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A Syrian nurse talks to a patient who has received surgical care in a MSF field hospital in northern Syria.

Column ‘Working from a cave in Syria we did over 100 operations’

Paul McMaster, a surgeon experienced in working in war zones, says Syria was a “more oppressive type of danger”.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) surgeon Paul McMaster is just back from Syria where he treated the wounded in an operating theatre set up in a cave and then a farm. He writes:

I FLEW INTO Turkey, and then we went up to the low mountains near the border, where we were picked up by a guide who took us through the forests and hills and into Syria. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has four surgical teams working in the conflict zone in the northwest of Syria. Our team was working in a cave. We went in through a very small entrance. Inside, there was an inflatable operating tent and six emergency beds.

Everything took place in that area, and it was often hectic and difficult for people to move around. Still, it was remarkable to have created a sterile environment, with all the right surgical equipment, in what was essentially a dusty chalk cave. We were staying 15 minutes away in a very small village. Most of us were sleeping on the floor in the basement room of the mosque. The villagers were happy for us to be there. Every day a lady in the village cooked a whole lot of flat bread, so we lived on that, and beans.

Quite a lot of the population had left the area for refugee camps on the other side of the border with Turkey. But there are still significant numbers of older people, women and children remaining, and these are the areas that are being rocketed and bombed from helicopters.

Helicopter gunships

The helicopters travel around slowly and hover over towns before dropping large bombs, and these things cascade down and cause an enormous blast and destroy buildings. The bombing of the towns and villages was happening every day. When they explode in the mountains, the bombs create enormous explosions of sound which reverberate through the hills and are clearly very frightening for people. On our last morning in the cave, several landed within a couple of hundred metres of us, shaking the cave and bringing down dust. You didn’t quite know whether you were better off outside or inside. It’s very unsettling for everybody, especially for wounded patients and children.

In our team there was a surgeon, an anaesthetist, an emergency nurse, two doctors, a Syrian nurse in her early 30s, who was just inspirational – never tired, always organised, always smiling – and about 11 young women from the villages who we were slowly training to do basic nursing.

Civilian patients

The majority of our patients were civilians – old people, women, children, babies. Many had been wounded in bombings and had shrapnel injuries. Sometimes the injuries weren’t physically serious, but emotionally and psychologically they were very damaging indeed.

One night we were called in and there were two distraught women with three screaming babies. Their house had been literally demolished by a bomb, and these children had shrapnel wounds to their faces – the wounds were not life threatening, but they were in great distress and anguish. Another night a man in his late 30s was brought in by a very excitable crowd of fighters. He’d been shot through his chest, we had very limited blood supplies and his condition was so unstable that I doubted he’d make it through the night. But he pulled through, and the determination he showed was quite remarkable.

I remember another man who came in with severe shrapnel wounds to his leg. The blast had gone through his leg and damaged the main nerve, but not the main blood vessel. He had lost two or three of his family in the blast. We operated on him, but afterwards he lost all motivation to get better – he’d lost his home, he’d lost many of his family, and he faced a potentially crippling injury. It’s really very difficult for people. Over the last five or six weeks, we did about 100 operations and treated many more casualties. We also saw diabetics who had run out of medication, children with asthma, women who needed caesarean sections.

No access to healthcare

These people have had no access to effective healthcare for over a year. Some people might be able to make it over the mountains to Turkey to get treatment, but for many that’s just not an option. When you’re faced with casualties, the surgery is fairly straightforward. You do what’s called damage limitation surgery to stop haemorrhages and deal with damaged internal organs. The difficulty came when we moved to the reconstructive phase – things like physiotherapy and rehabilitation and more complex orthopaedics – this was work we just couldn’t do in the cave.

You can get overwhelmed. When it became fairly clear that medically we were struggling to cope with the patients in the cave, we closed it and transferred our patients and the team to a new location. It was a farm – so not a great upgrade.

The new hospital was a long, open building, and in the space of just four or five days, the logisticians managed to create an inflatable operating theatre, an emergency triage area, a sterilisation unit, an outpatient consulting area, and an inpatient and recovery area – it was a staggering achievement. It wasn’t perfect, it still looked a bit like a farm, but it created much more space to treat casualties. We moved half the patients on Thursday and the rest on Friday, and by Saturday we were operating in the new location.

