Archive for the ‘Islamic integration’ category

Germany’s largest Muslim organization gets Muslim prof fired for saying violent Qur’an verses not valid for all time

May 24, 2016

Germany’s largest Muslim organization gets Muslim prof fired for saying violent Qur’an verses not valid for all time, Jihad Watch, 

Islamic apologists routinely claim that violent Qur’an verses have no validity beyond Muhammad’s time, but this story illustrates that this is not the mainstream view in Islam. The persecution of Mouhanad Khorchide also shows the uphill battle that genuine Muslim reformers face: branded as heretics and/or apostates, they’re often shunned (or worse) by the very community that needs their ideas the most.

Mouhanad-Khorchide

“Opinion: A German Islam must be liberal, self-critical,” by Susanne Schröter, DW, May 23, 2016:

When the theologian Mouhanad Khorchide, who teaches at the University of Münster, published “Islam Is Compassion” in 2012, he received a variety of diverse reactions. Many non-Muslims celebrated the work as the revelation of a humanistic Islam: an Islam that no one needs to fear. This feeling arose in part because the author created a picture of God that is not “interested in the labels of Muslim or Christian or Jewish, believer or nonbeliever.”

Korchide threw out the idea that Koran verses that appear violent or hostile toward women or non-Muslims may be valid for all eternity. He wanted them to be viewed as the words of a bygone era.

It seemed that the professor, with the swoop of his pen, managed to brush aside all those reservations that made people wonder whether Islam really “belonged to Germany,” as former President Christian Wulff said famously in a 2010. One might even have thought that Muslims would offer Khorchide a pat on the back.

On the website for DITIB, Germany’s Turkish Islamic union and the country’s largest Muslim organization, one can read that Khorchide’s statements were a “rejection of the teachings of classical Islam” and an “insult to Muslim identity.” For this reason, the professor was removed from his post at the university. As if that weren’t enough, the coordinating body of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims (ZMD), a cooperative made up of a number of large organizations, produced a nearly 100-page assessment document to discredit him further, but luckily was not able to get far with it….

“Jihad,” when used in the sense of a real war, is a term that is used in the Koran and in Islamic heritage. There are clerics who claim jihad is an appropriate instrument for avenging insults to the Prophet Muhammad – such as an act of revenge for a nation’s foreign policy. These clerics are even lent the pulpit at some mosques, though the official leaders of the houses of worship issue apologies to the community if religious youths clamor after extremists. But Salafism is a youth movement, and it draws in so many teenagers and young adults that the psychologist Ahmad Mansour speaks of a “Generation Allah.”

Mansour isn’t only referring to those youths who join radical groups and potentially fight in such places as Syria, but also those whose beliefs vacillate between extremism and orthodoxy. “Generation Allah” refers to youths who find meaning in life by subjecting themselves unquestioningly to God and his rules, who ask constantly what is halal (allowed) or haram (forbidden) because their perspective is that they can be winners in paradise. I have spoken to such young men. Living in contemporary German society is dangerous for these young men, full of sin, and as a result they reject any relationships with so-called unbelievers. They go beyond what is normally required of their faith.

Some Muslim organizations encourage such segregation. Nearly every mosque has soccer teams that play against other sides from other mosques. Islamic day care and cultural centers are being founded; Islamic NGOs are working with underprivilileged [sic] people and youth. Parallel structures are being developed that would allow Muslims to avoid contact with non-Muslims from the cradle to the grave….

Yazidis Ambushed by Muslim Migrants in Germany: Report

May 24, 2016

Yazidis Ambushed by Muslim Migrants in Germany: Report, Clarion Project, May 24, 2016

(Please see also, The Plight of the Yazidis, considered “devil worshipers” by Islamists. — DM)

Germany-Injured-Yazidis-HPYazidis injured in Germany after being reportedly attacked by Chechens (Photo: Twitter)

A group of Muslims migrants from Chechnya allegedly ambushed a group of Yazidi refugees in Germany, leaving many injured Yazidis, a number needing hospitalization. Although initial reports from Germany called the incident, which involved more than 100 people, a random fight, an organization named Yazidis International says that the fight was a setup, with the Chechens lying in wait for the Yazidis with knives and baseball bats.

Only Yazidis were injured. One Yazidi suffered a skull fracture, another a head injury and at least one other a serious stab wound.

Although there were threats of revenge, police kept the two groups apart and are considering ways to continue to do so in the future.

Reports out of Germany show that many non-Muslim refugees have been subjected to violence and other abuse from Muslim migrants.

In other news, a recent report from Germany’s investigative police agency showed a sharp increase in the number of potential violent Islamists being tracked by the agency.

The numbers rose from 270 in January of 2015 to 497 today.

In addition, the agency is also following 339 additional Islamists who the police feel are sympathetic to or capable of assisting terrorists.

In Austria, intelligence officials are also warning of a rise in suspected Islamists in the country, particularly with individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Archbishop Outside Whose Cathedral Cologne Women were Raped, Defends Islam

May 23, 2016

Archbishop Outside Whose Cathedral Cologne Women were Raped, Defends Islam, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, May 23, 2016

archbishop-of-cologne

It’s important to remember that the Cologne sexual assaults took place outside its cathedral.

In a crowd of 1,000 men, hundreds of Muslim refugees prowled, assaulting and robbing any woman they could find. A police officer described seeing crying women stumble toward him after midnight. He managed to rescue one woman whose clothes had been torn off her body from a group of her attackers, but could not save her friends because the mob had begun hurling fireworks at him.

The provost of the Cologne Cathedral had warned anti-Islamist protesters, “You’re supporting people you really don’t want to support.” But it was the provost and pro-refugee activists who had supported people they really didn’t want to support. There is no way to know whether any of the smiling young people holding, “I Love Immigration” banners had fallen victim to those refugees they loved so much.

And the cathedral itself came under attack.

Barbara Schock-Werner, who served as cathedral architect between 1999 and 2012, was present at the well-attended religious service along with several thousand other worshippers. Shock-Werner told the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine, that the cathedral experienced an unprecedented and massive rocket and ‘banger’ fireworks barrage that lasted the whole service.

“Again and again the north window of the cathedral was lit up red, because rocket after rocket flew against it,” she said. “And because of the ‘bangers’, it was very loud. The visitors to the service sitting on the north side had difficulties hearing. I feared at times that panic would break out.”

Cardinal Rainer Woelki, who presided at the New Year’s mass, also complained about the “massive disruptions.”

“During my sermon loud ‘bangers’ could be heard,” Woelki said in the paper, Die Welt. “I was already annoyed beforehand about the loud noises that were penetrating into the cathedral.”

But Woelki is attacking anti-Islamists.

