The Wall of Silence Crumbles

Flag of the USA Ummah

Finally, the MSM wall of silence erected on the behalf of their Chosen One has broken. The leaks were too many for it to maintain its integrity — even though those jornolists were “heroic” (i.e., obedient) in their efforts to build that wall and stand before it singing in unison with Himself and his cohorts, “It was the video, it was the video, it was only the video…” while they frantically tried to seal the leaks in their crumbling edifice. Our valiant jornolists did their best.

Nor did any of them raise the smallest demur when the film’s creator was hauled off to jail in the middle of the night — a place where he will remain until after the election.

If those two strong indications that we may be headed for a police state do not awaken my fellow citizens, I don’t know if there is any hope for us.

Fox is only a kinda, sorta MSM outlet — at least that’s what the other alphabet soup media would tell you. This is simply one more version of the cordon sanitaire put up around those who stray from the left’s orthodoxies. Thus, the “real” media repeat the mantra that Fox isn’t “really” legitimate like they are, hoping we’ll buy their lie that CNN is the fair one. On the other hand, I’m sure our readers could point out the times when Fox did indeed toe the line in order to maintain a thin red thread connection to that all-important access. Early on in Obama’s administration Fox was singled out by an administration that would prove to be the most vindictive since the days of Nixon.

But on this story Fox broke radio silence first, never mind that it took them more than a month to do so. And now all the MSM’s Sunday talking head shows featured Benghazi today. Benghazi as told by conservatives for the most part. As far as I know, though, none of the Dan Rather progeny have taken up the subject in a prime time news hour. Or if they have, it’s too little, too late: from September 11th until now is simply an unconscionable delay.

The initial credit goes to Glenn Beck, who is a force increasingly to be reckoned with. All the dismissive ridicule heaped upon him by his putative ‘betters’ is proving futile. His audience continues to grow. Frankly, now that he has accepted the ugly facts of the dangers the Muslim Brotherhood represents for this country, I’m in his corner. He gets it; Glenn Beck has broken the silence on civilizational jihad, and due to his influence with average Americans, this fact alone may save our sorry selves.

Mr. Beck was already questioning the events in Benghazi when he happened to hear a radio call-in show. The caller was the father one of the two men who were killed in action in Benghazi as they tried to hold off the hordes of attackers. Listening to the account moved Mr. Beck to arrange for his own interview with the grief-stricken, angry father. Beck had been on this story all week, a determined hunting dog following wherever the trail led. When he could find them, he pulled in experts to give their point of view on timelines and motives. Among them was Clare Lopez, a former CIA officer. It was her belief that the Ambassador was simply left to die.

I’d give you more links from The Blaze archives, but I’ve yet to figure out a good path through that labyrinth. That’s not pejorative; it’s simply the case that Beck has floods of information. Back when we had a satellite connection, I couldn’t retrieve much at all. Now with our new connection things are a bit smoother, but it does take big-city connectivity for optimum access to all his material. However, there is one crucial DVD he and his people have assembled. Along with other foundational texts on the menace of Islam, everyone with an interest in the danger ought to have a copy of The Project. I watched it on the site last week and to call it ‘riveting’ doesn’t do this production sufficient justice. What an important Rosetta Stone project it would make! I hope Mr. Beck considers doing versions in other languages so that those who don’t speak English can become more fully informed. If any of our readers knows someone connected to The Blaze, please pass the idea on to them for consideration. They surely have the means to employ translators and transcribers aplenty.

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Even while I’ve been haltingly put the pieces together during the course of this ominously quiet Sunday, the ooze from under the wall has been slowly but steadily increasing.

Parallels between the rising furor over Benghazi and the wrath of the oncoming hurricane are both ironic and eerie. It’s hard not to make comparisons between that Benghazi debacle and the advent of the dreaded Hurricane Sandy . They are both singularly evil, each an unprecedented phenomenon, or almost so.

That Frankenstorm, whipped up on steroids and bearing down on a large portion of the Northeastern coastal corridor will come ashore in a way sure to cause maximum damage. Hurricanes are notoriously unpredictable, but this one is so very large and slow that authorities do know the subways in New York City had to close. And they know Sandy and her newly joined friends plan to extend their stay for a few days [all the way down here, hundreds of miles southwest of this massive attack, we could well lose power due to strong winds swinging from the arms of this hybrid monster].

Yet, as awful as she is, Sandy could become a welcome distraction for President Obama. He relentlessly criticized Bush for his handling of Katrina — now he gets his turn in the hot seat with a storm not categorized as severely as Bush’s nemesis, but with the potential for equal destruction. However, with Benghazigate brewing up to be a deadly blowout when all is fully revealed, Obama must be relieved to have a mere natural disaster riding his back. Sandy could become his ace in the hole as he sidesteps the pointed sticks of that epic FAIL in Libya. For at least part of the time early this week, Mr. Obama will be stuck in the White House at least for appearances’ sake. He will be forced to make meteorological theatre newsbytes to prove his concern for those not fortunate enough to live in his sheltered circumstances. Despite how closely we approach Voting Day, Obama can hardly run away from the storm to obsessively campaign. While his fellow citizens within reach of the maelstrom are riding out the storm surges and the immense havoc wreaked by Mother Nature and by opportunistic looters happy to cash in on someone else’s tragedy, he needs to do what he says Bush failed to accomplish.

A campaign speech under such circumstances would be so lame that surely even the Obama machine would recognize the anger that campaign blather would generate from those afflicted here? Besides, he could use the occasion to hide behind the Sandy surges, safe from the storms of Benghazigate, at least for a while. Whether it will be long enough to do him any good remains to be seen, given his determination to put all Libya talk off-limits. At some point stonewalling will be counterproductive, even with his base. The question is whether Obama will recognize the stopping point; Nixon’s hubris blinded him. Will history repeat itself with Obama? One hopes he is in the Situation Room watching old films of Nixon’s fumbles with the Watergate scandal, if only to pick up some pointers about missteps to avoid. For sure, he will not have a media target painted on his back as Nixon did. They will, as they have for years, fall all over themselves to see who can do the most to help him out of this mess.

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Obviously, things have changed greatly since Woodward and Bernstein persecuted Nixon; so unrelenting were they that Watergate became their raison d’être. Behind them, a whole new generation of reporters, leftists all, would emerge, imprinted with the reflected glory from those days, and all of them breathlessly determined to mount their own investigative reportage and ride to glory.

