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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Parliament</title>
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		<title>Max Blumenthal, Rejected by German Radicals</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ari-lieberman/max-blumenthal-rejected-by-german-radicals/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=max-blumenthal-rejected-by-german-radicals</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2014 05:33:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ari Lieberman]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ban]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[germany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[max blumenthal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=245272</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[But embraced by the left-wing establishment. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MaxBlumenthal.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245276" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MaxBlumenthal.jpg" alt="MaxBlumenthal" width="303" height="202" /></a>The Norwegians had their Quislings, and the Jews now have their Max Blumenthal. Blumenthal, a fringe gonzo journalist, Goebbels-like propagandist and BDS activist, who once worked for a pro-Hezbollah daily, represents today’s new face of anti-Semitism and is arguably one of the most reprehensible figures of the radical left.</p>
<p>Blumenthal routinely spews forth the anti-Semitic canard that compares Israelis to Nazis, referring to them as “Judeo-Nazis.” Recently, he compared the Jewish State to ISIS calling it “JSIL” – or the “Jewish State of Israel and the Levant.” Blumenthal’s views are so extreme that he is often cited approvingly by <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2014/04/antisemite-max-blumenthal-incites-murder-of-three"><span style="color: #0433ff;">neo-Nazi groups</span></a> as well as depraved murderers.</p>
<p>His vitriol and depravity know no bounds and earned him a spot in the Simon Wiesenthal <a href="http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7B54d385e6-f1b9-4e9f-8e94-890c3e6dd277%7D/TOP-TEN-2013.PDF"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Top 10</span></a> list of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel slurs, placing him in the company of such lovely bottom feeders as Iran’s “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Khamenei and Turkey’s grand Islamic narcissist, Recip Erdogan.</p>
<p>Anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism are warped ideologies that go hand-in-hand and so it’s unsurprising that Blumenthal has expressed rabidly anti-America views as well. Among some of his more zany <a href="http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/occupation-%E2%80%9Coccupy%E2%80%9D-israelification-american-domestic-security"><span style="color: #0433ff;">conspiracy theories</span></a> is that American law enforcement is “schooled in Israeli killing methods” and law enforcement personnel are trained in Israeli methods of torture. These risible allegations were first published by Blumenthal for the Hezbollah mouthpiece <em>Al-Akhbar</em>, where Blumenthal worked as a staff writer, but were quickly discredited as arrant nonsense when it was revealed that Blumenthal simply <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/did-israel-train-american-interrogators-in-torture-updated/249630/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">invented fictitious quotes</span></a> to support his fabrications.</p>
<p>Recently, Blumenthal’s antics caught the attention of Germany’s main opposition party, Die Linke<i> </i>(“The Left”), a radical leftist party considered the successor to the former ruling Communist Party in East Germany. Two party members with anti-Israel affiliations, Inge Höger and Annette Groth, invited Blumenthal to speak at a party seminar at the German parliament on November 10, just a day after the anniversary of the <a href="http://www.dw.de/november-9-a-fateful-day-for-germany/a-15515692"><span style="color: #0433ff;"><i>Kristallnacht</i> outrage</span></a>. But as it turns out, Blumenthal’s odious views proved too extreme even for the Communists who scrubbed his appearance.</p>
<p>As expected, the narcissistic and paranoid Blumenthal blamed his repudiation on the vast Zionist network stretching from Sheldon Adelson to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. And as expected, Blumenthal and another one of his Brown Shirt associates entered the parliament building where they harassed and bullied Die Linke’s party leader, Gregor Gysi. Blumenthal’s antics earned him an immediate and deserved <a href="http://www.dw.de/israel-critics-visit-to-bundestag-turns-ugly-for-gysi/a-18059221"><span style="color: #0433ff;">lifetime ban</span></a> from the German federal parliament building.</p>
<p>It is rather ironic and strange that while German Communists have enough commonsense to recognize Blumenthal as nothing more than a purveyor of anti-Semitism, elements within the American Left and more disturbingly, within the highest levels of the Democratic Party, continue to entertain his views and provide him with a platform.</p>
<p>Despite his overt anti-Semitism, Blumenthal’s articles are still featured in the leftist blog Mondoweiss. Moreover, the New America Foundation (NAF), a Washington think tank headed by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former high-level Obama-administration official, provided Blumenthal with a <a href="http://www.brandeiscenter.com/images/uploads/articleuploads/marquardt-Bigman_research_paper.pdf"><span style="color: #0433ff;">platform</span></a> to peddle his book, <i>Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel</i>, a screed widely recognized as anti-Semitic (one prominent leftist writer noted that it could have made the <a href="http://forward.com/articles/186557/max-blumenthals-goliath-is-anti-israel-book-that-m/?p=all"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club</span></a>) and adopted by the world’s most virulent and notorious anti-Semites. It should be noted that the NAF receives funding from organizations like the Ford Foundation and the State Department. While Mondoweiss is recognized as a fringe partisan blog that routinely features guttural gibberish, the NAF is viewed as a prestigious think tank and its actions with respect to the promotion of Blumenthal’s book served to bolster world-wide anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>Just as troubling is Hillary Clinton’s association with Sidney Blumenthal, Max Blumenthal’s father as well as his defender. Sidney Blumenthal advised Clinton during her 2008 campaign and was <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/08/Dershowitz-Warns-Clintons-Blumenthal-s-a-Problem-for-2016"><span style="color: #0433ff;">rumored</span></a> to have nearly landed a job in the State Department following her appointment as Secretary of State. Sidney is also a <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/clinton-adviser-sid-blumenthals-new-cause-his-sons-anti-isra"><span style="color: #0433ff;">passionate defender</span></a> of his son’s anti-Semitic book, attacking with single-minded purpose those critics who found its repulsive contents to be beyond the pale.</p>
<p>Critics of those who warned about Barack Obama’s close associations with the likes of <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/10/the_saidkhalidiobama_connectio.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Rashid Khalidi</span></a>, Bill Ayers, Edward Said and Jeremiah Wright were dismissed as being paranoid. Jeffrey Goldberg went so far as to call those sounding the alarm “<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2008/10/dear-jews-stop-the-obama-paranoia/8913/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">rumor-mongering, fever-headed Jewish conspiracists</span></a>.” Well, we now know that those rumor mongering conspiracists were <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/ditching-israel-embracing-iran_817766.html"><span style="color: #0433ff;">spot-on</span></a> in their analysis and, if anything, underestimated Obama’s disdain for America’s closest ally in the Middle East and one of its closest in the world.</p>
<p>Sidney Blumenthal has failed to disassociate himself from the views expressed by his son in his anti-Semitic screed but continues to maintain close relations with Clinton. Another high-level Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, has <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2556"><span style="color: #0433ff;">confirmed connections</span></a> to the radical Muslim Brotherhood. Those who warned us about Obama’s past radical ties and the negative influence they had on him were scorned and ridiculed but were ultimately proven right. Hopefully, the American electorate, deemed to be <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/11/13/pelosi-cited-obamacare-architect-in-push-for-law-now-claims-hasnt-heard-him/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">shallow and stupid</span></a> by the current administration, has learned its lesson and understands the ramifications of the old adage, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><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"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Terror in Canada</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/nichole-austin/terror-in-canada/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=terror-in-canada</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2014 04:58:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Nichole Austin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[canada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Zehaf-Bibeau]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OTTAWA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shooting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=243647</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yet another convert to Islam takes center stage.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/michael-zehalf-bibeau.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-243648" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/michael-zehalf-bibeau-359x350.jpg" alt="michael-zehalf-bibeau" width="300" height="292" /></a>The nation of Canada is reeling today from a brutal terrorist attack in the capital city of Ottawa that claimed the life of Canadian reservist Nathan Cirillo. The attacker has been identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/10/ottawa-gunman-is-convert-to-islam">a 32-year-old convert to Islam</a>, who was killed by authorities as he opened fire inside the Canadian Parliament. The incident comes just two days after two Canadian soldiers were deliberately struck by a speeding vehicle driven by another Islamic convert, leaving one soldier dead. The twin attacks have demonstrated that even the unassuming nation of Canada is not immune to the threat of Islamic terrorism, which once again has been allowed to flourish under a lax regime of global leadership.</p>
<p>Shortly before 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, Zehaf-Bibeau, using a keffiyeh to cover his face and brandishing a long-barreled rifle, approached the Canadian National War Memorial, dedicated to the memory of Canadian soldiers who have lost their lives in defense of their country. Clp. Cirillo was standing watch at the Tomb of the Unknown solider when he was shot in the abdomen by Zehaf-Bibeau at point-blank range. Zehaf-Bibeau then ran into the Canadian Parliament, where he was killed following a shoot-out with authorities.</p>
<p>Cpl. Cirillo, a 24-year-old father, was rushed to the hospital, but tragically succumbed to his injuries. A parliamentary guard sustained a gunshot wound to the leg during the attack and is said to be recovering.</p>
<p>Warning signs for Canadians have abounded in recent weeks. In early October, reports broke that an ISIS-connected <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/1605467/rcmp-investigating-suspected-extremists-returning-from-wars-overseas/">terrorist plot</a>, allegedly targeting a shopping mall and the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, had been thwarted by authorities. A day before the public learned of the attack, Canadian <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2014/10/22/canada-under-attack-by-homegrown-terrorists">intelligence and security agencies briefed</a> Canadian lawmakers on the threat of Islamic radicalism growing inside the country. However, while officials ultimately downplayed the idea that an attack was imminent, less than a week ago the government quietly raised the domestic terrorism threat level to medium for the first time in four years.</p>
<p>“This week’s events are a grim reminder that Canada is not immune to the types of terrorist attacks we have seen elsewhere around the world,” a visibly shaken Prime Minster Stephen Harper <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/10/22/stephen_harper_vows_to_tighten_security_measures.html">said</a> in a statement to the nation Wednesday. Harper vowed that the attack would lead Canada to “strengthen our resolve and redouble our efforts, and those of our national security agencies, to take all necessary steps to identify and counter threats and keep Canada safe here at home.”</p>
<p>Worried Canadians should not be heartened by Harper’s pronouncements given what we have learned about officals&#8217; alleged monitoring of Zehaf-Bibeau and other like-minded terrorists embedded in Canadian society. Zehaf-Bibeau, born Michael Joseph Hall, had been known to Canadian authorities for his jihadist proclivities and potential for violence. He had recently been designated by the government as a<a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2014/10/22/canada-under-attack-by-homegrown-terrorists"> &#8220;high-risk traveler”</a> and had his passport seized out of fear that he was liable to commit acts of terrorism abroad. Despite a long criminal history of drug trafficking, credit-card forgery, robbery, and multiple stints in <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/world/canada-shooter/index.html">jail</a>, Zehaf-Bibeau could not be taken off the streets.</p>
<p>The disconcerting facts surrounding Zehaf-Bibeau are eerily similar to those of Martin Couture-Rouleau, a.k.a. “Ahmad LeConverti&#8221; (Ahmad the Converted), the Canadian Muslim convert who ran a car into two Canadian soldiers on Monday in the Quebec city of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, claiming the life of one of the victims. Couture-Rouleau was arrested and questioned in July when he attempted to fly out of Canada to Turkey. Couture-Rouleau’s passport had also been seized in an attempt to prevent him from traveling abroad and taking up arms with fellow Islamic terrorists.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/22/us-canada-attacks-suspect-idUSKCN0IB2IX20141022">Ninety</a> other individuals like Zehaf-Bibeau and Couture-Rouleau are reportedly on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watch list due to suspicion that they have or are planning to participate in militant activities abroad. At least 80 individuals present in the country are believed by Canadian intelligence to have gone overseas to participate in terrorist activities, and as many as <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2014/10/08/csis-keeping-watch-on-80-canadian-terror-suspects-nationwide">145 Canadians</a> around the world are said by intelligence to be actively involved in terrorist groups.</p>
