Fjordman Files: January updates

[31 - 1] On Dhimmi Watch: A History of Optics, part 4

[30 - 1] On Brussels Journal: Why Was There No Chinese Newton?

The Chinese could clearly produce talented individuals, but their work was often not followed up. The Imperial bureaucracy was hampered by many obstacles to the free and unfettered pursuit of scientific knowledge, especially due to excessive secrecy and regulation in the study of mathematics and astronomy. By making this study a state secret, Chinese authorities drastically reduced the number of scholars who could, legitimately or otherwise, study astronomy. This restriction greatly reduced the availability of the best and latest astronomical instruments and observational data.

[28 - 1] Fjordman reviews Spencer's Stealth Jihad over on Atlas Shrugs.

[25 - 1] On Gates of Vienna: Western Civilization and Socratic Dialogue.

Western universities are now dominated by persons, many of them Marxists, who have no interest in using Socratic dialogue in search of truth. They already know the truth, or consider it irrelevant, and simply view the universities as a platform for ideological indoctrination of students. Mass education has become mass indoctrination. This ideological corruption and anti-Europeanism has recently been infused with an element of financial corruption as well, especially with patronage from wealthy Arabian oil states.

[21 - 1] On Gates of Vienna: Den Neuen Lebensraum

The EU is currently the planet's most evil organization, an institutionalized attack on the very existence of the native peoples of an entire continent, the most influential and creative civilization in human history. The EU is an organized crime against humanity, and absolutely everything that can undermine the EU as well as Globalism and Multiculturalism throughout the Western world should be supported.

[13 -1] A little late, but here's part three of Fjordmans essay on optics: A History of Optics, part 3.


RECENT FJORDMAN
A History of Optics, part 4
Why Was There No Chinese Newton?
Fjordman reviews Spencer's Stealth Jihad
Western Civilization and Socratic Dialogue
Den Neuen Lebensraum
A History of Optics, part 3
A History of Optics, part 2
On Deconstructing the Majority: Nothing To Do With Islam? Really?
A History of Optics, part 1
The Importance of Cicero in Western Thought
The Germanic Languages and the History of English
The Impact of Western Medicine
The History of the Calendar
A History of Medicine, part 5
A History of Medicine, Part 4

More Fjordman files here.

The End is well and truly nigh...

... for the whole Man-made Global warming myth.

As the Goracle is scheduled to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations committee on global warming, Washington is struck by the Gore effect: Al Gore Braves Snow & Ice Storms to Testify to Congress on Global Warming.

But the really big news comes to us via Watt's up with that. Jim Hansen, the NASA guy who is the most ... strident in his activism with regard to global warming has been disowned by his former supervisor, Dr. John S. Theon. In fact, Theon disowned Hansen in rather harsh terms:

Hansen was never muzzled even though he violated NASA's official agency position on climate forecasting (i.e., we did not know enough to forecast climate change or mankind's effect on it). Hansen thus embarrassed NASA by coming out with his claims of global warming in 1988 in his testimony before Congress.

And without calling Hansen by name, Theon adds:

[S]ome scientists have manipulated the observed data to justify their model results. In doing so, they neither explain what they have modified in the observations, nor explain how they did it. They have resisted making their work transparent so that it can be replicated independently by other scientists. This is clearly contrary to how science should be done. Thus there is no rational justification for using climate model forecasts to determine public policy.

The reason why climate models are poor informers of public policy:

[T]he models do not realistically simulate the climate system because there are many very important sub-grid scale processes that the models either replicate poorly or completely omit.

As far as I understand it, this is the butterfly effect in practice: In the real world there are processes which cause small disturbance, too small to be picked up by a grid of measuring stations. But these small disturbances grow larger, because the climate is an essentially chaotically dynamic system. Current climate models do not account for these disturbances very well, if at all, even if they are known processes. Which basically means that climate models have the same limited use as weather models: Short-term predictions are reasonably accurate. But over the longer term the correlation between prediction and reality degrades to zero. As far as I can make out, Theon just declared the predictive value of climate models to be zero...

Be that as it may, these statements by dr. Theon are are the latest major blow to a narrative that is becoming increasingly untenable. A couple of days ago we referred to a study that concluded that the Antarctic was warming up. A very amusing detail around the critical discussion about that study was pointed out by Roger Pielke Jr. One of the scientists involved in the study came out rather triumphantly declaring:

“Contrarians have sometime grabbed on to this idea that the entire continent of Antarctica is cooling, so how could we be talking about global warming,” said study co-author Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. “Now we can say: no, it’s not true … It is not bucking the trend.”

