Caught on tape

The campaign by "Danish" imams against the country they live in has taken a new turn. French journalist Mohamed Sifaoui, who earlier infiltrated an al Qaeda cell in France, this time took it upon himself to infiltrate the scene around the Danish imams. In a program that airs tonight on French TV station France 2, he shows how the imams are conducting an aggressive campaign against opponents in the press and, not the least, the new organisation Democratic Moslems. There especially seems to be a violent hate for the latter and their chairman Naser Khader, MP for the Radicals. According to Jyllands-Posten, the central passage in the program is a scene filmed with hidden camera in the back of a cab, where Ahmed Akkari, the spokesman for the imams on their ME journey, says the following about him:

"If he becomes minister for foreigners or integration, shouldnt we send to guys over to blow up him and his ministry,"

Ahmad Akkari isnt exactly new to violence. He has earlier advocated kicking moslem girls who don wear a veil, and was himself convicted of beating up a small boy while he was a teaching assistant.

Henrik

How the moslem inventors changed the world - or did they?

I actually wanted to pass this by, since it has nothing to do with Denmark, but what the heck - its a slow newsday for Danish stuff I can blog.

You may or may not know, that The Independent recently ran an article on the exhibition "1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World" that is currently circulating in Great Britain. The Independent piece then nominated the 20 most important "moslem inventions". One problem, though:

Most of it is bogus.

For starters, you have to wonder why, to come up with 20 "influential inventions", the exhibition needs to include the 3-course-meal, coffee and chess. Then there is the fact, that legitimate doubts can be raised about 11 of them, and that none of them seem to have been made in the last 500 years.

Fausta (via Gates of Vienna and Filtrat) already picked apart 10 of the "inventions" (numbers 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18 and 20), to which I can add no 1: coffee. As the Independent story goes:

1 The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry.

The problem with this story is, that it is a lie. There are no arabs in Kaffa, and indeed the arab myth about coffee is about a goatherder in Yemen. In Kaffa - where coffee is originally from - it was christian ethiopian monks that made the discovery. Also by goat, btw.

Then there are the small, annoying comments meant to debase non-moslems. Example:

5 ... One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash.

....which is part of the moslem superiority complex. Like stories are passed around by lots of other medieval moslems to put down non-moslems. When an arab traveller ran into a band of vikings in Russia, he fex in much detail described how their daily morning hygiene consisted in passing around a vessel of water, in which they all in turn washed and blew their noses.

The stories were then propagated during the renaissance to put down that filthy period in between the Antique and its re-birth (Re-naissance).

Henrik

Concentrated idiocy - and proof that "Danish moslems" are not that Danish

Large parts of the Danish industrial and agricultural elite have utterly disgraced themselve following the moslem boycot of Danish goods. For quite a few of them, prophet has seemed to rhyme with profits, and they have only been too happy to rip into PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen for his handling of the entire affair.

Others are merely blind, and refuse to see that this crisis is a confrontation between two civilizations. Peter Gæmelke, president of the Agricultural Council, is one of them. From TV2 (under the headline "Happy moslems wanted", no less):

Happy Danish moslems have to enter the playing field to tell their co-believers in moslem countries, that they like living in Denmark. So thinks president of the Agricultural Council, Peter Gæmelke.

Gæmelke hopes for a diplomatic solution to the Mohammed-crisis soon.

But alongside the work of the government and foreign ministry, there is a need for the 95 per cent of the moslems of Denmark who according to Peter Gæmelkes estimate are happy to be here, to say so so loudly it can be heard in the Middle East.

The very same day that Gæmelke dreamt up these 95 per cent, a new oppinion poll among "Danish" moslems was released totally destroying it:

The poll also shows, that 11 per cent fully understand (Danish meaning connotes sympathy for - Henrik) the flag burnings, embassy-destructions and boycots. And that only two per cent in the current situation see themselves as Danes, while 53% see themselves more as moslems.

UPDATE:

The above-linked story has been updated with reactions from a number of politicians. Minister for Integration, Rikke Hvilshøj:

- Those who fully understand the actions in the Middle East might consider, whether Denmark is the right place for them to live in, says Rikke Hvilshøj.

The leader of the Socialist People´s Party cant understand, that religion trumps everything to some people, and that his favorite victim group doesnt feature all the right views:

- Many refugees and immigrants have come to Denmark, because they have been squeezed out of religious regimes like Iran or secular regimes like the Iraqi. I find it completely incomprehensible, that freedom of speech doesnt mean more to them, he says.

