Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/31/2015

Secretary of State John Kerry was hospitalized in Switzerland after falling off his bicycle and breaking his leg. Mr. Kerry is in stable condition, and reportedly in good spirits.

In other news, hundreds of thousands of Turks took to the streets of Istanbul yesterday to celebrate the 562nd anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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The Pause That Refreshes


(Graphic courtesy FrontPage Mag)

By now you’ve all heard about a young Muslim woman named Tahera Ahmad, who started a guanostorm on Twitter this morning about her brutal treatment at the hands of United Airlines. It seems that a stewardess discriminated against her by refusing to let her have an unopened can of Diet Coke.

At this point, it looks like we’re in for Flying Imams Lite — there’s a boycott campaign against United being ginned up online by Muslims and their leftist allies. The airline is already groveling and salaaming and issuing profuse apologies to the world’s 7.8 octillion Muslims.

For the moment, let’s put aside the fact that (as Daniel Greenfield points out) Ms. Ahmad, in her capacity as a Muslim chaplain at Northwestern University, joined the protest in social media against honoring Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Brandeis. We’ll let The Guardian have first say:

‘No Diet Coke for You’: Islamophobia at 30,000 Feet Leads to Viral United Airlines Boycott

Muslim chaplain Tahera Ahmad’s Facebook post alleges discrimination, saying man next to her was served beer as airline says it will ‘get a better understanding’

What happens when you ask for an unopened can of Diet Coke on an airplane? If you’re a Muslim woman, according to one report, you don’t get served.

And the man sitting next to you gets an unopened can of beer just fine.

Tahera Ahmad, a Muslim chaplain at Chicago’s Northwestern University, documented these allegations from onboard a United Airlines flight this weekend in an episode that almost immediately went viral – and led to pledges to boycott the airline.

On her Facebook page, Ahmad claimed a flight attendant was “clearly discriminating against me” after she asked for an unopened of soda for hygienic reasons and says was told, “Well, I’m sorry. I just can’t give you an unopened can, so no Diet Coke for you.”

When the man next to her allegedly got an unopened beer can from the in-flight service, Ahmad said she was told something even more inflammatory: “We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people, because they may use it as a WEAPON on the plane.”

Ahmad said her fellow passengers were of no help: “you Moslem, you need to shut the F up,” Ahmad said, in the Facebook post, that she was told by another male passenger across the aisle. “[y]es you know you would use it as a WEAPON, so shut the F up.”

There’s something fishy about this story. First of all, there’s only one account of the incident, and that’s Ms. Ahmad’s. And it’s everywhere. All the media stories are based on it.

Now, strictly speaking, it wouldn’t be discrimination to deny a Muslima an unopened can whilst allowing, say, a Hasidic rabbi to take one. It would be simple prudence, a sound counter-terrorist policy.

But airlines can’t do that, for the same reason the TSA pats down nuns and sends Granny through the naked scanner: to prove that no one is being discriminated against. That’s far, far more important than any prudent counter-terrorism policy.

So I simply don’t believe United has such a policy.

That’s one thing. Now take a look at a second account of what happened, also based on Tahera Ahmad’s social media posts but with slightly different details, from the The New York Daily News [emphasis added]:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/30/2015

The number of Mediterranean migrants rescued yesterday has been revised upwards to more than 4,200, traveling on 22 different boats. 17 would-be migrants were also found dead on those boats.

In other news, a Draw Mohammed event held in front of a Phoenix mosque went off peacefully. The ex-Marine who staged the action said that he was doing it to remind Americans to protect their First Amendment rights.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Mithrandir, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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Out on Bail and Thinking About Killing a Priest

A Catholic church in Brampton, a suburb west of Toronto, was vandalized by a culturally enriched young fellow named Iqbal Hessan. Based on surveillance videos, Mr. Hessan damaged and desecrated St. Catherine of Siena church. And he also told police investigators that he wanted to kill a priest.

So what did the magistrate do? Why, he let the miscreant out on bail, of course!

