Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/28/2014

The Turkish foreign minister paid a visit to a beleaguered mosque in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Two weeks ago the mosque was attacked by irate Bulgarian citizens with stones and bottle rockets. The Turkish foreign minister expressed his solidarity with the mosque and Bulgaria’s Turkish population.

In other news, the unemployment rate in Italy reached a record 12.9% in January, with youth unemployment rising to 42.4%

Meanwhile, President Obama warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to use force in attempt to turn back the democratic revolution in Ukraine.

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

Thanks to Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, MC, 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.

Continue reading

The Hawala Jihad Pipeline

On January 1, a building in a predominantly Somali neighborhood in Minneapolis exploded and burned, leaving three people dead and another thirteen injured, some of them grievously. There was no obvious investigation of the cause of the explosion, only a rush by city and federal authorities to declare that no bomb was involved and that there was no connection with “terrorism”. The damaged building was razed in less than 72 hours.

As we reported here last week, the owner of the demolished building, Garad K. Nor, had previously been on the U.S. Treasury’s interdicted list for allegedly running a hawala transfer business (the traditional and informal Arab/Muslim way of conducting long-distance financial transactions) that laundered money for the al-Shabaab Islamic terror outfit in Somalia.

Writing in the New English Review, Jerry Gordon has expanded on our report to include a wider discussion of the hawala problem. Some excerpts are below:

Back in 2007 we published a report on a similar Hawala transfer indictment for Abdizirik Hassan, the head of the Somali Nashville Community Center who like Nor was also caught in the Al-Barakat web of money transfer indictments in October 2001. He was fined and somehow had his prosecution dropped five years later. Despite the executive director’s indictment, the SNCC received a $500,000 grant from the Office of Minority Health Programs of the US Department of Health and Human Services. That became a subject of further investigations on allegations of fiscal abuse of a women’s health program.

In early February 2014, The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported a Somali émigré cab driver in San Diego, California, Ahmed Nasir Taali Mohamud from Anaheim, was sentenced to six years for providing material support to Al-Shabaab through a defunct Hawala money transfer system, the Shidaal Express. In November 2013 a federal Judge had sentenced his three accomplices to terms of between 10 to 18 years. The co-defendants included cab driver ring leader, Basaaly Saeed Moalin, Mohamed Mohamud an imam at a mosque frequented by the local Somali community and Issa Doreh who worked at the Shidaal Express money transfer firm. Evidence was presented at a trial in early 2013 that Moalim had been in direct contact with an Al Shabaab commander, Aden Hashen Ayrow who requested money for jihad. Ayrow was killed in a US missile attack in May 2008 in Somalia.

The Hawala money transfer system is a lifeline for war ravaged Somalia. Hawala in Arabic means transfer or remittance. Virtually the only means available for remittances from the Somali émigré community. A July 2013 Oxfam America study indicated that in 2012 more than $215 million was remitted via the Hawala system from the Somali émigré community in America. This was nearly equivalent to the $242 million in US development and humanitarian aid for Somalia. Degan Ali of Adeso, a Somali NGO based in Minneapolis was cited in a TCDaily Planet report saying that the Somali diaspora transmits $1.3 billion annually that supports 40 percent of the Somalia population.

The Tawakal Express franchise owned by Nor is one of four Hawalas that operate in the Twin Cities. The others include Dahabsiil, Amal Express and Amaana Express. Those Hawalas in the Twin Cities route funds through a California Bank. In light of federal prosecution of Hawala operators and Treasury investigations major banks like Wells Fargo and US Bank have shut down Hawala accounts. David Reiling, CEO of Sunrise Community Bank interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio, in reaction to the two women convicted for money transfers to Al Shabaab via Nor’s Hawala, said:

Continue reading

To Hell With the BNP!

Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has suffered for years from a severe case of the Screaming Nazi Heeber-Jeebers. However, based on the following snip from a video interview, he seems to be well on the way to recovery.

Perhaps Mr. Farage is feeling buoyant after recent polls showed UKIP pushing past the Lib-Dems, and even the Tories in some regions. Now that public sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of cutting off further immigration, the UKIP leader appears perfectly comfortable voicing sentiments that are commonly considered “xenophobic” and “racist”, and that used to make him hide under the bed:

Hat tip: JLH, via Guido Fawkes.