There have been numerous opportunities to do so, especially in some of the more perfervid Clintonesque escapades and injustices. But it would be the major heresy to attack a liberal; anyone who did so would be pilloried, or worse. Sadly for those in the media, their energies must needs stay focused on hastily covering over each rip in the tissue of lies draped over the Obama administration, or plugging each leaking hole in their wall of silence, atop which are perched those monkeys who see and hear and say NOTHING.

Remember this administration’s motto of never letting a crisis go to waste? How ironic that the press has a golden, bejeweled crisis with Benghazi, and yet they have to let it go… if they ever want to work in Washington again. Or even visit there. The utter heresy of investigating a liberal president — never mind the fact that he is a black liberal president — doesn’t bear thinking about. To consider such a move is to see the epaulettes being ripped from your shoulders, to hear the sound your keyboard makes as it is smashed in front of your eyes. Nuh-uh. Compromised they may be, but none of them is that crazy.

Funny, we turn to the press because it’s been what we do for so long. Yet the point of gravity has moved way down, all the way down to places that didn’t exist when President Nixon was facing the court of no appeal as personified by Woodward et al. Journalism as a “profession” is a sick joke. It is overrated and over-populated; journalism has become jornolism and the graduate schools tend to attract the bottom half of the GRE (Graduate Record Exams) takers. Not exactly the cream of the crop. But out of habit, we — the Baron and I — kept waiting for the MSM to ’fess up to Obama’s misdeeds, failing to take into account that the real action had moved elsewhere.

Yes, part of the pushback came from the blogs and from conservative magazine websites, and there may have been some movement via Facebook. The latter would have been my initial guess. But just as with the Occupy messes and the faux revolutions that our Press nattered on about at the time, the energy of Benghazigate came riding in on Twitter. On the conservative side of Twitter, to be precise. The Left was still calling names and literally threatening assassinations as the Right continued to demand answers to increasingly disturbing revelations. I watched this from the sidelines, occasionally retweeting a message here and there. The Twitter stream is swift; trying to keep up is a white-water ride and at some point one must swim to shore to watch from the bank.

Thus I saw the flow of sarcasm beating against the wall of silence. The questions continued to rise, as did the frustration at the lack of credible answers by the administration. Evasions were met with ridicule; all sense of any respect owed to those responsible was disappearing under the avalanche of evasions. I couldn’t see how, given the intense level of engagement, there could be any resolution with enough credibility to satisfy those who were increasingly concerned with what appeared to be a desertion of Americans by our government. While no resolution seemed possible, the process was worth observing.

A breaking point did come though, and when it arrived, the dénouement was unexpected. While I was looking in the wrong place, waiting to see the MSM crack, conservative Twitterers were pushing to a breakthrough of sorts, using the MSM to do so. Because Instapundit linked SM’s account of the story, it is his which is spreading. That’s fortunate, since he describes it well. I happened upon him a month or two ago and Followed him, so I was pleased to see his version be the one to get up and walk. I particularly liked his title:

How Conservatives on Twitter Forced Obama to Face the Benghazi Debacle.

Some background: conservatives who use Twitter have noticed on more than one occasion that their messages are heavily policed by the Twitter patrol boys. The same does not hold true for the liberal side of the swamp. Physical threats and vicious ad hominem attacks are allowed to stand with impunity, as Michelle Malkin can attest. Most days she re-tweets her “favorite” slam from some less-than-literate hater who directs his/her vitriol particularly in Malkin’s direction. Meanwhile, conservatives complain their accounts are suspended for no apparent reason.

So that gives you an idea of the landscape. Now to the chronology of events as related by Sooper Mexican. It is full of hashtags, etc., that you don’t really need to understand in order to get the gist of what happened. This long snip picks up at the point of SM’s explanation of the recalcitrance of the Obama people. His chronology differs somewhat from mine, but the accounts are largely the same. More importantly, he supplies that missing link:

…[Did the] Obama administration…withhold assistance to the attacked, as many as three times[?]. This set the conservative blogosphere afire, but was met with glassy-eyed yawns from the lapdog mainstream media all too eager to protect Obama.

On Friday morning, Fox News and conservatives on social media mounted a beleaguered attempt to force the issue and make the administration face the accusations from a frustrated and angry father of a deceased Navy Seal.

And then a fissure in the stranglehold of the mainstream media appeared.

Kyle Clark of Channel 9 News was able to secure an interview with President Obama, and to his great credit, opened up to twitter for suggestions on what questions he should ask:

“Interviewing @barackobama today. What would you like to hear him address? @9news #copolitics

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) October 26, 2012″

[…]

Your favorite friendly neighborhood Mexican jumped in…I paused to try to zero in on what I thought was the most precise and incisive question on this issue. After considering how best to phrase my question, I made this suggestion:

.@kyleclark ask Obama a very simple question — did White House or State Dept deny security requests to #Benghazi during the 7 hour attack?

— el SOOPer (@SooperMexican) October 26, 2012

[…]

Many other conservatives made similar requests…

[…]

After the interview, Clark posted this blockbuster twitter message that lit up the twitter conservative sphere:

.@barackobama would not directly answer our repeated questions on whether requests for help in Benghazi were denied #copolitics

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) October 26, 2012

Think on this — after the media wanting you to think that the most important issue this election is whether Big Bird will keep his government subsidized welfare check, a local reporter taking question suggestions from twitter forced Obama to face a real question about Benghazi.

Clark clarified that his questioning to Obama had to do precisely with any denials of security during the attack — not before:

@copeakpolitics To clarify, our question was whether requests DURING the attack were denied. Full writeup/video coming

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) October 26, 2012

After 9 News in Denver posted a transcript of the interview and a video, the headlines shouted out the inability of a feckless president to admit any responsibility:

Obama Refuses To Answer Directly When Asked if Security Denied DURING Benghazi Attack

The headline traveled from blogs to smaller news outlets all the way up to Fox News:

Obama avoids question on whether Americans in Libya were denied requests for help

and Glenn Beck’s Blaze news source:

Obama Refuses to Answer ‘Repeated Questions on Whether Requests for Help in Benghazi Were Denied

And finally, Jake Tapper at ABC News:

President Obama Begs Off Answering Whether Americans in Benghazi Were Denied Requests for Help

This is not a small matter. Prior to this event, the Obama administration had claimed they had not denied security requests from the embassy in Benghazi. The CIA made it clear that they didn’t deny any security requests, but their wording left it open to interpretation that someone else higher up in the chain of authority had. Leon Panetta said they could not send in any military without sufficient information, further substantiating the claim that request were denied.

