Europe's New Crowd-Pleasing Jew-Hate

by Guy Millière

Dieudonné, in a video posted on YouTube, and widely seen before being removed, expressed a longing to bring back the gas chambers in which the Nazis gassed the Jews. Everything he posts goes viral.

On Saturday December 28th 2013, a French Muslim soccer player, Nicolas Anelka (aka: Abdul-Salam Bilal), scored a goal for his club, West Bromwich Albion, in front of thousands of cheering fans and millions more around the world watching on television. He showed no joy. He did not even smile. He extended one hand straight down and touched the other to his shoulder. Most of those who saw did not understand. For many others, the meaning was clear: he was performing a "quenelle", the reverse Nazi-style salute invented by the French "comedian" Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala. For the last couple of years, "quenelles" have become a trend in France and throughout Europe.

Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala demonstrates the "quenelle" salute with NBA player Tony Parker. (Image source: Twitter)

Pictures of people performing "quenelles" also multiplied: "quenelles" in front of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin; on the train tracks leading to the Auschwitz death camp; beside a picture of Anne Frank in Amsterdam; and in the courtyard of the school where three Jewish children and a teacher were murdered by Mohamed Merah in Toulouse.

The photos also show "quenelles" by famous athletes: soccer players, such as Nicolas Anelka; basketball players such as Tony Parker (he recently apologized, saying he did not know the meaning of the gesture), and world judo champion, Teddy Riner.

It has long been common knowledge in France that Dieudonné is an anti-Semite and that "quenelles" were performed by countless people. It is also common knowledge that Dieudonné's shows were explicitly anti-Semitic and attracted large crowds, but until recently, nobody paid attention.

For many, however, Nicolas Anelka's "quenelle" during the soccer match went a step too far, and occurred at the wrong moment: only one week after Dieudonné himself, for many, went a step too far. In a video posted on YouTube, and widely seen before being removed, he expressed a longing to bring back the gas chambers in which which the Nazis gassed the Jews. He also added an ambiguous sentence that unambiguously meant it was "too bad" that a Jewish journalist, Patrick Cohen, could not be gassed. A few hours after the video was posted, a hacker tracked down some of those who posted their own "quenelles" pictures on Dieudonné's website and made their addresses public.

Immediately after Anelka's "quenelle", Valérie Fourneyron, French Sports Minister, called Anelka's gesture "a disgusting provocation" and an "incitement to hatred." A few hours after that, Manuel Valls, French Minister of the Interior, spoke of "the need to ban" Dieudonné's public appearances -- the first time since World War II that the French government and France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, have ordered a ban to go into effect.

Protests are being organized by Jewish movements in front of the Paris theater where Dieudonné's performances are still scheduled, and the famous Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld have said they will participate.

All the fuss, however will be almost certainly useless.

Dieudonné's popularity is intact and will not vanish. It is likely even to increase. Nicolas Anelka is a hero in French and British Muslim suburbs, and he will stay a hero. He has said that when he will stop playing soccer, he will become an actor and work with his friend, Dieudonné. Dieudonné's shows and sketches, available on-line, have attracted over a million views. He has created a network of sympathizers and a website called "Dieudosphere," where they can share and exchange information. Everything he posts goes viral.

Sociologist Michel Wieworka wrote in Le Monde on December 31st, that Dieudonné is a "symptom," and he is right: Dieudonné became the symptom -- and the symbol -- of the new anti-Semitism that is gaining ground in France and throughout Europe.

It is an anti-Semitism that seems to come mostly from people affiliated with the French radical "left": members and sympathizers of Trotskyist movements, of the neo-communist French "Left Front", and of "pro-Palestinian" organizations such as Europalestine. Its followers accuse the Jews of having "monopolized" human sufferings, of having "rapaciousness" behind the "Holocaust industry" and of being complicit in the "imperialist crimes" committed by Israel against the "Palestinians". Unsurprisingly, a growing number of young Muslims identify with these arguments.

Members of the politically right-leaning "nationalist revolutionary" parties, and other Neo-Nazi organizations see all this as a boon and an exoneration. They hate Islam, but they hate Jews and Israel even more, and when people such as Dieudonné say that "Zionists" in the Middle East are worse than Nazis, or that Holocaust commemorations are "memorial pornography," they exult.

When Dieudonné invites a famous Holocaust -denier such as Robert Faurisson on stage, and then praises the gas chambers, members of the audience are full of joy. When Dieudonné sings "Shoah-Ananas" ["Holocaust Pineapple"] in the company of Faurisson, the audience sings along with gusto. "The Anti-Semite," a movie Dieudonné made with Iranian money to mock the Auschwitz concentration camp, was never released in theaters, but has became an on-line success anyhow.

This new anti-Semitism is especially strong in France, where there is a deeply rooted leftist tradition: for decades, the French Communist Party earned more than 20% of the vote in every election. Today, openly Marxist parties are still an important part of the political landscape. Several radical politicians openly support Islamists and Arab terrorists. A few weeks ago, the mayor of Bagnolet, a small town in the Paris suburbs, organized a ceremony to make Georges Ibrahim Abdallah a honorary citizen of his city. Abdallah happens to be a killer sentenced to life in prison in France for the murders of Charles R. Ray, assistant U.S. military attaché in Paris, and Yaakov Bar-Simantov, an Israeli diplomat.

France has never fully confronted its collaborationist past: after World War II, General de Gaulle disseminated the idea that France was full of members of a "Resistance," who liberated the country from the Nazis. It was only in 1995 that a French President acknowledged France's responsibility in the mass-deportation of the Jews.

