tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109928082024-03-07T08:32:33.237+01:00At Home in Europe [EN]A cultural relativist by trade and necessity. Found a place to be: Europe. Living in Brussels, Belgium - capital of surrealism. Feels at home there.Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.comBlogger156125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-71836172754356938812011-03-29T01:35:00.000+02:002011-03-29T01:35:15.701+02:00Wilders in Rome (2): Crumbling foundations of Euro-supremacist ideology<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;"><span class="full-image-float-left ssNonEditable" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 0px;"><span><img alt="" src="http://huibslog.huibs.net/storage/Gibbon.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1301284810447" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; width: 150px;" /></span><span class="thumbnail-caption" style="display: block; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; line-height: 14px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 150px;">Edward Gibbon by Henry Walton</span></span>March 26, 2011, Mr. Wilders continued (see <a class="offsite-link-inline" href="http://athomeineurope.blogactiv.eu/2011/03/27/geert-wilders-in-rome-1-white-supremacism-wild-mythology/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://huibslog.huibs.net/universal/images/core-resources/icons/smalllight/open-off-site.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #148fcc; margin-right: 1px; padding-right: 13px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">first part</a>) his remarkable horror story in front of a Roman public by referring to Edward Gibbon, a great 18th century British historian, whose "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Roman-Empire-1-5/dp/B000OQJTF2?ie=UTF8&tag=h06c-21&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=h06c-21&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000OQJTF2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> (1776-1789, 6 vol.) was a first exhaustive study into the fragility of empires.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">Inevitably, Wilders (or his ghost writer, for Mr. Wilders did not study at an University) concentrates on a 402 AD (or 401 or 405 AD) event. Some Germanic [and Slavic, HR] peoples crossed the Rhine river and started an invasion into the Roman Gaul lands. Which lead, finally, to plundering of the City of Rome in 406 AD (or 410 AD). Gibbon's source is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Jerome</a> in Bethlehem, who was observing from a large distance in space and time what had happened to the Western part of the Roman Empire. The event is not central to Edward Gibbon's theory about the way and causes of the Roman downfall. But Jerome was one of the few written sources he could access. Historiography has much progressed since then. But Mr. Wilders needed a source to underline his anti-islamic world vision and his <em>idée-fixe</em> about Christian supremacy. So he <a href="http://pvv.nl/index.php/component/content/article/36-geert-wilders/4128-speech-geert-wilders-in-rome-25-maart-2011.html" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">said</a>:</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;"></div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">In the 5th century, the Roman Empire fell to the Germanic Barbarians. There is no doubt that the Roman civilization was far superior to that of the Barbarians. And yet, Rome fell. Rome fell because it had suffered a loss of belief in its own civilization. It had lost the will to stand up and fight for survival.</div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">Rome did not fall overnight. Rome fell gradually. The Romans scarcely noticed what was happening. They did not perceive the immigration of the Barbarians as a threat until it was too late. For decades, Germanic Barbarians, attracted by the prosperity of the Empire, had been crossing the border.</div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">At first, the attraction of the Empire on newcomers could be seen as a sign of the cultural, political and economic superiority of Rome. People came to find a better life which their own culture could not provide. But then, on December 31st in the year 406, the Rhine froze and tens of thousands of Germanic Barbarians, crossed the river, flooded the Empire and went on a rampage, destroying every city they passed. In 410, Rome was sacked.</div></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">This intrusion from the North was neither the first, nor the last one that happened during the Migration Period. From the third century on, Roman emperors had been hiring German and Slavic tribesmen as soldiers, allowing them to settle in different parts of the Empire and using them to keep away new peoples coming from the East and the North. During the time we speak of, the East Roman Emperor in Constantinople was engaging Germans to attack his Western Roman rivals. Due, amongst others to climate change (!), the largely Romanized peoples in the transdanubian and transrhenanian area, were driven from the colder regions to warmer climates. A large part of the Vandals<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=h06c-21&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1844159698&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> ended up in North Africa, where their state subsisted for centuries. The Visigoths (from Sweden) settled in Spain. The Franks in France. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">And, you'll ask, what has Christianism to do with this? For, in Wilders' opinion, Rome was "superior' because of it's "judeo-christian <em>roots</em>". Well, you are in for a big surprise! <strong>Those "barbarians" were Christians, too! </strong>A quick look by the ghostwriters into the Wiki would have been enough, to make their master less ridiculous. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandals#Domestic_religious_tensions" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Wikipedia</a> about Vandals &c):</div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">Around this time, the Hasdingi [one of the two Vandal tribes, HR] had already been <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianized" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;" title="Christianized">Christianized</a>. During the Emperor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valens" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Valens</a>'s reign (364–78) the Vandals accepted, much like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goths" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Goths</a> earlier, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Arianism</a>, a belief that was in opposition to that of <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Christianity" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;" title="Nicene Christianity">Nicene orthodoxy</a> [Concilium of Nicaea, 323, HR] of the Roman Empire. Yet there were also some scattered orthodox Vandals, among whom was the famous <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magister_militum" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">magister militum</a></em> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stilicho" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Stilicho</a>, the chief minister of the [Roman] Emperor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorius_%28emperor%29" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;" title="Honorius (emperor)">Honorius</a> [in Constantinople, HR].</div>In 400 or 401, possibly because of attacks by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huns" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Huns</a>, the Vandals, under king<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godigisel" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Godigisel</a>, along with their allies (the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmatia" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;" title="Sarmatia">Sarmatian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alans" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Alans</a> and Germanic <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suebians" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;" title="Suebians">Suebians</a>) moved westwards into Roman territory. Some of the Silingi [the other Vandal tribe, HR] joined them later. Vandals raided the Roman province of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raetia" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">Raetia</a> in the winter of 401/402.</blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">Oh, my God! Those "barbarians" crossing the Rhine, they were ... Arian Christians! It was a match <em>between</em> Christians, not between believers and non-believers! Like it happens always in war, barbaric acts were perpetrated on both sides. Fellow (orthodox) Christians manipulated Arian Christians to attack Roman Christians. And, believe me, Jews and humanistic polytheists, they were discriminated against and chased away by all three of the Christian sects! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">If you read Edward Gibbon, even superficially, you'll find, that he attributes the decline and fall of the Roman Empire to imperial militarist authoritarianism, in particular the use of hired soldiers in the Praetorian Guard, who acted like sectarian militias in the way of the "stadscommandos" (the city vigilantes) the PVV is proposing now for more "security" in the Dutch cities. Rome's decline and fall came <strong>from within</strong>, if you follow Edward Gibbon's reasoning. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">From within Christianity, not from <em>the outside</em>.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">When Wilders needs a dramatic point, he always comes up with Winston Churchill. Florida synagogue audiences hailed him as the "new Churchill" who will save Europe from Barbary. So, it is time for old Winston, to make his appearance in Wilders' apocalyptic speech:</div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">The fall of Rome was a traumatic experience. Numerous books have been written about the cataclysmal event and Europeans were warned not to make the same mistake again. In 1899, in his book ‘The River War<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=h06c-21&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1169733018&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>,’ Winston Churchill warned that Islam is threatening Europe in the same way as the Barbarians once threatened Rome. “Mohammedanism,” Churchill wrote – I quote – “is a militant and proselytizing faith. No stronger retrograde force exists in the World. […] The civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.” End of quote.</div></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">Winston Churchill was in 1899 writing as a young reporter about the Fashoda Incident in Sudan, stressing the need for Great Britain to secure a North-South corridor in Africa and exaggerating the "danger" of the Sudanese Mahdi movement, in order to get an excuse to occupy those regions before the French would do so. "Mohammedanism" was certainly not Winston Churchill's main concern. Which was proven only one year later, when he participated in the British genocide (the first concentration camps!) against the very Christian South African Boers, in spite of their firm Dutch roots. And it was under Churchill's reign, later on, that Muslim Palestinians and Jordanians were encouraged to fight Jewish immigration into Palestine. Mr. Wilders certainly has a gift. The gift of choosing examples that illustrate the opposite of what he wanted to prove.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">Mr. Wilders is not interested in facts that contradict his Manichean<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=h06c-21&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1565482476&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> beliefs. Christians are always good, or 'superior' at least. Outsiders, in particular Muslims, are always bad, or 'inferior, backward'. A more realistic view on mankind is condemned as "Multiculturalism", in spite of the fact that there are no other civilizations than multicultural ones.</div><blockquote style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">... if Europe falls, it will fall because, like ancient Rome, it no longer believes in the superiority of its own civilization. It will fall because it foolishly believes that all cultures are equal and that, consequently, there is no reason why we should fight for our own culture in order to preserve it.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">This failure to defend our own culture has turned immigration into the most dangerous threat that can be used against the West. Multiculturalism has made us so tolerant that we tolerate the intolerant.</div></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">These are the rantings of a man, possessed by Angst. If Wilders had an idea of the wealth, the riches and the strength of Western civilization and it's multi-layered cultural content, he would not be afraid of a possible "fall" of our civilization. But he is an uncultured demagogue, who, as a politician, should look out for solutions to the frictions caused by ever increasing globalism.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">But, like so many christian, jewish, muslim, buddhist, communist and fascist authoritarians before him, he creates horrible myths about the stranger, whose only concern, he says, is destruction of our society.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">In the third part of this series, we'll have a more close look into Wilders' remedies against multiculturalists with "weak knees" and the supposed worldwide Islamic conjuration they would be sponsoring.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em;">The first part was also published in <a href="http://athomeineurope.blogactiv.eu/2011/03/27/geert-wilders-in-rome-1-white-supremacism-wild-mythology/" style="color: #148fcc; text-decoration: none;">At Home in Europe</a>.</div><br />
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</script>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-22149981530530261652011-03-27T05:14:00.000+02:002011-03-27T05:14:47.911+02:00Geert Wilders in Rome (1): White Supremacism, wild mythology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTH7cJG-Mv-yVzONIB0dmp-9CUhozw2zcgP0hFkJXrYjyEzDoGVOF223GGDQ-cBQJnkzmK2v6HbdIJEHlheIYx1kt5FteYCEChOfRJF3F-H4giUFZ1UOTFmXTvbfDV7LFFc4z-OA/s1600/wilderts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTH7cJG-Mv-yVzONIB0dmp-9CUhozw2zcgP0hFkJXrYjyEzDoGVOF223GGDQ-cBQJnkzmK2v6HbdIJEHlheIYx1kt5FteYCEChOfRJF3F-H4giUFZ1UOTFmXTvbfDV7LFFc4z-OA/s1600/wilderts.jpg" /></a></div>March 25 (26), Mr. Geert Wilders, Dutch MP and leader of an authoritarian movement (no membership, one leader), called the 'Freedom Party' (PVV), spoke at a meeting in Rome, Italy.<br />
In addition to what Mr. Wilders will have to say himself about his actual position and perspectives in Holland and elsewhere, we'd like to mention, that his hosts (the Italian Magna Carta Foundation) are closely linked to media tycoon and much criticized populist head of Government Silvio Berlusconi as well as to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). The AEI, as is well known, are under neo-conservative influence.<br />
But, actually, neither the AEI, nor the main neocon publication (The Weekly Standard, Washington DC) seem to be much in favor of a crusade against Islam as such. The US Neoconservatives consider religion, Christian or not, as an efficient disciplining tool for the masses. That is, why AEI and WS scarcely mention the Dutch peroxyd blond verbal crusader against Islam. They prefer a more subtle approach.<br />
Wilders is trying to establish an international federation of anti-Islam movements. He has already a name for it: 'Geert Wilders International Freedom Association' (GWIFA). GWIFA should be established in the US. But, alas for him, large egos like Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller and Daniel Pipes, are not in a mood to leave the stage and put up a wooden shoe loon as their mascot.<br />
<br />
Wilders' GWIFA effort limits itself, up to now, to an association with a remarkably un-sexy ex-christian democrat from Berlin, Mr. Stadtkewitz. Other potential allies, like the Flemish VB and the Austrian FPÖ are, for the moment, under Geert's ban because of their too close association with an anti-semitic past.<br />
Wilders' invitation by the Italian foundation can only be explained by the presence, as it's international secretary, of Anita Friedman. Friedman is head of an association "We'll Meet in Jerusalem" and she comes from an active Zionist American family.<br />
I do not know yet, if Wilders' speech (see below) had any impact in Rome or in Italy. But, whatever it did, or didn't, it helps us to study the actual level of folly, idiocy and despicable hate-mongering that Mr. Wilders and his American-Israeli funders try to make us believe at this point of time.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><b>The Failure of Multiculturalism and How to Turn the Tide</b><br />
Signore e signori, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends of the Magna Carta Foundation, molte grazie. Thank you for inviting me to Rome. It is great to be here in this beautiful city which for many centuries was the capital and the centre of Europe’s Judeo-Christian culture.</blockquote>Wilders speaks of a "Judean-Christian culture", leaving out the "humanistic", "rationalistic" or "laic" component he always features. That is remarkable. The city of Rome was for a long time opposed to the introduction by 4th century emperors like Constantine of Christianity as a state-religion. It sticked to its centuries-old tradition of polytheïstic and rational philosophy. Even now, a self-conscious Roman upper class loathes the Vatican and it's pretensions.<br />
1st-4rd Century Jews were confined to a poor ghetto that existed already under Nero (Year 20-40). Christians were considered a Jewish sect. Persecuted by all emperors up to Diocletian (300) as well as the Jews proper. Until deep into the 6th century, the Bishop of Rome struggled to be recognized as head of the Western Roman Catholic Church. The Byzantine colleague had much more power.<br />
Rome, on the brink of the Middle Ages, was neither Jewish, nor a Christian centre.<br />
<blockquote>Together with Jerusalem and Athens, Rome is the cradle of our Western civilization – the most advanced and superior civilization the world has ever known.</blockquote>Nothing against mentioning of Athens an Jerusalem. But Wilders' classification of the civilization (culture?) of Rome as "the most advanced and superior civilization the world has ever known.", when speaking of early medieval Rome that is, at best, an exaggeration. Jews were mostly exiled to the upper Rhine valley. Theological thinking and renovation came from North Africa (Augustinus), from Egypt, Syria and Babylon, not to speak of Constantinople. And the Islamic renovation had yet to start<br />
As Westerners, we share the same Judeo-Christian culture. I am from the Netherlands and you are from Italy. Our national cultures are branches of the same tree. We do not belong to multiple cultures, but to different branches of one single culture. This is why when we come to Rome, we all come home in a sense. We belong here, as we also belong in Athens and in Jerusalem. And the Islamic renovation had yet to start.<br />
<blockquote>It is important that we know where our roots are. If we lose them we become deracinated. We become men and women without a culture.</blockquote>So, now we know where "our" roots are. In a small, uncultured and ailing city in Italy. Goats were herded between the ruins of the Roman Forum. Roman bishops were people who could not write or read. There are stories, that one Roman bishop even was a ... woman! It is a favor of History, that Babylonian and Spanish Jews and Muslims rediscovered Greek Philosophy, translated Plato and Aristoteles into Arabic, so that (much) later on, those texts could be read in Latin, as the Renaissance imposed itself upon stubborn stupidity and superstition. <br />
<blockquote>I am here today to talk about multiculturalism. This term has a number of different meanings. I use the term to refer to a specific political ideology. It advocates that all cultures are equal. If they are equal it follows that the state is not allowed to promote any specific cultural values as central and dominant. In other words: multiculturalism holds that the state should not promote a leitkultur, which immigrants have to accept if they want to live in our midst.</blockquote>We are only at the 4th paragraph of Mr. Geert Wilders' Philippica, and many are to follow. But he gives us already the root of all of his reasoning: The existence of a so-called "leitkultur". And, as if that were not enough, Mr. Wilders assumes, that "the State" has to maintain that "Kultur". Not the Church, not the Philosophers, nor Sociologists or Psychiatrists, no, the State.<br />
Of course, he does not speak of common people. Of voters and members of social organizations. No, no, for Mr. Wilders, it is the "State" that is reponsible for maintaining something that he defines als "Leitkultur".<br />
Traditional Liberals, or Conservatives like Burke, are full out against any state-intervention into the beliefs and thoughts of citizens. Wilders sides with authoritarians like Bismarck ("Kulturkampf" against Catholics and Social Democrats) and even less palatable ideologies of the 20th century.<br />
<br />
<b>Intermediate conclusion:</b> Mr. Wilders invents a "judeo-christian" myth, connected to the city of Rome. It's "culture" is "superior", right from the start, to all other "cultures" in the world. Not the Church or the Philosopher, but the "State" must impose that culture on it's citizens, old and new. It has to reject everything new that comes from outside it's cultural sphere. <br />
<br />
This may seem already outlandish and retrograde. But madness has no limits. You'll have to get used to more and worse. Accompany us into the fairy world of a paranoiac! You'll have to see why wrong roots produce inevitably the wrong people. (Geert Wilders in Rome (2)).<br />
