Brussels 2012 Speaker Bios
International Conference for Free Speech & Human Rights
Speaker Biographies (Alphabetical Order)
Conny Axel Meier, BPE
Conny Axel Meier (born1956) ,Publicist, living in Gemmingen (Southern Germany) is the Chief Executive Manager of „CITIZENS’ MOVEMENT PAX EUROPA“ (BPE), the foremost Human Rights Organisation in Germany, which fights against the rising threats beeing imposed by the Islamisation of Europe. BPE is an independent non-partisan movement and distances itself from all right-wing or left-wing extremists and all xenophobic movements.
The objectives are to protect not only democratic, free and secular rule of law in our countries but also struggle for European culture based on the Judeo-Christian traditions and – especially – on the values of the Enlightenment. BPE keep people informed about how Islamization challenges, threatens and undermines our free and democratic order.
Gavin Boby
Gavin Boby, is the lawyer who founded Law and Freedom, which has been working for a year in England, and is now expanding the initiative into Europe.
It uses legal means to prevent the expansion of Islam, particularly the construction of mosques.
The parent organization, Gavin Boby’s Law and Freedom, has proven the concept by winning each of the 13 cases taken on over the past year.
Ingrid Carlqvist
Born in 1960 in Stockholm, Sweden. After graduating from Gothenburg University (journalism) 1981 she worked as a reporter for Nordvastra Skanes Tidningar in Helsingborg. 1987 she moved on to Kvallsposten in Malmo where she stayed for 12 years, first as a reporter and then as a news editor. She was the first woman ever in the editorial management for Kvallsposten. In 1999 she started free lancing for different newspapers and magazines, constructed an award-winning board game and worked as an information officer for a theatre company. In 2006 she became a news editor for Aftonbladet in Malmo and 2008 editor-in-chief of the magazine Villaliv. 2005 she wrote her first book, and since then has written several biographies and one detective story. Last year she founded the Free Press Society in Sweden and became its President. See also: http://www.tryckfrihet.com
Pierre Cassen
Born in 1953. Former syndicalist. Leader of a campaign against islamic scarf and ostensible religious belief related items in schools. Founder of internet newspaper “Riposte Laïque” in 2007. Organizer of “Pork sausage and wine” street event in Paris 18 June 2010. Organizer of “International meeting about islamization of our countries” Paris 18 December 2010. Author.
Alexandre del Valle
Alexandre del Valle is an italo-french geopoliticist lecturer and researcher (Università Europea di Roma, Institut Choiseul and Daedalos Institute of Cyprus) specialized on Radical Islam, terrorism, and relations between the West and the Rest. He has been an editorialist in Le Figaro, Le Figaro Magazine, France Soir, Israel Magazine, La Une, Il Liberal, ecc; and had articles published in geopolitical magazines and reviews such as Politique Internationale, Herodote, Outre Terre, Geostrategics, Stratégiques, Geopolitical Affairs, Nova Storica, Il Liberal, and many others. Apart from being a geopolitician, he is – together with Rachid Kaci – the founder of the liberal-consevative Right (“Droite Libre”), whose slogan runs: “Secularity, defence of the West and Freedom, and struggle against politically correctness”. His analysis has influenced French, spanish and italian politicians, especially the French party UMP. He is the author of nine books, including:
– Rossi-Neri-Verdi, L’alleanza degli estremismi opposti anti-occidentali, Nazismo, comunismo, islamismo), 2010, Lindau, Torino.
English translation: “Red-Brown-Green”, the alliance between ant-western extremism, nazism, comunism, islamism »);
– Pourquoi on tue les chrétiens aujourd’hui dans le monde: La nouvelle christianophobie, Maxima, 2011, Paris.
English translation: ”Why christen are murdered in the world today, the New christianophobia”, soon published in the USA).
See also: www.alexandredelvalle.com
Lars Hedegaard
Born in 1942 in Horsens, Denmark. After graduating from Aarhus University (history) 1971 and Copenhagen University (English) 1973, he taught at a high school in Copenhagen until 1975. 1975-1980 he worked as an editor for Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, California. Upon his return to Denmark, he became an editor at the Politiken publishing house and later a consultant to the national organisation of trade unions. From 1987- 1990 he was editor-in-chief of the Copenhagen daily newspaper Information. In 1990-2001 he worked for the Nordic Council of Ministers. From 1999-2008 he was a regular contributor to Berlingske Tidende newspaper. Since 2004 he has been President of the Free Press Society and since 2007 co-director of the book publisher, The Free Speech Library. He the author of several books on contemporary history and Islamic affairs.
