I’ve written previously that the portal to Islam is a one-way valve: people may pass through the door into Islam, but no one is allowed to return through it, on pain of death.

It’s certainly true that once Muslims become a majority in a country, they use any and all methods at their disposal — lethal violence, threats, intimidation, legal sanctions, economic incentives, punitive taxation, clan warfare, social pressure — to persuade unbelievers to convert to Islam and stay there.

Take, for example, this news article from AKI, which reports that Al-Qaeda is trumpeting the success of its mission to keep churches out of Arab countries:

Al-Qaeda halts spread of the church in Arab world, claims leader

A senior al-Qaeda leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi, claims that the terror organisation has stopped the expansion of the church in the Arab world.

“If it wasn’t for our heroes, today we would have many churches in the Arabian Peninsula, as we have already seen with the opening of one in Qatar,” said al-Libi in a video message posted to Islamist websites.

He was referring to the Catholic church inaugurated in the Qatari capital, Doha, in March this year.

Al-Libi also talked about the “danger” posed by inter-religious dialogue between the Arab Ulema or Muslim religious leaders and their Christian counterparts.

The 40-minute message entitled, “The moderation of Islam and the moderation of defeat”, seeks to refute the notion of a moderate Islam.

“At this moment there is a crusader campaign against Islam and that has succeeded in corrupting the personalities in our religion,” al-Libi said.

Here we come to the contradiction that lies at the heart of Islam: if the religion of the Prophet is so true, so perfect, so exactly right for the human race, why is force necessary to install it and maintain it?

If Muslims can be “corrupted” by Christian ideas, there must be something inherently attractive about Christianity that lures them away from Islam.

Thus, violent intimidation must be employed to prevent at all costs even the slightest whiff of Islamic revisionism:
– – – – – – – – –

“Changes in Islamic thought are happening in particular in the most important Arab countries. With the excuse of moderation, they are corrupting our faith.”

He said that Christians “use false slogans and declare that civilisations are talking and not fighting, that the religions are getting closer and are not clashing.”

So the slogans are false, but also so convincing that they tempt believers into giving up their faith in Allah. There’s no explanation of why false ideas can gain such ascendancy, but simply an absolute determination to keep them from taking hold.

In particular, the political leaders of Arab states are too blame for their laxity:

Al-Libi criticised these “ideas of the unbelievers”.

[…]

Al-Libi attacked Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, who has suggested hosting a conference on religious dialogue in Saudi Arabia.

“The guardian of monotheism has raised the flag of brotherhood between religions and speaks about things that he does not know,” al-Libi said.

As soon as the door opens to “brotherhood between religions”, many Muslims try to leave through it, and must be forcibly prevented from doing so. True ecumenism would only serve to emphasize the fragility of Islam, and how dependent it is upon coercion, intimidation, and censorship to maintain its hold over Muslims.

Al-Qaeda is well-advised to keep the churches out of Araby, because there is considerable evidence that mass conversion out of Islam occurs whenever possible. This happens even when it is dangerous to do so, as it almost always is. Recently there have been reports that up to a million Iranians have converted to Christianity, despite this horrible risks they face as apostates in Iran.

The latest news concerns Muslims in Kosovo who are converting to Roman Catholicism:

Just last week, a group of 32 individuals of the same family, the Sopi of Lapushnik, converted to Catholicism. Lapushnik is a village located in the north-eastern part of Kosovo, in the same region of Drenica that was the cradle of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and that has traditionally harboured the more fierce resistance against Belgrade. A spokesperson for the family, Ismet Sopi, has told local journalists that there are many more people who intend to convert from Islam in that region, “maybe as many as 320 or 3,200”.

If these reports are true — if, despite the presence of the KLA and hard-line Saudi-funded Wahabbists in Kosovo, Muslims are turning to Christianity — then Islam’s hold at the margins is not as strong as its spokesmen would have us believe.

Members of the Ummah who are only nominal Muslims, when presented with an attractive alternative, tend to shed their Islamic identity rather easily for something that is less harsh and more humane. Christianity does not use a sword to persuade or retain its adherents.

As Pope Benedict XVI said so controversially at Regensburg in 2006:

Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the “Book” and the “infidels”, [the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus] addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”. The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. “God”, he says, “is not pleased by blood — and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death…

If the Iranians and the Kosovars are any indication, Al-Qaeda’s efforts to stop the spread of churches are in vain. The “world’s fastest-growing religion” is thus revealed as a sham, a propaganda ploy intended to hoax the infidels into backing a sure winner.

Islam is brittle and vulnerable. One little push will shatter the façade and turn it into the world’s fastest-shrinking religion.

Hat tips: insubria for the AKI article; Queen for the Kosovo story.

Our Swedish correspondent LN sent me this image of a Lega Nord poster from the recent Italian election campaign.

The text reads: “Guess who’s last? For rights on: housing, jobs, and health care.”

Look at those delightfully racist and xenophobic caricatures! No wonder the Italians voted in droves for the Lega Nord.

And the Muslim guy is holding a — gasp! — scimitar.

