The German Awakening

The past two months have seen the meteoric rise of PEGIDA and related anti-Islamization groups in Germany. The largest marches have occurred in Dresden, where tens of thousands of participants take to the street every Monday night in an orderly protest against mass immigration.

Rembrandt Clancy has translated an article by Michael Stürzenberger from Politically Incorrect. He has also translated and subtitled two videos about PEGIDA, BOGIDA, DÜGIDA, and other groups marching under the same anti-Islamization umbrella. He includes an extensive introduction and other explanatory material

Die Zeit Opinion Poll: Half of Germans in Favour of PEGIDA

by Rembrandt Clancy

Introduction

Notwithstanding the focus on an opinion poll in the title, Michael Stürzenberger embeds a video which shows how Germany’s The Second public broadcaster, the ZDF, treats an interview with him at the Dresden PEGIDA [Patriotische Europäer Gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West] demonstration on15 December 2014.

In the ZDF Mediathek report at 21:45 hours on Monday 15 December (27 seconds), the editors freeze the video immediately after their interview with Michael Stürzenberger and flash a political warning on the screen which reads as follows:

Editor’s note, heute-journal:

After the broadcast, it became known that Michael Stürzenberger participated in “PEGIDA” as the representative of a right-wing populist party.

Stürzenberger is state chairman of the party “die Freiheit” in Bavaria.

This state association has been monitored by the Bavarian Intelligence Service [Verfassungschutz] since March of 2013.

The reason: Hostility to Islam

The exposé is repeated by the anchor in the news segment included with Mr. Stürzenberger essay below. The editors for Politically Incorrect, however, make the following observation about the circumstances of the interview in their report of 18 December:

“Recordings from Dresden show that Stürzenberger spoke immediately prior to the ZDF interview with another television broadcaster and indicated that he is a Journalist and Federal chairman of the FREIHEIT party, but that he came to Dresden only as a citizen of Munich, who together with thousands of others would like to set an example within the framework of the PEGIDA demonstration. The ZDF editor must have witnessed all this for he was standing directly next to them.”

We have added an additional 29 seconds to the start of the news video segment which Michael Stürzenberger includes in his presentation. It shows how the reporters frame the demonstration as a whole. Prior to the added segment, the ZDF reporter, Cornelia Schiemenz, had just concluded a long report on the first year of Angela Merkel’s new “Grand Coalition” wherein she mentions a number of deficiencies, including the ongoing child pornography scandal plaguing the socialist SPD (Sebastian Edathy). The coalition has accomplished relatively little, according to reporter Schiemenz, including the failure to integrate immigrants. And that is what has caused the PEGIDA phenomenon, to which she does not attribute the capability of generating an idea, but psychologises it as an expression of “diffuse anxieties”, and immigrants are the “scapegoats”.

Is it possible that reporter Schiemenz could have taken the term “diffuse anxiety” from the politicians who used it the day before? On 14 December 2014 at 19:10 hours, on the ZDF’s Berlin Direkt newscast, Federal Justice Minister, Heiko Maas, makes a reference to PEGIDA demonstrators having “anxiety” (1:50); and then the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jäger (SPD), uses exactly the same language in the context of his well-known comment about PEGIDA organisers being Nazis in pin-striped suits:

“In the background there are organisers at work, well-known right-wing extremists, Nazis in pin-striped suits, which must be distinguished from many participants who take part in such gatherings out of diffuse insecurity and diffuse anxiety“ [2:56 min., emphasis added].

In a similar vein, the website of the Archbishopric of Bamberg in Bavaria (18 December) quotes Archbishop Ludwig Schick’s offering the same level of psychiatric insight. In full expression of the new religion of Ecumenism (multiculturalism sanctified), and in the dialogue mode of the neo-Catholic Church founded during Vatican II in the 1960s, he says:

“Pegida activists spread racial hatred and stir up irrational anxieties amongst the people; they are a reservoir of diffuse aggression against people of other cultures and religions. … For that reason we must uphold the values of Christianity, which preaches humanism, equality in dignity and rights, justice and peace.” [emphasis added]

Enlightened “humanism” now in the Catholic Church? That happens,

“…not with demonstrations, but through engaged and credible Christians, who open themselves to dialogue, in truth and love, with those who think differently.”

