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France’s Marine Le Pen Would Leave Euro and Slash Immigration

EU Times — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:40:44 +0000

The charismatic Marine Le Pen has campaigned hard against free trade and the European Union, and has pushed the party’s traditional tough line on crime and immigration.

Marine Le Pen said she would balance France’s books if elected president by leaving the euro, slashing immigration, taxing imports and tapping the central bank for cheap loans instead of the debt markets.

The National Front leader, who ranks third in opinion polls, spelt out the financial planning behind her campaign promises just over three months before the first round of the presidential contest on April 22.

Exploiting discontent over globalization and the debt crisis in Europe, Le Pen has sought to lure voters by detailing her plan to knock the country’s bloated public deficit to zero by the end of 2017.

She said she would raise 200 billion euros ($260 billion) over five-years, in large part by restoring the autonomy of the French central bank and getting it to lend to the government at cheap rates in order to slash debt costs.

Her economic nationalism has seen her continue to closing the gap with incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The Ifop poll for Paris Match showed that in the first round, to be held April 22, Socialist candidate Francois Hollande would finish first with 27 percent, followed by Sarkozy with 23.5 percent and National Front candidate Le Pen on 21.5 percent, the poll published today showed today. Another poll however found that Marine Le Pen is more popular than Nicolas Sarkozy which ranks Le Pen as second instead of third.

Mr Hollande is staking out his position as a more reliable, more caring reincarnation of the late President François Mitterrand – without the eloquence or, so far, any clear program.

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Man goes Rampage on Christmas shoppers in Belgium

EU Times — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:04:56 +0000

Killer: Nordine Amrani murdered a cleaning lady in his rented flat before heading off on a bloodthirsty rampage in the center of the Belgian city

Liege killer Nordine Amrani murdered four people and wounded 125 others because he feared being sent to back to prison for a sex crime, his lawyer said today.

The 32-year-old convicted criminal, who was due to marry his long-term girlfriend, used grenades and a semi-automatic rifle to cause carnage in the Belgian city before turning a revolver on himself.

Among his victims was a 45-year-old cleaning lady whom he shot dead near his home on Tuesday morning, as well as a 17-month old baby boy who died in the early hours today.

Defence lawyer Jean-Francois Dister said Amrani, a Moroccan Muslim immigrant, was on parole and was due to answer a summons about ‘sexually molesting’ a young woman.

His Morrocan family lawyer, Abdelhadi Amrani in Brussels, who is not related to the killer, defended Nordine Amrani by saying that he was unfairly treated (oppressed) by the courts even though he felt more Belgian than Moroccan, claiming that “he did not speak a word of Arabic and was not Muslim.”

He knew that he was going to be sent back to prison and had a “grudge against society“, his lawyer Abdelhadi Amrani said on Wednesday.

He is thought to have attacked the unnamed victim after driving alongside her in his van. Its number plate was captured by CCTV.

One of Amrani’s numerous previous convictions was for rape, for which he had been given a two-year suspended sentence in 2003.

If convicted again for a sex crime, he would have had to serve it.

This would have also meant his girlfriend, a nurse called Perrin Balon, finding out about the sex allegations against him.

‘He feared being returned to prison,’said Mr Dister. ‘He called me twice on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning about it.

‘What worried him most was to be jailed again. According to my client it was a set-up by people who wanted to harm him. Mr Amrani had a grudge against the law.

‘He thought he had been wrongfully convicted.’

After Tuesday’s attack, the bag Amrani used to carry his haul of weapons was found to still contain several loaded magazines, as well as a number of live grenades.

An enquiry has been launched into why he had not been under closer supervision while on bail after early release from a sentence of nearly five years.

His weapons were confiscated because of his other criminal offences, yet he managed to obtain a FAL Belgian assault rifle, grenades and other weapons soon after his release in October 2010.

Belgian’s notoriously liberal criminal justice system is already facing questions as to why, in October 2010, the killer had been released from prison three years early after being convicted of firearms and drug offences.

In 2008 he had been found guilty of keeping 10 complete firearms, and an astonishing 9,500 gun parts in his flat, along with 2,800 cannabis plants nearby.

On Tuesday morning, Amrani is thought to have tried to rape the woman cleaner in his flat, where police had found an arsenal of weapons including a rocket launcher, AK47 and Kalashnikov.

Police said he killed her ‘with a bullet to her head’ and then dumped her body in a lock-up shed where he was growing cannabis plants.

He then left money for Ms Balon, with a note that said: ‘Good luck! I love you.’

A police source said: ‘The cleaner had been working in a neighbour’s home. It appears that Amrani had invited her into his own flat to discuss the possibility of cleaning his flat.

‘There were signs of a struggle, and it may be that Amrani had tried to rape her.

‘Whatever happened, she was undoubtedly his first murder victim on Tuesday morning.’

Clean up: Workers this morning started to clean up the debris from the rampage

Cedric Visart Bocarme, the Belgian Attorney General, confirmed that the woman ‘would have been murdered by the killer just before he went to Place Saint-Lambert’.

The attack brought horror to Belgium’s fifth largest city, with crowds of shoppers, many of them children, screaming and running in panic as grenades exploded and shots rang out.

Among the dead was an 18-month-old girl who lost her fight for survival in hospital last night.

The others killed include a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old student and a 75-year-old woman.

Today, a small crowd gathered at the Place Saint-Lambert for a minute’s silence at 12noon, 24 hours after the shooting.

Students at the Saint Barthelemy High School – attended by two of the victims – also joined hands and observed the silence.

Abdelhadi Amrani, another lawyer who worked for the killer but is not related, said he had grown up in foster homes after being orphaned as a child.

‘I remember a man deeply marked by the loss of his parents,’ said Ms Amrani. ‘He lost his father and mother very early. He was marked by fate.

Chaos: Police watch out for the gunman as paramedics attend to the injured

‘I would add he was a very smart boy, gifted.

‘Nordine often spoke of his desire to start a family. He was to be married to a nurse in Liege.’

Commenting on Amrani’s background, Ms Amrani said: ‘He did not feel at all Moroccan. He did not speak a word of Arabic, and was not Muslim. What he said is that he felt like a Belgian.

‘He was crazy about weapons, but as a collector.

