Western Racism Towards the Palestinians

The latest from Pat Condell:

A Virtual Postal Strike

Update 1pm EST: Still no email, alas.

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Ah, the wayward vagaries of the Internet!

Our email is down (again), and has been for a number of hours. If you’ve been trying to reach us, be patient: with luck our ISP will have the problem fixed by tomorrow morning, and we’ll be able to respond to anything you sent this evening.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/3/2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted honorary citizenship to the French actor Gérard Depardieu. Mr. Depardieu was offered a Russian passport after he angrily decided to leave France due to its high rate of taxation. He has a substantial following among Russian cinemagoers.

In other news, a mosque in Melbourne was destroyed in a fire that authorities say is “suspicious”. Meanwhile, an Islamic expert says that there are not enough mosques to serve Hong Kong’s Muslim population, and that more need to be built in the city.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, 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.

Is This Blasphemy?

We’ll soon find out.

The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has done it again: it has published cartoon images of the prophet Mohammed.

This time there are no jokes, unless you count those silly faces on the people and the camels as jokes. Mohammed is treated soberly, and with great respect. No lewdness. No fart jokes. No genitalia.

And no slander! Just the facts, ma’am.

Whether the Mohammed comic book will earn a fatwa remains to be seen. For those who are interested, the comic may be purchased at the online shop for Charlie Hebdo.

Many thanks to Hermes for translating the description on that page:

Quick Overview

Life of Mohammed — Part one: The early days of a prophet

Who has a view of Mohammed? Everybody. He is the prophet of Muslims, of course, but for others he is a historical figure or a legend. One can make a cartoon about Muhammad as one can about Jesus or Napoleon or Zorro.

When Muhammad is depicted in cartoons at Charlie (Hebdo), we caricature mainly the vision which extremists have of him, or we take on Muhammad in order to contrast him with Muslim radicals. In any case, it is the vision of religious fanatics which determines the way we see Muhammad. We must tell the truth: we do not know Muhammad. In the West, everybody can quote episodes from the life of Jesus, but who can do the same about an episode from the life of Muhammad? Is this normal in a country like France, where Islam is presented as the second religion?

Canada: Give Refugee Status to Imran Firasat!

Go Here to Sign the Petition From Anywhere in the World

Several weeks ago pastor Terry Jones of Stand Up America Now, in collaboration with the Pakistani ex-Muslim Imran Firasat, released movie a move called The Innocent Prophet (watch it here).

It didn’t take long before Imran Firasat had his asylum revoked, and now he faces deportation from Spain, his adopted home. As an apostate from Islam, when Mr. Firasat is sent back to his native Pakistan, he will likely face the death penalty.

Yesterday Stand Up America Now sent out the following press release with the latest on Mr. Firasat’s status:

Last night at 9pm, the Spanish police showed up at his house and demanded that he return his residency card. His residency card was then actually taken from him by the police. This means that Imran is no longer eligible to work and is now classified as an illegal immigrant in Spain. From this time on, he can at any time, be taken into custody and be deported to Pakistan where he would be arrested immediately as the death penalty for blasphemy awaits him there. This has all been done without any type of due process of law and without any type of appeal before any court. The original action of the Spanish government is a violation of Spanish law and again is an indirect result of the weakness of the United States government and the Obama administration’s continuing to appease Islam and to threaten anyone who speaks out against Islam. President Obama himself has said, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” The words “MUST NOT”, alone are a type of threat, “MUST NOT belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” Those words are directly from our President, a protector of radical Islam, a protector of violence and anti-constitutional actions.

Obama’s blatant destructive actions against the U.S. Constitution leads other nations to ignore their own constitutions, which victimizes their own law-abiding citizens.

[…]

Spain, a free western nation, had given Imran welcome asylum to protect him from these violent and radical Islamic groups.

Imran has been involved in the co-production of the Youtube, The Innocent Prophet, with Terry Jones and Stand Up America Now. The Innocent Prophet was released to the public on Youtube on December 15, 2012.

