Posted tagged ‘Islamic Jihad’

EU Proposal to Monitor “Intolerant” Citizens

August 2, 2016

EU Proposal to Monitor “Intolerant” Citizens

by Soeren Kern

October 28, 2013 at 5:00 am

Source: EU Proposal to Monitor “Intolerant” Citizens

  • There is no need to be tolerant to the intolerant” — European Framework National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance, Article 4
  • “The supra-national surveillance that it would imply would certainly be a dark day for European democracy.” — European Dignity Watch

While European leaders are busy expressing public indignation over reports of American espionage operations in the European Union, the European Parliament is quietly considering a proposal that calls for the direct surveillance of any EU citizen suspected of being “intolerant.”

Critics say the measure — which seeks to force the national governments of all 28 EU member states to establish “special administrative units” to monitor any individual or group expressing views that the self-appointed guardians of European multiculturalism deem to be “intolerant” — represents an unparalleled threat to free speech in a Europe where citizens are already regularly punished for expressing the “wrong” opinions, especially about Islam.

The proposed European Framework National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance was recently presented to members of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, the only directly-elected body of the European Union.

The policy proposal was drafted by the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), a non-governmental organization established in Paris in 2008 by the former president of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, and the president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor.

Lars Hedegaard was acquitted by the Danish Supreme Court in 2012 on charges of “hate speech” for critical comments he made about Islam.

The ECTR — which describes itself as a “tolerance watchdog” that “prepares practical recommendations to governments and international organizations on improving interreligious and interethnic relations on the continent” — includes on its board more than a dozen prominent European politicians, including former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar.

The ECTR first presented its proposal for a Europe-wide Law on Tolerance to the European Parliament in November 2008 as part of the European Week of Tolerance that marked the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht, a night of anti-Semitic violence that began the Jewish Holocaust in Germany.

After five years of lobbying in Europe’s halls of power, the ECTR proposal appears to be making headway, as evidenced by the European Parliament’s recent decision to give the group a prominent 45-minute time slot to present its proposal to the Civil Liberties committee on September 17.

Also known as the “Model Statute for Tolerance,” the ECTR’s proposal was presented as part of the EU’s ongoing work towards a new “Equal Treatment Directive” (ETD) that would vastly expand the scope of discrimination to all sectors of life in both the public and private spheres.

Critics of the ETD, currently being negotiated within the Council of the European Union, say the directive seeks to establish an ill-conceived concept of “equal treatment” as a horizontal principle governing the relationships between all and everyone, thus interfering with the right of self-determination of all citizens.

According to European Dignity Watch, a civil rights watchdog based in Brussels,

The principles of freedom of contract and the freedom to live according to one’s personal moral views are in danger of being superseded by a newly developed concept of ‘equality.’ It would undermine freedom and self-determination for all Europeans and subject the private life of citizens to legal uncertainty and the control of bureaucrats. It is about governmental control of social behavior of citizens. These tendencies begin to give the impression of long-passed totalitarian ideas and constitute an unprecedented attack on citizens’ rights.

When viewed in the broader context of the ETD, the ECTR document is so audacious in scope, while at the same time so vague in defining its terminology, that critics say the proposal, if implemented, would open a Pandora’s Box of abuse, thereby effectively shutting down the right to free speech in Europe.

According to Section 1 (d), for example, the term “tolerance” is broadly defined as “respect for and acceptance of the expression, preservation and development of the distinct identity of a group.” Section 2 (d) states that the purpose of the statute is to “condemn all manifestations of intolerance based on bias, bigotry and prejudice.”

An explanatory note to Section 2 states: “Religious intolerance is understood to cover Islamophobia” but it provides no definition at all of “Islamophobia,” a term invented by the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1990s. If taken to its logical conclusion, Section 2 would presumably ban all critical scrutiny of Islam and Islamic Sharia law, a key objective of Muslim activist groups for more than two decades.

The document also declares that “tolerance must be practiced not only by governmental bodies but equally by individuals.” Section 3 (iv) elaborates on this: “Guarantee of tolerance must be understood not only as a vertical relationship (government-to-individuals) but also as a horizontal relationship (group-to-group and person-to-person). It is the obligation of the government to ensure that intolerance is not practiced either in vertical or in horizontal relationships.”

According to Section 4 (f) (i) of the document: “There is no need to be tolerant to the intolerant. This is especially important as far as freedom of expression is concerned.” Section 5 (a) states: “Tolerance (as defined in Section 1(d)) must be guaranteed to any group, whether it has long-standing societal roots or it is recently formed, especially as a result of migration from abroad.”

Section 6 states: “It goes without saying that enactment of a Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance does not suffice by itself. There must be a mechanism in place ensuring that the Statute does not remain on paper and is actually implemented in the world of reality.”

An explanatory note to Section 6 (a) states: “Members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are entitled to a special protection, additional to the general protection that has to be provided by the Government to every person within the State.” Another note adds: “The special protection afforded to members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups may imply a preferential treatment. Strictly speaking, this preferential treatment goes beyond mere respect and acceptance lying at the root of tolerance.”

Section 6 (b) demands that every one of the 28 member states of the EU “set up a special administrative unit in order to supervise the implementation of this Statute.” An explanatory note adds: “The special administrative unit should preferably operate within the Ministry of Justice (although the Ministry of the Interior is another reasonable possibility).”

Section 6 (c) calls for the establishment of a “National Tolerance Monitoring Commission as an independent body — composed of eminent persons from outside the civil service — vested with the authority to promote tolerance.” An explanatory note adds: “The independent Commission will be empowered to express its views regarding implementation of the Statute by all concerned. Implementation in this context includes (but is not limited to) the imposition of penal sanctions.”

Section 7 (a) states: “The following acts will be regarded as criminal offences punishable as aggravated crimes: Incitement to violence against a group and group libel. “Group libel” is broadly defined as: “defamatory comments made in public and aimed against a group or members thereof with a view to inciting to violence, slandering the group, holding it to ridicule or subjecting it to false charges.”

Section 7 (b) states that “Juveniles convicted of committing crimes listed in paragraph (a) will be required to undergo a rehabilitation program designed to instill in them a culture of tolerance.” Paragraph 7 (e) states that “victims of crimes listed in paragraph (a) will have a legal standing to bring a case against the perpetrators, as well as a right to redress.” Paragraph 7 (f) states that “free legal aid will be offered to victims of crimes listed in paragraph (a), irrespective of qualification in terms of impecuniosity.”

Section 8 states that “the government shall ensure that (a) Schools, from the primary level upwards, will introduce courses encouraging students to accept diversity and promoting a climate of tolerance as regards the qualities and cultures of others.” An explanatory note adds: “It is very important to start such courses as early as possible in the educational program, i.e. in elementary school. Yet, these courses must be offered also at higher levels of education, up to and including universities.”