A Kaleidoscope Instead of a Career

Winter Fundraiser 2014, Day Five

Y’all may have noticed the increase in the number of the Baron’s posts the last day or so. That’s because the initial rush of the fundraiser has died down, and he no longer needs to stay at a dead run to keep up with acknowledgements and such. So he has more time to actually write or edit things.

Each fundraiser teaches me something about this oddest of jobs as proprietress of Gates of Vienna. At our wrap-up I’ll share the one I’m learning this time… if I remember it. One this is for sure: it was worth it to climb up here to take the long view back down to our beginnings before the beginning of the blog. While I can no longer imagine what we’d be doing if we weren’t here, I still find it hard to credit that we’re still here…

Tip jarOne of Anne Tyler’s books opens with an old lady lying in bed thinking over her life and her improbable children. She recalls an incident in which her grown daughter is looking at some photographs with her. The woman remarks that it’s a picture of herself and the daughter disagrees vehemently, repeatedly. Finally the old woman sighs and says, “All right then. It’s not me”…Sometimes I look back at the years I describe below (with so much left out) and think, “That’s not me”. Another part of me surrenders and sighs, “All right then. It’s not me…”

Turn the kaleidoscope, Harry.

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

Where was I? Oh right, chasing those cows away from our bush peas.

Life in the Country

As I was to learn, an elderly neighbor’s cattle often escaped her pasture and made their way down the power line to our grass. And our herbs and vegetables, too. She was always apologetic, as were the owners of the escaped pigs who dug up the grass looking for grubs. What an unholy mess! I huffed righteously to the Baron that the owners should “pay for the damage those stupid pigs caused”. He looked at me patiently: “Those people are as poor as we are. Do you think they’d have pigs otherwise?” He had me there. I felt ashamed at first, and then as the season wore on and I saw the vast improvement in our “lawn” — it was green and lush — the lesson sunk in even more deeply.

After a period of rest and recuperation it was time to look for work. The first thing I learned was that there was no work, at least not locally. If I wanted a job it meant a commute into the university’s Human Resources Department. I was given an appointment for a typing test (never my strong suit) and spent some time practicing on the Baron’s manual typewriter. I figured it was an advantage to use the manual and then take the test on an IBM Selectric. I’d be in like Flynn for sure.

The day before the scheduled test, I spent some time mowing the yard. As a kid and then later living in the suburbs, I was always the designated mower of lawns; it was work I liked. Or rather, it was work I liked until that moment, when suddenly I was being stung repeatedly by bees. Oh the pain! I dropped the handle of the mower and ran for the house — and darned if those creatures didn’t follow me inside, continuing their attack. They found their way inside my clothes and their loud buzzy anger was every bit as bad as the repeated stings. I’d always thought bees only stung once.

The Baron knew what had happened so he helped me take off my clothing, bugs and all. He threw it outside and had me stand under a tepid shower while he methodically found each of those demons — many of them were jammed up against the windows since they’d lost scent of me. Having assured me those evil creatures were gone he coaxed me out of the shower; we dabbed each wound with dilute ammonia and then applied wet baking soda. Aspirin for the pain and inflammation and Benadryl to slow the emerging allergic reaction. If welts began to appear on my body or if my throat began to swell, I knew I’d be in trouble so far away from medical help…fortunately the swelling remained localized, though it made my fingers fat and stiff and feverish. How can you have a fever in your fingers? Or your toes? Those things pierced my canvas shoes easily.

Guess who didn’t pass her typing test? With nine wounds on my puffy hands, my speed on that Selectric was as lame as my gait walking on swollen feet stuffed into shoes that were now painfully small.

