Dismantling the Borders by the Back Door

Last week there was a large demonstration in Calais against the fact that migrants sleeping rough there can't simply enter Britain at will.

Many of the protesters were hardcore anarchists, and French riot police arrested around 47 people, finding weapons such as metal poles, machetes and pepper spray.

Many of the anarchists' threats, such as tearing down the border, leading migrants to Britain through the Channel Tunnel and burning symbols of capitalism and authority never came to pass, however.

This is a situation which has been going on for years now. The migrants live in Calais, daily trying to illegally sneak into Britain so they can claim asylum here and enjoy a range of benefits simply not on offer in France, plus the knowledge that only a minute fraction of them will ever be kicked out, even if their claims are turned down.

Since the Red Cross reception centre at Sangatte was closed in 2002, it is estimated that 2,000 illegal immigrants live rough in Calais.

Many in the town are sick of the situation, claiming that women are harassed, businesses are affected and hygiene is a problem.

The solution which is most often put forward by the French government involves the United Kingdom joining the Schengen Agreement, which would abolish border controls between this country and the other signatories (members of the EU an EEA).

Well, that won't happen any time soon, but it seems that the French government and the anarchists will get their wish in some form or another; on Wednesday the UN High Commissioner for Refugees opened its first full-time unit in Calais since Sangatte was closed.

It will now begin advising thousands of migrants on the steps they should take to come to Britain and claim asylum.

This is simply tearing down the borders by the back door - by legally subverting them.

Kevin Maguire on South Africa

Regular readers will know that oafish Leftist Kevin Maguire is not my favourite person.

A Mirror columnist, he keeps alive Left-Right divides which in reality died decades ago, simply so he can pour forth his hatred of those who differ from him ideologically.

This is the man who recently said: "The only way David Cameron will lose the next election is if they find Madeleine McCann in his garage."

He then refused to apologise.

Kevin is currently in South Africa. Here are his thoughts on Nelson Mandela:

Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, is a shrine to Nelson Mandela, the world's living saint.

Former inmates show visitors his tiny cell and the quarry where he and prisoners, including President Jacob Zuma, were made to break rocks. But the apartheid regime couldn't break the freedom fighters, which makes Robben Island a humbling experience.

I recall bigots moaning that his release interrupted an episode of Antiques Roadshow. I'd have phoned the BBC myself had this historic moment been cut short to show a Queen Anne table.

I revere "Saint Nelson", but the great man is also the gentle butt of one of the best jokes I've heard.

Who says prison doesn't work? Look at Nelson Mandela.

He did 27 years and hasn't reoffended since his release.

Well, pretty much everything he complains about in his main column can be attributed back to Mandela's failures - although, obviously, in Kevin's world such things are still the thought of the evil white minority, who just won't give ordinary South Africans a break. Can't hold the saint responsible for his actions and his mistakes, after all - then you might trace a path back to smug Leftists like Kevin.

He once ranted about how David Cameron dared to visit South Africa whilst Mandela was in prison and the apartheid regime was still in place.

Whilst you won't hear any defence of apartheid from me, I fear that someone on Kevin's side of the ideological trench has supported some far more morally reprehensible forces than the apartheid regime ever was in practical terms (oppression, torture, concentration camps, that sort of thing).

After all, this is someone who probably still thinks the USSR and Cuba are model states in theory, with a few tiny adjustments which made them go wrong in practice.

Here are some extracts from his column:

The British and Irish Lions are currently touring with 30,000 rugby fans.

And SA's already hosted a rugby world cup, two cricket world cups and cricket's Indian Premier League.

So a touch of prejudice lurks in western criticism of whether a developing nation's capable of pulling off the big one.

Yet ticket and transport chaos did see thousands of fans miss the start of games during the Confederations Cup.

Zuma has declared it was a dry run and problems will be fixed. Maybe.

...

The southern tip of the African continent remains scarred by the evil of an apartheid regime which ended less than two decades ago.

Extreme wealth, concentrated in the hands of a white elite with a small if growing black rich set, sits uncomfortably along-side obscene poverty. Johannesburg's Maserati showroom is a world away from the tin shacks of shanty towns in a nation where a quarter of people live on less than a pound a day.

HIV is an epidemic infecting nearly a fifth of South Africans - talk of legalising prostitution ahead of the World Cup is a sick joke.

Violent crime makes much of Johannesburg a no-go area, though in fairness so are large parts of American cities such as Chicago and Detroit.

Firstly, as I've pointed out, the Lions rugby tour and the Confederations Cup have been marred by violent incidents and instances of police corruption.

Secondly, what planet does Maguire live on?

As I understood it, one of the great successes of abolishing apartheid was to make white people poor too.

An estimated 25% of Afrikaners live in extreme poverty, in shanty towns and caravans. I notice Maguire managed to overlook them well enough, despite his claim on moral superiority.

He also seems to back Zuma, without asking whether such a man, a committed polygamist and suspected rapist, is the right person to lead South Africa away from its HIV and AIDS crisis.

The notion of South Africa being 'scarred by apartheid' simply does not add up. Before the end of apartheid, South Africa was a First World nation which would have been capable of holding this tournament with no questions asked.

People like Maguire are responsible, in part, for the South Africa we see today, where poverty, misery, racist violence and disease increase daily.

If smug Westerners like him had dared to question their 'saint' when it mattered about the more flawed aspects of the transition to majority rule (such as 'Black Economic Empowerment'), this outcome could have been avoided, perhaps.

As it is, South Africa seems destined to slide into the same obscure misery as its neighbours - and that can't be blamed on apartheid. If it could, why is it the case that South Africa is slipping backwards to the standard of African countries which never had white minorities or apartheid?

Maguire, as one of Mandela's cheerleaders and shills, must take his share of the blame and let go of the ghosts of the past.

For South Africa's much-maligned or ignored white minority, it is business as usual - yesterday a renowned criminologist was left fighting for her life after being attacked with a spade by a labourer she was taking a cup of tea:

A renowned South Africa academic is in a serious condition in hospital after she was brutally attacked with a garden spade at her Centurion home.

Unisa criminologist Professor Anna van der Hoven, 64, was beaten, throttled and then punched while taking a cup of tea to a worker building a garden feature for her at her Lyttelton home on Wednesday.

Van der Hoven's alleged attacker was arrested shortly after a neighbour's domestic worker saw him fleeing his victim's Glover Avenue home.

It is believed the 28-year-old man, who began working on the water feature on Monday, was waiting behind a wall shortly after his employers left to fetch more building materials and struck Van der Hoven repeatedly over the back of the head and neck as she walked into her garden.

The man is then thought to have attempted to strangle her from behind before punching her in the face until she lost consciousness.

The attack on Van der Hoven, who lived alone with her three cats in Drummorgan security complex, has sparked outrage and shock among fellow academics, who have described her as a highly respected criminologist among the global academic community. As well as lecturing, Van der Hoven, until last year, served on the council of the Criminological and Victimological society of southern Africa.

Police describing the attack said it happened shortly after Van der Hoven arrived home. "As she was walking outside taking the labourer a cup of tea, he struck her over the back of the head before throttling her and then punching her in the face. He then grabbed her handbag, money and laptop computer before fleeing," said an officer.

