Why Islam Leads to Violence

As Robert Spencer, Pamela Gellar, and others have shown, as far as Islam is concerned, neither this infamous attack nor others before and since are anomalous. Rather, from its origins in the seventh century to the present, from Muhammad to bin Laden, Islam has been animated by a violent impulse

Authors defending this thesis invariably allude to the military conquests of the Prophet, the particularly harsh punitive measures by which Islamic societies deal with transgressors of Islamic law, and any number of passages from the Koran calling for the death of unbelievers. And to be sure, all of this supports their case.

But while such writers may have shown that Islam sanctions violence and oppression, to my knowledge, no one has yet to question, much less explain, why this is so.

Yet when we consider that, historically, geographically, and, most importantly, theologically, Islam is remarkably continuous with both Judaism and Christianity, we should see that this is a question that must be raised. After all, Jews, Christians, and Muslims are of one mind in affirming the divine origins of the Hebrew Scriptures, monotheism, the personal nature of God, God’s justice and compassion, the creation of the world, the orderliness and goodness of the world, and the irreducible individuality of the human person.

Despite these fundamental similarities, it is the followers of Islam alone that have never stopped slaughtering in the name of their God.

Why?

To answer this, I think that we must shift focus from the substance or content of Islamic theology and toward its form or style.

As some critics have plausibly argued, monotheism, being a sort of one size-fits-all concept, expresses a moral universalism that, like all such universalisms, can and has bred arrogance and intolerance in those who endorse it. Judaism and Christianity, however, have tempered this vision. Islam, though, has not. In fact, it is precisely in the Muslim’s objections to Judaism and Christianity that this becomes most clear.

From the Muslim’s perspective, neither Judaism nor Christianity is truly monotheistic. Judaism has always revolved around the historically and culturally-specific experiences of a particular people—i.e. "the Chosen People,” the Jews. And Christianity, with its doctrines of the Blessed Trinity (God is Three Persons in One) and the Incarnation (God entered the flux of history by becoming a man in Christ), compromises monotheism even further.

Islam, on the other hand, steadfastly eschews the messiness of all of the contingencies of time and place with which Judaism and Christianity are ridden. It refuses to trouble itself with "the earthiness” in which its predecessors are mired. That this is true is further gathered by the glaring structural differences between the Koran and the Bible.

The Bible is a historical narrative. It is this narrative framework that constrains the range of interpretations that the text lends. It is the Bible’s sequential ordering of events, its meticulous attention to details, to context, that informs its message regarding the One, True God.

The Koran has no narrative. Rather, it is essentially a collection of divinely issued moral precepts that, devoid as they are of context, are meant to pertain to all peoples—everywhere. In ignoring the context of its emergence and development, Islam also neglects the contexts of those upon whom it seeks to impose itself.

This explains why Islam has not, cannot, assimilate to any institutional arrangements that allow a separation of some sort or other between the eternal and temporal spheres. It is this that accounts for why Islam appears incapable of co-existing for long with any and all potential competitors.

The robustness, indeed, the aggressiveness, of Islam’s universalism stems from the highly abstract character of its theology. That this is the case is borne out by considering that Islam’s disregard for context, for particularity, is shared by the least likely suspect: the modern Western secular ideology.

From at least the time of the eighteenth century to the present, the Western world has been besieged by one sort of utopian fantasy or another that has left blood in its wake. In fact, it was precisely in response to the abstract ideology of the French revolutionaries that modern conservatism arose. The great Edmund Burke credited "the armed doctrine” of "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality,” with fueling the Jacobin’s lust for "universal empire.” Had he lived, Burke would have doubtless seen that all "doctrine” that is divorced from the nit and grit of everyday reality, whether that of the Jacobins, socialists, communists, or fascists, is potentially "armed.”

And he would have recognized that Islam, with its abstract ideology, and regardless of its focus on God, can only be armed to the teeth.


Horrific ordeal of 'Girl D' who was raped injected with heroin, branded and sold for sex at £600 an hour.

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Scottish Universities Hotbeds of Anti-Jewish Sentiment

The greatest problem to tackling anti-Jewish incitement is the denial that there is any such problem. The facts, as we have seen, tell a rather different story.

