Two Hamas Fundraisers Jailed in Texas

The two founder members of what was once the largest Muslim charity in the United States are behind bars today, convicted of channeling funds to Hamas - a designated terrorist group in the U.S. They were sentenced to 65 years each.

From the BBC:

Shukri Abu Baker, 50, and Ghassan Elashi, 55, were convicted of channelling funds to the Palestinian militant group, Hamas.

Three other members of the Holy Land Foundation were jailed for between 15 and 20 years by a Dallas court.

The charity was found guilty last year of sending $12m (£7.4m) to fund social programmes controlled by Hamas.

The five men were convicted in November on charges ranging from money laundering to supporting terrorism.

Hamas was designated a terrorist organisation by the US government 14 years ago, making it illegal to give the group money or other support

The defendants said they were only interested in helping the needy.

Their supporters said no money had been used to fund violence, and the case was a by-product of what it called the anti-Islamic sentiment following the 11 September attacks of 2001.

Shukri Abu Baker told the judge in Dallas on Wednesday: "I did it because I cared, not at the behest of Hamas."

But prosecutors argued that the humanitarian aid sent by the charity allowed Hamas to divert money to militant activities.

Jurors had reached their guilty verdict last year after eight days of deliberations following a retrial of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

It was the largest terrorism financing trial since the 9/11 attacks.

The indictment against the group said it sponsored Palestinian orphans and families in the West Bank and Gaza whose relatives had died or been imprisoned as a result of Hamas attacks on Israel.

The charity was shut down and had its assets frozen in 2001.

David Miliband Calls for 'Coalition of Consent' with Muslim World

A week ago today, Foreign Secretary David Miliband took it upon himself to 'reach out' to the Muslim world.

Having already apologised profusely for the etymology and execution of the 'War on Terror', Miliband points out 'a list of prejudices which British history generates', including the Crusades, colonialism and the war in Iraq.

In his view the latter did much damage to Britain's reputation and standing in the world - but he won't apologise for voting for it.

Here is what he said:

“Decisions taken many years ago in [the Foreign Office] are still felt on the landscape of the Middle East,” he said. “Ruined Crusader castles remain as poignant monuments to the religious violence of the Middle Ages. Lines drawn on maps by colonial powers were succeeded, among other things, by the failure to establish two states in Palestine.”

Completing the list with a reference to Iraq, Mr Miliband said: “When people hear about Britain, too often they think of these things.”

Mr Miliband was echoing Barack Obama’s demand that Israel recommit itself to the creation of a Palestinian state as he appeals to the Islamic world for a “new coaltion of consent”. Only days after President Obama told Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, to abide by previous peace commitments, including a freeze on new settlements on the West Bank, the Foreign Secretary has reinforced the message.

Urgent action on progress towards a two-state solution is needed to prevent “a fatal and final blow to the scope for compromise”, Mr Miliband said. “It requires the new Israeli Government to freeze settlements and accept a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders.”

Mr Miliband believes that the only pre-condition for co-operation should be a rejection of state-sponsored violence.

The Israeli Government was dismayed when Mr Miliband made no more than a passing reference to Iran’s nuclear programme. During a visit to Washington this week Mr Netanyahu insisted that thwarting Iran’s nuclear ambitions must take precedence over efforts to create a Palestinian state.

Abject Dhimmitude.

Grovel at their feet and maybe they will hate us a little less. Completely ignore facts and history, or take them out of context as and when it suits.

After all, we, the (formerly) Christian nations of the West, are the only force on earth ever capable of evil. Never mind that the Crusades, for better or worse, were attempts to reverse Islamic conquests.

For more information, I highly recommend Occidental Soapbox and his 'Islamic Crusades' series.

Bad News from Norway

Yesterday Queen Sonja became the first member of the Norwegian Royal Family to tour a mosque in Norway.

She covered her head and toured the mosque attached to the Islamic Cultural Centre Norway (ICCN) in Grønland, Oslo. The stated goal of this organisation is to increase understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims.

The Queen examined old handwritten Korans as well as Islamic calligraphy and art before opening the 'Islam Exhibition 2009', which aims to 'introduce people to Islamic life and teachings':

"We wish to give people an introduction to Islam. We we live in a multicultural society, it's important to know about everybody who lives in it," says Ikklaq Ahmad of the ICCN.

Aaminah Woqas (8) and Shahzaib Amad Khan (10) welcomed the Queen to the mosque and gave her flowers. They thought it was fun to shake the Queen's hand.

Everything isn't quite as hunky dory as it might seem, however. I wrote previously about Ghufoor Butt, the Pakistani living in Norway who set up his own political party in order to bring Norwegians round to accepting Islam and their new multicultural society.

Not everyone is quite so hopeful for the future, however.

The PST (Norwegian Security Services) believe that Norway's future is one of increasing ethnic and religious conflict:

Conflicts based on religion, ethnicity and nationality will increase in the next decade, the police believes. This appears in the police annual report for 2008, which was recently published by the Police Directorate.

"Those who come to Norway, try to integrate here, but they also have their own culture. They can bring with them conflicts from the homeland to Norway. This is something we must be attentive to," says the the head for the project in the Police Directorate, Knut Kværner, to Vårt Land.

Integration researcher Inger Lise Lien believes some criminals justify crime with religion, and that enmity can be brought to Norway.

"If, for example, we both take in people who agree with the Taliban and people who've escaped from the Taliban, this can cause conflicts between the groups," says Lien, who is a researcher for NKVTS (Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies)

"If Muslim boys will explain crime with Islam or Neo-Nazi boys justify themselves with Christianity, we will get conflicts of a completely different type than we have now," she says.

Well, there is a fairly obvious solution. Seeing as Norway used to be one of the most peaceful and civilised places on earth, a logical person might conclude that perhaps mass immigration just wasn't that good for Norway or Norwegians.

Quite why on earth anyone would wish to take in people who 'agree with the Taliban' is beyond me, but it seems the Norwegian government, like many of their Western counterparts, view themselves as neutral puppet masters playing with the lives of their subjects.

Mass immigration is just a way of letting the unscrupulous take advantage of societies they see as soft touches. It rarely if ever solves any of the problems it is aimed at; instead it simply creates a whole lot of new ones, for the immigrants and for the societies which host them.

Take, for example, this recent report about membership fraud in an organisation aimed at Pakistanis in Norway. The government found out that it was paying funds to a group which was misrepresenting its true membership figures by up to 80%:

Norway's largest immigrant organization received large grants. When TV 2 called a number of members, 80% said they weren't members. The association, which has been in existence since 1974, is very powerful in the Norwegian-Pakistani community, and over the past ten years received more than a million kroner in support from the Oslo municipality. In February they sent a new application with 506 names of members.

But though the Pakistan Workers Welfare Union received a lot of money from the Oslo municipality, the members lists were never checked.

Rowena Teodocio, the head of the department for integration and multiculturalism (EMI) says that they didn't inspect this organization this year or before that.

Well-known Labor Party politician, Khalid Mahmood, was a central activist in the Pakistan Workers Welfare Union since the 70s. All these years he had central administrative positions. In the last application to the municipality in February, Khalid Mahmood is listed as secretary.

when TV 2 wanted to check the member lists they were refused by the Oslo municipality and only got a censored version. With help of the national population register, tax lists and other databases, they managed to reconstruct many of the names.

And when they rang those listed as members, one after another answered that they weren't members and didn't pay union dues in 2008.

