Gates of Vienna

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/31/2012

Traveling Shoes and Answers

Michael Coren on the Shafia Case

No Christians Wanted in Vollsmose

“Bring it on, Baby!”

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/30/2012

Ezra Levant on the Shafia Verdict

The Dream of Islam

Diana West: The C-SPAN Interview

Shafia Verdict: Guilty on All Counts

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/29/2012

Breivik: Al Qaeda’s Man in Oslo?

YouTube Cracks Down on British Freedom

Islamonausea, Not Islamophobia

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/28/2012

Is the Mass Murderer Anders Behring Breivik Insane? Part 2

When is a Swede Not a Swede?

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/27/2012

Marine Corps Terrorist Wannabe Gets 25 Years

Norway Renames Itself

The Shafia Case Goes to the Jury

Dubious Privileges for Islam in Hamburg

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

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/26/2012

The Saga of Omar Khadr

Satanic Censorship

Race-Based Gang Attack in Perth

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/25/2012

Multiculturalism and Hypocrisy

A National Tragedy

“There is Nothing Left for us Danes”

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/24/2012

Driving the Danes Out of the Area

Ideologies That Have No Basis in Reality

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/23/2012

More on Croatia and the EU

Achieving the Aims of Muslims

A Very Dangerous Process

“Everyone Knows Why”

A Child-Rapist From a Respectable Family

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/22/2012

Croatia Joins the EUSSR

Paying the Price

How to Return Fear to Israel

NO to 70 Million

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/21/2012

Update on the Norwegian Niqab School Tour

Death Comes to Nigeria (Again)

Spit on Them, Then Kill Them

Welcome to Britain!

The Lions of Allah Among the Lambs of Norway

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/20/2012

A Victim Speaks Out

Latin American Jihad in Norway?

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/19/2012

A Conversation With A Liberal

The Controversy Over the PST

The FBI Joins the Investigation in Houston

Iran Threatens to Use Terror Against the West

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/18/2012

Shakeup at the PST

Update on the Murder of Gelareh Bagherzadeh

Murder in Houston

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/17/2012

Is the Mass Murderer Anders Behring Breivik Insane? Part 1

Happy Multicultural Year, New Norway!

Four More Mosques: Busted!

Culturally Enriched Domestic Abuse in Sandnes

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/16/2012

OIC: “The Islamophobes Are Too Much For Us”

Veiling the Police in Norway

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/15/2012

An Alarming Trend Across the Continent

Creating a Sane Society

How To Destroy A Country — Part 3

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/14/2012

Resisting the Imposition of Foreign Law

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a Totalitarian Movement”

Interview with Fjordman: Europe is the Sick Man of the World

How To Destroy A Country — Part 2

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/13/2012

2012-01-31T23:59:00.002-05:00

This, 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.

2012-01-31T20:30:00.001-05:00

Y’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.

Yes, our donors are generous, and, yes, the freelance editing we do helps a great deal. But taken together, these weren’t quite enough to avoid dipping into our savings. As the bottom line continued to dwindle, I couldn’t help wondering whether we were on the right path. Yet I also couldn’t — and can’t - envision our life without Gates of Vienna, despite that insistent economic reality. So, as I always do when faced with this kind of question, I began to search for some indication that we were indeed still on the right path.

It works like this: The Decision — whatever term one uses, it’s essentially a Quo Vadis query — goes at the top of a sheet of copy paper. This is used for a week or ten days during which time I note whatever appears regarding my question. These indicators can be big flashing lights or small, subtle signs. Obviously the Big Ones weigh more heavily in reaching A Decision.

In this case, leaving aside all the small signs which showed up that week, here are two we couldn’t miss: the first was this new job in a field The Baron loves and has missed dearly. It is also one he can do from home while still maintaining Gates of Vienna and his other commitments.

The second indicator arrived in the form of a most generous gift which (if editing jobs and donations stay the same) permit us to let our savings alone for the immediate future.

Using this method to arrive at A Decision has, without fail, provided answers of startling clarity. Though I haven’t been happy in all cases to discern what needed doing, I can’t complain about ambiguity; there isn’t any. The answers certainly do get my attention. They are lucidity in the moment, which is all I need.

And should the necessity to ask another question slowly reappear, I’ll know it eventually, too, even though I may procrastinate as long as possible before getting out that piece of paper.

2012-01-31T14:00:00.001-05:00

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:

2012-01-31T12:50:00.001-05:00

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.

“The windows in my car were smashed twice after that. They began to call me and my family on the phone, only to slam down the receiver when we answered. I was threatened that there would be serious consequences if I did not change religion. And I was called a religious traitor.”

The police then determined that Massoud was in such a danger that he was equipped with an emergency alarm phone 24 hours a day, and his home was equipped with increased surveillance. The police assessment proved to be true.

“We were going to a church service in Copenhagen one day, and just before we came out on the highway, my right front wheel began to rattle. It appeared that someone loosened the lug nuts on it. It could have ended fatally.”

The children were not allowed to play alone

From now on it was clear to Massoud that someone wanted him dead. And thoughts about what could happen to him and his family began to spin around in Massoud’s head.

“We were all very tense. The children were not allowed to go out to play alone anymore. My work and the fact that my girls did not wear a headscarf meant that they were bullied. Additionally, the children became nervous when I came home late.”

So after living in Vollsmose for more than ten years the family made the inevitable decision in November 2010.

“It was really unpleasant to have to move, and I was very much in doubt, because it sends the wrong signal. But I had to submit. It was all about the safety of my children and my family.”

Today the family is living in a sheltered housing at an undisclosed location in Odense, and life in Vollsmose still characterizes their everyday living.

“I’m still afraid if there is someone behind me in the evening, and every morning I always take a walk around my car just to see if there is anything suspicious.”

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

2012-01-31T11:05:00.001-05:00

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.

2012-01-30T23:59:00.002-05:00

The 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.

2012-01-30T23:27:00.001-05:00

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:

2012-01-30T22:51:00.002-05:00

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.

Islam is only concerned with what’s on the surface, with publicly visible behavior. As long as a Muslim is seen to obey Allah’s law, and fulfills his express public duties, Islam is satisfied.

Sharia is actually about what serves the interests of Islam. Anything that serves the interests of Islam is halal, “permitted”. Sometimes it’s even mandatory.

One of the most important meta-rules in Islam is that any commands in the Koran may be overridden temporarily, provided that doing so helps expand the territory governed by sharia. The interests of the entire Ummah trump any particular Islamic rule of behavior.

That’s what taqiyya is all about. That’s why slaughtering innocents is fine, as long as it helps expand the reach of Islam.

Once the world is fully Islamic, all the rules will be fully enforced.

On everyone.

With no exceptions.

Forever.

That’s the dream of Islam.

2012-01-30T19:50:00.001-05:00

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.

2012-01-30T18:24:00.001-05:00

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.

“This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy,” he said to cheers of approval from onlookers.

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

Shafia’s first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar’s room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.

Shafia’s first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and “made life a torture,” while his second wife called her a servant.

The prosecution presented wiretaps and mobile phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing allegation. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

“There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this,” Shafia said on one recording. “Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor.”

Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

Shafia’s lawyer, Peter Kemp, said after the verdicts that he believes the comments his client made on the wiretaps may have weighed more heavily on the jury’s minds than the physical evidence in the case.

“He wasn’t convicted for what he did,” Kemp said. “He was convicted for what he said.”

If you watch this video, compiled from several news reports on Canadian TV, you’ll hear culturally enriched hecklers calling the prosecutor a liar and shouting other abuse as he gives a public statement outside the courthouse.

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

2012-01-29T23:54:00.002-05:00

Hamid 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.

2012-01-29T20:18:00.002-05:00

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:

Breivik expected to be tortured in prison, and in his manifesto he describes how to mentally prepare for this. This is also outlined in great detail by Al Qaeda.
In his first court appearance he complained that the isolation felt like “torture.”
An Al Qaeda manual found in Manchester in 2005 included descriptions of how terrorist members should act in court. According to the manual it is imperative to claim that tortured is being administered.
The 32-year-old outlines the qualities of a “perfect knight” who carries out a terrorist attack, and he stresses that one must expect to become a martyr. Al Qaeda also lists several requirements for their own terrorists, including the willingness to sacrifice their own lives.
Breivik describes numerous safety measures in the planning and implementation phase. These measures are very similar to the instructions found in the Al Qaeda manuals.

“There are many aspects of the manifesto which are inspired by Al Qaeda. Among other things, how to avoid being detected by the security services and how to implement safety measures,” Ranstorp says.

Wanted to film

In his manifesto Breivik expresses great admiration for Al Qaeda and the methods they use, which he sees as highly successful.

In police conversations, Breivik has also drawn parallels between Islamists and the Templar organization he claims to be a member of.

Among other things he wanted to film the killings of his “primary targets” on Utøya, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jonas Gahr Støre and Marte Michelet.

He wanted to send these tapes to various news agencies, thus creating fear.

“The main goal, as is the case with Al Qaeda, is to get the message out. An organization with limited funds needs to make use of psychological warfare,” Breivik stated in police interrogations.

Al Qaeda has not been a subject in the interrogations, according to defense lawyer Geir Lippestad.

The lawyer says that he has never spoken to Breivik about Al Qaeda.

“I can confirm that he behaves politely and follows all the rules in prison, but why he acts this way and whether it has something to with Al Qaeda are only speculations, Lippestad says.

Hat tip: Fjordman.

2012-01-29T19:17:00.000-05:00

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.

The European Union has offered to host the next meeting of the Istanbul Process which relates to the OIC campaign against freedom of expression. If the European Union bows to OIC pressure on this subject then it means that very significant legislative changes might occur in European states that could put democracy itself in serious danger. The issue of freedom of expression is therefore the subject on ongoing political debate and materials like the film Fitna is an important component of that debate. Censorship of this film could be seen as an attempt to stifle debate on a subject of significant public interest. YouTube’s action against the British Freedom YouTube channel may cause some people to conclude that YouTube is effectively taking sides in an extremely significant political debate.

We call upon YouTube to take a position of political impartiality and reinstate the British Freedom channel with the film Fitna included on it.

Here’s a Liveleak version of Fitna.

2012-01-29T10:49:00.001-05:00

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.

The many calls for hatred, violence and killing of non-Muslims commanded by the faultless Koran are outright disgusting. Imagining the pinnacle of evolution being a planet-sized Islamic caliphate is not only a complete embarrassment to the human race; it may also make one lose one’s appetite.

[…]

Prevalence

The first use of the word that I have been able to trace, is from 7 July 2005, in a comment on this website, Jihadwatch.org.

Here, a person calling himself Sheik Canuck, writes in a comment to an article on Muslims’ positive reaction to the Islamic suicide bombings in London that same day:

“I don’t have islamophobia, I have islamoNausea, I’m sick of them all.”

The first time it occurred in a Danish newspaper was in a letter by this writer in Nordjyske Stiftstidende on December 30th 2011, entitled “We have nausea“.

The term attracted some attention when the comedian, atheist and Islam critic Pat Condell used it in a video from 2009 called “Apologists for evil.”

Islamonausea deserves its own article on Wikipedia. Help get Islamonausea into our dictionaries by using the word on blogs, in articles and in Letters to the Editor, and in everyday speech.

Read the rest at Jihad Watch, which also has the embedded links.

2012-01-28T23:47:00.001-05:00

A 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.

2012-01-28T21:52:00.001-05:00

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.

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.

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”.

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.

Another possibility, which is at least as likely, is that he is lying to himself; or rather, he is genuinely incapable of distinguishing fiction from reality. If this is correct, Breivik lives in a world where fantasy is mixed with reality to such an extent that the differences have become blurred and meaningless. He therefore refers to imaginary persons and events that exist only inside his mind, while ignoring events or conversations that have actually occurred in real life. If this is the case, it represents a clear-cut indication of serious mental illness.

As one reader commented, a schizophrenic is unable to tell the difference between internal and external so he externalizes what he sees inside his head, mixing real with imaginary events until he is unable to tell the difference. From an early point in the case he suspected that Breivik suffered from this illness. Comments in ABB’s manifesto about how slutty his mother and sister were, and that they had venereal diseases, are highly revealing. The journals of schizophrenics frequently contain such statements, whereas the writings of saner egomaniacs rarely do.

Journal-keeping is spontaneous behavior amongst many schizophrenics, who desperately try to create some semblance of order out of the chaos of disjointed thoughts and impressions rushing around inside their minds. Modern brain scans indicate abnormal activity among people suffering from this type of mental illness.

Breivik expected that the Norwegian police would execute his family after the terror attacks, and is disappointed that he has not been treated as an ideological prisoner, merely as a common criminal. He also believed he would be executed without a trial, and that he would be tortured in jail. He claims to have trained himself to withstand torture.

Scandinavian prisons are internationally renowned to provide criminals with some of the most humane — critics says “soft” — treatment in the world. Breivik should have known this, since he grew up in Norway. You have to have an extremely twisted view of reality to believe there is widespread torture in Scandinavian prisons, and that the Norwegian police execute the families of criminals.

Torgeir Husby and Synne Sørheim stress Anders Behring Breivik’s extreme narcissism, his complete lack of empathy with other human beings and above all his “total lack of self-criticism” (page 64). They describe (page 58 of the report) Breivik’s brick of a manifesto as being “almost pathetically egocentric”, where he writes about banal details from his life nearly from birth until the summer of 2011. In his manifesto, ABB claims to be a hero and the Savior of Europe: “A perfect example which should be copied, applauded and celebrated.” Husby and Sørheim emphasize the banality of his manifesto, specifically those parts of it most clearly written by himself.

On the other hand, these court-appointed psychiatrists consider it “delusional” when Breivik mentions the possibility of future civil wars in Europe due to mass immigration in general and Muslim immigration in particular. They have received a lot of criticism for drawing these conclusions, and I agree with their critics in part. We can already see rising ethnic tensions in many Western countries, caused mainly by the largest and fastest migration waves in human history. Extrapolating from this situation to predict the likelihood of serious ethnic conflicts in the near future is, unfortunately, not paranoia.

The two doctors have also been extensively criticized in the press for downplaying the influence of Islam-critical writers claimed to be his ideological mentors by members of the political Left, among them myself. Yet out of several hundred pages in the original psychiatric report, the single reference to me may be found on page 173, where Breivik mentions in passing that “The author Fjordman writes a whole lot between the lines, but everyone understands that. This is not aimed at me personally.”

Breivik’s manifesto of more than 1500 pages has been described as remarkably empty of real content and full of internal contradictions, at least within the material deriving from his own mind. His contributions reveal intimate and nasty personal details about friends and family — not particularly knightly behavior for an allegedly perfect knight.

I have not yet read his entire manifesto, but I have a fair idea of what it contains, thanks to references from others and quotes in the press. Based on these excepts, it is frequently quite obvious when Breivik himself writes something and when he quotes others, for the simple reason that his quotes from other sources sound much more sane and coherent. It’s true that he used long paragraphs from a number of essays I have published on the Internet in English, and borrowed a part of the title from one of them.

Lars Fredrik Svendsen, an author and professor of philosophy at the University of Bergen, Norway, has read the so-called manifesto in its entirety and is far from impressed by the creative intelligence displayed there by Breivik. In Svendsen’s view, “The rumors of his intellectual capacity are greatly, greatly exaggerated.”

He has understood very little of the philosophical works he lists among his favorite books. It is a strange text to read, because it is a cut-and-paste job with quotes from many different essays and publicly available sources that Breivik had encountered on the Internet. ABB himself comes off as a simple poseur, however. He contributes little other than his own deranged narcissism and hides behind the ideas of others in order to appear intellectual. In reality “He is nothing. He is just extremely high on himself and incredibly vain,” Svendsen concludes.

The internationally renowned Swedish terror expert Magnus Ranstorp has also read the manifesto. He comments that “Breivik is extremely self-loving and turns himself into an elevated God” with his delusional fantasies of omnipotence. Ranstorp believes that the virtual reality found inside ABB’s mind bears little resemblance to physical reality outside it, but he concludes that Breivik must possess considerable skills of social manipulation in order to have kept his terror plans hidden from all those around him for years. Leading such a complex double life successfully for so long is harder than it sounds, and requires a certain type of intelligence.

In brief: Those parts of his so-called manifesto that appear to be logically coherent and present factually-based views and analysis of wider political issues were not authored by Breivik. Those sections that were most clearly written by Breivik himself appear incoherent and are entirely about him, his family and their alleged shortcomings, and his own incredible status in a strange universe that makes sense only inside his twisted mind.

Anders Behring Breivik had not been in psychiatric care before he committed his terror attacks, and did not display obvious signs of mental illness in his youth, according to those who knew him well back then. This does not by itself disprove the current diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, as this condition can evolve slowly over a prolonged period of time. His social behavior is said to have deteriorated gradually over the past decade, accelerating over the couple of years just prior to his terror attacks. ABB lived with his mother from 2006 onwards, but moved to a farm by himself in 2011, where he could make terror preparations.

His mother reveals that ABB had in recent years developed an intense fear of disease and microbes. Breivik was increasingly fearful of germs, and dreaded catching diseases from other people, whom he considered irresponsible. He talked with his regular doctor about the possibility of wearing a surgical mask indoors (page 133) and occasionally actually used one while living at his mother’s home. In her talks, the mother claims that ABB sometimes refused to eat in the same room with her, and was obsessed with the possibility that his food was somehow contaminated.

His behavior became increasingly strange and erratic in 2010 and 2011, when he received large heavy objects in the mail. His use of anabolic steroids and other types of drugs increased as well. He mentioned hearing strange noises and was afraid that his liver might fail. He reported being sensitive to or frightened of certain sounds and radiation, which is common among those suffering from schizophrenia, especially for those hearing voices. He also claimed that spiders came crawling out of the walls all the time. He said he lived in a spider hell, full of spiders and beetles and other creeping creatures that crawled out of the walls and pestered him. At this point, his mother later explained, she definitely feared he was going insane (page 83).

Especially by 2010 and early 2011, Breivik was afraid of hidden cameras or microphones everywhere and was absolutely convinced that he was being spied upon. By this time, of course, he was actively preparing his attacks, so fearing that the security services or the police might keep an eye on him wasn’t entirely irrational. Yet this leaves us with the chicken-and-the-egg question of whether his paranoia predated and fueled his terror plans, or vice versa.

The causes of schizophrenia are not yet fully understood. It is suspected that there may be a hereditary component, in the sense that one may inherit an increased predisposition to it through his genetic material, just as one might inherit an increased susceptibility to many physical illnesses. However, there is probably no single cause. It is known that in addition to biological factors, the environment plays a role as well. In many cases some kind of trauma or stressful event in life can trigger the onset of full-blown schizophrenia in those who are susceptible.

