The Camp of the Saints Archive

For readers who are new to our “Camp of the Saints” series: the title refers to the apocalyptic refugee scenario described in Jean Raspail’s novel The Camp of the Saints.

Since early April I’ve been referring to the migration wave from North Africa across the Mediterranean as “The Camp of the Saints”. The refugee crisis began in January as soon as the uprising in Tunisia got going in earnest, and intensified as the “Arab Spring” spread to other countries in the region. Since NATO began its air war on Libya, most of the new refugees have been fleeing the Libyan civil war.

By popular request, I’ve collected links to all our previous articles about the “Camp of the Saints” refugee crisis. The reference list below will be updated as new posts are added to the series:

A Peek into the Barracks of the Great Jihad

Years ago Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wrote a poem which included these lines: “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.”

This is not the standard view of a mosque in the United States. Most Americans — not just progressives, but average well-meaning citizens of all political persuasions — assume that a mosque is just like a church or a synagogue. Yes, it has different architecture and decorations, and its congregation uses different scriptures. But surely it must be like other place of worship — a gathering place where the faithful pray, enjoy fellowship with one another, and then depart refreshed, ready to do good deeds in the larger world.

Regular readers of this blog know better, but the average American has imprinted the feel-good multicultural ideal about Muslims and their mosques, and the ten years since 9-11 have not shaken it. Thanks to the journeywork of George W. Bush, reinforced by the appeasement of Barack Hussein Obama, Islam is understood to be a positive, tolerant, peaceful spiritual discipline, and contains only a tiny minority of extremists who behave otherwise — and theirs is not the “true Islam”, anyway.

In order to counteract such deeply-entrenched error, rigorous empirical investigation is necessary. If a researcher is not to be labeled a “bigot” or a “hater”, he must present well-attested facts based on careful research.

What if there were a fact-based study demonstrating that the mosques of America are not generally tolerant of other religions?

What if the data from mosques showed a correlation between shari’a-compliance with the promotion of violence towards non-Muslims?

And suppose the results were so thoroughly documented that they could be reproduced by other sociologists and anthropologists?

This is exactly what Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi have done. In a paper entitled “Shari‘a and Violence in American Mosques”, which will be published next week in the summer issue of Middle East Quarterly, the two scholars have laid out a detailed summary of a four-year sociological study of the incidence of violent jihadist ideology in American mosques. The data demonstrate an unmistakable correlation between jihad-promoting ideology and the visible adherence to shari’a law by the leaders and congregations of those mosques (portions of the same study are available at theMapping Sharia website).

As the authors ask in the introduction to their paper:

To what extent are American Muslims, native-born as well as naturalized, being radicalized by Islamists? And what steps can those who are sworn to the protection of American citizenry take that will uncover and disrupt the plots of those willing to take up arms against others for the sake of jihad?

What makes their study so devastating is that its results do not depend on anyone’s opinions or impressions. Instead of interviewing mosque attendees or distributing questionnaires, the researchers collated data gathered by outside observers, who recorded visible behaviors and practices at a random sample of American mosques. For mosques that conducted their services in languages other than English, observers who were fluent in the languages used — such as Arabic, Farsi, or Urdu — were assigned to conduct the surveys in those mosques.

The project began by picking out certain well-known signs of adherence to strict shari’a, as recorded in legal treatises on Islamic law that are universally accepted as valid by mainstream Muslims all over the world. This allowed visitors to the mosques to pick out how closely shari’a-compliance correlated with the presence of jihad-promoting materials and teachings, and with the support of recognized terrorist organizations.

The authors begin by referring to previous studies conducted by other scholars in the same field:

To date, almost all of the professional and academic work in this field has been anecdotal surveys or case studies tracing backward through the personal profiles of terrorists and the socioeconomic and political environments from which they came.

