On the State of U.S.-Cuba Relations
1 day ago
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Monday, December 7, 2015
Warrior Story
Eric Kirsch
Huge fuck you to American FB badasses talking shit about what they'd "do to ISIS". This is to anyone who never served in the military, as a LEO, or in support of DoD initiatives via civilian capacity in defense of this nation since 2001 yet got super hard over ISIS on FB starting after the Paris attacks, that lot are full blown ass clowns and I seek to humiliate you all personally under shadow of permanent historical statute. Where have you been the last 16 years, cowards, let me beat into your mind some history regarding true HARD MEN.
TAKE A KNEE and take some notes, fools, behold, The Battle of Saragarhi, 12 September 1897, Tirah, North-West Frontier Province, British India (modern day Pakistan). 21 Sikhs of the British Indian Army, against 10,000 God Damn Afghan Pashtun's. Yea, Sikh's, total badasses that most of our idiot countrymen often confuse for Muslims. Shut up and listen.
The Battle of Saragarhi was fought before the Tirah Campaign on 12 September 1897 between 21 Sikhs of the 36th Sikhs (now the 4th Battalion of the Sikh Regiment) of British India, defending an army post against 10,000 Afghan and Orakzai tribesmen, other estimates put the opposition force above 13,500+. The 21 Sikhs defending against a massive border incursion while positioned in sentry defense of the foremost positioned tiny garrison on the line.
At 0900 on 12 September, the 10,000 Afghan's under cover of pre-dawn darkness initiated their attack against the Sikh held garrison. The defending Sikh's relay a message to their British higher headquarters and inform them a massed attack is underway. The British Army replies, indicating they cannot form a reinforcement and essentially communicate the 21 Sikh's are on their own against 10,000 scream and attacking Pashtun commanders and fighters armed with heavy artillery and rifles.
The initial Pashtun assault commences with heavy, accurate artillery strikes to prominent fortifications. The following events are taken as verbatim accounts of the battle's development as they were in real time personally communicated via signals chronologically by the Sikh warrior and one of the 21, Gurmukh Singh who fought in, observed, coordinated and reported the play by play of the battle throughout the day. At 0930 the initial Pashtun assault is driven back violently by Sikh rifleman positioned upon the fort walls who kicked over Pashtun assaulter ladders and drove cyclical murderous rifle fire within the dense hoard below them targeting the tops of heads. Over 3,500 Pashtun's are driven back while the Sikh's reportedly killed so many bodies, in many places they fell upon each other measuring over 10 feet in height.
At roughly 1015, the Pashtun's end the attack and dispatch a herald before the fort's defensive walls under white flag of truce and begin to communicate conditions to include acceptance of surrender would come with safe passage and a reward or riches. This gesture is promptly rejected via intensive Sikh fires targeting not the only heralding messenger but effectively the distant Pashtun line inciting them to fight which they do, and are promptly again driven to a forced retreat after losing considerable numbers in open ground by effective devastating Sikh bolt action rifle fires. The Pashtun's respond with a 90 minute barrage of artillery fires, destroying two observation towers and within this time around mid afternoon encircle the cubical fortification and begin setting fires to wooden reinforced entry portals and sally ports.
By 1500 hours a breach had occurred, allowing the Afghan's to flood the inner quadrangle and allowed surviving Sikh defenders to leap upon them screaming, shirtless and knives drawn from the height of the fort's inner perimeter catwalks and a lengthy cataclysmic orgy of primitive and profound hand to hand combat ensued. The Sikh's slashed throats and stabbed vital organs of their attackers, commandeered the rifles of the dead and unloaded into the teeth of the assaulting Pashtun's. Gurmukh Singh, who communicated the battle in it's entirety by signal with nearby British Col. Haughton, who was without sufficient reinforcements and unable to assist, was the FINAL Sikh defender. He is stated to have killed 20 Afghans, the Pashtuns having to set fire to the observation post to kill him. He lept while burning, knife drawn and fell into the writhing mass of Pashtun's. As he was dying he was said to have yelled repeatedly the Sikh battle-cry "Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal" (Shout Aloud in Ecstasy! True is the Great Timeless One). "Akal," meaning Immortal, beyond death, the Supreme Creator God unbound by time and non-temporal.
The following day when thousands of British Army reinforcements arrived and successfully repelled the Afghan's, exactly 21 Sikh MEN were found, most shirtless, all knives drawn from hip sheaths, and covered in blood surrounded by over 600 dead Afghan fighters. Not a single, not ONE SINGLE ROUND remaining was discovered in any Sikh ammo carrier, magazine, nor rifle itself. All munitions, including the reserves were categorically expended during the battle in it's entirety per each Sikh Warrior to the last, fucking MAN.
All of the 21 Sikh non-commissioned officers and soldiers of other ranks who laid down their lives in the Battle of Saragarhi were posthumously awarded the Indian Order of Merit, the highest gallantry award of that time, which an Indian soldier could receive by the hands of the British crown, the corresponding gallantry award being Victoria Cross. This award is equivalent to today's Param Vir Chakra awarded by the President of India.
They the 21 were ALL born in Majha region of Punjab.
