Jihad9: Muhammad, Schuman and the Limits to Free Speech

On 7 January 2015, France, Europe and the West were faced with people who killed rather than let journalists expose an unpopular truth. Shouting ‘Allah is great‘, three gunmen with automatic weapons launched an attack on the satirical publication, Charlie Hebdo, killing a dozen journalists and others and wounding many more.
News sources recorded reactions of horror. Almost immediately there were also reactions of joy and congratulations at the killings and woundings.  ‘This news quenches the thirst for revenge,’ said one. ‘France was [once] part of the land of Islam and will return to be the land of Islam‘ said another. Some newspapers in Turkey and elsewhere blamed the deaths on the journalists themselves.
Who is responsible for the cold-blooded murders? It was not the pope’s Vatican Swiss guard armed with pikes or orthodox Jews wielding prayer books that sent a death squad. Both the pope and Jews were satirized mercilessly by Charlie Hebdo. What are the limits to what I can say? Can I criticize just the blameworthy, murderous religious leaders and expose them and their books as frauds?

The duty of every human being is to search and find the truth about himself and about society. It is a fundamental to life. Each individual also has the duty before God to seek the truth about the Creation and the Creator.
Truth is not only the foundation of a stable society. It is the enemy of dictatorships, rascals, mafias, conspiracies and villains. The pantheistic Roman emperors decreed that British and Gaulish druidic Kelts should be put to death if found in Rome. Why? They worshipped one supreme being and began all their meetings with their recitation: ‘Truth against the world!‘ Julius Caesar records with some consternation that at their colleges in Britain they trained their youth in sciences, theology and philosophy for twenty years. Rome also decided to destroy all the Jews, and then Christianity. Instead it was pagan Rome that collapsed.
Today, in certain societies it is not always wise to speak the truth out loud. On the southern flank of the Mediterranean from the Atlantic to Egypt and Gaza, it is difficult to find a free distribution of the Bible in Arabic. Under Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, curiously underwritten by the EU, Coptic Christians were islamized by force, or even crucified. Bible shops were burnt. Further east, Christians are killed as soon as they are identified as such by the Islamic State. Thus the attack is much deeper and broader than just a ‘freedom of speech‘ issue.
Democracies should be different.
Democracies, according to Robert Schuman, the founder of the European Community, are based on Judeo-Christian principles. The search for truth requires both tolerance and the means to exchange information, knowledge and wisdom. His own life experience also showed an intolerance to those, like the Nazis and Communists, who used the tolerance of democracies to subvert them.
What are the limits to free speech? This is what Schuman wrote in Pour l’Europe, p75.

In an authentic democracy, there is but one limit to freedom: the institutions of the State and society must remain protected from violence and from destructive operations. Every reform, every claim can be not only the object of free discussion, but by individuals or collective activities in relation to public authorities in the framework foreseen by law.

Violence must be outlawed, not discussion. What then is the end result of this ‘free discussion‘? Will it lead to confusion, disputes, anarchy? Clearly not. Nor did Schuman mean the rootless, modern liberalism that would not recognize truth if it stared it in the face. Because someone declares an opinion to be true, does not make it true. Discussion cannot be stopped by ‘political censorship‘ by declaring a topic to be not ‘politically correct‘. Truth has to be tested. Both the Kelts and the Jews demonstrated the method.
Democracies are instruments to search for what Schuman called supranational values: justice, truth, science and authentic communalities that bring together a Community.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said: ‘Today’s murders are part of a larger confrontation, not between civilizations – no – but between civilization itself and those who are opposed to a civilized world.’
What is this ‘civilization‘? It involves rational, patient discussion, and the analysis of all dogma. How does one judge what is dogma and what is truth? Schuman continued:

There is no place here for the sort of dogmatism that can only be claimed by unchangeable and absolute truths, revealed and sanctioned by God, who is the unique Master and Judge of our consciences.

The killing of those who trouble consciences is a heinous violation of this principle.
Schuman further warned of the dangers of theocracy, the combination of religion and politics.

