A “Canadian” imam named Mazin Abdul Adhim, who is also a leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, has called for an establishment of a worldwide Caliphate. He does not recognize the Islamic State as the authentic Caliphate, nor its purported Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Instead he proposes a different Caliphate, one that truly represents all the world’s Muslims.
In other news, the head of the Italian border police predicts that a record 200,000 immigrants may land on the shores of Italy this year.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fausta, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, MB, RL, RRN, Steen, Vlad Tepes, 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.
“Central Bank Warfare Model Wearing Thin”: Nations Desperate for Way Out of Crunch
Catherine Austin Fitts, a whistleblower and former Wall Street executive, told Greg Hunter at USA Watchdog:…
Fitts says the game of printing more and more money, handed over to finance and used to inflate assets, create bubbles and keep within close elite circles is one of the biggest problems. The money must be allowed to reach real people, fund infrastructure and give people an opportunity to work for themselves again.
Until or unless central banks change their policies to spur this positive economic behavior, they are basically funding war, depopulation and death and destruction.
[Comment: Fitts is right. But that is what the banksters want — destabilization, depopulation, war. A New World Order out of the resulting chaos.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
4 Things That Are Happening Today That Indicate That a Deflationary Financial Collapse is Imminent
When financial markets crash, they do not do so in a vacuum. There are always patterns, signs and indicators that tell us that something is about to happen. In this article, I am going to share with you four patterns that are happening right now that also happened just prior to the great financial crisis of 2008. These four signs are very strong evidence that a deflationary financial collapse is right around the corner. Instead of the hyperinflationary crisis that so many have warned about, what we are about to experience is a collapse in asset prices, a massive credit crunch and a brief period of absolutely crippling deflation. The response by national governments and global central banks to this horrific financial crisis will cause tremendous inflation down the road, but that comes later. What comes first is a crisis that will initially look a lot like 2008, but will ultimately prove to be much worse. The following are 4 things that are happening right now that indicate that a deflationary financial collapse is imminent…
#1 Commodities Are Crashing
In mid-2008, just before the U.S. stock market crashed in the fall, commodities started crashing hard. Well, now it is happening again. In fact, the Bloomberg Commodity Index just hit a 13 year low, which means that it is already lower than it was at any point during the last financial crisis…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Are Tech Giants’ New Buildings Signs of the Top?
If pouring billions of dollars into outrageous “look at me” buildings isn’t tempting the gods, what is it?
When banks build new gleaming headquarters, that generally marks the top of the bank’s fortunes. There appears to be some sort of hubris in constructing a monumental new headquarters that shouts “we’re rich beyond all conception” that angers the stock market gods.
For this reason, we should ponder the glamorous new headquarters Facebook just completed and Apple’s “spaceship” campus that is under construction. Google’s plans for an ultra-modernist headquarters were recently tabled by the city of Mountain View, but the grandiose plans themselves may count as hubris to the stock market gods.
Here is an interior view of Facebook’s new digs: note that it’s literally dripping with arty decor:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Buffett, Johnny Depp Snap Up “Cheap” Greek Islands
On Monday, we brought you a day in the life of a Greek realtor. Courtesy of Bloomberg, we got a first-hand account of what it’s like in the Athens real estate market now that the Greek economy has collapsed.
“For the last 15 days,” the Athenian realtor featured in the video says, “the market has been really dead.”
That’s not surprising. Capital controls have gripped the country since PM Alexis Tsipras called for a referendum on creditors’ proposals and Greeks are more concerned about whether they’ll be food on the shelves and gas at the pumps (an acute credit crunch threatens to leave the country with a shortage of imported goods) than they are about buying homes.
“At least 50% of real estate agents have closed down,” the realtor continues, adding that “the market has been only those who can afford [to pay] cash in recent years.”
But who can afford to pay cash for property in Greece? For the answer, we go to Newsweek.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Day of Reckoning for American Pensions is Fast Approaching
For decades, local and state governments in the United States have made promises to their employees that they cannot keep. They guaranteed a certain level of income to retirees at a time when America was its most prosperous, and when most people didn’t live as long as they do now. Those lucrative pensions they promised are starting to catch up to them in a big way.
Earlier this week, Moody’s cut Chicago’s credit rating to “junk,” largely due to their $20 billion pension shortfall, and they put the City of Houston on notice. Many of the major pension funds use the stock market to bolster their savings, but despite record profits on Wall Street, it doesn’t seem like any of them reached their revenue goals. California’s Public Employees Retirement System only reached a third of the annual revenue they projected, and the state’s teacher fund failed to reach their goal. Overall, Moody’s found that the 25 largest public pension funds in the US have a $2 trillion budget shortfall.
That means that many state and local governments may face credit rating cuts in the near future, which will leave them owing even more money.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Deflation Lingers for Italy’s Poorest, Says ISTAT
Low energy costs hold down price pressures for poor families
(ANSA) — Rome, July 21 — For some of Italy’s poorest families, deflation remained in effect in the second quarter of this year, national statistics agency Istat said Tuesday. It broke down price pressures according to income brackets and found that low-income households with little to spend were still seeing the benefits of weak energy prices. From April to June, families with low monthly expenditures saw prices fall by 0.2% over 2014, while those with more cash to spend felt inflation of 0.3% compared with Q2 2014.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Renzi’s Announced 50-Bn Euros in Tax Cuts Lift Stock Market
Premier sets out plans to eliminate levy on homes
(ANSA) — Rome, July 20 — Italian stocks rallied Monday morning as investors absorbed announcements of a major tax cutting program by Premier Matteo Renzi, including what he called the end of a hated tax on homes.