The names of the 21 recipients of the gallantry award are as follows:
They the 21 were ALL born in Majha region of Punjab.
The names of the 21 recipients of the gallantry award are as follows:
Havildar Ishar Singh (Regimental number 165)
Naik Lal Singh (332)
Naik Chanda Singh (546)
Lance Naik Sundar Singh (1321)
Lance Naik Ram Singh (287)
Lance Naik Uttar Singh (492)
Lance Naik Sahib Singh (182)
Sepoy Hira Singh (359)
Sepoy Daya Singh (687)
Sepoy Jivan Singh (760)
Sepoy Bhola Singh (791)
Sepoy Narayan Singh (834)
Sepoy Gurmukh Singh (814)
Sepoy Jivan Singh (871)
Sepoy Gurmukh Singh (1733)
Sepoy Ram Singh (163)
Sepoy Bhagwan Singh (1257)
Sepoy Bhagwan Singh (1265)
Sepoy Buta Singh (1556)
Sepoy Jivan Singh (1651)
Sepoy Nand Singh (1221)
Naik Lal Singh (332)
Naik Chanda Singh (546)
Lance Naik Sundar Singh (1321)
Lance Naik Ram Singh (287)
Lance Naik Uttar Singh (492)
Lance Naik Sahib Singh (182)
Sepoy Hira Singh (359)
Sepoy Daya Singh (687)
Sepoy Jivan Singh (760)
Sepoy Bhola Singh (791)
Sepoy Narayan Singh (834)
Sepoy Gurmukh Singh (814)
Sepoy Jivan Singh (871)
Sepoy Gurmukh Singh (1733)
Sepoy Ram Singh (163)
Sepoy Bhagwan Singh (1257)
Sepoy Bhagwan Singh (1265)
Sepoy Buta Singh (1556)
Sepoy Jivan Singh (1651)
Sepoy Nand Singh (1221)
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
“Terror Hype” vs The Corporate State: Why we so messed!
Friends, penned some thoughts today:
“Terror Hype” vs The Corporate State: Why we so messed!
Woke up to this nausea this morning: (CNN)A Montana pipeline burst sent as much as 50,400 gallons of oil gushing into the Yellowstone River, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/20/us/yellowstone-river-spill/index.html
It cannot be viewed outside of the context of the mainstream media/government hype over the ongoing “War on Terror” that the Bush administration under the skilled guidance of Cheney/Rumsfield started and the Neo Cons 2.0 continued on through the Obama experience.
Recently, we had the criminal mass-murder in Paris and the Belgian government’s pre-emptive move against other criminal would be murderers in that nation. Not to be outdone, CNN, Fox and their peers bloviate endlessly about the “homegrown”, “lone wolf” , “Domestic Terror Threat” represented by a couple of unconnected mentally ill, would be instruments of death who were aided and abetted in their fantasy world by the FBI. Look at all your neighbors closely now people, the end is coming soon in a puff of nail filled smoke and hail of automatic gunfire. Look even closer if they worship differently than you do.
In the mean-time, think how much more exponentially, how much more vastly panicked the nation (and western society) would be if “terrorists” has deliberately poisoned the drinking water of millions upon millions of American citizens in hundreds, if not thousands of towns and cities. Can you imagine the media frenzy, the posturing in congress and what the State of The Union Speech would look and sound like? Can you come to grips with the spectre of “ terror” we would all live under in The West. Think of it, a “soft target" like a river being struck in such a way as to affect millions upon millions of peace loving, innocent souls.
Well gang, it just happened. You see, the Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River which then flows into the Mississippi River at St. Louis. From there it flows to the Gulf of Mexico. Get a map and look at who draws their drinking water from below this spill. Understand that petrochemicals are not filtered very well if at all by municipal water systems. Are there acceptable levels of bitumen oil for you and I to ingest? Fish and animals, ecosystems...meah.
Now this was an accident. It was a failure of engineering I suppose. A calculated risk gone bad and a minor byline in the press compared to the afformentioned simpletons the FBI groomed into a case they could prosecute. This begs the question, what would the outcry be like if 50 400 gallons of toxic waste were deliberately and criminally introduced into the drinking water of millions and done so with the excuse that God, Allah or some other deity demanded it be so to avenge wrongs real or perceived?
Imagine the new restrictions on civil liberties and militarization of the state to “protect us” from “Evil”. What new Patriot Act? What new war abroad to eliminate “Terror”….let your mind wander.
Well, a corporation enabled by laws passed by politicians who were lobbied by former politicians turned lobbiests payed for by big money did this. It was an accident and they will do better next time. Keystone or Enbridge anyone?
Of note: “This isn't the first major oil spill into the Yellowstone River -- the longest un-dammed river in the United States. In 2011, up to 42,000 gallons poured out of a ruptured Exxon Mobil pipeline.”
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Goodbye 2014 Hello 2015
2014 you were surely a mixed-bag of life. Bottom line however, is that you were survived and 2015 is front and center.
Project 2015
Gonna try and flip the accrued bad and feed the accrued good. The difference between the majors and the minors is one hit per 10 in baseball. Gotta tighten life's three round shot group. Gotta try.
