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Nation's Snowmen March Against Global Warming | The Onion – America's Finest News Source

Posted on January 25th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Joy Category.

Nation’s Snowmen March Against Global Warming | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

Yes it is getting colder, but don’t be put to sleep by that: global warming is on the rise. The therefore: March against global warming with the nation’s snowmen as an example.

January 25, 2006 | Issue 42•04

WASHINGTON, DC—Braving balmy temperatures and sunny skies, millions of scarfless snowmen and snowwomen gathered in cities across the world Tuesday to raise public awareness about the heavy toll global warming is taking on their health and well-being.
Enlarge ImageNation’s Snowmen March Against Global Warming

Snowmen from across the nation gather at the Washington Monument to protest global warming.

According to organizers of marches in Washington, Atlanta, Montreal, Berlin, London, Reykjavik, and Moscow, global warming is the primary cause of the steep reduction in the snowman population throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Demonstrators worldwide called on their governments to take more aggressive steps to reduce the effects of climate change.

Organizers estimated the crowd at more than 375,000, but D.C. Police Commissioner Charles Stacey estimated turnout at 30,000 whole snowmen, with scattered rounded abdomens accounting for an additional 5,000. Atlanta organizers and police agree that all demonstrators had melted by 11 a.m.

Joe Centigrade, president of the Advocates For Beings Of Frozen Precipitation, spoke at a mass rally Tuesday on Washington’s National Mall.
(more…)

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Nation’s Snowmen March Against Global Warming | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

Posted on January 25th, 2006 by .
Categories: Joy Category.

Nation’s Snowmen March Against Global Warming | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

Yes it is getting colder, but don’t be put to sleep by that: global warming is on the rise. The therefore: March against global warming with the nation’s snowmen as an example.

January 25, 2006 | Issue 42•04

WASHINGTON, DC—Braving balmy temperatures and sunny skies, millions of scarfless snowmen and snowwomen gathered in cities across the world Tuesday to raise public awareness about the heavy toll global warming is taking on their health and well-being.
Enlarge ImageNation’s Snowmen March Against Global Warming

Snowmen from across the nation gather at the Washington Monument to protest global warming.

According to organizers of marches in Washington, Atlanta, Montreal, Berlin, London, Reykjavik, and Moscow, global warming is the primary cause of the steep reduction in the snowman population throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Demonstrators worldwide called on their governments to take more aggressive steps to reduce the effects of climate change.

Organizers estimated the crowd at more than 375,000, but D.C. Police Commissioner Charles Stacey estimated turnout at 30,000 whole snowmen, with scattered rounded abdomens accounting for an additional 5,000. Atlanta organizers and police agree that all demonstrators had melted by 11 a.m.

Joe Centigrade, president of the Advocates For Beings Of Frozen Precipitation, spoke at a mass rally Tuesday on Washington’s National Mall.
(more…)

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NOVA – Deurwaarders door Samir A.

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by .
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

NOVA

Op 14 oktober 2005 doorzoekt de Nationale Recherche de woning van Samir A. in Den Haag. Zijn computer wordt in beslag genomen en onderzocht. In een map getiteld ‘Samir’ vinden digitale rechercheurs een tekst met de titel ‘Deurwaarders’.

Het bestand is een soort autobiografisch verhaal geschreven door Samir A. zelf. In zijn zesde verhoor bij de politie verklaart hij ook dat hij een boek aan het schrijven is. In zijn negende verhoor zegt hij dat hij bij het schrijven niet is geholpen, maar het alleen heeft gedaan.

Er zijn overigens twee versies van ‘Deurwaarders’ aangetroffen. Hieronder staat de langste versie van 25 bladzijden.

Op diezelfde computer vindt de digitale recherche van de Nationale Recherche een versie van het pamflet ‘Lessen In Veiligheid’. Hiervan wordt een andere versie aangetroffen op een weblog van de Leeuwen van Tawhied.

Op datzelfde weblog – dat overigens vandaag door host Ilse Media van het internet is gehaald – heeft ook deze verklaring gestaan. Hieronder enkele citaten uit dat document.

Verklaring omtrent beschuldiging kijken naar perverse video´s

“De propaganda die deze kruisvaarders loslaten zal wel effect hebben op de zwakke gelovigen, dit zien we nadat de Nederlandse media naar buiten bracht dat onze broeder Abu Zubair naar perverse video´s keek zoals amputatie en seks met lijken . Vele moslims kregen hierdoor een slechte beeld van deze broeder die zijn hele leven aan Allah heeft opgeofferd.”

“We voelen ons verplicht om dit beeld dat is ontstaan recht te zetten , daarom hebben we een verklaring opgesteld hoe deze beelden in zijn computer zijn gekomen.”

