Largest Mosque in Holland Inaugurated - Police Denied Pork in Ijsseland

It seems some confusion reigns over the treatment of Muslims and the current status of Islam in The Netherlands.

According to the following article, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a confident creed in ascendancy:

The Essalam mosque, which is the largest in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Western Europe, has been inaugurated in Rotterdam.

The mosque was officially opened by Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb and Alderman Hamit Karakus (Housing and Town Planning) of the Rotterdam municipality. They, respectively Moroccan and Turkish, are Muslims themselves. Among the invited guests were the ambassadors of Dubai and Morocco, reported the Dutch English-language media NIS News.

The construction of the Essalam mosque, which offers space for 1 500 Muslims, took seven years and cost EUR 4 M. The new mosque, built in a traditional style with 50-meter minarets, is the biggest Islamic house of prayer in the Netherlands and one of the biggest in Western Europe.

The construction of the mosque did not go without trouble over concerns of the foreign funding much of which came from the Maktoum Charity Foundation of Dubai sheikh Hamad bih Rashid al-Maktoum, who also has placed his followers on the mosque management board.

Much opposition to the building existed in the years past, among others among the local population. Construction was halted for months several times.

Rotterdam city council threatened to withdraw the building permit, mainly under pressure from Liveable Rotterdam, the biggest party among white Rotterdammers. As well, a portion of the Moroccan Muslims who would make use of the mosque did not want the intervention from Dubai, NIS News points out.

So, the objections of the pesky Dutch locals were overcome, and the largest mosque in western Europe now stands in Rotterdam. You'll note that Rotterdam's Moroccan mayor was in attendance at the opening ceremony, along with many Muslim dignitaries.

Can this be right? Perhaps our eyes deceive us, because according to the leader of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), Job Cohen, Muslims in The Netherlands are "excluded like 1930s Jews":

Muslims are excluded from present-day Dutch society, as also happened with Jews in the 1930s, in the view of Labour (PvdA) leader Job Cohen.

Cohen drew the controversial comparison in an interview with Vrij Nederlands weekly. He links his views to the rise of Geert Wilders. In reaction, the Party for Freedom (PVV) leader rejected Cohen's criticism as "disgusting."

Cohen, himself Jewish, recounts how his mother experienced around the time of the outbreak of the Second World War that Jews were slowly being excluded. He also sees this alienation now in society.

Yes, I'm sure his mother would be able to recall grand new synagogues being opened at around the same time, whilst Jewish mayors crowed in triumph about steam-rolling over the wishes of the majority - or, not.

Perhaps she might get some unpleasant flashbacks if she walked down the street in many Dutch cities and encountered some of these poor, excluded "youths," however.

It's strange because I don't see Muslims in The Netherlands being excluded - I see their every whim being catered for.

Take the following case from Ijsseland:

The Ijsseland regional police force supplies only pork-free lunches boxes, in order to take Muslims into consideration.

At first they offered both halal and regular lunch boxes. "But that didn't work," says a spokesperson. There weren't enough, or they didn't get to the right people. "We want to be a diverse force, therefore we take each other into consideration."

Lunch boxes are usually given out only during large-scale police operations. "More police forces do it this way."

Yes, they "want a diverse force" - so actual Dutch officers can just do as they're told and shut up about it.

Sounds like a real anti-immigrant dystopia, doesn't it?

It seems to me the only thing likely to turn Dutch people away from being inclusive is the special treatment many immigrants get, and the behaviour they display towards the natives in return.

Either way, to compare the situation with what Jews went through in the 1930s is very offensive - to the Jews.

Hat tip: Islam in Europe.

Man Threatens Dutch Politician's Daughter

A man has been arrested in Rotterdam for making threats against the daughter of GroenLinks leader Femke Halsema.

He was posting on Twitter under the name "allah-u-akbar":

The 35 year old man, as has now been made known, was arrested on Tuesday. He threatened Halsema in September via twitter.com, under the name of allah-u-akbar. He also threatened Labour (PvdA) leader Job Cohen and centre-left D66 leader Alexander Pechtold, the police said Friday.

The suspect appeared on Friday before the investigating judge, who decided to remand him in pre-trial custody for 14 days. A further investigation will be carried out into the suspect. When this is completed, the Public Prosecutor's Office will decide how the case will be concluded.

Last month, it was made known that Halsema took her children away from the 'black school' in Amsterdam which they had been attending. It is not clear whether that decision was related to the threats.

Halsema sent her twins to a school with mostly black and Islamic children in Amsterdam-Oost for idealistic reasons. "They have now gone to another school. That is better for their welfare. Children are not a social experiment. For these reasons, I do not want to say anything, it is a matter of the privacy of my children," said Halsema last month in De Telegraaf newspaper.

I find the remarks about the school very interesting; in some ways it is heartening that an ardent leftist such as Halsema can perceive reality objectively to a degree and act for the benefit of her children. It's a shame she couldn't have seen they weren't a "social experiment" to begin with, however.

What's sickening, of course, is that she supports policies which will eventually see many more Dutch schools become like the one she withdrew her own children from; therefore, she supports using the children of ordinary Dutch people as "social experiments"; many will suffer terribly and even be killed as a result.

Many of these Dutch families won't have the option of moving to a better area or paying fees; leftists like Halsema are literally condemning them and their children to a terrible fate.

It's interesting that Halsema even admits that to a degree in her own comments; she sees mass immigration and its results as a "social experiment" - and despite supporting it in whatever way she can in parliament and condemning those who oppose it in the strongest terms, the results of it are not good enough for her and hers.

I wonder, then, why they should be deemed good enough for Holland and the Dutch to the point where anyone who speaks out against them becomes a pariah?

Dutch Mayor Demands Action Against Criminal Moroccans

Albert van den Bosch, the VVD Mayor of Zaltbommel, has spoken out against a hardcore of around 50 criminal Moroccans who are terrorising his town.

Typically, he is now being criticised for his candour after calling these violent thugs and pimps "the enemy within", and questioning why the Dutch government has money to spend on fighter jets for questionable, distant wars when it has no money nor the will to employ the police adequately in many Dutch towns and cities.

NIS News describes the man's honesty and attempts to do his job, i.e. uphold the law and protect the citizens who employ him as "a spicy political statement":

ZALTBOMMEL, 27/02/10 - Mayors are not expected to make spice political statements, but Albert van den Bosch broke with this doctrine Friday. The conservative (VVD) mayor characterised Moroccan criminals as the "internal enemy".

The VVD mayor urged special legislation to put a stop to intimidation by Moroccan youths. "The people are fed up. Do something about it as government!" he said in the civil servants' journal Binnenlands Bestuur.

"I am fed up with how Iraq and Afghanistan have been discussed for months, while nothing is done about a much bigger problem. (...) I do not understand that so many billions are being put into purchasing JSF fighter aircraft if you could also have very many extra police officers for this money. Who is our enemy? Do we need an expensive airforce for vague wars in far places, or is the enemy within, in the Netherlands?"

Van den Bosch is mayor of Zaltbommel. Some 1,000 Moroccans live in this municipality, of which 50 are regular offenders. "Twenty form the hard core and there are 30 copying them. There are no problems with the other thousand Moroccans."

