November 2005
 
Fallaci: Warrior in the Cause of Human Freedom   [11/30/05]
Here is Robert Spencer's report on the event honoring Oriana Fallaci, mentioned here yesterday. He includes a lot more of Fallaci's remarks than David Horowitz did, making this an important article to read.

Today, at seventy-five years old, Fallaci still stands for freedom. She is suffering from cancer. She stated with her usual directness at the Taylor Awards ceremony: "I shall not last long." But she has dedicated the four years since 9/11 to trying to awaken her native Italy, Europe and the world to the magnitude global jihad threat, which most analysts continue, whether from willful blindness, ignorance, or a misplaced strategic imperative, to misapprehend. Pipes noted that "she has her differences with the President. When he says that Islam a 'religion of peace,' she has said, 'each time he says it on TV? I'm there alone, and I watch it and say, "Shut up! Shut up, Bush!" But he doesnıt listen to me.'"
    And it isn't, of course, just Bush. Fallaci spoke fervently Monday evening about how Western nations are selling their own homelands and culture to their mortal enemies. "We seem to live in real democracies," she said, "but we really live in weak democracies ruled by despotism and fear." Western elites ­ government and media ­ are paralyzed by fear, afraid to speak out against the life-destroying aspects of the Sharia law that Islamic jihadists want to impose on the rest of the world. The risk of offending Muslims is, in their calculus, apparently greater than the risk of national or civilizational suicide. Alexis de Tocqueville, according to Fallaci, explained that in dictatorial regimes, despotism strikes the body: the dissenter is tortured into silence. But in democratic regimes that have succumbed to corruption, despotism ignores the body and strikes at the soul. One is not tortured for dissent; instead, one is discredited for it. To affirm the patent fact that Islam is not a religion of peace today renders one "unelectable," or "bigoted," or beyond the bounds of what is fit to print. In despotic democratic regimes, Fallaci observed, everything can be spread except truth. [...]
    Then Fallaci threw down the gauntlet to the multicultural, politically correct, and fearful. "There is not," she asserted, "good Islam or bad Islam. There is just Islam. And Islam is the Qur'an. And the Qur'an is the Mein Kampf of this movement. The Qur'an demands the annihilation or subjugation of the other, and wants to substitute totalitarianism for democracy. Read it over, that Mein Kampf. In whatever version, you will find that all the evil that the sons of Allah commit against themselves and against others is in it." As jarring as such language is to contemporary sensibilities, Fallaci here made a statement of fact that can be verified or disproved. And indeed: Islamic terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, Zarqawi, and others have never hesitated to quote the Qur'an copiously to justify their actions. It remains for those who identify themselves as moderate Muslims to convince violent Muslims that they are misusing the Qur'an — if indeed they are — and should lay down their arms. They have had no notable success in this so far.

•   •   •  

Born In The USA   [11/29/05]
Investor's Business Daily agrees with many pro-borders Americans that giving citizenship to the children of illegal aliens is not what the 14th Amendment meant to do.

Some 200,000 children are born each year to mothers who are illegal aliens, and under current practice they are considered natural-born American citizens. They are also called "anchor babies" because as U.S. citizens they will be eligible to sponsor for legal immigration most of their relatives once they are 21.
    The mother can petition for legal residence under family reunification laws because her child is a citizen. The door is then open to a panoply of welfare and other benefits. These include medical care and education, including cut-rate college tuition that in many states is not available to out-of-state American citizens.
    Once the child is born here, the parents can get a U.S. birth certificate and passport, and a permanent foothold. In most cases, authorities are simply reluctant to pursue removal proceedings against illegal aliens with U.S.-born children.
    But the concept of birthright citizenship may be based on an interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that's been flawed for over a century. The amendment was enacted in 1868 to ensure civil rights for the newly freed slaves after the Civil War.
    In testimony this past October before the House Judiciary Committee, John C. Eastman, a law professor at Chapman University and a fellow at the Claremont Institute, argued that the prevailing interpretation gives too much weight to place of birth than originally intended and should be changed.
    Eastman argued: "Birth, together with being a person subject to the complete and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States (i.e., not owing allegiance to another sovereign) was the constitutional mandate."

•   •   •  

Oriana Fallaci and the War Against Islamofascism   [11/29/05]
Read David Horowitz' speech honoring the fearless antifascist writer Oriana Fallaci.

We are here to pay a debt to an immigrant among us, who is living here in exile, who is afflicted with cancer and who has stepped out of her sick bed, and put aside her own tasks, in order to lead us.
    A fatwa has been issued by the Islamist enemy calling for Oriana's death; she is hunted in her native land and has been indicted by one of its courts for criticizing the Islamic aggressor. For blasphemy. For preferring freedom to servitude and silence.
    On the morning of September 11, 2001 Oriana was sitting in her apartment in New York. She was absorbed with the novel she had been writing and which she refers to as "my child." She was stealing time between her visits to the cancer ward, struggling to deliver her literary child.
    But on the morning of September 11th, the country that had given her refuge and liberty was attacked. And when she saw the television crowds of Palestinians jumping up and down for joy, and shouting "Victory," and when she was told by her friends in Italy that many in Europe were imitating the Palestinians because "The Americans got it. Good." -- Oriana knew she had to put aside her life work, her child, and do something for her adopted country. Because America was a vital link in the chain of human freedom and was once again under global attack.
    For three weeks, this aging woman, ill with cancer, heavy with an unborn literary child, wrote around the clock, in a frenzy, without stopping without eating, feeding on coffee and cigarettes to keep her awake. What she wrote was a speech, a sermon to Americans, to Europeans and to the world, which she called The Rage and The Pride. It was about the war with radical Islam. It was about a war between good and evil. It was about the struggle for human freedom.

•   •   •  

To secure the U.S.   [11/29/05]
Frank Gaffney always has his eye on the ball of national security, and his opinion on border control reflect that priority.

President Bush is a man on a mission this week. He seeks to reinvigorate his leadership and rehabilitate his public standing by addressing an issue of enormous import to the country and of no less concern to its citizens: the insecurity of our borders and our dysfunctional immigration policies.
    It remains to be seen if Mr. Bush will benefit politically from his visits to border states and meetings with those charged with protecting them and the rest of us from illegal aliens. Many of the border crossers are looking for economic opportunity but some may well be terrorists. More important, whether the country will benefit from the president's current, intense focus on immigration-related issues depends on whether he agrees with the following 10 principles:
    (1) The purpose of U.S. immigration policy is to benefit the citizens of the United States.
    (2) Since immigration policy can profoundly shape a country, it should be set deliberately, not by accident or acquiescence, with careful consideration to ensure it does not adversely affect American citizens and communities' quality of life.
    (3) Immigration policy should be based on and adhere to the rule of law. Immigration laws must be enforced consistently and uniformly throughout the United States.

•   •   •  

President highlights reforms that his budget underfunded   [11/29/05]
How serious is President Bush about his recent change of mind favoring border enforcement away from welcoming the "good-hearted people" (illegal aliens) as he has done throughout his term? Not everyone is buying the new political package.

