The New York Times today carries a story entitled "Fear of Islamists Drives Growth of Far Right in Belgium," which details how the scary "far right" is using fear of the poor old Muslims to gain political power and influence. Without a trace of irony or introspection, it quotes a Belgian convert to Islam praising Osama bin Laden and 9/11, but still stoops to suggest that opposition to Islamic influence and immigration in Europe is equivalent to Nazi genocide: "Though he is the son of concentration camp survivors and his grandparents died in camps, he campaigned on behalf of Vlaams Belang, then named Vlaams Blok, in regional elections last year."
No one is advocating death camps for Muslims in Europe. Opposition to Islamic immigration to Europe is not racism or Nazism. It is a sober recognition that Islam is a political and social system as well as a set of tenets for individual behavior, and that many Muslims in Europe believe that present European societies have no legitimacy and should be replaced by Sharia.
But as long as the Times continues to write articles as full of sly insinuations as this one is, all too many people of good will will not realize that Sharia is an institutionalized denial of the rights of women and non-Muslims, and that it could come to Europe. The equality of rights of all people is at stake, and Europe is on the brink of a Dark Ages that could erase all the achievements of Western civilization in establishing a legal structure guaranteeing the dignity of all people. But the Times has appointed Walter Duranty its Guiding Inspiration for the 21st Century.
ANTWERP, Belgium - Filip Dewinter, a boyish man in a dark blue suit, bounds up two flights of steep stairs in his political party's 19th-century headquarters building where posters show a Muslim minaret rising menacingly above the Gothic steeple of the city's cathedral."The radical Muslims are organizing themselves in Europe," he declared. "Other political parties, they are very worried about the Muslim votes and say let's be tolerant, while we are saying - the new political forces in Europe are saying - no, we should defend our identity."
From the Freedom Party in Austria to the National Front in France to the Republicans in Germany, Europe's far right has made a comeback in recent years, largely on the strength of anti-immigration feelings sharpened to a fear of Islam. That fear is fed by threats of terrorism, rising crime rates among Muslim youth and mounting cultural clashes with the Continent's growing Islamic communities.
But nowhere has the right's revival been as swift or as strong as in Belgium's Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, where support for Mr. Dewinter's Vlaams Belang, or Flemish Interest, has surged from 10 percent of the electorate in 1999 to nearly a quarter today.
Vlaams Belang is now the strongest party in Flanders, with support from a third of the voters in Antwerp, the region's largest city. Many people worry that the appeal of antiIslamic politics will continue to spread as Europe's Muslim population grows.
"What they all have in common is that they use the issue of immigration and Islam to motivate and mobilize frustrated people," said Marco Martiniello, a political scientist at the University of Liège in the French-speaking part of Belgium. "In Flanders all attempts to counter the march of the Vlaams Belang have had no results, or limited results, and no one really knows what to do."...
"Their values are not the right values," said Henri Rosenberg, a Talmudic scholar and lawyer who is an Orthodox Jew, speaking of the Muslim community. Though he is the son of concentration camp survivors and his grandparents died in camps, he campaigned on behalf of Vlaams Belang, then named Vlaams Blok, in regional elections last year....
Behind the wooden door of a brick Brussels town house, Jean-François Bastin, 61, a Belgian convert to Islam, holds court before a steady stream of Islamic activists. His fledgling Young Muslims Party is one of the new groups aggressively pursuing pro-Muslim agendas in Europe.
He calls Osama bin Laden "a modern Robin Hood," and the World Trade Center attacks "a poetic act," "a pure abstraction." His 23-year-old son is in jail in Turkey on charges that he was involved in the bombings there that killed 61 people in November 2003....
Already about 4,000 to 5,000 Flemish residents are leaving Antwerp every year, while 5,000 to 6,000 non-European immigrants arrive annually in the city, Mr. Dewinter said. Within 10 years, he predicts, people of non-European backgrounds will account for more than a third of Antwerp's population.