Judging by testimonies from others, ABB may have been slightly weird before, but his social behavior became worse after his business failures when he moved back in with his mother. This would have been a difficult and frustrating situation for many ambitious young men. For a person with ABB’s pathological megalomania, nearly divine self-image, and militant Messiah complex, this may have proved absolutely intolerable, and possibly encouraged his already existing tendency to create an elaborate fantasy world more to his liking.

Anders Behring Breivik was born in 1979 and was 32 years old when he carried out his horrific terror attacks. It is possible to paint a picture of slowly deteriorating mental health throughout his twenties, with symptoms of resembling those of full-blown paranoia present around the age of 30. The first clear symptoms of schizophrenia are often already evident in the late teens, but a slow deterioration accelerating into early adulthood or the late twenties is by no means unheard of for this type of mental illness. Moreover, misdiagnosis is unfortunately widespread in schizophrenia cases. Thoughts and behavior get stranger over the course of time.

The psychiatric evaluation contains many details that had not been previously discussed in the press. Although I was initially skeptical of Breivik’s diagnosis, after reading this additional information in full I find it plausible, if not proven beyond doubt, that Anders Behring Breivik does in fact suffer from paranoid schizophrenia.

This brings us to the most hotly disputed question of all: Was he psychotic when he carried out his terror attacks, and therefore cannot be held accountable?

Of this I am not fully convinced. We will look at that aspect of the case next.

To be continued…

For a complete archive of Fjordman’s writings, see the multi-index listing in the Fjordman Files.

2012-01-28T19:35:00.003-05:00

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.

Freedom of speech means anything may be left out, and you may pick the news you like. But the print media and television cover everything about Anders Behring Breivik, and don’t say anything about the 18,360 killings carried out by Muslims since 9/11.

The Swedish language is not widely spoken, so there is no chance for us to have a competing TV channel like FOX News, but there is a blog that’s ranked in 58th place that covers news that the mainstream media ignores.

This has opened the eyes and the minds of many Swedes.

There is also a political party in Parliament that polls at 6%, and that isn’t hostile to Israel.

Based on all the people I know, I drew the conclusion that (ethnic) Swedes don’t hate Jews. But our media and most of our politicians do.

Resources (Swedish)

2012-01-27T23:51:00.002-05:00

The 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.

2012-01-27T23:34:00.002-05:00

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.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

2012-01-27T22:24:00.001-05:00

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:

“How excellent. This is great. Lørenskog is the third biggest immigrant municipality in Norway, only by surpassed Oslo and Drammen on a per-capita basis. There are people from all over Norway and the rest of the world living here in Lørenskog, so it’s not strange that many people called Mohammed live here. It is extremely exciting,” says Tovan to rb.no.

He considers Mohammed to be a completely ordinary name.

“The name Mohammed is found all over the world, and we are a part of the world. Some people are called Mohammed and some people are called Åge. My name is Åge,” says Åge Tovan.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

2012-01-27T20:24:00.000-05:00

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:

2012-01-27T19:53:00.002-05:00

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

As 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

In recent days, Hamburg Muslims have made negative headlines several times. For one thing, the founding of an Islamic ride-sharing central, Muslim Taxi, became known. Against the equal rights described here, this intends strict separation of the sexes and is supposed to make possible the conversion of infidel German passengers. For another thing, a Hamburg Muslim woman has let it be known that she intends to open a purely Islamic business center.

The Hamburg mosques have been under surveillance by security services repeatedly in recent years, because they were active meeting places for Islamists. The Al-Quds Mosque, where the attackers of September 11, 2001 met, was closed in August 2010 by the security services because Islamic activities were observed there on a continuing basis.

* [A government-sponsored annual conference which has been criticized recently for its domination by a few Islamic organizations. — JLH]

3 Comments

#1 “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.”

This objection by Citizen Times is justified above all because the Shura — which belongs to the three Muslim umbrella organizations with which the Hamburg ruling body intends to make an agreement — is dominated by the Milli Görus community of the Centrum mosque, which is notorious for serious attacks on homosexuals. We may assume that the victims of these attacks were non-Muslims. In an article which appeared just 5 years ago in the Hamburger Morgenpost is the following: This week ended the city district dialogue of the Centrum mosque initiated by the Greens. “We do not intend to be pushed around by gay activists,” said Ahmet Jazici, Vice-Head of the Centrum mosque.

Somewhere between the Lange Reihe and the side streets of the Steindamm,** there is an imaginary boundary between the two worlds. Banker André H. (33) and student Christopher N.(30) passed over it. They are married and in love. But the innocent handholding within view of the Centrum mosque attracts a crowd. Older store owners and muscle-bound bouncer types in bomber jackets pile up in front of them and corner them. “Gays have no business in front of a mosque,” they shout. If those two had kissed, every person on this street would have attacked them,” threatens Ahmed Kajhy (18). Another roars, “You are insulting Islam.”

Reference

** [The first is a free-flowing shopping area, dominated by a gay culture, the second is a former sex hot spot being reclaimed as a chic, multicultural shopping area. — JLH]

#2 The mistake was that the state church was not de facto done away with in 1919, and that no clear dividing line was drawn between church and state. At the time it was just as inconceivable as it was in 1948-49 at the drafting of the constitution, that someday a religion not compatible with our culture would claim the same privileges as the Christian “state churches.” The best thing would be to finally eliminate the dubious privileges which do not comport with the separation of church and state.

“Treaties” of the state with religious communities should be avoided in general. In the present situation, they are raised to equal stature with the state and retain a quasi-state status.

#3 Yes, agreements between the state and religious communities are difficult. You are bringing together two different approaches to logic: Consensus and Transcendence (not truth — religions do not seek truth; science does that).

Picture: Centrum Mosque on Böckmanstrasse in St. Georg, Hamburg (Wikipedia)

2012-01-27T14:56:00.001-05:00

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:

2012-01-26T23:59:00.002-05:00

Last 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.

2012-01-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

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.

2012-01-26T22:30:00.001-05:00

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.

2012-01-26T19:24:00.001-05:00

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.

“They have singled out white Australians and for no reason whatsoever, completely unprovoked, they’ve attacked one of the males. That lead to a vicious assault. He’s had severe facial injuries and his head literally stomped on,” Det-Sgt Steve Coelho said.

He called on anyone who may have information about the attack to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, saying it was possible the youths had been involved in other criminal acts on Friday night.

The two charged youths will appear in Perth Magistrates Court tomorrow accused of aggravated assault. A third male was interviewed but released without charge.

Police have not ruled out further charges being laid.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tip: Anne-Kit.

2012-01-25T23:59:00.002-05:00

Navy 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.

2012-01-25T23:15:00.001-05:00

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.

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:

Multiculturalism and hypocrisy

On Dec. 7, 2011, Dagsavisen published an article about me containing nasty accusations and blatant lies. It’s a severe transgression to claim that I espouse “the same views” as the SS and Heinrich Himmler, the people who were responsible for the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of millions of Jews. The fact that they feel compelled to fabricate lies in order to defame me is clear proof that they cannot win with arguments.

It is tempting to see this article as part of an organized campaign to get rid of troublesome dissidents who are critical of Multiculturalism, Islam and mass immigration. The political establishment loves dissidents, but only if they live far away in places like Burma or Tibet. It’s a very different story if they come from their own country.

The Party Secretary of the Norwegian Labour Party, Raymond Johansen, is technically speaking my former boss. I worked in the Middle East in 2002 and 2003. In reality, I represented the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but formally I was employed by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which at the time was led by Johansen.

Some people probably wonder why I didn’t continue this career and by so doing earn good money in a nice, respectable job. The answer is that I made a deliberate choice that this was something I just couldn’t live with. It’s impossible for me to be part of the asylum-industrial complex, which undermines the future of my own country. This goes against my conscience. This became particularly difficult after the NRC publicly condemned the publishing of the Danish Muhammed cartoons. This can hardly be interpreted as anything other than a submission to Islam — which actually means “submission.” I simply cannot be a part of something like that.

Many minors now experience regular harassment in our schools and kindergartens simply because they happen to belong to the country’s native ethnic population, who are gradually being displaced from their homeland as a result of the current immigration policies. It is sheer hypocrisy when Jonas Gahr Støre and other members of the Norwegian peace industry turn their backs on children whose childhoods are ruined as a result of violence and harassment from immigrant gangs. We should ensure that we have a safe environment for our own kids before we start lecturing the rest of the world on how they should behave.

For a complete archive of Fjordman’s writings, see the multi-index listing in the Fjordman Files.

2012-01-25T14:40:00.004-05:00

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'.

[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.

“Young immigrant boys started calling us ‘sticking pigs’ in the street, and my girlfriend was called a whore. We were harassed on the bus until we had to get off, and they twice tried to run my son (who is 10 years old) and me down,” says AH.

Afraid in the kitchen

The harassment made AH’s girlfriend HH move to Sjælland in March 2010.

“I needed a sanctuary where I could live without being afraid. In Vollsmose we did not even dare to stand in the kitchen making dinner when it was dark because we were afraid they could see us through the window. I began to suffer from anxiety attacks,” she says.

AH, however, stayed in Vollsmose, and he refused to stop talking to police in the area. 12th May 2011 things escalated, however. Within a space of three days the couple’s home was attacked with stones three times.

“One of the times we were not at home. We found a paving stone in my son’s bed when we arrived. If he had slept there as he usually does, he could have been killed. The second time HH was nearly hit in the chest. So I have no doubt that they wanted to kill us.”

AH now began to wear a bulletproof vest, he suffered from insomnia, and always had a backpack ready with clothes. Just in case he had to flee from the apartment in a hurry.

“So I accepted the inevitable a few weeks ago and decided to move. But it irritates me constantly, and I still remember how they stood there. Laughing scornfully at us while we carried out our moving boxes.”

Local police in Vollsmose confirm the many incidents of vandalism against the couple, and that they were in contact with an unknown citizen when the shots were fired at the police car back in 2009. But the police did not want to go into details about the couple’s case.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

2012-01-25T09:55:00.002-05:00

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”

[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”.

Now Rene always takes different routes home on the scooter, and if anyone crosses his path, he turns around. “The attacks have not forced me out before now.” Like so many other ethnic Danes before him, he has been forced to live the same way.

“For the last ten years my children have said that I should move, but I’m probably a little stubborn. And I have so enjoyed the area out here,” says Rene.

The last joy finally disappeared a few weeks ago when Rene came home after having spent Christmas with his family.

“I came home on Christmas Eve. There had been a burglary. Gone were the television, my computer, and my Playstation. They had overturned everything. Even my hospital bed was overthrown.”

A difficult decision

Rene, in shock, made his way back to his family again, but when he returned the next morning, he could see that the burglars had been there again.

“Now they had smashed more of my stuff, stolen my stereo and a half liter of cola.”.

That day Rene made a difficult decision.

“It annoys me endlessly that I have to live like this. My lights are always on. The music constantly plays, and the curtains are drawn. I always thinks about when they might come, and I have to open the door. So now I have decided to move. Its over.”

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

2012-01-24T23:55:00.002-05:00

Rep. 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.

2012-01-24T14:34:00.001-05:00

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.”

At the local police office in Vollsmose the deputy police commissioner Bjarne Puggaard confirms that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of burglaries in the area. He does not want to comment on whether ethnic Danes are specifically targeted.

Shortly after the interview with the local police however, www.bt.dk receive a phone call from the head of the entire Funen Police. After a brief reflection, the head of police suddenly confirmed that ethnic Danes are particularly targeted.

“When I read the daily reports and the like, it is my notion that ethnic Danes are over-represented as victims of burglaries in the area. I definitely cannot deny that,” Ebbe Krogaard says. Krogaard is the general manager of the Fyn Police.

He says that in 2010 a total of 94 burglaries were committed against residences in Vollsmose. That figure doubled in 2011. The increase mainly took place in late 2011. Krogaard has no idea as to why it is Danes who are especially hit.

“I have no idea why anyone want to look at the name of the mailbox before committing a burglary. Nor does it have any influence on our approach to this case. We are investigating these cases, like all other matters, and I would like to emphasize that we do everything we can to find the perpetrators.”

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

2012-01-24T09:46:00.002-05:00

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

In the aftermath of July 22, the Prime Minister and others have said that we should not look for scapegoats. This rhetorical prohibition of becoming angry has ensured that no one has been held accountable. Are we equally hesitant to look for scapegoats when violations of labour and tax laws occur?

When the government fails, Norwegian ideology requires that the indignation be kept in check.

Failed when it really mattered

Part of the Norwegian ideology is that we are a very democratic country. July 22 shows us that we also fail in this regard, when it really matters:

Government employees who were in the building when the bomb went off have been ordered not to talk to the press.

The police categorically refuse to give any information, and act as a non-democratic state within the state.

The Government neglects fundamental parliamentary rules by appointing a commission to investigate itself.

The main opposition party, Høyre (Conservatives), have for five months hardly said a critical word about this terrible historical event.

Shattered the Norwegian ideology

On July 22, reality shattered the Norwegian ideology, but only for a brief moment — it quickly bounced back again — in funeral eulogies and in media reports. Unity was praised, and the courage to apologize for unnecessary death was missing.

A tenet of the new Norwegian ideology is that oil money will save us from everything. The limitless police resources used after the disaster, major victim compensation, and an army of lawyers. Official Norway seems to think that oil money can buy them a free pass from the charges of unnecessary young death.

Ideology instead of thanks

The Government of course refused to give medals to those who didn’t fail: ordinary citizens on Utvika Camping who felt a flame in their inner selves, and dared, and didn’t hesitate

To give medals to ordinary citizens in this situation would break with the Labour Party’s official ideology and expose the failure of the police. The ideology takes precedent over the praise — even when lives were at stake. It’s arrogant, embarrassingly petty, and ungrateful. Instead there will be an official memorial — that celebrates the State — and the ideology that failed.

It’s painful, but true: Utøya was a place where ideologies that caused so much to go wrong were nurtured. It’s understandable that so many in the AUF don’t want the island to disappear.

But if one wishes to show respect for the dead by learning, one has to let go of ideologies that have no basis in reality.

2012-01-23T23:50:00.002-05:00

The 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.

2012-01-23T23:48:00.001-05:00

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:

The Croatian public sector employs a quarter of the country’s workforce or 400,000 people, a study by Zagreb-based Institute of Economics and Friedrich Ebert Foundation shows.

Google Books:

As a result the present ratio of dependent to employed is almost 1:1 and Croatia has the youngest retired population (the average age is 50 years).

CBC:

Croatian officials, who have launched a pro-EU campaign ahead of the referendum, warned that a “no” vote would deprive the country of the much-needed accession funds, and that even the payment of pensions for retirees and war veterans could be in jeopardy.

Tportal.hr:

“If citizens vote against Croatia’s EU entry, “the first response will probably be a downgrading of our credit rating, and the second an assessment of Croatia’s investment security, given that EU membership is also a measure of security for economic activities,” said Pusic [Vesna Pusic is the Croatian minister of foreign affairs] who joined a rally which her Croatian People’s Party (HNS) held in downtown Zagreb today.

2012-01-23T23:05:00.001-05:00

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:

2012-01-23T22:43:00.001-05:00

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”.

Also documented is the scurrilous way, especially in your media, that representatives of Muslim organizations justifiably under observation by national security along with politicians of the likewise surveilled party “The Left” are allowed to speak without contradiction or critique. Based only on that, your reporting on PI — especially the overblown charge of unconstitutional efforts — seems beyond unbelievable, if not absolutely ridiculous.

In future, I would hope that people in PI, but also in the leftist mainstream media like yours, moderate their tone so that, finally, we can have the necessary, realistic and long overdue debate about how much and why Islam is impeding the integration of Muslims into German society. In the end, the SPD politician, Thilo Sarrazin, did not prove that in his book Germany Abolishes Itself. This was no revolutionary revelation anyway. It corresponded without question to the everyday experience of many people in this country, especially young people. Because of that alone, a critical-to-hostile attitude toward Islam is, in almost all cases, not grounded in right extremism or racism, but is a natural reaction to the integration problems that exist here in significant numbers and exclusively with Muslims and are obvious to everyone.

With reference to the most famous statement of our present federal president,* I say to you: Islam will not belong in Germany so long as the majority of its adherents here as well as the majority of Germans (and especially the German Left) are not able to express criticism of Islam just as naturally and comprehensively as criticism of Christianity or atheism or any other philosophical outlook.

Your truly,

Marco Pino
(formerly “Frank Furter” of PI)

* “Islam belongs in Germany”

Michael Stürzenberger's eight-point plan at the conclusion of his article:

1. Media and politics must allow an open, unrestricted discussion about the true nature of Islam. In the process, the life of the Prophet Mohammed, his actions documented in the Sunna, and his eternally valid commandments in the Koran in all their details should be described.
2. After a completed factual analysis, the result will be: Islam is an ideology of power in the disguise of a religion which divides the world into superior believers and inferior infidels. With a worldwide, totalitarian claim to domination, intolerance, disposition toward violence and legitimization of killing.
3. As a consequence of recognizing this, the government of Germany must unambiguously and immediately require all Islamic organizations to foreswear intolerance, violence and the willingness to kill. Furthermore, to permanently abjure sharia, the Islamic legal system. And to make a binding declaration that all people have the same rights, regardless of their religious affiliation. To accept just as unconditionally that women and men are equal before the law.
4. If these demands are not endorsed by all Islamic organizations without condition, there will follow an immediate halt to the construction of mosques, the closing of Koran schools and the prohibition of prayer meetings in existing mosques.
5. All Muslims in Germany, after the content of their “religion” has been explained to them, will be required to put pressure on their organizations to immediately endorse the demands.
6. In case this does not lead to the desired result after a set term, there should be a plebiscite on the banning of Islam because of its messages, which constitute racial harassment and are dangerous to the peaceful co-existence of all people. Citizens of the Federal Republic will be required to read the Koran — probably the most dangerous book in the world — and see for themselves. We will thus avoid repeating the greatest mistake of German history: not having read the equally dangerous book Mein Kampf and so failed to avoid the greatest catastrophe in European history.
7. If the plebiscite leads to the result that Islam should be banned, all Muslims will have the right to decide to abjure this ideology. There are other religions available which also offer a life after death, without demanding the killing of “infidels” in cases of conflict.
8. “Abjure or emigrate” is the consequence. In the case of the second choice, there are sufficient Islamic countries to choose from. As a reciprocal move in the form of a population exchange, Christians from these countries, who are vulnerable to worse discrimination, persecution and even death, will be accepted in Germany.

2012-01-23T21:23:00.002-05:00

The video below uses the recent convictions in the Stephen Lawrence case as a jumping-off point to explore the issue of racially-motivated murder in the UK. It focuses on the enormous disparity between the media coverage of white-on-black violence and the (all but non-existent) coverage of black-on-white violence.

