Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/30/2014

The first case of Ebola brought to the United States by airliner was confirmed today. A man infected with the virus flew from Liberia to Texas ten days ago to visit relatives, before he had any symptoms. He sought medical attention four days ago, after the disease manifested itself.

In other news, Amnesty International says the EU must commit more naval and air resources to the rescue of illegal migrants and make sure that their passage across the Mediterranean is safe.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Diana West, ES, Fjordman, Insubria, RR, 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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A Letter to Al Jazeera’s “The Stream”

To our Gates of Vienna family, again:

My health prevents our full participation in The Qatar Awareness Campaign Coalition. Nonetheless, I am determined to share the work William Palumbo has done on the behalf of the West in shining a spotlight on the horror of Qatar.

QAC is his idea. This letter-writing campaign is his: his idea, his energy, his organizing skills, his many hours spent in herding cats in the Counterjihad and the higher-ups — getting them all to sign up for this week-long project. When I say he has phenomenal energy, I mean that what he has done takes grit; his work is profoundly encouraging and an example to us all of what one person can imagine and then bring to reality. This is no small miracle he has pulled off in creating the website, creating the publicity out of nothing, and managing even to move some of The Bigs to sign on to his initiative to show Qatar in its ugly reality.

He deserves your attention for pulling Qatar up into the light of day so we can all see what a horror it is.

America’s friend and ally, Qatar, owns Al Jazeera. Below is another epistle to two of the enablers who work there. Don’t you find it creeping strange that an organization like Al Jazeera is broadcast here almost without complaint yet news sources such as Fox are pilloried by the soi-disant intelligentsia? That’s an astounding double standard.

Ms. Malika Bilal and Ms. Femi Oke
Al Jazeera English
PO Box 23127
Doha – Qatar

Dear Ms. Bilal and Ms. Femi Oke:

This letter is being sent to you on behalf of the Qatar Awareness Campaign Coalition. The purpose is to inform you and the public of the activities of Qatar, the country which owns Al Jazeera, the network on which you are co-hosts of the program, The Stream.

We urge to you read the information below, which includes evidence that Qatar is arguably the preeminent sponsor of terror in the world today. It is a benefactor of the genocidal armies of ISIS, al Qaeda, and Boko Haram; it is involved in Taliban narcotics trafficking through a relationship with the Pakistani National Logistics Cell; and profits from operating a virtual slave state. Qatar is involved in terror operations from Nigeria to Gaza to Syria to Iraq.

So the public understands why this letter is addressed to you both, who are American (Ms. Bilal) and British (Ms. Oke) citizens and co-hosts of an Al Jazeera daily program, here is pertinent background on the Doha-based network:

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A Call to Forbid Sharia in Austria

Below is the intervention read this afternoon by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, representing Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Session 13: “Tolerance and non-discrimination II, including prevention and responses to hate crimes, aggressive nationalism and chauvinism”.

Intervention by Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa
OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting

Working Session 13: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination II

To the Austrian Delegation

Warsaw, September 30, 2014

BPE is gravely concerned about the threat emanating from the Islamic State (IS), which, according to a professor for Islamic pedagogy at the University of Vienna, “from a theological perspective, [is] 100% legitimate”. IS has led a number of Austrian men and women to travel to Syria and Iraq in order to fight alongside IS, leading the Austrian government to introduce even stricter laws with regard to freedom of speech.

There are currently efforts to relaunch the Law on Islam. This is laudable, especially since the draft includes a demand for the disclosure of Islamic teachings and beliefs in the German language (Koran and Hadith).
We support the efforts of the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who has already called for the publication of an official German translation of the Koran.

Recommendation to the Austrian Delegation

  • BPE recommends that Austria take seriously its OSCE commitments with respect to implementing the Law on Islam in Austria.
  • BPE recommends that Austria actively obtain written affirmations from Islamic organizations that they do not currently, and will not in the future, seek to introduce Sharia law in the land.

For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.

Interfaith Narratives Designed to Suppress Reason

Below is the intervention read this afternoon by Maj. Stephen Coughlin, representing Mission Europa Netzwerk Karl Martell at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Session 13: “Tolerance and non-discrimination II, including prevention and responses to hate crimes, aggressive nationalism and chauvinism”.

Statement by Mission Europa
OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting

Session 13: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination II

Warsaw, September 30, 2014

The question “What is the role of inter religious and inter-community dialogue in addressing tolerance and non-discrimination and what can governments do to encourage and facilitate it?” raises concerns.

Stated in the negative, at what point does government coercion to engage in inter-religious dialogue run counter to the religious interests of those undertaking it who in theory are speaking on behalf of their faith community? This is especially true when discussions disproportionately serve the interest of one religion to the detriment of the others.

