Lesson from the Paris terror attacks: Europe needs to join forces with Israel
Greetings from somewhere over eastern Kentucky - my next stop (which is not my final stop today) is Dallas, Texas.
David Harris of the AJC (not necessarily a source from which I would expect it) has some very wise advice for Europe.
And finally, when will Europe finally wake up and realize that democratic Israel is part of the solution, not the problem?
At the end of the day, the terrorism faced by France - or Belgium,
Denmark, Germany, Spain, the U.K., etc. - is a kissing cousin of that
confronted by Israel. Some European leaders go to great lengths to deny
that obvious truth, seeking instead to draw distinctions that are, in
fact, largely non-existent, or suggesting that Israel somehow "deserves"
what it gets, while implying that Europe does not.
Let's get real.
The authors of 9/11 detested who and what America is. They didn't give a
darn what political party was in power, because they attacked the Twin
Towers when Clinton was president and again when Bush was in the Oval
Office.
The same with Europe. The target is Europe's value system - its democracy, openness, freedom, and secularism.
And, yes, the same with Israel. The terrorists of Hamas (with which the
Palestinian Authority made a pact), Iranian-backed Hezbollah, Islamic
Jihad, and ISIS don't want Israel to exist, period. They're not
interested in who's in power in Jerusalem or how to get to a two-state
accord, but rather establishing their rule over the entire land.
One would hope that this would at least awaken Europe enough to get them to cancel the 'settlement product' labeling. Don't hold your breath. It won't. Anti-Semitism trumps all.
Must see video: With Open Gates: The forced collective suicide of European nations
I planned to post this yesterday, but was too busy with work. The Middle East is taking over Europe. Unfortunately for the Europeans, that isn't a reference to Israel and the Jews. It's a reference to Muslims coming from Middle Eastern, South Asian and African countries who are turning native Europeans into a minority with the cooperation and encouragement of Europe's chattering classes.
Let's go to the videotape. It's kind of long but worth watching.
With all this going on, the only thing that seems to concern the Europeans is barring products of 'Israeli settlements' - an act that is proven anti-Semitic by the fact that it is the only 'occupation' among some 200 worldwide that the Europeans have decided to address.
The European countries themselves are starting to reconsider the Schengen laws that allow persons to pass from one country to another, and it is time for other countries in the West - the United States, Canada (very little chance that will happen now that Trudeau has replaced Harper), Australia and yes, Israel, need to reconsider the admission of citizens of European countries without visas.
The world is changing in dangerous ways. Vigilance is necessary.
The Schengen Visa is the representative of the collective of 26 European
countries that have mutually decided to eliminate passport and
immigration controls at their joint borders. Within the Schengen area,
concurrently, the citizens of these 26 European countries are free to
travel in and out of this zone as one single country sharing equal
international travel rights. The citizens of the Schengen zone countries
cherish the right to migrate internationally without any limitations,
the basis of free movement, one of the basic human rights.
Video: Anti-Semitic gang attacks Stamford Hill (London) yeshiva
An anti-Semitic gang stormed a Stamford Hill yeshiva on Saturday night, but was beaten off by Jews inside the synagogue. Stamford Hill is a heavily Jewish neighborhood of London.
According to the YouTube posting, the attack by a gang of 20 men took place at Yeshivas Ahavas Torah in Stamford Hill.
There were armed police CO19 units on scene, and a MPS helicopter above (but you won't see them in this video).
A group of approximately 20 youths attacked a local synagogue in the
London suburb of Stamford Hill over the weekend, yelling threats,
beating worshipers and vandalizing property, according to
IsraelHatzolah's official twitter account.
One witness belonging
to the "Ahavat Torah" congregation described the mob as shouting "we
will kill you" as they proceeded to physically assault the worshipers
inside the synagogue and tear apart prayer books.
Another Jewish
local who had passed by the scene rushed inside, grabbing one of the
suspects with the intention of bringing him to the police, but was
quickly overwhelmed by the other attackers and suffered strikes to the
face, losing a tooth.
