BAGHDAD - Sharp differences between Iraq's U.S. administrators and the Iraqi Governing Council over the country's future burst into the open yesterday when leading members of the U.S.-appointed body unanimously declared Islamic law must prevail.
[. . . .] Paul Bremer, the American who heads the coalition provisional authority, which holds power in Iraq, said three days ago that Islam could be a source of inspiration for Iraq's legal system, but he would veto any attempt by the Governing Council to adopt an Islamic legal code.
"Our position is clear," Mr. Bremer said. "It can't be law until I sign it."
[. . . .] Among the laws at risk if Iraq adopts an Islamic legal code are those passed in 1959 that guarantee women equality with men in divorce hearings and inheritance matters. Under Islamic law, it is difficult for women to get divorced and they inherit only half of what a man does.
Protecting women's rights is something Mr. Bremer has spoken about frequently and with great passion.
On the streets of Baghdad it was nearly impossible to find anyone opposed to Iraq adopting an Islamic legal code, but the term means different things to different people.
"It's none of the American invaders' business what we decide about this," said municipal worker Ibrahim Al-Disuqi. "We definitely want Islamic law. It is right that Muslims should follow Islam."
It doesn't do the men any harm, either, does it? Now, Canadians, do you really think that if we allow immigration of enough Muslims here, they won't want the same thing? Think about it. Look at some of my past posts and previous posts today -- and think again. NJC
What are the Optics on This?
Email:
Read the excerpt . . . Add this to Stronach campaign manager John Laschinger's statements in his book about falsifying polls and other tricks to mislead. . . . Is this what we want in our Party? Doesn't the public expect us to be an alternative to the Liberals, not a carbon copy of them? This reflects negatively, not only on the Stronach campaign but the new Conservative Party. This is not at all what we need. R***
A prominent Montreal lawyer convicted in the United States last year on charges of conspiracy and falsifying documents for his role in a $17-million U.S. stock manipulation scheme is co-hosting a private reception tonight for Conservative party leadership contender Belinda Stronach.
[. . . .] In February 2003, Mr. Bloomfield was convicted of one count of conspiracy and 16 counts of falsifying business records after a trial in New York. He was sentenced to pay a $6,000 U.S. fine, put on five years probation, and ordered to perform 500 hours community service in Canada.
His lawyers have appealed the convictions. Mr. Bloomfield said he and his attorneys in New York are certain he will be acquitted.
[. . . .] News of Mr. Bloomfield's association with the Stronach campaign comes after it was revealed that two of five former Quebec Conservative MPs who endorsed her campaign for the leadership last week were embroiled in career-ending political scandals. Gabriel Fontaine was convicted in 1999 of defrauding taxpayers of $100,000, and Michel Cote, a former industry minister, was fired by ex-prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1988 for breaching conflict of interest rules.
Stronach organizers . . . said the candidate herself was unaware of the men's political pasts. [. . . and] he has "no official role" in her campaign.
At his trial, the Manhattan court heard evidence that Mr. Bloomfield and Stuart Creggy, a London lawyer, persuaded a Liberian diplomat to sign documents that falsely said he was the beneficial owner of 16 offshore companies. Those companies were used by U.S. stockbrokers to buy and sell stocks of companies while ratcheting up their prices before selling out at huge profits, in what regulators call a pump and dump scheme. Investors lost millions.
Denmark will crack down on the immigration of Islamic preachers to try to stifle radicalism among its Muslims.
A parliamentary bill does not mention the Islamic faith, but Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, has made the target of the legislation clear in announcing restrictions on "foreign missionaries".
It had been "too easy" for them to get a residence permit, he said.
"That is why we are now putting forward new requirements for residing in the country, like the demand that imams and others have an education and that they be financially self-sufficient."
[. . . .] It adds that foreign missionaries must have formal training and a close relationship to Danish parishioners. Foreign imams will have to show that they have a good knowledge of Danish affairs and practices, a rudimentary knowledge of Danish and an understanding of the country's democratic traditions.
[. . . .] The bill calls for applications from imams unable to satisfy government officers as to their "dignity" to be rejected and for imams already in Denmark and who are found to have incited to racism or other forms of illegal acts to lose their permits.
The bill says those who make statements which are a threat to others, who attack other religious persuasions, incite to violence or make derogatory statements on the base of colour, religion, race, beliefs or sexual persuasion, will be extradited.
[. . . .] Denmark already has one of the strictest immigration and asylum policies in Europe and has slowed the number of foreigners seeking asylum and residence to a trickle.[. . . .]