Theocracies fail to recognize the principle of separation of the spiritual and the profane. A theocracy causes a religious idea to take on responsibilities that do not belong to it. Under such a regime political differences are likely to degenerate into a religious fanaticism. Holy war is the most dangerous expression of a bloody exploitation of people’s religious proclivities. (p65)

Those like the Muslim Brotherhood who make an idol of the Koran make the double mistake: that of the book’s infallibility and that of confounding the realms of religion and politics into Sharia law. That governs every aspect of a human’s life. It includes death as a slave for Allah as its highest aspiration. The Egyptian people could not stomach the Muslim Brotherhood or Morsi’s deceit.
Recently, President of Egypt al-Sisi told Egypt’s top clerics and scholars at Cairo’s Al-Azhar university that they must change their {political} ideology and bring the seventh-century religion up-to-datAe with realities. The ideology had become ‘hostile to the entire world.‘ He asked: ‘Is it conceivable that 1.6 billion Muslims would kill the world’s population of 7 billion, so they could live on their own?‘
What of those who believe the Koran is written in heaven and has intolerance to kaffirs (unbelievers) written as its marching orders? Such beliefs in a movement started by an illiterate person cannot be much countered rationally by other uneducated, illiterate people. Islamic and Arabic countries are among those with the highest levels of illiteracy. Saudi Arabia did not have a single high school until 1930. (But it had the petroleum the West needed!)

For a ‘civilized person‘ to follow Koranic texts without understanding their context and after logical and historical analysis is as illogical as to assume that two, out-of context Christian texts such as ‘Judas went and hanged himself‘ and ‘Go thou and do likewise‘ represent the essence of a well-founded religion.

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Jihad7: EU's muddled policy encourages all Egypt's politicians to believe the West are enemies

One year after Mohammed Morsi became President of Egypt after a popular revolt against military control, millions of Egyptians again protested, this time at Morsi’s autocratic Muslimist rule. They called for his resignation. The headquarters of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood was gutted and burnt.

The European Union is pumping billions of euros into Egypt. Most of the recent money has been given as a blank check — to President Morsi’s government. What conclusions are democrats in Egypt to make of this folly?

Has the European External Action Service (EEAS) heard of Pavlov’s dog? You can train an animal by feeding for good or bad. If the dog is bad and angry and you give it food out of fear, you reinforce its nastiness to get you to give it more food.

Humans are more complicated and react to psychological stimulus too. But what on earth is the logic behind the vast amounts of taxpayers’ money that European leaders feel they have the freedom to give to corrupt and hostile states? The army has given Morsi’s government 48 hours to listen to the people. The EU imposes no conditions for EU tax money freely given to those that the people call its new despots, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood, according to documents seized in a US terrorist case, calls for a global ‘Grand Jihad’ sabotaging Western civilization from inside. The terrorist organization Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood branch. Its constitution declares that its aim to kill all Jews. Other activist organs are found throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas. In WW2  the Nazi extermination of Jews was fomented and  several SS divisions of Muslims were raised through the Muslim Brotherhood co-founder, Hajj al-Husseini. He later helped create the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) as a Muslim Brotherhood terrorist gang.

It is not only Morsi that the EU should be wary of. Egyptian  leaders from  the Muslimist parties have been filmed saying in private that America and Europe (which supply billions in aid) are their main enemies! Egyptian politicians thought they were speaking in private with President Morsi. Then Morsi shocked them all by saying the meeting was in fact being broadcast by Egypt’s Channel 1 TV. (See it yourself below).

The European taxpayers have been supplying Egypt with around eight billion euros of aid and loans to help a transition to democracy and a more just society. This is nearly equivalent to Cyprus bail-out sums. It is far beyond what the USA supplies as mainly military aid. What is the tax-payer getting in return? Who is in control of the funds?

The EU has lost its vision. The European Community was not created by funding and bribing but by creating a moral and ethical framework for peace. This did not cost billions. It was inexpensive. It was effective. Robert Schuman’s vision started with the basis of Human Rights based on supranational law.

Under Morsi Egypt has not become a more tolerant society towards its 10 percent minority Coptic, its other Christians, its Baha’is, its non-religious communities and its few remaining Jews. EU money to an intolerant despot makes Egypt become a more intolerant society.

Are the various Christians able to build churches and assemble in peace? No. They are still forbidden from building, renovating or even repairing places of worship. Christian girls are forcibly islamized. Non-Muslim men are refused the right to marry whosoever they wish.

What is the West’s policy to intolerant Islamic countries and Sharia law? Many EU governments subsidize  mosques at home together with recycled oil-funds from the Saudis and the OPEC cartel. What principles of mutuality and democracy is the EU applying?