A spokesmen for local law enforcement said
that the police views the assault on the heavily Jewish populated
Stamford Hill community gravely and that they have already detained
four suspects who say they were involved in the incident.
The
assault on the north London synagogue comes days before the opening of a
hotline dedicated to providing advice and support to victims of
anti-Semitism.
The Charlie Hebdo cover — in which a tearful caricature of Muhammad
is shown below the phrase “Tout est pardonné,” or “All is forgiven” — was posted Monday night in Comic Riffs,
a Post blog. The cover cartoon shows the turbaned, bearded figure
holding a sign saying “Je suis Charlie,” or “I am Charlie,” the global
rallying cry following an attack on the French publication last week
that left 12 dead in Paris.
Washington Post Executive Editor
Martin Baron approved publication of the image on The Post’s blog and in
the newspaper. It is apparently the first time a Muhammad depiction has
appeared in The Post’s news columns. Baron said last week that
the paper’s policy was to avoid publication of material that is
“deliberately” offensive to religious groups but said Monday that the
new Charlie Hebdo cartoon did not meet that criterion.
“We’ve
never maintained that simply publishing an image of Muhammad itself was
offensive,” Baron said. “Our policy has been to avoid publication of
material that is pointedly, deliberately or needlessly offensive to
members of religious groups. That remains our policy, but this doesn’t
fall into that category.”
Charlie Hebdo’s attorney, Richard
Malka, told a French radio station that the new issue — to be published
Wednesday — would contain images of Muhammad. “We will not give in,” he
said. ‘The spirit of ‘Je suis Charlie’ means the right to blaspheme.”
Meanwhile, the London Telegraph has published the ravings of Islamist preacher Anjem Chaudhary who called the Charlie Hebdo cover 'an act of war.'
Any image of Mohammed is considered blasphemous by Muslims, and Anjem
Choudary, an extremist preacher, described the latest Charlie Hebdo as “an
act of war”.
He said: “I'm sure there's someone somewhere who will take the law into his
own hands. It's inevitable.”
Mr Choudary, a lecturer in Shariah law who was arrested and bailed in
September as part of an investigation into Islamist terrorism, said the
magazine’s publishers “know exactly what they're doing and they know the
reaction of the Muslims. It's blatant provocation.
“It’s not just a cartoon…it's insulting, it's ridiculing, it's provoking. I
think it's an act of war, quite frankly.”
Supermarket terrorist mentor's wife living in 4-bedroom UK house on government tab
Sylvie Beghal, the French-born wife of Islamist preacher Djamel Beghal, who mentored one of the Charlie Hebdo terrorists and the Paris Kosher supermarket terrorist, is living in a four-bedroom house in England on the British government's tab according to a report in Saturday's London Telegraph (Hat Tip: Tom Gross). Beghal himself is banned from the UK.
He has also been described as being too extreme for Osama Bin Laden....
No one should be surprised if Britain is the next country (after France) to go Islamic....
"The situation is out of control, and it is not reversible," said
Soeren Kern, an analyst at the Gatestone Institute and author of annual
reports on the "Islamization of France."
"Islam is a permanent
part of France now. It is not going away," Mr. Kern said. "I think the
future looks very bleak. The problem is a lot of these
younger-generation Muslims are not integrating into French society.
Although they are French citizens, they don't really have a future in
French society. They feel very alienated from France. This is why
radical Islam is so attractive because it gives them a sense of meaning
in their life."
While not a complete safe-haven for al Qaeda-type
operatives, Paris and other French cities have become more fertile
places for Muslim extremists in the past decade. City leaders have
allowed virtual Islamic mini-states to thrive as Muslims gain power to
govern in their own way.
"There are no-go areas not just in Paris,
but all over France, where they are effectively in control," said
Robert Spencer, who directs JihadWatch.org, a nonprofit that monitors
Muslim extremists.
"They're operating with impunity, apparently
secure in the knowledge that authorities cannot or will not act
decisively to stop them," he said. "And with the universal denial and
obfuscation of the clear motive for the Charlie Hebdo attack, they have
good reason to think that."
