Month: August 2022

A bag with an explosive charge was found in a Stockholm park during an annual cultural festival and police have opened a preliminary investigation into attempted public destruction, police in Sweden said Monday.

On Sunday, a bag was found and its content was immediately “assessed as dangerous.” The surrounding area was cordoned off and traffic was temporarily rerouted, police said. A bomb squad neutralized the content of the bag on the spot.

“It is only after the investigation at the national forensic center that we can say whether the dangerous object was functional,” said Erik Åkerlund, local police manager.

The police department said it was working “widely,” interviewing witnesses and examining photo and video images. At the moment no one is in custody.

Police said the bag was found at 9:40 p.m. Sunday. The Aftonbladet newspaper said it was left near the Cafe Opera, a famous nightclub.

The five-day Stockholm Culture Festival ended Sunday with a concert by Iranian pop singer Ebi, whose real name is Ebrahim Hamedi and who is a known Iranian dissident. The free festival included musical acts, activities and performances in six areas across the Swedish capital.

Police: Bag found at Stockholm festival had an explosive (startribune.com)

A conservative journal has been taken off the shelves in British retailer WH Smith after a single complaint was filed by a customer seemingly offended by its content, it has emerged.

The latest edition of the European Conservative, an English-language quarterly journal of philosophy, politics, and culture, featured a cartoon that satirized what it perceives to be the overenthusiastic teaching of LGBT content in schools and included a separate interview with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

In a post on the social networking platform, Instagram, the offended customer purported to be “shocked” at what they described as “fascist filth” being sold in a mainstream British retailer.

Their partner chimed in, insisting that they believe “we could all be more open to engaging respectfully with people we disagree with,” before calling on consumers to “consider boycotting” WH Smith until the retailer stops selling the offending magazine.

1/3 Apparently, someone was in @WHSmith and saw our magazines. He was offended by a cartoon, a blurb, and an interview with Viktor Orbán in our Spring and Summer print editions.

That person complained to WH Smith (on Twitter & Insta) and told other people to complain, as well. pic.twitter.com/fWyKAsLxVb

— The European Conservative (@EuroConOfficial) August 21, 2022

The customer, Alexi Kaye Campbell, posted a screenshot of an email exchange between himself and the chain on Saturday, in which the store confirmed it had “taken the decision to remove (the publication) from sale while we are in discussion with the publisher.”

Campbell praised the store for “making the ethical choice… Hatred won’t pass,” he added.

In a tweet on Sunday, the European Conservative confirmed that WH Smith had yet to contact them about the incident and the subsequent censorship of its content.

The publication subsequently posted the offending content on its Twitter account and encouraged users to make their own minds up.

WH Smith are yet to make any public comment on the decision.

https://rmx.news/uk/conservative-publication-censored-by-british-retail-giant-for-publishing-interview-with-viktor-orban-and-promoting-satirical-lgbt-cartoon/

And who can’t dance to the Macarena! @lincspolice All fun down at Lincoln Pride! 😃🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 pic.twitter.com/JC6oXIBHlY

— Lincoln Police (@LincolnPoliceUK) August 20, 2022

A British police force under fire for showing off videos of its officers dancing to the Macarena at a Pride event in Lincoln, England, is unrepentant, insisting that policing “is not just about enforcement and patrol”.

Lincoln Police uploaded footage of four officers dancing in a line at Lincoln Pride on August 21st to Twitter, along with some jaunty text, a happy emoji, and the transgender and gay pride flags.

Predictably, given the poor reception such virtue-signalling stunts at a time when swathes of crimes are going unsolved have had on many previous occasions, they received a strong backlash from social media users.

“Our taxes at work,” quipped Peter Hitchens — the Christian, socially conservative brother of the late liberal atheist Christopher Hitchens, and a prominent British columnist and reporter in his own right — sharing the video with over 180,000 followers.

To put things in context, Hitchens also shared a local media report highlighting the fact that crime in Lincolnshire is up by 10 per cent — with even sharper rises in certain areas of particular concern to the public, including robberies, which are up by 28 per cent, and sexual offences, which are up by 34 per cent.