The media are not the only issue. Greater police resources are devoted to investigating and prosecuting the white murderers of “ethnics” than are employed when the races of killer and victim are reversed. It seems that if you are a “person of British background”, and are targeted because of your race, there is no one to speak up for you. The blatant official double standard is something that everyone in Britain recognizes, but is reluctant to discuss.

This informative video takes a good first step towards correcting the deficiency in the media’s reporting of the news:

Hat tip: Gaia.

2012-01-23T15:17:00.001-05:00

When a news report as hideous as this one comes along, no one is really surprised to discover the culturally enriched aspects of the crime. Even if they are not allowed to discuss it, most citizens of major Western European cities surely expect that grotesquely violent crime and debased behavior are overwhelmingly the province of Third World immigrants, and especially adherents of the Religion of Peace.

Nor does it come as a surprise, when the names of the perpetrators are finally revealed in court, to find out that the crime has a high Mohammed Coefficient — in this case, 100%.

In places such as Sweden, publication of the names of defendants is not permitted, even after they are convicted, so that the ethnicity or religious affiliation of the perps has to be deduced from incidental information. In other countries the surnames are omitted, so newspaper readers are subjected to absurd accounts of, say, a gang rape committed by “Mohammed S., Muhammad R., Mohamed A., and Abdul H.” (MC: 75%)

There is scant public discussion of why these atrocities so often result in a gaggle of Mohammeds queued up for their stretch in a state penal facility. In those rare cases when reasons are adduced, they are generally economic and “cultural” — poverty brought about by lack of education — or, preferably, the fault of the natives, whose “racist” attitudes and behaviors are to blame for the misguided behavior of the criminals.

Take a look at this report from The Daily Mail, if you have a strong stomach:

A policeman was starting an 18-year jail sentence today for sex abuse which a judge described as one of the ‘most despicable’ cases he had ever heard.

The 43-year-old officer was sacked from Thames Valley Police after being disciplined for repeatedly threatening witnesses who had lodged complaints against him.

He had also phoned a 14-year-old girl witness in a case he was dealing with and asking her to go on a date him.

Judge Francis Sheriden jailed paedophile policeman Mohammed Younas after hearing how he raped a girl who was just seven years old and continued to abuse her for eight years.

It seems that Mr. Younas had fallen away from orthodoxy after living among the infidels, and had developed a taste for alcohol:

He had also turned up to work drunk after consuming a bottle of vodka and was found wandering the streets randomly stopping traffic whilst on duty.

Despite his dismissal from the force, the judge heard that the sexual abuse of the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, increased,

Younas attacked the young girl, the court was told, because his wife refused to have sex with him. He also forced another child to touch his genitals.

‘This was the most despicable offence. It’s hard to imagine a worse case,’ Judge Sheridan told the disgraced constable as he stood in the dock at Aylesbury Crown Court.

Younas had denied the 15 counts of rape and sexual assault against him but was found guilty by a jury and on Friday was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The court had heard Younas came to the UK from Pakistan and was descended from a respectable family with two of his sisters being consultant doctors and another being a headteacher.

His father was a retired colonel in the Pakistan Army.

However the judge was told that Younas, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, suffered a nervous breakdown due to his unhappy marriage and went off the rails as a police officer.

By American standards, eighteen years does not seem like a stiff sentence for such a heinous crime. By European standards, however, it’s quite tough, and Mr. Younas could have expected an easier time of it in certain Continental countries.

I wonder how soon he can expect to be released…

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tip: Gaia.

2012-01-22T23:54:00.002-05:00

According to the latest Rasmussen poll, 61% of Americans think that police should check the immigration status of anyone they stop for a traffic violation.

In other news, National Front leader Marine Le Pen is gaining on President Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential race. Recent polls show her within two percentage points of Mr. Sarkozy.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, 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.

2012-01-22T20:34:00.005-05:00

Our Croatian correspondent Vortac sends this brief report about today’s referendum on accession the European Union. It seems that Croats took a look at their country’s dire circumstances and realized the EU had made them an offer they couldn’t refuse:

Here’s an interesting piece of news: my country decided to join the EU!

In today’s referendum, 67% voted in favor of Croatian membership in the European Union. Somewhat ironically, even I (a regular GoV reader) voted ‘yes’, although I am fully aware what the EU is and what it represents.

We simply have no alternative now — Croatia is heavily indebted. We owe $60+ billion (more than 100% of our GNP), mostly to Western European creditors. There were subtle hints that if Croatian voters decline the membership, our credit rating would suffer, which would be disastrous for our debt-ridden economy.

Also, Croatians are very disappointed in our domestic politicians. Croatia gained independence in 1992, so we have been outside EU for twenty years now, but the results have mostly been negative. Our external debt has increased twentyfold (from 3 billion dollars in 1992. to 60 billion dollars in 2011), and corruption has been rampant the whole time. We are now at 66th place in the world Corruption Perception Index, joining countries such as Georgia, South Africa, Italy, and Ghana.

As a result, many people voted for the EU as a sign of protest against such leadership, hoping that our future EU membership will help us in reducing those problems.

Below is an article from USA Today on the same topic:

Croatia says ‘yes’ to joining European Union

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatia’s state referendum commission says a majority of Croats have voted in favor of joining the debt-stricken European Union.

Officials say that with about 30 percent of the ballot calculated, about 67 percent of those who took part in the referendum Sunday answered “yes” to the question: “Do you support the membership of the Republic of Croatia in the European Union?”

About 32 percent were against, while the rest of the ballots were invalid. About 42 percent of eligible voters took part in the referendum, illustrating voters’ apathy toward the 27-nation bloc.

Croatia signed an EU accession treaty last year and will become its 28th member in July 2013 after all the bloc’s states ratify the deal.

2012-01-22T14:11:00.003-05:00

As we reported last month, when Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff appealed her “hate speech” conviction to a higher court in Austria, the earlier verdict was upheld. She stated afterwards that she would not pay the fine. To do so would effectively recognize the legitimacy of an unjust and tyrranical legal decision.

However, it turned out that it was impossible not to pay the fine: the Austrian judicial system has ways of compelling compliance. What happened to Elisabeth is described in the essay below.

Why I decided to pay the fine
by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

This past Thursday I asked the notary public in charge of my defense account to pay the now infamous €480 I was fined for my words the Austrian state deemed “an excessive assessment.”

You will recall that I was adamantly opposed to handing over nearly €500 to the government. I still feel this way. And I am still willing to go to jail. However, the legal constraints imposed on me have forced me to change course, and hand over money to the very state that has prosecuted and criminalized me for speaking the truth.

This is the story of what happened.

The terms of the verdict required me to pay 120 “day fines” of € 4 each, giving a total of €480, or spend two months in jail.

What was omitted from the court’s pronouncement was the fact that there is a step between the payment of the fine and going to jail: the bailiff would enter my family’s apartment with a warrant in an attempt to collect something worth €480. This might be anything, from my laptop to jewelry to the sofa.

Only if he were unable to make the necessary collection would I have to go to jail. In order to manage that, I would have to assault the bailiff — something that goes against my nature. So I really had no choice: I would have to pay the fine, one way or the other.

I found out about all this only fairly recently. As a result, I made a quick decision: I would pay the fine, much as I hated doing it.

My daughter’s well-being was also factored into the equation. Although she was a beacon of strength during the trial, I noticed a gradual change in her. She was clearly suffering, and that is something that I as a mother could not accept.

I believe in standing up for free speech, even if I put myself at risk. But I will not put my daughter at risk. The Austrian state has already victimized me. I will not permit them to victimize my daughter, too. It is my obligation as her mother not to do something that would scar her for life. If my daughter suffers, I suffer as well.

Rest assured that I loathed paying that fine. I still strongly resent the state’s decision to limit my freedom of speech.

I will continue my protest. We are not giving up, but merely changing our tactics.

I ask you to continue to support me and my fight for the right to freedom of speech. By extension, I am fighting for the rights of everyone, including those who are unaware that their rights are under threat.

If we do not stand up for our freedoms, we will lose them. Therefore I will continue to stand strong.

With your help, freedom will prevail!

My paying the fine does not mean I will cease fighting the verdict. As a matter of fact, if I raise enough funds, we can and will take this to the European Court for Human Rights.

Anyone who wants to contribute may visit Elisabeth’s Voice and make a donation using PayPal. Or, if you prefer, you may send a bank transfer using the following information for international payments:

Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich
IBAN: AT513150042908021602
BIC: RZBAATWW

Made out to: Public Notary Mag. Martin Scheichenbauer, Hemmaweg 5, A-9342 Gurk

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For previous posts on the “hate speech” prosecution of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, see Elisabeth’s Voice: The Archives.

2012-01-22T11:23:00.001-05:00

This rant by an Arab demagogue about the evils of Israel and the magnificence of Hezbollah would be unexceptional if it were not for the fact that the man doing the ranting is a member of the Knesset — that is, an Israeli citizen elected to serve in his country’s parliament.

Many thanks to Jerry Gordon for the tip, to Walid Shoebat for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

2012-01-22T01:45:00.000-05:00

To our readers in the United Kingdom:

In the comments, a link to a most interesting e-petition appeared:

No to 70 million

The body of the text reads:

Responsible department: Home Office

Over the past ten years the government has permitted mass immigration despite very strong public opposition reflected in numerous opinion polls. We express our deep concern that, according to official figures, the population of the UK is expected to reach 70 million within 20 years with two thirds of the increase due to immigration. While we recognise the benefits that properly controlled immigration could bring to our economy and society, this population increase, which is the equivalent of building seven cities the size of Birmingham, will have a huge impact both on our quality of life and on our public services yet the public has never been consulted. So we call on the government to take all necessary steps to get immigration down to a level that will stabilise our population as close to the present level as possible and, certainly, well below 70 million.”

This e-petition has received the following response:

This e-petition has reached 100,000 signatures. The Government has notified the Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons. This e-petition will remain live, and people will be able to continue adding their signatures.

In the meantime, we would like to update you on the Government’s current position on the substance of this e-petition.

“The response to this petition shows that the public feel strongly that immigration is too high and that this government should continue its work to bring numbers under control.

We have made sweeping changes to the immigration system to reduce net migration from the hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands.

We have already introduced a limit on non-EU workers coming to the UK, radically overhauled the student visa system to cut abuse and will shortly be announcing reforms to the family and settlement routes.”

The petition, sponsored by Sir Andrew Green, closes in October of this year. Meanwhile, it remains online, available for signing by eligible citizens. Please scroll to the the bottom of that petition; there is a prominent button leading to the signature page.

I hope government’s response is accurately told here. It seems too good to be true.

I only wish we had such a mechanism in the U.S.

2012-01-21T23:50:00.002-05:00

The news feed is light tonight. Perhaps most of our tipsters were busy voting in the Republican primary in South Carolina (which Newt Gingrich won handily)…? Or maybe there are other reasons.

A third of the inmates in a jail for young offenders in London are Muslims, according to the latest statistics. There are also reports that many non-Muslims in the jail are converting to Islam, in order to get better food.

In other news, when a group of Salafist “morality police” invaded a beauty parlor in Egypt and demanded that the women there stop their immoral activities, the employees and customers of the establishment attacked the intruders with canes, beating them as they fled back into the street.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Hans Bader, Kitman, Nick, RE, 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.

2012-01-21T19:52:00.001-05:00

I reported earlier today on a young “Norwegian” woman named Aisha Shezadi. Under the sponsorship of a literary association, Ms. Shezadi is currently touring Norwegian schools touting the personal values which inspire her to wear the niqab.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer just sent this update, which confirms my suspicions:

I’m including some additional information relating to the niqab promotion tour in Norway. It turns out that one of the main sponsors receives direct Government funding (what a surprise).

Here’s the translated excerpt from another article in VG.no:

The tour is sponsored by the Norwegian non-fiction Writers and Translators Association (NFF) and the organization Les! The latter receives an annual sum of NOK 2.8 million in operational support from the government through the Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs.

That is, 2.8 million kroner (about $470,000) is being supplied by Norwegian taxpayers to support an enthusiastic supporter of the Taliban as she tours the country promoting the Islamic veil.

And the Norwegian establishment demonizes Fjordman, just because he opposes mass immigration, especially Islamic immigration.

It doesn’t get any crazier than this, not even in San Francisco.

2012-01-21T19:28:00.001-05:00

The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has staged another massive attack in Nigeria, their deadliest so far. More than 140 people were killed.

In the BBC news clip below, notice the party-line spin added by the reporter exonerating the “mainstream” majority of Muslims in Nigeria — as if he had a telepathic feed into the general mindset of Nigerian Muslims.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Below are excerpts from an article on the same topic in The Sydney Morning Herald:

Nigerian Blasts Death Toll Rises to 143

A coordinated attack by a radical Islamist sect in north Nigeria’s largest city has killed at least 143 people.

It is the extremist group’s deadliest assault since beginning its campaign of terror in Africa’s most populous nation.

Soldiers and police officers swarmed Kano’s streets as Nigeria’s president again promised the sect known as Boko Haram would “face the full wrath of the law.”

But the uniformed bodies of security agents that filled a Kano hospital mortuary again showed the sect can strike at will against the country’s weak central government.

Friday’s attacks hit police stations, immigration offices and the local headquarters of Nigeria’s secret police in Kano, a city of more than nine million people that remains an important political and religious centre in the country’s Muslim north.

A suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with powerful explosives outside a regional police headquarters, tearing its roof away and blowing out windows in a blast felt miles away as its members escaped jail cells there.

Authorities largely refused to offer casualty statistics as mourners began claiming the bodies of their loved ones to bury before sundown, following Islamic tradition.

However, a hospital official told The Associated Press at least 143 people were killed in the attack.

The toll could still rise, since other bodies could be held at other clinics and hospitals in the sprawling city.

State authorities enforced a 24-hour curfew in the city, with many remaining home as soldiers and police patrolled the streets and set up roadblocks. Gunshots echoed through some areas of the city into Saturday morning.

A Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message to journalists Friday. He said the attack came because the state government refused to release Boko Haram members held by the police.

[…]

President Goodluck Jonathan also condemned an attack he said saw innocent people “brutally and recklessly cut down by agents of terror.”

“As a responsible government, we will not fold our hands and watch enemies of democracy, for that is what these mindless killers are, perpetrate unprecedented evil in our land,” Jonathan said in a statement.

“I want to reassure Nigerians ... that all those involved in that dastardly act would be made to face the full wrath of the law.”

But Jonathan’s government has repeatedly been unable to stop attacks by Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s north.

The group has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law and avenge the deaths of Muslims in communal violence across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

Authorities blamed Boko Haram for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an AP count, including an August suicide bombing on the UN headquarters in the country’s capital Abuja. So far this year, the group has been blamed for at least 219 killings, according to an AP count.

Boko Haram recently said it specifically would target Christians living in Nigeria’s north, but Friday’s attack saw its gunmen kill many Muslims. In a recent video posted to the internet, Imam Abubakar Shekau, a Boko Harm leader, warned it would kill anyone who “betrays the religion” by being part of or sympathising with Nigeria’s government.

“I swear by Allah we will kill them and their killing will be nothing to us,” Shekau said. “It will be like going to prayers at 5am”

2012-01-21T18:16:00.001-05:00

A couple of Danish rappers engage in a spirited intellectual discussion about the relative merits of Pia Kjærsgaard and Morten Messerschmidt of the Danish People’s Party.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

2012-01-21T13:22:00.001-05:00

An article in The Telegraph the other day reported that billions of pounds are wasted every year on immigrants to the UK who draw state benefits without qualifying for them:

More than 370,000 migrants who were admitted to Britain to work, study or go on holiday are now claiming out-of-work benefits, according to official figures compiled for the first time.

A reader who goes by “in_totidem_verbis” left this bitterly amusing recommendation in the comments on the article:

Here’s a draft for a ‘Welcome to Britain’ leaflet.

Bring your criminal record, your diseases (our free health service can cope by denying drugs to those who have actually paid something towards the NHS) and your warped anti-Western ideology. We rarely check any of these aspects.

To ensure that you maximise your State benefits, remember to bring as many wives, children and aged dependants as possible. If you haven’t got any, just invent them because, by the time your local Benefit Office (where some of your brethren can be found) cottons on to the fraud, you will have accumulated your own property portfolio, which we will not confiscate for fear of putting a criminal label on your ethnicity.

Do not forget to demand to be pushed straight to the top of the local housing waiting list, ignoring those fools who have been waiting patiently for years. Insist on the very best accommodation for your extended family; we operate a ‘sky is the limit’ policy regarding rents (don’t be alarmed, you shall not have to contribute a penny).

Forget about integrating with your host country as we will do everything to ensure that you are granted ‘victim’ status from the day you arrive. For example, speaking the local language will never be a problem, because we are prepared to spend vast sums of money providing interpreters. This is also true of many of our inner city schools and shops where you will find that English is no longer the primary spoken/written language. Furthermore, all of your customs and traditions, such as forced marriages and ‘honour killings’, will either be rigorously upheld or simply ignored, because our government guarantees your human right to flout our laws. Besides, you can always escape to your native country to avoid punishment in our Courts.

Terrorists will find this country particularly accommodating as successive British governments have an excellent record of surrendering to domestic terrorism. Simply scream ‘racist’ and we will not undermine your suicide bomber recruitment campaign. Note also that, should you wish to publicly vilify our troops, you are in no danger of being charged with treason, because our advanced society no longer recognises traitors, either inside or outside of Parliament.

If you are unlucky enough to find yourself in an immigration detention centre (always assuming we can be bothered to find you), you will be provided with every possible amenity, including expensive lawyers that we will pay for. We achieve this by impoverishing our own elderly, sick and disabled, and appropriating money from those stupid enough to pay tax. You should also be reassured by the fact that there is a free, comprehensive, taxpayer-subsidised system of appeals at your disposal. If all else fails, there is always The European Court of Human Rights staffed by over 40 foreigners who will ensure that the British legal system is about as potent as a neutered tomcat.

Finally, please note that the Exit door at the airport is reserved for the indigenous population.

2012-01-21T11:10:00.002-05:00

The following article just appeared in VG.no, the website for Norway’s largest newspaper, and was translated by our Norwegian correspondent The Observer.

It concerns a culturally enriched young woman named Aisha Shezadi, who is touring Norwegian schools giving talks about her personal values as they inform her decision to wear the niqab. Among her other values — which she is not discussing in her school talks — are fundamentalist Islamic sentiments which mandate support for the Taliban in their fight against Western forces stationed in Afghanistan.

Ms. Shezadi’s tour is funded in part by a literary association, which one may assume — this being Norway — acts as a semi-official arm of the government. The association dismisses concerns about funding a woman who supports its soldiers’ sworn enemies by saying, “There are many writers with many different opinions, both political and religious.”

But not really, of course; not in Modern Multicultural Norway.

Why is it all right for them to sponsor Ms. Shezadi? Here’s the justification: “She doesn’t encourage others to commit violence, and what she’s writing is not illegal. So we cannot see why we should terminate our cooperation with her.”

