Europe And The Minarets

(Note to family and friends: The most recent update on Mr. AOW is here)

With a hat tip to THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS for the below-the-fold link from Vlad Tepes....

Likely, you've heard of the recent referendum in Switzerland, the referendum which voted a ban on building more minarets.

From this article in the Los Angeles Times:

...The minaret "is a political symbol against integration; a symbol more of segregation, and first of all, a symbol to try to introduce Sharia law parallel to Swiss rights," Ulrich Schluer said in a telephone interview. Schluer is one of the leaders of the Egerkingen Committee, which authored the bill, and a lawmaker from the conservative Swiss People's Party.

[...]


By taking their proposal to a national vote, the Swiss People's Party and the Federal Democratic Union bypassed lawmakers' attempts to shoot down the bill as discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Many such proposals in Switzerland's system of direct democracy are turned down, but Sunday's approval by 57.5% of voters illustrated an anxiety that the political establishment had underestimated, said analyst Lukas Golder of the political think tank gfs.bern.

"This is a sign that the issue was only covered on the surface, and now it has come up, and the political elite can see that the broader public perceives real problems about the integration of Muslims in our society," Golder said....

How do other European countries feel about those minarets?

According to this over at Vlad Tepes, along the same lines as Switzerland. Even Spain!

Of course, a referendum reflects the will of the people and can be upheld or denied according to those sitting in the seats of political power. Thus far post referendum in Switzerland,

In a statement, the Swiss Federal Council, a seven-member executive body, said it respected the decision of voters.

"Consequently, the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted," it said, adding that the four existing minarets would be allowed to stand and that there was no prohibition on the construction of new mosques.

The ban will face legal challenges. Manon Schick, Amnesty International representative in Geneva, said banning minarets violates international law and guarantees of religious freedom.

Meanwhile, most of the West's political leaders continue to go down the same kumbaya path of making nice-nice with Islam, even as Moslems in the West attempt to take methodical steps to establish Islamic supremacy in Dar al Harb.

According to this statement from Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, minarets mean the following to fundamentalist Moslems:

[Erdogan] publicly read an Islamic poem including the lines: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers..."

Leaders of Western nations need to pay attention to Islamic symbolism, especially the symbols representing jihad.

Turn the page ....

Symbolic Beheading

The fiberglass statue, eight feet tall and weighing some 200 pounds, was stolen last month from in front of a Brooklyn coffee shop.

The video is dated July 4th:


Read the accompanying New York Post article HERE.

As I commented at Jihad Watch:

If they don't like our values here, then they should go live in an Islamic nation — in other words, abandon their colonies in the United States.

According to Fox News:

Police in New York City are scrambling to locate the producers of a YouTube video that depicts a stolen replica of the Statue of Liberty blindfolded, beheaded and smashed into pieces — a display that one terror expert says is intended to "instill fear" in everyday Americans.

[...]

...[T]he people behind the video would not likely be subject to hate crime charges since the clip is not directed toward a specific individual or group.

[...]

The video...was sent anonymously to the New York Daily News and to Debi Ryan, owner of Vox Pop, a coffee shop known for left-wing-leaning political debate and poetry readings....

"I'm scared," Ryan told the New York Post. "I'm hoping I don't have to fear for my life, but I feel very nervous … This was clearly politically motivated. Whoever did this is trying to shut us up. They were targeting what we represent."

Perhaps the video is a hoax and wasn't made by Moslem maniacs. I did notice an inconsistency in the film. See if you notice that inconsistency too.

But would any of us be surprised to learn that jihadomaniacs would steal a symbol of freedom and vandalize it? See this, "Cartoons from the Arab World," a very small and quite dated sampling. The hatred remains the same, however.

And reaching out to a sick mind is an exercise in futility.

Turn the page ....

Yet Another Change: Rejection Of Winston Churchill

With thanks to Michael for emailing me the following story from the Telegraph:

Barack Obama sends bust of Winston Churchill on its way back to Britain

A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.

The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush's tenure.

But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: "Thanks, but no thanks."...

Another of BHO's efforts to reach out to the Islamic world? After all, Sir Winston Churchill was quite outspoken about Islam, as evidenced by this citation from The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of Sudan, published in 1899:

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

More from Winston Churchill here, at Islam Watch.

Turn the page ....

An Allegory Or Two For Our Times

And, yes, I do have the 45rpm in my collection:



YouTube link



Those here familiar with my writing will know what the snake and the woman represent in my post-9/11 interpretation of Al Wilson's 1968 song.

As long as I'm in an oldies-with-symbolism mood, here's another, this one from Credence Clearwater Revival:

Turn the page ....

The Sword Of Islam

As Pastorius mentioned in one of his postings at Infidel Bloggers Alliance, King Abdullah presented Pope Benedict with the gift of a sword. Please read Pastorius's posting before proceeding.

Here is the photo of the Saudi king's gift to the Pope:



Robert Spencer's commentary (emphases mine):

An ironic gift, yes, in light of the furor in the Islamic world over the Pope's remarks at Regensberg, but not one meant to be insulting. Indeed, it is, as Reuters tells us, a traditional gift. But it does reveal something about Abdullah's self-image as the leader of an Islamic state -- a state which, after all, has a sword on its flag, right underneath the Islamic profession of faith. To Abdullah, such a gift is clearly not inconsistent with his view of Islam or of himself as an Islamic leader.

But just imagine Pope Benedict XVI giving anyone a sword. He wouldn't, because such a gift would be inconsistent with his own self-image as a Christian leader, and with his view of Christianity. He views Christianity as a religion of peace. At his meeting with Abdullah, the contrast between the two religions, so controverted and controversial elsewhere, was plain, and taken for granted.

Well, at least the Pope didn't pick up the sword and wear it, as Laura Bush recently did when she was presented with an abaya (followed by posting her abaya-clad photo on the White House web site). Instead, according to what Pastorius cited in his posting, Pope Benedict

...merely touched the sword.

I wonder....Did the Pope, in the spirit of reciprocity, present the Saudi king with a crucifix? I can't imagine so. Mustn't offend the Saudi King, you know.

Turn the page ....