Just nine weeks before the European Union admits 10 new members, the Government has been debating how Britain should deal with migrants from those countries. Until this week, it has apparently been content with its original decision to institute an "open-door" policy in which citizens of new member states would immediately be entitled to the same rights of habitation and employment as those of established members.
[. . . .] But it is being strongly hinted that the rules for benefit eligibility will be tightened so that only those migrants able and willing to work would be inclined to settle here. [I don't think this will have much effect on some migrants such as the gypsies, the fanatical rabble rousers, the crooks -- since it relies on their inclination and these characters have other reasons for coming. NJC] The current requirement of six months' residence before unemployment and housing benefit can be claimed could, for example, be extended to 18 months in order to prevent the more blatant forms of "benefit tourism".
[. . . .] But even without entitlement to welfare benefits, incoming migrants will put pressures on the health service, and the country's infrastructure. However much their skills might be needed while the economy is expanding, their presence will have a social impact on local communities, and could risk inflaming the resentment which people already feel in the face of what they see as uncontrolled migration.
[. . . .] M Le Pen's home is in the Paris suburb of St Cloud, but he has always garnered most votes in France's conservative south. Illegal immigration from North Africa is a persistent problem along the Mediterranean coast, making M Le Pen's anti-immigrant platform all the more attractive.
In order to stand for election in the region, M Le Pen rented offices in Nice. But local officials say he has not shown that he has paid the taxes which would make him a legal resident. M Le Pen has accused the political establishment of trying to derail his candidacy. His opponents say he is using the issue as a publicity tool.
[. . . .] M Le Pen must present proof of residency to a tribunal in Marseilles on Feb 27. It will rule within three days. If declared ineligible again, he will have no further right to appeal.
The latest opinion polls show M Le Pen behind M Muselier and the Socialist candidate. But polls have traditionally underestimated M Le Pen's tally and he has a real chance if he is allowed to run.
[. . . . ] The NASUWT, which said the ban applied to "any excursion outside the perimeter of the school", has seen three of its members blamed for causing pupils' deaths. [all drownings]
[. . . .] "When something goes wrong, the leader bears a legal responsibility so the finger of blame will almost certainly point at the teachers."
An accident was no longer treated as an accident, he said. Instead, it led to lengthy inquiries by the police, the local education authority and the Health and Safety Executive, the suspension of the teachers involved and extensive publicity.
Because of growing allegations of abuse, the union has also advised members not to give children a lift in their own vehicles, not to place themselves in a "one-to-one situation" with a child and not to drive a minibus on an educational visit.
I wondered how the major propaganda organ of the Liberal government was going to handle the escalating scandals. The CBC made the mistake of allowing a free flow of callers on Cross Canada Check-up to tackle Paul Martin. It was a bloodbath. My favourite comment was from the woman who said, "I have always voted Liberal; now I am your worst nightmare." From my watching I would say that 80% were extremely critical. Rex Murphy was excellent as the host; he should be made the CEO of the corporation. Tuesday, I saw the tide turning. First, Lorne Saxburg suggested that John Byrden was quitting the Liberals out of pique about Chretien being forced out. Byrden's accusations of Liberal arrogance and rank expediency obviously didn't wash with Saxburg. Then my Maritime blog buddy alerted me to the local news there. Of three people interviewed--randomly, you understand--all thought Paul was getting a bum rap. One even quoted The Globe and Mail as saying that Sheila Fraser was riding some kind of cult of personality--sort of a Kim Jong Il of Canada, without the massed missiles parades, the stadium ceremonies or the elevator shoes.
The CBC has much to lose if the Liberals flame out. The Canadian Alliance had gone on record as opposing the public funding of CBC TV. They see it as an extravagant waste of the taxpayers' money. Alarm bells are ringing at CBC. Anything but that party; even if it means that the NDP wins and the network shows nothing but endless loops of Rough Cuts, The Nature of Things, and The Passionate Eye, with Michelle Jean as president, and Julie Van Dusen as program director. And don't expect much from CTV, because the Liberals have their hands on their jugular veins, as well, through the CRTC and government film grants.
Jean Chretien believed in strangling his opponents; Martin adheres to that old Vietnam proverb: Grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow. CBC is already feeling that grip. Watch for the their positive spin to hit mach-3.
(copyright) Bud--Hoping to be in "the man on the street" interview and not hit the cutting room floor.
