Our Israeli correspondent MC takes a look at the traditional Islamophilia of the British foreign service, and the relationship over the years between its love affair with all things Arab and various fashionable forms of socialism.

St. John (Jack) Philby in Riyadh

If you elect idiots, you get chaos
Elite Britain’s love affair with Islam

by MC

I was brought up in a culture that regarded Islam as exotic and erotic: belly dancing and handsome Sheiks in desert hideaways complete with full symphony orchestras and Oxford English accents.

My aunt lived in El Beida, close to Benghazi in Libya. Her story was different: Islam was squalid, dirty and disgusting. She was horrified when her daughter’s playmate, aged nine, was married off to a ‘rich’ fifty-year-old.

Later, in my teens, when I started to read non-fiction and history, I came across more evidence of the second scenario than of the first, but the ‘El Khobar’ idea appears to have persisted in many minds.

This was brought home to me last time I was in Riyadh, when a European acquaintance brought up the idea of how alluring a female clad in an abayah (tent-like, black female attire mandatory in KSA) complete with face mask could be. Full of the ‘Eastern’ promise no doubt. In my personal viewpoint, she is a woman imprisoned by a male pervert-dominated culture. I prefer bikinis to burkas.

We had just been to the beach at Khobar, where the little boys were splashing in the sea as children do at any beach. Their sisters, however, were sitting on the sand, attired in their abayahs, watching.

Little girls cannot play active games in an abayah; they might expose parts of themselves that could stimulate good Muslim men to lust. So their little six-year-old bodies do not see the sun (in public) and they must sit demurely watching their brothers play in the sea and the sand.

Apart from the Foreign and Colonial Office, Britain had little love for Islam in the 1890s. The Afghan wars and Khartoum had brought graphic descriptions of what happened to soldiers and civilians who fell into the hands of Islam.

By contrast, in India, the FCO training ground, it was the Hindus who caused cause major grief to the British Raj and its servants, by virtue of the ‘caste’ system which made dealings with Indian nobility fraught with problems. The British had tried to eliminate the practice of suttee (the immolation of wives in the funeral pyre of their husbands). Wives could choose suttee, or as an alternative, to become the house slave of their in-laws. Most wives chose the former — it was probably more comfortable, and certainly quicker.

With typical clumsiness, the British administration made suttee illegal, but did not deal with the alternative. Thus a low-key religious conflict began which soured relationships and eventually lead to the Indian mutiny and the Gandhi-inspired ‘non-violence’ of the 1920s during which many thousands lost their lives. Through all of this the Indian Muslims remained infinitely easier to manage and administer than their Hindu compatriots.

We thus find that many FCO officers had a soft spot for Islam, with the next generation even converting to Islam; note this piece from Wikipedia concerning Jack Philby:

As he states in his autobiography, he “became something of a fanatic” and “the first Socialist to join the Indian Civil Service” in 1907, and was posted to Lahore in the Punjab in 1908. He acquired fluency in Urdu, Punjabi, Baluchi, Persian, and eventually Arabic languages. Philby married Dora Johnston, his first wife, in September 1910,^[3] with his distant cousin Bernard Law Montgomery as best man. He also later married an Arab woman from Saudi Arabia. He had one son, Kim, later a British intelligence agent infamous as a double agent for the Soviet Union, and three daughters.^[4]

And:

In November 1921, Philby was named chief head of the Secret Service for the British Mandate of Palestine, or what is now the region of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (formerly The Emirate of Transjordan) and Israel. He worked with T. E. Lawrence for a while, but did not share Lawrence’s views on the Hashemites. Here he met his American counterpart, Allen Dulles, who was stationed in Constantinople.

Philby was fairly typical of his era, and was virulently anti-Semitic. He worked against Jewish emigration into the Jewish Homeland, and was in contact with and the protecting power behind Haj Amin al Husseini (founder of El Fatah/PLO), eventually being dismissed from the FCO for sexual impropriety. Like his son, he was also a traitor, working on alliances between Saudi Arabia and the Nazis. Between the wars, there was little distinction between Communism and the Fascist Socialism of the likes of Philby; they were deemed one and the same thing, thus the co-operation between Stalin and the Nazis up to 1941 was not as unexpected then as it would be now.