Such tolerance! Such respect for differences of opinion!

It would be wonderful if it were true. But remember: this woman actively supports an ultra-violent Islamic terror group, and the Norwegian state has no problem with allowing her to express her views, and even pays for her to do so.

Yet the same state has hounded, demonized, and ostracized conservative writers who do not promote violence and do not support organizations that commit violence. Their only crime is to oppose mass immigration and Islamization, which views are said to have caused — actually caused, mind you — the massacre of innocents by Anders Behring Breivik.

The sheer hypocrisy of it all is breathtaking.

As The Observer notes: “Maybe the other side (conservatives) should be allowed to talk to Norwegian students too?”

Not bloody likely.

The translation from today’s VG.no:

Aisha (20) supports the Taliban: Give talks to Norwegian students

Indifferent to hate video

Aisha Shezadi (20), from Bærum, is currently visiting schools all over the country. She wholeheartedly supports yesterday’s controversial demonstration in front of Parliament.

The young woman tells VG that she is indifferent to the hate video that created such heated debate earlier in the week. She also supports the Taliban in its war against Norwegian soldiers.

On January 11, in a Facebook comment under a picture where an ISAF and a Taliban fighter are juxtaposed, she writes:

“No matter how well equipped they are, they will never eliminate the lions of Allah.”

Unworthy War

“I support the Afghan freedom struggle against the ISAF soldiers, but I don’t necessarily support every tactic employed by the Taliban,” she says when VG confronts her with the statement.

The video was published on the Facebook page belonging to the organizers of yesterday’s demonstration against the Norwegian military involvement in Afghanistan. The PST sees the video as a direct threat to the royal family, the foreign minister, and the prime minister.

“I have really don’t have an opinion on it. Like many others I’m highly critical of the war in Afghanistan. It is a shameful war. Violence never solves anything,” the twenty-year-old says

Supports demonstration

These days she visits Norwegian schools and give talks about her values — partly paid for by the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association

She is among the very few who openly expressed support for yesterday’s controversial demonstration on social media network sites.

“I support the message of the demonstration, which is to get Norwegian troops out of Afghanistan,” she says to VG.

Shezadi has been very active on the Facebook page “Demonstration: Norwegian troops out of Afghanistan”, and she has made several controversial statements.

“In sha Allah, the demonstration will be a success … and the more attention it gets, the better it is for us — because then more will follow, we will In sha Allah (God willing) show what we can achieve […]” she wrote on January 10 on the Facebook page.

On the Facebook page Shezadi also voiced support for the Taliban Islamist movement, and says that democracy is unnecessary if there is Islamic law, Sharia.

“In theory, there’s no need for democracy if there is an Islamic state because the state itself will be governed by the principles of Sharia,” she says.

Sponsored by Norwegian organizations

The organization Les! (“Read!”) and the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association (NFF), sponsors Shezadi’s tour to teach Norwegian students about her values.

“The reason for the tour is to talk about her personal decision to wear a niqab, and she respects those guidelines. She also emphasizes that she doesn’t discuss other peoples choices or talk on behalf of other groups,” says Wanda Voldner, leader of the organization Les!

“My personal opinions on the demonstration and the video have absolutely nothing to do with this tour. I only talk about my book Unveiled and what it’s like to wear the niqab in Norway,” Shezadi says

Aisha Shezadi also reacted to statements made by Louiza Louhibi (21), who earlier this week was interviewed by VG and talked about the threats she received by the organizers behind Friday’s demonstration.

“So, good for you then that you’re engaging in censorship of those who disagree with you then … wimp,” Shezadi wrote in a comment to the group “Oppose net extremists”, a site founded and run by Louhibi.

“I think it was cowardly of Louiza Louhibi to censor comments. She removed several that she didn’t like — which basically contradicts the freedom of expression that she is championing,” Shezadi says.

You are 20 years old. You know what you’re saying can cause reactions?

“Don’t misunderstand me. I condone everything I have written and said, but because I don’t go into explicit detail about everything I write it can be perceived as controversial,” she explains.

Does not encourage violence

The association Les! has this to say about Shezadi’s Facebook comments:

“She doesn’t encourage others to commit violence, and what she’s writing is not illegal. So we cannot see why we should terminate our cooperation with her,” says Voldnes.

The Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association (NFF), sponsors the school tour. Their views are:

“There are many writers with many different opinions, both political and religious. NFF does not engage in censorship. We have no position on this, and it has no impact on our funding of the tour,” says Trond Andreassen, Secretary General of the NFF.

Aisha Shezadi did not participate in yesterday’s demonstration, as she was sick.

2012-01-20T23:56:00.002-05:00

The Syrian interior minister says his country has lost $2 billion in oil revenues since the EU imposed sanctions on Syria back in September.

In economic news, Austria has issued 50-year bonds for the first time in its history. At their first auction they sold well, with a yield only slightly higher than that of the 10-year bonds issued the same day.

In other news, two European aid workers were kidnapped in the Pakistani province of Punjab.

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

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, JP, Mary Abdelmassih, Nick, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.

2012-01-20T16:44:00.001-05:00

A Jordanian woman who was the victim of an attempted “honor killing” speaks out about her ordeal on Quebec TV.

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

2012-01-20T12:13:00.001-05:00

A Norwegian leftist group has organized a demonstration for today in front of Parliament in Oslo opposing the war in Afghanistan. As we reported on Tuesday, its Facebook page — perhaps to some of its members’ discomfort — had linked approvingly to a jihad video that called for the violent and painful death of Prime Minister Stoltenberg, the Crown Prince, and other Norwegians.

Now the police have arrested a man for allegedly uploading the video. Strangely enough, he turns out to be of “Central American”, rather than “Middle Eastern” background. Since the suspect’s name hasn’t been released, the Mohammed Coefficient of the incident is unknown.

Here’s the story from The Local:

Suspect arrested over Islamist threat video

A 21-year-old man will face a remand hearing on Friday following his arrest on suspicion of having posted a hateful video to the internet calling on Allah to destroy members of the Norwegian government and royal family.

The suspect will appear in front of Skien district court in south-eastern Norway at 1pm on Friday.

The man, a Norwegian citizen with a Central American family background, was arrested at his home in the town at 11pm on Wednesday by officers from the Telemark police service and the domestic police intelligence agency, PTS. [emphasis added]

He faces preliminary charges of threatening state officials and incitement to terrorism.

The suspect’s lawyer, John Christian Elden, said his client admitted to being behind the video but did not believe it contained any threats.

“He was not previously known to police, and he doesn’t think he has done anything illegal, even though he admits that he’s the one who posted the video,” said Elden.

A link to the video was posted in the early hours of Tuesday morning in a Facebook group with 1,600 members called ‘Demonstrasjon: Norske soldater ut av Afghanistan’ [Demonstration: Norwegian soldiers out of Afghanistan]. The group’s aim is to gather protesters for a rally outside the Oslo parliament on Friday.

The number of group members has dropped to below 1,300 since the video appeared there.

In the video, images of Crown Prince Haakon, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre are accompanied by a song in Arabic that contains the words: “Oh Allah, destroy them, and let it be painful”.

The clip, which is just over four minutes long, also features pictures of Norwegian soldiers and injured children. It ends with the sound of an explosion and a picture of a Norwegian vehicle in flames.

The embedded offending video may be seen at Tuesday’s post.

Hat tip: The Observer.

2012-01-19T23:55:00.002-05:00

I was out most of the day paying a long-anticipated visit to the dentist and doing other chores. That’s why posting has been light.

In economic news, the Fitch ratings agency says that it may downgrade the debt six Eurozone countries before the end of January. France is said not to be among the affected countries. Meanwhile, Britain’s total debt is now five times as high as its GDP.

A safe containing radioactive material was stolen from a nuclear power plant in Egypt. Special investigative units have been deployed by the Egyptian government to track down the stolen material.

In other news, a theatre group in Denmark says it will stage a monologue based on Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto. Its plans have provoked criticism from Norway.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, KGS, Nick, Takuan Seiyo, 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.

2012-01-19T23:28:00.000-05:00

An anonymous Gates of Vienna reader in England sent us the following transcript of a conversation in a pub.

A Conversation With A Liberal

Something rather strange happened last night. Firstly, I was in a pub, which is in itself unusual. Secondly, I found myself in conversation with some rather earnest liberal types. The conversation turned to politics, which led eventually to a rather silly looking woman (RSLW) saying that she hated the BNP.

PW:		Really, why is that?
RSLW:		Because they are horrible, fascist, skinhead brutes.
PW:		I see. And what is your opinion of Muslim fundamentalists? Do you hate them also?
RSLW:		No, why would I hate them?
PW:		You don’t think of them as horrible, fascist, bearded brutes?
RSLW:		No, certainly not. What are you trying to say? Are you a racist?
PW:		How many foreign people have the BNP murdered? That you are aware of?
RSLW:		Well, I’m not sure, but they must have murdered someone. That’s what they are like.
PW:		I am not aware of any foreign people murdered in the name of the BNP, but I am aware of the 52 people murdered in the name of the of Islam in London in 2005, and the 2,973 murdered in the name of Islam in America on 9/11, and over 1,000,000 murdered in the name of Islam in the Sudan. Historically there have been hundreds of millions murdered in the name of Islam across the world, as every year there are hundreds of thousands murdered in the name of Islam. Are you prepared to admit therefore, that Islam is a murderous religion?
RSLW:		No, Islam is a religion of peace.
PW:		But the BNP is a violent sect? Filled with murderous racists? Even though you cannot name a single murder carried out in their name?
RSLW:		Yes, that’s right. Even if they don’t murder people, we all know they would like to.
PW:		Would you say that the BNP, whatever you may think about them, believe that their country is under threat?
RSLW:		No, they are just a bunch of thugs, looking for any excuse to hate.
PW:		Would you say that the fundamentalist Muslims, who murder your fellow countrymen in the name of Islam, were intent on eventually taking control of your country and running it as an Islamic state?
RSLW:		What! Oh my God, you really are a racist aren’t you?
PW:		But is not a fact that the BNP claim they are acting in defence of your country; and is not a fact that the fundamentalist Muslims claim they want to take over your country?
RSLW:		Look, you are just trying to put words into my mouth, you are obviously a racist who.....
PW:		Sorry to interrupt you, but I just want to get something straight here. On the one hand we have followers of a religion called Islam, who murder us in the name of that religion and inform us that their ultimate ambition is to conquer us, whilst on the other hand we have a group of people who have murdered no-one, and who wish to defend your country, yet you think the BNP is filled with murderous haters and that Islam is a religion of peace?
RSLW:		Yes, absolutely. Only a racist would think otherwise.
PW:		Have you read George Orwell’s 1984?

RSLW:		Of course I have! I have a second-class degree in English Literature from the University of Leeds!
PW:		How admirable. A veritable achievement indeed. One assumes therefore you are familiar with the daily Two Minute Hate, carried out by Big Brother’s state propagandists, aimed at rousing the passionate hatred of the populace against Emmanuel Goldstein?
RSLW:		Yes! Absolutely! Overt propaganda utilised as a means of empowering the state at the expense of the common man in the street! Margaret Thatch…
PW:		My dear, you must excuse my interrupting you again, but do you not think that you yourself might be a victim of State propagandist and brainwashing techniques?
RSLW:		Me? Absolutely not! I just happen to be a senior advertising account executive; there is little I do not know about propagandist techniques.
PW:		Fascinating, but is not a fact that the British State, via the media, relentlessly portrays Islam as a religion of peace and the BNP as a party of violent racists?
RSLW:		Yes, but...
PW:		You say you are not the victim of propaganda, yet you defend Islam as a religion of peace, even whilst you admit they commit mass murder in the name of their religion and have a stated ambition of taking over your country; yet you denounce the BNP, who you admit have murdered no-one, and act only in the defence of your country, as murderous racist thugs?
RSLW:		You are deliberately confusing me, and you are deliberately putting words into my mouth again, I...
PW:		My dear lady, I fear the confusion resides only within you. Whilst it has been most enlightening talking to you, I regret that I must now away. Alternative hostelries within the near vicinity beckon, with an ever-growing sense of urgency.

PW exits stage left. The earnest liberals continue drinking half-pints of fizzy beer and small measures of Cuvee Napa Brut — all of them uniformly appalled that such an ignorant and racist individual had so recently been within their fragrant and enlightened midst.

2012-01-19T09:43:00.003-05:00

As we reported last night, Janne Kristiansen, the head of Norway’s security police has just resigned in the wake of her acknowledgement that Norway has intelligence agents in Pakistan. Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends a link to a more extensive news article about the controversy at the PST, and includes this observation:

Here’s some more information about the resignation of Janne Kristiansen. It’s definitely not an ideal scenario for Norway to have a leader of a security agency who seems incapable of knowing when to keep her mouth shut. As the leader of the PST, she of all people should realize that it’s completely unacceptable to disclose sensitive information of such a nature. What the heck was she thinking?

This could seriously compromise the security of Norwegian embassy personnel in Pakistan.

And in light of the pathetic response from the police on July 22, it certainly doesn’t bode well for Norway’s reputation as a nation that takes its security seriously. Al Qaeda and other terror organizations will by now have realized that Norway is an easy target.

This article was posted today (in English) at the website Views and News from Norway:

Intelligence chief quits under fire

Janne Kristiansen, embattled chief of Norway’s police intelligence unit PST, resigned on the spot during the night, after making a major blunder at a public hearing on Wednesday: Kristiansen revealed classified information that Norway has intelligence agents working in Pakistan.

Embattled PST chief Janne Kristiansen has finally called it quits. Her job had been on the line for months, but she made a mistake on Wednesday that made it impossible for her to continue in her post.

The intelligence gathering efforts in Pakistan, tied to anti-terrorism efforts, likely come as no surprise, but Kristiansen’s public declaration that they even exist is viewed as a violation of the vow of confidentiality that PST officials and staff are expected to uphold. No one is supposed to comment on intelligence gathering operations, either in or out of the country, not least because it can put the lives of those involved in danger.

Kristiansen, however, told a parliamentary committee investigating the response to last year’s terrorist attacks that “we have, via (the military intelligence gathering unit known) E-tjenesten in foreign service … representation in these countries you’re talking about,” which, given the committee’s questioning at the time, meant she was referring to Pakistan. Kristiansen earlier had said PST cooperated with the security and intelligence agencies in around 60 countries but had no “official cooperation” with Pakistan, and added that E-tjenesten “has representation, and we have a close cooperation with E-tjenesten.” She also said PST cooperated with a police liaison in Islamabad.

That was a serious mistake for an intelligence chief to make. Not only did she reveal information about overseas intelligence operations, but she spoke on behalf of the military unit more formally called Etterrettningstjeneste (Norwegian Intelligence Service, NIS), charged with carrying out top secret operations. Moreover, it’s tied to the Ministry of Defense, while the PST unit Kristiansen has headed for the past few years is under the Ministry of Justice. So political commentators on Thursday morning also noted that Kristiansen crossed ministerial lines.

‘Shocking’

One intelligence expert told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that it was “rather shocking” for Kristiansen to speak as she did. “An individual in that position should know better,” he said, adding that her remarks “certainly could place people in danger.” He said Norwegian officials now must “assess the damage done, and how extensive it is.”

Justice Minister Grete Faremo issued a brief press release shortly after midnight that gave few details of the incident, but stated that Kristiansen herself “had informed the justice minister that she was resigning her position” because “it’s been ascertained a possible violation of confidentiality through release of classified information.”

Faremo said she accepted the resignation and that Roger Berg, deputy leader of PST, was taking over as acting PST chief. The statement did go on to say that Kristiansen’s “possible violation” of confidentiality laws occurred “in connection with the hearing in Stortinget’s (the Parliament’s) special committee for the 22nd of July” when “Kristiansen formulated herself in a manner that can be considered a violation.”

“I want to stress that no violation of law has been established, but that this involves a possible violation,” Faremo stated in the press release. “I have nevertheless chosen to accept Kristiansen’s desire to resign.”

Kristiansen had been under pressure for months because of massive criticism over her response to the July 22 attacks and PST’s failure to act on tips about the confessed terrorist before he struck. She had claimed as last as last month that she had no intention of resigning, but had apologized for what she called “a lack of clarity” in comments she made about the attacks.

Several politicians including Progress Party leader Siv Jensen told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) Thursday morning that their confidence in Kristiansen already was “extremely thin.” Her oral blunder at the hearing on Wednesday tipped the balance, and if Kristiansen hadn’t resigned herself, they likely would have demanded she be fired.

2012-01-19T01:09:00.001-05:00

The FBI is now aiding Houston police in the investigation of the murder of a young Iranian medical student named Gelareh Bagherzadeh. Ms. Bagherzadeh, who was known to be a vocal opponent of the regime in Tehran, was shot to death yesterday, and robbery was apparently not a motive in the slaying.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

2012-01-19T00:56:00.001-05:00

An Iranian official explicitly warns the West that it can expect terror attacks in retaliation for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists.

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

2012-01-18T23:56:00.002-05:00

President Obama has rejected plans for the Keystone Pipeline that would have brought oil from Canadian oil sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental concerns seem to have won out over job-creation and the lowering of fuel prices.

In economic news, Greece is negotiating with its creditors for another “writedown” on its outstanding loans, in hopes of getting rid of some of its crushing debt load. Meanwhile, the IMF says it is going scare up more funds to prop up the euro, but it is not clear where the money will come from.

In other news, the captain of the Costa Concordia says that the only reason why he was in the lifeboat before all his passengers had evacuated the stricken ship was because he tripped and fell into it.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, ESW, Fjordman, Kitman, Mary Abdelmassih, 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.

2012-01-18T22:46:00.001-05:00

The Norwegian state intelligence service PST announced this evening (actually, tomorrow morning, since the press release came out after midnight CET) that the head of the service, Janne Kristiansen, has resigned. She had recently revealed that Norway has intelligence sources in Pakistan, which is a breach of Norwegian confidentiality laws. That information is supposed to be hush-hush.

As Valdemar mentioned last night, the PST also recently stated that radical Muslims, and not right-wing extremists, pose the greatest terrorist threat to Norway. Is there a connection between that faux pas and tonight’s announcement? Did that conclusion not sit well with Norway’s leftist elite?

In any case, our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article on the topic from Trønder-Avisa:

Chief of PST Janne Kristiansen resigns

Oslo (NTB): Janne Kristiansen resigns from her position as chief of the PST due to possible breaches of Norwegian confidentiality laws. Kristiansen resigns with immediate effect.

PST Chief Janne Kristiansen has informed the justice minister that she will resign from her position. The reason for her resignation is possible breaches of confidentiality slaw as a result of the disclosure of classified information, according to a press release from the Ministry of Justice published just after midnight on Thursday.