Of the 34 randomly selected people, 28 answered they weren't members. TV2 also found a member who died two years ago. Several said they didn't know or remembers, but they are not counted in the sample

For several days Khalid Mahmood refused to explain why 80% of a sample in the organization say they aren't members. He was presented with TV 2's findings both in writing and orally, but did not wish to explain. Khalid Mahmood wrote in an email to TV 2 that he thinks it's much better if they take it up with the head of the organizatoin, since he's the spokesperson and they'll get everythign from him.

The famous immigration spokesperson, who's also a parliament candidate for the Labor Party from Oslo, says he resigned as secretary in March. It's was just one month after the last application to the Oslo municipality for financial support.

Mahmood directed TV2 to Fazal Hussain, who's the head of the organization. And his explanation for having 80% of the sample deny membership is that people lie.

Q: So the members lie?

A: Yes! You know how many crazies there are in the association. One day they're against you and the next they're against me. It isn't easy to head the association," Hussain told TV 2 Nyhetene (News)

Q: Do you have confirmation today from all 506 of your members?

A: No, but I say that we have different people who recruit members. Some recruit everybody in their family, for example, 50 people. And they collect the names, birth dates, addresses and money and come to the administration," says Husaain.

The members of the Pakistan Workers Welfare Union join the same day and the membership dues are paid immediately to the organization's account. According to the guidelines, funds can't be paid out unless every single member paid membership dues.

Hussain, who denies that they inflate the numbers, says that they're not the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions and they're just a simple and little welfare union. They're not professional.

Certainly, the more members the Pakistan Workers Welfare Union has on their list, the more money they get from the authorities. the union also uses its size to seek other support. In February they received 265,000 kroner from the foreign ministry for a seminar on Islam and democracy in Oslo.

Rowena Teodocio is head of the department at Oslo municipality which hands out millions of kroner every year to immigrant groups. Despite TV 2's survey she doesn't suspect the Norwegian-Pakistani organization. Teodocio says that their starting point is not to start a dialog with organizations by saying that they cheat. It would be wrong.

After more than an hour of interviewing the head of the organization admits that what is supposed to be Norway's biggest immigrant association maybe doesn't have the most membership activity.

Q: How many come to your membership meetings?

A: Sometimes one or two. but there aren't many who come, says Hussain.

Abid Q. Raja (Liberal Party) is Khalid Mhamood's political opponent. he says that it's completely unacceptable that an elected politician as Khalid Mahmood doesn't answer a critical question.

Raja says there have been membership frauds in many other organization. It's an un-culture which must be fought. If they don't answer the questions, Oslo municipality should be brought into it, then the politicians in the municipal council, and maybe even the police, to investigate what's happening in these organizations.

Raja believes other organizations might have cheated to get money from the municipality. He thinks it might be just the tip of the iceberg, and therefore he thinks it's important that the Oslo municipality gets involved and not just accept the membership lists which are sent in. There must be a full open review of this. This is cheating with the community's means.

He says that according to the rumours in the community, this is the top of the iceberg and if one goes deeper into it, he will find big financial misconduct, including embezzlement, lack of loyalty and fraud.

There you have it. The immigration-based groups lie, the government gives them lots of money in the name of tolerance and integration (not to mention being accused of racism should any less than exemplary behaviour be highlighted) and doesn't have the will or the competence to notice any wrong doing.

If they are prepared to lie about this - then what is else is being fiddled, stolen or otherwise covered up?

Hat tip: Islam in Europe, with thanks to Esther for translating all Norwegian-language sources.

The Joys of Diversity & Cultural Enrichment (XIII)

Which Western country is getting the most out of its immigration policy? Today's contenders are Sweden, France and the U.S.

1) Sweden

Ahmed Ibrahim Ali, an immigrant who lived in the Husby area of Stockholm, was stabbed to death last year in a fight near the E4 motorway. Two of his friends were very seriously injured in the same attack.

An eighteen year old Somali and two other suspects, aged sixteen and twenty, were arrested and tried. The trial ended in an acquittal, because the judge was convinced that the confession of the eighteen year old Somali was fabricated to protect someone else.

The prosecution immediately appealed the decision, and on Tuesday it was decided that the main suspect could be brought to an appeal hearing. One problem - when a bench warrant was issued, it emerged that the man in question had fled - back to Somalia, the land he was seeking asylum from in Sweden:

“I have received confirmation from his father that he is in Somalia and plans to be there for the foreseeable future,” said attorney Johan Åkermark to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

“My understanding is that the family wanted him to get out of Rinkeby and Sweden,” said attorney Åkermark to SvD, referring to the neighbourhood near Stockholm which is home to many Somali and other immigrants.

“He was talking about leaving a long time ago.”

Åkermark added that the chances were small of his client returning to Sweden for any appeal hearing planned for the autumn.

“As far as I know, there is no functioning rule of law [in Somalia], so I don’t think it’s possible to have him extradited. In addition, no one knows exactly where he is,” he told SvD.

Ah, that's alright then. However, if he'd never been allowed to stay in Sweden in the first place, the victim would still be alive.

2) France

An extract taken from an article in the Brussels Journal about gang violence among young people in France:

Public gang warfare in France erupted in earnest during the Sarkozy era. Since late 2007, gangs from all over Paris regularly meet up for fights in underground, bus and train stations. One and a half years later this sort of violence has become routine.

Most of the gang members are young men of North African origin, but some of the most aggressive fighters are girls.

The French police say violence by teenage girls has increased by 140% since 2002. Last April, two gangs made up exclusively of girls between 14 and 17 years old fought a battle at the Chelles bus station, east of Paris.

“They had knives, screwdrivers, sticks and teargas and they were really going for each other,” a policewoman said. “There must have been about 100 of them. If we hadn’t intervened quickly, it would have ended in a bloodbath.”

3) United States

A Sioux Falls man accused of raping and beating his girlfriend to death last month became enraged when she admitted she had “slept with another man,” according to documents filed in the case.

Michaele Ashko Shimayil, 27, was arraigned Monday on 10 charges, including murder and rape, in connection with the April 30 attack on Bakita Mohamed. He pleaded not guilty to all charges but will finish his arraignment hearing later this week because of complications with finding a proper interpreter.

Shimayil speaks an African dialect, but police are uncertain of his country of origin. Monday’s proceedings lasted about 40 minutes before public defender Jeff Larson and Judge Stuart Tiede determined that a more effective interpreter was needed.

Shimayil apparently confessed to raping and beating Mohamed with a PVC pipe. “He said he was upset because (Mohamed) had told him that she had ’slept’ with another man,” according to court documents filed in the case.

When Sioux Falls police entered the apartment that Mohamed shared with Shimayil at 2901 E. Sixth St., they found her blood on the walls and floors throughout the home, before finding her beaten and unconscious in her bed.

“During the interview, (Shimayil) confessed to striking Mohamed repeatedly with the PVC pipe and punching her repeatedly with his hands,” according to an affidavit to support the search of Mohamed’s home.

Officers found Mohamed’s nearly nude body in a bedroom with “obvious injuries to her head and hands,” according to court documents. At the hospital, “numerous traumatic” injuries were found on Mohamed’s body, including cuts and bleeding from her skull, brain, lungs, liver and kidneys, according to court records.

Mohamed, 24, was from the East African country of Eritrea. She died Wednesday and was never interviewed by investigators, police spokesman Sam Clemens said. “She was unconscious when we found her, and she remained unconscious until the day she died,” he said.