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</script>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-63157070119060192462010-09-06T02:20:00.000+02:002010-09-06T02:20:27.155+02:00Major pro-Israel giver funds ‘Jihad Watch’ and Wilders' hate-trip to New York<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVrxxI8gJQg5RBoM3c7R_Oi-Pwtd-qQo-0fa40le_NJTSHsO5d2gbW67Tat9l9F7G8RI_qJzmBaKbgKUfxO4T8I3CtUbJNKyBq3rNtOEsnNMm6wwFmOR4yBARpftsHvB1i125Rg/s1600/Wilders+Geller+applauding+LA+09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVrxxI8gJQg5RBoM3c7R_Oi-Pwtd-qQo-0fa40le_NJTSHsO5d2gbW67Tat9l9F7G8RI_qJzmBaKbgKUfxO4T8I3CtUbJNKyBq3rNtOEsnNMm6wwFmOR4yBARpftsHvB1i125Rg/s200/Wilders+Geller+applauding+LA+09.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Geller, Wilders, celebrating in LA, 2009</td></tr>
</tbody></table>My God, when even the <span style="font-style: italic;">Jerusalem Post</span> is questioning the funding and the motives of the planned 9-11 meeting against the Islamic Center's new premises in Lower Manhattan, why should I refrain then, from mentioning again the scandal of Mr. Geert Wilders' participation in it?<br />
<br />
The JP says (September 4) in nits article <a href="http://www.jpost.com/jewishworld/jewishnews/article.aspx?id=187113&newsletter=100905&utm_source=Pulseem&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=JPost%20Newsletter%2005/09">Major pro-Israel-giver funds ‘Jihad Watch’</a>:<br />
<blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jihad Watch</span>, the group that is organizing a rally against the planned Islamic center timed for the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 2001 attacks, is funded by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Freedom Center</span>, a conservative group based in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
An investigative report appearing on the online version of Politico on Saturday says that it has confirmed that the 'lion's share' of the $920,000 funneled through <span style="font-weight: bold;">Freedom Center</span> to Jihad Watch over the last three years originated with <span style="font-style: italic;">Joyce Chernick</span>.</blockquote>The JP mentions a flurry of US Jewish lobbying- and anti-Islamic groups that have been funded by Chernick and the "Freedom Center".<br />
<blockquote>A number of these groups, including the Investigative Project, the ADL and the ZOA, have positioned themselves as opposed to the Islamic center. Other Jewish groups, led by the Reform movement, have been outspoken in supporting the center.<br />
<br />
Jihad Watch, founded by Robert Spencer, has in recent months taken on board Pamela Geller, the New York-based blogger who launched efforts to stop the center's building.</blockquote>Jihad Watch and Wilders claim that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf would be a "radical" and "being funded" by Islamic fundamentalists.<br />
The funding smear was exposed as utterly ridiculous, when it was revealed that the main Saudi investor in the Center is a major shareholder of hate-mongering Fox News as well. Look at: <a href="http://huibslog.huibs.net/journal/2010/8/25/amerikaanse-wilders-vrienden-schieten-in-eigen-voet-nl.html">Amerikaanse Wilders-vrienden schieten in eigen voet! [NL]</a> (comment in Dutch, video in English).<br />
<br />
Even if you are a (Sufi!) Muslim who loves your country and its institutions, it seems near to impossible to escape the lies and accusations coming from people like Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller:<br />
<blockquote>Rauf has spoken overseas on behalf of the U.S. State Department, under the Obama and Bush administrations, and has described the United States as a nation whose freedoms benefit Muslims.<br />
He also eulogized Daniel Pearl, the Jewish journalist murdered in 2002 by Pakistani Islamists, by saying that such victims demand a response from Muslims that they, too, are Jews.</blockquote>But the mere fact that Rauf is a Muslim, is enough for the agitators to depict him as a very dangerous foe of the USA. ("The so-called moderate Muslims are the most dangerous" - Ajaan Hirsi Ali)<br />
We understand very well, that Geert Wilders shares those ideas. They are his daily mantra in Holland and Europe. He is going to say things about President Obama at Ground Zero on 9-11, that even Spencer and Geller do not dare to say. That might be the very reason why they pay with money from innocent Jewish contributors for his flight to New York.<br />
The Jerusalem Post concludes with this remark:<br />
<blockquote>The Islamic center's opponents, led by Jihad Watch, have demanded an accounting of the proposed center's donors, although Rauf has of yet barely raised funds for the center.</blockquote>And YES: Where does the MONEY come from? It will be somewhat difficult for Geert Wilders to support just this one demand. Wilders himself hides in Holland the sources of the funding of his organization, of which he is the one and only member. A political party organized like a mafia: At least, that would be unthinkable under US Law.<br />
<br />
But, alas, our hysterical anti-Islam agitators are not afraid of living in paradoxes and incompatibilities.<br />
For they are not held to account by the men and women we elected to protect our state of law.<br />
<br />
Which is at this point of time one of the main roots of European and American troubles.<br />
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</script>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-89343356021246949992010-08-31T20:26:00.006+02:002010-09-01T11:02:58.619+02:00Wertheim: Modern-day Racism: A Mixture That Calls for Some Clarification | Informed CommentIn front of the <i>tsunami</i> of discrimination and hate-mongering against foreigners and their families, that invades Europe here and now, too few are the voices of intellectuals and scientists, who master the courage to say what they know is the truth: <b>Modern-day hate-mongering is following the same road as recent waves of hate, discrimination, pogroms, ethnic cleansing and mass-extermination rode, just before they burst into collective aggression, war and death. </b><br />
<br />
In Germany, recently, a team of sociologists, historians and media-experts scrupulously researched the stunning parallels between the genesis of European antisemitism after the emancipation of Jews thanks to the French Revolution during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and modern anti-Islamism. I published an authorized summary of it in HUIBSLOG: <a href="http://huibslog.huibs.net/journal/2010/6/21/antisemitismus-und-islamophobie-neue-feindbilder-alte-muster.html">Antisemitismus und Islamophobie – Neue Feindbilder, alte Muster [DE]</a> in June 2010. In French (and mostly translated into English), similar studies by <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.fr%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fb%255F0%255F11%26field-keywords%3Dolivier%2520roy%2520la%2520sainte%2520ignorance%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Dstripbooks%26sprefix%3DOlivier%2520Roy&tag=h065-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1642&creative=19458">Olivier Roy: La sainte ignorance. Le temps de la religion sans culture. (2008)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.fr/e/ir?t=h065-21&l=ur2&o=8" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
<br />
University Of Michigan Professor (History) Juan Cole publishes a Blog (Informed Comment) since 2002. He is a fine expert of the Muslim world, its history and its diversity. Two of his most recent books are here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Engaging-Muslim-World-Juan-Cole/dp/0230102751?ie=UTF8&tag=h06c-21&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Engaging the Muslim World</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=h06c-21&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0230102751" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> <iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=h06c-21&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0230102751&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>(2009) sets a possible course for the new Obama administration, doing away with the neocon-inspired Bush "war against evil states".<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Napoleons-Egypt-Invading-Middle-East/dp/1403964319?ie=UTF8&tag=h06c-21&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=h06c-21&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1403964319" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=h06c-21&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1403964319&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe> (2007) develops a historic parallel between Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Egypt in 1797-99 and the 2003 Bush war against Iraq.<br />
<br />
Cole generates a daily stream of posts that deal with the real developments "on the ground" in the Middle East and Asia and intervenes into US debates, learned and less learned, that develop around those issues.<br />
<br />
Now and then, Cole publishes a "guest editorial" by another expert. Amsterdam-based retired journalist and writer Anne-Ruth Wertheim develops her father²)'s analysis of the different types of racism here, inspired by the rise of Mr. Wilders' political career, based on discrimination and hate-mongering. Wilders' ideas are racist, in her view. She explains, what mixture of racisme we have to to do with, here.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">²)<i> (Prof. Wertheim, Amsterdam University, one of my teachers there during the Sixties)</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: right;"><i> </i></div><a href="http://www.juancole.com/2010/08/wertheim-modern-day-racism-a-mixture-that-calls-for-some-clarification.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29">Ruth Wertheim is announced as follows at Informed Comment (IC)</a>:<br />
<blockquote><b>Anne-Ruth Wertheim</b> is a journalist and the author of various books including <i>De gans eet het brood van de eenden op, mijn kindertijd in een Jappenkamp op Java</i> (The Goose Snatches the Bread from the Ducks, My Childhood in a Japanese Prison Camp on Java, 1994). An Indonesian translation of the book was published in March 2008.She works with the concepts of exploitation/colonial racism (contempt or condescension) and cultural/competition racism (envy and distrust).</blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.juancole.com/2010/08/wertheim-modern-day-racism-a-mixture-that-calls-for-some-clarification.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29">Wertheim: Modern-day Racism: A Mixture That Calls for Some Clarification | Informed Comment</a>: </span><br />
Posted on August 30, 2010<br />
<br />
Anne-Ruth Wertheim writes a guest editorial for Informed Comment:<br />
<br />
Propagators of modern-day racism, which is often called Islamophobia in an effort to take off the edge, claim that all they are doing is warning people about what they see as the danger of Islam, and that it has nothing to do with racism. But it is a misconception to think that racism only pertains to the physical features people are born with. Throughout history, cultural characteristics that people develop in the course of their lives have also been grounds for maligning and excluding certain groups. The competition racism that mercantile minorities all across the globe have been, and still are, confronted with, as well as the anti-Semitism in pre-WWII Europe, were imbued with cultural prejudices, and never failed to include the item of religion.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless it is understandable that people feel confused. Modern-day racism is a mixture of two types of racism, exploitation or colonial racism and cultural or competition racism. Thus, while focusing primarily on a cultural aspect of the group, such as Islam, their religion, there still exists a focus on the group’s physical features. I will try to explain this in my article.<br />
<br />
I was born in Indonesia when it was still a Dutch colony. I lived in a beautiful house with my parents and my little brother and sister. Like any child, I looked at the world as something that was just there. There were always Indonesian servants around who were quick to pick up anything I dropped. They would take my dirty clothes and give them back clean and neatly ironed. At breakfast every morning, my mother would sit at the table and talk to Kokki about what she would cook that day, Kokki squatting on the ground as they spoke. And when I was allowed to go along shopping, I would see Chinese proprietors bossing around Indonesians who swept the floors.<br />
<br />
My view of the world consisted of three layers, with us white Dutchmen on top, the Indonesians at the bottom, and the Chinese in between.<br />
<br />
From one day to the next my view of the world turned upside down when I was seven. World War II was raging in the Pacific and the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies. They set up a cruel regime that was to last for three and a half years and sent us and everyone else who was white to internment camps. We hardly had anything to eat, not much of anything else either, and were kept in line with a show of physical force. Our camp was guarded by Indonesian soldiers who were beaten just as hard by the Japanese as we were, though they were fed a lot better.<br />
<br />
Now the Japanese were on top and we were at the bottom with the Indonesians in between.<br />
<br />
Halfway through the war, the Japanese, who were allies of Nazi Germany, started to follow its example and separate Jews from non-Jews. My father, who was at an internment camp for men, was Jewish, but my mother, who was with me and my brother and sister at the women’s camp, was not. So we three children were half-Jewish and the Japanese threatened to separate us by force from our mother. To keep that from happening, my mother decided to register as Jewish herself and all four of us went to the Jewish camp together.*<br />
<br />
After the war our family returned to the Netherlands and I discovered that my father’s Jewish family had been almost entirely killed and my Jewish grandparents had committed suicide the day the Dutch capitulated to the German army.<br />
<br />
Shortly before and during the war, both of my parents were gradually convinced of the legitimacy of the Indonesian people’s struggle for independence. As outsiders among other Dutch people, who still felt and thought in a very colonial way, our family had to endure a lot of aggression, which of course had great impact on me as a high school student.<br />
<br />
So by that time I had experienced quite a bit of racism and violence and all kinds of images were tangled up in my mind. It was not until much later that I started to untangle the chaos of images. One of the people I learned from was my father, a sociologist of Southeast Asia, W. F. Wertheim. He drew a distinction between two types of racism:<br />
<br />
1. Exploitation or colonial racism towards colonized peoples and blacks during slavery and Apartheid. They were considered stupid and lazy and unable to govern themselves, but good enough to do the heavy labour for the ruling white minority.<br />
<br />
2. Competition or cultural racism towards mercantile minorities all across the globe who compete with the established majorities. The Chinese in Indonesia and Jews in pre-WWII Europe were considered sly and cunning and accused of wanting to rule the world.<br />
<br />
Continuing in my father’s footsteps, I discovered a shift here in Europe and thus also in the Netherlands. The first guest workers from Turkey and Morocco were confronted with the familiar old-style colonial racism and they were looked down upon. As is witnessed by the numerous references in modern-day racism to the alleged inabilities of immigrants, this tendency to look down on these people is still very much in evidence. But now that their children and grandchildren are better able to compete, the racism is starting to exhibit more elements of competition racism and to focus more on their cultural features. It is turning against Muslims and in essence all non-Western immigrants.<br />
<br />
So, at the moment, a shift can be observed from the colonial, exploitation type of racism that focuses on physical features to the cultural type of racism that focuses on cultural features such as religion. Being somewhere in the middle of this shift we now have to do with a mixture which combines elements from both types of racism.<br />
<br />
This modern-day mixture is nicely illustrated by the language the extreme right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders uses, slyly intertwining looking down on people with inspiring fear of them.**<br />
<br />
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In this chart I show exactly where the differences lie between the two types of racism. To start with, they apply to totally different groups. This is directly linked to the kind of work they do and their economic position. In this connection, there is also a difference in the prejudices that are put into circulation. In colonial racism, the prejudices have to do with contempt and disdain and focus mainly on physical features, and in cultural racism they evoke fear and mainly focus on cultural features. The intentions behind the prejudices are completely in line with what they are supposed to justify, in one case exploitation, in the other exclusion.<br />
<br />
When I write and talk about these two types of racism, something that always strikes me is how much more familiar the exploitation type of racism is to people than the competition type. Racism that pertains to groups that are forced to do the heavy work and are considered to be stupid and lazy, is widely known, and the human damage caused by colonial and post-colonial procedures is recognized manifold. But the other type of racism that pertains groups that are competitive and for that reason accused of being dangerous and striving for total domination, is amazingly unknown. Nevertheless this last type has also caused and still causes much damage in the world – ranging from pogroms on Chinese mercantile minorities everywhere in Asia, to the expulsion of the Indian- and Pakistani mercantile minority from Uganda, to what happened to the Jews in Europe.<br />
<br />
It is also interesting to see what makes people believe in prejudices that they nonetheless prefer to keep to themselves. No one is about to admit how much they like feeling superior to another group. And in our competition-ridden society, envy and jealousy are frowned upon; anyone who has less than someone else has only himself to blame. This capitalistic ideology was aptly stated recently by Dutch right-wing politician Mark Rutte when he sardonically referred to a higher tax for the rich as jealousy tax. So it is no wonder people would rather not admit their envy towards the competitiveness of immigrants and prefer to be carried away by cheerleaders for the fear of Islam.<br />
<br />
Lastly, the violence – be it extremely diverse – that accompanies each type of racism. In the case of exploitation racism, only a few rebellious individuals are publicly punished to keep everyone else in their place. The group as a whole, after all, has to remain healthy enough to do the hard work. But the intention of cultural racism is to exterminate an entire group or expel them from the country. History has shown that this kind of mass violence is set in motion once the epithets that really scare people have been uttered long and systematically enough about a specific group. It is not without reason that people who commit these acts of violence so often say that they had no choice, that it was self-defence. And in every case, the outbreak of violence was preceded by a sharper outlining of the group, accompanied by allusions to expulsion, and a stronger emphasis on recognizing members of the group.<br />
<br />
With their seemingly purely economic question about the costs of all the non-Western immigrants and their children and their children’s children, the propagators of modern-day racism in the Netherlands recently put a group in the spotlight that everyone can recognize by the colour of their skin. This is going to mean trouble. But there is still time. Time for more and more people to understand the mechanisms that are in motion and opt for a future of peaceful coexistence.<br />
<br />
* I tell this story in The Goose Snatches the Bread from the Ducks. My Childhood in a Japanese Prison Camp on the Isle of Java, which can be ordered on DVD or downloaded via <a href="http://www.cmo.nl/gans">this site</a>.<br />
<br />
** See <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2009/05/wertheim-wilders-lethal-words.html">This Link to my earlier essay at IC (Wilders' Lethal Words)</a><br />
----------------------<br />
Anne-Ruth Wertheim beloofde me vandaag een Nederlandse vertaling, die onmiddellijk zal worden opgenomen.<br />
(Update 1/9/10: NL versie is gepubliceerd in Huibslog: <a href="http://huibslog.huibs.net/journal/2010/9/1/anne-ruth-wertheim-hedendaags-racisme-een-mengvorm-die-verhe.html">Anne-Ruth Wertheim: Hedendaags racisme, een mengvorm die verheldering verlangt [NL]</a> en in De Lage Landen, plus Krapuul: <a href="http://www.krapuul.nl/blog/11708/nuttig-essay-van-anne-ruth-wertheim-wilders-koloniaal-en-concurrentie-racisme/">Nuttig essay van Anne-Ruth Wertheim: Wilders’ koloniaal- en concurrentie-racisme)</a> <br />
Eerdere versies van bovenstaand artikel van Ruth Wertheim verschenen op <a href="http://www.republiekallochtonie.nl/">Republiek Allochtonië</a> en <a href="http://www.anjameulenbelt.sp.nl/">Weblog Anja Meulenbelt</a>.<br />
<br />
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</script>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-42128524120575208702010-08-24T02:39:00.000+02:002010-08-24T02:39:10.051+02:00Worst imaginable scenario in Holland: The right negotiates an anti-social minority government , dependent on Wilders' votes<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVsZ61XM_OZvZ1SxI5-g1xYiy0myXgwLnXucU2aJi3Wyjm-_ButA6_otpQbOan2EVurE_Lyn5JUaQXwESMc3TbPb4QCAGEfb7DFcPhJlJoarBpLJepoVCEMk0fHYXyAgg5QulU/s1600/SP+cartoon+Wilders+PVV_CDA_VVD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVsZ61XM_OZvZ1SxI5-g1xYiy0myXgwLnXucU2aJi3Wyjm-_ButA6_otpQbOan2EVurE_Lyn5JUaQXwESMc3TbPb4QCAGEfb7DFcPhJlJoarBpLJepoVCEMk0fHYXyAgg5QulU/s320/SP+cartoon+Wilders+PVV_CDA_VVD.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SP party cartoon: Wilders calls the shots...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I have been wrong. Wilders' one-man PVV "party", a mafioso construction controlling 24 out of 150 parliamentarians in the Dutch administrative capital The Hague is not excluded, no, it it calling the shots, for the moment.<br />