With this seemingly pedestrian interview, Obama could not answer whether he or anyone else in his administration had denied security requests while Americans were under attack from terrorists.

Because of conservatives on twitter, he had to deny this twice.

This is the new face of journalism; this is how we break through the pathetic and deplorable lapdog media complicity with the Obama administration.

This is war.

His last statement is instructive. No matter the outcome of the election, where Obama is concerned something fundamental has changed for many average conservatives. I have no idea how it will work itself out, but I can hear the sad echoes of Nixon down the years; I do believe Obama will eventually have to resign if he does win this election. And who knows what fate awaits him in Congress in any event. There are forces in motion now that will assume a life of their own. Just as Sandy moves inexorably to join those other two storms…

Leaving Americans to die — in fact, watching them die — is an unspeakable act in the eyes of average citizens. They will forgive much, but not that. Benghazi is proving to be a betrayal too far. So many broken promises, so many cynical lies… the accounting will be long and ugly. But this one, even more than the deaths caused by Fast and Furious, is not going to be simply put on the accounting books to be totted up later. This one demonstrates a serious lack of any moral compass.

This is a permanent stain on our history as a nation. No amount of washing will remove it.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/28/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/28/2012Hurricane Sandy is predicted to make landfall in New Jersey about 24 hours from now. It is expected to merge with two other weather systems to create a hybrid “Frankenstorm” a thousand miles wide, one of the most dangerous and destructive storms ever to strike this part of the East Coast.

The latest projections of the storm track show it coming ashore almost exactly at Atlantic City, and then moving inland to pass just south of Philadelphia. The greatest storm surge, however — nine to twelve feet — is expected to be in Manhattan and Long Island Sound. New York City is in the process of shutting down, and thousands of people are being evacuated.

It seems that we will escape the worst of the tempest here in Central Virginia. We’ll get some rain — it’s already begun — and there is a high wind alert, with gusts of up to 40mph (65kmh) possible. That’s not anywhere near as bad as last summer’s Derecho, but we may still lose our electricity. So if we don’t show up tomorrow morning, you’ll know why.

Fausta is much closer to the path of the eye than we will be. Come Tuesday morning, she may be blogging from her rooftop while she waits for the helicopter to lift her to safety.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, LH, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

The Shape of Schools to Come

These Belgian schools are all but empty on major Muslim holidays. All countries that have allowed mass immigration from Islamic countries can expect the same situation eventually in their own schools.

Many thanks to Bear for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:04   Due to this Muslim holiday, a few schools are almost empty. The students are…
00:08   in fact staying at home with their family. Same was found with businesses…
00:12   so the question of holidays for religious purposes is asked again…
00:16   Simon Francois, Philippe Godin, drawing course at…
00:20   the workshop Andre Thomas De Foret the subject of the day, an empty chair.
00:24   A subject very relevant in this establishment on the almost 700 students…
00:28   registered, barely 50 showed up this morning,
00:32   She’s not there.
00:36   The absentees during religious holidays cause problems in this type of establishment.
00:40   For this geography teacher to give a course to an empty classroom…
00:44   does not make sense. It disturbs me on principle because somewhere, I only have 30 hours/week
00:48   30 hours of courses missed, means 1/30th of the year…
00:52  
00:56   I have lost 5 hours of courses. I have to recoup them one way or another.
01:00   Somewhere it is prejudiced to the students
01:04   the calendar plans many holidays which coincide with Catholic holidays
01:08   For other religions, nothing is planned. Students of other persuasions
01:12   must take days of absence that are not justified. It’s true that is a holiday
01:16   important to the Muslim community as other holidays can exist…
01:20   in other communities and so …
01:24   but now, it belongs to higher authorities to take
01:28   their responsibilities …
01:32   to make holidays few days due to beliefs of students at the federation…
01:36   of [name of federation] They reject the idea. There is no way…
01:40   to consider that now or tomorrow that religious holidays are holidays that include time off.
01:44   because there is a minimal amount of days of classes
01:48   and there is no way to escape that due to federal regulations.
01:52   Today, the teachers were dedicating their course to revision and tedious occupation
01:56   A lighter day, very welcomed before the holidays

Whatever happened to Free Speech?

Ummah Jack

The English Defence League planned a return visit to Walthamstow yesterday, but a Home Office ban on marches there (and in three other London boroughs) prevented the EDL from demonstrating.

Unite Against Fascism, however, did not feel constrained by the ban, and showed up to stage their counter-protest as a “victory rally”. The authorities did not obstruct their event, and the UAF had the run of the place for the afternoon.

Esmerelda Weatherwax was in Walthamstow yesterday, and posted a photo-essay on the day’s events at the New English Review:

Whatever happened to Free Speech?
Cf UAF in Walthamstow and EDL in Westminster

by Esmerelda Weatherwax

Readers will remember the appalling way the EDL were treated while exercising our democratic freedom to meet and protest in Walthamstow last month. Today [Saturday October 27] was set as the return to Walthamstow.

However last week Tommy Robinson and 53 men were arrested on the outskirts of London. Kev Carroll was arrested in Luton. Tommy Robinson remains in custody until after Christmas on charges concerning irregularities to the passport he used to visit the US for the commemoration of 11/9 last month. The other men are charged with conspiracy to cause a breach of the peace and allowed bail, on condition they do not enter East London. Paul Weston, leader of the British Freedom Party who was arrested for potentially causing a breach of the peace wile attempting to visit Tommy in prison has been released without charge.

Next the Home Secretary Teresa May set a ban on all marches in four London boroughs for 30 days. Those boroughs were Waltham Forest, in order to prevent today’s proposed march, Islington, just in case anyone approached the Finsbury Park Mosque, Tower Hamlets, lest anyone contemplate a demonstration at the East London Mosque, and Newham (site of the proposed Megagmosque). According to the notice on WalthamForest’s website this order prevented ALL marches, except funeral processions and those commonly or customarily held in the area, which would cover something like the local Scouts annual St George’s Day parade. The Home Secretary does not have power to ban static demonstrations. However the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police issued an order under S14 of the Public Order Act 1986 banning any EDL event in London, other than a permitted rally outside the Houses of Parliament between 1pm and 2pm. One hour only, only in that spot.