Section 9 (a) states: “The government shall ensure that public broadcasting (television and radio) stations will devote a prescribed percentage of their program to promoting a climate of tolerance.” Section 9 (b) adds: “The government shall encourage all privately owned mass media (including the printed press) to promote a climate of tolerance.” Section 9 (c) states: “The government shall encourage all the mass media (public as well as private) to adopt an ethical code of conduct, which will prevent the spreading of intolerance and will be supervised by a mass media complaints commission.”

The document, if adopted by the European Parliament in its current form, would — among other problems — establish a right to a freedom from hurt feelings at the expense of the freedom of speech and expression. In practical terms, critics say, the highly subjective definition of terms and concepts such as “tolerance,” “discrimination,” “vulnerable,” and “disadvantaged,” amounts to a legal straitjacket that would encourage frivolous litigation aimed at silencing individuals and groups, or at finding circumlocutions that appear to avoid violating these principles.

“Faith-based groups and schools, adherents of a particular religion or even just parents who want to teach their children certain moral values would all be put under general suspicion of being intolerant,” according to European Dignity Watch.

“Even worse, if enshrined as EU policy, such language also could lead to the possibility that charges are brought on unclear or even without legal grounds. The chilling result of this would be the dramatic diminution (and possible disappearance) of the fundamental freedom of expression — individuals and groups would censor themselves, afraid that they might be prosecuted for expressing their own personal moral views,” the NGO argues in a statement.

“The authors of this proposed statute — under the aegis of an international NGO for tolerance and reconciliation — have invited the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee to endorse it as a legal project. But not only would an adoption of this statute at the national level of the European states be a significant step backward,” the statement concludes, “but the supra-national surveillance that it would imply would certainly be a dark day for European democracy.”

A Boot of Tolerance Stamping on a Human Face — Forever

August 2, 2016

A Boot of Tolerance Stamping on a Human Face — Forever

Source: A Boot of Tolerance Stamping on a Human Face — Forever | Gates of Vienna

Those who follow European political affairs may already be familiar with “A Model National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance” (pdf available here), an OIC-approved framework proposal published by the European Parliament, which seems likely to be implemented across the EU. The proposed law would devise a draconian new form of politically correct “tolerance” and impose it on European citizens and institutions by establishing bureaucratic bodies with the authority to enforce it.

Below is a recent article from Politically Incorrect that examines the implications of this new, improved, totalitarian European Tolerance. Many thanks to JLH for translating this important piece from the German:

Wolfrum in Sheep’s Clothing
By Michael C. Schneider, Esq., Frankfurt am Main

Anyone who speaks and writes about the abrogation of freedom in Europe is accused of being a pathological conspiracy theorist. So it is advisable to be a little more specific, and name names.

The abrogation of freedom in Europe is not occurring naturally, but according to the planning of educated elites, who have been trained to replace civic freedoms — especially those of expression, of the press and of the airwaves — with ideological coercion, and thus smash civil society into microscopic shards, like valuable, defenseless porcelain.

Elites active in this endeavor have established themselves in all areas, including lead positions in science, for instance, the very renowned scholar, Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Rüdiger Wolfrum, professor emeritus and one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute on foreign public law and international law in Heidelberg.

Born 1941, study of law in Bonn and Tübingen, doctorate in 1973, post-doctoral qualification (Habilitation) in 1980, professor since 1982, from 1990 on member for several years of the UN commission against racial discrimination, since 1993 director of the Max Planck Institute, showered with countless honors and memberships. This honorable person is also in a dubious think tank, “The European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation” about which one may find relevant information on the homepage of the president of “The European Jewish Congress ” (EJC), Viacheslav Moshe Kantor. Among other things are those documents which describe the political intentions of the think tank.

A substantial find: A Model National Statute for the Promotion of Tolerance is a political manifesto on the transformation of nations of the EU and beyond, compiled by, among others, Wolfrum in Sheep’s Clothing, under the aegis of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.

The basic consideration of the document as read are attractive and allow no suspicion to arise — that is if you do not know what EU political-speak means — for instance, “human diversity” standing for the systematic destruction of the autochthonic population and its traditional canon of values. Whereas respect for human dignity is based on recognition of human diversity and the inherent right of every person to be different, etc.

All possible groups are supposed to be protected by this concept of tolerance — just not the majority population. With this policy, minorities are purposefully advanced at the cost of majority cohesion. This splits the society, thereby controlling it better and leading to the final goal. This becomes visible in the typical, EU-wide concept of the protected minority, which is inherently aimed at splitting the society — divide et impera: “Group” is a number of people joined by racial or cultural roots, ethnic origin or descent, religious affiliation or linguistic links, sexual identity or orientation, or any other characteristics of a similar nature. This unlimited “definition” makes it possible to inflate “tolerance” for any social interest or ideological motif to a fighting phrase and deploy it as a universal weapon against possible dissidents.

Undesirable behavior, too, is defined so broadly that freedom of expression, the press, radio, television, art and science and any other communicative freedom can be flushed down the toilet with a loud whooshing sound. It shall be prohibited to make any possibly discriminatory comment against any group against which there may be discrimination — “Group libel” means: defamatory comments made in public and aimed against a group as defined in paragraph (a) — or members thereof — with a view to inciting to violence, insulting the group, holding it to ridicule or subjecting it to false charges. Under such a totalitarian regime as planned here, Mohammed cartoons are just as unthinkable as are objective, scientific observations on any group having to do with its intelligence, its other genetic endowments, its behavior (unless it is described unreservedly positively) for instance, cumulatively occurring deviant or criminal behavior, etc. Even someone who reports that a group of sixty took part in the attack on a German police officer, and none of them was an ethnic German, can thus become a serious criminal. Warning: the persecution of the police officer is not the crime, but the politically incorrect report on it.

It seems almost a question of taste whether to call a regime like the one Wolfrum in Sheep’s Clothing is planning fascist, Stalinist or just plain totalitarian, but its essence is Orwellian. That is to say, what may be thought, and how, is decreed, and since the boundaries of my speech are the boundaries of my world (Wittgenstein), reality itself is thereby defined beyond reality, and regarding this reality as doublethink is strictly forbidden.

Wolfrum has good connections in the Islamic world. Wikipedia writes, “He is presently training the high judges in Afghanistan and Sudan.”

So if you do not want to be crucified by jihadist fanatics but only by the federal president with The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, then your tolerance must take the form of latent Islamophilia.

More on the text: For dummies, the draft is accompanied by explanations intended to show its effect in examples — This definition covers “blood libels” and anti-Semitic slurs as well as allegations that, e.g., “gypsies are thieves” or “Moslems are terrorists.”

For Islam explicators in a free, enlightened and scientifically thinking civilization, it is clear that this is meant to impede a measured treatment of the problematics of Islam. And to do so in such a way that any well-founded generalization is branded as criminal stereotyping and will usher the participants in this discussion out of the auditorium and into the jail cell.

To appease the critics, the unavoidable effect of the plan — splitting and ultimately destroying societies through the disproportionate demands of minorities who are impossible or difficult or unwilling to integrate — is concealed in an implausible formula: Promote tolerance within society without weakening the common bonds tying together a single society.

