The European Union, Communism and other Failures

Great News: EU Poll Proves No Deaths Due To Islamic Terrorism

Europol Reports Zero Deaths From Islamic Terrorism In Europe
Deenfeeds

Europol tracks terrorist attacks in the European Union and publishes the data in an annual report entitled EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT).  The first such report was for the year 2006 and the most recently released one was for 2010.  Going through the data, I noted in my previous article (Updated Europol Data: Less Than 1% of Terrorist Attacks by Muslims) that less than 1% of terrorist attacks on European soil were committed by Muslims.

Anti-Muslim bigots were naturally very upset with these findings, and offered a couple flimsy counter-responses.  The most popular one was some variation of the following snarky remark:

Perhaps ‘scale’ rather than ‘quantity’ is the real issue here? 

But, is it?

I went back through the data, which revealed the following conclusion: there were zero deaths from Islamist terrorism for every single year the Europol reports were published, a span of five years.

Here is the data (all quotes are taken directly from that year’s Europol terrorism report):

In 2006, there were no successful terrorist attacks by Muslims, but only 1 “failed terrorist attack that took place in Germany” resulting in zero deaths.

In 2007, once again “[t]here were no successful Islamist terrorist attacks” with 1 “failed terrorist attack that took place in Germany” and 3 “attempted terrorist attack[s]” resulting inzero deaths.

In 2008, there was only 1 terrorist attack by Muslims, in which “only the attacker himself was injured.”  Again, zero deaths.  But, the scale of the Islamist terrorist attacks make up for the fact that 99+% of terrorist attacks were by non-Muslims!  (Note: there were no other attempted or foiled attacks in that year.)

In 2009, there was only 1 terrorist attack by Muslims, resulting in zero deaths but “[o]ne of the guards trying to stop [the terrorist] was slightly wounded.”  The scale!  The horror!

In 2010, “[t]he number of Islamist terrorist attacks actually carried out in the EU was limited to three attacks in 2010.  They caused minimal damage to the intended targets.”  The report notes further that “[t]he attacks shared some characteristics” including “lack of familiarity with explosives.”  But, be very afraid of these Mastermind Terrorists!  In the first attack, the victim “managed to save his life” by locking himself in a room.  In the second attack, the Mastermind Terrorist accidentally let the bomb explode while “in a hotel toilet,” resulting in zero fatalities.  In the last attack, ”the suspected suicide bomber himself was the only fatality.”  Once again, there were zero deaths from Islamist terrorism in that year.

This brings us to a grand total of zero deaths from Islamist terrorism from every year since Europol started keeping track of terrorism and publishing an annual report.  Amazingly, it seems that the only injuries sustained, in the entire five year period, was to one guard who “was slightly wounded.”

Yet, even though according to the data in their own reports Muslims were responsible for less than 1% of terrorist attacks and caused zero deaths, Europol ominously warns that “the threat [from Islamist terrorism] remains real and serious” and “the threat of Islamist terrorism by Al-Qaeda inspired groups and affiliates is high.”  Every year, without fail, Europol has reported these same findings, but never once did any of these reports note that the threat of Islamist terrorism is heavily exaggerated.  In fact, the data they provide is irrelevant to their conclusions and recommendations, which are actually predetermined long before any data is collected or analyzed.

In one of his recent articles, Glenn Greenwald notes that U.S. officials declared that they have defeated Al-Qaeda by rendering it “operationally ineffective” but at the same time warned that “the terrorist group will remain a major security threat for years.”  It seems that both the United States and the European Union are able to operate under such paradoxical premises.

Similarly, facts will not move Islamophobes.  Even as their main arguments fall apart, they will no doubt find some fall-back argument to rely upon.

Danios was the Brass Crescent Award Honorary Mention for Best Writer in 2010 and the Brass Crescent Award Winner for Best Writer in 2011.  

Check out the original post!

Throw The Bums Out!

Who Needs Cancer When You Can Have A Growth Engine

Gul says Turkey can be EU's "growth engine"

TheStar.online

LONDON (Reuters) - Turkey is still determined to join the European Union despite the current crisis in the euro zone and can become the bloc's economic "growth engine", President Abdullah Gul said in an interview published on Sunday.

Gul rejected concerns that the economic problems facing the euro zone meant that any further expansion of the 27member EU should be put on hold. EU countries agreed unanimously in 2005 to start talks with mainly Muslim Turkey with the goal of full membership.

However, French President Nicolas Sarkozy remains opposed to Turkey joining and German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she favours a "privileged partnership" for Turkey rather than full membership.

"Some people who think in a narrow scope and who do lack a strategic perspective consider Turkey's membership a burden," Gul, who is travelling to Britain this week for a threeday visit, told Britain's Sunday Telegraph.

"But those who can think 30 years, 60 years ahead, and who can think about the changing trends in the economy and the changing centres of power, can understand how much strength Turkey can bring to the existing strength of Europe."

Gul said Turkey's membership of NATO had been considered the only reason for it to be allowed to join but now its booming economy, where GDP grew by 11 percent in the first quarter of 2011, was as valid.

"Consider the potential that Turkey has: Turkey's position, her assets, the value she can add in terms of energy resources, her population, the dynamism she can bring into Europe, and also the growth that she can bring, with Turkey being the engine of this growth."

He said Turkey viewed the euro zone crisis as a temporary situation.

"We approach the negotiations with a strategic vision, and are very determined."

Turkey has also been taking a tough approach against Syria over its crackdown on opponents of President Bashar al Assad and Gul said his country would back the Syrian people.

"When any kind of movement has its roots among the people of the country and the walls of fear come down, then the end result is very obvious," he said.

"With a strong and clear voice we are saying that the legitimate demands of the people are being supported by us. We enable them to have their meetings and discussions in a free environment, and provide a diplomatic platform.

"I strongly believe that there is no place any more for authoritarian regimes single party systems that do not have accountability or transparency on the shores of the Mediterranean."

Anti-EU Backlash ... Beyond the Fringe

The Economist

The rise of populists is a threat both to the euro and to the EU as a whole

EUROPE HAS A dissonant new voice. Anti-Muslim, anti-elite, anti-globalisation and increasingly anti-Brussels, populists now count for something in the Nordic countries, among the Dutch and Flemish, in France, Italy and Austria, and in parts of eastern Europe. They come in many varieties, but all claim to represent what Pierre Poujade, France’s original post-war populist, called “the ripped-off, lied-to little people”.

These movements are sometimes described as neo-fascist. Some of them indeed are, and all of them embrace odious and intolerant views of one sort or another. But to dismiss them as fascist, and thereby safely rule them out of European political life, offers the liberal mainstream false comfort. Over the past few years populists have found ways to set themselves apart from a neo-Nazi ideology. Many support gay and women’s rights (all the better, they think, to bash the Muslims), and many are fervently pro-Israel. They are here to stay.

Europe’s populists are not likely to form governments; they lack the votes and are completely unequipped for office. However, mainstream politicians do not know how to see them off. So their obsessions and their resentments have seeped into the debate, even among those who would never vote for them.

This matters just now for three reasons. First, because the euro and its independent central bank are elite projects par excellence. The high priests of Europe’s political class handed down the edict that Europe needed its own currency. They forced their economies to converge during the 1990s and masterminded the extravagantly complex job of issuing new notes and coins. Now that the technocrats have been shown up as bunglers, the anti-technocrats stand to gain. Second, populists are nationalists and protectionists and reject both the idea of paying to save Europe’s troubled periphery and the sort of structural reforms that Europe needs for growth. And third, populists feed the widespread mistrust of Brussels and all its works, which will constrain the options available to fix the euro.

To understand how populism has taken root, look at what has happened in the Netherlands, once the very model of a tolerant, pro-integration member of the EU. In his study of the murder of Theo van Gogh, a film director, by a radical Dutch Muslim in 2004, Ian Buruma borrows the term regenten to describe the modern Dutch elite. Like the self-confident 17th-century ruling class of merchants smugly gazing from the portraits of Frans Hals, the 21st-century regenten looked out for themselves and neglected the things that bothered ordinary people.

In the Netherlands the beef was with the immigration that created “dish cities” of Turkish and Moroccan households tuned to satellite television from abroad. The regenten were all in favour of multiculturalism and in no hurry to press immigrants to assimilate. In the early 2000s a flamboyant gay university lecturer called Pim Fortuyn made a political career out of condemning what he saw as Muslim intolerance and regenten neglect.  More Here

The UKs Big Fat EUropean ... Divorce

Eurozone break-up would be no disaster for UK
What Investment
Breaking up the Eurozone would be less disastrous for the UK than predicted, a new report has suggested.
Breaking up the Eurozone would be less disastrous for the UK than predicted, a new report has suggested.
In its assessment of the cost of a euro break-up, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said the UK would
experience a 0.5 per cent reduction in gross domestic product (GDP), based on GDP in the Eurozone contracting 2 per cent as a
whole.
Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of the CEBR, said that slower growth in export markets would impact UK growth and that
business investment would also be affected by a break-up.
The report comes as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou agreed to stand down, leaving the countryʼs leaders to form a
unity government that will be led by a new prime minister.
The CEBR said the ʻon-offʼ Greek referendum had forced Europe to ʻlook over the edge and confront the issue of the break-up of
the Eurozoneʼ.
McWilliams explained that as the UK holds just £2.1 billion of Greek sovereign debt, compared with £14.1 billion and £9.3 billion
in Germany and France respectively, the monetary impacts of Greece leaving the Euro and defaulting would be ʻmanageableʼ.
He added, ʻIf it breaks up, the immediate pain is much more intense but then there is a more stable basis and we would expect
that within about 30 months growth will actually be faster than if the Eurozone survives in its current form.
ʻAfter five years we would expect the UK to be at least as well off if the euro breaks up as it would be under the alternative11/9/11 UK to benefit if Eurozone breaks up, says report | What Investment
www.whatinvestment.co.uk/print/1666858/eurozone-breakup-would-be-no-disaster-for-uk.thtml 2/2
scenario of holding it together.ʼ

However, Ruth Lea, economic adviser to the Arbuthnot Banking Group has warned that the UK will struggle to avoid a doubledip recession in light of recent developments in the Eurozone.
She said, ʻBritainʼs economy is faltering and will suffer from the rapidly deteriorating ec