Danger from above

I’ve worked in many difficult places with MSF – war zones like Sri Lanka, Ivory Coast and Somalia – but while in those countries it was dangerous on the ground, in Syria the danger always comes from the air. It’s a much more oppressive type of danger, having a helicopter hovering in the sky above you. Many of the towns are like ghost towns, with the buildings blasted or destroyed. There’s a hopeless, desperate air about the place. Most people are living in cellars. They’ve had no electricity for eight or nine months.

It’s very bleak indeed and winter is beginning now. I think people are really going to struggle, and the most vulnerable will struggle most. For the civilian population, trying to light little fires in their basements, it’s going to be a very long, hard, cold, dangerous winter.


(Via )

The MSF Ireland office was set up in 2006, after several MSF offices abroad noticed a rising number of applications from skilled, prospective Irish volunteers, from both medical and non-medical backgrounds. Find out more here.

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    Mute TheLoneHurler
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    Sep 5th 2016, 10:23 AM

    Most people don’t want their country overrun by economic migrants. It’s high time the libbies and those in power took notice.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:07 PM

    Ah! The old “Strangers in their own land” argument which is as old as time and hasn’t actually happened anywhere since the founding father landed on Plymouth rock.

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    Mute TheLoneHurler
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:10 PM

    Hmmm, Aborigines in Oz, Native Indians in North America and the Aztecs in South America spring to mind straight away Phil.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:17 PM

    Did you even read my comment, Hurler?

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    Mute Revolting Peasant
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:24 PM

    There’s a few UK cities whose populations have changed beyond recognition.

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    Mute Denito
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    Sep 5th 2016, 3:14 PM

    The refugees from Syria are not economic migrants: they are fleeing a war characterised by aerial bombardment of civilian targets and chemical weapons attacks.

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    Mute Can't Think of One
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    Sep 5th 2016, 3:27 PM

    Mmmmnnyes. And what about the ones who aren’t from Syria, but said they were. Nobody knows the difference. Nobody knows who they are or where they’re from, or what their backgrounds are, or in fact anything verifiable about any of them at all. That’s the whole worry, see.

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    Mute prouesse f
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    Sep 5th 2016, 4:10 PM

    People migrate as they always have. There is nothing wrong.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 4:41 PM

    “Sure it is not going to happen again, not to us Phil ??
    Sometimes I wonder what is our biggest weakens as Western Society – our political correctness or our arrogance…”

    The Aztecs, the Aborigines and the Native Americans were directly targeted.

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    Mute Alien8
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    Sep 5th 2016, 6:05 PM

    @fake, Look at the huge number of immigrants in the current bundestag – https://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/bundestag/members18/complete – we are being swamped (there is 1 turk, and a handful of german born children of immigrants). Comparing the current immigration crisis (and it is a crisis) to the Aztecs (asides from the fact that in spite of mass genocides, there are 90m more indigineuous compared with pre-Columbus populations), you had a technological advanced race conquering an isolated backwards tribe – the tiny number of current immigrants (<0.1% of the population of europe) are in no position to claim some sort of majority rule.

    Of course, just use rhetoric instead of facts if you want to scare the fellow ignorant nationalists, but always use data if you are going to try to have any credibility.

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    Mute Fred Johnson
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    Sep 5th 2016, 10:39 AM

    The German native birthrate is only 1.3 That means for every 20 people in this generation, there’s only 13 people in the next generation, and 8 in the generation after that, and so. It’s a death spiral to oblivion. The birthrate of Muslim migrants into Germany by contrast is closer to 4.5, and only slowly declines to about 2.8 after two generations. Combine those two facts, and shove 2 million young Muslim migrants into Germany, to be followed by at least another 8 million “family members”, and it becomes indisputable that Muslims will be in the majority within two or three generations. It will happen first in the cities, they will become majority Muslim within 20 years. Indeed there are some cities in the Netherlands and Belgium that are approaching majority Muslim status right now.

    Key point is – did anyone ask the European people if they wanted this demographic and cultural change to happen?

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Sep 5th 2016, 10:55 AM

    Mmmmmmh……….an older Germany or Germanistan.

