Mr. Hannan applauds the decision Iceland made to stay out of the EU. His reasoning is clear – and perhaps somewhat regretful regarding his own country’s steamrollering of its citizens into that den of thieves?

Meanwhile, Mr. Hannan seems to have been taking “Italian Hand Gestures 101”. In the advanced class, they learn how to make them less obvious, perhaps?

Yeah, I’m sniping and unfair; it’s a trenchant speech. But really, I watched it twice just to observe his hands – and also to hear him say again, though by indirection, that membership in the EU turns a country’s parliament into a “local chamber”.

Good on you, sir. Despite being in the EU’s chamberpot yourself, you seem to have kept your good English jaundice…

Dubai’s police chief warns that the Muslim Brotherhood has plans to overthrow the emirs and kings of the Gulf region and establish full Islamic rule. Their goal is to be achieved gradually, with the current leaders turned into figureheads before eventually being deposed.

In other news, French president Nicolas Sarkozy says that Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi is not welcome in France.

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

Thanks to Anne-Kit, Insubria, JP, Nick, RR, TV, 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.

A reader and commenter from upstate New York often sends us things he’s written to others. He has a mailing list – or perhaps several, since he deals with a number of topics. For example, I don’t read his math emails; they would be wasted on me but the Baron gets them. To each his own…

However this epistle came in the other day and I enjoyed it so much I asked his permission to share with our readers. [It would’ve been up earlier had we not experienced our second DSL disconnect. Looks like we’re going to have to resurrect our old dial-up workaround.]

To say that MS has a deadpan sense of humor is putting it mildly.

Enjoy, including the joke at the end…

Dear Western New York Muslims,

Here is something that will fit right in with your mission statement “To share with the American Public about the diverse and religious traditions and customs of Muslims so as to overcome stereotypes and prejudices within the Western New York Region and beyond.”

One stereotype to overcome is the idea that Muslims have no sense of humor. This prejudice that sees Muslims as blowhard killjoys probably stems from thirty years ago, when the Grand Mullah of Iran (known as the Ayatollah Khomeini; ever heard of him?) said “Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.”

“No humor in Islam”, huh? Well, fun-loving Muslims are doing their best to prove this Shiite sourpuss wrong.

Just take a look at Islam-QA.com.

This is a “Dear Abby” website maintained by Muslims (probably Sunni) with a very “dry” sense of humor. Most non-Muslims who stumble upon this website, lacking the background to appreciate the subtle wit, will think it is for real, and will merely puzzle over it. But we Muslims who are in the know will appreciate its inside-joke clerical mimicry, with references that will go over the head of those who do not know the relevant hadiths…

Actually, some Islam-savvy non-Muslims really do appreciate the very subtle, dry humor of Islam-QA.com . See Irrational Islam.

Have fun exploring.

— MS

P.S. Oh, speaking of Islamic humor, here’s a riddle (from the set-up, you can probably guess what the punch-line is going to be):

“What did the Hawaiian jihadi say when he pressed the button on his suicide vest?”

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.
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“Aloha Akhbar!”

Several years ago Andrew Bostom published a comprehensive survey of antisemitism as expressed in the Qur’an. The article is unfortunately no longer available online, so the author has kindly sent us the full text.

This is the second of four installments. Part 1 is here.

Part 2

by Andrew G. Bostom

The Persistent Historical Application of the Anti-Jewish Motifs in the Qur’an

Earlier, in relation to Qur’an 5:82, a few brief examples were provided ^[85] illustrating the historical continuity (from 9th century Baghdad/Iraq, to19th century Egypt) of the hateful attitudes towards Jews this specific verse (5:82) engendered among the Muslim masses, as chronicled by contemporary observers, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Having now presented a full spectrum of the major anti-Jewish motifs in the Qur’an, additional illustrations demonstrating their persistent influence on Muslim attitudes (and resultant behaviors) towards Jews, can be provided. Four themes will be considered: (I) the Jews being associated with Satan and consigned to Hell (Qur’an 4:60, 4:55, 58:14—19, and 98:6); (II) the imposition of the Qur’anic poll-tax (jizya; Qur’an 9:29) on Jews, specifically, and (III) the related enforcement of the Qur’anic (2:61) “curse” upon the Jews for killing the Prophets, and other transgressions against Allah’s will, meriting their permanent humiliation and abasement; and, last in connection to this curse, (IV) the Jews’ transformation into apes/swine, as punishment (Qur’an 2:65, 5:60, and 7:166).

Formal decrees (or modern pronouncements) and opinions from Muslim rulers, jurisconsults, and theologians—past and present—have repeatedly associated non-Muslim dhimmis in general, or Jews specifically, with Satan, and the torments of being consigned deservedly to Hell. The Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil in an anti-dhimmi decree dated 850, according to Tabari’s account, ^[86] “…commanded that wooden images of devils ^[87] be nailed to the doors of their homes to distinguish them from the homes of Muslims.” Ibn Abdun, a Muslim jurist from Seville, Spain invoked Qur’an 58:19 in a section of his treatise (dated 1100) on dhimmi servitudes which discussed the appropriate dress of dhimmis, and how Muslims should “greet” them: ^[88]

You must not allow any…Jew or Christian to wear the attire of great men, doctors of law, or the wealthy. On the contrary, they must be objects of contempt and disgust; they are not entitled to a greeting of peace , [“Peace upon you!” (as-salam alaykum!)]. In effect [quoting 58:19] “Satan has gained the mastery over them, and caused them to forget God’s Remembrance. Those are Satan’s party; why, Satan’s party, surely, they are the losers!” They must wear a distinctive, ignominious sign.

A September, 2002 review of Friday sermons from Saudi Arabian mosques ^[89] indicates that these motifs remain vibrant in popular modern Islamic religious teaching. At a mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Adnan Ahmed Siyami, stated,

[Islam] believes that only Islam and the “Camp of Kufur [unbelief]” exist, and that there is no way to reach Paradise and to be delivered from Hell except by walking in the path of our Prophet Muhammad and joining Islam. Any other way leads to Hell.

Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid, another contemporary Saudi cleric, referred to the Jews, explicitly in his related discussion during a sermon delivered at a mosque in Al-Damam:

The Jews are the helpers of Satan. The Jews are the cause of the misery of the human race, together with the infidels and the other polytheists. Satan leads them to Hell and to a miserable fate.

