The formation of the new Dutch government is still in limbo, but if the Taliban have any say, the PvdA will be included in the coalition. The Socialists are regarded as friends of the Islamic radicals, and a Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan is not shy about saying so.

Here’s the latest from today’s Elsevier, as translated by our Flemish correspondent VH:

The Taliban hopes the Labour Party will govern again

by Marlou Visser

The Taliban thanks the PvdA [Labour Party, Socialists] for the upcoming departure of Dutch troops form Uruzgan. The radical Islamic terrorist organization says it hopes the PvdA will again become part of the Dutch government so that there will be a lasting friendly policy “toward Afghanistan”.

This was said by Qari Yusuf Ahmadii, the spokesman for the Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan in an exclusive interview with Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.

The Taliban already had congratulated the Netherlands earlier in a telephone interview with Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad for the intended departure from Afghanistan. “The Dutch have said to themselves: we will not benefit here; our goals are not in this country, so why should we sacrifice ourselves?” Ahmadii said then.

This weekend the roughly two thousand Dutch troops will withdraw from the Afghan province of Uruzgan. Their task will be taken over by Americans, Australians, and NATO troops from Singapore.

Recently it was made public that the entire Afghan operation [of the Dutch], militarily and in terms of development, cost the Dutch €2 billion.

– – – – – – – – –

The new government may decide whether it will accede to the request by NATO for the Dutch to send police trainers to Afghanistan. However, with a right-wing government it will also be uncertain whether the Netherlands will comply with this request. The Party for Freedom is opposed to the military mission.

NATO will probably request the new Dutch government to allow the Air Force to remain a while longer in Afghanistan, as Dutch newspapers report.

Photo caption: “Congratulations”

“We still remember well the day the Dutch government resigned,” says Ahmadii, who states that the Taliban keep a sharp eye on the international media over the Internet. The spokesman also promises that there will never be peace in Afghanistan as long as foreign troops are present in the country. “The resistance will only become stronger.”

Last winter we featured an op-ed by the Danish writer Jeppe Juhl. The author returns with a new essay, which was published in 180grader on July 22. Many thanks to Anne-Kit of Perth, Australia, for translating it into English.

The Destiny of the West Is Tied to Israel
by Jeppe Juhl

(Written after comments on Israel’s Gaza blockade by Catherine Ashton, de facto Foreign Minister of the EU)

Israel Is the Canary of the West

It’s not that long since miners were still using caged canaries as an early warning system for detecting gas leaks. If something happened to the canary it was time to get out quickly. Or into one of the safety pockets that were part of the contingency plan. You wouldn’t even need to have finished primary school to understand that only a really, really stupid (or suicidal) miner would look the other way if his canary suddenly passed out in its cage. And it would be equally remiss of the miner not to care for his canary or not to help it if it should fall ill.

Right now we are witnessing not one but millions of stupid or suicidal “miners”. I am referring to all those in the West who are actively agitating against or directly oppose the State of Israel. For Israel is the “Canary of the West”. The day Israel succumbs is when the days of the West are numbered. There can be no reasonable doubt about this. This does not mean that our civilization will crumble instantly, but the moral collapse which must inevitably have preceded any future dissolution of the Jewish State would have to have been so massive that the West would necessarily be in a state of free fall. And no measures will be able to halt this moral gravitation. We will not be able to rise up again if that small spot which represents Israel is overrun by forces which we all know are evil, even though it is forbidden to say it aloud.

Yes, life will go on. For a little while. But the gas leak has been established. The canary’s death presages our own. If in any way we are dealing with a clash of civilizations, now is the time to occupy the “high ground”. I am not referring to a military confrontation, as this would inevitably lead to only temporary solutions, but to a moral struggle where we in the West proudly and fearlessly fight for the beautiful ideals which the intellectual canary haters benefit from in their own privileged and protected lives, but which they denounce to the world in their eternal quest to appear as “good people”.
– – – – – – – – –
What is the nature of this self-hatred that drives Western intellectuals, especially those in Europe, to combat the canary of the Middle East? What perverse mechanisms compel many Westerners to demand that our canary always be more colourful and sing with a purer voice than any other birds around the world? What makes these intellectuals and their thoughtless followers punish our bird instead of kindly shipping it off to the doctor when it shows signs of illness, which would be the only rational thing to do? Is it perhaps because they no longer perceive themselves as part of our community? Is it maybe because they are not down in the mineshaft with the rest of us but live their danger-free lives at the higher levels, where they can breathe easily and enjoy their expensive vintage wines, while they gaze with pity and condescension upon the swarthy workers down in the mine who day in and day out live their insect-like lives watching the X-Factor and reading Dan Brown? I think this is how it is. The only problem is that these cerebral aristocrats do not understand that they are living on top of the mine. And when the mine collapses, they go down with the rest of us.

