Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/31/2011

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/31/2011Los Angeles — and in particular, Hollywood — is greeting the New Year with trepidation, after a series of car fires set by an unknown arsonist or arsonists. There is no indication so far of any cultural enrichment in these fires, but the year is young. Stay tuned.

Elsewhere in the USA, word has leaked out that the Obama administration is consulting Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi as an intermediary in negotiations with the Taliban. The surrender is now complete — the United States government has gone over to the enemy, and no one in the country is paying any attention. They’re too busy tracking the poll numbers on Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry.

God help us all.

In other news, an official in the European Central Bank says that euro is poised to become the world’s leading currency in the next few years.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Nick, Seneca III, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Get Thee Hence, Janus!

Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in 'Holiday', 1938


To ring in the new year we dust off an obscure verse by the late North Carolinian poet Alphonsus Carter. For those interested in the forms: he wrote iambic pentameter arranged in quatrains, with an ABAB rhyme scheme.

This poem is dated, and the style is somewhat labored and pedantic. To the sensitive ear, the mixing of Shakespearean references may be grating.

Yet the hour and the season are appropriate. And the mood of the piece is right for our times:

Get Thee Hence, Janus!
by Alphonsus G. Carter

We stand again inside this festive room,
Prepared to welcome Nineteen Thirty-Eight.
And will the new year break with murk and gloom?
Or does a dawn of joyous hope await?

What makes one year so different from the last?
Onstage this knight who struts and frets his hour
Will fret and strut the same when twelve has passed.
Why grant the minute hand such awful power?

Why wait upon the ticking of a clock?
And whence this urge to toast, and quaff, and cheer?
How many faces poised to weep or mock!
How many goodly creatures are there here!

The old year, now so keen to celebrate —
The chum with whom this very night I dine —
Come morning will unshaven and prostrate
In pain upon my davenport recline.

By all means, let us gather one more time!
Bid Nineteen Thirty-Seven fond adieu!
Let those assembled heed my reasoned rhyme:
’Tis all the same, the old year and the new.

Happy New Year, everybody!

“I Will Remain Steadfast”

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff sends the following New Year’s message to everyone who has supported her over the last two years.

ESW at court, 2011-12-20 #1


Dear Friends,

As many of you know, Sunday December 20 was a dark day for freedom of speech.

The Austrian justice system decided that the truth may not be spoken if it is deemed “excessive” (nota bene: and thus “denigrating” from the point of view of pious Muslims). Although the verdict was shocking, it did not come as a surprise.

Before I continue with my thoughts about the impact and implications of the ruling, I want to thank a few people:

First of all, my deepest gratitude to my unwaveringly supportive husband. He has stood behind me and continues to do, so despite the fact that his wife is now a convict. Without him, I could not have survived this ordeal.

Next comes my beautiful, caring daughter, the light of my life, for whom I have decided to fight. She and all girls are the future, our future: she will have to live in the world we shape now. She will one day judge our accomplishments because she will have to live with the consequences. And it is for my daughter and all of your daughters that I will continue.

The rest of my family has also been extremely supportive, especially my father — who, when I started this journey, believed that Islam is a religion we must respect. He has come a long way since then. Kudos to him for having the courage to learn. I wish more would follow in his footsteps.

Once again, I thank my lawyer, Dr. Rami, for his incredible work. When I first entered his office back in November 2009, he probably knew as much about Islam as the rest of the population — which is not much. Two years and many books later, he has become an expert. And he has done magnificent work in organizing my defense — which, by extension, is a defense of our right to freedom of speech.

What would I do without the unflinching help and support of Baron Bodissey and the Gates of Vienna community? What a difficult year lies behind Gates of Vienna, and Baron and Dymphna are have not given up, and are not giving in. We have lost a few friends during the storm, but so many new friendships have been made. There is reason for optimism. Please continue your support of Gates of Vienna, the beacon of free speech in an angry ocean of lies and misinformation.

It goes without saying that my deepest gratitude also extends to the associated networks. These include, but are not limited to, EuropeNews, PI-News, SOS Österreich, ACT! For America, and Vlad Tepes. The larger network also includes the countless translators who give up their free time to make this and so many other stories available to the English-speaking world — not to mention those parts of the world that speak Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, French, Italian, and all the other languages in which the information has spread.

A heartfelt “God bless you” to all of you who organized prayer groups, lit a candle for me in church, or prayed for me in a synagogue. Although I do not fathom God’s will right now, I don’t have to. There is a reason for all of this, and by going on, by not giving up, I will one day be able to understand His plans.

To all of you who drove and flew to Vienna, to you who took a day off from work to stand with me on this day: THANK YOU. Your presence meant more to me than you will ever know.

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I will now comment very briefly on the verdict.

