Dresden demonstrators hold a cross painted in colors of the German flag. Reuters photo. http://www.ibtimes.com/germany-protests-2014-protesters-sing-christmas-carols-anti-islam-march-1765734
This is news from earlier in the week that we didn’t get to before Christmas.
Germany witnessed the largest anti-Muslim demonstration on Monday night with up to 17,500 people reportedly attending protests in the eastern German city of Dresden while chanting anti-immigration and anti-Islamic slogans.
In the face of widespread hatred toward Muslims in German society, some German politicians and religious leaders have condemned the protests, which are being organized by the Dresden-based right-wing group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEDIGA), a group that holds anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views. In response to the growing anti-Islamic feeling, counter-demonstrators also marched through the streets of Dresden to support immigration policies.
[….]
Peace and solidarity within German society has deteriorated over the last couple of weeks. Far-right anti-Muslim groups have become more prominent in Germany with more people starting to consider Islam a threat to their society. With the majority of Germans supporting anti-Muslim rhetoric and anti-immigration policies, according to a poll, more people have started to consider Islam a threat to their society.
In the face of the growing number of refugees and asylum seekers seeking shelter in Germany and the threat posed by the radical militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the majority of Germans have been fueling anti-immigration sentiment while calling for more restrictive immigration policies.
The article mentions that the German equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce is looking for more (cheap) foreign workers (sound familiar!).
The number of refugees entering Germany may rise next year to 200,000, said the German Office for Migration and Refugees, DPA reported.
See our entire archive on the growing strife in Germany. Any guesses—civil war coming?
Update December 31st: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum directs us to this story with updates—oopsy! Looks like there may not have been an intentional fire set by right wing Islamophobic fanatics after all!
Update December 30th: Another Swedish mosque arson, here.
At least that is what the media wants you to think happened in Eskilstuna. We’ll see if a right-winger (Afrophobia!) is responsible or if it is the result of one of those Somali on Somali clan grievances.
Police said between 15 and 20 people were in the mosque in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna when the fire broke out at around noon on Thursday. Of the five injured, two were treated for smoke inhalation, two suffered lacerations and one a foot injury.
Police said they were treating the fire, which forced the evacuation of several nearby apartments, as an arson.
“A witness saw somebody throw an object through the window of the building, which serves as a mosque, after which a violent fire began,” police spokesman Lars Franzell said.
There was no word on the possible identity of the suspect and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. The mosque is used primarily by Somali Muslims in the town, according to the KNA news agency. Eskilstuna is located about 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of Stockholm.
Political debate over immigration
The apparent arson attack comes amid a growing political debate over immigration in the country, which has traditionally been seen as welcoming to immigrants.
If anyone sees an update on this story, please send it my way.
Go herefor our extensive Sweden archive. I guess lucky for the mosque leaders that this is not a no-go zone for police and emergency crews.
Kentucky refugee contractor: I think it’s time that all those Arabs we are bringing to Kentucky have their own newspaper!
Kentucky Refugee Ministries Executive Director John Koehlinger: Newspaper would “unify” Arab community in KY.
Unless you have been living in a cave over the last few months, you know that the US State Departmentis bringing about 10,000 Syrian, mostly Muslim, refugees (chosen by the UN) to the US in this fiscal year (2015 started on October 1, 2014).
Here are three news stories sent from several readers about where they will be going.
Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota and its community partners, which include schools, medical facilities, law enforcement, county and volunteer agencies and churches, are anticipating a shift in the ongoing resettling of refugees here. [They are slowing the Bhutanese (Hindu) flow and switching to the Middle Easterners—ed]
[….]
The agency has recently resettled a number of people from Afghanistan, and is planning for refugees in the coming months from Syria and Iraq, who are escaping the terrorism threat of ISIS.
[….]
Lutheran Social Services (LSS) is projecting to place a total of about 400 refugees in North Dakota in fiscal year 2015, which began in October.
Laetitia Mizero, program director and state refugee coordinator at LSS, said 260 will settle in the Fargo area, about 95 in Grand Forks and 45 in Bismarck.
In fiscal year 2014, LSS placed 500 refugees statewide, a larger number than usual.
This next bit is really informative, and is something every community “welcoming” refugees should be paying attention to. Once they get a “seed community” started, they (the Lutherans in this case) then are paid to process in the family members.
“Ninety-eight percent of individuals who’ve arrived over the past 12 months are joining family who are already here,” she said.
LINCOLN, Neb. — At least four Nebraska agencies have pledged to help some of the thousands of refugees expected to come to America as a result of persecution and genocide in Syria.
[….]
Nebraska agencies pledging to help deal with the refugees include Lutheran Refugee Services of Lincoln, Lutheran Family Services, Catholic Social Services and the Southern Sudan Community Association.
Such refugees are eligible for a full range of public assistance programs swell as refugee assistance programs.
***Here is the contact information for the 4 contractors who will bring Syrians to Nebraska:
CWS (Church World Service)
NE-CWS-01: Lutheran Refugee Services
Address: 2900 O Street, Suite 200
Lincoln, NE 68510
Phone: 402-435-2954
USCCB (US Conference of Catholic Bishops)
NE-USCCB-02: Catholic Social Services
Address: 2241 O Street
Lincoln, NE 68510-1133
Phone: 402-474-1600
CWS (Church World Service)
NE-CWS-02: Lutheran Family Services
Address: 1941 South 42nd Street, Suite 402
Omaha, NE 68105-1401
Phone: 402-346-6100
ECDC (Ethiopian Community Development Council)
NE-ECDC-01: Southern Sudan Community Association
Address: 3610 Dodge Street, Suite 100
Omaha, NE 68131
Phone: 402-554-0759
Kentucky from the Courier Journal (article about a new start-up Arab language newspaper):
Kentucky Refugee Ministries Executive Director John Koehlinger said Botan’s venture comes as Louisville agencies continue to resettle a large number of refugees from Iraq — a trend that started around 2008 — and prepare to aid the first refugees from Syria some time next year.
“Refugees have been coming from Iraq in large numbers for five years,” he said. “I think that the time is right for a newspaper for that community.”
About the photoand Kentucky Refugees Ministries. In its most recent Form 990 KRM took in $4,703,422 from government contracts as part of a total revenue stream of $5,287,956 which means they are 89% funded by taxpayer dollars in a Wilson Fish state where the resettlement program is run by the federal government’s contractors (with no say by elected representatives of the state government of Kentucky).
When you visit that Form 990 be sure to check out the costs of running this ‘non-profit’ for salaries, office expenses, travel etc.
***Contact information for all of the resettlement contractors in the nation may be found atthis handy list.
…..over 100 a day says head nun at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, with former speaker Nancy Pelosi in Washingon this past summer. Photo: http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Norma+Pimentel/House+Democrats+Meet/6DK9VcEFCJi
McALLEN, Texas — The media tent that once stood in the parking lot of Sacred Heart Church is gone, as are the television crews and reporters who descended this summer when the flow of Central American immigrants illegally crossing the Texas border was major news.
But after a brief lull, the surge of undocumented families passing through a temporary shelter set up by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley seems to be rising again.The spotlight may have turned away, but if the sense of crisis is gone, the people have not stopped coming.
“The numbers increased a lot this past month, almost to 100 every day [last week],” said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. “We have seen some that have already been caught and tried again. They have hope that they have a chance at a better life here.”
After Christmas, she said, the charity will begin searching for a facility to turn what began as a temporary shelter into a permanent offering.
Pimentel oversees the volunteer effort providing short-term shelter to some of the thousands of women and children who have trekked to Texas from Central America. About 52,300 families surrendered to the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley during the 2014 fiscal year, an increase of more than 500 percent over 2013. About 50,000 unaccompanied children were caught or surrendered to border agents in the Valley in fiscal year 2014.
It doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon,” Pimentel said. “[The Border Patrol] considered the fact that we’re here and we’re prepared to receive them.”
With so many arrivals, the Border Patrol releases most families to the church shelter with orders for them to appear before an immigration judge in whatever city they reach. Some stay in Texas. Others head for New York, Miami, Boston or Chicago, among other cities.
[….]
Through Oct. 17, local governments had spent about $560,000 to aid in the humanitarian effort.Governments including the cities of McAllen and Weslaco, and Hidalgo and Willacy counties, have asked the federal and state governments for reimbursement, but a McAllen city official said they haven’t heard back.
Now, if our side was as organized as the left, we would be out protesting at this Catholic Charities convention against the so-called “charity” feeding from the public trough and using our money for their political agenda.
The crisis has also put the area in the spotlight. Pimentel said the American and Latin American branches of Catholic Charities will hold their annual conference in McAllen next year.
Surely they are having the confab at the border to take full advantage of the media opportunity to push the Catholic open borders agenda.
For our complete archive on the “Unaccompanied minors” invasion, click here.
