Commenter Babs sent this email the other day about her trip to California to help with the packaging of boxes of goodies to be sent to the deployed military.

She made the experience sound so satisfying I asked if she could find some photos to go with her story. She contacted the Operation Gratitude Staff, who supplied the images below. All of them were taken by Bernard Falkin.

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Dear Dymphna,

I got back last night from the packaging drive for Operation Gratitude and still feel so overwhelmed. It was an amazing experience.

OpGrat packaging is based at the Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, California. One whole side of the parking lot is filled with products ready to be packaged and shipped out to troops, sitting there in pallets and bins.

The actual assembly takes place on the drill floor inside the armory. It was already STUFFED with the assembly line and products ready to be fed into the assembly line. Behind the assembly line were the restocking bins. Forklifts traveled back and forth bringing products to the staging points for the assembly line.

There were hundreds of people there, already at work.

My twenty-one year old son, Nick, and I went out courtesy of my husband’s zillion airline miles. We worked the line both Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday we shipped out 6,000 boxes, each individually addressed to a soldier/sailor/marine in the field. I chucked 6,000 handfuls of cough drops on Saturday! On Sunday my son Nick and I, along with a man named Carlos, made up a team and rotated jobs.

The hardest job was getting the clothing, tee shirts, cool vests (which were interesting; they are vests with some kind of polymer beads in them that keep you cool), bandanas, visors or socks into the box. The next hardest job was being a “pusher” on the other side of the line, shepherding the boxes up the assembly line, and the easiest job was chucking two chapsticks into each box. We traded off.

- – - - – - – - -

Everyone wants to know what were in the boxes. Well, each box contained over fifty different items! Every kind of a snack food from raisins and nuts to cracker jacks, See’s candy and Girl Scout cookies went in to the boxes. Personal hygiene articles, from shampoo and moisturizer to lip balm and foot powder were included. Powdered drink mix, DVD’s, CD’s, phone cards, some even had cigarettes. (I told everyone that I would throw extra cough drops into the boxes with the cigarettes!) A huge assortment of high energy drinks were on the assembly line, including some type of thing that you place under your tongue for high energy called “cherry bombs”.

This is a complicated process and, the people doing it are experts at putting it together. I have the greatest respect for the “core” of this operation, but also for the just plain folks I met from all walks of life — all of us showing up to help the troops. There were Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and volunteers from corporate organizations (like the Disney volunteers and Target stores) who came out to help. And then there were the many people that showed up in ones and twos. They’d heard about this packaging drive and simply came to help because I think they needed to. They needed to be part of something that directly aided our troops in the field…

That brings me to the founder of Operation Gratitude. She started this organization in her living room. She is universally loved by each and every person I talked to.

People are grateful that she has given them an opportunity to do what they could not do by themselves – that is – to support our troops with their time and resources. She is the person responsible for giving them an outlet to express their appreciation to our military, an outlet they would not have otherwise.

Believe me when I say that every box coming off that assembly line was filled to the brim with love and hope for a safe return.

In closing, I will add that I got way more than I donated this past weekend. The sweat I put into those boxes was more than a thousand times returned to me in spiritual well being. Knowing that someone, somewhere will open that box and have a smile. Someone – actually a whole lot of someones – thought about this soldier holding his box of goodies and the pleasure it would bring.

Those soldiers will open a box filled with the thought, effort, and love of the people they fight for.

It really was amazing.

Babs

Do your part: write some letters, donate money for the boxes and mailing costs. OperationGratitude

We received this email last night from the British author Paul Weston:

A UK website highly critical of the EU has been closed down.

Eutruth.org.uk was run by Brian Gerrish and David Noakes, both of whom are (were) instrumental in highlighting the totalitarian nature of the EU, the possible treachery of UK politicians who wished to inflict it upon the British people without any form of referendum, and the exposure of Common Purpose amongst EU bureaucrats, local councillors, high ranking police officers, journalists and politicians.

There are rumours that a pro-EU Belgian multi-millionaire has been pressurising Eutruth’s service provider.

Whether the Belgian in question has any political affiliation to the EU is unclear. Perhaps there are some people out there who could shed some light on this?

I did a little research on EU Truth, but couldn’t find out very much about what has happened to it. According to the Whois listing for the domain, eutruth.org.uk is up and running:

IP Address:		70.87.95.66
IP Location		Texas — Dallas — Theplanet.com Internet Services Inc
Response Code:
Blacklist Status:		Clear
SSL Cert:		*.hostgator.com expires in 49 days.
Domain Status:		Registered And Active Website

A thread on the topic opened up a couple of days ago at the British Democracy Forum. According to one of the posters, Mr. Noakes may have closed the site down himself:
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David probaly pulled the plug on it, he’s just left the uk column after a argument over the direction of the paper apparently it was because he kept slagging ukip off.