<br />
Election-winner VVD (conservatives, 31/150) and election-loser CDA (Christian-Democrats, 21/150) agreed with the false-blond populist (PVV, 24/150) on August 9, 2010, to negotiate a coalition government program, to be implemented by a VVD-CDA team of Ministers, with the support of Wilders' acolytes, who will not participate personally in that Government. If nobody from the participating parties disagrees, that would provide a tiny second-chamber majority of 76/150, but a minority in the first chamber, the senate, where it would master a minority of 35/75.<br />
<br />
The right is hoping for a landslide at the regional (provincial) elections in March, 2011, for the provincial parliaments who nominate the senate members.<br />
<br />
The VVD and CDA agree on a 18 billion euro spending-cut program, without compensation by way of charging the wealthy and the banks who provoked the recent financial crisis. Wilders, who had himself elected on promises of no-cuts on pensions and welfare, agrees however, in so far as his program of apartheid and discrimination of immigrants, as well as his security proposals are honored by the two other parties.<br />
<br />
What we see, is a devilish scenario. Wilders remains free, to develop his provocations and to terminate his collaboration with the Right at any moment that suits him. The Dutch welfare state is deconstructed by the thatcherite conservative VVD, while the CDA, I presume, will limit itself to protecting the corporatist structures it planted in Dutch society from the Fifties onwards.<br />
<br />
Wilders already gave in on the retirement pension issue. Although he declared, before elections, that maintaining the retirement age at 65 years, was a "breaking point" for him and the PVV, three hours after closure of the ballot boxes in June, he said on television, that he was ready to accept a 67 year limit.<br />
<br />
In an artistic move, Wilders created a national and international discussion about the pros and cons of his appearance at the SIOA meeting in New York on September 11 against the Park 51 inter-religious centre, where an Islamic worship room is planned. The public debate shifted as planned, from the barbarous cuts to "freedom of speech" with the US ultra-right.<br />
<br />
We got a preview of the way in which an eventual minority rightist government will deal with that kind of provocations, as CDA-leader and acting foreign minister Verhagen timidly asked Mr. Wilders "to please consider the consequences of his deeds" for the international position of the Netherlands and its business interests.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the not-right political side, kept quiet. Intimidated by Wilders' rhetoric and inapt to mobilize the majority of Dutch citizens who are staunchly against apartheid and discrimination on their doorsteps, they are waiting for a miraculous end to the Fortuyn-Wilders nightmare, hiding away in silence and hoping that somebody else than themselves, will take upon them the dirty task to tell the bare truth about Wilders' gliding to (neo-)fascism.<br />
<br />
Yesterday, a relatively minor social-democrat eminence, senate-member Frans Leijnse, also professor at the respected Leyden University, finally crossed the border of silence and wrote an article for a nationwide daily, demonstrating that Wilders' party, the PVV, is to be considered as neo-fascist.<br />
<br />
Too little, too late. The hate-poison has spread itself to wide proportions of the public. About Islam, anything goes, actually. People feel themselves abandoned, left alone. Lone rider Wilders has their sympathy. Attacking Wilders equals high treason.<br />
<br />
The only solution, I see, is a grassroots campaign in the twelve Dutch regions (provinces) that shows how patient and democratic action creates a better life for all inhabitants of f.i. an urban neighborhood, without discrimination of newcomers. That shows, that the acolytes of Geert Wilders are empty-headed and supremacist. That makes clear, that the democratic left is not your enemy, but your ally.<br />
<br />
Such a campaign will have to deal with the outrageous accusations from Wilders and his far-right Israeli and US allies, that the Left is part of a world-wide conspiracy that allies itself with Islamists in order to stay in power. Likewise, it will have to deal with religious fanatics, who reject any accommodation with western society. But why wouldn't it be feasible? It must be the right way to deal with 21st century problems. Common sense will accept credibility of peaceful social solutions. The democratic Left should take their own destiny in their hands and go forward.<br />
<br />
There is no way back.<br />
Anymore.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 960px;"><tbody></tbody></table>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-71398299291457565152010-07-14T01:56:00.001+02:002010-07-14T02:00:32.428+02:00Painful Delivery of a new Dutch Government<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiK0rePVDSlijWS8MF_I1l-OGbmrxde6b2357vld5fbk7GwoonmcYI8_8dE6QBDOiPauxSVFZ3Gif1rs4N70vPR69J5ZBMdtPeNUnUmHl_utaWwIey5Y8oyYjWF5lpRKyOjCdrtw/s1600/Bea+en+Albert+8514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiK0rePVDSlijWS8MF_I1l-OGbmrxde6b2357vld5fbk7GwoonmcYI8_8dE6QBDOiPauxSVFZ3Gif1rs4N70vPR69J5ZBMdtPeNUnUmHl_utaWwIey5Y8oyYjWF5lpRKyOjCdrtw/s200/Bea+en+Albert+8514.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>Sunday night in Johannesburg, South Africa, one Spanish goal killed the orange coloured Dutch dreams about its Soccer World championship. Frustrating, but not really disastrous. For the Dutch found, like the French in 1998 and the Spanish today, an irrational but very real national, popular unity that includes every marginalised category in their society. This Tuesday night, a million people are expected in Amsterdam to celebrate their national team. A small half of the players are immigrants or sons of immigrants. Some of them, like Boularouch, have even roots in Islamic countries.<br />
The orange national hysteria is a slap in the face of hate-mongerer Wilders. The message of the local, spontaneous manifestations is: "We are all together!" The institutionalised distinctions between people who have "roots" in Judeo-Christian culture and those who have not, that Wilders' PVV party wrote into its election program, are as redundant as can be, at this moment.<br />
Like we predicted <a href="http://athomeineurope.blogactiv.eu/2010/06/10/dutch-national-elections-what-they-mean-for-europe/">here</a> on June 9, election eve, Wilders' party, that got 24 out of 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament, is as of now not a part of coalition negotiations for a new majority Government. The conservative liberal VVD party, who carried the elections with 31/150 seats, just before the Social-Democrats of the PvdA (30/150), could not avoid some days of negotiations with Wilders, just after the elections, with the objective of a right wing Government that needed the support of the big loser of the elections, the Christian-Democrats of the CDA (22/150). Such a combination would have controlled 76 out of 150 seats in the Lower House, but only a minority in the Upper House.<br />
Even while the fundamentalist protestant SGP party (2/150) offered it's support for such a combination, the new CDA leader, foreign minister Maxime Verhagen (who stands in for long-time MP Balkenende, who dismissed after his defeat), made an unheard-of move when asked to join the negotiations with VVD and PVV. First, he uninvited himself, saying that he preferred to wait for an eventual compromise between VVD and PVV. Then, provoked in a parliamentary debate, he stated clearly, that, in his opinion, a number of core ideas of Wilders were not compatible with the Dutch constitution and the rule of Law.<br />
Verhagen mentioned specifically Wilders' idea of "war against Islam" as "the center of Dutch foreign policy", Wilders' 'kopvoddentax" idea (= making pay a tax by Islamic women who cover their heads) and their propositions for "ethnic registration" of all Dutch citizens.<br />
Wilders, as is his way, avoided a direct debate about those points in Parliament and started "demonizing" the CDA leader, saying that he was playing into the hands of the "treacherous left". Even when VVD-leader Mark Rutte invited Wilders to start direct negotiations with him, Wilders said "no". Thus showing, that he is not really wishing to participate as a minority party in a Government, even if it is right-wing.<br />
A quick and efficient reaction followed from the queen and her main adviser, Mr. Tjeenk Willink. The latter, as "informateur", analysed the situation and convinced everybody but Wilders, that the conservatives had to negotiate with the PvdA and its left-liberal allies of D66 and the Greens. Wilders was furious and demanded that Tjeenk be sent away.<br />
But he was royally ignored and since last week, a VVD-PvdA dual team of "informateurs" is chairing daily meetings of VVD, PvdA and the two smaller parties.<br />
To me, it is unclear, if these negotiations will succeed. An alternative, more centrist, VVD-PvdA-CDA, is explicitly NOT excluded.<br />
Anyhow: Wilders is far from his announced role as PM or vice-PM. Maybe, Wilders has never seriously considered being part of a government at this point of time. Maybe, he is really disappointed. Difficult to know.<br />
At this moment, Wilders is playing the card of "being excluded" by the traditional political caste. He may convince many people with that Calimero tactic. But I see also signs, that people are beginning to get tired of those histrionics. A majority of the Dutch support the effort the make a VVD-PvdA-coalition (Blue-Red-Plus).<br />
Wilders'victory at the elections that got him 23 co-parliamentarians, might also prove a disaster in disguise. At best, his new colleagues are former parliamentary assistants, who never had to fight for a mandate, but who know the parliamentary dealings and wheelings. Most of them, however, are political nitwits, who range from Israeli agents and lobbyists, to religious fanatics of the "rapture" kind.<br />
This whole situation could have been avoided, if more parliamentarians than the D66 and GroenLinks ones, would have spoken out more clearly from the beginning. Many democrats have been (and are still) intimidated by the Wilders speak. They feel (unjustly) responsible for the islamist threats against Wilders. As many among them have no real connections to the people, they tend to believe, that Joe and Johanna are really daily afraid of the Muslims.<br />
It is no wonder, that, in a developed and civilized state as Holland is, the failure of politics is beginning to be compensated by the intervention of Justice (the hate-mongering procedure against Wilders in Amsterdam) and by the highest state councils (Raad Van State President -after the Queen- Tjeenk Willink). But, this odd country has also a very developed civil society. The Dutch are used to mend their own affairs. From ancient times on. Polders were managed by their inhabitants. Church consistories in the same way. Urban neighbourhoods with socio-economic difficulties develop their own solutions.<br />
In the long run, I am sure, nobody will need Wilders' "Israeli" fantasies any more...<br />
Least of all, Israel itself!<br />
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</script>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-64276307185468261542010-06-16T02:10:00.000+02:002010-06-16T02:10:30.274+02:00Dutch PVV MP Raymond de Roon condemns Iran opposition, because ... they are muslims!November 2009. Dutch Parliament in The Hague. A meeting of the Commission for international relations. Discussion about solidarity with the democratic Iranian opposition, that braved a few months ago the brutal suppression by the Iranian Government and its militias.<br />
Mr. Raymond de Roon, MP for Mr. Wilders' PVV party has the floor.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">About Raymond De Roon and his affiliations</span><br />
Mr. De Roon is, up to now, one of the most educated members of what is commonly called the Wilders "gang" or "mafia" (for his party has no members and is led dictatorially by Geert Wilders). He has a fundamentalist Protestant background, was State-Prosecutor at several locations, and, as a student in the Seventies, joined a militia linked to the Gladio Network, that had as its objective to spread terrorism against Governments that were (in the Gladio vision) leaning too much to the left. Until his father forbade it.<br />
Gladio is (or was) a network of former right-wing anti-Nazis and their kinsfolk in Europe, that, supported by NATO and CIA, infiltrated the Brigate Rosse in Italy, the RAF in Germany and the CCC in Belgium. All in the name of anti-Communism. So far, so good.<br />
<br />
But Gladio started also to <span style="font-style: italic;">manipulate</span> those terrorist organizations, for instance in 1977, when the Brigate Rosse took hostage and killed the president of the Italian Christian Democrats who was preparing a "historical compromise" with the big Communist Party of Italy for sharing Government responsibility. And more: During the left-leaning Den Uyl Government in Holland, the Dutch air force staged a Gladio-inspired intimidating overfly of the Parliament opening ceremony in The Hague (1975). And worse: It is commonly assumed that terrorist attacks against innocent civilians in Belgium (the Delhaize murders) and in Italy (the Milan and Bologna bombs, 1977) were also the work of De Roon's friends in the Gladio network and its associates.<br />
<br />
The young Raymond was no more associated with Gladio at that point. He finished his studies and joined a fundamentalist protestant party in Holland (Wiki), became a party official, but quit his work as a prosecutor and his positions in the religious party in order to become an associate of Geert Wilders.<br />
I say "associate", for, as it must be known by now, Geert Wilders' PVV "party" has no members, except Mr. W. himself. This particularity is not against the actual Dutch Law. It is the responsibility of former Dutch parliaments, that they have not established normal rules of accountability and transparency for parties that intend to participate in elections. Several European authorities have warned the Dutch, that this is not acceptable. Nevertheless, the European Parliament has since 2009, 9 Dutch PVV-members, who are not legitimately elected (Europeanly speaking) and make it their daily work to sabotage the European construction, sending the excess of their remunerations to the Wilders fund.<br />
<br />
We return to November 23, in the Dutch Parliament at The Hague. The video is provided by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/samerspace#p/a/f/0/C-jFFab9ABQ">Samerspace,</a> who have made a series of odd PVV-interventions.<br />
<br />
<object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/C-jFFab9ABQ&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/C-jFFab9ABQ&hl=en_US&fs=1" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="295" width="480"></embed></object><br />
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<blockquote><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=h06c-21&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1413723039&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>0:20 Raymond de Roon (RdR) The Government assumes incorrectly that a mitigated Islam is in existence.<br />
And that there would be a peaceful Islam. Mr. President, there is NO such a thing as a peaceful Islam. Government would be well advised, when they would make that a central issue of their intervention in international fora.<br />
0;45 Thus, not only condemn the suppression of the opposition in Iran, but also condemn the religion, the Islam, that inspires that suppression.<br />
1:01 Another member of Parliament asks Mr. De Roon: But shouldn't we support those opposants?<br />
And Mr. De Roon answers: "But they are also muslims. Yes, we should "facilitate" their actions. But nobody can guarantee, that they are not muslims...<br />
1:47 RdR: Are they really engaged in overthrowing the Islamic Government, or are they only opposed to certain manifestations of it at this moment?"<br />
1:53 RdR: I have seen few people who say: I am a Muslim and I want that in Iran there will be complete freedom.<br />
2:02 Heckler: "You have seen few people, but you have seen them. Conclusion: They exist!"<br />
RdR: That was an understatement. I did <b>not</b> see them!<br />
2:22: (Opponent is outraged and stresses his point, that people, out of their creed (Islam) have risked their lives, that all this has been on TV over the whole world.)<br />
2:47: RdR: Of course, I have seen those outrages of the regime. But I have not heard anybody of them (opposants) say, that they would like to leave Islam, that oppressive political ideology.<br />
3:05: RdR: It is simply an affair of Muslims who are fighting amongst themselves.<br />
3:12: RdR: I support, of course their resistance. But that does not mean, that I am trusting them. Finally, they may have fought for another shape of Islamic suppression. Iran will not be a modern, free, western society in that way.<br />
3:27 (Opponent repeats, that people have been fighting for freedom and liberty to celebrate their religion in the way they want.)<br />
3:44 RdR: I am not opposed to support Iranian people who fight against that despicable regime, but I am not convinced, that they would convert themselves and reject that despicable fascist ideology of Islam, that only gives birth to violence and terror.</blockquote><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=h06c-21&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0307280578&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>I have not translated the interlaced comments from Samerspace.<br />
I hope, you will understand, that Mr. Wilders' enterprise is inspired by hatred and supremacism.<br />
Mr. Raymond De Roon is a staggering example for the loony-ism that Islamophobia generates.<br />
Enjoy and think!<br />
Is this the Europe you want?Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-74337491052693051262010-04-28T02:03:00.001+02:002010-06-08T03:22:40.707+02:00Belgium Upside DownIn surrealist-minded Belgium, a stupid error may easily turn into a wise comment.<br />
French TF1 Television channel was going to inform their public, yesterday night, about the actual political turmoil in the neighbouring country. A map was needed, to indicate where Belgium is, and how it is divided in three regions.<br />
Here is the map. Please, find the TWO biggest errors:<br />
<a href="http://athomeineurope.blogactiv.eu/files/2010/04/be-tf1-0427.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2377" height="375" src="http://athomeineurope.blogactiv.eu/files/2010/04/be-tf1-0427.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
You saw it!<br />
The French speaking Walloons are living in the <i>Southern</i> part of Belgium and the Dutch speaking Flanders people live in the <i>North</i>. That is the first error. The second one is less evident for everybody who is not Belgian. The third Belgian region is the Brussels agglomeration. It lies just some Kilometers north of Wallonia and not in the middle of Flanders. An informed French blogger jubilated ironically: ‘This is a final solution to the Belgian mess! French speaking Brussels in the middle of Wallonia, in stead of being surrounded by frustrated Flemish.’ Only the mutual ethnic cleaning between North and South, would be somewhat onerous…<br />
Why is that turning upside-down of the Belgian crisis so funny?<br />
You should know, that the division of the country into regions is language-based. Dutch-speaking Belgians were overlorded by French-speaking elites since Belgian independence (1830, from Holland). A cultural, regional and political upsurge of the Flemish since the end of the 19th century, forced the Brussels and Walloon bourgeois to accept equality of the two main national languages first, and subsequently a series of state-reforms that leaves Belgium as it is now: a country governed by the two main (linguistic) regions, each jealously guarding its prerogatives. Even international trading has become a regional matter!<br />
<i>(Imagine the Chinese, receiving a Belgian economic mission, that is split up between Flemish, Walloons and representatives of the separate Brussels region! This really happened a few years ago. I’m told, that the Chinese are still laughing…)</i><br />
Most problems about frontiers are about asymmetry. In Belgium, we have an asymmetry between language and soil. If you divide a country along linguistic lines, you have to take into account, that there are areas of mixed language that do not fit into your scheme.<br />
This is, where the capital, Brussels comes in.<br />
<b>Brussels</b><br />
A long time ago, Brussels was a Flemish city. We are speaking about the early Middle Ages. Then the Bourguignons came in and attached the whole of the Low Countries (the actual Benelux) to their powerful French duchy. Court- and bureaucratic language became French, the Church turned French. Later on, the Spanish Habsburgs were masters of the country, speaking French. Next (beginning 18th century) came the Austrian Habsburgs, guarding the country against the Dutch, the French and the English and fighting many wars on its soil. The last 18th century war, the one against the French Revolution, they lost. The French sansculottes occupied Belgium and Brussels. Napoleon I even made Belgium part of the French ‘nation’, splitting it up into French Départements. The Vienna arrangements of 1815 gave the Austrian Low countries to the new Dutch king. William I did not bother much about language. His latest spouse was a member of the French speaking Belgian nobility. The Belgian revolution of 1830 was made in Brussels by the new higher middle class of traders and industrialists, closely tied to mighty Great-Britain.<br />
That is why the city (or: region) of Brussels became, in majority, a French speaking city. It has in some neighbourhoods still authentically Flemish speaking citizens and in some places, people mix up both languages in a creative potpourri. There are no Flemish or French neighbourhoods, anybody can live everywhere. So, Brussels could not fit into the linguistic definitions of the ‘State-Reforms’. And it would not, either, for it has a mission of being a capital, as well for the 60% Flemish majority, as for the 40% French speaking minority in Belgium.<br />
