Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, and today’s episode will look at the changing face of Britain. The look, feel, and substance of Britain changed significantly from 1968 to 2018. In that 50-year span, Muslim populations mushroomed throughout the country. This episode is titled "The New Multicultural Britain."

“To me, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is how progressive it is.” Tony Blair, 2007

Britain is an epic poem of empire; civilization; liberalism; humanity, decline; and, today, multiculturalism. Minister Tony Blair promised to change Britain forever by throwing open the door the nation’s door to immigration. He kept his promise, which will be discussed at length in the next few podcasts.

Demographics

“It’s our country, it’s not a Christian country. You jealous we taking over?” A Muslim shopkeeper to a leader of a Christian Patrol marcher, May 2017.

By 2015, there were at least 3 million Muslims living in Britain. Of these Muslims, 47% were UK-born, 68% were ethnically Asian, and 33% were aged 15 and under, indicating that the Muslim population was relatively young. Eight percent of all school-age children (five to 15) were from Muslim households. Some schools have a high proportion of Muslim pupils, such as those in Washwood Heath in Birmingham, where 86% of school-age children were Muslim.

As the Muslim population has grown, a powerful voting bloc has emerged. Muslims now form a decisive voting bloc, making up 20% or more of the electorate in 26 constituencies and present in all local authority areas in England and Wales. Islam will likely become the dominant religion in Britain within several generations.

In addition to immigration and fertility, conversion is a source of new Muslims in Britain. Some converts have gained fame; Myriam Francois-Cerrah became well known as a child for her role in the 90s hit film 'Sense and Sensibility.' Now, she is gaining more recognition as one of the many educated, middle-class female converts to Islam in Britain. “

Britain - 1968 and 2018

“This is London Calling.” The British Broadcasting Corporation World Service’s Station Identification

In 1968, the London scene burst with artistic creativity and social change. For years, living standards had been rising. A decade earlier, Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan toasted the growing prosperity with the cheery observation, “You never had it so good.” There was social license as never before. Abortion was legalized, and the birth control pill was available.

The Beatles continued to define the Western music scene. They made their last TV appearance together in 1968 and produced the White Album. The Rolling Stones topped the charts with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull gave a free concert in Hyde Park. British actors performed nude in the London musical “Hair.” “Top of the Pops” was hosted by Jimmy Savile. .

Alan Bennett’s first play, “Forty Years On,” was staged. On British television, Lindsay Anderson’s “If” satirized a posh boarding school filled with boys gone bad. Also in 1968, “A Lion in Winter” dramatized the pageantry and pathologies of a deeply dysfunctional royal family. The animated film Yellow Submarine fused the music of the Beatles with the artistry of Peter Max. Censorship in the theater was abolished.

Muslims were an increasingly noticeable but not yet prominent part of the social landscape. Many immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s came from India and Pakistan in search of a better standard of living. Many found it. They could earn 30 times as much in Britain as on the subcontinent. They, along with Jamaicans, Africans, and millions of other people of color, had come to Britain to stay.

2018

“London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down,

London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.”

Fifty years later, Britain had changed many times. The Beatles had long since disbanded, and many musical genres had come and gone. Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters was still shredding guitar and campaigning for political causes. In 2018, Britain was teeming with technology that could not have been imagined 50 years earlier. The internet, cell phones, DVDs, biomedical technologies, and vape stores had long been staples for generations X, Y, and Z. There was a new architectural style, an anti-terrorist one. In London, government buildings had embedded barriers.

If sexual mores had been liberalized in 1968, they would have become more confused 50 years later. The year before, a British convert to Islam was found guilty of attempting to join the Islamic State and of attempting to purchase a juvenile sex slave. In his words, “. . . the younger & experienced the better.” Pakistani sex-grooming gangs were exposed in many cities and found to have victimized many thousands of British white girls.

Britain had become multicultural. A visitor on a London street would likely notice diversity in full bloom. An Afro-Caribbean takeout restaurant stands next to a salon hawking hair weaves and henna tattoos, which in turn is next to a Muslim bookstore. But Britons were increasingly careful with historic imagery that could set passions aflame. For years, athletic clubs and fashion houses had been removing cross emblems from their uniforms and sportswear. In 2016, the Middlesex Crusaders cricket club changed its name to the Middlesex Panthers. Sainsbury’s stopped selling the Real Easter Egg in 2017 and began carrying a halal chocolate egg with no references to Jesus. The trend continued.

Television shows touched on social strains and taboos, usually gently. BBC One's “Casualty,” a medical drama series, became the first mainstream British television drama to grapple with female genital mutilation. Cringe comedy drew some chuckles. Satirists had fun with an all-women gang of suicide bombers in Mesopotamia. In 2017, the BBC featured "The Real Housewives of ISIS," a comedy sketch some viewers called “revolting” for trivializing British Jihadi brides. Others enjoyed it as weaponized humor.

Fashion in Britain reflected the country’s transformed demographics. Large department stores sold Islamic garb and featured smiling hijab-clad women in their advertising. In 2017, London hosted the inaugural “Modest Fashion Week.” The statuesque models who strutted the catwalk wore clothes that promoters promised complied with “Muslim values,” while others called it a medieval fashion show. Advertisements for women’s clothing on London’s buses were less revealing than in earlier years. In solidarity with British feminists, the Muslim mayor pulled revealing bikini photographs, which he called “body-shaming ads.”

The appearance of British street toughs changed. The “mods and the rockers” of the early 1960s had long since disappeared. Gangs, some white and some Asian, loitered on the streets. Sharia patrols emerged in some cities. Religiously dressed young men demanded that passersby follow Islamic Sharia law. Some were filmed shouting, "This is a Muslim area.” Seventy years after the Nationality Act and 40 years after the British politician Enoch Powell warned his countrymen about unchecked immigration, parts of Blackburn, Birmingham, Burnley, and Bradford now have populations that are between 70% and 85% Muslim.

Throughout Britain, the level of integration was uneven and, for some, alarming. According to a 2001 Daily Telegraph survey, many Muslims lived in cultural self-segregation. Many did not see themselves as British Muslims but as Muslims living in Britain. By 2017, segregation was even more pronounced. Longitudinal medical studies also revealed abnormally high rates of genetic abnormalities among Pakistani British. This may have resulted from a tradition of marrying first cousins. Britain had changed.

Muslims were an increasingly noticeable but not a prominent part of the social landscape. Many immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s came from India and Pakistan, seeking a better standard of living. Many found it. They could earn 30 times as much in Britain as they did in the subcontinent. They had come to Britain to stay, and some Brits had something to say about that. One very vocal critic was Enoch Powell, who is the subject of our next podcast.

Thank you for listening to the episode of Jihad and the World. Nothing in this reading represents the official position of the United States government. Until our next episode, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting.

Hello from Jihad and the World, a product of Kensington Security Consulting, where we bring education to national security. This episode is part of a series of podcasts that examine Islamic and non-Islamic in Europe. This episode offers analytic snapshots of the press and police in Europe. Future podcasts will expand on the general themes presented in the podcast, titled The Press and Police – Lover Boys and Easy Meat. The author is Mark Silinsky.

The Press

            Over the past fifty years, European journalists have developed a new language, avoiding words that could be culturally offensive. Some see themselves as protectors of progressive values. Across the continent, an unspoken rule governs which topics to discuss and which words to use, lest they threaten social unity. In Germany, ethnic Germans are called “those who have lived here longer.” Increasingly, the ethnicity and religion of criminals or suspects are ignored or concealed. Journalists dismiss the motives of violent offenders as irrelevant. In Sweden, four men described by police as looking like “foreign tourists” drugged and gang-raped young women. Establishment politicians in most European countries deny the existence of “no-go zones.” In Arnhem, Holland, near the Nelson Mandela Bridge, a gang of boys and men called two gay men “filthy faggots” in Dutch/Moroccan slang and then beat them. The arrested perpetrators were simply referred to as "youths" in the mainstream media. Brutal, often gruesome, slashings or vehicle attacks are labeled as actions of "lunatics,” with little or no mention of political or religious motives. Those opposed to Islam are often labeled racists.

Editors have altered or revised the meanings of many words to avoid offending social and religious groups. Islam is often described as a race rather than a religion. Some of this concealment is self-censorship, while other cases stem from fear of retaliation, such as the cartoon killings in France and Denmark. The German Press Council, which oversees journalistic standards, stated that information about a person’s ethnicity shouldn’t be published “unless there is a justified public interest in doing so.” European Union Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova demanded that social media giants Facebook and Twitter censor rhetoric or conversations that might threaten social cohesion.

There are dissenting journalists who use the Internet and non-mainstream media outlets. However, European countries lack anything comparable to the American First Amendment, which protects free speech. European journalists cannot avoid prosecution by citing the truth as a defense. They have learned to keep quiet.

