warner: Islam and the Golden Rule

Dr. Bill Warner appeared tonight on Michael Coren’s program to talk about what he means by “political Islam”, and why Islam is fundamentally and irreconcilably different from all other religions:

Hat tip: Flyboy

The OIC vs. the First Amendment

EMET just sent us the following announcement about its upcoming seminar on the OIC and the Istanbul Process. If you’re in the DC area next Monday, you may want to pay a visit to the Capitol Visitor Center.

The Endowment for Middle East Truth

is pleased to invite you to a policy seminar:

The Istanbul Process and the OIC’s Continuing Efforts to Implement Restrictions to Prevent the “Defamation of Islam”: Part II

Location:		Room HVC200, Capitol Visitor Center
		1st Street, Washington D.C
Time:		Monday, December 3rd, 2012
		12 p.m.-2p.m.
RSVP to:		Info@emetonline.org
		Lunch to be Served, Dietary Laws Observed
Featuring:		Clare Lopez, Senior Fellow, Center for Security Policy
		Sam Nunberg, Director, The Legal Project
		Deborah Weiss, Co-author of “Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Terrorist Network”
Moderated by:		Adam Turner, Staff Counsel, Endowment for Middle East Truth

On Monday, December 3, EMET will hold a panel discussion about “The Istanbul Process and the OIC’s Continuing Efforts to Implement Restrictions to Prevent the Defamation of Islam: Part II” on Capitol Hill. This is the second EMET panel to focus on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) continued push for UN resolutions calling on countries to criminalize what it terms “defamation of religion.”

The OIC is an association of 56 Islamic states and the Palestinian Authority, none of whom are functioning democracies or defenders of human rights. The OIC is the largest voting bloc in the United Nations, which has enabled its members to dominate UN policy and discussions. This is part of the reason why Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is supremely confident that a large portion of the UN General Assembly will back the PA’s Statehood bid.

No One Expects The Norwegian Inquisition!

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends his analysis of a minor controversy that has been raging within Norwegian academic circles for the past few days. As he says, “It paints a very clear picture of the political climate in Norway at the moment.”

The issue involves a Norwegian writer who had the misfortune to be approved of by Gates of Vienna. Two of his recent articles were translated and posted here, and this innocuous circumstance has put his career in jeopardy. He wrote us yesterday morning and asked that we take down his texts (for copyright reasons). I promptly complied.

This is not the first time that something like this has happened since the Butcher of Utøya did his grisly work on July 22, 2011. To have one’s writings approved by Gates of Vienna can be a death-knell for the career of a Norwegian academic. We are considered, as the Observer puts it, “virtual toxic plutonium” by the elites who run Norway. Our approval gives off a deadly radiation that any Norwegian academic will quite understandably want to avoid.

The calculus that drives these intellectual Inquisitions is strange, when you think about it. The logic runs something like this:

1.		Anders Behring Breivik liked Fjordman’s essays.
2.		Fjordman published his essays at Gates of Vienna.
3.		Therefore Gates of Vienna is a dangerous, extremist website to be shunned by all right-thinking people.

And the corollary, which brought on the present controversy:

4.		The writings of Dr. X were translated and posted at Gates of Vienna, which praised them.
5.		Therefore Dr. X is a dangerous, extremist author to be shunned by all respectable institutions and publications in Norway.

Yet this same logic could be extended much further. Let’s follow a different sequence of corollary statements:

4.		Baron Bodissey administers Gates of Vienna.
5.		Baron Bodissey admires and publicly praises the singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen.
6.		Therefore Leonard Cohen is a dangerous, extremist performer whose music should be shunned by all right-thinking people.

This level of absurdity will obviously never hold sway, a fact which highlights the double standard described below by The Observer. Anyone who expresses an incorrect opinion risks being lumped with Breivik through guilt-by-association, no matter how many tenuous degrees of connection have to be devised to achieve this purpose. If you live in Norway and hold an opinion that diverges even slightly from the Progressive Multicultural consensus, the Powers That Be are just waiting for you to put a foot wrong, after which you will experience that bowel-loosening moment when they pounce on you.

It’s a very effective means of squelching dissent and keeping would-be independent thinkers inside a constantly shrinking perimeter fence.

