C L O S E R

The Middle East's Symbolic Slugfest – Los Angeles Times

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

The Middle East’s Symbolic Slugfest – Los Angeles Times
The Middle East’s Symbolic Slugfest
Arabs strike, and Israelis hit back harder. Where’s the creativity and courage in that?

An op-ed by David N. Myers, (teaches Jewish history at UCLA).

RECENT EVENTS in Gaza and on the Israel-Lebanon border reveal the extraordinary value of symbols in the region. News of kidnapped Israeli soldiers prompts rejoicing in the streets of Gaza City and Beirut, as Arabs revel in the blow delivered to the powerful Israeli Goliath. Meanwhile, for Israelis, and many Jews around the world, the image of captured soldiers induces a kind of tribal rage that demands the use of overwhelming force. This force is intended, first, to return the soldiers, but no less important, to send a message that Israel’s military might remains as potent as ever.

And so the power of symbols brings Israel and its Arab foes together again in a deadly dance. Driven by the need to protect these symbols, the competing sides have entered into yet another cycle of violence that threatens to plunge the region into a new abyss. Indeed, the current pair of conflicts could easily expand from two to four fronts, if Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s patrons, Syria and Iran, are lured into the battle.

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On the eve, then, of a potentially dramatic escalation, the question arises: Is it worth it? Must the script be followed once again — according to which the two sides enact an almost ritualized series of violent actions and reactions in order to protect their symbols, knowing full well that these deeds will only deepen hatred and mistrust?

Israel, in particular, must weigh these questions before acting further. It was goaded into action by the two sets of kidnappings and accompanying rocket attacks. Instead of adopting a “more restrained and level-headed policy,” as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz counseled, Israel swallowed the bait of the terrorist groups that wanted nothing more than for it to react with massive force and propel the region into chaos.

The evidence now at hand suggests that the reaction has been strategically counterproductive. Israel’s military response in Gaza has been disproportionately harsh, injuring or killing scores of innocent civilians, and its chief Palestinian foe, Hamas, appears to have been considerably strengthened as a result.

On the Lebanese front, Israel’s attacks on the Beirut airport and elsewhere have not only incurred the wrath of Arabs throughout the region but have brought down a rain of rockets on Safed, Nahariya and even Haifa.

Israel has the right to protect its citizens from attack. No self-respecting state would stand idly by while rockets fall on its cities. But a measured, targeted and finite response — and not necessarily an immediate one borne of wrath — would seem a far more prudent course.

Especially mystifying in the current escalation is why Israel seems to be driven more by the symbolic impact of the soldiers’ abduction than anything else. Israel did not respond with the kind of massive force it is now marshaling after the bomb blast in Tel Aviv in January in which nine civilians were tragically killed. Why then react so disproportionately now?

The short answer is an absence of leadership. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert understands all too well the symbolic logic of the Middle East, where an attack always demands a greater counterattack. He forgets that Israel has used backroom diplomatic channels in the past to gain the release of its abducted citizens and that such an approach might work again now (especially because Israel still has some high-profile Arab prisoners in its possession).

Of course, Israel is not solely to blame for the escalating violence. But as a sovereign state with a major army, it has to be the most responsible party. What, after all, can we expect from Hamas or Hezbollah? Before plunging even further into the darkness of war, Israel must weigh carefully the consequences of its actions, lest the force of symbols overtake sound reason.

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The Middle East’s Symbolic Slugfest – Los Angeles Times

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

The Middle East’s Symbolic Slugfest – Los Angeles Times
The Middle East’s Symbolic Slugfest
Arabs strike, and Israelis hit back harder. Where’s the creativity and courage in that?

An op-ed by David N. Myers, (teaches Jewish history at UCLA).

RECENT EVENTS in Gaza and on the Israel-Lebanon border reveal the extraordinary value of symbols in the region. News of kidnapped Israeli soldiers prompts rejoicing in the streets of Gaza City and Beirut, as Arabs revel in the blow delivered to the powerful Israeli Goliath. Meanwhile, for Israelis, and many Jews around the world, the image of captured soldiers induces a kind of tribal rage that demands the use of overwhelming force. This force is intended, first, to return the soldiers, but no less important, to send a message that Israel’s military might remains as potent as ever.

