Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/9/2014

Saudi Arabia has banned Muslim pilgrims from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea from participating in this year’s Hajj in October, as a precaution against Ebola infection. After a Saudi businessman returned from Africa and then died of Ebola-like symptoms, the Kingdom decided to act to prevent any potential spread of the contagion during the Hajj.

In other news, suspected Al Qaeda gunmen ambushed an army convoy in Yemen and beheaded fourteen soldiers.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Andy Bostom, Fjordman, Jerry Gordon, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

USA
» Chicken in Chlorine Sauce?
» Muslims Celebrate in Unity
» Surprise is an Element of Happiness
 
Canada
» Canada Sends Mission to Arctic as Part of North Pole Bid
» Saskatoon to Host Thousands of Ahmadiyya Muslims
 
Europe and the EU
» Antisemitism on Rise Across Europe ‘In Worst Times Since the Nazis’
» Thousands Join as Iraqi Yazidis Protest ‘IS’ In Germany
» UK: Bethnal Green Islamist Found Guilty of Keeping Terrorist Manuals
» UK: Influential Labour Activist Quits Party, Slams Miliband Over Gaza Statements
» UK: Third Mass Protest for Gaza in a Month in London
 
North Africa
» Egypt Dissolves Political Wing of Muslim Brotherhood
» Egypt Dissolves Muslim Brotherhood Political Party
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Gaza-Israel Dateline Paris: Dispatch No. 7
» Hamas Warned Over the Weekend That it Would Continue to Attack Israel as Long as Its Demands Are Not Fulfilled.
» Israel-Gaza Conflict: Dawn Air Strike Kills Three in Mosque After Ceasefire Breaks Down
» Lessons of the War in Gaza
» The Continuing United Nations War Against the Jews
 
Middle East
» Al-Qaida Gunmen Behead 14 Yemeni Army Soldiers
» Bahrain: Fake Mosque Names Spark New Dispute
» Black Magic and Its Negative Consequences
» Genocide, Airstrikes: What Next in the Horror of Iraq?
» Iraq Crisis: Live
» Iraq Conflict: US ‘War on Terror’ Is Now a Local Fight
» Iraq: None Dare Call it Evil — Except Archbishop Justin Welby
» Iraq: #AmessagefromISIStoUS: Islamist Militants Tweet Gruesome Images of Dead American Soldiers and Vow to Blow Up Embassies After Obama Launches Airstrikes
» Iraq: This Islamic State Nightmare is Not a Holy War But an Unholy Mess
» Iraq: Barbarians, Genocide and a Terrifying Lack of Western Leadership
» Iraq: Islamist Rebels Repairing Mosul Dam, Kurds in Rush to Arms
» Long Before ISIL: The Chronic Plight of the Yazidis Under Islamic Domination
» Obama Says Iraq Airstrike Effort Could be ‘Long Term’
» Saudi Arabia Bans Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia Muslims From Performing Hajj
» US Drone Kills 3 Suspected Al-Qaida Militants in Yemen
 
Russia
» Russia Forces US Submarine Out of Boundary Waters
» Ukraine Crisis: Army Closes in on Donetsk Rebels
 
South Asia
» Pakistan’s Military Says Operation “Cripples Terrorists’ Command, Control System”
 
Far East
» Philippines Verifying Report of Filipinos Recruited as Fighters in Middle East
 
Australia — Pacific
» ‘Get Ready for 100-Year War With Islam’: Former Australian Army Chief Underlines Homegrown Jihad Threat and Warns ‘Terrorists Only Have to be Lucky Once’
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Nigeria: Gunmen Kill 4, Burn 15 Houses in Dogara, Kaduna
» Somalia: Minister of Information — Al-Shabaab Terrorists Defeated in Bulo-Burte
» Uganda: Witchcraft and Trauma Hinder Former LRA Soldiers From Integrating Back Home
 
Latin America
» Shocking Moment an Owl is Interrogated by Superstitious Mexican Villagers After They Set it on Fire ‘For Being a Witch’
 
Immigration
» Calais’ Thousands of Migrants Waiting, Hoping to Get to Britain
» Fake Asylum Form Targets Iraqi Refugees
» Iceland to Receive 13 Syrian Refugees
 
General
» The Ebola-Like Plague of Anti-Semitism Sweeping the West
 

Chicken in Chlorine Sauce?

Europeans have long been suspicious of U.S. poultry. American birds, they complain, are bathed in a chlorine solution before they’re brought to market. That’s why EU leaders are currently fighting to uphold a ban on imports of what is popularly referred to as “Chicken in Chlorine Sauce.”