Police officers initially were sent to 5001 E. 26th St. about 11:25 a.m. the day of the beating when a Sioux Falls Transit bus driver saw a man, later identified as Marko Haile Shomay, being assaulted by Shimayil. Shomay told officers that he had been punched repeatedly by Shimayil and accused of talking to Shimayil’s girlfriend, according to court documents.

Shimayil wasn’t at the scene when officers arrived, but he drove by later. He was stopped by police and arrested for the assault and drunken driving.

Amir Khan, Ambassador for Muslim Youth

Amir Khan, a British Muslim born in Manchester, is often presented as one of the poster boys for multiculturalism. His success as a boxer, bringing home Olympic medals for Britain, proves not only that immigration is desirable, but that it can work.

Well, sort of.

Khan has just been dumped by his girlfriend of three years, herself a devout Muslim, over claims that he and three friends may have indecently assaulted a waitress at a nightclub. Police are looking to interview the boxer and three of his friends after a 20 year old woman made a complaint, alleging the boxer and his friends not only assaulted her but trashed her shared house and left drugs behind.

This isn't the beginning of Khan's career as a role model, however:

On 23 October 2007, Khan was convicted of careless driving at Bolton Crown Court and given a six month driving ban and a £1000 fine. The conviction related to an incident that occurred on 2 March 2006 in the centre of Bolton, when Khan's car hit and broke the leg of a pedestrian who was running on a pelican crossing trying to avoid cars. Immediately prior to the accident Khan had swerved around a line of stopped cars and went through a traffic light that had just turned red.

He was cleared of dangerous driving^[32] and the pedestrian received an interim payment of £40,000.^[33] Khan was also summoned to appear in court in Rochdale on 26 October 2007, accused of travelling in excess of 140 mph on the M62 motorway on 31 December 2006. He failed to appear and the case was adjourned to 2 November 2007, with the District Judge warning that he would issue an arrest warrant if the accused did not appear by then. He was also charged with not producing his driving licence and insurance certificate.^[34] On 7 January 2008 Khan was fined £1000 and banned for 42 days for the speeding offence.^[35]

Sarkozy Snubs the Queen

According to the Daily Mail, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is too busy trying to win favour with Barack Obama to worry about the contributions of Britain and Canada to liberating France during the D-Day landings.

Not only has Sarkozy failed to invite the Royal Family, overlooking the fact that the Queen is the only serving Head of State to have actually served in the war (above, as a mechanic), but publicity for a television special, 'Barack Obama on the Invasion Beaches', makes no mention of the sacrifice of British and Canadian troops at all.

Buckingham Palace voiced anger last night after the French snubbed the Queen over next week's D-Day commemorations.

Aides said senior royals had repeatedly made clear their eagerness to support the historic 65th anniversary events in Normandy.

But last night French officials crushed any remaining hopes, admitting they had never had any plans to invite members of the British Royal Family.

They said President Nicolas Sarkozy was focused on the 'main event' of hosting U.S. President Barack Obama.

There was also anger at the British Government for failing to secure a Royal invitation from their French counterparts. Protocol means they cannot simply invite themselves.

The failure to invite the Queen - who is head of state of both Britain and Canada - will be seen as an insult to the memory of the 17,556 British and 5,316 Canadian troops who died to free France and are buried there.

The figure does not include many airmen and sailors whose bodies were never found.

President Sarkozy's officials were dismissive of the whole issue.

A French government source said: 'There were never any plans to invite members of the British Royal Family, although an invitation has been extended to Gordon Brown after he said he wanted to come.

'He will, of course, be concentrating on the British commemorations, away from the American beaches, as is appropriate. This is very much a Franco-American occasion.'

Presidents Obama and Sarkozy will attend the main international events at St Mere Eglise - the first town liberated by U.S. paratroopers - and Utah Beach, one of the two American landing sites.

France's equivalent of BBC1 plans blanket coverage in a day-long programme called Barack Obama On The Invasion Beaches.

Publicity for it makes no mention of British or Canadian troops.

It says: 'Surrounded by French and American veterans, the presidents Obama and Sarkozy will pay homage to the thousands of Americans who lost their lives on the Normandy beaches in their fight for liberty.'

The French president has been branded 'Sarko the American' over his attempts to curry favour with Washington. Relations with the White House have soured in recent weeks, and many believe he is pinning his hopes of repairing them on the D-Day celebrations.

Mr Brown will attend events on June 6, but is not expected to be at the main gathering of British veterans at Arromanches beach - the last time the dwindling band are expected to march together.

Peter Hodge, secretary of the Normandy Veterans Association, said having the Queen present would have been 'the icing on the cake' for his members.

He said: 'The veterans have immense respect for her and feel a very special bond. The fact that she took the salute at Arromanches at the 60th anniversary was very special to them.'

But he said it 'wouldn't make a scrap of difference' to most veterans whether the Prime Minister turned up or not.

He said as many as 400 veterans would not be able to make a hoped-for pilgrimage to the battlefields where their friends died because the Government's offer of help came so late that ferries and hotels were fully booked.

Downing Street insiders said the question of a Royal invitation had 'not arisen' in discussions with the French.

A spokesman said: 'This is an event organised by the French government. It is for them to issue invitations. The Prime Minister is pleased to have been invited and hopes to attend.'

The Real Racists in the Netherlands

A Dutch author has written a book, commissioned by the Netherlands Police Academy, which examines the problems of Moroccan criminality in many major Dutch cities.

Paul Andersson Toussaint has concluded that far from being victims of racism and excluded from society, many Moroccans are themselves racist and prone to excluding the Dutch and other nationalities from their social circles and their neighbourhoods:

"Conservatively estimated, I myself am physically and verbally threatened, intimidated or in some other way rudely or (extremely) aggressively treated twice every week by immigrant youths and men. The large majority of this group is of Moroccan origin. There is virtually never a justification for the intemperate behaviour of these boys. Their behaviour has without any doubt a partly racist origin. The fact that I am an indigenous Dutch person is sufficient. Thousands of these hate-heads are walking around Amsterdam," writes Andersson Toussaint in an opinion piece in NRC Handelsblad.

It is remarkable that the critical article has appeared in NRC Handelsblad. This newspaper is generally considered one of the most politically correct in the Netherlands. Nonetheless, Andersson Toussaint has been able to stress in the paper that Moroccans are criminals "en masse" and that Moroccan crime is not as is often suggested, a phenomenon among a small group.

"My research and many ramblings in Amsterdam districts show that it is a matter of a much broader phenomenon. There is no ethnic community where the us-and-them mentality is as strongly developed as actually among the Moroccans. A large group of Moroccans is living in Amsterdam who (...) are hostile to the Dutch, Dutch society and the West. Moroccans who do their best, work hard or study hard (...) are often stamped by this group (...) as traitors."

Not just the Dutch but also Turks and all other ethnic groups, especially the Surinamese, have to deal daily with "the Moroccan aggression, intimidation, slanging-matches and routine spitting at women," according to the writer. "But the perception that is still constantly proclaimed by a large group of politicians, policy-makers, civil servants, professionals, journalists and media personalities in chat shows on TV is simply turned around."

Andersson Toussaint concludes that Moroccans are in their culture used to being severely punished for crime, and that they lose respect for the authorities because this does not happen in the Netherlands. Many fathers also encourage their sons into drug-dealing as a career. "The denial of these facts has a paralysing effect and blocks the solution to this multicultural tragedy."

Andersson Toussaint will shortly publish a book ('State Secretary or Repeat Offender; the narrow path of the Moroccan'). It was commissioned by the Police and Science Foundation of the police academy. A debate on the book will be held in the Rode Hoed centre in Amsterdam on 11 June.