[…]

The UAF and their subsidiary organisation We Are Waltham Forest decided not to cancel their demo but to hold it as a “Victory Rally” As a former resident of Walthamstow who retains family connections I always had business there this weekend and decided I would lawfully go about it this morning. There was a strong police presence at all the transport hubs and railway stations. At Walthamstow Central Station UAF stewards were exhibiting their banners and attempting to sell their newspapers.

[…]

The Waltham Forest Guardian confirms that the march ban was defied. On the UAF website yesterday, declaring today’s event the “Victory Rally” Martin Smith said that the leftists were to ignore the ‘impossible to impose’ ban on marching. The list of speakers is here. Creasy is confirmed as speaking along with the rest of the usual subjects.

I can understand the legal difference whereby a S14 order can be imposed by the police on one event, but not another. It is discrimination, as my mother used to put it ‘making fish of one and fowl of the other’. It is objectionable. I think it was wrong. But I understand the law behind it.

I do not understand elected representatives and the Metropolitan Police facilitating a political march in the face of a ban on all marches in that borough put in place by the Home Secretary, while banning the march of another political group.

This is a breach of our right to free speech, free protest and free movement. This confirms the corruption in high places and that the traitors in authority will brook no dissent, allow no challenge. Now we truly know where we stand.

For the rest of the story and numerous photographs, see the New English Review.

Tommy Robinson in Durance Vile (Again)

Free Tommy!

A source close to EDL leader Tommy Robinson just sent the following message about the conditions under which Tommy is being held in Wandsworth Prison:

Kev Carroll has asked me to release the following info to you regarding Tommy.

1.   He is still in the same clothes he went to prison in.
2.   They are refusing to allow him clean/fresh clothes — family members took clothing in, but they would not allow it to be handed over.
3.   He has received no mail or money from anyone and he knows his wife gave in a Postal Order for a large amount whilst visiting.

4.   He is being refused all privileges.
5.   With no money he cannot purchase razors, food etc. and is having to eat the slops provided.
6.   He was arrested with £90 but at the Prison when asking for his money he was told he didn’t have any; where has this £90 gone?

Please pass this information far and wide and include it in web posts.

“The Murderers of My Son”

Tyrone Woods was a former SEAL who was killed at the “safe house” in Benghazi on the night of September 11th. Recent revelations have shown that not only were his calls for help turned down by the brass, but Tyrone Woods and his fellow CIA operatives were ordered to “stand down”.

Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods disobeyed orders and died as a result. They went in to the annex to try to help those who were under attack from the mujahideen, and were hit by a mortar shell. According to all accounts they were courageous and heroic, and fought to the end.

Charlie Woods, Tyrone’s father, was interviewed recently by Megyn Kelly on Fox News about what happened to his son in Benghazi. Mr. Woods wants some answers from the Obama administration, and he’s not the only one.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Diana West wrote last Thursday about another interview with Charlie Woods, and the cynical insincerity of President Obama and Secretary Clinton in their dealings with the grieving families of those killed in Benghazi:

Charles Woods, father of fallen ex-SEAL Tyrone Woods, called in to the Lars Larsen radio show yesterday to express his thoughts about the news that Benghazi was known to be a terrorist attack right away, was observed via Drone cameras in real time, and that relief forces remained undeployed from nearby countries.

Tyrone and ex-SEAL Glen Doherty were both killed by a mortar fired at the safe house annex late in the firefight, after Wissam bin Hamid’s Libya Shield Brigade had escorted eight Marines from Tripoli to the safe house.

Charles Woods says: “Someone had to say ‘don’t go rescue them.’ We need to find out who gave that order and why.”

Woods says he’s not angry at anybody but believes “something doesn’t smell right.” He recounted his experience at Andrews Air Force Base on the day that the bodies of the four Americans killed in Benghazi returned home. In a building near the hangar, the four grieving families were arranged in what he described as “pods” and the dignitaries on hand visited each pod separately. The president “kind of mumbled,” Woods said, “totally insincere,” His face was looking at Woods, he said, but his eyes were looking over Woods’ shoulder — “like he couldn’t look me in the eye.” Woods added: “It was like shaking hands with a dead fish.”

Pat Smith, Sean Smith’s mother, has also described the coldness of the commander in chief on this occasion.

Woods also met with Hillary Clinton. He described Clinton as coming over to him, they embraced, shook hands — “she did not appear to be one bit sincere at all” — and then: “She said … we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted, that did the video,” Woods said.

The video lie — and to the face of a grieving father. Who created it? Why? This was already September 14. On that same day CIA Director Petraeus, briefing the House Intelligence Committee, also passed along this same lie, blaming the video for a protest that never happened. Two days later, UN Ambassador Susan Rice hit the talk shows with the same lie. On September 25, it was in the president’s message to the world at the UN.

The President, the SecState, the CIA Director, the UN Ambassador have much explaining to do to the American people. None of them defend the First Amendment, but they’ll say absolutely anything for their own ends.

Somalis? Yes! Swedes? No!

Gammalsvenskby

The following summary of an article from Länstidningen Östersund, a local paper in west-central Sweden, was sent in by our Swedish correspondent LN. It concerns Gammalsvenskby (roughly “Old Swedeville” in American English), an ethnic Swedish enclave that was stranded in Ukraine after the dissolution of the Russian and Soviet Empires.

It turns out that Modern Multicultural Sweden, which is so eager to absorb cultural enrichment from Somalia and Iraq, is not so keen to take in refugees who happen to be, well, Swedish:

Länstidningen Östersund
Published October 28, 2012 at 01:01

Ukraine.

In 1781, 1,159 Swedish farmers from Dagö in today’s Estonia were displaced to Ukraine. Several years ago a few descendants of these — still Swedes — applied to take up residence in Sweden. But they were rejected immediately.

A few years ago a Swedish family from Gammalsvenskby, Ukraine, applied for a permit in old age to be allowed to settle in Sweden. The family was descended from the Estonian-Swedish population in the village, which still speaks Swedish as their mother tongue.

However, the Migration Board rejected their application, writes the journalist Kjell Albin Abrahamson in Länstidningen Östersund. He recently visited Ukraine and the Swedish village, where grinding poverty still prevails.

“Maybe the Swedish villagers should have instead been illiterates from Somalia,” says Kjell Albin Abrahamson, which for someone in the leftish Swedish press is a very unusual reflection.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/27/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/27/2012Muslims the world over are celebrating the Feast of Sacrifice, which involves slaughtering domestic animals. A Palestinian in Gaza City was killed by a marauding cow that panicked when the man attempted to slaughter it.

