Demografi & Homo Islamicus

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The Myth Of Soaring Muslim Fertility Rates

It is considered common wisdom among Western analysts that Muslim countries are plagued with large families and ever-swelling masses of young people are a threat to stability. Only problem is all the hard evidence to the contrary.

By Anna Lietti – March 31st, 2012

This story starts with a myth. It is the myth that the Muslim world is uniformly dedicated to making many (too many) babies, and that this has gone on for centuries.

This mythology also has its very own Bible:  “Factors Affecting Muslim Natality,” by Dudley Kirk, an American professor of Population Studies. Published in 1965, this study embodied, scientifically speaking, the notion of a demography unique to Muslim countries that won’t transition to a family model with two children, as it did in the Western world.

Kirk’s theories have influenced this debate in a lasting way. Thirty years later, they were still inspiring Samuel Huntington in his work “The Clash of Civilizations,” where he presents his theory of an eternal conflict between the West and Islam. The demographic threat plays a central role in his thesis.

Mere HER i Worldcrunch.

Demography Is Destiny in Syria

By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi & Oskar Svadkovsky on February 6, 2012

The “peripheralism” and Malthusian underpinnings of an unexpected uprising.

Among the second wave of Arab Spring uprisings that followed Tunisia, Syria was the most spectacular “out of the blue” that suddenly arose in the face of the media and analytic community. Just days before Deraa exploded with protests last March, some analysts were still scrutinizing Syria’s circumstances and declaring the country to be immune from the Arab Spring. Nor did reporters who visited the country spot signs of a brewing storm.

In fact, throughout the Arab Spring, the media and experts repeatedly fell into the same trap of confusing the capital city with the whole country. On the eve of the Islamist landslide in Egypt’s elections various polls and informed individuals were putting the popularity of radical Salafis at between 5% and 10%. The Salafis have indeed won about 10% of the vote… but only in Cairo. Nationwide they took almost 30%, beating even those unrepentant pessimists who were betting on a Muslim Brotherhood spring. In some provinces they grabbed all of 50%.

Mere HER i The American Spectator. The Middle East Forum her. AINA her.

America’s Demographic Future

by Joel Kotkin and Erica Ozuna – January 28, 2012

Perhaps nothing has more defined America and its promise than immigration. In the future, immigration and the consequent development of what Walt Whitman (1855: iv) called “a race of races” will remain one of the country’s greatest assets in the decades to come.

At a time when anti-immigrant fervor has been building, a number of states—including Arizona, Georgia, and Alabama—have enacted draconian laws aimed at apprehending undocumented immigrants. Those laws are widely seen even among legal immigrants and long-term residents as hostile to immigrants. Indeed, newcomers are already leaving those states. This Latino exodus has been happening in once-thriving neighborhoods in Gwinnett and Cobb counties in Georgia—as shown in business closures, arrest statistics, and declining church attendance—caused both by the economy and the increased immigration enforcement (Simmons 2010). Nationwide, there has been a declining number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, a decrease of 1 million from 2007 (Hoefer, Rytina, and Baker 2011).

Mere HER i New Geography eller her i The Cato Journal.

Muslim demographics: Pull and push factors

by Nicolai Sennels on April 1, 2012

In Denmark, 89.1 percent of Muslims vote on the Left. In France the number is 95 percent. And certainly this tendency is the same all over the West. Thus Muslim immigration is in fact the importation of votes for the Left. Therefore it is not surprising that Leftist parties are the ones that work hardest to open our borders to more non-Western immigration. They burden their own countries with weak immigrants from a less civilized culture in order to secure their own reelection. They invite people to our part of the world who have many children and are only able to manage few kinds of jobs, and who will therefore always vote for the socialists.

While our states and municipalities spend billions of Euros, Kroners and Pounds on immigrants, the rest of us have to pay more and more in taxes.

Mere HER hos Jihad Watch.

Re-Engineering Humans: An Old Solution to Climate Change

March 29, 2012 – by Ed Driscoll

It’s no coincidence that global warming took off as an issue just as the Soviet Union fell; it’s top-down centralized government’s last best hope of controlling the masses. And like other forms of totalitarian worldviews, it doubles as a religion as well, as Czech President Vaclav Klaus noted late last year:

“I’m convinced that after years of studying the phenomenon, global warming is not the real issue of temperature,” said Klaus, an economist by training. “That is the issue of a new ideology or a new religion. A religion of climate change or a religion of global warming. This is a religion which tells us that the people are responsible for the current, very small increase in temperatures. And they should be punished.”

