There is one way for Muslim women in Iraq to achieve equality with men: they are free to blow themselves up and take other people with them:

Al-Qaeda has decided to enlist widows to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq, according to a study by the Voices of Iraq news agency.

During the last three months, six suicide attacks were carried out by women. A total 10 women have carried out suicide attacks in Iraq since April 2003, according to statistics from the United States army.

As recently as Wednesday, a woman blew herself up in volatile Diyala province, killing five people. On Monday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up among a group of civilians in the holy Shia city of Karbala, killing 47 people and wounding 75 others.

These two recruits were established by police to be middle-aged and recently widowed, so obviously AQI sets up the grieving and vulnerable to create constant and unpredictable public turmoil:

The majority of female suicide bombers come from Anbar and Diyala provinces, the report said.

“Al-Qaeda is active in those two provinces, and military operations that kill this organisation’s elements are also active there,” the report cited sociologist Fari al-Obedi as saying.

“The majority of female bombers’ motivations are getting revenge for a deceased husband or family member, or due to religious extremism,” he said.

– – – – – – – – –

The women are recruited and trained by men, but are much more effective, because police have not been searching women, the report noted. The fact that many are veiled will make searching them more difficult, it said.

This one has an easy technological solution: a way to detect bomb material that doesn’t involve having to touch anyone physically, male or female. If we haven’t achieved this level of interdiction, then we are definitely behind the curve.

Mohammed Al-Askari, advisor to the Iraqi defence ministry , quoted by the report, attributed the phenomenon of female suicide bombers to “the reduction in al-Qaeda’s influence in Iraq.” They are used to “shame” men into Jihad, he said.

“Interrogations revealed that most of these women are relatives of al-Qaeda elements,” a senior Iraqi military official, Major General Qassim Atta was quoted as saying.

“Preliminary investigations indicate that some women may not know that they will be used as suicide bombers,” Atta said

This “preliminary investigation” seems odd. How would someone, even a child of ten or eleven, not know their person was larded with explosives?

These charming people are also training children. From Fox, this report in February:

Al Qaeda propaganda tapes released by Multinational Forces-Iraq reveal a possible new trend in the group’s terror strategy in Iraq.

The tapes, obtained by FOX News and later released to the media, are training videos showing black-masked Iraqi children between 6 and 14 being taught how to hold AK-47s, stop a car and carry out a kidnapping, break into a house and break into a courtyard and terrorize the individuals living there.

Footage aired for reporters showed an apparent training operation in which the boys are seen storming a house and holding guns to the heads of mock residents. Another tape showed a young boy wearing a suicide vest and posing with automatic weapons.

They also are shown being taught to use rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

“These were young boys all masked and hooded, all outfitted with weapons; adults were doing the training,” said Rear Adm. Greg Smith, a spokesman for Multinational Forces-Iraq.

“Al Qaeda is clearly using children to exploit other children to get the interest of Jihad spread among teenagers far and wide. They use this footage on the Internet to encourage other young boys to join the jihad movement.”

I was surprised to read about AQI’s vulnerability in one area – that is, they seem to need to keep meticulous records, which leaves them open to attack when the material is captured:

Al Qaeda’s networks are not difficult to unravel once a successful raid has been completed. Its operatives’ obsessive need to keep accurate books, such as an accountant might, has provided coalition troops with a treasure trove of intelligence.

Much like the Nazis in World War II, Al Qaeda operatives document their every action, be it a bombing or kidnapping. It is the way they get paid by the organization.

The kidnapping ring that was broken last week had recorded 26 other kidnappings. Coalition forces did not know how many had ended in release, and how many in death.

Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari told reporters that militants are kidnapping more and more Iraqi children, though he could not offer details or numbers.

“This is not only to recruit them, but also to demand ransom to fund the operations of Al Qaeda,” al-Askari said.

The group included about 20 children being “trained.” At the end of the hour-long video they are sent into their parents’ arms, suggesting the training has parental approval and that the children likely come from Al Qaeda-affiliated households.

Well, using your next generation to kill this one is akin to eating the seed for next year’s planting. It doesn’t make sense.

On the other hand, neither does issuing fatwas that state women have the same rights to blow themselves up as men do.

Islamists stopped making sense a long time ago.

Hat tips: C. Cantoni and Waste of My Oxygen

Orhan Pamuk is a Nobel prize-winning Turkish novelist and university professor who gained international attention back in 2005 when he was put on trial for “insulting Turkishness”.

He committed his thought-crime during an interview in Switzerland, when he said, “Thirty thousand Kurds, and a million Armenians were killed in these lands [Anatolia] and nobody dares to talk about it.” Later he added, “What happened to the Ottoman Armenians in 1915 was a major thing that was hidden from the Turkish nation; it was a taboo. But we have to be able to talk about the past.”

After charges were filed against him, he remained defiant: “I repeat, I said loud and clear that one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in Turkey.”

Eventually the charges were dropped due to a technicality, and Mr. Pamuk was never punished for his insults. But his statements have made him into a permanent enemy of many Turkish nationalists.