“I wish to emphasize that there are no confirmed violations of the law, but there may be possible breach of confidentiality laws. I have nonetheless decided to accommodate Kristiansen’s wish to resign,” Minister of Justice Grete Faremo says in the statement.

Deputy PST Chief Roger Berg will serve as acting head of the PST until further notice.

It was during a parliamentary special committee hearing on the 22 July terror attack that Kristiansen expressed herself in terms that could be construed as possible breaches of Norwegian confidentiality laws, according to the Ministry.

Janne Kristiansen took over as PST chief after Jørn Holme resigned in September 2009.

2012-01-18T18:26:00.001-05:00

The video below from FOX News has more on the murder of the young Iranian medical student in Houston yesterday. The FOX reporter again characterizes her as an activist who supported regime change in Iran, despite her family’s insistence that she was not politically active.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

2012-01-18T15:33:00.001-05:00

A young Iranian woman named Gelareh Bagherzadeh was brutally shot to death in Houston yesterday. Early media reports indicated that she was an opponent of the regime in Tehran, and an activist who promoted equal rights for Iranian women.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Today, however, Ms. Bagherzadeh’s relatives questioned the reports that identified her as an activist and a critic of the mullahs. Here’s a recent report from FOX News:

Houston Police Seek Help in Solving Murder as Relatives Dispute Iranian Activist Reports

Authorities in Houston are seeking the public’s help in solving the murder of 30-year-old woman as her relatives question reports that she was an activist for women’s rights in Iran.

Ali Bagherzadeh, 27, held a press conference outside of the Houston Police Department on Wednesday to seek information the shooting death of his sister, 30-year-old Gelareh Bagherzadeh.

“She was a very loving person, very kind and always tried to be helpful to people,” Ali Bagherzadeh told FoxNews.com following the press conference. “She was such a sweetheart. I can’t think of anybody who would so such a horrible thing. They shouldn’t be out there.”

Bagherzadeh said his sister — a molecular genetic technology student at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center — was a dedicated student who was “very social” and active within Houston’s Persian community, but denied news reports that she was critical of the Iranian government.

“As a family, we don’t believe it’s a political manner,” he said. “She wasn’t politically active. She wasn’t even watching any political channels, she wasn’t into it. I have no idea how those rumors got started.”

Houston Police Department spokesman Victor Senties said Bagherzadeh was active in promoting Iranian women’s rights. Investigators are not sure if the shooting was related to those activities.

Calls by FoxNews.com seeking additional comment from Houston police were not immediately returned.

In prior interviews with the Houston Chronicle about her protest activities against the Iranian government, Bagherzadeh requested that she not use her last name because she feared for her safety, the newspaper reports.

[…]

Sgt. J.C. Padilla told the Houston Chronicle that the department has been frustrated by the case due to few leads and no suspects.

“This is probably one of my most difficult cases,” Padilla told the newspaper. “It’s very frustrating.”

Padilla told the newspaper that local authorities were coordinating with the FBI due to the international undertones of some of her more controversial positions.

FBI Special Agent Shauna Dunlap told FoxNews.com, however, that “no information has developed” as of Wednesday that would necessitate the need for federal authorities to join the investigation.

“Therefore, we are not involved,” Dunlap told FoxNews.com.

Padilla told the newspaper there was no evidence that pointed to a professional killing or that her death seemed connected to her political views. He said police had also discovered a prior report about an assault by a male acquaintance but have found no connection to her death.

Police had also interviewed her ex-boyfriend, who was on the phone with Bagherzadeh when she was shot, and a current boyfriend, but found them to be helpful and not suspicious, the newspaper reports.

A $5,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest and charges in the woman’s death.

2012-01-17T23:59:00.001-05:00

The death toll in the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster has risen to eleven, as more bodies were pulled from the stricken ship. 24 people are said to be still unaccounted for. Latest reports indicate that the captain sailed his ship too close to the island of Giglio to show it to the locals on the island. Italian media have aired an audiotape in which the captain is told repeatedly by the Coast Guard to return to the ship, which he had abandoned while the evacuation of the passengers was still ongoing.

In other news, the European Union has initiated legal action against Hungary for what it considers unacceptable changes to the country’s constitution. It’s no surprise that the EU’s preferred form of punishment is to withhold ECB bailout money, which Hungary will need after the ratings agencies downgraded its debt.

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

Thanks to Caroline Glick, CSP, Diana West, Fjordman, Jedilson Bonfim, KGS, Kitman, Takuan Seiyo, 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.

2012-01-17T22:35:00.007-05:00

Last week the official psychiatric report on Anders Behring Breivik was leaked to a major newspaper in Norway. Below is the first installment of Fjordman’s three-part analysis of the report.

Is the Mass Murderer Anders Behring Breivik Insane?

Part 1: The Nordic Mohammed

by Fjordman

Anders Behring Breivik in two different attacks on 22 July 2011 became the worst mass murderer in modern Scandinavian history. He killed a total of 77 people, 8 with a car bomb outside a government office building in central Oslo, and the remaining 69 with a massacre of unprecedented scope and brutality when he spent nearly an hour and a half methodically shooting people attending a summer camp of the Workers’ Youth League (AUF) on the island of Utøya outside of Oslo. He also wounded many others, mentally and physically.

ABB has confessed to carrying out these attacks, claiming that his actions were “atrocious but necessary.” There is also plenty of technical evidence, with videos and numerous witnesses. This represents a rather rare case where we can be virtually 100% that the man who is in custody really did commit the crime in question.

Other things remain controversial, however. Due to the great scope of the massacre, many people, myself included, initially wondered whether there were several perpetrators. Norwegian police after conducting months of investigation claim that ABB acted alone and was not part of a wider terror network. Perhaps this made him harder for the security services to detect.

This brings us to the first question: What caused him to carry out these horrible acts? In the long manifesto which he circulated on the Internet to justify his atrocities, he quoted a large number of people — with myself among the most prominent — who are critical of Islam and the current immigration policies supported by Western governments. This triggered a lot of public animosity against this community of writers.

And the second question: Is Breivik sane or insane?

This is the subject I will focus on here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
After careful examination, a panel of experts confirmed in December 2011 that Breivik is to be considered criminally insane. The head of the panel of experts, Karl Heinrik Melle, said there was “no major objection” to the initial report published by the psychiatrists Synne Sørheim og Torgeir Husby. They found that ABB suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and cannot be held accountable for his actions. The panel’s conclusions were submitted to the Oslo district court. In their 243-page report, Sørheim og Husby painted a picture of a person with “grandiose illusions” who is incapable of living peacefully in a modern society in his present state. I will take a closer look a what their report reveals.

In January 2012, an Oslo court ordered a new psychiatric evaluation of ABB after this earlier, contested report found him insane. “Due to the gravity of this case, the criminal responsibility (of Behring Breivik) must be examined again,” Oslo District Court judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen stated. Two new experts, Agnar Aspaas and Terje Tørrisen, were named to evaluate the 32-year-old’s sanity before the beginning of his trial in April. Breivik refused through his lawyer to cooperate with the probe. “He feels the first report was 80-percent wrong,” his main defense lawyer Geir Lippestad said after informing his client of the judges’ decision.

Verdens Gang (VG), Norway’s largest national newspaper, in mid-January 2012 published on its website the full psychiatric report which had concluded that Breivik is insane, leaving out a few pages that were deemed to reveal too-intimate details about Breivik’s family. This report is confidential, but VG have previously proved that they have access to lots of confidential material related to the Breivik case. The 243-page report published by them looks authentic and is consistent with what was publicly known previously. I have also heard no claims to the contrary from the quoted psychiatrists themselves or from anybody else. For the purposes of this analysis, I will treat it as authentic.

Alongside it the newspaper published some comments from the prison where ABB has been held while awaiting trial. Those who work there can see no evidence that Breivik is currently psychotic, as the psychiatrists claim in their report.

I am unhappy with the many media leaks in this case, which combined have reached a point where they undermine the ability of the police to talk to witnesses and conduct a proper investigation. Nevertheless, it is better that the mass media leak a psychiatric report regarding the terrorist himself as opposed to sensitive testimonies from his many victims. I read this report in its entirety, partly out of genuine curiosity and partly due to my own involuntary involvement in this horrible case. The following page references are to the original Norwegian psychiatric evaluation of Breivik as published by VG, with my own English comments and translations.

ABB came off as polite, but emotionally flat, in talks with psychiatrists Synne Sørheim og Torgeir Husby. He cannot properly describe his own emotions. Breivik claims to be a perfect knight worthy of emulation and to have made a lot of money with his many employees, which isn’t factually true. Evidence indicates that he was a failure in his commercial dealings. The psychiatrists interpret this and other factors as enormous psychotic delusions betraying a grossly inflated ego. His extreme narcissism and exceptionally egocentric mental universe with nearly all-encompassing ideas of grandeur dominate his behavior, regardless of context.

ABB is convinced that he is extraordinary, that he leaves a lasting positive impression on everybody around him, that everybody remembers him with awe, that he stands out from the crowd and achieves great success wherever he goes. In real life, he moved back to his mother’s house after his career failed. He did reasonably well in school and is estimated to have at least average and possibly above-average intelligence, yet he still did not complete secondary school. He describes his own actions in intimate, banal and almost embarrassing detail in his manifesto because he believes his personal example will form a template for others to follow and emulate.

He mentions his favorite candy and ranks this as proper rewards for incredibly brave military operators like himself. Breivik is convinced that his personal habits of watching TV, drinking coffee and eating candy are of genuine geopolitical significance due to his own immense importance, and because they strengthen his battle morale as the perfect knight. He is vain, and had plastic surgery on his face.

On page 183 of the psychiatric report, Breivik is asked if he thinks he has any significant weaknesses. “No, I lack nothing, I am a good builder of alliances, I am interesting, have good looks, and no real flaws,” he replies.

Breivik is, according to himself, very modest and a perfect knight. He’s also extremely intelligent and ranks among the intellectual giants of the political Right. ABB calls himself an “attention-seeking whore” (page 162), representing a rare moment of insight.

He also suggests we should take DNA samples of everybody from the political Right in Norway to see who is most closely related to Harald Fairhair, traditionally seen as Norway’s first national king, in order to appoint a new king (page 185). He says that if he promotes himself as the new regent, people will think he is crazy.

Cynical observers might claim that train left the station long ago.

On a darker note, on page 234 the officially appointed psychiatrists conclude that “He thinks he has responsibility for deciding who should live or die in the country.” Breivik claims (page 201) that if nobody wants to work with him or continue his glorious work after his attacks, he has misjudged the overall situation so badly that he may “self-terminate” after the trial. This is among the reasons why the psychiatrists have classified him as potentially suicidal, although he does not presently display any visible signs of depression and is not known to have suffered any episodes of severe depression in the past. Up until now he has never expressed the slightest regret for the many murders he committed, and shows no remorse for what he has done.

Breivik has been widely labeled as “anti-Islamic” in the mass media because, as an excuse for his murderous acts, he quotes writers who warn against Islamic inroads in the West. However, there is another side to that story. As a terrorist himself he actually displays admiration for Islamic militant groups and is even willing to accept a renewed Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East. The latter overlaps directly with the stated goals of large international organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and can hardly be called “anti-Islamic.”

ABB indicates that he wants to glorify death and martyrdom through his words and deeds. Very similar sentiments that have been voiced on countless occasions by Jihadist operatives from Hamas, Hizbollah or other Muslim groups around the world. Breivik says explicitly, as noted on page 163 of the report, that after his terror attacks, what he calls militant cultural conservatives in Europe can now “live in the same way as the Islamists.”

Thomas Hegghammer, a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, wrote in the New York Times that “Breivik goes much further than any counterjihad ideologue has ever done, and his manifesto contains ideas and information that have no precedent in the counterjihad literature. For example, he provides extensive advice on how to build bombs and plan terrorist attacks.” Moreover, “the more belligerent part of Mr. Breivik’s ideology has less in common with counterjihad than with its archenemy, Al Qaeda.”

Breivik believes that he is a perfect example for others to follow, worthy of emulation even down to the most intimate and banal details of his private life. The entire world should revolve around his unique person as a supreme military-political genius and master of life and death. Grandiose delusions of this magnitude are fortunately rare, but not unheard of. If you believe traditional historical sources (not everybody does), an Arab man called Mohammed suffered from comparable delusions in the seventh century of our era.

Author John L. Esposito is widely seen as an apologist for Islam by his critics and ranks as one of the most pro-Islamic writers alive today. In his book Islam: The Straight Path, page 13-14, Esposito reminds his readers that Mohammed serves as the ideal model for Muslim life, providing the pattern that all Islamic believers are to emulate and “guidance in all aspects of life: how to treat friends as well as enemies, what to eat and drink, how to make love and war.” He is the “living Koran” in the sense that practices of the Prophet became a material source of Islamic law alongside the Koran itself:

“His impact on Muslim life cannot be overestimated, since he served as both religious and political head of Medina: prophet of God, ruler, military commander, chief judge, lawgiver. As a result, the practice of the Prophet, his Sunna or example, became the norm for community life. Muslims observed and remembered stories about what the Prophet said and did. These reports or traditions (hadith) were preserved and passed on in oral and written form. The corpus of hadith literature reveals the comprehensive scope of Muhammad’s example; he is the ideal religiopolitical leader as well as the exemplary husband and father. Thus when many Muslims pray five times each day or make the pilgrimage to Mecca, they seek to pray as the Prophet prayed, without adding or subtracting from the way Muhammad is reported to have worshipped. Traditions of the Prophet provide guidance for personal hygiene, dress, eating, marriage, treatment of wives, diplomacy, and warfare.”

Islam is not just a total way of life; it is a totalitarian way of life. Not even Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin, representing the most totalitarian strands of European thought, said that everybody in the entire world should from now on visit the bathroom in the same manner they did. Mohammed did exactly that.

Or, putting it in a more provocative manner, one could say that Islam is a creed stating that those who urinate like Mohammed should wage war against the rest of mankind until they, too, urinate like Mohammed.

Theologically speaking, what I write here is exaggerated, but not incorrect. Muslims are expected to emulate all aspects of Mohammed’s personal example or Sunna, including bathroom etiquette, and spread these manners to the rest of planet by any means necessary.

Based on these examples, one could be tempted to conclude that Anders Behring Breivik, with his extreme narcissism and desire for others to emulate his perfect personal example, represents a Nordic Mohammed.

To be continued…

For a complete archive of Fjordman’s writings, see the multi-index listing in the Fjordman Files.

2012-01-17T21:45:00.002-05:00

Earlier today an Islamic terror group in Norway posted a video on YouTube threatening the Prime Minister, the Crown Prince, and Norwegians in general with a violent, painful death. The video was linked by a leftist Facebook group set up to publicize Friday’s demonstration in front of Parliament against the war in Afghanistan.

Our Norwegian correspondent Valdemar sends his summary of recent events in his country. Below his account is the threatening video, followed by two news articles about what happened today.

Happy Multicultural Year, New Norway!
by Valdemar

(“New Norway” is the expression that many Multiculturalists, most prominently Norwegian Secretary of Foreign Affairs Støre is using about the new and culturally enriched Norway.)

A summary of the events so far this month serve to show the insane mentality of the Multicultural elites in Norway.

On the 9th of January, the state news agency NRK reported on the story of 21-year-old rape victim Loiza Lohibi being harassed at Facebook by members of The Religion of Peace. Why? She is a convert from Islam to Christianity (and, ironically, a member of AUF, the same social democratic youth organization which was hit by the mass murderer Anders B. Breivik). The messages she received from false Facebook profiles said that she was a dirty infidel who deserved to be raped, and similar sentiments.

A comment by the historian and expert on Islam Kari Vogt explains this behaviour as “frustrated youth in opposition to society”. Harassing rape victims was a rather odd way of expressing frustration in Norway a generation ago, when Norway was boring and monocultural. It is maybe appropriate after some cultural enrichment, when it comes to how to act when “frustrated”?

On the 12th of January, former Norwegian Prime Minister and current Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, expressed strong discontent in the left-wing newspaper Dagsavisen about several European countries wanting less international legislation and more self-government. He also condemned Hungarian Prime Ministrer Viktor Orban for stating that “Nobody has the right to interfere with which laws we pass”, and anybody else who thinks similarly.

Jagland is the source of an initiative to include the European Declaration of Human Rights in the Norwegian Constitution. In practice this will mean that it will be very hard to deport dangerous individuals and control immigration policy, even if Norwegians were to elect a majority government supporting more restrictive policies than today’s. But politicians like Jagland are at least honest enough to tell people directly that they could not care less about democracy.

Meanwhile, on the 14th of January a music award was handed out to a band, Plumbo, from rural Norway. The two black musicians in the group Madcon were responsible for handing out the award. The front man for Plumbo then made an unfunny, but not particularly rude joke about the black skin colour of Madcon.

This caused an extreme reaction: The audience booed, which is fair enough. Then, the “racist” remarks evoked a sexist response from one of the members of Madcon, calling the Plumbo guy a “p***y”. Even while the Plumbo guy was apologizing, a vocalist in another band, Kaizers, poured beer over him. Other Norwegian celebrities wrote that the unforgivable sinner against the ideology of anti-racism deserves to be physically punished. And of course there were several demands that Plumbo could not, as previously scheduled, represent Norway in the Eurovision song context. These demands were not granted, however, probably due to strong popular sympathy for Plumbo, after the grossly disproportionate treatment they received for their stupid joke. Also, a lot of ordinary people remarked that Madcon had themselves made use of racial slurs against white people in the past (probably with no malicious intent, though).

On the 17th of January (today), the official commission investigating the act of terror committed 22/7/2011 was “briefed” by the self-proclaimed expert on “right-wing extremism” Øyvind Strømmen, himself harboring an globalist agenda and an intense dislike of any support for the national state, however moderate. How reassuring! Luckily, the PST (Politiet sikkerhetstjeneste, the intelligence branch of the Police) held a briefing the same day which concluded that militant Islamism will remain the main threat in 2012, while the threat from people with right-wing sympathies will remain quite low.

The same day a group of Muslims served to illustrate this point: They posted a jihadist video on YouTube showing His Majesty Crown Prince Haakon, PM Jens Stoltenberg and Støre together with wounded Afghan children, coffins with Norwegian soldiers and threats like “Oh Allah destroy them and let it be painful”. The people behind this video are now under investigation by the police. The posters are most likely connected to the Facebook Islamists behind the previous harassment of the rape victim. This group is also organizing a demonstration against the Norwegian presence in Afghanistan this coming Friday, January 20th, in front of Parliament.

According to the police these Muslims include long-time criminal Arfan Q. Bhatti, who was arrested for assisting shooting at the Synagogue of Oslo in September 2006. In the subsequent criminal case, Bhatti was not condemned for terrorism, merely vandalism, by the court. The group also contains Mohyeldeen Mohammad, who threatened Norway with “a new 9/11” during an Islamist demonstration on 12th February 2010. This jihadist has also publicly defended the stoning of a gay man by the Al-Shaabab militia in Somalia. There is an open Facebook group for their demonstration containing several racist comments of Norwegians being dirty pork-eating infidels and calling for the murder of NATO soldiers and Americans.