By the time we get to Labour Party (socialist) FCO Secretary Ernest Bevin in 1945, we have a Colonial Office who have completely trashed the British Mandate and are encouraging Arab immigration into the Jewish areas of Palestine. The British actively supported the Arab cause in the 1948 War of Independence, providing manpower, intelligence and materiel to the invading Arab forces. We also find RAF aircraft from Egypt overflying Israeli territory, possibly supporting the Egyptian and/or Jordanian forces.

In the 1960s British socialism began to morph into a form of non-nationalistic fascism. The truth about Stalinism had caused a split in the Communist Party of Great Britain, and it swung to a more Trotskyist line. At the same time there was a greater acceptance of the once overtly fascist Muslim Brotherhood; Al Banna’s sympathies with Berlin and the Nazis are well documented. In the mid-fifties, at primary school, we had been taught what would now be deemed white supremacist history. By the time I attended University in the late sixties, enforced multiculturalism (non-nationalistic fascism) was in and patriotic nationalism was out.

Fascism and Stalinism are as different as 7up and Sprite; the main difference being the shape of the bottle. Both sought to use Islam for its own purposes. In 1968 that Enoch Powell’s unfortunate quote from Virgil (“and the Tiber foaming with much blood”) in his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech during the debate on the Race Relations Bill in Parliament triggered a huge backlash in Britain.

Enoch Powell became the byword for ‘racism’ and discussions of ‘race’ became taboo.

There followed twenty years in which many of the immigration safeguards were loosened and a wave of mainly Muslim immigrants appeared in our cities. All immigrants received religious tolerance, but the Muslims wanted more: they wanted religious dominance, and were prepared to play the ‘racism’ card to get it, even though Islam is not a race indicator.

Unfortunately, there is a fashionable breed of pseudo-intellectualism that perceives culture as unimportant, and believes that barbaric and backward religions are far more interesting than the mundanity of Christianity. To them, Islam is exotic and thus attractively diverse. If one is culturally complacent, then there is no inherent threat in Islam; forcible conversion is not a spectre of horror. So the liberal left has adopted Islam and Muslims as one of its favourite ‘victim’ groups, failing to see any threat in the inherent violence of Islam as (lots of votes now too).

In the modern Judaeo-Christian culture, violence is focussed and is generally not tolerated outside of a specific need to defend the individual and the community, and then only with the minimum violence necessary. The Christian Godhead does not need to be defended; He can do that for Himself.

Muslims, on the other hand, are encouraged to violently defend both faith and God(s) at all times and in all circumstances where Allah and especially the Prophet are threatened. The definition of ‘threaten’ in these circumstances is broader than most Westerners understand, and may include any existential phenomena running contrary to current Islamic philosophy. Thus a Christmas tree is a threat to Islam because it is an icon of Christianity, and therefore somehow a temptation to good Muslims.

A 12-year-old girl seeking an education is a ‘threat’ to Islam, and must be violently eliminated.

The political classes in UK all appear to have a complete lack of cultural clarity, and as a consequence they are gullible. They look and think they see a religion of ‘peace’ when they are already victims in the Islamic ‘house of war’. They are already paying the first dues of dhimmitude, those of submission.

The alternative is that there is a covert higher order controlling the supposedly democratic UK government, one that wants to break the British culture and identity, and sees Islam as a useful tool to achieve this end. Who knows? Maybe the conspiracy theory is correct after all.

Either way, if you elect idiots, you get chaos.

For quite some time I’ve been contemplating the necessity of writing this post. Or rather of having to write it eventually, because surely the next day would be better than this one. And the next; and then the one after that… and suddenly by some magic process I’d be back to my old self and writing thank you acknowledgments as I used to do.

