Update MfFE

This report from Patrick Goodenough at Townhall.com underlines the urgent need for a campaign in support of Free Expression:

"Islamic groups and governments are pressing ahead with a campaign to have international organizations take steps, including legal ones, to provide protection for their religion in the wake of the Mohammed cartoon controversy. In a drive pursued largely away from the headlines, the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) is promoting the issue at the United Nations and European Union, and having some success.

The executive council of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) this month approved an agenda item entitled ‘respect for freedom of expression, sacred beliefs, values and religious and cultural symbols.’ Introduced by more than 30 Islamic states and the subject of considerable debate, the motion explicitly tied freedom of expression to ‘respect for cultural diversity, religious beliefs and religious symbols.’...The UNESCO move is just the latest illustration of the way the OIC and its 56 member states are using the cartoon episode to apply pressure on the West to comply with Islamic norms… In another development, it was reported last week that E.U. bureaucrats are drawing up a ‘lexicon’ of terminology to use when referring to Islam. Words like ‘Islamist’ and ‘jihad’ are under review, as is the phrase ‘Islamic terrorism.’"

WHO are the governments going along with the religious protection angle? WHY is it being organised away from public arena? WHY are the press, big blusterers on press freedom whenever their lurid personal exposes are challenged, so silent again?

The MfFE is in the process of being well reorganised. Regional groups are being sought outside London. How about globally folks?

Also - Peter (Voltaire who set up the MfFE blog) is being challenged to a debate at the Oxford Debating Society on May 3rd. With the usual hotair Ismaeel who heads up the Muslim Global Civility blog is suggesting two rooms be booked to accommodate the huge numbers 'on his side' he expects to turn up. Nicely put!

"The room booked at the moment is the Miles Room in St Peter'sCollege, which apparently seats up to 40 people. We have advised the Oxford Secular Society to book a larger room as we have a large demand from people to attend on our side . Starting time will be 7.30pm. Speaking for the MAC will be Shaykh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, his second has yet to be confirmed. As far as we are aware Peter Risdon will be speaking to oppose the motion'

Oh and the motion?

"The House proposes that Free Expression be regulated by the Proclamation of Global Civility"

Ooooookay.

(I wish i could tell you Peters hilarious response to this as the meeting a week ago but better not)

Racist Attack.


All week long this story has been quietly bobbing along in the background over at Sky where noone has mentioned any racial motivation or suspected it (even after the down played riots last year).

Finally it makes an appearance over at the hallowed BBC today.

Quite simply. If a white man had firebombed that shop, all hell would have broken loose. Such a ferocious and gruesome FIREBOMBING attack is not anywhere near the magnitude of the Anthony Walker axe murder?? It doesnt even make the main headlines. This story has actually been festering since April 14. Go figure.

'I predict a Junta'

Wow.

So this week the government accidentally releases 900 or so foreign rapists, murderers and dealers into society instead of deporting them. Prescott has an affair. His lover sells her revolting story to the Mail. Yuck. Meanwhile Blair doesnt crumble, doesnt falter, plays it nice n cool (Trigger). Credit where its due.

Its at moments like this I actually do believe in the Latin American way – stage a junta, screw democracy. Even Churchill admitted democracy was only the best of a crummy bunch. And it worries me when I wonder round Tescos and see all the open mouthed, blinged up, gum chewing morons, able, if they were absolutely arsed to do so, to cast that crucial vote and screw me out of getting a foothold on the property ladder. Again. I almost dont mind them half so much as the champagne socialists with two mortages, a Georgian terraced number and the option of when they retire, lecturing me about how hard done by all the illegals are.

We could USE a good JUNTA after whats happened in the UK this week.

Id like to be Adam Sandler right now in his new movie where he gets a nifty remote control for use in everyday life - fast foward the lurid affair details at least. I dont want to know!!!!

What with that and the fact that bloody Rooney's broken his bloody foot and is OUT of the bloody WORLD CUP. (truer sentiments expressed at Drinking from Home where the news broke)

Seriously. Im in the mood for a good junta. Bring it on.

Conspiracy hits the Big Screen again

Conspiracy Film Rewrites Sept. 11.

Just when you think the film industry will allow some of history to reach audiences quite respectfully through United 93 .

(which i've seen and think IS worth paying to see), in studentville USA, Christian Pecaut, 25, a Stanford graduate is busy successfully promoting a 9/11 conspiracy film at the University of California.