Rainer Woelki posted a video where he ridiculed the right-wing party’s claim that Islam is incompatible with the German constitution. The archbishop’s intervention comes after the anti-immigration party said it would press for bans on minarets and burqas.

“Anyone who denigrates Muslims as the AfD leadership does should realise prayer rooms and mosques are equally protected by our constitution as our churches and chapels,” he said.

“Whoever says ‘yes’ to church towers must also say ‘yes’ to minarets.”

And then they have to say “yes” to sexual assaults and “no” to women walking the streets.

 

Matt Bracken: The Hybrid Vigor of the Coming European Islamic State

May 23, 2016

Matt Bracken: The Hybrid Vigor of the Coming European Islamic State, Gates of Vienna, May 21, 2016

(Here’s the video referenced in the article. — DM)

— DM)

Gates of Vienna introduction

The following essay and meme by Matthew Bracken were prompted by a cell-phone video from Germany of a culture-enricher assaulting a German teenaged boy. I won’t embed the video; I find it almost too unbearable to watch. To see a young man so unable to defend himself, so unwilling to stand up and be a man, is disheartening and dismaying.

Below are Matt Bracken’s thoughts on what all of this means.

Bracken article

bracken-dhimmi

This is heartbreaking to see, but very important.

This is how a dhimmi is created in a gun-free country, where armed self-defense is an alien concept. This is prison yard rules, and the young German is just fresh meat. This German kid will probably convert to Islam just to stop the pain and “gain the respect” of his new masters.

Note how the bully threatens to beat him every day just to harden him up and make him a man. A similar psychological process occurs in military boot camp with new recruits. He doesn’t know it yet, but his mother and sisters are now Moslem chattel property. He won’t lift a finger to defend German women; he is a dhimmi at best. Most likely he will just convert as a matter of bare survival, but he will always be a “second-class Muslim”, even if he submits. These IslamoNazi bullies will have him reciting the Shahada in less than a month, and after that, his sister is toast. Just fresh meat for the hijra jihadis.

This is how Islam has spread for 1,400 years: brute force, threats, intimidation, and using terror as an example of how far they are willing to go to force the spread.

Smug Americans who own firearms might laugh at the current plight of the Europeans, but they should not. The Europeans have been brainwashed by the “multi-kulti-uber-alles” Left to simply submit when the planned hijra invasion happened, which is happening now. The ordinary Euros were betrayed by Quisling traitors in high offices. From the Muslim point of view, the hijra invasion is moving from the dawah (preaching) phase to the jihad phase, using violence and threats of even greater violence to force a complete Muslim takeover. That German boy now understands who are the alpha males, and who are not: The Moslems are, and he isn’t.

But there is the long-term danger in this process even to America. If Islam wins in Europe, a well-known social/genetic dynamic will kick in. All of the German girls and women (even the man-hating radical feminists and lesbians) will be raped, enslaved, or “married” by force, but one way or the other, there will be a rising generation of Muslims in Europe who are half-German.

People should understand a genetic process called “hybrid vigor.” There is a reason the Ottoman Turks collected European boys to be raised as Janissaries. The Arab desert Muslims have terrible DNA after 1,400 years of first-cousin inbreeding, but when they impregnate their German conquest victims they will create generations of 100% full Muslims who are half German. Of course, this will happen in every European country, not only Germany.

Americans should not be smug about the collapse and Muslim conquest of Europe. Half-German “Super Muslims” will be a tough adversary. Remember the Ottoman Janissaries from history. They were fearsome fanatics, but also big, strong and smart.

Another crop of “Super Muslims” were the Berbers of Morocco, who provided most of the brains and muscle used for the invasion of Spain in 711 AD. The “desert Arabs” were a scrawny and pitiful bunch. Man for man, they were weaklings compared to the hearty Berber mountain folk. But the Berbers were divided, tribe against tribe, from one Atlas Mountains valley to another. The invading Arab armies picked off one tribe at a time, and forced them all to convert. These newly united Berber Super Muslims were imbued with ”convert zeal,” and ready to invade new worlds to spread the banner of Islam.

United for the first time in history, the Muslim Berbers of Morocco (under mostly Arab leadership) turned their natural war-lust against the Christians of Spain. Like the pre-Muslim Berber tribes had been before them, each Spanish Christian principality was divided from the others across the mountains of Spain. The united and newly converted Muslim Berber armies swept over the separate Spanish fiefdoms one after the other.

The point is that Muslim invasions have often succeeded against divided foes who were, man for man, much stronger and even smarter. A generation later, this invigorated hybrid population can be very dangerous, because after the consolidation phase where the invaded region is brought under united Islamic control, they will be straining to burst their borders and conquer new worlds, like the Super Muslim Berbers did in Spain. Think also of Iran in this context. United Arab Muslim armies conquered Persia, creating another brand of hybridized “Super Muslims.”

I shudder to think of what German Super Muslims will be capable of in thirty years, if Islam is triumphant in Europe. They would make the Earth shake

CAIR’s Dawud Walid: Civil Rights Champion or Radical Hiding in the Open?

May 23, 2016

CAIR’s Dawud Walid: Civil Rights Champion or Radical Hiding in the Open? Gatestone InstituteM. Zuhdi Jasser, May 23, 2016

(Dr. Jasser is a Muslim, active in efforts to reform Islam. — DM)

♦ With his March 25 Facebook post, CAIR’s Dawud Walid cemented his position as a preacher of hate and radicalism. He has already become known to many Muslims as an extreme figure, who bullies anyone who disagrees with him, maligns dissidents, harasses gay Muslims, and foments anti-American sentiments.

♦ It is beyond denial to ignore the fact that Muslims such as Walid are leading radicalizers of American Muslims, and their efforts are dedicated to pushing vulnerable Muslims away from integration and reform against Islamist movements.

Dawud Walid is the longtime executive director of Michigan’s chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). His Twitter profile currently bills him as a “human rights advocate and political blogger,” and his blog sells him as an imam who lectures on topics such as how to maintain your manners when dealing with hostile people (the irony of this will soon become abundantly clear), and how to address the very real problem of anti-Black racism within the Muslim community.

To anyone less familiar with Walid’s persona — especially online — he could easily appear to be a champion of civil rights, a man before his time in terms of addressing intra-community problems as well as hostilities between Muslims and non-Muslims. A more comprehensive review of his activities — or even just a cursory review of his commentary on one of the days he has chosen to lash out at anyone with whom he disagrees — reveals a more sinister, even cruel, man. Further, his true aim seems not to be civil discourse and community cohesion, but rather the furtherance of a particularly malignant, vicious strain of political Islam.