Mere HER hos PJ Media.

Andre kilder: Time Magazine,

Sappho & Trykkefrihedsselskabet – artikler og arrangementer

Carsten Niebuhr – islamapologiens danske grundlægger

29. februar 2012 – artikel af Ulla Nørtoft Thomsen

1700-tallets danske arabist Carsten Niebuhr er en berømmet pionér inden for sit felt og har lagt navn til et helt institut. Ulla Nørtoft Thomsen har genlæst hans lovpriste beskrivelse fra Arabien, og hun er ikke imponeret. Hendes vurdering repræsenterer en radikalt ny måde at betragte det berømte værk på: Niebuhrs skildring er et videnskabeligt misfoster, en politisk tåbelighed og en psykologisk gåde. Læs hendes opgør med Niebuhrs ikonstatus.

Mere HER i Sappho.

Sappho-prisen 2012 til Olga Romanova

1. marts 2012

Den russiske dissident, Olga Romanova [...] modtager Sappho-prisen d. 31. marts; Ruslands-kender og redaktør på Weekendavisen, Anna Libak [...], motiverer den.

Prisoverrækkelsen finder sted lørdag, d. 31. marts kl. 15:30 i forlængelse af Trykkefrihedsselskabets generalforsamling.

Mere HER hos Trykkefrihedsselskabet.

Sam Solomon – shariatilhængeren, der blev kristen forkynder

02. marts 2012 – klumme af Katrine Winkel Holm

Katrine Winkel Holm om den farverige eks-muslim Sam Solomon, der senere på måneden kommer til Danmark.

Mere HER i Sappho. Man kan tilmelde sig arrangementet hos Islamkritisk Netværk i Folkekirken HER.

Desuden link til denne uges sharia-toppen af Nicolai Sennels og Udkigsposten af Dan Ritto:

• Sharia-toppen
• Udkigsposten

Interview med Søren Espersen

Søren Espersen: Aldrig igen danske soldater til arabiske borgerkrige – Libyen var en fejl

27.02.2012 – af Lasse Marker

DF’s forsvarsordfører Søren Espersen støttede interventionen i Libyen, fordi ”Gadaffi var i færd med at ville bombe sin egen befolkning.” I Syrien bomber Assad lige nu sin egen befolkning, men Espersen vil ikke intervenere: ”Vi skal lære af de fejl, vi begår [...]

Mere HER i Ræson. Se også disse fra Dansk Folkeparti:

• Pia Kjærsgaards ugebrev
• Søvndal svigter forsikring om klart nej til militært engagement

Andre kilder:  Dansk Folkeparti Pressemeddelelse,

Video & artikler: Michael Coren & Daniel Pipes om Iran, Syrien, Egypten og mere

Fra The Arena den 23. Januar 2012:

Michael Coren & Daniel Pipes Discuss The State Of The Middle East

Og artikler – OBS: Næste artikel findes også på dansk hos Daniel Pipes:

• Ignorer ikke valgsvindel i Egypten
• Audio på engelsk her:

Don’t Ignore Electoral Fraud in Egypt

Egypt’s Lower House election is a sham of the military leadership.

By Daniel Pipes & Cynthia Farahat – January 24, 2012

When Egypt’s Lower House convened on January 23, Islamists held 360 out of its 498 seats, or 72 percent. This astounding figure, however, reflects less the country’s public opinion than it does a ploy by the ruling military leadership to remain in power.

In a recent article (“Egypt’s Sham Election,” December 6) we argued that just as Anwar El-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak in the past “tactically empowered Islamists as a foil to gain Western support, arms, and money,” so do Mohamed Tantawi and his Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) “still play this tired old game.”

Mere HER i National Review Online. Kan også læses her hos Daniel Pipes.

OBS: Næste artikel findes også på dansk hos Daniel Pipes:

• Afslutning på den palæstinensiske “ret til tilbagevenden”
• Audio på engelsk her:

Ending the Palestinian ‘Right of Return’

The Israeli Supreme Court closes an oft-abused marriage loophole.

By Daniel Pipes – January 17, 2012

Between 1967 and 1993, just a few hundred Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza won the right to live in Israel by marrying Israeli Arabs (who constitute nearly one-fifth of Israel’s population) and acquiring Israeli citizenship. Then the Oslo Accords offered a little-noted family-reunification provision that turned this trickle into a river: 137,000 residents of the Palestinian Authority (PA) moved between 1994 and 2002, some of them engaged in either sham or polygamous marriages.

