The government of Cyprus will be unable to meet its payroll in December, and its next tranche of EU bailout money is not due until mid-January. As a stopgap measure, it is appealing to semi-governmental entities to lend it money derived from their pension funds.

In other news, a private Islamic wealth management company has set up the first Islamic retirement annuities scheme in Australia. It is designed to satisfy the retirement needs of Muslims who consider sharia-compliant financing important.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, Nilk, 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.

Our Israeli correspondent MC returns with an essay on the propaganda war against Israel that continues unabated in the wake of the ceasefire in Gaza.

Semantic Terrorism
by MC

So the ceasefire is holding, and here in Sderot we have had an unexpected respite from the physical side of ‘terror’.

But terrorism has its ‘spiritual’ side as well: those people who rain their terrorist inspired ‘kassam words’ and ‘katyusha pictures’ on us.

These are the weasel-words that the media uses to hide what is really going on, so that the Hamas murderers of women and children are not ‘murderers’ or ‘terrorists’; they are ‘militants’ — a word that implies justification of their cause. This is the semantic terrorism of organisations such as the BBC and CNN.

Hamas is an organisation whose stated aim is to exterminate Jews in accordance with the ‘peace-loving’ Quran. To most sane people this is called ‘genocide’, but to semantic terrorists it is called ‘militancy’.

It is true that if one designates an arbitrary historical cutoff at the year 1967 one can then refer to ‘occupied’ Palestinian territory. However, real world history is not quite so accommodating. The BBC uses the stock phrase ‘illegal occupation, but Israel disputes this’. The spiritual terrorism behind this is that the legality of the ‘occupation’, or not, as the case may be, revolves around the idea of who started the 1967 war that resulted in the so-called ‘occupation’.

Two acts of aggression violated the 1948 armistice between Egypt and Israel: the closing by Egypt of the Straits of Tiran (22nd May) to Israeli shipping, and the ‘pre-emptive’ strike by Israel which removed the Egyptian air force from the scene(5th June). The use of the word ‘pre-emptive’ to describe the Israeli airstrike implies that Israel started it all, and therefore there is an ‘occupation’ and the rules of the 4th Geneva Convention apply.

If, however, the political act of denying Israel the use of its Red Sea port of Eilat is regarded as an ‘Act of War’ as specified in the 1949 Armistice and re-iterated after the 1955 conflict, then the raid which started the 1967 ‘shooting’ war was a legitimate act in the continuation of a declared war (1948), which was undeniably a war of aggression by Egypt and other Arab states against United Nations resolution 181 and the consequent declaration of the State of Israel.

In this case, territory gained in a defensive war does not come under the Geneva Convention at all. Cases in point would be the annexation by Poland of East Prussia and its subsequent ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans, and indeed the Palestine Mandate of 1922 itself, after ‘Southern Syria’ had been occupied by the British in 1917 and carved up into the British Mandate and the French Mandate.
As far as I am aware, there has been no judgement passed down by any recognised body on these issues, so for a quasi-governmental agency such as the BBC to pass down its own judgement is in itself, an act of semantic terrorism.

There are many weasel words used by institutions like the BBC and CNN. ‘Stone-throwing youths’ for example. A stone is a small piece of rock unlikely to cause serious injury when flung by a young person, but capable of killing a Goliath when projected from a sling, such as those used by the same Palestinian youths. A ‘rock’ however can be lethal when thrown by a young adult male.

It is this kind of semantic terrorism which shapes public consciousness, and can, in consequence, be used to justify other terms like ‘disproportionate response’. For the young national service infantrymen who have to deal with these ‘innocent’ stone-throwing youths, the encounter is terrifying because they have to respond to lethal aggression using non-lethal rules of engagement. The howls of the Western press when an innocent ‘stone- throwing youth’ is hurt by the IDF resonates throughout the Western world; and our young men die as a result.

The kidnap of Gilad Shalit was a war crime. Where are any media demands for justice?