A film that says, among other things, that the Pentagon was hit by a cruise missile fired by the military as an excuse to go to war.

The curiously named 'Loose Change' is "catchy, hip," with an "upbeat soundtrack." (Of course. They are students after all).

Oh and guess what. Its being exported outside the US where small theatres are already willing to take it on and show it. It’s playing in Soho for example. Actually, that’s not really a small theatre. That is likely to be an achingly hip underground type theatre, the type Soho is famous for, which will mean fair few students and Guardian readers rock up to see it. I could find out where and start throwing rotten veg (you know you could rely on me to turn up with a placard 'I see Dumb People/Moonbats') - except id have to pay to see it.

"This is our generation's Vietnam, our generation's Kennedy assassination," says the very ‘simple’ and ‘deviant’, Korey Rowe, 23, the film's producer.

"It's been breaking like nobody's business the last two months," says Taub, 36, who is sponsoring a showing Tuesday night in Oakland. "It's all over the place."

“The film appears especially popular among young people immersed in a Web culture brimming with sites that question the credibility of government. They see 9/11 as the defining moment of their lives.”

And so they should. Its just a shame they have chosen to pursue such a warped and unnecessary context to view it in.

Aaron Williams, a senior at Texas A&M University and president of the philosophy club, actually believes the film.

"Government is corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," he says. Clearly unaware that the same applies to the film.

I think Ill agree with Clifton Bryant at the Virginia Tech University. People believe in conspiracy theories because the truth "is either too simple or too remote," The sociologist has made a study of "deviant logic" and behaviour. "We're always ready to believe something about which we know nothing," he says. Yep.

Anyway. With crap like this, Michael Moore's offerings and many others, the US exports its own all too special brand of rabid anti Americanism extremely well, all on its own. Nothing portrays American culture and belief in itself as well as film.

It’s a pity such a piece of crap like this is allowed to do the rounds, alongside United 93, even if it is ‘underground’. Underground will reach a core student audience here. All we need.

Jack Idema Update

Jack Idema Blogburst


Acts of Aggression had a really interesting post up covering the blogburst this week. It touched on the peculiarly unhealthy interest in Cao from bloggers not so keen on the Jack campaign. The guy's currently banged up in Afghanistan for chrissakes. It couldnt get much worse. Attacking someone so nastily for choosing to support him and his return to the US strikes me as a little bit ODD.

You can also link to Michael Yons site.

Tagged

I got tagged by Alice. New to me tagging. Hmmm. Dig out some weird facts about yourself. OK. I havent had time to put up a proper post of late as its been busy at work so here goes.

I was raised a Polish catholic (Polish on my dads side) and massively influenced by my mother an Englishwoman, feminist, atheist. I had a fantastic childhood and upbringing as a result of these influences.

Im mad about London. I experienced the full wild and wacky days of London at the start and height of the music scene in the 90s with my sister - who now lives and works in the US (and whom I miss madly). We chased the most incredible raves & parties around town and the burbs. Ive met some amazing characters I can tell you & I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Last year Sean Ryder kicked me out of a club for telling him his mixing sucked. Bit rich.

I once saw the Shuttle take off in Florida. It knocked me for 6 & I blubbed like an idiot (i was mad about Space as a kid)

The “Dan!” scene in Alan Partridge, every single episode of “Spaced” in one sitting and anything Cartman says ..(to name but a few) are my best antidote to a bad day at work or unexpected run in with a moonbat or one of Kens buses. I love to laugh and frequently do -at anything- as i walk to work (bit like a loon).

I once had to look after several senior US military personnel at a party. If I ever become a US citizen* I now have an open and champagne-genuine invitation to serve as a Marine. There’s something to be said for mixing ME with champagne and letting me loose on the military topic that came up at the party. (None of the boys at the party chimed in though, they looked on in shock - and when we left one of them said “a week ago you didn’t really know what an RPG was, did you – I dunno - someone gives you a copy of Mark Bowden..”). Not true, i do! Though Mark did help.

* Don’t worry I wont join the enormous queue. They wouldnt let me ;) Plus im happy where i am.

Ive had a cup of tea with a rather famous & gorgeous footballer. I can confirm he IS sexy, funny and charming. Lets hope his football skills are up to scratch in June. They will be if the News of the World STAY AWAY. I hate that paper. Last fact.

