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Islam in the West

1. Western Muslims are the most liberal, tolerant, pro-democracy Muslims in the world. All the dissidents are here - the religious dissidents, the political dissidents, the feminist dissidents, and the gay dissidents. All the dissident works - such as criticism of Islam and Islamism - are published in the West.

2. There is an argument that if there is ever to be an Islamic Reformation, it will come from the western Muslims, who are free to speak and question, rather than from the Muslims living in unfree states.

But there is a substantial minority (10-20 percent) of immigrants who threaten our western freedoms. What to do about these aggressors is one of the questions of our time.

Muslim immigration

My instinct is totally pro-immigration, for many reasons:

1. I believe human rights and western freedoms are universal, and all races can participate.
2. Around the world, millions of people who live in tyrannies long for freedom and democracy. We have a duty to give pro-democracy activists, anti-communist dissidents, anti-Islamist dissidents and western freedom-lovers a haven. The west is the natural place for them to set up their opposition parties, newspapers, websites and governments-in-exile, which we should support.
3. We have a duty to give a haven to people fleeing genocide and persecution.
4. I believe free movement of people, like free trade, is good for the economy. Skilled people move where the work is. Attempts to stop this are like protectionism, and restrict the economy.
5. I despise anti-immigration movements that are based on ethnic purity. Some of the paleo-conservatives seem to be in or near this territory. I think the desire for ethnic purity is one of the single worst ideas in human history. My country, the Republic of Ireland, is far too ethnically pure already, having lost most of its ancient Protestant and Anglo-Irish population. In general, ethnic purity is a sign of failure. Immigration is a sign of success.

Having said all that, there is one troubling issue:

1. How about letting in people who hate you and threaten you? To oppose immigration per se (or be against all immigrants once they are in) seems racist to me. But the western left ignores the fact that immigrants may hate western freedoms, and want to end them, and force their primitive, barbarous ideas on me. Obviously, not all immigrants have been threatening like this, so we must be careful to focus on the ones who have issued such threats. At the moment this category consists almost entirely of Islamists who openly want to destroy our freedom and some day set up sharia law in Europe.

My response to the existence of such appalling people is as follows:

1. Let in freedom-lovers, exclude freedom-haters. - Yes, I agree that people who hate western freedoms should not be allowed in. Islamist activists should not be let in, even if they are being persecuted. West-haters can be hard to identify on arrival, though. You need to be careful that your rules and checks do not exclude democracy-loving Muslims who are fleeing Islamist religious states. These are exactly the people you want to let in.
   • omdurman.org
     • Islam v. Islamism makes the same point, about how many Muslims and ex-Muslims in the West are our allies: "Remember that most Muslims who emigrated to the United States did so to get away from "cultures" and "societies" (I use the terms very loosely) like the ones that are described below, much as Judeo-Christian immigrants came here to get away from European monarchies, religious despotisms, and feudal lords."

   
   

2. Deport freedom-haters. - Inevitably, you will let in some freedom-haters by accident. If they are serious, they will eventually do something, at which point they can be identified. Then you have the problem of: Can they be deported? After all, native born people are allowed hate the west. Are we making immigrants second-class citizens, with less freedom of speech than natives? It's certainly a difficult issue. I think they can be deported, on the grounds that letting them in was clearly an error at the time. So I think, yes, an immigrant can be a second-class citizen in this sense for n years, until they have proved they are not an enemy of the country. This is not a restriction that will bother any immigrant who does not actually hate the west.

   Native born people cannot be deported, even if they hate the west and its freedoms. They must be first-class citizens. In a free society, we tolerate citizens who hate tolerance and want to end it. We have free speech for people who want to end free speech, such as fascists, communists and Islamists. But the point is: We can be relaxed about this when they are powerless cranks. But what if there is a growing number of such people who want to end freedom? My response would be that we should still have free speech, but a free society has every right to try to survive. It must do everything possible to reduce the numbers of such people, and not let any more in.

   • Germans to put Muslims through loyalty test - The German state of Baden-Wurttemberg is to test whether incoming Muslims believe in western values of religious freedom and a tolerant society. If not, they are denied citizenship. Even better, if you answer the test correctly, but it is found out later that you do not really believe in western values, you can have your citizenship removed. Those who support 9/11 will be denied citizenship. This is the future. This is what all of Europe should do. If immigrants do not believe in western values of tolerance and freedom, they should not be let in to Europe.
   • Plain-talking quotes from Australian leaders: "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you."