The nations addressed are expected to model future legislation on the goals of the paper, which are in no way inferior to the insipid, naive and unreflective sermons of the petit bourgeois Freemason lodges full of complacent business people, whose creeping dictatorship of tolerance has already taken such a toll on our free, uninhibited and liberal culture of discussion.

The nations of Europe are expected to take specific legislative steps to elevate the goals of the paper to valid law — Take concrete action to combat intolerance, in particular with a view to eliminating racism, colour bias, ethnic discrimination, religious intolerance, totalitarian ideologies, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-feminism and homophobia.

Clarifications that dot the paper leave no doubt of its political thrust: religious intolerance is understood to cover Islamophobia.

The paper is directed not only at executive and legislative bodies or the administration but — as always with totalitarianism — at Everyman. Since the “party” is always right, it is unthinkable that anyone in any walk of life could flee its doctrinal claim of validity. It is important to stress that tolerance must be practised not only by Governmental bodies but equally by individuals, including members of one group vis-à-vis another. So the dissident is confronted not only by the law, but also by custom, morality and social ethos. He does not belong, because he is not “tolerant.”

Naturally, it is within the power of a director of a well-equipped Max Planck Institute to bring dissertations and habilitation papers by the dozen onto the path, and the obedient student authors to influential professorial chairs. And so the cheesy tolerance sermon becomes an obligatory citation in the appropriate quotation pantheon and in one or two decades is confirmed as the dominant opinion in jurisprudence. The highest legal judgment is decisively shaped by this, even if one or the other student is not tactically placed in a high judicial position, whence he can combat Islamophobia by declaring with legal force that it is hate speech and slander of religious beliefs. A Wolfrum in Sheep’s Clothing must not be underestimated. A believer in an ideology sitting at the crucial switch point of the legal system can alter the whole country according to his own thinking, by swimming along with the zeitgeist and honing its intention to an absurd point, so that everything fits together.

Constitutional law as the basis of horizontal legal relationships among citizens must also be made to fit — for instance the laws governing work and rental. If you believe you have the right to refuse employment or residence to a terrorist-sympathizing Salafist, you have another think coming — it is the obligation of the Government to ensure that intolerance is not practiced either in vertical or in horizontal relationships. Which means that you must continue to employ someone who is constantly rolling out his prayer rug instead of working, and you may not resist when the occupant of the space you rented out as a residence becomes a muezzin by legal attack on the rental restrictions, and the proprietor’s flexible tonality in the execution of his profession drives away the other 29 tenants of your 30-residence building so that you can no longer make payments on your loans. The expansion of tolerance in your house must be worth a little private bankruptcy.

The right to be a demographic bomb must also be expressly confirmed: right to acquire nationality based on birth or long-term residence.

The tolerant configuration of education avoids the threat of integration or assimilation, thus assuring social splintering: freedom of education in the language of the group, as well as in accordance with its religious and cultural traditions.

The liberal, bourgeois concept of freedom ends at the point where someone could feel discriminated against, in which case, protection against discrimination replaces the liberal, civil concept of freedom with the state compulsion of an anti-bourgeois, illiberal concept: freedom must not be abused to defame other groups.

The paper expressly confirms that all possible minorities — no more exactly defined — will be inflated to holders of special rights, so that the general principle of equality is destabilized and the state may favor certain groups as it pleases, thus logically disadvantaging the normal, autochthonic population — members of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups are entitled to a special protection, in addition to the general protection that has to be provided by the Government to every person within the State.

The implementation of the universal obligation of tolerance toward everyone and anyone must accompany the creation of a pertinent authority — the building up and not the de-constructing of bureaucracy is, after all, the most important goal of the EU and comparable transnational entities: a special administrative unit in order to supervise the implementation of this Statute […] where no such body exists, it has to be set up. Ultimately, the state is not there for the person, but the person for the state, as totalitarians have always known in a specific Aristotelian interpretation (zoon politikon — the person as a “political organism”).

Of course, it is important that tolerance supervisory boards be above democratic monitoring, because they are on a quasi-equal footing with national administration and are composed of the same oxygen-deprived air as administrative, party, union, church, synagogue, mosque and other bodies representative of the establishment: a National Tolerance Monitoring Commission as an independent body — composed of eminent persons from outside the civil service — vested with the authority to promote tolerance […] external to the Government, acting independently (not unlike a special Ombudsman). The concept “civil service” is to be understood very broadly.

The paper is really gripping in section 7 about penological implementation of ideological guidelines — the following acts will be regarded as criminal offences punishable as aggravated crimes.

It shall be punishable to utter an accurate but undesirable comment about any group in the population, however defined — Group libel as defined in Section 1(b) — so, since practically everyone belongs to some group that can be defined as threatened, e.g., as a woman, a short-sighted person or a person with bad teeth and therefore handicapped, as a happy drunk and therefore as an alcoholic, as an adherent of any belief that is less than 50% of the population and is therefore a minority — which in fact is true of all faiths — then any comment about any person is potentially criminally liable.

All that is needed then is a mob of reporters demanding punishment, a politically correct prosecutor and a politically correct judge and “tolerance” will be intolerantly enforced.

That is how Wolfrum in Sheep’s Clothing is bringing Orwellian conditions down on us.

As a proven legal thinker, he is not doing this by mistake but with malice aforethought and out of deepest conviction.

We should all hold compulsory membership in the lodge of universal tolerance, voluntary or unwilling, and without exception. Anyone who does not play along will be punished. Anyone who doubts is a criminal. Anyone who thinks is a criminal — a thought criminal.

It is important that even at the level of juvenile criminal law, future thought-criminals are targeted, in the best North Korean style, and put into a re-education camp: juveniles convicted of committing crimes listed in paragraph (a) will be required to undergo a rehabilitation programme designed to instill in them a culture of tolerance.

Of course. it must be established that such a political persecution is not aimed at “political” perpetrators, but completely ordinary criminals: crimes listed in paragraph (a) will not be considered political offences for purposes of extradition.

And it is understood that taxpayers must bear all costs which accrue to Salafists from defending themselves legally against the surging, despicable intolerance of society, for instance, police excesses which are standard because there had been individual incidents with forbidden objects: free legal aid will be offered to victims of crimes listed in paragraph (a), irrespective of qualification in terms of impecuniosity.

Naturally, the indoctrination of children in surroundings specifically created for the purpose cannot begin too soon: schools, from the primary level upwards, will introduce courses encouraging students to accept diversity and promoting a climate of tolerance as regards the qualities and cultures of others […] it is very important to start such courses as early as possible in the educational programme […] up to and including universities. This applies to the gender agenda already at work all across Europe, according to which heterosexual men, homosexual (gay) men, bisexual men, heterosexual women, homosexual (lesbian) women, bisexual women, transsexual men with heterosexual tendency as New-Woman, etc. — infinite new sexual identities and orientations, like the much-discussed intersexuality — are lived and preached. The mathematical task for coming generations — if calculation to powers is still used — will consist of calculating the possible combinations (at the moment it could be at least 512), regardless of whether this negatively affects their power or makes them unstable in it. In the end, it is more difficult to find your way in this underbrush than simply to be a “boy” or a “girl.” These concepts, according to the agenda, will be criminal and will soon be forbidden. From kindergarten on, anyone who wishes to integrate politically correctly will have to be at the very least a “goy” or a “birl.”