I’m told this is a common fantasy for people with fibromyalgia: each day we hope we’ll be better tomorrow, or the day after, or next week, or maybe next month, or perhaps with this next new diet or vitamin. What fools us are the unpredictable and all too-brief times of remission.

In a way, “fibro fog” (the name they give our inability to remember people, places, events, etc.) can be a blessing because it can be hard to recall what we’ve lost. But when we suddenly have, without rhyme or reason, a remission of pain and fatigue, and when our ability to think returns, we’re sooo certain it’s all over. Suddenly we have the energy to catch up on all the things we’d left undone. Back in the beginning when this disorder is first setting in most of us don’t believe it’s chronic. So we continue with our “To Do” lists as though our routines will soon resume their ‘normal’ outlines. It is only when the task of actually writing up those lists becomes a source of frustration and shame that we begin to comprehend the devastation we’re living. The first few remissions followed by relapses are disorienting, both for us and for people who are not yet used to our strange levels of dysfunction — “but you don’t look sick…”

All of which is to say this out loud — in fact the time for admitting the truth to myself is past due and our donors certainly deserve an explanation: my energy level will never again be what it was before the onset of fibromyalgia. I will never be a dependable correspondent. In fact, I will sometimes write to you and not remember that I did so. Despite the lists the Baron draws up for me, I sometimes have to preface a thank you note with , “I may already have told you this… ”

I never was big on reality, though, particularly when it came to accepting the limits of what I might accomplish. The Baron used to tell me that he was going to write on my forehead, “You Do Not Have To Do Everything Good Thing You Think Of”. He said he’d write it backwards so that when I looked in the mirror it would be a reminder of my Pollyanna tendencies to want to take care of every bit of suffering I came upon. That was before the onset of fibromyalgia; it’s not so bad now because while I may want to do something or other, I realize how far out of reach it has become. Besides, fibromyalgia isolates one, so I’m seldom out in company hearing about unmet needs. But when I am — whoo, boy!

Just yesterday the Baron took me to get my hair cut (driving isn’t a good idea when your reflexes are as slow as mine are and there are as many deer as we’re surrounded by). Before I left the beautician’s shop I was volunteering to help a woman who was considering homeschooling her youngest, a child who hates school and always has. I had no business being Miz Goody Two-Shoes when I don’t even have shoes (so to speak), but there you go. I doubt the worried mother is going to follow through on her desire to homeschool since she is part of a big clan who will give her grief if she attempts it. But there you go — Miz Dymphna to the Rescue… Again.

A long story just to tell our donors I haven’t forgotten you. Nor has the Baron. He is concerned about my inability to write more of the thank you notes since I enjoy that task. When he asks why I can suddenly post a comment here and there on the blog, I have to explain the difference. With our comment section, I have only to open the thread and say something. With thank you notes, I have to find my list, then ascertain where I left off, and then fully consider the person I’m writing, where they’re from, how often they’ve donated, and perhaps try to recall what I remember of previous conversations… with my memory, that’s… well, let’s say it’s a bit of a challenge.

In summary, you may hear from the Baron and not from me. That won’t bother y’all I’m sure — after all, he’s the engine that makes this website function. It frustrates me, though. He already does so much by himself, and this was one area I was able to accomplish and be of assistance. But that’s the nature of fibromyalgia: one’s areas of competencies shrink inexorably.

Surrender in the teeth of reality is a bitch a bite. In truth I don’t think I’m constitutionally capable of it. Let me tell you about this new diet I came across…

According to an alarming new survey, Germany is being transformed from a racist society into an Islamophobic one. Instead of directing their hatred towards the “Turks”, Germans are now hateful of “Muslims”. Despite the best efforts of German Muslims, the overwhelming majority of whom are peaceful, more than two-thirds of Germans have a negative attitude towards Islam.

In other news, under pressure from the debt crisis, the Greek government substantially raised taxes on heating oil. With a record number of Greeks out of work, the move has priced fuel out of the reach of many ordinary citizens. The result has been a massive increase in the use of wood for heating homes, creating a smoggy cloud over Athens and putting a dangerous amount of particulate into the air.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, CSP, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Steen, 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.

The German healthcare system is plagued, so to speak, by a new problem: a growing dearth of doctors who can speak German well enough to do their jobs effectively. The solution is obvious: German schools must begin teaching their students Urdu, Farsi, Arabic, Malay, and Tagalog so that they can more efficiently explain their symptoms to hospital personnel.

Many thanks to JLH for the translation from Quotenqueen:

The Joys of Multiculturalism!

Even our highly qualified immigrants cannot speak any German. “It is simply about a lack of competence in German on the part of medical doctors,” which, in the opinion of the president of the Berlin Chamber of Physicians, is becoming a serious problem in health care. Complaints are multiplying from patients who can no longer communicate with their doctor, said Chamber President Günther Jonitz on Monday, speaking with German Radio on Culture. “And head doctors report that they can by now only converse in German with one-third of their staff.” Oh, what the heck! Veterinarians and pediatricians can’t talk with their patients either.

Besides, we shouldn’t be so racist and demand that immigrants master the country’s language. After all, it’s hard.

Der Spiegel writes:

No, it is not technical jargon that separates many doctors from their patients. It is simply about a lack of competence in German on the part of medical doctors, which, in the opinion of the president of the Berlin Chamber of Physicians, is becoming a serious problem in health care. Complaints are multiplying from patients who can no longer communicate with their doctor, said Chamber President Günther Jonitz on Monday, speaking with German Radio on Culture. And head doctors report that they can by now only converse in German with one-third of their staff. “The risks are increasing,” warned the president of the Berlin Chamber of Physicians.

Because there is a shortage of doctors, more and more physicians from Eastern Europe, Greece, and even Arab countries are practicing in Germany — and frequently without decent language skills. According to previous statements of the Organization of Hospital Directors, the proportion of foreign assistant doctors, especially in smaller clinics, can be more than 50%.

“Really Lousy Healthcare Policy”

Jonitz, the President of the Berlin Chamber of Physicians, sees economizing in healthcare as the cause of this development. Thus [he says] a “really lousy healthcare policy” puts too much emphasis on numbers and economic yield and forgets the human beings in the system. But German doctors and nurses will not stand for that anymore: “Whoever can, leaves, goes to other countries and works there, where it is possible to be regarded as a doctor or nurse — Switzerland, Scandinavia, England, Holland — and these vacancies are filled by doctors from countries where it is much worse.”

The government and the healthcare politicians, on the contrary, see it as the duty of the medical organizations and clinics to arrange for better integration of immigrant doctors. At one time, the SPD politician Karl Lauterbach said that instead of being incorporated, foreign doctors were only used as stopgaps.

Clearly, we are to blame that immigrants do not adapt to the majority society of their adopted country, when they are unselfishly offering us their services. Other countries are not so stupid. But we are all for it. Ah, multiculturalism is so great!

An official state committee in Norway recommended today that police officers be allowed to wear the turban, the hijab, and other religious gear while on duty. A little while later, however — apparently after dipping a toe into the turbulent waters of public opinion — the Ministry of Culture announced that no such decision had been made.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article about this morning’s announcement, and sends this commentary about the aborted decision and its aftermath:

I have translated a depressing article from today’s Dagbladet about the rapid deconstruction of Norway instigated by radical and dim-witted Norwegian multiculturalists and their allies. These brainwashed cultural relativists condescendingly berate their compatriots, who are worried about losing their identity and culture, that nonwestern immigration constitute absolutely no threat whatsoever to Norway and Norwegian culture.

Really?

Why then are all the cultural changes that are occurring in Norway at the moment justified with the rationale that Norway is becoming increasingly multicultural? The population of Norway was roughly 3.9 million when this immigration started in earnest in the late 60’s. As of now first- and second-generation immigrants number almost 900,000 and this number (mostly non-Western) is expected to grow by an additional 1,250,000 by 2040, according to figures released by the Norwegian bureau of statistics (SSB).

Talk about cognitive dissonance.

These dimwits even have the nerve to suggest that Norway doesn’t have a unique culture; everything has apparently been imported from abroad. Norwegians are a people without roots, customs and traditions, a terra nullius if you like.

Our first Muslim government minister, Hadia Tajik, who happens to be Minister of Culture, will have the last word in this matter. A couple of years ago when she was just a simple government department advisor, she anonymously co-authored a press release, without having the authority to do so, that boldly stated that hijab had been allowed as part of the uniform in the police force.

One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out where this is going.

An update from The Observer at 11:00am EST:

Apparently Hadia Tajik, Norway’s Minister of Culture, has announced at a press conference just now that the hijab will not be allowed in the police force.

In my opinion this is not a decision that she has made herself, but is coming from someone higher up in the system. I presume that the response from the ‘peasants’ couldn’t be ignored (“we can’t afford to treat them too harshly in an election year”).

As I mentioned in my commentary to the translated article, Tajik wanted to allow the use of the hijab in 2009, when she co-authored a press release that declared it as an acceptable supplement to the police uniform.

I guess it’s still another couple of years down the track.

The translated article from Dagbladet:

Are considering allowing hijab and turban in the Norwegian police force

This is the conclusion of the Life-Stance Committee which will deliver its report to the Minister of Culture later today.

Judges and police officers should be allowed to wear hijabs and turbans while carrying out their duties concludes the Life-Stance Committee which will submit its report to the Minister of Culture on Monday.

It also proposes to replace traditional marriage ceremonies with civil unions.

Sturla Stålsett, who is an ordained priest, has led the Faith and Life-Stance Committee for the past two years. Along with a majority of twelve other committee members, he recommends that judges and police officers should be allowed to wear religious headgear. Only three committee members are opposed to the recommendations, writes Aftenposten.

There has been considerable political opposition to amending the police uniform regulations. The main argument is that the police and the judiciary must remain completely neutral. It is however permitted for soldiers in the military to use headgear such as hijabs, turbans and Jewish yarmulkes.

Disagrees

“I feel the same way now as I did when we passed the resolution at our national convention and which has been agreed upon unanimously in Parliament: It is important that those who exercise civil authority against individuals on behalf of the State come across as completely neutral. An in such instances they can’t wear a hijab or any other religious garments, but rather wear completely neutral clothing. And that means that police officer wear a uniform and judges wear a cloak,” says Jan Bøhler, the spokesperson for judicial matters for the Labour Party.

Politician and member of the AUF, Prableen Kaur agrees with the Committee:

“The Life-Stance Committee has taken into account that society is becoming more and more diverse, and that it is necessary to have a proper framework to encapsulate this diversity. It is a decision that reflects the times that we’re living in, and which are going to mirror tomorrow’s society in a more accurate manner,” she says.

The report will be presented to Minister of Culture, Hadia Tajik (AP — Labour Party) on Monday. The report also contains a number of other proposals that are likely to generate a debate, writes Vårt Land [“Our Country” — Christian newspaper].

Civil unions

The Life-Stance Commission wants a Norway that is open to all belief systems and where there is plenty of room for differences. The Committee wants to establish a clear principle in which national commemorations of mourning and celebrations are not delegated to any specific religious denomination.

“Faith and spirituality should not be feared or tucked away, but rather be allowed to express themselves visibly and naturally in opinions, attitudes and actions,” writes committee leader Sturla Stålsett in an op-ed in Vårt Land.

The Committee believes that religion should have a prominent position in society, but that the church shouldn’t be the master of ceremony at national commemorations. The Committee therefore wants civil unions to be the norm, rather than traditional weddings.

The committee also wants to ensure that arrangements such as traditional ‘church services’ for students’ don’t exclude other faith groups from inviting its students to religious services during school hours.

The committee also wants to sever the ties between the military and Christianity and the Norwegian Church. Faith should no longer be used to strengthen cohesion in a conflict situation, writes Stålsett in the op-ed.

Tommy Robinson, the leader of the English Defence League, appeared in court today on a charge of using a fake passport to enter the USA last September 11. He pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to ten months in jail.

There are several British MSM reports on today’s events, but as far as I could tell, up until now there was nothing in the media about Tommy’s arrest, denial of bail, and imprisonment without charge.

A further note: ten months is more than many offenders receive in the UK after being convicted of rape, assault, and other violent crimes.

Here’s the report from the BBC:

EDL leader Stephen Lennon jailed for false passport offence

The leader of the English Defence League has been jailed for 10 months for using someone else’s passport to travel to the USA.

Stephen Lennon, 30, from Luton, admitted possession of a false identity document with improper intention.

Lennon used a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow to New York, Southwark Crown Court was told.

He entered the US illegally then used his own passport to return to the UK.

Lennon had previously been refused entry to the US and used a friend’s passport to travel to the country in September.

He used a self check-in kiosk to board the flight at Heathrow and was allowed through when the document was checked in the bag-drop area.

But when Lennon arrived at New York’s JFK Airport, customs officials took his fingerprints and realised he was not travelling on his own passport.

Lennon was asked to attend a second interview but managed to leave the airport, entering the US illegally.

Previous convictions

He stayed one night and travelled back to the UK the following day using his own legitimate passport, which bears the name of Paul Harris.

Judge Alistair McCreath told him: “I am going to sentence you under the name of Stephen Lennon although I suspect that is not actually your true name, in the sense that it is not the name that appears on your passport.

“What I have to deal with you for is clear enough. You knew perfectly well that you were not welcome in the United States.

“You knew that because you tried before and you had not got in, and you knew the reason for that – because, rightly or wrongly, the US authorities do not welcome people in their country who have convictions of the kind that you have.

“With that full knowledge, you equipped yourself with a passport. I am told that it was given you by way of a loan from your friend Andrew McMaster, to which you bore, I am told, some resemblance.”

The judge added: “What you did went absolutely to the heart of the immigration controls that the United States are entitled to have.

“It’s not in any sense trivial.”

In mitigation, Lennon’s barrister Giles Cockings told the court the passport was not stolen and his client had only used it for a day.

Lennon was jailed for assault in 2005 and also has convictions for drugs offences and public order offences, the court heard.

Our email service has returned, and the news feed is once again full. The backlog of email is incredible — it’s like I went away on vacation, except that I have no suntan or souvenirs to show for it. If you emailed us between Thursday night and this afternoon, and got a permanent bounce, you may need to resend the message.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has found herself in hot water after being seen with several children in blackface during an Epiphany celebration. It is a Central European tradition for children to dress up as the Three Magi during such celebrations, and one of the magi is usually in blackface to symbolize the tradition that one of the kings was African. Some observers, however, consider the custom racist, and an inappropriate activity for a German chancellor.

In other news, relations between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have worsened after the arrest of at least ten Egyptians in the UAE on charges of spying for the Muslim Brotherhood.

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

Thanks to Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Kitman, 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 following article from Bild describes the inability of the German government to deport violent Lebanese criminals from the Federal Republic. As an interesting side note, the article asserts that 85% of the Lebanese living in Germany are dependent on long-term unemployment benefits.

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation:

The List of Shame

They are Lebanese criminals, but in spite of this they cannot be deported

It was the list of shame — and it still is! Almost two years ago BILD reported that hundreds of Lebanese criminals living in Germany cannot be deported to their home country.

The reason for this is that Lebanon questions the citizenship of their own citizens and denies entry to them. BILD presents now a new and alarming list from the Interior Minister. This time, the list includes 207 extremely serious cases with convictions of more than one year in prison. Meanwhile there were 24 voluntary departures and 43 repatriations, but 51 new cases too about Lebanese serious criminals with no prospects for a quick deportation.

