AN AMERICAN EXPAT IN BELGIUM WEIGHS IN.

Readers of this blog may have noticed a certain sourturning of posts by yours truly as well as a narrowturning of subjects towards the rising islamism in Europe. While I assure you that for local native westerners the feeling of an alien belief system incrementally manifesting itself, imposing limitations on free speech and indeed, on freedom itself, is very real, I realize that for somebody living in Akron, Ohio or Manaus, Brazil the succession of posts shedding a negative light on Islam may come over as biased and/or exaggerated. I might add that I myself have no trouble admitting that a part of Muslim anger (but by no means the most important part) is fuelled by European racism. I don't deny that. As a metter of fact, despite not knowing a phenomenon as the KKK in Europe, I fear that racism is much more a European than an American affair. That is why, e.g., America has a coloured Foreign Secretary while not one European country has.

Be that as it may, I stick to my point that the greater problem is not European racism, but European Islam, or rather Islam itself. Population groups who have over time established and proven themselves in Europe have become widely accepted and valued. In the fifties, my own country has known a considerable influx of cheap Italian workers. For the somewhat dumb man in the street, the tanned Giovanni Q arriving in Brussels Central Station in 1955 may indeed not have looked that different from today's Moroccans, and I fear that for quite some time the spaghettis may have had to cope with a considerable degree of (stupid) racism. Anno 2006 however, Italians have perfectly blended in in Belgian society. Not so the Muslim community however, of which the first members arrived on the heels of the Italians in the sixties.

Coming from a native European such as myself, such a statement may seem indeed racist, and in line with all my previous posts. That is why I decided to quote a foreigner - an American.

For some time now, I have known the blog "Bexpat", operated by an American blogger in Belgium who calls himself "Flemish American". Since he has apparently perfectly assimilated into our - ahem - unique society, I took the liberty of linking to him under the label "Belgian Freedom Fighters", see blogroll (I hope he doesn't mind). He doesn't post often, but when he does, it is clear he has pondered his post's subject and come up with a well thought-out opinion. The following is an excerpt from his latest post, "Prophesy":

"I fully understand the sensitivity of the Arab world to these cartoons. How would we feel if someone showed us an indecent picture of the Virgin Mary?" asked Stathis Stavropoulos, a cartoonist at the Greek daily Eleftherotypia.

Guess what Mr. Stavropoulos, I got a picture for you.

A Christian group held a peaceful virgil outside of the theatre in Brussels where the play was being shown. There were no death threats. No one felt in danger.

With the exception of Northern Ireland, Western society has stopped killing and rioting in the name of religion. Sure, we have an occasional fanatic who might kill an abortion doctor, but overall, we have learned to focus our anger and frustration in less destructive ways.

Ironically, apart from the Danish embassies and consulates, they are only hurting their own. Local police are having to fire on local rioters killing local Muslims. Strikes are hurting their own economies and destruction is to their own property.

I'm not sure how this will finally pan out, but I fear for the future of Europe with her high percentage of traditional Muslim immigrants. I find I fear for my own family and of those I love. This is disconcerting.

The enemy is not in Iraq or Afghanistan, he is right next door living in our neighborhoods, going to our schools, trying to date our daughter so he can have his way with her and dump her and others like her until he is ready to settle down to his virgin, Muslim wife.

He doesn't think about the hypocricy of this. He's just interested in taking the pieces of Western society that suit him and he discards the rest or, as we see now, even tries to change it to accommodate him.

I'm just wondering how long it will be before we finally figure it out.

If Flemish American cannot convince you, then maybe another foreigner can - say, a Libyan?

According to Gaddafi the riots in the poor suburbs of Paris last year were “only the beginning of the armed struggle of the Muslims against discrimination in Europe”. "Probably one day Europe will be subordinated to the Islam", Col. Gaddafi claimed, cited by the publication.

Despite the fact that over the past four years tens of thousands of muslims themselves have fallen victim to islamic terrorism, not a peep was ever heard from the muslims vegetating in our midst. In August 2003 e.g., hundred and twenty-five Shiite pilgrims visiting the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, among them Ayatollah Baqir al-Hakim, were butchered by a suicide bomber. If Google generates a perfumed fart if you look for Muslim protest against that, consider yourself Indiana Jones and the Temple of Boom. By contrast however, London saw this week another culmination of muslim anger over twelve-silly-cartoons-in-a-dipshit-rural-newspaper-in-distant-Denmark:

Ishmaeel Haneef, from the committee, said the demonstrations were continuing because "the provocations have not stopped". "These things are still being republished across the world," he said, using the example of an Italian minister wearing a T-shirt depicting the cartoons. He said the way to "get back to being a civilised world" was to "give the copyright [of the cartoons] over to the Muslim community".