Project 2015
Gonna try and flip the accrued bad and feed the accrued good. The difference between the majors and the minors is one hit per 10 in baseball. Gotta tighten life's three round shot group. Gotta try.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Racer Steven (son)
21 December, 2014
Hits A Place
Hits A Place
Oh Club Lupus
Where For Art Thou?
Existential Confliction
High and Low
Near and Far
Rags and Tatters
Must Drive On
Shelter Eludes
Reflections Stick
There Is No Floor
And Looking Up
There Is No Horizon
Measure Up
Do Right
Yeah Right
"Biology Prevails"
"The Wrong Side of Heaven
The Righteous Side of Hell"
With No Gravity
Must Your Legs Be Strong?
Oscillate, Variate
With No Center
Tell Me, Tell Me
The Rigid Frontiers
Obfuscate
|Borders of Right and Wrong
Growing Hurts
We Cry At Birth
Hurting Hurts
When We Choose
When We Move
There Are Ripples In The Pond
We Can Never Still
Or Take Back
It Will Never Be The Same Again
The River Flows
Am No Stick
I Can Swim
I Can Aim For One Shore
Or The Other
Or So They Say
When You Get To Your Chosen Bank
All You Can Do
Is Watch The Current
Dry Up
Stay Still
Observe, Paint and Prognosticate
Til You Grow Old
And Forget
What It Was
To Swim
If You Stay In The Flow
Keep It In The Middle They Say
Middle Is A Riddle
For The River Never Flows Straight
The Banks Are Curved
And You Could Be Washed Upon
An Alien Shore
So Choose Wisely If You Should Swim
Take A Deep Breath
Look For The Horizon
Anticipate and Pull
With Your Feet Off The Ground
The Horizon You Figure In Sight
Child You Don't See
The Waterfall
Cannot See The Real Beginning
I Know I Don't Know You
My River
And I Don't Know
To Whence
I Might Flow
Like The Water
Like The Feel
The Question Doth Arise
Is Considered Ignorance
Bliss....
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Chris Hedges On What Obama Really Wanted To Say in 2014 State Of The Union
Washington, D.C.
11:15 a.m. EST
THE PRESIDENT: A small, secret surveillance committee of goons and thugs hiding behind the mask of patriotism was established in 1908 in Washington, D.C. The group was led from 1924 until 1972 by J. Edgar Hoover, and during his reign it became known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI agents spied upon and infiltrated labor unions, political parties, radical groups—especially those led by African-Americans—anti-war groups and the civil rights movement in order to discredit anyone, including politicians such as Henry Wallace, who questioned the power of the state and big business. Agents burglarized homes and offices, illegally opened mail and planted unlawful wiretaps. Bureau leaders created blacklists. They destroyed careers and sometimes lives. They demanded loyalty oaths. By the time they were done, our progressive and radical movements, which had given us the middle class and opened up our political system, were dead. And while the FBI was targeting internal dissidents, our foreign intelligence operatives were overthrowing regimes, bankrolling some of the most vicious dictators on the planet and carrying out assassinations in numerous countries, such as Cuba and the Philippines and later Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, Chile, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Throughout American history, intelligence services often did little more than advance and protect corporate profits and solidify state repression and imperialist expansion. War, for big business, has always been very lucrative and used as an excuse to curtail basic liberties and crush popular movements. “Inter arma silent leges,” as Cicero said, or “During war, the laws are silent.” In the Civil War, during which the North and the South suspended the writ of habeas corpus and up to 750,000 soldiers died in the slaughter, Union intelligence worked alongside Northern war profiteers who sold cardboard shoes to the Army as the spy services went about the business of ruthlessly hunting down deserters. The First World War, which gave us the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act and saw President Woodrow Wilson throw populists and socialists, including Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs, into prison, produced $28.5 billion in net profits for businesses and created 22,000 new millionaires. Wall Street banks, which lent $2.5 billion to nations allied with the United States, made sure Wilson sent U.S. forces into the senseless trench warfare so they would be repaid. World War II—which consumed more than 50 million lives and saw 110,000 Japanese-Americans hauled away to internment camps and atomic bombs dropped on defenseless civilians—doubled wartime corporate profits from the First World War. Why disarm when there was so much money to be made from stoking fear?
The rise of the Iron Curtain and nuclear weapons provided the justification by big business for sustaining a massive arms industry, for a huge expansion of our surveillance capabilities and for more draconian assaults against workers and radicals. The production of weapons was about profits rather than logic. We would go on to produce more than 70,000 nuclear bombs or warheads at a cost of $5.5 trillion, enough weapons to obliterate every Soviet city several times over. And in the early days of the Cold War, with Hoover and Joe McCarthy and his henchmen blacklisting anyone with a conscience in government, the arts, journalism, labor unions or education, President Harry S. Truman created the National Security Agency, or NSA.