Ezra Levant of TheRebel.media talks about the incident in the following clip:

Below is a news report about the reaction of the pastor at St. Catherine of Siena church:

Pastor at Vandalized Church ‘Surprised’ He Wasn’t Told of Threat Against Priests

Accused man out on bail

BRAMPTON — The pastor at St. Catherine of Siena church wants to know why police didn’t tell him that a Cooksville man who is out on bail after being accused of committing crimes that targeted his church had thoughts of killing or hurting a priest.

Father Camillo Lando said he is holding a meeting with his two priests today to “tell them to be careful” after hearing of the disturbing allegations that were revealed in Brampton court yesterday during the bail hearing for 22-year-old Iqbal Hessan.

Court heard that in his statements to police after his arrest this week, Hessan said he was thinking of killing or hurting a priest the night he’s alleged to have broken into the church.

“We should be aware of this,” Lando said. “If he is threatening us, why was he released? And why wouldn’t the police call to tell me he said these things.”

Peel police haven’t responded to a request for comment.

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How the Muslim Brotherhood Operates in Tennessee (Part 7 of 8)

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

Newsletter #169 – How the Muslim Brotherhood Operates in Tennessee (Part 7 of 8)

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded for the purpose of rejecting Western civilization and replacing it with global sharia law by restoring the Caliphate.

Tennessee’s Islamists select imams and speakers to reinforce this objective and influence younger Muslims.

Imams educated at Al Ahzar University in Egypt

Al Ahzar University is credited with starting the Islamist movement by training Islamic radicals tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, and stands for the propagation of Islam and sharia as a complete way of life. Considered the preeminent teaching center of sharia law, Al Ahzar authenticated the English translation of “Reliance of the Traveller, The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law.”

Excerpts from “Reliance of the Traveller” include:

  • “the Objectives of Jihad” 8 — … wars against Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians if they don’t accept the invitation to Islam or they can pay the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)
  • “Giving Zakat to Deserving Recipients” 17 (zakat is Islamic charity) — those fighting for Allah [i.e., “volunteers for jihad”]
  • “Dealing with a rebellious wife” 12(4)(c) — a husband may hit his wife…

Mohammed Ahmed, former imam at the Islamic Center of Nashville (ICN). Ahmed told attendees at the June 2011 meeting of the Religion Communicators Council that he supported the Egyptian police forced virginity tests performed on female protesters in Tahrir Square. The imam explained: “Why? It’s a very interesting fact that the police giving you a heads up, ‘oh, those people are not virgin’. That’s mean they are not good people”

Osama Bahloul, imam at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro (ICM). He has a degree in Dawa (proselytizing for Islam; his thesis was the establishment of a Dawa curriculum aimed at secularists, atheists, Christians, Jews, and Muslims.) The ICM hosted the Muslim Brotherhood unindicted co-conspirators CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad and Jamal Badawi.

Imams educated at University of Medinah, Saudi Arabia

The University of Medinah in Saudi Arabia is associated with the fundamentalist Salafi branch of Sunni Islam. Salafists want to practice Islam in its most original, purest and “authentic” form without relying on cultural practices or clerical interpretations.

  • AbdulRahman ibn Esa Chao, imam at the Islamic Center of Tennessee. Reported to have graduated from the University of Medinah at age 21, the youngest graduate of record. He also studied at the IIASA (Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America), located in Virginia, funded by Saudi Arabia. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies says, “[IIASA] is the largest source of Saudi hate literature in the Washington area.
  • Abdulhakim Mohammed was the imam at the ICN from 1999-2007 during which time he helped them set up the private Islamic school the Nashville International Academy. Born in Yemen, he spent much of his early childhood in Detroit, Michigan. He spent approximately eight years at the University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, then returned to Yemen to work at managing Islamic schools and other educational programs. Prior to the ICN, he was the imam at the Islamic Center in Ann Arbor and then at the radical Brooklyn Al Farooq mosque, a.k.a. the “al-Qaeda mosque.” This is also the mosque attended by the “blind sheikh” who was convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
  • Yasir Qadhi, resident scholar at the Memphis Islamic Center and Dean of Academic Affairs, al Maghrib Institute. His media company used to sell recordings by the al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar Awalaki. Al Maghrib students include the Christmas Day bomber and convicted terrorist Daniel Maldonado. Qadhi is an International speaker and Holocaust denier, who says “we are loyal to our countries insofar as it does not interfere with our religion of Islam.”
     