Right. Give the copyright of the cartoons to the Muslim Community. Only way to get back to being a civilized world. And while we are at it Mr. Haneef, why not give you our penal codes? Or our constitutions? Can I offer you the Magna Carta 1215 for free??? The longer this goes on, the more I am inclined to believe that the only way to get back to being a civilised world is to move the Muslim Community over to the hellholes without electricity or running water it originates from. Pardon my French.

MFBB.

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

So cut my head off.

PHEW! FINALLY! MODERATE MUSLIMS REACT!!!

a.) Hacer Düzgün, Member of the Muslim Executive

The so-called Muslim Executive is the organization officially representing the Muslim community vis-à-vis the Belgian government. It is responsible for appointing imams and organizing religious education. It also has a troubled history - the present Muslim Executive actually being the second one, "elected" under dubious circumstances in March 2005. Half of the 16 members of its notorious predecessor, installed in 1999, had been described by the Belgian Staatsveiligheid/Sureté d’Etat as fundamentalists, yet were confirmed in their function by the then Minister of Justice, Laurette Onkelinckx (Parti Socialiste bigshot, but I’m not suggesting anything - MFBB). So notorious was the endless bickering and infighting within its ranks that it never functioned properly, prompting even a Belgian senator of Moroccan descent, Mimount Bousakla, to ask for its disbandment. By the time the second Executive was formed, even physical fights took place, a.o. between newly elected Brahim Bouhna and exiting member Kebir Bencheikh, resulting in a 10-day working incapacity of the former. Recently it emerged that the first Muslim Executive’s Chairman, Mohammed Boulif, simply kept cashing in a Chairman’s wage, paid by the Belgian State, even though he could no longer claim it. But I digress.

Anyway, with regards to the Cartoon Intifada Mrs. Düzgün was offered a column in De Standaard, Belgium’s biggest newspaper. Just to show that not all Muslims walk around these days with boards saying Europe, you’ll pay - your 3/11 is on its way. Dutch-savvy readers, have a try at the scan, for the others I will translate the key quotes of her exposé:

"It’s not that we (after the cartoon’s publication – MFBB) expect a new holocaust , but in the thirties it started too with insulting cartoons? …. A man with a bomb on his head: in this way you destroy the perfect image we cherish from our prophet….. Hold it, I accept press freedom. That is a constitutional right. But does everybody always have to reconnoitre the limits of that right. Can the West not have more feeling for the sensititivities of the Muslims?"

I’d say the pivotal word here is "but". But but but but but but but but but but but. Reminds me of other buts, e.g. after the Twin Towers came down and there was talk among moderate Muslims like Mrs. Düzgün of how awful it all was and that violence is never an answer and Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and blah blah blah de blah…

"...BUT".

But the only but I want to hear these days is the but in I’d like to kick your butt. As a very moderate Christian I don’t like it either if some Tunisian "artist" mocks Mary, Jesus’ Mother, and gets paid for it by the loon who somehow gravitated to, or let’s rather say fell upwards on, the desk of Flemish Culture Minister. But for me, he does as he pleases. For those folks who are really nasty about Jesus and Mary and the Bible and what not, I always say "the deed is the punishment". Mrs. Düzgün on the other hand, albeit posing as a moderate, sees fit to equal the printing of 12 bad quality cartoons in small newspaper in distant Denmark as the beginning of a new Holocaust – see her reference to "the thirties". So apparently, sometimes the Holocaust can come in handy to press home a point, even for Muslims.


b.) Ergün Top, city council member in Antwerp, advisor to Yves Leterme, Flemish Minister-president.

"Violence as protest is unacceptable. Writing protest letters, that‘s a possibility. Or a White March with 200,000 through the streets of Brussels. Let us communicate about our religion and in this manner ask for respect. Unfortunately the Muslim Executive has not done this. It should have explained better that you can laugh with Ramadan, with headscarves, as far as I’m concerned even with virginity. But not with the Koran, God or the prophet. If John Q in the Flemish street understands that, he may show more notion."

Over the top Mr. Top. I think that if any person living in a free society feels like having a good laugh with the Koran, God or the prophet, he should be able to do so. You say "it can’t". IT CAN, Mr. Top. NON-NEGOTIABLE. John Q in the Flemish Street does NOT have to understand it. Don’t like it that way, get back to Anatolia if you please.

