Here’s something to look forward to: the Modoggie Musical.

I reported last October that Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist who created the blasphemous Modoggies, announced his intention to produce a musical called “Dogs”, based on the Prophet as a roundabout dog (among other things).

Mr. Vilks has not been idle in the intervening months. Production is underway for “Dogs”, and on Friday Mr. Vilks released a trailer for his musical. The text is in Swedish and English, with Arabic subtitles:

The texts that flash by include:
– – – – – – – – –
based on true events…

How Will It Be Tomorrow?

And I notice a cameo appearance by someone who is almost certainly Kurt Westergaard, the Danish artist who created the “turban bomb” Mohammed cartoon and helped ignite the entire Motoon crisis.

This is going to be fun…

For previous posts on Lars Vilks and the Roundabout Dogs, see the Modoggie Archives.

On Friday a Finnish newspaper published images of the Motoons, but at two removes: Helsingin Sanomat reprinted the photo of a pile of Danish newspapers that appeared in Berlingske Tidende earlier last week.

“Hey, don’t issue any fatwas on us, Abdul! It was the Danes what done it, see?”

Oh, well… At least they didn’t blur out the face of ol’ Mo…

Thanks to KGS for the photo.

[Nothing follows]

Thanks to Veritas Universalis for posting these, and to Steen for the tip.

According to Veritas Universalis (my translation):

The interview was recorded in the USA on February 1st, 2008. Lionheart says among other things that Al Qaeda is sitting on top of 95% of the narcotics traffic in England, that it considers it to be legitimate chemical warfare against the infidel, and that the distribution is managed by Pakistani taxi drivers. Lionheart is in mortal danger after the publicity he has been exposed to in recent weeks, and he is considering seeking asylum in the USA.

The three videos last a total of 28 minutes. I just received the tip, and haven’t had time yet to watch them myself.

[post ends here]

Iran is determined that Geert Wilders’ movie will never be publicly shown. According to the BBC:

The Iranian government has intervened to try to stop the screening of a film in the Netherlands about the Koran.

The Iranians say that the film, by the Dutch member of parliament Geert Wilders, is offensive.

The Iranian justice minister, Gholam Hussein Elham, wrote to his Dutch counterpart, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, calling for a ban.

Mr Hussein Elham said freedom of speech should not be used as a cover for attacking moral and religious values.

So freedom of speech should never be used to… speak freely?

What should it be used for, then? Christmas decorations? A doorstop?

Geert Wilders is clear about what he’s trying to do with his movie:
– – – – – – – – –

Mr Wilders says his film will show the Muslim holy book is an inspiration for murder.

But the Iranian justice minister says it is an unnecessary attack on what Muslims regard as the holiest of things.

There’s no contradiction here.

What Muslims regard as the holiest of things is also an inspiration for murder. In fact, inspiring murder is one of the primary purposes of the Koran. Murdering infidels is considered an Islamic obligation, in order to hasten the ascendancy of Islam over the entire planet.

But Iran sees the Devil at work:

He said the motivation behind the film was satanic and urged the Dutch government to stop its screening.

Mr Wilders has already been advised that he may have to leave the country for his own safety.

But the government has so far refused to intervene, saying the issue is one of freedom of expression.

We’ll see how long the government sticks to their guns. Their support for their own elected member of Parliament has been tepid at best.

Contrast the official Dutch response with the Danish government’s steadfast, vehement, repeated support for mere cartoonists and newspaper editors.

Perhaps the Danes could mount a mission to the Netherlands to give the Dutch a course in comprehensive spinal reconstruction.

The police want to talk to Lionheart about his blog “like we would with any other crime”.

Telling words, those.

Lionheart is supposed to turn himself in to the police tomorrow, but has decided not to return. This is the latest report on his situation, from the nespaper Luton on Sunday:

Web logger seeks asylum in States

A controversial ‘web logger’ from Dunstable is seeking asylum in America because he faces arrest in the UK for stirring up racial hatred.

