Hamed Abdel-Samad: “This Hatred is Poisoning Us”

We’ve previously posted remarks by the Egyptian-German author Hamed Abdel-Samad, all of them translated from the German. The following lecture in Arabic by Mr. Abdel-Samad is directed at his fellow Arabs, and has been translated by MEMRI:

From the video notes:

In a lecture posted on the Internet on March 21, Egyptian-German scholar Hamed Abdel-Samad said that the Prophet Muhammad had lowered the Jews to a “subhuman level, viewing them as animals,” and he compared the treatment of the Jews in the years following Muhammad’s death to that of the Nazis. “This hatred is poisoning us” and “preventing us from dealing with our problems in a serious way,” said Abdel-Samad, adding that “instead of poisoning one generation after another with this hatred, we should let them learn something from humanity,” in order to enable them to “overcome the barrier of hatred and of fear of the other.” The lecture is titled “Islamic Fascism and the Jews.” For additional lectures by Abdel-Samad, see MEMRI TV clips 5443 and 5356.

Previous posts about Hamed Abdel-Samad:

2010   Sep   16   The Post-Quranic Age
2013   Oct   24   Fear is a Bad Advisor
2014   Apr   6   An Inferiority Complex Plus a Quest for World Domination
        11   “Fascism is Rooted in Islam”
    Jul   14   Hamed Abdel-Samad says “Auf Wiedersehen” to Germany
2015   Jul   6   Open Letter From a German Muslim: Islam is Not a Part of Germany, Mrs. Merkel
2016   Apr   20   Hamed Abdel-Samad: Islam is Not Compatible With Democracy
 

Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/28/2016

Today was the 563rd anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, and thousands of Turks commemorated the event by gathering to pray in front of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Led by a group called the Anatolian Youth Association, the devout crowd demanded that Hagia Sofia be returned to use as a mosque. The structure has been a museum since 1934.

In other news, British Home Secretary Theresa May said that her country’s sharia court system has been beneficial for many Muslims in Britain.

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

Thanks to AF, Fjordman, JD, Yann, 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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Dirty Business in Rutland

The United States government is now distributing thousands of “Syrian” “refugees” all over the country as part of the Refugee Resettlement Program. A lot of small communities are having culture-enrichers dumped on them without having any say-so in the process. The government puts the new arrivals in public housing and hands them their EBT cards, and the feds pay the tab for the first six months. After that the local authorities are on their own, and have to find the money themselves — for more police officers, medical care, interpreters, special needs teachers, whatever their new guests require.

But it doesn’t have to happen that way; it depends on the local government. The feds have to work with the localities in order to resettle the migrants, and it’s up to a local town council or board of supervisors whether or not the opinions of citizens are taken into account.

When Washington proposed sending refugees to Lawrenceville, a small town in Southside Virginia, the local government held a public meeting to get its citizens’ opinions. The townspeople of Lawrenceville made their feelings felt, and the town decided to decline any refugees sent by the feds. So it can be done.

But that’s not the way it happened in Rutland, Vermont. The federal government, through the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, assigned 100 refugees to Rutland, and the town council accepted them without telling the public until after the deal was done.

The following news report discusses what happened, and interviews the head of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program. Pay close attention to end of the video, when the woman tells the interviewer how really, really glad she is that the town didn’t get to vote on the refugees.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Below are excerpts from an article at American Thinker about the situation in Rutland:

Remaking Rutland with Refugees

by Sonia Bailley

The character of the city of Rutland, Vermont is facing major change. Nestled in the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont, it is an unsuspecting city targeted for refugee resettlement. After being kept in the dark since their mayor’s unilateral decision to accept 100 Syrian and Iraqi refugees in October, Rutland citizens should investigate the threatening impact that refugee resettlement has on their own public security, economic stability and community health before it’s too late.

The city of Rutland was chosen as the site to place refugees by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), one of the nine major federally-funded refugee resettlement contractors or voluntary agencies (volags), and its local affiliated field office or subcontractor, the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP). According to Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch, once a site is chosen for resettlement, the agency submits an annual resettlement plan to the State Department in order to receive federal funding of nearly $2,000 per refugee sponsored in addition to federal grants of up to $2,200 per refugee sponsored. Refugee resettlement has become a billion dollar industry, according to investigative journalist James Simpson, a former economist and budget examiner for the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Read the rest (and follow the links) at American Thinker.