I must admit that I entered the courtroom with some cautious optimism. However, when I sat down to face the presiding judge, with another nameless judge on his left and right, I knew in my heart that the verdict once again had already been written, as it was from the day of my indictment.

Let’s be honest: from the very beginning we freedom-loving men and women, we who seek to defend democracy and universal human rights, never had a chance. The destruction of everything we stand up for is too far advanced.

For those of you wondering what the verdict was and its implications, here a short summary.

The initial verdict found me NOT GUILTY on the count of hate speech.

It did, however, find me guilty of “denigrating the religious teachings of a legally recognized religion” because I had said that “Mohammed had a thing for little girls”, and that his behavior can be described as “pedophilia” for want of a better word. I was sentenced to a fine of €480 (i.e. 1/3 of the maximum sentence) and two months jail if I refused to pay.

The appeals court verdict is interesting, but even more shocking. The judge explained that while it is certainly within the law to say that “Mohammed had sex with a 9-year-old”, calling this spade a spade is considered “excessive” and thus “denigrating”. Imagine that you were no longer allowed to call a murderer “heinous” because you might be convicted of having an “excessive” opinion as a result.

Here in Austria we are no longer permitted to name the crime committed by the founder of a religion, in whose name (according to Koran 33:21, Mohammed is the perfect example to be emulated by all Muslims) millions of young girls are married off and raped by their “husbands”. This is an unbearable thought for me, as the mother of a young girl. And it is an unacceptable situation, one I shall fight till the very end.

However, at this point I cannot tell you how I will continue this fight, as I have not heard from my lawyer. We have to wait for the written verdict first, after which we can decide on a strategy, for both the battle inside the courtroom as well as outside. I thus ask you to bear with me until my legal team, my family, and my confidants present the details of what I should do next. I can assure you that I will not stop, for stopping would mean surrendering to the application of sharia law here in Austria, which is something I will never, ever do.

Paraphrasing Congressman Allen West’s words: “I will remain steadfast in my opinions and loyal to my family and my beloved Austria.”

Finally, a word to Ms. Dolna, to whom I must be grateful for “exposing” me to the world. Ms. Dolna, I was told that you laughed when the verdict was announced. I say to you: “Father, forgive her for she knows not what she did.”

To all of you out there, near or far, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support and the love you extend to me. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, and I wish you a peaceful New Year.

Gratefully,
Elisabeth



For previous posts on the “hate speech” prosecution of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, see Elisabeth’s Voice: The Archives.

The Fraudulent Strategy of Tolerance and Dialogue

Back in October we posted an article about Sabatina James, a former Muslim who now lives in Germany and speaks out courageously on behalf of apostates.

The article below about Ms. James appeared a couple of weeks ago in Politically Incorrect. Many thanks to JLH for the translation:

Sabatina: “You Politically Correct Jornolists”
by Michael Stürzenberger
December 18, 2011

Sabatina JamesThe latest edition of Der Spiegel offers Islam-critics a real treat: a four-page report on ex-Muslim Sabatina James who is known not to be reticent on the subject of the Most Peaceful of All Religions™. Editor Matthias Matussek — who until recently had a link to PI on his homepage — features the courageous woman, who is under permanent personal protection in Germany. She provoked him with the right words: “You will never publish something like this. You politically correct jornolists are too cowardly for that.”

She was referring to her portfolio of horror pictures of beheaded Christians. Matussek describes them as “splatter photos from the hot zone of the battle of faiths in the 21st century.” Of course, he did not publish any of these pictures — that might make the negative popular opinion even worse, and even this most Islam-critical author of Der Spiegel is not up to that. For the rest, however, his article offers several tough-as-nails comments by the attractive woman from Pakistan, who gives a merciless accounting of her former religion. She has decisively turned away from Allah and the Prophet, of which her father said:

“Anyone who turns her back on our faith has earned death.”

Since then, she has been on the run. From her own family and any possible commissioned Muslim murderers. Despite this permanent threat, she fights on undeterred and continues to explain things Besides that, she promotes Christianity, whose message of loving your neighbor seems to have pervaded her. She is “on a mission,” as noted by the village minister who baptized her.

Matussek also cites pamphlets in which Sabatina puts the following provocative questions to German and Austrian citizens:

“What would you do if leaving the Church was punished with death?”

“How much tolerance would you have, if someone was going to kill your children because they have Christian given names?”

All of this can be read on the first double page of the fascinating Spiegel article. But it gets better: She calls Islam “religious fascism.” “German understanding” for this totalitarian ideology she calls “blind.” For her, the only “sensible politician” in this country is Family Minister Kristina Schröder, who, revealingly, had a link to PI on her homepage in 2007 and 2008. The estimate of 3,000 forced marriages published by Schröder is “ten times” what Sabatina estimates. Commenting trenchantly on Mrs. Merkel’s silence:

And the chancellor says nothing about being ashamed that such a thing is happening in Germany.