I have seen Walid demean, bully, and slander other Muslims for years. He has actively worked to silence discussion of critical issues, by working to shut down screenings of Honor Diaries, a film addressing the mistreatment of women in the name of “honor” culture; instigating online hate campaigns and witch hunts against dissidents — women in particular — and pushing Muslims to ostracize those with whom he disagrees. While this behavior has been abhorrent and has brought significant distress and even potential danger to those he has targeted, the broader public has paid little mind.

His most recent tirade on social media, however, may — and should — wake the public up to his real agenda.

On March 25 of this year, Walid took to social media to talk about the Easter holiday, and how he believes Muslims should treat Christians on this day. Rather than using the opportunity to offer best wishes to Christians and condemn the slaughter of Christians by ISIS, Walid urged Muslims not to “encourage infidels” by wishing Christians a “Happy Easter.” His comments were at best hateful, at worst incitement. His is the kind of thinking that leads to attacks such as the one against Christians in Pakistan over Easter, or when the Pakistani Taliban blew up a crowd of mostly women and children of Ahmadi Muslims, or when Asad Shah, stabbed 30 times, was assassinated recently in his store in Glasgow, Scotland, for wishing Christians a Happy Easter.

1615On March 25 of this year, Dawud Walid (left), executive director of Michigan’s CAIR chapter, posted in Facebook, urging Muslims not to “encourage infidels” by wishing Christians a “Happy Easter.” This kind of thinking leads to attacks such as the stabbing murder this year of Asad Shah (right) in Glasgow, Scotland, who was killed by a fellow Muslim who claimed Shah “disrespected” Islam by wishing Christians a Happy Easter.

Dawud Walid wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post:

“Being respectful of others’ rights to observe and practice religious holidays doesn’t mean welcoming or celebrating them.

“‘Good Friday’ and Easter Sunday symbolize the biggest theological difference between Christians and Muslims. The belief of ‘original sin’ needing a human sacrifice of Jesus (peace be upon him) who is believed by Christians to be the son of Allah the Most High is blasphemous according to Islamic theology.

“There’s no original sin for humans to atone for since ‘no soul bears the burden of another’ according to the Qur’an. Regarding the crucifixion, ‘they killed him not’ and it was only a ‘likeness of him’ is stated in the Qur’an. And of course, ‘He begot none, nor was He begotten’ meaning Allah didn’t have a son is also a primary belief of monotheism articulated in the Qur’an.

“Be respectful, and don’t pick theology debates with your Christian family members and friends this weekend. However, avoid wishing them ‘Happy Easter’ greetings.

“Avoid giving the remote appearance of passively affirming shirk [polytheism] and kufr [disbelief].”

In the above post, Walid is referencing blasphemy — a crime in places such as Pakistan, where Christians and even minority Muslims are marked for death under archaic “blasphemy” laws, perceived insults to Muhammad or Islam. He further suggests that he believes Christianity to be a polytheistic religion, again asserting his belief in the doctrine of blasphemy. Finally, he instructs Muslims to self-isolate from both family and friends, by not extending the normal human kindness of a “Happy Easter” greeting, lest they seem to be affirming “shirk” (idolatry, polytheism) and “kufr” (disbelief; related to kafir, often used to mean “infidel”). Where blasphemy laws exist, and where this mentality takes hold, the punishment for what he calls “kufr” is death — sometimes by the state, sometimes by mobs tacitly endorsed by the state.

With this post, Walid cemented his position as a preacher of hate and radicalism. He has already become known to many Muslims as an extreme figure, who bullies anyone who disagrees with him, maligns dissidents, harasses gay Muslims, and foments anti-American sentiments. The above post could have been written by Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam who preached violence. In fact, when blogging about Awlaki’s long overdue assassination by an American drone in 2011, Walid’s few comments were not reserved for the opinions of Awlaki, who had radicalized countless Muslims who have massacred countless innocent Americans, but instead he referred to yours truly as “the lone wolf.”

For years he has advocated for every radical Islamist he could get away with defending. For example, Detroit’s radical Islamist imam Luqman Abdullah has long been the focus of Walid’s innumerable grievances against local police and FBI. He continues to this day to portray this armed militant imam, who led a separatist “Ummah” (or Islamic State) group (long before ISIS), as the “victim” of an overly aggressive FBI shooting, despite every investigation having shown otherwise and despite Abdullah’s core anti-American separatist militant ideology.

It should raise many alarms that his social media posts, such as the one this Easter (which he deceptively took down), was written not by a known radical in Yemen, but by a man employed as a leader of the self-appointed “representative” of American Muslims, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in one of the regions of the United States most densely populated by Muslims. It is beyond denial to ignore the fact that Muslims such as Walid are leading radicalizers of American Muslims, and their efforts are dedicated to pushing vulnerable Muslims away from integration and reform against Islamist movements.

_________________

M. Zuhdi Jasser is the President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Arizona and co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement. He is author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam.”

Backlash in Europe: ‘Far Right’ Seethes Over Migrant Crisis

May 22, 2016

Backlash in Europe: ‘Far Right’ Seethes Over Migrant Crisis, Clarion Project, May 22, 2016

Spain-Anti-Migrant-Rally-IPAnti-immigration rally in Madrid (Photo: Screenshot video)

1. According to the latest news, Austria will elect as president the candidate from the far-Right Freedom Party in its upcoming elections. Analysts say Norber Hofer’s support (including, ironically some long-time immigrants) stems from voters frustrated by the two main parties over the immigrant crisis and its accompanying crimes, as well as unemployment.

Although the office is largely ceremonial, such a vote will be very significant, as analyst say that Hofer’s election may provide an impetus for populous change in Europe.

2. Wahhabism has taken root in Kosovo, just 17 years after America and its allies stepped in to free Muslims and prevent a total genocide at the hands of the Serbians. “Since then,” reports the New York Times, “much of that time under the watch of American officials — Saudi money and influence have transformed this once-tolerant Muslim society at the hem of Europe into a font of Islamic extremism and a pipeline for jihadists.”

Police say that over the past two years, per capita, more Muslims from Kosovo, have left to join the Islamic State, including suicide bombers, women and children.

3. Christians seeking asylum in Europe can be exposed to as much danger from Islamist extremists as those they fled from in the Middle East. A new survey shows that thousands of Christians in Germany have been attacked and harassed by fellow migrants and Muslim guards at asylum houses.

Particularly at risk are those Muslims who have chosen to convert to Christianity. The survey was conducted by Open Doors, a humanitarian relief organization. One member of the group, Markus Rhodes, called the survey the “tip of the iceberg.”

4. A senior law enforcement official in Germany has proposed monitoring mosques to know “what is preached there.”  Emily Haber, the state secretary at the German Ministry of the Interior, further stated, “We cannot stay indifferent.

“We need to bring into view more on what is developing there. We need to move fast. It must also be clear who and from what country comes to Germany as imams. This scene must not remain unwatched and uncontrolled.”

