Author Archives: Baron Bodissey

Postcards from the Periphery

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Our German translator JLH has translated a series of articles from 2011-2013 about what I call the “Camp of the Saints” flood of immigrants pouring into Lampedusa, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Greece, and the far south of the Italian mainland. Most of the migrants come from the Middle East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. The largest wave was in 2011, during the height of the “Arab Spring” in Libya and Tunisia. This year has seen a renewal of the flow, mainly from Egypt and Syria.

The translator includes this note:

These four brief articles suggest the price that is being paid by countries that border the Mediterranean. They are not only most immediately affected by the deluge of refugees from Africa, but are the most ignored, if not despised by their more land-bound brethren, who care only that they not pass on the contagion that has reached and overwhelmed them.

Never a better example of NIMBY (“Not in my backyard”).

The first article is from Blick:

Malta Gives the EU An Ultimatum Because of the Wave of Immigrants

May 7, 2013

Valletta — As the wave of refugees from north Africa heading for Europe increases sharply, Malta is giving the EU an ultimatum: Either Brussels gives Malta more support in battling illegal immigration or the immigrants will be systematically sent away.

“It is time for Europe to develop a genuine and solid strategy as an answer to the crisis in the Mediterranean area,” declared Premier Joseph Muscat, according to the Italian news agency, ANSA on Friday. Muscat spoke on the telephone with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and asked for support for Malta. The island, he said, had recently accepted 300 immigrants. Nine of them were sent to the hospital in critical condition. Three of them had gunshot wounds.

The next article was published in Der Spiegel:

Migrant Onslaught: France Stops Italian Refugee Train

April 17, 2011

France reacts to the flood of refugees from Africa. A train of Tunisians from Italian Ventimiglia was temporarily stopped at the border. The government in Rome protested that they had presented papers which allow the immigrants to travel on into other European countries.

Rome/Paris/Ventimiglia — On Sunday, Italy protested against France’s refusal to allow Tunisian refugees into the country. This was an “illegitimate and clear violation of basic European principles,” was the word from the foreign ministry in Rome. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that he had directed their ambassador in Paris “to communicate the express protest of the Italian government.”

Maurizio Furia, spokesman for the Italian Railroad, said that France had prevented the train from Italian Ventimiglia to French Menton from continuing. The rail line was released on Saturday. The responsible prefect had issued a directive, reported the regional newspaper, “Nice-Matin.” In the morning, he had temporarily halted train traffic because of a possible threat to public order. And, the story went, human rights activists had wanted to travel with the Tunisians because of an unannounced demonstration.

Recently, Italy had begun to issue residence permits to Tunisian refugees who had come from the North African country to Italy by the thousands after the revolution.

With the permits, according to the Italian government, the refugees may travel without a visa into a number of European countries, including France. France let it be known, however, that it would only accept the ones who had the appropriate financial resources to find employment and/or accommodations. In an interview with TV channel Sky TG24, Interior Minister Maroni said: “We gave out immigrant travel documents and the EU Commission recognized them. It declared that Italy was adhering to the Schengen Rules. Freedom of travel is open to anyone who has the proper papers and wants to go to France.”

France found some support in Germany. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) criticized the Italian authorities for giving temporary residence permits to Tunisian refugees, and expressed understanding for Paris’s attitude. The behavior of the Italian government, he said, was going too far, according to an early report in the Passau New Press. Italy’s actions “clearly violated the basic principles of partnership in Europe and the spirit of Schengen and Dublin II.” According to the report, he further said “This undermines all the agreements we have reached. In south Bavaria, we are using random police checks to see whether anyone is coming into Germany by such means.”

The third article is from Blick:

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Chalk One Up For The First Amendment

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No organization is more effective at defending the right of Americans to speak freely — or protecting them from persecution due to their religious beliefs — than the Thomas More Law Center.

As reported yesterday, the TMLC won a major victory when a federal judge in Michigan decided in favor of Pastor Terry Jones in his lawsuit against the city of Dearborn. As you may recall, last year the Dearborn city council passed an ordinance requiring Pastor Jones to sign an indemnification agreement before he would be allowed to speak on public property in front of a mosque.

Here’s the report from the Thomas More Law Center:

Pastor Terry Jones Wins Case Against the City of Dearborn; Victory for the Thomas More Law Center

Federal District Court Judge Denise Page Hood of the Eastern District Court of Michigan, late Friday entered a summary judgment in favor of Pastor Terry Jones and his organization, Stand up America Now, against the City of Dearborn. Judge Hood ruled that Dearborn’s ordinance requiring Pastor Jones’s organization to sign a sweeping indemnification agreement as a condition for permission to speak on public property in front of a Dearborn mosque violated Jones’s First Amendment rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expressive Association.