She coldly sloughs off the Turkish prime minister, who in all seriousness offers Germany his “help” in this matter”

“Erdogan of all people. Every third woman in Turkey is forcibly married. State president Gül married his wife when she was 15. Before he helps, Erdogan ought to see that no Christians are being killed in Turkey.”

This appears on pages 140 and 141 of the Der Spiegel edition that is available today.

At this time, Sabatina James is in demand among church organizations. At the beginning of October, the Catholic Sunday Paper for Germany published a cover story with quite a few tough quotations.

Last Wednesday she was the invited speaker at the Benedictine Foundation in Munich. This foundation does not wish to make a public impression of being Islam-critical. A caller who would have liked to attend the presentation was told, “We are pro-Islamic.” It was “unfortunately a closed group” to which no outside attendees were invited. There could be no better description of the double standard of such Catholic organizations. They know very well the danger of Islam, but do not wish to express this publicly — out of fear, because of political correctness, or in deference to the fraudulent strategy of tolerance and dialogue. At any rate, they listened to what Sabatina James had to say. Later, they will not be able to maintain that they “knew nothing about it.”

A State of Emergency in Nigeria

In the wake of the Christmas Day bombings, President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in Nigeria.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Below are some excerpts from an AP article on the same topic:

Nigeria Calls State of Emergency Over Sect Attacks

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s president on Saturday declared a state of emergency in parts of Africa’s most populous nation, after a recent slew of deadly attacks blamed on a northern-based radical Muslim sect killed dozens of people, as separate communal clashes in the country’s southeast left more than 40 dead.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared an indefinite state of emergency in four states, which would all allow security agencies there to make arrests without proof and conduct searches without warrants. He also ordered the closure of international borders near the affected areas.

They include parts of northeastern state of Yobe and the central states of Plateau and Niger, all hit by the Christmas Day attacks that left at least 42 people dead, for which a radical sect known as Boko Haram claimed responsibility. Attackers targeted churches and one of the state offices of Nigeria’s secret police.

The president also declared a state of emergency in parts of the northeastern state of Borno, a stronghold of the feared Islamic sect.

“What began as sectarian crises in the northeastern parts of the country has gradually evolved into terrorist activities in different parts of the country with attendant negative consequences on our national security,” Jonathan said.

“(The state of emergency) means extra powers to security agencies in those areas,” said National Security Adviser Owoye Azazi, who also told journalists in Abuja that it would last “until the situation improves.”

Jonathan also said Saturday that he has directed top security officials to set up a special counterterrorism unit to fight the growing threat posed by Boko Haram.

Earlier in the year, an Aug. 26 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria’s capital Abuja killed 24 people and wounded 116 others. The sect claimed responsibility for that attack.

The Christmas attacks come a year after a series of Christmas Eve bombings in central city of Jos in the nation’s “middle belt,” where the country’s largely Muslim north meets its largely Christian south. Last year’s Christmas attacks claimed by the militants left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded.

“Terrorism is a war against all of us,” Jonathan said as he spoke during an address on national television on Saturday. “I call on all Nigerians to join hands with government to fight these terrorists.”

The sect, some of whose members are believed to have links to al-Qaida, wants to impose Islamic Shariah law across Nigeria.

The U.S. Embassy had warned U.S. citizens late Friday to exercise caution in Nigeria.

“Violent extremist attacks have continued in various locations, including the states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Plateau, and Yobe, resulting in numerous casualties,” the warning read.

Boko Haram’s widening terror attacks, though, are only further intensifying religious and ethnic divisions in Nigeria. In this nation of more than 160 million people, thousands have died in recent years in communal fighting pitting machete-wielding neighbors against each other.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/30/2011

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/30/2011In anticipation of all the car-burnings that “youths” traditionally engage in at New Year’s, the French government has decided to… limit sales of gasoline. Now, that’s bold action!

In other news, the new Islamist government of Tunisia is being careful not to drive away Western tourists, who are a mainstay of the country’s economy. Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of Ennahda, assures foreigners that there will be no restrictions on bathing costumes at the beaches, and foreign women will not be compelled to wear veils.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fausta, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JP, KGS, Mary Abdelmassih, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Virginia’s Republican Party Sinks to the Occasion…Again

*** UPDATE ***

LESSONS ON BECOMING IRRELEVANT

Just when it seemed our Commonwealth’s Republican leaders couldn’t do anything more to increase their appearance of stupidity, scarcity thinking, or risibility, the Virginia elephant has come up with a new dance move. No, it’s not pretty.

The Blue Ridge Forum blog has some updates, particularly the little item concerning what is required in order to vote in the Republican presidential primary in March. When you get to your polling place – SURPRISE! – you have to sign a loyalty oath.

