“This Symbol of Hatred”

Geert Wilders has launched an initiative that aims to do for the Netherlands what Gavin Boby has done recently in the UK. He calls it “MoskNee” (“MosqueNo”), and it even has its own website.

The following article appeared today in Algemeen Dagblad. Many thank to our Dutch correspondent Willem for the translation:

“Every mosque that we can stop is a victory”

The PVV leader Geert Wilders has launched a new website: MoskNee (MosqueNo). A self-help program for people who do not want a mosque next to their home.

The site went online at 6am this morning, prior to the start of Mr. Wilders’ mosque tour in Enschede. “To those who do not agree, I say you can start your own website MoskJa (MosqueYes).”

Earlier the PVV tried to ban the construction of minarets, the construction of mosques, and, in its latest election program, the construction of mosques in residential areas. Up until now all of these legal initiatives have been unsuccessful.

Now Wilders takes a different approach: a guide for people who want to employ existing regulations in order to postpone the building of a mosque indefinitely. We asked Wilders a few questions:

What is your problem with mosques?

The mosque is a symbol of an ideology of hatred, violence and oppression. We must fight this. We currently have 450 mosques in the Netherlands, and the number is growing. People contact us from Zoetermeer to Almere and Enschede. They are worried. People are afraid. They do not want a mosque next to their home.

Your last proposal was: no mosque in residential areas.

That is a minimum. Build them in an industrial area or next to a pig farm. They are often symbols of imperialism. Not nice if you have to live next to them.

Even such a limited ban failed.

It does not seem to be legally possible. So we need a different approach. Every mosque that we can stop is a victory. In England, someone [Gavin Boby and the Law and Freedom Foundation] took the initiative to offer people legal assistance in their opposition to the construction of mosques in the area. Of the 17 cases in which he was involved, he won 16. By using existing laws.

What do you hope to achieve?

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The Proposed Regulation of the Media in the EU

JLH has translated a brief article from Junge Freiheit about the recently proposed initiative to stifle what remains of independent media in the EU:

The EU Wants Control Over the Media

Berlin. The EU Commission is planning to take control of the media in the EU. For a long time, this has been the responsibility of the individual states. A report presented on Monday contains several suggestions for how the EU Commission should unify national laws and regulate the media.

The 51-page paper entitled “Free and Pluralistic Media for a Sustainable European Democracy” analyzes the situation of the media in individual states. Legislation in this political arena is still a matter for the individual states. The authors, including former Lithuanian president Varla Vike-Freiberga and former German attorney-general Hertha Däubler-Gmelin (SPD), think that should change.

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Sharia-Based Censorship in the Belgian MSM

Our polyglot correspondent Hermes sends along a brief translation from a Belgian news site, accompanied by this note:

I was reading an article in French at a Belgian online magazine, a short article dealing with child trafficking and pornography in Belgium, and I stumbled upon a very interesting comment made by a reader, a comment regarding Islam and freedom of expression in the Belgian MSM.

This issue is now reaching paranoid levels. But nevertheless, it seems that it was only the persistent behavior of the commenter that prompted editors to allow this comment to be published.

The translated comment from: RTL.be:

Pornography, begging and small-scale crime: children are exploited in Belgium

Jan 25 2013 12:17pm

Posted by JRTLL

[Expletive], censored again.

I have just asked after having taken a look at the photo whether begging is allowed in the Koran, for as far as I know the richest ones give to the poorest ones, so people with headscarves should not be begging the way we see them in masses… what was wrong in what I said? It is enough to pronounce the word “Arab”, “Koran”, “Muslim”, and one gets banned. What kind of magazine is this?

Hope Fading for Norwegians Missing at In Amenas

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends this quick update on the five Norwegians who were taken hostage during the terrorist attack in Algeria and are still unaccounted for.

Translated from today’s Aftenbladet:

Foreign ministry (UD): “Unlikely to find survivors”

According to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry it’s unlikely to find any survivors from the terrorist attack and hostage situation at In Amenas in Algeria.

“We have been informed by Algerian authorities that they are still searching the gas plant, but that they are no longer searching for survivors. They are looking for, among other things, undetonated explosives,” says Veslemøy Lothe Salvesen, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, to NTB [Norwegian Telegraph Bureau].

