No one expects to leave the Canadian Inquisition!

Ezra Levant, as you may recall, is the publisher of the now-defunct Canadian magazine Western Standard. Mr. Levant was summoned to appear before the Alberta Human Rights Commission to answer for his publication the Danish Mohammed cartoons, after several Muslims made complaints. Fortunately for blog readers, Mr. Levant had the foresight to videotape his encounter with Soviet Canadian “justice” and post it on YouTube, leading to an enormous backlash that induced one of the complainants to drop his complaint.

Turns out the blowback had other effects as well. The latest casualty is Mr. Levant’s interrogator on the HRC, who has resigned her position from the case [corrected by Vince]:

…Shirlene McGovern, the “human rights officer” who interrogated me, has resigned from my case. The human rights commission advised my lawyer that McGovern quit because of the public backlash against the commission — and against her in particular. In other words, she didn’t like being called a censor in the blogosphere.

I’m not sympathetic. I believe that any government bureaucrat who makes a living interrogating citizens about their political beliefs ought to be held in public contempt. McGovern truly doesn’t get it — she thinks what she does for a living is perfectly bland, just like her.

As I wrote in the Globe last month, at my interrogation, McGovern wanted to make small talk and shake my hand. I upset her by not being complicit in my own prosecution.

In the future, I suggest that, if asked at cocktail parties, McGovern tell people she has a less disreputable job — say, tax collector, or parking ticket issuer.

This is what denormalization means. Human rights commissions are bullies, even if their officer of the day is a spacey, middle-aged drone. Surely McGovern can find a less destructive career elsewhere in government or — heaven forbid, in the private sector.

UPDATE: Here’s the kind of coverage that drove Shirlene to quit.

The decisive coverage referred to by Mr. Levant is an editorial in MichNews by Lee Duigon. An excerpt:
– – – – – – – – –

We may marvel at Levant’s eloquence as he denies the Kourt’s right to put him through this inquisition, which has so far cost him some $100,000. We may marvel at his courage, his pluck, and the unassailable logic of his arguments.

But what is more marvelous still is the bovine indifference of the hearing officer. Levant would have done little worse, talking to a bottle of carpet cleaner.

What we see here is a petty bureaucratic tyrant who knows that the accusation alone is enough to find the defendant guilty, and that the whole procedure, as she understands it, is a waste of breath. She knows she’s not obligated to listen to a word the defendant says. It’s all she can do to restrain herself from cutting out paper dolls while Levant speaks.

She also knows that she and her Kourt are accountable to no one; that they, and they alone, decide what is permissible speech in the Province of Alberta; and finally, she knows that the Kourts have a 100% conviction rate. It’s Stalin’s show trials all over again, without the firing squads.

Yep, that about sums it up. I guess Ms. McGovern didn’t want to look at herself in this particular mirror any more.

But where do you hunt for a new job after finishing a gig like this one? Where does it help you to have “Grand Inquisitor” listed next to “previous position” on your résumé?

Sweden, maybe?

Hat tip: Zenster.

These are the first rumblings. Does anyone think they will be the last?

According to ANSAmed:

The situation at the border checkpoints between northern Kosovo and Serbia returned to normal today, after this morning’s incidents caused by some 200 Kosovo Serbian protesters, the command of the NATO KFOR contingent said, adding that the rally was dispersed on the arrival of a French detachment.

The protesters attacked in a rapid succession a police station in Jarinje (called gate 1) and then the border crossing of Brnjak (called gate 2), both inside the Kosovo Serbian enclave north of Kosovska Mitrovica, setting fire to the former and blowing up passport control booth and several vehicles near the latter. Kosovo police officers of Serbian origin and international police officials, faced with the impossibility to intervene, called for KFOR reinforcements to act for the first time since Kosovo’s unilateral independence.

– – – – – – – – –

No incidents were registered after the arrival of the French soldiers. The rally dispersed, following verbal tension with some 30 indomitable protesters, while the border crossing was temporarily closed.

According to Kosovo Serb sources, the protest sparked off from the announcement of the possible arrival of Albanian customs officers at the Brnjak crossing: a crossing that the Serbs — not recognising Kosovo’s independence — do not consider a border. The head of the UN administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), Joachim Ruecker, condemned the raid as “a violation of the mandate given to the UN” in the region and warned that no “violence will be tolerated”.

Another protest (this time peaceful) took place at the same time in north Mitrovica by one thousand students, while youth processions of solidarity with the Kosovo Serbs are held without incidents — after the appeal of President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica to stop any violent action — in the Serbian cities of Kragujevac, Jagodina and Nis.

Hat tip: C. Cantoni

I must have been sleeping when this story came out on the 12th of this month. How come nobody told me??

Remember the mentally retarded women who were used as unwitting suicide bombers? Well, guess who helped al Qaeda set them up?

The acting director of a Baghdad psychiatric hospital has been arrested on suspicion of supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq with the mentally impaired women that it used to blow up two crowded animal markets in the city on February 1, killing about 100 people.

Iraqi security forces and US soldiers arrested the man at al-Rashad hospital in east Baghdad on Sunday [February 10th, I think – D]. They then spent three hours searching his office and removing records. Sources told The Times that the two women bombers had been treated at the hospital in the past.

Forgive the immediate cliché that comes to mind – probably an association you have also: shades of Hitler. However, this is a little more complicated, except for the al-Qaeda connection that is:

“They [the security forces] arrested the acting director, accusing him of working with al-Qaeda and recruiting mentally ill women and using them in suicide bombing operations,” a hospital official said.

Ibrahim Muhammad Agel, director of the hospital was killed in the Mansour district of Baghdad on December 11 by gunmen on motorbikes. Colleagues suspect that he was shot for refusing to cooperate with al-Qaeda.

