“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” -Marcus Aurelius
It would appear that at last, some artists are coming on board, recognizing in fact who the true friends of freedom of expression are, and who are it’s enemies. It is great to see music and art starting to be produced in Europe showing Islam for the retrograde force on liberalism that indeed it is.
Thank you Gaia and ICLA for the rapid translation.
Kent is leader of a political party in Sweden, The Swedish Democrats.
From The Telegraph U.K.
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Published: 5:21PM BST 31 Mar 2010
The unanimous decision by senior home affairs legislators, with the support of Belgium’s main political parties, has paved the way for a full Belgian parliament vote on a ban to be held in three weeks.
The proposed legislation would ban any clothing or veils that do not allow the wearer to be properly identified, including the full-face niqab and burka that is worn by a small minority of Muslim women.
Those Muslims who ignore the ban could face fines of £22 and a jail sentence of up to seven days unless they have written police permission to wear the garments.
Denis Ducarme, a Belgian MP for the liberal Reformist Movement party that drafted the ban, predicted that legislation would receive full parliamentary backing on April 22.
“This is a very strong signal being sent to Islamists,” he said. “I am proud that Belgium would be the first country in Europe which dares to legislate on this sensitive matter.”
Daniel Bacquelaine, MR’s leader, said the proposed legislation would liberate Muslim women.
“Even if it’s on a voluntary basis, the burka is contrary to the dignity of women. It’s a walking prison,” he said. “We have to free women of this burden.”
But the Belgian ban is likely to face opposition and judicial challenges following Monday’s ruling by the French Council of State that a full burka ban in France was “unconstitutional”.
Fouad Lahssaini, a Green MP, warned that Belgian legislation was “judicially unsafe” because Belgium’s own Council of State, which acts as a supreme court, had not given its opinion on a ban.
“Speed is sometimes necessary in a democracy, but precipitous haste is the megaphone of populism,” he said.
Isabelle Praile, the vice president of the Muslim Executive of Belgium, warned that the ban would damage civil liberties.
“Today it’s the full-face veil, tomorrow the veil, the day after it will be Sikh turbans and then perhaps it will be mini skirts,” she said.
The ban will be imposed on all streets, parks, sports grounds or buildings “meant for public use or to provide services”, with exceptions allowed for religious festivities if municipal authorities decide to grant them.
The ban comes amid controversy over the wearing of Muslim religious symbols in public places and as a high-profile trial of nine alleged al-Queda terrorists takes place in Brussels.
Belgium has been alarmed by the case of Malika El Aroud, a veiled Islamist radical and Belgian national, charged with leading the recruitment of young Brussels Muslims for suicide bombing missions. She was required to remove her burka in court when her trial opened earlier this month.
National debate has also raged over a protracted legal battle by Muslim mathematics teacher who demanded the right to wear a veil while teaching in her classroom.
She has been given until the middle of next week to return, unveiled, to her Charleroi school or to lose her job.
Published: 7:06PM BST 30 Mar 2010
The Northern League, an anti immigration party, which has now become pivotal in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling coalition, has seen it’s support more than double in the last five years.
Led by firebrand Umberto Bossi, who once called for the Italian navy to shell boats carrying illegal immigrants towards the country, his victory mirrors those recently by far right parties in Hungary, Holland and France.
In the last regional elections held in 2005 the League secured just 5.7 per cent of the vote but in subsequent polls they have seen their popularity grow and this time it was 12.7 per cent.
James Walston, a political commentator at the American University of Rome, said: “The League has done very well and they will be flexing their muscles for the remaining three years of government.
“They will push for further devolution and immigration and race will also be on top of their agenda and these two are issues which are of concern to many Italians. Continue Reading →
Here is a novelty. A leftist group sets off a bomb in Greece because they are opposed to unbridled immigration and the destruction of Greek culture. This is a first in my experience. Of course, given that National Socialism and the term ‘Front’ often refer to Nazi affiliated groups it is less of a surprise. NAZI of course, was a German Acronym for ‘National Socialist Workers Party’ a left wing group if ever there was one.
