Giulio Meotti : The Vatican Submits to Islam (2006-2016)

The Vatican Submits to Islam (2006-2016)

by Giulio Meotti
October 16, 2016 at 5:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9120/vatican-islam

• "[Pope Benedict XVI] has doubted publicly that it can be accommodated in a pluralistic society... and tempered his support for a programme of inter-religious dialogue run by Franciscan monks at Assisi. He has embraced the view of Italian moderates and conservatives that the guiding principle of inter-religious dialogue must be reciprocità. That is, he finds it naive to permit the building of a Saudi-funded mosque, Europe's largest, in Rome, while Muslim countries forbid the construction of churches and missions." — Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times.
• In that lecture, Benedict did what in the Islamic world is forbidden: freely discussing faith. He said that God is different from Allah.
• Since then, apologies to the Islamic world have become the official Vatican policy. Pope Francis denied that Islam itself is violent and claimed that the potential for violence lies within every religion, including Catholicism. Previously, Pope Francis said there is "a world war" but denied that Islam has any role in it.
• "It is clear that Muslims have an ultimate goal: conquering the world...But we find it hard to recognize this reality and to respond by defending the Christian faith (...) I have heard several times an Islamic idea: 'what we failed to do with the weapons in the past we are doing today with the birth rate and immigration'. The population is changing. If this keeps up, in countries like Italy, the majority will be Muslim (...) And what is the most important achievement? Rome." — Monsignor Raymond Burke, US Catholic leader.

If 9/11 was the declaration of jihad against the West, 9/12 will be remembered as one of the most dramatic knee-bends of the Western cultural submission to Islam.
On September 12th 2006, Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) landed in Bavaria, Germany, where he was born and first taught theology. He was expected to deliver a lecture in front of the academic community at the University of Regensburg. That lesson would go down to history as the most controversial papal speech of the last half-century.
On this, the 10th anniversary of the speech, the Western world and the Islamic world both owe Benedict an apology, but unfortunately, the opposite happened: the Vatican has apologized to the Muslims.
In his lecture, Pope Benedict clarified the internal contradictions of contemporary Islam, but he also offered a terrain of dialogue with Christianity and Western culture. The Pope spoke of the Jewish, Greek and Christian roots of Europe's faith, explaining why these are different from Islamic monotheism. His talk contained a quote from the Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman".
This keg of dynamite was softened by a quotation from a Koranic sura of Mohammed's youth, Benedict noted, "when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat", and which says: "There is no compulsion in religion."
Pope Benedict's talk was not a surprise. "It is no secret that the Pope worried about Islam", Christopher Caldwell noted in the Financial Times.

"He has doubted publicly that it can be accommodated in a pluralistic society. He has demoted one of John Paul II's leading advisers on the Islamic world and tempered his support for a programme of inter-religious dialogue run by Franciscan monks at Assisi. He has embraced the view of Italian moderates and conservatives that the guiding principle of inter-religious dialogue must be reciprocità. That is, he finds it naive to permit the building of a Saudi-funded mosque, Europe's largest, in Rome, while Muslim countries forbid the construction of churches and missions".

In Regensburg, Benedict staged the drama of our time and for the first time in the Catholic Church's history -- a Pope talked about Islam without recycling platitudes. In that lecture, the Pope did what in the Islamic world is forbidden: freely discussing faith. He said that God is different from Allah. We never heard that again.

The quotation of Manuel II Palaeologus bounced around the world, shaking the Muslim umma [community], which reacted violently. Even the international press was unanimous in a chorus of condemnation of the "Pope's aggression on Islam."

The reaction to Pope's speech proved that he was right. From Muslim leaders to the New York Times, everybody demanded the Pope's apologies and submission. The mainstream media turned him into an incendiary proponent of Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations." In the Palestinian Authority area, Christian churches were burned and Christians targeted. British Islamists called to "kill" the Pope, but Benedict defied them.

At the same time, in Somalia, an Italian nun was shot. In Iraq, a Syrian Orthodox priest was beheaded by al-Qaeda and mutilated after the terrorists demanded that the Catholic Church to apologize for the speech. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood pledged retaliations against the Pope. A Pakistani leader, Shahid Shamsi, accused the Vatican of supporting "the Zionist entity." Salih Kapusuz, number two in the party of the Turkey's then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan, compared Pope Benedict XVI to Hitler and Mussolini. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted that the words of the Pope belong to "the chain of US-Israeli conspiracy," and accused Benedict of being part of the "Crusader conspiracy."

Security around Pope Benedict was soon massively increased. Two years later, the Pope had been barred from speaking at Rome's most important university, La Sapienza. After the Regensburg affair, Benedict would not be the same anymore. Islamists and Western appeasers had been able to close his mouth.

A few days after the lecture, exhausted and frightened, Pope Benedict apologized. I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address ... which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the Pope told pilgrims at his Castelgandolfo summer residence. The quote did not "in any way express my personal thoughts. I hope this serves to appease hearts."

The Pope may have said that to stop further violence. But since then, apologies to the Islamic world have become the official Vatican policy.

"The default positions vis-à-vis militant Islam are now unhappily reminiscent of Vatican diplomacy's default positions vis-à-vis communism during the last 25 years of the Cold War," wrote George Weigel, a US leading scholar. The Vatican's new agenda seeks "to reach political accommodations with Islamic states and foreswear forceful public condemnation of Islamist and jihadist ideology."

Ten years since the Regensburg lecture, relevant as ever after ISIS's attacks on European soil, another Pope, Francis I, has tried in many ways to separate Muslims and violence and always avoided mentioning that forbidden word: Islam. As Sandro Magister, one of Italy's most important journalists on Catholic issues, wrote: "In the face of the offensive of radical Islam, Francis's idea is that 'we must soothe the conflict'. And forget Regensburg."

The entire Vatican's diplomatic body today carefully avoids the words "Islam" and "Muslims," and instead embraces a denial that a clash of civilization exists.

Returning from World Youth Day in Poland last August, Pope Francis denied that Islam itself is violent and claimed that the potential for violence lies within every religion, including Catholicism. Previously, Pope Francis said there is "a world war," but denied that Islam has any role in it.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI (left) said what no Pope had ever dared to say -- that there is a link between violence and Islam. Ten years later, Pope Francis (right) never calls those responsible for anti-Christian violence by name and never mentions the word "Islam." (Image source: Benedict: Flickr/Catholic Church of England | Francis: Wikimedia Commons/korea.net)

In May, Pope Francis explained that the "idea of conquest" is integral to Islam as a religion, but he quickly added that some might interpret Christianity, the religion of turning the other cheek, in the same way.

"Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence," the Pope claimed in 2013. A year later, Francis declared that "Islam is a religion of peace, one which is compatible with respect for human rights and peaceful coexistence." 

He claimed that it is the ills of global economy, and not Islam, that inspire terrorism. And a few days ago, the Pope said that "people who call themselves Christians but do not want refugees at their door are hypocrites."