They obviously mean that the director named here is the late Dr. Agel. You have to admire his courage in refusing to hand over his patients to mass murder. He paid a high price for his refusal, but I do wonder why he wasn’t given a security guard. The pieces don’t fit…
– – – – – – – – –

Even before Sunday’s arrest, US officials believed that al-Qaeda was scouring Iraq’s hospitals for mentally impaired patients whom it could dupe into acting as suicide bombers. They said that al-Qaeda had used the mentally impaired as unwitting bombers before. “We have fairly good reason to believe this is not the first time they have recruited mentally handicapped individuals,” said one senior officer, though he did not think there had been more than half a dozen cases.

The attraction of mentally impaired women to al-Qaeda was obvious, he said. Being women they could get close to targets with less chance of being stopped or searched; being mentally impaired, they were “less likely to make a rational judgment about what they are being asked to do”.

…One of the women was given a backpack full of explosives and ballbearings, the other a suicide vest laden with explosives. They were sent into the middle of al-Ghazl and New Baghdad markets, which were packed with people. Their explosives were then detonated by remote control.

How chilling even to contemplate! Some lower form of depravity has been unleashed upon the world in the vacuum that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. Just as we could not contemplate the hell of Beslan before it happened, we could not have imagined a man standing (or sitting) some safe distance away. Then, just as the woman reached the place most crowded with families were looking at pets, those malevolent beings pushed the button.

President Reagan had no problem calling evil by its name. Our current politicians never use real words; they talk about “hope” and “change” and “dreams”… Why? It’s not stupidity. These people are some of the best and the brightest. Nonetheless they seem willfully blinded by ambition.

The next bit of news was reassuring: The Times obviously has some sense of human decency in not providing us with images of what they saw:

The Times was shown photographs of the two young women’s severed heads, which were recovered from the wreckage. One very obviously had Down’s syndrome. The other had the round face, high forehead and other features often associated with Down’s syndrome, but her symptoms were less pronounced.

Think of the families of these two women, and what they must be suffering. Al-Qaeda may not be able to win friends, but it sure can influence people…

[…]

The US military believes that al-Qaeda is adopting these extreme tactics because the prevalence of check-points and concrete barriers is making car bombings harder, and fewer foreign suicide bombers are reaching Iraq. …

Thus, al-Q takes another, even more inhumane tactic. It is hard to imagine how much further down they could descend, but I have an idea it could get worse. Victory triumphs any other consideration for these murderous zealots.

Foreign jihadists – invariably male – used to carry out 90 per cent of the suicide bombings in Iraq, but the US military believes that tighter controls have halved the influx to 50 or 60 a month. The officer conceded that protecting public places against individual suicide bombers was almost impossible. “You really can’t stop a determined bomber from blowing themselves up,” he said. “The key is continuing to take down the terrorist network that conducts these operations.”

But some of our presidential contenders want to draw down the forces in Iraq and leave its people to the tender mercies of al-Qaeda. That’s the part I don’t understand. What has happened to the purported leaders in our country who are willing to let people die? Whether or not you supported our original move into Iraq, now that we are there, we have a moral obligation to keep on keeping on.

To do any less is to coöperate deliberately with evil.

Hat tip: From Waka Waka Waka. He titled this story “A Faith-Based Initiative”

Some Western analysts are more upbeat than we are about the prospects for Kosovo. According to AKI, one expert thinks an independent Kosovo can become the model for a secular Muslim state:

Kosovo: New state could become a ‘Muslim’ model, says academic

The new state of Kosovo could become a secular model for a Muslim state, a leading academic said on Tuesday.

James Walston, head of international relations at the American University in Rome, told Adnkronos International (AKI) the independence move, following the example of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, could be good for Kosovo.

“Both have strong secular foundations made stronger by their desire to join the European Union,” Walston told AKI.

“A ‘Muslim’ Kosovo might provide a secular model for other countries with a Muslim majority. It could be very positive.”

As countries on both sides of the Atlantic continued to debate the merit of Kosovo’s independence move, Walston and other experts criticised the European Union for failing to produce a united front on the issue.

“It shows that EU foreign policy is a shambles,” Walston said. “It’s not surprising, we know who accepted and who didn’t.”

– – – – – – – – –

The US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, all moved quickly to recognise the new state of Kosovo on Monday.

Russia has consistently opposed the move and appealed to the United Nations Security Council to block it. Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus and Romania are also opposed to Kosovo’s independence.

Robin Shepherd, senior research fellow for Europe at the London-based thinktank, Chatham House, said the European Union must find a way to resolve its differences over Kosovo.

“The European Union must find a way forward,” Shepherd told Adnkronos International (AKI). “I think the big countries will do their best to get the EU behind it but it is exposing its weaknesses.

“I think Kosovo’s future depends on long-term support. It needs investment aid but it needs to be tied with NATO and the EU.”

[…]

A European Union ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday “took note” of Kosovo’s declaration of independence, leaving it individual EU countries to recognise it unilaterally.

I agree with Dr. Walston (he must be a PhD to have such weighty opinions, right?): Kosovo could very well become a model Muslim nation.

It just won’t be the model that everyone is thinking of. Think Iran or the Taliban instead, only this time a Sunni version.

In the end, we will reap what we have sown.

Hat tip: C. Cantoni

I weep for my country.

Not only did the USA create an independent Muslim gangster state in the Balkans, but feisty little Denmark is miles ahead of us in the Counterjihad.

In Denmark even the socialists are staunchly against Islamization. Mind you, these are the Danish equivalents of Nancy Pelosi and Ted Kennedy.

Here are two articles from the Danish-language media on the latest pronouncement by the socialist leader Villy Søvndal. First a Jyllands-Posten article, as translated by our Danish correspondent TB:

Søvndal to HuT: You have come to the wrong place

If they are so flatheaded that they really want the caliphate and the sharia they should go to Iran or Saudi Arabia, writes SF’s [The Socialist Peoples Party’s] leader about the extreme muslim organization.