It is nice to see realism in the European media sometimes. The myth that only white Europeans can be guilty of hate and racism should be exposed for the nonsense it is as loudly and as often as possible.

Moroccan criminality is endemic in many Dutch cities. Just this month it was announced that 92 arrests had been made in the Diamond Straat area of Amsterdam in the past 12 months.

The vast majority of the offenders were of Moroccan background. Their offences included drug dealing, possessing illegal weapons, street robbery, burglary, assault and kidnapping, as well as insulting and assaulting the police and other public officials.

Ninety two might not seem an awful lot, but I get the impression that in the Netherlands you have to do an awful lot to get the police to take you seriously as a dangerous criminal.

Gouda is another place which has suffered heavily under the yoke of a Moroccan crimewave.
September 2008 saw bus drivers refuse to follow routes which went through the Oosterwei area of Gouda:

After a series of incidents Connexxion [the government-subsidized public bus company] announced it would not drive though Oosterwei [a neighborhood in Gouda] for a while.The measure follows complaints from bus drivers. They report that on their route through the neighborhood they are being spit on, threatened and robbed by mainly Moroccan youth who systematically kick against the buses as well. “The cup is full after a long series of incidents,” confirms spokeswoman Anja Pieroen of Connexxion.Since yesterday the drivers have been diverting around the most notorious areas in the problem neighborhood Oosterwei.

The very limit was reached with the robbing of a 37-year-old driver in Gouda, who was threatened [and cut] with a knife to make him hand over the change in his cash box to a robber. Connexxion says they want to send a signal to the police and the municipality to indicate that it no longer can go on like this.

A month later, a church and school were set on fire. The fire brigade were stoned, and youths managed to hijack a fire engine and take it for a joy-ride.

Two weeks ago there were civil disturbances after the police tried to arrest a youth. On another occasion the police tried to arrest two immigrant thieves, but were pelted with stones for their trouble.

A day later, youths ran amok in a supermarket, smashing bottles and trashing shelves. When the police arrived and went inside, the windows of their car were mysteriously smashed.

The police officers on the scene blamed a 'random act of vandalism' and made no arrests. Public outrage was so great that they later found six Moroccan suspects and arrested them. However, just three days previously, a police spokesman had said that throwing stones at the police and insulting them was 'nothing special:

Chris van Egmond, spokesman of the Holland Center Police Region, says that throwing stones at policemen is nothing special. It happens everywhere. He added that you cannot arrest someone for throwing stones, therefore the youngsters who threw stones at a police car in Gouda were only fined 90 Euros for hooliganism.

With attitudes like this, it is almost hard to blame the 'youths' for trying their luck. For years, the Dutch government and establishment have tried to blame the native Dutch for these problems; they're not tolerant enough, the youths are bored, or alienated, or excluded from civil society, they're victims of racism, their teachers don't have high enough expectations for them, etc etc.

It has been clear to many people for years now that the experiment of multiculturalism has failed. Oddly enough, the solution to problems which stem from diversity is not more diversity. We need more people like Geert Wilders and Paul Andersson Toussaint to stand up and say so before it is too late.

Al-Qaeda Cell Smashed in Egypt

On Saturday Egyptian police arrested seven people believed to be part of an al-Qaeda cell operating in Egypt. Weapons and explosives were found in the group's possession.

It is thought that the cell in question was responsible for the Cairo bazaar bombing which killed a seventeen year old French girl in February, and wounded 24 other tourists at the Khan al-Khalili bazaar.

The cell is called the Islamic Army of Palestine, and it is suspected that two Egyptian men living abroad are the leaders. What is most interesting is the make up of the group of suspects arrested:

Egypt said on Saturday that police have arrested seven members of an alleged Al-Qaeda-affiliated cell over a Cairo bazaar bombing three months ago that killed a teenaged French tourist.

The interior ministry said those arrested over the February attack were a French woman of Albanian origin, a British man of Egyptian descent, two Palestinians, a Belgian man of Tunisian descent and two Egyptians.

The Belgian suspect told police during interrogation that he had been instructed to accompany Al-Qaeda operatives from Belgium to France to launch an attack there, it said.

The ministry said some cell members had travelled to the Gaza Strip through cross-border smuggling tunnels to receive military training there.

Some suspects said they had also been instructed to attack tourist resorts and fuel pipelines in the Sinai peninsula, the statement said.

Hat tip: Islam in Europe.

The Joys of Diversity & Cultural Enrichment (XII)

An overview of which Western nation is getting the most out of its immigration policy - and which Western government is betraying its people the most. Today's contenders are Spain, Canada and the Netherlands.

1) The Netherlands

At the end of last month, an 18 year old Dutch woman was cycling along a path in Gouda. Five Moroccan youths stopped her and 'handled her indecently' before she managed to break loose and call the police.

Upon rounding up the suspects, the police found that the youngest was 7 years old and the eldest 12 years old. It is apparently the first time that a 7 year old has been arrested for indecent assault in the Netherlands. I wrote recently about a 12 year old Muslim boy arrested for sexually assaulting two women in Britain.

The police had to let the boys go because of their age.

Just a day or two later, two Dutch teenage girls were knocked from their bikes and pelted with stones by a group of five older Moroccan males. After knocking them to the ground and calling them 'cancer whores' their bikes were thrown down on top of them.

One suffered concussion and both had scrapes and bruises.

2) Canada

A Muslim immigrant in Toronto lodged a complaint with the landlady of his block of flats - because a Canadian infidel neighbour wished his wife 'good morning':

When the landlady of my Toronto apartment building said an outraged neighbour had filed a complaint about me over an apparently inappropriate hallway interaction with his wife, my mind raced through the countless conversations I’ve had with fellow tenants, none of which seemed a possible source of offence.

It turns out, it wasn’t a salacious transaction that had caused the complaint, but rather a neighbourly and — to me — entirely forgettable greeting, little more than a brief “good morning” as I passed my neighbours on the way to work.

Still, it was enough of an affront for the man — once a doctor somewhere in the Middle East, my landlady clarified — to feel I had broken a cultural taboo. The incident started an awkward feud which has involved warnings not to repeat my indiscretion and one face-to-face shouting match, which included allusions to my impending death.

I expect the battle will wage on, as we appear to be stuck at an impasse.
His Muslim upbringing has ingrained in him a sense of entitlement to demand I not speak directly to his wife; and my prairie upbringing has ingrained in me a duty to strive for polite cohesion with my neighbours.

My landlady, who has handled the complaint with tittering trepidation, hasn’t helped dispel the friction. She has told me to adhere to the demands because the man “could be dangerous,” directing me to literally turn my back to the couple as they pass, never make eye contact and never hold the elevator for them, no matter what.

Life among neighbours has become increasingly complicated by multiculturalism, in this case making even the most affable salutation or good Samaritan gesture a practice in walking on eggshells. But in trying to adapt to a patchwork of often conflicting cultures, has civility become the casualty of accommodation?…

The funny thing about this is that if this man did start ignoring his neighbors, never holding the elevator for them, never greeting them, etc., onlookers would think him “xenophobic” and say that his coldness was the kind of thing that made Muslim immigrants feel alienated and lash out in terrorist acts.

3) Spain

On Friday Spanish police arrested 23 Nigerian men for using Voodoo curses to force women into prostitution throughout Spain:

The women were recruited in Nigeria with false promises of legal employment and then illegally brought to Spain where they were forced to work as prostitutes, police said in a statement.

Police said the ring carried out "voodoo rituals and black magic to frighten the women and keep them always under control with the threat of 'destroying their souls" or 'making them crazy'."