Slowly but surely its wake up time

I should update on the Free Expression meeting on Saturday. Gathered in a room, an old library in fact, under the watchful gaze of Voltaire no less..central London. Hatched a sort of plan about taking the free speech issues from the rally a month ago to 'the next level'. It seems like a very serious group, a very mixed group aswell. Its not often i find myself surrounded by socialists with the odd right winger. But lets face it the left are the agitators, the real do-ers.

Diverse mix of very useful skills for the cause with some excellent big ideas to take us forward.

We discussed what we view as our notion of free speech - are there any boundaries? Only incitement to violence imho. What our possible next steps would be. Very exciting i think.

And then i signed up to what sounds like a lot of hard work with the potential to really drive the message home. I even kind of, sort of, understood Peters position on the cartoons at the rally. (Im still glad people turned up with the cartoons though). He can see how wily the 'opposition' are, watching our every move. Its going to take some very smart strategy and posturing and he wanted this to get off the ground. Well it has.

More to follow on this as and when it develops.

I also enjoyed reading the Euston Manifesto over at Harrys Blog. Been circulating for a while now. Again the left are seeking action, doing something positive - and moving away from the poisonous elements in their ranks. This manifesto structured in Euston (North London) is a left wing charter aimed at fighting off anti americanism, seeing itself as pro interventionism with the aim of freedom for people where they are oppressed and the right to the values we all hold dear, they are pro the Iraq war (and have encountered fierce criticism as a result). I dont agree with all of it but id be much more inclined to listen to them than others on the left. I felt the same way about the meeting Saturday.

All together this all feels positive and encouraging. Moving in the right direction, pushed by a number of elements, including the blogosphere ;)

When will the Tories start to wake up. Chasing huskies and the green vote is either really really subtle and strategic or daft. Telling people, as Cameron has, to vote for any party but the BNP is plain ignorant and out of touch. No mention of 'Respect' when he was talking about parties you shouldnt vote for. Fascists are fascists Dave. And to totally misunderstand why people are moving in this extreme direction is baffling.

Multi culturalism, truly one of the biggest social policy failures ever.

Interesting times ahead.

"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word,which means more to me than any other. That word is ENGLAND." - Sir Winston Churchill



Of course the flag will take on a whole new meaning again in June. Here's Becks the infidel (a quarter jewish to boot) in front of the infidel flag.

Infidel Babe of the Week

One Nazanin for Another

National Review On Line


“Nazanin Afshin-Jam is not just another pretty face. This former Miss World Canada — 2003 runner-up to the Miss World pageant — who will have her first album out this summer, has much more on her mind than her music and her cosmetics bag. Nazanin is a native of Iran. She recently heard about a young woman — with whom she shares both a nativeland and a name — who has been sentenced to death in Iran for killing a man in self-defense when she and her niece were being assaulted (the men were trying to rape them). Nazanin has since adopted the cause of her namesake”

I doubt Amnesty will replace Guantanamo with Nazanin even for a short while when Nazanin doesn’t generate half as much money. But I can’t currently think of any other champion. Or one more unlikely. Forget the feminists on the precious left, they’re too busy bigging up Islam in the name of multi culturalism. If the magnificent Ayaan Hirshi cant get through on a general level somehow i dont think a former Miss World will do anything but raise an eyebrow here.

Nazanin, Miss Canada, represents the antithesis of everything Islam detests. Celebrating female form and beauty via Miss World is therefore ironically all the more appropriate.



****From last Sundays Drinking From Home this story needs a lot more publicity (why isnt it major news?)

"A British woman gang-raped by six Arab men is facing a new ordeal - being put on trial herself for having sex with her attackers.

The victim, a young air stewardess, was abducted and raped by the men in the tourist destination of Dubai.

But in a horrific legal twist, the victim is now facing prosecution because it is illegal to have sex with an Arab outside marriage under strict Sharia Law".

Still in France

Few more days yet.... Messin' around with a new camera. Look at the colour of that water. It's that azure blue colour all the year round. But after a long winter it always seems SOooo bright.

Union Jack


The Union Jack is 400 years old today. The MSM and PC handwringers kept the celebrations 'suitably' muted. They might have a problem with its history.

Well. Even if it incorporates the upstarts, I bloody well dont!

Not one single Empire driven Colonial second.

Jack Idema Update

This weeks Jack Idema update is direct from Caos blog, well worth a visit

Jack Idema Blogburst

I see Dumb People

You would think, wouldnt you, that when the kids from les banlieues for whom this now infamous French law was principally designed, rushed out, bored, jobless and full of Islam - and started beating the crap out of the student protestors that the students would get the message, would you not.

