Antwerp riots: letter of incitement

Source: article in Islam in Europe

"In my previous post I briefly mentioned a letter given out in the AEL anti-Israel demonstration in Antwerp (Belgium).

After the demonstration, a couple of hundred protesters marched towards the Jewish neighborhood, and were held off by police (here and here). The Arab-European League claimed that it was not responsible for the riots that followed.

The Arab-European League, which just a few weeks ago brought Hizbullah representatives to the Belgian parliament to discuss Israel's treatment of Palestinian prisoners, is a pan-Arabic movement which was founded by Dyab Abou-Jahjah. Abou-Jahjah is a member of Hizbullah and in the most recent Israel-Lebanese war went back to Lebanon to fight against Israel.

This letter is unsigned and it is of course impossible to know how many copies were given out or who was responsible for it. However, by telling the reader that redemption will only come when the Muslims fight the Jews, it certainly sets the tone for what happened next.

The letter is shown here and is just barely legible, but several friends helped me decipher it. My translation follows. All emphasis is in the original.

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"The Jews have again perpetrated attacks in Gaza against the Palestinians. Therefore according to the latest statistics published Tuesday evening there are already more than 360 dead and more than 1,700 wounded. It's terrible to see how our brothers and sisters must endure all the violence and hate. While we can only stand by idly, at a moment where we shouldn't think only of ourselves, but also of our brothers and sisters on the other side.

The Jews said that this is just the beginning.

"The bombardments on Gaza are a first phase" emphasized the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert Tuesday.

Our beloved prophet Mohammad [Arabic] said "The Day [ed: day of judgment] will dawn when the Muslims will fight the Jews" (handed down by Moslem). [ed: this phrase is also quoted in the Hamas Charter]. Thus when our Ummah plots together and fights against the damned.

Allah [Arabic] says in in Sura Al-Maeda 54 [51]:

"Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other".

Dear brothers and sisters, do not forget your beloved brothers and sisters in your prayers [dua's].

May Allah [Arabic] let us belong to the victors.

AMEN.

Spread these words as much as possible so that each one of us will be informed and perform as many prayers [dua's] as possible. [Arabic]

Let us only say that we will NOT forget our beloved brothers and sisters, let us therefore ensure that we will be heard.

There remains just one message to share with our fellow-men.

STOP THE VIOLENCE. STOP THE MASSACRE ! [Arabic]"."

Antwerp anti-Jewish riots: "Jihad, Yes We Can"

"How do you protest violence against a civilian population? Attack a civilian population, of course. These riots were expected, given the massive incitement that accompanied the organization of the demonstrations." (Esther @ Islam in Europe blog)

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31 December 2008

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"Many Jews don't dare anymore to go out on the streets in the area of the demonstrators. They fear vandalism and violence. An internal SMS text message service of the Jewish community of Antwerp warns Jews to avoid the areas of the Turnhoutsebaan and the Diamantwijk, reports Michael Freilich of the Jewish newspaper Joods Actueel.

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"The protesters must realize that Antwerp Jews are also Flemish and not Israeli soldiers. They have nothing to do with what is currently happening in the Gaza Strip," says Freilich. According to him the the Jewish community fears that the situation can escalate. "We haven't seen anything like this since 2003, when it also got out of hand," says the chief editor of the Jewish monthly. There's currently no response from politicians, but Freilich's phone is getting many calls from anxious people who don't know what to do.

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During today's demonstration damage was done, also in the Antwerp Diamantwijk (Diamond Center) where many Jews live and work. Today there is no activity in the sector, according to Freilich. Most shops are closed. Meanwhile the riots of isolated groups of protesters moved to Borgerhout and the Turnhoutsebaan area. The police is out in force.

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Hamas flags in Brussels

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There's also an issue of the Hamas flags which were present in the demonstration in Brussels for the suspension of the bombardments on the Gaza Strip. According to Freilich the green flag with the white text of Hamas is a banned symbol in Belgium of a terrorist organization. "Everybody has a right to express his opinion," says Freilich. "We as a community also oppose violence, although the side-comment must be made that everything began by the rocket attacks of Hamas on Israel". (...)"

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This 2-minute video [the riots lasted about 2 hours] shows the middle-aged owner of a car that was completely smashed looking very distressed and mournfully telling the rioters: "But I support your cause! What a shame!". One of the rioters then puts a hand affectionately on the driver's shoulder and runs away ... This is certainly a memorable scene.

.AEL protest in Antwerp (video)

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Source: Islam in Europe and HLN here and here

Antwerp: AEL riots + Video

Antwerp: Arab riots, Jewish neighborhood sealed

Antwerp: Arab riots, Jewish neighborhood sealed

Source: Islam in Europe


"... demonstrators marched towards the Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp, clashing with the police. In particular car windows suffered, but also trams and buses were attacked."
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How do you protest violence against a civilian population? Attack a civilian population, of course. These riots were expected, given the massive incitement that accompanied the organization of the demonstrations.

"The demonstration that the Arab European League (AEL) in Borgerhout (Antwerp) organized against the bombardments of the Gaza Strip, has gotten completely out of hand. After the protest disbanded the demonstrators marched towards the Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp, clashing with the police. In particular car windows suffered, but also trams and buses were attacked.

The AEL held a protest action in the Kerkstraat in Borgerhout from 2pm. The protesters demanded the immediate suspension of the bombardments of the Gaza Strip and of the violence against the civilian population. Already during the demonstration in Borgerhout there were heated moments here and there.

The situation truly got out of hand when the demonstration disbanded at about 3:15pm. A group of protesters then marched towards the Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp. The police had completely closed off the neighborhood upon which started a cat-and-mouse game. The situation threatened to get out of hand and at about 3:25pm the police arrived with more manpower in order to drive out the protesters. At about 4pm the riots moved again to Borgerhout, in the area of the Turnhoutsebaan.