The US Department of State reports that the Christians in Egypt include:

the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic (Armenian, Chaldean, Greek, Melkite, Roman, and Syrian), Maronite, Orthodox (Greek and Syrian), and Anglican/Episcopalian churches, which range in size from several thousand to hundreds of thousands. A Protestant community, established in the mid-19th century, includes the following churches: Presbyterian, Baptist, Brethren, Open Brethren, Revival of Holiness (Nahdat al-Qadaasa), Faith (Al-Eyman), Church of God, Christian Model Church (Al-Mithaal Al-Masihi), Apostolic, Grace (An-Ni’ma), Pentecostal, Apostolic Grace, Church of Christ, Gospel Missionary (Al-Kiraaza bil Ingil), and the Message Church of Holland (Ar-Risaala).
There are also followers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Mormons (who meet in private homes).

Shia Muslims constituting less than 1 percent of the population are killed. Shiite leaders blame the lynchings on the government. There are also small groups of Quranists and Ahmadi Muslims. The once numerous Jewish community numbers fewer than 70 persons, mostly senior citizens. There are 1,000 to 1,500 Jehovah’s Witnesses and 1,500 to 2,000 Bahais; however, the government does not recognize these groups.
The US State Department says:

The government interprets Sharia as forbidding Muslims from converting to another religion despite there being no statutory prohibitions on conversion. This policy, along with the refusal of local officials to recognize such conversions legally, constitutes a prohibition in practice.

The EU Neighbourhood policy is supposedly based, not on military assistance, but encouraging Human Rights and the Rule of Law. These, the EEAS officials say repeatedly, are the foundation of EU foreign policy. What are the facts?

The European Court of Auditors said in a recent report that the European Union has not taken effective action to ensure taxpayers money is used for the purpose it was so generously given by EU leaders. That is to support European values. It has tried to trace one billion euros of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, ENPI.  It failed. Taxpayers money is more likely to encourage the opposite goals. Egypt has no audit trail at all for some four billion euros.
The Court of Auditors blamed:

• Lack of budgetary transparency,
• an ineffective audit function and
• endemic corruption in Egypt.

It said there was little or no real dialogue on corruption, Human Rights, torture and persecution. The main worries of the population were simply not addressed.

Large sections of Egyptian society expressed strong concerns about what they perceived to be a shift towards Sharia law, restrictions on both the freedom of expression and women’s and minorities’ rights, and the continued privileged role of the military.

The accountants saw the problems. The politicians shut their eyes. Conditions were not imposed. The EEAS and Commission talked about ‘deep democracy’ without seemingly being able to define it in relation to Sharia law. The EEAS/Commission still talks about the Arab Spring without seemingly taking into account that many suffering people consider it to be a winter.  The Auditors’ report said:

(a) the rights of minorities: sectarian violence has been increasing with Christians suffering the brunt of the violence.
Investigations into the violence have been sluggish or non-existent.
(b)  the rights of women: while this was an area where some advances were made over the last decade of the Mubarak regime, this progress is at risk since the uprising.

The Court report concluded:

Overall the EEAS and Commission have not been able to effectively manage EU  support to improve governance in Egypt.

If you pour money without accountancy controls into an already corrupt society you will encourage corruption. Most of EU’s money goes straight into the black hole of the national budget and is untraceable. Is that what Europe’s poor who also contribute to this export largesse of EU politicians expect?

The first responsibility of EU leaders dealing with taxpayers’ money is to ask the taxpayers what they wish to do with the money the leaders have collected. Secondly set up systems that have adequate controls to analyze whether the funds are properly spent and thirdly have a thorough review of the spending programmes to ensure they are effective and the productive of tolerance, democracy, justice and the rule of law.

Has pouring money into Egypt made the Egyptian politicians more sympathetic to the EU? The answer is the opposite. Many Islamists believe that if the West gives money to  a Muslim State, then it is in fulfillment of Koranic obligation of the non-believer or dhimmi. A dhimmi is a second class citizen, someone who refuses to adhere to Islam in a Sharia law based State. He has to pay a tax, usually onerous, called jizya (or jizia). It is not uncommon for clerics to say that US or European aid is confirmation of their down-trodden status as dhimmis and the aid is jizia.

Such religious questions and ideologies should be a core policy debate for the External Action Service. European experience shows that tolerance can be reinforced by non-financial aid such as advice about building a democratic governance system or ensuring joint ventures — like the European Coal and Steel Community — are undertaken. EU-Egyptian partnerships should be unambiguously based on openness, ethics and good accounting.  Law-based Convention of Human Rights including freedom of expression will also help fight ignorance in open debate.

