It's here.  It's real.  And it's operating in our country.  An investigation by the Daily Express has revealed that secret courts meting out Islamic sharia law are now fully functional in the United Kingdom.  According to the report, it first emerged that Muslims (who else!?) were operating their own judicial customs; with legal experts blaming this Labour government (again, who else!?) for effectively turning a blind eye to the establishment of these mediaeval forms of punishment.

A Somalian (what the bloody hell are they doing here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?  Oh I forgot, they are 'enriching the British ethnic tapestry with their skills and contribution to the economy'.  So sayeth the book of Leftist Pro-immigration Propaganda for Beginners) youth worker gives an account of just such a sharia trial which took place in Woolwich, south east London.  The form of hearing coupled with the recompense was, according to this come-over, more in line with standards of legal practice in full swing on Africa's horn.  He concludes his witness statement by saying:

'Somalis, wherever we live in the world, have our own law.'

My goodness, aren't these Somalis a real boon to our society?  When they are not murdering police officers outside Bradford travel agencies they are engaging in a bit of Muslim-heavy justice in suburbia beside the Thames.  What is more, they do so with the apparent acknowledgement of our weak and spineless authorities who long ago foresook the principles which underpin societal and constitutional stability by pandering to elements who most hate this country and what it stands for.

A remedy should centre on absolute zero tolerance (the American version, not this pusillanimous garbage we have here, which insults the very concept) of sharia law, and indeed other forms of Muslim defiance in our country.  We do not have a perfect system - far from it.  What we do have is a system everybody had to accept - begrudgingly or otherwise.  Heavy penalties need to be enforced for anyone practising sharia law here.  Will those with power have the sense to use it?

We all know that the Fatah movement are the "voices of moderation" in Palestine society. How do we know this? Well, voices ranging from Blair, to Rice, to Bush, to the EU and even the UN. Hamas have a bit of an image problem with their open declaration of genocide against the Jewish State, but Fatah are the saner more reasoned people. 

So, Fatah really are MODERATE. Got that?

Now let's reflect on the words of  the Secretary of Fatah in Gaza, Ahmed Hales Abu Maher, who has charmingly expressed pride on Palestinian TV that the Fatah "gives daily examples" that the world has "imitated," from the participation of children in combat to the widespread use of suicide terror, all of which started with the Fatah-PLO. The following is the statement on PA TV: Ahmed Hales Abu Maher, Secretary of Fatah in Gaza

“Oh warrior brothers, this is a nation that will never be broken, it is a revolution that will never be defeated. This is a nation that gives an example every day that is imitated across the world. We gave the world the children of the RPG [Rocket Propelled Grenades], we gave the world the children stone [-throwers], and we gave the world the male and female Martyrdom-Seekers [suicide bombers)

 

Give these people a State?

“Look at Britain today and you see a blighted land, its atomised culture diluted by outside influences, its people resentful and divided. But who would blame a whipped dog for howling? The fact is, these islands are suffering from a collective trauma, harboured for two millennia.

The Roman invasion of Britain left an open wound that cries out to be healed. Our Latin conquerors benefited enormously from enslaving us, and that has got to be put right. Italy's government must apologise and make reparations”

The First Post has put its grievances to the Italian Embassy

 ‘and asked what its government intends by way of compensation. In a pattern established over 1,500 years ago, they have not deigned to reply. Well, we warn them now: we are reaching the end of the woad’. .(..hat tip Harrys Place)

If only! And to add to this comedy I gather that in a debate on somesuch issues on equality in the Commons today an MP suggested Blair apologise to all women for what Henry VIII did to his wives. It was on the BBC earlier but I cant find the link. With that double whammy on the compensation front I would finally have made it out of the clutches of a landlord and onto the property ladder. Oh well.... Back to the 'rollover'. *Sigh*

But what is this? You are approached by cabin staff, treated as a potential child abuser, given no chance at a defence, vilified in public in full sight of an aircraft full of your fellow travellers, and shamed in front of your wife and children! But you are completely innocent! You just can’t Prove it!!