5. Rallies against immigration were held in Madrid and Rome over the weekend. In Spain, under the title “Defend Spain, defend your people,” marchers called for an end to the “invasion,” chanting “Refugees no, Spanish yes.”  A Facebook post explaining the reason for the demonstration read in part, “Sometimes, we try to avoid the problem by closing our eyes, and looking the other way. That makes us believe that the problem goes away, but it’s not like that.

“Passivity, and silence as demanded by the politically correct, wants us to believe that we are free, but by staying still we are complicit in the decline of our people, our identity, of our ways. Looking the other way just accelerates our own destruction, and sells our freedom to the highest bidder.”

6. Pope Francis will meet Egypt’s top cleric, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s of Al-Azhar Mosque, considered the seat of Sunni Islam. The historic visit at the Vatican is the first since relations were suspended in 2011 after Pope Benedict XVI called for the protection of Christians after a church bombing in Alexandria.

Al-Tayeb, was appointed by former Egyptian President Hosni Mubrak and supported the popularly-backed military coup that overthrew former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. At a conference against terrorism in Saudi Arabia, al-Tayeb blamed Zionism and its allies (i.e. the United States) for the current problems in the Middle East.

Muslims in US Rebrand Polygamy as “Cultural Wives”

May 21, 2016

Muslims in US Rebrand Polygamy as “Cultural Wives” Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, May 21, 2016

byb-poligamy-no-worse-than-adultery-300px-polygamy_in_islam

I wrote a while back about the “race, religion, culture” shell game that Muslims play to extract every possible advantage.

What is Islam? The obvious dictionary definition answer is that it’s a religion, but legally speaking it actually enjoys all of the advantages of race, religion and culture with none of the disadvantages.

Islam is a religion when mandating that employers accommodate the hijab, but when it comes time to bring it into the schools, places that are legally hostile to religion, American students are taught about Islam, visit mosques and even wear burkas and recite Islamic prayers to learn about another culture. Criticism of Islam is denounced as racist even though the one thing that Islam clearly isn’t is a race.

Islamist organizations have figured out how lock in every advantage of race, religion and culture, while expeditiously shifting from one to the other to avoid any of the disadvantages.

Now they’re trying it out with polygamy. Suddenly second wives are not religious, they’re cultural. And you can’t criticize culture.

The federal government says a man considered by Somali immigrants as the most important Muslim cleric does not have the “good moral character” to remain a U.S. citizen.

The U.S. attorney’s office wants the citizenship granted to Mohamed Idris Ahmed in 2003 revoked. Prosecutors say he lied on his naturalization application by not mentioning that he had two wives and had traveled outside the United States.

Ahmed, 38, testified that he has a “legal” wife from a civil marriage living with their children in Kenya and a “religious or cultural” wife and family in Saudi Arabia. He said a U.S. consulate official in Saudi Arabia advised him to bring only the legal wife and children to the United States. Because of that, he believed he did not need to mention the religious marriage.

This distinction is purely imaginary. Polygamy is fully legal and approved in Saudi Arabia. There are no cultural or religious wives.

Ahmed is well-respected at the Islamic Association of North America, according to Executive Director Hassan Jama. The association is based in Minneapolis, Minneapolis, which has the largest population of Somali immigrants in the United States. Columbus is second.

I’m sure he is. Considering what ISNA is, that’s hardly a recommendation.

The organization grew out of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), which also was founded by Brotherhood members.

Federal prosecutors included ISNA on a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas-financing prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). ISNA is listed among “individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood.” The trial ended with guilty verdicts on 108 counts in November 2008.

Its conferences have featured rhetoric in support of terrorist groups and other radicalism. This continued at the 2009 convention, where panelists expressed extreme anti-Semitism and support for the terrorist group Hizballah.

Having ISNA come to your defense is like being accused of armed robbery and then having Charles Manson defend you by explaining that you’re one of his serial killers.

Sweden’s Holy War on Children’s Books

May 21, 2016

Sweden’s Holy War on Children’s Books, Gatestone InstituteJudith Bergman, May 21, 2016

♦ Taken to its extremes, the urge to cleanse a culture of elements that do not live up to the politically correct orthodoxy currently in political vogue unsettlingly echoes the Taliban and ISIS credos of destroying everything that does not accord with their Quranic views. The desire “not to offend,” taken to its logical conclusion, is a totalitarian impulse, which threatens to destroy everything that disagrees with its doctrines. Crucially, who gets to decide what is offensive?

♦ The question arises: How much purging and expiation will be needed to render a country’s culture politically correct?

♦ “When we have days of carnivals and music the goal is that these days should be experienced as positive by everyone. The Swedish flag is not allowed as part of carnival dress. … Positive and bright feelings must be in focus. … School photos must obviously be free of national symbols.” — Swedish school in Halmstad.

♦ Rome covered up its classical nude statues for a visit from Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, in January 2016. A decade ago, who would have even imagined such sycophancy?

In 1966, one of Sweden’s most popular children’s writers, Jan Lööf, published Grandpa is a Pirate, an illustrated children’s book, which featured, among other characters, the wicked pirate Omar and the street peddler, Abdullah. The book has been a bestseller ever since, and has been translated into English (as My Grandpa is a Pirate), Spanish, French and other languages. Ten years ago, 100,000 copies of it were even distributed to the Swedish public with McDonald’s Happy Meals, as part of an initiative to support reading among children.

Ah, but those were the days of yesteryear! Now, fifty years later, the book is no longer tolerable. The now 76-year-old author told Swedish news outlets that his publisher recently said that unless he rewrites the book and changes the illustrations, it will be taken off the market. The publisher also threatened to withdraw another of his books unless it is redone: it features an illustration of a black jazz musician who sleeps with his sunglasses on.

Lööf’s publisher, the Swedish publishing giant Bonnier Carlsen, says that it has not yet made a final decision and that it only views the rewriting and re-illustrating of the books as “an option.” There is no doubt, however, that they consider the books in question extremely problematic.

“The books stereotype other cultures, something which is not strange, since all illustrations are created in a context, in their own time, and times change,” said Eva Dahlin, who heads Bonnier Carlsen’s literary department.

“But if you come from the Middle East, for instance, you can get tired from rarely being featured on the good side in literary depictions. Children’s books are special because they are read over a longer period of time and the norms of the past live on in them, unedited. As an adult, one may be wearing one’s nostalgic glasses and miss things that could be seen as problematic by others.”

Dahlin further explained that the publishing house spends a lot of time reviewing older publications, to check if such “problematic” passages occur. She added that the publishing house does not check for only culturally sensitive passages:

“There are many female editors, and therefore we have probably been more naturally aware of gender-biased depictions than these type of questions. But now we have better insights and a greater awareness of these issues.”