The study does not point to man-made climate change as the cause of the Antarctic warming — doing so is a highly intricate scientific process — but a different and smaller study out late last year did make that connection.

“We can’t pin it down, but it certainly is consistent with the influence of greenhouse gases,” said NASA scientist Drew Shindell, another study co-author.

Yet, these same scientist have been quoted as saying that a cooling Antarctica was “consistent with” greenhouse warming, back in 2008:

. . . we often hear people remarking that parts of Antarctica are getting colder, and indeed the ice pack in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica has actually been getting bigger. Doesn’t this contradict the calculations that greenhouse gases are warming the globe? Not at all, because a cold Antarctica is just what calculations predict… and have predicted for the past quarter century (...)

Bottom line: A cold Antarctica and Southern Ocean do not contradict our models of global warming. For a long time the models have predicted just that.

So, which is it? If the models you are using (and on which are based a number of measures that will cost us, ordinary citizens, a blasphemous amount of money in taxes and increased energy bills) predict both cooling and warming of the Antartics, then what use the models? Is there anything that is NOT consistent with global warming?

Maybe it is time to settle the knowledge that 'climate change' is another article of faith of a particular group of people, a group that is not known for its dedication to freedom and prosperity for all. Maybe it is time to put the entire hype out with all the other hypes of the past. I mean, is there anyone that remembers the time when acid rain would destroy us all?

For every soul in Dutch government and parliament

Pat Condell taking the measure of the Netherlands since the Wilders prosecution decision. It ain't pretty...

Scary link of the day

This one comes to us via Jim Hoft: The proprietor of the East Coast Economics, a self-confessed Harvard educated finance geek interested in macro perspectives and US monetary policy, is doing a study on what he terms 'the Treasury bubble'. In the process the dear fellow is becoming increasingly scared.

Check out the following which shows the $$$ amount borrowed by US banks from the Fed through Dec 2007; the spike marks the Savings & Loan Crisis at the end of the 1980s with borrowing maxing out at $8b.

Now take a look at the following chart. It is the same graph as above, but updated through the beginning of November ‘08.

This might be less scary if the Fed wasn’t creating money out of thin air and at the same time accepting assets of questionable - and deliberately undisclosed - quality as collateral from banks.

On Gateway Pundit, there's an additional chart, showing America's "adjusted monetary base," a measure of the money supply, from the end of the First World War to the present.

Asks mr. Hoft: "Could this thriller possibly have a happy ending?" One is terrified of what an honest answer would be...

Geert Wilders gains voters

After the Amsterdam court ordered the prosecution of Geert Wilders, because he expressed Islam critical opinions, all the Dutch opinion pollsters report a moving electorate.

Polster say that Wilders his Party For Freedom (PVV) has become more popular (NL). It’s reported that the party has grown from its current 9 seats in parliament to now 20 (virtual) seats in the polls. These poll numbers make the Party For Freedom (PVV) the third biggest political party in the politically fragmented Dutch landscape, were the biggest political party (CDA) now only has 29 seats (NL) in the polls (out of 150 available).

Now that the Amsterdam court ordered his prosecution and declared his declared opinions illegal, a conviction seems only a question of time. So far it’s unknown what kind of electoral effect a conviction will have. But it does not seem totally unjustified to think that this conviction can make the Party For Freedom the biggest political party in the polls.

A first reaction came from Liberal Party (VVD) leader Mark Rutte who declared in Dutch biggest newspaper: “abolish that law” (NL) that is used to prosecute Geert Wilders. He says he does not want to see any further opinion prosecutions in The Netherlands. According to the liberal leader any body should be able to speak his mind as long he does not threatens others with violence.

But when the Party For Freedom (PVV) earlier this week put up a vote in parliament to abolish the law, the liberal party (VVD) voted against it (NL). Today’s statement to “abolish that law” thus seems to be mere opportunistic political maneuvering to do damage control.

And damage control the Dutch liberals need indeed. Before the Party For Freedom was founded, they were the sole representatives of the Dutch political right. But as the Dutch electorate moved more to the right, the party did not. Well expect for the then liberal parliamentary member Geert Wilders. Instead of changing course and distance them self from the socialist middle ground, the liberal party (VVD) choose to evict Geert Wilders from the party. But Wilders did not leave alone; he took a lot of liberal voters to his new, more conservative Party For Freedom (PVV). Since then, the liberals have not done well and they must fear a conviction of Geert Wilders. Because that conviction might not stop him at all and might only make him gain more of their electorate.

Thus so far, opposition in The Netherlands against the opinion, or if you like sharia, court has been quite marginal.

Sunday linkage

Haven't got time to do proper posting. So here are a couple of links I wanted to use. The raw material as it were.