In any case, not all the information that was on EU Truth has been lost — not yet. A site-specific Google search turns up four pages of listings for the site, mostly pdf files. The HTML pages may be viewed in cached versions; as a sample, I pulled this excerpt out of a cached page on the EU Constitution:

In summary, the EU Constitution is similar to the old Soviet Union’s and builds a dictatorship. It starts with human rights platitudes, then conceals its destruction of democracy in its massive 465 pages; while the EU’s Corpus Juris legal system steals our rights. Harmonising our laws with the EU over 33 years has given us the laws of a police state, temporarily unenforced. The EU’s 111,000 regulations will control our personal lives more closely than were Soviet Citizens. This Constitution makes the EU become our nation, and as a result Britain is abolished as a nation.

We can only avoid this by repealing the 1972 EU Communities Act before we are imprisoned inside.

Stop the EU dictatorship

The text of the pdf files may be obtained by using the “View as HTML” option on the search page.

Obviously, these documents will not be visible at Google indefinitely. Anybody who wants to retrieve a permanent copy of them would be well-advised to download them now.

Islamic spokesmen like to represent their religion as a monolith — the frequently-cited “1.3 billion Muslims” who rise up as one at each new infidel outrage — but the reality is somewhat more nuanced. Offshoots and revised versions of Islam are considered heresies by the mainstream, yet they persist.

The heretics are punished whenever they appear, whether they are violent, as are as the Kharijis, the Isma’ilis, and of course the Shi’a, or peaceful, such as the Baha’is and the Ahmadiyya.

Patrick Sookhdeo, in his book Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam, gives this brief description of the Ahmadiyya sect (p. 195):

A generally non-violent interpretation of jihad is held by the Ahmadiyya sect (considered apostates by other Muslims, and regarded as non-Muslims in Pakistan where they are severely persecuted). Their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) rejected violent jihad as unnecessary in “a time of peace and security” such as India was enjoying under British rule. However they do permit fighting in self-defence, to punish aggressors, and to ensure freedom to convert to Islam — hence the raising of a volunteer corps of Ahmadis to fight in Kashmir alongside the Pakistani army after Pakistan’s independence in 1947.

The following account from the Daily News of Sri Lanka serves to illustrate how heretical the followers of Ahmad are from the Sunni point of view:
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As promised in the above verse of the Holy Quran, after the demise of the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (Promised Messiah and Mahdi), a system of Caliphate (Khilafat) was instituted in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat on May 27, 1908, which is similar to the Pious Caliphate (Khilafat-i-Rashida) that followed the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, under divine command founded the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at in March 23, 1889, and began to accept initiation into the Jama’at. In 1890, under Divine Revelation he claimed to be the Promised Messiah as well as Imam Mahdi. He also claimed to be a subordinate Prophet of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) commissioned by Allah to serve the religion of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).

To proclaim himself not just the Mahdi, but an actual prophet, a successor to Mohammed himself, put Ahmad well beyond the pale of orthodox Islam. No wonder his followers have been persecuted.

The Ahmadis are observing the centenary of their faith this year. The celebration of the event in London went off without a hitch, but the same cannot be said of Pakistan. According to Asia News:

The Pakistani government has prohibited the Ahmadiyya community of Rabwa, one of the largest in the world, from celebrating the great feast of khilafat: this is the system of succession of Islamic prophets, and is considered heretical by Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Federal police agents interrupted the celebrations, and put the promoters of the initiative under house arrest.

This is confirmed to AsiaNews by Saleem-ud-din, spokesman for the community, who says: “The agents came and prohibited us from marching, community meals, even from using fireworks. This is nothing but the latest violation of human rights in Pakistan”. Anthony Nadeem, a member of the Pakistan human rights commission, confirms: “what has taken place constitutes a serious violation of the declaration of human rights, and of the national constitution”.

Nadeem, who visited Rabwa to collect eyewitness reports, recounts: “the police arrested Mirza Younas, a local merchant, because he was selling coloured banners and hats with blessings for the centenary”. Other abuses of this kind have been seen all over the area, but now the Ahmadiyya community will seek to obtain the release of its members. None of those arrested, in fact, has been charged with anything.