Paul Ray, who regularly writes an online diary as ‘Lionheart’, was due to attend Bedford’s Greyfriars Police Station on February 18 as part of Bedfordshire Police’s investigation into his blog.

However, he has decided to apply for political asylum in America because he risks charges which carry a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

His blog includes his opinions on the heroin trade, Islamic fundamentalism and police corruption.

Mr Ray, 31, speaking to told Luton on Sunday on the phone from South Carolina, said : “I was going to meet Bedfordshire Police on Monday. But I don’t want to come back to England and get arrested.

“I had death threats in Dunstable and I wrote everything down.

“I did it because if anything happened to me then I wouldn’t just be another statistic.

“I have just written my thoughts down while I have been on the run.

“I am applying for political asylum on the grounds of political persecution and human rights issues.

“All I’ve done is written words on a blog. That doesn’t befit a prison sentence.”

Mr Ray, who used to have a flat in Great Northern Road and a computer shop on Albion Street, claims he has received death threats.

He admits his reactions to this in his blog may be considered ‘over the top’ but maintains he has a right to write his beliefs.

– – – – – – – – –

He has been in South Carolina dodging arrest after receiving an email from Bedfordshire Police’s DC Ian Holden on January 3.

The email said: ‘The offence that I need to arrest you for is ‘Stir up Racial Hatred by displaying written material’ contrary to sections 18(1) and 27(3) of the Public Order Act 1986.

“You will be arrested on SUSPICION of the offence. You would only be charged following a full investigation based on all the relevant facts and CPS consent.”

Mr Ray added that he will return to Britain unless Bedfordshire Police confirm they are going to cease their investigation.

A spokeswoman for Bedfordshire Police said: “We contacted him to say that when he returns to this country we would like to see him.

“We have got a complaint about his blog. That is the whole point of this exercise.

“We have spoken to him like we would with any other crime.”

The Saudis have a guest worker program, but they don’t like immigrants all that much, and they won’t granting amnesty to any of them.

And, above all, they don’t want foreign workers to have any political rights:

Riyadh seeks short residency permits for foreigners

Labour minister wants shorter residency permits for foreigners who work in Gulf region to avoid pressure to grant them political rights.

Ghazi al-Gosaibi, Saudi Arabia’s labour minister since 2004, said that his government backs a proposal to impose residency limits on the millions of foreigners who work in the Gulf to prevent them from ever gaining a political voice in politics, either in the local municipalities or even the parliaments of the oil-rich region.

– – – – – – – – –

Saudi Arabia is a member of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), an organisation that brings together six conservative Muslim states in the Persian Gulf region—foreign workers, mostly from South Asia, make up about 13 million or 37 per cent of the region’s overall population of 35 million people.

In an interview with Arabic language newspaper al-Eqtisadiah, the minister said that Saudi Arabia feared that international pressure would in the future force states in the region to enfranchise expatriate workers.

Residency limits would prevent such pressure but al-Gosaibi did not specify how long expatriate workers should be allowed to work.

“Enfranchise” foreigners? What does having the franchise mean in Saudi Arabia?

You get to vote for… what? An increase in the monthly sand allowance?

I’ve been meaning to get to this one for several days now — better late than never.

Fjordman’s latest post, “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Infiltration of the West”, is an extensive and detailed account of the history and current status of the Muslim Brotherhood in Islam and the Middle East. Some excerpts:

Research analyst Lorenzo Vidino writes about The Muslim Brotherhood’s Conquest of Europe: “Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, and Islamic organizations.” Their ultimate goal “may not be simply ‘to help Muslims be the best citizens they can be,’ but rather to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and the United States. With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the burgeoning Muslim community. But, speaking Arabic or Turkish before their fellows Muslims, they drop their facade and embrace radicalism.”