For real, folks. Something smells rotten in Richmond.

BRF quotes the Richmond paper:

“The state Republican Party will require voters to sign a loyalty oath in order to participate in the March 6 presidential primary. Anyone who wants to vote must sign a form at the polling place pledging to support the eventual Republican nominee for president. Anyone who refuses to sign will be barred from voting in the primary. ..”

They may be trying to insure that no one shows up to vote? Such an outcome would give them more leverage in deciding who “wins” this one. As if anyone at the national level will care when this farce is over. And what do you think a loyalty oath from a yellow dog Democrat is worth?

BRF quotes another fellow, a long-time conservative leader who remembers his history:

“How many conservative Democrats voted for Ronald Reagan in ‘Republican’ primaries in 1980? Would they have voted in a Republican primary that required a loyalty oath when Reagan was probably the only Republican they would vote for? I doubt it.”

Yes, we do actually have ‘conservative’ Democrats here in Virginia. They voted for Obama, even though his socialist politics are 180 degrees away from their own world view.

But for the most part, at the state level they vote for Republicans like our current governor. And don’t get me started on him. The man is an opportunist who plays footsie with the Beltway Muslim Brotherhood big time. What a disappointment he and our Attorney General have turned out to be. Whoever has the money gets their attention.

Read the whole post here. You can also search his archives for the inroads Islam is making in Virginia politics. It’s far worse than you think.



The noises coming from the public regarding Virginia’s Republican presidential primary process are mostly sounds of angry disbelief. Believe it, y’all: the Commonwealth’s GOP is feckless, reckless, and has a lousy customer service record.

The latest snafu is a change (as of two months ago) regarding the hoops candidates must jump through in order to qualify for the Republican primary. The equation’s factors are political ‘thinking’ times lawyerese. The result is explained here; it’s the most succinct of the dozens I’ve read[my emphasis below -D]:

Virginia’s statutory ballot access requirement is, quite simply, one of if not the most daunting in the country: A minimum of 10,000 petition signatures collected statewide, including at least 400 from each of its 11 congressional districts. That’s hard enough. But then there are the additional restrictions: the petition circulators must be registered or eligible to vote in Virginia. The signatures must be gathered using the State Board of Elections’ official form, a two-page document which must be reproduced as double-sided. (Single-sided stapled forms are not accepted.) Signatures must be collected on forms that are specific to each city, county and congressional district. Only “qualified” voters may sign a petition. And every single petition form must be sworn and notarized.

Want a sense of how next-to-impossible this is? I know top-flight Virginia political consultants who turned down lucrative petition project contracts from presidential campaigns because they did not think it could be done.

And then there’s the Republican Party of Virginia, which is tasked by law with the responsibility of certifying which candidates have qualified for primary ballot access. RPV has effectively raised the statutory requirement of 10,000/400 by a factor of 50% this year by offering this safe harbor: the Party first will conduct a facial review of all petitions, and candidates who submit at least 15,000 signatures and 600 from each congressional district will be presumed to have met the statutory 10,000/400 requirement. Candidates who submit 14,999 or fewer, however, will undergo signature-by-signature scrutiny of his or her petitions—something no statewide candidate in recent memory ever has had to endure.*

For many years, the Virginia GOP generally selected its nominees in conventions. But the Morse v. Republican Party of Virginia litigation, which challenged RPV’s mandatory convention registration fees as poll taxes, caused the Party temporarily to abandon conventions in favor of primaries.

The first statewide petition drive post-Morse was in the 1996 Republican U.S. Senate primary. Then came the 1997 primaries for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, and in 2000, the Republican presidential and U.S. Senate primaries.

Each successive petition drive has gotten harder and harder as volunteers have grown more and more tired of the arduous, tedious work it takes to gather thousands upon thousands of signatures in ever more frequent petition drives. The drives have gotten more expensive, too, as campaigns have resorted to paying volunteers to incent (sic) their efforts. What should be a test of a campaign’s organization and grassroots has become a drain on them—exhausting volunteers and siphoning away money better spent contacting voters, delivering messages, identifying supporters and driving turnout, all important objectives that petition drives have proven worthless at advancing.

In 2008, two presidential candidates very nearly failed to meet the minimum requirement of 400 signatures from the Third Congressional District and almost missed the ballot as a result. Which brings us to this year, when it is probable that at least one and possibly more of the major GOP candidates will fail to qualify for the Virginia ballot.

This is especially unfortunate because this year, for the first time in decades, the GOP nomination likely will not be all-but decided before Virginia’s primary, and thus Virginia’s primary will truly matter.

But due to Virginia’s unreasonable ballot access requirements, all the surviving candidates may not be on the Virginia ballot—which means those candidates wouldn’t campaign here, and Virginia’s voters would have fewer choices. Even as Virginia has moved up in the primary calendar, it risks marginalizing itself in the presidential selection process as its petition drives become harder and more expensive, and as more candidates fail to succeed or even to attempt them.