Throughout this evolution, Americans were steadily shorn of their most basic constitutional rights and their traditions of limited government. U.S. intelligence agencies were always anchored in a system of secrecy—with little effective oversight from either elected leaders or ordinary citizens. Meanwhile, totalitarian states like East Germany offered a sterling example of what our corporate masters might achieve with pervasive, unchecked surveillance that turned citizens into informers and persecuted people for what they said in the privacy of their homes. Today I would like to thank the architects of this East German system, especially Erich Mielke, once the chief of the communist East German secret police. I want to assure them that the NSA has gone on to perfect what the Stasi began.......(continue to link for further reading)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what_obama_really_meant_was_20140119
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Precision!
New Zealand vs Tonga Haka
Russia's Kremlin Guard
Russia's Kremlin Guard
US Marine Corps Silent Drill Team
India Pakistan Border Crossing Closes
Monday, May 2, 2011
Christopher Hitchens versus God
Christopher Hitchens versus God (Hitchens has G in a submission hold!)
And a Song That I Like
Sunday, May 1, 2011
The Real Rebel Yell
Shelby Foote Describes Rebel Yell at about 4:04 in below video. The following videos are highly interesting. Chills up one's spine.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Iran: The Mother of All Posturers
How Real is the Threat!
Clearly, Israel is making a case for an attack on Iran. A lot of folks in the West echo these alarms but hey wait a second. Lets skim away some of the hype and take a closer (admittingly blunt look at the facts).
Is Iran the most powerful regional state sans Israel? yep. Is a conventional exchange/war with Iran a wise or winnable thing to do? Nope. Is the current Iranian regime a brutal dictatorship? Yep. Do they export terrorism and fight with proxies like Hezbolla? Yep. Are they seeking to destabilize/control the mess known as Iraq? Yep. Are they going to initiate and all out attack against the United States or Israel? Nope, they don't want to be a radioactive wasteland. Are they going to initiate an full out assault on the Saudi Oilfields and distribution network...Nope, for all the same reasons.
Some Thoughts: US Nuclear Arsenal 11 000 plus or minus. Israeli Nuclear Arsenal: Somewhere between 200 and 400. Some experts believe it is third biggest stockpile in the world.
US National Intelligence Estimate: Maybe, maybe Iran will have one working device by end of 2011. Working device and device that can be delivered folks are two different entities.
Iran is basically in same position re: creation of nuclear device that United States was in back in 1944-45. That is 65 years ago gang. The US/Israel have a 65 year head-start!
Has anyone ever thought that the Iranian Regime is acting like any terrified creature does? Trying to make itself larger than life in an attempt to intimidate enemies (in Iran's case internal as well as external) from harming it/its interests.
Today, there is President Mahmoud Ahmaddinejad unveiling Iran's first unmanned bomber. Lots of fanfare and hype surrounding it too. You can bet that those bent on Iran's destruction foreign and neocon domestic, will surely amplify these images as well. Funny thing though, does this again look like 65 year old technology being passed off by both sides as an imminent threat? Does to me.
The primitive machine that the Iranians are waving around and heralding as their new super-weapon looks like this:
Look Familiar? Lets turn back the pages of history about oh, say 68 years. My grandma's generation were ducking these things in England:
Clearly, Israel is making a case for an attack on Iran. A lot of folks in the West echo these alarms but hey wait a second. Lets skim away some of the hype and take a closer (admittingly blunt look at the facts).
Is Iran the most powerful regional state sans Israel? yep. Is a conventional exchange/war with Iran a wise or winnable thing to do? Nope. Is the current Iranian regime a brutal dictatorship? Yep. Do they export terrorism and fight with proxies like Hezbolla? Yep. Are they seeking to destabilize/control the mess known as Iraq? Yep. Are they going to initiate and all out attack against the United States or Israel? Nope, they don't want to be a radioactive wasteland. Are they going to initiate an full out assault on the Saudi Oilfields and distribution network...Nope, for all the same reasons.
Some Thoughts: US Nuclear Arsenal 11 000 plus or minus. Israeli Nuclear Arsenal: Somewhere between 200 and 400. Some experts believe it is third biggest stockpile in the world.
US National Intelligence Estimate: Maybe, maybe Iran will have one working device by end of 2011. Working device and device that can be delivered folks are two different entities.
Iran is basically in same position re: creation of nuclear device that United States was in back in 1944-45. That is 65 years ago gang. The US/Israel have a 65 year head-start!
Maybe Intimating at Having This
Is A Great Way To Say
This
Has anyone ever thought that the Iranian Regime is acting like any terrified creature does? Trying to make itself larger than life in an attempt to intimidate enemies (in Iran's case internal as well as external) from harming it/its interests.
The primitive machine that the Iranians are waving around and heralding as their new super-weapon looks like this:
Soo, Iran has successfully re-engineered (not even deployed yet) a glorified WW 2 "Buzz Bomb" putting them on par with the model airplane afficanados that fly their birds out in the California desert on weekends (minus the TNT). Quick all, lobby your congressman to declare war on the "Existential Threat" to our Israeli friends and then run as fast as you can for your fallout shelters.
Get This Guy On Poker Stars!
What is really going on? Well, the current Iranian regime is propping itself up and successfully drawing a lot of attention/scaring its neighbors with some artful smoke and mirrors based on 65 year old technology. Mainstream media buys into it and bingo, manufactured crisis when it suits the "interests" out there. Drink the Kool-Aide if you want another war.