‘He felt he had not had much luck in life and felt unfairly treated by the courts.

‘This was the fed-up cry of a tormented soul – he was estranged from justice, and against society.’

A 17-month-old baby boy called Gabriel became the fourth victim after dying in hospital late on Tuesday night despite undergoing hours of emergency treatment.

Gabriel was in the arms of his mother when he was hit by a bullet in the back of the head. The child and his parents were at the bus stop just below the walkway from where Amrani opened fire.

Belgium's King Alert II, centre, and his wife Queen Paola arrived in Liege last night to visit the injured

Amrani had been due to attend a police interview in the late morning but never showed up.

Instead he left his apartment armed with a Belgian-made FN- FAL automatic rifle, a handgun and up to a dozen grenades carried in a backpack.

He drove the five-minute journey from his 1930s apartment building the Residence Belvedere and parked his white van in Place St Lambert.

He walked onto a raised walkway above a bus stop where lunchtime shoppers were thronging for the opening of a Christmas market.

From his 15ft high vantage point he lobbed three hand grenades towards a busy bus shelter before opening fire on the crowd. A 15-year-old boy died instantly while the baby of 17 months and a 17-year-old boy succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

Five people are still fighting for their lives, including a 75-year old woman who was initially declared dead on arrival at hospital.

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Girl Gang Freed after Attacking Couple because They Weren’t Used to Drinking

EU Times — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:01:57 +0000

Attack: Three of the young women can be seen setting upon Rhea Page, 22, in the centre of Leicester. Despite leaving her traumatised, they were handed suspended sentences

A gang of Muslim women who attacked a passer-by in a city centre walked free from court after a judge heard they were ‘not used to being drunk’ because of their religion.

The group – three sisters and a cousin – allegedly screamed ‘kill the white slag’ as they set upon Rhea Page as she waited for a taxi with her boyfriend.

Miss Page, 22, was left with a bald patch where her hair was pulled out in the attack and was left ‘black and blue’ after suffering a flurry of kicks to the head, back, arms and legs while motionless on the pavement.

Ambaro Maxamed, 24, students Ayan Maxamed, 28, and Hibo Maxamed, 24, and their 28-year-old cousin Ifrah Nur each admitted actual bodily harm, which carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

But Judge Robert Brown gave them suspended jail terms after hearing mitigation that as Muslims, the women were not used to being drunk. The Koran prohibits Muslims from consuming alcohol, although Islamic teachings permit its use for medicinal purposes.

After the sentencing, Ambaro Maxamed wrote on her Twitter account: ‘Happy happy happy!’, ‘I’m so going out’, and ‘Today has been such a great day’.

Yesterday Miss Page, a care worker, called the sentence ‘disgusting’ and said the gang deserved ‘immediate custody’.

‘It’s no punishment at all,’ she said. ‘And for them to say they did it because they were not used to alcohol is no excuse. If they were not supposed to be drinking then they shouldn’t have been out in bars at that time of night.

‘Even after the police came and they all ran away, one of them came running back to kick me in the head one last time.

‘I honestly think they attacked me just because I am white. I can’t think of any other reason.’

Miss Page was treated for bruises and grazes after the attack in June last year as she walked to a taxi rank with boyfriend Lewis Moore, 23, in Leicester city centre.

At the time she worked caring for people with autism and learning difficulties but gave up the job after repeated absences because of stress and flashbacks.

She is still having counselling and suffers panic attacks.

She said: ‘We were just minding our own business but they kept shouting “white bitch” and “white slag” at me. When I turned around one of them grabbed my hair then threw me on the ground.

‘They were taking turns to kick me over and over. I thought they were going to kill me.’

Yobs: Sisters Hibo and Ambaro Maxamed, both 24, who attacked Rhea. They were both given six month suspended jail sentences

Girl gang: Ayan Maxamad, 28, left, and her cousin Ifrah Nur, 28, who were also involved in the attack in Leicester

None of the defendants was charged with racial aggravation. Nur claimed Mr Moore, a fence builder, had been racially abusive, but this was not accepted by the prosecution.

Gary Short, mitigating for Ambaro Maxamed, said the attack was down to alcohol. He said: ‘Although Miss Page’s partner used violence, it doesn’t justify their behaviour.

‘They’re Somalian Muslims and alcohol or drugs isn’t something they’re used to.’

The four women, who all live in Leicester, were each sentenced to six-month jail terms, suspended for 12 months, at Leicester Crown Court last month.

Hibo Maxamed also received a four-month curfew between 9pm and 6am, while the others were ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Brown said that ‘those who knock someone to the floor and kick them in the head can expect to go inside’.

But he said he accepted the women may have felt they were the victims of unreasonable force from Mr Moore as he tried to defend his girlfriend, and handed the defendants a suspended sentence.

Speaking at her home, Hibo Maxamed said: ‘I’m not proud of it, it’s not something I want to talk about. I just want to get on with my life.’

When asked if she wanted to apologise, she replied: “What, to the public? I really don’t care.”

Victims: Rhea, 22, was with her partner Lewis Moore, 23, when she was attacked. He tried to defend her, the court was told

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Eurasian Union: Greater than EU, but not new USSR

EU Times — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:32:04 +0000

(L-R) Nursultan Nazarbayev, Dmitry Medvedev and Aleksandr Lukashenko

Three former Soviet republics have launched a new regional integration project, with at least two others on track to join in. Critics accuse Moscow of rebuilding the USSR, but architects of project say the aim is to become a better version of the EU.

The idea of the Eurasian Union – initially between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan – made the headlines in October this year, after Vladimir Putin voiced it in a program article. The name may be new, but the future entity behind it is quite old. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the current leader of Kazakhstan, suggested it as long ago as the early 1990s, saying a Union of the three countries plus Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is necessary for them all. At the time, the notion of reconnecting the newly-separated parts of the former Soviet Union was questionable at best, but a decade-and-a-half later it is high on the agenda.

It is no surprise that many commentators, both in the west and on home ground are cautious about the project. For instance, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was quick to brand it “a new Soviet Union”. Critics say that Putin wants to dedicate his almost-assured presidential term – or two – to reviving the socialist empire. A closer look, however, shows that this is unlikely.