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    Mute MuckyMoo
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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:32 AM

    @Fred. Your comment actually makes me scared. Europe is gone to shite. We should get out as soon as we can

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    Mute Ian Walsh
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    Sep 5th 2016, 12:00 PM

    Fred is full of bull. There isn’t a single city in the Netherlands or Belgium that’s even close to being muslim majority. You’re simply telling lies. Sweden and the UK have more populous cities with a greater percentage of them being muslim than anywhere else in Europe. Luton in the UK is almost 25% Muslim. Malmo in Sweden is about the same.

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    Mute Fred Johnson
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    Sep 5th 2016, 12:07 PM

    Ian – i didn’t say they were in the majority yet. What is certain though is that the majority of babies born in some Belgian and Dutch cities have Muslim parents. That is the case right now. It is then simply a waiting game for them to grow older and the older native Dutch to die out.

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    Mute Kevin Geoghegan
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    Sep 5th 2016, 12:50 PM

    not much wrong with luton. a lot of Londoners buying in Bedford because of house prices

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    Mute Joey Gee
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:18 PM

    Quite correct Fred, German, and other states, policies in respect of families has led to a European version of the Chinese ‘one child’ policy, one the Chinese are now reversing as they require more births or they will have to import workers.
    Unless and until European states introduce policies to encourage indigenous persons to have more children, our pensions need foreign workers, using persons whose religious intolerance sets them in conflict with such states values was the mistake Frau Merkel made, now she is reaping what she has sown.

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    Mute John Byrne
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:28 PM

    @Fred. Have you also noticed that key architect and champion of the European ‘migrant crisis’ billionaire George Soros who claims Europe “needs” the hoardes of migrants due to low birth rates also sponsors and lobbys for easier accessible unrestricted abortion (including here in Ireland) – leading to …. further reduction in birthrates? How about encourage and make it easier for Europeans to have more children instead of Genocide by displacement which seems to be the order of the day

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Sep 5th 2016, 2:35 PM
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    Mute Can't Think of One
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    Sep 5th 2016, 2:59 PM

    It’s equally amazing how the stupidest people of all are the ones who think they’re cleverer than everyone else :)

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    Mute prouesse f
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    Sep 5th 2016, 4:08 PM

    what non-sense are you going on about ?

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 7:24 PM

    Malmo where 2 of the top 5 countries for foreign born residents are other EU member states (Poland and Denmark), 2 are other european countries (Serbia and Bosnia), and the other is Iraq with a shocking 11k people out of just over 300k.

    Luton is even worse, of course. It was once awash with Irish Immigrants (but sure we’re fine because we’re white and christian). Now it’s got a majority… er, well is still a majority white (54.6%) and Christian (47.4%) population. Muslims far far fewer at 24.7%.

    You will, of course, wail that it is a town with a white British-minority population, which is true, but that doesn’t include the white Irish or white European population which means it’s still a white majority city and anyway the next largest demographic group are British of asian decent: Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi – countries with a long history of immigration to the UK and nothing to do with the EU.

    http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=6275157&c=luton&d=13&e=62&g=6394327&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1473099859969&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2477&nsjs=true&nsck=false&nssvg=false&nswid=1280

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    Mute Buster VL
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    Sep 6th 2016, 9:28 AM

    @Ian walsh
    Just google Muslim Birthrates, and read what comes up.
    It truly terrifies me, for my children and grandchildren
    Here is just one example
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/5994047/Muslim-Europe-the-demographic-time-bomb-transforming-our-continent.html

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    Mute Rebecca De Stanleigh
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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:05 AM

    I always knew she was an egotistical German apologist. But her way of laughing in Kenny’s face when he requested Ireland be given special treatment re relations with Britain and saying Germany’s interest is just as significant due to a few cars being exported… I officially cannot stand her and I hope she goes out red faced.b*#tch

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:38 AM

    “I always knew she was an egotistical German apologist”

    German PM in looking after Germany’s interests shocker.

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    Mute 'Tommy Ward
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    Sep 5th 2016, 12:25 PM

    Blanc, is that your name or mental state ? Flooding Germany with hordes of ne’er do well’s is not looking after Germany’s interests. Shocker.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:06 PM

    Less of the childish insults please.

    Any it is most certainly in her country’s interest when Germany is in need of workers and the native population aren’t providing owing to low birth rates. The German unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in over 20 years.

