US Ambassador Calls Own 2015 Statement "Fake News"; Things Then Rapidly Go South

The new US ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, is not off to a good start following an international embarrassment on Dutch TV in which he smugly denied every saying there are no-go zones in the Netherlands - calling the suggestion "fake news." 

Ambassador Pete Hoekstra

Hoekstra - former congressman (R-MI) and chair of the House Intelligence Committee for two years, was asked by Dutch journalist Wouter Zwart of news program Nieuwsuur about comments he made in 2015: 

Zwart: “You mentioned in a debate that there are no-go zones in the Netherlands, and that cars and politicians are being set on fire in the Netherlands.”

 

Hoekstra: "I didn"t say that. This is actually an incorrect statement. We would call it fake news." 

Zwart then shows Hoekstra a clip of him saying exactly that: 

"The Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos. Chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burnt, there are politicians that are being burnt ... and yes there are no-go zones in the Netherlands" -Pete Hoekstra, 2015

A still-smug Hoekstra deadpans to Zwart, denying that he used the phrase fake news. "I didn"t call that fake news. I didn"t use the words today. I don"t think I did." 

Hoekstra - born in Groningen, Netherlands, was sworn in on December 11th by Mike Pence. In response, he said that he "made certain remarks in 2015 and regret the exchange during the Nieuwsuur interview. Please accept my apology." 

Please see my comments regarding recent interview. Thank you. Pete pic.twitter.com/gxQOcZ8Duk

— Pete Hoekstra (@petehoekstra) December 23, 2017

Ironically, as it turns out, there are several parts of The Netherlands which aren"t quite classified as "no-go" zones, but whose residents are approximately 80% immigrants. In 2007, The Netherlands Housing Ministry identified 40 "problem districts" to be transformed into "dream districts." In a now-deleted (but archived) article, Dutch news outlet RTL Niews published 20 of the districts. 

"no-go zones" in the Netherlands, geenstijl.nl

RTL Niews requested that the government release a ranking of the list from best to worst, which the Council of State - the highest court in the country, forbade.

Islam is the second largest religion in the Netherlands, practiced by around 4 percent of the population. There are currently 47,500 refugees in the Netherlands - nearly twice the number from just three years ago. Under a 2008 regulation, working refugees in the Netherlands pay a 75% tax on their income to cover the cost of food and living expenses, as well as declare any savings or valuables they bring into the country. Asylum seekers are allowed to work for up to 24 weeks per year after they have been in the country for six months. 

Dutch Islamists protesting the arrest of three men alleged to be recruiting for ISIS.

In 2014, three Dutch citizens were arrested on suspicion of recruiting for ISIS in order to assist its armed struggles in Syria and Iraq - leading many to call The Hague "jihad city" and "sharia triangle." 

One of those detained is 32-year-old Azzedine Choukoud, known as Abou Moussa, a charismatic Dutchman of Moroccan descent. He has been involved in demonstrations in recent years, and has been in contact with fighters in Syria. In a YouTube video, he congratulated the Muslim community on the establishment of the caliphate in Iraq and Syria. A few young men hold up a black IS flag in the background.

 

They come from Schilderswijk neighbourhood, which the media have renamed the "sharia triangle". This neighbourhood primarily houses immigrants, as do many neighbourhoods in large Dutch cities - in this case more than 90 percent of the population are immigrants. Dissatisfaction is common and unemployment, crime, and poverty rates are higher than in the rest of the country.

-speisa.com

In 2013, calls for an urgent debate in the Dutch parliament over the integration of Muslim immigrants after an area near the Hague known locally as "the Sharia triangle" is being run by a form of "Sharia police." 

The claims relate to the district of Schilderswijk, about two kilometres from the city centre, where an almost entirely Muslim population of some 5,000 people surrounds the El Islam mosque, fuelling criticism that the government has failed to ensure a proper ethnic mix in schools and local housing. One recent investigation, in which local people were extensively interviewed, concluded that Schilderswijk had become “orthodox Muslim territory” which was now largely ignored by the city authorities, by politicians and even by the police, on the grounds that it had become self-regulating. -Irish Times

The orthodox Muslims had become so dominant in the area that they were dictating neighborhood attire and behavior. In one incident, a local woman claimed that her daughter was approached and told that her short skirt was inappropriate, while her son had been called a "kaffir," a racist term used against non-Muslims.

