Awakening

Lots of welcome developments in the last few days.

The London terror attacks may have been A Bridge Too Far.

See here and here and here and here and here and here.

We start with Italy taking the strong step of actually banning that symbol of repression and of islamic sharia triumphant, the burqa:

ITALY has banned Islamic burqas under tough terrorism laws that provide two-year jail terms and E2000 ($3200) fines for anyone caught covering their face in a public place.

The counter-terrorism package, passed by Italy's parliament yesterday, doubles the existing penalty for wearing a burqa or chador -- traditional robes worn by Muslim women to cover their faces -- or full-faced helmets or balaclavas in public.

Police can extract DNA samples without a suspect's consent, detain them for 24 hours without a lawyer present, and deport foreigners suspected of terrorism under the new legislation. Soldiers involved in counter-terrorism have been given the same stop-and-search powers.

The changes, approved in a rare show of bipartisanship, came as Italian police arrested a fugitive hunted by British police over the bungled bombing attempt in London on July 21.

"In the course of the investigation, it has been possible to identify a dense network of individuals from the Eritrean and Ethiopian communities in Italy, believed to have helped the fugitive cover his tracks," Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told the Senate. "We have before us a grave threat that has to be confronted with all the means of prevention and contrast that we have."

And then some!

Italian authorities have deported eight extremist Muslim prayer leaders for not holding the proper residency papers. France has expelled two imams and plans to ship home another eight. And Britain has put many clerics under close watch as the country re-examines its power to deport them.

The usual suspects are whining about "fairness", of course, but...

Authorities are pressing ahead anyway.

The artificial veneer is being chipped away. The true Europe may be stirring.

Over the years, Britain has been hesitant to expel people who could face maltreatment abroad. But London is planning anti-terror legislation by year-end that will outlaw any "indirect incitement" of terrorism — targeting extremist clerics who glorify terror acts. The government is also examining its power to deport such clerics.

France is ahead of the curve:

A French law passed last year permits expulsion of noncitizens for inciting "discrimination, hatred or violence" against any group. Five Islamic clerics were deported in 2004.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy wasted little time after the London bombings, vowing "a wide-scale action of early detection" and expulsions of anyone who violates the law.

Pascal Mailhos, head of France's police intelligence agency Renseignements Generaux, told Le Monde newspaper last month that about 20 French mosques are run by radical Islamic groups. He said about 1,600 prayer halls in the country are being watched.

Watch and learn, my friend, watch and learn.

Two NY City officials, one a Democrat and the other Republican, are causing waves by stating the obvious:

NEW YORK Aug 3, 2005 — Middle Easterners should be targeted for searches on city subways, two elected officials said, contending that police have been wasting time with random checks in efforts to prevent terrorism in the transit system.

The city began examining passengers' bags on subways and buses after the second bomb attack in London two weeks ago. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said several times that officers will not engage in racial profiling.

But over the weekend, state Assemblyman Dov Hikind said police should be focusing on those who fit the "terrorist profile."

"They all look a certain way," said Hikind, a Democrat from Brooklyn. "It's all very nice to be politically correct here, but we're talking about terrorism."

On Tuesday, Republican City Councilman James Oddo said the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack by Middle Eastern men in hijacked airplanes prompted him to publicly declare his support for Hikind's statements.

"The reality is that there is a group of people who want to kill us and destroy our way of life," he said. "Young Arab fundamentalists are the individuals undertaking these acts of terror, and we should keep those facts prominently in our minds and eyes as we attempt to secure our populace."

Oddo commended Hikind for "rushing headlong against the strong undertow of political correctness."

Hikind said he planned to introduce legislation allowing police to racially profile, and Oddo said he intended to introduce a resolution in the City Council supporting the measure.

Britain is catching the wave as well:

MUSLIMS who resent the British way of life should leave the UK, regardless of whether they are citizens or not, a senior Conservative said last night in comments that have heightened already tense community relations.

Gerald Howarth, the shadow defence minister, last night told The Scotsman that extremist Muslims who see the Iraq war as a conflict against Islam should be considered as treacherous as Soviet sympathisers during the Cold War. His remarkable claim shatters the tri-party consensus which Michael Howard, the Tory leader, sought to make with Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and the Liberal Democrats.

Mr Howarth said yesterday that he is incensed by suggestions from Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, that Britain is "part of the problem" in Iraq - and said that the problem in the UK lies in fanatical Muslims living within our shores.

He is the first mainstream UK politician to suggest that extremist British Muslims should leave for Islamic societies. The government is looking at deporting foreign-born nationals and imprisoning British Muslims who incite or glorify terrorism.

"If they don't like our way of life, there is a simple remedy: go to another country, get out," Mr Howarth said. Asked what if these people were born in Britain, he replied: "Tough. If you don't give allegiance to this country, then leave."

He added: "There are plenty of other countries whose way of life would appear to be more conducive to what they aspire to. They would be happy and we would be happy."

This was the overwhelming view of people he spoke to, the Tory MP for Aldershot added.

Mr Howarth compared those who despised British values to the traitors who spied for Russia. The shadow defence minister also criticised his colleague, Dominic Grieve, the shadow attorney general, who suggested the suicide bombings were "explicable" by the anger many British Muslims felt over the war and the state of Islam.

Of course, the immediate whining:

However, his remarks were condemned as "arrogant" and "naive" by the Muslim Association of Britain.

Its spokesman, Anas Altikriti, compared the Tory defence spokesman to those who carried out the attacks on London, saying: "They bombed in order to eliminate people, while he is proposing to eliminate people by deporting them."

Behold the moral equivalence! You see, killing people is exactly the same as asking them to leave!

Keep up that kind of delusion, and you'll likely reap what you ridiculously complain about now. But he's not finished:

He also questioned to which country Mr Howarth proposed Muslims should go, as there were no Muslim countries as such, just Muslim people.

Cry me a river! There are many countries that declare themselves to be officially islamic. The official "constitution" of Saudi Arabia, for example, is the koran itself, whatever that means.

And they're a step ahead of NYC in some respects:

People from certain ethnic groups are more likely to be stopped and searched on London transport in the wake of the bombings, British Transport Police say.

A force spokesman said communities were not being singled out, but police have to "target the people we think may be involved" in bomb attacks.

The policy has been supported by Home Office minister Hazel Blears.

Australia wants to go further:

VICTORIA’s Young Liberals have called on the Howard Government to train hit squads to track down those behind the Bali bombing.

The “war on terror” motion was adopted with a two-thirds majority at a Young Liberal Movement meeting on Monday night.

“The YLM calls on the Australian Government to train undercover agents to kidnap or kill those responsible for the Bali bombing,” the resolution reads.

Are these banners coming back?