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Tuesday, September 06, 2011

"Muslims in Germany" - Could Have Been Titled Orthodox Jews In America!

This article hits home; the overwhelming majority of our "arbitrators" or Bais Din representatives (batei din in the plural), are every bit as dangerous to our community as Hassan Allouche is to his!

UOJ

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,783361,00.html

Muslims in Europe
09/01/2011
Parallel Justice
Islamic 'Arbitrators' Shadow German Law
By Maximilian Popp
DER SPIEGEL

Hassan Allouche, originally from Lebanon, says he mediates 200 cases a year.

In mosques or tearooms, Muslim elders dispense verdicts that keep their communities in line. They mediate between aggrieved immigrants, sometimes at the expense of German justice. Some say the arbitrations ease caseloads in court, but others see the creeping advance of Sharia law.

The men ambushed Fuat S. on the street, then locked him in a basement and tortured him. Fuat was later admitted to the hospital in Berlin's Neukölln district with gaping wounds, contusions and broken bones.

Police took his statement concerning the attack the same night. Fuat S., a gambler and a recipient of "Hartz IV" -- Germany's social welfare benefits for the long-term unemployed -- gave a detailed statement. He'd conned an acquaintance, Mustafa O., out of €150,000 ($217,000) and the man was taking his revenge, Fuat said, together with his three brothers. They hit his hands, arms and knees with a hammer and threatened to shoot him.

The public prosecutor's office in Berlin initiated proceedings against Mustafa O., a Palestinian man who had come to their attention repeatedly for violent acts. Police had investigated him in a number of cases, and now prosecutors saw an opportunity to convict a dangerous repeat offender. But when the case began, Fuat S., the principle witness, unexpectedly withdrew his testimony. It was not Mustafa who had tortured him, he said, but an Albanian man he didn't know. Mustafa, he said, wasn't even in the basement at the time. This was clearly a lie, as police analysis of telephone data showed, but the judge was forced to acquit the defendant due to lack of evidence.

The decision, in fact, was reached by a different judge. According to police, the victim's and the perpetrator's families had met at a restaurant in the presence of an Islamic "justice of the peace," an arbitrator who mediates conflicts between Muslims. The two families had reached a compromise: Fuat would drop the charges, and in exchange be relieved of part of his debt.

According to Bernhard Mix, the public prosecutor in charge of the case, Fuat's false testimony was part of a deal between the families. "It's difficult to establish the truth using legal means, when the perpetrator and the victim reach an agreement," he says.

Judges Without Laws

Politicians and social workers tend to focus on forced marriages and honor killings, but the baleful influence of these Islamic arbitrators has gone largely unnoticed by the public. Joachim Wagner, an author and television journalist of many years, has taken a closer look at the phenomenon in his book "Richter ohne Gesetz" ("Judges without Laws"). Reconstructing Mustafa O.'s case, he reaches the conclusion that "the Islamic parallel justice system is becoming a threat to the constitutional legal system."

These justices of the peace don't wear robes. Their courtrooms are mosques or teahouses. They draw their authority not from the law, but from their standing within the community. Most of them are senior members of their families, or imams, and some even fly in from Turkey or Lebanon to resolve disputes. Muslims seek them out when families argue, when daughters take up with nonbelievers or when clans clash. They often trust these arbitrators more than they trust the state.

The late juvenile court judge Kirsten Heisig drew attention to this problem a year ago: "The law is slipping out of our hands. It's moving to the streets, or into a parallel system where an imam or another representative of the Koran determines what must be done."

In Wagner's book, judges and prosecutors tell of threats toward public officials and systematic interference with witnesses. "We know we're being given a performance, but the courts are powerless," says Stephan Kuperion, a juvenile court judge in Berlin. Federal public prosecutor Jörn Hauschild warns, "It would be a terrible development if serious criminal offences in these circles could no longer be resolved. The legal system would be reduced to collecting victims."

So who are these men who make the decisions about justice and love, lives and monetary compensation?

'They Trust Me'

Hassan Allouche sits behind the wheel of his station wagon, steering the vehicle through Berlin's rush hour traffic with one hand, talking on his cell phone. Two Arabs have called on him for help in a rent dispute. He lights a cigarette and says, "People are afraid of the authorities. They trust me."

