Polity's place in a polite society
(28Feb06) “…In Britain , the politics of behaviour is replacing the politics of class. Tony Blair's Labour Government has shown little interest in traditional socialist issues such as income redistribution, but it has enacted a stream of legislation aimed at curbing the growth of the yobbishness and antisocial behaviour that is blighting the lives of many working-class people. There is no sign yet of Australia developing its own "Respect Agenda", but the country is not immune from the problems Britain is experiencing…There are some common causes for the collapse of civility in Britain and Australia …” Polity's place in a polite society by British Labor MP Frank Field in The Australian “…Far and away the most important is that, not so long ago, the formation of our characters was not left to chance but today, increasingly, it is. In the past, family played a key role in shaping character, and its influence was reinforced by a rich array of civil institutions including churches, Sunday schools, trade unions, friendly societies and mutual aid clubs…. At the root of our present discontent is the failure of many families to nurture their young properly. This is most extreme in Britain , where the growth of single-parent families has been underpinned by the loss of manufacturing jobs offering wages on which young men can finance a family….Something needs to be done urgently to restore the ethic of respect in our society. Our societies cannot survive for long if they are careless about safeguarding their own futures…”
The United Nations is UNbelievable
(28Feb06) “…Sexual abuse charges against U.N. peacekeepers remain high due to the organization's "culture of dismissiveness," according to Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, Jordan's U.N, ambassador….There have been allegations against 295 troops, police and other U.N. staff. So far, 170 have been sent home or dismissed: 17 civilians, 16 police officers and 137 military personnel (six of them commanders)… If the U.N is incapable of stopping its own personnel from abusing the people they are there to protect, what is it capable of doing?" The United Nations is UNbelievable by Dimitri Vassilaros in the Tribune-Review “…The U.N. has 18 peacekeeping missions and more than 85,000 people on staff from more than 100 countries…To put this monstrous criminal enterprise in perspective, let's pretend the United States was responsible for this madness instead of the United Nations. Instead of the crime scenes being (among other places) in West Africa or the Congo , let's say they were at Abu Ghraib prison or the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay . And let's say it lasted days instead of decades. How many of the U.N.'s 191 member nations would have been horrified and outraged?
Needing to wake up, West just closes its eyes
(27Feb06) “…Something very remarkable is happening around the globe and, if you want the short version, a Muslim demonstrator in Toronto the other day put it very well: ''We won't stop the protests until the world obeys Islamic law.'' Stated that baldly it sounds ridiculous. But, simply as a matter of fact, every year more and more of the world lives under Islamic law: Pakistan adopted Islamic law in 1977, Iran in 1979, Sudan in 1984. Four decades ago, Nigeria lived under English common law; now, half of it's in the grip of sharia, and the other half's feeling the squeeze, as the death toll from the cartoon jihad indicates…” Needing to wake up, West just closes its eyes by Mark Steyn “…What, in the end, are all these supposedly unconnected matters from Danish cartoons to the murder of a Dutch filmmaker to gender-segregated swimming sessions in French municipal pools about? Answer: sovereignty. Islam claims universal jurisdiction and always has. The only difference is that they're now acting upon it. The signature act of the new age was the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran : Even hostile states generally respect the convention that diplomatic missions are the sovereign territory of their respective countries. Tehran then advanced to claiming jurisdiction over the citizens of sovereign states and killing them -- as it did to Salman Rushdie's translators and publishers…”
All praise Prof. Alan Dershowitz
(26Feb06) “…Next week a vastly important book will be published: "Preemption, A Knife That Cuts Both Ways" by Alan Dershowitz….The premise of his book is that in this age of terror, there is a potential need for such devices as profiling, preventive detention, anticipatory mass inoculation, prior restraint of dangerous speech, targeted extrajudicial executions of terrorists and preemptive military action, including full-scale preventive war….It challenges our traditional reliance on a model of human behavior that presupposes a rational person capable of being deterred by the threat of punishment…” All praise Prof. Alan Dershowitz by Tony Blankley The Washington Times “… he argues, to democratically decide now, before the next disaster, this new jurisprudence — the rules by which we will take these necessary actions….Dershowitz updates the maxim thusly: "Is it better for ten possibly preventable terrorist attacks to occur than for one possibly innocent suspect to be preventively detained?"… But as Mr. Dershowitz points out, while the threat itself is not imminent, "the opportunity to prevent the threat will soon pass." Once they have the weapons it is too late…We need new standards for a new age….The new realities of unacceptable risk require new — and lower — standards of certainty before defensive action is permitted…”
Militant Islam invades school curriculum
(25Feb06) “A radical Muslim thinker who inspired al-Qa'ida is being served up as subject matter for high school students in NSW.
Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian militant hanged in 1966 but still a powerful influence on violent Islamists, and the Pakistani fundamentalist Sayyid Maududi are the only two modern Muslim thinkers on a revised syllabus for studies of religion… To pick these two writers is like representing modern German culture with Marx and Hitler." Militant Islam invades school curriculum Bernard Lane The Australian “… Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, commentators have pointed to Qutb as the intellectual inspiration for violent campaigns against the West and Muslim states seen as corrupted by modern values. Among those influenced by Qutb's writings is Ayman al-Zawahiri, seen as the intellectual force of al-Qa'ida. But Professor Shboul doubted Qutb would have approved of al-Qa'ida's violence….”
Islamic Leaders Step Out From Behind the Curtain
(25Feb06) “…It should be obvious to even the most unobservant among us that the choreographed reaction to the Danish editorial cartoons has been a very methodical and well-thought-out plan by intellectual Islamic leaders… The world-wide “outrage” expressed by Muslims was not spontaneous…. As with any entity, there must be someone in charge. There must be someone calling the shots and approving the plans. The world now knows who a few of those people are… this Islamic government is not new. In 2003, a group of 225 Islamist clerics, scholars, and businessmen, including Laban and Al-Qaradawi, met in Saudi Arabia to plan the future actions of Islam and to network the supporters of global jihad against the evil “crusading” West…” Islamic Leaders Step Out From Behind the Curtain by Barbara J. Stock “…Islam needed direction and leadership and this group was there to provide just that… Certainly, not all the plans can be roadside bombs and stupid young men willing to blow themselves up. Political plans must be made. Changes in the West must come from within. The world is now witness to some of those plans… So what has this foray into politics won for Islam? It has gotten Islam plenty…. Australia has passed a law making it an offense to “blaspheme” Islam. Any person convicted must pay a fine and apologize to Muslims everywhere. Daniel Scot has already been arrested under the new law and is forcing what he considers to be a violation of his rights to the highest court in the land… The Islamic government's message was received loud and clear. Do not speak badly about Islam. Do not dare to tell the truth about Islam or it will send the expendable pawns out to riot and kill and burn ….”
Europe sleeps, Islam seethes (a review) by Scott C. Yates
(25Feb06) “…The sweeping and dramatic shift going on in Europe is chronicled to stunning effect in Bruce Bawer's new book, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within. The title, I think, underplays the case made in the book that Western European governments are actively financing a mass migration of fundamentalists, and shying away from enforcing any laws against the immigrants, even laws against rape and murder. Those governments decry as racist any attempt to prosecute the offenders, thereby protecting the very society that has vowed to destroy them. … Bawer illustrates at length the stunning degree to which European elite have their heads in the sand. With a centuries-long tradition of proclaiming themselves open-minded, while perpetuating their own flavor of a caste-system, the continent is mired in a fog of self-reverential group-think, unable to acknowledge - let alone deal with - their changing world. Europe sleeps, Islam seethes (a review) by Scott C. Yates “..As Bawer points out, the immigrants are fully aware of the stunning demographic swing. He writes: "A T-shirt popular among young Muslims in Stockholm reads: '2030 - then we take over.'" They aren't talking about electing a member of parliament, either. When they say "death to Western Civilization," they aren't using hyperbole - they want so-called "sharia" law, complete with stoning women accused of adultery, etc. Among a massive list of Bawer's unsettling facts about the immigrants is this: Islamist school children in France today are refusing to draw right angles in math class because it looks too much like a Christian cross….This book is thorough, insightful and depressing. It does not end with any kind of silver lining of hope. That said, if you want to understand the car burnings, the killings over cartoons and films, and other outrages sure to come, you won't do any better than While Europe Slept..”