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Here’s what The Observer has to say about the Norwegian Inquisition:

The controversy involving the translation and publication of Alse Toje’s two articles on Gates of Vienna is interesting for a variety of reasons, and I intend to highlight a few of them.

I first became aware of the ‘controversy’ when I logged on to Fjordman’s Twitter page yesterday evening. Apparently another Twitter user, Sigve Indregard (co-author of the very dishonest book Motgift — “Antidote”) had caught wind that someone had translated two of Toje’s articles into English and posted them at GoV. Several other Norwegian Twitter users, whom I would describe as academics, followed suit and demanded that the author explain whether he had given his consent to the translation and the subsequent publication of his article on GoV.

The tweets were nothing but poorly disguised threats in which they, the inquisitors — without outright coming out and saying so — made it abundantly clear that they would instigate a smear campaign against Toje if he didn’t publicly distance himself from GoV and denounce the publication of his articles on said website.

Shortly thereafter Toje tweeted that several of Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s allies (one of the two articles dealt with Thomas Hylland Eriksen) had already started ‘hitling’ him, basically meaning that they had started using guilt-by-association techniques to smear him. Gates of Vienna is considered virtual toxic plutonium by the political correct elites in Norway following the events of July 22, 2011. For the author, an academic, to be associated with Gates of Vienna would be a very unwise career move.

There was actually an article in a Norwegian paper a few years ago which highlighted Toje’s difficulties in finding employment in Norway despite the fact that his credentials were a couple of notches above that of the average Norwegian academic. The reason for his difficulties was the simple fact that he had done some work for the FrP (Fremskrittspartiet, the Progress Party) and hence had become unpalatable for the politically correct academic establishment in the country.

The PC establishment in Norway is almost Stalinist in nature. One only needs to take a look at the Norwegian TV documentary Brainwash to find out that this is not an exaggeration. Most academics are based in Oslo, which is a tiny little city by international standards. Oslo is also a place where everybody knows everybody in academia. Step out of line in there or utter unacceptable truths, and the smear machinery of the elites will come down on you with full force.

An Open Letter on Tommy's 30th Birthday

Autumn Fundraiser 2012, Day Two

This is the second day of our Autumn Quarterly Fundraiser. It is also Tommy Robinson’s thirtieth birthday — the age I’ve always considered as the real beginning of one’s majority. This is where life gets serious. It’s a time for looking back and peering forward.

When Tommy looks back, he sees the Aftermath, the wasteland created in his own life by those in power. The authorities broke his business, took away his computers, harassed his parents in their home, damaged his car, froze his bank account and persecuted him relentlessly. All this for daring to call attention to the things that are deeply wrong in England. All this for demanding that England not to be sold off to its immigrants, that instead Englishmen be permitted to continue to live their proud heritage.

The USSR has moved from Russia to take up residence in England and the rest of the United Kingdom. God help the Brits, and particularly, God help Tommy.

You’re thirty years old today. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Could time have really moved so quickly, carrying you over the white-water rapids of your twenties to this moment? Are you beginning to feel mortal? Many of us are feeling quite mortal for you, even if you’re not.

It’s ironic that your third decade should begin in solitary confinement in Her Majesty’s prison. Given your naturally gregarious nature, this unjust incarceration probably wasn’t in your plans regarding the ways you’d considered to observe the passing of your twenties. Certainly you didn’t think you’d be so utterly alone? In the present moment I doubt it helps much to know that many people all over the world are observing it with you. After all, you can’t see them, nor can they wish you well in person.

Your imprisonment is unjust. We know that quite well, but none of us has any power to help change what is happening to your country or to you. We are hard put to stave off the damage to our own sovereign states. The system under which you live has become increasingly sovietized and impersonal, and you have become an impediment in the rapidly increasing process to make all of you the same.

You’re too much of an individual, Tommy. You’re ornery; you stick your neck out too far. If they cannot crush you and shove you back into line, you will jeopardize the project of leveling everyone into a predictable, passive and manageable sameness.