Dhimmi-hood in its purest form

In Denmark, the Mohammed-affair has brought into the open in its purest form what so far only some rightwing pundits dared to say: that large parts of our intellectual elite are sellouts when it comes to standing up to totalitarian ideologies - or religions. While for example the international organisation of authors PEN has come out solidly on the side of free speech during the whole Mohammed affair, the Danish authors have been quite a bit more lukewarm. Some, on the contrary, have asked for self-censorship when it comes to moslems claiming hurt feelings.

And example of this Dhimmi-hood came in its purest form during a televised debate about free speech during the Mohammed-affair, with among other Liberal spokesman Jens Rohde (invited as representative for the government) and author Ib Michael. After it was mentioned, that free speech in Denmark is only limited by two laws, one on blasphemy and one on racism, Ib Michael squeezed out this nugget (video link), directed at Jens Rohde:

If you aim to be consistent in what you say, then you have to remove those laws. Then free speech is unlimited, and we are approaching the totalitary state. I dont assume that is what you are dreaming about

Free speech leads to a totalitarian state. Need I say that he has lost whatever credibility he had before in Denmark?

Cyberwar in Denmark

It has been some time since I blogged on the continuing cyber-war on Denmark. Let me make good on that by blogging a piece of an editorial in the Danish paper Ekstra Bladet that appeared 4 days ago (sorry, no link. The one I had now hosts another editorial):

Modern technology has created new fronts, when wars are fought. Thus Ekstra Bladets section kriminalen today reports, that more than 3000 Danish computers have been hacked by moslem fanatics since the Mohamed-crisis broke out.

By far the most computers have been hit solely because they are Danish. The attacks can to a degree be prevented by upgrading the computers´ security systems, but to win over the extremist hackers is hardly possible.

It is a whole other matter with another example of the use of the internet when the message of hate is to be spread.

Today Ekstra Bladet can also reveal, that the terror organisation al-Qaida and the terror leader Abu Zarqawi spread their propaganda via a website.

A website, that is osted on a server in the middle of Copenhagen...

Needless to say, PET (The internal intelligence bureau in Denmark) is looking into the matter.

A minute of silence, please.

In the whirl of things happening in our lives this saturday, let us not forget that today is the 2-year anniversary of the moslem bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid in 2004. 190 people from 16 different nations died that day. Let one stand for all when you consider their death and who brought it about:

María Jesús Macías Rodríguez, a 30-year-old spaniard, was commuting to work when moslem terrorists killed her.

A minute of silence, please

Egypt is aching

Leftwing Danish paper Politiken thursday reported, how Egypt is aching under the drop in numbers of western tourists following the moslem boycot of Denmark. Apparently, Egypt is seeing a 20 to 25% drop in numbers of tourists from western Europe. Among Scandinavian tourists, the drop is 20 to 30%.

According to Politiken, Egyptian tourist attache in Denmark, Ibrahim Khalil, receives a daily torrent of letters, emails and telephone calls from egyptian hotels and tourist agencies pleading with im to bring back the Scandinavians.

I cant speak for my fellow Danes, but as to me, Im all out of compassion for the Egyptians´ plight.

Henrik

Democratic Moslems

One of the outcomes of the Mohammed controversy is, that Radical MP Naser Khader with a number of other moslem immigrants formed the organisation Democratic Moslems, with ambitions to go international at a later time.

As such a commendable initiative, if only more moslems actually chose to sign up. According to the last numbers mentioned in the press, the organisation had 900 members out of an estimated 200-250.000 moslems in the country.

Another thing I dont know what to think about is, that its "support-members" - non-moslems - are 13 times as numerous. In effect, moslems are a minority in their own organisation. They themselves acknowledge, that they dont have a majority of Danish moslems behind them.

One wonders what part of the organisation´s name that holds them back. "Democratic" or "Moslems".

UPDATE:

One additional detail about Democratic Moslems: despite the avowed non-political nature of the organisation, the opposition Social Democrats tried to get their members in it to present a solidt front, making it a mouthpiece for Social Democrat policy. It didnt work - the immigrant social democrats turned the suggestion down.

Welfare fraud among immigrants

As I reported earlier, a city councilman from the city I live in has opened up a discussion of an apparently propensity of some immigrants to take advantage of the the generous social benefits Denmark provides those in need. An earlier case in the same city make that clear, too (from DR):

More than a third of immigrant women on unemployment benefits in Odense are continually calling in sick, which has a detrimental effect on their education in Danish, job training and job offers, says Berlingske Tidense (a Danish Paper - Henrik).