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    Mute TheLoneHurler
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:13 PM

    No sign of Merkel calling upon all the unemployed citizens of Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Ireland to fill her need of workers. European solidarity my hole.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:19 PM

    The unemployed citizens of Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Ireland are free to travel to Germany and take up employment there if they want to. There is absolutely nothing stopping them from doing that.

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    Mute Buster VL
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:19 PM

    dont you know?
    These “hordes of ne’er do well’s” are in fact the doctors, scientists, engineers and teachers that will help the EU with the economy.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:21 PM

    “These “hordes of ne’er do well’s” are in fact the doctors, scientists, engineers and teachers that will help the EU with the economy.”

    A common but completely unsubstantiated claim made to mock anything who isn’t entirely opposed to immigration.

    Nobody claims they are all highly educated (except in the case of intra-EU migrants who are usually more highly educated) but Germany has a huge industrial and manufacturing sector as well as farming for which they need unskilled and semi-skilled labour.

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    Mute Original Cynic
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:35 PM

    Working will involve males being interviewed by, taking orders from and working alongside women.

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    Mute Can't Think of One
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    Sep 5th 2016, 3:06 PM

    In need of workers, yes. In need of mouth-breathing freeloaders who have nothing but contempt for Western values, not so much.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 4:44 PM

    “In need of workers, yes. In need of mouth-breathing freeloaders who have nothing but contempt for Western values, not so much.”

    German rate of unemployment is 4.2%

    How many “mouth-breathing freeloaders” can there be?

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    Mute Ó Connmhaigh
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    Sep 5th 2016, 6:11 PM

    “As of July 2016, the annual average unemployment rate in Germany was at 6.3 percent.”

    The Statistics PortalStatistics and Studies from more than 18,000 Sources.
    http://www.statista.com/statistics/227005/unemployment-rate-in-germany/

    In a country of 81 million people, excluding minors and pensioners, that’s still a hefty few million

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 7:30 PM

    Seasonally adjusted harmonised jobless rate came in at 4.2 percent in June 2016, unchanged from the May rate and down from 4.7 percent a year earlier.

    http://www.tradingeconomics.com/germany/unemployment-rate

    Considering “full employment” is considered around 5% Germany are doing fine.

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    Mute Patrick Watson
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    Sep 5th 2016, 10:38 AM

    Who knew Germans didn’t want a radical overhaul of their cultural and societal demographics. Merkel’s boys have taken one hell of a beating.

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    Mute Marlowemallow
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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:29 AM

    Merkels answer to integration issues is to ignore them, deny them and silence discussion of them as ‘hate speech’.

    Meanwhile this is what Germans face:

    More group sexual harassment and assault by groups of young men – taharrush games – at a music festival in Essen. Four of those arrested are ‘refugees’ from north Africa and the Arab world. Victims described all the perpetrators as migrants. They also engaged in other harassment, pickpocketing and violent assaults.

    The director says that ‘we have never experienced such a thing before’. The festival has run for 20 years.

    http://waz.m.derwesten.de/dw/staedte/essen/sex-attacken-ueberschatten-stadtfest-essen-original-id12163074.html?service=mobile

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Sep 5th 2016, 12:41 PM

    She’s a nut job, plain and simple. Expecting to refresh the ageing population with queue jumping scam artists and Stone Age rejects was madness. Then she gets all vindictive with others in Europe and within Germany who oppose her. She has killed her party, crippled Schengen and the EU, and created a major headache for society for years to come. Why couldn’t she have been a good old fashioned German and tackled refugees as a separate issue, and immigration in a strictly organised fashion, that put Germany’s and Europe’s own needs first.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:12 PM

    Germany is the industrial and economic powerhouse on the EU with one of the lowest unemployment rates of any member state. Internally she’s not done too badly.

    The real problem with Germany is that the aged German population aren’t spending enough money in EU economies, including their own.

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    Mute archer 12
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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:46 PM

    Yeah libtards actually believe they are all going to pay their pensions in old age. They are more likely to put their old grey heads on a chopping block once they become the majority. Mohammed is now the most popular boys name in the UK.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 2:01 PM
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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Sep 5th 2016, 4:44 PM

    I don’t think it’s the most popular name yet, but its widely used as a second name a lot, so maybe more people carry it than the rankings suggest.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 4:45 PM

    22 angry racist morons who won’t accept facts which demolish their own prejudices.