The common expressions and practices of ordinary Muslims demonstrate how such associations of the Jews with Satan and Hell have long been imbibed by the masses. Solomon b. Jeroham, the authoritative Karaite Jewish exegete who lived in Jerusalem during the mid-10th century, ^[90] confirmed that the hateful doctrine regarding salutation (and humiliation), illustrated (above) by Ibn Abdun’s treatise, ^[91] was actually practiced by Muslims in their encounters with Jews. Solomon included the following observation in his 955/56 commentary on the Book of Lamentations: ^[92]

What can you say about people [Muslims] who curse you when you greet them, and when you do not greet them humiliate you and offend you?

Sir John Drummond-Hay (1816-1893), was a British diplomat and fluent linguist, with an extensive knowledge about Morocco, having lived with his father (Consul-General Edward Drummond-Hay) in Tangier from the age of 16, and served as a trusted personal adviser to three generations of Moroccan Sultans. Writing in 1844, Sir John noted the belief among Muslims of the North African Maghreb (especially Morocco) that, ^[93]

…if a Muhammadan walks on a Jewish grave he gives relief to the infidel in it, who is in torture, and that for this reason he should keep away from the grave.

Indeed the notion that Jews are condemned, rightfully, to such eternal torment after death is made clear by Muhammad, as recorded in the canonical hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim:

Narrated Aisha: Once Allah’s Apostle passed by the (grave of) a Jewess, whose relatives were weeping over her. He said, “They are weeping over her and she is being tortured in her grave” ^[94]

Narrated Abi Ayub: Once the Prophet went out after Sunset and heard a dreadful voice, and said, “The Jews are being punished in their graves” ^[95]

Tudor Parfitt’s 1996 analysis of the 20th century exodus of Yemen’s Jews, ^[96] leading to the liquidation of their ancient community, observed that Jews figured prominently in Yemeni proverbs and expressions, including this common reference to Hellfire:

It used to be the case after saying “It’s hot today” to comment “Ah! A Jew must have perished”—an allusion to the Jew burning in Hell.

The jizya collection ritual, consistent with Qur’an 9:29, fulfills the prescribed debasement of Jews and other dhimmis. Al-Suyuti (d. 1505), author (along with his mentor) ^[97] of a seminal Qur’anic commentary (Tafsir al-Jalalayn), made these recommendations regarding jizya collection:

…[jizya is part of] land and slaves…is incumbent upon the People of the Book…on people who allow wine [Jews and Christians] and pig-meat [Christians]…[Saaghiruuna means] submissively…[it means] by coercion…[`an yadin means] directly, not trusting the trickery of an intermediary…by force…without resistance…in an unpraiseworthy manner…while you stand and [the dhimmi] sits with the whip in front of you [you take] the money while he has dirt on his head.

Al-Maghili (d. 1504/1505), a contemporary of Al-Suyuti, and an important North African theologian whose writings on the dhimmis influenced both the Muslim masses of his day, and followers through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, insisted that affronts be inflicted upon the dhimmis, especially Jews, when collecting the jizya: ^[98]

On the day for tax collecting, they should be assembled in a public place, like the souk. They should present themselves there, standing up at the lowest, vilest place. The auxiliaries of the Law should stand above them, striking a menacing pose, so that appears to their eyes and to the eyes of the others that our purpose is to debase them by pretending to take their belongings. They will realize that we do them a favor [again] by accepting the jizya from them and letting them go [their way]. Then they shall be brought one by one [before the official responsible] for collecting the tax. While paying, the dhimmi will receive a slap and will be pushed back in such fashion that he will think that he has escaped the sword thanks to this [insult]. This is how the friends of the Lord in the first and last generations act toward their miscreant enemies, for power belongs to God, to His Apostle and to the Believers.

The enduring legacy of Al-Maghili’s teachings are evident in two remarkable accounts of the humiliating conditions under which the jizya was still being collected from Moroccan Jews within the modern era. An Italian Jew traveling in Morocco in 1894, reported the following: ^[99]

The kaid Uwida and the kadi Mawlay Mustafa had mounted their tent today near the Mellah [Jewish ghetto] gate and had summoned the Jews in order to collect from them the poll tax [jizya] which they are obliged to pay the sultan. They had me summoned also. I first inquired whether those who were European-protected subjects had to pay this tax. Having learned that a great many of them had already paid it, I wished to do likewise. After having remitted the amount of the tax to the two officials, I received from the kadi’s guard two blows in the back of the neck. Addressing the kadi and the kaid, I said” ‘Know that I am an Italian protected subject.’ Whereupon the kadi said to his guard: ‘Remove the kerchief covering his head and strike him strongly; he can then go and complain wherever he wants.’ The guards hastily obeyed and struck me once again more violently. This public mistreatment of a European-protected subject demonstrates to all the Arabs that they can, with impunity, mistreat the Jews.

And in a letter from January 30, 1911 by Avram Elmaleh, Head of the Fez boys’ school, to the President of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, Paris, we learn the degrading conditions imposed upon the rabbinical leaders of the Moroccan Jewish community, in connection with “community business” (i.e., such as payment of the jizya), even into the second decade of the 20th century: ^[100]

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter No. 1283 of 30 January, enclosing a letter from Rabbi Vidal Sarfaty. The rabbi asks you to intervene with Si Mohamed el Mokri, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, at present in Paris, for the abolition of the degrading custom imposed on Jews, not to enter Dar el Maghzen except barefoot. Unfortunately, the facts given in Rabbi Vidal’s letter are correct. Jews must take off their shoes at the gate of Dar-Maghzen. Quite apart from the humiliation involved in this measure, it is an intolerable suffering for our co-religionists to be obliged to stand many hours barefoot on the earth of the Palace courtyard, which is either cold and damp or white-hot from the summer sun. Rabbi Vidal. a regular visitor to the Dar-Maghzen in connection with community business or on behalf of individuals, has often returned ill from a rather too long sojourn in front of the offices. It is my opinion that it would be impossible to obtain an order from the Sultan to allow Jews to enter the Palace with their shoes on. It is a concession which his pride would not permit, and one quite contrary to the Muslim conception of the relative positions of the Jews and themselves.

