A summary of recent European cringing

[Ambiorix]

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com/

A summary of recent European cringing

By Dan Mandel

In September, I outlined in a piece in the Weekly Standard the pattern of pre-emptive appeasement of Muslim supremacists that has formed in Europe. The pattern consists of discarding rights and traditions or failing to assert their exercise if Muslim extremists object.

As I argued then, this pattern emerged in confluence with some salient instances of violence - the 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh following the release of his film on the travails of Muslim women; the 2005 riots following the Danish Muhammad cartoons; and the 2006 killings that followed Pope Benedikt's speech quoting critical comments on Islam by a 14th century Byzantine emperor. The last two months alone have furnished new occurrences that add to the pattern.

First, the September 11 rally against the Islamisation of Europe that Brussels mayor Freddy Thielemans chose not to authorize at the time proceeded, with the result that 154 people were arrested, including Italian EU parliamentarian, Italian Northern League member Mario Borghezio. Borghezio challenged the banning of the demonstration, "It doesn't seem normal to me that on the 11th of September, in a European capital, a demonstration involving European parliamentarians, against fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, can be banned."

Then, in October, the Netherlands government abruptly revoked security protection provided to one of its prominent citizens: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch-Somali politician and writer, who has been obliged to live under police protection since 2002 following death threats inspired by her outspokenness on the mistreatment of women in the Muslim community and on her own secularism. (Ali also wrote the script to the film for which Van Gogh paid with his life). Already last year, however, rather than resolutely defending Ali, the government tried to revoke her citizenship while her own neighbours sought her eviction on the ground that their human rights were endangered by Ali's continued presence. Neither civic solidarity nor the law in the Netherlands seems adequate to the task of protecting the life and free speech of one of its prominent human rights activists, who has since made America her home.

The same month in Britain, the Conservative Muslim Forum, a body set up by Tory leader David Cameron to advise the party on Muslim affairs issued a report specifically repudiating Cameron's affirmation that Jews have a right to inhabit and defend a homeland and country embodied in the state of Israel; defended Iran's efforts to seek nuclear weapons and repudiated any association of Muslim terrorism with Islam. What influence this report exerts over the Opposition's policies remains to be seen.

Later that same month, Muslim inmates in a high security British prison launched a lawsuit seeking millions in damages for having been mistakenly issued with a prison menu offering ham sandwiches. Again, it remains to be seen how the British courts deal with it.

Around the same time, a leaked report by the Labour think tank, Public Policy Research, recommended that Christmas be downgraded in favour of festivals from other religions to improve race relations. Stated a shell-shocked Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative spokesman on community cohesion, "[the report's] comments betray a breathtaking misunderstanding of what it is to be British. These proposals could actually damage cohesion. You don't build community cohesion by throwing out our history and denying the fundamental contribution Christianity has played and does play to our nation. As a British Muslim I can see that - so why others can't just staggers me."

[newman]

They appeased the german-nazis 70 years ago. They appease the muSSlim-nazis now.