    Qadhi calls Christians and Jews spiritually “filthy.”
  • Rafiq Mahdi, (formerly known as William Henderson), is a black American convert to Islam who, after leaving the Nation of Islam, trained in Saudi Arabia. He is considered the “unofficial imam of Knoxville”, where he helped establish the Annoor Mosque. Prior to Knoxville, he led the Masjid Al-Iman in Florida, described as a “small fundamentalist mosque” which was the spiritual home of the “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla. Padilla had ties to al Qaeda and was convicted of planning a jihad attack in 2002.
     
    Mahdi helped fundraise for the KindHearts Foundation which was shut down under suspicion of raising money for Hamas.

Imams trained at other Saudi institutions

  • Abdullah Al Ansar, the first imam at the Islamic Center of Tennessee. Graduate of the Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Has over 14 years of experience in dawa. Prior to ICTN he was the imam at Detroit’s Masjid Al Tawheed whose website (prior to scrubbing) published links to jihadi lectures in the UK. Al Ansari preached the following:
     
    “He [Allah] told us to fight the Jews and Christians. Fight them until they give jizya. They give this protective tax from their hands and they are humiliated and subdued.”
  • Abdelrahman Murphy, a former faculty member at Knoxville private Islamic School Annoor Academy, Youth Leader for Roots program and mentor to MSA at UT Knoxville. He completed the Imam Certificate Program in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Currently, Murphy runs the youth program at the Islamic Center of Boston, encouraging the young people to “be like Mohammed.”

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“These Men Are Predators”

Last month we posted about a demonstration sponsored by MARIAS (Mothers Against Radical Islam and Sharia) at Downing Street in London. The following story is a first-hand account of sexual slavery, told by a young woman who became a victim of a Muslim “grooming gang”.

“Nicola” attended the MARIAS event, but was not willing to tell her story herself, so her account was read into the microphone by one of the organizers.

Nicola’s Story

My name is Nicola. I was almost 14 when it started happening to me. It all began with the promise of a modelling job.

I wasn’t a particularly confident girl. When Daniel, the photographer, asked me to do some glamour modelling for him I was flattered and thought it might be fun. Modelling can seem like easy money. Get dressed up and smile for the camera — what’s hard about that?

He came to my home one morning while my parents were working. My younger brother was at school and we had the house to ourselves. He started by taking regular pictures of me, then, by stages, asking me to remove more and more clothing. Eventually he said that we needed new scenery and asked if there was a bedroom we were able to use. I was a bit taken aback as I wasn’t expecting to have to use a bedroom.

I took him to my parents’ room, as mine was a mess — full of Disney toys and babyish things. He continued taking pictures, eventually asking me to strip to my underwear. That’s when I knew something wasn’t right. I was shaky and scared, but I did as I was told. More photos were taken.

Suddenly I heard the front door being unlocked and opened, followed by some voices. My brother and his friends had come home during the school lunch break. I panicked and jumped up, running to the door and holding it shut, shouting to my brother that I had just got out of the bath and for him not to come upstairs.

When I turned around, Daniel had taken off his clothes. I had never seen a naked man before. I froze and felt myself going red with embarrassment. He told me to get on the bed and be quiet or my brother would hear, and if my brother heard then my parents would find out what I had been up to and they’d be angry.

Daniel raped me, and laughed when he realised that I was a virgin. When he was finished he threw a £10 note down and told me to get some nice underwear. He kissed my cheek and told me he’d be in touch.

He kept his promise. He was in touch, constantly. He started asking me to do favours for his friends, threatening to show my parents the pictures he had taken of me if I refused. I continued to do what he told me to for a long time.

When I started to object and tell him I didn’t care who he showed the pictures to, he began beating me to make me do as I was told. When my mum eventually found out what was happening, she called the police. They weren’t very helpful at all. They told my mum that I was a known prostitute, and that she should leave me to it, and that I would stop when I was ready. I was 15 at the time.