George Igler is the director of Discourse, the UK’s institute for free speech, and the head of a network of legal professionals increasingly alarmed by the British criminal justice system’s growing disdain for the country’s commitments under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
George Igler
Discourse, granted observer status at the ICLA conference, is not concerned with ideological or partisan considerations, and instead focuses on the mounting trend in Britain of the state seeking to regulate, control and limit speech and expression; and to imprison those who engage in infractions. Consequently, regardless of the prominence, political affiliation or religious views of an individual or organisation prosecuted or legislated against for exercising free speech: Discourse is committed to recording and investigating their case.
Working as a political analyst to the financial services sector led Mr Igler to conduct several in-depth investigations into extremism for firms whose asset allocations took long-term European views. This resulted in him concluding that the most effective tool for combatting extremism of any kind was information. The trend in jurisdictions, like those in the UK, towards increased censorship and the silencing through incarceration of views deemed unacceptable, is in his view extraordinarily counterproductive and will probably accomplish the exact opposite aim than that hoped for by its advocates.
Sabatina James
Sabatina James, a young woman from Pakistan, has managed to free herself from the oppression of Muslim girls and women. She has written a book about her own painful experience, and, through the establishment of the association Sabatina e.V., is helping Muslim women lead a self-determined, free life. The aim of Sabatina e.V. is to help women who are threatened by oppression and violence, to offer them protection and shelter and to assist them in developing their talents, both in Germany and in the home countries of the girls and women. Through enlightenment, Sabatina wants to increase public awareness of the situation of the women and to uncover and combat abuse. Sabatina is fighting for tolerance, respect for cultural diversity and a non-violent, peaceful co-existence in this world. Sabatina James, a former devout Muslim who converted to Christianity, lives life on the edge. She has moved 16 times since 2001 because of death threats on her life for leaving Islam. She is currently living in an unknown location in Europe under police protection. See also: http://sabatinajames.com
Hans Jansen
Prof. Dr Johannes J.G. Jansen (Amsterdam 1942) was Houtsma professor for Contemporary Islamic Thought in the Department of Arabic, Persian and Turkish at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) from 2003 till his retirement in 2008. Dr Jansen taught Arabic and Islamic Studies at Leiden University from 1982 till May 2005. From early 1979 till the summer of 1982 he was director of the Dutch research center in Cairo, the Nederlands Instituut voor Arabische Studiën en Egyptische Archeologie. He also taught at Groningen University (1975-1979) and at Amsterdam University (1982). He studied in Amsterdam (1960-1964), Cairo (1966-1967) and Leiden (1964-1968). He received degrees from the Theological Faculty of Amsterdam University (Biblical Hebrew and the History of Philosophy, 1961), the Amsterdam University Faculty of Arts (BA, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic, 1964) and the Leiden Faculty of Arts (MA, Arabic, Turkish, and History of the Middle East). He received a doctorate at Leiden in 1974. In Dutch he writes as ‘Hans Jansen’. In 2010 and 2011 he was witness for the defense in the trial against Geert Wilders. See also: www.arabistjansen.nl
Ned May
Ned May is the co-proprietor (along with his wife) of the Gates of Vienna blog (http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/), which focuses on Islam and the Great Jihad, particularly in Europe. Before taking up blogging he was a mathematician, a computer programmer, and a landscape artist. In the last few years he has devoted his attention to assisting the development of Counterjihad networks in Europe. When he is not blogging or being an activist with the International Civil Liberties Alliance (https://libertiesalliance.org/), he works as book editor. In his spare time he mows the lawn at his home in Central Virginia.