“There will be no imports of chlorinated chicken from the U.S.,” Angela Merkel insisted during the European elections earlier this year. “I have prevented those imports for years, and I will continue to prevent them. No question.”

This isn’t some kind of snobbish disdain for all-American poultry. Chlorinated chicken is real. Many American farmers treat plucked, eviscerated birds with chemicals, including chlorine, to “help meet targeted salmonella and campylobacter reductions,” according to the Department of Agriculture. In Europe, meanwhile, chicken producers tend to decontaminate birds using only cold air.

“Here in Europe we say chlorine is very bad for people, so let’s forbid it,” says Frans Fransen, owner of IFT Poultry, a poultry industry consultancy based in Belgium. He adds: “Chlorine removes the superficial bacteria, not what’s hidden in the meat.” That’s why all chicken, even chemically treated chicken, must be thoroughly cooked.

The fear of chlorinated chicken from the U.S. is particularly widespread in Germany. “The phrase Chlorhuehnchen, or chlorine chicken, has entered the parlance of everyone from taxi drivers to housewives since [global] trade negotiations began a year ago,” Reuters found. “An Internet search for the term generates thousands of results, bringing up cartoons of animals dumped in vats of chemicals and stabbed with needles.”

Europe’s concerns aren’t totally unfounded. Last year Washington Post reporter Kimberly Kindy published a disturbing look at the possible human toll of heavy chemical use at U.S. poultry factories…

[…]

[Return to headlines]
 

Muslims Celebrate in Unity

By Starla Muhammad

SOUTH HOLLAND, Ill.— — Brightness and warmth from the sun illuminated the day at Veterans Memorial Park marking the close of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Adding to the near-perfect weather was the unity, camaraderie and love displayed by the Muslim community of the Chicagoland area.

The gathering commemorated not just the end of Ramadan, but the “United Eid Al-Fitr Prayer and Celebration” was a family reunion of sorts. The gathering brought together Muslim communities that sprang forth from the same root, a seed planted by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, patriarch of the Nation of Islam…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Surprise is an Element of Happiness

It turns out that the element of surprise has a big impact on how we feel from moment to moment and that we’re happier when satisfied unexpectedly instead of certain of a positive outcome in advance, according to a new mathematical model of happiness. A study of this was published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Happiness is not about how well you’re doing in general, but rather if you’re doing better than expected,” said study author and neuroscientist Robb Rutledge of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing.

For instance, say you go to a restaurant where the food was the best you’ve ever had. According to the happiness equation, you would actually be happier at the end of the meal if you had expected it to be just average, as opposed to assuming it would be as delicious as it was.

“Most of our senses are much more tuned to changes in things than to levels, and the same is true for happiness,” said economist George Loewenstein at Carnegie Mellon University, who was not involved in the study. “This ensures that however successful we are, we are always going to be driving for more.”…

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Canada Sends Mission to Arctic as Part of North Pole Bid

Canada has launched a mission to map the seabed surrounding the North Pole in support of its bid to claim the potentially mineral-rich area. It is facing a number of rival claims, including one from Russia.

“If ice conditions permit, this survey will include areas in the vicinity of the North Pole,” a government statement said.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, said: “Our government is committing the resources necessary to ensure that Canada secures international recognition of the full extent of its continental shelf, including the North Pole.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saskatoon to Host Thousands of Ahmadiyya Muslims

About 3,000 members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith from all over Western Canada are gathered in Saskatoon this weekend to discuss how best to spread their message of peace and cross-faith harmony.

“It is ironic. Religion came to profess peace and love. Unfortunately, it is made a reason for conflict. Religion should bring us together,” said Lal Khan Malik, Canadian national president of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, Friday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Antisemitism on Rise Across Europe ‘In Worst Times Since the Nazis’

In the space of just one week last month, according to Crif, the umbrella group for France’s Jewish organisations, eight synagogues were attacked. One, in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, was firebombed by a 400-strong mob. A kosher supermarket and pharmacy were smashed and looted; the crowd’s chants and banners included “Death to Jews” and “Slit Jews’ throats”. That same weekend, in the Barbes neighbourhood of the capital, stone-throwing protesters burned Israeli flags: “Israhell”, read one banner.