Then the archbishop, addressing all Christians, and putting dialogue into practice, demonstrates his engagement with the thought content of “those who think differently”:

“Christians must not take part in PEGIDA.”

But where are the Archbishop’s divisions? It is well known that, although the tax supported, entrepreneurial neo-Catholic Church in Germany is extremely wealthy, the churches themselves are mostly empty except for a dwindling number of older people.

Zeit Opinion Poll: Half of Germans in Favour of PEGIDA

Source: Politically Incorrect
Translation: Rembrandt Clancy

16 December 2014

Yesterday die Zeit published an opinion poll, which shows that every second German is sympathetic to PEGIDA. Of the 1,107 persons questioned, only 13% answered with “no, not at all”. This is evidence of how much the people’s opinion differs from the published opinion of the system-media. The fact-free and slanderous statements of established politicians about PEGIDA prove the extent to which demonstrations of concerned citizens every Monday have stirred up the wasp’s nest. Now journalists and politicians swarm around like agitated wasps and show themselves to be completely helpless in dealing with the more than legitimate protest.

by Michael Stürzenberger

To the question of whether it is of concern to citizens that radical Islam in Germany could increase in importance, 73% answered with “yes”. Die Zeit reports:

The fear of radical Islamists is on the minds of a great number of people in Germany according to the survey. 73 percent of German citizens indicated they are worried that radical Islam is gaining in importance. This view is quite prevalent among people over 55 years of age (78 percent). But also 66 percent of the 18 to 24 year age group answered “Yes, I am worried”.

Well over half the total number of respondents polled from 12 to 15 December also believed that Germany accepts too many refugees. Here is the complete article at Zeit Online [in German].

While the majority of citizens have recognised the danger of Islamisation and the threat caused by the unrestricted influx of asylum seekers, the media continue to broadcast while ignoring reality. The ZDF, [Germany’s second public broadcaster], reported yesterday evening, negatively as usual, in “The Journal Today” [Heute Journal] on PEGIDA (to be seen at ZDF Mediathek from 17:50 [in German]). In that broadcast, they attempted to deny by all means possible an Islamisation of Germany. In today’s news broadcast [16 December 2014] Marietta Slomka, showing herself to be very much affected, announced the following at around 22 hours:

It is to be noted that on Monday, around 18 hours, the ZDF recorded interviews on location. Each person was asked for his name, but not for his profession or his political activities. Afterwards, the ZDF broadcast my statement at 19 hours and again at 21:45 hours. One day later [16 December] the editors evidently noticed that I too do political work.

Continue reading

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/21/2014

Another bomb exploded outside a housing office in the southern Swedish city of Malmö. The same location had been bombed the previous night, and a total of three bombs have exploded in the area over the space of two days.

In other news, in the French city of Dijon a man shouting “Allahu Akhbar” drove his car deliberately into crowds of pedestrians at five different locations, injuring eleven people.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, 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

“Knives Are All That You Need”

Each of the following two videos is significant enough standing alone, but taken together they are of overwhelming geopolitical importance.

The first is a new French-language propaganda video that was released day before yesterday by the Islamic State. In it a mujahid exhorts his brothers in France to murder French infidels with bombs, guns, knives, rocks — whatever comes to hand.

Many thanks to C.B. Sashenka for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling. Warning: This video contains a few brief graphic images.

Update: YouTube took down the original video, so the embed for it has been replaced by one for LiveLeak:

As a matter of coincidence — or was it more than coincidence? — less than two days later, a police station in Tours was subjected to a knife attack by a “lone wolf”.

What would the French phrase be? “Un loup solitaire”, perhaps?

The second video shows a French TV news report describing yesterday’s knife attack, which proved fatal to the attacker, but not to the police.