Lincolnshire Police is adamant that officers dancing the Macarena is a good use of their time, however, with the force posting a lengthy apologia from Chief Constable Chris Haward on its main, verified Twitter account.

“Lincoln Pride is a celebration of inclusivity and representation within the LGBTQ+ community and, as Lincolnshire Police, we are there to support them and build confidence in our service,” Haward insisted.

“I expect my officers and staff to engage with people attending Pride; to chat, laugh, join in, and even dance, where it is appropriate to do so and does not detract from their duties,” he went on — although how four uniformed officers might police a large event while simultaneously standing in a line jiving to ’90s dance song was not explained.

“Policing is not just about enforcement and patrol but about engagement, understanding and being part of the community,” he further declared.

To Lincolnshire Police’s credit, it did not bite back at a critical public as fiercely as some forces have in the past — such as in 2018, when West Yorkshire Police responded to Facebook users mocking them for boasting about an extremely small drugs bust by threatening that “being insulting, abusive or offensive can and will result in a prosecution under the Malicious Communications Act 1988.”

"Policing is not just about enforcement and patrol but about engagement, understanding and being part of the community. We want everyone attending Lincoln Pride to know that we are there for them and that our service to Lincolnshire communities is truly inclusive,

4/5

— Lincolnshire Police (@LincsPolice) August 21, 2022

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/08/22/woke-cops-dance-the-macarena-at-pride-as-crime-wave-grips-uk/

The article in the German “Tageszeitung (TAZ)” appeared exactly one day before the knife attack on Salman Rushdie. It dealt with the issue of whether the Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad was legitimised to fight the Mullah regime in Tehran. Alinejad calls on Iranian women from her exile in New York to take off their headscarves – to protest against religious and patriarchal oppression in Iran.

The answer of the green-left leading media was: No, Alinejad does not have this right. It is true that thousands of women follow her calls and post pictures on social networks. But that, as “TAZ” author Julia Neumann, who specialises in “social justice”, teaches us, is not good – but “damn dangerous”. Neumann is not worried about the Iranian women who accept beatings and prison for their freedom. She is more concerned that Alinejad is using the colonial-era narrative of backward Islam to support Western ideologies.

It suggests “that white men can protect women of colour from men of colour” and “that women must be liberated from the headscarf and thus from Islam”. If you really want to help women in Iran and everywhere else in the world, Neumann concludes, you have to fight global patriarchy, this “construct of global politics, big business, political power and institutions”.
If the mullahs in Tehran had read the article, they might have cheered just as much as they did a day later. Masih Alinejad, like Salman Rushdie, is one of the regime’s mortal enemies. The anti-headscarf activist must fear attacks just as much as the writer. According to the FBI, Iranian agents planned a kidnapping in order to bring Alinejad to trial in her old homeland. Iranian newspapers have also published pictures of her with a rope around her neck.

But how does a newspaper supposedly committed to women’s emancipation like the “TAZ” come to denigrate an activist critical of the regime as a stooge of evil white men and to trivialise a regime that despises women? In the West, Julia Neumann suggests, women are just as oppressed as in Iran. Moreover, men there also have to comply with dress codes and cover their knees and shoulders. And would anyone in the West think of exempting nuns from the headscarf in order to help all women? Of course not.

One could dismiss the “TAZ” article as a slip, as an ideological aberration of a newspaper that has also equated policewomen with trash. But it is about a widespread phenomenon. As in postcolonial university seminars, it has become fashionable in the media to “deconstruct” critiques of Islamist states, symbols and ideologies – as white and racist narratives. These “narratives”, it is suggested to the audience, are based on prejudice and serve only to legitimise white male domination.

Criticism of the headscarf, which primary school girls (have to) wear today even in cities like Zurich and Berlin, is in this logic a racist attack on a collectively and globally oppressed minority. Some Western journalists, academics and politicians therefore defame all critics of Islam as lackeys of right-wing reactionaries, even if, like Masih Alinejad, they have experienced religiously motivated oppression first-hand.