Pope Francis's pontificate has been marked by this moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam, which also obfuscates the crimes of Muslims against their own people, Eastern Christians and the West.

But there are brave cardinals who still speak the truth. One is the US Catholic leader Raymond Burke, who is featured in a recent interview with the Italian media, in which he said:

"It is clear that Muslims have an ultimate goal: conquering the world. Islam, through the sharia, their law, wants to rule the world and allows violence against the infidels, such as Christians. But we find it hard to recognize this reality and to respond by defending the Christian faith (...) I have heard several times an Islamic idea: 'what we failed to do with the weapons in the past we are doing today with the birth rate and immigration'. The population is changing. If this keeps up, in countries like Italy, the majority will be Muslim (...) Islam realizes itself in the conquest. And what is the most important achievement? Rome."

Unfortunately, Rome's first bishop, Pope Francis, seems deaf and blind to these important truths. It took five days for Benedict XVI to apologize for his brave lecture. But he opened a decade-long season of the Vatican's excuses for Islamic terrorism.

Pope Francis is still awaited for a visit at the church of St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray, where Father Jacques Hamel was murdered by Islamists this summer. That killing, ten years after the Regensburg lecture, is the most tragic proof that Benedict was right and Francis wrong.

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

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Hakim Haider : It Is How We Become to Jihad

It Is How We Become to Jihad

by Hakim Haider
October 17, 2016 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9089/how-we-become-to-jihad

• The Boy voice was getting slowly Down and after a few whiles he is silent with no locomotion, then this same soo beautifull girl come close and look up his eyes and fire more bullets onto his face and tell us that he is died.
• My Dears Boys today you are standing here it is a very Good position for you. On Otherside you will have a golden happiness, Paradise! Do not come back without full Fill the Task. You may write your last wish here and after we Go a head for Jihad. This is our First and Last meeting, Takecare.
• One Boy who are aware from this area try to Run away but Man have a pistol he fire on the Boy, and Bullet hit Boy on Forehead and he thud onto the Road.
• Jihadi camps where gives training is just for terror or personal interest, Nothing more. Parents even do not know where is my Son. They thinks One Day he come backs.

Editors' note: To those of you who have enquired, the author is a real man living in the Middle East who sent us these pieces because he is unable to share them with anyone where he lives. At first we tried to tidy up the English, but that seemed to knock much of the soul out of his work. So we made the editorial choice to present his work basically as he sent it; what you are seeing is the result of that choice. It is the way he sees the world from his point of view, unobstructed by editors. Perhaps think of it more as a different kind of article, more as folk art but in words. It is not meant to offend anyone or any religion. It always seemed, living among people from different nations, as if wrongnesses in English were often "righter" than rightnesses. The painter Paul Gauguin reportedly said: "If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue." We apologize to anyone who may not like these postings. "Those who understand, understand."

In 2013, some Body is asking, am meet my cousins Jowhar & Muhammad near to my Town. So first we have a nice chat, except for Jowhar who are not talk, and after a Few whiles am seeing Skin of right Arm on Jowhar is black with thick lines on the Arm Skin.
So am ask to Jowhar, What happened this?
He reply, This is a Vestige of Torture.
I reply, Torture, which kind of Torture this and why?
He answer, This is a Vestige of Jihad Torture.
I ask, Jihad Torture sorry am not understand this.
He reply, I show to you after.
So we together go to the room of Jowhar & Muhammad where he remove his Shirts and when I look at the Jowhar am Shock His body are full with Lines from Torture.
Am ask, What is this and how it is happen?

He reply, A few years back we join One of the prominent jihad group who is trains the Boys and childrens for Jihad and we take a training there. Here we face the Body Torture, the Mentality Torture, and the Sexuality torture, very High. So at firstly we Lives in a Mosque with many other Boys for listening different type of Quranic Ayaat and Hadith of P.B.U.H. and listening that there is a lot of HOOR (fairy) for you in the Paradise, and that Shahadat, to be killed on ALLAH, is GREAT PRIZE for you! So next day we are all into the Bus and going out on the hills.

I ask, But how is your family members allow you to do this Jihad?
He reply, No we just ran away from House. Our Family do not allow to take part in this. After a Travel, we reach where is jeeps are. So we leaves the Bus and sits onto the Jeeps. Jeep take us in a remote area where no One is there, and every Where just Mountains and hills and A house. When you enter this house, here is many beautifull Girls Welcome Us. When we look to the Girls they is very beautifull and all is wearing black. We very Happy to see these Girls. Then one person come and order us to sit in the Hall for Dinner because at night when we reach there.
Next day, all the girls serve us a nice Dinner and after Dinner she gives us a Tea. Then same person come in and order us go out. So go out and the girls also with us.

Then few persons come and deliver us a speech and say that girls first gives you A training and after that all of you goes to The Next Step of Training. After speech girls Orders us divides into groups.

Next Day morning after Morning Prayer we are all in the Ground and we see that the other corner of the Ground is far for us and do not see the other corner of the wall.

One girls order us to All of you stand in a Line. So we in a Line. Then she order us to run in a line until we can not stop. So we are running a distant time untill some Body suddenly stop. One of the girls is Hit him with a Stick. Then She ask Stop! and order us to removes the shirts. So we removes.
One Boy demand for Water but she is ask, There is no water for you untill the end and after this you may drink .

Then She order us to Laid Down in the Ground. So we laid. Then One girl jump on us with Shoes that is soo pain full, the Shoes was hard and clawing on our Bodies. We shout a lot Release us! but No one is help and the clawing goes on a faraway time.

One boy who is angry all at once Slap the Girl, then all other girls come and they tight the Boy up with A Rope and cover the face and start to Beating soo hardly. The Boy is shouting but all the girls is continuing to beat.
We are all looking this but No one has a Courage to stop any Thing. The Boy is Shouting and call FOR HELP. He is wheeping and say Please forgive me but No One is Listen. He is help Less.
After so hard beating The boy was tight with Piller and Tither. Then One girl come and she beat this boy again on the face untill his face is Full with Blood. We all looking this and shivering. He calling for Help again but we are all stand and just watch. Many girls is beating One by one soo hardly. Then after this One Girls who is holding the revolaver (Pistol) She is fire bullets on the Legs of the Boy. He is Shouting more loudly, then one girl un tight the Boy from piller and Tither and start beating to him again. Then she say, Look at her! If some One do not obey our order then we will give him a pain untill death and now you just sit there and watch how this death.
We sitting there Quietly and looking the Boy. He gush in High pain and every One are praying, ALLAH that release us from this place.
The Boy voice was getting slowly Down and after a few whiles he is silent with no locomotion, then this same soo beautifull girl come close and look up to his eyes and fire more bullets onto his face and tell us that he is died.

