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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; belgium</title>
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		<title>Belgium’s Death Spiral</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/stephenbrown/belgiums-death-spiral/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=belgiums-death-spiral</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/stephenbrown/belgiums-death-spiral/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2014 04:35:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stephen Brown]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agenda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[euthanasia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=241718</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Only months after giving children the right to ask to die, euthanasia claims yet another category of victims.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/eut.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-241720" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/eut.jpg" alt="eut" width="292" height="219" /></a>Europe’s descent to self-annihilation and a holocaust of its own making continues unabated as a court in Belgium this month granted a convicted rapist and murderer the right to die under Belgian euthanasia laws. This latest destructive blow to Western civilization’s Judeo-Christian moral order comes only months after Belgium’s King Philippe signed into law last March a bill allowing euthanasia for children of any age and dementia sufferers upon request.</p>
<p>With this highly disturbing piece of legislation becoming law, Belgian opponents of euthanasia questioned who would be next after children were granted the barbarism to request their own deaths. They did not have to wait long for an answer. This month, Frank van Den Bleeken, 50, who has been incarcerated for 30 years for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old student, received the right to be euthanized from a court after claiming “unbearable suffering.” Intolerable physical or psychological pain is accepted as a grounds for euthanasia in Belgium.</p>
<p>Van Den Bleeken is not the first Belgian convict to ask to be put to death. Fifteen others have made the same request. But van Den Bleeken is the first to receive legal permission, thus establishing a new euthanasia category.</p>
<p>“I am a human being, and regardless of what I’ve done, I remain a human being. So, yes give me euthanasia,” said van Den Bleeken in a recent television documentary.</p>
<p>The convicted murderer, who is currently serving his sentence in a prison’s psychiatric wing, first requested euthanasia three years ago. Inadequate help from the state for the problem that, van Den Bleeken says, caused him to commit his crime and the chance he will reoffend if released constitute other reasons for his having asked to die.</p>
<p>The Belgian commission responsible for euthanasia stated it would not examine van Den Bleeken’s request until “all therapeutic possibilities had been exhausted.” But a court of appeal blocked the commission’s attempt to transfer van Den Bleeken to an institution for specialized treatment, after which he successfully fought the justice ministry in court for the right to be euthanized.</p>
<p>“My client can be transferred to a hospital for 48 hours to say his goodbyes to his family and can then die in a dignified manner,” said van Den Bleeken’s lawyer. “I am not able to say when nor where this will happen.”</p>
<p>Opinion on this specific case, on granting van Den Bleeken the right to be euthanized, is, as expected, divided and emotional. Since it involves incarcerated criminals, some of whom have committed terrible crimes, this case does not garner the same sympathy and support that the children’s did when the euthanasia right was extended to them, Belgium becoming the first country in the world to do so.</p>
<p>Some of those in favor of granting van Den Bleeken’s death request, for example, believe society would benefit economically from his demise, as taxpayers would no longer have to support him in prison, and would like to see the euthanasia right extended to other prisoners for the same economic reasons. Others are of the opinion that van Den Bleeken deserves death for the horrendous crime he committed, but only wish it was the state demanding an end to his life rather than the murderer (Belgium does not have capital punishment).</p>
<p>Many of those opposing van Den Bleeken’s request also do not do so on the grounds that euthanasia is morally wrong. Some maintain murderers like him forfeited all their rights when they committed their crimes, including the right to be euthanized. And if they are suffering in prison, then that’s too bad, since their victims, and the victims’ families, are also still suffering. Besides, the student van Den Bleeken murdered didn’t get to choose whether she wanted to die, so why should he? The justice system, some opponents argue, also prescribes a punishment for the crime committed, and some view van Den Bleeken’s request to die as an attempt to escape his punishment, thus undermining the rule of law.</p>
<p>But these arguments appear to have overshadowed the bigger issue in the van Den Bleeken case in that the boundaries for euthanasia in Belgium have once again been expanded. And in this case, a scant three months after their last enlargement.</p>
<p>Originally, Belgium’s euthanasia law, passed in 2002, was meant for gravely ill adults suffering unbearable physical pain.  Now, as mentioned, it includes those experiencing “unbearable psychological suffering.” So relatively healthy people suffering mental stress or disorders are now being killed, among them a 44-year-old person who had undergone a failed sex change operation. So it is no wonder the number of euthanasia victims in Belgium has grown from 24 people in 2002 to 1,807 in 2013, an average of five per day and a 27 percent increase from 2012. All of which proves that early Belgian opponents of euthanasia were right when they claimed its parameters would constantly expand, becoming a slippery slope.</p>
<p>“Can one truly believe that there was really such a strong rise in incurable illnesses in Belgium?” asked the coordinator of a Belgian civil organization that wants stricter control of euthanasia. “When the criteria become more and more flexible, one clearly sees that there is a drift.”</p>
<p>The trailblazer in modern-day euthanasia is actually Belgium’s neighbor, Holland. Holland was the first European country to betray its Judeo-Christian heritage regarding the sanctity of life when it legalized euthanasia in 2001. Holland also has the dubious distinction of leading the way in killing babies, as the Dutch euthanasia policy was expanded in 2006 to babies born with severe birth defects. But while killing children under 12 is still technically illegal, as long as doctors follow a certain protocol, the Dutch justice system leaves them in peace.</p>
<p>It therefore should not surprise that Holland is another country where euthanasia appears out of control. In 2011, 3,695 people were reported medically killed, including 13 psychiatric patients, while 4,188 were euthanized in 2102, accounting for three percent of all Holland’s deaths that year. And like in Belgium, the number continues to rise, setting a new record every year.</p>
<p>“The Dutch experience shows that euthanasia becomes routine,” said one British anti-euthanasia activist.</p>
<p>One would have to go back to Nazi Germany to find a European country where euthanasia was so triumphant. In October, 1939, Adolph Hitler signed an authorization on his own personal stationary allowing German doctors to murder ill and physically and mentally handicapped children. This authorization launched the infamous Nazi euthanasia program, T-4 (for Tiergarten 4, the Berlin address of the program’s headquarters), in which several hundred thousand disabled minors and grownups, classified as ‘<em>leben lebensunwert</em>’ (life unworthy of life), were eventually killed simply because of the way they were born. Their murder was the beginning of the Nazi genocide and was to be followed by the Jewish Holocaust. More than seven decades later, modern-day Belgium and Holland are reviving the nightmare.</p>
<p>A new and frightening part of this nightmare is the mobile euthanasia units a Dutch pro-euthanasia organization created in 2012. In their eagerness to kill, these supporters of death on demand send a medical team, equipped with a lethal injection, to the homes of people who legally qualify for euthanasia but whose family doctors refuse to do it. These ‘death on wheels’ teams are called, appropriately, “<em>Levenseinde</em>” (Life End) units.</p>
<p>This is quite a reversal of the traditional doctor’s house call.</p>
<p>The reason for Belgium’s ever-expanding euthanasia legislation that now even includes children is that Western civilization is in the grips of a death cult, like the Nazi, Communist and Islamist ones. As Judeo-Christian values recede in Western European countries, the more such abominations associated with death worship, such as abortion, pedophilia, bestiality and euthanasia, will appear, as the continent reverts back to a pre-Christian paganism (which was also a Nazi goal). It is therefore no coincidence that Holland and Belgium, two of Western Europe’s most secularized and de-Christianized societies, have legalized euthanasia. They and Luxembourg are the only ones &#8212; so far.</p>