If you consider Brussels as an exception, you have to allow that it is a BIG exception. Brussels bilingual region has 1,2 million inhabitants. Greater Brussels (the agglomeration and surroundings) can claim 2 millions out of a total of 11 million Belgians.<br />
The frontiers between the linguistic regions have been fixed in 1962. After half a century, you may assume, that there have been some changes to the linguistical composition of some areas next to the “frontiers”. This is of course more than true for the growing Brussels agglomeration. To cut it short: Some rural communities around Brussels receive an influx of French-speaking inhabitants, and, as the EU develops, also of many Eurocrats, who do not speak French, maybe, but certainly not Dutch, in most cases.<br />
As an immigrant into Brussels since twenty years, I admire the loose way in which common citizens in the city as well as in the rural communities around it, cope with the linguistical problems in day-to-day life. “Les Belges se débrouillent” - the Belgians find a way out. That is the result of many centuries of foreign occupation, I think. The Belgians let their politicians do and find their own solutions among themselves. In that respect, I see no distinction between Walloons, Flemish or ‘Brusseleers’.<br />
The aloofness of my new compatriots has its merits. But it is also responsible for a surrealistically complicated government, that is the playing ground of regional politicians who are unable to swallow the compromises that inevitably have to be made for the survival of the Belgian contraption.<br />
As I told on several occasions before this, the irresponsible politics of Flemish separatists and Walloon regionalists, are suffocating the city of Brussels, which, on its own, provides 20% of the economic strength of the country. The last citizens rebellion of Brussels (against the Burgundian aristocracy) dates from the 1511 carnival. Will 2011 see a repeat of it?<br />
I must confess: I hope so!<br />
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</script>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-67899004388582492992010-04-19T22:03:00.001+02:002010-04-19T22:08:56.600+02:00Urban Legends abour Muslims are a Disaster for the Dutch international Standing (1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZOHXEklEnJsuHLpLj7ebz1qk-01g3sKJ1_dXYiDUTaVGg8_cPOhNOCBtHKCfx-DdCpw8_7UNAWpG8VxupHZ5OWBc9v8PxH6aVwkGRcBgfRZvhKmNAG3kADgtKV6t0Liv8HgUEpQ/s1600/Wilders+Islam+Rising+Obama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZOHXEklEnJsuHLpLj7ebz1qk-01g3sKJ1_dXYiDUTaVGg8_cPOhNOCBtHKCfx-DdCpw8_7UNAWpG8VxupHZ5OWBc9v8PxH6aVwkGRcBgfRZvhKmNAG3kADgtKV6t0Liv8HgUEpQ/s320/Wilders+Islam+Rising+Obama.jpg" /></a></div><b>How the Dutch extreme-right wing exploitation of islamophobia is really bad for The Netherlands' international reputation...</b><br />
<br />
Today, three examples of the international echo in English of the actual Dutch obsession with <span style="font-style: italic;">urban legends</span> about Muslims.<br />
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1. The US <a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/04/tariq-ramadan-stealth-jihadist-exposed/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Loonwatch site</span> about Tariq Ramadan</a>.<br />
Ramadan, a Geneva-based Islamic scholar, was engaged by Rotterdam city to teach 'Integration' at the Rotterdam University and to advise the Rotterdam City about how to deal with its immigrants from Islamic countries. Ramadan was controversial at the time of this engagement. The US had banned his entry into the States (2005).<br />
<br />
Four years it took the successors of Pim Fortuyn (still an important party in the local council), to find finally a "stick to beat the dog". Tariq Ramadan commented on an Iranian website on Israel. What he said, was not in the least belligerent or out of place. No, the FACT that Ramadan co-operated with an Iranian programme was sufficient. He was sent away by both the local authority and the University.<br />
<br />
Tariq Ramadan is a theoretician. Not a civil servant. His family may have ties with the <span style="font-weight: bold;">original</span> Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which was an Arabic intellectual movement for modernization of the Islam. The actual fundamentalist Muslim Brothers are in favor of the contrary: Back to the Roots! They are not in favor of Saudi Wahhabism, but (too) often, they link up with it.<br />
<br />
The original Muslim Brotherhood took its inspiration from the Enlightenment. The founders were in narrow contact with the European <span style="font-weight: bold;">Freemasons</span>. I.e. the people who helped Christianism to become rational and who invented the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Separation of State and Religion</span>. Just like the Founders of the United States of America, when they signed the Declaration of Independence.<br />
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That is, what I hear, when I listen to Tariq Ramadan. And that is, what I think, should be the message, our Muslim immigrants will have to understand. You can preserve the whole richness of your religion and culture, provided, you become a decent citizen (if you aren't already) of the Western society that is receiving you in its midst.<br />
It can be argued, that Ramadan's message is too intellectual, too abstract, for Moroccan (Berber) farmers from the Rif region, who constitute the bulk of Rotterdam city's Muslim immigrants. That is not Tariq's fault. For their way of thinking and perceiving, there exist other strategies, that may help to calm the problematic relations with the other cultures that are to be found in the City of Rotterdam. The mayor and his aldermen should have thought about that, five years ago.<br />
<br />
Like Ajaan Hirsi Ali, ironically, Tariq Ramadan was ousted by the Dutch, to find a refuge in ... the US. While Ajaan was (during the Bush reign) welcomed by the Neocons of the American Enterprise Institute, Ramadan is going to teach at a Catholic University in the Midwest.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/us/politics/19muslim.html?th&emc=th">The New York Times</a>, today, has an article about President Obama's tranquil way, to engage American Muslims, after their marginalization and the mistrust they are exposed to, due to the Bush demagogy. Engaging Ramadan, is part of it.<br />
<br />
<b>It is a shame to the Dutch, that their country, formerly known as a refuge for original thinkers like Spinoza, Descartes, etc., is sending them away now, tarnishing their reputation.</b><br />
<br />
Like Dutch entrepreneurs and tycoons said before (and who are we, to contradict them on this point?): Mr. Wilders and his supporters are doing a big disfavor to the country.<br />
The country they say they love so much more than us, the "cultural relativists" who continue to open up to new and old contributions to our society.<br />
<br />
Here is the first one we'd like to show to you:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/04/tariq-ramadan-stealth-jihadist-exposed/">Posted at loonwatch.com</a> on 16 April 2010: <span style="font-weight: bold;">"Tariq Ramadan, “stealth jihadist,” exposed!"</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tariq Ramadan</span><br />
<blockquote>As you know, Dr. Tariq Ramadan - Muslim scholar, writer, and thinker - has had his visa to enter the country reinstated, and he used this to his advantage: speaking at various engagements across the United States. We here at LoonWatch alerted our fellow citizens of the arrival of the “stealth jihadist,” coining the terminology of Robert Spencer. Yet, we didn’t want to stop just there. We wanted to report on what this man was saying."</blockquote>Loonwatch.com had a stealth observer at Tariq Ramadan's Chicago annual banquet speech for CAIR.<br />
The man reported that Ramadan concluded his speech with the following dangerous incitement:<br />
<blockquote>His final words were this: Never forget that you Muslims are American. He urged them to speak about Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine, and do so as Americans, not Muslims. Moreover, Muslims need to institutionalize their presence in America: Muslims need institutions, and they must work with all people. The key is confidence and humility: be confident about your position, but be humble at the same time.</blockquote>Part 2 and 3 will feature the urban legends that are rocking Holland and Wilders' stealthy way of associating with racist persons and websites.Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-63140321210275923292010-04-17T01:16:00.000+02:002010-04-17T01:16:24.788+02:00Godless Europeans, are they being punished economically? (Fox news)<b>Fox News knows best - We, Europeans are a bunch of godless and hapless idiots!</b><br />
(Thanks to <a href="http://www.politblogger.eu/fox-news-europaer-sind-ein-haufen-gottloser-versager/">Politblogger.eu - Dietmar Näher, Germany</a>)<br />
<br />
No, the following video is not a fake. Fox news is serious about the causes of Europe's economic problems: It is "Secularity" and "abandoning God", that cause our "decline".<br />
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This is an illustrationn of the growing cultural gap between (part of) the US and Europe.<br />
<br />
Personally, I do not believe in that gap. The fundamental values of the US Constitution are part of the European Enlightenment. Europe is being nurtured by American contributions to our common culture, civilization, economy and philosophy. From more than a hundred years on. A fertile exchange.<br />
<br />
The eternal urge, however, to build up an enemy corresponding to one's own image, has been let loose. The Nazis under Hitler built an "East Coast" enemy, the Jewish capitalist. Turning the mirrors at a 180° degree, Fox News constructs an European "pagan" enemy who is disturbing the otherwise paradisaic world of US free market capitalism. We, Europeans, became pagans, and God is punishing us with economic disasters!<br />
<br />
I am in favor of developing an European common identity. But not at the price of hate and mistrust of US-American culture. Nor of any other cultural identity. That would be stupid and counter-productive. Neither US-American thinking, nor Islamic thinking can be severed from Europe.<br />
<br />
Europe is rich enough in itself. It should welcome any possible contribution and ponder it.<br />
<b>Provided, we do so together!</b>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-14650416192459189732010-03-22T23:46:00.004+01:002010-03-22T23:47:43.315+01:00L.A., May 1st: Spencer and Geller Celebrate St. Geert Wilders, a Loony Prophet from Holland<div class="journal-entry-text"><div class="body"><b>Pamela Geller*</b> (Atlas Shrugs) and <b>Robert Spencer **</b> (Jihad Watch), are not the kind of people, Geert Wilders likes to show himself off with. In Europe, that is.<br />
On May 1st, in Los Angeles, he will do, what he avoids doing in Europe: <b>Associate openly with 100% racist loonies, suprematists and war-mongerers.</b><br />
<span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" src="http://huibslog.huibs.net/storage/Wilders%20Geller%20applauding%20LA%2009.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1269293798633" /></span><span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"></span><br />
<span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"></span><br />
<span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"></span><br />
<span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"><span class="thumbnail-caption" style="width: 304px;">(Wilders and Pamela, Spencer, Los Angeles, May 2009)</span></span><br />
<br />
Again. For <b>Wilders' outrageous and hollow hate-speech</b> (I have no time to give you a link) against Muslims, Obama and Liberals in May last year in the same LA, has left his US adorators <b>longing for more</b>. They have produced a one-hour long movie "<a href="http://www.islamrising.com/" target="_blank" title="Islam
Rising Trailer">Islam Rising</a>", featuring Geert Wilders as "<b>the Winston Churchill Of Our Times</b> (Pamela)".<br />
In Europe, Wilders is accepting and <b>cashing</b> <i>passively</i> support, money, adoration, celebration and flattery from nazist, revanchist, ultra-zionist and racist personalities and groups, like<br />
<ol><li>the Vlaams Belang (former Dutch-speaking Nazi-associates in <b>Belgium</b>, getting about 20% of the vote in their region),</li>
<li>the <b>French</b> Front National of Mr. Le Pen (ultra-nationalist, anti-arabian revanchists, 17% at the last French elections),</li>
<li><b>British and Danish</b> white suprematist groups like SIEO,as well as rightist anti-European movements like UKIP in Britain and a similar party in Denmark,</li>
<li><b>German</b> Nazi-Nostalgics from the NPD, but also "modern" German, Swiss and Austrian racists, who say that they are inspired by the actual Israeli politics, such as the "Politically Incorrect" hate blog and others.</li>
</ol>But Wilders NEVER acknowledges their support and, at the same time, NEVER explicitly dissociates himself from those (hidden) anti-semites, either.<br />
He thinks that he can get away with Likud and Israel Beteinu support, for the Dutch feel guilty about the huge number of Jews, carried away 1940-45 from Holland to Auschwitz with the active and passive help from many among them, and they will not dare to discuss Holocaust.<br />
He also thinks, that he can get away with<b> Daniel Pipes</b>, whom he invited as an "expert" to his Dutch hate-mongering trial. In fact, I think, that Wilders is completely dependent on Israeli-US financing of his agitation. That is why, for instance, he announced his solidarity with an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians (muslim AND christian) from Palestine, NOT in Dutch Parliament, but in Copenhague, so as to satisfy his Israeli-American sponsorers, without provoking an upsurge among the Dutch, who oppose of course nearly all such an outrage. </div><div class="body"><object height="265" width="320"></object><br />
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<object height="265" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iyLxfZwofNE&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iyLxfZwofNE&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="265" width="320"></object><br />
Enjoy (above) the trailer of the Spencer-Geller movie celebrating the clown Wilders!<br />
<br />
*) Pamela Geller, the looniest blogger ever, <a href="http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/03/the-freedom-defense-initiative-is-proud-to-sponsor-the-la-movie-premiere-geert-wilders-documentary-i.html" target="_blank">her site</a> and her evaluation at Loonwatch.com<br />
**) Robert Spencer,<a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/" target="_blank"> his site</a> and his evaluation at Loonwatch.com<br />
-----<br />
Please, join us at the<b> LA information campaign,</b> against anti-semitism, against anti-muslimism and against anti-Holland agitation, at a meeting on May 1st in Los Angeles, time and location to be announced soon!</div></div>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-73797206345661016702010-03-19T17:31:00.000+01:002010-03-19T17:31:55.420+01:00Clinton and Ashton: US-EU Girl Power Made Netanyahu Climb Down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji8ldmXSB3dtP5pAAVQb5Lt7jKB5UWKdrUxOo7sXgSZPlbVCCPAN0l5eyhFUVRsms7G4eRCzM13fI0k-glQXVrxsBB7AjTCDSYl0QABy-c_DxUZBiM9SBY35Lu5dOn2piQF1FEuw/s1600-h/ashtonclinton1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji8ldmXSB3dtP5pAAVQb5Lt7jKB5UWKdrUxOo7sXgSZPlbVCCPAN0l5eyhFUVRsms7G4eRCzM13fI0k-glQXVrxsBB7AjTCDSYl0QABy-c_DxUZBiM9SBY35Lu5dOn2piQF1FEuw/s320/ashtonclinton1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The three "40+ breakthroughs"</span><br />
<ul><li>Hillary Clinton spent 40+ minutes on the telephone with Israeli PM Binjamin Netanyahu, making it perfectly clear that, this time, the Obama Administration would not accept "No" for an answer to its demands that Israel puts an end to its provocations.</li>
<li>In a first show of which impact a united European stand can have on Washington's capacity to effectively change its policies in the Obama way, Catherine Ashton braved Israeli objections and visited Hamas-governed Gaza Strip on a 40+ hours' mission.</li>
<li>Combined US and European action made the overconfident rightwing Netanyahu-Lieberman Government give in within another 40+ hours.</li>
</ul><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Israeli Government gives in and works at damage-control</span><br />
This morning's Guardian brings a first evaluation: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/19/israel-us-binyamin-netanyahu-palestine">Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu in climbdown over US demands for peace</a>.<br />
The key issue of the clash between the US and Israel was the provocatively announced construction of 1.600 Jewish flats in the contested East Jerusalem area. The Guardian:<br />
<blockquote>He [Netanyahu] did not announce, as the US had demanded, a freeze on the construction of Jewish homes in Ramat Shlomo, in East Jerusalem, the key point at issue.<br />
But diplomats in Washington, Moscow and Jerusalem said Netanyahu had given a private promise that there will be a temporary freeze on any new construction. The work, while not cancelled, is to be postponed for several years.</blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Substantial negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are still far away.</span> But this could be a turning point. The Guardian points out, that:<br />
<blockquote>Obama and Clinton stand to gain from the Israeli retreat, which will heighten their reputation among the Palestinians and in the Arab world. Obama and Clinton were left looking weak after a similar stand-off with Israel last September when peace talks failed to get under way.</blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">The EU as a whole is in an awkward position concerning the Middle East.</span> They have big security interests at stake, much more important than those of the US.<br />
During the G.W.Bush administrations, a divided Europe had to remain powerless at the side-lines, when its vital interests were put in danger by the 2003 Iraq invasion, by the Bush-supported killing of the remains of the Oslo arrangements, by the ill-inspired Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006 and, last but not least, the Cheney-handcrafted 2008 Georgian disaster (where Israeli "advisers" to the Georgian army played a key role).<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">A story of exacerbated European divisions</span><br />
Most of the time, Europe was divided. In 2002/2003, divisions between the Blair-led UK and the other bigger EU powers France and Germany, were even exacerbated, as Blair harangued most fresh Eastern European EU-members and, to a still undisclosed measure, Balkenende's Holland, at the side of the US Neocon Iraq scheme. A lasting European rift was avoided, thanks to the stupidity of US post invasion policies in Iraq, that brought soon striking evidence of the underlying fraud and made it clear, how much the Iraq adventure was and is contrary to every possible European interest.<br />
As part of the big powers' Oslo Quartet, the EU did not weigh much upon the steady dismantling of the two-state solution. As a "useful idiot", the EU furnished and still furnishes, the bulk of the international financial support to the Palestinian Authority, only to see its investments repeatedly destroyed by Israeli bombs (harbour, airport).<br />
And Tony Blair again: As a Quartet appointed facilitator of negotiations in the region, what has he done?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">During the 2006 Lebanon invasion, the EU found more of a common stand than before.</span> It helped and helps, thanks to the wisdom of many Lebanese leaders, to maintain a shaky cease-fire at the Northern border of Israel. But proposals by the German Foreign Secretary Fischer, to extend the EU peace operation to areas of conflict between Israel and Palestine, fell on deaf ears.<br />
Another result of the US failures, their pro-Likud stubbornness and their open contempt of the NATO allies, has been, now and then, a revival of outdated particular claims in the Middle East from former European colonizers and mandate-holders. France saw an opportunity, for instance, after the murder of Hariri in Lebanon, to reassert some of its former influence there, as the US hopelessly failed in understanding the particular dynamics of that multicultural society. That did not help to forge a common European stand, either.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Georgia: A turning point in retrospect</span><br />
But Sarkozy's unique and rapid intervention (as he happened to be president of the EU in 2008) in the Georgian conflict, showed for the first time, that the EU can deal independently with its own interests in the wider region, if it acts quick and undivided.<br />
While Cheney himself was desperately stoking conflict in defeated Tbilissi, France made for the EU an honorable compromise with Moscow that the Bush administration had to bow to.<br />
This was exceptionally possible because of the halfheartedness of the US intrigue in Georgia.<br />
For, in a general way,<b> it is a hard fact, that the EU only can progress in its international security policy, if it is not going against the US and/or Russia's</b>.<br />
A united stand of the EU, even at this moment of the still fledgling Ashton mission, will also influence US and Russian positions, like it seems to me, that has happened now by way of the surprising Gaza initiative of the EU's Ashton.<br />
<br />
<b>Let us give the two-girls power a chance!</b>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-78951294299209298132010-03-17T00:38:00.000+01:002010-03-17T00:38:26.155+01:00Obama Health Care Reform is at a Tipping Point. For Europe, too<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.insidesocal.com/politics/obama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.insidesocal.com/politics/obama.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><b>The historical struggle in Washington about Health Care Reform went mostly under the horizon of the European mainstream press, lastly. </b><br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>One understands why. The procedure got stuck, last autumn, in the dark alleyways of US decision-making on the federal level. </b><br />
