Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/24/2014

EU authorities are grappling with the thorny problem of how to determine if someone is gay. The issue arose because three asylum seekers who claimed they were gay — and might be persecuted if they were returned to their country of origin — were denied entry into the Netherlands.

In other news, the new government of Ukraine has issued an arrest warrant for deposed President Viktor Yanukovych, who is wanted for murder after the death of dozens of protesters during the recent violent demonstrations in Kiev.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KP, 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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An Explanatory Afterword

For readers who were wondering why comments were closed on the previous post, the following text may provide some hints. It was my answer to a commenter named “Scottish Infidel” on a recent news feed thread.

Well, McInfidel, I’ll answer a few of your points.

The problem is you have a responsibility to air all views no matter how bias you are, this is an imperative part of running a website that deals with important issues.

No, I don’t, and no, it isn’t.

My responsibility is to run this site in a manner that seems to me to serve our mission in the best way possible. No more and no less. That means I exclude anything that seems detrimental to our mission, according to my own best judgment. Neither you nor anyone else (besides my wife) gets to tell me how to run this blog.

Those readers who are satisfied with the way we run it contribute their hard-earned money to enable us to keep it alive. Those who don’t save their money for what they consider a more worthwhile cause. Or, better yet, they get disgusted with my high-handed ways and go somewhere else.

I don’t know you personally and have nothing against you personally, though I can say I am not happy with the fact that if you plainly disagree with what someone says you shall fail to publish it.

You obviously haven’t been paying attention, or you’d have noticed that I approve innumerable comments I don’t agree with — including many of your own.

It’s not whether I agree with them, it’s whether I consider them detrimental to the value of this site. If I do, then out they go. It doesn’t disturb me in the slightest if I am “biased”, engaging in “censorship”, or committing any of the other offenses imputed to me by irate commenters whose words have been deleted.

After what I’ve been through over the past six years running this enterprise, such matters are of no consequence to me.

Everyone has something to bring to the table on here, denying them their points of view is basically the same as what the government agencies and MSM etc are doing across the globe .

I most definitely am not doing what the government does, since this is a private enterprise. I’m like the barman at the Rose & Crown — when I see a patron staggering around and getting belligerent, I say, “Looks like you’ve had enough, laddie! Out wi’ ye!” Then I pick him up by his virtual collar and belt and pitch him down the front steps onto the rain-soaked cobbles, with no right of appeal.

As for the MSM — they are biased in one direction, and I’m biased in the opposite direction. Big deal. I don’t care.

As soon as Zionism is mentioned it seems you clam up and don’t want to know, I have nothing against the Jewish peoples, though there is people in that faith who practice supremacy and even hate against non Jewish peoples, white gentiles call them what you may?

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The Protocols of the Princes of Saudia

Our Israeli correspondent MC was prompted by certain recent comment threads here at Gates of Vienna to write the following analysis of what oil wealth has done for the Arabian peninsula.

The Protocols of the Princes of Saudia
by MC

One of the giveaways of the forgery that is known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is that the supposed dialogue happened in a graveyard. Now, ‘spooky churchyards’ are not a Jewish cultural hang-up, they are part of a Christian tradition of vampires and zombies.

It is thought that Protocols was authored in Russia by the Okhrana (Tsarist secret police) based upon documents captured from Socialist Revolutionaries concerning their aims. It was then rewritten to point the blame at Jews to enhance the effectiveness of the then-ongoing pogroms. Afterwards this pernicious document took on a life of its own and gave rise to the ‘Jewish World Takeover Conspiracy’ that is still prevalent today, even in the comments sections of Gates of Vienna.

Now even I accept that much of what is in the protocols has come to pass, but it has come to pass under the auspices of Socialism in its various forms, and not under Judaism. “Yes,” you might say, “but there are close links between Judaism and Socialism.”

Adolf Hitler perceived Judaism and Bolshevism as the same thing, and it is true that Jews were overly represented in the 1917 revolution, but they were quickly purged by Stalin in the 1920s and early 1930s. By 1938 the Kremlin was essentially Judenrein, and the Arch-Jewish Bolshevik Leon Trotsky was brutally murdered by Stalin in 1940.

Many people, however, still believe the original Russian propaganda: that a secretive Jewish Cabal rules the world.

I strongly suspect that a Cabal has enormous influence in world affairs, and that that Cabal has Jewish members is very probable; however, it is also even more probable that this Cabal has Christian and Muslim members as well.

There are factors that indicate that there is another entity sitting in the background pulling the strings, and that is the interrelated Royal Families of the Gulf states, centred upon Saudi Arabia.