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of Pastor Terry Jones, associate pastor Wayne Sapp, and their organization Stand Up America Now on April 2, 2012 after the City of Dearborn demanded that they sign a “Hold Harmless” Agreement as a requirement for a special events permit for the event scheduled for April 7, 2012.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, applauded Judge Hood’s decision: “Judge Hood’s ruling upholds a bedrock principle of the First Amendment, that government cannot inhibit the expression of an idea just because some find the idea offensive. This principle is in stark contrast to those nations ruled by Sharia law. The fact that some may find Pastor Jones a controversial public figure or object to his message is even greater reason for Dearborn officials to ensure his right to free speech was protected. So despite the fact that Dearborn has one of the largest concentrations of Muslims in America, the City should have protected Pastor Jones’s right to free speech, not contrive a way to impede it.”

The TMLC attorney Erin Mersino who handled the case, added, “Judge Hood in her ruling clearly recognized that our clients were subject to the unbridled discretion of the City’s legal department, and that in order to exercise their constitutional rights to free speech on public property, they had to surrender many of their other civil rights.”

Mersino continued, “This requirement was not only unconscionable; it was unconstitutional.”

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/2/2013

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned that any attack on his country could spark a wider regional war, while Pope Francis cautioned that such an attack could lead to a global conflict. Meanwhile, prices of gasoline and diesel fuel rose in anticipation of a possible disruption of supplies in the event of a war in Syria.

In other news, more than a hundred illegal migrants, mostly from Egypt and Syria, were rescued off the coast of Sicily, while detained immigrants on Sardinia blocked traffic in a protest to highlight their demands for greater freedom of movement within Italy.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, RR, 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.

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.

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The Innocence of Quebec Muslims

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As noted in recent media reports, a conference in Quebec for Muslim youth organized by a group called “Collectif 1ndépendance” has just been cancelled.

“Islamophobic” events routinely experience the sudden cancellation of venue (e.g. the upcoming visit of Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll to Denmark and Sweden) due to security problems, but it’s unusual for an Islamic event to suffer the same fate.

A reader in Quebec offered these observation about what happened in Montreal:

It was cancelled for security concerns, but whose security?

There was a comment posted under the video for about one hour, and then it was deleted. It was a threat of a lawsuit because the video shows briefly (at the beginning), minor children in the school run by the Al Rawdah mosque in Montreal. These images come from their own promotional material!

Djemila Benhabib is presently being sued for comments she made on a radio program regarding that school. The Muslim Brothers have deep pockets to pay for lawyers and intimidate people.

The conference in Montreal was cancelled because of “risk of trouble to public order”. People in Quebec are waking up to Islam and various groups were planning to protest, including Femen Quebec. Thousands of protesters were expected. The police were planning to send 150 officers, plus the cavalry, plus a helicopter, in addition to officers securing the basement of the Convention Centre and the two metro stations leading to it. Lots of taxpayers’ money because of these nuts.

The Islamists were totally taken by surprise. Even some moderate Muslims were planning a protest, and they were severely criticized by the Quebec Council against Islamophobia. This council seems to be an outfit of radical leftists and hardcore Islamists.

The video mentioned above is a scathing report detailing the associations — including the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, and the Muslim World League — of the organizers of the planned conference at the Palais des congrès.

Many thanks to “Watsilavit” for making this video, Christian Brunet Levitan for the French transcript, CB Sashenka for the translation, and Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below is an article from The Montreal Gazette about the cancellation of the event:

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Turkey Smuggles Arms to Al Qaeda in Syria

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The United States, Britain, France, Turkey, and other NATO countries are financing the Syrian opposition and supplying them with armaments. It is tacitly recognized — but not generally discussed in major MSM outlets — that the Syrian “rebels” include Al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates.

Below is a Dutch TV report about the surreptitious help given to the rebels by the Turkish government and military, ensuring that war materiel makes it across the border into the right hands.

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

Transcript:

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Quebec Mosque Sprayed With Pig’s Blood

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A mosque in Quebec was sprayed with pig’s blood on Saturday night, causing outrage and dismay among local residents.