Is there really any threat to our liberties?

• Sharia law in the West

• Women's rights in Islamic communities

• Forced marriages in Islam (and here)
• Wife-beating in Islam
• Honour killings
• UK survey claims that women married to men of Muslim background are 8 times more likely to be killed by their husbands than other women. Is this true? If you have evidence to the contrary, tell me here.

• Bruce Bawer
  • website
  • blog
  • The book While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within
  • Tolerating Intolerance: The Challenge of Fundamentalist Islam in Western Europe, Bruce Bawer, Mar 2002. - Could unassimilated immigrants really threaten the freedoms we fought for for hundreds of years? I don't know. It seems a possibility.
  • A problem with Muslim enclaves, June 30, 2003.

• Theodore Dalrymple
  • The Conflict at Home - Immigrants in the west are denied education and forced into marriage - and the western left doesn't care.
  • When Islam Breaks Down, Spring 2004 - "Here, for once, are instances of unadulterated female victimhood, yet the silence of the feminists is deafening. Where two pieties - feminism and multiculturalism - come into conflict, the only way of preserving both is .. silence."

• Islam in France
  • A gay-hating Muslim attempted to assassinate Bertrand Delanoë, the gay Mayor of Paris, in 2002.
  • Ni Putes Ni Soumises ("Neither Whores Nor Submissive"), a movement against the oppression of women by Islamists in Muslim ghettos in France.

Apologists for rape

• Australian Islamofascist Feiz Mohammad
  • "Every minute in the world a woman is raped, and she has no one to blame but herself, for she has displayed her beauty to the whole world. Strapless, backless, sleeveless - they are nothing but satanical. Mini-skirts, tight jeans - all this to tease men and to appeal to (their) carnal nature." - Feiz Muhammad, 2005.
  • "Jews are pigs that will be killed at the end of the world" - Feiz Muhammad.

• Australian Islamofascist Taj El-Din Hilaly
  • Australia's most senior Muslim cleric blames women for rape (because of their immodest dress), 2006.
  • See transcript (and here): "In his literature, writer al-Rafee says, if I came across a rape crime, I would discipline the man and order that the woman be jailed for life. Why would you do this, Rafee? He said because if she had not left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn't have snatched it. ... If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park, or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, then whose fault will it be, the cats, or the uncovered meat's? The uncovered meat is the disaster. If the meat was covered the cats wouldn't roam around it. If the meat is inside the fridge, they won't get it. If the woman is in her boudoir, in her house and if she's wearing the veil and if she shows modesty, disasters don't happen."
  • A 23-year-old Syrian-born immigrant to New Zealand defends the cleric: "The argument that men should control themselves is ludicrous. It is just like saying thieves should not rob houses whose doors and windows are left wide open." I would deport this young man without hesitation. Such an immigrant should not be allowed into any western country. Letting him in was clearly a mistake.
  • I would deport the cleric too. Letting him in was also clearly a mistake. If you don't believe in western values, you shouldn't be allowed in.
  • More quotes from this prick: "The Jews' struggle with humanity is as old as history itself". "September 11 is God's work against oppressors." The Holocaust is a "Zionist lie".
  • Laugh at the Islamofascist preacher with the "Mufti Muzzler":

• Why do feminists support disgusting, rape-defending men like this, instead of supporting their enemies?

Pessimism

Tragically, it seems that the second London bombing attack was by refugees, on the country that took them in. They came to Britain as child refugees from war-torn Africa. And they repaid British generosity by trying to slaughter its people.

I have no answer for this. If the war against the jihad escalates, we may have to stop all Muslim immigration, including those fleeing persecution. I hope to god it never comes to this awful scenario.

• Tony Blankley, author of "The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations?", 2005
  • Part 1 - "An Islamist threat like the Nazis" - Could Europe fall?
  • Part 2 - Needed: Old war spirit in a new war
  • Part 3 - At war with an enemy of an unspoken name - As I have said elsewhere, the "War on Terror" is a stupid name. The US must declare a War on Islamism. It is a war everyone in the world should support.