The Grand Dutch Islamisation Project

Melanie Philips: So the inevitable has now come about in the teetering civilisation of Europe, and it has happened first in the Netherlands. One of the supposedly most liberal societies on the planet wants to criminalise someone for telling the truth.

Bad News From the Netherlands: Stones Thrown through Windows of Synagogue

The Free Dutchman: U.S. moves from darkness into the light, say the Dutch

Indoctrinated by liberal propaganda for decades, the Dutch can no longer appreciate an ideal in which government is largely absent and in which a grass-roots civil society plays the first violin. With the Dutch government taking care of matters ranging from national security to welfare, abortion, euthanasia, gay rights, the climate, sustainable food products, development aid, and “community programs” for the inner-city minorities, all that is left in society is the individual and the liberal state. The strong horizontal bonds that once characterized the Calvinist Dutch have now fully disappeared. All that is left, is their vertical connection to the state, which no doubt knows what is best for us in all social, economic and cultural issues facing our little country.

The fact that the Dutch have come to thoroughly resent the multiculturalism imposed upon them by their elites, unfortunately doesn’t make them face this bigger picture.

Well, maybe they do. A poll this weekend (NL) revealed that if elections were held now, Wilders' PVV would receive 20 seats (out of 150) in parliament (up three from last week), making it the third largest fraction in parliament. Only the Christian Democrats CDA and Labour (PvdA) are larger: 29 and 27 seats in the poll.

H. Numan on GoV: It's Time for a Change!:

Filip Dewinter said, also very correctly, that Wilders will gain massively out of this all. I fully agree. Tarring Wilders and the PVV black is one thing. Setting up a kangaroo court indicting and likely (trying) to outlaw the whole party is an entirely different matter. Had the Internet not been there, the government could get away with it. Now, never.

But we mustn't overdo it. In Elsevier, via GoV (for the translation):

Khalid Yasin, the sheikh who shook down Australia a few years ago, is visiting the Netherlands. In his latest speech, he says that Geert Wilders should be flogged for his crimes.

But Islam in Europe has the video of the comment: Yasin is asking for a 'judicial slap on the wrist'.

So how did the press get that so wrong? Were there advance copies of the speech, in which the flogging remark appeared? Was the 'slap on the wrist' comment the last-moment replacement, to avoid an embarrassing situation for our government? And if not: Why are people laughing at the comment? They seemed to be expecting something else as well... Curious, this...


The Death of Global Warming

EU Referendum on that new study that supposedly found the Antarctic warming up:

[W]ith their magic computer, using an equally mysterious formula, they have conjured up "estimates" to fill in the blanks left by the missing stations. By this magical, mystery process they have managed to show that, if there had been ground stations present, they would have shown that the continent was warming and not cooling – thereby completely contradicting the real data produced by satellite.

Even then, they are struggling, their alchemy stopping short of producing huge leaps. All they have managed to do is come up with a 50-years increase of just one degree Fahrenheit, smaller than the margin of error which they allocate to their own work.

Watt's up with that: Snow falls in the United Arab Emirates


Our Struggling Economy

Gerald Warner: Barack Obama inauguration: this Emperor has no clothes, it will all end in tears

It is frightening to think there is a real possibility that the entire world economy could go into complete meltdown and famine kill millions. Yet Western - and British - commentators are cocooned in a warm comfort zone of infatuation with America's answer to Neil Kinnock. We should be long past applauding politicians of any hue: they got us into this mess. The best deserve a probationary opportunity to prove themselves, the worst should be in jail.

Quote du jour

It would be a mistake to think that Fortuyn, Van Gogh, Ali and Wilders suffered their fates because they were involved with the ‘Muslim issue’. Islam was only incidental to the perilous currents swirling around them. No. Things ran deeper than that. What these four found themselves in the midst of was the greatest mass suicide event of the last 100 years: the repeal of the enlightenment; the murder of a culture. The court that issued the ideological fatwah against him wasn’t a clerical court in Southwest Asia, but a secular one in the heart of modern Europe. They’re not coming at us from the outside; they’re here.

Wretchard of the Belmont Club discussing Bruce Bawers 'Submission in the Netherlands'

Dutch submission update

And the hits keep on coming. After the turn-about by Dutch authority on the prosecution of Geert Wilders for inciting hatred, the Jordanian group ''The Messenger of God Unites Us" greeted the news with much happiness. The Legal Project, who according to Fox News supply Wilders with pro bono legal help, shares this tidbit in a rather searing indictment:

Even more disturbing is that the State of Jordan, most likely acting as a stalking horse for the OIC, has issued a request for Wilders' extradition to stand trial in Jordan for blasphemy of Islam, a crime for which Shari'a law declares the penalty to be death. The Dutch parliament has taken the extradition request very seriously, and has shut out Wilders from all multi-lateral negotiations. As a precaution, Wilders no longer travels abroad unless he can obtain a diplomatic letter from the destination state promising he won't be extradited. For years now, Wilders has lived under looming death threats complemented by the threat that any day, Interpol might issue a warrant for his arrest at Jordan's behest.