One study by Quintan Wiktorowicz, assistant professor of international studies at Rhodes College and now on the staff of the National Security Council, noted that modern jihadists legitimize their violent activities by relying on the same textual works as their nonviolent Salafist counterparts. However, the approach taken to these texts by the violent jihadist may be distinguished from that of the nonviolent Salafist insofar as the jihadist uses the principles advanced by both classical and modern Islamic scholars and ideologues and adapts them to modern situations in a way that provides a broader sanction for the permissible use of violence.

Further, in 2007, Paul Gill concluded that terrorist organizations seek societal support by creating a “culture of martyrdom” and that one theme common to suicide bombers was the support they received from a community that esteemed the concept of martyrdom. Thus, a complex dynamic is at work between a terrorist organization, society, and individuals with the interplay between these three dimensions enabling radicalization and terrorist attacks.

Particular relevance is provided by a 2004 study “which found that 97 percent of jihadists studied had become increasingly devoted to forms of Salafist Islam highly adherent to Shari’a (Islamic law) while on their path to radicalization, despite many coming from less rigorous devotional levels during their youths. This increase in devotion to Salafist Islam was measured by outwardly observable behaviors such as wearing traditional Arabic, Pakistani, or Afghan clothing or growing a beard…”

They go on to say:

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/2/2011

The outbreak of E. coli in Europe was originally blamed on organic Spanish cucumbers, and claimed mostly Germans as victims. It is now thought to be caused by a virulent mutant strain of the bacteria, according to WHO. The authorities have backed off from the original assertion about cucumbers, and Spain is demanding compensation for damage to its agricultural sector. Russia, however, has reacted by banning the importation of vegetables from the EU.

In other news, radical Islamic protesters, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, demonstrated in front of the Syrian Embassy in Amman, Jordan. They were protesting the crackdown on demonstrators in Syria, and referred to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a “butcher”.

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

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, 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.

Camp of the Saints: The Ones Who Didn’t Make It

Only about 150 (or maybe 130) North African refugees landed in Italy yesterday — not enough to update the Cultural Enrichment Thermometer — but they landed in an unusual location: Otranto, at the southern end of the heel in the Italian boot.

Fishing Boat With Migrants Rescued in Otranto, 130 on Board

(AGI) Otranto — A Guardia di Finanza patrol boat sighted, 2 miles off Otranto, an 18-meter fishing boat carrying approx 150 people. The patrol boat, together with a Coast Guard vessel supported the migrants boat, which suffered a failure, and had the passengers board the Italian vessel. At about 2.30 am, the military vessels brought safely the Libyan refugees — all men — in the port of Otranto.

Those were the ones who made it across the Med to safety, but there were about 750 on a boat out of Libya that broke down. Up to a third of those passengers are thought to have perished after jumping into the sea.

First, a brief article from AGI:

Tunisian Migrant Boat Breaks Down, Over 200 Missing

(AGI) Tunis — The Tunisian TAP agency says 200 to 270 migrants are lost off Tunisia after a boat carrying them to Italy broke down. The Tunisian coastguard has taken 570 migrants to safety, but there are fears that another two hundred or so fell into the sea in the fight to get off the boat and may have drowned.

A somewhat longer account was posted by ANSAmed, but it doesn’t mention any deaths:

Freedom is Slavery

Below is a brief essay by Nicolai Sennels on the strange metamorphosis of the Left over the past fifty years from the champions of the oppressed into the oppressors themselves.


The reversal of Left and Right
by Nicolai Sennels

In the good old hippie days, the socialists on the Left were the good guys. They risked their jobs and reputations demonstrating for the equality of women, sexual freedom, and freedom of speech to criticise the system and the authorities. It was the time when the Left said that “Religion is the opium of the people” and freedom-loving youth made fun of the religious authorities and their dogmas.

But something happened. The Left — which defines itself as the protector of the weak — decided that a repressive religion and its often fanatic and incompetent followers were a threatened minority, whose destructive actions were a result of poverty and a reaction to others’ criticism, all caused by capitalism and racism.