(25Feb06) You seriously and specifically have to wonder about the British and the West more generally:
“The British media had a field day with this month's trial of Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian-born self-styled Islamic "scholar." Charged with a number of violent crimes, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment; he could be out in 21/2 years. ..If Abu Hamza, regarded by many as a buffoon, is such a deadly threat, why is he getting away with such a light sentence? The odd history of 'the hook' by Amir Taheri New York Post “…For 10 years, Britain protected the treasurer of the Islamic Armed Group, the most vicious terrorist organization of recent times — though France, Belgium, Spain and Algeria all wanted him extradited. Abu Hamza must have heard about all that — and that a dozen countries were asking Britain to extradite terrorists who had committed atrocities in their territory, but to no avail…As this month's trial showed, Abu Hamza believed he'd reached a tacit understanding with the British authorities, whereby he was free to plot every crime under the sun against other countries as long as "there is no blood on our streets."(23Feb06) “…It is easy to damn the 1930s appeasers of Hitler — such as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain in England and Edouard Daladier in France — given what the Nazis ultimately did when unleashed. But history demands not merely recognizing the truth post facto, but also trying to reconstruct the rationale of something that now in hindsight seems inexplicable…British intellectuals, like European Union idealists today, wrote books and treatises on the obsolescence of war. Conflicts were supposedly caused only by rapacious arms merchants and profiteers at home, not by anti-democratic dictators who interpreted forbearance as weakness. Winston Churchill was a voice in the wilderness — and demonized as a warmonger and worse…” Appeasement 101 by Victor Davis Hanson “…But deja vu pertains not just to us, but our enemies as well. Like the Nazi romance of an exalted ancient Volk, the Islamists hearken back to a mythical purity, free of decadence brought on by Western liberalism. Similarly, they feed off victimization — not just recent defeats, but centuries-old bitterness at the rise of the West. Their version of the stab-in-the-back Versailles Treaty is always the creation of Israel….Just as Hitler concocted incidents such as the burning of the Reichstag to create outrage, Islamist leaders incite frenzy in their followers over a supposed flushed Koran at Guantanamo and several inflammatory cartoons, some of them never published by Danish newspapers at all…”
The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state
(21Feb06) " Leaving Islam was not easy. According to the literal interpretation of the Koran, the punishment for apostasy is death - and it actually is punished by death in some Middle Eastern states….. Dr Sookhdeo continued to study Islam, doing a PhD at London University on the religion. He is currently director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity….So his claim that, in the next decade, the Muslim community in Britain will not be integrated into mainstream British society, but will isolate itself to a much greater extent, carries weight behind it….The Government, and Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, are fundamentally deluded about the nature of Islam," he insists…They simply do not realise how seriously Muslims take their religion. Islamic clerics regard themselves as locked in mortal combat with secularism…” The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state by Alisdair Palmer Telegraph “…Islamic clerics do not believe in a society in which Islam is one religion among others in a society ruled by basically non-religious laws. They believe it must be the dominant religion - and it is their aim to achieve this….That is why they do not believe in integration. In 1980, the Islamic Council of Europe laid out their strategy for the future - and the fundamental rule was never dilute your presence. That is to say, do not integrate….There should be no compromise over education, or over English as the language of education. The policy of political multiculturalism should be reversed…”
(19Feb06) “…Tired of that old Danish cartoon rage? You've probably caught a virus. Did you hear? The Jews have planted a flu virus to sicken the Arab Nation. At least, that's what the government of Syria is trying to tell the world. MEMRI reports that the government daily Al-Thawra published an article by columnist Abd Al-Rahman Ghunaym suggesting that Israel created the avian flu virus in order to damage “genes carried only by Arabs” ….The suspicion regarding a link between the avian flu and Israel's ‘race bomb' is compounded by a report from the Palestinian Authority, regarding 85,000 good chickens that were buried [by Israel] in fields in the West Bank, and by the fact that the Palestinian Authority was not allowed to take samples from these chickens for testing…” Arab Paranoia Strikes Again from The American Thinker “…Tampering with Arab genes [without affecting] the white race is very difficult. But the Zionists are capable of attempting this [risky] adventure if [they have] a preventive treatment or a [cure for the disease]. Recall that the assassination of Yasser Arafat was carried out by means of biological weapons….Certain activities may have had something to do with Arafat's passing. His autopsy is still top secret . There is at least as much reason to speculate he died of AIDS as there is to suspect poisoning…”
(19Feb06) ‘What is at stake in the controversy over the Danish newspaper Jylland-Posten cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad goes beyond such issues as freedom of the press and free speech. At the heart of this matter is whether triumphalist Islam will succeed in intimidating the West and impose its will on Europe , or, will the West and the Europeans in particular, finally discover their pride and dignity and refuse to become dhimmis? ( Dhimmis are populations of Jews and Christians vanquished by Islamic jihad, tolerated, and allowed to practice their religion, but at a dehumanizing cost) It's the Jihad, Stupid by Joseph Puder “.. The free world must realize that what is happening in Europe is nothing less than a Jihad--a religious war bent on imposing Islamic values and Sharia laws…. It was only a matter of time before the Jihadists would seek to settle the score with Europe and the Europeans...Europe today, much like in the last days of the Roman Empire , is seeking to buy off or appease the “barbarians.” '
(19Feb06) What's wrong with this picture?