– – – – – – – – –

Moreover, “While the Muslim Brotherhood and their Saudi financiers have worked to cement Islamist influence over Germany’s Muslim community, they have not limited their infiltration to Germany. Thanks to generous foreign funding, meticulous organization, and the naïveté of European elites, Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations have gained prominent positions throughout Europe. In France, the extremist Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (Union of Islamic Organizations of France) has become the predominant organization in the government’s Islamic Council. In Italy, the extremist Unione delle Comunita’ ed Organizzazioni Islamiche in Italia (Union of the Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy) is the government’s prime partner in dialogue regarding Italian Islamic issues.”

The irony, according to Vidino, is that “Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna dreamed of spreading Islamism throughout Egypt and the Muslim world. He would never have dreamed that his vision might also become a reality in Europe.”

This is just a small sample of a comprehensive report. Go over to Jihad Watch and read the rest.

From our reader, Flyboy, comes a report on that hapless holyman who tried to slam Ezra Levant with terrorism libel. Turns out that Imam Syed Soharwardy’s Pinocchio nose is lengthening at an alarming rate:

Earlier this week, Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy spent nearly two hours with the Herald’s editorial board before announcing he would withdraw his two-year-long Alberta human rights complaint against Ezra Levant, the publisher of the defunct Western Standard magazine.

Soharwardy lodged the complaint after Levant published Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were central to murderous protests around the world by Muslims, including renewed violence in Denmark on Friday.

The good Imam would like to retrieve his lies complaint, but as he is learning – a bit late – some things can’t be undone. Especially since he’d made sure everyone was watching:

The founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC) asked for a meeting with the Herald’s editorial board via an e-mail, arguing that Levant was “attempting to paint me as a hate-mongering, anti-Semitic, Wahabbi radical who wants to see Canada governed under sharia law. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

See, that was the stumbling block right there. If you tell the truth all the time (at least on the major stuff), you don’t have to remember your lies. But the “founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada” forgot what he’d written and left for everyone to find. Didn’t take the reporter, practicing due diligence, any time at all to ferret out the facts. “Facts” here means whatever is left after you take out all the hyperbole. Before he could get there for the meeting, Ms. Licia Corbella was speedy on the keyboard:
– – – – – – – – –

While preparing for the meeting, a quick search on Canwest’s library system showed a Jan. 17, 2004, column written by the cleric.

In it, he wrote: “Sharia cannot be customized for specific countries. These universal, divine laws are for all people of all countries for all times.”

In the same column he also boasts: “I am one of the founding members of the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice. The mandate of the institute is to resolve disputes within existing Canadian laws by using the principles of conflict resolution from Islamic Law, or sharia.”

His column is clear. He wanted to bring sharia to Canada and even helped found the organization that spearheaded the drive to do so.

However, once at the meeting, he denied any such idea. Nah, wasn’t him who planned to cover Canada with a blanket of shari’a law. Must have been some other Imam Syed Soharwardy of Calgary because he didn’t do such things.

…in our meeting, Soharwardy denied his own column. “I never asked to bring sharia in Canada,” he now insists.

As for the allegation he’s anti-Semitic, in 2000 he wrote in his newsletter: “Presently, what Israeli forces are doing to Palestinians is worse than the Holocaust of World War II.” Comparing Israel’s attempts to defend itself to the carting of millions of Jews in cattle cars to gas chambers is obscene.

…in our meeting, he said the above quote was taken out of context, that he has numerous Jewish friends and holds a Hanukkah celebration at his mosque, the Al Madinah Calgary Islamic Centre.

Yeah, yeah, everyone has their favorite Jew. Hey, but that’s not even the worst of it. This guy gets an “F” for memory:

Some of Soharwardy’s most vile words came after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that killed more than 280,000 people.

While Christians from around the world were emptying their wallets to help the victims of this natural disaster, Muslim leaders were blaming the disaster on immoral Christian tourists in their countries.

Soharwardy seemingly got swept up in the wave of anti-Christian rhetoric and sent out a news release accusing Christians of kidnapping Muslim orphans in Indonesia. Again, he denied his own written words.

But that was then. This is now. New times, new message – or several of them:

“I don’t believe that, I just quoted what was in the newspaper and asked where are the wealthy Muslim governments, why are they not helping.”