In Germany last month, molotov cocktails were lobbed into the Bergische synagogue in Wuppertal — previously destroyed on Kristallnacht — and a Berlin imam, Abu Bilal Ismail, called on Allah to “destroy the Zionist Jews … Count them and kill them, to the very last one.” Bottles were thrown through the window of an antisemitism campaigner in Frankfurt; an elderly Jewish man was beaten up at a pro-Israel rally in Hamburg; an Orthodox Jewish teenager punched in the face in Berlin. In several cities, chants at pro-Palestinian protests compared Israel’s actions to the Holocaust; other notable slogans included: “Jew, coward pig, come out and fight alone,” and “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands Join as Iraqi Yazidis Protest ‘IS’ In Germany

Thousands of people from Germany’s Yazidi Iraqi population have taken part in a protest against the rampage of the “Islamic State” terror group in northern Iraq. Many of their compatriots have been forced to flee.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Bethnal Green Islamist Found Guilty of Keeping Terrorist Manuals

A Muslim from Bethnal Green with links to a banned Islamist group has been found guilty of keeping al-Qaeda manuals that could be used for terrorist attacks.

Afsor Ali, 27, was found guilty at the Old Bailey today on three counts of possessing documents likely to be used for committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

These included electronic files containing the online al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, produced by the group’s Yemeni branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and an essay called 39 Means to Serve and Participate in Jihad…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Influential Labour Activist Quits Party, Slams Miliband Over Gaza Statements

By Raheem Kassam

A Labour Party supporter of over 20 years and former director of the influential Labour Friends of Israel group has sensationally resigned from Ed Miliband’s party this week, citing his response to the ongoing Gaza crisis, as well as other factors…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Third Mass Protest for Gaza in a Month in London

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched along Oxford street, to the US embassy and on to Hyde Park

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday, demanding Britain take a tougher line against Israel over its military assault on Gaza.

The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said 150,000 people attended the march, the third major demonstration for Gaza in London in the past four weeks…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Dissolves Political Wing of Muslim Brotherhood

An Egyptian court on Saturday dissolved the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political wing of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, dealing a crippling blow in the campaign to crush Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement.

A court banned the Muslim Brotherhood itself in September, but that ruling did not mention its political wing, leaving open the possibility it could be allowed to run in parliamentary elections, due later this year.

The court’s ruling called for the FJP to be dissolved and its assets seized by the state. Its decision is final and cannot be appealed, a judicial source said.

The Muslim Brotherhood, once Egypt’s oldest, best organised and most successful political movement, has seen hundreds of its members killed and thousands detained since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew elected president and Brotherhood member Mohamed Mursi 13 months ago, following weeks of protest.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Dissolves Muslim Brotherhood Political Party

CAIRO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — An Egyptian court ruled on Saturday to dissolve the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, and to liquidate all its assets, according to the state-run Ahram online.

The committee of the political parties’ affairs, responsible for granting licenses to newly-formed parties in Egypt, had filed an official request to dissolve the party which was established after the January 25 uprising which toppled president Hosni Mubarak in 2011…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Gaza-Israel Dateline Paris: Dispatch No. 7

by Nidra Poller

“Never again” isn’t working. Let’s try “Don’t you dare.”

Don’t you dare solemnly declare your intention to kill all the Jews. Don’t you dare vote for a party that promises genocide and tools up for action.. Don’t you dare hand out sweets when Jews are murdered, don’t you dare wave the flag of Islamic mass murder, don’t you dare sit humbly like a frog on a log while the mujahidin dig tunnels under your butt. When the day of reckoning explodes on your poor head and reduces your camouflaged military base to ruins, and your evil taskmasters make you climb over the rubble pretending to gather a few miserable belongings, don’t come crying to me. It’s your rubble, you wanted it, you got it. As for your hospital passion plays, howling ambulances unloading bit players while your mangled warriors are slipped in by the back door, please be informed that I do not look. I will not participate. Don’t play games with me.

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Hamas Warned Over the Weekend That it Would Continue to Attack Israel as Long as Its Demands Are Not Fulfilled.

Hamas spokesman says resistance ready for long battle, will not waiver on demands, in particular opening of Gaza sea port.

The warning came as a Palestinian delegation representing various groups, including Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, continued discussions with Egyptian security officials about achieving a long-term cease-fire with Israel…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Israel-Gaza Conflict: Dawn Air Strike Kills Three in Mosque After Ceasefire Breaks Down

Israeli bombing this morning destroyed one of the largest mosques in central Gaza, killing at least three Palestinians preparing for dawn prayers, including the father of a severely injured ten year old boy blinded in an earlier strike on their home a week ago…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Lessons of the War in Gaza

by Daniel Pipes

Israel came off well in this faceoff with barbarism, though it can expect more assaults before long.