In 1967, just twenty two years after the Holocaust ended, General de Gaulle was the first European leader to make anti-Semitic remarks about Israel; he spoke of the Jewish people as "self-assured and domineering" -- a description many might think fits De Gaulle. Since De Gaulle's slur, however, France has been at the forefront of the demonization and boycotting of Israel.

De Gaulle also embarked France on a pro-Arab foreign policy that led to massive Muslim immigration and to strong support for the "Palestinian cause." Today France has the largest Muslim population in Europe -- more than six million people (10% of the general population) -- and the number is rapidly increasing .

On the "far right," since 1984, the National Front party has been one of the country's three main political forces, and its influence is still growing. Although ts current leader, Marine Le Pen, has been trying to "de-demonize" it, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the man who said that the gas chambers were "just a detail in the history of World War II," remains enormously influential -- and is a close friend of Dieudonné and the godfather of his fourth child.

Ironically, Dieudonné started his career as an "anti-racist" "leftist" comedian, who worked with a Jew, Elie Semoun. A few years later, he became openly "anti-Zionist." In 2003, in a prime-time TV show, he denounced the "American-Zionist axis," and added, while performing a Nazi salute, "Heil Israel." He broke with Semoun and began using anti-Semitic innuendos more and more often. He ceased being invited on TV, but gained an audience beyond his dreams.

His fame now goes way beyond the borders of France; in today's Europe, a sinister clown who inflames sick emotions has become an influential political spokesman. His popularity also reveals the disquieting resurgence of a broader sickness that has mutated but has not disappeared -- and will not disappear.

The new anti-Semitism is not different from the old anti-Semitism; the victims remain the same and, for the most part, the words remain the same: Jews were described as "greedy" and having "too much power." They are again described as "greedy" and having "too much power." They were presented as being members of an international "conspiracy." Now, the view of a "Jewish conspiracy" to rule the world is spreading again, even if, to avoid being accused of being anti-Semites, the new anti-Semites call it a "Zionist conspiracy" instead.

In Europe, every day, anti-Jewish hatred is becoming more and more acceptable. It has found new ways to seduce and indoctrinate the public, and it has found a new audience while retaining its old one.

The French government and the Jewish organizations have every reason to react. But even if they could stop Dieudonné, it does not mean they will stop what Dieudonné has come to embody.

Even if they decided to broaden their scope, to combat anti-Semitism as it exists now in Europe -- such as a request to the French government to denounce the way Israel is treated in the mainstream media and by many European intellectuals and politicians -- it would probably be asking too much.

Anti-Semitism is becoming frightfully "banal" in Europe once again. At a time when Europe is in economic, cultural, political and moral crisis, anti-Semitism gives people a scapegoat that they can easily designate as responsible for their misfortunes, and which they can easily loathe.

The Jews have been used in Europe for twenty centuries as scapegoats; seven decades ago, this scapegoating led to the worst crimes in the modern era.

A growing number of Jews now feel it is safer to leave Europe, and that is what they do.


Guy Millière

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4126/europe-jew-hate

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Abbas Denies His Authority to Make Cardinal Decisions for a Lasting Peace Agreement

by Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi


Mahmoud Abbas – “the president of the state of Palestine,” chairman of the Palestinian Authority, leader of the PLO, and head of Fatah – must recognize that he is not a serious partner for negotiating with Israel because he does not have the authority to make decisions for the Palestinian people.

The practical significance of his stated political positions in the negotiations with Israel is his rejection of any authority to make historic decisions regarding a political compromise, which closes the door to any stable, lasting solution for two states to live in peace next to each other.

In a meeting with “a popular delegation from Al-Quds” (Jerusalem) at the presidential office in Ramallah on January 10, 2014, Abbas said:1

Occupied Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine, and without it there will be no solution, and no one is authorized to sign [on an agreement regarding it]….Without eastern Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Palestine there will be no peace between us and Israel….Jerusalem is not Abu Dis [a town bordering eastern Jerusalem], but Abu Dis is part of Jerusalem….The capital [of the future state of Palestine will be] in Jerusalem and the [surrounding] area, the capital [will be] in Jerusalem that was conquered in 1967.

    We are telling the world that the Palestinians will not surrender and these are not empty words when we say that we will never surrender. We will stand strong and persevere, and the world will eventually have to agree to what we want. What our people want is that our flowers [young girls] and our youth stand strong and persevere as they perform their wonderful deeds in Jerusalem and other places.

    This is not about stubbornness but rather steadfastness and standing strong on principles. We have rights even though we are weak in the world. We will continue to demand our rights and we will achieve our rights….We stand strong here in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, in Gaza, in the diaspora, and in every place we will achieve these rights due to our steadfastness and that of our youth.

    When we agree on a solution, the Palestinian land, the skies, and the borders will be under full Palestinian sovereignty. We will control the borders and will not give up any part of them, and no one will laugh at us.

The request to recognize Israel as a Jewish state

    is an issue that we did not hear before except in the last two years [and accordingly] if [you Palestinians] don’t recognize the existence of a Jewish state there won’t be a solution. We will never recognize this and will not agree to this. It is our right not to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. We have many arguments and many reasons that prevent us from doing so and we presented them to Israel. Their problem with us is that we know many things about them, we know their history and geography, and what we know, we say. We will protect everything and we will not agree to the [definition of] state [of Israel] as Jewish. We want the 1967 borders.

    The right of return is a personal option. No authority, [Palestinian] state, the PLO, Abu Mazen [Abbas], or [other Palestinian] leaders have the right to take away a person’s right of return. Let there be [various] options and let the refugee choose. There is compensation and other possibilities. Even a father, if he should request it, cannot wave the right of his children, since the matter is an individual right.

Abbas’ words express a clear message that the Palestinians see the negotiations as simply a tool to achieve Palestinian rights according to the Palestinian viewpoint, and they are not seeking a way to compromise with Israel on essential issues. This follows the Palestinian approach regarding “a peace based on justice” as compared with the Israeli approach of “a peace based on compromise.”