If the greatest statesman of the Western world had been alive today, and here I am thinking of course of Winston Churchill, he would have been on the barricades just like he was in the thirties. And Churchill would not have minced his words. He would have denounced the meaningless lunacy of condemning Israel in the wake of the flotilla. An episode which Israel should have avoided but which happened because they naively had not foreseen the evil present on the boat. Instead Catherine Ashton, the so-called Foreign Minister of the EU — a person whom it is safe to say the late Churchill would have viewed with the utmost contempt — steps in to make demands of Israel. Demands which we in the West would never dream of making of many other countries which behave so badly that it is inconceivable that no-one has noticed. Likewise, of course, it went unnoticed by the entire Danish press that last week Germany banned the Turkish organization IHH, which was the real villain of the flotilla episode.

The flotilla is but one of a veritable shower of episodes which expose the moral relativism that has infected us in the West. Yes, there are lots of things wrong with our canary. But perhaps we should consider the part we ourselves play in inflicting diseases on our bird when we choose to desert it. We do not even have to like our bird, but our sense of self preservation alone should be enough to make us treat it better.

Hat tip: TB.

Since last month’s general election, the Netherlands has been in constitutional limbo. At first all the mainstream parties absolutely refused the possibility of forming a coalition with Geert Wilders’ party, the PVV. Then, after a lot of wrangling and dickering, it became apparent that a government without the PVV could not be readily achieved.

At that point the two least left-wing parties — the VVD and the CDA — decided that, well, yes, maybe they would be willing to work with the PVV, if only Mr. Wilders were to ease up on some of his most extreme Islamophobic positions.

Since then there have been talks about talks, but no actual official talking. Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated two articles about the process. First, here’s what De Telegraaf had to say about the situation early on Monday:

Informal consultations on Monday

THE HAGUE — The party leaders Mark Rutte (VVD) Geert Wilders (PVV) and Maxime Verhagen (CDA) are meeting Monday at a secret location in The Hague for informal consultation to see whether there are possibilities to form a government together. The consultation was at the request of informateur Ruud Lubbers. It is not clear how long the consultation will lasts. Possibly also in the coming days there will be meetings [they will continue on Tuesday].

The CDA has always been opposed to a three-way conversation with the VVD and PVV. VVD and PVV should first agree in broad terms. But under pressure from informateur and former Christian Democrat prime minister Ruud Lubbers, the CDA fraction accepted an initial informal meeting. Lubbers will not be there himself.

Since the elections on June 9 there has been quite a bit of puzzling going on about forming a cabinet. The formation of a coalition of VVD (major party), PVV (biggest winner) and CDA have up till now encountered objections from the latter party [CDA]. The formation of a right-wing government thus seemed impossible, but that option was still in the air. Therefore Lubbers wants these parties to first talk informally, without himself present, to see if any business can be done.

The CDA will enter the informal consultation without preconditions. But if the CDA were then to decide to really negotiate with the PVV for cooperation [minority cabinet supported by the PVV for instance, according to the Danish model] or a coalition government, there would be a few issues, according to Maxime Verhagen, that would be of great importance to the CDA. For example, a tax on headscarves and the desire of the PVV to scrap development aid must be taken off the table.

PVV leader Geert Wilders is pleased that the CDA wants to enter the conversation with his party and the VVD. He finds it a good thing that the CDA is doing that without preconditions.

Then, two days later, Elsevier reported that the talks about talking are continuing:
– – – – – – – – –

Parties continue talks about right-wing cabinet Wednesday

by Jeroen Langelaar

Mark Rutte, Geert Wilders and Maxime Verhagen are taking their time. The talks among the fraction leaders of VVD, PVV and CDA have been suspended early Tuesday. VVD and CDA spokesmen made it known afterwards that the three gentlemen will continue talks this Wednesday about a right-wing government.

On Monday Rutte (VVD), Wilders (PVV), and Verhagen (CDA) started informal discussions at a secret location, an initiative of informateur Ruud Lubbers, who himself did not join in. The three fraction leaders returned between three and half past three at the Binnenhof [parliament buildings in The Hague]. Nobody wanted to provide comments on their progress. Lubbers also said nothing.

It is unclear why the consultation was suspended so soon. The faction leaders of the four-plus Purple-plus parties had in recent weeks been talking regularly until late at night.

The informateur Lubbers has been assigned by Queen Beatrix to clarify as soon as possible whether a right-wing cabinet of VVD, PVV and CDA, or a minority government with two of the three parties, is possible. Negotiating with the PVV is controversial in leftist circles of the CDA. A slight majority of CDA voters (53 percent) is in favor of a right-wing government.

Make yourselves comfortable, everybody. It looks like this one is going to take a while.

In a mysterious incident in the Straits of Hormuz, a Japanese oil tanker is said to have been attacked from the Iranian shore. An explosion resulted, the tanker was damaged, and one person was killed. Iran and Oman, however, deny that there was any attack. Iran says the cause of the explosion was an earthquake.

In other news, South Korea has gone on alert due to an expected cyber attack from North Korea. Meanwhile, a financially strapped Italy is looking for private investors to help rehabilitate the deteriorating Coliseum in exchange for advertising rights.

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

Thanks to Derius, Fjordman, JD, JP, Kitman, Lurker from Tulsa, natskvi, SC, Vlad Tepes, 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.