Yes, you can go home again
The National Post (Feb. 18, A10) had an article about the ever-tolerant Dutch saying "Enough is enough!" The parliament has authorized the deportation of 26,000 illegal foreigners--which is less than the 40,000-odd deportees that Canada has lost track of lately. The ghost of Pym Fortuyn, the assassinated right-wing [common sense, I would say -- NJC] politician, has come back to haunt the issue of refugees' acceptance. Fortuyn's party saw the threat of an uncontrolled immigration and refugee policy. Already 50% of Rotterdam's population is of foreign extraction. The rate of assimilation, especially among Muslims, is almost non-existent. The liberal attitudes of Holland are being eroded by the newcomers. As one commentator recently stated, "We do not want a Taliban state here."
It goes without saying that the human rights groups are in full spate, flooding indignation about this decree. They, like their Canadian counterparts, go on about "the tradition of succouring the beknighted poor of the world". The working class Dutch citizens responded with "good riddance". The government is not backing down on this decision. "A parliamentary report last month concluded the country's 30 year experiment in tolerant multi-culturalism has been a failure, ending in violence and ethnic ghettoes -- whose residents that shun inter-marriage with the Dutch. . . The consequence of this was brought home after September, 11, 2001, when the intelligence service discovered that al-Queda was stealthily taking root in Dutch society."
All across Western Europe there is the rather late-dawning realization that bringing in people from cultures that are alien to the idea of diversity and religious freedom has been a mistake. While I don't agree with France's proposal to ban all religious garb in schools, I can see where they are coming from. Six million Muslims who are resistent to assimilation have created an enormous problem for the country. The statistic I read months ago about Muslim youth stealing 1,600 cars and then burning them in Strasbourg is a frightening symbol of rage. Then I get in a rage myself, when I think of our own country's mindless immigration and refugee policies. Despite the terrorist attack of 9/11, Liberal decisions and Canada's appointed IRB boards have allowed thousands of Muslim "refugees" into our country, many without a shred of documentation. We don't know who they are or where they've gone. Besides this danger to Canadians, the Americans are stiffening our admittance into their country. While it is inconvenient for me, I certainly understand it. The government claims they are on top of this situation. Sure, just like they were on top of the HRDC and sponsorship scandals! The ethnic vote goes mainly to the Liberals; hence, nothing will be done to stem their flow (mainly into three cities). The cynicism of it is flabbergasting.
In a related article on the same page there is an article on the European Union admitting 10 new countries in May. As most of these new entries will be from impoverished Eastern Europe, the influx to the prosperous nations of Western Europe will be earth-shattering in its consequences. To allow the uncontrolled flow of millions of people, who are only in the last decade experiencing anything like democracy, could overwhelm the accepting states. Blair and Jack Straw have had to hold emergency meetings with cabinet to confront the myriad problems that would arise. Some of these problems are related to health. AIDS and TB are rife in the countries of some of the new EU members; as well, there is the fear that Gypsies will move en-mass to exploit the benefits of a welfare state like England. Even Romania's Ceaucescu could not fully control the Gypsies and their lawlessness. This is not an issue that Labour wants to face in the next election. In almost panic mode, ministers are trying to draft legislation to stem so-called "benefit tourism".
But the Tory opposition points out that, "With average wage levels in Eastern Europe less than half the minimum wage, many of the 75 million citizens will wish to come to Britain, irrespective of benefits." I, like the Tories, see this idea as socialist naivete run amok.
(copyright) Bud--Thinking that the West has a built-in suicide gene
***A [Dutch] parliamentary report last month concluded that the country's 30-year experiment in tolerant multiculturalism had been a failure, ending in sink schools, violence, and ethnic ghettoes that shun inter-marriage with the Dutch.***
[. . . .] The government has granted an amnesty for 2,300 high-risk asylum cases, far fewer than the 8,000 demanded by the Labour opposition.
About 26,000 will be stripped of their asylum benefits and ultimately put on aircraft back home. These include Afghans, Somalis and Chechens facing civil wars or regions where there is no functioning government.
The law applies to asylum seekers who arrived before April 1, 2001, and have exhausted their appeals.[. . . .]
[Human Rights Watch] accused Holland of . . . violating the convention on the rights of the child.
The Dutch Council of State ruled two years ago that the convention does not apply to children of immigrants who have no right to residence in Holland [. . . .]"
The Christian-Democrat/Liberal coalition was in no mood to back down yesterday, blocking all moves to soften the law. While the mass deportation has horrified the soft-Left enclaves of Amsterdam and Utrecht, it has gone down well in working-class areas most threatened by the rising unemployment.