A charity ball organized by the University of St. Andrew's Jewish Society, guarded by plain-clothes police officers, was held in secret last week after threats were made against staff at the original venue. The increasing security and secrecy surrounding this annual student event is an illustration of the sentiments aimed at Jewish students in Scotland.

The ball was originally supposed to be held at the Golf Hotel in St. Andrews, a small University town on the east coast of Scotland. After a campaign organized by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a number of threats were directed at the hotel's staff, and a number of violent comments were posted on social media, with one protester writing: "Friday we send them into hell."

The Golf Hotel cancelled the event over "safety concerns." One member of the Jewish student society said that the decision to cancel the event was "pathetic…. They [the Golf Hotel] had no right to violate their part of the contract. The Golf Hotel is scared of them. A victory does not come from bullying people into submission, it comes from engaging people and opening their minds."

Although activists from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign [SPSC] were able to pressure the hotel into cancelling the charity ball, it was held secretly at another location, and raised over three times the amount of money for its nominated charities.

The SPSC offers a free book to all new members: Shlomo Sand's The Invention of the Jewish People -- a book the central argument of which is that the Jewish people, as a single collectivity, do not exist. Last year, the group also protested in support of a student at St. Andrews, Paul Donnachie, who was charged and found guilty of racially abusing a Jewish student.

In 2006, the SPSC commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day by performing a reading of "Perdition," a play that claims the Holocaust was a joint venture between Zionists and Nazis. In 2009, the group commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day by running an event with Azzam Tamimi, a spokesperson for the terror group Hamas. And in 2010, the group reproduced the winning entry from Iran's offensive Holocaust cartoon competition of 2006.

Senior SPSC member John Wight has previously promoted a website called the "Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust." Wight has said: "As soon as the scales fall from the eyes of international Jewry with regard to the racist and fascist ideology that is Zionism, the world will begin to emerge from the iron heel of war and brutality in the Middle East."

Similarly, Edinburgh PSC chair Mike Napier has referenced a number of neo-Nazi websites in an article that vindicated the murder of eight Jewish students at a religious school in Jerusalem, on the grounds that the school is "the main educational and training centre of the fanatical Israeli settler movement," and that the students are taught to regard Gentiles as cattle and to use Arabs for "medical experiments" and to send "Arabs to the gas chambers."

The "We are all Hana Shalabi Network" also supported the protest against the St. Andrews Jewish Society. This group campaigns in support of Hana Shalabi, a member of the Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad. In 2012, Shalabi visited Tehran as part of a delegation from the Islamic Jihad movement. In front of the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Shalabispoke of her commitment to "jihad and resistance" and praised the Iranian revolution in 1979 as the "beginning of a new era."

Across Scotland, Jewish students regard the line between anti-Israel activism and anti-Jewish incitement as wearing dangerously thin. Several months ago, a number of Jewish students the University of Edinburgh abandoned their courses because of the "toxic atmosphere" on campus.

Moreover, the University of Glasgow is a participant in a European Union-funded program, "Lifelong Learning in Palestine," in which the Islamic University of Gaza is one of the main beneficiaries. The Islamic University of Gaza is the "the brain trust and engine room of Hamas," the Palestinian terror group that rules Gaza. In 2008, Hamas was using the University to build explosives and rockets for use against Israeli civilians.

In 2011, security guards had to step in to protect Arab-Israeli diplomat Ishmael Khaldi at the University of Edinburgh, after a student mob surrounded him while screaming "Viva, Viva Palestina."

Increasingly, Jewish students' choice over which university to attend is influenced by the potency of anti-Israel sentiment. The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities has reported a rise in the number of inquiries from parents and potential students in the US and Europe about the safety of Jewish students.

In 2011, the British ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, claimed that the image of Universities being "hotbeds of anti-Israel sentiment" was false. University authorities alsodownplay the extent of the campus extremism. Last month, Baroness Warsi, the Minister of State for Faith and Communities, and Nicola Dandridge, the head of Universities UK, both claimed that the problem of university extremism is greatly exaggerated. The facts, as we have seen, tell a rather different story.

more UK news - St George’s flag rejected in Somerset over fears it will offend Muslims

Horrific ordeal of 'Girl D' who was raped injected with heroin, branded and sold for sex at £600 an hour

source

Posted with Blogsy

1940s revolver turned in during weapons collection op

During operation to collect weapons, police find 1940s revolver that belonged to farmers' association member, expected to be passed onto police museum. Entire op collected 2,000 weapons

A "Wobbly" model revolver, used by a member of the Association of Farmers during the 1940s, was one of the finds of an operation to collect unlicensed weapons, carried out in the Northern District. Police noted that 2,000 arms were seized, some belonging to people who were no longer alive. The operation is taking place nationwide.  

