A quote from Dick Armey in The Washington Times, 5 October 2006

Apple recently ran into a buzzsaw in France over iTunes, and other European nations smell blood in the water. The European Union has blocked the merger of American companies such as GE and Honeywell and Sprint and MCI, and Microsoft has been under constant fire for its products in Europe. The problem is not that consumers are being harmed; rather, the problem is that European firms do not like the competition.

Since last Sunday’s local elections in Belgium more than one fifth (21.8%) of the municipal councillors in Brussels, the capital of Europe, are immigrants of non-European origin. Most of them are Muslims, and most of them have been elected as Socialists. The non-European immigrants vote overwhelmingly Socialist, owing to the fact that many of them are rentseekers who migrated to Western Europe attracted by the subsidies of its generous welfare states. The immigrants have become the electoral life insurance of European Socialism.

In March 2006, the two-day plenary session of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, held in Brussels approved a resolution which “condemned the offence” caused by the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad as well “as the violence which their publication provoked.” These MEPs and national MPs from the EU and Arab countries also urged governments to “ensure respect for religious beliefs and to encourage the values of tolerance, freedom and multiculturalism.”

In last March’s local elections in the Netherlands the immigrant vote tipped the balance in favour of the Socialists. The same phenomenon marked yesterday’s local elections in Belgium’s major cities. In Antwerp the Socialists became the largest party. They jumped from 19.5% to 35.3% of the votes, winning 22 of the 55 seats in the municipal council – a gain of ten seats. Seven of the Socialist councillors, almost one third of the total, are Muslim immigrants: Fatma Akbas, Karim Bachar, Ouardia El Taghdouini, Youssef Slassi, Fauzaya Talhaoui, Güler Turan, and Sener Ugurlu. Six of the seven are new in politics.

Last month a Swiss referendum approved one the strictest immigration bills in Europe. The fact that immigrants are not welcome in the Alpine republic does not imply, however, that their money is not welcome. Last week the Swiss authorities granted a banking licence to Faisal Private Bank. The Geneva based bank will be the first in Switzerland to operate according to Islamic law (Sharia) principles. The latter prohibit usury, the collection and payment of interest, trading in financial risk, women opening bank accounts without their husband’s approval, etc. Sharia products also cannot be invested in companies involved in gambling, alcohol, tobacco, pornography and the production of pork.

A quote from The Sunday Telegraph, 8 October 2006

The Church of England […] claims that divisions between communities have been deepened by the Government’s “schizophrenic” approach to tackling multiculturalism. While trying to encourage interfaith relations, it has actually given “privileged attention” to the Islamic faith and Muslim communities.

A quote from Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.
Don John’s hunting, and his hounds have bayed –
Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid.
Gun upon gun, ha! ha!
Gun upon gun, hurrah!
Don John of Austria
Has loosed the cannonade.
[...] Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!
[...] Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.

Why is it that Turkey is still unable to recognise the atrocities committed against the Armenians? Furthermore, why is it that the EU is entirely antagonistic towards the idea of Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, recognising their genocidal past? Last July, I reported to The Brussels Journal on the unjust suppression of the freedom of expression in Turkey. The most high-profile case pertained to the trial of Turkish novelist, Orhan Pamuk in December 2005 after the author had claimed in a Swiss newspaper that 30,000 Kurds and one million Ottoman Armenians were killed in Turkey yet nobody in the Turkish population would dare talk about it. The trial was dismissed by the Turkish Ministry of Justice at the beginning of 2006.

A quote from The London Evening Standard, 5 October 2006

Extra police are being drafted into the Windsor area today after three nights of violent clashes between white and Asian youths. Gangs have fought battles in the streets using baseball bats and pitchforks. A Muslim-run dairy which wants to build a mosque was petrol bombed. [...] The Queen usually spends weekends at Windsor Castle and no decision has yet been taken over whether she would change her plans. A senior source said: “We are aware of what is happening and all appropriate security measures are in place.”

[...] Earlier this week the Queen gave permission to convert a room at Windsor castle into a prayer room. The room in the Saxon Tower allows Nagina Chaudhry, who works in the castle gift shops, to carry out the halfhour lunchtime prayer which is required of all Muslims during Ramadan.

In the ninth century, a monk in Cordoba, Perfectus, was confronted by a Muslim mob. The mob put a simple question to him – who was the greater Prophet, Jesus or Muhammad? To deny Jesus would be to surrender his faith; to deny Muhammad would have meant an instant beheading by law. In answer to the question, Perfectus launched a violent attack on Muhammad, denouncing and debasing the Prophet’s character and principles. Although Perfectus won himself a rapid execution, he quickly became one of the “greatest” Christian martyrs of his time.