Today brings news of a plot against Orhan Pamuk’s life, and the background to the latest incident reveals the complexity of the current political situation in Turkey. It’s not a simple matter of militant nationalists versus elite modernists: there seems to be a three-cornered struggle to define the essence of modern Turkey.

First, an account of the plot as reported by AFP:

Arrests in Turkey over plot to kill Nobel laureate Pamuk: report

A Turkish nationalist party leader, a veteran journalist and an academic have been arrested over an alleged plan to kill author Orhan Pamuk, the country’s first Nobel laureate, media reported Friday.

Dogu Perincek, the leader of the Workers’ Party, senior journalist Ilhan Selcuk and Kemal Alemdaroglu, the former rector of Istanbul University, are in detention and are to appear before a public prosecutor, the Anatolia news agency said.

The news agency did not specify any charges against them but said they had been detained for their alleged role in an ultra-nationalist plot to kill Pamuk and senior Kurdish figures.

[…]

According to Turkish media reports, the suspects wanted to assassinate Pamuk, pro-Islamist journalist Fehmi Koru and Kurdish political figures Leyla Zana, Osman Baydemir and Ahmet Turk.

Notice that the alleged conspirators targeted a “pro-Islamist journalist” in addition to Mr. Pamuk. That is, the group’s enemies include people that we in the West would consider polar opposites: fundamentalist Muslims and secular modernists. But secularism in Turkey assumes more than one form, and the plotters represent the Attaturk version: both non-Western and anti-Islamic.

Throw in the would-be Kurdish victims and you get a glimpse of the full range of foes from the viewpoint of modern Turkish nationalism.

An AP article has more details:
– – – – – – – – –

Report: Turkish police detain 11 in probe against shadowy network

In 2007, a Swiss court convicted [Dogu] Perincek of racism for denying, during trips to Switzerland, that the mass killing of Armenians in the early 20th century was genocide.

The detained journalist, Ilhan Selcuk, writes a column for the secular Cumhuriyet newspaper and is a fierce critic of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Military-backed circles of power, which include the state bureaucracy and judiciary, suspect Erdogan and his allies seek to inject Islam into political life, undermining the secular principles outlined in the constitution.

The government denies it wants to erode secularism, citing reforms it has made to try to gain membership in the European Union.

Authorities had previously arrested several dozen alleged members of the gang, known as Ergenekon.

To summarize: the government is denying that it is anything but secular, and Orhan Pamuk fears for his life, all because of the machinations of Turkish nationalists.

And where do these nationalists do their recruiting?

The media reports said the plans were allegedly hatched by an “ultra-nationalist” group thought to be linked to the security forces.

So a quasi-military group is targeting both religious extremists and free-thinking intellectuals in its mission to protect the national culture.

Looks like interesting times ahead for Turkey.

Hat tip: C. Cantoni.

Everywhere they go, the Danish Mohammed cartoons cause uproar and consternation. Their most recent appearance was yesterday in Brno.

Our Czech correspondent Viktor Svoboda sent us this report:

Yesterday (March 19) dozens of posters showing the cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban appeared on the streets of the Czech city of Brno. The posters say “Freedom does not come for free” and are signed by “Friends of Freedom of Speech”.

Czech Foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg told the press, “The Prophet did not know a bomb in his time; it’s pure mockery. Such posters are in my opinion an expression of intolerance and aggression on the part of those who posted them. It’s a sad fact that something like that appeared in the Czech nation.”

The foreign ministry condemns the posters’ creators, saying that they are abusing freedom of speech. “Public expressions motivated by attempts to stir up religious hatred cannot be defended on the basis of free speech,” said the press spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalová.

– – – – – – – – –

Chairman of Islamic Foundation in Brno, Muneeb Hassan Alrawi, sees the posters as a provocation. “It’s a pitiful attempt to provoke Muslims. They don’t care about freedom of speech at all; they are just trying to mock us.”

Muslims will discuss whether they will contact police about the issue. “We will not give them the satisfaction of making strong protests. We will discuss it, and in the next days we will decide whether it makes sense to contact the police”.

Police started to look into the issue anyway. “We will let experts examine the poster, then we will decide whether it should classified as a crime of supporting and promoting a movement with the purpose of suppressing the rights and freedom of people,” said the police press spokesman Bohumil Malášek.

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

The text above is composed from several news reports from the Czech MSM.

There’s much more info about this on “Politically Correct Front” in Czech, but unfortunately I don’t have time to translate it all. If you have somebody who can, there are some interesting interviews here.

Here is an official government statement.

You can find some photos here, here, and here.

— V. S.

A repeat of the Kosovo crisis is brewing, this time in Macedonia. It’s a many-faceted affair, and ethnic Albanian Muslims in Macedonia are only one component of it.

Part of the trouble is caused by the name “Macedonia”. The Greeks claim a proprietary interest in the name as a reference to the northwestern province of their own country. Macedonia attempted to placate Greek opinion by making the country’s official name “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, but that wasn’t enough to assuage Hellenic national sentiment.