A parallel concern is that interfaith dialogue today tends to follows relativist rules that subordinate faith interests to diversity concerns through narratives designed to suppress reason. In such an environment, interfaith “partners” all to commonly become caught up in the fraternal need to bond over the need to protect equities.

Recommendations:

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Poorly-Defined Terms Must Be Banned From Official Use

Below is the intervention read by Arthur Brooks, representing International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Session 12: “Tolerance and non-discrimination II, including prevention and responses to hate crimes, aggressive nationalism and chauvinism”.

Statement by the International Civil Liberties Alliance
OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting

Session 12: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination II

Warsaw, September 30, 2014

Mr moderator, ladies and gentlemen, thank you.

We in the International Civil Liberties Alliance agree that hatred can be dangerous and lead to serious crimes. As mentioned in the opening speech, today is the anniversary of the mass murder of many Jews at the Auschwitz death camp, undoubtedly a crime motivated by hatred propagated by Nazi Germany. However when terms such as hate crimes, and speech are poorly defined, there is a risk of malicious prosecutions and even cover-ups to shut down debate inconvenient for certain groups.

Lately, we have seen many examples of this — to cite just two, in Poland, the owner of a webpage, Damian Kowalski, was investigated by police over a supposed hate crime. His webpage, ndie.pl or “No to Islamisation of Europe” reported on cases of Islamic extremism in Western countries, often simply translating reports into Polish from mainstream Western media. The police justified their investigation, and confiscation of computer equipment, by saying the accused “incited to hatred of believers of Islam”, did not elaborate on where he had done this. Meanwhile in the UK city of Rotherham, a report found that 1400 underage girls were sexually abused and groomed for prostitution by gangs that were (more or less) unanimously acknowledged to be mainly Pakistani in origin. Such abuses were found to be covered up by police and child protect services, partly as the ethnic origin of gangs made this a sensitive issue. In other words — the need not to be even suspected of inciting hatred took precedence over physical protection of young vulnerable girls.

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Protection of Free Expression vs. “Prior Restraint”

Below is the intervention read this morning by Maj. Stephen Coughlin, representing Mission Europa Netzwerk Karl Martell at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Session 12: “Tolerance and non-discrimination II, including prevention and responses to hate crimes, aggressive nationalism and chauvinism”.

Statement by Mission Europa
OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting

Session 12: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination II

Warsaw, September 30, 2014

From the OSCE published document “Freedom of Expression and Hate Speech,” from the Mission to Skopje in December 2013, the following statement is made[1]:

“Freedom of opinion is an absolute civil right, meaning no-one can jeopardize or limit human thinking, whereas freedom of expression is treated as a political right.”

What is thought if it cannot be expressed? When the right to free expression is made conditional, a mockery is made of the “absolute civil right” of freedom of opinion. An artificial distinction designed to suppress expression is created — and through it, so is thought. We cannot allow narratives the power to reduce rights to meaninglessness.

Just outside this room, we then find OSCE publications with Orwellian titles like:

  • Handbook on Monitoring Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, OSCE, ODIHR
  • Online Media Self-Regulation Guidebook – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
  • Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, 2nd – OSCE

It is with great concern that these titles are associated with discussions on hate speech where “hate speech” lacks a coherent — reasonably concrete — definition.

When hate crimes lack definition, the state is given a powerful hand against its citizens (and dissent) to make arbitrary decisions as to what constitutes hate that will end up being what the state says it is. The powerful get to impose their will on weak.

Some of my European friends noted to me recently that Europe does not have a developed doctrine on the protection of free expression comparable to the American doctrine of “Prior Restraint” (or formal censorship before publication). From Black’s Law Dictionary:

“The legal doctrine of prior restraint (or formal censorship before publication) is probably the oldest form of press control. Certainly it is one of the most efficient, since one censor, working in the watershed, can create a drought of information and ideas long before they reach the fertile plane of people’s minds. In the United States, the doctrine of prior restraint has been firmly opposed by the First Amendment, and by the Supreme Court. But the philosophy behind that doctrine lives zestfully on, and shows no signs of infirmities of age.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 9th, Bryan A. Garner, Editor in Chief, West Publishing (Thomson Reuters), St. Paul, 1314; (citing David G. Clark & Earl R. Hutchinson, Mass Media and the Law 11, 1970)

This doctrine seems especially alive and well in this forum.

Recommendation:

MISSION EUROPA recommends that heightened awareness to legal theories like “Prior Restraint” be developed and considered when assessing concepts that concern state action — including non-state actors acting under color of authority — when considering activities involving free expression.

It also recommends that distinctions between thought and expressions be considered suspect deserving strict scrutiny.

Notes:

1.   Elena Mihajlova, Ph.D., Jasna Bacovska, Ph.D., Tome Shekerdjiev, LLM, “Freedom of Expression and Hate Speech,” OSCE, Mission to Skopje, December 2013, 7.
 