Islamophobia!

[Nothing follows]

Diana West just sent us an email — her latest column didn’t quite make the deadline for newspaper publication, so she has posted it on her blog.

Her editorial concerns the recent incident in which a soldier in Iraq used the Koran for target practice. When news of the incident emerged, Major General Jeffery Hammond was forced to make an abject apology to tribal leaders, and another officer kissed a copy of the holy book to demonstrate his repentance (and that of the U.S. Army).

The situation would be ludicrous except for the fact that — predictably — people have now been killed in Afghanistan during demonstrations about the incident.

What is it about Muslims and the Koran that can reduce even the U.S. military to such a state of slavish submission?

Here’s what Ms. West has to say about the whole sorry affair:

Sniper shooting Koran hardly ‘criminal behavior’
by Diana West

It is late August 1939. American columnist Augusta “Gusto” Nash, played by the incomparable Claudette Colbert in the 1940 movie “Arise, My Love,” is sitting in a French railway car taking her from Paris (and love interest Ray Milland) to her next assignment: Adolph Hitler’s Berlin. Not surprisingly, she is boning up for her new post in the Nazi capital by reading “Mein Kampf.” Turning the pages, she looks increasingly disgusted, finally becoming incensed to the point where she slams the book shut and tosses it out the window.

The audience doesn’t learn precisely what that final straw was, but given the book’s notorious anti-Semitism, racism and militaristic plans for world domination, it’s not hard to imagine. Which makes me wonder: What if, in a 21st-century update of the movie, a columnist were filmed en route to Riyadh reading the Koran? Given the book’s notorious anti-Semitism (not to mention anti-Christianism), Islamic supremacism and jihadist exhortations for world domination, what if a postmodern-day Western-reared correspondent were depicted becoming agitated to the point of throwing the Koran out the window?

Not very easy to imagine this scenario coming to a multiplex near you. At least not without bomb threats, bombast and boycotts from the world of Islam (not to mention assorted yelps and cries from the stateside sensitivity police).

– – – – – – – – –

But it’s a setup worth considering — quietly, privately, in that shrinking mental domain still free from speech controls (for now, anyway) — if only as a bit of a culture check on a real-live news story that came out of Iraq this week when a U.S. sniper was discovered to have used a Koran for target practice in the former insurgent stronghold of Radwaniyah.

And what is the point of comparison here between movie fiction and recent fact? Namely, the contrasting reactions to these two manifestations of contempt for anti-liberty ideologies. Americans in 1940 widely shared Gusto Nash’s loathing for Hitler’s totalitarian message. In 2008, the superiors of the soldier in question, right on up the chain of command to commander-in-chief George W. Bush, only express their respect for, and, in a very frightening way, submission to the Koran despite its totalitarian message — and even at the expense of the soldier’s Constitutional rights.

The fact is, assuming this Koran belonged to the soldier, there is nothing illegal about shooting it or throwing it away. Impolitic, perhaps; but snipers — trained rather specifically in this conflict to kill jihadists, who are, above all, inspired by the violent exhortations contained within the Koran — are not diplomats…

Read the rest at Diana West’s blog.

Concerning cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot’s upcoming hearing in the Dutch Parliament, our expatriate Dutch correspondent H. Numan had this to say:

Regrettably, this hearing won’t change anything. That is the benefit of having a solid position in parliament.

You are familiar with the political situation in Holland? Almost every cabinet is formed with the cooperation of the CDA. Without them almost no government can be formed.

The current coalition is CDA, PvdA and CU, in that order. The PvdA is polled at an absolute low right now: 18 seats. They simply cannot afford to blow up the cabinet. CU is there just to make up for the required majority. Not that they have a big problem with this heavy-handed action.

The CDA got two slaps in the face: Hirsh Balin, the Justice minister got his proposal to strengthen the blasphemy laws returned by parliament, and later also by the government itself.

Even if a motion of rejection would be accepted by the house, what then? Hirsh Balin would have to submit his resignation. Likely, so will his fellow CDA ministers, thus collapsing the government.

And then? We will have elections. Almost certainly the PvdA would be sent to the opposition, and not even as leader. The CDA would return to govern again. Also almost certain and inevitable.

– – – – – – – – –

ToN is, as I see it, a fake party, set up to draw voters away from the evil PVV. However, if the government falls, they aren’t ready. They haven’t a program, and I assume they’re working desperately to get at least something going. But ToN has no position on immigrants (read Muslims and East Europeans) which is something that their constituents find highly important. ToN actually supports a Turkish EU membership, completely opposite to what their constituents want.

One can never forecast the outcome of elections, and least of all now. I expect a massive win for the PVV, but even if they go from 9 to 25 seats (which I doubt), will it be enough to break the cordon sanitaire?

There isn’t much choice, though. CDA will win at least 25 seats. PvdA looses massively (they’re out), but it all depends on the voters. Will they switch to the communist party, renamed the Socialist Party? D’66 is a bit of a misfit. Neither outright socialist nor liberal. But they are polled for a come back. The VVD is also loosing massively.