"Moderate" Muslims in the west

At the same time, many Muslim leaders promoted by the media as "moderate" Muslims turn out to be anything but. Sometimes, hate-filled extremist jihadis, such as Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, are simply described as "moderate". More often, "moderates" turn out to be religious ultra-conservatives who have crackpot views on Israel and America, and who seem incapable of condemning Islamism. Certainly, nobody who believes in Islamic law, or subscribes in any way to Islamism, could possibly be described as a "moderate". Nobody who supports attacks on Israeli civilians could possibly be described as a "moderate". Any time I hear the left describe some Muslim, such as Tariq Ramadan, as a "moderate", I now assume they are lying.

And finally, it is also true that 10-20 percent of western Muslims do support the global jihad.

• "Moderate" Muslims in the world

• Identifying Moderate Muslims by Daniel Pipes

• Survey of Moroccan youth in the Netherlands, 2006
  1. 40 percent reject democracy and western values.
  2. The majority think criticism of Islam should be illegal.

Supposed "moderate" Muslims

• Tariq Ramadan
  • Daniel Pipes
  • Melanie Phillips
  • David Thompson
  • Counterterrorism Blog

• Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the extremist American Islamist group.
  • Criticism of CAIR
  • CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment by Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha
  • "How Dare You Defame Islam" by Daniel Pipes - CAIR's attempts to shut down all free speech about Islam and Islamism in America.
  • Anti-CAIR
  • CAIR Watch
  • The ADL on CAIR
  • FrontPage articles

• Nada Roude, of the NSW Islamic Council, Australia shows the lack of understanding of the West by many Muslim leaders, even those that have lived here for years.
  • Nada Roude is a conservative religious Muslim from Lebanon, who moved to Australia in childhood.
  • She says that criticism of the alleged prophet Muhammed is a "no-go zone". About her religion's alleged "prophets", she says: "They are not just like you and me, they have special status - you're supposed to show respect. There have to be boundaries in how far you go in respecting other's beliefs."
  • If this is what she thinks, then she does not belong in the West. She does not understand our civilization, and maybe, rather than trying to end our ancient, hard-won freedoms, she should instead move somewhere more suitable for her primitive beliefs about free speech and the place of religion in society. It's illegal to criticise alleged prophets in much of the Middle East, for example.

Actually moderate Muslims

• American Islamic Forum for Democracy - supporting the fight against CAIR.

• Muslims against Islamofascism

• Pro-Israel Arabs and Muslims

• Muslim freethinkers

• Democratic Muslims, Denmark, founded by the Syrian Naser Khader.
  • Profile: "My modest hopes are to create the determining factors needed to create a reformation and enlightenment for Islam. That may sound ambitious. But the people who are needed to create the conditions needed for that are us - the Moslems of the West. My ambitions are - apart from making integration less painful - to show that Islam and democracy can be made to be compatible. If the Moslems of the West can not reform Islam, nobody can."
  • Far from being the doom of the West, the Muslims of the West may be the ones who reform the Islamic world.

  • DM member Kamran Tahmasebi:
    • "It is an irony that I am today living in a European democratic state and have to fight the same religious fanatics that I fled from in Iran many years ago"
    • "as a parent I feel a responsibility to fight, so that my children will not have to live under Islamist dogmas. They shall be able to live free in this country."
    • "Mr Tahmasebi adds that he believes the imams are one of the biggest problems Denmark is facing today."
    • "Indeed, there are indications that the main culprits for the integration problems are the imams, who tend to be much more extremist than many of the ordinary Muslims."

• The Muhammed cartoons riots
  • Since Danish imams toured the Middle East with three fake Mohammed cartoons (see bottom of page) to try to incite hatred and violence against Denmark, Denmark is finally waking up: "I believe it has become obvious that the imams are not the people we should be listening to if we want integration in Denmark to work", says the Danish Integration Minister. Hurray!
  • The Akkari-Laban dossier

Survey of American Muslims

5. Did Muslims hijack planes and fly them into buildings on 9/11? YES 117 NO 139 UNDECIDED 51 6. Did the U.S. government have advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and allow the attacks to occur? YES 200 NO 70 UNDECIDED 37 7. Did the U.S. government organize the 9/11 attacks? YES 106 NO 151 UNDECIDED 50 8. Are the tapes of Osama Bin Laden, claiming responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and threatening future attacks, real or fake? REAL 126 FAKE 129 UNDECIDED 52 9. Did Muslims commit the July 2005 train and bus bombings in London? YES 140 NO 104 UNDECIDED 63