Israel has two major reasons to fear this uncontrolled immigration. First, it presents a security danger. Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet security service, noted in 2005 that of 225 Israeli Arabs involved in terror against Israel, 25 of them, or 11 percent, had legally entered Israel through the family-unification provision. They went on to kill 19 Israelis and wound 83; most notoriously, Shadi Tubasi suicide-bombed Haifa’s Matza Restaurant in 2002 on behalf of Hamas, killing 15.

Mere HER i National Review Online. Kan også læses her hos Daniel Pipes. Family Security Matters her.

OBS: Næste artikel findes også på dansk hos Daniel Pipes:

• Teheran sidder med et wild card til Obamas genvalg
• Audio på engelsk her:

Tehran and Obama’s Reelection

The end of the Iraq war gives Iran a chance to affect the presidential election.

By Daniel Pipes – December 20, 2011

The formal end of the U.S. war in Iraq on December 15 enhances neighboring Iran as a major, unpredictable factor in the U.S. presidential election of 2012.

First, a look back: Iran’s mullahs already had one opportunity to affect American politics, in 1980. Their seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days haunted Pres. Jimmy Carter’s reelection campaign and — thanks to such developments as yellow ribbons, a “Rose Garden” strategy, a failed rescue operation, and ABC’s America Held Hostage program — contributed to his defeat. Ayatollah Khomeini rebuffed Carter’s hopes for an “October surprise” release of the hostages and twisted the knife one final time by freeing them exactly as Ronald Reagan took the presidential oath.

Mere HER i National Review Online. Kan også læses her hos ICJS. Desuden link til denne hos Daniel Pipes (Family Security Matters har en engelsk version her):

• Sydsudan, Israels nye allierede

Oversigt over konflikter mellem shia ~ sunni

Glimrende initiativ:

Overviewing Shi’a-Sunni Conflicts

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi – December 2, 2011

As we approach the end of the first year of what has been called the “Arab Spring,” it is worth examining the nature of Shi’a (Shiite) -Sunni relations in the Middle East. Indeed, commentators such as Patrick Cockburn have been warning that “since the start of the Arab uprisings this year, Shi’a-Sunni hostility has deepened again wherever the two communities seek to live side by side.”

To discuss this issue, a country-by-country survey is useful wherever there are significant Shi’a-Sunni divides in the population.

Mere HER hos Middle East Forum. Kan også læses her hos Arutz Sheva, - også kaldet Israel National News.

Melanie Phillips om prins Philip

Phillips er så godt som altid meget læseværdig:

Hurrah for Philip! Wind power is the most ruinous folly of our age

By Melanie Phillips on 21st November 2011

Once again, Prince Philip has performed an invaluable national service by tilting at windmills — or to be more precise in this case, wind turbines.

In private remarks that found their way into the Press, he apparently said wind turbines were ‘absolutely useless’, completely reliant on subsidies and that those who claimed they were one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable energy believed  in ‘fairytales’.

The Prince’s outburst may have been impolitic but many will be cheering his words. Indeed, he understated his case. For the Government’s promotion of wind-farms is simply off-the-wall crazy from every conceivable point of view.

Mere HER i The Daily Mail. Kan også læses her på Melanie Phillips blog.

Bigotry, revisionism and Baroness Warsi

Melanie Phillips – 15 November 2011

The co-chairman of Britain’s Conservative Party, Sayeeda Warsi, has delivered a speech about antisemitism to the European Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. I am sure that Baroness Warsi means well. I am sure that she is personally genuinely opposed to bigotry and prejudice in any form. I would therefore like to be able to say it was a fine speech. I cannot do so. Despite much in it that was worthy and unexceptionable, in one vital respect it was a travesty – made no more palatable by the fact that many Jews subscribe to precisely the same lethally misguided misapprehension.

This revolves around the comforting but mistaken notion that Jews and Muslims stand shoulder to shoulder against the same threat by racists and bigots. It’s the argument that says ‘antisemitism = Islamophobia’. And it’s the claim that there is nothing intrinsically threatening to Jews within Islam.

All three notions are false. All three notions are promoted by many Jews. All three were to be found in Baroness Warsi’s speech.

Mere HER i The Daily Mail. Melanie Phillips blog her.

How feminism made so many nurses too grand to care

The real reason our hospitals are a disgrace

By Melanie Phillips on 17th October 2011

Back in 2001, when Tony Blair was Prime Minister, I was invited to talk to him about the National Health Service. At that time, he was particularly exercised about reforming the NHS.