The protesters caused much damage, in particular to car windows but also trams and buses were attacked. The De Lijn bus company is diverting all buses and trams on the Turnhoutsebaan-Carnotstraat-Rooseveltplaats route."

Source: HLN (Dutch)
Photo: AEL website

Arab-European League lashes out at Geert Wilders and MEMRI

Belgium: Charleroi synagogue attacked

Source: Islam in Europe

DHnet speaks of rising tensions between Jews and Muslims. On the one hand, there is no proof these acts were done by Muslims. On the other, Jews are not attacking mosques.

"Tension is increasing between Jews and Muslims in Charleroi.

The synagogue at Pige au Croly street in Chareloi has been the object of a small attack Tuesday afternoon.

The vandals threw a stone through a window before setting fire to the entrance door. Fortunately, the fire did not have time to spread and damage was very limited.

The Museum of the Righteous (musée des Justes), dedicated to all who rescued Jews, wasn't touched, fortunately.

The local police of Charleroi was notified and descended upon the place, together with a lab.

Given the current context in the Middle East and the palpable tensions here between the Muslims and Jewish communities, the minister of the interior was informed of the situation.

Maurice Konopnicki, president of the Jewish community of Charleroi, condemned the hostile action against the synagogue.

"It's painful. I am both shocked and afraid. We are all Carolos [ie, residents of Charleroi], born here, in this country. What's happening in Israel isn't our responsibility. Why then attack us? Our religion deserves to be respected like all others. I hope that this act remains exceptional."

Yet, in the Charleoi region other signs of tensions are sprouting. In Acoz and Lausprelle, on the rue de Villers, a sinister slogan "Israel = assassins" was painted on a bus stop and residence.

These acts were condemned by both the Jewish community and the leaders of the Muslim community."

See also:
Anti-Semitic vandalism in Brussels and Antwerp

Anti-Semitic vandalism in Brussels and Antwerp

Hanukkah candelabrum vandalised in Antwerp, December 27

Anti-Semitic tags on five shops in Anderlecht (Brussels), December 28

Source: CCOJB

Kostas Plevris - Greek Neo-Nazi Author Convicted

"In 1945 the White Race suffered the greatest catastrophe in its history. Hitlerian Germany's epic struggle for dominance by Aryans ended without a victory."

"A Greek court sentenced a neo-Nazi author of an anti-Semitic book to a 14-month suspended sentence, in the first case of its kind in Greece. Constantine Plevris was found guilty of inciting hatred and racial violence with his book The Jews - The Whole Truth.

In his 1,400 page book, Plevris glorifies Hitler and calls for the extermination of the Jews. He declares himself "a Nazi, a fascist, a racist, an anti-democrat, an anti-Semite. Jews are mortal enemies and deserve the firing squad".

"Hitler is only criticized for not clearing Europe of the Jews. Afterwards, history of humankind will accuse him (Hitler) of having done nothing to rid Europe of the Jews, though he could," the author writes.

He adds: "They rightly preserve the camp (Auschwitz) at a good condition, because nobody knows what might happen in the future."

"We thank the Greek justice system for its dignity and for demonstrating that we truly live in a democratic society," president of the Central Jewish Council of Greece, Moisis Constantinis, said after the trial.

Moses Costantinis testified in court that after the book was published, attacks against Jewish sites increased.

Benjamin Albalas, head of the Jewish Community of Athens, said before the court that the book "incites violence and encourages people to kill us."

Defense lawyers said their clients were being persecuted for freely expressing their views.

The Jewish community saw the trial as a key test of the Greek authoritiesʼ determination to deal with anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece issued the following press release: "Regarding the decision of the Athens Court of Appeal for Indictable Offences to find against K. Plevris, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece expresses its contentment with the decision of the Court as it effectively condemns modern-day racism and Nazism in any form. This decision is an instrumental parameter in the on-going, unceasing battle being waged by society and humanity against barbarity and racism, anti-Semitism and fascism".

Mr. Plevris, who plans to appeal, claimed that if he was convicted, it would merely show that the judges had been "bought by the Jews".

On trial together with Plevris, the publisher, the editor and a journalist of the extreme-right weekly newspaper Elefteros Kosmos were found not guilty.

Elefteros Kosmos (Free World) is a marginal extreme right wing weekly with no more than 800 copies in circulation. Plevris is also appearing on a small TV station "Extra".

Once the book was published in May 2006, the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) immediately filled a suite against it under the anti-discrimination law. But a district attorney later dropped the charge of discrimination and instead charged the book with a lesser offence of disseminating false facts.

The anti-Nazi Organization of Greece and the Greek Jewish umbrella organization Central Jewish Board of Greece (CJBG) filled a suit to oblige the district attorney to accept the charge of discrimination.

The trial had a rocky start when district attorney L. Lazarakos moved to have the GHM and the CJBG removed from the trial claiming that no individual Jew was in any immediate danger and that two organizations had no legal claim or standing. The three judges accepted Lazarakosʼs argument.

The district attorney also surprised the court when he called the book "a scientific research" and asked for the acquittal of all defendants. But the court decided with a 2-1 decision to convict Plevris.

It was the first trial in Greece on the recently introduced incitement charges, under the 1979 anti-discrimination law."

An estimated 60,000 Greek Jews, most of the country's prewar Jewish population, were killed by the Nazis during World War II. Around 4,000 Jews live today in Greece."