Many thanks to Christian Brunet Levitan for the transcript, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling this TV news report:

Note: the original transcript included the name “St. Denis”, which was a misunderstanding of “Saguenay”, a Quebec placename. It has been corrected in the transcript below:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/1/2013

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The French government has decided that it will wait for the U.S. Congress to vote on an attack against Syria before taking any action of its own. Officials of the Syrian National Coalition, the premier rebel group, say they are disappointed with Mr. Obama’s failure to act promptly. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is encouraging other members of the Arab League to support an American attack against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

In other news, Japanese Catholic bishops have protested to their government over what they say is its inhumane treatment of Filipino migrants.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Kitman, Nick, RR, Steen, The Observer, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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.

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A Revelation of the Eternal

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As a celebration of Labor Day weekend — as if we needed an excuse — here is one of the finest musical pieces ever created, the “Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor” (BWV 582) by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by Hans-Andre Stamm on the Trost organ of the Stadtkirche in Waltershausen.

The pipe organ is the most sublime technological achievement of the human mind, and the Passacaglia and Fugue provides an appropriate demonstration of what can be accomplished with it:

The two movements appear seamless, and not just because they were written in the same key. The portentous bass-dominated Passacaglia gives way naturally to the more rapid cadences of the Fugue, with its magnificent climax.

A commenter named Matthew Pearson notes:

The organ was the most complex machine on earth from the lifetime of Bach until the 19th century when the telephone exchange supplanted it. This organ is by Trost and has 47 speaking stops, and 6 transmissions. There is no definitive record of Bach playing this organ but he very likely did, and he had played others by Trost and praised the sound of the instruments.

So the organ is a supreme achievement of man.

The composition is nothing less than a revelation of the eternal.

Poland 1944-45

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Today is the seventy-fourth anniversary of Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the Second World War. In remembrance of the occasion, Takuan Seiyo sends a couple of video clips. The first one combines German, Polish, and Soviet material to produce a dramatic overview of the 1944 Warsaw uprising.

WARNING: This footage, although not graphic by today’s standards, contains images of corpses and scenes of urban warfare:

The second is a short clip of a Polish kid in Buchenwald whose smile will linger in memory:

Takuan adds:

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Compare and Contrast

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Vlad Tepes has combined two different video clips to highlight the contrast between the Obama administration’s attitude towards Christians being persecuted in Egypt and elsewhere, and its solicitude for Muslims at home and abroad.

Note: the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is not just a Salafist group pushing a radical fundamentalist form of Islam in American mosques, it is a Muslim Brotherhood front organization and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing prosecution in 2008.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/31/2013

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the Obama administration to provide proof that the Syrian government carried out the recent gas attack that killed hundreds of people in Damascus. Meanwhile, President Obama has changed his stance on military action against Syria, and has asked Congress to vote on his proposed attack.

In other news, eighteen people were killed in two separate Taliban attacks, six when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bank in Kandahar, and twelve as the result of a roadside bomb in Helmand Province.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, LS, Nilk, Takuan Seiyo, 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.

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.

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Stalking the Mythical Islamophobe, Part 2

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This post is the second in a series about the Turkish definition of the word “Islamophobia” presented at the OSCE meeting in Vienna on July 12, 2013. Previously: Part 1.

A Brief History of “Islamophobia”

As reported here last month, the Turkish representative at the OSCE “Supplementary Human Dimension” meeting in Vienna provided the conference with a long-awaited definition of “Islamophobia”:

Islamophobia is a contemporary form of racism and xenophobia motivated by unfounded fear, mistrust, and hatred of Muslims and Islam. Islamophobia is also manifested through intolerance, discrimination, unequal treatment, prejudice, stereotyping, hostility, and adverse public discourse. Differentiating from classical racism and xenophobia [sic], Islamophobia is mainly based on stigmatization of a religion and its followers, and as such, Islamophobia is an affront to the human rights and dignity of Muslims.

In later installments to this series we’ll take a detailed look at the components of the above definition. In the meantime, an examination of the historical record is instructive.

The term “Islamophobia” was coined a just over a century ago. The first recorded use of the word was in 1912, in French. (“l’islamophobie”; Maurice Delafosse, in Haut-Sénégal-Niger, wrote: “Quoi qu’en disent ceux pour qui l’islamophobie est un principe d’administration indigène, la France n’a rien de plus à craindre des musulmans au Soudan que des non musulmans.”) The word reappeared occasionally in the 1920s and later in the century. Its original sense referred to a fear among modernized Muslims of the traditional forms of Islam, rather than an attitude towards Islam held by non-Muslims.