'Good to see you Hassan. I'm doing some interviews about Rushdie', I said. 'What are you doing in this God-forsaken place?'.....' Trying to make it less God forsaken', said Hassan. 'I've been up here a few months, helping in the campaign to silence the blasphemer....'

Bradford 1988

An extract from a piece on multi cuturalism by Kenan Malik.

The Mayor of London is determined to undermine Trevor Philips in the ongoing race debate by insisting on resurrecting the now defunct policy of multi culturalism at the exclusion of all other discussion. To undermine his argument Livingstone insists in condemning Phillips as a 'racist', 'so far right' he is akin to the BNP and has now boycotted a debate spearheaded by the head of the Commission for Racial Equality.

A few of Kenan’s observations in this piece, to me, highlight the failure of the policy itself and endorse the relevancy of a fresh debate:

• The Rushdie affair was a turning point in the relationship between British society and its Muslim communities. It was the moment that Islamic militancy announced itself as a major political issue
• In the aftermath of Rushdie…as important as challenging racism was tackling this 'politics of difference'.
• 'You have to treat people differently to treat them equally', Lee Jasper, race adviser to London Mayor Ken Livingstone told me when I interviewed him for a Channel 4 documentary. Or as Labour MP Keith Vaz has put it, 'Britishness cannot be imposed on people of different races, cultures and religions.' (a policy they are now dropping)
• Bradford's 12-point race relations plan declared that every section of the 'multiracial, multicultural city' had 'an equal right to maintain its own identity, culture, language, religion and customs'. Racism now meant not simply the denial of equal rights but the denial of the right to be different.
• As different groups began asserting their particular identities ever more fiercely, so the shift from the political to the cultural arena helped to create a more tribal city (referring to Bradford)

"If we want to change Britain then all of Britain must be part of the debate and part of the solution" - Trevor Phillips

I completely agree that we as a society need to wake up to what Malik termed the fragmenting character of pluralism and as Phillips is attempting to do - reassert common values. Ken Livingstone is utterly wrong to boycott the debate even with such messy shock topics on the agenda as: ‘Was Enoch Powell right?’. His insistence that controversial topics can’t be debated and must simply be decried as 'racist' simply leaves those topics as the exclusive preserve of the BNP. Helpful?

Interesting to read that the level of paramilitary extortion rackets has increased in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, according to a senior police analyst. Small businesses are being forced to pay up to £10,000 a month to paramilitaries who threaten them with violence and intimidation, according to Bridget Lloyd, assistant director of analytical services at the PSNI. Writing in the current edition of Economic Outlook And Business Review, Ms Lloyd said the sophistication of organised crime in Northern Ireland had been influenced significantly by paramilitary involvement.

ANYONE who lives in the Province will testify to the veracity of what this report is claiming. The Godfathers of crime have become much more sophisticated in how they operate but they remain just as evil and as parasitic on hard-working people. Can you IMAGINE what will happen should THEIR delegates gain control over policing?  

Henry Ford once said the above in a reference to the all-black nature of his car colour availability.  In much the same way the Irish Government said to Justice Baron: 'You can have any conclusion you like just as long as it damns the Ulster security services'.  That is precisely the context in which the report on 'collusion' endorsed (naturally) by the Irish administration should be seen.  We all know both HM Armed Forces and the RUC in Northern Ireland will have had a few 'bad apples'.  This reality will be replicated in just about every public body the world over.  What it will not do, however, is allow its collective good name to be tarnished by a poxy government of a poxy state that defied international law by claiming territory it had no right to, thereby giving succour to the aims of the Provisional IRA in the process.

