HonestThinking is dedicated to topics related to culture, politics, science, and philosophy. Our focus is currently on human rights, democracy, and the relationship between Islam and the Western civilization. To understand what HonestThinking is all about, please read our manifesto.

UK immigration out of control

29.12.2006. Immigrants are now entering the UK at the rate of nearly one a minute. An analysis of the latest immigration statistics by think-tank Migrationwatch, plus the recent IPPR report on the record emigration of British people highlight the unprecedented changes that are taking place in the nature of British society. (See report) [...]

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said that it was increasingly clear that the Government had not thought through the consequences of these immigration levels - the highest in our history - and it was only now that the true costs were becoming apparent.

'They have been trying their best to obscure what is really happening by pretending that this mass immigration is a success, even though it is the result of government miscalculation and neglect. But the strains in terms of schools, health and housing refuse to go away - not to mention the impact on the employment prospects of British people as the unemployment numbers steadily increase. These are conveniently airbrushed out of the picture,' he said.

'This is all taking place against the express wishes of the vast majority of the population who repeatedly tell pollsters that immigration is their top concern - yet these fully justified concerns fall on deaf ears,' said Sir Andrew. Read the entire press release from Migrationwatch.

A Battle for Global Values

28.12.2006. Writes UK prime minister Tony Blair: To me, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is how progressive it is. I write with great humility as a member of another faith. As an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, much as reformers attempted to do with the Christian church centuries later. The Koran is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and far ahead of its time in attitudes toward marriage, women, and governance.

Under its guidance, the spread of Islam and its dominance over previously Christian or pagan lands were breathtaking. Over centuries, Islam founded an empire and led the world in discovery, art, and culture. The standard-bearers of tolerance in the early Middle Ages were far more likely to be found in Muslim lands than in Christian ones. [...]

We have to show that our values are not Western, still less American or Anglo-Saxon, but values in the common ownership of humanity, universal values that should be the right of the global citizen. Read article in Foreign Affairs.

How the West Could Lose

26.12.2006. After defeating fascists and communists, can the West now defeat the Islamists? [...] They could even win. That's because, however strong the Western hardware, its software contains some potentially fatal bugs. Three of them – pacifism, self-hatred, complacency – deserve attention.

Pacifism, self-hatred and complacency are lengthening the war against radical Islam and causing undue casualties. Only after absorbing catastrophic human and property losses will left-leaning Westerners likely overcome this triple affliction and confront the true scope of the threat. The civilized world will likely then prevail, but belatedly and at a higher cost than need have been.

Should Islamists get smart and avoid mass destruction, but instead stick to the lawful, political, non-violent route, and should their movement remain vital, it is difficult to see what will stop them. Article by Daniel Pipes, the New York Sun.

Outrage in Belgium after television broadcast hoax

18.12.2006. BRUSSELS: The newscast showed fuzzy pictures that appeared to be King Albert II and Queen Paola fleeing the country on an air force plane as a clutch of pro-monarchy demonstrators waved Belgian flags outside the royal palace. Then there was live footage of trams blocked at Belgium's new border.

Flanders, the report declared, had proclaimed its independence. Belgium, a fragile federal country of 10 million people, famous for its 300 kinds of beer, its funky designers and its more than a dozen different parliaments and regional governments, was no more. But was it?

The television broadcast that rocked a nation — prompting a headline in the Thursday issue of Le Soir newspaper to proclaim "Belgium Died Last Night" — turned out, in fact, to be little more than a hoax. And on Thursday, the country, divided as it is between Dutch- speaking Flanders in the North and French-speaking Wallonia in the south, was reeling. See article in International Herald Tribune.

Raped in Oslo

13.12.2006: The number of rapes in the Norwegian capital Oslo is six times as high as in New York City. I’ve written about the issue of rape and Muslim immigration so many times that I am, quite frankly, a bit tired of the subject. But as we all know, problems don’t disappear just because you are tired of talking about them, so here goes: Fjordman writes for The Brussels Journal.

Blair: Paying religious groups is a mistake

10.12.2006. Tony Blair formally declared Britain's multiculturalist experiment over today as he told immigrants they had "a duty" to integrate with the mainstream of society. In a speech that overturned more than three decades of Labour support for the idea, he set out a series of requirements that were now expected from ethnic minority groups if they wished to call themselves British. By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor, The Telegraph.

While Sweden Slept

10.12.2006. From a recent article by Bruce Bawer in The New York Sun: Now it's Sweden's turn. The Economist Intelligence Unit, associated with the Economist magazine, has awarded the title of world's most democratic country to Sweden. For many observers, this is not only wrong — it's staggeringly, outrageously misinformed. [...]

Dissent is powerfully discouraged. In Sweden [...] To quote Jonathan Friedman, a New Yorker who teaches social anthropology at the University of Lund, "no debate about immigration policies is possible" because Sweden's "political class," which controls public debate, simply avoids the topic. Recently, the city of Stockholm carried out a survey of ninth-grade boys in the predominantly Muslim suburb of Rinkeby. The survey showed that in the last year, 17% of the boys had forced someone to have sex, 31% had hurt someone so badly that the victim required medical care, and 24% had committed burglary or broken into a car. Sensational statistics — but in all of Sweden, they appear to have been published only in a daily newssheet that is distributed free on the subways. [...]

When voices of dissent do break through in Sweden, they're often punished. [...] Only one sizable party in the country, the Sweden Democrats, articulates most Swedes' concerns about their country's immigration and integration policies. Again and again, it has been the object of breathtakingly undemocratic treatment by the political establishment. [...] Sweden Democrats have been the targets of events that recall China's Cultural Revolution. Staged "people's protests" by members of the "youth divisions" of other parties have led to the firing of Sweden Democrats from their jobs. A few weeks ago, a junior diplomat was dismissed when it became known that he was a member of the party and had criticized his country's immigration policy. On several occasions, thugs loyal to the ruling parties have broken up Sweden Democratic meetings and beaten up party leaders. [...]

In 1972, the British historian Roland Huntford titled his book about Sweden "The New Totalitarians." He is echoed by a number of observers today who describe Sweden as an example of "soft totalitarianism." Are they right? That's a matter for debate — though it's a debate that won't take place in Sweden.

Article by Bruce Bawer in The New York Sun.

See also Islam on the Outskirts of the Welfare State, by Christopher Caldwell, New York Times, February 5, 2006.

Ankara Influenced Dutch Election Results

10.12.2006. From The Brussels Journal. Yesterday evening, the Dutch television program Nova caused considerable embarrassment in the Netherlands by revealing how the Turkish government influenced last months’ Dutch general elections. In an e-mail sent to thousands of ethnic Turks in the Netherlands the Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs called on them to vote for Fatma Koser Kaya, a 38-year old woman whose family emigrated to the Netherlands when she was six years old. Koser Kaya is a member of the leftist “social-liberal” Democrats 66 (D66) party. On 22 November, D66 lost three of its previous six seats in Parliament. Koser Kaya, however, though only sixth on the list of D66 candidates, was elected as one of the party’s three parliamentarians thanks to the 34,564 individual votes she got, possibly as a result of the Turkish government’s interference.

Immigrants are known to overwhelmingly vote for candidates of their own ethnic group. Since they have often not integrated in the country where they have settled their loyalties lie with their countries of origin. This has created a situation where the immigrants in Western democracies become Trojan horses of foreign nationalism and religious fanaticism. This phenomenon became apparent in this year’s local elections in the Netherlands and in neighbouring Belgium. It tipped the balance in favour of parties that put forward immigrant candidates. At the same time, however, it worked to the disadvantage of indigenous candidates on these parties’ lists, causing considerable resentment among the latter.

In an e-mail, sent from a government address in Ankara, the Turks in the Netherlands were asked to vote for Koser Kaya. The e-mail was sent by Ali Alaybeyoglu, the advisor to Mehmet Aydin, the Turkish minister of Religious Affairs. The first paragraph reads:

“We all realize that no-one can represent Turks better than Turks. The Turkish community is threatened by assimilation. If we do not unite and vote for a common candidate our position will only worsen in future.”

Read the entire article in The Brussels Journal.

The Latest Dhimmi News From Norway

09.12.2006. Editor Vebjørn Selbekk of the small, Christian newspaper Magazinet was scheduled to sign books at a bookshop in Oslo this Saturday. Now the book signing has been cancelled because the bookshop fears terror attacks. Read more at Gates of Vienna.

'Muslim-only' pool outrage

09.12.2006. A council has sparked fury by virtually shutting a swimming pool on Sunday afternoons for "Muslim-only" sessions. All women are banned -- and non-Muslim men may swim if they follow the strict Islamic dress code of swim shorts that hide the navel and extend below the knee.

Croydon Council in South London runs the sessions at Thornton Heath leisure centre between 4.45pm and 6.45pm. Similar slots are laid on for Muslim women outside opening hours, where bathers must be covered from the neck down to the ankle.

Locals who flock to the area's only major leisure centre each week are furious. Member Daniel Foley, 44, said: "I turned up and saw a sign saying it was closing early for Muslim afternoon -- I couldn't believe it." Read the article in The Sun.

HonestThinking comments: How about introducing Christian-only opening hours? What would the reactions be?

How the West Was Lost

06.12.2006. Is Islam compatible with democracy? This is a question I address elsewhere. We also have to ask ourselves, however, whether the conditions needed for a properly functioning democratic system are currently present even in the West. I’m not always sure about that. In a functioning democratic state, the state passes laws in accordance with the wishes of the people, and also strives to uphold these laws. In Western Europe in particular, the state does neither, as most laws are passed by unelected EU bureaucrats and not elected national parliaments, and as the streets are increasingly ruled by gangs and criminals. By Fjordman, in The Brussels Journal.

Immigration sparks white exodus from UK

03.12.2006. White Britons, alarmed at immigration, are fleeing the capital and even the country in record numbers in a “white flight” that mirrors South Africa’s exodus.

And this week a controversial new book which seeks to explain their flight, encouraged young British-born families to leave in the face of unchecked immigration .

A report by Britain’s chief immigration think-tank, Migrationwatch, said more than 100000 British-born Londoners have left the UK capital this year as immigrants stream into the city. By Rowan Philp, Sunday Times.

Faced with Radical Islam, Europe Is in Danger of Decay

03.12.2006. Two years ago, movie director Theo van Gogh’s throat was cut on a street in Amsterdam in the name of radical Islam. I had partaken in his last work, Submission, where we represented, in the most accurate way possible, the condition of Muslim women: tyranny, humiliations, violence. In this film, we showed Muslim women who had finally rebelled, talking to God in a tone of defiance. It made Imam Fawaz of the Hague scream with hate during the delivery of a vengeful sermon. My friend Theo, the “criminal bastard”, was subsequently riddled with bullets and stabbed to death with a dagger. Article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on

02.12.2006. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.

He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization. See Townhall.com.

Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes

01.12.2006. Islamic sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain, a report claims. Sharia, derived from several sources including the Koran, is applied to varying degrees in predominantly Muslim countries but it has no binding status in Britain.

However, the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. By Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor, The Telegraph.

Europe is Finished, Predicts Mark Steyn

19.11.2006. By Daniel Pipes. Mark Steyn, political columnist and cultural critic, has written a remarkable book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It (Regnery). He combines several virtues uncommonly found together – humor, accurate reportage, and deep thinking – then applies these to what is arguably the most consequential issue of our time: the Islamist threat to the West.

Mr. Steyn offers a devastating thesis but presents it in bits and pieces, so I shall pull it together here. Read the article from New York Sun, November 14, 2006.

Learning from Islam’s advance

14.11.2006. With the US heading towards a painful defeat in Iraq, the Taleban reconstituted, Iran proceeding on its nuclear path, the ‘democratisation’ of Islamic states a no-hoper, and the liberties taken by Muslims of the diaspora on the increase, Islam nevertheless continues to be misperceived.

In this battle of arms, ideals and ideas, Islam is sustained by faith in its own divinely inspired righteousness and truth. However, non-Muslims are not up against a ‘religion’ narrowly understood but a this-worldly political cause; even the wearing of the veil in the Muslim diaspora is a political gesture. Indeed, Islam’s ambition — enjoined throughout the Koran — is to establish its political and ethical dominion over the globe. In this respect, as in others, it has much in common with Marxism.

The latter taught that capitalism and the ‘class state’ would be overthrown by means of the ‘class struggle’ in socialism’s name, under whose auspices a moral Golden Age would dawn. Islam similarly teaches that by means of jihad — also ‘struggle’ — the world of the ‘infidel’, including the world of Western civil society, can be brought down by a variety of means both violent and pacific, and Islam will reign in its...  Read article in The Spectator.

Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss

12.11.2006. MI5 is fighting to contain a rapidly-growing terrorist threat, with at least 30 top-priority plots under investigation, the head of the security service said. By Philip Johnston, The Telegraph.

“Wild West” in the Paris Subway

10.11.2006. Quoted from Augean Stables: 100 “youths” from the “difficult neighborhoods” [...] attacked and robbed of their personal possessions passengers on the Metro inside Paris to the point that the police had to evacuate the station Chateau-Rouge, a site already on some people’s “dangerous sites in Paris” list.

This incident, which had people fleeing the subway in panic, [...] is not unprecedented. [...] [T]he French MSM [apart from Le Parisien] avoid any mention of the incident. Thus the French slowly but surely let some of the Metro stops and lines become “lost territories,” taken over by gangs whose information network is excellent, and the losers don’t even know it’s happening.

America Alone

05.11.2006. In America Alone - the end of the world as we know it, Mark Steyn presents us with a doomsday scenario backed by impeccable science and research, and he does it in such a clever manner that we are actually amused as we read of the impending demise of Europe-as-we-knew-it, Japan, and Canada. By Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu, in FrontPageMagazine.

Also see the the following article based on the book: The future belongs to Islam by Mark Steyn. And we remind our readers of Steyn's article from the OpinionJournal (from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page): It's the demography, stupid.

Empire Falls

01.11.2006. They called it "the American Century," but the past hundred years actually saw a shift away from Western dominance. Through the long lens of Edward Gibbon's history, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Rome 331 and America and Europe 2006 appear to have more than a few problems in common. Article by Niall Ferguson in Vanity Fair.

Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford. His latest book, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, comes out this month from Penguin Press.

French youth set woman on fire

01.11.2006. The French government Monday launched an intensive hunt for a gang of youths who horrified the country by setting a woman on fire during a weekend arson attack on a bus. PARIS, Oct 30, 2006 (AFP), Expatica.

Death in Brescia

30.10.2006. It's an ancient Italian city known for its conservatism. But in 17 days in August, seven people were callously murdered. Ed Vulliamy reports from an area riven by racism and organised crime. Sunday October 29, 2006, The Observer.

Media silence

28.10.2006. THE HAGUE - A bus with passengers in Amsterdam was attacked by a home-made chemical explosive [the previous] Friday evening. The incident received only limited media attention. See story on NIS News.

The Rape of Europe

26.10.2006. The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now. Read the article in The Brussels Journal.

Fighting Jihad at Home

25.10.2006. To be operationally useful, the notion of “Fighting Jihad at Home” demands a clear definition of Jihad, the evidence that the activity thus defined is present in the United States, and a set of policy recommendations to counter it. Read this thorough article by Srdja Trifkovic in Chronicles Magazine.

Srdja Trifkovic is the foreign-affairs editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture and director of The Rockford Institute's Center for International Affairs.

Racial murders: nearly half the victims are white

Home Office release official figures as police claim that political correctness is stifling the debate. By Antony Barnett, investigations editor, October 22, 2006, The Observer.

Europe knows not evil

22.10.2006. I, a French-born rabbi, have been sitting in a small synagogue in Brussels, celebrating the High Holy Days. Almost 200 years ago to the day, Napoleon convened an assembly of Jewish leaders to help him open the door of citizenship to French Jews. It was the Enlightenment. The Jews of France prepared to receive equal rights and become full partners in the affairs of state. They could call Europe home.

Now I wonder if it was all an illusion. I and other Jews have begun moving toward the sad and frankly terrifying realization that ultimately we may have no home in Europe. It is not that I no longer identify as a European, or that somehow my sense of loyalty to the place of my birth has weakened. No, it is not me who has changed, but Europe. A conflict has emerged between this new Europe and my Jewishness, and I do not know how to resolve it. Read the article in The Jerusalem Post.

Britain now No 1 al-Qaida target - anti-terror chiefs

21.10.2006. Officials say group sees July 7 attacks as 'just the beginning' of UK campaign. Britain has become the main target for a resurgent al-Qaida, which has successfully regrouped and now presents a greater threat than ever before, according to counter-terrorist officials. They have revised their views about the strength of the network abroad, and the methods terrorists are able to use in the UK. Read article in The Guardian.

Muslims are waging civil war against us, claims police union

21.10.2006. Radical Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day. Read the story in Telegraph.co.uk.

Across Europe, Worries on Islam Spread to Center

By DAN BILEFSKY and IAN FISHER
New York Times: October 11, 2006

BRUSSELS, Oct. 10 — Europe appears to be crossing an invisible line regarding its Muslim minorities: more people in the political mainstream are arguing that Islam cannot be reconciled with European values.

“You saw what happened with the pope,” said Patrick Gonman, 43, the owner of Raga, a funky wine bar in downtown Antwerp, 25 miles from here. “He said Islam is an aggressive religion. And the next day they kill a nun somewhere and make his point."

“Rationality is gone.”

Mr. Gonman is hardly an extremist. In fact, he organized a protest last week in which 20 bars and restaurants closed on the night when a far-right party with an anti-Muslim message held a rally nearby.

His worry is shared by centrists across Europe angry at terror attacks in the name of religion on a continent that has largely abandoned it, and disturbed that any criticism of Islam or Muslim immigration provokes threats of violence.

For years those who raised their voices were mostly on the far right. Now those normally seen as moderates — ordinary people as well as politicians — are asking whether once unquestioned values of tolerance and multiculturalism should have limits.

[...]

Lianne Duinberke, 34, who works at a market in the racially mixed northern section of Antwerp, said: “Before I was very eager to tell people I was married to a Muslim. Now I hesitate.” She has been with her husband, a Tunisian, for 12 years, and they have three children.

Many Europeans, she said, have not been accepting of Muslims, especially since 9/11. On the other hand, she said, Muslims truly are different culturally: No amount of explanation about free speech could convince her husband that the publication of cartoons lampooning Muhammad in a Danish newspaper was in any way justified.

When asked if she was optimistic or pessimistic about the future of Muslim immigration in Europe , she found it hard to answer. She finally gave a defeated smile. “I am trying to be optimistic,” she said. “But if you see the global problems before the people, then you really can’t be.”

Ramadan Rioting in Brussels

02.10.2006. Last Sunday the Islamic holy month of Ramadan began. It lasts until 23 October. Many will remember last year’s ramadan riots, which set France and, to a lesser extent, parts of Belgium and Denmark, alight. Rioting went on for three weeks. Each night thousands of cars were set alight by immigrant youths, until the French and Belgian governments ordered the police to no longer divulge any information about the disturbances, after which the media stopped reporting, the youths lost interest and the number of nightly “carbecues” in France dropped to the “normal” level of about 50.

It looks like some Brussels immigrant youths want to make “ramadan rioting” an annual event. Last Saturday morning, between 1 and 4 am, ten cars were set on fire in the Brussels borough of Schaarbeek. Last night several car and shop windows were smashed and one shop and five cars were set alight in the Brussels Marollen quarter. Read the article in The Brussels Journal.

How Britain is turning Christianity into a crime

02.10.2006. How long will it be before Christianity becomes illegal in Britain? This is no longer the utterly absurd and offensive question that on first blush it would appear to be. Article by Melanie Phillips in Daily Mail.

Death threats to philosophy teacher after criticizing Islam

29.09.2006. A French philosophy teacher recently came under police protection after receiving death threats over an article he wrote in a national newspaper, accusing Islam of "exalting violence", school and police officials said.

Robert Redeker has not attended classes at his secondary school near Toulouse in southern France since September 19, when his opinion column appeared in the national daily Le Figaro.

Under the heading In the face of Islamist intimidation, what must the free world do?, Redeker described the Koran as a "book of extraordinary violence" and Islam as "a religion which ... exalts violence and hate".

Read the story in Expatica

Outrage in France after two police officers were ambushed in suburb

21.09.2006. Police unions reacted with outrage Wednesday after two members of a CRS anti-riot unit were badly hurt in an ambush by youths in the southern Paris suburb of Corbeil-Essonnes.

The men were patrolling Tuesday night in an unmarked car in the Les Tartarets housing project when the vehicle was attacked with stones, a police spokesman said.

When one of the officers left the vehicle, he was set upon by about 20 youths who had been hiding in the undergrowth.

"The driver rushed to help. The two were then covered in blows to the face and other parts of the body as they lay on the ground," the spokesman said. The gang dispersed when reinforcements arrived.

Read the story in Expatica.

Sharia could come via democracy

17.09.2006. AMSTERDAM — Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner has provoked an angry response by stating it has to be possible for Sharia Law to be introduced in the Netherlands via democratic means. Read the story in Expatica.

The Death of Multiculturalism?

11.09.2006. Many people consider that, already at the present stage, European-style multiculturalism has proven its non-viability and that the entire project has positively failed. But where did the ideology 'multiculturalism' originate from, and what made European countries accept a political doctrine that implied the repression of their own culture in the first place?

These and related questions connected to the multicultural experiment of post-war Europe were recently the subject of discussion in FrontPageMagazine by an expert-panel consisting of, a.o., Bat Ye'or, Bruce Bawer, the blogger Fjordman and Hege Storhaug.

Read the entire article in FrontPageMagazine. Recommended!

The War on Truth

11.09.2006. We deeply regret to say so, but there are a number of indications that the official story of what happened before, during, and after 9/11, is not the whole truth.

One of the books that presents an overwhelming amount of material related to 9/11, is The War on Truth, by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed. Quoting from the editorial review on Amazon.com:

In The War on Truth - the long-awaited sequel to The War on Freedom - Nafeez Ahmed provides the most comprehensive and controversial critique of the government's official version of what happened on 9/11. In this extensive new analysis, Ahmed doubles the data and investigates the worldwide web of terrorist networks across space and time. Deconstructing the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report and the Joint Congressional Inquiry, he exposes disturbing liaisons between American, British and European intelligence services and al-Qaeda operatives in the Balkans, Caucasus, North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and Asia-Pacific - liaisons linked not only to 9/11, but also to prior terrorist attacks including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 US embassy bombings.

Against this background, Ahmed accomplishes the most detailed and wide-ranging study to date of the powerful vested interests and intrigues responsible for the collapse of US national security in the years and months leading to 9/11. Government documents, whistleblower testimony, and the findings of official inquiries are scrutinized to trace the innermost workings of the intelligence community, revealing precisely which government policies and operations facilitated the 9/11 intelligence failure, and pinpointing the specific agencies, individuals and decisions that emasculated the US air defense system. Finally, Ahmed unlocks the underlying geostrategy of the War on Terror - the culmination of a decades-long plan to secure and expand an increasingly unstable system. For anyone who remains uneasy about government policies on, and after, 9/11, The War on Truth is an invaluable resource that will radically alter perceptions of international terrorism, national security, and the clandestine machinery of Western power.

Unless the USA deals with the underlying problems, i.e., those of corruption and dishonesty, its ability to play a leading role in the currently unfolding global drama, will steadily diminish as the years go by and the non-Western influences in this once great country keeps growing.

The triumph of terrorism

11.09.2006. On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, our troops are being killed by the Taliban, anarchy rules in Iraq and countless home-grown fanatics plot against the West. Blair and Bush's war on Al Qaeda has turned to disaster, writes Correlli Barnett in Daily Mail.

Fury as academics claim 9/11 was 'inside job'

10.10.2006. The 9/11 terrorist attack on America which left almost 3,000 people dead was an "inside job", according to a group of leading academics.

Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries. Read the article in Daily Mail.

Jewish girl beaten on London bus

A Jewish girl was kicked unconscious on a public bus in London

05.09.2006. The girl, 12, and a friend boarded the bus last week, followed by a group of four girls and three boys. One of the group approached the Jewish girl and asked if she was Jewish; she replied "I'm English."

The four girls then pushed her to the floor, stomped on her face and repeatedly kicked her. The boys, who were not involved in the attack, stood guard while it was carried out. The Jewish girl's friend, who was wearing rosary beads, was not harmed.

Reported by the JTA.

HonestThinking comments: Tony Blair has known for a long time that these kinds of tragedies would become more and more common as a result of his immigration policy. What is it really that makes him believe the current multicultural ideology is the way forward for Britain, Europe, and the West?

Far-right extremists threaten to behead British Muslims

05.09.2006. Far right extremists have adopted the tactics of Islamic jihadists by posting videos on the internet in which they threaten to behead British Muslims.

The films show balaclava-clad white British men brandishing guns, knives and clubs, calling on all Muslims to leave the United Kingdom or be killed. One appears to be a soldier who has served in the Gulf.

In one film a man tells Muslims to "go home" or risk being burnt alive. He threatens: "I'll cut your head off," and claims to have "comrades" across Britain who have "had enough".

Read the entire article in Times online.

Dutch democracy intimidated by Islamist threats

05.09.2006. Right-wing MP Geert Wilders can't afford to hold election rallies over the next few months because the justice ministry is refusing to pay for the extra security required.

Wilders has received numerous death threats in recent years over his criticism of Islam. He had to go into hiding for several weeks after the murder of film director Theo Van Gogh in November 2004. Wilders is accompanied everywhere by bodyguards.

Read the entire article in Expatica.com.

America's Muslims Aren't as Assimilated as You Think

03.09.2006. If only the Muslims in Europe -- with their hearts focused on the Islamic world and their carry-on liquids poised for destruction in the West -- could behave like the well-educated, secular and Americanizing Muslims in the United States, no one would have to worry.

So runs the comforting media narrative that has developed around the approximately 6 million Muslims in the United States, who are often portrayed as well-assimilated and willing to leave their religion and culture behind in pursuit of American values and lifestyle. But over the past two years, I have traveled the country, visiting mosques, interviewing Muslim leaders and speaking to Muslim youths in universities and Islamic centers from New York to Michigan to California -- and I have encountered a different truth. I found few signs of London-style radicalism among Muslims in the United States. At the same time, the real story of American Muslims is one of accelerating alienation from the mainstream of U.S. life, with Muslims in this country choosing their Islamic identity over their American one.

Read the story by Geneive Abdo in Washington Post.

Terrorist theater tricks

01.09.2006. What are we seeing when we watch events from the Middle East on our television screens? Is it news or is it terrorist theater? [...]

The International Committee of the Red Cross, with its internationally mandated status as a protected organization, is particularly culpable. The blogoshere - and specifically EU Referendum and Zombietime Web sites - have shown that Red Cross employees in Tyre and Kana fabricated from whole cloth a tale of an Israeli airstrike against Red Cross ambulances in Kana on July 23. In an exhaustively documented report, "How the Media Legitimized an Anti-Israel Hoax and Changed the Course of a War," Zombietime showed how Red Cross employees took an old, rusty ambulance and alleged that the IAF had attacked it with a missile that blew a hole straight through the middle of the red cross on the ambulance's roof. Read the article in Jerusalem Post.

Want Sharia Law? Not in Our Country

28.08.2006. In the centre of heated debates following the mass-arrest of an alleged British-based Islamic terrorist group in early August, a Labour MP, Shahid Malik (himself a Muslim), suggested that if young Muslims are seeking sharia law, they should essentially move to a country in which sharia law is the predominant doctrine of legal governance. Read the story in The Brussels Journal.

Gaza: Fox News crew released

28.08.2006. In a phone call with Fox News, Centanni said that during his capture, he was held at times face down in a dark garage, tied up in painful positions, and that he and Wiig were forced at gunpoint to make statements, including that they had converted to Islam. Read the story in Jerusalem Post.

UN mission not tasked to disarm Hezbollah

28.08.2006. The new UN mission in Lebanon is not tasked to disarm Hezbollah, the guerrilla group fighting Israel in south Lebanon, said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday. Read the story in People's Daily Online.

The Little Explored Offshore Empire of the International Muslim Brotherhood

26.08.2006. Almost from the inception of the modern Islamic banking structure (early 1980s), the international Muslim Brotherhood set up a parallel and far-flung offshore structure that has become an integral part of its ability to hide and move money around the world. This network is little understood and has, so far, garnered little attention from the intelligence and law enforcement communities tracking terrorist financial structures.