But a pilot project has turned up, that of 20 women who called in sick, 17 turned up quite well after an investigation.

A survey from last year points out, that in the vicinnity of 30-40 per cent of the unemployed immigrant women are calling in sick.

More nurses

More from the aforementioned study on the experiences Danish nurses have with immigrant patients:

They are called hookers, spat at and treated as helps. Those are some of the more aggravating examples of, that nurses feel discriminated against by patients of immigrant backgrounds in Danish hospitals.

One in four nurses in a new study that Sygeplejersken has done in cooperation with the analytical firm Catinét, that they inside the last couple years have experiences, that an immigrant patient has actedin a discriminatory fashion towards them.

Almost as many nurses have seen colleagues being discriminated against by patients of immigrant backgrounds.

And among nurses that at least once a week are in contact with immigrant patients, more than a third feel discriminated against.

According to the nurses, the biggest reason is lack of respect for female health personnel.

Explains one nurse:

"As nurse in charge of distributing patients among hospitals, you are on a daily basis subjected to verbal assault by especially male immigrants. We are often called whores and are told that we are racist when we ask them to wait. Of physical assaults, the immigrant group account for 100 per cent in my ER."

Writes one nurse:

"If you point out that rules and routines are not being adhered to, immigrants think you are racist."

In some cases, discrimination is based on prejudices or lacking knowledge, one nurse thinks.

"I have experiences on mother hiding her infant from me because I have blue eyes. I wasnt allowed to see the child."

Some nurses dont think that their job is being appreciated by immigrant patients. They behave as if nurses are maids, it is said.

"Because I am a woman, I was ordered to rub the feet of a male patient," explains one nurse.

From the usual suspects come apologia en masse - after all, its society´s fault, not the chauvinists´. Explains an anthropologist:

"If the male ethnic minority patient feels cornered or under pressure, the reaction can come in the form of a counter-attack. As a nurse you are not supposed to put up with that, but it is important to keep in mind, that the rage can be frustration over feeling inferior. That is why this probably is more about the low status of immigrants in society than about their view on the sexes," says Anette Sonne-Nielsen.

Sure. That is why male nurses are forced to rub the feet of female immigrants, too.

Sheesh!

Nurses: immigrant patients are a drag

One of the larger stories in late january (of course overshadowed by the Mohammed-affair) was, that a study found 80% of nurses to have had problems with immigrant patients. From DR:

Eight in ten nurses in daily contact with immigrant patients in the Danish hospitals, have had problems attending to patients of immigrant backgrounds over the last year.

That is what a new study, done by the trade (as in learning a trade - Henrik) magazine Sygeplejersken ("The Nurse" - Henrik).

In the study, done by Sygeplejersken in cooperation with Catinét (an oppinion poll firm - Henrik), 2000 nurses working in Denmarks hospitals have been questioned about their meeting ethnic patients ("Ethnic" is the Danish elite´s phrase for non-Danes - Danes apparently arent ethnic Danes - Henrik) ..

746 nurses, making up a representative section, have replied. The replies are uniform in their message: language barriers, a cultural divide and different views on sickness make it hard to nurse immigrant patients.

Nurses in the study describe immigrants and their kin as: "time-robbers, resource-intensive, aggressive and noisy. They have no respect for the routines of the hospitals. they dont understand Danish. And they spread out their prayer mats all over."..

(consider which religion uses prayer mats, btw - Henrik)

A nurse writes in the questionnaire:

- A male Danish-speaking patient defecated on the floor, leaving it
so we could clean up after him. He thought it was our problem, since we didnt provide a "hole-in-the-ground-toilet".

Nine in ten of the nurses answering the study thing, the reason for the
problems is language barriers. ..

Among he nurses not seeing immigrant patients as a larger strain than patients with a Danish background, half thing that they on the contrary make work more interesting. At the same time they are the nurses that indicate that they dont have contact to this group of patients often.

Norwegian schools less and less Norwegian

Im currently cleaning my inbox of stories I didnt get around to report back in january and february. So for the next couple postings, you are going to have to do with "news" that isnt quite "new", but that still didnt make it into the international press.

First off this one from Nsvt.se, on the school situation in Norway:

The share of studenst with a native tongue other than Norwegian has
increased rapidly in the schools of Oslo. In 32 of the city´s 142 schools,
minority groups are in the majority.

In the space of four years, the share of schools where students with a
native tongue other than Norwegian has doubled.

In Vahl school in eastern Oslo, only four per cent of the students
have Norwegian as their mother tongues, says Dagsavisen.