<p>Belgian euthanasia opponents, who are once again left asking ‘who’s next?’ after the van Den Bleeken legal decision, will, again, probably not have to wait long for a possible answer. The Belgian Intensive Care Society released a document requesting authorization to euthanize without a patient’s permission, “even in the absence of discomfort.” It claims non-requested euthanasia is already being regularly practiced.</p>
<p>“These patients are not sufficiently conscious to make an explicit request. It’s not about increasing the medication to prevent pain but so to precipitate death when the quality of life has become deficient,” wrote Jean-Louis Vincent, a former society head, in a Belgian newspaper.</p>
<p>Already, doctors have such control over life or death in Belgium that sometimes they do not even tell family members that a loved one has requested to be euthanized. The relatives of the deceased are told only after the fact. Now, if the Belgian Intensive Care Society gets its way, they won’t even have to inform their victims.</p>
<p>But such a frightening, downward trajectory is not unexpected when a country progressively gives up its traditional religious faith and allows Marxist socialism to heavily influence its society and culture. By abandoning its morality, losing its sense of eternity and living only in the here and now, oblivious of past and future generations, Belgium has created a moral and spiritual vacuum conducive to euthanasia’s growth. And its expansion is now occurring with such speed that it no longer resembles a slippery slope but rather a steep drop off a cliff into a beckoning abyss.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
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		<title>Transgender Woman who Tried to Turn Herself Into a Man After Rejection by Mother Kills Herself</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/transgender-woman-who-tried-to-turn-herself-into-a-man-after-rejection-by-mother-kills-herself/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=transgender-woman-who-tried-to-turn-herself-into-a-man-after-rejection-by-mother-kills-herself</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/transgender-woman-who-tried-to-turn-herself-into-a-man-after-rejection-by-mother-kills-herself/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Oct 2013 23:39:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[euthanasia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transgender]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=206082</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nathan, born Nancy, Verhelst, was given legal euthanasia, most likely by lethal injection, on the grounds of "unbearable psychological suffering" ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CoD_pinkskull.gif"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-206083" alt="CoD_pinkskull" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CoD_pinkskull-450x268.gif" width="450" height="268" /></a></p>
<p>This is a sick, sad story. And another reminder that there is nothing cute about some couple dressing up their son as a girl and newspapers talking about him as a transgender girl. Or vice versa.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s child abuse.</p>
<p>And adults who seek to mutilate themselves are dealing with their own psychological traumas. Often rooted in children.</p>
<p>The story of Nancy Verhelst is <a href="http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2013/10/mother-of-sex-change-belgian-i-dont.html">the story of the failure of </a>modern Western civilization. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/10346616/Belgian-killed-by-euthanasia-after-a-botched-sex-change-operation.html">It begins with a liberal society providing deformative &#8220;transgender&#8221; s</a>urgery and ends with the society providing euthanasia.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a horrifying view of what we have become and what we are becoming. There are horrors here on par with anything in the Middle Ages.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;I was the girl that nobody wanted,&#8221; Nancy Verhelst told Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper in the hours before her death.</p>
<p>&#8220;While my brothers were celebrated, I got a storage room above the garage as a bedroom. &#8216;If only you had been a boy&#8217;, my mother complained. I was tolerated, nothing more.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nancy Verhelst had hormone therapy in 2009, followed by a mastectomy and surgery to construct a penis in 2012. But &#8220;none of these operations worked as desired&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;I was ready to celebrate my new birth,&#8221; she told the newspaper. &#8220;But when I looked in the mirror, I was disgusted with myself. My new breasts did not match my expectations and my new penis had symptoms of rejection. I do not want to be&#8230; a monster. &#8220;</p></blockquote>
<p>What we&#8217;re dealing with here of course is perception. Like the anorexic or the bulimic, this is a case of someone with a distorted self-image as a result of psychological dysfunction.</p>
<p>Nancy was rejected by her mother. Instead of dealing with that problem, the establishment instead perversely decided to address the lack of a mother&#8217;s love by mutilating a grown woman into some warped creature that would only loosely resemble a man, but could never be a man, to meet the wishes of a mother who hated her.</p>
<p>And when Nancy continued suffering. There was another solution. Death.</p>
<blockquote><p>Nathan, born Nancy, Verhelst, 44, was given legal euthanasia, most likely by lethal injection, on the grounds of &#8220;unbearable psychological suffering&#8221; on Monday afternoon.</p>
<p>Wim Distelmans, a cancer specialist who carried out the euthanasia, is the same doctor who late last year gave lethal injections to congenitally deaf twins who were frightened they were also going blind.</p>
<p>&#8220;The choice of Nathan Verhelst has nothing to do with fatigue of life,&#8221; said Dr Distelmans. &#8220;There are other factors that meant he was in a situation with incurable, unbearable suffering. Unbearable suffering for euthanasia can be both physical and psychological.</p></blockquote>
<p>This is what we have become. This is the nightmare that our societies are turning into. This is our Brave New World.</p>
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		<title>Belgium to Legalize Child Euthanasia</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/belgium-to-legalize-child-euthanasia/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=belgium-to-legalize-child-euthanasia</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/belgium-to-legalize-child-euthanasia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:34:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[euthanasia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=193296</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There were 1,133 cases of euthanasia recorded in Belgium in 2011, accounting for about 1 percent of the country's deaths]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/suicide-booth.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-193297" alt="suicide-booth" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/suicide-booth-269x350.jpg" width="269" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=189282">mass of Muslim immigrants packing </a>Brussels should approve. In the Muslim world, child euthanasia is known as Honor Killing.</p>
<blockquote><p>The Belgian Federal Parliament is reportedly about to expand its controversial &#8220;right to die&#8221; policies to include access to euthanasia for some gravely ill children.</p>
<p>If child euthanasia is legalized in Belgium, the country would become the first in the developed world to have a law on the books allowing the practice, although the Netherlands has since 2005 not prosecuted doctors who perform euthanasia on some minors as long as the doctors act in accordance with a set of medical guidelines dubbed the Groningen Protocol.</p></blockquote>
<p>The Groningen Protocol is not a spy novel, but it does contain &#8220;directives with criteria under which physicians can perform &#8220;active ending of life on infants&#8221; (child euthanasia) without fear of legal prosecution.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p>The bill, introduced by the Socialist party in December, would lay out guidelines for doctors to decide on a case-by-case basis whether or not a child is mature enough to make the decision to end his or her own life, as well as whether a child&#8217;s health is grave and hopeless enough to warrant euthanasia.</p></blockquote>
<p>Socialists support killing children? I&#8217;m shocked. Somehow it&#8217;s never the conservatives introducing a dead kids bill.</p>
<blockquote><p>It marks a turning point in the nation&#8217;s approach to the rights of young people, some of whom would be able to choose to die if the law were to pass, even while still being legally barred from driving, marrying, voting or drinking liquor until they turned 18.</p></blockquote>
<p>You wouldn&#8217;t want them drinking or driving. They might kill themselves.</p>
<blockquote><p>Peter Deconinck, president of the Belgian medical ethics organization Reflectiegroep Biomedische Ethiek, has come out in support of expanding the practice to minors, as has the head of the intensive care unit of Fabiola Hospital in Brussels, who testified before a Belgian Senate committee.</p>
<p>&#8220;We all know that euthanasia is already practiced on children,&#8221; he told the committee. &#8220;Yes, active euthanasia.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Pete certainly seems cheerful about that.</p>