WHAT YOU SHOULD REALLY BE WORRIED ABOUT IS WHAT THEY DON'T PARADE AROUND IN FRONT OF THE WORLD
Smallpox: Do you really think they don't have this or wouldn't use it in retaliation for being irradiated?
Think before you follow someone's pep-talk into Armageddon.
Pakistan's Agony
A Pakistani land surface area larger than Italy is under water!
A fabulous article written on one on of my favorite blogs!
Enjoy!
Polar Bear Up Close!
Not quite the Coca-Cola commercial we are accustomed to seeing every Christmas!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Connect The Dots...Ground Zero Mosque
I am no joiner and certainly am no fan of organized religion in any shape or form. They all have the blood and other detrius of the misdeeds of true believers on their hands. I have also over the course of my life come to believe strongly in the right of all people to be free to worship who and how they see fit, so long as their beliefs are separate from the state and are not foisted on others. This belief however, as is the nature of holding a belief, is being challenged, or better put, scrutinized. I am an interested observer of this modern age of ours and it is apparent that there is going to be a big struggle in The West between an open-inclusive society and the existence of "true-belief" that at its core, does not suffer pluralistic belief. What concept wins out in the end? What is the tipping point?
I recently read an article that I will post below by a Dutch activist. It made sense in its own context, but I have still refrained from drinking his brand of Kool Aide so-to-speak. Today, I read again about the growing controversy over the Ground Zero Mosque. The whole Ground Zero Mosque thing fits this man's artithmatic and well, we ought to at least have the courage in North America to reflect on the points given below. I am not for or against, but I am further informed:
Here is what one man thinks about the significance of such construction projects amongst other "company" projects. (Personally, I think he comes from a culture/perspective that had the reformation/enlightenment and is frustrated/trying to articulate his frustration with a religion that is a seemless garmet of belief that is absolute and unchanged from its medieval 8th century conception.):
Speech at the Four Seasons, New York
September 25, 2008
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me. Great to be at the Four Seasons. I come from a country that has one season only: a rainy season that starts January 1st and ends December 31st. When we have three sunny days in a row, the government declares a national emergency. So Four Seasons, that’s new to me.
It’s great to be in New York. When I see the skyscrapers and office buildings, I think of what Ayn Rand said: “The sky over New York and the will of man made visible.” Of course. Without the Dutch you would have been nowhere, still figuring out how to buy this island from the Indians. But we are glad we did it for you. And, frankly, you did a far better job than we possibly could have done.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario form becoming a reality.
My short lecture consists of 4 parts.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, I will talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome’s ancient buildings and maybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they still look very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.
But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitors see – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corner. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighbourhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear “whore, whore”. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can in many cases no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighbourhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favour of a worldwide caliphate. A Dutch study reported that half of Dutch Muslims admit they “understand” the 9/11 attacks.
Muslims demand what they call ‘respect’. And this is how we give them respect. Our elites are willing to give in. To give up. In my own country we have gone from calls by one cabinet member to turn Muslim holidays into official state holidays, to statements by another cabinet member, that Islam is part of Dutch culture, to an affirmation by the Christian-Democratic attorney general that he is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behaviour, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. Some prefer to see these as isolated incidents, but I call it a Muslim intifada. I call the perpetrators “settlers”. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighbourhoods, their cities, their countries.
Politicians shy away from taking a stand against this creeping sharia. They believe in the equality of all cultures. Moreover, on a mundane level, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
Our many problems with Islam cannot be explained by poverty, repression or the European colonial past, as the Left claims. Nor does it have anything to do with Palestinians or American troops in Iraq. The problem is Islam itself.
Allow me to give you a brief Islam 101. The first thing you need to know about Islam is the importance of the book of the Quran. The Quran is Allah’s personal word, revealed by an angel to Mohammed, the prophet. This is where the trouble starts. Every word in the Quran is Allah’s word and therefore not open to discussion or interpretation. It is valid for every Muslim and for all times. Therefore, there is no such a thing as moderate Islam. Sure, there are a lot of moderate Muslims. But a moderate Islam is non-existent.
The Quran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder, and terrorism. The Quran calls for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, to terrorize non-Muslims and to fulfil their duty to wage war: violent jihad. Jihad is a duty for every Muslim, Islam is to rule the world – by the sword. The Quran is clearly anti-Semitic, describing Jews as monkeys and pigs.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behaviour is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages – at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. He advised on matters of slavery, but never advised to liberate slaves. Islam has no other morality than the advancement of Islam. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad. There is no gray area or other side.
Quran as Allah’s own word and Mohammed as the perfect man are the two most important facets of Islam. Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means ‘submission’. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.
This is what you need to know about Islam, in order to understand what is going on in Europe. For millions of Muslims the Quran and the live of Mohammed are not 14 centuries old, but are an everyday reality, an ideal, that guide every aspect of their lives. Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam “the most retrograde force in the world”, and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran.
Which brings me to my movie, Fitna.