The creation of the Soviet Union in the 1920s had two key features that are absolutely absent today. First, it was about gluing back together the shattered Russian empire. What became members of the new country were parts of the old one, and less than a decade of independence was far from long enough to allow that memory to fade.

The collapse of the Soviet Union happened two decades ago, and in former Soviet republics a new generation has grown. The number of people in power with nostalgic notions of the old empire is shrinking, while the majority of the new active youth in the region has little reason to rebuild it.

Secondly, the Bolsheviks had a ready ideology, which resonated with the desires of the population. The dream of a fair nation of the common people by the common people was a strong one, while little suggested that it could not be made true.

Today, neither actual nor potential members of the Eurasian Union have that to offer. They cling together for the sake of economics first and foremost. It is a union created to defend their markets, businesses and labor from foreign competition. But at a political level, the participants are not eager to step away from their sovereignty.

Map shows current members of the Eurasian Union and countries likely to join it in the short term.

Putin’s article specifically points to the European Union as the model for Eurasian integration, and it casts certain doubts on how successful the project might be. The EU implemented a single currency without a political body to enforce a single monetary policy. This worked in the times of prosperity, but failed miserably in the time of economic struggles.

A single currency for the Eurasian Union is stated as one of the goals. Would the EAU be struggling to save the ruble – or a ‘eurazo’, for that matter – from downfall two or three decades down the road? Of course the Eurasian allies may learn from Europe’s mistakes, and it makes their prospects better. Hopefully, Russia and Co. will not try appeasing their voters by going into a lending spree to fund social programs the way the Europeans did.

Economically speaking, the Eurasian Union has obvious benefits for its members coming regardless of how it will pay off in the long-term. Kyrgyzstan’s newly-elected President Atambayev has announced that his country has applied for membership. Tajikistan is likely to follow (which will be hailed by its people working in Russia as guest workers, who would no longer be bound by labor quotas). Together, the five nations will have a stronger position negotiating with their trade partners – both in Europe and in South Asia.

The new union also has a strong point in old Soviet ties. Good knowledge of the Russian language in the region and the many family and friendship ties alone will make stitching the EAU together easier. Reviving those will also hopefully boost the morale of the older generation, who suffered both in terms of standards of living and psychologically from the USSR collapse. Putin’s critics say he is nostalgic for the empire, but it is actually this failing of the people that he called “the major geopolitical disaster of the century.”

The biggest question is how much the economic integration would help them find their identity in the new age. Their national mentalities are just as far from the Western-brand welfare democracy as they are from Asian all-national mobilization-style drive. The EAU may need to erect a bridge in ideology as it intends to do with transportation between Europe and Asia.

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Lukashenko set to build “Qatari island” in Belarus

EU Times — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:26:29 +0000

In addition to the so-called “Qatari island”, the new Belarus’ friends from the East would be given Kastrychnitskae and Petrykauskae potassium salts deposit, an iron ore deposit, land and much more.

Charter97.org website has got at its disposal a protocol of Lukashenka’s instructions following his visit to Qatar on August 15-16. The document is intended for the “Official Use Only”.

Thus, until October 31 2011 the borders of the land parcels for “Qatari Island” in Belarus should be defined, and a memorandum of understanding on realization of this project should be prepared. The project is supervised by the National bank and a private unitary enterprise “Tekhnologii upravleniya” (“Management techniques”), who are ordered to prepare a legal framework for setting up for set up zones “with maximally favourable regime for functioning financial and banking centres, including Islamic structures.”

The Qatari have been promised a share in the new enterprises for potash fertilizers mining in Kastrychnitskae and Petrykauskae potassium salts deposit, as well as development of iron ore deposits in Belarus.

Until October 31 the companies Qatar Holding and Qatar Airways are to be offered a variant of buying or placing in their management “Brest” airport, as well as a possibility of organising a direct air flight between Minsk and Doha.

The so-called ruling family of Qatar, which is to be given land parcels “for possible construction of residences and organising hunting lands there”, has not been neglected as well.

The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in cooperation with the Qatari Fund of Education, Science and Social Development, are ordered among other things to create a certain “Excellence Centre”.

The seriousness of intentions is supported by participation in joint projects of the symbolic figure, the “purse” of Lukashenka’s family, Vladimir Peftiev (Uladzimir Peftsiyeu). His private unitary enterprise “BT Telecommunications” subjected to the EU sanctions, is to take part in the project on establishing of a joint venture between Belarus and Qatar for manufacturing complex fertilizers in Qatar, as well as a joint venture manufacturing complex fertilizers in Belarus.

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Muslim immigrants want Switzerland to change national flag

EU Times — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:01:57 +0000

A group of Muslim immigrants wants to force Switzerland to abandon the current flag – a white cross on the red background. They say that it violates the rights of the representatives of non-Christian confessions. They seem to have been hurt by the recent ban on minarets construction. However, their proposal is unlikely to be welcomed by the native Swiss and will only increase the number of votes in favor of the treasury of the local far-right People’s Party.

The first suggestion to remove the cross from the Swiss flag was made not by a Muslim, but (judging by the name) an ethnic Croat and Catholic vice-president of the association of immigrants Secondos Plus Ivica Petrushich. “The cross does not fit today’s multicultural Switzerland,” he said. The organization of the Turkish, Albanian and other immigrants from Muslim countries followed with a similar initiative. Instead, they suggested using a green-yellow-red flag of Helvetic Republic that existed at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. It has no cross on it.

It is hardly coincidental that the issue of replacing the flag was raised by the representatives of immigrant organizations. Today, over 20 percent of seven million-strong Swiss population is immigrants. Naturally, the Muslims will be more than others insistent on replacing the flag. There are nearly 400,000 of them (more than five percent of the population). The largest “ethnic Muslim” community is Albanian, followed by the Turkish one. Arabs and Bosnian Muslims also reside in Switzerland. Many of them certainly do not like the cross.

The vast majority of Swiss Muslims virtually broke off with the religion of their ancestors. No more than 50 thousand of the faithful pray five times a day. However, women in headscarves have become an integral part of the cityscape of Zurich or Geneva. Furthermore, the birthrate in religious Muslim families is much higher than among the other population. Finally, all Swiss followers of Islam are not natives, but immigrants and their descendants. Their support of changing the appearance of the flag is, to say the least, ambiguous.