The fundamental premise of the Brotherhood in setting up this structure was that it is necessary to build a clandestine structure that was hidden from non-Muslims and even Muslims who do not share the Brotherhood’s fundamental objective of recreating the Islamic caliphate and spreading Islam, by force and persuasion, across the globe.
...
This is of fundamental importance because the Brotherhood has played a central role in “providing both the ideological and technical capacities for supporting terrorist finance on a global basis… the Brotherhood has spread both the ideology of militant pan-Islamicism and became the spine upon which the funding operations for militant pan-Islamicism was built, taking funds largely generated from wealthy Gulf state elites and distributing them for terrorist education, recruitment and operations widely dispersed throughout the world, especially in areas where Muslims hoped to displace non-Muslim or secular governments.”
...
In 2003 Richard Clarke said “the issue of terrorist financing in the United States is a fundamental example of the shared infrastructure levered by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda, all of which enjoy a significant degree of cooperation and coordination within our borders. The common link here is the extremist Muslim Brotherhood—all these organizations are descendants of the membership and ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Read the article by Douglas Farah in The International Assessment and Strategy Senter.

The Wrath of Ka

Black anti-Semites storm Paris’s old Jewish quarter.

17.08.2006. On the last Sunday of May, 30 angry black men stormed into the heart of the old Jewish quarter, terrorizing residents, shopkeepers, and Sunday strollers. The self-styled militia of the Ka Tribe, a black separatist group originally connected to the no-longer funny black comic Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, embodied the worst fears of a Jewish community exposed, since January 2006, to a new rise in anti-Semitic attacks.

Three months after the torture-murder of Ilan Halimi, the intimidating incursion of the Ka militia into the narrow “Jewish” street of the Marais looks like an ominous sign of worse to come. [...]

Young Muslim Rage Takes Root in Britain

15.08.2006. The British security service, known as MI5, disclosed last month that it had about 1,200 Islamic militants under surveillance who were considered capable of carrying out violent attacks. Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch, said police were engaged in 70 separate terrorism investigations, the most ever. "This is unprecedented and the flow of new cases shows no sign of abating," Clarke said. "If anything, it is accelerating."

Asghar Bukhari of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, which advocates Muslim involvement in the democratic process and opposes violence, said, "It's not hard to comprehend the mind of a Muslim." He said young British Muslims look around the world and "everywhere they are getting bombed," so they increasingly respond by saying, "Don't just sit down and take it -- let's fight them." ... "The root is foreign policy," said Bukhari, who has emerged in the past year as a leading voice of the young Muslim community. "Only a half-wit wouldn't understand that this is about" British and American policies in the Middle East.

Read the entire article in The Washington Post.

An unmitigated disaster

14.08.2006. There is a good reason that Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has accepted UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which sets the terms for a cease-fire between his jihad army and the State of Israel. Caroline Glick comments in the Jerusalem Post.

Almost a quarter of Muslims believe 7/7 was justified

09.08.2006. By JAMES SLACK, Daily Mail, 7th August 2006: Almost a quarter of British Muslims say the July 7 attacks can be justified because of the Government's support for the 'war on terror'. The shocking 23 per cent figure is the equivalent of 370,000 of the 1.6m Muslims living in the UK.

Stage-Managed Massacre

09.08.2006. By Robert Spencer, FrontPageMagazine.com | August 2, 2006. [...] it is increasingly clear that the Qana “massacre” was a stage-managed Hizballah production, designed precisely to enflame international sentiment against Israel and compel the Israelis to accept a ceasefire that would enable the jihad terrorist group to gain some time to recover from the Israeli attacks. Some of the principal evidence for this is presented in the FrontPageMagazine article.

The rise of Shia Muslims

08.08.2006. From Lebanon to Central Asia, Iran becomes a regional power and exports its revolution. Two experts in the geopolitics of Islam, Vali Nasr and Khaled Fouad Allam, analyze the shift and its consequences:

Indeed, in modern Islam all religious political movements consider the nation-state a phase to be overcome and replaced by one, great transnational Ummah. For Sunnis this means restoring the caliphate; for Shiites it means setting up a state whose boundaries would go from Iran to Lebanon and include Iraq and Bahrain. ... For some Sunni ideologues, revolutionary Shiism can provide the model for an Islamic state, a dream that the Muslim Brotherhood has never been able to elaborate theoretically or turn into reality, but which now seems closer than ever.

Read the entire article at Chiesa.

The west’s moral insanity

06.08.2006. From Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online:

Our present generation too is on the brink of moral insanity. That has never been more evident than in the last three weeks, as the West has proven utterly unable to distinguish between an attacked democracy that seeks to strike back at terrorist combatants, and terrorist aggressors who seek to kill civilians. [...]