Those bees? It turned out they were yellow jackets; the underground colony I’d run over with the lawn mower was quite large. That day I was stung the Baron began what would remain a summer ritual right down to the present. When they came after me, he had no scent the disturbed insects could detect so that made it safe for him to move the lawn mower. As evening approached he sat in a chair near where it had been and watched the insects coming home. In increasing numbers they’d spiral down into the hole and disappear. The Baron carefully marked the spot and when night fell he returned to the spot with a can of gasoline. He poured its contents carefully and thoroughly through the area, letting it soak into the ground. The next step was to throw a lighted match as near to the hole as possible and then haul ass run like crazy to the safety of the house. The next morning there might be a few listless insects hovering over the remains of their home —perhaps they were stragglers who’d arrived back at the ranch after the conflagration. But except for them, that particular area was yellow jacket-free.

But that doesn’t mean they didn’t lurk elsewhere. Oh so many elsewheres. Every summer there is at least one time when the yard surrounding our quiet cottage is punctuated with loud profanities and stomping feet as the Baron flees to the house throwing off his clothes along the way. Sometimes I can be of help since that particular batch o’ bugs is focused on his particular pheromones… Or fear-a-moans, as I’ve come to think of them. In that moment those little monsters want him and I don’t exist. Later, after the Baron’s adrenalin levels have dropped we’ll have the satisfying evening Fire Ritual, followed by the next morning’s Post-Mortem. Over the years, my (literally) far-sighted husband has often spotted incipient trouble. If he’s working in the yard and happens to notice a few of those characteristic spirals downward, he’ll quietly mark the spot. He returns at dusk to see if there’s an evening rush hour — the buggers’ homeward commute after a long business day.

The Baron doesn’t like to kill insects; he figures they all have their place in the order of things. But he makes exceptions for yellow jackets and house spiders. Besides, he’s a guy: for some reason a lot of guys enjoy setting things on fire. Huge house spiders merely give him the willies so he dispatches them. I prefer a vacuum cleaner for such jobs if he’s not around. If he’s home, the best spider removal is to yell, “Baron, eww! There’s a spider in the kitchen.”

Work in the Town

So I failed my typing test. Oops. Certainly my undergrad degree in philosophy wasn’t of much practical help. I quickly learned there were dozens of professors’ wives from which to choose. They possessed the same skill set but it came with a lot more connections.

If I had my druthers working in a plant nursery would have been just fine but after talking to a few managers I learned that the jobs were seasonal and my flimsy credentials — many years of creating my own home gardens — weren’t terribly impressive. I was simply part of a growing statistic: middle class women who’d signed the usual contract: stay home and raise the kids while husband goes out to make the money. At one time I even thought it was a good deal: while my children’s father was in school I’d written all the ‘humanities’ papers while he took the business courses. It was fun. I hadn’t seen the trap or read the fine print, though.
Continue reading

Bill Bags Begg in Brum

Moazzam Begg is a culturally enriched “British” man who spent a few years in detention at Guantanamo Bay after being picked up by the authorities in Pakistan. When Mr. Begg was released he eventually returned to Britain. He was arrested in Birmingham last Tuesday on suspicion of committing terrorism offenses related to the jihad in Syria.

Between his release from Guantanamo and his arrest in Britain, Mr. Begg was celebrated as an innocent victim by human rights groups, despite his unrepentant jihadist ideology. Our British correspondent JP sends the following report on the case of Moazzam Begg.

Moazzam Begg and the Sharia-Corrupted “Human Rights” Industry

by JP

The news yesterday that Moazzam Begg was arrested along with three others in the West Midlands on alleged Syria-related terrorism offences would have been welcomed by many who remember the difficulties experienced by Amnesty International (AI) when its support for the jihadist led to the suspension of Gita Sahgal, head of its gender unit, for voicing criticisms in public in 2010. She later resigned.

When Peter Benenson founded AI the remit was to defend people imprisoned for non-violent expression of their views. To its credit the organisation held to this brief, and when Nelson Mandela advocated violence, he was not assigned ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ status and dropped by the organisation in 1964.

However, this policy did not prevail, and post-9/11 AI adopted an increasingly Sharia-compliant position culminating with the elevation of Begg as a poster boy for defensive jihad. Well-grounded fears that the differentiation between defensive and offensive jihad was as meaningless when applied to Begg and his associates as it is in general were dismissed. The jihadist was too useful a stick for AI and the Left in general with which to beat an embattled West lacking either belief in its own civilisation or the resolve to defend it.

