When it first appeared in the Times Online, several readers sent us Gerard Baker’s column about Barry Obama’s visit to Europe. The form Baker’s satire took was truly inspired. Great was the temptation to post it despite our resolve of abstention regarding presidential politics until after the parties’ conventions. In the end, though, virtue won and we abstained from putting up that wonderful spoof.

But then this arrived, and temptation took the day and ran with it. The spoken word is definitely more powerful. Thus, a video of Mr. Baker reading his column:

“The anointed one’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action – and a blessing to all his faithful followers…”

Hat tip: Larwyn

We now return to our regular programming.

When it comes to Pakistan, that’s the understatement of the decade.

The above words were uttered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and they refer to the increasingly open defiance of Pakistan’s government by the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and allied groups in the country’s North West Frontier province.

A brief summary of the deteriorating situation:

• The central government has little or no control of the province, which is all but autonomous.
• The Pakistani army is either unwilling or unable to use military force to quell the Islamist militias active in the mountainous regions near the Afghan border.
• President Pervez Musharraf is deeply unpopular, and has lost the confidence of most of the country.
• The Taliban and Al Qaeda have publicly declared their ability and intention to take over the country and its nuclear weapons.
• Al Qaeda in Afghanistan operates with impunity in the border regions of Pakistan, so much so that its leader was interviewed on Pakistani television.

So the outlook in Pakistan is increasingly grim. How does Ms. Rice respond to a situation that could have grave strategic consequences for the United States?

“More needs to be done.”

A descent into typical State Department bureau-speak.

The passive voice. An understatement of the problem. A knee-jerk refusal to make any public acknowledgement of the gravity of the situation.

What needs to be done? By whom? Who can do it? What will be the consequences for the region and the world if it is done?

One thing is for sure: whatever it is, General Pervez Musharraf is incapable of doing it.

Before I get into today’s news on this topic, let’s take a look at a report from earlier this month in The Australian. Surprisingly enough, there’s a senior State Department official who does understand the gravity of the situation, and is willing to discuss it:

The issue facing nuclear-armed Pakistan, [US Assistant Secretary of State Richard] Boucher insists, is not President Pervez Musharraf.

“This is not the problem that Pakistan faces right now,” he maintains, in what was taken as a warning to the country’s floundering civilian Government, installed in office only 100 days ago.

“There’s danger of bombings and suicide bombers. There’s rising food prices. There’s energy difficulties. Their electricity is being cut off through load shedding.”

And, he might have added, there is a leadership vacuum and administrative paralysis in what many regard as one of the world’s most strategically important nations, which has opened the door to al-Qa’ida and Taliban militants, who are cutting a swath through much of the countryside and even steadily encircling one of its main cities, Peshawar.

– – – – – – – – –

[…]

Little by little, militants are moving in strength ever closer to the city’s perimeter, threatening the security of the highway that is the main supply route for weapons shipped to the port of Karachi and bound for the NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

According to most sources, in much of Pakistan’s northwest the Government’s writ is virtually nonexistent.

In vast stretches of territory (significantly, including areas where the country’s nuclear resources are deployed), al-Qa’ida and Taliban militants enjoy a largely free rein, unchallenged and unhindered as they impose sharia law and send columns of fighters into Afghanistan. Boucher’s message to Islamabad was plain, according to diplomats in the Pakistan capital. “For God’s sake, the clock’s ticking and getting closer to midnight. Start governing and get on with meeting the challenge posed by the extremists before it’s too late,” one envoy says.

And, most significantly of all:

Indicators have shown that about 73 per cent of Pakistanis have an unfavourable view of Musharraf.

The era of Pervez Musharraf is drawing to a close, and the United States and the West can no longer depend on his iron fist to keep a lid on the seething cauldron of jihad in the hinterlands of Pakistan. Whatever can be done, needs to be done, ought to be done, or has to be done will not be done by General Musharraf.

And now for the even grimmer news from today’s Australian:

Rebels could win Pakistan’s nuke haven

A crisis meeting of Pakistan’s new coalition Government has been warned that it could lose control of the North West Frontier Province, which is believed to hold most of its nuclear arsenal.

The warning came yesterday from the coalition leader, who, although he is part of the new Government, is regarded as having the closest links to al-Qa’ida and Taliban militants sweeping through the region.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman bluntly told his colleagues: “The North West Frontier province is breaking away from Pakistan. That is what is happening. That is the reality.”

This came just days before new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s scheduled meeting with US President George W. Bush to discuss al-Qa’ida and Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan.

[…]

Yesterday, the army was reported to have abruptly ended an operation in the Hangu district, close to Peshawar, after threats by militant leaders.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the ANP members blamed the worsening situation on “President (Pervez) Musharraf’s eight-year policy to deal with the issue through the barrel of a gun, and the alliance with America”.

The crisis meeting resolved to pursue dialogue with the jihadis, a policy derided by US and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.

It also declared itself to be implacably opposed to US or other forces entering Pakistani territory to deal with the growing jihadi militancy.

Analysts in Islamabad believe the warning about the situation in the NWFP will prompt renewed concern about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking in Australia, suggested the restive border region was the source of a surge in Taliban-related violence in Afghanistan, and said Pakistan needed to do more to prevent attacks.

“We understand that it’s difficult, we understand that the North West Frontier area is difficult, but militants cannot be allowed to organise there and to plan there and to engage across the border,” Dr Rice said.

“So, yes, more needs to be done.”

Yes, we all know that. But what?

Does America need to invade Pakistan and secure the country’s nukes? Does the government of Pakistan need to cede territory in the NWF province to a brand-new sovereign nation of Pashtunistan? Does the President of Pakistan need to appoint a Taliban government?

What, precisely, does Dr. Rice propose?

There’s no way to tell. Vague declarations and bromides are all that the US government has to offer.

Al-Qa’ida’s operational commander in Afghanistan, a 53-year-old Egyptian named Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was interviewed on Pakistani television yesterday and claimed the organisation’s strength in Afghanistan was growing so rapidly it would “soon occupy the whole country”.

He claimed that “the morale of our fighters in Afghanistan is very high and they are putting up a tough fight against US troops”.

He also claimed responsibility in the interview for a terrorist attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad.

The fact of the interview, as much as what he said, is seen as indicating an important new stage in the crisis.

“The bad guys are even popping up and giving television interviews: that’s a reflection of what’s happening,” one foreign diplomat in Islamabad said last night.

No photo-op with an American president at the door of Air Force One is going to top that. President Musharraf is definitely playing catch-up ball here.

A leading think tank warned this week about the Taliban’s use of a media strategy to exaggerate their strength and undermine confidence in the Afghanistan Government.

The International Crisis Group says the administration and its backers must counter this propaganda if they are to defeat an insurgency “that is driving a dangerous wedge between them and the Afghan people”, in a report entitled Taliban Propaganda: Winning the War of Words?

Yes, the Taliban is winning the war of words. Because they’re willing to use words, real ones, like jihad, or Muhammad, or khalifa. Or, most importantly, Islam.

We, on the other hand, are unwilling to use such words. As a matter of fact, members of the US military and the bureaucracy are officially forbidden to refer to “Islam” or “jihad” when describing the war we’re fighting. All we have for an enemy is a big punching bag labeled “TERROR”.

No wonder they’re winning the war.

The Taliban now publicise their messages, warnings and claims of battle successes through a website, magazines, DVDs, cassettes, pamphlets, nationalist songs, poems and mobile telephones.

Audacious tactics such as the Kandahar jailbreak last month and the April assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai show that the intent is to grab attention.

“The result is weakening public support for nation building, even though few actively support the Taliban,” the report says.

After Musharraf… what? The deluge?

Before you jump on my case: yes, I know about the International Crisis Group. Follow the link and take a look at their board and funding sources. I notice George Soros and Chris Patten figure prominently among the names there. The ICG notoriously recommended the integration of the Muslim Brotherhood into Egypt’s political process.

They may be pulling a similar stunt here — painting an alarming picture of the situation in Pakistan, with the aim of inducing “both sides” to begin a “peace process”, with the end result being the installation of the radicals in power in Islamabad, à la Gaza.

But I don’t think the ICG has to exaggerate the crisis in Pakistan. No matter who’s doing the spinning, the situation looks dire indeed.

Hat tip: VH.

A reader, DC, wrote Gates of Vienna this week. The Baron was out of town and since he is our Swedish interface, I didn’t feel confident in my responses to DC’s assertions.

As I said to our reader, what I know about Sweden comes from what people send us – plus information supplied by Conservative Swede in on-going email conversations.

And then there is Fjordman. Back in 2005 Fjordman was my first introduction to Sweden’s predicament. Remember when he had a blog? It seems a million years ago since the first time the Baron showed me a post from the dark prophet of Norway.

Remember the disinformation spread in the blogosphere about Sverigedemokraterna? What I learned about this political party came about due to ill-informed and scurrilous attacks by LGF following the Brussels Conference in 2007. These charges were first raised and then sustained by questionable sources such as the EXPO Foundation (eventually those charges were simply dropped. They were never amended nor was an apology ever forthcoming). Attempts by members of SD to address the topic were simply dismissed or held up for ridicule.

Like the Irish referendum dissent, SD survives in spite of concerted governmental efforts to destroy it. That says something for what is transpiring in Sweden, and it gives one hope.

With my agenda thus stated plainly, here is our reader’s email:

Hi there,

First let me say that I like the blog and follow it. I am with you all 100% when it comes to the problem of Islam in Europe. However, I am on the verge of leaving the blog, and here is why.