The news was also reported by Elsevier today (NL):

The Jordanian muslim movement 'The Messenger of Allah Unites Us' is delighted that Geert Wilders will be prosecuted by the Amsterdam court of justice. Legal procedures in Jordania whould lead to an international arrest warrant 'within ten days'.

'Finally, justice in the Netherlands undertakes steps against these serious crimes', says Zakaria Sheikh, president of [The Messenger of Allah Unites Us].

More on this at Brussels Journal.

Giddy with their unexpected success, some of those that filed the motion to prosecute Wilders have now set their sights on another PVV MP: Hero Brinkman (pictured). He gained some notoriety mentioning the corruption and incompetence among the governments of the Dutch Antilles out loud. Today the Telegraaf reported:

The anti-racism organisation 'Nederland Bekent Kleur' expects Geert Wilders and fellow party member Hero Brinkman will also be prosecuted for their statements regarding the [Dutch] Antilles. Spokeman René Danen told Radio Netherlands that he thinks that Brinkman will also appear before a judge. 'Because the statements of Wilders and Brinkman regarding the Antilles are comparable to those about muslims'.

Which, as we now know, are statements that are principally correct, but which the establishment does not like to hear.

What a difference a few years make. When we started this blog, the Dutch had a reputation comparable to the Danes. But now it seems that the Netherlands has joined the madness of the UK, France, Sweden and Norway, in their mad dash to destroy the spirit of the native people, for diversity's sake. Or, as Mark Steyn puts it:

In the Netherlands even the most innocuous statement can get you into trouble. To express his disgust at Theo van Gogh's murder, the artist Chris Ripke put up a mural outside his studio showing an angel and the words "Thou shalt not kill". But the cops thought this was somehow a dig at the local mosque and so came round, destroyed the mural, arrested the TV news crew filming it, and wiped their tape. The Dutch have determined to commit societal euthanasia, and dislike fellows pointing out it might not be as painless as they've assumed.

The staggering injustice of all of this is nicely put into words by Bruce Bawer, in a piece he concluded with these words:

In Dutch Muslim schools and mosques, incendiary rhetoric about the Netherlands, America, Jews, gays, democracy, and sexual equality is routine; a generation of Dutch Muslims are being brought up with toxic attitudes toward the society in which they live. And no one is ever prosecuted for any of this. Instead, a court in the Netherlands—a nation once famous for being an oasis of free speech—has now decided to prosecute a member of the national legislature for speaking his mind. By doing so, it proves exactly what Wilders has argued all along: that fear and “sensitivity” to a religion of submission are destroying Dutch freedom.

But just to end this post on a positive note: The natives are stirring. Even if the 'official' polls show a support for the decision to prosecute Wilders of around 50% (43% here and 53% here, both NL), more... informal... polls show something different. A poll on Geenstijl has 86% of respondent disagreeing with the Amsterdam court of appeals decision, a poll on Elsevier (no longer available) had some 85% of the respondents agreeing with Wilders that yesterday was a black day for freedom, and even on Trouw, christian-left-establishment leaning though it has become since Jaffe Vink was ditched, results showed a staggering 92% of respondents disagreeing that the prosecution of Wilders is justified (left).

And so, to our government and other assorted authorities: You hear that groaning sound? It's the lid of the pressure cooker you're holding down with all your might.

It is about to give...

[UPDATE001] GoV has more on stirring Dutch natives. And some muslims who are worrying about the effect the Amsterdam courts decision might have.

“Slowly but surely Islam gets its way once again. Disgusting!” one of the typical responses. (...)

Mustafa Aarab, program leader of the Muslim Dutch Broadcasting Corporation (NIO) thinks differently. He is likewise worried about rising tensions between non-Muslims and Muslims. “People are afraid of Islamisation. I can’t understand why Muslims say they are happy with the prosecution. The gap only gets wider, just because of it”.

Yes, that seems to be the upshot...

Breaking: Wilders must be prosecuted: Court of Appeal

In a surprise twist the Amsterdam Court of Appeal reached the decision that Geert Wilders should be prosecuted for his statements on islam in general and his comparison of the Quran with Hitler's Mein Kampf in particular.