[This post is a stub — nothing further 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.

When it comes to taking cultural Marxism and “gender neutrality” to its logical conclusion, you just can’t beat the Swedes:

Transgendered people need more protection, the Liberal Party has announced, adding it proposes that the hate crime law be clarified so that it is clear that it also applies to this group.

A previous sample from Gates of Vienna:

Meet Pop, a two-and-a-half-year-old Swedish child whose parents are refusing to say whether the apple of their eye is a boy or a girl. Pop’s parents, both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few — those who have changed the child’s diaper — nobody knows Pop’s gender; if anyone enquires, Pop’s parents simply say they don’t disclose this information. In an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in March, the parents were quoted saying their decision was rooted in the feminist philosophy that gender is a social construction.

And from the Brussels Journal:
– – – – – – – – –

The Swedish Green Party state explicitly that the concepts male and female are “socially constructed” and forced upon all human beings. In order to reach the new world order, it is paramount that all such artificial identities are broken down. This should be facilitated by the education system and specially trained teachers. They believe that “all human beings” should be free to choose whatever name they desire. By this they appear to mean “gender” as well. They want everything to be “gender neutral,” not only marriage ceremonies but identity cards.

We’ve posted previously about the Danish psychologist Nicolai Sennels and his work with Muslim criminals in Denmark’s juvenile justice system. After hearing the British Prime Minister’s speech in Turkey yesterday, he wrote an open letter to Mr. Cameron, which was posted at 180grader:

Dear Prime Minister David Cameron,

You say you want Turkey to be member of EU. I personally think that you just want the rest of Europe to have the same problems with Muslims as you do. But that is my personal guess — here are the hard facts:

99.8 percent of the more than 77 million Turks living in Turkey are Muslims. Please study the Quran and see what that means: It is a criminal book that forces people to do criminal things! From September 11th 2001 (do you remember…?) to July 28th 2010 there have been 15,373 confirmed murders motivated by the Quran and the inhuman example of the Muslims prophet as described in his life story in the Hadiths. Do you really think we need to open our European borders to 77 million followers of such an ideology?

Turkish immigrants in Denmark have a crime index of 184 (meaning that they are close to double as criminal as the average Danish citizen). Do you really think we need more of that on our continent?

Did you know that “Three out of four women in all of Turkey is in average victim to physical or psychological violence at least one time per month.”? Do you want such a view on women to take root in our societies?

And did you know that “70 percent of the Turkish citizens never read books, Konda public opinion researchers said, APA reports. The research centre conducted opinion poll among 6482 respondents and found out mood of national and religious discrimination, as well as isolation is still in a high level in the country. According to researches, despite that there are many Turks living in the European countries, 90 percent of Turkish citizens never travel to the foreign countries. 73 percent of respondents were against the purchasing of real estate by the foreigners. Most of them considered the neighbour countries as a threat for the territorial integrity of Turkey. The researchers found out interesting facts about the women’s role in the Turkish society. 70 percent of respondents think that the woman can work only by consent of her husband. 57 percent said considered appearance of women in the public places without headscarves as unacceptable.” Do you think such a culture belongs in Europe?

– – – – – – – – –

“Public opinion in EU countries generally opposes Turkish membership, though with varying degrees of intensity. The Eurobarometer September-October 2006 survey [77] shows that 59% of EU-27 citizens are against Turkey joining the EU, while only about 28% are in favour.” Do you know what representative democracy means?

Turks in Denmark are more criminal than Somalis, Iranians and Iraqis (all war stricken countries with a high amount of traumatized refugees). This statistic is made by the Danish State’s Bureau of Statistics and is correlated for economical and educational status. We Europeans are sick and tired of criminal foreigners being invited to our countries by the politicians that we — with our votes — trusted to take good care of our countries!

25-30 percent of all marriages in Turkey are intermarriages. This means that 25-30 percent of all Turks are the result of inbreeding. Surely you already know that inbreeding between cousins doubles the risk of mental and physical handicaps and that Western societies are already struggling hard with the economic consequences of handicapped immigrants. Besides the 100 percent increase in handicaps it also effects the intelligence of the offspring negatively — which surely our schools and institutions have noticed: “…studies in which the effects of inbreeding on cognitive performance have been examined revealed that offspring of first-cousin marriages had lower IQ scores than offspring of unrelated parents. …offspring of unrelated parents performed better than offspring of first-cousin marriages in intelligence and achievement tests administered at grades 4 and 6. The lowest level of performance and a higher variance were found for offspring of double-cousin marriages. The inbreeding depression found in this study is consistent and cannot be explained by the effects of socioeconomic status.” Do you think that this can partly explain why the Turkish population already living in Europe proved to be incapable of integrating to the necessary extent in our high tech knowledge societies?

Did you know that in several provinces in Turkey “13 percent of the parents and 9.9 percent of students had witnessed an honour killing. … The study also showed that 26.2 percent of the parents and 25.9 percent of the students said they support such killings”? Can you tell me: What honour is there in killing unarmed and helpless family members?