“Mogelijk hadden de broeders geen tijd gehad om die video´s te verwijderen omdat dat tijd vergt.”

“Wij hopen hierbij dit beeld rechtgezet te hebben en vragen Allah om ons te leiden. En Allah weet het beter.”

“Jullie broeders van de Leeuwen van Tawhied (aug 2005)”

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Protected: NRC Handelsblad – Gouda heeft voorgeschreven Nederlands al verlaten

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gouda Issues.

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Protected: NRC Handelsblad – Hulde en kritiek voor Hirsi Ali

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Expatica's Moroccan community to tackle troublemakers

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Expatica’s Dutch news in English: Moroccans to tackle troublemakers
Moroccan community to tackle troublemakers

24 January 2006

AMSTERDAM – Representatives of the Moroccan community have pledged to act to curb the problem behaviour of an element of Moroccan youths in Amsterdam.

Some 200 people, including imams, young people, youth leaders and concerned parents, met in the Dutch capital on Sunday to discuss concerns about wayward Moroccan youth.

While no concrete measures were agreed to tackle the problems, the organisers were pleased. “Just look at who we have brought together here. That is a start,” one said.

Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen attended the meeting. He said afterwards it was good the Moroccan community recognised there was a problem in relation to an element of the young
people.

“They have indicated that they want to do something about it themselves. It must no longer be the case they remain in the role of victim,” Cohen said.

Cohen warned last week that minor incidents could lead to an outburst as calm in the city is being tested by 100 ‘problem youth’.

[Copyright Expatica News ANP 2006]

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Expatica’s Moroccan community to tackle troublemakers

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Expatica’s Dutch news in English: Moroccans to tackle troublemakers
Moroccan community to tackle troublemakers

24 January 2006

AMSTERDAM – Representatives of the Moroccan community have pledged to act to curb the problem behaviour of an element of Moroccan youths in Amsterdam.

Some 200 people, including imams, young people, youth leaders and concerned parents, met in the Dutch capital on Sunday to discuss concerns about wayward Moroccan youth.

While no concrete measures were agreed to tackle the problems, the organisers were pleased. “Just look at who we have brought together here. That is a start,” one said.

Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen attended the meeting. He said afterwards it was good the Moroccan community recognised there was a problem in relation to an element of the young
people.

“They have indicated that they want to do something about it themselves. It must no longer be the case they remain in the role of victim,” Cohen said.

Cohen warned last week that minor incidents could lead to an outburst as calm in the city is being tested by 100 ‘problem youth’.

[Copyright Expatica News ANP 2006]

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BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure

Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure
By Jane Beresford
Producer, Taking a Stand, BBC Radio 4

Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali wanted to shape her own future
What turns a devout young Muslim woman into one of Islam’s most outspoken critics?

For the Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, it was a long journey that started with an arranged marriage.

She sought refuge in the Netherlands on her way to her new husband’s home in Canada.

“I wanted a chance at a life where I could shape my own future,” she says.

“I knew the risks – being disowned or being shunned by my father and the rest of my family. I took those risks and I don’t regret it.”

Hirsi Ali describes the anti-US attacks of 11 September 2001 as pivotal to her questioning of Islam.

She remembers the moment when she realised that Mohammed Atta, the leader of the hijackers, had studied the Koran, like her, in the mid-1980s.

She says: “I grabbed the Koran and I started to read what Bin Laden had written and… I put (his) citations next to what is written in the Koran and I realised that, yes, a lot of it is part of my religion and what do I think of that?”

Defending principles

She wrote the play Submission to “challenge the conviction that what is written in the Holy Koran is absolute”.

I have come to the conclusion that Islam can and should be reformed if Muslims want to live at peace
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
It was an act that was to lead to the murder of her collaborator Theo Van Gogh.

“I still do feel guilt,” she says.

“Guilt is irrational, but for Theo it was the freedom of expression. He said ‘If I cannot make films in Holland then I am a slave… and I would rather be dead’. And I am just as principled as he is.”

Hirsi Ali now lives under 24-hour armed guard. A note pinned to Van Gogh’s body by the murderer threatened the MP directly.

It read: “You have your principles and I have mine, I am prepared to die for mine, are you prepared to die for yours?”

She says “it’s like the sword of Damocles that hangs above my head. I do realise that”.

“I live like someone who has been told ‘you have some kind of terminal disease – we just don’t know when it’s going to strike’.”

Call for reform

But Hirsi Ali has no intention of being silenced. Submission 2 is in production and Submission 3 is planned.

Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh
Theo Van Gogh was a well-known critic of fundamentalist Islam
“The transition from, let’s say, pre-modern to modern, is something that Judaism and Christianity have gone through and that transition is something that Islam is experiencing right now.

“I have come to the conclusion that Islam can and should be reformed if Muslims want to live at peace… that’s why I need the freedom of expression… for other Muslims to think that through.”

Does she think she will survive?

“Yes,” she says. “And if I don’t, well, I’ve lived my life as I want to live it. So be it.”

See also the post below.

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BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure

Dutch MP defies Muslim pressure
By Jane Beresford
Producer, Taking a Stand, BBC Radio 4

Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali wanted to shape her own future
What turns a devout young Muslim woman into one of Islam’s most outspoken critics?

For the Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, it was a long journey that started with an arranged marriage.

She sought refuge in the Netherlands on her way to her new husband’s home in Canada.

“I wanted a chance at a life where I could shape my own future,” she says.

“I knew the risks – being disowned or being shunned by my father and the rest of my family. I took those risks and I don’t regret it.”

Hirsi Ali describes the anti-US attacks of 11 September 2001 as pivotal to her questioning of Islam.

She remembers the moment when she realised that Mohammed Atta, the leader of the hijackers, had studied the Koran, like her, in the mid-1980s.

She says: “I grabbed the Koran and I started to read what Bin Laden had written and… I put (his) citations next to what is written in the Koran and I realised that, yes, a lot of it is part of my religion and what do I think of that?”

Defending principles

She wrote the play Submission to “challenge the conviction that what is written in the Holy Koran is absolute”.

I have come to the conclusion that Islam can and should be reformed if Muslims want to live at peace
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
It was an act that was to lead to the murder of her collaborator Theo Van Gogh.

“I still do feel guilt,” she says.

“Guilt is irrational, but for Theo it was the freedom of expression. He said ‘If I cannot make films in Holland then I am a slave… and I would rather be dead’. And I am just as principled as he is.”

Hirsi Ali now lives under 24-hour armed guard. A note pinned to Van Gogh’s body by the murderer threatened the MP directly.

It read: “You have your principles and I have mine, I am prepared to die for mine, are you prepared to die for yours?”

She says “it’s like the sword of Damocles that hangs above my head. I do realise that”.

“I live like someone who has been told ‘you have some kind of terminal disease – we just don’t know when it’s going to strike’.”

Call for reform

But Hirsi Ali has no intention of being silenced. Submission 2 is in production and Submission 3 is planned.

Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh
Theo Van Gogh was a well-known critic of fundamentalist Islam
“The transition from, let’s say, pre-modern to modern, is something that Judaism and Christianity have gone through and that transition is something that Islam is experiencing right now.

“I have come to the conclusion that Islam can and should be reformed if Muslims want to live at peace… that’s why I need the freedom of expression… for other Muslims to think that through.”

Does she think she will survive?

“Yes,” she says. “And if I don’t, well, I’ve lived my life as I want to live it. So be it.”

See also the post below.

0 comments.

BBC – Radio 4 – Taking a Stand – Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

BBC – Radio 4 – Taking a Stand – 24 January 2006
Taking a Stand
Listen again to this programmeAudio Help
24 January 2006

Tuesday 24 January 2006 9:00-9:30 (Radio 4 FM)

Repeated: Tuesday 24 January 2006 21:30-22:00 (Radio 4 FM)

Interview series with Fergal Keane, in which he talks to people who, through conviction or circumstance, have taken a stand for what they believe in.

When Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born Dutch MP, wrote Submission, a film attacking what she believes to be the Koran’s endorsement of the subjugation of women, she knew it would cause controversy. She did not however envisage that it would lead to the murder of her collaborator Theo Van Gogh and a life under 24-hour armed guard for her. She talks to Fergal about her journey from devout Muslim to one of Islam’s most outspoken critics, and why she refuses to be silenced.

Listen to the BBC program

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Daily Times – ‘The Girls of Riyadh’

Posted on January 23rd, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Daily Times – Site Edition
‘The Girls of Riyadh’ shocks the Saudi world

By Andrew Hammond

The book centres on four women from affluent homes who must navigate a minefield of rules and taboos on sex, marriage and social caste to get and keep their men

GAY teenagers, predatory lesbians, women drinking alcohol at weddings, husbands with unsavoury sexual demands.

With characters like that, “The Girls of Riyadh” is not your run-of-the-mill depiction of life in Muslim Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most restricted and conservative societies.

Though technically banned here, Rajaa al-Sanie’s frank and sometimes shocking insight into the closed world of Saudi women is making waves four months after its publication in Beirut.

Local press commentators have asked the young Saudi to disown the book for besmirching women in the conservative kingdom and interviewers on Saudi-owned satellite channels have accused her of portraying its men as boorish bores.