But no - those students, mums, dads and unions think theyve scored a decisive victory. For the peasants no less. LMAO.

So let me tell you:

Vous êtes foutu. Vous n'avez pas compris?

Ils se sont forcément fait une image de vous qui confine plutôt au super-loser, mes amis...

Europe and its leaders in turmoil

We needn't be feeling so smug:

Not Big - Not Clever

Of course until then London, fabulous capital of all things Evil & Anglo Saxon, single handedly propping up the rest of this country and Europe with its Evil Bastions of Capitalism, will continue to be no 1 destination for the same whinging French students opposed to 'casualisation'.

Im all for people who actually want to WORK. Obviously. But its at times like this id like to declare London fully independent and physically hacksaw round the edges, floating us out to sea. Just to prove a goddamn point. Jettisoning Ken Livingstone as we go.

Actually maybe we could just swap him for Sarkozy. I'd be happy with that.

Honestly Chirac, you meatball, bow out graciously now before you give the socialists anymore firepower.

Vive Londres.

Shamelessly poached from Scott Burgess at Daily Ablution

Just too funny:-

“In what looks like a bid to enter the crowded but rewarding grievance sector, Guardian fashion columnist Hannah Pool takes to the pages of today's G2

“It's open season on black women", the headline warns

read Its Open Season on black women

Scott continues:

“The gravity of the current crisis is illustrated by the "tone" of recent press coverage surrounding four specific individuals who've been victimised by this new racexist climate. They are:

• A Big Brother star
• An "educational entrepreneur" given a BBC television programme
• A fabulously wealthy supermodel
• The US Secretary of State

…. coverage of noted victim Condoleezza Rice's visit to the UK rounds out Ms. Pool's review of the "open season on black women". Even though she's "arguably the world's most dangerous woman" (although Ms. Campbell's maid may disagree), Ms. Rice is not immune to a stereotypical attack "as old as colonialism itself".

You see, by poking fun at Ms. Rice and Jack Straw (generally presenting them as a pair of awkward teenagers on a date), the racist press is complicit in "the sexualisation of black women as 'exotic'"”


Oh. Jesus Christ.

Anyhow previously you’d be left either laughing or crying with noone to share it with. Thanks to the blogosphere the Guardian then lets loose its open comments blog section for readers to post, their unmoderated feedback. Whereupon she is comically and mercilessly shot by both sides. A small selection:


“Tosh”

“Rubbish”

“Would the author like some cheese with that whine?”

“To be honest I sometimes worry about the quality of journalism in the Guardian and the best thing about Comment Is Free is that I think it shows just how bad it is really is”

“Oh what rubbish. (As a black woman) I have literally never heard such crap in my life”

“Is this a ****ing joke from Hannah Pool? Are we really supposed to sorry for a rightwing nutcase from America; a pampered, violent model; a sex-craxed reality show freak; and a woman whose child rearing techniques are dubious at best (I bet you that anything Beckles said didn't last for 5 minutes after the cameras stopped filming)....just coz dey is all black?? A lot of black women are stupid idiots...and I would add Hannah Pool to her own list”

“I congratulate Hannah Pool for highlighting the media’s pervasive, systematic stigmatisation of prominent black women; it was high time for a stand to be taken against this entirely imaginary, non-existent phenomenon. Ms Pool’s preoccupations (Big Brother, tabloid hacks, the antics of supermodels) are stultifyingly vulgar and trivial, and her sweeping generalisations embarrassingly bereft of substance. It is a notable achievement to fill a whole page of G2 with such relentlessly fatuous, cack-handedly contrived bilge. The racist bigots of the so-called ‘liberal’ white middle class will no doubt criticise her for all these things, but would that not simply serve to prove Ms Pool’s point? Does Ms Pool not have an equal right to fill the Guardian’s pages with dross, and thereby cause the reader to regret spending her/his 70p?”

