Switzerland to purchase 36 F35s

(Bern) In something of a surprise, Switzerland blocked a referendum demanded by 2 political parties (the Socialist Party and the Greens) over the Governments plans to purchase thirty six F35 stealth jets. As is the case in Switzerland, if you want to question anything the government proposes you garner 100K signatures which allows that Government proposal to be thrown at the public allowing them to vote on the matter. This we saw take place in 2014, when the purchase of 22 Gripen aircraft was rejected in which to replace Switzerland’s aging F5 fighter aircraft which had been in service since 1978. It seems that the Government knowing it couldn’t allow another rejection in which to update its airforce, simply said no and went ahead with the purchase of the F35 of which the first 4 will be built in the US, with the remainder in Italy, Bern is looking at 2030 for when the aircraft will become operational. 

Switzerland: Selects F35 over French and Eurofighter. Europe isn't happy

(Bern) Switzerland has been in the market for a new fighter for a few years to replace its current fleet of F18 hornets which it purchased during the 1990s and its F5 freedom fighters of 1960s stock 4 aircraft were in the running :

France: Dassault’s Rafale which has of late been very successful across Europe with sales to Greece and Croatia

EU: Airbus Eurofighter (with the offer of all planes to built in Switzerland) 

US: Boeing F18 SuperHornet (A more advanced version of the F18 already in service with Switzerland)

US: Lockheed Martin F35 (The only 5th gen aircraft on offer)

Well the Swiss have made their minds up and have selected the F35 and that hasn't gone down well across Europe. France which was hoping to win, even had Macron, telephone the Swiss President. The french speaking population of Switzerland have expressed their displeasure Le temps which also caters to the French Swiss population wrote:

“The decision is a “strategic error” on the part of the defence minister, the purchase of a new fighter jet has to take into account all aspects, including the geostrategic question. On this front, the European models – the French Rafale and the English-Italian-Spanish-German Eurofighter – were clearly the priority. There are even plans to launch a people’s initiative to challenge the decision.”

La Liberté which also caters to the same demographic wrote:

The choice sends a “disastrous signal” to Europe. “Not so much in the sense of trying to heal the tensions after the end of the framework agreement, but rather in terms of investing and projecting in a common future,“A security strategy is crafted together with one’s neighbours; it’s with them that one builds one’s future”.

 SonntagsBlick which caters to the German Swiss population published:

A letter from four European defence ministers addressed to Swiss Defence Minister Viola Amherd. According to the paper’s sources,  which talked about cross-border partnerships in various areas including cyber security and infrastructure.

 Airbus even made an appeal to the Swiss government to choose a European firm

Bernhard Brenner, Sales Director at Airbus Defence and Space stating that the decision shouldn’t solely be based on military criteria. "The economic and political elements are just as important."

Well now that the Swiss have picked the F35, there is talk that this decision will effect Swiss and EU relations , seeing how days before the Swiss picked the Patriot missile system over the French/Italian  SAMP/T

Switzerland: 42 year Eritrean refugee jailed for anal raping his 12 year old niece.

(Solothurn-Lebern) In Switzerland 42 year old Eritrean refugee Haile H has been jailed for 7 years for abusing 2 children.

Haile arrived in the country in 2008 and claimed asylum. 4 years later he returned to Eritrea on holiday and returned with 2 small children his 12 year old son and his 9 year old niece whom he claimed was his daughter.

He mistreated them from the word go , beating them if they failed to clean the house etc. Then in 2015 he started sexually abusing his niece.  This he would do only once his 15 year old son had fallen asleep , whereupon he would force his 12 year old niece into his bedroom and get her to play with his penis  off, suck him off , finger her and then he would turn her around and anally rape her. That is until he was found out. In court his lawyer tried to get the case thrown out due to the state of his clients mental health, but the judge was having none of this and sent down child rapist Haile for 7 and ½ years.

Switzerland: Muslim body justifies FGM

(Bern)  I wrote the other week about how the spokesman for the Islamic Cultural Centre in Ireland not only justified female genital mutilation (FGM)  but explained a way around the First world ban on this barbaric practice on Prime time TV by saying:

“There is no difference between FGM and female circumcision: “They are the experts. If they say there is no difference, there is no difference. Thus the latter should be allowed but only in instances where this was recommended and allowed by doctors.”