The majority of Turks elected a prime minister — Erdogan — who has been in jail for promoting violent Islamic messages in Turkey. Erdogan sent his daughters abroad to avoid the Turkish ban on head scarves in public schools and universities. Do you want a people that elect such a leader free access to our welfare societies?

I tell you one thing, David: You will never ever succeed in getting Turkey into Europe! Never.

Yours,

Nicolai Sennels

Psychologist and author of “Among Criminal Muslims. A psychologist’s experiences from the Copenhagen Municipality.”

Hat tip: TB

Pundita and I had an email conversation this morning about the latest twist in the WikiLeaks scandal. Despite the leakers’ assurances that any material that would endanger specific individuals had been redacted, it turns out that hundreds of individuals Afghan informants are named in the leaked reports. The villages where they live are also included in some cases, which means an effective death sentence for those identified.

Pundita posted some of what she said in her emails, including this:

Just before going off air this AM Batchelor mentioned a report from today’s Times — I think he meant London Times. After two hours of reading through the docs, Times reporters found scores of names and precise locations of Afghan informants for NATO. Batchelor said that the WikiLeaks document dump is a “death list.”

Haven’t had the heart to look up the Times report but I imagine it’s splashed all over Google.

From an interview with Guardian editor on PBS Newshour Tues night, Assange was originally going to dump all the pages onto the internet without making any attempt at redactions. The Guardian editor talked him into letting Guardian and NYT help review the documents to try to redact them and then they brought in Spiegel. But they couldn’t cover any more than a fraction of the pages before the July 25 deadline he gave them.

If Assange released those papers as a human rights/anti-war protest it has seriously backfired. And I can only imagine the scandal for the journalism profession.

Also, see PBS NewsHour transcript for Tues for a good summary of how Obama is now trying to spin the WikiLeaks situation. He’s sticking to his original story that there was no real news in the leaks and that the new war policy for Afghanistan he worked out late last year addresses all the issues raised in the leaked documents.

I don’t think the leftist press will ever be held accountable for risking people’s lives by leaking classified material. The words “sedition” and “treason” no longer exist in our legal vocabulary. The fact that their irresponsible actions may well cost people their lives is of little concern to progressive journalists, as long as those deaths serve the larger cause of damaging Republicans, conservatives, and the American military. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

Another point that came up in our discussions was the incompetence and ineptitude of the Obama administration — which was highlighted by this incident, as it has been by so many others. A common right-wing meme is that the hard-left handlers behind Obama (if not Obama himself) are evil geniuses who are orchestrating our destruction with perfect timing and precision. But I don’t buy that. I’ve been watching and analyzing their decisions carefully, and they are incoherent, inept, and just plain stupid — if they intend our destruction, they are making major mistakes at every step.
– – – – – – – – –
An example of the Messiah’s incompetence may be found in his recent treatment of various European leaders. Obama needs the European apparatchiks to help him implement his Full Socialist program, yet he has alienated them at every possible turn. Weighed in the pragmatic balance, this is a very stupid move. Either Obama has slipped the leash, forgotten his lines, and just says these disdainful and contemptuous things — which is quite possible — or his handlers scripted them, which was a foolish thing to do. Either way, it shows the inept and amateurish nature of the O-crowd. It’s evidence that there is no great evil intelligence behind this administration. They’re simply winging it.

A true Machiavel always keeps his political ends — whatever they might be — in mind. He will weigh every action carefully and shrewdly, balance the positive consequences against the negative consequences, judge the likely outcome, and act according to his best interests.

All the evidence indicates that Obama and his entourage are not doing this at all. They are either stupid, ignorant, inexperienced, or overconfident, or some combination of the above.

Obviously, they have enough power to destroy much of America’s prosperity and political capital. But they lack the savvy to implement their own agenda.

When Vlad Tepes listened to David Cameron’s speech in Turkey, he realized that the Prime Minister was speaking in a language that many people can’t understand. Vlad volunteered to translate the text into English, and as a result most readers will find Mr. Cameron’s words all too familiar:

[Post ends here]

The Headmistress at the Common Room is hosting The 239th Carnival of Homeschooling this week, and she includes a special theme: the history of homeschooling.

Our own personal history with homeschooling began because we had a precocious but demanding child. When the future Baron was a rug rat, Dymphna was working, so I took care of him. He was smart and inquisitive, and insisted on being read to a lot, or otherwise demanded that I entertain his mind.

When he was four years old, out of my own self-interest I taught him to read. I had been reading Calvin and Hobbes to him for a year or so, and he was absolutely riveted by the strip. The fB was a compliant child, and there was something compelling for him about Calvin’s persistent naughtiness and disregard for adult instructions. He had memorized many of the most important strips, and I showed him how he could find the words he knew so well in the speech balloons. He was an eager learner, because it allowed him to find and decipher other interesting panels without waiting for his annoying father to get around to reading them to him. Within a few months he could read Dr. Seuss and Richard Scarry on his own, and he was reading the Hardy Boys before he was six.