On 21 January 2009 the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam ordered the criminal prosecution of the member of parliament Geert Wilders for the incitement to hatred and discrimination based on his statements in various media about moslims and their belief. In addition, the Court of Appeal considers criminal prosecution obvious for the insult of Islamic worshippers because of the comparisons made by Wilders of the islam with the nazism.

The Court of Appeal rendered judgment as a consequence of a number of complaints about the non-prosecution of Wilders for his statements in various media about moslims and their belief. The complainants did not agree with the decision of the public prosecution which decided not to give effect to their report against Wilders.

The public prosecution is of the view, amongst others, that part of the statements of Wilders do not relate to a group of worshippers, but consists of criticism as regards the Islamic belief, as a result of which neither the self-esteem of this group of worshippers is affected nor is this group brought into discredit. Some statements of Wilders can be regarded as offending, but since these were made (outside the Dutch Second Chamber) as a contribution to a social debate there is no longer a ground for punishableness of those statements according to the public prosecution.

The Court of Appeal does not agree with this view of the public prosecution and the considerations which form the basis of this view.

The court ruling is here, in English (mirror). This is an outrage of epic proportions. In the conclusion of the ruling the Court of Appeal states:

The Court of Appeal concludes that the way in which the public debate about controversial issues is held, such as the immigration and integration debate, does not fall within the ambit of the law in principle indeed, but the situation changes when fundamental boundaries are exceeded. Then criminal law does appear as well.

So, in this once free country we can have a 'free' discussion, until a 'fundamental boundary' is exceeded? And where does that boundary lie? And more importantly: Who determines that boundary. Is that still us, or is that the highly volatile muslim sensitivities with regards to anything that makes this country ours? This is arbitrary law at its worst.

My God, what is this country coming to...

[UPDATE001] De Telegraaf: Shocked Wilders: A Black Day (NL):

This is a very black day for me and for the freedom of expression. I am shocked. I absolutely did not expect this.

[UPDATE002] What muppets on the benches of the Amsterdam Court of Appeals? From the ruling (emphases mine - KV):

The Court of Appeal has considered that the contested views of Wilders (also as shown in his movie Fitna) constitute a criminal offence according to Dutch law as seen in connection with each other, both because of their contents and the method of presentation. This method of presentation is characterized by biased, strongly generalizing phrasings with a radical meaning, ongoing reiteration and an increasing intensity, as a result of which hate is created. According to the Court of Appeal most statements are insulting as well since these statements substantially harm the religious esteem of the Islamic worshippers. According to the Court of Appeal Wilders has indeed insulted the Islamic worshippers themselves by affecting the symbols of the Islamic belief as well.

So, what are they saying here? That Wilders is to be prosecuted for the hateful, extremist crap spouted by those imams featured in Fitna? They can't be serious, can they?

[UPDATE003] EN reporting of (political) reactions at Dutchnews.nl.

[UPDATE004] Elsevier has the reaction of Vlaams Belangs Filip DeWinter (NL):

The procedure against Wilders is attempted murder on a democratic party.

In the comments Richard Hartman elaborates:

The state has bottomless pockets, Wilders does not. Once Wilders is bankrupt, his party will be gone: objective achieved. Even if the state would lose, and have to pay damages to Wilders, he'd have to start from scratch again.

The government is now actively engaging in lawfare, it would seem.

[UPDATE005] Via Jihad Watch: Petition in support of Geert Wilders. Here. Also: All it took to get Wilders prosecuted were nine 'good' people. Lastly, again from Jihad Watch: Geert Wilders to be prosecuted for agreeing with Churchill about Islam.

[UPDATE006] GoV has more on one of the miscreants behind the decision to prosecute.

[UPDATE007] Posted before, but bears repeating: The Qu'ran vs. Mein Kampf.

[UPDATE008] Excellent commentary in the Wall Street Journal:

This is no small victory for Islamic regimes seeking to export their censorship laws to wherever Muslims reside. But the successful integration of Muslims in Europe will require that immigrants adapt to Western norms, not vice versa. Limiting the Dutch debate of Islam to standards acceptable in, say, Saudi Arabia, will only shore up support for Mr. Wilders's argument that Muslim immigration is eroding traditional Dutch liberties.

[UPDATE009] Ezra Levant weighs in: Holland's national suicide note.

[Y]ou must admire the honesty of the court to describe their self-destructive, amoral attack on Wilders so clearly and without euphemism. There you have it: his "views" were unacceptable in content and presentation.