The one I think of today is your mother. This must be a desperately sad time particularly for her, this first birthday without you. No matter how old our children get their birthdays remain important. That’s a day you and she share in particular, and her memories of your arrival into the world — your first breath, the first time she held the surprising weight of you — are imprinted on her heart. That is why being forced to miss the beginning of your third decade must indeed be a sad occasion, though not nearly so sad as the uncertainty she experiences at not knowing how many more she will be forced to miss.

As many others do, I have the urge to give you something meaningful to mark the occasion, something that would cheer and comfort you, something you could cherish, and above all, something that no one could take away.

As it happens, I do have one small token to offer. Until the Baron told me it was your birthday I hadn’t thought of it as a gift, but now I see it fits perfectly for the occasion. Indeed, it is synchronous, because I received this same gift when I was just your age. It has proved to be of immense value in my own life and I hope it can be such a gift in yours.

One thing is certain: should you find this as useful as I have, then no amount of sorrow or loss can take it from you. You’ll find it an excellent companion no matter where you are or who is oppressing you.

I stumbled upon the efficacy of this prayer by accident. Subsequently, it was to grow on me and within me as the circumstances of my life changed. There have been many paths, some of which I could only see in retrospect. But no matter which road I chose, or which one seemed to choose me, the psalm stayed with me, always there in one form or another.

Let me present the psalm to you first, and then I’ll attempt to explain how it has functioned in my life. No doubt you know this one already, but here I’m asking that you learn to “know” it in a different way, a way that suits your coming of real age as you turn thirty. This version here is my own, though not on purpose. It just became itself under the many years’ use it was put to. Nor do I any longer remember what rendering I adapted for myself. Now, after decades of almost daily use, what you see is its current form. If you in turn pick it up as yours, the words will change again as you make it your own. However that turns out, the structure will remain. And it is through this structure I would have you learn by heart what the Psalmist was praying all those thousands of years ago:

Fjordman: My Meeting with Lars Vilks

Fjordman’s latest essay has been published at Vlad Tepes.Some excerpts are below:

I have been fortunate enough to meet several of the great personalities involved in the struggle against Islamic totalitarianism over the past few years. In 2012, I met two of them for the first time in southern Sweden. One of them was the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whom I met on October 27, 2012 during a visit to Malmö.

The other one was Lars Vilks, a Swedish art theorist and self-taught artist. His life was turned upside down after 2007, when he started drawing Islam’s founder Mohammad as a roundabout dog. This triggered several explicit death threats from Muslim groups. He has been living under police protection since then, especially following a statement from al-Qaida’s purported leader in Iraq offering a $100,000 dollar reward for his assassination.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/26/2012

The uproar in Britain continues over the removal of three "migrant" children from their foster parents because those parents dared to be members of - gasp! - UKIP. Check the "UK" section of the feed for a number of articles and opinion pieces on the scandal.

In other news, after Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) congratulated Hamas on its victorious ceasefire with Israel, Hamas responded by agreeing to release members of Fatah from prison in Gaza. This is part of an ongoing attempt by Fatah and Hamas to reconcile with each other.

Meanwhile, twelve men have been arrested by a Libyan militia for being gay. They may be mutilated and executed for their crimes.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Kitman, McR, 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.

Giving Voice to the Voiceless

“Whoever brings about a multiethnic state brings the society into a condition, at the very least, of a potential civil war.”

Our Canadian correspondent Rembrandt Clancy sends his translation of a speech by Manfred Kleine-Hartlage contained in a two-part, subtitled video, and accompanies it with his commentary. He notes:

Manfred Kleine-Hartlage posted the original (single video version) on his blog on 21 November 2012.

The occasion for the speech was Volkstrauertag (“People’s Mourning Day” or Day of Remembrance) in Berlin, before the Reichstag, on 18 November 2012. The speech seems to me to have some interest, and I have tried to retain the rhetorical devices in the translation.

First, the two parts of the subtitled video:

Part 1

Part 2

Rembrandt Clancy has provided context for Manfred Kleine-Hartlage’s speech, followed by the full text of the subtitles.