According to Lothe Salvesen the Foreign Ministry has requested a formal confirmation from Algerian authorities when the search has been concluded, and adds that they have as of yet not received any such confirmation.

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Explosions and Guns

There are reports of an explosion deep underground in Iran.

An earthquake you ask? Umm… guess again.

From World Net Daily:

An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime.

The previously secret nuclear site has become a center for Iran’s nuclear activity because of the 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to the 20-percent level. A further enrichment to weapons grade would take only weeks, experts say…

“Experts” say more than their prayers. I look forward to further reports on this. I’m sure our leaders in Washington will be shoving one another to get to the microphones first.

Lots more at the link, and your guess is as good as mine. So guess away, within our normal living-room debate limits, of course.

Meanwhile, the ad below is quickly going viral. Again, lots of kibitzing around the neighborhood about this “girl’s” gun safety habits, but is sure is fun to watch. Don’t know which part I like best: the nifty gun safe under the bed or the cool way the bad guy faints.

This video is dedicated to the Lurker from Tulsa:

The views on this thing have gone up by ten thousand in the fifteen minutes since I first accessed it on You Tube.

Commentary:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/24/2013

Austria’s Turkish community is incensed about a Lego model kit that includes a depiction of the palace of Jabba the Hutt, from the Star Wars series. Austrian Muslims see a resemblance between Jabba’s palace and the mosque of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which they say insults their religious and cultural feelings. They are demanding an apology from Lego.

In other news, the unemployment rate in Spain has reached 26%, with the rate for under-25s estimated to be at 60%. Meanwhile, in reaction to expanded UN sanctions, North Korea has threatened new rocket launches and tests of nuclear weapons that target the United States.

To see the headlines and the articles, Click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Steen, The Observer, 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.

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Violent Enrichment on the 6A Bus

Last November a group of culturally enriched “youths” on a bus in Copenhagen set upon an American student of Chinese descent and beat him up. The incident was caught on a surveillance camera, and Danish police are still looking for the perpetrators, who are said to be “of other ethnic origin”.

Many thanks to Steen for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling this news video from Danish TV:

Transcript:

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Socialism, Accommodation, Armed Neutrality, and Swiss Sovereignty

JLH has translated three articles about current issues in Switzerland. All of them have in common the fear that the Swiss federal government is attempting to surrender the country’s ancient traditions of liberty, autonomy, and local governance.

The process pushing the Swiss towards accommodation with the New World Order comes both from the outside — via the hegemonic aspirations of the European Union — and the inside, from progressive-minded big-state Gutmenschen.

The translator includes this note:

The first two articles have to do with the encroaching power of the EU. The third — hinted at in one of the others — is dismally familiar as a socialist trend in our own countries.

Some of us think of the Swiss as the last bastion against the creeping despotism of the EU, but the tiny country that defied a mighty empire to become free is under external and internal pressure to morph into another one of the marbles in the game being played by the unelected elites of the EU. I just hope that the SVP is able to use the referendum effectively as before, but what is happening to the country is not unfamiliar to any of us in Europe or America.

At the top in the EU and in every country in and outside of it, there is a web of intrigue and greed that I think of as “Where the elite meet to cheat.”

As someone said here not too long ago: “God help us all.”

The first article is from Neue Zürcher Zeitung:

Christoph Blocher Warns Against a Silent Coup

by Stefan Hotz

Alfred Heer, president of the SVP (Swiss People’s Party) of Canton Zurich, did not hold back in his welcome address on Friday evening in the Schützenhaus Albisgütli. In his opinion, the intention of the national government to apply for a seat for Switzerland in the UN Security Council is a sign of megalomania.

In the face of the malaise in the asylum system, the Bundesrat (Federal Council) is acting “like a stupid elementary school child incapable of doing the simplest homework, but dreaming of someday being a professor at Harvard,” said Heer.

