Leave the NDL… Or Else!

The following article concerns the blatant threats and intimidation aimed at “racists” by Norwegian “anti-fascists”. It’s worth noting that if Norwegian nationalists ever put up similar posters targeting, say, Muslims, the perpetrators would be rapidly tracked down, arrested, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As it is, all the Oslo authorities can manage is to intervene with a “dialogue group”.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer, who translated the article, includes this introduction:

This article from today’s Aftenposten concerns AFA-Norway and the ‘anti-fascist’ methods they rely upon to silence those that they don’t agree with politically. Their latest stunt is to distribute and hang posters outing a female member of the Norwegian Defence League (photo, full name, phone number and home address) in various locations in and around the inner eastern neighbourhoods of Oslo, where they ‘advise’ the young woman to leave the NDL so that they, AFA, can ‘leave her alone’ and presumably ‘focus’ on other NDL members.

The funny thing about AFA-Norway is that they only seem to target young female NDL members. In 2012 AFA ‘advised’ a young pregnant NDL member in Bergen (city on the west coast of Norway) to ‘think about her unborn baby’ and leave the Bergen branch of the NDL. In that particular letter they made it abundantly clear that they knew where she lived.

That AFA is willing to resort to violence is no big secret. They have done so on numerous occasions. Their Swedish thugs-in-arms managed, only a few days ago, to disrupt an SDL rally in Malmö. Apparently there were 700 AFA thugs against approximately 20 SDL activists, which in AFA-speak means even odds.

What a bunch of cowards!

The Anti-Racist Centre has apparently on their website included a link to the official Blitz (AFA affiliate) website, which is a little bit of a worry considering that the organization actually advices the police in Oslo on how to deal with multicultural offenders, as described in the article posted at GoV the other day. Here is the proof: as you can clearly see, the Anti-Racist Centre do link to the blitz website.

Here are some other articles about the radical left and the NDL:

The translated article:

Local “fascists” are being outed and threatened

The radical left-wing organization ‘Antifascistisk aksjon’ is warning people living in Oslo’s inner eastern neighborhoods about Line Thorbjørnsen.

“This is very unpleasant and we have reported it to the police,” says Line Thorbjørnsen.

She has been a member of the controversial organization Norwegian Defence League (NDL) for about two years. She manages the Facebook page of the Oslo branch.

On the same day that NDL was scheduled to have a gathering in Oslo that Thorbjørnsen had helped to organize, dozens of posters were distributed and hung in and around her neighborhood by members of the organization Antifascistisk aksjon.

“Line Thorbjørnsen has taken on a leading role in the Oslo branch of the fascist and racist organization Norwegian Defence League,” the posters say. They also contain two pictures of her, as well as her home address and telephone number. She is also asked to notify AFA of her defection from NDL, “so that she can be left alone in the future.”

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/24/2013

The finance ministers of the European Union have agreed on a bailout package for Cyprus that will avert bankruptcy in the country and keep it in the Eurozone. Cyprus will, however, be required to intensify its cost-cutting measures by closing insolvent banks and forcing some bondholders to take a “haircut”.

In other news, the latest evidence suggests that the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria was committed by the jihad fighters of the “rebel” forces supported by the United States and the European Union.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, JD, McR, Paul Green, Steen, 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.

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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David Cameron Declares War on the EDL

As promised in the comments here a couple of days ago, Paul Weston presents the evidence for a carefully planned takedown of the English Defence League by the “Conservative” British government.

David Cameron Declares War on the EDL
by Paul Weston

David Cameron’s Con/Lib government really doesn’t like the English Defence League. Here is Cameron on the EDL:

“The hon. Gentleman speaks not only for his constituents, but, frankly, for the whole House in deprecating the English Defence League and all it stands for. On its attempt to say that it will somehow help to restore order, I have described some parts of our society as sick, and there is none sicker than the EDL.”

