C L O S E R

nrc.nl – Europa, word nu eens wakker

Posted on June 17th, 2006 by .
Categories: Important Publications.

NRC Digitale Editie 16 Juni 2006

Europa, word nu eens wakker
Markha Valenta

De Amerikaan Bruce Bawer verwijt Europa blind te zijn voor de gevaren van de islam.

Ons continent stevent regelrecht af op zijn culturele en sociale zelfmoord.

Bruce Bawer: While Europe slept. How radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within.

Doubleday, 247 blz. €25,–

Bruce Bawer, journalist en schrijver van boeken over Amerikaanse religie, homo’s en literatuur verhuisde in 1998 naar Europa. En raakte verliefd.

Eerst op Amsterdam, daarna op een Noor. Met hem trok hij in 1999 naar Oslo. In de daarop volgende jaren begon hij zich, reizend door Europa zorgen te maken. Bawer ontdekte namelijk dat Europaeen gevaarlijke indringer binnengelaten had: islamitische immigranten die het erop hadden gemunt Europa over te nemen en haar democratische normen en waarden ondergeschikt te maken aan een antidemocratische islamitische cultuur.

Europeanen lijken er niets tegen te willen of durven doen. Hij schreef er een boek over, een aanklacht tegen West-Europa en wat hij ziet als haar zwakte en onwil, blindheid en hypocrisie. Het is een waarschuwing tegen de fundamentalistische en radicale moslims.

In de golf aan boeken van de afgelopen jaren die voor de gevaar van een oprukkende islam waarschuwen valt een driedeling te onderscheiden.

Er zijn boeken geschreven door professionele islamkenners, arabisten en politicologen (zoals Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington, Bat Ye’or of Hans Jansen). Er zijn boeken die voortkomen uit de persoonlijke ervaring van hun auteurs met een fundamentalistische islam (zoals Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji of de Iraans-Franse Chahadortt Djavann). Dan zijn er boeken van leden van westerse groeperingen die als kwetsbaar voor onderdrukking door de fundamentalistische islam gelden, in het bijzonder vrouwen (zoals de Amerikaanse Ann Coulter en Claire Berlinski of de Italiaanse Oriana Fallaci).

  Bawer, Fortuyn en de NRC

Wel blijkt de ‘morning’s issue of NRC Handelsblad’ vertaald te zijn met ‘de NRC van die dag’.
(more…)

2 comments.

Protected: NRC Handelsblad – Loverboys en radicalen moeilijk te onderzoeken

Posted on June 17th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Pop Culture in the Name of Islam – Daily Muslims

Posted on June 17th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Public Islam, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

Pop Culture in the Name of Islam – Daily Muslims
The following article: Pop Culture in the Name of Islam by YVONNE RIDLEY has gained considerable attention on the World Wide Web. Notwithstanding the presence of several ‘islamic’ boy bands such as ‘Seven 8 Six‘ and ‘Mecca2Medina‘, and not to forget an artist as Sami Yusuf (who is the target of Yvonne Ridley)many people seem to be uncomfortable about the link between Islam and Pop Culture.