But the mayor can do nothing against the trouble-makers, he says. "Intimidation, violence, serious trouble-making; much more is going on than just calling women 'whore'. We also have some lover-boys (pimps press-ganging girls into prostitution), nearly all of Moroccan origin. I hear rumours that these are also already surfacing in the primary schools."

So here we have a mayor admitting publicly that Moroccans are forcing young girls (who despite the omission in the article will be almost exclusively Dutch) into prostitution, and that such behaviour can even be seen emerging in some primary schools.

In return, all he gets is abuse and sarcastic comments from the great and the good, who would rather ignore these problems and leave the victims to their fate in the enriched, diverse New Holland.

Hopefully, when Mr Geert Wilders is elected Prime Minister of The Netherlands, such men will be rewarded for their foresight and commitment to the Dutch people rather than scorned.

The Joys of Diversity & Cultural Enrichment (XXV)

Just a brief reminder of how well government-backed mass immigration is going in three Western countries, and the joy and enrichment brought to their respective citizens in The Netherlands, Britain and the US.


1) The Netherlands:

Gouda local council has given criminal Moroccan teenagers money to stop causing trouble. "We wanted to prevent matters from escalating further," said the council yesterday.

Some dozens of young Moroccans waylaid and robbed passers-by in December. They were 'bought off' by the municipality to keep them off the street around New Year's Eve. They received a combined 2,250 euros, shoved into an envelope, to organise a party, De Telegraaf reported yesterday.

Gouda has confirmed that it paid the troublemakers. "We wanted to prevent maters from escalating further. The youngsters themselves had presented a budget for the party. They had to say how much money they needed for hiring a disc-jockey, a bite to eat and drinks. For us, it was important that it should be quiet in the district around the turn of the year."

According to the council, it had to act quickly. "Although the money was handed over in cash, it was well-spent. Everyone was happy afterwards. We also gave five Moroccans a gift voucher for a book shop afterwards as a thank-you," says a spokeswoman.

Yes, you read that correctly - in The Netherlands the penalty for forming large gangs and robbing innocent people en masse is a cash grant to throw a party, plus a little something extra as a "thank you" for not committing more crime for its duration.

Next time the geniuses at Gouda council feel money burning a hole in their pocket, they might like to consider that flights from The Netherlands to Morocco can be obtained for just under £200 per person - although I guess the handcuffs cost extra.


2) United Kingdom:

TWO rapists were wrestled to the cells as violent scenes erupted when they were put behind bars for a total of 17 years.

Sadiq Hussein, 20, and Abdillahi Adan, 18, hurled vicious abuse at their victim as they were each locked up for eight-and-a-half years. Hussein, of Chatsworth Drive, Edge Hill, and Adan, of Daniel Davies Drive, Toxteth, both denied rape, but were convicted by a jury.

The pair tried to jump from the dock and had to be restrained by security guards and police officers as they screamed threats and insults at their 18-year-old victim.

Liverpool Crown Court heard they had "preyed upon" their vulnerable victim and led her into Princes Park, Toxteth, after she asked for directions.

Judge David Aubrey QC said: "While you both raped her, one after the other, she was distressed, she was crying, she was crying for help and she was crying for you to stop.

"Her fear, anxiety, apprehension, trepidation is in my judgement immeasurable.

"But notwithstanding her cries for you to stop and her cries for help neither of you desisted."

I don't suppose there's any point in asking just what these two upstanding gentlemen were doing here in the first place?

Despite the judge's words, the brutality of the attack and their actions upon being sentenced (showing a violent, sociopathic disregard for everything, including authority, decency and reality), they'll both be out well before they're 30 to enrich someone else's life "beyond measure."


3) United States:

A Bosnian woman accused of trying to strangle her baby on Christmas Eve in Utica is blaming Serbs for her actions.

33-year-old Bosnian Muslim Saliha Mehmedovic told police and firefighters that she choked her baby until the baby turned blue.

Her lawyer, Patrick Marthage, says that Mehmedovic is too traumatized and mentally disturbed to ever truly explain why she choked her 2-½-month-old son Jasmin inside her home.

Marthage called Mehmedovic a “very tragic figure”.

“I think she was the victim of many atrocities in her native country,” Marthage said.

The reporters at the Observer-Dispatch were told that Serbs in Bosnia committed genocide, that Muslim women were massively raped and that Serbs victimized all Bosnian Muslims including Mehmedovic.

“Observer-Dispatch wants their readers to conclude that Serbs are to be blamed for Mehmedovic’s attempt to kill her own baby,” says a commentator.

Mehmedovic came to the US in 2000 with her boyfriend with whom she had a child that suffered a brain injury due to lack of oxygen allegedly at the hands of her boyfriends mother, also Bosnian Muslim.

The case is being prosecuted by First Assistant District Attorney Dawn Catera Lupi.

Dutch Islamic Schools Get Away with Fraud

From Islam in Europe:

The public prosecution will not deal with a complaint by State Secretary Sharon Dijksma (Education) against the Stichting Islamitische Scholen Helmond (Helmond Foundation of Muslim Schools). The investigation of the facts did show irregularities, but they do not warrant a criminal investigation, a spokesperson for the fraud department in justice said Wednesday.

Justice thinks that the State Secretary has sufficient means to act against the school administration, which is estimated to have wrongly spent more than 900,000 euro of subsidies. Half of the sum was used, according to the State Secretary, for self-payment and compensation for phantom-workers. Justice recognized that the money was not spent as it was intended to be, but a spokesperson says there is no issue of 'grave self-enrichment'.

In response the State Secretary said Wednesday she will respect the decision.

Two years ago Dijksma lodged a complaint of fraud against the association. She managed to fire two of the school administration via a court case. It was the first time that the ministry took this far-reaching step against a school.

A lawsuit to get back the money from the people who got it is still ongoing. The then school administration is challenging the claim and says that at most 200,000 euro was badly spent.

Last year Dijksma reported to parliament that 90% of Muslim schools are playing around with subsidy money. At the time she estimated that 5 million euro were wrongly spent.

Source: Trouw (Dutch)

The Face of "European Islamophobia"

Recently certain parties within the Turkish government announced that they were afraid of a wave of "Islamophobia" sweeping Europe.

This wave of anger and violence might well have caused up to five violent incidents in which Turks living in Europe had died, according to them.

One of these incidents was the murder of Arzu Çakmakçi-Erbas, 32, outside the daycare centre she owned and ran in Amsterdam.

Well, now the Dutch police have announced that they are actively seeking a suspect in connection with this brutal and senseless murder - this is the face of "European Islamophobia":

Yes, the police have announced that they want Nevzat Koyak, 41, to help them with their inquiries, as we say here in Britain.

Koyak isn't an evil European racist though - he is a violent Turkish illegal immigrant and career criminal:

The police believe they know who the murderer who stabbed to death the owner of the Moeders Schoot daycare center in Amsterdam West two weeks ago. The man is Nevzat Koyak. He was born in Turkey and is in the Netherlands illegally. According to the police he's addicted to alcohol and drugs and has no permanent place of residence. The suspect is dangerous and unpredictable.