Whatever is going on in the Jihad world these days seems to have a Saudi ‘eminence grise’ there in the shadows, be it in Boston or Manhattan, Syria or Bosnia.

Erdogan famously said, “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers…”

So who is the major supplier of mosques to the world?

South of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia is a huge artificial ‘farm’ ploughed out of the desert and artificially irrigated by desalinated water. Islamic eschatology tells us that when Saudi turns green, the prophet will return. By this time, of course, the Islamic dream of a universal Caliphate will have been realized.

This exchange took place on the LibertyGB website not so long ago:

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Odd Jobs

Winter Fundraiser 2014, Day One

Dymphna and I have taken a wide assortment of jobs over the decades, but nothing as unusual as this one.

One of the job requirements for this position is that we strap on our hiking boots once every quarter and set off on a Wanderwoche through a single theme while asking our readers to help keep this blog afloat. This week’s theme, as you can see, is “odd jobs”, and my current occupation is the oddest of them all. I didn’t plan on spending my sunset years as an itinerant Islamophobe. I just kind of fell into it.

Tip jarAs I warned you back in December, we’re going to have to push extra hard during this fundraiser, because our new higher profile has made this blog a more costly enterprise than it was a few months ago. We came under DoS attack at least twice, and lengthy outages forced us to move up to a more robust type of hosting. The new service, plus the attendant technical help on tasks that lie outside my range of skills, have added significantly to the cost of running this enterprise.

They say that when you start taking fire, you’re over the target, so we must be doing something right. It’s difficult to pinpoint which of our recent activities has drawn such unwelcome attention, but it almost certainly must be one or more of the following four:

1. The controversy over Diana West and American Betrayal

Standing up for Diana West not something that I would have expected to draw enemy fire. Yet the conclusions she draws in her book — that the Communist penetration of the Roosevelt administration was more extensive than is generally believed, went all the way to the top, and has deformed the American government to this day — have prompted vigorous, vicious, concentrated resistance. The well-funded effort to silence her suggests that Planet X might also be willing to sponsor cyber-attacks against her defenders. For a time Gates of Vienna was the most prominent venue to push back against Planet X, so it may be that some of our expensive difficulties are due to the position we took on Ms. West’s behalf.

2. Original material by Geert Wilders

Back in November and December we had the privilege of hosting two original pieces by Geert Wilders: his redesign of the Saudi flag, and an open letter to Pope Francis. Each piece generated a “Rosetta Stone” translation initiative, and each caused an unprecedented level of traffic for a week or so after the initial post.

It’s well-known that Geert Wilders is one of the top targets for both the European Left and the Muslim Brotherhood, so it’s conceivable that the outages Gates of Vienna went through back then were at least partially brought on by malicious attacks aimed at Mr. Wilders.

3. The New Year’s Day explosion and fire on Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/23/2014

The Ukrainian parliament has elected a temporary president to fill in for ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, who has fled the capital and whose current whereabouts are unknown. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree that Ukraine must remain whole and not be broken up into an eastern (pro-Russian) state and a western (pro-EU) state.

In other news, the descendants of Muslims who were expelled from Spain centuries ago are demanding a “right of return” to the Iberian peninsula like that granted to the descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492. The number of such Muslims may potentially be in the millions.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, 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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Self-Imposed Common Sense Apartheid

As mentioned here a few days ago, a group headed by a well-known “British” Islamic firebrand, Haitham Al-Haddad, has reserved the Legoland theme park in Windsor for a day of culturally enriched fun. The news of the upcoming event has caused controversy in the UK, prompting a lot of discussion in the British media.

The most controversial media piece so far was a satire about the Legoland event by Richard Littlejohn that appeared a few days ago in The Daily Mail. Not everybody got the joke, especially leftist readers and those of the Islamic persuasion.

Our British correspondent JP has written an essay about all the brouhaha over Mr. Littlejohn’s satire.

Self-Imposed Common Sense Apartheid
by JP

“The author, actually provides us with the itinerary for the day, which makes me wonder why this is relevant again to this story?”

“So all Muslims who visit Legoland are terrorists, according to the Daily Mail”,
The Huffington Post, 20 February 2014

Imran Awan, Deputy Director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University

Satire: the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Imran Awan’s recent opinion piece in the Huffington Post on Richard Littlejohn’s article ‘Jolly Jihadi Boy’s outing to Legoland’ provides a master class in obduracy and self-imposed common sense apartheid.