<p>The same is true for many Western countries. Approximately <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/09/22/americans-who-joined-isis-now-back-in-the-us/">100 individuals</a> from the U.S. are believed by the National Counterterrorism Center to have attempted to leave the country to fight alongside ISIS jihadists. The FBI estimates that a <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/fbi-director-americans-that-joined-isis-in-syria-are-entitled-to-return-to-us-127683/">dozen Americans</a> are currently fighting in Iraq and Syria, while Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) reports that that some 40 U.S. citizens have been allowed re-entry into the country after fighting with ISIS. According to the Obama administration, this is their right.</p>
<p>“Ultimately, an American citizen, unless their passport is revoked, is entitled to come back,” FBI Director <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/fbi-director-americans-that-joined-isis-in-syria-are-entitled-to-return-to-us-127683/">James Comey</a> declared earlier this month. “So, someone who&#8217;s fought with ISIL, with an American passport wants to come back, we will track them very carefully.”</p>
<p>Yet the events in Canada of the last several days have cast doubt on the reliability of the purported “careful tracking” strategy.</p>
<p>“If you want to go to Syria and Iraq, please go, but never come back,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69-nah7rIOc&amp;feature=youtu.be">Geert Wilders</a> told FrontPage’s Jamie Glazov on this week&#8217;s episode of <em>The Glazov Gang</em>. In this prophetic warning against the policy of barring known ISIS jihadists from exiting Western countries, Wilders pinpointed why Canadian soldiers like Cpl. Cirillo needlessly, and tragically, lose their lives at the hand of jihad. By refusing to allow highly &#8220;motivated&#8221; jihadists to leave, Western governments have made, in Wilders&#8217; words, “our own streets, our own airports, our own train stations, our own malls, very dangerous places to be.”</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em style="color: #222222;">Don’t miss <strong>Geert Wilders</strong> on this week’s <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> explaining why terrorist attacks like the one that just happened in Canada occur — and what the West must do to preserve itself:</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/69-nah7rIOc" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><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"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>What&#8217;s Next for Britain?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/enza-ferreri/whats-next-for-britain/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=whats-next-for-britain</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jun 2014 04:15:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Enza Ferreri]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Britain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sharia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UKIP]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=226657</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why those expecting a conservative surge in the next British election may be disappointed. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ukip.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-226734" alt="ukip" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ukip-450x253.jpg" width="315" height="177" /></a>After an <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/enza-ferreri/earthquake-in-the-u-k/">earthquake</a>, we gather the pieces hurled and scattered all over the place by the magnitude of the event, put them together and reconstruct. This is precisely the situation Britain finds itself in after last week&#8217;s momentous elections.</p>
<p>The big question in British politics now is who is going to win the 2015 General Elections for the British Parliament, which will produce the majority to form the new government.</p>
<p>The local and European elections were much anticipated and the outcome has been analyzed at length. The elections are supposed to give an idea of the next occupant of 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s residence.</p>
<p>But the new four-main-party-system that the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has introduced by storm makes these predictions much more complicated. UKIP has been the nightmare of pollsters and number crunchers, who admit defeat in appraising the current situation &#8212; and more importantly, admit that predicting the future will be much more difficult.</p>
<p>Without UKIP, it would be relatively easy to forecast next year’s results. If, as is often the case, on May 22 the incumbent party in government had fared badly and the opposition well, it would be seen as a sign that it’s time for the usual reversal of roles between them.</p>
<p>But now the Labour Party in opposition, although electorally performing better than the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in the government coalition, has also hemorrhaged a stream of votes to UKIP. Therefore its percentage in the polls is not much higher than the Tories, which does not indicate a safe Labour victory in 2015.</p>
<p>On the other hand, most votes for UKIP have come from the Conservatives (Prime Minister David Cameron’s party). This means that these two parties of the Right will be forced to share votes in the General Elections as well, thus reducing the Tories’ chances to win. But by how much we don’t know, because a certain number of people who voted for UKIP at the European Elections won’t do so when it comes to electing the UK Parliament and deciding the next Prime Minister.</p>
<p>It may seem appropriate to choose UKIP, a party that is largely one-issue (leaving the European Union) at the Euro polls, but from the national government many voters, albeit sympathetic to party Leader Nigel Farage’s views, want something more. These voters are interested in a wide range of issues that affect their lives, such as the economy, education, health, crime, welfare, housing, employment, and so on. It’s difficult to know how many will desert UKIP for the Tories next year.</p>
<p>The three main parties, Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats &#8212; often placed in the same bracket and derisively called “LibLabCon” to indicate that what they have in common is much more significant than their differences, giving the electorate no real choice – likely do not understand the message of the recent election.</p>
<p>In order to do so they would have to change what they are to become something completely different. All their aims and policies are predicated on carrying on as usual, offering the country more of the same, the only difference being in degree. Yesterday it was recognition of same-sex civil unions, today the law on same-sex marriage. Today it’s <a href="http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/index.php/home/root/news-libertygb/6389-winchester-churchill-quotation-gets-liberty-gb-leader-paul-weston-arrested">racist to quote Churchill’s anti-Islam</a> words, tomorrow it will be racist to describe a pet as “a black cat with a bit of white.”</p>
<p>Incidentally, many votes were lost by the Conservatives to UKIP because of the Tory Prime Minister David Cameron&#8217;s insistence on making homosexual marriage legal.</p>
<p>All the three main parties are egalitarian and strict followers of political correctness. They vilify people for legitimate concerns over where the country is headed, explicitly or implicitly calling them names. They never stop to wonder whether people might be right; at most they express sympathy, understanding and “concern” for how people feel, not so subtly implying that those feelings are irrational and based on false perceptions, whereas reality is what the business of politics is all about so those feelings should be disregarded.</p>
<p>The following voter account sums up the <a href="http://www.devilskitchen.me.uk/2014/05/ukip-elections-and-messaging.html">reasons why many voted UKIP</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Despite all of this, I will vote UKIP at the Euro-elections, and there are two main reasons for this: first, that I wish to carry the message, very strongly, to the LibLabCon alliance that they do not have a right to be in government, they do not have a right to power—something that Labour and Conservatives have, I think, utterly forgotten (leading inexorably to a corruption almost as total as the Republicans and Democrats in Washington).</p></blockquote>
<p>Some pundits frequently note that UKIP’s voters are mostly men, over 50 and blue collar. Implicit in this announcement is the view that such demographics should say a lot about UKIP, specifically how bad it must be if it attracts predominantly people of this despicable sort.</p>
<p>It’s reminiscent of the media in the US and elsewhere, which at the time of the presidential elections were highlighting how Mitt Romney was disproportionately preferred by men, with the same ominous implications of backwardness and “uncoolness.”</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.enzaferreri.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/john-cleese-london-is-no-longer-english.html">London is not part of the UK</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> any more, due to its strong immigrant and Muslim presence, and is becoming increasingly so, was confirmed once again by the last vote pattern.</span></p>
<p>London is the only region where UKIP is still struggling, whereas Labour is doing fine. Immigrants in general and Muslims in particular tend to vote for the Labour Party, which has opened wide the doors of the country to them when in government, is overgenerous in its welfare policies for everyone, and is favorable to Islam to the point of distraction.</p>
<p>This is only one of several cases in which the <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/08/politics-and-islam-in-dhimmi-europe">Muslim vote has shaped European politics</a> in recent times. In some cases it’s proved decisive: the analysis of various groups’ votes showed that, without Muslims in France, former French President Nicholas Sarkozy would have won &#8212; the election of socialist Francois Hollande as President was <a href="http://galliawatch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/is-it-really-end.html">determined by the followers of Islam</a>.</p>
<p>What does the future hold for UKIP and for Britain?</p>
<p>The UKIP will try to get its first Member of the British House of Commons elected this June 5 to fill the seat of <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">MP Patrick Mercer, who recently resigned</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p>European UKIP representatives, including Farage, have said that at the General Elections of 2015 they&#8217;ll target and concentrate their efforts particularly on those constituencies where they already have councillors or have done well in the local elections. They say that this has been the successful strategy of the Lib Dems, who have been in a similar position of being outsiders in the past.</p>
<p>In the long term, Farage aims to repeat the destruction of Canada’s Conservative Party two decades ago, when the rebel Right-wing Reform Party, that many compare to UKIP itself, caused another political earthquake.</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2638377/Now-I-destroy-Tory-party-In-crowing-interview-Nigel-Farage-reveals-quit-politics-hes-got-UK-EU.html">interview with the <i>Daily Mail</i></a>, Farage said that a Canadian-style Tory meltdown “could happen” in Britain. Canada’s century-old ruling Conservative Party was destroyed overnight in the country’s 1993 election by the populist, low-tax Reform Party, which had been called “racist, sexist and homophobic,” some of the epithets thrown at UKIP, along with the “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” that PM Cameron used for UKIP supporters. According to Farage:</p>
<blockquote><p>The split in Canada’s Centre Right enabled the Liberals, Canada’s equivalent of our Labour Party, to take power.</p>
<p>But after ten years of infighting, the Reform revolution succeeded. The Canadian Alliance, a merger of Reform with the ruins of Canada’s old-style Tories, led to former Reform official Stephen Harper becoming Prime Minister in 2006.</p></blockquote>
<p>Farage compared attacks on himself to those on Reform Party leader:</p>
<blockquote><p>‘They called him a Right-wing extremist, a nutter, away with the fairies, he’ll never get anywhere and what happens? They won one by-election, a schoolmistress way out West, who resisted every bribe and temptation to rejoin the Conservative Party.</p>
<p>‘Now you have a Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who was first elected on a Reform ticket, as were half the Cabinet.</p>
<p>‘Don’t think this can’t happen here. The public want something different. We are catalysing a big change in British politics on fundamental issues that have been brushed under the carpet and ignored by a completely out-of-touch career political class for too long.’</p></blockquote>
<p>In all this euphoria, we mustn’t forget UKIP’s limitation, first of all that the party’s not opposed to Islam. In fact, it even has British parliamentary candidates who openly advocate Sharia law, like <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10221430/UKIP-MP-candidate-supports-sharia-law-including-cutting-off-thieves-hands.html">Dean Perks</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Sharia law, in my opinion, works as a prevention. And prevention is better than cure. If you think you&#8217;re going to get your hands chopped off for pinching something, you won&#8217;t pinch it.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>A UKIP council candidate who tweeted that Islam is &#8220;evil&#8221; was <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27268747">suspended from the party</a>. Farage distanced himself from his own immigration spokesman, Gerard Batten, who had proposed a special code of conduct in the form of a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/05/nigel-farage-ukip-mep-batten-muslim-code-conduct">charter calling on Muslims to accept equality</a>, reject violence and accept the need to modify the Quran, which Muslims had to sign. And in public speeches the UKIP leader is careful to limit his <a href="http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/nigel-farage-ukip-speaks-to-london-jews.html">comments on Islam</a> to politically correct ones.</p>