Moazzam Begg and his organisation Cage Prisoners have received support in the past from the following organisations and campaign groups:

Continue reading

Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/27/2014

More than a thousand people took to the streets in the Mexican state of Sinaloa to protest the arrest of Joaquin Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The demonstrators were angered by Mr. Guzman’s arrest because they feel that the drug business has created jobs and is good for the local economy in Sinaloa.

In other news, according to recent surveys, 10% of Norwegian women have been raped at least once. Only 11% of those rape victims reported the crime. Half the victims were raped when they were under the age of 18.

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

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

Continue reading

Racial Discrimination? Crap!

A few years ago a culturally enriched asylum-seeker in Switzerland was arrested for seeking the contents of Swiss citizens’ pockets. After slapping the cuffs on the would-be thief, the arresting officer directed a few choice epithets at his prisoner. It’s not clear whether the pickpocket was ever tried or convicted, but the policeman was eventually convicted of racial discrimination for insulting the foreigner.

Now the Swiss Supreme Court has overruled the conviction. JLH has translated an article about the case, and includes this note:

I came across this in Politically Incorrect and almost fell down laughing when I realized the Swiss court managed to capsize a PC case by using a combination of common sense with the kind of linguistic sleight-of-hand often used by the Left to get its way. When these judges retire, I wonder if we could persuade them to migrate here and run for office.

The translated article from Blick.ch:

Basel Police Officer Found Innocent

“Crap Asylum Seeker” Is Not Racist

Lausanne: The expressions “Sodding Foreigner” and “Crap Asylum Seeker,” according to the Supreme Court, do not constitute racial discrimination, but are simply insults. And a Basel police officer won his case.

In 2007, at the Basel clock and jewelry fair, a policeman and his colleague apprehended an Algerian asylum seeker on suspicion of picking pockets.

He handcuffed him in front of a crowd of looky-loos and loudly called him a “sodding foreigner” and “crap asylum seeker.”

The Basel court convicted the policeman of racial discrimination for his verbal lapse and assessed the prescribed fine.

Supreme Court Exonerates Police Officer

The Supreme Court found the policeman to be in the right and overruled his conviction. According to its criminal division, the comments lacked the reference to a particular race, ethnicity or religion that is requisite for discrimination.

The terms “foreigner” or “asylum seeker” may refer to people of quite varied geographical origin or religious beliefs, it said.

The court went a step further: Even the use of the terms “sodding” or “crap” in connection with a particular nationality or ethnicity would not, according to the judges, constitute racial discrimination.

Concepts like “sodding” and “crap” had been used since time immemorial in German-speaking areas and widely used as expressions of protest.

Such expressions were perceived as mere insults, not assaults on human dignity.

Continue reading

May 22: D-Day for the Euroskeptics

An article about Geert Wilders was published last Friday in The Wall Street Journal. Below are some excerpts:

Dutch Politician Calls on Euroskeptic Parties to Unite

Anti-EU Groups Expected to Make Gains in Elections

By Maarten van Tartwijk, Robin van Daalen

THE HAGUE—A leading critic of the European Union called on fellow euroskeptic parties to join forces to reassert national sovereignty against Brussels.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Party of Freedom, said such an alliance is difficult but that he hopes anti-EU parties, which are expected to make gains in European Parliament elections in May, will try to form a coalition after the vote.

“These elections are more important than ever,” Mr. Wilders said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It will be a disgrace if we aren’t able to join forces.”

Mr. Wilders is set to become a pivotal figure in the May 22 elections because of his ambition to build an alliance of anti-EU parties, led by France’s Front National of Marine Le Pen and his own Party for Freedom. So far, only a handful of parties in other countries, including Belgium, Austria and Italy, have signaled willingness to participate in such a coalition.

The European Parliament, with 766 members from 28 countries, is the only democratically elected body of the EU. It has assumed more influence in recent years, giving it a greater say on a Europewide issues.

Election polls show that euroskeptic parties on the left and right could win up to 30% of the vote in May, amid widespread dissatisfaction over the region’s economic crisis and years of austerity. If some agree to cooperate and set up an alliance, as Mr. Wilders is hoping, it could become a new force in European politics. The prospect is unnerving to national governments as it could further complicate EU decision making.