For it is complicated to understand, why a Senate and a House of Representatives, both with a comfortable 50%+ majority of Democrats, cannot agree on a set of arrangements that are, since dozens of years, part of the civilization of most EU countries: Collective insurance, guaranteeing access to health care for every citizen.<br />
<br />
Most European countries have adopted a mixed system, where state guarantees and tax measures facilitate commercial insurance companies as well as non-profit co-operatives in providing basic health care to every citizen (and, in many instances: even to non-citizen inhabitants). Paradoxically, Great Britain, champion of privatization, is an exception: It has a completely state-governed NHC system. Even Ms. Margaret Thatcher proved unable to change things there...<br />
<br />
<b>What the Obama team is proposing in the United States, is nothing more than a first step into a world, where the 20% not-assured- and the 25% insufficiently protected citizens, will get access to a compulsory (yes!) basic protection against being left behind, when they fall ill. </b><br />
<br />
The conservative-Democrat and Republican foes of the Reform, are divided as for their motives:<br />
<ul><li>loss of profit for private insurance companies (representatives sponsored by insurance comps and medicine producers)</li>
<li>too much state (federal) intrusion into private citizen responsibilities (libertarians and their ilk)</li>
<li>angst for state constraint on decisions on life and death, on abortion and on church-prohibited matters - imagining local "death committees", repayment of abortion charges, advantages for illegal immigrants and making God-abiding citizens pay for other people's sins while caring AIDS patients, for instance (here we find the fundamental Christian Right together with the Libertarians).</li>
</ul><b>President Obama is not only a fine expert of the American Constitution and its guarantee for all citizens to be able to struggle for happiness, but he is also influenced by the Chicago School of Community Development. </b>This School has adopted the view, that (local) emancipation of people in disadvantaged situations is best served, when their aspirations are coupled with advantages for the men and women in power. The result is a, you could say, rather cynical and resolutely NON ideological approach to empowerment. New coalitions are to be built around every step forward to emancipation and more equality.<br />
That is why, in my opinion, President Obama has spent so much effort and time in building a large and diversified majority for his health care plans, leaving behind, under way, many principles of it, in exchange for support from people of whom he hoped that they would find more (immediate) profit in supporting the laws, than in refuting them.<br />
As the American economy and the American private-public relations are different from the same, when you are dealing with a difficult urban neighborhood, this strategy did not work. Even a provisionally Senate-adopted set of laws, full of "pork"*), could not pass the hurdle of a 60% majority in the Senate.<br />
<b>So, to my relief, Obama changed recently his strategy </b>and decided to use legal means at the disposal of the Presidency and the Democrat majorities in House and Senate. There is nothing revolutionary in that. Former president G. W. Bush made his outrageous tax-cuts for the rich also into law in that way. And he had a smaller majority than Obama.<br />
This Rooseveltian (regulating the cisis-ridden economy during the 30's) and Johnsonian (social system and race equality) Obama-operation, is nearing its completion, these days. It is more than due. Liberal support is withering away, and "tea-party" like demagogy is not only on the move in the US, but also in Europe and in Israel.<br />
In Europe, a Wilders does not hide his contempt for Obama (Copenhague and recently in London), an Ulfkotte spreads his venom on German websites, etc. The Israeli Government humiliated the Obama administration with its continuing colonizing policy.<br />
<b>As of March 15, it seems, when we believe Slate magazine, that the Health Care Bill will be rightly and legally forced on Congress:</b><br />
<b></b><br />
<blockquote><b>March 15, 2010:</b> "I have no intention of not passing this bill," <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/pelosi-i-have-no-intention-of-not-passing-this-bill.php#more" target="_blank">says</a> Speaker Pelosi. She doesn't have the votes, as her own whip, James Clyburn, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35837624/ns/meet_the_press/page/2/" target="_blank">said</a> yesterday on Meet the Press. But pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzU0MDYxMWEyOTdiNGU1OGU3ZjYzYmE3Y2ZlZDQ5NTY=" target="_blank">told</a> National Review late Friday, "they've been able to peel one or two of my 12," and he sounds discouraged: "It's almost like some right-to-life members don't want to be bothered." That sounds more like five or six. Fox News <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,589243,00.html" target="_blank">calculates</a> Pelosi has 211 of the required 216, with many still undecided, while Nate Silver <a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/03/some-cautious-optimism-on-health-care.html" target="_blank">guesses</a> she'll get "between 216 and 218." Nobody has a clue, but the mood is upbeat. <b>Chance of passage: 55 percent.</b></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHg2WzhoQ4MpfFw1Upo-IZtwAZW4KtwgkkFNDj0F8uwFwAUMLEsTg6G5xwi2MMSphvp6v-8ngOxJIADzf11HQEVQTNr8747HFUIq75nKInXwoNU9NFtItm0br0Xq4oZ1S0J3lGBA/s1600-h/US+health+care+whipometer+0316.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHg2WzhoQ4MpfFw1Upo-IZtwAZW4KtwgkkFNDj0F8uwFwAUMLEsTg6G5xwi2MMSphvp6v-8ngOxJIADzf11HQEVQTNr8747HFUIq75nKInXwoNU9NFtItm0br0Xq4oZ1S0J3lGBA/s400/US+health+care+whipometer+0316.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2247673?wpisrc=newsletter">Slate's Whipometer: How many vote-switchers does the pope have?</a></div><br />
Slate's "Whipometer" indicates a small but real opportunity that the bill will pass later this month.<br />
<b>The European Stake</b><br />
The European stake in this titanic fight is big. If Obama looses, he will be weakened in all possible fields where Europeans need the support of the US for policies that differ from those that were pursued by the Bush-Cheney administration: Iran, Israel-Palestinian peace, world-wide regulation of hedge funds and credit swaps, Afghanistan, engaging Russia, engaging the Muslim world, nuclear disarmament and also climate change policies.<br />
<br />
More so, a continuous divergence between the US- and European(-Canadian) social systems, would kill the necessary harmonization and cooperation in the globalized world economic and financial field. Only if, what I cannot bring over myself to imagine, Europe would abandon its "aquis" in the social field, a harmonization the other way around, would set the conditions for a (doomed) Atlantic supremacist "white 21st century".<br />
<br />
There is much at stake in Washington for Europe, the next weeks!Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-87923986915083967712010-03-13T12:55:00.001+01:002010-03-13T13:00:46.760+01:00A Wise Man sets the Course for Europe in the WorldDue to my travelling to meet Central and East European friends in order to discuss with them the problems of redeveloping urban neighbourhoods in crisis, I missed the newly elected European Council President Herman van Rompuy's historical intervention at the Bruges European Academy.<br />
Here follows a part of it (in English):<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Herman van Rompuy speaking at the Bruges Europe College, March 6, 2010.</span><br />
<br />
Van Rompuy is very well aware of his powerlessness. He was chosen by the Sarkozies, the Merkels and the Browns just because of his lack of sex-appeal and supposed lack of ambition, over candidates like Holland's J.P.Balkenende or Letlands former president. <br />
One thing is sure, read my lips, the man is terribly UNDERestimated.<br />
Listen to his Jesuit-, finely tuned-, rebuttal of sarkozist and insular British policies.<br />
Even Eurosceptic Tony Barber of the London Financial Times admitted graciously, that the Van Rompuy speech had class and substance, compared to the voidness of the actions and words of baroness Catherine Ashton, EU foreign secretary.<br />
A full analysis of Van Rompuy's words is under review.<br />
Please, download and read the<a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/113067.pdf"> full text of the Van Rompuy opinion</a> at Consilium Presidential Service in Brussels (English).<br />
.Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-6520889703514145932010-03-10T06:34:00.001+01:002010-03-10T06:36:51.335+01:00Holocaust education is to encourage reflection, not to encourage a taboo.<div class="date-posts"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry"><div class="post-body entry-content"><div align="center"><img alt="" border="0" height="365" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=079e352500&view=att&th=1273f02558ada5eb&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw" width="486" /><br />
<span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Nuremberg U-Bahn station "Walther-Rathenau-Platz, 6</span></span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">März 2010 </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Photo: tofoto</span></span> <br />
<div align="left"><blockquote><div align="left"><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>About the prohibition on thinking, avoiding the taboo of comparisons, see:</span> <br />
<span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span><a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://www.steinbergrecherche.com/noamchomsky.htm&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhibhu-lE1T0Hif4sLKaqHI_ksW9_Q#Bush+Hitler" target="_blank">Holy Adolf.</a></span><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span> <a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://www.steinbergrecherche.com/noamchomsky.htm&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhibhu-lE1T0Hif4sLKaqHI_ksW9_Q#Bush+Hitler" target="_blank">Is it possible to compare Bush with Hitler?;</a></span> <br />
<span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span><a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://www.steinbergrecherche.com/route181.htm&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhihOdzzrroiTeTy0BWFQGY9ZkcHpw" target="_blank">An analogy is no comparison;</a></span> <br />
<span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span><a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://www.steinbergrecherche.com/kriegslobby.htm&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhjlvbX291qpfwZuWD-6cO-3Kel5ig#Vergleich" target="_blank">Comparisons with the Nazis;</a> <a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://www.steinbergrecherche.com/09kriegsjuden.htm&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhgSIyV1VtvrAjE5vRN38FrClrnsRA#Avnery" target="_blank">Uri Avnery;</a></span> <br />
<span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span><a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://www.steinbergrecherche.com/islamophobie.htm&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhi8_re3A28YhmiX4kKZyD8RuG7_Yg#Erkenntnis" target="_blank">Comparison, based on any knowledge</a></span> </div></blockquote></div><div align="left"><blockquote><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://huibslog.huibs.net/journal/2010/3/8/150Zum%2520Denkverbot%2520durch%2520Tabuisierung%2520von%2520Vergleichen%2520siehe%2520Heiliger%2520Adolf.%2520Darf%2520man%2520Bush%2520mit%2520Hitler%2520vergleichen%3F%3B%2520Eine%2520Analogie%2520ist%2520kein%2520Vergleich%3B%2520Vergleiche%2520mit%2520den%2520Nazis%3B%2520Uri%2520Avnery%3B%2520Vergleich,%2520Grundlage%2520jeder%2520Erkenntnis%2520T:I:S,%25208.%2520M%25C3%2583%25C2%25A4rz%25202010.&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhjHHF00NaFtGHCSBpY5p8fXMHi0Mw"><b>T: I: S,</b></a> (Steinberg Recherche, March 8, 2010.</span></blockquote><blockquote>(All in German)</blockquote><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>With thanks to <a href="http://huibslog.huibs.net/journal/2010/3/8/claudiakaras@web.de" target="_blank">Claudia Karas,</a> the indefatigable Mailerin. And Steinberg, a <i>monument of -often</i> too- Critical Criticism)</span> <br />
<br />
<img alt="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Walther_Rathenau.jpg/220px-Walther_Rathenau.jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Walther_Rathenau.jpg/220px-Walther_Rathenau.jpg" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px;" /><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_Rathenau&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhguBRMGoJW_zgdP83lmonY_OjcNxw" target="_blank"></a></span> <a href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_Rathenau&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhguBRMGoJW_zgdP83lmonY_OjcNxw" target="_blank">Walther Rathenau</a> was a philosopher, businessman and minister of foreign affairs in the early Weimar Republic.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>He was also a Jew.</span><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)">He would now be classified as a Liberal Conservative or a right Social Democrat.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;">All the same,</span> many reasons for revanchists, anti-Semites, PI-ler, Mafiosis und Ulfkotte-people to hate him.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>So much so that he was murdered in 1922 by three so-called Fememörderern with a hand grenade.</span> <br />
<blockquote><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>He makes the difference between predetermined conclusions </span><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"> from superficial analogies </span><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"> from history (or the collective memories) on one hand and, on the other hand, the enlightened thinking, not the based upon stories attached to prejudice, but engaged to comparison with what is now happening. Stating:</span><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><b></b></span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><b>Denken heißt Vergleichen</b></span> In short: <b>To think is to compare</b></span> </blockquote><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>What we get to hear now too often in the debates about the supposedly necessary exclusion of <i>potential terrorists and enemies of the Enlightenment</i> in "our West", are <b>the prejudiced conclusions of "the" History.</b></span> <br />
But, <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>THE history does not exist.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>Only stories do exist.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>Narratives that communicate what people think or thought that woul be important.</span> <br />
<br />
<span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>One can make two things out of stories.</span> <br />
<ol><li> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;">To </span>use them, to support any ideas or theories;</span> </li>
<li> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>To study them, in order to, in comparison with perceptions of current or historical events, create a better analysis.</span> </li>
</ol><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><b></b></span><b>The first</b> leads to ideological immobility.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><b></b></span>It will just be instructions for maintaining the <b>taboo</b> of other interpretations than the predetermined ones.</span> </div></div><div align="left"><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>Teaching about the Holocaust is often understood as a canonization of all this, what is said in the name of Judaism and the actual Israeli Government.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>But real Holocaust Education not only speaks of the suffering of millions of murdered Jews, but informs just as much about the construction of the will to genocide.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>Thus, of the tendency of acting by irritation and xenophobia.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span> </span></div><div align="left"><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)">Stories about it are from all ages.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>The Holocaust story is "just" its translation into the industrial age of former pogroms and primitive ethnic cleansings.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>The First World War sacrificed millions instead of tens of thousands, as we were used to before, as it was an expression of the new industrial age. </span> </div><div align="left"><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"><b></b></span><b>The second</b> leads to free thinking about the ways, exclusion develops.</span><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>It may be helpful to understand today's exclusion and their reasons.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>Good Holocaust education thus helps to understand how ideas about genocide do devlop themselves within a non-violent society..</span> </div><div align="left"><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"></span></div><div align="left"><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"></span></div><div align="left"><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>That is why I think that critical historical studies are of importance.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>Also for Muslim immigrant children in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.</span> <span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>They will understand that the Holocaust story is not about a so-called collective guilt of Germans and Muslims, but see it as awarning, never to follow extremists.</span> </div><div align="left"><span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;"></span>And take seriously the warnings of the day.</span> </div><br />
<span onmouseout="_tipoff()" onmouseover="_tipon(this)"><span class="google-src-text" style="direction: ltr; text-align: left;">Technorati Tags: <a class="performancingtags" href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://technorati.com/tag/Facing%2520History&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhi7Z0LYtUaAJKAieRAhcnnuIzAajg" rel="tag">Facing History</a> , <a class="performancingtags" href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://technorati.com/tag/Genesis%2520of%2520Genocide&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhjgnPFfhbpriuuP8TObPuSkokqrVA" rel="tag">Genesis of Genocide</a> , <a class="performancingtags" href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://technorati.com/tag/Walther%2520Rathenau&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhgEm8RBvOAahoVQLG4Ee9e8IDogIA" rel="tag">Walther Rathenau</a> , <a class="performancingtags" href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://technorati.com/tag/Steinbergrecherche&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhhm2C0tDJY0HhVnUYgRtC3TGV9N4Q" rel="tag">Steinbergrecherche</a> , <a class="performancingtags" href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://technorati.com/tag/Education&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhip--a7kZqiwJJIuZ5TBXe3_y4MLg" rel="tag">Education</a> , <a class="performancingtags" href="http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&langpair=auto%7Cen&u=http://technorati.com/tag/Political%2520Philosophy&tbb=1&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhjwfNpbot7ITv3umcZarkkMiTul0A" rel="tag">Political Philosophy</a> </span></span></div></div></div></div>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-52197978672404065252010-02-09T08:52:00.002+01:002010-02-09T09:02:57.847+01:00Wilders' Money to remain hidden to you and me, but open to CIA?The European Parliament will have to decide, this week, if it allows American authorities to data-mine your and mine international euro-transfers by way of copying the SWIFT data.<br />
Swift services banks in Europe and elsewhere. For instance, when I send some of my Dutch retirement money to my Belgian account, the ING bank warns me, that this may be monitored by American authorities.<br />
I have no problem with that. If the CIA wants to know, that I live in Brussels and that I buy my shrimps there at Delhaize, good riddance, OK with me.<br />
But the EP has a point, when it says, that American authorities have to have a reason, when they ask for Swift data. Any European nation allows prosecution to scrutinize my financial data, or listen to my private communications, only, when there is a probable link to crime or terrorism. If there is no one, I can trust my bank, that it protects my privacy.<br />
So, why does the CIA not trust my national European secret services?<br />
That is a long, difficult and complicated story.<br />
I will tell you another time. For a considerable part, they may be right. For who believes, for instance, our Italian secret service Mafiosos?<br />
So, please, CIA, NSA, search for bank transfers linked to Al-Qaeda! I couldn't agree more.<br />
And, do not forget to tell us about Mr. Wilders, from Holland, who gets millions of dollars from US accounts for destabilization of European nations.<br />
Pardon me, if I watch the Dutch representatives from he PVV "party" in the EP.<br />
What are they up to?<br />
Will they vote for a going Dutch alone, as their program states? Or will they vote for transparency to the CIA, while Dutch public opinion remains left in the dark?<br />
Hey, Mr. Wilders, your credibility is at stake!Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-73323589095209575512010-02-05T05:01:00.003+01:002010-02-05T05:19:28.753+01:00Geert Wilders' difficult choice: Being Immigrant or Exigrant?<div style="padding-left: 120px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" height="261" src="http://huibslog.huibs.net/storage/Wilders%20Florida.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1265340896728" width="368" /></span></div><span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"></span>Geert Wilders' international actions are made of <b>European-Union bashing</b>, advocating the most right-wing Israeli views and collecting money from rich, but scared, American Jewish elder people in Florida. </div><div style="padding-left: 120px;"><br />