Abbas demands full sovereignty in all the territory conquered by Israel from the Kingdom of Jordan and Egypt in the defensive war it fought in 1967 (“the ’67 lands”), and especially in the area called “eastern Jerusalem,” which includes the Old City, the Temple Mount, the Jewish Quarter, the Western Wall, and other Jewish historical sites.

An Israeli withdrawal from eastern Jerusalem and all the Jewish holy sites located there, in the eyes of Abbas, is an important prerequisite for a political solution, and without this there is no Palestinian leader who has the authority to sign a political agreement with Israel. In the past Abbas presented similar prerequisites regarding other issues under discussion in the negotiations including borders, sovereignty, refugees, and the freeing of Palestinians serving prison sentences in Israel for involvement in terror attacks.

Abbas is determined in his rejection of the request to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and his position is directly connected to the Palestinian position toward the refugees, regarding which he has distanced himself and all the Palestinian institutions from any authority to reach any decisions involving what the Palestinians call “the right of return.”

In his claim that “the right of return” is a “personal right” of every refugee and his descendants for all generations, Abbas is undermining a basic assumption of Israel and the U.S. regarding the political negotiations, according to which he can represent the Palestinian people on the issues at the heart of the conflict and take historic decisions in their name.

This position conforms with the law approved by Abbas in 2008 in his role as “chairman of the PLO Executive Committee” and “president of the Palestinian National Authority.” The law, called “the Law of the Right of Return of the Palestinian Refugees,”2 was approved by the Palestinian parliament and determines, among other things, that:

Para. 2 – The right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes and their property and their receipt of compensation for their suffering is a basic, holy right and is not subject to buying and selling, and is not subject to personal judgment [to make major changes], interpretation, or referendum.

Para. 3 – The right of return is a natural right that is personal, collective, civilian, and political, that is transferred from father to son and is not cancelled over time or through the signing of any agreement, and it cannot be cancelled or given up for any reason.

Para. 5 – It is forbidden to settle the Palestinian refugees or remove them [from their current places] as an alternative to the right of return.

Para. 6 – Anyone who acts in contradiction to this law will be considered as one who has committed serious criminal treason, and will be subject to every criminal and civil punishment that this crime deserves.

The Palestinian strategy has been revealed in full. The current political negotiations, or any future negotiations, cannot bring about a signed, stable, and lasting political agreement that will bring an end to the conflict and all claims. The first Palestinian objective in their order of priorities is to receive full sovereignty on the territory of 1967 – while leaving the conflict wide open.

The problem of the refugees is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and this is seen from the Palestinian perspective as a winning strategic card, through which the Palestinians will be able to wear down the power of the state of Israel even after the establishment of a Palestinian state, and to overcome Israel demographically and turn it over the long term into a part of a single Palestinian state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.

*     *     *
Notes

1. Abbas’ speech in Ramallah, January 10, 2014, http://wafa.ps/arabic/index.php?action=detail&id=166593
2. Law of the Right of Return of the Palestinian Refugees (2008), http://www.jcpa.org.il/Templates/showpage.asp?FID=813&DBID=1&LNGID=2&TMID=99&IID=26093


Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi

Source: http://jcpa.org/abbas-denies-his-authority-to-make-decisions-for-a-lasting-peace/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Israeli Leftists Come for Peace Talks, Get Stoned by Muslims

by Daniel Greenfield

They made history alright

And it’s not the kind of stoned that the Alei Yarok (marijuana legalization party) left favors.
They came in peace. They left with stones. They came to meet ordinary Palestinian Muslims, and unfortunately for them, they found them.

The gathering was to have marked the start of two days of meetings by a grassroots group bringing ordinary Israelis and Palestinians staging together for mock peace talks, organizers said.
Israeli and Palestinian flags were set up in the hotel’s conference room
Palestinians threw rocks Thursday at a West Bank hotel, shattering windows and the conference was cut short and three dozen Israeli participants were rushed out the back door, put on Palestinian police buses and driven to safety, organizers said.

If a bunch of appeasers can’t even safely visit a hotel in Ramallah under Palestinian Authority control, how is this peace process supposed to work?

The activists protested against the presence of Israelis in the city, banging on the main gate and chanting, “Israelis out!” Others chanted, “No to negotiations, no to normalization, this homeland is not for sale” and “Our people want RPG [rocket-propelled grenades], not security coordination.”

RPGs yes, peace no. But don’t worry, the leftist useful idiots have learned nothing.

Rami Cohen said he felt uncomfortable after the stone-throwing, but expressed understanding for the protesters.
“There is more anger here than in Israel because the Palestinians suffer more than us. One day, I hope it will be safe for us here in Ramallah as it is safe for us in Tel Aviv.”

I would like to ask Rami if there is a single Muslim country on this planet where Jews have ever been as safe from racist Muslim violence as Tel Aviv?

There’s an old Jewish joke that unfortunately fits this moment.

In New York there was an old synagogue whose roof was in terrible shape.  The Rabbi got fed up and decided during the next Yom Kippur appeal to convince the congregation to donate money to fix the roof.
The Rabbi started delivering a “fire & brimstone” sermon and banging on the podium, when suddenly a tile fell right on top of the head of a wealthy member of the congregation He stood up and yelled out “Rabbi, I  will donate a thousand dollars to fix the roof”.
The Rabbi raised his hands to the heavens and yelled out “Lord, hit him again!!”