We must resist Islamist demand for submission
(19Feb06) “…Civilizations clash all the time, but we are watching the first skirmishes of an epic conflict. Modern Islamism is a totalitarian movement every bit as expansionist as communism was. Both seek to create paradise on Earth, so they feel tremendous latitude in commanding compliance with their programs… Now Islamists worldwide are expanding the scope of their assumed authority and demand submission or violence in ostensibly free countries… We must resist Islamist demand for submission by Jim Hanson “…Osama bin Laden calls to restore the Caliphate across the Middle East, but states directly that is only a base for expansion into infidel territory. Islamism is united in hatred of the West and the need to deflect attention from the huge disparity in quality of life between their states and free ones….Demonizing the West as evil in mosques and schools inoculates the young against their natural desire for the freedom and plenty they can't get at home…”
Union rhetoric drives parents from public schools
(19Feb06) The community wants its own values taught to children, not necessarily those of teachers, writes Kevin Donnelly.
‘While it is wrong to say that education should be values-neutral, the traditional approach is one that sees education as impartial and balanced. Education is not indoctrination, and social engineering should not be confused with critical inquiry and searching for the truth. On reading the 2005 and 2006 Australian Education Union annual general meeting speeches by the union's federal president Pat Byrne, it is clear she is in no doubt on the need to promote certain values and the union's right to shape the social debate and the work of schools…” Union rhetoric drives parents from public schools by Kevin Donnelly The Weekend Australian “..Instead of reflecting mainstream opinions, the AEU, according to Byrne's own admission, champions a left-wing view of the world enmeshed in the culture wars against conservative values… Anyone familiar with AEU policies will know the teacher union, along with other cultural elite groups such as the ABC, teacher academics and assorted artists and intellectuals, consistently attacks Australian society as socially unjust and champions a range of left-wing causes… On being asked why they chose non-government schools, ``respondents talked about the reduction, as they saw it, in educational standards -- a lack of rigour in teaching the `three Rs', a lack of discipline and respect in schools, and poor teaching…”
(19Feb06) Next time you see a piece by Robert Fisk it would be worth bearing in mind this review of his book by Amir Taheri.