"Why now? We've had five years," said Steven A. Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies. "Why has it taken so long to get to an issue like this? And when he addresses it, he talks about things he himself doesn't support. He talks in vague generalities."
    Mr. Bush said his administration has boosted U.S. Border Patrol agents and detention beds, which puts them on the way to ending the "catch-and-release" policy under which non-Mexican illegal aliens are processed and released into U.S. society on the usually false hope that they will return to be deported.
    But Mr. Bush's budget submission in February called for just 210 more agents and fewer than 2,000 new detention beds -- each amount less than a quarter of the totals that Congress and Mr. Bush agreed to just two months earlier.
    Congress was able to find money in two spending bills for 1,500 agents this fiscal year, bringing the total authorized to about 12,500, but was only able to fund 2,000 more detention beds, bringing the number to 20,000.
    "He can't claim credit for increasing the number of Border Patrol agents," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. "This administration resisted it at every bend in the road and then finally went along with it when Congress passed it."

•   •   •  

Silent march follows fire attack on teenager   [11/28/05]
An 18-year-old French Muslim girl of Moroccan origin was doused with gasoline and set on fire Nov. 13 after turning down a Pakistani man's proposal of marriage. Chahrazad Belayni was burned over 60 percent of her body and is now being kept in an artificial coma as she fights for her life.

Family, friends and outraged strangers marched Sunday in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Marne, north of Paris, behind a banner that read: "Today, Chahrazad. Who's next?"
    The march was organised by women's rights group "Ni Putes, Ni Soumises" (Neither Whore nor Submissive), a group fighting to improve the lot of Muslim women and girls in impoverished French neighborhoods.
    There have been widespread reports of physical violence - including gang rapes - against girls and young women of North African origin.
    Samira Bellil's 2002 book "Dans l'Enfer des Tournantes" (In Gang-Rape Hell) gave France a rare firsthand, graphic account of the troubles women face, including her own experience of gang rape.
    Another incident that highlighted the tragedies that befall women in the projects was the 2002 murder of 19-year-old Sohane Denziane, whose ex-boyfriend doused her with gasoline and set her on fire for breaking up with him.

•   •   •  

On the Border: Elsa, Texas   [11/28/05]
The San Francisco Chronicle is a consistent propagandist for multiculturalism, so its current border series celebrates Mexican culture, even including a brief Spanish language lesson sprinkled throughout today's article. The encroachment of Mexico is hard to miss:

Many Texans draw an imaginary demarcation they call the Mexican-Dixon Line, from El Paso east to Houston, which essentially consigns heavily Latino south Texas to Mexico.
    Valley residents feel the same pull to assimilate with American culture that people in most immigrant communities do. But Mexico is so close that it has helped shape a distinctive "Tejano" culture, in which Mexican and American traditions wash back and forth.

•   •   •  

Bush plans anti-illegals campaign   [11/28/05]
After five years of praising illegal alien Mexicans by saying "family values don't stop at the Rio Grande River" the President now wants us to believe he will get tough on border issues. Right. (See my article "The Mexichurian Candidate" for more details about President Bush's fondness for Mexicans.)

President Bush today will call for a crackdown on illegal immigration, a move aimed at further rallying conservatives who recently cheered Mr. Bush's tough talk on Iraq and the Supreme Court.
    But the president will also renew his call for a program to allow Mexicans who have already entered the U.S. illegally to remain here for up to six years. That initiative has long angered conservatives who equate it with amnesty.
    "This is going to be about comprehensive immigration reform," a senior White House official said of today's Arizona speech. "He's going to talk about the three elements that comprise such reform -- border security, interior enforcement and a temporary worker program." [...]

•   •   •  

Girls still miss out on schooling   [11/27/05]
Here's another United Nations failure, namely its pledge in 2000 to eradicate gender disparity in education by 2005, according to a UNICEF report.

Unicef says it is a tragedy that so many children, especially girls, have been abandoned to a bleak future.
    Many girls are denied schooling because cultural traditions define a female's place as in the home, and social pressure is exerted for them to marry early, sometimes as young as the age of 10, the UN says.

•   •   •  

Giant mosque for 40,000 may be built at London Olympics   [11/27/05]
What marks territory better than an enormous hunk of architecture? Britain continues down the dhimmi path of surrender by the slice.

"It will be something never seen before in this country. It is a mosque for the future as part of the British landscape," said Abdul Khalique, a senior member of Tablighi Jamaat, a worldwide Islamic missionary group that is proposing the mosque as its new UK headquarters.
    Tablighi Jamaat has come under scrutiny from western security agencies since 9/11. Two years ago, according to The New York Times, a senior FBI anti-terrorism official claimed it was a recruiting ground for Al-Qaeda. British police investigated a report that Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 London bombers, had attended its present headquarters in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. In August, Bavaria expelled three members of the organisation on the grounds that it promoted Islamic extremism.

•   •   •  

On the Border Maquiladoros   [11/27/05]
The San Francisco Chronicle is doing a 6-part series on the Mexico border. Part one concerns the cheap-labor factories on the Mexican side and the American managers who live in Texas. Today's article profiles Char and Tim Taylor, who moved from Alabama for his job at a Mexican maquiladoro. They live in America but must learn Spanish and accommodate to Mexican culture.

"I'm a minority in McAllen, being that I'm white, but that doesn't really bother me. Everybody is very nice and polite," he said.
    "There's a difference in what people eat," he said. "There are fewer of your steakhouses and a lot of taco joints."
    Char, who pronounces her name like the first half of Charlotte, has embraced her new community. Many of her neighbors and her son Coltynn's high school classmates are wealthy Mexicans who have settled north of the border.
    "They speak mostly Spanish in the lunchroom," she said. "He's picking it up fast."

•   •   •  

What is being done about Muslim immigrants?   [11/26/05]
JihadWatch's Hugh Fitzgerald asks aloud a question which many have thought.

We have a right to know: what is the INS doing about Muslim immigrants? Is it doing anything? Have any policies changed since 9/11/2001? What about since the seizure of the theatre in Moscow or the school in Beslan, with nearly 400 dead children and teachers? Have there been any changes since the killing, in Holland, of Pim Fortuyn? Of Theo van Gogh? Since the threats to kill Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders? What changes have been made in our immigration policies since the threats to the head of a Christian political party in Norway? Since the threats to a newspaper in Denmark? Since the virtual takeover of much of Malmo, Sweden, as a no-go for non-Muslims area? What changes in immigration policy have resulted from plans to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market, or the Vatican, were foiled? What changes in immigration policy have followed upon the bombing of the subway in Madrid? The underground in London? What changes in immigration policy followed the three weeks of Muslim riots, in which a dozen churches were attacked and set ablaze, and tens of thousands of cars set on fire, and a Frenchman beaten to death, and others critically wounded, and cries of Allahu Akbar were heard all over the land?

•   •   •  

Specter proposes increase in aliens   [11/26/05]
The Senate continues to flout Americans' demand that immigration be legal, controlled and reduced. Senator Specter's judiciary committee has produced a bill that will vastly increase the numbers of foreigners permitted as legal immigrants. Only the House of Representatives is providing positive leadership on this most crucial issue.

A draft immigration bill from Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter calls for dramatic increases in legal immigration, far beyond any of the other major proposals now before Congress.
    Immigration and border security have become the hottest issues in Washington, with senators and members of Congress filing bill after bill to address them. The Senate is preparing for a major debate early next year on an overhaul, including creating a new flow of foreign workers like that contained in the bill by Mr. Specter, Pennsylvania Republican.
    The House, meanwhile, is pushing toward a vote this year specifically on border and immigration enforcement. [...]
    A review by NumbersUSA, which advocates lower immigration levels, found that the level of legal, permanent immigration could double from its current level of more than 900,000 in fiscal 2004.

•   •   •  

Marlowe's Koran-burning hero is censored to avoid Muslim anger   [11/25/05]
Like Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe was an Elizabethan dramatist. Sadly, today's British directors have no stomach for staging the man's works honestly when they run afoul of Muslim sensibility.

