Saturday, September 01, 2018

Is the Notion of Islamophobia Even Possible?

Not according to Peter O'Keefe, who writes:
Islamophobia is, by definition, impossible.

A phobia is an anxiety disorder in which the subject experiences an irrational and unreasonable fear that has no demonstrable basis in reality.

Anxiety about the intentions of Islam vis-à-vis Western society is hardly irrational or unreasonable given the constant clamoring of Islamic spokesmen for the subjugation and/or death of everyone unconvinced by its claim to being the ultimate authority about everything.

Friday, August 31, 2018

The 1944 Liberation of Paris: Ten Days that Shook la France


Eté 1944. Six mille soldats du Reich sont encore dans les murs quand l’insurrection éclate. Dix jours de combats incertains s’ensuivent, qui auraient pu se solder par un bain de sang. Retour sur ces journées mouvementées.
Dans GEO Histoire du Vendredi 24 août 2018, Frédéric Granier et Volker Saux racontent la Libération de Paris : le récit de dix jours mouvementés.
Difficile d’imaginer la Libération de la France sans les images des chars de Leclerc à la porte d’Orléans, ou celles de de Gaulle descendant les Champs-Elysées. Et pourtant, il s’en est fallu de peu pour que Paris rate le train de l’Histoire. 
"La ville n’avait plus aucune signification tactique. En dépit de sa gloire historique, Paris ne représentait qu’une tâche d’encre sur nos cartes ; il fallait l’éviter dans notre marche vers le Rhin"
raconte ainsi Omar Bradley dans ses mémoires. Au cœur de l’été 1944, l’avis de ce général américain est partagé par l’ensemble du commandement allié, pour qui la progression depuis la Normandie vers le front de l’est demeure la priorité absolue. Mais pour de Gaulle, Paris vaut bien une bataille…

Le chef de la France libre a compris que la force du symbole dépasse de très loin l’enjeu militaire. Non seulement la Ville lumière doit être prise, mais elle doit l’être par des troupes françaises ! De Gaulle s’en est soucié dès 1943, désignant le général Leclerc, chef de la 2e division blindée, pour libérer la capitale. Il a aussi fait nommer les préfets de police et de la Seine par le gouvernement provisoire d’Alger, et a chargé Alexandre Parodi de le représenter à Paris afin d’y préparer l’arrivée du Gouvernement provisoire de la République française (GPRF). Reste encore, après le Débarquement, à convaincre les Alliés d’envoyer une division française. Récit d’un été brûlant. …
Read the whole thing
"On peut estimer qu’au total la bataille de Paris se traduit sans doute par 3 400 morts et 5 500 blessés [ndlr : Allemands, FFI, forces alliées et civils confondus]", écrit Jean-François Muracciole dans son ouvrage "La Libération de Paris" (éd. Tallandier, 2013). On est très loin des hécatombes des batailles de Stalingrad ou de Berlin ! Enfin, rapportée à la puissance de l’opération Overlord (le Débarquement et la bataille de Normandie) qui s’achève au même moment, la libération de Paris n’est qu’un épiphénomène, qui pèse peu dans la défaite allemande à l’ouest. Mais la portée de l’événement est ailleurs. Dans le symbole, d’abord : les scènes de joie des Parisiens incarnent la fin du joug nazi en Europe de l’Ouest. Dans la politique, ensuite, par la victoire de la Résistance. Et par le sacre populaire de son chef, de Gaulle.
Voir aussi: Les premiers libérateurs de Paris en 1944 ne sont ni français ni américains, mais… espagnols

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Is it true that there’s no freedom of speech in France?


Alexander Boot recounts how he got censored in France:
When we met in Paris, [a charming French journalist] said she was envious of Britain, where it was still possible to express conservative views in all media.

The left, she said, had such tight control of the papers, broadcast media and publishing that many conservative books published by les Anglo-Saxons would never see the light of day in France.

As an example, she pointed at her heavily thumbed and bookmarked copy of my Democracy as a Neocon Trick, which she said was brilliant even though she disagreed with some of the points I made. The book, she lamented, ought to be widely read in France, but it would never be published.

 … Since my lovely and intelligent interviewer sounded like a run-of-the-mill British or American conservative, with a slight neo- tilt, I assumed that Radio Courtoisie was roughly in the same political band.

Anyway, the interview was recorded at the end of May and was scheduled to run today at midday, French time, and then again at midnight. I promptly told all my French friends about it, ordering them to listen on pain of death.

They all promised to do so, what with the fierce expression on my face. But, they said, they were surprised that Radio Courtoisie, which they described as ‘extreme right-wing’ and ‘pro-Poutine‘, would run my interview on that subject.

Knowing that I too am extreme right-wing to them, I was surprised. It’s all that political taxonomy, which in France is even more confused than here.

 … Late last night, my interviewer sent me an e-mail specifying the broadcast slots, and I was about to forward it to all and sundry in France. But then, seconds later, another e-mail arrived:
“I’ve just had a phone call from the Radio Courtoisie director and editor-in-chief … She has decided to cancel the broadcast because it ‘contains violent libellous accusations against Putin that could draw the ire of the Russian embassy’.”
Now this isn’t the first time I’ve been censored, but never for that reason.

For ‘violent’ though my accusations against Putin might have been, they certainly weren’t libellous – for the simple reason that they were all true.

 … So I suppose my interviewer was right when saying there’s no freedom of speech in France. I should have listened more attentively.
Read the whole thing™.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Did it ever occur to CNN that if these Muslims had not been stockpiling weapons and training children for school shootings, no one would need to be worried about “Islamophobia”?


As usual, the mainstream media is more concerned with imagined threats by (deplorable) segments of the U.S. population/of Western populations against minorities — threats that never seem to pan out — than they are about the real threats, direct or indirect, by minorities or others, against U.S./Western society.

In that perspective, Jihad Watch's Robert Spencer explains that "This is why they call CNN fake news":
Mass shootings, and they’re worried about a chimerical backlash against innocent Muslims that seldom, if ever, materializes[?!]

 … One wonders if it ever occurred to CNN that if these Muslims had not been stockpiling weapons and training children for school shootings, no one would need to be worried about “Islamophobia.”
As for Tim Brown, he goes further as he quotes part of the CNN article in a FreedomOutpost piece called CNN Is More Concerned That The New Mexico Islaimc Jihad Compound May Lead To "Racism & Islamophobia" [Than] They Are [About] What Actually Took Place There.
The Fabricating News Network, CNN, seems to be more concerned that the news around the New Mexico Islamic jihad compound where Islamists killed a young boy in an Islamic ritual and were training other young children to commit mass school shootings in their jihad effort will lead to a [rise] in racism and Islamophobia than they seem concerned over what was actually going on there and the apparent government coverup of it.

 … [CNN's] Emanuella Grinberg writes [that]
those who met [members of the black Muslim family] said they seemed friendly. A resident recalled how one of the men tenderly wiped the nose of a crying child.
 … The region’s history of welcoming outsiders has contributed to cross-cultural exchanges and a tolerant attitude that locals consider points of pride. Many are quick to distance the state’s countercultural vibe from the compound and its inhabitants, who are accused of training the children to commit mass shootings. But they also fear that the publicity around a case infused with allegations of terrorism, child abuse and faith healing might contribute to a rise in racism and Islamophobia.

 … “People come here and they want to be left alone and sometimes they do things that are unconventional,” said Malaquias “JR” Rael, whose family arrived in the Taos region in the mid-1800s. … “It can be difficult to be alarmed or judgmental, because people have been doing this kind of stuff for a long time.”
Isn't this the case in almost every single instance of Islamic jihad here in the States?  The Muslim seems normal and just like everyone else and then all at once, they go jihadi, right?

In a seperate piece, Robert Spencer adds that
The establishment media takes for granted that there is a rise of “anti-Muslim activity” in the US, … however [in Aaron Schrank's Southern California Public Radio report] … There are no examples given of the “marked increase in anti-Muslim activity,” and FBI figures show that hate crimes against Jews are much more common than hate crimes against Muslims.
But Muslim groups and Leftist groups in the US both find it useful to claim that Muslims are experiencing a wave of discrimination, harassment, and persecution in the US. This claim helps them demonize Trump and his attempt to limit immigration from jihadi hotspots, and to cast counterterror efforts in general in a bad light, because, you see, they create “hate” against Muslims. Just stay quiet and you’ll be okay.