The Ahmadiyya claim to be Muslim, but they do not recognise Mohammed as the last prophet: for this reason, they are considered heretics, and suffer severe violence and ostracism on the part of fundamentalists in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. The Pakistani community is composed of about three million members, most of whom live in Punjab.

If Islam were a peaceful, tolerant, open-minded faith — as its spokesman would have us believe — the Ahmadis would be seen as harmless cranks, and would pose no more threat to the larger community than the Quakers do to Christianity.

But Islam can brook no deviation from the True Path. Those who veer from the way of the Prophet will only put themselves at risk.

Hat tip: insubria.

So says the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. According to The Daily Mail :

Top police chief: ‘We must start negotiating with Al Qaeda’

A police chief was slapped down by the Government yesterday for suggesting Britain could open talks with Al Qaeda.

Sir Hugh Orde, head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said he knew of no terror campaign that had not ended with negotiation.

In other words: “We have been absolute idiots in our dealings with terrorists in the past. Why should we change our methods now?”

The article continues:
- – - - – - – - -

And he said his 30 years spent tackling the IRA had convinced him that security work and arrests were not enough to defeat terrorists.

But his suggestion was immediately dismissed by the Foreign Office.

A spokesman said: ‘It is inconceivable that Her Majesty’s Government would ever seek to reach a mutually acceptable accommodation with a terrorist organisation like Al Qaeda.’

I don’t agree. The present dhimmitude of Her Majesty’s government indicates that such behavior is more than likely at some point. Sir Hugh has just been a bit — ahem — premature in his statements.

Jonathan Powell, ex-chief of staff at Downing Street, also says the Ulster peace deal shows talking to terror groups can work.

He said negotiating with Al Qaeda might seem pointless now, but a political solution would be needed in the end.

The analogy between Al Qaeda and the IRA is a spurious one. The IRA, for all its brutal bestiality, had limited and well-defined political goals: sovereignty over Northern Ireland. It had no aspirations to expand the Irish Ummah and rule the entire world in its name. However detestable it was, its worldview was not eschatological and messianic, nor grounded in a megalomaniacal “holy book”.

The IRA was, and remains, containable for the British government. Al Qaeda is not.

Sir Hugh, a leading contender to take over from Sir Ian Blair as chief of the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘If you want my professional assessment of any terrorism campaign, what fixes it is talking and engaging and judging when the conditions are right for that to take place.’

Asked if he was saying we should talk to Al Qaeda, Sir Hugh said: ‘I don’t think that’s unthinkable, the question will be one of timing.’

He also called for the number of police forces to be slashed from 43 to nine to better fight terrorism.

This last point is an interesting one. Is he calling for the consolidation of existing police forces, to make them more like regional Gestapos than the community-based “bobbies on bicycles” of the past?

If so, it should make it easier to crack down on “racist” speech as well.

Regular readers will remember Omar Al-Rawi, the Austrian Muslim activist (and socialist). In his latest escapade he agitated for the cancellation of a church lecture by an author considered too critical of Islam.

Our Austrian correspondent ESW has translated a couple of articles about the incident from the Austrian press. The first is an editorial from Die Presse.

Commentary

Intervening against every critical remark against Islam
by Erich Kocina

The whining level of the Austrian Islamic community is high. There are actually critical voices that are needed for the much quoted dialogue.

They do not tire of praising cooperation, dialogue, or world peace. Representatives of religious communities also like to praise the (country’s) general openness. But where they themselves are concerned, things are quite different. This happened shortly before a lecture was to take place in Traun, a small town in Upper Austria: Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic community and socialist member of the Vienna city council, had stirred up controversy against Christine Schirrmacher, accusing her of being an “Islamophobe”. He was successful: The organizers, a small church parish, canceled the invitation extended to the head of the Bonn Institute of Islamic Issues. Al-Rawi refers to the book cover (!) of Schirrmacher’s book “Women and the Sharia”. It states: “In the name of Sharia, women are circumcised, forced into marriages, raped, imprisoned, stoned or honor-killed.”

For Al-Rawi, this is an unacceptable “generalization”. A judgment about the attitude of a person on the basis of a book cover, however, apparently is not.

Just so there is no bias here: The Jewish community recently protested against a podium discussion on Gaza, an event that was co-sponsored by strong critics of Israel. And we can also imagine the reaction of the archdiocese if the floor were given to well-known critics of the Church and Christianity. That is pretty much the opposite of dialogue.

The second article is also from Die Presse :
- – - - – - – - -

Islam lecture: Scandal because of cancellation
by Rainer Nowak

SP-council member Al-Rawi accuses well-known scholar Christine Schirrmacher of being an “Islamophobe”.