I FEEL very uncomfortable about the pop culture which is growing around some so-called Nasheed artists. Of course I use the term ‘Nasheed artists’ very lightly. Islamic ‘boy bands’ and Muslim ‘popsters’ would probably be more appropriate.
Eminent scholars throughout history have often opined that music is haram, and I don’t recall reading anything about the Sahaba whooping it up to the sound of music. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for people letting off steam, but in a dignified manner and one which is appropriate to their surroundings.
The reason I am expressing concern is that just a few days ago at a venue in Central London, sisters went wild in the aisles as some form of pop-mania swept through the concert venue. And I’m not just talking about silly, little girls who don’t know any better; I am talking about sisters in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s, who squealed, shouted, swayed and danced. Even the security guys who looked more like pipe cleaners than bulldozers were left looking dazed and confused as they tried to stop hijabi sisters from standing on their chairs. Of course the stage groupies did not help at all as they waved and encouraged the largely female Muslim crowd to “get up and sing along.” (They’re called ‘Fluffers’ in lap-dancing circles!)
The source of all this adulation was British-born Sami Yusuf, who is so proud of his claret-colored passport that he wants us all to wave the Union Jacks. I’m amazed he didn’t encourage his fans to sing “Land of Hope and Glory.” Brother Sami asked his audience to cheer if they were proud to be British ,and when they responded loudly, he said he couldn’t hear them and asked them to cheer again.
How can anyone be proud to be British? Britain is the third most hated country in the world. The Union Jack is drenched in the blood of our brothers and sisters across Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Our history is steeped in the blood of colonialism, rooted in slavery, brutality, torture, and oppression. And we haven’t had a decent game of soccer since we lifted the World Cup in 1966.
Apparently Sami also said one of the selling points of Brand UK was having Muslims in the Metropolitan Police Force! Astafur’Allah! Dude, these are the same cops who have a shoot-to-kill policy and would have gunned down a Muslim last year if they could tell the difference between a Bangladeshi and a Brazilian. This is the same police force that has raided more than 3000 Muslim homes in Britain since 9/11. What sort of life is there on Planet Sami, I wonder? If he is so proud to be British, why is he living in the great Middle Eastern democracy of Egypt? (more…)

5 comments.

Comment is free: Lost in translation

Posted on June 17th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Comment is free: Lost in translation
Lost in translation

Iran’s president called for Israel to be ‘wiped off the map’ and denied the holocaust. Or didn’t he?

So there we have it. Starting with Juan Cole, and going via the New York Times’ experts through MEMRI to the BBC’s monitors, the consensus is that Ahmadinejad did not talk about any maps. He was, as I insisted in my original piece, offering a vague wish for the future.

A very last point. The fact that he compared his desired option – the elimination of “the regime occupying Jerusalem” – with the fall of the Shah’s regime in Iran makes it crystal clear that he is talking about regime change, not the end of Israel. As a schoolboy opponent of the Shah in the 1970’s he surely did not favour Iran’s removal from the page of time. He just wanted the Shah out.

The same with regard to Israel. The Iranian president is undeniably an opponent of Zionism or, if you prefer the phrase, the Zionist regime. But so are substantial numbers of Israeli citizens, Jews as well as Arabs. The anti-Zionist and non-Zionist traditions in Israel are not insignificant. So we should not demonise Ahmadinejad on those grounds alone.

Does this quibbling over phrases matter? Yes, of course. Within days of the Ahmadinejad speech the then Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was calling for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations. Other foreign leaders have quoted the map phrase. The United States is piling pressure on its allies to be tough with Iran.

Let me give the last word to Juan Cole, with whom I began. “I am entirely aware that Ahmadinejad is hostile to Israel. The question is whether his intentions and capabilities would lead to a military attack, and whether therefore pre-emptive warfare is prescribed. I am saying no, and the boring philology is part of the reason for the no.”

Interesting is also Information Clearing House that gives some insight to the way MEMRI works although it must be said that they acknowledge that MEMRI gives the right translations of Ahmadinejad remarks.

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LENIN'S TOMB: Hadji Girl

Posted on June 17th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Last week the Dutch televisionprograma NOVA was about radicalisation among Muslim youth in the Netherlands. Among other things the director of Forum, Institute for Multicultural Development, commented on a video made by an American soldier in Iraq. Here is some information about it: LENIN’S TOMB: “Hadji Girl”

“Hadji Girl” posted by lenin

Those US troops can’t help themselves. The song ‘Hadji Girl’ has been removed from its spot on You Tube, (cached here), by the original author.

The song has a giggle about the idea of killing an Iraqi family:

The four-minute video, posted anonymously on the Web site YouTube, shows the singer playing a song he calls “Hadji Girl” in which he tells of falling in love with an Iraqi, only to be fired upon by her father and brother with automatic weapons.