<blockquote><p>There were 1,133 cases of euthanasia recorded in Belgium in 2011, accounting for about 1 percent of the country&#8217;s deaths that year, according to AFP.</p></blockquote>
<p>I&#8217;m guessing adding kids will help fill some quotas.</p>
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		<slash:comments>22</slash:comments>
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		<title>State Department Covered Up Pedophilia by Ambassador Who Was Obama and Hillary Donor</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/state-department-covered-up-pedophilia-by-ambassador-who-was-obama-and-hillary-donor/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=state-department-covered-up-pedophilia-by-ambassador-who-was-obama-and-hillary-donor</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/state-department-covered-up-pedophilia-by-ambassador-who-was-obama-and-hillary-donor/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 22:13:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Howard Gutman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state department]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=192913</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton covered up the sex abuse of children in exchange for the promise of 2016 cash. But what difference does it make?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_192914" style="width: 460px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/6944434716_4856c4defb_z.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-192914" alt="&quot;So he sexually abused a bunch of kids? What difference does it make?" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/6944434716_4856c4defb_z-450x298.jpg" width="450" height="298" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text"><strong>&#8220;So he sexually abused a bunch of kids? What difference does it make?</strong></p></div>
<p>When <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/state-department-covered-up-rape-drug-rings-and-prostitution-targeted-whistleblowers/">I wrote about this yesterday</a>, I suspected that the ambassador in question was an Obama donor. I was right. And as ambassadors go, Howard Gutman is a truly repulsive character.</p>
<p>In 2011, Gutman claimed that Muslim violence against Jews wasn&#8217;t anti-Semitic. It was just a &#8220;reaction&#8221; to Israel. Maybe he can explain why his sex abuse of children isn&#8217;t really pedophilia. Just a reaction to Israeli settlements.</p>
<blockquote><p>A State Department whistleblower has accused high-ranking staff of a massive coverup — including keeping a lid on findings that members of then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s security detail and the Belgian ambassador solicited prostitutes.</p>
<p>A chief investigator for the agency’s inspector general wrote a memo outlining eight cases that were derailed by senior officials, including one instance of interference by Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills.</p>
<p>A DS agent was called off a case against US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman over claims that he solicited prostitutes, including minors.</p>
<p>“The agent began his investigation and had determined that the ambassador routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children,” says the memo.</p>
<p>“The ambassador’s protective detail and the embassy’s surveillance detection team . . . were well aware of the behavior.”</p>
<p>Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy ordered the investigation ceased, and the ambassador remains in place, according to the memo.</p>
<p>Gutman was a big Democratic donor before taking the post, having raised $500,000 for President Obama’s 2008 campaign and helping finance his inaugural.</p></blockquote>
<p>Bashing Jews and excusing Anti-Semitism didn&#8217;t get Gutman fired. Neither did trying to hire child prostitutes. What does he have to do to get fired? Stop giving Obama money?</p>
<p>Who else did Howard Gutman give money to in 2008? He donated to Obama&#8230; and to Hillary Clinton. I guess Howie was hedging his bets to see who could get him in range of a bunch of little kids.</p>
<p>And Hillary Clinton covered up his child abuse in exchange for the promise of 2016 cash. But what difference does it make?</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/U.S._Secretary_of_State_John_Kerry_is_shown_a_photograph_by_U.S._Ambassador_to_the_Kingdom_of_Belgium_Howard_Gutman_of_the_Secretary_and_President_Barack_Obama_serving_together_in_the_U.S._Senate.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-192915" alt="U.S._Secretary_of_State_John_Kerry_is_shown_a_photograph_by_U.S._Ambassador_to_the_Kingdom_of_Belgium_Howard_Gutman_of_the_Secretary_and_President_Barack_Obama_serving_together_in_the_U.S._Senate" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/U.S._Secretary_of_State_John_Kerry_is_shown_a_photograph_by_U.S._Ambassador_to_the_Kingdom_of_Belgium_Howard_Gutman_of_the_Secretary_and_President_Barack_Obama_serving_together_in_the_U.S._Senate-450x337.jpg" width="450" height="337" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Howard+Gutman+Belgian+Premiere+Smurf.jpeg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-192916" alt="Howard+Gutman+Belgian+Premiere+Smurf" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Howard+Gutman+Belgian+Premiere+Smurf-450x300.jpeg" width="450" height="300" /></a></p>
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		<title>Belgium Sentences Man to 4 Months in Jail for Burning Koran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/belgium-sentences-man-to-4-months-in-jail-for-burning-koran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=belgium-sentences-man-to-4-months-in-jail-for-burning-koran</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/belgium-sentences-man-to-4-months-in-jail-for-burning-koran/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2013 21:13:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blasphemy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamizationofeurope]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=187618</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The court held that the facts were serious and testified to “a blatant lack of tolerance and a highly questionable attitude”.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/koran.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-187620" alt="koran" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/koran-450x244.jpg" width="450" height="244" /></a></p>
<p>Belgium was liberated from Nazi occupation from September 1944 to February 1945. Ostend was liberated in September 1944. Unfortunately<a href="http://tundratabloids.com/2013/04/belgian-convicted-for-hate-speech-in-koran-burn.html"> it appears to be under Fascist occupation</a> once again.</p>
<blockquote><p>In Belgium a man was convicted for ‘racist hate speech’ because he publicly tore up a Koran, before the eyes of a group of Muslims. The case illustrates the need to protect free speech against those seeking to criminalise ‘Islamophobia’.</p>
<p>On 8 June 2012 a man, identified as Arne S., participated in a demonstration organised by a radical right-wing political party, Vlaams Belang (‘Flemish Interest’), opposing the construction of a mosque in the Belgian coastal city of Ostend. In the aftermath of the demonstration S. tore up a Koran in the presence of a small group of Muslims, with whom he had exchanged words. The public prosecutor indicted S. for incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence on the basis of race and ethnic origin.</p>
<p>The defendant’s attorney called for an acquittal, arguing that no infraction on the anti-racism legislation had occurred. The criminal court in Bruges convicted the man, however, on 11 March 2013. Due in part to the unfavourable criminal history of the defendant, the sentence was relatively severe, consisting of an effective prison sentence of four months and a fine of 600 euros. The court held that the facts were serious and testified to “a blatant lack of tolerance and a highly questionable attitude”.</p></blockquote>
<p>In Belgium, a &#8220;highly questionable attitude&#8221; leads to a four month prison sentence. The question is how long until it leads to one here.</p>
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		<title>Thrown in Prison for Shredding the Koran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/andrew-harrod/thrown-in-prison-for-shredding-the-koran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=thrown-in-prison-for-shredding-the-koran</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:08:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Andrew Harrod]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[koran]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=180986</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Dominance of Sharia blasphemy laws reaches a perilous turning point in Europe. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/andrew-harrod/thrown-in-prison-for-shredding-the-koran/6a00d8345502cf69e200e54f3a8bf18833-640wi/" rel="attachment wp-att-181138"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-181138" title="6a00d8345502cf69e200e54f3a8bf18833-640wi" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/6a00d8345502cf69e200e54f3a8bf18833-640wi-450x331.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="199" /></a>A <a href="http://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/faitsdivers/985711/ostende-arne-prend-4-mois-fermes-pour-avoir-dechire-le-coran-devant-des-musulmans">Bruges, Belgium criminal court</a> convicted a man for shredding a Koran on March 6, 2013.  The court imposed a four-month prison sentence and a 600 euro fine upon him.  He now additionally faces a revocation of a previous suspension of an 18-month prison sentence for having set a fire in a wood.  This case highlights yet again the greater restrictions on speech in free societies outside of the United States and how these restrictions can limit open debate about Islam.</p>
