Everyone is Welcome in Trudeau's Canada, Even ISIS Executioners

If self-confessed ISIL killer is not held accountable, who will be?

Iraqi fighters of the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation units) stand next to a wall bearing the ISIL flag as they enter the city of al-Qaim, in Iraq's western Anbar province near the Syrian border, Nov. 3, 2017. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images

John Ivison

OTTAWA — Listening to the New York Times Caliphate podcast is a harrowing experience. The most recent episodes feature a Canadian ISIL fighter, recounting in graphic detail how he executed two men in cold blood.

Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi, his nom de guerre, talked in a disconcertingly bland North American accent about being taught how to behead people. “You had to know how to slice a head off,” he said.

He then depicted a group execution, in which he shot a middle-aged Muslim man in the back of the head. “It’s justified – you’re not going to be held accountable,” he said he told himself.

On another occasion, he took part in a community killing, stabbing a drug dealer in the heart. “The blood was warm and it sprayed everywhere,” he said. “I had to stab him multiple times.”

He said the second killing left him feeling “disgusted” and determined to return to his parents in Canada. He escaped to Turkey, and then on to his grandparents’ home in Pakistan. He eventually made his way home to Canada, telling immigration authorities at the airport that he’d spent the past 10 months at university in Pakistan. “I said it in a way so that it didn’t seem I was lying,” he said.

The only positive in all this is that he said he would never return to a life of violence. “No, I’ve come too far from it,” he said.

But, regardless of his conversion to a more harmonious world-view, it should not be overlooked that there is a self-confessed killer on the loose in Canada’s biggest city – one who lied to immigration officials to get into the country.

Actually, most murderers don't plan on repeating the act. That doesn't absolve them of responsibility for what they've done.

The case was raised in the House of Commons on Friday, the day after the podcast was released. Conservative MP Candice Bergen wondered how the government is not doing something about an individual who speaks so freely to the media.

Ralph Goodale, the Public Safety Minister, said he couldn’t discuss operational matters on the floor of the House but that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP are “taking all the necessary steps to ensure that justice is enforced”.

Let’s hope that Huzaifa has said enough to incriminate himself and that he is made to answer for his crimes.

Not all cases are as open and shut. As Global News’ Stewart Bell revealed Monday, Canada’s strategy for managing returning jihadis is fraught with problems.

Documents released to Bell under the Access to Information Act suggest that criminal charges are unlikely to be brought against returning ISIL fighters because they require evidence of the individual’s activity in the war-zone, or because they rely on information provided by partners that the RCMP is not authorized to disclose in court.

This is the “intelligence to evidence” conundrum that has meant only a couple of prosecutions have proceeded in recent years.

Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale stands during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, April 26, 2018. Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The government says around 60 Canadian extremists have returned from Syria and Iraq, although academic Amarnath Amarasingam claims the figure is much lower – “no more than 10 at most”.

And yet, why would the government exaggerate the number? That makes no sense.

The United Kingdom has revoked the citizenship of ISIL fighters so they can’t return, while other countries like France and the U.S. have tried to make sure that any foreign fighters who joined ISIL die on the battlefield. But Canadians have a “right to return”, according to the briefing note provided for Goodale.

“Therefore, even if a Canadian engaged in terrorist activity abroad, the government must facilitate their return to Canada,” the document says.

The returning terrorists are managed by a group within government called the High Risk Returnee Interdepartmental Taskforce, which tries to mitigate the threat.

The RCMP document obtained by Bell suggests officers may travel overseas to collect evidence, or undercover officers could engage with the returnee to collect evidence and monitor them. The RCMP can send intervention teams to engage with the returnee and their family, to help them disengage from their past behaviour.

The hope is that, like Huzaifa, they have become disillusioned with their cause. But the documents offer a stark assessment – some terrorists do not fear prosecution or death.

And consequently, they do not fear or respect Canadian laws or codes of moral conduct!

The Charter changes everything in Canada. British defence secretary Gavin Williamson sparked a debate in the U.K. after he said a “dead terrorist can’t cause any harm to Britain”. Opinion polls suggested that 35 per cent of Britons felt jihadis should be treated as enemy combatants, making them legitimate targets, 42 per cent favoured stripping them of citizenship and only 11 per cent said they should be brought home to face sentencing and rehabilitation.

With the first two options off the table for the Canadian government, prosecution, monitoring and rehabilitation are the only tools left in the kit.

And, of course, Canadians will have no say in it because Justin knows best what is good for Canadians. And no-one in Justin's Canada is going to have their feelings hurt by the government, except Christians.

The vast majority of Canadians favour prosecution but cautious intelligence agencies and wary prosecutors mean the Public Prosecution Service has only charged two individuals to date.

The Huzaifa case is surely an opportunity to improve that strike rate.

Contrary to his own assertion as he pulled the trigger, the law demands he is held accountable.

If the justice system won’t prosecute in such an apparent slam-dunk case, what chance convictions in more contentious litigation?

Sweden Eyes Doubling Military Budget by 2035, Citing Russian Bogeyman

The New Normal - Sweden, going broke playing NATO's game

Preparations for Aurora 17 field exercise in Skovde, Sweden. © Bjorn Larsson Rosvall / Reuters

The Swedish armed forces have called for military spending and the number of servicemen to be more than doubled by 2035 to combat future challenges, with Russia listed as the main one.

The plan is to increase the annual military budget from the current 53 billion kronor ($6.5 billion) to around 115 billion kronor ($14 billion) in seventeen years. The report, formally called the ‘perspective study,’ was published on Thursday and is yet to be submitted to Sweden’s parliament. The paper also argues that it is necessary to boost staff numbers from 50,000 people today to around 120,000 people by 2035. 

The main conclusions section of the report starts with Russia and has several paragraphs devoted to the threat it poses. “Russia has through its action in Georgia in 2008, as well as in the Crimea and in East Ukraine in 2014, showed that it does not hesitate to use military force to achieve its political goals,” the report stated.

The Swedish Army’s report also mentions that Moscow plans “to increase their military capabilities after 2020” and to strengthen the ability to “rapidly mobilize” for “offensive operations” in the near future. The report says Sweden will “inevitably” find itself in the middle of a conflict zone if Russia comes into conflict with NATO.

It is inevitable because NATO seems determined to make it happen. Bear in mind that this report is written by RT and therefore has a definite Russian slant. But also consider that NATO has been as much, if not more of an aggressor in the region than Russia. Also, keep in mind that Sweden is a very long way from the Black Sea.

It should be a concern to Swedes that billions of kronor might be wasted on the military, much of which will end up in the hands of arms merchants - those same people who control NATO and many other western countries. 

Sweden's budget is already being pushed by the extraordinary expenses related to integrating migrants. As Germany pointed out the other day, waves of radical Muslims are headed to their prisons. Prisons are very expensive and radical Muslims within them will be very difficult to deal with safely. 

Russia is expected to have “the greatest impact on the security policy situation in the Baltic Sea area,” according to the paper.

The “irrational myth about the almighty Russian threat” was recently criticized by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Munich Security Conference. A day before delivering his speech there, Lavrov told Euronews that “only an inflamed imagination” could come up with the idea that Moscow was about to attack the Baltic or Poland, but Russophobic rhetoric in the West never seems to abate.

An EU-established independent international fact-finding mission concluded that the war in South Ossetia in 2008 “started with a massive Georgian artillery attack” and that “there was no ongoing armed attack by Russia before the start of the Georgian operation.” It also found “no evidence to support any claims that Russian peacekeeping units in South Ossetia were in flagrant breach of their obligations.” 

Crimea reunited with Russia in spring 2014 after the move was overwhelmingly approved in a snap referendum. The popular vote was prompted by a violent coup in Kiev, and the almost immediate offensive on regions in the country’s southeast, where locals refused to recognize the newly imposed regime.

Suspected Hand Grenade Attack on Police Station in Malmo, Sweden

The New Normal - Swedish Police under fire

FILE PHOTO © Johan Nilsson / Reuters

A loud bang has been heard at the police station in the Swedish city of Malmo. The explosion was caused by a hand grenade, according to news reports.

"The place is locked off and the bombing group is on its way," police spokeswoman Anna Goransson was quoted as saying by Aftonbladet.

The alleged attack happened shortly after 9pm local time in the courtyard of the police station. "Fortunately, no people have been injured, but cars, I cannot say how many, have been damaged," Goransson told reporters.

Authorities have yet to confirm what caused the explosion, but local media are reporting that a hand grenade was used.

Police have not confirmed any arrests so far, but Aftonbladet's photographer said two people have been taken into custody. The detonation took place just as the two suspects approached the station, according to reports.

Police have been placed on high alert with armed officers deployed to strategic locations around Malmo.

As the investigation gets underway, local media and authorities have sketched possible connections with a recent spate of attacks on police stations in Sweden. On December 29, a police car was destroyed outside a police station in Malmo. In October, a powerful explosion outside the police station in Helsingborg also caused significant material damage. 

Following Wednesday night's attack, the Police Association tweeted that "attacks against police must end."

Yeah, I'm sure that will help!

Regional police chief Carina Persson called the attack "completely unacceptable," after visiting the scene of the explosion. "We must continue to work intensively in the fight against the serious crime," she said, vowing to punish the perpetrators.

Earlier, Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said deploying the military to clamp down on organized and violent crime remained an option, local media reported.

While authorities in Malmo have yet to confirm any links to terrorism, Sweden's Security Police (SAPO) warned that "terrorism levels in Sweden remain at an elevated level." The violent Islamist extremism currently represents the most significant threat to Sweden, SAPO's Anders Thornberg said referring to the most recent terror threat evaluation conducted by the National Center for Terrorism Assessment. "Lonely perpetrators" continue to pose the biggest terrorist threat. "The violent extremist environment in Sweden currently comprise about 3000 hot actors," he said. In a society where "radicalization can be done very quickly," perpetrators can evade the security radar, Thornberg noted.

And then there are the many gangs, mainly migrants and Muslim immigrants responsible for the dramatic increase in rapes, gang-rapes, extortions and murders in Sweden. It was in this context that Lofven mentioned the military as a possibility.

But 3000 hot actors???!!! What is being done to cool them down or get rid of them? Are they merely being watched, because Sweden does not have enough police to watch 3000 hot actors, not even close. Are prisons segregating radicalized Muslims from the rest of the population? If not, they are just breeding grounds for Islamic Insanity.

What's the plan here, Stefan?

France Approves Restrictive Anti-Terrorism Law to Replace 2-Year State of Emergency

The New Normal - France

New laws equal 'State of Emergency light'. This is absolutely necessary and when it is determined that it doesn't really work, it will probably get worse. Even so, there will be many detractors who want the old freedoms and aren't wise enough to know that they cannot exist in a world where Islam is ascendant.

The French parliament has approved a new controversial anti-terrorism law, replacing the soon-to-expire two-year state of emergency. The new legislation has prompted fears it will severely limit civil liberties.

The French senate approved the new anti-terrorism law on its second reading on Wednesday. The new law, set to increase law enforcement powers in the fight against terrorism, was supported by 244 senators, with only 22 voting against it. The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the lower chamber of parliament earlier in October.

The state of emergency was imposed in France to combat terrorism in the wake of the deadly 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, and has been extended six times since. It is set to finally expire on November 1.

Its key points include allowing the authorities to search homes of those suspected of terrorist links, while holding them for up to four hours and seizing data, items and documents. It also allows the authorities to confine suspects to their town or city for up to a year and have them report to police every day. Any movement beyond that requires them to wear a tracking bracelet.

Top regional officials will be allowed to shut down places of worship for up to six months, if they deem preachers have incited attacks or glorified terrorism. This can be done without any hard proof obtained by police, but simply on the basis of "ideas and theories" shared by the preachers’ devotees.

Police are also granted the authority to stop and search people at vulnerable areas such as borders, train stations and airports.

Ahead of the parliamentary vote, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted 500 law enforcement officers including police, gendarmes, prefects, and other officials at the Elysees Palace. Macron defended the new law and mulled a new nationwide anti-radicalization plan.

“The first mission of the state is to protect our fellow citizens and ensure the security of the territory... We have to adapt our organization, our action,” he said.

video 5:13  © Gonzalo Fuentes / Reuters

The plan includes hiring 10,000 more police officers and gendarmes, as well as supplying them with technology suitable for the “smartphone era.” He also promised to implement stricter measures to more efficiently deport migrants with “no legal right” to stay in France.

“We don’t welcome people well, our procedures are too long, we don’t integrate people properly and neither do we send enough people back,” Macron told the law enforcement officers.

The new anti-terrorism law has repeatedly drawn concern over human rights issues. UN human rights experts urged France to comply with "its international human rights obligations," worrying the bill would "incorporate into ordinary law several restrictions on civil liberties currently in place under France’s state of emergency."

'Institutional racism against the Arab-Muslim community'

Even if granting the police sweeping powers helps foil some attacks, it may estrange minorities, in particular, Arab Muslims, making them more susceptible to terrorist propaganda, political analyst Dan Glazebrook told RT.

“If you are going to give police this power, they are going to discriminate communities that are already alienated, putting potentially more recruits into the hands of these death squads,” Glazebrook said, arguing that the French police have “a serious problem with institutional racism and brutality against the Arab-Muslim community” going back to the Paris massacre of 1961, when dozens of Algerians were killed in a police crackdown on the protest against the Algerian War on the River Seine.

The key to reducing the threat posed by international terrorism is to deal with the underlying causes of the Islamist violence and not with its consequences, Glazebrook said.

“If you don’t deal with the root causes, which is the brutal foreign policy on the one hand and the alienation of entire communities due to system institutional discrimination and racism… even the most vicious police state will not be able to stop there being some people who decide to lash out.”

“You can’t be a near-colonial war-mongering power like France and expect to be permanently immune to the blowback and to the consequences of that,” Glazebrook said, referring to France’s involvement in Libya and Syria.

The provision of the law enabling police to shut down suspected terrorist hotbeds without any proof may result in crackdowns on any dissent, thus eroding civil freedoms, former British intelligence officer Annie Machon told RT.

“What is radicalization? At the moment, of course, everyone in France is focused on the concept of Islamic radicalization, but what if that term spreads, what if there is mission creep, so someone who protests against the government is deemed to be radical and therefore be closed down?” she said, noting that French ecological activists used to be targeted by the state under similar pretexts.

Calling the concerns that human rights groups voiced about the law infringing on democracy “absolutely right,” Machon said that bulk data collection and mass surveillance envisioned in the law have proven to be ineffective means in combating terrorism.

She went on to note that while many of the terrorists that mounted attacks in Europe “have already been known to the authorities” it did not help security services to stop them.

“They are drowning in the tsunami of information rather than doing targeted specific investigations into people who might be particularly focused on committing terrorist atrocities… they are falling through the gaps of intelligence agencies.”

‘Nobody is Safe’: French Parliament Backs Controversial Anti-Terrorism Law

The New Normal - en Francais

© Charles Platiau / Reuters

The French parliament has approved a new anti-terrorist bill, criticized by human rights activists as restrictive of civil liberties. Ahead of the vote, France’s interior minister Gerard Collomb said that “nobody is safe” in the country as “it is still in a state of war.”

The parliament's lower house, the National Assembly, passed the new legislation in the first reading.

The new bill, which seeks to increase law enforcement powers in the fight against terrorism, was supported by 415 lawmakers, with 127 voting against it.

It extends the powers of the Interior Ministry, which will be able to set up security zones without the approval of a judge.

Inside the zones, the movement of people and vehicles can be restricted and searches can be conducted. Police will also be given wider powers to raid private property with judicial approval.

Electronic surveillance tags might be imposed on those regarded as a threat to national security, while officials will also have more power to close down places of worship deemed by intelligence agencies as inciting violence or justifying terrorism.

The new bill is regarded by many as a conversion into common law of emergency measures, which have been in place in France since late 2015. The state of emergency, introduced following the Paris attacks in November that year, is set to be lifted on November 9.

In other words, these are not new measures, but simply the entrenchment of emergency measures into every-day law - the New Normal!

"The level of threat in France is extremely high," Collomb said earlier in the day, adding that the country remains "in a state of war."

"Those who thought... that we should loosen the capacity of our services to gather information, were mistaken because yes we are still in a state of war even if Daesh have experienced military defeats," Collomb said in an interview with France Inter radio.

France's new anti-terrorism bill expanding police powers has been criticized by human rights groups as restrictive of certain civil liberties. The minister argued "nobody is safe" in France, also referring to a recent incident in which a number of people were arrested in what appeared to be a failed bombing attempt in central Paris.

Police have revealed that over the weekend a resident of an apartment building in the affluent 16th arrondissement had alerted authorities to suspicious activity. What appeared to be a ready-to-detonate bomb was discovered, while a person who had been under government surveillance for radicalism was confirmed to be among the detained suspects.

“Planning to blow up a building in a chic district of Paris – is this not a sign that nobody is safe? This [shows] it can happen anywhere in France,” the interior minister said.

Collomb also criticized other countries lacking surveillance systems “like the one in France” and called for wider information exchange and cooperation within Europe to reinforce anti-terrorism measures.

“A number of countries do not have the systems and the level of surveillance that we know in France. We believe it is us who have made Europe a strong Europe on its borders, while a number of [other European] countries do not have that kind of organization,” the French minister claimed.

France has seen some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Europe in the past years. Over 200 people have been killed since early 2015 by assailants having pledged allegiance to or been inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group. In a series of coordinated attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015 alone, 130 people were killed by IS terrorists. On Bastille Day in 2016, a truck was driven into crowds of people celebrating in Nice, killing 86 and injuring over 450.

16th Arrondissement, Paris

Terrorism, or The Fear of Terrorism is The New Normal for The West

France

2 Women murdered, terrorist shot dead

French soldiers shoot dead knife attacker who, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, killed 2 in Marseille

Two people have been killed during a knife attack at a Marseille train station, according to police. The assailant, who was reportedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ was shot dead by an army patrol at the scene.

The incident took place at the Saint-Charles train station in Marseille on Sunday, when a man attacked passers-by with a knife. One person was killed by the assailant at the scene, while another succumbed a short while after, according to police chief Olivier de Mazières.

The attacker, who was reportedly shouting “Allahu Akbar,” was shot dead by an army patrol. At least two shots were fired, local media reported, citing witnesses. The attacker is described as a man in his late twenties, who was not carrying any ID. The investigation team is currently running his fingerprints through their databases. The initial findings indicate that the attacker was known to the police as a common criminal, local media report citing police sources.

Both of the attacker’s victims were women, the French interior ministry said.  One of the victims had her throat slit, while the other was stabbed in her stomach, French media report, citing police sources. The victims were 17 and 20-years-old, according to media reports.

The incident is being treated as a “terrorist act” and anti-terror prosecutors have launched an investigation, BFM TV reports, citing the prosecutor’s office.

The authorities have praised the soldiers who killed the assailant for their swift actions which prevented more casualties.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has denounced the “barbarous” attack, sending his condolences to the relatives of the two victims. “Deeply upset by this barbarous act, I share the pain of the families and relatives of the victims of Marseille,” Macron tweeted. “I salute the soldiers of Sentinel and the police officers who reacted with composure and efficiency.”

“We have generally avoided these sort of attacks in Marseille,” regional president Renaud Muselier told BFM TV at the site of the attack. “I think the security services responded extremely quickly. It's difficult to do more because when you see the distance between the two bodies and the attacker it's only 10 meters, so they intervened quickly.”

"If the military had not been there, we would have had a lot more deaths," lawmaker for the Marseille region Samia Ghali told France Bleu Province radio.

The army patrol which shot the knife-wielding attacker is a part of Operation Sentinel, aimed to bolster country’s security. The operation was launched amid a national state of emergency, which was declared following the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The events were the deadliest terrorist acts in country’s history, and left over 130 people dead.

There has been lately a surge in the so-called “lone-wolf” attacks, similar to the today’s incident in Marseille. The Sentinel patrols themselves have also been targeted by terrorists, as at least seven attacks on patrolling soldiers have taken place.

Despite the state of emergency, which has been renewed six times so far, the country still experiences frequent terrorism-related incidents. The latest extension was in July and is expected to last until November 1.

And, almost certainly will be extended again and again. This is the New Normal for France.

Canada

Five hurt as Edmonton attacks spark terror investigation

By Madison Park, CNN

(CNN)Canadian authorities say two incidents in Edmonton are being investigated as acts of terrorism after a man struck a police officer with a car before stabbing him and later plowed a truck into pedestrians on a busy street, injuring at least four people.

A suspect, who has not been identified, is in custody, said Chief Rod Knecht of the Edmonton Police Service in an early Sunday news conference.

Knecht said authorities believe the man acted alone, but haven't ruled out the possibility that others might be involved.

The first incident happened Saturday at 8:15 p.m. (10:15 p.m. ET) when the driver of a white Chevrolet Malibu drove it into a traffic barricade. Police had set up the roadblock near Commonwealth Stadium for an Edmonton Eskimos football game.

A man drove the car at high speed, striking the police officer who had been standing between a traffic barricade and his cruiser.

"The vehicle struck the police officer, sending him flying into the air 15 feet, before colliding with the police officer's cruiser again at a high rate of speed," Knecht said.

The driver jumped out of the vehicle, attacked and stabbed the officer several times with a knife and fled on foot, Knecht said.

There was an ISIS flag in the car, which has been seized as evidence, the police chief said.

The wounded officer was taken to a hospital. His injuries are not critical, Knecht said.

After that incident, police broadcast the name of the Chevrolet's registered owner to patrol officers in the city.

Just before midnight, a police officer stopped a U-Haul truck at a checkpoint and recognized the driver's name as similar to that of the Chevrolet's registered owner. The U-Haul truck then sped off towards downtown Edmonton with police chasing it.

The U-Haul traveled on busy Jasper Avenue, which late Saturday night and early Sunday morning was full of football fans and bargoers, reported CNN partner CBC. During the chase, the truck deliberately attempted to hit pedestrians in crosswalks and alleys in two areas along Jasper Avenue," Knecht said.

At least four pedestrians were injured. Their conditions were not immediately known, the police chief said.

The truck eventually flipped, ending the chase. Pictures in the Canadian media showed the U-Haul on its side with the front window shattered. Police are expected to hold a news conference at 3 p.m. Sunday.

This is not common in Canada, however, it is becoming more so and will continue to get worse. This affects all Canadians. Last night, someone very close to me was on Jasper Ave., when the incident occurred. Fortunately, she was not near the calamity.

Switzerland

Crackdown on Swiss mosques: Safety strategy, discrimination or waste of tax money? 

A general view shows the Mahmud Mosque in Zurich © Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters

Why does the Swiss government want to enforce strict rules and regulations in mosques? Will it have any positive effects on safety in Switzerland? Or does the new bill discriminate against Muslims?

Nils Fiechter, co-president of the youth wing of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) and Ajmal Masroor, imam, broadcaster and politician unpack these contentious issues after the Swiss lower house of the Federal Assembly voted in favor of new legislation, prohibiting all mosques to receive foreign funding or preaching in Arabic.

If it becomes law, mosques will have to declare where they get their money from and report how they use it, along with conducting all prayers in one of the country’s four official national languages.

“What we do need to have is of course a measure of responsibility, and this should be self-regulated,” Masroor said. “Government doesn’t need to enforce any rules and regulations, when it comes to speeches, sermons. We don’t do that with churches, we don’t do that with any other faith leaders or institutions. The clerics should be free to speak their mind.”

Masroor believes forcing imams to preach only in local languages is discriminatory and will be a “waste of taxpayers’ money and government’s own time.” He criticized a series of Swiss “draconian anti-muslim laws,” including the ban on the construction of new minarets and ban on the full-face veils.

“In a multicultural pluralistic democracy, such as Switzerland, this to me sound like and appear as secular fundamentalism, if nothing else, overly and extremely discriminatory towards Muslims,” he said.

Nils Fiechter in his turn argued that “this new bill here in Switzerland is not against Muslims – it is against radical Islamic terrorists...”

“In Europe and also in Switzerland we have got a massive problem with radical Islamists – and you have to name that term, ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ We want that our policemen and our investigators have the possibility to understand what those imams are preaching. If they don’t have the possibility, if they only hear Arabic words, or words they don’t understand, then there is big safety problem for Switzerland.”

Masroor argued that Swiss police in the streets also don’t understand what regular Arab tourists are talking about in the streets, emphasizing that such limitations will be a step towards “criminalizing the Arabic language.”

Nils parried, saying that Switzerland is not part of the EU and has its own independent “safety strategy,” which has so far proved to be quite effective.

“Switzerland until now is one country in Europe that didn’t have a terrorist attack, and we want to keep that situation,” he stated. “Our target is to punish those who don’t accept our law and our order. We are a state, which wants to have strict laws. We don’t want to have radical Islamists get control above those imams, over mosques here in Switzerland."

This 'crackdown' should be the New Normal for all of Europe, but most EU countries don't have the stomach for such common sense measures.

Austria

Austrian burqa ban takes effect ahead of general election

Austria could see an anti-immigration government take form

Women in Burkas, Vienna, Austria. © Education Images / Getty Images

Austria’s controversial ban on the wearing of Islamic face veils in public places came into effect Sunday. Those found in breach of the ‘Anti-Face-Veiling Act’ will be subject to fines of €150.

The country approved the ban on face veils back in May as part of a wider ‘integration law’ which, according to officials, is aimed at encouraging people to assimilate into Austrian culture.

The country joins France and Belgium in banning the burqa, with a similar measure going through the motions in the Dutch parliament. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also called for a similar ban "wherever legally possible.”

"Acceptance and respect of Austrian values are basic conditions for successful cohabitation between the majority Austrian population and people from third countries living in Austria," the government has stated, according to AFP.

Authorities claim the act is “religiously neutral,” with other forms of face covering also prohibited. People caught wearing off-slope ski masks, surgical masks outside hospitals and party masks/make-up could also be subjected to a fine.

The law does exempt people who cover their faces for medical or safety reasons, including hazardous weather conditions such as smog. Participants of street carnivals and other “artistic, cultural or traditional events” are also exempt, along with athletes requiring face-covering gear.

"Whoever wears [a] niqab or burqa in Austria has to deal with the consequence," said Austria's Foreign Minister, Sebastian Kurz, who was instrumental in drafting the law, as cited by Reuters.

The Austrian Islamic Religious Community (AIRC) has said they are “strongly opposed” to the ban and that it is not conducive to integration, reports RTL.

“This open society is, in a hypocritical way, endangering its own values,” Carla Amina Bhagajati of the AIRC said, adding that in Vienna only a “handful” of women will be affected. Those that are, she said, are now “criminalized and... restricted to their homes,” according to AP.

French-Algerian businessman, Rachid Nekkaz, has promised to pay any fines incurred by Muslim women choosing to wear the veil. Nekkaz already pays fines for Muslim women wearing face veils in other European countries. He even established a special organization called “Touche pas à ma constitution” (Do not touch my constitution) that settles these bills.

Other facets of the integration law include immigrants signing an “integration contract” and taking compulsory courses in German language and “values.”

With an election in Austria scheduled for October 15, immigration is an important topic for leading parties. The anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPÖ) are expected to place second or third, potentially forming a government with the conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP), ousting the Social Democratic Party, the current leading coalition partner.

OVP, headed up by Kurz, has drawn voters from the FPÖ with his anti-immigration rhetoric.

"The immigration seen in recent years is changing our country not in a positive but in a negative way," Kurz told German television earlier this week, according to AFP.

Soldiers Relieve Exhausted Police on the Streets of Denmark

The New Normal - Denmark Style

Danish soldiers guard the Jewish Synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 29, 2017.

© Mads Claus Rasmussen / AFP

Danish armed forces have been deployed to the streets of the capital to guard potential terrorist targets, as well as the German border, to aid police with their duties. 

It is the first use of troops in Copenhagen since WWII.

On Friday a total of 160 soldiers, bearing automatic weapons and special insignia, were sent to assist police at the German border and to watch locations in the capital vulnerable to terror attacks, the local media reported. These include several Jewish institutions, such as the Great Synagogue in central Copenhagen and the Israeli embassy, as Jews observe the Yom Kippur holiday.

“This is the first time they are used in this type of situation, so it’s unique,” AFP cited Copenhagen police spokesman Rasmus Bernt Skovsgaard as saying.

The border with the German state of Schleswig-Holstein has likewise seen an increase in the military presence. A special unit has been set up to guard and transport detainees and asylum seekers, while police and Danish Home Guard are still responsible for arrests and ID checks, introduced in early 2016. For now, the soldiers’ mission at the border will last for three months, according to a statement from the Armed Forces.

Danish soldiers are pictured at the Danish-German border train station in Padborg, on September 29, 2017. © Mads Dalegaard / AFP

The move, however, has already sparked criticism, particularly from the mayor of the German town of Flensburg near the border, who called the decision “a disaster” and “a big mistake,” DR Forsiden quoted.

The decision to relieve significant police resources was announced earlier in the month following alarming reports of extreme overtime hours worked by too few officers, and a more-than-year-long discussion in the government. 

What remains unclear is how long the soldiers will be taking over the police duties for at the Jewish sites, with the synagogue having been under continuous police surveillance since February 2015 when it became one of the targets in three separate shooting cases.

On February 15 2015, a Danish-born citizen of Palestinian origin, who pledged allegiance to Islamic State, opened fire outside the synagogue, killing one. Earlier, the gunman attacked a cultural center, hosting a gathering on blasphemy and freedom of expression, leaving one dead. The threat level in Denmark remains as “serious,” ranked four on a scale of five.