We complain about propaganda done by the left media and Islamists, but this blog is turning into exactly the same — propaganda only from a different angle. The things that have been posted about Sweden are absolutely exaggerated and really ludicrous. The media portrays things from one way, and you guys seem to be portraying it from another — both are very far from the truth.

Does Sweden have a problem with Islam? Yes but no more than other places really. Here are some interesting facts, starting with the juiciest statistics…

Fact:		50% of Swedes want the headscarf banned. Source: http://www.dn.se/DNet/road/Classic/article/0/jsp/print.jsp?&a=697077 (Swedish)
Fact:		Over 1/3 think immigrants come here just for the welfare. It is true but the new government has actually been very strict about welfare abuse issues and has limited many benefits as well as managed to get welfare payouts to go down by a lot.
Fact:		The economy, unlike most in Europe and especially the US’, is still doing quite well. Salaries are high, standard of life is very high. Crime rates, compared to most countries in the West, are still very low. I do not and have never felt unsafe while walking around late and alone through the streets of Stockholm or any other Swedish city, though there are of course suburbs where I would not do this, but this is no different than in any other city in the world.
Fact:		25% of Swedes are ready to vote for a party that restricts immigration. Almost half want to limit Muslim immigration, and this percentage is growing. Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1842592/posts
Fact:		In some polls I’ve said (sadly I have no source), about half of all Swedes want to CLOSE the borders altogether to immigration.
Fact:		Malmö is overall still a perfectly fine place. Its crime rates may be higher than the average Swedish ones, but they are still much lower than many places throughout the Western world. The worst neighborhood in Malmö (and Sweden) won’t even come close to even just average quite bad neighborhoods in the US. Malmö has many nice areas (most of the city) and I have never felt afraid while there. In fact it is a booming city, becoming part of a big Öresund metro area along with Copenhagen. Business is booming and lots of Swedes are moving there for the opportunities — and many Danes are living there and many more thousands are moving there every year.
Fact:		I’ve been to Stockholm’s worst neighborhood several times to see what it’s like. Yeah, the demographics there is disturbing and it is a shame such a neighborhood even exists. But, like with Malmö’s worst, is not bad, internationally seen for the Western world. There is still paint on the buildings. There are stores and a mall. It’s no ghetto. (But I wouldn’t mind bombing it and similar neighborhoods, but that’s another story.)
Fact:		Overall Sweden is still very Swedish. The immigrant % is on par with many countries like the US and in fact a huge percentage of this rate are Finns (still the largest immigrant group). There are also quite a few of Western immigrants (like Dutch). My Stockholm suburb is 17% but 10% of those are Finnish, which isn’t exactly a group I am worried about.
Fact:		Swedes do not hate themselves. I am not a Swede myself (I am an American who has been studying here for a few years) and have seen Swedish pride quite clearly. On the national day, which is kind of new to them, you see tons of flags and people celebrating Swedishness on the streets. Just look at anyone celebrating midsummer (or watching a soccer game) and you will see Swedish pride is still well and a live.
Fact:		A huge percentage of the large immigration numbers lately Christian Iraqis, which though still somewhat problematic, are easier to integrate in the long run. In addition, estimates show that a large percentage of the Muslims that do come aren’t very religious, which is especially true among their children who grow up in the very liberal society.

Do I want to limit — even better, end — Muslim immigration here? Yes, of course. It is a problem. But it is not the problem that this blog tries to portray it to be. Sweden=hellhole, Denmark=heaven is far from the truth. The two are still very similar in more ways than you would think.

The blog tries to portray Swedes as a bunch of self-hating people that do nothing other than to call themselves racists all day, and Sweden as a horrible hellhole with just immigrants going around raping people, both of which are SO far from the truth that just reading that makes you wonder if this blog is really trying to work for a cause or if it’s just a joke. The comments to the posts, in particular, are ridiculous.
– – – – – – – – –
Like I said, I support you all and I agree with you all. But please, try to stick to the truth. Most of you have gotten a very wrong picture of the country. Your sources are a few blog posts that use a few very carefully-selected articles by very few people and translated with a slant as well by one or two people. You also haven’t seen all of this in person, either. So, just as you’ve learned not to trust all that comes from the AP, learn to do the same here too.

It’d be great if you could actually post this.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

DC:

I’m surprised you don’t get on the comments section at GoV and argue your point of view. There are Swedes who would discuss your findings with you and perhaps a consensus would emerge that was more to your liking.

The Baron has been far more involved with Swedish authors than I have. Unfortunately, he’s away on business so what I can respond to is limited.

However, I do know that SD has been shockingly persecuted for its politics in a way that could not happen here. I have had some correspondence with the treasurer (if he still holds that post) and his view was not sanguine about Sweden’s closed political system.

Doe it not seem strange to you that union members were threatened with expulsion if they joined SD, and that SD has been vilified in the press repeatedly?

SD was not permitted by the post office to mail its political brochures so they had to be delivered by hand. This is Swedish “democracy” in action.

I don’t consider 50% of the population wanting the headscarf banned as a very good indicator. That means half either want the headscarf or don’t care.

Sweden hides the increase in rapes country-wide, and for public consumption is “puzzled” by this statistic. It also refuses to collect the data that would show plainly that Muslim immigrants are responsible. In fact, the perpetrators are quite willing to say they see Swedish women as whores.

If you were a woman walking around at night, how safe would you feel? Why are some girls dyeing their hair to a dark color? I’m not saying that the whole country has to do that, but it shouldn’t be happening at all. A polity which fails to protect its young ones doesn’t have a good future.

Swedish Jews in Malmo don’t feel safe at all. They have been warned not to wear *anything* religious or the police won’t be responsible for their welfare — as if they would be otherwise.

The police have also refused to help with security during temple services so the congregation spends 25% of its income on guard services. In fact, guard services are a growth industry in some places.

How about the refusal of the authorities to let the Jews erect a secure bomb deterrent structure in front of the temple? Obviously, the Jewish population is decreasing as they leave for safer places.

Fjordman is a gifted writer and well educated, both in Scandinavia and abroad. It was he who came to us with the information about the dystopia that exists in Sweden and Norway. And the Baron has met personally with him to discuss Sweden and Norway’s predicament.

Conservative Swede is a strong personality with great integrity. If he says that his native country is failing, I will tend to believe him. Again, he and the Baron have met in person. Like Fj, he deeply concerned with the future of Sweden.

Here’s Bruce Bawer’s opinion on Sweden, and he’s hardly a conservative:

The approach of the New Year [he means 2007] and departure of the old inevitably brings a flurry of “year’s best” lists. This even applies to nations, which some organizations make it their business annually to rank in order of wealth, quality of life, and what-have-you.

Surprisingly often, the Nordic countries come out on top. This placement is usually a reflection less of objective reality, however, than of the list- makers’ enthusiasm for the Nordic welfare-state model. The criteria, in other words, are formulated in such a way that the Nordic countries will inevitably end up on top. Hence Norway, for example, is repeatedly named by the United Nations as the world’s richest country – forget that prices and taxes are so high that even business executives lunch on dry sandwiches brought from home in aluminum foil.

Now it’s Sweden’s turn. The Economist Intelligence Unit, associated with the Economist magazine, has awarded the title of world’s most democratic country to Sweden. For many observers, this is not only wrong – it’s staggeringly, outrageously misinformed.

Sweden is, after all, a country in which the people are fed by their political, press, and intellectual establishment an unvarying diet of propaganda promoting the socialist welfare state, demonizing Israel, and whitewashing Islam. As for America, the official view was neatly captured in a post-September 11 editorial in the nation’s largest newspaper, Aftonbladet, which assured readers that the terrorists who attacked New York and Washington weren’t Sweden’s enemies but simply hated “U.S. imperialism,” a reasonable position given that “the U.S. is the greatest mass murderer of our time.” Such views, taught in Sweden’s classrooms and enshrined in Sweden’s state-approved schoolbooks, are reiterated daily by Sweden’s mainstream press organizations, all of which are either government-owned or government-subsidized.

Dissent is powerfully discouraged. In Sweden, whose murder rate is currently twice that of America and where Muslims now constitute over 10% of the population and are disproportionately unemployed and prone to violence, the Swedish press routinely depicts America as crime-ridden. Polls show that the majority of Swedes are deeply disturbed by their country’s dramatic social changes and highly critical of the policies that brought them about. Yet the crime and violence generally go unreported, so only rarely does any of the criticism seep into the press. Though two-thirds of Swedes question whether Islam is compatible with Western society, this issue is simply not open for public discussion.

To quote Jonathan Friedman, a New Yorker who teaches social anthropology at the University of Lund, “no debate about immigration policies is possible” because Sweden’s “political class,” which controls public debate, simply avoids the topic. Recently, the city of Stockholm carried out a survey of ninth-grade boys in the predominantly Muslim suburb of Rinkeby. The survey showed that in the last year, 17% of the boys had forced someone to have sex, 31% had hurt someone so badly that the victim required medical care, and 24% had committed burglary or broken into a car. Sensational statistics – but in all of Sweden, they appear to have been published only in a daily newssheet that is distributed free on the subways.