I am a lawmaker, and not a movie maker. But I felt I had the moral duty to educate about Islam. The duty to make clear that the Quran stands at the heart of what some people call terrorism but is in reality jihad. I wanted to show that the problems of Islam are at the core of Islam, and do not belong to its fringes.
Now, from the day the plan for my movie was made public, it caused quite a stir, in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. First, there was a political storm, with government leaders, across the continent in sheer panic. The Netherlands was put under a heightened terror alert, because of possible attacks or a revolt by our Muslim population. The Dutch branch of the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir declared that the Netherlands was due for an attack. Internationally, there was a series of incidents. The Taliban threatened to organize additional attacks against Dutch troops in Afghanistan, and a website linked to Al Qaeda published the message that I ought to be killed, while various muftis in the Middle East stated that I would be responsible for all the bloodshed after the screening of the movie. In Afghanistan and Pakistan the Dutch flag was burned on several occasions. Dolls representing me were also burned. The Indonesian President announced that I will never be admitted into Indonesia again, while the UN Secretary General and the European Union issued cowardly statements in the same vein as those made by the Dutch Government. I could go on and on. It was an absolute disgrace, a sell-out.
A plethora of legal troubles also followed, and have not ended yet. Currently the state of Jordan is litigating against me. Only last week there were renewed security agency reports about a heightened terror alert for the Netherlands because of Fitna.
Now, I would like to say a few things about Israel. Because, very soon, we will get together in its capitol. The best way for a politician in Europe to loose votes is to say something positive about Israel. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I, however, will continue to speak up for Israel. I see defending Israel as a matter of principle. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
Samuel Huntington writes it so aptly: “Islam has bloody borders”. Israel is located precisely on that border. This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam’s territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything. Therefore, it is not that the West has a stake in Israel. It is Israel.
It is very difficult to be an optimist in the face of the growing Islamization of Europe. All the tides are against us. On all fronts we are losing. Demographically the momentum is with Islam. Muslim immigration is even a source of pride within ruling liberal parties. Academia, the arts, the media, trade unions, the churches, the business world, the entire political establishment have all converted to the suicidal theory of multiculturalism. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a ‘right-wing extremists’ or ‘racists’. The entire establishment has sided with our enemy. Leftists, liberals and Christian-Democrats are now all in bed with Islam.
This is the most painful thing to see: the betrayal by our elites. At this moment in Europe’s history, our elites are supposed to lead us. To stand up for centuries of civilization. To defend our heritage. To honour our eternal Judeo-Christian values that made Europe what it is today. But there are very few signs of hope to be seen at the governmental level. Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown, Berlusconi; in private, they probably know how grave the situation is. But when the little red light goes on, they stare into the camera and tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, and we should all try to get along nicely and sing Kumbaya. They willingly participate in, what President Reagan so aptly called: “the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.”
If there is hope in Europe, it comes from the people, not from the elites. Change can only come from a grass-roots level. It has to come from the citizens themselves. Yet these patriots will have to take on the entire political, legal and media establishment.
Over the past years there have been some small, but encouraging, signs of a rebirth of the original European spirit. Maybe the elites turn their backs on freedom, the public does not. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat to our national identity. I don’t think the public opinion in Holland is very different from other European countries.
Patriotic parties that oppose jihad are growing, against all odds. My own party debuted two years ago, with five percent of the vote. Now it stands at ten percent in the polls. The same is true of all smililary-minded parties in Europe. They are fighting the liberal establishment, and are gaining footholds on the political arena, one voter at the time.
Now, for the first time, these patriotic parties will come together and exchange experiences. It may be the start of something big. Something that might change the map of Europe for decades to come. It might also be Europe’s last chance.
This December a conference will take place in Jerusalem. Thanks to Professor Aryeh Eldad, a member of Knesset, we will be able to watch Fitna in the Knesset building and discuss the jihad. We are organizing this event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the same boat together, and that Israel is part of our common heritage. Those attending will be a select audience. No racist organizations will be allowed. And we will only admit parties that are solidly democratic.
This conference will be the start of an Alliance of European patriots. This Alliance will serve as the backbone for all organizations and political parties that oppose jihad and Islamization. For this Alliance I seek your support.
This endeavor may be crucial to America and to the West. America may hold fast to the dream that, thanks tot its location, it is safe from jihad and shaira. But seven years ago to the day, there was still smoke rising from ground zero, following the attacks that forever shattered that dream. Yet there is a danger even greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe’s children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.
This is not the first time our civilization is under threat. We have seen dangers before. We have been betrayed by our elites before. They have sided with our enemies before. And yet, then, freedom prevailed.
These are not times in which to take lessons from appeasement, capitulation, giving away, giving up or giving in. These are not times in which to draw lessons from Mr. Chamberlain. These are times calling us to draw lessons from Mr. Churchill and the words he spoke in 1942:
“Never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy”.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Some background on this man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Wilders
Evaluation: Well, Geert Wilders is all fired up for sure, but he is brushing the faith of and by virtue of this, a billion people with pretty broad strokes. If you were to take his article and substitute Muslims for Jews and Islam for Judaism and then flash it back to the mid-1930's it would surely smack of/approximate something Julius Streicher might write. Wilders wittingly or unwittingly could be encouraging a 21st century Krystalnacht??? Certainly there are those out there who would take his beliefs to another level??!!