Koyak is on the run. Monday night his photo appeared in wanted notices on various national and local TV broadcaster. The police hope that the broadcasts will bring in tips about the suspect's hiding place. Police are offering 5,000 euro for the 'golden' tip.

A police chief told regional broadcaster TV-Noord Holland that Koyak was involved in the past in serious violence crimes. The police said nothing in its wanted notice about the motive of the suspect. A spokesperson did not want to add information. The murder, in any case, has nothing to do with the daycare or the parents of the children there. "This could have happened anywhere," says the spokesperson. According to the spokesperson there was no relation between the attacker and the victim.

Arzu Çakmakçi-Erbas (32) was stabbed to death two weeks ago in a pcar park in front of the childcare centre, just after she closed it. The victim died later in hospital.

The police currently have more than 20 researchers on the case.

So, it looks like everyone can experience the benefit of unchecked immigration and the failure to deport violent criminals - not just natives, but decent immigrants too.

Unfortunately the Turkish government have declined to comment on these recent developments - probably hoping that people will quietly forget about this before Turkey's membership talks with the European Union swing round.

I'm hoping just the opposite.

Dutch Arab League Defies the OM

The Dutch Arab League has left up a cartoon which shows "two Jews inventing the Holocaust" on its website - even though it was ruled illegal by the OM, the Dutch Public Prosecutor.

The OM have now been accused of being afraid of a Muslim backlash if they enforce their decision - because we all know how overzealous they can be when it suits.

From NIS courtesy of Counter Jihad News:

The Arab European League (AEL) says political motives are behind the Public Prosecutor (OM)'s decision not to prosecute the organisation for publishing a controversial cartoon. In order to provoke the OM into taking the AEL to court after all, the Islamic group has republished the cartoon on its website.

On Tuesday, the OM decided that a cartoon showing two Jews 'inventing' the Holocaust is a punishable offence. Nevertheless, the OM decided not to prosecute the AEL, which made and published the cartoon on its website over three years ago.

The condition attached to this dismissal was that the website would not republish the cartoon. But in the meantime, the AEL has published the cartoon on its website a second time.

The AEL is republishing the cartoon in protest against the OM's simultaneous decision, also announced on Tuesday, that cartoons portraying the Islamic prophet Mohammed are permitted. These are the political cartoons that were originally published in a Danish newspaper in 2005.

According to the OM, the 'Danish cartoons' are not punishable because they concern the prophet Mohammed and say nothing about Muslims as a group. "None of the cartoons is offensive towards Muslims or incite hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims. Therefore their publication or distribution is not punishable either", stated the OM.

On the other hand, the AEL cartoon about the 'invented Holocaust' is punishable. "By claiming that they invented the murder of six million Jews, Jews are being insulted as a group", according to OM.

This explanation did not go down well with the AEL. Spokesperson Abdou Bouzerda is especially angry because the Danish cartoons were republished in the Netherlands by anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders.

"Wilders is judged right and may continue to publish cartoons that one and a half billion people perceive as offensive. While we have to remove political cartoons that could be offensive to Jews", Bouzerda sneered.

Bouzerda claims that the OM is not prosecuting the AEL out of fear of Muslims. "The OM merely wished to prevent angry Muslim reactions if it became evident that we were being prosecuted and Wilders was not".

Due to this "hypocrisy", the AEL republished its cartoon. In doing so it implicitly provokes the OM into taking the matter to court. "Let the OM prosecute us by all means; we want a court verdict ".

The OM had in fact initially received the request to take the AEL to court from the Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI). Following Tuesday's OM decision not to prosecute the AEL despite its alleged crime, CIDI director Ron Naftaniel is starting an Article 12 procedure, which means he is appealing the OM's decision not to prosecute.

Naftaniel considers it "disgraceful" that the OM took three and a half years to pass judgement on the AEL cartoons. He is also disgruntled that the OM deems another AEL cartoon as legal. This cartoon portrays Adolf Hitler in bed with Anne Frank. "A nightmare for the thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors still alive."

Dutch Brothers Threatened After Being Mistaken for Gays by Muslim Neighbour

A frightening taste of the future from Islam in Europe:

Two brothers in Amsterdam were forced to move since their Muslim neighbour thought they were a gay couple and threatened them with violence.

In July the two got into a fight with the neighbour. "Dirty homos," the man said according to one of the (straight) brothers, "I'll kill you."

When he asked the man why, he came at him with a knife, the brother told Dutch newspaper Het Parool. When they asked for more explanation, the man went back home, saying he was going to get a gun. The brothers fled.

They lodged a complaint for threats and sought shelters elsewhere. According to the brothers the man is an orthodox Muslims who goes about dressed in a white djellaba with a matching crocheted cap. They doubt if the man's mentally stable.

The residence association of Ymere has meanwhile offered the brothers a different residence since their safety can't be assured. They also started the process to evict the man.

Source: GayKrant (Dutch)

Note the line "they doubt if the man is mentally stable."

That is something which crops up time and time again when Muslims in the West do things which are perfectly rational to them - to anyone, if one is a believer and follows the proscriptions of the Koran closely.

We had it just the other day when a Muslim man attacked beauty salons in Belgium whilst screaming about women and what Allah allows.

If we follow that route, are we to conclude there are no sane men in, say, Afghanistan?

It's simply a cop out to distract us from th real issues.

The Joys of Diversity & Cultural Enrichment (XXIV)

Which Western country is benefiting most from its immigration policy? Today's contenders are Australia, The Netherlands and Germany.


1) Australia

An elderly lady was attacked by a car thief in Melbourne:

AN ELDERLY woman has been attacked with a laptop wielded by a car-thieving thug in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Her attacker had minutes earlier been trying to steal a utility parked in Petty Lane, Doncaster, when he was disturbed by the vehicle's owner at 11am.

The thief ran away and motioned for a 77-year-old woman to pull over before threatening to assault her and drag her from the car.

When she stopped, the man reached through a partly opened window, unlocked the door and dragged her out, hitting her with a laptop computer he was carrying.

The robber then fled in the victim's red Honda sedan, leaving her lying bruised on the ground.

Police are still looking for the Honda, which is registered FLT-312.

The attacker is described as being of Asian appearance, aged in his early to mid-20s with dark hair, a medium build and about 175cm tall.

2) The Netherlands

Police in Amsterdam are blaming provocative, violent rap lyrics for a spate of shootings between rival gangs of Antillean youth in Bijlmer.

There have been fourteen shootings and two deaths over the past few months in the Amsterdam-Zuidoost area.

The police note that the youths shoot each other for trivial reasons such as a wrong look or a scowl, or sometimes without motive at all.

Police chief Worlds blames the rap videos and the world which the youths see on screen. He thinks that as well as violence, the videos and lyrics cause other "unhealthy and immoral behaviour" amongst the Antilleans.


3) Germany

Police in Germany have raided a series of Chinese restaurants whilst searching for illegal or trafficked staff:

Berlin -- German police raided Chinese restaurants across the country on Monday on suspicion that workers are being lured to the West under false pretences and made to toil under inhumane conditions.

More than 1,300 police officers and customs officials took part in the raids on more than 170 Chinese eateries and apartments, Frank Federeau, a spokesman for police in the state of Lower Saxony coordinating the operation, told AFP.

