RT NEWS

.“Believing cultures are equal is West’s biggest disease”

 18 February, 2009, 08:40


He’s being prosecuted for an alleged hate speech against Islam and Dutch MP Geert Wilders calls the Koran a “fascist book”, and Islam “a retarded culture”. Yet, he also claims he has nothing against Muslims.

Propeller RT: How can you be not against Muslims and be against Islam?
G.W.: Well I don't hate people. I hate nobody. I have no grudge against any person whatever religion social or sexual background they have, but I have a problem with totalitarian ideologies and I believe that Islam is more an ideology than a religion in fact. So it’s very possible to have nothing against the persons individually I mean most of the Muslims in Holland are in fact law-abiding people, like you and me, but still if the numbers grow, then our society will change entirely and I believe not for the better.


RT: Your film about Islam, Fitna, has fuelled the debate on race in Holland. Do you claim to be objective in it?
G.W.: Certainly not objective, no. I'm a politician and an objective politician is a contradiction in terms. I am not objective. So of course with a lot of arguments I say what I think about Islam and I believe the biggest disease in the West today is called cultural relativism: people who believe out of political correctness that all cultures are equal. I don't think so. I think that a culture based on Christianity on humanism, on Judaism, is a far better culture than a retarded culture like the Islamic culture.

RT: Do you consider yourself a xenophobe?
G.W.: No, I'm certainly not a xenophobe and all those people. I mean if you look at the polls today, you are the third biggest party in Holland we've got 23 seats out of 150 in the post today and two years ago we had only nine seats. So we are enormously popular and with those kind of people. Millions of people in Holland are not xenophobes or racists or whatsoever. They just feel that they are losing their country, their identity. It’s not the Netherlands anymore and people have concerns about that and I will fight for them to preserve the identity of the Netherlands against the influx of indeed a retarded Islamic culture. Now my aim is not to offend people.


RT: But you've offended those Muslims just now!
G.W.: It might be. What I'm saying, it’s not my aim. My aim is to warn against Islamisation.


RT: Mr. Wilders, do you believe in freedom of religion?
G.W.: I believe Islam is more an ideology than a religion. I believe if you compare it., you see Islam is not just one other leaf on the tree of religions. It’s not to be compared with Christianity, with Judaism, with Buddhism. It’s more to be compared with another tree about totalitarian ideology. So I think Islam is more to be compared with communism or fascism or other totalitarian ideologies than it’s to be compared with other religions.


RT: But surely by saying that your culture is better than the other culture, these are the views that are very similar that what Hitler had?
G.W.: So when you talk about reciprocity, the Arab world is everything but cultural relativism. They believe their culture is far better than our culture, while we are politically correct. I have nothing against other cultures. I believe that our culture should be dominant.


RT: What do you mean by the dominant culture?
G.W.: It means that first we have to make a new article, article 1 of the constitution – that some countries already have – saying that the Netherlands is a country which is based on the values of Christianity and Judaism and humanism to make it clear, which means that the Netherlands should not change into a dominant other culture. For instance, you can do that by stopping immigration from Muslim countries.


RT: Have you actually read the Koran from beginning to end?
G.W.: Many verses, many translations


RT: One of the verses from Koran you are citing in your film is this “those who have disbelieved our signs we shall roast them in fire.” Now can you tell me in what context that verse is being in used in Koran?
G.W.: Well, most of the Koranic verses…


RT: No, but this particular one.
G.W: No, I'm not talking about this particular one. I'm talking about most of them because you have to see it in the context. And if you study the life of Mohammed you will see most of them are based on that.


RT: This particular verse actually explains what will happen to a disbeliever when he goes to hell, and that’s obviously the kind of verse we can find in the Bible as well.
G.W.: It’s not being seen as going to hell. It’s interpreted, unfortunately, by many Muslims that it’s during the lifetime of a person.