</div><div style="padding-left: 120px;">Not counting the -officially- unsolicited money that may be got from "allies" like:</div><ul><li>the post-fascist Belgian Vlaams Belang movement, </li>
<li>the racist German "Politically Incorrect" Website</li>
<li>the so-called European, but in reality American, website "Gates Of Vienna"</li>
<li>and Daniel PIPES' blog of hatred against Islam, a real Wilders' <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/7888/stand-with-geert-wilders" target="_blank">fan</a>, </li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>I do not like it, when the Judges intrude into freedom of speech. I accept limits to that freedom, but I think that a fair and open discussion between responsible people will be able to solve any misunderstanding that might occur. Not so with Mr. Wilders. He avoids any confrontation with Muslims or with people who favor an open mind to culture. That is, why I have, reluctantly, to admit that the only solution to the Wilders' hate agitation lies in a condemnation in Court of Geert Wilders.<br />
In 1917, my grandfather-in-law, Henk Sneevliet, was condemned in a Dutch-Indonesian Court for "hate-mongering". He was banned to go to Holland, leaving alone his friends from the Indonesian Nationalist Movement, who were inspired by the Russian February Revolution.<br />
In 1933, again, he was in Court in Amsterdam, for having greeted the "Seven Provinces" rebellion of seamen, who were despatched at suppressing an Atjeh rebellion against the Dutch. After some months in jail, he was elected to Parliament under the slogan: "Sneevliet, from jail to Parliament"!<br />
You'll see, why I think that Geert Wilders will be able to profit from his indictment before a Court, as a "victim" of Justice. But I have no choice. As an elected member of Parliament, only the other elected members of Parliament could have stopped him. They did not. Out of fear, out of calculation, they let him do.<br />
Wilders is of mixed Dutch/German-Indonesian descent. One of his grandparents was Jewish. Out of that multicultural mix, he choose to be Jewish. I repect that. But I do not allow somebody to negate altogether his/her roots. The "Indos", of mixed Dutch-Indonesian descent, choose in 1948/9, when it became clear that the Indonesian nationalists under Sukarno would get the upper hand in Djakarta, in majorty to go to Holland. They "integrated" successfully. Only, when during the eighties a virtual ban was proclaimed on foreign immigrants, their brown skin and their black hair got them unawares as "foreigners". Most assumed. Few, like Wilders, hid under, for example, a blond wig.Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-68192070249498504172010-02-02T02:43:00.000+01:002010-02-02T02:43:56.296+01:00How the Wilders Hysteria is Linked to Holland. Who exploits it. And how it can be ended. (4, Solutions)How will it be overcome, the Wilders agitation and its sisters in many European countries?<br />
My friends say: By understanding the fears of men and women who live in marginalized urban neighborhoods. Elder people, who lost their references, when their children and the local baker left their street. And were replaced by, mostly gentle, Turkish families and their daily providers of vegetables and fruit. For you and me, they say, it is easy and even thrilling, when the local snackbar is replaced by a Japanese Sushi Bar. But imagine, you are old, you have a small pension and little money to spend...<br />
Well, that is how people get scared. The new shop-owners are friendly, no problem. Their vegetables are good. Bur the street becomes a foreign country, with young men claiming their space. As young men have always done. In the fifties, when we were young, we claimed our room as 'rockers', we did so ourselves. In the sixties, we could live with the 'provos' and the 'hippies', for we could understand them, while we did not agree.<br />
But now, our home is enveloped in foreign country. We never asked for being 'integrated' with people who speak Arabic and Turkish. If you like that, take those people with you, in your neighborhoods.<br />
<strong>"We want our country back!"</strong><br />
In Holland, from the seventies on, conservative governments left them alone, those people. I know for myself, as I were a Government agent for "urban neighborhood redevelopment". As long as there was no urgent problem, money for integration solutions, was held back. Only when security problems came up, the State got itself involved.<br />
No wonder, that (semi-) criminal groups learnt to profit from that. No wonder, that fundamentalists exploited that situation. Mohammed Boujeri, Van Gogh's murderer, was a product of that dealing and wheeling among authorities and maffiosos.<br />
Restoring the dignity of original habitants as well of that of the newly arrived immigrants, it seems impossible. But it is not!<br />
Mixing the traditions of old immigrants and the richness of the traditions of new immigrants, it is possible! I refer to my experiences in France. In the community of Chatenay-Malabry, in the Île de France region of Paris, an intervention of a theater-group solved the alienation-problem. In the North of France, in the Roubaix-Tourcoing region, a flemish-moroccan jardinage project opened many roads to live together, sing together and ask successfully help from regional authorities.<br />
<strong>It is all about understanding people who are on the edge.</strong> Make people understand that the Turkish vegetable shop is not something that tramples upon you, but the only solution to have a shop near you.<br />
Have young Moroccans understand, that their fathers' knowledge about trees is essential to the neighborhood. It will show on the central square!<br />
Well, this is how I worked in many parts of Europe. And every time, when we were near to our goal, the project was called off. For there were no more threats to security, for instance.<br />
That is why I like so much my friend Ewoud Butter's posting about the "better party" Wilders' followers should get: A political party that cares as well for the old who suffer under small pensions and isolation within urban relegation. They are left alone. Is that the immigrants' fault? NO! The immigrants are being left alone as well!<br />
That is why I believe, that a better future is possible. Not by giving in to fundamentalism. Not by letting go. But by respecting the practical contribution anyone can give to a common project.Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-79395462547651299012010-01-27T05:11:00.000+01:002010-01-27T05:11:42.164+01:00The Dutch Wilders Hysteria. Who exploits it. And how it will be Overcome. (3, The Funders)<strong>Who are exploiting</strong><strong> the Dutch crisis? And How? Follow the Money!</strong><strong> </strong><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.depers.nl/UserFiles/Image/2010/201001/20100122/jihadwatch.wilders.354.jpg" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px;" /><strong></strong><br />
<strong>1. A loophole in Dutch legislation.</strong><br />
While most developed ("judeo-christian") democracies have laws and rules that block organizations with foreign funding and/or no democratic structure, from participating in elections, the Kingdom of The Netherlands makes a notable exception. <br />
In Germany, in France and even in countries like Belgium, Spain and Portugal, political parties are subjected to rules, based upon Law, that guarantee their democratic (membership) structure and the transparency of their revenues. <br />
For instance, former German Chancellor, Mr. Kohl, was sued in Court for black financing of his CDU party. In Belgium, each locally elected representative is screened by Justice, and if he or she has published his/her name or image in local official publications within a three-month period in advance of elections, he or she is punished. <br />
But in Holland, any body can participate in elections. As far as I know, Mr. Wilders is the first person to go it entirely alone. Geert and Geert alone, selects candidates for Parliament, for the European Parliament and for local elections. <br />
<strong>2. Populist maffia leaders have to go "whoring"</strong><br />
Before the year 1917, in Holland, members of Parliament were chosen locally in conscriptions, like in Great Britain. After 1917/1918 big "pillar" parties, with their membership structure, took over. There was never a real need to discipline parties. They cared for themselves. Until, at the end of the Nineties, Mr. <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CAcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FPim_Fortuyn&ei=toJfS6SyLcLU4Qbg4eHuCw&usg=AFQjCNGryc0Ykzl6bDUPBzYFO_A_EfME3w&sig2=kBHx9HjYzZ-dTbP7FSkguw" target="_blank">Pim Fortuyn</a> started to organize his following under a "List Fortuyn". (LPF: List Pim Fortuyn).<br />
Fortuyn himself described his meetings with potential funders as "whoring". He met marginal traders in real estate, who promised funding in exchange for liberty of speculation within the Rotterdam social housing sector. Eventually, the funders even took over the whole LPF party, after Fortuyn's death in 2002. The Rotterdam social housing was for a large part sold to real estate speculators. The motivation: "Raise rents, so that people with low income will have to leave and be replaced by young gentry." People with low incomes are, of course, mainly (muslim, but also Surinam and Antillean,) immigrants. (See: <a href="http://ineuropathuis.huibs.net/2006/02/rotterdam-weert-arme-nieuwkomers.html" target="_blank">Rotterdam weert arme Nieuwkomers</a> (February 2006, Dutch, in my blog "In Europa Thuis").<br />
Likewise, Ms. Verdonk, a former Conservative Liberal Minister of Immigration, funded her party 'Trots Op Nederland', TON (Proud of Holland'), with donations from marginal personalities and real estate speculators.<br />
<strong>3. The Wilders construction</strong><br />
Geert WILDERS must have decided at an early stage, that, if he wanted to keep his independence, he could neither count upon eventual members of his PVV party, nor on Dutch private funders. At first, Wilders hoped, that the bulk of his money would come from the US <strong>Neoconservatives</strong>. In 2005/6, Mr. <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CAkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBart_Jan_Spruyt&ei=UYJfS7P0BZWr4Qak44j1Cw&usg=AFQjCNFv8GdQdq-ToLY_LWx1uA0usCflPg&sig2=MHbbmG3NvEbVCpvX-ibBWw" target="_blank"><strong>Bart Jan Spruyt</strong></a> wrote a Reaganite programme for Wilders' new party and did some headhunting among the neocon followers in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders, who was then sitting alone in Parliament as a dissident of the conservative liberal VVD party, was transported into the States, where he met the Neocon pundits, who were just then at the apex of their power under the presidency of George W. Bush. <br />
<span id="goog_1264564573241"></span><span id="goog_1264564573242"></span>But the neocon cabal was not sufficiently amused by the peroxide blond loon. Wilders is a (rabiate) <strong>critic of religion</strong> in general, although exclusively haunted by the Islam, while the Neocons, who are not religious themselves, as former Trotskyites, consider religion (for the masses) as a necessary antidote to social action. Even if some Neocons made a visit to Holland under Wilders' patronage, their alliance did never materialize. I wrote about the neoconservative strategy of engaging fundamentalist Christians into their action in: <a href="http://huibslog.huibs.net/journal/2007/6/7/paul-wolfowitz-and-neocon-morals-7607-en.html" target="_blank">Paul Wolfowitz and neocon Morals</a> (June 6, 2007). And the Spruyt-inspired neocon <a href="http://www.aei.org/" target="_blank"><strong>American Enterprise Institute</strong></a>'s excursion to Rotterdam was a failure. In the neocon Weekly Standard, Spruyt was relegated to the cultural and book review section.<br />
It was soon afterwards, that Wilders broke his relation with Mr. Spruyt. He was to go it "alone". But not so much alone as that. Fundraising trips to Israel and the US started to fill Wilders' war treasure. <br />
<strong>4. The Likud-US connection</strong><br />
While the Neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (where his former friend Ajaan Hirsi Ali is engaged as a researcher since 2005) kept its purse closed, the president of the <strong>American Peace (!) Initiative</strong>, nominated by Bush in 2002, <strong>Daniel Pipes</strong>, came to the rescue. Pipes, who is firmly linked to Likud in Israel and to the powerful AIPAC pro-Israel lobby in the US, channeled American taxpayer funds to Wilders, as well as private contributions from US sources, collected through websites like "Gates Of Vienna" e.a.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/wilders-trial-how-will-he-pay-his-defence" target="_blank">John Tyler, blogger at the Dutch world service radio "Wereldomroep (RNW)"</a>, sorted it out. The RNW site is not just a loony dhimmi playground, but an independent blogging platform hosted by the Dutch state-financed worldwide information service by radio:<br />
<blockquote><a href="" id="facts">An important source of funding for his legal defence comes from supporters in the United States. He has travelled there frequently: showing his anti-Islam film </a><a href="http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/anti-islam-film-fitna-online" target="_blank"><em>Fitna</em></a>, giving speeches, accepting awards. And raising money.<br />
Neither Mr Wilders nor many of those involved in organizing fundraisers for him are prepared to indicate how much money he has raised.<br />
<a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/" target="_blank">Daniel Pipes</a>, director of the <a href="http://www.meforum.org/" target="_blank">Middle East Forum</a>, has raised money for Geert Wilders’ legal defence through <a href="http://www.legal-project.org/" target="_blank">The Legal Project</a>. <em>“The Legal Project engages in various efforts for individuals who talk about this bundle of issues: Muslims and Islam. Wilders is one of those that we have helped both financially and in other ways. I have helped him in terms of law and in terms of fundraising. But I can’t tell you amounts… It’s not my concern.”</em><br />
Although Mr Pipes is not prepared to talk in more detail about money raised for Wilders, he has told a Dutch magazine that Wilders raised a six-figure amount during a recent US trip.<br />
</blockquote>In June 2007, at the Californian <strong>Pepperdine</strong> Conference about the looming 'Collapse Of Europe', Pipes set the agenda already, with his proposals to support "advocacy" against Muslims, denying them the building of Mosques, wearing headscarves and attacking "leftist" anti-racists in Court. That is what the "Legal project" is about. The Legal Project and other advocacy initiatives were dealt with in a closed session, following the public one. Now we get a peep into what it boils down to. Tyler, again:<br />
<blockquote>Readers are asked to send money to a bank account of the Friends of the Freedom Party Foundation. This is the same foundation which funds Freedom Party<strong> (= PVV, HR)</strong> activities. Apparently, Mr Wilders has not set up a separate foundation for his legal defence. According to Dutch daily <em>de Volkskrant</em>, Mr Wilders instead re-wrote the statute of the existing Freedom Party foundation to include his legal defence. This would mean there is no division between donations for Mr Wilders’ personal legal defence and the Freedom Party’s political activities.<br />
</blockquote>As Wilders keeps his financial resources hidden, and says: "<em>Where I get my money and from whom is nobody’s business”</em>, it is difficult to prove exactly, how much of the spenders' money is used for legal defence, and what part is devoted to party campaigns. Tyler:<br />
<blockquote>According to Dutch daily <em>de Volkskrant</em>, Mr Wilders instead re-wrote the statute of the existing Freedom Party foundation to include his legal defence. This would mean there is no division between donations for Mr Wilders’ personal legal defence and the Freedom Party’s political activities.<br />
</blockquote><strong>5. The European dimension</strong>.<strong> Mccarthyism returns?</strong><br />
As we saw in the preceding article in this series, Dutch Law governing funding for political parties is quite lax. A new law is being prepared at the Ministry of the Interior, but two of the three bigger political parties, the liberal-conservative VVD and the Christian-Democrat CDA are used to get their funding for a large part from big business. However, says Tyler:<br />
<blockquote>Greco, an anti-corruption body and part of The Council of Europe, <a href="http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:HrMhy9-oiNkJ:www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/Greco/evaluations/round1/GrecoRC1%282004%2913_Add_Netherldans_EN.pdf+greco+corruption+netherlands+2007&hl=en&sig=AHIEtbQwxUlo8Y9igDlhfx9HcASNiGGotA" target="_blank">reprimanded the Netherlands in 2007</a> for the lack of transparency regarding political donations. A new law governing political parties and how they are financed is in the making. But as it now stands, Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party have very few limits on how and where they can raise money. And he has no obligation to reveal his money sources.<br />
</blockquote>I remember the McCarthyist US policies during the Fifties. Funding was channeled to anti-Communist organizations. Neutral youth- and students-organizations were being infiltrated. Let me add, that this reflected similar policies that originated in Moscow. But that doesn't make it any better.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="Arabist_jansen" border="0" src="http://hoeiboei.web-log.nl/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/03/arabist_jansen.jpg" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px;" title="Arabist_jansen" /></span>Racist anti-islamic websites like "Politically Incorrect" (PI) in Germany are being funded and even hosted in the US. The CIA sponsored (if we may believe the German security- and anti-islam expert, Dr. Udo Ulfkotte) a huge anti-Eurabia conference in Brussels, November 2007, hosted by the separatist and post-fascist Vlaams Belang Party, outlawed by all other Belgian political parties. Ms. <strong>Bat Ye'or</strong> and her husband, as well as the enigmatic white supremacist <strong>"Fjordman"</strong> and <strong>Dutch "Arabist" Hans Jansen</strong>, converted from anti-Zionist to anti-Islam agitator (we will come back to him!), came together and studied, how hate-mongering against Islam and Muslims could be promoted. Wilders himself never mingles directly or openly with the far right as assembled in Brussels. But their money is apparently welcome. <br />
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<strong>6. Couldn't we get some information about the secret Wilders funding, out of the anti-terrorist legislation's monitoring of bank transfers?</strong><br />
I believed, that some forty years ago, we put an end to this kind of shameless intrusion into our political life. When Nixon had to step down in shame, at that point of time, more or less. But I was wrong. American authorities, as says my bank every month, when I transfer some money from Holland to Belgium, from my retirement pension, register what I do. I hope, they will catch Al-Qaeda transfers timely, in that way. But what about secret transfers of money from the States to people who undermine democracy and freedom in Europe and who are in Court for hate-mongering and discrimination? <br />
If Pipes and Wilders cannot be forced to reveal their financial dealings, perhaps the post-9/11 anti-terrorist legislation and rules could be of help for once, for the necessary transparency!<br />
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Photos: 1. Jihadwatch, USA. Wilders and Robert Spencer. 2. Hoeiboei Blog: Arabist Jansen.<br />
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Technorati Tags: <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Bart%20Jan%20Spruyt" rel="tag">Bart Jan Spruyt</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/American%20Enterprise%20Institute" rel="tag">American Enterprise Institute</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Geert%20Wilders" rel="tag">Geert Wilders</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Daniel%20Pipes" rel="tag">Daniel Pipes</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Neoconservatives" rel="tag">Neoconservatives</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Robert%20Spencer" rel="tag">Robert Spencer</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Hans%20Jansen" rel="tag">Hans Jansen</a>, <a class="performancingtags" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Party%20Funding" rel="tag">Party Funding</a><br />
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Please, comment at: At Home in Europe-Euractiv.Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-58581475121429744532010-01-22T06:06:00.002+01:002010-01-22T22:46:26.667+01:00How the Wilders Hysteria is Linked to Holland. Who exploits it. And how it can be ended. (2, Dutch society)<b>Wilders is NOT about Islam. Any foreign intrusion would have done. He is about xenophobia and hate-mongering.</b><br />
In the first part of this series, we talked about the transnational effects of the Dutch Wilders hysteria against Muslims. And how it is exploited and financed by foreign sources like the Advocacy Project of <b>Daniel Pipes</b> in the U.S.A. and Israel. We will have to return to the international financing problem as well as to the ongoing European contamination, in one of the next instances.<br />
<span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" src="http://huibslog.huibs.net/storage/proces-geertwilders02.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1264132704227" /></span><i><span style="width: 382px;">"Geert Akbar": The some 200 activists who supported Wilders on January 20 at his Amsterdam court appearance, were not without some humour...</span> </i><br />
