The Battle for America Has Just Begun. A Conversation with Bat Ye’or.

By Phyllis Chesler, 11 February 2008, Cross post by from Pajamas Media

The eminent scholar, Bat Ye’or, is tiny in height only; she is a towering intellect and a fierce judge of both human character and history. Her work predicted and documented the Islamification of Europe. We both agree that the battle for America has only begun—although I believe that it is well underway.

Here we are, two friends, ladies of a certain age, sitting in the most pleasant of surroundings, (a private club, tres ancien regime), and conversing most seriously, not about children and grandchildren, not about the ballet or the opera, (under other circumstances, a conversation we might certainly like to have), but given our times, and our views, a luxury we cannot afford. Thus, we talk about War and Peace and the Clash of Civilizations. What could be more enjoyable and yet more pathetic? Yes, pathetic. We two should be having this conversation in a government office and our views should be leading to coordinated government actions. More’s the pity that this is not the case.
But please: Come and join us.

Phyllis: What do you see is happening at this moment?

Bat Ye’or: The West is engaged in a very careful exercise of self-censorship. We are trying not to offend Muslim sensibilities. Western governments want to impose respect for Muslim sensibilities in the hope that this will avoid jihad. They are ready to suppress the truth.

Phyllis: What do you think of an Obama Presidency?

Bat Ye’or: Obama and his supporters do not seem to understand that Europe has failed. Today, European dissidents are forming movements against the European Union whose policies have led to the Islamification of Europe. Europe is suffering from a huge Muslim immigration problem. The Muslim immigrants do not want to integrate into a modern, tolerant state and they want to impose Sha’ria law on us all.

Christian Ramadan… a.k.a – Lent

Ack! My head!!! So much pain!!!

Lent fast re-branded as ‘Christian Ramadan’
By Bruno Waterfield 12/02/2008 – Telegraph.co.uk

Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the “Christian Ramadan” in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity.

The Catholic charity Vastenaktie, which collects for the Third World across the Netherlands during the Lent period, is concerned that the Christian festival has become less important for the Dutch over the last generation.

“The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent,” said Vastenaktie Director, Martin Van der Kuil.

Three decades ago the Catholic Church was as strict as many Muslims are about Ramadan with a total ban on meat and alcohol during the 40-day Lenten period between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

Most Dutch Catholics now focus on charitable work after the Vatican loosened fasting strictures for all but the first and last days of Lent back in 1967.

Four million Dutch describe themselves as Roman Catholics and 400,000 people attend Mass every week but only a few tens of thousands still mark Lent by fasting, said Mr Van der Kuil

Vastenaktie organisers hope that by linking the festival to Ramadan they can remind Christians who may be less observant than Muslims of the “spirituality and sobriety” of Lent.

“The agreements are more striking than the differences. Both for Muslims and Catholic faithful the values of frugality and spirituality play a central role in this tradition,” said Mr Van der Kuil.

BRITISH TAXPAYERS FUND MUSLIM SCROUNGERS & THEIR 11 CHILDREN

Thanks to tnr for sending this in. If the Brits are willing to foot the bill for the up keep they will keep coming. Read about the minions and you might get sick, they are discusting.

In fairness, American politicians are just as weak and ineffective as their British cousins. I think all politicians must inbreed with themselves.

11 February 11, 2008, FROM THEOPINIONATOR:
Another muslim scrounger happy to turn his “talent” for pumping out children into a money making scheme. Even though he is a qualified and experienced teacher, Mohammed (what else) Salim uses his self imposed unemployed status to spend fulltime running his political party, Islam Zinda Badd, whose name means ‘Long Live Islam’ thus allowing him to rant and protest against the same people who pay for and provide his, and his family’s, every need.

THIS is what the policy of rampant muslim immigration into the UK has brought us. We are all stupid to let it continue. (authors comment)

He quit his £27,000 job teaching maths and science three years ago and is BETTER OFF claiming £29,096 a year in benefits.

And he has much more time to devote to his Islamic political party— which ATTACKS the British government, even though this country gives his family their food, clothes and house for free.

Mohammed is also busy planning his TWELFTH baby with wife Noreen, 35, but has no plans to get a job.

He grinned: “For many years I worked in Derby as a teacher, earning £27,000 a year, and Noreen would be at home with the kids.

“I would come home at weekends. Then I moved back to work in Manchester and took a pay cut to £24,000. It was a load of c***.

“I was teaching at a college and I’d be up at 5.30am with the kids then have to go to work.

“I just couldn’t be a***d with sitting in traffic. I’d be sat in traffic for hours and I felt like I’d done a day’s work by the time I got there, I was so stressed.”

“It’s nice to be at home with the kids and for Noreen to have a hand.”

That’s a luxury most hard-working taxpayers who struggle to support their families can only dream about.

The family we’re all supporting live in a comfy five-bedroom house on a quiet street in Rochdale, Gtr Manchester. They get £19,000 a year Jobseeker’s Allowance, £6,600 Child Benefit, £2,496 free school meals and £1,000 Council Tax Relief.

They have a minibus to swan around in, two TVs and a computer, plus a garden full of brightly-coloured toys. Noreen has never worked since marrying Mohammed—who is her cousin—when she was 16.

She said: “I spend all day clearing up after the children. As soon as you pick up one pile of crisps or mop up drink, there’s another.”

How to beat Hamas

I am not sure selective targeting of Hamas leadership will work but it is better than nothing. Try it and see – what does Israel have to lose?10 February 2008, THE JERUSALEM POST

One of eight-year-old Osher Twito’s legs was amputated after he was wounded, along with his older brother, by a Kassam in Sderot on Saturday. Over the weekend, 39 rockets hit Sderot and the surrounding area. Yesterday, 250 Sderot residents blocked the entrance to Jerusalem and protested in front of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The residents of Sderot are demanding an end to the bombardment of their city. They are right. The government must not act as if Sderot matters less than Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or anywhere else in Israel. Either Israeli lives and sovereignty mean something, or Israel is in effect treating the assault of its civilians as acceptable and inevitable.

This must be put to a stop, but in a way that defeats Hamas, rather than playing into its hands.

Death Penalty Sought in Military Tribunal of Six 9/11 Conspirators

 Well, it’s about time!  

Pentagon charges six in Sept. 11 terror attacks
Death penalty will be sought against alleged mastermind, others

Mon., Feb. 11, 2008 – msnbc

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has charged six detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, it was announced Monday. Officials said they’ll seek the death penalty in what would be the first trials under the terrorism-era military tribunal system.

“These charges allege a long term, highly sophisticated, organized plan by al-Qaida to attack the United States of America,” Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser to the tribunal system, told reporters. He added that the charges have been sworn “against six individuals alleged to be responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks” which occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 and killed nearly 3,000 people.

Hartmann said the six include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the attacks in which hijacked planes were flown into buildings in New York and Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed in the fields of western Pennsylvania.

White House press secretaryt Dana Perino said that President Bush had no role in the decision to seek the death penalty.

“Obviously 9-11 was a defining moment in our history,” she said, “and a defining moment in the global war on terror. And this judicial process is the next step in that story. The president is sure that the military is going to follow through in a way that the Congress said they should.”

Damn bleeding heart Liberals…

Pentagon Official and Two Chinese Spies Arrested

Hmmm, I’m sure that if you do some research on Mr. Bergersen, you’ll find him linked to the Clintons… Just a hunch…

FBI raids home of accused spy (Are those boxes full of long-stem roses for Valentine’s Day, perhaps?)

Several arrested in Chinese spy sweep

February 11, 2008 – The Washington Times

By Bill Gertz – The FBI today arrested a Pentagon official and two Chinese-born residents on espionage charges for passing defense secrets to China, the Justice Department announced.

Gregg William Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, was arrested at his home on espionage charges. Tai Shen Kuo, a Taiwan-born U.S. citizen, 58, and Yu Xin Kang, a Chinese national, 33, both of New Orleans, were arrested in New Orleans on charges of conspiracy to provide defense secrets to China.

Mr. Bergersen worked as a weapons system analyst for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, in Arlington, which is in charge of U.S. arms sales to foreign nations. He held a top-secret clearance.

One official said the case involved the transfer of command, control, communications and intelligence equipment originally sold to Taiwan that was diverted to China.

Court papers state that the three men conspired to transfer defense secrets during meetings with Chinese intelligence officials.

“Today’s prosecution demonstrates that foreign spying remains a serious threat,” said Kenneth L. Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security.

Cold War II Heats Up Between US and Russia

No surprise here…  I was wondering when the MSM would pick up on this.  Here’s the Kommersant article that gave us a heads-up.

Navy Intercepts Russian Bombers

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has learned that U.S. fighter planes intercepted two Russian bombers flying unusually close to an American aircraft carrier in the western Pacific during the weekend.

A U.S. military official says that one Russian Tupolev 95 buzzed the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet, while another bomber circled about 50 nautical miles out. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the reports on the flights were classified as secret.

The Saturday incident, which never escalated beyond the flyover, comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over U.S. plans for a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic.

What’s a Parent to do?

Well, I know what I would do…  And, it’s not pretty…

SHALL ISRAEL IGNORE THE MISSILE ATTACKS?

MIDDLE EAST – Dafka.org
What is Israel to do? Ignore the attacks?
By DAVID A. HARRIS

Israel faces difficult choices in Gaza. There is no off-the-shelf remedy for the unprecedented situation, no playbook to follow.

Consider the picture. Israel withdrew all its forces and civilians from Gaza more than two years ago. It created the first opportunity in Gaza’s history for self-governance. Never before, certainly not during Egyptian military rule till 1967, did local residents have their fate in their own hands.

What direction would Gaza take? Would it recognize that a peaceful approach was likely to accelerate a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by convincing Israelis of Palestinian sincerity? Would it take advantage of widespread international interest in underwriting economic and social development?

Sadly, the answer is a resounding No. In the past thirty months, Gaza witnessed the election of Hamas, the cohabitation of Fatah and Hamas, followed by a bloody coup against Fatah. The ascendancy of Hamas ensured the isolation of Gaza, as the terror group was unprepared to meet the Quartet’s three basic conditions for engagement.

Those who predicted that governance would moderate the Hamas message were proven wrong. They underestimated the religious fervor of its leaders. And those in capitals from Moscow to Pretoria, Ankara to Oslo, Cairo to Riyadh, who believed they could talk sense to Hamas had little to show for their efforts.

Valentine’s Day Massacre in Saudi Arabia

Yes, it’s so nice to see them expend all this time and effort in clamping down on florists and gift shops when there are so many terrorists running loose in their midsts…

A tip of my hat goes out to Mullah Lodabullah for alerting us to this story.

No red roses for Saudi sweethearts on Valentines Day
Mon Feb 11, 2008

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine’s Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items colored scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolizing love, newspapers said.

“They visited us last night,” the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying.

It is not unusual for the Saudi vice squad to clamp down ahead of Valentine’s Day, which it sees as encouraging relations between men and women outside of wedlock, the newspaper said.

Saudi Arabia imposes an austere form of Sunni Islam which prevents unrelated men and women from mixing, bans women from driving and demands that women wear a headscarf and a cloak.

Relations outside marriage are strictly banned and punishable by law.

(Reporting by Souhail Karam; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Sudan Arrests Two Muslims in Murder of John Granville

Well, Ronin called it back in January (be sure to read the Comment section)!  It wasn’t a crime of opportunity, nor was it Christian fundamentalists….

Sudan holds Muslim “fundamentalists” over US killing

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan has arrested two Muslim “fundamentalists” in connection with the killings of a U.S. aid official and his driver in the capital Khartoum, security sources said on Sunday.

The two men, aged 25 and 30, were members of a group that was also behind a plot to bomb Western embassies in Khartoum that was uncovered in August, the security source told Reuters.

It was the first official confirmation that a militant group may have been behind the double shooting. Some official sources in Sudan originally claimed that the killing was an “isolated incident”.

The suspects opened fire when they were cornered on Saturday in a suburb of Omdurman, a city adjacent to the Sudanese capital, the SUNA state news agency reported. Security officers returned the fire.

Two policemen, a passing woman and the two suspects were wounded, none seriously, said the security source.

“They are from the same group who tried to do the explosions … they are fundamentalists,” the source added, referring to the reported August bomb plot.