2 women lose Nato jobs after marrying Muslims

From the Asian Age

 “Open hearts, Open legs, Open wallets, Open borders”. 

* “Racism and Islamophobia-alert: How can anyone lose a job for marrying a Muslim? Are you enraged already?

The Hague, Aug. 29: Two Dutch women, have lost their jobs at a Nato base in Geilenkirchen over their marriage to Muslim men which took place during a holiday in Tunisia.

One of the women was the personal assistant of Colonel Jelle Zijlstra, deputy commandant of the base. Both women – who were identified only by their first names Patricia and Gerda – had a level of security clearance that would have allowed them to access possible Nato secrets, the NIS report said.

Following their weddings in Tunisia to local men who they met on while on holiday to the North African country in 2007, the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service withdrew the women’s Nato security clearance.

According to a report by the Dutch daily De Telegraaf, the two Tunisian men were classified as “extremely high-risk.”

* The Asian Age did not say what kind of ‘extremely high-risk-‘ sure it has nothing to do with Islam….

* A comment from an American professor in Turkey:

Aaah, those “Tourist marriages”. I see alot here in Turkey. Usually not overly attractive or older European women and younger macho uneducated men. I’ve had students who were workers at various vacation spots and they tell me “Open hearts, Open legs, Open wallets, Open borders”. 

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Austria to limit building of mosques

Al Reuters reports:

With thanks to Morgan

It is reported that Austria’s Joerg Haider, governor of Carinthia, is planning to prevent mosques and minarets being constructed in his home province. It is his contention that planning laws should take into account ‘religious and cultural tradition’, when dealing with construction requests. He said: ‘We don’t want a clash of cultures and we don’t want institutions which are alien to our culture being erected in Western Europe.’

Now this is interesting. There is no transgression of human rights legislation because Muslims will still be free to practise Islam, and prayer rooms in buildings may be as abundant as required. What is noteworthy is the objection to the symbolism of mosques and minarets being built to ‘advertise the power of Islam’.

This has been the concern behind the colossal new London mosque planned for the site of the Olympics. In magnitude it will be bigger than St Paul’s Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, and its location will bring the eyes of the world upon it in 2012. It is considered by many to be an overtly political statement and a religious assertion of supremacy, and petitions have been signed by thousands to halt the proposal.

Jorg Haider

But neither Herr Haider’s objections nor the petition against the London mosque are likely to realise their objectives. There is no will in the West to contend either for two thousand years of culture or religion. There is simply acquiescence, accommodation, compliance, deference, and, ultimately, submission.

There is, of course, no reciprocity. While Muslims may build their mosques even in the Royal Parks of the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Christians may not build churches in Islamic lands. And where they exist, they are firebombed, vandalised, and believers live in fear of the consequences of daring to follow their Lord. And the West utters not a word.

Even as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia bans visitors from all items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam, there is no objection from any Western government. If you are visiting Islam’s holiest land, you may no longer take your Bible, even for your own devotional purposes. There is also a ban on crosses, crucifixes, statues, carvings, and items with religious symbols such as the Star of David. They will be confiscated, permanently.

Pace Herr Haider, could one ever conceive of the West banning mosques, Qur’ans, crescent moons, and prayer mats?

Daniel Pipes has a strategy for dealing with the Saudi government. He suggests that until they change their ‘detestable policy’, its airline should be disallowed from flying into Western airports. Cranmer would go further, and demand of Western governments that they cease diplomatic relations and all trade agreements with a country which the United States has termed ‘among the most religiously repressive in the world’. But, of course, it is about oil. The land which spawned Osama bin Laden, and spreads the Wahhabi poison throughout the world and into the mosques of the United Kingdom, is ultimately untouchable.

Reciprocity may well be requested of equals, but when there is an ascendant power, with a victor and a vanquished in sight, reciprocity is simply a nice word for political consumption, and a vain dream of self delusion.

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Fitzgerald: A tribute to Jorg Haider

THE Austrian right-wing firebrand Joerg Haider said yesterday he plans to change building laws to prevent mosques and minarets being erected in his home province of Carinthia. — from this article
Jorg Haider is akin to, but worse than Le Pen. He is one of those Austrians who drove the late Thomas Bernhard to maddened distraction, the kind who claim that Austrians were the “first victims” of Hitler (forgetting those cheering crowds, that delight at Anschluss). He exhibits every sign of antisemitism except, perhaps, that exhibited by the BBC World Service and The Guardian and Robert Fisk — that is, not quite so systematically vicious when it comes to the state of Israel.

Haider, by the way, owes his considerable wealth to a fluke. In 1938, someone fleeing Austria had to give up his castle in Carinthia (it’s the title of an old book: “A Castle in Carinthia”), selling it , out of desperation, for a song to Jorg Haider’s uncle, who then left that bit of booty, when he died, to his nice heel-clicking nephew. Many fortunes in Europe were made that way. Why, the book and antiques trade in Austria and Germany has been living off such goods — see the sale of Kafka’s library, which he left to his sisters who were murdered in Nazi death camps, and ask just how that library came into the possession or this or that antikvariat or auction house, and multiply that by tens of thousands of examples. Oh, there was money to be made, and there still is.

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