“Hizb-ut-Tahrir is not only wrong — they have simply come to the wrong country. They have nothing to do in Denmark, and they will not achieve their goals, writes Villy Søvndal in his blog, and continues:

“There are countries in the world that are much closer to the wet dreams of these fools. So if the wish is caliphate or sharia — then their potential is much, much bigger for example in Iran or Saudi Arabia. So from here a clear request: ‘Move on — and it can’t happen fast enough!’“

The leader of SF has this announcement for “the ordinary Danes, who with good reason are very tired of HuT’s grotesque viewpoints and insane demonstrations: There are a lot of us who feel the same way. I am tired of them too! Therefore let us together send them a clear message: Your benighted state of idiocy has no place on earth, because in the long run nobody wants to live in captivity, ignorance and your pathetic clumsiness”

[…]

“To those who feel attracted by HuT and who meet resistance in their life — as every human meets resistance in life: Get out of the role of victim. Get out of the Middle Ages. Have the courage to use your common sense. Acknowledge the historic superiority of democracy, acknowledge the authority and equality of women, acknowledge sensibility and knowledge as the foundation to meet other people. Then, everything is going to be all right.”

The second article is from Berlingske Tidende, and has been translated by our Danish correspondent Kepiblanc:
– – – – – – – – –

Socialist chairman Villy Søvndal to Hizb-ut-Tahrir: Bugger off!

Hizb-ut-Tahrir has nothing whatsoever to do in Denmark, says Socialist People’s Party chairman Villy Søvndal, who calls the organizations Caliphate dreams ‘imbecile’.

Villy Søvndal doesn’t use soft talk on his party’s homepage, where he in a hitherto unseen attack on Hizb-ut-Tahrir urges them to “go somewhere else”.

“Hizb-ut-Tahrir isn’t only confused, they are totally lost. If they really are so stupid that they want Sharia and a Caliphate here, they’ve come to the wrong country. They have nothing whatsoever to do in Denmark and they will not get what they want.”

The party’s chairman calls Hizb-ut-Tahrir and its members “fools” and says that he is utterly tired of their “grotesque demonstrations” and “lunatic views”.

“That’s why I urge Hizb-ut-Tahrir and its supporters — the chairman of the ‘Islamic Society’ [Danish version of CAIR — translator], who marched at one of their demonstrations, included — to go somewhere else. Your cause has no perspective and no future in Denmark. And all ordinary Danes are sick and tired of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and its grotesque and insane demonstrations: That’s how most of us feel. And I am one of them!”

Tonight Larwyn sent around a post from American Thinker that brought back old memories…places and times from my youth. They are tarnished with the years and overlaid with later, harsher memories, but when I clean them up, spit shine the nicer ones, they are pleasant to contemplate.

First, my tale, and then Mr. Vaughn’s neologism for today’s military. These guys don’t have PTSD he says (though I think a solid minority do indeed suffer from it. An inevitable by-product of all wars); rather they have Chronic Warrior Syndrome. He does not mean that pejoratively.

Both our tales are predictable in their way. Easy sentiment for the old days. But in the end, that’s what I want: something easy and uncomplicated. Youth is way too complex and uncertain to endure again.

When I was twenty I married a Marine. We were both much too young so it was not fated to go well, but that is beside the point here.

What I want to mention instead are my own particular memories and feelings that Vaughn’s essay brought to mind. They came back in a rush, a whole gestalt of what it meant to be a Marine wife, and how much I liked it.

We were very poor. In fact, one time my E-4 husband “liberated” some C-rations from the flight line and they stretched our budget that month. I felt guilty at the time and eventually mentioned it to the chaplain. He looked at me and laughed and then said something I have used over and over through the years. He said, “Girl, your husband did nothing wrong and neither did you in eating those blasted things. The first law of moral theology is that an owner has to act like an owner. So if Uncle wanted to secure that food he should have set up a guard detail. Forget it.”

So I didn’t trouble myself about it anymore.. But I never forgot that priest’s “First Law of Moral Theology.” In fact, I have used it to comfort other people when appropriate. It cuts the guilt of the overly-scrupulous right to the quick. A painless operation, in fact.

My favorite task was spit-shining boots. Yeah, I’m weird. I like to polish silverware, too. Man, I could really get those boots looking fine. And do any Marines recall the trick of putting empty milk cartons in your field pack when you had a day of marching ahead of you, cadenced in the hot southern sun?…

The marriage is gone, but my love for the Marine Corps remains. Yes, I do indeed remember the old adage, “if the Marine Corps wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one.” Fortunately, a lot of jarheads ignored that one. I liked the Marine Corps Wives’ group; it was fun exchanging stories…

I guess my own favorite tale was the time we had a minor fire in the kitchen…
– – – – – – – – –
(hot oil had spilled on the stove) and my husband had to use his government-issued blanket, which got scorched in the process of putting out the flames. He brought it in to exchange for a new one, and had to fill out – in triplicate – the explanation for having “damaged government property.”

Not long ago, I heard from one of the other wives from those times. Her husband did his twenty years and now they live in the Smokey Mountains. We laughed about the old, young times…and then Russ Vaughn’s essay came along tonight and brought it all back again, right down to the smell of that black shoe polish and the tall pines of North Carolina…

Here is Mr. Vaughn:

One of the things I’ve come to love about writing for the Internet is the new friends I make whose perception sometimes make me smack my forehead in wonder that in all my years some insight they easily offer up had so completely eluded me until now. One such is a jarhead, and believe me, as an old paratrooper, I use that term with respect and brotherly affection. Old Leatherneck, Troy Watson, introduced me to the concept of Chronic Marine Syndrome, which as best I can determine is the inspiration of retired Marine Corps Brigadier General, Mike Mulqueen.

