French youths riot after scooter rider dies
21/01/2010 14:51 CET
Social tensions have erupted in France, amid anger at the death of a teenager killed as he tried to flee police on a stolen scooter.
Cars, trucks and a bus were set on fire while phone booths and windows were smashed during clashes on the streets of Woippy near the north-eastern city of Metz.
Attacked with Molotov cocktails and stones, riot officers responded with tear gas.
The unrest was triggered by events the previous night when police tried to stop the stolen scooter.
The vehicle, with no lights on, was carrying three youths, none of whom were wearing helmets. It crashed, seriously injuring two of them and killing a third.
A peaceful demonstration paying tribute to 19-year-old Malek Saouchi was followed by the disturbances.
Three police officers initially taken into custody for the purposes of the enquiry have now been allowed home.
http://www.euronews.net/2010/01/21/french-youths-riot-after-scooter-rider-dies/
======================================================
Note how Euronews does not mention anywhere that these were Arab youths who stole the scooter and then their fellow Arab residents rioted. The French police, like those of several other European countries, have lost control over these immigrant ghettoes.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Immigrants are not welcome in Europe any more. They have overstayed their welcome. It is time for them to go back to their countries.
By Gavin Jones – Sun Jan 10, 11:26 am ET
ROME (Reuters) – Hundreds of African immigrants have been evacuated from a southern Italian town, authorities said on Sunday, following some of the worst racial violence in Italy since World War Two.
The evacuation followed three days of clashes in the southern Calabrian town of Rosarno, which began when some local residents began attacking immigrants who responded by rioting.
At least 53 people, including 18 policeman, were injured in the unrest in the town, located in Italy's southwestern toe.
Authorities moved more than 1,000 people, mostly illegal temporary workers from sub-Saharan Africa to immigrant centres around Italy in an operation that lasted from Saturday through to the early hours of Sunday.
Even workers with regular residence permits left the town to escape a climate that one political commentator compared to the 1960s Ku Klux Klan racial violence in the United States.
Immigrants without regular papers risk expulsion to their country of origin and the authorities on Sunday began demolishing their former makeshift homes in Rosarno.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the government had "brilliantly resolved the problem of public order" and thanked police for organizing the exodus "in an exemplary way."
The violence has inflamed a long-running political debate on immigration. Maroni blamed the unrest on years of "mistaken tolerance" while the opposition accuses the government of fuelling xenophobia.
The front page headline of the anti-government Daily Fact newspaper referred to the immigrants' departure as "Ethnic Cleansing."
Pope Benedict departed from the prepared text of his weekly Angelus blessing to appeal for tolerance.
"An immigrant is a human being, different in origin, culture and tradition but he is a person with rights and duties who must be respected," he told the crowd in Saint Peter's Square.
AIR RIFLE ATTACK
The clashes started on Thursday, when a gang of white youths in a car fired air rifles at a group of African immigrants returning from work on farms, injuring two of them.
The attack set off a night of rioting by dozens of Africans, who smashed car windows with steel bars and stones and set cars and rubbish bins on fire. That in turn sparked more attacks from residents determined to drive the immigrants out of the area.
"I have never hurt anyone, I don't know why they attacked us, we are here to work," Ajra Saibu from Togo, one of the men fired at on the first night of violence.
Some 8,000 illegal immigrants work in Calabria, most as day laborers picking fruit and vegetables.
Many live in abandoned factories with no running water or electricity and human rights groups say they are exploited by the 'Ndrangheta, Italy's most powerful mafia organization.
"The state does not exist in Calabria, it's the 'Ndrangheta which regulates social relations," said Pierferdinando Casini, leader of the opposition Union of Christian Democrats party.
Roberto Calderoli, a minister from the same far-right Northern League party as interior minister Maroni, said with unemployment at 18 percent in the south of Italy, "work should go to the Italians ... not to illegal immigrants."
If necessary, agricultural pay levels should be increased to make them acceptable to locals, he said.