A neighbour, who rushed to Van der Hoven's aid when the alarm was raised, described her as an extremely kind lady.

"I was terrified. When I saw her she was covered in blood. Her face was badly swollen and she was battling to speak. She was in shock and I just held her," she said. She said people in the complex were struggling to understand how something like this could happen, "especially to a person who had such a soft heart".

I wonder when Kevin, or any mainstream British journalist, will devote column space to this case, or any of the thousands like it, instead of portraying the victims as the evil oppressors?

The Sorry State of British Justice

Here is British justice in action - the sentences handed down to two men involved in the brutal gang-rape of a young girl, after which she was hideously burned with caustic soda (to destroy DNA evidence or as a form of torture could not be decided) have been raised.

Despite this, they are still pathetic and wholly inadequate given that the girl in question will never fully recover from her scars.

From the BBC:

Two young men involved in the gang-rape of a girl who was then attacked with caustic soda have had their sentences increased by the Court of Appeal.

The judges ruled that the terms being served by Rogel McMorris, 18, and Jason Brew, 19, were unduly lenient.

McMorris who was convicted of two rape counts and one of causing grievous bodily harm, had his sentence increased from nine years to 14 years.

Brew had his six-year sentence for one count of rape increased to nine years.

The judges decided not to increase the sentence imposed on Hector Muaimba, 21, an Angolan immigrant, who was also found guilty of one charge of rape.

He was sentenced to six years for the attack and is serving an additional two years for a separate Old Bailey conviction for robbery.

McMorris and Brew, both from Haringey, north London, and Muaimba, from Waltham Forest, east London, were jailed at London's Wood Green Crown Court on 19 January.

The 16-year-old victim, who had a mental age of just eight, was disfigured for life in the attack in Tottenham, north London.

The sentences were referred to the Court of Appeal by Attorney General Baroness Scotland, to determine whether they should have been given longer sentences.

Lady Scotland said: "This was a horrific case and I believed the sentences in this case were unduly lenient because they did not reflect the dehumanising treatment of the victim.

"I am pleased that the court agreed with this assessment and decided to increase two of the three sentences from nine to 14 years and six to nine years respectively."

Lord Justice Judge said the crimes were "truly shocking cases" and the victim suffered "appalling injuries".

He pointed out that Brew and Muaimba were not alleged to have had any involvement in the attack with the caustic soda.

Learning disability charity Mencap welcomed the tougher sentences.

A couple of things spring to mind; firstly, the sentences still do not reflect ''how the victim was treated' - i.e. what these men are capable of.

Secondly, some seem to think the most objectionable aspect of this case is that the girl was mentally disabled.

It is never OK to behave in the way these individuals did. Society can only exist when the most base and wicked impulses are ignored.

Those who cannot ignore them, or feel them to this degree, have no place in society.

If they do - none of us are safe.

BBC Propaganda

Paul Weston has written an excellent essay over at Gates of Vienna, highlighting how the BBC manages to sneak in some very careful wording in its GCSE Bitesize revision programme regarding Christianity and Islam.

So disingenuous (and riddled with errors both factual and grammatical) it could have been written by our resident troll Solkhar himself, it completely distorts the meaning of Christianity and Islam as subtly as possible, whilst staying on message.

Here are some extracts:

Opening with Christianity, the first BBC page reverts to Marxist type as it explains that discrimination can only occur when prejudice is combined with power. As no minority race or religion in Britain is deemed to have power, so they can never discriminate against an indigenous British Christian. And so the scene is set for the evil BBC propaganda that follows their publishing of the UN Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

We are also told:

All forms of discrimination go against the first two articles.

Page 2 informs us:

Christianity teaches that everyone is equal in the eyes of God and so all forms of prejudice and discrimination are unacceptable and against God’s will.

Leaving aside the small matter that we discriminate every day on any number of things, such as a preference for good wine over Bulgarian wine or holidaying in Tuscany rather than Arkansas — both examples one would imagine are outside the remit of God’s will — there then comes the inevitable however:

However… there are occasions when Christians are guilty of prejudice and discrimination.

In South Africa, for many years the Dutch Reformed Church supported apartheid, the system which meant that black people were separated from white people and treated inferior [sic].

When Europeans were colonising other countries around the world they often killed the native people there and treated them as slaves.

John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, is from Uganda and he has done a lot to raise awareness and put a stop to racism in the Anglican Church, and in wider society.

Sexism is still a problem for the Christian Church — women are not always treated as equals in roles within the Church.

Page 3 informs us:

Many people think the Christian Church is sexist. It does not treat men and women equally.

So although Christianity teaches that everybody should be treated the same, this doesn’t always happen.

Page 4 is a revision page where you have to match up the end of a statement with the beginning. If completed correctly it reads as follows:

Discrimination =		Prejudice + Power
The Roman Catholic Church does not		allow women to be Priests
Article 1 states that all humans		are born free and equal
There is neither Jew nor Greek		slave nor free
The Dutch Reformed Church		supported apartheid
Paul (St) said: women should		be silent in Churches
You shall love your neighbour		as yourself
Native people were treated		as slaves

If you get all the above correct on their interactive site, a little message pops up stating:

Congratulations, you remembered all the facts about Christian prejudice and descrimination. [Spelling mistake courtesy of BBC educationalists.]

The test bite concludes this section on Christianity. You are presented with an interactive statement to which you have to answer true or false. It mimics most of page 4 so I will draw attention to only 2 out of the 10:

Christians believe most people are equal in the eyes of God.

The second statement reads:

John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York is trying to reduce racism in the Anglican Church.

Another clever question, to which the correct answer is TRUE. Notice there is no argument as to whether there really is racism in the Anglican Church, it is just presented as fact, and provides the BBC with the opportunity to subliminally brainwash whilst promoting the only Christian they admire, based solely on the fact that he is an African, an enormous positive that far outweighs the inconvenient fact that he is far more hard line than the liberal rank and file excuses for the British Clergy epitomised by the Archdruid, Rowan Williams.

Islam, as I am sure you have probably guessed, is treated in an altogether different way.

Page 1 is identical to page 1 for Christianity, detailing the meaning of discrimination and quoting the Human Rights act.

Page 2 informs us:

The Qur’an (the divine book revealed to the Prophet Muhammad) teaches that everyone was created by Allah and that everyone is equal.

Therefore there is no reason to treat people of different races differently. The Prophet Muhammad showed how important this teaching was in his last sermon, when he said…

…All mankind is descended from Adam and Eve, an Arab is not better than a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab, a white person is not better than a black person, nor is a black person better than a white person except by piety and good actions. Learn that every Muslim is the brother of every other Muslim and that Muslims form one brotherhood.

Page 3 informs us of Islam’s attitude to women:

Islam also teaches that men and women are equal in the sight of Allah. They are individually accountable for their actions, and will be judged equally by Allah.

However, although men and women are equal, they are not the same. They have different purposes. It is part of Allah’s design and purpose for men and women to have different physical characteristics; likewise it is the duty of a man to provide for the financial needs of his family, and for the woman to look after the home and family.

Although the rights of women are different to those of men, they do have the right to choose whom they marry, to divorce, to study, to own property, to conduct business and to take part in politics.