As you can imagine this went down like a lead balloon in Ireland and Dr Ali Selim (Dr as in academic) was forced to apologise by..playing the victim by blaming the  media, which he said, behaved like “a lynch mob” The above just goes to show how Muslims living in the West when they feel strong enough, try to subvert the way of the land in which to accommodate intolerant practices which have no place in any civilised society.

And so it is, in Switzerland where a local paper has found the Islamic Central Council Switzerland actually mirrors the Islamic Cultural Centre in Ireland in its views on FGM on its web site. Where it explains the difference between FGM and Sunna circumcision. (Sunna been, the traditional portion of Muslim law based on Muhammad's words or acts, accepted (together with the Koran) as authoritative by Muslims and followed particularly by Sunni Muslims.) So in otherwords  Lawful as deemed under Islamic law. This it explains by the following chapter on the above web site:

Translated using Google

III. The opinions of scholars

Scholars agree in the vast majority that the woman's Sunnah circumcision is legitimate in Islam and that she is attested by the normative sources. Rather, the question is how they classed . The practice of female circumcision : the majority of scholars among the Hanafites and Malikites see female circumcision as a Sunna and noble act. The circumcision of the woman is not classified as an obligation. An overwhelming majority of Shafiite and Hanbalitic scholars, as well as creams among the Malikites, consider circumcision to be a binding sunna / wadjib for women as well.

Which it concludes with

IV. Conclusion

In this summary on circumcision of women, it could be shown beyond doubt that besides the "sanctuary" circumcision, which is not sanctioned by Islamic normativity, there is a clear indication of a much more moderate Sunnah practice in the relevant sources of law (Ahaddith) the clitoral prepuce). Even the jurists did not argue about the validity of the practice, but only about the question of classification, as wâdjib or sunna (mustahabb). Accordingly, there is no law school that would not have at least categorized female circumcision as sunna.

However as they know FGM is illegal across the civilised world (Including Switzerland) they add a disclaimer.

* Disclaimer: Due to FGM's legal prohibitions in some countries, including Switzerland,  and uncertainty about the legal status of Sunna circumcision, it is advisable to seek advice from a specialist before considering such an intervention .

Translated using google

Isn't it funny how Muslims living in the West try to excuse and get around practices not only banned by the host country, but by the UN, by playing the medical card.

Europe: 10 Terrorist arrests made in France and Switzerland.

(Paris/Bern) Ten people suspected of using encrypted social networks to prepare for a possible terrorist attack on the city of Nice were arrested Tuesday in counter-terrorism operations in France and Switzerland.

Nine people were detained in France and one in Switzerland in operations aimed  at disrupting the suspected plot, among those arrested was a 23-year-old Colombian woman and a 27-year-old Swiss man, both targets of a Swiss investigation into banned Islamic extremist groups. In parallel to the Swiss investigation, the French opened a probe focused on suspicious activity by a person in Switzerland using the Telegram network.

The French towns targeted in the operation were Aix-en-Provence in southern France and Menton on the Mediterranean coast as well as Paris suburbs, in Switzerland the French-speaking Vaud and Neuchatel regions were targeted.

Nice was the scene of a truck attack where 86 people died in a truck attack in 2016.

Switzerland: Members of the Swiss version of CAIR/MCB charged with making al Qaeda propaganda

(Bern) Three (Naim Cherni, Qaasim Illi and Nicolas Blancho ) senior members of the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS),(Swizz version of CAIR) Have been charged with making and promoting propaganda films for al Qaeda. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) state that the Council made films in Syria in 2015 with a leading al Qaeda member and posted two films on YouTube that were promoted by the three committee members.

“that the accused offered the leading al-Qaeda member in question a prominent multilingual multimedia platform from which to advantageously portray and promote both himself and the ideology of al-Qaeda.”

ICCS spokesman Abdel Azziz Qaasim Illi,  speaking to the media  stated that he was one of the three men charged, dismissed the case as a “political show trial,” and said authorities had misunderstood the video at the heart of the case.

“The point of the interview was to counter (Islamic State) propaganda with a credible figure from the moderate Syrian rebel spectrum. The interview itself never concerned al Qaeda,”

In reply The OAG claims to have proof that this increased the appeal of al-Qaeda to existing and potential members around the world, thus promoting the organisation’s criminal activities.

Switzerland: Bigoted racist immigrant Imam was paid over $620,000 in benefits

(Beil) The Swiss are up in arms after it was revealed in a TV news program that the state has been funding Abu Ramadan, an intolerant Libyan Islamic preacher who, whilst living in the country for over 13 years on unemployment benefits, still hasn't managed to bother to learn any Western language which would allow him to find work. But it gets worse, when he’s not bitching about non-Muslims, Jews, Russians and Christians, this waste of space escorts pilgrims to Mecca, living it large in luxury hotels.