The EEAS says that Human Rights are the basis for its policy. It should ensure that all aids conforms to the Strasbourg Convention and not the Sharia-based monstrosity of the Cairo Declaration that gives undefined human rights and powers only to those who submit to Islam and denies it to others including sectarians. Hiraba or local ‘justice’ involves violent lynchings of people, amputations and crucifixions for those just suspected of crime, theft or robbery.

Why is the EEAS not leading a debate about values across the Mediterranean? What about lynch mob justice in Egypt? What is its view of Sharia law and Hiraba (WARNING graphic images)?
 And why has the EEAS not even got an analysis for European citizens, the taxpayers, of Sharia law and its implications for Egypt and for Europe? According to a UN report, 99.3% of Egyptian women — yes 99.3 % — say they have experienced sexual harassment with sixty percent saying they have been touched inappropriately.

The European Commission declared 2013 to be the year of the Citizen. Does this stop at the confines of the Berlaymont? Or should it include the treatment of women and the concept of dhimmis?

What sort of monitoring does the EEAS have of Egyptian, North African  media? Much of this is available in Arabic on YouTube but is immediately dropped off YouTube when translated into English.  Policy for EU citizens cannot be founded on complacent illusions of an ignorant leadership.

Do policy makers deal with reality? Many other Muslim leaders in their various parties such as Morsi’s Freedom and Justice party, the Nour party, the Reform and Development Party, the Islamic Labour Party and Muslim Brotherhood consider the West as main enemies.

How can we be sure? President Morsi presided a meeting of the leaders of these parties and scholars of Egypt’s main university Al Azhar. They thought the meeting was secret. Their views were open, frank and ignorant. They all seemed to agree that USA and Israel (the only democratic State in the region) were their main enemies in the world. Was Europe included as Egypt’s enemy? Maybe. Perhaps like some Egyptians they all think that Europe will become Islamic in ten years time. Others spout plans for the reconquest of Europe.

What plans does the EEAS have that Egypt will be fully democratic in ten years time? Does it explain to Egyptians how Europe created peace and prosperity after two thousand years of constant warfare?

The secret meeting that was broadcast on Channel 1 TV was about the dispute with Ethiopia over the Nile Waters agreement. The scholar from Al Azhar university maintained that America and Israel must be behind Ethiopian desire for water and power.  He said that Ethiopians are diverting Nile water to Israel –  by a pipeline more than a thousand kilometers under the Red Sea. However Israel is quite capable of producing vast amounts of water by its present desalination plants. It has no use for such a stupid, vulnerable, costly and totally unrealistic, crazy idea. A look at the map and a superficial understanding of the hydrology of the Nile and its two sources, the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and the White Nile in the Great Lakes, would have shown anyone how ridiculous the idea was.

Yet without a free society and open debate,  even Egyptian leaders see plots everywhere while they refuse to deal with peace and justice at home or abroad. They wanted to either destroy the Ethiopian dam, form anti-Ethiopian regional alliances, intervene internal Ethiopian politics or subvert it by disinformation.

Such international problems need to be resolved democratically. Water agreements require implementation in peace with peaceful revisions where necessary. In the absence of a supervisory power such as the British had in 1923, that requires a common legal basis.

Any regional sharing of water must be based on similar principles of honesty and human rights that lay at the base of Europe’s Coal and Steel Community. That is why a Strasbourg style Convention of Human Rights  is necessary for all the Mediterranean and such regional agreements as the Nile basin.

This law-based Convention of Human Rights including freedom of expression will also help fight ignorance in open debate.

Thanks go to MEMRI, Middle East Media Research Institute, a private organisation, and others which have translated this information from Arabic. They should get financial support and help from the EEAS. Public awareness of where their tax money is going requires adequate translation at least into English for a proper dialogue of values.

Jihad5; Mr Morsi, Will the Arab Uprisings lead to Mediterranean Peace or a new Jihad?

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi, on the first visit of a democratically elected Egyptian President to the EU,declared that he was fully supporting the implementation of Fundamental Freedoms and Human Rights in Egypt. President Barroso announced vast programmes of aid to Egypt and a Task Force to deal with its management. 'We believe there is stability in Egypt,' said Mr Barroso. EU is Egypt's first trade partner. The focus would be on citizens, human rights, jobs and other matters such as scientific cooperation. Both Mr Morsi and Mr Barroso condemned Syria's President Assad: 'A president who kills his own people must go.' Mr Barroso 'condemned in strongest terms' the recent attacks on the 'US diplomatic installation' in Benghazi, Libya. There must be respect for all, he said, irrespective of gender or creed.