And so the power of symbols brings Israel and its Arab foes together again in a deadly dance. Driven by the need to protect these symbols, the competing sides have entered into yet another cycle of violence that threatens to plunge the region into a new abyss. Indeed, the current pair of conflicts could easily expand from two to four fronts, if Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s patrons, Syria and Iran, are lured into the battle.

ADVERTISEMENT
On the eve, then, of a potentially dramatic escalation, the question arises: Is it worth it? Must the script be followed once again — according to which the two sides enact an almost ritualized series of violent actions and reactions in order to protect their symbols, knowing full well that these deeds will only deepen hatred and mistrust?

Israel, in particular, must weigh these questions before acting further. It was goaded into action by the two sets of kidnappings and accompanying rocket attacks. Instead of adopting a “more restrained and level-headed policy,” as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz counseled, Israel swallowed the bait of the terrorist groups that wanted nothing more than for it to react with massive force and propel the region into chaos.

The evidence now at hand suggests that the reaction has been strategically counterproductive. Israel’s military response in Gaza has been disproportionately harsh, injuring or killing scores of innocent civilians, and its chief Palestinian foe, Hamas, appears to have been considerably strengthened as a result.

On the Lebanese front, Israel’s attacks on the Beirut airport and elsewhere have not only incurred the wrath of Arabs throughout the region but have brought down a rain of rockets on Safed, Nahariya and even Haifa.

Israel has the right to protect its citizens from attack. No self-respecting state would stand idly by while rockets fall on its cities. But a measured, targeted and finite response — and not necessarily an immediate one borne of wrath — would seem a far more prudent course.

Especially mystifying in the current escalation is why Israel seems to be driven more by the symbolic impact of the soldiers’ abduction than anything else. Israel did not respond with the kind of massive force it is now marshaling after the bomb blast in Tel Aviv in January in which nine civilians were tragically killed. Why then react so disproportionately now?

The short answer is an absence of leadership. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert understands all too well the symbolic logic of the Middle East, where an attack always demands a greater counterattack. He forgets that Israel has used backroom diplomatic channels in the past to gain the release of its abducted citizens and that such an approach might work again now (especially because Israel still has some high-profile Arab prisoners in its possession).

Of course, Israel is not solely to blame for the escalating violence. But as a sovereign state with a major army, it has to be the most responsible party. What, after all, can we expect from Hamas or Hezbollah? Before plunging even further into the darkness of war, Israel must weigh carefully the consequences of its actions, lest the force of symbols overtake sound reason.

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Abdelkader Benali

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

Abdelkader Benali

Gisteren kreeg ik een tekstbericht van een goede vriend: waarom bleef ik daar? En ik dacht meteen: een smoes, verzin een smoes. Een leugentje om de bestwil. En ik schreef: Ik denk dat ik een taak heb als intellectueel om hier verslag van te doen. Onder deze omstandigheden observeren en helder nadenken is een triomf voor de intellectueel. Hier zijn we toch voor gemaakt? Ik verzond het bericht. Wat een stomme smoes. Moet je niet om jezelf lachen, Abdel. Een paar weken terug zat je nog te schreeuwen toen Khalid Bouhlahrouz zijn voet in een Portugese bovenbeen plantte. Maar plotseling voelde ik dat de smoes werkte. De smoes had magie. Ik liep over straat als intellectueel die observeerde, kijk mij eens!

Van die bravoure is vanochtend niets over. Meer doden, meer infrastructuur geraakt en het groeiende besef dat Israël bezig is met een niets en niemand ontziende vergeldingscampagne die elke logica mist. Tot nu toe zijn alleen Libanezen geraakt en nog niemand van het Hezbollah-kader. Dit is shock and awe.

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| europa – Deense journalist: Zelfcensuur is bewezen

Posted on July 11th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Uncategorized.

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| europa – Deense journalist: Zelfcensuur is bewezen

Posted on July 11th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Uncategorized.

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The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily

Posted on July 8th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

The Peninsula On-line: Qatar’s leading English Daily
Muslim world needs democracy, says Qaradawi

Dr Yousuf Al Qaradawi

DOHA • Noted Islamic scholar Dr Yousuf Al Qaradawi has said the Muslim world needs democracy. The scholar, who is in Istanbul, Turkey to attend a conference, said: “The Muslim world needs democracy. It wants democracy. But it should be real democracy and not just democracy by name only.”