See also: Refugee Resettlement Watch.

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

Gearing up for the New Verdun

We are currently somewhat less than halfway through the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Verdun, one of the longest and costliest battles in the history of warfare.

The battle began in February 1916, when the Imperial German Army launched an offensive with the objective of capturing the system of forts and fortifications centered around the Citadel of Verdun in northeastern France. The fighting went on for ten months, until December of the same year, with gains and losses measured in terms of yards. When the battle petered out near the end of the year, the front remained more or less where it had been. Verdun was still in French hands, so the French were said to be the victors. But it was a pyrrhic victory if ever there was one: between 750,000 and a million casualties, depending on whose estimates are used, roughly half of those killed or missing. More French soldiers were killed than Germans, but the difference was not enough to make Germany believe it had gained anything resembling a victory.

Verdun has come to symbolize the madness and futility of trench warfare on the Western Front during the Great War. Most battles along the Front were of a similar nature, perhaps with fewer casualties, but always expending an enormous quantity of blood and treasure to make a line on a map move imperceptibly in one direction or another, and then return to its original position.

Like all those other battles, the ten-month offensive at Verdun devastated the landscape. Heavy artillery completely destroyed all the forests and villages in the areas adjacent to the front. Exploding shells created crater after crater, superimposed upon one another until no square yard of the terrain was left untouched. The ground was churned up and rained on and churned up again, becoming a malodorous pockmarked mire, embedded with broken-off trees, dead horses, shattered equipment, and above all human body parts from the hundreds of thousands of men who were blown to pieces trying to cross the shell holes of No Man’s Land.

The enduring legacy of the battle is the ruined terrain around Verdun. Forests have been planted over the battlefield and grown to maturity, but the area remains a maze of hillocks and holes that pond with water after every rainstorm. And the landscape is a vast open-air mausoleum, an ossuary of anonymous bone fragments still embedded in the soil a hundred years later.

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

The current political situation in the United States brings to mind the Battle of Verdun. Huge, well-armed forces are gathering for an offensive that will cause innumerable casualties and devastate the societal landscape, leaving the culture a sea of stinking genderized multicultural mud. The fortifications have been built and the trenches have been dug in preparation for the climactic battle scheduled to take place next November.

The failure of the analogy between the Western Front and the Culture War is this: only one side in the current war is aware that there’s a war on. The Social Marxists are armed and ready. They know exactly what they’re fighting for, and how they plan to win. The average American, on the other hand, has virtually no inkling of what’s going on. The twilight struggle of the 21st century is just the yapping of talking heads on TV, something to be ignored while he goes about his day-to-day business. He doesn’t realize that the War to End All Wars is about to turn his cultural landscape into a mass of churned-up muddy shell craters.

And the battlefield is not confined the United States. The same fortified and garrisoned front loops and twists through all the Western democracies. All along that line the gathered forces of Multicultural Progressivism stand on the parapets with their bayonets fixed, looking out across No Man’s Land towards the ranks of their enemies, who are blissfully unaware of what is about to be unleashed upon them.

Last night, while I was editing Christian Zeitz’s essay about the Austrian election, I noticed the striking similarity between what he was describing and the current presidential campaign in the USA. Just change a few proper nouns, and the verbatim descriptions could be easily applied on this side of the Atlantic.

To prove my point, I’ve taken excerpts from Mag. Zeitz’s article and adapted them to an American context. With the exception of one phrase (regarding the date of the election, now shown in square brackets), the only changes I made were these:

  • Hofer —> Trump
  • Van der Bellen —> Hillary
  • Austria —> America

That’s it — otherwise it’s the same text:

As is traditional, the in-crowd of top media and entertainment people played a special supportive and defensive role. For decades, they have been the public face of leftist activism; they set up seas of light. Light chains, protest marches against the right, commemorations and other formats which have proven to work as companion measures in securing the neo-socialist cultural transformation. A permanent task of this closed society is the “stopping of the Right”, i.e., the securing of the power and influence of the ruling elite…

