Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/6/2011

Two package bombs — described as “flash” devices — exploded today at two different state government mail-processing centers in Maryland, one in Hanover and one in Annapolis. One person was slightly injured. The state’s governor was the addressee on one of the packages. All state mail facilities have been closed while state and federal authorities investigate.

In other news, the Amsterdam police chief says that he will not enforce a proposed ban on the burqa. He has been commended for his tolerance and courage by the traditional Islamic society As-Soennah.

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

Thanks to 4symbols, Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, DF, Fjordman, Freedom Fighter, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JCPA, JD, JP, KGS, Kitman, Reinhard, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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.

Moderate Muslims Take a Stand

We’ve been waiting for years for “moderate” Muslims to appear and offer a viable alternative to the “extremists”. I’d all but given up hope, but now they’ve finally appeared — in Pakistan, of all places.

I’m talking about the crowds of Pakistani lawyers and other prominent citizens who have been celebrating Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the assassin of the governor of Punjab. As you may recall, Gov. Salman Taseer was gunned down on Tuesday by his bodyguard for his blasphemous opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy law.

“Wait a minute, Baron!” you say. “How can you call all those zealots ‘moderates’?”

Because that’s what they’re billed as by well-meaning people.

Cast your mind back to last night’s news feed, which featured a report on the five hundred Pakistani religious scholars who warned Muslims not to grieve over the dead blasphemer, or risk sharing his fate. These reputable scholiasts belong to a group called Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat, which is commonly described as “moderate”. Their moderation tells them that Salman Taseer got what was coming to him:

[The scholars] also said that the ‘so-called’ intellectuals, ministers, politicians and television anchors who oppose the blasphemy law and support those committing blasphemy should learn a lesson from Taseer’s death.

Now come the lawyers, showering the assassin with rose petals. According to Arab News:

The Numbers Game, Part One

A frequent topic of discussion in Counterjihad circles concerns the alarming demographics of the Western democracies. Due to mass immigration from the Third World, and a much higher birth rate among the new arrivals than the original population, the native peoples of the West are in decline relative to those who are on the verge of supplanting them.

These facts are well known to demographers, but reliable statistics about how rapidly this transformation is occurring are comparatively hard to find. When it comes to certain sensitive metrics, most governments decline to compile statistics by ethnic group, and sometimes even forbid such data-gathering by law as a “racist” activity. New births are typically catalogued merely by the citizenship of the parents, rather than by ethnic origin, so that the decline in the white birth rate is masked by the overall totals, which include a large number of births to immigrant citizens or their descendants.

To these difficulties can be added the fact that much immigration, particularly of the poorest and least educated people, is illegal and undocumented. The new arrivals sneak into the country of their choice, disappear into the ghettos of their ethnic fellows, work in the black economy, and often purchase false identity documents in order to obtain state benefits. As a result, a reliable statistical snapshot of the most sensitive demographic trends is difficult to come by.

I recently read several articles about the explosion of Muslim immigration into the United Kingdom, and it started me thinking about what might be involved in evaluating the population data and projecting it into the future.

I chose Britain for my analysis for two reasons — (1) quite a bit of data is available, and (2) it’s in English. Data are also available for the United States, but the USA is more complicated to evaluate, since the greatest influx is from Mexico rather than Muslim countries. Illiterate and chauvinistic Mexicans are damaging to our nation, but the harm they cause will not become so evident or so severe until long after the Muslim colonization of Europe.

My goal is not to produce absolutely accurate demographic figures, nor to predict exactly what will happen in the decades ahead. My intention is rather to design a reasonable set of projections of what the future may hold, based on a certain set of assumptions. I’ve constructed scenarios using three sets of parameters — labeled somewhat arbitrarily as “optimistic”, “neutral”, and “pessimistic” — and followed an algorithm to discover where they lead.

Assumptions

The basis for my calculations includes certain assumptions about the populations involved. These presuppositions do not present a great degree of accuracy, but merely act as approximations for the purpose of modeling the trends.

First of all, I assume that Muslims and natives in Britain have different age distributions. I used the United States for a general age-population breakdown, based on a variety of sources, because it was easier to find the data. I chose a reasonably recent (2000) spread of age groups for the demographic base of natives, and a breakdown taken from 1880 for the Muslim immigrants. The latter seemed appropriate, because America was teeming with immigrants in the 1880s, with the demographic balance tipped heavily towards children and young adults. This seems a suitable template to use for today’s new arrivals in Britain.