The Prophet Muhammad stressed the importance of women and the respect that should be shown to them when he said — paradise lies at the feet of your mother.

Page 4 is a revision page where you have to match up the end of a statement with the beginning. If completed correctly it reads as follows:

Discrimination =		Prejudice + Power
The Qur’an teaches		that everyone is equal
Article 1 states that all humans are		born free and equal
Women have the right		to take part in politics
Men and women		will be judged equally
All mankind is descended from		Adam and Eve
Paradise lies		at the feet of your mother
Sometimes men		have the final word

If you get all the above correct on their interactive site, a little message pops up stating:

Congratulations. You have understood all the arguments about Islamic prejudice and discrimination.

Notice how the BBC uses the word “facts” in relation to Christian prejudice and discrimination, but replaced it with “arguments” with regard to Islam.

The test bite concludes the section. There is nothing surprising in it; just a continuation of the BBC’s overt propaganda suggesting Islam is divine, pure, non-racist and non-sexist.

There is a different section on Christian and Islamic attitudes to fighting and warfare. It is worth browsing in its entirety but the general thrust of the propaganda is that Christians and Jews are warlike and Islam is a religion of peace.

Captured U.S. Soldier 'Sold to Haqqani Network'

An American soldier captured in Afghanistan earlier this week has been sold to a notorious militant clan.

The Haqqani network is a group run by Jalaluddin and Siraj Haqqani and is widely considered one of the most ruthless Islamist outfits in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

According to the CIA, it is closely aligned with al Qaeda's central leadership.

From CNN:

An American soldier captured in southeastern Afghanistan is being held by a notorious militant clan, a senior U.S. military official said.

The American and three Afghan soldiers were captured by low-level militants and then quickly "sold" to the clan led by warlord Siraj Haqqani -- believed to be deeply involved in the action.

The Haqqanis operate on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and are well known to the U.S. military. They are assembling shuras, or local councils of leaders, to talk and try to "legitimize" what they have done, the official said.

U.S., Afghan and Pakistani troops are sealing off the area and also are talking to tribal chiefs, village elders and leaders.

They are telling them to "do the right thing and solve this," the official said.

The U.S. military is telling people not to let Haqqani operatives move through their area and to find the American and return him. The military wants to make sure there is "no shelter" for the militants holding him.

The Taliban who captured the soldier allege he was drunk, but the American authorities insist he was on duty at the time.

From the Mail:

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the capture of the soldier, with a commander saying he had been drunk when he was captured.

The soldier visited a military post in the Yousaf Khel district in the Paktika province on Tuesday and got drunk, the Taliban commander said, according to U.S. media.

He was ambushed while returning to his car and was taken to a safe place along with three Afghan soldiers he was with, the commander said.

The U.S. military has denied the soldier was drunk, though officials did say the soldier was on duty when he went missing in the area.

He was captured by low-level militants and then sold to the clan by warlord Siraj Haqqani in south-eastern Afghanistan, an official told CNN.

The Haqqanis operate on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and are well known to the U.S. military.

They are the most important insurgent group operating in that area. Haqqani himself has been accused of masterminding beheadings and suicide bombings by the U.S.

U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said: 'We have all available resources out there looking for him and hopefully providing for his safe return.'

Mathias did not provide details on the soldier, the location where he was captured or the circumstances.
The news broke as thousands of U.S. Marines launched a major anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan. The missing soldier was not part of that operation.

'We are not providing further details to protect the soldier's well-being,' she said.

Afghan Police Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said the soldier went missing in the Mullakheil area of eastern Paktika province, where there is an American base.

The soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on Tuesday and was first listed as 'duty status whereabouts unknown,' a U.S. defence official said on condition of anonymity.

It wasn't until Thursday that officials said publicly that he was missing and described him as 'believed captured.'

Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors.

The missing man is an enlisted soldier, and his family has been notified.

School Trip to Zimbabwe Planned - to 'Improve English'

From the Metro:

Children as young as ten are set to head to Zimbabwe... to improve their English.

The party of primary school pupils and teachers will spend a week visiting schools near the capital of Harare – despite the on-going troubles in the southern African state.

President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly blamed Britain for many of his country's economic woes. Inflation is rampant, there is an Aids crisis and crime is spiralling.

But despite this, the eight children, from three schools in Liverpool, are due to spend a week lodging at a boarding school in Marondera, about an hour away from Harare.

Head teacher Ruth Frain said the exchange trip was also a chance to learn from the hosts' approaches to ICT, recycling and literacy.

'We want to look at what we can learn from them, then use it when we teach English,' she said.

'It will be life-changing. We want to mix with other cultures and build understanding, and the only way to do that is by experiencing it.'

The trip, due in November and funded by the British Council, would only take place if it was safe, she said.

Today, the Foreign Office warned the situation in Zimbabwe remained tense: 'It could deteriorate further without warning.'

Egyptian Jailed for Attempted Murder in Australia

A shocking case from Brisbane, in which an Egyptian man attempted to kill his Australian step-daughter with a knife.

He found semi-naked photos of the woman with her boyfriend, and began to refer to her as the 'slut-daughter'.

As his marriage to the Australian woman he had met online broke down (and who could see that coming?) he increasingly blamed the woman's daughter, eventually asking her to choose between them.

When she chose her daughter, he snapped, going to the house and stabbing her daughter 20 times. As he was leaving the house covered in the young woman's blood, he told friends of the women who were arriving:

"I stabbed the slut. I wanted to kill her, but unfortunately she's still breathing."

He later told his wife:

"I stabbed her because she's a f---ing slut, she deserved that. All I wanted to do ... just get rid of her."

Here is the full disturbing story from the Brisbane Times:

A man used a butcher's knife to stab his stepdaughter up to 20 times because he believed she was a "slut" who was interfering in his marriage, a court has heard.

Khaled Ibrahim Mohamed Ellaimouny, 38, was today jailed for 12 years for the attempted murder of his stepdaughter Amanda Lee Smith, who was 24 when her stepfather stabbed her in the chest, arms, legs and face as she sat on the lounge of the family's Shailer Park home in January 2007.

In the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Crown prosecutor Philip McCarthy said Ellaimouny, an Egyptian national who married Ms Smith's mother after meeting her online, moved in to the Smith family home in January 2006.

Mr McCarthy said Ellaimouny, who worked as a chef at a restaurant in the Logan area, got along well with his stepdaughter until late 2006 when he discovered semi-nude photos of her and her boyfriend on a family computer and began referring to her during arguments with Ms Smith's mother as "the slut daughter."

Following marital troubles in late 2006, Ellaimouny moved out of the home. He met with his wife at a local tavern on January 14 and told her to choose between him and her daughter, whom he claimed was interfering in their marriage.

He later turned up at the family home where during an argument he spat in Ms Smith's face and slapped her before she and her mother locked him out of the house.

However Ellaimouny got in through a side door, grabbed a butcher's knife with a 21cm-long blade from the kitchen and screamed "Now I'm going to kill the bitch" before stabbing and slashing Ms Smith's chest and arms, Mr McCarthy said.

"You've ruined my f---ing life; I want you to die," Ellaimouny reportedly said.

Friends of Ms Smith arrived at the house as Ellaimouny was leaving, covered in a blood and carrying the bloodied knife.

