Hugh Hewitt & Christopher Hitchens Discuss Iran Demonstrations

Protesting at Azadi Square (June 2009)
This is a blog entry that was written by a participant in the pro-reformist demonstrations staged by supporters of the opposition in Iran. This dispatch was sent to relatives with an explicit request to disseminate it to as wide an audience as possible, thus circumventing the draconian censorship imposed by Iranian authorities on journalists, particularly foreign correspondents.
HAARETZ:
Defying Iran Censors, a Blogger Reports from Tehran >>> By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent | Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Election Clashes Erupt in Iran

G20 Protests: Rioters Loot RBS as Demonstrations Turn Violent
THE TELEGRAPH: G20 summit protesters looted a City office of Royal Bank of Scotland this afternoon, as a largely peaceful demonstration spilled over into bloody violence in the centre of London.

G20 violence. RBS windows smashed.
A small number of demonstrators forced their way into the building on Threadneedle Street near the Bank of England after smashing windows and throwing smoke grenades.

Hundreds of protesters cheered as office equipment including a printer was carried out of the building – which is believed to have been empty – before riot police wielding batons managed to force the crowds back.

The rampage inside RBS will raise questions about the effectiveness of the £7.2 million security operation. The bailed-out bank was known to be a target of anti-capitalist groups in advance of the protests, but police efforts had concentrated on defending its headquarters on Bishopsgate in Liverpool Street, around half a mile away.

Twenty-three people were arrested as protesters clashed with police around the Bank of England, which was the focus of today's anti-capitalist and anarchist demonstrations. >>> | Wednesday, April 1, 2009

TELEGRAPH picture gallery: G20: Protests turn violent >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Italien: Minister verbietet islamische Gebete vor Kirchen
DIE PRESSE: Innenminister Roberto Maroni will erreichen, dass Demonstrationen an Orten "von besonderer sozialer, symbolischer oder religiöser Bedeutung" nicht mehr stattfinden dürfen.

Der italienische Innenminister Roberto Maroni will islamische Massengebete vor Kirchen verhindern. Der Minister, ein Vertreter der rechten Regierungspartei Lega Nord, hat an die Polizeichefs der italienischen Städten die Weisung erteilt, dass Demonstrationen und Gebete an bestimmten Plätzen "von besonderer sozialer, symbolischer oder religiöser Bedeutung" nicht mehr stattfinden dürfen. >>> APA | Donnerstag, 22. Januar 2009

CORRIERE DELLA SERA: No More Demonstrations At Places of Worship

Call for directive to prevent episodes like Duomo demonstration in Milan from happening again

ROME – Places of worship, supermarkets and shopping malls will join public institutions, political party headquarters and diplomatic premises as being off-limits for demonstrators. Organisers will also have to pay a deposit as a guarantee against damage. >>> English translation by Giles Watson | Thursday, January 22, 2009

CORRIERE DELLA SERA: Stop a cortei davanti ai luoghi di culto

«Una direttiva affinché fatti come quelli avvenuti davanti al Duomo di Milano non abbiano a ripetersi»

ROMA - I luoghi di culto, ma anche i supermercati e i centri commerciali saranno interdetti ai percorsi dei cortei, così come già avviene per le sedi istituzionali, quelle di partito e le rappresentanze diplomatiche. E gli organizzatori potrebbero dover pagare una cauzione come garanzia per eventuali danni. >>> | Mercoledì, 21 gennaio 2009 (ultima modifica: Giovedi, 22 gennaio 2009)

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Italy)

Fresh Clashes Hit Greek Capital
BBC: Greek students have attacked police in the capital, Athens, in the latest outbreak of protests over the killing of a teenaged boy last Saturday.

The authorities say at least one person was injured as protesters threw stones and firebombs at a police station, near the city's main university.

Students are also reported to have set up road blocks in some parts of Athens.

A policeman has been charged over the youth's death. His lawyer says the bullet that killed him was a ricochet.

But the ballistics report has not yet been officially published.

An unnamed police official said that an elderly bystander had been taken to hospital after being struck by a rock in the latest violence.

A further incident was reported outside a university and one of Greece's biggest prisons in the Athens suburb of Koyrdallos.

There were also reports of unrest in Thessaloniki, Greece's second city.

Hundreds of buildings and businesses across the country have been damaged in the five days of rioting. >>> | December 11, 2008

Watch BBC video: Police defend themselves from attack >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Greek Unrest Spreads: Solidarity Protests Across Europe Turn Violent
Demonstrators in Rome. Photo courtesy of SpiegelOnline International
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: As Greece entered its sixth day of unrest sparked by the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy, violence spread to other parts of Europe on Thursday. Solidarity protests in cities including Rome, Madrid and Copenhagen turned into skirmishes between demonstrators and police.