In other news, in order to save money during its severe financial crisis, Greece plans to close eight embassies and two consulates abroad.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jedilson Bonfim, JP, Kitman, Nick, Paul Green, Steen

||Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

That Birmingham Train Heist

As was reported yesterday in The Daily Mail, train robbers in Birmingham stole a shipment of anti-tank mines from a freight train:

Powerful Anti-Tank Mines Used by British Troops in Afghanistan Are Stolen From Goods Train

A shipment of powerful anti-tank mines have been stolen from a goods train.

Thieves are thought to have snatched the mines, used by British troops in Afghanistan, when the train was forced to stop because of a body on the track.

The munitions were discovered missing when the train pulled into a station 90 miles further down the line.

Specialist counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police, supported by the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence, have launched a hunt for the missing mines.

The rectangular bar mines contain explosives but need extra components to make them operational, said Whitehall sources.

It is understood the heist on Thursday was the work of ‘opportunists’ who broke into one of the stationary wagons unaware of the sensitive cargo, rather than a targeted raid.

But investigators are concerned that the mines, which the British Army use to blow up bridges and buildings in Helmand, could fall into the wrong hands.

The L9 Bar Mines contain explosives but need extra components to make them operational, said Whitehall sources.

The obligatory pre-formulated “no-connection-with-terrorism” mantra was uttered by the British Authorities, much as it is by their American counterparts:

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘At this stage there is nothing to suggest that the theft is terrorist-related. However due to the potential complexity of the investigation and specialist skills of officers, inquiries are being led by counter-terrorism officers.’

Our English correspondent Seneca III disagrees with some of the conclusions published in the Mail article, however. He sends this explanation why there is likely to be more to the train heist than is being published in the media:

This one is interesting for several reasons:

1.   The theft took place in Birmingham, one of our major ‘occupied territories’. If it was the enrichers then the mines are now safely deep inside a Mosque where the law fears or is not permitted to tread.
2.   Under ADR (the regulations which require how ‘Dangerous Goods’ will be packed, marked and transported) the sides of the wagon in which the mines were being transported, plus their containers/crates inside, will have been clearly and conspicuously marked ‘EXPLOSIVES’. Hence whoever lifted them knew precisely what they were getting, and it can in no way be claimed that were taken by mistake for something else, as will probably be claimed by our treacherous leadership in the event that they do turn up in Muslim hands.
3.   However, it does look like an opportunistic heist rather than a planned one as the incident that caused the train to be delayed was quite a way to the south, in Oxfordshire, and there was no way that it could be predicted as to exactly where this particular train would be stopped as result thereof.
4.   The photograph in the article is of a Soviet Anti-Tank mine, not a UK L9 Bar Mine; whether this was deliberate or simply stupid disinformation is not known, but it may confuse any potential witnesses who may have seen the mines in transit from the train to their eventual hiding place.

This is a bar Mine:

Barmine (Anti-Tank)
L9 Bar Mine

    Barmine (Anti-Tank) Specifications
Weight   11kg
Length   1.2m
Width   0.1m
Explosive Weight   8.4kg

The Barmine is usually mechanically laid by a plough-type trailer, which can be towed behind an AFV 432 or Warrior. The Barmines are manually placed onto a conveyor belt on the layer, from inside the APC.

The minelayer automatically digs a furrow, lays the mines into it at the correct spacing and closes the ground over them. Up to 600 mines can be laid in one hour, by one vehicle with a three-man crew.

A full width attack mine (FWAM) fuse and an anti-disturbance fuse are available for Barmine; these are secured on the ends of the mine, adjacent to the pressure plate.

And this is a Soviet TM 46 as illustrated in the DM:

TM46 Anti-Tank Mine

Diameter:   305 mm
Height:   108 mm
Operating pressure:   120 — 400 kg (21 kg tilt pressure)
Weight:   8.6 kg
Explosive content:   5.7 kg of TNT

Geert Wilders in Malmö

Geert Wilders appeared in Malmö today at an event sponsored by the Swedish Free Press Society. The antifas and other usual suspects attempted to disrupt the occasion, but were kept out of harm’s way by the police.

Below is the prepared text of Mr. Wilders’ speech, as posted at his website.

Ingrid Carlqvist and Geert Wilders in Malmö
(Photo © Snaphanen)

Dear friends, I am very happy to be in your midst today. Thank you, Ingrid, for inviting me to address the Swedish Free Press Society. No demonstrator will prevent me to speak in Sweden.

I love Sweden and its people. One of my great heroes, Raoul Wallenberg, was a compatriot of yours. Wallenberg embodies all that is good and generous in the Swedish people. He defended the freedom and dignity of others. He protected those who had been marked for death by an evil ideology. And he gave his own life for it.

Recently, your minister for Integration, Erik Ullenhag, was in The Hague on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Wallenberg’s birthday. He abused the occasion to attack my party, the Dutch Party for Freedom.

Minister Ullenhag said that in Sweden a party like mine would never be given the opportunity to influence politics. I wonder what these remarks had to do with Wallenberg. But I know that Mr Ullenhag is wrong: Like the Netherlands, Sweden, too, and all the Western countries need a party defending freedom.

Because Sweden has the same problem as the Netherlands, Denmark and the rest of the Western world. We are all in the same boat. Our freedoms are in danger. Our political and often leftist media establishment turns a blind eye to the largest threat to liberty in our present age. This threat is called Islam.

Islam commands its followers to establish a worldwide Islamic state, where everyone has to live according to the Sharia, the barbaric law of Islam. And where Islam’s opponents are being marked for death.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn used to say that the truth is “seldom sweet; it is almost invariably bitter.” But the truth should be heard. The bitter truth that Islam is the largest threat to freedom today. And the unpleasant truth that Islam is already all around us.

The sign of Islam’s presence is visible in all our European cities.

Also in Malmö. Especially in Malmö.

25% of the population here originates from Islamic countries — the highest rate in the whole of Scandinavia. That is why it is good to be here. In this great city, which deserves better than it currently gets.

Even the international media have written stories about the outbursts of violence, the gang warfare, the shootings and bombing of police stations in Malmö. In a city like this our message needs to be heard: Malmö should not succumb to Islam. Malmö should remain what it was throughout its history. A decent, peaceful and safe place for people to live, work and raise a family. A free city.