Ignorant British politicians refer to non-existent Israeli settlements in Gaza and go unchallenged. Thus is the public being manipulated. The desire of both Hamas and the PA (as well as many other Islamic nations) for a ‘Jew-free’ state is not seen as ‘Nazi’ but as a legitimate political aim. The fact that there are Islamic ‘settlements’ in the UK administering their own shariah law, is not, of course, considered to be relevant.

The world has just given recognition to a state founded by the acolytes of a known Nazi who spent most of World War Two in Berlin, working for the extermination of Jews even then. Haj Amin Al Husseini lived one of those charmed political lives which smacks of friends in high places. We constantly find him escaping justice and wriggling out of culpability for degrading acts of barbarism.

‘Anti-Zionism’ is a proxy for anti-Semitism, but is justified by the media as having only political overtones and no racial overtones. This does not really work since the whole ‘Jewish Problem’ revolves around an irrational hatred of all things Jewish that seems to well up in surprising places. Most people cannot be trusted to criticise things Jewish without crossing an invisible line into racist incitement. It was for this reason that enlightened men mandated that Britain create a Jewish homeland in 1922.

But Britain was not up to the job, and created the current Arab-Israel conflict instead. Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign and Colonial Secretary, did his utmost to destroy the nascent State of Israel in 1948 — subject to plausible deniability, of course. He went so far as to supply British Army officers and aircraft to Jordan and others to oversee the destruction of the remnant from the Holocaust. Jordan ‘occupied’ the West Bank, Egypt occupied Gaza. There was no PA, there was no Hamas and there was no international outcry.

Thus the BBC and others are standing on the shoulders of tyrannical giants, peddling hate speech as acceptable because it is only ‘anti-Zionist’. When an entity supports a criminal, it too becomes a criminal, guilty of the same crime as an accessory to it.

Personally I do not see any substantive difference between the incoming physical missile from Hamas in Gaza, and the incoming verbal missile from the BBC in London or from CNN in Washington DC. All have a murderous intent. All have a politically dubious purpose.

The anti-Semitism inherent in the mainstream media’s acceptance of Hamas’ right to target Israeli civilians, and only Israeli civilians, not their military, is profound. After all, the civilians are only Jews and appear not to matter in the greater scheme of things.

That Iran, Qatar and other Gulf States can openly fund the payroll for Hamas and its agenda of genocide without international condemnation speaks volumes about the passive acceptance of institutionalised anti-Semitism worldwide.

Much to its horror, the Norwegian dairy conglomerate Tine just discovered that its brand new commercial features a decorated World War Two veteran who is — gasp! — opposed to immigration. The company wasn’t having any of that, so they pulled the commercial from the air faster than you can say “diversity”.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article with the latest. He says:

This article shows the level of hysteria associated with any opposition to Multiculturalism in Norway, and the lengths that some are willing to go to in order to distance themselves from critics of this ideology.

Jan Høeg is a decorated veteran of the Norwegian resistance who fought the German occupying forces in WW2. His father was an army officer who died fighting the Soviets during the Winter War in Finland.

FMI (Folkebevegelsen mot innvandring, “People’s Movement Against Immigration”) was founded by a group of Norwegian Merchant sailors who took part in the North Atlantic convoys in WW2. They started the organization because they were concerned with official Norway’s enthusiasm for Multiculturalism. Apparently Tine doesn’t want to be associated with such individuals.

Expect to see Mullah Krekar and Mohammed Mohyeldeen in the next Tine TV commercial.

The translated article from Dagbladet:

Tine pulls commercial featuring well known immigration opponent

Swift reaction from dairy giant

Working feverishly

Only minutes after Dagbladet could reveal that the well known immigrant opponent, Jan Høeg (89), was featured in Tines new commercial for kulturmelk [soured milk], Øystein Syrstad, the spokesperson for Tine, contacted Dagbladet with the following news:

The dairy giant are going to pull the commercial featuring Høeg. Jan Høeg is spokesperson and deputy chairman of the People’s Movement Against Immigration (FMI).