Instead of reporting on such worrisome findings, politicians and the press alike focus on the evils of America and Israel. Last year, for instance, Sweden’s state-owned TV network ran a series of “documentaries” about America that included Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine.” Viewers were protected from the fact that it had been shown to contain lies and fabrications. The series also included a sympathetic account of Stalin’s atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whom Swedish TV described as having been executed not for history’s most colossal act of treason but “for their Communist sympathies,” and something called “Why We Fight,” which explained America’s military actions as motivated by the avarice of military contractors.

Swedish book publishing is similarly unbalanced. Recently Michael Moynihan, an American writer based in Stockholm, toted up the English-language political books that had been translated into Swedish since September 11. His long list included several works apiece by Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore, plus volumes by the communist historian Eric Hobsbawm, the anti-American journalist John Pilger, and the “Holocaust industry” critic Norman Finkelstein. On the entire list, only one author was not a leftist.

When voices of dissent do break through in Sweden, they’re often punished. During the run-up to the Iraq war, the Swedish government censured the independent TV channel TV4 for running an “Oprah” episode that presented both pro- and anti-war arguments. TV4 was charged with violating press-balance guidelines when in fact its offense was being too balanced – it had exposed Swedish viewers to ideas from which journalists had otherwise shielded them.

Only one sizable party in the country, the Sweden Democrats, articulates most Swedes’ concerns about their country’s immigration and integration policies. Again and again, it has been the object of breathtakingly undemocratic treatment by the political establishment. Earlier this year, for example, the government closed down the Sweden Democrats’ Web site because it had published a cartoon of Muhammad. Stig Fredriksson, head of the free-speech organization Publicistklubben, complained bitterly. But the incident was hardly reported in Sweden – and, of course, barely caused a ripple abroad. If the Bush administration had closed down a Democratic Party Web site¸ there would be scare headlines and editorials thundering about dictatorship – and rightly so. But when Sweden’s rulers did it, it was apparently acceptable – because they did it in the name of political correctness.

Sweden Democrats have been the targets of events that recall China’s Cultural Revolution. Staged “people’s protests” by members of the “youth divisions” of other parties have led to the firing of Sweden Democrats from their jobs. A few weeks ago, a junior diplomat was dismissed when it became known that he was a member of the party and had criticized his country’s immigration policy. On several occasions, thugs loyal to the ruling parties have broken up Sweden Democratic meetings and beaten up party leaders. And this is a nation in which a party led by an admitted communist was, in recent memory, part of the ruling coalition. [my emphasis here — D]

The Sweden Democrats enjoy considerable public sympathy. But given Sweden’s oppressively conformist political climate, that sympathy is of necessity largely sub rosa. Mr. Friedman has suggested that one reason why the party has no seats in Parliament is that Swedish elections aren’t really secret – other people at the polling place can look at your ballot and see which party you support. The stigma attached to voting for the Sweden Democrats is just that strong. Another reason is that the major parties have worked together vigorously to keep the Sweden Democrats out of the public square. The success of this collaborative effort is reflected in the fact that Sweden is the only major Western European country whose legislature contains not a single representative of a party critical of its immigration policies.

In 1972, the British historian Roland Huntford titled his book about Sweden “The New Totalitarians.” He is echoed by a number of observers today who describe Sweden as an example of “soft totalitarianism.” Are they right? That’s a matter for debate – though it’s a debate that won’t take place in Sweden.

Bawer wrote that at the end of 2006.

The book he mentions was written in 1972. The closure of public discussion started a long, long time ago and it continues.

I know the qualifications for Bawer, Conservative Swede and Fjordman. I also hear from Swedes ranging in age from 17 to 75+ who write to us very concerned about their country. For the older people, it is a kind of despair, for they live on very limited government incomes that are too small to allow ownership of a car, yet they see newcomers thriving on government benefits. The oldest of our correspondents can no longer manage a bike and walking has become problematic so his life is quite limited now.

These folks not only write to us, they translate material and send it to us. Their outlook does not coincide with yours.

What I will do is send your list on to Fjordman. He is a most reasonable person and will think through what you have to say. If he responds, I’ll send it on to you.

If he responds at any length, I will combine them and make a post. If he doesn’t have time (he is in the process of getting his book together) then I will post your comment as is. Obviously, I don’t agree with you, but I believe in promoting civil dissent, so one way or another, your words will go up.

All this will take a few days, so I probably won’t have anything to put up before, say, Monday. Meanwhile, I suggest you join the comment section.

Dymphna

PS Here’s an old post from when Fjordman had a blog. It concerns Sweden’s eventual collapse.

Here’s a more recent guest post of his, which ends in a sad, disturbing piece of news:

As a final note on this whole sorry state of affairs – the Swedish parliament passed a law yesterday which orders comprehensive electronic surveillance of all citizens:

Swedish lawmakers voted late on Wednesday in favour of a controversial bill allowing all emails and phone calls to be monitored in the name of national security.

This law will make Sweden more totalitarian than even the former Communist dictatorship of East Germany.

DC, I am glad your Swedish world is one of safety and harmony. Many native Swedes would demur. The professor in Lund, mentioned by Bawer, had this to say about the tolerant Swedes:

“Weekend racists”, is Friedman’s term for many Swedes, whom drink themselves senseless during the weekend, whence it is generally accepted to – and then all the suppressed hatred is let loose. He mentions a leading politician whom daily spoke warmly for greater immigration and integration, but who simply had to be thrown out of Grand Hotel one Saturday evening because he shouted and screamed his racist opinions for the world to hear. While being drunk. Racism while under the influence of alcohol.”

I welcome Swedes – or other Scandinavians — of all persuasions to weigh in on this.

You know the drill by now: keep it civil and stay on topic. Limit individual comments to about 500 words. If you don’t, readers will tend to scroll past your words, no matter how cogent and enlightening. Of course if your point is not to be read but to get your point of view up there, then obviously a plea to limit your verbosity will not carry much weight. At that point, I may or may not invoke a blog administrator’s prerogative to delete what does not keep the discussion going forward.

Update: Concerning Rachel Ehrenfeld’s book Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed — and How to Stop It (Hardcover) — here is a review on Amazon from a reader calling himself “Concerned Kafir”:

If a Saudi royal is spending millions on muzzling the author of this book, you better believe it has some good stuff inside! This is a must-read for any non-Muslim, and it is important to purchase this book to support the brave, idealistic, sacrificing author, who is in the same righteous league as other heroes like Robert Spencer, Andrew Bostom, Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina, Walid Shoebat, Brigitte Gabriel, Bat Ye’or, and a few others. Buy a copy for yourself. If you have a relative or friend who works in any capacity for DHS, buy him or her a copy, too. This is especially important because of infiltration of Muslims into our government…

Not only is this book banned in Britain, this Amazon reviewer would be up on charges by a fervently dhimmified Crown Prosecutor.

As many of our readers already know, a quiet but relentless effort is underway in the United States to circumvent our First Amendment rights and introduce a European-style “defamation of religion” restriction on free speech. A parallel effort, known as “libel tourism”, involves libel lawsuits filed through the British courts with the aim of silencing American authors who criticize Islam and expose terrorist financing.

These are stealth projects designed and supported by the various front groups of the Muslim Brotherhood, which have spread petrodollars around in a bipartisan fashion in an attempt to corrupt the political system.

It’s interesting that news of the effort to resist the suppression of free speech in the USA comes from Europe News. Maybe the Europeans — with their greater proximity to the endgame of Islamization — feel the danger more acutely than we do.

Europe News is urging their American readers to protect their First Amendment, also because The Free Speech Protection Act could advance free speech rights in other countries.

If free speech is important to you, PLEASE copy the letter below and paste into the contacts (below) and send it to Members and staff on the Judiciary Committees in the House and Senate (listed below). Please forward this petition to your list, encourage them to sign and forward to their lists (More info on YouTube and American Center for Democracy).

Dear ____________,

The Free Speech Protection Act of 2008 ( S-2977 & H.R. 5814), was introduced by U.S. Rep. Pete King (R., N.Y.) and co-sponsored by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.), and a Senate companion bill by Senator Arlen Specter (R., PA) and Joseph Lieberman (I- CT), and co-sponsored by NY senior Senator Chuck Schumer. With Schumer on board, and others joining, the Free Speech Protection Act can be adopted before Congress adjourns this summer.

It’s important to take immediate measures to defend our ability to inform the public and protect our free speech rights — now under attack by Saudis using the British legal system. I can’t think of a more important and urgent law Congress and you can be proud of than the Free Speech Protection Act.

This legislation builds on New York State’s “Libel Terrorism Protection Act, aka “Rachel’s Law.” The NY law, and the proposed federal legislation grew from the court battles of New York journalist and terrorism investigator, Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, whom a Saudi billionaire sued in Great Britain for Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed — And How to Stop It — although she is American and her book sold here, not in the U.K. But plaintiff-friendly British libel laws have made London a Mecca for libel tourists wishing to intimidate authors worldwide.
– – – – – – – – –
The suit against Dr. Ehrenfeld — like 40 previous cases that silenced many other American and New York authors — is an obvious attempt to dilute First Amendment protections of free press, and prevent investigations of terror-financing.

The British Guardian wrote on July 15, “English libel law is an international menace, a national disgrace, a pre-democratic anachronism. It defends crooks, terrorists and tyrants from investigation. It threatens the free speech of people all over the world and causes untold damage to the reputation of this country.”

In a tremendous victory for free speech rights and to provide legal protections from “libel terrorism” to New York authors and publishers, the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, aka “Rachel’s Law,” was adopted unanimously — in less than 3 months(!) by the NY legislature and signed into law by Gov. David Patterson on April 30, 2008.