Manfred Kleine-Hartlage: Speech on Remembrance Day 2012
by Rembrandt Clancy

The German National Day of Mourning (Volkstrauertag or Remembrance Day) fell on 18 November of 2012. While always in mid-November, it is a moveable holiday in Germany. Among the main speakers at the three-hour event outside the Reichstag in Berlin was the political scientist, author and publicist Manfred Kleine-Hartlage (see his blog Korrectheiten). The civil rights party DIE FREIHEIT organised this first memorial of its kind (and not to be the last) to give a voice to the 7,500 Germans who since 1990 “…have become victims of immigrant violence … victims of a policy which is aimed at destroying the society”, says Kleine-Hartlage in his speech. He describes the policy of creating a multiethnic state as a “declaration of war [on the peoples of Europe] by their own elites”, hence a memorial for the fallen.

Mr. Kleine-Hartlage, who lives in Berlin, is currently well known among German counterjihadists for his book Das Dschihadsystem : Wie der Islam funktioniert (“The Jihad System: How Islam Works”: Resch Verlag, 2010). In 2011 he gave an interview on this very question at Gates of Vienna. Another contribution on “Global Governance” also appeared at Gates of Vienna. This latter essay, with its reference to “a global uniform civilization” and the concomitant “destruction of traditional patterns of values and loyalties”, is a good companion piece to the memorial speech below.

Another publication by Kleine Hartlage is Neue Weltordnung" — Zukunftsplan oder Verschwörungstheorie? (“New World Order — Future Plan or Conspiracy Theory”, 2011). He collaborated with Fjordman in the volume Europa verteidigen. Zehn Texte (“Defend Europe: Ten Texts”, 2011), and his latest book is Warum ich kein Linker mehr bin (“Why am no longer a Leftist”, 2012). Kleine-Hartlage reports on his above mentioned blog that he had been a member of the SPD (Social Democratic Party) in the 80s and 90s and had even supported red-green, although only out of habit, until he recognised leftist ideology was bent on the destruction of society, which in turn led him to a critical examination of Islamisation.

I would draw attention to just a few relationships which might be missed in the details after only one viewing. Written on the architrave of the Reichstag before which the speeches are given is the dedication DEM DEUTSCHEN VOLKE (“for the German People”) and the camera pans on the inscription at a few decisive moments. This inscription, with its word Volk, is a focal point of the talk:

What Happens to Political Undesirables?

George Igler of Discourse was on Ezra Levant’s program tonight to talk about the Rotherham foster-care scandal in the UK:

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

Human Shields, Israeli-Style

From Little Notes from Paris, via Vlad Tepes:

Israeli mother makes human shield during incoming rocket attack from Gaza

The Europe of Watchdogs

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends his translation of an op-ed from today’s Dagbladet. He says, “The political elites in Norway and Europe are clearly getting very worried indeed.”

Note: This week’s conference in Budapest is specifically directed against what it calls “Fjordmen” — which means that this blog and others like it are in the crosshairs.

Funded by the Council of Europe, the conference will train and bankroll “watchdogs” to keep an eye on the likes of us. They are nothing less than the secular European version of the OIC’s “Islamophobia Observatory”.

I say: Let them watch!

They can’t watch us more intently than the elites of Norway have been doing for the past sixteen months. The klieg lights have been in my eyes for more than a year. I’m used to them.

Let them watch! Let them read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest!

They will discover nothing more than the truth. It’s there for all to see.

Here’s what Dagbladet says:

The Europe of hatred

by Torgeir Larsen

State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, (AP — Labour Party)

Social crisis, mass unemployment and young people without future prospects breed hatred and intolerance in Europe. And the symbolic face of the European hatred is Norwegian.

If there is something we owe the victims of July 22, then it has to be to stand up against extremism and the ideology of hatred in our very own Europe. This week we are doing just that in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. That’s where we and the Council of Europe greet researchers, online activists, organizations, the Department of Facebook of Europe, the European Broadcasting Union and many others. The theme is the fight against hate speech and intolerance in the public sphere, particularly on social media and on the web where Norwegian and European “Fjordmen” and organizations such as the Prophet’s Ummah spread their message.

Fifty European bloggers will also be there. They will receive training that will enable them to become “watchdogs” on the net, and monitor, report and oppose those that spread hatred, because the backdrop of contemporary Europe gives cause for concern.

Mass unemployment characterizes the continent. One out of every four Spaniards is unemployed, in Greece one in five are unemployed, and these two countries are followed by a large number of other European countries with unemployment rates between 10 and 20 percent. Several central and eastern European countries are also affected, but that crisis receives less attention because they are not part of the eurozone.