Source: Greek News
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From The Jews - The Whole Truth :

Adolf Hitler: The tragic leader of the German Third Reich is certainly the most impressive leadership figure of the modern age… Human history will blame Adolf Hitler for the following: 1. He could have rid Europe of the Jews, but did not; 2. He did not use the special chemical weapons, which only Germany possessed, to gain a victory... Because of the defeat of Germany then, the White Race and Europe are at risk now… The day will come when Europeans will either dominate or be destroyed. Either way they will acknowledge that Hitler was right... (p. 881)

Heinrich Himmler: Chief in Command of the SS… facts and arguments verify the high moral standing of the Man who, despite the fact that in one day he could have issued the order for all Jews to be put to death, chose to expel them from Europe so as to rid the continent of the White Race of the non-European Semites.... The SS, in particular the combatant SS (Waffen SS,) were the knights in armor of the modern age, indomitable fighting men from every country in Europe, who sacrificed their lives for the ideal of a New Order for civilized peoples. Unfortunately for the human race, they were defeated… They were all fine examples of faith, discipline and fighting skill, serving the ideals of National Socialism. Their bearing reflected the greatness of their character so only the very best of the Aryan Race were included in the ranks of the SS…. (p. 869)

Joseph Goebbels: One of the brightest minds of the century. A philosopher and fighter with a deep understanding of mass psychology, on every battlefield he vanquished Jewish Bolshevism and headed his country's all out war. (p. 885)

Hitler was blamed for something that did not actually take place. Later the history of humanity will blame him for not ridding Europe of the Jews, though he could have … My dear Jews, I do not ask you to suffer all the things that your holy books tell you that we should suffer from you… You are criminals because that is what your religion has taught you to be. You are murderers because crime is instilled in you from an early age. Therefore we others have the right to deal with you. And that is what we will do. (p. 852)

ZYKLON B, so extensively publicized as the gas used to put Jews to death in the special gas chambers (which have not been found) was merely a poisonous gas used to fumigate the concentration camps … everything else [said about it] is fiction produced for the purposes of propaganda. (p. 1008)

The SS divisions fought with unparalleled heroism. (p. 853)

In 1945 the White Race suffered the greatest catastrophe in its history. Hitlerian Germany's epic struggle for dominance by Aryans ended without a victory. (p. 869)

- K. Plevris: "I am a Nazi and a fascist, I am racist, anti-democratic and I am an anti-Semite"
- Kostas Plevris: Hitler could have rid Europe of the Jews but did not
- Anti-semitism in Greece: Final conviction of "Eleftheros Cosmos"

Madoff scandal: anti-Semitic claims and anti-Semitic counterclaims

This gem - supposedly very funny and insightful - was found in an anti-Semitic Portuguese blog (N.N.*) :

"It has been reported that the American Jew Bernard Madoff will be awarded the Julius Streicher (photo) neo-Nazi gold medal in recognition of his Jewish swindle whereby he robbed [... list of Jews and Jewish organisations ...] and many others."

N.N. blogger then writes that they (only Jews and Jewish organisations) were swindled out of 50 billion US dollars and that this sum is not guaranteed by the American Jewish banking network.

Jews complicit in a huge fraud

So far so good: just classic anti-Semitic tropes, but much too naive and black and white for Portuguese negationist blogger H.D.C.*.

H.D.C. is a really sophisticated thinker who is able to see through layers of Jewish tricks and propaganda. In his blog he mostly uses material written by well-known Jewish useful idiots to promote his negationist views. He commented as follows :

"Don't trust what you read. In fact none of these individuals or organisations has lost a single dollar. It's all a smoke screen."

In other words, the whole thing is a complex Jewish scam. Jews pretend to have been victims of a Jew, but in reality they are complicit, and stand to gain from the fraud in terms of victimhood, money and power !

It's easy to guess who he believes are the genuine victims of the fraud.

* link withheld for obvious reasons.

Anti-Semitism floods Internet after Madoff scandal, Jewish group says

In comparison Pius XII was a saint, by Sean Gannon

"... in 1919 the future Pius XI reported from Poland that the Jews were "perhaps the strongest and most evil influence" there, while 13 years later as pope, he told Mussolini that the Jews of central and eastern Europe posed a threat to Christian society."

Source: Essay by Sean Gannon, TJP

"... recent critics of Vatican policy such as Gary Wills, John Cornwell, James Carroll and Daniel Goldhagen have focused attention on the issue perhaps most damning from a modern perspective - Pius XII's undoubted anti-Semitism - arguing that what Cornwell calls Pius's "secret antipathy" toward Jews helps explain his lack of action on their behalf. Yet the fact is that, however abhorrent, Pius XII's anti-Semitism was utterly unremarkable for a churchman of his time, and was certainly no deeper than that of Pius XI, against whom he is most frequently unfavorably compared regarding his response to Nazism. For example, in 1919 the future Pius XI reported from Poland that the Jews were "perhaps the strongest and most evil influence" there, while 13 years later as pope, he told Mussolini that the Jews of central and eastern Europe posed a threat to Christian society. Even the unpromulgated encyclical, Humani generis unitas, drafted by Jesuit theologians as Pius XI's definitive condemnation of anti-Semitism, warned of "the spiritual dangers to which contact with Jews can expose souls" and stated that Judaism formed an "authentic basis for the social separation of the Jews from the rest of humanity."

Pius XII's anti-Semitism is certainly a stain on his record. But there is simply no evidence that it played any part in determining his wartime decisions. In this, he contrasts starkly with other Catholic authorities whose anti-Semitic ethos led them to directly help the Nazi cause.

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For instance, a majority of Slovak bishops initially justified the deportations of Jews as necessary "to stymie [their] nefarious influence." In Croatia (where 50% of Ustache concentration camp commanders were priests), high-ranking prelates presented the "liberation of the world from the Jews [as] a movement for the renewal of human dignity," while in Lithuania, the hierarchy explicitly instructed the Catholic clergy not to assist the Jews in any way during the Einsatzgruppen killing campaign. Elements of the Polish, Slovenian and Hungarian hierarchies also deliberately fanned anti-Semitism's flames even as their Jewish compatriots were being slaughtered.