Pat Schroder, President of the Association of American publishers stated: “We’ve supported Rachel Ehrenfeld in her court battles…. Now we’d like to see the fight taken to another level with enactment of federal legislation.”

Senators Specter and Lieberman note that the English Libel Laws threaten the “free-flowing marketplace of ideas” which “enables the ideals of democracy to defeat the totalitarian vision of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations”. Free speech in the U.S. “is under sharp attack through foreign courts, where dozens of mendacious libel suits have intimidated and silenced American authors and U.S. publishers.”

The new legislation would not shield those who recklessly or maliciously print false information. It would ensure that Americans are held to and protected by American standards,

wrote Senators Specter and Lieberman. The new Free Speech Act bars U.S. courts from enforcing libel judgments issued in foreign courts against U.S. residents, if the speech would not be libelous under American law.

The bill also permits American authors and publishers to countersue if the material is protected by the First Amendment. If a jury finds that the foreign suit is part of a scheme to suppress free speech rights, it may award damages.

PLEASE, Help vote the Free Speech Act into Law. American Writers need it to be able to unearth the truth, and publish it without ant censorship by foreign courts.

Sincerely,

_______________

Below is contact information for the Senatorial Judiciary Committee, the Congressional Judiciary Committee, and Staff. Click on each link for details on the web, or use the phone numbers.

General Judiciary Committee

Staff Majority Communications Director Jonathan Godfrey		Tel (202) 225-3951
Majority Press Secretary/ Spokesperson Melanie Roussell		Tel (202) 225-3951
Majority Staff Director/ Chief Counsel Perry Apelbaum		Tel (202) 225-3951
Minority Chief of Staff/ General Counselor		Tel (202) 226-0002
Minority Communications Director Kim Smith		Tel (202) 225-6906

Senators on Committee

NY		Charles Schumer
		Press Secretary Brian Fallon: (202) 224-7433
VT		Patrick J. Leahy
		Press Secretary Erica Chabot: (202) 224-2154
MA		Edward Kennedy
		Press Secretary Melissa Wagoner: (202) 224-2633
DE		Joseph Biden
		Press Secretary Elizabeth Alexander: Tel (202) 224-2154
WI		Herbert Kohl
		Press Secretary Lynn Becker: (202) 224-2240
WI		Russ Feingold
		Press Secretary Zach Lowe: (202) 224-8657
CA		Dianne Feinstein
		Press Secretary Scott Gerber: (202) 224-8657
IL		Richard Durbin
		Press Secretary Joe Shoemaker: (202) 224-7028
MD		Benjamin Cardin
		Press Secretary Sue Walitsky: (202) 224-7433
RI		Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
		Press Secretary Alex Swartsel: (202) 224-7433
PA		Arlen Specter
		Press Secretary Chris Gindlesperger: (202) 224-5225
UT		Orrin Hatch
		Press Secretary Mark Eddington: (202) 224-5251
IA		Charles Grassley
		Press Secretary Beth Levine: (202) 224-6197
AZ		Jon Kyl
		Press Secretary Andrew Wilder: (202) 224-4521
AL		Jeff Sessions
		Press Secretary Michael Brumas: (202) 224-4124
SC		Lindsey Graham
		Press Secretary Wes Hickman: (202) 224-5972
TX		John Cornyn
		Press Secretary Brian Walsh: (202) 224-2934
KS		Sam Brownback
		Press Secretary John Rankin: (202) 224-6521
OK		Tom Coburn
		Press Secretary John Hart: (202) 224-5754

Congressional Representatives

NY-9th		Anthony Weiner
NY-8th		Jerrold Nadler Tel: 202-225-5635
CA-24th		Elton Gallegly
CA-3rd		Dan Lungren
CA-29th		Adam Schiff
CA-28th		Howard Berman
CA-16th		Zoe Lofgren
CA-35th		Maxine Waters
CA-39th		Linda Sanchez
CA-27th		Brad Sherman
CA-49th		Darrell Issa
MI 14th		John Conyers (Chair)
VA-9th		Rick Boucher
VA-3rd		Bobby Scott
VA-6th		Bob Goodlatte
VA-4th		Randy Forbes
NC-12th		Melvin Watt
MA-10th		William Delahunt
FL-8th		Ric Keller
FL-24th		Tom Feeney
FL-20th		Debbie Wasserman Schultz
FL-19th		Robert Wexler
TN-9th		Stephen Cohen
GA-4th		Hank Johnson
OH-13th		Betty Sutton
IL-4th		Luis Gutierrez
WI-2nd		Tammy Baldwin
AL-7th		Artur Davis
MN-5th		Keith Ellison
TX-21st		Lamar S. Smith
TX-18th		Sheila Jackson Lee
TX-1st		Louie Gohmert
WI-5th		F. James Sensenbrenner
NC-6th		Howard Coble
UT-3rd		Chris Cannon
IN-6th		Mike Pence
IA-5th		Steve King
AZ-2nd		Trent Franks
OH-4th		Jim Jordan
OH-1st		Steve Chabot

I don’t know if this really will become a daily feature here, but there certainly is enough material for it. Insane news stories from Sweden are coming thick and fast and are almost impossible to track.

Both of these articles are from the Local, and were sent by Fjordman.

Health authority sued over lesbian insemination

Only one woman in a lesbian couple has the right to insemination according to Uppsala health authority. Discrimination — argues the Ombudsman against Discrimination on grounds of Sexual Orientation (HomO).

After three attempts to get pregnant by insemination one woman in the lesbian couple became ineligible for further attempts as she had passed the maximum age stipulated by Uppsala health authority. Her younger partner then decided that she would try to become pregnant in her place — but was refused by Uppsala University Hospital.

“As we see it we have treated them as a couple. Should you have double the number of opportunities to get pregnant just because you are a lesbian couple?”, said Ulf Hansson, senior physician at the hospital.

The couple reported the incident to HomO which is now demanding 200,000 kronor ($33,156) in compensation from Uppsala county health authority.

Sexist holiday schedule angers prison guards

– – – – – – – – –

A male guard must always be in attendance when prisoners are exercising in the yard. This new rule has upset guards at Norrköping remand prison who have reported the case to the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman (Jämställdhetsombudmand — Jämo).

The regulation was part of a new action programme on how security at the remand prison would be maintained over the holiday period. When presented to staff, 12 guards, including four men, became so angry that they filed a complaint with the ombudsman alleging discrimination.

“We have not received a serious answer for why a male guard has to be in attendance in the exercise yard. Are they stronger? More intelligent and better talkers?” said one of the guards behind the complaint to local newspaper Norrköpings Tidning.

When the group of disgruntled prison guards tried to forward their complaint to authorities at the prison they were dismissed with the words, “we have no intention of having some feminist discussion here,” according to Norrköpings Tidning.

The union Seko is critical of the prisons service (Kriminalvården).

“It is not at all acceptable. All employees should be treated equally,” said Roal Nilsson of Seko to the newspaper.

Lars-Göran Svensson, acting regional director within the prisons service, does not see the problem with the regulation and denies that the intention has been to discriminate.

“If someone has interpreted this as discriminatory then they can report the issue. If it turns out to be discrimination then we will have to adapt to that,” he said.

Yes, we will have to adapt. No matter what bizarre, outlandish, and lunatic mandates emerge from the PC Multicultural machinery, we must adapt to them.

We’re accustomed to Islamic outrage over blasphemous cartoons, but the latest cartoon crisis in Pakistan is unusual: the offending cartoon appeared in a Muslim newspaper, was presumably drawn by a Muslim, and the blasphemy involved is entirely Muslim-on-Muslim.

The Salafists who object to the cartoon are engaging in the time-honored practice of takfir: declaring other Muslims to be apostates and deserving of death due to an alleged lack of Islamic purity or zeal. The plight of Najam Sethi is a reminder that infidels are not the only ones facing death fatwas for blasphemy, and the Mr. Sethi is to be commended for his courage.

According to the Times Online:

Death threat for editor Najam Sethi over Islamic cartoon

Letter from Taleban orders journalist to repent

A newspaper editor has received death threats from militant groups for publishing a cartoon of a radical woman Islamic leader encouraging her pupils to wage holy war.

Najam Sethi, chief editor of the Daily Times, one of Pakistan’s most respected English language newspapers and its sister paper Daily Aaj Kal, now moves under heavy security after ultra-conservative Islamic elements warned him of serious consequences if he did not repent. His house in Lahore is now guarded by six army commandos.

– – – – – – – – –

The threats were provoked by the publication of a cartoon in Aaj Kal depicting Umme Hassan, principal of a radical women’s madrassa, in a veil “educating” female students to wage jihad and embrace martyrdom.

Ms Hassan is the wife of Abdul Aziz, the prayer leader of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, who was jailed after the mosque was stormed by Pakistani troops last year. The madrassa she headed was demolished in the operation in which more than 100 people, including 11 soldiers, were killed. Addressing a rally on the anniversary of the Red Mosque raid in Islamabad last week, Ms Hassan declared that the cartoon was blasphemous, equating it with Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Other clerics of the Red Mosque argued that since Ms Hassan was teaching the Koran to her students in the mosque, any attempt to belittle her was blasphemous. [emphasis added]

The interesting thing about this incident is that the charge of blasphemy has been extended beyond Allah and Mohammed to include ordinary human beings. If one can be blasphemous towards Ms. Hassan, then by implication she is being worshipped as if she were herself a god. This is a great heresy in Islam, but apparently the rules may be bent freely by true believers in service of the greater good.