These oral guarantees for human rights including religious rights are certainly good news for non-Muslim minorities. The Copts (descendants of the Egyptians before the Arab invasions) who make up some ten percent of the population, complain of constant discrimination, persecution, killings, burning of their property, kidnapping and selling of their young women, forced marriages and islamization. Egypt was one of the most populous Christian-professing countries before the Islamic invasions.

Copts, other Christian groups, the Baha'is and the Jews, now disappearing after being one of the most ancient communities, complain that the Egyptian authorities take no action against such crimes because of article 2 of the Constitution. This places Sharia law centrally for all the population. Many officials interpret such actions against kafirs (unbelievers), dhimmis (taxed as second or third class citizens) or non-Muslims to be fully applicable within Islamic law.
Can the Mediterranean become a Sea where all the border countries respect Human Rights? It is clear from Robert Schuman's action that he was attempting to make the Mediterranean a lake of peace, exchanges and enlightenment.

How did Robert Schuman create a European Community system that made war not only unthinkable but materially impossible? He created the foundations for European Democracy and Human Rights.
Democracies do not go to war against each other but prefer the rule of law, talking problems to find a solution and arbitration if necessary by a mutually agreed intermediary. He also set up an anti-cartel system so that democracies could not be abuse the citizens or worse begin to control governments as they had done in various times in European history. The same applies to dominant religions that abuse minorities. They can be taken to the European Court of Human Rights.

In the 1950s Algeria was still a part of France, Tunisia and Morocco protectorates. If the Convention of Human Rights had been properly applied it would have avoided much of the bloodshed that was later stirred up by nationalists and Gaullists. When Schuman pointed out in 1950 that the French Constitution required that the French Government lead the protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco to independence, he was roundly attacked by Gaullists, as if he had said something treasonous. France was divided in government, in Parliament and in the countries by the irresponsible action of Residents-general.
It is worth repeating what Robert Schuman wrote about the path to follow:

'If we want to avoid an unbridgeable gap opening up between French and the natives; if a real confident and active association is to be established between all elements of the population for the common safety of all the interests involved; if we wish that the youth come along to us and with us to be able to construct a political and social structure compatible with freedom and human dignity, we the French, must by loyalty to our commitment leave aside prejudices and resentments, and propose a comprehensive programme provided with all the necessary stages.
For such a policy, it is necessary to show courage and a clear vision, together with as much goodwill as firmness. Our worst enemy in that as elsewhere is to follow a routine which cannot trust anything but the past and closes its eyes to the demands of the future. '

The future demanded freedom for all. Freedom and human dignity were lacking in Europe during the Hitler period. Hitler wanted to eliminate or subjugate all races that were not 'Aryan'. Curiously he made an exception with some Arabs such as the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj al-Husseini who raised over 100,000 Muslims for several SS divisions. During the Mandate period, Al-Husseini had gained the post of 'Mufti' from the British High Commissioner under the influence of anti-Semitic British officials. This decision to appoint the violent rabble-rouser was described as 'sheer madness' by more clear-headed diplomats. Husseini called the World Islamic Conference in 1931. After the war, Husseini escaped being tried as a war criminal, finding refuge in Egypt. There he joined forces with the founders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Later he helped train his young distant relative, the Egyptian-born Yasser Arafat, an active Muslim Brotherhood member.

Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's new president, is an engineer by training. He earned his PhD from a US university and taught there for a few years. He was a member of the Guidance Office of the Muslim Brotherhood until the founding of the Freedom and Justice party in 2011. He was its head but resigned this position on becoming president. The famous slogan of the Brotherhood used world wide is 'Islam is the Solution'. The brotherhood has spawned a network of organizations, including terrorist groups banned in the EU and the US. The Brotherhood's credo is: 'Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.' Islamic law, Sharia, makes all those who think Islam does not represent the truth about history, belief and the Godhead, at best second class citizens and subject to penalties, taxes and worse.

Schuman's vision was to stop Europe entering into a further phase of internal death and destruction. He saw to it that Germany did not descend into a new Hitlerism or start another war in Europe. He wanted Europe to arise into a new era of not only prosperity but intellectual honesty that would outshine its achievements in previous centuries.  This was an extraordinarily positive vision, as at the time of his proposal, 9 May1950, many saw Europe descending again into an area of war and conflict.