"The woman said that her husband's gun was used in the 1940s, when he served in the Irgun underground during the British Mandate,” Danieli added. The gun was made unusable in the Israel Police Headquarters laboratories, and then transferred to the police firearms museum.

Danieli and the gun (Photo: Israel Police, Northern District)

It should be noted that the operation was for the collection of unlicensed (and not illegal weapons), according to a list provided by the Interior Ministry. Weapons collected were sent for ballistic testing at the police laboratories to ensure that they were not used in criminal incidents. After this, they were destroyed. The record for the most weapons collected in the north was at the Illit station, with 300 firearms.

"These are cases where the owner of the weapon is no longer capable of bearing arms, whether because of age, because of health, or because they have passed on," said District Chief Operations Officer, Commander Eli Krispil. "Usually, there is no objection from the owner, except for a few cases in which the gun is a souvenir from someone.”

District Commander Major General Roni Attia, who ordered theoperation, said, "We will continue to invest in finding and collecting unlicensed weapons. Anyone caught with unauthorized weapons, we will deal with according to law

Home front report: High likelihood of chemical terror

Internal report obtained by Ynet points to 'high probability' of chemical terror, says there would be no warning. Gas masks shortage is 'critical,' could harm citizens' resilience and confidence'

A few dozens or hundreds of kilometers away from the Israeli border, amidst the fierce war in Syria, are immense reservoirs of chemical weapons. The IDF tracks with great concern after President Bashar Assad's warehouses, which contain about a thousand tons of various chemicals, while extremists are doing the same. Combining the different elements together and installing them on missile warheads could turn them into a weapon aimed at Israel. An internal report obtained by Ynet reveals a concerning image as to how Israel is prepared for this scenario.

"As of 2010, the preparedness of government offices and authorities against unconventional weapons threat is medium-low," the Home Front Defense Ministry's report states.

The annual report distinguishes between unconventional war and unconventional terrorism, which is "an event in which there is use of chemical, biological or radiological elements to harm and terrorize the population and create pressure and strain on public officials and systems."

Authorities readiness medium-low (Photo: AFP)

As of today there is no change in the level of threat of this kind, but the main difference is in the likelihood of a chemical threat being realized, due to regional instability. "There are many indications about the willingness of regional terrorist organizations to obtain information about unconventional terrorism and get hold of unconventional state reservoirs," the report states.

In regards to the probabilty that unconventional weapons will be used, the report ranks the threats: Chemical terror – high probability and medium severity; biological terror – medium probability and high severity (mainly epidemic); and radiological terror (use of radioactive materials) – medium probability and low severity.

Victim treated for suspected chemical exposure in Syria (Photo: Reuters)

The official report explicitly warns of what the Israeli home front may have to deal with: "The main concern focuses on chemical and biological weapons reservoirs in Syria; loss of control of the regime would bring these materials to a variety of terrorist groups already active in the region. This raises the likelihood of the realization of an unconventional terrorism scenario."

Possible shortage of anti-chemical medicine

The report points to a critical problem that is not at all new and still is not answered: "In terms of distribution of gas masks, the readiness is low. There is a critical gap between the preparedness of the State of Israel against unconventional scenarios and the people's confidence in the State's institutions and guidelines."

Still no solution for the elderly (Photo: Reuters)

Millions have not received gas masks (Photo: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)

Since the gas masks distribution project began in 2010, 4.6 million kits were handed out, which account for 58% of the population. Of these, 3 million kits were distributed in threatened areas, 77% to institutions and 57% to essential enterprises. "In crisis situations, it would be possible to activate the 'cornerstone' program to distribute the rest of the stock (within) eight days and three additional organization days, and the expected shortage after using the entire budget stands at 2.5 million gas masks. In addition, as of now, there is no proper solution for the elderly."