Apparently, this circumstance was taken into account by the head of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland Mayzar Hisham, who called the idea of changing the flag “counterproductive.” He said that they did not demand anyone to change the ancient traditions of their countries. It is hard not to agree with his words. The relations of the indigenous Swiss and immigrants have already passed a difficult strength test. The desire to change the flag will only add fuel to the fire. Two years ago the Muslim community wanted to attach minarets to the existing mosques. However, Switzerland is different from all other countries in a way that each more or less relevant issue is solved by holding a referendum. Negotiations with the government officials were not sufficient, and they had to ask the opinion of the population. This opinion was not in favor of the Muslim immigrants.

The initiator of the referendum two years ago was the ultra-right Swiss People’s Party that called to stop the “creeping Islamization”. A deputy of the Swiss Parliament Ulrich Shlyuer said that minarets were a political symbol of the implementation of Islam. Step by step, Sharia was conquering Switzerland, acting in parallel with the Swiss law. Statistics show that the degree of religiosity of the local Muslim population is exaggerated, but for the ordinary Swiss even a hint of a violation of their habitual way of living was sufficient.

The results of voting on November 29, 2009 shocked Europe. 57.5 percent of the Swiss population was in favor of a ban on construction of minarets. At the same time kosher and halal slaughter of animals was banned (because of cruelty). Islamic organizations, human rights activists, and many European politicians expressed their outrage. However, the law came into force. The EU could not influence Switzerland as it is not its member.   Many of those dissatisfied with the verdict (including indigenous Europeans who had departed from the religion) were eager for revenge, and eventually decided to strike from the other side. They inquired why the flag of the Swiss Confederation had a Christian cross on it if construction of minarets was banned. Allegedly, it violated the rights of not only Muslims but also non-believers. That is why the red-green-yellow flag of the Helvetic Republic would be better.

Would the majority of the Swiss agree with this point of view?  Unlike neighboring France and Germany, the Swiss society is rather conservative. While there is no case of absolute religiousness of the Swiss society, the number of believers in Switzerland is higher than in the neighboring countries. This can be partially explained by a high proportion of rural population scattered along numerous mountain valleys in 20 cantons and six half-cantons of the country. Approximately half of the indigenous Swiss are Catholics; a little fewer are Protestant Calvinists. The cross on the flag is something that unites the country, and does not divide it.

As for the flag, the current symbol was first used in Switzerland in 1339, when the union of separate cantons just started to take shape. It achieved its official status in 1848, when the last standoff on this land ended, crowned with a robust Swiss Confederation. To some extent, it is a symbol of freedom and peace, a path to which took many centuries and numerous wars.  The Helvetic Republic, whose flag is offered instead of the current one, is not particularly respected by the Swiss. It was created by Napoleon who occupied the country and decided to build entities supervised by the French on its territory. For the free-spirited Swiss this flag is a symbol of oppression.

Not to mention the fact that the combination of green, red and yellow colors is characteristic mainly of African countries. In Europe, only Lithuania has a similar flag.   Do the immigrants have a right to teach the Swiss tolerance? For over 160 years there has been no bloodshed on this territory. This is all the more surprising considering that the country is multinational. Nearly three-quarters of the indigenous Swiss speak German, one-fifth speaks French, five or six percent speak Italian, and a little less than one percent – the Romansh language. All these languages have the official status, but there is one dominant language group in each canton (with rare exceptions). They managed to combine small mono-national “houses” with a multinational one. The country is not threated by a collapse.   Encroaching on the foundation of the state, immigrants cause a reaction from the German Swiss, French Swiss and Italian Swiss.

Ultra People’s Party is gaining popularity among all of them. Its symbol is three white sheep (the number of the top three language groups), kicking the fourth, black one. This is a clear hint to what should be done with immigrants. Four years ago, the party secured 29 percent of the Swiss votes, and it was a shock to Europe. In the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 23, the result may be even higher.

As is evident from the story with the restrictions on ritual slaughter of animals and minarets construction, the Swiss are not afraid to challenge the infamous political correctness. A ban on wearing the veil is to follow. The more you attempt to encroach on the foundation of the Swiss state, the stronger will be the response. It took Switzerland and its people too long to achieve stability and peace of mind to just give up on their values.

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Putin’s “top priority” is to build Eurasian Union

EU Times — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:59:50 +0000

Putin wants to further globalize the world by creating a union similar to the European Union, the Eurasian Union.

Vladimir Putin has proposed the creation of a new international power nexus between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region in an article in the Izvestia daily. According to the Voice of Russia, the Eurasian Union is Putin’s priority.

The Izvestia article, published on Tuesday, mainly covers the economic dimension of the proposed union, but also touches upon the political aspects of the project.

Putin writes that the creation of the joint economic space in 2012 is an integration project of prime importance and will constitute a historic landmark not only for Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, but for all countries in the post-Soviet space.

“We suggest creating a powerful supra-national union capable of becoming a pole in the modern world, and at the same time an effective connection between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific Region.”

The Prime Minister also states that the Customs Union started in 2011 and the anticipated joint economic space would form the basis for a future Eurasian Economic Union and later the Eurasian Union – a political organization similar to the European Union today.

The Russian Prime Minister describes the Eurasian Union as an open project. “We welcome other partners to join it, first of all the countries of the Commonwealth [of Independent States], but we are not going to hurry or push anyone,” Putin writes.

At the same time the Russian premier stresses that the new union will not oppose Europe in any way. “Some of our neighbors explain their unwillingness to take part in advanced integration projects in the post-Soviet space on the assumption that it contradicts their alleged European choice. But this is a false crossroads. We are not going to fence ourselves in from anyone or counter anyone. The Eurasian Union will be created on the principle of universal integration as an inseparable part of a greater Europe united by common values of freedom, democracy and market laws,” Putin writes.

Besides, Putin stresses that the new formation would by no means be an attempt to bring back the Soviet Union. “We are not talking about resurrecting the USSR in any form, but close integration on the basis of new values, politics and economy is the order of the day,” Putin writes.