VIENNA. Interventions at events concerning Islam are slowly becoming a habit. The latest case: A lecture in Traun [a small town in Upper Austria] was cancelled last week. Omar Al-Rawi, the integration representative for the Islamic community and socialist member of the Vienna city council, had accused speaker Christine Schirrmacher of being an “Islamophobe.”

The Islam scholar is apparently a well-known anti-Islamic activist belonging to the evangelical “Lausanne movement”. According to Al-Rawi, Evangelicals are known for their support of anti-Islamic activities. The consequence: The organizers disinvited the head of the Bonn Institute of Islamic Issues. The justification: The fear of presenting an unobjective view of Islam.

The protest against the cancellation was quick to come. Schirrmacher’s criticism of Al-Rawi consists of the fact that his allegations are not supported by quotations from her writings or speeches.

In an interview with “Die Presse” Al-Rawi refers to the text on the back of the book “Women and the Sharia,” which was co-written by Schirrmacher. It states: “In the name of Sharia, women are circumcised, forced into marriages, raped, imprisoned, stoned or honor killed.” Al-Rawi considers this a generalizing statement: “No one is doing this in the name of Sharia, but in the context of patriarchal structures “. He obtained his information about the author from the Internet.

Schirrmacher’s supposed Islamophobia alone would not have led him to protest against the speech: “What bothered me was the fact that someone could have made Islamophobic statements under the guise of an event on integration,” he says. Moreover, not a single Muslim was invited to be on the podium in order to counter the arguments.

Tarafa Baghajati, together with Al-Rawi co-founder of the Initiative Muslim Austrians, used a similar argument last year when he tried to claim a seat on the podium of discussion led by Henryk Broder. The event, organized by a group tied to the Austrian Conservative Party ÖVP, should not offer a one-sided approach, Baghajati said. Broder refused.

(dedicated to Lyle Blake)

From “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly” Fifth Annual Horrible College-Student Poetry Competition, here is the fourth place whiner winner of this year’s event.

To my mind, it shines like anthacite, its quality well above the others. On the other hand, poetry is like, you know, subjective and all, like, so who can judge when it comes from the heart?

In fact, all of the entrants should have won first place. It’s the only fair outcome. No doubt, some school official will come down on Hatemongers for not choosing everyone. And deservedly so.

Without further ado, a sonnet by someone named Quincy (you know a poet is first class when he travels under but a single name:

Fourth Runner-Up: “sonnet of (equaliteez)” bai (Quincy)

how R U racist? let me kount teh wayz
U R racist cuz U R (white)
U R racist bai dai n nite,
U R racist cuz U fite
teh ones who teech (equality).
U R racist cuz U dwell
on mai lak of skilz at spell(ing)
U R racist cuz U talk (white)
ai reelee can(not) stand the site,
uv U talking (white)…
ai seez U, (white), az uh sheet,
KKK reddy 2 beet… (me)
(white) az AmeriKKKa!
racist AmeriKKKa!
U R racist cuz U deny teh (truth),
the fundu(mental) equazhun…
racist=(white)

My cat was impressed with Quincy’s efforts here. She is black except for a tiny tuft of white at her throat; no doubt, this physical fact of inky fur was the deciding element for her. With cats you never can tell.

I will leave you to peruse the other winners. A little warning, however, about the third runner-up who seems a bit obsessed with body fluids. Probably a Pisces.

Hat tip: Pundita

[POETRY ENDS HERE, ALAS AND ALACK]

For the moment (and it will only be a moment) Gitmo is not sitting on the top burner at Amnesty International.

Italy is.

Italia is the latest villain for daring to create a “climate of discrimination”. In fact, their newly enacted immigration procedures have AI worried. In a normal world, such measures would be seen as customary regulations for a sovereign state to enact in order to secure its borders. However, Amnesty International does not breathe the air of a normal world and they are worried, very worried.

Things are so bad in Italy that AI says:

politicians from both sides of the spectrum were legitimizing the use of racist language.

Unbelievable. Next thing you know Italy will be pressuring Italians to practice xenophobia. Get this:

Last week, Italy’s new centre-right government introduced a series of measures aimed at improving security.

Illegal immigration will become punishable by up to four years in prison, it will be easier to expel illegal immigrants and there will be a three-year prison sentence for using minors to beg for money.

Attacks on Roma

But the head of Amnesty International in Italy, Daniela Carboni, said the moves represented “heavy restrictions and new crimes that will target, above all, immigrants”.

