Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/20/2015

In the wake of ISIS’ recent execution of 21 Egyptian Christians near the Libyan town of Derna, Egyptian citizens are fleeing Libya and returning to Cairo. Meanwhile, the religious police of the Islamic State in Libya made bonfires of cigarettes and musical instruments, which are forbidden by Islam.

In other news, between five hundred and a thousand “Danish” “youths” attended the funeral of Omar El-Hussein in Copenhagen.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, RL, 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.

USA
» A Hate Crime or Much Ado About Nothing?
» A Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Reining in Judges
» Barack Obama Lies, Says Islam is Part of America’s Founding
» DHS Intelligence Report Warns of Domestic Right-Wing Terror Threat
» DHS Tackles Endless Morale Problems With Seemingly Endless Studies
» Find the ‘Countering Violent Extremism Summit’ At the Intersection of Islamists and Leftists
» Islamic Leader Says US Officials Unfairly Target Muslims
» Jobs for Jihadists
» Marines Allow Operators to Choose Glocks Over MARSOC .45s
» Middle Class Fleecing With ObamaCare
» Obama: We’re ‘Obligated’ To Condemn Religious Insults
» Obama DHS: ‘Right-Wing Extremists’ Greater Threat Than ISIS
» Vaccine Horrors: Medical Mutilation of Innocent Children Exposed in Graphic Photos of “Safe” Vaccines Gone Horribly Wrong
» Victims of 1983 Marine Base Bombing in Beirut Lose Suit for Iranian Assets
 
Europe and the EU
» ‘Boats of Terrorists’ May Arrive in UK; Egyptian Intelligence Warns of ISIS Global Offensive in Europe and US
» Danish Free Speech Fight Continues After Attacks
» Denmark: Copenhagen Gunman’s Burial Attracts Hundreds
» Expert: Finnish-Swedish Defence Effort Plans “Major Decision”
» French Icon Brigitte Bardot on Trial Again for Blasphemy Against Muslims
» Germany: Academics to Republish Mein Kampf in 2016
» Italy: Marino Says Netherlands Won’t Pay Hooligan Damages
» Italy: Friuli School Head Revokes Islamic Veil Ban
» Netherlands: Jihadis Kept Out of Police Stations Because of Safety Fears
» Norway Prison to Send Imam to Muslim Inmates
» Puglia Forza Italia Chiefs Quit in Revolt Against Berlusconi
» Sacchi at Centre of New Italian Soccer Racism Storm
» Sweden: Police to Receive Army’s Assistance in Anti-Terrorism Operations
» Sweden: ‘The Worst Time for Jews Since the Holocaust’
» Terror Strikes Copenhagen: “It is the Danes’ Fault”
» Three Quarters of Italians ‘Fear ISIS Attacks’ — Poll
» Watch: Hundreds Attend Funeral of Copenhagen Gunman
 
North Africa
» Around 200 Egyptians Fleeing Libya Cross Into Tunisia to Take Flight Home
» Articles by ISIS Supporter: Libya is ISIS’s Strategic Gateway to Europe
» ISIS Religious Police in Libya Burns Cigarettes, Musical Instruments
» ISIS Creates Twitter Hashtag #We_Are_Coming_O_Rome
» ISIS’ Army of 7-Footers? Experts Say Video of Copt Beheadings Manipulated
» Islamic State in Libya Burns Musical Instruments as UN-Islamic
» Libya: Tobruk Government Says Turkey “Supports Terrorists”
» Libya: 47 Dead and 80 Injured in Al-Qubah Attacks
» These Maps Show How Terrorism is Spreading Through the Middle East’s Most Populous Country
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Netanyahu’s True Electoral Rival
 
Middle East
» 1,150 Policemen Guard Erdogan’s 1,150-Room Palace: Report
» Endemically Insane Religion Bent on Conquering All Humans
» How ISIS Makes (And Takes) Money
» ISIS Trafficking Human Organs?
» Jordanian King, Czech President Exchange Highest State Awards
» The Islamic State ‘Caliphate’ Is in Danger of Losing a Lifeline
» The Nationalist Solution
» Turkish Soap Operas Increase Rapes, AKP MP Argues
» Turkish Teacher Calls for ‘Harassment Teams’ Against Miniskirts
 
Russia
» First Islamic Bank in Russia Could Open in 2015
» Number of Russian Christmas Tourists to Finland Plummets
» Russian Army Chief Meets Indian Counterpart
 
Far East
» China Takes Big Advantage of Russia’s War Against Ukraine
 
Latin America
» Corruption, Falling Oil Prices and Talk of a Coup: The End of Chavez’s Socialist Dream in Venezuela
 
Immigration
» 2015 is on Pace to Break the Record for Migrant Deaths in the Mediterranean
» Calling and Raising Immigration Exploitation
» Lampedusa Air Bridge Ferries Out More Than 600 Migrants
» Migration: Med Nations Want More EU Commitment, Italian FM
» Obama Hustling ‘Full-Throttle’ To Set Up Amnesty Contracts
» Sweden: Integration Reform That Led to Criminality Scrapped
» Sweden: Immigration Behind Record Population Growth
 
Culture Wars
» Finland: President to Sign Gender-Neutral Marriage Law
» Italy: Milan Mayor Pisapia Vows to Fight Gay Registry Ruling
» Judge Ruins a Florist for Her Christian Faith
» ‘Racist’ Birdies Ruffling Feathers? Sweden Renames ‘Neger’ Species
» Sweden Appoints Special Military Gender Advisors
» Tunisia: Discrete Battle for LGBT Rights
 

A Hate Crime or Much Ado About Nothing?

An Arab-American man told police he was assaulted last week at a Kroger in Dearborn by two white men from Taylor who were angered because he was speaking in Arabic, said Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly Jr.

O’Reilly and Police Chief Ron Haddad told the Free Press Thursday that police have interviewed the two men as well as the alleged victim, who said he was attacked Feb. 12. The FBI is conducting a separate investigation “as to whether it would raise to the level of a hate crime under federal law,” O’Reilly said.

“According to the victim, he was talking to his kids in Arabic, and they took umbrage at that,” O’Reilly said. “That seemed to have been the trigger.”

Both O’Reilly and a witness, Kathy Bazzi, said the two men appeared to be more hurt in the attack than the Arab-American man. Bazzi said that one of the Taylor men was bloodied in the melee. Neither the attackers nor the victim have been identified. The victim is from Dearborn.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Reining in Judges

It is a widely agreed upon proposition that the federal judiciary in our country is out of control; literally out of control. Federal judges increasingly act as if there are no limits to their authority to not only interpret, but to make and impose law.

As a result, the situation has developed whereby there are essentially no meaningful checks on federal judges at all, and the system of checks and balances has broken down which was engineered into our Constitution specifically for the purpose of dividing and limiting the power of any one branch, and thereby safeguarding the liberties of the people. Federal judges have become as great a threat to American liberties as anything we have seen. Even foreign dictators such as Adolf Hitler and the Soviet politburo did not present as grave a threat to American freedom as do the majority of “justices” sitting on the federal bench.

This is because most of the judges in the federal judiciary have rejected the rule of law, and replaced it with the principle of legal positivism. Briefly, the principle of the rule of law states that the laws are to be generally applicable, are to apply to all equally, and are generally understood to rest upon a higher foundation (such as natural law) than the mere transient circumstances of politics or the whims of politicians, or even the people. The rule of law forbids the creation of “special law” that benefits only certain factions or groups. It forbids also the unlimited, or even the extensive, interference of the government into areas that rightly belong only to the private spheres of individual citizens, such as their private lives and their property. Essentially, the rule of law is a bulwark of liberty in that it serves to regulate government actions and to protect the people from intrusive and arbitrary actions of government.

Legal positivism, on the other hand, rejects the principle of natural law in toto, and also therefore rejects the principle of the rule of law. In its place, positivism establishes the unlimited right of the government to basically do whatever it wants.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Barack Obama Lies, Says Islam is Part of America’s Founding

Today President Barack Hussein Obama said that Islam is one of America’s founding religions, one that has been “woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.” This is an outrageous lie. Islam had no part at all in the founding of our nation. In fact, some of the founders spoke out against Islam and it was one of our country’s earliest military enemies.