He added: “Democracy has done some good things. It has saved humanity from despots and dictators who act like gods. The details should be left to the people. Let them decide for themselves.”

He, however, added that democracy in the Muslim world would be different from what it is in Western countries. “This is because in Islam there are some fixed principles that cannot be changed. But there are some things where the people can call for change, depending on the time and place,” he said.

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The Peninsula On-line: Qatar’s leading English Daily

Posted on July 8th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

The Peninsula On-line: Qatar’s leading English Daily
Muslim world needs democracy, says Qaradawi

Dr Yousuf Al Qaradawi

DOHA • Noted Islamic scholar Dr Yousuf Al Qaradawi has said the Muslim world needs democracy. The scholar, who is in Istanbul, Turkey to attend a conference, said: “The Muslim world needs democracy. It wants democracy. But it should be real democracy and not just democracy by name only.”

He added: “Democracy has done some good things. It has saved humanity from despots and dictators who act like gods. The details should be left to the people. Let them decide for themselves.”

He, however, added that democracy in the Muslim world would be different from what it is in Western countries. “This is because in Islam there are some fixed principles that cannot be changed. But there are some things where the people can call for change, depending on the time and place,” he said.

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De nieuwe reporter » Blog Archive » Waarom integreren we de herkomstlanden van Turken en Marokkanen niet beter in onze verslaggeving?

Posted on July 8th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

De nieuwe reporter » Blog Archive » Waarom integreren we de herkomstlanden van Turken en Marokkanen niet beter in onze verslaggeving?
Goede vraag lijkt me. Er zijn wel wat uitzonderingen: zo lijkt de NIO vooral op de radio maar toch ook wel op TV aardig op weg om die krenten uit de nieuwspap te pakken die anderen laten liggen zoals het nieuws rondom Al Turabi.

Als er iets rampzaligs gebeurt in onze ex-koloniën, Suriname en Indonesië, zitten de Nederlandse media er bovenop, alsof het nog steeds een beetje onze wingewesten zijn. Ik weet niet hoe journalisten dit voor zichzelf rechtvaardigen, of ze bijvoorbeeld denken: dit zijn landen van herkomst van veel Nederlanders, dus laten we deze groep goed bedienen, zij zijn ook ons publiek.

Gesteld dat ze zo redeneren, hoe zit het dan met Marokko, Turkije, Irak, en al die andere landen van herkomst van honderdduizenden Nederlanders? In de kranten worden ze grosso modo niet anders behandeld dan al die andere landen waarmee Nederlanders met uitsluitend Nederlandse voorouders geen enkele band hebben. Op de televisie komen kijkers uit herkomstlanden als Marokko iets beter aan hun trekken, hoewel niet in de nieuwsprogramma’s, maar in apolitieke, human interest documentaires.

Ik ken Marokkanen en Turken die schitterend Nederlands spreken, schrijven en lezen, die echter al jaren geleden zijn opgehouden de krant te lezen, omdat er zo zelden iets over hun herkomstland in staat, en dan nog meestal vanuit Europese invalshoeken, dat het niet de moeite waard is een abonnement te nemen. Tegelijkertijd wordt hen verweten vooral naar buitenlandse satellietzenders te kijken.

Een dergelijke situatie treffen we aan in alle West-Europese landen, met kleine, historisch bepaalde nuances. De Britten doen meer aan India, de Duitsers aan Polen, de Italianen aan Libië, de Spanjaarden aan Zuid-Amerikaanse landen, Portugal aan Brazilië.

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Protected: AD.nl – ’Hier is echte vrijheid van meningsuiting’

Posted on July 4th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

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Somali-born politician to keep Dutch citizenship – Europe – International Herald Tribune

Posted on June 27th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Somali-born politician to keep Dutch citizenship – Europe – International Herald Tribune
Hirsi Ali to keep Dutch citizenship
Reuters, The Associated Press, The New York Times

Published: June 27, 2006
AMSTERDAM A Somali-born Dutch politician and outspoken critic of Islam is to be allowed to keep her Dutch citizenship despite admitting that she lied in her asylum application, the Dutch government said Tuesday.