It doesn’t have to be this way. A few years ago, the Virginia Democrats circulated one petition on behalf of all primary candidates, but the Republican Party of Virginia has not seen fit to follow that sensible step.

Many other states require merely the filing of a few forms and payment of a filing fee—and in the case of South Carolina, a substantial one at that. No doubt Virginia’s political parties—notoriously cash-hungry due to our anything-goes system of campaign finance in which individuals and corporations can contribute unlimited sums directly to candidates—could use such a financial shot in the arm every four years.

For all candidates who have met the statutory requirement, I think the Party’s plan to scrutinize some candidates’ signatures and not others, based upon the arbitrary standard of whether the candidates submitted a full 50% more than the statutory requirement, violates the Equal Protection Clause under Bush v. Gore. It seems to me that all candidates who facially meet the statutory requirement should have their petitions and signatures adjudged according to the same standard.

The only thing he forgot to mention was that this Republican primary, to be held in March, is not “closed”. Registered Democrats are free to wander into the polling place in their district and skew the outcome if they want to do so. Virginia Democrats are a tad better than, say, the ones in Illinois, but only because they are not subjected to the degree of unionization the latter has exploited for benefit of the Dems since whenever. Given the feckless reckless GOP in our Commonwealth, I don’t doubt the Democrats will take advantage. And given the stupidity of the primary access rules for candidates, that primary process will be meaningless with only Romney and Paul featured.

For anyone who wants to comment on this post, please remember that the subject is the rules of the GOP primary in Virginia. This is not the time to discuss the virtues or vices of either candidate. Those food fights can be found all over the internet — here’s John Bolton’s take on one of them. For the moment, though, we’ll avoid entering the fray. Right now there is too much jostling for position, too much posturing.

This latest machine breakdown in the Commonwealth’s GOP is simply more of the same. Kind of like the ineptness to be found at the National Committee level.

Expressing Grave Concern

Church bombing in Nigeria, Christmas 2011


For the last few days I’ve been tied up with programming work, unable to do much in the way of blogging. However, I kept on monitoring the news feed items as they came in, and skimmed off the most disturbing stories that cried out for special attention.

The fabric of the civilized world seems to be disintegrating before our eyes. What — besides the fact that they all involve Muslims — do these gruesome news items have in common? Why do they seem connected? Are there any clues?

The first clue may be found in the official reaction to the Christmas bombings in Nigeria. The Pope responded immediately:

Pope Benedict on Monday condemned Christmas Day bomb attacks by Islamists in Nigeria that killed dozens of Christians.

President Obama followed suit in short order. Or rather, the “White House” did — the building is authorized to speak in his name when the president is vacationing: “The White House condemned the violent attacks in Nigeria”. The building was unable to bring itself to mention Islam, but it did deplore the “senseless violence and tragic loss of life”.

Our leaders are adept at condemning and deploring. That’s what they do best. And, when things get really nasty, you can count on the functionaries at the U.N. to “express grave concern”. They’re dusting off the thesaurus right now in anticipation of what Iran may do in the Strait of Hormuz. “Severe displeasure” may be appropriate, but if mushroom clouds appear, escalation to “grave concern” may become necessary. And maybe even additional economic sanctions, if the bureaucrats of Turtle Bay really want to show how tough they are.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not in favor of expending American blood and treasure to keep third-worlders from blowing each other up. But all this condemning and deploring is the official equivalent of teddy bears and candlelight vigils. It’s yet more evidence of the utter impotence of the deracinated formerly Christian remnants of Western Civilization.

The Pope and the President of the United States are tacitly affirming that nothing meaningful can be done about the destruction of our culture.

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Nigeria lies squarely on the Bloody Borders of Islam, and what happened on Christmas day is what we’ve come to expect in non-Muslim areas that are in the process of becoming Muslim. Nigeria is now roughly 50% Muslim, so it is poised on the brink.

Although it has a much lower percentage of Muslims, Uganda is experiencing its own anti-Christian jihad. In another Christmas atrocity, Muslim attackers threw acid all over a Christian pastor in Uganda:

The health of Pastor Umar Mulinde of Gospel Life Church International who was attacked with acid on Christmas Eve, is improving.

Speaking exclusively to the New Vision, Mulinde said he felt some improvement in his condition. He said the pain all over his body had greatly reduced.

“I am recovering. Experts are monitoring my condition and they have promised to do their best to help me recover,” Mulinde, who is currently admitted at International Hospital Kampala (IHK), said.

He is under strict guidelines by doctors at IHK not to talk for long, as this affects the sores on his lips. The doctors are struggling to restore his sight after his right eye was affected during the attack.