Imran officially backed out of the project when the Spanish government threatened to revoke his protected residency status and have him deported to Pakistan where the death penalty is waiting for him because of his criticism of Islam. Firasat did his best to cooperate with Spanish authorities by presenting documented proof to them that he had backed out of the project. Despite this, Spain quickly revoked Imran’s protected asylum status during a period of approximately ten days. This would normally take the government about six months to process.

Imran has not committed any crime according to Spanish law. He has only exercised his right of free expression concerning his views on Islam. Nevertheless, his residency status has been revoked and he faces imminent deportation to a Muslim nation where the penalty for blasphemy against Islam or Muhammad is death. The weak leadership of the Obama administration, its support of radical Islam and friendship with the Muslim Brotherhood leads the way for other western nations to enact blasphemy laws and abolish freedom.

Imran Firasat himself sent out this press release:

Be careful! Saying truth about Islam is a crime

As you all know that my refugee status was revoked by the Spanish ministry of interior for the reasons that my activities against Islam are a risk for the national security of Spain. I was given a month for filing an appeal, which I am in process of doing so. But the persecution doesn’t end here. All what the Spanish authorities have done against me in order to make the Muslim world happy is not yet sufficient for them.

This evening I got a call from the police station. I was ordered to come to the police station and return back my residence card. I told them that look, I am in the process of filing an appeal and you can’t do that to me. I need to have my identity until the high court gives the final word on my status. I refused to go to the police station.

But as usual the Spanish authorities are in so much hurry for deporting me to Pakistan that they by themselves came to my home at 21:00 pm and ordered me to return back my residence card. I was also threatened that from now on I am not anymore a legal resident of this country and that I am an illegal immigrant who can be caught or deported anytime.

Kevin Carroll Steps Up

This line of work takes its toll on people.

Counterjihad activism doesn’t pay very well. It demands long hours from its volunteers. It also tends to cost them their jobs, their freedom, or even their lives. It’s not a pastime to take up if you prefer the quiet life.

Late in 2011, British Freedom announced that Paul Weston, Tommy Robinson, and Kevin Carroll were shouldering the burden of a political party that was sure to bring down the weight of the British establishment against itself. Sure enough, a little more than a year later, Tommy Robinson is languishing in solitary confinement without having been charged with a crime.

And now Paul Weston has decided to step down as Chairman of the party to concentrate on his literary efforts, a role in which he feels he can be more effective on behalf of the cause. Kevin Carroll, who made such a commendable showing in his recent run for Bedfordshire PCC, will move up to take the helm of British Freedom.

Here’s the resignation letter that Paul sent out yesterday:

It is with great sadness I must announce my resignation as Chairman of British Freedom. I am writing a book about the current dire state of Britain, which is going to take up the majority of my time over the coming months, and I feel it would be better for British Freedom to be led by someone who can devote more time to the party.

Kevin Carroll will now take over the Chairman’s role and he does so with my full support. Kev is an incredibly brave man who wears his heart on his sleeve. I am convinced his leadership will contribute to the ever-growing membership and media presence of British Freedom.

The Acid Attack on Reyhan K.

Last week a young woman named Reyhan K. was subjected to a devastating acid attack at her residence in Germany. She and one of her attackers are of Turkish origin; the other suspect is Syrian.

Our Canadian correspondent Rembrandt Clancy sends a summary of press reports about the incident, including updates from Express.de dated 1 January 2013, and WAZ on 2 January 2013, along with video material. As background for the case, he sends a video by Sabatina James entitled “Women in Islam, Equal Rights or Oppressed?”

He includes this note:

Just a point: The modus operandi of this case has a striking similarity to that of the case of the model and TV presenter, Katie Piper, in 2009 in North London. Her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Lynch put Stefan Sylvester up to throwing the acid. Although this was a brown-on-white attack, I have not been able to discover the origins of the perpetrators.

All the translating and subtitling of this material was done by Rembrandt Clancy.

The Acid Attack on Reyhan K.
by Rembrandt Clancy

The Gates of Vienna news feed of 30 December 2012 made reference to an acid attack on a young Turkish woman in Germany.