All the money which the women earned was kept by the ring until they had paid off the debt they incurred to make the trip to Spain, which typically amounted to 50,000 euros (£44,000), police said.

Police carried out searches of 10 residences as part of their operation and seized material used in voodoo rituals, computer equipment as well as several passports and other documents.

They opened their investigation in February after receiving a complaint from a woman in the southeastern city of Seville who said she had been one of the ring's victims.

The women who were recruited by the ring in Nigeria were brought by bus and truck to Libya. From there they were taken to Italy by boat and brought overland to Spain.

Earlier this month in the Netherlands, the trial of 11 people accused of using voodoo curses to force up to 150 Nigerian girls into prostitution in Europe was adjourned until later this year.

Prosecutors alleged that between 140 and 150 Nigerian girls helped into the Netherlands as asylum seekers had disappeared from asylum centres in 2006 and 2007.

About a dozen of the girls were traced, while the rest were thought to have been forced into prostitution in Italy, Spain and France. Most were minors at the time, their ages ranging from 16 to 23.

Sweden's Hope

I have some very good news; Sweden has ceased to be a cultural and economic backwater of absolutely no significance to humanity and the wider world.

Why?

Well, because someone called Adam Tensta is a rising hip-hop star; he is from Sweden, and he has what are described as 'bright musical prospects'.

Obviously I am being sarcastic; sadly the person who wrote this article for 'The Local' is not, however:

Adam Tensta, one of Sweden’s hottest hip-hop artists, has just returned from an intense 12 days in Los Angeles, California, where he performed at legendary clubs like The Viper Room and The Roxy Theatre. “We killed the shows,” says Tensta. He means it went great. Things are definitely on the up and up for the 25-year-old, whose music is a pretty fast and danceable blend of socially conscious hip-hop lyrics and an electro/house sound. Since his first single “They Wanna Know” caught national attention in 2007, he won a Grammis (Swedish Grammy) for best Dance/Hip Hop/Soul album, he has done more than 300 shows and performed in three continents. Last summer he opened for Jay-Z and performed at Allsång På Skansen, a hugely popular Swedish sing-along fest.

Growing up the son of a Swedish-Finnish single-mom and a heroin addicted and absent father from Gambia, Tensta decided to not let his life become any more stereotyped. At an early age he decided that drinking, smoking cigarettes and doing drugs were not for him. Though he doesn’t want impose his beliefs on other people, he says he’s happy if he is a role model and an inspiration to young people. Growing up in one of Sweden’s projects might not be as tough as those in America, Tensta says, but it’s still no cake walk. His peers didn’t get brand new cars for graduation present like some teens did in the more affluent areas of Stockholm, a 17-minute metro-ride from Tensta, he says.

Though he has his focus on an international career, Tensta says he might end up doing three albums tops. Then he’s got another project, which he refuses to reveal, planned.“I hope people will say something like, ‘He’s so multi-faceted this Adam Tensta guy, it’s hard to get sick of him,’” Tensta says of himself in third person. “He’s evolving, he is so much more than just a musician.”

Yes, it's like a modern day fairytale, isn't it? A multicultural one - the best kind.

The article actively promotes the idea that Swedes, a people who have achieved an awful lot given the relatively small size of their population, now owe their success and international reputation to how successful the 'New Swedes' are.

The idea that someone from a housing project making bad music which glamorises everything that is currently wrong with Western civilisation constitutes success is laughable; but that is the world we now live in.

Sadly, judging by the comments, it seems that Tensta's success isn't even particularly well deserved; it's just another way of patronising those of immigrant descent and making liberal Westerners feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Media Double Standards Continue

In Sunday's Mirror, Mark Austin's column had some information about BNP leader Nick Griffin which was truly 'extraordinary'.

As some will be aware, a row has been raging for a few days because BNP GLA member Richard Barnbrooke wishes to take Griffin as his guest to a garden party hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Here's what Griffin allegedly said when asked about the invitation:

"Nelson Mandela was a terrorist but it didn't stop him meeting the Queen."

I say Nick has a point there, to be honest.

Austin fumes:

There is a difference. Mandela committed his life to ending the evil of apartheid, Griffin is committing his to effectively recreating it here. The comparison is odious.

The difference to me appears to be that Mandela was on the right side. He is a hero of the international Left, so any crimes or indiscretions he was responsible for must simply be airbrushed out of history.

Anyone who disagrees that Mandela was a saint must be a racist, after all.

Criticising Mandela does not amount to a defence of apartheid. It is simply pointing out that many such struggles, like life, are morally ambiguous, and it is ridiculous to claim one side alone has or had absolute moral authority based on one's own preferences.

I have absolutely no idea what Griffin's opinions on apartheid are - nor do I much care.

However, in August last year professional race-baiter Lee Jasper called for something which remarkably resembled apartheid - and the word would certainly have been used if Griffin had uttered similar sentiments:

Now Mr Jasper has advocated racebased schooling to tackle gang violence and raise education standards for black Caribbean students.

He said: "The fact is, it's time the black community ran its own schools, devised a curriculum that suited the needs of our children, employed teachers that look like the young people they are teaching.

"Some of the greatest black leaders in the world - Dr Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, to name just two - attended all-black schools and universities."

The ex-City Hall deputy claimed the schools would be a "beacon of excellence" for the black community and accused "liberals" of dismissing the idea while accepting faith-based education for Jewish, Muslim and Hindu children.

Mr Jasper said the schools would be open to all races but would be "focused in terms of their ethos, ethics and curriculum to the needs of our children". He added: "I'm not arguing here for a BNP-style 'apartheid education system'. I'm talking about the vision of establishing inclusive beacons of black academic excellence."

He's not arguing for BNP-style racism, you understand - simply that black children be put in certain schools simply by virtue of their colour or race.

It occurs to me that he actually is arguing for similar preferences for black people which the BNP say they wish to give to white Britons. The only difference is, in the eyes of the media and polite society - one is acceptable and one is not, for no other reason than the colour of the speaker.

For a white politician or public figure, using a term such as 'our children', which might imply that there is trouble in Happy-Rainbow-Family-Ville, would simply be career suicide. Implying that children can only be taught well by those who 'look like them' might well incur a prison term.

I don't remember Mark Austin or the Mirror having much to say about Jasper's comments, though. But still, each day it continues - the media pretends to inform us and we pretend to be informed.

They should be careful, though - if they keep the lies and distortions as blatant and one-sided as this, they may cause that which they fear most.

Asylum Airways

The Telegraph ran a very good article over the weekend about Britain's deportation flights.

It was news to me that anyone gets deported at all - but the UK Border Agency has removed 12,000 failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals over the past seven years.

They use special charter flights, which cost £250,000 per trip and leave up to 60 times a year.

The sad thing is that clearly the numbers removed are a drop in the ocean compared to the numbers who arrive and stay. The Government now attempts to remove anyone from a non-EU country who commits a crime which warrants a sentence of more than one year in prison as a matter of policy.

Often their efforts are frustrated by red tape and their own human rights legislation.

Another headache looms on the horizon, however; the article below deals mainly with violent criminals from Albania and Kosovo. At the end of April, Albania applied to join the European Union - this will mean that efforts to remove the many Albanians who will arrive here to commit crime will be null and void.

Alasdair Palmer reports from one of the flights in question:

I am sitting on a plane with murderers, robbers and people who have committed various kinds of sex crimes. The atmosphere is not particularly threatening – but this might be because muscular security guards outnumber passengers. At the moment, they're all sitting peacefully together, a great relief when you're 30,000 feet up and not comfortable with the thought of a fight breaking out.