…The election of Trump would endanger jobs and foreign investments, reduce international tourism in America and even endanger peace. Anyone who seeks to qualify such statements as dangerous threats is a rabble-rouser…

The aim of this massive offering of “significant personalities” from public and civic life is naturally the unmistakable communication of a simple, but effective message: Everyone with standing and reputation in the areas of culture, the economy and the intellectual world is supporting and voting for Hillary. The successful, the fashionable and the popular of this world have nothing to do with Trump and are battling against him as a risk factor and threat to the sacred order. Anyone who votes for Trump is joining the failed, the enemies of progress, the chewed up and spat out of society. So anyone who does not want to be “out” must join the elites, to become one of them.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/27/2016

During his visit to Hiroshima — the first by an American president — Barack Hussein Obama expressed remorse for the death toll in World War Two. Mr. Obama also spoke of his hope for a world without nuclear weapons.

In other news, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said in an interview that Islam has no place in Slovakia.

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

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Dean, Fjordman, JD, Srdja Trifkovic, 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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Viktor Orbán: “The Mouth of Clinton, The Voice of George Soros”

On May 20 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was interviewed on the Kossuth Rádió programme “180 Minutes”. Below are excerpts from the official translation of Mr. Orbán’s remarks:

Last September Hungary decided to turn to the European Court. If the Court rules in favour of the Hungarian government — and also the Slovak government, which is party to the suit — this will mean that the referendum will lose some of its meaning, as obviously no decision contrary to the ruling will be adopted in the future.

This is only partly true, because the challenge we have filed with the Court relates to the past. In the past a decision was adopted. We believe that this decision is contrary to European law and the treaties, and that it contains procedural errors. This is why we are contesting it.

It would make the settlement of migrants in Hungary compulsory, up to a certain number. We reject this. This is the past. The future, however, is much more dangerous than this.

The future is not about one specific decision, with which they want to force a certain number of people on us whom they want us to live together with, against our will: it is about setting up a permanent distribution mechanism. This means that if they let in or bring in migrants to Europe on a permanent and ongoing basis — mostly from the Muslim world — they will use a mechanism to distribute them among the Member States. So this is not about a one-off case, but about our future.

Here I do not want to throw statistics about: I suggest that, if they are able to, people should visit some cities in Western Europe, they should walk down a major street and take a look at life over there. If they have memories of those cities from the past, they will see that in the past ten or twenty years life there has changed substantially. And if we allow this, in ten or twenty years we will not recognise Budapest, and we will not recognise our cities. And parents should imagine their children asking them fifteen years from now why this was allowed to happen to our country.

Therefore I believe we must be firm in preserving the country’s culture, we must preserve its security, and we must also preserve its cultural homogeneity. This is an enormous advantage. The fact that we are the way we are is based on the traditions of a thousand years, on principles and day-to-day customs which we continue to uphold and do not question, because for us they are natural. They provide an enormous competitive advantage, and create a sense of cultural homeland which is no longer present in many European cities.

[…]

But this core Europe in your interpretation — the Central European part — is the target of a lot of criticisms and attacks. We are familiar with the criticisms of Hungary, but the Poles, for instance, have been given until Monday to explain in Brussels whether or not the criticisms about the rule of law in their country are well-founded.

First of all, I believe that the Poles are being treated unfairly in Brussels. Brussels is not taking a fair position. I think that at times Brussels insults the Polish people, and the Polish people should be paid more respect. Theirs is a great nation. It is a people and a country four times — at least four times — the size of Hungary. So it has some weight. It has a monumental history.

We are talking about a freedom-fighting people who have probably shed more blood, lost more lives and made more sacrifices for their freedom than many other European nations, and who now hold their fate in their own hands. Therefore I believe that the action being taken against them is unfair.

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Funeral in Hamburg

As we reported yesterday, an interfaith funeral was planned in a Hamburg church for a 17-year-old “German” boy who was killed in Syria after joining the jihad for the Islamic State. The funeral took place today as scheduled; below is a brief news video with clips of the event.

Many thanks to Nash Montana for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

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Austria is Morphing Into a Syndicalistic Dictatorship

Andreas Unterberger is a popular Austrian opinion writer. JLH has translated two essays from Mr. Unterberger’s blog, the longer one being an analysis by Christian Zeitz of the social and political context of Austria’s recent presidential election.