As Israeli operations against Hamas wind down, here are seven insights into the month-long conflict:

Missile shield: The superb performance of Iron Dome, the protective system that shot down nearly every Hamas rocket threatening life or property, has major military implications for Israel and the world. Its success signals that “Star Wars” (as opponents maliciously dubbed it upon introduction in 1983) can indeed provide protection from short-range and also presumably from long-range rockets and missiles, potentially changing the future of warfare…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Continuing United Nations War Against the Jews

By Anne Bayefsky

On August 6, 2014, the United Nations convened the entire global community for an unusual day-long “informal” session of the General Assembly. The purpose: to demonize the Jewish state and emasculate its right of self-defense.

The UN formula for ravaging Israel by ignoring the criminal actions of its foes — and the foes of the civilized world — is breathtaking.

Not one of the UN speakers — the Secretary-General, the representative of the Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Human Rights Commissioner, the UN’s MidEast envoy, the head of UNRWA — even uttered the word “tunnel.”

Israel was denounced for destroying “homes and neighborhoods” and “civilian infrastructure.” But the fact that Israel had destroyed an extraordinary labyrinth of 32 terror tunnels deep underground — running for miles, jam packed with explosives, opening near Israeli towns, and built for the sole purpose of killing Jews — somehow just got left out.

Terror tunnels also did not make it into repeated references to “root causes.” Hamas’ promise to kill Jews and “obliterate” Israel did not count as a root cause of the conflict either. At the UN, “root cause” is reserved for the Israeli “occupation” — that is, the non-existent Jews that have not lived in Gaza for eight years.

Part of the reason that Palestinian hate-speech does not make it on to the UN agenda is that the UN has no definition of terrorism. In UN circles, Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a welcome member of the Palestinian “unity” government.

This may help explain why UN actors have difficulty distinguishing a Palestinian combatant from a civilian, and have no hesitation heavily relying on Hamas-affiliated sources for casualty figures. At the General Assembly, UN representatives repeatedly talked about 1,800 dead in total; some referred to 1,350 civilian casualties…

Disturbing evidence of possible UNRWA complicity in Hamas attacks, which warranted a full investigation, was ignored. The facts that UNRWA schools have been used as Hamas rocket storage facilities and that the immediate vicinity of UNRWA schools have been used as staging grounds for Hamas rocket attacks were shrugged off with an implausible “we had no clue,” a de minimis naughty-naughty, or a lecture about overcrowding.

Meanwhile, UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl had the audacity to complain of Israeli actions that inadvertently have damaged its schools: “we cannot comprehend why they occurred.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon added this whopper: “there were reports that Hamas rockets were fired from near UN premises. Yet, let me be clear: Mere suspicion of militant activity does not justify jeopardizing the lives and safety of many thousands of innocent civilians.”

Mere suspicion? The video and photographic substantiation is in the public domain. And the lives and safety of the 3.5 million innocent Israelis jeopardized by those rockets were deftly omitted from this equation…

While the General Assembly was fixated on slandering Israel, here is some of what was going on elsewhere in the real world.

In Iraq in July alone, 1,600 died. 5,576 civilians were killed by the Islamist terror organization ISIS and other Sunnis in the first six months of 2014. Another 40,000 members of religious minorities in Iraq are being starved and face immediate slaughter. In Syria in the second half of July alone, 2,000 Syrians were killed. The Islamist terror group Boko Haram has killed 2,053 in the first half of 2014. In Ukraine, 1,129 people have been killed since mid-April, and Russian tanks are lined up on the border.

But there have been no “informal” or “emergency” sessions of the General Assembly on any of these issues. In fact, there have been no “emergency” sessions of the General Assembly on any country but Israel since 1997. There have been no special sessions of the Human Rights Council on Iraq, Nigeria or Ukraine. And the last special session of the Council on Syria took place way back in June 2012…

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Al-Qaida Gunmen Behead 14 Yemeni Army Soldiers

ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — Suspected al-Qaida gunmen ambushed an army convoy in Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout on Friday night, killing 14 soldiers and beheading them all after their capture, a government official told Xinhua.

“The victims were part of a 14-member military convoy in Shibam town of Hadramout province that was attacked late today by suspected al-Qaida militants driving four four-wheel-drive pick- ups,” the local government official said on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Bahrain: Fake Mosque Names Spark New Dispute

BAHRAIN’S main opposition groups have been accused of naming demolished mosques after ‘fake’ religious figures to garner sympathy from locals and the international community.