Silvio Berlusconi's government has taken a hard line against illegal immigration and has moved to stem a tide of immigrants who board boats in Africa to try to reach its southern shores.
Some boats have been turned back on the open seas, prompting criticism of the Italian government by the United Nations' refugee agency. The European Commission has also voiced concern over the policy.
Italy in racism debate as migrants quit riot town
By Gavin Jones – Sun Jan 10, 11:26 am ET
ROME (Reuters) – Hundreds of African immigrants have been evacuated from a southern Italian town, authorities said on Sunday, following some of the worst racial violence in Italy since World War Two.
The evacuation followed three days of clashes in the southern Calabrian town of Rosarno, which began when some local residents began attacking immigrants who responded by rioting.
At least 53 people, including 18 policeman, were injured in the unrest in the town, located in Italy's southwestern toe.
Authorities moved more than 1,000 people, mostly illegal temporary workers from sub-Saharan Africa to immigrant centres around Italy in an operation that lasted from Saturday through to the early hours of Sunday.
Even workers with regular residence permits left the town to escape a climate that one political commentator compared to the 1960s Ku Klux Klan racial violence in the United States.
Immigrants without regular papers risk expulsion to their country of origin and the authorities on Sunday began demolishing their former makeshift homes in Rosarno.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the government had "brilliantly resolved the problem of public order" and thanked police for organizing the exodus "in an exemplary way."
The violence has inflamed a long-running political debate on immigration. Maroni blamed the unrest on years of "mistaken tolerance" while the opposition accuses the government of fuelling xenophobia.
The front page headline of the anti-government Daily Fact newspaper referred to the immigrants' departure as "Ethnic Cleansing."
Pope Benedict departed from the prepared text of his weekly Angelus blessing to appeal for tolerance.
"An immigrant is a human being, different in origin, culture and tradition but he is a person with rights and duties who must be respected," he told the crowd in Saint Peter's Square.
AIR RIFLE ATTACK
The clashes started on Thursday, when a gang of white youths in a car fired air rifles at a group of African immigrants returning from work on farms, injuring two of them.
The attack set off a night of rioting by dozens of Africans, who smashed car windows with steel bars and stones and set cars and rubbish bins on fire. That in turn sparked more attacks from residents determined to drive the immigrants out of the area.
"I have never hurt anyone, I don't know why they attacked us, we are here to work," Ajra Saibu from Togo, one of the men fired at on the first night of violence.
Some 8,000 illegal immigrants work in Calabria, most as day laborers picking fruit and vegetables.
Many live in abandoned factories with no running water or electricity and human rights groups say they are exploited by the 'Ndrangheta, Italy's most powerful mafia organization.
"The state does not exist in Calabria, it's the 'Ndrangheta which regulates social relations," said Pierferdinando Casini, leader of the opposition Union of Christian Democrats party.
Roberto Calderoli, a minister from the same far-right Northern League party as interior minister Maroni, said with unemployment at 18 percent in the south of Italy, "work should go to the Italians ... not to illegal immigrants."
If necessary, agricultural pay levels should be increased to make them acceptable to locals, he said.
Silvio Berlusconi's government has taken a hard line against illegal immigration and has moved to stem a tide of immigrants who board boats in Africa to try to reach its southern shores.
Some boats have been turned back on the open seas, prompting criticism of the Italian government by the United Nations' refugee agency. The European Commission has also voiced concern over the policy.
The Disastrous Effects of Multi-culturalism in Denmark
SALUTE to Denmark... This could very well happen here in Malta.
Susan MacAllen is a contributing editor for (Family Security Matters.org). Salute the Danish Flag - it's a Symbol of Western Freedom By Susan MacAllen In 1978-9
I was living and studying in Denmark. But in 1978 - even in Copenhagen, one didn't see Muslim immigrants.
The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, and went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism one in development since the conservatives had lost Power in 1929 - a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other Western nation at the time.
The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism.
Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies - it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant, generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education. It was determined to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism. How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets -all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite?