The UN is mediating without success between Greece and Macedonia over the issue during talks in Vienna:

[UN mediator Matthew] Nimetz’s latest proposals — Republic of Upper Macedonia, New Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Macedonia (Skopje) — have been already rejected by disputing parties. [Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola] Gruevski sees the proposals unacceptable.

The stalemate over the country’s name is significant, because Macedonia is hoping to join NATO at the upcoming summit in Bucharest on April 2nd. Greece is threatening to veto Macedonian membership over the issue of the country’s name.

To make matters worse, Macedonia is the throes of a political crisis over the issue of Kosovar independence. Croatia, Hungary, and Bulgaria have recognized Kosovo, ratcheting up the pressure on Macedonia to do the same. But any recognition of Kosovo by Macedonia would incur the enmity of neighboring Serbia, and possibly trigger sanctions and other actions damaging to the Macedonian economy.

The crisis came to a head a week ago when the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), a key part of the ruling coalition in Skopje, decided to leave the government. According to Maxfax:

The Democratic Party of Albanians left the government after the Prime Minister did not respond on the party’s six ultimatum demands, including resocialization of NLA’s fighters, making the Albanian language and flag official, urgent recognition of Kosovo, increasing of representation of Albanians in the public administration and closing of the four Hague cases.

One can see why the Macedonian government might choke on some of these demands. Even if it can be pushed to recognize Kosovo — and it looks like the pressure may be so strong that it will have to — the rest of the demands set the stage for a reprise in western Macedonia of the bloody conflict in Serbia over Kosovo.

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

Macedonia’s troubles are deeper and more difficult to resolve than Serbia’s because of the ethnic mixture within Macedonian territory. Out of roughly two million people, the ethnic breakdown (as of 2004) looks like this:
– – – – – – – – –

Macedonian		66.6%
Albanian		22.7%
Turkish		4%
Muslim		2.3%
Roma (Gypsy)		2.2%
Serb		2.1%

I’m not sure what “Muslim” means in this context — possibly Bosniak or Arab — but if you add it to the Albanians and the Turks, Muslims make up 29% of the population. Assuming that the relative demographics are the same as in other parts of Europe, with the non-Muslim population decreasing while the Muslim birthrate remains high, the political paralysis in evidence now seems likely to continue indefinitely.

The centuries-old conflict with Greece makes matters worse. The region was originally ethnically Greek, part of a larger territory that included what is still called Macedonia in northwestern Greece. During the second half of the first millennium A.D., as Byzantine strength receded, the region was invaded by Slavic tribes. The largest ethnic group in the country is Slavic and closely related to the Bulgarians.

The Macedonians share responsibility for the ongoing dispute with Greece, since some of the more militant Slavic nationalists draw the map of Macedonia to include the ethnically Greek areas of the province Macedonia south of the border. Greek intransigence over NATO membership for Macedonia is motivated partly out of a long-term resentment and fear of Macedonian irredentism.

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

Like the Bulgarians and the Serbs, Macedonia had to endure five centuries of brutal Ottoman rule, and the non-Muslims in the country are understandably chary of granting special rights and autonomy to the Albanian minority.

The situation is a recipe for disaster. Watch the dominos lining up here: First an independent Kosovo, then the demands for special rights for Albanians in Macedonia. Next comes a failure to gain NATO membership, then ethnic unrest, violence, UN action, peacekeepers, and an eventual push for a Kosovo-like solution in western Macedonia. We all know the drill.

This long slippery slope leads towards a Greater Albania on the eastern shore of the Adriatic and extending into the heart of the Balkans.

What comes after that?

Other articles used in researching this post:

Worldpress.org
Turkish Weekly
Makfax
Balkan Insight 8683
Balkan Insight 8758

Hat tip: Afonso Henriques.

We’ve all heard about the necessity for religious tolerance and respect for different religions.

That was the main argument against ridiculing Mohammed put forth by prominent Muslims during the various cartoon crises and the uproar in advance of Geert Wilders’ movie. There have been proposals in the UN for a resolution that would make respect for the religion of others mandatory under international law, and thus outlaw the Motoons and any other blasphemous depictions or descriptions of the Prophet.

But when the Saudis really got serious about looking at mandatory religious tolerance in their own country, they realized the ramifications of what they might be getting into, and decided that it wasn’t such a good idea after all. According to ANSAmed:

Saudi Arabia: Pact To Respect All Religions Rejected

A resolution calling for the enactment of an international pact to forbid religions from being defamed or insulted as well as their symbols, leaders and prophets has been voted out by the Saudi Shoura (Consultative Council).

A total of 77 members opposed the recommendation while 33 voted in favour, online newspaper Gulf News reports. According to the opponents, such a pact would force people to recognise religions, which advocate idol worship, and that “would be unacceptable.”

– – – – – – – – –

The rejected resolution stated that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall work in coordination with Arab and Islamic groups and others at the United Nations to draft an international pact for respecting religions, their symbols and leaders.” “This recommendation is creating ‘much ado’“, said Khaleel Al Khaleel, a member of the Shoura. The recommendation would create a dangerous precedent that may produce a negative impact on Muslims rather than followers of other religions, he added. “Some consider Buddhism and Qadianism as religions. Can we make it obligatory for Muslims to respect these faiths and avoid criticising them?,” he asked.