When Cameron talks about Islam, however, he adopts a slightly different approach:

“Many Muslims I’ve talked to about these issues are deeply offended by the use of the word ‘Islamic’ or ‘Islamist’ to describe the terrorist threat we face today… it is mainstream Britain which needs to integrate more with the British Asian way of life, not the other way around.”

So some Muslims feel upset that Islamic terrorists are carrying out terror attacks both in the name of Islam and in accordance with the Koran, which Cameron apparently sympathises with, but when it comes to the EDL he hates everything they stand for?

But what does the EDL stand for? They would rather our vulnerable young girls were not gang-raped; that sharia law should have no place in Britain; that young girls should not suffer female genital mutilation; that imported imams should cease encouraging sedition, terrorism, anti-Semitism, the murder of homosexuals, the inequality of women, etc. etc. etc.

And Mr Cameron is against The EDL And All It Stands For?? The British government, police and media were able to keep the countless Muslim gang-rape abominations away from the mainstream news-headlines for over a decade, so perhaps one can understand Cameron’s hatred of the EDL, without whom the internationally embarrassing Muslim gang-rape news would have been buried for another decade — along with several thousand new victims…

So no one should be surprised that a traitor and a quisling — for that is what David Cameron is — who clearly hates his country, its traditions, and its people, should now be trying to designate the EDL a terrorist organisation with a view to closing them down completely.

In order to do this, he has assembled a varied group of high level people to get the process underway. Cameron, incidentally, does not mix socially with the centre-right. Cameron clan dinner parties hosted by his alleged Marxist wife attract predominantly the great and the good of the leftist world, which perhaps include The Guardian’s Mark Smith, who wrote the following on 13 March 2013:

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Human Rights Abuses Today — Shariah Style

Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney’s latest essay discusses the way in which the implementation of shariah allows, and even encourages, the most horrendous human rights abuses.

A slightly different version of this essay was published on March 18 at Canada Free Press.

Human Rights Abuses Today — Shariah Style

by Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney

The harder the OIC pushes for a worldwide caliphate governed by Shariah, the more Westerners will see Shariah creep into all facets of their free societies.

Last week I wrote about Shariah-style education in Egypt and explained that beating children is religiously mandated in Islam. However, child-beating is only one of many horrific human rights abuses religiously sanctioned under Islam, a primitive and brutal system of laws dating back to the 7th century that are still used to this day. There is no place in the 21st century for Shariah Law, derived from the Koran and the Sunna (the ways or practices of Mohammed). However, Shariah is on the rise and is being propagated all across the world to supplant Western freedoms with an undemocratic Islamic theocracy.

For a Muslim to deny what Mohammed said in a Hadith about hitting children for neglecting their prayers, or in other Hadiths or Koranic verses, is to deny Mohammed. He cannot be denied because Islamic law derives solely from his life and teachings as ordained by Allah, whose words can never be changed. This is why child-beating and other forms of abuse mandated in the Koran or Hadiths will always remain part of Shariah and can never be changed for the strict followers of Islam.

Islamic edicts or Fatwas, such as the one that addresses child beating, are specific, non-binding (in Sunni Islam) directives based on Shariah that should be obeyed by the Mufti’s followers who are typically conditioned to blind obedience under a religion whose very name (Islam) means to submit. However, the meaning of those directives typically expands and enforces a more severe form of observance that sometimes results in death.There are countless cases of Islamic teachers severely beating their students in countries under Shariah and in the West as well.

However, one might rightfully charge that child-beating also takes place in schools in Western countries, including the United States, where 19 of its states still use corporal punishment. Here’s the difference: while the West is not perfect, it recognizes the problem with corporal punishment and is attempting to rectify it (its use has declined in recent decades), bearing in mind that the level of brutality never reaches that practised under Shariah; whereas Islam is mired down in medieval concepts, applauds them and enforces them as Allah’s word despite being inimical to contemporary society.