Awan appears to be unaware — whether genuine or feigned is not clear – of the concept of satire, and therefore treats as factual what is exaggeration to the point of absurdity. Rather oddly, the response to the satire is itself absurd, as if some sort of comic mirroring process has taken place where Littlejohn and Awan form a misshapen pantomime horse pulling in different directions.

The main feature of the satire is an obviously fake itinerary for the Legoland visit which only the most obtuse could interpret as approaching any version of reality for this particular event, yet Awan takes it as such and questions the reason for its inclusion. Without the itinerary there would have been no article, no satire and no opportunity for religio-political humour. Littlejohn’s job is not to supply sober, fact-based reports. Rather it is to present topics in an entertaining, if skewed manner, and this is what he does, article after article, on a wide variety of themes.

Some recent, and it must be said, entertaining articles include Welcome to Kazistan, the Proud to be British quiz 2013, and Springtime for Merkel.

Question 26 of the Proud to be British quiz 2013 may present difficulties for Awan:

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Salafists Rally in Duisburg

There was a Salafist demonstration yesterday in the city of Duisburg in North Rhine-Westphalia. The gathering was led by the notorious convert and former professional boxer Pierre Vogel, a.k.a. Abu Hamza. The Salafists attacked counter-demonstrators who came to support the constitution and protest against sharia.

Below is an interview from the scene with Jürgen Grimm, one of the contributors to Gegen Islam (“Against Islam”). Many thanks to our German correspondent Klaus von Twickel for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

The following photos and text are from the accompanying post, also translated by Klaus von Twickel:

Sharia Terror in Duisburg City — in front of the train station

250 fascist supporters of Pierre Vogel this Saturday [22 February 2014] occupied the train station forecourt in Duisburg with radical prayer rituals. As on previous occasions, peaceful counter-protestors who carried banners supporting the German constitution and against Sharia law were attacked. On the stage, Pierre Vogel again agitated against democratic values and the rule of law. Among the counter-demonstrators were Krefeld Islam-expert Michael Höhne-Pattberg and a companion:

[Banner in photo reads: Protect our citizens. No Sharia! For the constitution and human rights.]

On account of the dangerous situation, these two gentlemen could only show their courageous commitment against the radical Salafists from a certain distance. All the same, they were repeatedly attacked both verbally and physically to the extent that police had to protect them again and again, and had to remove some of the Salafists from the scene. Because the situation worsened over the course of several hours, police buses brought more uniformed officials, the number of police officers increasing to a three-figured one. Many wore steel helmets for fear of Islamic stone-throwers:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/22/2014

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has fled the presidential palace, and is rumored to holed up in the northeastern part of the country after being prevented from flying to Russia. His rival, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, addressed a crowd in Kiev after being released from detention. The Ukrainian parliament has voted to remove Mr. Yanukovych’s presidential powers.

In other news, nineteen people were killed and dozens more wounded after gunmen clashed with security forces in Iraq.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, 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 EC Knows. Why Doesn’t the FBI?

Most of the research for the following article was conducted by our Minnesota correspondent Henrietta. I am deeply grateful for her assistance, without which the evidence described below would not be detailed here.

On New Year’s Day 2014 a powerful explosion and fire occurred at 514 Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis, in a predominantly Somali neighborhood of the city.

The building was gutted by the blaze. Two bodies were found in the rubble, and fourteen people were hospitalized, one of whom died later. Within 72 hours, the building had been pulled down into a heap of rubble by a backhoe.

Two days after the blast, before any real investigation occurred — which could never be conducted, anyway, with the potential crime scene destroyed — Greg Boosalis, the supervisory special agent with the FBI in Minneapolis, told the press that there was “no evidence of terrorist activity”.

Ever since that day I have been asking the question: How did the FBI know there was no terrorist activity without examining the scene of the explosion?

The question becomes even more urgent with the with the emergence of the latest wrinkle in the case. According to EUR-Lex , the repository of legal documents for the European Union, the European Commission issued the following regulation back in 2002:

32002R1580

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1580/2002 of 4 September 2002 amending for the second time Council Regulation (EC) No 881/2002 imposing certain specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaida network and the Taliban, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 467/2001

Official Journal L 237 , 05/09/2002 P. 0003 – 0005

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1580/2002

of 4 September 2002

amending for the second time Council Regulation (EC) No 881/2002 imposing certain specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaida network and the Taliban, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 467/2001

Under Article 1, number 2, we read:

Jama, Garad (a.k.a. Nor, Garad K.) (a.k.a. Wasrsame, Fartune Ahmed, 2100, Bloomington Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America; 1806, Riverside Avenue, 2nd Floor, Minneapolis, Minnesota; date of birth 26 June 1974. [emphasis added]

Why did the European Commission list Garad K. Nor et al. as being associated with Islamic terrorists?