We all are wheeping after this, she order us go into the hall that are to Eat. We are hungry that night. She serve us a meal and after this tea and order us again to come to the Ground after Finish. But no one from us really Finish are still shivering.
When we are in the Ground after Dinner a girl is standing there says, Here where you all come for Jihad. Jihad is a Good and easy way to enter in a Paradise . If you kill One jew then in a Paradise you get a 35 HOOR (fairy). And To day one of your Companion not with you he is here under my Feet because not able to enter into a paradise and now his body are just waste. If Next any of you do like this, we kill them too.

After few days we are down half the boys, Other half killed with these girls on torture. New team is come to train to The Next Step of Training and all of these is Foreigner. They start with beating us on electric Wire. One Boy do not bear this and he is died.
After this, they gives us just a One Time for eating. That Day our body are full with Blood and we just laid onto the floor.

A jihadi training camp (illustrative).

Next day they Order us to Removes the full dress and prepare your Self for hard torture. There was a hot water pool and they jostle us into the water but the water was too Hot and also soo many wound on our body that is why we feel too much pain but no one try to comes out because if Some one is come out they kill him.

We face a lot of pain and torture and after heavy months we are all most no Boys Left. We see soo many boys for dying. One Day we standing in the hall and a person come out and say To Day Our Leader come to meet you and He is deliver a speech to Jihad and After this all of you tell us your last wish and then we go in fight Against the Enemy For Jihad! So To Day is your Rest day and to Night was a special night for you because Tonight you may enjoy with girls. We surprized. At night time girls came out wearing a beautifull dress we Shocked to see these girls that are the same who is giving us a training and they torture us. But tonight we do a Sex. We all Boys afraid but that night we looks first time towards the face of this girls All of girls is soo beautifull and first these girls behaviour like a maid of us. We enjoy all the night. And Morning we are in the Same hall and a Man come who was a Leader with a Black Coat and have a Grizzled. He say:

AS SALAM-O-ALIKUM All of you boys. I am a Leader and Arranger of this camp I know more than a HALF Boys are not here, these are Unlucky but all of you Very Lucky because now You are going for Jihad and for fight for Islam. My Dears Boys today you are standing here it is a very Good position for you. On Oneside you have a Courage for the Shahadat and on Otherside you will have a golden happiness. You may Died, but on Secondside you may Alive after death in the Paradise! Now you are soo strong and am very happy to tell you that am may Hugg you to death but am hope you will never come back until you wins. You may died but Jihad is Alive. Here islam is again A live after your Death. My beloved Sons, am know you face too much pain here and you are Lucky because this pain give you a New Life, the Life that is for ALLAH and for Islam! Now you may Go Hurry-up and Fight against the Enemy who are very weak and Short hearted but your training make you Strong and you are Soo Brave. I know you are ready I know you never run away. I know you are able to fight against the Enemy. We do not choose you but ALLAH choose you for this great Jihad! Now my Child you are able to use the weapons and Now you are soo powerfull I know you may gives Life but do not come back without full Fill the Task. There was a lot of people who helps you in this fighting. Now your body full with the remains of Wound and this is your MEDAL OF HONOUR. Now you may write your Last wish here and after full Fill last wish, we Go a head for Jihad. This is our First and Last meeting, Takecare.

After he is a Way. We write the last Wish to Go to the city where we buy a New dress to use on Final Day, so they are happy to listen. Than we Comes out from this building after serverile Months and sit again in the jeeps. After tall journey jeeps drop us near the Bus and we sit onto the Bus with many persons who look after us so that No One can make a Disabling. After this, Bus drop us into the market, One boy Know better to this area because he is Visit here many Times Before. So we all are in the Shop where we Buy a One piece of Cloth. And after this a Man tell to us Shoping is Over, now into the Bus for go Back. One Boy who are aware from this area try to Run away but Man have a pistol, he fire on the Boy and Bullet hit Boy on the Forehead and he thud onto the Road.

We Sits silently onto the Bus and when Bus leave the Market they Stop to the Bus and Tight us up with the seat of the Bus so that No one of us can runs. After more too far Journey the Bus again stops and they un tight us and tells Go In side the jeep One by one. So we full fill the order. This time there was Only One jeep and we are many Boys so we are sit into the jeep Smally. They never Tight us up In the jeep when big Men is standing there but we all is free here because Mountain are every Where and No one from us know the way any Where. Then when sees a road Muhammad and me jumps outside from the jeep and is run a Way. After serverile day we reach toward the city.

Jowhar sits while Muhammad put the shirts back up over the Vestige of torture skin of the Jowhar arm.
At night, Jowhar say, when asleep still are shivering. If girls is tell to you to come a Way from here and Go to Jihad for me, do not listening. Is just terrorists. All Jihadi camps where gives training just for terror or personal interest, Nothing more. Parents even do not know where is my Son. They thinks One Day he come backs.

Hakim Haider is a (real) Muslim based in the Middle East.

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Maria Polizoidou : Refugees or an Occupation Army?

Refugees or an Occupation Army?

by Maria Polizoidou
October 11, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9071/greece-refugees-migrants

• "Allah requires from the believers to be masters of the land where they live, and only they can have property, and only we will be able to own the land." — Muslim migrants in Crete, Greece.
• The migrants were ready to wage jihad because they believed a rumor about an event for which, even had it been true, the Greek State and its inhabitants had no responsibility.
• The establishment in Greece is a miniature of the American establishment: politicians and institutions of government corrupted to the bones.
• We Greeks have already been crushed by Islam, by the twentieth century genocide in Turkey and the more recent Turkish occupation of Cyprus, again with the world's complicity.
• What is happening in Greece, as in much of Europe, is actually a massive replacement of its population, its values and its way of life.
• The mainstream political parties obey the self-destructive EU policies on immigration that could eventually cause the end of the Hellenic-Judeo-Christian values of Europe, such as individual freedom, critical thinking and dispassionate inquiry.

What does an occupation army do when it is installed in a country? It occupies the land, forcing residents to follow its own way of life. It implements measures against the country's inhabitants, it propagandizes its beliefs and uses force to have them imposed.

This, sadly, is what has been happening in Greece from the migrants who seem to "forget" that they are hosted in Greece and force the Greeks to feel like guests in their own country.

If someone is a war refugee or his life is in danger in his homeland, it would seem appropriate, when he arrives in the country which offers him asylum, to be grateful to this country, respect its history, its people its values and its laws. The same would hold true for an immigrant who wants to go to a country where he hopes he will find a better future.

In Greece, conversely, illegal immigrants -- all of whom the media call "refugees," apparently trying artificially to legalize them in the moral consciousness of citizens -- have been occupying spaces that do not belong to them, using violence, blocking roads, committing crimes against public property, acting aggressively toward residents and the police, and saying that they feel offended when they see symbols that represent Christianity. The guests seem to be trying to take over the house.