We need the same for European-Islamic relations across the Mediterranean. The instrument to re-establish Human Rights was the Convention of the Council of Europe which Schuman signed in December 1950. Schuman encouraged the secular State of Turkey to adhere to the Convention of Human Rights. This was a key player to make the Mediterranean to be a zone of peace. The borders of New Europe, he said, should not be set by geography but be defined according to how far freedom and human rights is respected.

Schuman had long considered what the relation of Europe should be in relation to Muslim majority countries such as Turkey.  The origin of Schuman's thoughts on the subject goes back to before the First World War. It culminates in the agreement of nations from Iceland to Turkey to use Human Rights as the legal definition of the New Europe.

Wars between European States had been continuous for more than 2000 years. Those with Islam only a little less. Schuman also drew on the important researches of 'the great Belgian historian' Henri Pirenne. This is how Wikipedia summarizes his work on Islam.

According to Pirenne, the real break in Roman history occurred in the 8th century as a result of Arab expansion. Islamic conquest of the area of today's south-eastern Turkey, Syria, Israel, North Africa, Spain and Portugal ruptured economic ties to western Europe, cutting the region off from trade and turning it into a stagnant backwater, with wealth flowing out in the form of raw resources and nothing coming back. This began a steady decline and impoverishment so that by the time of Charlemagne western Europe had become almost entirely agrarian at a subsistence level, with no long-distance trade.
Pirenne used statistical data regarding money in support of his thesis. Much of his argument builds upon the disappearance from western Europe of items that had to come from outside. For example, the minting of gold coins north of the Alps stopped after the 7th century, indicating a loss of access to wealthier parts of the world. Papyrus, made only in Egypt, no longer appeared north of the Alps after the 7th century: writing reverted to using animal skins, indicating an isolation from wealthier areas.
In a summary, he famously said, "Without Islam, the Frankish Empire would probably never have existed, and Charlemagne, without Muhammad, would be inconceivable." That is, he rejected the notion that barbarian invasions in the 4th and 5th centuries caused the collapse of the Roman Empire. Instead, the Muslim conquest of north Africa made the Mediterranean a barrier, cutting western Europe off from the east, enabling the Carolingians, especially Charlemagne, to create a new, distinctly western form of government.

Pirenne's careful statistical and scientific work has been reinforced by recent archeological work and examination of underwater wrecks. Trade virtually halted across the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean, the gateway for Africa, Europe and Asia, became a barrier, shutting the gates between three continents.
Compare this with the trade at the time of emperor Nero in the first century CE. The Mediterranean was full of ships, many of them transporting hundreds of tons of grain. Egypt and North Africa were the granary areas for the Roman Empire. For Rome alone, 420,000 tonnes of grain was sent by ship (equivalent to 520 million litres). Of this Egypt supplied 140,000 tonnes.

With the Islamic invasions, the land across North Africa became depopulated and barren. When Arabs settled there, the Mediterranean became a barrier to trade as all trade shipping was pillaged in continuous warfare.  This can be shown by the periodic outbreaks of plaque and pandemics. In the past plague reached the area of Egypt from Asia and took only four months to spread around the Mediterranean. After the Islamic invasion of North Africa and elsewhere the Mediterranean, it took four YEARS to spread around the Mediterranean. Shipping stopped. The internal lake was an area of warfare, pillage and later Barbary pirates. Previously thousand of ships plowed their trade. Afterwards the traders had to take the much more difficult and slow routes by land across the Alps and broken roads.

The Center for Islamic Political Studies has made a historic analysis of Europe's relations with Islam bringing in the latest scientific information from archaeology relative to battles and statistics. For a realistic understanding of our common history, I recommend Dr Bill Warner's easy to understand review of the most recent data on Islam- European interactions.

It is important that Europeans and Muslim-thinkers should be on the same page when it comes to human rights. After all, A Hitler had his own definition of Human Rights that distorted Christianity and opposed 'the Jewish spirit'. Usual European concepts such as 'human rights' and 'defamation of religion' mean something different to the Muslim organizations.

The founding document of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, OIC, (now the Organization of Islamic Cooperation) is its Charter. Article 15 states:

The Independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights shall promote the civil, political, social and economic rights enshrined in the organisation’s covenants and declarations and in universally agreed human rights instruments, in conformity with Islamic values.

'In conformity with Sharia values' is a red flag of danger for non-Muslims. What are the 'universally agreed human rights instruments' referred to here? Don't assume that the OIC is referring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of the United Nations. It has nothing to do with Europe's legally-binding Convention of Fundamental Freedoms and Human Rights.