So, to cut a long story short, Hirsh Balin basically says: “Okay. Go ahead. Make my day. I dare you to blow up the government.” Knowing full well the last thing the PvdA wants is an election. The CDA will loose, certainly, but it won’t keep them out in the next round.

Thus, expect the usual waffle and nothing more. But if the government has to resign (stranger things have happened), we are in for a stormy election.

Our Amsterdam correspondent Sagunto weighed in with this:

There’s a special situation at work in the Netherlands that needs a reminder, contributing to the reason many people still voted for the Christian Democrats (our prime Dhimmister JPB) in the elections of 2007, and that is the shock and aftermath of the murder of Pim Fortuyn. People were accustomed to the complacent “post-politics” of the nineties; that situation was completely shattered by the analysis of Fortuyn and his success; then his violent death followed and people fled in fear and disgust to the party that seemed to promise “peace and quiet”.

Balkenende was the right man for the occasion: look at that face. Never not a dull moment with JPB. That, together with the growing support for Wilders and Verdonk, is also changing fast. The peace and quiet attraction is beginning to wear off and the stifling of free speech when Islam is concerned is only creating more resentment among the general populace. Just to get back to the Fortuyn murder: had it been a Muslim who killed him, civil war would have been an almost certain fact, even in 2002.

The difference with Theo Van Gogh in 2004 was of course that Fortuyn was a political focal point for people to rally around and act. Theo van Gogh was an individual filmmaker without a voting-base or organization of some sort. That’s where the simple problem lies: many people — especially in large cities — are not an active member of any (political) group whatsoever and the level of fragmentation is high.

I don’t want to call it “individualization”, because traditionally people in Holland have always had a distinct tendency to mind their own business to the extreme (as opposed to Swedes for instance, who — generally speaking — have a more genuine “egalitarian” sense of community. Which many of the Dutch wouldn’t like at all, myself included). What appears to outsiders as a manifestation of some egalitarian sentiments in Holland is actually quite the opposite: Dutch people on the whole are hyper-individualists in the old sense and “equality” means that no one should get the idea — including the government — that he can meddle into the affairs of his neighbour.

That’s why sometimes the Dutch can really work together, just to make sure their own individual interests are protected. That’s why I keep repeating that for many Dutch, the idea of “the grand Nation of the Netherlands” is still somewhat embarrassing and even laughable. And I know it may sound strange, but that’s the way it should be, because it’s part of Dutch tradition. Just look at the European Championships this summer: you’ll see an army of orange. Not because the Dutch are nationalists but precisely because they know how ridiculous that notion is and how silly they look (they even wore German war-helmets in orange when the World Championships were held in Germany).

That’s also why you’ll never hear too many people shout in a martial fashion at a threat, but make no mistake, the anger will build to a point that the simplest incident can suddenly become the focal point for massive retaliation. That’s also why I’m a bit reluctant to go along with the “conventional war” speech. That doesn’t even apply to the struggle of governments against global Islamic terror, and it sure as hell doesn’t describe what will become reality in a few years: civil war (mainly civilians + avant gardists versus the State, the police-force and the multicultists’ main clients, i.e. Muslims)

The “peace and quit” doctrine of Balkenende will backfire more and more; Wilders and Verdonk will gain support, which will itself lower the threshold for counterjihad initiatives by ordinary people; the elites of the political parties now in charge, will fight to hold on to power, presumably by invoking EU pressure; that will only breed more resentment, and one day an incident on one of our beaches (think of the Australian situation not so long ago) will be the spark that fully ignites the civil war.

All that’s needed are some political focal points, and we have them in place. Now we wait, and I know some will be confused by the relative silence, like the commenter who thought there must be little or no awareness among the people. I know that you know better, and that’s the great value of having international contacts.

So that’s the situation in the Netherlands from the Dutch perspective. If anyone else wants to add his or her two cents’ worth, feel free to include it in a comment.

A man reputed to be a mentally ill convert to Islam (is that a redundancy?) has been hospitalized under armed guard after detonating a nail bomb in his own face. The incident occurred in the toilets of a restaurant in Exeter (UK) when the device apparently detonated prematurely while he was arming it. Another bomb was found at the scene.

Here’s the report from The Daily Mail :

A Muslim convert with a history of mental illness was being held tonight after two bombs were found in a family restaurant toilet following an explosion at lunchtime.

Police and bomb disposal teams were called in after Nicky Reilly, 22, apparently attempted to detonate a nail bomb.

Mr Reilly, who suffered serious facial injuries in the blast, is thought to have carried out the attempted attack after being targeted for radicalisation by Islamic extremists.

Diners heard three blasts which sounded like gunshots go off in a toilet at the Giraffe cafe in Exeter city centre as they were having lunch today.

Eyewitnesses said officers had to break down the cubicle door because the 22-year-old refused to come out.

In a further development, police carried out an armed operation in Plymouth, over fifty miles away where they searched a premises in connection with the bombing.

Following the explosion this lunchtime, two further bombs were found in a family restaurant toilet.