Obama’s outright lie was uttered this week in a White House conference on “countering violent extremism.”

Here is what the liar in chief said on Wednesday…

[Comment: “…shores of Tripoli”…]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

DHS Intelligence Report Warns of Domestic Right-Wing Terror Threat

Washington (CNN) They’re carrying out sporadic terror attacks on police, have threatened attacks on government buildings and reject government authority.

A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists, and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism.

[Wow! What a coincidence! — PW]

Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to — and in some cases greater than — the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.

[CNN doesn’t mention specify which “law enforcement groups,” though. Instead, they turn to the MSM’s go-to source for “right-wing extremism,” to wit … wait for it …]

[…]

Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said by some estimates there are as many as 300,000 people involved in some way with sovereign citizen extremism. Perhaps 100,000 people form a core of the movement, he said.

[CNN still treats the SPLC propaganda goons as a respected source, even after their smear of the neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson as an “extremist” so discredited them that they had to issue a public apology for it. And this is CNN’s lead story this morning. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

DHS Tackles Endless Morale Problems With Seemingly Endless Studies

By Jerry Markon

Afflicted with the lowest morale of any large federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security did what comes naturally to many in government.

It decided to study the problem. And then study it some more.

The first study cost about $1 million. When it was finished, it was put in a drawer. The next one cost less but duplicated the first. It also ended up in a drawer.

So last year, still stumped about why the employees charged with safeguarding Americans are so unhappy, the department commissioned two more studies.

[Feel safer yet? More secure? — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Find the ‘Countering Violent Extremism Summit’ At the Intersection of Islamists and Leftists

By Andrew McCarthy

You may understandably think of it as an ISIS jobs fair, but the ongoing confab in Washington is officially known as President Obama’s “summit” on “Countering Violent Extremism.” That being the case, many Americans seem surprised at the appearance of Salam al-Marayati, leader of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). After all, the White House is having a public hissy fit over the upcoming speech to Congress by Obama’s bête noire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An odd time, one might think, for the POTUS to be so chummy with a Muslim activist best known for theorizing, right after the 9/11 attacks, that “we should put the State of Israel on the suspect list.” But National Review readers will not be surprised…

           — Hat tip: RL [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic Leader Says US Officials Unfairly Target Muslims

WASHINGTON — A top leader of Boston’s Muslim community on Wednesday strenuously objected to a new Justice Department strategy to prevent disaffected youth from taking up terrorism, complaining that the effort is “exclusively targeting the American Muslim community.”

In a strongly worded protest to a report that US Attorney Carmen Ortiz delivered to a White House summit on Wednesday, Yusufi Vali said he could not support the framework because the programs “are founded on the premise that your faith determines your propensity towards violence.”

The comments by Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, demonstrate the difficulty the Obama administration faces in taking preemptive action to prevent troubled youths from becoming violent extremists, while not trampling on individual rights or singling out particular communities for scrutiny.

Last fall, Boston was chosen along with Los Angeles and Minneapolis to spearhead a Justice Department effort known as “Countering Violent Extremism.”

Vali has been one of the local participants, and the Boston experience was the subject of a 28-page report released at the White House summit.

“It clearly appears that the CVE initiative is exclusively targeting the American-Muslim community, in spite of the best efforts of the local US attorney to redefine it expansively,” Vali wrote, using the acronym for the administration effort.

[Not to worry, Yusufi — DHS is on the case against those menacing “sovereign citizens.” — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Jobs for Jihadists

Marxists and radical Muslims go together like camels and deserts. They’re now the nightmarish frick and frack of the 21st century.

With the shock of YouTubes still going the rounds showing the ISIS beheading of 21 Coptic Christians on a beach in Libya, Barack Obama is taking the Muslim Brotherhood under his protective wing; these poor wretches only need to be given jobs and be shown tolerance by citizens who just don’t understand their righteous grievances.

While the Mediterranean Sea runs red with the blood of Coptic Christians, in Libya for jobs in the first place, Obama’s crying the terrorists a proverbial river.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Marines Allow Operators to Choose Glocks Over MARSOC .45s

The Marine Corps has authorized MARSOC operators to carry Glock pistols, since most of the elite outfit’s members prefer the popular 9mm over the custom .45 pistols the service bought them in 2012.

The Corps issued a Feb. 2 Marine Administrative Message, or MARADMIN, that green-lighted Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, or MARSOC, units to use the Glock 19, a proven design used by many units in U.S. Special Operations Command.

[…]

The Marine Corps just completed an exhaustive search for a new MARSOC pistol in 2012. The service awarded a $22.5 million contract to Colt Defense LLC., for up to 10,000 Close Quarter Battle Pistols.

The custom, 1911 design replaced the fleet of worn-out MARSOC M45 pistols. It features a rail for mounting lights, a custom trigger, a manual safety, improved ergonomics and glowing Tritium sights for low-light conditions.

As nice as the new .45s are, MARSOC troops prefer to carry Glock 19s instead, sources said.

[RSI (Rationalization, Standardization, and Interoperability) is less important in a handgun. Let ‘em carry what they want. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Middle Class Fleecing With ObamaCare

It is becoming increasingly difficult for Virginians to find doctors and secure appointments in a timely manner thanks to Obamacare. After a fierce battle, the bills meant to create state exchanges and to expand Medicaid have died in the House and in the Senate.

However, Democrat Governor McAuliffe added Medicaid expansion to his budget amendment. The House removed that language from the budget.

As millions of Americans, who previously had insurance and doctors they were satisfied with and wanted to keep, are suddenly left without insurance, millions others keep losing their new coverage under the much touted Affordable Care Act.

Many Americans became part-time employees without insurance, forcing them to choose plans under the state exchanges. Employers, who could not afford the mandated procedures of the Affordable Care Act, dropped the insurance coverage plans they had previously offered their employees at affordable rates, and reduced employment hours…

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Alabama) said, “We took away the health care system that worked for 80 percent of the people of this country to fix a problem that we today know we fixed for only one percent of the American people. Only 3 million new Americans have gotten on this new health care plan that did not have insurance before, that’s one percent of the American people. So we threw out the health care plan that worked for 80 percent of Americans, to fix a problem for one percent of Americans. And look what it’s done! It’s wrecked lives!” He continued, “This law is fundamentally flawed! This law has victimized the people of America!”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama: We’re ‘Obligated’ To Condemn Religious Insults

By Ethan Epstein

There was a nugget in President Obama’s widely criticized speech at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month that hasn’t received the notice — and, frankly, the opprobrium — that it deserved. (In fact, only Salon.com of all places, seems to have glommed onto it.) Towards the end of his remarks, the president sermonized thus:

But part of humility is also recognizing in modern, complicated, diverse societies, the functioning of these rights, the concern for the protection of these rights calls for each of us to exercise civility and restraint and judgment. And if, in fact, we defend the legal right of a person to insult another’s religion, we’re equally obligated to use our free speech to condemn such insults — (applause) — and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with religious communities, particularly religious minorities who are the targets of such attacks. Just because you have the right to say something doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t question those who would insult others in the name of free speech. Because we know that our nations are stronger when people of all faiths feel that they are welcome, that they, too, are full and equal members of our countries.

President Obama’s command that we are “obligated” — not entitled, but “obligated” — to condemn those who “insult another’s religion” came a mere month after twelve innocent people were murdered at Charlie Hebdo for just that “crime.”

[And both he and Mrs.Clinton will work with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to make that obligation a statutory one. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Obama DHS: ‘Right-Wing Extremists’ Greater Threat Than ISIS

Report predicts where 2015 violence will occur most frequently

The Obama administration has named a national security threat it believes is more dangerous than even the Islamic State terrorists beheading, crucifying and burning innocent human beings: Right-wing extremists.