IT WAS the surprise hit of the autumn season, selling out for its entire run and inspiring rave reviews. But now the producers of Tamburlaine the Great have come under fire for censoring Christopher Marlowe's 1580s masterpiece to avoid upsetting Muslims.
    Audiences at the Barbican in London did not see the Koran being burnt, as Marlowe intended, because David Farr, who directed and adapted the classic play, feared that it would inflame passions in the light of the London bombings.
    Simon Reade, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, said that if they had not altered the original it "would have unnecessarily raised the hackles of a significant proportion of one of the world's great religions".
    The burning of the Koran was "smoothed over", he said, so that it became just the destruction of "a load of books" relating to any culture or religion. That made it more powerful, they claimed.
    Members of the audience also reported that key references to Muhammad had been dropped, particularly in the passage where Tamburlaine says that he is "not worthy to be worshipped". In the original Marlowe writes that Muhammad "remains in hell".
    The censorship aroused condemnation yesterday from senior figures in the theatre and scholars, as well as religious leaders. Terry Hands, who directed Tamburlaine for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992, said: "I don't believe you should interfere with any classic for reasons of religious or political correctness."

•   •   •  

Muslim sorority hopes to establish chapter in Kentucky   [11/24/05]
America's first Muslim sorority is being organized on the campus of the University of Kentucky. But there is some disagreement on just how American it should be.

Tahir Rajab, 21, president of the Jacksonville Muslim Student Association in Florida, believes Muslim women should not seek to emulate American women: "All these sororities sound very good on paper. But partying is what they are known for."
    Muslim women who want sisterhood, he suggested, should call themselves the Righteous Woman Organization and use Arabic, rather than Greek letters.

•   •   •  

No end to women murders in Mexico   [11/23/05]
The murders of women in Juarez has been going on more than a decade, and the Mexican government continues to ignore the human rights travesty. Women remain second-class citizens in the patriarchal culture, so the murders arouse no great public outcry.

More than 300 women have been murdered in Ciudad Juarez. There is no generally accepted motive for the killings.
    They have been variously attributed to serial killers, drug cartels and domestic violence. Some are believed to have been sexually motivated.
    Many of the victims were poor working mothers employed in factories in the industrial city on the border with Texas.
    There have been several arrests, but the killings have continued.

•   •   •  

California population will grow older, more diverse, report says   [11/22/05]
The MSM likes to call the demographic tsunami "diversity" but there's nothing diverse about it: the population is becoming Mexicanized, not diversified. In California, black and white Americans are being replaced by citizens of Mexico.

In just 15 years, one in seven Californians will be age 65 or older, the state will add 10 million residents, and Hispanics will account for 43 percent of the population, with whites accounting for about 34 percent.
    The white and Hispanic populations are expected to become equal in 2010, when each is projected to account for 39 percent of the population, said Barbara Baran, associate director of the organization and the report's author. [...]
    More than half of California's school-age children will be Hispanic by 2014, with a "significant minority" expected to be English-language learners, researchers found.
    Standardized tests have shown a stubborn gap between white and Hispanic students in academic achievement, the researchers noted. The 2005 Standardized Testing and Reporting program found that 25 percent of Hispanic students scored proficient or better in English, while 58 percent of white students hit that mark.

•   •   •  

'Honor' killings steeped in tradition   [11/22/05]
Diversity is also murder. Young women who attempt to live in Europe or America as free individuals may be executed by their families for pursuing western lifestyles.

Heshu Yones, a West London teen, fought off her father for a frantic 15 minutes. She ran from room to room in her family home one Saturday afternoon until he cornered her in a dingy bathroom, held her over the tub and slit her throat.
    The father, a onetime Kurdish freedom fighter from Iraq, told authorities that his only daughter had to die. The 16-year-old had sullied the family name, he said, by dating without his permission. [...]
    Honor killings claim an estimated 5,000 women worldwide every year in overwhelmingly patriarchal cultures. Family honor is a tangible value in these societies, and women are considered family property. Emigres, even far away, can feel bound by such codes.
    "No one could believe that it could happen, but we kept giving evidence that honor killings are here," said Diana Nammi, founder of the International Campaign Against Honor Killings, a nonprofit group in London.
    "We told police: Immigrants come here and they bring traditions - all their traditions."

•   •   •  

Lou Dobbs Transcript Nov 21   [11/22/05]
Frank Gaffney has just published a new book about Islamofascism, "War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World." Here is part of the discussion:

[KITTY] PILGRIM: Let's talk about border security. What do you think should be done there?
    GAFFNEY: Well, we have three steps that address different aspects of the homeland security problem.
    And one of the important ones, of course, is, you on this show understand very well, is trying to make sure that we both secure the border. We recommend a fence or really an obstruction across the southern border.
    And dealing with the interior security problem, too. Most especially focusing on employment or workplace security. This is a critically important part without which we're not going to get our hands around that problem.
    PILGRIM: What should we be doing in the work place?
    GAFFNEY: Well, I think the first thing is to ensure that employers have ready access to information that will enable, we estimate on at least 85 percent basis, them to determine right out of box, within seconds, that somebody presenting documents to them is, in fact, legally or not legally in this country.

•   •   •  

Anti-Muslim "Racism"?   [11/22/05]
Daniel Pipes examines how the word "racism" has become unhinged from its actual meaning by those with an agenda.

When U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo raised the idea of bombing Islamic holy sites as a form of deterrence, a Nation of Islam leader in Denver, Gerald Muhammad, deemed his comments racist.
    Note the evolution: as belief in racial differences and racial superiority wanes in polite society, some parties expand the meaning of racism to condemn political decisions such as worrying about too much immigration (even of poor whites), preferring one's own culture, fearing radical Islam, and implementing effective counterterrorist measures.

•   •   •  

In Fresno, Tackling Poverty Moves to the Top of the Agenda   [11/21/05]
Surprisingly, the open-borders loving Washington Post admits the immigration component to Fresno's economic difficulties. Remember that Mayor Alan Autry caused many jaws to drop when he called for an immigration moratorium last May in his State of the City speech.

The mayor agreed that the lack of affordable housing and decent jobs are major issues confronting the city. But, he said, illegal immigration is perhaps the greatest challenge to Fresno. "We're going to have to secure the border," he said, "reform the illegal immigration system and create a plan that addresses the 4.5 million immigrants in California that doesn't involve amnesty or sending them back."
    Autry said that although officials have no idea how many illegal immigrants live in Fresno (the city is about 45 percent Latino, mostly Mexican, with a rising number of Hmong refugees), 20 percent of the people in the county jails are illegal immigrants. About one quarter of emergency room visits are from illegal immigrants and the vast majority of the tenants in the worst housing in the worst neighborhoods are immigrants, presumably including illegal immigrants.

•   •   •  

Money to be set aside to help new Hmong refugees adjust   [11/21/05]
The $49,000 is not a lot of money in government terms, but the unquestioned acceptance of Washington's continued refugee dumping on poor communities like San Joaquin County is troubling.

Specifically, about $49,100 requested would be spent to find work for 50 refugees and give another 200 refugees counseling, social adjustment and English language classes. Some of the money would also be spent on recreation for the refugees.
    "They were in refugee camps for many years," county Human Services Director Joe Chelli said. "Just recently, the federal government has agreed to take in some of these refugees over a nine-month period."
    The refugees began arriving in the county in July of last year, and about 300 are here.
    Another 100 refugees are expected to come to the county in the next several months, before the federal government's moratorium begins again.

