Posts for 31 Oct: Ashtiani's son and lawyer tortured, Khamenei's speech at Qom, "Islamization is no crime", Bibles desecrated in Malawi, Oklahoma's Sharia ban, Maldives' denigrating "vows exchange", Iraqi church-goers kidnapped

1. Lawyer and son of condemned woman tortured: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani‘s son Sajjad Ghaderzade and lawyer Javid Hutan Kian have been tortured since being arrested earlier this month.
2. Khamenei's speech in Qom: he strongly criticized Iran’s enemies, saying they sought to denigrate its citizens’ religious faith, the key to Iranian success. He noted that even though the enemies attempted to sever the bond between the Iranian public and the regime, the participation of 40 million Iranians in the last presidential election showed the public’s support for the regime and Islam. The enemy’s scheme failed, and the riots that broke out after the election made Iran immune to the “social and political microbes” that threatened it. He added that, using the media, Iran’s enemies are trying to promote two ideas: Islam without clerics, and separation between religion and politics.
3. Hamas: "Islamization is no crime", among other news. We have the right to control our life according to our religion, not according to your religion. You have no religion, you are secular,” said Zahar, who is one of the group’s most influential and respected voices
4. Malawi: Bibles' desecration could signal new Muslim militancy, priests' worries. Although the school had made it clear that no Bibles were to be given to the Muslim pupils and that no one was obliged to take a copy, some Muslim youths created an uproar. They tore up the Bibles, threw them at their teachers and then threw torn pages on the streets. Some of the students denounced the Bible distribution to their religious leaders as an “insult to Islam” and claimed that they had been forced to accept a Bible.
5. Oklahoma may ban Sharia Law. Voters in Oklahoma next week will be asked to consider an unusual ballot measure: whether the state’s constitution should be amended to outlaw Sharia, the sacred law of Islam.
6. Maldives: Police arrest "celebrant" of degrading "vows exchange". Under Maldivian law non-Muslims are not permitted to marry in the Maldives, but many resorts offer ‘renewal of vows’ ceremonies. The men have not yet been formally charged, “but this is a very serious issue related to our economy,” (Police Sub-Inspector) Shiyam said.
7. Iraq: Gunmen take church-goers hostage after killing 2 at stock exchange. The gunmen are demanding that the Iraqi government release a number of detainees and prisoners inside Iraqi prisons, saying the Christian hostages will be freed in return, according to the police officials.
   

Italy: Milan's new Muslim party

Muslims praying outside Milan's Catholic Cathedral, il Doumo.

From Hurricane_53 (Translation: T&P):

By now, every MSM will know about the new electoral lists to be presented at the next local elections 2011 Milan. The party will be called "The new Milan", Esar, in short, wnd it will be a party composed of immigrant Muslims, fellow citizens in Milan.

Though the leader of the Islamic center in Milan (and responsible party of the unborn -yet- party) Abdel Hamid Shaari (who was rejected from Egypt as "persona non grata", and who organised communal prayers on Friday in Milan, Piazza Duomo, Cardinal Tettamanzi is compliant and complacent with the idea, because he is sure it wouln't be an Islamic party (ie, religiously motivated). But there is however, a risk that can't be denied: that of electing someone who would ask at Palazzo Marino for the application of the Qu'ranic law, the Sharia.

A United American Committee Interview of Dutch MP Geert Wilders

Jesse Petrilla and Tom Trento interview Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders about the Islamization of Europe and its implications on America and the entire Western world

Hat tip: Right Side News >>>

United American Committee: Working for a better, safer tomorrow >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

America, The Rogue Nation

In an excellent recent article by Bruce Bawer, author of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, he wrote about what happened during and shortly after the "cartoon riots." Among other things, he said:

One book after another on the America-Europe relationship has contended that it’s America that’s the problem — that America is out of step with the world and needs to get back into line, pronto. In the title of Clyde Prestowitz’s 2005 book, America is a “rogue nation” because it refuses to go along and get along with the rest of the planet under the wise auspices of the UN. I don’t know exactly how to characterize or understand this mass self-deception, this determination to cling to an illusion of the West in which the ongoing Islamization of Europe simply is not a factor; it would appear to be rooted partly in confusion, partly in cowardice, partly in careerism — and partly, I think, in a perhaps not entirely conscious conviction that some truths are just too sensational to speak without sounding hysterical, too repulsive to be honest about without sounding (to some ears) vulgar and bigoted, and too challenging to face without being utterly overwhelmed by the scale and the horror of it all.

Read the whole article: Who's Sleeping More Deeply — Europe or America?

I'll leave you with my favorite line from this article:

Meanwhile Europe’s cultural elites are dominated by people who seem likely to continue to smile upon Islamization right up till the moment they’re stoned to death.

Stop the Islamization of Europe! Stop the Islamization of the West!

This essay is being re-published today. It was originally published on my weblog on November 28, 2005. Despite the enormity of the problem, nothing has been done about the increasing Islamization either of Europe or America. It is high time for something to be done about it though; it is high time for one of our politicians to bite the bullet. The hour is late. - Mark

The West is being Islamized before our very eyes! It is happening in such subtle ways that it is sometimes imperceptible to those who are not looking out for it. But much of the time, what is happening is plain to see. Each and every concession we make to Muslims is a further nail in the coffin of liberal democracy. Each time we consider granting Muslims a public holiday, each time we consider curtailing our own freedom of speech to appease them, we are assisting Muslims to further Islamize our home countries. Be sure of that!

Western governments should not be powerless to deal with this, but evenso they seem to be: They lack the will and determination to stop the rot.

Political correctness, of course, has taken its toll on the West. So has the ridiculous concept of multiculturalism. Add to this a deep-seated guilt complex, a pervasive attitude of self-denigration, extreme tolerance, and an army of apologists for Islam, and we have a catastrophe in the making!

One of our greatest mistakes is to think of Islam as just another one of the world's great religions. We shouldn't. Islam is politics or it is nothing at all, but, of course, it is politics with a spiritual dimension, politics all wrapped up in a deity.

What is the nature of the politics of Islam? Well, that's an easy one to answer: It is little different from the politics of a totalitarian state, little different from the ideologies of Nazism or communism, different only in detail rather than style. Both Nazism and communism used the purge to try and 'cleanse' society of what it considered undesirable. Islam always does the same. Both of those tolerated only a single political party. Islam generally does the same, and certainly, where it doesn't, insists that all parties be Islamic ones. This, of course, gives the establishment the power to coerce the people. G. H. Sabine, in his book, A History of Political Theory, tells us this about Nazism and communism:

...the party was a self-constituted aristocracy which has [sic] the mission partly of leading, partly of instructing, and partly of coercing the bulk of mankind along the road that it must follow. Both were totalitarian in the sense that they obliterated the liberal distinction between areas of private judgment and of public control, and both turned the educational system into an agency of universal indoctrination. In their philosophy[,] both were utterly dogmatic, professing, the one in the name of the Aryan race and the other in the name of the proletariat, a higher insight capable of laying down rules for art, literature, science, and religion. Both induced a frame of mind akin to religious fanaticism. In strategy[,] both were reckless in their assertions, boundless in their claims, abusive toward their opponents, prone to regard any concession on their own part as a temporary expedient and on a rival's part as a sign of weakness. The social philosophies of both agreed in regarding society as in essence a system of forces, economic or racial, between which adjustment takes place by struggle and dominance rather than by mutual understanding and concession. Both therefore regarded politics as merely an expression of power.

So much in Islam resembles those two despicable ideologies. The ruling party in Islamic countries coerces the people along the road that it must follow. This is particularly easy to observe in Iran today. Islam, too, tries to obliterate the liberal distinction between areas of private judgment and of public control. We see this in all Islamic countries. Similar to Nazism and communism, Islam also turns the educational system into an apparatus of the state for the purpose of universal indoctrination. One would be justified in using the term 'brainwashing'.

In addition, Islam also lays down rules for art (no depiction of the human form is allowed, for example), for literature (all is censored), for science (nothing discovered may contradict the Qur'an or Ahadith, or the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), and certainly for religion (no religion is accepted of man except Islam). Where Jews and Christians live in Islamic countries, they are given protection in return for a high tax known as the jiziyah, but are given dhimmi status, which means, in effect, that they are subdued and given second class status.

Islam also induces a frame of mind akin to fanaticism. That this is so is self-explanatory. Islam is also reckless in its assertions, and boundless in its claims. Example: All the world belongs to Allah; therefore it is the duty of all Muslims to Islamize it. In Islam, too, adjustment takes place by struggle and dominance. Note the Jihad.

A remarkable similarity is this: Islam is also inclined to be abusive to its opponents (they are infidels and unclean), and is prone to regard any concession on its own part as a temporary expedient and on a rival's part as a sign of weakness. And Islam, too, regards politics as an expression of power. Oh, and we shouldn't forget that Islam is profoundly anti-Semitic!

Aren't the similarities just remarkable?

What is troubling is this: Islam is closing in on us. We have so many unassimilated Muslims living in Europe, and an ever growing number living in the States, too. In fact, millions and millions of Muslims live in the West today. But the West has no strategy for dealing with the fall-out. We saw this recenty in France when their cities burnt night after night. The mayhem Muslim immigrants caused there was enough to make anyone's hair stand on end! But what has France done about it? It has unveiled a series of measures to appease the Muslim immigrants, and has ignored the fact that this was an uprising caused in no small part by the Islamic community flexing its ever strengthening muscles.

If we in the West wish to ensure the survival of our own civilization, wish to ensure that our children will be able to live as freely as we have been able to do, wish to ensure that people are free to choose their religion in the West, but just as free not to choose one, then we have a lot of thinking to do!

I would suggest that we start by asking one simple question: Should we regard Islam as a mere religion, or should we start to see it for what it truly is: A political ideology with megalomaniacal aspirations? A political ideology with a spiritual dimension which will stop at nothing until the West is no more, until the West has been brought into Dar ul Islam, or the 'House of Islam', until the West has been well and truly Islamized. To ignore this fact is tantamount to playing fast and loose with our children's future freedoms and security. In fact, it is negligent of their future well-being!

©Mark Alexander

All rights reserved

Belated Memorial

I posted this unter the header Starhemberg, Lorraine, Sobieski, A City and A Battle two days ago at Roncesvalles.

Never forget!


Graf Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg


Duke Charles V de Lorraine


King Jan III Sobieski

One of the turning points of history was the Battle of Vienna, which was fought on September 12, 1683, 325 years ago today. The victory freed Europe for more than three centuries from the Turks and their invasions.

The battle started in the early morning hours on September 12, after the city had been besieged by the Turks for more than two months. The Turkish army of roughly 90,000 men -- 12,00 Jannisaries and an observation army of circa 70,000 -- had invested Vienna on July 14 and on the same day, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, the commander-in-chief of the Turkish forces, sent the expected demand for surrender to the city.

Graf Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, leader of the 11,000 troops and 5,000 citizens and volunteers of Vienna, in possession of 370 cannons, refused.

As their 300 cannons were outdated and the fortifications of Vienna up to date, the Turks found a more effective use for their gunpowder. Tunnels were dug under the massive city walls to blow them up.

The siege cut Vienna off all food supply, and garrison and citizens suffered extreme hardship and many casualties. Fatigue became such a problem that Starhemberg ordered any soldier found asleep on watch to be shot. Increasingly desperate, the men holding Vienna were on their last legs when in August Imperial forces under Duke Charles of Lorraine beat the Hungarians at Bisamberg, north-east of Vienna.

On September 6, the Poles crossed the Danube 30km north west of Vienna at Tulln to unite with the Imperial forces and additional troops from Bavaria, Baden, Franconia, Swabia and, notabene, Saxony, who had answered the call for European Alliance, supported by Pope Innocent XI. Emperor Leopold I was deeply mistrustful of Duke Johann Georg III, Elector of Saxony, but in the face of the siege of Vienna, had called for help and the devout Protestant Johann Georg led a 10,400 man army himself against the Turks. Called "an honourable man of straight heart" by Polish King Jan Sobieski, the Elector of Saxony, at whose request the battle call had been changed from "Mary Help" to "Jesus and Mary Help", showed tremendous personal courage on the left wing in the Battle of Vienna, for which neither the Catholic Emperor nor his own Protestant estates ever thanked him.

Despite the multi-national composition and the short time, an effective leadership structure was established, which doubtlessly centered around the King of Poland.

It should be never forgotten as well that Louis XIV of France not only declined to join, but used the opportunity to raid cities in Alsace and other parts of South Germany.

During early September, Turkish sappers repeatedly blew up large portions of the walls, creating gaps of about 12m width. The Austrians tried to counter by digging their own tunnels to intercept the depositing of large amounts of gunpowder in subterranean caverns. The Turks finally managed to occupy the Burg ravelin and the Niederwall on September 8. Anticipating a breach in the city walls, Starhemberg and the remaining Austrians prepared to fight in Vienna itself.