Eyewitnesses said officers had to break down the cubicle door because the 22-year-old refused to come out.

When he emerged, wearing jeans and a dark t-shirt, blood was running down his face and all over his clothes.

– – – – – – – – –

He was arrested at the scene and taken to hospital, where he is under armed guard, for treatment to a severely lacerated eye and facial burns. None of the customers or 15 staff at the restaurant was hurt.

There were claims the suspect was a Muslim convert and detectives are now trying to determine whether he has links to Islamic extremism.

Devon and Cornwall police refused to say what offence he was being held on suspicion of but sources close to the inquiry now fear the man was arming a bomb when part of it blew up in his face.

Police revealed that a second device had been found nearby.

Police forensic teams are believed to have recovered one or two canisters of sodium-based home made explosive either from the toilet or outside the restaurant.

A 14-strong team from the Metropolitan’s Counter Terrorism Command has travelled to Exeter to assist in the investigation.

Architect Peter Lacey, 63, and his wife Celia, 60, had just arrived to have lunch at Giraffe when the explosions went off at about 12.50pm.

Mr Lacey, from Exeter, said: “I heard a noise which sounded like a gunshot and at first I thought it was a kitchen accident of some sort, albeit a very noisy one.

“About a second afterwards there was another identical sound and maybe a second later a third…”

Further details may be found in the original article.

Hat tip: Lionheart.

“This is just barmy.”

That’s the voice of traditional British common sense. This story is definitely barmy, but we live in barmy times.

Muslims are normally the only ones who get insulted and then call on British law enforcement to help silence their critics. But this time it’s a different fringe cult that has managed to suppress the free speech of ordinary people.

According to The Telegraph:

Church of Scientology: Boy faces court for ‘cult not religion’ placard

A teenage boy is facing a possible criminal prosecution for holding a sign describing the Church of Scientology as a “cult”, police said on Tuesday.

The boy, who is described only as a minor, was taking part in a demonstration outside the church’s central London headquarters on May 10 when City of London Police officers ordered him to remove the placard.

It read: “Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult.”

When he refused, he was issued with a form of summons for an alleged breach of public order. Police plan to pass a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether charges can be brought.

Since the lad’s sign was simply stating his opinion, one would think that his protest would be covered by the right to free speech under English Common Law.

But anyone who thinks that is foolishly naïve. By statute, speech may be suppressed if it is “insulting”:

A spokesman for the force said the youth had been “reported” under section five of the Public Order Act, which contains measures against displaying signs considered to be “threatening, abusive or insulting”.

Consider the young boy in the photo at right. I’m insulted by his sign, and I’m sure many “persons of English background” in the UK were insulted, too.

So the police arrested him and he was remanded, right? Sentenced to six weeks of diversity training and multicultural sensitivity courses, yes?

No? Hmm…
– – – – – – – – –
Then how about this photo?

Surely somebody besides the Prophet was insulted by that sign. Were the police insulted? And then they arrested the hateful miscreant holding the sign, right?

[crickets chirping]

We know that Christians can be insulted without causing the arrest of anyone. But now there are two religions, Scientology and Islam, that are officially and statutorily protected from feeling insulted. Will there be others?

And this case has implications that extend beyond religion. Doesn’t it mean that Manchester United supporters can have Leeds United supporters arrested for their slogans and songs? In my day it was, “Dennis Law and Bobby Charlton, too — the biggest set of poofs in football boots!” Not just insults, but homophobia!

The names have changed since then, but surely the sentiments are the same. Are the Lancastrians insulted yet? It’s time to put all those Leeds supporters behind bars!

But back to the article:

Writing anonymously on an internet forum, the boy said: “Within five minutes of arriving … I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use ‘that word’.”

He said he was given 15 minutes to remove the sign, which was eventually confiscated by officers.

Chief Supt Rob Bastable said: “City of London Police upholds the right to demonstrate lawfully, but we have to balance that with the right of all sections of community not to be alarmed, harassed or distressed as a result of other people’s behaviour.”

That last statement describes a Sisyphean task. If the state is to guarantee that none of its citizens will be distressed, then total control of all public behavior will be required. CCTV is just the bare beginning — voice-activated tape recorders will have to be installed in every lamppost, bus shelter, and pub. Sensitivity-enforcement officers will be stationed in all public locations.

Finally, however, the voice of sanity:

The case was described as “barmy” and an attack on free speech by Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, the human rights group.

She said: “They will be banning words like ‘war’ and ‘tax’ from placards and demonstrations next. This is just barmy.”

It’s going to get barmier yet. Just wait and see.

Hat tip: Gaia.

Every day, two or three of these stories come across my virtual desk.

Illegal immigrants from North Africa are captured at sea in the Mediterranean, or drown attempting to get to Spain or Italy, or are caught after landing on one of the small islands off the coast of Italy.

It’s routine. If you add up the numbers, hundreds of would-be citizens of EuroMed are captured or die every week trying to cross the Mediterranean.