•   •   •  

CIS Transcript: The French Riots and U.S. Immigration Policy   [11/21/05]
Here's the transcript from the press conference presented 11/14 by the Center for Immigration Studies. (See the 11/19 post for directions to find the RealVideo version from C-SPAN.)
    Mark Krikorian made some particularly quotable remarks about policies and legislation in Washington:

...the president's proposal would allow unlimited immigration of any worker from any country to do any job anywhere in the United States at any wage above the legal minimum wage. It's easily the most radical immigration proposal ever offered by a major public figure in this country. Even the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill, which in this specific respect is less radical, would still perhaps triple legal immigration if it were implemented. And to get even more concrete, the Senate just recently voted a one-third increase in legal immigration in the budget bill.

•   •   •  

Muslim fanatics terrorise a nation   [11/20/05]
It's likely that the fury of jihadists in the Netherlands will soon heat up a notch or two, since the fearless Ayaan Hirsi Ali is moving ahead with her plans to produce a sequel to Submission, the film that led to the murder of its director, Theo van Gogh. While the first film revealed the brutality of Islam to women, the second will focus on the oppression of gays.

Gay rights should hardly raise an eyebrow in The Netherlands, which for centuries has prided itself as a beacon of freedom of expression and was the first country to legalise gay marriage.
    But when Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee turned Dutch MP, started making a new film about the oppression of homosexuals under Islam, the threat to everyone taking part was deemed so great that she decided there would be no faces shown on screen and no end credits and that the entire production team would remain anonymous.
    Ali, a "lapsed Muslim" who revealed this week that she had finished the script, lives in a safe house under 24-hour protection.
    The precaution is as wise as the courage is extraordinary: Theo van Gogh, the director of Ali's previous film, about domestic violence under Islam, was killed -- repeatedly shot and almost decapitated in broad daylight in the streets of Amsterdam by an Islamic extremist.

•   •   •  

Center for Immigration Studies on French Riots & Lessons for U.S. Immigration Policy   [11/19/05]
This is a RealVideo file of the excellent CIS panel that was shown on C-SPAN on 11/14. (You have to have Real Video loaded on your computer in order to watch.) If the above link doesn't get your video player going, follow the link here.

•   •   •  

Barricaded in Paris   [11/19/05]
Actually, the Jews of Paris are leaving in increasing numbers. But "barricaded" certainly describes their embattled situation.

Mr. Barthel is the father of two young children. Last year, his children's school bus, belonging to a Jewish school in Epinay-sur-seine, a northern suburb of Paris, was set on fire. "The bus was empty when it was attacked, but still, nobody did anything about it, not the police, not the government."
    He says the Jews of France have increasingly felt as if they have had to take safety into their own hands. "For us now, this means one of two things: bunker in with bomb-proof glass, or leave."
    Mr. Barthel and his family have chosen the latter, becoming part of what could easily qualify as an exodus of Jews. In the past four years, French-Jewish immigration to Israel has more than doubled. The United States has received an influx of thousands as well, notably to the Miami area, where, as in Israel, entirely French-Jewish communities have cropped up, bringing with them everything from kosher patisseries to synagogues both French in language and culture.

•   •   •  

The Suburbs Are Burning   [11/19/05]
Author and doctor Theodore Dalrymple brings his unique sensibility and experience to the recent Paris unrest, as he probes into the psychology of what's going on.

The French banlieues are in effect prisons, but prisons that are ruled by the prisoners who live in them — generally the worst and most brutalizing kind of prisons there are. These prisons have metaphysical walls rather than real ones, though they are geographically isolated from the towns and cities to which they are attached. The metaphysical walls are patrolled by a combination of rigid French labor laws, which make it so difficult for the young to find employment in France, and the subculture of les jeunes themselves, which is conducive to nothing except idleness punctuated by insensate rage.
    As in all prisons, an us-and-them attitude develops, in which anyone who is not one of us is one of them, and with whom any decent relations are a form of treachery toward us. In prison, it is the wardens and the prisoners who are in binary opposition; in the banlieues it is les jeunes and any other member of French society who are irreconcilably opposed. I have rarely felt such immediate and reflexive hostility as when I visited the banlieues of Paris, not even in African townships at the height of apartheid.
    Of course, the hostility is entirely reciprocated by the police, who suspect all of les jeunes of everything, and behave accordingly: more like an army of occupation trying to repress the discontents of the natives than a force to protect everyone equally. It is sometimes said that the hostility of les jeunes has been caused by this attitude of the police. But this does not explain the almost equal hostility toward the sapeurs-pompiers, the firemen, whose job is to put out fires and rescue people who are trapped, and even toward the crews of ambulances sent to evacuate the ill and injured to the hospital. The rage is an existential one, worsened perhaps by particular instances of humiliation, but fundamentally independent of them.

•   •   •  

Ban Asian marriages of cousins, says MP   [11/18/05]
The negative effects of human inbreeding are now recognized by medical authorities as a public health problem among Pakistanis and other Muslims in Britain.

It is estimated that more than 55 per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins, resulting in an increasing rate of genetic defects and high rates of infant mortality. The likelihood of unrelated couples having the same variant genes that cause recessive disorders are estimated to be 100-1. Between first cousins, the odds increase to as much as one in eight.
    In Bradford, more than three quarters of all Pakistani marriages are believed to be between first cousins. The city's Royal Infirmary Hospital has identified more than 140 different recessive disorders among local children, compared with the usual 20-30.
    The findings were expected to be condemned by the Asian community, in which many see the tradition of marriages between first cousins as culturally fundamental.

•   •   •  

National parks' pot farms blamed on cartels: Mexican drug lords find it easier to grow in state than import   [11/18/05]
Another sacrifice made for open borders is allowing our precious national parks to be taken over by Mexican drug gangs.

Washington -- Hikers in national parks such as Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon are encountering a danger more hazardous than bears: illegal marijuana farms run by Mexican drug cartels and protected by booby traps and guards carrying AK-47s.
    National Park Service officials testified in Congress on Thursday that illegal drug production in national parks, forests and other federal lands had grown into a multibillion-dollar business in recent years -- mostly concentrated in California. [...]
    "In prior years, guards used to flee from Park Service law enforcement but now stand their ground with leveled guns using intimidation tactics," Laura Whitehouse, the Central Valley program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, told the committee.
    The illicit pot farms can also cause environmental damage. Growers often cut trees, dig ditches, create crude dams on streams, and haul in plastic hoses and other equipment to irrigate the plants. Fertilizers and other chemicals used by growers pollute watersheds and kill native species. Last year, the Park Service spent $50,000 to clean up tons of litter, debris and human waste at pot farms that were discovered or abandoned.

•   •   •  

Lesson from France: U.S. must warm the melting pot   [11/18/05]
Add Victor Davis Hanson to the list of people warning that America is not immune to the widespread violence the French recently experienced.

So we should consider the French disaster a wake-up call. A nation cannot exist without shared values and a sense of common mission. We forgot that in the 1960s, when we encouraged racial separatism as a means of rectifying past discrimination. That kind of identity politics has proven a near-disaster. A salad bowl in place of the melting pot will, at the worst, turn America into something like the Balkans, and at best ensure separatism along the lines of Quebec -- or France.
    Instead, the United States should return to its former ideal of a multiracial society under the inclusive aegis of Western culture. True, Americans are enriched by cultural diversity in food, fashion and the arts. Yet our core American values of democracy, human rights, private property, a free economy, an unfettered press and unbridled inquiry are not optional or up for discussion. In others words, we succeed precisely because we are the antithesis of a tribal Mexico, unfree China, intolerant Islamic Middle East -- or socialist and statist France.
    Yet large areas of central Los Angeles, rural California, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., have become de facto apartheid communities like the French suburbs, with segregated concentrations of either illegal aliens from Mexico, unassimilated first-generation Latinos or impoverished African-Americans.