Jaffari Endowments Directorate chairman Shaikh Mohsin Al Asfoor told the GDN that the Barbaghi Mosque in Hamad Town, which was mentioned in the US State Report on International Religious Freedom 2013, was based on beliefs of ‘an illusionary grave’…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Black Magic and Its Negative Consequences

by Abdo Khal

Members of the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) have recently been reported to have broken an evil black-magic spell that has caused the members of a family to suffer from health and psychological problems for quite a time.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Genocide, Airstrikes: What Next in the Horror of Iraq?

Editor’s Viewpoint — 09 August 2014

The situation in the Middle East seems to be going from bad to worse, and the United States has been forced to intervene against Islamic extremists in Iraq to prevent the virtual genocide of Christians and other minorities…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq Crisis: Live

Iraqi official says hundreds of Yazidi women taken captive by Islamic State militants as White House says no specific end date for US military strikes in Iraq — follow latest updates

08.20 President Obama said he was willing to consider broader use of military strikes in Iraq to beat back Islamist militants, but Iraqi political leaders must first figure out a way to work with each other, the New York Times reported.

In an interview with Thomas Friedman, Obama also expressed regrets over not doing more to help Libya, pessimism about prospects for Middle East peace, concerns that Russia could invade Ukraine, and frustration that fellow economic superpower China has not stepped up to help.

“We’re not going to let them create some caliphate through Syria and Iraq,” Obama said in the interview. “But we can only do that if we know that we have got partners on the ground who are capable of filling the void,” he said.

08.15 Hundreds of Yazidi women have been taken captive by Isis, Iraq’s human rights ministry said yesterday.

“We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them,” a spokesman. “We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq Conflict: US ‘War on Terror’ Is Now a Local Fight

In a hastily arranged address to the American people on Thursday night, President Barack Obama spoke for only eight minutes about his authorisation of combat and humanitarian operations in Iraq.

What he said about the evolving threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) — and especially what he did not say — depicts how far Washington’s counterterrorism strategy has evolved over the 13 years since the 11 September attacks.

Mr Obama framed the IS challenge in strictly local terms, notwithstanding its ambition to re-establish a regional caliphate and its surprising ability to seize and hold territory in both Iraq and Syria,

The threat of terrorism may involve interconnected global networks, but they are animated by regional or even tribal problems that America cannot resolve.

‘No military solution’

And they require local solutions that Washington will not, on his watch, attempt to impose…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: None Dare Call it Evil — Except Archbishop Justin Welby

Our politicians are at last speaking about the terror, torture, mass murder and genocide being meted out upon Christians and other minorities by the Islamic State in Iraq. Their assessment of the situation ranges from “completely unacceptable” to “barbaric”. Cardinal Vincent Nichols astutely calls it “a persecution of immense proportions”. The Archbishop of Canterbury calls it “evil”.

[…]

Right across the Arab-Muslim world, from the coastal plains of the Maghreb to the Himalayan peaks of Pakistan, a Quranic Curtain is descending. Whatever its fanatical creed and sectarian form, this veil of darkness is asserting the superiority of a culture and civilisation which is inimical to Western notions of politics, religion, morality and enlightenment, to the point that they want to cleanse the earth of all that impedes and obstructs the establishment of the Caliphate — the Islamic State.

The evil pattern which is emerging around the world must be routed and disordered. Their future is not ours. This is the repressive and brutal evil which confronts us.

Thank God that Justin Welby calls it so.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: #AmessagefromISIStoUS: Islamist Militants Tweet Gruesome Images of Dead American Soldiers and Vow to Blow Up Embassies After Obama Launches Airstrikes

Supporters of the ISIS terror group tweeted thousands of messages on Friday bearing the hashtag #AmessagefromISIStoUS featuring gruesome photos and threats to U.S. soldiers and citizens after American airstrikes took out terrorist targets in Iraq for the first time.

Some tweeted photos depict dead U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. marines hung from bridges in Fallujah, decapitated men, human heads on spikes, and the twin towers in flames on September 11, 2001.

‘This is a message for every American citizen,’ read one message sent with the hashtag. ‘You are the target of every Muslim in the world wherever you are.’…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: This Islamic State Nightmare is Not a Holy War But an Unholy Mess

By Jonathan Freedland

It isn’t religious zeal but the collapse of state power that makes the clash in Iraq feel like a return to the dark ages

In a voice pleading and in despair, the woman who had fled for her life asked: “What century are we in?” She was an Iraqi Christian, reached by the BBC World Service even as she sought to escape the self-declared Islamic State, or IS (formerly Isis). “They will sell us,” she said. “They will rape us.” Her words echoed this week’s tearful warning to the Iraqi parliament from a Kurdish MP who described the fate befalling her fellow Yazidis. “Mr Speaker, our women are being taken as slaves and sold in the slave market.”