Mohammad Al Quwaihes, who presented the resolution, told reporters that he had not expected that his move would be defeated in such a way as the overwhelming majority of members were in favour of introducing the resolution for deliberations. (ANSAmed).

I’d never heard of Qadianism before, so I looked it up. It’s another name for the Ahmadiyya movement, an offshoot of Islam that arose in India at the end of the 19th century. It is, of course, considered a heresy by the rest of Islam, and it’s no wonder that the Saudi authorities are nervous about having to recognize it as an official religion requiring tolerance and respect.

But what about Buddhism? Is that a religion? Or just a weird cult of loonies and misfits?

I guess we’ll have to wait for the official ruling from Al-Azhar University before we make a final decision.

Hat tip: C. Cantoni

No, that’s not the headline that went with this news story. But it might as well have been.

From ANSAmed:

Kosovo: USA, Bush Authorises Military Aid

The President of the United States, George W. Bush, signed yesterday a document which authorises military assistance to Kosovo.

The document includes Kosovo, which proclaimed in February its independence from Serbia, in the list of countries which are authorised to receive military assistance “with the purpose to strengthen the security of the United States and favour world peace”. The United Sates were among the first countries to recognise Kosovo after its proclamation of independence from Serbia, on February 17.

Bush’s initiative, according to a declaration issued by the White House, aims at strengthening the relation between the USA and Kosovo in the sector of security, at favouring stability in the Balkans and improving the capacity of Kosovo to fight terrorism, take part in peacekeeping activities and face humanitarian emergencies.

– – – – – – – – –

The signature of the document by Bush does not imply the automatic dispatch of military assistance to Kosovo. The White House remarked today, while announcing the decision of the U.S. President, that the possible “supply of defence or service means will be considered according to each individual case” and that “each request will be examined to ensure that it contains all the necessary legal requirements in force at the moment of the sale or the supply” of the military aid. (ANSAmed).

Strengthen the security of the United States… Favor world peace… Stability in the Balkans…

These goals will not be attained by sending military aid to Kosovo. Such aid will have the opposite effect.

The United States (and Europe) will become less secure.

World peace, that elusive chimaera, will recede even further from us.

And the Balkans will become even more unstable.

Has the entire foreign policy establishment in my country gone insane?

Hat tip: insubria.

That’s what a Christian missionary in Iran calls the flood of conversions to evangelical Christianity — up to one million in the last five years.

In response, the newly-elected Majlis will discuss instituting an official death penalty for Iranian apostates from Islam. According to AKI:

Iran: Parliament to discuss death penalty for converts who leave Islam

Tehran, 19 March (AKI) — In its first session since last week’s general elections, the new Iranian parliament is expected to discuss a law that will condemn to death anyone who decides to leave the Muslim faith and convert to other religions.

The parliament, also known as the Majlis, will debate the new law which has been presented by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Under the proposed law, anyone who is born to Muslim parents and decides to convert to another faith, will face the death penalty.

Currently converts, particularly those who have decided to leave the Muslim faith for Evangelical churches, are arrested and then released after some years of detention.

The new legislation, which has caused concern in Iran and abroad, was proposed mainly because of fears of proselytising activities by Evangelical churches particularly through the use of satellite channels.

– – – – – – – – –

There has also been concern over fact that many young people in Iran have abandoned Islam because they’re tired of the many restrictions imposed by the faith.

According to unofficial sources, in the past five years, one million Iranians, particularly young people and women, have abandoned Islam and joined Evangelical churches.

This phenomenon has surprised even the missionaries who carry out their activities in secret in Iran.

An Evangelical priest and former Muslim in Iran told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the conversions were “interesting, enthusiastic but very dangerous”.

“The high number of conversions is the reason that the government has decided to make the repression of Christians official with this new law,” said the priest on condition of anonymity.

“Often we get to know about a new community that has been formed, after a lot of time, given that the people gather in homes to pray and often with rituals that they invent without any real spiritual guide,” he told AKI.

“We find ourselves facing what is more than a conversion to the Christian faith,” he said. “It’s a mass exodus from Islam.”

Hat tip: insubria.

From The Telegraph, this shocking report:

Gordon Brown wants tens of thousands of Britons to join a new Dads’ Army-style volunteer force to help the Government tackle threats to national security.

Pinch me, I’m dreaming! Has Brown been reading our emails from disgruntled Brits?

The new force, called a new Civil Protection Network, will be based on the local Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to see “improved resilience against emergencies” from floods to terrorist attacks.

This would take “not the old Cold War idea of civil defence but a new form of civil protection”.

Or perhaps the PM has noticed the flood of emigrants leaving for a safer haven than the UK can provide? Or maybe he looked at the plummeting numbers of concerned citizens who give him a favorable rating for his efforts so far? There are a lot of angry voters, Mr. Brown.

The Prime Minister also said ministers will also publish an annual risk register of the top threats facing Britain, from the Al Qaeda terror threat to flooding and cyber crime.

