Amundsen’s Ghost

wandering through the northwest passage. an echo of a point in time. A Mari Usque Ad Mare.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@bannerOfTroot @FabrizioRomano The cope is Real

[Jake Wallis Simons @JakeWSimons]

I really disagree with this wholesale condemnation of Islam.
Given the Islamist terror suffered in the West – almost all of which I have seen first-hand as a reporter – mass immigration from the Middle East can only be a source of deep concern for many Jews and Gentiles alike. Jonathan is right about that. The problem of murderous radicalism in the Islamic world is real, disturbing and extensive, and we continue to ignore it to our peril. As @TrevorPTweets, former head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, once wrote, the integration of Muslims will probably be ‘the hardest task we have ever faced’.
However, although ignoring the soaring levels of bigotry in contemporary Muslim societies is a folly that their first victims cannot afford to indulge, both past and recent history shows that there is nothing inherent in Islam that condemns its followers to absorb antisemitism or hate the West.
Those who doubt such integration is possible must consider the example of Israel. That country evokes more Islamic hostility than any other, but at the same time, its offer of equality in a free society, together with its confidence in its own peoplehood, are strong enough to have gained the loyalty of a significant number of its Muslim citizens. On October 7 — when fifteen Muslim Israelis were butchered alongside more than a thousand Jews — heroic Arab Israelis risked their lives to protect their Jewish compatriots. As the country reeled in the aftermath, Alaa Amara, an Arab bicycle shop owner from Tayibe in central Israel, donated fifty children’s bikes to evacuees from the south. When his shop was burned down by extremists in an act of retribution, a crowdfunding campaign raised more than $150,000 to rebuild it.
After October 7, examples of Jewish-Muslim solidarity were hardly limited to Mr Amara and his bicycles. Three days after the atrocities, the Internet star @nasdaily, who has millions of followers, wrote a column headlined, ‘I identified as Palestinian-Israeli but now I’m Israeli first.’ The next day, the popular Arab-Israeli news anchor @lucyaharish — who personally oversaw the rescue of two families on October 7 — called for national unity in a monologue to camera. ‘We, the citizens of the state of Israel, all of us, left and right, secular and religious, Jews, Christians, Druze, Muslims, minorities and immigrants from all over the world, stand united together in this fight,’ she said. When Iman Khatib-Yasin, an Islamist member of the Knesset, publicly doubted the ‘rape of women’ and ‘slaughtering of babies’ by Hamas, she was summarily ordered to resign by @mnsorabbas, the leader of the United Arab List, Israel’s main conservative Muslim political party. @CaptainElla1, the most senior Arab Muslim woman in Israel’s army, recorded a powerful message for social media. ‘We are all together defending and protecting our homeland and our state,’ she said. ‘We are all Israeli, and we know why we are fighting.’ She signed off with a salute: ‘Long live Israel.’
Such examples can only shed a sceptical light on views such as were famously expressed by General Charles de Gaulle: ‘Those who advocate integration have the brains of hummingbirds, no matter how learned they are. Try mixing oil and vinegar. Shake the bottle. After a while, they’ll separate again. Arabs are Arabs, the French are French. Do you think the French body can absorb ten million Muslims, who tomorrow will be twenty million and the day after tomorrow forty?’ For all the great difficulties of integration, patriotic Muslim Israelis like these, and those like them in Britain and across the democracies — including the great many who have served and continue to serve their countries in uniform — prove that although turning the tide may be an almost crippling challenge from where we now stand, a better future is not completely out of the question. Perhaps the hummingbird holds some wisdom.
As the French philosopher @BHL told me when he appeared in an episode of my podcast @The_Brink_: ‘The problem is not Islam. The clash of civilisations is not between the West and Islam, it is inside Islam, between the radicals and the moderates. This is a battle which concerns the Muslims, but it also concerns us. We should support those in the Islamic world who argue for our values and consider that our values are not ours, that democracy does not belong to Europe, that democracy is a universal value.
‘Democracy is not only found in the West. It would exist in Hong Kong if it had not been hijacked and taken over by China, and there remains a movement of dissidents there who oppose authoritarianism. It can be found in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. I hope that there will be some young Muslim women and men who are wise enough to leave the radicals to their stupidness and to understand that this is the battle of their life. For them, there are existential questions. Do they accept the rule of radical Islam or do they reject it? Should they live under this iron rule or not? Why should they? They can be Muslims in a secular society, as the Catholics are Catholic and the Jews are Jews, without being a slave of the clerics.’
The way forward may be clear, but the climb is steep. Any progress we hope to make rests upon a renewed grasp of our values and the confidence to insist upon them. After all, newcomers cannot integrate if there is nothing into which to integrate. Whichever way you look at it, a strong national story is the root of a better future. How can moderate Muslims be expected to stand up to the radicals when they see hordes of leftwing Britons tacitly supporting Hamas on the streets of our capitals, our liberal broadcasters amplifying jihadi propaganda and our politicians working hand-in-hand with Islamists to outlaw ‘Islamophobia’ as a euphemism for blasphemy? As the brilliant writer @Ed_Husain, who was a committed Islamist extremist in his youth, put it: ‘If British policy makers and elected officials are content to tolerate intolerance, and give a platform to those who are committed to destroying democracy and advocate religion-based separatism, why should a minority Muslim population turn on its own?’
Refusing to let go of optimism is vital but we must not downplay the vast and complex scale of the challenge. Sir Trevor Phillips was right: This may very well be the hardest test of Britain and the West. In the long term, healing this social malaise will require little less than a cultural reformation. But the work must start now.
To read more on the topic, get hold of my book, Never Again? How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself. There’s a whole chapter on Islam. Link below.
https://t.co/qEoXMXIKU2

[Laurence Fox @LozzaFox]

My full speech at the @OxfordUnion debating whether the west is right to be suspicious of Islam.

I needed a security team to attend and we were spat at, bullied and heckled by a baying mob.

But I will not give up on free speech.

I will not submit.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@KevinVuongxMP @LizaRosen0000 And no one would have cared about a Palestinian state

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@TRobinsonNewEra @Georgetown He is a Professor of “Islamic civilisation”. Of course he is cool with rape and slavery. Shouldn’t surprise you.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@mario4thenorth @rupasubramanya Canada is a large country with sparse but uneven distribution of population. It’s hard to make these profitable. A good comparison is Australia which doesn’t have one either. Although they have a more digestible $700m 11 year plan to build one for 2039.

[Edmonton Police @edmontonpolice]

In mid-February, I joined police Chiefs from Canada and the United States, on a visit to Israel where we met police and community leaders in several cities. I spent time with police officers from Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze faiths representing a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

I also met with Muslim community leaders who shared openly about their concerns and their reasons for working with police. These officers and community leaders operate in an environment that demands extraordinary vigilance - managing crime, counter terrorism, supporting community and crisis response all amid extreme complexity.

Police to police we were able to talk about the toll this work takes on the people who do it. We talked about building trust in communities where there is little trust. We were able to get a glimpse of the undertaking required to police in complex environments.

I am grateful for what I was able to learn and share with those we visited and among my North American peers. These missions offer a great deal of insight and valuable perspective. I am grateful for the continued leadership and support of the Edmonton Police Commission who have supported me in this.

As police we focus on behavior, not beliefs. Where I have felt challenged this week is in the implication that any community group should have the right to direct where we can learn.

I stand by my decision to take the trip to Israel and continue to view it as valuable, among multiple learning experiences I will have in this role. I remain focused on my longstanding and ongoing commitment to dialogue, learning and connection across communities and across boundaries.

[Ahmed Al-Khalidi @khalidi79397]

If our struggle were truly about freedom for Palestinians, dignity, rights, and self-determination, you would expect us to stand in loud solidarity with other peoples in the Middle East fighting for the same things. Kurds fighting erasure. Yazidis surviving genocide. Iranians risking their lives for basic freedom. That solidarity is mostly absent.

Instead, the global “Palestinian cause” has become something else. It is not centered on building a free Palestinian society. It's all about denying the legitimacy of a Jewish state. Israel’s very existence is treated as the crime. That is why protests obsess over maps without Israel but show little interest in pragmatic solutins and build future for Palestinians.

When freedom is the goal, the enemy is oppression. When erasure is the goal, the enemy is existence itself. Our struggle has been framed as the latter. That framing doesn’t liberate Palestinians. It traps us in permanent conflict, turns our pain into a political weapon for others, and makes real solutions impossible.

I want freedom for my people. Freedom cannot be built on the demand that another people disappear.

[** W. Brett Wilson ** @WBrettWilson]

Sad that it must happen but impressed at the Pro-Iranian efforts in Toronto. And such.

We truly need this amplification of support for the people of Iran.

And love him or hate him - Trump and team are key to resolving the end of the brutal regime in Iran.

Agree? Please RT

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

#FreeIran

[Elica Le Bon الیکا‌ ل بن @elicalebon]

Goosebumps all over my body. Listen to them thundering “Iran” in total darkness, yet, without question, in the most alive place on planet earth in this very moment.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@ZacGoldsmith @grok is this correct and are there additional sources to back this up?

[Harley Finkelstein @harleyf]

A new year has a way of making this obvious. Comfort feels good. It also has a ceiling.

Discomfort isn’t the enemy. Complacency is.

Here’s to a year of building, even when it feels uncomfortable.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@TrustlessState privacy and anonymity are two different things.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@laurashin @pbrody The “crisis” was a crisis only to those who held big bags that paid zero attention to the actual work being done, the roadmap etc. That’s the point.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@DiabolicalSpuds Old news: https://t.co/fCQXTNzW3L

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@liberal_party I hope people aren’t this dumb to vote for you again

[Brian Lilley @brianlilley]

Why did Mark Carney get the Ecole Polytechnique issue so wrong? Because he wasn't living in Canada at the time or for many years to come.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

This a parody account?

[Liberal Party @liberal_party]

Mark Carney got it done.

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@kinsellawarren Results should matter more than titles, degrees, and positions don’t you think?

[Amundsen’s Ghost @Porxster]

@WarClandestine Russia didn’t invade Ukraine to start the war? Must have missed it.