Besides, Putin writes that citizens of the Eurasian Union member-countries will enjoy greater freedom of travel and choice of place for education and work than citizens of the USSR had, with the proposed Eurasian Union employing a more relaxed registration policy. For businessmen the Eurasian Union will facilitate access to new dynamic markets and to government tenders by all union member-countries. Also, businessmen will be allowed freely choose the country to register their companies in which will boost competition between the bureaucracies and enhance general efficiency in all countries of the union.

The Russian Prime Minister concludes that the foundation of the Eurasian Union will forge a path for its members through the complicated world of the 21st century and become leaders in progress towards global growth and civilization, to the ultimate goals of success and prosperity.

Prime Minister’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday afternoon said that the integration within the Eurasian Union does not exclude further broadening of Russia’s cooperation with the European Union. “The cooperation might go forth at different pace, but one thing absolutely does not exclude the other,” the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Peskov as saying.

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Truth about how UK Muslim men exploit polygamy benefits revealed

EU Times — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:51:45 +0000

Two experienced Lancashire social workers say that in their estimation there are 20,000 bigamous or polygamous unions in the UK.

Ghulam is a taxi driver who lives in Blackburn, a once-booming textile town in Lancashire. He has a terrace house near his local mosque (one of 53 in the area), a silver Nissan car and a very complex private life.

For he has so many children that he struggles to remember their names, and five wives from various countries, including Yemen, Egypt, Turkey and his own birthplace, Pakistan.

Ghulam’s latest bride is a shy 20-year-old called Hafeza. He brought her to Britain from Morocco, soon after his 45th birthday earlier this year. They married in an Islamic wedding ceremony called ‘the Nikah’ in her village, with Hafeza’s pleased parents among the guests.

Thirty miles across the Pennines in Yorkshire, pizza delivery driver Wasim, 27, has an equally complicated domestic life.

He lives in a part of Dewsbury called Savile Town, a network of 11 terrace streets dominated by one of the biggest mosques in Europe, where most residents are Asian with origins in Pakistan or India.

Wasim has three wives, the first of whom lives with him and their three teenage sons. His other two wives have separate houses in Savile Town, one down the road and another round the corner. He visits each two nights a week.

The women have had several of Wasim’s children and he hopes the youngest bride (aged 19) will soon present him with another baby.

I learned of Ghulam and Wasim this week while investigating a subject that is taboo in politically correct Britain. It is the huge rise of bigamy (having two wives) and polygamy (more than two) in our Muslim communities.

The issue was recently bravely highlighted by Baroness Flather, a crossbench life peer who was herself born in Lahore, now part of Pakistan.

She warned the Lords (and also wrote an article for the Mail on the subject) about how our shambolic benefits system is being exploited by men hailing from Pakistan and other Muslim nations who indulge in multiple marriages — with taxpayers forced to foot the bill.

As Baroness Flather explained: ‘The wives are regarded by the welfare system as single mothers, and are therefore entitled to a full range of lone parent payments.

‘As a result, several “families” fathered by the same man can all claim benefits, as they are provided for by the welfare state, which treats them as if they were not related,’

The issue was recently bravely highlighted by Baroness Flather

Lady Flather also lamented the reluctance of politicians to address the issue: ‘It is certainly difficult to discuss this phenomenon of serial marriage and exploitation of the benefits system, with few people in Britain seeming to want to confront the disturbing truth.’

Two years ago, another peer, Baroness Warsi, born in Dewsbury to Pakistani parents, and now a Coalition Cabinet Minister, also voiced her concerns. She said cultural sensitivity was stopping politicians addressing the problem.

Yet this week I found those — from within the heart of the Asian communities — who were prepared to speak out.

Although the Government says there are only 1,000 such bigamous or polygamous unions in the UK, two experienced Lancashire social workers — one of Indian-English heritage and the other with Pakistani origins — told me that, although it’s difficult to be precise, in their estimation the figure is closer to 20,000.

The social workers said the multiple marriages are encouraged by a welfare system which allows a second, third or fourth wife to be treated as a single mother who gets a house and an array of other state payments for herself and her children.

Controversially, it means that a man can take a new spouse (from anywhere in the world), sire any number of children with her, and yet have no responsibility for this family’s upkeep or care.

To avoid breaking Britain’s matrimony laws, the men marry their extra ‘wives’ in an Islamic Nikah ceremony, either in their own homes or a mosque.

These marriages are not recognised officially, so they do not appear in government statistics or have any status under the law. They also do not count when assessing welfare payments.

Another technique is for a couple to marry legally under British law but then divorce, leaving them then to have a Nikah ceremony and continue living together. The woman will then be entitled to welfare payments as a single mother and the man can then bring another woman from abroad and legally marry her in Britain.

Men also cheat the system by bringing brides from abroad as nannies for their children, or as carers for a sick relative. The bride gets a year’s visitors’ visa, disappears into a tight-knit local community, and is entitled to receive welfare hand-outs.

While it has long been a cliche for men to complain that their wives and children take up most of their income, the reality for polygamous husbands is that the more babies he sires, the more money pours in for him and his wives.

As Tariq Ali, the 45-year-old co-founder of Project BME (Black Minority Ethnics), a charity based in Darwen, Lancashire, admits: ‘There are thousands of bigamous and polygamous marriages in the UK’s Pakistani community — the same community into which I was born.

‘Every single man of my age who I bump into seems to have a third, fourth or fifth wife.

‘The issue is going unreported but in the Asian communities this is becoming a way of life. I think the number of polygamous relationships must be 20,000.

‘The men find second wives in the UK as well as any Muslim country abroad. The new favourite places to find women are Turkey and Morocco, because the men can drive there by car to meet them and bring them back.’

His colleague, Zed Ali, the manager of Project BME, added: ‘These arrangements satisfy a man’s sexual desires when he is trapped in an unhappy or sexless arranged marriage with a first wife and their families don’t countenance a divorce.

‘The first wives often accept the situation as a compromise. There is a limitless number of girls living in Muslim countries wanting to come to the UK for what they, and their parents, think is a better life even as a second, third or fourth wife.

‘What’s more, they are virgins — which the men like. But it means British laws are being abused, and something should be done by the Government. A first step would be the registration of Nikah weddings in this country at least.’ This would prevent many bigamous marriages.

Baroness Warsi said cultural sensitivity was stopping politicians addressing the problem

Officially, bigamy and polygamy are punishable by up to seven years in prison. It was declared illegal in England and Wales in 1604, when the Parliament of James I took action to restrain ‘evil persons’ marrying more than one wife — on penalty of death.