Here in Ireland, the Catholic Church's endemic anti-Semitism had more indirect, yet still devastating, consequences. Irish Catholicism had, throughout the 1920s and 1930s, published and preached against the Jews as a deicidal nation which had endured for 2,000 years as "the worm in the rose" of Christendom. And in a country where notions of Irishness and Catholicism were inextricably entwined, the Jews, as enemies of the Church, were by definition enemies of the State, and so religious and non-religious anti-Semitic motifs were synthesized to create one national anti-Jewish ideology. So "Jewish finance" was characterized as a means of enslaving the Irish Catholic nation while Freemasonry and Communism were presented as Jewish-driven vehicles for what Ireland's leading anti-Semitic ideologue Fr. Denis Fahey (most of whose books were prefaced and approved by prominent members of the Irish hierarchy) called "the destruction of Catholic civilization through the perversion of hearts."

Thus Ireland's Rome-based Catholic clergy could warn the Irish ambassador to the Holy See in 1946 that Jewish influence was not just "anti-Christian [but] anti-national and detrimental to the revival of an Irish cultural and religious civilization" - an attitude which may partly explain the Irish colleges' apparent refusal to shelter Jews during the round-up of Roman Jews three years earlier, even as 4,500 were being hidden in other Catholic institutions, 10% of them in the Vatican itself.

The Irish government's response to the increasingly desperate pleas of the chief rabbi of Mandated Palestine and former Irish chief rabbi Yitzhak Halevi Herzog (ironically, one of Pius XII's first defenders) to use its influence to rescue small groups of French and Hungarian Jews was, in the words of historian Shulamit Eliash, "tepid and unenthusiastic." And, mindful of the "numerous protests regarding the number of alien Jews who [had] established themselves" in Ireland, the Ministry of Justice (which had the final say on refugee visas) implemented throughout the Nazi era an immigration policy which explicitly excluded those with what were termed "non-Aryan affiliations."

So while just one Irish Jew actually perished in the Holocaust, one wonders how many of her Continental co-religionists died as a result of Ireland's institutionalization of societal anti-Semitism, which resulted in fewer than 70 Jewish admissions between 1933 and 1945.

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These, the real anti-Semitic sins of Catholic Europe, have all been obscured by the Pius XII sideshow - a sterile debate which will never be resolved even if the Vatican opens all its wartime archives. For, if documents exist there exonerating Pius of the charges against him, they would have long ago been released, while any evidence supporting the claim that he was, in Deborah Dwork's words, "the canonical example of tacit collusion and collaboration" with the Nazis will have long ago been removed.

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It is, then, surely time to let the matter rest."

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The writer is a freelance journalist, writing mainly on Irish and Middle Eastern affairs. He is currently preparing a book on the history of Irish-Israeli relations

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Photo: cover of Dirk Verhofstadt's book about the Pope's conduct during the war : Pius XII and the extermination of the Jews (in Dutch)

The jihadis of Antwerp North

"They were found guilty of historical revisionism, minimising the Holocaust and inciting to racial hatred, in particular against Jews."

Source: Islam in Europe

"Belgian weekly Knack is coming out with a series of articles about radical Islam in Antwerp. The first article is titled "The Jihadis of Antwerp-North" (De jihadi's van Antwerpen-Noord).

A few days after this article appeared, the Belgian federal police moved to act against a suspected local terrorist cell. Abdessatar Dahmane's widow (the imam marrying them is mentioned in the article) was arrested this week. See Belgium: Al-Qaeda cell apprehended and Belgium: "Mother of al-Qaeda in Europe" saved by Belgian secret service."

Excerpts of Antwerp: The Jihadis of Antwerp North (2) translated by Esther

"International Brothers

Whoever went on a weekend to the Ardennes was written down in the notebook of Jemal Fellous, whose brothers Achmed and Nordine were also active at Rissala [a non-profit organization]. The Fellous family had already gotten in trouble with the law several times and were already sentenced for illegal trade and possession of weapons. In the notebooks which were found in Oma mosque you can see who of Jamaat Tabligh's members attended training in recent years outside Antwerp.

Countless weekends in sites both local and abroad are reported there, but also surprisingly many trip of forty days to Pakistan, the aspiration of every radical Muslim who grows up in the West.

The weekends begin mostly with a lecture at the Tulpstraat. The youth mostly don't know then yet where they are going. Often it's mosques in the Netherlands or the suburbs of Paris. But just as well the trip can lead to Liège or Brussels. For tourism there is no time. The youth stay the whole weekend inside the mosque. At night they sleep on the ground in the house of prayer, by the example of the prophet Muhammad. During the day they can expand their network through contact with like-minded people. The rest of the time is spent by praying and listening to the message of the local imam. The discourse is invariably anti-Western, for strengthening their own faith community and against any form of integration.

Two weeks ago the men of Jamaat Tabligh left Tulpstraat to Anderlecht, for a weekend in the mosque where the Centre Islamique Belge is set up. They got lessons from the followers of the famous French imam of Syrian origin, Bassam Ayachi. Ayachi, beter known as "Sheik Bassam" has been one of the most important radical preachers in Brussels for years. Two years ago his son Abdel Rahman Ayachi and webmaster Raphaël Gendron were sentenced to 10 months in prison, half deferred. Additionally both had to pay a fine of 15,000 euro each and 2,5000 euro to the Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism that had lodged a complaint. They were found guilty of historical revisionism, minimising the Holocaust and inciting to racial hatred, in particular against Jews. Meanwhile it isn't going well for the sheik too. He was arrested on November 11th in the Italian port city of Bari. He must answer for being an accomplice to illegal immigration. Five non-EU citizens were found in a hidden compartment of his camper, he had wanted to bring them from the Middle East through Greece into Western Europe. Bassam is known by the French security services as the man who conducted the marriage of Tunisian Abdessatar Dahmane in Brussels, the fake journalist who together with a companion murdered Afghan rebel leader Ahmed Shah Massoud on the eve of September 11."