Apologizes profusely

“Tine is obviously very sorry that an actor who is affiliated with an organization espousing views that are so inconsistent with our own values was used in one of our commercials. Tine and the advertising agency Try have done a poor job in vetting the backgrounds of the actors,” Syrstad tells Dagbladet.

The commercial that features Høeg ends with the strophe “Those are the type of boys that old Norway wants.”

It now looks like the commercial that has been shown several times on prime time TV will be axed. After working feverishly on a press release, Syrstad informed Dagbladet at 7pm that Tine will now permanently pull the TV commercial.

“The commercial will no longer be shown on TV in its current version,” he says.

Syrstad says that Tine does not want to be associated with the views that the People’s Movement Against Immigration espouses.

“Tine was not familiar with the background of this person when the commercial was made,” says Syrstad.

Swimmer

Høeg himself doesn’t think there is anything exceptional about his role in the commercial, considering that he is a competent swimmer.

He was tight-lipped when Dagbladet called earlier this evening but reacted strongly when he was asked if he had made the filmmakers aware of his connection with the FMI.

“Now why on earth would I do that? Now you’re just asking plain stupid questions, and I think I’ll just end this conversation,” Jan Høeg said before he did just that.

Six people well-advanced in years participated in the commercial.

The yanked commercial may be seen on YouTube.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer wrote last Saturday about the timidity — in some cases, one might say cowardice — of Norwegian intellectuals who oppose sharia. These are people who object to the Islamization of their country, but who also object to any attempt to take practical measures against it. They find the people who stage public protests — courageous folks who actually put their careers and physical well-being on the line — somehow wanting. These action-oriented people are less than admirable. They’re deficient in certain respects.

In short, ordinary Norwegians who protest against mass immigration and sharia do not quite meet the exacting standards of well-educated academics and journalists who object to the same things in theory. Up until now, no praxis attempted against Islamization has been ideologically acceptable to them.

Norwegian intellectuals are hardly alone in this regard; the same phenomenon may be widely observed throughout the West. Most mainstream writers who dare to raise the alarm about Islam are fastidiously avoidant of any measures that might have a chance of reversing the current suicidal trends in our culture. Day after day they publish outraged accounts of what is happening — example upon example of violent, destructive, murderous Islamic behavior, and the craven submission to it displayed by Western dhimmis — whilst remaining unable or unwilling to contemplate what sort of action might be required to change the course of events.

Any organized attempt to effect change — whether by the EDL, Generation Identitaire, pastor Terry Jones, or any other grassroots activist group or individual — is deprecated and eschewed. The phrases “neo-fascist” and “right-wing extremist” pop up with distressing regularity.

I ran into two prominent new examples of the genre just this morning, one by an American and the other by a Briton. Rather than identify and argue with either author, which would only provoke yet another intramural food fight, I’d like to examine the larger issue.

What is it with Islam-critical Western intellectuals?

Why are so many of them reflexively allergic to any actions that might plausibly effect the changes they so fervently desire?

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

Most intellectuals who oppose Islamization are susceptible to a debilitating illness that I have dubbed “The Screaming Nazi Heeber-Jeebers” (known as SNHJ among those of us who have cause to discuss it frequently).

The symptoms of SNHJ tend to emerge when the average Counterjihad intellectual is called a “neo-Nazi”, a “racist”, a “neo-fascist”, a “xenophobe”, a “bigot”, or any of the other epithets commonly applied by leftist intellectuals to those who oppose Islamization and mass immigration.

Such symptoms include:

• Hasty denial (“I am absolutely not a racist.”)
• Refutation by example (“One of my best friends is Laotian.”)
• Rapid backtracking (“I don’t object to Muslims per se.”)
• Watering down one’s position (“The vast majority of Muslims are moderate and non-violent.”)
• Equivocation (“I oppose Christian fundamentalism as much as Islamic fundamentalism.”)