Wolfram in Sheep’s Clothing and his stooges are convinced that the military and the police — breeding grounds of the worst machismo — must be ideologically fumigated — courses will be incorporated in the training of those serving in the military and law enforcement agencies.

That is not all. Your employer may soon invite you to some compulsory courses to learn not to say “Negro” any more, but “Afro-German,” no more “Gypsy” but “Sinto” or “Roma” (Rats! You don’t know the difference!), and no more “Mohammedan” but “True Believer” — training must be made available as part of continuing adult education. For this re-education to work consistently, effectively and efficiently, you will have to forgo 20 years’ worth of vacation and Christmas pay, and raises in salary you have been dreaming about in your youthful fantasies, because your boss will need every available penny to pay the imams and Roma kings a proper docent’s fee so that you can finally learn to act with tolerance.

And the primary goal of the re-education is the court itself. Judges, prosecutors administrative officers are not yet 100% in line — just 99 %. There is still that invisible Gallic village[1] of 1% of the jurists who have retained deep within them an impregnable fortress of common sense. This fortress must be ground down: it is especially important to ensure advanced professional training of lawyers (including judges and criminal justice personnel), administrators, police officers, doctors, etc.

A new job description is created. Now the master of every Freemason lodge[2] is a barren, anti-intellectual leisure-time apostle of tolerance, who instructs humanity to believe that everything is good, even the opposite. The apostle/evangelist of tolerance has a full-fledged professional position with a regulated professional track — instructors will be trained in a manner qualifying them to meet the needs.

And of course, the media, seduced by subsidies — possibly in the billions — will push the total tolerance agenda across Europe (with the possible exception of Hungary) — the production of books, plays, newspapers reports, magazine articles, films and television programmes — promoting a climate of tolerance — will be encouraged and, where necessary, subsidized by the Government.

If the carrot does not work, the stick will help. A media codex will so firmly fold up incorrect sheets like Junge Freiheit or Weltwoche that they will never open up again, in order to…ban the spreading of intolerance and will be supervised by a media complaints commission.

The mainstream media will be able officially to censor the smaller resistance publications, as guaranteed by the composition of the commission — it has to be set up by — and report to — the media themselves, rather than the Government.

The free internet will be gone in short order. That too will be assured by enacting the Wolfrum papers, because…initiatives to bring about a legal regulation of cyberspace are currently debated in a wider context…and we all can imagine what that means. Since some servers can also exist outside the slave-holding EU, an appropriate regulation will be pushed through the UN and the last free servers — like the one that hosts PI — will soon be turned off. Whatever reports you like from PI, download them now and print them out, so that you can remember them when the server is silenced and your guide to the future is purged of all evil content.

That is the brave new world that Wolfrum in Sheep’s Clothing dreams of nightly. No thank you, we don’t want to know where his hands are when he dreams. Are you dreaming along? On my last flight with Lufthansa, I swiped a lot of barf bags. They are on my nightstand, for when the nightmares of Wolfrum and his consorts come to me.

Notes:

1. Cf. the “resistance” exploits of the Gauls in the comic strips/books about Asterix and Obelix.
2. I am not sure whence this antipathy for the Masons comes or the characterization as a club for Babbits. It would be entertaining to revive Lessing to a heated debate against Goethe and Mozart on the virtues and ills of that organization, but clearly this still means something to the author beyond my contemporary American perception of guys who learn esoteric rituals and march in parades.

The following video is truly shocking and enraging!

August 2, 2016

The Palestinian lie
The following video is truly shocking and enraging!
An Arab father sends his three year old son to confront the Israeli border police, while shouting at the solders to “shoot the child”.
In addition, the Arab father urges his little son to throw rocks at the solders, but the youngster misunderstands and throws them sideways.
Now do you understand what we are dealing with?
The whole thing is being encouraged by radical left-wing protestors (you can hear them shouting through loudspeakers).

H/T E.J.Bron

Giuliani Wants To Start Electronically Tagging Muslims

July 29, 2016

Giuliani Wants To Start Electronically Tagging Muslims

by Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani

Jul 28, 2016 10:01 am

Source: Giuliani Wants To Start Electronically Tagging Muslims | ThinkProgress

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016.

Former New York City Mayor and current Donald Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani said on Wednesday that he thinks it’s an “excellent idea” to monitor Muslims on the federal watch list through electronic monitoring tags.

“I would think that’s an excellent idea,” Giuliani told reporters at a press conference, according to NJ Advance Media. “If you’re on the terror watch list, I should you know you’re on the terror watch list. You’re on there for a reason.”

Giuliani said he would suggest that Trump use the same measure of electronically monitoring people as in France. Both the attackers involved in the killing of a priest in Normandy on Tuesday were already known to French security services and on watch lists, and one was being monitored through an electronic tag.

The terrorism watch list and no-fly list are notorious for ethnic and religious profiling, and many innocent people end up on the list — but Giuliani’s comments come as no surprise given his own penchant for surveillance of the Muslim community, another ineffective practice, during his time as New York’s mayor.

“I put undercover agents in mosques for the first time in January 1994,” said Giuliani, following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing which left six dead and hundreds wounded. “I did it because the 1993 bombing was planned in a mosque in Union City, New Jersey, and a second plan was uncovered to bomb our subways, which was foiled. And I kept those police officers in those mosques until I left as mayor.”

Surveillance of the Muslim community in New York grew exponentially after the 9/11 attacks, and according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), involved the mapping of Muslim communities, heavy photo and video surveillance, police informants, and entire databases with personal information about innocent Muslims. The ACLU has deemed the surveillance “unconstitutional” and said it contributes to an “atmosphere of fear and mistrust” — but perhaps equally important, such methods are wholly ineffective. According to a 2012 report from the Associated Press, in six years of spying on Muslims, listening to their conversations, and cataloging mosques, the NYPD didn’t get a single lead or begin even one terrorism investigation.

The watch lists Giuliani wants to monitor Muslims through also don’t work. As ThinkProgress has previously reported:

Before September 11, 2001, the no-fly list, which names people who are banned from boarding flights in or out of the U.S., contained 16 people. A leak revealed that that number had grown to 47,000 as of 2013. Most of those names were added after President Obama took office. The broader terrorist watch list maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center has an even more expansive scope; the estimated number of people on the list has ranged from 700,000 to more than 1.5 million, figures which include Americans and foreigners.

The watch lists are so huge, and riddled with errors, in large part due to the low bar for evidence. The government’s March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance, for example, notes that “irrefutable evidence or concrete facts are not necessary” to put someone on a watch list.

Trump has previously called for registering all Muslims in a “database,” racial profiling of Muslims, and banning all Muslims from the United States — a ban which his adviser once said would include Muslim Americans as well. He has also suggested that Muslims know about attacks before they happen and do nothing to stop them and said that Obama, who he has repeatedly called a Muslim, is allowing Muslims to commit attacks like the one in Orlando last month.