A summary of the age distributions is given in the table below:

With Friends Like These…

I’m sure you’ve heard the mantra that “Turkey is a good friend to the United States and a staunch NATO ally.” It’s grown a bit strained and threadbare over the last decade or so, but it’s still the official line for both American political parties and the permanent bureaucracy in the State Department.

If the world were sane, the following brief article from ANSAmed would put a stake in the heart of this meme once and for all. But the world is not sane, and things will presumably continue the same until the moment of catastrophe arrives:

USA and Israel Turkey’s Main Enemies, Poll

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, JANUARY 5 - According to a poll carried out by the Turkish institute Metropoll and published today, the main enemies of the Turks are the USA and Israel. A total of 1,504 people were interviewed in December. Of these, 43% indicated that the USA poses the most serious foreign threat to their country, a Muslim but laic country, an ally of Washington and NATO members since 1952. The US threat, according to 23% of the interviewed, is followed by Israel, and 63% said that the Turkish government should freeze its ties with the Jewish State, while 28% want closer ties. Iran, which according to many Western countries is equipping itself with nuclear weapons, is considered a threat by just 3% of the interviewed, and Turkey’s traditional “enemy”, Greece, only by 2%.

Hat tip: Insubria.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/5/2011

Scientists at the University of Tel Aviv tagged a vulture and fitted it with a radio transmitter as part of a study of migration patterns. The bird wandered all the way to Saudi Arabia, and when it alighted, it was captured and denounced by the locals as a spy for the Mossad. News of the event spread rapidly throughout websites in the Middle East, and it was denounced as a “Zionist plot”.

In other news, 500 religious scholars of the “moderate” Barelvi group Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat have warned Muslims not to mourn for assassinated Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, or they may suffer the same fate.

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

Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, DB, DF, Gaia, Insubria, JB, JD, KGS, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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.

Light Posting

I was out for most of the day today, and the accumulation of email during my absence is astounding. I’m still trying to catch up. I’ve been working on a big project which I had hoped to post tonight, but it looks like it will be delayed.

Use this comment thread to leave interesting tidbits of news, or argue amongst yourselves. Please observe basic civility, however — pretend Miss Manners is watching. Or maybe Big Brother.

Phyllis Chesler: Martin Peretz and Defamation

The following guest post by Phyllis Chesler was written in response to Martin Peretz’ “repellent” views regarding the bi-partisan push toward a presidential pardon for Jonathan Pollard.

Because of the subject matter, the comment thread for this post will remain closed. I haven’t the physical stamina to monitor people’s responses; it’s easier to simply omit that option. If you want to leave a comment on the subject, then the original post at Ms. Chesler’s website has commenting enabled.

One would-be commenter, who has already looked at the post over at her site sent me an email:

I just read the Chesler piece on Pollard/Peretz.

I can only say I’m stunned and disappointed almost beyond words about Peretz. If there is a somewhere after we leave this life Peretz is going to really have to explain himself.

His reaction is interesting because he’s quite familiar with the case. He is - or was - someone who thought that whatever Peretz had to say it couldn’t be “too bad” … but that was before he read Peretz’ own words. Many Americans who used to read The New Republic back when MP was the editor (i.e, anyone in the US not residing on the cliff end of the Lemming Left) are going to be taken aback. It would seem that the shunning process on the left is so utterly effective it produces the in-extremis position demonstrated by Peretz in his recent essays on Pollard.

You’ll also have to go over to the original post to get her links; it would've been too tiring for me to include them. Besides, I simply didn't want to link to Peretz' fulminations. There are lots of links besides those two URLs leading back to Peretz’ ravings. She has lots of background information for those of you not familiar with Pollard’s case. Ms. Chesler did an admirable job pulling all that information together, but then her work as an investigator of Islam - especially its codified treatment meted out to women - has no comparison in this country for depth of research and grasp of the material - not to mention her modulated presentation of horrific examples. The woman has nerves of steel.


Peretz-the-Leftist Defames Pollard As “Repellent Viper”

In the last days of 2010, Martin (“Marty”) Peretz, the recently retired editor and publisher of The New Republic, published two rambling, hysterical, and gratuitously cruel pieces which strongly advised President Obama not to pardon Jonathan Pollard.

No one, other than his own demons, asked Peretz weigh in on the matter; he could simply have remained silent. After all, Peretz has lived the life of a wealthy, influential, and outspoken Jewish public figure-a life of honor and freedom. Pollard has been dishonored, despised, and imprisoned for 25 years, seven of which he was forced to spend in solitary confinement. He is a very sick man whose supporters have finally, after many hard years, begun to gather serious support for his release.