So when the time came for school, we were faced with a conundrum. There is nothing fatally wrong with the schools out here — we live in the country, and our school system is not as ideologically corrupted as those in the city and the suburbs. But the fB was so far ahead of his cohort that he would either have had to skip a couple of grades or be reduced to agonizing boredom. Since he was going to be a freak in any case, we felt it was better that he be freakish at home. We bought a curriculum, and I taught him literature, history, poetry, math, basic science, geography, etc., until he was twelve. At that point — when he needed real expertise in chemistry and physics — we sacrificed in order to send him to private school.

I’ll relate some more anecdotes about our homeschooling experiences in a future post, but it’s time to get back to the Carnival.

I always zoom in on the math first. The DreamBox Blog talks about teaching kids estimating, which is a very important skill. The ubiquity of calculators has greatly reduced children’s ability to estimate, and has consequently impaired quantitative analysis skills in the last generation or two of young people.

Let’s Play Math takes a look at probability, which is an entertaining but counterintuitive discipline. The author rightly begins instruction in the skill at an early age.

In addition, there’s a review of math textbooks for homeschoolers.
– – – – – – – – –
After math, I moved onto art, which is my other favorite topic. I learned that Lionden Landing is teaching a child about the painting techniques employed by Giotto.

I also noticed a post about helping kids make their own books.

The above is just a small sampling — there are entries about science, literature, geography, and PE, all with an emphasis on the history of homeschooling. Stop by the Carnival to read the rest.

I recommend visiting the Common Room on a regular basis. The Headmistress and her family have much information about home-schooling, but their posts touch upon many other subjects as well.

Dymphna is under the weather tonight from her gastritis, so her thank-you notes for our fundraiser have been delayed once again.

She has been improving slowly over the last few days, but today she had to go to the dentist, and the trip to town wore her out. She’s been laid up this evening, reading the OIC’s Islamophobia report (yes, she really has been doing that) to keep her mind off the pain.

She says to tell you that she hopes to be back on the job tomorrow. And we both want to thank everyone who sent in donations on our final day. I happened to notice that we had a donor from the British Virgin Islands, and another from the Faeroe Islands, a first for each location.

They’re kind of opposites, aren’t they?

I’ve always wanted to visit both Iceland and the Faeroes. There’s something that appeals to me about those uncompromising windswept bleak northern islands populated with the descendants of Vikings…

Among the donation notices I also saw Ontario, Indiana, Norway, California, New Jersey, Tyneside (England), and one from just a few miles away from us here in Central Virginia, right in our own backyard.

More later.

[Post ends here]

While British Prime Minister David Cameron talked up the admission of Turkey to the EU, a Turkish-German lawyer said that it’s very important to elect more Turks to public office, and a Belgian-Turkish deputy in the Brussels Regional Parliament said that Europe needs to build its own Islamic culture.

In other news, the Czech parliament overcame the opposition of the Greens and voted to build more nuclear reactors. Meanwhile, the Saudi government is cracking down on its citizens who travel abroad and contract temporary “tourist marriages”.

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

Thanks to 4symbols, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Diana West, DT, Fjordman, Gaia, Henrik, JD, KGS, Pundita, TV, VH, 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.

[This post is a stub — nothing further here!]

The full Islamization of the UK has proceeded much faster than I expected.

It looked like we had a decade or so before British resistance collapsed under Muslim pressure and the UK submitted to sharia. But it seems that even the OIC’s Ten-Year Plan of 2005 was too pessimistic, and events are ahead of schedule. The government of the United Kingdom has now chosen sides — and declared for Islam.

The British news services were all abuzz today with news about “conservative” Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech in Turkey. Mr. Cameron’s expressions of infatuation with his Turkish hosts went beyond devotion to a new level of slavish debasement:

(Thanks to Vlad Tepes for the video.)

Below are various press reports about the Prime Minister’s speech. Don’t miss the translation from the Dutch — there are surprises to be found in it. And the final (ostensibly unrelated) article from the Mail is the real clincher.

First, from Al-Beeb [hat tip 4symbols]:

Cameron ‘Anger’ At Slow Pace of Turkish EU Negotiations

David Cameron has promised to “fight” for Turkey’s membership of the European Union, saying he is “angry” at the slow pace of negotiations.

On his first visit as prime minister, he said the country could become a “great European power”, helping build links with the Middle East.

He compared hostility to the membership bid in some parts of the EU with the way the UK’s entry was once regarded.

[…]

Mr Cameron was expected to agree a new strategic partnership with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan during his visit.

And according to The Telegraph [hat tip TV]:
– – – – – – – – –

David Cameron Urges European Union to Drop ‘Prejudice’ Against Turkey

David Cameron will today demand an end to the anti-Muslim ‘prejudice’ which he claims is blocking Turkey’s membership of the European Union.

In a speech in the Turkish capital of Ankara, he will tell of his “anger” that a country which is a member of the Nato coalition fighting in Afghanistan should be asked to: “guard the camp but not be allowed to sit inside the tent”.

He will claim that those who seek to block the incorporation of a Muslim nation into the 27-member EU are misguided and prejudiced. His words are likely to be construed as criticism of France and Germany, which both oppose the country’s membership.