Only when Morocco became a French Protectorate was there effective abolition of such Shari’a-based practices, affording Jews, as Stillman observes, ^[101] “far greater security and opportunity” than had existed in the “chaotic and violent days” prior to its (1912) establishment. However, even a quarter century after the establishment of a French protectorate in Tunisia (May, 1881), as described by Jacques Chalom (in 1908), rural Tunisian Jews were still required to pay the jizya (termed majba in Tunisia). ^[102] Moreover, Jews in Yemen and Afghanistan continued to pay the jizya until the liquidation of their communities after Israel was established in 1948. ^[103]

Although Yemen’s 20th century rulers (Imam Yahya, and his son Ahmad) dispensed with public ceremonial degradation, the deliberately threatening and humiliating atmospherics of jizya collection persisted. Aviva Klein-Franke describes the collection process: ^[104]

The Imam [Yahya, and later his son Ahmad] would nominate a respectable Jew to collect the Poll Tax. The nominated was called Ma’mur, Sheikh or ‘Aqil…He was ordered to prepare a list of all the Jewish males in his community who had reached the age of thirteen years for the purpose of collecting the Djizya…The ‘Uqqal [assistants to the Ma’mur] also had to mention those Jews who had emigrated. As we have seen, the Imam confiscated the property of anyone who left the Yemen. Jews were not allowed to sell their property before leaving the country—everything would be forfeited to the Imam by his [Imam Yahya’s] decree of 1920.

Before the ‘Uqqal collected the money, a street crier went through the Jewish quarter, proclaiming that the Imam expected everyone to pay the Djizya without delay. Failure to do so meant that a soldier, Baqaa, might be billeted on those in default until such time as they paid…Usually the Jews paid without any objection…they could send a written appeal to the Imam. If a Jew still refused to pay the Djizya, the Imam would accept no further excuses and would send his soldiers to the recalcitrant Jew until he was willing to pay. This meant soldiers might stay in his household for a few days. The Jew had to house them and do everything to satisfy their needs, otherwise soldiers would complain to the Imam that they had not been treated well, and that they had been insulted as Muslims. Not only would such an arrangement cost the person much more than the Djizya he owed, he could even end up in prison.

According to a 1950 report, the Jews of Afghanistan were subjected to governmental anti-Jewish bias, and the religious zeal of local Muslim populations, right until their final exodus (typically escaping to India, and thence to Israel). This ongoing discrimination included their public humiliation during collection of the jizya: ^[105]

…the Jews in Afghanistan are still subject to all the forms of discrimination which rigorous adherence to the Koran [9:29] requires. They have to pay the jizyah poll-tax imposed upon infidels, and the payment is accompanied by humiliating ceremonies…

The degrading jizya collection ritual was a salient feature of broader anti-dhimmi regulations codified into Islamic Law, consistent with Qur’an 9:29. The “contract of the jizya”, “dhimma”, or “system of dhimmitude”, encompassed other obligatory and recommended regulations for the conquered non-Muslim “dhimmi” peoples, including Jews, such as: ^[106] the prohibition of arms for the vanquished non-Muslims (dhimmis), and of church bells; restrictions concerning the building and restoration of churches, synagogues, and temples; inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims with regard to taxes and penal law; the refusal of dhimmi testimony by Muslim courts; ^[107] a requirement that Jews, and other non-Muslims, wear special clothes; and the overall humiliation and abasement of non-Muslims. It is important to note that these regulations and attitudes were institutionalized as permanent features of the sacred Islamic law, or Shari’a. The writings of the much lionized Sufi theologian and jurist al-Ghazali (d. 1111) (the famous theologian, philosopher, and paragon of mystical Sufism, who, as noted by the renowned scholar W.M. Watt, has been “…acclaimed in both the East and West as the greatest Muslim after Muhammad…” ^[108]) highlight how the institution of dhimmitude was simply a normative, and prominent feature of the Shari’a:

…the dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or His Apostle…Jews, Christians, and Majians must pay the jizya [poll tax on non-Muslims]…on offering up the jizya, the dhimmi must hang his head while the official takes hold of his beard and hits [the dhimmi] on the protruberant bone beneath his ear [i.e., the mandible]… They are not permitted to ostentatiously display their wine or church bells…their houses may not be higher than the Muslim’s, no matter how low that is. The dhimmi may not ride an elegant horse or mule; he may ride a donkey only if the saddle[-work] is of wood. He may not walk on the good part of the road. They [the dhimmis] have to wear [an identifying] patch [on their clothing], even women, and even in the [public] baths…[dhimmis] must hold their tongue….^[109]

Two particularly humiliating “vocations” were imposed upon Jews by their Muslim overlords in Yemen, and Morocco, where Jews formed the only substantive non-Muslim dhimmi populations. Yemenite Jews had to remove human feces and other waste matter (urine which failed to evaporate, etc.) from Muslim areas, initially in Sanaa, and later in other communities such as Shibam, Yarim, and Dhamar. ^[110] Decrees requiring this obligation were issued in the late 18th or early 19th century, and re-introduced in 1913. ^[111] Yehuda Nini reproduces an 1874 letter written by a Yemenite Jew to the Alliance Israelite in Paris, lamenting the practice: ^[112]

…it is 86 years since our forefathers suffered the cruel decree and great shame to the nation of Israel from the east to sundown…for in the days of our fathers, 86 years ago, there arose a judge known as Qadi, and said unto the king and his ministers who lived in that time that the Lord, Blessed be He, had only created the Jews out of love of the other nations, to do their work and be enslaved by them at their will, and to do the most contemptible and lowly of tasks. And of them all…the greatest contamination of all, to clear their privies and streets and pathways of the filthy dung and the great filth in that place and to collect all that is left of the dung, may your Honor pardon the expression.

