Magic Statistics

It seems that everyone in the civilised world, up to and including the UN, is talking about doing something to alleviate the suffering in Darfur and other parts of Sudan.  Why, then, is no one actually doing anything?

Well, something has been done.  Economic and diplomatic sanctions were imposed years ago.  Sudan’s economy is suffering no apparent ill effects, however: on the strength of its oil resources, 13% growth is expected this year.

Sudan will not co-operate with Western governments or the United Nations because it doesn't care about them. It has money - well over $1bn dollars of oil revenue a year - and can do whatever it wants.
. . .
President Omar al-Bashir has a vision of Sudan at the hub of a new Islamic east Africa, and has plenty of friends in China, Malaysia, India, Singapore and the Gulf States with a relaxed attitude to human rights, fat wallets and a thirst for crude.

China’s state-owned oil company has invested heavily in Sudan’s oil industry.  Investors from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are pouring billions into a massive commercial complex near Khartoum.  Some are calling it “the new Dubai”.

Previous related posts:

• Khartoum believes it can attack Darfur with impunity
• Khartoum booms while much of Sudan suffers

Iktimal Hage-Ali (pictured at right) has given back her NSW Young Australian of the Year award after it emerged that she was caught up in a cocaine bust last month.  On 22 November, police detained her for questioning following the raid, but she was subsequently released without charge.  At least three men arrested at the same time were charged with drug offences.

The [Australia] Telegraph today revealed that  Hage-Ali was handcuffed and taken to Bankstown police station before being interviewed for several hours in connection to a drug supply ring.

The electronic interview featured Ms Hage-Ali being asked about a range of associates from the notorious area surrounding Telopea St in Punchbowl.

Police decided not to charge her with any offence.

It can be revealed that three others arrested on November 22 – two adult males and a juvenile – were also well known to Ms Hage-Ali.

It is strange that the raid took place last month, three days before she was given the NSW Young Australian of the Year award, but details were reported in the press only yesterday.

Police involved in the raid are associated with the influential and outspoken Muslim mufti Sheikh al-Hilali—he of the notorious “women who don’t wear a veil are like uncovered meat” statement.  Ms Hage-Ali was a prominent Australian Muslim critic of the mufti’s remarks.

Ms Hage-Ali’s supporters suspect a set-up.

Friends of Ms Hage-Ali said yesterday the NSW bureaucrat was a victim of a smear campaign because she had criticised Sheik Hilaly over a Ramadan sermon interpreted as justifying rape.

"This is obviously payback," said one friend. Another friend said her opponents were tarnishing "her reputation because she doesn't wear the headscarf".

The brother of one of the detectives belonging to the unit spearheading the raid is co-founder of the Muslim Village website, where inflammatory anti-Hage-Ali comments have been posted.  A police spokesman said that’s merely coincidental.

h/t: little green footballs 

Previous related posts:

• Candidate for “Young Australian of the Year” targeted by Muslims
• Do veils guard women against unwanted attention from men?

Syrian-born Muslim Bassam Tibi, now a political scientist in Germany, says Europeans don’t have a clue about radical Islam.  The Globe and Mail’s Margaret Wente recently interviewed him in Berlin.

"Europeans don't know what Islamism is," he argues. "We are talking about a new totalitarianism. And Islamists are establishing themselves in Europe with great success."

The German intellectual elite, in turn, calls him an Islamophobic bigot.

"It is most disturbing to see how writers who try to warn about the totalitarian character of Islamism are defamed as racists," he says. "This wrong-headed political correctness prevents any honest discussion about the subject."

Multiculturalism has abetted development of an exclusive Muslim community in Europe and, for all the renewed talk about inculcating common identity, European leaders aren’t really interested in integration and wouldn’t know how to go about accomplishing it if they did.

Dr Tibi considers the slogan, “Islam is a religion of peace”, a red herring.

"When you study religion, you do not study texts, you study social facts. A Muslim boy is torching cars and he is thinking he is waging jihad. Religion has nothing to do with terrorism. But you can use it to legitimate terrorism. There is a conflict — it is social and economic, but it is articulated in religious language." And the quest of converting the entire world to Islam, he insists, is an immutable fixture of the Muslim worldview.

So averse is Germany to integration that, although Dr Tibi has lived there for 44 years, he is still viewed as a foreigner.  He is moving to the United States, where he has already held visiting professorships at Harvard and Cornell.

For access to Ms Wente's full column, click here.

Previous related posts:

• German legislator urges Muslim women to remove head scarves, receives death threats
• Mosque where 9/11 planned still shelters Islamists