The politician, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, resigned from Parliament in May and said she would leave the country after the immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, a member of Hirsi Ali’s own VVD liberal party, told her she might lose her citizenship.

Verdonk’s decision created an uproar in Parliament, which demanded that she find a way out of the embarrassment.

The situation was resolved late Monday when Dutch cabinet members agreed that Hirsi Ali, whose real name is Hirsi Magan, should not be stripped of her citizenship.

Verdonk told Parliament on Tuesday that Hirsi Ali would be able to keep her Dutch nationality.

Hirsi Ali, 36, had admitted using a false name and date of birth when she arrived in the Netherlands in 1992. Dutch cabinet members agreed that because she used her grandfather’s name, which is allowed under Somali law, the false claim would not be held against her.

In a published statement, Hirsi Ali said that she would continue to use Hirsi Ali as her name and regretted giving the authorities the wrong impression about her identity.

“Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s identity has been sufficiently verified and for this reason she has indeed obtained Dutch nationality,” Verdonk said in a statement, explaining that her initial decision to strip Hirsi Ali of Dutch citizenship was not based on a full understanding of the circumstances of her name change.

On her asylum application Hirsi Ali also pretended that she had come to the Netherlands from war-torn Somalia, rather than via Kenya and Germany. Refugees are usually required to apply for asylum in the first safe country they reach after fleeing. However, she said those facts had been public knowledge when the VVD chose her as a candidate for Parliament in 2002.

Hirsi Ali had been living under the protection of bodyguards since 2002 but went deeper into hiding in 2004 when an Islamic militant killed the filmmaker Theo van Gogh after he directed a film, “Submission,” for which she wrote the script.

The short film showed four fictional Muslim women praying and lamenting about their abuse. In some scenes the partly dressed women had Koranic text painted on their skin.

Many Muslims considered the film blasphemous.

Hirsi Ali was in the United States on Tuesday looking for a house in the Washington area, where she has accepted a position with the conservative research institute, the American Enterprise Institute, beginning in September.

She told Dutch television that she was “very thankful and proud” to have her passport back. Asked if she was forced to express her regrets and take the blame in a statement she issued Tuesday, she said: “It was a political compromise. For me a quick resolution of the problem was much more important than a bit of pride.” It was clear, she added, that “if I made that statement the issue would be resolved.”

In a statement released simultaneously with Verdonk’s letter, Hirsi Ali said she regretted the confusion over her name. She said her admission of lying had been a mistake since the name she adopted was legitimate.

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ISIM – Former ISIM fellow ‘Hero against Slavery’

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

ISIM Home – Former ISIM fellow ‘Hero against Slavery’
Kyai Husein Muhammad, who was a visiting fellow at ISIM in 2002, was named as one of ten ‘Heroes Acting To End Modern-Day Slavery’ in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2006, which was released earlier this month.

The report writes:

Kyai Husein Muhammad, founder and leader of The Fahmina Institute, Indonesia, has helped raise awareness of human trafficking among women and children in rural communities in West Java through an anti-trafficking media campaign, which included the distribution of 22,000 leaflets each week in mosques after Friday prayers, along with outreach to village health clinics and schools. He has researched and produced written works concerning the application of Islamic Law and human trafficking, an unprecedented initiative to use Islamic arguments and traditions to combat this crime. His scholarship highlights the Islamic perspective on victims’ rights, the rights of women and children, and the immorality of human trafficking, while emphasizing that victims should not be criminalized and that communities have a responsibility to combat trafficking. Kyai Husein’s efforts were instrumental in raising awareness of the risk of trafficking in posttsunami Aceh, and enlisting Muslim schools there in the ultimately successful prevention of trafficking in persons.

Kyai Husein (kyai is the Indonesian title for a religious scholar) is best known in Indonesia as the most senior scholar to support, and make major contributions to, efforts to develop a Muslim feminist theology. Besides leading his pesantren (traditional Islamic school) and the Fahmina Institute, which are based in Cirebon in West Java, he is also actively involved in the Jakarta-based major Muslim women’s NGO, Rahima.

His stay at ISIM was in the context of research for his book Islam agama ramah perempuan: pembelaan kiai pesantren [Islam, a woman-friendly religion: an apology by a pesantren-based kyai], Yogyakarta: LKiS & Fahmina Institute, 2004.