But if it’s a consolation to you, I‘d like to add that, as I am gradually taking knowledge of your prophet’s track record from the early years to his death, I am less and less inclined to laugh about him. Rather, I feel more and more like crying about him and those unfortunate enough to cross his path. Indeed, the more I learn about Islam and its prophet, the more my revolt against Islam grows. As well as my resolve to oppose it.


c.) Fatma Pehlivan, senator for the Flemish Socialist Party (SP.a)

"The problem is that the West does not assess what the sensitivities of Muslims are. One does see, from the many reactions, that the cartoons just can’t …. Personally I was terribly offended by the drawing of the man with the bomb on his head. That hints at a connection between islam and terrorism. A cartoon is never without engagement, cartoons also have a purpose. And this message hurts so much just because denounces any kind of terror."

Ahhh, those Famous Muslim Sensitivities!!! Because of them, the cartoons "just can’t". To tell you the truth, basically I found all cartoons rather tame. Not to say "lame". I guess at the time they were drawn the cartoonists already had a foreboding of what was to come and deliberately and/or unconsciously switched to Winnie The Pooh Colorbook Drawing Mode. All to no avail, the Ummah’s anger finally burst like a MOAB high on steroids, and there is Mrs. Pehlivan trying to get the message across that it’s ooooooooooouuuuuuuurrrrr fault for not having correctly assessed "Muslim Sensitivities". I have pics somewhere on my harddisk with the charred remains of Scott Helvenston/Jerry Zovko, Michael Teague/Wesley Batalona or pick whatever twosome combination you like, dangling from some dipshit Fallujah Bridge. What continues to amaze me is that people like Mrs. Pehlivan somehow, just somehow, expect OUR sensitivities remain unstirred upon soaking in images like that which are, admit it, a bit more "graphic" than those cartoons.


d.) Fauzaya Talhaoui, Senator for Spirit (Flemish fringe leftist party)

"People who have been living 30, 40 years in this country and always behaved calm and moderate, don’t understand. They hear about these insulting cartoons in Denmark, which are then published practically everywhere, in your newspaper too (to its credit, it must be said that De Standaard; albeit a viciously anti-American leftist rag, did publish the cartoons – MFBB). They ask me: do they now want to offend us all? They (the immigrants) have never made amok in the country, no more than because of the problems they experience in trying to offer their children a good eucation."

Let me tell you one thing people. If one person among those four ought to pull her head out ofer her *ss, it’s Mrs. Talhaoui. While it is true that the first generation of muslim immigrants, and most of the second one, kept a low profile, since the early eighties it’s going from bad to worse with the third generation. I have until now refrained from elaborating on the matter, things going on in the world being much more important than what happens here and all that, but I could tell a thing or two about problems caused by, I’m sorry to say it, muslim immigrants. One could fill books about the behaviour of Moroccan youngsters in Brussels schools e.g., with teachers driven to the brink of insanity, intimidated, ridiculed, sometimes chased out of the classrooms. Theft, robbery, downright murder. Schools in Antwerp forced to scrap pork meat from the school menu. Rampant "youth" criminality everywhere with the often minor perpetrators getting away with it unpunished. "Youth" gangs cruising the streets during the day (when they ought to be on the school banks), and cruising them at night (when they ought to be doing their homework). Of course, when they enter the job market, they have acquired no skills at all, not to mention raucous behaviour is not exactly inducing patrons to hire them either. Result: unemployment figures for young immigrants of 40% in the Brussels Region. Understandably, they only speak a hairy variety of French - while thousands of Flemish companies around Brussels are screaming or skilled workers.

Last week, there was a small item in De Standaard. Titled "Wij zijn de heersers van morgen" (We are the rulers of tomorrow - MFBB). Excerpt:

Maar ook zij is ervan overtuigd dat leraars beter goed voorbereid aan discussies beginnen, want anders kunnen ze wel eens een omgekeerd effect hebben. ,,Zulke discussies kunnen schokkende uitspraken opleveren'', zegt ze. ,,Zo hebben we met leerlingen uit het deeltijds onderwijs - bijna allemaal allochtonen - een project uitgevoerd waarbij ze een videofilm mochten maken over hun cultuur en hun leefwereld. Daar kwamen uitspraken als 'wij zijn de heersers van morgen' en 'de Vlamingen worden onze slaven'.

In the De Standaard item Kristien Coppenholle, Chief Pedagogue for Secundary Education (High School) in the City of Ghent, warned teachers in Ghent schools not to start discussions around the cartoons unprepared (in many Ghent schools muslim youths make up a big percentage of students) , "because such discussions can yield shocking statements". Mrs. Coppenholle organised a project with the students of a part time education project in which the latter had the opportunity to make a short video about their culture and the world they live in. In these videofilms, statements such as "We are the Rulers of Tomorrow" and "The Flemings become our slaves" could be heard.