“My right eye which had closed has been opened. But I cannot see anything at the moment,” Mulinde said.

Unknown people laced Pastor Mulinde with acid as he left his church, leaving his face, neck and other parts of his body severely injured.

Pastor Mulinde may have been targeted for converting from Islam to Christianity:

On Monday, Pastor Mulinde blamed the attack on religious fanatics opposed to his conversion from Islam, as well as his strong critique on the faith during religious debates and sermons.

As we all know, by daring to leave the Religion of Peace, apostates face the greatest risks.

Leaving the Bloody Borders behind, we move on to Afghanistan, into the Heart of Darkness itself.

NATO didn’t conquer Afghanistan; we “liberated” it. Then we recruited and trained its soldiers. They are now our “allies”. Nevertheless, with disturbing frequency Afghan soldiers take it upon themselves to attack and kill the infidels in their midst:

A man dressed in Afghan army fatigues on Thursday shot dead two French soldiers in what appeared to be the latest attack by a member of the Afghan security forces on NATO troops. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the soldier joined the army in order to carry out his attack in Kapisa province, in the volatile east of the country where many of the 3,700 French troops in Afghanistan are based. The insurgent group, which has been waging a 10-year insurgency against US-led NATO and Afghan forces, also said they carried out a roadside bombing in the southern province of Helmand that killed 10 local police.

Another news article from Afghanistan describes what Muslims there do to each other — or, more precisely, how a Muslim society treats its women. A fifteen-year-old wife was locked in a toilet by her in-laws and brutalized for months because she would not agree to become a prostitute:

Afghan police have rescued a teenage girl who was beaten and locked up in a toilet for over five months after she defied her in-laws who tried to force her into prostitution, officials said Tuesday.

Sahar Gul, 15, was found in the basement of her husband’s house in northeastern Baghlan province late on Monday after her parents reported her disappearance to the police.

“She was beaten, her fingernails were removed and her arm was broken,” district police chief Fazel Rahman told AFP.

Three women including the teenager’s mother in-law had been arrested in connection with the case but her husband had fled the area, he added.

Notice that Muslim men were not the sole perpetrators of this degradation against the young girl — they relied on the active collaboration of female members of the husband’s family.

The situation ought to be different for Muslim women in the West. Canada lies far outside the Bloody Borders, but not far enough to help the first wife and three daughters of Sahar Shafia. All four were drowned in a canal to protect the family’s honor.

How about Texas? In yet another Christmas Day massacre, Aziz Yazdanpanah shot and killed six people, including his estranged wife and two children, before killing himself. Was the incident another “honor killing”? The family, originally from Iran, seemed to be fully secularized, celebrating Christmas and generally acting like ordinary Americans.

Yet there were hints that “honor” might indeed have been involved. Interestingly enough, the local police force has no interest whatsoever in determining what motivated the killer:

The Grapevine police department remained silent even as wild theories have been circulating in local media regarding the killer’s motive.

“Motive is not really the primary point right now,” said Grapevine police Lt. Todd Dearing. “It’s more along the lines of what happened, how it transpired and making sure that who we believe to be the shooter is the shooter. Motive is what comes afterward for us if we can get it,” he added.

Why this reluctance to examine the full story? Is there something going on that we would rather not look at?

To see this thing-that-must-not-be-mentioned in a more fully developed state, we must travel to Britain. Every day there are more incidents of culturally enriched robbery, rape, murder, and mayhem in the United Kingdom. Every day you find stories like this one in the British newspapers:

A woman has been found stabbed to death after a sobbing schoolboy turned up on a neighbour’s door covered in blood.

A man was also discovered with injuries and is in hospital in a critical condition after the double stabbing earlier today in Wolverhampton.

The child, believed to be of secondary school age and the son of the couple, fled the bloody scene to raise the alarm.

The man in his 30s and woman, 36, were discovered at the address at about 7.47am after police arrived at the gruesome scene.

One neighbour said: ‘We heard the little lad was covered in blood and crying uncontrollably when he knocked on a neighbour’s door, that’s when police were called.

Carol O’Mahoney, another resident who lives nearby, said: ‘Neighbours said they had a five-year-old boy and that the little one was seen running from the house for help this morning covered in blood.’

Police have said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident which happened in a house that is used as temporary accommodation in the Whitmore Reans area of the city.

The family is believed to be of Iranian origin and West Midlands Police have launched a murder inquiry.

Or this one — another Christian convert killed by a Muslim. But this story has an unusual twist: the murdered young woman came from a Sikh family that had become Christians:

A Christian convert whose body was found dumped in a canal on Christmas morning was the mother of a month-old baby boy, it has emerged.

Ruby Love, 23, from Harrow, North London was found by a dog walker in the Grand Union Canal in Southall, West London, by a dog walker shortly before midday on Sunday.