According to CNN, “A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Vaccine Horrors: Medical Mutilation of Innocent Children Exposed in Graphic Photos of “Safe” Vaccines Gone Horribly Wrong

[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content. **]

(NaturalNews) Much like Brian Williams, vaccine promoters are serial liars. They know vaccines harm many children (and even kill some), yet they knowingly lie to the public by falsely claiming vaccines cause no harm whatsoever. (They do this willfully, in total violation of all medical ethics and fundamental honesty with the public.)

The “Big Lie” about vaccine safety is crumbling by the day, of course, causing the vaccine industry to resort to desperate tactics such as attempting to declare absolute government control over your body via a medical police state that forces you to submit to medical interventions. This will, of course, begin with forced vaccinations of unwilling people and then quickly escalate to other things that serve the interests of the medical police state such as forced organ harvesting from the bodies of all Americans. (To accomplish this, they will roll out emotionally charged campaigns of sobbing children who need kidneys, and then demonize people who don’t agree to be organ donors as being “selfish” and horrible people.)

Despite the pathetic propaganda attempts, the reality of vaccine damage tells a very different story from the one being falsely portrayed by the sellout media. As the photos below clearly show, vaccines cause horrifying medical mutilations of children again and again.

Keep this in mind the next time you see pathetic liars like Sen. Elizabeth Warren or CDC officials spouting total propaganda nonsense about vaccines being completely “safe and effective” (usually while smirking with evil grins). Watch this shocking video by Rob Dew which reveals the deeply-ingrained evil of vaccine fanatics in Washington who brazenly lie about vaccine “safety.”

WARNING: These photos are quite graphic. These children are VICTIMS of vaccine damage, and they have suffered tremendously. This is the true human cost of the vaccine lies and denials being staged by the mainstream media and CDC officials.

Many of these images are provided by the CDC itself! Although they will retract this page as soon as they can, this CDC web page depicts vaccine-damaged children.

Thus, when the CDC says vaccines are “safe and effective,” they’re knowingly lying! Proof of their big lie is published right on their own website.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Victims of 1983 Marine Base Bombing in Beirut Lose Suit for Iranian Assets

Relatives of US soldiers killed and wounded in a 1983 Beirut bombing have been barred by a US judge from seeking $1.6 billion in assets belonging to Iran’s central bank and held by a unit of German exchange operator Deutsche Boerse.

US District Judge Katherine Forrest in New York said in a decision released on Friday that they could not pursue assets owned by Iran’s Bank Markazi and held in Luxembourg because she does not have jurisdiction over the funds.

Clearstream Banking SA, the clearing unit for Deutsche Boerse AG, had argued for the case to be thrown out because US courts have no jurisdiction over funds held in Luxembourg with no direct link to the United States.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs countered that Clearstream operates an office in New York and that the Iranian funds are denominated in dollars, with proceeds from the assets previously arriving in a Clearstream account at JPMorgan Chase & Co in New York.

Victims of the bombing won a $2.65 billion default judgment against Iran in 2007 and have since pursued Iranian assets held in various accounts to collect on the judgment.

[ … the law’s delay, the insolence of office … — Hamlet, Act III, Scene i — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

‘Boats of Terrorists’ May Arrive in UK; Egyptian Intelligence Warns of ISIS Global Offensive in Europe and US

The Egyptian ambassador to the UK has warned of a new terrorist threat from North Africa. The British government has been urged to prepare for “boats full of terrorists” if ISIS militants are allowed to gain control of Libya.

According to Nasser Kamel, the migrants coming from North Africa will pose a new threat as ISIS seizes Sirte, a coastal town in Libya. The ambassador’s statement came after about 2,164 migrants were rescued at sea last weekend. The incident has been described as an “exodus without precedent,” the Daily Mail reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Danish Free Speech Fight Continues After Attacks

Prominent Danish free speech advocates like Flemming Rose remain defiant in the aftermath of the Copenhagen attacks, but an opinion poll reveals that Danes’ support for publishing potentially offensive material has decreased.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark: Copenhagen Gunman’s Burial Attracts Hundreds

At least 500 people turned out Friday as the gunman who killed two people in twin attacks in Copenhagen nearly a week ago was laid to rest.

22-year-old Omar El-Hussein — identified by police as the shooter behind two fatal shootings last weekend — was buried at a Muslim cemetery in the Copenhagen suburb of Brøndby despite objections from the Islamic group that owns it.

Friday’s funeral was open to the public but according to a report from wire service Ritzau was mostly attended by young men, who were described as “wearing large black coats with many of them having covered their faces”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Expert: Finnish-Swedish Defence Effort Plans “Major Decision”

Researcher for the Finnish Institute of International Affairs Charly Salonius-Pasternak says Finland’s and Sweden’s armed forces are preparing a collaboration that envisions joint wartime scenarios in an historic partnership scheme to amp up the countries’ defence co-operation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Icon Brigitte Bardot on Trial Again for Blasphemy Against Muslims

by Phyllis Chesler

Former film star Brigitte Bardot, France’s iconic blonde bombshell and “sex kitten” who reigned supreme from 1952 — 1973, is currently on trial for the fifth time for insulting Muslims and “inciting racial hatred.” Bardot has been fined four times and has also received suspended jail sentences.

Now, the prosecutor, Anne de Fontette, wants a heftier fine and a tougher sentence: the equivalent of $24,000 and a two month (hopefully) suspended jail term.

What crimes has Bardot committed in the land without a First Amendment, in the land of Hate Speech laws that are being slickly exploited by non-persecuted Muslims?

Bardot has written: “I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country.”

Bardot, seventy nine, is an avid animal rights activist and abhors the slaughter of animals for any purpose, including religious ones. But mainly, she laments “the Islamization of France.”

           — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Academics to Republish Mein Kampf in 2016

Researchers at the Munich Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) plan to publish an annotated edition of Adolf Hitler’s infamous book “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) after its copyright runs out this year.

It’s a moment the academics have spent years preparing for, knowing that the deadline for the copyright to expire — 70 years following the author’s death — was soon to arrive.

IfZ deputy director Magnus Brechtken said that the two-volume new edition will contain 2,000 pages.

Just 780 of those will contain Hitler’s original 27 chapters, while the rest will be made up of around 5,000 comments from researchers, an introduction and the index.

IfZ director Andreas Wirsching said last year that “what we are publishing here is an anti-Hitler text”.

The State of Bavaria, which inherited the rights to the 1925 book from the Nazis’ Franz-Eher Publishing House, has had a complex relationship with the project.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Marino Says Netherlands Won’t Pay Hooligan Damages

Rome mayor says firms ready to finance Barcaccia restoration

(ANSA) — Rome, February 20 — Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said Friday that the Netherlands has refused to pay for devastation caused by fans of Dutch club Feyenoord in which one of the city’s most famous fountains, Bernini’s Barcaccia, was damaged. “I have spoken to the Dutch ambassador and I asked him — do you intend to pay for the damages?” Marino said. “He said that he did not think that the Dutch government could pay for the new restoration of the Barcaccia.

“Faced with this clear, legitimate refusal by the Dutch government, many Italian companies, institutions and banks called me yesterday evening saying they were ready to pay for the costs of the restoration”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Friuli School Head Revokes Islamic Veil Ban

Regional rights watchdog rules in controversial case

(ANSA) — Udine, February 20 — The headmaster of a high school in the north-eastern Italian town of Cervignano del Friuli has revoked a ban on the Islamic veil for students on the advice of the Friuli region’s personal-rights watchdog.

Aldo Duri’, principal of the Malignani school near Udine, on February 11 issued a document forbidding female Muslim students from wearing the veil in school in order to “avoid racism and provocation”.

Duri’ wrote that “since jihadists from ISIS have unleashed, with the brutality of their attacks, a ‘total war’ against the West, Shiites, all kinds of ‘infidels’, including moderate Sunnis, pursuing the crazy idea to restore an Islamic caliphate, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiments have spread among our students”.

The principal noted that the school includes a numerous Arab community.

Recalling a recent attack by an Italian student against an Egyptian classmate, Duri’ stressed that “religious wars don’t exist and must not exist in schools”.