German police raid Islamic ‘hotbed’ as 15yo detained for allegedly planning terror attack

July 28, 2016

German police raid Islamic ‘hotbed’ as 15yo detained for allegedly planning terror attack

Published time: 28 Jul, 2016 13:34

Source: German police raid Islamic ‘hotbed’ as 15yo detained for allegedly planning terror attack — RT News

Members of German federal police Bundespolizei demonstrate their skills during a presentation of the new unit for arrests and securing evidence (BFE) in Ahrensfelde near Berlin, Germany. © Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters

Around 400 German police conducted raids at a mosque and eight apartments in a “hotbed” of radical Islam near Hannover. It came as police near Stuttgart arrested a 15-year-old who they believe was planning a mass shooting.

The raids took place in Hildesheim, a town which Lower Saxony Interior Minister Boris Pistorius described as “a hotbed of radical Salafist” activity. He said that up to 400 police and special forces took part in the operations, though no figures were released regarding how many arrests were made.

“The German-speaking Islamic circle (DIK) in Hildesheim is a nationwide hot-spot of the radical Salafist scene that Lower Saxony security authorities have been monitoring for a long time,” the state official said, as quoted by Reuters.

He said he wants to ban the DIK, which he blames for radicalizing German Muslims and influencing some to want to travel to the Middle East to join up with terrorist organizations such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

Pistorius said the raid followed months of planning, as the DIK had established Hildesheim as their main base in Lower Saxony. He also said the radical Islamists were guilty of giving speeches calling for “hate against non-believers.”

“We will not put up with Salafist associations and their backers flouting our rules and bringing our rule of law into question and convincing young people that they want to join the so-called IS,” Pistorius said.

Read more

© Reuters

The special operations came as police in the south of the country confirmed on Wednesday evening that they had arrested a 15-year-old boy near Stuttgart. The teenager, who hails from Ludwigsburg, had allegedly been in contact with Ali David Sonboly, who killed nine people during a shooting spree in Munich on July 22.

Police said they found “a large number of small-caliber weapons, several knives and daggers” in the 15-year-old’s possession. Authorities initially said they believed the boy was planning to carry out a shooting spree at his school, but later retracted that statement, Deutsche Welle reported.

Law enforcement officers were given a tip off about the teenager after a private individual who had been carrying out research on the 15-year-old published photos and drawings that suggested that he could have been planning an attack.

Police say they found “extensive evidence, including a larger number of small-caliber cartridges, several knives and daggers, evacuation plans of his school, and a large amount of chemicals, materials and instructions for making explosives,” according to The Local.

The boy has been admitted to a psychiatric facility, and police have seized his computers for further analysis.

Germany has been rocked by a string of recent attacks. On Sunday, a 27-year-old Syrian refugee who was facing deportation to Bulgaria blew himself up after being refused access to a music festival. The explosion injured 15 passersby, but did not cause any deaths.

That same day, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested after killing a pregnant woman and wounding two people with a machete in the city of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.

On Friday, an 18-year-old German-Iranian gunman killed nine people in Munich after going on a shooting spree in an attack he had planned for a year. Meanwhile, a 17-year-old who had sought asylum in Germany was shot dead by police last week after wounding five people with an ax near Wurzburg.

Read more

Members of the fire brigade attend the scene near the Olympia shopping mall, in Munich, Germany July 23, 2016. © Michael Dalder

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cut short her holiday to address the problems, which critics say have been caused by her open-door policy which saw over a million refugees – mainly from Syria and Iraq – arrive in Germany in 2015. She has rejected calls to change the policy.

“The terrorists want to make us lose sight of what is important to us, break down our cohesion and sense of community as well as inhibiting our way of life, our openness and our willingness take in people who are in need,” she said, as quoted by Reuters.

“They see hatred and fear between cultures and they see hatred and fear between religions. We stand decisively against that,” she added.

However, Willy Wimmer, former state secretary of the German Christian Democratic Party (CDU), told RT that Merkel must take the blame for wanting to “destroy our country” by allowing unchecked mass immigration.  

“She [Merkel] has an obligation to defend our borders and defend our people. That is the main obligation she has. Therefore, what was the reason last year to open our borders? There is no country worldwide that did similar things,” Wimmer said.

‘Obama increased aid to Arab countries, but not to Israel’

July 28, 2016

Obama increased aid to Arab countries, but not to Israel’ GOP Senator Lindsey Graham reveals White House shot down aid package requested by Israel.

David Rosenberg, 28/07/16 14:42

Source: ‘Obama increased aid to Arab countries, but not to Israel’ – Defense/Security – News –

UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, Barack Obama

Reuters

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham blasted President Obama this week, condemning his refusal to increase American aid to Israel, as well as his efforts to bar Israel from spending the aid money within the Jewish state.

Speaking to Haaretz, Graham revealed that Israel had previously requested an increased aid package from the White House, with $4 billion a year for regular military funding, plus $600 million towards Israel’s missile defense network.

But, Graham said, the administration rejected the request, despite similar increases to Arab states, such as Jordan.

“I made a decision, given the deterioration in the region, that Israel needs more funding,” said Graham. “In the last three years, we increased funding to Jordan by $275 million outside of the MoU, because Jordan was under siege.”

“The administration didn’t object to that increase, but they are objecting to the increase to Israel for 2017.”

In 2015 the White House announced plans to raise the amount of aid to Jordan by more than 50%, topping $1 billion per year.

Despite Obama’s rejection of Israel’s aid request, Graham noted, Congress is under no obligations to abide by any agreements the White House makes with Israel.

“I am not bound by the MoU as a member of Congress. Congress is not a party to the MoU and the MoU can’t bind Congress. Everybody in Congress wants to be generous to Israel like we did with Jordan.”

Graham added that Congress overwhelmingly backed not only an increase in funding for Israel, but opposed the president’s goal of ending the convertibility of a portion of the aid package to shekels, allowing Israel to use the money to pay for fuel or purchase arms from domestic producers.

While Israel is currently allowed to spend a portion of the aid money in Israel, Obama has sought to gradually end the practice, requiring that the aid be spent entirely within the US.

“Eighty-three senators signed a letter to the president that we be generous towards Israel. It is my belief that there are not even 10 members of Senate who object to allowing the IDF to buy fuel from U.S. aid money or [object] that the money be used to boost Israeli defense industries. I have never heard one member of Congress concerned about this.”

In voicing his support for elevated levels of military aid to the Jewish state, Graham noted the increased geostrategic threats facing Israel.

“Netanyahu told me Hezbollah received from Iran precision-guided missiles that are military game-changers,” he said. “According to the prime minister and his team, these missiles present a greater threat than presented previously.”

“I want Iran to see that Israel gets more support from the U.S. and not less. I want to send a signal to Iran that while they get stronger, our allies in the region also get stronger. I don’t think it is an American interest for Iran to think we are negotiating a deal with Israel that is less generous.”

