Lipstick on a Pig

Just as monotheism is no guarantor of civility and morality, calling something a "constitution" doesn't mean it bears any resemblance to The U.S. Constitution, which remains a unique -- and objectively superior -- system of governance.

But rather than re-engineer the proposed EU Constitution so that it is more Constitution-like in its substance, the EU may instead try to outwit European voters . . . by renaming it.

The European Union’s stalled constitution could undergo a name change as part of an attempt to rescue it after last year’s rejection by French and Dutch voters, EU ministers said on Sunday.

At a weekend meeting in Vienna, the bloc’s foreign ministers acknowledged it was politically unfeasible to launch moves to save the charter, aimed at speeding European integration, until after French and Dutch general elections, due around next May.

However, Germany won guarded backing for an offer to launch a plan immediately afterwards to begin salvaging key parts of the text – possibly under a new name of a “basic law,” the name of Germany’s own constitution.

“We in Germany live with a Basic Law which does not carry the title ‘constitution’ but has the same legal quality. It’s a possible starting point,” [FM Steinmeier] told reporters.

But repackaged crap is still crap, a concept also lost on Muslim scholars meeting in Amman this week, who will be drafting a model Islamic constitution. Kinda like the Model Codes drafted by the American Bar Association, except it will be based entirely on 7th century theocratic fascism.

A gathering of Islamic thinkers and leaders on Monday pledged to write a model constitution to be adopted by countries wishing to enact Sharia-based laws.

“We have agreed to hold a special conference to draft a democratic Islamic constitution that among other things safeguards women’s rights,” he said.

If it's "shari'a-based," it will safeguard "women's rights" by giving them the legal status of livestock, forcing them to wear gunny sacks, and confining them to their homes.

For the past three days, Islamic scholars and representatives of Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, have been engaged in long discussions centred on the need to introduce democratic civic discourse into Muslim societies.

Syafii Anwar, executive director of International Centre for Islam and Pluralism in Indonesia, argued that Muslim countries should adopt a secular approach to state affairs but insisted that a contextual interpretation of the Koran should be the basis for writing an Islamic constitution.

The basis of Shari'a is that the Koran is the direct, received word of God, thus no man-made law can supersede it. So apparently, what Anwar means by "secular" is enacting a man-made law to reiterate, reaffirm, and reinforce the Koran as the sole source of earthly law.

So much for America's alleged theocracy. Shari'a makes the Christian right look like a pot-smoking, free-loving hippie drum circle.

Cultural Jihad in Germany

Typically quiet, there's been more than usual percolating in Germany this week:

The Pakistani government is investigating the death of Amir Cheema, the Offended Muslim^TM who commited suicide while in German custody, after being arrested for attempting to murder the editor of Die Welt in Berlin. They insist human rights abuses occurred; all that's missing is, um, evidence.

Thankfully, we have enlightened German judges to outlaw human rights abuses -- like the ancient, barbaric practice of searching electronic databases for patterns that could identify more al Qaeda sleepers. Yes, more; that would be in addition to three who lived in Hamburg and died in mysterious plane crashes on 9/11/01.

The German court ruling said general police trawling of electronic records exposed the people concerned to an increased risk of further investigation.

It added that if such measures became publicly known, they could "reinforce prejudices and stigmatise the affected social groups in the perception of the public."

What a relief that the courts have their priorities in order, as we wouldn't want to make the 32,000 Islamic extremists living in Germany feel unwelcome.

The biggest Islamist group is Milli Gorus, a Turkish movement with 26,500 members. Other groups are Hamas with about 300 members, Hezbollah with 900 and the Muslim Brotherhood with 1,300.

"Even though the degree to which Germany is threatened is clearly lower than for those states which took part in the Iraq war, it must be noted that Germany is still seen ... as a helper of the US and Israel," said the report which underlined the presence of German troops in Afghanistan as boosting this image.

Well then, the German government had better get to work placating its terrorist minority with openly anti-American and anti-Israeli policies, because they've done so little in this regard. The Bundestag is surely no help, provoking Offended Muslims^TM with things like, you know, standards, that makes integration an oppressive burden:

Perhaps provoking the already tense relationship between the government and its immigrants, the German parliament is now debating the implementation of citizenship tests. Germany has one of the lowest citizenship application rates in Western Europe and its laws to become a citizen are much stricter than in the United States, for example.

It's clear that German legislators are just bigots, with no appreciation at all for Islamic family values, like wife-beating, forced marriages, and virginity checks.

At the heart of the matter is a complicated dance between Germany’s inability to fully embrace immigrants, many of whom were invited from Turkey to fill labor shortages, and the immigrants' unwillingness to let go of behaviors and traditions that appear brutal to mainstream Western Europeans.

Sheesh. These stuffy, rigid Germans better loosen up!

Aw, Quitcherbitchin

Americans whine too much. Whether it's gas prices, domestic surveillance, illegal immigration, or a "culture of corruption," there is little to complain about in America that isn't considerably worse in Europe.

France, Italy and Germany sanctioned the payment of $45 million in deals to free nine hostages abducted in Iraq, according to documents seen by The Times.

All three governments have publicly denied paying ransom money. But according to the documents, held by security officials in Baghdad who have played a crucial role in hostage negotiations, sums from $2.5 million to $10 million per person have been paid over the past 21 months. Among those said to have received cash ransoms was the gang responsible for seizing British hostages including Kenneth Bigley, the murdered Liverpool engineer.

