Mass sexual assaults in Cologne and other European cities part IV

[VertigoNun]

The reports of attacks on Women in NYE, are in their hundreds.

I just came across in FWR where a muslim poster is praising Muhammed, who is regarded as the 'best of men'.

The wholesale fictitious account she's been fed of his benevolence and goodness has never been countered, and this is part of the whole problem.

I've often thought of writing a book, but I really don't fancy living under a death threat for the rest of my life. Perhaps I'll start a thread every now and then on MN, Islam 101 or something.

Lol you make me laugh Wilde

After having to catch up on lots of work over the weekend, I have now managed to read through all four threads and am thrilled to see that the article by Mona Eltahawy I was about to post is already being discussed. Will also read her book.

I have to say I'm really grateful for MN and all the fabulous women posting here because I'm quite disappointed with the debate or lack thereof on many German sites. While there have been a couple of good articles (like the FAZ one linked to by pinkchamp) including interesting reader comments in some German papers, there seems to be very little middle ground when you look at the debate on German discussion boards and social media. It's either emily types and cultural relativism or thick right wingers and it usually all descends into personal attacks and name calling quite quickly. Very little in terms of feminist comment, all quite disappointing really.

Earlier I watched "Hart aber fair", a political discussion program on German TV. Rainer Wendt, head of the German police union, confirmed allegations that statistics about migrant crime are being doctored to suit political agendas. He said police officers are encouraged to file sexual assault under just "normal" assault when recording crimes committed by migrants / refugees. This apparently doesn't happen at anyone's particular request but stems from a climate within the police where everyone knows that one is expected to tread very carefully when dealing with politically sensitive topics. If this is true it all ties in very nicely with the attempted cover-up of the events in Cologne.

LOL

Yeh well, at least you're not a 'subject'. (Getting my Republican head on)

I never liked the S&G bit, where the Wife/Mother turns to a pillar of salt so the family practice incest. Grim and hypocritical.

People have a poor understanding of the religion. I was shocked when I did some reading.

I read Not Without My Daughter as a teenager and that's what got me interested. It was around the time of The Satanic Versus fatwa as well.

Not without my Daughter, wow I forgot about that book. I read it in the 90's.

Yes, look for Fatwa by Jacky Trevane as well.

The Imams Daughter too.

"Rainer Wendt, head of the German police union, confirmed allegations that statistics about migrant crime are being doctored to suit political agendas. He said police officers are encouraged to file sexual assault under just "normal" assault when recording crimes committed by migrants / refugees. This apparently doesn't happen at anyone's particular request but stems from a climate within the police where everyone knows that one is expected to tread very carefully when dealing with politically sensitive topics. If this is true it all ties in very nicely with the attempted cover-up of the events in Cologne."

Lemons? Have you a link to the programme? Can we get it translated? This is serious!

Hart aber fair

The programme is 1 hr 15 min long - I'll leave it till tomorrow to watch.

Here's a link, it's quite long though:

www1.wdr.de/daserste/hartaberfair/

I'm happy to look for the exact sequence tomorrow. There's usually a summary of that programme in Tuesday's papers as well.

The allegations about the doctored statistics originally came from a journalist named Dieter Wonka and were already made last year. A quick google comes up with this article for those who speak German / want to use google translate:

www.haz.de/Nachrichten/Politik/Deutschland-Welt/Fluechtlingskriminalitaet-Ist-die-Gewalt-Statistik-geschoent

I am a methodical Christian. I was given a copy of the Bible (by some well-intentioned-deranged-relative). So, I started to read it. At the beginning of the New Testament.

It goes a bit like this....

Abraham begat aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa begat bbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbb begat cccccccccccccccc
cccccccc begat ddddddddddddd

On and on it went for pages. Which I read. In the tiny writing. I actually read this shit for pages! Thinking, surely, somewhere, there's a point?

No. When I got to the end of the 'begat's', somebody said to Abraham (God I think), that he should circumcise every boy descendent. For some reason. To brand him as a descendent or something.

Strange thing the bible! I stopped trying to read it after that! Maybe I should have started with Sodom and Gommorah!

I never liked the S&G bit, where the Wife/Mother turns to a pillar of salt so the family practice incest. Grim and hypocritical.

Yes, and before that, the father offers his virgin daughters to an angry mob and tells them they can do what they want to them. Don't worry though, it's just a "test" from God...

Quote from a summary of the programme:

"Wendt nimmt seine Kollegen in Schutz: "Jeder Beamte weiß, dass er eine bestimmte politische Erwartungshaltung erfüllen muss", sagt Wendt in Richtung der Ministerpräsidentin. Seine Kollegen hätten die Herkunft der Täter nicht sofort offen gelegt, weil dies politisch nicht gewollt gewesen sei. Auch die polizeiliche Statistik werde mit "Taschenspielertricks" geschönt, um diese politische Haltung zu bedienen. Aus einer Sexualstraftat werde dann für die Statistik schnell mal eine Körperverletzung, so Wendt."

www.rp-online.de/panorama/fernsehen/hart-aber-fair-mit-frank-plasberg-hannelore-kraft-entschuldigt-sich-aid-1.5685420

For those who speak German: don't bother watching the whole thing, it was massively frustrating just as expected.

Can't bloody sleep. I blame all you fuckers. No I blame. er...

This guy is going for the jugular

theweek.com/articles/598070/morally-repugnant-response-cologne-sexual-assault-gang

Just finished reading 'I Am Malala' by Malala Yousafzai about her life in Pakistan's Swat province on the border with Afghanistan, braving threats from the Taliban to get her education. It was really moving so I can recommend it. It was also a great insight into how Islam and Pashtun traditions of honour interweave to create an intensely misogynist environment where women have very little freedom.

Some aspects of her story struck a chord with me as an Irish person in terms of the combination of religion and close-knit families so I think it's fair to say that part of the value system in these regions is no different to what existed in traditional rural parts of Europe up until 50-60 years ago BUT there is a hardline approach to the status of women in particular that is very different to anything we know in Europe.

I can't say I see any way that this will change now because of the history of change forced by Western intervention and because of pure economics and demographics. Too many young frustrated men chasing too few opportunities with no hope for their future.

Re: Canada:

I don't know the details, but Canada has the Norht Pole to its north, the USA to its south and big, cold oceans on either side. Not many people are gonna being turning up in rubber dinghis. I suppose that makes it a lot easier to decide who to bring over.

This feels like, you hundreds of Women go home and cry you PITA. There were a few Men hurt and we can't control far right Men. STFU Women, we can't cope with the Men, it's all your fault.

uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idukkcn0up0yh20160112?irpc=932

Morning just briefly checking in before work to catch up on last night's comments. i like the poem wilde and had to lol at the ensuing posts regarding the queen, the bible etc. at last we have some humour again.

i love these threads, i dare say i can feel the wild woman girl power .

you know what i think writing to the queen is a brilliant idea, not that she'll get involved of course, think commonwealth but symbolically...

vrgininscorpio it wasn't his virgin daughters, it was his concubine. Yes, still abhorrant, but if you're going to quote the Bible, at least get it right.

Anyway, what a weird direction the thread seems to have taken overnight.

I feel very uncomfortable with people wildly criticicizing others' religion. I think it is crass to start wholesale criticism of particular religions and people.

IMO the problem is how certain cultures use religion. Both the Bible and Koran were written at a time when certain attitudes, now strange to us, were the norm. What is remarkable about them is how much in them is totally relevent today, and provides inspiration and comfort to many good people.

It's very easy to criticise - why not take the time to see the good things? Just because they have been the tools of bigots and fools doesn't mean that people on should behave like bigots themselves.

"The Royals you want to be writing to are William, Kate and Harry. After all, Kate has spoken out about mental health and William and Harry have spoken out about animal poaching. You'd have thought they would like to speak out against violence against women. (they don't have to link it to religion or culture if that's deemed too controversial).'

I agree with you Ego.
I began to type it and then hit delete because the Duchess' image is all about glam, looks, etc (rightly or wrongly) that it del frivolous suggesting it...

Sorry Carla, I was not meaning to be disrespectful of Islam as such. I believe that Muhammad did not consummate this marriage until she hit puberty, which was entirely the norm then even it seems abhorrent now.

My comments about the the Bible and Catholic Church are widely quoted and were meant to counter the criticism of Islam in that the Bible was of its time too and tbh, the Catholic Church has a great deal to atone for, what with abuse, cover ups and corruption, therefore we can't point fingers just at Islam.

To be fair, I think most non-extremist Muslims and Christians would know this very well but the fundamentalists on both sides would probably want to string me up