Reading the list of symptoms associated with Chronic Marine Syndrome, I realized quickly that the New York Times and other mainstream media organizations have been right all along that those who serve their country, and especially those who have actually fought in their country’s service have most likely developed a syndrome which, considering the moral fiber of the mainstream media and the nation of sheep they seek to form and lead, could accurately be categorized by them as pathological.

Pardon me Marines in general, and General Mulqueen, specifically, but I think CMS extends beyond the Corps and infects past, present, and surely the future ranks of all American military services. Consider, if you will, but a few of the symptoms General Mulqueen has defined as markers of this unique infliction, as well as some others I have added:

• First and foremost, having confidence in who they are
• Possessing pride in oneself, one’s organization and the country they serve
• Being knowledgeable of and comfortable with the terms honor, courage and commitment
• Determined to see the mission, regardless of temporary setbacks, accomplished
• Often either respected or despised by others, due to their unique abilities and talents
• Internally and essentially immune to organizational political correctness
• Able to meet you with a firm handshake and look you in the eye
• When not a warrior, a first responder, cop, fireman, nurse, doctor, EMT, etc.
• If he/she says “Hang on, I’m coming for you,” you can bet your life, they’re coming for you
• Shares the tremendous pride and the undying respect of his or her family
• Shares the tremendous pride and the undying respect of his or her buddies, military and civilian
• Shares rations, water and candy bars with the unfortunate children of war
• Shares, unfortunately, the gratitude of only some of us in this nation he or she protects

Yes, I’m beginning to see where the media can make a sensational case that these people, these soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen that we send out in harm’s way to defend us, somehow possess a demonstrable set of symptoms that clearly differentiate them from far too many in America today, especially these selfsame parasites in the mainstream media who greedily suck at the nation’s wounds and feast on the world’s offal.

Since these symptoms seem to apply solely to a unique minority of volunteers who place selflessness above all other virtues, a condition of some rarity in this age of “me first,” I can now understand how those staunch, courageous patriots at the New York Times and their fellow travelers at the broadcast networks see our returning warriors as unwell in some way.

Yep, I simply can question their judgment no longer; our troops returning from the Mideast wars are indeed afflicted and it’s time to give that affliction a catchy name like the one the media loves for my generation of warriors: PTSD. However, considering the group of symptoms described above, I think we should call this current problem, CWS: Chronic Warrior Syndrome.

Long may our young warriors be afflicted. HOOOAHH!

Russ Vaughn
Vietnam 65-66

“Chronic Warrior Syndrome” is posted at American Thinker and Old War Dogs. I tried to find Russ Vaughn’s poem, but no luck. If anyone has a copy, send it along

Today Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, and was recognized by the United States and various European countries as a sovereign nation.

In 1999 the United States waged an air war against Serbia to drive Serbian forces out of Kosovo and allow the UN to take charge of the province. At the time some people insisted that Bill Clinton was using the opportunity presented by Kosovo to distract attention from his impeachment. However, he may just been making nice with the Saudis and doing a favor for the Europeans, who were alarmed by the bad press coming out of Serbia.

In any case, the Clinton administration started us down the path that led to today’s events. The Bush administration gladly took over the Kosovo project and pursued it vigorously. After 9-11 it was especially important to demonstrate that we weren’t anti-Islam, that we were willing to allow Christians to be ethnically cleansed and killed in order to benefit Muslims.

We’ve got nothing against you, Islam, and Kosovo proves it. So now do you love us? Well, do you?

An independent Kosovo is one of the most grotesquely wrong-headed policies ever pursued by the United States, ranking up there with Jimmy Carter’s love-feast with the Sandinistas in 1979.

It’s not just that Kosovo is Islamic. The province is a sinkhole of corruption, crime, and religious fanaticism all rolled together, and will be unable to function as a viable independent country for the foreseeable future. It’s the Gaza Strip of the Balkans.

In the nine years since the UN took over, Wahhabists funded by the Saudis have penetrated the area thoroughly, building mosques, recruiting violent radicals, and forming a “government” that is a deadly combination of Islam and mafia-style criminal gangs. The Kosovars have set themselves up as the kings of the European heroin trade, and an independent Kosovo will provide an unprecedented opportunity to compromise the new state’s banking system and make the government indistinguishable from a criminal enterprise.

An independent Kosovo in this form serves interests of no Western country. Drugs, gun-running, the prostitution of pre-teen girls, money-laundering, protection rackets, intimidation, and deadly turf wars, with all the proceeds going towards the funding of jihad and the further penetration of radical Islam into Europe.

Thank you, President Bush, for this present to southeastern Europe. It’s a gift that will keep on giving for decades to come.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The Serbs have vowed to resist the establishment of an independent Kosovo. They responded to today’s events by recalling their ambassador to the United States. According to the AP:

Serbia has recalled its ambassador to the United States in response to the Bush administration’s recognition of Kosovo’s independence, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Monday.

“This decision by the United States will not turn the false state (of Kosovo) into a real one,” Kostunica told parliament. “The government has ordered the immediate withdrawal of the ambassador from Washington.”

The United States and key European countries recognized Kosovo as independent a day after the province’s ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia.

Giddy Kosovars danced in the streets when they heard of the endorsements.

– – – – – – – – –

Kosovo’s leaders sent letters to 192 countries seeking formal recognition and Britain, France, Germany and U.S. were among the countries that backed the request. But other European Union nations were opposed, including Spain which has battled a violent Basque separatist movement for decades.

“The Kosovars are now independent,” President Bush said during a trip to Africa. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush “has responded affirmatively” to Kosovo’s request to establish diplomatic relations.

“The establishment of these relations will reaffirm the special ties of friendship that have linked together the people of the United States and Kosovo,” Rice’s statement said.

As word of the recognition spread, ethnic Albanians poured into the streets of the capital Pristina to cheer and dance.

The European Union was unable to settle on a unified policy towards the new country — they ended up agreeing to disagree:

EU nations stood deeply divided over whether to recognize Kosovo as their foreign ministers met in Brussels, Belgium, to try to forge a common stance. At the end of the meeting, the ministers adopted a statement clearing the way for some member nations to endorse independence.