Two steps forward, one step back: the supposed greatest risk right now is…ta da…the flu.

People will be asked later this year if they want to join up to help defend Britain’s security and then be given training in how to deal with a number of threats.

Whitehall officials played down suggestions that the new force will be a new British Home Guard or ‘Dads’ Army’…

– – – – – – – – –
Heh. The Baron told me the context of the reference to “Dad’s Army” and he sang the theme song for me. While rushing around between meetings, he said, “It was a typical mid-’60s British TV comedy, making fun of a pompous old guy — a veteran of the Great War — who ran his little battalion of Home Guard people in WW2 as if it were a real military unit.”

But that’s what is needed now, even if Brown won’t actually let the words past his teeth. The Baron sang the theme song for me:

Who do you think you’re kidding, Mr Hitler,
If you think we’re on the run?
We are the boys who will stop your little game,
We are the boys who will make you think again.

‘Cos who do you think you’re kidding Mr Hitler,
If you think old England’s done?
Mr Brown goes off to town
On the 8:21,
But he comes home each evening
And he’s ready with his gun.

So watch out Mr Hitler,
You’ve met your match in us,
If you think you’ll push us.
We’re afraid you’ve missed the bus.

‘Cos who do you think you’re kidding Mr Hitler,
If you think old England’s done?

Oops…guns are not politically correct anymore. Maybe people will get some training in krav maga? If you look at the picture on the link, it’s obvious that krav maga is not limited by age. If not that, perhaps cudgels walking sticks for those long patrols? While he says there will be no “uniforms or badges” I don’t doubt that some kind of attire will emerge from this, even if it’s only orange safety vests, visible at night.

[…]

In a Commons statement, Mr Brown said: “The primary duty of Government – our abiding obligation – is, and always will be, the safety of all British people and the protection of the British national interest.”

Mr Brown told MPs that the security situation in the UK had changed since the old threats of the Cold War and Irish republican terrorism.

Now, the consequences of regional instability, terrorism, climate change, poverty, mass immigration and organised crime “reverberate quickly around the globe”.

He said the size of the Security Services will rise to 4,000 – twice that of 2001 – and announced an extra 10 per cent funding rise for the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre.

Mr Brown also said the Intelligence and Security Committee will be subject to enhanced scrutiny and greater transparency.

Four regional counter-terrorism units and four regional intelligence units will also “significantly increase” police anti-terror capabilities across the country.

I think this will counter some of the harm done by the impersonalization brought on by the EU’s “Lisbon Treaty.” And it will be a great stimulus to the cohesion of local communities.

Maybe Brown has finally realized that it is indeed “the primary duty of Government” to keep its people safe. In fact, if the UK doesn’t take care of its own, it will die waiting for help from Brussels.

In the Telegraph’s story there is a link to a pdf booklet, The National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom:Security in an interdependent world. You can get the details if you click on their link.

Geert Wilders visited Denmark yesterday and was interviewed by Danish television. He had very admiring words to say about Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and evidently expected a reciprocal attitude from the prime minister.

But it was not to be.

It seems that Mr. Rasmussen considers Mr. Wilders too radioactive to touch, even for a Danish politician. The prime minister issued a statement: “I strongly condemn Geert Wilders’ condescending statements about Muslims.”

Steen, whose post is entitled “Geert Wilders in Denmark and Fogh in BonBon Land” discusses the events at Snaphanen. He has an embedded video of the interview (the surrounding text is in Danish, but the interview is in English).

Mr. Wilders answered questions about his movie and talked about his concerns over the growing Islamization of Europe. Concerning the Koran, he told the interviewer, “I think it is a fascist book.” Also, “We should stop at least the immigration of people from Muslim countries.”

The interview is excellent. Mr. Wilders had eminently sensible things to say about the erosion of European national identities, the encroachment of sharia, the rule of law, and other issues dear to the hearts of Gates of Vienna readers. Given the sentiments of the average Dane, Mr. Rasmussen’s reaction is mystifying.

Here’s the story from Reuters:

Danish PM condemns views of Dutch film-maker

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday distanced himself from remarks made by an anti-Muslim populist Dutch film-maker, saying he condemned attempts to demonize religious or ethnic groups.

Geert Wilders, who is also a right-wing lawmaker, praised Rasmussen in a Danish television interview for backing freedom of speech after local newspapers reprinted satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and criticized Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende for bowing in the face of Muslim anger.

“I strongly condemn Geert Wilders’ condescending statements about Muslims,” Rasmussen said in a statement. “I find these expressions extremely offensive,” he added.

Wilders plans this month to show a 15-minute video which criticizes the Muslim holy book, the Koran, despite appeals from the Dutch government and mounting unrest in the Muslim world.

In the interview with Denmark’s DR TV, Wilders said he wanted to “combat the threat of the growing Islamisation of Western society.”

– – – – – – – – –

Rasmussen, who angered Muslims by refusing to take action against Danish media that published the cartoons, said he wished to disassociate himself completely from Wilders’ views and rejected the Dutch lawmakers’ “attempt at associating his views to those of the Danish Government.”