A few weeks ago, 200 North Africans and Pakistanis rioted in the middle of the night, demanding to leave Mytilene Island. They were chanting, "Jihad! Jihad!", smashing the residents' cars in the center of the island and disrupting the local community. The migrants claimed that someone told them about the death of seven migrants on a ship, so they rose up against the authorities. The police and NGO workers explained that this was misinformation, but the 200 migrants were evidently not interested in hearing that. The migrants were ready to wage jihad because they believed a rumor about an event for which, even had it been true, the Greek state and its inhabitants had no responsibility. The authorities were unsuccessful at calming them down and trying to make them return to their living area.

As it turned out, there were no dead migrants; the uprising was a "mistake," but the police and the locals had to spend the night tracking down refugees and migrants on the streets of Mytilene.

The illegal immigrants stated that the information about the seven dead migrants came through phone calls to them during the night. Police sources say, off the record, that this incident has all the hallmarks of covert "black operations."

A few days later, on September 19, 2016, on Mytilene Island again, there was a new eruption from migrants in the Moria district. This time, the information the migrants heard, which again turned out to be false, was that they were about to be returned to Turkey. Immediately they set fire to 16 acres of olive trees, as well as to the camp in which they were living.

Now 300 migrants, who had earlier escaped from their camp and tried to protest in the center of the island, were burning everything in the camp and the area around it, until the police stopped them and made them to return to the camp, where again they tried to burn everything.

Residents saw their groves of olive trees turn to cinders as well as much of the migrant camp, three shipping containers, clothing and footwear.

Some of the illegal immigrants were taking selfies during the burning and chanting, "Allahu Akbar" ["Allah is the Greatest"].

The Port of Mytilene Island was turned into a battlefield, where migrants and many Greek "leftists" tried to prevent the military contingent from lowering the Greek flag in front of the town's old port. Many Greeks hate the national flag. They appear to prefer multinational states without any references to the state's national foundations. They were chanting slogans and provoking both the military contingent and the people of Mytilene Island, who watched amazed from the opposite side of the road. It was a demonstration of power from behalf of "leftists" and illegal immigrants. Many citizens of Mytilene Island evidently could not stand to see the illegal immigrants and other Greeks provoke them and try to halt the lowering of the flag. So some citizens moved aggressively against them and engaged them in street fights.

Every Sunday morning on Mytilene Island, soldiers hoist the flag and in the evening, an hour before sunset, soldiers lower the flag. A week after this incident, thousands of Greeks gathered around the soldiers and the flag in Mytilene Port and were singing Greek National Anthem, showing their faith and honoring the national symbol. People are scared. They are gathering around the flag and the Army apparently because they feel they are losing their homeland and their sovereignty to the thousands illegal immigrants who have occupied their island.

On September 26, 2016, in the Tympaki region of the island of Crete, people found all over the streets quotes from the Quran. The text, signed by the "Muslim Brotherhood of Crete Island", stated among other things:

• "You are the senior people of the whole world, Only your faith counts and no one else has the right of life and death and ownership over every other person who dares to challenge your leadership and will not embrace your faith.
• "Allah requires from the believers to be masters of the land where they live, and only they can have property, and only we will be able to own the land.
• "Allah said that we should conquer all the planet, and the faithful ones should own the land and the crops.
• "Unbelievers cannot have land and crops because it belongs only to us – the believers.
• "Unbelievers will have from us – as the holy Quran assures us – only alms."

On the same day, September 26, in the Asprovalta region near the city of Thessaloniki, a 49-year-old man from France who came to Greece through Turkey was followed by police officers because he was suspected of being a jihadist. The moment he saw the police car, he rammed it, while chanting "Allahu Akbar". [Allah is the greatest"] The attacker was arrested and the district attorney ordered his deportation.

A month ago, the inhabitants of Vavilon, a small village in Chios, another island that received a large number of illegal immigrants, decided to take the law into their hands, because, it seems, the state was not protecting them. The residents set up a militia to protect their families and their property from illegal immigrants. Within a week, they had recorded more than ten burglaries and vast property damage.

The media covers these disruptions only when they are like earthquakes, when one large one causes major disasters; the small ones are evidently not interesting. The same indifference of the media can also be seen regarding daily problems caused by the illegal immigrants. The media covers drug trafficking, conflicts between migrants of different Islamic doctrines, rebellions in migrant shelters, conflicts between countries and races, and underage boys and girls being raped. On September 24, in the Moria area of Mytilene Island, four 17-year-old migrants from Pakistan raped an underage Pakistani migrant, age 16, and recorded the rape with their phones. The police arrested the perpetrators, who had been blackmailing the boy before they raped him.

Illegal immigrants have also been blocking roads in many cities; halting traffic for hours. They occupy the roads whenever they feel like it; the police do not stop them and there are no arrests.

The Greek government has been friendly to the migrants. Illegal immigrants have, in an apparent demonstration of power, been asking Greek drivers to show their IDs and driver's licenses. They have established checkpoints as an occupation army does. The government and the police did nothing to stop them. People showed their documents because of the great numbers of migrants; the drivers were evidently scared for their lives and their cars, and did not want things to get nasty. If you consider that the police were just watching all this passively, the drivers did not have much choice.

Another day, illegal immigrants blocked a road because they apparently did not have a good enough internet connection in the "refugee shelter."

How would Americans feel if Muslim illegal immigrants living in America said that they were offend by the Statue of Liberty because she was not wearing a burqa?
The Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Hieronymus, last March removed his cross, the symbol of Christianity, from his vestments during his visit to the Port of Piraeus, in order, he said, not to "offend" the Muslim migrants.

Archbishop Hieronymus of Athens and All Greece is pictured distributing food to migrants at the Port of Piraeus. The Archbishop removed his cross from his vestments during the visit to Piraeus, in order, he said, not to "offend" the Muslim migrants. (Image source: HellasNewsTv video screenshot)

Who warned him that Muslim migrants would be offended by his cross? What would they do if the Archbishop visited them while wearing his cross? Would they kill him? Would they burn the city of Piraeus? They would wage jihad against the Greek people?

Why are we hiding the symbols of our faith from people who come illegally and uninvited into our countries? What power could make an Archbishop remove the symbol of his faith, apart from a country's political power?

The problem in Greece is not only the government or the mismanagement of illegal immigration. All traditional mainstream political parties in Greece, directly or indirectly, have been encouraging illegal immigration and the transfer of huge Muslim populations into Greek society. They obey the self-destructive EU policies on immigration that could eventually cause the end of the Hellenic-Judeo-Christian values of Europe, such as individual freedom, critical thinking and dispassionate inquiry.

We Greeks have already been crushed by Islam, by the twentieth century genocide in Turkey -- that even now targets anyone not Muslim such as Christians, Alevis and Kurds -- and the more recent Turkish occupation of Cyprus, again with the world's complicity.

In spite of that, the mainstream political parties clearly do not care about protecting the nation, its identity or the safety of its citizens.