Many thanks to Oz-Rita for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below are excerpts from a Telegraph article about the same incident:

Continue reading

“The Revolution in the Netherlands Has Started Now”

According to the latest polls, the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV, led by Geert Wilders) remains the #1 party in the Netherlands, and has increased its lead even further.

The results of the most recent Dutch political poll were published today. The PVV gained two virtual seats and is now even bigger (30 seats, 20 percent of the vote), larger than the two governing parties, PvdA and VVD, combined.

The brief message from Geert Wilders to Prime Minister Mark Rutte: “The revolution in The Netherlands has started now, Mark.”

Below are the results of the poll:

Key to the parties:

Continue reading

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/20/2014

A Baltimore man named Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley shot and wounded his girlfriend, and then traveled to Brooklyn, where he shot and killed two police officers sitting in their parked patrol car. After the shooting he fled to a nearby subway station, where he shot and killed himself. Before executing the police, Mr. Brinsley had posted threats on social media, along with photographs of quotes from the Koran.

In other news, the Central Council of Jews in Germany is warning about the dangers of PEGIDA, the grassroots anti-Islamization movement. The chairman of the council says that German Jews should come to the defense of Muslims in Germany.

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

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

Continue reading

Making Sweden a More Dynamic and Exciting Society

Our Swedish correspondent Alfred Fredriksson sends his report with the latest on the immigration debate in Sweden. Actually, it’s hardly a debate at all, not by the standards of the rest of the world. Only in Sweden could these timid whispers about immigration be characterized as a “debate”.

Here’s Mr. Fredriksson’s report:

The debate in Sweden grows more bizarre with every passing day.

Recently the Christian Democrat leader Göran Hägglund wrote an article with some proposals to reduce costs for mass immigration. He said that we must uphold the current level of immigration, but that we should slightly reduce welfare for asylum seekers, use temporary resident permits instead of permanent ones, and send people home if the situation in their country stabilizes. He was of course accused of racism by large parts of the establishment.

Anders Borg, the finance minister in the previous government under Fredrik Reinfeldt made this comment, translated from Expressen, one of Sweden’s leading tabloids:

“Very strange debate”

Anders Borg says that he does not accept the basis for the proposals.

“All really well-functioning parts of the global economy bear the stamp of diversity and multiculturalism,” he says in Ekot’s Saturday interview, and continues:

“A multicultural society is an effective and strong society. The ongoing debate in Sweden is really strange, as if it would be a problem that people immigrate. I don’t share that view. I think it is a great advantage that tens of thousands of people have come from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Somalia. They contribute to making Sweden better and a more dynamic and exciting society. All really exciting societies we see that have a high level of innovation and transformative power are diverse.”

Borg also makes a comparison with the situation in Finland.

Continue reading

What is Al-Azhar University? And What is Takfir?

Last weekend I posted about the refusal of scholars at Al-Azhar University to pronounce takfir (the accusation aimed at a fellow Muslim or Muslim of kufr, or unbelief) against the Islamic State. In my introduction, I characterized Al-Azhar, as I often do, as “the closest equivalent to the Vatican that can be found in Islam.”

A commenter named SC took exception to that statement and other aspects of my post. His remarks are worth reproducing here in their entirety:

This article is one of the reasons I simply cringe at discussions of Islam by one-off references to Jewish or Christian institutions, terminology, and typology.

Although very powerful and influential, Al-Azhar is NOT the Sunni equivalent to the Vatican.

Takfirism is NOT Islamic anathema. The repeated use of the term anathema in the article is both disturbing and distorting.

Takfirism is NOT a recognized Sunni instrument outside of Taymiyyan Hanbalism — and within it Wahhabism. This is among the most central of friction points between Taymiyyans (100% of Wahhabis are Taymiyyan but only 85% of Taymiyyans are Wahhabi) and the broader Sunni Islam. Takfir can be traced to Ibn Taymiyyah. While Al-Azhar has been vulnerable to initiatives to mainstream takfirism from time to time, in the main, it has opposed the doctrine and been among the more pronounced centers of opposition.