<p>The man, identified in print only as Arne S., attended a demonstration on June 8, 2012, in Ostend, Belgium, before retiring to a café.  There Arne exchanged words with a dozen Muslims and tore apart a Koran before them.  As described in a Belgian press account, Arne’s counsel at trial claimed that the Muslims had thrown the “sacred book” at Arne, striking him in the head.  Arne’s lawyer, Olivier Ryde, thus claimed that no infraction of Belgium’s law on hate speech had occurred.  No reports of assault charges against the Muslims have appeared.</p>
<p>Arne’s case demonstrates that Belgium, like many other European countries, has laws against what is commonly called “hate speech.”  In particular, Article 22 of the Belgian Law of May 10, 2007, Aiming to Struggle Against Certain Forms of Discrimination, prohibits incitement of hatred, discrimination, violence, and/or segregation against persons of various protected classes in public settings defined by <a href="http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/loi/loi.htm">Article 444 of the Belgian Penal Code</a>.  Article 3 of the May 10, 2007, laws defines these protected classes</p>
<blockquote><p>based upon age, sexual orientation, civil state, birth, fortune, religious or philosophical conviction, political conviction, trade union views, language, actual or future state of health, handicap, physical or genetic characteristic, or social origin.</p></blockquote>
<p>Cheradenine Zakalwe of the website <a href="http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/belgium-4-months-in-prison-for-tearing.html"><em>Islam versus Europe</em></a> has asked in relation to Arne, “Is Sharia already in force in Europe?”  Yet Arne is not the first individual in Europe convicted of destroying a “sacred book,” nor is the Koran the only book in Europe that qualifies for this designation.  <a href="http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&amp;newsitemID=181755">Poland’s supreme court ruled on October 29, 2012</a> that a lower court was wrong to exonerate the Polish heavy metal musician Adam Darski on blasphemy charges for having ripped apart a Bible as a “book of lies” during a September 2007 concert.</p>
<p>In Darski’s case, though, the European Union’s (EU) executive body, the European Commission (EC), came to Darski’s defense.  An EC statement on October 31, 2012 expressed the traditional justification for free speech that “[t]his right protects not only information or ideas that are favorably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also those that offend, shock or disturb.”  It remains to be seen whether the EC will make the same defense à la Voltaire for Arne’s anti-Islam sentiments.</p>
<p>Controversies about blasphemy aside, Belgium’s equation of “religious” and other “convictions” with physical characteristics such as a person’s place of “birth” is troubling.  Such a conception of “hate speech” encompasses not just the debatable proposition of proscribing animus expressed against individuals, but also the prohibition of at least certain forms of opposition to ideas like Islam.  In effect, an individual’s identification with an idea like Islam helps shield this belief from attack in a kind of ideological umbrella.</p>
<p>The cases of Arne, Darski, and others continue to show that criticism and/or condemnation of Islam can be legally perilous in European societies traditionally restrictive of free speech out of deference to group sensibilities and social harmony.  Now that Muslim communities have established themselves in an often politically correct modern Europe, rejection of Islam is no longer a merely academic matter involving distant peoples.  Precisely the proximity of Islam to Europe, however, demands unfettered critical evaluation of this faith now more than ever.  Modern expansive notions of “hate speech” and traditional concepts of blasphemy, now applied not just to Europe’s historically dominant Christian faith but also to an increasingly prominent Islam, can only hinder this necessary inquiry into Islam.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Belgian Man Sentenced to 4 Months in Jail for Tearing Koran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/belgian-man-sentenced-to-4-months-in-jail-for-tearing-koran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=belgian-man-sentenced-to-4-months-in-jail-for-tearing-koran</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:37:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamic sharia law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamizationofeurope]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=180401</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Blasphemy law, it's not just for Pakistan anymore.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/belgian-man-sentenced-to-4-months-in-jail-for-tearing-koran/riot-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-180402"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-180402" title="riot" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/riot.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="318" /></a></p>
<p>In Belgium. Blasphemy law, it&#8217;s not just for Pakistan anymore.</p>
<blockquote><p>Arne S., originally from Blankenberge, was sentenced on Wednesday, by the criminal court of Bruges, to four months in prison for having torn a copy of the Koran in front of a group of Muslims, in June 2012, in Ostende.</p>
<p>On 8 June last year, in the early evening, the accused participated in a demonstration in Ostende. After the demonstration, he went into a café where he exchanged words with around a dozen Muslims. In front of their eyes, Arne S. tore a copy of the Koran.</p>
<p>According to the statements of the accused, the Muslims threw the sacred [sic] book at his head, which provoked his action. Olivier Ryde, the accused&#8217;s lawyer, requested this his client be acquitted. According to him, there was no question of any infringement of the law on racism.</p></blockquote>
<p>But racism or the specter of hate crimes is being used to ram through Islamic blasphemy law by another means. Blasphemy law is still unacceptable in the West, so those being charged with it have to be charged with other offenses.</p>
<p>Obama locked up the Mohammed moviemaker for a parole violation, but most targets don&#8217;t have such convenient tags. So instead hate crime laws are used to punish acts of blasphemy and appease Muslims.</p>
<p>No one is actually intimidated by these acts. There is no racism. Theocracy is being implemented without legal recourse.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>&#8220;I&#8217;ll Kill You and Then I&#8217;ll Go Back to Morocco&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/ill-kill-you-and-then-ill-go-back-to-morocco/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=ill-kill-you-and-then-ill-go-back-to-morocco</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/ill-kill-you-and-then-ill-go-back-to-morocco/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Nov 2012 17:15:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belgium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Muslim immigration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=166564</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A used car salesman threatened to kill three policemen in Molenbeek, Belgium. 22 year old Tahar did not like that the police had towed that had been parked on a public street without insurance. A car that Tahar had intended to sell for 5,000 Euros.  The police explained to Tahar that he could get the car released, but he did not see it that way, returning three times to the police station to make threats in Arabic. "If you do not release my car, I'll kill you all and then I'll go back to Morocco."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/ill-kill-you-and-then-ill-go-back-to-morocco/rageboy/" rel="attachment wp-att-166565"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-166565" title="rageboy" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/rageboy.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="306" /></a></p>
<p>If Belgium had a similarly acute sense of causality as this gentleman from Morocco, <a href="http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2012/11/europe-beacon-of-multicultural.html">so much unpleasantness</a> could have been avoided.</p>
<blockquote><p>A used car salesman threatened to kill three policemen in Molenbeek, Belgium. 22 year old Tahar did not like that the police had towed that had been parked on a public street without insurance. A car that Tahar had intended to sell for 5,000 Euros.  The police explained to Tahar that he could get the car released, but he did not see it that way, returning three times to the police station to make threats in Arabic. &#8220;If you do not release my car, I&#8217;ll kill you all and then I&#8217;ll go back to Morocco.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Of course if Tahar had not been allowed into Belgium in the first place, he would not have had a, likely stolen, car for the police to tow which would have eliminated the necessity for him to propose a killing spree followed by a return to Morocco.</p>