Sitting on the Downing Street sofa, I told him that the experience of my frail and elderly mother had left me shocked and aghast.

Mere HER i The Daily Mail. Melanie Phillips blog her.

Andre kilder: Aish,

Og igen: Der er ingen overbefolkning

Det kan ikke siges for tit. Overbefolkning er ikke et problem. En nation skal have bæredygtighed, hvad folketallet anbelanger. Arbejdskraftens reproduktion. Et stabilt fødselstal hos landets oprindelige befolkning må være målet – ungefær 2,1 barn per kvinde for Danmarks vedkommende:

Five Myths About the World’s Population

By Nicholas Eberstadt | November 6, 2011

1. The world is overpopulated.

Sure, 7 billion is a big number. But most serious demographers, economists and population specialists rarely use the term “overpopulation” — because there is no clear demographic definition.

For instance, is Haiti, with an annual population growth rate of 1.3 percent, overpopulated? If it is, then was the United States overpopulated in 1790, when the new country was growing at more than 3 percent per year? And if population density is the correct yardstick, then Monaco, with more than 16,000 people per square kilometer, has a far greater problem than, say, Bangladesh and its 1,000 people per square kilometer.

Back in the 1970s, some scholars tried to estimate the “optimum population” for particular countries, but most gave up. There were too many uncertainties (how much food would the world produce with future technologies?) and too many value judgments (how much parkland is ideal?).

Mere HER hos AEI eller her i The Washington Post.

Andre kilder: djøf-bladet,

Hvad sker der i Syrien?

Tja, man må jo antage, at EU og USA ønsker en stærkere islamisering af Syrien med sharialov, udryddelse af kristne, formummede kvinder og hele balladen. Det er de mål, Vesten (og Danmark) hidtil har realiseret i Libyen, Irak, Bosnien, Kosovo. Afghanistan var stærkt islamiseret i forvejen, her har man dog fået reduceret antallet af vantro betragteligt i den tid, de vestlige styrker har været til stede. Således er den sidste kirke nu blevet jævnet med jorden og Vestens soldater har fået pålagt sharia-adfærd for toiletbesøg. Man må ikke vende røven mod Mekka. Biblen er forbudt.

Vesten har via FN ydet mere eller mindre åbenlys støtte til Hizbollah i Libanon, der jo har et større antal kristne, man kan sætte ind imod. Det må vel være en del af planen? Med samt en svækkelse af eller et angreb på Israel, selvfølgelig. Så i Syrien vil Det Muslimske Broderskab, Al Qaeda og ligende vil jo nok få betragtelig vestlig opbakning. EU-landenes repræsentanter kan jo ikke ligefrem beskyldes for at være tilhængere af demokrati. Som iagttager kan man kun græmme sig. Jihad så langt øjet rækker – Sig månen langsomt hæver:

Syria’s Choice: Murderous Secular Regime or Islamic Fundamentalists

by Khaled Abu Toameh – November 4, 2011

As Syrian dictator Bashar Assad continues to slaughter his people, there are growing indications that the Islamists are increasing their efforts to replace his regime.

What started as a secular Facebook revolution against the Assad regime is now beginning to look more like a jihad [holy war] led by Muslim fundamentalists.

The Muslim Brotherhood is clearly seeking to hijack the anti-Assad protests, in both the political and military fields.

In the past few months, there have been many signs of a “return to Islam” in Syrian society. Large banners urging women to wear the hijab have appeared in Damascus and other main cities and many restaurants and hotels have stopped serving alcohol in keeping with Islamic law. This is in addition to the fact that many of the daily anti-Assad demonstrations are being launched from mosques, especially after Friday prayers.

Mere HER hos Hudson New York. Betragter månens bue, den kun er halv at skue:

Middle East Eclipsed

U.S. policymakers fear a “Shia crescent,” a regional alliance led by Iran. A dawning “Muslim Brotherhood crescent” is far more threatening.

By Lee Smith | November 2, 2011

Until January of this year, U.S. policymakers and American allies feared what Jordan’s King Abdullah II had dubbed the “Shia crescent.” The thinking was that as Iran’s power grew, this strategic alignment of hostile governments would stretch from the Islamic Republic of Iran, through its ally Syria, on to the newly empowered Shia majority in Iraq, and up to the shores of the eastern Mediterranean where it would reach Hezbollah in Lebanon. But that was before pro-American dictators started to fall like dominoes across the region. What we’re looking at now is what some, like historian Martin Kramer, have called a “Muslim Brotherhood crescent.”