And those are the ones who drown or are caught. No statistics are available on those who successfully make it across and wash up eventually in Naples, Barcelona, Paris, London, or Brussels.

So this story is just more of the same, but one of the details in it caught my eye. According to ANSAmed:
– – – – – – – – –

Immigration: Illegal Immigrants Rescued Off Lampedusa

LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), MAY 21 — An inflatable boat with 58 illegal immigrants, including 12 women, on board was rescued by a motorboat of the Financial Guard 35 miles south-west of Lampedusa. The immigrants were the ones to send an SOS signal with a satellite telephone. The rescue operations, coordinated by the Palermo Port Authorities’ operative central, ended at dawn.

A satellite phone! These indigent people — desperate to escape the grinding poverty of their homelands and start a better life for their children in the welfare states of Europe — were crossing the Mediterranean in a flimsy raft while carrying a satellite phone.

Did one of them just happen to pack it into his bindle along with a clean burnoose and a bag of couscous? Or was it perhaps the property of a professional people-smuggler, the Mediterranean equivalent of a “coyote” in the American Southwest?

I hope the Financial Guard are asking some pointed questions during their interrogations of these “migrants”.

Hat tip: insubria.

The following article is by our Austrian correspondent ESW, who is now in charge of Mission Europa Netzwerk Karl Martell, which is where it was originally posted.

Smooth-Talking Liar: Al-Rawi and Naqba
by ESW

Frequent readers of this blog will already be familiar with Omar Al-Rawi, the smooth-talking Muslim member of the Vienna city council, who represents not only the socialist party, but also the Islamic Religious Association. Apart from accusing a distinguished gentleman of being “an enemy of Islam”, he hit a new low today: “60 years of Israel equal 60 years of catastrophe”. In an op-ed in the Austrian daily Die Presse, Al-Rawi says, “The world is celebrating Israel, and we should be allowed to commemorate Naqba.”

There are people celebrating 60 years of the founding of Israel, and there are others who are talking about “naqba”, Arabic for “catastrophe”. Joy and sorrow can lie together very closely. Some are celebrating an anniversary, others are still waiting for statehood. No one is speaking of the Palestinians’ right to statehood. Naturally no one will explicitly question this right, but implicitly everything is being done to prevent this from happening. Illegal settlements are crisscrossing the country and preventing it from being economically and politically viable. This is a policy of fait accompli, a done deal.

Ben Gurion himself once expressed its concern that the Arabs would never recognize Israel. Biblical legitimacy is unilateral, which may apply for the Jews, but this cannot obligate others, especially not the Arabs, the immediate adversaries in the conflict. The horrors of the Holocaust constitutes the convincing argument in this discussion, since none other than Abba Eban called the 1967 borders the borders of Auschwitz.

But this legitimacy is only partly universal, because the Holocaust has committed the Western world to its dark pages of history and because the Palestinians have nothing to do with the Holocaust. Still fresh in our memory is the refusal of the then Foreign Minister of Egypt, Amr Musa, who in the 1990’s refused the otherwise obligatory visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, saying that the Arabs could not be committed to the Holocaust.

– – – – – – – – –

What is left for the Arabs is the factualness of recognition of Israel. And this seems the only possible way of a pragmatic solution. Israel should allow more pragmatic rather than dogmatic discussions. Offers for a ceasefire of ten years or more should be accepted, because both politically and militarily the Israelis are overwhelming. They, above all others, bear the responsibility for ensuring that the deadlock point is overcome.

Jerusalem is already ethnically divided

Hamas will turn into a political movement, provided it gets the opportunity to do so. Such metamorphoses have often taken place in history. There must be a solution to the large problems — status of Jerusalem, settlements, right of return of displaced Palestinians — and they must be addressed urgently. Tony Judt says there will be no return of displaced Palestinians; conversely, it is time for the Jews to abandon their claims. Jerusalem is, as he says, already ethnically divided and, at the end of the day, will be the capital of both states. Israel cannot be spared of dark pages of its history and must come to terms with the past.

Thank God the Muslim immigrants in Europe have nothing to do with this dark history of Europe. But our new home obliges us bear and share responsibility with their history. You can not pick just the raisins. Therefore we are allies against any form of racism, anti-Semitism, but also Islamophobia. We will take part in dealing with history. But we will of course also show solidarity with the legitimate demand of the Palestinians. And so it should permitted for us to remember the “Naqba”.

There is only one rebuttal to these outrageous claims as of today. I shall translate and post these as soon as possible.

This is a report from our Spanish correspondent AMDG. It was posted first on his blog; refer to the original post for links to Spanish-language sources.

This is just the latest case: Two villages in the province of Malaga will remove from their coat of arms the chain that Boabdil wears around his neck, which shows he was subjugated, not captive, by the Catholic Kings after taking over the last remnant of al-Andalus: the Kingdom of Granada. The villages are Canillas de Aceituno (2,336 inhabitants) and Sedella (688 inhabitants).