The essentials of the press reports of the acid attack on Reyhan K. can be summarised as follows: Twenty-year-old Reyhan K., a Turkish immigrant woman who lives in Hilden near Düsseldorf in North Rhein-Westphalia, has landed in a special clinic in Duisburg with severe burns to her face and body. On Saturday morning, December 29, 2012, the doorbell rang at the residence of Reyhan’s grandparents. A man in disguise quickly sprayed the young woman twice in the face and body with a fluid which turned out to be sulphuric acid. He then fled the scene without having said a word.

A few hours after the attack, police arrested a former boyfriend, a 22-year-old Turkish man by the name of Serhat K. During interrogation the suspect admitted having incited a younger 18-year-old male accomplice to carry out the attack. The name and other background information of this individual does not appear to be available at this point, although the video included here identifies him as Syrian. On the day of the crime he turned himself in to Düsseldorf police in the company of his lawyer.

Here is the news report from Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) of 30 December 2012:

Examination of many media sources failed to turn up any mention of Islam in connection with this crime, although all the principals appear to originate from the Islamic cultural sphere, and the circumstances of the event suggest a crime of the “honour” type.

An account of the crime is reported in Express.de (30 December 2012):

Prior to the fateful acid attack, the 20-year old woman had reported her ex-boyfriend several times - but the police did nothing.

Reyhan K. broke up with Serhat K. two years ago. At that time he said to her ‘I won’t put up with that, I will harm you!’

Since then there have been continual threats, often by telephone. However, he attacked Reyhan on the open street at least twice: some time ago on the way home from her work in Düsseldorf, and a few weeks ago in the middle of Hilden.

“She was at the police station in Hilden and Langenfeld at least six to seven times, and reported her ex-boyfriend - the last time on 6 December. But simply nothing happened, they did nothing,” said Güler K. [Reyhan’s mother].The police acknowledge that three reports have been lodged since November 2011 — among other things, because the man from Langefeld [Serhat K.] threatened to attack his ex-girl friend with acid.

The news of the parents’ complaints about the failure of the police to respond to their daughter’s vain attempts to gain the attention of the police appeared yesterday, 2 January 2012, in the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ):

Even a restraining order on the 22-year old [Serhat K.] issued by the regional court in Langenfeld could not protect the young woman. The ex-boyfriend instigated his buddy to take part in the previously planned acid attack anyway…

Police will Investigate the Complaints of the Family

A spokesman for the police in Mettmann told the NRZ [Neue Ruhr/Neue Rhein Zeitung] that the accusations of the family are only known from the press. It goes without saying that the investigating committee will look into the accusations this Wednesday. Will the county police in Mettmann despite their rapid investigative success [in making the arrests] now have to relinquish the case to a neutral agency? It is still to early to judge, so it was being claimed yesterday.

On 1 Jan. 2013 a second article appeared in Express.de . It describes the current mental and physical state of Reyhan K.:

“My daughter is in complete shock. She is withdrawn. I no longer recognise her at all”, reports Reyhan’s mother Güler K (44)…

Formerly Reyhan used to enjoy posing for photos. Today the head of the young woman is shaved on the right side, and the area is replete with brown blotches, her right ear lobe was completely shredded.

As to whether the beautiful girl will ever again look as she did before the attack — the doctors do not wish to commit themselves. “For that it is still too early,” according to mother Güler.

And Reyhan herself? She is silent about the events. She will receive no visitors and will not speak with anyone about her experience, not even with her mother…

A Related Video

Since this case originates in the Islamic cultural sphere, and pertains to the treatment of women there, readers may be interested in a video by Sabatina James entitled “Women in Islam, Equal Rights or Oppressed?” (originally posted 30 November 2012 on Alhayat TV).

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/2/2013

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been discharged from a New York hospital after being treated for a blood clot behind her right ear, between the brain and the skull. Her doctors say she will make a complete recovery.

In other news, the United Nations’ Human Rights Commissioner says that more than 60,000 people have been killed in Syria since the civil war there began two years ago.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, CSP, Fjordman, Jerry Gordon, JP, Kitman, Steen, 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.