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Changing Swedish Attitudes Towards Immigration, Part 1

This Swedish documentary about immigration is amazing in the same way that a dog walking on its hind legs is amazing — the marvel is not how well it is done, but that it is done at all.

The segment below is the first of two parts of an in-depth report from Swedish television. Many thanks to The Observer for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/23/2013

About a thousand “anti-fascist” protesters descended on the Swedish city of Malmö today in advance of a demonstration by the Swedish Defence League. The anarchists and antifas clashed with police before the SDL demonstrators — about twenty of them — arrived in the center of the city.

In other news, a bill is before the Texas state legislature that calls for the repatriation of Texas’ gold assets from the Federal Reserve. The state of Texas owns about $1 billion in gold bullion, which is currently being stored by the Fed. The bill would return the gold to Texas, where it would be stashed in a newly-constructed secure facility.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, 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.

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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The Left: Burundi Before Birmingham

Below are the latest observations about Modern Multicultural Britain by our English correspondent Paul Weston.

The Left: Burundi Before Birmingham
by Paul Weston

Very small children will rather foolishly stick their fingers into electric sockets, which is of course extremely detrimental to their health. In order to preserve their much loved offspring, adults patiently explain to their children the dangers inherent in the digital probing of such enticing objects, and eventually, perhaps by the time they reach their third or fourth birthday, even the most stupid child will finally realise the act is indeed shockingly dangerous.

The mental resemblance of modern day left/liberals with foolish children is highlighted on a daily basis, but nowhere more so than in the person of one David Goodhart, a left/liberal who has only recently become aware that flooding Britain with inassimilable Third-Worlders might turn out to be just as dangerous for an entire country as an unguarded electric socket is to a child.

The important difference is that a suicidally curious child kills only himself, whilst a foolish and childlike left/liberal such as Mr Goodhart is already responsible for any number of deaths of native Britons — murdered by followers of the Religion of Peace so eagerly imported by half-witted left/liberals convinced they were bringing about a just and peaceful world.

And should the entire continent of Europe descend into a massively scaled-up version of the 1990s Yugoslav civil wars — which I am convinced it will — then the likes of Mr Goodhart will be guilty of deliberately engineered genocide. A child will listen to its parents, but left/liberals have refused to listen to adults, choosing instead to label us as racists should we raise the inevitable end result of their simple-minded suicidal/murderous actions.

Mr Goodhart recently wrote an article, admitting that the left had in fact got mass immigration completely wrong. Quite why it took such a long time for reality to dawn on him would make an interesting psychological therapy session, but the left/liberal sickness behind the promotion of mass immigration was nicely summed up in an exchange Mr Goodhart describes here:

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Christian Church Destroyed by Muslims in Indonesia

Indonesia is frequently held up as a model Islamic state, an example of tolerance, pluralism, and interreligious harmony. Yet every week brings more news stories of threats, intimidation, and violence against the Christian minority by the Muslim majority.

Devout Muslims in the town of Bekasi in West Java insisted that a Christian church was illegal, and demanded that it be pulled down. Local government authorities duly complied, and sent heavy equipment to destroy the church as members of the congregation gathered and shouted their protests.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Below are two articles about the incident in Bekasi. First, from the International Civil Liberties Alliance:

Church Demolished in ‘Moderate’ Indonesia!

We are often fed the idea that Indonesia is a ‘moderate’ Islamic nation. Events on the ground would suggest something very different. The Australia News Network reports on the demolition of a Christian Church near Jakarta [1]. Click HERE for the Australia News Network Coverage which includes a video about the issue.

Again, we don’t hear a peep from the supposed high priests of religious tolerance at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The OIC promoted UNHRC Resolution 16/18 that purports to confront threats to freedom of religion. It seems very clear that the OIC does not in fact favour religious freedom and Indonesia is an OIC member state. Perhaps to the OIC, religious freedom only means the freedom to expand the reach of sharia.