Continue reading

End the Dictatorship!

Yesterday an Italian MEP named Mario Borghezio from the separatist party Lega Nord (Northern League) interrupted proceedings in the European Parliament to vociferously demonstrate his support for the recent Swiss referendum in favor of immigration quotas.

Many thanks to Bear and Simon XML for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:07   Europe must respect the will of the Swiss people.
00:11   Long live the freedom of the Swiss people.
00:15   Enough of European dictatorship of our people!
00:19   Long live liberty! Down with the European dictatorship…
00:23   over the people. Long live liberty! Freedom for the people!
00:27   End the dictatorship!
00:31   Colleague Borghezio, leave the chamber. Please leave the chamber.
 

Phoenix Rises From the Ashes, Looks for Work

Winter Fundraiser 2014, Day Four

For a long time the Baron has been voting for this theme — “Odd Jobs” — of our checkered careers as a good choice for these week-long fund raisers. After all, if our readers were going to fund part of this undertaking, they deserved some information on the proprietors. Besides, I think he’s rather proud of his perseverance. He’s entitled, methinks.

I’m not sure what made me hesitate; probably my reluctance to face the fact that I’m not healthy or robust enough to ever rejoin the ranks of workers or volunteers in tasks that formerly brought such pleasure. And frankly, I’d rather talk about his work than I would my own. It was not only more varied, but his temperament — an optimism which permits him to live in the sunlight — was less fraught than my own experience.

Tip jarSo let’s begin with our differences in talent and temperament, since those are basic to who we are no matter what we’re doing.

Perhaps this part should have come first, before describing any of the various jobs we had. But after digging through our memories of those times, it now seems important to point out how this most unlikely proposition called the Baron and Dymphna @ The Counterjihad came to be. That means differentiating the components. Even as I write, I feel the Baron ducking as he has to edit this later, and I hear echoes of “too much information” from some of our readers, but c’est la guerre, y’all. For our readers who would rather not know, it’s easy enough to move past this post and on to less Alice-in-Wonderland essays. For the readers who are mystified by some of the glosses I used to save making this any longer than it is already, feel free to ask questions.

Consider this post the basement for a structure from which you can see more coherently the reasons and seasons for the life we built together, a life which improbably ended up as mere prelude to Gates of Vienna. In order to have you standing there on the first floor, first I have to dig the foundation, put in a few joists to hold the thing together, and only then can we get back to all those unlikely jobs.

Beginnings

The Baron describes his family of origin as “boring”. By that he means no dramas, no secrets, no flouncing out of the room or the relationship when the ship hit turbulent waters. His mother went to college, working briefly at a local paper and then as a history teacher before she married his father. The Baron’s dad missed out on college: that pesky Depression meant there was no money to attend Williams College, where his own father had studied. And then the war came along and sent millions of men scattering in new directions, at least the ones who survived. For his dad, the army decided, in its infinite wisdom, to send him south, to Virginia, and based on his aptitude tests, to put him in a new division of military work: intelligence-gathering (or more specifically, cryptography). The Baron never knew exactly what his father did except that he couldn’t talk about it to his family. The job required that the family move to England while when the B was set to begin high school. Once stationed there, his parents decided their son should attend a local school rather than the alternative American version.

Their family took annual vacations which he remembers fondly; his father and the Baron enjoyed sharing the Guardian crossword puzzle and other brain-teasers. His mother liked being a wife and mother in a period when that was an acceptable ‘job’. She also liked bird-watching and sewing.

On both sides of his family the Baron was American back to the beginning. His father’s New England forebears were not penurious when they arrived straight from England. The family lived for generations in Massachusetts; some still do, and he has the variously updated genealogy books to prove these antecedents. His mother’s family, Virginian to the bone, had once owned slaves — not a proud fact, but for most old-time Southerners it’s a reality. The family also included Civil War heroes and a mixture of German, Scots, French, and Lord-knows-what-else — all safely WASP, however. Well, maybe not so safely A-S, with those annoying Celts and Franks and Teutons — but definitely no Papists in the mix.