In Malmö we must turn the tide. And show the world that the Islamization process can be stopped. That is why I am here. It is a coincidence that today marks the final day of this year’s hadj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. This is a symbolic moment to tell you that it is time to turn the tide. And to tell you that it can be done. But in order to turn the tide, we must first stop pretending that there is no problem as so many journalists and politicians tell you. We must first face the truth. We must first speak the truth. So that others will know it too.

Before I continue, however, let me make one thing absolutely clear. Whenever I criticize Islam I am falsely accused by some people with false intentions of hating people. In order to avoid any misunderstandings, let me state clearly that I criticize an ideology, not people. I do not hate nor do I want to harm any human being. I totally reject the use of violence.

In fact, the most important reason why I reject Islam is its violent nature and the fact that it is harmful to people, including its own adherents, whom we should pity rather than hate, and whom we should help to liberate themselves from the evil monster which is Islam.

I have travelled the Islamic world extensively. I have visited countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia. In my book “Marked for Death” you can read how I was overwhelmed by the kindness, friendliness and helpfulness of many people there. They are often good people, but they are captives of Islam.

I always make a distinction between Muslims and Islam. Most Muslims are moderate, most Muslims are non-violent, but the ideology of Islam is dangerous. The moderates are the captives of the barbaric system of Islamofascism. There is no moderate Islam. Islam is only a religion to a very limited extent. It is predominantly a dangerous ideology. Islam is political rather than religious: It aims for an Islamic state. Islam is totalitarian. Islam is not voluntary. It orders that people who leave Islam must be killed. Contrary to real religions, it also lays obligations on non-members.

Islam is dangerous because it calls on its followers to imitate Muhammad, the so-called prophet, as closely as possible. The life and deeds of Muhammad are well known from contemporary sources.

Islam’s own sources tell us how evil Muhammad was. They show us that he was a liar, a rapist, a paedophile, a torturer, a mass murderer.

Because Muhammad abused women, some followers of Islam believe they are entitled to treat women in the same way.

Because Muhammad lied and cheated in order to advance Islam, some followers feel entitled to do the same. Islam even has a word for this kind of lying. It is called taqqiya.

Because Muhammad killed his opponents, some of his followers feel entitled to do the same.

Because Muhammad robbed non-Muslims, some of his followers feel they have the right to do the same. This is called jihad.

A few years ago, one of your Swedish newspapers interviewed the sociologist Petra Akesson after she had conducted a study of Islamic youths here in Malmö. Akesson pointed out that these youths have been raised in a culture that extols Islamic supremacy. As a consequence, a significant number of them regard their criminal activities against non-Muslim infidels as right, justified and permitted.

It is our duty to expose Muhammad, this 7th century barbarian who wrote a book which he said had been dictated to him by an angel from a book written by Allah in heaven. The people from his own hometown of Mecca knew Muhammad. They said he was crazy. An angry Muhammad emigrated to Medina which he conquered through taqqiya and jihad. Later he returned to Mecca and conquered it with his troops, eradicating its tradition of openness and religious tolerance.

Everywhere where Islam has gained a foothold, it has brought tremendous human suffering. Not all Islam’s followers behave like Muhammad would have done. But some of them do. The more Islam you get into your country, the more violent and intolerant it becomes, and the less freedom you will get.

Just take a short stroll and walk into Malmö’s Rosengard area. It is one of the areas in our Western nations where the authorities have lost power, where Sharia is replacing our legal system and where it is unsafe for non-Muslims to go.

Or come with me to the Netherlands, to the Kanaleneiland district in Utrecht. I used to live there for almost 20 years and I have seen the district degenerate.

Or let us go to Paris and visit the suburbs.

Or to Brussels where Islamic gangs with Kalashnikovs have chased the police from certain neighborhoods. And where the employees of the European Parliament complain that they cannot walk the streets at night.

“In each one of our cities” wrote the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci shortly before her death in 2006, “there is a second city, a state within the state, a government within the government. A Muslim city, a city ruled by the Koran.”

And one thing which you certainly should not do is to enter these Islamic enclaves if you are a Jew. Jews are fleeing Europe these days because they no longer feel safe. This is not just a bad omen. It is absolutely intolerable and must be stopped.

It reminds me of something Raoul Wallenberg once said. “I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside myself that I’d done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible,” he said. Wallenberg cared about the Jews. So should we. Sweden, like the Netherlands, should be a safe place for Jews.

But the more Islamic our nations have become, the more hostile they have become to the Jewish community.

And, hence, while not all the believers in Allah and Muhammad turn violent, the truth is that some of them do. And they do so because Islam incites them to it. We should not close our eyes to this reality. If we do, we do so at our own peril.

The more Islam one gets in a society, the less civilized it becomes and the less free.

It is no coincidence that all the Islamic states in the world demand that freedom of speech be curtailed and that criticism of Islam and its prophet should be forbidden.

Because there is no such thing as a moderate Islam, the Islamization of our societies is a dangerous threat. This Islamization is driven by immigration from Islamic countries. Muhammad himself conquered Medina through the method of immigration. Or Hijra as it is called in Islam. We have to stop immigration from Islamic countries. We have to halt the process of Islamization.

All over Europe, mosques, Islamic centers and halal shops are proliferating. In any major West European city you will encounter women in headscarves and burqas. In the streets of Lars Hedegaard’s country, Denmark, you can even encounter escaped prisoners in a burqa! We should not accept this any longer!

Open the pages of our newspapers and you will read horrific stories of women being trampled, female genital mutilation and honor killings in our own back yards. We should not accept this any longer!

Winston Churchill, confronted with Nazi tyranny, said: “Never give in, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

Churchill’s motto is also my motto. It should be the motto of the free world. It should be painted in bright letters on the wall of Malmö’s town hall: Never give in, in nothing, great or small!

Because if the free world gives in to the demands of Islam, it will perish and our freedoms will be extinguished.

Last month, a mosque in the Stockholm district of Botkyrka received permission to broadcast Islamic prayer calls from its 32-meter minaret. We should not accept this.

Ismail Okur, the chairman of the Botkyrka Islamic Association, said: “We want to have religious freedom.” But Islam is not a genuine religion. Islam itself does not allow religious freedom. It not even allows Muslims the choice to reject Islam. It orders that apostates should be killed.