The attackers who killed 12 people at
the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo claimed to be members
of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. Witnesses said they spoke
perfect French, a strong indication that they are homegrown terrorists
who received help from AQAP or another group.
And it's not just France. It's all over Europe.
Said Mr. Kern, "Europe is very committed to multiculturalism. So any
speech critical of Islam is immediately branded as being Islamophobic or
racist or something like that. There's not really an honest debate
about what's going on in Europe because the European elite have so much
invested in this multicultural society that they're trying to build."
For those of you sitting in the US who think this doesn't affect you... French citizens don't need a visa to travel to the United States. Neither do most European citizens. Maybe once Obama is gone, that can be reconsidered.
For that matter, French and other European citizens don't need a visa to travel to Israel either, although we've been known to deny entry to people who come here to make trouble, and the French government knows it.in
But as long as the attitude toward Islamic terrorism in France and in other countries in Europe remains like the flashing light above, the West is going to have a problem and will some day - God Forbid - be defeated.
There's a collection of pictures from Afghanistan in the 1950's and 1960's online. One of them is at the top of this post.
Afghanistan was not always
such a repressive country. Photographs from the 1950s and 60s depict a
very different Afghanistan; one where female students sat next to their
male peers, where girls scouts worked along with boy scouts, where, in
parks and playgrounds, buses and record stores, hospitals and schools,
women were seen in equal numbers as men.
These collection of images offer a rare insight into Afghanistan’s past.
The Dutch government withdrew the passports of 49 people identified
as suspected jihadists, Minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten said. Speaking
on television show WNL, Opstelten said 41 of those were believed to be
planning to fight in Syria or Iraq, while the other eight had their
passports invalidated to prevent them from re-entering the Netherlands.
The government also froze all assets of twelve of the suspects, and
stopped paying benefits to thirty. Another thirty are also being
investigated criminally.
Assets may be frozen only when there is an extraordinary amount of evidence linking a suspect to terrorism.
Roughly 140 people have lost their Dutch passports since the Netherlands began using the punishment to clamp down on domestic jihadism. Two of the 140 are in custody, while more than thirty have been deported, broadcaster NOS reported.
So there are at least 108 jihadis (give or take a few) alive and well in the Netherlands without their passports and probably thousands more jihadis in the Netherlands with their passports. What could go wrong?
Oxford's Student Union is voting on boycotting Israel next week, and with the motion seemingly set for failure, the supporters are already making excuses.
According to the report,
both the motion's promoter and the person who seconded it have received
threatening emails, prompting the latter to withdrawn his support and
the former to ask that her name not be publicized.
The BDS movement urges a boycott
of Israeli exports as well as any firms – British and international – that do business in or with Israel.
Some BDS supporters have also disrupted
cultural events involving Israeli performers.
Last week, the Oxford Student Union gave its colleges two
additional weeks to debate the issue, after most failed to come to a
decision.
Henry Watson of Magdalen College told the Guardian that "People
thought it was a question of supporting Israel or Palestine or
supporting peace. The boycott goes against everything the university
stands for.
"The
idea that we are not going to read your books or articles or hear your
arguments on the basis of your nationality is ridiculous."
Magdalen College voted 39-3 against the motion, Watson said.
At least there are some academics around who are still intellectually honest enough not to shut Israel out entirely.
According to the report, “the Hezbollah-Quds Force threat has
sometimes eclipsed that of al-Qaida.“
The 17-page study notes that “Iranian
decision-makers settled on a campaign of violence based on a three-tiered threat
stream targeting the following: Israeli tourists, government figures (diplomats,
retired officials), and targets broadly representative of Israel or the Jewish
community (community leaders, prominent Israeli companies).”
Levitt wrote
that Iran’s leaders “assigned the task of targeting Israeli tourists – a soft
target – to Hezbollah, and maintained for the Quds Force operations targeting
Israeli, American, British, or Gulf States’ interests. The latter would be
carried out by a new special external operations unit known as Unit
400.”
The report comes shortly before the slated release this week of the
results of the Bulgarian authorities investigation into the suicide bombing of
an Israeli tour bus in July 2012. The terror act resulted in the deaths of five
Israelis, a Bulgarian bus driver, and injuries to over 30 Israelis. US and
Israeli intelligence officials attributed the suicide bombing to a joint Iran-
Hezbollah operation.