Nidra Poller
Nidra Poller is an American writer who has been living in Paris since 1972. Author of works of fiction in English and in French, she turned her attention and her art to current events in the fall of 2000, when the outbreak of the “Al Aqsa Intifada” provoked a radical shift in France’s relation with its Jewish citizens. Her observations and analysis of unfolding events initially took shape (in French) in a writer’s notebook — Cahier d’une honnête citoyenne. Without abandoning her literary craft, she adapted her style to the media and is known today as a “novelist-journalist” and pubic speaker. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Wall Street Journal Europe, New English Review, Middle East Quarterly, Jerusalem Post, il Foglio, Think Israel, Hudson Institute NY, Makor Rishon, Standpoint, FrontPage, Family Security Matters, Atlas Shrugs, City Journal, SPME, Commentary, National Post, New York Sun, American Thinker, National Review Online jihadwatch, Jewish Quarterly TCSDaily, Pajamas Media, Metula News Agency, Guysen, l’Arche…She speaks at universities, synagogues, community centers, think tanks, symposiums, and parlor meetings in Europe, the United States, and Israel. Poller has published short stories, essays, and sophisticated books for children illustrated by fine artists, but her major works are only now being released. A collection of short stories, Karimi Hotel & autres nouvelles d’Africa, was published by l’Harmattan, in Paris, May 2011. The English version will come out in the fall of 2012. English and French versions of the Cahier are slated for publication at the end of 2012. Born in Jessup PA (1935), Nidra Poller grew up in Philadelphia, studied at the University of Wisconsin (BA History ΦΚΦ) and Johns Hopkins University (Master of Liberal Arts, Writing Seminars). She is Associate Fellow of the Middle East Forum, Member of the Board of Advisors of the International Free Press Society, member of the Honorary Board of Im Tirtzu, and former Board member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.
Mark Steyn
Mark Steyn is an international bestselling author, a Top 41 recording artist, and a leading Canadian human rights activist. That’s to say, his latest book, After America (2011), is a Top Five bestseller in the United States and a Number One bestseller in Canada; “A Marshmallow World“, his Christmas single with Jessica Martin reached Number Seven on Amazon’s easy listening bestsellers, and Number 41 on their main pop chart; and, as for being a leading Canadian human rights activist, he is actively trying to destroy the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission, for reasons he explains in his book Lights Out: Islam, Free Speech And The Twilight Of The West. Mark is also a visiting fellow of Hillsdale College; and a popular guest host of America’s Number One radio show The Rush Limbaugh Program, and America’s Number Two cable show Hannity. In addition, his writing on politics, arts and culture can be read each week throughout much of the English-speaking world. In the United States, he serves as National Review‘s Happy Warrior. In Canada, he is a contributing editor to Maclean’s, the Dominion’s oldest and biggest-selling news weekly. Mark also chips in at The Corner, writes a syndicated column, and appears each week on The Hugh Hewitt Radio Show .
Mark’s other books include America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It, a New York Times bestseller in the United States and a Number One bestseller in Canada; plus A Song For The Season, Mark Steyn’s Passing Parade, Mark Steyn From Head To Toe and The Face Of The Tiger. His personal view of musical theatre, Broadway Babies Say Goodnight, was published to critical acclaim in London, and to somewhat sniffier notices in New York. If you click here, you can find the answers to several FAQs about Mark. You can learn more about him in this interview by Simon Mann from The Age in Australia and in this appreciation by Robert Fulford in Canada’s National Post. For more on his approach to the writing life, read this interview with Michele Kirsch of Britain’s Channel 4, and enjoy the end result in these quotable barbs as collected by Brian McDermott in Dublin, or in John Hawkins’ Best of Steyn from recent columns, or in Greg Ransom’s Quotable Steyn.
Sam van Rooy
Sam van Rooy (27th May 1985) is a civil engineer. He was born and raised in Antwerp (Flanders). At the age of eleven, he wrote two children’s book and was one of the youngest authors ever. In 2010 he co-edited an co-authored a massive compendium about Islam, ‘Islam. Critical Essays About a Political Religion’, with more than 30 essays from arabists, historians, journalists, … (http://frontpagemag.com/2011/bruce-bawer/veracity-mendacity-%E2%80%93-and-islam/). He published articles in ‘Joods Actueel’, a Jewish magazine in Flanders. He worked for some time for the Freedom Party (PVV) from Geert Wilders in the Hague (House of Representatives) and now works for the political party ‘Vlaams Belang’ in Flanders. In 2012, he co-edited en co-authored a critical book about the European Union: ‘Europe Falters. De Abduction of Europe by the EU’ (http://europenews.dk/en/node/54601 and http://www.efdgroup.eu/medias/photos/item/book-launch-2.html).