Moroccan Jews were confined to ghettos in the major cities, such as Fez (since the 13th century) called mellah(s) (salty earth) which derives from the fact it was here that they were forced to salt the decapitated heads of executed rebels for public exposition. ^[113] This brutally imposed humiliating practice—which could be enforced even on the Jewish Sabbath—persisted through the late 19th century, as described by Eliezer Bashan: ^[114]

In the 1870’s, Jews were forced to salt the decapitated heads of rebels on the Sabbath. For example, Berber tribes frequently revolted against Sultan Muhammad XVIII. In order to force them to accept his authority, he would engage in punitive military campaigns. Among the tribes were the Musa, located south of Marrakesh. In 1872, the Sultan succeeded in quelling their revolt and forty-eight of their captives were condemned to death. In October 1872, on the order of the Sultan, they were dispatched to Rabat for beheading. Their decapitated heads were to be exposed on the gates of the town for three days. Since the heads were to be sent to Fez, Jewish ritual slaughterers (Hebrew, shohetim) were forced to salt them and hang them for exposure on the Sabbath. Despite threats by the governor of Rabat, the Jews refused to do so. He then ordered soldiers to enter the homes of those who refused and drag them outside. After they were flogged, the Jews complied and performed the task and the heads of the rebels were exposed in public.

Various anti-dhimmi regulations became integral to the permanent “humiliation and wretchedness” prescribed for the Jews, specifically, by the Qur’anic curse of 2:61. Breaches of this regulatory pact (or “dhimma”) by Jews—whether real or perceived—could have disastrous consequences, including fully sanctioned jihad violence ^[115] directed at them. For example, the poet Abu Ishaq al-Elbiri is believed to have helped incite the Muslim masses in 1066 against the Jewish vizier of Granada, Joseph Ibn Naghrela, with a vitriolic anti-Jewish ode, emphasizing how the dhimma had been violated. Abu Ishaq wrote: ^[116]

Bring them down to their place and Return them to the most abject station. They used to roam around us in tatters Covered with contempt, humiliation, and scorn. They used to rummage amongst the dungheaps for a bit of a filthy rag To serve as a shroud for a man to be buried in…Do not consider that killing them is treachery. Nay, it would be treachery to leave them scoffing.” [The translator then summarizes: ‘The Jews have broken their covenant (i.e., overstepped their station, with reference to the Covenant of Umar) and compunction would be out of place.]

A contemporary chronicle written by Sultan ‘Abd Allah (who became Sultan of Granada in 1073) confirms that a breach in the system of dhimmitude precipitated the outburst of anti-Jewish violence by the Muslims of Granada: ^[117]

Both the common people and the nobles were disgusted by the cunning of the Jews, the notorious changes they had brought in the order of things, and the positions they occupied in violation of their pact [i.e., the dhimma]. Allah decreed their destruction on Saturday 10 Safar 459 (December 31, 1066)…The Jew [Joseph Ibn Naghrela] fled into the interior of the palace, but the mob pursued him there, seized him, and killed him. They then put every Jew in the city to the sword and took vast quantities of their property.

The pogrom by Granada’s Muslims resulted in the assassination of Joseph Ibn Naghrela, and the massacre of some three to four thousand Granadan Jews, along with the pillage of the Jewish community. ^[118] This figure equals or exceeds the number of Jews reportedly killed by the Crusaders during their pillage of the Rhineland, some thirty years later, at the outset of the First Crusade. ^[119]

To be continued…

Notes:

As The Observer reported last night, Norwegian media and politicians seem obsessed with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, to the point where it has almost become a domestic political issue in Norway. Prominent members of the ruling Labour Party are strong supporters of Hamas.

In an article published a couple of weeks ago in Israel National News, the Norwegian author Hanne Nabintu Herland discussed the pervasive anti-Israel stance of her country’s government. According to her, the condemnation of Israel often grades into full-blown anti-Semitism:

Norway: The Most Anti-Semitic Country in the West

Interview series: Religious historian Hanne Herland: “The new Western secular values imply a rejection of respect for our culture’s historical link to the Jewish people”.

From Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld

“The current Labor/radical left Norwegian government is promoting an extreme one-sided and negative stance toward Israel. It is responsible for creating a politically-correct hatred of Israel among many people in the country. This has made Norway, in my view, the most anti-Semitic country in the West. In Norwegian history, there has never been such an anti-Israeli attitude.”

Hanne Nabintu Herland is a Norwegian academic and a historian of religion. She has authored several successful books. The latest one, Respect, published in February 2012, received a lot of publicity and tops the country’s best seller list.

Yet, there has been complete public silence regarding the sharp criticism she poses in the book against the current leftist government for its biased view on Israel.

Herland says, “Control on public opinion is so strong in Norway that it is questionable whether it can be considered a free democratic state. The Labor Party has widely used the terror attack by Anders Breivik against it on 22 July 2011 to further discriminate against any opposition and shut down public debate.”

She adds: “The Norwegian government indirectly accepts the Hamas agenda where its main goals include ethnic cleansing, terror, and genocide against the Jews. Labor Party Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre regularly defends Hamas in newspapers abroad. In February 2011, he did this in the International Herald Tribune, for instance.

“Last year Støre was caught lying on a live program on Norwegian TV2. There he denied that he held continuous talks with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. Yet Støre had to admit this when the reporter told him that Meshaal had mentioned these conversations. What initially may have been an act of naiveté is by now suspect of deliberate malice. In the long term, Støre is tarnishing Norway’s international reputation by acting as a Hamas defender.

“The way Norway funds Hamas with hundreds of millions of Norwegian kroner taxpayer’s money, is pure corruption. When African states buy their way to influence, we call it corruption. But in essence, the Labor Party is practicing the same – billions leave the country in order for Norway to buy friends in foreign states where they otherwise would have little or no influence.

“Despite major anti-Israel propaganda last year, a poll undertaken by Norway’s largest paper Verdens Gang found that 60% of the Norwegian people believes that Israel is right in claiming that coverage of it in Norwegian media is biased. This survey was done after the Israeli embassy in Oslo had filed a complaint against the state broadcasting authority NRK for its biased reporting.

“This anti-Israelism is often accompanied by anti-Semitism. Jewish children in Norwegian schools particularly suffer from it. According to a study, many of them are harassed much more than other minorities.

“One may wonder why the Norwegian establishment is continuously badgering the only democracy in the Middle East. Many in Norway and Europe at large no longer recognize the historical link of their traditional culture with the Jewish people. Those who spread the Ten Commandments laid the infrastructure for civilized societies. The Jews have contributed greatly to the development of European culture.”