The police knew what was happening to me long before my mum did. The officer who was sent to take my statement was a tall and intimidating man. He asked me to go into very intimate details of what had happened to me. I was very upset, but he told me that I’d have to get used to his line of questioning, and that this is what I would have to deal with in court. He was very aggressive and seemed angry. He told me he couldn’t offer me any protection if I testified in court, and for that reason I never testified against my rapists. His attitude and manner put me off ever considering contacting the police for help again.

Instead, I contacted medical professionals, some of whom didn’t believe me. By the time I was 16 I had moved into a youth hostel, because Muslim men would turn up at my home and hang around outside in cars. Sometimes they’d even knock at the door in groups. Men in their 20s, 40s, and 50s. They didn’t care what anyone thought of them, they just wanted their depraved sexual needs satisfied. They didn’t care who was home. They hung around outside my school, and they followed me around like dogs. They threatened to hurt my family if I didn’t co-operate with them. They said they would pour acid down my throat if I told anyone about their threats.

As a result of all this, I started to harm myself in a bid to make myself less attractive to men. I did it on a daily basis, covering myself with hundreds of cuts. It eventually became a comfort and a release and a punishment rolled into one. These Muslim men made me feel bad, dirty, worthless and ashamed. They made me hate myself and what I’d become. I was 16.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/29/2015

Yesterday more than 740 migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean by the Italian coast guard and German, Irish and British naval vessels. Today some 3,300 migrants were rescued by Italy. Meanwhile, Frontex reports that the people smugglers make an average of €1 million for every boat carrying 450 migrant passengers across the Med.

In other news, forces for the Libyan franchise of the Islamic State have seized the airport at Sirte, Muammar Qaddafi’s home town. Kinetic activists for ISIS now control most of Sirte.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Upananda Brahmachari, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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Don’t Play With Girls — You’ll Catch Kafir Cooties!

The Ontario high school system has a rule: if you’re a girl who can compete successfully in a sport that’s normally all-boys, and your school doesn’t have a girls’ team for that sport, you may participate on a boys’ team.

Sounds sensible. Unless you’re a Muslim, that is. Then it violates your freedom of religion, and opposing teams must remove the girls from their ranks so your boys won’t be made unclean by contact with them.

The sidelining of the girls on this high school soccer team was actually voluntary — the coach didn’t force the girls to sit out the game, he just played on their sense of guilt by invoking the welfare of the team. Which is actually worse, in a way: as Vlad points out, the coach, like other cultural and political leaders throughout the West, is pre-emptively surrendering to Islam by complying with the tenets of sharia law.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for annotating and uploading this video:

Below are excerpts from the accompanying CityNews article:

Muslim boys high school soccer team refuses to play against team with 2 girls

A boys soccer team from ISNA Private Islamic High School refused to finish a game on Tuesday because two females were on the opposing team during a Brampton tournament.

Robert F. Hall Catholic School, in Caledon, does not have a girls team so the two females played on the senior boys team, which was approved by the Region of Peel Secondary School Athletic Association (ROPSSAA).

During halftime, the ISNA Private Islamic High School team brought the concern to the referee. Robert F. Hall Catholic School school was winning the game 3–1 at that point.

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It’s that Bow Again

What’s really going on with the Obama administration’s Middle East policy? Our Israeli correspondent MC takes a look.

It’s that Bow Again
by MC

The establishment of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948 was a huge shock for those religious groups who justified their existence by the belief that their group became ‘god’s’ chosen race as successors to the Jews. This particularly affected Roman Catholicism, which adapted to the circumstances by declaring the Jews were no longer to be considered ‘Christ Killers’. Islam was also impacted.

I was last accused of being a ‘Christ Killer’ by a Nigerian Catholic about five years ago, so the message has still not penetrated to the bottom of the pile (sic) in Roman Catholicism. However, Islam justifies its existence on the basis that god dumped the Jews (they failed to beat the Romans) and sent Mo to preach a new gospel to a new ‘chosen people’.

It is probably very difficult for modern westerners to understand the importance of feeling ‘chosen’ when confronted with obvious contradictions to that ‘chosenness’. This was particularly true in the circumstances of the 1948 War of Independence, when the nascent State of Israel (pop. 680,000) defended itself against invasion by five armies comprising some 1.2 million soldiers whose aim was (and still is) total genocide.