Nothing could illustrate more clearly the totalitarian political nature of the Islamic cult. Just as in communism or fascism, there is no rule within its own canon of orthodoxy that it will not break if doing so will maintain or extend the power of the totalitarian elite. The mujahideen of the Taliban and Al Qaeda are the “revolutionary vanguard”, and are exempt from any rules that might apply to mere mortals.

Najam Sethi is a reminder that decency and courage still exist among Muslims, who after all constitute the majority of the victims of Islamic tyranny.

Mr Sethi, who received the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) International Press Freedom award in 1999, has been an outspoken critic of Islamic extremism. AntiTaleban articles published in his papers have provoked strong reactions from militants. “By accusing the paper of blaspheming and including me in the category of antiIslamic elements the clerics have provoked people to kill me and my staff,” Mr Sethi said.

[…]

Mr Sethi has rejected the suggestion by authorities to stay out of the country until the situation is calmer.

“Extremists have always used coercion to silence their critics and that is exactly what is happening now,” he said. “This is a battle that media and country cannot afford to lose.”

I haven’t been able to locate a copy of the blasphemous cartoon. If anybody can find it, please let us know, so that we can post it in solidarity with Najam Sethi, just as we did with the Motoons and Jyllands-Posten.

Hat tip: TB.

There’s a lot of news tonight. These are just some of the headlines:

• Muslim Votes Crucial for Obama
• Amanpour’s Ridiculous Racism
• MAS Holds Farewell Dinner and Fundraiser for Former Sharon Imam Masood
• Author Fears Possible ‘Fatwa’ After Publishing Fictional Book
• Libya: Oil Shipments to Switzerland Halted After Diplomatic Row
• Building Peace Between Jews and Muslims, One Pastry at a Time
• Muslim Day at Six Flags a Time to Relax and Connect With Others
• Italy and Libya Close to Accord
• You Must Be Nicer to Muslims, Britain is Told by UN Human Rights Chiefs
• Anti-Hijab McDonald’s

Thanks to Insubria, TB, Miss Kelly, Fausta, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
– – – – – – – – –

Muslim Votes Crucial for Obama

CHICAGO — Disturbed by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s apathy to reach out Muslim voters, American Muslims are being urged to act to show the White House hopeful that the Muslim vote will be crucial in the November election.

“Muslims need to let Obama know that he has to earn their votes,” Saaqib Rangoonwala, managing editor of Muslim magazine InFocus, told Reuters on Friday, July 25.

Amanpour’s ridiculous racism

During today’s press conference in Paris, Christiane Amanpour asked Sarkozy “if he feelt awkward praising black Obama when, only a few years ago, he was calling black French rioters “scum.”

I kid you not.

Watch: [go to Fausta’s for the video]

MAS holds farewell dinner and fundraiser for former Sharon imam Masood

(from Miss Kelly)

Apparently the DOJ and Masood’s lawyers worked something out for former Sharon imam Muhammed Masood and his family to take a “voluntary departure.” The Boston Muslim American Society is holding a farewell dinner and fundraiser tomorrow at a restaurant next to the Islamic Cultural Center (the new Roxbury mosque). Lots of people convicted of lying to federal agents do jail time, but not Masood. Perhaps it’s just as well to have the entire family leave the U.S.

I wonder how the government will manage a three year probation when he’s overseas, which was part of his pleas agreement. No word yet on where he’s going. Probably not back to Pakistan. This ought to be covered in the Quincy Patriot Ledger in a few days.

Stay tuned!

Author fears possible ‘fatwa’ after publishing fictional book

A popular writer is traveling under a false name after he published a fictional book dealing with the Koran and Mohammed.

Brad Thor authored the just-released international thriller The Last Patriot (Atria Books, July 2008) — and now he wonders if a fatwa might be issued against his life. “That is an issue for us and something that my family’s been concerned about because there have been multiple death threats,” he reports. A fatwa is an Islamic religious ruling or scholarly opinion on a matter of Islamic law.

Thor finds it difficult to believe anyone would become that upset over fiction. “My goal here is to entertain, not to inflame,” he points out. “But I think what we’ve learned from the Danish Mohammed cartoons, from the British school teacher in Sudan who let her children name their teddy bear Mohammed, there is definitely a subset of that population that has absolutely no tolerance for anything other than their radical Islamist hard-line,” Thor notes.

Oriana and the Cherries

In her novel-world, family chronicles interweave with history. It all starts with a hat full of fruit.

Let’s forget for a minute about 9/11 and its repercussions. Let’s forget the angry woman who took up the role of defender of the West against the terrorist — and cultural — threat of looming Islam, and the writer who with a free thinker’s ruthless insight coined the term Eurabia, brutally shattering some of our taboos about co-existence. Let’s rewind and go back in time, but not too far. We are not going back to the days of the outstanding reporter from Vietnam and the world’s other hotspots, author of memorable reports for Europe that were syndicated to all the international papers, or to the woman who described her obsessive political and romantic relationship with Alexander Panagoulis in her epic portrait Un uomo [A Man], or to the protagonist of Lettera a un bambino mai nato [Letter to a Child Never Born], which moved the world with its intimate woman’s story…

Alessandro Cannavò for Magazine

English translation by Giles Watson

Article in Italian

Morocco: Immigrants to Europe barred from country because of ‘al-Qaeda links’

Rabat, 24 July (AKI) — A group of Moroccan citizens living in Europe have been barred from returning to their country because of their alleged links with the al-Qaeda.

According to a report on the Casablanca-based newspaper Assabah, the security services have come up with a blacklist of the names of 28 people living in Europe who have been accused of links with the terrorist network.

Libya: Oil shipments to Switzerland halted after diplomatic row

Tripoli, 24 July (AKI) — Libya’s state-run oil shipping company said on Thursday it would no longer carry oil destined to Switzerland after the arrest of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Motassim Bilal, also known as ‘Hannibal’.

Swizerland imports 50 percent of its crude oil supply from Libya.

TERRORISM: ONLINE INSTRUCTIONS ON ABDUCTION, ITALIANS TARGET

(ANSAmed) — WASHINGTON, JULY 24 — The Italians are in the top ten of the targets of kidnapping published by a website close to Islamic extremism, which also published detailed instructions for the activities of the Jihadist cells involved in “urban terrorism”. The instructions for kidnapping and the list with preferred “human targets” — to be used in order to demand the release of detainees or money for future operations — was intercepted by US-based research centre Jamestown Foundation, specialised in the study of terrorism. A large tutorial for the kidnappings (and in some cases for the “execution of the hostage”) was recently published online by an alleged terrorist identified by his combat name Abu Hajar Abdul al-Moqrin. Al-Moqrin presented a list with targets explaining that priority must be given to Jews from Israel and the US, who must be targeted before the Jews from Great Britain and France. Following are “the Christians, especially those from the US, Britain, Spain, Australia, Canada and Italy”. Then come the “apostates”, mainly leaders of the Muslim countries who have relations “with Jews and the Christian governments”, Egyptian Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of the Gulf Countries are mentioned. At the last place are “spies and security agents who protect Jews and Christians”. Al-Moqrin calls also to target, inside these categories, at top government officials and diplomats, with preference to old people, less protected and physically weak. Instructions are given on how to use weapon with silencer, anaesthetic injections and instruments for electrical discharges and on the modalities for hostage transport. The Islamic site, analysed by Abdul Hameed Bakier, an expert from the Jordan intelligence who is working for the US think tank, offers explanations on how to organise Jihad cells of four people to infiltrate the western cities, detailing any logistic and financial aspect of their activity. “The Jihad operations to be carried out in the cities include assassinations, abduction, vandalism and raids to release imprisoned Jihadists,” is explained. (ANSAmed).

Tunisian cartoon plotters remain jailed

A Danish court ruled Friday it was legal to continue holding two Tunisians suspected of plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist who satirized Islam’s Prophet Mohammed without trial.

The two men, aged 26 and 37 and residents of Denmark, have been held at the request of the Danish intelligence agency PET’s since February 12, when they were arrested on suspicion of planning to murder Kurt Westergaard

Building peace between Jews and Muslims, one pastry at a time:

[…]

One woman who participates in the monthly pastry workshop is Nathalie Obadia, a Jew of Tunisian origin who says she does not want divisive Middle East issues poisoning relationships with her neighbors. “What’s happening over there is over there,” said Obadia, 39. “Here, we’re in France.”

Muslim Day at Six Flags a time to relax and connect with others

Gurnee park expects about 1,200 Muslims to attend Saturday

On any other day, Sobia Ahmed would opt to forgo many of the snacks on offer at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. To perform the Islamic prayers she recites five times a day, she likely would slip onto a secluded path at the amusement park or look for solace under a shady tree for a few furtive minutes.

But this Saturday Ahmed and her family will eat and pray at their leisure in the park with hundreds of other Muslims from the Chicago area who plan to visit the sprawling entertainment center for a day catered especially to them.

For the fourth time since 2004, Six Flags in Gurnee is sponsoring Muslim Day, bringing in outside caterers to provide halal food and turning an amphitheater into a makeshift mosque to accommodate Muslims who observe dietary laws and strict prayer schedules. Muslims who plan to go say they appreciate the sense of community the event creates as well as the opportunity to talk about Islam with curious non-Muslims at the park.