"Another man said he felt he was gradually being driven out of his home because he had a dog, and many traditional Muslims tended not to keep or favour dogs."

So, as it stands, there are "no-go" zones in The Netherlands, depending on one"s definition. Perhaps Ambassador Hoekstra should have just owned up to his 2015 comments, since the coverup was - as always happens - worse than the truth.

Geert Wilders: "It"s Time To Drain The Swamp... In Europe"

Authored by Geert Wilders via The Gatestone Institute,

• Our democracies in the Western half of Europe have been subverted. Their goal is no longer to do what the people want. On the contrary, our political elites often do exactly the opposite. Our parliaments promote open-door policies that the majority of the people reject. Our governments sell out sovereignty to the EU against the will of the people. Our rulers welcome ever more Islam, although the majority of the people oppose it.


• Our democracies have become fake democracies. They are multi-party dictatorships, ruled by groups of establishment parties.... The establishment parties control everything, not just the politicians in their pay, but also the top brass of the civil service, the mainstream media, even the courts.... They call us "populists" because we stand for what the people want. They even drag us to court.


• We need to show that Europe"s streets are our streets, that we want to stay who and what we are, and do not want to be colonized by Islam. Europe belongs to us!

Next month, I will be visiting Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. I have been invited to speak to a group of Czech patriots. The Czechs are a freedom loving people. In 2011, on the occasion of the 100^th birthday of Ronald Reagan, they named a street in Prague after this great American president and freedom fighter.

This fact reminded me of a shameful event in my home town of The Hague, the seat of the Dutch Parliament and the government of the Netherlands. Look for a Ronald Reagan Street in The Hague and you will find none. A proposal in 2011 to name a street in The Hague after Reagan ran into fierce political opposition. Leftist parties, such as Labor, the Greens and the liberal D66 party, argued that naming a street in honor of Reagan would "do the image of the city no good." The whole affair ended in a disgraceful political compromise. Last year, a short stretch of a local bicycle path was named the "Reagan and Gorbachev Lane".

This anecdote is indicative of the difference between East and West in Europe. We can see the same difference in the attitude of their ruling elites towards Islam, the new totalitarianism that is threatening Europe today. In the East, political leaders oppose Islam; in the West, they surrender.

Islam has already gained a strong foothold in Western Europe. Its streets have come to resemble the Middle East, with headscarves everywhere. Parts of Western Europe, such as the Schilderswijk district in The Hague, the Molenbeek borough in Brussels, the banlieues [suburbs] of Paris, Birmingham in Britain, the Rosengård area in Malmö, Sweden, and many other neighborhoods, have become hotbeds of Islamic subversion.

Islam"s totalitarian nature cannot be denied. The command to murder and terrorize non-Muslims is in the Koran. Islam"s prophet Muhammad was a mass murderer and a pedophile. Those who leave Islam supposedly deserve death. And everyone who criticizes Islam and exposes what it actually says, ends up like me: on an Islamic death list.

In the past decades, Islam has entered Western Europe with the millions of immigrants from Islamic countries. Now, the European Union wants to distribute third-world immigrants over all the 28 EU member states. The nations in Central and Eastern Europe reject the EU plans to impose permanent and mandatory relocation quotas for all EU member states. They warn about the dilution of their identity, which is not Islamic, but Judeo-Christian and humanist -- rooted in the legacy of Jerusalem, Athens and Rome; not Mecca.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has denounced the EU"s pro-immigration agenda as a means to eradicate the culture and Christian identity of Hungary. Czech President Miloš Zeman is an outspoken opponent of immigration and the Islamification of the Czech Republic. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said that "Islam has no place in Slovakia" and warns that "migrants change the character of our country." Polish Prime Minister Beata Szyd?o staunchly defends Poland"s refusal to accept the EU-imposed immigration quotas. "We are not going to take part in this madness," she says. In the Eastern part of Europe, anti-Islamification and anti-mass migration parties see a surge in popular support.