<p>Even more tellingly, <a href="http://join.ukip.org/JoinOnline.aspx?type=1">membership of UKIP is forbidden</a> to current or even previous members of the English Defense League and other groups who are outspoken on the Islamisation of Britain and dare hinder it.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><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"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>Permanent Putsch in Romania</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/permanent-putsch-in-romania/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=permanent-putsch-in-romania</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Dec 2013 05:30:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Vladimir Tismaneanu]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Basescu]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[A day of shame for the Romanian Parliament. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/rom.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-213075" alt="rom" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/rom.jpg" width="301" height="226" /></a>Leon Trotsky glorified the permanent revolution. The main expertise of the ruling coalition in Romania is the permanent putsch. More precisely, it wages an insidiously perverse onslaught on the country&#8217;s democracy. On December 10, the Parliament, controlled by the Left, voted to essentially modify the Penal Code. Parliamentarians and other officials will enjoy what can be called super-immunity, i. e., impunity. In other words, they will be able steal as much as they want with no fear of legal retribution.</p>
<p>The embassies of the European Union (Romania joined it in 2007) are flabbergasted. Civil society organizations have issued staunch condemnations. One journalist called that day &#8220;Black Tuesday.&#8221; Democratic forces are in shock. It was a day of shame for the Romanian Parliament. Romania runs the risk of becoming the pariah state of the European Union. <strong></strong></p>
<p>In July 2012, the socialist-liberal coalition unleashed a coup against the country&#8217;s pro-Western, pro-NATO, staunchly pro-US president, Traian Basescu. Putin&#8217;s loudspeaker, the radio station &#8220;Russia&#8217;s  Voice,&#8221; acclaimed the pseudo-constitutional putsch. <strong></strong></p>
<p>Western pressures, including staunch reactions from Germany and US officials, forced the putschists to step back. A referendum followed, and the beleaguered Basescu returned to the presidential palace in Bucharest. The real stake was not just the president&#8217;s personal fate, but rather the interruption and radical reversal of his reforms. Among those were the new Penal Code, extremely severe with corruption, and the creation of dynamic anti-corruption agencies. <strong></strong></p>
<p>The socialist party (it calls itself social democratic), whose honorary leader is the former communist apparatchik Ion Iliescu (Nicolae Ceausescu&#8217;s successor and the main usurper of the bloody December 1989 revolution) resents the rule of law, accountability, and transparency. The octogenarian Iliescu remains attached to the Bolshevik passion of his Stalinist youth.<strong></strong></p>
<p>Together with the liberals and a mini-party run by a former secret police collaborator turned into a post-communist tycoon, the socialists want to perpetuate (if possible, forever) an authoritarian kleptocratic regime with strong pro-Moscow and pro-Beijing inclinations. The party&#8217;s leader, a 40-year-old lawyer named Victor Ponta, was exposed as a plagiarist in the pages of the highly-respected &#8220;Nature&#8221; magazine. Large sections of his PhD dissertation were literally copied from books written by other authors. In Germany, a Defense Minister resigned following a similar scandal. In Romania, Victor Ponta has thrived, in spite of protests issued by his own alma mater, the University of Bucharest. Add to this Ponta&#8217;s unabashed admiration for Che Guevara and Mao and you get the image of a histrionic prevaricator in love with Leninist murderous fanatics.</p>
<p>The Social-Liberal Union won the parliamentary elections in December 2012 and has enjoyed a comfortable majority that has allowed it to foster its grip on economic resources. It bombarded the country with emergency decrees. Any criticism of the ruling team is immediately vilified as &#8220;anti-patriotic.&#8221; Both Ponta and his main ally, the leader of the Liberal Party and chair of the Senate, the higher chamber of the Romanian Parliament, Crin Antonescu, have decisively contributed to what I identify as an alarming de-democratization process. The opposition is, unfortunately, divided and demoralized. President Basescu&#8217;s second term comes to an end in December 2014. One can foresee a very turbulent electoral year.</p>
<p>It is hard to predict when and whether Romanians will take to the streets massively like their Bulgarian and Ukrainian neighbors. It is, however, clear that, sooner rather than later,  this state of affairs will result in an explosion of outrage. The left coalition is widely perceived as an alliance of crooks, thieves, and political gangsters. Super-immunity means, in this case, super-lawlessness.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><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"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Uncertain Future for Western Influence in Eastern Europe</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/arnold-ahlert/uncertain-future-for-western-influence-in-eastern-europe/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=uncertain-future-for-western-influence-in-eastern-europe</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2012 04:03:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arnold Ahlert]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Communism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Election results in the Republic of Georgia stoke fears of rising Russian sway over its old stomping grounds. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/georgia-election_.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-146913" title="georgia-election_" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/georgia-election_.gif" alt="" width="375" height="260" /></a>While most of the American media remains fixated on Libya, the Obama administration just got slapped by what is likely to be another dose of unpleasant reality on the foreign policy front. Billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili&#8217;s opposition coalition has <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-10-01/georgian-president-saakashvili-suffers-surprise-election-setback">defeated</a> U.S.-backed President Mikheil Saakashvili in the nation of Georgia&#8217;s recent parliamentary election. &#8220;It’s clear from the preliminary results that the opposition has the lead and it should form the government. And I as president should help them with this,&#8221; said Saakashvili, as he <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/daaa2a5a-0c65-11e2-a776-00144feabdc0.html#axzz288wUQkmn">conceded</a> defeat early on.</p>
<p>The election results in Georgia&#8217;s parliamentary system of governance mean that Ivanishvili will now assume the post of prime minister. Saakashvili will remain president until presidential elections are held in October 2013, at which point he must stand down after having served two terms in office. During that same period, Georgia&#8217;s new constitution will transfer presidential powers to the prime minister, likely making Ivanishvili the most powerful man in the country as a result.</p>
<p>This election marks the first time Georgia has witnessed a peaceful transfer of power since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Previous transfers occurred as the result of revolutions or armed uprisings. Saakashvili had risen to power in the 2003 Rose Revolution, when the government of President Eduard Shevardnadze, a former Soviet minister of foreign affairs, was forced out of power.</p>
<p>During his tenure as president Saakashvili helped to foster an economic turnaround in Georgia and, just as importantly, helped guide the nation towards the West and away from their history of Soviet subjugation. That effort hit a serious speed bump in 2008, when Russia <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081200365.html?hpid=topnews">precipitated</a> a five day tank and bomber assault that &#8220;freed&#8221; the  secession-minded provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgian rule. Both regions <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/russian_president_names_special_representatives_for_abkhazia_south_ossetia/24527897.html">remain</a> independent states, but are now well within the Russian sphere of influence.</p>
<p>As a result of this election, that sphere of influence just might include the rest of Georgia. Saakashvili&#8217;s supporters have characterized Ivanishvili as a &#8220;Russian stooge,&#8221; based on his promises to forge closer ties with Moscow. No doubt those promises are due in large part to the fact that Ivanishvili has amassed a fortune from Russian investments: Forbes <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/boris-ivanishvili/">puts</a> the figure $6.4 billion. For perspective&#8217;s sake, it should be noted that Georgia&#8217;s national budget in 2011 <a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62604">was</a> $3.98 billion. Thus, it is unsurprising that Ivanishvili, who had spent years <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/23/georgia-saakashvili-the-prison-abuse-videos-and-the-election.html">spreading</a> his wealth among such entities as the Georgian Orthodox Church, various arts organizations, and charitable causes in his home region of Imereti, was able to put a viable coalition together, despite entering the political arena as recently as last year. Equally unsurprising, was Saakashvili&#8217;s claim that although he considered the election to be fair, Ivanishvili was able to &#8220;buy&#8221; the political process.</p>
<p>Yet Mr. Ivanishvili, who has criticized Saakashvili&#8217;s hostility towards Russia, refuted those claims. At a news conference following the election he said that Georgia was still <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/europe/georgia-election-results.html">aiming</a> for NATO membership, even though he hoped to improve relationships with Russia. “Nothing will disturb our strategy&#8211;our strategic direction is NATO,” he said, further claiming there would be no contact with the Kremlin. “Georgia cannot be a big geopolitical player, as Saakashvili said. We should be a regional player,” he added. As for the election results, Ivanishvili contended Saakashvili had no one but himself to blame. “We had great hopes when he came in. He studied in America; we thought he had an American mentality. But he turned from a democrat into an autocrat. He turned into an authoritarian.”</p>
<p>Yet there are still logistical problems Ivanishvili will have to iron out. The election was bitterly fought, and the two leaders must figure out a way to share power at least until 2013. It also remains to be seen if the the disparate six-party coalition that forms the Georgian Dream can hold itself together. And then there is the Georgian voting system which elects candidates by two methods: 77 out of 150 parliamentary seats in total are decided by the proportional, party list method, while the other 73 seats are secured by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurality_voting_system#First_past_the_post">&#8220;first-past-the-post&#8221;</a> methods of voting, in which the first candidate to receive a plurality of votes is declared the winner. According to Georgia&#8217;s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) rival blocs are running &#8220;neck-and-neck&#8221; among the 73 first-past-the-post constituencies. This means it&#8217;s possible that the current ruling party could still maintain a majority, even if it loses the popular vote.</p>
<p>Post-election bitterness may be the key factor in determining all of the above. Like many U.S. elections, there was a late-inning, game-changing &#8220;surprise&#8221; that turned a lead of more than 20 percentage points held by Saakashvili’s party last month into this stunning result. On September 18th, a series of smuggled videos showing prison inmates being beaten and sodomized by their guards in a Tbilisi jail <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444549204578022444084020524.html">appeared</a> on the scene. Saakashvili responded by arresting penal officials, firing his ministers of prisons and the interior, and releasing details of dubious financing surrounding the videos. He even suggested the videos had been staged. Yet the anti-government protests that erupted almost immediately apparently took their toll.</p>
<p>Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe characterized the election results as legitimate. &#8220;Despite the very polarized campaign that included harsh rhetoric and shortcomings, the Georgian people have freely expressed their will at the ballot box,” the OSCE reported. “The process has shown a healthy respect for fundamental freedoms at the heart of democratic elections, and we expect the final count will reflect the choice of the voters.”</p>
<p>Yet Mark Mullen, chairman of Transparency International Georgia, was somewhat less optimistic. ‘‘If we see some form of power sharing&#8211;and it looks like one way or another it’s gonna have to happen&#8211;it’s going to be really unprecedented,” he said.</p>
<p>The new government will not be short of suitors. Russia and the EU will compete with America for the affections of a nation whose three major pipelines allow for the flow of gas and oil to the Black Sea and Turkey from neighboring Azerbaijan&#8211;bypassing Russia in the process. As recently as the middle of last month, Russia was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/caspian-pipeline-plan-russia-european-union_n_960450.html">angered</a> by an EU offer to broker talks between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan aimed at creating a trans-Caspian pipeline that would deliver fuel to the West. That deal would reduce Russia&#8217;s current leverage, and make recurring disputes between Russia and the Ukraine&#8211;which have led to fuel cutoffs in Europe&#8211;less problematic.</p>