My Friend Tommy

A slightly different version of the following article by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was originally published yesterday at the Free Tommy website.

My friend Tommy
by ESW

I first met Tommy in February 2010, when I was invited by the EDL to speak at one of their rallies in Luton. At first I was apprehensive about the event, not because of Tommy or the EDL, and most certainly not because of the reputation that preceded the EDL and its charismatic leader. I am not fond of the masses, scared of them.

However, I was impressed by the organizational skills exhibited by the EDL on the ground. Despite the EDL’s reputation of being made up of thuggish and drunk football hooligans, I can vouch that they are not thuggish, but rather beer-drinking football fans who just happen to love their country, contrary to the real thugs: the likes of Abu Qatada and the grooming gangs who roam the streets instilling the Koranic terror into the infidels. I was treated in a friendly and respectful manner; I felt safe at all times.

Tommy rocked the event. He has a knack for telling things as they are. He is not rude, not at all, but he is harsh in his criticism of the authorities’ complicity in the ongoing downfall of the United Kingdom.

Tommy’s and my paths have crossed again in the time since. The last time I saw him was in Brussels last summer. We convened at the European Parliament for a conference on human rights, the universal ones. Tommy was a speaker, among others, and once again he roused the audience. I greatly admire his steadfastness despite the authorities’ crackdown on the EDL and its members’ assets. It is a disgrace to our ancestors who died for our freedoms, the freedoms now carelessly thrown under the bus.

The Movement to Free Tommy Robinson

Update: an article about the Wandsworth demo was now been posted at the EDL website.

The “Free Tommy” movement is going strong in Western Europe. Demonstrations in support of the English Defence League leader took place last Saturday at the following locations:

• London — Wandsworth Prison
  
• Berlin — near the British Embassy and the Brandenburg Gate
  
• Hamburg
  
• Bielefeld
  
• Düsseldorf
  
• Paris — Winston Churchill statue
  
• Vienna — Outside the memorial to victims of the Gestapo

Interestingly enough, German Counterjihad activists are leading the charge. The new Free Tommy website already features a number of articles in its German-language section.

The new site was create in a hurry so that it could be ready for Tommy’s 30th birthday, which is tomorrow. If you haven’t sent him a card yet, you may address one to him here:

Stephen Lennon
A2084CG
HMP Wandsworth
Heathfield Road
Wandsworth
London
SW18 3HS
England

Even if it arrives a day or two late, I’m sure it will bring cheer to his cold cell in the dungeon of Wandsworth Prison.

Below are links to some of the coverage of Free Tommy Day at various European locations:

Aftermath: In the Wilderness

Autumn Fundraiser 2012, Day One: The Descending Darkness

All you old-timers know by now that each quarter’s Fundraising Octave has a theme…of sorts. These themes usually suggest themselves as the deadline for the new bleg approaches. They kind of meander over to us and suggest, sotto voce, what we might want to consider.

Not this time. Nuh-uh. The 2012 Autumn Fundraiser came flying in through the open window where I was sitting in the kitchen. The arrow to which it was attached made a mighty “THWACK” as it embedded itself into the soft pine of the long refractory table right next to the potted ivy geranium I’d just dug up from its summer place in the garden. For a split second I thought, “Uh-oh; those Early Woodland Indians have come to reclaim their spot…”

After all, this land did belong to them once — something I can’t forget — they won’t let me. Every time I dig in the flowerbeds broken arrowheads or other half-worked pieces appear amongst the other rocky fragments in the clay soil. It’s difficult to come upon one of those broken bits and not wonder about the long-disappeared person who’d begun to make an implement with the piece I’m holding. Sometimes when the piece is larger than usual or more finely worked, there’s a sense of connection. It’s not a great leap from that consideration to panning out to a larger picture — from this individual “who” to the tribe to which he belonged, to perhaps other nearby kin groups… and then to their eventual disappearance.

Fade to black, and who knows why? We can only guess at their eventual replacement by other, later, unconnected tribes. Oh, and yes indeed, you certainly do learn to think these things whilst still continuing to dig up those weeds or make that hole for the new rose bush.