2 Hostage Takers Killed After Slitting Priest’s Throat In Assault On French Church

July 26, 2016

2 Hostage Takers Killed After Slitting Priest’s Throat In Assault On French Church Tyler Durden’s picture

by Tyler Durden

Jul 26, 2016 5:52 AM

Source: 2 Hostage Takers Killed After Slitting Priest’s Throat In Assault On French Church | Zero Hedge

Two men stormed a northern French church, killing a priest and seriously wounding another person, before they were shot dead by police, in what authorities said they are treating as a terrorist attack. The men took five hostages, including the priest, in the church in the small town of Saint Etienne du Rouvray in Normandy. The priest was later found with his throat cut, police said. Police surrounded the church and shot the two men as they exited the building, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. France’s President François Hollande and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve are on their way to the town, said government officials. The assault is being treated as a terror attack by investigators, Paris prosecutors said in a statement. A Vatican spokesman said that Pope Francis shares the “pain and horror” of the attack, which he called a “barbarous” act in a sacred place.

Summary:

  • Two knifemen took several hostages during mass
  • They killed the 84-year-old priest, Jacques Hamel, with unconfirmed reports saying his throat was cut; they were then shot dead by police
  • Three churchgoers were also injured, one of them seriously
  • President François Hollande is heading to scene; Counter terror judges have been called in to investigate
  • Police searching church for explosives

In the latest European assault to take place just over the past hour, two knifemen raided the Church of the Gambetta in the northern French town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen in the département of Seine-Maritime (see map below) at 10am on Tuesday, taking between 4 and 6 hostages and allegedly killing a priest before being killed by police. According to subsequent unconfirmed reports the priest had been beheaded.

Another worshipper is said to have been seriously wounded.

Both attackers have been killed by police, an interior ministry spokesman confirmed to Reuters. The Paris anti-terrorist prosecutor is launching an investigation into the church attack and hostage-taking situation, the spokesman added

Subsequent reports suggest that one of the suspects tried to travel to Syria last year.

The killed priest has been identified as 84 year old Jacques Hamel.

One resident was walking to church as the horror broke out. He told French newspaper MetroNews: “I was going to go out and do my shopping when the police started shouting me to go straight home and barricade myself.

“There is a lot of agitation, the police are bulletproof vest and armed.”

While the motives of the hostage taking are still unclear it comes at a time when France is on high alert after a spate of recent terror attacks.

Firefighters, along with SWAT and anti-terror units, came to the scene, and said that there were several people wounded in the attack, RTL France media outlet said.

The Vatican has condemned the “barbaric killing” of the priest in the attack, saying it was made even more heinous by the fact that it happened in a sacred place.

French President Francois Hollande is on his way to the site of the attack, according to an official statement from Elysee Palace. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve is also headed to the scene of the hostage-taking, the ministry said.

 

At least one DEAD several injured after ‘BOMB Attack’ at German WINE BAR

July 25, 2016

At least one DEAD several injured after ‘BOMB Attack’ at German WINE BAR

ByPamela Geller on July 24, 2016

Source: At least one DEAD several injured after ‘BOMB Attack’ at German WINE BAR | Pamela Geller

 

2 dead, 9 injured after explosion in Ansbach restaurant. Local police have reported an explosion at a wine bar in Ansbach, a town west of the German city of Nuremburg. One person died, while several others have been injured in the blast.

Ansbach blast caused by explosive device – mayor

German interior minister is reportedly on his way from Berlin to Ansbach suggesting this could potentially be another attack on German soil.

And still, Obama digs his heels in on his plot to bring in hundreds of thousands of these Muslims “refugees.”

“BREAKING: At least one dead after ‘bomb attack’ at German wine bar,”  By Patrick Christys, The Express, July 24, 2016:
AT LEAST one person has been killed following an explosion at a restaurant in Ansbach, near Nuremberg, and the local mayor has confirmed it is a suspected bomb attack.

Police say up to 11 other people were injured in the blast and now Ansbach Mayor Carda Seidel has said the inferno was caused by an explosive device, not a gas explosion.
The horrifying incident occurred at 10.30pm local time at a wine bar called Eugen’s Weinstube in the city’s old town.

Heavily armed police are at the scene and officers have cordoned off the area around the restaurant.

Ansbach Germany Nuremberg fire explosionTWITTER

One person has been killed in a blast at an Ansbach wine bar, nine others are hurt

A helicopter is currently hovering overhead and rescue workers are on hand to recover any further victims.Police spokesman Michael Konrad said: “The only thing I know is that there has been an explosion, I can not confirm anything else.”Germany’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, is reportedly on his way to the scene, and a nearby music festival has been cancelled.Initial reports suggest it may have been a gas explosion, but that is yet to be confirmed.

Germany Ansbach explosionGOOGLE MAPS

The location of the blast, which has killed at least one and injured 11 others

Ansbach Germany explosionTWITTER

Emergency services are on hand, desperately trying to help those injured in the large explosion

Germany has been on high alert following a series of incidents in recent days.On Sunday, a Syrian refugee hacked a woman to death with a machete and injured two other people in the German city of Reutlingen – the 21-year-old man was apparently acting alone and has been arrested.On Friday, nine people were killed in a shooting near a shopping centre in Munich, which was carried out by an 18-year-old German and Iranian dual natonal who later turned the gun on himself.

 

 

One person was killed, eleven others were injured by an explosion that hit a restaurant in the south German city of Ansbach in the federal state of Bavaria, local media reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The incident took place in the central part of the city, not far away from a place where a music festival took place at the weekend, Suddeutsche Zeitung. (Sputnik)

The local police has confirmed the number of victims.

The incident happened at around 10:30 p.m. local time on Sunday when an explosion occurred at the Eugens Weinstube (wine cafe) on Pfarrstraße, which is located in downtown Ansbach, a city that is located in the state of Bavaria. It is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) northwest of Munich.

According to initial reports, the explosion may have been the result of a gas leak, though there was no official confirmation. It is believed that one person has been killed and at least nine others have been injured, some of whom have been seriously injured.

Witnesses at the scene reported seeing a large number of emergency services, including heavily-armed police.

The incident occurred during the Ansbach Open music festival, which is taking place from Friday through Sunday and attracts a large number of visitors. It also follows a series of high-profile incidents in Germany.

Other details were not immediately available and we’re working to gather more information.

This is a breaking news alert.

 

France: After the Third Jihadist Attack ( recommended read J.K )

July 23, 2016

France: After the Third Jihadist Attack

by Guy Millière

July 23, 2016 at 5:00 am

Source: France: After the Third Jihadist Attack

  • Successive French governments have built a trap; the French people, who are in it, are thinking only of how to escape. The situation is more serious than many imagine. Whole areas of France are under the control of gangs and radical imams.
  • Prime Minister Manuel Valls repeated what he already said 18 months ago: “France is at war.” He named an enemy, “radical Islamism,” but he was quick to add that “radical Islamism” has “nothing to do with Islam.” He then repeated that the French will have to get used to living with “violence and attacks.”
  • The French are increasingly tired of attempts to exonerate Islam. They know perfectly well that all Muslims are not guilty. But they also know that all those who committed attacks in France in recent years were Muslims. The French have no desire to get used to “violence and attacks.” They do not want to be on the losing side and they feel that we are losing.