Apologists for conservative to radical Islam, on the other hand, are courted and celebrated for their activism. For example, the Council of Europe, in cooperation with Islamist organisations like Femyso, launched a taxpayer-funded headscarf campaign under the slogan “Freedom is in Hijab”. The same message was also spread by the German broadcasters ARD and ZDF at the beginning of this year. The youth programme “Funk” presented the audience with young women who advertised their religious dress with slogans like “My headscarf, my choice”. The hijab, they said, stood for dignity, anti-racism, discipline and feminism, contrary to all racist prejudices.

There were no dissenting voices, although public broadcasters are obliged to be balanced. The contribution seems all the more strange because ARD and ZDF do report critically on dress codes in other programmes.

The (advertising) programme was produced by the group “Datteltäter”. The group aims to satirically combat prejudices against Muslims, but individual members have repeatedly attracted attention because of their completely lack of irony and proximity to the Islamist milieu. The former “Datteltäter” activist and one-time candidate for a WDR presenter’s job Naomi El-Hassan, for example, took part in the anti-Semitic Al-Kuds march and frequented a mosque in Hamburg which, according to the secret services, is subordinate to the Iranian regime. Another ” Datteltäter” and current “Süddeutsche” contributor, Nour Khelifi, was honoured with awards by the media scene. Among other things, this was because she had ridiculed Islamist influences in Austrian kindergartens that had been identified by a religious educator.

Commenting on the murder attack on Salman Rushdie, Khelifi said: “Salman Rushdie was stabbed to death on open stage & people on Twitter take this as a welcome chance to bring out their most disgusting anti-Muslim racism.” The tweet has since been deleted, but follows the same pattern as the “TAZ” post against Masih Alinejad: what is scandalous is not the Islamist violence. What is scandalous is the racist “narratives” in the West.

Masih Alinejad and Salman Rushdie have repeatedly warned against this supposedly anti-racist double standard. Yet it is increasingly prevalent. Julia Neumann’s reckoning with Masih Alinejad went down badly in the “TAZ” community. The editorial team felt compelled to publish a counter-article by the Iranian-born author and political scientist Gilda Sahebi. Neumann’s relativisations, her comparisons of nuns and her trivialisations, Sahebi writes, are hard to take – and damned dangerous.

https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/masih-alinejad-kaempft-gegen-das-mullah-regime-im-iran-ld.1698330

Underlining the enormous role foreigners play in France’s crime wave, the country’s own Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin acknowledged that 48 percent of criminal acts in France’s biggest city, Paris, were committed by foreigners, while they accounted for 55 percent of crimes in Marseille, and 39 percent in Lyon.

The numbers are even more shocking when it is taken into account that only 7.4 percent of France’s population is foreign-born, meaning foreigners account for an enormously outsized role in crime in some of France’s biggest population centers.

“48 percent of people arrested for acts of delinquency in Paris, 55 percent in Marseille, and 39 percent in Lyon are foreigners. In France, foreigners represent 7.4 percent of the population,” said Darmanin. “Of course, the foreigner is not by nature a criminal. But we have a problem with foreign delinquency.”

Other statistics over the years have shown the outsized role foreigners play, with data from the country’s public transport system showing that foreigners account for 63 percent of those arrested for sexual assault and 92 percent for petty theft.

The category of serious crimes has been growing in France for the last two decades, with murders up 91 percent since 2001. Since that time, millions of migrants have moved to France, leaving the country with the largest Muslim population in Europe, according to Pew Research.

Darmanin, who serves under Emmanuel Macron and is a member of the president’s political party, is under intense pressure due to France’s worsening security situation. He has often presented tough talk on migration and Islamic extremism, but at the same time, his ministry has a horrendous record deporting illegal migrants, including those convicted of serious crimes. Darmanin has also banned patriotic youth organizations that seek restrictions on immigration when they protested what they said were his weak policies on border security.

Darmanin has stepped up some deportations, stating that more than 700 foreign nationals suspected of radicalization have been deported from France in recent months.

“We oppose people like Mr. Iquioussen,” Darmanin stated in an interview for the Le Journal du Dimanche news outlet, referring to the Moroccan-French radical Muslim preacher. “Every time, it is a fight. The more difficult it is, the more I fight.”