This miraculous event undermined all ‘replacement theology’-based religions. It shook them to their very roots.

It is also hard for Westerners to understand the depth of religious faith in the Middle East, a close comparison would be with the political religions of socialism, where the core values of socialism are so established in the psyche of ‘believers’ that they are not to be even questioned (taxation as a form of redistribution of wealth, National Socialism as ‘right-wing’ and many, many more).

That Islam failed in its attempted genocide of Jews in Israel is a total contradiction in Islamic theology, and the idea of a despicable Jew — whom god has rejected — achieving ‘equality’ (even superiority) with a Muslim is theologically unacceptable. The rationalization has therefore been to describe Israel as ‘Satanic’.

Islam is not subject to the same vectors in dilution of belief as Christianity. And, yes, it may well be that the average Muslim adheres to a faith because of peer pressure and fear. But when a Christian goes ‘back to the bible’ he/she finds:

‘…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.’ — Galatians 5 v 22

But when the Muslim goes back to Koran he/she finds:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/28/2015

The European Union says that 24,000 migrants in Italy must be relocated to other countries. It wants more than 1,300 to go to Belgium, and more than 2,000 to go to the Netherlands. It has also asked Spain to host an (unspecified) increased number, but the Spanish government is objecting. Meanwhile, more than 200 more migrants arrived in Greece.

In other news, an 11-year-old girl was rescued in Spain after being sold by her parents for marriage. Five members of her family have been arrested.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, 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.

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The Cartoon Jihad Continues

If you appreciate this essay by Fjordman, please consider making a donation to him, using the button at the bottom of this post.

On February 14-15, 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark was hit by two closely related terror attacks in the space of a few hours. The first one hit a debate meeting about free speech and religion. The second targeted a synagogue and a local Jewish community. The presumed perpetrator of these twin attacks, the militant Muslim Omar El-Hussein of Palestinian Arab heritage, was eventually shot and killed during a confrontation with the police.

Some early reports suggested that Omar El-Hussein was a “lone wolf” terrorist. This is highly questionable. It was probably he who fired the actual shots that killed two men and wounded several others. Yet that does not mean that he acted in total isolation.

Within a few weeks, five young Muslim men had been formally charged with aiding the gunman Omar in his attacks, either by providing him with equipment he used or by trying to get rid of equipment for him.

Omar the terrorist certainly was not alone with his Islamic beliefs. Originally a violent criminal rather than a religious Jihadist, he seems to have become radicalized during his stay in prison. He apparently shared a prison cell with a supporter of the Islamic State (ISIS).

Assertions have been made by media sources that the terrorist may have visited a radical Copenhagen mosque preaching hatred of Jews just one day before his attacks. These claims remain uncertain. What is clear is that his acts were motivated by commonly held Islamic beliefs, inspired by Islamic texts.

To some Muslims, Omar the murderer is a “great hero” who deserves “a place in paradise.” Hundreds of people attended his funeral. Not all of them were relatives. Some of those who were present probably attended Omar’s funeral not in spite of, but because of the fact that he was a terrorist and murderer. A few radical Muslims admitted this openly.

It is interesting to notice that Omar El-Hussein was a petty criminal before becoming a terrorist. It seems as if the step from violent crime to violent Jihad is not always that big. As I have observed in some of my previous essays, looting and stealing the property of non-Muslims has been part of Jihad from the very beginning. In fact, so much of the behavior of Muhammad himself and the earliest Muslims could be deemed criminal that it is difficult to know where crime ends and Jihad begins.

Muslims make up a vastly disproportionate number of prison inmates in countries such as France and Britain. Some Muslims become further radicalized in jail, while some violent criminals convert to Islam behind bars. The Danish psychologist Nicolai Sennels has worked with criminal Muslims. He noticed that they rarely feel any sense of remorse for the crimes they have committed. Instead, they see themselves as victims of outside forces, scheming infidels or the will of Allah. Muslims are never guilty of anything. They are always victims.

Jyllands-Posten is one of the largest newspapers in Denmark. On September 30, 2005, it published a series of drawings of Islam’s founder and alleged prophet Mohammed. I was one of the very first people to write about this case in English. Already in October 2005, I was posting essays in support of Jyllands-Posten and free speech at my old blog.