We are heading to the Balkans: first to Pristina in Kosovo and then on to Tirana in Albania. The flight is a charter organised and paid for by the UK Border Agency, a branch of the Home Office, and it is taking 30 Kosovans and Albanians home. They are not going voluntarily; they are being forcibly deported.

Deporting foreign prisoners convicted of serious crimes after they have served their sentences has been an important part of government policy since 2006 when Charles Clarke, then home secretary, was sacked after it was revealed that hundreds of foreign prisoners, some convicted of very serious crimes, had been released... and no one knew where they were.

Mr Clarke's successors have been eager to ensure they do not suffer the same fate, which may be one reason why Britain deported a record number – 5,400 foreign prisoners in total – last year. Since August 2008, anyone who is not a citizen of an EU nation, and who is given a custodial sentence in Britain of 12 months or more, is automatically considered for deportation.

These chartered planes fly at least once a week and have several destinations, including Jamaica, Azerbaijan (which is used for Afghans), Pakistan and various nations in Africa and the Far East.

But convicted criminals aren't the only passengers. The Border Agency also deports immigrants whose claims to settle in Britain have been rejected – failed asylum seekers and illegal entrants of all kinds – but who refuse to return home voluntarily.

The flights cost at least £250,000 a time, an indication of the priority they are given within the Government, but surprisingly few people know about them. I am the first journalist, or indeed member of the public, to be allowed on one.

My flight leaves Stansted at 9.30am on the dot. Before the detainees board, one of the security guards suggests I might want to move away from the aisle to a seat by the window. There have been a couple of cases where the prisoners have lashed out and those sitting in the aisle seats injured. And there is a mentally disturbed prisoner on this flight and he has threatened to cause trouble…

I swiftly move to a window seat.

A coach arrives on the tarmac. One by one, those slated for deportation are marched up the steps on to the plane. Each is accompanied by three security guards, and all of the passengers board peacefully. They don't look like criminals; instead, they look extremely young, thin and pathetic. Their crimes, however, include murder, rape and robbery.

One frail individual has been convicted of managing a brothel. On his arrest, he had claimed asylum, and when his claim was rejected he said he would be tortured if he was returned to Albania. That claim was also rejected. And so here he is. He's not happy to be going back to Albania, but doesn't try fighting the security officers.

I ask one of the guards if there is usually trouble between Albanians and Kosovans. "Not really," he replies. "We can chat to them, particularly the Albanians, about Norman Wisdom – he's an incredible hero there. Don't ask me why but when England played football in Albania, Norman Wisdom got a bigger reception than David Beckham. It's a lot harder to lash out at someone if you have had a chat with them first. That's why we try to establish a rapport."

It's a strategy that seems to work. On this flight, the guards aren't even using handcuffs.
"The Government started using charter flights in 2001," explains David Wood, strategic director for the UK Border Agency, who sits beside me for most of the flight. "It was a response to the fact that some of those being deported realised that if they made a big enough fuss at the airport – if they took off their clothes, for instance, or started biting and spitting – they could delay the process. We found that pilots would then refuse to take the person on the grounds that other passengers would object. So although we still use scheduled flights, we use special flights for individuals who are difficult to remove and might cause trouble."

There are more than 60 such flights a year. Some 12,000 foreign prisoners and would-be immigrants have been transported back to their countries on charter flights over the past seven years.

"You will have noticed," Mr Wood continues, "that, as a proportion of the total of immigrants whose claims to stay in the UK are rejected, 12,000 is not a huge number."

I had indeed noticed that fact: there is a backlog of more than 250,000 asylum cases alone, and every year there are tens of thousands of people who arrive here who, were the law strictly enforced, would have to be deported.

"But the effect of the charter flights is actually much greater than the numbers themselves might suggest," he continues. "It sends out a very clear signal that Britain is determined to enforce its immigration policy. And that has an important impact on deterring people who do not comply with our rules or who are not entitled to be here from attempting to stay, because they see that we will succeed in removing them."

The statistics seem to back up his point. The number of Albanians claiming asylum, for instance, is now around one tenth of what it was in 2001: 1,065 Albanians claimed asylum in Britain in 2001; 155 did in 2008. The numbers being deported – or deciding to return voluntarily – has also steadily risen from 530 in 2001 to nearly 1,000 in 2008.

Deportation does not necessarily stop those who are deported from finding their way back to Britain. Illir Venhari, who has served as a translator on flights to Kosovo and Albania for more than five years, says it is not uncommon for him to discover he has met one of the deportees on a charter flight before.

"Some are determined to return to Britain," explains Mr Venhari. "Once they have been taken back to Kosovo or Albania, straight away they start working out how to come back. They travel across continental Europe by lorry, then hide in it when it crosses on a ferry to Britain. I met one guy who did this five times."

"We do get the occasional individual who we pick up and deport a second time," agrees Mr Wood,

"but there have only been a handful of individuals who have been deported more than once. It is rarer now as our borders have been significantly strengthened."

So what attracts people to Britain? "As far as Albanians are concerned, it is because they are treated better here than in most of Europe, where they are thought to be Romany [gipsies] and there is a lot of prejudice against them," explains Mr Venhari. "Also, Kosovo and Albania are very poor and very corrupt. You can earn a lot more in Britain and you will not have it taken from you by corrupt officials."

"The English language is also a great asset," adds Mr Wood. "The chance of learning it here attracts a lot of people, some of whom will go back to their own countries, because once they can speak English they have a much better chance of earning a living in their homelands."

We arrive at Pristina airport, Kosovo and a group of scrawny deportees are escorted off. One by one, they are processed by Kosovo's immigration authorities, who check their papers. Those who don't have passports have been issued with a "letter of identification" by the UK government.

"It's based on the best information we have about who they are," says Mr Wood. "I don't claim it's always 100 per cent accurate. We had one guy who had 54 aliases. We went through every one of his phoney names and it was impossible to be certain which was his real one – if any. But we take fingerprints so we can identify him if he tries to enter the UK again."

Our next stop is Tirana in Albania. Just before we start our descent, there's a disturbance. Prisoners should be given £46 on release from a British jail and one of the passengers is complaining that he has not received the money. His claim is checked and discovered to be accurate: there had been an oversight. The security guards take pity on him and have a whip-round. They give him £30. It delights him so much that he seems almost pleased to be back in Albania.

After landing at Tirana, the same process takes place, the only difference being that the Albanian authorities appear much less bothered about the paperwork. The deportees simply get off the plane and walk away. "Some will be back, I guarantee you," whispers Mr Venhari.

He may be right. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the deportation flights are a sign that the Government is finally trying to enforce its laws on immigration – something that, for at least its first four years in power, Labour seemed extremely reluctant to do. Charter flights are, of course, not going to be enough to stop people from desperate countries trying to settle in Britain in the hope of a better life. But they do get rid of a lot of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes.

And for that, if nothing else, those flights are surely worth it.

Royal Chauffeur Suspended over Security Breach

A man who works as a senior driver for the Queen has been suspended after allowing two undercover reporters into Buckingham Palace.

The reporters, who were posing as Arab businessmen and paid Royal chauffeur Brian Sirjusingh up to £1,000, were allowed inside with no security checks at all.

Sirjusingh sneaked the men into the Royal Mews where they were allowed to see a variety of vehicles and carriages owned and used by the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family.