The establishment in Greece is a miniature of the American establishment: politicians and institutions of government corrupted to the bones, mainstream media and oligarchical fans of globalization. Greece is, in fact, being paid 198 million euros for the refugees.

The Greek establishment suffers from the same symptoms as Western European and American regimes. They no longer believe in the foundations of the Republic: "Vox Populi, Vox Dei": the voice of the people is the voice of God.

The political establishment, when the public does not agree with their policies about illegal immigration and the protection of national identity, prefers to blame the voters for immaturity, stupidity or fascism. 

So as the voters persist in retaining their views for national identity and against illegal immigration, the elites in Greece are replacing the native population by giving the illegal immigrants citizenship.

That is their solution to the migration crisis and Greece's economic meltdown, from failed authoritarian policies of the unelected, unaccountable and untransparent EU. What is happening in Greece, as in much of Europe, is actually a massive replacement of its population, values and way of life. There is only one way now to save what is left of Greece: The British way. Exit. Now.

Khadija Khan : Sharia Councils and Sexual Abuse in Britain

Sharia Councils and Sexual Abuse in Britain

by Khadija Khan
April 14, 2017 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10191/sharia-councils-sexual-abuse

• As bad as this is, there is an even darker side to the story: Under sharia law, the second husband is under no obligation to give his wife a quick divorce – allowing him to keep her as his virtual sex slave for as long as he wishes.
• If one asks how all of this jibes with British law, the answer is that it does not.
• The UK-based NGO, Muslim Women's Network, penned an open letter -- with 100 signatories -- to the British government and Home Affairs Select Committee demanding that the Sharia Council be investigated to determine whether its practices adhere to British law. In response, the Sharia Council declared the letter to be "Islamophobic" and accused the Muslim Women's Network of being an anti-Muslim organization.
• It is British law, not sharia, law that protects Muslim individuals and couples, as it does any other citizen. Contrary to what apologists for this travesty say, the plight of Muslim women should be treated as an issue of human rights.

The most recent scandal surrounding the sexual exploitation of Muslim women by Islamic religious leaders in the UK is yet further proof of the way in which Britain is turning a blind eye to horrific practices going on right under its nose.
A BBC investigation into "halala" -- a ritual enabling a divorced Muslim woman to remarry her husband by first wedding someone else, consummating the union, and then being divorced by him -- revealed that imams in Britain are not only encouraging this, but profiting financially from it. This depravity has led to many such women being held hostage, literally and figuratively, to men paid to become their second husbands.

This ritual, which is considered a misinterpretation of Islamic sharia law even by extremist Shi'ites and Saudi-style Salafists, is practiced by certain Islamic sects, such as Hanafis, Barelvis and Deobandis. When a husband repeats the Arabic word for divorce -- talaq -- three times to his wife, these sects consider a Muslim marriage null and void. For such a woman to be allowed to return to the husband who banished her, she must first marry someone else -- and have sex with him -- before the second husband divorces her.

These divorce rites, despite the laws of the land, are common in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Asian countries, where a majority of the people belong to the Hanafi, Barelvi or Deobandi sects. Nevertheless, local seminaries, mosques and online services openly advertise and promote halala with impunity; it is accepted by society and rarely monitored by state authorities.

In Britain, halala has emerged as a booming business, with websites and social media sites offering to provide women with second husbands for exorbitant sums of money. As bad as this is, there is an even darker side to the story: Under sharia law, the second husband is under no obligation to give his wife a quick divorce -- allowing him to keep her as his virtual sex slave for as long as he wishes.

One Muslim woman, who changed her mind about going through with halala after looking into the process, told the BBC that she knew others who did undergo the process, and ended up being sexually abused for months by the second husbands paid to marry them. According to a report in The Guardian, the Sharia Council of Britain says it deals with hundreds of divorce cases annually.

This infamous council is indirectly responsible for what essentially has become a rape pandemic, since it does nothing to stop or refute halala. In fact, it declares that the practice is completely legal under sharia law. The only caveat, the council states, is that the imams presiding over it are not following the proper guidelines, according to which the second marriage and divorce should not be premeditated, but rather happen naturally.

If one asks how all of this jibes with British law, the answer is that it does not. But young Muslims in the UK are discouraged by their communities from marrying through the British system, and are told to have imams perform their weddings and sharia councils register their marriages. Couples who comply end up being at the mercy of Islamic authorities in family matters, including divorce.

Due to its often unethical practices conducted in the name of religious law, the Sharia Council has come under scrutiny a number of times. Last November, for instance, the UK-based NGO, Muslim Women's Network, penned an open letter -- with 100 signatories -- to the British government and Home Affairs Select Committee demanding that the Sharia Council be investigated to determine whether its practices adhere to British law.

In response, the Sharia Council declared the letter to be "Islamophobic" and accused the Muslim Women's Network of being an anti-Muslim organization. In addition, Labour MP Naz Shah jumped to the defense of the Sharia Council, rejecting the idea of an inquiry, on the grounds that shutting down such councils could mean that more women would be stuck in abusive marriages.

While acknowledging that these councils could be used as a tool to deny women their rights, Shah said that they also serve as valuable arbitrators in marital disputes.

Her claims are totally baseless. It is British law, not sharia, law that protects Muslim individuals and couples, as it does any other citizen.

Haitham al-Haddad is a British shari'a council judge, and sits on the board of advisors for the Islamic Sharia Council. Regarding the handling of domestic violence cases, he stated in an interview, "A man should not be questioned why he hit his wife, because this is something between them. Leave them alone. They can sort their matters among themselves." (Image source: Channel 4 News video screenshot)

Had the British government addressed Sharia Council malpractice when it was first revealed, we would not be facing this pandemic today. Contrary to what apologists for this travesty say, the plight of Muslim women should be treated as an issue of human rights.

It is time for the British government to wake up and take a tough stand on such unethical, and probably illegal, system. And the sooner the better, lest the whole sharia council system go "underground" and out of reach to protect thousands of women from abuse.

Khadija Khan is a Pakistan-based journalist and commentator.

Giulio Meotti : France: Muezzins, not Church Bells

France: Muezzins, not Church Bells

by Giulio Meotti
October 30, 2016 at 5:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9161/france-church-bells-muezzins

• French Catholicism is now witnessing a tragic decline, caught between two fires: state secularism and political Islam.
• Le Figaro wondered if Islam can already be considered "France's prime religion".
• Muslim countries are generously funding France's mosques, covering an average of 50% of total costs.
• "Avignon is no longer the city of the Popes, but of the Salafis. ... They [Muslim extremists] urge us to rewrite the history of France in the light of the 'contribution of the Islamic civilization'" — Philippe De Villiers, author of Will the Church Bells Ring Tomorrow?
• The trend indicates that in France, there are currently three young practicing Muslims for every young practicing Catholic.
• "It is conceivable that Islam is overtaking Catholicism". — Osservatore Romano, the Vatican official daily newspaper.