Duri’ noted that Italian schools are secular and “indifferent to the religion of students and their families” and that the “ostentation and exhibition, especially if imposed, of exterior signs of a religious confession can be taken as provocation and spark reactions of ostracism, disparagement or rejection”.

Duri’ also told ANSA that schools should not be a place to demonstrate ideologies, as well as political and religious ideas.

“The Islamic veil is only an example”, he said.

While stressing that he wants to persuade students to stop wearing the veil in class through dialogue “without dramatization”, the principal also called for legislation “banning all religious symbols from schools”, including those of Italy’s Catholic majority, as most classrooms in public schools have a crucifix on the wall.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Jihadis Kept Out of Police Stations Because of Safety Fears

Terrorism suspects who are required to report daily to their local police station are not being allowed inside the building in some areas, the AD says on Thursday. In The Hague, for example, returning jihadis are told to identify themselves via the intercom. Police personnel are worried about letting them into the buildings because they fear an attack, the AD says. The paper estimates that several dozen would-be jihadis or people who have come back from Syria are required to report to the police every day, so their movements can be monitored.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway Prison to Send Imam to Muslim Inmates

A Norwegian prison is to bring in a local imam to prevent Muslim inmates becoming radicalised in the same way as the young Dane who carried out brutal twin attacks in Copenhagen over the weekend.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Puglia Forza Italia Chiefs Quit in Revolt Against Berlusconi

Resignations after Berlusconi appoints commissar

(ANSA) Bari, February 19 — The Forza Italia provincial coordinators and regional deputy coordinators in Puglia resigned Thursday in an apparent ‘revolt’ against former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s party leadership.

The resignations followed the decision by Berlusconi to appoint Luigi Vitali as a special commissar to run the regional branch of the conservative party that has been in disarray since his conviction for tax fraud.

“In this way we spare the commissar the job of evaluating our level of fitness, freeing the field by the side of Raffaele Fitto for a real reconstruction of the party and the country,” the senior party officials who quit said in a joint statement.

The officials who resigned included Antonio Distaso, Roberto Marti, Riccardo Memeo, Luigi D’Ambrosio Lettieri and Luigi Perrone.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sacchi at Centre of New Italian Soccer Racism Storm

Former Italy boss says too many black foreigners in youth sides

(ANSA) — Rome, February 17 — Former Azzurri and AC Milan coach Arrigo Sacchi is at the centre of a new racism storm for Italian soccer after suggesting there were too many foreign black players in professional clubs’ youth teams here. “I’m certainly not racist, as my past as a coach shows, starting with (ex-Milan and Netherlands midfielder Frank) Rijkaard, but after seeing the Viareggio Cup (for youth teams), I say that there are too many players of colour, too many foreigners, even in the academy sides,” Sacchi said.

“Italy has no dignity, it has no pride. It’s not possible to see squads with 15 foreign players”. Italian soccer has been dogged by repeated episodes of racism on the terraces in recent years and Carlo Tavecchio was controversially elected as president of the Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) last year despite making comments about there being too many “banana-eating” non-EU players in Italy.

Sacchi’s comments were widely reported outside Italy, triggering alarm and condemnation. “There are too many racists in Italian football,” posted former England forward Gary Lineker, now a BBC presenter, on his Twitter account, @GaryLineker.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Police to Receive Army’s Assistance in Anti-Terrorism Operations

After a legal amendment, the Swedish military now has the right to assist police in case of a terrorist attack, which means the army could be called in to protect religious buildings, help with intelligence operations or street battles.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: ‘The Worst Time for Jews Since the Holocaust’

Police officers armed with machine guns have been stationed outside Jewish buildings in Sweden this week in the wake of the attack on a Copenhagen synagogue. The Local speaks to the President of the Jewish Council, Lena Posner-Körösi about rising anti-semitism in Scandinavia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Terror Strikes Copenhagen: “It is the Danes’ Fault”

by Lars Hedegaard

The first question the Danish Prime Minister got from one of the journalists, was, “How do you think this is going to affect the Muslims in Denmark? None of the journalists asked, “What are you going to do to protect us from this Islamist savagery?”

Imam Hajj Saeed of the Al-Faruq Mosque in Copenhagen, the day before the terror attack, rejected any thought of interfaith dialogue, and noted that the Prophet Muhammad waged war against his Jewish neighbors rather than engage in dialogue.

The day after the shootings, the political spokesperson of the main liberal opposition party went on television and said, “We are dealing with a small group that is abusing the Koran.” In other words, once again we are faced with one or more Muslims who have completely misunderstood their own religion. The implication, of course is that Danes have nothing to fear from the fast growing number of Muslims or the spread of Islam.

It would appear, however, that the killer, Omar el-Hussein, had not “abused” anything but simply followed Allah and his prophet.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Three Quarters of Italians ‘Fear ISIS Attacks’ — Poll

63% against Libya military intervention

(ANSA) — Rome, February 20 — Almost three quarters of Italians, 72%, fear attacks by Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Italy, according to an Ixè poll for Raitre TV Friday. Some 63% of those polled said they were against military intervention to stem ISIS advances in Libya.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Hundreds Attend Funeral of Copenhagen Gunman

A funeral was held on Friday for the man who killed two and injured five in twin Copenhagen attacks over the weekend.

The ceremony for 22-year-old Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein took place at the premises of the Islamic Society of Denmark following Friday prayers.

According to Danish media, some 500 people had gathered for the ceremony.

[Voting with their feet. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Around 200 Egyptians Fleeing Libya Cross Into Tunisia to Take Flight Home

A group of almost 200 Egyptians have crossed into Tunisia from Libya, the first of thousands expected to flee the turmoil in the country.

The execution of 21 Egyptian Christians by extremists and retaliatory Egyptian airstrikes has prompted many Egyptians to want to leave Libya.

Authorities said 192 Egyptians went through the Ras Jdir border crossing Friday and headed to the Djerba airport where they will fly back to Cairo.

Egypt has said it will send planes to transport home its citizens.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Articles by ISIS Supporter: Libya is ISIS’s Strategic Gateway to Europe

In January 2015, two articles by ISIS supporter Abu Irhim Al-Libi, who appears to write from Libya, were published online. In the first, “Libya: The Strategic Gateway For The Islamic State,” he expressed gratitude for ISIS’s spread to Libya, while noting that Libya’s massive potential for use by mujahideen had been previously overlooked by some jihad supporters. Al-Libi goes on to enumerate some of the advantages to mujahideen of operating in Libya, including the country’s Sunni majority whose support ISIS can rally), the abundance of weapons depots, and, probably most important, Libya’s strategic location as a gateway to neighboring African countries as well as to Europe. In that regard, Al-Libi notes how easily illegal immigrants reach the “southern (European) Crusader countries” and that with careful planning, ISIS can turn those countries to “hell.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Religious Police in Libya Burns Cigarettes, Musical Instruments

On February 18, 2015, the media wing of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Barqa Province (eastern Libya) published a series of photos documenting the activities of its hesba, i.e., its religious police.

One set of photos shows a group of masked ISIS members torching a pile of drums that were confiscated by the religious police (Salafi Islam bans instrumental music).

Another set of photos shows the religious police confiscating and destroying a load of cigarettes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Creates Twitter Hashtag #We_Are_Coming_O_Rome

Jihadists gaining ground, says Tobruk PM

(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK — The Islamic State has created the new Twitter hashtag #We_Are_Coming_To_Rome, terrorism analyst and director of the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group Rita Katz said Thursday.

“ISIS to Rome, God willing,” the Islamists added, alongside photos of armed convoys carrying militants in ski-masks bearing ISIS banners.

Libyan groups affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) “continue to spread and take more terrain” and “their flags can be seen in Tripoli, Sabratha, Sirte and Ben Jawad”, said Abdullah Al-Thinni the prime minister of the Tobruk-based government recognized by the international community, on Thursday. In an interview with the Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Thinni accused MPs of the General National Congress (the Tripoli-based rival parliament led by Islamists) of not wanting to engage in UN-mediated dialogue for peace.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS’ Army of 7-Footers? Experts Say Video of Copt Beheadings Manipulated

Video of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians being marched along a Libyan beach before being beheaded by black-clad members of ISIS is hard for any civilized person to watch, but experts who made it through the sickening, five-minute clip told FoxNews.com Friday they came to the same conclusion: The footage was faked.