He allegedly told them: "I stabbed the slut. I wanted to kill her, but unfortunately she's still breathing."

Ms Smith was taken to hospital where she was treated for 20 wounds, including a severed radial artery of her right arm, severed nerves and a 4cm gash into her lung cavity.

Mr McCarthy said Ellaimouny told his wife after the incident: "I stabbed her because she's a f---ing slut, she deserved that. All I wanted to do ... just get rid of her."

On the first day of his trial today, Ellaimouny pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder and a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, which related to him sending a letter from jail encouraging his wife to convince Ms Smith not to proceed with charges against him.

Justice John Byrne said the attack upon Ms Smith was "frenzied and sustained" and would have been "a terrifying experience for her."

"She is fortunate to have survived," he said.

He sentenced Ellaimouny to 12 years behind bars and declared him a serious violent offender, which means he must serve 80 per cent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Justice Byrne declared two and a half years Ellaimouny had already spent in jail awaiting sentence as time already served.

He will be deported to Egypt upon his release.

The Biggest Problem in Germany Today

Yesterday I reported on several vicious crimes which were carried out on German people by criminal immigrants over just the past few days.

Such cases are the tip of an iceberg, unfortunately - and you would think that in itself would be a huge problem.

Not according to the UN, however. In their view, the most pressing issue in Germany today is racism.

Special rapporteur Githu Muigai, a Kenyan, has completely eliminated all forms of discrimination and human rights abuses in his own great country, helped to create African utopias in neighbouring countries, so thought he would visit the hellhole that is modern Germany to spread some wisdom. Clearly, it is much needed.

Here are his conclusions:

Germany needs more ethnic minorities in its political system, the police and its courts, and has to do more to tackle racism in daily life, a UN special rapporteur said on Wednesday.

"My visit has convinced me that much remains to be done," Githu Muigai, UN special rapporteur for racism, said after a 10-day fact-finding trip across the country.

People with a migrant background "are under-represented in important institutions, including the political system, the police and the courts," Muigai said.

Last November, the Greens became the first major party to elect a Turkish-German as leader, Cem Ozdemir, but ethnic minorities are generally a rarity in German politics, making up fewer than 15 national MPs.

Muigai, who was paying a routine visit to Germany, also said that due to the historical experience of Germany with Nazism, there is a "tendency to equate racism with extremist politics."

"I think that this great country needs to turn its attention to the problems of daily racism and discrimination, that is the racism and discrimination to be found in daily life in schools, public places, in housing, in employment etcetera," he said.

He added however that he was "encouraged by the open recognition by authorities that Germany is nowadays a country of migrants and that migrants make a positive contribution to society."

Kenyan-born Muigai, special rapporteur since August, also said that far-right groups in Germany "demand constant vigilance" and should be banned "within the constitutional legal mechanism provided by German law."

Germany also needs to do more to speed up the processing of asylum-seekers, Muigai said.

Muigai said that his full report, due to be presented at the Human Rights Council in 2010, will also focus on the plight of Muslims in Germany following the increase in security measures aimed at tackling Islamic extremism.

"The Muslim community does have very special concerns, particularly in the aftermath of 9/11 and in the manner in which the security apparatus have responded to ... the challenge of the fight against terrorism," he said.

Right. So, in other words, Germany and other Western countries fund an organisation which sends this man from a poor, badly governed backwater to tell them that they need more Third World colonists, must promote more colonists into vital positions regardless of ability, must accept that they are 'a nation of migrants', speed up the taxpayer-funded processes which allow colonists to remain one way or the other and accept that the colonisation is desirable, inevitable and irreversible.

Despite all the statistical and anecdotal evidence to the contrary, of course.

But then, who cares what Germans think, especially in their own country? If they step out of line, ban them, jail them - why not use water cannon and live bullets?

It worked for Odinga, after all.

My favourite line is probably the one that contains 'the plight of Muslims living in Germany'.

Plight. That's quite a word, isn't it?

I lived in Germany for nine months, and had the misfortune to teach English in a heavily-immigrant school - I can tell you now that the only 'plight' Muslims in Germany face is self-inflicted.

Of course Muigai feels that if Muslims are unhappy in Germany, then the latter should change to accommodate them - rather than the former adapting or leaving.

For my part, I am far more concerned about the plight of Germans and civilised immigrants who find themselves trapped in Muslim enclaves.

A soaring crime rate and a demand for more cash and concessions aren't the only joy Muslim colonists bring, however:

Leaders from the domestic intelligence service, federal police and the Interior Ministry will meet in Berlin on Thursday for talks on possible terrorist activity, with more meetings to come in the next weeks, according to the paper.

“We are currently finalising the entire security catalogue and preparing ourselves for a possible chaos phase,” a high-ranking security official told the paper.

Officials plan to increase preventative measures and surveillance of suspected terrorists in the Islamist scene, where officials believe there may be discussion of using the election to increase pressure on the government to remove German troops from Afghanistan, the paper reported.

The “background noise” in the scene has recently been "unusually swollen" the security official said. But the paper reported there have been no concrete indications that a specific attack is being planned.

Süddeutsche Zeitung likened the terrorist risk level to that leading up to the World Cup, held in Germany in 2006. Security experts report that there has been a call within the Islamist community to be on the lookout for German soldiers and tourists.

So tell me, Mr Muigai - what is it the biggest problem in Germany today?

Canadian Arab Federation: "F*** Canada"

A tale of immigrant gratitude from the National Post:

As Canada Day 2009, our 142nd birthday, draws to a close here in Montreal, I suppose it’s just as well I didn’t plan to attend any fireworks display, because – surprise! – it’s starting to rain. Of course, one needn’t attend fireworks displays, or march in parades or hang huge flags out one’s window in Canada to prove one’s patriotism. Indeed, our lowkey attitudes – even phlegmatism – with regard to outward signs of patriotism distinguish us from our more flamboyant neighbours to the south.

Nevertheless, like so many of my fellow citizens, no Canada Day passes without my spending a good deal of it in reflection on how blessed I and my family are to live in this great, peaceful country, as benign and well-meaning a nation as one is able to find on this troubled globe. No country is perfect, but what unmolested Canadian could fail to feel blessed in his or her good fortune?

Well, one springs to mind. Vancouver-based Omar Shaban is the Vice President for western Canada of the Canadian Arab Federation, and he is definitely not feeling the gratitude vibe. Quite the opposite. Shaban has labelled Canada a “genocidal state” and described our national holiday on Facebook as “F*** Canada Day,” adding, to be sure he had made his point, “It’s finally Canada Day…Couldn’t be more ashamed to be Canadian.” Shaban is no aberration in the CAF.

As staunchly anti-Islamist Tarek Fatah reported here: “While one VP of the Canadian Arab Federation was throwing insults at Canada, another Vice President of CAF was on cable TV showering praise on the discredited leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Appearing on a Muslim cable TV show, Ali Mallah endorsed the election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad as valid, and echoed the official line of the Tehran regime, claiming Western governments and Western Media were to blame for the current unrest in Iran. “

You will recall that in February of this year Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced he would slash federal funding to the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) after its president, Khaled Mouammar, called him a “professional whore” for supporting Israel. This was not a one-off. During the 2006 Liberal leadership campaign, the CAF initiated a smear campaign against Bob Rae solely on the grounds that his Jewish wife was active in her community. The CAF are also 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and last year sponsored an essay contest on “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” in which it urged high school students to channel the group’s own fervid hatred of Israel for prizes.