Read the whole piece here and
Antwerp: The Jihadis of Antwerp North (1)

Antwerp: Youth leave for jihad training in Pakistan

"... youth were incited with anti-Jewish songs and considered the nightly trips as preparations for Holy War."

"Dozens of Muslim youth leave Antwerp every year for Pakistan [Pakistan - well, isn't this a surprise?]. There they are immersed in radical Islam. But also in Belgium they prepare in and out of the mosques for the war with the West.

There are five mosques in Antwerp-North barely several hundred meters from each other. Besides being prayer houses for thousands of moderate Muslims they are also the base for small extremist groups who spread expressly anti-Western ideas. A not unimportant portion of the younger Muslims often leave for Pakistan to be instructed in madrassas or Koran schools. The most important destination for the Antwerp youth is the Haqqania madrassa of Sami Ul-Haq, a head of the Pakistani Islamic Party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. Ul-Haq visited the Khatim-Al-Anbia mosque in Antwerp a couple of years ago. In 2005 he declared in Asia Times that whenever the Taliban put out a call for fighters, he would simply close down the madrassa and send his students off to fight.

The majority of the Antwerp youth return to Belgium after forty days. But here and there there's one, such as Kirgies Abdul Aziz who never come back.

The Belgian security services are aware of the extremist danger of the groups. Some can easily get weapons in Belgium. They also organize "jihad trainings" in the Ardennes for the youth. When a few neighbors from Agimont (next to Dinant) complained about the acts last year and the local police arrived on site, there was little to do. Nonetheless the youth were incited with anti-Jewish songs and considered the nightly trips as preparations for Holy War.

Belgian extremist groups are not limited to Antwerp. In Liège and Brussels mostly young Muslims are occupied with Jihad. They are often led by seemingly well integrated colleagues or older imams. The French sheik of Syrian origin Bassam Ayachi of the Centre Islamique Belge in Anderlecht is one such man. The federal police is happy that they've gotten rid of this dangerous person for a while. Ayachi was arrested in the Italian port city Bari several weeks ago. Five non-EU citizens who had been smuggled from the Middle East to Western Europe were found in a hidden compartment of his camper. In Italy there are very strict punishments for such crimes.

Flemish P. (25) converted to Islam when he was 17. He quickly got in touch with recruiters who very actively sought young recruits for the Holy War. When P. was ready to depart to Pakistan, he finally saw straight. He contacted the Antwerp police and later also became an informant for the State Security Service."

Source: Knack (Dutch) - English version: Islam in Europe

Pakistan's Deal with the Devil, An Incubator of Radical Islamists, Der Spiegel
Belgium: "Mother of al-Qaeda in Europe" saved by Belgian secret service
Minister launches center for Islamic culture in Flanders
Antwerp: The Jihadis of Antwerp North (1)

Germany: death threats against Jewish leader

"The president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Charlotte Knobloch, has long been the target of death threats, hate mail and anti-Semitic Web postings. All previous council presidents required bodyguards, as does Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and the first female president of the 105,000-member Jewish community.

"When I look at the Internet or at my mail, there are people who would like to see me in the cemetery," she told Germany's largest newspaper, Bild, in an interview on November 9.

On Thursday, Yediot Aharonot reported that the threats were ongoing.

A source with close ties to Knobloch told The Jerusalem Post, "There are always people who are writing letters" threatening Knobloch. Her security needs are comparable to those of Chancellor Angela Merkel, i.e., the highest in Germany, the source said.

Knobloch, who was born in Munich in 1932, witnessed the Kristallnacht violence in 1938 and survived the Nazi period in hiding.

At the ground-breaking ceremony she attended for the Munich Synagogue in 2003, neo-Nazis planned to detonate explosives. German police intervened, arresting 10 hardcore neo-Nazis and seizing two handgrenades, 1.7 kilograms of TNT, and 14 kilograms of other explosives.

Knobloch spoke on Wednesday at the dedication of a new synagogue in Schwerin, a small northeastern city, whose synagogue was set ablaze 70 years ago during the state-sponsored anti-Jewish terror campaign. The Schwerin Jewish community numbers more than 1,000, the overwhelming majority of whom immigrated to Germany following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The synagogue and the revival of Jewish life represented a "late triumph" over those "who at one time betrayed, persecuted and destroyed us," she said at the ceremony.

She stressed the danger of mainstream anti-Semitism and said subtle, anti-Jewish prejudices were expressed behind closed doors when alluding to the investment bank Lehman Brothers, which recently went bankrupt. According to Knobloch, this type of anti-Semitism was a telling example of how "the myth of the world Jewish conspiracy is propagated."

While extreme right-wing anti-Semitism remains prevalent, mainstream anti-Semitism among the liberal-left population has been rapidly spreading, and its principal target is Israel. (...)"

Source: The death threats come with the job, article by Benjamin Weinthal, TJP

London gallery shows anti-Semitism in Arab media

Cartoon by Boukhari, in Arabia.com, 7 April 2002
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An exhibition documenting the widespread use of anti-Semitic cartoons in the Arab press opened in London on Tuesday.
.....
"Cartoons and Extremism: Israel and the Jews in Arab and Western Media" will run until January 16, with a possible extension, at the Political Cartoon Gallery in central London.

The exhibition shows the frequent use of classic anti-Semitism to demonize the State of Israel. Appearing in publications across the Arab world, the cartoons revive depictions of Jews as sadistic and bloodthirsty monsters, solely interested in money, power and blood, to use as anti-Israel propaganda.
....
They depict Jews as set apart from the rest of humanity, agents of the devil, all-powerful manipulators, warmongers, killers of prophets and innocents, and the eternal enemies of all mankind.

The exhibition marked the launch of an English-languge version of Belgian academic Dr. Joel Kotek's book, Cartoons and Extremism: Israel and the Jews in Arab and Western Media, published in the UK by Vallentine Mitchell.