Most people were cowards and feared being called racists, and this made it easy for the Left’s agenda to find its way into politics and the media.

Knowing Their Place

I wrote last week about the uppity woman in Saudi Arabia who publicly revealed that she drove a car, and started a movement through the Arab social media demanding that women in the Kingdom be given the right to drive.

Needless to say, her actions did not sit well with the Saudi authorities, who arrested and jailed her. A wave of public support for her case followed, although a counter-movement also arose on Facebook that advocated punishing women drivers.

Now the uppity driver has been released from jail, although she had to recant and grovel to the House of Saud to earn her “freedom”. Saudi women’s prisons, with their all-male guards, are probably not the most hospitable of environments for a middle-class professional woman. And, since the prisoner was a divorced mother, and therefore not a virgin, she could not be sexually assaulted while in custody. Whatever might happen to her inside, it couldn't possibly be called rape.

So she groveled and got out. According to ANSAmed:

Saudi Arabia: Female Driver Released, Stated Her Repentance

(ANSAmed) — Rome, May 31 — Manal Al Sharif, the Saudi mother who was arrested on May 21 after being filmed at the wheel and publicly challenging the regime on the ban on female drivers, was released by the police of Alkhobar, her home city. However she had to pay a heavy price: in effect, according to a report by Arab News, Manal promised that she will not join the demonstration of Saudi female drivers that she had personally called for June 17, and officially excused herself for breaking the law. Manal retracted her statements in a letter addressed to king Abdullah, Custodian of the two Sacred Mosques.

Manal’s case and, along with hers, the case of a group of Saudi women determined to gain the right to drive ended up on papers and websites all over the world. The woman, who became the symbol of the revolt against the too many bans imposed in the name of an ultraconservative Islam, had been renamed the Saudi ‘Rosa Parks’, in homage to the famous black lady who, by refusing to give up her seat to a white man, started off the battle for racial equality in the United States in the 1950s.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/1/2011

A Libyan immigrant had only been in Australia for a month when he committed a series of sexual assaults against women and girls, some as young as 13. The judge took into account the cultural differences that made him aroused and unable to control himself around the lewd behavior and appearance of Australian females. He has been sentenced to five years in jail, and must serve at least three.

In other news, unrest continues in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, which is a province of Red China. Despite government repression, demonstrators took to the streets to protest economic and environmental issues. Large protests have been staged in other cities all across China.

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

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, DS, DW, Erick Stakelbeck, Fausta, Fjordman, Gaia, JD, Steen, Zenster, 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.

Camp of the Saints: Landing in Sicily

The news stories below all seem to refer to the same incident, in which a single fishing boat (either 20 or 25 meters long, depending on which article you read) landed at Pozzallo, on the southern tip of Sicily near Ragusa. The boat was said to be unbelievably overloaded with 960 people (also reported as 963, 932, or 917), including women and children. Since our last overall total was 38,000, this brings us to 38,960, and the Cultural Enrichment Thermometer above has been updated accordingly.

The earliest reports estimated that there were 400 people on the boat, the maximum possible number that the Italian coast guard believed could be carried on a craft of that size:

Close to 400 Migrants Escorted to Sicily’s Pozzallo Port

(AGI) Ragusa — Some 400 migrants, including an estimated 50 women and children, are to land in Pozzallo. The fishing boat ferrying them to Italian shores was spotted this afternoon by the Italian coast guard, who are currently escorting them to the port of Pozzallo. The party will undergo ID checks and will be hosted at temporary holding facilities.

But the authorities failed to reckon on the ingenuity and determination of the culture-enrichers on the boat — or were they of less than average stature? In any case, there were more than twice as many of them as expected. They had traveled from Libya, and originated in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of them were in such bad shape that they had to be hospitalized:

Over 900 Immigrants Land at Pozzallo, 150 Women & Children

(AGI) Ragusa — The Customs & Excise officers that received them in Pozzallo during the night could not believe their eyes.