As Jonathan Kay noted February 17 here, “Last year, the National Post editorial board hosted Mouammar and a CAF colleague for an editorial board meeting. To our collective shock, they laid blame for virtually every problem the world faces on Israel – including the alienation of Arab-Canadian children in Canada’s public school system. (One explained that he had sent his daughter for education overseas – because the inclusion of Israel in Canadian textbooks was too traumatic for her to endure.)”

Many liberals reflexively rose up to challenge Jason Kenney’s announcement that the government would no longer fund the CAF. The wonder to any objective observer of this hateful group is how they ever came to get a red cent from the government in the first place. Nobody in this country is forced to celebrate Canada Day, but it’s a bit much, even for us phlegmatic types, to witness the alleged spokesman of a cultural community spewing hatred against a democracy they had no part in making, and whose freedoms and security, so unlike the countries they come from, they apparently take for granted. To bite the hands of one’s benefactor on the most symbolic day of the benefactor’s year is a provocation that must not go unchallenged.

There is tolerance and there is masochism. We too often confuse them in this naive and well-meaning nation. It is past time that this intolerant and subversive organization folded its tents and retreated from the public forum. It is a disgrace to all Arabs, and it is, by the way, past time that we heard the same from a sizable number of Arab-Canadians. Loud and clear.

P.S. A happy belated Canada Day to my Canadian readers.

Teacher Linked to 'Drugs, Guns & Criminals'

From The Star:

A TEACHER at a school in Sheffield was also a trusted assistant in a criminal underworld of drug dealing, laundered money, and guns, a court heard.

Armed police swooped on a garage in Norwood, Sheffield, and found Imran Mohammed - a 23-year-old teacher at Yewlands School in Parson Cross - inside with two sawn-off shotguns.

On searching the premises, described at Sheffield Crown Court as a drug factory, they also uncovered more than £500,000 in cash and various appliances which were found to contain traces of heroin.

Mohammed was arrested along with Shamraze Khan Bashir, 28, of Norwood Road, Norwood, who has pleaded guilty to money laundering, being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, possessing a firearm without a licence, and shortening a shotgun.

Mohammed denies the same charges and is on trial.

Richard Sheldon, prosecuting, told jurors Mohammed's very presence in Bashir's garage that day showed he was a "trusted assistant" of Bashir.

He added: "No-one would be allowed so close to such activities if they were not party to them. Criminals do not welcome observers - they risk detection by any form of publicity or outside knowledge of their activities."

The jury heard Mohammed, of Goddard Hall Road, Fir Vale, arrived at Bashir's house at around 6.15pm on November 10 last year.

He parked his car on a nearby street rather than on the drive or outside the house - evidence, Mr Sheldon said, of him trying to avoid being seen.

Around 10 minutes later a policeman walked past the garage and heard the sound of sawing coming from inside. Armed police arrived on the scene around 20 minutes later and, on entering the garage, found the two men. One of the guns had its barrel removed, while the other had the stock removed.

A pair of gardening gloves were found to contain skin flakes which matched Mohammed's DNA, along with metal fragments from both of the guns.

The hooded sweatshirt he was wearing that night also contained metal fragments.

On searching the garage officers found £531,805 in cash stuffed in Tesco carrier bags in a cupboard, along with £9,350 in counterfeit cash.

A hydraulic press was found to contain traces of heroin, and traces of the Class A drug were also found on a knife in the garage and on a vacuum cleaner.

Mr Sheldon said all the findings pointed towards the garage being used as a "drug factory".

The trial continues.

Muslim Demonstration in Antwerp

The decision by two schools in the Flemish city of Antwerp to ban pupils from wearing headscarves continues to see ramifications.

Last week, after the decision was announced, an imam influential in the Muslim community of Flanders called on Muslim parents who disagreed with the decision to boycott Flemish schools.

He later backed down from this demand - but many parents are still unhappy, and this culminated in a demonstration on Sunday.

The decision was made for the following reason:

Starting September 1, 2009, all political and religious symbols will be banned in the city high schools (koninklijke atheneum) of Antwerp and Hoboken (Belgium), according to the new school regulations. The administration decided to take this step to protected their students against the increasing group pressure of, for instance, wearing a headscarf.

From Islam in Europe:

On Sunday about 120 Muslims protested in Antwerp against the headscarf ban in the Royal Athenaeums of Antwerp and Hoboken. They carried signs saying: "Everybody free, except us," "Democracy, not discrimination" and "You are the oppressors, not us."

They demanded to rescind the headscarf ban by the two schools.

Parent Mina Cheeba said in a speech that the representatives of the parents in the school council haven't heard of any social pressure to wear a headscarf and that if there are actual complaints, then they would like to take a look at them so they could come to a solution together.

Cheeba says the decision to ban the headscarf was made without asking the parents' advice. The school regulations shouldn't be changed autonomously, but by consultation with the parents.

Several students also expressed their displeasure. One said that they're supposedly under pressure to wear a headscarf, but that's nonsense. They are not feather-brains who accept everything without thinking.

Ayoub Aazzouti said that he's fed up of the men being portrayed as machos who force girls to wear headscarves, because it's not like that. "For us boys and girls are equal. We have a lot of respect for them and they are intelligent enough to decide on their own if they wear a headscarf or not. Stop using us as an excuse."

On Monday about 40 Muslim women showed up to protest in front of the Royal Athenaeum of Hoboken. Some of the slogans included: 'distressed by the lack of understanding', 'why a ban on my character', and 'lies in order to discriminate'.

One of the students spoke: "We have a right to study and to a headscarf. It's not one or the other, we have a right to both."

As the demonstrations continue, four female Muslim pupils have had their family turn to lawyers to see if the ban can be defeated in the courts (at the expense of Belgian taxpayers, presumably).

Meanwhile, Vlaams Belang member Filip Dewinter called for VB members and activists to report women wearing burqas to the police.

Wearing a garment which completely covers the body and obscures the face is technically illegal in Antwerp - but the police tend to do nothing.

That is the real problem - often the authorities are afraid of offending Muslims, because of the inevitable backlash, be it violence or legal Jihad at the taxpayers' expense. My feeling is that if the schools do not back down, they will be forced to do so in one way or another.

Here are some pictures from Sunday's demonstration, which show quite well the demographic transformation of parts of Antwerp:

U.S. Soldier Reported Captured in Afghanistan

Various news reports today suggest that an American soldier has been captured alive by militants in Afghanistan - an unprecedented occurrence in the war so far.

Whilst the Taliban and assorted Afghan militias have captured aid workers, journalists and other civilians in the past, this is the first time that an Allied soldier has been captured alive.

From the LA Times:

An American soldier is believed to have been captured by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said today.

The soldier has been missing from his unit since Tuesday, said Army Capt. Elizabeth Mathias. Citing concern for his safety, she did not disclose the circumstances of his disappearance, explain how military authorities had concluded that he was being held, or say whether there had been any communication with insurgents about the missing man.