From AKI [hat tip C. Cantoni]:

“I will remain your strongest possible advocate for EU membership and for greater influence at the top table of European diplomacy,” Cameron said.

To get to some of the seamier details, a translation from the Dutch is required. Mr. Cameron not only felt compelled to suck up to Turkey, he made sure to bash Israel while he was at it.

Many thanks to our Flemish correspondent VH for the translation from Elsevier:

British Prime Minister in Turkey takes out hard against Israel

by Jeroen Langelaar

The British Prime Minister David Cameron during his visit to Ankara, the capital of Turkey, lashed out hard at Israel. For example, he compared the situation in the Gaza Strip with that of a “prison camp”. Cameron’s speech, however, was full of praise for Turkey and the Turkish-British relations.

He promised to commit himself “passionately” to Turkey’s accession to the EU. Accession is according to the Conservative leader “vital to our economy, vital to our security and vital to our diplomacy.”

Cameron also took the opportunity to bash Israel. The British government leader called the actions of the Israeli Navy against a boat with Gaza activists in late May — in which nine people were killed — “unacceptable” and demanded a further exhaustive investigation into the incident.

He also compared the situation in the Gaza Strip with that of a “prison camp”. “Let me be clear that the situation in Gaza must change,” Cameron said. “Humanitarian goods and people must in both directions be able to cross the border. Gaza can not and should not be a prison camp.” He did not mention Hamas.

Cameron called, however, for both Turkey and Israel not to let the friendship between the two states be watered down, which recently had been marred.

Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to Britain, finds the statements of Cameron inappropriate. “People in Gaza are prisoners of the terrorist organization Hamas,” said Prosor. “The situation there is a direct result of Hamas’ rules and priorities.”

[Note: no mention by Cameron of Gilad Shalit, who as of today has been a hostage of Hamas for 1493 days. — VH]

It has become obvious that the winds over fair Albion now blow strongly in the direction of Istanbul and Mecca. Turkey is Britain’s new best friend, Israel has been thrown under the bus, and ordinary Britons… Well, what is to become of ordinary Britons?

The Daily Mail gives us a foretaste of what is to come for the Queen’s subjects under the New Anglian Order [hat tip Gaia]:

UK: Seven Arrested Over Bournemouth Far-Right Mosque ‘Bomb Plot’

Seven men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to blow up a Bournemouth mosque.

The men, six of whom are members of the England Defence League, were taken to Poole and Southampton police stations for questioning before being released without charge.

Among those arrested was EDL member John Broomfield, 27, who was pulled from his stationary vehicle after armed police opened fire on his van in Corfe Castle village.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said: ‘Dorset Police can confirm that as part of an investigation surrounding threats to a Bournemouth mosque a total of seven people were arrested for conspiracy to cause an explosion.

“Oh-oh,” you say, “now they’ve done it — the EDL have gone too far and played right into the hands of the dhimmified police and political leaders of Modern Multicultural Britain.”

But wait! Things are not always what they seem:

‘Following an investigation police can now confirm these people have been released without charge.’

So what’s going on here? Six people are arrested for conspiracy. The police announce the heinous charges (which just happen to involve members of the EDL). Then those who were detained are released without charge.

What monumental official incompetence, eh?

Maybe, maybe not:

‘We’ve been working very closely with the Muslim community and our local safer neighbourhood teams have been providing advice and reassurance throughout.

‘At this stage there is no indication whatsoever that any of the mosques in Dorset are under threat of attack.’

Curiouser and curiouser. The police worked closely with the Muslim community. Then they arrested some EDL people for plotting to blow up a mosque. Then they released them, and said that no mosque was at risk.

Deeper and deeper into the labyrinth…

And an EDL member has a story to tell, with some ominous details of what happened to him:

Officers had followed Broomfield home from work and waited until he was stuck in traffic in the tourist spot before they pounced.

When his van came to a halt they fired rounds into the tyres.

They then smashed a window and dragged him out in shocking scenes that followed an investigation into alleged plans to blow up a nearby mosque.

The marksmen used special rapid tyre deflation rounds to disable the white Ford Escort van.

Police then swooped on Mr Broomfield’s home in Swanage and seized computer equipment, mobile phones and passports.

Mr Broomfield, the head of the Dorset EDL, said yesterday: ‘While travelling home from work I was stopped and arrested by armed police.

‘I approached a roundabout near Corfe Castle and there were about six cars in front of me.

‘There was an unmarked police car in a lay-by and within seconds of me stopping police appeared from it, ran up the road and shot at my tyres and smashed the window in.

‘It was extremely scary. I was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause an explosion at a Bournemouth mosque.’

He continued: ‘Five other members of the EDL were also arrested and held for 24 hours for questioning while searches of their homes took place. Then all of us were released without charge.’

Of the alleged plan to blow up the mosque, he added: ‘There has been no conspiracy, there has never been any conspiracy.

Is all becoming clear?

The EDL were set up, terrorized, and thoroughly intimidated.