Kosovo’s declaration was “a great success for Europe, a great success for the Kosovars and certainly not a defeat for the Serbs,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Brussels.

Spain, however, said the independence bid was illegal under international law.

And what will Serbia and Russia do?

Serbia’s government has ruled out a military response as part of a secret “action plan” drafted earlier this week, but warned that it would downgrade relations with any foreign government that recognizes Kosovo’s independence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that independence without U.N. approval would set a dangerous precedent for “frozen conflicts” across the former Soviet Union, where separatists in Chechnya and Georgia are agitating for independence.

The further south and east you go in Europe, the more resistance there is to Kosovar independence. After much argument, Italy has decided to recognize Kosovo:

Italy will recognize the independence of Kosovo, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema said here on Monday The caretaker diplomatic chief added that the former Serb province would be recognised as a ‘‘sovereign state under international supervision’’.

But opinion within Italy was far from unanimous. According to AGI:

‘Italy should not recognise Kosovo’s self-proclaimed independence and should not belong to the first group of countries to recognise the new state,’ said in a statement the minister for social solidarity Paolo Ferrero.

‘The decision made in Pristina, outside the UN framework, will further destabilise the Balkans. A region where the populations have been suffering for more than fifteen years from the effects of the war. The problem concerning the question of Kosovo is not side with someone against someone else, but to have at heart the reasons of peace and togetherness between the peoples.’

All the feel-good brouhaha in the media obscures the fact that Europe, and the EU itself, are deeply divided on the subject of Kosovo. After all the handshakes and photo-ops and bromides by President Bush the real trouble will begin.

According to ANSAmed:

United on the need to maintain stability and the European future for the western Balkans, including Serbia, but divided over recognising the independence of Kosovo.

It will be a difficult meeting, the one that the EU foreign ministers will have today in Brussels. Only a few hours after the declaration of independence by parliament in Pristina, they have to decide what to do after sending a civilian mission of 2,000 policemen and magistrates to Kosovo in order to assist its transition.

“Various EU member states are ready to recognise Kosovo,” Slovenian Foreign Minister and rotating president of the EU, Dimitrij Rupel, said specifying that the recognition is an individual act of each member state. And the EU does not want to be divided over a prerogative that it cannot even exercise. Therefore the EU presidency is working on a joint declaration that will only “take notice” of Pristina’s proclamation and will leave each member state free to act as they want.

Currently there are six states that have said that they will not recognise the new state: Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Greece and Spain. Madrid, which has already expressed its doubts, dismissed today all expectations to revise its position. “Spain will not recognise the unilateral proclamation of independence by the parliament of Pristina because it violates the international law,” Spanish minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said.

According to Madrid, the proclamation of Kosovo’s independence is an illegal act as it is made without an agreement between the two parties and outside of a UN mandate. “We do not know what the consequences of this act could be,” Moratinos added.

And what about the Kosovars? After we (meaning the UN) have done so much for them, they’re properly grateful, aren’t they? Now that we’ve proved we’re no Islamophobes, they love us — or do they?

Checkout this Swedish report from last June. It may not be up-to-the minute, but it’s unlikely that things have changed all that much since last summer. The author was reporting from Pristina:

“Revolution”, says Albin Kurti, emptying his cappuccino in one gulp, “we are going to make a revolution”. When he has said this for the third time people in the coffee shop start turning our way. They recognize him, they observe with expressionless eyes but prick up their ears.

He does not look like a revolutionary. More like an over-aged student from Berkeley. Somewhat chubby from hours spent at the computer, glasses, pale skin, soft white hands. But appearances can be deceptive. Albin Kurti is the idol of the young and that says a lot in a country where every second person has yet to turn 25. Ten years ago he had a Rastafarian hairdo and led the student protests against Milosevic. When peaceful actions turned out to be pointless he became a translator and an ideologue with UCK, the armed guerilla.

HE ALREADY HAS enough followers to poster the whole country with the word “Vetëvendosje”, (“self-determination”, which is also the name of his movement). Few people doubt that he could get the masses on to the streets.

Albin Kurti assures me that this revolution will be peaceful. One hundred thousand people will surround the headquarters, the police station and the court. They will stay as long as it takes. For a week, or maybe a month. That is how the colonial power will be chased out, this power that partitions his land, plunders its people and destroys its women. If I want to see where the Kosovo money went, says Kurti, I should look for newly built exuberant villas in London. Or in Amsterdam. If I want to learn about the morals of the colonial power I should count the number of brothels. “They were not here before you came.”

Outside jeeps pass by. The diesel-fuelled electric generators growl while Kurti quotes UN declarations, Malcolm X and African nationalist leaders. “Self-determination is the right of all peoples!” It could have been Congo in the sixties. But as I said we are in Kosovo, within a stone’s throw from Rome. And the colonial power, which will be thrown out — dear reader — is you and I. That is to say Sweden, one of the most dedicated members of the UN, who for seven years has governed Kosovo or in local slang “Unmikistan”, after UNMIK: United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo.

WHEN THE UN LANDED almost eight years ago we were welcomed as liberators. Since then Swedes have been wounded and killed in this mission. More then eight billion crowns of taxpayers money (the biggest assistance per capita ever recorded) has been spent on security, rule of law, refugee help, education and economic development. But nowadays it actually happens that people spit in our faces or destroy our cars. In October there was a water closet placed outside the UNMIK headquarters inviting us to relieve ourselves there instead of in the country. “The only way to keep Kosovo clean is to kick you out of here” was Albin Kurtis message.

So after nine years of UN “protection” the Kosovars loathe the UN. Funny about that.

And they can’t wait to get rid of the blue helmets:

BEFORE WE PART Kurti says: “Do you remember Algeria? The guys who threw out the French had “freedom, equality, brotherhood” on their banners. We will throw out the UN in the name of the UN ideals, ideals which you betrayed in Kosovo.”

Kosovo is an economic basket case, or at least the legal part of the economy is:

WELL INTO THE EIGHTH YEAR of the UN mission, after spending close to twenty-two billion euros on an area the size of Scania (with a population of about 2 million), the black economy is thriving whereas the white one is close to collapse. There is a standard explanation to this misery: As long as Kosovo’s independence from Serbia is not confirmed, nobody dares to invest in the country. Very probable. But what investments do you need to grow cucumber?

I comb the markets to find some local produce. The soap is from Bulgaria, the shirts from Taiwan. How about the flour? Czech. Drinking water from Hungary. Kosovo’s GNP per capita is lower than Rwanda’s, so it is a surrealistic feeling to have to buy tomatoes from Turkey and salad from Italy — in an agrarian country where the fields lie fallow.

Why do they? Because, explains Mr. Bajrami at the Chamber of Commerce, it pays better to sell chewing gum to the UN staff than to toil in the fields. But also because the UN courts after seven years still have not managed to determine to whom the fields actually belong. Finally, what makes him most upset is the fact that the UN allows Europe to dump prices on food in Kosovo. (Yes, it is strange. One litre of milk travelling from Slovakia gets cheaper on its way. You can buy a bottle of imported Coca-Cola for only 29 cents.)

[…]

How is it possible, you ask yourself, that a UN-run state, possessing enough lignite to light up the whole of Balkans, who invested seven hundred million euros in its two power stations, has not managed to generate sufficient electricity, but instead create pollution 70 times above the limit permitted by the EU? Kosovo does not require much electricity, somewhere between 600 and 1,000 megawatts, similar to what is produced by one reactor of the Forsmark nuclear power plant. But most people have electricity only a few hours a day, others not at all.

[…]

Let’s look at the stakes. Next to ethnic hatred, corruption is Kosovo’s biggest problem. It drains the economy and dilutes justice. But a handful of brave individuals chose to do exactly what the UN have told them to. They defy clan culture (“never tell on your kinsman”) and take big risks by agreeing to give evidence to the investigators. (One person has been murdered in connection with this bribery business. The kind of risks the used women are running I need not tell.) They deserve all admiration and support.

But what a misunderstanding. It seems the villains are the ones enjoying protection by the UN.

You have to say that the persons who put their trust in the UN learned a lesson they will never forget.

Now that Kosovo is its own master, expect it to give the UN the boot, all the while holding its hand out for more “aid”.

But then who will protect the gangster state from the Serbs and the UN? Who will guard the borders and run the air patrols? Whose high-tech equipment and “advisers” will be called in when the need arises?

I’ll give you three guesses.

Hat tips: LN for the DNet report, insubria for the rest.

Remember the boycott of Danish goods two years ago, during Round One of the Great Motoon Crisis? The OIC, with Saudi Arabia in the lead, announced a boycott against all goods produced by those offensive Viking infidels. In response some of the large Danish conglomerates, with the notorious Arla in the lead, caved in immediately and groveled before the sheikhs of Araby.

But the typical response was the raising of the renowned Danish middle finger to the Middle East and Muslims in general. Word spread through the blogosphere about plucky little Denmark, and counterjihad-minded people throughout the West started buying Danish. Not only was the boycott ineffective, it backfired: Danish exports actually rose.

The Arabs were denied the pleasure of Danish products, while the rest of us gorged on Havarti — not Arla brand, mind you! — and washed it down with Carlsberg.

A few days ago I just happened to notice Royal Dansk butter cookies on the shelf at my local Food Lion, so I decided to renew our personal “Buy Danish” campaign and picked up a box.

And not a moment too soon — in response to the latest crisis, Arabs have announced a new boycott.

According to AKI:

Saudi Arabia: New boycott against Danish goods after cartoon row

A new campaign has begun in Saudi Arabia calling for a boycott of Danish products, after the fresh publication of 12 controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, reported the Arab daily al-Watan.

“We will carry out a new boycott,” said the president of Arab entrepreneurs, Mohammed Abidat.

“It is imperative for Arab and Muslim tradespeople and shopkeepers to boycott Danish products,” he said.

[…]

The Muslim World League, a leading non-government organisation in the Muslim world, has condemned the renewed publication of the cartoons.

“It is important to take every initiative to ensure that the Prophet is not offended again.”

I say: it’s important to offend the Prophet every day, over and over again, until all the mujahideen drop dead of apoplexy.
– – – – – – – – –
So buy Danish. If your local supermarket doesn’t carry Havarti or Carlsberg or Royal Dansk or any of the other good Danish stuff, check out a specialty store.

But don’t buy Arla! Not only is Arla a predatory corporate conglomerate, but they have also proved themselves to be complete and utter commercial dhimmis.

Skip Arla — the logo is prominent and easy to spot — and go for all the other good Viking merchandise.

Hat tip: insubria.

From our Swedish correspondent LN comes this cartoon:

This unfortunate student is being forced to stay after school and write “I am not a homophobe” a thousand times.

Gotta get that mind right.

[Nothing follows]

I found this over at Steen’s place this morning:

No further words are necessary.

Photo © Snaphanen.

[end of post]

“Neither new laws nor more funding is the solution for the current week of riots.”

For the last week or so “youths” have been rioting in Denmark, burning cars, stoning ambulances, torching schools, and engaging in all the other high-spirited activities that the “youths” of Europe have become notorious for in the last few years.

The latest Danish intifada started out as an eruption of the autonomer, the young anarchist punks associated with Ungdomshuset. Muslim teenage gangs soon joined in the fun, later justifying it by citing the republication of the Motoons as an offense to their religious sensibilities.

The Danish government and average Danish citizens are not willing to put up with all this nonsense, and are now discussing the best ways to deal with it. The latest proposal under consideration is to force the parents of underage rioters to pay for the damage caused by their delinquent children.

Rolf Krake has translated a couple of articles on this topic. The first is from Jyllands-Posten:

Government coalition will hold parents responsible

It can in the future become costly for parents if their children under 18 years old participate in riots.

On Monday the Danish People’s Party launched a string of proposals for the prevention of new riots, and among the proposals is that parents shall be held economically responsible for the damage their offspring are inflicting.

“The youths can’t afford to pay for the cars they destroy themselves,” says the deputy leader of the Danish People’s Party, Peter Skaarup.

That is an idea that the Minister of Justice Lene Espersen views positively. She herself considered the same possibility after the earlier “Ungdomshuset riots”.

“It is totally and completely unacceptable that society has got to deal with an immense bill, all because the parents can’t live up to their responsibilities. If we can make the parents economically responsible, then they will have a much larger incentive to put their teenagers under house arrest or by other means prevent them from running around and burning cars in the streets,” says Lene Espersen.

The second article is also from Jyllands-Posten:
– – – – – – – – –

Fogh: It’s not society’s fault

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen places the entire responsibility for the burned schools and cars on the youths and their parents.

Neither new laws nor more funding is the solution for current week of riots, in which youths over most of the country have burned cars, schools, and containers. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen made this clear when he went on TV this evening to comment on the riots for the first time.

“Now we have to stop the old song that it is the fault of society. It is the responsibility of the youths — and their parents,” said the Prime Minister, who at the same time appealed to the youths to get started with education and working.

Lots of employment

“We are lacking in manpower, and we would like to see even more go to work. They must pull themselves together, said Fogh Rasmussen, who in clear speech warned the youths:

“You wont get any support this way — many people will turn their backs on you,” he said.

Personal decision

Political spokesman Henrik Sass Larsen (SDP opposition) says — concerning the actual events — that he agrees with the government in that the youths to some degree carry the responsibility for the burning cars.

“This will not be solved with lots of social cash or special ‘immigrant houses’. This is about the necessity for each youth to make a decision about whether he wishes to succeed in life. It is to a huge degree possible to be successful in Denmark; it is only a matter of getting started,” he said, although he also has suggestions over the longer term for improvement in integration efforts.

“We have make an effort in the area where many immigrants live. It is about social uplift and a broader coalition of inhabitants — it works,” he says, and also points to the need for more street workers.

“They can beat some common sense into the youth and aid in rebuilding their confidence in the future,” says Sass Larsen.

Photo © Snaphanen.

Have you ever noticed that the promoters of sharia in the West are always well-heeled Western liberals, people who have never actually had to endure the rigors of Islamic law?

The Archbishop of Cant, for all his pious endorsement of “social cohesion” under sharia, has never once had to suffer the tender mercies of Islamic jurisprudence.

And whenever you see a Muslim woman trotted out before the cameras and microphones to extol the benefits of sharia, there’s always some male relative standing right next to her while she joyfully spreads her message of Islamic wonderfulness.

Not all women who have experienced Islam feel this way. And some of those who have escaped its clutches have a different story to tell.

Homa Arjomand, a native of Iran, is one such woman. According to AKI:

Islam: Canadian activist slams faith-based courts

Islamic courts must be ruled out in Britain and other Western countries if the democratic rights of all their citizens are to be safeguarded, Iranian born activist Homa Arjomand, told Adnkronos International (AKI).

Homa Arjomand spearheaded a successful campaign to end faith-based arbitration in Canada.

She strongly disagreed with remarks made earlier in February by the head of the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who claimed that Islamic (Sharia) courts in Britain seemed “inevitable” and could aid “social cohesion”.

Arjomand told AKI that adopting Sharia courts, promoting Islamic schools and Islamic centres would be giving in to political Islam.

She said such courts would deny immigrant women equality with men and increase discrimination towards them, as well as the religious and racial segregation of minorities.

“It is the state’s duty to look after the well-being of all citizens, including women and children from so-called Islamic communities,” said Arjomand, who is a secular Muslim.

– – – – – – – – –

The failed experience of faith-based courts in Canada , where Arjomand lives, demonstrated the need for a single legal system that treats all individuals equally, she said.

“No rights should be taken away due to cultural sensitivity — we need to draw a line and say so when religious law compromises women’s rights,” said Arjomand.

Not if we’re the Archdhimmi of Canterbury, we don’t. Social cohesion comes first for us. Who are we to judge, anyway?

She is against multiculturalism and cultural relativity, which further divides society into cultural and religious groups, and “leaves people at the mercy of their own culture.”

There is a political agenda behind Williams’ remarks,” Arjomand argued. “It is this: allow the Islamists some freedom and segregate them from us.”

Yes, that’s the nasty little secret behind Dr. Williams’ approval of sharia: “brown” people don’t really need the rights and freedoms we enjoy. They can’t handle them, anyway, so the autocratic authority of their imams should keep them in line.

“The leaders of political Islam see their numbers growing and the problem of isolation,” she said. “They see youths being drawn to imams. They see the terror attacks in various countries. They are trying to get a greater share of power in the West.”

[…]

…Arjomand disputed that democratic rights could be guaranteed under Sharia law. “In Islam, there is no civil/criminal distinction,” she stressed. Islam sanctions extreme punishments such as amputation of limbs, stoning to death and flogging.

Islamic law is in opposition to established British legal traditions on many issues, including monogamy, divorce, the rights of women and custody of children, she said.

Death by stoning is the penalty for women who commit adultery, while Muslim men may enjoy multiple marriages, Arjomand pointed out. Under Sharia law, a Muslim may also divorce his wife by merely repudiating her three times, and gets custody of their children.

Moreover, Arjomand pointed out, in family disputes there is no right of appeal against a Sharia court’s decision and Muslim women are face discrimination areas such as inheritance and pension rights as well as divorce.

Divorced women from the Pakistani community in Canada have been sent back to family members in Pakistan and separated from their children, she said.

“No Muslim women want to go through faith-based arbitration,” she stressed.

Muslim women are collectively equivalent to a battered wife. First you have to get her away from her abuser to a place where she feels safe. Then she has to undergo intensive counseling to overcome the effects of years of conditioning. And, even after all that, she may never recover a normal and sane perspective about her abusive husband.

It would take generations of enforcement of the social norms of the West on immigrants before any Muslim woman could reliably offer an opinion on what she really wants.

And, of course, the sharia-advocators want to prevent that from ever happening.

Hat tip: C. Cantoni.

A second Danish cartoonist has been forced to live under police protection by the renewal of the Mohammed Cartoon Crisis. Our Danish correspondent Kepiblanc has translated an article about Franz Füchsel from Fyens Stiftstidende.

First, a note from the translator:

Franz Füchsel is one of the best known illustrators over here. He is funny and extremely productive in newspapers, magazines and books.

“Hang on, go back; after all it’s only a drawing made up by a South Jutland infidel.”


And now the article:

Cartoonist forced to live under police protection.

“I am not afraid, but worried,” says Franz Füchsel, a cartoonist who made one of the twelve Mohammed cartoons

The well-known cartoonist Franz Füchsel, living on the Danish island Fyn [Funen] has had his security detail re-established since last week, when PET foiled the murder plot against his colleague Kurt Westergaard. Franz Füchsel says to Fyens Stiftstidende that he is grateful for the police surveillance of his home.

“Once again some lunatics are on stage. They always will be. We cannot prevent it,” he says in his first major interview since the Mohammed crisis two years ago.

Last week Franz Füchsel took refuge in his summer cabin somewhere on the west coast in order to keep a low profile.

Does not regret his drawing

In spite of his children’s protest, he agreed to express his take on the whole affair.

– – – – – – – – –

“I’m not afraid, but worried,” says the cartoonist, who doesn’t regret his drawing — which later was sold and thus financed the rebuilding of a Turkish village destroyed by an earthquake.

Franz Füchsel speaks out because he thinks that “all this must settle down by now”.

He says he doesn’t fear for his life even if there’s a $50,000 bounty on his head in Pakistan.

Nevertheless this Motoon affair had consequences for him, such as being unable to travel in Muslim countries, e.g. Turkey.

“The culture we are up against has some nastiness and some people with a nasty way of treating their followers and others.

“But they better not come here with their nonsense,” says Franz Füchsel.

“As long as I live in Denmark, I will do exactly as I like within the law.”

Psychologist Tue Toft, Odense, thinks the threatened cartoonists live under considerable stress.

“It’s wearing them down. Productivity goes down and errors go up, because the subconscious is on alert.

“One can compare the situation to someone in a traffic accident who is afraid to drive again, only times 10 or 100 time when it comes to these cartoonists.”

According to Tue Toft it is important for the cartoonists’ well-being to find oases where they can relax, and to find some level of security they can live with.

Hat tip: Steen.

…It’d be a shame if anything happened to it.

Islam is giving us our last warning, via the OIC:

“Shape up, or we will discipline you. Enough with the cartoons and all that other blasphemous garbage. We mean business this time.”

We’re used to the thinly veiled threat that accompanies the ol’ Muslim Shakedown, but this time it’s the premier international Islamic organization doing the shaking. According to the Arab News:

OIC Warns of ‘Bigger Conflict’ Over Cartoon

The Organization of the Islamic Conference denounced yesterday the reprinting of a blasphemous Danish cartoon, warning it could lead to confrontations between Muslims and Christians. “By reprinting these cartoons we are heading toward a bigger conflict and that shows that both sides will be hostages of their radicals,” OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told AFP in Istanbul.

“It is not a way of improving your rights and exercising your freedoms when you use these rights for insulting the most sacred values and symbols of others and inciting hatred,” he said. “This is a very wrong, provocative way — unacceptable.”

Several Danish newspapers on Wednesday republished one of 12 drawings, which had already caused bloody riots in the Muslim world in 2006, after police uncovered an alleged plot in the Scandinavian country to kill the cartoonist.

“The people who are doing this put themselves with the radicals, the fanatics and extremists who are using their beliefs as justification to hurt others,” Ihsanoglu said. “This is not the way to improve relations between East and West, between Islam and Christianity.” The drawing has triggered fresh uproar in Muslim countries.

– – – – – – – – –

Thousands of supporters of the Islamist group Hamas protested in the Gaza Strip yesterday against the reprinting of the caricature. Hamas, which controls the coastal Palestinian territory, demanded that the Danish cartoonist be brought to trial and that an official apology be made to Muslims. It urged an end to organized campaigns to spread hatred of Islam.

“We are all a sacrifice to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), our blood, our property and our families are all a sacrifice to him,” a Hamas activist shouted through a loudspeaker after Friday prayers in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

At least 4,000 Hamas supporters took part in the rally yesterday, many waving green Hamas flags and others holding banners condemning the cartoons and urging Muslims to take action against Denmark. “Muslims must not be silent against these cartoons which are offensive to the great Prophet Muhammad,” one banner read.

“We urge Arab and Muslim countries to exert their efforts and to use all pressure tools under their control to stop these organized campaigns that spread hatred of Islam under so-called freedom of expression,” a Hamas statement said.

This is a classic protection racket — pay the “insurance premium” or we can’t guarantee your safety.

Make no mistake about it, we will definitely have to pay. In Arabic it’s known as jizyah, the tax one pays simply for the privilege of remaining non-Muslim. Most countries in the EU are already paying the jizyah in the form of massive welfare subsidies to idle Muslim immigrants, who consider such payments to be their rightful due to be extorted from the infidel.

However, much more than our money will be required of us. For those of us who survive, the full price demanded will be our complete submission.

Hat tip: TB.