In spring 2011, Herland published an article titled “Norway is the Most anti-Semitic Country in the West.” In it she wrote: “Culturally, we have much more in common with the Jewish people than one would think. Western civilization’s values have their cradle in Greek and Roman contributions, but when it comes to values, in the Hebrew-Christian contribution. The European humanistic view of the dignity of human beings regardless of rank, class or ethnicity, carries deep roots from Judaism. These values are at the core of what it means to belong to Western Civilization today.”

Herland observes: “The new Western secular values imply a rejection of respect for our culture’s historical link to the Jewish people. Many in the West do not understand that Islam’s radical religious movement projects maximum resistance against what they perceive as Western decadence and domination.

“The new Muslim friends of many Western secularists treat several minorities in Islamic countries with violence. Sharia law is considered a cultural alternative to the Western legal system. What started as the Left’s sympathy for the weak has turned into support for totalitarian coercion. This also includes backing a pronounced anti-Israelism. Today these undemocratic attitudes dominate the politically controlled voices in countries like Norway in a manner that clearly resembles Soviet propaganda.

“In March 2011, the renowned Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz came to Oslo. He offered to lecture at three Norwegian universities without payment. They all turned him down. Thereafter, Dershowitz wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal where he conveyed how anti-Semitic Norwegian academics let him know that he was persona non grata. This affair made me ashamed to be Norwegian. I am looking forward to the day when the present government will be defeated. Then hopefully, an end will come to their propaganda and the misleading image of Israel which they continuously portray to the Norwegian public.”

Due to last night’s DSL crash, tonight’s news feed is a double-dose. Some of the items that were “breaking” news last night — such as Dick Cheney’s heart transplant — are not-so-breaking now. But here they are, anyway.

A report commissioned by the Australian government warns that celebrating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign could be divisive and cause tensions in today’s multicultural Australia.

In other news, a group of bioethicists from both sides of the Atlantic has proposed that humans be genetically modified to induce them to act in ways that will help avert climate change. Since no other method has proven effective, the professors have made their “modest proposal” as a last-ditch effort to save humanity from disaster.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KGS, Nick, Nilk, Salome, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, The Observer, TV, 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.

For these debased German “youths”, a slap on the wrist would be an improvement.

Many thanks to JLH for his translation from Politically Incorrect:

Probation for Islamic Gang Rapists

They lured two thirteen-year-old girls into an apartment, and raped them there. Again and again the two children were forced by the testosterone-driven young Muslims to perform oral sex. On Monday, the Paderborn regional court reached a verdict. The two main perpetrators — although they had previously appeared in court on sexual charges — received probation. The two secondary culprits got 80 hours and 200 hours of social service respectively.

The Neue Westfälische newspaper reports:

Falk C.( all names are changed*) is a handsome 16-year-old to whom girls are romantically drawn. The Paderborn resident used this trait shamelessly and shockingly in August of last year. With three 17-, 18-, and 20-year=old friends, he abused two 13-year-old girls. On Monday, Falk C. and his accomplices had to answer before the regional court in Paderborn for child molestation.

In August, the 16-year-old flirted with the two teenagers. They apparently could not resist his charming advances and went with him to the home of Adil E. There were numerous instances of oral sex in which ultimately Shemsi D (17) and Alfred E. (20) also took part. When the parents of the girls learned of these events, they immediately reported it to the police.

In the regional youth court, where all the defendants appeared and spared their victims making anther statement, Falk C. was of primary interest. He was given a youth sentence of 1½ years, suspended for probation, which might possibly exist only on paper. Because of the fact that when he was only 13, he abused a 12 year-old girl, he has been in investigative custody for three weeks. He has reportedly participated in two muggings, and, if found guilty, he may face two to three years’ imprisonment, explained the chief judge Friedhelm Sander…

His 18-year-old accomplice, Adil E. was sentenced to probation and 300 hours of community service. He too had previously appeared as a juvenile on similar sexual charges. The judges saw the other two as followers who had availed themselves of an opportunity. 20-year-old Alfred E, received 200 hours of community service and Shemsi D. received 80. The latter must also undergo social training.

The question remains: Why bother to expend effort on expensive court trials, if the perpetrators are allowed to walk free?

The following article from VG.no concerns the treatment of Israeli issues in the Norwegian media. The original piece was quite long, so our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has sent a partial translation:

Israel is made into scapegoats by the Norwegian media

(VG Nett) The Israeli-Palestinian conflict receives more media attention in Norway than all other conflicts, even those that are far bloodier. The organization MIFF (With Israel for Peace) believes that this creates a skewed picture of the situation and the warring factions involved.

MIFF [a non-religious Israeli advocacy organization] has gone through all the articles published by the Norwegian news agency NTB between 2008 and 2011 dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and compared them with articles about Egypt, Syria and Sri Lanka during the same period.

The figures show that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict received a lot more coverage even though the civil war in Sri Lanka and Syria claimed far more lives.

“The mother of all conflicts”

“This creates a disproportionate picture in which Norwegians are made to believe that the situation in the Middle East is worse than everywhere else. Israel is made into a scapegoat and the Middle East conflict is viewed as the mother of all conflicts,” says Conrad Myrland, the leader of MIFF.

Approximately 2,000 people were killed between 2008-2011 in hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians. In comparison, 8,000 people were killed in Syria since March last year, according to figures released by the UN. The death toll in Sri Lanka is uncertain, but UN envoy, Gordon Weiss estimates that approximately 40,000 Tamils were slaughtered in 2009.

In January 2009, while wars were raging in both Gaza and Sri Lanka, Israel was mentioned 566 times in NTB news reports, while Syria and Sri Lanka were mentioned only 52 times.

“As a result of this disproportionate reporting an impression was created that the war in Gaza was much worse than the war in Sri Lanka. The actual death toll shows quite the opposite,” Myrland says.

“What about Congo and Sudan?”

Myrland emphasizes that MIFF’s research is only quantitative and that it doesn’t deal with the content of the NTB reports, which are distributed to most Norwegian media outlets, including VG.

“It’s paradoxical that the wars in Sudan and Congo, which in the last decade have resulted in the loss of millions of lives, don’t receive the same media coverage, in fact the coverage doesn’t even come close,” Myrland says.