The year is 2014 and yet 40,000 followers of a 1,000-year-old faith are huddling on a mountainside said to be the final resting place of Noah’s Ark, fearing their women are to be dragged to a slave market. As the woman asked, what century are we in?…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: Barbarians, Genocide and a Terrifying Lack of Western Leadership

By Max Hastings

Here is a Western nightmare fulfilled: just as the United States and allies disengage from Afghanistan and Iraq, having failed to secure either stability or democracy, President Barack Obama is obliged to start a new campaign against militant Islam.

He has announced the launch of air strikes against the fanatical jihadi movement Islamic State (formerly known as Isis) ‘to prevent acts of genocide’.

It is highly likely that Washington will also feel obliged to arm the Kurds of eastern Iraq, as well as mount a huge humanitarian relief effort in which Britain and other allies will participate…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq: Islamist Rebels Repairing Mosul Dam, Kurds in Rush to Arms

By Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Islamic State insurgents who seized Iraq’s biggest dam in a offensive that has caused international consternation have brought in engineers for repairs, witnesses said on Saturday, as nervous Kurds stocked up on arms to defend their enclave nearby.

The jihadi Islamists have captured wide swathes of northern Iraq since June, executing non-Sunni Muslim captives, displacing tens of thousands of people and drawing the first U.S. air strikes in the region since Washington withdrew troops in 2011…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Long Before ISIL: The Chronic Plight of the Yazidis Under Islamic Domination

by Andrew Bostom

World attention has riveted on as many as 40,000 Yazidis (Yezidis), half of whom may be children, trapped on Mount Sinjar, northwestern Iraq, without water or food, after being targeted by the latest jihad rampages of the “Islamic State” (ISIL) butchers. The Yazidis are an indigenous, ancient, pre-Islamic non-Muslim religious minority whose syncretic beliefs derive, in part, from Zoroastrianism.

Reports indicate that as per President Obama’s address last (Thursday, 8/7/14) evening, today (Friday 8/8/14), the U.S. has begun both humanitarian air-drops to those refugees stranded on Mount Sinjar, and bombing runs against ISIL positions outside Erbil, Kurdistan.

Sadly, ISIL’s current bloody attacks on the Yazidis reflect a continuum of religiously-inspired, chronic Islamic oppression of this minority group, interspersed with paroxysms of violence no less brutal than what is now taking place.

Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894) was a British polymath—archaeologist, author, politician, and diplomat—perhaps best known for his the excavations in northern Mesopotamia, contemporary Iraq.

Layard recorded the following, based upon first hand observations, and historical assessments, about the chronic plight of the Yazidis (Yezidis) under Islamic domination in his 1849, Nineveh and Its Remains. His focus, appropriately, given the time frame, was upon the depredations against the Yazidis during the allegedly “tolerant” Ottoman Muslim era: massacre, pillage, and deportation and enslavement of their male and female children, for “service” in the vast Ottoman slave institutions, including harem slavery…

           — Hat tip: Andy Bostom [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Says Iraq Airstrike Effort Could be ‘Long Term’

President Obama sought to prepare Americans for an extended presence in the skies over Iraq, telling reporters on Saturday that the airstrikes he ordered this week could go on for months as Iraqis try to build a new government.

“I don’t think we’re going to solve this problem in weeks,” Mr. Obama said before leaving for a two-week vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. “This is going to be a long-term project.”

The president repeated his insistence that the United States would not send ground combat troops back to Iraq. But he pledged that it and other countries would stand with the Iraqi leaders against militants if they built an inclusive government in the months ahead.

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Saudi Arabia Bans Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia Muslims From Performing Hajj

The spokesman of the Ministry of Health Dr. Khalid Marghalani, was quoted by Alarabiya as saying that individuals from Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, where the Ebola virus is most prevalent, are not allowed to obtain visas to perform the Hajj or Umrah.

“We have communicated the instructions to the officials of all ports of entry. We have trained our personnel on how to identify and deal with Ebola cases and control virus infection, should it happen,” the spokesman said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

US Drone Kills 3 Suspected Al-Qaida Militants in Yemen

SANAA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — The U.S. drone strike killed three suspected al-Qaida men in Yemen’s central province of Marib on Saturday, Yemeni security officials said.

The strike targeted a house in Wadi Abida area in Marib province, killing three men and injuring two women, the officials said on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Forces US Submarine Out of Boundary Waters

MOSCOW, August 9 (RIA Novosti) — Russia’s Northern Fleet’s anti-submarine forces have detected and forced out a US submarine from Russian boundary waters, a high-ranking source in Russia’s Navy told RIA Novosti Saturday.