But many young people using popular Internet chat rooms have praised Sanie’s debut novel for its honesty. Prominent writers have lauded the work as part of a new trend which, through focusing on the psychology of the individual, suggests that human needs come above the demands of society and religion. “I never imagined the reactions will lead to a big stir,” said Sanie, who wears the Islamic headscarf.

“Men are not used to this sincere and frank dialogue. There is a minority in any society that resists any change – some of them are women.”

Women must be fully covered and accompanied by a male relative in public. Mixing of unmarried men and women is forbidden and women are banned from driving. At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise from “The Girls of Riyadh”.

Minefield of taboos: The book centres on four women from affluent homes who must navigate a minefield of rules and taboos on sex, marriage and social caste to get and keep their men.

Those who fail face rejection and, like many of Saudi Arabia’s moneyed elite, retreat to foreign capitals to lick their wounds in more liberal surroundings.

In one passage, one of the four girls returns from Los Angeles to find that “love in her country is treated like an out-of-place joke that you can have fun with for a while, before it’s removed from circulation by higher authorities”.

In an early scene, women drink at a society wedding “since it deserved a bottle of Dom Perignon”. In another chapter, an effeminate teenager is beaten by a father ashamed of his homosexuality.

And when one of the main characters closes her eyes and prepares herself for what is meant to be her first night of wedded bliss, she is shocked to find her husband “doing what she never imagined.” She hits him, and the marriage is over.

“Society lives some form of ‘paraphrenia’ and the conflict between traditions and modernity is the cause,” the twenty-something Sanie told Reuters. “The reason for the double life is the fear of being rejected and stigmatised by society.” A land of stark contradictions, Saudi Arabia is a tribal society, swimming in oil wealth and a key United States ally that produced 15 of the 19 suicide hijackers behind the Sept. 11 attacks. Sanie cites as an example the Internet, the latest of a series of modern inventions that have taxed hardline clerics who fear the disintegration of Saudi Arabia’s Islamic social model.

Her narrator tells the story of her friends through fictive blog entries that provoke outraged reactions in a national cyber debate – exactly what happened when the novel came out.

“Saudi Arabia has witnessed in just 30 years technological and infrastructural change that took other societies a century or two to achieve,” Sanie said.

“It uses the latest technology, but continues to live with the habits and traditions of the previous century.”

Some Muslims argue that as the site of Islam’s holiest shrines, Saudi Arabia should remain apart from liberal trends elsewhere as a kind of Islamic Utopia where modern technology must be made to fit uncompromising rules of public morality.

But many sense a new political climate since King Abdullah, a supporter of cautious reform, ascended the throne last year. The king has made the promotion of women in society a priority for the country’s economic development but has said any changes will be in line with Islamic principles. Sanie says getting more women into the workplace will be key to social change. Saudi men prefer to marry teachers since their income reflects on the income of the family, she said. “This financial independence empowers Saudi women to express courageously their views in any dialogue.” reuters

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Protected: NRC Handelsblad – Officier: De terreur is erg dichtbij gekomen

Posted on January 23rd, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

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Stationsrestauratie Gouda

Posted on January 21st, 2006 by .
Categories: Gouda Issues, Some personal considerations.

Vanaf 1995 heb ik in Gouda gezeten; eerst als studentvrijwilligeronderzoeker, toen als vrijwilliger en later als coordinator van de SLB en onderzoeker.

In mijn werk als coordinator en onderzoeker waren er verschillende bijzondere plekken waar ik dagelijks was. Naast moskee Nour, was dat ook de stationsrestauratie van Gouda. Nu is dat een simpel koffiehoekje geworden, maar destijds was het een beetje een vale, versleten restauratie waar in het in het niet-rokers gedeelte zo mogelijk nog meer naar rook stonk dan in het rokers gedeelte (en dat zeg ik als roker zijnde). De koffievlekken aan de zijkanten, zaten onder het stof dus dan weet je het wel.

Het interessante van stationsrestauraties is dat daar jan en alleman komt. Ik dus ook. Soms ‘s ochtends al, maar in ieder geval vrijwel iedere avond voordat ik naar huis ging. Soms waren er jongeren met wie ik even een bakje koffie ging drinken, maar meestal wat oudere Marokkanen zoals M.B. vader van enkele kinderen die bij mij kwamen. Een interessante man, moeilijk in de omgang. Niet de intelligenste, maar wel één met het hart op de juiste plaats. Hij kon het niet laten als hij mij zag om zijn hele administratie op tafel te gooien en te vragen of ik het wilde uitzoeken. Wat ik meestal niet deed tenzij het met de kinderen te maken had. Koffiedrinken deden we daar wel. De man had het nodige meegemaakt en zou nog het nodige meemaken.