The fact that the Islamic prayer call is not heard on the street does not in any way limit the freedom of Muslims. They are free to believe whatever they want. In countries like ours, they are free to say whatever they want. But this does not include the right to blast through loudspeakers over our cities for all of us to hear, even in the privacy of our own houses, that “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

If they are allowed to shout this Islamic battle cry through loudspeakers, others should be allowed to shout through loudspeakers from their own highest towers for the whole world to hear, including in the privacy of their houses, that Allah is a false God, that Muhammad is a fraud and Islam is a threat.

You all know what would happen if someone would start shouting these truths from a roof top in nearby Rosengard. Some Muslims would take offense. You all know what happened to your countryman, the artist Lars Vilk who drew a cartoon of Muhammad. He was marked for death. Al-Qaeda offered $150,000 for his assassination. He was assaulted. His house was arsoned.

And an Islamic suicide bomber, who killed himself and injured two innocent people in Stockholm on December 11, 2010, said that all Swedes would be made to pay for their — I quote — “foolish support of the pig Vilks.”

Lars Vilks now lives under permanent police protection, just as I have been living for eight years under permanent police protection because the followers of Muhammad want to assassinate me for criticising Islam. That is why there is strict security in this room and why you were not able to get in without showing your ID documents.

Let no one tell you that Islam respects freedom. Freedom and Islam are incompatible.

Let no one tell you that Islam is a religion of peace. Islam is an ideology of violence.

Let no one tell you that you should tolerate the intolerant. We have done that enough. No more tolerance for the intolerant.

Listen to what Karl Popper, the great liberal philosopher, had to say. “Unlimited tolerance leads to the disappearance of tolerance,” he said. “If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”

We have to make a stand. We have to draw a line. We have to proclaim:

No more mosques! There are more than enough mosques already.

No more Islamic schools! They are centres of subversion.

No more immigration from Islamic countries!

All criminal immigrants with dual nationality have to be expelled!

We have to draw a line. If you behave, if you assimilate, you are welcome to stay. If not, then there is no place here for you!

Today, Islam has the audacity and the arrogance to tell us that we, its victims, are not tolerant enough toward Islam. Islam is telling us that it we will not accept criticism of Islam anymore.

Recently, on 9/11, an American ambassador was tortured and murdered because one of his countrymen, a Coptic Egyptian-born American citizen, had made a movie about Muhammad.

Unfortunately, many Western leaders and media seem to be in the grip of a cowardly appeasement mentality which is harmful to our Western liberties.

Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, condemned — I quote — “not only the content, but also the distribution of such a movie.”

Mr Schulz will be one of the three EU leaders who will travel to Oslo shortly to accept this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

President Obama, another Nobel Peace Prize winner, called the movie “crude and disgusting.” And added — I quote — “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

With their cowardly statements, the leaders who should be the leaders of the free world strengthen the resolve of Islamic leaders, such as the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, who are pressuring the United Nations for an international treaty against blasphemy by which they want to restrict our freedom of speech.

Instead of forcibly speaking out in favor of freedom of speech, instead of standing firm for our liberties, instead of following Churchill’s example by never giving in, in nothing, great or small, large or petty, Western politicians cower to Islamic sensitivities by stating how offended they personally felt by the movie of a private individual in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani government minister offered a bounty of 1 million U.S. dollars for killing the maker of the movie. We have not heard any Western leaders say anything about that.

When, last March, your organization, the Swedish Free Press Society, was established, Kaj Schueler, the editor of Dagbladet, criticized you. He wrote in his newspaper — I quote — “Since words are neither neutral nor innocent, there have to be limits to free speech.”

I am sorry, Mr Schueler, but as long as people do not call for violence, they should be allowed to say whatever they want. That is why I want our constitutions to include a clause similar to America’s first amendment.

I defend the right of every imam to express his disapproval of our liberties and democracy, of our freedom of speech, of Christianity and Judaism, of gays and women, of our culture, tradition and values. But, in return, I demand the right that everyone is allowed to express his opinion about Islam in whatever way he sees fit.

Since Islam does not want to grant us freedom, it should not be given the freedom to rob us of our liberties!

My friends, as I said, the truth is bitter and unpleasant. But we should not shirk from our responsibilites. We must say what we have to say and do what we have to do.

Because if we do, there is hope. We can still turn the tide of Islamization.

We can do so by appealing to the loyalty of our people to their identity and their national freedoms. We can stop Islam by rallying around our national flag and defending our national identity.

Our nation states are the embodiment of our liberties and freedom. Let us defend our liberties and freedoms by defending our nation-states.

Europe’s Islamization stems from the cultural relativism which during the past decades has undermined our national resolve. Cultural relativism dictates that all cultures are equally moral and valuable. If all cultures are equal, it follows that the state cannot promote any specific cultural values, even those of its own people.

Thus, cultural relativists deny that immigrants should assimilate, since that would champion European culture over the immigrants’ native cultures. They tell the Islamic newcomers who settle in our cities and villages: you are free to violate our norms and values, since your culture is just as good as ours. This is a lie; this is not true. Cultures are not equal. Our culture, based on Humanism, Christianity and Judaism, is far better than the barbaric Islamic culture. We should be proud to say this.

We should be more proud of our own culture and identity.

The cultural relativists are the facilitators of Islam. They parrot the Islamic taqqiya statements. They call us xenophobes and accuse us of hate speech. They drag us to court. People like myself, Lars Hedegaard in Denmark and many others have been subjected to endless time, energy and money consuming trials for speaking the truth about Islam. Luckily both Lars and I have both been acquitted, but others were not so lucky.

The combination of taqqiya and cultural relativism is a most dangerous threat to the West.

The cultural relativists are also transferring our national sovereignty to Brussels. They tell us that nation states are dangerous relicts from the past. They tell us that the European Union is needed in order to avoid war. Even the Oslo Nobel Committee is saying this.

The cause of the Second World War, however, was not the existence of nation states. The cause of the war was the disgusting Nazi ideology.

The remedy against totalitarianism is not building a European superstate. We cannot safeguard our liberties by robbing our countries of their sovereignty and transferring it to far-away Brussels.

You know what happens then. We get cultural relativists, such as your own Cecilia Malmström, who impose uniform policies on all our nations, for instance by throwing our borders open to ever more immigrants from other countries.

Mrs Malmström belongs to the same party as Minister Ullenhag. I wrote her a letter earlier this year inviting her to visit our immigration neighborhoods, but she did not answer. I can understand why you sent her to Brussels, but now we are stuck with her.

My friends, people like Malmström seem to want to rob us of our own identity.