This is her DUH moment, surely. The laws are designed to target illegal immigrants. How hard is that to understand?
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She said the organisation was particularly worried by the measure that would mean attempted illegal immigrants could be held for up to 18 months in a detention centre.

“Amnesty International is extremely alarmed both by the contents and haste of these measures… and by the climate of discrimination which preceded them,” Ms Carboni said in the report.

While the rest of us, needless to say, are breathing a sigh of relief at Italy’s courageous stand on protecting Italians…

AI is the enemy of nation-states and the champion of “irregular migrants.”

Here are parts of the cover letter – full text here – from Amnesty International (with editorial comments supplied by GoV) to the President of the EU; the letter accompanied Amnesty International’s 2008 Report (pdf), published to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Dear Mr Barroso,

It is with pleasure that I present to you herewith the Amnesty International Report 2008…

…it documents human rights abuses occurring in 150 countries and territories around the world. Regrettably, the European Union (EU) is by no means free of such problems and with 26 of its member states included in this year’s report, it has no reason for complacency.

According to Amnesty International’s report, in 2007 there was a pattern of discrimination in at least 16 EU countries, mostly on grounds of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. In as many member states individuals continued to suffer police brutality and ill-treatment while in custody.

A breach of rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees was also identified in at least 18 member states and, as in the previous year, counter terrorism policies continued to be a source of human rights violations in at least 15 EU countries.

Oh, dear. It would seem that unless a nation is willing to concoct an ineffective, wimpy wet noodle counter terrorism “policy” that is designed to fail in protecting its own citizens, then any measures against terrorism are like, you know, really not nice and they’re violating human rights of people just like you and me…except for the fact that they like to engage in such civic activities as blowing up you and me and the mindless bureaucrat who wrote this letter — while their confederates proceed to video the encounter.

On this last point it is important to stress that EU member States have still not condemned or fully investigated evidence of collusion with the US-led renditions and secret detention programme.

[…]

While Europe remains a magnet for those seeking to escape persecution, violence or poverty,it still fails to sufficiently protect people in dire need because of its repressive approaches to irregular migration.

Imagine that! The EU represses “irregular migration.” That’s the brave new world p.c. speak for illegal immigrants; they’ve all been magically transformed into “irregular migrants.” It makes those who violate a nation’s borders sound like a group of constipated squatters.

The letter earnestly puffs on:

Such approaches undermine the fundamental rights of migrants and impact severely on those of refugees and asylum seekers. The lack of collective political will to address key human rights abuses at home, seriously limits the EU’s credibility to promote human rights in its external relations, where it is also not doing enough.

Thus, according to Amnesty International, unless a nation is willing to let the “irregular migrants” overrun its borders — causing crime waves, the breakdown of civil infrastructures and general chaos — then it can’t protest, say, China’s grip on Tibet. What a bunch of malarkey.

As for the “lack of political will” to tear down national borders and welcome the irregulars with open arms…let’s congratulate those who lack the suicidal tendencies to want such an outcome.

The EU has not used its leverage sufficiently in the run up to the Beijing Olympics to make a real impact on the human rights situation in China. By significantly downgrading the input of civil society in the human rights dialogue it diluted its principled approach to one of pure tactical politics, blah, blah, etc., ad nauseam.

Sorry, the bureaucratese began to melt one word into the next, like an overheated box of crayons. What nation on earth – or collective suprastates of same – has sufficient “leverage” to get China to do anything? So here’s the bottom line, here is what Amnesty International wants the EU to do:

to adopt, by the Declaration’s anniversary in December, a Council resolution launching an overall review of its human rights policies and mechanisms, with the aim of finally designing and implementing a coherent human rights policy for the EU.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Nicolas

Oh, of course, I should I have known…the UN’s mini-me, the EU, is going to pass a Resolution, making the world safe for oligarchy. You’ll notice there is no corresponding resolution outlining the concomitant responsibilities to accompany the rights endowed to all these irregular squatters.

Be still, my heart.

According to AGI:

Calderoli, ‘Lega’ Wants Referendum on Treaty

Rome, May 30 — The ‘Lega’ party has accepted with reservation in the Council of Ministers the parliamentary bill that ratifies the Lisbon Treaty that modifies the EU treaty.

[Minister for Federalism Roberto] Calderoli speaks of “a major loss of sovereignty” and hopes that the Italian population will be granted a referendum on the matter.

Hat tip: insubria.