Take a look at the map. In last week’s Tunisian elections, the Islamist al-Nahda Party, once outlawed, won 90 out of 217 seats. As goes Tunisia, so goes the Arab Spring. In Libya, several Islamist figures, some of them reportedly aligned with al-Qaida, seem likely to fill the vacuum left by Muammar Qaddafi’s death. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, the region’s oldest Islamist movement, is prepared to compete for 50 percent of the country’s parliamentary seats in elections scheduled for later this month. The exact strength of the Islamist element in the ongoing Syrian uprising remains to be seen, but the contours of this new crescent are already becoming clear.

Mere HER i The Tablet.

Video: Ayaan Hirsi Ali om sharia

Her kan man høre halalhippier, der ævler ad libitum om en sharia, de selv har opfundet. Hvad der findes af dysfunktioner i islamiske lande, er naturligvis hovedsageligt Vestens skyld. Jeg vil foreslå, at man spoler 1 time og 11 minutter frem og hører Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Øvrige deltagere: Chris Walker, David Vishanoff, Emile Sahliyeh, Jill Irvine, Mahmoud Sadri. Fra The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma den 27. oktober 2011:

2011 Giles Symposium Panel Discussion – Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Desuden dette interview:

Corbella: Controversial author urges Muslim Canadians to defend their rights

By Licia Corbella – October 27, 2011

“When people say that the values of Islam are compassion, tolerance and freedom, I look at reality, at real cultures and governments, and I see that it simply isn’t so. People in the West swallow this sort of thing because they have learned not to examine the religions or cultures of minorities too critically, for fear of being called racist. It fascinates them that I am not afraid to do so.”

- Ayaan Hirsi Ali from her book Infidel

I don’t know why her size surprised me so. I suppose I was expecting Ayaan Hirsi Ali to be a giant.

Mere HER i The Calgary Herald.

Reservelink: UStream.

Video: Michael Rubin, Walid Phares, Daniel Pipes, Diana West, Claire Lopez, Efraim Karsh, Elan Journo, John David Lewis, Peter Brookes, Yaron Brook

Om balladen i Mellemøsten fra et interessant panel:

9/11 – A Decade Later – Lessons for the Future

In this panel discussion, titled “Upheavals in the Middle East: Assessing the Political Landscape,” Yaron Brook, President and Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute, Walid Phares, Author and Advisor to the Anti-Terrorism Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, Efraim Karsh, Director at Middle East Forum, and Daniel Pipes, President of Middle East Forum, discuss the political situation of the Middle East in light of the lessons learned since 9/11. Moderated by Elan Journo, Fellow and Director of Policy Research, Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. This event was recorded on September 8, 2011, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Om i islamisk indoktrinering af børn, terrorgrupper, ytringsfrihed, Kurt Westergaard, islam i Afrika og mere:

9/11 – A Decade Later – Lessons for the Future

In this panel discussion, titled “The Islamist Threat: From AfPak to Jyllands-Posten and Times Square,” Peter Brookes, Senior Fellow for National Security Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, John David Lewis, Visiting Associate Professor at Duke University and Diana West, Author and Syndicated Columnist assess the threat posed by radical Islam in light of the lessons learned since 9/11. Moderated by Elan Journo, Fellow and Director of Policy Research at Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. This event was recorded on September 8, 2011, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Om Israel, Iran, Palæstina, medier, shia-islam og mere:

9/11 – A Decade Later – Lessons for the Future

In this panel discussion, titled “Iran, Israel, and the West,” Elan Journo, Fellow and Director of Policy Research at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights Efraim Karsh, Director at Middle East Forum, Claire Lopez, Senior Fellow at Center for Security Policy and Michael Rubin, Resident Scholar at American Enterprise Institute discuss the West’s relationship to Israel and Iran, and what their conflict means to us. Moderated by Yaron Brook, President and Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute. This event was recorded on September 8, 2011, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Audio: Robert Spencer hos The Public Square – igen

Fra The Public Square den 7. oktober 2011 – værter er bla. David Zanotti og Wayne Shepherd:

The Public Square

Islam. Sharia Law for America. Burning American flags and arresting those who stand in protest. Shoe bombers, underwear bombers, the Fort Hood massacre and a Muslim
cleric living in America.