The Albisgütli as the Cradle of Freedom

Then, as every year, the national councilor Christoph Blocher strode up to the podium, in front of at least 1200 people. The former Bundesrat councilor recalled that almost twenty years ago the Zurich SVP was the first cantonal party to reject the European Economic Area. And so the hall in the Albisgütli became the cradle of freedom and independence. Quite possibly this hall would one day be as important a memorial for Swiss freedom as Rütli.[1]

In Blocher’s view, the highly indebted European states and the United States are conducting a financial and economic war against Switzerland. Instead of resisting, those responsible in Bern would fold and continue to accommodate.

“Durehebe” — Blocher’s Call to Persevere

The speaker dwelled at length on a report commissioned by the Bundesrat and authored by Professor Daniel Thürer in 2011, on the implementation of the bilateral treaties with the EU. Blocher interpreted the language in it as an attempt to effectuate entry to the EU without a plebiscite, even as a coup by the government and administration.

The remedy for that, he said, is: “Durehebe — nöd lugg laa gwünnt.”[2] Specifically, Blocher demanded that all bilateral agreements that bind Switzerland to accept EU law and foreign jurisdiction be subject to an obligatory referendum. Otherwise, a referendum must be activated, as also against the removal of the Depositors’ Right to Privacy.

“Welfare-Sponger” Initiative only Touched Upon

To combat treasonous proposals and the obsequious behavior of the government, Blocher demanded that meetings of the Bundesrat be public.

The SVP councilor touched only briefly on the “Welfare-Sponger” initiative, which was talked about in recent days. Much more important, said Blocher, is the blueprint for family policy, which will be voted on March 3rd. It will occasion costs in the billions and will disenfranchise families.

Maurer’s Plea for the Military Draft

The guest speaker, Federal President Ueli Maurer, did not say one word about Blocher’s speech. With reference to Henry Durant, he characterized the humanitarian tradition as an important guidepost for Switzerland. But the basis for its good works is armed neutrality.

This gave Maurer opportunity for a plea for a universal military draft: “An army of volunteers is not enough to ensure security.”

Under Pressure

Faced with the debt crisis, the sovereignty of small countries like Switzerland, he said, will come under pressure. “We must see to it that the law — not power — means something,” said the president. “We want to live in freedom and in peace with other countries.”

The 150th anniversary of the Red Cross this year, according to Maurer, is an opportunity to demonstrate the humanitarian tradition of Switzerland.

1.   Where the four cantons bound themselves by oath to resist the imperial Habsburg army.
2.   Wild guess by non-Schwyzerdütsch speaker: “Persevere, don’t loosen your grip, and you’ll win.”

 

The second article is from the Swiss People’s Party website:

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A High-Fatwa Diet

A Spanish performance artist is causing controversy by the public practice of — what should we call it? Koranophagia?

The article below was published in the Sunday edition of Deia. Many thanks to our Spanish correspondent Hermes for the translation:

Navarran artist Abel Azcona gets threats because of a work in which he is seen eating pages from the Koran

His work ‘eating a Koran’ criticizes religious fundamentalism. It is composed of an installation, a video and a performance

The Navarran artist Abel Azcona, an international exponent of performance art, is receiving threats as a result of his work “Eating a Koran”, in which he swallows pages of the Muslim holy book.

This is part of a research project which was started during a seminar about religious fundamentalism and the necessity to “feed ourselves with fiction, lies and fear”. This work comprises an installation, a performance and a video production, in which the artist spends six hours eating a Koran as a critique of religious radicalism. “I believe in freedom of speech, provocation, and artistic freedom, and I will surely continue doing it today, tomorrow, and forever,” Abel Azcona himself commented. He has received threatening emails and SMS messages.

‘I believe in art as a tool for critique and for setting up debate about identity policy,” the Navarran artist adds. He received criticism since he engaged in the world of performance, “but this will never change my way of thinking and working. And what’s more, threats clear my path, and thus I know that I am on the right one.” That is why he will continue using art as a “weapon of criticism for anybody wishing to feel and listen to it.”

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Missing Person Report from the Heartland of Jihad

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article from today’s Dagbladet about the disappearance of a “Norwegian” Salafist in Pakistan. Arfan Bhatti’s antics in his adopted home have been featured in this space before, but now Mr. Bhatti has gone missing during an, ahem, field trip to the heartland of jihad.