[post ends here]

The noted blogger Fjordman is filing this report via Gates of Vienna.
For a complete Fjordman blogography, see The Fjordman Files. There is also a multi-index listing here.

We know that “racism” is the worst of all possible crimes. In Britain, you apparently deserve to die if you are a “racist.” At the same time, many Western university students are taught that “all whites are racists.” But if all whites are racists, and racists deserve to die, does that mean that all whites deserve to die?

Keith Brown, 52, collapsed and died after being knifed in the back by his next-door neighbour Habib Khan. Khan, 50, was unanimously cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter after a jury heard that he had endured racism, threats and violence from Mr Brown and his son, Ashley Barker, also a BNP activist.

An indoctrination program that was shut down at the University of Delaware last year after it was revealed the teachings included “All whites are racist” is now being revived.

[Nothing follows]

A Persian resistance group sent us the following email last night:

Urgent appeal from the Foundation for Democracy in Iran

May 29, 2008: Monarchist reportedly faces imminent execution in Tehran. Dr. Forood Fouladvand, a self-styled monarchist who disappeared along with two associates on the Turkish border with Iran on Jan. 17, 2007, now faces imminent execution by the Iranian authorities, Iranian exiles in London tell FDI. According to these sources, Dr. Fouladvand will be executed tomorrow. “He is like the Robert Spencer of Iran,” one supporter in London said. “He has been studying Islamic texts and using them to convince people to leave Islam” on radio and satellite television broadcasts from London.

Dr. Fouladvand heads a group called Anjomane Padeshahi Iran (API), the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, which advocates restoration of the constitutional monarchy abolished by the Islamic Republic in 1980. He had gone to Iran, apparently lured by promises from an opposition group that was either infiltrated by the regime or that had been cooped by the regime. Fouladvand was traveling with a fake passport under the name of Jahangir Irani and disappeared along with two supporters, identified on his website as Simorgh and Kouroshe Lor.

- – - - – - – - -

More information is available at www.iran.org.

Since this press release was dated yesterday, it may well be that Dr. Fouladvand is being executed today.

Those of us who are old enough to remember events in Iran in 1979 — and thus circumvent the media memory hole on some of the inconvenient details — know that progressives across the West lionized Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and actively lobbied for the overthrow of the Shah. The Left romanticized Khomeini, and acted as cheerleaders for the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

As the revolution devoured its children, and the Iran-Iraq War unfolded, and the full bestiality of the regime became apparent, a cone of silence descended on the subject. The murderous mullahs morphed from romantic heroes — Khomeini had been a sort of Islamic Ché to the café-au-lait set in Europe — into “conservatives”, because, as we all know, the murderous thugs of the world are by definition conservatives.

And so it has continued up until the present day. The media in the West observe every twitch of the mullahs, the same way they did with the genrontocrats in the Kremlin. And we are constantly advised to appease them, because if we don’t the hardliners will gain the upper hand over the moderates — the latter, of course, are only “moderate” because they want fewer stonings and hangings, and don’t advocate the death penalty for people who listen to music on the radio.

Looking back, is there anyone who thinks that Iran is better off now than it would have been if the Shah had not been overthrown? If the dynasty of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi were still in charge, would we be facing a lunatic regime armed with nuclear weapons and preparing for the arrival of the Twelfth Imam?

Under the current circumstances, an Iranian monarchist counts as a “progressive”.

Our Swedish correspondent Carpenter sends along the following essay on the cognitive dissonance that is currently plaguing the cultural elites in Sweden.

First, his cover note:

Here’s a report on the aftermath of the Discrimination Ombudsman’s lawsuit, on which you blogged some days ago in a post entitled “The Dhimmi News from Sweden”. I think this lawsuit case turned out to be more than just “dhimmi news”…

Which political correctness do you choose?
by Carpenter

Sweden has a #2 ideology (with Multiculturalism as #1), namely feminism. Feminism in Sweden is a mostly chronic and pathological hatred aimed at ethnically Swedish men who, if we were to believe some of the nutcases, ritually slaughter infants (yes, that actually has been claimed!) Representatives of this ideology are over-represented in the media as a trend-setting voice of the public debate.

There are also feminists who aim their criticism at Muslim patriarchal culture, even if they don’t get the same attention and space in media. We Swedish men are used to being charged for our suggested patriarchal elements, and I at least wonder: Are our attitudes towards women even comparable to the Muslim attitudes?

That being said, I appreciate feminist criticism of Islam’s patriarchal elements. It gives us Swedish men a break from the usual dung of charges against us. But more importantly, for once it puts a focus on a medieval attitude towards women found among Muslims, and away from pseudo-problems.