“On August 7, 2014, the patrol forces of the Northern Fleet detected a foreign submarine, supposedly a US Navy Virginia-class one, in the Barents Sea. A seaborne anti-submarine group, as well as an anti-submarine airplane Il-38, was sent to the region to search and track it down,” the source said.

The Russian navy forced the submarine out of Russian waters after a 27-minute contact…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Crisis: Army Closes in on Donetsk Rebels

Ukrainian government forces are poised to take a key town in the east, which would divide the last two major pro-Russian rebel groups, reports say.

A rebel commander was quoted as saying Krasnyi Luch, a town between the two rebel strongholds of Luhansk and Donetsk, had been captured by the army…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan’s Military Says Operation “Cripples Terrorists’ Command, Control System”

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 9(Xinhua) — Pakistan’s military officials on Saturday told the country’s top political leaders that the “ terrorists are on the run and their command and control system had been crippled” as a result of the major military offensive in North Waziristan tribal region…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Philippines Verifying Report of Filipinos Recruited as Fighters in Middle East

MANILA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — The Philippine government is verifying a report that some Filipino Muslims were being recruited as fighters in conflict-affected countries in the Middle East.

Deputy Presidential Spokeswoman Abigail Valte said in a radio interview on Saturday that the Foreign Affairs Department was ordered to verify a report that some 200 Filipinos went to Syria and Iraq to train and fight with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil)…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

‘Get Ready for 100-Year War With Islam’: Former Australian Army Chief Underlines Homegrown Jihad Threat and Warns ‘Terrorists Only Have to be Lucky Once’

The former Chief of the Australian Army, professor Peter Leahy, has warned that Australia needs to prepare itself for a century-long war, both overseas and at home, against radical Islamic militants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Gunmen Kill 4, Burn 15 Houses in Dogara, Kaduna

A fresh attack by suspected Fulani gunmen on Gimi Dogara village in Sanga Local Government Area has claimed four lives with 15 houses burnt down. The attack, which was launched around 11 p.m. on Thursday night, left the villagers scampering to different directions for safety.

The Chairman of the Local Government, Emmanuel Adamu, who confirmed the incident, expressed sadness over the development and described the attack as “retrogressive”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Somalia: Minister of Information — Al-Shabaab Terrorists Defeated in Bulo-Burte

H.E. Mustafa Duhulow, the Minister of Information today praised security forces’ success in defeating Al-Shabaab militia in Bulo Burte district in Hiiraan region.

“The terrorists attempted a number of attacks to security forces’ bases in Bule Burte and Somali forces with the help of AMISOM defeated terrorist’s attacks and killed a number of them including the leader of militia in the area. Al-Shabaab tried to come back several times in order to take their dead bodies; however, they were defeated on all attempts. 6 of terrorists’ dead bodies were still there and security forces are looking into the identities of those killed”. He said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Uganda: Witchcraft and Trauma Hinder Former LRA Soldiers From Integrating Back Home

By Alex Whiting

“Each time I hear a loud noise or somebody shouting, I feel this compulsion that I should kill somebody.”

These are the words of 17-year-old Jean de Dieu who was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) when he was 11. He escaped three years ago, but he still has some of the reflexes instilled in him by his former masters.

“They (LRA commanders) gave us the training for this. They would make cuts above our eyebrows to put on their traditional medicines to make us strong and to kill without thinking,” he told researchers interviewing former LRA members in Congo and South Sudan…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Shocking Moment an Owl is Interrogated by Superstitious Mexican Villagers After They Set it on Fire ‘For Being a Witch’

This is the shocking moment an owl was interrogated by superstitious Mexican villagers after being set on fire ‘for being a witch’.

The terrified animal was filmed being questioned by its captors from inside a scorched cage in the city of Durango, north-west Mexico, with its feathers badly charred and its legs bound.

Believing it to be a witch, the female villagers can be heard demanding the owl reveal its human name and turn itself back into a woman if it wants to be freed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Calais’ Thousands of Migrants Waiting, Hoping to Get to Britain

1,200 migrants — mainly from Eritrea, Sudan and Afghanistan, with groups from Somalia, Pakistan and Chad — are now camped out in Calais’ forests, hoping one day to cross the Channel to Britain

In his 20 years as a lorry driver, Sean Baker, a former soldier, thought he had seen it all. But nothing, he said, compares to the chaos in Calais at the moment. “Just this morning I was filling up my truck with fuel and two migrants jumped in,” he said. “I shouted at them and they hopped out. It’s mayhem. It happens every hour. I had one yesterday, from Sudan, who offered to give me €400 if I took him to England. I said: ‘Are you mad?!’ and he then upped it to €600.”