Allouche came to Germany from Lebanon 37 years ago. He acts as a religious arbitrator, just as his great-grandfather did before him. People greet him on the streets of Berlin, shaking his hand or bowing. "He's kept us from a great deal of harm," one Turkish businessman says.

Allouche's brother was shot while trying to resolve a conflict, and since then he always wears a bulletproof vest when doing his work. He says he mediates 200 cases a year, often offers his own services and doesn't ask any payment, although he accepts gifts. "I do this for Germany and for Allah," he says.

Wagner, the journalist, believes that getting rich plays only a minor role for most of these arbitrators. Far more important, he says, are power and prestige, as they increase their influence within the community with each successful mediation.

Although the mediators generally work in secret, "it's common practice," Wagner says, repeating what Ralf Menkhorst, detective superintendent for the city of Essen, has told him. "Any beginner realizes after three cases that this phenomenon exists." Police in Bremen, for example, know of four or five arbitrators by name.

They operate in a gray area between conflict resolution and obstruction of justice. Allouche, for example, claims to work closely with authorities, but investigators suspect him of preventing witnesses from giving statements to the police. So far they've never been able to prove an obstruction of justice.

This culture of arbitration predates Islam, since earlier Arab tribes also solved conflicts with verdicts passed by senior family members. In countries such as Lebanon or in southeastern Turkey, these lay judges still take the place of governmental institutions. In Germany, they find followers wherever the local population includes many Muslims who haven't integrated into German culture.

Ursula Spuler-Stegemann, an Islamic studies professor in Marburg, believes this distance between immigrants and the German state explains the success of religious arbitration. Many immigrants, she says, mistrust police and the legal system. Criminal prosecutors are concerned about extended Muslim families and strict religious groups. "They disdain the rule of law. They haven't integrated, and don't intend to. The family is above the law," Bremen's police write in a working paper.

Munich-based imam and arbitrator Sheik Abu Adam says he considers it a religious duty to mediate among the faithful. He invites both parties to visit him at the mosque, listens to both sides, and ultimately has them sign a peace treaty. The important thing, he says, is not who's right and wrong, and evidence is no particular help -- the important thing is to find a compromise. In nine out of 10 cases, the people respect his decision, he says. "My judgment is fairer than the government's," he says.

A Problem of Integration

Abu Adam teaches a reactionary kind of Islam. He lives with three women, doesn't believe in separating religion from the state, and rejects moderate branches of his religion. "I tell my people, don't go to the police," the sheikh says unabashedly. "We'll take care of this conflict among ourselves." He dismisses accusations of running a shadow justice system, saying, "I'm making less work for the police."

Investigators do cooperate with Islamic arbitrators in a few exceptional cases. In Essen, for example, police and an imam work together to mediate disputes within Muslim families.

If these arbitrators would limit themselves to containing conflicts, there would be no reason to object, says legal and Islamic studies expert Mathias Rohe in the Bavarian city of Erlangen. German law, after all, allows for arbitration. What Rohe finds unacceptable is the exertion of influence over criminal proceedings. "Criminal prosecution is a privilege of the state," he says.

The state justice system, though, is having a hard time shaking off the shadow system. Klaus-Dieter Schromek, a judge in Bremen, criticizes his colleagues for not taking the phenomenon seriously enough. "If conflict mediators manage to force the justice system out of homicides and other serious violent crimes," he told Wagner for the book, "it will mean more conflicts settled using these methods."

Legal steps alone can't prevent a parallel Islamic justice system, not with so many immigrants from Muslim countries who insist on following values retained for centuries -- such as the primacy of men and the unconditional struggle for one's own honor and that of the family. One problem is that they pass on these clichés to their children, so even third-generation members of immigrant families mistrust the German legal system.

"We need to promote our constitutional legal state starting in school," says Rohe, the Islamic studies expert. If German integration were in better shape, he believes, Islamic arbitrators would have been out of work long ago.

12 comments:

Battered Billionaires said...

These are not good times for billionaires or the millionaires. In Europe and America there are very dark clouds, and they are much closer than the horizon already.