So… what gives with that arrow firmly embedded in my kitchen table? While the symbolism might be a tad aggressive, it certainly got my attention. The paper tied with twine is cut off the shaft, unfolded and brought to the window for reading. It has a simple though pointed message: This is the aftermath. We’re entering a dark time.

Well, duh. We’re not just “entering” the dark, we’re already there. But I’d be hard put to pinpoint the exact moment I realized the urgent need for candles and matches. Or when the sense of foreboding rose to the point of being a palpable, pervasive, and permanent presence. By “permanent” I mean it is now part of my consciousness, and will be a part of my being for the rest of my life. Whether or not my children will live long enough to see something new and worthwhile emerge from the turmoil they must needs endure for the immediate future is an open question.

Now just because there is no end in sight doesn’t mean The End doesn’t lie ’round the next bend. Nor is there any way to tell if this ‘end’ is a cul de sac or if it opens out into something so novel and benign that we can’t imagine it right now.

The general consensus isn’t betting on rainbows and fertile valleys, however. It won’t even wager on children, for crying out loud.

For each of us (individuals, families, localities, etc., in other words, something corporate entity small enough to get our hearts and minds around ) this descent into darkness, this sad assent to the fact that we’re in some strange new territory that feels unsafe and ugly and alien is likely to have occurred in stages. Just as it doesn’t go from noon to twilight in a moment, so it is with the recognition of the Aftermath in which we are forced to live, like it or not. For all of us the content may differ but the process is sadly the same: some collection of events we’d hoped to avoid — or the failure of our hopes that other compensatory events would transpire to ameliorate the evil — culminates in a moment that Arthur Koestler called “Darkness at Noon”.^[1]

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Below is my own list of occurrences that brought me to this understanding of the Dysphonic Present we’re all facing. No doubt I’ve left out many equally serious episodes; one can only encompass a finite amount of bad news. Eventually, we numb out.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 11/25/2012

A suicide bomb attack at a church inside an army barracks in Nigeria killed at least eleven people, most of them members of the choir. Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Abuja, John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, called for talks between the government and the Islamic terror group Boko Haram. He says that there are no religious conflicts in Nigeria.

In other news, the Egyptian stock marked plunged in the wake of President Morsi’s recent assumption of near-dictatorial powers.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Kitman, Seneca III, 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.

On Rotherham and Racism

Prompted by the controversy over the foster children in Rotherham who were recently taken from their caregivers because the foster parents were members of UKIP, our English correspondent Seneca III weighs in with a few choice words for those who would destroy all meaningful communication with their anti-“racist” cant.

On Rotherham and Racism — Call me Racist if You Wish

by Seneca III

I am sick and tired of me and mine being beaten with the ‘Racist’ stick at every twist and turn of the way we choose to live our way of life. I am going to put the (non-)meaning of that word, Racism! into its proper perspective and damn the Thought Police. I have had enough.

Preamble

An inadequate or corrupted vocabulary can be pregnant with consequences.

Language ► noun 1 (mass noun) the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured or conventional way:
2 the system of communication used by a particular community or country. (OED)

Dialectic ► noun 1 (mass noun) the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions:
2 enquiry into metaphysical contradictions and their solutions. (OED)

The word ‘right’ (wing), and the scurrilous labelling so beloved of the media and the chattering classes such as ‘far right’, ‘fascist’ and ‘racist’, are essentially meaningless terms. The dichotomy between the socio-political left and the socio-political right, whilst widely accepted as a given, simply has no definition. Only the ideas and political morality of the ‘left’, and hence the use of that word, can be defined, for they can be traced back to those who originally sat on the left side of the French National Assembly, the bicameral parliament established in 1791 following the French Revolution — which gave birth to the ‘Committee for Public Safety’ under Robespierre and the subsequent ‘Reign of Terror’ during 1793-94.

The term ‘right’, however, has no traceable origins; it is essentially a chimera, a creation of the left for the purpose of describing those, the fallen, who are not of themselves, who do not in whole or in part share their world view, their vision of how human affairs should be conducted.