The brief military statement was not definitive about a capture having occurred; Mathias said the soldier was "believed" to have fallen into the hands of "militant forces."

There was no immediate public claim of responsibility from any insurgent group. A number of militant commanders, not all of them affiliated with the Taliban, operate in eastern Afghanistan.

However, the Reuters news agency quoted a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Sangeen, as saying the soldier was captured this week as he left a base in Paktika province on patrol.

If the reports are borne out and an American soldier was seized alive, it would be an unprecedented coup for the insurgents. They could exploit a capture for propaganda purposes or demand concessions such as a prisoner exchange.

The news comes on the day that U.S. forces have launched a massive operation to clear southern Helmand Province of Taliban influence:

Thousands of US Marines stormed into an Afghan river valley by helicopter and land early today, launching the first major military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency with an assault deep into Taleban-held territory.

Operation Khanjar, which the Marines call simply "the decisive op", is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, a heartland of the Taleban insurgency and the world's biggest heroin producing region.

It is the biggest operation launched by the US Marines Corps since the retaking of Fallujah in 2004 and seeks to break the grinding stalemate between Nato forces and the Taleban in the province.

US commanders stressed this morning their desire to move quickly and decisively with overwhelming force to seize the entire southern Helmand River valley from Taleban control ahead of the delayed Afghan Presidential elections on August 20.

"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan said in a statement.

He told his staff before the operation: "The intent is to go big, go strong and go fast, and by doing so we are going to save lives on both sides."

The 4,000 men from US 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade enjoy the support of their own integrated air wing, giving them more air support than the entire 8,000 strong British force has had at its disposal.

The US force went into action with the support of 650 Afghan troops, an operation by foreign ground troops on a scale unseen in Afghanistan since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

The operation would have an initial highly aggressive stage lasting 36 hours, AFP reported.

Also reported today was the news that two British soldiers died yesterday in an explosion. The soldiers, from the Welsh Guards and the Royal Tank Regiment, were on patrol near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province on Wednesday afternoon.

***Update 3rd July 12:12***

One of the British soldiers killed was Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, 39, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards.

He is the most senior British soldier to die in action since Lieutenant-Colonel 'H' Jones was shot dead during the Falklands campaign in 1982.

Trooper Joshua Hammond, 19, was also killed when th Viking armoured vehicle was blown up. Six soldiers were wounded, some critically.

171 British soldiers have now died in Afghanistan.

Fears for France (II)

What is the worst thing happening in France today?

If you are French, or you happen to live in France, what should you be concerning yourself with the most?

Well, the Open Society Institute of American billionaire George Soros carried out a study in France using French researchers - and they came to the conclusion that French people should concern themselves with the 'ethnic profiling' which is increasingly being used by the police to justify stopping and searching suspects.

From Expatica:

Paris – Police in Paris pick out people for identity checks mainly depending on their ethnicity and the way they dress, rather than based on suspicious activity, a study released Tuesday said.

investigators observed police stops at five sites near busy train and metro stations.

The study found that overall blacks were six times more likely than whites to be stopped by police, while Arabs were 7.6 times more likely to be controlled than whites.

The rate ranged widely across the five sites: blacks were between 3.3 to 11.5 times more likely than whites to be stopped while Arabs were 1.8 to 14.8 times more likely.

"The study confirmed that police stops and identity checks in Paris are principally based on the appearance of the person stopped, rather than on their behavior or actions," according to the report.

"Persons perceived to be ethnic minorities were disproportionately stopped by the police," it said.

"People wearing "youth clothing" -- different clothing styles typically associated with young French persons such as "hip-hop", "goth", and "tecktonic" -- were also targeted by the police."

Between November 2007 and May 2008, the investigators watched police stop people for identity checks near the Gare du Nord train station and the Chatelet-Les Halles metro hub.

The investigators observed 525 police checks during that time and then tried to speak with the people who were controlled.

"This study marks the first time that ethnic profiling by French police has been statistically proven, confirming decades of anecdotal reports," Rachel Neild, of the Open Society Justice Initiative, said in a statement.

"French youth of immigrant origin feel singled out and stigmatized by constant police stops," Neild said.

"Not only does our study question the effectiveness of these police stops, it also makes clear that these practices underlie the increasingly frequent and often violent altercations between young people and the police."

Paris police spokeswoman Marie Lajus said officers do not aim to do identity checks in a "statistical manner".

"What we look for is to prevent misdemeanors or more serious crimes committed in these locations ... along parameters that are empirical and police work," she said.

"Statistically, you have a better chance of finding hashish on a rasta than on an executive in a suit," Lajus added.

Right. There is only one problem with this article - there is evidence to suggest that some ethnic groups and cultures are far more likely to be involved in crime, statistically.

Are not more than 70% of those in French prisons from an immigrant background? The profiling is not only ethnic - people wearing 'youth' clothing are targeted because they are far more likely to be up to no good than the elderly, presumably.

Whilst ethnic or age profiling is not a perfect tool for law enforcement, anecdotal evidence suggests that the police form these opinions for a reason - and often, they are right. You would hope so - if they don't who is committing the majority of crime in a certain area, then what hope is there?

I couldn't help but notice that Expatica found space for this story, which almost seeks to justify violent attacks by immigrant youths on the police, but could not find any for several stories which have emerged over the past few days - all of them fitting the pattern of immigrant-on-French violence.

• Gagny (Seine St Denis): two off-duty policemen were attacked and beaten. They came out of the police station and were "expected" by their alleged assailants who "was fully aware of their duties as police".

• Jacky Paillard, a former football player living in Toulouse, was viciously beaten by two youths who he admonished for blocking traffic.

At around half past five in the evening, he was returning home with his wife. Two men were stopped in the road and talking on the pavement, but he managed to squeeze by - then shouted out that they were wrong to halt the traffic in such a way.

He was knocked off of his scooter, and violently attacked by the two youths, who were kicking, punching and beating him with a car aerial.

He managed to headbutt one whilst wearing his helmet,and a woman screamed out that the police were on their way.

Police say he could have been killed had he not been wearing his helmet.

He is devastated not only by the brutality of the violence, but of the lack of respect youths have for their elders, lack of etiquette, and the way most witnesses stood by and did nothing.

• Three journalists from France 3 were attacked and had their camera stolen around midnight in the district Tarterêts in Corbeil-Essonne, Essonne.
  

The area had been the scene of tension earlier when Police officers who wanted to verify the identity of a young man to see if it matched the description of an individual who had insulted and attempted to assault a group of police officers, were surrounded by about fifty people.

Covered by a hail of projectiles, the police used tear gas, which inconvenienced the public attending the fair, including children and mothers.

Twenty seven complaints against the police were filed by residents protesting against the use of gas. "Such an assault was not warranted," said Radia Soualhi, friendly member of the tenants of Tarterêts saying she understands "that young people are outraged."

Four police officers were taken to hospital after being covered by a hail of cobblestones on Monday afternoon. Sunday's events would not have occurred if there had been no resistance to control. According to a police source, some offenders take a dim view of the arrival of the police patrols.

• Two journalists were assaulted yesterday in La Courneuve while doing a story.