From STRATFOR:
Greece: Group Claims Responsibility For Attack
March 30, 2010
Militant group Revolutionary National Socialist Front claimed on March 30 responsibility for the March 28 bomb attack in central Athens, Xinhua reported. A 15-year-old Afghan boy died and his 10-year-old sister was seriously injured. The organization is opposed to immigration, saying that the Greek government does not have a migration policy and the group said there is the risk of foreigners being dominant in the country. Police have yet to identify the claims of responsibility, including that of Guerrilla Group Lambros Fountas, which claimed responsibility through a telephone call to a Greek newspaper.
Below are a rather reasonable set of demands I think. Demands which are not asking for anything new, but in fact, are asking governments simply to obey their own rules, regulations, and indeed laws. They are not asking that Islam have a lesser place at the table, but simply not a greater one and certainly not one at the expense of the Non-Muslim tax dollar.
While the list of demands below where draughted specifically for the U.K., it is easy to adapt them to pretty much anywhere in the western or frankly, non-Islamic world.
I would invite readers to examine them and discuss. Point out what is reasonable and fair and what is not. Tweaking would be a good thing, but at the end of the day, or less metaphorically, in a month or so, it would be nice to have a really solid set of principles based on maintenance of secular and Western laws that we can make on our governments, who are appeasing Islam and destroying liberal democracy at a frantic pace.
Eeyore for Vlad:
1. AN END TO THE CONSTRUCTION AND PROLIFERATION OF UNREGULATED MOSQUES, often funded by Wahhabist petrodollars which preach a doctrine of hate, intolerance and murder in this country, and which promote and institutionalise it. We oppose the building of any more Mosques until the problem of Islamism is dealt with. Mosques must be regulated properly, imams vetted for their suitability, and mosque attendees monitored for any radical inclination. In Islamic teachings the mosque’s mission or function is not just limited to prayer and religious services, but extends to physically and practically instructing followers how to bring the earth under Islamic domination. This teaching is not acceptable.
For existing mosques proposed measures of control could include:
a) Full disclosure of religious foundations.
b) Certified translation of the Qur’an and Ahadith to be deposited with the relevant Ministry
c) All fatwas from imams preaching in UK to be translated into English and deposited at the appropriate Ministry
d) Islamic religious instructors, must dissociate from those Koranic verses that propagate the disadvantage of women, corporal punishment and violence against members of other religions (and atheists and non-theists) Continue Reading →
From The National Post
Graeme Hamilton, National Post Published: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
MONTREAL — Quebec will refuse all government services, including education and non-emergency health care, to fully veiled Muslim women under legislation tabled on Wednesday in the National Assembly.
Jean Charest, the Liberal Premier, said the bill establishing guidelines for the accommodation of religious minorities is aimed at “drawing a line” to demonstrate that gender equality is a paramount Quebec value.
“If you are someone employed by the state and you deliver a service, you will deliver it with your face uncovered,” he told reporters in Quebec City. “If you are a citizen who receives services, you will receive them with your face uncovered.”
The bill applies to not only government departments and Crown corporations but hospitals, schools, universities and daycare centres that receive funding from the province. Continue Reading →
MAILONLINE… An MP was investigated by police for inciting racial hatred over controversial burkha comments following complaints from a human rights association.
Conservative MP Philip Hollobone said wearing a burkha was the religious equivalent of ‘going round with a paper bag over your head’.
During a parliamentary debate last month he urged the House of Commons to ‘seriously consider’ banning the garment.
Now it has emerged police received a complaint about the Kettering MP a few days after his comments from the Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council (NREC).
Officers rang Mr Hollobone to say a complaint had been made but the Crown Prosecution dropped the case a few days later as there were no grounds for prosecution.
Debates in Westminster are protected by parliamentary privilege but Mr Hollobone said the complaint could have related to comments made inside or outside the Commons.
He blasted the ‘hypocritical and ‘patronising’ NREC today for championing freedom of speech while attempting to have him prosecuted.
Last month the organisation sent the outspoken MP a letter criticising his stance on Muslim women who chose to wear the burkha in public.