Shameful Reading Habits

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer was prompted by last night’s post about the Dearborn T-Shirt Project to translate an article about what reading material Norwegians would be ashamed to be caught with. He notes:

If we are to believe the information presented in this article, approximately 82% of Norwegians would voluntarily put on a t-shirt displaying a verse from the Bible and wear it in public. I wouldn’t know the corresponding number for a hate-filled verse from the Quran, but my guess is that that figure would be a lot more modest.

Although I’m not a religious person, I find it strange that so many people consider it embarrassing to be caught leafing through a Bible. I have read both books and it wouldn’t bother me one iota to be seen reading any of them on a bus, train or in any other public area for that matter.

However, I would probably consider throwing myself in front of a moving train if I were ever forced to read the entire series of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’.

The translated article from Dagbladet:

There is only one type of prose that Norwegians find more embarrassing to be seen with in public than the Bible

And no, it’s not erotic-housewife literature.

The Bible was one of the bestselling books in Norway last year, but few want to be seen reading the book in public, writes Vårt Land [Our Country — Christian Newspaper].

According to a survey by Norstat carried out on behalf of the NRK-produced entertainment program, “Brille” [“Reading glasses”], 18 percent of the respondents stated that they would prefer not be seen reading a Bible in a public area.

Only the gossip magazine ‘Se og Hør’ [“Look and Listen”] is more embarrassing. 20 percent replied that they did not want to be caught with that particular magazine in public.

Many of the respondents admitted that it would be less embarrassing for them to be discovered reading the erotic-housewife novels “Fifty Shades of Grey”. Only 8 percent of the respondents answered that they would prefer not be caught immersed in the erotic world.

The author Hanne Ørstavik, who was involved with the translation of the new Bible, is surprised. She thought that Norwegians were more sophisticated when it comes to matters related to religion.

“Today society is more pluralistic, and thus has more voices. We are also much more exposed to the great religions of the world these days.” She is baffled as to why some consider it embarrassing to read the Bible.

Europe and the Coming Caliphate: The Profit for Islam from the Reduction of Thought

Below is the final part of a four-part translation of an article by Hans-Peter Raddatz, a well-known German author and scholar who specializes in Islamic issues. The original was published in issue Nr. 5/2012 October of Die Neue Ordnung (pdf; table of contents here). In it Dr. Raddatz discusses the most recent book by Bat Ye’or, whose writings challenge the “will to power” that is inherent in the melded ideologies of Islam and EU totalitarianism.

JLH deserves our gratitude for translating the entire series. Previously: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Hans-Peter Raddatz

Europe and the Coming Caliphate
The Systemic Background of an Important Book

4. The Profit for Islam from the Reduction of Thought

The clichés “Arab Spring” and “Outbreak of Democracy” were embarrassing to the traditional claim to power of the Muslim Brotherhood, which, since the founding of the Mediterranean Union, had infiltrated the candidate countries, from Algeria to Egypt, and their judicial systems. From the point of view of the dialogue, this is a stroke of luck, whereby half of the Arabic world is carrying out “peaceful regime change” in favor of its own immanent democracy. Since it is not clear how the Peace of Islam created despots and did not effectuate its democratic core, it is important to the Islamocentrism of the undemocratic leaders of the EU that the civilizing superiority of Islam lies in its efficient, totalitarian training of the masses.

Here the intrinsic family resemblance of the Euro-Islam elites appears, as documented in the Coming Caliphate, and — without the author delving any further into the ideological or socio-economic reasons — is described, with its radical tendencies in Islamic religious politics, as well as its aggressive euro-Islamic policy towards Israel. As will become clear from this paper, they are comparatively easy to prove and leave no doubt that Islamization “is a part of Europe”^[1] because it is part of the totalitarianism of this age. Its configurations, which fluctuate between present and future, indigenous and alien culture, reticence and openness, have since WWII determined academic discourse as the driving force which advances Left-Right extremism under the cover of being harmless consumer and games coding. The in-depth totalitarian effect is seen in the affinity that can be deduced from the success of racist religions (Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism) and/or thought systems open to violence.