Police believe that criminal gangs have brought around 1,000 Chinese to Germany over the past decade, taking away their passports and forcing them to work 80 to 90 hours per week, according to the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung daily.

The report said that restaurant owners have even been given catalogues from which they can choose workers from China and pay 10,000 euros (14,000 dollars) to the gangs. The employees are then paid around three euros per hour.

Dutch Teacher Speaks Out on Life in an Islamic School

A Dutch teacher who worked at a strict Islamic school in Amsterdam has warned of the dangers of subsidising orthodox religious education.

This story is interesting firstly as a glimpse into the world of an Islamic school in the West, but also because it reveals just how differently Europeans and immigrants see the word 'integration'.

To us, it implies being able to live freely as an equal citizen in return for respecting our values. To many immigrants, it simply means biding their time and waiting until they are the majority before doing anything too drastic.

See how this decent but naive lady was treated when she showed the children a model of a traditional Dutch canal house with lights at Christmas - her colleagues chuckled and told her Christianity would 'be done away with'.

Translated with thanks by Islam in Europe:

Orthodox Muslim schools offer no place for other cultures and believers. They thwart integration. Non-Muslim teachers at these schools are treated kindly in all regards, but not as full-fledged colleagues.

This according to teacher Hennie Metsemakers, who worked this year at the As Siddieq school, after it took over two of the three Siba (Foundation of Muslim Elementary Schools in Amsterdam) schools which had been shut down.

She sounded the alarm after district mayor Ahmed Marcouch called to subsidize orthodox movements. According to Metsemakers, democracy is not served by this.

Metsemakers thinks that she and other non-Muslim members of the educational eam at As Siddieq (faithful to the truth) in Zeeburg were subtly excluded.

Metsemakers says that they had to eat separately during breaking and that they weren't greeted in the same way as Muslim teachers. "Not with the world salem, peace, because non-Muslims can't know what peace is. Those who think differently are labeled unbelievers."

Metsemakers meanwhile called in the educational inspection. She was suspended a year and a half ago because she mentioned the customs of other religions in class. Metsemakers, whose annual contract was not extended last year says she drew a time-line on which she put the most important events of a number of religions.

At Christmas time she put up canal house with lights in class (Christmas ornaments) in order to tell about the festival regarding light, without specially talking about Christmas. She was prohibited from doing so. The worst thing, says Metsemakers, is that she was told to tell the children that Christianity will be done away with.

Several years ago several teachers left the school due to an 'exceptionally orthodox attitude of the administration'. An interim director was dismissed.

According to Metsemakers the administration has meanwhile managed to enforce an orthodox nature everywhere, though half of the team consist of non-Muslim teachers.

Metsemakers is careful. She says that after she had time to digest her experiences, she decided to take her story to a greater public.

She started working full of ideals. She says she thought that families who sent their children there showed more cohesion than families who weren't involved. The administration was attentive and nice, but seems to be taking care of an underlying agenda.

She says the school wants to teach children that they shouldn't be friends with unbelievers. "Only Muslims can after all be good people."

Nobody was available for comment at the As Siddeiq school. A coworker says that he thinks Metsemakers is a good colleague, but he's prohibited from speaking. Nobody was reachable at the school administration.

Source: Parool (Dutch)

The West Must Continue to Apologise for its History

The following story beggars belief in its simpering tone and purely one-sided judgment:

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The descendants of an African chief who was hanged and decapitated by a Dutch general 171 years ago reluctantly accepted the return of his severed head Thursday, still angry even as the Dutch tried to right a historic wrong.

The head of King Badu Bonsu II was discovered last year in a jar of formaldehyde gathering dust in the anatomical collection of the Leiden University Medical Center. The Dutch government agreed to Ghanaian demands that the relic be returned.

On Thursday, members of the king's Ahanta tribe, dressed in dark robes and wearing red sashes, took part in the hand-over ceremony, honoring his spirit by toasting with Dutch gin and then sprinkling the drink over the floor at the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

But descendants of the chief said they were not consoled.

"I am hurt, angry. My grandfather has been killed," said Joseph Jones Amoah, the great, great grandson of the chief.

The chief's head was stored elsewhere at the ministry and was not displayed during the ceremony. It is expected to be flown with the tribe members back to Ghana on Friday.

Tribal elders said after the hand-over that they were also angry because they had been sent by their current chief only to identify the head, not retrieve it. Taking it back without first reporting to the chief would be a breach of protocol, they said.

"We, the Ahanta, are not happy at all," said Nana Etsin Kofi II.

The head was taken by Maj. Gen. Jan Verveer in 1838 in retaliation for Bonsu's killing of two Dutch emissaries, whose heads were displayed as trophies on Bonsu's throne, said Arthur Japin, a Dutch author who discovered the king's head when he was working on a historical novel.

The elders demanded the Dutch government provide aid to their tribe to appease the slain chief.

Nana Kwekwe Darko III, who tipped the gin on the floor in a Ghanaian tradition of respect for the dead, dabbed tears from his eyes afterward and said he wanted the Dutch to build schools and hospitals for his people.

Ministry spokesman Bart Rijs said that 10 who came from Ghana had agreed before the ceremony to take the head home. The official transfer was between the two countries' governments, he said.

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen used the ceremony to apologize for Dutch involvement in the slave trade. Ghana, then known as Gold Coast, was a base for Dutch slave traders.

"We are also here because of our mutual desire to lay to rest episodes in ... history that were unfortunate and shameful," Verhagen said. "Our common past also includes the infamous slave trade, which our traders engaged in and sustained and which inflicted so much harm on so many people in so many parts of the world."

Ghana has lobbied for the head's return since it was discovered.

"Without burial of the head, the deceased will be hunted in the afterlife. He's incomplete," Eric Odoi-Anim, a Ghanaian diplomat in the Netherlands said after the discovery. "It's also a stigma on his clan, on his kinsmen, and him being a (high-ranking) chief — this is even more serious."

It was unclear what would become of it once it reaches Ghana.

Berima Asamoah Kofi IV, a traditional chief who now lives in the Netherlands, said the Ahanta chief would ultimately decide its fate.

"Whatever he says, we are going to do," he told The Associated Press.

A few points immediately spring to mind; we can overlook the parts about one of the chiefs now living (no doubt very well indeed) in the country of evil racists his people are so angry with, and the attempts to blackmail the Dutch for more aid; those things are pretty standard, unfortunately.

What struck me the most was how the reason the chief was beheaded was not mentioned until the writer had attempted to garner sympathy for the Ahanta; he beheaded two *missionaries, and displayed their heads on poles.

Presumably the missionaries were there to spread Christianity, and er, build schools and hospitals, as they did in so many parts of Africa and what is now the Third World?

But let's not let a little thing like objective reality get in the way of self-flagellation.

I'll bet whoever that Dutch General was, he'd rather be dead than see what has become of the country he served, simpering to backwards tribesmen and crying over history, whilst refusing to look at the where the true evil in the world lies at this very moment.

*The text actually says emissaries - my mistake. I suppose you could argue that makes it even worse; emissaries are simply there to make contact and convey messages between rulers, rather than spread their own ideas and culture.