15. Is it justifiable for the U.S. government to do any of the following in an attempt to prevent terrorist attacks in America: a. taking religion and ethnicity into account as one factor when deciding whom to interview and search at airports? YES 37 NO 258 UNDECIDED 12 b. monitoring activities at American mosques? YES 43 NO 255 UNDECIDED 9 c. listening to phone calls of people in America whom the government claims are connected in some way with Al Qaeda? YES 64 NO 232 UNDECIDED 11 d. having an informer pretend to support or encourage violence against America, to see if the targeted Muslims will decide to attack American targets? YES 35 NO 258 UNDECIDED 14 e. monitoring Muslim charities in America, in the hopes of preventing funding for possible terrorist attacks? YES 52 NO 242 UNDECIDED 13

Just as the Irish in Britain were of little use against the IRA, and just as the "good Germans" were of little use in WW2, so western Muslims will be of little use in this war. They don't like the jihad, but will make no attempt to fight it, and have only criticism for those who do.

10 percent of western Muslims will help fight this war. 10 percent will fight for the enemy. 80 percent will sit on the fence, and then, when the war is over, will be perfectly happy with the allied victory.

• The only possible defence that could be made is that ISNA is more radical than most western Muslims.
  • FrontPage articles on ISNA
  • danielpipes.org articles on ISNA

• Survey of US Muslims, May 2007
  • Only 40 percent of US Muslims say Arabs did 9/11.
  • 13 percent of US Muslims say suicide bombing of civilians can be justified.
  • 5 percent of US Muslims have favourable views of Al Qaeda.

• The above references a May 2006 study which found that:
  • Only 17 percent of British Muslims say Arabs did 9/11.
  • Only 16 percent of Turkish Muslims say Arabs did 9/11.
  • Only 15 percent of Pakistani Muslims say Arabs did 9/11.
  • 35 percent of French Muslims say suicide bombing of civilians can be justified.
  • 25 percent of Spanish Muslims say suicide bombing of civilians can be justified.
  • 24 percent of British Muslims say suicide bombing of civilians can be justified.
  • 69 percent of Nigerian Muslims say suicide bombing of civilians can be justified.
  • 57 percent of Jordanian Muslims say suicide bombing of civilians can be justified.
  • 53 percent of Egyptian Muslims say suicide bombing of civilians can be justified.

• Opinion Polls in the Islamic world

• Midwest Lutherans Largely Reject Violence, May 23, 2007 - Parody of our reaction to these polls. We expect moderate levels of support for violence and terror from the Muslim community, whereas this would be unthinkable in any other religious group.
  • "By an almost two-to-one margin, Midwest Lutherans voiced solid opposition to decapitation, suicide bombing, and chemical warfare in a new comprehensive survey of their social attitudes. ... "If there is one headline here, it's how remarkably moderate the Lutheran community is," said Pew director Andrew Kohut of the survey ... Kohut pointed to one of the study's key findings that only 29% of all respondents agreed that "bloody, random violence against infidels" was "always" or "frequently" justified, versus 56% who said such violence was "seldom" or "never" justified. The approval of violence rose slightly among younger Lutherans and when the hypothetical violence was targeted against Presbyterians, but still fell well short of a majority."
  • "Although a majority 87% of respondents agreed that "The world should be brought to submission under global Lutheran conquest and eternal perfect rule," there was a great deal of disagreement on the means to accomplish it. ... "Taken as a whole, the results show that Midwest Lutherans emphatically support a moderate, mainstream path to world domination," said Kohut. "These folks are well-assimilated into the broad fabric of American society, and unless you are Presbyterian, there is probably very little here to cause concern.""

Islam in the UK (separate page)

Islam in Ireland (separate page)

Sharia law in the West

• Sharia law in the UK

• France
  • Robert Redeker directly criticised Mohammed, the Koran and the Islamic religion in 2006. Death threats from violent Islamic fascists drove him and his wife and children from their home.
    • What should the free world do while facing Islamist intimidation? (also here), Robert Redeker's article that sparked the death threats from Islamists.
    • In theory, we have the freedom to criticise Islam in the West. In practice, we know we don't. Someday, hopefully in my lifetime, we will have the freedom to criticise Islam without fear - as we can Christianity.

