Another day, another blood-for-cartoons terror plot by "insulted" Muslim jihadist thugs. This one reported by FOX. The good news is that the Danish intelligence service is on the ball and shut this one down before anyone got hurt. The bad news is that in the minds of the dhimmified majority, this won't even count as an "attack" since "it didn't actually happen".
Denmark Arrests 5 Suspected of Planning Terror Attack
COPENHAGEN, Denmark
Five men planning to shoot as many people as possible in a building housing the newsroom of a paper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were arrested Wednesday in an operation that halted an imminent attack, intelligence officials said.
Denmark's intelligence service said it arrested four men in two raids in suburbs of the capital, Copenhagen, and seized an automatic weapon, a silencer and ammunition. Swedish police said they arrested a 37-year-old Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin living in Stockholm.
"An imminent terror attack has been foiled," said Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or PET. He described some the suspects as "militant Islamists with relations to international terror networks" and said that more arrests were possible.
PET said it seized a 44-year-old Tunisian, a 29-year-old Lebanese-born man and a 30-year-old who were living in Sweden and had entered Denmark late Tuesday or early Wednesday. The fourth person detained was a 26-year-old Iraqi asylum-seeker living in Copenhagen.
The Danish intelligence service said the group had been planning to enter the building where the Jyllands-Posten daily has its Copenhagen newsdesk and had wanted "to kill as many of the people present as possible." The four men face preliminary charges of attempting to carry out an act of terrorism. They will face a custody hearing Thursday.
Read the rest here. SSDD.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
China, India, and the OIC Conspiring To Have International Governing Body Take Over The Internet?
The stark conclusion from a report by Aaron Eitan Meyer at the Lawfare Project:
The three specific issues considered above serve to illustrate that the Internet is at a critical stage of development during its shift from a primarily American-directed creation to a multilaterally regulated entity. The Arab League and OIC have determined technological development and the Internet itself to be high-priority areas of development, and it is likely that gaining influence and/or control over Internet infrastructure, including through ICANN, is part of the apparent OIC strategy, though it has been the Arab League that has so far taken concrete steps to gain recognition and power at ICANN.Sultan Knish comments further on Lawfare’s report in Hijacking the Internet:
To this point, continued American control of ICANN and its critical subsidiary, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA),[33] have largely directed the development of the Internet. However, there is considerable pressure on the United States to cede control over IANA to ICANN when the current contract between the Department of Commerce and IANA expires on September 20, 2011,[34] including pressure emanating from the European Union, as expressed at ICANN’s meeting in Brussels held this past June.[35]
Should the United States prove to be amenable to the E.U.’s suggestions and allow the contract with IANA to expire, it would lose considerable influence over ICANN, and the power structures governing Internet expansion and evolution would shift considerably – and not necessarily solely towards a European-dominated model.
The OIC has already effectively used the UN to push its censorship agenda. But the UN is virtually toothless when it comes to the United States. However if the Muslim world can dominate ICANN the way it dominates the UN General Assembly, then free speech on the internet is dead.
If this succeeds then 10 years from now, not only will sites like Jihad Watch or Religion of Peace lose their domain names, and most discussion of Islamic terrorism have to ‘go on the run’ in pop up social media groups that constantly get shut down (already the situation on sites such as Facebook) functioning like rats in the walls. But even the sites of mainstream politicians and newspapers will be targeted. Mandatory filtering by ISP’s. The removal of Israel’s Il domain, are all possibilities. And if anything I probably haven’t gone far enough.
The internet will become what the UN General Assembly is, a voice that speaks the Islamic narrative as one and bans any discussion or debate. Or marginalizes it so far that it never gets heard. Is this already underway? Yes.
On September 25, 2010, ICANN’s board of directors removed a reference to “terrorism” from the fourth version of its Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG, or DAGv4), after complaints were received from several Arab individuals and organizations.
1) Until 2009, ICANN necessarily complied with applicable United States Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations regarding terrorism, and had no reason to specify such as the subject of a background check.
2) The term “terrorism” was included without any conceivably objectionable modifiers such as “Islamist.”
3) The Chairman of the (Pan Arab) Multilingual Internet Group Khaled Fattal declared that the term “terrorism” itself was objectionable because “it will be seen by millions of Muslims and Arabs as racist, prejudicial and profiling.” Fattal requested not only its removal, but an apology from ICANN.
The two-pronged approach of silencing dissent and unleashing terror is underway. This is why the internationalization of ICANN poses the gravest of threats not just to the thing we call freedom of speech on the internet, but to the entire global organization of knowledge and debate that has come to run through its networks. If ICANN goes IslamCANN then they will have captured the consensus.
This is a situation that few are talking about, even though in retrospect it may come to be one of the 5 issues that dramatically changes the world as we know it.
Meanwhile the UN is working along its own track.
The United Nations is considering whether to set up an inter-governmental working group to harmonise global efforts by policy makers to regulate the internet.
Establishment of such a group has the backing of several countries, spearheaded by Brazil.
At a meeting in New York on Wednesday, representatives from Brazil called for an international body made up of Government representatives that would attempt to create global standards for policing the internet – specifically in reaction to challenges such as WikiLeaks.
The Brazilian delegate stressed, however, that this should not be seen as a call for a “takeover” of the internet.
But that’s exactly what it is. A unified set of laws with regard to the internet is not about policing criminal activity. That is already policed under existing laws. It’s about criminalizing dissent.
Brazil’s left wing regime, which just decided to recognize Palestinian Arab terrorists as a state, tried to help Iranian dictator Ahmadinejad get nuclear fuel, is acting as a stalking horse for the takeover of the internet.
India, South Africa, China and Saudi Arabia appeared to favour a new possible over-arching inter-government body.
The appearance of China and Saudi Arabia on this list is not exactly shocking. China wants to tightly control all content that its citizens access. And Saudi Arabia representing the Muslim world wants to control the depiction of Islam worldwide. Between the Muslim world and China and left wing regimes like Brazil, there is a common agenda. Censorship. Control.
US politicians have responded to moves from within the United Nations to form an inter-Government panel to regulate the internet, putting forward a resolution demanding the UN maintain a “hands-off approach”.
California Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack has put forward a resolution that the United Nations and other international governmental organisations take their hands off the Internet.
Introducing House Resolution 1775 [see full text below], Mack argued that “the Internet has progressed and thrived precisely because it has not been subjected to the suffocating effect of a governmental organization’s heavy hand.
“The attempt of the United Nations to overtake something that is so central to our economy-like the Internet-is offensive and completely out of line,” she said.
“We have a hard enough time keeping the Federal Communications Commission’s hands off the Internet; imagine having to convince governments like Syria, Iran and Venezuela.”
A Republican congress is better position to oppose this, but the Obama Administration is committed to few things more seriously, than to weakening American power and collaborating with the ascension of the Muslim world.
The only real obstacle is likely to come from tech companies such as Google who benefit from open policies and don’t want to see the boot of dictatorships come down on them. Not just for ideological reasons, but for profit motives too.
NYTIMES: OBAMA TO ACHIEVE DEATH PANELS BY EXECUTIVE FIAT
"If you have another heart attack and your heart stops beating, would you want us to try to restart it? Do you want to go on a breathing machine for the rest of your life? When the time comes, do you want us to use technology to try and delay your death?"--- Dr. Maria J. Silveira via NYT article.
An excellent post from Reliapundit at the Astute Bloggers:
WHEN THE GOVERNMENT PAYS FOR SENIORS' HEALTHCARE AND YOUR PENSION, THEN THEY GET A DOUBLE WINDFALL WHEN SENIORS DIE;When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system.
But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1. Under the new policy, outlined in a regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.
Congressional supporters of the new policy, though pleased, have kept quiet. They fear provoking another furor like the one in 2009 when Republicans seized on the idea of end-of-life counseling to argue that the Democrats’ bill would allow the government to cut off care for the critically ill.
The final version of the health care legislation, signed into law by in March, authorized Medicare coverage of yearly physical examinations, or wellness visits. The new rule says Medicare will cover “voluntary advance care planning,” to discuss end-of-life treatment, as part of the annual visit.
Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an “advance directive,” stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make health care decisions for themselves.
While the new law does not mention advance care planning, the Obama administration has been able to achieve its policy goal through the regulation-writing process, a strategy that could become more prevalent in the next two years as the president deals with a strengthened Republican opposition in Congress.
THEREFORE, THE SOONER SENIORS DIE THE BETTER.
REDUCING END -OF-LIFE CARE AND ENCOURAGING SENIORS TO DIE SOONER IS A GOAL OF OBAMA AND THE LEFT - IT'S HOW THEY INTEND TO SAVE MONEY.
IT'S HOW OBAMA AND THE LEFT INTEND TO SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, AND REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS.
A LEFTIST TRIFECTA.
ABORTIONS AND EUTHANASIA CAN HELP THE LEFT REDUCE GLOBAL HUMAN POPULATION - ANOTHER LONG-TERM GOAL OF THE LEFT.
LOOKIT FOLKS:
DECIDING TO REFUSE CARE IS FINE - POPE JOHN PAUL 2 DID IT. IT'S FINE IF THE DECISION IS MADE BETWEEN THE PATIENT, HIS DOCTOR AND HIS G-D.
WHAT'S WRONG IS WHEN THE GOVERNMENT IS INVOLVED -
OR WHEN THE DOCTOR INVOLVED NO LONGER IS CARING FOR THE PATIENT AS MUCH AS HE IS WATCHING THE BUDGET,
OR BEING MORE MINDFUL OF PUBLIC HEALTH THAN OF THE PATIENT'S HEALTH.
UNFORTUNATELY, OBAMACARE HAS US HEADED TOWARD DEATH PANELS: GETTING SENIORS TO FORGO MEDICAL CARE FOR THE "COMMON GOOD".
THIS IS A MAJOR REASON IT MUST BE ERADICATED.
More Bailout Failure
From Weasel Zippers, citing WSJ:Nearly 100 U.S. banks that got bailout funds from the federal government show signs they are in jeopardy of failing.The Recession is over, my ass.
The total, based on an analysis of third-quarter financial results by The Wall Street Journal, is up from 86 in the second quarter, reflecting eroding capital levels, a pileup of bad loans and warnings from regulators. The 98 banks in shaky condition got more than $4.2 billion in infusions from the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
When TARP was created in the heat of the financial crisis, government officials said it would help only healthy banks.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Heh: Actor Who Made $12.5 Million for ‘Gigli’ Says Corporate CEOs are Overpaid
From Newsbusters:
On Tuesday’s Morning Edition, actor Ben Affleck was selling his new movie about corporate layoffs, Company Men, and anchorman Steve Inskeep carefully led the left-wing actor onto a soapbox to lecture about the immorality of American capitalism and financiers who do nothing but “move money back and forth”:Let’s throw Gigli, the disastrous movie that Affleck received $12.5 million to make, out of the mix and use a lower figure for comparison. Affleck reportedly earned a paltry $10 million for The Sum of All Fears. Let’s consider other “average workers” in that field. For example, according to Salary.com, the median salary for a camera operator in the television & motion picture industry in Los Angeles is just over $80,000 per year.
INSKEEP: There’s a line in Company Men that’s staying with me. Tommy Lee Jones is at a corporate conference table. Someone else at the conference table is discussing their plans to lay off a bunch of workers. And nearly all the workers being laid off are older, which could be construed as being wrong or illegal. Someone at the table says: “Oh, no. This is going to pass legal scrutiny.” And Jones responds: “I always thought we aimed for a little higher standard than that.”
AFFLECK: That speaks so perfectly to people’s feelings about our country. It’s like it’s just about getting by, or people can like let people go if they can get away with it, that there’s no deeper sense of right or wrong. The banks shouldn’t — people shouldn’t make such a giant profit off just moving money back and forth. And CEOs’ pay shouldn’t be 200 times the average worker. It used to be nine times.
Affleck makes in the neighborhood of 125 times more than that on one movie. Factor in an entire year and he probably earns in the neighborhood of 500 times the “average worker” in his industry — maybe a lot more.
Before we start regulating CEO pay, maybe we should start with actors. The Hollywood left likes the idea of creeping socialism, just as long as it doesn’t creep any farther west than San Bernardino.
Happiness is an Israeli Flash Mob!
300 dancers on an Israeli beach.
Read it at Planck's Constant (Thanks RRA)
Read it at Planck's Constant (Thanks RRA)
I am an Atheist but if God exists, this is how he would design his creation: to be joyful in the life given them. Now go look at the faces of the women in Islam, see how happy they are. Ooops, you can't - they veil their faces in shame at that their oppression and their dreary colorless lives. If only they could be like the Jews.
Fox:
Somali Insurgents: Obama Must Convert to Islam or Attacks on U.S. Will Come
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A leader of Somalia's Islamist insurgency threatened to attack America during a speech broadcast Monday.
"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country," said Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf.
Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment. About 20 have traveled to Somalia for training and at least three were used as suicide bombers inside Somalia. Al-Shabab holds most of southern and central Somalia and has the support of hundreds of foreign fighters, mostly radicalized East Africans.
It seeks to overthrow the weak U.N.-backed government, which is protected by 8,000 Ugandan and Burundian African Union peacekeepers.
The al-Shabab militia launched coordinated attacks in Uganda in July that killed 76 people. It has also announced its allegiance to Al Qaeda and is believed to be harboring a mastermind of the twin 2008 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.
The radio message was recorded in the town of Afgoye, near the Somali capital, during a meeting of Shongole and Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, formerly the leader of insurgent group Hizbul Islam. The two insurgent groups had clashed several times previously but announced a merger last week. Aweys said his group will fight under al-Shabab's command.
"We have united for the sake of our ideology and we are going to redouble our efforts to remove the government and the African Union from the country," said Aweys on Monday.
In an unrelated development, the Somali information minister said the new Cabinet had approved the use of a private security contractor to train forces in the capital of Mogadishu and the program would start "soon".
Saracen International would train forces for VIP protection, said Abdulkareem Jama. He said he did not know exactly when training would start, what the men's duties would include or how many men would be trained but he said the program included the renovation of a hospital and government buildings.
Somali officials are frequently killed by insurgents, both in single assassinations and en masse in suicide bombings and attacks. The Somali ambassador in Kenya previously said that up to 1,000 men could be trained in the capital for an anti-piracy force and 300 for a presidential guard.
Saracen is already training 1,000 men for an anti-piracy force in the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland.
The program has been criticized by U.S. officials who say it is unclear who is funding it, what its objectives are and whether it breaks a U.N. arms embargo.
Jama said the Somali cabinet had discussed those issues and were satisfied the embargo was not being broken but he did not say who was funding the program.
"There is a need for training," he said. "There was an effort to slow down the project (in Mogadishu) because of those concerns."
The arid Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government since a socialist dictatorship collapsed in 1991. Its position on the Horn of Africa means pirates can use its long coastline to capture shipping.
Analysts fear that Al Qaeda-linked insurgents are also gaining ground across the Gulf of Aden in the unstable nation of Yemen. If Yemen fell, that would mean failed states on either side of the shipping route leading into the strategically vital Suez Canal, the route taken by a substantial portion of the world's oil shipments.
Somali Insurgents: Obama Must Convert to Islam or Attacks on U.S. Will Come
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A leader of Somalia's Islamist insurgency threatened to attack America during a speech broadcast Monday.
"We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country," said Fuad Mohamed "Shongole" Qalaf.
Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment. About 20 have traveled to Somalia for training and at least three were used as suicide bombers inside Somalia. Al-Shabab holds most of southern and central Somalia and has the support of hundreds of foreign fighters, mostly radicalized East Africans.
It seeks to overthrow the weak U.N.-backed government, which is protected by 8,000 Ugandan and Burundian African Union peacekeepers.
The al-Shabab militia launched coordinated attacks in Uganda in July that killed 76 people. It has also announced its allegiance to Al Qaeda and is believed to be harboring a mastermind of the twin 2008 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.
The radio message was recorded in the town of Afgoye, near the Somali capital, during a meeting of Shongole and Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, formerly the leader of insurgent group Hizbul Islam. The two insurgent groups had clashed several times previously but announced a merger last week. Aweys said his group will fight under al-Shabab's command.
"We have united for the sake of our ideology and we are going to redouble our efforts to remove the government and the African Union from the country," said Aweys on Monday.
In an unrelated development, the Somali information minister said the new Cabinet had approved the use of a private security contractor to train forces in the capital of Mogadishu and the program would start "soon".
Saracen International would train forces for VIP protection, said Abdulkareem Jama. He said he did not know exactly when training would start, what the men's duties would include or how many men would be trained but he said the program included the renovation of a hospital and government buildings.
Somali officials are frequently killed by insurgents, both in single assassinations and en masse in suicide bombings and attacks. The Somali ambassador in Kenya previously said that up to 1,000 men could be trained in the capital for an anti-piracy force and 300 for a presidential guard.
Saracen is already training 1,000 men for an anti-piracy force in the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland.
The program has been criticized by U.S. officials who say it is unclear who is funding it, what its objectives are and whether it breaks a U.N. arms embargo.
Jama said the Somali cabinet had discussed those issues and were satisfied the embargo was not being broken but he did not say who was funding the program.
"There is a need for training," he said. "There was an effort to slow down the project (in Mogadishu) because of those concerns."
The arid Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government since a socialist dictatorship collapsed in 1991. Its position on the Horn of Africa means pirates can use its long coastline to capture shipping.
Analysts fear that Al Qaeda-linked insurgents are also gaining ground across the Gulf of Aden in the unstable nation of Yemen. If Yemen fell, that would mean failed states on either side of the shipping route leading into the strategically vital Suez Canal, the route taken by a substantial portion of the world's oil shipments.
Ongoing jihadist recruiting in Malaysian universities
Or as Captain Renault from 'Casablanca' might have deadpanned, "I'm shocked, shocked to find 'militant recruiting' going on in here."
This headline from AFP reads "Malaysian colleges a hotbed for militant recruiting". Uh, militant what, exactly? Militant Christianity? Militant Buddhism? Militant environmentalism?
Remember that the media encodes their coverage of the Islam's Great Jihad against the World--'militant' is always a codeword for 'a devout follower of Islam' or 'one who wages jihad (violent or otherwise) against kufr,apostates, and other enemies of Islam.'
Besides, since we all, ahem, know that 'militancy' is caused by poverty, a lack of education, and a lack of knowledge of the supposedly peaceful teachings of Islam, shouldn't Malaysian universities be the last place such recruiting would take place?
Apparently the wise Muslims who run this country have conveniently forgotten about the last two terrorist kingpins that came from this country. Both, as it were, were highly educated MUSLIMS who taught in Malaysian universities.
This headline from AFP reads "Malaysian colleges a hotbed for militant recruiting". Uh, militant what, exactly? Militant Christianity? Militant Buddhism? Militant environmentalism?
Remember that the media encodes their coverage of the Islam's Great Jihad against the World--'militant' is always a codeword for 'a devout follower of Islam' or 'one who wages jihad (violent or otherwise) against kufr,apostates, and other enemies of Islam.'