Manzar Juma, 27, the father of two of her children, was charged by police with her murder. He is understood to be Muslim and unemployed. He is due to appear in court on Friday.

Miss Love was born Rabina Malik into a Sikh family but her mother changed the family’s names by deed poll in 2003. They attend a nearby Catholic church, she said.

Afghanistan is a fully realized Islamic culture, so women there may be raped, stoned to death, and locked up in cellars by their in-laws. The perpetrators of such deeds may act with impunity because they live in an environment where Islamic law reigns supreme.

Nigeria is in the process of becoming a fully Islamic environment. Bombs and rapes and massacres targeting Christians and other infidels are part of the standard procedure during the later stages of Islamization. By such methods non-Muslims are driven out or persuaded to say the shahada and join the Ummah, clearing the ground for the eventual imposition of sharia.

Here in the West we are in the very early stages of the same process. But our own fecklessness is accelerating the rate of Islamization in our culture. By ignoring, refusing to see, explaining away, and otherwise denying what is happening before our eyes, we are allowing the Hosts of Mohammed to accomplish in mere decades what took them centuries to achieve in the Near East and India.

There are plenty of clues. The handful I have collected here is just a tiny sample of what may be found in the news media every single day.

We have enough evidence to make a case for deploring what is happening to us. We condemn those who are doing it.

And special attention should be paid to the political elites throughout the West who have abetted and encouraged the Islamization of our nations. Their abject betrayal gives us more than enough reason to express our grave concern.



Hat tips for all the articles: C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, JP, Kitman, Nick, and Vlad Tepes.

“No daughter of mine…”

Prospero just sent us this joke:

A little family problem here…

Last night my daughter just walked into the living room and said, “Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out of the window, take my TV, stereo, iPhone, iPod, and my laptop. Please take all of my jewelry to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Then sell my new car.

“Take my front door key away from me and throw me out of the house. Then disown me and never talk to me again. And don’t forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to my sister.”

Well, she didn’t put it quite like that. She actually said…

“Dad, I have decided to work for Obama’s re-election campaign.”

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/29/2011

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/29/2011According to the European Commission, if Scotland were to secede from the United Kingdom, it would be granted seven seats on the European Council of Ministers. The remainder of the UK would see its representation on the body drop from 29 to 27 seats. Which is interesting — the UK and Scotland separately would be allocated five more seats than if they remained together. Is this an incentive for divorce?

In other news, a fifteen-year-old Afghan girl was locked in a basement toilet for five months in her husband’s house after she resisted her in-laws’ attempts to force her into prostitution.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez says that he thinks the United States may be behind his cancer, and may have also caused the cancers afflicting other Latin American political leaders.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JP, Kitman, Nick, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Light Posting

The ScholarI have been away from blogging most of the day due to other work — actual paying labor, thank the Lord!

Y’all have been extraordinarily generous during our last couple of fundraisers. However, this unexpected income will see us through what had been a very tight year. Now with this temporary job, Dymphna and I are planning a (slightly delayed) Christmas celebration.

A Happy New Year is a distinct possibility.

There will be a news feed tonight in just a little while. More or less normal blogging will resume tomorrow.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/28/2011

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/28/2011The European Union has decided to go ahead and impose new sanctions against Iran. Baroness Ashton says the EU foreign ministers made the decision despite Tehran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic if the West takes any additional measures against Iran.

In other news, some analysts believe that the uprising in Syria is on verge of turning into a full-blown civil war.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to alcade, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Kitman, Mary Abdelmassih, PS, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Those Evil Crusades

Anestos Canelides returns with a brief meditation on the “evil” Crusades.

Gustave Doré: Richard and Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf (detail)


Those Evil Crusades
by Anestos Canelides

As long as I can remember I have been told about the evils of the Crusades, and how wrong they were.

One of the best articles I have ever read, one that really proves that much of what I was taught is a lie, is entitled “The Crusades in Context” by Dr. Paul Stenhouse. The Crusades were a delayed response to the invasion of Christian lands by the Muslims. It is true that atrocities were committed by the so-called Christian armies, but the Muslims initiated the warfare and committed innumerable atrocities of their own.

After the death of Muhammad, in 632 AD, Abu Bakr rose to power as the first Caliph, and that was when the invasions of the Roman Empire (Byzantine) began. These violent incursions ranged geographically from the Middle East to Spain in the west, and in the east of the Empire the armies of Islam showed up at the gates of Constantinople, only to fail after two attempts to seize the city.

Dr. Stenhouse focuses only on the invasion of Christan lands, but we cannot forget about the Islamic invasion of the former Persian Empire, and later in the 8th century the invasions of India.