The translator includes this explanatory note:

The essay by Christian Zeitz was written before the run-off for president, which is now over. For Unterberger’s report and comment on this, see the translation after the main article. It offers a very different analysis of the dynamics of the election as a meta-political part of a larger picture.

Considering Zeitz’s analysis, it is close to miraculous that Norbert Hofer came so close, and I would say, perhaps ominous for the ruling parties, that their machinations had limited effect.

Those who had read the earlier article by Streeck previewing the run-off will recall that he urged the old parties to take on dynamic new leadership. The SPÖ (Social Democrats), at least, seems to have heard him and placed the younger, more energetic Kern at its head. With his leadership team, however, is Muna Duzdar, a young woman of Palestinian extraction, who has been seen to be suspiciously close to extremist circles. Ho hum! (Cf. Mena-Watch)

First, the guest-essay by Christian Zeitz:

The not quite unpolitical daily journal

Austria is Morphing Into a Syndicalistic Dictatorship[1]

by Christian Zeitz, guest commentator
May 21, 2016

This Sunday, after a long election process, Austria will choose a new president. There have been several analytical pronouncements about this election over the months, which touch upon the fundamental principles of our country’s political system. It is said to be a decision on direction — multicultural “welcoming culture” versus indigenous connection to homeland. Or a venting of a mood of protest boiling over in the populace. Or the milestone of a political change in eras, or a substantial system alteration. There is a certain measure of truth to all of them, and they have been exhaustively discussed. However, largely absent is any attempt to use the circumstances of the election and its manifestations as a way of visualizing Austria’s actual constitutional structure. In fact, several characteristics of everyday politics have come to light which should be seen as elementary principals of our land’s actual political system. Indeed, much of this has occasionally found theoretical reflection in recent years. But this election was a visual learning experience which provides the empirical confirmation of the actual structure and condition of the so-called Republic of Austria. The result of the “social fieldwork” offered by this election as a — so to speak — gratis by-product, will be summarized below in four parts. The first two are concerned with meta-politics and the political culture. The other two will deal with the actual constitutional structures of the state of Austria.

1. Esoteric Language in an Age of Irrationality

The election was characterized by use of a quite esoteric language with which the Left targeted the Austrian Freedom Party [FPÖ] candidate, Norbert Hofer. This is part of a tradition in previous elections (remember “breaking a taboo” in regard to the candidacy of Kurt Waldheim), but took an unexpected form. Hofer was criticized, not for his positions, not for what he said or expressed explicitly, but was reviled for what he was suspected of on some amorphous level of “feeling”. He represented — it was said — “authoritarian officialdom”, he was “inhuman”, an “enemy of Europa” (not, for instance, a Europa critic), he wanted to “paint the whole republic blue”[2], he was somehow close to National Socialism. And he wanted to conceal everything through a rehearsed NLP[3] lingo — which proved his deviousness. “I am afraid!” “Of what?” “The cornflower and the Hitlerian burps in Styrian guesthouses.” “All foreign countries” would despise Austria if Hofer were elected. “I would not like to belong to the pariahs of the world.”

This esoteric language serves a politics of hints and hidden “knowledge”. Proof is superfluous. “We understand each other.” Arguments are not necessary to create a community of feeling. Fear, insinuation, pretended or actual outrage, gestures of one’s own moral superiority, “rage and grief” and finally pure hatred have become the basic categories of political confrontations. The “decent people” of this country are absolutely sure that it is justified and requisite to defend their “politics of humanity” with hatred and really all means of confrontation. “Just don’t become criminal — not very.”

In the climate made communal by esoteric speech, there is no possibility to discuss factual arguments or objectivize factual content. Every so-called conversation does not lead to coming together but to moving apart. Facts and dates serve only to confirm the opponent’s capacity to manipulate and therefore his evil intentions. In an age of “dialogue”, there is no discourse. It sounds pathetic, but it is bitter reality. The age of Enlightenment has given way, in our latitudes, to an epoch of irrationality. The “true believers” know better. And they are dictating the social climate.