A new book is shaking France. Les cloches sonneront-elles encore demain? ("Will the Church Bells Ring Tomorrow?"), by Philippe de Villiers, is shattering the nation. France, the "eldest daughter" of the Catholic Church, is instead turning into "the eldest daughter of Islam". "With arrogance, they [Muslim extremists] urge us to rewrite the history of France in the light of the 'contribution of the Islamic civilization'", de Villiers states.

De Villiers points out that:

"France has experienced many misfortunes in its history. But for the first time, it must face the fear of disappearing. In France, there are two groups: a new people who move with pride and an exhausted people, who are not even aware of the conditions needed for their own survival".

De Villiers paints a grim picture of French Catholicism: "Avignon is no longer the city of the Popes, but of the Salafis". In Saint-Denis, where the French kings and Charles Martel are buried, "tunics and beards now dominate, and girls are dressed in the Islamic shrouds". If a parish is still alive there, it is thanks to the zeal of the Christian community of Africans and Tamils. "The Kings' cemetery is just one enclave. It belongs to a story that does not count anymore".

The bell towers of the churches in de Villiers' book are already growing silent in Boissettes (Seine-et-Marne), and on the outskirts of Metz, where the bells of the church of Sainte Ruffine have been forced by the state secularist authorities to keep silent. It happened in the Breton village of Hédé-Bazouges, where silence is filled by the sound of what de Villiers calls "the clergy in the djellaba" [outer robe worn by North Africans] -- the muezzin's call to prayer. It is happening everywhere in France.

Will France soon forbid the ringing of Notre Dame's bells? It happened already in Boissettes, and on the outskirts of Metz, where the bells of the church of Sainte Ruffine have been forced by the state authorities to keep silent. Meanwhile, the muezzin's calls to Islamic prayer continue to broadcast. (Images source: Wikimedia Commons)

"France is no longer a Catholic country", writes Frederic Lenoir, editor in chief of Le Monde des Religions. Le Figaro wondered if Islam can already be considered "France's prime religion".

It is estimated today in France that for every practicing Muslim there are three practicing Catholics. But if the analysis is deepened, it appears that this ratio will soon reverse. Comparing only the weekly frequency of attending a mosque on Friday and a church on Sunday, the scenario is clear: 65% of practicing Catholics are over the age of 50. By contrast, 73% of practicing Muslims are under 50. The trend indicates that in France, there are currently three young practicing Muslims for every young practicing Catholic.

The same is true for the construction of new religious sites. There are nearly 2,400 mosques today in France, compared to 1,500 in 2003: "This is the most visible sign of the rapid growth of Islam in France", according to the weekly magazine, Valeurs Actuelles.
Almost two new mosques are built each week: that is the pace of expansion of Muslim places of worship in France for the last 10 years. The record is held by Corsica: in 2003 there were no Muslim places of worship, now it has 11.

Muslim countries are generously funding France's mosques. Foreign funding covers an average of 50% of total costs: for the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg, 37% came from Morocco, 13% from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. At Roissy-en-Brie, the Sultanate of Oman contributed 1.8 million euros, or two-thirds, of the budget. In Marseille, Qatar will provide 25% of the funding.

Charles Adhémar, a French political scientist, also commented on the "de-Christianization and gradual Islamization of France". The picture over the last year has been devastating: A Catholic priest murdered inside a French church by Muslim extremists; Muslim leaders who call to convert empty churches into mosques; Christian faithful dragged from Paris's churches before they are demolished. Even Lourdes, France's most famous Catholic site, lies in crisis because of the shortage of pilgrims.

French Catholicism is now witnessing a tragic decline, caught between two fires: state secularism and political Islam. 
"In forty years, France has become the nation in Western Europe where the population of Muslim origin is the most important", 
wrote the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official daily newspaper. "It is conceivable that Islam is overtaking Catholicism".

That is why for 45% of French Catholics, Islam represents a "threat". That is why for the last few years, a growing number of French intellectuals, mostly secular authors, published books raising the alarm on this religious outstripping.

One author is Pierre Manent, who in the book La situation de France writes that "we are witnessing the extension and the consolidation of the domain of Muslim practices rather than its shrinking or relaxation".

Another is Éric Zemmour, public enemy number one of the French left; he just penned a new book, Un quinquennat pour rien ("A Five Year Term for Nothing" -- quinquennat is the five year term served by France's president), in which he calls for "a cultural revolution that can afford only to win the war of civilizations taking place on our land".

A renowned sociologist of religion, Danièle Hervieu-Léger, also published a book that sounds like a verdict: Catholicisme, la fin d'un monde ("Catholicism, the End of a World"). Hervieu-Léger makes up her own word to describe this end: "exculturation". It brings to mind not a battle that is taking place but one that is already finished.

In the fight between "the cube and the cathedral" -- the Arche de la Défense built in Paris by François Mitterrand as a symbol of modernity, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame -- the cube is overtaking the church. Both are dominated by the Islamic crescent.

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

Judith Bergman : Mockeries of Justice in Denmark

Mockeries of Justice in Denmark

by Judith Bergman
October 30, 2016 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9172/justice-denmark

• An appeal would have sent a signal to potential terrorists that Danish authorities look sternly upon logistical assistance to terrorists, and will do everything in their power to pursue justice.
• The only one at risk of actual harm is Lars Hedegaard himself: his attempted murderer remains at large. "I have resorted to making the suspected assassin's name as well-known as possible in self-defense."
• It is deeply disturbing, not only for the victims, but for all citizens, when the courts so clearly divorce themselves from pursuing what most citizens would perceive as justice, and instead appear to favor those who seek to harm society.
• Refusing to implicate Omar El-Hussein's friends in his terrorism, despite their obvious contributions to his terror deeds, and fining the victim of a terrorist attack for publicly naming his would-be murderer, who escaped justice by fleeing the country, inevitably appears like a mockery of justice, not its fulfillment.

If the legal system in Denmark is anything to go by, being an accessory to murder is just fine. Attackers are protected to the hilt; their victims are left unprotected and fined.

In February 2015, the terrorist Omar El-Hussein murdered Danish film director Finn Nørgaard in front of café Krudttønden in Copenhagen. Later that night, he killed a Jewish guard in front of the Copenhagen synagogue. Danish police shot and killed El-Hussein during the subsequent manhunt.

Four men assisted El-Hussein after he killed the film director: They helped him get rid of the murder weapon, gave him fresh clothes and bought him a new bag, which he used to store the gun used to kill the Jewish guard. They also met with him several times in different places around Copenhagen in the five hours leading up to the murder of the Jewish guard. One of those places was an internet café, where El-Hussein googled for information about the synagogue. The four men were charged with complicity in the terrorist act against the synagogue.