…and all the other futile attempts to deflect the “hate” charges being flung at him.

For those suffering from the most serious cases of SNHJ, even the term “nationalist” may induce all the frantic symptoms of aversion and repudiation — as if one could object to one’s nation being overrun by barbarians without in fact being a nationalist.

During the most serious crises, a typical Counterjihad intellectual will hide under the bed and stay very, very quiet until the uproar is over. The first time I noticed such behavior was during the early skirmishes of the LGF Wars, when Charles Johnson flung “neo-fascist” accusations in all directions with wild abandon. Those who were spared the gaze of his lidless eye went preternaturally quiet. They mysteriously forgot their aversion to such smear tactics, while those on the receiving end suddenly found themselves all but alone.

The worst such crisis to date unfolded during the immediate aftermath of the Breivik massacre last year. Any Counterjihad activist fortunate enough not to be mentioned in the Manifesto quite understandably kept his head down and his mouth shut. Those who merited a notice in the Book of Infamy could be divided roughly into two groups: the defiant and the repudiators.

The defiant ones stood fast. They had long known the stakes of their participation in the movement, and were ready to take whatever was heaved at them. What are principles, after all, if you fling them away at the first whiff of grapeshot?

In contrast, the repudiators said, “This has nothing to do with me. Some of these other people — Fjordman, perhaps, or Bat Ye’or — may deserve the label of ‘Breivik’s mentor’. But not I — I have nothing to do with bigotry and xenophobia. I hate racism!”

The pathetic reaction of the latter group is a textbook example of the Screaming Nazi Heeber-Jeebers in its most acute phase. Fear has overwhelmed all other responses, and the afflicted sufferer will do almost anything to escape the glare of the klieg lights and return to his former existence.

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

Such are the manifestations of the disease. But what about its etiology? How do otherwise healthy intellectuals develop such a syndrome?

The answer may lie in the training and conditioning to which academics and journalists are subjected. Contrary to their own confident self-evaluations, most intellectuals are of no more than average intelligence. They attain their exalted positions through extensive (and expensive) training and networking rather than by their own innate abilities.

To be accepted into the distinguished company of intellectuals, one must first adopt the received Narrative. One is permitted to deviate from the strictures of that Narrative only within certain narrow and well-defined limits. The Counterjihad is by definition outside those limits, so that a display of even the mildest version of Islam-critical thinking puts one beyond the pale.

This is something that is instinctively understood by any member of the academic club, even those who have been brave enough to oppose Islamization. They have seen the precipice towards which their culture is plunging, but they know that talking about it is a mortal sin against the Narrative. Hence their continual efforts to hedge their Islam-criticism with restrictions and contexts and provisos in a futile attempt to make themselves acceptable under the Narrative, and thus remain in the exalted club. Nothing renders them more fearful than the prospect of being blackballed from the club. The incidence of SNHJ among such academics simply indicates the depth and breadth of that fear.

So they attempt to stay within the boundary fence. They feel it is acceptable to write about the depredations of Islam. They are willing to be outraged. They deplore. They censure. They abhor. They criticize. Week after week, year after year, the deploring and abhorring continue.

But actually doing anything — why, that would most emphatically violate the Narrative! So it can’t even be considered.

These poor souls long to retain most of the Narrative whilst rejecting one piece of it. They don’t seem to understand that their opposition to Islamization has already rendered them permanent outcasts — they may as well put on their boots, pick up a placard, and join the rest of the movement down on the street.

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

For a journalist or academic with Islam-critical tendencies, one of the side effects of the Screaming Nazi Heeber-Jeebers manifests itself in disapproval and condescension towards those of less exalted intellect who share the same sympathies. As a result, intellectual writers observe in their unwashed brethren some of the following characteristics:

Vulgarity. The rubes out there on Main Street with their misspelled signs and distasteful slogans might become acceptable if they quoted Plato or Descartes more often and gave up the pig cartoons and burka costumes. What we need here is sympathy… and taste.