In western Oslo the piture is the opposite, with students with Norwegian as
their mother tongue making up solid majorities. Only 2.4 per cent have a
different mother tongue.

The de-Swedification of Sweden takes another step

Another story from multiculturalistic Sweden: The Swedish government consisting of social democrats has managed, along with its semi-communist ally Vänsterpartiet to field a law that makes Swedish only the "main" language in Sweden.

While the rightwing opposition gained the support from the social democratic governments other ally, Miljöpartiet, a foulup during voting on the law meant that it passed.

This again means, that the only country in the world that has Swedish as its official language (along with Finnish) is Finland.

Copenhagen: immigrant youths dominate group of young offenders

According to the paper BT, the group of young offenders (ie. below 18 years of age) araigned in front of Copenhagen city court has reached an all-time high (a whopping 130). From the paper:

- It is absolutely unacceptable, that we are heading in the wrong
direction, says chief inspector Per Larsen from the Copenhagen police
department.

One in nine people brought in for preliminary examination was below 18
years of age. ..

The new statistic underlines, that young immigrants are more troubled than
young danes. Only one in four of the 130 youths had a Danish background.

Swedish police - now also with turbans

From Sweden comes the next step in multiculturalism (admitedly borrowed in England): Swedish police are now free to attire themelves with all sorts of colourful ethnic attire - turbans, scarfs and yarmulkes. An example (though no turban - from svt.se):

The Koran reported to the German police

Things are heating up in Germany. According to Jyllands-Posten, a wide array of grassroots´ movements, organied in the Bundesverband der Bürgerbewegungen ((BdB - Federal Union og the Citizens´ Movements) has reported the Koran to the police, with an aim to get the law to stop its spread. The reasoning is, that the book is not just a religious and historical book, but a political one, outlining a path incompatible with the German contitution.

The BdB busies itself with, as it says, "defending basic and freedom rights" against islam. Their homepage is emblazoned with a Dannebrog (the Danish flag), with "Support Denmark! Defend the free world" above it.

The case has been brought to the polcie in several German states, at least in Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westfalia and Bavaria, and probably in more. Rightwing politicians have in several tv-talkshows pointed out, that the koran in reality is incompatible with the constitution.

The plaintiff (if that´s the word) in Hamburg, Jutta Starke, says that the case has been brought to the police´s attention 2-3 years ago already, but that it was dimissed as merely a historic book.

She ends thus: "The event of the last few monts have made clear, that the koran is not just a historical book, but a very potent political one, which we outline at length in our suit (if thats the word - Henrik)".

Henrik

Immigrants vote red

A recent poll among immigrants in Denmark with the right to vote had a quite startling result: 95%+ vote left-of-centre. The breakdown:

Unity List (communists): 7.2%
Socialist People´s Party (semi-communists): 19.0%
Social Democrats: 47.6%
Radicals: 21.4%

Left wing total: 95.2%

Liberals: 2.6%
Conservatives: 0.5%
Danish People´s Party: 1.2%

Right wing total: 4.3%

Given that a party needs 2% of the votes to come into parliament, the above means that the right wing would be represented by only 5 liberal MPs. The remaining 170 would be leftwingers (the 4 MPs from Greenland and the Faeroes not taken into account - they normally break evenly to the right or left, but have been known to be 3 leftos to one rightwinger).

Henrik

Given that

Rightwing surge across Scandinavia

Well, at least according to the polls.

Probably due to the case about the Mohammed drawings, rightwing parties now have majorities in all three Scandinavian countries according to a new poll. The majorities range from a razor-thin 50.1% in Norway over 53.7% in Denmark to 55.5% in Sweden. As Denmark and Norway both held elections last year, the results for both of these countries dont mean much. Those for Sweden look promising, though - there are national elections up later this year. Some background while Im at it:

In the case of Denmark, it is mainly a question of the Danish People´s Party having eaten another 4%-points of former Social Democrats. This is an ongoing process that has seen the DPP jump from 7.4% in 1998 to a bit over 17% in the most recent poll. At times, they have even approached 20%.

In Sweden, it is also a question of the Social Democrats hemorrhaging voters due to socialist misgovernment - the Social Democrats have had to buy the support of the communists (Vänsterpartiet) and environuts (Miljöpartiet). Since semi-soviet repression ranging from voter manipulation to the firing of potential candidates so far has kept a Swedish version of the immigration-sceptic Danish People´s Party emerging, angry SD voters are instead heading for more mainstream rightwing parties.