Swiss citizen arrests deepen Libyan crisis

Switzerland’s foreign ministry has voiced concern at the detainment of two Swiss nationals in “alarming conditions” in Libya.

The pair were held as Libya rolled out a retaliatory response to the arrest of Moammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal in Geneva on July 15, including the alleged suspension of oil supplies to Switzerland on Thursday.

The Swiss nationals, one of whom is an employee of Swedish-Swiss firm ABB, have been formally arrested and charged with immigration offences, ministry spokesman Jean-Philippe Jeannerat said on Thursday.

Italy and Libya close to accord

(ANSA) — Rome, July 24 — Italy and Libya could sign a historic friendship and cooperation accord resolving issues related to Italy’s colonial occupation of the North African country by the end of August, Premier Silvio Berlusconi has said. Speaking to journalists on Thursday evening, the premier confirmed news leaked to Libyan television earlier in the day that the two countries were close to reaching an agreement after more than a decade of negotiations.

The accord would finally resolve issues related to Italy’s colonial occupation of the North African country in 1911 and the expulsion of some 20,000 Italians by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 1970.

“We are working intensely and with a strong desire to draw up a pact of friendship by August 31,” Berlusconi said.

Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, told Libyan television that the two countries were likely to sign a “billion dollar” agreement in the next few weeks.

The accord includes various projects, including the Italian construction of a large coastal highway costing an estimated six billion euros that would link Libya with Egypt and Tunisia.

You must be nicer to Muslims, Britain is told by UN human rights chiefs

Britain was told yesterday by a United Nations committee to take firm action to combat ‘negative public attitudes’ towards Muslims.

The nine-member human rights committee also criticised some of the UK’s antiterror measures.

The body, which is composed of legal experts, said it was concerned ‘ negative public attitudes towards Muslim members of society’ continued to develop in Britain.

Anti-hijab McDonald’s

CAIRO — Two young American Muslim women are suing the world’s largest chain of fast food restaurants McDonald’s over denying them jobs for donning hijab, the Detroit News reported on Friday, July 25. \

“I applied for the McDonald’s position maybe two weeks ago and he (the manager) simply (told me) I had to make a choice and remove my hijab, or I would not be able to establish employment there,” 25-year-old Quiana Pugh said.

“When I walked away, I was definitely hurt by it and disturbed. I was confused that it could happen here in Dearborn, with so many Muslims.”

LIBYA: RESPECT OUR RIGHTS TOO, REPATRIATES TO BERLUSCONI

(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 25 — A telegram to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to call for respect of the rights of the Italians repatriated from Libya and to ask for a meeting at the Italian government with a delegation of the association was sent by president of Association of Italians Repatriated from Libya (AIRL), Giovanna Ortu, after yesterday the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, announced the forthcoming signing of an agreement with Italy for compensations amounting to billions and the prime minister confirmed that Rome and Tripoli are working hard to reach an agreement “by August 31”. “In merit of Your statements on the forthcoming closing of the legal dispute with Libya with the same willingness which You have expressed last week to the Libyan prime minister and foreign minister, and from our modest position, we ask for equal dignity, certain that this time a delegation of the association will be granted a short meeting,” the telegram reads. “A government which defines itself democratic cannot continue ignoring our appeals and remaining deaf to the legitimate demands of Italian citizens, while it is ready to pay billions to favour the demands of a dictator who accuse us of an occupation that happened almost one century ago for which Libya has been already compensated in 1956 and blackmails with the bogy of the illegal immigrants,” Ortu says. In a statement, the president of AIRL estimates to three billion euro the compensations owed for the property confiscated from the Italians by Gaddafi in 1970, legitimate demands, Ortu states, in front of which “it would be unworthy that in the moment when the money for compensations amounting to billions are found for Libya there is no place in the budget for an allocation related to the compensations” owed to the repatriates. (ANSAmed).

An Australian reader just sent us this letter to the editor, as scanned from the print edition of his regional newspaper. He includes the following cover note:

As a demonstration of how widespread Islam really is, and of its arrogance wherever it goes, here is a letter to the editor of our state newspaper The West Australian, published on 24th July 2008 here in the world’s most isolated capital city, Perth Western Australia.

In Perth we are experiencing a massive influx of Muslim immigrants. My wife works at one of the main public hospitals here and she can tell of some choice experiences of how our once great public health system is being run down by the adherents of The Religion of Peace.

The letter is obviously referring to a previous piece of political correctness published in the same newspaper:

Alarm bells

On the same afternoon that I read the rant by Daniel Baldwin I happened to catch a bus to Victoria Park from Maddington.

I was amused when across the seat from me sat a Muslim woman who reacted most strongly when a white male sat next to her. Her body language and her mutterings caused him to look at her and ask if something was the matter.

– – – – – – – – –

He was told to move to another seat and when he informed her he was an Australian and he would sit where he liked, she instantly rang the bell and as she stood up gave him this speech: “You may be the rulers of this country now, but this will change and then things will be very different for all of you.’’

Stunned, we all looked on as she took off angrily.

So, don’t worry Mr Baldwin, very soon given Labor’s immigration policy, you will be experiencing the very Islamic way of life you and your left-wing cohorts so obviously desire.

In the meantime, maybe you could move to the Islamic state that was once called London to live among your mates providing you can find an area where white people are allowed to live.

While you are there maybe you could console Tony Blair’s wife who recently stated in an English newspaper how terrified she is for her children’s safety due to the violence that ethnic gangs have brought to her country.

Oh the irony!

— Michael Monroe, Victoria Park.

Ypp, a regular commenter here at Gates of Vienna, offers the following thoughts prompted by a post I wrote last week. His essay was little too long and off-topic for the comments, so he asked me to post it separately.

The Tower of Babel
by Ypp

Recently I saw a picture from one of the US cable channels which was supposed to represent one of the Muslim countries, which one is now irrelevant. Guess what they showed? It was a couple of huge minaret towers.

It made me recall what I learned from TV and in school about other countries. France is of course the Eiffel tower. England — the tower of Parliament with Big Ben. Moscow is represented by the Ostankino TV tower and the Kremlin towers. Berlin also had a TV tower, though lower than that in Moscow. And I realized that in the progressive mind the only thing worth doing is to build a tower. One whose tower is the highest becomes the first among others in the progressive world.

Now another story. In his recent post about Holland, Baron wrote that Holland allow immigrants not to learn Dutch, and that reminds him of the Tower of Babel. Mixing languages was exactly the reason why the builders of the Tower failed.

But what is the Tower itself, what will be ruined by that mixing? Is it a multicultural society? No, multicultural society is the one where languages have already mixed, so it is already a failure.
– – – – – – – – –
Does the Tower means the great economic achievements? Or the great Empire of completely equal citizens with arbitrary culture?

Now connecting those two stories. Progressives and liberals claim that 9/11 was caused by the lack of communication. I think that to the progressive mind the communication was meant to be as follows: Hey guys, you are building towers and we are building towers. We are alike, why can’t we build them together? Why don’t you understand our language? Maybe, it will help if we learn yours? Why don’t you understand us???!!!

I can’t stop being amazed how the 3,000 year old story is being repeated today. And how some people fail to learn from it.

During the recent discussion here about Jean Le Pen, Robert Marchenoir provided us with some insightful analysis of Mr. Le Pen and his place in the French political context:

The problem with Le Pen is he’s not a politician at all. He’s not really concerned about furthering his ideas, or convincing people, or winning power. He’s more of a professional provocateur.

He’s been right on immigration, and he was practically alone on this for a very long time. He says some truths on Europe (but I wouldn’t bet on him to come up with an alternative solution).

And his agenda is full of contradictions. He can’t make his mind about many issues.

He has some libertarian policies, but he wants the state to protect the people more, not less. He’s broadly against Muslim immigration, but there is a distinct and persistent anti-Semitic streak within him and his party.

He can’t resist churning up a regular flow of offending jokes during interviews. They go along well with his voters, because they love to see the old man dissing the elites.

However, they turn off just about everybody else, and they prevent him from advancing whatever might be correct in his ideas.

It’s not any jokes, either. He, and others within his party, have been suggesting for years now that, you know, the Holocaust might have been a bit overstated… maybe there were not that many dead Jews after all… anyway we should look into the matter — this sort of thing.

Also, he is believed to have tortured prisoners himself during the Algerian war (he admitted to it, then denied it), which makes him unacceptable to a lot of Frenchmen as a legitimate politician.

Essentially, Le Pen is a man from the past. He’s quite old now, and has resisted grooming his successor for too long, although his daughter stands a good chance to take the leadership of his party after him.

– – – – – – – – –

But apart from that, he never really understood his times. He’s stuck with obsolete, ineffective tendencies of the French psyche. Although he likes to portray himself as the only opponent to the class of professional politicians who never quit, he was himself elected a member of parliament more than half a century ago, and it shows.

He represents the small shop-keepers who were pushed aside by supermarkets forty years ago. Decent people for sure, but their era isn’t about to come back.

He represents Frenchmen whose ancestors colonised Algeria and raised families there in the 19th century, before being ignominiously expelled when Algeria became independent in 1962. A sad fate certainly, but the clock can’t be turned back, and Le Pen never came up with a plausible proposition to heal the wounds that are still gaping on both sides — only nostalgia for the old empire.

He represents this old, irrational, anti-Semitic streak, which is closely intertwined nowadays with traditional French anti-Americanism. Not that there is nothing to be said against US policies and way of life, but this brand of anti-Americanism is not going anywhere.