  • Michel Houellebecq was prosecuted in 2002 for criticising Islam.
    • When speaking out isn't allowed by Diana West - "What we have here in Paris is a little wave of sharia law lapping at Western justice."
    • Gagged in Paris by Salman Rushdie - about attempts to make criticism of Islam illegal in France.
  • The Islamic underclass in France by Theodore Dalrymple

• Italy
  • The prosecution of Oriana Fallaci for criticising Islam - the start of sharia law in Italy.
    • orianafallacitrial.org
    • Robert Spencer goes through the 18 complaints brought against Oriana Fallaci by a radical Islamist. It is outrageous that any of these were even entertained.
    • Fallaci Beheaded by Robert Spencer, February 13, 2006 - Leftists in Italy depict Fallaci beheaded by their jihadi heroes. "Veneziano's painting is doubly offensive, however, in light of the fact that Fallaci herself has been driven out of Italy by frivolous charges that she has "defamed Islam." Giuseppe Veneziano is not on trial for depicting Fallaci decapitated, but Fallaci faces trial for making a series of heated but largely true statements about Islam and Muslims."
    • Fallaci died before the Islamists and their left-wing appeasers could try her.

• Sweden
  • The Sweden Democrats website affair:
    • The Swedish government got the hoster of one of the websites of the Sweden Democrats to delete the website in 2006 for displaying the Muhammed cartoons. "I will defend freedom of the press no matter what the circumstances .." said the hypocrite Minister for Foreign Affairs, Laila Freivalds, as she got the website shut down. She later had to resign for this, and the site went back up.
    • What are the Sweden Democrats? All my initial searches could yield was that the Sweden Democrats seemed to be an unpleasant xenophobic, anti-immigrant group. (Whereas I am not anti-immigrant, only anti-non-democrat.) But there is a lot more about them online in English now (also here), showing a clear anti-semitic and neo-Nazi past. They sound like the BNP. Having said that, the Swedish government's actions are still outrageous.
    • There are claims that the website was shut down not because of the original (Danish) cartoons, but because of an extra cartoon. The extra cartoon can be seen here and here. It is very mild. Such speech must be legal, just as criticism and parodies of Christianity are.

• Australia
  • The Catch the Fire Ministries case - The prosecution (and conviction) of Christians for criticising Islam - the start of sharia law in Australia.
    • It is true that Catch the Fire Ministries are Christian extremists with whom I have little in common - see their comment on "Satan's strongholds". But they were not prosecuted solely for comments like this. They were prosecuted for normal criticism of Islam. Many of the things they were prosecuted for saying are simply true.
    • Melanie Phillips
    • Dhimmi Watch
    • The Barnabas Fund
    • Muslim bigots impose blasphemy laws on Victoria - Gerard Jackson deliberately blasphemes against Islam to test the new law.
    • Good news: The Catch the Fire conviction is overturned on appeal, Dec 2006.
    • Andrew Bolt urges the end of this obnoxious and disgusting law: "The pastors were found guilty of vilifying Muslims even though the judge identified only one thing Scot had said that was factually wrong: he'd given the wrong birthrate for Muslims here."

  • The children's thriller The Army of the Pure, by the Australian author John Dale, deserves widespread publicity because it is the target of censorship. His publisher dropped it after booksellers and librarians said they would not stock it because the bad guys were Islamist terrorists.
    • The outrageous plot involved Afghan jihadis plotting to blow up the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney.
    • In 2005, 17 Australian and foreign Muslims were arrested and charged with plotting to blow up the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney. As Western Resistance says: "Such is the state of the Western world. While real Muslims plot real attacks upon Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in the real world, a fictional tale involving how children might react if they knew something of a terror plot is banned."

Canada

• The Ezra Levant case, Jan 2008 onwards
  • Introduction to the case.
  • The obnoxious, self-appointed, Islamic "Supreme" Council of Canada are "offended" (or something) by something Ezra Levant published.
  • Bizarrely, the Orwellian bureaucrat Shirlene McGovern and the Alberta "Human Rights" Commission have demanded that Ezra Levant explain himself to them and to the offended Islamist radical Syed Soharwardy, who advocates sharia law.
  • ezralevant.com has posted the videos of his interrogation by Shirlene McGovern.
  • Mark Steyn: "at the end of this exchange, Agent McGovern, licensed to chill, looked blandly across the table and shrugged: "You're entitled to your opinions, that's for sure." No, sorry. That cliché is no longer operative in Canada. Today you're only entitled to your opinions if Agent McGovern says you are - "for sure." Ezra Levant was of the opinion that he should publish the Danish cartoons. That opinion is now on trial."
  • Muslims Against Sharia supports Ezra Levant. They say: "HRC legitimizes radicals' claims that Islam cannot be criticized".