Nor, as it would at first appear, is this relationship a linear one where one grouping is on one side or the other. The reality is that in their unbending certitude the left have come, by either omission or commission, to position themselves in what could best be described as a state of moral and intellectual stasis, virtually a Ptolemaic, heliocentric view of the political universe whereby they are the Sun at the centre of everything and the rest of us exist in various shades of ideological darkness somewhere in the void beyond their warm, central fire.

The left maintain, defend and expand this position by the use and misuse of language in order to cripple dialectic and demonise those who do not share their enlightenment, those who differ from the self-anointed. We may be Free Market Libertarians, Monarchists, Judeo-Christians, Secularists, Islamophobes, Identitarians or Statists of any persuasion. Indeed, we may be any and all who have not taken Communion at their recidivist, totalitarian altar — we are the benighted.

A Rosetta Stone for Bill Warner, Part 12: Turkish

This is the twelfth in a series of subtitled versions of a seminar given by Dr. Bill Warner in Tennessee several months ago.

Dr. Warner’s well-documented research on the history of Islam has sparked so much interest on both sides of the Atlantic that fourteen dedicated readers (so far) have stepped forward and volunteered to translate it into other languages.

The Turkish version of Dr. Warner’s talk is below, and Russian and Danish are in the pipeline.

Many thanks to Sananda (zEyNeL)® for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Arabic	German	Russian *
Czech	Hungarian	Slovak
Danish *	Norwegian	Spanish
English	Polish	Swedish
French	Portuguese	Turkish

(* = assigned but not yet received; † = received but not yet posted)

The English transcript is available here.

Turkish transcript:

“The Visionary Times Are Over”

Below are excerpts from a Swiss documentary about the current economic and social crisis that has enveloped most of Europe. The filmmaker visited interviewed Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and Marine Le Pen of the Front National in France, as well as Greeks made desperate by their country’s debt crisis and culturally enriched residents of Marseille who live amidst criminality and lawlessness.

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

A transcript of the excerpts is below the jump. The time stamps shown are from the original video, which may be viewed here.

Free Tommy Robinson Demo in Düsseldorf

As reported earlier, yesterday was “Free Tommy Day” all across Western Europe in support of Tommy Robinson, the imprisoned leader of the English Defence League.

Below is a video of the demonstration that was held in Düsseldorf by the German Defence League. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this clip:

A video of the Berlin demo is here.

A Massive Political Lie

Pat Condell on Hamas, Israel, and “peace” in the Middle East:

Hat tip: Steen.

Free Tommy Robinson Demo in Berlin

As we reported last night, yesterday was “Free Tommy Day” all across Western Europe in solidarity with Tommy Robinson, the imprisoned leader of the English Defence League.

Below is a video of the demonstration mounted in Berlin by the German Defence League. Many thanks to Nick for taking this video footage, Vlad Tepes for uploading it:

So Now We Have a Hudna

Our Israeli correspondent MC sends the latest from the front lines in Sderot. In the aftermath of the November 21 ceasefire with Hamas, residents of Sderot have returned to waiting mode, knowing that they haven’t seen the last of rockets from Gaza.

MC includes this brief note with his report:

I wrote this fragment on the day of the ceasefire as we sat waiting for the violations. It was a strange time, rather surreal in fact; the psychological wind-down for us all was profound. It took about two days to stop listening for the incoming missiles etc.

We have had enough contributed now for our Hanukkah celebration to go ahead. We have done this for the last five years to keep a community profile; it also enables us to ensure that some of the local children get ‘supervised’ full bellies (even if it is hotdogs and doughnuts).

We have had quite a lot of media interest as a result of the extra publicity, plus some offers of fundraising. I assume this is a result of your efforts, so a BIG THANK-YOU for all your efforts.

Readers are reminded that the Sderot badge on our sidebar leads to a page where contributions may be made to “Hope for Sderot”. The site has been experiencing problems, so if it is down when you click the link, please keep trying.

So now we have a hudna
by MC

So now we have a hudna. It allows Hamas to lick its wounds and start restocking for the next time. Here in Sderot we are waiting for the ceasefire violations.

Whilst Hamas crows about its propaganda victories in the “baby-killing wars”, aided and abetted by the likes of the liberal media and the Vatican, we have to get on with life. This time the physical damage has not been huge, but the psychological and economic damage are significant.