<p>If the Belgian authorities had exercised better judgement, there would be fewer stolen cars and Tahars in Belgium.</p>
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		<title>The Burqa Bomb</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/ryan-mauro/the-burqa-bomb/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-burqa-bomb</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:02:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ryan Mauro]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=58632</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Terrorists disguised as women blow themselves up in Pakistan.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/burka.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58634" title="burka" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/burka.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="365" /></a></p>
<p>On April 17, a refugee camp at Kohat in Pakistan was struck by two suicide bombers that disguised themselves with burqas, the full-body veil worn by some Muslim women to make sure none of their skin is exposed. The attacks, which killed 41 people and injured 62, are sure to heighten the debate in Europe about whether wearing burqas and niqabs in public should be banned.</p>
<p>A parliamentary committee in Belgium has unanimously <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1977350,00.html">approved</a> such a ban, with the final vote in the House of Representatives coming April 22 and it is expected to pass. Movements to ban the burqa in Europe are quickly growing due to concern that the burqas can be used to disguise the identities of terrorists planning attacks like those that just happened in Pakistan and over the lack of assimilation of Muslim immigrant communities.</p>
<p>These concerns are not unfounded. Even though Islam frowns upon cross-dressing, male terrorists dressing up as burqa-clad women in order to carry out attacks is becoming more and more part of their modus operandi. This tactic has even been used by bank robbers and other criminals on many occasions, including in the U.S., as thoroughly <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2006/11/niqabs-and-burqas-as-security-threats">documented</a> by Daniel Pipes.</p>
<p>Terrorists have repeatedly donned burqas in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as in the United Kingdom, Iraq, the Gaza Strip, India, Somalia and Mauritania. In the United   Kingdom, one man who tried to set off a bomb in July 2005 in London was able to escape by wearing a burqa. The use of this clothing makes counter-terrorism more difficult because female police, which are in shorter supply, must be used to search those wearing it. The police chief of Iraq’s Babil Province in August 2008 complained about this after two burqa-wearing females attacked Shiite piligrims.</p>
<p>Daniel Bacquelaine of the Reformist Movement party in Belgium says that he supports the ban because it contradicts liberal democratic values. “There is nothing in Islam or the Koran about the burqa. It has become an instrument of intimidation, and is a sign of submission of women. And a civilized society cannot accept the imprisonment of women,” he <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1977350,00.html">told</a> <em>TIME Magazine.</em> The argument follows that the ban, therefore, does not violate freedom of religion since it is more of a cultural practice than something mandated by Islam. Of course, radical Salafists like those in Saudi   Arabia would disagree.</p>
<p>Banning or at least severely limit the wearing of burqas will cause outrage in the Muslim world and raises legitimate questions about civil liberty violations. However, a surprising amount of Muslims, including imams, support the ban. The Conference of French Imams has declared its support of the ban, saying it is not required in Islam. The chairman of the group, Hassen Chalghoumi, has had his Paris mosque <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7053101/Paris-imam-backs-Frances-burqa-ban.html">stormed</a> and has received death threats in response.</p>
<p>The ruling of the group of French imams is supported by Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, who was until his death in March the Grand Mufti of Egypt and highest Sunni authority in the Islamic world.  In October, Tantawi <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/6262819/Egypt-purges-niqab-from-schools-and-colleges.html">created</a> a stir when told a student to remove her niqab, saying it “had no connection with religion” and said it shouldn’t be worn, especially in schools.</p>
<p>A female Muslim in the U.K. has <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1195052/Why-I-British-Muslim-woman-want-burkha-banned-streets.html">written</a> an op-ed saying that “Nowhere in the Koran does it state that a woman’s face and body must be covered in a layer of heavy black cloth. Instead, Muslim women should dress modestly, covering their arms and legs.” She favors the ban because it “is a sign of creeping radicalization” and “is an imported Saudi Arabian tradition.”</p>
<p>Dounia Bouzar, a female Muslim who sits on the board of the Council of the Muslim Faith in France, is particularly <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1905554,00.html">forceful</a> in her opposition to the burqa. “Imposition of this garment on women is one manner Salafists get individuals to renounce their individuality and submit to the extremist cult thinking that masquerades as Islam—but which is an abomination of it,” she says.</p>
<p>When an Indian college in September 2009 banned the burqa (and went one step further and banned the headscarf), some Muslim leaders defended the decision. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, the author of over 200 books about Islam, <a href="http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3613.htm">said</a> that it is “un-Islamic” to force anyone to dress a certain way, and that “the burqa is not part of Islam.” He was even lenient about the headscarf ban, saying to respect the rules of the school, and “if you don’t agree, you quit the college.” A professor at a New Delhi school that is a Muslim scholar agreed, saying “the burqa has become the symbol of rigidity and has nothing to do with Islam” and recommended that students not wear it at school.</p>
<p>Terrorists have shown that they have no qualms about using burqas as a disguise to carry out attacks with. The European movement to outlaw the wearing of the burqa is understandable in light of the criminal and violent activities carried out by wearing the clothing. Such a ban brings up legitimate civil liberties concerns, but those that disagree are obligated to offer a different solution. If Belgium becomes the first country to enforce the ban and other states take similar measures, they can count on extremists to portray it as proof that the West has declared war on Islam, but there will be plenty of brave Muslims that will not allow that theme to go unchallenged.</p>
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		<title>Doomsday for the Eurozone?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/vasko-kohlmayer/doomsday-for-the-eurozone/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=doomsday-for-the-eurozone</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:05:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Vasko Kohlmayer]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=50400</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Fiscal recklessness may break up EU's monetary union.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/vasco.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-50402" title="vasco" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/vasco.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="231" /></a></p>
<p>“Euro Area Headed for Break-Up,” <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-12/euro-area-headed-for-break-up-socgen-s-albert-edwards-says.html">warned</a> a recent Bloomberg wire. The shocking headline was prompted by comments of Albert Edwards, a leading strategist at Société Générale, one of the oldest French banks. Speaking about the debt crisis that is currently engulfing Greece as well as a number of other eurozone* countries, Edwards <a href="http://www.neurosoftware.ro/finance/insurance/stock-market/albert-edwards-at-500-net-liabilities-to-gdp-it-is-too-late-to-prevent-the-collapse-of-the-g-7-greece-is-irrelevant-we-are-all-now-insolvent/">said</a>: “My own view of developments, for what it is worth, is that any help given to Greece merely delays the inevitable break-up of the eurozone.”</p>
<p>Lest you think Edwards is some kind of doomsday crank, he called the 1997 Asian currency meltdown one year ahead of time. A senior figure at one of Europe&#8217;s top financial service companies, he was also voted the second best European financial strategist in the prestigious Thomson Extel survey.</p>
<p>Edwards&#8217; prediction will not seem so far-fetched when we consider the eurozone&#8217;s skyrocketing debt. This development has caught many observers off guard, since the European Monetary Union lays down strict regulations aimed at preventing such a situation. The so-called Stability and Growth Pact requires each country&#8217;s to hold down its annual budget deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The Pact also stipulates that any member&#8217;s public debt is not to exceed 60 percent of GDP.</p>