The relatively positive news, according to the report, is regarding the state of preparedness of relevant emergency and rescue agencies, defined as "primary responders": "They have acquired protective equipment, revised procedures and performed exercises."

The preventive unconventional terror plans were ranked medium on public information, medium-well on public perception and training, and medium-well on exercising. Level of prevention, national crisis management and medical and primary responders systems all ranked at "high level of readiness."

In regards to medicine, the immunization stock was defined "at a good level, yet lower compared to previous years. Medicine stock for chemical events is at a good level, yet due to lack of budgeting will open up a gap towards the end of the year. Antibiotics stock is at a good level, in addition to cooperation on the subject with Germany and the US." In general, the report warns about low levels of awareness among the haredim and Arabs.

Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan said that the report "exactly shows the starting point in which I enter this role. There are places in which an excellent job was done, and places with imparities, lots of them. This report is a roadmap for our activity since it is clear, according to all estimates, that the home front and the public will be in the center of future conflicts, and we saw that very well in recent years."

The Defense Ministry's National Emergency Week, which will be launched in a week and a half, that will address unconventional threats, among other things. According to Erdan, "Israel must accelerate sheltering, create individual-level solutions and assist municipalities to get shelters and overall preparedness. I also intend on working with other strategically important civil agencies and ensure their emergency readiness.

"Especially today, when we discuss the State budget, it is obvious there should be proper allocation of resources, and we should enact the Home Front Law that gives the Home Front Defense Ministry the authority to act, and sometimes force readiness."

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Horrific ordeal of 'Girl D' who was raped injected with heroin, branded and sold for sex at £600 an hour...BUT hey - don't upset them with St George’s flag

Oh  "well done"  Liberals, how you just  "play into the hands"  of Islam.

St George’s flag rejected in Somerset over fears it will offend Muslims

The Lowdown: A council has decided not fly the flag of St George, England’s patron saint, over concerns that it would offend the 16 Muslims living in the town. 

Eleanor Jackson, a university lecturer in Radstock, Somerset, said that the flag might be offensive because it was also flown during the Crusades 1,000 years ago.

How did this come about?

Reportedly, a council meeting was being held to try and decide what type of flag should be flown on the civic flagpole (which has been recently fixed up) in a town of just over 5,000 residents.

Jackson piped up: ‘My big problem is that it is offensive to some Muslims, but even more so that it has been hijacked by the far right. My thoughts are we ought to drop it [sic] for 20 years. 

What has the council said?

Talking to the press, the council chair Lesley Mansell said: ‘We were presented a list of every flag we can fly as a local authority but the council agreed that we did not want to fly all of them and simply wanted to purchase our own Union Jack.

‘The statement made by one councillor regarding the St George’s flag was not really taken into consideration.’

What was the Muslim response?

Apparently local Muslims said that the concern raised was ‘oversensitive’, and the Muslim Council of Britain said: ‘St George needs to take his rightful place as a national symbol of inclusivity rather than a symbol of hatred.’ We’re not sure when it has been a symbol of hatred, but then what do we know?

What flag was decided upon?

The council eventually decided to buy a Union flag (the normal red, white and blue arrangement) to fly on Armistice Day, as well as a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) for appropriate days, and an In Bloom flag to celebrate the local gardening contest.

Political Beef Verdict:

To raise this concern was a mark of what must be the near-insanity of this university lecturer. Such an incredible level of hypersensitivity does nobody any favours, least of all Muslims, many of whom would consider themselves British or English.

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Hey Look. read on, a true story, as unreal as it sounds, carried out by the people and the "religion" you don't want to upset with a flag...... Wake up and get real....

Horrific ordeal of 'Girl D' who was raped injected with heroin, branded and sold for sex at £600 an hour

• Mohammed Karrar plied girl with drink and drugs and raped her
• She then became his ‘property’ and a sex slave
• Was loaned out to abusers around the country for up to £600 an hour

The ordeal for one of the victims began after she became desperate for love and attention because she was forced to care for her sick parents.

So when Mohammed Karrar entered her life, bought her perfume and treated her like an adult, she believed in him. But the ‘nicey-nicey honeymoon period,’ as she described it, would last barely a year.