As it happens, the EC was acting on a list drawn up by the United States Treasury the previous year, not long after 9/11. According to UPI:

U.S. Treasury lists terror associates

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) — The White House and U.S. Department of Treasury on Wednesday released additions to the list identifying individuals, organizations and businesses with links to terrorist organizations. Those additions are:

[…]

Garad Jama (a.k.a. Garad K. Nor; a.k.a. Fartune Ahmed Wasrsame) [emphasis added]

For those who have been following the story of the Cedar-Riverside explosion, the name “Garad Nor” may ring a bell.

According to the MN Secretary of State website, Garad Nor is recorded as a “Registered Agent” of Wadani Properties, the company that owned and managed the apartments of the Cedar-Riverside building located at 510 and 512 Cedar Ave South that exploded and burned on January 1. In some reports, Garad Nor himself as listed as the owner.

The offices of Wadani Properties are located at 2200 E Franklin Ave, # 204.

According to the website of the Minnesota Secretary of State, Garad Nor is also the Chief Executive Officer of Dar Al Tawakul General LLC. Dar Al Tawakul General LLC is one of the companies listed in the indictment against the two Rochester citizens found guilty of money laundering for al-Shabaab.

Dar Al Tawakul General LLC is also located at 2200 E Franklin Ave, # 204.

Garad Nor, the owner of the destroyed building on Cedar Avenue South, acknowledged his place on Treasury’s list of interdicted persons and companies. According to an article published in 2012 by The Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

“Nor, who also goes by the name Garad Jama, was in Dubai the day he learned through CNN that his name was listed among 62 individuals and organizations that the U.S. government said had helped fund Osama bin Laden.”

Why might Garad K. Nor have been in Dubai, of all places?

Here’s a possible reason:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/21/2014

After an unprecedented escalation of political violence, opposition leaders in Ukraine struck a deal with President Viktor Yanukovych brokered by the EU. The president promised to install a new government that includes opposition leaders, arrange for the writing of a new constitution, and call early elections. The Ukrainian parliament then voted to release Mr. Yanukovych’s imprisoned rival, Yulia Tymoshenko.

In other news, a European think tank has released a study concluding that Greece will require yet another Eurozone bailout, this one of €40 billion.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, 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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Olympia and the Ancient Olympic Games

If you appreciate this essay by Fjordman, please consider making a donation to him, using the button at the bottom of this post.

Olympia and the Ancient Olympic Games
by Fjordman

In ancient Greece there were four so-called Panhellenic Games, open to all (free male) Greeks. They included the Nemean, Isthmian and Pythian Games. However, the Olympic Games were apparently the oldest of them.

Outsiders sometimes confuse Olympia with Mount Olympus. Olympia, where the original Olympic Games were held, is situated in the western parts of the Peloponnese, the large peninsula in southern Greece.

Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in the country at 2,917 meters, is located in northern Greece. In ancient Greek mythology, this was believed to be the home of the Olympian gods: Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hera and Hermes. Hades, the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, ruled the Underworld.

There are traces of older buildings at Olympia, but according to tradition, the first Olympic Games took place there in 776 BC.[1] They were initially mainly of local importance, but gradually grew in significance. The games were held every four years. Whenever they took place, an Olympic truce of peace was supposed to hold force between the various Greek city-states.

The ancient Olympic Games continued from 776 BC until at least 394 AD. They were suppressed in Late Antiquity, after Christianity had been established as the state religion of the Roman Empire. The Olympic athletic competitions had formally been held in honor of Zeus, the mightiest of the Greek deities. As such, Christians were partly associated them with pagan gods.


The central part of Olympia was dominated by the majestic Temple of Zeus, with the Temple of Hera parallel to it. If you visit the Archaeological Museum of Olympia today, it houses remains from the workshop of the great sculptor Phidias (or Pheidias). These include tools such as bronze spatulas and awls as well as clay moulds. He stayed with his assistants at Olympia, after having worked for years on the magnificent Acropolis of Athens.

His great statue of Zeus was erected at the Temple of Zeus at Olympia shortly before Phidias died around 430 BC. It was his final masterpiece, considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is now lost, but we have written descriptions of it plus smaller images preserved on coins.