For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.

Dangerous Trends in Hate Crimes Against Jews and Christians

Below is the intervention read this morning by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, representing Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Session 12: “Tolerance and non-discrimination II, including prevention and responses to hate crimes, aggressive nationalism and chauvinism”.

Statement by Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa
OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting

Working Session 12: Tolerance and Non-Discrimination II

Warsaw, September 30, 2014

Dangerous trends in hate crimes against Jews and Christians

BPE welcomes with great pleasure the recent demonstration in Berlin against anti-Semitism, which was graced by the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This event, which also expressed support for Israel’s right to defend herself against terrorist forces, marks a new high point in awareness of this rising problem. Similar manifestations in Denmark have received significant media attention, which is good.

While not nearly as bad as in many Middle Eastern countries, intolerance and harassment against Christians is a rising problem in several OSCE pS [participating States]. The rising awareness of anti-semitism is good news, but similar awareness of ‘Christianophobia’ is needed. Intolerance of Christians on religious grounds is on the rise, and this needs countering.

Danish media are reporting that in many cases Christians of immigrant background are being persecuted and even threatened with stoning, interestingly to great extent by immigrants of Muslim background. This happens also among asylum seekers, who should be escaping persecution, not propagating it. While the situation is nothing like the catastrophic levels we are witnessing in the Middle East, it would appear that the Middle Eastern conflict patterns are being replicated in European states. This must be addressed.

It is worth noting that Islamic groups (in particular Salafist) have taken upon themselves to denigrate Jews and Christians. This inter-religious tension and conflict deserves attention and action from our secular states and institutions. Identifying not only the victims of hate crimes but also their sources should be standard operating procedure.

BPE recommends:
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Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/29/2014

Demonstrations continued today in Hong Kong, with even more participants taking to the streets in multiple locations. The use by police of tear gas, pepper spray, and batons against yesterday’s peaceful pro-democracy protesters caused widespread public outrage, prompting the new demonstrations.

In other news, the Turkish army deployed tanks and armored vehicles along the Syrian border opposite Kobani, after ISIS artillery fired rounds into Turkey.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Charlie Marteau, Insubria, RR, 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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A New Generation of Useful Idiots

Diana West was one of the featured speakers today at the National Security Action Summit II (NSASII), hosted by Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy and co-sponsored by EMPAct America and the Breitbart News Network.

In her talk, Ms. West draws parallels between the infiltration of the federal government by Communists seventy years ago, and the ongoing infiltration of our government by the Muslim Brotherhood in the 21st century. “New skin for the old ceremony,” to borrow a trope from Leonard Cohen.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Diversity is the Only Option

The following video is a segment from a talk show on Finnish television. It features a discussion between Simon Elo, a member of the Finns Party (formerly “True Finns”, Perussuomalaiset), and a Marxist feminist professor named Tiina Rosenberg. Dr. Rosenberg is a professor of Gender Studies at Lund University in Sweden, but she was born in Finland and speaks Finnish in this clip. Finnish readers may be able to tell us whether she speaks it with a Swedish accent.

The Finns are the closest that Finland comes to an anti-immigration party. They’re weak dishwater by, say, Danish standards, or in comparison with the Front National. Like the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) in Norway, they’re shackled by political correctness. The successful prosecutions of some of their members for “racist” statements have seen to that.

As for Prof. Rosenberg, according to her Wikipedia entry, she “defines herself as a Queer Feminist and was instrumental in introducing Queer theory in Sweden… She is a founding member of the feminist party Feminist Initiative and was formerly a member of the party’s executive board.”

So this is the person invited onto YLE to help the host define the word “fascist” and discuss fascism in a kind but condescending manner with a member of the Finns Party. Well… that should help make sure that YLE presents a fair and balanced picture to Finnish viewers.

I recommend letting the clip roll all the way to the end, even though most of it is about as interesting as watching paint dry. However, there are a few nuggets in there that will reward the patient viewer.

You’ll notice that Prof. Rosenberg’s smug self-certainty is supported by a set of unexamined premises concerning immigration and “diversity”. The most significant assumption is that there is no alternative to Multiculturalism — its imposition on Finnish culture is a given; it is a necessity and a certainty; there is no other way except the “fascist” one. In fact, the concept of traditional Finnish culture is described as a myth, a sort of collective delusion promoted by benighted fools such as her interlocutor from Perussuomalaiset.

The video has English captions, rather than subtitles, so make sure you turn the “annotations” setting on. The captions run by somewhat quickly at points, so there is a full transcript below the jump for anyone who misses parts of the text.

Many thanks to KGS for translating and captioning this clip:

Transcript:

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Oklahoma Is Not So OK

Vlad refers to Alton Alexander Nolen as the “Oklahoma Barber” because he did shave-and-a-haircut, sharia-style.