The irony of this is enormous. The current government, led by Arbeiderpartiet (Labour), which Stoltenberg and Støre represent, has been actively promoting mass immigration of Muslims and “dialogue” with Islamists, even as Muslims were burning down Norwegian embassies in the Middle East during the Mohammed cartoon controversy. The Crown Prince mostly has a ceremonial role in Norwegian politics, but also he has been involved in this bogus dialogue.

This is also same Stoltenberg who in his New Year’s speech said the following, clearly address to Fjordman: “The Internet at its worst is when totalitarian seducers are allowed to remain unchallenged in dark corners of the Net. We have to face this with resolve. We shall drive them out with the light of knowledge. Voicing opposition to extremism is taking responsibility for the future.”

Well, Jens Stoltenberg, now you have violent, totalitarian seducers threatening you, your colleagues, your people and your allies and they are going to show up right outside the Parliament. What are you going to tell them?

Of course, very few politicians have commented on the harassment of the rape victim. None of the musical celebrities has to my knowledge said anything about either this case or the jihadist video. So maybe the Norwegian Multicultural elites are still more concerned about conservative bloggers and rural musicians making stupid jokes about blacks than violent jihadists?

Maybe they know that the former will not harm them so they are safe targets to mock in order to show off their enormous “tolerance” and other supreme attributes?

Below is the video linked by the Facebook group. YouTube kept taking it down, but it has been captured and posted on other video sites. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this copy, and for including the explanatory material. WARNING: Some of the still photos in this clip are graphic:

From The Local:

Security Cops Investigate Islamist Threat Video

On the same day Norway’s intelligence service (PST) said hardline Islamists remained the foremost threat to national security, leading government officials and the royal family have been singled out in a threatening online video. In a Twitter message, PST said it would seek to ascertain if the video, posted on YouTube and linked to from a Facebook group, constituted incitement to commit acts of terrorism.

A link to the video was posted in the early hours of Tuesday morning by a Facebook group with 1,600 members called ‘Demonstrasjon: Norske soldater ut av Afghanistan’ (Demonstration: Norwegian soldiers out of Afghanistan). The group’s aim is to gather protesters for a rally outside the Oslo parliament this Friday.

In the video, images of Crown Prince Haakon, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre are accompanied by a song in Arabic that contains the words: “Oh Allah, destroy them, and let it be painful”. The clip, which is just over four minutes long, also features pictures of Norwegian soldiers and injured children. It ends with the sound of an explosion and a picture of a Norwegian vehicle in flames.

From The Foreigner:

Extremists Glorify Norway Crown Prince Suffering

Muslim extremists have posted a video on Facebook wishing Crown Prince Haakon pain and suffering, reports say.

Using images of HRH and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, the faction says it hopes they “suffer painful revenge”, proclaiming “Oh, Allah, destroy them”. Threats have also been issued against Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre

Moreover, the video shows dramatic pictures of suffering Afghan children and coffins of fallen Norwegian soldiers, with text, “Revenge verily comes from Allah! That’s what is approaching!” According to NRK, the footage also contains dramatic music.

Whilst it is not clear whether members of the group calling themselves ‘Demonstration: Norwegian troops out of Afghanistan’ posted the video, police and the Norwegian Parliament’s administration have granted them permission to hold a demonstration in front of the building on 20th January.

Oslo District Police’s Snorre Haugen tells the broadcaster stopping the demonstration will be extremely difficult, as is holding organisers responsible for everything published on a Facebook page.

“Freedom of speech is very strong in Norway.”

NRK believes a small group of 5 to 15 people, who wish to remain anonymous, are behind the demonstration. Arfan Bhatti is the only member of the group who has published his full identity.

Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies’ (ISF) Anders Romarheim finds the video perturbing because of the link between destruction threats and famous Norwegian heads of society.

“I cannot remember I’ve seen this relating to Norway before,” he says.

The video coincides with today’s unveiling of the Police Security Service’s (PST) terror threat assessment for 2012, where director Janne Kristiansen says they still regard extreme Islam as the biggest threat against Norway. PST head of information, Martin Bernsen, will not comment on the footage.

Norway’s Royal Court, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and the PST have been appraised of the video, which ends with a picture of a burning white car with a Norwegian flag on it, accompanied by the sound of a powerful explosion.

Hat tips: For The Foreigner, The Observer; for The Local, Fjordman.

2012-01-17T12:50:00.002-05:00

Gavin Boby of the Law and Freedom Foundation has just posted a report of his recent astonishing successes of the Mosquebusters initiative in the UK. Since the beginning of the year, four new planning applications for mosques have been successfully opposed.

His conclusion? “When we fight, we win.”

Four more fought off

2012 has started with a bang.

That makes a total of 9. And we haven’t lost one so far.

The pattern is that when we fight a mosque planning application it gets stopped, and when we don’t — because we’re skint or someone lets us down — it goes through. Make what you want of that:

BOLTON. Application reference 87089/11: planning application to turn a shop (a former pub) into a mosque. Refused on traffic and parking grounds.
EALING. Application reference: 2011/4564: Planning application to turn the sheds to the rear of 387 & 389 Uxbridge Road into a mosque. Refused. No reason published online yet.
KIRKLEES. Application reference: 2011/92581. Planning application to turn the beautiful old Jolly Sailor Pub into a mosque. Application withdrawn.
LUTON. Council decision not to sell development land on the cheap to the Masjid E-Ali mosque outfit — see previous post.

Winning means either we get a refusal or the other side withdraw the application.

They could come back again, and if they do we’ll fight them again. But we’ve seen ’em off this time.

There’s all to play for.

It can be done.

Previous posts about Mosquebusters:

2012-01-17T10:17:00.001-05:00

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends his translation of an article about crime statistics in the Norwegian city of Sandnes. He includes this introductory note:

This article concerns the increase in domestic abuse cases in Sandnes, a city of approximately 70,000 inhabitants on the west coast of Norway. As you can see from the article, 50% of the people involved in these cases are of non-Norwegian descent, something which corresponds well with the statistics in Oslo, where roughly70% of those involved in domestic abuse are of non-Norwegian descent. One should also keep in mind that the immigrant community in Oslo is a much bigger percentage of the population than in Sandnes.

Knife crime and drug use are also on the rise.

What religion has large numbers of male practitioners that like to physically abuse their women, stab people and sell drugs…?

The translated article from Aftenbladet:

Less street crime, more domestic abuse

The number of domestic abuse cases has doubled in Sandnes and Gjesdal since 2007. Police believe awareness campaigns in schools and kindergartens have contributed to this increase, but they still fear that many cases go unreported.

“While we see a decline in street crime, the number of domestic abuse cases is on the rise. We have also begun to investigate more cases that were initially treated as domestic disturbance incidents,” says acting Police Chief Bjart R. Larssen.

Last Monday the police in Sandnes and Gjesdal released crime statistics from 2011.

Last year 52 cases of domestic abuse were reported to the police in Sandnes, compared to 39 the year before. There has been an increase in domestic abuse cases in Gjesdal too in recent years. In 2011 five cases were reported to the police in the municipality.

“Since 2007, the number of domestic abuse cases has doubled. There has been a 10% increase every year. This is a concern for us,” says the head of investigation, Magnar Hetland, at Sandnes police station.

Persons of non-Norwegian descent were involved in half the domestic abuse cases reported to the police. [emphasis added]

Solves 4 out of 10 cases

In 2011, 10792 cases were filed with the police in Sandnes and Gjesdal. The resolution rate was 37.8% (the same numbers for Rogaland Police precinct was 39.5% and the national average 38%); the average time spent on a case was 97 days.

This is the crime in Sandnes and Gjesdal:

Violence

359 violent crimes reported, 23 more than in 2010.

“More domestic abuse cases, less street crime. But we’re seeing an increase in knife crime. On the whole Sandnes is a relatively quiet city on the weekends,” says Larsen. [emphasis added]

Petty crime

2416 crimes reported in 2011, 2,440 in 2010.

“We have a seen a sharp decline in house break-ins. This is probably related to higher arrest rates of members of transient burglary gangs. Police patrols have been advised to be extra vigilant of suspicious activity in residential areas,” says Larsen.

“Only nine house burglaries were reported to the police in Sandnes in 2011, and only two in Gjesdal. We’ve seen a slight decrease in bicycle thefts. A total of 241 bicycles were reported stolen last year in Sandnes.”

Drugs

There has been a sharp increase in personal drug use cases. A total of 722 cases were reported to the police in 2011 compared to 682 the year before.

“We have actively targeted drug dealers operating out of Ruten [The main bus and train station in the city centre of Sandnes] and this has been a success,” says Larsen.

In Gjesdal the number of drug cases has declined following several police raids targeting the drug community in 2010. Last year only one fatal drug overdose was reported in the two neighboring municipalities, compared with five in 2008 and 2009.

Traffic

13,000 vehicles were inspected by the police in 2011, and there has been a slight decrease in the number of traffic-related cases in both municipalities.

Growing pains

The police in Sandnes are getting busier due to a younger and growing population. Police Chief Bjart R. Larsen believes that this can lead to challenges for the police.

“It’s pleasing to witness a reduction in violent street crime. It’s important for us to try and make it a safe city for the inhabitants.”

Traffic congestion is also on the increase in the city, and this could lead to more traffic accidents.

Larssen also points out the importance of kids having somewhere to hang out in their free time.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

2012-01-16T23:45:00.002-05:00

A sixth passenger has been found dead in the Italian cruise ship that ran aground and partially sank off the island of Giglio. More than twenty people are still missing. The company that owns the ship now says that the captain had veered off course, perhaps to show the island to passengers on the ship. He remains in police custody.

In financial news, the Fitch ratings agency has downgraded the debt of both Russia and South Africa. Meanwhile, an estimated $39 trillion of pension obligations hangs over the European Union. It’s not clear what proportion of those pensions remains unfunded.

In other news, the Associated Press has become the first Western news bureau to open an office in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, JP, KGS, 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.

2012-01-16T20:20:00.003-05:00

That’s not what Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said, but he might as well have. The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation warned that the “extreme right” in Europe is now so powerful that the OIC is unable to overcome it.

It seems that the “Islamophobes” must have had an effect, doesn’t it? But before you break out the champagne, consider this: the European Union has offered to host the third meeting of the “Istanbul Process” — the love child of Hillary Clinton and the OIC — which means that the Brahmins of Brussels are keen to deliver an Islamophobia-free Europe to the representatives of the OIC when they convene in Eurabia.

These remarks by the Secretary General simply provide an early warning of the coming crackdown on the European Counterjihad, in particular on popular political leaders such as Geert Wilders, Oskar Freysinger, Marine Le Pen, and René Stadtkewitz. The recent police investigation of Politically Incorrect in Germany is another harbinger of the shape of things to come.

Pay particularly close attention to this statement by Prof. Ihsanoglu: “[T]he rise of the extreme right through elections has become an issue that cannot be countered.”

In other words, the “rise of the extreme right” can be countered, provided that those nasty unpleasant Islamophobic elections can be avoided. I’m certain the EU will be able to think of some way to give the OIC what it wants.

Bear all that in mind when you read this story from the International Islamic News Agency:

OIC/EU: “The increasing role of the extreme right in Western politics is beyond our abilities to counter them” says OIC Secretary General

JEDDAH, 8 Safar/Jan 3 (IINA)-Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said that the European Union offered to host the third meeting of the ‘Istanbul Process’, which deliberates, in a series of meetings, on developing mechanisms to implement UNHRC Resolution 16/18 on combating intolerance, discrimination and incitement to violence based on religion ore belief.

The Secretary General of Islamic Cooperation in his office in Jeddah on Tuesday 30 January 2012 [sic] pointed out that the EU’s offer to host the meeting represents a qualitative shift in action against the phenomenon of Islamophobia, which spread in many European countries, targeting the Muslim communities there.

The phenomenon of Islamophobia is found in the West in general, but is growing in European countries in particular and in a manner different than that in the US, which had contributed to drafting Resolution 16/18. The new European position represents the beginning of the shift from their previous reserve over the years over the attempts by the OIC to counter “defamation of religions” in the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Officials in the Cultural Affairs Department of the OIC said that the European Union’s offer to host the third meeting (the first was in Istanbul in July and the second in Washington DC in December) is considered a promising new possibility of solving this problem. The ‘Istanbul Process’ will have an added momentum by holding the meeting in Europe, which is more affected by the phenomenon of Islamophobia and hostility towards Islam.

However, Ihsanoglu said that the growing role of the extreme right in politics in several European countries has become stronger than the capacity of the Organization, explaining that the extreme right, who hates Muslims, became leverage in the hands of politicians. He added that the rise of the extreme right through elections has become an issue that cannot be countered, considering the democratic way in which these extremist reach their positions. He pointed out to the referendum held in Switzerland, as an example, which resulted in suspending the construction of minarets there following a vote by the Swiss people. [emphasis added]

One final thought: Prof. Ihsanoglu’s statement that the “extreme right… hates Muslims” is untrue. Geert Wilders, for example, has often stated that he has no problem with Muslims, only with Islam. His position is a secular variant of the motto “hate the sin, love the sinner”.

Islam is a totalitarian political ideology, like Communism. We could hate Communism without having to hate all the poor souls who were forced to live under its yoke.

The weak and brittle Islamic edifice only holds together through the power of petroleum wealth. When the petrodollars run out — which they eventually must — Islam will come crashing down, freeing up hundreds of millions of people to find a better, more humane framework in which to live their lives.

Right now the only question is whether Western Civilization will self-destruct first. The jury’s still out on that one.

Hat tip: Fjordman.

2012-01-16T12:48:00.001-05:00

The Norwegian government’s ethics committee is recommending that the hijab be allowed for police officers and judges. To make it fair, they also want other religious symbols, such as crucifixes, to be permitted.

One would have thought that crucifixes would be excluded, since they are symbols of “intolerance” that damage “community cohesion”. That’s the official treatment Christian crosses receive in Modern Multicultural Britain, but maybe Norway is different.

Here’s an article on the topic from today’s Aftenbladet. Many thanks to our Norwegian correspondent The Observer for the translation:

Committee wants hijab in the police force

Police officers and judges wearing hijab may become a reality if the Government’s ethics committee led by Sturla Stålsett gets its way, according to an article from the Norwegian newspaper Vårt Land.

Minister of Culture, Anniken Huitfeldt (Labour) established the committee a year and a half ago to outline Norway’s new guidelines on religions. According to Vårt Land the committee will recommend that the use of hijab, crucifixes and other religious symbols be allowed in the public space. If the recommendations of the committee are implemented, police and judges will be allowed to wear hijab, something they’re currently not permitted to do.

“To be exposed to other people’s religions is something we have to tolerate, whether it’s an Imam in a hospital corridor or a police officer wearing a hijab,” one of the members of the committee told the newspaper

Another member confirms the committee’s recommendations.

“By gauging the attitudes within the committee I’m confident that it will be accepted to use religious head garments alongside with judge’s robes and police uniforms,” according to this member.

The leader of the committee, Sturla Stålsett, stresses that Norway is taking a different route than France on this issue.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

2012-01-15T23:43:00.002-05:00

A Russian politician warned that an attack on Iran will be considered a threat to Russia’s national security. He also stressed that any interference with Syria by the Western powers would be “dangerous”, and called for negotiations instead.

In other news from Russia, the failed Phobos-Grunt Mars probe, which has been stuck in Earth orbit for weeks without responding to commands from the ground, finally broke up and crashed into the Pacific Ocean to the west of Chile.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Kitman, McR, Steen, 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.

2012-01-15T23:36:00.001-05:00

Last Thursday the emeritus Norwegian Labour politician Thorbjørn Jagland, now an apparatchik in the EU superstate, expressed his concern “that other countries, and not just Norway, will start to demand to govern themselves.”

The horror!

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has kindly translated Mr. Jagland’s piece. The translator includes this note:

Have a look at this op-ed authored by Thorbjørn Jagland, former Norwegian Labour Prime Minister, now current Secretary General of the Council of Europe and Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee. It was published a couple of days ago, and gives us an insight into the totalitarian mentality of diehard EU fanatics.

Pay particular attention to the last half of the op-ed, which I’ve highlighted. It’s truly scary stuff.

The translated op-ed from Nye Meninger:

Our freedom of action can be used
By Thorbjørn Jagland

Instead of complaining about Norway’s EEA [European Economic Area] membership, opponents of this agreement should muster some courage and imagination and actually start using the freedoms that this agreement gives us.

Stein Ørnhøi wrote an opinion piece in Dagsavisen (29/12-2011) about Norwegian EEA membership. He suggested that Norway should terminate it, and replace it with a free trade agreement, which he claims would give us more freedom. He also claimed that proponents of the EEA Agreement have exaggerated the dangers of using the reservation clause.

I can agree with him on the subject of the reservation clause. But it amazes me how certain members of the Left are opposing an agreement which has given us a stable framework, although admittedly we’ve had to swallow a couple of camels in the process, and we might have to swallow a couple of more in the future. There are no guarantees that our freedoms will improve by stepping out of the EEA agreement. More often than not it’s those on the outside who desperately wish to show that they’re on the inside.

Instead of complaining about the EEA agreement, they should mobilize some courage and imagination and actually start using the freedoms that it gives us.

One example: It strikes me from my vantage point that Norway is one of the few countries in Europe where the absence of a social housing policy is almost complete. The Left’s policy on this issue has been to lambaste the Willoch Government’s liberalization of the housing market in the 1980s. But in all honesty this liberalization had to take place. The housing market was dominated by misleading prices and money under the table. What was missing was the absence of incentives to introduce a better housing policy, but one can hardly blame Kåre Willoch for this. He stepped down as Prime minister in 1986.

When I was growing up, most people believed that steady employment and education were the most important factors in combating poverty. I still believe that this is the case today. In order to combat poverty a good social housing policy has to be present.

The EEA agreement has never prevented the Norwegian Parliament from combating poverty or adopting a fair social housing policy. The EEA agreement has never required Norway to maintain a tax system which favors those who have property and those who wish to invest (or to overinvest) in the housing market at the expense of those who are renting.

Another thing that worries me about Ørnhøi’s demand for the termination of the EEA-agreement is the total and utter disregard for the consequences of such a drastic step. To put it another way: in the current political climate in Europe he can expect the support of the nationalist right to break up not only the vast open European market which Norway is part of through our EEA membership, but also the euro and the entire EU cooperation.

This will be the starting point of a renationalizing process of politics in a wide range of areas, including human rights policies. Politicians would then be able to emulate the behavior of Prime Minister Orban in Hungary when he answered the critics of the new Hungarian constitution: “Nobody has the right to tell us which laws we adopt.”