But officialdom now turns a blind eye because of cultural sensitivities.
A 2007 Government report estimated there were 1,000 bigamous or polygamous marriages in England and Wales.

It claimed that men living in a harem arrangement, with their wives under the same roof, were each claiming state handouts of £10,000 a year for the spouses through income support, housing and child benefits.

But the report ignored the thousands of men squeezing more money from the state by having a string of wives living in separate homes, all claiming benefits intended for single mothers and their children.

Those women are eligible for full housing benefit — reaching £106,000 a year in some parts of London — and child benefit paid at £1,000 a year for a first child, and nearly £700 for each subsequent one. Little wonder there has been an increase of foreign brides.

Lady Flather believes this free-for-all should be reduced — by giving full benefits to a woman’s first two children, three-quarters for the third and half for the fourth child. Then there should be no more benefits for any extra children.

It was also wrong, she said, that families were moving to ever larger taxpayer-funded homes, simply by expanding the number of children they have. Yet tackling this phenomenon will be difficult.

I was told this week that even the mosques’ preachers — the imams themselves — have second or third wives, some chosen from among their own worshippers.

One female health visitor in Lancashire, whose parents were born in Pakistan and came here in 1971, explained: ‘My sister has been asked by her own imam in Manchester to marry him as his second wife.

‘She is 38 and went to school here. She played netball, socialised normally, and had British friends. But her marriage to a British Asian broke down when she became very fundamentalist about religion and wanted to wear a burka. Then she turned to the mosque for advice.

‘The imam, who recently arrived from Africa, suggested a bigamous marriage to him would be the solution. My family are horrified, but plenty of imams in the UK have more than one wife.’

A little later in the day, I was introduced to Javeria, a 26-year-old British-born Muslim who is the second wife of a 29-year-old man in Rochdale, Lancashire.

He was also born in Britain and has a first wife, with whom he had an arranged marriage organised by his parents when he was 21. The forced union was an unhappy one, and they had no children. Javeria originally met her husband at an Islamic community gathering.

‘I was under pressure from my mother to get married,’ she says. ‘Most girls in my community are wives by 22, even here in the UK. I was prepared to compromise because I liked him.

‘I knew from the start there would always be his first wife and he would not divorce her.’

Javeria and her new husband had a small Nikah ceremony at her parents’ house conducted by the local imam.

Now she lives in a block of flats with her two children, aged five and three, and works in a bank as a cashier.

Her husband, meanwhile, lives half a mile away with his first wife and their three children in a semi-detached house with a garden. He visits Javeria three nights a week.

‘His first wife knows about me and is pleased because the arrangement gives her freedom from him and it also gives me freedom to pursue my career. He is devoted to his children. But he does not have to pay for my family.’

She adds: ‘I get tax credits because I am on low pay and have young children. I also get housing benefit, because the council says I need three bedrooms for myself and the kids. The child benefits for our son and daughter are paid into my account.’

But, of course, not all multiple marriages work this well.

Each year, London solicitor Anne-Marie Hutchinson, of family law firm Dawson Cornwell, advises around 20 Muslim women who have married in a Nikah ceremony — many of them second or third wives now facing marital breakdown.

‘These women are left unprotected,’ she explains. ‘They cannot claim matrimonial rights. They get no maintenance payments or share in their husband’s pension contributions. They are not wives in the eyes of the British legal system.’

No one knows that better than one Bangladeshi-born mother of three children who works in a care home in Slough, Berkshire. Orpita contacted me through her lawyer when she heard I was writing about multiple marriages in the Muslim community.

She was deserted by her husband of 20 years when he went on holiday to Bangladesh and returned to say he was about to marry a girl of 19, called Saba, in a Nikah ceremony, and wanted to bring her to Britain as his second wife.

Despite the pleas of Orpita and her children, one a teenage boy who — in fury at the betrayal — hit his father in the face, the husband told the British immigration authorities that Saba was from his home village and was to be a nanny for his children. They needed, he lied to them, a caring person who understood his family’s cultural heritage.

They officials believed him and, after the Nikah in Bangladesh, Orpita’s husband set up home with his second wife two years ago in Maida Vale, North London. They now have a one-year-old baby.

‘I am only just recovering from the shock,’ says Orpita. ‘We are not divorced, because I will not allow it. When he walked out, he said the state could look after me and that was how it worked in Britain.

‘All over the place, in London’s East End, in Yorkshire towns, down the road, across the street, I see Muslim men taking second or third wives. I cannot count the number of times I have been approached to be a second wife myself by Bangladeshi men who know I am now on my own.

‘This bigamy and polygamy is destroying families. Children grow up angry and bewildered. Many rarely see their own fathers because they have so many wives to visit.’

Then, she tucks a scarf around her head and adds, sadly: ‘It is a tragedy for everyone in this country, whether they are Muslim or not.

‘And it is the crazy welfare system that encourages it all to happen.’

Some names in this article have been changed.

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Australian school curriculum to force acceptance of multiculturalism

EU Times — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:16:40 +0000

United Nations human rights watchdog has accused Australia of racism over its treatment of boat people and Aborigines.

School students are being targeted in a major new push to force acceptance of multiculturalism by “embedding” it in the national curriculum.

Young Australians will be trained in “cultural competency” during classes as part of the Gillard Government’s plan to boost support for multiculturalism and outlaw negative attitudes.

Thousands of teachers have been surveyed about how the policy is working and to uncover racism under special research entitled “Rethinking Multiculturalism/Reassessing Multicultural Education”.

The Government’s multi-pronged plan also involves sending 40 “People of Australia Ambassadors” into the community to spruik the benefits of multiculturalism and a new offensive against racism.

The Gillard Government, responding to 10 recommendations made by the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council, has agreed multiculturalism should be infused in the high school curriculum.

Australian teenagers should “understand and appreciate the value of other cultures”, the Government has decided.

“We will ensure that the development of students’ cultural competency in a globalised world is embedded into our national curriculum.”

Dr Megan Watkins from the University of Western Sydney, who is researching multiculturalism in schools with the NSW Department of Education and Communities, said an aim was to help students become “culturally competent citizens”.