The Alliance forces arrived on the "Kahlen Berg" (bare hill) above Vienna, signaling their arrival with bonfires. In the early morning hours of September 12, Mass was held for King Jan Sobieski of Poland and his nobles.

At 04:00, the Turks attacked to interfere with the deployment of the Alliance troops. Charles of Lorraine moved forward with the Austrian army on the left and the German forces in the center.

Mustafa Pasha launched a counter-attack with most of his force, but held back some of the elite Janissary and Spahi units for a simultaneous assault on the city. The Turkish commanders had intended to take Vienna before the Polish forces arrived, but time ran out. Their sappers had prepared another large detonation under the Löbelbastei to finally breach the walls. While the Turks hastily finished their work and sealed the tunnel to make the explosion more effective, the Austrian "moles" detected it in the afternoon. One of them entered and defused the load -- just in time.

Meanwhile, above, the Polish infantry launched a massive assault upon the Turkish right flank. Instead of focusing on the battle with the relief army, the Turks tried to force their way into the city, carrying their crescent flag.

After twelve hours of fighting, the Poles held the high ground on the right. The Alliance cavalry waited on the hills, watching the infantry battle for the whole day. Then at about 17:00, they attacked in four groups. One group was Austrian-German, and the other three were Polish. Over 20,000 men (one of the largest cavalry charges in history), charged down the hills. It was led by Jan Sobieski at the head of 3,000 Polish heavy lancers, the awe-inspiring "Winged Hussars", whose mere noise sent the Turks flying. The Lipka Tatars who fought on the Polish side wore a sprig of straw in their helmets to distinguish themselves from the Tatars fighting for the other side. The Polish charge broke the lines of the Turks, who were tired from the long fight on two fronts. In the confusion, the Polish cavalry headed straight for the Turkish camp, while the remaining Vienna garrison sallied out of their defenses to join the assault.

The Turks, tired and dispirited following the failure of both, the sapping attempt and the brute force assault on the city, were quick to retreat when the arrival of the Polish cavalry finally turned the tide of the battle against them. In less than three hours after the Polish attack, the Christian forces had prevailed. At 17:30, Jan Sobieski entered the deserted tent of Kara Mustafa and the battle of Vienna for the Christian West was over.

What happened later?

Graf Rüdiger Starhemberg was made field marshal by a grateful Emperor Leopold. Severely injured in a later war, he became President of the Hofkriegsrat and thus in charge of the organisation of the Austrian army, which he radically modernised, emphasising the importance of the artillery.

Charles of Lorraine went on to re-conquer Hungary, Slavonia and Transsylvania from the Turks. His death in 1690 made, according to Voltaire, Louis XIV of France say that the "grandest, wisest and most generous" of his enemies was now dead. And that man had a lot.

Jan Sobieski was looked upon as the saviour of Vienna and the whole Christian Europe. He died in 1696. It is part of the tragic history of the gallant and hapless Polish people that he wasn't able to carry forward a dynasty. Instead by his son Jacob Louis Henry Sobieski, he was followed by the Saxon king August the Strong. 256 years minus 12 days later, Europe refused to honour the huge debt they owed Poland and paid a high price for it.

It is said that, rushing into the Turkish camp, the victorious troops discovered a new drink still brewing on the fire: Coffee. So Vienna became the center of of the world's coffee culture.

The battle at the gates of Vienna broke the advance of Islam into the Christian West and granted Christianity roughly 300 years of respite, which weren't put to good use.

"Halal" products arrive in Spain "before this summer"

The arrival at Spanish market of the Islamic banking way has already been given an arrival day. Before this summer, all the people who would like to hire Halal-guaranteed financial products, that is, those who respect the Sharia law's legal obligations in these matters, would be able to. The main characteristic of the Islamic banking rules is that it does not produce interests or ribaa, because this is forbidden in the Coran, as a form of usury.

It has been already confirmed to El Confidencial Digital by the director of the Halal Institute of the Islamic Council, Isabel Arroyo. It is a business which is already moving between €300,000 and 500,000 millions around the world.

The responsible of the Halal Institute remembers that they have been working in this business with BanCaja -the entity born after an agreement between Spanish Post Service and German Deutsche Bank in Spain- during more than "a year and a half" and that, nowadays, they are continuing with the negotiations, just confronting the last obstacles they are finding to inagurate this kind of banking services. Anyway, arroyo is optimistic and assures, in statements to ECD that "before this summer" this new type of products will be available in Spain.