From Other sites on the Line: 20 Jul 08

Keeping Our Eyes on the Rapid Islamification of Germany

Cross posted from Faultline USA
http://faultlineusa.blogspot.com/2008/07/keeping-our-eyes-on-rapid.html


As Radical Islam Mobilizes in Germany We Must Understand Why America is so Vulnerable.

Here’s an excerpt from a thought-provoking article by an elitist lefty who can’t help using the overused phrase “right-wing xenophobes” even when he has to admit that increasing numbers of left-wing xenophiles also fear this rapid Muslim take over in Germany.

As you read this excerpt please note that Germany already has 163 existing traditional mosques and there is now planned construction for 180 more mosques – many planned for areas with little Islamic population.
Here's the excerpt from Not in My Backyard, Say an Increasing Number of Germans: (Bold highlights and comments added by me)

The planned construction of over 180 mosques in Germany is mobilizing right-wing xenophobes but also an increasing number of leftist critics. They fear the Muslim places of worship will facilitate the establishment of a completely parallel society. . . .

This burgeoning sentiment against mosques has no doubt been strengthened by the Islamist murders and suicide attacks that have also afflicted European cities in recent years. Some Muslims like Imran Sagir, director of a property development company specializing in mosques, say they can understand German citizens' fears. When you hear on the news about crimes committed in the name of Islam," he says, "who can blame people who don't want a mosque in the neighborhood?"

Wolfgang Huber, the head of Germany's Protestant Church and bishop for the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, names what he sees as one important cause for the increasing unease. He says there is an "obviously large-scale initiative" on the part of Islamic organizations to show their presence in as high-profile a way as possible and in as many places as possible. No fewer than 184 new mosques, some with domes and minarets, are currently being built or planned throughout Germany. That's considerably more than the 163 existing traditional mosques (along with around 2,600 prayer rooms mostly hidden within secular buildings). . .

And that appears to be only the start of an expected wider European mosque-building boom. One organization alone — Ahmadiyya, a movement seen as an outsider community within Islam that the respected German weekly Die Zeit described as "something like the Jehovah's Witnesses among Muslims" — has introduced a "100 mosque plan" for Germany. Currently 25 percent of these projects have been completed. . . .

The names of some of the newly built mosques aren't exactly in harmony with the reassuring "Islam is peace" slogan. Religious scholar Ursula Spuler-Stegemann at Germany's University of Marburg, among others, criticizes the fact that mosques are named after warlords like Fatih Sultan Mehmet, conqueror of Constantinople. "That can only be an agenda," she believes. "These Muslims don't just want to show their presence here, but also to strengthen and expand it." . . .

In the case of the controversy over the mosque planned for Cologne's Ehrenfeld neighborhood, the right-wing Pro protesters have indeed been pushed into the margins. Their complaints have been drowned out by more high-profile statements coming from prominent leftists and liberals including German Jewish journalist Ralph Giordano, women's rights activist Alice Schwarzer and investigative reporter Günter Wallraff, who have all spoken out against the mosque. Representatives of Germany's large churches have increasingly added their voices to the criticism as well.

The "dishonest dialogue" with Islam described in SPIEGEL's pages in December 2001 — in which church representatives simply ignored scandalous and unbearable aspects like persecution of Christians, discrimination against women, toleration of terror and "honor" killings for the sake of harmony — is now a thing of the past.

(Excuse me. I just had to jump in here. For the sake of harmony??? Isn’t that exactly what the Christian Left is promoting in America today???)

In place of the "fairy tale that we're all 'children of Abraham'," in the words of Leggewie, the churches are now making an effort not to entangle themselves in finding contrived common ground with Islam. Instead they are trying to find areas in which they differ — and this applies particularly to the construction of mosques. . . .

(You’d think some rational lefty xenophiles in America might take note! Ok ,forget rational. They really do see their leaders flying on the backs of Unicorns.)