Reliance of the Traveller [2], which is a well-respected manual on sharia law states that non-Muslims “are forbidden to build new churches” o11.5 (7) p608. Perhaps sharia itself is seen as justification of the demolition in Indonesia? So much for the idea that sharia is just about private matters of faith!

The OIC wants global laws that forbid any criticism of Islam so events like this in Indonesia are not subject to criticism. Such laws would therefore undermine religious freedom as well as freedom of expression.

Notes:

1. Christian church pulled down in Indonesia (Australia News Network)
2. Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law (Ahmad ibn Naquib al-Misri)

Another relevant article: Rights of Non-Muslims in an Islamic State, by Samuel Shahid, also addresses the issue of Church building.

From Asia News:

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The Mujahid Wears Crocs

As a follow-up to yesterday’s report on the “Austrian” Islamic terrorist Mohamed Mahmoud, here is another TV news report from Austria. It seems that Mr. Mahmoud will likely be trekking back home in his Crocs to serve another spell in a Viennese slammer.

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

Mohammed Coefficient: 200%

Transcript:

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A Gleiwitz Incident in Anatolia?

The Gleiwitz incident (Polish: Prowokacja gliwicka; German: Überfall auf den Sender Gleiwitz) was a provocation staged by the SS in Gleiwitz, Silesia (Gliwice in Polish) on August 31, 1939. A group of German soldiers dressed in Polish uniforms attacked a German radio transmitter to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany, as part of a series of propaganda pretexts for the Nazi invasion the next day.

Was the “Syrian” attack on Turkey last October a Middle Eastern reprise of Gleiwitz? Interestingly enough, to read an investigation of what happened, one must consult hard-left sources, since the MSM won’t touch any serious investigation of disinformation and provocation instigated by NATO, and many right-wingers seem to share the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for bringing down the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

JLH has translated a left-wing Austrian article that discusses the issue. Given the source, one must preserve a measure of skepticism about the report. However, any information concerning the “civil war” in Syria must be treated with equal skepticism, since everyone involved is feeding questionable information to sympathetic media outlets.

I’ve had my suspicions about the incident on the Turkish-Syrian border since the day it occurred. After all, how stupid could Bashar be, to openly lob mortar shells into Turkey? It would be as stupid as… well, as stupid as the Poles attacking a German radio tower in Silesia in 1939.

JLH includes this introduction:

I do not know much about the source for this article — neopresse — which appeared on Quotenqueen. But, as you see, I went to the original magazine edition and found the little article which is cited in the article below. I have included approximately the first half of the article, leaving out the clearly communist cant that makes up the ending.

Another step back took me from quotenqueen to the neopresse, which likes to select “the most interesting new articles from free and independent news sources,” and from there to the source of this editorial article — a site called Solidar-Werkstatt (“Solidarity Workplace”), a pretty clearly leftist, antifa-type of blog. Interestingly, while striving mightily to discredit what they might call the “fascist and imperialistic” NATO, they produce reasonable evidence that Islam, in the person of Erdogan, is playing the same game as in the Hitler example. Take it with whatever measure of salt makes it palatable — here is an example of the Left blithely indicting its frequent partner in anti-right street demonstrations in Germany and Austria.

Clearly, they are Moscow-influenced, since there has been a Russian connection to Syria since the reign of Assad’s father. So the hammer-and-sickle decides in this case which side of the crescent to be on.

But we may learn from this that the other side can supply some facts and information our own “side” may not want us to know. In a game of “Whom do you trust?” the best answer is, “No one.” We can also recognize in the technique of claiming without any evidence that “the majority of the population thinks” a particular way, that the uncritical leftists in Europe are not so different from some political commentators in this country, who like to tell us what “the American people” think.

It also makes what seems to be a legitimate point: that Patriot missiles are of no use in repelling mortar shells. So we can withdraw defensive missiles from our Eastern European allies, but put some into a very questionable, highly Islamized Turkey.

And it raises the question in my — admittedly paranoid — mind: What do we really know about the comparatively small “chemical” attack on insurgents and where it came from and why? And how easy will it be to attribute it to Assad? What is the desired end result?