I believe he did find a maternal cousin, once removed, who was known to have had a “problem with drink”. And if I have the story right, a great-grandfather ran off to West Virginia to run a casino and acquired a common-law wife. In a small Virginia town, that must’ve raised some eyebrows — though this rake continued to support his real family, of course. Things were different then.

The B finished his A-Levels in Yorkshire before returning to America to William and Mary, the same college his mother had attended. He says he missed honeysuckle and turtles and lightning bugs too much to have seriously considered Oxbridge or a deeply academic life.

In that we are similar. I’m an “intellectual”, but graduate studies were stifling, though I did consider it before divorce and the ruination of my first family left me destitute and eventually disabled. Continue reading

Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/26/2014

Political tensions in Ukraine continued to escalate as pro-Russian demonstrators faced off against pro-EU demonstrators in the Crimea. Russian troop convoys were spotted moving into the region as President Vladimir Putin reportedly prepares for war.

In other news, the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram continued its rampage into Yobe State, massacring 43 students at a secondary school.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Egghead, 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.

Continue reading

The Prophet in Brussels

The following positive review of Bat Yeo’s book Europe and the Coming Caliphate was published, amazingly enough, in the mainstream Austrian daily Die Presse. Our Austrian correspondent AMT, who recommended the review for translation, includes the following note:

Die Presse is to be commended for publishing this review of the German translation of Bat Ye’or’s latest book. Of course, the commenters later heavily criticized Bat Ye’or’s theories without having read her book. Standard Operating Procedure. Case closed.

Many thanks to JLH for translating this article:

The Prophet in Brussels

Europe and the Coming Caliphate: Historian Bat Ye’or, living in Switzerland, fears a creeping Islamization of Europe. She considers that the concept of multiculturalism has failed.

January 10, 2014
by Michael Ley

The Cassandra calls about the demise of Europe have become unmistakable. A least since Thilo Sarrazin’s bestseller Germany Abolishes Itself, even well-meaning people have been stalked by doubts about the future of Europe and its societies. To the demographic ruination of the inhabitants of Old Europe which threatens present generations because fewer and fewer people will have to finance an increasingly superannuated society, are added the problems of impending poverty in old age and unimaginable government debt.

Added to that is a thoroughly failed integration of Muslim immigrants and a foreseeable shift in the composition of society, which can soon lead to the native majority finding itself a minority among minorities. The prestigious doyen of Islamic scholars, Bernard Lewis, paints the future in gloomy colors: “According to present trends, Europe will have Muslim majority populations at the latest by the end of the 21st century.” Since Islam is not a very peace-loving or tolerant religion, fear of Islamization stalks more and more citizens. Proselytizing the world by any means is granted especially to Muslims through divine revelation.

One of the warning voices concerning the Islamization of Europe is the Jewish historian writing under the pseudonym Bar Ye’or (daughter of the Nile), who was born in Egypt and has been living in Switzerland for many years. Her books on the history of Jews and Christians living under the domination of Islam, and about the degradation of non-Muslim communities and their members to people of lesser value are among the standard works on Islam. Her proofs that these societies have never had egalitarian coexistence naturally does not fit into the cliché of multicultural ideology.

Her most recent publication, Europe and the Coming Caliphate — now available in German — is the starting point for her argument that there can be no lasting peace between Muslims and people of other beliefs. “In the Islamic view, the whole world is an endowment, a territory that belongs to Allah. The Muslim community is pledged to bring it under the dominion of Islamic order as once revealed to the Prophet. Jihad is the battle to win back the granted land which is illegally occupied by infidels, and must be returned it to the Muslims.” With this background, she takes up European policy in regard to the Islamic countries of the Mediterranean or the Near East and Israel. An apparently insignificant mosque in Munich plays a central role in this development (see also “The Fourth Mosque: Nazis, CIA and Islamic Fundamentalism” by Ian Johnson).

Continue reading

Dog Jihad in Blackburn

We reported last month on the culturally enriched “enforcement officer” for the Tower Hamlets borough council who harassed a woman walking her dog in the park. The officer accused the woman of allowing her dog to foul the park, and she defied him, famously demanding: “Show me the poo!”