Violence. Some of these benighted fellows tend to get a bit boisterous, especially when they’ve had a few. We can’t have that, can we? And if the leftists throw rocks and bottles at them, well… why can’t they be more like Gandhi?

Intolerance. This rabble out there protesting in the town square — look at some of the cartoons on their signs! Why, you might think they really don’t care for all those foreigners in their midst! I’m all for resisting Islamization, but not at the expense of true tolerance and openness.

Nationalism. I abhor the rapes and muggings and murders and arson as much as the next man, but these national flags all over the place are just too much. It’s unseemly. Why can’t we object to the violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without bringing up the discredited nation-state?

The SNHJ sufferer hopes by such condescension to avoid being rejected by his intellectual peers. He doesn’t realize that it’s no use — his opposition to Islamization, weak dishwater though it may be, has already rendered him unfit for polite company.

The guardsmen of the Narrative will eventually winkle him out of his hiding place under the bed, pull off his wig and his gaiters, and throw him into the stocks for a well-deserved public shaming.

But what if he crawled out from under that bed of his own volition, and stood up proudly alongside his fellow Counterjihad activists?

Don’t hold your breath.

The situation for Jews in Malmö is familiar by now to most people who follow the news on the Islamization of Sweden. However, this news report from Swedish television, which outlines the daily situation of a particular Jewish woman in Malmö, is a stark reminder of how bad things have gotten in Malmö for Jews — and for anyone who is not Muslim, for that matter.

Many thanks to Steen for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling. Warning: The verbatim translations of obscene and offensive epithets aimed at the Jewish woman in this video are included in the subtitles and the accompanying transcript:

Transcript:

The news feed is light tonight. Is everyone out Christmas shopping?

Despite near-universal antagonism in the media, the Sweden Democrats have reached a record level of popularity. The latest polls indicate that SD appeals to 10% of Swedish voters.

In other news, President Obama spoke at a memorial service for the victims of the devastating school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, offering words of solace to the families of the victims and the residents of the town.

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

Thanks to Andy Bostom, Fjordman, Insubria, 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.

The French transport agency RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens, or “Autonomous Operator of Parisian Transports”) has become so Islamized that its supervisors and employees have effectively submitted to sharia rules, especially where they concern the treatment of women.

Many thanks to Bear and Riposte Laïque for the translation of this video report, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript of audio translation:

Transcript of text slides:

Update: I’m told that Hungary now has the same access as we have here in the USA (i.e. with the content warning).

The new Mohammed movie by Imran Firasat and Terry Jones, The Innocent Prophet, was released yesterday. Sometime yesterday one of YouTube’s “content warnings” was attached to the video, but it is still available, at least in the USA.

However, as of this morning, the video has been blocked in at least one country. Here’s the report from Vlad Tepes:

New Imran film blocked in Hungary

Hermes just sent me the following email:

Hi folks, I’ve just tried to click on my last liveleak post, that of Imran’s film, and this is what I met:

“Your country is prohibited from accessing this item!”

Amazing.

So now we know that countries are able to block out specific material to a degree at least, and we know that Hungary has decided to block a film about the pirate Mohamed for the sole reason that Muslims are thought likely to violently object to it.

This of course is the most likely reason as the material contains no factual error and no other material of a historical or historical biographical nature is blocked, as far as I am aware, in Hungary.

I also think it is unlikely that there will be a reaction to this film in any case, as in the other instances where riots took place, they had all been carefully stage managed well after the fact. The Danish Cartoons for example, and the other US made film which had been out for months and months with nearly no views before the riots started, conveniently and symbolically on 9/11 of this year. This will likely cause as little issues as the hundreds of other anti Islamic videos and documents which are produced daily. Many of which are downright insulting to all things Islamic and not just accurately but unflatteringly biographical.