And for that matter, does anyone really know all the players without a program: the Kurds, the slated-for-extinction Alawites, Al Qaeda, the Ikhwan, etc., etc.? Does anyone in a position of power or influence know or care who — if any — our likely allies are? Just listen to the naked ignorance emanating from all agencies and offices.

Translated from neopresse:

Now it is Official: The Mortar Attack on Turkey was Orchestrated

Shades of Gliwice!

(At the end of August, 1939, SS men in the uniform of Polish soldiers took over broadcast station Gliwice [German=Gleiwitz] on the border with Poland, to give Hitler a pretext for the attack on Poland.)

A brief report in the newspaper, The Soldier,* which is considered the mouthpiece of the Austrian defense minister, has blown things up. The NATO countries and/or the forces allied with them in the Syrian civil war apparently orchestrated the murderous fireball in October, 2012 which served as a reason for the stationing of German, US and Dutch Patriot missile batteries on Turkey’s border with Syria.

  • The Turkish government immediately accuses the Syrian government of having fired the mortar round. “Turkey will not leave unpunished such provocations which threaten our national security.” declares President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday in Ankara. [1] Immediately afterwards, Turkish artillery shells Syrian artillery emplacements, killing — according to Al-Jazeera — 34 people.
  • One day later, the Turkish parliament knee-jerks a war authority for the regime. From that moment, Turkish soldiers can carry out military operations over the border in Syria “the extent, number and times of which will be determined by the administration.”
  • As early as October 3, 2012, at Turkey’s request, the NATO council met in Brussels on the basis of Article 4 of the NATO treaty: “The parties shall consult when, in their opinion, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of one of the parties is threatened.” The NATO council sharply condemns the “aggressive action” and classes it as a “violation of international law.” The Syrian leadership must “put an and to this outrageous violation of international law,” says the NATO announcement. [2] No attention is paid to the Syrian regime denying responsibility for the shelling. The burning question of who fired what rounds and, above all to what purpose, is not asked politically or in the media.
  • The Syrian regime is declared guilty without further investigation of events. The EU foreign delegate, Catherine Ashton, calls on Syria to end the violence and to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors. France’s foreign minister. Laurent Fabius, pushes for a clear denunciation of the Syrian government in the UN Security Council. His British colleague, Hague, publicly supports Turkey’s military reaction. The Austrian foreign minister, Spindelegger, immediately holds Damascus responsible for the fireball. [3] German Chancellor Angela Merkel snaps at Russia and China, who are not prepared to simply endorse the NATO pre-judgments, “The UN Security Council is not fulfilling its responsibilities, because China and Russia are blocking any further demands. We’re encountering resistance here which I cannot really understand.” [4]
  • Directly after this (rush to) judgment, the West escalates. On the basis of Article 5 of the NATO treaty (obligation of support when a NATO member is attacked), the USA, Netherlands and Germany decide to place so-called Patriot missiles on the Turkish border with Syria. The German foreign minister. Westerwelle, before the Bundestag: “When a NATO partner asks for help,, we must have very good reasons not to comply. I see no such grounds.” [5]
  • The decision is waved through the Bundestag in December, 2012. The placement begins promptly in January, 2013 and is already far along by the end of January — against the vigorous protests of the Turkish population and the peace movement.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/22/2013

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a Sunni mosque in Syria, killing a prominent imam — a supporter of the Assad regime — and 41 other people. The Syrian rebels have denied any responsibility for the attack.

In other news, violent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma have claimed at least 20 lives, and prompted the Burmese president to declare a state of emergency.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Mary Abdelmassih, 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.

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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Multicultural Indoctrination for the Norwegian Police

In Norway, the fox is not only guarding the henhouse, he is instructing the hens how to become more tender and delicious for the sake of the Modern Multicultural Norwegian Utopia.

It’s also worth noting that Shoaib Sultan is involved.