Resistance is growing in the West, as well. This year, we have seen my party, the Party for Freedom (PVV), become the second-largest party in the Netherlands. This is a great achievement in a country with 13 parties in Parliament. In France, Marine Le Pen made it to the second round in the French presidential elections and her party, the Front National, got more votes than ever. In Austria, the FPÖ became the second biggest party. In Germany, the patriots of the AfD forced their way into the Bundestag.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), casts his vote in The Hague during the Dutch general election that made his the second-largest party in the Netherlands, on March 15, 2017. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

However, the political elites in the West do all they can to keep the winners of the elections from power. Last month, in my country, the Netherlands, a new government coalition consisting of no less than four parties was formed. Because they stubbornly refused to talk to PVV, it took the political elites a record seven months to put together a coalition. They preferred to take in D66, the party which had denied Ronald Reagan his street in The Hague, and still they were only able to form a government with a majority of just one single seat in Parliament.

Our democracies in the Western half of Europe have been subverted. Their goal is no longer to do what the people want. On the contrary, our political elites often do exactly the opposite. Our parliaments promote open-door policies that the majority of the people reject. Our governments sell out sovereignty to the EU against the will of the people. Our rulers welcome ever more Islam, although the majority of the people oppose it.

Our democracies have become fake democracies. They are multi-party dictatorships, ruled by groups of establishment parties. They wheel and deal, often selling away the principles for which they have been elected. The establishment parties control everything, not just the politicians in their pay, but also the top brass of the civil service, the mainstream media, even the courts. Parties such as mine are excluded from coalition talks. They call us "populists" because we stand for what the people want. They even drag us to court.

Three decades ago, the countries in Central Europe witnessed a Velvet Revolution: Democratic, political and peaceful. They took to the streets. They decided that enough was enough. Thanks to their Velvet Revolution, they have leaders today who truly represent the people and who are not afraid to stand up for their nation and its identity.

We, in Western Europe, can learn lessons from the Velvet Revolution in the East. We, too, urgently need to make clear that enough is enough. In Western Europe, too, it is time to drain the swamp and to drive the elites from power. Peaceful and democratic, but thorough. We have to make our so-called democratic systems truly democratic again. The political actors should no longer be the professional politicians alone. The crisis is existential. It is time for every man and woman to do his and her duty. Because the survival of our nations itself is at stake.

We, too, have to make it very clear that we no longer want to take part in the madness of leaders, who sell out their country to the EU institutions in Brussels, and the madness of the EU elites, who sell out our continent to mass-immigration and Islam. That is why the PVV will demonstrate in the streets of Rotterdam on January 20^th. We need to show that Europe"s streets are our streets, that we want to stay who and what we are, and do not want to be colonized by Islam. Europe belongs to us!

The "Islamization Of Europe"? What's Behind Erdogan's New Muslim Political Network

Authored by Yves Manou via The Gatestone Institute,

• What is notable is that France"s new Muslim party, the Equality and Justice Party (PEJ), is an element of a network of political parties built by Turkey"s President Erdogan and AKP to influence each country of Europe, and to influence Europe through its Muslim population.


• What is their program? The classic one for an Islamic party: abolishing the founding secularist law of 1905, which established the separation of church and state; mandatory veils for schoolgirls; and community solidarity (as opposed to individual rights) as a priority. All that is wrapped in the not-so-innocent flag of the necessity to "fight against Islamophobia", a concept invented to shut down the push-back of all people who might criticize Islam before they can even start.


• "[The Islamist party"s] purpose is to conquer the world, not just have a mandate. Its mechanics were already established.... Islamists took power in the name of democracy, then suspended democracy by using their power.... Convert the clothes, the body, the social links, the arts, nursing homes, schools, songs and culture, then, they just wait for the fruit to fall in the turban... An Islamist party is an open trap: you cannot let it in. If you refuse it, your country switches to a dictatorship, but if you accept it, you are at risk of submission...." — Kamel Daoud, Algerian writer, in Le Point, 2015.

In the legislative elections that will take place June 11 and 18 in France, political parties are finalizing preparations: choosing their candidates, and printing posters and stickers. Business as usual? Not really.

(Image source: Rama/Wikimedia Commons)

One newcomer arose in the political spectrum: a Muslim party, the Parti Egalité Justice ("Equality and Justice Party"; PEJ).

What is notable is that PEJ is an element of a network of political parties built by Trukey"s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), to influence each country of Europe, and to influence Europe through its Muslim population.

PEJ: A Pro-Erdogan Party in France

The PEJ was created in 2015 in Strasbourg, the de facto capital of eastern France, on the border with Germany. PEJ has already approved 68 candidates -- not enough to cover the whole territory but enough to compete efficiently in districts where Turkish and Muslim populations are strongly represented. French citizens of Turkish origin are estimated to represent 600,000 people in France, out of a Muslim population estimated at 5-15 million, but official statistics do not exist.

Another Muslim party, "Français et Musulmans" ("French and Muslims"), is also quietly preparing to erupt on the political scene of the French legislative elections. "Français et Musulmans" originates from L"Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (UOIF) which has been rebaptized "Muslims of France". "Français et Musulmans" is the French branch of Muslim Brotherhood.

The PEJ, is the first party in France established by Turks. PEJ already participated in elections of the Provincial General Assembly in March 2015, but was eliminated in the first round. According to the magazine Marianne: "PEJ is closely connected to Council for justice, equality and peace (Cojep), an international NGO which represents, everywhere it is based, an anchor for AKP", the party of Turkey"s president, Recep Tayip Erdogan. According to L"Express "many managers of PEJ are also in charge in Cojep".

What is their program? The classic one for an Islamist party: abolishing the founding secularist law of 1905, which established the separation of church and state; veils mandatory for schoolgirls in public schools; halal food for all schools; support for Palestinians; and community solidarity (as opposed to individual rights) as a priority. All that is wrapped in the not-so-innocent flag of the necessity to "fight against Islamophobia", a concept invented to shut down the push-back of all people who might criticize Islam before they can even start.

According to the magazine Marianne, Mine Gunbay, responsible for women"s rights in the city council of Strasbourg, fearlessly and tirelessly denounced the metamorphosis of Strasbourg into "political laboratory of the AKP". Strasbourg is the city where Erdogan was authorized by former president Hollande to hold an electoral rally in October 2015. Legally.

Another noteworthy Turkish move in France is the probable nomination of Ahmet Ogras, the representative of Turkish Islam in France, as next president of the Conseil français du culte musulman ("French Council of Muslim worship", CFCM). Ahmet Ogras is known for his good relationship with Erodgan"s AKP party. CFCM is the legal structure built by French politicians to have a single Muslim talking-partner. Until now, all presidents of CFCM were of Algerian or Moroccan origin.

Austria

In Austria, in 2016, "Turkish citizens" founded the New Movement for the Future (NBZ) party. The goal of the party is to give Turks a voice in politics across Austria. The NBZ Chairman, Adnan Dinçer, explained that the rise of extremist right-wing parties have caused them to work faster. "Political actors are making decisions about the minorities working here, but we are not involved in this decision-making mechanism," he said. The NBZ makes it clear that they support controversial Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and condemn the "Gülen movement", which the Turkish government claims carried out a coup attempt in July 2016.

Netherlands

Denk, a party founded by Tunahan Kuzu and Selçuk Öztürk in March 2017, became the first-ever ethic minority party in the Dutch parliament. The party, apparently a mouthpiece for Turkish president Erdogan, won three seats in the recent election, which was focused on immigration.

Party leader Tunahan Kuzu said: "This is the beginning of a new chapter in our history. The new Netherlands has given a vote in the House."

Bulgaria

The Muslim population of Bulgaria is made up of Turks (Sunni), some Shi"ites, Bulgarians and Roma, who together represent 7-8% of the total population. In Bulgaria, there are three Muslim political parties, in which most of the members are Turkish and Muslim.

One of these parties is The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (HÖH), founded in 1990 by Ahmet Do?an. In 2014, HÖH was represented by 38 people in the 240-member parliament and had four MEPs in the European Parliament (EP).

HÖH, which made a coalition with the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), thus has a say in the country"s administration, even though leadership changed after a 2013 assassination attempt against Do?an.

Because Erdogan was not satisfied with HÖH, he has worked to create other pro-Turkish parties in Bulgaria.

Germany

Many Germans of Turkish descent have chosen to invest in German established political parties and influence them from within. Some, however, are trying to influence policy from without.

The Allianz Deutscher Demokraten ("Alliance of German Democrats", ADD) is a small party founded by Remzi Aru, evidently as a reaction to the German Parliament"s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

ADD is friendly toward Erdogan and has been trying to establish an electoral base within immigrant and Muslim communities. Its leaders nevertheless had difficulty collecting the 1,000 signatures necessary to participate in the May 2017 North Rhine-Westphalia state election.

Another Muslim-German party is the Bündnis für Innovation und Gerechtigkeit ("Alliance for Innovation and Justice", BIG), which has existed since 2010, but without much success.

German law prohibits foreign funding of political parties, and a party of Turks would have to fulfill a certain range of obligations to get its certification as an official political party.

The Islamist Trap

An Islamist party in a democracy is, according the Algerian writer, Kamel Daoud, "a trap". Especially in France. In an op-ed published in Le Point in 2015, he writes:

"An Islamic party in France? What a fascinating political object: one cannot refuse it, but one cannot accept it. Nothing better summarizes the situation as a French trap... If France says Yes, she submits in the long term. An Islamic party is an Islamist party by a natural slope.... By definition. Its purpose is to conquer the world, not just to have a mandate. Its mechanics were already established.... Islamists took power in the name of democracy, then suspended democracy by using their power. At best. At worse, Islamists opted for the approach of the crab that keeps its claws behind his back: no political ambitions, but a millenary ambition in the mind: convert the clothes, the body, the social links, the arts, nursing homes, schools, songs and culture, then, they just wait for the fruit to fall in the turban... An Islamist party is an open trap: you cannot let it in. If you refuse it, your country switches to a dictatorship, but if you accept it, you are at risk of submission....

"As soon as it bursts onto the political scene, the same consequences appear as in Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, the Sahel or Tunisia: it divides the country between Eradicators (those who want to eradicate the Islamists) and Reconcilers (those who advocate dialogue with Islamist monologue) and the Fatalists (those who are waiting for something good to happen)."

As a fine political analyst, Kamel Daoud knows -- and everybody knows with him -- that nobody in France has the solution to confront the Islamist problem. The only question is: who will win? Reconcilers or Eradicators? One thing is sure for now, Reconcilers are in power for the next five years.

Another thing is sure: the first veiled woman elected as a Member of Parliament will trigger a civilizational that which has no equivalent in French history.

Will Voters Elect The "Dutch Trump" Tomorrow?

Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

Tomorrow, a vote in the Netherlands could push the euro and the EU one step closer to death…

For the last several months, I’ve been warning readers about a populist tsunami washing through Europe. It’s drastically changing the Continent’s political landscape in a way not seen since before World War 2.

This wave is flushing away traditional “mainstream” parties. And it’s bringing in anti-establishment populists who want to leave the euro currency and the European Union.

It’s already hit the UK in the form of Brexit, killing David Cameron’s pro-EU government in the process.

Then it struck Italy, washing away pro-EU Matteo Renzi’s government.

Tomorrow, on March 15, the populist wave is set to hit the Netherlands.

That’s when Dutch voters go to the polls. I think the anti-EU populist Party for Freedom will win. It’s led by Geert Wilders, who was close to Trump’s campaign. Some even call him the “Dutch Trump.”

Leaving the euro is a top priority for the Party for Freedom. If it wins, it would be another nail in the coffin for the European currency.

Either way, the Dutch parliament will discuss how to leave the Eurozone shortly after the March 15 election.

A top lawmaker recently said that “the probe will examine whether it would be possible for the Dutch to withdraw from the single currency, and if so how,” Reuters reported.

The euro’s problems are compounding and could get much worse, very soon.

Some of Europe’s biggest countries have elections this year:

• 
  

  France (April 23)

  
  


• 
  

  Germany (September 24)

  
  

These elections will ultimately determine the fate of the European Union.

The Brexit vote, Donald Trump’s election, and the failure of Italy’s constitutional referendum have already boosted anti-euro populist parties in these countries. If the Party for Freedom wins in the Netherlands tomorrow, they’ll get another leg up.

Populist parties have a real chance to win in both France and Germany. But even if they win in just one, the EU would likely unravel.

The biggest issue in these elections is the migrant crisis, which we’ve covered here extensively. And the crisis is only accelerating.

Every single migrant that arrives in Europe increases the chance that anti-EU populists will win a key election. That’s not good news for the EU or the euro. It’s also not good news for the US.

Whatever happens in the EU—the world’s largest economy and a major US trading partner—matters. If the euro collapses, expect it to trigger a stock market collapse in the US.

The Financial Times recently put it this way:

It would probably lead to the most violent economic shock in history, dwarfing the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008 and the 1929 Wall Street crash.

If the FT is even partially right, it means we’re looking at a possible stock market crash of historic proportions. It could devastate anyone with a brokerage account. But it could also create enormous opportunities to profit.