The working class--with less money and fewer advantages--is usually less insulated from the problems because they live in the poorer areas to which refugees and poor immigrants repair; they cannot afford to move. Middle class money brings residence in more spacious, pleasanter and safer residential areas, usually with better schools, spaces between neighbours, trees -- that whole panoply of inviting, safe surroundings with advantages for their children for which people work. The working class undoubtedly live in closer proximity to the problems that unfettered migration combined with official multiculturalism policies bring -- policies allowing ill educated newcomers not to integrate because they are often encouraged to keep their schools, language, customs, intolerance--if they are intolerant--and general attitudes. NJC
[. . . .] New asylum applications have already fallen steeply from 43,560 in 2000 to an estimated 10,000 last year, but the scale of past immigration - mostly through family reunion - has stirred fears that Dutch society is spiralling out of control.
A parliamentary report last month concluded that the country's 30-year experiment in tolerant multiculturalism had been a failure, ending in sink schools, violence, and ethnic ghettoes that shun inter-marriage with the Dutch.
It found that 70-80 per cent of third-generation Dutch-born immigrants brought in their spouse from their "home" countries, mostly Turkey and Morocco. [Note: that is third generation! NJC ]
The consequences of this were brought home after September 11, 2001 when the intelligence service discovered that al-Qa'eda was "stealthily taking root in Dutch society".
Immigrants already make up almost 50 per cent of Rotterdam . . . . the launching pad for Mr Fortuyn's mass movement, which drew from both Left and Right warning that radical Islam posed a threat to Holland's easy-going liberal values.
Unfortunately, there are too many instances where Muslims have revealed in their speeches in the West a terrible intolerance, a disgust with our ways--women's dress, sexuality, freedom from men's dictates, marriage to whomever they choose and more. I should think these Muslims would want to return to their countries where life is run by imams, mullahs, and whoever else makes those pronouncements about the tiniest aspects of the good Muslim's life -- pronouncements seemingly from the time of Mohammed. Spare me and all the rest of us! I think Holland is onto something UNLESS the Muslims who come to the West are willing to be tolerant and to integrate. The fact that they go home for brides says much. No mixing for them. No impurity. No loose Western ways for them. Frankly, they insult us. NJC
These are from background articles -- background to why the Dutch have been forced to act.
Holland's 30-year experiment in trying to create a tolerant, multicultural society has failed and led to ethnic ghettos and sink schools, according to an official parliamentary report.
Between 70 and 80 per cent of Dutch-born members of immigrant families import their spouse from their "home" country, mostly Turkey or Morocco, perpetuating a fast-growing Muslim subculture in large cities.
The 2,500-page all-party report by the Dutch parliament was the establishment's tentative answer to the critique of Pim Fortuyn, the shaven-headed firebrand who warned that Holland's easy-going way of life was threatened by militant Islam and over-crowding. He was assassinated by an environmental activist two years ago.
While the report praised most immigrants for assimilating and for doing well at school, it attacked successive governments for stoking ethnic separatism.
Liberals, pay attention to this next section. Conservatives, learn from it and adjust your policies and platform.
The worst mistake was to encourage children to speak Turkish, Arabic or Berber in primary schools rather than Dutch. The report concluded that Holland's 850,000 Muslims must become Dutch if the country was to hold together. It proposes cheap housing in the leafy suburbs to help ethnic groups assimilate with the rest of the 16 million population.
[. . . . ] Maxime Verhagen, . . . . said "Immigrants in the Netherlands top the 'wrong' lists - disability benefit, unemployment assistance, domestic violence, criminality statistics and school and learning difficulties."
[. . . . ] Funding was provided for ethnic diversity projects, including 700 Islamic clubs that are often run by hard-line clerics.
My Commentary:
Conservatives: If you want votes, do something the Liberals could not bring themselves to do. Make certain immigrants and refugees who want to come here become tolerant Canadians, not hyphenated Canadians -- or kick them back to their original homelands. Cultural retention of the best from their home countries should be a personal pursuit, not a state-funded policy.
Rethink the ability of those who live by the word--and the sword, it seems--to integrate into Canada. Think about imams and mullahs' rulings on how 21st century Muslims must live -- edicts gleaned from something written centuries ago in the time of Mohammed and never modernized in any way to ameliorate its harshness concerning treatment of homosexuality, women, infidels, and more. This is inimicable to a modern democracy; it won't work here. It is a mixing of oil and water -- and could result in a conflagration.
Allow no more Wahhabi schools in Canada to teach Wahhabi intolerance, nor mosques led by clerics fomenting hatred within our own country. Read the UK Telegraph on what is spewed out from the clerics there if you want to see what stupidly excessive "tolerance" on the part of the British has brought them -- before you call me an intolerant racist. Or does that make too much sense? NJC
Al-Nasr mosque is under close surveillance by police. It was their firebrand imam, Khalil el-Moumni, who set off the political whirlwind 18 months ago by calling Europeans "lower than pigs" for tolerating homosexuality.