The unrest that has gripped Greece for days has started to spill over into other European capitals, with arrests made in Rome, Copenhagen and Madrid on Wednesday night after solidarity demonstrations descended into violence.

The situation in Greece itself had calmed somewhat by mid-morning Thursday following pre-dawn violence which saw students clash with police. Youth threw stones and fire bombs at police in the early hours of the morning in the sixth day of protests since the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos ingited anger over police brutality. The events have also stoked public anger with the government -- resentment that was already widespread following a series of financial scandals and unpopular reforms.

Much of the worst violence has been perpetrated by young anarchists, the so-called Black Bloc. But there is growing anger among the wider public about the inability of the government to control the situation and restore calm. On Wednesday a general strike across Greece halted flights and closed banks, schools and some hospital services.

Meanwhile, flourishes of violence spread to other parts of Europe. In Istanbul about a dozen Turkish left-wing protestors daubed red paint over the front of the Greek consulate, while the country's embassies in Rome and Moscow were attacked by fire bombers and stone throwers. In the Italian university town of Bologna, five police officers were reported injured after clashing with demonstrators outside the Greek consulate. >>> smd -- with wire reports | December 11, 2008

GLOBEANDMAIL: Ugly Tactics of the Rioters Now Coming Under Attack

Watching television and video coverage of the riots that have swept through Greece this week, it is hard not to notice something curious: The police, for the most part, do not seem to be fighting back.

Except when stoned or pelted with Molotov cocktails themselves, they often left the rioters alone to smash store windows and set fire to buildings.

That apparent restraint springs from a November night in 1973 when the forces of a six-year-old dictatorship battered their way onto the campus of the Athens Polytechnic. No one knows the exact toll, but something like 40 people were killed, and the anger over their deaths helped bring down the military government.

Ever since, student protesters have enjoyed a special status in Greece. Lionized for bringing down the regime of the colonels, they take to the streets with a frequency and a ferocity that is unusual even in Europe. >>> Marcus Gee | December 10, 2008

TIMESONLINE: Greek Violence Spreads across Europe

Suspected anarchist protests which have dogged Greece for the last week spread outside the country today, with mobs causing violent scenes in Italy, Spain, Russia, Denmark and Turkey.

Greek diplomatic missions were vandalised in the attacks, while police, local authority and media representatives were also targeted in what appeared a co-ordinated escalation.

The upsurge took place as protests continued in Greece following the killing last Saturday of Alexandros Grigoropoulos.
Today, mobs pelted 20 police stations with rocks and bottles, overturned cars and blocked streets in central Athens. Police responded with tear gas as sporadic violence persisted amid Greece’s worst rioting in decades.

Four people were detained and at least one man was hospitalised with injuries, authorities said. In a gesture which appeared designed to ease the violence, MPs held a minute of silence for Mr Grigoropoulos.

Yet what were originally relatively localised protests over the killing have since been hijacked by mobs of self-styled anarchists who authorities say are looking for trouble, and today they spread out of Greece for the first time.

In Denmark, a total of 32 people were arrested in Copenhagen after protests turned violent while, in Madrid and Barcelona, several police officers were injured and 11 people were arrested following clashes.

The violence also spread to Turkey, where a dozen protesters were reported to have painted the Turkish-flag red on the Greek consulate. In Moscow and Rome, meanwhile, petrol bombs were reported to have been aimed at Greek Embassies.

Meanwhile, a crew of television journalists from Russia were attacked by 50 youths as they filmed clashes in Exarchia, Greece, a known hotbed of student radicalism. One correspondent from the NTV television station was injured. >>> David Byers | December 11, 2008

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Vague anti-Berlusconi à Rome
leJDD.fr: Quasi quotidienne ces derniers temps, la mobilisation contre la réforme du système éducatif italien s'est transformée en véritable raz-de-marée anti-Berlusconi ce samedi dans les rues de Rome. Plus de deux millions de manifestants ont répondu à l'appel de la gauche dans la capitale transalpine. Un premier avertissement d'envergure pour le "Cavaliere".

Rome, noire de monde... et rouge de colère contre son gouvernement. Samedi après-midi, plus de deux millions d'Italiens ont convergé vers l'antique site du cirque Maxime pour un immense rassemblement anti-Berlusconi, le plus grand qu'ait connu le pays depuis de nombreuses années. A l'origine de cette manifestation monstre contre le pouvoir en place, dont les principales figures de l'Etat, président du Conseil inclus, viennent de bénéficier d'une immunité très controversée accordée par le Parlement, les partis de gauche, au plus bas dans les sondages et écrasés par l'omnipotence du "Cavaliere", ont voulu sonner la révolte. A leur plus grand bonheur, la mobilisation a dépassé leurs espérances les plus folles. Offusqués du tour de vis sécuritaire instauré dans la Botte depuis le retour de la droite aux affaires en avril dernier, les manifestants ont aussi crié leur inquiétude face à ce qu'ils considèrent comme un démantèlement du système éducatif italien. >>> Par Nicolas Moscovici (avec Reuters) | Samedi 25 Octobre 2008

NZZ Online: Grossdemonstration der Opposition gegen Berlusconi: Angaben über Teilnehmer schwankt zwischen 2 Millionen und 200'000

Hunderttausende haben am Samstag in Rom gegen die Politik der konservativen Regierung von Ministerpräsident Berlusconi demonstriert. Zu der Grosskundgebung hatte die grösste Oppositionspartei im Parlament, die von Walter Veltroni geführte Demokratische Partei (PD), aufgerufen. Die Organisatoren schätzten die Zahl der Teilnehmer auf zweieinhalb Millionen; die Polizei sprach von 200'000.

«Das ist eine Demonstration gegen die Regierung, die die Probleme des Landes nicht löst.» Die Demokratie sei nicht der «Verwaltungsrat einer Firma» sagte Veltroni an die Adresse des Medienunternehmers und Multimillionärs Berlusconi. Dessen Regierung erweise sich angesichts der «schweren wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Krise» Italiens als «vollkommen unfähig». >>> sda/dpa/afp/apa | 25. Oktober 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Relié) >>>

"Long Live Islam", "Crush the Netherlands", Say Malaysian Muslim Protestors
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysian Islamists protested Friday against a 15-minute film made by a Dutch lawmaker that has caused outrage across the Muslim world, saying the short was insulting and blasphemous.

About 50 members of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party gathered outside the Dutch Embassy in Kuala Lumpur for about 30 minutes in torrential rain shouting "Long live Islam" and "Crush the Netherlands." Riot policemen watched nearby but did not take any action against the protesters.

Talking to reporters after the rally, party youth leader Riduan Mohamad Nor said Geert Wilders' film "Fitna," meaning "ordeal" in Arabic, showed his contempt for Muslims.

"He wants to insult Islam, insult our prophet, insult our Quran," Riduan said.

"Fitna" intersperses verses of the Quran with scenes of terrorist attacks. It was released on the Internet last month, sparking demonstrations by Muslims worldwide. Muslim Protestors Protest against Dutch Lawmaker for Insulting Quran >>> Associated Press | April 4, 2008

Mark Alexander

Jordanians Rally in Support of Hamas in Gaza
YNET NEWS: Muslim Brotherhood activists march in Amman to protest Israel's closure on Gaza, and call on Hamas to resume suicide bombings

Reuters

Chanting slogans urging Islamist Hamas militants to resume suicide bombings against Israel, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital on Friday to protest against Israel's blockade of Gaza.

About 8,000 activists from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets to support their ideological allies, the Palestinian Hamas group, and hail militants' success in breaching the Gaza border in defiance of an Israeli blockade.

"The people of Jordan are with Hamas," chanted the crowds who called on the Islamist group to resume a campaign of suicide bombings and intensify rocket attacks against Israel. Jordanians rally in support of Hamas in Gaza >>>

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”No One Lives Who Insults the Prophet!” More than 1,000 Demonstrating Barbarians Called for Gillian Gibbons to Be Shot or Stabbed!
If anyone has been fooled in the past by the nonsense ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ slogan, then let him be fooled no longer. Islam is anything but a ‘religion of love’. Islam is a cruel religion, a religion of killing and violence and hatred and vengeance. So what’s ‘godly’ about that?

Islam is a religion intent on imposing its will, and taking over the world by means of the Jihad. Many people must be rueing the fact that so many people with such barbaric views have been allowed to come and live in Western countries. Having so many people ready to fight and demonstrate in the cause of their religion bodes ill for the future of peace and security at home. How long will it be before we see such violent demonstrations on the streets of the West? Fie on the weak and snivelling politicians for endangering our own peaceful existence! - ©Mark

· Militants besiege British diplomatic compound
· Foreign Office believed she would be acquitted

THE GUARDIAN: Carrying swords and machetes and waving green Islamic flags, protesters marched through the streets of Khartoum yesterday demanding the execution of British teacher Gillian Gibbons. "No one lives who insults the prophet," read one of the banners outside the British embassy.

More than 1,000 Muslim demonstrators in the Sudanese capital called for her to be shot or stabbed for insulting Islam after her pupils called a teddy bear Muhammad.

Gibbons, 54, of Liverpool, was sentenced on Thursday night to 15 days in jail followed by deportation in a case that has attracted international condemnation.

Last night she was moved from the women's prison where she was being held to a secret location across the Nile for her own safety. Sword-waving protesters call for death of teacher who named a bear Muhammad >>> By Xan Rice in Nairobi and Andrew Heavens in Khartoum

DAILY MAIL:
'I still cannot believe this is happening,' says teddy bear teacher as mob bays for her blood By David Williams and Christian Gysin

Mark Alexander

Is This What They Call the ‘Cream of the Crop’?
WATCH GUARDIAN VIDEO: Free speech debate sparks protests
Mark Alexander

Irving and Griffin Spark Fury at Oxford Union Debate
Photo courtesy of The Guardian
It is to be noted that the people demonstrating against free speech at the Oxford Union were trying to take our liberties away from us all by intimidation. They forget that millions of people have died for this cherished freedom as recently as the last century. These demonstrators are naïve in the extreme, and totally without understanding.

Just because we find someone else’s views offensive - and David Irvings’s views on the Holocaust most certainly are – this does not mean to say that that person should have no right to express them.

Those demonstrators wanted to close down all that we Britons have held dear for so long. Many of those demonstrating have surely come to this country from abroad. They have probably fled tyranny themselves. Now they want to impose their own tyranny and restrictions on us!

It is also to be noted that there were banners displayed in those demonstrations in favour of a “multicultural” Britain. One can but wonder if these same demonstrators realise how little multiculturalism there will be in the United Islamic Kingdom!

These people are supposed to be intelligent. Intelligence is usually accompanied by insight and foresight. As far as I can see, they have shown themselves to have very little insight, foresight or understanding of what living in a free society means. Free means free for ALL people, not just free for students who worship at the altar of multiculturalism. There are other people out there with different views, and their views should be heard. Remember Voltaire’s words of wisdom: ”I disapprove of what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.” Voltaire must be turning in his grave! - ©Mark

· Demonstrators breach security cordon
· Speakers forced to address audience separately

THE GUARDIAN: A debate on free speech at the Oxford Union descended into chaos last night after scores of demonstrators broke through a security cordon and staged a sit-down protest in the union's famous chamber.

Scuffles broke out in the hall as the demonstrators - there to voice their opposition to the presence of discredited historian David Irving and BNP leader Nick Griffin - clashed with organisers and security guards.

Order was eventually restored and the event went ahead with Griffin and Irving forced to speak in separate rooms as hundreds of students and anti-fascist campaigners surrounded the venue chanting and singing.

During his speech Griffin described the protesters as a "mob which would kill".

"I have seen them beat old men and women who are wearing war medals and try and kill them. Had they grown up in Nazi Germany they would have been splendid Nazis."

During his speech Irving said he would not be bowed. "I am not going to write what they want me to write. I am going to write what I find in the archives."

At the end of the event Union president Luke Tryl, who had invited Griffin and Irving, said his only regret was that some people had been intimidated. "At the end of that David Irving came out looking pathetic ... I said in my introduction that I found his views repugnant and abhorrent because I wanted that on record ... I think the principle has been proved," said Tryl.

The meeting was disrupted again when Peter Simpson, a student who had travelled from Essex, heckled Griffin from the floor. Afterwards Simpson said: "I cannot believe people will sit in a room and listen to him spout his despicable ideology." >> By Alexandra Topping

The Oxford Union

THE SPECTATOR:
My Comment

Mark Alexander

”Death to the Dictator!”
BBC: A rare anti-government demonstration has been held in the Iranian capital during a speech at Tehran University by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

There were scuffles as hundreds of supporters and opponents of the president gathered outside the venue.

Eyewitnesses said police used tear gas to hold the demonstrators back.

Student leaders had challenged Mr Ahmadinejad to meet them after he spoke at Columbia University in the US of the freedoms enjoyed by Iranian students.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says all gates to the university were locked and journalists were prevented from entering. Iran president faces rare protest (more)

NZZ: Ahmadinejad in Teheran als Diktator beschimpft: Demonstration bei Rede an der Universität

THE TELEGRAPH: Iranian students attack 'fascist Ahmadinejad'

Mark Alexander

Germany’s Far-Right Fighting Against the Islamization of Europe

Photo courtesy of SpiegelOnline International

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A right-wing citizens' initiative is protesting against Germany's largest mosque, which is being built in Cologne. They have enlisted the efforts of the far-right from Austria and Belgium in their fight against the "Islamization of Europe." Far-Right Mobilizes against Cologne Mega-Mosque (more) By Anna Reimann

Mark Alexander

Demonstrations for Secularism in Turkey Again
BBC: Tens of thousands of Turks have massed in the city of Samsun in the latest demonstration in support of secularism.

The crowds waved national flags and chanted slogans opposing any change to Turkey's secular political model.

The protest in Samsun, a port on the Black Sea, followed huge rallies in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. New rally for Turkish secularism (more)

NZZ:
Erneut Grossdemonstration in der Türkei: Kundgebung gegen Islamisierung

Mark Alexander

Demonstration à Izmir pour proclamer leur attachement à la laïcité

Photo grâce au Figaro

LE FIGARO: Plusieurs dizaines de milliers de personnes ont manifesté dimanche à Izmir pour proclamer leur attachement à la laïcité.

Les pro-laïcs ne désarment pas. Banderoles antigouvernementales, drapeaux turcs rouge et blanc et portraits de Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, fondateur vénéré de la Turquie moderne et laïque : plus de 100.000 manifestants se sont rassemblés dimanche à Izmir, troisième ville du pays, pour protester contre le gouvernement et le parti au pouvoir, accusés de vouloir renforcer la place de l'islam dans les institutions et la société turques.

Plusieurs milliers de policiers avaient été déployés dans les rues d'Izmir en prévision de la manifestation, d'autant que la veille, un attentat sur un marché de la ville avait fait un mort et 14 blessés. Nouvelle demonstration de force du laïc en Turquie (encore)

BBC: Turkish secularists in new rally

Mark Alexander

Strong Protests Continue in France

Photo courtesy of The Boston Globe

THE BOSTON GLOBE: PARIS -- French police arrested more than 100 demonstrators and hundreds of students went on strike at a Paris university as left-wing protests against president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy continued for a fourth night yesterday.

Some 300 to 400 demonstrators gathered on the Boulevard St - Michel in the Latin Quarter of Paris, ostensibly to protest against a march by far-right supporters.

Shouting slogans like "Sarko fascist! The people will have your hide!" and "Police everywhere, justice nowhere!", the demonstrators were cornered by hundreds of police close to the nearby Luxembourg Gardens.

A police officer at the scene said 118 arrests had been made by 9.30 p.m. Anti-Sarkozy protests escalate, students strike: 118 demonstrators arrested in Paris (more)

Mark Alexander

« Plus de mille véhicules ont été brûlés depuis dimanche soir en France »
LE FIGARO: Plus de mille véhicules ont été brûlés depuis dimanche soir en France, souvent en marge de manifestations organisées par l'extrême gauche.

TROIS jours après l'élection de Nicolas Sarkozy, les forces de l'ordre demeurent sur les dents. L'embrasement tant redouté des banlieues n'a certes pas eu lieu. Pourtant, depuis dimanche soir, les incidents sporadiques se sont multipliés à Paris et dans plusieurs villes de province. Selon des analystes de la place Beauvau, ces bouffées de violence semblent reposer sur deux ressorts : la colère de jeunes exclus dans les cités sensibles et, dans une plus large mesure, l'activisme de l'extrême-gauche au coeur des grandes agglomérations. Comme au soir du second tour, l'est de Paris a été le berceau, dans la nuit de lundi à hier, d'une manifestation hostile orchestrée par 250 jeunes sympathisants socialistes ainsi qu'un « noyau dur » d'une cinquantaine de militants de l'ultra-gauche (lire ci-dessous). Vers 20 heures, le cortège, scandant « Sarko, facho ! Le peuple aura ta peau ! » ou « Sarko, racaille, il faut que tu t'en ailles ! », a bloqué la place de la Bastille avant de fondre sur la rue de la Roquette. « Les plus virulents, armés de marteaux, étaient venus dans le seul but de casser », déplore un commissaire parisien. Des escarmouches ont éclaté avec les forces de l'ordre tandis que des vitrines ont été brisées et dix voitures incendiées dans les XIe et XIIe arrondissements. L'ultragauche se déchaîne contre Sarkozy (encore)

LE MONDE: Nouvelle soirée de manifestations hostiles à Nicolas Sarkozy

Mark Alexander

Nuit “chaud” à Paris et dans plusieurs grandes villes en France dans la nuit de lundi à mardi

Photo grâce au Figaro

LE FIGARO: Pour la deuxième nuit consécutive, des incidents qui ont éclaté dans la nuit de lundi à mardi dans plusieurs grandes villes. Le bilan de la nuit de dimanche à lundi a, lui, été revu à la hausse. Nouvelle nuit "chaude" en France (encore)

Mark Alexander