However, the hapless chap is in the clutches of a reporter who has done her homework. Ms. Corbella quotes the taqiyya master:

…here’s what his Jan. 23, 2005, news release actually said: “ISCC… strongly condemns the exploitation of tsunami victims by the Christian missionaries. There have been several reports that the Christian missionaries are kidnapping Muslim children in Indonesia. . . . It is now proven that the Christian missionaries do not help people on humanitarian grounds. They help people in order to exploit their needs and convert them to Christianity.”

Now that there is where the Christians differ from the Jews every time. See, the Christians want to exploit children to get their required quota of converts. The Jews? They just want to drink da blood.

As Ms. Corbella says:

Even though it was mostly “Christian” countries and organizations that came to the aid of these devastated people, these kinds of news releases caused many Indonesian Christians to be attacked and killed, including three Christian school girls who were beheaded by Muslim men.

The reporter kindly calls his lies “his explanation.” According to the imam, he had the best intentions in the world and was just trying to help spread the word:

Soharwardy explained: “I wanted to use that news to send a message to Muslim governments.” In other words, he knew his news release would find its way overseas. Perhaps he was hoping to join the lecture circuit there, too.

Soharwardy is a charmer. He convinced me that I must have misread his columns. But re-listening to the tape of our meeting and rereading his original texts, one thing is clear: he cannot be believed.

To us, he said he lodged his complaint with the AHRC because he felt Muslim “youth were getting alienated” not because the cartoons subjected him to hatred.

Ma’am, he’s what you call a Two-Message Imam: one message for the Ummah, and an opposite communication for the Dummah, or as we are quaintly called in the plural, “dhimmi.” And if you listen to some Westerners you know how dim we really are.

Fortunately, she taped the conversation. Otherwise, we’d be stuck with the choice of believing him or our lying eyes. With this aural addition to the evidence, we can now choose whether to believe him or our lying ears.

The reporter observes:

This man with two master’s degrees in engineering, who has lived in North America since 1980, now says he has just realized how important free speech is. For a fella who practises outrageous forms of it — you would hope so.

To the CBC’s The National on Wednesday, however, Soharwardy gave a different reason for dropping his complaint against Levant, who has spent two years and $100,000 in legal fees fighting this Orwellian battle: “People were looking at Ezra Levant as a martyr of freedom of his speech . . . taking this into a different direction that I did not want.”

And what did Soharwardy want?

According to Ms. Corbella he merely wanted to be both the hero of the story and the Imam who was martyred for the cause by that infidel Jew, Levant. She says his plan “backfired.” I concur.

Ah the mills of Allah grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small. Now the Imam himself is on the receiving end of a human rights complaint:

• Women at his mosque are filing a claim of sexual discrimination.
• Levant plans an abuse of process lawsuit against the Imam,
• and now he’s being scrutinized on CNN and across Canada.

Ms. Corbella says “Soharwardy fell into his own trap.” She’s right. As for Levant, he’s enjoying the prospect of a dish best eaten cold: rightful revenge.

Soharwardy needs some brush-up lessons from the Wahhabis: taqiyya has to be subtle, untraceable, and clever. The boy’s got a lot of practice before he reaches the pro levels.

What is the correct punishment under shari’a law for bumbling your taqiyya so transparently in front of the kafr?

I hope it’s a liturgically proper stoning with the correct rocks –, i.e., of a size not so small as to do no damage, and not so large as to kill him off immediately. One needs sufficient time to consider eternity’s arrival.

Our Danish correspondent TB sends the latest on the New Improved Motoon Crisis, including a couple of translated quotes from the Danish-language media:

Today the Danish Board of Foreign Policy Matters unanimously have cancelled a planned trip to Iran after the Iranian ambassador demanded an apology for the reprinting of the Mohammed cartoons. That is, every single member from the far right to the far left has collectively made it crystal clear to the Iranians that under no conditions will they try to interfere with the press, or even worse, make an apology. And since this is an ultimatum from the Iranians, the trip is cancelled!