After grooming her, Karrar made sure she was ‘out of it’ on drink and drugs before raping her on his sofa.

Abuse: Mohammed Karrar, 38, left,  and his brother Bassam Karrar, 33, right, forced the young girl to have sex with one of them while she performed a sex act on the other

From that moment she became his ‘property’ and a sex slave loaned out to abusers around the country for up to £600 an hour.

Over five years she was repeatedly attacked in what she described as ‘torture sex’. Injected with heroin, she was sold to groups of Asian men who violently gang-raped her in bedsits and guesthouses around Oxford and elsewhere.

The victim identified as Girl D for legal reasons, frequently broke down in tears giving evidence via videolink as she described her horrific ordeal.

Following the rape, Karrar’s sadistic attacks became commonplace and sometimes he made ‘porn’ movies of her.

If she refused, he would beat her up and threaten her with weapons, once beating her with a baseball bat. 

He even raped the girl, who came from a troubled family, at the home she shared with her parents

Abuse was carried out at the Nanford Guest House in Oxford. Pictured is a room at the guest house

Karrar and his brother Bassam, who have been found guilty along with five other men of a string of sex crimes, forced her to have sex with one of them while she performed a sex act on the other.

Sobbing as she recalled telling Karrar about her pregnancy, she said: ‘He was f***ing fuming. He said I should have been a bit more responsible.’ 

Given two ‘ecstasy-like’ tablets, she was driven to a house in Reading where she was forced to undergo an illegal abortion using a long hook.

The teenager said she could not remember much of the procedure, but believes it took place on a hard living room floor. No doctors or nurses were present, there were no painkillers or medication.

On one occasion, Karrar branded her flesh with hot metal.

‘He was branding me so that if I ever had sex with someone else, people would know I was his,’ she said.

Convicted: Seven members of a paedophile ring were found guilty at the Old Bailey yesterday of a catalogue of charges involving vulnerable underage girls who were groomed for sexual exploitation

Over the following four years Karrar took the girl around the country and sold her for ‘£600 a time’. 

She was made to wear short skirts and bikini tops before being repeatedly raped. Parties were held at which she was asked to meet the sexual requirements of up to 15 ‘important guests’.

She later moved into a foster family away from Oxford and the nightmare stopped.

Two years later she met Karrar after he convinced her he had changed.

During a conversation at his home she demanded to know why he had abused her and sold her for sex. He became angry and raped her a final time.

One victim said she had been so brainwashed by her abusers that even now she sometimes failed to see the evil in the men who had raped her.

Known only as ‘Girl Three’, she endured three years of abuse at the hands of the gang.

‘It was brainwashing. Even to this day I can almost say, “They were OK”,’ she said. ‘It’s delusional. 

They turned me against my mum. They knew everything that they had to say to get a vulnerable person, a young person, on their side.’

Like many of the victims, she had experienced abuse as a child and was in care.

She was later adopted but rebelled by running away and drinking.

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Muslims Demand Germany "Make Islam Equal to Christianity" - WHILE - UN Pressures Germany to Bow to ‘Hate Speech’ Hysteria

Muslims attending the German Islam Conference were apparently offended by the insinuation that Islam could be radical or violent.

A major conference on German-Muslim relations has ended in failure after Muslims attending the event refused to acknowledge the government's concerns about the threats to security posed by radical Islam.
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich had wanted the eighth annual German Islam Conference, held in Berlin on May 7, to focus on finding ways the government could work together with "moderate" Muslims in Germany to combat Islamism and extremism.

But Muslims attending the gathering were apparently offended by the insinuation that Islam could be radical or violent, and demanded instead that the German government take steps to make "Islam equal to Christianity" in Germany.

The German Islam Conference was launched by former Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in 2006, and has been billed as the "central forum for dialogue" between German politicians and representatives of the estimated 4.3 million Muslims now living in Germany.

The stated aim of the annual event -- where Muslim organizations and individuals are invited to sit at the table with representatives from federal, state and local government -- is to promote Muslim integration into German society.

This year's event was focused around three main themes: institutional cooperation between Muslims and the German state; gender equality as a common value, and prevention of extremism, radicalization and social polarization.

