Thanks Tom.

From today’s Oz.

Labor turns blind eye to menace of Islamist extremism
Henry Ergas

Last weekend’s rallies that hailed Yahya Sinwar as a “legend” who “died a warrior’s death” came as no surprise. Nor was it surprising that the Albanese government, instead of denouncing the United Muslims of Australia, whose representative was among those praising the terrorist, immediately defended it for “working closely with the government”. 

In effect, ever since October 7, 2023 the government has stood by as Islamist organisations ramp up their support for terrorism and issue statements that are vilely anti-Semitic. 
What is puzzling, however, is that the government’s reluctance to tackle those organisations has been matched by that of ASIO and of the state and federal police forces, which, it appears, have shied away from calling for them to be proscribed. 

It is true that stringent criteria have to be met for listing a group as a terrorist organisation. According to Division 102 of the Criminal Code, the government “must be satisfied on reasonable grounds that the organisation: (a) is directly or indirectly engaged in, preparing, planning, assisting in or fostering the doing of a terrorist act; or (b) advocates the doing of a terrorist act”.

But it is equally true that groups such as Hizb ut-Tahr, even when they are not directly involved in violence, “foster” the doing of criminal acts that range from anti-Semitic attacks to domestic and international terrorism. 

To say that is not to ignore the theory, initially formulated by Bob Lambert, inaugural head of Scotland Yard’s Muslim Contact Unit, that “soft Islamists” can act as a rampart against the most violent forms of Islamist extremism.

“Salafis and Islamists,” Lambert claimed, “often have the best antidote to al-Qa’ida”, as they channel radicalism into religious, rather than political, fervour. Moreover, providing the “soft Islamists” with financial assistance would make them easier to control and facilitate monitoring their supporters. 
Lambert therefore advocated forming generously funded “partnerships with Muslim groups conventionally deemed to be subversive to democracy”. Having received the Blair government’s approval, his unit proceeded to establish a far-reaching network of agreements that included the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb it-Tahir.

Adopted by a broad range of Western security agencies, that strategy, which came to be known as “Lambertism”, proved utterly disastrous. 

That was first and foremost because the so-called “soft Islamists” do not only preach that the West, and everything associated with it, is corrupt and hence “haram”, that is, prohibited, to righteous Muslims. 

They also claim, as did Taqiuddin An-Nabhani – who founded Hizb ut-Tahrir in 1953 and whose work remains the group’s dogma – that there is an irreconcilable conflict between Islam and the “colonial disbelievers” whose goal is to “enslave” Muslims and destroy Islam’s inherently superior civilisation. 

To believe that Islamic piety can be reconciled with Western values such as democracy, equal rights for men and women and religious freedom is consequently “a kufr concept” (ie, a violation of the faith) that equates “the truth (haqq) and falsehood (batil), the religion of truth and distorted religions, misguidance (dhalala) and guidance”. 

It is Muslims’ duty, said An-Nabhani, to rigorously disavow those values, chastise any Muslims who adopt them, and in that way and many others undermine the West, hastening the Caliphate’s triumphant restoration.

Lambertism gave those views a far wider and more authoritative platform than they could otherwise have secured. As Shiraz Maher and Martyn Frampton concluded in an influential review of the policy, titled “Choosing our friends wisely: Criteria for engagement with Muslim groups”, it led the British government to “underwrite the very Islamist ideology which spawns an illiberal, separatist, intolerant and anti-Western world view”. 

And to make things worse, it supported groups that, while purporting to “address the grievances of young Muslims”, were “at the forefront of stoking those grievances, including alleged state-sanctioned ‘Islamophobia’?”.

Nor did the damage end there. The “soft Islamists” consistently argued that violence is not just legitimate when Muslims are under attack: it is a praiseworthy act of religiously prescribed heroism. But “if Muslims are justified, even lionised, for carrying out acts of violence in places where they are ‘attacked’, why not also in the West, where the very same narrative says Muslims are under attack?”. 

The concern that Lambertism helped propagate Islamist violence was fully borne out by terrorism experts Hugo Micheron in 2020 and Johannes Sale in 2021. Using statistical analysis and careful case studies, they found, controlling for a wide range of socio-demographic factors, that the active presence of groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir was a powerful predictor of subsequent anti-Semitic attacks and of outright jihadism. 