The exhibition was curated by the Community Security Trust (CST) and Dr. Simon Cohen. Speaking at the launch, Labor MP Denis MacShane, chairman of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism and author of the recently published book, Globalizing Hatred: The New Anti-Semitism, said the exhibition needed to be seen by the wider world.

"Parliamentarians, journalists and ambassadors in London should find time to come to this exhibition of cartoons to see what is poisoning young minds and promoting hate against Jews and Israel, which is not acceptable for any faith or nation," MacShane said.

CST's director of communications Marc Gardner cited two examples of anti-Semitic imagery in the British press that sparked outrage in the Jewish community and were seen as a modern day revival of the medieval blood libel.

Citing the New Statesman magazine cover of January 14, 2002 - which used a gold Magen David piercing and dominating a prostrate British flag with the title "A kosher conspiracy?" - and a cartoon in The Independent newspaper published on Holocaust Memorial Day 2003, showing then-prime minister Ariel Sharon eating a baby.

"I don't believe that either of these people want to see Jews beaten up or Israel annihilated, but they are very important case studies about the creeping anti-Semitic bias that inevitably shadows overt anti-Israel sentiment," Gardner said.

"These images, for Jews at least, have blatant anti-Semitic resonance, but they came from the most respectable of publishers, both of whom then showed a blatant contempt for mainstream Jewish concerns about contemporary anti-Semitism.

"Yet both cases also show what is perhaps the most important, yet largely unspoken, anti-Semitic canard in Britain today: namely, that local Jewish communal bodies and activists are nothing more than fifth columnists, Zionist outriders for the fundamentally evil State of Israel and its American blood brother. And, when these same Jews then complain about anti-Semitism, doesn't that only prove that they are trying to cover up Israel's indefensible crimes?" he said.

Source: article by Jonny Paul, TJP

Bombay terrorist attacks : Jews had not been killed in India since the Inquisition

Source: India’s Jews - A proud and continuing heritage, free of anti-Semitism by Gary Weiss, Forbes (08.13.07)

Gary Weiss on India's Jews:

"India may be the only country in the world that has been free of anti-Semitic prejudice throughout its history. As the Jewish genealogical journal Avotaynu recently observed in an article on one Indian Jewish group, "The Bene Israel flourished for 2,400 years in a tolerant land that has never known anti-Semitism, and were successful in all aspects of the socio-economic and cultural life of the people of the region.""

Comparing India with Europe, Weiss wrote :

"But in 'backward' India, from the beginning, the Jewish communities have not only been free of discrimination but have dominated the commercial life of every place where they have settled - something that has fed traditional European anti-Semitism."

Thanks to the Portuguese, Indian Jews were not totally free of persecution :

"Kochi's Jews were indeed persecuted -- not by Indians but by the Portuguese, following in the glorious traditions of the Inquisition. With the help of the Hindu maharaja and the Dutch, Kochi's Jewish community rebuilt its synagogue, burned by the Portuguese, in its current location near his maharajah's palace. It has remained there, unmolested, ever since."

Weiss's conclusion:

"I've always had difficulty with Indians when we've discussed anti-Semitism. They don't understand it, and to tell you the truth, I've had difficulty explaining it myself."

- Terrorists who bound and killed at least six at Chabad House 'deliberately targeted' Jewish building
- Background: A rich history now stained with blood

Why Muslim terrorists targeted Jews in Mumbai

"... by targeting a Jewish center, the attackers would win over a large part of the Islamic-Arabic networks that would otherwise have felt unconcerned by attacks that occurred far from their usual area of activity."

"(...) The attack was extremely sophisticated

- An attack of this kind, in an overcrowded city such as Mumbai requires months of location research and planning; that could only have been conducted in a friendly location in order to avoid drawing attention (so, maybe in Pakistan).

- According to early reports, fake uniforms and an ambulance or a police vehicle may have been used for the first attacks (including against the hospital), which again underscores the level of precision of the planning and the high tactical ability of the attackers.

- It seems that the boat used to carry the terrorists near the coast was an Indian fishing boat that had been hijacked fifteen days ago off Pakistan. If this was to be confirmed it would reinforce the idea of the “Pakistani lead.”

- The number of terrorists involved will give an indication of the significance of the operation that some local media have called the “Indian 9-11.” Nonetheless, given that there were at least 5 targets located several kilometres from one another, one can assess that there could be, at least between 20 and 30 attackers involved.

- The selection of the targets was made in a rigorous and clever manner. By attacking a station and a hospital, the terrorists were targeting the population, ensuring a large number of casualties. By getting into two luxurious hotels, they were making sure that they could face British and American nationals, who appeared to have been prime targets, and they were putting the security forces in a nightmarish situation. Taking back the control of a hotel – the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi are very large with hundreds of rooms each – is quite tricky: one has to go room by room, search dozens of hallways and hundreds of installations (bathrooms, restrooms, kitchens etc.) that could be as much traps, and to sort out the terrorist from the hotel guests, and of course keep the collateral damage as low as possible. Lastly, by targeting a Jewish center, the attackers would win over a large part of the Islamic-Arabic networks that would otherwise have felt unconcerned by attacks that occurred far from their usual area of activity."

Source: First lessons of the Mumbai carnage (in pdf), by Claude Moniquet, CEO, ESISC (European Strategic Intelligence & Security Center), Copyright© ESISC 2008

Foreign Ministry confirms deaths of eight Israelis in Mumbai

Greenspan and Bernanke are evidence of Jewish lobby according to Portuguese economist Pedro Arroja

A well-respected Portuguese economist, Professor Pedro Arroja, has gone to great lenghts to devise a method which he believes provides incontrovertible evidence of the existence of the famous "Jewish lobby". For Professor Arroja Jews cause major problems in all societies where they live (they are supposed to be wreaking havoc at present in the United States) and should be kept permanently under the most strict and severe control.