Sirjusingh, originally from Trinidad, boasted of his status as the third most senior of the six Royal drivers, and then allowed one of the reporters to sit in the back of the Queen's Bentley (pictured below), used to transport her on state occasions.

He proceeded to tell the men all about the car's custom security and comfort features and the Queen's private travel arrangements.

The deal, set up by Sirjusingh's Lithuanian call-girl lover, took place just 200 yards from the Palace.

The Queen was in residence at the time.

Scotland Yard say they are investigating the breach of security, and Sirjusingh has been suspended.

An Appropriate Picture of Obama

Some European Obama-worshippers decided to use the occasion of the 60th anniversary of West Germany's democratic constitution to pay homage to their hero.

I think what they came up with is strangely apt.

Israeli Tourism Poster Pulled After Complaints from Syrian Embassy

A poster campaign on the London Underground advertising Israel as a tourist destination has been 'fast-forwarded to the next stage' after complaints from the Syrian embassy.

The Advertising Standards Agency revealed they had received at least 300 complaints from the public, whilst Transport for London received more than 600.

The complaints were made after a protracted campaign by Solidarity and other pro-Palestine groups in London.

Why? Well, the yellow map seems to show Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights as integral parts of Israeli territory:

The Syrian Embassy and pro-Palestinian groups complained about it because the featured map appeared to show the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war – the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights – within the borders of the Jewish state.

Syrian Embassy spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the move follows days of lobbying to get rid of the advertisement, which he called offensive.

Last month it was revealed that on BMI flights an electronic map failed to show Israel at all. The only Israeli city marked was Haifa, referred to by its Arabic name of Khefa.

TfL has confirmed that the posters will be removed.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli tourism ministry, Shira Kazeh, said the posters will be changed 'because we don't mix politics and tourism'.

It seems the Syrians were particularly upset about the Golan Heights being classed as an integral part of Israel - and even the conservative Telegraph displays its bias:

Israel's hold on the Golan Heights – a strategic plateau captured from Syria – is a particularly sensitive issue for Syrians. Damascus has said it will not make peace with Israel until the land is returned.

The territory was captured after Israel fought off a brutal attack from all sides by its Arab neighbours in the Six Day War - but to read this you would think the Syrians woke up one morning to find that the dastardly Zionists had struck and captured, er, strategic territory to stop Syria shelling their civilians.

I'd imagine the thought of yet another launch pad for rockets is a particularly sensitive issue for Israel.

British Pensioners Fight off Somali Pirates

From the Daily Mail:

British pensioners on a cruise ship bravely fought off machine gun-armed Somali pirates by hurling deckchairs and tables at them.

The holidaymakers were enjoying a midnight Mozart concert onboard MSC Melody when pirates armed with Kalashnikovs attempted to board it using grappling hooks and ladders.

But passengers forced them back to their boats by throwing chairs and tables over the stern of the ship as Israeli security guards onboard the cruise liner fired warning shots.

The ship was a week into a 22-day cruise in the Indian Ocean, 180 miles north of the Seychelles, when it came under attack from pirates in speedboats.

Maureen Gawthrop, 66, from Barnsley, said: 'We were enjoying a classical concerto on the pool deck when everyone heard a cracking sound.

'The applause for the musicians died down suddenly and someone came running in from the open deck and shouted "pirates".

'Crew members acted quickly to evacuate passengers into their cabins and told them to lock their doors.

'We went to our cabin and we could hear bullets whizzing and clanging as they hit the ship.

'I saw a white speed boat riding alongside on the wake of the ship about 15 yards away. There were eight men dressed in green camouflage who turned and fired at us.

'We couldn't believe it was happening, it was unreal.'

Husband Roy, 66, added: 'We later learned what we witnessed was the aftermath of the incident. The pirates had tried to get on board the ship with short rope ladders and failed.'

Ian Moakes, 62, from Forest Town, Mansfield, said passengers were terrified as the hijackers began shooting at the ship.

He said: 'We were told to go to our cabins, lock the doors and not to answer the door to anyone and they would let us know what was happening.

'A lot of the crew were elderly and very frightened because they didn't know what was going on.
'I was very frustrated because there was no news coming through and I was stuck in the cabin.'

The ship's captain ordered security guards to fire two warning shots to scare off the attackers, but many of the passengers did not know the full extent of the attack until 36 hours later.

'There were a lot of angry people on board as a lot of misinformation was given out.

'Only when we got off the boat at Aqaba did I realise that it could have been a lot nastier - there were bullet holes in the side of the ship from their Kalashnikov rifles.'

Wife Jessie, 61, said the ordeal had no put her off travelling abroad.

'It was not until after the incident that I realised how serious it was,' she said.

'It ruined our holiday but we will go again - just not to the Indian Ocean, it is far too dangerous.'

Owner of MSC Cruises, Gianluigi Aponte, said the ship's crew took all necessary precautions to avoid the attack, which happened in April.

He said: 'We are very proud that our crew proved to be able to promptly tackle the emergency.
'At the moment of the attack, the ship was 600 nautical miles from Somalian coast, in an area that is not considered dangerous, and 180 nautical miles from Seychelles.

'All security measures adopted worked perfectly. Captain Ciro Pinto followed all security protocols provided, guiding the ship out of danger with a sequence of evasive manoeuvres.'

Pirate attacks on ships passing through the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean have soared this year, with attacks nearly doubling between January and March.

Two Different Approaches to Immigration

Various news reports from the past couple of weeks suggest that Italy and Germany are taking a very different approach to immigration issues.

The German government 'integration representative', Maria Böhmer, called for a thorough investigation into the falling number of immigrants seeking German citizenship and naturalisation:

“We need an exhaustive analysis,” she said, adding that the sudden fall in naturalisations after years of steady growth “worries me greatly.”

Knowing Germany as I do, I would imagine a celebration would be more appropriate than an investigation.

But no - the number of immigrants seeking citizenship has fallen by 15% since a 'controversial' language test was introduced two years ago.

The rest of the article is worthy of inclusion:

Overall applications dipped below 100,000 – the lowest number in a decade, the inquiry found.Böhmer said that naturalisation officials could be more service-oriented and help immigrants see the advantages to becoming German citizens. And with an eye to recent criticism about the citizenship test and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) refusal to allow dual citizenship, Böhmer (also a CDU member) said she would avoid any “rash answers.”

Böhmer’s comments come ahead of a controversial event planned for Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, when she will personally lead a citizenship ceremony for 16 immigrants. The event is meant to honour the contribution of immigrants to Germany in the run up to the 60th anniversary of the modern German republic. In a weekend video podcast message, Merkel said it was in Germany’s interest to naturalise as many immigrants as possible.

In Italy, there is currently a totally different state of affairs.

On 8th May 2009, the Guardian reported that officials in the Italian city of Milan had proposed 'segregated' public transport.

Matteo Salvini, secretary of the Milanese branch of the anti-immigration Northern League, told supporters at a rally that there should be 'seats for Milanese' on the city's trains, trams and buses.

Predictably, opposition politicians invoked the spectre of the Rosa Parks affair. Salvini, however, had a slightly different take:

"It was just a provocation to say the residents are now in a minority and, as such, need safeguarding."

Like the rhetoric or not, he makes a legitimate point. Parts of Italy have been swamped with unassimilable Third World migrants for years. They are often responsible for heinous crimes, as well as the same patterns which are seen elsewhere - harassment of Western women and being violently territorial.