Daniel Greenfield

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/israeli-leftists-come-for-peace-talks-get-stoned-by-muslims

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Obama Lied About Al Qaeda’s Defeat in Iraq

by Daniel Greenfield

“We [withdrew troops] in phases. And because we did it in phases, we were continually able to build up Iraqi forces to a point where when we left the cities, violence didn’t go up in the cities; when we further reduced our footprint, violence didn’t go up. And I have no doubt that that will continue.” – Barack Obama, December 12, 2011
The violence however was actually building up. Al Qaeda in Iraq was neither beaten nor under control at this point. The positive effects still lingering were a result of Bush era measures.

Two weeks after Obama said that, a series of coordinated bombings shook Baghdad with 14 bombs targeting 11 neighborhoods that killed 69 people and wounded hundreds.
Experts warned that Al Qaeda was taking advantage of the withdrawal of US troops.

In Washington, the White House condemned the bombings and said attempts to derail progress in Iraq will fail. Press secretary Jay Carney said the attacks serve no agenda “other than murder and hatred.”
“Such horrible blasts have occurred just one week after the American withdrawal, and then imagine what would happen after one month or one year after the Americans leaving,” said Abdul Rahman Qassim, a 46-year-old lawyer in the northern city of Mosul.

In January 2012, Al Qaeda in Iraq again carried out large scale bombings in Baghdad and across Iraq. The worst of these killed 70 people. An incessant wave of suicide bombs and car bombs, hardly reported in the US media, followed that month.

A surge in attacks since the U.S. pullout has killed more than 200 people last month and raised fears of a reprise of a conflict five years ago that was close to all-out civil war.

That was a year ago. Now Al Qaeda in Iraq is not only a serious terrorist group, but it’s bigger and more powerful than ever. There is little doubt that Obama got the necessary security briefings and that his people chose to spin them, as they did Libya and Egypt, to make the disastrous policies of their boss look good.


Daniel Greenfield

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/obama-lied-about-al-qaedas-defeat-in-iraq/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The Emerging Kurdish Autonomy in Syria

by Michael Rubin


No, this is not a post about the wisdom of using military force in either Iraq or Syria. Long before the decision to go to invade Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, the United States was confronted with a decision about how to approach Kurdish autonomy.

Almost immediately after the George H.W. Bush administration decided to release Iraqi Republican Guards and other POWs captured during Operation Desert Storm, Saddam Hussein ordered his forces to attack both Shi’ite Iraqis in southern Iraq and the Kurds in northern Iraq. At the urging of Turkey, which did not want millions of Kurdish refugees flowing into its territory, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom created a no-fly zone which provided the space necessary for Iraqi Kurds to create their own administration.

I first visited the Iraqi Kurdish safe haven nine years later, spending about nine months there, writing in the New Republic at the time a few dispatches. Iraqi Kurdistan was stable and safe from the violence plaguing the rest of Iraq. Nevertheless, it remained a pariah, suffering not only under international sanctions because it was part of Iraq, but also under Saddam Hussein’s own blockade. While some U.S. diplomats privately encouraged me to go, the more officious ones–for example, a consular officer in Ankara–warned me that she would consider what I was doing illegal because I was using a U.S. passport to travel to what was technically Iraq; I went anyway.

Fast-forward almost 23 years since Iraqi Kurds established their de facto autonomy. Today, as Secretary of State John Kerry visits France to try to coddle and cajole various factions to come to the Geneva II conference later this month, one group is decidedly not invited to attend: The Democratic Union Party (PYD) which controls Rojava, a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian and de facto autonomous zone in northeastern Syria. As I’ve noted here before, in Rojava, children go to school, the shops are open, and men and women go about their business. Christians worship freely, as do Muslims. Not everything is well in Rojava: The Nusra Front and more radical elements of the Syrian opposition have attacked the secular zone repeatedly, but Rojava’s own militia has successfully beat the al-Qaeda affiliates back.

U.S. diplomats say they blacklist the Syrian Kurds for a number of reasons:

• They accuse the Syrian Kurds of not cooperating with the opposition.
• They accuse the PYD’s leader Salih Muslim of cooperating with Bashar al-Assad’s militias.
• They accuse Rojava of marginalizing other Kurdish groups.
• And the State Department is wary of offending Turkey’s sensibilities by recognizing another Kurdish entity on Turkey’s borders.

None of these are good reasons and, indeed, in many cases, they are simply wrong.

The Syrian Kurds do cooperate with the opposition, although they also have warned the United States repeatedly about the growing radicalization of the opposition. This is a message that the State Department has not wanted to hear, and so they have effectively punished the messenger. They also demand that the opposition recognize their own right to autonomy, a demand Iraq’s Kurds long made.

Salih Muslim strongly denies cooperating with Bashar al-Assad’s militia, although he acknowledges talking to all groups. That is effectively what John Kerry has blessed by pushing for Geneva II. Given how the Syrian Kurds have suffered under Baathist rule, PYD officials take special umbrage at the notion that they favor Assad.

The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq does not like Rojava because it does not like competition. Masud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, has never been able to shed his tribal mindset. Many Syrian Kurds do not like the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq because its tribal policies are unattractive to the Syrian Kurdish mindset. In addition, many Syrian Kurds—indeed, the vast majority it seems—favor political groups closer to Turkey’s Kurds. Barzani has the State Department’s ear, however, and seems intent on having the United States take sides in what is effectively an internal Kurdish political dispute.

Turkey, of course, hates Rojava because it opposes Kurdish autonomy and because Rojava maintains close relations with the Kurdistan Workers Party which for years waged an insurgency against Turkey. That insurgency is over, however, and Turkey itself has entered peace talks with the former insurgents. How ironic it is that the State Department bends over backwards for Turkey, a state which has supported al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria, pursued policies that compromise NATO systems to China, and has helped Iran avoid sanctions.

