Between the monitoring of the mosques, and the searches of apartments for weapons, and the guards at every subway station, and railroad station, and bus station, and airport, and at churches and synagogues, and now the need to offer police protection for everyone, Muslim and ex-Muslim and non-Muslim, who ever spoke something like the truth about Islam, this is going to run into -- as it already does in the United States, billions and billions of dollars (Homeland Security was close to $40 billion last year; the "Light-Unto-the-Muslim Nations" to "bring democracy" (and hence, presumably, tame Islam?) Project in Iraq is now a $100-billion-a-year enterprise, soaking up men, materiel, money, and attention that should all be put on defeating the world-wide Jihad, not offering an Instant Makeover for a subset of the Muslim world (pace long-in-the-tooth wunderkind Noah Feldman, who seems to believe that there is no "incompatibility" between democracy and Islam -- but Reza Afshari and a host of scholars who have written on the sharia and Western human rights, though not quite as adept at getting grants and tenure and journalistic recognition as Feldman (the whole business of being an Orhtodox Jew who is an "expert" on "Islam" and even spent a few months "writing the new Iraqi constitution" -- well, this is tailor-made for the breathless journalistic reports).

Yes, the protection of this lady, and a thousand others, and of tens of millions of Infidels for whom all Muslim populations have to be monitored -- it's running into money. Anyone care to put a price tag on the incremental cost of each additional Muslim in an Infidel state?

Or a price tag on the refusal to understand that Iraq, despite the bland assurances to the contrary, is NOT like "Occupied Japan" or "Occupied Germany" for two simple reasons: it was not bombed into complete submission, and the reigning ideology in Iraq, Islam, has not been discredited (and cannot, by Infidels, from the outside, ever be discredited) as were Nazism and Kodo-militarism in Germany, and Japan, respectively.

These $100-billion-misunderstandings -- or $400-billion-misunderstandings -- are getting just a bit rich for my taste. How about you?

Posted by: Hugh at November 17, 2004 7:54 AM

Hugh

Ascribing a cost to the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, or protecting Muslims and others domiciled in the West who speak out against the tyranny of Islamofascism may be a relatively easy exercise is a relatively easy task..

...but can you tell me what the costs -- human and financial -- are of sitting back and maintaining an isolationist stance?

Posted by: waterdragon52 at November 17, 2004 10:18 AM

It is in the air, can you feel it? It is not just the stirring of Yamamoto's mythical giant, but there seems to be an awakening of all of Western civilization taking place. In addition, the centuries-old fault lines with the Confucian, Hellenic, Hindu and Bhuddist civilizations appear to be increasingly active. As it has from time to time in centuries past, the metastasis of the Islamic cancer is reaching another critical mass. It won't be long now before we begin to witness the true Gaia immune response. Of course there may be much more surgical intervention required and I believe we have ample reason to expect that some radiation therapy will regretfully be necessary. The opportunity cost of doing nothing is that the patient will succumb to the disease and die. We may never achieve a cure, but we have learned from history that it can be controlled.

Posted by: Hulegu Khan at November 17, 2004 11:45 AM

Hulegu Khan

From reading this site, which latches desperately at every anti-dhimmi article published around the world maybe we allow the impression to grow in us, that indeed, there is a consciousness that we could be seeing the beginning of the end of Islam.

We can naturally think that after Beslan people will understand, after Theo van Gogh people will understand, after Margaret Hassan people will understand.

Meanwhile, demographically and especially culturally(certainly in Europe) we are losing ground, and ultimately this is what counts. In 100 years non-muslim europeans will become like an enslaved elite, kept on for our creative energy whilst the best of the muslims will sell kababs or drink mint tea at the steps of the minaretted Sacre Coeur. We already know what the worst will get up to.