It is now a cliché to rant about the spread of postmodernism, cultural relativism, utopian pacifism, and moral equivalence among the affluent and leisured societies of the West. But we are seeing the insidious wages of such pernicious theories as they filter down from our media, universities, and government — and never more so than in the general public’s nonchalance since Hezbollah attacked Israel.

These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the “quarter-ton” Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs. [...]

In short, if we wish to learn what was going on in Europe in 1938, just look around.

The Whole Arab World Is Now at a Crossroads

06.08.2006. By Youssef Ibrahim, August 4, 2006: The interminable Arab-Israel conflict has come to an important moment. Israel's quest for secure borders has so much in common with the existential needs of its neighbors that as Lebanon stands at the crossroads, so does the Arab world. Entire article in New York Sun.

Blair calls for 'complete renaissance' on foreign policy

04.08.2006 (updated 06.08.2006). From JPost.com 3 August: Putting his political future on the line, British Prime Minister Tony Blair came out with all his might against radical Islam during an address on Tuesday before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

In his speech, Blair called for a "complete renaissance" on foreign policy and unequivocaly stood by Israel: "The purpose of the provocation that began the conflict in Lebanon was clear. It was to create chaos and to provoke retaliation by Israel that would lead to Arab and Muslim opinion being inflamed, not against those who started the aggression but against those who responded to it."

In his thought-provoking policy address, Blair touches on the very root of the global threat.

The full text of Blair's speech is available at JPost.com, where it is described as "nothing less than groundbreaking".

HonestThinking comments: If Blair is sincere about supporting Muslims who share our values, and fighting militant/radical/jihadist Islam, he needs to rethink British immigration policy. Our understanding is that immigration numbers have exploded during his time in office. If that is true, Blair's gullibility is a primary reason why Britain will not be able to play the kind of role he is advocating in the above mentioned address.

As Melanie Phillips put it in her excellent article in Spectator, 5 August: "This is no longer England, however. It is Lemmingland."

“Youths” Kick Man to Death on Crowded Antwerp Bus

16.07.2006. The Belgian state is no longer able to guarantee the security of its citizens. In June Guido Demoor, a 54-year old Flemish train conductor on his way to work, was kicked to death by six “youths” on a crowded bus near Antwerp’s Central Station. The incident recalls the rush-hour murder ten weeks ago of Joe Van Holsbeeck, 17 years of age, in a crowded Brussels Central Station on 12 April. By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal.

Al Qaida

16.07.2006. Whilst the UK has faced a variety of terrorist threats in the past, a unique combination of factors - namely the global reach, capability, resilience, sophistication, ambition and lack of restraint of Al Qaida and associated groups from around the world - place the current threat on a scale not previously encountered. Report by MI5.

What al-Qaida Really Wants

16.07.2006. By Yassin Musharbash. If there is anyone who might possibly have an inkling as to what al-Qaida are up to, it is the Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein. He has not only spent time in prison with al-Zarqawi, but has also managed make contact with many of the network's leaders. Based on correspondence with these sources, he has now brought out a book detailing the organization's master plan. Article in Spiegel Online.

• HonestThinking, English material, 1st half of 2006
• HonestThinking, English material, 2005.

HonestThinking is dedicated and committed to the art of thinking honestly. Yet honest thinking is not the same as true thinking, for it is possible to think honestly, but be mistaken. For the same reason, honest thinking is not identical with objective thinking either. Honest thinking is striving to get things right. This involves being truthful about whatever one publishes, but just as importantly, it involves an uncompromising dedication to never suppress relevant data, even when data collides with dearly held prejudices. Such an approach may sometimes cause hurtful revisions in one’s belief system. That’s what HonestThinking is all about! Read the entire manifesto.

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Please send e-mail to postmaster at honestThinking.org (replacing ' at ' with '@') if you would like to tip us about a web resource that we should link to, or if you wish to submit an article for publication here. Quality contributions are welcome from anyone.

The current European immigration and integration policy is profoundly disrespectful of both Muslims and Islam, because it is built on the tacit assumption that the Muslims will become like us. One claims to have respect for Islam and for Muslims, but one also expects Muslims to give up their orthodox faith when they come here. At the same time one is assuming that Islam will be reformed and modernized as soon as the Muslims become integrated and understand and appreciate how superior our Western culture is compared to their own. This is cultural shauvinism and arrogance indeed! The unspoken premise for this scenario is that Western socities are superior to Islam. Read more.

Human rights and democracy are under pressure. One threat comes from the Western world, in the form of lack of or dishonest thinking. There exists a peculiar Western "tolerance" which is so "tolerant" that it even tolerates totalitarian or anti-democratic ideologies. A tacit assumption underlying such an attitude is that all cultures, world views, and religions are really equally good. As a consequence of this assumption one is cut off from the possibility of critically examining the above mentioned ideologies. Read more.

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