The last thing the United States should do is undercut the only stable, secular, democratic, and functioning section of Syria. But that is exactly what President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry seem intent on doing. Rather than treat Rojava like a pariah, it’s time the United States treats it like a model.


Michael Rubin

Source: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/01/13/repeating-the-iraq-mistake-in-syria/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The Islamization of Belgium and the Netherlands in 2013

by Soeren Kern

In January, the gangland shootings of two young Moroccan men in downtown Amsterdam drew renewed attention to the growing problem of violent crime among Muslim immigrants. The two men were gunned down with AK-47 assault rifles in a shooting the mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, described as reminiscent of "the Wild West."
In March, the Dutch public broadcasting system NOS television reported that the Netherlands has become one of the major European suppliers of Islamic jihadists. According to NOS, about 100 Dutch Muslims are active as jihadists in Syria; most have joined the notorious Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group.

Belgium and the Netherlands have some of the largest Muslim communities in the European Union, in percentage terms.

Belgium is home to an estimated 650,000 Muslims, or around 6% of the overall population, based on an average of several statistical estimates. The Netherlands is home to an estimated 925,000 Muslims, which also works out to around 6% of the overall population. Within the EU, only France (7.5%) has more Muslims in relative terms.

Belgian and Dutch cities have significant Muslim populations, comprised mostly of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants, as well as a growing number of converts to Islam.

The number of Muslims in Brussels—where roughly half of the number of Muslims in Belgium currently live—has reached 300,000, which means that the self-styled "Capital of Europe" is now one of the most Islamic cities in Europe.

In 2013, Muslims made up approximately 26% of the population of metropolitan Brussels, followed by Rotterdam (25%), Amsterdam (24%), Antwerp (17%), The Hague (14%) and Utrecht (13%), according to a panoply of research.

Not coincidentally, Belgium and the Netherlands have been at the forefront of the debate over Muslim immigration and integration in Europe. What follows is a chronological summary of some of the main stories about the rise of Islam in Belgium and the Netherlands during 2013.

In January, the Belgian branch of the Dutch department store chain HEMA lost a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a Muslim shop assistant whose contract was not renewed because she refused to stop wearing a hijab, the traditional Islamic headscarf.

The woman, a Belgian convert to Islam, had been employed as temporary sales staff for two months, during which time she wore the hijab at work. But when customers complained, the store manager asked her to remove the headscarf.

After she refused to comply, HEMA declined to extend her contract in sales, but did offer her an alternative job in its warehouse, where she would not have direct contact with clients. She said the alternative job offer was unsatisfactory and then consulted a lawyer.

Lawyers defending the Belgian shop said that to maintain the "neutral and discreet image of HEMA, the shop did not want employees wearing any kind of religious symbols."

But a labor court in the nearby Belgian city of Tongeren ruled that HEMA did not have a clearly stated policy on headscarves and thus had no valid justification to dismiss the woman. The court ordered HEMA to pay the 21-year-old woman €9,000 ($12,000), the equivalent of six month's salary, as compensation.

According to the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, an NGO that helped bring the woman's case to trial, the main purpose of the legal action was to clarify how far a company can go in seeking to present a "neutral image" to its customers. The NGO believes neutrality cannot be invoked as a genuine and determining occupational requirement, and says it is not self-evident that neutrality can amount to a legitimate goal if and when it is chiefly invoked to please a private company's clients.

Also in January, the gangland shootings of two young Moroccan men in downtown Amsterdam drew renewed attention to the growing problem of violent crime among Muslim immigrants. The two men were gunned down with AK-47 assault rifles in a shooting the mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, described as reminiscent of "the Wild West."

According to the Amsterdam-based newspaper Het Parool, young Moroccans continue their "unstoppable march to become the largest group of violent criminals" in the country, despite decades of government programs aimed at steering young Muslims away from a life of crime. Moroccan gangsters specialize mainly in robberies of banks and jewelry stores, as well as in drug trafficking, according to Het Parool.

Meanwhile, the Dutch newspaper Trouw reported that the Protestant Church of the Netherlands is planning to close up to 800 of its 2,000 churches around the country due to the dwindling number of practicing Christians. Critics of the move say many of these buildings are likely to be converted into mosques.

In February, Members of the Belgian Parliament introduced a bill that would limit the power of Muslim extremists who win elected office at the local or national levels and isolate themselves from the political mainstream.

The move came after members of the newly established Islam Party vowed to implement Islamic Sharia law in Belgium.

Addressing the Belgian Parliament on February 28, Alain Destexhe, an MP with the Reformist Movement [Mouvement Réformateur], the largest French-speaking classical liberal party in Belgium, and Philippe Pivin, a liberal MP who is also the deputy mayor of Koekelberg, a suburb of Brussels, said it is imperative to curb the power of elected Muslims whose beliefs are inconsistent with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled in February 2003 that Islamic Sharia law is "incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy." The court said that a legal system based on Sharia law "would diverge from the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly with regard to the rules on the status of women, and its intervention in all spheres of private and public life in accordance with religious precepts."

Destexhe said the measure is necessary because Muslim politicians in Belgium are creating isolated communities and parallel societies. "The people of the Islam Party refuse to shake hands with women," he said. "They do not want to mix with others in public transport and other communal places. They advocate getting married and wearing a veil at 12 years old, based on Islamic law."

Also in February, the growing problem of rampant anti-Semitism among Muslim high school students in Arnhem, a city in eastern Holland that has a large Muslim population, was brought to the fore after Turkish students interviewed by NTR public television said they approved of the murder of millions of Jews during World War II and called the Jewish Holocaust "a blessing."