I see Ken Livingstone is living out his fantasy in China. And whilst there he got all over excited and compared what happened in Tianamen Square to the poll tax riots in Trafalgar Square. The Mayor claimed Britain had its own ‘interesting history of protestors clashes’ and that there was a ‘very clear parallel’ citing the poll tax riots and Peterloo. Hmm, so, what because theyre both Squaaares…No you cant really follow that logic if you try. Fleeing activists being machine gunned in the streets in the twentieth century. A present Chinese government that still admires a leader responsible for 70 million deaths. None of this is really comparable to the 11 deaths at Peterloo in 1819 or even quite the same as 70,000 twits bellyaching about the poll tax and smashing up McDonalds in 1990. The poll tax was forced through by an unrelenting Thatcher (take note Villepin) but interestingly enough for all the bleating it was subsequently never actually dropped by Nu Labour and friends. Odd that. The protestors had moved onto trees at that point. And this is pretty much the same tax funding his Olympics fact finding jolly to China.

The Free Tibet campaign were quick to slam him along with other human rights activists “he is a man who claims to stand up for human rights, so it is shocking he can ignore violations like this…no freedom of religion, expression, press or access to information and torture is widespread” (Yael Weisc-Rind of Free Tibet). Well not really since Ken likes to think he can band about any old nonsense under the pretext of being a bit rad and then delude himself that he’s a righteous right-on protestor on a level with protestors in China. With obnoxious remarks to boot. When people protest against his crap buses he remarks that they need to get out more and have more sex. Anyway that’s bypassing the weird irony that free speech is on the way out in Britain and is also so far unremarked upon by Ken. Something actually worth him protesting about. Obviously he’s free to say anything there that’s as idiotic and insensitive as he likes. And he certainly is the gift that keeps on giving in that respect.

Failing miserably at any credible protesting in his youth and being outgunned by Margaret Thatcher, when he does finally get a sniff at power, ever noticed how quickly he then warmed to multi culturalism. You know, the worship of all things simple, basic and backward. That which seeks to subjugate women under the phony pretext of ‘rights’. Basically he’s all for it - another frustrated liberal male who got kicked in the balls and doesn’t want to contend with any more sharp tongued women that might rain on his protest. The ES newspaper, of course, were quick to pick up on the story this morning. Cant think why! No link there. But here’s one:

Shut up Ken

"Do the Media Get Iraq Right? Military husband and wife suggest the coverage of Iraq is too negative"

"I ask you this from the bottom of my heart", Mr President

( i hope the above link through to the video works. im rubbish with links)

c/o No Pasaran

I know ive posted this before but never mind...

Michael Yon's photo:

"I shot that photo on a day when a suicide or homicide car bomber ran into one of our Stryker vehicles, injured a couple of our soldiers, and, unfortunately, there were a lot of children who had crowded around to wave at our people. And the attackers had every opportunity to just wait a couple of blocks and attack our guys later, without the children being around, but instead chose to attack straight through the children. And Major Bieger, who is in the photo, found the little girl --her name is Farah -- and decided he wanted to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible. And so he picked her up, wrapped her in a blanket, and loaded her into one of our vehicles and started to take her to the hospital as fast as possible. And unfortunately, little Farah died en route. We went back to that neighborhood the next day, and the people there actually welcomed us with open arms. They welcomed us into their homes".

I love South Park:

Political Pitbull

discussions @

Michelle Malkin

hat tip

Drinking from Home

& more fun:

Stop It Now

& this....

To boldly go where no NuLabour supporting bastard has gone before: Patrick Stewart: sell-out and fascist sympathiser:-

Devils Kitchen

Selective Hearing

I was interested to read in the Times that Sweden have gone one better than London with congestion charging having had the time to observe ours in action. Living right in the heart of the congestion zone I am a bit screwed if I wanted to, for example, take my little car to the supermarket to stock up on a shedload of stuff - since it means purchasing a weeks worth of congestion credit to do so. Forget going there on a Saturday when the charge doesn’t apply or late at night when the charge doesn’t apply (and when I could benefit from the 24 hour opening hours) - since there will always be a queue to get in and park.

I don’t bother so everything gets delivered now. For which I pay a big fat delivery charge but im past caring. In fact I think I might spend less shopping on line because you miss all those cunning special offers (“12 shamppos for the price of 10!!”)

Interestingly (if youre bored) London and Stockholm both have the same number of drivers entering the charging zone each day but drivers in London pay more and are five times more likely to be fined. Funny that, really, what with Ken in charge. Drivers in London have to remember to pay each day and can do so at a shop, by text message, online or by ringing a call centre. In principle that’s straight forward enough but actually it’s a real effort so who can be bothered. Only those who really have to drive i suppose.