Can anyone show Al-Azhar ever calling someone Takfir where it was not a Wahhabis who got on staff through Saudi (or other Persian Gulf Wahhabi state) influence?

Continue reading

What Will the Jew-Hater’s Mother Teach New Immigrant Parents?

Below is the latest newsletter from the Tennessee Council for Political Justice.

Newsletter #158 — What Will the Jew-Hater’s Mother Teach New Immigrant Parents?


Bayan Kokoye, mother of Drost Kokoye

Drost Kokoye is an Islamist agitator with groups such as the far left TIRRC (TN Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition), the TN American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC), and the American Center for Outreach (ACO). She is one of Nashville’s most vocal Jew-haters, and was central to organizing and leading pro-Hamas rallies this past summer.

Her mother Bayan Kokoye, (pictured above) is now part of Nashville Mayor Karl Dean’s new public school parent ambassador program. These parents will help indoctrinate new immigrant families into asserting their rights in the school district and the larger community.

According to Drost, her mother’s example, has taught her how to publicly protest against any perceived injustice.


Bayan under green arrow

In 2013, Bayan Kokoye took her husband and Drost to New York to say “byebye” to N.Y. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Islamists had a particular disdain for Ray Kelly because of his vigilant surveillance of Islamic radicals after 9-11.

Apple and the Tree

Drost is currently a student at UT Knoxville, working with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim Student Association (MSA). (It is rumored that she wants to go to law school and be like her CAIR idol Zahra Billoo, with whom she trades anti-Jew tweets.)

At UTK, Drost has tried to find an opportunity to use the “Muslim victimhood” narrative to build a coalition of those who see themselves oppressed by big, bad, white Americans.

Ferguson was a double whammy, tailor-made for the anti-American and Jew-hating Drost. CAIR-linked “Muslims for Ferguson” Islamists likened the shooting of Michael Brown to the 2009 fatal shooting of radical Islamist Luqman Abdullah during an FBI raid. Jew-haters also took advantage of the Ferguson protests:
Continue reading

Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/19/2014

A ship carrying two hundred undocumented migrants ran into engine trouble in the Peloponnese off the coast of Greece. The passengers on the ship refused to board any rescue ship that would take them to Greece. Instead, they eventually agreed to let the Italian Coast Guard tow them to Sicily, since their intended destination had been Italy, anyway.

In other news, a Dutch MP for the PVV has demanded that Muslims be banned from working in the security zone of Schiphol Airport.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, 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 Moderate Muslim Brotherhood in Canada

On November 27, 2014, the Canadian French-language television program Enquête interviewed Miloud Chennoufi, an Algerian-Canadian economist and writer. During the interview, Mr. Chennoufi talked about the “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in Canada and the “Islamophobia” of the investigative website Point de Bascule.

Many thanks to Point de Bascule for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

Continue reading

“Justice Has to Return to Europe”

Jiří Janeček is the leader of the Citizens’ Conservative Party in the Czech Republic. He was one of the speakers invited to the party congress of the Front National in Lyon on November 29-30, 2014, along with party members and leaders of other European anti-immigration parties.

Below is the speech given by Mr. Janeček at the event. Many thanks to Gemini for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

A full transcript of the Czech original is below the English transcript.

Transcript (English):

Continue reading

The Australian Terror and the Austrian Islam Act

Austria is currently in the throes of a major public debate about a proposed revamping of the Islam Law of 1912.

Will the new text bring any real change to the status of Islam in Austria? Will Islamic texts and teachings in mosques become transparent to the regulatory authorities? Will foreign influence among Austrian Muslims — particularly that of Turkey — be curbed?

No one knows the answers to these questions yet. It may be that the revised law will rein in the Islamization of Austria. Or it may turn out to be a mere sleight of hand, one that changes nothing.

Rembrandt Clancy has translated an op-ed on the topic by the well-known Austrian writer Andreas Unterberger, and includes an explanatory introduction.