[…]

Wilders said the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard had received better support in the face of Muslim wrath from Rasmussen than he himself had seen from the Dutch prime minister.

“I wish we had such a prime minister in Holland,” Wilders said. “Unfortunately we have a coward that does not hold firm on the constitution’s words about freedom of expression,” he added.

[…]

Rasmussen said Wilders’ remarks about Muslims were “so insulting” that he wished to hear no group in Danish society referred to in such a manner.

A rumor is circulating in Denmark that Anders Fogh Rasmussen has ambitions for a top post in the European Union, perhaps the presidency. That might explain his sudden conversion to politically correct Orthodox Multiculturalism.

In a related story, the Brussels Journal reports that a Moroccan youth organization in the Netherlands has called for Geert Wilders’ voters and supporters to be killed.

Hat tips: TB and Steen.

The latest on the Harry de Winter affair from our expatriate Dutch correspondent H. Numan.

A follow-up on the exciting adventures of our new hero Harry de Winter: “Harry Goes Red.”

by H. Numan

I reported on Monday about Mr. De Winter’s advertisement in left wing newspaper De Volkskrant. He called upon fellow Jews to support his struggle against the multiculturally incorrect Blond. He paid €10,000 for his advertisement, no less. And for that amount he got a lot. A lot of ridicule, to be exact.

As he attracted (a hell of a lot of) media attention, he was invited to debate Professor Hans Jansen, the well known Arabist. Prof. Jansen is known for his strong stance against Islam.

Harry had the opportunity to clarify his advertisement. Not very successfully, as Prof. Jansen swept the floor with him. And that in “Pauw en Witteman”, a left-wing program from the VARA (abbreviation for: “Free Laborers Radio Association”). So he fell flat on his face, while playing for a home audience…

Video: Arabist Hans Jansen versus Harry de Winter (in Dutch)

Prof. Jansen’s final remarks are worth translating: after listening to the repetitive non-arguments of de Winter, Prof. Jansen clearly had had enough. When Harry asked (again) what Hans Jansen tries to achieve by writing a book against Islam, he answered politely: “What I try to achieve? That little blind men, like yourself, may learn what is going on in other religions. For I have the feeling that you do not want to know it. You share that feeling with many others of the Dutch elite, but I find that not a wise decision.” (at 4:33 in the broadcast)

Harry was utterly at a loss for words…

Not only that, it was much worse. The press smelled blood, and asked well-known people of Jewish origins how they felt about this advertisement. Only one celebrity — the former mayor of Amsterdam, Ed van Thijn — more or less supported him. All the others: no.

Most were quite offended to be drawn into something they actually opposed. And everybody agreed that Mr. De Winter’s arguments were at least far fetched, or utterly biased to say the very least.

In Het Algemeen Dagblad today Harry whined he had received death threats — usually the last card one can play before fading away into oblivion. Later he reported he was misquoted. He didn’t receive death threats:
– – – – – – – – –

De Winter: “While I attack nobody [sic!], everybody takes me for a fool and a demagogue, and I receive death threats by e-mail. This land has gone crazy. People say it’s those filthy Jews again who support Muslims.” De Winter considers reporting [the death threats] to the police.

Well, to be honest: nobody thinks the filthy Jews are behind anything. Though I do admit Mr. De Winter could do well with a bath (in Lysol), a haircut and some serious shaving, in my opinion.

And yes, I do think a particular Jew is behind the Muslim “conspiracy”, namely Mr. De Winter himself. As for demagogue: nope. That would be too much honor for a man who has no idea what debating is. His appearance on Pauw and Witteman showed a stammering teenager in his forties who couldn’t present an argument, and tried to defend himself by repeating his ludicrous statements over and over again. Every time a bit more vocal.

But it is nice to see many important Dutchmen openly stating that Muslims are not under any threat at all, unless by their own choice. Many stated that the Muslim minority in Europe is the best-protected minority in the world, and likely in world history.

And our dear Harry? Well, in another day or two he’ll fade away into oblivion.

That racist Muammar Gaddafi:

Libya: Gaddafi Urges Africa To Say ‘No’ To False Western Aid

KAMPALA, MARCH 18 — Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi urged all African governments yesterday to reject all Western aid which came with conditions, and deemed the democratic standards that the world powers want to impose as incompatible for the world’s poorest continent.

Gaddafi is visiting Uganda to address an Afro-Arab conference of 5,000 youths from Arab and African states, and to formally open a huge new mosque in the capital Kampala.

“They colonised us and now they’re coming with their aid. Any aid with conditions should be rejected,” the Libyan leader told cheering crowds through an interpreter. “They give you their aid and dictate that one should adopt electoral democracy, that one must adopt multiparty systems. All these work in the West, but not in Africa,” Gaddafi said. (ANSAmed).

Hat tip: insubria.

[Nothing follows]

The noted blogger Fjordman is filing this report via Gates of Vienna.
For a complete Fjordman blogography, see The Fjordman Files. There is also a multi-index listing here.