<p>With regard to the U.S., despite Ivanishvili&#8217;s stated intention to continue pursuing NATO membership, there is little doubt that the defeat of the staunchly-pro-American Saakashvili represents a setback for U.S. interests in the region. It is no secret that Vladimir Putin wants to <a href="http://endthelie.com/2011/10/05/putin-wants-eurasian-union-to-compete-with-eu-and-us/#axzz289xXdjmi">build</a> a Eurasian Union &#8220;capable of becoming one of the poles in the modern world.” It is also no secret that the Obama administration, via its &#8220;reset button&#8221; strategy, has been more than accommodating in return. Whether or not the fledgling, and promising, Republic of Georgia will fall back into the influence of corrupt Russian hegemony remains to be seen.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>A Setback for Geert Wilders</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/bruce-bawer/a-setback-for-geert-wilders/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-setback-for-geert-wilders</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2012 04:39:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bruce Bawer]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Why don't the Dutch get it? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/wilders-2_1927939c.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-144368" title="wilders-2_1927939c" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/wilders-2_1927939c.gif" alt="" width="375" height="253" /></a>Last week, even as the Islamic world was erupting in yet another bout of Koran-fueled fury that put the 2006 explosion over the Danish cartoons in the shade, the Dutch electorate, apparently having decided that the clash of civilizations was yesterday&#8217;s news, handed Geert Wilders&#8217;s <em>Partij voor de Vrijheid </em>(PVV) , or Freedom Party – the only one of the Netherlands&#8217;s several major parties that is seriously critical of Islam and of the country&#8217;s current immigration and integration policies – its first setback ever. While the two top parties received about twenty-five percent of the vote apiece, up about five percent from the last election, the PVV got ten percent, down from fifteen.  It remains the third largest party, but just barely, with fifteen out of 150 seats in the House of Representatives, while the fourth, fifth, and sixth largest parties will have fifteen, thirteen, and twelve seats respectively.</p>
<p>“For the first time since he founded the PVV in 2004,” reported <a href="http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/10637/VK-Dossier-Verkiezingen-van-2012/article/detail/3316453/2012/09/14/Waarom-heeft-Wilders-voor-het-eerst-sinds-2006-verloren.dhtml%20"><em>De Volkskrant</em></a><em> </em>on Friday, “Geert Wilders lost an election, and substantially so.  How can that be?”  The newspaper <a href="http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/11364/Verkiezingen-2012/article/detail/3316377/2012/09/14/De-stad-is-rood-het-platteland-blauw-en-groen-is-verdwenen.dhtml"><em>Trouw</em></a><em> </em>claimed to have the answer: “The Netherlands of 2012 is radically changed&#8230;.the protest vote for the PVV has disappeared.”</p>
<p>On Saturday, I met Wilders&#8217;s right-hand man and fellow Member of Parliament, Martin Bosma (48), at a café in Amsterdam, to discuss the election results.</p>
<p>“Rumors of our death are greatly exaggerated,” he said with a tired grin.  It had been a long week and he hadn&#8217;t had much sleep.</p>
<p>Bosma rejected the idea that the election had been a referendum on immigration – in fact, he pointed out, “immigration was not a subject during the campaign.”  The PVV didn&#8217;t bring it up, and “if the PVV doesn&#8217;t bring up immigration, nobody does.”  This time around, with the Euro in what seem like its death throes, the PVV decided to focus its campaign on the EU.  Should the Dutch should continue to slavishly follow directives from Brussels which, among other things, compel it to cough up 56 billion euros a year to subsidize Greece and other countries?  The PVV said no.</p>
<p>Alas, the Dutch have always been temperamentally conservative, and, as Bosma put it, “leaving the EU feels like an adventure” – a leap into the unknown.  (Of course, the EU itself was an “adventure” that was foisted on them, step by step, without their approval; but now it&#8217;s the status quo, and Dutch voters are reluctant to reverse it.)  And so, on Election Day, the PVV took a dive.</p>
<p>Still, Wilders and Bosma are in it for the long haul.  “Ten years from now, everybody will agree with us,” Bosma told me.  “At least about the EU.  About mass immigration, I don&#8217;t know.  Maybe they&#8217;ll still be in denial.”</p>
<p>This I frankly don&#8217;t get.  How can so many Dutchmen, at this late date, still be in denial about the reality of Islamic immigration?  How – especially – can they be in denial about it at a time when violent mobs are attacking Western embassies in one Muslim capital after another?</p>
<p>Bosma shrugged.  “It&#8217;s far away,” he said about all the Middle Eastern mayhem.  He gestured toward our fellow customers, most of them elite Amsterdam types sipping lattes.  “Ask anybody here what they think of Islam.  They&#8217;ll say that, well, there are rotten apples everywhere.”</p>
<p>“Even after everything that has happened?”</p>
<p>“Yes.  They&#8217;re deluding themselves.  They don&#8217;t want to face the truth.  Because if you face it, you have to do something about it.”</p>
<p>But how can they not feel any responsibility to keep their country from going down the drain?  Bosma suggested that many Dutch people simply don&#8217;t think about their country that way: “The Dutch form of nationalism is internationalism.”  Besides, bending over backwards to accept the unacceptable “proves that we&#8217;re good human beings.  And as soon as you start asking questions, you&#8217;re a right-wing extremist.”  Still, he insisted, the bloom is at least somewhat off the multicultural rose.  “Multiculturalism has lost its self-confidence and its glory.  People don&#8217;t wear it on their sleeve anymore.”</p>
<p>He emphasized, moreover, the well-known fact that when it comes to multiculturalism there&#8217;s a big difference between the Dutch elites and the rest of the population.  “Every morning at 8:30,” he said, elite multiculturalists in the Netherlands drop their kids off at the “white schools” in which they&#8217;ve enrolled them so as to avoid contact with Muslims – “and then, at 9:00, they&#8217;re behind their desks, calling Geert Wilders a racist.”</p>
<p>Bosma recently published a candid and illuminating <a href="http://www.bol.com/nl/p/schijn-elite-van-de-valsemunters/1001004011185188/">memoir</a> in which he discusses the modern history of Dutch immigration politics and recounts his own political migration.  Born into a social democratic family, he began as a journalist, working first at a small-town Dutch newspaper and later, in New York, at CNN, ABC, and the <em>New York Times; </em>he also studied sociology at the New School, where he encountered, and found nourishment in, the works of Friedrich Hayek, William F. Buckley, Allan Bloom, and Leo Strauss (none of whom, he points out, was ever discussed at the University of Amsterdam).</p>
<p>After Theo van Gogh was slaughtered by a Dutch-born jihadist in 2004, Bosma quit his high-level executive job in Dutch radio and went to work with Geert Wilders, performing a wide variety of tasks – writing speeches, strategizing, creating a website – for their fledgling anti-immigration party.</p>
<p>Not all Dutchmen reacted to van Gogh&#8217;s death in the way Bosma did.  Many ran for cover.  Wilders&#8217;s  blunt talk about Islam scared them.  Even some of those who were eager to help Wilders&#8217;s cause insisted on doing so anonymously.  “We had to function,” writes Bosma, “as a kind of half-underground resistance organization.”</p>
<p>One irony Bosma notes in his book is that opposition to mass immigration in the Netherlands was once a left-wing – and thus acceptably mainstream – cause.  The first party to explicitly criticize the large-scale admission of Muslims into the country was the leftist DS &#8217;70.  But “what once was accepted as mainstream,” writes Bosma, “would later be seen as extreme.”</p>
<p>Since the nineties, polls have shown consistently that most Dutchmen oppose mass immigration.  Yet during the same period, the political and cultural elite was forming a pro-immigration consensus. Ignoring the will of the people, the ruling parties oversaw a huge influx of Muslims that transformed the country forever.  Wilders&#8217;s motive for founding the PVV was to return power to the people.  Yet over the years the people&#8217;s very powerlessness had bred a widespread fatalism about immigration.  “Mass immigration has always been treated as weather or climate,” Bosma told me.  “It&#8217;s there and we can&#8217;t do anything about it.”</p>
<p>Sooner or later, however, something&#8217;s got to give.  “Your Ph.D.s leave and your illiterates come in,” he sighed, summing up the Netherlands&#8217; current situation.  “You can&#8217;t do that forever.”</p>
<p>On his <a href="http://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerleden/alle_kamerleden/bosma_martin/index.jsp">website</a>, Bosma features a quotation from Ayn Rand&#8217;s <em>The Fountainhead</em>: “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline&#8230;.The sky over New York and the will of man made visible.”  Bosma doesn&#8217;t include the next few sentences, but they&#8217;re worth quoting too, and have a special poignancy in the post-9/11 era: “What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pesthole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. When I see the city from my window – no, I don&#8217;t feel how small I am – but I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body.”</p>
<p>Reading these words from Ayn Rand, I find myself wondering for the thousandth time: why don&#8217;t the Dutch feel this way about the Netherlands?  No other country I know, after all, is a more magnificent example of the will of man made visible.  Much of it was reclaimed from the sea, and protected from it for centuries thereafter, through the use of technology that even today remains awe-inspiring in its ingenuity.  Amsterdam, this glorious jewel, used to be nothing but swamp.  To travel around the Netherlands is to marvel at the pristine beauty of its cities and villages; to read its history is to be stirred by its longtime role as a beacon of freedom, a refuge for people whose religious beliefs or lack thereof made them anathema in their own lands.  In short, it&#8217;s a country whose people, one would imagine, would feel a deep obligation to protect and preserve for their posterity this extraordinary inheritance that their forebears worked so diligently and brilliantly to create.  It&#8217;s a mystery to me, and a cause for lamentation, that so many of them don&#8217;t feel this way.</p>
<p>Yet – well – at least ten percent of them do.  That&#8217;s something.  And Geert Wilders and Martin Bosma are hanging in there – persevering valiantly, in the face of non-stop vilification and demonization at home and abroad, in their effort to keep this small land free.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>Egypt&#8217;s President Rolls the Dice for Sharia</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/rick-moran/egypts-president-morsi-rolls-the-dice/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=egypts-president-morsi-rolls-the-dice</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 04:47:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rick Moran]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Morsi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Supreme Council of the Armed Forces]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[An effort to reinstate the Islamist-led parliament puts the military and Muslim Brotherhood on a collision course. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Mohammed-Mursi-2.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-137058" title="Mohammed-Mursi-2" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Mohammed-Mursi-2.gif" alt="" width="375" height="260" /></a>Egypt&#8217;s President Mohammed Morsi <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hcYCagkBsXUTj1hZernFHUCXOwJA?docId=e941fa50299648849cdc6df07e991e1c">issued a decree</a> on Sunday calling the recently dissolved parliament back into session, thus defying the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and putting the Islamists and military on a <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hOXs1seGX3hB5cPchFl5lAtlLheQ?docId=CNG.83ef8d1166533158d397ba1348174d80.221">collision course. </a>He also called for new elections to be held 60 days after a new constitution is written. Despite opposition by some members of parliament to the recall, and warnings from the military and the courts, Morsi has chosen to gamble that the protestors in the street will be on his side and that the generals fear violence more than they fear a challenge to their power.</p>
<p>SCAF <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-morsi-military-20120710,0,2524922.story">dissolved parliament</a> last month after the Supreme Court ruled that a third of the parliamentary elections held earlier this year were invalid due to a technicality. The generals then <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-morsi-military-20120710,0,2524922.story">seized all legislative power </a>and emasculated the powers of the presidency while taking <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-morsi-military-20120710,0,2524922.story">control of the process</a> to write a new constitution by issuing a &#8220;constitutional declaration&#8221; that sidelined the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Now Morsi is gambling that his efforts to reconstitute parliament &#8212; the major power center of the Islamists &#8212; won&#8217;t push the military into a violent confrontation with the Muslim Brothers and their supporters in the streets.</p>
<p>Not only is Morsi defying SCAF, he is also <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18777150">going against</a> the Supreme Court who warned Morsi <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18777150">in a statement</a> on Monday that its ruling invalidating parliament was &#8220;final&#8221; and binding. This leaves the president out on a very thin limb of legitimacy as even some members of parliament are <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hOXs1seGX3hB5cPchFl5lAtlLheQ?docId=CNG.83ef8d1166533158d397ba1348174d80.221">urging him to back down </a>and obey the law.</p>
<p>With the court&#8217;s unflinching support, the generals issued <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/09/egypt-generals-warn-morsi-constitution?newsfeed=true">their own warning </a>to Morsi saying in a statement that they would continue to support the &#8220;legitimacy, constitution and law&#8221; &#8212; language that suggests they might take action if the Islamists try to convene parliament.</p>