Today's news is downright scary: In Euro Zone, Banking Fear Feeds on Itself (NYT, Sep 6, 2011) and Bring Out Your Dead - UBS Quantifies Costs Of Euro Break Up, Warns Of Collapse Of Banking System And Civil War (Zerohedge.com, 09/05/2011).

None other than billionaire speculator George Soros himself says there is no two ways about it: "'This crisis has the potential to be a lot worse than Lehman Brothers,' said George Soros, the hedge fund investor, citing the lack of a pan-European body to handle an extreme banking crisis."

What does it mean that so much wealth has been, is, and will be swept away? Hashem is surely not rewarding the world.

But take a relaxed Shabbos stroll down any main street in the well-to-do frum neighborhoods and if there is not open flaunting of material wealth, then behind closed doors many still live in the most opulent luxury. Houses look like mansions, and mansions look like palaces, and palaces look like estates. Baruch Hashem there are so many frum, and Orthodox, and Haredi and Chasidic millionaires and even many billionaires.

But they are sly and besides their mansions and palaces otherwise keep a low profile. On Purim many lock their doors and flee for some other quieter place where they will not be mobbed for tzedaka, and many of those who do stay home sit on their thrones and dispense piddling amounts as they make desperate people stay in lines for a long time just to get a $1 or $5 or $10 or (real big) $20 bill sometimes handed out by a millionaire's grandkid or young daughter dressed to the nines.

No wonder the world is in trouble and that Hashem is angry.

Anonymous said...

The headline should say American Agudah instead of orthodox Jews in general

Anonymous said...

If you weren't convinced until now that 5 Towns Jewish Times publisher Larry Gordon has no shame, here is proof.

Because of big money interests that maintain a lucrative pipeline directly into his pocket, Gordon has been promoting the immoral pro-toyavah David Weprin for Congress & bashing Republican anti-toyavah Bob Turner through the Queens Vaad's prolific writer proxy Asher Taub. Gordon has been participating in a misinformation campaign to cover up Weprin's gay activist record when Weprin was the most pro-gay member of NYC Council, even more so than the openly gay Christine Quinn. Gordon ignores every important Turner endorsement - except for Ed Koch who was then bashed by Asher Taub for the sin of endorsing Turner.

Now, Gordon is cheering a Weprin endorsement from a corrupt Communist-style labor union, a bunch of violent thugs called UFCW! Gordon must really think people are stupid.

The least of UFCW's bad behavior is that they fight to keep stores like Wal-Mart out of NYC which means higher prices for merchandise as a result of less retailer competition. The Washington Examiner newspaper recently reported that UFCW's Local 1500 in Queens actually got a waiver to exempt themselves from Obamacare as they feel it would be too expensive to provide health insurance to their own employees when the hypocrites have been screaming at Wal-Mart for exactly the same thing.

The UFCW is matza min es mino with David Weprin, Larry Gordon, the Queens Vaad, Asher Taub and all the other handlers that want Weprin to keep steering taxpayer money in their direction:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1555369/posts

Ex-union official (thug) sentenced for fraud

Worcester Telegram and Gazette

A union official extracted more than $1 million from the parent company of Victory Super Markets over 14 years, falsely promising that the union would not organize the chain’s employees, according to the US attorney’s office.

Joseph DiFlumera, assistant to the president of the international union, was sentenced last month to 46 months in federal prison by Judge Nathaniel Gorton in US District Court in Boston.

DiFlumera was charged with Hobbs Act extortion in which he received $1.56 million from Victory with the company’s consent, “which consent had been induced through actual & threatened force, violence & fear,” 4 counts of racketeering; 5 counts of mail fraud; and wire fraud.

The defendant told company officials they could “buy” an insurance policy to be protected from union organizing. The premium he demanded was cash payments to be turned over to the union.

Prior to Mr. DiFlumera’s arrest, Victory had 20 stores & was paying $5,000 per store twice a year, or $200,000 a year.

Even after DiFlumera retired from UFCW, he demanded around 1996, that the company pay him a monthly consulting fee. For 2 years prior to his arrest, that was $10,000 a month. Company officials said he provided no legitimate consulting services.

Neither Victory Super Market nor its officers have been charged in connection with the payments.

Douglas Dority was international president of the 1.4 million-member UFCW. Dority said, “Joe had (expletive) about him, but I always considered Joe DiFlumera a friend of mine.”