The Rundschau news programme obtained a recording of Abu Ramadan preaching:

“Oh Allah, I beg you to destroy the enemies of our religion. Destroy the Jews, Christians, Hindus, Russians and the Shia. He who befriends a disbeliever is cursed until the Day of Judgment. If you tell me that a Muslim has stolen or raped…that does not matter to you, and you should not talk about it.”

And the left keeps telling me that these people only come to the West in search of safety. Pity they don't bother caring about the safety of those who ugly bigots like this target with their vile religious hatred.

Switzerland :Imam charged with inciting violence

(Winterthur) Last November I wrote about how Swiss Police had raided a mosque when the Imam had preached to the mosque about how Muslims who didn't pray at the mosque should be hunted down and killed. Well 12 people were taken away for questioning 10 months ago , 2 months ago the mosque was closed down and yesterday the Ethiopian Mullah behind all of the above was charged by the Swiss authorities with distributing pictures of executions via the internet. The prosecutor also accused the cleric of violating labour regulations by working without a permit.

They have called for an 18-month suspended prison sentence for the imam  and announced they also wanted the Muslim cleric to be banned from Switzerland for 15 years. Joining the religious bigot are three other followers of the religion of peace.

Muslim girls must attend mixed swim class: European rights court

(Reuters) A Muslim couple who refused on religious grounds to allow their two young daughters take part in boys-and-girls school swimming lessons in Switzerland did not have the right to do so, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday.

The ruling by the court was a first on the specific issue of religious beliefs versus school rules where sport, in this case involving some exposure of the body and changing of clothes, is part of obligatory activities.

Schooling, including sports, overrode religious convictions, notably when the school sought to address the couple's concerns by offering to let the girls wear burkinis - full-body swimwear - and change into it without boys present, the court said.

The case ended up at the rights court, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, when a couple of Turkish nationality fought a Swiss decision to fine them 1,400 Swiss francs ($1,380) for failure to respect schooling rules.

The Swiss authorities fined the couple in 2010 for refusing to send the two girls, born in 1999 and 2002, to the swimming lessons. After a challenge in the Swiss courts, the parents turned to the European rights court.

Switzerland: Shooting at a mosque, 3 injured

(Zurich) A shooting at a mosque in the city of Zurich has seen 3 men injured. The body of the gunman was found a couple of streets away has been identified as a 24-year-old Swiss man with Ghanaian roots with no apparent links to Islamic radicalism. However they have released that he was interested in the occult. (Can somebody please explain all these excuses for people who try to murder others>)

Switzerland: Police raid mosque after imam ordered killing of Muslims who don’t pray

(Winterthur) Swiss authorities didn’t take kindly to how the mullah at the An Nur mosque preached on Friday, 21st October 2016, that Muslims who don’t pray at the mosque, have to be denounced and killed. So, after debating the matter for 12 days, police decided to raid said mosque Wednesday morning, arresting 8 people. The imam and 3 people are now facing criminal charges. The other four people arrested are being held on immigration charges.

Switzerland denies citizenship to two Islam-first Muslim girls

Switzerland denies Muslim girls citizenship after they refuse to swim with boys at school.

Case is the latest case of immigrants not deemed to be 'Swiss enough'.

(The Independent) Switzerland has rejected citizenship requests from two Muslim girls for refusing to take part in swimming lessons with boys at school.

The 12- and 14-year-old will no longer be considered for naturalised citizenship because they have not complied with the school curriculum, authorities in Basel said.

The girls are understood to have refused to take part in school swimming lessons because boys were present and their religion forbade that form of interaction, according to USA Today. Their applications for Swiss passports have now been overturned.

Meanwhile, the father of two other girls who refused to let his daughters swim with boys was fined $4,000 swiss francs (around £2,900) by a district court in another part of the country.

Stefan Wehrle, president of the country's naturalisation committee, told TV station SRF that "whoever doesn't fulfil these conditions, violates the law and therefore cannot be naturalised."

More...

