John R. Houk
© February 2, 2015
A movement that began in Germany is beginning to spread across Europe. That movement reflects a grassroots mentality of becoming fed-up with Muslims practicing Sharia and of a significant amount of Muslims following the literal exhortations of Islamic holy writings in the Quran, Hadith and Sira. The movement acquired the acronym PEGIDA in its German nation of origin. The English translation for this acronym is “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West”.
This PEGIDA movement in Europe is widely condemned as Right Wing racism against Muslims by Europe’s ruling elites. The ruling elite is devoted to multiculturalism hence they stick to the opinion that Muslim violence exacted in the name of Allah and Mohammed is not Islam. The reality is though, if you ignore all the Islamic denials, and actually read the Quran, Hadith, Sira and other respected Islamic treatises such as the Reliance of the Traveller (yup the two “Ls” are correct in this case) you discover Islam – unlike most religions – actually calls for violence as an act of submission to Islam and Allah.
In recent days the grassroots PEGIDA movement has ran into some difficulties that even true Conservatives have to wag their heads. That difficulty relates to its German founder Lutz Bachmann dressing up as Adolf Hitler and then taking a selfie. Hitler and Nazi junk is illegal in Germany not to mention Jews do not find any humor – if that was Bachmann’s intent – in Hitler portrayals. Indeed European nations have hate-crime laws that our American Constitution would render as a ridiculous infringement of Free Speech. I understand that Bachmann is currently being investigated for breaking a hate-crime law in Germany. The consequence – Bachmann resigned as the leader of PEGIDA which has followed by a host of German PEGIDA leaders also resigning.
I am guessing that there are some extremist elements that have violent racist views that have migrated into the PEGIDA movement. I understand that pseudo-Nazi creeps in Germany and European Nazi-sympathizers are making a stealth comeback. My opinion is that the obvious rise of virulent antisemitism is evidence of a resurgence of Nazi/Fascist sentiments but one could also add Muslims subscribing to the commands of Islamic holy writings has made additional antisemitism more noticeable.
Europe’s Left-leaning multicultural political elites is quick and correct to condemn the rise of Nazi/Fascist racism yet those same elite are idiotic to look at Muslim violence against Free Speech, against exposing the real Islam and against Jews as if that Muslim violence has nothing to do with Islam. That is simply cultural suicide.
Yedioth (or Yediot) Ahronoth (or Ahronot) may be one of the most read of Israel’s news media if not the most read. As an American I prefer to call that media outlet by its internet url “Ynet”. That’s on the old American pronunciation. From what I have read Ynet is centrist on Israel’s political scale with some agendas on the Right and some on the Left. Where I discerned this assessment at 972Mag.com that points out Ynet is tends to lean to the Right on security and military issues but is apparently anti-Netanyahu.
I give you this assessment because I ran into an insightful Ynet interview with a PEGIDA spokesman relating to the movement and PEGIDA’s critics. I need you to see this interview then afterwards I will some thoughts on PEGIDA and the need for such a grassroots movement to explode in America before a Muslim violence issue becomes as warped in America as it is in Europe.
In exclusive Ynetnews interview, spokesperson of anti-Islamization grassroots initiative addresses Jewish world's concerns about the movement, says 'we want Jews and Israelis to feel safe in Europe.'
BERLIN – Christian Mayerhoff, a spokesperson for PEGIDA, the grassroots initiative which started in Dresden, Germany in autumn of 2014 and now coordinates anti-Islamist protests in 10 European countries, sat down for an exclusive interview with Ynetnews in Berlin this week in a bid to address the Jewish world's concerns about his movement.
Mr. Mayerhoff, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germans in her New Year’s televised address that people at PEGIDA protests are filled with "hatred" in their hearts. What is your reaction to this statement?
"We think Frau Merkel wants the world to believe she hold the high moral ground. But this is not true. Her government sells weapons to dictators in the Middle East, such as tanks to Saudi Arabia. Her government closes an eye to the infiltration of German mosques and German cities with Islamist preachers and Islamist propaganda material. What is happening today is totally unacceptable."
PEGIDA claims that Germany and Europe are threatened by Islamization. What do you mean by this?
"We mean that there are in many European countries rapidly growing Muslim parallel societies. This is in itself not bad. What is negative and dangerous is that these communities contribute disproportionately to social problems such as vandalism, unemployment, crime and terrorism.