Soft Justice in The Netherlands

A Libyan who started a fire which killed eleven people at an immigration detention centre in The Netherlands may be freed after just over two years in prison:

The Libyan accused of starting the fire at a deportation centre at Schiphol in 2005 will be released from prison if the court hearing his appeal agrees with the prosecution’s demand that his sentence should be lowered, report various media on Friday.

The Libyan, Ahmed al-J, has already spent longer in prison than the two year, 24 day sentence asked for by the prosecution on Friday.

In June 2007, a Haarlem court sentenced Ahmed al-J for three years in prison for starting the fire in which 11 people died.

The public prosecution service initiated the appeal against the sentence but on Friday it said it has lowered its sentence demand after evidence which has emerged during this week’s hearing.

According to public prosecutor Hans Wesselink, Ahmed al-J realised that there was a chance of starting a fire when he threw away a burning cigarette end.

But the fact that the building did not meet fire safety regulations, that mistakes were made when trying to evacuate detainees and the late arrival of the fire brigade all contributed to the scale and seriousness of the fire, according to Wesselink.

This has led the prosecution to conclude that Ahmed al-J was not solely responsible for what happened, according to the press.

But he was solely responsible - because he led to those systems being tried and failing in the first place.

Because of his careless actions, eleven other people died.

Perhaps he thought someone was specifically paid by the Dutch taxpayer to pick up his rubbish and cigarette ends, just as all his other needs must be met at no cost to him?

Nothing would surprise me anymore.

Dutch Police Chief Protects Moroccan Criminals & Threatens Ethnic Dutchmen

Dutch blogger Snouck Hurgronje, who writes at Islam in Europe - Commentary by Snouck, has translated an interview with Amsterdam-Oost police chief Ad Smit, which touches on the increasing tensions between Moroccan criminals and ordinary Dutch citizens in certain parts of the city:

In neighbourhood meetings people mention "Moroccan-C**ts". It is called out in the streets, at Moroccans. Also during disturbances. That bystanders call: if you do not act, we will act, but differently, with baseball bats. I have heard it with my own ears. We (the police) do not accept that, this is taking the law in one's own hands. So far we have managed to contain it, end it. At the beginning of this year I reported to the Chiefs of the Amsterdam Police that the reaction of ethnic Dutchmen against Moroccans is fierce, something must be done. We have strongly intervened. We arrested dozens of muggers. We - especially the community policemen - are paying special attention to make sure whether the ethnic Dutch are getting out of hand. When the cause is taken away, the anger ebbs away as well.

Interviewer: So people limit themselves to nagging and calling names?

They still do [emphasis mine]. One has got to have a serious demeanor. One has to exude that one will not choose the side of Dutch ethnics if such words used. And that force will be used if things goes too far.

If the moment comes that fists are clenched, the moment that people will organise against certain population groups, then things are getting out of hand and I will use force. If I as a Police Chief would know that a group [of ethnics] is organizing to get at another group [of ethnics] I will have the whole lot arrested.

As long as I have the power I will resist with all my strength. It is an incredibly dangerous matter. I think it is easy is one is not doing well - and today many marginalized people are being marginalized even more - to have a go at the Other. Midway through the last century, we've had a very bad example of that.

It's simply astounding, isn't it?

As far as the police are concerned, ordinary Dutch citizens getting so angry and frustrated by their daily experiences that they turn against multiculturalism and mass immigration are far more important than the endemic criminality perpetuated by Moroccans in some areas.

Are the police paid to uphold the law without fear or favour in Amsterdam, or arrest a few muggers at an opportune moment to steal some votes from the PVV or prevent a riot - not necessarily because they believe that muggers should be arrested for their illegal actions, and should stop those actions, but for purely cynical political reasons.

The Dutch are a tolerant bunch, generally, and it has taken them 30 years to reach this point - but finally it seems many are determined to be more than passive victims in their own land. But Smit seems to draw a false moral equivalency between outright criminal thugs and people who have simply reached the end of their tether after being preyed upon and displaced whilst those in power ignore or mock their legitimate concerns.

Smit does acknowledge some of the problems:

Asked about Amsterdam-Oost Smit said that it's a fairly multicultural society, made up mostly of Moroccans. He says that there are less problems with the Moroccan youth there than in Amsterdam-West, which he says has to do with the fact that there are less apartments there. They sent an exceptionally active Moroccan inspector to the neighborhood with the most problems. He knows the language and culture and everybody respects him.

Despite that, he says that still there is a 'Moroccan problem' in Amsterdam-Oost, particularly with the Italian method - using a scooter to rob people. Smit says it happens once or twice a week. It's done mostly by young Moroccans, it's so simple.

Something else jumps out at me here; it takes a Moroccan inspector to be respected among Moroccan citizens, if Smit is to be believed.

Do these Moroccans not reside in The Netherlands by choice? Should they not respect Dutch law and those who enforce it in all their forms?

A large part of the problem here is this pandering, which smooths over temporarily the fact that certain groups are all but unassimilable in a modern Western society.

More than that, did it never occur to the Dutch authorities that they could placate their countrymen by listening to them?

By halting mass immigration, forcing those who choose to stay to renounce criminality and parasitical behaviours, actually arrest criminals and punish them properly?

Increasingly, it seems that Western elites and their authorities see the indigenous people as the enemy.

If they complain or mobilise, they must be crushed; if the immigrants mobilise, we must welcome it, and if they complain, we must listen and immediately give in whilst screaming obscenities at those who resist.

As Snouck points out, the Dutch police and government have all but renounced their reason for existing - they refuse to protect society (crime clear up rates once reached an unbelievably low 15%), preferring instead to protect those who will destroy it.

Will the natives follow the script and look on cowed, subdued and humiliated?

Clearly the Dutch government are worried the answer to that question is a resounding nee - and they are determined to change it at all costs. I wonder when it will become a racist hate crime to point out the disproportionate criminality of some groups, or even report certain crimes?

If it ever does, I can guarantee this - the dissenters will be punished in a way which real criminals in The Netherlands couldn't even comprehend.

With thanks to Islam in Europe - Commentary by Snouck.

More from the Cargo-Bike Imam

Yesterday I reported on the 'Cargo-Bike Imam', who is the creation of Moroccan comedian Najib Amhali and features on Dutch television.

Here is another clip, with thanks to Vlad Tepes:


This one sees the same Dutch children as before take their shoes off to sit in the cardboard mosque, before Amhali issues them with drawings of terrorist attacks and beheadings to colour in "and hang on their walls".

You'll notice something about those children - every single one of them is white. I don't know how these things work in The Netherlands, but in Britain the law requires pretty much all adverts and TV programmes to be 'representative' - i.e. have a liberal helping of ethnic minorities present.

Presumably only white children need to be brainwashed about Islam, however, or be propaganda tools in a campaign to help us forget the negatives and laugh off its critics.

This is undoubtedly supposed to be satire; the only problem is, it is simply not funny.

It is not funny because there are too many people in the elites of various European and Western countries who have taken Muslim terrorism lightly, to a ridiculous degree, whilst demonising anyone who does not - there's no need to joke about it.

It is also not funny because it is simply hypocrisy.