Now there are two Oklahoma barbers — half a barbershop quartet. The second one, however, is only a wannabe barber — he informed his intended victim of what he planned to do, and was arrested before he could act on his plan.

One barber worked in Moore; the other in Oklahoma City. The first was a homegrown American; the second a Kenyan. They only thing the two men have in common is that they’re Muslims — which means, from the point of view of the media and the FBI, they have nothing in common at all. No one knows why they did what they did. For some mysterious, unknown reason both of them decided to start beheading people. Neither incident has anything to do with Islam.

To my mind the most telling quote from this NewsOK article — aside from the would-be perp’s statement that killing Christians is “just what we do” — was this one: “The FBI said Friday about the tragedy in Moore that there is no current indication of any additional threat to residents of Oklahoma related to that incident.”

I don’t think the feebs realize that statements such as this have the opposite of their intended effect.

Think about it… Two Oklahoma beheadings, one intended and the other carried out. Neither alleged perp has any affiliation with an organized group. Neither has any connection to “terror”. If you believe our esteemed federal protectors, there is no larger conspiracy involved.

Yet, within the space of a few days, two men who beheaded or intended to behead people surfaced within the state of Oklahoma. Each of them professed to be a Muslim, and each said he acted in the name of Islam.

The net affect of all this is to make every American citizen afraid of every Muslim.

This is surely not what the FBI intended.

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

Here’s the what OKNews said about the case:

Fired Oklahoma City Nursing Home Worker Threatened Beheading, Police Say

Jacob Mugambi Muriithi, a native of Kenya, was arrested Friday in Oklahoma City on a terrorism complaint.

In a bizarre coincidence, a fired Oklahoma City nursing home employee was arrested Friday after a co-worker reported he threatened to cut her head off.

Jacob Mugambi Muriithi Jacob Mugambi Muriithi, 30, is being held in the Oklahoma County jail on a terrorism complaint. His bail is set at $1 million.

“We take these threats very seriously,” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said.

The arrest came on the same day police in Moore revealed fired Vaughan Foods worker Alton Alexander Nolen beheaded a co-worker after he was fired Thursday. Nolen is a Muslim convert.

Muriithi was identified as a native of Kenya who is living in Oklahoma City. He worked at Bellevue Nursing Home in northwest Oklahoma City, police reported.

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The Qatar Awareness Campaign

To Gates of Vienna readers:

The letter below about the Qatar Awareness Campaign is being mirrored today on websites and Facebook pages across the spectrum of Counterjihad workers in this country.

If others want to mirror it, or place the image on their sidebar, please feel free to do so. It is vital to bring to public awareness the depth of evil of this purported “friend” of America. Back in normal times, such an alliance would never have been countenanced.

Please spread the message. I’ll have further announcements through the week as my health permits.

— Dymphna

To the American Public:

In light of the wars and violent turbulence that currently engulf the Middle East and parts of Africa, a coalition of concerned citizens, journalists, and activists are launching a campaign to expose a most infamous and pernicious sponsor of Islamic terror: the Gulf state of Qatar.

Qatar, (pronounced “cutter,” or “gutter”), is, per capita, the richest country in the world ($93,352 in 2013). This is partly due to the fact that they control the third largest natural gas reserves in the world, the North Dome field in the Persian Gulf. It is also because Qatar has a mere 278,000 citizens, with a total population of 2.05 million; the remaining people in Qatar are a mix of well-paid ex-pats from countries such as the United States and Great Britain, and a substantial slave labor population.

A backer of international terror from Nigeria to Gaza to Syria and Iraq, the Qatari ruling family, the al-Thanis, exploit Islamic jihadi groups and their ties to illicit smuggling.

What is being smuggled? Mostly narcotics and people — slaves.

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Are British Sharia Courts Compatible With Human Rights?

Below is a video of the intervention read by Alain Wagner, representing the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA)
at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Session 7: “Tolerance and non-discrimination I, including equality of opportunity for women and men and the implementation of the OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality”, Warsaw, September 25, 2014.

Following Mr. Wagner’s intervention, the British government’s ambassador to the OSCE gave a brief reply:

Read the prepared text for Alain Wagner’s intervention.

For links to previous articles about the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, see the OSCE Archives.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/28/2014

A powerful explosion rocked an apartment building in Montreal today, blowing out the windows and injuring five people. Fortunately, firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the resulting blaze. Police say the blast was probably caused by a propane tank exploding in the hallway, and are conducting a criminal investigation. Coincidentally, today was the day of the Montreal Marathon, whose route passed close to the apartment building. The incident had nothing to do with Islam.

In other news, pro-democracy student protesters in Hong Kong were suppressed by police using pepper spray and tear gas. When they learned that the police were preparing to use rubber bullets as well, the demonstrators retreated from the scene voluntarily.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.

Continue reading