Levitt, widely considered the leading authority on
Hezbollah’s global operations, says that, “In January 2010, the Quds Force – the
elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – decided that it and
Hezbollah, its primary terrorist proxy, would embark on a new campaign of
violence targeting not only Israel, but the US and other Western targets as
well.”
But the Europeans would rather die than declare an enemy of the Jews a designated terror organization. Fools.
Caroline Glick was in London last week to debate the proposition "Israel is destroying itself with its settlement policy. If settlement expansion continues Israel will have no future." Yes, the bias is already there in the question's phrasing.
Glick's debating partner was Dani Dayan, the former chairman of the Yesha council. Her opposition was J Street co-founder Daniel Levy and British philanthropist William Sieghart (whose charitable ventures support Hamas, among others). It wasn't pretty.
A couple of impressions I took away from the experience: First, I
can say without hesitation that I hope never to return to Britain. I
actually don't see any point. Jews are targeted by massive anti-Semitism
of both the social and physical varieties. Why would anyone Jewish want
to live there?
As to visiting as an Israeli,
again, I just don't see the point. The discourse is owned by anti-Israel
voices. They don't make arguments to spur thought, but to end it, by
appealing to people's passions.
For instance,
in one particularly ugly segment, Levy made the scurrilous accusation
that Israel systematically steals land from the Palestinians. Both Dayan
and I demanded that he provide just one example of his charge. And the
audience raged against us for our temerity at insisting that he provide
substantiation for his baseless allegation. In the event, he failed to
substantiate his allegation.
At another point, I
was asked how I defend the Nazi state of Israel. When I responded by
among other things giving the Nazi pedigree of the Palestinian
nationalist movement founded by Nazi agent Haj Amin el Husseini and
currently led by Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas, the crowd angrily
shouted me down.
I want to note that the
audience was made up of upper crust, wealthy British people, not
unwashed rabble rousers. And yet they behaved in many respects like a
mob when presented with pro-Israel positions.
I
honestly don't know whether there are policy implications that arise
from my experience in London last week. I have for a long time been of
the opinion that Israel shouldn't bother to try to win over Europe
because the Europeans have multiple reasons for always being anti-Israel
and none of them have anything to do with anything that Israel does. As
I discuss in my book, these reasons include anti-Semitism,
anti-Americanism, addiction to Arab oil, and growing Muslim populations
in Europe.
I was prepared to conduct a
civilized debate based on facts and reasoned argumentation. I expected
it to be a difficult experience. I was not expecting to be greeted by a
well-dressed mob. My pessimism about Europeans' capacity to avail
themselves to reasoned, fact-based argumentation about Israel has only
deepened from the experience.
The student was knocked unconscious on Tuesday when he strolled late
at night in the center of the city. A band of 15 Arab youth pounced on
him, dragged him into a dark corner and pummeled him, using sharp
weapons.
The student lost consciousness, and the attackers fled when a passerby spotted them and called police and medics.
The police are investigating, but have but have not caught the attackers.
The Milan-based Center for Jewish Documentation's Observatory on
Anti-Jewish Prejudice reported last month that the number of
anti-Semitic episodes in the country soared last year.
The incidents ranged from street insults and swastika graffiti to physical aggression.
''We observed approximately 70 cases so far this year, most of them
graffiti and online attacks, over 40% more than last year,'' said
Observatory researcher Stefano Gatti. ''The boom might be due partly to
more efficient data-gathering, but the episodes have undeniably
increased,” he added.
Gatti also pointed out that Italian pundits and politicians ''such as
Silvio Berlusconi, Beppe Grillo or Piergiorgio Odifreddi'' are now
writing discriminatory posts and telling racist jokes. ''Making certain
issues seem normal, even funny, is one of the root causes of the rise in
anti-Semitic episodes in Italy,'' Gatti said.