As a Dutch commenter pointed out yesterday, the parents who allow their children to be misused here are the same ones who have fled in the wake of real imams in their old neighbourhoods - ones who really do think that 9/11 is a cause for celebration.

Multicultural Delights on Dutch TV

I have watched the following video a couple of times now, and I have to say it is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen (which did not come from "Palestine", in any case).


This is what it is all about, from Vlad Tepes:

The Dutch broadcast organization VARA (Association of Worker Radio Amateurs) was once a Socialist broadcaster and nowadays is a left-wing and “multicultural” outfit. A while back VARA invited a stand-up comedian named Najib Amhali — a Moroccan immigrant who is part of the self-appointed multicultural elite (and has been caught a few times plagiarizing) — to tape a TV show in eight episodes to be broadcast on Friday evenings. The scheduling of the program, in the evening after another popular program, attracted a reasonable number of viewers for the first episodes (1.3 million). Quite a lot of the responses were negative, even on his fan-site, and judged it worse than his shows on stage.

In every episode Amhali wakes up from a dream and has a problem, each week on a different theme. In the program he looks for a solution. Sometimes he finds it, other times he doesn’t.”

In every feature Najib Amhali plays the role of the Cargo-Bike Imam in his item on Islam. According to the introduction to the series, this imam is “a children’s friend who crosses the country with fresh courage and the wrong ideas in his aim to convert people who stand open to his message. On questions like ‘Why do you never shake hands?’ and ‘Is it true that you throw gays from high rise buildings?’, the Cargo Bike Imam will always have a clear answer.”

One of the episodes was entirely about religion, and was broadcast a few days before Christmas. Amhali wakes up [video] “from a nightmare in which Muslim girls, a Jehovah’s Witness, a Jew, and the devil [who offers him a beer] are tormenting him. He wonders which faith will offer him the most pleasant life before death,” as the introducton states.

To a taxi driver (with a Southeast Asian Muslim cap and prayer rug) explaining about reincarnation, and who tells him Islam is so aggressive, Najib answers: “Not that bad though, only to people who cannot shut their mouths.”

Gates of Vienna has some more information:

Another item is a balloon trip of Amhali with a Jew and a Catholic:

Cargo-Bike Imam 1

“My father is Jewish,” one of the passengers says.

Najib: “Oh then I guess I will have to pay for this balloon trip.”

“I was raised a Catholic,” the other passenger says.

Najib: “Hey, how often do you have to go down on your knees for the priest?”

The Catholic: “A Joke?”

Najib: “Hey, I am a Muslim.”

The Catholic: “Ah, now I get it.”

Najib: “What…”

The Catholic: “No sense of humour.”

At the end of the trip, the balloon crashes into the WTC. Oh, how the families of the vicitims of that atrocity must have chuckled.

A Dutch commenter then succinctly sums up the hypocrisy at a PvdA blog (Socialist, Labour) post entitled 'Stop the Right-wing Demagoguery':

Everyone says that you [the writers of the PvdA article “Stop the right-wing demagoguery”] are of such very nice people. That makes it so difficult. Collaboration apparently happens with the best intentions, out of genuine ignorance, but the question here is how morally reproachable this ignorance can be. But you are not the only such very kind and lovely people in the Netherlands.

Najib Amhali is a lovely man. This week I was zapping along and came across the new TV program Najib Amhali, made by Peter Heerschop and Viggo Waas. And as if the devil played a game here, I ended up right in this program, exactly at the moment that at the Voltaplein in Amsterdam, small children came running out with the slogan “The Cargo-Bike Imam! The Cargo-Bike Imam!”

I know those children, and I know their parents. Watergraafsmeer District, that is the “Old South” [upmarket district] of East Amsterdam, all middle class living there, and they all have escaped the “old neighborhoods”, where the kind of “imam” that Amhali plays [in the Cargo Bike Imam] can be regularly admired in real life. Still, they easily and happily let their children be misused here for the innocent presentation of a belief that is the most stubborn reactionary force the world has ever produced.

Najib, dressed in reldeldella [jellaba] and with a pious cap on his head [a haji cap], played with hand puppets and taught the children the words “halal” and “haram” and had them make a beautiful religious gesture while saying “Bismillah”.

How aufklärend [informative] it would have been to have someone like Ayaan [Hirsi Ali] at that moment explain what “haram” means in practice, for women who live under this folly-religion.

Najib recently stated that according to him, hard jokes about Muhammad are not necessary. That is possible. You can conceal the gruesome truth about the prophet and his spiritual legacy, out of “respect” for all those pious Muslims and quasi-left-wing obscurantists who don’t want to know the truth. But it is a large step further to choose exactly the other side, namely the intentional verharmlosen [downplaying] of a hard, aggressive macho ideology that poses as a religion.

What is this ineradicable need with types like Peter Heerschop and Viggo Waas — because it is they who have written this top comedy — to increasingly radiate the idea that there is nothing wrong with Islam?

For their VARA program with Najib last week they had a VARA-promo at “Pauw and Witteman” [a PC reality TV show]. For one of their cabaret shows — which I can’t even stand to watch for ten minutes — they were had already advertised themselves on the very same “Pauw and Witteman” show a few weeks before. Peter Heerschop there managed to find a reason to produce the sentence “Yes, nowadays you already can be expelled because you have the wrong religion!” Perhaps Peter Heerschop should explain one day why Islam is such a good faith.

I still remember how Peter Heerschop, Viggo Waas, and the other intellectuals who belong to that company were glorified when they produced a stupid little book about Pim Fortuyn. I saw them bragging that summer, Peter Heerschop very appropriately in shorts. God, how full they were of themselves! How smart they were! Who said again, “Is there intellect needed to be able to recognize it in one another?”

Those kinds of heroes are always all over the Queen, Wilders, and Verdonk, but you hardly ever hear them about Islam. Well, you do hear them. You hear them expose their ignorance. That has to do with, I think, what Eddy Terstall [a PvdA dissident] called “cavil-racism”. Avant-garde, intellectual power players, cosmopolitans, and top artists like Peter Heerschop et al, address with affability their exotic fellow human and tell him — and her! — that the crazy repressive system they identify themselves with is all OK. “Halal” and “haram” have nothing to do with animals that are slowly bleeding to death, dehumanized women, and unbelievers that are brought to submission, but with the nice little talking puppets in the hands of Najib.

Najib is in his late thirties, Peter Heerschop and Viggo Maas in their late forties, but they still produce unfunny adolescent pranks and politically correct cabaret for the whole family. I sometimes wonder up to what age these men can keep wearing their short trousers and remain being hip-funloving about systems that destroy humanity. It is a form of intellectual hedonism that characterizes the whole fake-left. One succumbs to sentimentalism about the poor immigrants, those exotic people in our midst. The aim of the self-manifesting crowd is to expose oneself as a good human. The discovery of the hard truth, which would thereby disconcert their minds, does not come up here. “Positive” as they call it, but it is rather indolence, self-indulgence, pure immaturity.

With thanks to VH, Vlad Tepes & Gates of Vienna.

Muslim Nurse Fired in Den Bosch

A Muslim nurse in the Dutch city of Den Bosch refused to wear the regulation short sleeves on her uniform.