It is worth noting that Professor Arroja is not the crackpot blogger one usual associates with this type of anti-Jewish rhetoric and that he does not hide his views behind the anti-Zionist cloak. A Google search reveals that he heads the economy and management department of the UAL university in Lisbon, owns the Pedro Arroja investment company, and is the editor, with Universidade Lusófona do Porto, of the Governancia magazine. A very well-respected academic indeed.
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He posted his findings (which I have translated) on his blog, Portugal Contemporâneo, under the title Ben Shalom Bernanke:

"The fact is that the two Chairmen of the Federal Reserve who served under the Bush administration are Jewish: Alan Greenspan, was appointed in 1986 by President Reagen, and Ben S. Bernanke, the present Chairman, who replaced Greenspan after being appointed by President Bush.

My question is: assuming that no other considerations or influences played a part, what is the probability that among candidates of equivalent merits and qualifications it is precisely two Jews that were chosen – one after the other - to become Chairmen of the Federal Reserve?

Given that the Jewish community in the USA represents 2.5% of the total population, if follows that the probability that two successive Chairmen of the Fed are Jewish is 0.06%. It is a practical impossibility, but that's what has happened.

It should be pointed out that as a result of the Jewish culture putting a high value on education it produces more men and women of merit than Christian and other non-Jewish cultures. Let’s then suppose that Jews are three times better [i.e. more competent – the choice of the term better is far from innocent] than non-Jews and that, although they only represent 2.5% of the population, the probability of a Jew being apointed Chairman of the Fed is three times greater, i.e. 7.5%. Under the circumstances, what is the probability that two successive Chairmen of the Fed are Jewish? The answer is 0.56%. Once again, this is a practical impossibility, but that's what has happened.

I’ll now put the question differently. How many times has a Jew to be better [more competent] than men and women of other cultures in America (the vast majoritiy being Christian) (…) so that there is a 50% plus probability that "two successive Chairmen of the Fed" are chosen, assuming again that the only criteria is merit, and that no other considerations or pressure play a part?

The answer is 30 times. As it is inconceivable that, on average, Jews are 30 times better [more competent] than Christians, it follows that the choice of Chairmen of the Fed is not exclusively based on merit. Other considerations or pressures play a part."
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Pedro Fontela who blogs at InBetween offers an insightful perspective of Pedro Arroja's success:

"Is Arroja the best we can come up with? Thank the gods no!

His anecdotal theories and prejudices do keep the extreme right wing busy and entertained (by the way in Portugal that sector stretches to include "liberals", meaning supporters of free trade and some sort of anarco-capitalism with corporatism written all over it) he is by no means representative of serious research into any topic – if any doubts remained about the real sympathies of the so called "liberal" sector in Portugal just go around their blogs and read what they write, you’re unlikely to find any condemnation of Arroja’s writings, or racism or anything else for that matter. He is well known and occupies a preeminent social position because sadly in this part of the world being nuts doesn’t disqualify you from polite society or form being taken seriously in academic circles. In fact you can say anything that pops into your head no matter how silly and unjustified as long as you’re politically shrewd and realize to whom you should suck up to in order to keep your position, job and social status. Any foreigner analyzing Portuguese society should understand that social preeminence and merit have nothing to do with each other.

Having said all this that does not mean that there aren’t any credible scholars in Portugal! There are quite a few published ones that are reputable and many more who just don’t get published because they have no connections or backing by an interest group – in fact most promising young scholars end up being pushed out of academia and publishing because the incompetent ones (although well connected) monopolize the resources and vacancies.

In conclusion: there are serious people in Portugal devoting time and energy to issues pertaining to social sciences but they’re unlikely to be well known outside a very restricted circle. There are even more promising scholars who would love the change to work on the same topics but are not given chances for the reasons I mentioned above. And finally, you can stop wasting your breath by coming here proclaiming the nuttiness of Arroja’s theories. These people KNOW about it. They’ve known it for years and in the end it doesn’t matter a bit! In fact most are just too ashamed to publicly admit that they partially agree with him."
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The ghetto is a myth of Jewish victimisation propaganda says Portuguese blogger Pedro Arroja

Pedro Arroja's reaction to the above post:

"What about a little argument of yours, instead of simply labeling mine? I understand that in your country (France, I presume) one is forbidden to discuss Jewish history. Not yet so in my country. P. Arroja"

Euroliberal's reaction (his alter ego or ... Arroja himself ?):

"Actually iSSrael is the most horrendous dictatorship of our time. In the only existing apartheid regime, only less of 40% of the de jure inhabitants (those who have the "good religion") are entitled to vote, so that the religious minority may become a "majority" (like in the apartheid South Africa). iSSrael is the world champion in political prisoners (12.000), most of them without judgment, and extra-judicial executions of members of the oposition to the sionist apartheid regime. A murderous, racist, teocratic, genocidical, neo-nazi dictatorship, and NOT A DEMOCRACY, that's what the little shitty iSSrael really is, GOT IT ? And anti-semitic is what this blog is, as semitic are the arabs, not the turc-kahzar originated (not semitic) askenazin jews... LONG LIVE FREE PALESTINE. DOWN with the nazi-sionist regime."

Belgian Far Right leader sang: "My little Jewish girlfriend ... left her ghetto to be burnt alive"

Belgian Senate member Michel Delacroix and Front National (far right party) leader was caught on video, at what looks like a family party, laughing and singing an antisemitic song containing the following lines:

"My little Jewish girlfriend is in Dachau. She is buried in quicklime. She has left her ghetto to be burnt alive."

He has resigned.