The Oireachtas Committee has said the (admittedly atrocious) loyalist terrorist acts perpetrated in the 1970s were acts of 'international terrorism'.  Aside from the obvious rejoinder that the Republic provided effective safe territory from which IRA terrorists could operate, the Constitution at the time defined the whole island as part of the 'national territory'.  My goodness, the Oirish are quick enough to leave behind the irredentist histrionics when it suits.  Jim Walsh is quoted as saying: 'We owe it to the integrity of our State that we do not allow an infringement of our sovereignty to go unchallenged.'  But Jim, it is perfectly acceptable to have allowed your Constitution to permit an infringement of UK sovereignty for a period of no less than 62 years?  The hypocrisy just keeps on coming!!!

This report has to be viewed as a feeble attempt by a hostile neighbour to call into question the integrity of groups without which the entire island could have been engulfed by protracted civil war.  Jeffrey Donaldson today called for the Irish Republic to turn to its own difficulties in this regard before pointing the finger at others.  It is a sentiment the British people, who had to suffer far more than 18 deaths in this country, will echo.

As I expected, there were a fair few great entries, so I have given honorary mentions in several categories, as follows:-

Prophetic Headline  "Pope gives birth to Ayatolla's triplets"    Aileen

the sequel being    "Paisley Junior wins custody of grandchildren"  Aileen

Best play on words  "Turks Welcome The Pope en Masse."  Charles in Texas

Funniest      "Paisley's conversion to Scientology was unexpected! David Vance

Actual headline     "Cameron goes to Iraq, nobody notices!"   Ernest Young

The Winner is...... for a headline containing just that extra spice of acid ...........

Bush Presidential Library Opens, Book Missing!      Mahons

Congratulations and Salutations to all!

If the winner can send contribution via "e-mail the Editor" listed at top of header, it shall be forwarded to me!

I see that the ongoing choreography between Sinn Fein/IRA and the DUP continues. Comes the news that Sinn Féin/IRA could hold a special party conference on policing by next March if all its concerns were "properly addressed", Gerry Adams said today. (What a surprise!)

In a newspaper article, the Sinn Féin/IRA leader has spelled out clearly his requirements if a party conference to consider endorsing the Police Service of Northern Ireland is to be held within the timetable envisaged in the St Andrews plan to restore power-sharing by next March. Adams said he needed a definite date for the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont, agreement on the type of devolved government department which would handle them and MI5 to be excluded from any civic policing role.

How reasonable. So, just to reprise and translate this from Republican-speak, Adams will lower himself to accept the neutered grossly incomptent Police Service of Northern Ireland (which boasts how it actively discriminates against anyone who is not a Roman Catholic!) just so long as control of such policing can be devolved to potentially a Sinn Fein/IRA Minister! Naturally, Adams is insistent that MI5 would be kept right away from policing issues, we can but ponder why!

What will happen is this. Government will produce a firm date for the devolution of policing in due course, subject to this that and the other caveat. Sinn Fein/IRA will, heroically and to the applause of the global MSM, accept the PSNI..... so long as it gets to control it. The fact that Sinn Fein/IRA murdered HUNDREDS and wounded THOUSANDS of Police Officers over the years will be ignored as not relevant. The DUP will them cautiously welcome the Sinn Fein/IRA decision to polute policing, and will even claim the "credit." Everyone in the political stratosphere will then have a wild Party - and the overwhelming majority of the victims of terrorism will be forgotten. By deed, not by word, their betrayal will be complete.

And we will have won peace in our time.

And so, more than 150 illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers will be freed from custody today after a riot wrecked Britain's biggest detention centre. Apparently a Guard turned off a TV set.

Home Secretary John Reid was forced to release the men back on to the streets after a wave of blazes and destruction lasting for more than 18 hours at Harmondsworth, in west London. In addition, immigration staff have been told not to detain any new suspected illegals or failed asylum seekers for the next 48-hours. Officials say it would be pointless as there is nowhere to put them.

So, we now have a situation in which illegal lawless immigrants are dictating Government policy. The stupendous incompetence of the Home Office is played down by the MSM, and it's a 48 hour FREE FOR ALL for all suspected illegals wanting access to the UK. Come on in - the price is right.

Labour has lost all control over the swarming hordes that enter this country illegally, and yet the Conservative Party appear unable (or unwilling?) to provide a decent alternative. 

What are we to make of the news that Chancellor Gordon Brown's son has cystic fibrosis?  For the child we should express nothing but our sadness at the fact a beautiful bouncing baby will have to endure a life of disability resulting in a probable early death, as cystic fibrosis is indeed a wicked ailment.  It goes without saying that we should feel sympathy for baby John.  However, as far as Gordon and his wife are concerned, that's the whole point.......isn't it?

As a paragon of cynicism I believe contemporary politicians are more than adept at using any imagery to boost their public persona.  There can't be a person in the UK who doesn't know David Cameron has a disabled son.  We also know Gordon Brown lost a baby girl some years back.  But why should we know these things, brought to us by a compliant media?  One of the hallmarks of prominent politicians in the past was their steadfast ability to keep family life private.  Yet here we are, in the media age where people such as Brown, whatever the degree of personal woe concerning family matters, still manage to project them on to a public stage so an emotionally-crippled electorate will shower sympathy on their plight and maybe, just maybe, give them a few extra votes as a consequence.

New Labour big-wigs are not averse to using children for their own ends.  Aside from this latest news and the news about Brown's baby girl, we also endure nauseating pictures of Tone standing with his offspring on the steps of 10 Downing Street.  He even managed to fertilise the Wicked Witch just in time for the 2001 General Election.  For once Tony realised how children could be a filip for his public image, the bedroom must have been filled with nothing but groaning.

Brown is carrying on this trend.  The only difference lies in the aspect of the child's life.  Where Tony laid the groundrules on infantilistic images using healthy kids, so Gordon and Cameron  have followed using their personal tragedies to curry public sympathy.  What a disgusting way to use children - and especially children with illnesses.

1840 - The remains of Napoleon Bonaparte, allegedly without his penis, are returned from the island of St Helena, where he died in exile, to Paris.

1874 - Sir Winston Churchill, a descendent of the Duke of Marlborough, is born at Blenheim Palace, the son of leading politician Sir Randolph Churchill.

1900 - Death of Oscar Wilde in Paris at the age of 44.

1936 - The Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill in south London, originally built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851, is destroyed by a massive fire which could be seen as far away as Calais.

1956 - American boxer Floyd Paterson becomes the youngest ever world heavyweight champion at the age of 21.

1988 - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is refused a visa to enter the United States of America where he was planning to address the UN General Assembly.

'If Ian Paisley goes into a powersharing government with the IRA, he will deserve the title of 'Lundy' far more than any leader he has supplanted in his political career.'  Discuss.

Further to David's article on the rather disappointing news that only a bare majority of the British people disapprove of wearing the niqab ('facial handkerchief' to you and me) in public places, did anybody see the BBC report about the sales of this black material abomination in a principal Muslim outlet in Blackburn?  Since Jack Straw made his tentative -  nay, 'man of straw'  - remarks about politely asking Muslim women to remove this monstrosity in his presence at constituency surgeries, sales of the veil have actually risen.

We are told by Muslims (oh Allah, there goes that dreaded 'M' word again) that wearing the niqab is demanded in the Koran.  Aside from the fact that if the Koran said all Bradford male Muslims had to bare their bums in the shop windows of the city's Kirkgate Centre at 7am every Wednesday morning, there would be a mid-week stampede fuelled by testosterone, why should sales only start to rise on the back of what the MSM derisively calls a 'controversy'?  If the niqab is so fundamental to Islamic female modesty, why should it only be so after Straw brought it to national attention?

The truth is the veil is not any symbol of modesty, but a further show of defiance from a community the rest of us are getting increasingly sick and tired of.  As several ATW readers have stated, if we lived in Muslim countries we would have to abide by their customs.  My word, would we have to abide by their customs!!!!!!!!  The same principles should apply here.  They can either integrate or find Islamic solace in one of the undemocratic backwaters they proclaim as their cultural homelands.

1864 - US Cavalry troops, commanded by Colonel Chivington, massacre 150 unarmed Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians at Sand Creek in Colorado.

1898 - Birth of writer CS Lewis in Belfast.

1907 - British nurse Florence Nightingale is presented with the Order of Merit by Edward VII of England for her work tending the wounded during the Crimean War.

1962 - Britain and France announce a joint agreement to design and build 'Concorde' - the world's first supersonic airliner.

1965 - In Britain, housewife Mary Whitehouse begins her 'Clean Up TV Campaign' by setting up the National Viewers and Listeners' Association to tackle 'bad taste and irresponsibility'.

1995 - On his visit to the United Kingdom, US President Bill Clinton praises British Prime Minister John Major for his efforts to bring 'peace' in Northern Ireland.

As the Pope visits Turkey, Irshad Manji, reflects on the importance of a liberal islamic reformation.

'Along the way, Benedict quoted an obscure Christian emperor who linked Islam to violence. As if on cue, Muslims around the world reacted angrily, some resorting to the very violence that they denied plays any role in our faith'

She goes on:

'Consider, for example, this message from Imran, a self-described “moderate Muslim” and American citizen who works for the US government':

“You said that how Muslims are reacting to the Pope is like reducing the Quran to its most bloodthirsty passages. There is no such thing, Missy… You are looking for cheap publicity for your book and bashing Islam is the easiest way to get it nowadays. It used to be sleeping with the publisher, but for that you require looks. One more thing, if you are a Jew, you should not be ashamed of it."

'Imran and Sonya are more representative than I wish. All Muslims are taught that because the Quran comes after the Torah and the Bible, we must regard it as the final and perfect manifesto of the Divine. It is, we’re told, free of ambiguities, contradictions and human editing; in other words, free of the corruption that contaminates Jewish and Christian scriptures'. 

'Thus the central conundrum for us Muslims. If it’s an article of our faith that the Quran is the unfiltered declaration of God, then what makes moderate Muslims “moderate”?' 

She concludes

'Fortunately, more and more Muslims are proclaiming that it’s time for a liberal Islamic reformation. Two groups that powerfully attest to this movement are the Democratic Muslims of Denmark and their off-shoot, the Critical Muslims, both of which emerged from the Danish cartoon wars'.

In addition to this we have seen recently a group of muslims opposing the building of a mega mosque in east London, largely because the people behind it endorsed extremism. How is it we allow this even to be considered? It is in ours and their interests to platform more voices like Irshads, instead of allowing the MCB, MPAC and silly little girls in veils to push a fundamentalist agenda. In endorsing their 'freedom of expression' we suppress others.  If anything i think these organisations have gone some way towards hoisting themselves on their own pseudo 'moderate' pasard. The result is that people are wary of the word moderate and as she herself concludes the word now has 'little meaning'.

Interesting to read that progress has been made in Riga, 'if only because the political leaders have conceded that while all have soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, some are engaged in wholesale combat, while others are having a pretty quiet time'.

'The Canadians, in particular, have been laying down the law about other Nato members sharing more of the risks. Canada has suffered a large number of casualties, even more than the British in Helmand, and resent it when alliance members have failed to come to their aid when facing relentless attacks by the Taleban'

Id agree with that sentiment - why is it most consistently left to the British American Canadian and Australian (and Dutch in this case) forces to undertake the heavylifting in what all have agreed is a battle we must win. At one point i seem to recall it being noted that British forces witheld positions in Helmand and fought off the Taleban in one of the longest battles in British military history.

In extremis? The whole of Afghanistan is already 'in extremis'.

'apart from the moves over national caveats, only a handful of member states offered more troops and equipment for Afghanistan, enough to reduce the present 15 per cent shortfall in capability to ten per cent.

General Jones said that a shortfall in capability in a peacekeeping mission was one thing, but a capability gap in an operation where soldiers were being killed in combat was potentially more dangerous'

Quite. Get in there.

It appears that some of my recent comments on the DUP's "despicable" embrace of Sinn Fein (not IRA?) have struck a raw nerve or two amongst DUP ranks. Good. The purpose of ATW is to provide a forum in which to confront and challenge the political class.

Let me be very clear here; I come not to praise them but to bury them, so to speak. And I won't say soft things just because some become offended.

For years, the DUP has (rightly) criticised the UUP's spineless efforts in defending the Union. Some of that criticism was extremely harsh, though I agreed with it since it mirrored my own view. Now, the DUP brazenly cavorts with Sinn Fein/IRA in a Hain-choreographed waltz, but demands that critics stay mute. It's "Strictly Come Dancing" with the volume muted. Well, forget it. If you enter politics, you must expect to be criticised.

It strikes me that the UUP and DUP have BOTH now failed the unionist people. That failure may indeed prove fatal for the Union. I doubt the present generation at the top of the political food chain care that much, since they can enjoy their tax-payed funded retirement in whatever constitutional location Northern Ireland ends up. These political undertakers for the Union are driven by a bizarre mixture of avarice, stupidity and duplicity. But sssssshhhhh...we must not speak of such things. It may be that ATW receives fire from both quarters, and that a chill descends from certain quarters. That's cool! I'd sooner speak the truth than participate in the twisting of truth.

Did you read that one in three people would support a ban on Muslim women wearing the veils which cover their faces in public places, according to a new survey? Asked if they would support prohibition in specific circumstances, 61 per cent said they would approve a ban in airports and at passport control, 53 per cent in courtrooms and 53 per cent in schools. Forty-one per cent said they would support a workplace ban, but 56 per cent said they would oppose a ban on Muslim women wearing veils while travelling on public transport.

What fascinates me is the mindset of those who would NOT seek to ban this outward and visible expression of militant Islam. It seems from this poll that a disconcertingly large number of British people are prepared to accept the Burqa babes. In doing so, they de facto shuffle towards a gradual acceptance of Sharia. Then again, I wonder how many MUSLIMS were interviewed as part of this poll? All the BBC says is that "a nationally representative sample of people were questioned in the survey." So, what precise % of Muslims were interviewed?

If we lack the true grit to force the Islamists to integrate into OUR society, maybe they will be more successful at getting us to integrate into theirs?

I continually harbour grave doubts about Pakistan's ACTUAL status in the war on terror. Is it friend or foe, or both?

I read today that Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, has said in private briefings to foreign ministers of some Nato member states that the Taliban are winning the war in Afghanistan and Nato is bound to fail. He has advised against sending more troops. Other Pakistani officials are suggesting that NATO accepts an Afghanistani Government that includes the Taliban, and that excludes Hamid Karzai!

It's also instructive to read that Lt Gen Ali Mohammed Jan Orakzai, governor of the volatile North West Frontier Province has stated publicly that the US, Britain and Nato have already failed in Afghanistan. "Either it is a lack of understanding or it is a lack of courage to admit their failures," he said recently. Gen Orakzai insists that the Taliban represent the Pashtun population, Afghanistan's largest and Pakistan's second largest ethnic group, and they now lead a "national resistance" movement to throw out Western occupation forces, just as there is in Iraq.

These are ALL siren voices. The Taliban should be crushed, not accommodated. Those like Orakzai should be given the chance to experience a few well-aimed daisycutters. Those Pakistani officials now briefing in favour of the Taliban need to be sacked or imprisoned.

Of course there may well be some "realists" about (Cue Fabulous Baker Boys?) who have some empathy for these surrender suggestions? Perhaps we can enlist the help of the Taliban to quell violence, in the same way as we're going to enlist the help of the Mad Mullahs to quell violence?

If we lose our will to crush the Taliban, rather like we are losing our will to crush the Jihadi in Iraq, then beware. Envigorated, the Islamofascists will come for us in their swarms, sensing our institutionalised weakness dressed up in the empty rhetoric of "realism."