The February 24 broadcast of the NTR program "Unauthorized Authority" [Onbevoegd Gezag] shows a 15-year-old Turkish boy saying: "I hate Jews. It is clear. This thought cannot be taken away from me. I am very pleased with what Hitler did to the Jews." (Six minute video here, in Dutch.) The Turkish boys said in the program that many Dutch friends agree with them.

After the creator of the program, Mehmet Sahin, publicly reprimanded the boys, he was forced to go into hiding due to death threats from members of the Muslim community, who accused Sahin of being a "Jewish agent" and a "collaborator."

Dutch public prosecutors said the boy had violated Article 137c of the Dutch Penal Code, which restricts hate speech. But they decided not to prosecute the boy after he said he was sorry for his remarks.

The Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI), an anti-Semitism watchdog group, called on Dutch Education Minister Jet Bussemaker to investigate the rise of anti-Semitic prejudices among high school students in Holland.

Meanwhile, a new research report, entitled "Youth Groups and Violence," found that more than 1,200 youth gangs are active in the Netherlands, and about 300 of these gangs are extremely violent. The report, which was produced under the auspices of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice, said the gangs of mostly Moroccan youths operate on the national and international levels and specialize in muggings, armed robberies, house invasions, violent drug crimes and extortion.

In March, the Dutch public broadcasting system NOS television reported that the Netherlands has become one of the major European suppliers of Islamic jihadists. According to NOS, about 100 Dutch Muslims are active as jihadists in Syria; most have joined the notorious Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group.

As in other European countries, Dutch counter-terrorism experts are worried that Dutch jihadists will bring their war-fighting skills back to the Netherlands.

On March 13, the Dutch government raised its alert level for terrorist attacks from "limited" to "substantial." In a statement, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV), a government agency within the Security and Justice Ministry, said: "The chance of an attack in the Netherlands or against Dutch interests abroad has risen. Close to a hundred individuals have recently left the Netherlands for various countries in Africa and the Middle East, especially Syria." The agency said individuals fighting for radical Islam abroad could return and "inspire others in the Netherlands to follow in their footsteps."

On March 16, the Dutch daily newspaper Trouw reported that the Justice Ministry lacks effective measures at its disposal to prevent Dutch jihadists from embarking on their foreign adventures. The paper noted that Dutch courts have so far been unable to prosecute Dutch jihadists for travelling to foreign battlefields.

Trouw describes the trial in a Rotterdam court of three Dutch Kurds, arrested in November 2012 just before travelling to Syria to join jihadist fighters there. Prosecutors accused the three of "taking preparatory actions for the purpose of committing terrorist offenses." But the case stalled because it was unclear which terrorist actions the three were planning to commit in Syria.

In neighboring Belgium, the daily newspaper De Standaard reported on March 11 that at least 70 members of the outlawed Sharia4Belgium, a Muslim group that wants to turn Belgium into an Islamic state, are actively fighting in Syria. The paper noted that that most of the Belgian jihadists are "young people, between the ages of 17 and 25, who grew up here. They are young people without qualifications and often with criminal records. They come from Antwerp, Brussels, Mechelen and Vilvoorde."

De Standaard reported that the Belgian security services are "particularly concerned about what will happen when the military-trained 'drop-outs,' after the war from Syria, return to our country." The paper added that it has been difficult to prosecute jihadists in Belgian courts, as the uprising against Assad is "generally regarded as legitimate."

The newspaper pointed to a recent court case in the Belgian city of Mechelen, where 13 Muslim extremists were acquitted of being members of a terrorist organization. The court said that although there was evidence that the jihadists travelled to Chechnya in Russia, there was no evidence that they fought there as members of a terrorist group.

On March 26, the center-right newspaper La Libre reported that Wallonia, the French-speaking southern region of Belgium, officially renamed the four major Christian holidays on the Belgian school calendar with secular names in the interests of "administrative simplification."

From now on, school calendars within Belgium's French speaking community will permanently use the following terminology: the Christian holiday previously known as All Saints Day will now be referred to as Autumn Leave; Christmas Vacation is now Winter Vacation; Lenten Vacation is now Rest and Relaxation Leave; and Easter is now Spring Vacation.

Critics of the move to "de-Christianize" the Christian holidays said it reflects an ongoing effort by Belgian politicians to remove Christianity from public life to accommodate a burgeoning Muslim population.

Also in March, several Dutch Moroccan organizations sent a letter to the Labor Party (Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA) in which they threatened to urge Dutch Moroccans to stop supporting the party if it agrees to a proposal by its Minister of Social Affairs, Lodewijk Asscher, to cut social welfare payments to Moroccans who do not live in the Netherlands. Asscher accused the organizations of using an "improper electoral threat."

Meanwhile, the mayor of the Belgian city of Liège, Willy Demeyer (PS), banned a protest march against the construction of a Turkish mega-mosque in the city.

Muslims want to build the largest mosque in Wallonia (the French-speaking region of Belgium) on an 11,000 m² (118,000 ft²) plot. The project consists of a main building with a capacity for 1,000 worshippers, a library, a cafeteria and several shops.

Plans to build two 30 meter (98 foot) minarets were scrapped after opposition from local residents. The new plan involves one 18 meter (60 foot) minaret which will be automatically illuminated during calls to prayer.

In April, more than 200 Belgian police carried out dozens of raids and arrested six Islamists—including Fouad Belkacem (alias Abu Imran), the pugnacious ringleader of a Belgian Salafist group called Sharia4Belgium—suspected of recruiting foreign fighters for the war in Syria.

Fouad Belkacem (alias Abu Imran), the leader of Belgian Salafist group Sharia4Belgium. (Image source: MEMRI TV)

The raids were conducted in the northern port city of Antwerp and in Vilvoorde, which is situated about 20 kilometers north of Brussels, home to most of the young Belgians who are known to have departed for Syria.