When this happens, a dilemma emerges for PC people; namely which side to take. If a Muslim had demanded five prayer breaks a day in a job interview and thus did not get employed, the entire establishment would take the Muslim’s side. Everything is in order when a Swedish employer denies a Muslim employment; it becomes very simple who is evil and offensive, and who is good and offended.
- – - - – - – - -
But a woman, another victim of the vast White Male Conspiracy, feeling offended by a Muslim, and vice versa? ERROR! Being politically correct isn’t that easy after all!

It was in yesterday’s Expressen that Maria Hagberg, chairwoman of Nätverket mot hedersrelaterat våld — [the] Network against honor-related violence — took the offensive against the Discrimination Ombudsman of Sweden for her arbitrary attempt to sue. The preamble follows:

DO supports religious oppression of women

A young Muslim man lost both his unemployment coverage and practical training since he didn’t want to shake a female interviewer’s hand for religious reasons. “A serious misjudgement” says DO Katri Linna, who recently submitted an application for a summons against Arbetsförmedlingen [Sweden’s state employment office]. There will be over 160,000 kronor [roughly $27,000] in compensation for the man if DO gets to decide. Maria Hagberg, chairwoman of Nätverket mot hedersrelaterat våld, writes that DO is running the errands of the patriarchy. The religious man should have been reported to DO for discrimination against women, writes Hagberg. [emphasis added]

Leif Abd al-Haqq Kielan, a Swedish convert and Muslim leader, today replies in the same paper (preamble

Extreme feminists can’t stand Islam and multi-culture.

If a Muslim man doesn’t shake hand with women he doesn’t know out of respect, it’s of course not a sign of Muslims wanting to take over the world and institute sharia laws. It is common politeness in many parts of the world. Thus writes Leif Abd al-Haqq Kielan, in the light of the criticism of DO who runs a lawsuit for a Muslim man who has been denied a job and unemployment coverage. The assimilation method has crash-landed long ago. Therefore, DO does the right thing taking the side of tolerance [emphasis added]

Women fighting for equality and against patriarchal oppression on the one hand. Muslims fighting for tolerance and understanding of other cultures on the other.

Equality or tolerance. Xenophobia or patriarchy. Feminism or Multiculturalism.

This dilemma has been implicit for decades. But now, we Swedes have officially been offered two kinds of political correctness.

Fellow countrymen reading this: Make your choice!

The article below was posted by AMDG earlier this month at La Yijad en Eurabia. Visit the original article for links to Spanish-language sources.

The irresolute Spanish immigration policy:
Between repatriation and straight-off naturalisation

The shocking and unsustainable trend of Spanish immigration

Spanish immigration policy is probably the most incompetent and frivolous in Europe. Spain has seen its immigrants increase from a negligible quantity to some10% of the population in around ten years. You can find in this page a table with the basic data of Spanish immigration from 1995 to 2000. If we exclude immigrants from Europe, there were 250,000 immigrants in Spain in1995. In 2007, the figure had risen to around 4.5 million, of which we may estimate that one million are of European origin.

Of course, this trend is not sustainable, and that is why I felt astonished by the comment by CarnackiUK to this post:

This ties in nicely with an item on BBC Radio 4 yesterday in which a member of Spain’s Socialist government was boasting to the interviewer about the success of their mass immigration policy, and offering to share their expertise in this area with Britain and other EU countries (as if these needed any encouragement!)

The main subject of the item was actually the collapse of the birth-rate in Europe and how various countries were tackling the problem. The French for example now claim the highest birth rate as a result of various financial inducements to couples having a third child. This was contrasted with Spain which apparently now has the lowest birth-rate. A couple there would have to have 16 children to obtain the benefits on offer to French women with three children. The Spanish solution is to complacently invite ever more immigrants to replace the aging work force — it’s not that big a surprise that some of those invited are mainly interested in the work of Jihad.

I was astonished indeed to read that members of my government are boasting about the mess they have created, and that they consider a population replacement as a purposely planned policy. But, apart from outrageous, that picture is very far from reality. Immigration has been out of control in Spain; also during the Aznar years. Presenting now the case as a planned policy is a cynical exercise of deception. As a matter of fact, the current government is starting to consider a repatriation policy, in order to cope with the slowdown of economic activity — in particular construction — which will hardly affect the immigrant workers.