An act of unspeakable barbarism

Via Gates of Vienna, this shocking story of literally 'editing' history. And doing damage to our civilizations heritage that is quite impossible to value in monetary terms:

To the untrained eye the damage is barely visible. Yet within the handbound pages of books charting how Europeans travelled to Mesopotamia, Persia and the Mogul empire from the 16th century onwards, the damage caused by one Iranian academic to a priceless British Library collection is irreversible.

Leading scholars at the library are at a loss to explain why Farhad Hakimzadeh, a Harvard-educated businessman, publisher and intellectual, took a scalpel to the leaves of 150 books that have been in the nation's collection for centuries. The monetary damage he caused over seven years is in the region of £400,000 but Dr Kristian Jensen, head of the British and early printed collections at the library, said no price could be placed upon the books and maps that he had defaced and stolen.

"These are historic objects which have been damaged forever," said Jensen. "You cannot undo what he has done and it has compromised a piece of historical evidence which charts the early engagement of Europeans with what we now know as the Middle East and China.

Leading scholars at the library are at a loss to explain why...? Really? And of course the actions of this depraved facsimile of human life have nothing whatsoever to do with this (scroll to the bottom):

Hakimzadeh was the CEO of UK charity Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF). IHF is believed to be a Para vent for propaganda activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

As the Baron rightly observes: "In all the cultures where Islam has become ascendant, the Muslim authorities have attempted to rewrite the history of the conquered lands to obliterate the memory of anything that went before Islam. By this method the cultural contribution of civilizations that preceded Islam — during jahiliyah, “the days of ignorance” — is minimized, denigrated, and distorted.

The destruction of physical evidence is part of the revisionist task. To the average Western scholar, the Bamiyan Buddhas and the archeological artifacts buried in the ancient rubble under the Temple Mount are priceless treasures which must be preserved, restored, studied, and admired. But to a Muslim they are abominations and must be destroyed. If not actual idolatry, they are evidence of non-Muslim civilizations that preceded the introduction of Islam, and are thus an affront to the pride of the entire Ummah."

Another chapter of soft Jihad on the West seems to have been opened...

The End...

Today saw an unexpected development. In the wake of the anti-Israel demonstrations, which were actually nothing more then anti-Semitic hate-fests, Dutch parliaments Second Chamber devoted a session to the issue. The small Dutch-Reformed State Party (SGP) filed a motion calling for the prosecution of anti-Semitic statements, a motion that carried with a significant majority. Alexander Pechtold of Dhimmicrats Democrats '66 thought he could go one better and introduced a motion calling the government to act against anti-Semitic AND anti-Islamic statements.

To the shock of many, this motion carried as well. Via Esther of Islam in Europe a translation of the original Telegraaf article (NL).

Netherlands: Motion against antisemitism and anti-Islamism

The Dutch parliament wants the government to prosecute antisemitic and anti-Islamic statements, now that emotions about the Middle East are again flaring up. Only the SGP, the Christian Union, the PVV (Party for Freedom) and the VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) voted against this motion of the D66 Thursday.

There was more support for the SGP proposal which only called upon the government to act against antisemitism. That was embraced by all parties. The SGP thinks there is no reason to call now to act against anti-Islamism or other forms of discrimination. That is not an issue now, says SGP parliament member Cees van der Staaij.

D66 called the SGP motion incomplete, but did vote for it. D66 called up the SGP to also support the more complete motion, but the Christian party did not do so.

I am at a loss for words, witnessing the monumental stupidity of a majority of MPs voting for a motion that puts discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity on equal footing with criticism of a world view. By definition, a world view is held by choice and can be given up by choice. The current motion is akin to outlawing anti-semitism and anti-nazism, or anti-communism. Parliament has ordered the prosecution of all those that warn against the less then wholesome influence islam has had on Dutch society and rendered it defenseless.

Having voted for the Lisbon treaty, these vacuous good-for-nothings have already voted themselves out of a honest days work. But now these prattling airheads have voted their country away. Possible consequences be damned: It is my firm opinion that, when the time comes to rid us of the current regime, all those voting in favour of the D66 motion, including those that filed this disaster, should be arrested and shot for treason. And that time WILL come, my dears. There is only so much abuse a people will take from those that rule it.

Of course, by then not much of our country may be left.

Globalizing Gaza

This has been an extraordinary week in the Netherlands. The Israel-Hamas conflict has put into sharp focus where it is that individual people and whole segments of Dutch society stand.

Ferdy reported on Harry van Bommels presence on a virulently anti-Semitic demonstration in support of Hamas last week in Amsterdam. There he joined the head of the demonstration, chanting 'Intifada, intifada, Palestine free'.