The cast of supporters who supplied character references for Mr. DiFlumera to Judge Gorton before sentencing was nearly as remarkable as the scheme.

DiFlumera, a 5'6" gambler weighing 300 lbs, introduced letters on his behalf from a retired CIA official & from former federal agents who nabbed him in a nationwide money-laundering scheme 8 years ago. He also included a letter from a police officer who owns a lawn & garden service, saying DiFlumera was a loyal customer who always paid his account ahead of time; from a priest; and others.

Mesira Nonsense 1 said...

Rabbi's refusal to testify could send him back to jail
Rabbi Moshe Zigelman, who has already served time for his involvement in a tax-evasion case, is refusing to testify against other Jews in the ongoing probe.
Rabbi Moshe Zigelman says his religious beliefs prohibit him from testifying against fellow Jews. (Pesach Zigelman)

By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times
September 7, 2011
Two years ago, Rabbi Moshe Zigelman went to prison rather than testify against fellow Jews in a federal tax-evasion case and receive a lesser punishment.
FOR THE RECORD:
Rabbi's testimony: An article in the Sept. 7 LATExtra section about Rabbi Moshe Zigelman's refusal to testify against fellow Jews incorrectly stated that Zigelman's mother was interred at Auschwitz. She was interned there.
Now, federal prosecutors are threatening him with a return to jail unless the 64-year-old devout Hasid agrees to testify before a grand jury regarding the federal government's ongoing probe of tax evasion in his Orthodox Jewish sect. On Wednesday, they will ask a judge to order him to testify or be found in contempt.

His attorney says Zigelman, a teacher of scripture and son of Holocaust survivors, will again refuse, citing his religious principles.

Zigelman's unyielding religious stance has led to attorneys wrangling in a federal courtroom over the rare intersection of the modern U.S. legal system and the ancient Jewish doctrine of mesira, a prohibition for Jews against informing on other Jews to secular authorities.

Prosecutors have said the rabbi's position is unsupported by Talmudic law, according to court papers filed by Zigelman's attorneys. Defense attorneys contend that he is again being asked to make the obvious choice between heaven and earthly jail cells, and that no prison time will be able to get Zigelman to go against his religion and face ever-lasting punishment.

"No earthly sanction will ever make Rabbi Zigelman abandon his religious precepts," Michael Proctor, an attorney for Zigelman wrote in court papers. "Imprisoning Rabbi Zigelman would be an empty, unjust act that accomplishes nothing."

Mesira Nonsense 2 said...

Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel O'Brien said whether Zigelman would be compelled to testify was unrelated to Jewish principles.

"Bottom line is, federal law is federal law. It's not religious law that's going to govern the court's decision," he said. O'Brien declined to discuss specifics, saying that much of the case is sealed because it involves grand jury matters.

Zigelman was arrested in 2007 for his part in a decade-long enterprise through which wealthy donors made tens of millions of dollars in contributions to Spinka, a Brooklyn-based Hasidic sect, only to have most of the money refunded through an underground money-transfer network. The donors received large tax breaks on the bogus amounts; Spinka and related charities profited through the small portion of the sums they kept.

Zigelman was the executive assistant to Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzi Weisz. In a plea agreement, he admitted to arranging the illicit donations and facilitating money transfers through an international network.

At the time of his sentencing in 2009, prosecutors noted that the belief held by Zigelman and others that "it is a sin to inform on a fellow Jew" led to difficulties in detecting rampant fraud. They asked for a heavier sentence for Zigelman compared with another defendant who cooperated, saying it was necessary to "provide an example to the community that such behavior carries with it not only enormous profits, but serious costs." He ultimately received a 24-month sentence.

After his release from federal prison this year, he was served with a subpoena to testify before a grand jury in the government's continuing investigation in the same scheme.

Experts in Jewish law said the principle of mesira originates from a time of oppressive and brutal secular authorities, and that how it applies in modern society is a topic of much controversy and debate.

Rabbi Michael Broyde, an Emory University law professor and a member of the rabbinical court Beth Din of America, said a commonly held view is that the principle doesn't apply in a just, democratic state. At its root, the concept is similar to the reluctance in black communities in the South in the early 20th century to report one of their own to authorities, the professor said.