"It's growing very, very fast," Mr. Dewinter said. "Maybe that will be the end of Europe."
It's growing very, very fast," Mr. Dewinter said. "Maybe that will be the end of Europe."
Yuh think? "What fools these mortals be."
"The Continent's Muslim population, now 20 million strong, grew from a postwar labor shortage that was filled with imported workers from North Africa and Turkey".
Well, I don't know why a myth should become true only by reciting mantras!
"20 milliion.."? What do we hear tomorrow? 25 million? and the day after tomorrow? 30 million?
Put the Muslim populations of every European country together and you'll get round about 12,7 million in Western an Northern Europe.
http://www.islamicpopulation.com/europe_islam.html
In addition: Together with Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal there would be a total number of 14,8 million.
If the ideology of the Belgian far right is based on National Socialism without anti-Semitism, militarism and overt white supremacy, then it might be worth buying into – but I doubt it is though. Somebody’s going to have to clean up this mess in Europe; I just hope it’s not a case of: “out of the frying pan and into the fire”.
I don't normally post comments on web sites (this is my first), but I have become very concerned for the future of this country.
What is clear is that Europe may already be finished (read Bat Ye'or), and we are watching the painful death throes even now. I fear Canada may go in the same manner.
Perhaps demography shows us a way to actively and effectively counter this global menace:
1. Half of the worlds population is female.
2. To say that European women are liberated is an understatement.
3. To say that Canadian and American women are liberated is also an understatement (I wish that were true of Hispanic women).
4. Islam is cruel to women, denies them their rights, and strips them of their dignity.
It is clear that the soft underbelly of Islam is women's rights, and that the primary source of the Islamic scourge is Saudi Arabia.
We must counter the Muslim movement here while we actively and vigorously encourage women's rights in Saudi Arabia and Europe.
If women can be effectively shown that Islam is a threat to them and their female progeny, we may yet have real hope for the future of mankind. Even if women are not concerned about the current attack on their personal rights, I am certain that they can be mobilized through concern for their children's future under Islamic Law. Attack a woman's hope for her children's future and watch the fireworks.
How we mobilize women in Saudi Arabia is problematic, but there are a lot of clever people who may see a way.
At home, letters to the editor carefully composed to alert women of the danger to them and theirs is a good way to start. As in banking, doing the work of journalists without sounding Islamiphobic may get more news coverage in local papers. A grass roots approach at home is a start.
Check this juxstaposition, from one of the elided paragraphs, out:
In the USA, both the populodemopublicans and the paternirepublicrats included men who sympathized with the Nazis ***SIXTY-FIVE FRICKIN YEARS AGO***. There probably aren't many of those Nazi symps left either in the USA political parties or in Belgium, ya think?
And what are the *Dutch* speaking Belgians supposed to do when they see their fellow Dutch speakers in Netherlands letting their rights and traditions be eroded into nothingness by a policy of appeasement and giving in?
There must be no government policy of religious or cultural appeasement! Appeasement is another face of Jim Crow, separate-but-equal, Dhimmist Apartheid. The law is the law, apply it equally to all, if there are inequal laws then strike them down, and appeasement should have nothing to do with it.
Not speaking Flemish or Dutch, I have no idea what Vlaams Belang's platform is. But if their appeal is to universal laws applied equally, without appeasement or institutionalized apartheid of any sort, then I applaud them. And so should all sane people. On the other hand, if they are simply anti-Muslim, as the article alleges repeatedly, then shame on them. However, I suspect the truth is more complex than an either-or dichotomy would indicate. Anyone who knows better, please pipe up and tell us what is really going on.
Cheerio, Lorenzo
FYI, I've fleshed out my rant and posted it on my own blog here.
http://mythopoet.blogspot.com/2005/02/rant-appeasement-is-apartheid.html
Posted:
At home, letters to the editor carefully composed to alert women of the danger to them and theirs is a good way to start. As in banking, doing the work of journalists without sounding Islamiphobic may get more news coverage in local papers. A grass roots approach at home is a start.