At the end of September, the Danish District Court acquitted all four of the terrorism charge. The district court found no evidence that the men knew of El-Hussein's plans to attack the synagogue, when they met with him after his attack at Krudttønden. Instead, the four men were convicted of minor charges, such as threats and violence against prison staff, weapons possession in particularly aggravating circumstances, and possession of illegal ammunition. Three of the men were free to go after the sentencing, as their 18 months in custody meant that they had already served their sentences, which were sixty days, six months, two and a half years and three years respectively. One of the four men has already declared his intention to sue the Danish state for damages amounting to 1 million Danish kroner (USD $150,000) for the 18 months he spent in custody. The prosecution has decided that it will not appeal the verdict, which is therefore final.

Appealing the verdict might have been the appropriate thing to do, even if there were little chance of having the ruling reversed. An appeal would have sent a signal to potential terrorists that Danish authorities look sternly upon logistical assistance to terrorists and will do everything in their power to pursue justice.
 Considering that European countries are likely to experience many more terrorist attacks in the future, the Danish court and the prosecution both sent a deeply troubling signal to future terrorists and their helpers, as well as Danish society as a whole.

This is not the only recent Danish court case to be sending the wrong kind of signals. In September, the Danish High Court upheld the District Court's decision to fine the Danish writer, Lars Hedegaard, 10,000 Danish kroner (USD $1500) for publishing the name of a terrorist, "BH," who attempted to murder Hedegaard in his own home in February 2013. BH subsequently fled from Denmark, but was arrested in Turkey. Denmark wanted him extradited, but instead Turkey released BH in what was most likely a prisoner exchange with the Islamic State, in 2014.

Hedegaard published the name of his would-be assassin in his book, Attentatet ("The Assassination"), on Facebook, and on a Swedish website. This, the Danish courts ruled, was in breach of a court order suppressing the name of the terrorist.
The name of a defendant in a criminal case may be suppressed if public communication of the name is likely to endanger someone's safety or cause unnecessary harm. Ostensibly, the court upholds the court order suppressing the suspected terrorist's name in order to protect the family of the suspect.
The name, however, was already out in the press at the time of the court order and has been mentioned countless times by others on Facebook and elsewhere. Furthermore, the only one at risk of actual harm is Lars Hedegaard himself: his attempted murderer remains at large. This was indeed why he publicized the name: "I have resorted to making the suspected assassin's name as well-known as possible in self-defense, on the grounds that it increases the chances that he will be apprehended," Hedegaard explained.

In a Kafkaesque form of inverted justice, the High Court disregarded this commonsense argument and instead maintained that Hedegaard should pay the fine, adding insult to injury by claiming that there was no need on the grounds of self-defense for Hedegaard to publicize the name of the man who tried to kill him.
Indeed, the High Court found that the fine should be considerably higher than the 10,000 kroner that the District Court had ruled that Hedegaard should pay.

Graciously, the High Court decided not to raise the fine, because of the "mitigating" circumstance that Hedegaard had been the target of a murder attempt. How magnanimous of them!

Denmark's high court upheld a fine levied against Lars Hedegaard, because he wrote the name of the man who tried to murder him, in violation of a court order suppressing the name of the terrorist, who is still at large and wanted by police.

The Danish authorities did not stop there. A number of activists, in solidarity with Hedegaard, went ahead and published the name themselves. Some of them showed up during Hedegaard's court case wearing T-shirts with the name of the suspected terrorist. The Danish court spent taxpayer money charging some of those activists for wearing those T-shirts. Several others -- the publisher of Hedegaard's book, an artist who painted BH's name on a painting, a priest who mentioned the name in an article in a Danish newspaper and others -- were also charged with breaching the court order.

It is deeply disturbing, not only for the victims, but for all citizens, when the courts so clearly divorce themselves from pursuing what most citizens will perceive as justice, and instead appear to be favoring those who seek to harm society. 
Refusing to implicate Omar El-Hussein's friends in his terrorism, despite their obvious contributions to his terrorist activities, and fining the victim of a terrorist attack for publicly naming his would-be murderer, who escaped justice by fleeing the country, inevitably appears like a mockery of justice, not its fulfillment.

Judith Bergman is a writer, columnist, lawyer and political analyst.

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Giulio Meotti : Which Way Will France Go?

Which Way Will France Go?

by Giulio Meotti
April 13, 2017 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10193/france-direction

• After two years and 238 deaths at the hands of Islamic terrorism, what did France do to defeat radical Islam? Almost nothing.
• If Emmanuel Macron wins, France as we have known it can be considered pretty much over. By blaming "colonialism" for French troubles in the Arab world, and calling it "a crime against humanity", he has effectively legitimized Muslim extremist violence against the French Republic.
• In just two years, Muslim organizations in France have dragged to trial great writers such as Georges Bensoussan, Pascal Bruckner, and Renaud Camus. It is the Islamists' dream coming true: seeing "Islamophobes" on trial to restrict their freedom of expression. Charlie Hebdo's physical massacre was therefore followed by an intellectual one.

It was a sort of farewell to the army. During a brief visit to the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle last December, French President François Hollande honored the French soldiers involved in "Operation Chammal" against the Islamic State. After two years and 238 deaths at the hands of Islamic terrorism, what did France do to defeat radical Islam? Almost nothing.

It is this legacy of indifference that is at stake in the looming French presidential elections.

If Marine Le Pen or François Fillon win, it means that France has rejected this autocratic legacy and wants to try a different, braver way. If Emmanuel Macron wins, France as we have known it can be considered pretty much over. Macron is, for example, against taking away French nationality from jihadists. Terrorism, Islam and security are almost absent from Macron's vocabulary and platform, and he is in favor of lowering France's state of emergency. By blaming "colonialism" for French troubles in the Arab world, and calling it "a crime against humanity", he has effectively legitimized Muslim extremist violence against the French Republic.

As General Vincent Desportes wrote in his new book, La dernière Bataille de France ("The Last Battle of France"):

"President Hollande said on November 15 that it would be ruthless, we were at war ... but we do not make war! History shows that in the eternal struggle between the shield and the sword, the sword is still a step forward and winning".

In the past two years, France only used the shield.

France's fake war began in Paris with a massacre at the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Twelve cartoonists and policemen were massacred by two brothers who shouted, "We avenged Muhammad, we killed Charlie Hebdo". 

After a few days of marches, vigils, candles and collective statements such as "Je Suis Charlie", half of the French intelligentsia was ready to go and hide underground, protected by the police. These are academics, intellectuals, novelists, journalists. The most famous is Michel Houellebecq, the author of the book Submission. Then there is Éric Zemmour, the author of the book, Suicide Française ("The French Suicide"); then the team of Charlie Hebdo, along with its director, Riss (Laurent Sourisseau); Mohammed Sifaoui, a French-Algerian journalist who wrote Combattre le terrorisme islamiste ("Combating Islamist Terrorism"); Frédéric Haziza, radio journalist and author at the journal, Canard Enchaîné; and Philippe Val, the former director of Charlie Hebdo. The latest to run was the Franco-Algerian journalist Zineb Rhazaoui; surrounded by six policemen, she left Charlie Hebdo after saying that her newspaper had capitulated to terror and refused to run more cartoons of Muhammad.