Packed on the 20-meter fishing boat were many more than the 400 migrants estimated at first: sources of the Guardia di Finanza report that according to a first head-count, which is not final yet, the boat was carrying 917 persons, including 150 women and children. About 50 of them were taken to a hospital. The refugees affirmed that they sailed from Libya four days ago and that they come from Sub-Saharan Africa.

An article in the Maltese press reported that the migrants were escorted into Sicily by a Maltese patrol boat. Italy and Malta typically do their best to make sure that each boatload of refugees lands in the other country:

Here! You take them!

No — we couldn’t begrudge you all that cultural enrichment. They’re yours.

Ah, but we insist! We would not presume to hog all the bounty for ourselves.

No, no, no — we wouldn’t dream of… etc. etc.

The Maltese managed to avoid taking on this particular boatload, under the pretext that the craft was not in distress:

One Week in the Death of Britain

Our English correspondent Paul Weston has a thing or two to tell us about the current parlous state of affairs in Modern Multicultural Britain. Pour yourself a stiff drink before you start reading, because you’re going to need it.


One Week in the Death of Britain
by Paul Weston

The rapid descent of Britain into a racial, cultural, economic, moral, educational and societal ruin continues apace. The following stories are gleaned from newspaper articles printed in just one week:

We learn that despite David Cameron’s lofty ambition of reducing immigration to the “tens of thousands”, a record 586,000 immigrants arrived on the shores of this small island in 2010. As a result, 344,000 disillusioned people immediately voted with their feet and emigrated. Many of those leaving would have been indigenous Brits, although this cannot be verified because there are no real border controls.


Amongst the new arrivals was Zimbabwean Phillip Machemedze, one of Robert Mugabe’s secret policeman and torturers. Despite committing murders too gruesome to describe, Machemedze will be allowed to live scot-free in Britain at a cost of £50,000 per-annum to the British tax-payer, who must fund HIV treatment for both himself and his wife.

If murderous foreign criminals are whimsically imported into liberal democracies, one can only reasonably expect the expected. The violent crime levels prevalent within our vibrantly diverse communities are therefore astonishing only to the liberal/left.

A prime example is Santre-Sanchez- Gayle, a black contract-killer aged only fifteen who has just been jailed for the shot-gun murder of a young Turkish mother, Ms Gulistan Subasi, allegedly on behalf of her Turkish boyfriend. Gayle was paid a fee of £200 which he subsequently and somewhat improvidently spent on a Dolce and Gabbana beanie hat.

Amongst the initial targets of the investigation into Miss Subasi’s murder were members of Turkish crime syndicates in Britain, who control up to 90 per-cent of heroin coming into the country. The Serious Organised Crime Agency estimates there are 6,000 such criminals in the UK and that Turkish “Godfathers” were now subcontracting “hits” to the alienated teenagers of England’s myriad black street gangs.


In Birmingham, a white father and son were seriously injured by three knife-wielding black youths as they bravely sheltered an Asian boy who had desperately banged on their front door seeking multicultural assistance. Martin Thompson and his eighteen year-old son Edward suffered multiple stab wounds, including a punctured lung. The Asian youth was unharmed.

In Milton Keynes, two Somalis, Mohammed Farah and Amin Ahmed Ismail were shot dead in an execution style, leading police to believe it was a gang-land drugs hit. The town is situated in the stock-broker belt of Buckinghamshire and is home — believe it or not — to a close-knit Somali community of around 10,000…

Milton Keynes police handed out leaflets written in Somali in an attempt to “reassure” the community, but tactfully avoided the inharmonious revelation that 1 in 3 Somalis suffer from some form of violent mental illness brought about by exposure to civil-war brutality.