No one holds out hope the victims, mostly poor fishermen who had gone to Libya to scratch out a living, are still alive. But several anomalies in the video, which was posted online Feb. 15, indicated to trained eyes that at least some of the production was done on “green screen” with background added later, perhaps to disguise the real location of the atrocity. A day after the clip went viral, Egyptian warplanes struck hard at an eastern port city near Tripoli, where the video appeared to have been shot.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State in Libya Burns Musical Instruments as UN-Islamic

By Robert Spencer

When I have pointed out that Sharia forbids music, I’ve been excoriated as a greasy Islamophobe. Unfortunately, the Islamic State appears to have been reading Islamophobic literature.

Hadith Qudsi 19:5: “The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance.” (The Hadith Qudsi, or holy Hadith, are those in which Muhammad transmits the words of Allah, although those words are not in the Qur’an.)

[…]

“Libya: Isis wages war on music by burning drums, saxophones and other instruments,” by Umberto Bacchi, International Business Times, February 19, 2015:

The Islamic State (Isis) propaganda machine has published photos of its militants in Libya burning musical instruments they said were confiscated in line with the radical group’s interpretation of Sharia law.

Black-clad gunmen are seen setting fire to a pile of drums, brass and woodwind instruments at a countryside location and then watching the fire burning in images posted online by an Isis media branch.

[They did this in Iraq in 2008, staging a pogrom against players and builders of the oud, an Arabian lute, and in Mali, going after griots who play the kora, an African gourd-harp. It should also be noted that Stalin declared the saxophone to be illegal in the Soviet Union under his benighted rule. Music is so integral to what it is to be human that its suppression must be regarded, quite literally, as subhuman. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Libya: Tobruk Government Says Turkey “Supports Terrorists”

Ankara tied to pro-Muslim Brotherhood authorities in Tripoli

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 20 — Tensions are mounting between the ‘official’ Libyan government recognised by the international community and exiled in Tobruk and Turkey, accused by Libyan premier Abdullah al-Thani of supporting terrorism while the possibility of economic sanctions is being floated. The spokesman of the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs Tanju Bilgic reacted with a note accusing the “interim government” of making “irresponsable statements” and “hostile and unfounded comments against our country”. Turkey threatened it may have to take “appropriate measures”, without however specifying their nature. Hurriyet recalled that a few days ago al-Thani said “what comes from Turkey has a negative impact on the security and stability of Libya” and accused Ankara of supporting Islamist militias . The Turkish government of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan established ties with the rival government formed after Tripoli was conquered by Islamist militias under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood, present in Egypt and Syria aswell, is close to Erdogan’s Islamist AKP party.

According to the Turkish press, the al Thani government could react by applying punitive economic measures to Turkish companies in Libya.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Libya: 47 Dead and 80 Injured in Al-Qubah Attacks

Death toll may increase; ISIS claims responsibility

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 20 — The death toll of three car bombs Friday in the eastern Libyan city of Al-Qubah has risen to 47 dead and 80 injured, say sources at the city’s Al-Bayda hospital. The death toll may rise, as 26 of those injured are in critical condition. The Islamic State (ISIS) have claimed responsibility for the attacks, say Libyan sources that quoted a statement released by the jihadist group. The new was also given by Al-Jazeera on television.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

These Maps Show How Terrorism is Spreading Through the Middle East’s Most Populous Country

February 11th marked the 4th anniversary of the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown in a wave of massive popular protests after over 30 years in power. Just a few short years later, Egypt is back under autocratic rule.

The following map, from British risk analytics firm Verisk Maplecroft, helps explain this turnabout. Egypt has a highly respected military (at least within Egypt) and very little history of civil violence.

But the chaos of the post-Mubarak period — and, some would argue, Sisi’s heavy-handedness in disposing of his rivals in the Muslim Brotherhood — led to a gradual deterioration in internal security. Today, jihadist groups like Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has sworn allegiance to ISIS, prowl the Sinai, and bombings occur in Cairo with a frequency that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: Netanyahu’s True Electoral Rival

Officially, the election on March 17 is among Israelis. Depending on how we vote, either Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will remain in office and form the next government led by his Likud party, or Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni will form a government.

But unofficially, a far greater electoral drama is unfolding. The choice is not between Netanyahu and Herzog/Livni. It is between Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.

As the White House sees it, if Herzog/Livni form the next government, then Jerusalem will dance to Obama’s tune. If Netanyahu is reelected, then the entire edifice of Obama’s Middle East policy may topple and fall.

Secretary of State John Kerry made clear the administration’s desire to topple Netanyahu last spring during his remarks before the Trilateral Commission. It was during that memorable speech that Kerry libeled Israel, claiming that we would automatically and naturally become an apartheid state if we don’t give Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the PLO, Jew free, as quickly as possible.

Despite Israel’s venality, Kerry held out hope. In his words, “if there is a change of government [in Israel], or a change of heart, something will happen.”…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

1,150 Policemen Guard Erdogan’s 1,150-Room Palace: Report

Turkey’s new presidential palace in Ankara — which boasts “at least” 1,150 rooms, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — is guarded by 1,150 policemen, the Istanbul-based Hurriyet Daily News reported on Friday.

In contrast, 450 guards stand at Cankaya, the former presidential palace. With a $20 million security system in place, and 3,000 surveillance cameras around a five-kilometer fence, the new palace is guarded against any possibility of wiretapping — a priority for Erdogan, whose office was wiretapped in 2013 when he was prime minister.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Endemically Insane Religion Bent on Conquering All Humans

In my research for this series, a reader pointed me to a former Iraqi living in Europe who exposes the complete insanity of Islam. He uses an alias I.Q. al Rassooli because his bold indictment of Islam places him at considerable risk. He receives death threats from Muslims—and because he resides in Europe where free speech no longer exists in public. (Example: Paris, France 12 killings in January, 2015)

Website: The Koran Blogspot/Idiot’s Guide to Islam

Rassooli laments, “The greatest tragedy in the West for the last 65 years has been self-destructive “Political Correctness” regarding any and all facts about Islam. We are witnessing the conquest of the civilized world by Islam through “Stealth Jihad” aided and abetted by our treasonous leaders. Humanity is seemingly heading to a nuclear World War III because of the inability or unwillingness of our leaders to understand the fundamentals of Islam — though they be crystal clear!”

As I sit in my office researching the entrails of Islam, my heart sickens that the “leaders” of Canada, Europe, America and Australia continue making excuses for Muslims, their terrorists and the violence so clearly accelerating wherever Muslims land. “Cognitive dissonance” which means an “intellectual denial of reality” cannot begin to explain Western leaders’ outright stupidity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How ISIS Makes (And Takes) Money

By Ashley Fantz, CNN

(CNN) The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has crude, stomach-turning tactics when it comes to dealing with its enemy, but experts say that its moneymaking methods are highly sophisticated, especially for such a new terror group.

Here’s a look at how ISIS has made (and taken) millions:

Oil production and smuggling

ISIS makes between $1 million and $2 million each day from oil sales, numerous sources tell CNN. The oil comes mostly from refineries and wells that ISIS controls in northern Iraq and northern Syria.

Ransoms from kidnappings

In 2012, the U.S. Treasury Department estimated that al Qaeda and its affiliates had accumulated $120 million from ransoms over the previous eight years.

ISIS was once aligned with al Qaeda. The two groups are thought to operate separately but share similarities.

A 2014 New York Times investigation found that since 2008, al Qaeda and its affiliates had received $125 million from ransoms, including $66 million in 2013.

Looting and selling stolen artifacts and antiquities

ISIS allows locals to dig at ancient sites as long as those people give ISIS a percentage of the monetary value of anything found, according to a September 2014 New York Times opinion piece written by three people who had recently returned from southern Turkey and interviewed people who live and work in ISIS-controlled territory.