A note from the Baron: Fjordman brought my attention to the newspaper editorial translated below. Our Danish correspondent TB did the initial bulk translation, and Fjordman adjusted it to produce the final result. Fjordman’s insertions are in square brackets.

Notice that Ms. Michelet refers disparagingly to Counterjihad Brussels 2007, a conference that Fjordman and I both attended.

From Dagbladet, Monday March 17th:

Muslim Whore
by Marte Michelet

Islamophobia is the most dangerous ideology of our time and we must be brave enough to call a spade a spade^*, Marte Michelet writes.

“If Islam is so wonderful, then how come you walk around [looking like] a whore?” This was what a representative of [the small party] Demokratene in Akershus wrote to me in an email last week. He reacted to the article I had written on Women’s Day regarding how brown [i.e. Fascist, right-wing extremist] forces use rhetoric of gender equality as a pretext for racist attacks on Muslims. Another confused guy, who also gave his full name, wrote: “I hope you burn in hell, you bloody whore [for Muslims]!”

I have earlier received funny hate mails from Norwegian men who first accused me of not seeing how oppressive Muslim men are, and then demanded that I should put on the burka because I am so ugly that I should not be seen during daylight.

These reactions are marginal and extreme, but at the same time they are indicators of the very trend that I tried to warn against on March 8: That many of those who claim to be champions of gender equality and the rights of Muslim women in reality are archetypical racists and sexists. What many people refuse to acknowledge is that we are not just dealing with a few scattered lunatics, but that all right-wing populist parties in Europe have now discovered how convenient it is to swap the mantra “the immigrants steal our jobs” for “the immigrants oppress their women.”

In Norway, there has until now been little debate about this turnaround. There has been remarkably little focus on the growing anti-Muslim movement in general — we didn’t pay attention to it. In contrast, the Swedish organization Expo (where the now deceased writer Stieg Larsson was a driving force) has. Expo keeps an eye on the extreme Right and dedicated the latest issue of their magazine to an analysis of the new Islamophobic political scene in Europe. It does not make for pleasant reading. Expo demonstrates how a broad network of counter-Jihadists made up of academics, bloggers, politicians and activists have united in the fight to “stop the Islamization of Europe.” The core of this network consists of well-known extreme right-wing parties such as the Front National in France, Geert Wilders and his Dutch Freedom party and the Vlaams Belang from Belgium.

– – – – – – – – –

In October last year they arranged a large “Counter-Jihad Conference” in Brussels where people from these parties could meet with like-minded people from Europe, the USA and Israel. One of the participants Expo presents is the Norwegian Jens Tomas Anfindsen, who runs the Islam-critical website honestthinking.org and who is also an earlier advisor to Hege Storhaug’s Human Rights Service (HRS). Now his brother Ole Jørgen Anfindsen works for HRS. Every day he posts Islam-critical texts on the homepage of this organization, with frequent links to questionable “counter-Jihad” websites. The main speaker at last year’s conference in Brussels was the amateur historian Bat Ye’or, the author of the Islamophobic Bible, the book Eurabia, which warns of a Muslim conspiracy against Europe. The book is probably as trustworthy as the anti-Semitic idea of the Jewish conspiracy ZOG, but is highly recommended by HRS.

Storhaug and the brothers Anfindsen are Norway’s most vocal critics of Islam, and many people consider what they do to be sensible and necessary criticism of religion in a good liberal tradition. To point out that they promote an Islamophobic agenda in close cooperation with racist and right-wing populist forces is considered an unjust smear. But it is actually totally unnecessary to associate them with these forces. They do so themselves, quite voluntarily.

The peculiar thing about the Norwegian debate is that they are not criticized for this. It is never demanded that Storhaug & Co should distance themselves from their spiritual friends, from racist forms of criticism of Islam or from violent attacks against Muslims. They do not need to take responsibility for the [mental] climate they participate in creating. In the furious debate on the Internet which followed my article on March 8, not a single person among those who criticized Islam distanced himself from the example I quoted where English racists beat up bypassing “whores for Muslims.”

Of course it is not the case that all criticism of Islam can be dismissed as Islamophobia. But the problem today is not that “Islamophobe!” is being shouted time and again. The problem is that the growing Islamophobia is being ignored. It is essential to understand that this ideology is not only mortally dangerous to the vulnerable Muslim minority in the West. It can provide the basis for extreme right-wing changes of power which we should all have nightmares about. And when we this week pass the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq it is appropriate to remind people how essential Islamophobia has been in justifying a “war on terror” which has made the world a lot more dangerous for us all.

Fjordman’s commentary:

Marte Michelet is the daughter of the Communist writer Jon Michelet, and was until 1998 the leader of the Red Youth, the country’s “revolutionary youth league.” She now writes for Dagbladet, a left-wing pro-Multicultural newspaper which champions sexual liberation, the EU, the UN, radical feminism and mass immigration, also of Muslims. The political editor of Dagbladet, Marie Simonsen, in 2007 advocated that free migration should be considered a universal human right for every human being across the world. The newspaper has for decades aggressively accused those critical of mass immigration of “racism.”