What do these things all have in common? Find out this week on The Public Square as Mr. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch covers the latest developments on Islam and the West.

Startes HER – åbner Windows Media Player. Varighed 45 minutter. Kan også høres her hos blubrry.

I programmet omtales tidligere arrangementer med Robert Spencer. De kan høres her på Veritas Universalis:

• Audio: Robert Spencer on The Public Square

Det var Al Awlaki, der satte Molly Norris på Al Qaedas dødsliste

Det synes jeg li-i-i-g’, man sku’ tage at tænke lidt på:

Molly Norris: Awlaki, killed in drone attack, issued 2010 death threat against ‘Draw Muhammad’ cartoonist

By Michael Cavna – October 3, 2011

It stands out as one of the more memorable e-mails I’ve ever received. The Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki had just placed a Seattle cartoonist on an execution hit list. Federal authorities were talking with the artist about her safety. And the artist was still trying to distance herself from having rendered, months earlier, the “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” cartoon that sparked international controversy. Her e-mail began with two simple words:

“Fatwas suck.”

Talk about your intentional understatement.

Mere HER i The Washington Post.

Andre kilder: The Daily Caller,

Christopher Hitchens om Anwar al-Awlaki, sex, kvinder, humor og Joan Didion

Hitchens er flittig for tiden. Og han skriver om alt muligt:

Citizen Enemies

Those who protest the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki have to say what they would have done instead.

By Christopher Hitchens | Oct. 3, 2011

Probably because it mainly provides the kind of short-term cinematic satisfaction that characterizes the Hellfire terminus, the flashy ending of al-Qaida’s main media star has only led to the reopening of some pressing questions about the nature of the jihadi menace. It has also forced us to confront the idea of words as weapons, and the relationship between ideas and actions, in a world of conscienceless criminal violence that operates without employing any code or precedent of its own.

Mere HER i Slate. Kan også læses her i National Post.

Take my husband . please

Christopher Hitchens | Sept. 17, 2011

Be your gender what it may, you will certainly have heard the following from a female friend who is enumerating the charms of a new (male) squeeze: “He’s really quite cute, and he’s kind to my friends, and he knows all kinds of stuff, and he’s so funny .” (If you yourself are a guy, and you know the man in question, you will often have said to yourself, “Funny? He wouldn’t know a joke if it came served on a bed of lettuce with sauce bearnaise.”) However, there is something that you absolutely never hear from a male friend who is hymning his latest (female) love interest: “She’s a real honey, has a life of her own . (interlude for attributes that are none of your business) . and, man, does she ever make ‘em laugh.”

Mere HER i National Post.

Joan Didion

By Christopher Hitchens – October 2011

In The Year of Magical Thinking, the 2005 best-seller, Joan Didion dissected the trauma of losing her husband, John Gregory Dunne. With Blue Nights, to be published in November by Knopf, she agonizingly explores the heavier blow that followed: the death of their daughter, Quintana Roo. Christopher Hitchens contemplates a tragic achievement.

Mere HER i Vanity Fair.

Inside the Orgone Box

By Christopher Hitchens – September 23, 2011

“Among other members of our cell, I remember Dr. Wilhelm Reich. He . . . had just published a book called ‘The Function of the Orgasm,’ in which he had expounded the theory that the sexual frustration of the proletariat caused a thwarting of its political consciousness; only through a full, uninhibited release of the sexual urge could the working class realize its revolutionary potentialities and historic mission; the whole thing was less cockeyed than it sounds.”

Mere HER i The New York Times.

Audio: Robert Spencer & Peter Boyles om Al-Awlaki

Fra 630 KHOW Radio den 30. september 2011:

Peter Boyles Show

Peter Talks To Robert Spencer About Al Qaeda’s Anwar Al-Awlaki Being Killed In Yemen

Startes HER – åbner Windows Media Player. Varighed små 14 minutter. Derefter fortsætter programmet med lytterkommentarer.

Opdatering den 5. oktober 2011:

U.S. Had Every ‘Right’ to Take Out Al-Awlaki

by  Robert Spencer – October 4, 2011

Anwar al-Awlaki, a desperately evil man who was linked to the 9/11 attacks (he was “spiritual adviser” to a couple of the hijackers) as well as to the Fort Hood jihad murder, the Christmas underwear jihad bombing attempt on an airplane over Detroit, and the Times Square jihad mass murder attempt, has gone to his fiery grave, and some in America are unhappy about it.

Mere HER i Human Events.