“Someone takes a knife and goes after Salman Rushdie, and others arm them mentally. I have not forgotten that he was a radicalized man. (…) Iquioussen is one of those who sow atmospheric jihadism, as Gilles Kepel explains. Therefore, we were surprised by the decision of the administrative court. We are thus appealing to the Council of State,” he commented on Iquioussen’s suspended expulsion.

Darmanin spoke out against the idea put forward at the beginning of the summer by Sacha Houlié, president of the law commission of the National Assembly, who wants to grant the right to vote to foreigners. Houlié is a member of Macron’s party as well.

“I am strongly against it. (…) For me, the right to vote is linked to nationality. And Europeans who vote in local elections can do so because the French can vote by reciprocity in their countries,” he said.

Regarding “urban rodeos,” in which young people mostly of a migrant background race vehicles and do stunts with motorcycle or cars, Darmanin was accused of being in favor of this phenomenon, but he strictly denies it.

“Is this a joke? I live and am elected from Tourcoing, so I am not new to a problem I largely experienced when I was mayor of this town. But, this year, there have been various despicable facts, including this little girl knocked down in Pontoise. These rodeos are criminal acts. They deserve a strong response. Last year, the issue was mortar fire and attacks on firefighters. I note that the state’s response was firm and that these phenomena are much less significant this year,” he said.

According to the minister, France has to apply the two anti-rodeo laws that already exist. He emphasized that urban rodeos are a severe type of crime.

“For this, we must intensify the police presence on the ground. But the fight also involves investigation. For example, now we can use telephone data to prove the links between the arrested person and the motorcycle owner. And the results are there: 2,200 people arrested for rodeos and 1,800 vehicles seized since the beginning of the year. A record!” he added.

Despite the problems presented by foreigners in France, Darmanin claims that the answer is not to pull back on mass immigration, a move most French support.

“A foreigner who commits an act of serious delinquency must be expelled very quickly because he spits on the ground that welcomes him. I know that common-sense French people, those of the working and middle classes, agree with that, whether their name is Robert or Mohamed,” he claimed.

https://rmx.news/article/48-of-criminal-acts-in-paris-are-committed-by-foreigners-55-in-marseille-says-frances-interior-minister/

Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) has asked citizens not to shower so much in the future in order to save on energy during Germany’s gas crisis.

“Even the washcloth is a useful invention,” the Green politician told Südwest-Presse.

He said he sees himself as a role model when it comes to saving energy. “I have an electric car, I have a huge photovoltaic system on the roof.”

He also ordered a pellet heating system for his home. According to contractors, these devices cost an average of between €14,000 and €21,000 in a single-family home. However, there are also much more expensive models.

Wired magazine reports that these devices rely primarily on wood pellets sourced from forests in the southeastern United States. They are then shipped halfway around the world to individuals like Kretschmann despite many scientists arguing that these pellets are just as polluting as coal. Although they come from a renewable resource, forests are cut down across the U.S. to make this resource, and according to Greenpeace, the practice destroyed biodiversity and ruins entire ecosystems. Scientists estimate it takes between 44 to over 100 years for these forests to grow back, and for those worried about climate change, they say this destruction of natural forests will cost the planet immeasurably.

“We usually only heat one room. It’s also healthier if you don’t have the same temperature everywhere in the house,” said Kretschmann.

He was, however, self-critical about his eating habits. “I still have room for improvement when it comes to reducing meat consumption.”

The comments have sparked a massive amount of criticism from the German public and officials.

“Our country faces an energy crisis that threatens the prosperity of millions of people! And what is the answer of the green father Kretschmann? Don’t shower every day: ‘The #Waschlappen is also a useful invention.’ What kind of people actually govern Germany?” asked Gerhard Papke, the president of the German-Hungarian Society in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Unser Land steht vor einer Energiekrise, die den Wohlstand von Millionen Menschen bedroht! Und wie lautet die Antwort des Grünen-Übervaters #Kretschmann? Nicht jeden Tag duschen: „Auch der #Waschlappen ist eine brauchbare Erfindung“. Was für Leute regieren eigentlich Deutschland?