Based in Dover and making the crossing once a week, Mr Baker — who didn’t want to give his real surname “in case I lose my temper and punch one of them” said he had had enough. A father of three children at university and college, he has resorted to carrying a metal bar for protection. And now he is planning on leaving the job.

“Before it used to be the occasional Afghan — but now it’s all the time. I’ve never seen anything like these past couple of months,” he said. “This is a thousand times worse.”

Calais is facing a rapidly-growing crisis. The city estimates that 1,200 migrants — mainly from Eritrea, Sudan and Afghanistan, with groups from Somalia, Pakistan and Chad — are now camped out in the city’s forests, industrial estates and empty squat houses…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Fake Asylum Form Targets Iraqi Refugees

A fake asylum form trying to trick Iraqis to pay to come to Sweden is making the rounds on social media. Asylum lawyers and migration authorities are worried that desperate refugees will fall for the scam.

The document, which has the European Union logo, says it can be used to claim asylum in Sweden by paying money, Swedish Radio reports. An organisation called the International Organisation for Refugees claims to be behind it and a travel agency in Iraq has been spreading the document on Facebook. But according to Swedish migration authorities, the document is false.

The Asylbyrå law firm has been contacted by several Iraquis who want to use the form to come to Sweden, and asylum attorney Linn Öst Nori is worried.

“This is really, really bad. People are reading this and think it’s true. Then they pay money to people who may be people smugglers, thinking they can come here that way,” she says.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iceland to Receive 13 Syrian Refugees

REYKJAVIK, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — The Icelandic government has decided to receive 13 Syrian refugees and started the preparation work, said the Ministry of Welfare on Friday.

A ministry statement said the decision was made following government’s resolution on an invocation from the United Nations Refugee Agency in May. The agency called on all capable members to accept more Syrian refugees…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Ebola-Like Plague of Anti-Semitism Sweeping the West

by Avi Davis

My parents, who have lived in Jerusalem for 22 years, recently met their new neighbors. They are French Jews from Paris who describe themselves as refugees. “ We came to the conclusion that there was simply no future for us in France. Jews are targets there and the government cannot and does not want to protect them. France is lost.”…

The disease is congenital and much like the Ebola Virus now sweeping Western Africa — deadly and incurable. Despite the horrifying lessons of the Holocaust, the supposed safeguards of a powerful international human rights movement and the sanctimonious pronouncements of world leaders, the contagion of antisemitism has not been eradicated but persists in the minds of millions of people who remain convinced of a malevolent Jewish stereotype which threatens the peace of the world.

If this is so, then where is it safe for Jews to live?…

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles and owns a home in the Old City of Tzfat in Israel.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

6 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 8/9/2014

  1. Lindsey German, convenor of Stop the War Coalition, an umbrella group of NGOs, said: “The level of anger is unprecedented.

    Lindsey German is a member of the Socialist Workers Party. The SWP also sponsors Unite Against Fascism – its former Chairman, Wayman Bennett is now Chairman of the SWP.

    Please regard any statements from these people or the organisations they represent as leftist lies.

    • I wouldn’t ignore them, I’d refute their narco-dreams. Make them all take engineering courses with a minor in physics. Having to think cures many a social ill.

  2. “But there have been no “informal” or “emergency” sessions of the General Assembly on any of these issues. In fact, there have been no “emergency” sessions of the General Assembly on any country but Israel since 1997. There have been no special sessions of the Human Rights Council on Iraq, Nigeria or Ukraine. And the last special session of the Council on Syria took place way back in June 2012…”

    The reason for this is simple. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the second largest lobby in the world, has over one third of the countries represented at the United Nations Organisation. By using its immense wealth gained by allowing other countries access to its fossil fuel deposits the OIC has bought up a sufficient number of smaller countries to guarantee a permanent majority at the UN so that the UNO is now a mouthpiece for islamic interests. It is about time this corrupt entity was wound up.

    • I’d have to look at the dates of the gradual engorgement of the OIC, but I think this bullying of Israel has been going on far longer than the OIC was as large as it is today. The Consensus, the Accepted Narrative, has long been that Israel is “a sh***y little country. Its very existence has been a thorn in the side of many since its inception. That Israel is a shirty little country.

  3. …”Saudi Arabia has banned Muslim pilgrims from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea from participating in this year’s Hajj in October, as a precaution against Ebola infection.”

    Pity about that, no ‘Closer to my Allah that thee’ this year, then 🙁

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