I highly recommend reading Dr. Stenhouse’ essay in order to equip yourself better when your liberal, or non-religious, or historically illiterate friends ask, “What about the Crusades?” I have gained more wisdom about the Crusades, thanks to articles such as this one, and through other research.

I also suggest reading “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades” by Robert Spencer to further your understanding of the true context of the Crusades.



Previous posts by Anestos Canelides:

2010   May   29   The Last Empire
    Jun   18   The Muslim Devastation of India
    Aug   20   Are They Lying to Us?
    Sep   28   Devshirme: A Muslim Scourge on Christians
    Oct   6   AIFD: Friends of America and Freedom
    Dec   3   A 19th-Century Jihad on American Shipping
2011   May   29   Borders, Language and Culture
    Oct   18   The Jihad Against Dogs
        31   Slavery and Jihad
    Nov   15   Abuse of Power
    Dec   10   Islam is not a Pacifist Religion

Culturally Enriched Domestic Violence in Oslo

Cultural Enrichment News


Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends the following report about the disproportionate increase of domestic violence among the “New Norwegians” in Oslo. Stranger rape is no longer the only crime dominated by the culture enrichers; now domestic violence can be added to the list.

The Observer includes this note:

This article was published a couple of weeks ago, and it deals with the domestic abuse of women in Norway. It turns out that 70 percent of the women thus affected in Oslo have a different ethnic background than that of the majority populace.

When you take the official numbers from the various assault rapes statistics committed in Oslo and then compare them with these latest numbers, things start to become quite obvious.

His translation from Nettavisen:

Ethnics account for 70 percent of family violence in Oslo

According to domestic violence coordinator Stein Erik Olsen, families with different ethnic backgrounds are over-represented in the domestic violence statistics.

Nettavisen had intended to write an article about the Norwegian Christmas holiday, Christmas dinners, Christmas beer, Christmas Aquavit and Christmas brawls in Norwegian households.

The hypothesis was that the number of incidences of domestic violence would increase when people have time off and when they consume more alcohol.

That’s not the case in Oslo. According to the domestic violence coordinator and assistant police chief Stein Erik Olsen the ‘Norwegian Christmas violence theory’ is simply a myth, on par with the myth that more burglaries are committed during holidays.

“70 percent of domestic violence cases involve families with a different ethnic background. The cultures concerned don’t touch alcohol and they don’t celebrate Christmas.”

And he adds:

“Our experience from Stovner [immigrant suburb of Oslo] is that the number of domestic violence cases declines during Ramadan.”

Olsen doesn’t wish to speculate why that is the case.

On the agenda

Almost ten years has passed since the national police directorate decided to increase its focus on domestic violence. Every police precinct in Norway now has a domestic violence coordinator. What previously used to be treated as domestic disturbances are now being thoroughly investigated with the aim of a possible conviction as the end result.

In 2005 a new domestic violence law was introduced. Paragraph 219 replaced the old guidelines regarding violence and threats, and more severe penalties were introduced for domestic violence.

The aim is not to get a reduction

The number of cases that end up in the Oslo City Court shows that this new emphasis has borne fruit. The number of domestic violence cases reported has increased from 633 in 2008 to 932 as of December 1, 2011.

Numbers from the National Police Directorate show a 168 percent increase in breaches of paragraph 219 in the period between 2007 and 2011.

“Our aim is not to get a reduction in these cases. There are probably more victims out there that need our help. Our aim is to uncover and combat domestic violence. Lower numbers in this instance would tend to indicate that the police are less successful and that we are less active in our work to uncover this type of violence.” The police chief assistant is also the leader of investigations at Stovner Police station. He confirms that more victims of domestic violence are coming forward and contacting the police.

He says that one of the biggest challenges the police are facing when confronted with other cultures is that they have different laws and different views on women than what is the norm in Norway.

“In some of the more extreme cases we get an insight into the amount of control the family have over these women, and how values totally at odds with Norwegian values are applied. But we have also increased our knowledge as a result of these cases, and not all the women affected are willing to tolerate this kind of treatment. But for many it’s extremely hard to contact the police. To report these incidents means having to completely sever ties with people who are their only reference points in a foreign land,” says Olsen.

More trust in the police

In the last couple of years more people have begun to contact the police. Olsen interprets this as a sign that more people are starting to trust the police and that the numbers of unreported cases are declining.

“When these women see that the police are prioritising their cases, and that society doesn’t tolerate it, more victims will come forward and contact the police.”

The spokesperson for the refuge for women in Fredrikstad, Kari Næss Omvik agrees with Olsen’s assertion that the police are beginning to gain more trust in these cases.

“We have a good relationship with the police. Our impression is that they have become more helpful and that they have started to listen more to the victims,” she says.

But even though society rejects domestic violence, it’s still difficult for the victims to comprehend what’s happening to them, and to break free from the spiral of violence.



For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.