"Charb? Where is Charb?" were the words that echoed in the offices of Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015, the day he and his colleagues were murdered. "Charb" was Stéphane Charbonnier, the editor of the magazine that had published cartoons of Muhammad. Charb was working on a short book, On Blasphemy, Islamophobia and the true enemies of free expression, posthumously published. Charb's book attacked self-righteous intellectuals, who for years had been claiming that Charlie Hebdo was responsible for its own troubles, a childlike view, popular throughout Europe.
It is based on the notion that if everyone would just keep quiet, these problems would not exist. 

Presumably, therefore, if no one had pointed out the threats of Nazism or Communism, Nazism and Communism would have quietly have vanished of their own accord. Unfortunately, that approach was tried; it did not work. The book also criticized "sectarian activists", whom he said have been trying "to impose on the judicial authorities the political concept of 'Islamophobia'".
As for "the Left", he wrote: "It is time to end this disgusting paternalism of the intellectual left" -- meaning its moral sanctimony. Charb delivered these pages to his publisher on January 5. Two days later he was murdered.

Now, some of these people he was calling out are trying to hide their cowardice by attacking him. In recent weeks, a number of cultural events in France have tried to "deprogram" the public from paying attention this extremely important book. A theatrical adaptation of it, attended by one of the journalists of Charlie Hebdo, Marika Bret, was scheduled to take place at the University of Lille.
However, the president of the University, Xavier Vandendriessche, said he feared "excesses" and the "atmosphere", so he eliminated Charb from the program. Twice. The play's director, Gérald Dumont, sent a letter to the Minister of Culture, Audrey Azoulay, mentioning "censorship".

At the same time, Charb's book also disappeared from two events at a cultural festival in Avignon. "How to reduce the dead to silence", tweeted Raphaël Glucksmann. "Killed in 2015, banned in 2017", Bernard-Henri Lévy summed up.

During the past two years, the publishing industry itself has played a central role in censoring and supporting censorship, by censoring itself. The philosopher Michel Onfray refused to release his book, Thinking Islam, in French and it first came out in Italian. The German writer, Hamed Abdel Samad saw his book Der islamische Faschismus: Eine Analyse ("Islamic Fascism: An Analysis"), a bestseller in Germany, censored in French by the publishing house Piranha.

The French courts, meanwhile, revived le délit d'opinion -- a penal offense for expressing political opinions, now an "intellectual crime". It was explained by Véronique Grousset in Le Figaro:

"Insidiously, the law blurred the distinction between the discussion of ideas and the personal attack. Many organizations are struggling to bring their opponents to justice".

It means that the legal system is hauling writers and journalists to court for expressing specific ideas, in particular criticism of Islam.

In just two years in France, Muslim organizations have dragged to trial great writers such as Georges Bensoussan, Pascal Bruckner, and Renaud Camus. It is the Islamists' dream coming true: seeing "Islamophobes" on trial to punish their freedom of expression.

Charlie Hebdo's physical massacre was therefore followed by an intellectual one: today, Charb's important book cannot find a room in France for a public reading; it should, instead, be protected as a legacy of courage and truth.

Even in French theaters, free speech is being crushed. Films about Islam have been cancelled: "The Apostle" by Carron Director, on Muslim converts to Christianity; "Timbuktu" on the Islamist takeover of Mali, and Nicolas Boukhrief's "Made in France", about a jihadist cell. A poster for "Made in France" -- a Kalashnikov over the Eiffel Tower -- was already in the Paris metro when ISIS went into action on the night of November 13, 2016. Immediately, the film's release was suspended, with the promise that the film would be back in theaters. "Made in France" is now only available "on-demand". Another film, "Les Salafistes", was screened with a notice banning minors. The Interior Ministry called for a total ban.

After the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, the country seemed for a short time to return to normalcy. Meanwhile, thousands of Jews were packing up to leave France. At the request of local Jewish community leaders, the Jewish skullcap disappeared from the streets of Marseille, and in Toulouse, after an Islamic terrorist murdered a Jewish teacher and three children in 2012, 300 Jewish families pack up and left.

In the daily newspaper Le Figaro, Hadrien Desuin, an expert on international relations, compared the last two years to the "phony war" that France did not fight in 1939-40. Paris, while declaring a war against Germany, as it now declares a war against terrorism, simply refused to fight.
For a whole year, France, crouching behind a Maginot Line that it foolishly believed was invincible did not fire a single gun against the Germans who were spreading throughout Europe at the time.
Similarly, General Vincent Desportes explains in his book The Last Battle of France that Operation Sentinel, in which French soldiers are now deployed in the streets, is a "show", and that "the Islamic State is not afraid of our aircraft. You have to attack by land, terrorizing. We have the means to do it, but it takes political courage". According to Desportes, Operation Sentinel "changes nothing".

France's never-begun war on terror also collapsed around the three most important measures: removing French citizenship from jihadists, "de-radicalizing" them and closing their salafist mosques.

There are at least 20 among 2,500 famous radical mosques that need to close now. The Territorial Information Center (SCRT) recommended that there are 124 salafist mosques in France that should close. Only Marine Le Pen has demanded that.
Three days after the November 13 Paris massacres, President Hollande announced a constitutional reform that would strip French citizenship from Islamic terrorists. Faced with the impossibility of finding a shared text by both Houses, as well as with the resignation of his Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, Hollande was forced to cancel the move. It means that hundreds of French citizens who went to Syria for jihad can now return to their country of origin and murder more innocent people there.

The Bataclan Theater -- the scene of a massacre in which 90 people were murdered and many others wounded on November 13, 2015 -- recently reopened with a concert by the performer Sting. His last song was "Inshallah" (Arabic for "If Allah Wills"). That is the state of France's last two years: starting with "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the greatest"), chanted by the jihadists who slaughtered 80 people, and ending with a phony invocation to Allah by a British singer. "Inshallah," said Sting from the stage, "that wonderful word". "Rebirth at the Bataclan," the newspaper Libération wrote as its headline.

The director of the Bataclan told Jesse Hughes, the head of American band Eagles of Death Metal: "There are things you cannot forgive." True. Except that France has forgiven everything. The drawing on the cover of Charlie Hebdo after the massacre -- a weeping Muhammad saying, "All is forgiven" -- was the start of France's psychological surrender.

Left: The cover of Charlie Hebdo after the massacre of its staff -- a weeping Muhammad saying, "All is forgiven" -- was the start of France's psychological surrender. Right: When the Bataclan Theater (where 90 people were murdered in November 2015) recently reopened with a concert by the performer Sting, his last song was "Inshallah" (Arabic for "If Allah Wills").

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

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