Confirmed again by Micheron in 2023, those evaluations show that while Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Muslim Brotherhood and their myriad front organisations repeatedly claim to be non-violent, they provide “the mood music to which the violent extremists dance”. 

Lambertism has, as a result, virtually disappeared from the European scene, replaced by a more realistic understanding of Islamist extremism. As the German Federal Administrative Court noted when it mandated Hizb ut-Tahrir’s proscription, an organisation that advocates killing Jews, urges men to beat “arrogant” wives and calls for homosexuals to be executed can hardly argue that it adheres to constitutional values. 

Upholding that decision on appeal, the European Court of Human Rights held that it is entirely consistent with the rule of law for democracies “to prevent individuals or groups with totalitarian aims” from “taking advantage of rights and freedoms to perform acts aimed at destroying (those) rights and freedoms”.

Just how far that principle should be pressed is a difficult question. Precisely because of that question’s complexities, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry has proposed, in a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, that an intermediate status be created. While falling short of proscription (which would remain in place for terrorist groups) the new status, modelled on the state and territory laws applicable to criminal gangs, would allow the government to impose controls on organisations such as Hizb ut-Tahrir that can be shown to represent a substantial “risk to public peace, safety or order”. 

That proposal is inevitably controversial. What is not is that between October 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024 there were at least 1800 anti-Semitic incidents in Australia, a 324 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Nor is it controversial that the government has done nothing whatsoever to stem the tide. 

On the contrary, it continues to endorse organisations involved in rallies such as those that glorified Yahya Sinwar, using your taxes and mine to finance outfits that even were they lawful, are unquestionably awful. It also continues to shy away from revoking the visas of non-citizens who participate in those organisations’ activities. 

And by constantly placing anti-Semitism and “Islamophobia” on the same plane – as if there were Jews marching in our streets shouting anti-Muslim slogans – it allows the perpetrators to cast themselves as victims, echoing and amplifying the Islamists’ mood music. With Islamist extremism destroying our social fabric, it is high time Labor changed its tune.

There’s no difference between political and religion in the muzzie world. Everyone becomes very religious when the headloppers come to visit.

Matters must be satisfying for the GOP when the Dems traditional late campaign false sexual assault allegations are immediately turned against them bigtime.

#camela groped me – memes are everywhere and some are hilarious.

“LNP majority at risk in surprise poll” says the banner on Sky News.
Sounds like the media feeding its own interests again. They are investing heavily in coverage of the QLD election and want it to stay a cliffhanger. If it is that close I’ll blame all the Victorians who went up there.

‘I won’t be silent’: Thorpe says rivals ‘frothing’ over push to oust her

No. Please keep talking. Or yelling, howling, screeching as the fit takes you. Pop in some transparent lies, obfuscations and sneers too.

You’ve set your “cause” back at least a decade and alienated many of your more cautious allies.

You’re onto a winner, Lidia!

Lethal force for me, but not for thee.

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1848411520289681831?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1848411520289681831%7Ctwgr%5E08984c9e475aa24bb355d78099c6026fb3a30261%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Face.mu.nu%2F412024

Re Farmer Gez upstream, has any progress been made in the last fifty years re shearing machines and/or chemical de-fleecing? Or perhaps insertion of the dorper gene?

The first of two new ferries for the Spirit of Tasmania will be delivered from Finland next month…

Dunno why Incat is not building them, seeing as they are a major shipbuilder and based in Hobart.

Presumably they can’t or won’t build the right sort of ferry. They did have a catamaran ferry on the Bass Strait run about 20 years ago. Went on it once and it had a peculiar roiling motion which made a lot of passengers vomit.

(Speaking of Incat, I interviewed its founder Bob Clifford some years ago for my book By Derwent Divided, about the Tasman Bridge disaster. Just saw the other day he has retired to Surrey in the UK.)

Wasn’t it the Muzzo fishermen, along the north coast, who introduced smallpox into Australia?

You know better than that Zulu.

It was whitey with blankets. They managed to weaponise it in the UK at Porton Down and then carted it around the world in vials in friges before attacking noble advanced non-savages with it. Then they lied about having invented vials, friges, and Porton Down hundreds of years ago.

Didn’t Bill Shorten say something along those lines in Parliament?

This one is quite entertaining.

Charges pending after harassment over pro-Trump sign leads to shooting in Vegas (23 Oct, via Lucianne)

Political tensions are high as America heads to the polls to decide the next president, but some people are taking their disagreements too far.

Jennifer Lund, 38, and Timothy Parks, 45, are each facing charges including assault, battery, and stalking after an incident with three men that resulted in one of them firing a gun. Court documents claim that Lund and Parks were traveling together in a vehicle when they spotted a residence with a sign indicating support for former President Donald Trump.

“Parks parked his Tesla in front of the residence with Lund in the passenger seat… [playing] the song ‘[Expletive] Donald Trump,’” the court documents explain. It was shortly after that three men approached the vehicle. During the confrontation, one of the men reportedly punched Parks, while surveillance footage allegedly showed one of the men pulling out a firearm. When the vehicle took off, it reportedly ran over the foot of the man who punched the driver. The other guy with the gun fired at least seven shots at the fleeing Tesla.

“Lund stated since [the people] put the Trump sign in their yard, she feels like she has every right to tell them how she feels about it,” said authorities, according to the documents. “Lund advised this was not the first time she went to that house to play the ‘[Expletive] Donald Trump’ song. Lund states she hates Donald Trump and hates every person who represents or votes for him.” 

Sounds like a fine time was had by all, except for the guy who had his foot run over by the Tesla. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

I think this is a nice thing, since the lady is both a trouper and exceptionally talented. Icelanders overachieve.

Butterfly for Björk (RÚV, 24 Oct)

A butterfly species has been named after Björk Guðmundsdóttir, called Pterourus bjorkae. The species is primarily found in deciduous forests in the eastern part of North America.

Pterourus bjorkae belongs to the swallowtail family and is a subspecies of the tiger swallowtail, or New England Tiger Swallowtail. Bjorkae is the largest subspecies, with an average wingspan of about 8.5 centimetres.

The bjorkae is bright yellow with dark patterns and orange spots. The butterfly’s larva resembles a small snake to appear more dangerous and scare off predators.

A pretty lady too!

(RÚV is the Icelandic public broadcaster, which I keep an eye on since they have lots of nice news about volcanoes.)

I have decided Lidia Thorpe is a conservative double agent

“Certainly, we want to challenge the false narrative of Captain Cook,” he said.

“Australia was not discovered. Aboriginal people are the world’s oldest continuing culture.”

Almost certainly probably definitely going to be a quality, balanced piece of historiography – although it’s not immediately clear what Cook’s ‘false narrative’ was.

Perhaps he denied that Jantzoon and Hartog and Tasman ‘discovered’ Australia in a European context in the seventeenth century.

As Santamaria said of the alp- this party of school teachers and left wing lawyers.

Not sure whether Cats have seen this yet but it is a fairly comprehensive article on what is happening in the US Presidential elections with a state by state analysis of the battleground states based on several different polls. Early days still, but lots of early Republican voters turning out augurs well for Trump. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/10/ingrassia-battleground-state-bonanza/

Sadly the sort of TDS (see Tickler at 1.35) that this female is imbued with by the MSM is hard to believe; so many women really are completely hoodwinked and totally deranged, no other word for it, about a man who was President for four years and did an excellent job, who has a wife and family that he’s brought up well, who are all decent people as he is, with no prejudice or desire to harm anyone or any group. He’s a grandfather and a reasonable man, prepared to listen and with ideas that worked for the US once before.

I’d like a leaflet with ‘Lies about Donald Trump’ to be delivered US wide to disabuse these crazies about the figure they’ve seen as some sort of devil. And a show on CNN devoted to unveiling the level of lying that has gone out in the MSM. It is really outrageous. I guess we have to wait for history to produce a more measured perspective.

A reminder that the Liberals can stuff up the most basic of infrastructure projects just as well as Labor

They managed to build “the bridge of remembrance” for the centenary of the end of WWI. Only they didn’t, it didn’t quite meet up in the middle of the span and they had to wait for spare parts to arrive.

Sheesh, Frank. That looks like one of Gez’s sheep handlers.