“Norway is involved politically”

NTB admits that they tend to focus more on the conflict in the Middle East, because they believe Norwegian readers find it more interesting than other international conflicts.

“Norwegians tend to be more interested in the situation in the Middle East because of Norway’s involvement in the political process, previously through the Oslo accords and now as the head of the donor nations for the Palestinians. Many Norwegians also have a close relationship with Israel as numerous Norwegians have spent time at kibbutzim in the country and because many Christians in Norway follow the religious aspects of the conflict. We abide by the journalistic principle of covering issues that Norwegian readers find interesting,” says Ane Haavardsdatter Lunde, the head of NTB’s foreign desk.

“Doesn’t this have a self-reinforcing effect, in which readers tend to become more interested in what they read about?”

“We follow the mainstream and don’t tend to focus that much on the lesser-known conflicts, and in that aspect I guess you could say that our coverage has a self-reinforcing effect.”

“Is it NTB’s responsibility to inform readers about lesser-known conflicts?”

“No, our obligation is to deliver the news that our customers want. If we had been a left-wing newspaper, we would have written more about lesser known conflicts in South America.”

“Israel is almost considered a Norwegian domestic issue”

Ervin Kohn, leader of the Jewish community in Norway, explains the intense media focus on Israel with strong Norwegian sentiments to the area.

“Many people in Norway have a strong emotional relationship with Israel, and Norwegian politicians position themselves accordingly. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is almost considered a domestic political issue in Norway,” he says.

He believes that Israel is given the role of the big bad wolf in Norwegian public discourse.

“In the Norwegian news coverage, someone is strong and ugly, a role which has been given to Israel and the Jews; others are weak and considered victims, a role which has been given to the Palestinians. Norway will always support the weaker party,” he says.

Kohn goes through all the major Norwegian national newspapers. He believes that Dagbladet, Klassekampen and some Christian newspapers fail to ask critical questions of both parties.

“Dagbladet and Klassekampen write favorably about the Palestinians, and Dagen and Norge Idag write favorably about Israel, and they all forget to ask critical questions of the parties they support,” he says.

As a whole Kohn believes that Norwegian media coverage of the Middle East conflict is far more balanced today than it was a just a few years ago.

I must admit that I’m not on Facebook. I don’t have time for any additional routine maintenance chores, and I’ve heard that Facebook is a real time-sucker. So I let it be.

Then someone told me that FB is a nest of spyware and privacy-invasion, and that confirmed my decision to stay out of it.

A writer at the German site Junge Freiheit contributes the following piece about the insidious allure of Facebook in his country. Many thanks to JLH for the translation:

They Only Want the Best for Us

by Dieter Stein

Do you have a profile on Facebook? No? Don’t worry, you are by no means in a minority in Germany and you are saving a lot of time. Over twenty million Germans have joined this “social network” and keep up contact there with “friends,” or their virtual equivalent. Facebook is a toy intended to motivate the user to voluntarily reveal as much as possible about him/herself.

It is seductive on trips to post photos on Facebook and wait to see which “friends” press the “I-like-it” button or comment on the picture. The incautious person has turned on the automatic locater, so a profile of movements is added. Younger students especially are tempted by a certain group dynamic to enter increasingly absurd things on Facebook: party pictures, information about the current partner, and more.

Insidious Process of Identity Exposure

What are the consequences? Employers automatically research Google and Facebook to see what information the applicant has left there. This could lead to the applicant’s disqualification, because confidentiality and a serious impression are decisive.

The danger is that minors often ease into a gradual process of revealing their identities, and a jumbled mass of information is produced which later may be difficult to correct. It is doubtful whether Facebook allows an untraceable erasure of data.

Why do Facebook and Google even collect all of that data about us that the security services can only dream of having? They make impossible sums of money from it: Facebook made over two billion dollars and Google over thirty-eight billion through advertisement. And counting.

A Totalitarian System Comes on Little Cat Feet

In the future, facial recognition is expected, for quicker location of chance acquaintances. That could revolutionize even more the Facebook police search that is already being done. Nobody knows if someday his Facebook files will be laid in front of him to confront him with a misstep. Carelessness led to the fall of Schleswig-Holstein CDU politician, von Boetticher, who had met a sixteen-year-old lover on Facebook.

Unnoticed and on little cat feet, a totalitarian system is coming to enfold us. It blandishes us with services. entertainment, social contacts — and even leads us to believe in security. Will we escape it? I myself have a Facebook page with 1,400 “friends” to solicit for the work of Junge Freiheit — an interesting medium of contact. Shall I erase my profile? Write me: stein@jungefreiheit.de

The following article concerns Geir Lippestad, the defense attorney for Anders Behring Breivik.

Mr. Lippestad is attempting to manipulate the Norwegian media by appealing to them not to, well, manipulate the coverage of his client and thereby try the case in the press.

For the past eight months Mr. Lippestad has done his best to try his client in the press — on terms favorable to Mr. Breivik, of course. To an outsider, this latest appeal seems a shameless stunt on the part of the wily trial lawyer. But maybe it looks different to the Norwegian public.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer includes an introductory note to the translated article:

The article is about Anders Behring Breivik and the Norwegian media’s role in influencing the courts in Norway, particularly on the issue of Breivik’s sanity. In another newspaper article Lippestad claims that Breivik is altering his statements based upon the information presented in the newspapers.

If the Norwegian courts are that easily influenced by the media, how easy is it for the authorities to influence the courts, both directly and indirectly? This reeks of politically controlled courts.

One of the problems with Norway is that all the important positions are filled by individuals who have the ‘correct’ political opinions and are willing to follow the ‘directions’ set forth by the authorities, and not by individuals who have the best qualifications and who would carry out their responsibilities in a far superior manner.

The same syndrome was reflected in the poor police response in the hours after the 22/7 attacks.

From the March 21 edition of Journalisten.no:

Lippestad warns against a “public opinion court”

Defence attorney Geir Lippestad implores the media not to discuss the conclusions in a new medical report.

By Glenn Slydal Johansen

Six days before the July 22 trial against accused terrorist Anders Behring Breivik is scheduled to start, a new medical report has been released. This report will provide answers relating to the mental health of the defendant and whether or not he can be given a prison sentence.