The list of payments has also been seen by Western diplomats, who are angered at the behaviour of the three governments, arguing that it encourages organised crime gangs to grab more foreign captives.

Europe has it worse in two additional ways: The World Cup and Nazis.

Neo-Nazis reportedly plan to hold a series of rallies during the month-long World Cup, which kicks off in Munich on June 9. One is planned for 10 June in the Ruhr area town of Gelsenkirchen, another for 21 June in the eastern city of Leipzig when Iran and Angola meet.

The magazine Der Spiegel said the neo-Nazis wanted to use the Leipzig rally to demonstrate their sympathy for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been widely condemned by the international community for casting doubt on the Holocaust and denying Israel's right to exist.

. . . The current debate about hostility towards foreigners was triggered by a former spokesman for the German government under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who warned World Cup visitors to avoid parts of the state of Brandenburg because of racial attacks.

"There are small and medium-sized towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere where I would not advise anyone with a different skin colour to go," said Uwe-Karsten Heye. "There is a chance they might not get out alive," Heye said in an an interview with German radio.

Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, has the highest per capita rate of violent neo-Nazi crime in all of Germany's 16 federal states.

It's not clear what the skinheads actually want, seeing as they enjoy beating up Muslims, yet also side with them against Jews and America. Le Pen (France) and Haider (Austria) take a similarly incoherent position. One hopes these idiots will simply get caught in the crossfire, since they don't have the balls to pick a side.

Illegal Immigrants Swamp Al-Andalus

Madrid seeks to stem tide of Muslim African immigrants.

Spain has put the last touches to initiatives, including a strengthened [diplomatic] presence in Africa, to try to stem the swelling tide of immigrants from the continent heading for its shores.

The government's plan was agreed as it was announced that a total of 656 African illegal immigrants had arrived in Spain's Canary Islands in the space of 24 hours.

In Madrid Deputy Prime Minister Maria-Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said after a cabinet meeting she would be going to Brussels next week to discuss the issue with, among others, European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.

She said that "more Europe" had to be one of the weapons in the battle against would-be illegal immigration.

Translation: we need further transfers of sovereignty to inflexible, unaccountable EU institutions, and more power concentrated in the hands of ideological, unelected elites.

Once again, Europe identifies a problem too late, and realizes that moves toward fascism are among the few remaining options to solve it.

And in the case of Spain, a net drag on the EU's coffers, "more Europe" is code for shifting the economic burden to other nations' taxpayers.

The diplomats will seek over a three to six month period to reach deals on the repatriation of illegal immigrants similar to accords already concluded with Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Nigeria.

Illegal immigrants can only be expelled if such agreements exist and above all if their countries of origin can be determined. Otherwise the Spanish authorities have to free them after 40 days with a notice of expulsion that cannot be implemented.

The Canary Islands, Spanish territory and therefore part of the European Union, have been targeted by would-be immigrants since passage became more difficult from Morocco to Europe via the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, the scene last year of violent attempts by would-be immigrants to storm them.

They don't call it "demographic jihad" for nothing.

UPDATE: Same story in Italy.

Boats carrying more than 400 migrants have been intercepted off Lampedusa over the past 48 hours, overwhelming the tiny island south of Sicily, local authorities said.

"In the past 48 hours, around 420 people have been intercepted near the island. On Saturday night alone 213 migrants were picked up from four different vessels and brought onto the island," Marcello Marzocca of the Palermo customs office told AFP Sunday.

Lampedusa's transit centre can accomodate 190 people but it is frequently overwhelmed by mass arrivals. Transfers to centres in Sicily were being organised on Sunday. Lampedusa, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Sicily, is the closest Italian territory to the coasts of Tunisia and Libya.

In 2005, 207 vessels were intercepted off the coast of Italy with nearly 22,000 would-be immigrants on board. In the same year, coast guards and customs officers found the bodies of 70 migrants.

Only in America

Because, for all of Europe's abject weakness, domestic security services would be all over these declared jihadists like flies on dung. UC-Irvine Muslim Student Union declares war on America and Israel.

A witness reports:

What was it like at UCI last night? How about Nuremburg redux.

Virtually the entire crowd, which I estimated at roughly 200, consisted of Islamists, most dressed entirely in stormtrooper black.

For two hours, Malik Ali spouted paranoid nonsense about a Jewish Zionist plot to destroy Sudan, etc., etc., matching a plot by George Bush to hold off economic collapse by spreading civil wars in the muslim world.

And of course, all the Jews would have to go back to Russia, Germany, wherever they came from. And the only solution for America is a caliphate under the rule of the Compact of Omar.

The Pact of Umar is the treaty establishing the dhimmi laws, i.e., Muslim supremacy and degrading, slave-like status for all non-Muslims living among them. The pact dates from 717, but its spirit and often its letter are still alive and well in many Muslim countries.

For example, reports that Iran may soon force non-Muslims to wear colored badges is not borrowed from Hitler. It is more likely that the Nazis borrowed this from the Pact of Umar, which includes distinctively marked clothing as one of many dehumanizing conditions non-Muslims must adhere to in exchange for being allowed to live.

Hatred and a confident, arrogant desire to kill and subjugate the kufar gleamed from every eye. Every few minutes, as the guest made an impressive statement, e.g. "a cheerleader would shout "TAKBEEEEEER" -— to which the crowd would reply, screaming from the gut, in unison, "ALLAHU AKHBAR!"