•   •   •  

Outsourcing outrage: Indian call-center workers suffer abuse   [11/17/05]
Leave it to the San Francisco Chronicle to publish a one-sided article about the poor Indian call-center workers suffering "trauma" because of rude Americans. Hundreds of thousands of college-educated citizens have lost middle-class jobs to H-1b immigrants or outsourcing, but the Chron has no mention of their pain.
    Being downsized can mean the loss of a car, a house, college education for the kids, along with stress that can end marriages. There is often no replacement position that pays a middle-class salary.

The diatribe ended with the comment:"This company is just saving money by outsourcing to Third World countries like yours."
    Such telephone tirades are fueled by outrage over outsourcing, which is expected to move 3.4 million U.S. service-sector jobs overseas by 2015, according to the consultancy Forrester. Most of the work comes to India, where young, low-cost employees now handle a range of American tasks -- they draw cartoons, interpret heart scans, adjudicate insurance claims, reserve flights and chase debtors.
    Das, who quit the job after four months, said she learned to dislike Americans. "Rarely, there are people who are good," she said by e-mail, "but then others remind me that all they believe in is cursing, and they don't have respect for others."

•   •   •  

Polygamy All Over the Place   [11/17/05]
The extra attention on Muslims in Europe has shined a light on the nasty bit of marital diversity in which foreign males have two or more wives. (Women of course have no such option.)

Another thing which many people have known, but which has never been said aloud, is the spread of polygamy across Western Europe. Since yesterday, when French officials, including one government minister, cited polygamy as a possible factor of social breakdown in the suburbs, the media are suddenly devoting attention to a phenomenon which many people have known existed for years: Muslim immigrants going home for a holiday and returning with an additional wife.
    Only last week (November 11) the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reported statements from Norway's Directorate of Immigration (UDI) that there are an increasing number of men with multiple wives in Norway. "The reason is married men travel to countries where polygamy is legal and then add a wife." Though polygamy is illegal in Norway, "this is something that Norwegian authorities cannot prevent," said UDI spokesman Karl Erik Sjolt. The question is whether the authorities should encourage it. The Islamic Cultural Center Norway (ICCN), an immigrant organisation subsidised by the Norwegian state, advises Muslims in Norway to take several wives because polygamy "is advantageous and ought to be practiced where conditions lend themselves to such practice."

•   •   •  

Momentum builds for fence along U.S.-Mexican border   [11/17/05]
It is ridiculous to have only a couple strands of barbed wire separate us from the corrupt narco-state to the south. A physical barrier is basic to border control — what could be more absurd than to have an OPEN border through which three million strangers entered last year?

A once-radical idea to build a 2,000-mile steel-and-wire fence on the U.S.-Mexican border is gaining momentum amid warnings that terrorists can easily sneak into the country.
    In Congress, a powerful Republican lawmaker this week proposed building such a fence across the entire border and two dozen other lawmakers signed on. And via the Internet, a group called weneedafence.com has raised enough money to air TV ads warning that the border is open to terrorists.
    Even at the Homeland Security Department, which opposes building a border-long fence, Secretary Michael Chertoff this fall waived environmental laws so that construction can continue on a 14-mile section of fence near San Diego that has helped border agents stem the flow of illegal migrants and drug runners.
    "You have to be able to enforce your borders," says California Rep. Duncan Hunter, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He's proposing a fence from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas. "It's no longer just an immigration issue. It's now a national security issue."

•   •   •  

Not all Muslims want to integrate   [11/17/05]
Author Bruce Bawer moved from New York City to Europe in 1998, and has lived in Amsterdam and Oslo.

Millions of "French Muslims" don't consider themselves French. A government report leaked last March depicted an increasingly two-track educational system: More and more Muslim students refuse to sing, dance, participate in sports, sketch a face, or play an instrument. They won't draw a right angle (it looks like part of the Christian cross). They won't read Voltaire and Rousseau (too antireligion), Cyrano de Bergerac (too racy), Madame Bovary (too pro-women), or Chrétien de Troyes (too chrétien). One school has separate toilets for "Muslims" and "Frenchmen"; another obeyed a Muslim leader's call for separate locker rooms because "the circumcised should not have to undress alongside the impure."
    Many Muslims, wanting to enjoy Western prosperity but repelled by Western ways, travel regularly back to their homelands. From Oslo, where I live, there are more direct flights every week to Islamabad than to the US. A recent Norwegian report noted that among young Norwegians of Pakistani descent, family honor depends largely on "not being perceived as Norwegian - as integrated."

•   •   •  

In France, Malaise Tops the Dish   [11/16/05]
Here are my recent remarks about the French slide into Eurabia written in VDARE.com.

French President Jacques Chirac has complained vaguely of his country's "profound malaise" regarding the current unrest, but we culturists can be more precise about the cause, namely the bonehead choices France made regarding immigration a few decades ago.
    Interestingly, French leaders thought they were getting "cheap" labor, which would conveniently self-deport when the post-war rebuilding was finished. Au contraire, as we have seen. Furthermore, a pro-Arab tilt was announced in 1967 by Charles De Gaulle for political reasons of the moment.

•   •   •  

License Illegal -- Students and Community Organizers Protest in Sacramento   [11/16/05]
This is an October video clip of MEChA types in Sacramento as they demand drivers licenses for illegals, expressing their desires and frustrations in the unique style of today's Mexo-anarchist.
    An organizer named Luiz is typical. He complains that the Cedillo proposal for DLs includes a different design for "immigrants" which he says is "like what Hitler did with the Jews." (Only in America, the victims get food stamps instead of a trip to the gas chamber.)
    There's a also well-fed fellow wearing a mask (!) and revolutionary-themed t-shirt saying things like, "We are workers, not terrorists." Yes, every personnel manager wants to hire more employees so attired.
    Only in America!

•   •   •  

What France Really Thinks   [11/15/05]
Martin Walker is taking the temperature of France, and away from the glitz of Paris. He visits with a police chief and his wife in a small town.

Chirac does not seem to live in the same country that we do," said the wife, Francine. "This isn't just about his 'zones in difficulty.' The whole country is fed up. We have had this immigration for 20 years and nothing seems to change. We spend more and more money on these zones, we rebuild them, we decorate them, we install playgrounds and social workers and nothing changes."
    Her husband, who has future political ambitions so he had better remain anonymous, is the police chief for a medium-sized commune in what used to be the countryside, but is increasingly a dormitory town and regional shopping center. And though the major towns around have had cars torched and angry scenes in the last two weeks of riots, his commune has remained completely peaceful. [...]
    "But because I know the parents, I can tell you that some of them have never had a job, yet they have more spending money than Francine and I have left after we pay our taxes and mortgage and insurance," he went on.
    "They get unemployment pay and then they get family assistance money for their children. Their rent is free. Their children eat free at school. When we go to the dentist or to the pharmacy, we have to pay a proportion of the bill because the insurance does not cover everything, and if your family needs spectacles, the insurance pays hardly anything. But for them it is all free. And then they get extra money for their holidays." [...]
    Back at the dinner table of Francine and the police chief, they spoke approvingly of the Paris suburb of Draveil, where Mayor Georges Tron has announced an end to benefits run by his local council, which includes services like school canteens and child care, for the families of youths convicted of rioting or arson.
    "That's more like it," said Francine.