Just to give you an idea, young, brilliant Frenchmen would rather tend nowadays to emigrate to the US — or to Ireland, or to China — in order to get a job, gain experience and see the world. This does not mean they are uncritical about America; just that this worldview of America as the devil is increasingly obsolete, even if it has quite a lot of traction yet in all walks of French society.

Contrast this with the way Geert Wilders handles the Muslim issue. I have no idea about his views on agricultural policy, health care, the euro and whatnot.

However, his moves on Islam show he’s looking straight into the future — not the past, he concentrates on the fundamental problems — not on details, he speaks straight, does not mince words but does not seek to gratuitously offend either — and he actually puts his life on the line.

At the same time, you can hear Le Pen boasting about having done menial errands for the Resistance during World War II (it might be true, or not), and about having served in the military in Algeria.

More recently, he manhandled a female, socialist opponent during an electoral campaign (and was convicted for that, as far as I remember).

Apart from that, he’s quite safe.

Wilders and Le Pen are a world apart.

The Observer sends us more news about Norway, as a follow-up to Dymphna’s post from yesterday. First, his own commentary on the article:

Here’s another story from wonderful multicultural Norway. A multicultural paradise that our socialists politicians have dreamed about creating in Norway for the last thirty or so years. And guess what? They finally got it. This latest incident involve some Chechen gentlemen/asylum-seekers who decided to settle a minor dispute with some fellow Muslim peace lovers in a very un-Norwegianlike fashion.

As you can see it’s not only the capital, Oslamabad, that is deeply affected by the arrival of these new ‘cultural enrichers’. Vaaler, where this ‘dispute’ took place is a sleepy little one-horse town, and, like a lot of other towns and cities in Norway, it has the misfortune of having an asylum center within its borders.

And now the news story from today’s Norway Post:

Serious attack on Immigration Center — 21 injured

21 persons were injured, several of them seriously, after a group of around 50 persons attacked an immigration reception center in Vaaler in Oestfold county late Thursday evening.

The attackers arrived in cars, armed with iron bars and other weapons, possibly also knives. They entered the buildings, pulled persons from their rooms and beat them up. According to NRK, it appears that the attackers were Czechenians [sic] who attacked Kurdish asylum seekers at the transit camp. It seems a minor conflict earlier Thursday may have been the reason for the attack, according to a witness, quoted by NRK.

– – – – – – – – –

“When the police arrived, the attackers had already left, and the camp looked more like a battlefield,” says Alf Solstad of the Oestfold police precinct.

The police cannot confirm the nationality of the attackers, but were Friday morning investigating the incident, trying to find out what actually happened.

Seven of those injured were taken to hospital, while 13 were treated at the Moss casualty clinic.

The attackers also damaged doors and windows at the transit centre.

I arrived back in the Old Dominion in the wee hours of this morning. I’m just getting started on the email — I notice that y’all took no pity on Dymphna while I was gone. It may take me many days to go through all of it. If it’s important, please send it again.

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

I spent the last few days doing computer-related work in a midsize American city. The trip took two flights, and I checked my suitcase through (a three-hour layover at Dulles — UGH!). When I arrived at the hotel and opened my suitcase, I found a little present waiting there for me, courtesy of the United States Government (“Hi! We’re here to help you! Hand over your wallet!”).

I scanned the leaflet for your enjoyment. On the flip side (not shown) was an identical message in Spanish. When I read that the TSA “está obligada bajo la ley de inspeccionar todo el equipaje registrado para protegerlo a usted y a sus compañeros pasajeros”, my immediate reaction was, “Hey! What about Arabic? Or Farsi? Or Urdu? This is discrimination!”

Or maybe it’s just that people from countries that speak those languages hardly ever get their bags opened. After all, that would be “profiling”.

But the best part of the story is that when they opened my suitcase, the agents of Uncle Sam charged with my protection found packed among my socks and underwear a brand new copy of Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, which I had brought along to read during the long boring evenings at the hotel.

When I got home and told the Future Baron this story, he wondered if the process of officially protecting me might have involved the blacking out of certain selected passages in the book. But I’m up to page 272, and so far it seems to be intact…

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

Given that I was immersed in Liberal Fascism, I couldn’t help but observe the New Deal roots of the TSA’s handout. Below the fold is the entire text of the notice, interspersed with my comments.
– – – – – – – – –

Transportation Security Administration

NOTICE OF BAGGAGE INSPECTION

To protect you and your fellow passengers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is required by law* to inspect all checked baggage. As part of this process, some bags are opened and physically inspected. Your bag was among those selected for physical inspection.

First of all, any protection of me during the TSA’s operations is incidental.

Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against cargo-hold luggage being searched.

But the searches are random, and given that the Muslim Brotherhood has affirmative-action-hire moles burrowed into the TSA just like all other federal agencies, the terrorists are well aware of the selection frequency for baggage searches. If they’re serious about blowing up the plane, they’ll simply pick a day and send through enough bombs — one per plane — to beat the odds.

During the inspection, your bag and its contents may have been searched for prohibited items. At the completion of the inspection, the contents were returned to your bag.

Yes, they were. The officers did a good job; everything was repacked neatly, and if it hadn’t been for the TSA calling card, I might never have noticed.

If the TSA security officer was unable to open your bag for inspection because it was locked, the officer may have been forced to break the locks on your bag. TSA sincerely regrets having to do this, however TSA is not liable for damage to your locks resulting from this necessary security precaution.

Fortunately, I understood that ahead of time. When I prepare for a trip, I assume that the government is going to be poking through my toiletries and small clothes, and pack accordingly. Anyone who locks his suitcase and then checks it through is being foolish.

For packing tips and suggestions on how to secure your baggage during your next trip, please visit:

www.tsa.gov

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact the TSA Contact Center:

Phone: 866.289.9673 (toll free)
Email: TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov

I believe in the squeaky wheel. Everyone is encouraged to call or email (Remain calm! Remain polite! Remember your manners!) and explain to the good folks at the TSA exactly what they think of its ludicrous security procedures. Suggested improvements: open-carry privileges for all passengers licensed to do the same in their home states. Now that would deter terrorism.

But don’t hold your breath.

And for those of you who couldn’t read the fine print, a reminder of how completely legal all this coercive rigmarole is:

*Section I 10(b) of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001, 49 U.S.C. 44901 (c)-(e)

Rev. 8-1-2004

Smart Security Saves Time

And how is that? What’s “smart” enough to save time?

Patting down the occasional granny and searching little girls’ Hello Kitty satchels at random, rather than searching everybody and everything?

Not making everyone strip down to their lingerie — is that what saves time?

Not bothering to search people “of Middle Eastern appearance” — boy, I’ll bet that saves lots of time.

I saw a female TSA officer in hijab at Dulles charged with monitoring passengers at the security screening. That may have saved time. But why does it not make me feel safer?

Over the last seven years the phrase “going to the airport” has become synonymous with interminable waits, pointless procedures, official arrogance, indifference towards the traveling public, and excruciating boredom punctuated by the occasional humiliation of invasive personal scrutiny. It’s right up there with “colonoscopy” as another way of saying “something to be avoided at all costs”.

You wait for twenty minutes in a line, hold out your ID and your boarding pass, take off your shoes, divest yourself of your wallet and cell phone, put your hand cream and toothpaste in a bag, unpack your laptop, take off your jacket, get it all X-rayed, pass through the scanner, and endure the occasional random wanding and pat-down afterwards.

But do you feel any safer?

All those who think that all this folderol significantly reduces the threat of a terrorist attack, please raise your hands.

No?

Just as in 1917 and 1933, the progressives in our government view the present danger as an opportunity. They have risen to the occasion and seized it eagerly. More government intervention. More state control. More surveillance of ordinary citizens. More interference in people’s day-to-day lives.

But no one feels any safer. Funny about that.

Billions and billions of your tax dollars spent on boondoggles, mountains of paperwork, people in nifty uniforms, fat patronage contracts for favored political contributors, new offices, fancy logos, dozens of additional federal acronyms, and the petty harassment of ordinary citizens. Not to mention the Islamic Sensitivity Training sessions for DHS employees, facilitated by the Muslim Brotherhood volunteers from CAIR and ISNA.

And to no discernable public benefit. Welcome to Liberal Fascism, Phase Three.

“Smart security” is neither. To quote Dymphna from her post last night, it “is not concerned with outcomes; it lives for procedures. And by its lights, procedures take precedence over virtue.”

When you consider terrorist groups like the Taliban or “the youths” of banlieues like Clichy-sous-Bois, it can be difficult to come up with a real solution to the problem of those who are willing to defy the social mores of the place in which they live…simply to assert that it is they who are in control. Attempts to resolve the crises these groups present have so far proved futile.

Please don’t tell me we should “kill them all and let God sort it out.” That is a solution without any resolution. For one thing, it invalidates our own moral code. For another, such draconian measures simply feed the fire. Individuals can be subdued and obliterated, but there are always others, even angrier and more feral, to take their place.

In some ways, this reminds me of the drug wars that took place in many families during the 1970’s and ‘80’s. The scenario went something like this: suddenly the once-reasonable kid you thought you knew morphed into a secretive, ill-mannered monster who stole your money and lifted family possessions in order to sell them for drugs. The child you had raised from infancy was gone, utterly obliterated by drugs. Loyalty to the family and a desire to achieve was replaced by a drug habit and loathsome druggie friends.