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Sep 5th 2016, 5:00 PM

    Its not doing too bad overall and especially in the major centres. Take home pay is lower, but employment and services are much higher. I’ve worked a lot in rural areas and they don’t really seem to be doing that much better than us, especially in the east, where it’s hard to find any young people. Many still migrate west for work, leaving villages full of middle aged and older people behind, just like parts of Ireland. They have always had a savings and low waste culture, so it unsurprising that the market has failed to shake that reserve of money from older people’s pockets, like they’ve successfully done with ours. Here, we have no choice but to support our kids longer and the grey wealth reserve/family reserve fund, which is economically important, has been whittled away in austerity cuts. So even if we eventually get our economy back on track, it has no depth until that builds up again.

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 5:36 PM

    “I don’t think it’s the most popular name yet, but its widely used as a second name a lot, so maybe more people carry it than the rankings suggest.”

    Ah yes, sure who doean’t know an “Oliver Mohammed” or a “Jack Mohammed or a “Harry Mohammed”…

    Now I know reality is a scary place for easily frightened xenophobes and facts run entirely against whatever nonsense the Daily Mail would have you believe but from the link I have above which completely disproves everything you’ve claimed about Mohammed as a name also indicated that last year the number children called Mohammed fell from the year before:

    “27 Mohammed 2,536 Down 4″

    Damn facts.

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    Mute bingo
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    Sep 5th 2016, 6:04 PM

    Phil, You are wrong. Variations of the name make it the most popular name. Reading from the information ‘you presented’ – 14th place Muhammad 3,588, 27th place Mohammed 2,536, 56th place Mohammad 1,116 (Total 7,240). Oliver 6,649.

    Damn facts.

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    Mute Malachi
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    Sep 5th 2016, 6:11 PM

    ^ Ouch.

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    Mute Alien8
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    Sep 5th 2016, 6:20 PM

    bingo, you are incorrect (again, Phil is factually correct in everything but I don’t think it matters in the Mohammed myth). Variations of the name mohammed stay as the 16th most popular name when all the above names variations are also included (i.e. Oliver, Ollie and Henry, Harry etc). The stats people choose are not frmo the official UK government stats, but a parenting website popular with immigrants.

    A final point is that Mohommed is generally used in the same tradition as the honour first names in that it is a respectful name (like Joseph and Mary used to be used in Ireland), while the individuals are known amongst their family by their second name, but by Mo (or whatever) in official documents and work environments.

    but all that pales in significance to the core issue that the anti-phils want to say: Immigrants have already taken over etc, etc, and they are going to force Islam and Shariah on your children etc, etc, ban burkhas and destroy the mosques (or something like that, it seems to be where the majority are going in this comments section).

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    Mute Phil Blanc
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    Sep 5th 2016, 7:39 PM

    “Phil, You are wrong. Variations of the name make it the most popular name. Reading from the information ‘you presented’ – 14th place Muhammad 3,588, 27th place Mohammed 2,536, 56th place Mohammad 1,116 (Total 7,240). Oliver 6,649.”

    Well no, I’m not wrong.

    Even being generous the 13 other non-muslim names before the first Muslim sounding one add up to just over 60,000 children named something other than Mohammed/Muhammed/Mohammed and many many more non-muslim names all the way though the list and there were just over 7 thousand muslim-ey ones and we’re all supposed to lose our shˆt?

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    Mute bingo
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    Sep 5th 2016, 7:43 PM

    No Alien. Like Phil – you are incorrect. Harry and Henry are now both names in their own right, as are Jack from John. You could make some argument around Oliver and Ollie but Arabic experts from the Arab British Centre suggest that your comparison is a false one. While Ollie could be considered a shortened version of Oliver, or, a name in it’s own right, the various spellings of Mohammed are spelling differences only – it is the exact same name. For the purpose of accuracy – abbreviations of Mohammad such as Mo and Mohd were excluded from the data. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muhammed-really-is-most-popular-baby-name-in-the-uk-as-is-mohammed-muhammad-9895605.html

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    Mute Marlowemallow
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    Sep 5th 2016, 7:50 PM

    No Alien you are incorrect. The Mohammed name variations are spelling variants resulting from the translation from Arabic. They are the exact same name – not alternative versions. So combining them is not at all the same thing as combining Oliver with its shortened form Ollie or Henry with its very different variant Harry etc.