Yes, we do. This is precisely why we built the new Europe after the war: the obligation and the right to interfere in each other’s internal affairs. European countries accepted the commitments stipulated in the European Convention on Human Rights which requires us to do so. A court was even established in order that citizens could take their own countries to court. The European nations are collectively responsible for ensuring that the verdicts are upheld.

The single market of which Norway is a part through the EEA agreement, is an expression of the same: mutual rights and obligations.

I see an alarming trend across the continent at the moment: more and more people are talking about taking back the decision-making processes from the EU. Ørnhøi’s wish may come true, but perhaps not in the way he had intended, namely that other countries, and not just Norway, will start to demand to govern themselves.

In an age when Wilders, the True Finns and Le Pen’s daughter appear in the shadows, it’s simply too dangerous to jeopardize what is built through agreements and legislation. [emphasis added]

2012-01-15T21:52:00.001-05:00

The video below is drawn from a SUN TV news report about the Shafia trial in Ontario. The newscaster interviews an imam from Kingston named Sikander Hashmi, who maintains that honor violence has nothing to do with religion, and is not condoned by Islam.

Vlad Tepes has combined the TV footage with appropriate texts from the Koran and the hadith to expose the blatant taqiyya of the Kingston imam. He has also added some revealing footage of another imam being interviewed by Radio-Canada, which is the Quebec-based French version of the CBC — very lefty, very anti-Israel, and very Islamophilic.

Many thanks to Bear for translating the French portion:

For Vlad’s commentary and additional links, see this post.

2012-01-15T18:58:00.001-05:00

Below is the final installment of a three-part series by Paul Weston about the deliberate destruction of British culture, and of Western Civilization itself.

Previously: Part 1 and Part 2.

How To Destroy A Country — Part 3
by Paul Weston

Continued from Part 2 …

Segregate the Generations. In the course of a political argument, an ancient old lady was told by her grandson that she came from a different generation, to which she replied: “No, I come from a different civilisation.”

Quite so. There is little point in controlling the medium of Socialist education if the wisdom of the older “reactionary” generations can still be passed down to the younger. In Africa, the tribal elders are respected and listened to, but in Britain those over a certain age are mocked at worst, or sidelined at best, because they come from a pre-revolutionary era. Those born after 1970 come from the post-revolutionary era, and never the twain shall meet. The educational and media establishments are run in the main by the young or the very young, all soaked in Marxist ideology, and their output is principally aimed only at the young. This is deliberately done in order to ensure the segregation of those who could present an alternative voice to their incessant and twisted Socialist propaganda.

Promote Conformity in the guise of Individualism. Has there ever been such conformity amongst the youth of a democratic nation before? Most young people are politically correct. They have been reared to believe in themselves as individuals, and to hold their own self-esteem (their very high and totally unearned self-esteem) as an intrinsic part of said individuality. But in reality they have been socially engineered into individuals who all believe the same thing. This is because the conformist herd is so much easier to control than the non-conformist individual, particularly so, when the herd mentality just happens to be the ideology of the Socialist State. The heavily propagandised ideology shared by the vast majority of the young is not quite as compassionate as they think, however, because the stark reality of it guarantees their immediate cultural destruction, and their eventual racial destruction.

Create an Anarchic Youth. Remove the various traditions and taboos that bound previous societies together; deem discipline in schools to be an archaic bourgeois form of child abuse; promote the ideology of self before group and pleasure before duty; promote licentiousness through early-age sex education coupled with pornographic music videos à la MTV; downplay heterosexual marriage as one of many equally valid lifestyle choices; remove the taboo of illegitimacy and reward it through welfare payments; offer abortions to teenage girls without their parents’ knowledge; promote an ideology of “Me, me , me! Now, now, now!” above outmoded ideas such as sacrifice, thrift, duty, honour, morality, truth, decency and patriotism.

Destroy Competitiveness: This is dressed up with words like egalitarianism and equality, but what it really means is dragging everything down to the lowest common denominator, which is far easier than dragging people upwards. Grammar Schools were elitist, and therefore had to be destroyed, even though the main beneficiaries were working class. Competitive sport meant that for every winner there were several losers, so that too had to be sidelined in some state schools. But the rest of the world does not play by the same suicidal rules. China is already an economic superpower; how can we hope to compete when they worship elitism and strive for success, whilst we worship the lowest-common-denominator ideology of egalitarianism, and reward failure?

Destroy Self-Reliance. Building a dependent class is of great importance to left/liberals. Firstly, the dependents will vote for the hand that feeds them the most, and secondly it enables the ruling elite to exercise control they could never dream of exercising over a non-dependent class. This explains why Britain’s public sector is favoured above the private sector by left/liberals, and why the deliberate formation of a permanent state-dependent underclass seems to worry them so little. In 2008-9 the welfare payment bill was actually higher than the total P.A.Y.E. tax-receipts, however. And, quite astonishingly, there are more people registered as disabled (and claiming benefits) than were registered disabled immediately after World War One! This is obviously unsustainable, and confirms Alexander Tytler’s view that democracies collapse when the money provided by the rulers in return for their vote eventually runs out, after which dictatorship inevitably follows. Tytler’s famous quote is as follows:

From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage.

Destroy Democracy. Britain is no longer a truly democratic country. 80% of our new legislation is now enacted in Brussels at the behest of twenty-seven Commissioners whom we never elected and can never democratically remove from office. The British government is essentially just a puppet council, allowed to remain in place to reassure the gullible public that we still run our own affairs — which we don’t. In addition, the flooding of Britain by third world immigrants was an undemocratic act. The electorate was never asked if we wished to transform Britain into a multi-ethnic, multicultural country. If we had been asked, we would have said “No!” And, just to rub salt into the wound, immigrants vote overwhelmingly for left/liberal politicians — which, of course, is partially why they were imported in the first place.

The Labour Party’s introduction of postal voting also means our elections are now influenced by fraudulently obtained ballot papers not only in Britain’s large Muslim enclaves, but also — and this is completely surreal — via proxy votes in Pakistan and Bangladesh! In the 2010 British elections the Conservatives failed to win a majority by a very slim margin, leading Lady Warsi, a Conservative Muslim, to lay the blame squarely on Muslim electoral fraud. When British elections (such as they are, now the EU is the real power) are illegally influenced by Pakistanis in Mirpur, I think we can safely say our democracy is dead.

Introduce Mass Immigration. The white working class betrayed the hard Left when they failed to rise up in the much longed-for proletarian revolution, and they failed to rise up because they had become too affluent. The Marxist solution was to introduce a new, foreign-born “oppressed proletariat” as a means to Socialism’s ongoing march toward total power. The number of third world immigrants runs into the millions. This deliberate dilution of an indigenous people has never before happened on such a scale. If UN guidelines on genocide are taken quite literally, it amounts to the ethnic cleansing of the English.

White children are now a minority in London schools and many schools within other British cities. Demographers predict the indigenous population will become a minority before 2060, with the young suffering that fate even earlier. Feminist ideology has dramatically decreased the indigenous demographic whilst the Islamic population is doubling every decade through continued immigration and a high birth rates. Islam is already a huge problem in Britain, yet, as their numbers grow, so will their demands on traditional Britain, which lives its life in a manner markedly different to life under Sharia Law — which surveys suggest some 40% of British Muslims wish to see enacted.

Why do left/liberals act as apologists for Islam? Hugh Fitzgerald puts it thus: “Nothing shows better the extreme hatred liberals have for Western Civilisation than their unashamed alliance with a movement (Islam) which is mortally opposed to liberalism’s sacred calves — women’s rights, gay rights, abortion and multiple cultures. Yet Islam and the liberal/left are in harmony on the major issues. They are anti-Christian and anti-Jew, they are anti-democracy and anti-individual rights, they are anti-capitalist and they regard the individual as existing merely to serve the collective. Consequently, they have the same common enemy — Western Civilisation”

Promote Racial Division. The successful integration of happy foreigners with a happy indigenous population is hardly going to foment revolution, hence the ideology of multiculturalism which intentionally divides races and cultures. Multiculturalism was designed to destroy any sense of national pride and patriotism amongst the indigenous population, whilst actively encouraging the same amongst the incoming races and cultures. It also encourages ethnic minorities to believe their lack of success is due to (or if they are successful, in spite of) historical white imperialist oppression and current white Western institutional racism. This makes them united, vengeful, angry and strong. Multiculturalism actively instils guilt in the indigenous white population for our past oppression and current racism, which makes us apologetic, disunited and weak. We can only, it seems, be forgiven our historical racial sins once the ethnic minorities have matched or surpassed the demographic and political power of the indigenous people.

Destroy Native Resistance. New laws have been passed to criminalise those who dare to speak out against their territorial, racial and cultural dispossession. Children are brainwashed into “celebrating” their dispossession with such Orwellian intent that thousands as young as three have been officially noted as possessing “racist” tendencies — a situation we can only expect to worsen as the demographic gap between white and non-white inexorably narrows. Race is the biggest weapon the left/liberals use in their war against traditional Britain, so resistance to that weapon is both criminalised and subsequently labelled the evil of all evils — RACISM — in order to strip us of our only peaceful defence mechanism. Of course there are some racist whites, but they are a statistical minority compared to the ethnic minorities who physically attack whites at a far greater ratio than vice-versa. The only true racists in Britain are the treasonous anti-white politicians, policemen and journalists who seek to cover up the real statistics about racial crime and racial hate.

Use Selective History to counter Native Resistance. British education ignores the crimes of Communism and concentrates only on the crimes of Hitler, portraying him principally as a racist. The evils of Nazism can then be used as an attack against indigenous peoples who protest their cultural and territorial dispossession, by simply labelling the protestors as Nazi racists and therefore no better than Hitler himself. In reality the left/liberals are as obsessed with race — in its diverse form — as Hitler and the Nazis were with race in its pure form. And they are using race with the express intention of achieving what Hitler failed to do — the absolute conquest of Britain, Europe and the West, at the expense of its indigenous peoples.

Distract the Population. This is a tried and tested principle dating back to the Roman times of Bread and Circuses. Just look at the output of the mainstream media, which deals in fantasy and trivia rather than reality and substance. This sadly works just as intended. The majority of Brits have been gradually sucked down into an infantile world of vapid celebrity worship, football, X Factor and gutter sensationalism, all promoted 24/7 by the media establishment. As a direct consequence, they have little interest in matters that really matter.

No doubt the left/liberals will denounce this series of articles as the ranting of a right wing conspiracy theorist. But facts are facts; the Communists did set out to subvert the capitalist West; the anti-Western critical theory of the Frankfurt school is now the ideology of the educational and media establishments; the left/liberal politicians did set out to transform Britain via mass third world immigration; our industry was destroyed, as has been our educational establishments etc. etc. etc., and the people behind this destruction were and are Marxists, leftists, or useful idiot liberals.

Every single one of the deliberately destructive policies I have outlined above could destroy a country over a lengthy period of time, even without the Third World invasion. When they are combined, however, and mass immigration is added to the mix, our destruction is not only assured, it is assured over a relatively small time-span.

Consequently, the speed of Britain’s destruction has been astonishingly fast. Anyone over the age of 40-50 will tell you that Britain today is not the Britain they were born into, and that Britain is simply not sustainable in its present condition. But the left/liberals have made a terrible mistake. The future will not be one of Marxist revolution and permanent leftist control. Whilst mass third world immigration may have been their main weapon of choice to destabilise the country, they simply did not reckon with such a rapidly expanding, cohesive and militant Islam.

The future of Britain can logically be one of only two options. A country dominated by Islam, or a country dominated by the right wing, which is rapidly growing as a wholly natural response to the combined threat of Islam and the left. Freedom Parties are gaining ground everywhere, and now include the British Freedom Party. No one knows which side will emerge triumphant in the battle between Islam and the emerging right, but whichever it is, one thing is very strongly assured: they will hold no great regard for the left/liberals — to put it very mildly indeed.

At the beginning of this series, I asked whether the appalling destruction carried out in the name of left-wing ideology was well-intentioned liberal stupidity, or brilliantly-planned leftist malevolence. Perhaps it really was done to realise Georg Lukacz’s dream: “I saw the revolutionary destruction of society as the one and only solution. A worldwide overturning of values cannot take place without the annihilation of the old values and the creation of new ones by the revolutionaries.”

Or perhaps it wasn’t. It is quite possible it was caused by liberal stupidity of criminal proportions, but all that really matters now is that the damage wreaked by the left/liberals be redressed — and we have little time remaining in which to do so.

Paul Weston is Chairman of the British Freedom Party.

Previous posts by Paul Weston:

2007	Jan	22	The Week Britain Died
		26	Britain’s Dystopian School Children
	Feb	2	Questioning the Sanity of Liberals
	Mar	1	Multiculturalism — Merits and Debits
		31	Is European Civil War Inevitable by 2025?
	Jun	26	The Big Story That Isn’t
	Aug	10	An Open Letter to Fellow Europeans
		24	A Brussels Perspective
	Sep	12	Democratic Europe R.I.P.
	Nov	2	The Coming Third World War
		21	Cool War — Warm War — Hot War: Part 1
		29	Cool War — Warm War — Hot War: Part 2
2008	Mar	27	The Face of Moderate Islam in Britain
2009	Feb	9	Wilders in Wonderland
		13	Who is Lord Ahmed?
		25	Temporary Peace Trumps Freedom of Speech
	Jul	1	Muslims, Mosques and Mosquitoes
		2	Islam, the BBC, and Young Children
		8	Review of “A Bridge Too Far”
		17	Socialist Propaganda in British Education
	Oct	15	Multiculturalism Has Destroyed the British Police
2010	Mar	16	Ethnically Cleansing the English
	Oct	7	Banana Republic Britain
		30	“We Will Hold You to Account”
	Dec	5	The Metaphorical Front Line of Islam
		5	The West Needs to Wake Up
		7	Land for Peace — Or Land for a Terror State?
2011	May	20	Why Is This Not Treason?
	Jun	1	One Week in the Death of Britain
	Jul	11	The Multi-Layered Betrayal of Britain
		29	The BBC, Breivik, the EDL and Islam
	Aug	7	Down’s Syndrome Babies, Sarah Palin and the BBC
	Sep	5	Clone These Men!
	Nov	27	The Totalitarian EU Tightens Its Grip
	Dec	6	One Rule for Them, One Rule for Us
		7	Muslim Misogyny, Feminist Indifference
		13	Interview with Paul Weston
2012	Jan	10	Racism and Media Double Standards in Britain
		13	How To Destroy A Country — Part 1
		14	How To Destroy A Country — Part 2

2012-01-14T23:45:00.002-05:00

Last night a cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 passengers was sailing near a small island off the western shore of Italy, and struck an unexpected underwater obstacle — possibly a rock — tearing a large gash in the side of its hull. Within the space off an hour or so, enough water had poured into the ship to tip it on its side and partially sink it. Three people were killed and about forty are still missing. The captain of the ship has been detained by the Italian police on suspicion of manslaughter and leaving his post before everyone else aboard had escaped.

In other news, British Foreign Minister William Hague celebrated the great democratic opportunity afforded by the “Arab Spring” even as his boss, Prime Minister David Cameron, paid an official state visit to the despots who rule Saudi Arabia.

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

Thanks to AC, JP, Kitman, Takuan Seiyo, 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.

2012-01-14T21:38:00.002-05:00

As reported in the news feed on Tuesday night, a federal judge has voided Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment banning any implementation of sharia within the state.

The result was entirely expected, since the Oklahoma amendment explicitly mentioned sharia, which meant it was bound to be overruled under the provisions of the U.S. Constitution. This despite the fact that 70% of Oklahoma’s voted in favor of it.

In order to be effective, opponents of sharia would be well-advised to adopt wording that is neutral with respect to any religion, and simply rules out any application of “foreign law” within the state. One of the best alternatives is known as “American Laws for American Courts”, an initiative of the American Public Policy Alliance. Interested readers will want to look at ALAC’s model legislation. An FAQ page provides further information.

Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy issued this statement concerning the Oklahoma decision:

Statement by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy, concerning the 10th Circuit Court’s ruling on the amendment to the Oklahoma State Constitution concerning shariah:

As an adamant opponent of shariah and a strong supporter of efforts to prevent its insinuation into our country through our courts or other stealthy means, I welcome yesterday’s ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The amendment — while well intentioned — was crafted in a way that invited this outcome.

With 10th Circuit’s disposition of this case, it should now be possible to pursue in Oklahoma and elsewhere across the country other means of achieving the same end — namely, protecting American citizens from foreign laws whose application in U.S. courts would violate their constitutional rights or state public policy. This was the clear desire of 70% of the voters in Oklahoma in the 2010 referendum and is a sentiment shared by millions of their countrymen.

Fortunately, legislation that meets these tests has been developed by the American Public Policy Alliance. Known as “American Laws for American Courts” (or ALAC), it has already been enacted in three states and is expected to be considered in about twenty others in 2012.

The Center for Security Policy looks forward to working with Americans who share its commitment to the Constitution and its determination to prevent that founding document from being weakened or eviscerated by foreign laws, including shariah, to ensure that American laws are practiced in American courts.

I’ll be glad when every state in the Union passes its own version of ALAC’s model legislation. That will build fifty speed bumps in the road to Islamic Hell that is now being planned for America by Hillary Clinton and her allies in the OIC.

2012-01-14T16:16:00.002-05:00

Below is an interview with Bassam Tibi from Thursday’s Die Presse. Many thanks to doxRaven for the translation:

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a totalitarian movement”

The Islamic scholar Bassam Tibi does not believe that Egypt’s victorious Islamists will be in the mood to compromise. In Tunisia he sees better conditions for democratisation.

How may the Arab spring be characterised?

At the end of the Eighties, parallel to the collapse of Communism, a wave of democratisation swept over the world. However, the Arab regimes proved resistant to this development, preserving a piece of the Cold War. But a year ago all this changed. The fall of the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali released a wave of democratisation throughout the region. Imagine you are standing at a zebra crossing in front of a red light. Everyone is just standing there, but as soon as someone goes all the others follow.

Do you see the Arab spring as a success?

In the Arab world a change was initiated that raised many hopes. And from January to February it indeed looked as if there would be a democratisation. But the necessary prerequisites for that to happen are not present. Democracy does not require only elections. Democracy requires economic, cultural and institutional conditions to be supportive. Democracy means giving the right for diverse views to exist and to be expressed without sanction. We see the issue in Iraq: the Saddam regime collapsed with the help of the Americans. However, now the Iraqis are killing each other because they have not learned to tolerate differences. Since the withdrawal of the Americans, a Shiite dictatorship over the Sunni minority is developing under the watch of prime minister Malachi.

However, the democratisation in Tunisia seems to be making more progress.