Public Officials  

“I am so damn tired.” Swedish police officer Peter Springare publicly expressed his fatigue and shame over downplaying the level of immigrant crime.

Public servants include police officials, social workers, schoolteachers, judges, and other government workers. Police forces are strained, particularly in the “no-go zones.” Driven by fear of crime, some of Europe’s senior citizens live in a self-imposed state of house arrest and have little faith in the police. In a suburb of Stockholm, residents rallied behind local Hells Angels, begging them to stay in their neighborhood. In the absence of effective policing, parents saw the biker toughs as new Praetorians, guarding their daughters against migrant molestation. One resident explained, “We have for 10 years never known any discomfort or fear because the current tenants are Hells Angels, rather the contrary.”

European police and security officials are handicapped. A veteran Swedish policeman explained that he is not permitted to ask suspects about their religion, but their names are “Ali Mohammed, Mahmoud, Mohammed, Mohammed Ali, Muhammad, again, again, again.” Another police officer shrugs, “The criminals are laughing at society.” In another Stockholm suburb, Rinkeby, police are building a new station to fortress specifications. It will have bulletproof windows and steel-reinforced walls. But officers will likely not take public transportation to work for fear of being attacked. They will be driven to work in teams and under guard. By 2017, the postal service was suspended in Rinkeby. Swedish postal officials declared it too "unsafe" for workers. Some call all this the new Stockholm Syndrome – a cocktail of broad-based fear and fatalism leading to resignation and paralysis.

In May 2016, Greater Manchester Police tested its anti-terrorist measures by conducting a large-scale exercise in the city to assess the effectiveness of the emergency response. More than 800 volunteers participated, and the mock terrorist yelled "Allahu Akbar." Immediately, Islamic and leftist leaders demanded and received an apology for stereotyping terrorism. The Community Safety Organization, which seeks to combat Islamophobia, tweeted, “This sort of thing panders to stereotypes and further divides us. It will increase anti-Muslim hate crimes.” The police chief responded, “We acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam.” “We recognize and apologize for the offense this has caused.”

Classrooms and school grounds have also become lawless. In Lund, Sweden, a migrant boy was found guilty of rape but was not expelled from the school. Instead, he served 100 hours of community service. In Britain, there are nationwide Pakistani pedophile grooming gangs whose “lover-boys” target attention-starved, working-class schoolgirls. In street slang, the girls are sometimes called “easy meat.”

In schools, the curriculum is sometimes poisonous. Saudi-funded schools in Britain sometimes refer to Jews as “apes” and to Christians as “pigs.” Schools throughout Europe have dropped course content, including the Holocaust and the Crusades. Students and their parents demand special dietary accommodations and prayer rooms. They sometimes require segregated classes and, at times, their own schools. Often, public servants appease them.

This concludes this episode of Jihad and the World. It offers a brief glimpse into the press and public officials in Europe several years ago. Future podcasts will expand on these themes and offer profiles of men and women who are part of the drama of Islam and Europe. Nothing in this podcast represents the official position of the United States government. We are excited about our latest book, Cauldron of Terror – Hamas, Israel and the World, which will be available for purchase in summer 2026. Until our next podcast, on behalf of Kensington Security Consulting, thank you for listening.

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, which provides education on national security. Today’s episode is longer than most. It begins a series called Jihad and the West, titled – Europe Has Fallen: Islam, Britain, and the Continent. Episode One offers an overview of Europe from several years ago. We will update parts of this podcast in future episodes. First, let's turn to a book by English wit G. K. Chesterton, who may have been satirically prophetic. You can decide.

'When men stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything. G.K. Chesterton

In the 1914 novella, *The Flying Inn*, Prohibition has indirectly reached England. Here, the temperance movement isn't led by Christian reactionaries. Instead, Chesterton envisions a Progressive Islam influencing British society. As a result, alcohol sales to the poor are nearly banned, while the wealthy can obtain alcoholic drinks "under a medical certificate.” Public houses still exist, but their signs are prohibited. However, pubs can't serve wine and spirits without a sign. Consequently, two rebels travel across England with an inn sign, setting up temporary pubs in unlikely locations. The two adventurers are Patrick Dalroy, an Irish soldier, and Humphrey Pump, a former innkeeper. They carry a barrel of rum, a wheel of cheddar cheese, and are accompanied by a dog and a donkey. Their enemy is Lord Ivywood, a sinister, officious MP who enacted the oppressive law. Ivywood relentlessly pursues the good guys until he's confronted by a small crowd and forced to face the unpopularity of his laws.

Do you see any similarities to Europe today? Could there be a loose link? Many confusing laws and unspoken assumptions restrict open discussion of Islam. As for signs outside English pubs, well, not yet. However, there are Sharia patrols—roaming groups of young Muslim men who insist that passers-by in Muslim areas of large cities not carry alcohol. And there is more.

In some parts of towns and cities, European civilization is already in decline or fading. Demographic, religious, and cultural changes reflect this trend. One indicator is fear; many Europeans are afraid to travel in certain areas, attend large events, or criticize or mock Islam. Another sign is widespread exhaustion among Europeans. The constant fear of attacks can lead to injuries. In summer 2017, 1,500 people were injured in a panic-driven stampede at a soccer game in Turin, Italy. A firework was mistaken for a bomb, and panic quickly spread.

Exhausted and defeated, many Europeans accept a slow, uncontrollable social decline. After a 2017 suicide bombing in Manchester, England, that killed girls as young as eight, a BBC host remarked, “Europe has to get used to this.” Much of Europe has been transformed in ways earlier generations would not recognize. Enclaves in Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Sweden no longer seem truly European and are not governed by European law or customs. Small sparks of freedom still shine within civil society, and democratic principles motivate many European leaders. Some intellectuals and political figures resist the spread of Islamic law and the growth of mosques. For most Europeans, Islam remains a contentious topic. Influential and political circles are very cautious about when and where they discuss it.

Europeans are experiencing a decline, and this has happened before. The Black Death of the late Middle Ages, the Thirty Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the World Wars, and communism wiped out millions. Famines and crop failures also caused Europe’s populations to migrate to the United States, colonies, and other distant lands. Still, the continent’s population recovered and grew again. Today, however, Europe faces a new challenge—sub-replacement fertility levels. Since the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Europe has seen a sharp decline in birth rates. Europeans are not having enough children to keep their population stable. Their numbers are likely to be replaced by new generations of Muslims.

European civilization is being tested. Christianity, central to Europe’s identity, arrived with Constantine and splintered during the Reformation. However, the church's influence began to decline in the late 19th century. Today, Christianity is increasingly being replaced by Islam, whose followers remain steadfast in their faith and traditions. Public displays of Christianity are sometimes met with disapproval. Men and women of faith, including airline flight attendants and teachers, have been reprimanded for wearing small crosses in public. In 2016, officials in Brussels canceled their Christmas tree lighting ceremony. A high school in Germany went further by forbidding teaching about the history of Christmas.

 Nativity scenes and Christmas caroling have been outlawed. There may already be more practicing Muslims than Christians in Britain. Tomorrow, shuttered churches will likely become museums of a lost faith or be transformed into mosques across Europe. Europe’s democratic and free-thinking traditions are under assault. Born from the Enlightenment and tested over centuries, liberalism took root and flourished. With the fall of the Soviet Union, democracy—with all its quirks and flaws—became Europe’s unifying political thread. Women, the LGBT community, religious minorities, satirists, artists, and Bohemians enjoyed their post-war freedoms. Today, these liberties are threatened, and I do not believe they will survive Islam for more than two generations.

A visitor to Europe might notice parallel societies, with Muslims and non-Muslim Europeans, often called whites, living separate lives. Many Muslim women never enter the workforce, and some depend on government assistance. Some Muslim men have succeeded; many have not. The population of white Europeans is decreasing, while the number of Muslims is increasing. The French critic Renaud Camus called this “The Great Replacement.” And the migrants keep coming. Many arrive from Mesopotamia, cross the Mediterranean, and head north.

Europe Today

In several European cities, a feeling of invasion persists. Using rhetoric and imagery of the Blitz, British leaders vowed to create new “rings of steel” to safeguard tourist sites and pedestrians in London. Bollards have appeared like mushrooms around London’s attractions. In Manchester, neighborhoods were sealed off as bomb squads and police searched homes for explosives after a devastating suicide attack at a rock concert. Those who aid the injured can become victims themselves. Running toward the cries of the dying, Australian nurse Kristy Boden was killed by Islamists, who cut her throat on London Bridge. Europeans seek protection, and those responsible for defending European nations are prime targets. In Scotland, cadets were advised not to wear their uniforms in public. Parents of future soldiers were told that boys and girls should “cover up their uniform when traveling to and from cadet activities." Across Europe, military personnel exercise caution when wearing their uniforms.