    And the stats in the Independent are from the ONS not a parenting website.

    This is all fairly beside the point apart from the value of accuracy in its own right. I notice neither of you have anything to say about the integration problems that Germany is facing.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 8:03 PM

    Phil, You’re wrong. You are twisting the argument to something else now. When archer 12 said “Mohammed is now the most popular boys name in the UK” he was correct. “most popular” as most people know is not the same as ‘most populous’ – which you are now using as the ‘new’ thread of your argument. Of course there are more children who are not called Mohammed BUT that does not mean it is not (when spelling variation is considered) the most popular boys name in the UK. I’m not losing my sh*t – I think you are.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 8:11 PM

    And this here is why it doesn’t particularly matter that intolerant, violent or simply unwilling to integrate Muslims are in the minority in western Europe. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Black Swan, on intolerant minorities in complex whole systems:

    “As I am writing these lines, people are disputing whether the freedom of the enlightened West can be undermined by the intrusive policies that would be needed to fight Salafi fundamentalists.

    …We can answer these points using the minority rule. Yes, an intolerant minority can control and destroy democracy. Actually, as we saw, it will eventually destroy our world.

    So, we need to be more than intolerant with some intolerant minorities. It is not permissible to use “American values” or “Western principles” in treating intolerant Salafism (which denies other peoples’ right to have their own religion). The West is currently in the process of committing suicide.”

    https://medium.com/@nntaleb/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15#.ey9exmb76

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    Sep 5th 2016, 8:25 PM

    “Phil, You’re wrong. You are twisting the argument to something else now.”

    I’m not,

    “When archer 12 said “Mohammed is now the most popular boys name in the UK” he was correct. ”

    He wasn’t. Oliver is.

    ““most popular” as most people know is not the same as ‘most populous’ – which you are now using as the ‘new’ thread of your argument.”

    No, but seeing as you’ve moved the goalposts I can too. Sixty thousand non-muslim names to seven thousand variants on one. We’re clearly all doomed!

    ” Of course there are more children who are not called Mohammed BUT that does not mean it is not (when spelling variation is considered) the most popular boys name in the UK. I’m not losing my sh*t – I think you are.”

    Even taking into account the spelling variations the different is tiny compare to that the non-muslim names are more popular by a huge factor. HUGE.

    Oh and Muslims are a tiny tiny minority, making up only 4.5% (four point five percent) of the UK population and ~50% of them are UK born. 59.49% are Christian and 32% No-religion.

    Shocking!

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    Sep 5th 2016, 8:31 PM

    9.1% of under fives in the last UK census were Muslim. twice as high as in the general population. SHOCKING!

    But then, 34% of under-fives were recorded as having no religion – a higher percentage than in the general population too.

    Fact is there were more children under 5 recorded in the census data as “religion not stated” than those that were Muslim children.

    The Muslims aren’t taking over, atheists are!

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    Sep 5th 2016, 8:52 PM

    Phil, now you’re clearly just being dishonest rather than admit to being wrong. I wouldn’t waste any more time if I were you bingo.

    “Even taking into account the spelling variations the different is tiny compare to that the non-muslim names are more popular by a huge factor. HUGE.”

    The question was not: which are more popular – muslim or non-muslim names. But you know that don’t you.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 8:59 PM

    Phil, “Mohamad, Mohamed, Mohammad, Mohammed, Muhamad, Muhamed, Muhammad, Muhammed, Muhammet and many more” are according to Arabic experts ‘the exact same name’. To suggest they are not the same name is ridiculous. The fact is, there are more boys being named Mohammad in the UK (with various spellings), than there are boys being named Oliver. That’s a fact. Christian names are still more populous (of course) but ‘the’ most popular boys name given in the UK is Mohammad (variants). You are wrong!

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    Sep 5th 2016, 9:00 PM

    Marlow, Yes, I’m giving up now….it’s hard to know whether Phil doesn’t actually understand what I’m saying or is choosing to play the fool. I’m guessing the later.

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    Sep 6th 2016, 12:08 AM

    “Phil, now you’re clearly just being dishonest rather than admit to being wrong. I wouldn’t waste any more time if I were you bingo.”

    Nope, most popular name is Oliver.