A writer and a photographer with Le Parisien were the victims of a robbery. The attackers used tear gas and stole a briefcase. The two journalists had gone to a report in the Comorian community after the crash of the A310 when two people each wearing a hood attacked them. They snatched the camera and kicked them.

Journalist Yacine Bellatar said: "Yes it is tricky when you're a journalist and white, to go to the suburbs. I tell you specifically, today it is a fact. [This is] hostile environments, it must be admitted. It's like an abscess. They are hostile to everything which is foreign and everything that comes from outside, to protect [their] territory. "

• Paris, June 26, 2009 — A 31-year old woman has been arrested in Paris because she is suspected of stabbing a passenger who was too slow to get out of a Metro carriage.

The incident, reported by police headquarters, happened on June 19th around 8.30 p.m., at the Gare du Nord station on line n°4 [Gare du Nord is one of Paris main railway stations].

The woman, of Haitian descent, who was travelling with her partner, struck a 56-year old man in the chest with a kitchen knife, slightly wounding him. She complained because she thought he was too slow to step out of the carriage.

Using CCTV images, the regional transport police were able to identify and arrest the woman on Wednesday. She is well-known to the police. [This cookie-cutter formula usually refers, in the media, to repeat offenders guilty of regular assaults, robberies or drug dealing, who are seldom if ever convicted, either through lack of evidence or judges’ leniency.] At the time she was arrested, she was hiding a kitchen knife in her underwear.

She was taken into custody and was expected to be presented to the public prosecutor on Friday.

So there we have it. A couple of days, five violent incidents which demonstrate that perhaps the police have a good reason for their actions.

The ethnic tensions in France have become all but a civil uprising in many parts of the country; why do some facets of the media see fit to only report one side of the story?

The Joys of Diversity & Cultural Enrichment (XX)

A special edition which will focus solely on what cultural enrichment is bringing to Germany. The translations are not all mine, but where the term 'southerner' is used in the German press it generally refers to Turks, Kurds, Arabs or Berbers.

• A woman was shot in Berlin on Saturday because she refused a lift with three strange men of 'southern' appearance. From Gates of Vienna:

A gunshot wound because she said “No”

A woman didn’t want to enter the car with strange men, and then the passenger pulled out a gun and fired.

Crime scene Hardenbergplatz, Charlottenburg: On Saturday night at 3:40am, Daniela R. (20, name changed) and two lady friends from Wilmersdorf wanted to go home. It had been a long evening. Quickly eating a kebab and then heading for the bus.

Suddenly a silver metallic BMW was in front of her. “There were three southerners between 23 and 25 inside,” said the petite blonde. The passenger asked: “Can I take you?” Daniela declined. “You will regret that.” Then the girls looked into a gun barrel.

Frightened, they jumped back. Daniela couldn’t get away in time. The first shot hit her in the right leg. “It was a dull pain,” said the retail clerk. Fortunately it was only a grazing shot. The second shot hit the glass behind her. The box containing the city map fell on her back. Daniela R. collapsed to the ground and landed in the glass splinters.

The BMW drove away with squealing tires. Her friends and other bus passengers ran to her help. Daniela R.’s whole body was shaking and her hands and legs were covered with blood. After almost an hour in the ambulance the three ladies could go home.

• A 23 year old man was stabbed outside Hamburg Hauptbahnhof on Tuesday after a 'dispute' with men of 'southern' appearance. He later died of internal injuries.

The newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt later dropped the description of the suspects, then reinstated them with the addition of the term 'probably'.

Such disputes are usually started after the victim accidentally bumps into the perpetrator, so even that usage is overblown.

What we basically have here is an innocent man stabbed to death for accidentally infringing a psychopath's sense of his own self worth - and the authorities want as few people to realise it as possible.

• A Kurdish man is on trial for the attempted murder of his German ex-girlfriend in Cologne. The pair met on an internet chat room in 2005.

The woman soon began visiting him, even though he was already married and had three children. The relationship was against the wishes of the woman's parents - she was 29 and Davut Y was 43.

Even though the relationship broke down after a year and a half, Davut wanted the woman to speak for him at his asylum tribunal, which would decide whether or not he could stay in Germany.

When she refused and he found out she had a new boyfriend courtesy of an email sent by her mother, he took it that his honour had been slighted, and broke into her parents house and attempted to kill her with a 30cm knife.

The only reason she survived is that her father intervened. They were both left with severe cuts to the waist, shoulder and thigh.

• Earlier this month the German town of Solingen witnessed a mass brawl between Syrian and Lebanese families due to 'a culturally enriched version of Romeo and Juliet'.
  

The dispute started because a 16 year old girl from one family was seeing a 22 year old man from the other.

The police were called, and broke into the man's flat, where a fight broke out involving men, women and children.

It then spilled on to the street where passersby got involved, and at one point up to 150 people were fighting.

80 policemen were needed to contain the violence, which saw two people hospitalised - and only seven arrested.

Hat tip: Gates of Vienna & Politically Incorrect.

Playing Good Cop, Bad Cop with Dhimmitude

Two different cases concerning how those countries which try to resist Islamisation are treated.

First, we have 'good cop' - Amnesty International criticising the Swiss referendum which will be held to determine whether or not there should be a ban on minarets:

Geneva -- A push for a referendum on whether to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland was criticised Sunday by rights group Amnesty International and centre-right politicians.

Daniel Bolomey, the head of Amnesty's Swiss office, said those behind the campaign wanted to "exploit fears" of Muslims and encourage xenophobia for political gain.

"This initiative claims to be a defence against 'rampant Islamification' of Switzerland but it seeks to discredit Muslims and defames them, pure and simple," he said in a statement.

"For those behind this plan, the problem is not linked to minarets.

"In reality, they want to exploit fears that already exist among people and whip up xenophobic feelings for political gain."

The centre-right Free Democratic Party (FDP) also attacked the idea, saying it would only intensify "unfounded" fears against the country's Muslims.

The project came into existence when the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) collected signatures against minaret construction to initiate a public vote on the matter.

They collected over 100,000 signatures, which allows for a referendum, according to the country's constitution.

The Swiss government called for the initiative to be rejected.

No date was set for a vote, but it is not expected to take place before November.

Note to Amnesty: the SVP are only pushing for the referendum because they have collected the prerequisite number of signatures from concerned Swiss citizens.

Therefore, as the country is a democracy, their concerns are clearly legitimate and deserve to be addressed. The fact that Amnesty sees fit to criticise the decision before it has been made, in fact criticising the idea that Swiss people should be consulted about what the future of their country should be like at all, is ominous indeed.

Still, Amnesty might be bad, but they're not the worst opponents of forces which wish to halt the Islamisation of Europe - by any means.

In response to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent bid to ban the burqa from French territory (which GalliaWatch has some excellent thoughts on), al-Qaeda have sworn revenge, fighting what they call 'religious terrorism' from the French Republic, with actual terrorism.

From The Telegraph:

President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier this month that his government was considering banning the burka and other Islamic clothing which French MPs claim is degrading to women.

"Yesterday was the hijab (the Islamic headscarf long banned in French schools) and today, it is the niqab (the full veil)," said Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the leader of Al-Qaeda in North Africa.

"We will take revenge for the honour of our daughters and sisters against France and against its interests by every means at our disposal."

