Year: 2010

Repeat After Me: “Sieg Heil!”

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This article pulled verbatim from the venerable, Gates of Vienna:

Our Austrian correspondent AMT reports on a seamy little incident that occurred recently at an FPÖ rally near Vienna:

This is interesting, especially in view of the usual Nazi-tactics employed by the political left. A journalist of the state-run TV station, financed by everyone (!) owning a television set, a computer, and/or a mobile phone (with the mere possibility of watching TV), whether or not one actually watches ORF programs, provokes the always peaceful FPÖ campaign rallies by infiltrating it with skinheads.

ORF is notorious for its lack of objectivity, especially in view of all things Muslim.

For instance:

  • The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) has been sugar-coating Islam and Turkey for many years and does not question Muslim claims
  • For example: In the show “Killing for Allah?” the viewer is not told whether or not Islam provides a foundation for terrorism. Additional claims include:
    · Islam equals diversity. Yet there is the Muslim allegation that the presence of non-believers (kuffar) leading to conflict.
    · Terror in Great Britain was committed by British citizens. Why is the fact that the terrorists were naturalized Pakistanis neglected?
    · Muslims of French nationality claim they have no legal right to work and housing. This allegation needs to be elaborated on. It sounds implausible.
    · A Muslim may only fight in a war in the case of attack. However, what constitutes an attack? For instance, the presence of non-Muslims on Muslim territory is viewed as aggression.
    · British openness allows for hate preachers. It has not been explained that Western tolerance is being exploited by Muslims.
    · At a conference of imams in Vienna, Muslims in Austria were excluded. However, it was not explored how acceptance can be expected if the Western way of life is rejected and Westerners are considered “kuffar”.
  • In a recent show about honor killings in Austria, Islam was not even mentioned and the practice was attributed to “patriarchy”.

The article below from SOS — Österreich was translated by Liz at Europe News:

ORF journalist sends Neo-Nazis to Strache demonstration!

An outrageous incident happened at a campaign rally for the Freedom Party in Wiener Neustadt [a city south of Vienna]. At the end of the rally, as [party leader Heinz-Christian] Strache worked the crowd, being photographed with some citizens, he met three men with shaven heads who said to him: “The [TV] camera is our photo.” Strache then turned around, remarking that this probably wouldn’t be possible, and continued signing autographs for other people. Continue Reading →

Million’s Poet finalist defies death threats

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From The National. By Hassan Hassan

A housewife who was the subject of death threats after reciting a poem on the Million’s Poet television show that attacked “ad hoc fatwas” performed a similar poem this week – and reached the final.
Hissa Hilal, a Saudi, said her work was inspired by what she called “subversive” fatwas, specifically one issued by Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al Barrak, a Saudi cleric, on his website last month.

Her recital on the Abu Dhabi TV show last week sparked controversy in Saudi Arabia, especially on internet forums. According to reports, many viewers praised her for her courage, but others attacked her for criticising clerics and reciting her poems in public. One website called for her death.

But Ms Hilal defied the threats, delivering a similar poem on Wednesday’s show – and she received the highest score of the round, 47 out of 50. Continue Reading →

KitmanTV parody

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First of all, I don’t know the famous speech this particular video is mocking. Secondly, I don’t find it funny. Thirdly, I suspect I would need a degree of some kind in the history of the cold war to get all the jokes.

But I am indeed posting it because the point it makes is not lost. Often people say “It’s funny cause it’s true”. In this case, the proper statement might be: ‘It’s terrifying cause it’s true’. Please do watch it. It is only a few minutes out of your day and Kitman makes a profound point that needs making.

Also, since our own educational institutions utterly neglected to teach us about anything that happened between the Soviet Union and the western world since WW2 till when the wall fell and after, I suggest all take a bit more time and watch the following related videos on KitmanTV‘s excellent repository of information on the left.
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/06/link-canadian-documentary-exposing.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/06/yuri-bezmenov-aka-tomas-schuman-lecture.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/07/history-of-political-correctness.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/12/joseph-douglass-battle-lines-in-drug.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/12/pandoras-box-mkultra-and-weaponization.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/11/joseph-douglass-red-cocaine-drugging-of.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/11/anatoly-golitsyn-new-lies-for-old.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/11/joseph-d-douglass-influencing-behavior.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/11/russell-l-blaylock-neuropharmacology-as.html
http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2009/07/lsd-crisis-cbc.html

New “CAIR Observatory” website connects the dots on CAIR’s foreign funding and lobbying

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March 17, 2010: WASHINGTON, DC – The Center for Security Policy announces the launch of the website CAIR Observatory at www.cairobservatory.org.