Tunisia has the broadest civil society, with a broad intellectual class. I met the leader of the Tunisian Islamic Ennahada Party, in Copenhagen. For an Islamist he came across as very gentle. The Tunisian Islamists will be more in the mood to compromise, and they won’t be so set on attacking others. With the Muslim Brotherhood it is quite a different matter.

Why is that?

I see the Muslim Brotherhood as a totalitarian movement, and not as a democratic movement. The Muslims Brotherhood is organised on the basis of ten levels of membership. Starting out in the movement only earns one the status of a ‘sympathiser’. To reach the heights levels requires 5-6 years. This time is used to test your absolute loyalty to the movement.

But many voted for the Muslim Brotherhood in the recent elections. The movement seems to be deeply entrenched in society.

The liberal democratic forces were not well enough organised. The Islamists are often the only political force in the whole region, and they are well organised. In the past they operated underground with extreme care, so that the security service could not infiltrate the groups. It was different for the secular groups. The Islamists also built a network in Europe which aided the opposition in the Arabic countries. The Islamists in Egypt conducted themselves very intelligently. They reached a truce agreement with Mubarak’s security service. But as soon as they saw the regime beginning to disintegrate they went to Tahrir Square to join the demonstrators. And now they are dominant.

Many Egyptians see the Muslim Brotherhood as a solution to their problems. The Muslim Brotherhood was very active in supporting the socially underprivileged.

In addition to their organisational strength, the Islamists possess an immense capability to mobilise by religious slogans. In all the Arabic countries the population is growing faster than the economy. This results in a serious crisis. In addition there is a political crisis that requires democratic solutions. Islamists in turn say: Islam is the solution to the economic political and social crisis. However, Islam is a Religion. I myself am a practicing Muslim. In Islam one has to believe in God, pray five times a day, fast for Ramadan, pay taxes for the poor, and, if one can afford it, make a pilgrimage to Mecca. But how can these solve all the problems? The Islamists would answer: The sharia-state is the solution. However, sharia - as the Islamists understand sharia - is a catalogue of prohibitions. How is it possible to fashion a modern economic policy on this? If the Islamists come to power and implement Sharia in the way they understand it, they will not be able to find the solutions to the problems in those countries.

What geopolitical impact does the transformation have on such states as Turkey and Israel?

Israel is paying a high price, since the basic belief of Islamism, in addition to the sharia-state, is anti-Semitism. If the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt takes power, one of its first acts will be the annulment of the Camp David peace treaty with Israel. The winner in all this is Turkey, since it is the only economically and politically stable country in the Middle East. The first leader to visit Tunisia, Egypt and Libya after the upheavals was the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has been unabashed about, as he sees it, Turkey’s rightful headship role. However, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood disagree. They are cooperative, but there are limits to the love. Erdogan said in Cairo: our party is an Islamic conservative party, however Islam and politics need to be separate. A statement that the Muslim Brotherhood was not too happy with.

What are you predictions for the coming year?

I don’t believe that the revolutions in the Arabic world will lead to democracy. There will be a high level of uncertainty that will be used by the Islamists to establish their vision of stability. The present trends indicate that the authoritarian states of yesterday will give way to sharia-based states. The new sharia order is even more authoritarian, and therefore there should be no illusion of democracy.

About the interview subject:

Bassam Tibi (born 1944 in Damascus) is a renowned Islamic scholar. In his last position he was at the University of Göttingen. Tibi studied history, philosophy and social sciences in Frankfurt, in part under Habermas and Adorno. To date he has written 28 books (in German). His latest book is “Euro-Islam. The solution to a conflict of civilisation” (Euro-Islam. Die Lösung eines Zivilisationskonflikts).

2012-01-14T14:12:00.002-05:00

Fjordman was interviewed for the latest issue of the Berlin-based weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit, where his responses were translated into German. Below are excerpts from original English text of his replies, as published at Tundra Tabloids:

I was asked whether it was OK to publish a few of my essays in German, and I said yes. I am currently completing a different kind of book in English called The Curious Civilization, which should be available at some point in 2012. Germany is a very important country for the future of Europe as a whole so it is of great significance to be published there. The title Defending Europe is appropriate in my view because European civilization is going through a low point in its history right now. Today, merely saying positive about the European cultural heritage and the peoples who created it is almost considered a sign of extremism.

I have studied Arabic language at the American University in Cairo and lived in Egypt during the terror attacks of September 11th 2001. I am not sure I would describe this as a turning point since I was already growing skeptical of Islamic culture and mentality before that time, but things certainly escalated after this event.

What shocked me the most, though, was not witnessing how happy many Arabs and Muslims were over the mass murder of thousands of unarmed civilians. What shocked me the most was how Western mass media and the political establishment lied about this fact. 9/11 was in my view clearly an Islamic Jihadist act of war against Western civilization, yet the West was in complete denial about this.

I also worked in Israel and the Palestinian territories as an observer in Hebron in 2002 and 2003 and could there see first-hand how biased, anti-Israeli and pro-Islamic much of the media coverage from this region truly is. I myself narrowly missed a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on April 30, 2003 that was committed by a young Muslim man who was a British citizen. I could literally hear the explosion behind me as I had just left the nice beachfront area where this happened a few minutes earlier. Two of my colleagues were murdered in March 2002 in a Jihadist terror attack by the very Palestinians we were supposed to help. In contrast, I found most Israeli Jews to be friendly, with the partial exception of a few of the most militant settlers.

Read the rest at Tundra Tabloids.

2012-01-14T10:19:00.004-05:00

Below is the second part of a three-part series by Paul Weston about the deliberate destruction of British culture, and of Western Civilization itself.

Part 1 is here.

How To Destroy A Country — Part 2
by Paul Weston

The Marxist left/liberals have now completed their Long March Through the Institutions. They claim the varied lunatic policies they enacted were for the benefit of society, but can this really be the case? When viewed through the prism of reality, much of socialism’s ideology appears to have one aim and one aim only: the total destruction of society. This is not an overreaction by any means — if societal destruction was your bag, would you not carry out the following?

Destroy Industry. What is the difference between booming Germany and bankrupt Britain? Simple: Germany manufactures and Britain consumes — but this was not always the case. Britain once had a dominant engineering and ship-building industry, and was Europe’s biggest manufacturer of cars and motor-cycles. It was therefore essential to sabotage our industrial base — our means of production — in order to destroy capitalist Britain. Many Trades Union leaders of the 1950s through to the 1980s were Communists or Communist sympathisers who organised strikes and “downed-tools” so successfully that Britain’s industrial base went to the wall. Writing in the Spectator last year, Douglas Eden outlined the infiltration of British Trades Unions, and how their pro-Soviet ideology was tolerated by Labour Prime Ministers up until the election in 1979 of Margaret Thatcher. Mrs. Thatcher, incidentally, is hated so viscerally by the left/liberals because her defeat of the unions was perceived to have ended the dream of International Communism.

Destroy Education. Having defeated the Unions, Margaret Thatcher, inexplicably, never promoted British industry in the aftermath. She decided instead that Britain’s economy should be based around a Service Industry, which essentially meant paper-shuffling and number-crunching. As paper-shufflers and number-crunchers need to be educated to a reasonable standard, so the left/liberals took their Marxist war against the economy into the classrooms. The British state school curriculum essentially revolves around the Frankfurt School ideology of anti-Western Critical Theory, with traditional education placed second best. An exposé of the overt socialist propaganda in our schools may be read here, but the results of Britain’s progressive educational policies are visible all around us. Semi-literate and semi-numerate university graduates sit atop a pile of the most badly educated young people in Europe, many of whom are completely unemployable, according to the heads of British business — just as was intended by the hard Left, and implemented by their eager armies of liberal Useful Idiots.

Destroy the family. Feminism has often been described as a war against men, but it is more than just that. Feminist ideology is really about war against the family, because families tend to be self-sufficient and therefore less reliant on the state. As Socialism is all about state control, then the family must be smashed.

Betty Friedan, Simone de Beauvoir and Germaine Greer, Communist supporters all, took their dysfunctional ideology from Friedrich Engel’s statement in The Origin of the family: “The modern individual family is founded on the open or concealed slavery of the wife…within the family he is the bourgeois and his wife represents the proletariat.” Germaine Greer is in complete agreement with Engels, and her book The Female Eunuch is essentially a clarion call for destruction, anarchy and Communism, as we can see from the following quote: “Women’s liberation, if it abolishes the patriarchal family, will abolish a necessary structure of the authoritarian state, and once that withers away Marx will have come true willy-nilly, so let’s get on with it.”

Greer goes on to say: “But man made one grave mistake…he admitted women to politics and the professions. The conservatives who saw this as the undermining of our civilisation and the end of the state and marriage were right after all; it is time for the demolition to begin.” Well, thanks, Germaine! The demolition not only began; it is now all but over. Surveys suggest children raised in conventional families are far less likely to go off the rails, but in the Socialist world the ends justify the means, so feminists ignore the broken lives and thwarted ambitions of fatherless, state supported children, particularly those of West Indian origin and the white working-class members of the abandoned proletariat. In addition, brainwashed British women have put abortion and careers before motherhood and give birth to a new generation 25% smaller than their own, which effectively destroys any hope of an equal or growing future tax-payer base to fund the welfare state.

Eradicate Religion. All great civilisations have been built around great religions. Western Civilisation is built on the foundations of Judeo-Christianity, so if Western Civilisation is to be destroyed then its religious pillars must first be undermined. Again, this destructive ethos is derived from Communist ideology. Christianity and Communism are fundamentally incompatible — one is a spiritual creed, the other materialist. Christianity lays down that a man’s responsibility to his neighbour is personal, a matter for his individual conscience, while communism decrees that all duties are collective, to be enforced by the state. Karl Marx stated:

“The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submission, humility. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Communists believed the Ten Commandments to be a form of “class morality” that served only the interests of the Bourgeoisie. Anatole Lunarcharsky, a Russian Commissar of education declared: We hate Christianity and Christians…they preach love of one’s neighbours and mercy, which is contrary to our principles. Christian love is an obstacle to the development of the Revolution! What we want is hate, only then can we conquer the world.

In Britain, Christianity is not outlawed, just sidelined, sneered at, and its practice sometimes criminalised. The persecution of British Christians has reached such a level that in 2010 Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and six prominent bishops, penned an open letter to the Labour government stating: “We are deeply concerned at the apparent discrimination shown against Christians and we call on the Government to remedy this serious development. In a number of cases, Christian beliefs on marriage, conscience and worship are simply not being upheld. There have been numerous dismissals of practising Christians from employment for reasons that are unacceptable in a civilised country.”

Perhaps Lord Carey actually understands that the Marxist elites in Britain share the same hatred of Christianity, for precisely the same reasons, as did the Communists. The BBC recently appointed a controversial Muslim, Aaqil Ahmed, to head up their religious affairs department.

In 2006 the BBC was shamed into rewriting an anti-Christian pro-Islamic text aimed at schoolchildren, which described Christianity as a religion of racism, sexism, colonialism, enslavement and murder, whilst Islam, with its arranged marriages, honour killings and second class status for women under Sharia law, was deemed a female friendly religion. Britain’s left/liberal elites clearly consider Christianity to be an impediment to the ideology of the New Socialist Man they seem intent on building.

Eradicate Morality. There is little point in eradicating religion without ensuring the concomitant destruction of morality, hence the invention of moral relativism which argues there is no such thing as right or wrong. Lenin invoked the same ideology, but did so in a more honest manner when he said, “Morality is that which furthers the revolution.” The Marxists and liberal/left who now control the education and media establishments in Britain know that massive social change cannot be brought about by outright revolution, so realise that anarchy must first prevail — just as espoused by Georg Lukacs. A sure-fire way to create an anarchic situation is to remove the young from the codes of behaviour that religion and morality demand.

Destroy the Community. Like families, communities tend toward self-sufficiency and are the bed-rock of Nation States. The community is simply part of a chain — family, community, village, town, city, country, nation state. Communities are capable of acting together in defiance of the State — ergo, they too must be smashed. How to do so? Demolish streets of family houses and build impersonal blocks; close down local schools and hospitals and build mega-versions controlled by faceless bureaucrats rather than locally known people; close local Post Offices where the elderly meet and gossip once a week; outlaw smoking and make pubs (the nerve centres of individual resistance) prohibitively expensive. In short, fragment and isolate the population so they feel alone and powerless before the all-powerful state and its ever growing army of interfering bureaucrats.

Destroy the Middle-Class. Shortly after the jailed dissident turned president Vaclav Havel came to power in Czechoslovakia in 1989, he stated that the rebuilding of Socialism’s shattered economic, moral, spiritual and environmental forty-year catastrophe could not take place until a new middle-class had formed. This is exactly right. The middle classes are the backbone of any functioning democracy. They pay taxes; they participate in their children’s education; they form committees and pressure groups; they raise money for local causes; they are self-sufficient and require little or nothing from the State. Such independent actions make them an acute threat to the State and must therefore be smashed. Disguised as the promotion of a “Classless Society” Britain’s middle-classes have been systematically traduced by the educational and media establishments, because they represent the bourgeoisie in ideology, if not in income.

Destroy the Working Class. Britain has been importing a low-skilled “workforce” from less developed countries for decades, whilst simultaneously exporting low-skilled jobs abroad. Whilst it is pleasant for highly paid BBC liberals to employ cheap nannies and cleaners, the working class find themselves in direct competition with immigrants, which is an area where they simply cannot compete. A Polish builder who works for half the rate of a British builder does not have to pay a mortgage or support a family, and is happy living fifteen to a house for a few years before moving back to Poland with a large pot of money. Big business has no problem with this, nor do the Left/liberal elites who are happy to create an unemployed British under-class which can be relied on to keep foolishly voting for them, simply because they offer the highest rewards for enforced unemployment.

Destroy The Nation State. This is more about the European Union than internal British politics, but it is very important. The Unelected Commissars who run the EU are fully aware they cannot control fully-functioning Nation States, which is why the United Kingdom has been broken up into twelve regions. The recent Labour government even went so far as to appoint Regional Ministers for each area. This destruction of our ancient counties and governance — with the word “England” actually removed from EU maps — is otherwise known as “Divide and Rule.”

To be continued…

Paul Weston is Chairman of the British Freedom Party.

Previous posts by Paul Weston:

2007	Jan	22	The Week Britain Died
		26	Britain’s Dystopian School Children
	Feb	2	Questioning the Sanity of Liberals
	Mar	1	Multiculturalism — Merits and Debits
		31	Is European Civil War Inevitable by 2025?
	Jun	26	The Big Story That Isn’t
	Aug	10	An Open Letter to Fellow Europeans
		24	A Brussels Perspective
	Sep	12	Democratic Europe R.I.P.
	Nov	2	The Coming Third World War
		21	Cool War — Warm War — Hot War: Part 1
		29	Cool War — Warm War — Hot War: Part 2
2008	Mar	27	The Face of Moderate Islam in Britain
2009	Feb	9	Wilders in Wonderland
		13	Who is Lord Ahmed?
		25	Temporary Peace Trumps Freedom of Speech
	Jul	1	Muslims, Mosques and Mosquitoes
		2	Islam, the BBC, and Young Children
		8	Review of “A Bridge Too Far”
		17	Socialist Propaganda in British Education
	Oct	15	Multiculturalism Has Destroyed the British Police
2010	Mar	16	Ethnically Cleansing the English
	Oct	7	Banana Republic Britain
		30	“We Will Hold You to Account”
	Dec	5	The Metaphorical Front Line of Islam
		5	The West Needs to Wake Up
		7	Land for Peace — Or Land for a Terror State?
2011	May	20	Why Is This Not Treason?
	Jun	1	One Week in the Death of Britain
	Jul	11	The Multi-Layered Betrayal of Britain
		29	The BBC, Breivik, the EDL and Islam
	Aug	7	Down’s Syndrome Babies, Sarah Palin and the BBC
	Sep	5	Clone These Men!
	Nov	27	The Totalitarian EU Tightens Its Grip
	Dec	6	One Rule for Them, One Rule for Us
		7	Muslim Misogyny, Feminist Indifference
		13	Interview with Paul Weston
2012	Jan	10	Racism and Media Double Standards in Britain
		13	How To Destroy A Country — Part 1

Mosque Busting: English vs. American Styles

The Central Role of Mosques in Islamic Political Doctrine

Mosquebusted!

A Win for Mosquebusters in Uxbridge

No Megamosque for Dudley

Blackpool Mosque: Busted!

2012-01-13T23:53:00.002-05:00

The European Union is unhappy with Hungary’s recent constitutional changes, and is threatening legal action if Hungary does not roll them back. Perhaps coincidentally, the debt rating agencies have just reduced Hungarian government bonds to junk status.

In other financial news, S&P downgraded the AAA debt rating of France, Austria, and several other EU countries. Germany and the Netherlands were spared, but Portugal’s bonds have been reduced to junk status.

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

Thanks to AC, Egghead, Fjordman, Gaia, JP, KGS, Kitman, Salome, 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.

1.		Media and politics must allow an open, unrestricted discussion about the true nature of Islam. In the process, the life of the Prophet Mohammed, his actions documented in the Sunna, and his eternally valid commandments in the Koran in all their details should be described.
2.		After a completed factual analysis, the result will be: Islam is an ideology of power in the disguise of a religion which divides the world into superior believers and inferior infidels. With a worldwide, totalitarian claim to domination, intolerance, disposition toward violence and legitimization of killing.
3.		As a consequence of recognizing this, the government of Germany must unambiguously and immediately require all Islamic organizations to foreswear intolerance, violence and the willingness to kill. Furthermore, to permanently abjure sharia, the Islamic legal system. And to make a binding declaration that all people have the same rights, regardless of their religious affiliation. To accept just as unconditionally that women and men are equal before the law.
4.		If these demands are not endorsed by all Islamic organizations without condition, there will follow an immediate halt to the construction of mosques, the closing of Koran schools and the prohibition of prayer meetings in existing mosques.
5.		All Muslims in Germany, after the content of their “religion” has been explained to them, will be required to put pressure on their organizations to immediately endorse the demands.
6.		In case this does not lead to the desired result after a set term, there should be a plebiscite on the banning of Islam because of its messages, which constitute racial harassment and are dangerous to the peaceful co-existence of all people. Citizens of the Federal Republic will be required to read the Koran — probably the most dangerous book in the world — and see for themselves. We will thus avoid repeating the greatest mistake of German history: not having read the equally dangerous book Mein Kampf and so failed to avoid the greatest catastrophe in European history.
7.		If the plebiscite leads to the result that Islam should be banned, all Muslims will have the right to decide to abjure this ideology. There are other religions available which also offer a life after death, without demanding the killing of “infidels” in cases of conflict.
8.		“Abjure or emigrate” is the consequence. In the case of the second choice, there are sufficient Islamic countries to choose from. As a reciprocal move in the form of a population exchange, Christians from these countries, who are vulnerable to worse discrimination, persecution and even death, will be accepted in Germany.