But without an identity there can be no liberty. Without the nation-state there can be no real national political freedom. A soul needs a body. The spirit of political liberty cannot flourish outside the body of the nation-state. The nation-state is the political body in which we live. That is why we must preserve and cherish the nation-state. So that we can pass on the liberty and the democracy which we enjoy to our children.

If Sweden wants to survive, it should remain Sweden and proud to be Swedish.

We must be good patriots. Patriotism is branded as fascism by the cultural relativists. But patriotism is no fascism. On the contrary. Every democrat and defender of freedom must by definition be a patriot.

Europe is a cluster of nations. The strength of Europe is its diversity. Uniformity is a characteristic of Islam, but not of Europe. Islam eradicated the national identities of the peoples it conquered. The Coptic identity of Egypt, the Indian identity of Pakistan, the Assyrian identity of Iraq, the Persian identity of Iran, they were all wiped away, cracked down upon, or discriminated against until this very day. Islam wants all nations replaced by the so-called Ummah, the common identity of the Nation of Islam to which all have to be subservient and into which all national identities have to vanish.

Do not let the Swedish identity be swept away by the Ummah.

A national identity ties an individual to an inheritance, a tradition, a loyalty, and a culture. National identity is an inclusive identity: it considers everyone to be equal, whatever his religion or race, who is willing to assimilate into a nation by sharing the fate and future of a people.

The Brussels bureaucrats and the leftist intellectuals consider patriotism a dangerous relict from the past. They oppose Europe’s national identities. But so does Islam which does not want the faithful to assimilate and adopt another loyalty than the loyalty to Islam and the Umma. This is the problem of so many immigrants in our society.

This message, obviously, is one which the Eurocrats do not want to hear, but it is the truth.

Without self-governance, without self-determination, there will be no preservation of our identity.

My friends, we need to give political power back to the nation-state, in the name of democracy, in the name of freedom, in the name of human dignity. We need a resurgence of national pride, a love of country and institutions.

By defending the nation-states we defend our own identity and liberty.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, it is time to act. We must make haste. Time is running out for Sweden, for the Netherlands, for all the other great nations of Europe. As Ronald Reagan said: “We need to act today, to preserve tomorrow.”

Here is a short summary of five things which we need to do in order to preserve our freedoms.

First, we must defend freedom of speech. It is the most important of our liberties. We need an American-style First Amendment to be implemented in all European countries.

Second, we must end cultural relativism. In my own country I proposed that a clause be included in our constitution stating that the dominant culture in the Netherlands is based on Judeo-Christian and humanist principles.

Third, we must stop Islamization. More Islam means less freedom. There is enough Islam in Europe already. We must stop the immigration from Islamic countries.

Fourth, we must restore the supremacy and sovereignty of the nation-state. Finally, it is also our duty to help Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people. Israel is in jihad’s frontline. Israel is a beacon of light in an area of total darkness, Israel is fighting our fight. By helping Israel survive, we help ourselves.

My friends, if we stop speaking the truth, all will be lost.

In a speech at the UN Plaza Millennium Hotel in New York last September 11th, George Igler, the director of the British free speech think thank Discours, remembered his audience of what happened inside Flight 11, the plane that was hijacked by Mohammed Atta and his gang and flown into the North Tower of the WTC on the fateful morning of 9/11, 2001.

“Just be quiet and you will be okay,” Atta told the passengers on board of the hijacked plane.

My friends, we know from the terrible experience of the passengers on Flight 11, that we will not be okay if we remain quiet. On the contrary, we are doomed if we remain quiet. We must speak out, with all our might, against those who want to silence us. We have to tell the truth, loud and clear, about the true nature of Islam — this totalitarian ideology which wants to Islamize us all and impose its will on the entire world. We have to expose the lie which is cultural relativism.

We must struggle every single day against the rising tide of Islamization, even when the cultural relativists in media and governments succumb to it.

If we fail, we will lose everything: our freedom, our identity, our democracy, our rule of law, and all our liberties, beginning with the most important of all: our freedom of speech.

The West is in danger, but we can still prevail.

Even when we are insulted,

even when we are harassed and intimidated,

even when they take us to court for speaking the truth,

even when we are marked for death just for stating an opinion

— we must never be silenced.

Never, never, never.

Thank you. — And good luck to you all!

Hat tip: Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/26/2012

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/26/2012Muslims in India will be celebrating Eid al-Bakra (The Feast of Sacrifice) a week from Monday. Their holiday enjoyment is being dampened by the cost of goats, which are the designated sacrificial animal for the feast. The price of goats has risen so dramatically that poor people are finding it hard to afford them, and the supply is inadequate.

In other news, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has called on Egyptian Muslims to demand the implementation of sharia law in their nation, and to take hostages from among the citizens of Western countries that make war on Islam.

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

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

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Abu Islam Confronts the Coptic Church — From Abroad

As we reported last night, an Egyptian cleric named Abu Islam is on trial for tearing and burning a Bible.

The following interview with the sheikh from Al-Watan reveals that his internet-based vitriol against the Coptic Church in Egypt is being hosted by service providers in Switzerland, Britain, and the United States.

Many thanks to Mary Abdelmassih for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

06:28   You get people by phone and make meetings by phone.
06:30   Why did you chose London and Switzerland?
06:34   Where should I chose?
06:35   Why not from Egypt?
06:38   I see that the nature of my topics is embarrassing for the government, the previous government at the time of State Security.
06:45   I realized that if I did this, I will confront the Church with all its impertinence and impoliteness
06:52   and disrespect to the prophet, may,… one time after another, so if I have my channel here, I will not be able to present these topics, this is number one,
07:01   and if I used trickery this will be an embarrassment and will give the opportunity to the Christians to do a similar channel.
07:05   [text] el-Watan interviews Sheikh Abu Islam
07:10   So I found that wisdom necessitates that I go outside Egypt, so that I can be free
07:16   Also if I should die, will the channel stop? No it will manage itself from outside Egypt.
07:21   There are people who will manage it from London, from America and from Paris, three fixed locations which deals with us for the servicing of the channel.
07:33   Abu Islam spreads hatred and dissent as a mean for gathering funds.

Wake Up, Australia!

The following news report is a fairly balanced presentation on the Q Society, an Australian anti-sharia activist group. Given that it was aired on the ABC network — which is widely considered to be the broadcasting arm of the Australian Labor Party — it’s a remarkably informative report. Geert Wilders, Kevin Carroll, and Pamela Geller all get to speak their piece.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

See the ABC website for a transcript of the above report.

Hat tip: Nilk.