In Stockholm, more than 60% of drivers have a credit card-sized electronic tag fitted on the windscreen behind the rear-view mirror. This is read electronically by beacons on overhead gantries that straddle the road at 18 points of entry to the city. The system then deducts payments from drivers’ bank accounts by direct debit.

Stockholm’s mayor, Annika Billstrom, said: “We have learnt from London’s mistakes (replace London with Ken) and have a more modern system which the motorist sees as fair (not in Kens vocabulary). We do not want to penalise people for forgetting to pay (Ken does). We recognise that it sometimes takes a while to get round to remembering” (Ken couldn’t care less. Ken just hates everyone).

See, that’s a nicer approach. Plus Stockholm’s system has cut twice as much traffic as Ken Livingstone’s scheme, despite drivers paying an average of only £2 a day!

“HRH the Mayor of London” raised the flat-rate daily charge by 60% to a whopping £8 last summer without any consultation. Then cunningly sent out consultation forms to people already paying the charge to ask if other London Zones, like Hammersmith, should be exempt or not. They are HARDLY likely to say yes are they. So Hammersmith gets the scheme now too. And Ken gets to say he consulted ‘everyone’. Clever eh.

Stockholm will also have a referendum on September 17 to decide whether the scheme should continue.

So there we have it, if it were needed - further proof that Ken is a despot.

I’ve no problem with CCTV in London at all. We’ve lived with it since the happy days of Irish terrorism and by and large they do make me feel safer, are good for catching terrorists as we saw last summer etc. The Swedish system they describe above is (apparently) far less intrusive.

The latest cameras here are SOMETHING ELSE!

Here’s a cluster I spotted recently straddling a residential road in Lambeth. And that’s only half a section – this thing stretched out over half the street.

Compare with regular versions:-



I gather that TfL are heading to Stockholm and plan to bring the new system to London in 2008. We''ll see how fair the system ends up once Ken gets hold of it.

Whilst on the ranting topic of Ken.... (bear with me here). A few months ago I wrote again to his office and asked him why I had been accepted and then unaccepted onto the housing scheme for first time buyers. I got a reply a few days ago. I was told in no uncertain terms that as Im not a ‘key’ ‘worker’ I cant join their special club.

‘Key’ ‘workers’ is a term used by Ken Korp to highlight the ‘much more desperate’ plight of public ‘service’ workers trying to get onto the housing ladder. Private sector workers -who earn the -SAME MONEY- don’t get a look in, ya see.

Ken’s response was that he sympathized with my plight and was trying to widen the term to include bus drivers.

Eh? (mental image cue SouthPark: “Drugs are bad kids mmmkay?”)

I used the term PRIVATE WORKER about 20 times. At no point did I mention that I drive a bus for a living. OR that I was remotely concerned about bus drivers getting onto the housing ladder. Id make a crap bus driver. What was he trying to tell me?

The following week I get a great big pull out colour newsletter telling me how Ken is ‘listening to me’ and ‘working with me’ for a better city.

*sarcastic evil smile*.

It also has a ever so helpful small detachable section for me to request the brochure in Urdu (and maaaaany other languages). Just in case.

Free Jack Idema

From RP, this weeks (late) blogburst:

I've concentrated on the story of how the prison riots in Pulacharke affected Jack Idema, Brent Bennett and Ed Caraballo, the three U.S. citizens illegally imprisoned in Afghanistan. Of perhaps greater importance to the long-term campaign to see Idema and his men released, however, are recent events in the Afghan parliament:

Yunis Qanooni's Afghan Parliament has rejected Karzai's list of Ministers. Most of them were Afghans who returned from America, Iran, Germany, or other countries and had fled their own country during the wars against the Soviets, the Taliban, or al-Qaida. Contrary to what some people have reported, the Afghan constitution does allow the Parliament to conduct a "NO CONFIDENCE" vote against Karzai, and hold him accountable for treason under the new Constitution. They can also block the appointment of Ministers. Although it will not be officially announced until next week, Sidiq, the Supreme Court judge Jack and his team arrested for terrorism in a plot to kill then Minister Qanooni, now Chief of Parliament (equivalent to Prime Minister), has been fired. We would not be surprised if Sidiq finds himself arrested again and charged with terrorism sometime after he has left his post.