By the 1990's the growing urban Muslim population was obvious - and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was also obvious. Years of immigrants had settled into Muslim-exclusive enclaves. As the Muslim leadership became more vocal about what they considered the decadence of Denmark's liberal way of life, the Danes - once so welcoming – began to feel slighted. Many Danes had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long-standing values: belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history.
An article by Lars Hedegaard, forecasted accurately, that the growing immigrant problem in Denmark would explode.
The article reported:
'Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.'
'Muslims are only 5 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.'
'Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.'
'Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousinin the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem'
'Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.'
It is easy to understand why a growing number of Danes would feel that Muslim immigrants show little respect for Danish values and laws. An example is the phenomenon common to other European countries and Canada. Some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim leaders in Denmark, a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of their 7,000 Jews by night to Sweden - before the Nazis could invade. I think of my Danish friend Elsa - who, as a teenager, had dreaded crossing the street to the bakery every morning under the eyes of occupying Nazi Soldiers - and I wonder what she would say today.
In 2001, Denmark elected the most conservative government in some 70 years - one that had some decidedly non-generous ideas about liberal unfettered immigration. Today Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe. (Its effort to protect itself has been met with accusations of 'racism' by the media across Europe - even as other governments struggle to right the social problems wrought by years of too-lax immigration.)
If you wish to become Danish, you must attend three years of language classes.
You must pass a test on Denmark’s history, culture, and a Danish language test.
You must live in Denmark for 7 years before applying for citizenship.
You must demonstrate intent to work, and have a job waiting.
If you wish to bring a spouse into Denmark, you must both be over 24 years of age, and you won't find it so easy anymore to move your friends and family to Denmark with you.
You will not be allowed to build a mosque in Copenhagen.
Although your children have a choice of some 30 Arabic culture and language schools in Denmark, they will be strongly encouraged to assimilate to Danish society in ways that past immigrants weren't.
In 2006, the Danish minister for employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, spoke publicly of the burden of Muslim immigrants on the Danish welfare system, and it was horrifying: the government's welfare committee had calculated that if immigration from Third World countries were blocked, 75 percent of the cuts needed to sustain the huge welfare system in coming decades would be unnecessary. In other words, the welfare system, as it existed, was being exploited by immigrants to the point of eventually bankrupting the government. 'We are simply forced to adopt a new policy on immigration'.
'The calculations of the welfare committee are terrifying and show how unsuccessful the integration of immigrants has been up to now,' he said.
A large thorn in the side of Denmark's imams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj.She makes no bones about the new policy toward immigration, 'The number of foreigners coming to the country makes a difference,' Hvilsh says, 'There is an inverse correlation between how many come here and how well we can receive the foreigners that come.'
And on Muslim immigrants needing to demonstrate a willingness to blend in, 'In my view, Denmark should be a country with room for different cultures and religions. Some values,however, are more important than others. We refuse to question Democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech.'
Hvilshoj has paid a price for her show of backbone. Perhaps to test her resolve, the leading radical imam in Denmark, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, demanded that the government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen, stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money. When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark. The Muslim reply came soon after: her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept. All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence was once so scarce.
Her government has slid to the right, and her borders have tightened. Many believe that what happens in the next decade will determine whether Denmark survives as a bastion of good living, humane thinking and social responsibility, or whether it becomes a nation at civil war with supporters of Sharia law.
And meanwhile, Canadians clamour for stricter immigration policies, and demand an end to state welfare programs that allow many immigrants to live on the public dole. As we in Canada look at the enclaves of Muslims amongst us, and see those who enter our shores too easily, dare live on our taxes, yet refuse to embrace our culture, respect our traditions, participate in our legal system, obey our laws, speak our language, appreciate our history... we would do well to look to Denmark, and say a prayer for her future and for our own?
Susan MacAllen is a contributing editor for (Family Security Matters.org). Salute the Danish Flag - it's a Symbol of Western Freedom By Susan MacAllen In 1978-9
I was living and studying in Denmark. But in 1978 - even in Copenhagen, one didn't see Muslim immigrants.
