In this mailing:
by Douglas Murray
• February 28, 2017 at 6:00 am
- Once again, an
American has pointed to a failing in European society, and instead
of focusing on the problem identified or even admitting that there
is a problem, the European response has been to point at the American
and blame him for creating the problem he has in fact merely
identified.
- We are being
given an accurate representation of a serious problem.
- If the response
to every problem is denial, and the response to anyone pointing to
the problem is opprobrium, legal threats or hilarity, it suggests
that Europe is not going to make the softer-landing it could yet
give itself in addressing these issues.
- It might make
us feel better, but every time we attack or laugh at the messenger,
rather than addressing the message, we ensure that our own future
will be less funny.
In response to US President Donald Trump's recent
reference to "what's happening" in Sweden, Swedish Twitter
users mocked him by posting photos of people putting IKEA furniture
together. The joke would have been funnier had a failed asylum seeker
from Eritrea not murdered Carola Herlin (left) and her son in an IKEA
store in Västerås, Sweden, in August 2015.
How can one excavate the minds of so many European officials and the
extraordinary mental gymnastics of denial to which they have become
prone?
One of the finest demonstrations of this trend occurred in January
2015, after France was assailed by Islamist gunmen in the offices of the
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and then in a Jewish supermarket.
In the days after those attacks, Fox News in the U.S. ran an interview
with a guest who said that Paris, and France, as a whole, had "no-go
zones" where the authorities -- including emergency services -- did
not dare to go. In the wake of these comments, the Mayor of Paris, Anne
Hidalgo, chose to make a stand. She announced that she was suing Fox News
because the "honour of Paris" was at stake.
It appeared that Mayor Hidalgo was rightly concerned about the image
of her city around the world, presumably worrying in particular about the
potential effects on tourism.
by Grégoire Canlorbe
• February 28, 2017 at 5:00 am
- According to a
2016 investigation by Balkan journalists Marko Vesovic, Vladimir
Otasevic and Hasan Haydar Diyab, the Montenegrin government is
indirectly involved in the funding of Islamic terrorism.
- Charges were
dropped due to former PM and President Milo Đukanović's diplomatic
immunity, but not before he admitted his involvement in the criminal
enterprise. In other words, while Đukanović was signing the
accession protocol with NATO, boatloads of illegal cigarettes from
Montenegro were apparently making their way into ISIS-controlled
areas.
- For all his
talk of rethinking America's foreign commitments, it appears that
President Donald Trump has also made the decision to endorse
Montenegro's membership bid.
- While Đukanović
stepped down in October in favor of Duško Marković, a former
intelligence chief and a close ally, he is widely believed to be the
power behind the throne and to be planning a comeback in the 2018
presidential elections.
- Between its
apparent links to the funding Islamic terrorism, its flawed
democracy, and its still-insufficiently developed army,
Montenegro is not yet a reliable partner for the West.
While then Prime Minister Milo Đukanović of Montenegro
(sitting behind the table, at right) was busy signing the accession
protocol with NATO in Brussels on May 19, 2016, boatloads of illegal
cigarettes from Montenegro were apparently making their way into
ISIS-controlled areas. (Image source: U.S. State Department)
Does a country involved in financing Islamic terrorism deserve to be
invited to join the world's biggest military alliance, and receive all
the perks that come with it? Many may argue this is the case with the
small Balkan state of Montenegro, whose NATO membership will soon be
taken up for consideration by the U.S. Senate.
by Saied Shoaaib
• February 28, 2017 at 4:30 am
- In every
Muslim-majority country, especially in the Middle East, the Islamic
terrorist genie came out from under the ashes, built the Islamic
state and threatened the West -- both with terrorist operations and
from inside, in a more surreptitious, seemingly peaceful manner, as
the Muslim Brotherhood does.
- It is important
to understand that Islam is a religion that includes, in its
structure, political power that governs and controls and spreads the
force of arms.
Many Western politicians have cooperated with
Islamists and Islamist organizations. (Image source: RT video screenshot)
US President Donald J. Trump has succeeded in naming a jihadi
problem, political Islam, but it is hard to single out defective products
from the factory without closing the factory -- if one does not want them
to appear again.
This does not mean that what Trump intends to do is not important;
on the contrary, we need him after most Western politicians faced Islamic
terrorism awkwardly, if they faced it at all. Sometimes they even
cooperated with these terrorist organizations, invited their members to
the White House; to Iftar dinners during Ramadan, and hugging what they
falsely call "moderate Islam" -- especially the Muslim
Brotherhood, the incubator that most terrorist organizations come out of
-- instead of the true "moderate Muslims" who have been
struggling to be heard above the crush of "influence,"
infiltration and petro-dollars.
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