In Tower Hamlets, East London, a gang of four Muslim men launched a horrific attack on a white Religious Education teacher because they did not approve of him teaching Muslim girls. Azad Hussein, Sheikh Rashid, Simon Alam and Akmol Hussain armed themselves with iron rods and beat 28 year old Gary Smith into a bloody pulp. Mr Smith suffered a brain haemorrhage, permanent facial scarring and both long and short-term memory loss.

Also in Tower Hamlets, which is now run by an Islamic Council, street names are being changed into Urdu and homosexuals are being asked to refrain from appearing on the streets in public. Gay-free zone stickers are appearing throughout the borough, but this is not mentioned by the BBC or MSM because in the wonderfully wacky world of Political Correctness, Islam trumps homosexuality.

Use the Force, Geert!

“You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

After Geert Wilders’ final remarks in the Amsterdam court today, the judges will be making a very big mistake if they convict him.

But they may be too stupid to realize that.

The Shabby Dominance of Islam at the Omerie Mosque

Henrik Ræder Clausen recently visited Cyprus, where one of his stops was the Omerie Mosque. He was disturbed by conditions at this historic building, and was moved to write a letter to the editors of several periodicals.

As of this posting, no publication deigned to publish the letter. The text of Henrik’s account, accompanied by the photos he took, is below.


Who is responsible for the Omerie Mosque?

On a recent visit to Cyprus, I had the opportunity to visit the Omerie Mosque, previously the Church of the Holy Maria. What I saw was disturbing, and I think it deserves to be addressed.

First I noticed a poster requesting Muslims not to eat a particular brand of yoghurt, for it contains gelatin, which again is based on pork. It is a detail, but a clear one. The organization behind the mosque are requesting the Muslims to adhere to Sharia law, to let ancient religious rules dictate details of their everyday behaviour.


The fact that such detailed regulation of everyday life is totalitarian is of lesser concern. What matters here is that Sharia is a system supposedly given by Allah, and in contrast to modern law in Western countries cannot be changed by humans. In other Western countries, like United Kingdom and my own country Denmark, we have problems with creeping implementation of Sharia law, as opposed to secular, democratic law. Sharia comes in details like this, which we need to be aware of.

A plaque on the wall announces that the mosque is operated by the International Islamic Call Society, the Great Jamaheriya.


It is worth quoting from their mission statements, which can be found here:

Geert Wilders’ Final Remarks in Court

Below is a subtitled video of Geert Wilders’ final remarks at his trial today in Amsterdam. The English text of his speech is here.

Many thanks to Kitman for subtitling and YouTubing this video:

“The Truth is on Trial Today”

Below are the final remarks spoken today, June 1, 2011, by Geert Wilders at his trial in Amsterdam. The verdict is expected later this month.


Mister President, members of the Court,

I am here because of what I have said. I am here for having spoken. I have spoken, I speak and I shall continue to speak. Many have kept silent, but not Pim Fortuyn, not Theo Van Gogh, and not I.

I am obliged to speak. For the Netherlands is under threat of Islam. As I have argued many times, Islam is chiefly an ideology. An ideology of hatred, of destruction, of conquest. It is my strong conviction that Islam is a threat to Western values, to freedom of speech, to the equality of men and women, of heterosexuals and homosexuals, of believers and unbelievers.

All over the world we can see how freedom is fleeing from Islam. Day by day we see our freedoms dwindle.

Islam is opposed to freedom. Renowned scholars of Islam from all parts of the world agree on this. My expert witnesses subscribe to my view. There are more Islam scholars whom the court did not allow me to call upon to testify. All agree with my statements, they show that I speak the truth. That truth is on trial today.

We must live in the truth, said the dissidents under Communist rule, because the truth will set us free. Truth and freedom are inextricably connected. We must speak the truth because otherwise we shall lose our freedom.

That is why I have spoken, why I speak and why I shall continue to speak.

The statements for which I am being tried are statements which I made in my function as a politician participating in the public debate in our society. My statements were not aimed at individuals, but at Islam and the process of Islamization. That is why the Public Prosecutor has concluded that I should be acquitted.