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ISIM – Former ISIM fellow 'Hero against Slavery'

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

ISIM Home – Former ISIM fellow ‘Hero against Slavery’
Kyai Husein Muhammad, who was a visiting fellow at ISIM in 2002, was named as one of ten ‘Heroes Acting To End Modern-Day Slavery’ in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2006, which was released earlier this month.

The report writes:

Kyai Husein Muhammad, founder and leader of The Fahmina Institute, Indonesia, has helped raise awareness of human trafficking among women and children in rural communities in West Java through an anti-trafficking media campaign, which included the distribution of 22,000 leaflets each week in mosques after Friday prayers, along with outreach to village health clinics and schools. He has researched and produced written works concerning the application of Islamic Law and human trafficking, an unprecedented initiative to use Islamic arguments and traditions to combat this crime. His scholarship highlights the Islamic perspective on victims’ rights, the rights of women and children, and the immorality of human trafficking, while emphasizing that victims should not be criminalized and that communities have a responsibility to combat trafficking. Kyai Husein’s efforts were instrumental in raising awareness of the risk of trafficking in posttsunami Aceh, and enlisting Muslim schools there in the ultimately successful prevention of trafficking in persons.

Kyai Husein (kyai is the Indonesian title for a religious scholar) is best known in Indonesia as the most senior scholar to support, and make major contributions to, efforts to develop a Muslim feminist theology. Besides leading his pesantren (traditional Islamic school) and the Fahmina Institute, which are based in Cirebon in West Java, he is also actively involved in the Jakarta-based major Muslim women’s NGO, Rahima.

His stay at ISIM was in the context of research for his book Islam agama ramah perempuan: pembelaan kiai pesantren [Islam, a woman-friendly religion: an apology by a pesantren-based kyai], Yogyakarta: LKiS & Fahmina Institute, 2004.

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| dossiers – Ephimenco / Potentiële Hollandse radicalo’s

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

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| dossiers – Ephimenco / Potentiële Hollandse radicalo’s

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

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Protected: NRC Handelsblad – Loverboys en radicalen moeilijk te onderzoeken

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

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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.

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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.

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| nederland – Islamitische antisemitisme / Censuur afscheidsrede hoogleraar

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

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| nederland – Islamitische antisemitisme / Censuur afscheidsrede hoogleraar

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

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Protected: Brabants Dagblad – Oranje vlaggetjes aan moskee

Posted on June 10th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Uncategorized.

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globeandmail.com : Dutch Integration Minister Rita Verdonk – Going Dutch on immigration

Posted on June 8th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Dutch integration Minister Rita Verdonk has written an article in the Canadian Globe and mail.com Immigration – Going Dutch on immigration. You can also read the comments on the article by visitors of the website, of one of the columnists and a letter to the editors responding to that columnist.
RITA VERDONK

Special to Globe and Mail Update

The Dutch position on immigration, Islam and relations between the native population and immigrants is often misunderstood. The general picture in the foreign press is that the Netherlands once was the living embodiment of tolerance and multiculturalism, but after the murders of Pim Fortuyn (a Dutch politician) and Theo van Gogh (a filmmaker and writer) it changed into a country governed by polarization, xenophobia and assimilation. This picture does not reflect reality, but it is true that our views on immigration and integration have changed. In short, we have become more realistic.
(more…)

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spiked | 'Animals are less valuable than human beings'

Posted on June 4th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

spiked | ‘Animals are less valuable than human beings’
Animals are less valuable than human beings’
Leading researcher John Martin tells Helene Guldberg why it is morally justifiable to cause heart attacks in rats – and why he isn’t scared of animal rights extremists.

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spiked | ‘Animals are less valuable than human beings’

Posted on June 4th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

spiked | ‘Animals are less valuable than human beings’
Animals are less valuable than human beings’
Leading researcher John Martin tells Helene Guldberg why it is morally justifiable to cause heart attacks in rats – and why he isn’t scared of animal rights extremists.

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spiked | The meaning of football

Posted on June 4th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

spiked | The meaning of football

Duleep Allirajah
The meaning of football
In the run-up to next week’s spiked-debate on the World Cup, we muse over soccerism, Wayne’s toe, and how the Fall of Public Man has been offset by the Rise of Soccer Bloke.

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