In Berlin the local Ahmadiyya congregation, just 200 members strong, is pushing construction of a mosque at a cost of around €1 million ($1.6 million) in Berlin's suburban Heinersdorf district, which is home to a paucity of Muslims. Feeling left out of the process by local politicians, furious residents quickly began to gather at numerous, often overflowing and sometimes tumultuous protest meetings. "No to the mosque" or, as in the time around the fall of the Berlin Wall in this former East German district, "We are the people." They demanded that their quiet neighborhood not be allowed to be transformed into a "second Kreuzberg," a reference to a downtown Berlin neighborhood known for its massive Turkish immigrant population. "Why?" one of the speakers asked, drawing applause, "Why would you build a mosque in an area where no Muslims live?" . . .

(Obvious Answer: To intimidate, overtake, and finally to convert or kill the Infidels.)

In Islam expert Leggewie's opinion, mosques are "definitely not churches." He says they can be better described as multipurpose buildings. In the same way, Islam itself is "not just a religion," emphasizes Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Green Party politician and long-term representative for multicultural affairs in Frankfurt. It is "also a theocratic vision," in which politics and belief are inseparably bound and "democracy and human rights are subordinate and conditional values." Islamic associations are not officially recognized religious communities, points out Necla Kelek, a Germany-based sociologist and feminist of Turkish descent. Granting building permits for mosques, she says, is "not a question of freedom of religion but a political question." She says Germany's laws governing construction and associations are ill-equipped for dealing with the issue. . .

(America take note! This isn’t just about religious freedom. It’s about what constitutes a religion – which has never been defined in the American constitution. Does our American Constitution, which offers blanket and unquestioning protection of religious freedom, create the very means by which the destruction of American sovereignty can be accomplished? Please read Why America Must Define Religion.)

Even DITIB, the comparatively moderate organization behind the mosque project in Cologne, arouses mistrust. DITIB is the long arm of a religious institution in secular Turkey. "What will most likely happen," ask the residents of Cologne who take part in the protests, "If the feared Islamization of Turkey happens? Will DITIB bring it over here?"Cologne's Archbishop Joachim Meisner is already warning people about of areas in Germany "where sharia law is increasingly spreading." In the case of DITIB, this warning might be premature or simply inaccurate. At the same time, however, the association is remotely controlled from Ankara and has a reputation for being more concerned with helping to maintain the identity of Turkish immigrants than with helping them integrate in their new homes. . . .

Source: http://www.subchat.com/otchat/read.asp?Id=337112

After reading the above you might get a wistful smile when you read the fawning Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, and chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, as he hopefully describes the words of King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia, explaining how we must achieve religious cooperation . . .

Note: Xenophilia – “A disorder involving inordinate attraction to that which is foreign, even to the detriment of one’s own person, family, or nation.”
Xenophile – A person who has an inordinate attraction to that which is foreign, even to the detriment of one’s person, family, or nation.

A note from Radarsite: Faultline USA -- This is absolutely one of your finest pieces. It is powerful and alarming -- and, most importantly, utterly convincing.

This is our Twenty-first Century edition of the Barbarian invasions. And they are no less frightening. For too long now our delusional liberals have been denigrating this threat. Now it seems -- and this may be the only good news here -- even the most liberal of the Europeans are beginning to get alarmed. And there is even some welcome evidence of push-back.

We have been taught to believe that religions are sacrosanct and that churches are holy -- and therein lies are vulnerability. Islam presents us with a whole new challenge -- one for which our present laws are woefully ill-equipped to handle. How can we legally -- or even morally -- deny people the opportunity to build a "church" to worship in? In this new and existential challenge the key lies in semantics, e.g. the precise and legal definition of terms. What constitutes a religion? What if a religion and a political movement are one and the same? Is a mosque a church, or a "multi-purpose building"? And if it is a "multi-purpose building", what are the purposes it is designed to encourage? What if the purposes include the overthrow of the host government or the subjugation of women?

Unless and until we clearly define these terms, and enact laws which can realistically counter these grave challenges to our Western civilization we remain at the mercy of our enemies. And we cannot doubt for one moment that these invading Muslims are our enemies. They have no difficulty with their definitions. They have defined their enemies with crystal clarity -- their enemies are the infidels. And we, my friends, are the infidels.

We must congratulate Faultline for this powerful indictment, this insightful analysis of the threat we all face from Islam. It is through provocative essays such as this that we can learn what we are fighting against and how we can fight back.

Excellent work, Faultline. - rg