— Gerhard Papke (@PapkeGerhard) August 19, 2022

Most recently, Kretschmann presented a five-point plan to combat the lack of gas in his state. In public buildings, for example, air conditioning systems are to be switched off and the maximum room temperature lowered in winter. Business trips should be made by train if possible.

After the interview, the #Waschlappen hashtag (German for “washcloth”) went viral on Twitter, with over 7,000 tweets.

https://rmx.news/germany/germans-should-use-washcloths-instead-of-taking-showers-so-often-says-german-regional-green-party-pm/

Incentives (benefits, housing, free medical care, etc.) in Germany attract migrants. The Greek-Turkish border is once again becoming the gateway to Europe for asylum seekers.

Last Thursday alone, 1 500 “refugees” tried to cross the border river Evros from Turkey to the EU state of Greece. This was reported by the Greek Minister for Civil Protection, Takis Theodorikakos, at the weekend. The migrants were turned away.

The EU border protection agency Frontex is also recording increasing numbers. The number of illegal border crossings from Turkey to Greece and Bulgaria increased by 133 percent to 22 601 in the first seven months compared to the previous year.

In Greece, about half of irregular crossings occur at the land border with Turkey, which runs mostly along the Evros River in northern Greek Thrace. Smugglers are increasingly choosing this route since the Greek Coast Guard stepped up their patrols along the sea border in the Aegean. In order to stop the influx at the land border, Greece now wants to expand the barriers here as well.

Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis said over the weekend that he was not in favor of a “closed Europe”. But it “cannot be left to the smugglers to decide who is allowed in,” said the minister. Turkey is a safe third country.

Canary Islands: migrant transit area

In West Africa, “travel information” from the traffickers is usually obtained by word of mouth, but also at bus stops, taxis, cafés or hairdressers. Prices for a seat on one of the boats to the Canary Islands vary from $1 500 to $3 000 depending on several factors such as the starting point, the type of boat and the possibility of a second attempt if the boat is intercepted.

A total of 10 347 illegal immigrants have already been picked up this year on 229 boats off Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Tenerife. However, the Canary Islands are only a transit area. The news outlet Kanarenmarkt has repeatedly spoken to migrants in the past few weeks, who have confirmed that they want to continue to Germany.

Lampedusa remains human trafficking hub

On Thursday, a large fishing boat dumped around 300 illegal immigrants on Lampedusa – all men, no women and children. This is just one of the many daily landings in Italy. The EU’s external border protection Frontex has been noticeably absent.

The German government plans to take in the first group of migrants from Italy in August, around 3 500 people in total. Thursday’s arrival was escorted by the Guardia di Finanza so that the boat can safely dock in the port.

https://freewestmedia.com/2022/08/22/migrants-converge-on-greece-canary-islands-lampedusa/

A senior Tory party official has lashed out at election officials in the UK, saying that they “turned a blind eye to voter fraud for fear of offending woke sensibilities”.

Greg Clark, Britain’s so-called Levelling Up secretary, has demanded that election officials in the country stop ignoring voter fraud in the hopes of avoiding causing offence to “woke sensibilities”.

In particular, Clark raised an issue with so-called “family voting”, a practice most commonly found in areas of Britain with large South Asian heritage Muslim populations where often women are coerced into voting for a party or candidate by their husbands or another member of their family or community.

Other forms of voter fraud have also been historically common in areas with large populations of Muslims, with there being confirmed reports of large-scale mail-in voting fraud ranging back to the early 2000s in such areas.

According to a report by The Telegraph, Clark has lashed out at Britain’s Electoral Commission over such voter fraud, saying that “any cultural practice of husbands being allowed to instruct their wives” while inside the voting booth must be stamped out.

“It is completely unacceptable in this age for anyone’s vote to be watched or pressured inside a polling station,” Clarke is reported by the publication as saying, with the Tory party politician emphasising that “the secrecy of the ballot is as important in the 21st century as it was in the 19th”.

“Any cultural practice of husbands being allowed to instruct their wives how to vote is an insult to the hard-fought liberty of female suffrage,” he continued. “The law must be applied equally and fairly to everyone, even if that offends ‘woke’ sensibilities.”

The Telegraph reports that sensitivities to do with race and religion appear to have prevented the Electoral Commission from clamping down on the practice.

