THERE'S SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF NORWAY.

From Bruce Bawer:

On February 10, in Oslo, came a dramatic capitulation that seemed a classic case of sharia in action. For days, Velbjorn Selbekk, editor of the tiny Christian periodical Magazinet – the first publication to reprint the now-famous Muhammed cartoons from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten – had firmly resisted pressure by Muslim extremists (who made death threats) and by the Norwegian establishment (which urged him to give in). But then, on that morning – the day before a planned mass demonstration against the cartoons – Norway’s Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion, Bjarne Hakon Hanssen, hastily called a press conference at a major government office building in Oslo.

There, to the astonishment of his supporters, Selbekk issued an abject apology for reprinting the cartoons. At his side, accepting his act of contrition on behalf of 46 Muslim organizations and asking that all threats now be withdrawn, was Mohammed Hamdan, head of Norway’s Islamic Council. In attendance were members of the Norwegian cabinet and the largest assemblage of imams in Norway’s history. It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom: the dhimmi prostrating himself before the Muslim leader, and the leader pardoning him – and, for good measure, declaring Selbekk to be henceforth under his protection, as if it were he, Hamdan, and not the Norwegian police, that held in his hands the security of citizens in Norway.

If you think that's bad, it can always be worse. Norwegian blogger Secular Blasphemy writes that:

...a group of Islamic and Christian religious leaders from Norway is now (February 14 - MFBB) visiting the powerful Muslim Brotherhood leader Dr Yusuf Al Qaradawi in Qatar, to implore him to accept Selbekk's apologies.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi is an extremist cleric who has justified suicide bombings:

"Secondly I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an indication of the justice of Allah Almighty. Allah is just – through his infinite wisdom he has given the weak what the strong do not possess and that is the ability to turn their bodies into bombs like the Palestinians do."

And that was the nicest of his rants.


So, can you f*ckin' believe it???? NORWAY SENT AN OFFICIAL DELEGATION TO AN EXTREMIST ISLAMOLOON CLERIC TO BEG FOR ACCEPTANCE OF SELBEKK'S APOLOGIES! Let that sink in! I don't know what has come over the Norwegians. Until last year they had a well-performing center-right government under PM Magnus Bondevik. To reward it for its sound stewardship of Norway's economy, they recently elected an extreme leftwing government, now under Jens Stoltenberg. One of the more colorful characters in this lunatic outfit is Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, of the Socialist Left Party SV. Last fall, she opened up her campaign in... Pakistan. She's the blonde in the center of the photo (credit for it The Brussels Journal), but I guess you suspected that already. Since she comes up in Oslo, and a.) Oslo's population is already 12% immigrant (read: Pakistani and Somali muslims) and b.) everyone who has lived three years in Norway is entitled to vote and c.) many of Oslo's Pakistani families come from the Pakistani town Kharian in the Punjab region, Mrs. Halvorsen apparently figured it would boost her score if she said goodbye to the folks over in Musharrafland.

Btw, last January Mrs. Halvorsen said - shocka - that she is in favour of boycotting Israel. She told the newspaper Dagbladet that she never buys Israeli products, such as oranges, and that she supports all Norwegian municipalities and provinces that boycott Israël. She's very fond of Cuba however - and no, I'm not making that one up. With politicians like these, who needs Yusuf al-Qaradawi?


MFBB