•   •   •  

Online Workshop Part 2: Can Eurabia Still be Averted?   [11/15/05]
Fjordman is chatting up some big topics before closing down his blog around the end of November, a huge loss for Europe watchers and those who want to preserve western civilization.

Historian Bat Ye'or, who first coined the term "Eurabia", thinks that Europe's ties with the Arab-Islamic world are now so firmly entrenched and established that Eurabia is an irreversible fact. Europe will cease to be a Western, democratic continent, and will become an appendix to the Arab world, a civilization of dhimmitude employed to spread Jihad and further the cause of Islam on a global basis, while the original, non-Muslim population are held hostage in their own countries out of fear of Muslim violence. Do you think this is true, or can Eurabia still be reversed and Europe salvaged?
    I must admit there are certain parts of Europe that do seem to be beyond hope, or very close to it. ALL of the largest Dutch cities are projected to have a Muslim majority within a generation, as will several English, French, Belgian, Scandinavian and Spanish cities. I forsee several possible scenarios:
    1. Eurabia.
    The EU continues its transformation into a continent-wide organization with clear totalitarian leanings, and a very pro-Islamic stance. Europe's fate is sealed when Turkey is allowed into the Union, and becomes its largest member. Freedom of speech will be shut down, and any criticism of Islam banned. Eurabia will become a global center for Jihad activities, as the dhimmi taxpayers and infidel Western technology give a boost to the Ummah. For this reason, the Americans, the Israelis, the Indians, the Russians and maybe even the Chinese will have to crush Eurabia by brute force, as it will represent a grave security threat for them.

•   •   •  

The Myth Of No-Cost Immigrants   [11/15/05]
"Cheap" immigrant labor is incredibly expensive, at least for the beleagured taxpayer. Businesses that hire workers of questionable status manage to pass on the costs, courtesy of their pals in Congress and the White House. From Investor's Business Daily:

Conventional wisdom says immigrants are not a financial burden to taxpayers because they work hard, pay taxes and rarely go on the dole. But it's a myth, and a new study blows another hole in it.
    The University of Florida finds that immigrant families have been costing that state a net $1,800 per household per year, a financial burden much larger than previously thought.
    The findings surprised the study's author, who is a pro-immigration Democrat. After crunching the numbers, economist David Denslow discovered immigrants — legal and illegal — were consuming much more in public services and paying much less in taxes than the average resident. [...]
    Between 1996 and 2001, the number of immigrant households using the welfare system grew by 750,000 to more than 3 million — accounting for almost 18% of all U.S. households on welfare. That share is expected to rise with continued high rates of immigration.
    And if you think immigrants, most of whom are poor Mexicans, will stop depending on U.S. welfare as they settle into jobs and even careers here, think again.
    CIS found that welfare use actually increases significantly with duration of stay in the U.S. Not until they have lived here more than 20 years does it start to go down on average.
    "To some extent, assimilation for many immigrants means assimilation into the welfare system," the report said. "This is the case for both immigrants in general and for legal immigrants."

•   •   •  

Illegals activity increases violence   [11/14/05]
You can't have just a little anarchy. When Washington decided to ignore the chaos on the border, it loosed forces of lawlessness that continue to accelerate.

BALTIMORE -- When three children were found nearly beheaded last year, police struggled to uncover a motive for the slayings.
    One possibility, raised during the trial of two men charged with the killings, tied the deaths to the smuggling of illegal aliens.
    Defense attorney James Rhodes, who represented one of the Mexican men charged with killing their young relatives, suggested that smugglers might have committed the crimes because family members had not paid for being brought illegally into the United States.
    Human smuggling by criminals called "coyotes" is growing nationwide, touching even cities thousands of miles from the U.S. border with Mexico. And it is becoming increasingly violent.
    "It's always been there; you're just waking up to the reality that it's there now," said Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "This is something that is happening throughout the nation, even in Baltimore."

•   •   •  

Nirvana Unleavened   [11/14/05]
Military historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson is traveling in Europe, and does not find it the perfect socialist paradise.

The premises of an increasingly ossified and undemocratic European Union are as admirable in theory as they are ludicrous in reality. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the removal of thousands of Red Army soldiers from Eastern Europe, the new Europeans unilaterally have declared themselves a heaven on Earth. By that I mean the Continent's citizens feel they are now exempt from the harsh reality facing billions of mere mortals in America, China, India and Russia.
    War is by fiat obsolete and relegated to more primitive others. While Europeans may grudgingly concede the United States still provides them subsidized and reliable defense, the embarrassment is explained away by the belief America is bellicose anyway -- and so must enjoy chasing mostly imagined enemies around the globe.
    Practically, such pacifism results in a weakening of NATO, with the expectation the U.S. will continue to assume an ever-greater share of its costs and manpower. Few over here realize they have finally lost American good will -- and with it the public's desire ever again to bail them out from another Slobodan Milosevic or an ascendant Russia or nuclear Iran.

•   •   •  

France's cultural problems, and ours   [11/13/05]
Here'e my letter about the French riots published in the Washington Times today.

The French are reaping their grim reward for welcoming into their communities millions of people from what has historically been an enemy culture because of a belief in leftist, multicultural dogma and postmodern pacifism.
    The leaders of radical Islam in Europe see "disaffected youth" as fertile ground for terrorist recruiting. Gangs of angry young men with time on their hands are trouble anywhere, and doubly so when militants may be channeling their rage from the local mosque or Web sites around the world.

•   •   •  

India fences off Bangladesh to keep out Muslim terror   [11/13/05]
Fences work. That's why security-conscious nations from Israel to India have built them to keep out enemies.

INDIA is accelerating the construction of a 2,500-mile fence to seal its border with Bangladesh amid growing fears that its Muslim neighbour could become "a new Afghanistan". [...]
    India's cabinet has decided to speed up work on the 8ft security fence, which is intended to keep out terrorists and arms smugglers. The fence, which cuts a swathe through some of India's densest rainforests, will be finished by the end of next year and patrolled by a border security force. Key stretches are being electrified.

•   •   •  

Five questions non-Muslims would like answered   [11/13/05]
Author and radio talk-show host Dennis Prager draws a line in the sand for the mythical "moderate Muslim." Remarkably, this op-ed was printed in the painfully PC LA Times, so kudos to them.
    Here is question one. Be sure to read the others.

(1) Why are you so quiet?
    Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while welcome, were a rarity. What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah.
    There are a billion Muslims in the world. How is it possible that essentially none have demonstrated against evils perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam? This is true even of the millions of Muslims living in free Western societies. What are non-Muslims of goodwill supposed to conclude? When the Israeli government did not stop a Lebanese massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, great crowds of Israeli Jews gathered to protest their country's moral failing. Why has there been no comparable public demonstration by Palestinians or other Muslims to morally condemn Palestinian or other Muslim-committed terror?

•   •   •  

Money sent from U.S. can be a boon or a bane   [11/12/05]
LTG has long maintained that remittances to the home countries work to keep initiative at a low level and dampen demands for long overdue political and economic reform in Mexico.

Last year, immigrants in Oregon sent home $218 million, mostly to Mexico, according to a remittance study by the Inter-American Development Bank.
    In Oaxaca, that money primarily is used to pay for daily needs, such as food and clothing or adding floors and roofs to homes, said Jeffrey H. Cohen, an economic anthropologist at Ohio State University.
    Although there is some investment of remittances, there also is great dependency on them, the professor said.
    "The prospects for development that would allow Oaxacans to live their lives locally and with dignity, and most importantly, without the pressure to migrate, will be in the distant future," Cohen said.
    Remittances are Mexico's second-largest source of income -- after petroleum -- and have drawn great attention from the government.