The OIC considers the UDHR inadequate and un-Islamic. To codify the human rights of Muslims, the OIC created the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, commonly known as the 'Cairo Declaration'. It is a formal legal instrument put together by the OIC on behalf of OIC member states in 1990, and was formally served to the United Nations in 1993.
Article 22 of the Cairo Declaration states:

(a) Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contrary to the principles of the Shari’ah.
1. Everyone shall have the right to advocate what is right, and propagate what is good, and warn against what is wrong and evil according to the norms of Islamic Shari’ah.
(c) Information is a vital necessity to society. It may not be exploited or misused in such a way as may violate sanctities and the dignity of Prophets, undermine moral and ethical Values or disintegrate, corrupt or harm society or weaken its faith.
(d) It is not permitted to excite nationalistic or doctrinal hatred or to do anything that may be an incitement to any form or racial discrimination. [emphasis added]

If the Mediterranean is to become a Sea where Human Rights flourish, European diplomacy must insist on freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom to choose and to change one's religion, as laid down by the Council of Europe. It must involve supranational values of honesty, truth and justice not sectarian concepts of law, binding every aspect of life, like the Sharia.

Europeans for their own security and defence against rabid, mob violence related to cries of self-defined 'sacrilege' must be able to analyze and criticize dispassionately any religion. Why is such an intrusive right needed? Why should such a right against the sensibilities of others be so necessary?
Europe's citizens must be able to retain or discover the most precious product of any civilization:
THE TRUTH.

Eretz3: Northern Ireland, Jihad and my unpublished Reply to a "Palestinian diplomat"

Today Queen Elizabeth sealed the Irish peace process with a handshake and a private talk with Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. He was the former chief of the IRA, responsible for mayhem and the murder of Earl Mountbatten, the Queen's cousin. This peace was acknowledged by the Irish Nobel Peace Prize winners as owing a great deal to European reconciliation, supranational law and the recognition of Human Rights. Much more can yet be done with properly functioning European institutions.

In contrast to the Irish peace process, the 'Peace Process' of the Israel government and Arab States has been going nowhere for two decades. There are little indications other than that the 'Palestinian' side will always refuse any offers Israel makes for peace. Its media encourage children to become suicide-bomb fodder, they name squares after bombers and the celebrate vicious killers who blow up innocent people on buses. Meanwhile 'president' Mahmoud Abbas remains unelected. Although the multi-millionaire is rather 'poorer' than billionaire, terrorist Yasser Arafat, he has not had the charity to condemn the 1972 Munich killing of Israeli athletes for which he was partly responsible. Nor has he withdrawn the circulation of his doctorate on Holocaust denial.

Has the EU nothing to say to Arab forces about this? How about: GET REAL! OR THE WORLD WILL END IN FLAMES!

Below I give my reply made last week to a blog published by the 'Blogactiv team'. I was surprised that the Euractiv organisation had prepared an article full of elementary factual and historical mistakes. It is called The Palestinians and the “Piece” of the Process.
I replied only later to find out later it was written by Fadi Elhusseini, described as 'a Diplomat at the Embassy of the State of Palestine in Turkey, responsible for Political and media affairs.' That was a shock. I didn't know there was such a thing as the State of Palestine. Palestine is the land of the Philistines, a nation that is long extinct. Fraud is no basis for democracy or world peace.

My comment is still 'awaiting moderation'. As this may take a long time yet, I am publishing my response here.

You’re right the whole peace process is a fraud. It was foisted on Israel by the West because Saudi Arabia wanted it. The West needs oil. Arafat called it the Two Stage solution to destroy Israel. I didn’t see in this article a reference to the 13,000 rockets (around 360 500 this year) from Gaza, Sinai, that have been launched at Israeli cities in this period of the ‘Saudi Plan’. Why? If a European country was subject to such a barrage and children lived in terror in any European democratic country wouldn’t this be covered in the news? I do not see why Jews cannot build garages, extend housing or build homes in a country that was deeded to the Jews by international law in 1922 at San Remo, was recognized by all member States of the League of Nations and was then re-affirmed in the Statutes of the United Nations. After WW1 with the defeat of the Ottoman empire, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Iraq and other Arab nations were founded by the same laws. What is most objectionable is Jew-free policies funded by the EU.