Broyde, who was cited by attorneys on both sides in court filings, said he would be surprised if the judge allowed Zigelman to avoid having to testify.

"It's rare for a judge to accept as a bona fide claim the Jewish law prohibition of informing, in a case in which the person who's pleading that was convicted of the underlying crime," he said. "It undermines the credibility of the claim that he's not an innocent, neutral third party."

The rabbi's attorneys wrote in their papers that what matters is not whether Zigelman was correctly interpreting Jewish law, but the fact that his belief is sincere and that the rabbi, who is in failing health, will under no circumstance change his mind. Given his clear principle, finding him in contempt and sending him to jail will be "vindictive rather than coercive," they wrote.

Zigelman was born in communist Hungary to a mother who had been interred at Auschwitz and a father whose first wife and six children died in the Holocaust, according to his attorneys. After moving to Brooklyn in the 1970s, he began working for the Hasidic sect in the kitchen before eventually becoming executive assistant to the grand rabbi.

Agudah Fresser said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhEg41OQcnU&feature=player_embedded

Looks like the Agudah finally got the message of all the public criticism, thrashing them for supporting pro-gay politicians that give them money even though it was assered by R' Yaakov Kamenetzky and Rav Schach.

For the Hikind endorsement of Bob Turner over David Weprin, the Agudah sent einer fun der gedoilim to stand in the background, R' Chatzkel Bennett who is the mara d'asra of Shimshy Sherer's shul and the fresser conventions.

Over at Ohel however, CEO David Mandel still hasn't gotten the message. He lemaysah does get tons more money from Weprin that the Agudah ever did and fort he has pressure to support Weprin from pro-gay Shelly Silver (groomed as Assembly Speaker by Weprin's father Saul) who also gives Ohel tons of money, so Mandel got together with his neighbor in Lawrence, Larry Gordon, and wrote shiros vetishbochos of Weprin in the 5 Towns Jewish Times this week.

Anonymous said...

Letter to the editor of 5 Towns Jewish Times:

Questioning Taub’s Choices

Dear Editor,

For the last six weeks, possibly more, Asher Taub, a former candidate for Congress, has been on some kind of self-promotion campaign, using this paper as his vehicle. Week after week, he has written about his being a Republican who has always voted Republican. Just about every column he wrote was laced with attacks against Republican candidate Bob Turner, who is running in New York’s 9th Congressional District to replace disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner.

His attacks against Turner weren’t based on issues but rather because Turner didn’t follow the strategy that Taub set out for him. Taub demanded that Turner hire Orthodox Jews to lead his campaign and that Turner must go visit Israel immediately. Taub even wrote that he offered to travel to Israel with him. How lucky Tuner must have felt. Taub insisted that his political strategy was the path Turner needed to follow to “understand Orthodox Jews.”

I attended the recent debate between Democrat David Weprin and Republican Bob Turner at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills. Regardless of the questions being asked by the selected panel, Weprin’s answers were consistent. “It’s the fault of the Tea Party” or “Raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires.” Weprin also supported same-sex marriage, though he was extremely uncomfortable when asked about it at the debate, and was equally squeamish when having to answer why he supported the building of the Ground Zero mosque.
By the way, Taub had blasted Weprin for these votes in his earliest columns when he was trying to explain why Orthodox Jews should support Turner. Bob Turner, on the other hand, gave substantive answers based on his many years of being a businessman and never having to answer to political bosses.

Last week, Taub wrote he is supporting Weprin because Obama will listen to him on Israel. My advice to Taub, as someone who also once ran for Congress: Help someone if you believe in him, but leave your bitterness at the door. David Weprin’s votes have always been consistent with the Democratic Party, not Torah Judaism. If you want to send a message to Barack Obama and challenge how the Democrats have treated Israel, Google “Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz”—then vote for Bob Turner on September 13.

Alan Skorski
West Hempstead

Theodore Herzl said...