De stationsrestauratie is ook de plek waar ik te horen kreeg dat Pim Fortuyn vermoord was en daarvoor over ’11 september’. Geen betere plek om veldwerk te doen, hoewel dat ook wel een beetje wijst op beroepsdeformatie. Een gevoel van weemoed kon ik niet onderdrukken toen de restauratie ging verdwijnen; daarmee gaat toch een beetje de ziel uit zo’n station. Een station is namelijk meer dan een station. Het is een kruispunt van zakenmensen, huisvrouwen, ouderen, jongeren, zwervers, drugsverslaafden, studenten. Die allemaal snel en zonder te communiceren snel doorlopen, maar een dwars doorsnede houdt toch even halt bij de stationsrestauratie. En dat maakt het zo leuk; een moment van rust en bezinning tussen twee haastige reizen. Status, aanzien e.d. doen er nauwelijks toe in zo’n restauratie, nou ja totdat ie ‘opgeleukt’ (veel mooier woord dan ‘pimpen’) zoals in Utrecht is gebeurd.

Tsja de stationsrestauratie in Gouda, met vieze stoelen en tafels, waardeloze bediening en ontzettend gore tapijt, de deuren naar het busgedeelte die bijzonder onhandig waren, dat was mijn plekkie. Ik moest er aan denken toen ik het volgende fragment van Nadia en Fatiha las op Wijblijvenhier:

Op een dag zat hij in de stationsrestauratie in Gouda – afgezonderd van de anderen – zich te bedenken wat te doen aan zijn uitzichtloze situatie. Hij was namelijk al een aantal weken in Nederland, had nog steeds geen werk en het geld dat hij had meegenomen begon op te raken.

Hij moest nu echt actie ondernemen, want de kans dat hij weer terug zou moeten naar Marokko werd alleen maar groter. Op het station stonden twee bussen, klaar voor vertrek om de reizigers naar hun bestemming te brengen. Hij volgde zijn instinct en besloot om één van de twee bussen te nemen. Waar de bus hem heen zou brengen wist hij nog niet, maar alles was beter dan niets.

Misschien niet zo bedoeld, maar het is wel heel symbolisch als het gaat om reizen en wat mij betreft ook voor de stationsrestauratie. De hele column kun je daar lezen, maar omdat het over Gouda gaat heb ik het ook hieronder opgenomen. De schrijfsters Nadia Bouras en Fatiha Laouikili maken deel uit van het project ‘Spoorzoekers Cultureel Erfgoed Marokkaanse Migranten’. Zij verzamelen en bundelen verhalen en beeldmateriaal van migranten met als doel het opsporen en bewaren van het cultureel erfgoed van Marokkaanse migranten, die tussen 1960 en 1980 naar Nederland zijn gekomen.

(more…)

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Protected: Het Parool – Waren het eigenlijk wel Marokkanen?

Posted on January 20th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| podium – Allochtone jongeren / Media maken ’straatterreur’

Posted on January 20th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| podium – Allochtone jongeren / Media maken ’straatterreur’

Posted on January 20th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Seminal questions

Posted on January 19th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Seminal questions

About the nudity-and-sex-fatwa:

Seminal questions

As scholars question the place of nudity in marriage, Islamic clerics are hotly debating exactly what sexual practices are acceptable, writes Brian Whitaker

A curious religious debate is raging in Egypt. The question is: should you keep your clothes on when having sex?
(more…)

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Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Seminal questions

Posted on January 19th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Seminal questions

About the nudity-and-sex-fatwa:

Seminal questions

As scholars question the place of nudity in marriage, Islamic clerics are hotly debating exactly what sexual practices are acceptable, writes Brian Whitaker

A curious religious debate is raging in Egypt. The question is: should you keep your clothes on when having sex?
(more…)

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Protected: NRC Handelsblad – Pats, autoruit stuk – en dan snel wegfietsen

Posted on January 18th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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The mayor is a Muslim

Posted on January 18th, 2006 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues, Some personal considerations.

Last year Bolkestein of the liberal VVD talked about who should be the boss of the police. Minister of the Interior (Remkes) or the mayor (in Amsterdam Cohen). According to Bolkestein the Minister of the Interior should be the boss:

We have to deal with a huge problem and everyone knows that. In 10 years Amsterdam has an islamic majority and soon we have an elected mayor (mayors are not elected now in the Netherlands but appointed by the Minister of the Interior – MdK). This means that Amsterdam could have an Islamic mayor who, as Cohen wants, as a mayor is the head of the police.