Should Wilders be suppressed? Consider some enduring words from another time:
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” — Voltaire
I guess however, in the context of the times we live in, there are two sides to every story and Wilders ought to be able to say his. For those who disagree, "The antidote to distasteful or hateful speech is not censorship, but more speech."
As for a mosque at or near ground zero, its validity has many opposing perspectives. My perspective is that it is deliberate and in bad taste no matter how is builders seek to qualify/quantify it. Is is illegal? Should it be blocked? Nope, because in so doing, the United States and the Western Liberal heritage will erode itself perceptibly by such action. The debate continues......
I recently read an article that I will post below by a Dutch activist. It made sense in its own context, but I have still refrained from drinking his brand of Kool Aide so-to-speak. Today, I read again about the growing controversy over the Ground Zero Mosque. The whole Ground Zero Mosque thing fits this man's artithmatic and well, we ought to at least have the courage in North America to reflect on the points given below. I am not for or against, but I am further informed:
Remember This Morning A Few Years Back? Now ask yourself, is it a great place to build a building like this?:
Geert Wilders, chairman Party for Freedom, the Netherlands
Speech at the Four Seasons, New York
September 25, 2008
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me. Great to be at the Four Seasons. I come from a country that has one season only: a rainy season that starts January 1st and ends December 31st. When we have three sunny days in a row, the government declares a national emergency. So Four Seasons, that’s new to me.
It’s great to be in New York. When I see the skyscrapers and office buildings, I think of what Ayn Rand said: “The sky over New York and the will of man made visible.” Of course. Without the Dutch you would have been nowhere, still figuring out how to buy this island from the Indians. But we are glad we did it for you. And, frankly, you did a far better job than we possibly could have done.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the last man standing. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risk their lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario form becoming a reality.
My short lecture consists of 4 parts.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, I will talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome’s ancient buildings and maybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they still look very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.
But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitors see – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corner. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighbourhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear “whore, whore”. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can in many cases no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighbourhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favour of a worldwide caliphate. A Dutch study reported that half of Dutch Muslims admit they “understand” the 9/11 attacks.
Muslims demand what they call ‘respect’. And this is how we give them respect. Our elites are willing to give in. To give up. In my own country we have gone from calls by one cabinet member to turn Muslim holidays into official state holidays, to statements by another cabinet member, that Islam is part of Dutch culture, to an affirmation by the Christian-Democratic attorney general that he is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behaviour, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. Some prefer to see these as isolated incidents, but I call it a Muslim intifada. I call the perpetrators “settlers”. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighbourhoods, their cities, their countries.
Politicians shy away from taking a stand against this creeping sharia. They believe in the equality of all cultures. Moreover, on a mundane level, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
Our many problems with Islam cannot be explained by poverty, repression or the European colonial past, as the Left claims. Nor does it have anything to do with Palestinians or American troops in Iraq. The problem is Islam itself.
Allow me to give you a brief Islam 101. The first thing you need to know about Islam is the importance of the book of the Quran. The Quran is Allah’s personal word, revealed by an angel to Mohammed, the prophet. This is where the trouble starts. Every word in the Quran is Allah’s word and therefore not open to discussion or interpretation. It is valid for every Muslim and for all times. Therefore, there is no such a thing as moderate Islam. Sure, there are a lot of moderate Muslims. But a moderate Islam is non-existent.
The Quran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder, and terrorism. The Quran calls for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, to terrorize non-Muslims and to fulfil their duty to wage war: violent jihad. Jihad is a duty for every Muslim, Islam is to rule the world – by the sword. The Quran is clearly anti-Semitic, describing Jews as monkeys and pigs.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behaviour is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages – at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. He advised on matters of slavery, but never advised to liberate slaves. Islam has no other morality than the advancement of Islam. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad. There is no gray area or other side.
Quran as Allah’s own word and Mohammed as the perfect man are the two most important facets of Islam. Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means ‘submission’. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.
This is what you need to know about Islam, in order to understand what is going on in Europe. For millions of Muslims the Quran and the live of Mohammed are not 14 centuries old, but are an everyday reality, an ideal, that guide every aspect of their lives. Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam “the most retrograde force in the world”, and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran.
Which brings me to my movie, Fitna.
I am a lawmaker, and not a movie maker. But I felt I had the moral duty to educate about Islam. The duty to make clear that the Quran stands at the heart of what some people call terrorism but is in reality jihad. I wanted to show that the problems of Islam are at the core of Islam, and do not belong to its fringes.
Now, from the day the plan for my movie was made public, it caused quite a stir, in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. First, there was a political storm, with government leaders, across the continent in sheer panic. The Netherlands was put under a heightened terror alert, because of possible attacks or a revolt by our Muslim population. The Dutch branch of the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir declared that the Netherlands was due for an attack. Internationally, there was a series of incidents. The Taliban threatened to organize additional attacks against Dutch troops in Afghanistan, and a website linked to Al Qaeda published the message that I ought to be killed, while various muftis in the Middle East stated that I would be responsible for all the bloodshed after the screening of the movie. In Afghanistan and Pakistan the Dutch flag was burned on several occasions. Dolls representing me were also burned. The Indonesian President announced that I will never be admitted into Indonesia again, while the UN Secretary General and the European Union issued cowardly statements in the same vein as those made by the Dutch Government. I could go on and on. It was an absolute disgrace, a sell-out.