•   •   •  

Illegal Immigrants Take Many Reconstuction Jobs in New Orleans   [11/12/05]
The ongoing violation of laws continues in the post-Katrina devastation. But there may be some help at hand.

Among those watching the situation is Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which advocates stricter enforcement of immigration laws. In a VOA phone interview, he says the Minutemen may soon go to New Orleans.
    "We have been in contact with some officials of the New Orleans city government about starting a Minuteman watch group there," said Mr. Simcox. "Let us expose how the federal government is aiding and abetting illegal activity in this country."

•   •   •  

Honoring Veterans Means Maintaining Borders and Sovereignty   [11/11/05]
Above is my Vdare.com piece about Veterans' Day.
    In honor of the day, here's Kate Smith singing "God Bless America".
    Also, the multimedia piece "Until Then" combines current military images and music to honor our troops.

•   •   •  

California: Per capita income in state is expected to sink over 20 years   [11/11/05]
The mounting effects of importing poverty for decades have become impossible to notice even by the ultra-lib San Francisco Chronicle. These figures are stunning.

Californians' per capita income will drop 11 percent over the first two decades of this century unless the state closes the educational gap of its expanding Latino population, a nonpartisan research center forecast in a report released today.
    Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the state's population and work force, and among the least-educated, said the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
    According to 2000 census figures, in the 25-to-64 age group, 52 percent of Latinos lacked a high school diploma, compared with 8 percent of non-Latino whites, and 12 percent of Latinos had a college degree, compared with 46 percent of whites.
    If those rates persist as the population continues to change, the report said, the state's average educational level will decline through 2020 and drag down per capita income. [...]
    Nationally, a 2 percent drop in income was predicted over the same period; California will suffer the biggest loss of any state.

•   •   •  

For Muslim girls, becoming truly French is not an option   [11/10/05]
For Muslim women and girls, living in Europe provides no safety from the tyranny of Islamic oppression. The next time you are urged to celebrate diversity, remember that murder, beatings and gang rape are the treatment that a Muslim female receives for trying to live as a free individual.

Three years ago, a brave Algerian-born woman named Samira Bellil went public with the story of her horrific life growing up in the immigrant ghettos of France. She described a world in which young girls are routinely brutalized by boys, and where violence against women is endemic. Young women who dare to go out on dates or wear makeup or dress immodestly can be punished by gang rape -- also known as tournante, or "passing around."
    Samira was first gang-raped when she was 14, by her boyfriend and his friends. "I couldn't say anything, because, in my culture, your family is dishonoured if you lose your virginity," she recalled. "So I kept quiet and the rapes continued." When her parents found out, they kicked her out; her neighbourhood also rejected her. Her book, Dans l'enfer des tournantes, shocked the nation.
    The greatest casualties of the Muslim slums of France are not the unemployed angry young men rioting in the streets. The greatest casualties are their sisters, shut up at night behind closed doors. The women suffer doubly -- once because they aren't accepted by the French, and again because, if they try to behave like French women, they are punished for it. [...]
    The plight of abused Muslim women would be regarded as intolerable if the victims were culturally French. But a pervasive cultural relativism, largely rooted in the left, has allowed France to tolerate the intolerable for quite a while. The results aren't pretty.
    The recent rise in fundamentalist Islam has made the situation even worse. Teenage Muslim girls are forbidden to play sports or to visit coed community centres or movie theatres. Young bearded men, in the role of religious police, enforce strict dress codes. At school, Muslim boys won't participate in swimming because they refuse to swim in "girls' water" or "non-Muslim water." Jewish students suffer routine harassment, too. A recent report by a senior French school official concluded that many of the teachers in ethnically dominant schools have decided that it's futile to resist.

•   •   •  

France Plans to Deport Rioters   [11/10/05]
More than 100 foreigners have been arrested in France for rioting. Who could object to deporting them?

Calm continues to replace street mayhem. But the move to expel noncitizens convicted in the violence may reignite tensions. [...]
    The deportation policy may increase tension among the North African community, some of whose leaders are dismayed by the government's state-of-emergency declaration, based on a rarely used 1955 law. Invoking the law, created during the war that led to Algeria's independence, recalls for many France's colonial past.

•   •   •  

Study: Uninsured increase from illegal immigrants   [11/10/05]
No big surprise in this study from RAND, since Washington has allowed millions of "cheap" laborers.

The increase in the number of people without health insurance has occurred largely because of illegal immigration, a study found.
    Researchers at the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank, analyzed data received from about 2,400 people in Los Angeles County in 2000 and 2001, and applied that information to the nation's undocumented population at large.
    The number of uninsured adults in the United States grew by about 8.7 million between 1980 and 2000. If the trend for Los Angeles County held true for the rest of the country, about a third of that growth can be attributable to illegal immigrants.

•   •   •  

U.S. Lawmakers Told of Saudi-Funded Anti-West Rhetoric   [11/09/05]
Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee put a spotlight on Saudi Arabia and the nature of its activities, from funding terrorism to promoting an Islamic fifth column in the United States.

The government of Saudi Arabia is distributing books and pamphlets across the United States in an effort to recruit American Muslims to an international struggle against Christians and Jews, the director of a religious freedom organization told the Senate Judiciary Committee Nov. 8.
    In one instance, a booklet distributed by the Saudi Embassy in Washington offers instructions on how to "build a wall of resentment" between Muslims and infidels, said Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom.
    Among the book's directives: "Never greet the Christian or Jew first. Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday. Never befriend an infidel unless it is to convert him. Never imitate the infidel. Never work for an infidel," Shea quoted during a committee hearing.

•   •   •  

As Paris burns will we learn?   [11/09/05]
Cal Thomas asks the question of the hour: will Americans recognize the danger to the nation of welcoming hostile cultures, a situation that France allowed to grow out of control. Welcoming millions whose values are antithetical to our own creates a dangerous fifth column, as the French are now learning.
    In addition, there is a lot of chatter from European pundits now that America assimilates better than them. That is true only in a relative sense: assimilation is no longer the ideal that it once was. Many newcomers don't want to become Americans and wish only to stripmine the wealth here, as shown by the increasing billions of dollars sent to home countries in remittances. Furthermore the poorly considered ideology of multiculturalism urges foreigners to retain their home language and values rather than become part of mainstream America.

France is experiencing what other Western nations are: millions of Muslim youths who identify with the larger and borderless "Muslim World" and less, or not at all, with their host countries. Mosques erected in these countries are growing as rapidly as Starbucks or McDonald's franchises. The same is true in the United States. According to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research's recent study, the number of mosques in the United States increased 42 percent from 1990 to 2000, second only to the growth of Christian "mega churches." Many of these mosques are built with the help of Saudi Arabia, which adheres to the Wahhabi sect of Islam, the religion's most puritanical and violent wing. In some cases, the mosques are connected to schools that teach separation from American values and hatred of Jews and Christians.
    France will be America's future, if we don't stop denying that this invasion is deliberate and purposeful. If we don't end the proliferation of radical Muslims, it would not be out of the question to predict a terrorist plot to blow up American cities, if the U.S. government fails to bow to fanatical demands to abandon Israel. What would the government do if weapons of mass destruction were placed in our cities and it was announced that unless Washington met their demands, millions of Americans would be annihilated? Before you start accusing me of bigotry, on what basis -- other than your wishful thinking and refusal to confront this threat -- do you base your position?