The statue may have been as high as 13 meters. The huge chryselephantine statue had a core of wood, on which gold sheets were fitted depicting the god’s himation (mantle), hair and shoes. The unclothed parts of the god, such as his face, torso and arms, were made of ivory.[2] The cedar wood throne upon which Zeus was sitting was ornamented with ebony, ivory and gold and decorated with precious stones. The bearded god was crowned with an olive wreath, his left hand holding a scepter next to an eagle. The statue was regularly oiled, in order to maintain the materials.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/20/2014

The protests in Ukraine are now verging on civil war, with estimated body counts for the clashes between demonstrators and police in Kiev ranging from 33 to 70, with hundreds wounded. The protesters reportedly captured some 67 police officers and paraded them around as prisoners. They are also alleged to have fired at the media.

In other news, entrepreneurs in Pakistan are using images of Barack Hussein Obama to help sell black-market knock-offs of Viagra. Mr. Obama is said to be a symbol of potency and manliness in Pakistan.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, Srdja Trifkovic, 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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Death Threats for Opening a Wine Bar

Consider the following news story:

Alabama man threatened with death over bar and grill

The Alabama entrepreneur Earl McTeague (40) is being threatened with death because he opened a bar and grill in Tuscaloosa this weekend.

McTeague is from a strict Baptist family. His father is a preacher. After his marriage to a woman in his church went wrong, he decided to change course. Since then, McTeague has been a passionate entrepreneur.

He fulfilled a dream by opening his own bar and grill, but the death threats he has received have put a damper on his initial excitement.

“I want to be who I am” he tells Metro. “I also teach my children that they should be someone rather than no one. The opening of a bar and grill may go against the Baptist culture I grew up with, but it feels good. I want to do what I want, am different and independent.”

The police are keeping a close eye on McTeague’s case. Mayor DuPree communicates via a spokesperson that he finds it difficult to understand that people can send such threats.

No, it’s not a real story. The real story is below the video. I just made a few carefully chosen global search-and-replace changes to the article from Rotterdam about the woman who opened a wine bar.

Some secular people who don’t care for Christianity are quick to assert that Muslims and Southern Baptists are a lot alike. They’re strict about their religion and don’t approve of alcohol — so they’re basically the same, right?

Well… How many times have you seen a story like the imaginary one above?

But the story of Elou Akhiat and her wine bar is, sadly, not at all surprising. It’s what we’ve come to expect in culturally enriched places like Rotterdam, especially when apostasy is part of the mix.

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

The real article from NLTimes:

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I May be Tolerant and Inclusive, But at Least I’m Not White

Amarra Ghani is a 24-year-old woman of Pakistani background who is interning at National Public Radio. She was born in Brooklyn, and remembers suffering greatly as a child from the intolerance expressed towards her family by non-Muslim Americans in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Before she joined the cadres at NPR, she was a student at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, and a member of the Muslim Students’ Association on campus. While she was at UNC in 2012, she guest-blogged at “Breakfast at Night: A Ramadan Photo Project” about her fellowship with the other two “Abrahamic faiths”.

In March 2012 she took part in a UNC event to commemorate Trayvon Martin:

Members of the Black Student Association (BSA) and the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at the University of North Carolina at Asheville have joined forces to call attention to the murders of Shaima Alawadi and Trayvon Martin in their community.

The groups are asking school mates and community members to attend a rally on Thursday wearing black hoodies and black scarfs.

“This is a rally in solidarity for both Trayvon and Shaima,” Amarra Ghani, president of the MSA says in a YouTube promoting the rally. “Your headgear should not be a threat.”

“This is not a weapon of mass destruction,” Ghani says in the video as she points to the hijab around her head.

Last December, in one of her posts on the NPR blog, she talked about the hijab:

The hijab is a physical symbol of God-consciousness for everyday life. The women in the video all wear hijab, but they embrace their own unique style. And the video was meant to spark an important conversation: Muslims are not monolithic.

Ms. Ghani also has a YouTube channel. As far as I can determine, it contains only two videos, one about Occupy Asheville, and the other about Martin Luther King Day at UNC.

As you can see from the above examples, Amarra Ghani is a sterling example of openness, inclusiveness, tolerance, and interfaith understanding… in English. In Urdu — the language of her ancestors from the Indian subcontinent — it’s another matter entirely.

On Twitter yesterday, Amarra Ghani posted a tweet that included a snippet of Urdu. A reader and Twitter user named Rashid Saif understands the language, and sent us a note this morning about Ms. Ghani’s tweet:

Amarra Ghani puts up a face of inclusiveness and Muslim integration when writing for NPR (one example) .

However, when she switches to Urdu on twitter, she is a racist:

thankin the Good Lord like 90x a day that main nahin gori. ~praiSes~

“Main nahin gori” means “that I’m not a white woman”.

So her tweet is really: I thank god 90x a day that I’m not a white woman.

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