ISIS’ system of profiteering from antiquities thieving is very complicated, the three said, adding that for some areas along the Euphrates River, ISIS leaders encourage semiprofessional field crews to dig.

‘Taxes,’ aka extortion

In 2014, ISIS gained control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria and set out to create civil and administrative entities as if it were a legitimate state. That is, after all, what the militants have claimed to be after — a caliphate, or an Islamic state led by one person, a successor to the Prophet Mohammed.

States demand taxes. In ISIS-controlled areas, to get anything done — or to survive — the people pay a fee to the terror group.

Stealing

Sometimes there’s no pretense such as “taxing.” ISIS has stolen money, too. In June 2014, the group raided several banks in Mosul and stole an estimated $500 million, though the full amount is unconfirmed, according to global intelligence firm Stratfor. In Syria, ISIS has seized control of oil facilities, taking over from rebel group al-Nusra, which didn’t fight back.

Organs harvesting and sale?

The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations caused a sensation this week when he said that bodies have been found mutilated, and openings have been carved out of the backs of the corpses. To Mohamed Alhakim, that indicated “some parts are missing.”

He said it’s possible that ISIS is harvesting and trafficking the organs of dead civilians.

A separate economy?

Last year, ISIS announced that its “Treasury Department” would start minting its own gold, silver and copper coins for its “Official Islamic State Financial System.” It’s not clear if this has any value. The move is “purely dedicated to God,” ISIS declared, and will remove Muslims from the “global economic system that is based on satanic usury.”

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Trafficking Human Organs?

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

If reports coming out of Iraq are accurate, the depraved savagery of ISIS has reached yet another new low. According to Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations Mohamed Alhakim, ISIS is harvesting human organs to finance its war operations—and has executed a dozen doctors for failing to go along with the program.

Alhakim bases his claim on the discovery of dozens of bodies left in shallow mass graves near the city of Mosul, currently an ISIS stronghold. Surgical incisions, along with missing kidneys and other body parts lead to an inescapable conclusion. “We have bodies. Come and examine them. It is clear they are missing certain parts,” Alhakim revealed. He further described the carnage:

“When we discover mass graves, we look at the bodies. Some of those bodies are killed by bullets, some of them by knives. But when you find pieces of the back is [sic] missing and the kidneys is [sic] missing, you will wonder what it is.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Jordanian King, Czech President Exchange Highest State Awards

Amman, Jordan, Feb 11 (CTK special correspondent) — Czech President Milos Zeman bestowed the top Czech award, the Order of the White Lion, on Jordanian King Abdullah II in support of his fight against terrorism Wednesday, and Abdullah II decorated Zeman with the Order of Hussein bin Ali, Jiri Ovcacek told CTK.

Ovcacek, Zeman’s spokesman, said the two heads of states exchanged their countries’ highest decorations at their meeting in Amman at the close of Zeman’s visit to Jordan.

At a meeting of the Czech and Jordanian delegations, Zeman praised the courage Abdullah II has shown in fighting the Islamic State group.

Zeman said the killing of the Jordanian pilot by IS was a “symbol of its cruelty.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Islamic State ‘Caliphate’ Is in Danger of Losing a Lifeline

Iraqi Kurdish forces have severed a strategic corridor between Mosul and Raqqa, the Islamic State’s main cities in Iraq and Syria. If the Kurds can expand their control of the road, Islamic State fighters will need to rely on lengthier and potentially riskier routes to transport their troops, cash and weapons.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Nationalist Solution

By David Brooks

The struggle against Islamic extremism has been crippled by a failure of historical awareness and cultural understanding. From the very beginning, we have treated the problem of terrorism through the prism of our own assumptions and our own values. We have solipsistically assumed that people turn to extremism because they can’t get what we want, and fail to realize that they don’t want what we want, but want something they think is higher.

The latest example of this is the speech President Obama gave at this week’s Summit on Countering Violent Extremism. It was a bad speech, but its badness is no reflection on President Obama, for it was the same sort of bad speech that all American presidents have been giving for the past generation.

[…]

At the summit meeting, President Obama gave the conventional materialistic explanation for what turns people into terrorists. Terrorism spreads, he argued, where people lack economic opportunity and good schools. The way to fight terror, he concluded, is with better job-training programs, more shared wealth, more open political regimes, and a general message of tolerance and pluralism.

In short, the president took his secular domestic agenda and projected it as a way to prevent young men from joining ISIS and chopping off heads.

[…]

Extremism is a spiritual phenomenon, a desire for loftiness of spirit gone perverse. You can’t counter a heroic impulse with a mundane and bourgeois response. You can counter it only with a more compelling heroic vision.

[You can also counter it as Chris Kyle did: with one well-placed bullet after another. — PW]

[…]

Young Arab men are not going to walk away from extremism because they can suddenly afford a Slurpee. They will walk away when they can devote themselves to a revived Egyptian nationalism, Lebanese nationalism, Syrian nationalism, some call to serve a cause that connects nationalism to dignity and democracy and transcends a lifetime.

Extremism isn’t mostly about Islam. It is about a yearning for righteousness rendered malevolent by apocalyptic theology. Muslim clerics can fix the theology. The rest of us can help redirect the spiritual ardor toward humane and productive ends.

[No, Mr. Brooks — extremism is about the primal will to power, which gives the head-choppers a monstrous pleasure that nothing else can match. These creatures don’t care about “nationalism” or “righteousness” any more than Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy did. And the notion that “Muslim clerics can fix the theology” would be a laugh line were it not being propounded with all seriousness in one of the nation’s most influential media outlets. — PW]

           — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Soap Operas Increase Rapes, AKP MP Argues

“You shoot series and you know no bounds in the relationship between the brother’s wife and uncle. You set no limits, and then you complain about the increase in rape. What were you expecting? Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind,” Ismet Uçma, a deputy from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and a member of parliament’s commission investigating the reasons for violence against women, said Feb. 18 during a panel meeting.

Uçma has gained recent notoriety for controversial suggestions over social and family order. He suggested the issuance of a “license to marry” for men, days after he stirred controversy by stressing “the honor of the neighborhood.”

“If [domestic violence] occurs between married couples so frequently,” there should be a license for marriage, he said…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Teacher Calls for ‘Harassment Teams’ Against Miniskirts

The vice principal of a high school in southern Turkey has raised eyebrows after suggesting the formation of “harassment teams” to prevent female students from wearing short skirts.

At a meeting with class presidents on Feb. 9 concerning school uniforms, the deputy principal of the Kepez Atatürk Anatolian High School, identified only by the initials F.G., reportedly suggested that “male students could follow girls who wear short skirts to make them feel uncomfortable, after which the students would eventually have to dress ‘properly.’“

The subject was raised during a teachers’ meeting at the school on Feb. 10 after a number of class presidents told other teachers about the vice principal’s remarks…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

First Islamic Bank in Russia Could Open in 2015

The headquarters would be in Tatarstan, but the feasibility is still under study. Two possibilities: either a bank or a new ‘section’ in a bank that already exists.

Moscow (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The first bank in Russia working according to the Islamic principles of finance could open later this year. According to reports from the portal Banki.ru, the first Islamic bank of the Federation would be born under the auspices of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). Anatly Aksakov, president of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia, says Malaysia also wants to take part in the project.

The bank should be located in Tatarstan, a Muslim majority republic of the Russian Federation. Currently a feasibility study is being conducted, with Tatar government representatives.

There are two possibilities, as Aksakov explained: The direct creation of an Islamic bank or, opening up an “Islamic section” in an existing structure, a sort of special unit, which would work according to the principles of sharia and of Islamic banking.

Changes to Russian legislation would be needed to make this a reality the deputy explained. Amendments are ready and they should discuss in the next two weeks.

Muslims count for between 7 and 10% of the population in the Federation; the second largest religious community after the Orthodox. Some regions, such as Tatarstan or the North Caucasus, are even a Muslim majority. (N/A.)