That's a good suggestion except that Canadian Newspapers will not print letters to the editor about the concerns for islamic threats in Canada. One reason is that they fear a backlash from the muslim community. One MP (Member of Parliment(Sp.)) voiced his concerns about "muslims a hostile bunch" got a backlash from the muslim community including help from our two major papers- Calgary Herald and Calgary Sun, and the media to brand him as racist and comparing him to Hitler. As a result, his representation of his Riding(a political geographical area) was challenged by the muslim community. He narrowly won, however his image was already tarnished.
Ummagumma,
I don't think that it would be wise or even prudent to mention Islam.
The words women's rights, spousal abuse, assimilation, cultural differences, western ideals, women's bodies, short skirts, pedophiles, ad Nauseum should get a rise from the Muslim community.
Once you have a response, more letters with obtuse references to everything and anything that is the antithesis of Islam could bring more complaints from the Muslim community.
Why are they upset?
Have I done something to offend them?
It's similar to their tactics, but here perhaps their objections will bring a communal response.
Make no mistake, the future of our children is at stake. If we are going to fight, let it be now while we still have a chance to expose these animals for what the are.
The threat of Fascism is waved at us -- "gorgons and dragons and chimeras dire" -- by the New York Times. But this is nonsense. Islam is the fascism, and anyone who bothered to study it would discover the remarkable coincidence between the distinguishing features of fascism and of Islam.
Google "Ibn Warraq" and "Islam" and "Fascism." Read his article (to be found at www.secularislam.org). Print it out. Make copies. Distribute them to your friends and relatives. Make them understand that such words as "religion" and "faith" carry with them an implicit respect and stamp of approval, and are entirely misleading. Islam does not seek converts for the sake of saving their souls. It seeks converts the way an army seeks recruits. And those recruits, once in, cannot get out -- on pain of death. Try to educate as many people as you can. That's it -- no acts of derring-do, no fighiting in Fallujah, nothing but education. Start with yourself, and work outward.
And then, if you can, try to force your local press, radio, television, to stop repeating nonsense about Islam, and to start studying the theory and practice (i.e., the history of Islamic conquest, and of dhimmitude). If you can contribute money to this and similar efforts, for god's sake do so without any more hemming and hawing -- and skip other charitable efforts, and above all contributions to colleges and universities that have so singularly failed to educate the American young, in many important ways.
Islam seek converts like a cult seek followers.To give up control of ones life.Absolutely no free will.
Hello,
I am from the Netherlands, the land above belgium for the ones who don't know where it is.
I know Antwerp very well, and believe me, muslim youth causes atleast 90% of all crime in Antwerp alone, in the rest of Belgium they cause more then half of all sorts of sick crimes, gang rapes are almost all done by muslims.
its hypocrite that they do say lies about that every anti islam person is a nazi when they don't say anything about the islamic group in Belgium ''the ael ''arabic European liga''
there leader abouh jahjah is a great admirer of nassar, who was a member of the egyptian brotherhood of muslim fundamentalists, after world war 2 he gave shelter to many nazi's who he gave the job in his secret service, training as commando's and let them made propaganda, something nazi's where very good in, he also hired old SS'ers to be his personal body guards.
on 1 may 1964 he said that they ''he and his muslim brothers'' where at the side of the nazi's during world war 2 and that the holocaust is a lie.
jahjah from the ael also denies the holocaust.
the ael also gives money to the terrorists in palestinian, and ofcourse supports them in other ways, he also said that a good American and Dutch soldier who gets killed in a iraq is a victory........
and yes, ofcourse, every left person is pro ael, many even supports them in many ways............
and then people don't understand why i can't be left winged anymore.........
Average person in the streets of Europe takes less notice of what politicians or Left Wingers say [otherwise George W would never have got reelected] that situation staring her/him 'in the face.' ISLAM IS IN EVERYONE'S FACE IN EUROPE! Startled Joe & Josephine Bloggs are finding out hundreds of different ways they are offending MUSLIMS:
1]Free speech -Muslims, Mohammed & Sharia can't be criticised.
