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German authorities are reporting that, within their cities, areas now exist where police fear to tread. In many German urban areas drug dealing, theft, brawls, and assaults on police officers are the order of the day. The problem is becoming so severe police scarcely dare enter some quarters except in strength, while in others they concentrate on their own safety first.

But this is old news to French law enforcement officials. The 2005 riots woke France up to the fact that an anti-civilization had arisen in the “banlieues” (housing projects), which surround major French cities. Populated mainly by immigrants from North and West Africa, many with a Muslim background, they are known as places of anger and aggression towards anyone who represents “official” France.

(…) In Germany, the problem neighbourhoods are often located within the city and not on the outskirts. Like in France, though, urban anti-societies have arisen, but in Germany they consist mainly of Turkish and Arab immigrants, many from Lebanon. In their districts, German laws and values now have little, if any, validity, while their culture of lawlessness does.

Police complain that when they conduct routine checks in these neighbourhoods, they are met with angry crowds and often risk assault. Even when a policeman is carrying out a simple duty, like inspecting someone’s identification, out of nowhere suddenly appear 20 to 30 men, yelling wildly, who push and shove him. They assemble quickly after having been contacted by cell phone.

While confrontations occur over nothing, violence can occur when the stakes are higher. When Berlin police arrested three drug-dealing Arabs in Kreuzberg, for example, a district where Turks and Arabs form the majority, they were immediately swarmed by two dozen men who tried to free the suspected criminals by force. Only the quick arrival of reinforcements saved the day. It is also in Kreuzberg that the first car burnings in Germany took place.

France and Denmark not being enough, muslims commence intifada in Germany | Infidels Are Cool.

Technorati Tags: French+2005+riots, French+”balieues”, Germany, Islamism, violence+on+the+streets, Kreuzberg, Berlin

Latent risks can become patent threats. What marks the change of a risk into a threat is usually the emergence of a factor which has been misjudged. It has been the reduction of traditional threats (aggression from nation states) combined with the increase of possible risk factors (most notably, Islamist terrorism, but there are many others) which has so destabilised world affairs and increased uncertainty. Linked to these changes is a loss in the United Kingdom of confidence in our own identity, values, constitution and institutions. ‘This England that was wont to conquer others’, wrote Shakespeare, ‘hath made a shameful conquest of itself.’ This is one of the main factors which have precipitated risks into threats. As long as it persists, it will have the power to do so again.

Islamist terrorism is where people tend to begin. The United Kingdom presents itself as a target, as a fragmenting, post- Christian society, increasingly divided about interpretations of its history, about its national aims, its values and in its political identity. That fragmentation is worsened by the firm self-image of those elements within it who refuse to integrate. This is a problem worsened by the lack of leadership from the majority which in mis- placed deference to ‘multi-culturalism’ failed to lay down the line to immigrant communities, thus undercutting those within them trying to fight extremism. The country’s lack of self-confidence is in stark contrast to the implacability of its Islamist terrorist enemy, within and without.

Then it presents other threats:

1. Geostrategic new problems: which have not been assesed and truly considered even if there are other problems mixed with them. The weakness of the UK Navy is one of them.
2. The old surfs the new: the old Jihadi theories spread through the world, using every method at their disposal to spread, including modern Internet.
3. The politics of climate change represent unexpected pressures: They are not only consuming government resources but they are also arising unexpected conflicts of interest inside nations and between them.
4. The problem of Russia is re-emerging: growing Russian nationalism has two essential components: its wealth in oil and gas and its comtempt for the soft West.
5. Multilateral institutions are weakening: but nonetheless, they are still supported by Western countries.

And it concludes:

The deep guarantee of real strength is our knowledge of who we are. Our loss of cultural self-confidence weakens our ability to develop new means to provide for our security in the face of new risks. Our uncertainty incubates the embryonic threats these risks represent. We look like a soft touch. We are indeed a soft touch, from within and without.

We need to remind ourselves of the first principles which govern priorities in liberal democracies. Defence and security must be restored as the first duty of government. The trust and mutual obligations between government, people and the defence forces must be reasserted. Our common understanding of and allegiance to the United Kingdom must be restored. We have a powerful history and a sound constitution, fit for the state’s essential role as the ultimate guarantor of the individual’s safety, freedom and security.

Middle East Analysis: UK group assesses Islamism as a major security threat.

Really interesting and on the target. I would only have added another threat: that posed by Communist China…

Related news: UK faces threat from British Muslims returning from Afghanistan.  The British commander said he had seen evidence that terror groups based in southern Afghanistan were plotting with Muslim extremists in Britain to carry out attacks in the UK. He suggested the traffic between Britain and Afghanistan may flow in both directions, with some British Muslims returning from the region and posing a domestic security threat. British Muslims are part of the Taliban militia fighting against UK security forces in Afghanistan, the top British commander said.

Technorati Tags: climate+change, European+Union, Islamism, Jihadism, NATO, Russia, UK, UN

Seven Baha’is have been detained in Iran have confessed that they had stablished an illegal organization in the country which received orders from Israel to undermine the Islamic system, according to Iranian newspaper Resalat.

The majority of the Baha’is were detained in May.

Civil servants did not comment about this matter.

Baha’is have been persecuted severely by Iran since decades ago.

Irán acusa a siete detenidos de tener lazos con Israel: reporte | Mundo | Reuters.

Considering the treatment of detainees in Iran, anyone would confess anything…

FOR “defaming and insulting the administrative bodies of the state”, the president of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, Mazen Darwish, was recently sentenced to a salutary ten days in jail. His real crime was to report on riots in an industrial town near Damascus, Syria’s capital. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based lobby, said his case brought the number of journalists and “cyber dissidents” imprisoned in Syria to seven.

Mr Darwish may have got off lightly. In May Tareq Bayassi, aged 24, was jailed for three years for publishing “false news” on the internet after being detained without trial for almost a year. “The real reason for the sentence,” says another lobby, the online Committee to Protect Bloggers, “was his having posted an article on the shortcomings of the Syrian secret service.”

For several years Syria has been an enemy of the internet. The security services keep opposition figures and even ordinary bloggers under surveillance. The main internet service-provider bans 100-plus websites. Most sites carping at President Bashar Assad’s government are silenced, as are many Kurdish and Islamist sites. A yellow screen flashes up with the words “Access Denied”.

Syria | Red lines that cannot be crossed | Economist.com.

Related: Iran condemns a journalist for publishing lies.

Technorati Tags: Bashar+Assad, blogosphere, Committee+to+Protect+Bloggers, Mazen+Darwish, Syria,Syrian+Center+for+Media+and+Freedom+of+Expression, Tareq+Bayassi

There was a 9% rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK in the first half of 2008 compared with the same period last year, a charity has reported.

There were 266 incidents up to June, compared with 244 last year, according to the Community Security Trust (CST).

Some 166 were incidents of abusive behaviour, including verbal abuse, hate mail and anti-Semitic graffiti.

CST admitted that improved contact with smaller Jewish communities “goes some way to explaining the overall rise”.

Incidents involving Jewish students or academics and at colleges rose 88%, from 26 to 49.

Harry’s Place » Anti-Semitic incidents continue.

Technorati Tags: anti-Semitism, Community+Security+Trust, Great+Britain, UK

Hugo Chávez, during his trip to Spain in Madrid, on July 25th. (Foto: REUTERS)

Hugo Chávez confirmed on Thursday what was a known in high economic circles since some months ago: the Government wants to buy the Bank of Venezuela. Owned by Spanish Bank of Santander, will underpin an State bank related to Chávez’s nationalist plans. In a large speech, transmitted in a compulsory way by radio and TV, the “Bolivarian” leader said that the procedure will begin shortly to pay Bank of Santander a “just price” for the firm.

Chávez, who just last year menaced with the nationalization of the two Spanish bank which were present in the country (BBVA and Bank of Santander) stated that the Santander wanted to sell the Bank of Venezuela to a Venezuelan businessman but were not interested in selling it to Venezuelan Government. Chávez also said that he had documents that proved the negotiations between Bank of Santander and national businessmen.

“They told me that they didn’t want to sell it, so I tell them: I want it, and we are going to nationalize it. We are in need of a bank of such magnitude in Venezuela”.

Chávez anuncia la nacionalización de los activos del Banco Santander en Venezuela | elmundo.es.

Related posts: Venezuela: now Chávez goes after the banks by Fausta.

Technorati Tags: Venezuela, Chávez, Spain, Bank+of+Sanatander, Bank+of+Venezuela