The mayor of Canillas de Aceituno, Jose Manuel Aranda (PSOE), says that he has taken this decision because the chain “represents an element of confrontation that now belongs to the past”. He adds in a pompous and confusing sentence: “We have decided to remove a symbol with connotations of racism and slavery that deepens the struggle for dominion among races, senseless in a new, free generation”.

The decision was formalized last Friday in an extraordinary plenary meeting. The proposal originated with the party ruling the city council (PSOE) and was supported by the Andalusian Party; the Popular Party voted against it.

“We do not understand how they can vote against and be in favour of continuing to use for Canillas de Aceituno symbols that are the hallmark of inequalities and that can raise xenophobic sentiments”, commented the alderman.

That is the shield before and after: Boabdil has been promoted from subject to king by removing the chain. I think this is opening Pandora’s Box.
– – – – – – – – –
It is not the first case. In 2006, the regional parliament of Aragon started the process to remove the “Moors’ heads” from its coat of arms. The heads represent the conquest of Huesca in 1096. This was the first relatively big village that the King of Aragon was able to seize, in spite of being well protected by its remarkable walls. It allowed the Kings of Aragon to leave the Pyrenees and to expand their dominions to the south; a prelude to the annexation, shortly thereafter, of the fertile lands of the Ebro Valley and its rich cities.

For the time being the Moors’ heads are still in the coat of arms, separated by St. George’s Cross.

Moors’ heads are a rather common heraldic feature. Or at least they have been common up until, now. For instance, Pope Benedict XVI has also one of those Moors’ heads in his coat of arms. In this case it is not a defeated Moor, but a pre-Islamic Moor. An opportune reminder that Moors were Christians before being invaded by the Mohammedan Arabs.

Last night I took a road trip up to Washington D.C. to attend a party given by Diana West for Andy Bostom to celebrate the publication of his new book, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism. I brought along our copy of his earlier book, The Legacy of Jihad — which has been a gold mine of original source material on Islam for me and Dymphna — and not only did Andy sign it, but I also got a signed copy of his new book. In addition I took along a copy of Diana’s book, The Death of the Grown-up, and asked her to sign it.

So I came home with an armload of celebrity autographs.

The party was a relaxed and informal affair, with a mix of people from journalism, academia, and politics. Some of the guests I had met before; others were new to me. What we all had in common was a strong interest in various aspects of the Counterjihad.

An honored guest was Steve Coughlin, who was fired from his job in the Pentagon in January for daring to point out the penetration of the United States government, including the Pentagon, by front groups of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Below is a photo of (left to right) Andy Bostom, Steve Coughlin, and Jeffrey Imm of the the Counterterrorism Blog. The latter was wearing an excellent tie — not clearly visible in the photo — made up of American flags.

– – – – – – – – –
In the photo at right are Diana West and Andy Bostom.

For several hours the discussion among different groups of people ranged across a variety of topics, including the history of jihad, the delusion that reforming Islam is possible, military affairs, the upcoming election, Ted Kennedy’s health, and inside-the-Beltway politics. I spent a fascinating time in conversation with a well-known historian about World War Two, General McArthur, George McGovern, and Jimmy Carter, among other things.

It was a most pleasant evening, and well worth the drive.

To quote Root Boy Slim:

I used to be from D.C.
But they don’t want no more of me

Still, it’s fun to go back for a visit from time to time.

Life in Italy has this report:

Pope John Paul II could take a crucial step towards sainthood some time during the next 12 months, the Catholic news agency SIR reported on Tuesday.

The agency quoted remarks by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, who is heading the campaign to get the Polish pontiff canonized. According to Oder, John Paul II could be beatified ‘‘by the end of spring 2009’’.

Oder’s remarks indicate the beatification, which has already been fast-tracked, will probably not take place on October 16 of this year. There had been speculation this date would be chosen to coincide with the 30th anniversary of John Paul’s election as pope.

Beatification is the intermediate stage on the way to being declared a saint. It means that someone can be called ‘Blessed’ [pronounced “bless-éd” – D.] and that the person can be venerated by Catholics in the place where he or she lived.

The Church took the first step in the beatification process in April 2007, during a mass marking two years since the death of John Paul II.

A weighty dossier of ‘evidence’ of John Paul’s holiness, gathered by the Rome diocese and the Polish diocese of Krakow from which he came, was formally handed over at the mass.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the head of the Rome diocese and a longtime aide to the former pontiff, officially closed the first phase of the process with a Latin rite [?Mass].

Also present was a French nun whose inexplicable recovery from Parkinson’s disease, after she prayed to John Paul, is likely to be certified as the miracle that will qualify him for beatification.

[So where are they hiding the Devil’s Advocate in this procedure? It’s certainly not a enviable job, but it is part of the process, codified for centuries]
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John Paul is still some way from beatification because his ‘‘heroic virtue’’ must be approved by theologians, historians and cardinals at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Over the last three years, officials leading the campaign for beatification have gathered information on John Paul’s life, collected all his writings and heard testimony from some 130 people who knew him.

All the information has been condensed into a single document that will be examined by the three panels at the Congregation.