1612One of Sweden’s most popular children’s writers, Jan Lööf, was recently told by his publisher that unless he makes his bestselling 1966 book, Grandpa is a Pirate, more politically correct by rewriting it and changing the illustrations, it will be taken off the market

Sweden is no stranger to “literary revisions” of this kind, or other cultural revisions in the name of political correctness. Both Pippi Longstocking and other children’s books have gone through assorted revisions or have even been taken off the market. In the Pippi Longstocking television series, a scene in which Pippi squints her eyes to look Chinese has been edited out altogether, so as not to offend anyone. In 2013, a popular, award-winning Danish children’s book, Mustafa’s Kiosk, by Jakob Martin Strid, was taken off the market in Sweden after complaints on Swedish social media that it was racist and “Islamophobic.” Ironically, the author wrote it in 1998, when he was staying in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, as “an anti-racist statement.” Tellingly, the book had been on the Swedish market since 2002 with no complaints. In his response to the criticism, the Danish writer noted that an equal and non-racist society only comes about “when you are allowed to make (loving) fun of everyone.” “I also make fun of Norwegians,” he added.

In 2014, after complaints on Swedish social media that some of its candy was “racist,” the Haribo company decided to change one of its products, “Skipper Mix,” which consisted of candies shaped in the form of a sailor’s souvenirs, including African masks.

The question arises: How much purging and expiation will be needed to render a country’s culture politically correct?

That question raises an even bigger one: How high is the price of political correctness in terms of “cleansing” the past and present of perceived slights, anywhere, to just about anyone?

Taken to its extremes, the urge to cleanse a culture of elements that do not live up to the politically correct orthodoxy currently in political vogue unsettlingly echoes the Taliban and ISIS credos of destroying everything that does not accord with their Quranic views. The desire “not to offend,” taken to its logical conclusion, is a totalitarian impulse, which threatens to destroy everything that disagrees with its doctrines. Crucially, who gets to decide what is offensive?

What begins innocently enough, by taking out passages from books that may hurt someone’s feelings, can end up turning into something far more sinister, as it indeed has in Sweden. Former Swedish Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt famously stated in 2014 that Sweden belongs to immigrants, not to the Swedes who have lived there for generations. He thereby communicated that he believes the future of Sweden will be shaped by non-Swedes, showing a curious contempt for his own culture.

This contempt has spread fast throughout official Sweden. In 2014, a Swedish school in Halmstad forbade displaying the Swedish flag, after a student painted his face in the Swedish colors for a carnival. In its new rules, the school specified why:

“Most students look forward to school traditions. When we have days of carnivals and music the goal is that these days should be experienced as positive by everyone. The Swedish flag is not allowed as part of carnival dress. … Positive and bright feelings must be in focus. … School photos must obviously be free of national symbols.”

However, the “precedent” for such rules had already been set ten years prior, in 2004, at a school in Vaargaarda, when two girls had worn printed sweatshirts which happened to display the Swedish flag and the word “Sweden.” They were told that this kind of clothing was not allowed at school. One of the girls told reporters that singing the national anthem had also been forbidden at the school.

In 2012, two members of Sweden’s parliament suggested that statues of the Swedish Kings Carl XII and Gustav II Adolf should be removed, because they represent a time when Sweden was a great military power, “a dark time in our country as well as in other countries, which were affected by Swedish aggression,” as the MPs wrote in the motion. Instead, the MPs suggested, the squares of central Stockholm should be adorned in a way such that they “signal peace, tolerance, diversity, freedom and solidarity.”

In 2013, a Baroque painting of the nude goddess Juno was removed from the restaurant of the Swedish parliament, ostensibly to avoid offense to feminist and Muslim sensibilities.

The above should not be discarded as crazy practices peculiar to Sweden. On the contrary, they present a perfect case-study of the consequences of politically correct culture driven to the extreme.

Indeed, these consequences are already proliferating across the Western world. One particularly noteworthy instance took place when Iranian president Hassan Rouhani visited Rome in January 2016. To prevent Rouhani having “a hormonal shock and ripp[ing] up the freshly signed contracts with our Italian industries,” as one Italian columnist, Massimo Gramellini, wrote, Rome covered up its classical nude statues. Who would have even imagined such sycophancy a decade ago?

In Britain, students have recently campaigned for the removal of symbols of British imperialism, such as a statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University. These students claim the campaign is not only about the statue itself, but that it is “…a campaign against racism at Oxford, of which the Rhodes statue is a small but symbolic part.” Already in 2000, the London Mayor Ken Livingstone suggested that statues of two 19th-century British generals should be removed from Trafalgar Square in London, based on his own ignorance:

“The people on the plinths in the main square of our capital city should be identifiable to the generality of the population. I haven’t a clue who two of the generals there are or what they did. I imagine that not one person in 10,000 going through Trafalgar Square knows any details about the lives of those two generals. It might be time to look at moving them and having figures ordinary Londoners and other people from around the world would know.” The problem with all this, of course, is that most of London’s wealth and greatness in terms of art and architecture is due largely to British colonialism, so the question is just how many buildings would be left standing in the British capital, if one were to take this issue and bring it to its logical conclusion.

The trouble with wanting to scrub the cultural and historical slate clean, as it were, is, of course, that countries cannot just press “delete” on their culture and history. Such a move would entail not just the removal of books, paintings and statues, but a complete purge. Those who truly care for history will know that this experiment has already been attempted, not once but several times over, by the various communist and Nazi movements of the twentieth century. While there is little comparison between those movements and the culture of political correctness, the impulse governing them all nevertheless remains the same: To forge and impose one singular “truth” on everyone, rooting out everything that does not fit the utopian mold. That is neither “diverse” nor “tolerant.”

Only Islam Can Save Us From Islam

May 18, 2016

Only Islam Can Save Us From Islam, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, May 18, 2016

Quran and Islam

In the Washington Post, Petraeus complained about the “inflammatory political discourse that has become far too common both at home and abroad against Muslims and Islam.” The former general warned that restricting Muslim immigration would “undermine our ability to defeat Islamist extremists by alienating and undermining the allies whose help we most need to win this fight: namely, Muslims.”

At Rutgers, Obama claimed that restricting Muslim immigration “would alienate the very communities at home and abroad who are our most important partners in the fight against violent extremism.”

If we alienate Muslims, who is going to help us fight Muslim terrorism?

You can see why Obama doesn’t mention Islamic terrorism in any way, shape or form. Once you drop the “I” word, then the argument is that you need Islam to fight Islam. And Muslims to fight Muslims.

This is bad enough in the Muslim world where we are told that we have to ally with the “moderate” Muslim governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to fight the Muslim terrorists whom they sponsor.