Mr Hollobone said: ‘It’s complete hypocrisy. They talk on one hand about freedom of speech and expression and then without even making contact try to get me prosecuted.
‘In this country you should be able to have a debate about controversial subjects without the threat of police action. That’s how democracy works. Continue Reading →
UAF supporters Bolton 10
TIMESONLINE… Riot police battled to control thousands of rival demonstrators taking part in an ill-tempered city centre protest organised by a controversial right-wing group.
Hundreds of officers, some horse-mounted and armed with batons, separated supporters of the English Defence League (EDL) and members of Unite Against Fascism (UAF).
Two officers were injured following ugly clashes: one fractured a finger, the other was bitten by a police dog. A police helicopter was also dispatched to assist the officers on the ground. There was a total of 67 arrests, 55 of which were UAF supporters and the remaining 12 EDL, police said.
The EDL organised the rally in Bolton, Lancashire, to protest against “radical Muslims” and Sharia law. At its height there were some 2,000 EDL and a further 1,500 UAF protestors.
The main protest took place in front of the town hall, which was boarded up to prevent any damage. Many local pubs and shops closed and taxi firms pulled their drivers off the roads.
Council leaders had met with Home Secretary Alan Johnson earlier this week in a bid to ban the demonstration, but were told there was no power to do so unless it took place on private property.
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, who is leading the operation for Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said: “Today in Bolton we have seen groups of people, predominantly associated with the UAF, engaging in violent confrontation. Continue Reading →
From The Telegraph U.K.
Published: 8:00AM GMT 20 Mar 2010
Judges ruled that action taken to restrict the possible “malign influence” of Qatada, 49, at Long Lartin in Worcestershire was justified and proportionate.
Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman and who was once dubbed Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe, was described as an ”iconic figure for jihadists”.
He is among six Muslim international terror suspects who are unconvicted of any offence but held in a special detainee unit at Long Lartin.
The high-profile detainees face extradition requests from other countries for alleged terrorist offences but have launched legal challenges or cannot be deported because of the risk they will be tortured.
They include Khalid Al-Fawwaz, 47, and Adel Abdel Bary, 49, who are both wanted by the US authorities for conspiracy to murder American citizens in the synchronised bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998.
Qatada faces jail in Jordan for terrorism but alleges his conviction was based on evidence extracted by torture.
On Thursday, Lord Justice Aikens, sitting with Mr Justice Openshaw, rejected challenges to a decision by Long Lartin governor Ferdie Parker, in December 2008, to change the living conditions for all the detainees after Qatada returned to the unit.
The effect was to confine them to the unit for all purposes, except for health care and family visits, and ban them from mixing with other prisoners.
Qatada came from Belmarsh Prison in south-east London, where he was accused of attempting to “foment trouble” and inciting other prisoners to challenge authority. Continue Reading →
From The Daily Mail U.K.
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:22 AM on 19th March 2010
A headmistress hounded out of her job after being falsely accused of racism by two Muslim governors is entitled to £400,000 damages, the Court of Appeal ruled today.
Erica Connor, 57, had run a ‘happy and successful’ primary school but was driven to a breakdown by the allegations.
She left the New Monument primary school in Woking, Surrey, after Paul Martin – a Muslim convert – and Mumtaz Saleem began monopolising meetings with the aim of turning New Monument in Woking into an Islamic faith school. Continue Reading →
From The Toronto Sun
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.
Hitchens is always excellent, agree with every word or not:
From the National Post. By Graeme Hamilton.
In recent years, the few fully veiled Muslim women who had dealings with Quebec’s health-insurance board could choose to be served by a woman to avoid exposing their faces to a man outside their family.
But in the latest example of the province’s growing resistance to the accommodation of minority religious practices, the insurance board on Tuesday announced the end of the policy after the provincial human rights commission said it has no duty to acquiesce.
“From now on, for a woman who is veiled with a niqab or a burka and comes to our office asking to be photographed by a woman, the answer is no,” said Marc Lortie, spokesman for the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec. “Line up again, or come back another day.” Continue Reading →