Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/31/2018

After nine years the Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi has been freed from prison. Ms. Bibi was convicted of blasphemy against Islam in 2010 and sentenced to death. Today the highest court in Pakistan voided her conviction and ordered her release.

In other news, in France more than 1,500 Moroccan minors have been arrested for crimes so far this year, but only six have been deported.

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

Thanks to Dora, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, 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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Austria Says “No” to the UN’s Cultural Enrichment Pact

The Austrian government has decided to join the United States and Hungary in not signing the UN’s migration pact. Many thanks to MissPiggy translating this brief news report, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

MissPiggy also translated the following article from Die Presse:

Austria is leaving the UN migration pact

In Trump’s and Orbán’s footsteps: The turquoise-blue government does not join the United Nations Global Agreement.

Vienna — Following the United States and Hungary, Austria will also withdraw from the global migration pact, which diplomats from more than 190 U.N. member states reached agreement on in July. Then the turquoise-blue government agreed after several weeks of wrestling. Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl is expected to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, which is available to the press. Accordingly, the Federal Government will not send a representative to the conference in Marrakesh, where the agreement is to be officially launched on 10 and 11 December. At the formal vote in a later-planned UN General Assembly, Austria wants to abstain and present its concerns in a so-called vote statement.

Why the UN migration pact is controversial

“We see some points of the migration pact as very critical, such as the mingling of those seeking asylum with labor migration,” said Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Austria would therefore not join the pact and thus prevent any possible future binding by customary international law. “This will ensure that Austria decides for itself in the future who will be allowed to immigrate and who will not,” said the ÖVP boss. Similar concerns were suggested by FPÖ vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, the driving force behind the “no” to the migration pact. “Austria must remain sovereign and self-determined on the migration issue,” he explained.

Legally non-binding anyway

If you study the UN paper more closely, your worries about a loss of sovereignty seem unjustified. Already in the preamble of the 34-page document it is stated that the agreement is not legally binding. It explicitly affirms the “sovereign right of states to determine their national migration policies themselves.” And migrants and refugees are well-distinguished. “Only refugees are entitled to specific international protection,” says the document.

The signatories also agree to coordinate border management in order to prevent irregular migration and smuggling of people. And they are committed to taking repatriated migrants home. All this is not mentioned by the turquoise-blue Council of Ministers. For this purpose, the draft for the declaration of intent before the UN states that the Austrian legal system deems a “human right to migration” as foreign. However, there is no trace of such a “human right to migration” in the UN agreement. It simply states that human rights are also valid for migrants.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/30/2018

Jair Bolsonaro, the “Tropical Trump” who was just elected president of Brazil, has reportedly carried a number of governors into office on his coattails. 12 out of 27 governors elected in Brazil are said to be Mr. Bolsonaro’s allies.

In other news, the UN refugee agency says that the United States must allow the migrant caravan from Honduras into the country.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, MC, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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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Baaaaa!

I don’t actually have any commentary on this one. Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation:

Freiburg: Eritrean arrested — Sexual assaults on women and animals

Freiburg — The investigators of the Criminal Police were able to arrest a 28-year-old man from Eritrea last Friday, October 26 2018, who is sought for several offenses in question.

The meticulous forensics of investigators in the case of a sexual assault on May 11 2018 revealed that DNA evidence collected from a 30-year-old victim matched already-existing DNA evidence. These could be secured in the context of violations of the Animal Welfare Act of 2017. The then-unknown culprit was charged with sexually targeting sheep and goats on a farm in Freiburg.

Getting an Eyeful…

…Of medicine for macular degeneration — that’s what I’ve been doing today. I had my bi-monthly appointment with the retinologist this afternoon, and received another injection in my left eye.

Today’s injection, unlike the previous two, brought with it the Dancing Air Bubble, which always makes recuperation take a little longer. It’s kind of like “follow the dancing ball”, only you can’t follow it — when your eye moves, the ball goes with it.

That’s why posting has been light today. There will, however, be a news feed before bedtime.

Apropos of nothing: while I was out today, I saw a bumper sticker (pink background, black foreground) with two stylized cats and this text: “The Pussy Whisperer”.