“Starting as the memoirs of a veteran reporter covering the Middle East, this tsunami of a book quickly develops into a fierce indictment of Britain and the United States, lumped together as “Anglo-Saxons”, as the principal sources of evil in the world during the past 100 years.…It would take a book as long to challenge Fisk's numerous sensational charges against the “Anglo-Saxons”. But a look at two such charges would show that Fisk's seething anger might have affected his objectivity as a reporter and amateur historian. “ The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East ” by Robert Fisk (A review by Amir Taheri) “..First, he claims that Saddam Hussein was installed and maintained in power by the “Anglo-Saxons” although neither Britain nor the United States played any role in the Ba'athist coup in 1968. In fact between 1958 and 1984 the US didn't even have an ambassador in Baghdad ….Fisk's second claim is that the US created the Taliban to fight the Soviets. In fact, the Taliban were created by the Pakistani military intelligence in 1992, three years after the Soviets had left Afghanistan . Even when the Taliban captured Kabul and claimed to be the government of Afghanistan , the US and Britain refused to recognise their regime and denied them the Afghan seat at the United Nations….Fisk has a low opinion of his journalist colleagues whom he labels either as “gullible”, “stupid”, or “hatchet men”... Fisk's hatred of the “Anglo-Saxons” is matched only by his hatred of Israel which he accuses of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity…”
(19Feb06) “…It is now abundantly clear that the recent murderous protests over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper last September were anything but spontaneous. The actions of Islamist agitators and financiers have deliberately drummed up rage among far-flung extremists otherwise ignorant of the Danish press…As first reported by the Italian terrorism expert Lorenzo Vidino on the Counterterrorism Blog, one of Denmark's leading Islamists, Imam Ahmed Abu-Laban, led a delegation late last year to visit influential figures in the Muslim world…” The Cartoon Jihad by Olivier Guitta “…Even after the riots began, Abu-Laban continued his meddling. On February 4, he told Islamonline.net that Danish demonstrators were going to burn Korans in the streets of Copenhagen , a falsehood that nevertheless added fuel to the fire… Abu-Laban's extremist connections are well established. A Palestinian who is close to the Muslim Brotherhood, he was expelled from the United Arab Emirates in 1984 for his fiery sermons and denunciations of local leaders…”
Arab and Muslim Identity Is Based on Hostility towards the Other
(15Feb06) Whenever we question America 's values, we must also question our own values. If we ask any question about the American occupation of Iraq , we must also ask: Was Saddam Hussein anything less than the worst occupier of Iraq ? What does identity mean for the Arab and the Muslim? His identity is based on two elements. The first is hostility towards the other. In other words, I define myself as the enemy of so-and-so. The second is entrenching this hostility.” Arab and Muslim Identity Is Based on Hostility towards the Other by 'Uqab Saqr China did not need to send airplanes to crash into towers, to kill innocent people, and to distort the Chinese culture, in order to be in opposition [to the U.S.]. China has built a strong economy, established a network or relations with the markets, and developed scientific capabilities.
We were brought up to hate and we do
(15Feb06) ‘The cartoons did not cause the disease of hate that we are seeing in the Muslim world on our television screens at night - they are only a symptom of a far greater disease…I was born and raised as a Muslim in Cairo, Egypt and in the Gaza Strip…In school in Gaza, I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was considered a sign of defeat and weakness. At school we sang songs with verses calling Jews "dogs" (in Arab culture, dogs are considered unclean). ….Criticism and questioning were forbidden. When I did either of these, I was told: "Muslims cannot love the enemies of God, and those who do will get no mercy in hell." As a young woman, I visited a Christian friend in Cairo during Friday prayers, and we both heard the verbal attacks on Christians and Jews from the loudspeakers outside the mosque. They said: "May God destroy the infidels and the Jews, the enemies of God. We are not to befriend them or make treaties with them." We heard worshippers respond "Amen".' We were brought up to hate and we do by Nonie Darwish, Telegraph ‘My friend looked scared; I was ashamed. That was when I first realised that something was very wrong in the way my religion was taught and practised. Sadly, the way I was raised was not unique. Hundreds of millions of other Muslims also have been raised with the same hatred of the West and Israel as a way to distract from the failings of their leaders. Things have not changed since I was a little girl in the 1950s….But the rallies and riots come from a public ripe with rage. From my childhood in Gaza until today, blaming Israel and the West has been an industry in the Muslim world. Whenever peace seemed attainable, Palestinian leaders found groups who would do everything to sabotage it….Is it any surprise that after decades of indoctrination in a culture of hate, that people actually do hate? Arab society has created a system of relying on fear of a common enemy. It's a system that has brought them much-needed unity, cohesion and compliance in a region ravaged by tribal feuds, instability, violence, and selfish corruption. So Arab leaders blame Jews and Christians rather than provide good schools, roads, hospitals, housing, jobs, or hope to their people'.
(15Feb06) Several short and punchy “cut and paste” observations on “Toongate”
(12Feb06) Thank God for the Pajama Clad Revolutionaries, the universe of the Bloggers. Here's the proof that “Cartoongate” is a hypocritical beat up of criminal dimensions. This is the Egyptian newspaper Al Fager of October 17 th 2005 . As is pointed out this was in the holy month of Ramadan and there was not a single protest called in Cairo against either Denmark or the newspaper. To further compound the hypocrisy check out The Free Copts