This was not a cheer. This was a practiced, disciplined, war chant fueled by adrenaline and hatred: “Sieg!” then “Heil!” only angrier, much angrier.

At that moment, I became convinced that a shooting war is coming, here in America. The MSU is an enemy army, allowed into our house by current immigration law, and by admissions policies that favor foreigners over Americans.

They will do it. They are confident, and given time, they just might win - unless they are stopped.

Don't miss the video.

Eutopia Unravels

Some pretty shocking numbers, considering all the nothing that's being done about it:
83% of Germans say Islam is dominated by fanaticism.

Some 91 per cent said they associated Islam with oppression of women, up from 85 per cent in 2004. The statement that Islam was dominated by fanaticism was shared by 83 per cent, compared to 75 per cent two years ago, the poll showed. A total of 71 per cent said Islam was intolerant, up from 66 per cent in 2004.

Asked if there should be a ban on the building of mosques in Germany as long as the building of churches in some Islamic states is forbidden, 56 per cent agreed, said the poll.

There is even considerable backing for ending Germany's constitutional right of freedom of religion with regard to Islam, the poll showed.

But no worries, as the ruling elite won't permit any kind of meaningful self-defense.
Four rapists freed in Berlin.

Four youths suspected of gang-raping a 16-year-old schoolgirl in a Berlin park last week have been released after briefly being detained by police in a move which has fuelled anger in the German capital.

The youths, aged 13 to 15, allegedly attacked their victim as she walked home from school in the Charlottenburg district which is generally seen as safe area with low crime rates.

While allegedly gang-raping the girl, the youths are reported to have filmed the sexual attack with a mobile phone camera. Media reports say the four later boasted about the rape to other school children and sent copies of the video to friends.

"This brutal rape has shocked Germany," said a commentary in Berlin's B.Z. newspaper. Adding to the potential explosiveness of the alleged rape is the fact that the four suspects are all the children of immigrant families, while the victim is German. The normally well-informed Bild tabloid said the suspects were two German-Turks, a German Russian and a German-Angolan.

An increasingly common trend, as European women are viewed as the spoils of war.

Same story next door in The Netherlands: Paradise Lost.

If there's anything in Europe today that's more alarming than the number of European Muslims who hold radically undemocratic views (40 percent of British Muslims would like to see Britain under sharia law), it's the feckless way in which government officials tend to respond to those views. Particularly if they include explosions of public complaints and protests.

More often than not, most officials choose appeasement over standing up for democratic values. The exceptions are rare.

. . . Next week, Ayaan Hirsi Ali plans to move to Washington, D.C. Here in Europe, a continent where the likes of Norway's Mullah Krekar - founder of the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam - are able to live free and undisturbed, it's clear why Hirsi Ali has been the victim of this lightning-fast attempt at denaturalization: By continuing to lift her voice in anger, she stands in the way of an illusory "multicultural harmony."

Islamo-factoid: "Ansar" refers to the residents of Medina who became Muslims joined Muhammad's army after he fled there from Mecca.

So. Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, and Britain have all capitulated to a lesser or greater extent, and now we can add Italy to the list: Jewish cemetery trashed in Milano Monday night; new PM Romano Prodi vows immediate pullout from Iraq.

Note that unlike the parochial dhimmi PM of Al-Andalus, Jose Zapatero, Prodi was until recently the president of the EU Commission, arguably the most powerful position in Europe (and filled by appointment, not elections).

So Much for "Soft Power"

The Eurosnots still refuse to take Ahmadinejad seriously, so he (correctly) interprets what they call "a package of incentives" as being patronized.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday rejected a possible European offer for incentives, including a light-water nuclear reactor, in return for allaying fears about his country's nuclear program by giving up uranium enrichment.

"Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?" Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in a speech in central Iran.

Can't say I blame him, although when you peddle fairy tales about "peaceful nuclear power," you really can't get upset when Europeans insist on believing it.

But don't worry, Americans and Israelis don't buy your fuzzy-bunny bullshit, and one or the other is gonna drop-kick your freakin ass back to the 7th century where you so desperately want to be.

AHA Resigns from Dutch Parliament

Just a few of the casualties of Dutch dhimmitude:

2002: Pim Fortuyn, gunned down.

2004: Theo van Gogh, shot and knifed.

2006: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, outed and exiled.

I have said many times that I am not proud that I lied when I sought asylum in the Netherlands. It was wrong to do so. I did it because I felt I had no choice. . . . I was frightened that if I gave my real name, my clan would hunt me down and find me. . . . You probably are wondering, what is my real name?

I am Ayaan, the daughter of Hirsi, who is the son of a man who took the name of Magan. Magan was the son of Isse, who was the son of Guleid, who was the son of Ali. He was the son of Wai’ays, who was the son of Muhammad. He was the son of Ali, who was the son of Umar. Umar was the son of Osman, who was the son of Mahamud. This is my clan, and therefore, in Somalia, this is my name: Ayaan Hirsi Magan Isse Guleid Ali Wai’ays Muhammad Ali Umar Osman Mahamud.

It must be appreciated that this is much more than just some mind-numbing genealogical recitation. To adequately defend herself against the back-stabbing Dutch government -- equally at fault for not detecting her lie in the first place -- she has been forced to publicly identify exactly who she is.

It's comparable to a women's shelter offering sanctuary, only to later announce the full name and location of a battered wife on the run from a homicidal ex-husband. No longer can any bona-fide refugee feel safe in The Netherlands.

And now that she's resigned from Parliament, what happens to her police protection?