After beatification, another miracle is required before someone can be declared a saint, and officially venerated by Catholics everywhere.

New reports of miracles attributed to John Paul’s heavenly intervention are said to arrive in Rome every week. During John Paul’s funeral in 2005, crowds held up placards saying ‘Santo Subito!’, calling for the Polish pope to be declared a saint without going through the normal procedures.

Pope Benedict XVI has already accelerated procedures for his predecessor, waiving a rule that says the process cannot begin until at least five years have passed after the candidate’s death.

John Paul’s ‘cause’ was opened three months after his death.

This speedy path to canonization is an interesting turn of events. It has several possible motives. One might be to declare him the Patron Saint of the EU. That might bend a few noses in Brussels.

The way to a country’s soul is through its stomach. And European nations (there are still such things, for a while) are fed up to here with having multi-culti menus shoved on their children at school.

That nasty rule of the p.c. world is about to have its table turned over – napkins, falafel, and all – by the new government in Italy:

Ethnic food may be removed from government schools in the Italian capital, Rome, in the latest gesture by the city’s new centre-right government to target multiculturalism.

Laura Marsilio, city councillor for schools in Rome, said the local government would re-evaluate the ethnic menus of public schools, and replace it with what she called “Italian regional dishes as well as typical Mediterranean cuisine.”

Marsilio spoke to the media on Monday and said that the ‘ethnic menus’, introduced by the previous centre-left government of Romano Prodi “gave insufficient results.”

Marsilio reportedly also plans to look at centres where parents of immigrant children and their relatives are taught Italian, the laws of the country and computer classes.

“We need to see if they are really effective for integration,” Marsilio said.

The councillor also plans to ensure laws are respected with regards to the number of Italian and immigrant children in schools, because in some cases, immigrant children outnumber Italian children.

The 40-year-old Marsilio is a member of the post-fascist National Alliance party, a member of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition.

However, that’s not the only heresy being committed by the Italian government:
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In an interview with Italian daily Il Nuovo in 2002, Marsilio, a city council member at the time said “To give housing to nomads (Roma Gypsies) would be a social injustice” and that they should live in “isolated camps under police surveillance.”

“They have to learn to respect the rules. They steal and mistreat minors, I don’t like them. Not because I am racist, but because they don’t obey the rules,” said Marsilio.

Now there’s a new meme for you: dislike based upon a culture of law-breaking. How novel after so many years of 1984 silence.

Theodore Dalrymple would approve, but the multi-cults must be gnashing their teeth in the outer (and unelected ) darkness.

It seems that the EU Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has found a cause to chew on: the fate of poor terrorists imprisoned by the British government.

Can you smell the future? Only the EU will decide on who is a terrorist and who is merely a psychiatric victim:

The European Court of Human Rights is to consider claims from eleven terrorism suspects that they suffered psychiatric damage when they were imprisoned by the British government.

On Wednesday the court will hold a public hearing in Strasbourg to investigate the claims in a case brought against the British government.

The applicants, none of whom have British nationality, were allegedly involved in extreme Islamist terrorist groups with links to al-Qaeda, the court said in a statement.

Six of the applicants are Algerian, and the others are French, Jordanian, Moroccan and Tunisian. Another was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, and is stateless.

Oh yes, he’s stateless all right — thanks to Jordan and the rest of the Middle East, who made sure that the PoorPals were born and died “stateless.” I presume that Jordan will be one of the co-defendants, right? Of course they will. After all, this is about justice, no?

All eleven were detained after al-Qaeda’s 11 September, 2001 attacks in the US. They were imprisoned at various times between December 2001 and October 2003 and initially held at Belmarsh Prison in London under Britain’s 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act.

All the men were allegedly involved in Islamist terrorist groups with links to al-Qaeda such as the Salafite Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC) formed in Algeria in 1998, the Tunisia Fighting Group.

The men are also said to be linked to a group of Algerian terrorists centred around al-Qaeda and GSPC member Abu Doha, known for his senior role in terror training camps in Afghanistan.

He was also linked to a Frankfurt-based cell accused of plotting to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market in December, 1995.

The eleven are suspected of supplying false documents, purchasing IT equipment and helping young British Muslims travel from the UK to train for Jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan.

Three of the men were subsequently transferred to Broadmoor secure mental hospital following a deterioration in their mental health, including a suicide attempt.

Another was released on bail in April 2004 under conditions equivalent to house arrest, owing to serious concerns over his mental health.

A visit by Europe’s top human rights watchdog, The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture, criticised the applicants’ conditions of detention in Belmarsh Prison and Broadmoor Hospital and reported allegations of ill-treatment by staff.

So now we have a Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture. This is the group that will help to free the terrorists and then duck for cover in Strausborg. When the rebellion (about to outlawed by Lisbon’s Lunacy) gets going, I hope one of their first targets is this Court of Human Wrongs. If not, this chamber of horrors will live on to serve as one of the primary euthanasists of justice to the citizens under its purview.
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In a report, The Council of Europe committee concluded the applicants’ poor mental state was exacerbated by the indefinite nature of their detention.