The constituency recently returned Muslim executive mayor Mohammad Lutfur Rahman to power, with the former leftist Labour politician regaining his former position after being removed from it and banned from running for office for five years after being found guilty of various corrupt acts.

In particular, a judge ruling on the case said that Rahman had “engaged in personation, false registration, double-voting, [and] tampering with ballot papers”, used public resources for “obvious electioneering”, and even wielded “undue spiritual influence” over the Muslim voters of his constituency, with local Muslim clerics ordering their congregations that it was “the duty of faithful Muslims to vote for Mr Rahman”.

Lutfur Rahman has since once again been embroiled in scandal over his most recent victory, with The Mail reporting that footage has emerged that allegedly appears to show a key campaigner for the Muslim politician urging his fellow campaigners to “collect” votes from elderly and sick voters.

Regardless of the veracity of these accusations, Tower Hamlets is far from the only place in Britain where the integrity of elections in areas with large Muslim populations is under question, with reports emerging all the way back in 2005 of major fraud.

“Marginal, particularly Asian wards were the target of postal vote fraud,” then-elections commissioner Richard Mawrey said at the time, with one constituency having a voter turnout rate of 350 per cent.

The official subsequently accused local Labour party activists of using mail-in voting fraud to counter anti-muslim sentiment drummed up at the time by the Iraq war.

“It would be surprising if similar incidents did not occur in future elections in such areas,” Mawrey went on to comment.

Neither Rahman or the councillors fraudulently elected in Birmingham were brought to book by the Electoral Commission or the police, however, with ordinary voters forced to bring the scandals to court under the Representation of the People Act after they failed to intervene.

UK: Bangladeshi Once Removed from Office for Election Corruption Wins Mayoralty of Tower Hamlets, London https://t.co/7guv9tgApP

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 7, 2022

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/08/22/uk-election-officials-are-ignoring-voter-fraud-by-minorities-out-of-fear/

A difficult fall lies ahead of Europe. Hard times especially await the European Union, which is arrogant and brazen towards those who do not share its liberal left-wing views, but most importantly who do not want a European superstate governed by bureaucrats from Brussels and Berlin.

The European Parliament, dominated by the hysterical left and the European Commission that only considers imperial German interests, are working as a great team in attacking Poland and Hungary. Previously, they got rid of Great Britain, effectively humiliating it until Brexit, and now they impose sanctions on Poland more eagerly than a Russia busy trying to conquer Ukraine.

There is however a problem that might spoil their good mood.

This problem is Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, or Fratelli d’Italia, who is dominating in the polls before the early parliamentary elections announced for Sept. 25. The elections were set up after Mario Draghi’s government was dissolved. Meloni considers him to be a sellout, representing the interests of Big Capital and Brussels. She is hardworking, brave, and does not lose heart, but most important of all, she has clear and distinct views and could lead to a winning right-wing coalition in Italy, a thought that keeps the politicians in Brussels up at night.

They are doing all they can to prevent her victory, which is not much.

They call her a neo-fascist because she opts for a Europe of nations, does not want a Brussels giant ruling over Europe, defends the traditional family, and is for the equality of women without quotas. She is also against accepting mass immigration from Africa, and wants a powerful Italian president elected by all people instead of dealmaking between lawmakers in parliament.

Her supporters quote her words shouted out in Roma: “I am Giorgia! I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian! You will not take it away from me.”

It is worth noting that Meloni strongly criticizes Russia and opts for giving military aid to Ukraine. She is the leader of a conservative faction in the European Parliament that includes other right-wing politicians from the rest of Europe. Representatives of Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) are also in this faction.

One can only imagine the left-wing and liberals’ fury after Draghi’s government fell, opening a window of opportunity for a radical change of Italian politics. Italy, a founder EU state and the third most important country in this organization, following Germany and France, cannot be treated the same way as the countries in the eastern part of the EU.

The Italians could set an example for other countries in which the right-wing is becoming more popular, for instance in Spain. It is now possible that a right-wing’s victory in Italy could help to end the leftist madness seen throughout Europe.

https://rmx.news/commentary/europes-hope-lies-in-italy-and-giorgia-meloni/