As they say: “No one is going to tell us what to print in our own newspapers. If anyone should make an apology it should be the Iranians for all their repeated violations against human rights etc.”

I cannot tell you how happy I am to see this kind of collective spirit among Danish politicians.

An excerpt from an article in today’s Berlingske Tidende:

On behalf of the committee in Iran who was supposed to host the Danes, the Iranian ambassador in Denmark writes in a letter Saturday that the case would risk overshadowing the visit. The Iranians therefore ask for the Danes to condemn the fact that a whole range of newspapers [that is, ALL of them — TB] have republished one of the cartoons.

A quote from Villy Søvndal, the leader of the Socialist People’s Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti, SF), as reported by today’s Jyllands-Posten:

– – – – – – – – –

“We are not the ones who have a need for making apologies. If anyone has a reason to make an apology related to questions about freedom of speech, human rights, executions, and lack of democracy, it is the Iranians. And that was exactly the intention of the trip, that we could tell the government and others that there exist a whole range of conditions in Iran that we do not like,” says Søvndal to Ritzau.

I mean, this is the socialist leader speaking. I know they are supposed to see religion as an opiate of the people, but they have, for sure, had their problems recently with sticking to their own principles. Now all this has changed.

Søvndal was a man that I until recently happily would compare with the collaborators during WW2! Today…!?

Strange days indeed, Baron. And good they sure are!

We live in interesting times.

Monk killers get life

By Post Reporters

Pattani — The Pattani Provincial Court yesterday handed down life sentences to five insurgents who torched a temple and burned a monk and two temple boys to death in a murderous rampage that shocked the country in 2005.

The five, led by Arduenan Wate, were among 11 suspects detained by police following an attack at Wat Phromprasit in Panare district.

Officers found the charred bodies of the three victims. The attack sparked outrage across the country and threatened to further divide the Muslim and Buddhist communities in the southern border provinces.

The remaining defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence.

The five men escaped the death penalty as they had confessed to police. However, their lawyer Korde Kortae, of the Association of Muslim Lawyers, said he would appeal the verdict.

The attack at Wat Phromprasit shook the once peaceful Ban Ko village where Buddhists and Muslims used to live together in harmony. Some Buddhist villagers said they wanted to leave fearing for their lives. They could not tolerate the acts of the assailants who damaged Buddha images at the temple. Muslims also spoke out against the violence.

In Narathiwat yesterday, a bomb aimed at a group of military officers sent to clear nails and spikes off a village road in Cho Airong district failed to explode, police said.

– – – – – – – – –

The bomb was hidden near an electricity pole along the road where the nails and spikes were scattered.

The device was wired to be set off by mobile phone but failed to detonate, officials said.

In Rueso district, police arrested Hamadsulyadai Bayo, 25, who allegedly killed a villager in the district early last month.

Police said they had evidence linking him to the murder even though Mr Hamadsulyadai strongly denied the allegation.

In Pattani’s Yarang district, four men ambushed a pick-up truck carrying security officials. The attack damaged the vehicle but no one was injured, police said.

Commentary by H. Numan:

There are a few things that one should never do in Thailand: criticize the monarchy or attack a monk. Attacking the monarchy is unthinkable. Nobody would do that, or even think about it. (Nor live to tell the story, for that matter).

During a coup, in 1973, if I’m correct, a group of monks walked through the firing line. While an actual gunfight was taking place, no less.

The firing stopped immediately when the first monk appeared, and continued after the last monk passed through. The monks didn’t even blink an eyelid…

Lots of thing may change, but this is not going to change in a hurry. One can safely assume that the jailer will throw away the key. Life normally means life here, and a royal pardon is not likely to be considered for those that kill monks.

This was Bangkok reporting,
H. Numan.

It’s Saturday…one of those no-rhyme-or-reason days. I thought I’d let you know who really wins the socialist/capitalist argument in the hereafter so you can begin deciding now. Who knows, it could even affect your voting choice.

Never mind…we already know where politicians go. Ain’t no angels there, either.