• Government censor Shirlene McGovern:
  • Shirlene McGovern's notes during her interrogation of Ezra Levant (parody). "DAMAGES SOUGHT: Retraction, formal public apology, two goats, $4,500, conversion to Islam, beheading."
  • Shirlene McGovern complained about the publicity she is receiving. Tough shit. Trample on people's fundamental rights. You should expect to receive lots of publicity. "you'd think someone who regularly interrogates citizens about their private political views would be comfortable with the concept of public scrutiny".
  • Feb 2008: It looks like the case may be collapsing, and Ezra Levant may even be able to sue Syed Soharwardy, Shirlene McGovern and the Alberta "Human Rights" Commission for damages. Hurray! Let's hope they all lose their jobs. Let's hope Ezra Levant gets costs with damages. Syed Soharwardy and his mosque should be forced to pay them.
  • Shirlene McGovern has asked to resign from the case. "The human rights commission advised my lawyer that McGovern quit because of the public backlash against the commission - and against her in particular. In other words, she didn't like being called a censor in the blogosphere. I'm not sympathetic. I believe that any government bureaucrat who makes a living interrogating citizens about their political beliefs ought to be held in public contempt. McGovern truly doesn't get it - she thinks what she does for a living is perfectly bland, just like her."
  • Shirlene McGovern is the public face of sharia law in the West. She threatens all of our freedoms, all across the West. Did she really think people wouldn't hate her for that? If you're going to threaten people's human rights, you should have the guts to stand up to the abuse you will get.

Defend the great Mark Steyn
against the offensive lawsuit of the obnoxious, speech-stifling Canadian Islamic Congress.
Stop sharia law in Canada!

Canadian Human Rights Commission drops complaint against Mark Steyn and Maclean's!

Holland

• Pim Fortuyn (and search), critic of Islam, murdered 2002 by a pro-Islam leftist for, among other things, his criticism of Islam.

• Theo van Gogh (and search), critic of Islam, murdered 2004 by a young Islamic fascist.
  • See reactions here and here and here.
  • Van Gogh was killed for making the film Submission with Ayaan Hirsi Ali about Islamic violence against women. Western feminists don't care.
  • The silence of the left - "Do they care someone was killed for making a film which protested violent abuse against women? Are they even interested?"
  • Death of a "Blasphemer" by Robert Spencer

  • The evil jihadi killer Mohammed Bouyeri - grew up in one of the world's freest and most tolerant societies, won after hundreds of years of struggle, yet rejected it and turned to medieval hatred and religious fascism. Unfortunately, instead of leaving and going to some tyrannical hellhole where he would be happy, he stuck around Holland and tried to attack it.
  • In future, could people like these please leave? The world is a big place, and there are lots of medieval hellholes where you could be happy.

• Total victory for the killers of Theo van Gogh. What the jihad couldn't achieve, the left helped them with:
  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali forced to flee (to US) from Holland by Islamists and leftists for criticising Islam, 2006. (*)
  • (*) Yes, she was basically driven out because of her ideas and her unpopularity, i.e. for criticising Islam. Would the government have stripped the citizenship of any other refugee (who had been in Holland since 1992!) for such trifling irregularities in the immigration process? Why her?
  • There was uproar about this in Holland. The Dutch government fell over the issue. The Minister for Immigration Rita Verdonk lost her job (though she re-gained it when a new cabinet was formed). Hirsi Ali was in the end allowed stay (but is leaving anyway for somewhere safer).