At the end of the day this means that citizens of Hungary and for that matter, any other nation that discovers they cannot access this sort of material should take it upon themselves as a matter of social and civic responsibility, to produce this material in some manner that people can access, and make it publicly available. Perhaps printing it on DVD’s for example and starting a ‘Grateful-Dead’ style copying tree. Except without all the crappy music.

Governments do not have any right to prevent it’s citizens from accessing information or art. Triply so when it is accurate, and information that a person needs to make decisions about what sort of a future they want for their own people. They may pass laws, but they have no right. If anyone is reading this from Hungary please go to youtube and try and access the film and if that doesn’t work, we shall see what we can do from here as well.

The following report with the latest news on Tommy Robinson’s incarceration was adapted from a piece that appeared originally at the English Defence League website.

Tommy Robinson The Category A Prisoner!
By Nemesis

As you are all pretty aware Tommy does send us regular updates regarding his current “political detention” and we now have another update for you. However, it makes for grim reading.

While Tommy has been remanded in prison for a number of trumped-up charges that will not stick, he has become a political “hot potato” that the authorities and prison governors do not want to accommodate.

We have found that during his detention on remand many of his human rights have been quashed and ignored, even though the prison, the governor and all relevant authorities have a “duty of care” (which is a legally binding obligation) to make sure those rights are followed to the letter.

Remember that Tommy has not been convicted of a single crime, yet the prisons, their governors and all “responsible people” have treated him as if he were a “convicted terrorist”. Tommy has not plotted to take the lives of innocent people; he does not follow an ideology that believes in supremacism, nor does he want to; he is a man who stands against such things. How can a man who has played an active part in highlighting the very things that any sensible morally guided human being would follow become persecuted so much, with little to no evidence of wrongdoing?

It’s because he speaks the truth, uncomfortable, even unpalatable truths. He does not shy away from them (unlike our cowardly and repressive political tyrants). Our political masters know that he won’t be silenced, no matter how much they try to intimidate or coerce. Tommy, like the thousands who follow him, will not under any circumstance give in to the bullying tactics of state oppressors or the Islamist filth that cause our communities so much harm.

Since our last update from Tommy he was moved onto the block (he was segregated on the hospital wing) so he has no exercise, no “air time” and no possessions other than the clothes he is wearing.

The governor in Bedfordshire prison (Mr Brannigan) and the state seem to be colluding to make life as hard as possible for Tommy, it’s a move they may well come to regret.

The EDL have always played a part in giving the silent majority a voice, a means to air their views and concerns in a democratic way, an outlet for their understandable anger and outrage at things like Muslim rape gangs, Islamic ghettos, terrorism etc etc etc.

But now, after institutional failures to uphold human rights legislation, the EDL will find it very difficult to control the anger and the outrage that will undoubtedly follow the very latest events involving Tommy’s incarceration. Any patriot from any background or political affiliation will become incensed with a deep-rooted anger, one that can’t be controlled or managed. This is the straw that broke the camel back!

Unfortunately it gets worse….

Tommy was moved to the block as he faces accusations of “recruiting prison inmates for the EDL”. This is an allegation that would not be so funny if he were not segregated from every other prison inmate anyway, a farcical and ridiculous charge if we have ever heard one. How can any individual recruit members into the EDL while being segregated?

The authorities and the governor are clearly scared, but now they have poured petrol over flames that were already burning with ferocity!

Tommy was carted away as he was told that he was to attend court in St. Albans. Tommy challenged this, as he and his brief had no notice of it. He duly arrived only to be told by the clerk that they were not expecting him at all. By the time he returned, his possessions were confiscated from him, and a move to the block was facilitated during the time made available for a nonexistent court hearing!

It gets worse still…

Tommy has now been moved to Milton Keynes Woodhill, a category “A” prison where he will now share his time with murderers and “real” terrorists. The inmates of this prison are serving life sentences for a plethora of different offences, no doubt Islamic terrorism being a major reason behind the numbers that dwell there.