You will observe that should you pass through life dedicating your time to lobbying, the only way you’re going is down.

However, when you arrive, guess what? You do get to choose your political philosophy and affiliation. Life may not be fair, but it turns out that death is…

A political activist named Dave was just arriving in Hell and was told that he had a choice to make. He could go to Capitalist Hell or to Communist Hell. Naturally, Dave wanted to compare the two, so he wandered over to Capitalist Hell. There, outside the door was Rockefeller, looking bored. “What’s it like in there?”, asked Dave. “Well, he replied, “in Capitalist Hell, they flay you alive, boil you in oil, chain you to a rock and let a vulture tear your liver out, and cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives.”

“That’s terrible!!”, gasped Dave. “I’m going to check out Communist Hell!” He went over to Communist Hell, where he discovered a huge line of people waiting to get in. The line circled around the lobby seven times before receding off into the horizon

– – – – – – – – –

Dave pushed his way through to the head of the line, where he found Karl Marx busily signing people in. Dave asked Karl what Communist Hell was like.

“In Communist Hell,” said Marx impatiently, “they flay you alive, boil you in oil, chain you to a rock and let vultures tear out your liver, and cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives.”

“But… but that’s the same as Capitalist Hell!”, protested Dave. “Why is everyone lined up to get in?”

“Well,” sighed Marx, “sometimes we don’t have oil, sometimes we don’t have knives…”

(He’s a new blog. Give him a click)

First, another video of yesterday’s Hizb ut-Tahrir demonstration in Copenhagen, this one from ground level. The speaker is Khalid Amin:

Steen says the language you hear is “a kind of Danish; it resembles somewhat the language of the Guru Maharaji cult”.

The second video shows violent “youths” demonstrating in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen:

[post ends here]

News Think: No quick fix

The Samak government has been quick to take up the issue of violence in the South. But if any solution is to succeed, it must look after both Muslim aspirations and the safety of the Buddhist minority.

Surprisingly, the Samak government has been quick on the uptake in becoming involved in moves to find a solution to the problem of southern violence.

Even before he has presented his policy framework to the parliament, Mr Samak has supported a proposal from a southern Islamic committee for the disarmament of the civilian defence militia in the far South, and eventually of the junior ranks of the security forces.

And Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung has been quick to float the idea of some form of autonomy for the predominantly Muslim region.

We looked for a quick fix during the previous military-installed administration, but nothing tangible emerged.

The new government seems set to repeat the style of the Surayud Chulanont government, which apologised to Muslim people in the deep South for the misconduct and heavy-handed policies of the Thaksin Shinawatra government.

But it might also need a near miracle for any proposed solutions to bear fruit during the Samak government.

Ideally, these ideas would be welcomed by all parties in the South — civilians, NGOs and the security forces.

But in fact nothing has been decided upon and the matter has yet to be thoroughly debated — not only by Bangkok-based policy makers but also by those in the South.

Mr Chalerm is clearly attempting to steal the show from the opposition.

The Democrat party reportedly already has plans for introducing a bill to parliament on setting up a special administration in the far South.

This could well include having an elected governor, local use of the Malay-based Yawi dialect and some standardisation of Shariah law.

– – – – – – – – –

The party believes the proposal is workable and could lead to a sustainable solution — provided these efforts are properly supported and coordinated in consultation with the people in the South.

Critics, of course, say it would never be allowed to work.

The Democrats should have proposed the bill during the life of the Surayud government — they were certainly on good terms with it. So why didn’t they?

And Mr Samak and Mr Chalerm should have systematically discussed a plan for the far South plan before launching it into the public arena.

Both of them are outspoken and sharp-tongued, qualities that might not be conducive to a sustained effort to bring peace to the southernmost border provinces.

Some form of autonomy for the Muslim-dominated region would doubtless be welcomed by many of the parties involved, but it would also create concerns among the security and intelligence communities. If the plan is not well-conceived it could provide a platform for further demands for total separation, which has long been the desired aim of hardline Muslim factions in the area.