His sermons encouraged Dutch Muslims to beat their wives for disobedience, in breach of Dutch law, prompting a criminal inquiry.
His comments also prompted the homosexual Pim Fortuyn to declare cultural war in defence of Holland's easy going way of life, though Fortuyn had no inkling that his quixotic challenge would set off an earthquake and lead to his own assassination last May.
Mr Fortuyn caused shock waves after he and his followers won 17 of 45 council seats in Rotterdam's elections in March with an aggressive nationalist and anti-immigrant platform.
He had taken charge of the political debate during the campaign for next week's election with attacks on the growing Muslim population and strident criticism of the government. He called Islam a "backward" culture.
His Pim Fortuyn List party was expected to win between 23 and 25 seats in the parliament out of a total of 150, making it the second or third largest political group.
The election was to be the next big test of European anti-immigration parties after Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the last round of the French presidential election.
[. . . . ] When I [John Simpson] suggested that his criticisms of Muslims and of conservative Islam sounded to me like outright racism, the witty, measured calm quickly evaporated.
"Give me a definition of racism. You don't know what a racist [is], because you have negroes who are Muslims, you have white men who are Muslims, you have yellow men who are Muslims, so how can you connect the Muslim religion and culture with a race? Then you are very stupid, Mr Simpson."
[. . . . ] Yet, if Mr Fortuyn's words sounded racist, he was probably right to reply that he wasn't one - not because of the clumsy device of having a nervous black Dutchman from Cape Verde as his number two candidate (Jean-Marie Le Pen does something similar), but because Mr Fortuyn is specifically critical of conservative Islam. For him, it is a cultural rather than a racial issue.
My Commentary:
It looks as though finally, Pym Fortune has been vindicated. When anyone in Canada questions the Liberal immigration and refugee policies, the response from Canada's scandal-plagued Libs, CBC Pravda and the other media hangers on has been that we who question this policy are racists. Wrong. In the past, our immigrants were so interesting because they brought skills, hard work and something exotic -- additionally, they integrated and became Canadians. That is not the case with many immigrants today, particularly Muslims, who lack the tolerance to become good Canadians. Until they become tolerant Canadians, I don't want them bringing their ideas here!
Canadians loved the peaceful, tolerant Canada they knew before these Liberal scalawags started social engineering it out of existence -- largely in the service of re-electing themselves. Enough, already! NJC
Trying to listen to Question Period
All the rhetoric about making question period in the House of Commons more decorous has obviously failed. Today's episode had the Liberals on the ropes again, but the whooping and hollering, augmented by the clapping seals act, made it difficult to catch the questions and answers. For instance, the Liberals lobbed a softball question to Pierre Pettigrew, the Minister of Official Languages, in an attempt to deflect more ugly revelations. However, the answer was partially blocked-out by the general up-roar. All I caught was "Regina" and "the funding of $750,000,000". Then his conclusion, "The Official Languages Act will be respected." It is reassuring that Pettigrew, who is implicated in the sponsorship scandal and was the architect for the past billion dollar boondoggle at the HRDC--Jane Stewart was the beneficiary of his scandal there--is now handing out hundreds of millions a year to make sure francophones hold the majority of civil service jobs. That is one can of worms yet to be opened. Of course, any attempt to do so would doom a party to eternal exile in Quebec. There are sacred cows and then there are super-sacred cows. The perennial over-representation of francophones in government belongs to the latter.
(copyright) Bud--bilingual, but alas, in English and one of those other languages that doesn't count in Liberal Canada
Not French? Not requiring a busybody Language Policewoman? Is that an appointed position, by any chance, emanating from the PMO? NJC
The Blogging Network -- As Yet, Uncontrolled by the CRTC
Although French Quebeckers constitute only about 20% of the Canadian population, they number some 80% of the population in the country?s second-largest province ? and within the borders of that province, they exert their power with the uninhibited enthusiasm of an untrammeled majority.
It is illegal to post an English-language sign in the province of Quebec. A Quebecker has held the prime ministership of Canada for all but 18 months of the past 36 years. And over those same 36 years, Quebec has received C$201 billion more from the federal Treasury than it has paid in. (Over those same years, the province of Alberta paid in $167 billion more than it received back.)
The tens of millions misappropriated in this latest in a long series of Quebec financial scandals may add only a few additional dollars to the balance. [. . . .]
The Quebec-based Liberals have held power in Canada for all but 31 of the past 108 years ? a better record than either Mexico?s Institutional Revolution Party or the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Under the circumstances, it is a wonder that they don?t steal even more than they do. At the same time, it?s also a wonder that Canadians have tolerated the stealing as long as they have.