So now that it appears the governor and the state are complicit in the continued detention of Tommy Robinson, complicit in removing and ignoring his human rights even though he has not been convicted of anything, complicit in angering many thousands of people worldwide, complicit in ruining any chance he had of seeing his friends and family over Christmas, complicit in ruining the life of an individual who has the balls and backbone to deal with Islamic supremacism.

Lets hope those responsible don’t have to suffer a Christmas ruined by their cowardice and inept policies, policies that continually break every piece of human rights legislation.

We will update you further as and when we can. We know this will anger you all. We know that there is not much we can do to quell that anger.

All we can say is that “We are all Tommy Robinson”.

Egyptians went to the polls yesterday to vote in the first round of a referendum on the new sharia-intensive constitution proposed by President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. The ten provinces which were polled yesterday include Cairo and other major urban areas, where secular “liberal” sentiment is the strongest. As of this writing, the sharia-advocates are claiming a victory, although opposition leaders say there was widespread fraud and vote-rigging.

Alain Wagner, chairman of the French chapter of the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA), was interviewed yesterday on France 24 about yesterday’s round of voting. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for subtitling and uploading this video:

Transcript:

A Shiite ayatollah in Iraq, Ahmad Al Baghdadi Al Hassani, has issued a fatwa calling on Iraqi Christians to convert to Islam or be killed. He referred to Christians as “polytheists” and “friends of the Zionists”.

In other news, British retail outlets have cut their prices by up to 80% during the Christmas shopping season. The ongoing financial crisis has caused consumer purchases in the UK to enter one of the deepest slumps in living memory.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, 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.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends this brief report on the NDL/SIOE rally that was held today in Oslo, plus some commentary about the “friendly fire” the protesters are taking from the armchair-general wing of the Norwegian Counterjihad.

Time to get up off the couch
By The Observer

It’s not really worth writing too much about the event. As predicted, the event only attracted around 40-50 individuals, most of them members of the two organizations. The rally could just as easily have been held at the headquarters of the NDL as a “members only” event.

Rune Hauge, the leader of the NDL, was correct when he stated in an interview earlier this year that Norwegians who are critical of Islam need to get up off the couch and become more actively involved in the fight against this evil ideology. It’s no good limiting oneself to writing indignant post and comments on the Internet. Sure, writing on the web has an impact, but at some point people need to get off their bums and actually start doing some constructive organizational work and make their voices heard, and demonstrating in a public area is a good start.

If ten thousand people had showed up at the event in Oslo on Saturday, and at similar events across the country in the future, the authorities and the MSM wouldn’t be able to simply brush them off any longer as ‘radical loons’ without public support. I’m pretty confident that there are hundreds of thousands of Norwegians who share the concerns of the NDL and SIOE, but their reluctance to demonstrate and take part in rallies is a mystery to me. There threat of violence will always hang over such events as an invisible glove, and, yes, it could have negative repercussions for some people’s careers, but that’s just the way it is.

How do people expect to stop the spread of Islam in Norway in the future if they’re not even willing to stand up to this undemocratic ideology today? Norwegian politicians are most definitely not going to stop it; they are the ones who got us in this mess in the first place by opening the doors for it. Unfortunately, the responsibility for halting the tidal wave of Islam falls upon the people who oppose it. It is as simple as that, and subsequently those people who at a great personal cost are willing to stand up as an example for others to follow should be commended and praised. They certainly shouldn’t be ridiculed and mocked, especially not by other Norwegians who are equally critical of this ideology, but who limit themselves in venting their frustration about Islam online.

I had a look at Document.no yesterday and I was saddened to see the editor of the website, Hans Rustad, belittling and lecturing those who dare to stick their necks out and stand up for something they believe in. These are principles that should be applauded, not derided. It is especially sad because Document.no is one of the biggest Islam-critical websites in Norway, and people listen to Hans Rustad.