Petraeus has troublingly close ties to the Saudis. He defended their oil dumping program, praised the role of Islamic law in fighting Islamic terrorism and endorsed their Syria plans. While defending the Saudis as allies, he blamed Israel for America’s problems with the Muslim world. The narrative he was using there was the traditional Saudi one in which Israel, not Islam, is the source of the friction.

He defended Pakistan as an ally and claimed to believe the Pakistani excuses that they did not know Osama bin Laden was living right in their military center and that they really wanted to fight the Taliban.

Obama’s “partners” against “violent extremism” have included Muslim Brotherhood terror supporters at home and abroad. He backed Al Qaeda’s LIFG in Libya, Iran’s Shiite terror militias in Iraq, Al Qaeda allies in Syria and those are just a few of the worst examples of his partners against extremism.

Petraeus and Obama view terrorists and state sponsors of terror as important allies. Their policies have led to multiple terrorist attacks against Americans. And they still insist that we need Islamic terrorists as allies to protect us from Islamic terrorists. We need moderate theocrats to protect us from extremist theocrats. We need the Saudis and Pakistanis to save us from the terrorists whom they arm and fund.

But it’s Muslim immigration where their argument really shines.

The United States faces a terror threat because a certain percentage of the Muslim population will kill Americans. Every increase in the Muslim population also increases the number of potential terrorists. Muslim immigration increases the terrorism risk to Americans every single year.

These are undeniable facts.

When you’re in a hole, stop digging. Muslim populations are a hole. Immigration is the shovel. Dig deep enough and you’re six feet under.

Even if the mainstream narrative about a moderate majority and extremist minority were true, how could the cost of Islamic terrorism justify the expansion of even moderate Muslim communities?

9/11 cost us $3.3 trillion, over 10,000 dead, a national loss of privacy and traumas inflicted on millions. What could any number of moderate Muslims possibly contribute to outweigh all that? If it were a debt, it would take a thousand years to even begin balancing out those scales. And instead of trying to make amends, Muslim groups like CAIR and ISNA have waged a relentless campaign to undermine national security and defame Americans. They have refused to cooperate with law enforcement, defended terrorists and denounced America. These are our “moderate” partners.

But the Obama/Petraeus narrative about needing partners in Muslim communities in America implicitly concedes that Muslim communities at home, like the Saudis and Pakistanis abroad, create environments in which Islamic terrorists can safely operate. They admit the existence of Islamic no-go zones where the FBI and local law enforcement are ineffective so that we have to treat parts of Michigan or New Jersey like Pakistan or Iraq, trying to work with untrustworthy allies to gain intelligence on enemy territory.

We have to work with CAIR or ISNA, the way we do with the Saudis or Pakistanis, even though they’re untrustworthy, because they’re all we have in parts of America that have become enemy territory.

This argument is terrible enough in the Middle East. But it’s horrifying in the Midwest.

It’s bad enough that we sign off on “partners” who finance terrorists and then pretend to fight them in Syria or Afghanistan, do we really want to be doing this in Illinois or California?

The real problem, as Obama and Petraeus indirectly concede, is that Muslim communities create an ideal environment for Muslim terrorists. The last thing that we should be doing is building them up.

Even if Muslim communities were an asset, the Obama/Petraeus narrative is that they benefit us by helping us deal with the problems that they cause. The obvious question would be to wonder why we need them in the first place to help us cope with a problem that wouldn’t exist without them.

Obama insists that we need Muslim immigration so that Muslims will help us fight Muslim terror. But if we didn’t have Muslim immigration, we wouldn’t need Muslims to help us fight Muslim terrorism.

Muslim immigration isn’t a solution. It’s a problem posing as a solution. And we are told that we need to make the problem bigger in order to solve it. Muslim immigration has yet to reduce terrorism in any country. The increase in Muslim populations has not made Europe any safer. On the contrary, it has increased the risk of terrorism. The same is also true in Africa, Asia and across the Middle East.

The plan to reduce the risk of terrorism by increasing the Muslim population has failed around the world. Nor has it ever worked in the United States. What are the odds that it suddenly will now?

Building a counterterrorism strategy around creating more terrorism is not a strategy, it’s a suicide mission. Using Muslim immigration to fix a terrorism problem caused by Muslim immigration is like drilling a hole in a boat and then trying to plug it with water. Europe is sinking and if we don’t stop importing hundreds of thousands of Muslims, we’ll be facing the same problems that Europe does.

“It is precisely because the danger of Islamist extremism is so great that politicians here and abroad who toy with anti-Muslim bigotry must consider the effects of their rhetoric,” Petraeus insists. It’s a compelling argument, but not in the way that he thinks it is.

If Muslims can’t handle the full spectrum of argument, debate and namecalling that is a part of life in a free country without turning homicidal, then something has to go. According to Petraeus, it’s freedom of speech. According to others, it’s Muslim migration. Americans will have to decide whether they would rather have freedom of speech or Muslim immigration. Because even the advocates for Muslim migration are increasingly willing to admit that we can’t have both. The choice is ours.

Either we can hope that Islam will save us from Islam. And that Muslims will protect us from other Muslims. Or we can try to protect ourselves and save our lives and our freedoms from Islam.

Islamists Infiltrate the Swedish Government

May 16, 2016

Islamists Infiltrate the Swedish Government, Gatestone InstituteIngrid Carlqvist, May 16, 2016

One Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Sweden: April 2016

♦ The library in Arvika surprised patrons by offering Arabic language courses. Many Swedes wondered if offering courses in Swedish to the Arabic-speaking immigrants would not be more productive. The library, however, does not offer any such service.

♦ The Immigration Service released a new report on April 8, entitled “Are You Married?”, which showed how its own case officers allow child marriages.

♦ Swedish authorities have approved hundreds of polygamous marriages among immigrants, law professor Göran Lind revealed on April 4.

♦ An asylum seeker was arrested April 23 for kicking his wife in the head, among other things. According to police, the man became angry with his wife because she was trying to learn Swedish.

April was the month when the Islamist scandals in the Green Party (Miljöpartiet) came one after the other. The Green Party sits in Sweden’s government, along with its coalition partner, the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna). They have made themselves known as a party favoring open borders, and with a passionate love for multiculturalism. These infatuations are precisely why the party has been a perfect candidate for Islamist infiltration. Within the Green Party, even to ask the question whether Muslims view Islam as a political force has been considered rude and “Islamophobic.”

On April 17: Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan was forced to resign after it was reported that he not only socialized with Islamists and fascists, but also compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians with Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews.

April 20: A would-be member of the Green Party executive, Yasri Khan, refused to shake hands with a female TV reporter, Ann Tiberg, causing much hoopla and eventually forcing Khan to resign.