Citizenship process for Intolerant Muslims halted in Switzerland

(Switzerland)  The one thing I cannot understand is how Islamic migrants who relocate away from their homelands due to poverty,religious oppression or war (usually due to Islam)  recreate the very conditions they ran away from in their new homelands. We've seen sharia patrols targeting Gays,women and drinkers on the streets of Europe where people have been berated for not respecting the views of Islam. We have over Female Genital Mutilation (over 100,000 victims in the Uk alone), Honour killings, racism, anti-Semitism, rape.  All the attributes which define Islamic lands, have been recreated in the West.  Which is why an Islamic family in Switzerland insisted that their two young boys do not shake hands with female teachers as it is against their faith. The school authorities not only allowed them to do so, but insisted that they refused to shake the hands of male teachers also so that the school didn't run foul of any gender based edict . Well the crap hit the fan when everybody else in the coutnry found out. The Islamic family rather than admitting they were in the wrong stood by their bigoted wards , even when jihad junior revealed that he only got the idea when he looked it up on the net.  Well authorities have put their feet down and halted the citizenship process for the entire. family.  If the Swiss had any balls they would deport these racist bigots back to their Islamic homeland, no questions asked. That way they would send the message that in Europe everybody is equal, but alas, they won't and Muslims will continue to spread their message of hate defended by the human rights brigade.

Swiss School allows Islamic boys to not shake hands with female teachers.

(Therwil) As a child growing up, I was taught by my Mother, that nobody was better than me and that, I was better than nobody else. It’s an adage, I’ve subscribed to ever since. Probably, why I get on with nearly everybody I meet. It costs nothing to be nice.

For years now, minorities have demanded for the right to be treated the same as everybody else, the thing is , in this day and age, where equality is written into law, we now find that certain people are demanding for the right to be…different.

In Switzerland , a school has afforded the right to a couple of young Islamic boys the right not to shake hands with female teachers, because according to their religion, they are forbidden not to touch females who are not family. Well, that decision hasn’t gone well with the vast majority of the country , who quite rightly expressed their displeasure. Felix Mueri, the head of the Swiss parliament's education commission, said the decision sent out the wrong message. "Today's it's the handshake and what will it be tomorrow?"

Islamic groups also disagreed with the school's response. The Swiss Federation of Islamic Organisations  has pointed out that there is no reference in the Koran that justifies a refusal to shake a woman teacher's hand. They also urged the Swiss not to give in to extremist demands.

In giving in to the demands of a select few, this school, washes away all the hard work undertaken by others in which to afford females equality of the sexes.  The irony here is, the people who afford extra rights to minorities in the West, are usually champions of Human rights, yet in allowing others to be different , they not only set back human rights, but they trample over people (In this case women) in which to be seen as politically correct.

Switzerland opens criminal investigation of leading Islamic organisation member

Naim Cherni (Source: Twitter)

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss attorney general has opened a criminal investigation of a leading member in a Swiss Muslim organisation accused of violating a ban on jihadist groups, the attorney general's office said on Saturday.

Switzerland is on high alert after Islamist militants killed 130 people in Paris in November. A week ago, two Syrians were arrested near the French border on suspicion of having links to Islamic State. Traces of explosives were found in their car.

The attorney general's office did not name the accused, but the Islamic Central Council, which says it is the largest Muslim organisation in Switzerland, identified him as the German head of its multimedia department, Naim Cherni. He was either 23 or 24 years old, the spokeswoman said.

According to State Attorney Michael Lauber, the accused traveled to Syria in October and interviewed the leader of a jihadist umbrella group as well as the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, which is affiliated with al Qaeda.

He subsequently released a roughly 40-minute video, in Arabic with German subtitles, documenting their exchange.

Lauber said he "presented his journey to embattled regions of Syria in a video for propaganda purposes, without having explicitly distanced himself from al Qaeda activities in Syria."

The Islamic Central Council says on its website it seeks to promote the recognition of Islam in Switzerland and that it had more than 2,500 members at the end of 2012.

A spokesman for the council said earlier on Saturday that its leaders were unable to make a statement immediately but would respond at the press conference with Cherni on Monday morning in Berne.

The Swiss government on Friday announced it had added 86 employees to what it called its "terror fighting" activities within the federal police, intelligence service and border patrol agencies.

Lauber recently opened a criminal inquiry on the basis of a "terrorist threat in Geneva" against unknown persons suspected of belonging to a criminal organisation and of violating the ban on al Qaeda or Islamic State.

Swiss students accused of racism because they wore a blue shirt to show they were proud of being Swiss

Don't you just love the world progressives created?

(The Local) A blue shirt with embroidered edelweiss flowers used to promote farmers in Switzerland has become the focus of an ardent national debate since a school teacher in the canton of Zurich banned students from wearing one, calling it a “racist symbol”.