<p>However, no one appears ready, or anxious, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-morsi-military-20120710,0,2524922.story">for a confrontation.</a> Late Monday evening, the military <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-president-recalls-parliament-generals-meet-082611335.html">allowed members of parliament</a> to enter the government center in advance of Tuesday&#8217;s meeting. And at a ceremony honoring military school graduates on Monday, President Morsi and SCAF leader Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, were seen <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-president-recalls-parliament-generals-meet-082611335.html">chatting amiably </a>together. Their camaraderie appeared to signal that some kind of deal may be in the works.</p>
<p>But the Supreme Court is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18777150">set to rule</a> on three challenges to Morsi&#8217;s decree also on Tuesday. An adverse decision may give Morsi a chance to back down &#8212; or an excuse for a military crackdown if Morsi continues to defy the court.</p>
<p>Morsi believes he is not defying the Supreme Court by calling parliament back into session because the judges only invalidated 1/3 of the elections. He insists <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hcYCagkBsXUTj1hZernFHUCXOwJA?docId=e941fa50299648849cdc6df07e991e1c">that his decision</a> is an &#8220;assertion of the popular will,&#8221; aimed at overturning the decision made by SCAF to dissolve parliament. &#8220;We affirm that there is no confrontation with the judiciary and the decision respects the verdict of the constitutional court,&#8221; said <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-president-recalls-parliament-generals-meet-082611335.html">presidential aide Yasser Ali</a>.  It seems a thin reed on which to hang such a consequential gamble. This is especially true given the Supreme Court&#8217;s counter to Morsi&#8217;s move. The judges <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-morsi-military-20120710,0,2524922.story">said in a statement</a>, that its duty was &#8220;to prevent any aggression&#8221; against the constitution, and that its findings &#8220;are final &#8230; [and] binding on all state authorities.&#8221;</p>
<p>Many lawmakers agree with the court. &#8220;The executive decision to bring back parliament shows a disregard for the judicial authority and takes Egypt into a constitutional coma and a conflict between the institutions,&#8221; Nobel laureate and political dissident <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hOXs1seGX3hB5cPchFl5lAtlLheQ?docId=CNG.83ef8d1166533158d397ba1348174d80.221">Mohamed ElBaradei wrote </a>on Twitter.</p>
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		<title>Islamists, Military on a Collision Course in Egypt</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/rick-moran/islamists-military-on-a-collision-course-in-egypt/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=islamists-military-on-a-collision-course-in-egypt</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Jun 2012 04:55:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rick Moran]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dissolved]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[president]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=135118</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Muslim Brotherhood weighs its options after having power snatched from its grasp. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Mideast-Egypt-Election.JPEG-016e1.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-135123" title="Mideast-Egypt-Election.JPEG-016e1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Mideast-Egypt-Election.JPEG-016e1.gif" alt="" width="375" height="262" /></a>Egyptians finished <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/122/45191/Presidential-elections-/Presidential-elections-news/Egypt-presidential-finale-sees-apathetic-voters,-c.aspx">two days of voting </a>on Sunday, the first relatively free election for president in their history. But indications are that only <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/egyptians-stage-mass-boycott-of-presidential-poll-7857357.html">about 15%</a> of Egypt&#8217;s 50 million eligible voters bothered to cast ballots. The low turnout was a direct result of a <a href="http://backchannel.al-monitor.com/index.php/2012/06/egypt-the-counterrevolution/">Supreme Court decision</a> on Thursday that dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament and struck down a law that would have prevented former Mubarak-era prime Minister, Ahmed Shafiq, from running for president. The twin blows caught the Muslim Brotherhood flat footed as the military moved <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18474624">incredibly swiftly</a> to seize legislative power and will now issue a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egyptians-vote-in-second-day-of-elections-turnout-low/2012/06/17/gJQAHHy0iV_story.html">&#8220;constitutional declaration&#8221; </a>that defines the powers of the president in the absence of a new constitution. This forces the Muslim Brotherhood to make a choice: Either deal with the military on power sharing or take to the streets and put pressure on the generals to give in to their demands.</p>
<p>While many Egyptians were angry at the &#8220;soft coup&#8221; pulled off by the military, the actions of the court and military council had the effect of generating enormous cynicism among the population, which now sees the revolution as being overturned by the old regime. We have no choice at all,&#8221; <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/egyptians-stage-mass-boycott-of-presidential-poll-7857357.html">said Eid Muhamed,</a> who works in a tea house in Cairo. &#8220;Both of them are awful,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>This belief is widespread across Egypt and no doubt contributed to the ennui that has gripped the electorate. Egypt&#8217;s political culture, which already sees a <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/capitol/blame_make_egypt_worse_RtYnxOVsfAT0epdBwF6B3L">&#8220;hidden hand&#8221;</a> that manipulates events so that they redound in favor of the rich and powerful, seems vindicated in that belief with the actions of the military and especially their allies in the courts. Most judges are <a href="http://world.time.com/2012/06/14/egypts-judges-and-generals-dissolve-parliament-is-the-revolution-now-truly-over/">Mubarak-era holdovers </a>who are vehemently opposed to democratic change. Ahmed al-Zend, head of the influential Judges Club, representing most of Egypt&#8217;s jurists, <a href="http://world.time.com/2012/06/14/egypts-judges-and-generals-dissolve-parliament-is-the-revolution-now-truly-over/">denounced the parliament</a> and threatened to overturn legislation passed by the elected body. “From this day forward, judges will have a say in determining the future of this country and its fate. We will not leave it to you to do with what you want.”</p>
<p>Some observers wonder whether the Muslim Brotherhood didn&#8217;t blow their chance at presiding over a transition to democracy in Egypt. Although there is no evidence, it was <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/14/world/la-fg-egypt-court-elections-20120615">widely believed</a> that the Brotherhood&#8217;s presidential candidate, Mohammed Morsi, struck a deal with the military on the election. Regardless of whether that&#8217;s true, many Egyptians believe that the Muslim Brotherhood overreached and tried to acquire too much power, too quickly. The <a href="http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/15/mapping_egypts_electorate">resulting backlash</a> hurt Morsi&#8217;s vote total in the first round of presidential voting last month, and may have affected the sympathy of voters who look upon the court&#8217;s action in dissolving parliament not as unfavorably as one might expect.</p>
<p>What then, do the Egyptian people want, if not a transition to democracy? The political chaos and demonstrations of the previous 16 months have <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/what-egyptians-want-is-personal-security-more-jobs-and-food.premium-1.436799">not worn well</a> on most ordinary Egyptians who have seen food become scarce, the economy near collapse, and their personal security threatened by gangs of thugs who have taken advantage of the lapse in police protection to terrify neighborhoods. &#8220;We have no security. Every day there are attacks against people in the neighborhood, and there are absolutely no police, no one to turn to for help,&#8221; <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/what-egyptians-want-is-personal-security-more-jobs-and-food.premium-1.436799">said Hajja Fatma,</a> a woman from a poor Cairo neighborhood. &#8220;They hurt old people, rob homes, and kidnap children for ransom. Allah, Allah, we need order,&#8221; she added.</p>
<p>Many observers are saying that the military council ruling Egypt has <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/analysts-egyptian-military-likely-to-come-out-on-top-in-presidential-runoff/1212207.html">already won</a> the presidential race. That&#8217;s because no matter who is elected, they will have to serve under a parliament elected by rules set down by the military, act under a constitution that will be drawn up by an assembly that will probably be appointed by the military, and would likely be constrained to act by laws approved by the military.</p>
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		<title>Egypt’s High Court Tries to Stave Off Sharia</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/robert-spencer/egypt%e2%80%99s-high-court-tries-to-stave-off-sharia/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=egypt%25e2%2580%2599s-high-court-tries-to-stave-off-sharia</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Jun 2012 04:50:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Robert Spencer]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nasser]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Salafists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shafiq]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=135025</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[But is it too late?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Egypt-parliament-Islamists-1.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-135030" title="Egypt-parliament-Islamists-1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Egypt-parliament-Islamists-1.gif" alt="" width="375" height="251" /></a>Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-court-says-parliament-dissolved-140901829.html;_ylc=X3oDMTNuamlodnZxBF9TAzIxNDU4NjgyNzQEYWN0A21haWxfY2IEY3QDYQRpbnRsA3VzBGxhbmcDZW4tVVMEcGtnAzhmYmE2MTljLTE3OWYtMzMxNC1hMGRiLTY2YjNlMDI1YjMxNwRzZWMDbWl0X3NoYXJlBHNsawNtYWlsBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3">ruled on Thursday</a> that one-third of the parliamentarians had been elected illegitimately; as a result, “the makeup of the entire chamber is illegal and, consequently, it does not legally stand.” The court dissolved the parliament entirely, dealing a major blow to the pro-Sharia forces in Egypt that had dominated it since elections last November.</p>
<p>Will the court’s action be enough to prevent Egypt from becoming an Islamic state? For that, it may be too late. Many see the upcoming runoff presidential election between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi and secularist Ahmed Shafiq, a longtime friend and associate of Hosni Mubarak, as the great showdown that will determine whether Egypt will embrace Sharia and become an Islamic state, or whether it will continue on the relatively secular path it has been on for decades. But in reality, even if Shafiq is elected, it is unlikely that the Islamization of Egypt is going to be stymied in any significant way.</p>
<p>The transformation of Egypt from a Western-oriented state to one dominated by Islamic law has been proceeding for decades. The Muslim Brotherhood’s societal and cultural influence has long outstripped its direct political reach, and shows no sign of abating. One highly visible example of this influence is the fact that while in the 1960s women wearing hijabs were rare on the streets of Cairo, now it is rare to see a woman not wearing one.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, since the presidency of Gamel Abdel Nasser (1956-1970), the Egyptian government has practiced steam control with the Brotherhood, looking the other way as the group terrorized Coptic Christians and enforced Islamic strictures upon the Egyptian populace, but cracking down when the Brotherhood showed signs of growing powerful enough actually to seize power. Nasser’s successor Anwar Sadat (1970-1981) not only released all the Brotherhood political prisoners who had been languishing in Egyptian prisons, but also promised the Brotherhood that Sharia would be fully implemented in Egypt.</p>
<p>Sadat didn’t live long enough to fulfill that promise; he was murdered by members of another Islamic supremacist group that was enraged by his peace treaty with Israel. Sadat’s successor Hosni Mubarak didn’t keep that promise to the Brotherhood either, and so it remains unfulfilled to this day, and the Muslim Brothers still want to see Sharia in Egypt.</p>
<p>So do most Egyptians. A <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=%22groups%20who%20want%20to%20modernize%20the%20country%22%20pew&amp;source=web&amp;cd=3&amp;ved=0CFMQFjAC&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pewglobal.org%2Ffiles%2F2010%2F12%2FPew-Global-Attitudes-Muslim-Report-FINAL-December-2-2010.pdf&amp;ei=iGbaT9HkEojM9QSmtcX9Aw&amp;usg=AFQjCNEZHgIuhXZMRa_7jSQkJjf1M-2GfA&amp;cad=rja">Pew Research Center survey conducted in Spring 2010</a>, before the Arab Spring and the toppling of Mubarak, found that no fewer than eighty-five percent of Egyptians thought that Islam was a positive influence in politics. Fifty-nine percent said they identified with “Islamic fundamentalists” in their struggle against “groups who want to modernize the country,” who had the support of only twenty-seven percent of Egyptians. Only twenty percent were “very concerned” about “Islamic extremism” within Egypt.</p>
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		<title>Islamic ‘Death-Sex’ in Context</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/islamic-%e2%80%98death-sex%e2%80%99-in-context/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=islamic-%25e2%2580%2598death-sex%25e2%2580%2599-in-context</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 04:53:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[corpse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[necrophilia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=130373</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tracing Egypt's proposed necrophilia law to Islam's prophet.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/greentoetag1.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-130397" title="greentoetag1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/greentoetag1.gif" alt="" width="375" height="264" /></a>Aside from provoking shock, disgust, and denial, last week’s news of Egyptian parliamentarians trying to pass a “<a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/04/25/210198.html">farewell intercourse</a>” law legalizing sex with one’s wife up to six hours after she dies has yet to be fully appreciated.</p>
<p>To start, consider the ultimate source of this practice: it’s neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor the Salafis; rather, as with most of Islam’s perversities—from <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11535/islam-fatwa-breastfeeding">adult breastfeeding</a> to <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/10011/rationalizing-pedophilia-in-islam">pedophilia</a><a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/9956/new-saudi-fatwa-defends-pedophilia-as-marriage"> marriage</a>—Islamic necrophilia is traced to the fount of Islam, its prophet Muhammad, as found in a hadith (or tradition) that exists in no less than six of Islam’s classical reference texts, including <em>Kanz al-‘Umal</em> by Mutaqi al-Hindi and <em>Al-Hujja fi Biyan al-Mahujja</em>, an authoritative text on Sunni Doctrine, by Abu Qassim al-Asbahani.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.islamweb.net/hadith/display_hbook.php?bk_no=4156&amp;pid=556490&amp;hid=208">this hadith</a>, Muhammad took off his shirt and placed it on a dead woman and “lay” with her in the grave.  The buriers proceeded to bury the corpse and the prophet with dirt, exclaiming, “O Prophet, we see you do a thing you never did with anyone else,” to which Muhammad responded: “I have dressed her in my shirt so that she may be dressed in heavenly robes, and I have laid with her in her grave so that the pressures of the grave [also known as Islam’s “<a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/7352/jihad-martyrdom-and-the-torments-of-the-grave">torments of the grave</a>”] may be alleviated from her.”</p>
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		<title>Meet Egypt’s Next Prime Minister</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/meet-egypt%e2%80%99s-next-prime-minister/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=meet-egypt%25e2%2580%2599s-next-prime-minister</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Mar 2012 04:32:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[El-Shater]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Military]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=126055</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The moderate theocrat and terrorist.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/shater-and-hamas-leader.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-126058" title="shater-and-hamas-leader" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/shater-and-hamas-leader.jpg" alt="" width="420" height="292" /></a></p>
<p>In the fall of 2005, a cheerful editorial appeared in The Guardian urging its leftist readers not to fear the Muslim Brotherhood. Identifying himself as the Vice-President of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat El-Shater wrote, “The success of the Muslim Brotherhood should not frighten anybody: we respect the rights of all religious and political groups.”</p>
<p>A year later, El-Shater had been arrested and charged with terrorism, money-laundering and participating in a banned organization. The arrest of the top Muslim Brotherhood leader was not a simple matter. Egyptian police blockaded his neighborhood and raided his home confiscating computers and mobile phones. It was not the first such arrest for El-Shater. In 1992, Salsabeel, his company, had been raided exposing Brotherhood documents plotting an overthrow of the government.</p>
<p>The Brotherhood had gotten too cocky too fast. Its election victories in Egypt’s parliament had gone to its head and feeling omnipotent its student movement tried to intimidate other students on campus by putting on black paramilitary uniforms and masks with Islamic slogans, similar to those worn by its Hamas adjunct across the border in Gaza, and conducting a show of force.</p>
<p>The government cracked down and El-Shater went back to prison. But these days prison is a long way from his mind as he meets everyone from the Norwegian Foreign Minister to Senator McCain, who tweeted that he had a “thoughtful conversation” with the Brotherhood leader.</p>
<p>Khairat El-Shater (full name: Mohamed Khairat Saad Abdel Latif el-Shater) is no longer a top leader in a banned movement. The Brotherhood has swept parliament and his investments, frozen after a money-laundering conviction, are his again. The future of Egypt belongs to the Brotherhood and as the chief financier and deputy supreme guide of the group; he is on the ground floor to see those investments pay off.</p>
<p>There is talk of El-Shater becoming Prime Minister, but whether or not he takes a title, he is in the driver’s seat of the Brotherhood’s strategy. The Guardian editorial saw El-Shater in his role of selling the Brotherhood as a moderate reformist organization to the gullible West. That is still his job.  Western governments are uncertain about the Brotherhood and Khairat El-Shater is there to present them with a Brotherhood that is as socialist as the left and as capitalist at the right, dedicated to free enterprise, social justice and religious freedom, to open elections and political reforms.</p>
<p>But that Brotherhood is only another mirage in the great desert of Muslim democracy. The Guidance Council runs the Brotherhood and its parliamentary majority, derived from the ranks of the Brotherhood, is bound by oath to obey the Council, not the voters. Despite the illusion of a democratic election, the Brotherhood’s elite will run Egypt.</p>
<p>The Muslim Brotherhood’ s official goal is an Islamic state, its roadmap for getting there is to copy the pro-business Islamic authoritarianism of Turkey’s AKP Party, which cloaked its suppression of the opposition and overthrow of the military in democracy and free enterprise language. Copying the AKP’s commercial oligarchy will be a snap for Khairat El-Shater who oversaw the massive business assets of the Brotherhood.</p>
<p>When the Egyptian government froze El-Shater’s assets, they amounted to nearly 87 million dollars. And that’s still a fraction of the total assets of the Muslim Brotherhood which derive from the tithes of its membership and are reinvested into everything from factories to fast food chains. The Brotherhood is no more committed to free enterprise than Mubarak was. Like him and the Egyptian military, it wants a seat at the top of the oligarchy.</p>
<p>El-Shater already sits on the board of several banks and he owns a number of companies and retail chains and his fortune will only increase as he gains the ability to dictate the economic future of the entire country. The Brotherhood’s survival was largely due to its ability to intertwine its religious, political and commercial interests, raising money as a religious organization, spending it as a political organization and investing it in business enterprises. The conflicts of interest are obvious.</p>
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		<title>Brotherhood Makes Its Move in Egypt</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/rick-moran/brotherhood-mobilizes-against-military-government-in-egypt/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=brotherhood-mobilizes-against-military-government-in-egypt</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Mar 2012 04:55:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rick Moran]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egypt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[military government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Salafists]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=125402</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Riding the waves of the populace's hatred of Israel and the U.S.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/muslim-brotherhood-freedom-and-justice-party-dominates-egypt-upper-house-february-25-2012.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-125407" title="muslim-brotherhood-freedom-and-justice-party-dominates-egypt-upper-house-february-25-2012" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/muslim-brotherhood-freedom-and-justice-party-dominates-egypt-upper-house-february-25-2012.gif" alt="" width="375" height="250" /></a>The majority Islamist Egyptian parliament moved on several fronts in the past two days to flex its muscles and challenge the authority of the military-appointed government. The Muslim Brothers, represented by the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), and their Salfis allies, who make up 70% of the members in parliament, have decided to engineer a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/us-egypt-government-idUSBRE82A0A720120311">&#8220;no confidence&#8221; vote </a>in the government of Prime Minister Kamal Al Ganzouri, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-islamist-dominated-parliament-votes-in-support-of-expelling-israels-ambassador/2012/03/12/gIQA9Qfh7R_story.html">force the withdrawal </a>of the Israeli ambassador from Cairo, and will <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-parliament-to-vote-on-stopping-us-aid-no-confidence-motion-against-government/2012/03/11/gIQA4mtE5R_story.html">vote to refuse</a> $1 billion in aid from the US government. These actions, which took place on the eve of the first day of candidate registration for the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-first-free-presidential-race-opens-as-hopefuls-submit-applications/2012/03/10/gIQAfQfF3R_story.html">presidential elections</a>, threaten to instigate a political crisis in the country &#8212; as well as with the United States and Israel.</p>
<p>The Islamists are making a move to challenge the military because of two recent incidents that have angered the Egyptian people and made the government even more unpopular than it was previously.</p>
<p>The first incident occurred on February 1 when a huge <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/At-Least-73-Killed-in-Egypt-Soccer-Riot-138504224.html">riot broke out</a> following a soccer game in Port Said. Authorities said that 79 people died and hundreds were injured when fans of the home team swarmed the field after a rare win, attacking opposing fans and players, and overwhelming the small number of riot police who were deployed for the game. The next day, riots broke out in Cairo and elsewhere that killed two and injured more than 900. The people <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2012-02-02/africa/world_africa_egypt-soccer-deaths_1_soccer-violence-suez-canal-soccer-riot?_s=PM:AFRICA">blame the military</a> for the pitifully inadequate security at the stadium. Most of the dead<a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2012-02-02/africa/world_africa_egypt-soccer-deaths_1_soccer-violence-suez-canal-soccer-riot?_s=PM:AFRICA"> died of asphyxiation </a>when people trying to exit the melee were blocked by a locked gate. There were also questions about how fans had been able to bring knives and other weapons into the stadium.</p>
<p>The second incident that has angered parliament and the Egyptian people was the lifting of the travel ban on the 16 Americans who are on trial for illegal funding of the NGOs they worked for. Parliament believes that the government caved in to American pressure and threats from Congress to deny Egypt the $1.3 billion in aid the US gives to Egypt every year. It was this incident that precipitated the confrontation in parliament with the military government and presages political turmoil.</p>
<p>The Brotherhood seems to be in tune with the people on these issues, and has apparently decided to press its advantage. The lifting of the travel ban especially seems to have outraged the citizens of Egypt due to interference in the judicial process by the military, as the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-parliament-to-vote-on-stopping-us-aid-no-confidence-motion-against-government/2012/03/11/gIQA4mtE5R_story.html">original judge</a> in the case has alleged. This initiated an intense questioning of ministers in parliament, as lawmaker after lawmaker called for a vote of no confidence. “I wish members of the U.S. Congress could listen to you now to realize that this is the parliament of the revolution, which does not allow a breach of the nation’s sovereignty or interference in its affairs,” <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-parliament-to-vote-on-stopping-us-aid-no-confidence-motion-against-government/2012/03/11/gIQA4mtE5R_story.html">said the parliament&#8217;s speaker,</a> FJP member Saad el-Katatni.</p>
<p>The military says only it has the authority to dismiss the government. To make that point, ministers who were scheduled to answer questions from lawmakers on the NGO issue failed to show up for the afternoon session of parliament. &#8220;It seems that the government is pushing for a crisis with parliament,&#8221; el-Katatni said.</p>
<p>The no confidence vote is a process that should take about two weeks, as each minister in turn needs to be questioned by lawmakers. But it is unclear that, even if the parliament is successful, there will be any changes to the government. The military has sole authority to name the prime minister and his cabinet, which means that even if they are voted out, the military could appoint the same people.</p>
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		<title>A Brightly Burning Flame</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/bruce-bawer/a-brightly-burning-flame/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-brightly-burning-flame</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:02:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bruce Bawer]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fiamma]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flame]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Italy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[One Italian parliamentarian stands out as a straight-talking, fearless heroine of freedom.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fiamma.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-110009" title="Fiamma" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fiamma.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="556" /></a></p>
<p>“Her name is Fiamma,” the young man said to me over dinner, “and that is what she is to us – our <em>fiamma! </em>What is that in English?”</p>
<p>It took me a second.  “Flame,” I said.</p>
<p>“Yes, that is what she is.  Our flame!  Our heroine!”</p>