Andre kilder: CBS News,

Anwar Al Awlaki dræbt

Vi snupper lige en post om Anwar Al Awlaki. Targeted killing. Farvel til en af Bin Ladens efterfølgere:

Al Awlaki is gone but his Jihadists are multiplying

Walid Phares – September 30, 2011

Imam Anwar al Awlaki held two important positions in the cobweb of international Jihadi terror. First, he was one of the emerging younger leaders of al Qaeda after the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Out of Yemen, from which his family originates, he had built a network of recruits capable of performing missions in the Arabian Peninsula, but also communicating with the Shabab of Somalia and many cells inside the West. His reach in recruitment was as far as Jihadists have been indoctrinated. The Nigerian Abdelmutalib, known as the Christmas day bomber in the US, was also connected to the Yemeni-based cleric. In a sense, al Awlaki was one of the most effective al Qaeda international officers. His loss will undoubtedly be felt –at least for a while – within the ranks of the network.

Mere HER i Family Security Matters. Kan også læses her hos The Cutting Edge. International Analyst Network her. Newsmax her. Se eventuelt også The Daily Mail:

• New York on alert over possible revenge attacks after Bin Laden hunters wipe out Al Qaeda boss who preached hate in America

Eller denne af Frederick W. Kagan i The American:

• Targeted Killings Can’t Be Total Strategy to Defeat al Qaeda

Andre kilder: Wikipedia, Reuters, Fox News, The New York Times, The New York Times, The New York Times, Pajamas Media, National Review Online, Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy,

Opdateret…

Muslimer og krævementalitet

Muslimer vil have halvmånen fjernet fra alle deres flag. Nå nej, det er ikke lige det ærinde, de er ude i:

Immigrants Want Cross Removed from Swiss Flag

by Soeren Kern – September 26, 2011

An immigrant group based in Bern has called for the emblematic white cross to be removed from the Swiss national flag because as a Christian symbol it “no longer corresponds to today’s multicultural Switzerland.”

Ivica Petrusic, the vice president of Second@s Plus, a lobbying group that represents mostly Muslim second-generation foreigners in Switzerland (who colloquially are known as secondos) says the group will launch a nationwide campaign in October to ask Swiss citizens to consider adopting a flag that is less offensive to Muslim immigrants.

In a September 18 interview with the Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung, Petrusic said the cross has a Christian background and while the Christian roots of Switzerland should be respected, “it is necessary to separate church and state” because “Switzerland today has a great religious and cultural diversity. One has to ask if the State wants to continue building up a symbol in which many people no longer believe.”

Mere HER hos Hudson New York.

Amitai Etzioni om det begrebsforvirrede Mellemøsten

Om imamer, meningsmålinger, revolutioner, demokrati og mere:

Toward a Nonviolent, Pluralistic Middle East

September 11: A Decade Later

by Amitai Etzioni – Fall 2011

The 2001 attacks on the United States have intensified the debate that has existed since the dawn of Islam: How is the West to respond to the followers of Muhammad? Some—most famously Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington—held that the contest is between two rather monolithic civilizations that are bound to clash. In a 2007 award acceptance speech at the American Enterprise Institute, Lewis described a history of clashes between Islam and the West. He stated that at first Muslims sought to spread their nascent faith through conquest throughout the then-Christian world; then the Christians invaded the Muslim world (the Crusaders); then the Muslims pushed back into Europe (the Golden Age of Islam); then the West retaliated by colonizing the Muslim world; and now the Muslims are again rising against Christendom by terrorism and flooding Europe with immigrants.[1] Huntington argued that “Islam’s borders are bloody, and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.”[2] By contrast, President George W. Bush stated in the wake of the 9/11 attacks that “Islam is peace,”[3] while British prime minister Tony Blair argued that the problem was not Islam but “extremists trying to hijack it for political purposes.”[4]

Mere HER i Middle East Quarterly.

Mark Steyn om islams og Vestens idioti

Mark Steyn er altid i topform:

The department of Sharia

By Mark Steyn – September 20, 2011

Suppose, for the sake of argument, you share the goal of Osama bin Laden and his surviving lieutenants: In other words, you desire to see the world dominated by a new caliphate. Is it really that helpful to have the livelier lads flying planes into skyscrapers?