“In particular the complexity of what culture is needs to be better understood,” she said.

Professor Kevin Dunn from the UWS School of Sciences said the research was “not a post riots-type response”.

“There is no really serious alternative to multiculturalism as a means to deal with our cultural diversity,” he said.

“It’s good that the policy has been reconfirmed particularly given that internationally we have had some Western governments making statements against multiculturalism.”

“There is racism, we know it, and that requires a response.”

Research shows about one in 10 Australians have racial supremacist beliefs and about the same number oppose inter-marriage and believe races should be kept separate.

A study by the Scanlon Foundation found about 9 per cent of Australians believed that “ethnic diversity erodes a country’s security”.

In its submission to the federal parliamentary inquiry into multiculturalism, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says the Government is “working to build a stronger, fairer nation through its social inclusion agenda”.

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Swedish police to learn polite Arabic

EU Times — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:44:33 +0000

Police who patrol Malmö’s Rosengård district are being offered a special Arabic language class to help them better understand and communicate with local residents in the predominantly immigrant area.

So far 45 officers have signed up for voluntary twelve-week class, which will provide training on a number of common greetings and pleasantries in Arabic, the local Skånska Dagbladet newspaper reports.

“It’s about dealing with immigrants in a more dignified and little more civil manner,” local police chief Bengt Hersler told the newspaper.

According to Hersler, the course was arranged at the request of officers who have pushed the department to provide them with the tools to better communicate with Rosengård’s residents, many of whom are immigrants and have Swedish as a second language.

In addition to teachings in basic Arabic, the tailor-made course will also offer lessons on Muslim culture and traditions to help officers better understand some of the cultural differences that can lead to misunderstandings in dealings with local residents.

“We’re looking to broaden our knowledge, Said Hersler.

“Ever time we speak, we express ourselves from within our own culture. Even if you speak the same language, there’s no guarantee that people understand each other.”

The tailor-made course, arranged by studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, will be held during participants’ free time and will focus on phrases that officers would likely be able to use in their everyday work.

“They obviously aren’t going to learn the whole language,” Lena Gustafsson from Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan told the newspaper.

While no follow up course is currently planned, Hersler told the newspaper that, if the Arabic language and culture class proves successful, a follow-on may be arranged.

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RT: Whites become minority in America

EU Times — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:49:27 +0000

Eight of the largest metropolitan regions in America have seen a decline in the percentage of white inhabitants over the last decade, signaling a majority of minorities in some of the USA’s biggest hubs, including New York and DC.

New census data analyzed by the Washington Post reveal that non-Hispanic whites are now a minority in 22 of the 100 biggest urban areas in America. While metropolises such as Los Angeles, San Antonio and San Francisco have seen minority-majorities prior to 2010, now NYC, San Diego, Las Vegas and Memphis have witness the change firsthand, as Black, Asian and Hispanic populations in those areas outnumber that of white residents.

The data suggests that the population of whites shrank in only 42 of the 100 cities profiled, but every single one of the metro regions saw an overall decline in the percentage of whites per capita.

Researchers say that the generally younger crowd of Hispanics and Asians outnumber the percentage of whites still in their childbearing years, and are thus reproducing at a greater rate. Eight percent of adults in America over the age of 65, for example, are non-Hispanic whites. Preliminary data from the 2010 US census revealed earlier this year that the number non-Hispanic white children being born in America had taken a backseat to an increase in minority births in the last decade, and that whites would become the minority by the roughly 2050. In some of the largest cities in America, however, that change has already occurred.

While the change is mostly evident in large cities itself, the change is showing up more and more in the outlying suburbs of the metropolitan regions. In metropolitan areas, minorities were responsible for 98 percent of the population growth in the decade leading up to the 2010 census.

“What’s happened is pivotal,” says demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution who conducted the analysis. “Large metropolitan areas will be the laboratories for change. The measures they take to help minorities assimilate and become part of the labor force will be studied by other parts of the country that are whiter and haven’t been touched as much by the change.”

Workforce aside, demographers note that that the politics associated with minority groups could show a change in control in some formerly white-dominated locales. The Post notes that in Faifax, Virginia, for example, a moderate Republican community has switched over to a Democratic-minded city. In the Northern Virginia Regional School District, enrollment between 1995 and 2010 rose by nearly 119,000, though only 1,000 of those students were white.

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Russian senator blames failure of multiculturalism for UK riots

EU Times — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:28:24 +0000

Russian senator blames failure of multiculturalism for UK riots.

The death of multicultural society and the economic crisis are to blame for the riots that have convulsed London and other British cities this week, head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee Mikhail Margelov said on Wednesday.

“I think the events occurring in the English cities have at least two reasons. One is fundamental: it’s the death of multiculturalism, a eulogy which the heads of Germany, France and Great Britain have recently delivered. The value of tolerance, or in other words the value of difference, has been accepted neither by ‘indigenous’ Europeans nor by immigrants,” Margelov said. “The two sides merely tolerate each other. And patience is the kind of thing that runs out from time to time.”

Over 1,000 people have been arrested, and at least four killed, in the violence which began in the British capital’s northern district of Tottenham on Saturday, following the fatal shooting of a young man by police. On Sunday and Monday, it spread to other areas in London and Birmingham and Bristol, and then to other cities.

Margelov said, “the foolishness with which Europe regards its historical past has led to the filling of its cities with migrants from the former ‘Third World,’ many of whom do not give a damn about not only European values, but simply about the rules of conduct on the streets of Paris, Brussels, London, and Cologne.”

The common “myth of responsibility” in Europe toward third world countries and their migrants does not promote tolerance, Margelov said, as Europeans have to work both for themselves for those from the third world, who may “not give a damn” about European values and laws.

“The Myth of responsibility compels European governments to put migrants on social allowances, but it does not promote tolerance. The French, Belgians and English should work not only for themselves but also for a guy who came from the third world with children and household,” the senator said.

Margelov cited the economic recession as one more reason for the riots.

“The economic crisis bedeviling the economy of the West in its fourth year, with no end in sight, is one of the causes of the events in British cities,” Margelov said.

Margelov claimed migrants will not easily give up the social benefits they have in Europe.