Nice, July 14, 2016: Bastille Day. The evening festivities were ending. As the crowd watching fireworks was beginning to disperse, the driver of a 19-ton truck, zig-zagging, mowed down everyone in his way. Ten minutes and 84 dead persons later, the driver was shot and killed. Dozens were wounded; many will be crippled for life. Dazed survivors wandered the streets of the city for hours.

French television news anchors quickly said that what happened was almost certainly an “accident,” or when the French authorities started to speak of terrorism, that the driver could just be a madman. When the police disclosed the killer’s name and identity, and that he had been depressed in the past, they suggested that he had acted in a moment of “high anxiety.” They found witnesses who testified that he was “not a devout Muslim” — maybe not a Muslim at all.

President François Hollande spoke a few hours later and affirmed his determination to “protect the populace.”

Prime Minister Manuel Valls repeated what he already said 18 months ago: “France is at war.” He named an enemy, “radical Islamism,” but he was quick to add that “radical Islamism” has “nothing to do with Islam.” He then repeated what he emphasized so many times: the French will have to get used to living with “violence and attacks.”

The public reaction showed that Valls convinced hardly anyone. The French are increasingly tired of attempts to exonerate Islam. They know perfectly well that all Muslims are not guilty. They also know that, nevertheless, all those who committed attacks in France in recent years were Muslims. They do not feel protected by François Hollande. They see that France is attacked with increasing intensity and that radical Islam has declared war, but they do not see France declaring war back. They have no desire to get used to “violence and attacks.” They do not want to be on the losing side and they feel that we are losing.

Because the National Front Party uses more robust language, much of the public votes for its candidates. The National Front’s leader, Marine Le Pen, will undoubtedly win the first round of voting in the presidential election next year. She will probably not be elected in the end, but if nothing changes quickly and clearly, she will have a very good chance next time.

Moderate politicians read the public opinion polls, harden their rhetoric, and recommend harsher policies. Some of them might demand harsher measures, such as the expulsion of detained terrorists who have dual citizenship and the detention of people that praise attacks. Some have even called for martial law.

Calm will gradually return, but it is clear that the situation in France is approaching the boiling point.

The recent attacks served as an accelerant. Four years ago, when Mohamed Merah murdered soldiers and Jews in Toulouse, the population did not react. Most French did not feel directly concerned; soldiers were just soldiers, and Jews were just Jews. When, in January 2015, Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were slaughtered, an emotional reaction engulfed the country, only to quickly vanish. A huge demonstration was organized in the name of “freedom of speech” and the “values of the republic.” Hundreds of thousands claimed, “Je Suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”). When, two days later, Jews were murdered again in a kosher grocery store, hardly anyone said “I am a Jew.”

Those who tried to speak of jihad were promptly reduced to silence. Not even a year later, in November, the Bataclan Theater bloodbath did not lead to protests, but was a deeper shock. The mainstream media and the government could no longer hide that it was an act of jihad. The number killed was too overwhelming; one could not just turn the page. The mainstream media and the government did their best to downplay anger and frustration and to emphasize sadness. Solemn ceremonies with flowers and candles were everywhere. A “state of emergency” was declared and soldiers were sent into the streets.

But then the feeling of danger faded. The Euro 2016 soccer championship was organized in France, and the French team’s good performance created a false sense of unity.

The Nice attack was a wake-up call again. It brutally reminded everyone that the danger is still there, deadlier than ever, and that the measures taken by the authorities were useless gesticulations. Memories of the previous killings came back.

Attempts to hide that Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the terrorist in Nice, was a jihadist fooled no one. Instead, it just created more anger, more frustration, and more desire for effective action.

Days before the Nice attack, the media reported that the parliamentary inquiry commission report on the Bataclan Theater attack revealed that the victims had been ruthlessly tortured and mutilated, and that the government had tried to cover up these facts. Now the entire public discovered the extent of the horror, adding fuel to the fire.

France seems now on the verge of a revolutionary moment; it would not take much to cause an explosion. But the situation is more serious than many imagine.

Whole areas of France are under the control of gangs and radical imams. The government delicately calls them “sensitive urban zones.” Elsewhere they are bluntly called “no go zones.” There are more than 570 of them.

Hundreds of thousands of young Muslims live there. Many are thugs, drug traffickers, robbers. Many are imbued with a deeply rooted hatred for France and the West. Recruiters for jihadists organizations tell them — directly or through social networks — that if they kill in the name of Allah, they will attain the status of martyrs. Hundreds are ready. They are unpinned grenades that may explode anywhere, anytime.

Although possessing, carrying and selling weapons are strictly regulated in France, weapons of war circulate widely. And, of course, the Nice attack has shown once again that a firearm is not necessary to commit mass murder.

Twenty-thousand people are listed in the government’s “S-files,” an alert system meant to identify individuals linked to radical Islam. Most are unmonitored. Toulouse murderer Mohamed Merah, the murderers of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, and many of the terrorists who attacked the Bataclan Theater were in the S-files. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the terrorist who acted in Nice, was not.

France’s intelligence chief said recently that more attacks are to come and that many potential killers wander freely, undetected.

Doing what the French government is doing today will not improve anything. On the contrary. France is at the mercy of another attack that will set the powder keg ablaze.

Doing more will lead to worse before matters get better. Regaining control of many areas would entail mobilizing the army, and leftists and anarchists would certainly add disorder to disorder.

Imprisoning whoever could be imprisoned in the name of public safety would imply more than martial law; it would mean the suspension of democratic freedoms, and even so, be an impossible task. The jails in France are already full. The police are outnumbered and showing signs of exhaustion. The French army is at the limit of its capacity for action: it already patrols the streets of France, and is deployed in Africa and the Middle East.

The French army is at the limit of its capacity for action: it already patrols the streets of France and is deployed in Africa and the Middle East. Pictured above: French soldiers guard a Jewish school in Strasbourg, February 2015. (Image source: Claude Truong-Ngoc/Wikimedia Commons)

Successive governments have built a trap; the French, who are in it, are thinking only of how to escape.

President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls bear all the guilt. For years, many in France supported any movement that denounced “Islamophobic racism.” They passed laws defining criticism of Islam as a “hate crime.” They relied more and more on the Muslim vote to win elections. The most important left-wing think tank in France, Terra Nova, which is considered close to the Socialist Party, published several reports explaining that the only way for the left to win elections is to attract the votes of Muslim immigrants and to add more Muslims to the France’s population.

The moderate right is also guilty. President Charles de Gaulle established the “Arab policy of France,” a system of alliances with some of the worst dictatorships in the Arab-Muslim world, in the belief that France would regain its lost power thanks to this system. President Jacques Chirac followed in the footsteps of de Gaulle. President Nicolas Sarkozy helped overthrow the Gaddafi regime in Libya and bears a heavy responsibility for the mess that followed.