Muslims attending the conference evidently wanted to focus only on the first theme, which included "promoting the introduction of comprehensive Islamic religious instruction in public schools, including through conferences and publications." Although the government has already made many concessions in this regard, Muslims complained about German "interference" in selecting the teachers who provide Islam training in German schools.

In respect to the second theme -- gender equality -- the German government had hoped to find solutions to the problems of honor violence and forced marriage. But Muslims refused even to acknowledge any connection between Islam and forced marriage. Instead, they managed to turn the gender issue on its head by demanding that German employers promise not to discriminate against Muslim women who want to wear burkas to work.

The third theme -- the prevention of Islamic extremism and radicalization -- undoubtedly caused the most controversy at this year's conference.

Interior Minister Friedrich had been hoping to enlist the support and cooperation of Muslims at the conference to help in the fight against the radicalization of young Muslims in Germany.

Since taking office in 2011, Friedrich has led Germany's multifaceted response (here, here and here) to the rise of radical Islam there. Friedrich and other German security officials are increasingly concerned about the threat posed by home-grown terrorists inspired by Islamic extremists, who openly state that they want to establish Islamic Sharia law in Germany and across Europe. (A recent poll found that more than half of all Germans view Islam as a threat to their country and believe it does not belong in the Western world.)
But Muslims were perceptibly furious when Friedrich refused to give in to their demands to drop discussion of security-related aspects of Islam at this year's conference.

The director of inter-religious dialogue at the Turkish-Islamic Union for Islamic Affairs [Türkisch-Islamische Union der Anstalt für Religion (DITIB)], Bekir Alboga, complained that Friedrich had rendered the conference "pointless" by bringing "security policy themes too far to the fore." Alboga said the German Islam Conference "makes no more sense in its current form. I do not see any genuine partnership." He added that "we [Muslims] do not want to be seen as being a security factor."

In a speech he delivered at the conference, Alboga used logical gymnastics to blame Germany of promoting "extremism and radicalization" by not doing enough to stop "Islamophobia."

Later, in an interview with the German news agency Deutsche Welle, Alboga said he was hoping that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would be defeated in federal elections in September 2013 so that the Muslim-German dialogue could continue in a more positive way with a new government led by the more Muslim-friendly Social Democrats. "I yearn for a real partnership," he said.

It should be noted that Alboga's DITIB is a branch of the Turkish government, which controls over 900 mosques in Germany. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long used DITIB to dissuade Turkish immigrants from integrating into German society.

Alboga's complaints were echoed by the Secretary-General of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany[Zentralrats der Muslime in Deutschland (ZMD)], Aiman Mazyek, who said the Islam conference "urgently needs a general overhaul" because it is not a "dialogue among equals."

The head of the Turkish Community in Germany [Türkische Gemeinde in Deutschland (TGD)], Kenan Kolat, called on the German government to create a new Integration Ministry that would take the responsibility for organizing the German Islam Conference away from the Interior Ministry.
The director of the Islamic Council of Germany [Islamrats für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (IR)], Ali Kizilkaya, described the German Islam Conference as "a train heading in the wrong direction" because the event is built on "security concerns and mistrust."

The center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), eager to court disgruntled Muslim voters in a desperate bid to unseat Merkel this fall, has jumped on the anti-Friedrich bandwagon with enthusiasm.

The Interior Minister of Lower Saxony, the SPD's Boris Pistorius, accused Friedrich of fomenting "Islamophobia" by making "insensitive comments." Pistorius said the original goal of the German Islam Conference "was to talk about Islam" but Friedrich and his predecessor, Thomas de Maizière, changed the focus to "security and terrorism" and this shift has "alienated" Muslim participants. Pistorius said that after the federal elections, a victorious SPD would re-conceptualize the conference by "carefully separating the concepts of Islam and Islamism."

The parliamentary secretary of the SPD, Thomas Oppermann, accused Friedrich of leading the Islam Conference to an impasse, and said, "We want to put the dialogue with Muslims on a new basis." The Integration Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, SPD politician Guntram Schneider, hinted at what such a "reorientation of the conference" might entail when he complained that the event did not address "Islamophobia."