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Our subject here, in the second part, is the<b> typical Dutch background of the hysterical Wilders upsurge.</b> The Wilders phenomenon has nothing to do, in our opinion, with the Islam. Any religious, ethnic or cultural intrusion into the dream of a peaceful and quiet Dutch society, could have done the job. Wilders is not about Islam. It is about xenophobia. And hate-mongering.<br />
<b>Redundant workers are left alone </b><br />
As many researchers and thinkers nowadays understand, the globalization of economy, trade and culture are felt as an intrusion into their daily life, by the men and women who live in marginalized parts of Western cities. Structurally, they are no more needed for production of goods. (See my articles about the rise and downfall of the need for urban workers at the e-urban site: <a class="" href="http://e-urban.squarespace.com/e-urban-journal/2009/12/1/france-la-relegation-des-quartiers-urbains-sensibles-sapprof.html" mce_href="http://e-urban.squarespace.com/e-urban-journal/2009/12/1/france-la-relegation-des-quartiers-urbains-sensibles-sapprof.html" title="">Les quartiers relégués... (FR)</a>, <a class="" href="http://e-urban.squarespace.com/e-urban-journal/2009/8/5/anti-islamische-agitatoren-missbrauchen-geographie-der-armut.html" mce_href="http://e-urban.squarespace.com/e-urban-journal/2009/8/5/anti-islamische-agitatoren-missbrauchen-geographie-der-armut.html" target="_blank" title="">Missbrauch der Geographie des Armuts.. (DE).</a><br />
Foreign, mostly Muslim, immigrants take the jobs of the former local (former generation) immigrant workers. And the new immigrants are in their turn put aside, as their wages get too high, compared to those in, for instance, China. But China is over their horizon. The local inhabitants only see their immigrant neighbours. <br />
And that is hard. Welfare State has, since a century, taken responsibility for the citizens' well-being, their security and their peaceful life, taking the place of the Church and the heads of the village communities. And it is felt, that the State fails. Nobody is really left alone. But life has become pointless. Strangers are coming in. They take our houses, our schools, our local shops. The State does nothing against it. Frustration becomes aggression against the newcomers and their children: headscarves, minarets, halal slaughtering are symbolical targets.<br />
<b>How is it possible, that an open, tolerant, society like the Dutch, reacts so strongly against the newcomers?</b><br />
The Dutch tolerance is an "empty tolerance" as in: "De Lege Tolerantie", a book, published in 2007 by a number of Dutch thinkers and writers. It is empty, for it is in fact a way of hiding within one's own community.<br />
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It was developed during Middle Age and the early Modern Times. As a small country, the Dutch republic, in its summit of power, received the Flemish refugees from Antwerp and made them the top of Lowlands' culture (notably Joost van den Vondel, poet). Sepharade refugees from the Iberic countries were welcomed, as new traders on the world markets. Baruch d'Espinoza, one of them, was condemned to isolation, by the Sepharade court, confirmed by Dutch justice. The Jews had to manage their own problems.<br />
<br />
As long as immigrants did not endanger Dutch elites' relations to England or to France, they were welcome. Not in the countryside, but in the cities. When the 18th century was nearing its end, Dutch "Patriots" demanded a Democracy in Holland. Second-class citizenship rules for Jews were to be abolished. But, finally, full-fledged discrimination was reestablished under the "Restoration" regime, which lasted from 1814 to 1830.<br />
In the second half of the 19th century, the country accumulated its riches from its colonial possessions, the Netherlands Indies, i.e: Indonesia. Typical Dutch "tolerance" was developed into an ideology of "inspraak", "giving your opinion", imposed upon Indonesian leaders. "Inspraak" is not about real policies. It deals exclusively with social issues. It was a check on how far Dutch authorities could go in their exploitation of Indonesia.<br />
<b>The imperial illusion</b><br />
While the British left the Indonesian wealth to their Dutch clients, those last ones lived with the illusion of an imperium. Holland considered itself both as a world player and as a small reserve of peace and civilization. It did not take part in the First World war, it only profited largely from trade with both sides. The German Nazi occupation in 1940 was a shock, but was relegated into shameful oblivion afterwards. <br />
Dutch society reacts to foreign arrivals with tolerance. But what does Dutch tolerance mean? It is not about accepting, but about leaving alone. Leave us alone. Manage yourselves. The well-known "pillar" structure of the Dutch nation is its outcome: catholics, protestants, conservatives and social-democrats have each their own "pillar" under the state. It consists of social, educational, cultural and political organizations, whose tops negotiate all the time compromises with the other pillars, in order to keep the state going.<br />
<b>The emptiness of Dutch tolerance</b><br />
Secularization, death of ideologies, dealt a mortal blow to that system from the sixties on. So mortal, that there can be no question of a new Dutch "islamic" pillar now, at the start of the 21st century. Which leaves Dutch society with a fundamental destabilization. The "inspraak"-strategy, so successful with the Indonesian elites, doesn't work with the new immigrants. Denial, until the middle of the nineties a favored attitude among the political elite of the country, became impossible after the tumultuous passage of Pim Fortuyn, murdered in May 2002.<br />
In short: Dutch society is without a clue. Traditional elites are either hiding behind their pillar walls, or expecting the fall-out of Fortuyn- and Wilders-like racist movements to fall into their laps. That is why Parliament and traditional parties (for the most part) let Wilders do his thing. Hoping, that somebody would dare to come forward and put him in the right place. At this moment, it is a part of the Dutch judiciary system, who are coming forward against Wilders' hate-mongering. There is little or no support from the political side. Everybody is commenting as if it were a match between two foreign soccer teams.<br />
<b>Strangers to the new European community</b><br />
The structure of the European Union, a hybrid hesitating between a common civilization and a loose union of independent nations, does not help. Dutch citizens, in their majority, do not feel responsible for the European common good. As the traditional parties do not work to engage citizens with an European project in the world, demagogues like Wilders, find an ample room to play with the illusion of a Dutch "Alleingang", as if the country were still an imperial power. Wilders copies the model of the ex-maoist populist Dutch "Socialist Party" in the European Parliament, who sabotaged during many years all European construction.<br />
A commenter on this blog, rightly said, that a Wilders movement would not be possible in the bigger European countries like Britain, France, or Germany. But, as the EU is composed, now, of 27 countries, a destabilization of one or more of the smaller ones, like Poland, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Greece or Holland, could contaminate the whole process of European unification.<br />
2007, a financial support for the Irish movement against the Lisbon Treaty, channeled through a military contract with the US State of Georgia, and managed by the American Heritage Foundation, succeeded in endangering the whole project. The US funders behind Wilders may have the same intention.<br />
<b>That is why not only the Dutch, but all people of the EU should be worried about the fragility of democracy, as illustrated by the destructive Wilders phenomenon in Holland, and its hidden sponsors from abroad.</b><br />
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(From At Home in Europe (EN) and Huibslog)<br />
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Please; <b>comment</b> at: <a href="http://athomeineurope.blogactiv.eu/2010/01/22/how-the-wilders-hysteria-is-linked-to-holland-who-exploits-it-and-how-it-can-be-ended-2-dutch-society/">At Home in Europe - Euractiv</a>, where this post is republished!Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-45401667933175873652010-01-21T22:04:00.005+01:002010-01-22T22:49:51.806+01:00Why Wilders Hysterics happen in Holland. Who exploits it. And How it will Disappear. (1, Daniel Pipes)<div style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" src="http://huibslog.huibs.net/storage/Wilders%20demo%200120%20rtgesl.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1264105467683" /></span><span style="width: 366px;">Ritual slaughter, normal in Jewish and Muslim traditions, is attacked at right-wing pro-Wilders manifestation in Amsterdam, Jan. 20, 2010.</span><br />
</div><br />
<span style="width: 366px;"> </span>In the USA, loonies like Mr. <b>Geert Wilders</b>, just appear in the shape of hysteric bloggers, or television priests, or talkshow-pundits. (Making an exception for Ms. Sarah Palin. That is another story.)<br />
Even so, it is bad enough. But in Holland, a small country in Western Europe, those loonies can even become <b>statesmen</b>, or, as things are at this point, statesmen-<b>hopeful</b>.<br />
Daniel <b>Pipes</b>, January 19 2010, consecrates Geert Wilders' ambitions on his blog: <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/7888/stand-with-geert-wilders" target="_blank">Why I stand with Geert Wilders</a>. More on Daniel Pipes at <a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/09/a-defeated-people/" target="_blank">Loonwatch</a>, USA.<br />
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Pipes doesn't hide his admiration for the peroxide blond Lowlands Messiah:<br />
<blockquote>Who is the most important European alive today? I nominate the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. I do so because he is best placed to deal with the Islamic challenge facing the continent. He has the potential to emerge as a <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=tSoqAAAAYAAJ&q=world-historical-figure+hegel&dq=world-historical-figure+hegel&lr=&num=100&ei=hfFRS6T5DarSyQSY5vXmCw&cd=7">world-historical figure</a>.<br />
</blockquote><img alt="" src="http://huibslog.huibs.net/resource/Wilders-Pipes%200119.jpg?fileId=5462111&__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1264104573808" /><span style="width: 350px;"> </span><br />
<div style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="width: 350px;">Pipes and Wilders, 2006</span><br />
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</div><br />
Well, well. Mr. Wilders has no proposals for economy, social issues, culture, education, etc., other than eliminating immigrants of Muslim descent from Dutch society. He has no ideas about foreign policy, other than debilitating the European Union (we'll come to this later) and following the Likud - and even more right-wing policies, of Israel (idem).<br />
Pipes:<br />
<blockquote>In addition, Wilders is a charismatic, savvy, principled, and outspoken leader who has rapidly become the most dynamic political force in the Netherlands. While he opines on the full range of topics, Islam and Muslims constitute his signature issue. Overcoming the tendency of Dutch politicians to play it safe, he calls Muhammad a <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/943764.html">devil</a> and demands that Muslims "<a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/03/27/wilders039-movie-all-about-dutch-politics.html">tear out half of the Koran</a> if they wish to stay in the Netherlands." More broadly, he sees Islam itself as the problem, not just a virulent version of it called Islamism.<br />
</blockquote>"A full range of topics"? - When Dutch Parliament debated measures to counter the banking crisis, Wilders and his 8 colleague-parliamentarians left the meeting. Playing victims of majority dictates, but in reality, because they have no answers to the economic challenges of the crisis. No, the one-member Wilders party (Wilders himself is the only member, financing is hidden from the public, see my analysis of Wilders-finances later), waited and diverted the discussion to xenophobic issues later on.<br />
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Pipes ends the eulogy about Wilders in this way:<br />
<blockquote>The Netherlands' fractured political scene means the PVV must either find willing partners to form a governing coalition (a difficult task, given how <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/5720/the-islamist-leftist-allied-menace">leftists and Muslims</a> have demonized Wilders as a "<a href="http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2009/11/geert-wilders-right-wing-extremist.html">right-wing extremist</a>") or win a majority of the seats in parliament (a distant prospect).<br />
</blockquote><blockquote>Wilders must also overcome his opponents' dirty tactics. Most notably, they have finally, after 2½ years of preliminary skirmishes, succeeded in dragging him to court on charges of hate speech and incitement to hatred. The public prosecutor's case against Wilders opens in Amsterdam on January 20; if convicted, Wilders faces a fine of up to US$ 14,000 or as many as 16 months in jail.<br />
Remember, he is his country's leading politician. Plus, due to threats against his life, he always travels with bodyguards and incessantly changes <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52502-2005Jan31?language=printer">safe houses</a>. Who exactly, one wonders, is the victim of incitement?<br />
</blockquote>Confronting Wilders' agitprop, is that a "dirty tactic"? We are talking of freedom of opinion here! I regret that Dutch politicians did not confront Wilders with the means they have at their disposal under parliamentary democracy. <br />
They ducked away. That is, why the Dutch Justice system was forced into action. The Amsterdam High Court rejected a lame response of the prosecutors to a number of complaints about Wilders' agitation and decided to go forward in challenging him to Court on the issue of hate-mongering against groups.<br />
The City of Amsterdam has a libertarian tradition. February 1941, a mass strike occurred against the beginning Nazi elimination of Jews, who made 10% of its population of nearly a million. It has been a heroic action against the Nazi occupier. Many strikers lost their lives under SS-fire and in concentration camps afterwards.<br />
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<b>The Amsterdam heroic tradition of struggle against anti-semitism</b><br />
The city of Amsterdam and its major, Mr. Job<b> Cohen</b> and its assistant major<b> Asscher</b>, and its former assistant-major Ahmed <b>Aboutaleb</b>, now government-appointed major of the city of Rotterdam, have consistently avoided discriminatory action against its Muslim inhabitants. Wilders and his provincial followers are all the time trying to represent those politicians as "capitulators" in front of the so-called "Islamic Tsunami". As "dhimmis", shortly. I always am questioning myself about how it can be possible that Cohen and Asscher, of Jewish descent, could be diabolized by an Israel-friend as Mr. Wilders. And, indirectly, by Mr. Pipes...<br />
But no, Daniel Pipes is not <i>completely</i> in tune with Geert Wilders:<br />
<blockquote>Although I <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/08/talking-freely-about-the-enemy">disagree with Wilders</a> about Islam (I respect the religion but fight Islamists with all I have), we stand shoulder-to-shoulder against the lawsuit. I reject the criminalization of political differences, particularly attempts to thwart a grassroots political movement via the courts. Accordingly, the Middle East Forum's <a href="http://www.legal-project.org/docs/cat/1">Legal Project</a> has worked on Wilders' behalf, raising substantial funds for his defense and helping in other ways. We do so convinced of the paramount importance to talk freely in public during time of war about the nature of the enemy.<br />
</blockquote>And yes, Pipes' "legal project", or, in other words: "advocacy against Islam", financed by the US taxpayer under the G.W.Bush presidency, has sent much money to the falsely-blond agitator. So much, that he has not to submit to the rules of party-financing transparency in Holland. Wilders' one-member "party" can afford to refuse government subsidies, thus avoiding being scrutinized on its revenues!<br />
This is a typical "failed state" issue, that must have some consequences on the EU level. The European Parliament should not accept non-democratic maffias as members. (About the consequences of the Wilders intrusion into the EP, another time.)<br />
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As opinion-polls stand now, Mr. Wilders' fake party could master a 30% score at national elections (at the latest in 2011), become the biggest one in Parliament and get a claim to the post of Prime Minister. With the Christian-Democrat and the Conservative Liberal Party as junior partners in a coalition (as both big parties mentioned here, have not excluded that sort of coalition up to now), Wilders could effectively become Prime Minister of the Netherlands.<br />
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This would not be as disastrous as it looks now, if the Netherlands were on a Pacific island, with a small, self-sufficient, economy. But the country is among the world's twenty biggest economies and a middle-size member of the European Union, as well as a core NATO-ally. <br />
The world has changed into a global village. Small countries may exert a disproportional impact on world affairs. The big European Union Three (Great Britain, France and Germany) are, at this moment, stable and responsible players in world politics. That was illustrated at the occasion of the 2006 "Danish anti-Islam cartoon crisis". All three managed to remain neutral and not add to the world outrage, nor to the provocations by anti-Islam people. The new members of the European Union in the East are, with the notable exception of Poland, too small to transmit their eventual instability to the European Union as a whole. <br />
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How did Mr. Geert Wilders get such a large following in a country, formerly known for its tolerance and stability?<br />
That is the subject of the next article in this series.<br />
Keep an eye on us.<br />
<br />
Published also in HUIBSLOG and At Home in Europe - Euractiv.<br />
Please, <b>comment</b> at <a href="http://athomeineurope.blogactiv.eu/2010/01/22/how-the-wilders-hysteria-is-linked-to-holland-who-exploits-it-and-how-it-can-be-ended-2-dutch-society/">At Home in Europe - Euractiv</a>, where this post has been republished! Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-30245151322330811742010-01-20T08:15:00.001+01:002010-01-21T00:45:12.861+01:00Dutch Justice publishes an Anti-Fitna, as Wilders has to appear in Court on 20/1<img alt="" src="http://huibslog.huibs.net/storage/Wilders-vs-Islam.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1263961038390" style="width: 250px;" />Somebody within the Dutch Justice bureaucracy must have had a great idea. "Let's make a YouTube Video to counter Geert Wilders! He did his "Fitna" thing in March 2008. We do our Justice thing in January 2010! And it worked! A simple device helped Dutch legal people to becole cool.<br />
This day, 20 january 2010, the Amsterdam High Court, is to listen to Mr. Geert Wilders' defense against the multiple accusations for hate-mongering and incitement to racial hate against Muslims, Mr. Wilders is accused of in the Dutch Court. An official prosecution YouTube is on the air:<br />
<embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" flashvars="autostart=true&plugins=dart&preroll=http://ad.nl.doubleclick.net/pfadx/P4442.Nu.nl/Algemeen_preroll;sz=336x255&width=512&height=400&roadblocksize=234x60&file=http://media.nu.nl/m/m1dzpnpacrvm.flv" height="400" id="ply" name="ply" quality="high" src="http://www.nuvideo.nl/flash/player/implayer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="512"></embed><br />
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Translation:<br />
<blockquote>00:00 (NL-Nu Journalist:) January 20, Geert Wilders will have to appear before the Amsterdam Court.<br />
00:06 He is indicted for offense of groups, hate-mongering and incitement to discrimination.<br />
00:10 The incriminated statements were made in an interview with (Dutch daily) De Volkskrant and in his video release "Fitna".<br />
00:17 (Interviewer:) What has been said and written by Mr. Wilders, that has provoked his indictment?<br />
00:21 (Answer by the Amsterdam Court Press Officer, Mr. Otto Van Der Bijl): In the indictment gainst Mr. Wilders, you'll find a great number of examples, of which I'll mention here some. <br />
00:26 (Wilders in De Volkskrant, August 8, 2007): "The core of the problem is the fascist Islam, the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed, as it has been written down in the Islamic "Mein Kampf", i.e.: the Quran."<br />
00:35 And also: "We have plenty things we want to happen: Closing the frontiers, no more Muslims entering the Netherlands, and many Muslims have to leave Holland." (Geert Wilders in: De Pers - Online daily. March 27, 2007).<br />
00:44 And Mr. Wilders is also indicted because of a number of statements in his well-known video "Fitna"".<br />
00:50 (Interviewer): What punishment could Mr. Wilders get?<br />
00:53 "For hate-mongering and discrimination, Mr. Wilders can be condemned to one year maximum in jail and a fine of next to 8.000 Euros, and the same punishment is provided by law for offense of groups, which is another part of the indictment. But the issue of the procedure is in the first place a reply to the question, if Mr. Wilders is punishable under Law. The secundary issue is what punishment he will eventually get.<br />
01:14 Freedom of speech is an important civil liberty. But that liberty has its limits. One of them is offense and incitement to hate and discrimination.<br />
01:27 And the Judge in this procedure, will have to decide, if Mr. Wilders has gone beyond those limits.<br />
01:31 (Interviewer): January 20, Mr. Wilders will appear in Court. What do we have to expect that day?<br />
