The news feed is very light tonight. Perhaps our tipsters — Islamophobes that they are — have been out putting pigs’ heads on the door handles of mosques. Or setting mosques on fire. Or splattering mosques with paint and bleach.
Oh, wait — it was Muslims that did those last two… Never mind. The pig’s head on the door handle of the mosque in Austria? Too early to tell.
Meanwhile, two nautical disasters are dominating the news: an AirAsia jet that went down off Indonesia, and hundreds of passengers trapped in a burning car ferry off Corfu.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, K, Papa Whiskey, 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.
Five Killed in Blaze at Senior Apartments in San Antonio
CASTLE HILLS, Texas — Five people died Sunday after a fire broke out at a senior-living apartment building in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, reports CBS affiliate KENS in San Antonio.
Ten other residents of the Wedgwood Apartments remained hospitalized and others were unaccounted for Sunday evening, according to Bexar County Fire Marshal spokeswoman Laura Jesse.
Witnesses told KENS smoke could be seen pouring from the building.
A total of 150 firefighters from San Antonio and six other fire departments responded to the blaze, which was reported shortly after 6 a.m., San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove said…
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Popeyes in Fight Over Halal Chicken
The battle in Ontario Superior Court comes after the Atlanta-based franchise moved to replace the chicken supply with machine-killed birds in 14 Toronto restaurants.
A group of Muslim restaurant franchisees is fighting fast-food chain Popeyes Louisiana Chicken in court over the right to sell hand-slaughtered Halal meat for religious reasons.
The battle in Ontario Superior Court comes after the Atlanta-based franchise moved to replace the chicken supply with machine-killed birds in 14 Toronto restaurants. The company says it’s still Halal-certified; the franchisees claim the machine method is against the beliefs of a majority of Muslims.
“If I begin selling machine-slaughtered chicken, I will immediately lose an enormous segment of my customers,” reads the sworn affidavit from Abdul Haffejee, who owns eight Popeyes in the GTA.
Haffejee, who donates Popeyes chicken to mosques and sponsored Muslim Day at Canada’s Wonderland, said between 50 and 80 per cent of his customers are Muslim.
“All of the members of the Muslim community that I have worked so hard to attract will be gone instantly. They cannot be replaced,” he said in his affidavit, claiming tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars at stake…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Chaos in the Alps as Massive Snowfall Traps 15,000 Cars
Heavy snowfall in the French Alps has trapped 15,000 cars, left more than 2,000 people — mainly British — stranded at Chambery airport, and shut roads throughout Savoie
Skiers trying to make their way to and from French Alps resorts were plunged into chaos on Saturday night as 15,000 cars were trapped on the roads and emergency overnight centres were set up to shelter trapped tourists.
Across the Savoie region, thousands of people were trapped in their cars, snowed in their chalets or stranded at airports as long-awaited snow finally dumped on the Alps — several feet, in some places.
A 27-year-old man was killed on the road near Chambéry, as his car skidded off the road at midday en route to the small resort of Collet d’Allevard, and fell 200m. A woman in the car with him was lightly injured.
Two buses were reported to have crashed on the road to La Plagne, causing six-mile tailbacks, according to ski company Adventures in the Alps.
Police turned back drivers who were not equipped with snow tyres or snow chains…
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Greece: Rescue Underway for Hundreds Trapped on Burning Ferry
Rescue operations are underway to save the hundreds of desperate passengers from a burning car ferry off the Greek island of Corfu, as gale-force winds and high seas complicate the effort.
Greek and Italian air crews began the difficult operation of lifting passengers off the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic, as a flotilla of nearby merchant ships formed a barrier around the stricken ship.
Meanwhile, Greek and Italian firefighting vessels headed to the boat from both sides of the Adriatic Sea.
In this photo taken from a nearby boat showing a life raft from the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic ferry after it caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Dec. 28, 2014.xIn this photo taken from a nearby boat showing a life raft from the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic ferry after it caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, Dec. 28, 2014.
Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said about 150 of the nearly 500 passengers on board have made their way to safety…
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Sweden: Malmö Boy Will be Held for Bomb Plot
A court has ordered a 15-year-old boy held in jail to stop him destroying evidence of a bomb plot.
A police spokesperson says despite the suspect’s young age, the court decided there was good reason to think he would interfere with the investigation. And they do not think he acted alone.
“If you’re 15 years old then you don’t have the knowhow to make explosives. So we assume he wasn’t alone,” says police spokesperson Ewa-Gun Westford to news agency TT.
Although there have been several suspicious explosions in Malmö recently, the 15-year-old is only suspected of one.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Left Party Welcomes December Deal
The Left Party has been left outside the December cross-party deal, but it welcomes the agreement for isolating the anti-immigration Sweden Democrat Party.
“I think it’s positive that a party with on 13 percent of the vote can’t hold Sweden’s politics hostage any longer,” says Hans Linde, the leader of the Left Party group in parliament.
He is referring to the Sweden Democrats, who catalysed the current crisis by using its casting vote to scupper the government’s budget and prompting the prime minister to promise a new election.
The December deal reached on Saturday means the Sweden Democrats will no longer be the parliament’s kingmakers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Moderate Party Criticism Against Cross-Party Deal
Former Moderate Party ministers have attacked the December deal that allows the Social Democrats to remain in government.
