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Monokultur » 2011 » April


Når arabiske kunstnere smager friheden

Diverse — Drokles on April 30, 2011 at 2:36 pm

En libysk gadekunstner er angiveligt blevet ombragt af Gadaffis soldater for at lave satire over Gadaffi. Det er i hvert fald historie, som den fortælles på Politiken-TV hvor kunstnerens moder begræder tabet af sin søn

billede-211

Han udtrykte sig og sikkert mange libyeres inderste tanker og følelser. Og udtrykket er bemærkelsesværdigt

billede-20

Gadaffi med jødestjerne. Ikke mærkeligt at Gadaffi blev vred over den sammenligning, den værste af dem alle.

Kampen om kønnet

Diverse — Drokles on April 21, 2011 at 10:20 am

National Review samligner Robert Weissberg angående kulturkampen kontrollen over lærebøger med at indtage hovedstaden. Og selv om han glæder sig over at borgerlige  intellektuelle har vundet lidt indpas i den offentlige debat kan dette ikke regnes for noget mod venstredrejningen af den ene generation efter den anden i de mest påvirkelige år.

To illustrate the power of textbooks to influence culture, consider a bit of research conducted by my friend Steve Goldberg, a now retired CCNY sociologist. His concern was how introductory sociology textbooks recount Margaret Mead’s 1935 description of sex roles among the Tchambuli of New Guinea. To condense a long story, Mead’s description somewhat under-played male dominance, e.g., noting effete male headhunters. But she never argued that sex roles were malleable, and in a 1937 letter to the American Anthropologist, Mead strongly reiterated this point (and did so repeatedly over her distinguished career). Nevertheless, Goldberg checked some forty introductory sociology textbooks 40 years after Mead’s writings and found that over 90 percent claimed that Mead’s research “showed” the malleability of sex roles. Goldberg then wrote a letter to Contemporary Sociology, the book-review journal of the sociology profession, pointing out the textbook misinterpretation of Mead’s research. A decade later, Goldberg again checked textbook interpretations — the error had still not been corrected.

In other words, tens of thousands of college-educated youngsters have now “learned” that sex roles are “socially constructed,” and if challenged, they will correctly say, “I read in my college textbook that it was proven by Margaret Mead’s field research, and my professor spent two class periods telling us how the lack of women engineers results only from gender discrimination.”

Og virkningen er til at tage og føle på. Fra Catholic Family And Human Rights Institute

The 47 Member States of the Council of Europe are close to finalizing a new convention that defines “gender” as a social construct, rather than as a distinction grounded in biology.

According to the new Council of Europe convention on eliminating violence against women, gender “shall mean the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men.”

Even though “gender” has appeared in other documents, no binding definition of the word has ever been accepted by Council of Europe members. This draft Convention would be the first international treaty to add a sociological component of gender to the universally understood biological context.

Min pik er noget jeg har lært.

Gensyn med 1970 og den da forestående undergang

Diverse — Drokles on April 19, 2011 at 5:37 am

Bloggen I Hate The Media har samlet en række dystre forudsigelser fremsat til lejligheden på Earth Day 1970

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University

“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970

“At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist

I 2005 forudsagde FN at 50 mill. klimaflygtninge ville blive en realitet om øh, sidste år rent faktisk. Men det har ikke været tilfældet, sim Investors Business Daily fortæller

Five years ago, the U.N. predicted that by 2010 some 50 million people would be fleeing climate change, rising seas, mega-hurricanes and so on. Instead, no islands have sunk and their populations are booming.

It’s been said that when you make a prediction and provide a date, never give a number, and if you give a number, never provide a date. That way you can always claim to be right, even when you are wrong, and that it just hasn’t happened yet.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) made that mistake in 2005 when it produced a map showing areas to be impacted by the effects of climate change. These areas would produce 50 million “climate refugees” driven out by rising sea levels, increased frequency and ferocity of hurricanes, disruptions in food production, etc.

As related by blogger Gavin Atkins, who unearthed the forgotten prophecy of doom, some of these areas have conducted censuses and if they are facing any problems at all, it’s caused by their rapid and sustained population growth. If anybody is leaving any of the danger zones, it’s because they are getting too crowded.

Watts Up With That kan man læse den morsomme beretning om, hvorledes man prøvede at slette sporerne i cyberspace. Og det har ansporet WUWT til at oprette en permanent side, Climate FAIL Files, der vil samle den slags forudsigelser for at holde dem op imod den ikke computersimulerede virkelighed.

Bill Maher takes on Islam

Diverse — Drokles on April 16, 2011 at 8:55 am

Intet nyt, men Maher er alligevel ganske sjov når han konfronterer muslimers åbenlyse hykleri.

Det er jo bare islam

Diverse — Drokles on April 11, 2011 at 5:51 am

En muslimsk forening inviterer en iman til landet for at holde et foredrag om den i Danmark anerkendte religion islam. Politiken beskriver ham ganske korrekt, som en muslimsk lærd og ungdomsforeningen, der har inviteret ham argumenterer afslappet:

»Vi har inviteret ham, fordi vi mener, at han er en kapacitet. Han er konverteret, og derfor har han sandsynligvis en fod både i den vestlige verden og i islam. Han har skrevet en masse bøger, og vi mente, at det kunne være spændende for de unge at høre ham tale om islamofobi. Han kan sende et signal til de unge om, at de skal omfavne det samfund, de lever i, og forsøge at være så praktiserende muslimer som muligt, fordi det ikke er i konflikt med samfundet«, siger Imran Shah.

»Bare fordi han repræsenterer en vis type islam, så betyder det ikke, at det er noget, som vi skal sluge råt«, siger han.

Og ingen aner pludselig deres levende råd. Lars Aslan Rasmussen, der tidligere mente at Folkeskolen skulle tilbyde børnene arabiskundervisning grundet den demografiske udvikling siger nu til Politiken

»Det undrer mig, at der findes mennesker i Danmark, som inviterer sådan en psykopat.«

For Lars Aslan, som for de fleste af vores kære politikere falder homofobien mest for brystet. Lars Aslan gjorde sig i samme anledning også bemærket ved engang at anmelde FC Midtjylland’s daværende målmand Arek Onyszko til Politiet fordi Onyszko mente at bøsser var klamme. Der kom ikke nogen pølse ud af det skind, men måske den muslimske lærde burde anmelde Aslan Rasmussen for injurierende at blive kaldt for psykopat? Ideen er i hvert fald her givet videre.