Mister President, members of the Court,

I am acting within a long tradition which I wish to honour. I am risking my life in defence of freedom in the Netherlands. Of all our achievements freedom is the most precious and the most vulnerable. Many have given their lives for freedom. We have been reminded of that in the commemorations of the month of May. But the struggle for freedom is much older.

Every day the armoured cars drive me past the statue of Johan de Witt at the Hofvijver in The Hague. De Witt wrote the “Manifesto of True Freedom” and he paid for freedom with his life. Every day I go to my office through the Binnenhof where Johan van Oldenbarneveldt was beheaded after a political trial. Leaning on his stick the elderly Oldenbarneveldt addressed his last words to his people. He said: “I have acted honourably and piously as a good patriot.” Those words are also mine.

I do not wish to betray the trust of the 1.5 million voters of my party. I do not wish to betray my country. Inspired by Johan van Oldenbarneveldt and Johan de Witt I wish to be a politician who serves the truth end hence defends the freedom of the Dutch provinces and of the Dutch people. I wish to be honest, I wish to act with honesty and that is why I wish to protect my native land against Islam. Silence is treason.

That is why I have spoken, why I speak and why I shall continue to speak.

Remembering the Farhūd

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Farhūd (June 1, 1941), the Iraqi Arab equivalent of the mass violence on Kristallnacht. A reader in Israel sent us this essay by Professor Robert Wistrich commemorating the occasion.


Iraq’s Kristallnacht: Seventy Years Later
by Robert S. Wistrich

Seventy years ago, on June 1, 1941, the most dramatic and violent pogrom in the Arab Middle East during World War II took place in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Known in Arabic as the Farhūd, this devastating pogrom left approximately 150 Jews dead, hundreds more wounded, and led to the ransacking of nearly 600 Jewish businesses. The grim events of June 1-2, 1941 were the Iraqi Arab equivalent of the mass violence on Kristallnacht, which had taken place some two and a half years earlier across Nazi Germany. The anti-Jewish riots were mainly led by Iraqi soldiers (bitter and frustrated by their defeat at the hands of the British Army), some members of the police and young paramilitary gangs, swiftly followed by an angry Muslim population that went on the rampage in an orgy of murder and rapine.

The pogrom struck at what was the most prosperous, prominent and well-integrated Jewish community in the Middle East — one whose origins went back more than 2,500 years — long before there was any Arab presence in the country. The 90,000 Jews of Baghdad, it should be said, played a major role in the commercial and professional life of the city. However, in the 1930s they already found themselves confronted by an increasingly virulent anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist propaganda in the Iraqi press and among nationalist political groups. This agitation treated the intensely patriotic Iraqi Jews as an alien, hostile minority who had to be ejected from all the social, economic and political positions it held in the Iraqi state.

Iraqi Arab nationalists, like their counterparts in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, had been much influenced in the 1930s by the rise of Nazi Germany. Hitler’s National Socialism attracted them as a spectacular, authoritarian model for achieving Iraqi national unity and a wider union of Arabs in the region. It was no accident that the pro-German ideologue of pan-Arabism, Sati al-Husri, exerted a major influence on Iraqi education after arriving in Baghdad in 1921, or that Michel Aflaq, the chief theoretician of the Iraqi and Syrian Ba’athists had also absorbed German national-socialist ideas while studying in Paris between 1928-1932. The Director General of the Iraqi Ministry of Education in the 1930s, Dr. Sami Shawkat, was another fanatical ideologue, especially active in instilling a military spirit (resembling the German Nazi model) in Iraqi youth. He also developed radically anti-Jewish ideas which were heavily indebted to Nazi anti-Semitism. In a book published in Baghdad in 1939, These Are Our Aims, Shawkat openly called for the annihilation of the Jews in Iraq, as a necessary prerequisite for achieving an Iraqi national revival and fulfilling the country’s “historical mission” of uniting the Arab nation.