Noblesse oblige should have required Peretz to maintain a pained silence. Instead, on his own blog at The New Republic Peretz comes at Pollard with 800 pounds of shockingly anti-Semitic language in which he makes the case against the prisoner.

Peretz describes Pollard as “the single repellent figure,” a “sleaze bag transmogrified into not only a hero but a saint,” a “viper,” a “convicted espionage agent … who got paid for his work … His professional career reeks with infamy and is suffused with depravity.”

Peretz also accuses the prisoner of spying for Pakistan-however, there is no evidence of this in the public record.

Peretz not only despises Pollard; he despises his supporters as well and characterizes them as “brazen … professional victims, mostly brutal themselves, who originate in the ultra-nationalist and religious right. They are insatiable. And they want America to be Israel’s patsy.” If one googles “America Israel’s patsy,” the #2 result, right behind Peretz’s article, is a blog by an anti-Semitic conspiracy freak who argues that the Mossad knew about 9/11 in advance and links to an article by David Duke about “Israeli terrorism.”

More Dumb Dem Analysis: Tea Party Peeps Have Unhappy Families

File the latest under “you can’t make this stuff up”.

Congressional Representative Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland and now the minority House Whip thanks to the drubbing the Dems took in November, is right down there with those desperate professors who claim to know that Conservatives are dumber than Dems. Hoyer “knows” that anyone belonging to the Tea Party obviously originated in an unhappy family and is compensating:

There are a whole lot of people in the Tea Party that I see in these polls who don’t want any compromise. My presumption is they have unhappy families. All of you have been in families: single-parent, two-parents, whatever. Multiple parent and a stepfather. The fact is life is about trying to reach accommodation with one another so we can move forward. That is certainly what democracy is about. So if we are going to move forward compromise is necessary. [my emphasis - D]

Bless his heart...

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/4/2011

Muslim teachers in the UK have labeled the BBC “bigoted” and “Islamophobic” for airing a documentary exposing the teaching of extremist and hateful messages in the curricula of Islamic schools. The teachers maintain the story was inaccurate; the Beeb stands by its program.

In other news, Greece has decided to follow the example of the United States (and Israel, for that matter) and build a border wall to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country through Turkey.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, DF, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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.

Assassin is an Arabic Word

The world’s first assassins were Arab hashshashin, or “hashish-eaters”. They were fanatics of the Ismaili sect of Islam, and their purpose in life was to kill infidels, especially Christians, and anyone else who blasphemed against the prophet. They hashshashin had to get ripped on hash to work up the nerve for killing.

When the word was borrowed into French and Provençal, and thence into English, it lost the plural sense, and gave us the singular form “assassin”.

And it was an Islamic assassin — in the pure, original sense of the word — who murdered the governor of Punjab in Pakistan today. There’s no information on whether he had to get stoned to pull the trigger, but his motive was the traditional one: he assassinated Governor Salman Taseer for failing to follow the letter of Islamic law.

The governor’s crime was to protest the death sentence against Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who was sentenced for blaspheming Mohammed. Mr. Taseer had also spoken with approval of his expectation that the blasphemy law would soon be revised to reflect civilized norms of jurisprudence.

That was too much for one of the governor’s bodyguards, who gunned down his boss in the capital city of Pakistan. There’s no doubt who did it, or why: the assassin has admitted the crime, and said he did it because of Mr. Taseer’s position on the Bibi case.

As Vlad Tepes points out, this killing is a message to every political leader in the world, and not just Muslim ones: if you attempt to limit the scope of traditional sharia law, or even talk about doing so, you will die.

This is our future. The leaders of the most Islamized nations of the West are being put on notice: when there are enough Muslims in your countries, this is what you can expect. France first, then the UK and Sweden, then the Netherlands — with Geert Wilders being the number one target — and then eventually the rest of us.

Why do you think Muslims are offering to guard Coptic churches?

A more prudent choice of guardians may be warranted…

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Here’s a selection of articles about what happened, as well as a composite video. First, from The Times of India:

Pakistan: Punjab Governor Salman Taseer Killed by His Guard

ISLAMABAD: The governor of Pakistan’s powerful Punjab province was shot dead Tuesday by one of his guards in the Pakistani capital, apparently because he had spoken out against the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, officials said.

The killing of Salman Taseer was the most high-profile assassination of a political figure in Pakistan since the slaying of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, and it rattled a country already dealing with crises ranging from a potential collapse of the government to Islamist militancy.

The suspected killer was taken into custody, and there were conflicting reports as to whether he was wounded.

Taseer was a member of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and a close associate of President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower. The governor was vocal on a range of subjects, and frequently used Twitter to get across his views.