According to the public prosecutor's office, the objective of the police operation was two-fold: to deter other volunteer jihadists from departing for Syria, and to determine whether a group known as Sharia4Belgium "is a terrorist group," belonging to which is an offense that carries a 10-year jail term.

The public prosecutor's office said one of those arrested was Belkacem, a well-known Antwerp-based Islamist who is the main spokesman for Sharia4Belgium, and who has long called for turning Belgium into an Islamic state.

Although Belkacem had previously been sentenced to two years in prison in February 2012 for incitement to hatred and violence towards non-Muslims, he was released from prison in February 2013 and allowed to serve the rest of his sentence at home, provided he wore an ankle-strap monitor and promised not to speak with his followers. His re-arrest implies that he violated the terms of his release.

Belgian prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt told a news conference that "the investigation shows that Sharia4Belgium is part of a broad international jihadist movement," accused of providing ideological and martial arts training, organizing violent activities in Belgium and recruiting Islamist fighters for conflicts abroad. Van Der Sypt said Belgian authorities were aware of 33 people with links to Sharia4Belgium who were either fighting with, or on their way to fight with, al-Qaeda-inspired jihadists in Syria.

According to Stanny De Vlieger, the director of the federal judicial police in Antwerp, "The investigation shows that members of Sharia4Belgium have joined Salafi jihadists inspired by al-Qaeda and they appear to have participated in combat and even in the kidnapping and execution of those they call 'infidels.'"

Also in April, a new survey of Muslim youth in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium, found that only 30% of Muslim males between the ages of 15 and 25 feel as though they are accepted by Flemish society. This figure drops to 25% for Muslim females in the same age group.

The survey, published by the daily newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen on April 19, shows that 60% of Muslim youths believe that they will never be integrated into Belgian society. One in three of those surveyed say that he or she has been discriminated against at school, and one in five say they have been discriminated against at work. More than 50% say they have been victims of racism. Although 93% of those surveyed have Belgian citizenship, 42% of them say they consider themselves to be foreigners.

The results were virtually unchanged from a similar survey conducted in 2005, and imply that years of government efforts to make Belgium more multicultural have done nothing to change the minds of Muslim youths.

According to the Flemish Minister for integration, Geert Bourgeois, Muslim youths should work harder and complain less. "That so many young people feel discriminated against and do not feel accepted means that our society still has a lot of work to do. It's actually an 'us-them' story. We as a society can and should still make an extra effort, but conversely, Muslim youth should do more as well. Perhaps an inverted research shows that we just think that young Muslims do not belong because they do not want to belong," Bourgeois said.

In May, the Dutch newspaper Trouw reported that a part of the Schilderswijk district of The Hague has become an Islamic enclave run by fundmentalist Muslims who are forcing Muslims and non-Muslims to comply with Sharia law on the street.

The enclave -- which is known as the Sharia Triangle and also "the point of the sword" -- is home to an estimated 5,000 Muslims who have established a "mini-caliphate" run according to Sharia law. Muslims in the enclave have banned the smoking of cigarettes, the use of alcohol and the sale or consumption of pork on the streets. Muslims have ordered Dutch police out of the neighborhood because the local residents "can solve their problems themselves."

Trouw asked the municipality of The Hague for a response, but could not get a "careful and substantive response" regarding this "complex issue."

Also in May, an opinion poll published by NCRV public television and radio found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of Dutch Muslims believe that Muslims who travel to participate in jihad in Syria are heroes. Most Muslims (75%) surveyed believe that those who want to leave for Syria should be free to do so and do not want them to be arrested and prosecuted. Upon their return, they should be accepted back into Dutch society and their Dutch passports should not be revoked.

In June, the Ibn Ghaldoun Muslim High School in Rotterdam was involved in the biggest exam fraud in Dutch history. At least 27 types of exams were stolen from the school's safe, and then copied and sold, sometimes to students in other towns and cities for between €20 ($27) and €250 ($340).

The investigation began when a French exam was posted online, apparently by a whistleblower trying to demonstrate how easy it was to get hold of advance copies.

Students who saw the advance copies were given an ultimatum to admit their role in the fraud and retake their exams, or face having their diplomas cancelled if they were caught out by the inquiry. Although 26 pupils came forward, Deputy Minister of Education Sander Dekker said he believed more students were involved and called it "very regrettable" that more had not taken up the offer. Police eventually investigated 58 suspects.

In July, Dutch police arrested a 19-year-old Muslim woman who goes by the name Oum Usama ("Mother of Osama") for recruiting Dutch Muslims for the civil war in Syria. Usama, a Dutch national of Somali origin, was arrested in Zoetermeer, a city in western Holland.

The arrest came after complaints by several parents of Dutch Muslims who have traveled to Syria. The arrest led to protests by Muslims outside of Dutch embassies in several European countries. The website "The True Religion" ["De Ware Religie"] published a letter warning of potential retribution for the arrest, including the abduction of Dutch citizens in Muslim countries.

Public prosecutors have said that while authorities cannot stop would-be fighters from leaving the country, they can combat recruitment, which is against the law and carries a sentence of up to four years in jail or a fine of €78,000 ($106,000). Nevertheless, such cases are difficult to prove and there have been no successful prosecutions of Muslims on recruitment charges to date.

Oum Usama was freed after ten days and eventually surfaced in Syria under the name Oum Usama al Muhajirah.

In August, the Catholic University of Leuven, the oldest university in Belgium and one that has been a major contributor to the development of Roman Catholic theology for more than 500 years, announced that it would offer a degree in Islamic theology beginning in 2014.

The decision by KU Leuven, as the university is commonly known, to focus on Islam follows similar moves by other leading universities in Europe and reflects the growing influence of Islam on the continent.