After criticism of his behaviour in the Dutch MSM, Harry explained that the use of the word 'intifada' should be understood as a call to peaceful efforts towards a constructive dialogue for a free Palestine state. You know, because those other two intifada's were so ... peaceful...

Trying to have it both ways, hyper-correct Harry was scheduled to make an appearance at the Auschwitz commemoration, coming up on January 25. But survivors and families of survivors of that dreaded place rightly thought differently.

So, you join a demonstration where 'Hamas, hamas, all Jews to the gas' is one of the bigger chants. You subsequently fail to distance yourself from the demo. Do you seriously believe that a commemoration of the liberation of a place where 'Jews to the gas' was practised with fervour is the place for you? Do you really think your appearance there, with all the sanctimonious horseshit you've rehearsed for a segment on the 8 o'clock news, will be in any way believable?

Obviously, the committee Auschwitz Commemoration does not think so and has asked rather insistently that Harry van Bommel to give this years commemoration a miss. Initially Hamas Harry wasn't inclined to honour this request. But after talks between him and the committee, he's decided to give the event a miss. GoV has the translation of the news from De Telegraaf.

In the mean time, other correct elements of Dutch society are twisting themselves in ever more uncomfortable contortions to avoid facing the bleeding obvious. To give an example: Asked what he thought of the fact that some hundreds of Moroccan youth chanted for Jews to go to the gas once more, a sight that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago, former Amsterdam mayor Ed van Thijn, himself a Jew, answered (NL): 'That is globalisation. You see elements of world conflicts reflected in European cities.' Unsurprisingly, Afshin Ellian (who's op-ed the link points to), is rather taken aback by this answer:

Don't you find that strange? We are talking about van Thijn here, who warned us regularly about anti-Semitic neo-nazi forces. And about Geert Wilders. Van Thijn is the Amsterdam anti-racism establishment in the flesh.(...)

What would he think of a number of [Dutch] youth from Venlo has said: 'Drive all muslims into the sea'? Would van Thijn also have said 'This is globalisation'?

But taking the cake in this rather turbulent week is a 'well-being worker' from Rotterdam. In an interview with the Algemeen Dagblad (NL) Mohammed Tachi, who speaks Dutch so fluently the interview was conducted with a help of a translator, fills his time on earth with organizing demonstrations, bringing food to inmates during ramadan and occupying himself in numerous foundations and societies for human rights. He was involved in the three Palestinian support demos in Rotterdam over the weekend, two of which ending in violence. According to him many Moroccan youth feel connected to the Palestinian cause.

"Moroccans in Rotterdam also feel they live in occupied territory. At least 70% of Moroccans feels that way. They are searched more often then others, are more often victims of the police."

The demonstrations of last weekend were about more then just Gaza, so says the well-being worker. "These people feel they are victims of an indirect war, conducted by the police against them".

This must be the stupidest, most ill-informed and disproportionate (there is that word again) statement in a week that saw rich pickings of stupid and ill-informed opinions.

But let's analyse that statement a little, shall we? In occupied territory, there is the occupying force, usually a force that is considered alien. The people living under occupation see land that is rightfully theirs ruled by an alien government they do not want, do not recognize as legitimate.

So, if Tachi is right, and the majority of Moroccans feels the way he describes: Does that mean the Moroccan community in Rotterdam do not recognize the Dutch police, Dutch authority as legitimate? Do they feel Rotterdam is their home ground and Dutch police are alien invaders? Do they believe they have a legitimate claim on Rotterdam as Moroccan territory, that is unfortunately occupied by Dutch forces?

If Tachi is right, then it would seem Rotterdam and the Netherlands have a big, BIG problem. A problem that goes beyond a couple of incidents with unruly youths and the waxing tide of islamisation. If Tachi is right, a Dutch Gaza and/or West Bank is growing and festering under our very noses. The consequences are really to fearful to contemplate (though this is exactly what Isaelis have been confronted with ever since 1948).

Tachi may well be a do-gooder lunatic. But being a social worker of sorts, with regular contacts within the Moroccan community, we must assume his statements did not grow out of a vacuum. I really urge (and will no doubt be completely ignored by) our government and authorities to pay a little closer attention to this development. At the very least our intelligence services should investigate to what extent Tachis remarks reflect the opinion within the Moroccan community at large. If Tachis remarks are even a little true our government should do everything within its power (up to and including forced mass remigration to Morocco) to nip in the bud what seems to be shaping up as Gaza arriving in The Netherlands through the ports of Rotterdam.

[UPDATE001] Ach, how sad! Hamas Harry is being sued. Hollands most (in)famous lawyer, Bram Moszkowicz, is suing Socialist Party MPs Harry van Bommel and Sadet Karabulut, for incitement to hate, discrimination and violence.