He is supported in this by Geert Wilders (former VVD MP and now his own political group):

Muslims are and remain welcome in the Netherlands. When they live here, they have to adjust to that dominant culture, ours. When they don’t, then they have a problem and there is the way out. But the immigration of non-Western allochtones should be stopped for five years. Amsterdam PvdA (social democrates- MdK) leader Van Ascher recently said that he saw no problem when Amsterdam has an islamic mayor. For me that would be totally unacceptable. We have to be proud about who we are and fight for that.

The question is what are they afraid of. Why is being Muslim (in the eyes of Wilders) not compatible with Dutch culture? What is threatened when a Muslim becomes mayor? And what does it mean when Bolkestein says that Amsterdam will have a Muslim majority? He seems to know what that will mean because every Muslim is practicing his religion? And what is that religion?

An interesting case for them is the mayor of Brussels. Yes she is Muslim and that seems to be an important aspect: Meet the Mayor of Brussels: She’s a Muslim

Faouzia Hariche (38) is the acting mayor (or “bourgmestre” – burgomaster, from the Dutch burgemeester) of Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of the European Union. Ms Hariche was born in Algeria in 1967. She moved to Belgium when she was seven years old. Though Brussels was historically a Dutch-speaking city and is also considered to be the capital of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium, the city was forcibly “frenchified” after the establishment of Belgium in 1830 by French radicals who used French-speaking Wallonia, Belgium’s southern half, as a power base to conquer Flanders.

Ms Hariche, who replaces Freddy Thielemans whilst he is on sick leave, is bilingual too, speaking French and Arabic but no Dutch.

This has upset many Flemings, who no longer feel at home in their own city with a mayor who does not speak their language. The Belgian regime has encouraged North African immigrants, who come from former French colonies, to apply for Belgian citizenship. This was done in a deliberate attempt to force the Flemings into an ever shrinking minority position in what used to be one of their most important towns.

Like Eerdekens, Faouzia Hariche is a member of the Belgian Parti Socialiste (PS). After 175 years of Belgian rule Brussels has almost completely lost its original Dutch (Flemish) identity. It has been left with an identity vacuum, which is now being filled up by a Muslim identity. While this process is taking place in many West European cities, in Brussels it is the result of a deliberate policy. The Belgian establishment, which includes the Socialists, is afraid of the growing electoral appeal of the Vlaams Belang (VB), a party which aims for Flemish independence, and there are municipal elections in the Fall of this year. The VB is currently the biggest party in Flanders (and Belgium) and all other parties are teaming up in an effort to stop it. Leona Detiège, the Socialist mayor of Antwerp, said in an interview in Knack Magazine on 13 September 2000, that immigrants should be granted citizenship (and the subsequent right to participate in elections) on the grounds that “the VB is currently overrepresented as the immigrants are not allowed to vote.”

In an attempt to persuade the Muslim immigrants to vote for them, the Socialists are selling out to them.

The Muslim influence on Belgian politics has tangible consequences. Secretary Kir wants to demolish the monument commemorating the 1915 Turkish genocide of 1.5 million Armenian Christian civilians. According to Kir, who is responsible for public monuments, the “so-called Armenian genocide” is a hoax, concocted by “imperialists.” Last year Kir lodged a complaint against two journalists who had criticized him for taking part in a May 2004 demonstration to demand the destruction of the Armenian monument. The journalists had described the secretary as a “genocide denier.” On November 14, 2005, a Brussels court ruled against the PS politician, confirming that the Armenian Genocide was a crime against humanity.

The verdict said that the journalists were “by no means wrong” in branding Emir Kir as a genocide denier. It went on to note that this type of clear labelling serves the common good and advances the purposes established by Belgian law to penalize genocide denial. Secretary Kir has appealed against the verdict. Genocide denial is a criminal offence in Belgium. Laurette Onkelinx, the Belgian minister of Justice and the PS deputy Prime Minister, told the Belgian Senate on 17 November that “additional legal and historic research” is needed to ascertain what really happened in Armenia in 1915. Clearly, courting the Muslim vote has led the Belgian government to doubt the Armenian genocide. How long will it take before Belgian parties start questioning the Shoah in order to attract Muslim votes?

In this case the demise of the flemish identity is caused by the french speaking and the Muslims have jumped into this hole in the market. The writer, Paul Belien, is more outspoken about his fears although as far as I can see the acting mayor has given no apparent reason for that. Except perhaps her inability to speak Dutch? But we don’t know about her political views (except she a social democrat) let alone her religious views and practices. It seems to be of little importance in this case. It led another blogger to the conclusion that an ethnic cleansing of Flemish people of Brussels is going on.