The website presents comprehensive open-source evidence and analysis alleging that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has acted as a foreign agent on behalf of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires any agent of a foreign principal – including agents of foreign states, political parties, corporations, non-governmental organizations and even individuals – to register with the U.S. Department of Justice as a foreign agent.

The centerpiece of the website is the report “CAIR and the Foreign Agents Registration Act,” which details the foreign funding, foreign direction and domestic political influence operations of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the United States.

The report documents these CAIR activities as a foreign agent:
• CAIR received at least $2,192,203 in Contributions, Income and Money from foreign principals in the form of 10 distinct transactionsReceived a $2,106,251 mortgage loan from a foreign principal for their Washington, D.C. headquarters
• CAIR secured the promise of at least $54,500,000 in pledges from foreign principals
• CAIR met and coordinated with foreign principals on at least 30 occasions
• CAIR engaged in at least 50 political influence operations on behalf of foreign principals in the United States
The Center has additional evidence that cannot be made public at this time documenting an additional $2.4 million in foreign donations and loans given to CAIR since 2000.

The goal of the “CAIR Observatory” (http://www.cairobservatory.org/) is to build a model for researching and compiling evidence of illegal behavior by Muslim Brotherhood front organizations, with a focus on organizations operating in the United States as unregistered foreign agents for the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and its member states.

The website’s name– “CAIR Observatory”– is a direct counter to the so-called “Islamophobia Observatory” maintained by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).  The Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based OIC has been a contributor to CAIR, and the two have a history of coordinated meetings, methodologies and goals.  The website will be updated regularly with new evidence on CAIR’s ongoing activities as a currently unregistered foreign agent.
The Center for Security Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that are vital to American security and then ensures that such issues are the subject of both focused, principled examination and effective action by recognized policy experts, appropriate officials, opinion leaders, and the general public.

Radovan Karadzic: war against ‘Islamist goals’ of Muslims was ‘just’

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From The Telegraph

The Serb cause in the Bosnia war was a “just and holy” war against the “Islamist goals” of Muslims, Radovan Karadzic has claimed during his trial against United Nations genocide charges.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic

Wearing a dark suit and tie, the wartime political leader of Bosnia’s Serbs today ended a previous boycott of his genocide and war crimes trial to open his own defence.

”I stand before you not to defend the mere mortal that I am but to defend the greatness of a small nation in Bosnia and Herzegovina which for 500 years has had to suffer and has demonstrated of modesty and perseverance to survive in freedom,” he told the court in his opening statement.

”I will defend that nation of ours and their cause that is just and holy. We have a good case. We have good evidence and proof.” Continue Reading →

KFC halal row in Britain, Colonel Sanders summoned to the Lancashire Council of mosques

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From The National

Halal dispute over Kentucky Fried Chicken

David Sapsted, Foreign Correspondent

Last Updated: March 14. 2010 7:06PM UAE / March 14. 2010 3:06PM GMT

–>
Kentucky Fried Chicken has been summoned to the Lancashire Council of Mosques. Dominic Lipinski / PA

LONDON // A trial involving the sale of halal poultry at dozens of outlets of a fast-food chain across Britain has left groups of Christians and Muslims embroiled in two very different controversies.

On one hand, non-Muslim groups are setting up internet petitions against KFC’s move to sell halal-only products in the trial at 74 of its outlets across the country. On the other, Muslims themselves are questioning whether, in fact, the poultry being sold is truly halal.

The controversy follows a row in France, where seven stores in the Quick chain of hamburger restaurants switched to selling only halal turkey burgers, sparking protests from non-Muslim French communities. Continue Reading →

Master of taqiyya Tariq Ramadan, in Canada to peddle Brotherhood Islam

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From The Ottawa Citizen

Radical or reformer?

Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan is described by many as a reformer, but the Swiss-born academic, who will be speaking Friday at Carleton University, has troubling allegiances to Islamist extremists, writes Robert Sibley.

By Robert Sibley, The Ottawa CitizenMarch 18, 2010

President of the European Muslim Network, Tariq Ramadan, has said his dream is to create a 'European Islam' where the continent's Muslims can find a proper place. But lately many question the intellectual's seemingly moderate stance.

President of the European Muslim Network, Tariq Ramadan, has said his dream is to create a ‘European Islam’ where the continent’s Muslims can find a proper place. But lately many question the intellectual’s seemingly moderate stance.

Photograph by: Dominique Faget, Agence France-Presse, Getty Images, The Ottawa Citizen

Tariq Ramadan is often held up as the kind of Muslim intellectual able to build bridges between Islam and the West. The Swiss-born academic — “one of the most important intellectuals in the world,” says Slate magazine — is widely lauded as a “moderate,” a “reformer.”

Ramadan, a research fellow at St. Antony’s College in Oxford who lectures on Islamist thought, among other positions, is best known to North Americans for being denied a U.S. work visa in 2004 to take up an appointment at the University of Notre Dame. In Europe, though, he has spent much of the past two decades telling Muslims they need to modernize and trying to convince westerners they need not be suspicious of Islam. His purpose, he says, is to foster a “European Islam” where the continent’s Muslim population can find its proper place.

Ramadan will bring that message — or a variation on it — to Ottawa on Friday when he delivers the 26th annual Davidson Lecture at Carleton University’s Minto Centre. His talk, sponsored by the College of the Humanities and the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam, is entitled “Identity and Engagement: Western Muslims and the Public Sphere.”

On Ramadan’s previous visits to Ottawa, he’s praised the capital as a place where “there is goodwill and a better understanding of immigrants” than elsewhere. During a 2005 visit, he lamented the us-versus-them psychology that often characterizes relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. “If we are each obsessed with the extremists on the other side we are not going to build together.”

Such sentiments are always worth considering, of course. The question for Friday’s audience, though, is whether they are believable.

Ramadan’s reputation as a “moderate” has come into question in recent years, with some reputable commentators suggesting Ramadan is a master practitioner of the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya, or dissimulation. Continue Reading →

The crossing of the red line: jihadists fire rocket into Israel

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Israel targeted by Gaza rockets as Ashton visits

Palestinian militants fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip into a kibbutz in southern Israel, killing a Thai worker, while EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was on an hours-long visit to the area.

Published: 1:08PM GMT 18 Mar 2010

Rocket in Gaza

Palestinian protesters take cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces in the West Bank of Hebron on March 18 Photo: EPA

The rocket was launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing a Thai agricultural worker, while Baroness Ashton was visiting the Hamas-controlled enclave.

It was the first strike from the territory to cause any fatalities since the end in January 2009 of Israel’s Gaza war.

An hour before the attack, the EU’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton crossed into the Gaza Strip to tour UN facilities and see how the international funding was being used.

At a Gaza news conference after the attack, Baroness Ashton said: “I condemn any kind of violence, we have got to find a peaceful solution to the issues and problems.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed his condemnation, saying in a statement: “All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law.”

An unknown Gaza group, Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for the attack – launched a day before the international Quartet of Middle East peace mediators was to meet in Moscow to discuss ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Similar strikes since the Gaza war have been met by Israeli air raids against militants or suspected weapons-producing facilities, but the death of the Thai worker, in Netiv Ha’asara, an agricultural community, may harden Israel’s response.

“This is a crossing of the red line, which Israel cannot accept.

“The Israeli response will be appropriate. It will be strong,” Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said.

The Gazan group responsible for the attack, Ansar al-Sunna said in a statement: “The Jihadist mission came in response to the Zionist assaults against the Ibrahimi and al-Aqsa mosques and the continued Zionist aggression against our people in Jerusalem.”

It appeared to be referring to Israel’s national heritage plan to renovate holy sites, including the West Bank town of Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs that is revered by Muslims and Jews, and the rededication this week of an 18th-century synagogue in Jerusalem, some 400 yards from al-Aqsa.

In a statement on the rocket attack, Hamas steered clear of comments that could be seen by Palestinians in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip as disapproving of a strike against its enemy, even while the strike strained an informal truce.

“The government of the Zionist enemy, which has launched a war against the Palestinian people and against holy sites and al-Aqsa mosque, bears the responsibility for all the escalation,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

At Hamas’s urging, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem mounted stone-throwing protests this week after Israel reconsecrated the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem’s walled Old City.

Palestinian militants in Gaza have been carrying out sporadic rocket and mortar bomb attacks on Israel since the end of the December 2008-January 2009 Gaza war, usually without causing any casualties.

The number of such strikes has dropped dramatically since the Israeli campaign ended.

“Show your face” Canadian Minister tells Muslim women

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From The Toronto Sun

Tory minister faces veil controversy

By ELIZABETH THOMPSON, Parliamentary Bureau

Last Updated: March 18, 2010 6:23am

OTTAWA – Women who wear the niqab should have to show their faces when dealing with the federal civil service, says Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. Kenney said he believes in personal liberty and opposes regulating what people wear.

“On the other hand, when it’s necessary we do expect people to show their face in … obtaining public services,” he said Wednesday. “In my own ministry, when individuals make an application for immigration or a visa and they’re interviewed by a Canadian public servant, they’re required to show their face.”

Kenney said the reason women are asked to remove their niqab, which covers the lower half of the face, is so officials can see their responses and they can communicate their problem. In those cases, the department arranges for a female civil servant “as often as possible,” he said.

Kenney’s comments come as a storm of controversy has erupted in Quebec over whether women who wear the niqab should have to remove their face veil in certain circumstances such as during a French class for immigrants.

The controversy was further fuelled this week when Quebec’s Human Rights Commission ruled that women wearing the Islamic face covering have to remove it for their health card photo and cannot demand to be served by another woman.

The commission also ruled in favour of the hijab, which covers the head but not the face. A client had complained about being served by a health board employee wearing a hijab, but the commission ruled the headdress did not have any bearing on the service they received.

Kenney’s comments come a day after the UN Human Rights Commission’s expert on minority issues tabled a report saying that while Canada had an impressive record, significant and persistent problems affect ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. Gay McDougall cited negative experiences in public schools for black and Asian Canadians as well as higher unemployment and lower income rates, even for those who have higher education levels than most Canadians.

Kenney said Canada is viewed around the world as a model of equality of opportunity and minority rights.

British police banned from asking for Christian names; may cause offense to Muslims, Sikhs

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Police officers banned from asking for ‘Christian’ names

Police officers have been banned from asking for a person’s “Christian” name because it might offend people with other religious beliefs.

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Published: 12:18PM GMT 18 Mar 2010

Officers taking down a suspect’s particulars must now ask them for a “personal and family name” in case the word “Christian” offends Muslims, Sikhs or other faiths, according to the new official guidance.

Kent Police’s prescriptive diversity rulebook also tells officers to refrain from using phrases such as “my dear” or “love”, when addressing women for fear it may cause “embarrassment or offence”.

The guidelines warn that officers should not comfort people by “putting their arm around them” as it could be seen as “unprofessional”.

They also state that the term “mixed race” should be replaced by “mixed parentage” or “mixed cultural heritage”.

Police officers condemned the guidance as “the latest in a long line of annoying politically correct nonsense”.

Other recent examples have included Scotland Yard instructing officers not to use the phrase “gang rape” to describe such crimes because the term is too “emotive”. Sex attacks that involve more than one culprit are referred to as “multi-perpetrator rapes” instead.

Last year it was revealed that officers in Warwickshire had been warned not to say “Evenin’ all” – the phrase made famous by television show Dixon of Dock Green – because it could confuse people of “different cultural backgrounds” as to the time of day.

Other words now discouraged include, “businessman”, “housewives” and “child”, all of which organisations argue have negative connotations.

The new rulebook for Kent police, which has almost 7,000 officers, staff and community support officers, says it intends to “promote clearer communication” and “break down barriers” with diverse communities.

“Do not underestimate how your own cultural background may affect your perception and behaviour towards others,” it warns.

One veteran Kent police officer of 15 years, who did not wish to be identified, said: “Most of us are fully aware of how to treat people from different cultural backgrounds, but being told we can’t even ask what their ‘Christian’ name is just plain ridiculous.

“That is what we are brought up with – Christian name and surname – and to be honest if you had an officer ask for your personal name and family name it’s just going to confuse people.

“It’s just the latest in a long line of annoying PC-related nonsense that we keep getting shoved down our throats.”

Marie Clair, spokesman for the Plain English Campaign, said: “I would like to know who these people with religious beliefs are that are allegedly so offended.

“I do not understand why someone in an office somewhere is coming up with these guidelines when there has been no outcry or complaints made public to suggest that the word “Christian” is offensive in this context.

“It is political correctness being pushed to its absolute limits. All common sense has been lost. Why can’t we use familiar language which people understand?”

Erdogan urges German Turks not to integrate

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Photo: DPA

Erdogan urges German Turks not to integrate

Published: 17 Mar 10 14:49 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100317-25933.html

The Turkish government has reportedly angered Turkish-German politicians by inviting them to an Istanbul conference and then urging them to resist political and social integration in their adopted homeland.

At the meeting last month, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks living in foreign countries to take out citizenship of the new homelands – not to integrate, but rather to become more politically active, according to the website of news magazine Der Spiegel.

Ali Ertan Toprak, deputy chairman of the Alevi community in Germany, told the magazine government representatives had said: “We have to inject European culture with Turkish.”

Erdogan told the meeting countries that did not allow dual citizenship violated basic rights and also likened Islamophobia to anti-Semitism.

Participants told Spiegel that Erdogan repeated elements of his widely criticised speech in Cologne in 2008 in which he said: “Assimilation is a crime against humanity.” Continue Reading →