Some cases listed by BILD:

• Rabih A. (28) is a member of a Lebanese clan known to the police. He has been convicted four times: 62 counts of drug trafficking, and also extortion, prostitution, wrongful privation of personal liberty, assault and pimping.
• Mohamad A. (27) is Rabih’s younger brother. 62 cases involving drug dealing, and also armed robbery. He has also been convicted four times.
• Fadi S. (35) was sentenced to 14 years and 1 month in prison. His criminal record: “theft (both private and public), illegal acquisition of narcotics, dangerous physical injuries, aggravated theft and computer fraud”. Sentenced to prison until the 13 of June 2016.
• Mohamad S. (29), sentenced to 10 years and 1 month. Charges against him: public theft, violation of the drug laws, extortion and fraud. He is also one of those Lebanon does not want to get back, although the authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia could prove Mohamad’s nationality through a copy of his father’s passport as well as that of his brother’s and his sister’s.

Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister, Uwe Schünemann (58, CDU), told Bild: “It cannot be that almost all those Lebanese nationals required to leave should remain in the Federal Republic after having committed serious crimes.

“It is imperative that Lebanon follows its obligation dictated by international law to withdraw its nationals. This must have a strong and unequivocal effect on the Lebanese Embassy and the Lebanese government.”

The following data from the Interior Ministry is also dramatic: of 34,885 Lebanese living in Germany 30,000 are dependent on Hartz IV (long-term unemployed welfare benefit), and 4072 are illegals — that’s 11.7%!

Caption for the photo shown at the top of this post:

A Lebanese clan in the corridors of a court of justice. Rabih H. is among them. He was sentenced for 62 cases of drug dealing.

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

Former Marine Corporal Joshua Boston talks to CNN about Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s latest proposal for additional federal gun control in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated another article about the radical Islamic preacher Haitham al-Habbad.

As reported here last month, Mr. al-Habbad attended a seminar in Norway late last year hosted by Islam.net. The Observer says, “Apparently his message was such a hit with the attendees that Islam.net decided to invite him back for a second session next week.”

The translated article from Friday’s VG.no:

British Islamist will attend a second seminar in Norway

The British Islamic preacher Haitham al-Habbad will address Norwegian Muslims for a second time next week at a seminar hosted by Islam Net. His previous appearance in Norway just before Christmas caused controversies.

Islam Net has described him as a “great scholar”, views that are not shared by the Islam-critical website Human Rights Service and Vepsen [hardcore left-wing human rights organization] who have previously written about the extremist.

However, Islam Net is not perturbed by their critics, and has once again invited the British national to Oslo to speak at a seminar on January 11, writes Klassekampen [“Class Struggle” — communist newspaper].

According to the original advertisement, there are only 50 tickets available for the event, and attendees have to register before being informed about the location of the seminar.

Haddad gave a lecture at the University College of Oslo on December 21 of last year. That time he focused on how Muslims should conduct themselves in a modern society. After the seminar he attended a meeting at an undisclosed location.

Kari Toverud Jensen, the principal of the University College of Oslo, gave permission for the event to be held in one of the campus auditoriums, a decision which was heavily criticized by the deputy Mayor of Oslo, Libe Rieber-Mohn (AP — Labour Party). Rieber-Mohn felt that it was completely unacceptable to allow a Sharia expert to spread his message.

“He is a well-known extremist who spreads hatred against Jews and gays,” she told newspapers back then.

Per Sandberg (FRP — Progress Party), Chairman of the Parliamentary Justice Committee, compared Haddad’s ideology with Nazism in an interview with NRK [Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation].

“Following the attacks on July 22, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (Labour Party) made it clear that Norway must become even more democratic in order to oppose Anders Behring Breivik’s hatred. My view is that there must be more religious freedom for Islam in Norway in order to oppose Sandberg and Rieber-Mohn’s hatred of Islam. We have to show these Islam-haters that we will not be intimidated by their hate-filled campaign against Muslims. People who choose to stay silent will slowly but surely be indoctrinated and filled with hatred, as was the case with Germany during the Nazi regime,” says Fahad Qureshi, the leader of Islam Net.

If you want to see a frank assessment on a major TV network of the frightening state that the United States’ war-fighting doctrine has fallen into, you’ll need to move to Canada. In the video clip below, retired admiral Ace Lyons talks to Charles Adler on SUN TV about the new U.S. army training manual, which aims to turn American soldiers in Afghanistan into “culturally sensitive” dhimmified sitting ducks:

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes.