The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, and went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism one in development since the conservatives had lost Power in 1929 - a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other Western nation at the time.
The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism.
Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies - it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant, generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education. It was determined to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism. How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets -all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite?
By the 1990's the growing urban Muslim population was obvious - and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was also obvious. Years of immigrants had settled into Muslim-exclusive enclaves. As the Muslim leadership became more vocal about what they considered the decadence of Denmark's liberal way of life, the Danes - once so welcoming – began to feel slighted. Many Danes had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long-standing values: belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history.
An article by Lars Hedegaard, forecasted accurately, that the growing immigrant problem in Denmark would explode.
The article reported:
'Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.'
'Muslims are only 5 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.'
'Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.'
'Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousinin the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem'
'Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.'
It is easy to understand why a growing number of Danes would feel that Muslim immigrants show little respect for Danish values and laws. An example is the phenomenon common to other European countries and Canada. Some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim leaders in Denmark, a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of their 7,000 Jews by night to Sweden - before the Nazis could invade. I think of my Danish friend Elsa - who, as a teenager, had dreaded crossing the street to the bakery every morning under the eyes of occupying Nazi Soldiers - and I wonder what she would say today.
In 2001, Denmark elected the most conservative government in some 70 years - one that had some decidedly non-generous ideas about liberal unfettered immigration. Today Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe. (Its effort to protect itself has been met with accusations of 'racism' by the media across Europe - even as other governments struggle to right the social problems wrought by years of too-lax immigration.)
If you wish to become Danish, you must attend three years of language classes.
You must pass a test on Denmark’s history, culture, and a Danish language test.
You must live in Denmark for 7 years before applying for citizenship.
You must demonstrate intent to work, and have a job waiting.
If you wish to bring a spouse into Denmark, you must both be over 24 years of age, and you won't find it so easy anymore to move your friends and family to Denmark with you.
You will not be allowed to build a mosque in Copenhagen.
Although your children have a choice of some 30 Arabic culture and language schools in Denmark, they will be strongly encouraged to assimilate to Danish society in ways that past immigrants weren't.
In 2006, the Danish minister for employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, spoke publicly of the burden of Muslim immigrants on the Danish welfare system, and it was horrifying: the government's welfare committee had calculated that if immigration from Third World countries were blocked, 75 percent of the cuts needed to sustain the huge welfare system in coming decades would be unnecessary. In other words, the welfare system, as it existed, was being exploited by immigrants to the point of eventually bankrupting the government. 'We are simply forced to adopt a new policy on immigration'.
'The calculations of the welfare committee are terrifying and show how unsuccessful the integration of immigrants has been up to now,' he said.
A large thorn in the side of Denmark's imams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj.She makes no bones about the new policy toward immigration, 'The number of foreigners coming to the country makes a difference,' Hvilsh says, 'There is an inverse correlation between how many come here and how well we can receive the foreigners that come.'
And on Muslim immigrants needing to demonstrate a willingness to blend in, 'In my view, Denmark should be a country with room for different cultures and religions. Some values,however, are more important than others. We refuse to question Democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech.'
Hvilshoj has paid a price for her show of backbone. Perhaps to test her resolve, the leading radical imam in Denmark, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, demanded that the government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen, stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money. When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark. The Muslim reply came soon after: her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept. All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence was once so scarce.
Her government has slid to the right, and her borders have tightened. Many believe that what happens in the next decade will determine whether Denmark survives as a bastion of good living, humane thinking and social responsibility, or whether it becomes a nation at civil war with supporters of Sharia law.
And meanwhile, Canadians clamour for stricter immigration policies, and demand an end to state welfare programs that allow many immigrants to live on the public dole. As we in Canada look at the enclaves of Muslims amongst us, and see those who enter our shores too easily, dare live on our taxes, yet refuse to embrace our culture, respect our traditions, participate in our legal system, obey our laws, speak our language, appreciate our history... we would do well to look to Denmark, and say a prayer for her future and for our own?
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