Yet it took several months before the case really exploded on the international scene. Ahmad Akkari is a former radical Muslim. In late 2005, he traveled along with several others in Muslim countries to whip up anger over the Danish Mohammed cartoons. Unfortunately, this succeeded. In 2013-2014, Akkari publicly apologized to the Danish nation and distanced himself from his previous actions.

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The Word That Wasn’t There

Yesterday, upon the air,
I heard a word that wasn’t there.
It wasn’t there again today,
I wish that it would go away…

(With apologies to Hughes Mearns)

In his report yesterday on the latest OSCE conference, Henrik Ræder Clausen included this summary of a dominant meme among ideological leaders in the West:

Panel members stressed the importance of not calling the Islamic State the “Islamic State”, for doing so could give the impression that Islam motivates people to war, terrorism and other crimes.

The avoidance of the I-word seems to have become a fixation in the revolving-door world of NGOs and state functionaries, particularly in Europe. It’s as if all the participants have been mysteriously hypnotized, and now wander around glassy-eyed, muttering the phrase “nothing to do with Islam” over and over again, their repetitive chant forming a background susurrus at every international function where important people assemble to hand down momentous policy decisions.

A notable example of the mindset may be found this handout from the OSCE Vienna meeting:

The four terrorist outfits shown in the chart are composed of different ethnic groups, operate in geographically separate areas, represent disparate cultures, and speak a variety of languages. The only thing these groups have in common is the word that wasn’t there.

When required to identify a common ideology, Western bien-pensants prefer to discuss “extremism” or “radicalization” — modifiers with no substantive objects. If cornered, they may refer to “Islamism” or “radical Islam”, but never plain old unmodified ISLAM.

It seems that a prerequisite for receiving funding from any government agency or charitable foundation is the absolute refusal to consider Islamic political ideology as an explanation for anything bad that happens in the world.

You can’t say that, old chap. It just isn’t done.

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

The Causes of Terrorism chart is based on a report entitled “Global Terrorism Index” from The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The featured quote is taken from page 3:

While drivers of terrorist activity are often complex and multidimensional, there are several generalised and significant socio-economic correlates of terrorism. Countries with higher levels of terrorism were found to have three statistically significant factors:

  • Greater social hostilities between different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups, lack of intergroup cohesion and high levels of group grievances.
  • Presence of state sponsored violence such as extrajudicial killings, political terror and gross human rights abuses.
  • Higher levels of other forms of violence including deaths from organised conflict, likelihood of violent demonstration

The usual suspects are trotted out: socio-economic factors, ethnic and linguistic differences, etc. “Religion” is mentioned, but nothing specific — even though only ONE religion is significant in any of the major terror attacks chronicled by IEP.

The full report does refer to Islam, however. In the forms “Islam”, “Islamic”, or “Islamist”, the word occurs 113 times, and “Muslim” appears 20 times. The descriptions are what you’d expect from an organization that wants to avoid “Islamophobia” at all costs. For example, on pp. 2-3:

The majority of claimed deaths from terrorist attacks, 66 per cent in 2013, are claimed by only four terrorist organisations; ISIL, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Qa’ida and its affiliates. Variations of religious ideologies based on extreme interpretations of Wahhabi Islam are the key commonality for all four groups; however their strategic goals are not necessarily the same. To counteract the rise of religious extremism, moderate Sunni theologies need to be cultivated by credible forces within Islam. The current political context underscores the importance of moderate Sunni countries and not outside influences leading such a response. One such example was the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies led by Shaykh Abdallah Bin Bayyah in March 2014 which brought together 250 Islamic scholars to promote a unified peaceful response to the current violence issuing a Fatwa in response to ISIL.

“Moderate Sunni theologies”? What are those? Where are their mosques, their seats of learning, their manifestos, their books of jurisprudence?

In point of fact, there are no “moderate Sunni theologies”. There are only soothing words spoken into microphones in non-Arabic languages directed at foolish, gullible Westerners who long to be told that Islam is OK, and everything will be fine. The Muslim Brotherhood long ago figured out what our elites want to hear, and make sure to lay it on thick at every available opportunity.