Former party leader Ulf Adelsohn calls it an “unconditional surrender.” He writes on Facebook: “Unfortunately this is really bad. In their eagerness to keep out SD (the Sweden Democrats) you have made V (the Left Party) the kingmakers”, reports newspaper Svensa Dagbladet.
Ulf Adelsohn was Moderate Party leader in the first half of the 1980s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: What Does the December Deal Mean?
On Saturday the red-green government and the centre-right Alliance reached a deal that will allow a minority government to get its budget through.
Swedish television SVT reports the deal also lined up three specific areas that will see extra cooperation: energy, defence and pensions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Islamization of France in 2014
by Soeren Kern
According to a confidential French intelligence document leaked to Le Figaro, a form of Muslim ghettoization is gaining ground within the French school system. The report says that Muslim students are effectively establishing an Islamic parallel society completely cut off from non-Muslim students.
More than 1000 French supermarkets, including major chains such as Carrefour, have been selling Islamic books that openly call for jihad and the killing of non-Muslims.
A report estimates that 60% of the prison population in France, or 40,000 prisoners, are “culturally or originally” Muslim.
The Fresnes Penitentiary near Paris launched an experiment that involves isolating radical Muslim prisoners in a separate unit to prevent the radicalization of other prisoners. Muslim prisoners clashed with prison guards to protest the new measure.
An Ipsos survey found that 66% of French people believe there are too many foreigners in France, and 59% believe “immigrants do not try hard enough to integrate. According to the poll, 63% of French people think that Islam “is not compatible with French values.”
The Muslim population of France reached an estimated 6.5 million in 2014. Although French law prohibits the collection of official statistics about the race or religion of its citizens, this estimate is based on several recent studies that attempt to calculate the number of people in France whose origins are from Muslim majority countries.
This implies that the Muslim population of France is now roughly 10% of the country’s total population of 66 million. In real terms, France has the largest Muslim population in the European Union.
Consequently, Islam was an ever-present topic in newspaper headlines during 2014. What follows is a chronological review of some of the main stories about the rise of Islam in France during 2014:…
| — Hat tip: K | [Return to headlines] |
In Battle to Defang ISIS, U.S. Targets Its Psychology
WASHINGTON — Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, commander of American Special Operations forces in the Middle East, sought help this summer in solving an urgent problem for the American military: What makes the Islamic State so dangerous?
Trying to decipher this complex enemy — a hybrid terrorist organization and a conventional army — is such a conundrum that General Nagata assembled an unofficial brain trust outside the traditional realms of expertise within the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies, in search of fresh ideas and inspiration. Business professors, for example, are examining the Islamic State’s marketing and branding strategies.
“We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it,” he said, according to the confidential minutes of a conference call he held with the experts. “We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.”
[Mon general, you do not understand the idea because your Commander in Chief has forbidden the use of Counterjihad scholars and scholarship. Stop wringing your hands and swot up on the latter. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Missing AirAsia Flight is Third Airplane Incident With Ties to Malaysia
An AirAsia flight with 162 people aboard disappeared Saturday on the way from Indonesia to Singapore. It’s a third air incident this year involving Malaysia, where budget carrier AirAsia in based.
AirAsia, which has a presence in most of Southeast Asia and recently in India, has never lost a plane before and has a good safety track record.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Shabab Leader With $3m Price on His Head Surrenders in Somalia, Official Says
A leader with the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, who had a $3 million bounty on his head, surrendered in Somalia, a Somali intelligence official said Saturday.
Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi surrendered to Somali police in the Gedo region, said the intelligence officer, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.
Hersi may have surrendered because he fell out with those loyal to Ahmed Abdi Godane, al-Shabab’s top leader who was killed in a U.S. airstrike earlier this year, the officer said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Sweden Can’t Avoid Immigration Debate’
Sweden may have narrowly avoided snap elections that would have been dominated by a debate on immigration, but with asylum seekers arriving in record numbers the issue is unlikely to stay off the agenda for long, analysts say.
The Sweden Democrats, a far-right party holding the balance of power in parliament, had said they wanted the polls to serve as a “referendum on immigration” — and they almost succeeded.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking: Three men shot outside Bolling AFB in DC
http://wtop.com/news/2014/12/3-men-injured-shooting-southwest-d-c/
Police don’t have much information as yet, but said they’re looking for four suspects. There’s also no word yet on the condition of the victims.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Joint_Base_Anacostia-Bolling_-_Map.jpg/230px-Joint_Base_Anacostia-Bolling_-_Map.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Joint_Base_Anacostia-Bolling_-_Photo.jpg/300px-Joint_Base_Anacostia-Bolling_-_Photo.jpg
Denmark: Somali asylum seeker breaks into home and tries to kiss 14 year old sleeping girl
http://10news.dk/denmark-somali-asylum-seeker-breaks-into-home-and-tries-to-kiss-14-year-old-sleeping-girl/
This message to wish you all Christmas cheer and prosperity (not that I have contributed to the jam jar) for the coming year. Indeed,we do live in interesting times. Would that we could revolt, yet the larger that which we would revolt against, the easier it is for that to resist us. 2015, I wish for a coming together, a moment,something, any blinking thing which will bring sense to the idiotic, thought to the brainwashed, science to climate, pragma where there is dogma, and above all let there be love where hate resides.