2]Advertising offends Muslims - posters depicting
scantily clad people, sale of pork or alcohol are already being torn down.
3]Keeping of dogs, pigs and monkeys offends Muslims. Even setting CHINA PIGS ON YOUR OWN WINDOWSILL outrages Muslims - expect a petrol bomb
thrown into your letterbox for this 'crime.' Also, you will be prosecuted by local authorities and police for 'causing a disturbance and upsetting the peace'...
4]Any symbol of other faiths offend Muslims - these are defaced, blown up, destroyed or removed by Dhimmis. Meanwhile number of Mosques grow, minnarets towering above old Gothic Spires.
5]Art and Music offends Muslims. No script which depicts Muslims as Terrorists goes unchallenged as 'Inciting Hatred against Muslims.' Plays and Pictures which offend or show Muslims in an unflattering way are either banned or not shown because of fear of consequences. We know what happened to Van Gogh.
There are plenty more but this is a grim reminder
of what is happening in Europe and the West.
The beauty and history of Europe is being destroyed in a slower, more insidious way than the Turks did and which our ancestors fought against for 1,400 yrs. As the crowning folly, Bush & Blair want to admit Turkey to E.U so the
'HEAD OF EUROPE WILL BE DELIVERED TO THEM ON A SILVER PLATTER...'
How odd that the message sent by the photos is quite different. Mr Dewinter is very clean cut and respectable in appearance, while the Muz convert Jean-François Bastin looks like a complete pervert. Those tweezered eyebrows are really over the top. Would you want him to baby-sit your child?
WHat is it about the political and social culture in Europe, a region that fancies itself to be more "educated" than the US, that produces a culture of
mass collaboration with enemy cultures ?
In WW II, Norway had the Quislings, the French had the Vichy government. Now it is Islam... how can Europe be so blind to a threat ? They more than
anyone else should see how Islamists are the
new Nazis, weaseling their way into their culture.
The moment Islam crosses into the majority in Europe
, it will be the start of a complete cultural
destruction on a scale that even the Nazis didn't
achieve.
Soon,islam will know we have all had enough by the actions that will soon take place all over the world. We may see revolutions evolve to show "We the people" will not tolerate this political pukeness any more.
Hi Nippon!
We know the muzzies constantly inflate their numbers.( Just like a canetoad puffs himself up in order to look more threatening)
But by not giving them credit for their breeing efforts you encourage them to breed faster and more!
Slow down!
The NY Tiems should be called for what it is:a radical left wing,socialist/communist,antiamerican publication.
I'm Flemish.
However the NY Times is full of it.
In 1999 there were regional elections, the results for those was 15.79% for Vlaams Blok, in 2004 they were 24.15%. It does not hold 1/4 of the votes in Belgium, but 1/4 in Flanders.
The reason why the VB is growing is because it has been warning for Islamic extremism since the 1980s.
Another portion is its anti-establishment stance and its Pro-independance stance for Flanders.
Martiniello, a Walloon scientist, G thats like asking Marx what he thought about Capitalism.
It lacks clarity as well, what did Rosenberg mean with "Their values", the one of VB or the one of Islam ?
Bastin's son was arrested in Turkey, with regards to some terrorist attacks there. Bastin is indeed a Belgian Converted.
With regards to the comment on WW2 collaboration :
The party is a Flemish nationalist party, most Flemish nationalists collaborated with the nazis to grab power and to fight the Communists. (like the Lithuanians fought alongside the Germans against the Russians) It still haunts them to this day, even though there's nothing to it.
Its slander and nonsens, never been proven, never will be proven.
Dewinter himself comes from a Resistance family !
The platform is Anti-mass uncontrolled immigration, rebuking Islamic extremism as it is seen as incompatible with Western Society (unless it reforms), Flemish independance, Effective justice, though stance on crime and fraud.