<p>The year was 2007.  I was in Rome for a conference called “Fighting for Democracy in the Islamic World” and the man speaking to me was a conference participant and a member of Italy&#8217;s Jewish community.  The woman he was speaking of with such enthusiasm, who was sitting at a nearby table (a bunch of us from the conference had pretty much taken over the restaurant), was Fiamma Nirenstein.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t know her name, you should.  A prolific newspaper columnist, author of widely read books on Israel, Islam, democracy, and anti-Semitism, and winner of a long list of awards (most recently from the Israeli Knesset and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), she is one of the most prominent members of Italy&#8217;s Jewish community and has held a seat in the Italian Parliament since 2008.  She has used her government position as a bully pulpit, speaking out in support of freedom and human rights, against terror and anti-Semitism, and for a clear-eyed view of Israel and Islam.  On a continent where most politicians hesitate to say certain things for fear of offending certain groups, Nirenstein is a straight shooter of the first order, standing up foursquare for Western values and against the “leftist ideologies” which, she proclaims, have been used to “justify&#8230;violent crimes” and “disgusting verbal attacks” against Jews and Israel.</p>
<p>She is also an exceedingly gutsy woman.  That evening in 2007, when three or four dozen of us from the conference made our way to that restaurant to have dinner, we were accompanied by two armed men – Nirenstein&#8217;s bodyguards – who checked the place out before we went in, and who, while we ate our dinner, sat together at a strategically placed table with their eyes on the door.  Like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders, Nirenstein has said things about Islam that have earned her death threats.  And like Hirsi Ali and Wilders, she has refused to be silenced.  Witnessing her immense energy and charisma, her grit and eloquence, and her ever-present warmth and humor and charm, you would never know she was a marked woman.</p>
<p>She was born in Florence. “I&#8217;m the daughter of a soldier named Aron,” she told me recently, “a very young Polish Zionist who lost half of his family in the Holocaust and had the other half saved in Israel, and who in 1945 came to Italy from Palestine with the Jewish brigade. He wanted to save Europe from Nazism, and in Florence he met a young Jewish partisan, my mother, Wanda, and they called me Fiamma so that I would remember forever the value of resistance.”  The lesson she learned from her parents about the importance of fighting for freedom was further nourished, she says, “in the streets of Florence were I was born, nourished by the marvelous art that I was blessed with, and grew in Jerusalem where I lived for twenty years before coming to the Italian parliament. I came here with a beautiful set of baggage.  I’m very lucky.”</p>
<p>I first met Nirenstein at that 2007 conference.  I was reunited with her two years later at the International Conference on Violence against Women, also in Rome.  That remarkable event, sponsored by the Italian government and helmed by Nirenstein, focused largely on the status of women in Islamic countries and communities.  Last year I was honored to be invited to another important gathering she put together, also in the Eternal City, called “For the Truth, for Israel,” at which several dozen politicians, writers, and other public figures from across Europe made remarks in support of Israel before an audience of thousands.  (Alas, I wrote a speech but missed my plane.)</p>
<p>Nirenstein has spent much of her life observing, and contemplating, the anti-Semitism that infects today&#8217;s Left.  A few years ago, she wrote in a long, incisive essay on the subject about how her experience in Israel during the Six-Day War converted her from “a young Communist” – a person whose politics made her an <em>acceptable</em> Jew in the eyes of her left-wing Italian friends – to the <em>wrong </em>kind of Jew, “because I simply thought that Israel rightly won a war after having been assaulted with an incredible number of harassments.”  She has since learned her lessons about the Left.  Once upon a time, she writes, the Left “blessed the Jews as the victim &#8216;par excellence,&#8217; always a great partner in the struggle for the rights of the weak against the wicked.”  But now “the game is clearly over. The left has proved itself the real cradle of contemporary anti-Semitism.”</p>
<p>All too many people on the Left, she has come to realize, are fond of Jews who suffer: they define Jews as a people who are “bound to bear the worst persecutions without even lifting a finger,” and who, by suffering helplessly, earn “compassion and solidarity.”   But the Jew who rejects this role, who does not wish to suffer, and who “can and wants to defend himself, immediately loses all his charm in the eyes of the Left.”  To be sure, the Left “wants to continue being considered the paladin of good Jews. It pretends to continue mourning the Jews killed in the Holocaust, crying together with the Jews shoulder to shoulder. And it does so because this gives it the moral authorization to go on a second later and speak of the &#8216;atrocities&#8217; of Israel.”</p>
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		<title>Talking Turkey</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/dov-fischer/talking-turkey/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=talking-turkey</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jun 2010 04:25:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dov Fischer]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Where is the apology to Israel -- or, for that matter, to the Armenians?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/turkey.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-62239" title="turkey" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/turkey.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="318" /></a></p>
<p>Turkey has been at the center of the now infamous flotilla incident involving a <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=IHH+flotilla+hamas+turkey&amp;ei=utf-8&amp;fr=b2ie7">Hamas-connected Turkish “NGO”</a> which attempted to run an Israeli naval blockade off the coast of Gaza. The flotilla was supported<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/world/middleeast/02activists.html"> financially by Hamas and peopled primarily by their Turkish allies.</a> It was purportedly seeking to transport 10,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to Gaza.  But in fact, Israel supplies Gaza with <a href="http://www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com/index.php">15,000 tons of food, medicines, and related humanitarian support every week</a>.  There seems to be more here than meets the eye.</p>
<p>Turkey remains a prime transit route for Southwest Asian heroin into Western Europe. International trafficking organizations that operate within the country, from Ankara to Istanbul and beyond, excel at evading narcotics blockades and interdicts. With all the focus on Turks sailing towards the Hamas seas, defying Israel’s determined effort to bar delivery of military weapons and material to the terrorist government that runs Gaza, one wonders how genteel Turkey’s own internal borders have been.  Does her treatment of religious and ethnic minorities model Western humanitarian values? Consider Turkey’s treatment of her Armenian, Catholic, and Kurdish minorities.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com/gallery/">Adolf Hitler, a personal friend and ally of Grand Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini, the founder of modern-day Palestinian Arab nationalism</a>, said in 1939:  <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5Xh70o2b5HwJ:www.armenian-genocide.org/hitler.html+Who,+after+all,+speaks+today+of+the+annihilation+of+the+Armenians&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;cd=1&amp;gl=us">“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” </a> Certainly not Istanbul.  For nearly a century, Turkey steadfastly has refused to acknowledge their barbaric genocide between 1915-1918 of 1,500,000 Armenian men, women, and children. Turkey will not apologize <a href="http://www.anca.org/action_alerts/action_docs.php?docsid=15">or even acknowledge the genocide</a> they perpetrated, assuring that one of the most heinous war crimes of the twentieth century festers unresolved. American President <a href="http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/tr%20web%20book/TR_CD_to_HTML64.html">Theodore Roosevelt</a> contemporaneously wrote in 1918: “[T]he Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it&#8230;[T]he failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense.”  <a href="http://www.armenian-genocide.org/churchill.html">British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said</a>: “In 1915 the Turkish Government began and ruthlessly carried out the infamous general massacre and deportation of Armenians in Asia Minor&#8230;There is no reasonable doubt that this crime was planned and executed for political reasons.”  In 1981, <a href="http://www.anca.org/genocide/reagan.php">Ronald Reagan urged in a Presidential proclamation</a> that the lessons of the Nazi Holocaust never be forgotten “like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it.”</p>
<p>Throughout the week,<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/02/israel.netanyahu/index.html"> Israel has acknowledged and publicly regretted</a> the loss of human life due to the flotilla incident, even as Israel has explained why she must continue blockading Gaza – namely, because recent experience has evidenced <a href="http://www.mixx.com/videos/14743012/youtube_weapons_found_on_the_karin_a_ship_in_january_2002">again</a> and <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3800306,00.html">again</a> that Hamas supporters will not stop trying to ship rockets, grenades, and anti-tank missiles to Israel’s bordering enemies to launch terror assaults against Jewish civilian communities. Meanwhile, Turkey still denies the Armenian Genocide ever happened.</p>
<p>As for the country’s Catholics, Bishop Luigi Padovese, a <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575284361935474370.html?mod=djemTAR_h">Roman Catholic bishop, was stabbed to death in Turkey</a> on Thursday shortly before he was scheduled to depart for nearby Cyprus to meet with Pope Benedict XVI.  Three years ago, <a href="http://www.bosnewslife.com/2903-2903-turkish-believers-satanically-tortured-before">three missionaries’ throats were cut out</a> in central Turkey. Their deaths were meant to send a message. The men were disemboweled, and “their intestines sliced up in front of their eyes. They were emasculated and watched as those body parts were destroyed&#8230;Fingers were chopped off&#8230;Noses and mouths and anuses were sliced open.” One was stabbed 156 times, another 99 times, and their “throats were sliced from ear to ear,” according to <a href="http://www.persecution.org/suffering/index.php">International Christian Concern</a>, an American organization based in Washington, D.C.   There is no record of sorrow from <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7117">Rachel Corrie</a> backers or the IHH.</p>
<p>Under the Turkish Constitution enacted by Kemal Ataturk nearly a century ago, ethnic minorities were barred from expressing cultural distinctiveness in Turkey.  Thus, even as the United States is home to many foreign-language television and radio stations, the Kurdish language was absolutely banned in 1991.  Expressions of Kurdish nationalism continue to be repressed; <a href="http://www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=425">Kurds in Turkey are restricted from giving their children Kurdish names</a>. <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/62649/f-stephen-larrabee/turkey-rediscovers-the-middle-east">Turkey has moved closer to the governments of Syria and Iran</a> in dealing with Kurdish nationalism.  In 1995, Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman ever elected to Turkish parliament, was sentenced to fifteen years incarceration for “separatist speech,” and her political party was barred. While she was incarcerated in Turkish prison, the European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize in Human Rights. (By contrast, an <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100602/wl_csm/305513_1">Arab member of the Israeli Knesset was aboard the Gaza flotilla</a> and returned safely to Parliament after the it was stopped.)  In the 1990s, the Turkish government was spending <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=8+billion+kurds+300%2C000+turkey&amp;ei=utf-8&amp;fr=b2ie7">some $8 billion annually deploying 300,000 troops in southeastern Turkey</a> to suppress Kurdish nationalism.  For numerical perspective, consider that President Obama announced last week that he is dispatching <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2010/05/27/troops-to-the-border/">1,200 National Guard troops to provide administrative support</a> along the porous American border with Mexico.</p>
<p>Turkey killed approximately 25,000 Kurds in the mid-1990s, destroying some 3,000 Kurdish villages during the effort to repress Kurdish nationalism and producing more than 2,000,000 Kurdish refugees.  According to Minority Rights Group International, in a <a href="http://news.stv.tv/world/82611-turkey-disregards-minority-rights-in-schools/">report funded by the European Union,</a> as many as 40% of Kurdish women in Turkey are illiterate and nearly half the children of Kurdish refugees receive no education.  In addition, the government obstructs Armenian and Greek minorities’ school educational efforts.  The Turkish war against the Kurds is so visceral that it threatened Turkey’s willingness to join with American troops against Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda in neighboring Iraq. In an official <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2006/Nov/tr_sec_1390_en.pdf">EU 2006 “Progress Report” on Turkey’s fitness</a> for acceptance in the European Union, it was concluded<em> inter alia </em>that “Turkey [still] needs to significantly improve the situation of fundamental rights in a number of areas and address the problems that minorities are facing.”</p>
<p>Now that the world has been talking Israel for the past week, slowly coming to understand more fully why Israel needs to protect her borders from Hamas state-sponsored terrorism in Gaza, it seems it&#8217;s time to talk Turkey.</p>
<p><em>Dov Fischer is a legal affairs consultant and adjunct professor of the law of civil procedure and advanced torts. He was formerly Chief Articles Editor of UCLA Law Review and writes extensively on political, cultural, and religious issues.  He is author of General Sharon’s War Against Time Magazine and blogs at </em><a href="http://www.rabbidov.com/"><em>www.rabbidov.com</em></a></p>