Til Politiken siger Københavns Kulturborgmester om den lærde muslim

»Han er en rigtig ubehagelig person med rigtig ubehagelige synspunkter«, siger Pia Allerslev.

Åbenbart kender hun ligesom Aslan Rasmussen den islamiske lærde godt nok til at udtale sig om hans person, men nu lever vi trods alt i et rimeligt liberalt samfund, hvor ingen kan hindre nogen i at være sig selv - ubehagelige eller ej. Og så efterlyser kulturborgmesteren indrejseforbud for den ubehagelige person fra et ualmindeligt velvilligt Folketing

Dansk Folkeparti retter nu henvendelse til justitsminister Lars Barfoed (K). Han skal undersøge, om det er muligt at holde den muslimske prædikant Bilal Philips ude af landet.

»Hvis den nuværende lovgivning ikke er tilstrækkelig, ser vi meget gerne, at justitsministeren kigger på ny lovgivning, der tager hensyn til, at folk skal have lov til at ytre sig. Men alt inden for rimelighedens grænser«, mener DF’s socialordfører og medlem af Folketingets integrationsudvalg, Martin Henriksen.

Ytringsfrihed, MEN! Godt gået Henriksen, men vi har lige haft en længere debat om ytringsfrihed, hvor konklusionen blev at ytringsfrihed gælder indenfor lovens grænser og ikke den arbitrære rimeligheds. Og også godt gået at du ved at udelukke islamiske lærde fra at ytre sig i Danmark også fratager dig selv argumenter for, hvorfor islam er sådan et problem også for de borgerlige anstændige og den velmenende venstrefløj, som man vel ret beset skal overbevise, hvis noget skal ændre sig. Men du vil åbenbart hellere lade dem sove videre i fornægtelse.

Trine Pertou Mach kalder - ivrig efter at føre problemerne over i fjendens lejr - den muslimske lærde for en repræsentant for det yderste højre da hans “…syn på integration kan sidestilles med Geert Wilders eller Le Pen’s“ på sin blog og sidestiller således de, der advarer mod det samme som hende med, hvad både de og hun selv advarer imod.

Pertou glemmer på sin liste over den muslimske lærdes forfærdelige holdninger (hvor homofobien har en fremtrædende plads) i øvrigt - og måske sigende for SF generelt - at forarges over at den muslimske lærde også er antisemit. Men hun har åndsnærværelse nok til at sondre imellem forskellige islamiske retsskoler da hun slår fast at Bilal Phillips hylder “…en reaktionær udlægning af sharialovgivning“, som en modsætning til de andre sharialovgivninger, der åbenbart og til manges overraskelse mener at denne gudslov sagtens kan tolkes progressivt.

Den slags reaktionære læsninger er “…slet ikke de inputs, vores naboer, som kommer til møder i Islamisk Trossamfunds ungdomsafdeling, har brug for.” skriver Pertou nedladende og ganske sikkert rettet til sine hvide danske fanskare og abonnerer på synspunktet at “vores naboer” vil sluge alle input rå. “Vores naboer”, som jo altså ikke ligefrem er os, blink, blink, har brug for andre “inputs” end dem de tilsyneladende selv har valgt - om, hvordan de var tiltænkt at skulle være fremmede og eksotiske i gadebilledet uden dog at kamme over i at være sig selv. Alt indenfor rimelighedens græner jo.

Men det er svært og Pertou befinder sig i et dilemma

Spørgsmålet er, hvordan vi reagerer som venstrefløj på det her. Standardreaktionen har jo været en moddemonstration. Jeg synes, at der skal reageres, men vi er nødt til at tænke os godt om. Moddemonstrationen foran Den sorte Diamant har i hvert fald jeg ret tydeligt på nethinden, det var ikke specielt morsomt.

For mig at se skal vi håndtere to problemstillinger. Dels har ingen af os formentlig lyst til at stå til en sådan moddemonstration sammen med hele det borgerlige og højreradikale sammenrend, som sandsynligvis vil være der, og ligne en samlet front mod de af vores naboer, der deltager i mødet.

Dels er det altafgørende, at de unge, der deltager i konferencen, ikke tror, at det er dem, der demonstreres i mod. Vores mod-reaktion er jo netop et forsvar for mangfoldighed og rummelighed – og for samhørighed. Det snit er fandens svært at ramme.

 Jeg kan godt forstå at muslimske invitationer til folk, der indenfor deres tro regnes til kapaciteter gør en SF’er ganske forvirret. Hvordan dog forsvare mangfoldighed når man nu ikke kan rumme den? Hverken det islamiske tankegods, som altså beskrives som højredrejet eller højrefløjen, der sandsynligvis og vel højst besynderligt hvis Pertous prædikater ellers skal have et indhold vil demonstrere imod den islamiske kan hun jo stå side om side med. Og hvordan siger man at den muslimske lærde er dum at høre på uden at sige at det er dumt at høre på ham til sine naboer, der jo synes at den muslimske lærde er en kapacitet? De snit er i sandhed fandens svære at ramme.

Et lille lyspunkt midt i forvirringen over at islam insisterer på at være sig selv er Socialdemokratiets Karen Hækkerup, der endda, som en af de absolut få hæfter sig ved den muslimske lærdes antisemitisme. Fra Politiken

»Man skal tænke på den anden side af medaljen. Han bliver gjort til helt, hvis han står i lufthavnen og bliver sendt hjem. I stedet skal vi demonstrere«, siger Karen Hækkerup  

En rent taktisk overvejelse, men udemærket tænkt ellers og hun tilføjer bl.a.

…i stedet for at nægte manden indrejse, må man holde øje med, hvem der lytter til ham«, siger socialdemokraten.

Mit gæt er at det vil være muslimer, der lytter til ham. Og det vil være godt for bedsteborgerskabet med den slags input så de måske kan se, hvad det er for nogle naboer, som er kommet hertil hos os og hvem vores naboer mener er lærde kapaciteter, som det er værd at lytte til. Og bedsteborgerskabet kan måske så tænke over hvor meget kulturel mangfoldighed de mener at vi kan rumme, hvis der også skal være plads til os og alle andre. Islam er islam og det er fornægtelse at tro at det handler om en enkelt ubehagelig person eller psykopat.

Brænd Koranen dag

Diverse — Drokles on April 9, 2011 at 2:02 am

Lidt perspektiv på Fukushima

Diverse — Drokles on April 6, 2011 at 2:20 am

Atomkraft er som bekendt sikkert, rimeligt billigt og CO2 neutralt. Men ideen om den usynlige ved en overdosis af stråling er ideel til at skabe frygt. Og frygt skal der til i kampen mod virkeligheden. Fra ScienceInsider

In the event of a meltdown, the fuel could melt through and flow out of the primary pressure vessel, falling into the so-called core capture chamber which sits below the reactor for this very purpose.

That vessel has water that would hopefully cool the molten fuel down, eventually ending the crisis. If this didn’t happen, however, a steam explosion could blow out the primary containment vessel, spewing massive quantities of radioactive aerosols as well as particulates. With towns evacuated at a perimeter of 30 kilometers, the lethality of that release “would depend on the winds,” says Lester.

Derfor siger vi nej tak til atomkraft for en nedsmeltning er verdens ende. Og dog. Fra Daily Mail

‘If the Japanese fail to keep the reactors cool and fail to keep the pressure in the containment vessels at an appropriate level, you can get the dramatic word ‘meltdown’. But what does that actually mean?  What a meltdown involves is [that] the basic reactor core melts, and as it melts, nuclear material will fall through to the floor of the container. There it will react with concrete and other materials. That is likely… remember this is the reasonable worst case, we don’t think anything worse is going to happen.

‘In this reasonable worst case you get an explosion. You get some radioactive material going up to about 500 metres up into the air.  Now, that’s really serious, but it’s serious again for the local area.  It’s not serious for elsewhere … if you then couple that with the worst possible weather situation i.e. prevailing weather taking radioactive material in the direction of Greater Tokyo and you had maybe rainfall which would bring the radioactive material down - do we have a problem?

‘The answer is unequivocally no. Absolutely no issue. The problems are within 30 km of the reactor.  And to give you a flavour for that, when Chernobyl had a massive fire at the graphite core, material was going up not just 500 metres but to 30,000 feet.  It was lasting not for the odd hour or so but lasted months, and that was putting nuclear radioactive material up into the upper atmosphere for a very long period of time.  But even in the case of Chernobyl, the exclusion zone that they had was about 30 kilometres.

‘And in that exclusion zone, outside that, there is no evidence whatsoever to indicate people had problems from the radiation. The problems with Chernobyl were people were continuing to drink the water, continuing to eat vegetables and so on and that was where the problems came from. That’s not going to be the case here. So what I would really re-emphasise is that this is very problematic for the area and the immediate vicinity and one has to have concerns for the people working there. Beyond that 20 or 30 kilometres, it’s really not an issue for health.’

Og selvom vi ikke vil se noget, der blot kommer i nærheden af Tjernobyl - der fordi det blev bygget af kommunister følgeligt var elendigt, som det var uansvarligt drevet - spørger Daily Mails Michael Hanlon alligevel…

What would happen if Fukushima does a Chernobyl?

The thing is, even Chernobyl did not do a Chernobyl. This was, by far, the worst nuclear accident in history (a Category 7) and yet the most astonishing thing about Chernobyl is just how uncatastrophic even this mega-disaster turned out to be.

After the explosion, the world waited. For the cancers, for the gruesome birth defects, terrible radiation burns. Up until the mid-1990s, the generally accepted death toll (including that quoted by the Ukrainian Health Ministry) was in the region or 125,000. As time wore on, these figures plummeted.

In fact, 31 people were killed when the reactor blew - 28 from radiation exposure and three scalded to death by escaping steam. In addition, 134 people received high radiation doses and several dozen of these have subsequently died, although several of unrelated causes. A few hundred people, maybe a few thousand, may die prematurely in years to come, mostly from untreated thyroid cancers, but it is becoming clear that the original assessment was wildly pessimistic.

Det er alt sammen lige meget for den usynlige dræber kræver ingen dokumentation end det vores inderste frygt fortæller os når den gødes med lige dele Hollywood og almen marxistisk realitetsbekæmpelse, som medierne hellere kolporterer end kedelig fysikundervisning. Sådan står vi i en evig kamp med mysticismen, der i disse tider annoncerer sig økologisk og social bevidst og gør alt for at aflede vores opmærksomhed mod det virkelige og erfarbare uanset, hvor usmageligt det så kan forekomme. For lidelserne i Japan er jo til at tage og føle på.

…this concentration on the nuclear angle is overstated, a peculiar misreading of the real situation. It illustrates a perverse desire to ignore what is by far and away the biggest real story here - the thousands, most probably tens of thousands, of Japanese people who have been drowned, crushed, entombed in mud, burned alive and swept away by that black tide of death that came sweeping through towns like Sendai and Minamisanriku last Friday afternoon.

The real story is of whole communities literally sluiced away, families shattered, economies ruined. This is, truly, a disaster on a biblical scale, a true apocalypse not the hysterical nuclear-version alluded to by, among others, Gunther Oetinger of the European Commission (who is talking of an ‘apocalypse’), the French government (which has told its nationals to evacuate Tokyo), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (who has put Germany’s nuclear programme on hold) and many other people who should know better.

De burde i høj grad vide bedre! Melanie Windridge sætter atomkraft op imod nogle mere kendte alternativer i Guardian

Compared with other sources of energy, nuclear power is one of the safest. We worry about radiation but are happy to accept air pollution from fossil fuels. Coal-related air pollution from power plants is globally responsible for more than 100,000 deaths per year.1,2 The World Health Organisation estimates that indoor air pollution from biomass and coal causes 1.5m premature deaths per year.3

Coal mining accidents also kill thousands every year, but are seldom reported.

I do not wish to trivialise the problems at Fukushima. I dislike the radioactive waste and safety issues of nuclear fission as much as anyone, which is why I work in research into a new form of nuclear energy – fusion. It’s the energy source that powers the sun and has none of the downsides of fission.

Fusion will produce abundant energy cleanly and safely, but it is not yet ready. With continued political and financial support we hope to have fusion power stations by the 2050s.

Og imens i Danmark meldes der alt udsolgt i geigertællere! Men alt indeholder en risiko ikke bare kul og indendørs bål, selv de miljøbevidste vindemøller. Fra Avisen.dk

Tusindvis af danske arbejdere har de sidste 40 år arbejdet i giftige dampe for at producere vinger til verdens vindmøller.

40 tidligere ansatte hos LM Wind Power har igennem de sidste to uger stået frem med alvorlige sygdomme og symptomer, som overlæger sammenkæder med giften styren.

Men dét er selvfølgelig en undtagelse. Fra Daily Mail

The reality is that, as Britain flaunts its environmental credentials by speckling its coastlines and unspoiled moors and mountains with thousands of wind turbines, it is contributing to a vast man-made lake of poison in northern China. This is the deadly and sinister side of the massively profitable rare-earths industry that the ‘green’ companies profiting from the demand for wind turbines would prefer you knew nothing about.

Hidden out of sight behind smoke-shrouded factory complexes in the city of Baotou, and patrolled by platoons of security guards, lies a five-mile wide ‘tailing’ lake. It has killed farmland for miles around, made thousands of people ill and put one of China’s key waterways in jeopardy.

This vast, hissing cauldron of chemicals is the dumping ground for seven million tons a year of mined rare earth after it has been doused in acid and chemicals and processed through red-hot furnaces to extract its components.

(…)

Neodymium is commonly used as part of a Neodymium-Iron-Boron alloy (Nd2Fe14B) which, thanks to its tetragonal crystal structure, is used to make the most powerful magnets in the world. Electric motors and generators rely on the basic principles of electromagnetism, and the stronger the magnets they use, the more efficient they can be. It’s been used in small quantities in common technologies for quite a long time – hi-fi speakers, hard drives and lasers, for example. But only with the rise of alternative energy solutions has neodymium really come to prominence, for use in hybrid cars and wind turbines. A direct-drive permanent-magnet generator for a top capacity wind turbine would use 4,400lb of neodymium-based permanent magnet material.

In the pollution-blighted city of Baotou, most people wear face masks everywhere they go.

Undtagelser er undtagelser uanset omfanget. Vindmølleeventyret er allerede på vej til at overhale atomindustrien i antallet af dræbte og syge - men det har også kvævet statstilskud!

Alternative fugledræbere

Diverse — Drokles on April 6, 2011 at 1:21 am

Fra Daily Caller

On Tuesday an international bird watchdog group based in Spain, Save the Eagles International (STEI), warned that the expected construction of 3.5 million wind turbines worldwide will result in the extinction of a variety of bird species.

STEI is calling for a moratorium on all wind farm construction and an investigation into whether the threat to wildlife is worth the amount of energy produced — when, they say, there are so many other, more efficient sources of energy.

Burn motherfucker, burn

Diverse — Drokles on April 6, 2011 at 12:28 am

Lidt causeri fra weekenden

Diverse — Drokles on April 4, 2011 at 1:55 pm

En amerikansk præst brænder en Koran, som en symbolsk straf for alle de uhyrligheder, som den holder i hævd og straks reagerer muslimer i Afghanistan med optøjer, hvor folk bliver dræbt (muslimer og FN-ansatte ganske vist, men alligevel…) og dermed beviser den amerikanske præsts pointe. Og hvad er takken? FN’s mand i Afghanistan er ifølge Tolo News ikke i tvivl om skyldsspørgsmålet

Mr Staffan De Mistura blamed the violence on the Florida pastor, describing the burning of the holy Koran as “insane and totally deprecable gesture by one person”.

I don’t think we should be blaming any Afghans, we should blame the one who burnt the Koran, he said addressing a news conference in Kabul on Saturday.

Freedom of speech does not mean to offend culture, religion and traditions, he added.

Argumentet er også kaldet psykopat-argumentet for sin se-hvad-du-fik-mig-til-at-gøre-imod-dig logik. Heldigvis for præsten bor han i Land of the free og ikke i land of the psycko’s. Men ikke med alle’s billigelse

- Krænkelsen af en hellig tekst, inklusive koranen, er en ekstrem intolerant og snæversynet handling, siger Obama.

Og så har vi altså selveste den amerikanske præsident fordømmelse af en lovlydig amerikansk statsborger for at bruge sin ytringsfrihed. Måske Obama også vil assistere de oprørte afghanere med våben nu han alligevel overvejer samme træk i den libyske borgerkrig? Obama vil i hvert fald gerne fremstå belæst og fremlægger følgende religionshistoriske udsagn

- Ingen religion tolererer drab og halshugning af uskyldige mennesker, og en sådan vanærende og beklagelig handling kan ikke begrundes, siger Obama i sin tale.

Aha? Men mens Obama fordømmer sin egen landsmænd for med sin grundlovssikrede ret at tale midt imod fascismen demonstrerer islam sin essens øst for Afghanistan. Fra Jyllands-Posten

Mindst 30 mennesker er dræbt ved et terrorangreb på en helligdom for den religiøse sekt sufi i Pakistan, oplyser redningstjenesten til nyhedsbueruaet Reuters

Nyhedsbureauet AFP citerer politiet for at sige, at der er 41 dræbte ved angrebet, som fandt sted nær Pakistans østlige by Dera Ghazi Khan.

Et hav af undtagelser skaber jo ingen trend. Fredens religion myrder ikke løs på de uskyldige siger Obama. Problemet er måske bare det at der altså ikke er så mange uskyldige mennesker i islamisk tankegang udover de muslimer, der myrder løs i en rus af krænkethed forstås. Og selv da sker der ofte fejl, som Jyllands-Posten kunne fortælle

En 14-årig pige fra Bangladesh, Hena Akhter, blev udsat for 101 piskeslag, men døde efter de første 70.

Piskeslagene var beordret af den lokale imam, fordi pigen angiveligt havde haft en affære med en gift mand, der var tre gange så gammel.

I virkeligheden blev Hena Akhter voldtaget på grusom vis, hvorefter hun blev dræbt på falske anklager, skriver BBC.

Bortset fra at det viste sig at hun var “uskyldig” i utroskab - herregud, det kan jo smutte med den slags sager - så sad straffen lige i skabet for islam tolererer ikke drab på uskyldige mennesker! Og den 14 årige kunne jo meget vel have været den smatso, som de lokale imamer antog hende for og så er ingen slag for hårde eller for mange. Og der er den så, den islamiske tankegang, der skal respekteres helt ud i absurditeten, som Daily Caller giver et eksempel på

In an effort to get closer to the local population, American female soldiers stationed in Afghanistan are being encouraged to wear a Muslim headscarf when interacting with civilians. But some question whether the practice constitutes cultural sensitivity or a form of appeasement that is degrading to U.S. soldiers.

Skide godt signal at sende om sin tolerance - især til kvinder og piger i Afghanistan. Og i Danmark, skal man vel tilføje, hvor de hjemlige Koranskoler med Koranen som udgangspunkt praktiserer koranens værdier. Fra Jyllands-Posten

Der er også generelt et krav i alle koranskoler om, at pigerne skal gå med tørklæde. En bosnisk imam begrunder det i rapporten på følgende måde:

»Det er for hendes eget bedste, at en kvinde tildækker sig. Det beskytter hende mod onde øjne og mod, at en fremmed mand kigger på dig, at Satan gør noget med dig.«

Fordømt er den, der brænder en tekst så hellig som koranen!

Og så gider vi ikke tale mere om muslimer. En storkriminel person af anden etnisk herkomst vil ikke blive udvist af Danmark efter endt afsoning af 6 års fængsel har Østre Landsret afgjort. Hensynet er til den dømtes 8 børn, som trænger så meget til deres kriminelle og voldelige far at de ikke kan rejse med ham ud af landet. Og det udløste selvfølgelig glæde i Odense blandt mennesker der hader Danmark at man ikke kan udvises uanset, hvad man begår blot man har spredt sine kriminelle gener. TV2

“Vi fester de næste tre dage for at fejre, at Fisfis ikke skal udvises,” forklarer en af de unge mænd, samtidig med at han er ved at tænde op i en stor grill.

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Alligevel mener flere af de unge, at dommen om seks års fængsel er urimelig

“Han er et godt menneske, som altid hjælper sine venner,” lyder det fra flere af Fisfis’ venner, der ikke vil stå frem med navn.

Danmark understøtter dette inspirerende integrationseksempel og hans mange børn med 600.000,- årligt ifølge EkstraBladet. Mon ikke deres virkelige venner er SF og socialarbejderne?

Ude på et andet overdrev spekulerer konspirationsteoretikere om tankeforstyrrende stråler ifølge Daily Mail

A bizarre spate of television presenters dissolving into on-air gibberish has sparked claims that the U.S. military could be to blame.

In four high-profile cases, the latest involving fast-talking Judge Judy, the presenters have started off speaking properly but have then descended into undecipherable nonsense - looking confused and unstable.

The frequency of the ‘attacks’ - and the fact that recorded examples of the mental meltdowns have been popular on websites - has led to conspiracy theorists pointing the finger at shadowy government experiments.

A popular theory being circulated online blames the U.S. Military’s supposed research into using microwaves as a mind control weapon.

America has never admitted conducting such research but proponents say the effects - produced by microwave signals stimulating the brain with fake images and voices - exactly mimic those displayed in the recent on-air breakdowns.

De eksisterer faktisk og har været i massivt brug herhjemme mod venstrefløjspolitkere. Men den megen sorte snak har bare ikke generet venstrefløjens vælgere.

Og nu vi er derude så spekulerer Richard Glover på sin blog over, hvad der bliver Verdens undergang

It’s the internet, of course, and the way it has given climate-change deniers the perfect forum — one in which groups of quite dim people can swap spurious information, reassuring each other there’s no evidence on the other side, right up to the point they’ve derailed all efforts to save the planet. Call it ”mutually reassured destruction”.

In decades past, the climate-change deniers would have swapped theories in the pub or at a barbecue. But at the barbecue there was always one person willing to put a contrary view, to say: ”There’s another side.” And unless the barbecue was particularly nutty, there was no one handing out gestetnered sheets of dodgy science for people to take home.

The net allows the climate-change deniers to bleat about the scientists and whine about a price on carbon without fear of ever hearing a different voice, right up to the point of planetary collapse. To reformulate T.S. Eliot: ”This is the way the world will end — not with a bang but a whinger.”

Fordømt med alle disse obsternasige mennesker med deres frie tanke, tro og tale. De ødelægger alt fra klimaet til muslimernes gode humør.

Produceren af den populære TV serie Barnaby ødelagde tillige venstrefløjens gode humør da han ifølge Politiken forklarede, hvorfor serien er så god

»Vi har simpelthen bare ikke etniske minoriteter med i serien. For det ville ikke være en engelsk landsby, hvis de var med. Det ville bare ikke fungere«, udtalte Brian True-May i et interview med i tidsskriftet Radio Times.

Undskyldning var ikke nok
Efter interviewet kastede tv-seere en masse kastede sig over produceren på nettet, og seriens produktionsselskab All3Media tog øjeblikkeligt afstand fra udtalelserne og bad produceren blive hjemme fra arbejde.

(…)

Måske havde han kunnet slippe afsted med den præmis, hvis ikke hans retorik havde taget en mere racehygiejnisk retning i løbet af interviewet.

»Vi er engelskhedens sidste bastion, og det skal vi blive ved med at være«,

At engelskhed ikke har noget med racerenhed at gøre og at serien giver et korrekt etnisk billede omgivelserne taget i betragtning vil jeg ikke hænge mig i her. Blot vil jeg påpege at den ekstremt høje voldskriminalitet  ville være en del mere realistisk, hvis der netop boede mange etniske minoriteter i byen Midsomer, hvor Barnaby opklarer de mange mord med et smil på læben.

Fremragende kronik på fremragende blog

Diverse — Drokles on April 3, 2011 at 6:32 pm

Snaphanen har som måske bekendt igennem længere tid haft en fast søndagskronik skrevet under pseudonymet Julia Caesar og denne søndag er en af de allerbedste af slagsen.

Politikerna leker med dynamit

När män kommer från en hederskultur till de nordiska länderna möts de av frestelser som de aldrig har mött i sina hemländer. Det gäller vare sig de kommer från en kristen eller muslimsk hederskultur. De ser vackra, fria och självständiga kvinnor som själva väljer sina liv och den man de vill ha. De går lätt klädda och visar hår och hud. Det är som kött för hungriga hundar. Det blir kortslutning i hjärnan på män som bara har sett kvinnor dolda i heltäckande tält – kvinnor som de här männen har lärt sig se som andrahandsvarelser utan egna rättigheter, utan egna liv.

Hur har politikerna tänkt omprogrammera utomeuropeiska invandrare så att de plötsligt börjar se kvinnor som fullvärdiga, jämställda människor med rätt att bestämma över sina egna liv och rätt att säga nej till närmanden som de inte uppskattar? Svaret är att det inte går. Hur mycket social ingenjörskonst och hur många integrationsmiljarder man än satsar går det inte att hoppa över flera hundra år i människans utveckling. Evolutionen lunkar på i sin egen takt, och den är långsam. Det mångkulturella samhällsexperimentet innebär oundvikligen fruktansvärda kollisioner mellan skilda kulturer och utvecklingsstadier. Jordens historia är full av exempel. Alla har slutat på samma sätt, med inbördeskrig och undergång. Sveriges och andra europeiska länders politiker leker med dynamit. Vad de inte besinnar är att explosionen kan komma när de minst anar.

De ansvariga har namn

Jag vill ställa dem till ansvar, dessa landsförrädare som säljer ut sitt eget land och sin egen befolkning till vem som helst som säger sig vilja bo i Sverige och gärna lever på andras arbete och andras pengar.

Læs den hele.

Eco-scepticism prevailed

Diverse — Drokles on April 3, 2011 at 2:35 pm

Fra Telegraph

President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday scrapped the country’s proposed carbon tax and reshuffled his cabinet in populist tilt after suffering a crushing electoral defeat over the weekend, when his Gaulliste UMP party lost every region other than in its bastion of Alsace and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

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The government said its energy tax was being postponed indefinitely in order not to “damage the competitiveness of French companies”, fearing that it would be too risky for France to go it alone without the rest of the EU. Brussels has announced plans for an EU-wide tax, but the initiative already looks doomed.

Chantal Jouanno, the environment secretary, said she was “devastated that eco-scepticism had prevailed”. France’s leading green groups wrote a joint letter to Mr Sarkozy saying they were “scandalised” by his decision, accusing him of tearing up a pledge to put climate change at the centre of his presidency.

Sarkozy mister altså vælgere på grund af den dårlige økonomi og reagerer ved at slagte økokalven, vel vidende at det vil koste ham venner, i håb om at få…hvad? Stemmer gennem økonomisk genrejsning? Nemlig! For logikken er den sande at der ikke ligger et grønt eventyr og venter på de der begrænser driftigheden, der ligger ingen rationel energiudnyttelse i ineffektivitet, ingen grønne jobs i faldende produktion. Hvis der gjorde ville Sarkozy hamre klimasømmet i bund i håb om at vinde arbejdspladser i tide til at blive belønnet før næste præsidentvalg.

Og så er der selvfølgelig også en anden virkelighed end den politiske og økonomiske, der skal tages i betragtning, nemlig Virkeligheden, som den er i al sin fysiske storslåethed. Jorden har ikke oplevet opvarmning det seneste årti (muligvis de seneste 15 år alt efter hvilken statistisk signifikans man vil acceptere), hvilket strider imod alle FNs Klimapanels modeller. Dr. David Evans, der mistede troen på menneskeskabt global opvarmning efterhånden som de fysiske observationer modsatte sig teoriens diktater, forklarer på Joanna Nova’s blog

You see, in science empirical evidence always trumps theory, no matter how much you are in love with the theory. If theory and evidence disagree, real scientists scrap the theory. But official climate science ignored the crucial weather balloon evidence, and other subsequent evidence that backs it up, and instead clung to their carbon dioxide theory — that just happens to keep them in well-paying jobs with lavish research grants, and gives great political power to their government masters.

There are now several independent pieces of evidence showing that the earth responds to the warming due to extra carbon dioxide by dampening the warming. Every long-lived natural system behaves this way, counteracting any disturbance, otherwise the system would be unstable. The climate system is no exception, and now we can prove it.

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The planet reacts to that extra carbon dioxide, which changes everything. Most critically, the extra warmth causes more water to evaporate from the oceans. But does the water hang around and increase the height of moist air in the atmosphere, or does it simply create more clouds and rain? Back in 1980, when the carbon dioxide theory started, no one knew. The alarmists guessed that it would increase the height of moist air around the planet, which would warm the planet even further, because the moist air is also a greenhouse gas.

This is the core idea of every official climate model: for each bit of warming due to carbon dioxide, they claim it ends up causing three bits of warming due to the extra moist air. The climate models amplify the carbon dioxide warming by a factor of three – so two thirds of their projected warming is due to extra moist air (and other factors), only one third is due to extra carbon dioxide.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that. Hardly anyone in the public does, but it’s the core of the issue. All the disagreements, lies, and misunderstanding spring from this. The alarmist case is based on this guess about moisture in the atmosphere, and there is simply no evidence for the amplification that is at the core of their alarmism. Which is why the alarmists keep so quiet about it and you’ve never heard of it before. And it tells you what a poor job the media have done in covering this issue.

Weather balloons had been measuring the atmosphere since the 1960s, many thousands of them every year. The climate models all predict that as the planet warms, a hot-spot of moist air will develop over the tropics about 10km up, as the layer of moist air expands upwards into the cool dry air above. During the warming of the late 1970s, 80s, and 90s, the weather balloons found no hot-spot. None at all. Not even a small one. This evidence proves that the climate models are fundamentally flawed, that they greatly overestimate the temperature increases due to carbon dioxide.

Den franske professor i geofysik og imitator af Max Von Sydow Vincent Courtillot gennemgår her hvorledes FNs Klimapanel har forsøgt at få de fysiske observationer til at passe med teorien. Eller, hvis man vil have klimaet sat i relief af en veloplagt geolog Bob Carter.

Gensyn med Goldstone

Diverse — Drokles on April 3, 2011 at 1:35 pm

Kan de huske Israels afklapsning af Hamas i 2009, hvor venstrefløjen talte om massakre og FN bestilte et anklageskrift mod Israel for krigsforbrydelser? Goldstonerapporten blev den kaldt efter hovedforfatteren, den sydafrikanske jurist Richard Goldstone og det var lige, hvad alle kunne bruge til at bevise Israels manglende eksistensberettigelse selvom den var et makværk fra ende til anden. Men nu er der gået nogle år og Gadaffi sidder ikke længere med ved bordet i FNs menneskerettighedsråd og Goldstone har funderet lidt over sine konklusioner og trækker i Washington Post stille lidt i land.

Our report found evidence of potential war crimes and “possibly crimes against humanity” by both Israel and Hamas. That the crimes allegedly committed by Hamas were intentional goes without saying — its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.

The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

Man skulle tro at det var en aprilsnar. Elder of Zion, hvor jeg så denne artikel kommenterer klogt

Goldstone’s admission, welcome as it is, is disingenuous.

Certainly the worst part of the report was in the many parts that he is now retracting, that the IDF purposefully targeted civilians. He now says that the “ fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion” when the report was written. But in reality, if he had looked at both the history of how the IDF acts in war in general, the specifics that were known about how the IDF acted in Gaza, and how wars in urban combat zones are generally waged (i.e., in Iraq), of he was fair he would have easily concluded that the IDF was not purposefully targeting civilians and that they went out of their way, indeed even above and beyond, to avoid targeting real civilians (while Hamas was dressing up its fighters in civilian clothing.)

It appears that now, two years later, he is impressed that Israel is conducting investigations into acts of individual soldiers. Yet this is how the IDF always acted.

His belated retraction also doesn’t note that much of what his report said was known to be false at the time the Goldstone Report was released, as I and others have documented quite exhaustively. His report had a clear and consistent bias where Israeli claims were treated skeptically but Hamas claims were believed without reservation. To come back 18 months later and lamely admit that Israeli claims were indeed found to be accurate just shows how biased he was in accepting problematic testimony then.

Dengang under den mageløse Operation Cast Lead røg venstrefløjen selvfølgelig op i det røde felt i forargelse over at jøder tog sig den frihed at forsvare sig selv og samlede en demonstration med ganske prominente talere samt Trine Pertou Mach. Arbejderen samlede dengang et par pluk fra talerne (som jeg desværre ikke har magtet at opstøve i deres fulde længde)

Krigen i Gaza er en sag for os alle - og drejer sig om det internationale samfunds, herunder EU og Danmarks, fortsatte svigt overfor det løfte om et selvstændigt og frit Palæstina, som så ofte luftes, men bliver ved de tomme ord. Det er dén problemstilling, som hele krigen i Gaza i virkeligheden drejer sig om, og kun sådan, at en varig og retfærdig fred kan findes.
Trine Pertou Mach, Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke

Jeg har opfordret regeringen til at udvise den israelske ambassadør indtil Israel stopper angrebene. Vi har også foreslået økonomiske sanktioner. Israel tjener stort på samhandel med Europa med en gunstig handelsaftale. EU skal ophæve denne aftale, og Danmark bør lukke grænserne for israelske varer.
Frank Aaen, Enhedslisten

Vi skal presse maksimalt på for, at Israel stopper krigen og indespærringen af Gaza; standser koloniseringen af besat område på Vestbredden og nedlægger de ulovlige bosættelser. Målet er en levedygtig palæstinensisk stat og Jerusalem som hovedstad både for Israel og Palæstina.
Mogens Lykketoft, Socialdemokraterne

Det er Israel, der er besættelsesmagten. Det er Israel, der er stormagten. Det er Israel, der har hovedansvaret for at skabe fred! Lige nu har Israel desværre valgt krigens vej. Derfor skal presset på Israel styrkes.
Villy Søvndal, SF

Den israelske aktion er båret af en overdreven og fejlagtig tro på, at man kan løse konflikter med militære midler. Det har været prøvet så tit i Mellemøsten. Det gør problemerne større og skubber en fredsløsning længere væk.
Margrethe Vestager, Det Radikale Venstre

Idag er de sammen om at bombe i Libyen og med alvorlig mine erkende at civile tab er en del af krigens barske uundgåelige virkelighed. Forskellen er selvfølgelig at Hamas ofre var jøder og det er Gadaffis ikke.

BBC om Israel og kampen om Israels historie

Diverse — Drokles on April 3, 2011 at 11:38 am

Sikken overraskelse. I programmet beskyldes israelerne altså bl.a. for at bruge arkæologi, som et våben mod palæstinenserne. Det er måske ikke uden grund for palæstinensisk identitet, islamisk, som den er, har det, som BBC’s marxistiske dagsorden, meget svært med virkeligheden, som den var. Alle fascismer ønsker at udslette historien eller omskrive den til en parodisk mytologi. Som Stalin og Mao havde travlt med at rive kirker og templer ned har vore dages islamiske aktivister travlt med at springe buddhastatuer i luften så de ikke står i vejen for den fortsatte dyrkelse af mysticismen.

Hvad der gemmer sig i jorden under Jerusalem og især under Tempelbjerget - hvor det gamle jødiske tempel blev bygget og revet ned i et par omgange så der kun står en mur tilbage og hvor muslimerne efterfølgende har rejst en moske i et bramfrit erklæret forsøg på at gøre sig herre over jødedommen - er derfor af stor betydning i kampen mellem civilisationen, der stræber efter at erkende vores virkelighed og så mysticismen, der kun stræber efter at forsvare sin tro. Den lokale Dr Zaius (i Abernes Planet er han som måske bekendt abernes Defender of the faith), det islamiske Waqf, forvalter Tempelbjerget under israelsk lov, hvilket selvfølgelig komplicerer det arkæologiske arbejde, som denne interessante artikel fra Smitsonian fortæller

Today the Temple Mount, a walled compound within the Old City of Jerusalem, is the site of two magnificent structures: the Dome of the Rock to the north and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to the south. In the southwest stands the Western Wall—a remnant of the Second Temple and the holiest site in Judaism. Some 300 feet from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the southeast corner of the compound, a wide plaza leads to underground vaulted archways that have been known for centuries as Solomon’s Stables—probably because the Templars, an order of knights, are said to have kept their horses there when the Crusaders occupied Jerusalem. In 1996, the Waqf converted the area into a prayer hall, adding floor tiles and electric lighting. The Muslim authorities claimed the new site—named the El-Marwani Mosque—was needed to accommodate additional worshipers during Ramadan and on rain days that prevented the faithful from gathering in the open courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Three years later, the Waqf, with the approval of the Israeli government, announced plans to create an emergency exit for the El-Marwani Mosque. But Israeli officials later accused the Waqf of exceeding its self-stated mandate. Instead of a small emergency exit,  the Waqf excavated two arches, creating a massive vaulted entranceway. In doing so, bulldozers dug a pit more than 131 feet long and nearly 40 feet deep. Trucks carted away hundreds of tons of soil and debris.