In recent days, as the People’s Party has faced the loss of its coalition partners, the 56-year-old Taseer has insisted that the government will survive. But it was his stance against the blasphemy laws that apparently led to his killing.

Interior minister Rahman Malik told reporters that the suspect in the case had surrendered to police and told them he killed Taseer because “the governor described the blasphemy laws as a black law.”

“He was the most courageous voice after Benazir Bhutto on the rights of women and religious minorities,” said a crying Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to Zardari and friend of Taseer. “God, we will miss him.”

Pakistan’s blasphemy law has come under greater scrutiny in recent days after a Christian woman was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Under pressure from Islamist parties, the People’s Party said recently it would not pursue changes to the law, which has long vexed human rights activists.

Police official Mohammad Iftikhar said Taseer was gunned down after he reached Khosar Market, a shopping center in Islamabad popular with Westerners and wealthy Pakistanis. Five other people were wounded as other security personnel responded to the attack.

Another police official, Hasan Iqbal, said a pair of witnesses told the police that as the governor was leaving his vehicle, a man from his security squad fired two shots at him. Taseer then fell, while other police officials fired on the attacker.

Taseer was believed to be meeting someone for a meal, Malik said. Other members of his security detail were being questioned, Malik said.

The security for Taseer was provided by the Punjab government. “We will see whether it was an individual act or someone had asked him” to do it, Malik said of the attacker.

Bullet casings and blood covered much of the scene at the market, and police quickly cordoned off the area.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for YouTubing this video from several sources:

Asylum for Terrorists in Austria

This news story from Russia Today highlights a problem that is becoming more and more critical all across Western Europe. “Asylum seekers” show up in record numbers to claim refugee status, knowing that their chances of being sent home (unless they are Christians) are slim.

The report below focuses on the case of an alleged Chechen terrorist — with no hands, yet! — who was granted refugee status in Austria. Now he has been arrested as part of a massive Islamic terror plot:



Hat tip: LN.

A Protection Racket

Our regular reader and commenter Sagunto sends this interesting update on the Coptic Church hit list situation in Holland. We reported in last night’s news feed that al-Qaeda is threatening Coptic churches in the Netherlands, but Sagunto has even more from one of today’s newspapers. He says:

Just this morning I read about a remarkable initiative by three major Muslim organizations, to “protect” these churches.

I’d liken this protection to the kind of “protection” in The Godfather, and I’m sure from the Muslim officials’ perspective this must seem like a great PR stunt. I’m afraid to say that it actually seems to work. So I herewith I humbly offer you my “Church bombing PR spin-off alert”.

I have translated the first part of an article on the site of a major Dutch newspaper, De Telegraaf. It goes on for quite a bit longer, but I think this is enough to get the message.

And Sagunto’s translation of part of the article:

Muslims offer to protect Coptic churches

Muslim organizations are offering to protect Coptic churches in the Netherlands against possible attacks. The spokesmen of the Dutch Muslim Council (NMR), the Council of Moroccan Mosques in the Netherlands and the Federation of Islamic Organizations (FION) said so this Tuesday.

It concerns three Coptic Orthodox churches in the Netherlands that feature on an al-Qaeda list as possible targets for a bomb attack. The churches are located in Eindhoven, Utrecht and Amsterdam. In all, there are seven Coptic churches in the Netherlands.

Islam is Not Like Other Religions

Here’s a refreshing departure from the PC sentiments typically expressed by Christian clergy: a Coptic bishop says that Islam is different, and Muslims should be excluded from an event in Rome commemorating the New Year’s Eve massacre in Alexandria.

According to ANSAmed:

Coptic Bishop in Rome: No to Muslim Presence on Sunday

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JANUARY 3 — “I shall never accept that representatives” of Rome’s Muslim community should join us for Sunday’s demonstration called to commemorate the victims of the massacre in Alexandria. The Bishop of the Coptic Church in Rome, Msg. Barnaba el Soryany has told ANSAmed.

The Bishop was nonetheless heartened by the many other religious communities and institutions joining in the demonstration. In reference to his wish to exclude both Muslim religious and political representatives, Msg. Soryany added he was “unafraid to say so”.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/3/2011

Two of the five suspects arrested for planning a terror attack in Jerusalem are Palestinian employees of the British consulate in the city. The alleged conspirators were planning to shoot off a rocket in Teddy Stadium.

In other news, Copts in the Netherlands, Germany, and other parts of Europe report that their churches are being threatened with attacks, based on posts made on Al Qaeda websites.

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

Thanks to 4symbols, C. Cantoni, CSP, DF, DW, Escape Velocity, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Nick, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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.