Many thanks to Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer for translating this article from Fyret.nu:

Anti-Racist Center are now tasked with teaching police students

The extreme left-wing organization the Anti-Racist Center (antirasistisk senter) has tailor-made an educational course which all year 3 students at the Police Academy in Oslo have to attend.

Kari Helene Partapuoli, the leader of the Anti-Racist Centre, mentioned this among other things in a newspaper article in Aftenposten about the Swedish anti-racist Jonas Hassen Khemiri.

Khemiri has attacked Sweden in harsh words and he has gone on record saying that Swedish society is saturated with racism and that it oppresses immigrants of different ethnic backgrounds. Khemiri wrote an open letter to the Swedish Minister of Justice in which he accused the police of racism due to their ID controls (REVA [see: “Towards a More Humane Immigration Policy in Sweden”]) and on the basis that Sweden deports illegal immigrants.

Partapuoli didn’t miss the opportunity to join in the criticism, and claimed that Norway is equally saturated with racism. She also went on record saying that this is one of the reasons why the Anti-Racist Center organizes role-playing between police students and youths with minority backgrounds.

There is very little information about the educational course which all police students are required to attend, but there is a post referring to the educational course on the Agenda X website. In the post youths with minority backgrounds are asked whether they would like to influence the future of policing in Norway. Agenda X is the youth resource center of the Anti-Racist Center. The organization also has a wing named Malcolm X, in honor of the black racist leader of the Nation of Islam.

The following message is posted on Agenda X’s Facebook page:

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“There Is Enmity and Hate Between Me And Austria”

A young “Austrian” terrorist has been arrested in Turkey at the border with Syria, apparently on his way to join the jihad against the Assad regime. His name is Mohamed Mahmoud, which gives this case a rare Mohammed Coefficient of 200%.

A new video by Mr. Mahmoud, in which he threatens Austria and the rest of Europe, surfaced last weekend. Below is a news report from Austrian TV about Mahmoud the Mujahid. Many thanks to Hermes for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

To accompany the video, Hermes has also translated excerpts from two articles published by Die Presse:

After terrorist threat, Austrian Islamist caught in Turkey

Mohamed Mahmoud threatened Austria with terror and burned his passport. Now he has been caught at the border between Turkey and Syria.

He threatened Austria with terror, but now it is he who is threatened with jail: the Austrian Islamist Mohamed Mahmoud has been caught at the border between Turkey and Syria, presumably with a false Libyan passport.

A new threatening video from the 28-year-old surfaced last weekend. He appeared wearing a military vest and holding an AK-47, and he liberated his hatred towards the West by announcing attacks against cities, trains and parliaments. Then he burned his Austrian passport in front of the camera.

The office for the protection of the constitution swung immediately into action, but the public prosecutor’s office has still not intervened.

This Islamist, who in 2007 was sentenced on a charge of supporting a terrorist organization, migrated to Germany after having served his prison term, and was recently thought to be in Egypt. But the fact that he was caught in the city of Hatay at the border between Turkey and Syria means that he wanted to fight side by side with the Islamists in the civil war against Assad’s regime.

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Eyeless in Gaza

Ask for this great Deliverer now, and find him
Eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves,
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke.

           — John Milton, from “Samson Agonistes”

Well, not really. And thank God I’m not in Gaza, eyeless or otherwise.

I just returned from a visit to the retinal specialist, who — after an hour and a half of dilating my pupils, injections, shining extremely bright lights into my eyeballs, and other unpleasant invasions of my personal space — was able to narrow down the diagnosis of what ails my left eye.

It is one of two conditions, both of which involve the accumulation and leakage of unwanted fluid in the retina:

1.   Central serous choroidopathy
2.   Choroidal neovascularization

The first one is relatively benign. Its causes are not always clear, but it generally resolves itself after a period of time. The second one involves the growth of new “fronds” of blood vessels in the retina, and is one of the major causes of macular degeneration.

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