<p>The exacting regulations notwithstanding, this year only one eurozone country is expected to have a budget deficit that falls within the three percent limit. The rest will go over, most by a large margin. Germany, which was the country that lobbied most rigorously for the strict fiscal requirements, was among the first to break them. Greece is currently the <a href="http://mises.org/daily/4091">leading offender</a> with a deficit that equals 12.7 percent of its GDP. But the figures are generally abysmal throughout the monetary union. Ireland&#8217;s deficit, for example, is 11.5 percent, Spain&#8217;s 11.4 percent, Portugal&#8217;s 9.3 percent.</p>
<p>As far as public debt is concerned the average European ratio is 88% of GDP, nearly 50 percent above the “allowable” limit. The worst offender is Italy whose public debt stands at an astounding 127 percent GDP. Greece&#8217;s debt is 113 percent, Belgium&#8217;s 105 percent, Germany&#8217;s nearly 80 percent. High as these figures are, the reality is probably worse as EU countries routinely use an assortment of accounting tricks to understate their deficits and obligations.</p>
<p>It is becoming increasingly obvious that if the euro is to continue as a viable currency, eurozone states must take decisive measures bring their finances under control. This, however, appears to be a nearly impossible task. Greece shows us why. Shortly after the government announced a package of budget cuts and tax increases the country&#8217;s civil servants took part in a nation-wide strike. Plans are afoot for another one next month. At the same time, Greece&#8217;s umbrella private sector union is planning an extensive walk-out for the last week of February. The Associated Press <a href="http://www.wral.com/business/story/6985871/">observed</a> that the Greek government “may find that unions and voters push back against cutbacks that will take years to show results. With a potential public backlash, their chance to win approval for such measures remains unclear.”</p>
<p>Memories are still fresh of the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/28/greece-farmers-protests">protests</a> that took place early last year. Angry at cuts in their subsidies, Greek farmers blocked major roads and paralyzed the country. Parts of the nation were thrown into chaos as lines of vehicles stretched for 12 miles or more. Unable to restore order, the prime minister was forced to beg the farmers to remove the roadblocks. &#8220;There is an urgent need to free up the roads. A whole society cannot be held hostage,&#8221; he pleaded.</p>
<p>This time around far more substantial steps must be taken in order to put Greece&#8217;s fiscal house in order. This is certainly not going to sit well with the Greek public and there is fear that things could deteriorate in dramatic fashion. Albert Edwards of Société Générale puts it this way:</p>
<p>Unlike Japan or the U.S., Europe has an unfortunate tendency towards civil unrest when subjected to extreme economic pain.</p>
<p>The Eurozone thus faces a seemingly unsolvable conundrum. Even though it is steeped deeply in debt, almost every serious effort to curtail spending meets with popular rage. The problem is that they cannot have it both ways. It is impossible to have a large welfare state and a sound fiscal house at the same time. It is either one or the other.</p>
<p>Until recently the euro was considered a possible alternative to the dollar as the world&#8217;s reserve currency. It was thought that the Monetary Union&#8217;s strict guidelines would safeguard its debasement. But it turns out that the Union&#8217;s respect for its founding documents is only paper deep. It is now becoming apparent that the disregard will have dire consequences. It may even bring about the break up of the eurozone and the demise of what once seemed like a solid currency.</p>
<p>Given that the United States is taking the same path of unrestrained spending, we would do well to take heed and learn from Europe&#8217;s painful lessons.</p>
<p>*NOTE: The eurozone – also called the euro area – is not the same as the European Union (EU). The European has twenty seven members as of this year. The eurozone is made up of those countries within the European Union that use the euro as their sole currency. The eurozone currently has sixteen member states.</p>
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		<title>An Open Letter to Charles Johnson</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/dennis-prager/an-open-letter-to-charles-johnson/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=an-open-letter-to-charles-johnson</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/dennis-prager/an-open-letter-to-charles-johnson/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dennis Prager]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=47634</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Your reasons for breaking with the Right don't add up. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-47639" title="Charles" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Charles.gif" alt="Charles" width="450" height="322" /></p>
<p><em>On Sunday, The New York Times Magazine featured an article on Charles Johnson, whose website &#8212; littlegreenfootballs &#8212; had for years been very popular among conservatives and among all those who believed that Islamic terror and Islamic religious totalitarianism were the greatest expressions of contemporary evil. The reason for the article was that Mr. Johnson has made a 180-degree turn and is now profoundly, even stridently, anti-right. This is my letter to him.</em></p>
<p>Dear Charles:</p>
<p>As you know, over the years, I was so impressed with your near-daily documentation of developments in the Islamist world that I twice had you on my national radio show &#8212; both times face to face in my studio. And you, in turn, periodically cited my radio show and would tell your many readers when they could hear you on my show.</p>
<p>So it came as somewhat of a shock to see your 180-degree turn from waging war on Islamist evil to waging war on your erstwhile allies and supporters on the right. You attempted to explain this reversal on Nov. 30, 2009, when you published &#8220;Why I Parted Ways With The Right.&#8221;</p>
<p>You offered 10 reasons, and I would like to respond to them.</p>
<p>First, as disappointed as I am with your metamorphosis, I still have gratitude for all the good you did and I respect your change as a sincere act of conscience. But neither this gratitude nor this respect elevates my regard for your 10 points. They are well beneath the intellectual and moral level of your prior work. They sound like something Keith Olbermann would write if he were given 10 minutes to come up with an attack on conservatives.</p>
<p>1. <em>Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, etc.). </em></p>
<p>Associating the American right with fascism is done only by leftist ideologues and propagandists, not by serious critics. It is akin to calling everyone on the left a Communist. As for the specific examples, forgive me, but in 28 years as a talk show host and columnist, I had never heard of Robert Stacy McCain or of Vlaams Belang. Nor did the BNP or SIOE register on my intellectual radar screen.</p>
<p>I looked them up and found that McCain is a former editor at the Washington Times charged with racist views. So what?</p>
<p>The BNP is the British National Party, a racist group that in the last U.K. general election received 0.7 percent of the popular vote. So what?</p>
<p>SIOE stands for Stop Islamisation of Europe. I perused its website, and while there are ideas I disagree with (e.g., the group does not believe that there are any Muslim moderates), the desire to stop the &#8220;Islamization&#8221; of Europe is hardly fascist; it is more likely animated by anti-fascism.</p>
<p>Vlaams Belang is a Flemish nationalist political party that won 17 out of 150 seats in Belgium &#8216;s Chamber of Representatives. From what I could gather from a cursory glance at the party&#8217;s platform, it is an ultra-nationalist Flemish party, many of whose language protection and secessionist ideals are virtually identical to those of the Party Quebecois, a party passionately supported by the left.</p>
<p>In any event, what do any of these groups have to do with mainstream American right institutions such the Hoover Institution, the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute; or with mainstream conservative publications and websites such as the National Review, the Weekly Standard, Townhall.com or Commentary; or with mainstream American conservatives such as Bill Kristol, Thomas Sowell, Hugh Hewitt, Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Bill Bennett, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, as well as Sean Hannity, Bill O&#8217;Reilly and Rush Limbaugh?</p>
<p>2. <em>Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.). </em></p>
<p>I agree with the late William Buckley that some of Pat Buchanan&#8217;s views could be construed as anti-Jewish; I don&#8217;t know who McCain or Lew Rockwell represent among mainstream conservatives; and to label Ann Coulter a white supremacist (or bigot) is slander.</p>
<p>3. <em>Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.). </em></p>
<p>&#8220;The entire religious right&#8221; wants to throw &#8220;women back into the dark ages?&#8221; As a religious (Jewish) conservative, perhaps I am a member of that group, and I find the charge absurd. The one example you give &#8212; anti-abortion &#8212; is invalid. To those who regard the unborn as worthy of life (except in the almost never occurring case of it being a threat to its mother&#8217;s life), opposition to abortion is no more anti-woman than opposition to rape is anti-man. The only people who wish to throw women into the dark ages are the people you, Charles, used to fight. That is why your change of heart has actually hurt the battle for women&#8217;s dignity and equality.</p>
