Five persons were stabbed in downtown Oslo on Thursday afternoon. A police van had been taken into use as an ambulance to move victims to hospital.
The attacks took place around Grønlandsleiret 5, just a few blocks from the main police station in Oslo.
"The man used a kitchen knife with a 30 centimer (12-inch) blade and stabbed several people with it. He gave it to one of the ten or so people standing around outside the youth club before disappearing from the scene with three other people," an eyewitness told Aftenposten.no. The eyewitness estimated the perpetrator to be about 30-35 years old.
Four of the victims had been taken to Ullevål Hospital. The seriousness of their injuries was not yet officially known to police. A fifth person was being treated for minor cut wounds at Oslo's downtown emergency ward.
One person was being held at the emergency ward on suspicion of a connection with the incident. He arrived there with blood on his shirt but was unharmed.
"All of the persons involved are both victims and suspects in the case," said Britt Homb-Døviken, operations leader at Oslo police headquarters.
The assailant is still at large.
"All available officers in Oslo are now looking for a man in a green T-shirt. We have no idea where he is," said field operations leader Anette Gultvedt.
Police have received information that the stabbings were related to a dispute at a Kurdish youth club in Grønlandsleiret. There were signs of a brawl at the scene and a large kitchen knife was reportedly used in the attacks.
"Ten to twelve men at Grønlandsleieret were getting ready to fight. It looked like they were divided into two groups. Two persons were bleeding from the head and one had his shirt torn. One of the men had a large kitchen knife in his hand," said NTB news agency journalist Audun Kolstad Wiig.
Eyewitness Wiig estimated that the men in the group were between the ages of 25-50. The man with the knife fled towards central Oslo with one other man, Wiig said.
Aftenposten's reporter said that the sidewalk outside the Kurdish youth club was splattered with blood.
The victims were found in two locations, the youth club, and near the central bus station several blocks away. The injured had been driven away from the bus station in a police van after the attacks.
Source: Aftenposten (English)
The new-found right to vote at October's local elections has failed to excite Belgium's foreign residents, who have stayed away from registration centres in droves.
Less than a week before the deadline, just 2,338 non-EU nationals living in Flanders have registered to vote. That represents just 5.48 percent of the target population.
Left-wing Spirit Senator Fouzaya Talhaoui said the figures were "miserable" and accused the government of taking insufficient action by failing to invest in information campaigns.
On a local level, she said cities with Socialist SP.A mayors made some efforts to address foreign residents, but cities with Liberal VLD mayors deliberately opted against urging foreigners to vote.
But Flemish VLD Interior Minister Marino Keulen rejected the criticism, claiming that foreign residents are simply disinterested in voting, newspaper 'De Standaard' reported on Tuesday.
He said in Wallonia — where an active government information campaign was waged — the registration drive also met with little success.
The federal Parliament approved at the start of 2004 legislation granting non-EU nationals who have lived in Belgium for five years the right to vote once they have registered with electoral authorities.
Among the Flemish parties, only the Socialists and Spirit supported the controversial legislation. The green party Groen! was not represented in the federal parliament.
But the registration figures have disappointed. Leuven and Ghent have performed best with 10 percent of eligible foreign voters registering. Antwerp came in second with 6 percent.
Municipalities such as Mechelen,Oostende and Sint-Niklaas recorded zero percent, while in Genk, the 3 percent figure was also disappointing
Source: Expatica (English)
Interviewing a refugee kid on TV - morally wrong and traumatizing.
It was a mistake to run a news story featuring a crying boy who had just returned from the conflict in Lebanon, said the head of TV2, Per Mikael Jensen on Monday.
'It was a feature that crossed the lines of what we should show. I could imagine a situation where we interview a 10-year old boy about what he had experienced in a war situation, but not under these circumstances where the boy clearly had problems managing the situation,' Jensen told daily newspaper Urban.
The feature, which aired on TV2's evening news on 17 July, showed a 10-year old boy talking about what he experienced in Lebanon with tears streaming down his cheeks.
Nybroe had defended the decision to air the piece after criticism from the National Board of Health's director Jens Kristian Gøtrik. Gøtrik said the exposure could lead to a more intense trauma reaction to the events that could have long lasting psychological consequences.
Jensen did acknowledge that the news programme had not done anything wrong as they had received parental consent, but said airing the piece was morally wrong. He said the station would avoid such reports in the future.
What am I missing here?
Wouldn't seeing pictures of bloodied kids be a bit more traumatizing?
The pictures shown on Muslim sites and waved about in Muslim protests are very explicit. Pictures of body parts, of dead or injured kids with missing limbs. All brought to me courtesy of the Muslim "anti-violence" sites and the Muslim "anti-violence" protests.
What is more traumatizing?
Source: Jyllands-Posten (English), Pics from Polemiken (Danish)
This seems to me a very cynical use of the school system. The organizers of these protests are not starting them now, when school is closed, but waiting for September, when the schools will open up for students. But they're not protesting against the kids who will have to suddenly share a school with entire families. They're protesting against the gov't.
The Catholic education system will accept school sit-in protests from September by illegal immigrants demanding residency in Belgium, but the public school system is fiercely opposed to the actions.
The director of the Catholic school system, Mieke Van Hecke, is prepared to fully support schools that opt to give asylum to illegal immigrants.
The decision comes after a primary school in Eeklo (near Brugge) started giving shelter to a family of rejected asylum seekers from Yemen and Azerbaijan.
Van Hecke has backed the initiative, newspaper 'De Standaard' reported on Monday.
"Actually, it is not the first time that a school has launched an action to gain a residence permit for a family of which the children are at school and are well integrated," she said.
"It shows that there is broad social support for a humane asylum policy." Van Hecke will not encourage other schools to carry out a similar campaign, stressing that every school must make a decision itself. [Ed. I did not find this last sentence in the original article. Instead the article says that Van Hecke "will applaud" any school that opens its doors to asylum seeker protests.]
But the chief of the public school system, Urbain Lavigne, is opposed to schools granting asylum to illegal immigrants.
Public schools are part of the nation's official education system, which is part of the government. School sit-in protests would then be a protest against the same government.
Lavigne also said there is more to the issue, however, stressing that it is not the role of schools to give shelter to refugees or to bring government procedures into doubt.
The organisation that supports protesting refugees, UDEP, is currently contacting school boards and parents committees to ask whether they will provide asylum from the start of the new school year in September.
Illegal immigrants are already staging sit-in protests and hunger strikes at various churches across the country, but the government has rejected calls for a general amnesty granting them residency.
According to a reader poll in De Standaard, 85% voted against schools accepting asylum seeker protests.
UDEP, the organization that supports illegal immigrants is now very busy meeting with school management and PTAs in order to start an illegal immigrant protest in September. This will come as follow up to the church protest, which have slowly died down in most cities.
Patrick Dewael, Minister of the interior is asking for respect for just approved asylum law.
Source: Expatica (English), De Standaard 1, 2, 3 (Dutch).
There is a bit of a difference between swastikas and driving through what must look like an empty field. Is there no fence around it?
I do not understand why any vandalism is preventing a cemetery from opening. Intolerant and racist people will always be around, and all you can do is your best to prevent harm. After all, the Muslim community isn't saying they won't build community centers or schools until there won't be vandalism, and rightly so.
An uncertain future looms for a Muslim cemetery which has been dogged by vandalism The first Muslim cemetery in Denmark has already been struck by several incidents of vandalism - before it has even been opened.
The cemetery plot in Brøndby, southwest of Copenhagen, has had swastikas painted on it. Similar vandalism has also taken place at the Islamic religious community centre in Copenhagen.
The planned cemetery has already had its first test grave dug and the Islamic Burial Foundation is searching for a gardener to care for the property.
'This is a very, very bad start,' said Kasem Ahmad, chairman of the foundation, to daily newspaper Politiken. 'I am losing faith that this project will ever be realised.'
Ahmed said a car has also been seen on several occasions driving recklessly across the field and that rumours have been circulating that it is being used to race on.
The vandalism has cast an uncertain future over the cemetery, according to Ahmet Deniz, deputy chairman of the foundation. He said the cemetery would not be put into use until the foundation could be certain that the vandalism would be stopped.
'It must be very intolerant people who can't accommodate anyone other than themselves. They aren't thinking about the fact that they are ruining their own land and the opportunity to live in a country with different types of people,' said Deniz.
The Islamic Burial Foundation has only contacted the police on one occasion. Members of the foundation are now trying to find the funds to hire a security crew to monitor the location.
Bertel Haarder, minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs approved the request to establish the cemetery in April 2006.
Source: Jyllands-Posten (English)
Hizb Ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) organized a demonstration in Denmark. More pictures can be seen at the polemiken blog (Hat tip, Infidel Blogger's Alliance)
Copenhagen had been the lighting rod of Muslim protests barely a year ago, but now these protests are not directed at the West. Or are they?
Here are a few select quote from the Hizb ut-Tahrir book "Dangerous Concepts to attack Islam and consolidate the Western Culture", which can be freely downloaded from the party site. The booklet was put out in the UK.
It is incumbent on Muslims to be clear that the task of the Islamic State after its establishment is restricted to Shar'a. Whether it is internal such as looking after the affairs of the people and implementing theHudood (penal code), or external such as conveying Islam though Jihad to the all mankind and destroying the material obstacles that are a barrier to the implementation of Islam.
This mercy [ed. The Koran] is clearly shown by the implementation of the rules of Islam. There is no difference between prayer (Salah) and Jihad, between Du'a and frightening the enemy. There is no difference between Zakah and cutting the hand of the thief, nor is there a difference between helping the grieved and killing those who commit aggression against the sanctities of the Muslims. All of them are Shara’i rules which the Muslims or the State will implement in practice and when its time comes.
They [ed. the Kufar] began adopting certain thoughts and promoting concepts, such as nationalism, socialism, democracy, pluralism, human rights,freedom and free-market policies, whose fallacy and danger have already been explained. (See book ‘The American Campaign to Destroy Islam’)
They painted certain capitalist thoughts in glowing tones to the Muslims and promoted them by claiming that they do not contradict Islam to such an extent that some Muslims considered them as part of Islam, such as democracy, freedom, pluralism, socialism and others. On the other hand, they denounced certain Islamic thoughts and described them as uncivilised and out of date, such as Jihad, the Hudood, polygyny and other Shara’i rules.
Therefore the Muslims must adopt and perfect the necessary tools of struggle, which are manifested in the re-establishment of the Khilafah State that will embark on an intellectual and material struggle to spread the sublime Islamic Hadharah [ed. civilization] and remove the false and corrupt Hadharahs.
This viewpoint [ed. supporting interfaith dialogue] supports the so-called peace process in the Middle East and the normalisation of relations with the Jews. This is to accept one part of the Jewish and Western conspiracy against Islam and the Muslims by usurping Palestine and al-Masjid al-Aqsa; and by implanting a poisoned dagger in the heart of the Islamic Ummah. This also justifies the participation of the Jews, Christians and Muslims in their guardianship over Jerusalem (Al-Quds), which contains the holy sites, in their capacity as Muslims who all belong to one religion - the religion of Abraham (peace be upon him), the fatherof the Prophets.
This term [ed. compromise] did not appear amongst the Muslims until the modern age. It is a foreign term whose source is the West and the Capitalist ideology, that ideology whose creed is based on the compromise solution.
Last time Muslims came out marching it was against those who insulted Islam. Now it's to protest the Israeli attacks in Lebanon. Is there a difference between the two?
The Danish People's Party calls for a check of evacuees' employment status upon their return from Lebanon. Opposition parties call the proposal 'cold-hearted' A call to check the employment status of evacuees returning from Lebanon has been met with scepticism and criticism from labour market officials.
Søren Espersen, the foreign affairs spokesperson for the government's support party, the Danish People's Party, suggested that unemployment agencies investigate whether the approximately 5000 people evacuated from southern Lebanon this past week have collected unemployment benefits.
Labour regulations require people receiving unemployment benefits to remain in Denmark and to be available for work with one day's notice.
Espersen considered the evacuation 'a unique chance' to confirm or challenge the myth that foreigners with a Middle Eastern background take advantage of the social welfare system in Denmark.
All of the evacuees were registered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs upon arrival. Checking those lists with unemployment registries would be a simple affair, said Espersen.
'Without carrying out an additional investigation, we have the chance to confirm this once and for all.'
The proposal has not received support from the minister of employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, however. He remains hesitant to put an investigation into motion.
'I expect that unemployment agencies and municipalities know whether unemployed people travel abroad for longer periods of time,' he told national public broadcaster DR.
The proposal cannot expect the support of social workers either, Bettina Post, the vice president of the Danish Association of Social Workers, told daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
'It says a great deal about Søren Espersen that when he sees people being evacuated, he sees potential cheaters.'
The opposition also criticised the proposal. Looking into people's employment status as they return from a war zone seemed 'callous', according to Per Clausen of the opposition's Red-Green Alliance. 'It seems so incomprehensible that you would think the man was misquoted,' said Clausen. 'Just when you think the Danish People's Party cannot become any more unpleasant, they go a little farther.'
Source: Jyllands Posten (English)
If you can't fight the phenomenon, then how about trying to shut down the people who are promoting it? The "Belgium route" is not illegal. It is a very valid way of using Belgian laws to bypass Dutch laws. Trying to close down a web site just because you don't agree with it, when it is not doing anything illegal, is absurd.
The Antwerp City Council is investigating whether it can take legal action against the website buitenlandsepartner.nl, which advises Dutch residents to bring their foreign partners into the Netherlands via Belgium.
Visitors to the site can find a handbook advising people who wish to bring foreign family members to the Netherlands to take up (temporary) residence in Belgium first. That way, they can sail around the Netherlands' tight immigration laws.
A short stay in Belgium, for example Antwerp, means the less strict Belgian laws regulating residency permits for a partner from Morocco or Turkey, for example, are applied.
The 'Handbook for the Belgium route' gives a detailed overview of Belgian laws and regulations regarding registration, marriage, family unification migration and social security. It also gives practical tips.
"In Belgium, you don't need to satisfy an absurd income demand for family unification or undergo chaotic integration," the website says.
Antwerp Population Alderman Erwin Pairon said the website — which is administered by the group Stichting Buitenlandse Partner — is "riff-raff" material, Dutch and Belgian media reported on Tuesday.
He said the number of Dutch nationals registering as residents in Antwerp in recent years has increased markedly, blaming the 'Belgium route' as one of the prime reasons.
In January, Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk and Belgian Interior Minister Patrick Dewael had reached an agreement aimed at closing the loophole in regulations.
Source: Expatica (English)
Thousands of people rallied at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate to condemn Israel's ongoing brutal military onslaught of innocent civilians in Lebanon and Gaza.
Chanting 'Death to Zionists', 'Zionists Are Fascists' and 'Allah o Akbar', protestors -- among them Iranians, Arabs, Turks and Germans -- carried banners which read 'Stop Israel', 'Support for Resistance Against Zionist Regime', 'Freedom for Palestine', 'Stop Israeli Terror Against Civilian Population' and 'Stop the War in Lebanon'.
The protestors urged Germans not to remain silent in the wake of Israeli military crimes against the civilian population in Lebanon and Gaza.
Dozens of police were deployed near the rallying site.
Meanwhile an unnamed organizer of the rally said, "With this first step we want to condemn Israel's military actions against the people of Palestine and Lebanon." He added a communique will be submitted to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, calling on him to do everything possible to halt Israel's military attacks in Lebanon and Gaza.
There are also plans for a demonstration on Saturday, the organizer said.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency (English)
Update July 17th, 2006:
More than 1,000 Lebanese and Palestinians staged an anti-Israeli protest at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on Monday, police said.
A Reuters witness said demonstrators were chanting "death to Israel" and "death to Zionists", while some carried placards bearing the image of Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Source: Reuters (English)
What is this homeland he is talking about? I originally assumed he meant Lebanon - his country of origin. However, looking at the map provided with the article, it is easy to see that he means much more than that. His homeland includes all of Israel, but doesn't include such Muslim countries as Iran or Turkey. That is, it includes only countries under Arab (not Muslim) control, even those where Arabs are minority. Israel, it seems, is a temporary issue.
Our enemy in this fight is also one and the same, the colonialist Zionists are the spiritual children of the Racists in Europe and both are the products of capitalism and its global system of exploitation and slavery.
When oppression rises above the sun to cover it, and injustice defies the wind and the Wicked and the Evil feast on the Flesh of innocent men, women and children. From within the darkness and the orgy of blood, a sword will shine, and the brave will murmur: “What a beautiful day to die” .
When Muslims would care about the daily injustices in their own countries, when they would care more about their own country then about a terrorist group who couldn't care less about the citizens it uses as shields, when there will be a middle class in Arab countries and not the amazing disparity that exists today between rich and poor, when Arab countries put more effort into educating their citizens and bringing up the average lifespan to a normal level instead of putting their money into weapons, when Arabs will be able to talk about peace and not about the glory of death - only then will the clouds of oppression disappear and the sun will be able to shine again.
But this will have to wait, as those who claim to fight for the Muslims of Europe are obviously busy elsewhere.
Source: AEL Website (English), thank to Rudi for pointing this out to me.
A man in London has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for the brutal "honor killing" of his sister in April 2005.
Azhar Nazir, 30, and the sibling's 17-year old cousin, Imran Mohammed, attacked 25-year old Samaira Nazir in the family's Southall home, stabbing her 18 times, This Is London reported.
The family became outraged at the young woman after she rejected arranged marriage plans in favor of an Afghan man who was reportedly not from a wealthy family. When she asked permission to marry, the brother apparently felt the need to honor the family by murdering her. [Esther: he 'apparently' felt the need to restore the family honor, not honor the family]
The teenage cousin was told he would spend 10 years in jail for his participation in the crime.
The victim's 61-year-old father was also arrested in the murder, but he reportedly fled to Pakistan after being released on bail.
From Wikipedia:
In England and Wales, a life sentence is a prison term of indeterminate length. Formerly, the Home Secretary reserved the right to set the "tariff", or minimum length of term, for prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, but since the Criminal Justice Act 2003 only a judge may set the tariff. The Act specifies three broad categories of murder with three "starting point" sentences. A "Whole Life Tariff" (known in the US as "life without parole") exists for multiple murders which involve sexual abuse of children or terrorism, as well as any murderer who had come out of prison and killed again. If such a sentence is handed down, then a prisoner is unlikely ever to be released from prison. A starting point of 30 years exists for people convicted of single murders involving sexual or sadistic conduct, killing using a firearm, during the course of a robbery or the killing of a Police Officer. For other murders the minimum starting point is a life sentence with a minimum of 15 years.
Samira Nazir was held down by her father, brother and cousin, who then tied a scarf around her neck and stabbed her three times. All this, with her mother and her two little nieces, who were 2 and 4 years old at the time, watching.
On its face, this is a strong statement by the UK courts against so called "honor" murders. These murders, which bring shame on the whole of society. And yet - I believe that in this case, the courts could have done much more.
It is up to the courts in the UK to decide whether they're coming down on "honor" murders. Whether these murders constitute abuse of children (a minor child was involved in the murder and two very young children were forced to watch). Though handing down a long sentence for the murderer - the minor was given a reduced sentence due to his age, the mother who was there during the murder was freed and the brother was given only a minor punishment compared to what he could have received according to UK law.
Source: Political Gateway (English)
See also: Britain: Verdict in honor killing case - includes more background info on the story.
Nordin Taouil, imam in Antwerp, has called on the Muslim community to donate blood this Friday, saying that Flanders can make good use of Muslim blood.
He would like to see a Red Cross tent put down next to the mosque where Muslims can donate their blood. He says that many immigrants are ready to do so.
Taouil says that the Red Cross is not doing enough for the immigrant community in Flanders. The people would like to help - in Belgium there's a shortage of blood donors - but don't know where to turn to, due to language problems.
The Red Cross denies that it ignores the Muslim community and says it is in talks with their representatives, with the aim of recruiting not only blood donors, but also volunteers.
Source: De Stentor (Dutch)
Slightly more than two weeks ago, two Dutch kids - Sara, 11, and her lightly autistic brother, Ammar, 13 - fled to the Dutch embassy in Damascus. The kids, who have been abudcted by their Syrian father two years ago, want to go back to their mother in the Netherlands. Sara and Ammar ran away when they were visiting their grandparents, stopped a taxi and asked to be taken to the Dutch embassy.
As long as the kids stay in the embassy, or inside diplomatic cars, they are safe. However, once they step foot outside Dutch protection, even on their way to the plane, they can be returned to their father.
The Dutch have therefore been trying the diplomatic method. The Dutch ambassador has been trying to convince the Syrians that since the kids are Dutch and have been abducted from the Netherlands, by whose laws they should be under their mother's care, they should be returned. However, Syrian law says that the father should have custody, and the Syrians aren't signed on anything that obligates them to return abducted kids.
There is currently no solution in sight, and the Dutch embassy is preparing to have the two kids stay over for a long time.
In a similar case two Belgian-Iranian sisters, Yasmine and Sara Pourashemi, fled their father to the Belgian embassy in Iran. They stayed there for 154 days until finally they were allowed to return home.
Currently, the father demands to see a delegation from the Netherlands and continues to blame the embassy for kidnapping his kids.
Last year, a team from the TV show Vermist (Missing) tried making contact with the kids, and setting up a meeting with their mother. The father agreed, as long as the mother doesn't come. However, when the show team showed up, he called the police, saying they tried to abduct the kids with a gun. It turned into a diplomatic incident with the Dutch ambassador coming to apologize.
This is a link to a news video about the case. It is in Dutch, but even non-Dutch speakers might find it interesting, as the pictures speak for themselves.
It includes a short home video of Sara, begging to come home. She says that she doesn't like it in Syria and wants to go back to the Netherlands. That her father doesn't allow it and that he hits her whenever she asks about it.
The largest theme park in Sweden changed its uniform regulations after a Muslim female worker who was banned from wearing the Hijab reported her managers to the discrimination ombudsman, SR International reported.
The Muslim worker was denied a summer job at the Liseberg amusement park in Gothenburg because she refused to take off her Islamic headscarf and long-armed top.
According to the local newspaper Göteborgs Posten, the woman has been given just two thousand dollars in compensation after reporting her bosses to the discrimination ombudsman, which ruled that she can wear a tailored-made Islamic dress in the theme park’s colors.
A recent survey by the National Integration Board showed that veiled Muslim women in Sweden aren’t only discriminated against but are also violently attacked.
Source: Garowe Online (English), Islam Online