Source: Le Vif-L'Express

Rabbi attacked in Berlin

Source: EJP

"A few days before the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Nazi anti-Jewish pogroms in Germany known as "Kristallnacht", a rabbi in Berlin and 8 rabbinical students were attacked on Saturday night by two hoodlums

Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal, who serves since 11 years as rabbi of Chabad Lubavitch, one of the three Jewish communities of the German capital, was returning in his vehicle with the students after attending a Jewish event in the city when the two aggressors began to chase the rabbi's car.

The two men, driving a Mercedes Benz, braked in front of the rabbi's van and then reversed back towards it while shouting anti-Semitic insults.

"The rabbi then saw the driver light up an unknown object and throw it towards his van," the police said, adding that the rabbi could not explain what the object was.

The students managed to jot down the license plate of the attacking vehicle, which they reported
to the police together with the complaint about the offense.

Shmuel Segal, Rabbi Teichtal’s assistant, expressed the hope that police "would do all within their power to find the criminals." (...)

Last year, a smoke bomb was thrown through a window of the community’s kindergarten and anti-Semitic slogans were spray painted on its walls.

The Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE), which provides assistance to rabbis across Europe, expressed shock at Saturday's aggression.

"We are totally shocked to find time and again, that particularly the country that should have been dispersing messages of tolerance to all European countries, has been once again the arena of a severe anti-Semitic incident," it said.

"We maintain that Berlin must put an end to nationalistic and neo-Nazi organizations within its boundaries, otherwise, we have no guarantee that history will not repeat itself," the Brussels-based centre said."

Related:
- 25% of Germans have an unfavourable opinion of Jews (incl. 4% of very unfavourable)
- Jewish leaders slam recent hate crimes, The Local

Two young boys wearing a kippa attacked in Paris suburb

Source: EJP

Police detained five youths aged between 16 and 21 after the aggression which took place in Vitry-sur-seine, southeast of Paris.

After they came in defense of their two nephews hunted down by a band of 10 youths, a 40-year-old man and his 18-year-old son were severely beaten. According to CRIF [the umbrella representative body of Jewish organisations], the aggressors shouted anti-Semitic insults.

“When police arrived on the spot, the aggressors threatened the two teenagers and shouted anti-Semitic slogans,” CRIF said in a communiqué.

The Jewish body said it was clear that the incident "had nothing to do with conflict between rival bands."

The two wounded persons, who suffered severe bruises and an open eyebrow arch, were brought to hospital but could return home the same night.

According to a police official, there is a “strong suspicion” that the attack was anti-Semitic motivated.

The National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, which monitors anti-Semitic incidents in France, hailed the efficiency of police and asked that the investigation reveals the aggressors’ motivation and the reality of the anti-Semitic nature of the incident.

A northeastern district of Paris that is home to the French capital's biggest Jewish community has seen a rise in anti-Semitic violence in recent months.

Around 600,00 Jews live in France, the largest community in western Europe.

Romania: desecration of Jewish cemetery

Source: EJP

"Around 200 tombstones and 100 monuments were desecrated Thursday in a Jewish cemetery in the south of Romania’s capital Bucharest.

Unknown vandals have knocked over and, in some cases, destroyed the headstones in the cemetery where at least 35,000 Jews are buried, including victims of the Holocaust. It took place during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.

The vandals also smashed windows in the administrative offices of the cemetery.

No anti-Semitic slogans were discovered on the destroyed tombstones, according to police.

Jewish leaders condemned the desecration and said the scale of the destruction suggested the activity was organized — rather than random acts by wayward youths.

Paul Schwartz, spokesman for Romania's Jewish community, called the desecration "the worst act of vandalism in the nation in recent times." (...)"
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Romania has struggled to come to terms with its role in the Nazi extermination of Jews during WWII.

It denied any participation in the Holocaust until an international commission chaired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel said in 2004 that Romanian authorities had killed up to 380,000 Jews in territories under their control. Under pro-Nazi Marshal Ian Antonescu, Romania became a German ally in 1940 but switched sides just before the war ended.

Spanish unique expertise on Jewish bankers' genealogy

Source: ADL report: "Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories Spread Globally As World Markets Grapple With Financial Crisis"

The Anti Defamation League has been reporting on "conspiracy theories linking Jews and Israel to the global financial meltdown". It compiled a snapshot of the "global anti-Semitic reaction that has emerged as a result of the ongoing financial crisis".

"Anti-Semitic expressions in response to the financial crisis are spreading in European and Latin American countries, with many appearing on Web sites as articles or comments from unidentified individuals who are angry and seeking to place blame for the spreading impact of the crisis. Some are accompanied by vicious anti-Semitic caricatures and images."

It is worth noting that in Spain, where anti-Jewish sentiment is among the highest in Europe (46% of Spaniards have an unvavourable opinion of Jews (compared to 9% in the U.K. and 7% in the U.S.) , remarks linking Jews to the crisis are not circumscribed to discussion forums and blogs.

"Spain: Op-eds making reference to Jews and the financial crisis appeared in diario El Pais. While the articles did not directly accuse Jews of causing the crisis, the comments section following the articles contained several anti-Semitic entries. One writer declared, "The crisis is not a financial problem but an economic one … it is what is behind this gruesome scene of savage capitalism of the Zionist students of Milton Friedman."

..

Additionally, several financial Web sites featured articles with anti-Jewish themes, including one stating that "Lehman's management board is made up of Jews who were only interested in results no matter at what price [and they always believed that another bank like Barclays, whose management board members also belong to the Jewish community, would rescue them, but this was not the case]. (Cincodias.com)."

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An unparalled degree of expertise and business acumen based on genealogy:

.

("(...) Carlos Llagostera, socio director de H-Capital (...) 'Según mis informaciones, al consejo de Lehman Brothers, compuesto por judíos, le motivaba únicamente la consecución de resultados. No importaba a qué precio, y siempre pensaron que otra entidad como Barclays, cuyos miembros del consejo de administración también pertenecen a la comunidad judía, iba a acudir a ayudarles, pero no ha sido así'." Cincodias.com (emphasis added))