<p>4. <em>Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.). </em></p>
<p>So, Charles, all those scientists who question or deny that human activity is causing a global warming that will render much of life on earth extinct are &#8220;anti-science?&#8221;</p>
<p>Has the possibility occurred to you that those who are skeptical of what they consider hysteria cherish science at least as much as you do? In fact, they suspect that &#8212; for political, social, financial, psychological and/or herd-following reasons &#8212; it is the &#8220;global warming&#8221; hysterics who are more likely to be anti-science.</p>
<p>Activist scientists, liberal media and leftist interest groups brought us the false alarm of an imminent heterosexual AIDS pandemic in America , the false alarm about silicon breast implants leading to disease and the nonsense about how dangerous nuclear power is. They were anti-science, not us skeptics who have been right every time I can think of.</p>
<p>5. <em>Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.). </em></p>
<p>This charge is particularly ugly. It appears that you have decided to fight all the &#8220;hate&#8221; you allege to be on the right with your own hate. Why exactly is it &#8220;homophobic bigotry&#8221; to want to maintain the millennia-old definition of marriage as the union of men and women? The hubris of those who not only want to change the definition of the most important institution in society but believe everyone who ever advocated male-female marriage was a bigot &#8212; meaning everyone who ever lived before you, Charles &#8212; is as breathtaking as it is speech-suppressing.</p>
<p>6. <em>Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.). </em></p>
<p>What you call &#8220;anti-government lunacy&#8221; most Americans regard as preserving the greatest protector of individual liberty &#8212; limited government.</p>
<p>7. <em>Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.). </em></p>
<p>I am no fan of Alex Jones, who, coincidentally, has attacked me on his website as a &#8220;Jewish propagandist.&#8221; But please. The amount of hate speech in one Keith Olbermann commentary dwarfs any 12 months of Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. In any event, the real irony here is that before your inexplicable change, it was you who devoted years to documenting the greatest amount of hate speech on earth today &#8212; that coming from within the Islamic world. If you still hated hate speech, you would still be doing that important work.</p>
<p>As for believing in conspiracy theories, your new team wins hands down &#8212; from multiple assassins of JFK to the American government being behind 9-11 (it was even believed by a high-ranking member of the Obama administration) to the war in Iraq waged on behalf of Halliburton.</p>
<p>8. <em>A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic , Ace of Spades, etc.). </em></p>
<p>From what I have seen, your examples do not justify your charge. Moreover, for every right-wing &#8220;raging hate&#8221; speech website, there are probably three on the left. The major conservative sites are overwhelmingly rational and devoid of &#8220;raging hate.&#8221; Given my longtime respect for you, Charles, it pains me that it is your list of 10 reasons for abandoning the right that is a prime example of &#8220;raging hate.&#8221;</p>
<p>9. <em>Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.). </em></p>
<p>I saw Pamela Geller&#8217;s site (The New York Times Magazine article about you cited it &#8212; Atlas Shrugs &#8212; and mentioned nothing remotely approaching your charges against her or her site) and I&#8217;ve interviewed Robert Spencer. Your charges against them only cheapen the words &#8220;fascism,&#8221; violence&#8221; and &#8220;genocide.&#8221;</p>
<p>10. <em>Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source). </em></p>
<p>The charge is a lie. Period. Those who cannot argue with the right always accuse it of racism. It used to work, Charles. But it is increasingly obvious to all but fellow leftists that the charge is specious. Opposition to President Obama has nothing to do with his race. Indeed, he continues to be more popular than his policies.</p>
<p>When you were on the politically and morally right side, Charles, you provided massive evidence for your positions. Now you throw verbal bombs. What happened? If you would like to tell me on my radio show, you are invited to do so. I miss you.</p>
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		<title>The Dark Lessons of Eurabia &#8211; by Jamie Glazov</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jamie-glazov/the-dark-lessons-of-eurabia-by-jamie-glazov/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-dark-lessons-of-eurabia-by-jamie-glazov</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jamie-glazov/the-dark-lessons-of-eurabia-by-jamie-glazov/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:08:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jamie Glazov]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=41994</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A former Mossad agent who hunted terrorists in Europe offers some dire warnings.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41999" title="europe_cancer" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/europe_cancer.jpg" alt="europe_cancer" width="507" height="337" /></p>
<p>Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Sheskin, a retired officer (Major) of the IDF. He has spent many years in Israeli intelligence services, primarily in the European theatre of operations. His expertise is in Radical Islam, Sharia Law, and the art of detecting the whereabouts of terrorist leaders in Europe and bringing them to justice. He lives in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. Visit his website at <a href="http://waltzingwicked.com/" target="_blank">Waltzingwicked.com</a>.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Dave Sheskin, welcome to Frontpage Interview.</p>
<p><strong>Sheskin: </strong>Thank you for this opportunity.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Give us a bit of background about yourself.</p>
<p><strong>Sheskin: </strong> I was born, raised and educated in Montreal. When the Six Day War erupted in June of 67, I was 24 years of age, and at the time I couldn’t care less about a war being fought many thousands of miles away. Having said that, I received a phone call from my older brother asking me if I was willing to go to Israel as a volunteer and help out while the regular and reserve soldiers were being called to duty.</p>
<p>My initial reaction was definitely not a positive one, but at that time, my brother was the Director of the Labour Zionist Youth Movement, and began bombarding me with Jewish guilt. Reluctantly, I eventually agreed to go for a three month period providing that I still had a job waiting for me when I returned. I discussed the issue with my boss, who was the owner of a high-end men’s retail outfit, and little did I realize at the time that he too was very active in the Jewish community in Montreal, and raised funds for Israel. His precise words to me were, “if you don’t go, Dave, I will be ashamed of you.” Three days later I was in Israel.</p>
<p>My parents were devastated by my decision, and for many months after, neither my parents or two older sisters spoke to my brother. “He’s just a boy,” they said. They insisted that my brother bring me home immediately, but by that time I was deep into the adventure of a lifetime and had no desire to return to Canada. Two months later, I met my first wife and we began a family immediately. I enlisted in the IDF in 69, and eventually embarked on a permanent career with the IDF.</p>
<p>In 69, I entered the Officers Military Academy, and my initial assignment after graduation was as a young Lieutenant Liaison Officer to the United Nations stationed in the Golan Heights. Subsequent to the Yom Kippur War in 73, I was scouted by a talent agent from Mossad, and recruited into the illustrious institute. I served my country and its people for more than 19 years.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> So what can you tell us in general, in terms of what you can say without divulging sensitive information, that you were doing over those 19 years for Mossad?<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Sheskin: </strong>Yes Jamie, as you allude to, it’s unfortunately not in my best interest to divulge sensitive data about the organization, or openly relate any information that may be sensitive, harmful or embarrassing to my ex-employer, who, by the way, has treated me with respect and fairness throughout my career.</p>
<p>However, what I`m able to reveal is that the majority of my time spent with the institute, I was searching out the hiding places where the Radical Fundamentalists (I prefer the term terrorists) found a safe haven. I related that info back to HQ, where the data was sorted and scrutinized by my superiors who were part of a team of a privileged few that came to decisions as to what should be done next.</p>