I do not see anything here about the huge problem of illegal Arab settlements (building without permission) in Judea and Samaria. Why? See:
http://democracy.blogactiv.eu/2011/09/23/eretz2-how-to-tell-a-fraud-call-your-nation-palestine/ Why has the EU not dealt with race-hate in subsidized text books and TV for kids that encourages them to become suicide bombers?
Europeans should be applying European principles of justice to the dispute not encouraging Nazi-like policies of ‘Jew-free’ territories, exclusive enactment of the most extreme Sharia law that excludes Christians and Jews, and extols terrorism and race hate and religious exclusivism see: http://democracy.blogactiv.eu/2011/05/03/jihad4-eu-must-reverse-its-nazi-like-support-for-holocaust-denial-jew-hatred-and-jihadi-terrorism/

What is called the West Bank and was called Judea and Samaria in the original UN documents was illegally occupied in 1948 by Jordan and other armies. It does not belong to Jordan nor to other Arab States including far-way Saudis. Jews were also called Palestinians before 1948 because this anti-Semitic term ‘Palestine’ was invented by the Romans to describe the land of Israel. To call the PNO/PLO Palestinians is a fraud see http://democracy.blogactiv.eu/2011/09/13/eretz1-the-declaration-of-a-second-palestine-is-declaration-of-war/ When will Europe cease fooling itself for oil? http://www.schuman.info/diplomacy1.htm

While that response is still awaiting acknowledgement and publishing with the article, I might add the following additional factual corrections for the attention of the European External Action Service and European democrats.

1. It is not just a 60-year conflict. That only dates back to the time when six Arab armies ILLEGALLY invaded the Mandate territory, defying the laws, and resolutions of both the League of Nations and the United Nations.

2. Long before 1948, peaceful Jewish residents were killed and massacred by mobs led by ideologues. During most of the time of the British Mandate Jews were targeted and the British reacted inadequately. In 1929 59 people were killed in Hebron, a city that was the home of Jews and Israelites for nearly 4000 years.

3. The idea of Palestinian nationhood, that is, an identifiable Arab people is a fiction, invented by the Egyptian dictator Abdul Nasser. He hired Yasser Arafat, an Egyptian-born militant to become the third leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The Syrian dictator Assad would not speak to Arafat because he was convinced by Arafat's Egyptian accent that he was just an Egyptian agent planted to cause trouble. At that time the so-called West Bank was occupied illegally by Jordanians! What liberation?? At no time in the last 2000 years has there ever been any entity called a Palestinian State. There is no Palestinian culture which is any different from a Syrian or an Egyptian culture because most of the so-called 'Palestinians' came from Egypt or Syria to work in the Jewish Mandate territory.

4. Just before getting the Nobel Prize, Arafat said in Stockholm to Fatah supporters that 'We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state.' He added 'We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. Jews will not want to live among Arabs.' That is the same policy today as articulated in Arabic by a female Fatah official.

5. The idea of Palestinian State is to destroy the Jews and then the West. In Arabic on Al-Hekma TV on 23 March 2012, Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hamad angrily shouted out the truth to his Egyptian brothers. He said that "Palestinians" originate from other parts of the Middle East. 'Palestinian nationhood' is a total fraud. 'Palestinians' do not come from 'Palestine'!!

According to Gazan minister Hammad. 'Every Palestinian, in Gaza and throughout Palestine, can prove his Arab roots - whether from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, or anywhere. We have blood ties.'

"Brothers, half of the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other half are Saudis," he exclaimed. "Thus, the conspiracy is very clear. Al-Aksa and the land of Palestine represent the spearhead for Islam and for the Muslims. Therefore, when we seek the help of our Arab brothers, we are not seeking their help in order to eat, to live, to drink, to dress, or to live a life of luxury. No. When we seek their help, it is in order to continue to wage Jihad."

6. With the Muslim Brotherhood holding the presidency in Egypt and Hamas the militant arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, Europe and the Mediterranean is in increasing danger. One aide of the new Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, Safwat Hajari, told roaring crowds that he wanted to make Jerusalem the capital of Egypt!

WHEN WILL EUROPE SAY 'NO MORE' AND EXPOSE LYING PROPAGANDA?

REAL PEACE HAS FLOURISHED IN EUROPE AFTER MORE THAN 2000 YEARS OF WAR.

PEACE HAS BLOSSOMED IN IRELAND AFTER CENTURIES OF SECTARIAN STRIFE.

WHEN WILL EUROPE'S LEADERS SOUND OUT THE TRUTH ABOUT REAL PEACE IN A WORLD OF LIES?