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		<title>Iran and the Threat of the Revolutionary Guard</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/paul-e-vallely-and-fred-gedrich/iran-and-the-threat-of-the-revolutionary-guard/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iran-and-the-threat-of-the-revolutionary-guard</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:05:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Paul E. Vallely and Fred Gedrich]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[And what the Obama administration has to do to get the Mullahs’ attention.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rev.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-51722" title="rev" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/rev.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="294" /></a></p>
<p>Team Obama, clearly exasperated that Iran’s terrorist state hasn’t reciprocated to its public and private engagement overtures, took a new tact during U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent Mideast tour.  The secretary declared that the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is supplanting the country’s clerical and political leadership and moving the nation toward a “military dictatorship.”  And the administration is now seeking yet another U.N. Security Council resolution as a remedy.</p>
<p>Newsflash to Team Obama:  Iran’s theocratic rulers, president, and their IRGC protectors share the same nuclear weapons and terrorism goals and are the driving force behind the regime’s 31-year one-sided “Death to America” war. They have collectively and successfully thwarted all previous economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the United Nations.</p>
<p>There are plenty of reasons why the Iranian regime (dating back to the time of the Reagan administration) and the IRGC (during the George W. Bush administration) have been labeled as terrorists by the United   States. With the consent of the Iranian regime, IRGC members participated in seizing the American embassy in 1979 and holding 52 hostages for 444 days – in violation of international law and millennia of diplomatic protocols.  Its Quds Force used Hezbollah proxies to target and bomb the U.S. embassy and the Marine Barracks in Lebanon, bomb U.S. residences in Saudi Arabia, and kidnap and murder American captives (such as William Buckley and USMC  Lt. Col. William Higgins). The Quds Force now manufactures and supplies lethal roadside bombs (IEDs) to Shi’ite militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan that kill and maim American troops.</p>
<p>If that isn’t bad enough, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog (IAEA) recently said the regime, with the IRGC leading the way, may be on the verge of producing a nuclear warhead to go along with their long-range missiles, which many believe will further threaten regional and global peace and security. Others believe Iran already possesses a nuclear capability and is in the process of achieving the capability of matching warheads to missiles. Surprisingly, many Americans know little about the IRGC, which wields considerable security, political and economic clout in Iran.  Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created the IRGC in 1979 primarily to safeguard the ideal of his Shi’ite Islamic Revolution, protect his regime from domestic and foreign enemies, and export his brutal brand of Islamic fundamentalism to neighboring states.</p>
<p>The IRGC operates independently from Iran’s regular military, reporting directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  It currently has about 200,000 members assigned to special army, air force, navy and intelligence units – in all 30 Iranian provinces.   At the behest of the Supreme Leader during the past year, the IRGC cracked down on innocent Iranians protesting the questionable reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Republic’s 31st anniversary celebration. The IRGC exports the revolution through their notorious Quds (Jerusalem) Force.  This force has about 20,000 highly trained personnel specializing in international terrorism, armed conflict and support of proxies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.</p>
<p>Former and current IRGC members occupy 14 of 21 cabinet positions, about 90 of 290 parliament seats, and a host of local mayorships and council seats.  Past and present IRGC members include President Ahmadinejad, ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi-Qomi and parliament speaker Ali Larijani. The IRGC is also a business conglomerate controlling some 500 companies active in a wide range of industries including nuclear power, banking, insurance, and recreation.</p>
<p>The IRGC and Quds Force headquarters are located in Tehran, the latter in the former U.S. embassy.  The IRGC oversees at least seven nuclear facilities, including those at Isfahan, Natanz, and Qom.  And the IRGC/Quds Force operates at least 20 terrorist training centers including the Imam Ali Training Garrison, Tehran; Bahonar Garrison near Karaj Dam; and the Abouzar Garrison, Ahwaz, Khuzestan Province.   Lethal roadside bombs are produced by Sattari Industries in Tehran’s Lavizan District.</p>
<p>The IRGC and Quds Force are currently led by Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari.  He was appointed by Supreme Leader Khamenei in 2007.  His portfolio includes command of Iran’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, relations with countries like Venezuela and terror proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas, and liaison with intelligence organ Ministry of Intelligence and Security.</p>
<p>One cannot fault Secretary Clinton for putting the well-deserved spotlight on the IRGC.  However, her declaration about it becoming an emerging “military dictatorship” misses the mark.  In reality, it doesn’t matter whether Iran is ruled by clerics or a card-carrying IRGC member as president. The IRGC will still continue developing nuclear weapons, engaging in terrorism, oppressing millions of freedom-seeking Iranians, ignoring Team Obama’s rapprochement overtures and economic sanction threats, and dismissing another worthless U.N. Security Council resolution watered down by Iran’s security council veto-wielding friends in Russia and China.</p>
<p>The time has come for Team Obama to shelve its idealistic, naïve and dangerous “open-hand” diplomacy in favor of “bold and aggressive” action against Iran. The administration must support the Iranian Opposition organizations.  The best way to get the Iranian regime’s attention would be to inform them that President Obama will:</p>
<p>(1) Ask Congress to pass a resolution making Iranian “regime change” a strong U.S. policy (similar to what Congress and President Clinton did for Iraq in 1998);</p>
<p>(2) Direct, under executive authority or with congressional permission, precise military strikes on Iranian nuclear development sites as well as regime targets like terrorist training facilities, IRGC and Quds Force headquarters. This will be done if Iran doesn’t cease its nuclear weapons program and supporting radical Islamic/global caliphate activities;</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>(3) Overtly and covertly encourage and support all Iranian opposition and freedom seeking groups to foster regime change.</p>
<p>Let’s “hope” President Obama makes these policy “changes” before it’s too late. Global peace and security depend on it.</p>
<p><strong>Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, retired, is chairman of <em>Stand Up America</em>, a member of the Iran Policy Committee and co-author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Endgame-Blueprint-Victory-War-Terror/dp/0895260662/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1266990395&amp;sr=1-3"><em>Endgame</em></a>.  Fred Gedrich is a foreign policy and national security analyst who served in the Departments of State and Defense.</strong></p>
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		<title>Six Months Later, Pan Am Bomber is Still Alive &#8211; NBC New York</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jlaksin/six-months-later-pan-am-bomber-is-still-alive-nbc-new-york/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=six-months-later-pan-am-bomber-is-still-alive-nbc-new-york</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:27:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[Terrorist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TRIPOLI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tripoli airport]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S.]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=50546</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The terrorist who helped bomb Pan Am flight 103 is still alive &#8211; and free &#8211; in Libya nearly six months after Scotland released the mass murderer from prison on &#8220;compassionate&#8221; grounds. Scottish officials had said Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi would die within three months from prostate cancer when they announced they would set him free. [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Still-Alive-Pan-Am-Bomber-6-Months-of-Freedom--84394717.html"><img src='http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/lockerbie+bomber-640.jpg' alt='' /></a></p>
<p>The terrorist who helped bomb Pan Am flight 103 is still alive &#8211; and free &#8211; in Libya nearly six months after Scotland released the mass murderer from prison on &#8220;compassionate&#8221; grounds.</p>
<p>Scottish officials had said Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi would die within three months from prostate cancer when they announced they would set him free.   But nearly six months later, al-Megrahi is still calling in about twice a month from Libya to authorities in Scotland as part of the terms of his release.</p>
<p>&#8220;It has almost become comical,&#8221; said Bert Ammerman who lost his brother in the bombing.  &#8220;I have to laugh that he has to phone in that he is following his probation terms.  This is a complete insult.  Shame on Scotland.  Shame on the White House.&#8221;</p>
<p>Convicted terrorist Megrahi was set free back on August 21.  He had been sentence to life in prison after being convicted in 2001.  When he landed home in Libya, he was greeted by cheering crowds at the Tripoli airport, some waving Libyan and Scottish flags.</p>
<p>Some members of the Scottish Parliament have called on Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to better explain why a second medical opinion was not sought before deciding to release the terrorist.  MacAskill has responded saying the medical report stating Megrahi was dying of terminal cancer is accurate.</p>
<p>He has claimed the three month window was just an approximation. MacAskill charged critics are &#8220;circling like vultures&#8221; wondering when Megrahi might die.  &#8220;He is going to die.  That is why he was released,&#8221; MacAskill said to Scottish Parliament back in January.</p>
<p>Pan Am Flight 103 was en route from London to New york when a bomb exploded in the cargo hold of the mighty jetliner.  270 people were killed including 259 passengers and crew, and 11 people on the ground in the village of Lockerbie.  Megrahi was convicted of helping hide the bomb in a cassette recorder in a suitcase.</p>
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said U.S. officials voiced their objections in advance about Scottish authorities plans to release the terrorist.  &#8220;It is obviously wrong to release someone who has been in prison based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime,&#8221; Clinton said.</p>
<p>After he was set free, the FBI Director Robert Mueller blasted MacAskill&amp;apos;s decision.  &#8220;Your action in releasing Megrahi is as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law,&#8221; Mueller wrote.</p>
<p>Some victim&amp;apos;s families have charged Megrahi&amp;apos;s release was tied to future oil deals between British oil companies and the Libyan government.  Those allegations have been vehemently denied by British officials and spokesmen for oil firms like British Petroleum.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Still-Alive-Pan-Am-Bomber-6-Months-of-Freedom--84394717.html">Six Months Later, Pan Am Bomber is Still Alive | NBC New York</a>.</p>
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		<title>FOXNews.com &#8211; Kerry Reportedly Files Request to Visit Iran</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/foxnews-com-kerry-reportedly-files-request-to-visit-iran/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=foxnews-com-kerry-reportedly-files-request-to-visit-iran</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2009/jlaksin/foxnews-com-kerry-reportedly-files-request-to-visit-iran/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:30:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacob Laksin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[bloody crackdown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brutality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dissidents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[foreign ministry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[formal request]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[foxnews com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iranian News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iron fist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Kerry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[massachusetts democrat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news agencies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parliament]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protestors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sen john kerry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spokesman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tehran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tuesday news]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Sen. John Kerry has filed a formal request to visit Iran, Iranian news agencies reported Tuesday &#8212; news made public in the middle of the government&#8217;s bloody crackdown on dissidents that has left more than a dozen dead. While representatives for Kerry have so far not confirmed whether he intends to travel to Tehran, a [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sen. John Kerry has filed a formal request to visit Iran, Iranian news agencies reported Tuesday &#8212; news made public in the middle of the government&#8217;s bloody crackdown on dissidents that has left more than a dozen dead. While representatives for Kerry have so far not confirmed whether he intends to travel to Tehran, a spokesman for Iran&#8217;s foreign ministry said the country&#8217;s parliament is already considering the Massachusetts Democrat&#8217;s official overture. The trip would come at a challenging time for the administration, as President Obama on Monday expressed support for Iranian protestors and condemned the government&#8217;s &#8220;iron fist of brutality.&#8221;</p>
<p>via <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/29/kerry-reportedly-files-request-visit-iran/">FOXNews.com &#8211; Kerry Reportedly Files Request to Visit Iran</a>.</p>
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