Our British correspondent JP sends a report on another recent example of “dog jihad”, this one in Blackburn.

Dog Jihad in Blackburn
by JP

Blackburn with Darwen Council has issued dog fouling posters which residents have found deeply offensive according to a report in the Lancashire Telegraph, Blackburn ‘dog poo’ poster fury. Note that the newspaper does not illustrate its article with an image of the poster, as it is probably too unpleasant for wider circulation, but an image corresponding to the one described in the report has been found at the BBC’s website in an article dated 23 June 2008.

Blackburn Council’s lead member for the environment, Councillor Shaukat Hussain, had this to say in his response on behalf of the Council:

We take dog fouling extremely seriously, and use all powers available to rid our streets of this anti-social and disgusting practice, including using these hard-hitting facts and messages in the public view to hopefully shame those people who selfishly and irresponsibly fail to keep their borough’s streets clean.

Here is the salient comment on the phenomenon known as dog jihad from the recent post at Gates of Vienna, Show Me the Poo!:

The “dog jihad”, like the parking jihad, the alcohol jihad, and all the other tactics employed by zealous Muslims in the neighborhoods where they dominate, is yet another aspect of block-busting. It serves to annoy and inconvenience the kuffar. It makes them uncomfortable and anxious in the streets and parks near their own homes. They learn to conform outwardly to sharia norms, or they move away to escape the harassment. Either outcome is satisfactory from the point of view of the sharia-compliance enforcers.

A report at the Gatestone Institute, Muslims declare jihad on dogs in Europe, suggests that Britain has “become a ground zero for European canine controversies.” The report lists numerous cases, some of the bizarre, showing how Islamic legal and religious norms encroach on freedoms such as pet ownership hitherto taken for granted by populations of the host countries, but now under constant attack through the arrival of culture-enrichers.

Finally, contrast Councillor Hussain’s statement with one made by Blackburn Council’s children’s officer, Maureen Bateson, reported in The Citizen: Blackburn, Darwen and Hyndburn:

Continue reading

Hijra to Legoland: Cancelled

As mentioned here previously, the “British” firebrand Haitham al-Haddad and the Muslim Research and Development Foundation (MRDF) had booked the Legoland theme park in Windsor for a day of culturally enriched halal family fun.

But now it looks like Mohammed will not go to Legoland after all. The Legoland corporate ownership took note of all the controversy, and decided that “community cohesion” was not worth the headache.

Below is a statement from the English Defence League. The EDL website is under attack at the moment, and unavailable, so their message is being spread by other means:

MRDF Family Fun Day – Sunday 9th March

The EDL prides itself on welcoming everyone to our wonderful country, therefore the decision by LEGOLAND Windsor Resort to arrange an exclusive event for a discriminatory group, led by a notorious hate-preacher who has made it quite clear that he is opposed to almost every standard of democracy, decency, morality and inclusiveness that we British see as the cornerstone of our culture was incredibly difficult to accept.

We are pleased to hear that LEGOLAND Windsor Resort has listened to the complaints of the EDL, its members and concerned members of the public and decided to cancel this event.

We join the staff of LEGOLAND Windsor Resort in wholeheartedly condemning any threats of violence. In a country with a long and honourable tradition of peaceful protest there is absolutely no excuse for this and the EDL affirms its commitment to non-violent action.

Sadly, we note with some regret that LEGOLAND Windsor Resort saw fit to excuse its actions by claiming that well-founded, substantiated facts are “misinformation” and referring to some un-named “vociferous group with a clear agenda”. If by this they mean to avoid giving the EDL credit where credit is due, then that is their right, but we accept the credit no matter how grudgingly given and are pleased that our position on repressive, fascist groups has struck enough of a chord to earn the title of being called a “clear agenda”.

The real losers are the followers of hate-preacher Haitham al Haddad and their many wives and children. The EDL sends them its sympathies and hopes that they will all be able to visit LEGOLAND Windsor Resort during the season and enjoy a fun day not as members of an exclusionist, supremacist cult but as free members of this great, secular democracy that we are proud to call our home — England.