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Number of Russian Christmas Tourists to Finland Plummets

Some 75,500 accommodation nights for Russians were registered in the past December. This is a drop of 52 percent as compared with the previous year, according to Statistics Finland.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Army Chief Meets Indian Counterpart

When Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Hungary on Tuesday showing he still has some friends in Europe, Russian Army Chief Colonel General Salukov Oleg Leonidovich met Chief of the Indian Army General Dalbir Singh in New Delhi to discuss various aspects of bilateral defence ties.

Upon his arrival in the South Asian country on Monday, General Leonidovich made clear that the main aim of his four-day visit is to bolster military relations with India. However, neither India nor Russia disclosed issues discussed by the two Army chiefs in the Indian capital.

The Russian media recently reported that Moscow would try to kill an USD 20 billion ‘Rafale’ aircraft deal between the Indian government and French aerospace firm ‘Dassault’. On Monday, the ‘Moscow Times’ quoted Director of the Russian defence industry think tank ‘Centre for the Analysis of Strategy and Technology’ Ruslan Pukhov as saying: “Obviously, Russia is working to kill the French contract and they are attacking from all directions.” But, it is still not clear whether General Leonidovich discussed any defence deals with General Singh.

The Indian and Russian political experts believe that General Leonidovich’s ongoing visit to India is very crucial as Kremlin is trying to come ‘close’ to New Delhi in an attempt to counter consequences of sanctions (imposed by the West against it over the ‘Ukraine’ issue). Knowing that India will never back West’s targeting of Russia, Putin has decided to play a tactical diplomatic game with Europe with the help of New Delhi (and Beijing), according to them. Leading Indian political analysts are confident that India will never support the West’s attempts to isolate Russia as it considers these attempts as untenable and hopeless.

Sanjay Pandey, Professor at New Delhi-based Centre for Russian and Central Asian Research, explains that India finds the sanctions imposed against Russia by the US and its European allies unacceptable. “Russia can always be confident that India was, is, and will remain its most loyal friend,” he said. Noted analyst Subba Raju has supported Pandey’s view, saying: “India and Russia value their friendship, which was born in the difficult years when the Soviet Union was involved in mortal combat against Hitler’s Nazism, and the Indian people were seeking liberation from British colonial rule.”

It means the Russian Army chief’s current visit to India is not incidental. The aim of his visit may be to create an alternative for the US for India. Director of Russia’s Centre for Public Policy Research Vladimir Yevseyev has noted that India was the first country to have experienced such an alternative. “Developing ties with the US is a priority for India. But, the country eyes the Russian arms market very seriously because the Indian leadership wants to ensure that the country does not become dependent on the US. No one wants to depend on the US — that is the problem. From this point of view, Russia is a very attractive partner,” the expert recently told Pravda.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

China Takes Big Advantage of Russia’s War Against Ukraine

China has never condemned Russia for its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, its war against Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region that has killed more than 5,000 people or the Kremlin’s hand in the July shootdown of the Malaysian Airlines jet, killing 298 people.

The world’s most populated nation, with 1.4 billion people, and the second largest economy, with more than $10 trillion in gross domestic product, also shows no willingness to join Western sanctions to punish Russia.

China sees opportunities to make more money. Chinese investment in Russia more than doubled in 2014, to $8 billion, with some big bilateral deals taking place.

The Kremlin needs Beijing more than ever, while China is exploiting the West-Russia rift for its benefit, said Alexander Gabuev, senior associate at Carnegie Moscow research Center.

“The Ukrainian crisis was the game changer,” Gabuev said. “As the West is sanctioning Russia, Russia has not many places to go, both internationally and in Asia. China is definitely the lifeline that could help the economy and the regime to get additional funds and capital sources, new market for hydrocarbons and new technology.”

China sees Russia as a source of raw materials — 70 percent of the $41.6 billion in Russian goods send to China in 2014 were energy resources.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Corruption, Falling Oil Prices and Talk of a Coup: The End of Chavez’s Socialist Dream in Venezuela

The government says the body of Hugo Chavez is where it should be, encased in the black marble tomb set in the courtyard of a small military fort overlooking Caracas under the guard of four Hussars and touched by the hands of a constant stream of pilgrims. But then it says a lot of things. Such as claiming that the United States backed a recent plot to bomb the presidential palace. And how in Venezuela all is well.

“I hope that Venezuela doesn’t fall into civil war, because it is the worst thing that can happen to any country. But right now we are at the worst moment; we are in our biggest crisis,” he said inside his office, listing three principal factors: the failing economy, staggering rates of violent crime and corruption. All are ruinous and interconnected.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

2015 is on Pace to Break the Record for Migrant Deaths in the Mediterranean

Last year more than 3,000 asylum seekers perished as they strived to cross the Mediterranean Sea to seek a safe haven in Europe, the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said.

Given the number of deaths along that route in the past month and a half alone, 2015 seems to be on course to be another grim year.

Just last week at least 300 migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean en route to Italy from Africa, the United Nations’ refugee agency said.

Smugglers who frequently operate unsafe, overcrowded boats shuttle migrants through the frigid waters.

The “fatalities indicate that the toll of lives lost to human smuggling in the Mediterranean may be even deadlier in 2015 than it was in 2014,” the IOM warned.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Calling and Raising Immigration Exploitation

On the evening of February 16, Federal Judge Andrew Hanen did the unthinkable. He dared thwart Obama’s Imperial Executive Amnesty Order. Judge Hanen went all in. Not only did he enjoin Obama and his agents from operationalizing the Five Million New Democrat Voter Edict, he enjoined them from any and all attempts to slip through any potential vagaries in the Court’s language.

In his 138-page opinion, Judge Hanen specifically enjoined Obama’s Team from any work on implementation, preparatory work, etc., the sort of work Obama claimed he would do anyway — in defiance of the Judge’s Order. Nevertheless, Judge Hanen’s intention was clear. He intended his Order be comprehensive in its purview and draconian in its effect, as needs it must be.

That being said, the Justice Department began Court-shopping straightaway, searching for a more Liberal Circuit for its Appeal. Too soon Judge Hanen’s brave stand may become a last stand.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Lampedusa Air Bridge Ferries Out More Than 600 Migrants

Air Force operation from island in 5th day

(ANSA) Rome, February 20 — An Italian Air Force air bridge transferring migrants from the tiny island of Lampedusa to the mainland continued for a fifth day Friday, taking the total number of people flown out to 622, officials said.

The flights were designed to relieve pressure on the reception centres of the island after some 2000 migrants from Libya were rescued in the wake of the Isis extremist forces’ capture of the Libyan region of Sirte.

In all 622 people were transferred from the island by Friday aboard C-130J transport aircraft of the Pisa-based 46th Air Brigade.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Migration: Med Nations Want More EU Commitment, Italian FM

The seven nations of the Mediterranean Group have called firmly for the European Union to commit greater efforts to the issue of migration, said Italy’s foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, in Paris at the end of a meeting with his counterparts from France, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also took part in the meeting. ‘‘Yesterday, on the issue of migration,’’ Gentiloni continued, ‘‘there was an initial urgent response to the Italian government on bolstering of Operation Triton. However, we are all aware that the response was timely but only a first step.’’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Hustling ‘Full-Throttle’ To Set Up Amnesty Contracts

Source says White House ignoring judge’s order to stop

The Obama administration is hustling to move quickly on contracts for the president’s executive-memo-driven amnesty program even though a federal judge has ordered Washington bureaucrats to stop in their tracks, according to Judicial Watch.

The Washington watchdog organization said Friday it has a source inside the industry of government contracts who said there is “no indication that the court order has impacted, slowed down or modified the procurement in any way.”

“They’re really rushing into it,” the source said.

Judicial Watch cited a government solicitation for companies to provide services for Obama’s plans to process illegal aliens and give them many of the privileges of citizenship.

The deal is immense, Judicial Watch said, with an estimated need for between 200 and 600 contractors.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Integration Reform That Led to Criminality Scrapped

Cases of threats, human trafficking and blackmail among companies contracted by the Swedish Employment Agency to help newly arrived migrants to get jobs have led to the system being scrapped.