Maybe Mrs. Talhaoui, living in cushy Flanders, is gravely insulted by 12 lame cartoons published in distant rural Denmark. I wonder if she would find it appropriate that I, as a law-abiding and tax-paying Fleming, am gravely insulted by hearing a dipshit 10-year old Moroccan nitwit state that tomorrow I will be his slave.


Ladies and Gentlemen, you heard the voice of Europes Moderate Islam:

"Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah, there's something like freedom of speech in your constitution but the Koran is above all law, you ignored muslim sensitivities and you just CAN'T print those cartoons."

.
Charles Krauthammer sums it up neatly:

As much of the Islamic world erupts in a studied frenzy over the Danish Muhammad cartoons, there are voices of reason being heard on both sides. Some Islamic leaders and organizations, while endorsing the demonstrators' sense of grievance and sharing their outrage, speak out against using violence as a vehicle of expression. Their Western counterparts -- intellectuals, including most of the major newspapers in the United States -- are similarly balanced: While, of course, endorsing the principle of free expression, they criticize the Danish newspaper for abusing that right by publishing offensive cartoons, and they declare themselves opposed, in the name of religious sensitivity, to doing the same.

God save us from the voices of reason.

What passes for moderation in the Islamic community -- "I share your rage but don't torch that embassy" -- is nothing of the sort. It is simply a cynical way to endorse the goals of the mob without endorsing its means.

I am sick of goddam#@&??,秵("é?/!!!!fucking#@&??,秵("é?/!!!!euroweenieCOWARDS squandering our FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS by giving in to, and tremble in fear for, lousy Muslim do-nothing know-nothing cost-a-lot PARASITES taking to our streets. Peaceful protest yeah. Demand that we only print what does not offend you DEFINITELY NOT! In Cardiff, Wales, a student newspaper has recalled 8,000 copies and suspended its editor after the newspaper published a cartoon satirising the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. The Swedish government has shut down the website of a far-right political party's newspaper because, you won't believe this, the Prophet Muhammad was pictured like this (Hat tip CDR Salamander.). Fools. Feeding the monster hoping that it will become vegetarian. Europe should know better.

Last week a good friend of mine said he was going to arm himself. I am now considering to do so too.


MFBB.


UPDATE: OUTRAGE!!!

From The Brussels Journal:

This weekend the cartoons returned from Arabia to Europe. Muslim immigrants staged protests in various European towns, from Berlin to London, to Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris [where two brave men "trod on 1.5 billion Muslims"], protesting against cartoons which over four months ago they had failed to notice. Last Saturday five hundred Muslims gathered on Antwerp’s main square, in the shadow of the Cathedral of Our Lady and below the statue of Peter Paul Rubens, to turn to Mecca and pray. It was a peaceful gathering that had been called by the imams. After the meeting angry “youths” left the prayer meeting to terrorize the city with shouts of “Allah is great!” The imams said that the youths’ behaviour was not their responsibility, as they had called for “respect.”

So five hundred thugs "prayed" on OUR famous Groenplaats, "in the shadow" of the magnificent Cathedral of Our Lady and below the statue of one of our National Heroes, the eminent painter and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens, hollowheads in the direction of Mecca and butts in the direction of Reyjavik, all as if the place was theirs, and after the "prayer" went to the center of the city to do...

...this??? Shouting "Allahu Akbar"?????

I'm too angry now to come up with anything coherent. But it looks inevitable now we will have to resort to some serious asskicking sooner or later. I just read Dutch blogger Zacht Ei. It's the same story in Amsterdam:

Right. Everybody who causes trouble of course cannot be part of said demonstration, for otherwise we couldn't keep up the myth of well-integrated newcomers peacefully using their freedom of speech. According to local tv station AT5 there are or were about 150 (!) youngsters causing trouble; one shop was attacked according to the RTL television news; bystanders were harrassed; and two people have been arrested. Until now. Nice detail: according to NieuwNieuws some of these nice young folks were wearing Hamas jackets. You don't buy those at Sissy Boy.

Hamas jackets huh?

Vlaamse Leeuw courtesy of Frans Nijs. Peter, will email you soon. As for the Americans: pay very well attention to what is happening in Europe. It may be too late for Europe, it isn't yet for America. And like I said: inform yourself, tell everyone about it, write your Congressmen. Legislation needs to pass that stops immigration, renders muslim family reunification impossible, doesn't give automatic citizenship after marriage, stops issuing Green Cards to people from muslim countries and what not. It may sound harsh, but it's the only way to buy time now. SAVE WESTERN CIVILIZATION - STOP MUSLIM IMMIGRATION!!!