April 22: The scholar Lars Nicander of the Swedish Defense University warned that the Green Party may have been infiltrated by Islamists: “It is obvious they are trying to get in and ascend to positions of trust,” Nicander told the daily Aftonbladet.

Anders Wallner, Secretary of the Green Party, commented on Nicander’s remarks:

“What is being put forth by Lars Nicander is something we take very seriously. Extremism has no place in our party, something our spokespersons have been very clear about.”

April 23: Semanur Taskin, spokesperson for the Green Youth (the Green Party’s youth wing) in Stockholm, decided to drop out of politics. As a Swedish Muslim, she said, she felt “misunderstood and no longer secure in politics.” Taskin is also a member of an organization founded by Mehmet Kaplan — Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice (Svenska muslimer för fred och rättvisa). The organization is best known for working for Muslim rights in Sweden; participating in “Ships to Gaza,” and criticizing all things they perceive as “Islamophobic” or the government’s work against Islamism.

April 24: It was reported that the spokesperson for the Green Youth in Malmö, Salahaden Raoof,could be seen giving the so-called Rabia sign — a four-fingered salute in support of the Muslim Brotherhood — on live television, filmed during a political convention at Almedalen in 2015. He was, however, allowed to retain his post after stating that he “will not do it again.”

1601Salahaden Raoof (left), spokesperson for the Green Youth in Malmö, Sweden, appeared on live TV giving the Rabia sign — a four-fingered salute in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was allowed to retain his post after stating that he “will not do it again.” Pictured at right: Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and Egypt’s deposed president, popularized the Rabia sign.

April 27: Local Green Party politician Kamal al Rifai from Burlöv announced he was taking a time out from politics — after attracting much attention for inviting a world-famous Salafist, Salman al-Ouda, to speak at an event in Malmö for the benefit of the children of Syria. Al-Ouda is known, among other things, for being the mentor of Osama bin Laden. He later renounced bin Laden and now preaches a “peaceful transition to sharia.”

May 3: Mohamed Temsamani of the Green Party (Solna) was also identified as an Islamist. It emerged that he had been active in a political party connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, and had been seen giving the Rabia sign.

April 29: The author and social commentator Johan Lundberg wrote in the daily Göteborgs-Posten:

“The examples of associations and organizations with an Islamist agenda, who have received state subsidies and won the hearts of Green Party Ministers abound. How then, do you explain the Green Party dedication to conservative Islam? One explanation is the common view of identity politics, norm criticism and diversity in the sense of ethnicity, which has led to a troublesome blindness to extremism.”

Other Islamic and Multicultural News in Sweden in April

April 1: An Afghan man claiming to be a child was placed in an institution for youths, where he raped a 15-year-old girl. The man came to Sweden at the end of last year, and applied for asylum on December 14. The next day, he was arrested for raping a girl at the home for youths with psychiatric problems, where he had been placed. The girl had several times reported that the man (who later turned out to be at least 19 years old) was uncomfortably intimate towards her. Even so, they were left alone one night in front of the television. When the staff came back, they saw the Afghan raping the crying girl. He has now been sentenced to forensic psychiatric care and deportation.

April 4: A large police search was called to look for an Iraqi citizen, Ramin Sherzaj, 23, who was abducted against his will in central Gävle. He was pulled into a car, which, with “screeching tires,” disappeared from the site. Sometime later, five Iraqis who came to Sweden early this century were arrested: one woman and four men. Two weeks later, Sherzaj’s dead body was found. In all, seven people have now been taken into custody in connection with the murder.

April 4: Polygamy is against the Swedish constitution’s demands for equality and totally foreign to the Swedish legal system. Still, Swedish authorities have approved hundreds of polygamous marriages, law professor Göran Lind revealed. Men bringing several wives to Sweden have had their marriages approved. Göran Lind says that Swedish courts need to stop approving these marriages:

“This can create big problems if, say, an Iraqi man with three wives dies. Do all three have marital rights to the estate? Are they to share the half a monogamous widow gets or is the estate to be shared some other way? And are the children shared, or children from previous marriages?”

April 5: A Somali known as “Muhamed” was sentenced to community service for 180 hours, after brutally raping a 12-year-old girl. “Black dick is expensive,” he commented during the rape. Now the girl is being stalked, threatened and physically abused by Muhamed’s friends and family. The local daily Sundsvalls Tidning interviewed the girl, who told the paper about how she ran into the perpetrator’s family at a bus stop, and was beaten by one of his brothers:

“There came the other one, who I have a restraining order against, and I thought he was going to help me get up, but he punched me on the mouth with his fist. Then his mother came and I thought they would quit, but she kicked me, too.”

April 6: The Swedish National Audit Office, in its yearly review, criticized the Immigration Service on several counts. Members of the Audit Office wrote in their report that there was a risk of corruption. The auditors complained about a lack of policy documents and clear routines, and that the case officers can pick and choose which errands they want to process — opening up opportunities for corruption.

April 7: A 20-year-old Muslim medical student, Aydin Sevigin, was prosecuted for planning to blow himself up in Sweden in a terrorist attack. According to the prosecutor, Sevigin could have caused serious damage. When the trial started on April 15, Sevigin seemed unperturbed when the prosecutor read a passage about how one becomes a jihadi one-man army. He admitted to the police that he wants to die a martyr. Among the evidence presented against him are pictures in which Sevigin can be seen buying bomb-making ingredients at an Ikea store.

April 8: The Immigration Service released a new report, entitled “Are You Married?”, which showed how its own case officers allow child marriages. The report highlighted several cases where the officers did not ask any questions whatsoever, despite dealing with married 16- to 17-year-old girls.

The Immigration Service wrote:

“The Immigration Service has a duty to investigate, and questions about the marriage should be asked, regardless of whether a married child points to this circumstance as a factor in his or her need for protection or not.”

The report also noted that there is no comprehensive view or analysis of what is in the best interest of the child. Rules are not followed, and reports to Social Services and the police are not being filed to the extent that they should be.

April 10: For many years, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet), BRÅ, has claimed that the lethal violence in Sweden is on the decline. However, BRÅ failed to mention that this is in comparison to the record-breaking years, 1989-1991. If one instead were to compare the present with the 1950s, when Sweden was still a homogenous country, the number of murders and manslaughter cases has doubled. Recently, BRÅ was forced to confess that lethal violence did in fact increase in 2015, when 112 people were killed: 25 more than the year before. 2016 appears on track to top that — during the first three months of the year, 40 murders and 57 attempted murders were committed in Sweden, according to statistics compiled by journalist Elisabeth Höglund.