The first medical report, which concluded that Breivik was criminally insane, was released just before Christmas last year. This report became the target of intense media scrutiny and led to demands for a new report. This request was finally accepted on January 13, when the court appointed new medical experts and ordered a second medical assessment. The court justified its decision with the intense criticism that the first report received in the media.

“Should wait”

Defence attorney Geir Lippestad believes that it’s the responsibility of the court to determine the information presented in the new report, and not the media.

“The media should refrain from discussing the content of this new report. The court should be given adequate time to study it first and process the information. There are procedures which need to be adhered to in a court of law in regards to how expert witnesses and the defendant give evidence. Having a public debate on this issue before the case goes to court is not the correct way to conduct a case,” Lippestad says.

“Are you afraid that the media will analyse this new report before the case goes to court?”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that. I sincerely hope that they’ll wait until after the experts have given their opinions and all the evidence has been presented. I appreciate that the media has a strong desire to start discussing this issue straight away, but it’s important to take a step back for the sake of due legal process.”

Public opinion court

It was toward the end of a speech given by Lippestad about the quality of the public discourse and the mass media on Wednesday morning that he criticized the Norwegian press. He expressed concern that the rule of law could be severely compromised by the media, giving rise to public opinion courts, through their intense criticism of the conclusion reached in the first medical report.

“The initial diagnosis of criminal insanity has been discredited in numerous articles in the newspapers and in the social media. Medical experts who don’t agree with the findings in the report have been brought in by the media to discredit the report. This is also the first time that a court in Norway has appointed new medical experts based solely on the intense public debate over their conclusions. This passionate one-sided public debate prevents due process to take place,” according to Lippestad.

New rules

He also pointed to the new mental health care laws that are currently under deliberation. The defence attorney believes that these laws have been drafted with his client in mind.

“Due legal process is jeopardized when the laws are being changed along the way,” Lippestad said, who also stressed that it was his duty to look after his client’s interests.

Televised testimony

The issue of Breivik’s sanity is likely to become the most pressing question in the upcoming trial. The first medical report concluded that Breivik is criminally insane. The defendant has also instructed his defence team to conduct their defence on the basis that he is sane.

Last week the district court announced that it is not going to honour the request made by the media to televise the testimony of the defendant. The media and the defence team have appealed this decision, and are in agreement on this particular issue.

“It’s up to the court to decide”

During a debate hosted by the Journalistic Club of Oslo earlier this week, secretary general Per Edgar Kokkvold told the audience that it’s not up to the media to determine the question of sanity.

“It’s the responsibility of the court — not politicians and the media,” he said.

He was of the personal opinion that the most democratic solution was to televise the court case.

“It is important that the media give the court the opportunity to do its job. This means complete openness, unfortunately. We can’t avoid it. This is going to be a debate that we will look back on later on and it is going to be historic.”

Anestos Canelides’ latest essay concerns American apologies for Koran-burnings and other offenses against the Religion of Peace, and the blatant double standard that is habitually applied to Islam concerning issues of “intolerance”.

Churches burned:

To see Barack Hussein Obama, the leader of the free world, apologize for the burning of the Qur’ans greatly weakens our position as the leader of the free world.

For the last few weeks I have become extremely irritated at the groveling and bowing down by our leaders to the Islamists for the accidental burning of the Qur’ans. Now they want to prosecute the so-called perpetrators who allowed their holy book to be burned. The sheer hypocrisy of this whole incident is pathetic. It should instead be the Muslims who are sorry for centuries of jihad against unbelievers. They are the ones who should seek our forgiveness for burning churches in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria and other parts of the world.

They also owe an apology for the centuries of persecution of the Zoroastrians of Persia or the destruction of Buddhist temples and shrines today in Thailand.

How many churches have they burned in the last decade alone?

How many Christians have they murdered in the process of purifying Muslims lands from the cultural influence and presence of Christianity?

It does not take much of an Internet search to find the answer. Groups like CAIR or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation cry foul about Islamophobia or acts of prejudice and violence towards Muslims, but they fail to acknowledge Muslim violence towards any unbelievers in the world.

Should we, as a nation, be outraged by the burning of churches by Muslims around the world? Shouldn’t they apologize to our leaders for their wrongs? As the Muslim population grows will they burn churches here in the USA? Will they ever show tolerance towards other religions without dominating them? Will the end of church burning come only when the Christians submit to them as dhimmis and pay the jizya tax?

No, I don’t believe they will. We will see more churches taken over or burned as Islam grows as a world power.

Burned and desecrated Bibles:

It is interesting how the Muslims always play the victim and turn violent after even an accusation of their holy book being burned or desecrated, yet consider it acceptable for the holy books of other faiths to be defiled. How many Bibles have been burned over the centuriesup until present times?

Here once again it does not take much of an internet search to find out about Bibles being burned Where is the apology to Christians for the burning of their holy book? Where is Muslim penitence for centuries of burning the religious texts of various other faiths, such as those of Hindus or Buddhists? How many Bibles have the Saudis shredded in recent times?

For me this shows the true difference between Christianity and Islam. We have not seen Christians rioting, looting, or killing because of burnt or shredded Bibles, have we? Yes, it makes a lot of Christians and Jews angry, but where are the riots? Is it because Christianity, as a religion today, tends to be more tolerant and forgiving than Islam?

Soldiers murdered for the burning of Qur’ans

How many American troops have to die for this perceived offense against Islam? Where is the apology the killing American solders by these barbarians.? How many more soliders will be killed for this accidental burning of the Qur’ans? How many innocent people have suffered by fundamental Muslim over the centuries because of a perceived slight against their Prophet Muhammad? I fear that the more we apologize, the more fuel we are putting on the fire of their resentment towards the Infidel Americans.

As for an Islamic apology for the acts of violence towards other faiths and their holy book — forget it. It would only be seen as a sign of weakness on their part, and other than a few truly moderate Muslims apologizing, it will never happen.

The purpose of this essay is not to hope for any signs of “sorry” from Muslims, but to remind infidels such as myself that fundamental Muslims are just as guilty of the same things they are protesting, but really to a much greater degree. It is truly hypocritical for them to kill people for the burning of Qur’ans when they are also guilty of the same sin.