While the army is boasting that it has succeeded in containing the insurgents inside a smaller area, critics are distraught over the lack of a serious effort to win the hearts and minds of the targeted villagers — so-called ‘‘psy-ops’’.

But more is needed than a well-thought strategy to placate and integrate the Muslim population of the far South.

Any special policy towards the ethnic Malay population in the region must also assure the safety of the Buddhist minority there and, importantly, not deprive them of their rights.

Commentary by H. Numan:

We first had a government that found out the hard way that “let me win your hearts and minds or I burn your f***ing huts down” doesn’t work. This government was toppled by another one doing not much, just apologizing. They didn’t do much anyway. Now we have a government that announced it will roll over, and play dead. Which is the worst? Frankly speaking, I think the latter. The age-old proverb comes to mind: “give them a finger and they take your hand”. Hitler didn’t stop after the Munich conference, neither did Stalin stop after Yalta.

What does work is winning hearts and minds. I’m working on a Rotary project in the troubled deep south of Thailand: schools asked for support from Rotary to build a football field and cover for the parents, so they can watch their kids in the shade or dry (it rains a lot down there). Each project costs Bt. 150,000 ($4,200) per school. It can be done that cheap because everybody contributes: the Thai marine corps supplies engineers and marines to help build. The community itself provides the manual labor. A cement company donates the cement.

Result: the villagers changed their minds completely. In the past, there wasn’t a reason to support the soldiers. Soldiers didn’t do anything for them. Neither did the terrorists, but at least “they are one of us.” Now the villagers work together with the marines to build the football field. They see that those soldiers aren’t that much different from themselves. And that they gain a lot more from the government. The villagers now say: why do we need to support those terrorists? All they brought us was misery. So far, Rotary Pattaya helped two schools, with several other schools in progress.

Showing some real interest would help a lot. It doesn’t require giving up your authority. The civil defense militia are an absolute must. Disarming them means that the non-Muslim villages become open targets. Even better, from the terrorists’ point of view, is the disarmament of the junior ranks of the security forces.

Installing a Muslim governor might or might not help. That depends entirely on who will become governor. Given that the South is the Thai equivalent of banishment to Siberia, and the place to send a suitable misfit we want out of the way, a Muslim governor can actually worsen things. Shariah law will not help at all.

What this government proposes, in my opinion, is granting de jure autonomy without any guarantees. What will the terrorists do in return? Are they negotiating with the terrorists? Who actually are the terrorists? So far, nobody seems to know. How can you negotiate with someone you don’t know? I’m not much impressed by Mr. Samak. He has actually been convicted of fraud, but pending appeal is not yet guilty. That’s why he could run for office. As soon as the high court convicts him, we’re going to have new elections. Unusual, I agree, but legal here. This policy doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in his government.

This was Bangkok reporting,
H. Numan.

VH, our Flemish correspondent has put together a post on the filthy kafr demand that Muslims in the Netherlands shake hands upon meeting up with one of the future dhimmis in a social or business situation.

“Nuts to you” say the Muslims…or whatever the parlance of violent disagreement is in their language. But you get the idea:

“Momma don’ allow no handshaking in here…”

If the Dutch were smart, they would have forbidden any handshakes with Muslims from the beginning. By now, the same imams who are being so hostile would be equally hostile in the other direction – i.e., demanding that the kafir shake hands with Allah’s Chosen as a ‘sign’ of respect.

As you would expect, Wikipedia has a page on handshakes, including the one for Islam.

That filthy infidel custom of shaking hands

After filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot, stabbed, and partly beheaded in Amsterdam on November 2, 2004, the then Minister of Immigration and Integration Rita Verdonk organized a meeting with imams to tell them they have to integrate in society. Many of them even after a decade were still not able to communicate even the basics in Dutch and still had no idea whatsoever about the Dutch society.

Minister Verdonk was planning to introduce a course aimed to provide a bit of insight and some basic language skills and expected at the next meeting with the imams to be able to communicate in Dutch with them.