Terror Train to Munich

Upon the night train to Munich
Rumbling down the track…
Then you’d better pray that he doesn’t look away
Or you’ll never, never, never come back

— from “Night Train to Munich”, by Al Stewart

There were a couple of items in last night’s news feed about an attempted terror attack on a high-speed train in Bavaria, in which a steel cable was stretched across the tracks. The report from Voice of Europe referred to an article in Nord Bayern. MissPiggy found the article and translated this excerpt:

“Abstract threats”

However, the investigators made yet another explosive find: On the ground they came across a threatening message that was written in Arabic, as well as an Arabic graffiti on a bridge pillar. “The message was translated and assessed,” says Waldinger. It seems to be related to the attack on the ICE. Although the text does not contain specific threats or plans for attack, Waldinger speaks of “abstract threats”. There is no further information on the content of the message.

A longer report from PI News is below these two videos, which were also translated by MissPiggy. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling.

Video #1:

Video #2:

Here’s the report from Politically Incorrect:

“Tightrope Act”: Arabs planned a deadly attack on ICE in Bavaria

Damaged Inter City Express (ICE) — Merkel’s so-called “fleeing persons in need of protection” planned a deadly attack on hundreds of people on the railway line between Nuremberg and Munich. The attempted attack that occurred two weeks before the Bavarian election was just now made public. Coincidence?

By Max Thoma

At the beginning of October, hundreds of passengers aboard an ICE only escaped through luck a fatal catastrophe between Allersberg and Neumarkt / Oberpfalz. While driving, their express broke through a treacherously designed barrier — the Bavarian security authorities are now examining evidence of an Islamic terrorist background: The Prosecutor General of Bavaria has taken over the investigation, together with the Munich Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism.

The State Office for Criminal Investigations (LKA) investigates failed terrorist attack

“There was an incident on 7 October,” confirmed a spokesman for the Bavarian State Office for Criminal Investigation. On the route from Nuremberg, traveling in the direction of Munich, the train driver noticed a suspicious noise, and then noticed damage to the ICE at the terminal station in Munich, he explained. Investigators later found a threatening letter and “graffiti” in Arabic, which were verified as authentic.

Video transcript #1:

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Anchor Babies’ Scam and the 14th Amendment

This video by Dr. Turley is quite succinct about the issues surrounding the latest Trump kerfluffle. Make no mistake: while Trump’s announcements may look random, they’re not. Unlike his tweets, his public announcements are part of his larger design to put a halt to the depredations he sees being inflicted on the U.S.

This time, we have President Trump’s announcement about his decision to sign an Executive Order doing away with the concept of anchor babies as a way to get a toehold in the U.S. If you listen carefully you can hear leftist heads exploding from coast to coast.

Dr. Turley provides a brief explanation of the origin of the 14th Amendment and its later abuse by “open borders” advocates. He enlarges the picture to include Europe, pointing to Denmark as leading the charge for welfare “chauvinism” – i.e., that benefits belong first of all to citizens, not to immigrants. [To Danes: please walk across the bridge and tell that to Sweden.]

This latest announcement by President Trump simply follows up on his promise during the primaries to end the whole anchor baby scam. He and Jeb Bush went toe-to-toe in this conflict of ideologies. This new announcement – that he’ll sign an Executive Order ending it – now comes during the last week of the mid-terms. The timing is on purpose.

No wonder there is growing interest about Trump among the black populace. They have been the big losers in the immigration scuffles. Perhaps the Dems thought they had “the black vote” sewed up, thus making it safe for them to promote the new victims…Trump is about to change that, has already changed it. Whether the change makes a difference in the outcomes of the mid-term elections remains to be seen.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/29/2018

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she is stepping down as leader of her party, the CDU. She will remain chancellor, but said she will not seek the position again in the next election, which is more than four years away.

In other news, Stefan Löfven, the former Prime Minister of Sweden and the leader of the Social Democrats, said that he is once again unable to form a government, two months after the Swedish general election.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Dora, DV, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, RR, Salome, SS, 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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Thilo Sarrazin, Part 3: Muslims Are Going to Become the Majority

Below is the third of four parts of the appearance by Thilo Sarrazin on the TV program “Talk in Hangar 7” (previously: Part 1, Part 2). In this segment the argument becomes really heated.

To recapitulate the cast of characters: in addition to Mr. Sarrazin, there is a Viennese schoolteacher named Susanne Wiesinger, who has also written a book, an imam named Abdul Adhim Kamouss, and the host, whose name I forget.

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

Video transcript:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/28/2018

The Greens and the AfD were the big winners in today’s local elections in the German state of Hesse. The AfD gained almost 10% to win more than 13% of the vote. The “center” parties — the SPD and the CDU — were the big losers.