An individual at the Chabad House in Venice who did not wish to be named
told The Algemeiner that the student was recovering and that such
incidents were rare in Venice. The source also indicated how the Jewish
community would respond. “We will answer evil with kindness,” the source
said.
Of course, Chabad of Venice might have an interest in Jewish tourists continuing to come there.... Just sayin'....
“Since [the March 2011] Toulouse massacre we
often hear of violent attacks against Jews. They are testament to an
underlying problem that requires examination and a solution,” Chief
rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar wrote in a letter to EU President
Herman van Rompuy.
Last year, French-Algerian Mohammed Merah
gunned down a rabbi and three children outside a Jewish school in the
southern French city of Toulouse. He died after a prolonged standoff
with French police.
In September, in a Rosh Hashanah greeting, the
president of the European Commission warned of a rise in racism and
anti-Semitism in Europe.
“At a very difficult time, both economically
and socially, when some people, even within Europe, are tempted to
reconnect with old demons — populism, racism and anti-Semitism — we need
more than ever to uphold, to protect and to promote together our common
ideals of peace, tolerance, reconciliation and respect for human
dignity,” Jose Manuel Barroso wrote in a message sent to the European
Jewish Congress.
The ADL reported last March that anti-Semitism
in Europe is at “disturbingly high levels,” with an average of nearly
one-third of those surveyed across 10 countries holding “pernicious
anti-Semitic beliefs.”
The study found large swaths of the population
subscribing to classical anti-Semitic notions such as Jews having too
much power in business, being more loyal to Israel than their own
country, or “talking too much” about what happened during the Holocaust.
Investigate and do what about it? Given that Europe is being overrun by Islam, do we really need an investigation to tell us that Europe is becoming more anti-Semitic?
And to think that Venice is one of the few places in the world to which Mrs. Carl has admitted she would like me to take her....
The research shows that more than half of the German population
believes that Islam is prone to violence (64%); has a tendency toward
revenge and retaliation (60%); is obsessed with proselytizing others
(56%); and strives for political influence (56%).
More than 80% of Germans believe that Islam deprives women of their
rights, and 70% say Islam is associated with religious fanaticism and
radicalism.
By contrast, only 13% of Germans associate Islam with love for neighbors, 12% with charity and 7% with openness and tolerance.
The high level of mistrust of Islam in Germany is also reflected in
other questions. For example, 44% of those surveyed answered "yes" to
the question, "Do you think there will be serious conflict between the
Western Christian culture and the Arab Muslim culture in the future?" In
addition, one quarter of respondents say they believe that such
conflict already exists at the current time.
Another question concerns the term "Clash of Civilizations,"
a concept which states that cultural and religious identity will be the
primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world.
The survey shows that 43% of Germans say they believe such a clash is
taking place.
According to the authors of the report, this represents a
majority because only 34% of Germans explicitly disagree with the
theory.
In addition, only 36% of Germans believe that Christianity and Islam
can live together peacefully side-by-side. Moreover, 53% think that
there will always be serious conflicts between these two religions.
As for relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Germany,
respondents are highly pessimistic. In response to the question, "Do you
think tensions in relations with Muslims will grow in Germany in the
near future and should we be worried about it," nearly half of all
Germans (48%) answered "yes" to the question; only 29% of Germans say
they see no threat.
The majority of Germans are also firmly opposed to appeasing Muslims
and Islam. Only 27% of Germans say there should be a ban on speech that
could insult or provoke Muslims. A clear majority of Germans (52%) are
explicitly opposed to such restrictions on free speech.
As in the US, the German political elite has worked hard to portray opposition to Islam as coming only from the 'Far Right.' It hasn't worked.
For those of you who think the title is in jest, it's not. Giulio Meotti reports that Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani of Qatar is Europe's new owner.
Qatar, not exactly or even the slightest bit French-speaking, has
just joined the “International Organisation of la Francphonie” as an
associate member. Qatar’s goal is clear: to change and manipulate French
culture. For example, the Voltaire School in Doha banned a religious
book that discussed Christianity in the Middle Ages.