The Employment Agency says the system is deeply flawed and should never have been introduced in the first place.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Immigration Behind Record Population Growth

Sweden is growing faster than ever. Record high immigration has sent population figures soaring, according to Statistics Sweden (Statistiska Centralbyrån), with the country soon expected to have more men than women for the first time in history.

On New Year’s Eve last year the total population of Sweden hit 9,747,355 people, up by 102,491 since the year before, it has been revealled.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Finland: President to Sign Gender-Neutral Marriage Law

President Sauli Niinistö is to sign the law passed late last year by Parliament that will recognize same-sex marriage in Finland. It is the first legislation to become law as the result of a citizens’ initiative.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Milan Mayor Pisapia Vows to Fight Gay Registry Ruling

City prefect cancels controversial registration of nuptials

(ANSA) — Milan, February 19 — Milan Mayor Giuliano Pisapia said on Facebook Thursday that he will “oppose…a discriminatory decision” to cancel the city’s registry of gay marriages contracted abroad. That ruling from the city’s prefect Francesco Paolo Tronca was announced earlier in the day. Last month, a probe was opened into the new registry which last October the prefect asked Pisapia to cancel. The mayor has consistently refused to do so.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Judge Ruins a Florist for Her Christian Faith

Washington State Benton County Superior Court Judge, Alex Ekstrom, has issued a summary judgment in the case against a Christian florist whose faith prevented her from providing service for a same-sex couple’s wedding. The case was set to go to trial in March, but the judge’s judgment serves as the final word. Basically, he has authorized the “personal ruin” of Barronelle Stutzman.

This ruling makes her personally liable for the claims against her, which places not only her business assets at risk but also her home and personal savings as well! World Net Daily reports that this reprobate judge ordered that the state as well as the sodomite plaintiffs, each of whom filed lawsuits, could collect damages and attorney’s fees from Stutzman.

Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner, with the Alliance Defending Freedom stated, “The message of these rulings is unmistakable: The government will bring about your personal and professional ruin if you don’t help celebrate same-sex marriage.”

She reports the two men had plenty of other options in the marketplace, and even received offers of free flowers from other vendors. However, this wasn’t good enough for either Groom because Robert Ingersoll and his partner Curt Freed, sued Stutzman for politely refusing to engage in a business transaction that interfered with her faith.

Ironically, Ingersoll had bought flowers for his lover from Ms. Stutzman for years, and she was well aware they were a gay couple. The problem only surfaced when he asked her to arrange the flowers for their wedding. According to her deposition, she put her hands over his, and told him that she couldn’t “because of my relationship with Jesus Christ,” and because of her belief that marriage should only be between the opposite sex.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Racist’ Birdies Ruffling Feathers? Sweden Renames ‘Neger’ Species

The names of some birds in Swedish have been changed by the Swedish Ornithological Society over concerns that they could sound racist.

Among the rechristened birds are all which include the word ‘‘neger’’ (negro), for instance negerfinken. They changed it to the Swedish “svart,” meaning “black.”

Names denoting different nations were also changed, such as the gypsy bird.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Appoints Special Military Gender Advisors

The Swedish Armed Forces are determined to have a gender field advisor in every unit by 2016, as part of an ambitious action plan to help the military develop its gender policies.

With the number of women applying to join the military on the rise, so called ‘Gender Focal Points’ (GFPs) will be appointed to help develop and implement gender action plans for their respective units.

Captain Anna Björsson, who supports the task force commander on gender issues, said: “We’ve been working with this for ten years. It’s nothing new, but what we want to do now is try to find concrete ways of working with gender issues.”

A course to educate the gender field advisors has just been held by the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia: Discrete Battle for LGBT Rights

On the web since Arab spring, decriminalization is the goal

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 20 — A 50 year-old Swedish citizen was recently sentenced to serve two years in jail for engaging in homosexual acts on the basis of art 230 of the Tunisian penal code which states: “male homosexual acts (liwat) and female ones (mousahaqa) are to be punished with a detention period of up to three years”. The provision has been criticized for its generic nature, a characteristic that — lawyer Giorgio Bianco told ANSAmed — by encompassing a wide variety of sanctionable actions on the one hand, offers, on the other, a scope of possibilities to the technical-judicial defense. In fact, the only way to punish one or more of the accused is to catch them in the act.

This instance is not particularly frequent, even though it is not as rare as one may imagine, especially considering that Tunisia is increasingly turning into one of the preferred destinations of European sexual tourism. Homosexuality in itself is not punished, what is sanctioned is the sexual encounter.

The case of the sentence against the Swedish citizen rekindled both the debate over the decriminalization of homosexuality in Tunisia and the “discrete” battle waged since 2011, particularly on the web, by LGBT activists.

The LGBT community always existed in Tunisia, but it is only after the 2011 revolt that it began making its voice heard thanks to an increased freedom of expression. Although Tunisia wins awards abroad for tackling homesexuality in movies such as “Life of Adele” by French-Tunisian actor and director Abdellatif Kechiche, being a homexual in this country is still a strong tabu and coming out in the family is very difficult, if not impossible. That’s the reason why, the anonimity afforded by the web offers welcome relief, pointed out journalist Giada Frana, quoting the case of www.gaydaymagazine.com, an e-magazine launched in Tunisia in March 2011 and dedicated to the LGBT community of Maghreb and the Mena region and www.gaytunisie.net, more specifically geared to the Tunisian LGBT community. The Facebook page “Shams — Pour la dépénalisation de l’homosexualité en Tunisie”(Sun — For the decriminalization of homosexuality in Tunisia) has more than 25 thousand ‘likes’. More recently, an appeal made by numerous civil society organizations, including Atsm (Tunisian association for the support of minorities) calling for the repeal of article 230 of the penal code, within the framework of a criminal law reform, was categorically rejected by the ministry of Justice. A true Arab spring on the matter is yet to materialise and the hope is that the hypocrisy surrounding sexual orientation in Islam may soon be reformed as well.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

5 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/20/2015

  1. Ever wonder why Mohammed banned musical instruments? It should be obvious to most readers here.

    It was about controlling the media.

    The primary form of entertainment at the time was people reciting poetry. That was “the media” at the time. Can you guess what content Mohammed dominated the media with? Yes that’s right: the Quran.

    The Quran is the gangsta rap of the 7th century, rapped by an illiterate who didn’t even compose all of it himself.

    So when you see a conference like “Stand With The Prophet” that won’t let reporters in for more than a 20 min session because it’s all about how to control the media, don’t think this is a new innovation. Controlling the media has been the way submission to the medieval gangsta rapper has always been spread.

  2. Reining in the Judges. Seems that US judges are doing exactly what the judges (some unqualified in law) of the European Court and European Court of Human Rights are doing. That is writing, instead of interpreting and implementing, the law. The Rule of Natural Justice is disregarded. UK judges are also starting to do the same.
    There is a clue in the “training” activities of an organisation called Common Purpose. Training is provided to selected, often senior, individuals in public services and even private companies. It’s motto is “leading beyond authority”. Since the organisation was founded by a communist one must assume that the cultural marxism of the Frankfurt School is being drummed in to the “graduates” – that is what they are called – who then go on to exceed their auhority.

    • We’re totally screwed if we can’t get the average person to understand how their thinking has been affected by cultural marxism, how it’s been implicitly taught in schools at least since the early 60s, how it relates to Obama’s obvious denial of reality, and how it causes people like Marie Harf to make stupid self-refuting statements like terrorists are only violent because of “a lack of jobs in the terrorist community.”

      Evil succeeds when good men stand by and do nothing.

    • I guess you refer to the story of the florist who wouldn’t sell to a gay couple, bewick?

      Trouble is, if you allow people of faith to place their beliefs above others’ rights, this sanctions Muslim checkout assistants’ refusing to handle alcohol or pork, Muslim cab drivers’ declining to carry guide (seeing eye) dogs, and Hindus’ discrimination against those of a lower caste. I daresay I’ve missed some situations, but I’m sure you see the difficulty.

Comments are closed.