The trap revealed its lethal effects a decade ago. In 2005, riots across France showed that Muslim unrest could lead France to the brink of destruction. The blaze was extinguished thanks to the appeals for calm from Muslim organizations. Since then, France has been at the mercy of more riots.

The choice was made to practice appeasement. It did not stop the rot gaining ground.

François Hollande made hasty decisions that placed France at the center of the target. Seeing that strategic interests of France were threatened, he launched military operations against Islamist groups in sub-Saharan Africa. Realizing that French Muslims were going to train and wage jihad in Syria, he decided to engage the French army in actions against the Islamic State.

He did not anticipate that Islamist groups and the Islamic State would hit back and attack France. He did not perceive the extent to which France was vulnerable — hollowed out from within.

The results put in full light a frightening landscape. Islamists view the landscape and do not dislike what they see.

On their websites, they often quote a line from Osama bin Laden: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, they will naturally want to side with the strong horse.”

They appear to think that France is a weak horse and that radical Islam can bring France to its knees in a pile of dust and rubble. Time, they seem to think, is on their side as well — and demography. Muslims now make up about 10% of the French population; 25% of teenagers in France are Muslims.

The number of French Muslims who want Islamic sharia law applied in France increases year after year, as does the number of French Muslims who approve of violent jihad. More and more French people despise Islam, but are filled with fear. Even the politicians who seem ready to fight do not take on Islam.

Islamists seem to think that no French politician will to overcome what looks more and more like a perfect Arab storm. They seem to feel that the West is already defeated and does not have what it takes to carry the day. Are they wrong?

Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.

 

Why is Virginia a Haven for Would-be Jihadists?

July 18, 2016

Why is Virginia a Haven for Would-be Jihadists? Investigative Project on Terrorism, Abigail R. Esman, July 18, 2016

1709

What is it about Virginia?

Already this year, six men from the “Cavalier State” have been arrested on terror-related charges – two of them in July alone. Another man has joined the Islamic State in Syria. Two of those charged were stopped from making a similar trip.

These most recent arrests, one on July 3, the other on July 8, were based on charges of planning to provide material support to ISIS. Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former member of the National Guard who was arrested July 3, allegedly discussed planning an attack against U.S. military in the homeland inspired by fellow Virginian Nidal Hasan’s 2009 shooting at Fort Hood. According to court documents, Jalloh quit the Guard and later attempted to obtain funds and weapons for a domestic attack after being inspired by Anwar al Awlaki’s videos on YouTube.

Five days later, Virginia law enforcement arrested Haris Qamar, following an extended FBI sting operation. According to an FBI affidavit, Qamar made statements to an informant such as, “By-bye, DC, stupid a— kufar [infidels], kill ’em all,” and posted to his Twitter account a prayer for “strength to the mujahedeen to slaughter every single US military officer.”

Earlier arrests this year – two in June and one in January – involved men planning to join the jihad in Syria, rather than waging domestic battles. In one case, Mohamad Jamal Khweis, who had already joined the Islamic State, surrendered to Kurdish forces in Iraq in an apparent effort to escape the hell of life in the new caliphate. Now awaiting sentencing in the United States, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Why does this keep happening in Virginia? What makes its young Muslims more susceptible to the radical messages from Awlaki and ISIS social media?

Virginia has proved to be an active center for radical Islamist activity over the years and has bred more than its share of terrorists since 9/11. It was at the Hamas-linked Dar al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, for instance, that terrorist icon Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American whom counter-terrorism officials say inspired hundreds of other Muslims to take arms in violent jihad, once served as imam. Among his disciples: Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan; Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, convicted in 2005 of collaborating with al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush; and several of the 9/11 hijackers.

And it was in Virginia that, in the still fragile and bewildered aftermath of 9/11, “Beltway snipers” John Allen Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malvo shot and killed more than 12 people, including an FBI analyst, in October 2002.

While internet and social media remain powerful weapons in the terrorist recruitment arsenal, personal connections remain the most potent tool. Honor student Ali Shukri Amin, charged with soliciting donations for ISIS, is also suspected of helping another Virginian, Reza Niknejad, travel to Syria.

While none of the recent cases implicate specific mosques, the influence of Dar al Hijrah and some of its imams appears to have been widespread.

To some extent, this could be thanks to its current imam, Shaker Elsayed. In 2002, hetold a conference hosted by the Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle for North America that deciding whether suicide bombers were martyrs was “an in house business” for Muslims.

In a dramatic speech available online since 2013, Elsayed rants against the West and calls for “the power of faith” and “the power of armament.” In the post-9/11 world, he observes, even world leaders have “bowed down” to the Western pressure. “We the Muslim masses should never bow down except to Allah!” he says, “and this will give us our dignity back.”

But other Virginia religious leaders have gone further. Ali al-Timimi, a cancer researcher, was the “spiritual leader” of a group of 11 men convicted of terrorism in 2003 and 2004, Al-Timimi is now serving a life sentence for recruiting Muslims to travel to Pakistan and train for holy war.

Shortly after 9/11, according to the New York Times’ coverage of his trial, al-Timimi invited a group of young Muslim men to dinner, where he told them they had a religious duty to fight with the Taliban against American forces. Prosecutors described that statement as “treason,” calling al-Timimi a “purveyor of hate and war.”

More than 10 years after his conviction, al-Timimi remains a figurehead among radical groups in Virginia and the Capitol district. The Peace and Justice Foundation, which defended al-Timimi and his followers, refers in online documents to a government conspiracy, while numerous web sites offer recordings of al-Timimi’s lectures. In addition, a Facebook page devoted to his appeal with more than 2,000 “likes,” has built a community in his support. (Followers even raised $12,000 for his mother’s medical care.)

The Saudi-sponsored Islamic Saudi Academy, which shut down abruptly last month,faced criticism for its textbooks that promote Wahhabism, an extreme version of Islam practiced by the Saudis. The textbooks contained passages “that extolled jihad and martyrdom, called for victory over one’s enemies, and said the killing of adulterers and apostates was ‘justified,'” the Washington Post reported. Those passages were found in school textbooks two years after U.S. officials, shocked by the texts in use in 2006, ordered they be revised. Pre-revision books included statements like, “It is said: the apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews. The swine are the unbelievers of Jesus’ table, the Christians.”

The school’s 1999 valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted in 2005 for supporting al-Qaida and planning to assassinate the president. (Notably, he also taught Islamic Studies at Dar Al Hijrah.)

As Seamus Hughes of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University’s Center or Cyber & Homeland Security told Fox News, “Northern Virginia has a disproportionate number of people that are drawn to this.”

Ramy Zamzam is a poster child for this observation. He was among five young men who disappeared from their northern Virginia neighborhood in late 2009, only to be arrested by Pakistani authorities who caught them trying to cross into Afghanistan to join jihadists there.

“We are not terrorists,” he said outside a hearing. “We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism.”

Muslim groups expressed their horror over the incident and promised a program aimed at de-radicalization.

It’s not clear that any such plan ever emerged. If it did, it’s clearly not working.