RT: Well how about this one in the New Testament attributed to Jesus saying to his disciples: “These enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence”?
G.W.: This is written down in a different way of wording like you just said in that time. Then it’s written in the Koran. Look at surahs, look at the imperative way it is said in many surahs. But secondly, Christianity had in all the centuries had a change of enlightment, and today almost nobody kills today or makes terrorist acts today in the world, whether it’s in Russia, whether it’s in Holland, in Madrid or in London on behalf of Christianity…


RT: There are such groups.
G.W.: Ninety-nine percent, not all Muslims are terrorists, but 99 per cent of the terrorist acts in the world are done by Muslims. You can not ignore that of course.


RT: Well actually religious and secular extremism exist across all nationalities and groups. How about the Christian identity, the Ku Klux Klan, the Army of God?
G.W.: They are not only minority, but they are also culturally seen not as the biggest problem today. Of course we have extremists, even within the Jewish community and the Christian. We have it also in the atheists, the people who don’t believe in anything. But it doesn't change the fact that we have a problem with Islamic culture.


RT: What do you think of Israel’s recent attacks on Gaza where more than a thousand people, most of them civilians, were killed?
G.W.: I hope our government would have acted the same if from just over the border in Belgium, let’s say, or from Cologne just over our border with Germany, if we had been attacked by the missiles, if our cities were bombarded, I would hope that the Dutch government would have been as brave as the Israeli government in defending their people. So I fully understand why the Israelis acted like they did.






RT: You suggest banning women from wearing burka, saying that this will free them. But have you actually asked what Muslim women think about that?
G.W.: I don't care what they think about it. It’s totally irrelevant. I'm not elected by them here. I'm elected by people who share my view. I don't care what those women think, but I also do it for them. I don't do it out of hatred or anything else, I really believe that if you wear a burka in Holland, you will have a very tough time to integrate and if you want Muslim women to have a job and education and to be independent. Young Muslim women should be independent in Holland. This is what I'm fighting for. And if you wear a burka, please believe me, you will have no Dutch friends, you will get no job. It would be difficult to find any job.






RT: You are facing prosecution and soon will be tried for an alleged hate speech and discrimination. What will the outcome be of this trial?
G.W.: I think it’s very sad not only because it’s me, but because it’s one step down from the freedom of speech. And I believe that people should be allowed, especially elected politicians, to say what they believe.

RT: The mayor of Rotterdam is Muslim. What do you think about that?
G.W.: I think it’s very bad, not because he is Muslim, but because he has a double nationality. And I believe I also tried to send some ministers away from parliament two years ago because they have a double nationality. I believe that if you are a minister, if you are a secretary of state, if you are a member of parliament, if you are a mayor of the city, if you are an important public figure, if you have a position, you should only have loyalty to your own country. So you can not have two nationalities, because it means legally and otherwise that you have two countries to be loyal to.

RT: You've called the Netherlands the country of tolerance and consensus. How would you describe your attitude towards Muslims?
G.W.: You know the problem with Holland is that we were too long too tolerant. We should stop the immigration of Muslim people from Muslim countries. We should make it more clear and be more proud of our identity, values and culture. We should stop the Islamic symbolism. I wouldn't want to have more mosques in the Netherlands. I want Islamic schools to be closed and let the people integrate with other children from other religions in public schools, and I want to have tough penalties to people who are committing crimes, send then away. Send them out of Holland, denaturalise them if they have double nationality. If we do that, it will not only be good for Holland, but it will certainly be good for those Muslims who are in the Netherlands today and who are behaving themselves.
RT: Mr Wilders, thank you for the interview.

Violent fundamentalist groups are all the same: criminal
Edited 16 June, 2010, 08:24


US Senator Joe Lieberman has criticized US President Barack Obama's National Security Strategy because it does not indicate specifically that the US is fighting a war against radical Islam.
Propeller “This war will not end when al Qaeda has been vanquished—though that, of course, is a critical goal—but only when the ideology of violent Islamist extremism that inspires and predates it is decisively rejected,” said Senator Lieberman (Independent – Connecticut) in a recent op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal.


