City of Brussels will ban Christmas trees out of fear of ‘offending Muslims’
BRUSSELS – Government officials announced this month that they would not be erecting the usual Christmas tree exhibit in the city centre due to worries over offending the local Muslim population.Brussels News reports that the city will replace both the tree and the Nativity scene this year with an “electronic winter tree.”
The 82 foot tall electronic sculpture will be built of a group of television screens, according to the blogger Brussels Expat, an Englishman who lives in the city. “During the daytime you can climb to the top of the tree where you will be able to enjoy a panoramic view of the city,” he wrote. “As soon as it becomes dark the tree turns into a spectacle of light and sound. Every ten minutes an amazing show will unfold.”
City councilwoman Bianca Debaets called it a “misplaced argument” over religious sensitivities that has moved the city to build the sculpture. “I suspect that the reference to the Christian religion was the decisive factor” in replacing the tree, she said. “For a lot of people who are not Christians, the tree there is offensive to them.”
The Right Perspective website reports that a 2008 study showed Muslims make up 25.5 per cent of the population of Brussels, 3.9 per cent of Flanders, and 4.0 per cent of Wallonia.
Two Muslims elected to the Brussels city council last month have vowed to turn Belgium into a Muslim state based on Islamic Shari’a law.
If nothing proves that Islam encourages totalitarianist intimidation, this does. At the very least, Islam seems to be the religion of spoiled children whose every whim must be catered to. If this is an example of “ethical monotheism,” then I’ll take Scientology any day of the week, and twice on Sundays (figuratively speaking). After all, what’s the difference between Islam and Scientology?
BTW, Leon, if you want an indication of how spineless the Catholic Church in Belgium is, here’s a piece I wrote years ago:
http://carnageandculture.blogspot.com/2006/11/joseph-dhippolito-slouching-toward.html
It seems to me that the more “educated” the rulers of governments and religions have become the more they seem to lose sight of the wisdom of the past.
“When the Middle East was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th Century, the monastery was protected by a written declaration of the Prophet Mohamed. The original was kept in Istanbul but a copy can still be viewed in the Monastery museum.”
http://www.sinaimylove.com/english/monastery.html
“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate. No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”
http://www.islamic-study.org/saint_catherine_monastery.htm
This is the irony of “Political Correctness”; it is silent in the face of a militant Islam (“We must be multi-cultural and sensitive after all.”) that openly declares its intention to turn Belgium and other European countries into Shari’a states. Thus, in the long run, it will make possible a degree of misogyny and homophobia unknown in Europe’s history. As a friend of mine says “Political correctness will bite the Europen elite in its collective a**!”
Appears we’re being set up for a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West. What I’ve read about the Muslim Brotherhood suggests that it is at the highest levels a pagan organization and a creation of Western intelligence agencies, primarily those of the United Kingdom and the United States. Paul and Philip Collins have written some fascinating articles about the Muslim Brotherhood and the elites who are pushing Islamic radicalism in order to create international conflicts.