France is not only, NOT reacting to creeping Islam, it is doing its very best to accelerate its cultural suicide. Our last hope for a future dynamic President was Nicolas Sarkozy, who as interior minister famously destroyed the reputation of Tarik Ramadam on live television. It appears that this was just his version of takiya. At his recent not so public appearance at the laying of the first stone of the Ansières super-mosque he uttered the following dangerous nonsense

"Le place of a minister of state is not outside religious temples. Quite the opposite, it is inside, at your sides, at the side of Imam Ali Ahmed and all the muslims who will come here to find a little light"

Ansières, in times long gone used to be a place where the Parisians could enjoy a little sun by the Seine. It is famously portrayed in its pointillé simplicity by Georges Surat in the painting; Bathing at Asnières. http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/seurat/p-seurat8.htm

Now of course, it feels rather more like Baghad on a bad day. Sarkozy doesn't seem to have learnt from his lesson back in January, when he made an undignified escape through the back door of a police station during a social awareness walkabout in the 'charming' Halles district in the centre of Paris. http://www.france-echos.com/actualite.php?cle=454

The new Asnières super-mosque, by the way is run by the Association Al Hidayahai Islamyah who publish books by Sayyid al Qotb, the father of 20th century radical Islam. This association, is not exactly an organisation you would hope a finance minister to publicly endorse

Sarkozy is a very intelligent man. He debates like a hollywood lawyer and has the energy of tiger on amphetamines. He therefore knows clearly what he is doing. He has chosen what he believes will be the winning side. In the same vein, Chirac recently accused Blair of not having got anything in return from the Americans for having supported the Iraq war. Chirac, is unable to accept that Blair did what he did simply because he felt was right. This wasn't going to be a case of 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'. In that one comment Chirac showed that has less integrity than a flea scratching around in the hairs of Leo Blair's pet hamster.

France, like it or not, is the cultural heart and soul of europe. When France sneezes, Europe gets a cold. If France falls, Europe falls. We can regain, Belgium or Holland, or even live with their temporary loss to the religion of beheadings, but France is a case apart, and we have no politician on the horizon to get us out of this merde.

Posted by: LeftBank at November 17, 2004 1:51 PM

Ever since the Theo van Gogh slaughter in public by a Muslim defending Islam,Canadian media is avoiding any comments that may put them in the same position for murder by slamic militants.
The Muslims at Concordia University used terroristic tactics of a riot to get the faculty
to deny any future speakers from Israel coming on the campus to express an opinion in the auditorium.
Psychological terror used by western Muslims is
their way of getting non-Muslims to practise Islam by proxy,even a Muslim writer that dispalyed a critical view of some Muslims that damage the image of Islam has gotten death threats and installed bullet-proof glass in their home.

NO ISLAM - KNOW A FREE HOLLAND

Posted by: ala-sux at November 17, 2004 2:29 PM

France may be the cultural centre of Europe but culture is not going to win this war. War making capacity will determine the winners as it always has. Here is the war making capacity of the top 20 as of 2003:

Rank Country GDP (billions)
0 World $ 47,000
1 United States $ 10,082
2 China $ 6,000
3 Japan $ 3,550
4 India $ 2,660
5 Germany $ 2,184
6 France $ 1,540
7 United Kingdom $ 1,520
8 Italy $ 1,438
9 Brazil $ 1,340
10 Russia $ 1,270
11 Singapore $ 1,063
12 Korea, South $ 931
13 Canada $ 923
14 Mexico $ 920
15 Spain $ 828
16 Indonesia $ 687
17 Australia $ 528
18 Turkey $ 468
19 Iran $ 456
20 Netherlands $ 434

By this measure France is still very important and we can expect that they would behave as they did in WWII and fully collaborate with their Muslim masters. In the end however, they are destined to be defeated. All wars are wars of attrition. The non-Muslim world is well positioned to withstand the onslaught of jihadi hordes. It will be bloody and noone on the planet will be immune to its effects or suffering. But the non-Muslim world will again, be victorious. The jinn of jihad will be crammed back into its bottle with savage power and the world will need to remain vigilant in generations to come to prevent its escape on the present scale again.