One might also say that a Muslim mayor is a sign of integration and upward mobility. But if that is the case, an increase of integration will cause more conflicts, certainly if Muslims and/or Islam is still viewed as detrimental or an enemy to society.

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Yahoo.com on Paradise Now: Palestinian Film Gets Thumbs Down at Home – Yahoo! News

Posted on January 18th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Palestinian Film Gets Thumbs Down at Home – Yahoo! News

About Paradise Now

By ALI DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 17, 4:38 PM ET

NABLUS, West Bank – The Palestinian film “Paradise Now,” which explores the lives of a pair of suicide bombers and just won the Golden Globe for best foreign film, got two thumbs down Tuesday in this tough West Bank city where it was filmed.

Although the film — which snared the Golden Globe in Los Angeles on Monday — has never been screened in Nablus, residents here said the clips they saw on satellite television portrayed the bombers as godless and less than heroic.

“This movie doesn’t help the Palestinian cause,” said an armed Palestinian militant who would not give his name because he’s on the run. “People who go to carry out bombings do not hesitate so much.”

The film tells the story of two Nablus car mechanics who are sent to carry out a double suicide-bombing in Tel Aviv. They shave their beards to blend into Israeli crowds more easily, pray and prepare farewell videos.
(more…)

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Protected: C L O S E R – Brief aan Rita Verdonk

Posted on January 16th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Dutch MPs to decide on burqa ban

Posted on January 16th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Dutch MPs to decide on burqa ban

By Mark Mardell

The Dutch government will announce over the next few weeks whether it will make it a crime to wear traditional Islamic dress which covers the face apart from the eyes.

The Dutch parliament has already voted in favour of a proposal to ban the burqa outside the home, and some in the government have thrown their weight behind it.

There are only about 50 women in all of the Netherlands who do cover up entirely – but soon they could be breaking the law.

Dutch MP Geert Wilders is the man who first suggested the idea of a ban.

“It’s a medieval symbol, a symbol against women,” he says.

“We don’t want women to be ashamed to show who they are. Even if you have decided yourself to do that, you should not do it in Holland, because we want you to be integrated, assimilated into Dutch society. If people cannot see who you are, or see one inch of your body or your face, I believe this is not the way to integrate into our society.”

‘Identifiable’

I interviewed Mr Wilders inside parliament after several security checks. Two tough bodyguards stood close by throughout. This country, once the epitome of easy-going liberalism, is edgier, less tolerant these days.

Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh
Theo Van Gogh was a well-known critic of fundamentalist Islam
Mr Wilders’ name was included on a list of “infidels, who deserved to be slaughtered”, which was found pinned to the body of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.

Van Gogh was murdered two years ago for making the film about women and Islam called “Submission”. It starts with a shot of a woman’s face covered by a burqa. Slowly the camera shows that, from the neck downwards, she’s naked but for a thin veil.

Mr Wilders has explicitly linked his wish for a burqa ban with terrorism.

“We have problems with a growing minority of Muslims who tend to have sympathy with the Islamo-fascistic concept of radical Islam,” says Mr Wilders.

“That’s also a reason why everybody should be identifiable when they walk on the street or go to a pub or go into a restaurant or whatsoever.”

‘Freedom of choice’

Famala Aslam is a Muslim lawyer who has represented women who have stopped wearing the burqa while training as child-care assistants. She would not cover her face herself, but does wear a traditional dress and headscarf from eastern Turkey.

She showed me how that can be adapted.

Banning or isolating a certain group of the population is just asking for problems
Famala Aslam, Muslim lawyer
“Other women are stricter; and they hide the face – you can only see the eyes,” she says. “And other women choose to wear the niqab, and they veil the face totally.”

I asked her what she would say to people who would say: “If you want to fit into the West, live here, wear a business suit; wear jeans – don’t wear what you’re wearing. Don’t wear a niqab.”

Ms Aslam says she believes that the freedom of choice and the freedom of religion is something that people need to fight for.

In the city of Maaseik, in Belgium – which lies a few hundred yards from the Dutch border – a ban on wearing the niqab is already in place. Mayor Jan Creemers said he brought it forward because old people were afraid and children cried when women started appearing in long black robes with their faces covered.

Belgium ban

Women can now be fined 150 euros (£102) if they are found to be wearing the niqab.

“There were six ladies who wore the niqab. I think two or three weeks after the council passed this law, five have dropped it,” says Mr Creemers. “One lady is still wearing it but the last step in the procedure will be that she must go to jail.”

The husband of the woman who defies the ban is being held in connection with the Madrid bombings. But the police here are not too happy with the ban. They say it has made relations with the Moroccan community worse and gives young people a reason to resent society.