01:35 The january 20 day in Court is an introductory session. Court will decide afterwards, how the process will be handled. The Prosecution will also adopt a definitive opinion only after this session. We expect, that the procedure will be concluded at the end of this year (2010) and the Prosecution will take a stand only at that point of time.<br />
02:02 (Nu-Nl Journalist): Some days ago, Wilders objected to his indictments, but the Court rejected his complaints.<br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
Of course, we are sceptical about the outcome of all this. But, let us be generous, and believe, hope, with me, that justice will prevail.<br />
And will Dutch Parliament have the courage, to exclude one-man parties from participating n elections?<br />
I doubt it. And will struggle to the end.<br />
Whatever the End may be!Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-4713270582965124122009-12-22T02:48:00.001+01:002009-12-22T02:48:16.039+01:00Muslims At Home in Europe. Soros Says So. It was always my idea, too.<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY_CdIv7WmwR1QSOozT90_G8IO42Vy7K6EkHsNsllTaxI83a-Ymf4e3Amy-IxqAZ_lNFk9shO-IwSdacSD1X4hMB4jctZMnPRY2r9ePZFEfi9ZmbGgb2Fe7YASVlcT2yo-vITK/?imgmax=800' style='max-width: 800px; float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 10px;'/>I do not claim exclusivity for the name "<b>At Home in Europe</b>". In 1993, some time before George Soros engaged into bringing democracy and moral integrity into Central and Eastern Europe, I embraced, together with my colleagues and friends from France, Germany and Great-Britain, in the small <b>create!europe</b> network, that challenging slogan. We were all working at urban neighbourhood emancipation through local integrated projects. Most of us, including me, still are. <br/>George Soros became famous, when he speculated successfully against the British Pound (£) in 1992, forcing it out of the European currency "slang". Much of the money he got out of this disastrous (for Europe) move, was invested, later on, into a series of private initiatives for democracy and civil society in countries like Bosnia, Hungary, Serbia and the Ukraine. Showing, how you can throw bad money to good causes.<br/>The New York based George Soros institute OSI (Open Society Institute) issues a report about <a href='http://www.soros.org/initiatives/home/articles_publications/publications/muslims-europe-20091215' target='_blank'>Muslims in Europe, focussing on 11 European cities</a>. It is produced by the <a href='http://www.soros.org/initiatives/home?a' target='_blank'>OSI At Home in Europe Project</a> , and covers: <br/><blockquote>the experiences of Muslim communities in select neighborhoods in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Antwerp, Berlin and Hamburg, Copenhagen, Leicester and Waltham Forest–London, Marseille and Paris, and Stockholm.<br/></blockquote><div class='photo'><div style='width: 150px; padding-bottom: 5px;'><span class='txt'/></div></div>This report is as much about "being At home in Europe" for ALL its inhabitants, as we imagined it then. Going aganst the popular US and European Muslim-bashing trend, it delves into the kitchen table realities in some neighbourhoods, and depicts a completely different image of daily life, challenges and results than that which the scaremongers to make us believe.<br/>The house is as the people who inhabit it. There is no mythical everlasting cultural "Heimat", defined by the soil upon which it stands.<br/>In order to be at home in Europe, Muslim immigrants, each in function of his/her background (for coming from Morocco or from Turkey, from the province or from the city, makes quite a difference), creates his own form of integration, which is a new, mixed way of life. Like immigrants in the US did successfully in the nineteenth and twentieth century.<br/>Does that mean, that there are no problems? That is another myth about us, "Gutmenschen", i.e., people who try to attack in fact the facts of ethnic cohabitation. Of course, there are huge problems, for the immigrants themselves as well as for the original inhabitants of the area. <br/>The report shows, that, with good will from both sides and much help from the local authority, those problems can be solved, and, astonishingly, <b>even turned into advantages</b>!<br/>How this last, seemingly improbable, magic trick can be made in the course of time, is explained (among others) in my professional <a href='http://e-urban.squarespace.com' target='_blank'>website E-Urban</a>, about urban area-oriented policies in Europe.<br/>This is a summary of the report's contents:<br/><blockquote><h1><small>Muslims in Europe: A Report on 11 EU Cities</small></h1><div class='txt pic_pad_165' id='meta_data'> <div id='volume'> <div class='meta_value'>Date: December 2009, Source: OSI</div></div><div id='source'> </div> </div></blockquote> <div id='body'><blockquote><p>The Open Society Institute <em>Muslims in Europe </em>report series constitutes the comparative analysis of data from 11 cities in seven European countries. It points out common trends and offers recommendations at the local, national, and international levels, including to the European Union and to international organizations. While not representative of the situation of all Muslims in these cities, this report does capture a snapshot of the experiences of Muslim communities in select neighborhoods in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Antwerp, Berlin and Hamburg, Copenhagen, Leicester and Waltham Forest–London, Marseille and Paris, and Stockholm.</p><p>This body of work comes in response to major trends with regards to Muslims living in Europe: whether citizens or migrants, native born or newly-arrived, Muslims are a growing and varied population that presents Europe with one of its greatest challenges, namely how to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all in a climate of rapidly expanding diversity.</p><p>The following overview report includes:</p><ul><li>Executive Summary</li><li> Policy Context </li><li> Cohesion, Belonging, Discrimination and Interactions </li><li> Education </li><li> Employment </li><li> Neighborhood and Housing </li><li> Health Care </li><li> Policing and Security </li><li> Civic and Political Participation </li><li> Media </li><li> Recommendations </li></ul><p>The publication is available for download below, in its entirety or by chapter.</p></blockquote> <p>(For downloading, go to the <a href='http://www.soros.org/initiatives/home?a' target='_blank'>OSI At Home in Europe Project</a>).</p><p>From the conclusions of the report:<br/></p><blockquote><p>“The OSI research suggests that religious discrimination against Muslims remains a critical barrier to full and equal participation in society.The findings of this report are consistent with other research and suggest that levels of religious discrimination directed towards Muslims are widespread and have increased in the past five years. </p>European-born Muslims, particularly women, were more likely to perceive higher levels of religious discrimination than Muslims born abroad. European-born Muslim men identify the police as a key source of unfair treatment and discrimination. For Muslims, the persistence of discrimination and prejudice affects their sense of national belonging."<br/></blockquote>(Hat tip to Dagmar and Mario, Germany).<br/><br/>There report is based on more than 2.000 interviews of inhabitants of the eleven European cities. <br/><blockquote>"Too many Europeans believe, that the religious identity would somehow hinder the integration [of Muslims], allthough a majority of the Muslims who have been interviewed, identify to a high degree with the city and with the country in which they live. The role of the City is essential, as well in the struggle against discrimination, as well as in the opening of roads to the integration of foreigners", <br/></blockquote>said Nazia Hussain (London), who managed the project "At Home in Europe". <br/><br/>A useful antidote against the "Atlas der Wut" (Map of Rage) that Mr. Ulfkotte distilled recently from another US source...<b><br/></b><br/></div>Technorati Tags: <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Islam' class='performancingtags'>Islam</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Europe' class='performancingtags'>Europe</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/discrimination' class='performancingtags'>discrimination</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/cities' class='performancingtags'>cities</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Amsterdam' class='performancingtags'>Amsterdam</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Rotterdam' class='performancingtags'>Rotterdam</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Antwerp' class='performancingtags'>Antwerp</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Berlin' class='performancingtags'>Berlin</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Hamburg' class='performancingtags'>Hamburg</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Copenhagen' class='performancingtags'>Copenhagen</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Leicester%20' class='performancingtags'>Leicester </a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/London' class='performancingtags'>London</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Marseille' class='performancingtags'>Marseille</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Paris' class='performancingtags'>Paris</a>, <a rel='tag' href='http://technorati.com/tag/Stockholm' class='performancingtags'>Stockholm</a><br/><br/><div class='zemanta-pixie'><img src='http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=e1b3db80-2387-811a-affe-cd56e6363db8' alt='' class='zemanta-pixie-img'/></div></div>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-15452833634778531402009-12-08T04:58:00.003+01:002009-12-08T05:17:05.469+01:00Minaret Moment 8/12 [EN]<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguohoffPM3LUhhdJXdpW5rDxpir2T9hf5BtgZNDcIaoYYHAxcvE5az1D-U6y-JqPpEQeUHeCrfq46VuN4-wRE-SvfbHSuS2OfNprJexMjBEI-ww2OmSuTP92hQ3movl02Gv-pr9g/s1600-h/us+Obama+100k+st-louis+8a20.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 207px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguohoffPM3LUhhdJXdpW5rDxpir2T9hf5BtgZNDcIaoYYHAxcvE5az1D-U6y-JqPpEQeUHeCrfq46VuN4-wRE-SvfbHSuS2OfNprJexMjBEI-ww2OmSuTP92hQ3movl02Gv-pr9g/s320/us+Obama+100k+st-louis+8a20.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5412711582167682354" border="0" /></a>I know, how difficult it is, to reply to self-conscious US opinionmakers when Europe is at stake.<br /><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><div align="left">Yesterday, the liberal New York Times published an opinion, called <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/opinion/07douthat.html?th&emc=th" target="_blank">Europe's Minaret Moment</a>, by somebody called Ross Douthat. He has read <b>Christopher Caldwell</b>, and thinks that he knows Europe. Comparing the genesis of the US to Europe's birth, he observes, that "a more perfect union" is far away from the manipulation by European "élites" to get a clean and workable constitution for the European Union. He couldn't be more right, when he chastises the European elites' disinterest in the difficulties that non-elite Europeans suffer at the actual economic season.<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Douthat:<br /></div><blockquote>If the more perfect union promised by the Lisbon Treaty is the European elite’s greatest triumph, the failure to successfully integrate millions of Muslim immigrants represents its greatest failure. And the two are intertwined: they’re both the fruits of the high-handed, often undemocratic approach to politics that Europe’s leaders have cultivated in their quest for unity.<br /></blockquote>Oh, how much you are right, Mister Right! I am sure, not any member of the European elite has seen the problems coming. Nor any member of the non-elite. We choose to treat the problem NOT as you treated the Indians, relegating them to reserves and poisoning them with alcohol and diseases. We choose to help them integrate into our societies. Most of the Muslims did. A tiny minority doesn't. Like some Muslims in the USA, if I am well informed. Your easy condemnation of an Europe that is just defining itself, doesn't help at all.<br />Sometimes I think that people like you and Mark Steyn (America Alone) are just loading upon Europe, what you feel to be missing in the US. Historically, your propositions are completely erroneous.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">On what it takes, to get a more perfect union</span><br />For: Pardon me, Mr. Bouthat, how many years were spoiled, before John Adams was able to convince Americans, that a "more perfect union" were attainable, only if Americans accepted to live together with "foreigners"?<br />Bouthat attacks an European elite, who imposed a peaceful Europe upon a population who would love to get rid of an immigant group, (Muslims), who seem to want independence and, finally, domination.<br />I am not convinced at all. I believe, that muslim immigrants in Europe will become "European", while safeguarding their own specificities. That is difficult for the people who have to live next to them, and I agree, that much more has to be done for those last mentioned. The European elites are aware of that. Much money and energy is invested.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">European elites are not as stupid as you think...</span><br />Is it enough? Is it efficient? No! But it is much more, than American "elites" did for Polish, Italian and Greek immigrants a century ago. Nevertheless, those populations integrated fully into the US society. Accidents on the road, like the Swiss Minaret ban, seem to block any solution to the European immigration problem. But European unity and peace are prevalent upon short term issues like the Swiss Minaret ban initiative. One, like me, may have a minority opinion on Muslim integration in Europe, without being a member of the "European elites". That is democracy, Mr. Bouthat!<br />More or less like the US solved their problem with the "unintegrated" blacks in the sixties, the European Union will go forward, tentatively, with its programs for integration. And it will succeed. In the end. Each racial clash has its solution.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Europe-bashing does not help</span><br />Bouthat's opinion joins a conservative trend that makes the European Union responsible for a sort of giving ib to terrorists. I see no reason for that. Switzerland is not a member of the EU. The OECD, of which the US is a member-state, will surely condemn an eventual Swiss minaret ban. The US are not only indebted to the Founding Fathers of 1787, but also to the winners of the Civil War of 1865. No slavery, no second-class citizens!<br />Anti-Islamic surges will take their toll. Roma and other minorities will suffer discrimination. But I guess that the people's commitment to liberty and equality, will take the upper hand, when it comes to decide about liberty and democracy. If political elites work to create the right conditions for that, they are doing what should be expected from them.<br /><br /></div>Technorati Tags: <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/US" class="performancingtags">US</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/European%20Union" class="performancingtags">European Union</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/New%20York%20Times" class="performancingtags">New York Times</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Imigration" class="performancingtags">Imigration</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Islam" class="performancingtags">Islam</a><br /><br /><div class="zemanta-pixie"><img src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=fb815dd9-9584-8873-8d85-db48ac4f16bb" alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" /></div></div>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10992808.post-10268174184349619072009-10-14T05:12:00.004+02:002009-10-14T05:19:35.468+02:00London must allow Wilders' racist Agitation?<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="full-image-float-left ssNonEditable"><span><img src="http://huibslog.huibs.net/storage/wilderts.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1255485244784" alt="" /></span></span><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">February 2009, British Government did the right thing. They did not allow Geert Wilders to come on British soil in order to spread his venomous ideas under the umbrella of the anti-European UKIP party.</p> <p>Blocking an elected representative from a befriended country is indeed exceptional. But in my view, British Government set an example of integrity, ashaming Dutch Parliament, that allows a no-membership "party" to agitate on racial issues. Most parties in Holland, exception made for the left liberal D66 group as well as for the "Green-Left", are stuck like rabbits in the headlights of a Mercedes, not knowing what to do about this utterly un-Dutch Wilders movement.</p> <h3>Wilders is jubilating</h3> <p>The London Immigration Court, in condemning yesterday the UK Government decision concerning Wilders' dangerous upsetting of public order, put itself on the accommodating Chamberlain (1938) line. I hope that the UK Government will oppose that decision and continue in a more Churchillian line, blocking continental follies and preserving democracy and humanism in Europe as a whole.</p> <p>But, for the moment, Wilders is jubilating. "Esther", editor of "Islam in Europe", gives Wilders full steam, in citing The Guardian:</p> <blockquote> <p>The far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders intends to travel to London next week after an immigration tribunal ruling overturned a ban on visiting Britain.</p> <p>The Home Office said it was disappointed after the tribunal rejected its claim that his presence could "inflame community tensions and lead to inter-faith violence".</p> <p>The Freedom party leader immediately announced his intention to meet Ukip's Lord Pearson of Rannoch to discuss a showing of his anti-Islamic film Fitna later this month in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/lords">House of Lords</a>.</p> <p>Judge CMG Ockelton, who chaired the tribunal, said that Wilders's opinions were expressed strongly and in a way that was bound to cause offence but that the right of freedom of expression was important in a democratic society.</p> <p>"Substantial evidence of actual harm would be needed before it would be proper for a government to prevent the expression and discussion of matters that might form the opinions of legislators, policy makers and voters," he said.</p> <p>The ruling said there had been no evidence of public order problems or damage to community relations as a result of a previous visit by Wilders to Britain.</p> <p>"It was more important to allow free speech than to take restrictive action speculatively," said Ockelton.</p> <p>The judgment goes further, saying that even if there were evidence that Wilders posed a threat to public order it would still not have been necessary to ban him because the police would have been able to ensure no disorder took place and remove him if there was trouble.</p> <p>The decision to ban Wilders was taken under regulations introduced in 2006 which allow the exclusion of those who represent "a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society".</p> <p>Wilders, who faces trial in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/netherlands">Netherlands</a> for discrimination and inciting hatred, was turned back at Heathrow in February when the then home secretary, Jacqui Smith, banned him from entering Britain. He had been coming for a screening in the Lords of his film which calls the Qur'an a "fascist book". Smith said his presence had the potential to "threaten community harmony and therefore public safety".</p> <p>Wilders said the ruling was a victory for freedom of expression and claimed Smith's decision had been politically motivated.</p> <p>The politician was represented in the case by a British Muslim barrister, Arfan Khan, and the costs of just under £10,000 were funded by the Birkenhead Society, which "encourages free speech" and marks British Empire Memorial Day.</p> <p>The Home Office said it would decide whether to appeal in due course.</p> </blockquote> <h3>The problem is Dutch, and, more specifically, political, not juridical</h3> <p>The weak and accommodating stand of the Dutch parliamentarian majority does not help at all. In January 2010 an Amsterdam high court, on its own initiative, will decide, if Wilders' actions are "hate-mongering" or not. This is a task, Parliament itself should have undertaken. The Social-Democrats, labeled by Wilders as "Sharia-Socialists", should have taken him to court immediately. For Wilders stated unambiguously in his "Fitna" movie, that in his view, the Sharia is fascist.</p> <p>But no mainstream political party in Holland dares to move. With the Christian Democrat main Government Party it is still worse: It keeps open the possibility of governing with the undemocratic Wilders club.</p> <h3>The debilitating consequences of letting an odd maverick steal the elections</h3> <p>Wilders participated in the June European elections. Only to send a delegation to Strasbourg and Brussels, that has no mission at all. He stole a third of the Dutch representation in the EP, weakening the impact of his country on crucial European issues, crucial for the Netherlands, too, only to cash the money that he cannot have from membership fees, as his "party" has no members except himself.</p> <p>Like all developed EU-members, Holland should make democratic rules for the internal organization and the financing of parties allowed to participate in the vote. Minister of the Interior Guusje Ter Horst has done nothing, so far. Wilders is getting money from neo conservative sources in the US. He could upset the whole European process, like the Irish tycoon Decan X did last year, provoking an Irish "No" to the Lisbon Treaty. I am sad at the idea, that Holland could be mobilized against the European construction, like Chechia, Poland, and other American-sponsored entities are.</p> <p>To conclude: Of Course, the final solution of the Dutch identity crisis is not with a London Court. Dutch democratic, anti-authoritarian, traditions should be mobilized against the populist danger.</p> <p><strong>But, who dares to face the challenge in the Low Countries?</strong></p>Huib Riethofhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14377762382669163829noreply@blogger.com1