Judge Sidiq, of course, is the man Idema arrested after he was discovered with the following items on his person:

Photographs of Sidiq with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Bomb plans
Explosive detonators
al-Qaida and Hezb-i-Islami documents and recruiting cards
A letter from Taliban leader Mullah Omar

It should go without saying, then, that the removal of someone like Sidiq is a step in the right direction for Afghanistan. More to the point of this blogburst, though, is the fact that the decision to eject him from office strengthens Jack Idema's case -- Or, at least, it would do if anyone in the ever-credulous MSM bothered to cover the story.

Instead, when Sidiq gets mentioned by the media at all, it is invariably to paint him as a 'victim' of unjust imprisonment at Jack's hands. Here's the Chicago Tribune, just a couple of weeks ago, giving the terror-sympathising, disgraced judge a platform from which to reinvent himself as a victim who was imprisoned and robbed by Jack:

Moslim said he has visited Idema three times in his prison cell, where Idema has given him tea. [Siddiq] Moslim said he asks Idema to repay about $13,000, to compensate for money, jewelry and possessions Moslim lost when the Americans raided his house and took him away with seven other men. But Moslim also believes the Americans were deceived about him and deserve to be released.

"I want them to have even better treatment," Moslim said. "I don't have anything against them in my heart. But Jack should pay me my money back first."

No news, though, whether some of the 'possessions' Sidiq thinks Jack ought to 'compensate' him for included those detonators and bomb-making plans.

And no news at all on why three decent Americans are still rotting in prison for the 'crime' of detaining a man who isn't even trusted by his own parliament.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details (links right)

Ghettos Shackle French muslims.

I found this oldish BBC archive article quite interesting. Id wondered how French Arabs had become known as French Muslims in the short space of time that elapsed since i lived there. I don’t think the article delves deeply enough into finding an answer sadly. And strangely, since al Beeb worship at the altar of multi culti here, I wonder why they haven’t worked out that multiculturalism also = ghettos, ergo same thing? Doh.

In the mid 90s I went to the University of Nancy, which has a high density of French North Africans. Like everyone I was with at the time I was determined to use the time to crack the language - which is pretty tricky. Problem was when we, mostly girls, arrived there in preparation for a year in France, we found it particularly difficult to permeate the clicky groups of French girls and boys in their final year. Nevertheless we did make friends with some people. Nearly all of them French born North Africans. And since they weren’t exactly welcomed by the French students there either they tended to hang around in groups and made a bee line for the English misfits on arrival. I suspect it wasn’t only because we were misfits and initially we resisted the temptation to hang around the halls of residence lobbies. They would hawk in male groups and it could be quite intimidating as a girl trying to get to the coffee machine in the evening quite frankly. Nonetheless we failed miserably at making friends with any of the girls there. How can I put this. French women aren’t merely aloof. They aren’t even friendly. They are obsessed, OBSESSED with boys. Which might be a good thing for the blokes out there except that by and large the women are devoid of a sense of humour and inclined to throwing hissy fits for no real reason. My Blackadder jokes were probably crap in French but when I did say anything mildy amusing the boys would laugh and the girls would stare at you like the mini Marie Antoinettes they all are. So we socialised, like all the English students before us, with the French boys – the North African hawkers. Not that this felt unusual or odd. To me they really were just French. And every word of French I speak today I owe to a group of friends called Havidah (girl), Karim, Nasser, Kader, Ali and Driss (oh and Christophe a pot smoking, chain smoking, beer guzzling student who liked to drink and drive) .

Half of these guys family roots were in the berber sections of Algeria, not that they could really relate to that. Driss who had curly blonde hair and blue eyes was a ‘berber’. The level of mistrust with the students extended to cultural groups also. The Moroccans disliked the Algerians and vice versa. Not so much dislike as outright shows of hatred at times. None of them were practising muslims. Id go so far as to say that most of them disliked religion and Islam and spent a good deal of time ridiculing it. They all lived in and came from surburban areas mostly comprised of high rise HLMs. The flip side to the religious side is that they were still overtly pro Palestine. The French media was crazy about Palestine. That’s all I remember seeing. It really aggravated and riled them. Iraq didn’t. Noone there was in any doubt that Saddam was a ‘connard’ (jerk). Noone even discussed it. We’d sit in bars drinking copiuous amounts of beer and Karim and co would sketch the odd cartoon: topics included AK-47s, Intifada, Intifada, Intifada, oh and Palestinian flags. I paid it little attention. I just figured they were blokes. They like drawing guns. And that Palestine was just another French student cause celebre.