The demons of Gaza

Ralph Peters in the New York Posts puts his finger not very delicately on the sore spot of Western attitude towards operation Cast Lead.

Israel hasn't killed a single civilian in the Gaza Strip. Over a hundred civilians have died, and Israeli bombs or shells may have ended their lives. But Israel didn't kill them.

Hamas did. (...)

When Hamas can't kill Jews, it's perfectly willing to drive Palestinian civilians into the line of fire - old men, women and children. Hamas herds the innocent into "shelters," then draws Israeli fire on them. And the headline-greedy media cheer them on.

And not afraid to give the animal its proper name, Peters warns that the current conflict with Hamas is but a mini-version of what his happening globally:

Now our civilization faces terrorists who regard death as a promotion. They believe that any action can be excused because they're serving their god. And their core belief is that you and I, as stubborn unbelievers, deserve death.

Their grisly god knows no compromise. To give an inch is to betray their god's trust entirely. Yet we - and even some Israelis - believe it's possible to cut deals with them.

In search of peace, Israel handed Gaza to the Palestinians, a people who had never had a state of their own. As thanks, Israel received terror rockets. And the Palestinian people got a gang war.

Peace is the last thing Hamas terrorists and gangsters want. Peace means the game is up. Peace means they've disappointed their god. Peace means no more excuses. They couldn't bear peace for six months.

This is a war to the bitter end. And we're afraid to admit what it's about.

As they say: Read the entire thing, including the diagnosis of Leftist hatred for Israel.

Those who fell

It should come as no surprise that KV heartily supports Israel in its endeavours to rid this world of the facsimiles of human life that make up Hamas and , I am sad to say, the majority of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank (1). There is no people on this earth that receives so much money from the world community and has absolutely nothing to show for it, safe a few thousand shabby Qassam rockets with which to terrorize neighboring Israeli villages. According to Afshin Ellian (NL):

Ninety-four percent of the budget of the UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) originates from the governments of the European Union. In 2008 their budget totalled 541.8 million dollar. This amount should not be confused with the individual (state) aid to Palestinians from all those countries.

A people that is capable of squandering so much money on nothing but blind hatred and violence is deserving of a good smack-bottom. One hopes that the Israelis will see this through in a more decisive manner then their last venture against the jihadists on its borders

The Dutch language blog Contradecere has started something of a blogburst in support of the men and women fighting Hamas in the operation Lead Cast. More particularly, it dedicated a post to those who have fallen in this operation. Captioned 'We honor the fallen heroes of Israel', their statement: 'A coward is too scared do die for something, a hero is too scared to live his life a coward' is something any decent human being can agree with.

(1) Yes, I know: A bit harsh. But what else can one say of a people that condones the revolting Qana-style manipulation of international opinion? Take the Israeli attacks on three UN schools yesterday. Nobody in the MSM seems to think it is worth a mention that at least one such school was used to stage mortar attacks from. See EU Referendum, including the video posted there.

[UPDATE001] Gates of Vienna have the translation of a piece by Geert Wilders and Martin Bosma in the Volkskrant, arguing that the concept of 'Land for Peace' is been mortally discredited.

Three years ago, Netzarim and other so-called ‘settlements’ were abandoned as a part of the framework of disengagement. This withdrawal should have then led to peace. But 5,000 arguments for a different reality rained down in the form of Kassam rockets on the residents of the Negev.

The original piece is here (NL), GoV's translation is here.

[UPDATE002] For once our provincial government gets it right: Second Chamber: No sanctions for Israel (NL).

A majority of the Second Chamber supports the line followed by the cabinet in the struggle between Israel an the Palestinian terror organistion Hamas.

Israel does not deserve punishment for its military action in the Gaza strip. Israel started this action after pesristent rocket attacks by Hamas on Israeli soil. (...)

[Foreign minister] Verhagen receives full support from the [liberal conservative] VVD. Fractions president Mark Ruttes party feels that Israel should be allowed the room to destroy the structures of Hamas.

Gas the Jews!

It’s a new year, but again we have to hear these old slogans again. In yesterdays anti Israel demonstration in the Dutch capital the crowds shouted: "Hamas, Hamas, gas the Jews! Hamas, Hamas, Gas the Jews!". Photojournalist schlijper.nl has video:



But while the crowds shouted this, the Dutch Socialist Party parliamentary member Harry van Bommel (see his blog) leaded the demonstration. Harry of course did “not” hear this and had his own very pacifist slogan and shouted: "Intifada, Intifada, free Palestine".

Islam in Europe has more on this.