As an unseen audience laughs and cheers, the performer – dressed in a green T-shirt and what appears to be camouflage pants – sings about using “her little sister” as a shield against his attackers.

“As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally,” the performer sings. “Then I hid behind the TV and I locked and loaded my M-16; I blew those little (expletives) to eternity.”

The singer also mouths Arabic-sounding words, borrowing phrases from the satiric movie “Team America: World Police.”

It ends: “They should have known they were (expletive) with the Marines.”

In Arabic, the word hajji refers to a Muslim who has made a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, but it is frequently used by U.S. soldiers with various spellings to refer to Iraqis, often pejoratively.

I’ll say the word hajji can be used pejoratively – ‘This is hajji! This is hajji!’. As you will perhaps be able to see from the picture above, the user was called ‘jointheclub85’, and the picture shows a rather lardy shaven-headed dolt grinning loopily.

0 comments.

LENIN’S TOMB: Hadji Girl

Posted on June 17th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Last week the Dutch televisionprograma NOVA was about radicalisation among Muslim youth in the Netherlands. Among other things the director of Forum, Institute for Multicultural Development, commented on a video made by an American soldier in Iraq. Here is some information about it: LENIN’S TOMB: “Hadji Girl”

“Hadji Girl” posted by lenin

Those US troops can’t help themselves. The song ‘Hadji Girl’ has been removed from its spot on You Tube, (cached here), by the original author.

The song has a giggle about the idea of killing an Iraqi family:

The four-minute video, posted anonymously on the Web site YouTube, shows the singer playing a song he calls “Hadji Girl” in which he tells of falling in love with an Iraqi, only to be fired upon by her father and brother with automatic weapons.

As an unseen audience laughs and cheers, the performer – dressed in a green T-shirt and what appears to be camouflage pants – sings about using “her little sister” as a shield against his attackers.

“As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally,” the performer sings. “Then I hid behind the TV and I locked and loaded my M-16; I blew those little (expletives) to eternity.”

The singer also mouths Arabic-sounding words, borrowing phrases from the satiric movie “Team America: World Police.”

It ends: “They should have known they were (expletive) with the Marines.”

In Arabic, the word hajji refers to a Muslim who has made a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, but it is frequently used by U.S. soldiers with various spellings to refer to Iraqis, often pejoratively.

I’ll say the word hajji can be used pejoratively – ‘This is hajji! This is hajji!’. As you will perhaps be able to see from the picture above, the user was called ‘jointheclub85’, and the picture shows a rather lardy shaven-headed dolt grinning loopily.

0 comments.

New Statesman – Books – Losing the plot

Posted on June 17th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism.

New Statesman – Books – Losing the plot

Brendan O’Neill
Monday 12th June 2006
Londonistan: how Britain is creating a terror state within
Melanie Phillips Gibson Square Books, 304pp, £14.99
ISBN 1903933765
From Rushdie to 7/7: the radicalisation of Islam in Britain
Anthony McRoy Social Affairs Unit, 255pp, £20
ISBN 1904863094

Claims that our civilisation is threatened by extremists are exaggerated. Atrocities such as 7/7 reflect the demise of political Islam, not its re-emergence. By Brendan O’Neill
Poor Melanie Phillips. Her new book, Londonistan, which argues that the London attacks of 7 July 2005 were the culmination of a sinister Islamist conspiracy to infiltrate Britain and bring our civilisation to its knees, has hit the shelves just a few weeks after the government’s report into the bombings revealed that, in fact, they were the work of four ordinary blokes with no clear links to al-Qaeda. What Phillips presents as the handiwork of “clerical fascism” looks increasingly like Britain’s Columbine, a murderous stunt executed by four bored and overgrown adolescents who had nothing better to do.

0 comments.