As a nation we should never have apologized, because it only shows our weakness. In no way will it support our war effort in Afghanistan. In Medieval Historiography the author Spero Vyronis, using an Arab source, describes the only virtue that the Arabs admired in the Franks as there courage in battle. Islam respects only strength, and not weakness. We cannot afford to have our President demonstrate to the enemy our weakness through an act of apology to them. They have no respect for such weakness, especially coming from the President of the United States of America.

A major line of severe thunderstorms passed over Central Virginia last night. In its fury it managed to take out the phone company’s DSL service, disabling our internet access for almost twenty-four hours.

For that reason no comments were approved until late this afternoon, nor was there any news feed last night. Yesterday’s news stories will simply be included in an extra-large news feed tonight.

Dymphna and I are now in the process of catching up with our email. Patience is advised.

The video below is a discussion from FOX News comparing the media coverage of the murderous rampages by Major Nidal Malik Hasan and Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. It also discusses the differential treatment of their cases by the military authorities.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this clip:

Our German translator JLH has compiled a report on the latest from Necla Kelek. First, his introduction [Note: The first sentence of the second paragraph has been updated to correct the wording]:

These two short articles are based on the latest book by Necla Kelek

Ms. Kelek is a former practicing Muslim whose not terribly devout family came to Germany when she was eight. Her father became increasingly Islamicized, and her mother did not really understand her daughter’s question, “When will I be free?”

She entered German society and succeeded on its terms — earning a university degree and becoming a sociologist. She has published a number of books and appears often in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, among other mainstream publications. She seems to have marked out a middle ground where she can be quite critical of Islam, but still be accepted as a scholar.

In one instance, when she was attacked by a number of mainstream sociologists, she was defended by the deaconess of feminism in Germany, Alice Schwarzer. Schwarzer, unlike NOW, etc, threw in her lot with women, not Islam.

Kelek’s new book is sure to attract much attention among the politically-minded, and the negative reactions will be muted by her own personal history and her previous achievements.

The first article below is from Politically Incorrect, lifted from a longer review in Freitag. The second is one blogger’s attempt to summarize the main points in her book.

Translated from Politically Incorrect concerning Necla Kelek’s new book, Chaos of Cultures (Chaos der Kulturen):

Necla Kelek: Anyone Can Become An Imam

Anyone who has sufficient knowledge of the requisite prayer rituals can become an imam. The training of priests in the Christian sense does not exist, because Islam is nor familiar with the office of (spiritual) pastor. In many mosques in Germany, imams with no theological training are preaching — often as an avocation. And even the 800 imams sent to Germany from Turkey possess — measured by local theological training — insufficient knowledge. They have read the Koran in Arabic, studied the hadiths and compared them to one another.

They draw their opinions from the “four sources of the law”: first the Koran, second the Sunna, that is the customs of Mohammed as passed on in the hadiths, third from the consensus, i.e., the consistent opinion of the legal scholars, and fourth the conclusion by analogy, that is making judgments by analogy with verdicts of the past.

They act within a predetermined body of knowledge — there is no research or inquiry. Therefore, every imam can interpret the Koran as he wishes. The dignitary is distinguished from the individual believers through the respect accorded him on the basis of his position and influence. It is not, at any rate, an authority achieved through special education and training.

The fact that no organization, no hierarchy, no priestly class, no church stands between the believer and God has not led to greater spiritual independence or an individualization of the profession of faith, but rather to social control by the collective, represented by the imam as the highest authority.

From the blog Ethical Realism by Christoph Rohde:

Ten Clarifications of Necla Kelek
(Review of Necla Kelek: Chaos of Cultures)

by Preacher
March 12, 2012

1.	Islam is, above all, not a religion, but an all-encompassing political ideology which lays claim to the entire person.
2.	The collectivist mindset prevents individuals acting with freedom of conscience and decision.
3.	The immigration industry deprives the immigrant of personal responsibility and gives him/her over to social organizations like schools and other institutions of integration.
4.	The myth that “the Turks built Germany” is just not tenable. The Sunday speeches on the 50th year of the German-Turkish recruitment treaty generally ignore the fact that Turkey was able to alleviate its social problem with emigration and money transfers from its guest workers in Germany.
5.	The theoretical bases of “immigration research” are empirically untenable. Concepts like “super pluralism,” “diversity” or “modernity difference” — which proceeds from the premise of the automatic modernization of antiquated cultures in mixed milieus — have failed. Archaic structures constantly reproduce themselves, most of all in parallel societies, where the function of ostracism must take over.
6.	In Islam, dealing with women can only be described as female apartheid. Honor killings, the apparatus of oppression and rituals of genital excision in Germany are minimized even by the courts as things specific to the culture. So human rights violations against women are tolerated. Many multi-culti adherents call the burka ban racism.
7.	Mosques are not sacred places, but centers of socioeconomic exchange which have increasingly become demonstrations of Islamic power. The conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a church to a mosque demonstrates that mosques are intended to become a symbol of Islam’s superior philosophy.
8.	In the Turkish-Anatolian parallel worlds, infractions of the law are dealt with according to the inner hierarchy. In the case of an honor killing, the defense is constructed so the youngest son — the weakest link in the chain — is “sacrificed” for the honor of the family. And the youngest will also receive the most lenient punishment. Kelek shows that female family members willing to testify must as witnesses go into lifelong hiding, if they are prepared to reveal what is behind actions.
9.	Illnesses are also often culturally determined. It can be proved that women suffer from vitamin D deficiency from always wearing the burka, because the vitamin D synthesis needed for the skin is prevented. The psychological costs of life in the parallel worlds are demonstrable in the heightened suicide rate of Turkish girls. Next-of-kin marriages lead to a higher rate of handicaps. Research on this topic is not supported in Germany with research grants. Why?
10.	Thilo Sarrazzin’s book was not read. He indicated that participation without any accomplishment cannot be sustained over the long run in a shared risk society. He is reproached for “racism” because of this. It is Patrick Bahners — the critic of Islam critics — who is in a panic himself, and not those he has derided as Panic Makers. Kelek makes it clear that Islam — after a phase of liberality and openness from the ninth to the eleventh century — has stagnated. Every form of progress and technical civilization was blocked. What was left was a whining society which cursed those who wanted to bring it civilization.