<p>An ever increasing number of these radical organizations sprung up throughout Europe in the mid-70s, and posed an escalating threat to the Jews and Christians residing in any one of the European nations that provided them with shelter. France was by far the staunchest supporter of these terrorists, and for their contributions, they were well compensated. Oil was the major reward. England, Belgium, Spain, Romania and Hungary also had large populations of unwanted aliens from Muslim nations living amongst them, but it appeared that they did not legally offer refuge to the terrorists. Sadly, their borders were not well secured, and the radicals found it rather easy to enter these countries without the authorities being aware. That is most European countries besides France. So basically, my job at the time was to track down the whereabouts of the terrorists and compiling a detailed activity folio which was transmitted to headquarters where the decisions were made.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> From what you seem to be saying, Europe is drowning in the face of Islamization. It’s also been allowing toxic elements to nest on its territory. What can be done? Is it too late for Europe to save itself?</p>
<p><strong>Sheskin: </strong>With approximately 52 million Muslims now residing in Europe, most experts believe that the European demographics are challenged. In my opinion, it is too late for Europe to save itself. The radical component of this aforesaid group is increasing dramatically, and they do not conform to the host society. They would prefer that the host society adapt to their laws and customs. This clashes directly with our democratic ideals, and if we are not careful, we will eventually face the same fate.<strong> </strong><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Your thoughts on our confrontation with Radical Islam and Sharia Law?</p>
<p><strong>Sheskin: </strong>We have not yet experienced much conflict with the radical Islamists, but if we fail to regulate and control the immigration laws of this country, Canada, we stand to relinquish our right of self-expression, self-determination and democracy as we know it.  Should we remain complacent and fail in our endeavor to prevent the radical Islamists from settling here, there will be more than just a confrontation; a holy Jihad will more than likely be the penalty.</p>
<p>This is the last bastion of western civilization to be conquered by them, and they have emphatically said so many times. The United States of Islam and Canada is the name that they would love to see waving in the breeze on an Islamic Crescent flag.  And let there be no doubt whatsoever that we are the ultimate prize for them. Once their numbers have substantially increased, it will be our children, grandchildren and all generations to follow that will have to face the consequences of a confrontation that we can not win.</p>
<p>Using Quebec as an example, the Muslim community in that province has grown and exploded since the last census taking, and their increase in permitted immigration there has swelled by more than 140% within the last decade. If ever they get the opportunity to propagate here as they have in Europe, over 52 million we will become a minority people within mere decades. Unfortunately, our government has done little to prevent them from settling here in large numbers, and they are enjoying the freedom we offer.</p>
<p>Having said that, I do believe that our Prime Minister; Mr. Harper will eventually change the immigration laws, and allow the moderates a better place to live and raise their families, but keep the radicals out. Today we are concerned with containing and eradicating the H1N1 virus, when there exists a far more dangerous virus poised and primed to annihilate us. This virus I refer to as the radical I.S.L.A.M virus. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the moderate Muslims into our society, and thank them for their willingness to adjust to the Canadian way of life, and for their many contributions to this nation.</p>
<p>As far as Sharia Law is concerned, we are already witnessing the consequences of allowing them even a limited amount of freedom in that area in England, Belgium and Denmark. Sharia requires its followers to engage in Jihad through whatever means possible, and if not for any other reason, that should be enough for us to have Sharia Law banned in this country.</p>
<p>Sharia explicitly calls for the use of violent techniques that are designed to create fear amongst the so-called infidels, and whoever stands in the way of a potential Muslim theocracy would be easily eliminated. The suppression and brutalization of women and persecution of our gay society must never be permitted to take hold here. All we have to do is take a drive through Detroit, and see what Sharia Law has done there. Such immoral practices of religious justice stems from the Qur’an itself, and it is cruel.  Their oppressive and barbaric laws can contribute nothing to the betterment of our society, or for that matter, even theirs.</p>
<p>Personally, I do not believe that any God could or would ever sanction laws that are meant to destroy instead of offering encouragement. If the laws of Sharia are meant to uphold the laws of the Qur’an, then they must also include the parts that speak of tolerance and forgiveness. To kill in the name of some distorted and misguided religious set of rules goes far beyond evil. Therefore, once again, I ask all decent peace-loving Muslims to stand up for, and abide by the laws of our legal system; which is the epitome of fairness.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> What has Sharia Law done in Detroit?</p>
<p><strong>Sheskin: </strong>A few months ago, I drove through a sector of Michigan called Dearborn. I stopped at a red light and took advantage of the brief interlude to survey my surroundings. I could have sworn that I was back in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. The men were walking a few steps in front of the women, as was customary, while the women all covered in dark shades of burkas’ and hijabs trailed a fair distance behind pushing baby strollers. That on its own was proof enough for me that Sharia Law was observed.</p>
<p>However, there were other indicators as well. The Sharia courts in Detroit and surrounding areas are authorized to settle family disputes without the consent of the US courts, and use shaming tactics as a tool for punishment. That is also legal. They have their own religious policing unit that operate independently from the local authorities, and recently, so-called ‘infidel residents’ have stated that they do believe that “honour killings” are carried out, and the bodies disposed of in secluded areas of the state that are not easy to get to by the state authorities.<strong> </strong><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>FP: </strong>What is your primary activity now?</p>
<p><strong>Sheskin: </strong>I spend the majority of my time writing my memoirs, doing book tours and speaking engagements. My wife Leah and I live in the Niagara Region of Ontario, and share our home with our wonderful Golden Retriever; Seamus. My three children and five grandchildren have preferred to make their home and raise families in Israel, and I try to speak with them at least once or twice a week; time permitting. My eldest son, Rafi is a yachtsman in summer, and coaches tennis in the wintertime. He still serves in the IDF reserves as a paratrooper. The eldest of my two beautiful daughters is married to a police officer, and she is a stay at home mother. My youngest daughter is a professional singer and dancer, and as of this moment she is still single; although that status can change anytime.</p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Are you optimistic or pessimistic about Israel’s and the West’s ability and capacity to defend itself against Radical Islam?</p>
<p><strong>Sheskin:</strong> This may sound bizarre, but I do believe that radical Islam and its followers will ultimately self-destruct in time. Israel most definitely has the means to protect herself from this enemy, because we have grown to know precisely what they stand for and what their intentions are towards us. Should they ever attempt to draw us into a place that we wish not to go, they will experience the wrath of a nation and its inhabitants who have had enough of their threats and verbal intimidation.</p>
<p>I would want to see the Western world be more prepared then they are. As of this moment, I do believe that Israel is better equipped to handle radical Islam. We are fortunate to have friends such as Canada and the United States for supporting us. If need be, we would do the same for them. In addition, I believe that Moammar Khadafy of Libya and Ahmadinijad of Iran spew so much hatred, that it is an endeavor on their part to convince themselves that they are superior to us. To be able to prove that is another issue; and I certainly hope that they do not push us too far. Our reaction would be very severe and unforgiving.</p>
<p><strong>FP: </strong>Dave Sheskin, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.<strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Sheskin:</strong> Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to express myself, and hopefully my comments will create awareness amongst all peace loving people living in the West.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><strong>[To get the whole story on the threat of Radical Islam and why the Left aids and abets it, read Jamie Glazov’s new book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/United-Hate-Romance-Tyranny-Terror/dp/1935071602">United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror.</a></em>]</strong></p>
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