. . . it is difficult to live with so many threats on your life and such a level of police protection. It is difficult to work as a parliamentarian if you have nowhere to live. All that is difficult, but not impossible. It has become impossible since last night, when Minister Verdonk informed me that she would strip me of my Dutch citizenship.

I am therefore preparing to leave Holland. But the questions for our society remain. The future of Islam in our country; the subjugation of women in Islamic culture; the integration of the many Muslims in the West: it is self-deceit to imagine that these issues will disappear.

I will continue to ask uncomfortable questions, despite the obvious resistance that they elicit. I feel that I should help other people to live in freedom, as many people have helped me. I personally have gone through a long and sometimes painful process of personal growth in this country. It began with learning to tell the truth to myself, and then the truth about myself: I strive now to also tell the truth about society as I see it.

Verdonk is right. This woman isn't Dutch. She's an American. Welcome, sister.

And if the loss of her EU citizenship poses an obstacle to entering the US, hopefully she knows to just come over the Mexican border.

If she survives long enough to get there.

UPDATE: Small bits of good news.

Verdonk said Monday that under Dutch law, Hirsi Ali's naturalization is automatically void since she lied to get it. But she said a day later that Hirsi Ali would retain an immigrant visa, and would be eligible to reapply for citizenship.

At the end of a parliament debate that lasted far into the early hours of Wednesday morning, Verdonk agreed to two motions, one to reconsider her first decision, and another to reprocess Hirsi Ali's naturalization as quickly as possible if necessary.

. . . Dutch media also reported that U.S. Ambassador Roland Arnall had met with Hirsi Ali to tell her the United States will accept her regardless of her Dutch immigration status.

Good. But with 12 million Mexican illegals and maybe two dudes with shotguns guarding 2,000 miles of border, I would sure as hell hope so.

Hate You, Hate Kansas, Taking the Dog

Splendid. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is defecting moving to the US. And, she'll be bigger and better than ever, with a job at AEI.

Liberal party MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is leaving the Dutch parliament in September and moving to the United States.

Insiders confirmed a report on the website of Dutch newspaper 'De Volkskrant' on Monday about the move. Hirsi Ali has been on a speaking tour in the US and is due to make an official announcement on Tuesday.

She is going to work for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative Washington think tank. The institute was founded in 1943 and is seen as one of the most important advisors to the government of George Bush.

Somali-born Hirsi Ali has been an outspoken critic of aspects of Islam and she became a campaigner for freedom of speech after
the murder of film director Theo van Gogh in November 2004.

Too bad, tulpefickers, she's ours now.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Witch

The fearless Ayaan Hirsi Ali spoke at Harvard last week, facing down an audience of moonbats and Islamist sympathizers. A sampling:

On immigrating to The Netherlands:

She described her life in the camp with other asylum seekers and what became a growing fascination: "I am a Muslim," she began, “How on Earth was it possible for a non-western country to be so peaceful? I realized that we asylum seekers from Tunisia, from Somalia, from Iran, from Iraq, we from Muslim countries misunderstood Islam. In our countries, government terrorized you. Here, government served the people. Governments did nasty things to you, they terrorized you, they took your money. In the West, they did things like take your garbage away. It was unthinkable."

The enlightened Harvard audience bristled with excuses to reject her right to say things they don't like:

The Q&A afterwards demonstrated the forces that Ayaan is working against. Most questions to her were fairly hostile: How can an atheist reform Islam? What is your agenda? Why are you speaking about Islam when you are not a theologian? Isn't what you're doing extreme and dangerous and how is it serving the cause? Why should a Muslim listen to you? Aren't you setting up a straw man argument, saying that Muslims are either good Muslims or they're Osama bin Laden? Why are you only harping about Islam? What about the Hindu texts?

Ayaan was unflappable and graceful in her responses."I speak about Islamic texts because that is what I know. Religion is public, ideas are public. It is necessary and urgent to review, revise, and discuss Islam as a body of ideas. It is time to examine the links between religion and values."

Ali, a duly elected Dutch parliamentarian, has been living under round-the-clock police protection for years now, for saying things like this loudly and repeatedly. Her neighbors find all the fuss terribly inconvenient, and have succeeded in using the European Convention on Human Rights to evict her:

Liberal Party MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been ordered to vacate the high-security home she is renting in The Hague within four months.

An appeal court sided with her neighbours who complained her presence put their own safety at risk and caused disruption to their lives.

Hirsi Ali and fellow MP Geert Wilders spent several months in hiding in secret locations due to death threats made against them because of their stance on Islam. "I think this is dreadful, horrible to have to move. I am happy living here and I feel safe," Hirsi Ali said in response to the judgement.

The neighbours lost their case initially but they won on Thursday when an appeal court accepted Hirsi Ali's presence meant they no longer felt safe in their own apartments or in the communal areas of the complex. The court ruled that is contravened Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights which guarantees respect for a person's private and family life.

No respect is owed to Ali's rights, of course. When the rights of the collective are placed over the rights of the individual, troublemakers become expendable.

And now, the final insult. Something like 95% of asylum claims are fraudulent, and a large number of "refugees" are jihadists of the sort who butchered Theo van Gogh. Generally, the problem is ignored, and certainly, few are deported. Yet the Dutch government is now investigating Ali's original asylum claim, with an eye to stripping her of Dutch citizenship and deporting her.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch legislator who has championed the rights of Muslim women, is returning from a book tour to a firestorm for lying on her asylum application when she fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage.

Hirsi Ali, 36, said Saturday she was puzzled by the uproar since she publicly acknowledged the false refugee application when she stood for parliament in 2002. "Have they all gone mad?" she said, accusing her rivals of a political vendetta. "Yes, I did lie to get asylum in Holland. This is public knowledge since at least September 2002," she said in a telephone call from Hamburg, Germany.

Political opponents want her stripped of her Dutch citizenship and deported. Others say she should be expelled from parliament.

The latest political storm followed the airing of a 30-minute TV documentary Thursday tracing her steps from Somalia, where her father was an imprisoned opposition politician, to her family's exile in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Hirsi Ali repeated on the TV documentary that when she arrived in 1992 she changed her name from Hirsi Magan and her birth date on her asylum application and did not tell the authorities that she had lived in three different countries since leaving Somalia.

"I invented a story that would be consistent with the conditions for asylum," she told The Associated Press.

Which was public knowledge four years ago, a more logical time to begin the investigation, if such a thing had to be done at all. The Netherlands is swarming with Islamist "refugees" who isolate themselves in dank shari'a ghettoes, and are largely left alone until they venture out and kill someone. Yet the immigrant they want to deport is Europe's model integration success story.

Better yet, European governments could try investigating the claims of asylum-seekers at the time application is made, and denying those that cannot be substantiated. This would also obviate the injustice of punishing bona fide refugees like Ali for the government's earlier negligence.

Further, they could try denying entry to terrorists wanted by their home governments -- killers who are given asylum in Europe because Arab dictatorships want to execute them. The ECHR prohibits European governments from repatriating anyone who might face the death penalty, often at the expense of their own citizens' safety.

(It would be interesting to tally up the number of Europeans killed as a direct result of the European Convention on Human Rights. An execrable piece of collectivist garbage, it covers all the minutiae, but ignores the big stuff -- like the right of law-abiding citizens to live unmolested on their own soil, or the right to speak freely of wanting this right.)

Such rational policies might have barred Ali's entry, but they would also have prevented Europe from becoming a sanctuary for the same Islamist butchers she fled in Somalia. Instead of rallying to protect her, the mob of terrified villagers clamors to toss her in a pond or burn her at the stake -- hoping, perhaps, that the alligator will eat them last.

But this is what Europeans do when times get tough. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Never Again?

On any given day in France or Germany, a Jewish cemetery is vandalized; a synagogue is defaced; a Jew is physically assaulted or murdered. The natives provide a permissive atmosphere for the aggressors -- who are, invariably, poor oppressed Muslim immigrants who just came for a better life.

The latest outrage: Jewish medical student attacked by Muslim women in Berlin.

The incident happened last week after the 26 year-old student attended a party at the house of friends in the Steglitz neighborhood in south-west Berlin, where a large Muslim community resides. At about 2 a.m., the woman, who holds a dual Israeli-German citizenship, decided to walk back to her apartment after she missed the last bus home, Israel's leading daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

While she was walking home and holding a conversation in Hebrew with a friend from Israel on her cellular phone, the student passed by a group of young women.

When they recognized the language the student was speaking as Hebrew, one of the girls suddenly walked up to the Israeli woman and slapped her in the face. The other women then joined in, pulled her hair, beat her up and kicked her. The abuse eventually stopped when the attackers thought they heard a police car approaching, and they fled the scene.

Small Holocaust memorials can be found in many German towns, usually consisting of a stone monument, a small garden, and a plaque engraved with victims' names. One begins to notice, however, that these monuments are placed in oddly inconspicuous locations, usually in residential areas where one happens to stumble across them only on foot or bicycle.

Of course, there are many large, well-publicized memorials, such as those at Dachau, Auschwitz, and Berlin, which receive many visitors. Dachau, for example, overwhelms one with the planning and effort that had to be invested in its construction. One wonders why the expense and infrastructure of barracks, crematoriums, guard towers, fences, and trains were necessary. The mind screams, why?!?!

If people had to die, going door-to-door executing them would have been far more efficient. It would have freed up tons of raw materials and hundreds of workers for industry. So, why death factories, and not face-to-face executions? Maybe they were afraid it would have given victims a fleeting chance to defend themselves.

Or, maybe they were afraid that it would have required one human being to look another in the eye and pull the trigger.

The vast resources invested to indulge the apparent need for detachment and denial is precisely what makes these smaller "neighborhood" memorials so disconcerting. They seem almost deliberately tucked away, as though their purpose is to acknowledge and forget all at the same time.

A few years ago, I was at a restaurant in a large German city with some local friends. It was a hip, trendy place, and we all noticed one particular item on the menu: bagels! We all missed American coffee shops and wanted one. Offhand, I remarked, "man, yeah, why is it that you can't get bagels over here?" My German friends slowly turned to look at me, without saying a word. Not nasty, just waiting for my brain to engage. I just about fainted, and mumbled an apology.

That individual Germans walk around daily with this unfathomable burden on their conscience is difficult for outsiders to truly grasp. A dark cloud of guilt hangs over the entire country, to which many would say, "good. It should." But as is becoming more and more apparent, excessive German self-flagellation has been counterproductive.

Because now many Germans are angry that they feel compelled to feel guilty all the time. These sorts are often attracted to extremist political parties -- in the same way Germans weary of reparations after WWI were attracted to Hitler, who promised to throw off the chains and make Germany great again. For others, the guilt translates into an obligation to bow and scrape for anyone who claims to be oppressed. These are the ones behind Germany's policy of granting automatic asylum to Palestinians -- automatic, no checks -- as well as siding with the PLO, Arafat, and Hamas in any controversy with Israel.

Both of these trends are leading Germany -- indeed, all Europe -- straight to back to the 1930s, by rehabilitating and re-legitimizing anti-Semitism. A growing sentiment can be detected that seems to say: "if it wasn't for those damn Jews, we wouldn't feel so guilty."

Assuming Europe's remaining Jews get out in a hurry, it almost makes you glad that Europe's Muslim colonists will soon be their masters.

Yankee Roundup

The National Alliance is concerned that "Schindler's List" could stir up anti-Nazi sentiments.

Oops, I mean, CAIR is concerned that "United 93" could stir up Islamophobia.

At the United Muslim American symposium in Newark, Muslim-American leaders discussed the rhetoric regarding Iran, the war in Iraq and the image of the United States in Islamic countries.

But some also expressed concern that "United 93," a new film about the last moments of the last hijacked plane to crash on Sept. 11, 2001, could stir up anti-Islamic sentiments.

Safaa Ibrahim, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, took her staff of four women wearing a hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarves, to a Thursday matinee.

As a civil rights advocate, Ibrahim said, she wanted to see the movie after reports that several young Muslim-American women in Arizona were verbally assaulted by two people who said they had seen the movie recently.

Yep, that's how I do it. Americans are easily provoked, often leaving movie theaters thirsting for random aggression against total strangers. I once went up to a couple of guys in nice suits and said, "Hello. I just saw "Liar, Liar," and while I previously respected lawyers for their rigorous education and long hours, now I think you all are ****ing scumbag ***hole ****sucking cretinous ****faces. I'll bash your ****ing head in if you ever **** **** **** ****!!" And made several rude gestures as I walked away in a righteous fury.

Ibrahim said she knew the movie would stir up emotions, but she did not expect that all of the members in her group would walk out in tears.

Boo. Freakin. Hoo.

And, Pravda East, which brought us 32 straight days of front-page Abu Ghraib photos, is quick to trumpet the drawbacks of sullying Zarqawi's image. In case you missed it, he wears sneakers on the battlefield and handles a SAW like a little girl.

What's the old saying? The internet views The New York Times as damage and routes around it. Or something like that.

Cartoon Wars, Continued

Last week, Paksitani national Amir Cheema died in German custody -- a suicide, according to German officials. He'd been arrested in March in Berlin for the attempted murder of the editor of Die Welt, which published the 12 Danish Muhammad cartoons.

Yesterday, students in Pakistan protested his death by burning German flags and vowing to "continue his jihad."

Around 300 students of Jamiat Taliba Arabia, one of many seminaries run by Jamaat-i-Islami, blocked traffic in the centre of Multan city, burned German flags and denounced Germany, Denmark and the United States as "infidel states." The students chanted: “They are enemies of Islam, infidels” and “Amir Cheema is hero of Islam." They also called for the cartoonists to be hanged or handed over for punishment.

The first protest against the cartoons in Pakistan took place in Multan in February, and it was followed by bigger and more violent protests across the country, while in Peshawar a Muslim preacher offered a bounty for the killing of cartoonists. Lawmakers in the National Assembly raised Cheema’s death on Friday and the issue will be debated in parliament.

Goodness, hasn't anyone told all these devout Muslims and students of the Qur'an that "jihad" means inner struggle?

That's More Like It

US President George W. Bush said the September 11 revolt of passengers against their hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first blow of "World War III."

It's worth recalling that a huge, unprovoked attack on U.S. soil prompted the U.S. to declare war on Japan -- as well as Germany, a country that had no involvement in Pearl Harbor and posed no direct threat to America.

Yet where were the cries of "Roosevelt lied"? "No blood for oil"? (After all, the U.S. oil embargo was Japan's pretext for the attack.) Who called Churchill "Roosevelt's lackey"? Who gave a rat's ass about German and Japanese civilians, in Dresden and Tokyo and Nagasaki? Who got the vapors over the summary trial and execution of 8 Nazi saboteurs? Who marched in the streets over U.S. v. Korematsu? Who whined about "victor's justice" at Nuremburg?

A handful of sympathizers and the occasional deranged crank, that's who. Every American was in the fight, buying war bonds, sweating in munitions factories, and getting by on slim rations of butter, meat, nylon, and rubber.

Now, four-and-a-half years into WWIII, maybe we can start putting things in perspective, and speaking frankly about the ideology and goals of the Islamist Axis.

And commit ourselves to smashing it -- before it smashes us.

More GWOT Semantics

The cumbersome name of this blog was inspired by a U.S. Army NCO who, a couple of years ago, attended a one-week conference on the law of armed conflict. He observed that not one speaker mentioned the words "Islam," "Muslim," or "jihad" -- an impressive feat when one tries to imagine a similar conference in 1943 in which the words "German" or "Nazi" are never spoken. (Perhaps it would have been known as the Bi-Continental Tiff with Mustachioed Dictators.)

But as they say, it isn't your father's army anymore. Politically correct limits on speech -- and thus, thought -- are well understood by everyone in uniform. This trend was institutionalized by President Clinton's authorization of an "Equal Opportunity" officer in every unit, i.e., censors. Their job, among other things, is to reprimand soldiers when they're caught saying bad things about the enemy. Hence the asinine circumlocutions to avoid identifying the enemy, or his ideology or goals, with any specificity.

Of course, it's impossible to devise a coherent strategy against an enemy that remains undefined. "GWOT" (Global War On Terror) is the term of art these days, which allows reference to what all understand but are not permitted to say out loud. The demands of political correctness result in the tired overuse of this term, which is what prompted our fair NCO to return from the conference and snort, "they may as well call it the Global War on You Know Who."

The pencil-pushers invent new and even more absurd euphemisms all the time, and the most recent tongue-twister is especially entertaining. Their Excellencies at the U.S. State Department issued the annual country reports on terrorism last week, a document which lists Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hizb'allah as terrorist organizations.

But not the Taliban, remnants of which are still busy killing people. No, the Taliban is "an insurgent organization that will periodically use terrorism to carry out its operations."

Great. So now it's the GWOIOTWPUTTCOIO. We have always been at war with Eastasia. We have never been at war with Eurasia. And we have never, ever, ever had the minutest quibble with any peace-loving follower of the noble Muslim religion, its visionary prophet and model for all humanity Muhammad (pbuh), or Allah, the supreme lawgiver whose Holy Koran must never be mocked or criticized.

The GWOIOTWPUTTCOIO's coiffured intellectuals excel at self-parody to the point where actual satire is becoming difficult to write. The weenies at State would better serve U.S. national security interests writing for the Daily Show than doing a grown-up's job.

One wonders if they at any point gave Andrew McCarthy's sarcastic proposal serious consideration: "The Thing Involving the Teeny-Tiny Number of People Who Made Certain Things Go Boom After Reading that Book that We Didn't Flush and Who Absolutely, Positively Do Not Represent the Vast, Enormous Majority of Very, Very Nice People Who Read the Same Book Without Making Anything Go Boom."

Yep. May as well call it the Global War on You Know Who.

Bericht Aus Deutschland

Pakistani national Amir Abdu Rehaman Cheema was arrested in Berlin for attacking a newspaper editor for printing the 12 Muhammad cartoons. Now German officials say he "committed suicide" whilst in custody.

Amir’s father Nazir Cheema told [Geo television] that a Foreign Office official had telephoned him on Thursday and told him about his son’s death while in police custody.

Cheema said Amir’s body would be handed over to the Pakistani embassy in Berlin on Monday for sending to Pakistan. He lamented the government could take no action, saying, Pakistan would accept whatever German officials say.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasneem Aslam confirmed the incident. Pakistan has asked Germany for details of the incident, she said. "German officials' note to the embassy in Berlin read: Amir Cheema committed suicide in the prison by hanging himself with a rope," she added.

Not that I'm especially troubled by it -- yet -- but it seems there's a lot of that going around in European prisons. Real ones, run by Europeans, that is -- not the Pulitzer-Prize-winning rumors of illegal US renditions for which top EU officials Gijs de Vries and Xavier Solana can find no hard evidence.

In contrast, not one Gitmo detainee has died in US custody, by "suicide" or otherwise. The Cheema family must wonder where Amnesty International, the ICRC, the UN, CNN, and all the other usual tranzi hysterics are.

Another mixed-bag story: the good news is, two German engineers kidnapped in Iraq in January have been released unharmed. The bad news is . . . all together now . . . how much?

The German government handed over a "large amount" to the kidnappers of two German engineers held hostage in Iraq for over four months and set free on Tuesday, Iraq's ambassador to Germany, Alaa al-Hashimi, has alleged. "Regarding the payment of a ransom, I don't know, but I assume it was a large amount of money," the ambasssador told German's ARD public television network, stressing that the Iraqi government had played part in the men's release.

However, al-Hashimi's claim is likely to trigger further debate on the wisdom of paying for the release of hostages. While the official policy of Britain and the United States is that Western governments should refuse to negotiate with kidnappers, Germany, France and Italy are believed to have paid million dollar sums for the release of kidnapped nationals.

. . . At the time of the men's capture, there was speculation that Germans were being targeted, because Berlin, unlike Washington or London, paid ransoms.

A month before the two engineers were kidnapped, German diplomats admitted the government had paid five million dollars for the [release of] Susanne Osthoff. According to a report by the German weekly magazine Focus, Nitzschke and Braeunlich's kidnappers had demanded a 12 million dollar ransom for their release.

Funny how the three EU countries that pay ransoms also boast some of the worst economic conditions on the continent. (Respectively, German, French, and Italian GDP growth: 0.9%, 1.6%, 0%; and unemployment: 12.1%, 9.6%, 7.9%). Apparently taking Econ 101 automatically disqualifies Europeans from public office. So here's lesson #1: subsidize something -- agricultural surpluses, hostage-taking -- and you will get more of it.

Moussaoui: Life Without Parole

John Gacy (33 victims), Ted Bundy (over 30), Jeffrey Dahmer (17), and Timothy McVeigh (169) were all executed in US prisons. But the life of Zacarias Moussaoui, who assisted in the murder of 2,986 victims, will be spared.

Moussaoui, who spent much of his two-month trial cursing America, blessing al-Qaida and mocking the suffering of 9/11 victims, offered one more taunt after the jury reached its verdict Wednesday: "America, you lost. ... I won," he proclaimed, clapping his hands as he was escorted from the courtroom.

The jury rejected two key defense arguments — that Moussaoui suffers a mental illness and that executing him would make him a martyr. No jurors indicated on the verdict form that they gave any weight to those arguments.

On one hand, Josef Stalin's math comes to mind: "A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic."

On the other hand, Moussaoui may be spared the death penalty -- but so will the American public be spared the interminable, vexatious appeals process that denies closure and justice to so many victims' families.

If taxpayer funding of this animal's continued existence is the price of avoiding years of gushing MSM hagiographies disguised as reports of some miniscule procedural development, so be it.

Iranian Hostage Crisis, Part II

Once a hostage-taker, always a hostage-taker (above, Ahmadinejad in 1979). This time, Iran's Islamic revolutionaries hold an entire country at gunpoint (or rather, nuclear-missile-point): Nobody move, or Israel dies.

Iran threatened on Tuesday to attack Israel in response to any "evil" act by the United States and said it had enriched uranium to a level close to the maximum compatible with civilian use in power stations.

The rest of the article is the usual pointless blather about whether or not Iran's uranium enrichment program is for electricity or weapons.

Today we reflect with pride and satisfaction upon the heroes who consigned Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo, and Saddam and the Taliban, to the dustbin of history. Soon, we will do the same when we remember and honor those who had the courage and the will to crush the Iranian thugocracy once and for all.

Almost certainly, Europeans will not be among them. Nor do I expect them to have the decency to be ashamed that -- again -- America is virtually alone in its stance that exterminating Jews is wrong.

I just hope we're a little quicker on the draw this time.

The Swedish Inquisition

First they came for the French, and I savored the schadenfreude. Then they came for the Swedes, and I wasn't surprised. Soon they will come for the rest of Europe, at which point we will all have to decide whether to stand and fight or get the hell out.

A summary of the Swedish Muslim Association's demands was published Friday. The upshot is, Islam does not accept equal treatment with other religions; hence, "protecting religious freedom" means all others must defer to Islam's self-declared supremacy. Translations here and here. The demands, presented to Swedish political parties, include:

- A mosque in every city or municipality.

- Financing of the mosques through no-interest loans [as Islam forbids usury].

- Imams must teach religion in public schools [to Muslim students or to all students is unclear].

- Financing of Islamic elementary schools [so Muslim children can learn in their own language, eat halal food, never mix with dirty native pork-eaters, and participate in sex-segregated gym classes].

- Islamic festival days must be respected. We demand days off during Eid al fitr and Eid al Adha. These two days must not result in a reduction of the salary.

- Two hours off every Friday for the Islamic compulsory "Friday Prayer."

- Islamic slaughtering of animals. Freedom of religion is a human right. [Regardless of Western prohibitions on cruelty to animals. Halal butchery involves slitting an animal's throat, without stunning or drugging it in any way, and letting it bleed out until the meat is white and pure -- much as it's done in hostage beheading videos].

- Reservation of funeral places in every municipality with Muslim habitants.

- Imam-education in universities and high schools.

- Rulings to protect minorities and avoid discrimination. The negative image of the muslims is maintained and amplified by the Swedish Press and the Swedish Educational System. [On the contrary; academics and the press strive to the utmost to cover up Muslim aggression and violence. The negative image of Muslims is due to their own barbaric behavior.]

- Furthermore, the National Security Police must no longer consider Islam as a violent religion.

- It is haraam [forbidden] to hold that the Earth is round and revolves around the Sun.

I made up that last one, but it's hard to tell, isn't it? Sweden has been ripe for the picking for a couple of years now. Frankly, I'm surprised this didn't come sooner. What is surprising is the response from Integration and Equality minister Jens Orback:

"We will not have separate laws in Sweden. In Sweden, we are all equal before the law. In Sweden, we have fought for a long time to achieve gender-neutral laws, and to propose that certain groups should not be treated like others is completely unacceptable."

Horse . . . barn door . . . ah well.

UPDATE: Lorenzo Vidino writes:

Basically, SMF is asking for a partial introduction of sharia law in Sweden and the creation of a separate legal system for Swedish Muslims, something politicians from all sides of the Swedish political spectrum and moderate Muslim organizations have immediately condemned as completely unacceptable.

The Swedish case is hardly unique, but mirrors the demand of Brotherhood-linked organizations throughout Europe. For example, in Germany, the Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland (IGD), the country’s largest Muslim organization, has stated in its official publication Al Islam: “In the long run, Muslims cannot be satisfied with the acceptance of German family, estate, and trial law. Muslims should aim at an agreement between the Muslims and the German state with the goal of a separate jurisdiction for Muslims.”

In Great Britain, the UK Islamic Mission, has the stated goal of conducting a “continuous campaign for the establishment of Muslim family laws,” and to “establish Islamic social order in the United Kingdom in order to seek the pleasure of Allah.”

Salafis want to conquer Europe by force of arms; the "moderate" Ikhwan want to do it by preaching and ideology. Either way, the result is the same: the dominoes will fall -- the only question is in what order.

Just for fun, here are today's top 5 headlines on the EU's website:

* EU and China to link up high-speed electronic networks for an open exchange among their best researchers and students

* Decisions of the Commission on the conformity of CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] expenditure with EU law

* Austrian presidency "New initiatives for facilitating visas for the Western Balkan states"

* Council Declaration on the current political situation in Nepal

* Parliament: Strasbourg Parliament open to all - Sunday 30 April and Monday 1 May 10h-18h

Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but that would be the same glass and chrome colossus for which the French city of Strasbourg has been fleecing European taxpayers -- overcharging the EU on rent to the tune of 2.7 million euros per month for 25 years. That comes to 810 million euros, or about a billion dollars, pocketed by the municipal government of a city about the same size as Lexington, Kentucky.