Belgian opinion-shapers cast an overwhelmingly positive light on KU Leuven's decision to teach Islamic theology, a move that has been closely coordinated with the government in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium.

But critics said such efforts to create a "European Islam" are naïve and misguided, and will serve only to contribute to the "mainstreaming" of a religious and political ideology that is intrinsically opposed to all aspects of the European way of life.

Also in August, it emerged that the government of Kuwait was paying the salaries of Muslim leaders in Amsterdam to promote Islam in the Netherlands. According to the newspaper Het Parool, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Islamic Affairs is financing operations of the Blue Mosque situated in the Sloterdijk district of Amsterdam.

According to an analysis published by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Kuwait is tying Dutch and other European Muslims directly into the Muslim Brotherhood through a complex network of financial, non-profit and religious organizations in an effort to fund the growth of radical Islam in the West.

In September, military police at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport suspended a Muslim woman because of fears she could be a danger to national security. The woman, identified only as Sabra R, is part of a team charged with combating terrorism and crime. According to the newspaper De Telegraaf, the security services worried she could be susceptible to the influence of radical Muslims.

Military police became suspicious when the woman failed to tell the security service that one of her relatives gave a statement in relation to the Hofstad group terrorism trial in 2005. The Hofstad group was the codename the Dutch secret service AIVD gave to an Islamist terrorist organization of mostly young Dutch Muslims of mainly North African ancestry.

Also in September, the Dutch government said it would cut funding for the Ibn Ghaldoun Muslim High School in Rotterdam, driving the school into bankruptcy. The school was involved in the biggest exam fraud in Dutch history. The school has since been reopened under a new name, De Opperd.

Meanwhile, a court in Rotterdam determined that the new school cannot force parents to sign a contract in which they not only promise to commit to the Islamic character of the school, but also promise to refrain from speaking to the press. A judge said it was a violation of their right to the freedom of speech.

In October, the lawyer who lost the "hate crime" case against Geert Wilders in June 2011 said he would ask the Dutch Supreme Court to reopen the case. Wilders—the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party—was acquitted of charges of inciting religious hatred against Muslims for comments he made that were critical of Islam.

Lawyer Gerard Spong told the television program Pauw & Witteman on October 21 that he had asked the procurator general to take recourse in the interest of law, a special procedure in which the High Court in hindsight decides if a lower court has explained the law clearly and properly.

Although the ruling of the earlier case would not be affected, Spong said he wants a clear ruling on whether Wilders was guilty of discrimination and inciting hatred with an eye to future similar cases. The procurator general refused a similar request in 2012, but Spong is using a recent report by the Council of Europe to back up his latest effort. That report said the Netherlands is not doing enough to counteract racism.

Separately, Arnoud van Doorn, a former member of Wilders' Freedom Party, said he wants to establish the first Islamic political party in Europe. Van Doorn, who recently converted to Islam, said the party will focus on serving Islam and Muslims not only in the Netherlands but Europe as whole.

Van Doorn was involved in producing the 2008 documentary Fitna, which argued that Islam is prone to violence and bent on world domination. In an interview with the Saudi Gazette, van Doorn said: "I have taken a solemn pledge to work day and night in the service of Islam to atone for my previous sins. I hope that Allah will accept my repentance and forgive me."

Meanwhile, the rector of the Islamic University of Rotterdam (IUR), Ahmet Akgündüz, said he values stoning as an appropriate punishment, according to a report in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

The rector wrote a pamphlet about the political unrest in Turkey, calling opponents of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "enemies of Islam." He said the demonstrations were the work of "people with a Western lifestyle" and said stoning is "one of the prescribed punishments within Islam."

Several MPs demanded clarification from Integration Minister Lodewijk Asscher. They are concerned about the statements because the IUR is recognized by the government as a training institute for imams. The parties want to know what action the minister will take against the university. "With this, you will get imams with hostile views and anti-western values," said Labor MP Keklik Yücel.

In November, the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported that Muslims in Belgium and Holland have set up the website Selefienederland (Netherlands Salafi) to collect thousands of euros for jihadists in Yemen. The website calls for sympathizers to contribute more money for "the Jihad against cursed Shiites."

The fundraising came to light after a 25-year-old Moroccan from Amsterdam named Ibrahim El Bey (aka Brahim Abu Hudayfal) was killed during continued fighting between Sunnis and Shias in Dammaj, a small town in northwestern Yemen. El Bey had traveled to Yemen to study Salafi doctrine at the Dar al-Hadith Institute, a Dammaj-based Koran school that has attracted hundreds of hardcore Salafists from across Europe. A 12-minute documentary about El Bey produced by NOS Public Television can be viewed here (in Dutch only).

Also in November, the newspaper Volkskrant reported on a new phenomenon called "Pop Jihad" in which a growing number of Muslim youths are idolizing the symbols of al-Qaeda, often distributing them on social media. The National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) said the popularization of jihad was a nationwide phenomenon and "extremely worrying."

Meanwhile, Dutch counter-terrorism officials said the seventh Dutch jihad warrior had been slain in Syria. Abu Jandal, a 26-year-old jihadist from Delft, a city in southern Holland, was also known by the pseudonym Abu Fidaa. He was the contact person for an interview with a group of Dutch jihadists that Volkskrant published in June.

In December, Belgian police raided the home of a Muslim hate preacher, Jean-Louis Denis, in Brussels and detained him for allegedly recruiting jihadists to go and fight in Syria. See 13-minute news report here, in French.

The 39-year-old Belgian, who converted to Islam, was involved in an organization that distributed food to poor and homeless people at Brussels North Railway Station. He reportedly approached young Muslims at the station with a view to persuading them to go and fight in Syria.


Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4129/islamization-belgium-netherlands

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.