2. Society Splits Along Ideological Lines

The unbridgeable gaps resulting from this “change in atmosphere” characterize Austria’s political culture. A division that has not existed since the end of WWII marks the social condition. The aim of those who are driving European cultural transformation and population replacement is to divide society in order to permanently secure their own dominance. They are prepared to accept the collateral damage of a considerable portion of the population to satisfy their own, ideologically locked-and-loaded clientele.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/26/2016

Two Libyan migrants in Malta were arrested and charged with attempted murder for attacking three bouncers with samurai swords last weekend. The two suspects deny committing any crimes. Both of them are said to be wanted in Libya on unspecified charges.

In possibly unrelated news, the Maltese police will receive €550,000 in aid from the European Union to help them purchase bullet-proof vests and communications equipment.

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

Thanks to JD, Matt Bracken, Nick, 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 Dhimmi Archbishop of Cologne is at it Again

Rainer Maria Woelki is a cardinal in the Catholic Church, and has been the Archbishop of Cologne since he was appointed by (surprise!) Pope Francis. His Eminence was in the news last month after he made an infomercial plugging the wonderfulness of mass immigration, and posited an equivalence between minarets and church steeples in European culture.

Well, Cardinal Woelki is back. This time he had a migrant boat hauled to Cologne and propped up in front of the Cathedral so that he could preach a sermon while standing in it.

Many thanks to Egri Nök for translating this article from the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger:

Corpus Christi: Bishop Woelki delivers an impressive sermon from a refugee boat

Archbishop Cardinal Woelki had a refugee boat from the Mediterranean Sea rigged up in front of the Cathedral.

In his sermon, he called for intensified commitment for refugees.

Woelki has previously spoken out in favor of an unrestricted right to asylum.

Cologne — Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, emphatically urged for more commitment for refugees. “Whoever lets humans drown in the Mediterranean, lets God drown — every single day, a thousand times,” Woelki said on Thursday at the traditional Corpus Christi Mass on the Roncalli Square at the Cathedral of Cologne. “Whoever tortures humans to death in camps, tortures God to death — a thousand and a thousand times over.”

For the mass, the Archbishop had a seven-meter-long refugee boat from the Mediterranean Sea erected in front of the southern portal of the Cathedral, which members of the archdiocese had fetched from Malta. During the open-air mass, the boat served as the altar. Jesus Christ himself was in the midst “of this boat, that trafficked humans, young and old, women and children, across the Mediterranean Sea,” said Woelki. He called for recognizing the wounds of the crucified Jesus in the faces of the refugees of today. “No shut eyes! No deaf ears and closed mouths!”

23,000 bell tolls in the last year

The Cardinal reminded his listeners of the Action “23,000 bell tolls” with which, about a year ago, the Archbishopric of Cologne commemorated the men, women and children who drowned during their flight across the Mediterranean since the year 2000. “Hundreds of deaths have since been added, people drowned and murdered, whose hopes, whose pain, whose dreams, whose sorrow, whose families and whose life stories God alone knows,” said Woelki.

Every second Thursday after Pentecost, the Catholic Church celebrates Corpus Christi. During this, they express their belief that Christ is present in the consecrated host. Such a piece of bread is carried in an exhibition container, a monstrance, during the procession. After the mass, the procession walked through the streets of the old town.

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To Solve Problems Caused by the Multicult, Bavaria Recruits More Immigrant Police

To help solve any migrant-related problems in their community relations, the Bavarian police, at the behest of the interior ministry, are pushing to recruit more officers with a migration background. It’s not just that culture-enriching police will be able to speak Turkish to their ethnic fellows if any, ahem, issues arise — their presence on the force is proof of the successful “integration” of immigrants into Bavarian society.

Uh-huh. We’ll see how well this all works out for Modern Multicultural Bavaria…

Many thanks to Nash Montana for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below are excerpts from an article on the same topic from The Local (hat tip Fjordman):

Bavaria tries to coax migrants into police force

Bavaria’s interior ministry has started a campaign to encourage more migrants to join up as officers of the law – whether they have a German passport or not.

Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister, said that the campaign, which he announced on Monday in Nuremberg, was aimed at improving the success rate of solving crimes in his police force, the Münchener Merkur reports.

Experience shows that migrants in the police force offer “a direct line” to migrant communities because they speak the same languages and have a better understanding of people’s mentalities, said Herrmann.

Video transcript:

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