I would imagine such a regulation exists for the purposes of good hygiene, and is therefore non-negotiable.

The woman was duly sacked for her stance, then fought in a legal battle when she resisted - but the judge who dissolved her contract of employment awarded her €8,500.

From Islam in Europe:

A judge dissolved the employment agreement of a nurse from Den Bosch (the Netherlands), since she refused to come to work in the Jeroen Bosch hospital with bare arms.

The 33 year old nurse has been working since 2001 in the Den Bosch hospital. In 2007 she started becoming more engrossed in her faith, according to her lawyer, Frank Vermeeren. For this reason, she started wearing long sleeves under her work uniform.

But in the department the nursing staff has to wear shirts with short sleeves. Because the woman continued to refuse to appear with bare arms, she was not welcome at her work anymore in April 2008. The nurse then lodged several objections.

The judge in Den Bosch dissolved the nurse's employment agreement starting August 1, reports Nederlands Juridisch Dagblad. The woman received compensation of 8,500 euro.

Why the compensation?

Surely being a nurse who refuses to follow basic hygiene procedures, for whatever reason, is as useful as a nurse who faints at the sight of blood?

Gerard Spong in the Limelight

Today one of the big stories in the Dutch media was that of Peter Jones, a 'Vegan streaker' famous for his antics, who is accused of plotting an attack on Queen Beatrix.

Apparently, the police have been quite heavy handed in their approach towards Jones and his girlfriend.

Step forward then, in defence of Jones, Gerard Spong.

For those of you not familiar with Spong, he is one of the most successful celebrity lawyers in The Netherlands - but he is also a very, very dangerous man.

He is one of the architects of the legal campaign against Geert Wilders and the decision to prosecute him for his political opinions:

The Dutch Muslim Council has called Wilders a “racist, fascist and authoritarian” and a threat to Dutch society. Several Dutch Muslim and leftist organizations and individuals have lodged more than 40 complaints against Wilders for incitement to racial hatred. Gerard Spong, one of the leading (and most expensive) lawyers in the country, has offered to defend their cases free of charge. Spong was a friend of the late Pim Fortuyn. Following the murder of Fortuyn in 2002 he lodged complaints against several Dutch politicians for having contributed to the hate campaign against Fortuyn which resulted in his assassination by a political adversary.

Spong, who is also the lawyer of a Dutch teenager indicted on murder charges in the case of Natalee Holloway, an American teenager who disappeared in Arubu in May 2005, told Dutch television that “Wilders cannot be compared to Fortuyn because Wilders incites hatred against Muslims, which Fortuyn who had sex with Moroccan boys in dark rooms, did not do. […] When Wilders says that half the Koran has to be ripped to pieces and burned, he is inciting hatred.” According to Spong the Dutch public prosecutor is a coward who is afraid to prosecute Wilders because the latter will claim that it is a political prosecution. [Of course, that decision has since been changed and the prosecution will go ahead].

July 22, 2008; a complaint by Mister G. Spong, lawyer in Amsterdam on behalf of 21 citizens:

• Timo Eekhoudt [see note below]
  
• Jörgen Raymann [TV comedian]
  
• Sjoukje Maartje Aafke Wiersma
  
• Evy Dewina Kasmo
  
• Ali Al-Jaberi
  
• Mohamed Yosuf Haydaty
  
• Nan Luursema
  
• Floris Alberse
  
• Khalid Bedri
  
• Milena Holdert
  
• Klaas Stutje
  
• Mirko V. van Pampus
  
• René Boer
  
• A. el Aqde
  
• Cüneyt Kocak
  
• Dirim Kutlar
  
• Casper Thomas
  
• Jennifer Tason
  
• Allard Altena
  
• Willemijn Kuper

That's bad enough in a society which considers itself tolerant and free, but it's not the worst of it.

When I hear the name Gerard Spong, I think of this:

On April 8th the Dutch TV program “The Devil’s Advocate” aired a mock trial in which lawyer Gerard Spong defended Osama Bin Laden. The title of the feature was “Is Osama Bin Laden actually guilty of 9/11?”

Our Flemish correspondent VH undertook the thankless job of listening to the recording of the entire program. He prepared this analysis and summary for Gates of Vienna:

The TV program “The Devil’s Advocate” concerns “controversial people in the news about whom there is always another story to tell.”

The “accusers” in this “case” are Charles Groenhuijsen and Glenn Schoen.

Charles Groenhuijsen used to be a freelance foreign correspondent in the United States of America for the Dutch TV News. He was also not particularly partisan (i.e. no leftist views). He was “called back” and replaced by a more leftist reporter. When he refused to live permanently in the Netherlands to become a newsreader (he lived with his family in Washington), he was sacked. In a magazine interview he accused colleagues of having a leftist attitude and of suffering from intellectual laziness, and he also once had said — as a joke — that the Dutch news team was a “schnabbel-gestapo”. However, he was elected by viewers the “best correspondent ever for the Dutch TV News” in 2006.

Glenn Schoen is a terror specialist, security analyst, and Head of Security & Integrity Services of Ernst & Young. He has appeared on CNN a few times to comment on terror acts.

The lawyer Gerard Spong, who is maybe best known for filing the recent “hate-speech” case against Geert Wilders, will defend Osama bin Laden (OBL) and his organization al Qaeda AQ).

The jury is made up of ordinary citizens.

Note: Spong during this “trial” is using classic tactics to deny that anything is real without proof it is real and to deny the proof to be real because anybody might be willing and able to fabricate so-called “proof”. An effective form of circular reasoning that affects the credibility of his opponents.

Basically Spong denies everything, of course, not by citing any proof, but by undermining the proof of his opponents and continuously repeating that OBL is innocent and the whole idea is a phantom.

The “trial” is in three segments.

Below is a summary (mostly of Spong’s arguments)*:

1. OBL gave the order for the attacks of 9-11

Spong argues that there is no proof of a direct command-line between OBL and the 9-11 attackers. He points to the FBI website, which does not officially mention OBL as suspect in this. Schoen explains that the charges against OBL already date from 1998 and thus don’t have to be updated. Therefore in the charges there is also room to charge him on other facts.

Groenhuijsen argues that there are even videos that prove a direct connection between OBL and one or a few of the hijackers.

Spong then comes up with Sheikh Khalid Mohammed who confessed to have organized the attacks, thus it cannot be OBL. Groenhuijsen states that the sheikh is in the hierarchy of AQ but at the top of that hierarchy is OBL, who since the early nineties has been involved in many bloody terror attacks.

Still Spong doesn’t accept any of that. “There is no hard proof that OBL commanded the hijackers that attacked on 9-11; thus he is innocent.”

On some videos he appears right-handed while he is left-handed and some translations are not correct. And therefore he concludes that there are no facts that prove that OBL had command over the hijackers.

[Verdict of the jury later: not guilty]

2. OBL financed the attacks and has blood on his hands

Here Spong argues that AQ does not exist and is a phantom. AQ is “invented” to be able to accuse OBL and used as an excuse for Iraq and Afghanistan, to increase the defense budget, and because of oil interests. For example, the link between Saddam and AQ was a mistake, he argues, and did not exist.