“Islamophobia” was not recorded in English until much later, and may well have been an independent coinage rather than a translation from the French. By the time it gained currency in English, the meaning had shifted to be more or less the one we know today. When the Runnymede Trust issued its landmark report [pdf] in 1997, “Islamophobia” meant a “shorthand way of referring to dread or hatred of Islam — and, by extension, to fear or dislike of all or most Muslims”.

As the British sociologist Chris Allen later wrote:

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The Power of Projection, Coupled with the Power of Fear

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Over the past few decades the European Left has perfected the art of intimidating its political opponents.

To force one’s ideological adversaries to surrender and slink away, it is necessary to field a credible deterrent force to accompany any verbal exhortations. For that reason, respectable far-Left socialist organizations and parties can count on rag-tag gangs of bully boys to do the dirty work of intimidation. In Britain, Hope not Hate and the Labour Party rely on the street thugs of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) to make life difficult for anyone who dares to question the Multicultural agenda. In Sweden, EXPO and the Socialists have Antifa (“anti-fascists”) conveniently to hand to rough up “fascists” and burn their property.

The Antifas are in fact widespread across northern Europe, and reliably appear whenever any group even slightly right-of-center gathers in large numbers. They rain missiles down upon the crowd, vandalize property, and harass the police. All leftist NGOs and Socialist parties depend on them, yet all can plausibly deny any connection with the storm troopers and their violent shenanigans.

Property owners are well aware of what they face if they host a conservative event on their premises. “Islamophobes” draw the most vicious opposition; any large crowd of Islam-critics is almost certain to face a violent response from the 21st century’s legions of brown-shirts.

All venue owners are familiar with the “anti-fascist” modus operandi: large crowds of “students” will rain fireworks down upon their “fascist” targets, attack the police, set fire to waste bins, overturn cars, break windows, and otherwise cause chaos and mayhem. In addition to the loss of income and the cost of repairs, a business may find its liability insurance policy canceled, or renewed only after a stiff premium increase. To add insult to injury, in some jurisdictions the police may present the venue and the event’s organizers with a bill for police overtime and other costs incurred by the municipality in suppressing the thugs.

So it’s no wonder that venue owners cancel events at the first hint of Islam-critical involvement. The Antifas make sure the event’s hosts are aware of what is coming by very publicly announcing their intentions and rallying the storm-troops. The “anti-fascists” project upon their intended targets their own characteristics of violent intolerance, and property owners react out of well-placed fear of what they are likely to face.

This is exactly what happened in anticipation of the visit by Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll to Denmark and Sweden. The venue in Malmö canceled a few days ago, and the venue in Copenhagen, upon being notified about what happens to anyone who dares to give the EDL a platform, has just followed suit.

The following article with the latest on these events was originally published yesterday in Dispatch International:

Dispatch International denied freedom of assembly after hate campaign

by Maria Celander

Self-styled “anti-fascists” are doing all they can to prevent English Defence League leaders Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll from speaking in Sweden and Denmark. First Folkets Hus in Malmö canceled the organizers’ booking, now the Odd Fellow Hall in Copenhagen has backed down.

“I know what you want, the same as all the other damned journalists that have called and wasted my time. I had my whole evening ruined because of this. I was to host a dinner for 200 guests and had to spend the whole night on this,” says an exhausted Göran Kryhl, CEO of Folkets Hus in Malmö, when Dispatch International calls.

DI: I see, but couldn’t you tell me what you said to the other journalists?

“That we don’t have the same ideology as they have and don’t stand for what they stand for.”

DI: But we have freedom of assembly in Sweden?

“They can have whatever meetings they want, but not when they hide behind something else as they did here.”

DI: What do you mean by hide? In what way did they hide?

“You know what, I’m tired of this. I don’t want to talk any more. Have a good one.”

Freedom of assembly and of speech is inscribed in both the Danish and Swedish constitutions. But that is of no consequence for certain groups known as “antiracist”. They have taken it upon themselves to meet people with other opinions by throwing eggs, stones and pieces of firework, heckling and as in this case by pure sabotage.

Under the slogan “No platform for racism!” the Danish Antifa (Anti-Fascist Action) — the equivalent of AFA in Sweden — urged to its followers to call and mail the Odd Fellow Hall in Copenhagen to force it to cancel the meeting which Dispatch International and the Swedish Free Press society has announced with EDL leaders Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll on September 29.

“Do you also think that it is a damned filthy business that the Odd Fellow lodge has rented its hall to racists? Call them at 33 11 27 78 or send them a mail at info@oddfellow.dk. The two racists were originally to speak in Malmö the day before but now anti-fascists have managed to get them thrown out. Let’s do the same in Copenhagen!” writes Antifa on its website.

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