Jihad in Brussels

by Judith Bergman • March 24, 2016 at 6:00 am

"Islam belongs in Europe.... I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture." — Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The Western narrative represents a complete refusal to examine the doctrines of Islam, out of fear of offending Muslims. This is not a purely European phenomenon. The Obama Administration ordered a cleansing of training materials that Islamic groups deemed offensive.
One crucial aspect of sharia that which the West refuses to internalize is the injunction to perform jihad, both violent and non-violent.
"[T]he most important factor is Belgium's culture of denial... Observers who point to unpleasant truths such as the high incidence of crime among Moroccan youth and violent tendencies in radical Islam are accused of being propagandists of the extreme-right, and are subsequently ignored and ostracized." — Teun Voten, a Dutch cultural anthropologist who lived in a Muslim area of Brussels between 2005 and 2014.

Federica Mogherini, the EU's de facto foreign minister (posing at left with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif) said last year, "Islam belongs in Europe.... I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture." Françoise Schepmans (right), mayor of the Molenbeek district of Brussels, received a list with the names and addresses of over 80 suspected Islamic militants living in her area. "What was I supposed to do about them? It is not my job to track possible terrorists," she said. "That is the responsibility of the federal police."

Federica Mogherini, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said on June 24, 2015, at a conference aptly named "Call to Europe V: Islam in Europe":

"The idea of a clash between Islam and 'the West'... has misled our policies and our narratives. Islam holds a place in our Western societies. Islam belongs in Europe.... I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture."

Nine months later, the ignorance, willful blindness and sheer incompetence regarding even the most basic tenets of Islam, which Mogherini betrayed in her statement has reaped yet another lethal result. What she said is fairly representative of the view aired in public by the European political and cultural establishment.

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What We Could Learn from Israel

by Vijeta Uniyal • March 24, 2016 at 4:30 am

To become a successful nation, India realizes that we have to emulate the Jewish quest for spiritual and worldly learning. We need a nation of empowered men and women, free and fearless to develop social, technological, entrepreneurial and humanitarian creativity, even while under constant attack.
When we see the restoration of Jewish State and revival of Judaism in its ancient lands, we Hindus see ourselves. If Judaism is incomplete without the Jewish homeland, the essence of Hinduism is indivisible with the geography of India. Just as Jews were forced out and in exile for millennia, Hindus too suffered a millennium of Islamic and later European subjugation in their own homeland.
Recent terrorist attacks in Brussels, Mumbai, Paris, Istanbul and Ankara are simply what Israel has been living with for decades -- and India, France, Belgium and Turkey do not have "settlements." The conflict is not about "settlements". It is about one group of people trying imposing its will, culture, religion and way of life on another group. With Israel, the "settlements" are only the pretext. If you look at any map of "Palestine," it has the exact outlines of Israel.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York, on September 29, 2014. (Image source: Israel Government Press Office)

For most Indians, it is hard not to feel a deep sense of historic gratitude towards Israel and the Jewish people. The State of Israel came to our military aid in just about every war India fought as an independent nation since 1947. Our elected leaders, in their vanity, polished their statesmanlike credentials denouncing Israel at every possible international gathering, even as they kept on turning to the Jewish State for help in times of dire need, whether civilian or military. From Golda Meir to Ariel Sharon, Israel never turned down any request.

Getting nothing in return, the tiny and beleaguered nation paid a price for its support for India. At times, adversely affecting its relations with China or annoying its most vital ally, the United States, by extending support to a "socialist" country at the height of the Cold War.

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