Israeli archaeologists and scholars raised an outcry. Some said the Waqf was deliberately trying to obliterate evidence of Jewish history. Others laid the act to negligence on a monstrous scale.

“That earth was saturated with the history of Jerusalem,” says Eyal Meiron, a historian at the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Eretz Israel. “A toothbrush would be too large for brushing that soil, and they did it with bulldozers.”

Yusuf Natsheh, the Waqf’s chief archaeologist, was not present during the operation. But he told the Jerusalem Post that archaeological colleagues had examined the excavated material and had found nothing of significance. The Israelis, he told me, were “exaggerating” the value of the found artifacts. And he bristled at the suggestion the Waqf sought to destroy Jewish history. “Every stone is a Muslim development,” he says. “If anything was destroyed, it was Muslim heritage.”

Zachi Zweig was a third-year archaeology student at Bar- Ilan University, near Tel Aviv, when he heard news reports about dump trucks transporting Temple Mount soil to the Kidron Valley. With the help of a fellow student he rounded up 15 volunteers to visit the dump site, where they began surveying and collecting samples. A week later, Zweig presented his findings—including pottery fragments and ceramic tiles—to archaeologists attending a conference at the university. Zweig’s presentation angered officials at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). “This is nothing but a show disguised as research,” Jon Seligman, the IAA’s Jerusalem Region Archaeologist, told the Jerusalem Post. “It was a criminal deed to take these items without approval or permission.” Soon afterward, Israeli police questioned Zweig and released him. By that point though, Zweig says, his cause had attracted the attention of the media and of his favorite lecturer at Bar-Ilan—the archaeologist Gaby Barkay.

Zweig urged Barkay to do something about the artifacts. In 2004, Barkay got permission to search the soil dumped in the Kidron Valley. He and Zweig hired trucks to cart it from there to Emek Tzurim National Park at the foot of Mount Scopus, collected donations to support the project and recruited people to undertake the sifting. The Temple Mount Sifting Project, as it is sometimes called, marks the first time archaeologists have systematically studied material removed from beneath the sacred compound.

Barkay, ten full-time staffers and a corps of part-time volunteers have uncovered a wealth of artifacts, ranging from three scarabs (either Egyptian or inspired by Egyptian design), from the second millennium B.C., to the uniform badge of a member of the Australian Medical Corps, who was billeted with the army of British Gen. Edmund Allenby after defeating the Ottoman Empire in Jerusalem during World War I. A bronze coin dating to the Great Revolt against the Romans (A.D. 66-70) bears the Hebrew phrase, “Freedom of Zion.” A silver coin minted during the era when the Crusaders ruled Jerusalem is stamped with the image of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Barkay says some discoveries provide tangible evidence of biblical accounts. Fragments of terra-cotta figurines, from between the eighth and sixth centuries B.C., may support the passage in which King Josiah, who ruled during the seventh century, initiated reforms that included a campaign against idolatry. Other finds challenge long-held beliefs. For example, it is widely accepted that early Christians used the Mount as a garbage dump on the ruins of the Jewish temples. But the abundance of coins, ornamental crucifixes and fragments of columns found from Jerusalem’s Byzantine era (A.D. 380–638) suggest that some public buildings were constructed there. Barkay and his colleagues have published their main findings in two academic journals in Hebrew, and they plan to eventually publish a book-length account in English.

But Natsheh, the Waqf’s chief archaeologist, dismisses Barkay’s finds because they were not found in situ in their original archaeological layers in the ground. “It is worth nothing,” he says of the sifting project, adding that Barkay has leapt to unwarranted conclusions in order to strengthen the Israeli argument that Jewish ties to the Temple Mount are older and stronger than those of the Palestinians. “This is all to serve his politics and his agenda,” Natsheh says.

(…)

Until recently, Palestinians generally acknowledged that the Beit Hamikdash existed. A 1929 publication, A Brief Guide to the Haram al-Sharif, written by Waqf historian Aref al Aref, declares that the Mount’s “identity with the site of Solomon’s temple is beyond dispute. This too is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt and peace offerings.” But in recent decades, amid the intensifying quarrel over the sovereignty of East Jerusalem, a growing number of Palestinian officials and academics have voiced doubts. “I will not allow it to be written of me that I have…confirmed the existence of the so-called Temple beneath the Mount,” Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat told President Bill Clinton at the Camp David peace talks in 2000. Arafat suggested the site of the Temple Mount might have been in the West Bank town of Nablus, known as Shechem in ancient times.

Five years after the Camp David talks, Barkay’s sifting project turned up a lump of black clay with a seal impression inscribed with the name, in ancient Hebrew, “[Gea]lyahu [son of] Immer.” In the Book of Jeremiah, a son of Immer—Pashur—is identified as chief administrator of the First Temple. Barkay suggests that the seal’s owner could have been Pashur’s brother. If so, it’s a “significant find,” he says—the first Hebrew inscription from the First Temple period to be found on the Mount itself.

But Natsheh—sipping Arabic coffee in his office at Waqf headquarters, a 700-year-old former Sufi monastery in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City—is dubious. He says he’s also frustrated by Israeli dismissal of Palestinian claims to the sacred compound where, he says, the Muslim presence—excepting the Crusader period (A.D. 1099-1187)—“extends for 1,400 years.” Natsheh won’t say if he believes in the existence of the First Temple, given the current political climate. “Whether I say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ it would be misused,” he tells me, fidgeting. “I would not like to answer.”

(…)

And in November 2010, the Palestinian Authority created a diplomatic kerfuffle when it published a study declaring the Western Wall was not a Jewish holy site at all, but part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The study contended, “This wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction,” which the U.S. State Department called “factually incorrect, insensitive and highly provocative.”

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