Qatari Emir
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who has cultivated the image of a
pro-Western reformist, vowed to “spare no effort” to spread the
teachings of Wahhabi Islam across “the whole world”. Last December
Qatari Emir inaugurated the “Imam Imam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab” Mosque
in Doha, dedicated to the founder of the most virulent, anti-Jewish and
totalitarian Islamic school of religion.
Qatar’s octopus is
working on three fronts: overthrowing despotic Arab regimes and replace
these with sharia-based countries; destroying Israel by financing the
terror groups (the emir just visited Gaza) - and Islamizing the European
continent through mosques and investments.
In Germany, Qatar’s
sovereign fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, owns 17 percent of
Volkswagen, 10 percent of Porsche and 9 percent of construction giant
Hochtief.
In Italy, to mention just one well known firm, Qatar
just bought Valentino’s fashion style company, while AC-Milan owner
Silvio Berlusconi is also ready to sell the powerhouse to the ruling
Emir of the State of Qatar.
In the UK, the Qatar Muslims own
swathes of the Canary Wharf financial district in London. Qatar also
owns 20 per cent of the London Stock Exchange.
Qatar invested in
the Paris St. Germain soccer club and it is an investor in the French
Total Oil group, as well as British Shell.
Qatar financed the 95% of the Shard tower in London, the highest skyscraper in Europe.
In
Cannes, the emir bought an hotel famous for hosting celebrities during
the film festival, but it’s also looking to buy a Jewish symbol like the
Les Trois Rois hotel in Basel, Switzerland, scene of the iconic
portrait of Theodor Herzl.
Qatar has also purchased, for 300 million euros, the building which hosts part of the US Embassy in Paris.
Qatar
announced last February, when Nicolas Sarkozy was still the President
of France, that it was willing to spend $65 million in the French
banlieues, the suburbs home to the vast majority of the six million
Muslims in France. Then Qatar doubled the sum to €100 million, which the
extreme leftist French newspaper Libération describes as a "Qatari take over of the banlieues.”
Another newspaper, Le Figaro,
seeing the handwriting on the wall (writing a check?, published an
article recently, titled: “Will France become an Islamic Republique?”
But Qatar isn't just interested in buying up Europe and spreading Wahhabi Islam. There's also the matter of that little Jewish state in their own neighborhood.
Qatar is a bastion of anti-Semitism, which goes around the world
along with the investments. A Qatari television show, based on a book by
late Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani, shows a Holocaust survivor
who resorts to prostitution and claims the Nazis did no wrong. “I didn’t
see any gas chambers”, she is seen saying. An actor depicting former
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin calls on Jews to murder Arab
civilians.
Qatar is also hosting many conferences which demonize the Jews.
Speaking
at the International Conference for Defense of Jerusalem in Doha,
Palestine Authority head Mahmoud Abbas recently said that “the Israeli
occupation authorities are using the ugliest and most dangerous means to
implement plans to erase and remove the Arab-Islamic and the Christian
character of east Jerusalem”. The conference’s purpose, under the
auspices of the Palestinian Islamic-Christian Committee, is to combat
the “Judaization of Jerusalem”.
In Doha’s Friday sermons, Jews are called “parasites”. Back to the Nazis.
With
an imperial flux of money and ideology, the former British protectorate
of Qatar is discouraging Muslim integration in Europe in order to
better dominate it, fomenting anti-Semitism and cultural separation,
actively encouraging jihad against the State of Israel.
Qatar’s course
of action is very practical: convincing Europe that the real name of
Jerusalem is Al Quds, that the Koran replaced the Bible and that the
Jewish Temple Mount is just a conspiracy.
Aiming for the
destruction of Israel allows Europe, the new mercenary of Qatar, to free
itself from its own identity and the memories of their complicity in
the Holocaust that come with it.
French getting smarter? Qaradawi and other imams banned from France
Maybe the French have learned a few lessons from last week's events. Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, leads a list of imams who have been barred from entering France.
The President said he would block the entry of some imams invited to an Islamic conference next month, organised by the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF).
The UOIF, one of three Muslim federations in France, is regarded as close to Egypt's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
'I have clearly indicated that there certain people who have been invited to this congress who are not welcome on French soil,' Mr Sarkozy told France Info radio.