Government and trade unions suggest the start of a repatriation policy

The former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Rafael Caldera, carried out in 2005 a regularization process for illegal immigrants that officially surfaced 700,000 aliens and brought along even more as a consequence of the “come-to-Spain effect” that it created, estimated to be one million (Spanish). The official statement of the minister after the process finished is very meaningful: “This is an achievement for society and a reinforcement of the ethical commitment of the Spaniards. Today, there are many people who feel better” (Spanish). I am sure that the immigrants who could consequently enjoy Spanish social services felt much better, for the rest of us this is just progressive jargon playing on a guilt feeling that we do not experience.
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The situation is starting to change. The new minister, Celestino Corbacho, appointed after the general elections in March declared in an interview that his immigration policy would be “as many as needed, and one more” (Spanish). He added nevertheless a very meaningful condition: “but with a contract”. In another interview, he suggested a policy of encouraging repatriation (Spanish). It will be very difficult to implement it, when a nonqualified person caring for elderly people can earn in Spain more than a doctor in, for instance, Paraguay. The difficulties of a repatriation policy are analysed in Nuevo Digital (Spanish), an authoritative blog by a free-lance journalist.

Even more surprising is the change of policy by the communist trade union CC.OO., which is supposedly more radical than UGT, the socialist one. They have asked in a recent report for the control of immigration and have stated that “immigration has brought along a not very productive growth model based on low-wage manpower that has weakened social cohesion”. The report is analysed in further detail, again in this article by Nuevo Digital (Spanish). Just a few months ago they were denouncing racism, xenophobia, neoliberalism, alarmist speeches against immigration, etc… What could be the reason for this sudden change? May be the immigrants are not joining the trade unions as they expected?

On the other hand, the current leftist agenda includes granting them voting rights in local elections and speeding up the nationalisation process.

This change of policy — at this stage just suggested in interviews, but not yet made official — has made evident the schizophrenic character of the immigration policy of Spanish left. On the one hand a repatriation policy is suggested, on the other the same leftist voices propose speeding up the granting of political rights to the immigrants, including naturalisation.

In 2006, the same Minister Caldera presented a proposition in Parliament to grant voting rights in local elections to foreign legally residents. Those from EU countries and from countries with reciprocity agreements with Spain can already vote in local elections; extending the voting rights to the other countries can only be seen as a surrender and a weakness. The initiative was gently turned down, but the new minister appointed has again made a declaration favouring it: ‘if these people cannot vote, they will not care about the city they live in’.

He is a former major of a town around Barcelona with an immigrant population of 23%, and claims that integration is not complete because immigrants cannot vote and have therefore no interest in local administration. Again, one cannot avoid the feeling that our left is looking for clients among immigrants and on the other hand they are conveying the message that they are limiting it and repatriating.

Much more dangerous than granting voting rights in local elections are the proposals to grant citizenship to immigrants after a 5-year period of legal residence. The current period is 10 years, and a prudent policy would extend it to 20, or even suspend it.

It should be noted that the Spanish nation has currently three enemies. Two of them are external enemies -the European Union and Islam — the other one is the interior enemy: the secessionist movements. The European Union is only perceived as such a threat by a minority which can be estimated by the percentage of voters that rejected the Constitutional Treaty in the referendum in year 2005: 17% of the voters, out of a low voting turnover that would reduce this figure to a mere 10%. Still, the risk is there, in Mittleuropa, where it has been since Spain got involved in European affairs in the 16th Century. The other two threats are felt by a majority of Spaniards, even if the politically correct pressure has not yet let that majority express that concern. It is of the utmost importance that they are aware of the scope of the threat and that they loose the fear to express it.

It has been curious to see how all this threats support each other since 11-M. I cannot consider it just a coincidence. For instance, this strange news consisting of just a sentence, informs that the Basque regional government has requested the UE to grant voting rights to those immigrants living three years in any European country. Similarly, the Catalonian regional government has proposed to reduce from 10 to 5 years the period of legal residence needed to get Spanish nationality. Last but not least, the regional Government from Galicia has published a study stating that the regional workforce is insufficient, old and not competitive and regretting that Galicia has not benefited from the inflow of immigrants to Spain in the last years.

I want to finish with this issue, in order to show that, contrary to the information in certain comments by Afonso to some of my former posts, while the secessionist movement in Belgium — the VB — is an ally of the counterjihad, the Spanish secessionist movements have taken sides with the Islamic aggression to the former Alándalus; that is, Spain. So much they hate the only country in history that has successfully eradicated a strongly rooted and native Islam, and that has shown historically the way to deal with it.