There was as I mentioned a hawking tendancy in that group. They were quasi Mafioso. Since we were part of their little entourage of uni friends any gestures by other males in the University that were seen as turf encroaching could and would frequently flare up with mafia like responses. I always found that pretty startling to be honest but in the process I learned to swear in Arabic (omg!). So all things considered i suppose all the classic elements were there.

When my French got better I had to undertake a project so I chose to focus on something suitably liberal to score the appropriate grade I needed in my final year. I chose, to concentrate on integration, Islam, HLMs and student life in that area. In the process I spent time with Havidah and her family in the banlieues of Metz. I got to interview a French imam in his house (ive still got the transcript). And I attended an anti Le Pen rally in Paris which was also very well attended by the scary CRS. The group addressing racism was corrupt and run by an Algerian who didn’t seem to really do that much. I think it was SOS Racism and if im right the leader of the group has since been done for fraud.

I put together a project load of work which at the time didn’t feel as relevant to me then as it does now. Lately Ive been reading back through all of it sparked by the horrible scenes in France over the last month. I came to the conclusion even back then that French xenophobia and the failure of socialism with its high unemployment and unworkable job platforms play a large part in the complete lack of cohesion. Sarkozy is right to look at these issues but wrong if he thinks the British model is something to aspire to. Multi culturalism doesn’t work. It’s the lefts way of saying we don’t know how to deal with immigration. Its just forced ghettoisation by any other terms and reinforces a lack of identity where foreign policy needs a special sanction from minority groups or they’ll blow you up. That’s not exclusive to France or the UK either. You get pockets and ghettos created through immigration all over the West as people naturally band together, including the US.

Basically Karim and co wanted to be French. They didn’t have a very promising future and nothing much has changed since then for French youths in general except by and large yet more immigration and no jobs. But they certainly weren’t islamists waiting to pounce.

Fast forward a nos of years: 9/11, copious Intifada-Jihadee Kool Aid which gives them a buzz and a sense of belonging, Osama is Cool and unfuckingtouchable, democracy is for saps, the MSM banging their drums on anti Americanism, the proliferation of the internet, the total failure of the French socialist model etc to unravel the job market. The yobs there are now turning to those intifada mafioso style tactics (like ghetto gangs use stylised tactics wherever they are) and to devastating effect.

I wonder what Havidah and Karim make of it all. Its not one single driving factor behind the problems in France but its certainly all riding that islamist ‘wannabee in our club’ crest now, isnt it. France is going through huge upheaval just as Britain did in the 70s. Except that it’s a different post 9/11 world out there and what the government is trying to drive through isn’t easy. Chirac has once again turned to Sarkozy to help. He admires anglo-saxon economic policies, the melting pot - well that’s good news. Good luck to them. I expect 2007 can’t come soon enough. But I wouldn’t suggest for one second they look to modern multi cultural Britain for social inspiration thereafter.

France Echos : le blog in English

It appears that the library of “l’Ecole des Chartes” in the Sorbonne which houses 100,000 significant books and manuscripts dating back to the middle ages has been ransacked and many of the books were destroyed. France Echos writes:

"Today (march 22, 2006) we learn that this government has let 1,000 years of cultural and religious legacy to become smoke and ashes.

Documents of more than TEN CENTURIES!


If the French populate is abandoned by its government, it will defend itself. However books and manuscripts can not defend themselves.

The state has failed in its 3 major missions:
1- To protect its territory.
2- To protect its citizens and their goods.
3- To protect and to transmit its cultural and religious heritage.

Our leaders have inherited more than 15 centuries of history, legacy and culture. They are not only denying this heritage, but they are also allowing the destruction of what our ancestors have build, written, thought century after century"

read on here.

That's beyond tragic.

Its kind of ironic, hilaaaaarious and I guess to be expected that Stop Islamophobia have posted that toonophobia sign onto their site and then filed it under fascist.

Yeah fascist advocating free speech. YEAAAH fascist izzit! In reality all publicity is good publicity. The overt message from Ayaan Hirshi that ‘everyone is afraid to criticize Islam’ is loud and clear on their site. Splendid. The subtler message and humour I expect are harder to grapple with. I gather Oprah is filed under their fascist section for championing Ayaan Hirshi. Of course the left have ensured the words fascist and racist are a reflex label whipped out and stuck onto anything and everything they can’t deal with. To the extent that they are prepared to champion religious fascism in all its guises. I suppose you can dress it up any way you like when you have every opportunity. So what have they filed her under? Progressive feminist liberal?