Besides, since we all, ahem, know that 'militancy' is caused by poverty, a lack of education, and a lack of knowledge of the supposedly peaceful teachings of Islam, shouldn't Malaysian universities be the last place such recruiting would take place?
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia's universities have become prime recruiting grounds for Islamic militants looking for youngsters to draw into terrorist networks, security experts warn.
Unlike neighbouring Indonesia and Thailand, the moderate Muslim-majority nation has remained largely free of terror attacks but there are fears that lax admission policies have created a haven for jihadists. (Of course, the creation of jihadists has absolutely nothing to do with the teachings of the Quran and Islam. Never ever think about that, dear reader!)
A string of arrests and detentions this year have highlighted the growing presence of radicals using Malaysia as a base to sign up supporters and plan attacks.
"The terror threat to Malaysia is very real in terms of terrorists who come in as students," Zamihan Mat Zin, deputy head of the Malaysian Islamic Training Centre, told AFP.
"They are under the radar so they can recruit and create terrorists in our midst," said Zamihan, who is among a group of Muslim scholars engaged by the government to rehabilitate terror suspects in custody. (They're 'under the radar' when your heads are in the sand, yes?)
In June, authorities deported 45-year-old Al-Qaeda-linked Syrian scholar Aiman Al Dakak along with eight other foreigners from Syria, Yemen, Nigeria and Jordan, most of them students. (Most of those places are majority Muslim countries...just a coincidence, n'est-ce pas?)
Al Dakak gave lectures to Malaysian and foreign students at his Kuala Lumpur home, allegedly indoctrinating them with jihadist ideology and urging them to carry out bombings on places of worship in the multi-ethnic nation. (What's the difference between 'jihadist ideology' and Islam? Isn't it a distinction without a difference?)
The following month, engineer Mohamad Fadzullah was detained under internal security laws for trying to recruit students at Malaysia's national university and technical institutes for the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist group.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said after the deportations that the phenomenon was an "unhealthy trend which can affect national security". (Yeah, piles of dead bodies and explosions in major cities can be 'unhealthy'.)
He said foreign militants were using Malaysia as a base to carry out financial transactions, share information and sign up new followers. (emphasis added)
Apparently the wise Muslims who run this country have conveniently forgotten about the last two terrorist kingpins that came from this country. Both, as it were, were highly educated MUSLIMS who taught in Malaysian universities.
Merry Christmas, kuffar. More on this story. "Christmas bomb plot: nine men remanded over plan to 'blow up Big Ben and Westminster Abbey,'" by Caroline Gammell in the Telegraph:
Nine alleged terrorists plotted a Christmas bombing campaign targeting sites that included the London Stock Exchange and Big Ben, a court heard.Click on the title to read the whole thing at Jihad Watch.
They are alleged to have carried out reconnaissance missions before deciding on their possible targets.
Police were said to have found a list of six sites, including the full postal address of the Stock Exchange, Boris Johnson's London mayoral office and the US embassy.
Defendants were seen studying the tower of Big Ben, before inspecting Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and the Church of Scientology.
2010: The Year the Internet Went to War
From Good Shit:
It was a year without parallel. Threat Level’s bread-and-butter themes of censorship, hacking, security, privacy, copyright and cyberwar were all represented in tug-of-war struggles with unprecedented outcomes.
Google defeated China’s censors, but caved to corporate censorship in the United States. The largest computer-crime case ever prosecuted ended in the nation’s longest prison term. A small-time Xbox modder who advertised his services online beat the federal rap. And a mysterious computer virus called Stuxnet finally put proof to decades of warnings that malware will eventually be used to kinetic effect in the real world.
A myriad of court decisions seemed to be a boon for online rights, while others clearly were a step backward. The year 2010 saw the rise of the newspaper copyright troll, and judges pushed back on absurd jury verdicts for music file sharing and outdated electronic spying rules.
And a secret-spilling website flirting with insolvency and dissolution suddenly burst onto the world stage. WikiLeaks was without a doubt the biggest 2010 development in Threat Level’s world.