The Zionist and modern orthodox communities are very grateful to 5 Towns Jewish Times publisher Larry Gordon for pointing out that David Weprin is the mechutan of Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman who he gives so much recognition to that he calls him one of the "roshei yeshiva" in the 5 Towns. He is actually the principal of the modern orthodox school Rambam MeTivta that sings the Israeli national anthem "HaTikvah" and has women teachers for the high school boys. The only connection I had known previously between Weprin and Friedman, besides perhaps similar hashkafot, is that they groom the same style of ridiculous looking moustache.

Rabbi Friedman is an adam gadol of unequal proportion who can argue on gedolim of previous generations. He asks his students to close their Gemarot in the beit medrash and join him in frequent public protests in Manhattan against such figures as the Iranian president, even though the gedolim have always said that such antagonistic displays against dangerous anti-Semites can put Jews in their countries in peril. (He has maaseh rav from Rabbi Wise, the head of the 1940s Reform movement who ignored pleas to desist from the gedolim to lead a public protest against Adolf Hitler, which Time Magazine reported sent Hitler into a rage, crawling around the floor taking bites out of carpet and signing on the spot "The Final Solution".)

Rodef Tsedek said...

The Shomrim: Gotham's Crusaders - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice
www.villagevoice.com

Village Voice said...

Hammering the point home is a small but influential group of blogs, including FailedMessiah, Un-Orthodox Jew, Daas Torah, and Unpious, that have documented the cases.

"How influential are the blogs?" Blau asks. "We don't really know. But there's no question that they're penetrating into the world of people who don't officially look at the Internet but in fact do."

5 Towns Jewish Times publisher Larry Gordon said...

I was hoping to get away with it but you guys caught me. I posted the Village Voice article on my website without a link but deleted the line about the blogs because UOJ & Daas Torah are among the blogs that expose me too.

Kol Kevudah Bas Melech Penima said...

Larry Gordon is a fool for embellishing the family ties of David Weprin and Rabbi Friedman because when the truth comes out it will only make the haymishe crowd uncomfortable who are the roiv of orthodox voters in the 9th district.

Friedman is also co-head of the modern orthodox girls school Shalhevet in North Woodmere along with Rabbi Yotav Eliach of Yeshiva of Flatbush who uses the personal motto "Ani Tzioni". R' Avigdor Miller refused to call that school by it's name calling it instead "Something of Flatbush"

Weprin's daughter Lori Friedman was convinced by her shver to leave the world of fashion to join Shalhevet's staff as director of recruiting and I kid you not, her other official title is school "Fashionista". She used to be production director for the design house Eccoci which produces ultra-prust outfits for women, the kind that women wear to Queens Vaad Young Israel shuls like where David Weprin belongs and it is assur d'Oraysah to be present when those women are around arum vee Chava koidem Hachait.

It's very telling that they hired "Rabbi" Yamin Levy as a rebbe at Shalhevet. He opened a left wing shul for Sefardim in Great Neck and is Vice President of Avi Weiss's Yeshivat Chovavei Torah. He is talmid muvhak of radical feminist nut Rabbi Saul Berman and edits his kesavim. Yamin Levy once tried to be roidef the tzaddik R' Mordechai Aderet who has done a lot of work to make Sefardim into bnei Torah. Rav Aderet was known to come to Sefardishe parties with mixed dancing to give them musser. The result would be that the party would end with some of the Sefardim even crying. Yamin Levy tried to round up all the other left wing rabbis in the area to form a "beit din" that issued a letter attacking Rav Aderet for "illegal and unethical harassment" as the phony "beit din's" letter read. The only thing funny about that episode was that Yamin Levy jumped to be the first signatory, then when it was circulated, all the other left wing rabbis changed their minds and chickened out, making Levy look like an even bigger shoytah.

Shalhevet are fanatics that girls can be expelled if they do not march in the Israel parade every year on a Sunday. The chairmen of that event are two Queens Vaad operatives, one of them a convicted criminal and the other, Dr. Joseph Frager, a huge supporter of Weprin who coordinated Asher Taub's antics in the pages of the 5 Towns Jewish Times.

http://uploads.static.vosizneias.com/2009/09/shl1.jpg

As you can see in this picture, David Weprin takes out time from his busy schedule of sponsoring pro-gay bills to hang out with Shalhevet girls when Rabbi Friedman shleps them to Manhattan protests during school hours. Is anyone familiar with the Chasam Sofer on hadlokas ner Chanukah?