The embarrassing thing about this article, apart from the ideological madness it betrays, is that Ms. Michelet doesn’t even manage to get simple facts straight. The FN from France were not invited to the conference in Brussels. I know. I was there.

She also manages to mix up the two brothers Anfindsen. Jens Tomas Anfindsen works for Rights.no, while Ole Jørgen Anfindsen still writes for HonestThinking.org.

I would advise Michelet to have a look at my essays about Expo. She could also benefit from following some Islam-critical blogs, starting with Jihad Watch, Gates of Vienna, The Brussels Journal and Atlas Shrugs. Maybe some of the readers of GoV can invite her? She can be reached at mmi@dagbladet.no. And please, no impolite or threatening emails, just invite her here.

* The literal translation of the original Norwegian idiom is “put the tail on the pig”, which means roughly “name a bad thing for what it is.”

One would think this story must be a hoax, but… maybe not.

The ANSAmed original looks like a machine translation, so I changed the wording slightly to make it read more like normal English:

Saudi Arabia: Fiancés, He Aged 11, She Aged 10

Their marriage will be soon, but they are only 11 years old (he) and 10 years old (she), two children originating from the Saudi region Hael, in the north of the country, will marry in the summer, local daily Al-Chams reports, after interviewing Muraizak Al-Rachidi, father of the future groom.

Al Rachidi, who will financially support the couple, has already started to give out the invitations for the wedding of his son Mohammad with his cousin who is one year younger and whose father promised to marry her since she was born.

– – – – – – – – –

“I am in my fourth year at school and I feel ready for this step, which will stimulate me to study better,” Mohammad stated, quoted by the daily, adding that he wants “to crown my love story with the marriage”.

But the young groom did not stop here and invited his classmates to make the same choice. All the peers and teachers have been invited to the wedding. Despite the fact that he has defined the union as “premature”, the school principal, Dahim Al-Jaber, wished his student a “happy married life”.

Marriages between preteens are rare in Saudi Arabia, an ultraconservative country in which the Wahhabi doctrine, a puritan Islamic current, is strictly applied. (ANSAmed).

“Marriages between preteens are rare in Saudi Arabia.”

Really? How rare is “rare”?

One every year? Twenty? Two hundred?

How rare are weddings between preteens in Europe or the USA?

Sheesh. At least Jerry Lee Lewis waited until his bride was thirteen.

Hat tip: insubria.

AnsaMed relates the spin Hamas is putting on the murderer of the Yeshiva students in Jerusalem:

Hamas is trying to transform the violent attack from two weeks ago against the rabbi college Merkaz ha-Rav in Jerusalem into a kind of a parable: the website of its armed branch reported alleged paranormal phenomena seen during the funeral of the attacker, Ala Abu Dheim.

Testimonies accompanied by a short video made with a cell phone during the burial pretend to demonstrate traces of sanctity on the remains of the Palestinian.

This form of propaganda is unprecedented for armed Palestinian groups which so far usually spread videos made by the suicide bombers before the attacks.

This is an “exclusive” video, as proudly announced by the website of the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades which is very popular in the Territories and the Arab world.

This samizdat hagiography does not seem to be available on the internet…yet. It sounds much like the photos which Aunt Hattie swears, “don’t that cloud look just like Jesus? Hey, Buster, come look at this…”
– – – – – – – – –

The images show Abu Dheim covered in a white shroud: his face is shown first, looking serene, then the body, then again the face. The images are now passing from hand to hand in east Jerusalem and in the Palestinian Territories, they are even transferred from one cellular phone to another via bluetooth.

As I said, samizdat…and a very credulous population. The saintliness of this murderer thereby ameliorates the fact that he killed eight unarmed students. What a dude…next they’ll canonize him.

Oh, wait, they already have:

Mahmoud Abbas’s official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has honored the killer of the eight high school students gunned down this week with the status of Shahid – Holy Islamic Martyr. In so doing, the PA is sending its people a straightforward message of support for the terror murders and the murderer. According to the PA interpretation of Islam, there is no higher status that a human being can achieve today than that of Shahid.

The official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida prominently placed a picture of the killer on the front page, with the caption, “The Shahid Alaa Abu D’heim.” In a Page One article on the terror killings, his act is again defined as a “Shahada achieving” action.

Meanwhile, AnsaMed continues with the narrative of this holy phenomenon:

Abu Dheim, it is explained in vivid details, was dead for a week “yet he did not have any particular smell”. On his face was read “the shadow of a smile”, and on his cheeks and under the chin “hairs of beard appeared”: a respectable thing because, according to the relatives, before leaving for the attack at the rabbi college Abu Dheim he shaved himself.

And so the mythology will continue to build.

The great flaw of the medieval-minded Palestinians is that they have 21st century technology in a bloody, primitive 8th century culture. How could they be anything but deadly? The envy of those who have thrived on the scientific method continues to corrode the Middle Eastern Arabic soul.

I guess they’re stuck with what they have: videos of “martyrs”; videos of beheaded infidels, it’s all the same.

The theme is death.

Hat tip: C. Cantoni