...
One imam banned by the President is Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric based in Qatar who is one of the most prominent Sunni Muslim clerics in the Arab world and a household name in the Middle East due to regular appearances on the Al Jazeera news channel.
A former member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Qaradawi is independent of the group but remains close to it. Mr Sarkozy said the situation was complicated because the imam holds a diplomatic passport and does not require a visa to enter France.
'I indicated to the Emir of Qatar himself that this person was not welcome on the territory of the French republic,' Mr Sarkozy said. 'He will not come.'
Qaradawi was denied a visa to visit Britain in 2008 on grounds of seeking to 'justify acts of terrorist violence or disburse views that could foster inter-community violence', a Home Office spokeswoman said at the time.
British Jewish students fear 'Islamophobia' charges, cancel Jewish speaker instead
Students at Britain's Leeds University have canceled an appearance by American lawyer Brooke Goldstein, who defends against lawsuits by Islamists in the US, on the grounds that Goldstein defended the rights of Geert Wilders to free speech.
Ms Goldstein said the students were "trying to prevent me from speaking about how we defend their rights, as someone who advocates on their behalf. I think it's disgraceful, it's Orwellian."
JSoc president Ilana Manuel said: "We researched some of Ms Goldstein's past projects, her associates and views that she has expressed in various media outlets and have decided that this is not appropriate for our campus. Our priority is the welfare of our students and we did not want to put anyone in a situation where this could be jeopardised."
Ms Goldstein argued that her defence of Mr Wilders was purely about protecting freedom of speech. "Whether you agree with him or not, and there are a lot of points we disagree on, surely he deserves to be allowed to express his opinions in the 21st century?
"It's disappointing that they would shy away from debating the most pertinent issues of our time, for example what limits should be put on free speech and what is acceptable dialogue, critical of religion, in free societies."
UKLFI's Jonathan Turner said it was "absurd to deny a platform to a speaker on the grounds that she has supported freedom of speech for Wilders and others, especially when she was not even intending to talk about Wilders. On the same basis, one would deny a platform to Alan Dershowitz, who has supported freedom of speech for the Ku Klux Klan."
Zionist Federation co-vice-chair Jonathan Hoffman said: "Just as Benny Morris was cancelled by Cambridge Israel Society in Feb 2010, we witness spineless Jewish students crumbling in the face of false charges of Islamophobia. Meanwhile, in the Alice In Wonderland topsy-turvy world of British academia, Palestinian societies are free to host the most outrageous antisemitic extremists. Thus Brooke Goldstein gets labelled as an extremist while Ken O'Keefe is given legitimacy."
Anyone want to take bets on how much longer the Jewish community stays in Britain? It doesn't look good.
The 40-year-old woman, who has not been named, was held in a dawn raid by officers from Scotland Yard and at the same time Italian police arrested Mohamed Jarmoune, 20, following months of undercover detective work that involved monitoring a secret Facebook account.
Metal worker Jarmoune was held at his home in Brescia, northern Italy and video footage released by police showed officers with sniffer dogs carrying out an extensive search of his apartment and he was also shown being led away.
Officers took away several items including his computer as well as several Nazi flags that were found in the apartment, which was in the centre of city and which has been the scene of several anti terror investigations in the past.
Tonight he was being held on suspicion of plotting an attack on the Jewish synagogue in Milan with the use of information that he had downloaded from the internet and police revealed he had images of the building stored on the hard drive of his computer.
He had detailed security measures for the synagogue and a pencil diagram appeared to show a series of four gas canisters connected to a battery, which was also linked to a mobile telephone, while other images showed the preparation of explosives.
...
Anti terror officers in Brescia also said that they had intercepted messages on various Islamic extremist websites and discussion boards, from Jarmoune in which he spoke of carrying out a 'jihad mission'.
Although the woman's role in this story is unclear to me, it sounds like there's a whole lot about the man (who is pictured in the article) that they are not telling us.
Unfortunately, it's probably just a matter of time before a Jewish target is attacked in Europe. There's way too much hostility to us there.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