Potential SPD coalition partners also joined the electioneering. Left Party politician Christine Friedrich Buchholz accused Friedrich of not being really interested in a genuine dialogue with Muslims. Green Party leader Renate Künast said the conference needed a "reset" because Friedrich had "smashed too many dishes."

In any event, this is not the first time the German Islam Conference has ended in failure. The official focus of the conference in 2012 was to find ways to deal with the spiraling rates of forced marriages and domestic violence among Muslims in Germany.

But Muslim representatives attending that event were in no mood for compromise. Then, like now, they refused to accept responsibility for any of the innumerable irritants in German-Muslim relations. Instead, they insisted that the German government amend its "misguided" approach to Muslim integration.
The 2012 event ended without a joint press conference because of lingering Muslim pique at "offensive" comments that were allegedly uttered at the press conference that ended the 2011 event.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org


UN Pressures Germany to Bow to ‘Hate Speech’ Hysteria

A recent decision by the United Nation’s (UN) Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination(CERD) foreshadows an ominous future for free societies should Muslim entities like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) achieve their goal of having “Islamophobia” defined internationally as a form of prejudice.

Former German central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin has got himself in trouble with the UN, as the Turkish Union in Berlin-Brandenburg (Türkischer Bund in Berlin-Brandenburg or TBB) stated with satisfaction in an April 18, 2013, German-language press release.  The spokesman of this German-Turkish interest group, Hilmi Kaya Turan, praised a February 26, 2013, “historic decision” by the CERD condemning Germany for not having prosecuted Sarrazin’s criticism of Arab and Turkish immigrants.

Sarrazin, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands or SPD), produced astorm of controversy with his August 2010 book Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab: Wie Wir Unser Land aufs Spiel Setzen (“Germany Abolishes Itself:  How We Are Risking Our Country”).  In the context of this controversy, CERD’s detailed 19-page decisionextensively excerpted in English translation a fall 2009 interview with Sarrazin.  In the interview, the Berlin magazine Lettre International discussed some of the upcoming book’s themes.

CERD complained that “[i]n this interview, Mr. Sarrazin expressed himself in a derogatory and discriminatory way about social ‘lower classes’, which are not productive’ and would have to ‘disappear over time’ in order to create a city of the ‘elite’.”  Sarrazin specified that about 20% of Berlin’s population depended on welfare payments, which he wanted to cut, “above all to the lower class.”

Berlin’s indigent included within the immigrant population a “large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose numbers have grown through erroneous policies, have no productive function, except for the fruit and vegetable trade.” Compounding the problem for Sarrazin was a birthrate among Arabs and Turks about three times their percentage of the population.  Sarrazin thereby saw “Turks…conquering Germany just like the Kosovars conquered Kosovo: through a higher birth rate.”  Sarrazin “wouldn’t mind if” these immigrants “were East European Jews with about a 15% higher IQ than the one of Germans.”  Central to Sarrazin’s thesis was the assumption that “human ability is to some extent socially contingent and to some extent hereditary.” Sarrazin’s “solution to this problem” was “to generally prohibit influx, except for highly qualified individuals and not provide social welfare for immigrants anymore.”

As noted by CERD, Sarrazin’s interview comments prompted on October 23, 2009, a criminal complaint by the TBB under the German Criminal Code’s Article 130 against “Incitement to Hatred” (Volksverhetzung).  Yet upon review, German prosecutors suspended their investigations on November 23, 2009, deciding that Sarrazin’s views fell under the protection of free speech contained within Article 5 of Germany’s Basic Law (Grundgesetz).  Prosecutors quoted by CERD had judged Sarrazin’s statements as a “contribution to the intellectual debate in a question…very significant for the public.”

Following this domestic defeat, the TBB turned in 2010 to Article 14 of CERD’s governing convention (Article 14), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.  Article 14 provides that the CERD may “consider communications from individuals or groups of individuals within” a consenting State Party’s “jurisdiction claiming to be victims of a violation by that State Party of any of the rights set forth in this Convention.”  In response, CERD agreed with TBB that Sarrazin had made discriminatory comments and that the German “State party failed to provide protection against such discrimination.”  CERD thus wanted the “State party” to “review its policy and procedures…to give wide publicity to the Committee’s Opinion,” and to deliver “within 90 days, information from the State party about the measures taken.”