Ms Aslam says if the ban becomes law in the Netherlands, some women will adopt the veil as a political statement.

“A lot of women are not fully feeling like Muslims,” she says. “But because of the public opinion, they are feeling like: ‘I have to be a Muslim’. And banning or isolating a certain group of the population is just asking for problems.”

The Dutch government will soon decide whether to ban the burqa. Perhaps it will not become illegal in this marketplace or in the street. But they are likely to ban it in public places like stations, airports and cinemas – something many Muslims will regard as provocation in a Europe increasingly uncertain of its own identity.

My comment: They problably mean Fadime Arslan instead of Famala Aslam.

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BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Dutch MPs to decide on burqa ban

Posted on January 16th, 2006 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Dutch MPs to decide on burqa ban

By Mark Mardell

The Dutch government will announce over the next few weeks whether it will make it a crime to wear traditional Islamic dress which covers the face apart from the eyes.

The Dutch parliament has already voted in favour of a proposal to ban the burqa outside the home, and some in the government have thrown their weight behind it.

There are only about 50 women in all of the Netherlands who do cover up entirely – but soon they could be breaking the law.

Dutch MP Geert Wilders is the man who first suggested the idea of a ban.

“It’s a medieval symbol, a symbol against women,” he says.

“We don’t want women to be ashamed to show who they are. Even if you have decided yourself to do that, you should not do it in Holland, because we want you to be integrated, assimilated into Dutch society. If people cannot see who you are, or see one inch of your body or your face, I believe this is not the way to integrate into our society.”

‘Identifiable’

I interviewed Mr Wilders inside parliament after several security checks. Two tough bodyguards stood close by throughout. This country, once the epitome of easy-going liberalism, is edgier, less tolerant these days.

Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh
Theo Van Gogh was a well-known critic of fundamentalist Islam
Mr Wilders’ name was included on a list of “infidels, who deserved to be slaughtered”, which was found pinned to the body of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.

Van Gogh was murdered two years ago for making the film about women and Islam called “Submission”. It starts with a shot of a woman’s face covered by a burqa. Slowly the camera shows that, from the neck downwards, she’s naked but for a thin veil.

Mr Wilders has explicitly linked his wish for a burqa ban with terrorism.

“We have problems with a growing minority of Muslims who tend to have sympathy with the Islamo-fascistic concept of radical Islam,” says Mr Wilders.

“That’s also a reason why everybody should be identifiable when they walk on the street or go to a pub or go into a restaurant or whatsoever.”

‘Freedom of choice’

Famala Aslam is a Muslim lawyer who has represented women who have stopped wearing the burqa while training as child-care assistants. She would not cover her face herself, but does wear a traditional dress and headscarf from eastern Turkey.

She showed me how that can be adapted.

Banning or isolating a certain group of the population is just asking for problems
Famala Aslam, Muslim lawyer
“Other women are stricter; and they hide the face – you can only see the eyes,” she says. “And other women choose to wear the niqab, and they veil the face totally.”

I asked her what she would say to people who would say: “If you want to fit into the West, live here, wear a business suit; wear jeans – don’t wear what you’re wearing. Don’t wear a niqab.”

Ms Aslam says she believes that the freedom of choice and the freedom of religion is something that people need to fight for.

In the city of Maaseik, in Belgium – which lies a few hundred yards from the Dutch border – a ban on wearing the niqab is already in place. Mayor Jan Creemers said he brought it forward because old people were afraid and children cried when women started appearing in long black robes with their faces covered.

Belgium ban

Women can now be fined 150 euros (£102) if they are found to be wearing the niqab.

“There were six ladies who wore the niqab. I think two or three weeks after the council passed this law, five have dropped it,” says Mr Creemers. “One lady is still wearing it but the last step in the procedure will be that she must go to jail.”

The husband of the woman who defies the ban is being held in connection with the Madrid bombings. But the police here are not too happy with the ban. They say it has made relations with the Moroccan community worse and gives young people a reason to resent society.

Ms Aslam says if the ban becomes law in the Netherlands, some women will adopt the veil as a political statement.

“A lot of women are not fully feeling like Muslims,” she says. “But because of the public opinion, they are feeling like: ‘I have to be a Muslim’. And banning or isolating a certain group of the population is just asking for problems.”

The Dutch government will soon decide whether to ban the burqa. Perhaps it will not become illegal in this marketplace or in the street. But they are likely to ban it in public places like stations, airports and cinemas – something many Muslims will regard as provocation in a Europe increasingly uncertain of its own identity.

My comment: They problably mean Fadime Arslan instead of Famala Aslam.

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Protected: Voetbal.blog.nl | Afellay wil geen moslim van het jaar zijn

Posted on January 15th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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