READ HERE.
Batman a Muslim? What Next? Robin Wears a Burqa?
FUCK ISLAM:
Reality isn’t always very fun. Because of that many people turn to comic books for a little escapism. But there’s escapism and PC indoctrination. Sadly, it appears that DC Comics’ Batman is angling for the latter and not the former. You see, Batman has decided to hire a Muslim to “save France.”
First the reality. The country of France is having serious domestic problems between its immigrant Muslim community and those natural-born, European Frenchmen. Immigrants have been rampaging across the country for several years now. Clashes between police and large groups of rioting Muslim youth have wreaked havoc on the Gallic nation. Violence is all too common — it is woefully common for hundreds of cars to be lit afire in these riots and dozens of arrests to be made. It has the country split and frightened.
It has gotten so bad in France that in some parts of its cities, those parts controlled by marauding gangs of Muslim youths, whites never enter for fear of their lives. Not only that but not even police dare enter these areas. This dangerous situation does not seem anywhere near being solved. In fact, it’s just getting worse.
Now for the fantasy: enter The Batman.
DC Comics recently launched a series called “Batman Incorporated.” Essentially, Bruce Wayne (well-known as Batman’s alter ego to comics fans) is cruising the world setting up a “Batman” for major cities across the globe. These Batman figures, though, will not be vigilantes. They will be sanctioned by whatever local police force is in charge of the area in which the new Batman is operating. In the case of Detective Comics number 12 (Part one) and Batman Annual number 28 (Part two), Bruce Wayne has come to Paris, France to find a “French savior.”
The story reveals to us a cult-like group that is assassinating France’s fringe political figures. The cult’s goal is to cause unrest and riots to be led by the murdered political figure’s followers. This group hypnotizes its members to kill and then to commit suicide so that the cult cannot be discovered.
First a “popular” French union activist “with ties to the French Communist Party” is murdered. Next the leader of a “break-away Neo-Nazi Party” is killed. Then Batman discovers that a “minor diplomat” from Saudi Arabia is targeted. Batman tries to stop the assassination but is too late.
Batman turns to a man that he helped police arrest earlier in part one. When first encountered the young man was dressed in a skin-tight, black costume and sported a face mask. Batman arrested him when this man tried to involve himself in some rioting. Batman didn’t know the young masked man was actually trying to stop the riot but later learns of his good intentions. Consequently the Dark Knight decides to put this man to work to help stop the cult that is assassinating French political figures and causing riots.
In the course of this story Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, decides that this man should become the French representative of Batman Incorporated. As Wayne styles the man, he’ll be the “French savior.” He ends up calling himself Nightrunner.
So what’s wrong with all this? Only that it is completely absurd and so badly misleads people from any understanding of why riots are really going on in France that it almost qualifies as a crime itself.
You see, DC Comics has decided that the “French savior,” the French Batman is to be a Muslim immigrant. The character’s name is Bilal Asselah and he is an Algerian Sunni Muslim and an immigrant that is physically fit and adept at gymnastic sport Parkour. Apparently Batman couldn’t find any actual Frenchman to be the “French savior.”
As DC told the tale of this character’s origin, it badly downplays the seriousness of the actual racial tension in France. In essence, all you get from the story is that “they hate us, and we hate them.” There is no attempt at all to explain the real underlying problem. The true cause of the riots and violence between Frenchmen of European stock and that of immigrant Muslim stock is glossed over as if it doesn’t even exist. DC Comics makes the whole problem as simplistic as mere racism as if that is all there is to it ignoring the fact that Islam is the single most important factor in the strife.
Unfortunately, readers of Batman will not be helped to understand what troubles are really besetting France. In this age when Muslim youths are terrorizing the entire country, heck in this age of international Muslim terrorism assaulting the whole world, Batman’s readers will be confused by what is really going on in the world. Through it all DC makes a Muslim in France a hero when French Muslims are at the center of some of the worst violence in the country’s recent memory.
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