I’ve translated some of Rustad’s poisonous remarks below:

When reading and watching NRK’s reports on the Norwegian Defense League and Stop The Islamisation of Europe, one is almost overcome by a claustrophobic anxiety. It is difficult to distinguish between NRK’s political grip and the activists’ simplicity. It takes two to tango.

But the activists are playing the cards that they have been dealt as effectively as possible. To demonstrate in a public area, and one where there is a large immigrant population, is a hopeless undertaking. In theory, NDL leader Rune Hauge’s idea to show that Grønland is also part of Norway has some validity. But one cannot ignore the consequences: that it is going to provoke the residents of the area and that opposing forces will mobilize. And among those opposing forces are people who feel that they have every right to resort to violence.

If the activists are serious about their commitment then they have to listen to the wishes of the people. People don’t accept confrontations provided that there is a specific issue that is of such importance that one simply can’t keep quiet about it. The fact that people failed to support them on Saturday in Grønland does not mean people don’t take these issues seriously. You don’t get people involved by scaring them away.

I would venture that Islam definitely qualifies as a ‘specific issue’ that has to be opposed in the most rigorous manner even if that includes the likelihood of getting physically attacked, because rest assured the rise of Islam in Norway will eventually result in violence and brutality, and it will be directed at those who are too cowardly to oppose it today, and their offspring. There’s no need to try to sugar-coat the inevitable.

Perhaps it would be a better idea, if Document.no and Hans Rustad are so concerned about the NDL/SIOE’s lack of oral skills and inadequacies in presenting views on national TV, to encourage people with those skills to join these organizations and not drive people away from them.

On previous occasions Hans Rustad has condescendingly described members of the EDL as unemployed hooligan thugs who are only interested in fighting and drinking. Is that also how he sees the people of the NDL and SIOE?

Are they not educated enough for him?

It would be even better if Rustad and the milieu around Document.no started organizing similar rallies across Oslo — and the rest of the country for that matter — on their own terms of course, and began getting the masses more involved in this fight. It’s no good criticising and belittling those who actually have taken the leap and who are willing to give it a go. Demonizing and ridiculing those who have the guts to stand up to Islam only proves that one is a useful idiot for the radical Left, who must be rubbing their hands in joy when they see the biggest Islam-critical website in Norway fronting their views in this particular matter.

Imran Firasat is a Pakistani ex-Muslim and proprietor of www.mundosinislam.com who now lives in Spain. He collaborated with pastor Terry Jones on the movie The Innocent Prophet, which was released this morning.

After being pressured by the Spanish government and threatened with deportation to Pakistan, Mr. Firasat disassociated himself from the release of the movie. Below is an interview with him that was shown on Thursday on Spanish television.

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

“The Life of Mohammed from a Different Point of View”

It’s a day late, but the much anticipated Mohammed movie by Imran Firasat and Terry Jones has been released. The Spanish authorities threatened to arrest Mr. Firasat and deport him to Pakistan if the movie were to be made public. So what will happen to him now?

And when will the “Muslim street” erupt in violence?

From the press release sent out by Stand Up America Now:

The Innocent Prophet by Imran Firasat, an ex-Muslim, and Terry Jones is an accurate historical portrayal of Muhammad, of his life, his actions and his teachings. It answers the question, “Why is Islam a violent, oppressive religion?”

The movie reveals that from Islam’s very beginning, its very foundation is based upon greed and the insanity of one man called Muhammad. His obsession with power, violence, money and sex has given us a religion that must be stopped because it is the greatest threat to world peace and coexistence.

And from the notes accompanying the YouTube video:

The Innocent Prophet is the film that will help Muslims know the true face of Muhammad, as the creator of the false religion of Islam to achieve his own goals. It’s time to clear all doubts and accept that Muhammad was not a prophet but was a mobster, murderer, abuser of children and a self-proclaimed prophet.

I don’t know how long it will be before YouTube pulls this video, but for the time being, here it is: