Giulio Meotti : The Saudis at the UN Human Rights Council

The Saudis at the UN Human Rights Council

by Giulio Meotti
December 23, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9628/saudis-human-rights-council

• While the medieval Saudi system of justice was flogging the gentle blogger Raif Badawi 50 out of the stipulated 1000 lashes, a delegation of UN bureaucrats landed in Jeddah to promote an international conference on religious freedom.
• The Saudis use these international seats to advance their oppressive agenda, and to press the Western democracies to punish criticism of Islam.
• Through the shameful trial of Geert Wilders, Dutch authorities sent a message of surrender to the Saudis and other rogue Islamic regimes that punish dissent.
• Did the Dutch prosecute Wilders on behalf of the Saudis, who threatened to impose sanctions on the Netherlands?
• The UN and the Western democracies are putting the defense of human rights and freedom in the hands of one the world's worst violators of religious and intellectual freedom.
• Sharia courts are already fully operating in the Netherlands. They know something about "human rights": stoning, flogging and chopping off heads.
• Who will rescue our right to speak?

"My husband has been languishing in a Saudi prison since June 17^th, 2012. Our children live with me in the city of Sherbrooke, Québec in Canada. They have not seen their father for five years now... On January 9, 2015, Raif received the first 50 lashes... Will members of the United Nations Human Rights Council join the European Parliament and ask for Raif's release?"

Unfortunately, the UN members did not respond to this appeal by Ensaf Haidar, the fearless wife of the most famous blogger of the Arab world, the gentle Raif Badawi, imprisoned and flogged by the Saudis for his secular ideas.
A few days after Ensaf's appeal, the United Nations welcomed Badawi's executioners, the Saudis, at the UN Human Rights Council. The Saudi representative, Abdulaziz Alwasil, will be decisive on three major issues at the UN Palace of Nations in Geneva: women, religious freedom and the system of justice.

What a great achievement for Saudi Arabia: The country flogs poets and bloggers, and its sheikhs have no other concern than filling their sumptuous palaces with wives and concubines, and then stoning them to death if they become "adulterous". Saudi Arabia is where a Shiite cleric was publicly beheaded and where a Christian cannot wear a tunic or a cross.

The British government supported the Saudi bid to be re-elected at the Human Rights Council (British Prime Minister Theresa May was urged in vain to oppose the Saudi election to the Geneva body). The Obama Administration did the same: Samantha Powers, the U.S. ambassador at the UN, called the Saudi bid at the UN a "procedural position".

Hillel Neuer, the director of UN Watch, captured the difference between realpolitik and the betrayal of Western values when he said: "Making an alliance with Stalin to stop Hitler is one thing; it's quite another to say Stalin is a champion of human rights".

A few days after the Saudi bid at the UN Human Rights Council, the Kingdom and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights held a two-day workshop in the Saudi capital to discuss the "evolution of the concept of human rights in the framework of international and regional human rights systems". Evolution of the concept human rights? Ask Raif Badawi, he knows better than the UN bureaucrats.

Raif Badawi and his children, before he was jailed.

The Saudis use these international seats to advance their oppressive agenda, and to press the Western democracies to punish criticism of Islam. 

The Saudis, in fact, considered curbing trade with the Netherlands over Geert Wilders, who has just been found guilty in a court in The Hague for "inciting discrimination and insulting a minority group". By asking at a public rally if people wanted "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands, Wilders was publicly declaring his alarm over the exploding crime rate by Moroccan Muslims in the country.

Through this shameful trial, the Dutch authorities sent a message of surrender to the Saudis and other rogue Islamic regimes which punish dissent. Did the Dutch prosecute Wilders on behalf of the Saudis, who threatened to impose sanctions on the Netherlands? It was reported that the Council of Saudi Chambers received a letter from higher Saudi authorities urging it not to involve Dutch companies in local projects either directly or indirectly.

The Saudis, through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), have been pivotal in advancing the non-binding U.N. Resolution 62/154, "Combating defamation of religions", which extends protection to opinions and to ideas, and grants people immunity from being "offended".

This is exactly what happened with Wilders: he was on trial for stating his opinion, that there should be "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands. Some people said they were offended by that. Oddly, however, no one appears to have been offended by much worse remarks, said by politicians from the "Left":

• "We also have sh*t Moroccans over here." Rob Oudkerk, Dutch Labour Party (PvDA) politician.
• "We must humiliate Moroccans." Hans Spekman, PvDA politician.
• "Moroccans have the ethnic monopoly on trouble-making." Diederik Samsom, PvDA politician.

The United Nations and the Western democracies are putting the defense of human rights and freedom in the hands of one the world's worst violators of religious and intellectual freedom. Middle East expert Paul Marshall blasted the "ongoing campaign by the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference which has given the anti-blasphemy movement weight and traction".

While the medieval Saudi system of justice was flogging the gentle blogger Raif Badawi 50 out of 1000 lashes, a delegation of UN bureaucrats landed in Jeddah to promote an international conference on religious freedom. No, it is not a joke.

Joachim Rücker, President of the UN Human Rights Council, was photographed smiling side by side with the Wahhabi Islamic guardians. The Obama Administration sent two envoys to the Saudi conference, the ambassador for religious freedom, David Saperstein, and Arsalan Suleman, an envoy at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Also attending was Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN special envoy for religious freedom, a noted scholar of Immanuel Kant (how did the Enlightenment collapse so far, so fast?).

Women, Christians, secular bloggers, Western "blasphemers", brave Dutch MPs: be warned! The muttawayyin, the Saudi religious police patrolling the Kingdom's streets to ensure respect for the Koran, are already in Europe's streets. Just ask France's satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.

A few days after 12 people were butchered at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, as well as four Jews at a grocery store, Saudi officials were allowed to march in Paris along with the terrorists' victims and world leaders. 

And the Saudis had just flogged a blogger for "blasphemy". Will Geert Wilders be next? Sharia courts are already fully operating in the Netherlands. They know something about "human rights": stoning, flogging and chopping off heads.
But who will rescue our right to speak?

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.

Khaled Abu Toameh : Palestinians: The Nightmare of Christians

Palestinians: The Nightmare of Christians

by Khaled Abu Toameh
December 24, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9634/palestinian-christians

• For the past four decades, Samir Qumsieh, who hails from a large and well-respected Christian family in the town of Bet Sahour, near Bethlehem, has fought for the rights of the region's miniscule Palestinian Christian minority. He has even dared to speak out against the subjugation of Christians living under the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
• He regularly receives death threats, and he has been the target of a petrol bomb attack.
• "The solution to extremism starts with the kindergarten, with elementary school. It begins with the churches, with the mosques and the school curricula. Curricula are very important – Jewish, Christian and Muslim ones. They should concentrate on accepting the 'other.' If this idea is adopted, the future generation will be liberal and open-minded." — Samir Qumsieh.
• "Every day we hear and see some radical Muslim clerics speaking strongly against Christians. Just recently, one of the sheiks was saying that Christian Copts should be slaughtered like sheep. Where is the Egyptian security? If I were in charge of Egyptian security, I would have this sheikh arrested immediately, and have him rot in a dark underground cell." — Samir Qumsieh.
• "To understand the severity of the situation is, let us recall that in the 1950s about 86% of the population of the Bethlehem area was Christian. Today, we are only 12%. In Israel, by contrast, we have 133,000 Christians and the figure is stable. Of course, I am worried about the future of Christians here." — Samir Qumsieh.
• "I fear the day will come when our churches will become museums. is my nightmare." — Samir Qumsieh.

Without question, Samir Qumsieh is one of the most courageous Christian leaders in the Middle East. Qumsieh is one of the few willing to risk his life to speak out against Muslim persecution of Christians in the Palestinian territories and the Middle East, generally.
For the past four decades, Samir Qumsieh, who hails from a large and well-respected Christian family in the town of Bet Sahour, near Bethlehem, has fought for the rights of the region's miniscule Palestinian Christian minority. He has even dared to speak out against the subjugation of Christians living under the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The plight of the Christians living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas is a subject truly taboo. Yet Qumsieh perseveres – and pays the price. He regularly receives death threats, and he has been the target of a petrol bomb attack. Muslim extremists have also distributed leaflets in the Bethlehem area condemning him for his outspoken views and activities on behalf of persecuted Christians.

Samir Qumsieh.

However, the campaign of intimidation has not deterred Qumsieh from defending them.
In an exclusive interview with Gatestone Institute, the prominent Christian figure, who founded the private Nativity TV Station in Bet Sahour, accuses the Obama Administration of failing to combat ISIS and radical Islam. Qumsieh says he is convinced that President-elect Trump will "terminate" ISIS.
Qumsieh discloses that a "Muslim mafia" has been stealing Christian-owned lands in the Bethlehem area.


As a prominent Palestinian Christian figure in the living in the Middle East, how would you assess the Obama Administration's role in the war on ISIS?

President Obama is the spiritual father of ISIS. His administration and he were never serious about fighting ISIS. This is what I firmly believe, and many facts confirm my thoughts. When Obama saw that this was about to be exposed, he finally acted, but in a weak manner. He put out a ransom against (ISIS leader) Abu Baker Al-Baghdadi and started telling us that he had bombed ISIS, and so on.


How do you explain Obama's refusal to use the term radical Islam?

If you ask me, I will tell you the truth: I doubt that Obama is a Christian. Really, I doubt it. During his term, ISIS emerged, and the Christians have suffered heavily. Let me ask you a question. What is ISIS? Why is it that this mobilization of the whole world has not been able to eradicate them? Who can convince me? When America toppled Saddam Hussein, who had a very big and strong army, he collapsed. But when it comes to ISIS, how come they still exist?


Do you believe that President-elect Donald Trump will endorse a different stance toward ISIS?

Absolutely. Trump will obliterate ISIS. Had Hilary Clinton won, believe me ISIS would have continued and flourished. In my view, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the 'father' of ISIS, and Clinton is its 'mother.'
I have a friend who is a painter. He paints portraits of presidents. He is a Muslim, by the way. We sent portraits to King Abdullah, to Mahmoud Abbas and the Pope. He painted a portrait of Obama in front of the Church of Nativity. He worked on it for two months and it cost a lot of money. When the portrait was presented to Obama through the US consul-general in Jerusalem, they did not bother to send a thank you letter to the painter, although I personally talked to the consulate about this. I told them, 'Gentlemen, this is shameful, at least send a thank-you letter to this man.' The consul-general at that time came to my office and took the portrait. Doesn't the painter deserve at least a thank-you letter?


Are you saying that Obama has not done anything to help Christians in the Middle East?

Nothing at all. As I said, I think he was not serious about fighting ISIS, which has harmed the Christians very badly.


In your opinion, what is the best way to fight religious extremism?

I have always said that the solution to extremism is not through the military or security. The solution to extremism starts with the kindergarten, with elementary school. It begins with the churches, with the mosques and the school curricula. Curricula are very important – Jewish, Christian and Muslim ones. They should concentrate on accepting the 'other.' If this idea is adopted, the future generation will be liberal and open-minded.


But isn't the turmoil and violence in the Middle East the result of religious extremism?

The current conflict in the entire region is a religious and sectarian war. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are Sunni. They are against Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Alawite regime of Bashar Assad in Syria. So we are witnessing a religious and sectarian war. This is not only a conflict between Sunnis and Shias.


How do you feel as a Christian when you see what is happening to Christians in the Middle East, especially the recent bombing of a church in Egypt?

What is happening is extremely sad, especially the bombing of a church. I think the Egyptian authorities should act decisively. Every day we hear and see some radical Muslim clerics speaking strongly against Christians. Just recently, one of the sheiks was saying that Christian Copts should be slaughtered like sheep. Where is the Egyptian security? If I was in charge of Egyptian security, I would have this sheikh arrested immediately, and have him rot in a dark underground cell.


Are you aware of Palestinian Muslim clerics who also speak out against Christians?

Yes. This past Friday, one of the sheikhs at a mosque was speaking in a threatening way about Christians. He said that Muslim youths should not imitate Christian youths, and should not wish them well at Christmas. He also said that Muslims should not be doing business with Christians. The sheikh said some highly intimidating things about Christians.


Did the Christians protest against this incitement by the sheikh?

My cousin, who is a retired officer with the Palestinian Authority Intelligence Security Department, published something about the Friday sermon on Facebook. The following day he had to delete the post because it seems he received threats or something like that. When I told my cousin that I will talk with the Palestinian Authority attorney-general about it, he asked me not to talk to anyone. My cousin said, 'Please don't talk about this matter because we are 40 Christian families in that area (where the sheikh lives). It is clear to me that my cousin did receive threats, although he would not admit to it.


How would you describe relations between Christians and Muslims in the Bethlehem area?

Objectively speaking, there are millions of Muslims who are good people. I have many close Muslim friends whom I consider as my brothers. The problem is not Muslims. The real problem is radical Islam. In the Quran, there are various kinds of statements, and every Muslim, depending on his belief and attitude, selects what suits him. Some verses call for peace and describe Christians as the 'People of the Book' and good people. There are also verses that describe us as infidels and sinful folks. Everyone chooses what appeals to him. According to my humble knowledge, these verses are undated. I think that if they were dated, the fresh ones would supersede the old ones.


My understanding is that you have personally been the target of threats and violent attacks. Can you elaborate?

Yes, I have faced a great deal of harassment, and in 2006 I was even attacked with Molotov cocktails. Also, fliers that spoke against me have been distributed.


What is the main accusation against you? Why are some Muslims angry with you?

When I saw that there was encroachment on Christian-owned land here, I protested against it.


Is it true that Muslims have been illegally laying their hands on Christian property in Bethlehem?

We have a mafia here that is seizing Christian-owned lands. I protested against this Muslim mafia, and I even called a large gathering. I invited 80 people to my home. They included the elite of society – Muslims and Christians. They all joined my protest. That same night, fliers were distributed in Bethlehem threatening to kill me.


What has the Palestinian Authority done to help against you fight this mafia?

There are still many unresolved cases with regards to land encroachment. These cases are in the courts, but our judicial system is very slow. If you go to court, you have to wait 15-20 years. Recently, we have noticed that the encroachments decreased immensely because we have been talking to the Palestinian Authority and pressing them about the problem. Today, there are only a few cases like this taking place. We want all these cases to be solved.


Is there discrimination against Christians living under the Palestinian Authority?

One cannot say that there is official discrimination. President Abbas attends Christmas midnight mass, his prime minister attends the lighting of the Christmas tree. Still, I can simply say that among our people you will find some who harbor radical extremist thoughts. ISIS is a thought. There are Christians working in the Palestinian Authority, but not many. We have Christian mayors, and that is how it should be. Bethlehem, Bet Sahour and Bet Jala have Christian mayors, although some have been demanding that this be changed because Christians are a minority. Fortunately for us, the Palestinian Authority did not respond to these demands.


Do you believe that Christian leaders are doing enough to defend the interests of their people?

Frankly, I do not want the day to come when the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Nativity are turned into museums. Rather, I wish to seize this opportunity hope that it will encourage our leaders to tackle the problem and find a solution. Any Christian businessman who is interested in the general issue of Christians should come and invest here. We want them to build projects, including housing projects. We are also hoping that these projects will provide jobs for young Christians. The biggest problem we are facing is Christian emigration. Some Christians are helping, but this is being done on a very limited scale. But I cannot say that Christian patriarchates are doing their best. Some of them are far from the congregation and do not even care about us. We want wealthy Christians to come here and create project initiatives. It is not enough to say 'I love the Christians and I care about them.' This love should be demonstrated through deeds.


Are you worried about the growing number of Christians who are leaving the West Bank and Gaza Strip?

Once, 5,000 Christians lived in the Gaza Strip. When Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2006, Christians began to be harassed and discriminated against. Today, only 1,100 Christians live there. In the Bethlehem area, there are about 40,000 Christians. Altogether, there are about 42,000 Christians remaining in the West Bank. There are two reasons behind the dwindling figures. The first of these is the ongoing emigration, which is a nightmare for us; the second is the low birth rate among Christian families. To understand the severity of the situation is, let us recall that in the 1950s about 86% of the population of the Bethlehem area was Christian. Today, we are only 12%. In Israel, by contrast, we have 133,000 Christians and the figure is stable. Of course, I am worried about the future of Christians here. Looking at the facts on the ground, you can see that there is no future for the Christians here. We are melting; we are disappearing. I fear the day will come when our churches will become museums. That is my nightmare.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.

• Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on Twitter

====================

Giulio Meotti : Islamists Attack Christmas, but Europeans Abolish It

Islamists Attack Christmas, but Europeans Abolish It

by Giulio Meotti
December 25, 2016 at 5:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9637/europe-christmas-islamists

• A statue of the Virgin Mary was ordered taken away by a court in the French municipality of Publier. Senator Nathalie Goulet slammed the judges as "ayatollahs of secularism".
• A German school in Turkey just banned Christmas celebrations: the school, Istanbul Lisesi, funded by the German government, decided that Christmas traditions and carol-singing would no longer be allowed. A Woolworth's store in Germany scrapped Christmas decorations telling customers that the shop "is now Muslim".
• Europe is already mutilating her own traditions "to avoid offending Muslims". We have become our own biggest enemy.
• Muslims are also reclaiming "the mosque of Cordoba". Authorities in the southern Spanish city recently dealt a blow to the Catholic Church's claim of ownership of the cathedral. Now Islamists want it back.
• The final result of Europe's self-destructive secularism could seriously be a Caliphate.

"Everything is Christian", Jean-Paul Sartre wrote after the war. Two thousand years of Christianity have left a deep mark on the French language, landscape and culture. But not according to France's Minister of Education, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. She just announced that instead of saying "Merry Christmas", state officials should use "Happy Holidays" -- clearly a deliberate intent to erase from discourse and the public space any reference to the Christian culture in which France is rooted.

Jean-François Chemain called it the "eradication of any Christian sign in the public landscape". A year ago, the controversy was ignited in the French town of Ploermel, where a court decided that the statue of Pope John Paul II, erected in a square, had to be removed for violating "secularism".

Then, a statue of the Virgin Mary was ordered taken away by a court in the municipality of Publier. Senator Nathalie Goulet slammed the judges as "ayatollahs of secularism".

The newspapers of the French "left", outraged by the "right's" ban on burkinis on the French Riviera, have been endorsing this anti-Christian policy.

France's Council of State has just ruled that "the temporary installation of cribs [nativity scenes] in a public place is legal if it has a cultural, artistic or festive value, but not if it expresses the recognition of a cult or a religious preference". What precautions to justify a millenary tradition!

In the town of Scaer, a nursing home has been the subject of a similar secularist complaint, for the presence of a fresco of the Virgin Mary. Then, it was the turn of the manger in the train station of Villefranche-de-Rouergue, in Aveyron. In the town of Boissettes, the church bells have been muted by court decision.

Fortunately, some ideas from the Observatory of Secularism -- the organ established by President François Hollande to coordinate his neo-secularist policies -- have not been implemented. One proposed even to eliminate some Christian national holidays to make room for the Islamic, Jewish and secular holidays.
President Hollande, on the occasion of Easter, "forgot" to express holiday wishes to the Christians of France. But a few months before, Hollande had extended his best wishes to the Muslims during the feast of Eid, which closes Ramadan. "Hollande's greeting to Muslims is opportunistic and political. For the Socialist Party, it is a crucial electoral clientele", said the French philosopher Gerard Leclerc in the newspaper, Le Figaro.

This Christianophobia is the Trojan Horse of Islam. As Charles Consigny writes in the weekly Le Point, "Through this tabula rasa of the past, France will make a clean sweep of its future". Unfortunately, France is not an isolated case. Everywhere in Europe, a weary, secularist absence of purpose and confused values damns Christianity in favor of Islam.

A jihadist terrorist, targeting a symbol of Christian tradition, last week slaughtered 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin. But Europe is already mutilating her own traditions "to avoid offending Muslims". We have become our own biggest enemy.
The annual candlelit Saint Lucia ("Sankta Lucia") procession, a Swedish Christian tradition celebrated for hundreds of years, is "dying" out. Uddevalla, Södertälje, Koping, Umeå, and Ystad are among the growing numbers of cities no longer holding this lovely cultural event. According to Jonas Engman, an ethnologist at the Nordic Museum, the declining interest in the St. Lucia procession accompanies a more general alienation from the culture of Christian Sweden. A study conducted by Gallup International reveals that in observing the Christian religion, Sweden is "the least religious in the West". In the meantime, with a young, strong, driven sense of purpose and a set of sharia values, Islam is growing.

A German school in Turkey just banned Christmas celebrations. The school, Istanbul Lisesi, funded by the German government, decided that Christmas traditions and carol-singing would no longer be permitted. The Washington Post summarized the decision: "No teaching of Christmas customs, no celebrations and no Christmas caroling". It is not an isolated incident. A Woolworth's store in Germany also scrapped Christmas decorations, telling customers that the shop "is now Muslim".

In Britain, David Isaac, the new head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), told employers that they should not suppress Christian tradition out of fear of offending anyone. Previously, Dame Louise Casey, the British government's integration "tsar", warned that "traditions such as Christmas celebrations will die out unless people stand up for British values".

In many Spanish towns, such as Cenicientos, the municipality of this Autonomous Community of Madrid removed the Christian Stations of the Cross. Then, Madrid's mayor, Manuela Carmena, decided to remove the city's traditional Nativity display at the Puerta de Alcalá.

Muslims are also reclaiming "the mosque of Cordoba". Authorities in the southern Spanish city recently dealt a blow to the claim of ownership of the cathedral by the Catholic Church. Built on the site of Saint Vincent's church, it then served as a mosque for over 400 years when Islamic Spain was part of a caliphate, before the Christian kingdom of Castile conquered the city and converted it again into a church. Now Islamists want it back.

Muslims are also reclaiming "the mosque of Cordoba". Authorities in the southern Spanish city recently dealt a blow to the claim of ownership of the cathedral by the Catholic Church. Built on the site of Saint Vincent's church, it then served as a mosque for over 400 years when Islamic Spain was part of a caliphate, before the Christian kingdom of Castile conquered the city and converted it again into a church. (Image source: James Gordon/Wikimedia Commons)

Belgium, the most Islamized democracy in Europe, is also purging its Christian heritage. The Nativity, the traditional manger scene, has not been put up in the Belgian town of Holsbeek, just outside Brussels. Claims were scenes it was scrapped to "avoid offending Muslims".

As reported by the newspaper La Libre, school calendars within Belgium's French speaking community are also using a new secularized terminology: All Saints Day (Congés de Toussaint) is now be referred to as Autumn Leave (Congé d'automne); Christmas Vacation (Vacances de Noël) is now Winter Vacation (Vacances d'hiver); Lenten Vacation (Congés de Carnaval) is now Rest and Relaxation Leave (Congé de détente); and Easter (Vacances de Pâques) is now Spring Vacation (Vacances de Printemps). Then Belgium installed an abstract, de-Christianized Christmas tree in the capital, Brussels.

In the Netherlands, the Christian tradition of Black Pete is under attack and it will soon be abolished. In Italy, Catholic priests this year canceled Christmas to "avoid offending Muslims".

The final result of Europe's self-destructive secularism could seriously be a Caliphate, in which the fate of its ancient and beautiful churches recapitulates those in Constantinople, where the Hagia Sophia, for thousand years Christianity's greatest cathedral, was recently turned into a mosque.
The muezzin's call now reverberates inside this Christian landmark for the first time in 85 years.
Islamic terrorists targeted Christmas in Berlin, but it is the Christian secularists who are abolishing it all over Europe.

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.

=================

Guy Millière : The Suicide of Germany

The Suicide of Germany

by Guy Millière
December 26, 2016 at 6:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9645/germany-suicide

• Of the 1.2 million migrants who arrived in Germany in 2014 and 2015, only 34,000 found work.
• Angela Merkel went to lay white roses at the scene of the Christmas market attack in Berlin. Thousands of Germans did the same. Many brought candles and cried. But anger and the will to combat the threat remained largely absent.
• Nothing better describes the present state of Germany than the sad fate of Maria Landenburger, a 19-year-old girl, murdered at the beginning of December. A member of a refugee relief organization, Landenburger was among those who welcomed migrants in 2015. She was raped and murdered by one of the people she was helping. Her family asked anyone who wanted to pay tribute to their daughter to give money to refugee associations, so that more refugees could come to Germany.
• The law that condemns incitement to hatred, presumably intended to prevent a return to Nazi ideas, is held like a sword over whoever speaks too harshly of the growing Islamization of the country.
• The great majority of the Germans do not want to see that Germany is at war, because a merciless enemy has declared war on them. They do not want to see that war has been declared on Western civilization. They accept defeat and docilely do what jihadists want them to do: they submit.
• If Angela Merkel does not see the difference between Jews exterminated by the Nazis, and Muslims threatening to exterminate Christians, Jews and other Muslims, she is even more clueless than it seems.

The attack in Berlin on December 19, 2016 was predictable. German Chancellor Angela Merkel created the conditions that made it possible. She bears an overwhelming responsibility. Geert Wilders, a member of Parliament in the Netherlands and one of Europe's only clear-sighted political leaders, accused her of having blood on her hands. He is right.

When she decided to open the doors of Germany to hundreds of thousands of Muslims from the Middle East and more distant countries, she must have known that jihadists were hidden among the people flooding in. She also must have known that the German police had no way of controlling the mass that entered and would be quickly overwhelmed by the number of people it would have to control. She did it anyway.

When hundreds of rapes and sexual assaults took place in Cologne and other cities in Germany on last year's New Year's Eve, she said that the perpetrators should be punished "regardless of their origin", but she did not change her policy. When attacks took place in Hanover, Essen, Wurzburg, and Munich, she delayed comments, then pronounced sanitized sentences on the "need" to fight crime and terror. But she still did not change policy.

She only changed her position recently, it seems because she wants to be a candidate again in 2017, and saw her popularity declining.

The comments she made immediately after the December 19 attacks were mind-numbing. She said that "if the perpetrator is a refugee", it will be "very difficult to bear" and it will be "particularly repugnant for all Germans who help refugees on a daily basis."

Such remarks could be considered simply naïve if someone were not informed, but Angela Merkel does not have that excuse. She could not ignore warnings from German and U.S. intelligence services saying that Islamic State terrorists hiding among refugees were planning to use trucks in Christmas-related attacks. The situation endured by Germans has been extremely difficult to bear for more than a year.

Crime had "skyrocketed"; diseases extinct for decades have been brought in with no vaccines -- long since discontinued -- to treat them; second homes are seized by the government without compensation to shelter migrants, and so on. It did not take long to discover that the main suspect in the Berlin attack was an asylum seeker living in a refugee shelter.
In another country, Merkel might have been shamed into resigning; in Germany, she is running for re-election.

The German population is aged and the birthrate is dangerously low: 1.38 children per woman. The immigrants are replacing the German population, which has been disappearing little by little. The Germans who pass away are the Christians or, more often, non-religious secularists. As everywhere in Europe, Christianity is disappearing; the immigrants replacing the Germans are Muslim.

The German economy is still strong but running out of steam. Returns on invested capital are declining. At a time when human capital is the main source of profits, German human capital is collapsing: people from underdeveloped countries cannot easily replace highly educated Germans. Most do not have marketable skills; newcomers remain long unemployed and dependent. Of the 1.2 million migrants who arrived in Germany in 2014 and 2015, only 34,000 found work. If the unemployment rate is low, it is because there is a growing shortage of labor: today 61% Germans are between 20 and 64 years old. It is expected that by mid-century, the figure will fall to 41%.

Politically correct propaganda speeches that are inexhaustibly broadcast in Germany -- as in the rest of Europe -- never speak of demography. Instead, they refute any evidence that the German economy is not doing well. They also say that Islam and Christianity are equivalent; they are obstinately blind to the fact that Islam is more than a religion: it is a political, economic, and moral system that encompasses all aspects of life, and has never coexisted long or peacefully in a culture different from it. These speeches almost totally ignore the rise of radical Islam and jihadist terrorism; instead, they argue that radical Islam is a marginal cult, and that jihadist terrorism only recruits lone wolves or the mentally ill. Above all, they constantly repeat that any criticism of migration or Islam is ignominious and racist.

The German population is intimidated with fear, both by the antisocial behavior of many migrants and by the speech police of their own governments. Many Germans do not even dare to speak. Those who use public transportation resign themselves to insults. They bend their head and run for refuge to their homes. Attendance in restaurants and theaters is falling sharply. Women have become resigned to wearing "modest" outfits and are careful to not go out alone. Protests organized by Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) have never attracted more than a few thousand people after a photograph of its founder was released in which he was styled as Hitler.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which calls for a halt to Muslim immigration to Germany and keeps on winning more votes, nevertheless remains a minority party. The law that condemns incitement to hatred (Volksverhetzung), presumably intended to prevent a return to Nazi ideas, is held like a sword over whoever speaks too harshly of the growing Islamization of the country.

On December 20, Angela Merkel went to lay white roses at the scene of the Christmas market attack. Thousands of Germans did the same. Many brought candles and cried. But anger and the will to combat the threat remained largely absent. After a few weeks, the page will be turned -- until next time.

Nothing better describes the present state of Germany than the sad fate of Maria Landenburger, a nineteen-year-old girl, murdered at the beginning of December. Maria Landenburger, a member of a refugee relief organization, was among those who welcomed migrants in 2015. She was raped and murdered by one of the people she was helping. Her family asked anyone who wanted to pay tribute to their daughter to give money to refugee associations, so that more refugees could come to Germany.

The great majority of the Germans do not want to see that Germany is at war, because a merciless enemy has declared war on them. They do not want to see that war has been declared on Western civilization.

They accept defeat and docilely do what jihadists want them to do: they submit.
In analyzing the December 19 attack on the Christmas market, German journalist Josef Joffe, editor of Die Zeit, explained Angela Merkel's decision to welcome refugees as "an act of atonement" and a way to welcome a threatened population, seven decades after the Holocaust. He also explained the passivity of many Germans by a feeling of collective guilt.

If Joffe is right, if Angela Merkel does not see the difference between Jews exterminated by the Nazis, and Muslims threatening to exterminate Christians, Jews and other Muslims, she is even more clueless than it seems.

If many Germans are filled with collective guilt to the point that they want to compensate for what Germany did to the Jews by welcoming hundreds of thousands of Muslims many of whom openly state that they want to replace Germany's Judeo-Christian culture with Islam, and who are replacing its Christian population with a Muslim one -- that will include ruthless killers in its ranks -- it shows that Germans today either detest themselves so much that they desire their own destruction, or that they have simply lost their will to stand up for what they care about -- an act otherwise known as surrender.

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

==================

Majid Rafizadeh : Iran's Monstrous Record in 2016

Iran's Monstrous Record in 2016

by Majid Rafizadeh
December 27, 2016 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9621/iran-monstrous-record

• Tehran has not become a rational and moderate state. Iran has instead become more empowered and emboldened to pursue its revolutionary ideals of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
• When it comes to the JCPOA nuclear deal -- which Iran never signed -- Iranian leaders violated the deal three times in the past year.
• UN Security Council resolution 2231 is clear. The resolution "calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."
• Iran also increased strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to undermine US interests, strengthening the Russia-China-Iran axis.
• Iran ranks top in the world for executions per capita. Iran also became the world's leading executioner of juveniles.

In 2016, Iran reached an unprecedented level when it comes to breaking international laws. It expanded interventionist policies in the region; pursued revolutionary principles of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism; ignored several UN resolutions and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between the P5+1 and Tehran, which Iran never signed; continued regional hegemonic ambitions, and abused human rights.
With billions of dollars of revenue pouring into the pockets of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Tehran did not become a rational and moderate state. Iran instead became more empowered and emboldened to pursue its revolutionary ideals of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
Iran was listed as the top state sponsor of terrorism -- "providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world."
When it comes to the JCPOA nuclear deal -- which Iran never signed -- Iranian leaders violated the deal three times.
The first violation was reported by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in July 2016. The agency stated that the Iranian government was pursuing a "clandestine" path to obtain illicit nuclear technology and equipment from German companies "at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level." German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Iran, but no action was taken.
According to the nuclear deal, Iran should request permission from a UN Security Council panel for "purchases of nuclear direct-use goods", but Tehran did not. Another report by the Institute for Science and International Security drew attention to Iran's violation as well:

"The Institute for Science and International Security has learned that Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) recently made an attempt to purchase tons of controlled carbon fiber from a country. This attempt occurred after Implementation Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The attempt to acquire carbon fiber was denied by the supplier and its government. Nonetheless, the AEOI had enough carbon fiber to replace existing advanced centrifuge rotors and had no need for additional quantities over the next several years, let alone for tons of carbon fiber. This attempt thus raises concerns over whether Iran intends to abide by its JCPOA commitments. In particular, Iran may seek to stockpile the carbon fiber so as to be able to build advanced centrifuge rotors far beyond its current needs under the JCPOA, providing an advantage that would allow it to quickly build an advanced centrifuge enrichment plant if it chose to leave or disregard the JCPOA during the next few years. The carbon fiber procurement attempt is also another example of efforts by the P5+1 to keep secret problematic Iranian actions."

The next violation came in February 2016 as Iran exceeded its threshold for heavy water, used to produce nuclear weapons. In addition, in November 2016, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran again violated the deal by holding more heavy water than permitted. Iran was let go free both times with no consequences.
Third, when it comes violating several UN resolutions, in 2016, Iran significantly ratcheted up its production of ballistic missiles.
Iran test-fired at least eight ballistic missiles, capable of carrying multiple nuclear heads, an act in violation of the nuclear deal, as well as United Nations resolutions 1929 and 2231.

The JCPOA states that Iran should not undertake any ballistic missile activity "until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier."
The UN Security Council resolution (Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231 of 2015) is clear. The resolution "calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."
Another UN Security Council resolution, 1929, also states:

"Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology, and that States shall take all necessary measures to prevent the transfer of technology or technical assistance to Iran related to such activities."

It is accurate to argue that if not for the Obama Administration's appeasement policies towards Iran, Tehran would not have received tremendous financial relief. Nevertheless, Iran's Supreme leader Khamenei who enjoys the final say in Iran's domestic and foreign policy, instigated more anti-American sentiments and continued lashing out at the "Great Satan". Iran publicly harassed the US Navy, detained US sailors, and imprisoned several American citizens. Khamenei also repeatedly threatened Israel and made incendiary remarks about wiping Israel from the face of earth in less than 8 minutes. In December 2016, Khamenei stated that Israel would not exist in 25 years. He also published a book laying out a plan on how to destroy Israel.

Regionally speaking, as Tehran became more heavily armed with additional revenues and weaponry, it has increased its military interventions in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and intensified its advisory, financial, weapons and intelligence assistance to its Shiite proxies and Bashar al Assad, bolstering the "Shia axis". Iran also increased strategic and tactical cooperation with Russia to undermine US interests, strengthening the Russia-China-Iran axis.

Finally, and more fundamentally, when it comes to human rights, Iran set some of the worst records since its establishment in 1979. According to the Human Rights Watch, 2016 saw Iran escalating the mass executions of minorities, and the imprisonment of human rights and political activists. Now, Iran ranks top in the world for executions per capita. Iran also became the world's leading executioner of juveniles, according to Amnesty International.
These are only some examples of Iran's disregard for international laws and its human rights abuses.

There is definitely a positive correlation between, on the one hand, Iran gaining more dollars and, on the other hand, breaching international laws, committing egregious human rights violations, spreading its revolutionary values of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, destabilizing the region, intensifying regional conflicts and humanitarian tragedies, and pursing its regional ambitions.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, political scientists and Harvard University scholar is president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He can be reached at Dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on Twitter

=======================

Nima Gholam : The Islamists of Sweden

The Islamists of Sweden

by Nima Gholam Ali Pour
December 28, 2016 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9603/sweden-islamists

• It seems clear that Muslim civil society in Sweden has an ideological direction that is close to the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology, while they criticize the laws and measures that prevent Islamic terrorism.
• The Islamic Association of Sweden (IFIS) writes on their website that they are members of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE). There are strong links between FIOE and the Muslim Brotherhood. When the United Arab Emirates decided to list the Muslim Brotherhood and all branches of the movement as terrorists, they also listed IFIS as terrorists.
• The strength of the political influence of Sweden's Muslim civil society is evidenced by a 1999 agreement between the Muslim Council of Sweden and the Social Democrat party, that "Muslims' participation in social democracy will evolve so that: in 2002 there should be among social democratic elected representatives Muslims in 15 municipal lists, 5 county lists and on the parliamentary lists in at least five counties."
• When a debate started in 2014 on making it illegal for Swedish citizens to travel to other countries to participate in jihad, the Muslim Human Rights Committee claimed that such a law would be racist. Furthermore, they argued that people who fought in jihad abroad were not even a threat against Sweden.
• The greatest threat from Islamism comes not from the suicide bombers who carry out spectacular attacks, but from Islamists quietly infiltrating our democratic institutions and normalizing their ideas among us. It is a threat that must be recognized and addressed.

In Sweden, there are a number of Muslim organizations that together constitute what is known as "Muslim civil society" (Muslimska civilsamhället). What is important, when discussing Muslim civil society in Sweden, is their political influence, their ideology and their structure.

IFIS

One of the most important organizations in Sweden's Muslim civil society is the Islamic Association of Sweden (Islamiska Förbundet i Sverige -- IFIS), established in 1981. Some of the goals of IFIS, which you can read about on their website, are to "influence and form opinions on issues that concern the Muslim group and its interests in Sweden" and "increase participation, influence and representation of Muslims in public institutions and bodies". In other words, IFIS works as a lobby organization for Muslims in Sweden.
It is a lobby organization that has been successful.
Former IFIS chairman Abdirizak Waberi represented the second largest party, the Moderate Party, in parliament between 2010 and 2014, when this party was in government. When Waberi sat in parliament, he was a member of the defense committee, which decides the policies for the Swedish Armed Forces.
Waberi's time in parliament was a remarkable experience for many Swedes. In several interviews before 2010, Waberi said he believed in a literal interpretation of the Koran. In an interview from 2006, he supported the idea that men could have four wives. In another interview from 2009, he said that he does not shake the hand of a woman; that men and women should not dance with each other, and that he would rather live in a country with Islamic sharia law. After these interviews, clearly revealing that Waberi is an Islamist, and that he got to represent Sweden's second-largest party in parliament, apparently without Swedish media or anyone else providing scrutiny over his past statements.
Omar Mustafa, who took over as chairman of IFIS in 2011, after Waberi, was elected to the leadership of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) in April 2013. Mustafa's election into the leadership of Sweden's largest party triggered a reaction in which the media actually started to write about IFIS operations. The media reported that shortly before Mustafa was elected to the SAP leadership, IFIS had organized a conference in Stockholm, where it had invited speakers with anti-Semitic views. When the media began to examine IFIS's operations more closely, Omar Mustafa was forced to resign from the Social Democratic leadership.
Despite the scandal around Omar Mustafa, IFIS continues to have a close relationship with both the largest party, the Social Democrats and the second largest party, the Moderate Party.

Mehmet Kaplan and "Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice"

Mehmet Kaplan is an example of how a person with origins in Muslim civil society can climb up into the Swedish government. Kaplan was secretary of the Swedish Young Muslims (Sveriges Unga Muslimer -- SUM) between the years of 1996-2000. Then he became the chairman of this organization, until 2002. Between 2005 and 2006, Kaplan was the press secretary for the Muslim Council of Sweden (Sveriges Muslimska Råd). In 2008, Kaplan founded the organization Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice (Svenska Muslimer för Fred och Rättvisa -- SMFR).
Kaplan was a member of the Green Party's leadership between 2003 and 2011. He represented the Green Party in parliament between 2006 and 2014. Between 2014 and 2016, Kaplan was Sweden's Minister of Housing.
After "alternative" media outlets in Sweden started writing about Kaplan's dealings with various kinds of extremists, the Swedish mainstream media started to examine Kaplan. In 2014, Kaplan had already been criticized for having compared the Swedish jihadists who travel to Syria to join groups such as ISIS, with the Swedes who had gone to Finland during WWII to defend Finland from the Soviet military aggression.
When the media began to examine Kaplan, it emerged that in the summer of 2015, he had participated at a dinner where the leader of the fascist Turkish organization, the Grey Wolves, was in attendance. The media also found that Kaplan for several years had held meeting with the Islamist organization, Milli Görüs. It then emerged that Kaplan in 2009 compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians with the Nazis' treatment of Jews.

Mehmet Kaplan was a minister in Sweden's government until April 2016, when he was forced to resign after revelations that he compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to that of the German Nazis' treatment of Jews. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons/Jan Ainali)

Kaplan also sat for several years on the board of an organization called Charta 2008, which defends dangerous jihadists and criticizes the war against terrorism.
When Mehmet Kaplan founded Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice (SMFR) in 2008, its "vision statement" stated:

"If you want to participate and influence the development of society, it is inevitable to become politically involved. Everything that is connected to power is ultimately linked to politics. Without power, it is not possible to create change. As an individual, organization and society, active players constantly seek power to get through various forms of changes, push through solutions to various societal problems, as well as the ability to express themselves about, as well as define, various societal challenges. One of SMFR's goal is to gain power to change the world for the better."

This "better" world is an Islamic world. In the same "vision statement", SMFR writes:

"Islam should be the starting point for SMFR's operations. It is on the basis of Islam where the main inspiration, commitment, drive, motivation, guidance and values will come from."

SMFR embodies its goal by writing in its program that Islam should be a natural part of Europe's cultural heritage. SMFR wants to work for a Swedish Muslim culture. In other words, SMFR works for the Islamization of Europe and Sweden.
SMFR is actively trying to realize their vision. The organization's spokesperson and secretary-general, Yasri Khan, was nominated for the Green Party leadership and would certainly have been elected into the leadership, before a journalist in April 2016 revealed that Yasri Khan did not shake hands with women.
Members of the Green Party, which sits in the government of Sweden, apparently knew Yasri Khan refused to shake hands with women, and yet they were helping to elect him into the party leadership. The Green Party spokesman and Sweden's Minister for Education, Gustav Fridolin, told the media:

"I knew about it. I had not realized how offensive some women think that it can be."

Fridolin's former press secretary is a woman named Anwahr Athahb. Only two years before Athahb became Fridolin's press secretary, she had been elected to the vice-chairmanship of SMFR. Before that, she was the secretary of the organization. In 2014, Athahb was one of the Green Party's leading candidates for the European Parliament. Her campaign-slogan was "The EU needs more Muslim women in Parliament".
Today, Athahb works at an Arabic talk show on Sveriges Radio, Sweden's national public taxpayer-funded radio broadcaster.
Muslim civil society's political influence is great, reaches all the way up to the government, and that it exists in almost all major parties in Sweden.
Because there are so many examples of Muslim civil society's political influence, it is not possible to include all examples in this article. But a final example may clarify how strong this influence is. Already in 1999, the Muslim Council of Sweden (SMR) signed an agreement with Sweden's Social Democrat party that:

"In the coming term, Muslims' participation in social democracy will evolve so that: in 2002 there should be among social democratic elected representatives Muslims in 15 municipal lists, 5 county lists and on the parliamentary lists in at least five counties."

There are few lobbying organizations that can get the largest party in Sweden to sign an agreement with such clear and concrete promises.

Ideology

The Islamic Association of Sweden (IFIS) writes on their website that they are members of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE). There are strong links between FIOE and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Besides IFIS's links to the Muslim Brotherhood through FIOE, IFIS often shows sympathy and support for the Muslim Brotherhood. In August 2013, IFIS held demonstrations in Stockholm in support of Egypt's former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who had been deposed. The entire Muslim civil society in Sweden criticized the military coup against Morsi. Yet, the same Muslim civil society never criticizes the Islamist regimes in Iran and Saudi Arabia. When the United Arab Emirates decided to list the Muslim Brotherhood and all branches of the movement as terrorists, they also listed IFIS as terrorists, because the authorities in the UAE assessed that this organization in Sweden was part of the international network of the Muslim Brotherhood.
When a debate started in 2014 on making it illegal for Swedish citizens to travel to other countries to participate in jihad, the Muslim Human Rights Committee (Muslimska Mänskliga Rättighetskommittén), one of the organizations within Swedish Muslim civil society, claimed that such a law would be racist. Furthermore, they argued that people who fought in jihad abroad were not even a threat against Sweden.
So when it comes to ideology, it seems clear that Muslim civil society in Sweden has an ideological direction that is close to the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology, while they criticize the laws and measures that prevent Islamic terrorism.

Structure

To understand the structure of Muslim civil society in Sweden, we need to look at Kapellgränd 10, in Stockholm, the official address for at least 15 different Muslim organizations, including the Stockholm Mosque. Muslim organizations such as IFIS, the European Muslim Rights Council, the Forum for Young Muslims, Sweden's Imam Council, the Ibn Rushd Educational Association and the Swedish Muslim Scouts, use this same address for their organizations. The bulk of Muslim civil society in Sweden is controlled from Kapellgränd 10. Thus, the structure of Muslim civil society appears quite centralized.
The centralization of Muslim civil society can also be seen in that a few people sit in the leading positions of different Muslim organizations. If, for example, you take the organization, Ibn Rushd, which is an Islamic educational association in Sweden, its chairman is Helena Hummasten, who was chairman of the Muslim Council of Sweden until 2014. The principal of Ibn Rushd is Omar Mustafa, who was chairman of IFIS until 2016. The development manager of Ibn Rushd is Mustafa Tumturk, who is also a board member of the Muslim Council of Sweden. Mohammed Fateh Atia, who is responsible for digital development in Ibn Rushd, has also been vice-chairman of the Swedish Young Muslims (SUM). These are just a few examples of how a handful of people have strategic roles in several organizations in Sweden's Muslim civil society.

Conclusions

Conclusions that can be drawn about Muslim civil society in Sweden include:

• Muslim civil society has significant influence in almost all major Swedish political parties.
• Muslim civil society's influence is strong enough that one of their representatives was a government minister.
• Muslim civil society in Sweden is an Islamist movement with organizational and ideological links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
• Muslim civil society consists, on paper, of several organizations but in practice, it operates as a single organization in which a few people have the leading roles.

We have been talking mostly about Islamism as something foreign, not among us in the Western world. But the influence of Islamists, or extremist Muslims, in a Western country such as Sweden is large; there have been Islamists in the Swedish government and parliament, without the media or establishment even reacting.
The greatest threat from Islamism comes not from the suicide bombers who carry out spectacular attacks, but from Islamists quietly infiltrating our democratic institutions and normalizing their ideas among us. It is a threat that must be recognized and addressed.

Nima Gholam Ali Pour is a member of the board of education in the Swedish city of Malmö and is engaged in several Swedish think tanks concerned with the Middle East. He is also editor for the social conservative website Situation Malmö. Gholam Ali Pour is the author of the Swedish book "Därför är mångkultur förtryck"("Why multiculturalism is oppression").

• Follow Nima Gholam Ali Pour on Twitter and Facebook

==================

Douglas Murray : On Campus: Minority Priorities

On Campus: Minority Priorities

by Douglas Murray
April 4, 2017 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10144/campus-minority-priorities

• Like so many leaflets before them, these talked about the scourge of "privilege". And whom did these pamphlets identify as the people with the most privilege?
• At present, the people who preach tolerance in America and Canada are turning out to be the least tolerant.
• And the people who complain of discrimination turn out to be leading practitioners of the oldest discrimination of all.

The free speech wars on North American campuses appear to have arrived at their inevitable endpoint. For years, American and Canadian students have played around with a new form of morality in education. It is based not on a traditional concept of searching for truth or investigating and analysing ideas, but rather on the concept that the veracity of an opinion can be discerned by the person uttering it.
In this way, a considerable number of people have apparently decided that a variety of "privileges" exist that make some speakers vital to listen to and others unnecessary, unless they agree to mouth a set of pre-ordained platitudes.

This concept, coupled with the idea that minorities require special protection from speech, have now finally delivered the moral breakdown that was always waiting for it. The warning signs have been there for years.

In 2010, the former editor of the left-wing magazine The New Republic, Martin Peretz, arrived to speak at Harvard University. There he was greeted by a group of around a hundred students and others who decided to shout at him as he arrived at their campus. They decided to greet him with chants of "Hey hey, ho ho, Marty Peretz has got to go." And so, a generation of American students who can have had little, if any, knowledge of Peretz's career or left-wing interests, chose to name him a racist and be done with him.

Being Jewish, a minority group, certainly did not offer any protection, and may indeed have harmed his cause; it already seemed that there were ordering-systems at work in the business of minority priorities.

By the time, then, that the British-born Milo Yiannopoulos was touring American campuses in 2016-17, protest movements were busily trying to work out precisely what orders of persecuted minorities should exist. As Yiannopoulos is openly gay, there was a slight queasiness about shutting him down -- at first. People who are members of at least one minority group have a certain protected status, and as such a certain inevitably about ranking develops. But just as you can be marked up, you can be marked down. Yiannopoulos may be gay, but he has been rude about aspects of transsexualism. That view at least evened things out. However, his tendency to criticise Islam and Muslims moved him lower -- indeed right down to the lowest level, that of white heterosexual male.

Activist and writer Milo Yiannopoulos, who is gay but has been rude about aspects of transsexualism, was supposed to speak at the University of California, Berkeley on February 1. That evening, a mob of 150 people, who opposed to Yiannopoulos' presence, proceeded to riot, smash and set fire to the campus, causing more than $100,000 of damage. (Image source: RT video screenshot)

As though to prove that it was not just "provocateurs" who now incur the wrath of the Stepford students, this year, the distinguished sociologist Charles Murray (no relation) was due to speak at Middlebury College. The college authorities had warned students that while protests would be allowed, any attempts to disrupt the lecture would be looked at in a very different light.

Murray was due to address the themes of his 2012 book, Coming Apart, a seminal analysis of the social bifurcation and sense of being "left behind" that led to last year's election results in America.

Students at a liberal college could ordinarily do with hearing someone explain the social forces that are pulling them and the rest of the country apart from each other.

But the students of Middlebury evidently decided that they did not need to hear this. Instead of simply staying away from the lecture, they chose to embed those divisions. Dozens of the students at Middlebury decided, it seems, that Murray was a racist. They had also decided, for reasons which nobody even bothered to explain, that he was "anti-gay".

So, before and during Murray's thwarted attempt to give a lecture, they bawled and chanted, among other things, a variant of the national anthem of modern North American campuses: "Hey hey, ho ho, Charles Murray has got to go."
Later the same month, it was the Canadian professor and psychologist Jordan Peterson's turn. He was meant to be lecturing at McMaster University. But students crowded around the front and sides of the lecture hall as he attempted, in his learned and professorial way, to enlighten the students on a variety of issues. Disruptive students, however, had apparently decided that Peterson was "anti-trans", among other things. So they let off sirens and banged tins and repeatedly shouted, "Shut this down. Shut this down."

Peterson is, it seems to have been decided, meant to be a person of privilege; trans people are meant to be part of a persecuted minority.
Once again, therefore, the disruption and intimidation were portrayed to seem justified.

As at Middlebury, the college authorities seemed to have no desire to discipline students who know so little of true liberalism that they should ordinarily have no place at an institution of learning. But of course, at these institutions, as at so many before them, the adults appear to have vacated the campus.
Students who want to protect their ears from white men telling them anything with which they do not already agree may cause these ugly and totalitarian scenes. They do not occur, notably, when truly ugly and totalitarian views emerge.
Although students up and down the land claim that words wound and even kill when they come from people who have never wounded or killed anyone, it seems that these or other students remain silent when, for example, a former Black Panther associate and supporter of innumerable totalitarian regimes, such as Angela Davis, turns up to speak.
At the end of the same month in which Murray and Peterson were prevented from speaking, Davis was invited to address Marquette University. Because she does all the boilerplate stuff such as stressing how various rights movements "make a positive difference in the world", and otherwise telling students what many of them want to hear, her lecture at Marquette went off without interruption. Everyone in the packed hall listened politely and applauded her sentiments.
In other words, the approved event was not a lecture; it was a political rally.
Davis has certainly little or nothing new to say that would educate or challenge a hall full of students. Her narrative, like that of so many approved speakers, embeds the idea that there are people with privilege and that they should be persuaded or forced to share that privilege with everyone else.
So it is probably as well that people realise where this narrative leads. When you consistently break down a society along racial and sectarian lines for short-term political and personal gain, there is bound to be a group that must in the end lose out. That group may just turn out to be a minority as well.
Sure enough, the same month that Angela Davis was applauded and Peterson and Murray were silenced, some pamphlets turned up on campus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Like so many leaflets before them, these talked about the scourge of "privilege". And who did these pamphlets identify as the people with the most privilege? Why, the Jews of course. Or, as the pamphlets put it, "Ending white privilege... Starts with ending Jewish privilege."

As with the Occupy Wall Street movement a few years ago, which also ended up with anti-Semitism at its core, who could seriously not have seen that this would be where all this would end? At present, the people who preach tolerance in the United States and Canada are turning out to be the least tolerant.
And the people who complain of discrimination turn out to be opening the door to practitioners of the oldest discrimination of all.

Douglas Murray, British author, commentator and public affairs analyst, is based in London, England.

• Follow Douglas Murray on Twitter

=====================