Then they were let off with a warning: “Better be careful, mate. You were lucky this time. You never know — next time we might find some kiddie porn on your computer, or a bit of semtex in your kitchen cupboard. So watch it.”

All this while their esteemed prime minister, the Hon. David Cameron, was chumming it up with the Turks and telling them that he would do everything in his power to fight discrimination and Islamophobia among his benighted fellow countrymen.

The situation has been clarified: Britain has chosen full submission to Islam.

This goes beyond “working partnerships” and “mutual understanding”.

This is the real deal. The UK is on its way to a buttocks-in-the-air-with-muezzins-howling-from-the-minarets full Islamic state.

The English people must learn to say la illaha ila Allah, wa Muhammadun rasul Allah.

Welcome to the Caliphate.

From The White R0ses comes this concise instructional video on the basics of Islam. It’s designed for people who may not be as well acquainted with the Religion of Peace as are the readers of this blog:

In order to propagate the information contained in this video and make it less vulnerable to being taken down, the makers invite other users to mirror it.

Hat tip: Frontinus

Update: Anne-Kit of Perth, Australia has kindly transcribed this video. The transcript is below the jump.
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Three things about Islam you didn’t know.

For every opinion or belief someone may hold there will be another party who just as strongly oppose that idea. Both sides usually claim to sit with the best arguments, the real facts and the correct worldview, and (ironically) both sides regard the other as being indoctrinated, blind to the obvious and outright stupid.

Most people only expose themselves to information that matches their own worldview. It is uncomfortable to do otherwise. Still, we would like to give you some surprising information about Islam. We also urge you to look further than only mainstream media and, if you can find the time for it, read the Qur’an yourself.

To get you started we’d like to present you with three things you probably did not know about Islam:

1. Islam has not been hijacked.

That Islam has been hijacked is what non-Muslims naturally assume, because they assume all religions are the same. The reason non-Muslims are so easily confused is that most of us don’t realise the difference between the Qur’an and every other religious book we are familiar with.

The Christian Bible is a collection of writings from various authors written sometimes hundreds of years apart, with parables, advice and dreams, all collected together into one book. Same with the Jewish Torah.

Even those of us in the West who are neither Christians nor Jews are still familiar enough with these religions to know this much, and therefore we assume the same is true for the Qur’an.

But the Qur’an is only one book, written by one man in his own lifetime. It is meant to be taken literally, and it is not full of symbolism or vague analogies. It is mostly direct commands. Of course the Qur’an contains contradictory statements, just like other religious books, but the Qur’an itself provides the reader with a way to know what to do with the contradictions.

It is explained in the Qur’an that if you have two passages that contradict each other, the one written later supersedes the one written earlier. Most Westerners are unaware that the peaceful, tolerant passages were written early in Mohammad’s prophetic career. According to the Qur’an those passages have been abrogated by later, more violent and less tolerant passages.

So when most Westerners hear Jihadists quoting violent passages from the Qur’an, and then peaceful Muslims quoting peaceful passages, they interpret that the way they would if someone was quoting the Bible or the Torah. They think to themselves, “Oh, there must be many different and contradictory passages, like there are in other religious books, so Muslims can pick and choose what they like, and justify whatever actions they want to take”. But the Qur’an is nothing like that. There is no picking and choosing. It says very explicitly and in no uncertain terms that a Muslim must not alter or ignore any part of its very clear and direct message, or they will burn in a fiery torment forever.

2. Striving to introduce worldwide Shari’a law is a religious duty.

Many people don’t realize how politically-oriented Islam is at its core. In fact, Islam is less of a “religion” than it is a “religious ideology”. It includes a mandatory and highly specific legal and political plan for the whole of society: Shari’a.

There is no separation between the religious and the political in Islam; rather Islam and Shari’a constitute a totalitarian means of ordering society at every level, including ritual worship, transactions and contracts, morals and manners, beliefs and punishments.

In the Qur’an Allah makes it clear that man-made governments (such as a democracy) and free speech (such as criticizing the Qur’an) are abominations and must be eliminated. The modern expression, “creeping Shari’a” is used to describe the slow, deliberate and methodical advance of Islamic law in non-Muslim countries.

Official Shari’a courts already operate in the UK, handling cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to domestic violence. Attempts to introduce Shari’a in the legal system in Germany, Sweden and other European countries are ongoing. While Shari’a already has a foot in our door in the matter of minor disputes like inheritance and domestic violence, it should concern you that Shari’a:

• Commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped;
• Allows husbands to hit their wives;
• Allows an injured plaintiff to exact legal revenge – literally an eye for an eye;
• Commands that a thief must have a hand cut off;
• Commands that homosexuals must be executed;
• Orders unmarried fornicators to be whipped and adulterers to be stoned to death;
• Orders death for both Muslim and non-Muslim critics of Mohammad, the Qur’an and even Shari’a itself;
• Orders apostates to be killed;
• Commands offensive, aggressive and unjust Jihad.

As written in the Qur’an, Shari’a is the law of Allah. Any other form of government is a sin. It is the duty of every Muslim to keep striving until all governments have been converted to Shari’a law.