“Migrants will not be easily taken away from the European social ‘freebie’ and sent back home,” Margelov said. “Therefore, there is no escape from the riots there, even if the present British Cabinet resigns, which is problematic, by the way.”

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Ethnical issue becomes Britain’s No.1 problem

EU Times — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:07:58 +0000

Still reeling with shock and anger over the worst rioting in decades, Britain has turned to a tough reckoning with the perpetrators, with courts sitting through the night and the police saying Thursday that over 1,200 people had been arrested, the bulk of them in London.

But, despite an apparent lull in the rioting that has ravaged London and other major cities, concern was growing about many of the ethnically segregated districts battered by the rampages, particularly Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, where the police and political leaders worried about a potentially explosive new pattern of interracial violence that could be set off by the past days and nights of mayhem, reports New York Times.

Police continued to make arrests linked to the disturbances, with the number of arrests in London alone climbing to 820. Courts were staffing around the clock to process alleged looters, vandals and thieves – including one as young as 11.

Even as Cameron promised not to let a “culture of fear” take hold, tensions flared in Birmingham, where a murder probe was opened after three men were killed in a hit-and-run drive as they took to the streets to defend shops from looting, says San Francisco Chronicle.

Outside the capital, in England’s second-largest city, Birmingham, police started a murder investigation into the deaths of the three men hit by a car. Residents said the dead men, ages 21 to 31, were members of Birmingham’s South Asian communities who had been patrolling their neighborhood to keep it safe from looters.

“They lost their lives for other people, doing the job of the police,” witness Mohammed Shakiel, 34, said. “They weren’t standing outside a mosque, a temple, a synagogue, or a church – they were standing outside shops where everybody goes. They were protecting the community”, informs Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Norway stunned by terror acts, at least 90 dead

EU Times — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:57:26 +0000

At least 90 people are now confirmed dead after a shooting spree at a Norwegian youth camp. That attack came just a matter of hours after a powerful blast in downtown Oslo claimed at least seven lives. The Norwegian Prime Minister said more democracy and openness is the answer to the violence. But Helge Luras from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs believes it’s the country’s polices of multiculturalism that turned the gunman against his own.

UPDATE: The death toll has recently reached 94.

The Netherlands to Abandon Multiculturalism

EU Times — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:03:33 +0000

The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.

A new integration bill (covering letter and 15-page action plan), which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16, reads: “The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. In the new integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role. With this change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society.”

The letter continues: “A more obligatory integration is justified because the government also demands that from its own citizens. It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands. The integration will not be tailored to different groups.”

The new integration policy will place more demands on immigrants. For example, immigrants will be required to learn the Dutch language, and the government will take a tougher approach to immigrants to ignore Dutch values or disobey Dutch law.

The government will also stop offering special subsidies for Muslim immigrants because, according to Donner, “it is not the government’s job to integrate immigrants.” The government will introduce new legislation that outlaws forced marriages and will also impose tougher measures against Muslim immigrants who lower their chances of employment by the way they dress. More specifically, the government will impose a ban on face-covering Islamic burqas as of January 1, 2013.

If necessary, the government will introduce extra measures to allow the removal of residence permits from immigrants who fail their integration course.

The measures are being imposed by the new center-right government of Conservatives (VVD) and Christian Democrats (CDA), with parliamentary support from the anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV), whose leader, Geert Wilders, is currently on trial in Amsterdam for “inciting hatred” against Muslims.

As expected, Muslim organizations in Holland have been quick to criticize the proposals. The Moroccan-Dutch organization Samenwerkingsverband van Marokkaanse Nederlanders, which advises the government on integration matters, argues that Muslim immigrants need extra support to find a job. The umbrella Muslim group Contactorgaan Moslims en Overheid says that although it agrees that immigrants should be better integrated into Dutch society, it is opposed to a ban on burqas.

But polls show that a majority of Dutch voters support the government’s skepticism about multiculturalism. According to a Maurice de Hond poll published by the center-right newspaper Trouw on June 19, 74 percent of Dutch voters say immigrants should conform to Dutch values. Moreover, 83 percent of those polled support a ban on burqas in public spaces.

The proper integration of the more than one million Muslims now living in Holland has been a major political issue ever since 2002, when Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated for his views on Muslim immigration, and since 2004, when Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was stabbed to death for producing a movie that criticized Islam.

Muslim immigration to the Netherlands can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s, when a blue collar labor shortage prompted the Dutch government to conclude recruitment agreements with countries like Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. In the 1980s and 1990s, Muslims also arrived in the Netherlands as asylum seekers and refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia.

There are now an estimated 1.2 million Muslims in the Netherlands, which is equivalent to about 6 percent of the country’s overall population. Moroccans and Turks comprise nearly two-thirds of all Muslims in the Netherlands. Most Muslims live in the four major cities of the country: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht.

As their numbers grow, Muslim immigrants have become increasingly more assertive in carving out a role for Islam within Dutch society. For example, a documentary aired by the television program Netwerk in June 2009 reported that Dutch law was being systematically undermined by the growth of Sharia justice in the Netherlands.

In December 2004, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior published a 60-page report titled From Dawa to Jihad. Prepared by the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD, the report says that the Netherlands is home to up to 50,000 radical Muslims whose key ideological aim is to target the Western way of life and to confront Western political, economic, and cultural domination.

The report concludes that Dutch society is poorly equipped to resist the threat of radical Islam because of “a culture of permissiveness” that has become synonymous with “closing one’s eyes” to multiple transgressions of the law.

As for Interior Minister Donner, he has undergone a late-in-life conversion on the issue of Muslim immigration. In September 2006, while serving as justice minister, Donner provoked an outcry after saying that he welcomed the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the Netherlands if the majority wants it. He also said Holland should give Muslims more freedoms to behave according to their traditions.

After applauding Queen Beatrix for respecting Islam by not insisting that a Muslim leader shake hands with her during a visit to the Mobarak Mosque in The Hague, Donner said: “A tone that I do not like has crept into the political debate on integration. A tone of: ‘Thou shalt assimilate. Thou shalt adopt our values in public. Be reasonable, do it our way.’ That is not my approach.”

Fast forward to 2011 and Donner now says his government “will distance itself from the relativism contained in the model of a multicultural society.” Although society changes, he says, it must not be “interchangeable with any other form of society.”

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