The incident occurred last Friday when a dozen students showed up wearing the shirts at a secondary school in Gossau, the SonntagsBlick newspaper reported.

The teacher banned three of them from returning to her class in the afternoon because of her concerns the students were making a racist statement about Swiss citizens, the newspaper said.

The school’s administration quickly distanced itself from the decision but it kicked off a media storm of commentary and nationwide political reaction.

Later, the teacher recognized that she had over-reacted.

“This shirt does not violate the dress code of our establishment and is not banned,” school principal Patrick Perenzin said, according to a report from Le Matin.

More...

Two Syrian nationals arrested in Geneva 'with traces of explosives found in car'

(Mirror) Two Syrians have been arrested in Geneva, Switzerland and traces of explosives were found in their car.

The city's daily Tribune de Geneve gave no details on the identity of the two men or the circumstances of their arrest and said that it was not clear whether there was any link with the heightened security alert launched by Geneva authorities.

This comes after a manhunt was launched in the city for four suspects believed to be connected with ISIS yesterday.

Authorities, responding to CIA information, raised the alert level to a "precise threat" from a "vague threat".

Emmanuelle Lo Verso, Geneva Department of Security and Economy spokesman, is understood to have confirmed that officials were pursuing several people but could not confirm their identities.

'How to' for the multi-cultural society: Railway posts 'how-to' toilet signs for tourists from Southeast Asia and the Middle East

(Switzerland) Fed up with having to clean up messes in the public toilets, the operators of the Mount Rigi cogwheel railway in central Switzerland have installed pictogram signs showing the right and wrong way to use the facilities as part of an information campaign.

The pictograms instruct users to sit on toilet seats rather than to squat on them and to discard used toilet paper in the lavatory rather than in the waste bin.

“It happens that guests mount on the toilet seats to do their business — sometimes they don’t know where to put the (toilet) paper,” Roger Joss, director of marketing for the Rigi railway, told 20 Minuten newspaper.

The signs, installed in a bid to improve cleanliness, appear to be targeted at tourists from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

“Tourists from the Gulf region or Asian countries are not very aware of our way of living,” Marcel Furer, head of the regional tourist office, told 20 Minuten.

“It’s happened that people relieve themselves in the shower rather than in the toilet,” Furer said.

More...

Bomb threat in Zurich airport

Bomb threat in Zurich airport, Ground staff escorting passengers to safety, police & special units searching airport. Via @News_Executive
— PzFeed Top News (@PzFeed) December 15, 2014

Burkas and niqabs banned from Swiss canton

(Telegraph) Just over 65 per cent of voters in the Italian-speaking region of Ticino voted in favour of banning the veil, according to preliminary votes of Sunday's referendum.

It comes as Britain debates if female Muslim doctors and nurses should be banned from wearing full-face veils such as niqabs and whether Muslim women can be ordered to remove their veils if giving evidence in court.

While the Swiss proposal did not specifically target Muslim women, it had become known as the “anti-burka” initiative.

It was pushed by conservative campaigners and had been criticized by Amnesty International.

As well as banning burkas, the full-body cloaks worn by some Muslim women, the initiative will also prohibit niqabs, which feature a slit for the eyes.

One of the main backers of the ban, former journalist Giorgio Ghiringhelli, said he wanted to put a stop to “the inevitable spread of niqabs and burkas.”

He said the passing of the referendum sent the message that the Swiss rejected “militant Islam” and told the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation that he hoped other cantons would follow suit.

Critics said it was almost meaningless because there were very few Muslims in Ticino who wore burkas or niqabs.

“You might see a few Arab tourists coming out of expensive boutiques in Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse or Geneva’s Rue due Stand – but out in the sticks?” said an editorial in the Neue Zurcher Zeitung when the ban was first discussed.

While there are about 400,000 Muslims in Switzerland, only about 100 Muslim women wear burkas, according to official estimates.

Several Swiss regions had previously thrown out proposals to ban burkas and niqabs, making Ticino the first of the country’s 26 cantons to pass such a ban.

The prohibition is similar to a controversial law passed in France in 2011 which makes it illegal to wear a face-covering veil or other type of mask in public places.

Ticino’s burka ban is the latest of a series of moves in Switzerland which have been condemned as racist or discriminatory.

In 2009 there was international condemnation after voters backed a ban on the building of new minarets, beyond the four that already exist.