3. Muslims are allowed to deceive non-Muslims if it helps Islam.

For non-Muslims this principle, called Taqiyya, is another surprising concept of Islam. While most other religions speak highly of truthfulness the Qur’an instructs Muslims to lie to non-Muslims about their beliefs and their political ambitions to protect and spread Islam.

There are many examples of today’s Islamic leaders saying one thing in English for the Western press, and then saying something entirely different to their own followers in Arabic a few days later.

Deceiving the enemy is always useful in war, and Islam is at war with the non-Islamic world until the whole world follows Shari’a law. All non-Muslims living in non-Islamic states are therefore enemies. So deceiving Westerners is totally acceptable – even encouraged – if it can forward the goals of the spread of Islam.

As a recent example, the Islamic American Relief Agency were seemingly raising money for orphans, but in fact giving the money to terrorists. They deceived good-hearted Western infidels into giving money to organisations that were actively killing Western infidels.

Do the research yourself; this is not an isolated case.

“Islam as a religion of peace”.

Muslim organisations worldwide often declare that Islam is a religion of peace, but what does that really mean? It seems easy for a Muslim to quote a peaceful verse from the early parts of the Qur’an while, by following the principle of Taqiyya, neglecting to mention the fact that it has been officially abrogated by later, more violent verses.

According to the Qur’an the world will be at peace only when Islam and Shari’a reign in every country – and never until then. This is why every Muslim can truthfully say that Islam is a religion of peace.

If any of these points took you by surprise – then there is surely much more you still don’t know.

This subject WILL affect you in the near future, so take the chance to inform yourself now, before it does.

Update from Dymphna: Day Seven of the Quarterly Fundraiser

Today’s donors came from all over, as usual. Canada, Denmark, as always Oz, and the UK. Our American donors: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota (ah, there’s one member of the VRWC in the Land of Lakes!), New Hampshire, Northern Virginia, and Texas. Australia and Texas are obviously twins who were separated at birth…

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This is the final day of our not-quite-quarterly bleg. Definitely, a good time was had by all.

I haven’t counted how many people tipped the cup; I’m relying on my impression of how many more there were this time than in the past, and that impression comes from the numbers of thank-you notes I’ve written. If you haven’t yet received yours, not to worry. I’m plodding along, have arrived at the beginning of Day Five’s donors.

The theme of this bleg has been work, specifically the notion in the beginning of Genesis that work was a necessary evil visited on mankind for Adam’s having committed the sin of hubris. So I’ve been pondering the idea of work, of any labor required to sustain oneself.

The Puritans saw work as “godly”, and leisure as, at the very least, the occasion of sin. In our American culture, we often trace back our tendency to work too much or to constantly trying to improve ourselves as having begun there, on Plymouth Rock.

“Our culture” is meant to indicate the middle class culture, often called “America’s backbone”. In contrast to the highest reaches of the upper class and in the bottom with the underclass, both of whom view work as something to be done by others, the middle class sees work as having inherent value. To us, work is creative and self-renewing.

It is the middle class that is most in jeopardy with the approach of the economic meltdown. Those who have valued work the most will have the fewest jobs. It is predicted that the middle class, that group which made up a great deal of America’s exceptionalism, will disappear under a tidal wave of governmental bureaucratic incompetence and fraud.
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No one is predicting the future with any certainty. Or if they are, those prognosticators have something to sell. Trust only the experts who are humble enough to say, “This is new. We don’t know”. They may not be able to give you much information, but they’ve retained a valuable commodity: truth.

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In pondering the theme of labor as we’ve discussed it in this quarter’s bleg, and in writing thank you notes to our donors, an interesting idea has presented itself. It’s not new, but up until now I’d never internalized it in precisely this fashion:

Somewhere along the way, beginning perhaps in late 2006, Gates of Vienna ceased to be a blog run by two individuals. Instead it’s become a group endeavor with many, many people providing input. Besides our analysts, writers, video people, translators, and donors, there is a web of information which has slowly grown to include dozens of people on at least three continents, with beginnings on a fourth.

In the course of building our partnerships, we’ve seen the folly of the old MSM paradigm of “breaking news” or “exclusives”. The aggregate wisdom lies not it presenting information first, but in preparing a foundation for thinking about what that information means initially and what consequences it may portend.

Without this foundation, news is merely distracting entertainment. There is no ‘there’ there because the next day’s all-important, exclusive story is waiting in the wings. The race to get to it first is often unseemly; in the long run, it’s also unnecessary. Sometimes it turns out to be a matter of the first facts being dead wrong. And sometimes people’s lives are damaged by the prurient rush to know everything. Perhaps the best example of this kind of “reportage” is the rude audacity of the writer who moved in next door to the Sarah Palin family so he could be the tell-all author of a best-seller on the Palins.

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Call us the slow news. The after-action reports. The analytic attitude. One thing is certain in all of this: it is a labor of love.

Thanks to everyone who came by. We’ll have a short wrap-up tomorrow.

(The jar image is just for decoration — a tip cup is on our left sidebar.)

The rest of the original fundraising post may be read here.