Like in Sweden, Norway also has a leftwing government, but in contrast to Sweden the communists and environuts are actually in the government. Compared to the election last year, the changes are mostly in that the DPPs Norwegian sister party, Fremskrittspartiet, is eating into the support base of the other rightwing parties. Otherwise, the rightwing majority is the same as at the election.

You might ask yourself why the Norwegian rightwing can have a majority at the election, but still a leftwing government. The answer is that Norway, much like the US, has an election system that gives more influence to the thinly settled regions. Thus the left wing with 48% of the votes got 87 MPs, while the right wing with 48.8% only got 82.

Henrik

The Rushdie-case: the eerie precedent

The Danish english-language blog Agora has for the benefit of the rest of the world translated an enormously interesting piece on the precedent to the Mohammed-drawing case that the Rushdie affair 17 years earlier was. I have to confess that all I remembered was Rushdie getting a death sentence from the Iranian mullahs over his book, but this article rolls the entire affair up, showing how it snowballed and ended with multiple assassinations and -attempts on people who worked with the book. An appetizer from The Satanic Precedent of the Muhammed Cartoons:

The debate now became hot in the media and on January 29, 1989, 8000 Moslems marched in London protesting Salman Rushdie and his book. At this point, the seriousness of the matter must have dawned on Salman Rushdie since he realeased a statement to the press in which he assured that he was a good Moslem and that he saw Muhammed as one of the great geniuses of world history. He also made clear that his book was not anti-religious. But to no avail. The monstrosities had only just commenced.

Enter Khomeini

In Islamabad in Pakistan 10000 people marched on the American Center on February 12, presumably to protest the upcoming release of The Satanic Verses in the USA. Shouting “American Dogs” and “Allah is Greater”, the mob tried to enter the Center with the purpose of torching it. A guard was killed, becoming one of six casualties that day. The Police crushed the demonstration and about 100 were injured. Rushdie accused the leaders of the demonstration of using the issue to further their own agenda and the United States Ambassador to Pakistan voiced his suspicion that Iranian or Libyan money financed the protestors.

Next day in Srinagar in India, one was killed and 60 injured during demonstrations. “That very night,” writes the Historian and Expert on the Middle East Daniel Pipes in his excellent book The Rushdie Affair, from which most of the examples in this article have been taken, “the matter was taken out of the hands of the protestors in the street and taken to the national, political, level.” That night Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had come to power through the Islamic Revolution in Iran 10 years earlier, decided to issue a death sentence to anyone connected to the dissemination of The Satanic Verses.

It remains to be hoped, that the parallels to the Rushdie case do not extend to some of them, or the later publishers, being killed. As is, several apparently rich moslems have poted bounties on the heads of either the artists who drew the Mohammed drawings, alternatively on those of Danish soldiers in Afghanitan.

Henrik

Moslems, bigamy and black economy

This blog was originally created to provide Danish news for the rest of the world. Given the enormous attention Denmark got over the Mohammed cartoons, and the speed with which other Danish english-language blogs turned up, and with which the larger American blogs created Danish networks for feeding them stories from Denmark, I actually considered closing down Viking Observer. But what the heck - I have an ego, too, so I might as well post a wee bit from time to time anyway. The following is from the city I live in, Odense, the fourth-largest city in Denmark. Even the left-of-centre Radicals have been rattled a bit by the Mohammed controversy, to the point where elements in the party have actually begun seeing problems with the current level of immigration to Denmark (source, Fyens Stiftstidende):

Proforma-divorces aimed to squeeze as much money as possible out of the state, systematic bigamy and other social fraud is wide-spread among refugees and immigrants.

It is the radical councilman for the Social and Labor Market Administration in Odense Municipality, Erik Simonsen, who opens with the controversial attacks on refugees and immigrants in an oppinion peace in Stiftstidende today. ..

- There are men, who circulate between different women in the town, to whom they are islamically married, but divorced from under Danish law. The flock of children gets bigger and bigger, and since there is no dad to pay, the public has to, says Erik Simonsen. ..

- Im talking about proforma divorces, and about children that are sent for re-education in their home countries, but where child benefits are payd out nevertheless. This is outright speculation in social benefits, says the councilman. ..

- It is especially a question about refugees and immigrants. They excuse themselves that it is part of their culture, when they are pressured. And then nobody does anything about it, says Erik Simonsen. ..

But also self-employed immigrants cheat the state, claims the councilman:

- 80 per cent of the immigrant economy in Odense is black (ie, not paying taxes).

UPDATE:

Gert Bjerregaard, councilman for the Social and Employment administration in Århus, the second-largest city of Denmark, confirms that the picture is much the same there.