This constellation interacts with an unbridled, results-driven rationality, which, under the regime of monetary standardization, permeates the existence of the human being, and, as the procedural form of intellectual deconstruction, makes the individual consciousness useful to the networks of global productivity. Mass thinking attuned to work, consumption, entertainment, Islam, etc., is incapable of recognizing the enormity of the EU/OIC structural manipulation. The pertinent model is Luhmann’s self-reflexive reduction, for it must live up to a morality-free, universally sociological super-theory of reality, such that, as the acquisition of knowledge advances, the depth of ignorance also increases. This is supposed to be comprehensible to “the limited conceptual capacity of the human being,” which is only negative dialectically, that is, with the extinguishing of individual thinking and validation — ergo through unconscious acceptance of prevailing circumstances — a situation described in Islam as “no compulsion in religion.” (2/256)

Since self-reflexivity requires “not people, but functions” (Luhmann), it contributes to the disappearance of humanity of the older type. With the functionality of Islam, it advances the compulsory cultural-economic spiral. It functions in complexity, and the complexity — as a paradoxical endless loop or, alternatively, a blind spot in a reflexive observing of observation — is of use in acquiring and retaining power. It is the motor of relativistic multiculturalism, which is the major target of Bat Ye’or’s criticism. In the enforced tolerance arising from this multiculturalism, she sees the essential cause of the radicalization of democracy and the new Euro-Islamic elitist authority. Citing numerous examples, she winkles out its mafia-like structure and exposes the Islamization of Europe as a power play which is as epochal as it is deceptive.

The monetary effect does the rest, while Euro-Islamization and the EU-OIC fusion is fulfilled on the differential axis: acceptance-exclusion, democracy-dhimmitude, justice-injustice, Palestine-Israel, which — along with deception of the public, perversion of justice, squeezing the taxpayers, corruption and Utopia — are the reflexive results of the structural change. The “bailout parachutes” of the Eurozone are a testament to standardized money, which secures the global major investors as political co-regents and the stock holdings of the Islamic “co-owners.” Within this complex, the strict Good-Evil world of the Manichaean Gnosis is reproduced, separating the bad demiurges from the cosmic God and permeating the orthodoxies of Christianity and Islam, absolutism and relativism, as well as socialism, liberalism and capitalism. Standing in the wings of the System’s stage with the Gnostic God is Iblis, where Europe’s Islamization is made into a Blind Spot — which is made visible, however, in Bat Ye’or’s study. Thus she draws to herself the hatred of the activists, who really do not know that they are the fuel for a totalitarian apparatus (Karl Jaspers) which is building up an increasingly deadly momentum as forms of power and ideas of God become more nihilistic.

5. The Tradition of Power in the Network of Extortion

“Islam is a Danger to Western Society”

Imran Firasat is a Pakistani ex-Muslim who collaborated with Terry Jones on the movie The Innocent Prophet (watch it here), who was recently served with official documents revoking his status as a political refugee in Spain.

Mr. Firasat was interviewed last Sunday by Alerta Digital. Many thanks to our Spanish correspondent Hermes for the translation:

AD interviews Imran Firasat: “The Spanish government is in the hands of Islam”

Imran Firasat’s case depicts better that any other the degree to which the Spanish government is a hostage of the Islamic organizations in our country with close links to Arabic countries, their goal being realized exactly as they have been planning: the gradual Islamization of the nation. It was enough for the Interior Ministry that this Pakistani ex-Muslim made a film about Mohammed’s life to revoke his status as an asylum seeker, which he had enjoyed since 2010. Here we have just met Islam face to face.

Firasat made public a trailer of the film in which he appeared talking in Colon Square, Madrid, with the Spanish flag in the background, and in which he asked among other things whether the prophet of Islam was a “saint sent by Allah or a child rapist and a murderer”. Last year he published some cartoons about Mohammed. The Interior Ministry did not give details on the legal reasons behind the revocation of his right to asylum. AD talked with him about this and other issues.

How and when did you receive the news that the Spanish government had revoked your status of asylum seeker?

15 days ago I received a notification in which I was informed that a process was under way in order to revoke my status as a political refugee. They gave me 15 days to contest it in my defence. Three days after I presented my declarations at the asylum office in Madrid, they told me that my right of asylum had been revoked on grounds that I was a danger to national security. A process designed to revoke the right of asylum, which usually lasts six months, was arranged in my case in just three days, with no declaration presented by me having been taken into consideration.

Who do you think put pressure on the Spanish government to make this decision?

There is no doubt that it was the Spanish Muslim organizations and the Muslim governments from other countries who pressured the Spanish government. It was not because of my having committed any crime that my asylum rights were revoked. This is why there is nothing in the final resolution pointing to any evidence that I committed any crime punishable by the Spanish laws. It is only stated that my denunciations of Islam have been received with outrage in the Muslim world. This is the same as throwing into prison a journalist who has never insulted anybody nor broken any laws, but who has written something which does not please a given lobby.

Do you confirm that the Spanish government is in the hands of Islam?

The Dearborn T-Shirt Project

Pictured below are the front and back of a virtual t-shirt, one that is not yet in production:

The idea for this shirt occurred to me after the events at the Dearborn Arab International Festival over several successive years. One such incident was the arrest of David Wood and his associates at the 2010 Festival, for handing out Christian literature on a street corner. The most recent one was this past summer, when a group of Christians — after having eggs, bottles, and pieces of concrete thrown at them — were advised to leave the Festival by the police, or face being arrested.

These incidents were evidence of the de facto rule of Islamic law in an area of the United States where Muslims are in the majority. However, they were problematic in some ways, including the fact that last summer’s Christian activists carried a pig’s head on a pole — a fact that was not recorded in their own video of the incident. From a pragmatic point of view, such provocation is not helpful to the anti-sharia resistance — no one who is undecided on the issue of Islam or largely uninformed about it will be convinced to oppose the spread of Islamic law by Christians carrying pigs’ heads.

The Dearborn T-Shirt Project was conceived as an entirely non-provocative alternative to more confrontational street theater in areas where Muslims dominate. The wearer of the shirt would do nothing more than that — simply wear the shirt. His action would create a streamlined test of the extent to which sharia is now the law of the land in Dearborn and other Muslim areas where the Constitution has been discarded in favor of Islamic law.

My original plan was to undertake this project myself, with the help of one or more assistants to record on video whatever might eventuate on the streets of Dearborn. However, several considerations made me change my mind. The first was financial: the cost of getting to and from Michigan, accommodation there, paying for any necessary hospital treatment, putting up bail money, and the inevitable legal expenses for a possibly protracted aftermath of litigation. Yes, it’s quite likely that a civil liberties non-profit would take up any case mounted against me. However, my status as an obscure and indigent blogger (whose main focus is actually on Europe) makes me reluctant to take a gamble on such an eventuality.

The second factor was the deciding one: my wife. Dymphna, as regular readers know, suffers from fibromyalgia and complex chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. She would be unable to take the stress associated with such an action on my part, especially since it might involve an indefinite absence from home. She prevailed upon me to forego the idea, and instead hand it over to the larger Counterjihad through the medium of our readers.

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Anyone who decides to undertake the Dearborn T-Shirt Project is advised to keep in mind a few important considerations that will help make his action more effective:

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/1/2013

Senate Republicans and Democrats cut a deal on a new tax plan, and the House signed onto it, thus averting the “fiscal cliff”. Republicans agreed to higher taxes and lower spending cuts. In return the Democrats agreed not to cut military spending as much as they wanted to, and said they would invite Republicans to the post-cliff cocktail party. OK, so I made that last part up.

In other news, French “youths” celebrated the new year by torching nearly 1,200 cars.

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

Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Kitman, 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.

A School for Suicide

The following presentation by a young Pakistani woman describes the process by which young, ignorant, poverty-stricken boys are brainwashed en masse by the Taliban into becoming dedicated suicide bombers.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video: