Sharia Patrols in London, Revisited

Yesterday we reported on a group of young Muslim men who accost pedestrians in certain parts of east London. They insist that their turf is a “Muslim area”, and require that non-Muslims observe the appropriate dress code and the Islamic proscription on alcohol while they are there. The original post included an embedded video taken by the group and posted on their YouTube account.

Since then YouTube has yanked the video, on the grounds that it was “intended to harass, bully and threaten.” However, for the sake of the historical record of these dire times, Vlad Tepes has preserved a (slightly augmented) copy at MRC TV:

Outage Report

Chancellorsville Ruins #1

As you all know by now, our blog was suddenly removed last night between 8 and 9pm EST for no apparent reason. Blogger never provided any explanation before, during, or after the outage. I assume it was an internal technical problem at Google.

Below is a portion of a mass email I sent out earlier today to dozens of people who had written to us to ask what happened:

Blogger “removed” our blog suddenly last night. One second it was there; the next it was gone. If we had violated their terms of service, we should have received an email, according to their own established procedure. But we received no email.

I retain my “dashboard” account, as does Dymphna. And, as you can see, I still have the gmail account.

There is no “deleted blogs” link on our dashboards, as there should be if the blog had been deleted deliberately through a normal procedure.

Late last night I began the process that one always goes through with Blogger: we posted requests on the help forum. That’s really all that can be done; you can’t talk to human beings where Google is concerned. We actually received a response, which is unusual with Google. Based on the replies, there seems to have been a major problem with Blogger last night. Many other blogs disappeared in the same fashion.

I anticipate that this is most likely a technical glitch on Google’s part, based on the number and types of blogs that had the same thing happen to them last night. But we should know for certain within another day or two.

It’s also possible (but far less likely, in my estimation) that we were taken down for political reasons. If it was a deliberate take-down, we will migrate to another platform with our own domain. We back up the entire blog frequently, so only a few posts will be missing when we restore.

This is all that we know at present. I’ll send out more emails if I find out anything else. Dymphna will also send out Twitter messages.

Thank you all for your concern and support.

Now the blog has reappeared just as mysteriously as it disappeared. No message, no explanation.

All indications are that this was a technical glitch at Google, given how many other blogs were affected, including lots of non-political ones.

It seems extremely unlikely that there was any political component to the outage. Nevertheless, we will continue with our “disaster preparedness” policy, with an eye towards an eventual migration to a secure platform, one that we have complete control over.

Thanks to everyone for all the emails, skype messages, blog posts, Facebook posts, and tweets. It’s gratifying to know how many friends we have!

Reclaiming Our Brains

Prompted by yesterday’s translation about the cultural enrichment of public schools in Oslo, our Austrian correspondent AMT has written a call for her fellow Austrians to take back their country from the Multiculturalists who are leading it to destruction.

Ummah Austria

Managing Diversity
by AMT

As usual, it’s all about diversity management, integration, and migration background. That’s all it’s ever about. German president Joachim Gauck has recently appealed to Germans to show more enthusiasm towards migrants, to welcome them. Germans should also be aware of the enrichment emanating from migrants, “if only Germans would allow it.” Does this include allowing sharia law? As one commentator put it, “I am still of the opinion that I have the right to believe that some migrants are welcome and other are dangerous to our country and our freedom. This is my damned right, at least it was up until now. Or will our brains soon be implanted with chips?”

We, the people of our different nations in the realm of democracy, are supposed to be the ones making decisions via our elected officials. But we aren’t. We are merely riding shotgun in a car that is driving down the road to hell, a hell that is fast turning the majority into the minority. That is, the minority is reaping the rewards of the majority without returning much, if anything, to the majority. That’s what it should be all about, right? A give-and-take, solidarity, friendship. But if there are only a few givers and many takers, the so-called solidarity is nowhere to be found.

It is obvious that we, the soon-to-be minority, are no longer making any decisions, for if we were in fact in charge, we would have been asked if we agreed with the policies of uncontrolled immigration. We were not asked. Ever.

If we were in charge, we would be able to speak out about the pitfalls and dangers of some groups that are obviously are not interested in the values of Western liberal democracies, the equality of men and women before the law, or the principles of universal human rights. We are no longer able to discuss the negative aspects of the immigration of certain groups. We are immediately branded as “Nazis”, “racists”, “right-wing extremists”. We lose our jobs, our income, our livelihoods, sometimes, tragically, even our families.

If we, the majority, were in charge, we would not have to fund unlimited language studies for those migrants who are not even remotely interested in teaching their children rudimentary language skills, whose neglect thereby limits their children from participating in school and setting the stage for school drop-outs. Many of those children then go on to a career in thuggery, thievery and worse. The point here is that it is the parents, of whatever or no migration background, who still bear the primary responsibility for their children. They are the ones who are in charge of ensuring their children’s language skills. They should also be compelled to pay for their kids’ acquisition of these skills.

If we were truly in charge, we would not allow the judiciary to exhibit leniency towards criminals and murderers “with a migration background” due to “cultural sensitivities.” Men and women, regardless of background, religion, economic status, are to be dealt with according to the law. But in many instances we cannot even criticize the decisions of the courts without being called derogatory names.

If we were truly in charge, we would make sure that primary schools, such as those in Vienna and Oslo and elsewhere, would not have to deal with the consequences of having more than 50% of students with immigrant background. Most of those students do not have the necessary language skills, which thus limits those students who do and who are able to follow the curriculum.

But we are no longer allowed to criticize this situation, for all of this is subsumed in “diversity”. It is diversity for the majority to be left behind as the minority struggles to keep up.

We, the taxpayers, have the privilege of funding those migrants who refuse to do their part. We are not asked whether we agree with all of this.

The goodies are mind-boggling:

  • Ten million euros per year for language support in kindergartens. Prior to approximately 1990, none of this was needed.
  • Free language courses for migrants. Hello! These courses are not free! They are paid for by the taxpayer!
  • Mentoring in and by the Chamber of Commerce. Who will mentor the majority?
  • Dialog Forum Islam. Imams are to be trained in Austria and in German. Fine, but what about the suras calling for the death of apostates and non-Muslims? What difference does it make if this is taught in German? Official Austria still does not know the teachings of Islam. Until then, the taxpayer still gets to fund the religious education of Muslim students.

Day after day, we are told that our countries would cease to function without migrants, that they are subjected to nonstop discrimination, and that their lives are hell.

If their lives in their new country are indeed hell, as they claim, then why on earth are they here? Could there be an ulterior motive?

Let us reclaim the driver’s seat. Let us speak up and call a spade a spade.

We do not want sharia law in our freedom-loving societies. Never.

We do not want our children to be held back by those who refuse to learn German.

We do not want uncontrolled immigration.

Our countries offer opportunities. We, the majority, reject the exploitation of opportunities, for they come at a cost.

To our elected officials: Do not tell us that diversity and migrants are just great when reality shows us that this is far from true. Stop humiliating those migrants who are well-integrated, who pay taxes and whose children and grandchildren speak fluent German and who feel, who are Austrian or German. In short, those migrants who are no longer migrants but hardworking and loyal additions to Austria or Germany.

This is actually a no-brainer.

Let us reclaim our brains. Let’s wake up.

Sharia Patrols in London

A group of aggressive Muslim vigilantes in London is harassing non-Muslims for their dress, alcohol consumption, and other “non-Islamic” behavior in what it designates as Muslim areas of the city. The video below, which was posted on the group’s YouTube channel, shows the sharia patrols in action:

As the Commentator points out, YouTube has already taken some of the videos down for violating its policies:

So far, the group has posted two videos to its new YouTube account which was set up in December 2012. The first video shows the destruction of advertising and vandalising of bus shelters, both displaying images of H&M push-up bras. The second video sees the ‘vigilantes’ approaching and harassing members of the public for either consuming alcohol, dressing ‘inappropriately’, or being inebriated near a mosque.

Several of the videos uploaded to the account have already been removed as they violated YouTube’s terms and conditions. One specifically states that YouTube deemed it intentionally “designed to bully, harass and threaten”.

The footage is likely to have come from East London, where ‘Shariah zones’ were set up last year. The new tactic of intimidation is said to appall local residents, who will likely find the ‘patrols’ disconcerting.

In the videos, the ‘Muslim Patrol’ is heard to say, “Alcohol banned. This is a Muslim area. Muslims patrol the area.”

Vlad Tepes has this to say about the situation:

The ‘Balkanization’ of England and Western nations, and the cost of Islamic immigration “A Muslim patrol”

So what does it mean to have millions of Muslims in a nation, especially in an era of political correctness and moral and cultural relativism? Well here is a pretty good example of the latter stages of ‘No Go Zone’ creation, where the state cedes all sovereignty to hostiles and accepts the moderately paced erosion of the nation state, selectively applying all of its own laws only against the indigenous Western minded people to the advantage of the violent invaders. Why? Because governments prefer the illusion of peace and security even temporarily to the application of force on its own streets. Partially because of the ideology of those in charge, but likely just as much because of how the media will present it if the West fights back to enforce its own values on its own jurisdictions.

It could be added that the class with influence in England especially does not live anywhere near these “Muslim areas” and the class that does, is widely viewed as the great unwashed by the non-working class. And any attempt to even sound the alarm by the indigenous British who live in these areas are met with force due to the perversion of the constabulary from an organization that enforces British law, to one that guarantees political hegemony at the cost of British law.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/15/2013

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/15/2013The latest “grooming and pimping” trial is underway in the venerable English city of Oxford. Nine culturally enriched men (Mohammed Coefficient: 22%) are charged with intimidating, threatening, beating, exploiting, and pimping out girls as young as 11 years old.

In other news, a Coptic center for social services, which contained a kindergarten and a reception hall, was attacked and destroyed by a mob of Egyptian Muslims. The crowd had been aroused by area mosques after rumors went around that local Christians were building a church.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Kitman, Mary Abdelmassih, 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.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

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.

The Imran Firasat Case Presented at the European Parliament

As a follow-up to the previous post, below is the presentation of the Imran Firasat case to the European Parliament yesterday in Strasbourg by MEP Gerard Batten of UKIP:

From the notes accompanying the video:

The EU legislation responsible for Spain’s actions, namely Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA, was exposed in the Strasbourg European Parliament yesterday, by Gerard Batten MEP, London Region representative of the UK Independence Party (EFD Group).

This terrifying document, in force in EU states since 2010, even goes so far as sanctioning terminating, through criminal law, the employment of those accused of speech and thought crimes. [Article 6(1.)(b)]

The document may be read in full here (pdf).

Mr Batten is a long-standing and respected member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee.

Pressure, Persecution, and the Abuse of Power

The Innocent Prophet

Imran Firasat is a Pakistani ex-Muslim who collaborated with Terry Jones on the movie The Innocent Prophet (watch it here). The Spanish government recently revoked his status as a political refugee in Spain, and he is due to be deported to Pakistan, where he will face the death penalty for blasphemy. There is currently a push to persuade the Canadian government to grant him and his family political asylum.

Mr. Firasat was interviewed recently on Alerta Digital TV. The video below shows the second part of the interview; the first part is available here.

Many thanks to our Spanish correspondent Hermes for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

01:29   Well, we were talking about your arrival in Spain
01:32   with your wife, and you begin to study the Koran
01:36   in a minute and detailed way… – Yes, in order to make everybody know
01:43   what is the Koran, what is Islam, but
01:49   not to outrage anybody. I understand that in Pakistan, In India, In Bangladesh, in Sri-Lanka,
01:55   in these countries Arabic is not the mother tongue, but it is used while praying,
02:01   we read the Koran in Arabic, we prayed to Allah in Arabic,
02:04   so we had no direct relation with Allah,
02:07   we did not know who Allah is, all we had to do is to repeat the suras in Arabic
02:13   as they taught us, so, with the purpose to show the truth, what the Koran tells,
02:19   I tried to learn, and I found lots of things I did not know before,
02:25   Something important: What does the Koran say that we do not know? Well, there are thousands of
02:31   verses, I cannot cite them all, but the Koran says clearly, and I have no intention to upset
02:37   anybody, I tell the reality, and you yourselves can see it by reading the Koran,
02:43   the Koran says clearly: ‘kill them wherever you find them. – Kill the infidel,
02:49   – The infidel, those who are not Muslims. And regarding the discrimination of women,
02:55   hit them if they do not obey you, so the Koran teaches men that
03:01   they are allowed to hit women, and this happened when some months ago an Imam was
03:07   teaching Muslims in Catalonia… – The imam of Mataró. – Yes, the thing is that
03:13   all they do is written in the Koran. They don’t do it
03:16   by themselves, but because the Koran says it.
03:19   The Koran says clearly not to make friends with infidels. They must be persecuted and tortured
03:25   until they convert to Islam. Jihad must be practiced till the entire world is ruled by Allah…
03:30   Wait a moment, this is important: you got refugee status
03:34   in Spain because of your fight against
03:37   Islam. – Yes. – Because the Spanish Government had knowledge that you were in danger, and
03:42   you were granted the status. – Yes, no doubt.
03:45   The day I applied for the refugee status, the officer
03:49   asked me: ‘Are you writing a book about Islam called Islam: Religion or Punishment’?
03:55   I answered yes, and they told me to give them articles about me
04:01   from the press, videos of TV interviews in which I appear talking about Islam.
04:07   They had 100% knowledge about my activities regarding Islam, and they told me that
04:13   it was my freedom of speech. – In what year was this?
04:16   – 2006, with Zapatero (Socialist) in power.
04:19   Yes, with Zapatero in power, and they didn’t tell me
04:22   that here one cannot criticise Islam, or that
04:25   my activities can spark danger coming from Islam, so I assure you, and I can prove it, that
04:31   I was granted political refugee status because of talking about Islam.
04:37   – And what changed between then and now, Imran, that they wants t
04:43   take it away from you? – Change of government. – So the PP (Right wing) is worse?
04:49   It is the same. Well, you know why they want to revoke my status, but
04:55   the only I want to say is that in the repeal of my refugee status decision,
05:01   it appears nowhere that I might have committed any crime or violation of Spanish law.
05:07   There’s nothing about it, for I did not breach any law,
05:10   I haven’t – will never have any criminal record.
05:13   So, all they say in this resolution is that my activities
05:19   about Islam provoke Muslims and offend their religious feelings,
05:25   and they could commit violence, but hey, if they commit unjustified
05:31   violence, so why do we have to fear them? Why can’t we tell them that what they do is illegal?
05:37   But no, instead of halting them, they halt me if I speak (out).
05:43   – Like criminalizing the old lady who carries her bag,
05:46   in this way tempting the thief to steal it. – Yes.
05:49   So now we’ll try to talk with your lawyer, so that he can explain us your situation
05:55   Let us connect with Claudio Lobo Villanueva, Imran Firasat’s lawyer,
06:01   We’ll talk about the support you received. Is Alerta Digital mentioned somewhere by some
06:07   of the Spanish authorities? Yes, the police asked me about my links with
06:13   Alerta Digital, that so much is talked there about you? So I told them that apart from…
06:19   – The police of Madrid? – Right. Apart from
06:22   the fact that we are friends, they speak the truth,
06:25   they talk about thing nobody dare to, about controversial issues,
06:31   that is why Alerta Digital talks about my case, not because they are my friends, but
06:37   because we have a mutual respect, I have
06:40   great respect for AD, and I am grateful that they talk
06:43   about those issues which no other media want to discuss, that’s what I told the police.
06:49   – Excuse me, your wife is in Indonesia? – Yes, she is in Indonesia.
06:55   – She is not allowed to enter the country? – In spite of having the right to get all papers
07:01   in order to return to Spain, because my kids were born in Spain, my family has refugee status,
07:07   but they are not given the papers due to pressure
07:10   from the Islamic state. – Due to pressure from
07:13   the Islamic state of Indonesia? – Yes, I have been
07:16   requesting the papers for them for more than two years,
07:19   in spite of being in danger. But I am not given any reason, nor right to appeal.
07:25   It is very complicated. But I have no more hope that they will be allowed to come
07:31   – Do you have more family in Europe? – I have a sister in the UK.
07:37   She refuses to stay in contact with me because she says that I am an infidel,
07:43   for Muslims, contacts come after religion. First comes Islam,
07:46   and only after that come brothers, parents.
07:49   So I spent the last 3-4 years trying to convince her that ‘look, my opinion about Islam
07:55   is my personal opinion, it is not about you and our relationship’, but she refuses because
08:01   she says that she will be my sister again until the day I reconvert to Islam. Otherwise not.
08:07   – We have on the phone your lawyer, C.L.V., a renowned lawyer from Madrid. Welcome Claudio!
08:13   – Hello. – How are you? – Fine , thanks. – Imran’s testimony is spine-chilling,
08:19   which reveals the double standard, not only by part of the Spanish authorities,
08:25   but also of the national media. Just imagine what would be if instead of Imran’s case,
08:31   with his video which clearly shows to the public opinion the reality of Islam,
08:37   if instead of being an anti Islamic activist, he would be a Moroccan journalist
08:43   rebelling against king Mohammed VI. What would be the Spanish media saying,
08:49   all those NGOs, civil organizations, and all those religious good-will people
08:55   if the Spanish Government would have dared
08:58   to threaten that journalist with deporting him back.
09:01   But in the case of Imran Firasat, no one but AD raises a voice
09:07   about this, which is another scandal of the many taking place in the Spanish public life.
09:13   – Yes, I fully agree with that, about the regrettable double standard
09:19   in the reality of Spanish political life, and in the case of Imran this is
09:25   blatantly visible, this actual double standard.
09:31   Claudio, what is the legal situation now of Imran Firasat’s case?
09:37   It is unfortunate, he is in an extremely bad situation
09:43   in Spain, because his status as a political refugee has been revoked,
09:49   and plainly stated, he is in a limbo,
09:55   in a legal limbo, he has no papers, but he cannot be expelled
10:01   from the country. – The case is now being dealt with in the national court, right Claudio?
10:07   No, we are considering going to the national court, but
10:13   what is suitable now is an administrative appeal against the decision of the administration,
10:19   but we are considering going directly to the national court,
10:25   regarding his civil rights, what might this revocation mean
10:31   to his condition as a refugee in our country, of Imran Firasat?
10:37   Well, I can feel what he is passing through, it is a Dantesque situation,
10:43   – He can be detained at any time. – He has no papers at all in Spain,
10:49   and he has entered a vicious circle, in which he will hardly get legal residence
10:55   in Spain, but neither can he leave the country.
11:01   I would not like to be in that situation, the (sense of) abandonment is overwhelming,
11:07   and speaking again about the double standard, the administration
11:13   does not understand the situation of the other person, that returning to his homeland
11:19   would clearly mean the death sentence for him. – But this is beyond judgement,
11:25   but what options dose the government see as viable, Claudio? Extradition to Pakistan?
11:31   No, I don’t think so, because of the asylum rights themselves, it must consider
11:37   sending him to a third country willing to admit him,
11:43   in which he receives guarantees that his rights will be respected.
11:49   But nowadays I don’t think that (the government) would do it. – Claudio, do you think
11:55   that there is pressure being exerted by some Arab countries?
12:01   I don’t think so, I would not like to think that, sincerely.
12:07   I find it difficult to think about this. – Claudio, do you feel optimistic
12:13   regarding the resolution of the case? – Yes I am, no doubt.
12:19   Imran is a good fellow, he deserves to have rights respected,
12:25   that his right to voice his opinions be respected, and it is simply that
12:31   what he is doing is just criticising, showing the
12:37   real behavior of those extremist Muslims who rely on their religion.
12:43   If this is a sin, then it would be regrettable to understand it in this way.
12:49   – And first and foremost, Claudio, our astonishment that these events
12:55   and threats come from a government of which some members see themselves as Catholics.
13:01   – Yes, it is regrettable, no doubt about that.
13:07   – Well, Claudio…
13:13   (this was) the testimony of Claudio Lobos Villanueva, the lawyer for Imran Firasat.
13:19   It was clear enough to know a bit more of all
13:25   the legal context of this case. Your lawyer says he is moderately optimistic,
13:31   regarding the outcome of this case. – Yes, I trust Spanish justice.
13:37   The administration can make abusive use of its power, but Spanish justice
13:43   will not leave me in a limbo, or in danger. I am optimistic, and my lawyer too, that
13:49   we go to Spanish justice to ask for my rights and my freedom,
13:55   and they will rule in our favor, because one thing is that if they
14:01   give me refugee status for one reason, they cannot revoke it for the same reason,
14:07   and if in this country criticising Islam is a crime, then this must be
14:13   ratified in the Spanish constitution, and that if Islam is already something
14:19   valuable which cannot be criticised,
14:25   this has to be clearly said by the law.
14:28   But the double standard, on the one hand, everybody has
14:31   the right to freedom of speech, but if one uses this freedom of speech for talking
14:37   about Islam, then there is pressure, persecution, abuse of power, and all that.

Babel on the Fjords

Cultural Enrichment News

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends the following translated report about the gradual disappearance of native speakers of Norwegian in Oslo’s public schools.

This ongoing process is revealed to be exactly what the “Islamophobes” have described: the gradual replacement of the native population with unassimilated immigrants from Third World countries, most of them Muslims. Even more significant is the distribution of the “New Norwegians”: they are becoming the majority more rapidly in the poorer, eastern districts of Oslo, while their proportion is actually decreasing in the affluent western neighborhoods of the city.

Multicultural classroom

In other words, the well-to-do elites of Oslo — those who made the decision to flood Norway with ever-increasing numbers of hostile foreigners — are completely insulated from the consequences of the their policies. They have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to destroy the nation of Norway for the good of humanity. But their children will never have to suffer from a degraded learning environment in their schools as a result — that privilege is reserved for the kids of ill-bred working class parents, who may safely be disregarded.

The Observer includes this note:

More bad news from Norway, this time it’s about the demographic shift taking place at public schools in Oslo. The Norwegian student population in the capital is in virtual free fall and, and native students are in the process of being surpassed by immigrants. Many of the “New Norwegians” have a very poor grasp of the Norwegian language, which unfortunately eats up precious resources and lowers the overall quality of education.

This, however, is not an exclusive Norwegian phenomenon. It is taking place all over the western world at the moment; it’s just that it is happening at a faster pace in Oslo. I feel sorry for those Norwegian children who are made to feel like immigrants in their own country, as was the case with this kid before him mum finally came to her senses and transferred him over to a ‘Norwegian school’

The translated article from today’s Dagbladet:

Minorities constitute a majority at 54 schools in Oslo

Sixteen of the elementary schools are almost exclusively made up of minority students.

Students with Norwegian as their first language are in minority at 54 of 125 elementary schools in Oslo, according to figures released by Oslo City Council. Currently immigrant students make up 40.7% of the overall number of students in the capital.

All the schools where Norwegian native speakers make up the minority are located in the eastern part of the city.

There are a total of 56,500 elementary school students in the city. Included in that figure are 23,000 that belong to a linguistic minority. 62% of those receive supplementary Norwegian language lessons, according to the department of education.

The proportion of minority students has increased slightly compared with last year when the figure was 40.6%.

Sixteen of the elementary schools in Oslo are almost exclusively made up of minorities with a minority student ratio of more than 80 percent. The figures from the City Council also reveal that the proportion of minority students is decreasing in schools in the western part of the city [more affluent area of Oslo — translator], while it is increasing at schools in the eastern part of the city. Out of the 125 schools, nine have a 90% or higher proportion of students with Norwegian as their native language, all situated in the western part of the city and on Nordstrand.

The education department defines an immigrant student as someone who does not speak Norwegian or Sami as his first language. The data used to determine a student’s native tongue are gathered from school entry forms filled in by the parents.

(NTB)

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/14/2013

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/14/2013A huge crowd of protesters demonstrated against gay marriage in Paris yesterday. Depending on who was doing the estimating, between 340,000 and 1.3 million people took part in the demonstration. François Hollande’s socialist government is standing firm, however, and says it intends to implement the new institution by June.

In other news, for the third night in a row race-based violence has erupted in Logan, a southern suburb of Brisbane, Australia. Groups of Pacific Islanders and Aborigines vandalized cars and fought each other in the streets. There’s no word on which side, if any, is considered to be racists in such circumstances.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, CSP, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, McR, The Observer, 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.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

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.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Say “Devil-Spawned Death-Cult”

Kevin Carroll — Photo credit ICLA
 Photo credit: ICLA 

Kevin Carroll, the Chairman of the British Freedom Party, was arrested in Luton on Saturday for making a comment on Facebook.

“Boy oh boy, Baron,” you say, “that must have been a really dangerous comment! What did he do? Call for killing people? Did he incite rebellion against Queen and country?”

Well, actually, no. It wasn’t anything like that. This is what was posted:

“They are all backward savages, a devil-spawned death-cult worshipping all that is unholy and barbaric. Pure evil.”

Screen shots of the comment “allegedly” made by him were provided to the police, and that was enough to have him arrested for the crime of Religious and Racial Hatred. He has now been bailed with conditions, and has to sign in at the police station twice a week.

A reliable source reports that he was on his way to a meeting in Luton when he noticed he was being followed. The men in blue all pulled up around him, with pepper spray, flashing lights, the whole police state rigmarole.

Kevin himself sends this brief account:

They swooped down on me, blues flashing and sirens wailing — you would have thought I was a serial killer or something. Right in the middle of the town centre!

“Religious and racial hatred,” is what they called it. I’ve been bailed again for four weeks approximately, and have to sign on at the police station Tuesdays and Fridays.”

An EDL supporter writes with this recommendation for anti-sharia activists in Britain:

I suggest that everyone posts this [“a devil-spawned death-cult” etc.] as their Facebook status. Let them arrest thousands of us!

All the solicitor has to do is refer to suras in the Koran to find religious hatred in abundance. Then they should go and arrest every Muslim in this country who prays five times a day to this evil book of hate.

The Sunday Times: Theft, and a Hatchet Job Against Gavin Boby

Regular readers are familiar with Gavin Boby of Law and Freedom. For the past couple of years Gavin has been tireless in his opposition to the construction of new mosques in England through action in local planning councils.

Yesterday The Sunday Times published what it must have believed was a hit piece on Gavin. They accused him of “ideological hatred of Islam” and connected him with “the far-right blog Gates of Vienna”.

I can’t show you the whole piece, because it’s behind a paywall. But here’s a screen shot of the top of the article by Richard Kerbaj and Robin Henry:

Gavin Boby — Sunday Times article

And a brief snip from the opening of the article:

A SELF-STYLED “mosque buster”, who boasts that he has blocked plans for 16 mosques across Britain, was once linked to the far-right English Defence League (EDL) and claims that Islam encourages paedophilia, sexual abuse and pimping.

Gavin Boby, a planning lawyer from Bristol, urges his followers to undermine planning applications for mosques by raising their opposition with councils.

Boby, 48, runs a planning consultancy but under the banner of the Law and Freedom Foundation he also provides a free legal service for those who oppose mosque developments…

More than that I dare not quote, for fear of exceeding “fair use” and violating the copyright of The Sunday Times.

Interestingly enough, the Times itself seems to be a bit slack about copyright.

The photo at the top of the article looked familiar to me. It was obviously taken last July at the Brussels Conference sponsored by ICLA in the European Parliament.

With a little bit of digging, I uncovered the original. It was taken by my good friend Steen of Snaphanen, and posted on his blog last December.

If you look at the full-sized version of the photo, you’ll notice that it is clearly watermarked with “Foto © Snaphanen.dk”.

Trivialities such as copyright are no obstacle to The Sunday Times, however. The editors must have passed the photo on to one of their graphics specialists, who edited out the pesky watermark. Look at the two detail shots below — on the left you’ll see Steen’s original, and on the right is a blowup of the Times’ edited version:

Gavin Boby — Sunday Times theft of Snaphanen photo

You’ll notice that the graphics editor was a bit sloppy, and left in a fragment of Steen’s © to the left of the microphone.

Whoops!

The evidence is clear. Even an amateur like myself can see that the venerable Sunday Times stole that image from Steen.

It would be bad enough if they had simply borrowed it, and left the watermark intact. But they actually went to the trouble and expense of removing the watermark, in a fumbling attempt to erase the evidence of their theft of Steen’s intellectual property.

How crass.

How tacky.

And how typical!

I hope Steen has a legal case that he can press against the mandarins of the Times. But even if he doesn’t, they have been revealed as what everyone already knew they were: a bunch of second-rate hacks.

For those who are interested, a publicly available version of the Times’ story was published by The Daily Mail.

Previous posts about Gavin Boby and the Law and Freedom Foundation:

2011   Jun   10   Mosque Busting: English vs. American Styles
        20   The Central Role of Mosques in Islamic Political Doctrine
    Aug   4   Mosquebusted!
    Oct   9   A Win for Mosquebusters in Uxbridge
        9   No Megamosque for Dudley
    Dec   1   Blackpool Mosque: Busted!
2012   Jan   17   Four More Mosques: Busted!
    Mar   17   When you call us you win
    Nov   21   Two New Wins for the Mosque Busters
    Dec   18   “The Mosque is Far More Than a House of Worship”
        25   How to Stop a Mosque in Your Area
        28   Santa Brings Us Another Win!
2013   Jan   9   How We Win

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/13/2013

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/13/2013Nigel Farage, the leader of the British EU-skeptical party UKIP, is reportedly “shocked” that his party is now ahead of the Tories in the latest opinion polls on the upcoming EU parliamentary elections. 23% of voters say they will back UKIP in the 2014 elections.

In other news, Saudi Arabia has reacted defensively to worldwide criticism of its execution of a young Sri Lankan woman for murdering her employer’s child. The Saudis deny that the beheaded woman was a minor when she committed the crime, and say that the Kingdom is always assiduous in its principled application of juridical practices. In addition, they warned foreigners not to interfere in their internal affairs.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, DS, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Kitman, McR, Steen, 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.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

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.

The Cost of Integration and Norway’s Fiscal Future

Asylum-seekers in Norway

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends two translations that bear on the future fiscal well-being of Norway. He says:

Although not directly linked to Islam, these two articles are still relevant. I have abbreviated and translated one from Aftenposten and one from Nettavisen.

They’re about the cost of integrating immigrants in Norway (only funds spent on integration schemes, not immigration as a whole) and the sustainability of the Norwegian ‘model’, which isn’t very sustainable at all. Norway is just another Greece or another USA waiting to happen. The oil isn’t going to save us: it’s just something that the authorities can use to muddy the water and to slow down the impact of the coming crash.

I expect to see a sharp increase in Norwegian emigration to the New World in the next couple of decades if things don’t change, because the future in Norway is looking very bleak.

The first abbreviated translation is from Aftenposten:

A total of twenty-three national action plans have been made and implemented in the last 20 years. However, despite this the unemployment rate among immigrants is three times higher than that of the rest of the population — just as it was twenty years ago. In other words, nothing has changed.

During this period a staggering NoK 100 billion has been spent — yes, one hundred billion — on schemes to integrate refugees, asylum seekers, and individuals who have arrived in Norway on family reunification visas. Divide this sum by the current population of Norway, which is five million, and we discover that each inhabitant has chipped in NoK 20,000.

Yes, we have an immigrant population with a relative high employment rate compared to other European countries, but that is mostly due to the fact that we have a very low unemployment rate in general.

Thousands of immigrants in Norway have jobs and are well integrated into our society. The question, however, is whether this is due to official integration policies or the efforts of the immigrants themselves. For the unemployment rate among immigrants is, as it was twenty years ago, three times higher than the rest of the population. Among Africans it is six times as high.

Another fact is that thousands of immigrants are working in jobs for which they are over-qualified due to an incomprehensible systematic inertia in acknowledging qualifications from abroad. Many lawyers and engineers with different skin color make a living by washing off dirt and grime for white Norwegians.

Aftenposten can also reveal that the government, politicians and bureaucrats are unaware of which policies, or which of the hundreds of schemes, that are effective, work poorly or don’t work at all. The authorities are even unaware of the actual number of plans and reports that have been produced and implemented and how much money has been spent on it.

We at Aftenposten had to figure that out for ourselves.

The second article is from Nettavisen:

Employees working in the public sector are slated to receive NoK 4,300 billion in future pensions. This is more than the current value of the Oil Fund.

“Public employees have been given the entire Oil Fund,” writes Finansavisen [Norwegian financial newspaper], which has been studying the future pensions of public employees’ as pledged by the government.

The equation applies to 840,000 public employees who will be paid 66% of their current salary when they retire. No one in the government has dared to do anything about these public pensions, despite the fact that employees in the private sector are experiencing frequent attacks on their future pensions because private companies simply can’t afford to pay for them.

“There are strong indications that Norway is sitting on top of a public pension bomb,” writes Finansavisen.

Since the red-green coalition government took over in 2005, an additional 100,000 public sector jobs have been created, and consequently, the state (taxpayers) has incurred future economic obligations for even more public retirees.

But is it really fair that the state guarantees NoK 4,300 billion in pension liabilities for public employees — at the same time that private employees are having their pensions shaved and face tax increases to cover the rising costs of public pensions?

In 1980 there were 460,000 employees in the public sector. That number rose to 580,000 in 1990. In 2000 the number was 711,000 and now 840,000 employees are working in the public sector in Norway.

On top of this, an additional 10,000 new permanent public jobs are created each year. The level of the Oil Fund is currently at NoK 3,865 billion. Even if future public retirees were to be given the entire fund, there would still be a shortfall of NoK 500 billion in pension obligations.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg recently estimated that taxes had to be raised by 8%-9% in order to cover this gap, which means that an annual tax increase of NoK 70-80 billion will have to be implemented sometime in the future.

“We Are Definitely a Danger to Western Democracy”

Last night we reported on the refreshing candor of a Muslim in Norway. Today it’s the turn of French Muslims to speak the plain truth about their intentions.

When the Western welfare state finishes collapsing, and the real trouble begins, no one can say they didn’t know what lay in store for their ruined societies. We have been most emphatically warned.

Many thanks to Bear for translating this video, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript (of the translated portion):

00:04   Here in France the jihad has obviously
00:08   not been abandoned. We are not here to kill people. Simply…
00:12   we are telling ourselves, ‘Ah! Maybe we should get ready!’ because…
00:16   due to the fact that we are oppressed you never know, you see? We are becoming truly…
00:20   anxious. [Our anger today is more than visible!]
00:24   People are starving [It is also legitimate!]
00:28   their cupboards are becoming empty, their fridge is almost empty,
00:32   and what are we preoccupied with? The way we dress, to know if…
00:36   our beards or the women’s niqab go with…
00:40   improve the situation of the French [Are you still in agreement with democracy now!?!?]
01:05   Sign: “Democracy is hypocrisy, sharia will dominate France”