“When she met the imams and wanted to shake hands with the first one, he refused it. Minister Verdonk did not respond by ordering his mosque burned down, but instead, very civilized, replied: “I see we will have a lot to talk about”.

This handshake-refusing imam Ahmad Salam already caused a stir in 2002 by promoting the abuse of women, that women should not work outside the house because they become disobedient by it, and to top it off: boys and girls should not swim together.

In the Spring of 2006 Minister Verdonk went to the Hotel Des Indes in The Hague to hand out the first certificates to Koran teachers and imams that passed the “integration” course.

But the course might as well have been given to the monkeys in the zoo; the result would have been the same:

A meeting […] turned out in a clash of cultures. The first imam who received a certificate from minister Verdonk refused to shake her hand. Also another ignored the hand reached out by Verdonk.

The imam Ebrahim Mohammad said that his beliefs did not allow him to shake the Minister’s hand. According to his interpretation of Islam a man is not allowed to touch a strange woman.

Some female participants to the course “Netherlands and Islam, intercultural encounter and integration” therefore also refused to shake hands of men that where standing next to Minister Verdonk and congratulating participants.

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Several months later, queen Beatrix went to the Mobarak mosque in The Hague to celebrate its fifty years of existence. She took off her shoes and did not shake hands as was requested by the board of the mosque “out of respect for the Muslim religion”.

It is not so long ago that people after visiting the queen had to leave the room walking backwards. They shouldn’t have done that; now we know “hi” and “bye” would have done the same job as it shows now.

Later that year, a high school teacher and Muslim Samira Dahri was fired because she suddenly started to refuse to shake the hands of het fellow colleagues. She appealed to the “Committee for equal treatment” [Commissie voor gelijke behandeling], an advisory board to the government and arbitrator in these matters, and they supported her non-handshaking stand: “The committee decided that the requirement to shake hands is not included among the respectful manners the Utrecht school wants to disseminate […] Shaking hands is considered by many as not respectful.”

But Muslim Dahri was not the last diehard believer; she’s just one in what will become many.

An applicant for the function of Customer Relations Officer in Rotterdam, Mohammed Faizel Ali, was turned down in 2007 for that job because he refused to shake women’s hands out of — there we go again — religious beliefs:

Mohammed Faizel Ali said he will get the job of Customer Relations Officer, no matter what. If the Rotterdam council will not give him the job he will sue them. Says Enait: “I think I will be made Customer Relations officer and that it’ll piss off the aboriginals, which is what I call the autochthonous population.

[He also called the Dutch paleo-Netherlanders and aboriginal people.]

On the other hand, Amsterdam’s mayor has no problem with the refuseniks.

This week the mayor of Amsterdam joined the zealots:

You don’t have to shake hands with a woman

Mayor Cohen of Amsterdam finds that employees of the “Stichting Aanpak Overlast Amsterdam” [SAOA, Foundation for Approach of Inconveniences in Amsterdam] who do house calls do not have to shake hands with women.

This is what Cohen said Wednesday afternoon in the city council in response to questions from the CDA [Christian Democrats] councilor Maurice Limmen. One orthodox employee of the SAOA refuses to shake hands of women out of religious conviction. He is specifically employed to visit other orthodox families.

Also street-coaches [civil servants who intervene if there’s a problem with a family or youth that causes trouble] do not have to shake hands with women if that contradicts their religion, says Cohen, As long as they do their job properly there is no problem.

The latter happened recently in Slotervaart [the Amsterdam neighborhood where the recent jihad riots took place], where a street coach refused to shake the hand of the female assistant of city councillor Asscher [PvdA, Socialist Party]. That happened out of religious conviction and “respect” for the woman, according to the street coach.

This seems to become the latest Muslim hype: shaking-hands-apartheid: refusing to shake hands of the infidel woman that feeds them. A quote from the blog Klein Verzet:

“That is the state of the Netherlands in a nutshell, really. From one of the great trading nations in history to the sad remnants of an indigenous population overwhelmed by muslim colonizers. We’re all aboriginals now.”