Any attempts to curb bad behavior resulted in a startling escalation into foul-mouthed violence that left the whole family in tatters. Home sweet home became Ground Zero. Sometimes blood literally flowed.

Working in this atmosphere required a sharp learning curve for the other family members. There weren’t many choices. Perhaps the child was ejected from the family – which was painful and could be dangerous if he or she decided to up the ante by, say, coming home when no one was there and trashing the place. Parents – the ones who survived the mental anguish – quickly learned to turn the tables by upping the ante themselves. The police could be called for either the damage or the child’s illegal drug use. Or perhaps this drugged monster could be hauled into a treatment center.

In other words, the parents couldn’t change their drugging child’s behavior but they could protect the family by taking legal or medical measures to quarantine the problem while they hoped for change.

The news from RAWA today, about a twelve year-old girl’s rape by warlords in Afghanistan and her family’s distress, reminded me of those parents…
– – – – – – – – –
Needless to say, the family is distraught. They have a ruined child [by the standards of their culture] with no future and they know the authorities will do nothing…because those in control are part of the problem:

A 12-year old schoolgirl was gang-raped by five gunmen in Sarpul province in Northern Afghanistan.

[…]

While crying, the rape victim told journalists that she was raped in a village called Baghabi in Sarpul province. She says five gunmen poured into their house in mid-night and after beating and abusing the family members, gang-raped her.

Ali Khan, uncle of the girl told Ariana TV that he has reported the case to the police and visited the police chief a number of times to ask for justice, but they do not pay attention to the issue and even abused and threatened him to be silent otherwise he will be jailed.

He accuses the police chief to have links with the gunmen responsible for such crimes. But General Abdul Khaliq Samimi, police chief says they have arrested three people connected to the issue.

On February 18, 2008 a fourteen-year old girl named Bashira was gang-raped by three men in the same province. One of the rapists is Najibullah, the son of Haji Payinda, a member of parliament from Sar-e-Pul.

Sayed Noorullah, father of Bashira told Tolo TV on July 19, 2008 that the case against the rapist has not been followed properly by the court, because the rapist is son of a member of parliament and they bribed the Forensic Medical Investigation department to show the 22-year-old rapist as being less than 18 to escape the charges based on law.

Yes, these are just two of many cases of child rape by warlords and those in power in Afghanistan. Most rapes aren’t reported because people fear the consequences if they inform on these criminals. They know they’ll be the targets of even more violence as the warlords up the ante to keep them in line.

What makes these two cases different? The families themselves are upping the ante…as in “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”:

The girl and her family asked Hamid Karzai to prosecute the rapists and take their case seriously. They threatened that if they are not provided justice, the whole family will commit mass suicide to get rid of such life. They say, the local authorities keep silence on such cases and did not act to arrest those responsible.

And the other father is carrying it one step further:

Sayed Noorullah threatened that if the rapists are not punished, he will become “a dangerous suicide bomber” and take revenge himself.

Will this change the warlords’ predatory behavior? Probably not. But it may have an effect on other families who feel their lives and honor are in permanent ruins. If this becomes a trend and bitter, shamed families start wreaking random public violence, Karzai may have a revolution on his hands.

These parents are telling him that some things are worth dying for and they have just discovered one of them. They cannot extract themselves from their own culture which views their ruined daughters as worthy of death and themselves as shameful objects. There is simply no way around such a global social structure.

However, there is a radical way out of the situation and these folks may take it. They will sow a terrible vengeance if attention is not paid to their demands for simple justice.

Let’s see what unfolds.

RAWA is The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghan. Here is their news site, “The Reality of Life in Afghanistan.” Here is their home page, which lists their other endeavors.

The founder of RAWA was assassinated in 1987. Her death seems to have strengthened their resolve.

Thanks to Other Cheek for the tip.

Fjordman sends along some of the dystopian stories emanating from Northern Europe…

First, a link to Bruce Bawer’s site. He’s talking about Dagbladet’s report on the alarming number of tourist buses being set afire in Oslo (from July 18):

Dagbladet reports that in the last two weeks, eighteen tourist buses in Oslo have been set upon by thieves and vandals.

[…]

Official reactions to this latest development only serve to underscore where the roots of the problem lie. You can almost see the spokesman for the Agency for Road and Transport shrugging and yawning as he tells Dagbladet that, well, this sort of this happens every summer, and hey, don’t worry, there’s more and more tourist buses coming to Norway. And the cops? They say that they “can’t see any connection among the events of recent weeks.” A police spokesman told Dagbladet that they hadn’t put the case materials together yet – they’ll get around to that on, oh, Monday.

No, Oslo isn’t Rome or Paris. But not long ago, it was at least a safe, clean city. It’s now rapidly declining into a maelstrom of chaos, crime, and filth under politicians who’ve essentially handed it over to armies of Nigerian prostitutes, gypsy beggars, and Muslim gangsters; who ordered street work that should have been wrapped up months ago but that continues to keep much of the downtown area looking like Berlin in 1946; and who blithely hike subsidies to groups like the Islamic Council while letting the police and military go chronically underfunded.

Well, of course. Who wants to pay a decent wage to those nasty men who protect others when the Islamic Council, peace be unto them, needs funding so desperately?

And the cops? They simply suffer from the same virulent indifference as their superiors. It’s a top-down disease.

Mr. Bawer suggests that tourists re-route to Copenhagen instead.

Aftenposten has more details (in English) on this pastime of tourist bus burning. Here’s one Spanish tour driver’s experience:

“My company sends buses all over Europe, but we’ve never experienced anything like this,” bus driver Jorge Muniz Paredes to newspaper Aften. “If I talked about this on Spanish television, people would think I was in Africa.”

Paredes recently found his bus burning near the new Opera House on Oslo’s waterfront. The bus, used to carry Spanish tourists on sightseeing trips in Oslo, was in top condition, he said.

He’s convinced vandals are behind the fire on his bus. Two days earlier, the bus’ windshield had been smashed.

[…]

Three Spanish tour bus companies have filed a complaint with Norwegian tourism promoters in Madrid, who in turn have contacted both the Norwegian embassy in Spain and the Spanish embassy in Norway.

Some tour operators are considering dropping Oslo from their tour itineraries. “Oslo’s not a particularly pretty city, like Rome or Paris,” said Paredes. “The only reason we come is because it’s the capital of Norway. The vandalism makes the destination insecure and if this continues, we’ll stop coming.”

Oh, well. Plenty more tourists to take their place, right?

But here is the most interesting story from Fjordman’s selection. It lays bare the core of the problem. Olso burns while government strangles its citizens on procedural policies. The pervasive cynicism is heart-breaking.
– – – – – – – – –
Read carefully with attention to what the authorities themselves consider important:

An awkward power struggle has broken out among foreign and local beggars in Oslo, ironically over their street sales of a magazine whose very title calls for more equality in the capital.

Norwegian beggars are getting competition from foreign beggars, and conflicts are breaking out.

The conflict is over who should be allowed to peddle the magazine, which sells for NOK 50. Its sellers can keep half of the proceeds.

The magazine, called “=Oslo” (equal Oslo), was started up to help provide an income source to those who otherwise would beg for spare change on the streets of the capital. Many of its original sellers were Norwegian drug addicts.

Now, however, new groups of foreign beggars want to sell the magazine as well, reported newspaper Dagsavisen earlier this week. The magazine won’t let them, saying the sellers should be Norwegian and must be able to speak Norwegian.

That’s led to protests, and state authorities are investigating whether “=Oslo” is violating anti-discrimination laws. “If we find that ‘=Oslo’ has broken the law, they’ll have to find a new solution for the foreigners,” said Ingeborg Grimsmo, Norway’s acting discrimination ombud.

Why would a magazine originate with the intention of having “beggars” sell their product? It’s insane. Remember when Rudy Giuliani began cleaning up New York City by removing the beggars who were washing car windshields in city traffic?

The problem with “beggars” is that keeping civic order is an on-going problem. Mayor Giuliani solved it in his time, but the squeegee men are making a comeback in The Big Apple and their appearance scares people because of what it represents – erosion of public space. These depredations don’t stay “cured”; they demand vigilance and creative thinking. Neither is in great supply in Norway.

Here’s another problem where the authorities cynically leave in a bind those who would help the hungry:

Thorny issues also have broken out within an Oslo organization that serves the poor and offers them free food (Fattighuset). It has refused to give food to the foreign beggars, claiming that the foreigners try to sell the food on the street.

“We can’t have that,” said Johanna Engen, a board member at Fattighuset, arguing that it defies the purpose of the aid and can threaten donations.

The anti-discrimination authority is investigating whether Fattighuset can legally only give food to poor Norwegians and not poor foreigners. “There are important principles at stake,” Grimsmo said, arguing that the foreigners are becoming “more and more” stigmatized in Norway.

People get “stigmatized” when they consistently operate outside the mores of local culture. Perhaps these “foreigners” of unnamed ethnicity come from a place where ripping off charitable organizations is all in a day’s work.

Fattighuset is absolutely right: letting this go on would threaten donations. But the “anti-discrimination authority” is not concerned with outcomes; it lives for procedures. And by its lights, procedures take precedence over virtue.

When a government – be it local, state, or federal – has that much power over charitable endeavors and it uses that dominance with Kafkaesque indifference, then the government is acting with evil. Indifferent evil, but evil nonetheless.

Fjordman called it a maelstrom of chaos. His powers of perception are acute.