The news feed remains light, due to the continuing absence of email service at Schloss Bodissey. Dymphna and I eagerly await the resolution of this latest crisis.

An armed man held three people hostage in a townhouse in Aurora, California early this morning. After shooting at police officers, a police team entered the house and killed the gunman. Three corpses were found in the house, and are believed to be relatives who were killed by the suspect.

In other news, the French actor Gérard Depardieu arrived in a Black Sea resort to meet with President Vladimir Putin and receive his Russian passport.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Kitman, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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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 Organization of Islamic Cooperation is the polite face of the Great Jihad. It represents the entire Islamic community, Sunni and Shi’ite, and acts as the political arm of the Ummah. It is in essence the nascent global Caliphate.

Professor Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu is the Secretary General of the OIC. He epitomizes those characteristics that Islam prefers to display to a gullible Western public. He is urbane, well-educated, soft-spoken, and eminently reasonable.

Below are excerpts of an interview in Arabic with Prof. İhsanoğlu. It took place in Jeddah in November 2012, and appeared on Saudi TV just after the U.S. elections. In it the professor discusses the OIC’s ten-year plan for eradicating the slander of Islam in Western countries, and presents the usual taqiyyah about what Islamic law actually means to women, dissidents, and non-Muslims.

Dr. İhsanoğlu also confirms what I have long contended in this space: the OIC and the Muslim Brotherhood object to violent terrorist factions within Islam not because the objectives of those groups are wrong, but because they are counter-productive. Islamic violence against infidels tends to waken the kuffar from their slumber and arouse their resistance. Therefore, with an eye on the long-term goal, it is to be avoided.

The OIC believes it can accomplish the same end — the establishment of the World Caliphate — without detonating any bombs or slitting even a single infidel throat.

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Some samples from the interview:

…the most important point here is that we have succeeded in the period since 2005 (the publishing of the Danish cartoons) succeeded internationally in that we issued reports from the Human Rights Council of the UN on how to deal with such issues… and these reports we have adopted in agreement with the US and European countries that were objecting to these reports.

…At this moment we have the resolution 16/18 which was issued last year at the UN which forms a legal groundwork for criminalising such actions that could lead to violence… there is in the international agreement for civil and political rights (year 1966 paragraph 18) A provision that would allow us to put limits on the misuse of freedom of speech including misuse of freedom of the press, freedom of thought, the misuse of these freedoms towards others, in a sense that it would encourage to violence and to hatred based on religious belief. We have these legal bases… bases that existed for some time and new bases that we developed and the international community accepts; all we are now missing is some steps that would allow enforcement of these laws.

And:

… there is indeed cooperation between us and the U.S. government, there is a cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank, and it is one of the OIC foundations… There is cooperation between us and the Bill Gates Foundation.

People who are preoccupied with what Obama does, or what Cameron does, or what Gillard does — or even with what Anjem Choudary and Imam Rauf do — are missing the center of the action. The most crucial components of the plan to Islamize the West were conceived in conferences and meetings within the OIC. They are being implemented continuously and quietly — and successfully.

Many thanks to Russkiy for undertaking the massive project of transcribing and translating this video, and to Vlad Tepes for subtitling it:

Transcript (time stamps from the original video, available here):

Previous posts about Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and the OIC:

The news feed is light tonight because our email is still down, so the usual email tips have not been flowing in. Readers who have been trying to contact us have presumably had their emails bounced. Patience is advised — there’s still no estimate from our ISP for when normal service will resume.

Three culturally enriched Edmonton men have been arrested and charged with luring teenage girls — some of them minors — into prostitution. They are accused of trafficking, pimping, assault, and possession of stolen property.

In other news, American troops have arrived in Turkey to protect newly-arrived Patriot missiles, which are being installed by the USA, Germany, and the Netherlands in case the war in Syria happens to spill over into Turkey.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, Gaia, 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.