In other news, the “Tropical Trump” Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil with more than 50% of the popular vote in a runoff election.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, 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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Elisabeth’s Voice — Now More Than Ever

We reported on Friday that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had finally handed down its decision on the appeal by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff against her conviction in Austria for “hate speech”. The court ruled against her, saying that the Austrian law under which she was tried was within acceptable limits, and did not violate her human rights, because it served the higher good of protecting religious feelings and keeping the religious peace.

The ECHR’s decision has given far more prominence to Elisabeth’s case than it has ever had before. At the bottom of this post is a list of 68 English-language media reports on the decision. The outlets include The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Al Arabiya, The Atlantic, Fox News, National Review, Newsweek, The Telegraph, and numerous others.

I recommend that Elisabeth’s supporters augment this wave of publicity in any way they can. If you keep a blog, you could feature her case and the court’s decision. If you comment on news sites or post on forums, you can inject the topic into the conversation.

Ultimately, this case is not just about Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff. Everyone who falls under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights — which means not only those in Western Europe, but Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, the Baltics, Romania, Bulgaria, and even Russia — has been put on notice: If you say anything that “disturbs the religious peace” — i.e., offends Muslims — your speech is no longer protected by human rights laws.

I can guarantee you that the Muslim world has taken note of the ECHR’s decision. Al Arabiya is not the only Islamic outlet that reported on the decision — check the list for other news sites in the Middle East and South Asia, especially Pakistan.

Once again, I must emphasize the exact words spoken by Elisabeth concerning Mohammed’s marriage to Aisha, for which she was prosecuted and convicted. They were: “What do you call it if not ‘pedophilia’?”

It was a question she raised in a private conversation, and then recounted during her seminar. That was what the entire case against her was built on.

She also remarked that the prophet of Islam “had a thing for little girls.” It’s no longer legal to say those things (and variants on them) in Austria, as confirmed by the ECHR. However, it IS legal to say this:

“Muhammad’s wife Aisha entered the marriage at age 6, which was consummated at the age of 9.”— Higher Court of Vienna, decision Dec 20, 2011

or in German:

„Mohammeds Frau Aischa wurde mit 6 Jahren verheiratet. Die Ehe wurde vollzogen, als sie 9 Jahre alt war.” — Laut OLG Wien, Urteil vom 20.12.2011

The ECHR decision does NOT impact on any Austrian’s right to say those things, because they were stated in the public record by the highest court in Vienna.

As I remarked back in December 2011, on the day of the higher court’s decision:

As reported in the live-blog earlier today, the high-court judge in Vienna actually allowed the quoting of an authoritative hadith in the courtroom: “Muhammad’s wife Aisha entered the marriage at age 6, which was consummated at the age of 9.” He then acknowledged that the passage was already public knowledge, and thus repeating it could not be punishable under the law.

He upheld Elisabeth’s conviction, however, based on a somewhat peculiar interpretation of Austrian law: to say “Mohammed had a thing for little girls” is an “excess of opinion” that cannot be tolerated. It constitutes ridicule, and is not justifiable.

An interesting and useful corollary can be derived from today’s ruling: it is now completely legal to quote in public the authoritative hadith about Mohammed’s sex acts with a nine-year-old girl. A precedent was established today — at least in Austria.

To that end, one of our Austrian contacts conceived the idea for the Aisha Billboard Project, which would go on prominent display somewhere in Vienna. The digitally-created billboard below shows the German-language version:

And the English translation:

However, a financial backer for the project could never be found. Which is understandable — People in Europe are really scared to stick their necks out, and with good reason. It may be officially legal to say what’s on that billboard, but that doesn’t mean it’s prudent. One’s life may be so easily ruined by the government, or the private sector, or by both working in tandem.

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Below the jump is the list of news reports in English about the ECHR’s decision, kindly compiled by Henrik Clausen. There have also been a number of op-eds about the case (including one by Douglas Murray).

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/27/2018

A man named Robert Bowers entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh during services and started shooting people. Eleven people were killed, and six others were wounded, including three police officers. The gunman is alleged to have said “All Jews must die” as he was taken into custody. In the wake of the shooting, prominent Democrat politicians are calling for stricter gun control.

In other news, Angela Merkel’s CDU party is expected to experience significant losses in tomorrow’s local elections in Hesse.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, 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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