A plethora of legal troubles also followed, and have not ended yet. Currently the state of Jordan is litigating against me. Only last week there were renewed security agency reports about a heightened terror alert for the Netherlands because of Fitna.
Now, I would like to say a few things about Israel. Because, very soon, we will get together in its capitol. The best way for a politician in Europe to loose votes is to say something positive about Israel. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I, however, will continue to speak up for Israel. I see defending Israel as a matter of principle. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
Samuel Huntington writes it so aptly: “Islam has bloody borders”. Israel is located precisely on that border. This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam’s territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything. Therefore, it is not that the West has a stake in Israel. It is Israel.
It is very difficult to be an optimist in the face of the growing Islamization of Europe. All the tides are against us. On all fronts we are losing. Demographically the momentum is with Islam. Muslim immigration is even a source of pride within ruling liberal parties. Academia, the arts, the media, trade unions, the churches, the business world, the entire political establishment have all converted to the suicidal theory of multiculturalism. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a ‘right-wing extremists’ or ‘racists’. The entire establishment has sided with our enemy. Leftists, liberals and Christian-Democrats are now all in bed with Islam.
This is the most painful thing to see: the betrayal by our elites. At this moment in Europe’s history, our elites are supposed to lead us. To stand up for centuries of civilization. To defend our heritage. To honour our eternal Judeo-Christian values that made Europe what it is today. But there are very few signs of hope to be seen at the governmental level. Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown, Berlusconi; in private, they probably know how grave the situation is. But when the little red light goes on, they stare into the camera and tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, and we should all try to get along nicely and sing Kumbaya. They willingly participate in, what President Reagan so aptly called: “the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.”
If there is hope in Europe, it comes from the people, not from the elites. Change can only come from a grass-roots level. It has to come from the citizens themselves. Yet these patriots will have to take on the entire political, legal and media establishment.
Over the past years there have been some small, but encouraging, signs of a rebirth of the original European spirit. Maybe the elites turn their backs on freedom, the public does not. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat to our national identity. I don’t think the public opinion in Holland is very different from other European countries.
Patriotic parties that oppose jihad are growing, against all odds. My own party debuted two years ago, with five percent of the vote. Now it stands at ten percent in the polls. The same is true of all smililary-minded parties in Europe. They are fighting the liberal establishment, and are gaining footholds on the political arena, one voter at the time.
Now, for the first time, these patriotic parties will come together and exchange experiences. It may be the start of something big. Something that might change the map of Europe for decades to come. It might also be Europe’s last chance.
This December a conference will take place in Jerusalem. Thanks to Professor Aryeh Eldad, a member of Knesset, we will be able to watch Fitna in the Knesset building and discuss the jihad. We are organizing this event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the same boat together, and that Israel is part of our common heritage. Those attending will be a select audience. No racist organizations will be allowed. And we will only admit parties that are solidly democratic.
This conference will be the start of an Alliance of European patriots. This Alliance will serve as the backbone for all organizations and political parties that oppose jihad and Islamization. For this Alliance I seek your support.
This endeavor may be crucial to America and to the West. America may hold fast to the dream that, thanks tot its location, it is safe from jihad and shaira. But seven years ago to the day, there was still smoke rising from ground zero, following the attacks that forever shattered that dream. Yet there is a danger even greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe’s children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.
This is not the first time our civilization is under threat. We have seen dangers before. We have been betrayed by our elites before. They have sided with our enemies before. And yet, then, freedom prevailed.
These are not times in which to take lessons from appeasement, capitulation, giving away, giving up or giving in. These are not times in which to draw lessons from Mr. Chamberlain. These are times calling us to draw lessons from Mr. Churchill and the words he spoke in 1942:
“Never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy”.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Some background on this man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Wilders
Evaluation: Well, Geert Wilders is all fired up for sure, but he is brushing the faith of and by virtue of this, a billion people with pretty broad strokes. If you were to take his article and substitute Muslims for Jews and Islam for Judaism and then flash it back to the mid-1930's it would surely smack of/approximate something Julius Streicher might write. Wilders wittingly or unwittingly could be encouraging a 21st century Krystalnacht??? Certainly there are those out there who would take his beliefs to another level??!!
Should Wilders be suppressed? Consider some enduring words from another time:
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” — Voltaire
I guess however, in the context of the times we live in, there are two sides to every story and Wilders ought to be able to say his. For those who disagree, "The antidote to distasteful or hateful speech is not censorship, but more speech."
As for a mosque at or near ground zero, its validity has many opposing perspectives. My perspective is that it is deliberate and in bad taste no matter how is builders seek to qualify/quantify it. Is is illegal? Should it be blocked? Nope, because in so doing, the United States and the Western Liberal heritage will erode itself perceptibly by such action. The debate continues......
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
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