April 11: The New Welfare (Den Nya Välfärden), a think tank, presented an opinion poll that showed 70% of Swedes now think immigration is too high. In 2014, only 45% felt this way; in 2015, 58%. The poll also showed that the difference in opinion between people with higher education and blue-collar workers continued to shrink. The largest increase in critics of immigration is found among academics.

April 11: The library in Arvika surprised patrons by offering Arabic language courses. Many Swedes wondered if offering courses in Swedish to the Arab-speaking immigrants would not be more productive. The library, however, does not offer any such service. Library representatives wrote in a press release:

“As part of our work to create meeting points, bolster integration and increase knowledge of other cultures, peoples and languages, the Arvika Library and the Education Association NBV are now giving a course in Arabic at Arvika Library.”

April 12: A 33-year-old Arab man and a 34-year-old Turkish woman were prosecuted for a brutal murder in Malmö in the summer of 2015. The victim, a middle-aged Swedish man, had let the woman stay with him at his apartment in central Malmö. The woman was the one who called the police after the murder. However, the prosecutor believes that the murder actually took place 24 hours earlier, and that by the time the police arrived, the crime scene had been “scrubbed.” Both suspects have entered a plea of not guilty, and blame each other for the murder. Their motive remains unclear.

April 14: Gambian citizen Baboucar Mboge, 21, was sentenced to one year in prison for rape, robbery and minor drug-related offenses. He was also sentenced to pay 125,000 kronor (about $14,000) in damages to the woman he raped and mugged. The rape took place four years ago, but it was not until Mboge became a suspect in a robbery against a convenience store in Stockholm that his DNA could be tied to the rape. When questioned by the police, the Gambian claimed that the girl had consensual sex with him on a lawn, and he bragged about “f**king for over ten minutes.” The prosecutor did not ask for deportation.

April 14: Many Muslims in Sweden have been granted damages by the Discrimination Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen), DO, after their refusal to shake hands has led to them not getting a job for which they have applied. But the woman who refused to shake a doctor’s hand, leading to her not getting the physical examination she wanted, did not get any money. The Hässleholm Municipal Court previously convicted the doctor and the company he worked for, and sentenced them to pay the woman 75,000 kronor (about $8,700) in damages, but the verdict was reversed in the Court of Appeals, which said that the DO could not prove that the missed physical examination was due to the woman not shaking the doctor’s hand.

April 14: A 27-year-old scientist at Uppsala University was arrested, suspected of selling poison, munitions and narcotics online. The man, nicknamed “Chemical Ali,” is a German citizen of Turkish descent. He was arrested on suspicion of drug-related crimes, preparing to spread poison (aggravated offense) and breaking the munitions law. He was also suspected of attempted aggravated extortion after sending someone a poisonous substance “while trying to blackmail them.”

April 14: A Syrian asylum seeker was sentenced to two years in prison and deportation for having assaulted a woman in January, at an asylum house in Leksand. The woman had locked herself into a bathroom, but the 34-year old man managed to pick the lock, pull her out, rip off her clothes and rape her. During the rape, the man pulled his victim’s hair and beat her. She retaliated by biting his finger and shoulder. It was only when the man saw his wife outside the window that he stopped.

April 16: When local politicians of the Stockholm suburbs of Spånga-Tensta met the would-be neighbors of a planned asylum house for 600 people, the mood was close to that of a lynch mob. The citizens were concerned about the asylum house, planned right next to a school: “We will fight to our last drop of blood to make sure this plan is not carried out,” said one man, to uproarious applause.

Despite agitated feelings, the politicians had no answers, making the people even more upset. Several shouted: “Answer! Answer our questions! Why are you doing this? Where is your analysis? Are we to risk our children’s health?”

April 17: A soccer tournament for “unaccompanied refugee children” in Jämtland ended in a mass brawl, involving 40 people fighting with iron bars and wooden sticks. At least one person had to be taken to hospital. The police investigation turned up at least seven suspects in the case. “It is plaintiffs and suspects all jumbled together,” police officer Cecilia Modin told local paper, Länstidningen. A couple of days later, the municipality decided not to host any more soccer tournaments for “unaccompanied.”

April 23: An immigrant from the Middle East, Ali Al-Ali, at first evaded being sentenced for kidnapping and robbing a taxi driver as he was, according to public record, only 14 years old at the time the crimes were committed. His two accomplices, who both received six months in juvenile detention, but avoided deportation, stated to the court that Ali Al-Ali is older than 18, and frequently brags about fooling the Swedish authorities. Two days after the sentence, Ali Al-Ali was arrested at a shopping mall in Malmö. At the time, he was accompanied by two other youths, carrying firearms, knives and a balaclava. The other two youths escaped the scene, but Ali Al-Ali, suspected of preparing an armed robbery, is now in police custody.

April 23: The political news editor of the local newspaper, Eskilstuna-Kuriren, Alex Voronov, posted a picture of himself giving the Rabia-sign — four fingers in the air as a salute to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) — on Twitter. “I have met several MB-politicians who are now behind bars after mock trials,” Voronov tweeted, “and this is of course something that concerns me.”

The paper refused to comment on its editor’s message.

April 23: An asylum seeker from Hagfors was arrested, suspected of, among other things, having kicked his wife in the head. According to the police, the man became angry with his wife because she was trying to learn Swedish. The couple needed interpreter assistance in Dari, a language spoken in Afghanistan.

April 28: After brusquely rebutting a proposal by the Sweden Democrats (SD) to eliminate the two-week long suspension of Sweden’s border controls, the government suddenly announced that the border controls would not be suspended after all. The decision was welcomed by the SD, whose members are critical of immigration, and who assert that border-controls issue has been handled appallingly.

Kent Ekeroth, an SD representative and member of the parliament’s Justice Committee, stated:

“It is pretty comical how the other parties time and again vote no to our motion to remove the waiting period in connection with the identity checks, but it is good that they are now following our lead point by point and copying our suggestions.”

April 27: A 34-year-old Somali, who raped a woman in Gothenburg last year, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. The man pulled a dark hood over the woman’s head, held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Then he ripped off her clothes and raped her. Afterwards, he stole her cell phone and said, “You could get 10,000 kronor if you come home with me and I could f**k you for a whole day.” Despite the court’s assertion that his crimes are of “a most serious nature,” the man will not be deported.

April 30: The mosque of Imam Abo Raad, identified as the foremost “militant Islamist leader in Sweden,” was subjected to a firebomb attack. The Islamist mosque, located in Gävle, has been highlighted in the local paper, Gefle Dagblad, in a series of articles beginning in the fall of 2015. On March 30, it also emerged that Gefle Dagblad’s editor-in-chief, Anna Gullberg, had received death threats from a close relative of Abo Raad. “This is a direct threat against the freedom of the press,” Gullberg said. “The threats are obviously connected to the articles Gefle Dagblad has published.”