During the bombing of Tora Bora nobody was there, he argues, and there is no proof whatsoever that AQ exists.

Groenhuijsen and Schoen then argue that of course an organization like that will not have a receptionist, nor a coffee service, and certainly not papers filed with he company registration service of a government.

According to Spong all “events” are isolated. There is no connection, and there is a search for connections that are not there.

[Verdict of the jury later: not guilty]

3. OBL is a just a terrorist who misuses Islam to commit attacks and to incite to violence

Spong here avoids Islam and it is not mentioned. He argues that this is a situation of war, not of terrorism. This cannot be a war in which one party is allowed everything and the other party nothing, OBL is therefore a freedom fighter in a war against the Western world. Also he says the US government calls it a war: “a war on terror” (in which he avoids the word “terror” and keeps stressing on the word “war”).

Spong continues to put forward the idea that OBL is just like a rebel who struggles against the ruling power, who wants to achieve another order. A rebel will use violence if necessary to achieve this end, and often that is a better order, according to Spong. He cites Nelson Mandela, who also was seen as a terrorist, but is maybe one of the best-known folk heroes, he states. [a video shows the opposite with a terror attack by the ANC] Thus OBL is a folk hero just like Nelson Mandela.

Groenhuijsen jumps in: A folk hero for whom? For the three thousand who got murdered on September 11, in Indonesia, in the attacks on the Cole and so on?

No, Spong replies, but for a major part of the Arab people. Then one party is the police officer and the other a terrorist organization. OBL is standing up for his own Arab people, who have the right to live the way they want to according to their own cultural norms and values.

[Verdict of the jury: guilty]

Final verdict: The jury in majority finds OBL not responsible for the attacks. But the jury does find him a terrorist because OBL, as opposed to Mandela, causes terror all over the world.

Spong seems to crave publicity, but currently it does seem if there is a controversial bandwagon, then he will jump upon it, no matter what the consequences.

He can dismiss such dangerous nonsense as 'helping people to look at things from a different angle' - but ultimately he is playing with fire and undermining us all.

Dutchman Killed in Indonesia

From The Jakarta Post:

A Dutch citizen identified as Pleizier, 26, was killed by a local man on Friday at 10 p.m. in Nunukan, East Kalimantan.

Nunukan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Purwo Cahyoko said Pleizier, who was stabbed 12 times, died after he was rushed to the Nunukan Hospital.

"We have arrested the killer, Basri bin Ismail, one hour after the incident," he said.

Pleizier was in Nunukan after completing his trip in Tawau, Malaysia. He planned to go to Sebuku island, South Kalimantan.

In Nunukan, he walked around in a local market where he met Basri who asked him for some money to buy cigarettes.

When Pleizier refused his request, Basri got upset and hit Pleizier. The fight was then inevitable.

Basri later took out his knife and stabbed Pleizer 12 times.

I believe at this stage there have been no riots and mass protests throughout the Netherlands and Christendom at this appalling murder and the lack of condemnation from the Indonesian government, but it is surely only a matter of time.

Riots Continue in China & Spread West

The Times reports that after yesterday's uprising by the Uighur Muslim minority in China's vast north-western Xinjiang province, Uighur violence has spread to a second city.

Most of the 156 dead and 800 wounded yesterday and Sunday were Han Chinese, hacked to death with knives by Uighur rioters.

Now, large mobs of ethnic Han are on the rampage in Urumqi, determined to wreak revenge:

Men and women of all ages, girls in high heels and young men in smart white shirts carried wooden staves, billiard cues, iron bars and even machetes as they surged through towards the main city bazaar.

They were determined to wreak damage on the business heart of the Muslim Uighur minority blamed for the carnage in which 156 were killed and more than 800 injured.

The streets were lined with black-clad riot police and thousands of paramilitaries in camouflage and bulletproof vests who barred their way to the central market. Occasional bursts of tear gas failed to deter the angry crowd.

At one point the Urumqi Communist Party secretary, the most senior official in the Xinjiang capital, climbed onto the roof of a Landcruiser to address the mob.

Li Zhi used a megaphone to respond to shouts of "punish the killers". He said: "I have heard what you want and we will do this. We will punish them severely."

The crowd shouted back: "Words are not enough."

Li replied: "But you are behaving in just the same way as they behaved. Please go home. Thank you."

A huge roar erupted from the mob, who turned away, beating their sticks on the road as they made their way down People's Road in search of another entry to the market. One angry Han shouted at a foreign reporter: "Don't speak to foreigners. Foreigners get out."

He then referred to the exiled Uighur leader whom the Government blames for inciting Sunday's unrest. "Rebiya Kadeer is Osama."

Many of those in the crowd complained that the Government had been far too restrained in its response to Sunday's killings, when most of the victims appear to have been Han Chinese cut down by Uighurs armed with knives.

One young man in his twenties carrying a wooden stave said: "The Government is far too soft. They don't dare to go out even though a hundred people have been killed."

He said that his parents run a shop that had not been damaged but many neighbours' properties had been. "We don’t feel safe. We have to protect ourselves."

Several times the crowd were halted by police cordons blocking roads to sensitive government buildings. As they marched they chanted in unison: "Stand up! Stand up!", "Strength comes from unity", "Protect Xinjiang!" and "We Han must unite together".

There are also reports of large groups of Uighur attacking riot police, demanding the release of relatives who have been arrested in the security clampdown.

Perhaps the most interesting and unexpected place the violence spread to was The Hague, de facto seat of government of the Netherlands.

Incidents like this always show up just how unwise Western immigration policies are; Canada and Britain experienced a similar thing when Tamils recently went on the rampage over the Sri Lankan civil war.

Now it seems that the Netherlands has bagged itself a large community of Muslim separatists from central Asia. Large groups of Uighur turned up in the Dutch city to stone the Chinese embassy.

I suppose it is only a matter of time before the demonstrations spread to London.

Taxi Driver Kills Customer in Amsterdam

On Sunday morning, 44 year old Rob Sitek was beaten to death by a taxi driver in Amsterdam.

From Bad News from the Netherlands:

In Amsterdam a cab driver beat up and killed a potential client at the central Leidseplein taxi station. This station is known as being run by gangster drivers who refuse short fares and quote extremely high prices to potential passengers. If the person then decides not to get into the taxi, these drivers threaten them. Alderman Hans Gerson said that there is an emergency situation in the Amsterdam taxi world. At that particular station Moroccan drivers in particular are causing the problems. Gerson added that “we must immediately deal with this scum.”

It is not known whether or not Sitek refused to pay an over-inflated fare.

The man who died is the brother of Ron Sitek, an ambulance worker who was named 'Amsterdammer of the Year'.

He himself is no stranger to the violence of criminal Moroccans; last year he suffered death threats whilst attending to a wounded man.

Rob Sitek, the victim, leaves behind three children, including a one year old baby.

Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen personally rang his family to offer his condolences and pledge to try to solve the problems of illegitimate taxis run by unscrupulous gangs - clearly the only issue here.

Police have arrested a 37 year old man in connection with the murder.

Update: The Dutch blog Snouck Hurgronje informs us that the culprit in this case was a kick-boxer. He hit his victim in the head, and he then fell and smashed his skull on the kerb.