Introduction

The background to the following essay by Andreas Unterberger is Austria’s newly proposed amendment to the Islam Act of 1912. The 1912 imperial Act confined the meaning of a religious society (Religionsgesellschaft) to the so-called “Hanafite Rite” which is one of the four Sunni schools of Islamic “jurisprudence”. The 1912 Act takes “into particular consideration the relationship between the faith organisations of the domestic adherents of Islam and their corresponding organisations in Bosnia-Herzegovina” (Article 1, Section 1). This Act granted this group the right to the collective practice of religion, otherwise restricted to existing churches and other religious societies, provided there was no contravention of Austrian law.

In 1987 the Constitutional Court declared the restriction to the Hanafite rite unconstitutional (11.574/1987). In 1988 the Islam Act was amended to recognise adherents of all Islamic denominations as a religious society (466/1988).

The IGGiÖ (Islamic Religious Community in Austria) took its current form in 1988. It claimed to represent all Muslims in Austria until this pretension was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2009. But the IGGiÖ has been acting as the de facto political representative of all Muslims, which means they negotiate with the state and other religious societies (interreligious dialogue) on matters which pertain to such issues as Islamic religious instruction in Austrian schools as well as to activities of Muslims in hospitals, the army and other institutions. However, there are critics who maintain that the IGGiÖ does not maintain faith communities (Kultusgemeindschaften), such as a mosques or prayer rooms, as required by Article 1, section 1 of the 1912 Act, and hence it is not a legal entity in Austria. Also of importance is that not all Islamic persuasions accept that the IGGiÖ represents them.

§ 23 of the draft of the proposed new Islam Act appears to solidify the situation of the highly questionable IGGiÖ outlined above by specifically naming it as a “religious society [Religionsgesellschaft] in accordance with this federal law”; that is, it would become a legal entity.

Meanwhile, many organisations representing mosques and other Islamic foundations are receiving support from foreign countries such as Pakistan and Turkey, hence representing the threat of a foreign control over Austrian institutions and ultimately the structure of the society itself.

For purposes of Andreas Unterberger’s essay, the draft of the new Islam Act addresses the following elements:

1.   Tenets of the faith are to be disclosed (§ 6 (1) 5 of the Draft).
2.   The religious society or community is to only raise funds domestically, hence limiting the influence of foreign states not subject to Western concepts of human rights (§6 (2) of the draft)
3.   The collective practice of religion is to be restricted to state-recognised religious societies (Religionsgesellschaften). This requires the dissolution of associations not subject to this legal entity, hence the expression of religious content is rendered open to scrutiny and transparency (§3 (4) of the Draft).
 

Whether the draft of the proposed new Islam Act actually accomplishes all of the above three points has been questioned by some critics.

The Australian Terror and the Austrian Islam Act

by Andreas Unterberger

Source: Andreas-Unterberger.at
Translation: Rembrandt Clancy

16 December 2014

There are three absolutely repulsive reactions to the Australian hostage-taking which ended in bloodshed, but it is precisely these which are especially frequent today; much more frequent than other possible reactions such as shock, despair and anger, or also indifference, relativisation and repression — or reflections about how one can better protect oneself (which is not very easy).

There are three reactions which are particularly bad:

Continue reading

A Grotesque Prosecution

Yesterday, December 18, 2014, the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s office (OM) announced that Geert Wilders he would be prosecuted for the questions he asked of PVV supporters about “fewer Moroccans” in The Netherlands.

In the following video, Mr. Wilders speaks to the press just after OM’s decision was announced. Many thanks to SimonXML for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

Continue reading

Not Lone Wolves After All

As far as I know, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is the first Western leader to break ranks and acknowledge that recent Islamic terror attacks were not in fact the actions of “lone wolves”. In the following news clip from French-language television, he discusses Martin Couture-Rouleau (a.k.a. Ahmad Rouleau) and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (a.k.a. Joseph Paul Michael Abdallah Bulgasem Zehaf-Bibeau), the Islamic converts who killed Canadian soldiers back in October.

Many thanks to C.B. Sashenka for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

Continue reading