•   •   •  

Reflections on the Revolution in France   [11/08/05]
Daniel Pipes is not hopeful that even the current paroxysm will wake up the French.

The French can respond in three ways. They can feel guilty and appease the rioters with prerogatives and the "massive investment plan" some are demanding. Or they can heave a sigh of relief when it ends and, as they did after earlier crises, return to business as usual. Or they can understand this as the opening salvo in a would-be revolution and take the difficult steps to undo the negligence and indulgence of past decades.
    I expect a blend of the first two reactions and that, despite Sarkozy's surge in the polls, Villepin's appeasing approach will prevail. France must await something larger and more awful to awake it from its somnolence. The long-term prognosis, however, is inescapable: "the sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced," as Theodore Dalrymple puts it, "by the nightmare of permanent conflict."

•   •   •  

Eurabian Nights   [11/08/05]
Investor's Business Daily remains one of the most sensible business publications around — note the quote marks about "cheap" labor in the last paragraph. IBD understands that the long-term cost of social breakdown caused by unassimilated millions is not worth the dollar savings over the short time frame.

The riots that we've witnessed for 12 days now, and which have spread to 300 French towns, are said to be fueled by the failure of the stagnating French economy to assimilate its growing Muslim population and provide jobs.
    But the intensity and number of outbreaks suggests something else as well — a seizing of the moment by those unwilling to be assimilated. Motivated by their hatred of Western culture and their fundamentalist beliefs, they have lashed out at the infidels.
    The rioting comes almost a year to the day after Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh had his throat slit by a Muslim born in Holland. The incitement? Van Gogh produced a film criticizing the Islamic world for its harsh treatment of women.
    It's reasonable to suggest the feelings of van Gogh's killer are shared by many of the rioters in France. Clichy-sous-Bois, the suburb where the trouble started, is like many European communities. More than 80% of the residents are Muslim immigrants and their children. It's a place French police have avoided for years.
    It is not alone. As columnist Mark Steyn reports, Belgian police officers in Brussels are advised not to be seen drinking coffee in public during Ramadan. In Malmo, Sweden, ambulance drivers will not go into certain areas without police escort.
    As we've noted for years, there's another bomb going off in Europe, a demographic time bomb. It's already having unintended geopolitical consequences as Muslim immigrants descend on a declining Europe desperate for "cheap" and abundant labor.

•   •   •  

Early skirmish in the Eurabian civil war   [11/08/05]
Mark Steyn observes that a certain amount of denial is still afoot among the French ruling class about what multicultural has actually created, a dysfunctional integration process in which the worst of both cultures are combined and strengthened.

As to the "French" "youth", a reader in Antibes cautions me against characterising the disaffected as "Islamist". "Look at the pictures of the youths," he advises. "They look like LA gangsters, not beturbaned prophet-monkeys."
    Leaving aside what I'm told are more than a few cries of "Allahu Akhbar!" on the streets, my correspondent is correct. But that's the point. The first country formally to embrace "multiculturalism" - to the extent of giving it a cabinet post - was Canada, where it was sold as a form of benign cultural cross-pollination: the best of all worlds. But just as often it gives us the worst of all worlds. More than three years ago, I wrote about the "tournante" or "take your turn" - the gang rape that's become an adolescent rite of passage in the Muslim quarters of French cities - and similar phenomena throughout the West: "Multiculturalism means that the worst attributes of Muslim culture - the subjugation of women - combine with the worst attributes of Western culture - licence and self-gratification. Tattooed, pierced Pakistani skinhead gangs swaggering down the streets of northern England areas are as much a product of multiculturalism as the turban-wearing Sikh Mountie in the vice-regal escort." Islamofascism itself is what it says: a fusion of Islamic identity with old-school European totalitarianism. But, whether in turbans or gangsta threads, just as Communism was in its day, so Islam is today's ideology of choice for the world's disaffected.

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Riots in France   [11/08/05]
Thomas Sowell nails down the big picture of the ongoing intifada in his usual precise style.

European countries especially have thrown their doors open to a large influx of Moslem immigrants who have no intention of becoming part of the cultures of the countries to which they immigrate but to recreate their own cultures in those countries.
    In the name of tolerance, these countries have imported intolerance, of which growing antisemitism in Europe is just one example. In the name of respecting all cultures, Western nations have welcomed people who respect neither the cultures nor the rights of the population among whom they have settled.
    During the last election, some campus Republicans who were holding a rally for President Bush at San Francisco State University were harassed by Middle Eastern students, including a woman who walked up to one of these Americans and slapped his face. They knew they could do this with impunity.
    In Michigan, a Moslem community loudly sounds their calls to prayer several times a day, without regard to whether that sound bothers the original inhabitants of the community.
    The Dutch were shocked when one of their film-makers was assassinated by a Moslem extremist for daring to have views at variance with what the extremists would tolerate.
    No one should have been shocked. There are people who will not stop until they get stopped -- and much of the media, the political classes, and the cultural elites of the West cannot bring themselves to even criticize, much less stop, the dangers or degeneracy among groups viewed sympathetically as underdogs.

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A War Like No Other   [11/08/05]
Classicist Victor Davis Hanson discussed his new book about the Peloponnesian War with FrontPage editor Jamie Glasov. Naturally some of the talk turned to recent events, as Glasov asked Hanson how he saw the riots in France.

In two ways: the banal take that is on everyone's lips is that France fails to integrate and assimilate its "other" due to innate aristocracy, smugness, and racism so embedded in European postmodern society. So this Parisian intifada can be a good reminder of why would not wish to create such apartheid ethnic blocks inside the United States. Paris is a wake-up call for America to get serious about illegal immigration, and begin to dismantle the machinery of ethnic separatism-bilingual government documents, etc., ethnic chauvinism in our schools, tribal set-asides, romance, crack-pot history about a mythical Atzlan, etc-and work on improving the melting pot.
    But second, I was struck how few in France had the intellectual courage and integrity to ask anything of the Muslim immigrants: why did they come, why did they stay, what do they want? Obviously if life is bad in the west, North Africa is a day's voyage away; so why romanticize the culture you under no circumstances wish to return to to, but demonize the country under no conditions you wish to leave? Both the immigrant and the naturalized citizen should be asked that, and told to go half way: learn French well, the history and culture of your country, and the larger traditions of the West that you have chosen to join.

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Tancredo Talks Immigration with GOPUSA   [11/08/05]
Listen to Rep. Tom Tancredo's hopeful discussion of how the tide has turned in Washington: the issue has "reached critical mass" he says. He noted that a recent Republican House conference concerning "where do we go from here" was 75 percent about immigration. Meaningful legislation is in the pipeline and deserves the support of pro-borders citizens.
    Update: Here is Part Two of the interview, with Rep. Tancredo's discussion of upcoming legislation, the nature of the Mexico threat and what's wrong with the idea of multiculturalism.

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Immigration Relief Sought   [11/07/05]
The Gimme Chorus is singing harmony here: both Guatemala and Pakistan want Washington to cease deporting their illegal aliens home, and are using recent natural disasters as an excuse to extend the much abused Temporary Protected Status, aka TPS. (Somehow I imagine that their consular offices are still managing to crank out visas for their citizens to come here.)

After Hurricane Stan swamped Guatemala, and an earthquake struck Pakistan last month, the U.S. government responded with blankets, food, medicine and a bounty of aid.
    Now both countries are asking the U.S. government to make a more controversial humanitarian gesture--temporarily stop deporting their citizens who are here illegally.