Posted by: Hulegu Khan at November 17, 2004 4:00 PM

The sheer enormity of expense, both in defense against Islamic Jihad and for oil from Muslim states, reveals a very troubling dimension to the conflict between Islam and the West; and the West is losing badly. Oil revenues for producing states have doubled in the past couple of years, as have our costs. Hundreds of billions of dollars more in the great transfer of wealth to Muslim states in just the past couple of years alone. Over a decade, trillions more gone. Meanwhile, not only do our security costs skyrocket, our markets have priced in fear, insecurity, which either slows or snuffs out altogether the potential for economic growth.

Like the inevitable conflict that looms between European 'live and let live' philosophy and Islam, something has to give, sometime, and, I believe, sometime soon.

Posted by: JTF at November 17, 2004 4:37 PM

Taking us back to the article itself.
Bousakla is a parliamentarian for the Sp.A (Socialist Party). I can tell you as a citizen of that banana state that she isnt regarded as the number one critic towards Islam neither is she the sole one being threatened.
Bousakla is precedented by what used to be the Vlaams Blok, which has pointed towards the threats of Islam before most others.
Bousakla herself is not that renown for her stances within the society, except the Islamic society in Belgium. There is something bizarre about this case, she goes into hiding. Politicians like Filip Dewinter, Gerolf Annemans, Frank Van Hecke have received countless threats, they never went underground. Urbain Vermeulen, quite possibly the single professor which criticises Islam in Belgium, to be more exact in Flanders, has been threatened too and he didnt go underground either.
There are rumours that she went underground as a "stunt", she still goes to the Senate and she's under police protection.

The reason for these rumours are political, the socialists and others are trying to place themselves on the scene to reclaim political battlegrounds they've lost from the VB.

One has to remember that the Dhimmis have been trying to destroy its main political opponent : the Vlaams Blok. In order to do that they changed anti-racism laws 6 times and changed the constitution once, and with some dubious evidence & practices they've been able to condemn the party for inciting hate and discrimination towards immigrants and other races/populations.
It complied to the court's ruling. They've disbanded the party and reformed another political party / organisation : Vlaams Belang, using the 2004 political program.
The Dhimmis won a phyrric battle but not their "war".

Since then the other parties and the biased media have been trying to restigmatise them and by making statements on traditionally Vlaams Blok themes using more aggravated language then they're used too.
It surely is a well timed threat, as they'll be able to play it out as : "see, we're not racists and we dont fulmigate hate towards Muslims, but we're aware there are problems and we'll intervene." "The VB are racists, hell a court condemned them, vote for us, we've always known it better."

This comes from the party who has the most gains out of 'Islamic' votes in Flanders, besides her Walloon sister party (PS). A Party who has always been downplaying the threat from Islamic radicalism, who has basically opened the gates for Radical Islamics to come in, the same party who's members mainly support the Palestinian cause, the ones who shouted the hardest against the War in Iraq. The Party who continues to enforce their Multicultural society. Isnt it very convenient that one of their politicians spoke out knowing she'd get threats suddenly decided to go underground after a phone call, which she hasnt done before.
The media make the link with Van Gogh. Van Gogh was anti-Multiculturalism, he opposed Islam, he opposed Immigration, Bousakla doesnt oppose Immigration nor multiculturalism, she criticises Islam but doesnt really oppose Islam.

What makes her such an important and more likely target ?
Because she's female and of Moroccan descent ?
How come other European politicians that have been threatened or a person like Urbain Vermeulen hasnt gone underground yet ? Perhaps they dont need media attention to regain some grounds.

Posted by: Briggs at November 17, 2004 5:08 PM

I do have one additional thing to add.

She said the Moslim executive didnt condemn the Van Gogh murder strong enough, and that more Flemish ppl should be in the executive. Its mostly filled with French talking ppl, which undermines its 'credibility' according to Bousakla.
Although the executive never has had any credibility.

Posted by: Briggs at November 17, 2004 6:13 PM

thanks, briggs. always nice to get the inside scoop

Posted by: ted at November 18, 2004 12:57 AM