• US not so safe after all: Hirsi Ali going back to Holland in dispute over who pays for her security.
  • Both the US and Dutch governments should pay. Apart from anything else, Hirsi Ali is an important figure in the struggle of the US and Holland against their domestic and foreign enemies. Hirsi Ali is part of the war effort. Protecting people like Hirsi Ali is exactly the kind of thing that the US and Dutch security budget should be spent on.
  • Christopher Hitchens, Oct. 8, 2007: "If a prominent elected politician of a Western country can be left undefended against highly credible threats from Islamist death squads, what price all of our easy babble about not "appeasing terrorists"? ... does the "war on terror" administration take no interest in protecting the life of one of the finest enemies, and one of the most prominent targets, of the terrorists?"
  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali: abandoned to fanatics, by Sam Harris and Salman Rushdie, October 9, 2007: "Hirsi Ali may be the first refugee from Western Europe since the Holocaust. ... It is difficult to exaggerate her courage. As Christopher Caldwell wrote in the New York Times, 'Voltaire did not risk, with his every utterance, making a billion enemies who recognized his face and could, via the Internet, share information instantaneously with people who aspired to assassinate him.' ... There is not a person alive more deserving of the freedoms of speech and conscience we take for granted in the West, nor is there anyone making a more courageous effort to defend them."

• Iranian born artist Sooreh Hera has made images of Muhammed as a homosexual in Holland, Dec 2007. Incredible bravery.
  • After death threats, she goes into hiding and the Dutch museum removes the exhibit. Terrorism works.
  • Sooreh Hera understands the Enlightenment: "Works of art can be provocative. It is not an artist's job just to paint flowers. Art should shine a light on social issues." So does Wouter Bos, the deputy prime minister: "In a democracy, we do not recognise the right not to be insulted." Sooreh Hera says she has "no regrets". "I do it for them, for the boys and girls with no freedom in Iran."

Islamophobia (separate page)

Optimism

I think Islamic fundamentalism is far more under threat than western ideas are. Which is not to say that Islamic fundamentalists won't cause a lot more death before they exit history. But exit they will, just as the entire, bloodthirsty Christian medieval world is gone. Just as the entire Soviet world is gone. Democracy is unstoppable.

• Optimism in the War on Islamic Fascism

• Optimism on the future of Islam

• Al Qaeda understand - article on the book, "The Future of Iraq and The Arabian Peninsula After The Fall of Baghdad" by Yussuf al-Ayyeri of Al Qaeda. He writes that their mortal enemy is not America, or the Jews. It is secular democracy. Secular democracy will destroy their world.
  • He does not pretend to love human freedom or human rights. He says he hates them. He writes as if he was invented by American hawks to prove their point. But he is just being honest. - "If democracy comes to Iraq, the next target .. would be the whole of the Muslim world", he writes.
  • Odd that the dark forces of Al Qaeda understand exactly what their enemy is trying to do, while their idiot sympathisers in the west don't.

The Forward Strategy of Freedom:

"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe - because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment, and violence ready for export. And with the spread of weapons that can bring catastrophic harm to our country and to our friends, it would be reckless to accept the status quo.

Therefore, the United States has adopted a new policy, a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East. This strategy requires the same persistence and energy and idealism we have shown before. And it will yield the same results. As in Europe, as in Asia, as in every region of the world, the advance of freedom leads to peace. The advance of freedom is the calling of our time"

President George W. Bush, Nov 2003.
Bush understands the "root cause" of 9/11 - the lack of freedom in the Middle East.

• This is why I support George W. Bush - because he believes in bringing freedom to the whole world, at a time when the left has abandoned that dream (and even opposes it). As Oliver Kamm puts it, Bush is a classic 18th century liberal. He is what modern liberals should be: "George W. Bush .. is .. the principal heir to a progressive tradition that regards political liberty as universal and that considers the first task of foreign policy to be to spread it rather than overlook its absence. He is accordingly a theorist, spokesman and figurehead for the ideals of the liberal Left; he merits the gratitude of those of us who would adhere to them."
• Globalizing Democracy by Stephen Schwartz - "President Bush has restored to the Republican party its rightful legacy as a party of liberation"

• Just like Reagan's wonderful "Evil Empire" speech, Bush's words bring hope to millions in the unfree world. An Iraqi blogger responds to the speech - "Many people ask whether we have heard the President's speach. Yes we have. Immediately the Chorus of AlJazeera, Al Arabiya, etc. and amazingly, CNN, BBC etc, started their spoiling, doubt-semming, bitchy insinuations ... Pretending to be objective, pretending to be "balanced", they try their best to kill the joy that the shining reassuring words bring to our frightened hearts."

• Bush describes the glorious collapse of the Soviet tyranny, and the spread of democracy over the last 20 years: "As the 20th century ended, there were around 120 democracies in the world". And he blasts us with optimism: "and I can assure you more are on the way."