"We call upon all Muslims to confront this hostility with greater hostility, and to counter France's efforts to divide male and female believers from their faith with a greater effort ... [by] adherence to the teachings of their Islamic sharia," Abdul Wadud said, according to SITE.

He said Muslims in France, who are estimated at around five million, are "increasingly concerned about the practices of French politicians and leaders and their harassment".

On the one hand, there are do-gooders and Leftists, on the other violent terrorists and thugs.

They may have different methods, but it is very interesting to note that they seem to have a common goal.

The Religion of Peace in Britain (II)

• A Muslim man has been jailed for four years for stabbing his neighbour (also a Muslim) - for 'looking at his wife'.

An angry husband who stabbed a neighbour because he believed he was chasing after his wife has been jailed for four years.

Sohail Amar, 23, attacked Mohammed Asim, who lived opposite the couple in Westfield Road, Heaton, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

He was convicted by a jury last month of wounding Mr Asim with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

The court heard he knifed Mr Asim in the back after they had a row.

Amar’s wife, Hanna Ali, 22, who sat next to him in the dock at the sentencing hearing, was found guilty of the less serious offence of unlawful wounding.

The Honorary Recorder of Bradford, Judge Stephen Gullick, said Amar believed Mr Asim had been “making eyes at, if not harassing,” his wife.

After an argument between the men, Amar picked up the knife from his home, at 12.30am on May 10 last year, and stabbed Mr Asim just below his right shoulder.

Although the injury was not life threatening, Judge Gullick said the jury had found Amar guilty of intending to cause him really serious injury.

It was complete folly to try to settle a dispute with a knife, the judge said.

He told Ali she knew violence would be used but did not realise her husband had picked up a knife.

He sentenced her to a two-year community order with 200 hours unpaid work.

Nick Askins, Amar’s barrister, said he was an industrious family man of good character. He believed Mr Asim had been harassing his wife.

The couple had been forced to leave Bradford and now lived in Manchester.

Michael Reeves, representing Ali, said she was the mother of a child aged three. She did not know the level of violence her husband would use.

After the case, Detective Constable Ray Armstrong, of Bradford South CID, said: “We welcome this sentence and hope it acts as a deterrent to others.

“It should highlight the fact that West Yorkshire Police will not tolerate knife crime.”

• Two Muslim women have been spared jail after racially abusing white passengers on a bus in East London:

AHMED: MUSLIM WOMAN RACIALLY ABUSED WHITE PASSENGERS ON BUS

MILE END, E LONDON; CAMDEN, N LONDON. Two women who abused male passengers on a bus have been given four months to stay out of trouble or face jail. Salma Abdullahi, 20, and Yasmin Ahmed, 19, hurled insults at Stephen Power and Ionut Preda on a number 277 double decker in Mile End, east London.

Vicar Arrested over Sham Immigrant Weddings

From the Mail:

A vicar has been arrested on suspicion of organising 180 sham weddings for illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe, it emerged today.

The Rev Alex Brown, 61, was detained by police following a dawn raid on his rectory home yesterday.

He was one of four people being held today, as well as a Ukrainian man, a Latvian woman - believed to be one of the brides - and an Armenian male.

Brown’s church, St Peter and St Paul in St Leonards-on-sea, East Sussex, was closed following police searches.

A handwritten note pinned to the locked door of the imposing red brick church said: ‘All appointments have been cancelled for the foreseeable future!’

More than 35 officers from the UK Border Agency and Sussex Police arrested the suspects at four addresses following an 18-month investigation into bogus weddings.

The marriages were allegedly arranged to allow people from outside Britain and the EU to stay in the country illegally by claiming residency through via their legal spouse.

Brown, 61, was held on suspicion of facilitating the illegal entry of people into Britain.

Applications for UK residency were suspended 18 months ago for people married at St Peter and St Paul while the investigation was going on.

Permanent residency is only allowed after five years of marriage.

Detective Inspector Andy Cummins, of the UK Border Agency’s Joint Immigration and Crime Team, said: ‘Today’s arrests follow an 18-month investigation into allegations that nearly 180 sham marriages had been arranged at the local St Leonards church, allowing non-EU nationals to remain within the UK and EU member states.

‘Search warrants were obtained and officers have searched premises and arrested three men and a woman.’

A spokesman for the Chichester Diocese said: ‘It is with great sadness and regret that the Bishop of Lewes has received a report of the arrest of the Rev Alex Brown, the Vicar of St Peter’s.

‘The Church has been cooperating fully with the police and other agencies since the extent and seriousness of this matter came to light.

‘The bishop is concerned for the wellbeing of the congregation at St Peter’s, who will be upset and hurt by the news.

‘He has taken steps to ensure they are looked after pastorally and every support is being given to help church life continue as normally as possible.

‘The Church requires high standards of its clergy. In that light, the Rev Brown has been suspended from his duties pending the outcome of the investigations.’

70% of New British Jobs Go to Migrants

From the Mail:

More than seven out of ten jobs created under the Labour Government have been taken by foreign-born workers, experts revealed last night.

The percentage of new jobs taken by those born overseas is the highest of any of the major economies analysed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The Conservatives said it was yet more evidence that the Government had failed to deliver 'British jobs for British workers'.

he internationally-respected OECD said that in the first ten years of Labour rule, employment rose by around two million jobs.

But it said 'almost 1.5million of this was accounted for by persons born abroad' - 71 per cent of the total.

In the U.S., immigrant employment accounted for 58 per cent of new jobs. In France, it made up less than 20 per cent of the total, and in Ireland and Australia less than 30 per cent.

Over a ten-year period, only Luxembourg saw more of its new jobs taken by migrant workers, the OECD said.

Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green said: 'Yet another of Gordon Brown's soundbites has proved to be false. This Government has created British jobs for foreign workers and all his pledges about new job creation are shown to be bogus.'

Around a third of the migrant workers arrived here on controversial intra-company transfers, the OECD said.

The system allows international companies to transfer their staff to the UK for supposedly limited periods.

But the companies did not have to advertise the post in the UK first and staff can stay for up to three years, plus a possible two-year extension after which they can apply for settlement.

The OECD figures cover the period from March 1997 to March 2007. But, since then, ministers have continued to hand out work permits to non-EU nationals in record numbers.

In 2008, as the country slid into recession, 151,635 were issued. The document lets non-EU workers take or keep jobs here, despite hundreds of thousands of Britons losing theirs.

Unemployment rose by 290,000 from December 1, 2007 to November 30, 2008, to reach 1.92million.

In 2007, when the economy was growing, 129,700 work permits were approved. In 1997, the year Labour came to power, 42,800 were handed out.

The OECD report also predicts that temptation for Poles and other Eastern Europeans to work in Britain may soon return.

Anecdotal evidence suggests-significant numbers of migrants have returned home in the economic downturn.

This is due to fewer jobs being available in industries such as construction and the collapse in the value of the pound.

But the report says the pound's appreciation relative to the zloty (the currency of Poland) may 'reduce the incentive to return'.

Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said: 'We've introduced a flexible points based system which allows us to raise and lower the bar according to the needs of the labour market. This ensures only those with the skills we need, and no more, can come to work in Britain.'