Men used their cars to run over pedestrians and then stab survivors in the chest or other vital organs. In current British street slang, it is called “getting stabby.” Khalid Masood, who knifed a London police officer to death near Westminster Bridge in 2017, earlier joked that stabbing was “like playing drums on your back with two knives.” A few weeks later, pedestrians on London Bridge had their throats cut. There have been stabbing frenzies on the Continent and in Israel in recent years, and they are likely to continue. The Islamic State, or ISIS, singled out crowded London streets as “ideal targets,” naming Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus as venues to “flatten” unbelievers under trucks. It struck hard in Manchester at a soft-rock concert that drew thousands of teenage girls. Many were killed and injured when a British-born Muslim detonated himself. By mid-2017, British police were making terror-related arrests “on a near daily basis.” Non-Muslims walk carefully in Muslim neighborhoods of European cities, which have “no-go” zones. Sharia patrols oversee their behavior. Roving enforcers of Islamic virtue judge whether a woman’s clothing is too revealing, if pedestrians are allowed to openly show affection, or if a blind person can walk safely with his guide dog.

Non-Muslims also watch what they eat there. In Denmark, a young couple was assaulted in a pizzeria for eating ham. The police described the attacker as “of an ethnic origin other than Danish.” In Sweden, waving bacon in front of a Muslim in a café might be illegal. Police charged a man with swinging a slice too provocatively while grinning at a veiled woman. The charge was “incitement to racial hatred.”

Europeans live in fear. Many French people worry about a constant threat of becoming the next terror victim. Where could it happen? Streets, homes, cafes, and clubs are all possible targets. In response, France has increased its national security measures, changing the country's appearance. Police patrol the streets and popular locations. There is a “dog army” of four-legged detectors for parcels and vehicles. In resort areas, soldiers in body armor, armed and vigilant, patrol southern beaches next to bikini-clad young women. Children, like their parents, prepare for potential Muslim attacks. Kindergarteners are trained to protect themselves from attackers. A teacher warned that a ‘big bad wolf’ was prowling the school and that all children must freeze and stay silent.

French intellectuals have introduced a new literary genre to analyze these changes. Many older citizens miss the “Glorious Thirty,” the 30 years from the end of World War II to the oil crisis and the start of Eurabia. A common theme among Europeans over 50 is nostalgia for a gentler, safer, and more innocent era. This was the Europe of their youth. French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut sighed, “People are homesick at home.” Eric Zemmour, former columnist for the journal Le Figaro, wrote the best-selling “The French Suicide,” blaming a range of social issues on Muslims who do not assimilate. Michel Houellebecq, a well-known French novelist, published Submission, a bleak vision of France in the near future when the country falls under Arab rulers and their French allies. The book was released on the same day as the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in January 2015. For many French Jews, daily life is becoming intolerable. In traditional dress, they are often targeted for violence and humiliation. Many have left or are preparing to leave for Israel. For them, dystopia is arriving quickly. All of this will be discussed in future podcasts.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Jihad and the World. Our upcoming book, Cauldron of Terror – Hamas, Israel, and the World, will be available for purchase in July 2026. This podcast does not represent the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           In 2015, Angela Merkel opened her country’s doors to millions of Muslim Middle Easterners under the rallying cry “We can do it!” She and other Germans were wildly optimistic that the European economic powerhouse could absorb and sufficiently assimilate the new throngs of Muslims. Germany would provide the necessary start-up costs for their new lives, and the New Germans, as they were called, would be a much-needed labor pool. Good so far, but how did it work out? And this is where the great debate begins.

s

Some of the New Germans have done very well. Many have availed themselves of the generous welfare systems Germans have long boasted about since Bismarck, including heavily subsidized housing, free medical care, free education, including vocational training, family allowances, unemployment benefits, and more. OK. Some of the migrants took advantage of these opportunities to further themselves and build the skills needed to leave welfare and obtain full-time employment.

And then there are those who are not eager to shed their dependence on government benefits. Official statistics paint a more troubling picture. They are content to receive just enough assistance to subsist. They spend their days in cultural isolation within the ever-expanding Islamic areas of large cities. Muslim immigrants are significantly overrepresented in German crime statistics, including street robberies, home burglaries, and drug trafficking. And then there is sexual assault and rape. Muslims now make up 7% of the population in Germany but 30% of the prison population. In youth detention facilities in Germany, Muslims make up 50% of the inmates.

            Well, last month, the European Parliament inducted Angela Merkel into the European Order of Merit as a “Distinguished Member.” With this distinction, she stands alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former Polish President Lech Wałęsa. The award purportedly recognizes contributions to European integration and the defense of shared values.

This is the exact wording: “The European Order of Merit was established on the 75th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration in 2025 to honor individuals who have significantly advanced European integration, promoted democracy, human rights, and peace, and defended European values during times of global uncertainty.”  Well, I, for one, think that these are dubious achievements in the case of Muti Merkel. Let’s go point by point, as they relate exclusively to Muslim-non-Muslim relations in Germany.  Then you can decide

One - Advances European integration – Did Merkel advance Germany’s integration into Europe by inviting millions of Middle Easterners to become Germans? It is clear to me that she and her successor did not press for Muslim integration into German culture. If they did, they failed miserably. Aren’t Muslims part of Europe? Some are certainly integrated and make valued contributions to German society. But if German official educational, social, and criminal records are accurate, there have been overwhelming failures.

Two – Promoted democracy. I don’t see how bringing in millions of Muslims promoted democracy in Germany or anywhere in Europe. Islamic law, or Sharia, is antithetical to democracy. It devalues the individual and consensual government while extolling submission to Allah as expressed in sacred texts. If most Muslims had cast aside Sharia and embraced democracy, Merkel would have accomplished something remarkable. I have no evidence that these Muslims strayed from their faith after arriving in Germany. Rather, I think her tenure was marked by ethnic fragmentation, cultural erosion, and a demographic shift. These are not the hallmarks of democracy.

Three – Promote human rights – How did the migration promote human rights? It promotes the application of Islamic law in Germany. It created a new voting bloc and constituency for politicians. Women are human. Did it promote the rights of women and girls? Did it promote free speech, including the right to draw religious cartoons?  On New Year’s Eve 2015 in Cologne, over 1,200 criminal complaints were filed against sex pests, North Africans and Middle Easterners sex pests. Police reports claimed that these pests surrounded, groped, robbed, and harassed women. The situation is worse in Britain.

            Four – Peace – Have the new Germans promoted internal and external peace. By my account, the Germans haven’t been a threat to the international system since May 1945. Germans seem to have lost their militarism, and most Europeans think it is a good thing. What about internal peace? Are the lives of Germans more peaceful as a result of the chancellor’s efforts?

Five – Defended European values in a time of global uncertainty – Well, this depends upon what those values currently are. “European values” is a broad term. They have certainly changed over the centuries. From the fall of Rome until the Enlightenment, European values were largely defined by Christianity, monarchy, and the like. The trend since the 19th century has been towards growing secular and democratic values. This was halted by fascism, National Socialism, and communism. However, the European Union has a 70-year charter that extols the humanist foundations of Western civilization.

Well, I think Jonathan Turley, the legal scholar, is very insightful. In his words, “She is blamed for opening the borders to a flood of undocumented immigrants that has caused rising violence and protests throughout Europe. However, her crowning jewel was the crackdown on free speech. She increased the power of government, stripped away free speech rights, and reduced national identities without firing a shot.” If those are European values, she certainly deserves the prize.

And a rising star in German politics has equally strong views on the current policy towards immigration. Alice Weidel is the leader of Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD), which has made opposition to Muslim migration its signature issue. Weidel described the Muslim grooming gangs in Germany that prey on vulnerable young girls, who are turned into sex slaves and then forced into prostitution. Chancellor Friedrich Merz sharply disagrees and seems to stand by Merkel's often-repeated assurance “diversity is our strength.”

Merkel’s honor should be taken seriously. There are now more than 40 million Muslims in Europe. Their numbers will grow, while the number of Europeans will decline due to low fertility rates and emigration. Some Muslims are being integrated, and more will enter the mainstream of European society. But many, very many, likely will not. They are likely to swell the ranks of the underemployed or unemployed and drain national treasuries. And then there is a rise in crime. As for Europe in 20 years, well… Muhammad said, “Islam is to dominate and not to be dominated.” What is most morbidly humorous to me is the claim in the citation that one of Chancellor Merkel’s crowning achievements was her handling of the refugee influx. I covered these issues in Jihad and the West and Black Flag over Babylon. They are still available for purchase. Thank you for listening. Nothing in this podcast reflects the official position of the United States government. Until next week, thank you for listening. Out here.

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, and today’s feature will look at universities and the war of words. But now, let's go straight to the updates.

The SPLC

OK, let's look at the SPLC. But I am really interested in the charges of Islamophobia. The Southern Poverty Law Center has been accused of smearing its opponents and bilking donors of millions under the guise of championing social justice and human rights. The charges are piling up. A federal grand jury in Alabama indicted the SPLC in April on “federal fraud charges of secretly paying leaders of the Ku Klux Klan.” Well, this shocked a lot of people, but it didn’t shock me. My only disappointment in the whole affair is that they didn’t put me on their deceitful hate list. I would have been honored to stand next to scholars like Daniel Pipes and others. The SPLC has made scurrilous charges against anti-Islamofascist activists, which brought it to my attention

Well, the SPLC had its day on Capitol Hill, and it didn't go well for them. They got a grilling and a shellacking. The leader, Bryan Fair, continues to label Turning Point USA as an extremist organization. Fair did not offer a robust defense of that charge. He did not cite specific examples of extremism or even define what the SPLC means by extremism. But what about Islamic extremism? Chip Roy (R-TX) asked Fair which Islamic organizations appear on the SPLC’s hate map. “How many extremist Islamic groups do you have of the 1,500 or so organizations you have on your hate map?” Roy asked. Fair dodged the question. He responded, “We don’t target any group because of its religion.” That would have come as news to many traditional Catholics in this country. In any case, Roy pressed further, asking about the position of Muslim groups and leaders on the gay lifestyle. Fair again did not give a straight answer.

What excites me most about this case is the long-overdue spotlight now shining on the SPLC. The Justice Department is giving serious attention, not fawning adulation. The SPLC has pleaded not guilty and has formally moved to dismiss the charges as a politically motivated retribution campaign. Well, we’ll see, but I am very curious to know whether Muslim organizations and Islamic countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have donated to the SPLC. I will keep you posted. I am very eager to learn about any connections the SPLC has to the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

            And speaking of CAIR, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is asking them some questions, such as “what did you do with the 30 million dollars we gave you for Afghan “refuge” resettlement?” In letters to the governors of California and Washington, where the $30 million was sent, HHS — headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — claims it has received concerning information. The HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources, Gustav Chiarello, says HHS has been informed: “There may be connections between CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood and its Palestinian branch, Hamas.” 

Wow! One hell of a connection. Well, Secretary Kennedy, CAIR is a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood, and so is Hamas. Is CAIR skimming from the HHS? I don’t know. Hopefully, we will see. But why would any government agency deal with CAIR? The FBI cut ties with CAIR years ago. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist case. So let’s keep our eyes on this one.\Now let’s turn to our feature story on higher education. Universities are vital to developed societies. The produce men and women who are leaders in industry, trade, and government. Islamists understand this, and this is why wealth donors and states donate so much money to Western universities. This is a war of words, and the West is losing.

The independent scholar, Hugh Fitzgerald, remarked last week that Apologists for Iran in American universities constitute a powerful fifth column. Some promote a rosy view of the mullahs’ ambitions, claiming that the Iranian regime is misunderstood. As for the nuclear program, this is driven by a fear of the United States and Israel. And Israeli agents control US foreign policy. Sound familiar? Here is an influence peddler for you.

In 2021, the Biden Department of Justice indicted Boston University professor Kaveh Afrasiabi for acting as an unregistered agent of the Iranian government, alleging that he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars “to create and disseminate information favorable to the Iranian government.” Fitzgerald snickered that “it was wasted money since so many academics in the U. “The U.S. is willing to promote the Islamic Republic for free.” Good one, Hugh. I am going to use this. Well, apparently he was pardoned by President Biden’s autopen. The Iran lobby remains strong. No membership card is required to join the Iran lobby. For many in the club, Iran is not the key issue or the glue holding members together. It is often hatred for the United States and Israel. They will bemoan the sanctions and the American-Israeli attacks on Iran’s infrastructure. But they are largely silent on women’s rights or the general privations visited on Iranians by the theocratic government. And about Iran’s terrorism? Well, the United States is a terrorist state.

Fitzgerald advocates this: “These agents of Iran need to be constantly exposed, their astounding records of anti-American and anti-Israel activity exposed, whether it is found in the classroom, in their pseudo-scholarly publications, in their appearances as “Iran experts” who are interviewed on both radio and television, and in their copious postings on social media.” Yeah, I’d agree. Let’s expose this brainwashing and note that sometimes they get caught. This is the case of Shirin Saedi. So, who is this woman?

Well, in September 2022, the University of Arkansas gushed in a press release, Dr. Shirin Saeidi has been named director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas’ Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. According to a press release from the university, Saeidi joined UA in 2018 as an assistant professor of political science with a joint appointment in Middle East studies and is the first female leader of the Middle East Studies Program since the center’s founding in the early 1990s.”

“Having Dr. Saeidi direct our Middle East Studies Program is an incredible opportunity for our college, students, community, and beyond. She brings a wealth of experience to the director role, drawing on 10-plus years of fieldwork in Iran and a focus on gender, activism, citizenship, Islamism, and the role of women in authoritarian countries.” I wonder what they meant by Islamism. Well, the faculty and administration were certainly pleased to have her until… the mask started to slip. And how did this happen?

Well, she wrote and spoke her mind. Prolifically. In December 2025, he praised Ayatollah Khamenei and called for the Jewish state to be “dismantled.”  OK. Well, there is a lot of talk like that. She then wrote a letter in support of a convicted Iranian war criminal. That is not entirely new. In posts shared on X she praised Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, noting that he is “the leader who kept Iran intact during the Israeli attack, May god protect you,” referencing the attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists. She has called Israel a “terrorist state” and a “genocidal state” on X. But then she posted that she wanted to “thrust the dagger from Doha into the throats of the Zionists, so that all of them howl.” 

Perhaps a bridge too far for the university, which does business with the federal government. A lot of it. And this is a time when universities are being heavily scrutinized for promoting hatred on campus. What would they find if they dove into the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies deeply? Well, all her electronic chattering got her fired, and she appealed it. She lost, but this is not over.

You should know that the Middle Eastern Forum, the MEF,  organized a grassroots campaign led by Iranian-American activists to rid the university of her teaching. A spokesman for the Iranian Judiciary praised Saiedi’s “enlightening, human-centered, and humanitarian voice” and denounced “the interests of world-devourers.” Iran also derided the assault on academic freedom. Right. To which the MEF responded, “The Islamic Republic’s crocodile tears for the supposed lack of academic freedom in Western democracies reeks of hypocrisy.”

Oh, and it gets worse for Shirin. Now her 2022 PhD dissertation, “Women and the Islamic Republic: How Gendered Citizenship Conditions the Iranian State,” is under investigation for plagiarism. Sound familiar? Claudine Gay, former president of Harvard, faced a similar fate. She was demoted but not fired.

So, what are my takes on this? It is very rare to be fired once you're tenured. But, as I understand it, she was not yet tenured. By my math, she was still too new in the game to have been tenured. And then there is post-tenure review. So, if I am correct about her tenure status, it might not have been that difficult to fire her. A second point is that she did not have strong support from all elements of the political science department. She was of Iranian heritage and openly supportive of the Khamenei regime. A third point is the cost-benefit analysis of keeping her on board. The University of Arkansas is in the middle of a conservative state. It is a public university, and Republicans could have made an issue of it. I am not sure that the perennial Shia-Sunni conflict plays much of a role in this. The Saudis don’t like the Iranians, but the Qatari leading families don’t seem to mind. Finally, it might be that important faculty members just didn’t like her. So, there may be more.  This concludes this episode. Nothing in this podcast represents the official position of the United States government.  Thanks for listening. Until next time, out here.

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, and today’s episode will look at a one we love and a young woman we do not love. But first, let’s update a few things.

Kristoff

Has the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Nicholas Kristof, secured a place in the New York Times legacy of outrageous deception? Well, let history decide. But it seems to me that he is rubbing shoulders with Walter Durranty, the notorious apologist for Joseph Stalin. Let’s see.  Kristof claimed that Israeli soldiers systematically and repeatedly tortured Palestinian captives. Not to mention the sex-raged dogs. Quite a charge, yes? And the evidence to support such a damning indictment?

Well, one of his main sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists, which Kristof described as “a respected American organization,” is the CPJ objective? Is it unbiased? According to veteran British reporter David Collier, the CPJ is hardly a credible source. The CPJ supplied Kristof with a list of six journalists described as "journalistic casualties of the Gaza war.” They charged that Israel intentionally targeted journalists who were objectively covering the war. Kristof treated this charge as a fact. And the names of these six journalists? When an investigative journalist discovered that they were indeed Hamas operatives, the CPJ pulled the names from its website without “contemporaneous acknowledgment of error from the organization,” according to the Free Beacon. Why were they pulled? All six were actually “terror combatants.”

The six names CPJ deleted without mention included a member of “Hamas’ Jabalia Battalion,” “a terror combatant for Islamic Jihad,” “a commander in the Nasser Salah Al-Din Brigades,” and three other known jihadist militants. A small mistake? I don’t think so. But maybe there are other, more credible sources to redeem the article. Well, there is Euro-Med, whose chairman is Richard Falk, whom I profiled in Cauldron of Terror. He is an ardent Marxist who despises Israel, and so does the founder of Euro-Med. And then there are charges that Israel trained its dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. Israel is likely to sue Kristof for defamation, and I, for one, wish it luck. I’ll keep you posted.

Now, let’s update the halls of academia. Universities are vital to any society. They train tomorrow’s leaders, some of whom craft foreign policy and report on international relations. Students listen to learn from important personalities and role models to emulate. Sometimes heroes stand at the podium or before the Zoom lens. Let’s look at Berkeley. A failed Palestinian car bomber, released as part of an October 7 Massacre hostage ransom, spoke remotely to University of California, Berkeley students last week. Israa Jaabis, who was convicted of an attempted car bombing in Jerusalem in 2015, spoke by video call to students in a Berkeley Law School classroom during a Palestinian Political Prisoners Day event organized by Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine and UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine.

Jaabis was released in November 2023 as part of a ransom for 26 hostages captured by Gazans during the October 7 Massacre. In 2015, Jaabis allegedly attempted to ignite a gas tank in her car with flammable materials. The explosion wounded her and a police officer who stopped her car. She reportedly yelled “allahu akbar” during the incident,” As for her videocast? She received standing ovations at Cal.

But we don’t have to go abroad to hear praise for Islamic terrorists. Corinna Mullin, a political scientist once arrested for leading anti-Israel protests that caused $3 million in damage to the City College of New York’s Harlem campus, lauded Iran’s “phenomenal” military for depleting US weapons stockpiles in the Middle East and urged support for its armed forces. “Iran has won this war. . . . its indigenous military industry has produced phenomenal results,” she claimed during an unhinged hour-and-a-half “Islamic Revolution Teach-in” she gave to the NYC chapter of the DSA. “This is taking a huge toll on the capacity of the US empire to impose its will. . . . We need to bring the empire down by any means necessary,” she raged. 

            What about the government of Iran? She defends it. Professor Mullin reportedly portrayed Iran’s government as serving working-class interests and described the country’s political struggle as a working-class issue. She also expressed support for the IRGC, which she credited with protecting ordinary citizens and advancing Iran’s national interests. Well, Dr. Mullin, I would be glad to send you an autographed copy of my book about Iran, “that advances Iran’s national interests.” I go into detail about what those interests are and how ordinary citizens are treated in Iran if they depart from the orthodoxy of the Mullah’s rule. To my listeners, do you know anything about her? Have you taken her courses? Love to hear from you.

            OK, before we go into our feature article, let’s have one more vignette. This is drawn from the file cabinet of “If at first they don’t concede, cry, cry again.” This one illustrates the established pattern of grieve and concede, grieve and concede. This is the European pattern song of caving into every demand made by Muslims who complain about Islamophobia. We have featured the proud plastic pig of Pauda, which stands in the window of an Italian sandwich shop. That shiny pig is our mascot. The pig and its own, in a rare show of courage, refused to remove the pig because a Muslim village elder found it un-Islamic. Well, this show of force was not found in Denmark last week.

            Tobia Sloth, the founder of the Danish clothing brand Norse Projects, has apologized for a comment about Islam on LinkedIn. Responding to a question about what single thing one would remove from Earth to make it better, Sloth wrote: “Islam.” This sparked angry comments on the company’s Instagram, where users called Norse Projects “racist.” Racism? I didn’t know that Islam was a race. How is criticizing a religion racist? I wonder if there would have been a similar blizzard of complaints if he said Christianity instead of Islam.

            What could he have said? Maybe this, “So you are offended. Well, so am I, but we are offended by different things. I am the leader of one of Europe’s leading fashion houses. We cut cloth to make women feel sexy. Did you hear that? Sexy. Our business model celebrates the beauty of a woman’s form. Feeling attractive is so important to many women, and we think that’s wonderful. If a woman wants to show off her curves and beautiful hair while walking in high heels, we help her do so through our clothing line. I have no time for your headscarves, which you impose on girls and women. In many countries, you wrap them in bedsheets and beat them or call them whores if they show their ankles or elbows.”

            Today, you threaten to boycott me, and you might be successful. But I am willing to take the loss. Because I have the resources to defend my company in the international court of public opinion. Also, many Europeans are tired of being bullied by the likes of you. It is looking bad for Europe, but you have not yet won. So, my dear boycotters, the fight is on.”  Well, that is what he could have said.

Ayan Hirsi Ali Let’s go to this week’s feature article. It is drawn from the Women We Love archives. This brilliant and lovely woman rose from the squalor of Somalia to become a leading advocate for women’s rights in the Islamic world. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia into a strict Muslim home and escaped the civil war there. One of her books, Nomad, recounts her journey from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia and later Kenya, and her 1992 flight to the Netherlands as a refugee seeking asylum to escape an arranged marriage. There, she became an activist for democratic norms, which she found in short supply. Hirsi Ali, 55, began her career in activism after joining the Dutch Parliament in 2003.

Ali has become known for her strong advocacy for women's rights, particularly focusing on issues such as female genital mutilation, arranged marriages, and the integration of Muslim immigrants into European society. Her political rise was accompanied by her outspoken criticism of Islam, which she condemned for its treatment of women and minorities. This criticism put her at odds with multiculturalists who promoted tolerance for diverse cultural practices, even when they contradicted liberal values.

Hmm, all was not well in Holland either. She and a colleague, Theo Van Gogh, a distant relative of the artist, produced a quick documentary called Submission. In the show, they revealed to Europe the perils of being a woman and a free thinker in the world of Islam. This did not sit well with many of the country’s Muslims, one of whom butchered Van Gogh in an Amsterdam street. The documentarian’s last recorded words were, “We can talk about this.” Well, these pleas for reasoned debate did not change the agenda of his assassin, who stabbed him repeatedly.  

Ayan was placed under government protection, but many of her countrymen and women were indifferent to the Islamic threat. She moved to the United States, where her struggles continued. She received honors and speaking engagements. Yes. But many intellectuals did not know what to make of her. One glaring case is Brandeis University, which announced and then rescinded its decision to confer an honorary degree on her after Muslim students and faculty complained about her “Islamophobia.” They yanked the honor, declaring that she opposed the university's values. Let me read you the statement because, while it is vacuous and craven, it speaks volumes.

“She is a compelling public figure and advocate for women’s rights, and we respect and appreciate her work to protect and defend the rights of women and girls throughout the world. That said, we cannot overlook certain of her past statements that are inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values.” And what were the values she violated? They didn’t say. But they gave an honorary degree to Desmond Tutu, who referred to Jews as ‘a peculiar people’ who ‘can’t ever hope to be judged by the same standards which are used for other people.’ He attacked the ‘Jewish lobby’ as ‘too powerful’ and ‘scary.’ He has accused the Jews of exhibiting ‘arrogance’ and ‘power’ – classic anti-Semitic stereotypes. Were Tutu’s values those of Brandeis? 

In any case, Ayaan found a husband in the brilliant Sir Niall Ferguson of Stanford’s Hoover Institution. They were both baptized this year, along with their children. This was quite a journey for Ayaan, who moved from an Islamic childhood to atheism in young adulthood to Christianity in middle age.  Well, I certainly wish her well in her newfound spirituality. She and her husband have given so much to their new adopted country, the United States of America.

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. I am Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting,             Let’s delve into the Kensington archives of women we love. Let’s start with an Italian. In earlier videocasts, we looked at some boutique social issues in Italy, illustrating Muslim-non-Muslim friction. There was the plastic pig of Padua, standing in the window of a delicatessen as a symbol of resistance to Muslim demands that it be removed. Then there was the nonsense about Italian and French women who adopt pigs as pets to keep Muslim men at bay. How this silly fable took hold in Europe and in India escapes me. It is easy to have fun with inane stories. But Islam in Italy and throughout Europe is serious business, and Oriana Fallaci was a very serious social critic. So, I would like to take a look at her life and the impact her writings had on shaping European opinions. Why did I select this celebrated, vilified, quoted, scorned, admired, and hated Italian journalist? Because, in my judgment, her insights into European-Islamic relations were second to none. She died 20 years ago.

She argued, “there is no place for muezzins, minarets, fake teetotalers, their f****** middle ages, and their f****** chadors.” Yeah, So lets buckle up.

The independent scholar Hugh Fitzgerald condenses her writings into the argument that Muslim immigration was turning Europe into “a colony of Islam.” She borrowed the neologism “Eurabia,” coined by Bat Ye’or, to refer to the Islamification of Europe, which, in her words, would “end up with minarets in place of the bell-towers, with the burka in place of the mini-skirt.”

Fallaci argued that, from its inception, Islam was driven to conquer Europe and force it under its rule. It came damn close a few times. Until the 21st Century, the apogee was probably the siege of Vienna in 1683. The armies were beaten back, and Europe became resurgent in technology and science. The invasion had been halted. Now, here is where Fallaci becomes controversial. She claims that “children and boats” instead of “troops and cannons.” She continued, “The art of invading and conquering and subjugating” is “the only art at which the sons of Allah have always excelled.”

Wow! Such sulfurous rhetoric. Well, you can see she certainly speaks her mind. Is this over the top? Was the only art in which Muslims excelled subjugation? What about the architecture, calligraphy, some poetry, and decorative arts? Also, is the historical analogy between invading Muslim armies and today’s migration solid? Aren’t European countries allowing them in? Aren’t they inviting them in? Well, let’s dive into her argument. But first, who was this woman?

She was one of Italy's most celebrated and later reviled journalists, who died in her late seventies in 2006, covered the Vietnam War, and interviewed Henry Kissinger, Indira Gandhi, and Ruhollah Khomeini. And I particularly enjoy the story of her truncated interview with Ayatollah Khomeini. We will get into that. Her spunky persona developed early. Her father was a partisan during the war, captured and tortured by the Germans. As a 14-year-old, she was a courier for the Italian Resistance in Nazi-occupied Florence. As a young journalist, she took risks while covering the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and its crushing by the Soviet army. In my view, she developed wisdom while covering the Vietnam War.  She was a loud critic of American efforts to defeat communism. She was hardly alone. She also gained insights into the American and European left. And with these insights came contempt and anger.

 She began as a strident critic of the American effort but became increasingly alarmed at the ruthlessness of the North Vietnamese and consequently, more sympathetic to the Americans. She developed a great hatred for certain American leftists poseurs, threatening to “kick Jane Fonda in the ass and spit in her face for lying about her coverage of the Vietnam War and betraying the confidence of American POWs.”  She developed a respect for Israel, particularly for Golda Meir.

Fallaci developed an early concern about Islam, Arabs, and Muslim leaders, and she interviewed a slew of them. These included  Khomeini, Arafat, Gaddafi, and PFLP leader George Habash, a Christian Arab and a terrorist. She wasn’t impressed. My favorite story is her tryst with Ayatollah Khomeini, whom she described as a humorless fanatic. Standing in front of him, she ripped off her chador in his presence, yelling about “these medieval rags!” Well, as the story goes, even the grim old man laughed at her bravado. What a woman!

 After September 11, her views on Islam crystallized. According to Al Jazeera, she adopted an “anti-Islam stance.” Maybe, but these ideas didn’t spring from nowhere. By the mid-1960s, she distrusted Islam and began to see it as a threat to the Western liberalism that she and her father fought for in World War II. After 9/11, she saw it as THE threat, and her journalism reflected that conviction.

Hugh Fitzgerald stressed that Fallaci did not “stir anti-Muslim sentiment.” She did not call for violence. Was she an activist? Her writing was intended to be both objective and thought-provoking. Could this have led to action? Yes. But she was never a rabble-rouser. She would have thought that low rent. She was convinced that Islamic law was antithetical to Western values. She took Muslims seriously, unlike many thinkers on the left. When many Western professors and opinion-makers dismissed the triumphalism of Muslim immigrants to Europe, Fallaci took them seriously and at their word. When Muslims boasted that Islam is an unstoppable force in Europe, Fallaci sounded the alarm. This earned her both followers and enemies.

            Three of her books commanded the attention of her fans and opponents.  The Rage and the Pride, The Force of Reason, and Oriana Fallaci Interviews Herself – in which she described the Muslim world as an “enemy we treat as a friend” and warned Europe about what she believed to be the danger of becoming “Eurabia.”

Here are a few:

The Muslims refuse our culture and try to impose their culture on us. I reject them, and this is not only my duty toward my culture-it is toward my values, my principles, my civilization.

The increased presence of Muslims in Italy and in Europe is directly proportional to our loss of freedom.

I find it shameful that in nearly all the universities of Europe, Palestinian students sponsor and nurture anti-Semitism. I defend Israel’s right to exist, to defend itself, to not let itself be exterminated a second time.

Europe is no longer Europe, it is Eurabia, a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense."

Turning to Iran,

"Without Khomeini, we would not be where we are. What a pity that, when pregnant with him, his mother did not choose to have an abortion.”

            Well, this Spitfire was plucky to the end. A few months before her death, Fallaci famously said she was ready to blow up the minaret of a mosque in Chianti [because she did not want to “see a minaret in the landscape of Giotto when I can’t even wear a cross !”  Fallaci was famously a Tuscan patriot.      And today, from the grave? She exists in memory. Italy and the rest of Europe is far more populated by Muslims than in Oriana’s day. She would be crestfallen at the situation and would have yelled in Italian, “I told you so.” And then she would have wept.  In the words of one of her admirers, “Fallaci is no longer a simple journalist but has become a prophetess of misfortune who warned us that Islam wanted to attack us.”

Marjane Satrapi

There is another loss. This one is recent. French-Iranian artist and activist Marjane Satrapi, the gutsy author of “Persepolis,” a graphic account of her struggle for freedom in Iran, died far too young at age 56. She had been living in France with her Swedish husband. The French government announced, “Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and an artist deeply committed to freedom, whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim.”

Satrapi was born into a secular, activist family in 1969 in Rasht in northern Iran. Her family and millions of other Iranians saw their lives yanked back to the Middle Ages as the theocratic regime eliminated the freedoms that evolved in the 20th century. Marjane was 10 at the time and, even at that young age, was bitter about having to wear a scarf to cover her hair.  Then, quickly came the avalanche of the Ayatollah’s edicts to narrow and eliminate basic human freedom. She was separated from boys in school and society, and she saw the emotional and intellectual devastation that befell the adults in her life.  All this is in her bestselling sensation  “Persepolis”, which came out in 2000. This graphic novel depicted the revolution through the eyes of a young girl and then young woman.  Satrapi’s rebellious streak – captured in “Persepolis” with touching honesty and humor – inspired her parents, who feared she’d get into trouble with the regime, to send her abroad in 1984.

“Persepolis” was adapted into a film in 2007 and won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival that year. It was also nominated for an Academy Award. Satrapi’s work spanned numerous graphic novels – which she preferred to call “comic books” – and films. In 2019, she directed “Radioactive,” a British biographical drama film starring Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie. She was also an outspoken critic of Iran’s ruling establishment and a prominent supporter of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement that emerged after the death of a young woman in police custody in 2022. Like Oriana Fallaci, she never lost her spunk. Last year, she announced that she had refused France’s highest national award, the French Legion of Honor, over what she called the nation’s hypocrisy.

I don’t know how she died. Her family said she died of sadness after her husband died last year. She sank into a deep depression and was hospitalized. Did she take her own life? We will see. But before she died, she tried to channel her grief into something productive. She established the Mattias and Marjane Ripa-Satrapi Cinema Foundation, an organization that supports international students who dream of studying filmmaking in Paris. So her legacy continues. It is too bad she died so young. Maybe her prestige could have encouraged fellow Iranians to rise up against the current regime in the near future. Maybe, had she lived, she could have seen her country rid of the current regime. She gave so much..

Well, let's sum up this episode, which was about two courageous women fighting Islamofascism in Europe and Iran. Oriana Fallaci first fought the Italian fascists who allied with the Nazis in World War Two. In some ways, she took on the world. She called out hypocrisy and illiberalism among the world’s leaders across the political spectrum. I’m reminded of Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece The Catcher in the Rye. Holden was very cynical about life, but what he hated most about grownups was that they were phonies. Oriana and Marjane felt the same way about establishment politicians. They made political statements about this and that, but they would not fight the Islamofascism in their midst. They often lied to win votes. So they spoke out against them and their collaboration with those who are destroying the liberalism of the West they cherish. And God bless them for that..

Thank you for listening. Nothing in this podcast or any other product of Kensington Security Consulting reflects the official position of the United States government. My latest book, Cauldron of Terror, will come out in the summer. On behalf of Kensington Security Consulting, thank you for listening. Until the next podcast, out here.

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, which provides education on national security. It is part of a series titled "Europe Has Fallen: Islam, Britain, and the Continent." The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, and today’s episode focuses on Britain and its challenge of balancing free speech with respect for the sensitivities of the country’s Islamic and pro-Hamas communities.

Today, we head to northern Yorkshire in Britain, where we meet Pete North, a man in his late 40s who has issues with Hamas, Muslims, and Palestine. He is very open and outspoken about his contempt for all three. His tweets “f_Hamas, f–k Palestine” and “f–k Islam earned him an arrest by the Yorkshire police. It also gained him support from people who share his opinions and from those who hold on to what little free speech remains in Britain. This is what happened:

Peter North posted a meme on social media using the F word three times in reference to Hamas, Islam, and Palestine. In response, police knocked on his door at 9:30 on 25 September 2025 to arrest him and take him to the police station. Two officers informed him that he was under arrest under section 19, which relates to spreading racial hatred. One officer explained, “So you've posted something online that we believe is spreading racial hatred." However, according to North, the police refused to disclose the offending post. Was it on "Twitter or Facebook?"

Responded a policeman, "Well, I can't explain too much. It's just to give you the context beforehand.”

"What, you're taking me away now?"

"Yes, so you're under arrest..."

"In the middle of the night, over a tweet?"

"I am, unfortunately."

And off North went to the police station, where he was interrogated.

North recalled, “The officer in the interview said, ‘Well, firstly, let’s start with the meme. You posted a meme that said f—k Hamas,’” North claimed. “I said, ‘yeah, I did post a meme that said f—k Hamas, because Hamas are a proscribed terrorist organisation internationally, including in Britain.“ ‘Just so we’re on the same page, you do know who Hamas are?'” “And he just … shook his head,”

North continued, claiming the officer was just as clueless when he asked if he knew about the horrors committed by Hamas on Oct. 7. “He was totally oblivious,” he claimed. “If you’re going to arrest people for memes, you probably need to pay more attention to current events.” North was later released without charges after a lengthy interrogation and has since accused authorities of trying to “terrorize” people into being politically correct online.

I was held in a holding area for some time before being taken for an interview. During the interview, to my shock and disgust, I had to explain to the interviewing officer what Hamas is. He was completely unaware. It seemed he didn't know what happened on 7/10. One of the questions was “Do you know who Tommy Robinson is?”—followed by “Are you aware that he was the first person to post this meme?” North responded that he did not believe that is what happened.

North then explained that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group in the UK. In his words, “The Palestine flag is the flag of Islamo-leftist revolution, and the agenda it represents is committed to the extermination of Jews. If you want to stand in support of that, you should go to a Muslim country. As it happens, many Muslim countries would lock you up—both for supporting Hamas and for protesting.”

North expressed his disgust towards the police, stating: "I'm disgusted by the police because they could have handled this in an orderly, civil manner, but instead they chose the maximum intrusion, and it was essentially like being treated as an act of terrorism. "They were trying to find evidence that I intended to stir up racial hate with it, which is unbelievable. It's crass. The meme itself is controversial, but controversy isn't illegal, and it simply reflects my opinion.”

North did not back down. In fact, he double-downed. “I feel quite strongly that what political cartoons and memes I post on social media is none of the police’s business. Nobody should be facing police inquiries for posting memes on Twitter. “The whole point of this exercise is not to win convictions. It’s to terrorize people like me into thinking twice about posting spicy memes.”

North received support on social media. On Jihad Watch, many followers offered comments like these:

“Is this Communist China? Why do the people here speak English?

From MihaiI, “I have a genuine question for every police officer in the UK: Is this what your ancestors fought and died for?

One said, “Hamas is a terrorist group. Are the police defending Hamas now?

Lou C. asked, “When are the police in the UK going to wear Brown Shirts? This is the same path followed by the Nazis in late 1930s Germany... The UK is done. Put a fork in it.”

Tee Dee asked, “Since when did Hamas become a race???”

Said one Briton, “ISLAM GO HOME. You're not welcome and never were.”

Well, North was released by the police on unconditional bail but maintains that the tweet in question remains 'a sentiment I wholly endorse.' He continued: "I'm quite shaken by the whole thing right now. I haven't slept and probably won't. I've always known my tweets could be a bit spicy, but being snatched by a goon squad at night for a 'F*** Hamas' meme is just breathtakingly outrageous and absurd. My wife was mortified. She was left alone after I was taken out of the house and was in tears, but she is very stoic and is my rock."

When asked if he regretted his post, he responded: 'I don't regret at all expressing my solidarity for the principle of free speech. Not at all, because it was an act of solidarity with Tommy Robinson, who had been hauled over the coals for posting that meme.”

Thank you for listening to this episode of Jihad and the World. Our upcoming book, Cauldron of Terror – Hamas, Israel, and the World, will be available for purchase in July 2026. This podcast does not represent the official position of the United States government. Until next time, goodbye from Kensington Security Consulting.

Hizballah - When the Beepers Went Boom!

On September 17 2024, explosions rocked Lebanon and Syria. These were not rockets launched from aircraft or shells from naval ships or ground-based artillery. Instead, they seemed to come from hand-held pagers, but witnesses and observers were not sure. Most of the explosions took place in Beirut, a stronghold for Hizbollah. Soon, the connection between the pager and Hizbollah was clear. But what on earth was happening? Why did the beeps go bang?

For many younger listeners, pagers are largely artifacts of the past. They belong to yesterday’s technology. Maybe their parents used them early in their careers. They appear in old TV shows from the 1980s and 1990s, when women had poofy hair, and men wore suspenders at the office. But today’s generation is the cell phone generation. So, what exactly are pagers?

Pagers are handheld communication devices that display short text messages relayed over telephone lines by a central operator. They operate on radio waves rather than the Internet. This makes them harder to monitor, which, in turn, makes them popular with terrorist groups, including Hizbollah.

Hizbollah turned to pagers after its leadership determined that cellphones were being monitored by Israeli intelligence. Israeli intelligence got wind of this intended switch in communications and saw it as an opportunity. It crafted an intelligence operation like no other and one likely to make a mark in the history of intelligence operations, because it is one hell of a story! And here it is.

When Israelis heard about the planned bulk purchase of cell phones, intelligence got to work. Technicians designed pagers with a battery that concealed a small but potent charge of plastic explosive and a one-of-a-kind, largely undetectable detonator. The Israeli pseudo-pager was significantly larger than other pagers to accommodate the mini-bomb. They crafted a marketing campaign to incite would-be Hizballah purchasers. Sure, the pager was bulkier, but that was because it was combat-tough – a real war pager. They dressed up the ads with military paraphernalia. But who would sell these pagers? Hizballah would not buy an Israeli pager or one connected to Israel. So Israel invented a company and the pager it claimed to sell. This company was BAC Consulting, ostensibly a Hungary-registered firm that partnered with a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, these were shell companies created by Israeli intelligence.

But BAC Consulting would have to appear credible. Why didn’t it have significant sales? Why haven’t more people heard of it? What is this company, anyway? It is not well-known because it has very few clients. After all, it was military-grade. BAC needed only one client – Hizballah. And Hizballah took the bait and bought hundreds. Hizballah bought and distributed the pagers in the summer of 2022. The group’s technicians found nothing suspicious in the new product. Now, Israel would wait and wait for an opportune time to kill and maim.

The moment came when Israel claimed it had thwarted a Hizballah attempt to kill senior Israeli leaders in September 2024. When the Israeli attack struck, it did so like lightning. Hundreds of pagers exploded nearly simultaneously, killing dozens and maiming and disfiguring scores of others. While the largest number of casualties was in Beirut, many people were also wounded in the country's north and south.

But what were the mechanics of the attacks? Israeli intelligence sent a ring to each pager. The recipient then picked up the pager and, usually, saw the message “error.” This was followed by the message “Press OK,” which many did. This detonated the explosive inside the pager and usually killed or seriously injured the victim. Many lost fingers, which were blown off. Many suffered severe facial scars and blindness because they held the pager close to their face so they could read the message. The facial scars will remain clearly visible.

There was also the psychological trauma. Mohammed Awada, 52, and his son were driving when the boy saw a pager explosion. Awada said. “My son went crazy and started to scream when he saw the man’s hand flying away from him.” Elsewhere, a young girl, Fatima, had just come from school when she answered her father’s pager. The explosion killed the 9-year-old girl. How reliable is each story related to journalists? Some are certainly fabricated or exaggerated. However, local hospitals treated people of all ages.

Lebanese government officials and Hezbollah were quick to blame Israel. "After examining all the facts, available data, and information regarding the heinous attack this afternoon, we hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression.” The following day, hundreds of walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives also exploded.

Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, and today’s episode will examine the strange case of Monica Witt – from all-American girl to a traitor for Iran. Here is an update to a podcast I made a few months ago. 

            So, an all-American girl joins the Air Force, becomes an intelligence analyst, learns Persian, and defects to Iran. It doesn’t happen often. Generally, defections go the other way, from autocracy to freedom. There are, of course, exceptions. Kim Philby and the other Cambridge spies skedaddled to Moscow when their cover was blown. A few Americans hightailed it to Cuba. But this was rare. Rarer still was defecting to Iran. Some Iranians who lived in the West for a while returned to Iran. Maybe they have very aged parents, saw business opportunities, or were seized by religious conviction. But they were not defectors.  However one was, and her name is Monica Elfriede Witt.

Witt was born in Texas, raised in Florida, served competently in the Air Force, earned an advanced degree at a top university, and then she defected. She claimed to use her intelligence background, knowledge of tradecraft, and personnel to support a higher purpose—serving the Islamic Republic of Iran. She was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to deliver national defense information to the Iranian government; prosecutors say Witt provided highly classified secrets to Iranian intelligence and helped them target operations after she defected to Tehran. She remains at large, with a $200,000 bounty from the U.S. Department of Justice.  

            So, What Happened?

            Well, she didn’t like it in the Air Force.  Years after her service and speaking on Iran's Press TV, Witt criticized a "boy's club atmosphere" and widespread sexual harassment that she claimed was systemic in the U.S. military. In June 2008, she left the Air Force and earned a degree from the University of Maryland. With her security clearance and bachelor’s degree, she was well-positioned to work for national security contractors, a role she held for several years. From November 2008 to August 2010, she worked as a Middle East Desk Officer in Virginia. She later worked for a nonprofit organization that connected Middle Eastern students with Fulbright scholarships.

She enrolled at George Washington University and partially paid her tuition through an Iraq Fulbright scholarship. You think she would be happy, but she wasn’t.  In choppy English, she published an article in the university’s International Affairs Review that was very critical of the United States.  

           She, like many other university students, was openly critical of the United States, and at first her anti-American rhetoric was indistinguishable from that of other graduate students. Many Middle East studies departments have been highly hostile to the policies of successive administrations. They are also well-financed by Middle Eastern states. But the key here is that she began to show signs of disloyalty to the United States, and these signs were noted but not reported. Something similar happened with an Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Hasan. He began to turn away from his country and embrace radical Islam. He unleashed his fury on his fellow American soldiers as they were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. On a rampage, he shot at anything that moved, killing 14 and wounding and crippling others.  

            It is vital to note that both Hasan and Witt were ostentatiously disdainful of America, and their fellow students were concerned. But they were also worried about being tarred as a bigot or Islamophobic. Referring to Monica Witt, a fellow student at George Washington, later recalled, 'There weren't warning signs in terms of 'go to authorities' warning signs.' One student recalled that “everyone just kind of sat and watched” as Witt expressed strong opposition to American foreign policy in class. No one, it seems, pushed back with even a limited defense of America. According to some accounts, Witt was haunted by what she claimed were American war crimes in the Middle East. A classmate recalled that she said she had difficulty sleeping and reconciling her participation in the war effort. Witt would mention drone strikes, extrajudicial killings, and atrocities against children, all of which she claimed her colleagues in the military would brag about. She appeared distressed by what she called ‘gross incompetence’ by her superiors. Well, they were certainly not competent enough to catch on to her. And I am very dubious about her alleged war crimes.

            The Hollywood Conferences 2012 and 2013  

            Her journey toward becoming an agent for the Iranian government took a significant step in 2012, when she attended a highly publicized conference in Tehran. Since the 1979 revolution, the Iranian regime has arranged visits for many influential intellectuals to speak at conferences, most of which are closely monitored by Iranian intelligence services. New Horizon, an organization backed by Iranian intelligence, hosts events featuring anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and far-left speakers.

            A New Woman upon Return

            After returning to the United States from the 2012 conference, Witt began wearing a hijab and often discussed her conversion to Islam. Some people found her comments on Iran troubling, viewing them as both concerning and openly supportive of the regime and its ideology. She delivered a class presentation that alarmed some students for its sympathetic tone toward the Iranian government. A fellow student recalled that Witt's paper sounded like a "love letter to Iran." The FBI also grew concerned. Several agents approached Witt and expressed concerns that Iran’s intelligence services might try to recruit her.

            She met an Iranian-American spotter and recruiter for Iranian intelligence less than seven months after the New Horizon conference, according to an indictment charging her with multiple felonies. The indictment identified a person known as Individual A, who approached her, built a relationship, and arranged her re-entry into Iran in August 2013. Once there, Witt was provided with housing and computer equipment. Her defection was complete, and Ms. Witt, who had served ten years as an Air Force intelligence specialist, was now under the operational control of Iranian security services. She disclosed classified U.S. information and researched U.S. intelligence personnel she had worked with and knew professionally and socially. This information was used to create target packages.  

            Monica Witt’s Espionage – The Grand Jury Indictment

            The grand jury indictment of Witt was unsealed during the week marking the fortieth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. In the same indictment, the grand jury charged four Iranian nationals with conspiracy, attempted computer intrusion, and aggravated identity theft. And what about Monica Witt today?  I don’t know. Has she been harmed in the spring 2026 US-Israel attacks on Iran?  She may have been. But in May 2026, the FBI announced a $200,000 reward for information leading to Witt's apprehension and prosecution. Something to think about.

Eurovision Update Let’s revisit the Eurovision contest for an update. This is a good piece by a young Israeli, Yael Bar Tur. It gives a clearer picture of the voting rules and how they affected Israel’s strong performance. Each participating country — 35 this year — submits an original song, performed by a local singer or band. The real show begins when voting starts, and countries, through panels of judges and fans voting from home, unleash their lethal arsenal of soft power on one another. And unleash they do: Scandinavian countries all vote for each other, as do the Balkans. Ukraine won a landslide in 2022 amid international sympathy following Russia’s invasion.

Its artists have been snubbed by fellow performers, and countries have even dropped out of the competition altogether to protest their presence. Israeli singers reportedly rehearse to a soundtrack of boos and jeers to simulate what they’ll inevitably face onstage. But scratch the glitter, and a brighter picture emerges.

Amid all the controversy — and despite low points from judges’ panels (who wants to deal with all those mean Instagram comments?) — Israel has been reeling in record numbers of audience votes. In 2025, when judges ranked Israel’s entry 14th, the audience overwhelmingly picked it as their favorite, propelling it to the No. 2 spot overall. This year brought a similar result: The audience vote moved Israel from eighth place in the judges’ estimation to second in the final tally.

Anti-Israel critics claimed the public support was the result of a sophisticated campaign by those crafty Zionists, but voters in countries like Albania, Finland and Portugal — not exactly known for their thriving Jewish communities — each awarded Israel the majority of their points. They just love the song, “Michelle.” Iranians in the diaspora campaigned on Bettan’s behalf, and social-media viewing numbers for “Michelle” broke records.

Animal Kingdom

Let’s return to the animal kingdom I discussed in earlier videocasts and podcasts. In an earlier videocast, Kensington Security Consulting announced a competition for the best image of an Israeli super rat. Hope you will enter. The prize is a copy of my upcoming book, Cauldron of Terror. Well, today let’s turn to other animals that prowl and roar across the greater Middle East. Then there are wild boars. In 2012, wild boars in the West Bank, which the Zionists released, trashed Palestinian Arab crops and terrorized villagers. They were trained to distinguish Jews from Arabs and targeted only Arabs. Very intelligent animals. For animals of lesser intelligence, such as donkeys, sheep, and cows, Israeli intelligence attached eavesdropping and recording devices and cameras to monitor farm life in Arab villages. The Palestinian Authority did explain why Israelis have a continuing interest in Arab farm life. But there you have it.

Then there are hyenas that attack Palestinians in the Jordan Valley. They were released by the Israelis to cause terror and death. In 2016, residents of Hebron cornered one and stoned it to death. Let’s not forget the squirrels. These, like donkeys, sheep, and cows, are equipped with surveillance devices.

Well, you can draw your own conclusions, but I think these are hoaxes. Some animals can be trained for combat. Sure, there are war dogs, and I discuss them in Cauldron of Terror in the chapters on tunnel warfare. During World War Two, the Soviets used bomb-carrying dogs to crawl under Panzers and detonate themselves. The British give a Dick Award to animals who have fallen in service. Some of the stories are very moving. So I am sure that Israelis have used animals in war. You bet. But designing super-rats the size of large cats to kill Arab children? Or releasing boars to rampage through Arab villages? Until someone provides evidence, I say these are hoaxes.

            For college students, I see a few possibilities for term papers for Ms. Witt. For national security students, consider comparing and contrasting the lives and motives of Monica Witt and the Cuban spy Anna Montes, or of Witt and Nidal Hasan. Good topics! There is a lot there. Believe you me! If you don’t like that, think about a paper on the images of animals in the information warfare against Israel. Plenty of stuff out there. Send me an outline, and I will look it over. Kensington is an educational service, and I am here to help. No joke.  This videocast does not represent the official position of the United States government. On behalf of Kensington Security Consulting, thanks for listening. Out here!