    ““Even taking into account the spelling variations the different is tiny compare to that the non-muslim names are more popular by a huge factor. HUGE.”
    The question was not: which are more popular – muslim or non-muslim names. But you know that don’t you.”

    No, there was no question, there was a statement that the most popular name in the UK was Mohammed. It wasn’t. It was Oliver.

    Y’all lost your shˆt when it was pointed out that your “ah muslims are coming to get us” comment was inaccurate and started making excused I expanded it to demonstrate further that Muslims are not breeding like rabbits and in fact there are more atheists than Muslims and that atheism is growing faster than Islam in the UK.

    But of course you racist morons hate facts you’re flaying around like fish out of water.

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    Mute Can't Think of One
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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:58 AM

    Most of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s 25,000 ‘refugees’ have already gone elsewhere. Not good enough for them. Sounds like behaviour befitting people fleeing in terror from violence and slaughter in their home countries all right.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:28 AM

    Aus you go and don’f come back Merkel.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:06 AM

    Merkel will be the next to get a sainthood by the Pope for her work. Just watch

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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:31 AM

    Auf wiedersehen Pet.

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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:35 AM

    Good riddance.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 12:59 PM

    Merkels open border policy is akin to leaving your home unlocked 24/7

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    Sep 5th 2016, 2:02 PM

    We have an open border with the UK. Rotherham, Anjem Choudary, Ahmadi, Jewish, converts and apostate persecution etc. Ireland needs to wake up.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:42 AM

    After this and brexit I,m convinced sadly trump will get in ! People are pretending in polls to be voting for Hilary but when The curtain closes the name on the vote will be trump ..

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    Sep 5th 2016, 3:07 PM

    Its high time the libbies copped on to the fact that the silent majority don’t buy the shyte the libbies pedal.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 2:40 PM

    When different spellings of the name Mohamed are combined it is in fact the most popular baby name. Above both Oliver and Ollie combined.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 2:57 PM

    Merkel’s policy didn’t have to worry while imposing austerity … She has now Germany is welcoming refugees. And this is what might cause her end!
    What a lovely world!

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    Sep 5th 2016, 8:55 PM

    It is quite remarkable isn’t it?

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    Sep 6th 2016, 12:10 AM

    What’s even more remarkable is how repellant facts are to the people who will condemn her here.

    They’re blindly convinced, through ignorance and hate, that muslims are out to get them and no facts, nor matter how robust will convince them otherwise. It’s as worrying as it is sad.

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    Sep 6th 2016, 12:57 AM

    You were obviously asleep on the days that all those mass murders in the name of Islam took place.

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    Sep 6th 2016, 9:43 AM

    There are 44 million Muslims in Europe, around 6% of the population. The vast, vast, vast majority of them are not mass murderers, or murderers, or criminals, or rapists etc.

    There are 450+ million non Muslims. The vast, vast, vast majority of them are not mass murderers, or murderers, or criminals, or rapists either.

    Sorry if I refused to be terrified by and irrationally horrible to people simply because they pray to a different god than I’d like.

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    Sep 6th 2016, 10:43 AM

    @petr and phil
    It is.
    The comment of Can’t think… is another example: “this” is happening and he/she sees murders…
    A song comes to mind “Crown my fear, your king, at the point of a gun” and so on.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 11:39 AM

    Hmmm… turning to a populist single issue anti-immigrant party, what could possibly go wrong!

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    Sep 5th 2016, 12:38 PM

    You would admittedly have to read the article quite closely to find out, but AfD didn’t actually win the election. They came second, and not a particularly close second, to one of the long standing mainstream parties.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:09 PM

    Presumably in order to reply to me you read my comment, so it seems weird to have to point out that nowhere in it did I say they won.

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    Sep 5th 2016, 1:20 PM

    Ein volk, ein Reich, ein ?

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    Mute KEV
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    Sep 5th 2016, 12:46 PM

    So basically 79% of the electorate in this rural area rejected this single issue start up party. Ok then.

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    Mute Gerard Henry
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    Sep 5th 2016, 9:34 PM

    I’m just back from Stuttgart and in the train station there wer about 50 heavily armed police with dogs I asked wer they there because of a football match I was told no there are Muslim migrants causing trouble every day there and it was full of Muslims I really don’t know how Germany can cope as they are everywhere causing trouble and you won’t hear this on the international news channels

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