As we saw a decade ago, even the most somnolent superpower will feel obliged to respond, and your great warrior sheikh will find himself scuttling over the mountains to hole up in a succession of cramped malodorous “safe houses” with too many child brides, unable to place a phone call or do anything except issue periodic cassette monologues of warmed-over Michael Moore talking points. And one day, eventually, however long it takes, you’re watching infidel porn on your grainy 14″ TV and the door gets kicked in and Seal Team Six are ready for your close-up before you’ve had a chance to dunk your beard in knock-off Grecian Formula.

Mere HER hos SteynOnline.

Video: Irshad Manji & Allan Gregg

Allan Gregg fra TVO har uploadet et par uddrag af et nyt interview med Irshad Manji både på YouTube og på TVO. Fra 8. september 2011:

Irshad Manji on new arab regimes, multiculturalism and a mos

Muslim author and activist Irshad Manji talks briefly about three issues: firstly, the possibility of the new regimes in the Arab world being more hostile to the west; secondly, she believes that in Canada there has been an improvement in the relationship between muslims and non-muslims, although she questions the validity of multiculturalism and thirdly, she talks about the idea of building a mosque at Ground Zero.

Og endnu et interviw – fra februar 2008:

Irshad Manji on her quest for liberal reform of Islam

She’s been called Osama bin Laden’s worst nightmare. Canada’s Irshad Manji. Journalist, feminist, Muslim activist — she’s world renowned as an outspoken advocate for Islamic reform. Manji is the author of “The Trouble with Islam Today” and now she’s come out with a new DVD, “Faith Without Fear”.

Desuden dette fra 2004 – kan også ses på YouTube her. Lyden fejler et eller andet, men det forstyrrer ikke noget videre:

Irshad Manji on the shortcomings of islam

Controversial muslim Irshad Manji, dislikes many aspects of her faith, particularly in regard to human rights. For example, the treatment of women, the use of slavery and the overt anti-semitism . She regrets the hijacking of islam by fundamentalist fanatics. (Originally aired January 2004)

Og flere interview:

I do ask God: ‘Please don’t let my mother have to bury me’

08 September 2011 – Karuna John

Islamic reformist, thinker and author Irshad Manji teaches Moral Courage at New York University’s Robert F Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and has possibly received as many, death threats as Salman Rushdie. Manji’s previous book, The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith earned her international recognition and the tag ‘Osama bin Laden’s worst nightmare’. Her second book Allah, Liberty and Love will probably earn her a new one: ‘The Muslim Zen master’. Her new book aimed towards helping both Muslims and non Muslims realise that dogma and faith are different things. Forty-three-year old Manji, a Canadian citizen of Ugandan Gujrati-Egyptian parentage, grew up in Canada where the family fled to, during Idi Amin’s pogrom targeting Asians, when she was 10. She studied in both secular and religious institutions. Her intrinsic need to confront and question her reading of Islam earned her an expulsion from the religious school, and as a writer has earned her foes and fans in equal numbers. Manji tells Karuna John that she has faith that Muslims are better than what the mullahs give them credit for.

Mere HER hos Tehelka.

I feel safe in New York: Reformist Muslim writer

Madhusree Chatterjee – September 10, 2011

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) Ten years after terror struck New York’s Twin Towers Sep 11, 2001, Islamic writer and reformist Irshad Manji who is of Indian-Egyptian descent finds the US financial powerhouse the safest place to live in.

‘I am grateful for the freedom this country has given me and I will not be silenced,’ Manji, the author of the controversial ‘Allah, Liberty and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom’, told IANS from New York.

Mere HER hos Sify News eller her hos TwoCircles.

Andre kilder: TVO, TVO, TVO, CastRoller, Times of India, EconoManey,

Khat-dronningen

Narkomani er en af hovedforklaringerne på den tredje verdens fattigdom:

Drug Trade In Africa: How The Queen Of Khat Got So Rich

For many Africans khat is a stimulant drug that also stills hunger pangs. But the world’s biggest seller of khat doesn’t fit the typical profile of a drug dealer. Indeed, throughout much of the continent it is legal.

By Philipp Hedemann – August 30th, 2011

For many Africans khat is a stimulant drug that also stills hunger pangs. But the world’s biggest seller of khat doesn’t fit the typical profile of a drug dealer.

In Somaliland, not a lot works. Somaliland is a republic in the north of Somalia, which, although it declared itself a sovereign state, is not internationally recognized as such. But one thing you can count on here: Suhura Ismail’s trucks, driven at breakneck speed, arriving as regular as clockwork every night on the unpaved roads. The trucks are delivering khat, a drug that is mostly forbidden in Europe.

Mere HER i The Worldcrunch.