“I think that the threshold point for extremism is behavior,” said Thom Hartmann, a radio host and political commentator.
Hartmann explains that extremism is bigger than Islamic extremism, citing previous groups such as the Red Brigades in Italy, and the Weathermen and Tim McVeigh in the US.
“We should stop labeling them as religious extremists and simply label them, as Bill Clinton did in the case of Tim McVeigh, as criminals and prosecute them as criminals. That way we do not deify them, we don’t strengthen them, we don’t help them become martyrs. George Bush did the worst thing possible with Osama Bin Laden. He did exactly what Osama Bin Laden wanted,” said Hartmann.
Many in the United States have painted the debate as a black and white, Christian v. Islam framework and Hartmann not new.
“What we have to do is repudiate the violence part of it and say no, that’s got nothing to do with the religion, that’s criminal behavior,” said Hartmann.
A documentary called “Jesus Camp” documents the activities at an evangelical camp for American children. The film shows adults inciting children to go to war with Islam, and shows children chanting and dancing with sticks while wearing camouflage.


Hartmann said that society should be concerned, but not just because of religious groups, but concerned about fundamentalism in general.
“We need to, right across the board, repudiate all of them and say that’s not us and we will not allow that. When people step over that line they go to jail,” said Hartmann, citing “The Turner Diaries” and other publications that incite a fundamentalist violence based ideology, including Glenn Beck’s latest publication.
Hartmann argued that there is no real difference between extremist groups when they begin to call for the use of violence. Whether Christian, Islamic or non-religious, groups that choose to incite violence are criminal.

                                                                                                        

 Akhmed Zakayev (RIA Novosti)

Moscow demands investigation into Chechen militant’s presence at PACE
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Published 23 June, 2010, 08:54
Edited 25 June, 2010, 17:08
Russia has demanded that the Council of Europe investigates Chechen militant envoy Akhmed Zakayev’s presence at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe session (PACE) in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
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“Russia’s permanent mission in Strasbourg has forwarded a protest to the Council of Europe Secretary General, Thorbjorn Jagland, and demanded that an investigation into the incident should be carried out,” Vladimir Voronkov, Director of Foreign Ministry’s European Cooperation Department, told Interfax agency.
In response, he said, Jagland stated that he was not aware of Zakayev’s presence at the PACE session.
According to Voronkov, “Zakayev attended the session on the invitation of the faction of liberals in PACE, but most likely he was using a different name.” He said no pass card with the surname Zakayev had been registered at PACE.
The self-proclaimed Prime Minister of “Independent Chechnya” Akhmed Zakayev – who is on the wanted list in Russia on accusations of terrorism and other crimes – found asylum in Britain, where he has been living since 2002. His appearance during Tuesday’s session in Strasbourg – Zakayev was reportedly sitting on a balcony reserved for guests – sparked fierce criticism and anger from the Russian side.
The president of the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, expressed concern about the fact that Akhmed Zakayev attended the meeting on Tuesday.
“I will tell you this: bring back the chronicles of these events in Grozny. Have a look at Akhmed Zakayev – in a headband, with people wielding automatic rifles and machine guns,” Yevkurov was quoted as saying by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. “And ask him now about the rights of those people they dragged onto city squares and lashed, thinking themselves being all great Muslims.”
“He is no one and his name in nothing,” Ingushetia’s president added. “If he was someone he would kneel before his people, repent and apologize instead of attending sessions here.”
The head of the Russian mission to PACE, Konstantin Kosachev, also expressed his displeasure in a private conversation with PACE President Movlut Cavusoglu. Zakaev’s presence at the session was very sudden and unpleasant, he said.
“Nobody announced Zakaev’s participation in PACE events, and, in fact, he was brought into the convention center under somebody else’s name,” Kosachev claimed.
Zakaev’s participation in the discussion “muffed” Dick Marty’s positive, although not without criticism, speech, the Russian official said.
“The balanced resolution on the Caucasus stuck in someone’s gizzard,” he added.
Kosachev also called what happened “a political action.”
“Zakaev’s presence contravenes the concept of Moscow-PACE cooperation concerning human rights in the Caucasus,” he emphasized.
Akhmed Zakayev worked as a culture minister and deputy prime minister in the Chechen government in the late 1990s. He fled to Great Britain after Chechen militants were defeated. Russia sought his extradition on charges of terrorism, but the UK granted him political asylum.
PACE on Tuesday approved a resolution describing the human rights situation in the Northern Caucasus. The resolution was approved by the Russian delegation for the first time in many years.