The Observer sends this introductory note:

The ‘Norwegian’ mujahid Arfan Bhatti is apparently missing in action somewhere in the mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

His comrade in Norway, the bearded monkey Ubaydullah Hussain, who apparently is too much of a coward to take part in the Jihad against the infidels, is demanding that the Norwegian authorities do everything in their power to put pressure on Pakistan to start looking for this brave lion of Allah.

I don’t think anything will come of it. As a matter of fact I think that Ubaydullah Hussain and the rest of the bearded monkeys of the Prophet’s Ummah are going to be terribly disappointed.

Don’t they know that the Jihad giveth and the Jihad taketh away?

The translated article:

The Prophet’s Ummah: Demands that Norway put pressure on Pakistan to find Bhatti

Islamist has disappeared

(Dagbladet): — We demand that the Norwegian authorities do everything in their power to convince the Pakistani government to prioritize this case as it involves a missing Norwegian citizen, says Ubaydullah Hussain to Dagbladet.

Hussain, the leader of the Norwegian Islamist group the Prophet’s Ummah, is concerned that one of the organization’s most prominent members, Arfan Bhatti (35), has gone missing abroad.

Taliban area

Bhatti has been away from Norway for a long time, and is most likely somewhere on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan — a Taliban stronghold — where he has been photographed carrying weapons.

It was Bhatti’s family that notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (UD) yesterday through Bhatti’s lawyer John Christian Elden, after the 35-year-old hadn’t been heard from since January 7.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/23/2013

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/23/2013Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has announced that the Pentagon’s ban on women serving in combat will be lifted. Supporters of the move see it as a step towards true equality for women in the military, and believe it will open up previously unavailable front-line jobs for them.

In other defense news, the Pentagon is bracing itself for a 30% budget reduction under sequestration, which some military analysts fear will “hollow out” America’s defense capability.

To see the headlines and the articles, Click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, Lurker from Tulsa, 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.

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Update #2 on Eindhoven

Our Dutch reader sends another update about the gang of eight attackers who brutally beat a pedestrian in Eindhoven. Seven of the eight have been identified and named on the Geenstijl website:

A poster on Geenstijl has posted an image of the attackers prior/during the attack with names attached. It shows who did what if you combine it with the video.

The names of the attackers seem mostly Dutch, save the Bouzi. The unidentified attacker looks like an immigrant from Morocco.

Nevertheless, these *******s deserve to be beaten into a bloody pulp.

The video he refers to may be viewed here.

Kurds vs. Turks in Genk

Cultural Enrichment News

The following enricher-on-enricher violence took place in the Belgian town of Genk, pitting Kurdish youths against their Turkish counterparts. Notice how well-integrated the Turkish kids are: they consider the Turkish flag to be “our pride, our honor, and our blood.”

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation from 7 sur 7:

Two students attacked in Genk amidst community tensions

Two final-year Turkish students from the technical institute of Sint-Lodewijk in Genk (Belgium) were taken to hospital on Monday after receiving knife injuries during a brawl, the brother of one of the injured students reported. The public prosecutor’s office of Tongres announced that two suspects had been arrested, one of them 18 years old.

The facts are linked to a tense mood between the Turkish and Kurd communities in Genk after a Kurd cultural center was burned down last Wednesday. “My brother is in stable condition,” Osman, the brother of one of the victims says. “He was stabbed in his right shoulder blade. His mate was more seriously injured; he has wounds in his lower back. They were attacked from behind,” he explained.

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Update on the Incident in Eindhoven

Last night I posted about a Dutch pedestrian who was brutally beaten up on the street in Eindhoven by gang of young men who appeared to be immigrants.

A Dutch reader just sent the following email:

The Dutch blog Geenstijl has posted the identity of the attackers. They refer to this photo.

Take a look at the labels identifying each of the young men. I’m not all that conversant with Dutch names, but they seem mainly ethnic Dutch to me. Or Flemish, perhaps, based on last night’s report.

Does this mean that the native youths of the Low Countries have become as violent and feral as their culturally enriched age-mates? Have they borrowed their brutal habits from the “New Dutch”, or did they think them up all on their own?

I don’t have any answers yet. It will be interesting to see how this one develops.