I think these are excellent comments, but I would be more impressed if one of these European leaders spoke to a Muslim group about the reprehensibility of anti-semitism. Preaching to the faithful is a bit too easy.

Posted by: Howard, Fine & Howard at November 3, 2005 8:44 AM

The Dutch PM is correct. Multiculturalism requires some shared values, and the shared value
in question, some variant of reciprocity, the
Golden Rule, is simply not shared by mohammadans.
One can't tolerate the intolerant.

As Howard writes, tell it to the mohammadans. Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, and
everyone else seem for the most part to get along without violence.

Posted by: American at November 3, 2005 8:54 AM

I just saw the following article on Expatica.
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=24&story_id=24997&name=Dewinter%3A+Flemish+Interest+is+Islam+phobic

It is not directly on point but I found it very interesting. Don't be put off by the headline. Read the text of the article.

Posted by: Howard, Fine & Howard at November 3, 2005 9:07 AM

For the greater part of the last century,The tiny populations of Jewish people have been made the scapegoat; and the whipping boys for dictators, and demogogues from the former Soviet Union to Nazi Germany of which the choice was influenced by Islam in both cases.

And yet the Jewish People have done nothing to deserve the incriminations that have so falsely been laid upon them.

http://www.aish.com/seminars/whythejews/wtj01000.htm

Posted by: Mackie at November 3, 2005 9:12 AM

Don't be fooled, Balkenende is a spineless dhimmi.
He will never say this to the muslims in his country, and will not go beyond wishing them 'Happy Ramadan' on national tv.

Posted by: Kim Hartveld at November 3, 2005 9:42 AM

Quran o:u812 From the west will come three jews known as stooges. They will slappeth thy face, pulleth thy hair and poketh thine eyes. Cutteth their throats and all praise to Allah the all wise.

Curly, Larry & Moe

Posted by: KingTesticle at November 3, 2005 10:17 AM

King,

And the Lord said unto Abraham, "Thy descendents shall settle near the Islands of Coney and Long, and shall help create a great nation. And they shall speak thusly, Moe, Larry, the Cheese."

And Abraham said unto the Lord, "Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk, Oh Lord. For thou hast placed the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea. And this fish looks like Moe."

Posted by: Howard, Fine & Howard at November 3, 2005 11:29 AM

So long as Prime Minister Balkenende is denouncing antisemitism, perhaps he can reconcile Holland's policy of Moslem integration with the fact that antisemitism is the very basis of this fake religion called Submission (translated from the Arabic word Islam).

PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH

Humiliation and wretchedness were stamped on the Jews and they were visited with Allah’s wrath.
-- Koran 2:61

We sent a plague upon the Jews from heaven, for their evil-doing.
-- Koran 2:59

Some Muslims remained friends with the Jews, so Allah sent down a Qur’an forbidding them to take Jews as friends. From their mouths hatred has already shown itself and what they conceal is worse.
-- Ishaq:262

The Jews are a nation of liars.... The Jews are a treacherous, lying, and evil people (said Mohammed).
-- Ishaq:240

PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH

So it stands, then, that to bring themselves up to snuff Ducth Moslems must take these corrective actions:

1) Renounce Allah

2) Renounce Mohammed

3) Redact the Koran to remove all antisemitic verses and also all other hate-mongering verses.

4) Redact the various books of the Sunnah to remove all antisemitic remarks and also all other remarks that monger hate.

Then we'll see how well these Moslems clean up.

Posted by: Chaz MarteL 732 at November 3, 2005 11:31 AM

While it would be great if he spoke directly to the Muslim community, it's long been a habit of politicians to speak "at" one group but "to" another. Hey, it's something. Not enough but everything starts somewhere.

American;

Exactly.

All cooperation among people, from deciding where your neighbors fence should go, to settling a strike, up to negotiating international agreements, can only be successful if all parties "come to the table" in good faith. If one side sees good faith as a sign of weakness, cooperation is doomed and is replaced by coercion or worse.

Once the lack of good faith is apparent you must accept reality. Cut your losses, gird your loins, make the hard decisions, and have the discipline to live with the consequences.

Posted by: t-ham at November 3, 2005 11:45 AM

Mackie:

Terrific link you posted above!

Jim Bittermann from CNN reports from Paris while I'm typing this:

'Some speculate whether these youth's have been manipulated by some kind of violent Islamic ideologies...'

This whole thing is so sick it makes your stomach rumble, and they are still "speculating"...

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at November 3, 2005 4:11 PM

"Some speculate whether these youth's have been manipulated by some kind of violent Islamic ideologies..."
- a quote from a television correspondent,Jim Bitterman, in Paris

That's the level of analysis on the Nightly News -- on any of the nightly newses: "Some kind of violent Islamic ideologies." What kind would those be? What would their texts be, and how would those texts differ from the standard Qur'an, Hadith, and life of Muhammad? In what way would these "violent Islamic ideologies" differ from Islam itself, whenever Muslims have not been thoroughly in control of submissive dhimmis, and unable to mask any longer their hatred and aggression?

And why would "some kind of violent Islamic ideologies" even need the specific passages in the Qur'an or stories in the Hadith when the world of Islam, the social world of Muslim familiies, naturally gives rise to attitudes and atmosphericfs that, even without mosque attendance or Qur'an reading, is so thoroughly a part of Muslim life as to come naturally. What would be unnatural, what would be strange, what would require analysis and explanation, would be the few examples of Muslims who do not share these attitudes, do not reflect the atmospherics, at some level, of Islam. There are such people. They are very few, and count so far for very little. And since the canonical texts are not on their side, they can either shut up completely about Islam (think of Azar Nafisi, or Fouad Ajami) if they do not want to engage in apologetics for Islam (and in the end, few can withstand the temptation, not realizing how dangerous it is to Infidel well-being), or they can make the leap to mental freedom, by finally and openly jettisoning Islam altogether, whether for another belief-system, or for none at all, it hardly matters.

Posted by: Hugh at November 3, 2005 6:12 PM

Wilhelmus van Nassouwe
Ben ick van Duytschen bloet,
Den Vaderlant getrouwe
Blyf ick tot in den doot:
Een Prince van Oraengien
Ben ick vrij onverveert,
Den Coninck van Hispaengien
Heb ick altijt gheeert.

In Godes vrees te leven
Heb ick altyt betracht,
Daerom ben ick verdreven
Om Landt om Luyd ghebracht:
Maer God sal mij regeren
Als een goet Instrument,
Dat ick zal wederkeeren
In mijnen Regiment.

Two verses of the Dutch national anthem.

Appreciative Yankee Kepha

Posted by: Kepha at November 3, 2005 9:07 PM

"...or they can make the leap to mental freedom, by finally and openly jettisoning Islam altogether, whether for another belief-system, or for none at all, it hardly matters." Hugh
________________

"Hardly matters" is appropriate within the framework of deliverance from Islam, but ones belief system has eternal consequences. In that regard, I would say that having "none at all" certainly matters.

Posted by: Thumper at November 3, 2005 10:48 PM

Iqbal Sacranie who is supposedly "advising" British PM (God help us) got off scott free from boycotting the Holocaust memorial day and wanted to derail the whole thing. I can't imagine any other so called community leader getting away with such a deliberate act of anti semitism.

Posted by: londongirl at November 6, 2005 7:37 AM