The New York Times
Middle East
4 Shop Owners Die in Iraqi Robberies

4 Shop Owners Die in Iraqi Robberies
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and DURAD ADNAN
Published: June 26, 2010
BAGHDAD — An armed gang went on a rampage Saturday, gunning down four jewelry store owners and robbing more than a dozen shops in the western city of Falluja in what may have been an effort to finance insurgent groups, Iraqi authorities said.
During the past month or so, violent hold-ups of jewelry stores selling gold products have become increasingly commonplace in Iraq. The robberies have been blamed variously on groups such as al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and on outlaw bands of soldiers and police officers.
Earlier this month in the southern city of Basra, gunmen killed three people during a jewelry shop robbery. Last month, bandits killed 14 people during a string of daytime hold-ups of jewelry stores in Baghdad.
The businesses make an inviting target: They sometimes have large amounts of cash on hand, offer a product that can be easily resold on the black market, and are typically not well protected despite the value of their inventory.
On Saturday, officials in Falluja blamed al Qaeda for the most recent attack, saying the militant Sunni organization is seeking to regroup after the capture of several of its leaders earlier this year.
Sheikh Aifan Saadon al-Aifan, the leader of the security committee for the provincial council in Anbar Province, said on Saturday that security forces in the province have been infiltrated by insurgents and their sympathizers who may have aided the robbers in Falluja.
“The insurgents are trying to gain back the power they lost,” Mr. Aifan said.
The Iraqi police said that about 8 a.m. on Saturday, a group of about 20 men dressed in black and wearing black masks burst into shops in al-Bazarah market. Armed with rifles and pistols fitted with silencers, they began shooting into stores, witnesses said.
After shooting dead four shop owners who may not have immediately complied with their demands, they fled with a large quantity of gold jewelry, the police said.
Abu Asil, a jewelry store owner in Faluja, said Saturday that shop keepers who had gone to the police about 10 days ago seeking increased protection were told that the police did not have enough manpower.
At the funerals for the four victims Saturday, people were angry that the robberies had occurred in a city filled with checkpoints and roving security force members.
“How can gunman so easily rob these stores?” asked Sheijh Khalid Mohammed “Every two or here days there is an explosion. Where is the police and army? If they can’t protect us they should tell us and we will protect ourselves.”
A group with links to al Qaeda claimed responsibility for deadly raids during the past two weeks on Iraq’s Central Bank and the country’s Trade Bank, although robbery did not appear to have been the motive in those attacks.
Also Saturday, during an oil conference in Baghdad, Iraqi officials said it will cost at least $23 billion to build four new refineries as part of the country’s effort to become a net exporter of petroleum products. Iraq, which has the world’s third largest amount of proven oil reserves, currently imports refined petroleum.
An employee of The New York Times in Falluja contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

BBC News

Somaliland appeal to vote despite al-Shabab threat


Page last updated at 18:29 GMT, Friday, 25 June 2010 19:29 UK


E-mail this to a friendPrintable version Security has been beefed up ahead of the vote Somaliland's authorities have appealed to voters to turn out for Saturday's presidential election despite a warning from Islamists not to participate.
An al-Shabab leader in Somalia said elections were un-Islamic and called democracy "the devil's principles".

Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 when the country descended into civil war; it has not been recognised internationally.
But 70 international observers will monitor its second presidential poll.

About 800 local personnel will also observe as 1.69m officially registered voters choose a new president.

Incumbent President Dahir Riyale Kahin faces two opponents.
The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in the capital, Hargeisa, says this week's al-Shabab warning by Abu Zubayr, also known as Mukhtar Abdirahman, has been the talk of the town.

But with campaigning finished and appeals from the government and respected traditional leaders to ignore the threat, the mood is quiet and security has been increased, he says.

Compared with its neighbour, Somaliland has been relatively stable.

After declaring independence in 1991, it formed its own hybrid system of governance consisting of a lower house of elected representatives, and an upper house, which incorporated the elders of tribal clans.