Berlusconi's government had been criticised just days previously for its new policy of automatic repatriation for boat people caught in international waters- a very sensible approach which I have advocated for years:

However, Berlusconi, whose government is already under attack for its immigration policies after the Italian navy returned to Libya more than 200 boat people without letting them apply for asylum, said: "Salvini himself has said it was a quip, a provocation."

The interior minister, Roberto Maroni, a Northern League member, hailed it as a "turning point" in his battle to stem the flow of immigrants through Italy's Mediterranean islands. But the UN and human rights groups accused the government of violating international treaties to which Italy is a signatory.

On Thursday the occupants of three boats adrift, reportedly in Maltese waters, were escorted back to the Libyan coast by Italian naval vessels. It was the first time that Libyan authorities were known to have accepted back migrants who set off from their coast. The shift appeared to reflect recent agreements between Berlusconi's government and Libya.

Since launching a tough new policy on boat people last week, Italy has turned back six boats carrying a total of 1,500 immigrants and asylum seekers which were trying to reach the country's southernmost outpost, the island of Lampedusa.

This policy seems the only one which can stem the invasion and colonisation of Europe. Such words are not meant to be provocative, but accurate - even respectable mainstream figures such as historian Niall Ferguson refer to the 'colonisation' of Europe by North Africans.

The European Union, of course, were absolutely outraged by Berlusconi's defence of his territory, his borders and his people. Immigration is causing increased tensions in Italy, and there are genuine fears for the future.

Berlusconi went a step further, however - on the 11th May 2009, he announced that he did not want a 'multi-ethnic' Italy.

Previous Left-wing governments had "opened the doors to clandestine migrants coming from other countries, with an idea of a multi-ethnic Italy," Mr Berlusconi said.
But that kind of society was "not our idea", he added, as he sought to reassure Italians who were alarmed at the number of immigrants pouring into the country, particularly from eastern Europe and Africa.

Again, the usual suspects were up in arms. Opposition MPs called the remarks 'a disgrace', and the EU and UN Refugee Agency weren't very happy.

Berlusconi has two valid points in his favour, however; firstly, most Europeans have never been asked how they feel about mass immigration and its plethora of negative results. When polled, the vast majority in most countries seem to feel there is too much immigration, and the social changes it has caused have gone far enough.

Secondly, rejecting a multi-ethnic Italy is not a call for genocide or expelling everyone who is not white or Italian, as some on the Left pretend; it is a simple statement of fact that Italy is not a 'nation of immigrants' in the American tradition. It is the rejection of a politicised term which describes a modern ideology or even cult rather than a physical state of being.

It is an endorsement of that nation's past and culture; Italy is what it is today because it was built by Italians. Whatever the future may hold for Italy, there will be no call for ideologues to re-write the past to prove that mass Third World immigration is a constant (as they have begun to do here in Britain); rejecting the term multi-ethnic means that Italy will remain Italy, and that anyone who does not wish to fit in should not go there.

As well as turning back boat people, the Italian parliament has made entering Italy illegally a crime. This perfectly logical policy can only continue to be logical if the rest of Europe adopts it post-haste.

Rather than condemning Berlusconi, I feel the governments and nations of Europe should be emulating him. If the mainstream do not address the growing sense of disenfranchisement which natives in many European countries feel - someone else will.

Muslims Riot in Greece

Yesterday several hundred Muslims marched through central Athens, damaging cars and smashing shop windows.

They allege that during a check of documents in a Syrian cafe, a policeman ripped up a copy of the Koran before stamping on it:

ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Muslims marched through central Athens on Thursday, damaging shops and cars, to protest what they said was the destruction of a Koran by a Greek policeman.

The president of the Muslim Union of Greece, Naim Elghandour, said that during police checks at a Syrian-owned coffee shop on Wednesday, an officer took a customer's Koran, tore it up, threw it on the floor and stomped on it.

In response, about 1,000 immigrants, many from Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, marched to central Omonia Square, smashing several shop windows and five cars, a police official said.
Police sources said an internal investigation was launched into the Koran incident.

"We were told by police we will be given the name of the policeman who did this so we can press charges," Elghandour said.

Thousands of immigrants, many from Muslim countries, cross into Greece illegally every year seeking a better life in the West. Trapped in legal limbo, most have no jobs, live in squalid conditions and are often arrested for minor crimes.

On May 9, members of a rightist group attacked immigrants in Athens, sending at least three to hospital. Rights groups accuse predominantly Orthodox Christian Greece of not doing enough to protect immigrants.

But of course, Greece and Greeks do not need protecting from the invading hordes - they need protection from the Greeks they choose to live alongside.

Taking the history of Greece into account, the centuries of dhimmitude, subjugation and humiliation, I really can't say I blame them for being wary of the huge demographic changes underway in Greece and Europe.

It seems some have at least one eye open.

Belgium to Accept Guantanamo Inmates

Belgian foreign minister Karel De Gucht will today tell Hillary Clinton Belgium is willing to accept 'a limited number' of detainees from Guantanmo Bay.

He will meet the U.S. Secretary of State on a visit to Washington today.

The Obama administration refers to the prison at a U.S. naval base in Cuba as a 'misguided experiment'.

Not so misguided that even Obama doesn't have some misgivings about simply opening the gates and letting all the prisoners leave - as well as trying to palm inmates off on smaller countries, Obama has toyed with the idea of moving inmates considered genuinely dangerous to Federal 'Supermax' prisons.

It is estimated that of the prisoners released so far, around one in seven may have returned to terrorism and become 'militant fighters' - some will be killing coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Prison Violence on the Rise

According to the Howard League for Penal Reform, there were more than 40,000 violent acts among prisoners last year - more than 100 a day.

My take on this is that prisons are not punitive in the correct way. Often the atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed, the authorities not really in control. It is other prisoners whom convicts must fear, not the law, governor or officers.

The hilariously-named Frances Crook, director of the Howard League, insists that the reason for the rise in violence is overcrowding and the mistreatment of mental health problems. Crook says that studying 141 English and Welsh prisons revealed that incidents of self-harm, assaults and fires had gone up by 180,000 in five years.

The solution of Crook and the Howard League is to get more young prisoners community sentences, and generally look to alternative punishments to prison.

There's a huge problem with this - arguably the shocking rise in violent crime on Britain's streets is caused by inadequate punishment.

Prison serves at least one function - it keeps dangerous people off the streets and away from the law-abiding public, thus interrupting their criminal career.

Reform groups also wish to see more criminals diagnosed with mental illness. The problem with such a definition is that it takes the onus not only off of punishment, but off of the protection of the public, and puts it squarely on the needs of the individual who has been 'diagnosed' or convicted.

Take the case of Christopher Clunis. In 1992, the 18 stone Schizophrenic plunged a knife through the eye of an innocent man, Jonathan Zito.

Zito, who had just got married, was simply waiting for a train when Clunis struck. After the arrest of Clunis it was revealed that he had previously been very violent, but he had been released under the controversial 'Care in the Community' scheme after the closure of the old mental hospitals.

Clunis is now being prepared for release back into the community.

Like most Leftist impulses, the destruction of the mental hospitals or 'asylums' was driven by good intentions. The problem is they never took the trouble to seriously think of a viable alternative. They spent a lot of time focusing on those who did not deserve to be locked up - and forgot those that did.

Why would the same not be true for the destruction of automatic prison sentences for most crimes?

We already live in a society with one of the most liberal justice systems on earth. Murderers rarely spend twenty years in prison, the restoration of the death penalty for murder is simply unthinkable, and most repeat offenders have to do something pretty serious before they go to prison for the first time.

In return, this is rapidly becoming a very violent society. If the law can't control people in prison, then where can it control them?