The report continues in a similar vein at eye-glazing length for 94 pages, with 81 endnotes — including one for our old friend, the International Centre for the study of Radicalisation and Political Violence.

There are numerous professional-quality charts, graphs, maps and tables to help readers visualize the problem of terrorism without thinking about Islam. The various statistics and references provide copious data on everything except the word that wasn’t there.

As Major Stephen Coughlin has repeatedly pointed out, there is no hope of grasping the nature of the problem as long as a pre-determined “narrative” continues to delimit what may be observed, thought, and said. There are strict boundaries on what may be identified as the “root causes” of terrorism, and Islam lies outside of them. The only plausible factor held in common by all the major terrorist groups and incidents has been ruled off the turf in advance.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/27/2015

At least 55 Iraqi soldiers were killed today in three suicide bombings in al-Anbar Province. The deadly attacks came as the Iraqi military attempted to recapture Ramadi from the Islamic State.

In other news, an unexploded WW2 bomb was safely detonated in Cologne after the largest postwar evacuation in the city cleared the area of 20,000 people.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, PS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

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OSCE in Free Fall

Last week four Counterjihad activists representing various NGOs attended two days of an OSCE/ODIHR (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) conference in Vienna. Below is an overview of the event written by one of the participants.

A human rights organisation falling off the cliff

by Henrik Ræder Clausen

At the imperial castle Hofburg in Vienna, Austria, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) hosted a conference named “Security Days” about dialogue and bridge-building as tools to prevent radicalization and terrorism. A series of high level international organisations participated, including the Anna Lindh Foundation, the foreign ministries of the United States, Egypt and Turkey, the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the UN organisation Alliance of Civilisations, and the Saudi-sponsored center for dialogue KAICIID. But despite the fancy surroundings and the high level participants, the result was disappointing.

Can the truth constitute “Hate speech”?

On the first evening of the conference, there was a “Night Owl” session about how to deal with the new media, and in particular how to ensure that they cannot be used to radicalize and recruit terrorists. Also discussed was the difficulties of reconciling freedom of expression with the desire for security. The contributions from the panelists and the first rounds of discussion constituted mostly of friendly yet non-committal comments about the new media, and the fascinating fact that anyone can now publish whatever he finds meaningful with a click of the button, and consequently how to deal with “hate speech” and other unpleasant content.

Have we investigated what our enemies say?

Friday featured four major sessions. The first topic was the identification of the root causes of radicalization, and how to convince the public that no religion (in practical terms, that means Islam) must be held responsible for the increasing terrorist threat. Panel members stressed the importance of not calling the Islamic State the “Islamic State”, for doing so could give the impression that Islam motivates people to war, terrorism and other crimes.

The audience challenged the panel for talking away from the real problem. One suggestion was to map the stated motivations of the terrorists, in order that we might attack terrorism on the level of ideology. The panel reacted by mentioning cases where terrorists had complained about feeling marginalized by society, but did not discuss the proposal in itself.


Maj. Stephen Coughlin, OSCE Vienna, May 2015

Should education be based on facts?

A recurring theme was that international organisations (such as OSCE) should be more active in directing education of the coming generations, in order that they understand the principle of universal human rights, with the implicit assumption that they will then abstain from terrorism. The words “bridge-building” were used repeatedly, despite the fact that large number of Europeans are sincerely weary of the bridges built thus far and the problems they bring.


Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, OSCE Vienna, May 2015

The audience was quite clearly dissatisfied with the non-committal comments from the panel members. One audience member proposed that any such education guidelines should be based on what Islamists themselves say about their ideology. An example brought forth was that the Al-Azhar Islamic university in Egypt has stated that they do not consider Islamic State to be un-Islamic. Another audience member encouraged Turkey to stop the institutional denial of the Armenian Genocide, in order that the truth might become widely known. Again, the panel gave vague and unclear responses.

And what about equal rights for women?

After a delicious buffet brunch, discussion continued to the need for increased participation by women and the young. A woman from Afghanistan related how it became possible for a significant number of women to participate in the country’s large legislative assembly. Then there was no elaboration on how more female and young participants would materially improve our security.

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