Of course, we have no baseline evidence as to the mental state of these terrorists before their incarceration. But what need for reality in the Land of Utopians?

The British Government categorically rejected the suggestion that the applicants were treated in an inhuman or degrading manner at any point during their detention.

As well as the mental harm they claim their detention in Britain caused them, the men also allege their detention was unlawful and they had only limited knowledge of the case against them and ability to challenge it.

Eight of the men still in prison or at Broadmoor were released after Part 4 of the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act was repealed. This followed a March 2005 ruling against it on human rights grounds by the House of Lords, Britain’s upper house of parliament, sitting as the country’s highest court .

The eight men were then placed under control orders, a series of restrictions on the freedom of movement of terrorism suspects.

The control orders were brought in by Britain’s Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 to replace indefinite detention.

More recently, six of the men were place in immigration custody pending deportation to Algeria and Jordan, the European Court of Human Rights said.

Two of the men have returned voluntarily to their home countries, a court official told Adnkronos International.

Weep, Europe, for your children…

Hat tip: c_cantoni1983

Joe, at No Pasaran sent a link to this fellow’s report on what the jihadists are saying about the failing and falling number of insurgent operations in Iraq:

A prolific jihadist sympathizer has posted an ‘explosive’ study on one of the main jihadist websites in which he laments the dire situation that the mujaheddin find themselves in Iraq by citing the steep drop in the number of insurgent operations conducted by the various jihadist groups, most notably Al-Qaeda’s 94 percent decline in operational ability over the last 12 months when only a year and half ago Al-Qaeda accounted for 60 percent of all jihadist activity!

The author, writing under the pseudonym ‘Dir’a limen wehhed’ [‘A Shield for the Monotheist’], posted his ‘Brief Study on the Consequences of the Division [Among] the [Jihadist] Groups on the Cause of Jihad in Iraq’ on May 12 and it is being displayed by the administration of the Al-Ekhlaas website-one of Al-Qaeda’s chief media outlets-among its more prominent recent posts. He’s considered one of Al-Ekhlaas’s “esteemed” writers.

The author tallies up and compares the numbers of operations claimed by each insurgent group under four categories: a year and half ago (November 2006), a year ago (May 2007), six months ago (November 2007) and now (May 2008). He demonstrated that while Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq could claim 334 operations in Nov. 06 and 292 in May 07, their violent output dropped to 25 in Nov. 07 and 16 so far in May 08. Keep in mind that these assessments are based on Al-Qaeda’s own numbers.

The author also shows that similar steep drops were exhibited by other jihadist groups, and he neatly puts it all together in … two charts…

The charts are on Talisman’s post; just scroll down. Even if the exposition is in Arabic, the scale of the drop is self-evident.

Talisman reports what he predicted (quite accurately as it turns out) for Al Qaeda in Iraq several months ago:
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This sense that they were running out of time compelled Al Qaeda to take a bold initiative of declaring the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq four months back, appointing the hitherto unknown Abu Omar al-Baghdadi as its head. This was no propaganda stunt for Al Qaeda. This was the real thing: the nucleus state for the caliphate, with al-Baghdadi as the candidate caliph.

But this was a fatal strategic mistake for Al Qaeda, a mistake that threatens to pull down all the other jihadist insurgent groups along with it. Al Qaeda tried to leap over reality, but it was a leap into the abyss of uncertainty. Trying to pick a caliph is fraught with historical and judicial complications since there is no historical precedent – not even from the time of the Prophet Muhammad – that would serve for an uncontroversial transfer of power. It is one of the most delicate ideological matters among jihadists, a matter so sensitive that most of them have decided to leave it aside for the time being lest it result in splintering off dissenters.

But Zarqawi’s successors, who inherited the leadership after his death last June and who are, for the most part, rash young ideologues who consider themselves the avant-garde of contemporary radical Islamism, felt that the doddering old guard of Al Qaeda – aged and increasingly inconsequential has-beens such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri – would never summon the nerve to force the issue of the caliphate and get it going. So they rushed into action, and it has exploded in their faces, since no other groups seem enthused to join them in this risky venture. This mistake has huge implications for the Iraqi insurgency since Al Qaeda accounts for most of it, and its strategic and ideological failure can quickly be turned into a battlefield rout.

Now: if the MSM were willing to report on the reality rather than their wishful thinking, this thing could be ended even sooner.

Remember: when victory comes, it will not be because of any help that Iraq or the Coalition received from the media, the useful idiots in our Imperial Congress, or the small but ferocious anti-war leftists who would have had us on the roof of various palaces, helicopters at the ready, to abandon our colleagues to their fate.

These people simply don’t understand commitment beyond the pain of losing soldiers, or staying to fight when the going gets rough. They are the turn-tail-and-run group, which has always existed in American culture, and always will.

We are learning how to build work-arounds against the worst of their predations, and America and her allies will prevail against them this time.

If we can just keep the kid who wants to “dialogue” with murderers and tyrants out of office and we stand a chance for victory in Iraq.