"Before we allow these communities to grow further, we should make their members are integrated into mainstream society just like immigrant communities of Eastern Europeans, East Asians and South Americans."
Fears of Islamist activities in Europe were heightened by the latest terror attacks in Paris. Has the response of the German authorities satisfied you?
"No it hasn’t. De Maizière, our interior minister, came out saying that these attacks have nothing to do with Islam. This makes him lose all credibility. It’s like saying that Nazism had nothing to do with Germany."
But PEGIDA has been labeled a pro-Nazi, xenophobic and racist movement by mainstream German media. Even Josef Schuster, president of the Central Committee of Jews in Germany, stated that you are pyromaniacs.
"We are no Nazis. Personally I was active in left-wing human rights movements in my youth during the early 1990s. After 9/11 I started learning about Islam and Islamism and this changed my opinion about multiculturalism and political correctness. In PEGIDA there are leftists, centrists and conservatives. In the city of Kassel our committee includes a Croatian, a Jew and a secularized Muslim…
"But personally, I sympathize with Mr. Schuster. In Germany and Europe, Jews are nowadays harassed and attacked for no reason. If the leaders of Jewish communities said something fair about PEGIDA, it would be used as a pretext by Islamists to escalate their anti-Semitic campaigns."
What anti-Semitic campaigns are you talking about?
"Sociologists and pollsters who monitor Muslim communities in Europe regularly reveal that anti-Semitism is rampant, especially among young religious Muslims. In mosque sermons preaching against Jews is a Friday pastime.
"For example, last summer in Berlin, Sheikh Abu Bilal Ismail openly called for Jews to be exterminated. He was not incarcerated. This indulgence is suicidal."
Yet Germany’s intellectuals also attack PEGIDA and repeatedly sign public statements to repudiate your agenda. Doesn’t this generalized hostility concern you?
"Writers and artists love to sign appeals. They should sign more appeals against ISIS and Boko Haram instead of being obsessed about PEGIDA. They attack us and do not bother to read our demands. Readers should visit us on Facebook and decide for themselves if we are more dangerous than the Islamists in Europe."
But what are your demands concretely?
"We support a better treatment of real asylum seekers and the repatriation of fake asylum seekers. We call for a more selective immigration policy in Germany and the European Union along the lines of what works well in Canada, Switzerland and Australia. We demand zero tolerance against religious extremism and against all calls to murder in the name of God."
But don’t you think you are targeting Islam and ignoring the dangers of Christian and Jewish fundamentalism?
"All religions should respect the law in Europe. We do not see Europe priests or rabbis calling for believers of other faiths to be murdered."
But all Muslim religious leaders and community leaders in Europe condemned the terror attacks in Paris.
"That is not enough. Muslim leaders must stop tolerating imams in their midst who preach violent jihad. We don’t care if it’s jihad in Europe, jihad in Syria or jihad in Palestine. To condemn killing in the name of God must be a basic value."
But who is PEGIDA to demand that Muslims teach a 1,400-year old religion in a way that suits your political agenda?
"I am not a Muslim and PEGIDA cannot tell Muslim how to read the Quran. As Europeans we do have the right to demand that all religions in our continent respect the law. To teach that it is good to kill in the name of God is unacceptable and must be seriously punished."
Does PEGIDA have a message for Muslims?
"Europe is a generous host. Muslims who respect our laws and ethical values are welcome. Muslims who hate Western values and support violent jihad should not come here. Muslims who are against Islamism are of course welcome at PEGIDA."
Do you have a message for Jews?
"We want Jews and Israelis to feel safe in Europe. We want you to be able to show your faith on Europe’s streets openly. We must stand united against Islamism and jihadism."
How does it feel to speak on behalf of the most despised political movement in Germany?
"It is very frustrating. The demonization of PEGIDA is evidence that the elites in Germany are completely out of touch with reality." (PEGIDA spokesman: We are no Nazis; Moritz Josef Schulman; Ynetnews.com; 1/24/15 09:37)
So it seems you have a choice. Do you believe European (or more specifically in this case – German) ruling political elites or do you believe the grassroots motivation for protesting against counter-culture Islamization in Europe? You can probably guess I’ll lean with PEGIDA motivation.
