BBC Interview With Michael Stürzenberger

Michael Stürzenberger is the leader of the Munich branch of the party Die Freiheit, and is one of the most well-known activists leading the resistance to the Islamization of Germany. Last night Mr. Stürzenberger was interviewed by the BBC when he was in Cologne for the truncated KÖGIDA demonstration.

The following audio doesn’t identify the person being interviewed, but according to Politically Incorrect, it is indeed Michael Stürzenberger:

Previous posts about Michael Stürzenberger and Die Freiheit in Munich:

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The Civilization Jihad Reader

Continuing its efforts to expose the extent to which shariah law has infiltrated the American judicial system, the Center for Security Policy has just announced a new initiative: a monograph detailing examples in which parties to litigation attempted to have their cases decided according to Islamic law.

Below is the latest press release from CSP.

Shariah in America Courts 2.0: Center’s New Civilization Jihad Reader Series Starts With the Penetration of Our Legal System

(Washington, DC): Center for Security Policy Press today launched a collection of monographs called the Civilization Jihad Reader Series with the publication of an update to an earlier and highly influential study concerning the insinuation of Islam’s supremacist shariah legal code into the U.S. judiciary. Entitled Shariah in American Courts: The Expanding Incursion of Islamic Law in the U.S. Legal System, this inaugural booklet documents 146 cases in 32 states in which a party to litigation attempted to have the matter resolved by applying shariah, rather than the statutes of the state in question.

The Center first raised an alarm about the penetration of American jurisprudence by one of the most anti-constitutional of such foreign legal codes with its 2011 report, Shariah Law and American State Courts: An Assessment of State Appellate Court Cases. That study examined a sample of fifty cases and found that in twenty-seven of them, in twenty-three different states, the courts in question allowed the use of shariah, generally to the detriment of women and/or children whose rights under our Constitution were infringed.

With the bedrock of the American Republic being the U.S. Constitution and individual state constitutions derived therefrom, these analyses provide insights into how our own legal system can be — and is being — used as a mechanism to anchor and expand in this country shariah, an ideology wholly at odds with such documents and, more generally, irreconcilable with freedom and democracy.

Most Americans take the rule of law and our constitutional rights for granted. Yet, Shariah in American Courts is a reminder of how even institutions like our judiciary can be influenced — and potentially subverted — by foreign legal codes and practices, to the grave detriment of our nation and liberties.

This monograph also suggests that the effort to invoke shariah in U.S. courts is expanding. Worse yet, the total number of such cases is surely far larger in light of the fact that the proceedings of the vast majority of them are not published.

As the new monograph establishes, moreover, there is reason to believe that the surge in such cases is the result of the activism of Muslim Brotherhood-tied groups like the Association of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA). The Brotherhood is an Islamic supremacist organization whose mission according to its secret plan (The Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal of the Group in North America), is to “destroy Western Civilization from within.”

The good news is that, at least at the appellate level, judges appear increasingly to be rejecting the use of shariah in their courtrooms. A contributing factor to these rulings may be the rising awareness in the judiciary of what is afoot, thanks to the adoption in numerous states of legislation drawing upon a model statute known as “American Laws for American Courts” (ALAC).

While the average citizen of this country would assume it to be the case that only laws derived from or consistent with our Constitution would be applied in U.S. courts at both the federal and state level, the evidence that foreign laws — including, but not limited to, shariah — are encroaching has moved legislatures across the country to act. Tennessee, Louisiana, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Washington and Alabama have adopted ALAC’s prohibitions against the use of such foreign laws in their respective state courts if they are at odds with constitutional rights or state public policy. (Florida also enacted in 2014 a version of this legislation).

In unveiling the release of the Center for Security Press’ newest publication, the Center’s President Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., observed:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/5/2015

Today the euro fell to a low against other currencies that it has not seen since 2006. The currency markets were reacting to clear signals that the ECB would initiate another round of quantitative easing, and to the possibility that Greece would exit the Eurozone.

In other news, three jihad commanders in Chechnya and three in Dagestan swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Caliph of the Islamic State.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, SR, 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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David Cameron? Disamis and Bokardo!

Below is the third article in a series by Nick McAvelly using formal logic to critique the words of British Prime Minister David Cameron (previously: The Cameron Creature and Cameron Must Go!). It was originally posted at Patriot’s Corner in a slightly different form.


“If you don’t like me, I won’t be here forever.” — David Cameron
(image © Stavros Damos | Dreamstime.com)

David Cameron? Disamis and Bokardo!

by Nick McAvelly

At a speech he performed in front of a Christian audience in 2011, David Cameron acknowledged that he is not a religious scholar, and stated clearly that he does not claim to be an authority when it comes to matters of religion. Addressing a Muslim audience three years later, Mr. Cameron again said that he was not a religious scholar, and made it clear to everyone in Britain that despite having had the finest higher education that money can buy before he began his political career, and having had plenty time to study the subject since, when it comes to Islamic doctrines and practices, he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Mr. Cameron’s ignorance did not prevent him from making a significant official pronouncement to the British people following the brutal slaying of an unarmed British soldier by two jihadists, men who had adopted the Islamic names Mujahid Abu Hamza and Ismael Ibn Abdullah, and who openly acknowledged that they had betrayed Great Britain and committed murder on behalf of the ummah, the international Muslim community. The murderer Abu Hamza stated that they were following commands found in surah at-taubah (the ninth surah of the Koran but one of the last to be written) when he and his accomplice stalked an unarmed soldier before murdering him in the streets of our nation’s capital. As we all know, it is usual to accept the confession of a murderer. Nevertheless, despite his own ignorance of the subject, David Cameron stood before the television cameras after Lee Rigby was murdered and stated that there were no Islamic doctrines which justified such violent acts. In logical terms, this is a universal negative proposition (also known as an E proposition).

Mr. Cameron provided the reasoning behind his assertion at an Eid reception on 8th October 2014, saying that he had met a woman at a Conservative party conference who happened to be a Muslim. This woman, who owned two restaurants, reminded him of all the hard working people in the UK who also happened to be Muslims. Therefore, according to Mr. Cameron, Islam is a religion of peace.

Mr. Cameron has employed three terms here (‘Islam’, ‘that which is peaceful’ and ‘Muslims’ behaviour’) but he has only used two premises. Laid out formally, Mr. Cameron’s argument is:

Premise 1.   Some Muslims’ behaviour is peaceful.
Conclusion.   All Islamic doctrines are peaceful.
 

Obviously, the conclusion does not follow. Mr. Cameron has presented an enthymemetic argument, which means that it contains an unspoken premise. Remember, Mr. Cameron has admitted he is no expert on Islamic doctrines, so we know that he does not have the knowledge needed to formulate a doctrinal argument. Instead, he must provide an evidential argument to support his position. This means that he must link Muslims’ behaviour and Islamic doctrines. In logical terms, the unspoken premise must link the middle and minor terms of his argument in a particular way. (I have explained this logical point in my essay The Cameron Analysis.) So Mr. Cameron’s argument ends up being:

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The Anti-PEGIDA Media

As a number of commentators have recently pointed out, the political oligarchs and media mandarins in Europe are very worried about the meteoric rise of PEGIDA* in Germany, and are doing everything they can to help squelch it. If you check the headlines on Google News, you’ll note that the MSM coverage of tonight’s PEGIDA-related rallies is focused more on the anti-PEGIDA counter-demonstrators than on PEGIDA itself.

An estimated 18,000 people attended the demonstration in Dresden tonight. This UPI story is typical of the coverage, but this Bloomberg article is more balanced.

Here’s what CNN had to say about KÖGIDA (the Cologne version of PEGIDA), which had scheduled a rally in front of Cologne Cathedral tonight:

As it happens, tonight’s KÖGIDA demo had to be cancelled:

Anti-Islamist ‘Pegida’ supporters have had to cancel their appearance in Cologne, where thousands of demonstrators showed solidarity with migrants. However, thousands of anti-Islamists showed up in the city of Dresden.

20,000 residents in Cologne and neighboring areas gathered on the streets to demonstrate against the anti-immigrant movement, Pegida.

Overwhelming support for immigrants and asylum seekers in Cologne led to the Pegida demonstrators cancelling their appearance. Citizens in Cologne shouted out in jubilation, the sole goal of their demonstration being to prevent the Kögida- the name of the anti-Islam movement in Cologne- from marching in their city.

Rembrandt Clancy sends this summary of a local media report on Cologne that appeared earlier today, before the cancellation of the demo:

It is not just the lights of the Cologne Cathedral that were going out. The following is the substance of what appeared in the Kölner Stadt Anzeiger today:

Counter-protesters will attempt to block the PEGIDA demonstration: “They want to make it impossible for ‘KÖGIDA’ to move through the city”; hence the paper is announcing that an illegal action is to be undertaken.

The paper continues: The counter-protest is an alliance of 43 individual organisations, parties and associations “against racism”.

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PEGIDA in Sweden

The founder of PEGIDA in Sweden hopes for thousands of people take to the streets to protest the Islamization of Sweden:

From the notes for the video:

Founder of the Swedish branch of PEGIDA Henrik Ronnquist defended the organisation in Malmö on Monday, denying the organisation is racist and saying he wants thousands upon thousands of Swedes to vocally oppose the ‘Islamisation’ of the country.

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/4/2015

A 23-year-old “Frenchman” tried to strangle a policeman while shouting “Allahu akhbar”. The young man attempted the assault while he was in a holding cell after being caught purse-snatching. The victim’s fellow officers saw the attack on CCTV and rushed to save their comrade. His attacker is said to have a history of mental illness. The incident had nothing to do with Islam.

In other news, activists from Boko Haram overran a multi-national military base in northeastern Nigeria. The soldiers defending the base were relieved to learn that the attack had nothing to do with Islam.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, K, Papa Whiskey, RR, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

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The German Festival of Madness

Below is an excellent op-ed by Henryk Broder that was published on December 20 in Die Welt. Many thanks to JLH for the translation:

The German Festival of Madness

At the most recent protests, what does not belong together grows apart. On one side, politics which decree what a person here is allowed to think. On the other, the allegedly “stupid” people.

by Henryk Broder

[Video caption: In Dresden, the PEGIDA alliance gathers for the 10th time. 10,000 demonstrators come — more than ever before. The alliance gives itself out as sophisticated. But their statements sound different. (Source: DIE WELT)]

Oh, how we puffed up and trembled with superiority when the election results came in from other countries. These Dutch with their Geert Wilders! The French with Marine Le Pen! Beppo Grillo in Italy, Pia Kjærsgaard in Denmark, Nigel Farage in Great Britain, the Sweden Democrats in Sweden, Vlaams Belang in Belgium. Golden Dawn in Greece — right populists moving into power everywhere in Europe. And we… we could not fathom it.

More — we were outraged, horrified, shocked and repulsed, And when the Swiss voted on a ban on minarets and a limitation on immigration, we called out to the Swiss across the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen: That’s not the way, dear comrades; you are destroying your democracy.

We acted like a nun preaching morality to the whores on the Reeperbahn. We told them all how to act — like us! But now the bloom is off the rose. First the AfD, then PEGIDA. As if Godfrey of Bouillon were risen from the dead to lead his armies to Jerusalem.

“Neo-Nazis in Pinstripes”?

“Of course there is a right to demonstrate in Germany. But there is no place for baiting and slandering people who come to us from other lands,” says the Chancellor. Everyone should “take care that he is not being used by the instigators of such an event.” The party leader of the SPD in the Bundestag, Thomas Oppermann, says “These are not patriots; they are nationalists and racists, who are fanning people’s fears and want to divide society.” The North Rhine-Westphalia interior minister, Ralf Jäger — also SPD — sees “Neo-Nazis in pinstripes” at work here.

That is to say: the chancellor will decide where the freedom to demonstrate ends and persecution and slander begin, just as she has already classified a certain book as “not very helpful.”[1] As for the SPD, who in their long history have been called “vagabonds without a country,” they have developed a litmus test to distinguish patriots from nationalists and racists. Anyone who fails this test is relegated to “Nazis in pinstripes.” They are, as Wolfgang Schäuble says, “a disgrace for Germany.”[2]

What we have been witnessing for several months in Germany is a festival of madness, whose protagonists are not crazed petit bourgeois, not nationalists or racists, not even Nazis in pinstripes, but serious, pillar-of-the-state politicians who are acting like feudal princes at the end of the 18th century, and do not want to share their power and privilege with anyone.

No Stupider Than Augstein and Todenhöfer[3]

The understanding of democracy they reveal is static, not dynamic. Democracy not as a “work in progress” but as finished, and to be preserved as-is. Not a workshop with its activity, with sparks flying, people hammering, sweating; rather a neat little boutique with its wares perfectly aligned on the shelves. And a sign on the door: “All prices as marked. If you wish to bargain, try somewhere else.”

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The Internal Islamic Battle for Interpretive Primacy

The following article from Die Welt is an attempt by a major MSM outlet to grapple with the Arab world’s failure to confront the horror unleashed in its midst by the Islamic State. Unfortunately, like all other MSM outlets, it tackles the topic gingerly, without looking the core ideology of Islam straight in the eye.

However, the fact that it is willing to tiptoe up to the subject at all is significant in itself. Its treatment of the mess in Middle East includes a clear acknowledgement that the “Arab Spring” was an abject failure, when most journalists have consigned that topic to the oubliette of history. “Arab Spring, you say? Oh, that’s so 2011!”

A possibility that Die Welt is clearly unwilling to consider is that most Muslim leaders are silent in the face of the Islamic State because the slave-taking beheaders of ISIS have interpreted Islamic law exactly according to tradition, and are acting accordingly. All the despots and Muslim scholars from Rabat to Sana’a are fully aware of that fact.

Many thanks to JLH for the translation:

The Internal Islamic Battle for Interpretive Primacy

What remains of the Arab Spring in light of IS, al-Qaida and the other barbarians? Jordan’s Queen Rania has called for reform. But there is not much to indicate that it will happen.

by Dietrich Alexander

Why is the radical Islamic terrorist militia, Islamic State (IS) so successful in recruiting new fighters? How can this nihilistic and misanthropic brutality have any meaning? And above all, Why is the Arab world so tongue-tied, bereft of ideas and defenseless? The voice of Jordanian Queen Rania falls on deaf ears across the Arab-Islamic world. In an eloquent, emotional and courageous exhortation, she denounced the fanatics of the terrorist militia for stealing the identities of the Arab nations, perverting Islam and altering and damaging the Arab-Islamic narrative.

She also blasted Arab rulers, whose silence has left the field of publicity and ideology, and therefore the primacy in interpretation, in the hands of the murderous sacred warriors.

Such public comments are rare, and there are reasons for that. The IS is in a way a reservoir for the frustrated, those without prospects, the politically and economically disappointed, the losers. How can all the Arabic legal scholars, politicians and power elite be expected to suddenly have answers and strategies to counter such entities as IS, when they have never had them before?

The Coalition of the Obstinate

There are only egotistical and power-obsessed rulers, autocratic religious leaders and economic monopolists, for whom their own hold on power and influence is more important than the general welfare and something as demanding as democracy.

Arab intellectuals do not resist the kidnapping of their religion, because they are afraid. Legal scholars do not resist, because wide arch- conservative circles — above all on the Arabian Peninsula — would desert them. And the rulers do not resist, because they do not want the changes — do not want to arouse the Islamist clientele in their own countries against themselves; and they probably think that the IS is a temporary phenomenon that will take care of itself.

But they are all wrong. If and when IS is defeated by the military superiority of the anti-terror alliance, its spiritual heritage will live on and generate other Islamist terrorist organizations.

Where is the Islamic Reformation?

This will go on until the Arabic world undergoes a Reformation — an Enlightenment, at the end of which not a stone is left standing. But it does not have the courage for that. Like a rabbit facing a snake, it goggles in irresponsible apathy, watching the violent excesses of Islamist killers.

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/3/2015

The far-left Syriza party stands poised to win the snap election in Greece. When it takes office it may well decide to abandon the country’s current austerity policy, which was required by the Troika in return for continuing bailouts. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has indicated that if that happens, there will be no more bailouts, and Greece will be allowed to depart from the Eurozone.

In other news, a Norwegian cargo ship capsized and sank off Vietnam. Of the 19-member Filipino crew, only the cook survived.

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

Thanks to AP, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Papa Whiskey, 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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Östersund: Worse than War-Ravaged Syria

On New Year’s Eve a group of culture-enriching asylum seekers refused to get off a bus at Östersund in northern Sweden, in protest against the deficiencies of the place to which they had been driven. They objected vociferously to the bitter weather, and the fact that the center was far away from any urban amenities.

Our Swedish correspondent Alfred Fredriksson sends this report on the New Year’s asylum crisis in the far north of Sweden.

Östersund: Worse than War-Ravaged Syria

by Alfred Fredriksson

The Swedish multiculturalist establishment recently abolished parliamentary democracy when the Center-right Alliance abandoned their role as opposition parties in the December Agreement. The prime purpose of this agreement is to ensure that mass immigration can continue and that the patriotic party, the Sweden Democrats, won’t gain any influence on public policy. The mass immigration that they defend so fervently has soared to new heights 2014, with 81,000 asylum seekers and 42,000 relatives, mostly from Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. This is the highest rate of asylum seekers per capita in all of Europe by far.

While the report about the number of asylum seekers did not come until New Year’s Day, we were reminded of our multicultural future the day before. This New Year’s was celebrated explosively by some parts of the population. Gangs of immigrant youths terrorized the local population in immigrant-dominated areas by shooting fireworks at pedestrians and cars. In Växsjö, cars were set ablaze, and when police arrive they were forced to flee after being attacked by stones and fireworks. Similar events occurred in many cities such as Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Linköping.

The most interesting story, however, was the protest by a group of asylum seekers in the northern Swedish city of Östersund. They had arrived in Malmö and applied for asylum, which was of course granted, as Sweden grants asylum and permanent residency to all Syrians and Eritreans. They were then placed on a bus and taken to a residence near Östersund. When they arrived, thirty of the sixty so-called “refugees” refused to get off the bus and demanded to be taken back to Malmö. Here are some of the comments from people supposedly fleeing “war, death and persecution”, as the establishment usually puts it.

While pointing at the ice Isan Hydr said:

“I am 75 years old and come from the Middle East. So I get sent to a place that looks like this? It is dangerous for me to be here.

“It feels like a prison, in the middle of the woods. Sure, I could stay here for a few weeks or at most a couple of months. Now I am staying here nine months. I usually play music and write songs. I can’t do that here, I die inside of living here.”

Muhammad added:

“Either they get us out of here or give us better facilities, otherwise we will go on a hunger strike.”

The “refugees” claimed that they were lured to Grytan asylum home in Östersund and that they had been promised residency in Malmö.

Moaweyh Ramliy from Palestine said that he thought they were going on a short bus ride to an asylum home in Malmö and added:

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Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/2/2015

In the wake of three attacks on mosques since Christmas Day, concerned citizens have staged rallies all across Sweden in support of Muslims. Demonstrations protesting the vandalism and arson against mosques took place in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö.

In other news, a Spanish policeman was killed when he was pushed under a train at a station in Madrid after asking a man to show his identity papers.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, K, Papa Whiskey, RL, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

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Blows Against the Empires

Daniel Greenfield has posted a superb essay entitled “The Two Empires We Must Defeat” on the Sultan Knish blog . I always agree with what Mr. Greenfield has to say, but never more so than in this case. His lucidity of analysis is unmatched.

He opens his piece with an explanation of the two empires that are currently suffocating the remnants of Western Civilization:

There is a thread that connects many of our conflicts, whether it’s the one against terrorism or the one between the Republican establishment and its conservative insurgency. To win a war, we have to understand the nature of the conflict and how we got there. And that’s often the missing piece.

The left blames imperialism for our conflict with terrorists. And it’s right. Just not in the way that it thinks.

Empires may be expansionist, but they’re also tolerant and multicultural. They have to be, since out of their initial phase they have to enlist the cooperation and services of subjects from a variety of cultures and religions. An empire may initially be fueled by the talents and skills of a core nation, but as it reaches its next phase, it begins sacrificing their interests to the larger structure of empire.

The argument between the establishments of the right and the left is over two different kinds of empires. The Republican establishment in America and its various center-right counterparts abroad have attached themselves to the liberal vision of a transnational empire of international law so much that they have forgotten that this vision came from the left, rather than from the right.

This Empire of International Law proved to have some uses for global trade and security, particularly during the Cold War. These practical arrangements however are overshadowed by the fact that it, like every empire, sacrifices the interests of its peoples to its own structure. This is true of the structure at every level, from the EU to the Federal structure of the United States. The system has displaced the people. And the system runs on principles that require cheap labor leading to policies like amnesty.

The Empire of International Law needs Muslim immigrants even if its people don’t, because it envisions integrating them and their countries into this arrangement and rejects national interests as narrow-minded and nativist.

This formerly liberal vision now embraced largely by centrists is the left’s vision, which includes today’s liberals, is of a completely transnational ideological empire in which there are no borders, but there are countless activists, in which everything and everyone are controlled by the state.

Like the more conventional imperial vision, the left’s red Empire of Ideology depends on enlisting Muslims and Muslim countries into its ranks. This is the basis of the Red-Green alliance.

These two types of imperialists are incapable of representing native workers or communities because they are transnationalists. Their vision is cosmopolitan, rather than representative. They are entranced with a byzantine international arrangement and uninterested in the lives of the people they are ruining.

This Imperial blindness is why the West is falling so swiftly to Islam. It’s why the pockets of resistance are coming from nations outside the imperial sphere.

This is the heart of his argument:

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