CERD’s decision did not involve Islam directly, for Sarrazin had referenced the ethnicity of Arabs and Turks, not their majority-Muslim faith.  Yet CERD’sdecision noted various party submissions according to which in Germany the “labels ‘Turks’ or ‘Arabs’ are applied as synonyms for Muslims.”  Citing various evidence examples, CERD agreed with one submission that “Mr. Sarrazin’s statements led to public vilification and debasement of Turks and Muslims in general.”

Any such foreign judgment of a country raises sensitive questions of national sovereignty, particularly when involving limitations of free speech.  Sarrazin’s case was no exception, especially in light of CERD members mocked by the German conservative website Politically Incorrect as “torches of democracy and human rights.” Analyzing this roster, Germans might well wonder what they could learn in equality under the law from members hailing from Algeria, Burkina Faso, China, Niger, Pakistan, Russia, Togo, and Turkey, among other countries.

The Sarrazin case exemplifies how international law and its institutional developments can impact domestic matters.  Observers of the OIC, an international organization of 57 majority-Muslim nation-states (including “Palestine”), would be well advised to keep Sarrazin in mind when considering the OIC’s longstanding campaign against “Islamophobia.” This campaign would only too willingly extrapolate from Sarrazin’s comments about Arab and Turk immigrants, however controversial, to a condemnation of criticizing Islamic ideas as well.

Defenders of free speech should beware.  The transnationalist, multiculturalists and OIC have a new mechanism to override domestic legal hate speech decisions.  Precedent is slowly but surely being set. 

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Posted with Blogsy

Palestinian funeral photo chosen as picture of year might be fake

More media-bias...rather Lies against Israel.. Amazing what you can do with photoshop.

Website claims lab investigation revealed World Press Photo's picture of year of Palestinian funeral procession for children killed in Gaza comprised of number of different photos, seriously enhanced

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen's photo titled "Gaza Burial" portraying a Gaza funeral procession for children killed during Operation Pillar of Defense, is inspiring controversy worldwide in recent days, but this time for artistic – and not political – reasons.

The reason - tech blog Extremtech claims the picture underwent massive manipulation and was put together from a number of different photographs with the help of photoshop.

Despite the fact that Operation Pillar of Defense ended with a considerably low number of civilian fatalities in comparison to Operation Cast Lead four year earlier, upon publication, Hansen's picture hit Israeli hasbara missions hard.

Dr. Neal Krawetz from Extremtech, claims that a lab analysis – in which he specializes – revealed Hansen's photo underwent serious "enhancement" and is a fake or at least "digitally modified."

According to Extremtech's report, "The photo itself is almost certainly a composite of three different photos, with various regions spliced together from each of the images, and then further manipulation to illuminate the mourners’ faces."

Krawetz further claims the picture was reedited not long before the World Press Photo's submission deadline in January.

"I cannot tell you about the original picture, but I can tell you that the controversial picture is definitely not original." Krawetz is quoted as saying, adding "it appears to have been modified specifically for this contest."

It is important to stress that the claim is not that Hansen did not shoot the funeral procession of children killed during the operation, but rather that the amount of editing that went into it afterwards exceeded professional standards and those of the common sense conception of photo journalism to such an extent that it can no longer be considered objective.

In wake of the blogger's claims, there are those calling for the World Press Photo, the organization behind the prize – considered to be the most prestigious in the world of photojournalism – to strip Hansen of his prize.

Hansen himself has rejected the claims and said that he only used digital tools to put the final touches on the photo, to brush it up and improve the colors and contrast because of the uneven distribution of light in the alley in which the photo was taken.

Hansen said the "photograph is certainly not a composite or a fake," adding that "I have never had a photograph more thoroughly examined, by four experts and different photo-juries all over the world."

The World Press Photo supported Hansen's claims, saying it had reviewed the picture. "It is clear that the published photo was retouched with respect to both global and local color and tone," it said.

"Beyond this, however, we find no evidence of significant photo manipulation or compositing. Furthermore, the analysis purporting photo manipulation is deeply flawed," the organization concluded.

Nonetheless, it decided to send to picture for an additional analysis which also rejected the claims, "therefore ruling out any question of a composite image,” a statement from the organization said.

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