PEGIDA denies:
o Nazism
o Antisemitism
o AND even any hatred of Muslims
There is a qualifier though with Muslims. That qualifier is simple. If Muslims refuse to assimilate into the acceptance of a host nation’s rule of law than those Muslims should not be allowed to immigrate to a Western nation or if that Muslim already lives in a Western nation and agitates for counter-culture Islamic Sharia Law to trump the rule of law they should be deported as a non-citizen or if such a literalist Quranic Muslim is a citizen by naturalizing or birth they should be invited to leave to a culture more acceptable to their Islamic beliefs.
America’s Tea Party Movement has ran into the same Left Wing vilification in attempts to brainwash Americans that the Tea Party are a bunch of Right Wing and racist-hatred-filled thugs that undermine America’s tolerance and Constitution.
Of course that is a load of Leftist propaganda. Is it possible that extremist Right Wing racist have hooked up with the Tea Party? Of course it is. Is this representative of the mainstay of the grassroots activists of the Tea Party Movement? That’s a big negative good buddy.
Then there is the Mainstream romanticized Leftist Occupy Wall Street Movement. In the Occupy Wall Street most active days there are a host of headlines of Occupiers being arrested for violence, murder, rape and terrorism. The numbers are in the high hundreds to the low thousands. You can check out the numerous Occupy headlines and included summaries at NRO.
Then there are the Ferguson riots in which Democrats and Black Activist race-baiters were practically calling for the lynching of Officer Darren Wilson – a Caucasian – for shooting to death 18 year old Michael Brown – a Black Man. Again the Left lean Mainstream Media without knowing the facts painted Officer Wilson as a Black-hating racist that used unnecessary force to shoot a poor unarmed Black teenager.
After a Grand Jury and even Holder’s DOJ investigation cleared Wilson the agitators STILL wanted Officer Wilson’s head metaphorically.
Between the incidents in which a gigantic male of the age of majority roughed up a store clerk for some cigs then proceeding to walk belligerently down the middle of the street which caught Officer Wilson’s attention an arrest was attempted. Brown resisted arrest violently smacking Officer Wilson in the face and attempting to unholster Wilson’s weapon. In the scuffle Wilson managed to prevent Brown from obtaining his weapon. Brown then began to flee. Wilson told Brown to stop. Rather than surrender, Brown charged Wilson like a rabid Rhino which resulted in Wilson discharging several shots at Brown. It is my perception that Wilson took a head shot when the previous body shots failed to stop the charge. It is an absolute myth that Brown got on his knees with his back to Wilson with his hands raised in surrender. THAT NEVER HAPPENED!
Not willing to wait for the truth, race baiters agitated. And the good citizens of Ferguson went on looting rampages engaging in property damage and theft from Ferguson stores.
Dear God in Heaven contrast these typical Leftist inspired protests with the goings on with Tea Party Movement rallies. Left = Violent Rage. Conservative Right Tea Party = Peaceful yet displeased Patriotism.
Going Back to PEGIDA
The United States of America needs a Tea Party style PEGIDA Movement to demonstrate American displeasure with culture-failing-to-assimilate immigrants - Muslims and Latin Americans – making America their home. This is especially the case with Muslims that are pre-disposed to Sharia-literal-Quran wielding immigrants who would rather agitate the downfall of Constitutional America than assimilate to the E Pluribus Unum melting pot that has made America one culture rather than a disunited diverse multiple cultures.
Abraham Lincoln’s House Divided Speech did not win him his Senate run against Stephen Douglas; however the speech made Lincoln’s name go viral in however that happened in 1858 and thrust him to be the first Republican President in the 1860 election.
Lincoln’s House Divided Speech context was a nation divided between a no-slave North and a slave South will not survive. Either nation will become one or the other but both cannot coincide together. That was wisdom that kept are nation morally united rather than immorally united in slavery.
The Left Wing Multiculturalist paradigm cannot coincide with an America united by the Founding Fathers document we call the Constitution. Either Multiculturalism will fracture America’s Union into various nations only united in their region or the Constitution will be fought for to our Union the United States of America. Multicultural fracturing will turn a once strong America where immigrant dreams had hope, into diverse multiple independent States trying to preserve the heritage of their region. The ONLY way this Union remains these United States is the best Constitution the rule of law has experienced in history.
House Divide Speech
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention.
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.
Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.
In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.
Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.
A grassroots PEGIDA Movement is as needed in the USA to preserve the American Union under the U.S. Constitution as is the Tea Party Movement needed to remind Americans that this nation’s Founding principles are on taxation ONLY with representation and Less Government rather than a nearing autocratic huge government the Democrats and American Leftists are leading toward.
JRH 2/2/15