Huge cuts of as much as 50 billion euros over five years were in the works, Renzi said in several weekend statements, starting with an announcement on Saturday to members of his Democratic Party (PD).
He followed that Sunday with a statement on his Facebook page and an interview with RAI televisions Tg2 news.
Milan’s FTSE Mib gained almost 1.2% in early trading Monday on the news.
Renzi, who has been pushing through a series of reforms including changes to the Italian Constitution to reduce the powers of the Senate, linked the tax cuts to his reforms.
He added that the cuts have already begun.
“I propose a pact to Italians,” said Renzi.
“If the reforms go forward we will be able to lower taxes by 50 billion euros over five years,” Renzi said. That includes cuts that he said began last year, including an 80 euro monthly tax bonus for low-income earners and a reduction in the IRAP regional business tax.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ATF Works With FBI and VA to Get Veterans’ Guns Taken Away
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is involved in a government effort to disarm America’s veterans and seniors who may lack the capacity to manage their finances.
And it’s not just veterans facing this scrutiny: now it’s anybody who gets Social Security.
New documents obtained by The Daily Caller reveal that ATF, a division of the Department of Justice, is working with the FBI and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to enter veterans who get VA benefits into the government’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
TheDC first reported on a government program in which the VA sends veterans’ medical information to the FBI to disarm them. VA uses sneaky criteria to get veterans on the list for “persons prohibited under federal law from receiving or possessing firearms.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black Rebel Flag Supporter Dies After Being Ran Off Road, Witness Says
An African-American who was a long-time Confederate flag supporter died after reportedly being chased by a car and ran off the road following a flag rally.
The victim, 49-year-old Anthony Hervey, was found dead in a flipped-over 2005 Ford Explorer near Oxford, Miss., on Sunday and a passenger in the vehicle, Arlene Barnham, said that after leaving the pro-Confederate Flag “Monumental Dixie” rally, they were chased by a silver car which then swerved into their Explorer, causing it to crash.
“HELP! They after us,” Barnham posted on Facebook during the chase. “My vehicle inside down.”
“Anthony pinned in… gas leaking.”
The pair were both speakers at the rally and Hervey in particular was well-known for wearing a Confederate uniform in support of Southern heritage and for writing the book “Why I Wave the Confederate Flag: Written by a Black Man.”
The MacAlester News-Capital contacted the Mississippi Highway Patrol, which confirmed the accident but declined to give further details as the crash is still under investigation.
Although shocking, this incident is not surprising given the government-driven purge of the Confederate flag which has only stirred up racial tensions within America.
Not long after President Obama publicly attacked the Confederate flag, people were filming themselves stealing Confederate flags off of people’s private property.
This lunacy is possible because many Americans are completely ignorant of multifaceted history of the so-called Civil War, which was a war waged by the federal government against Southern states threatening to use the Tenth Amendment to secede.
Unfortunately, the ignorant routinely victimize well-educated individuals like Hervey who know history.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chattanooga Aftermath: Terrorist Mollycoddled But No Flags Lowered to Half-Staff
Why do major television networks continue to get away with mollycoddling murdering radical terrorists in the very wake of their evil carnage?
Within four days of the attack that claimed the lives of four US Marines and a Navy sailors slaughtered in the Chattanooga shooting spree, ABC is portraying poor Mohammod Abdulazeez—not as a radical Islamic terrorist—but as a “disturbed, suicidal young man using drugs, preparing for bankruptcy and facing an appearance in criminal court”.
While their loved ones are in tearful mourning, the mainstream media’s crying killer Abdulazeez a river and getting über maudlin with the violins.
Why is it that every time another Islamic terrorist strikes, the mainstream media cover them in victimhood and portray them as everything except what they truly are?
[Comment: This is by design. Ignoring the victims is intentional.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Climate and Vaccine Data Both Systematically Faked to Produce False ‘Science’
(NaturalNews) Many emerging scientists today are taken advantage of and used, controlled by the funds (the puppet strings) of powerful industries and the revolving door that exists between industry and government regulatory agencies. With their careers on the line, emerging scientists are coerced into supporting “science” data that props up the elite industries or powerful world agendas that seek total control of minds and freedom. The science is passed off as truth and is used to motivate entire demographics of people to support new laws, new taxes and more centralized government.
World governments like the UN are hard at work trying to control the energy sector by imposing global carbon taxes.
A couple of researchers are fact-checking global warming propaganda with the weather source data used to support it. What they have found is exaggerated generalizations, amplified misconceptions and even omitted data from cooling periods over the past 60 years.
These researchers found out that the weather records are being systematically manipulated to produce false research data. Researcher Paul Homewood checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay. He compared the actual data with the government-recorded data. He found out that the two sets of data did not match. In each instance, he noticed that the reported data had been manipulated so that a cooling trend appeared as a marked warming period.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump Gave Out Lindsey Graham’s Personal Cell Number to America
(CNN) Speaking in front of hundreds at a rally in South Carolina on Tuesday, Donald Trump read a number he said people could use to reach South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s private cell phone.
Trump and Graham have engaged in an ongoing feud in the past few days as they battle for the Republican presidential nomination. In Trump’s speech Tuesday, he called Graham an “idiot,” after Graham called him a “jackass,” in an interview Monday with CNN’s Kate Bolduan.
Trump gave out the number and urged attendees to call it.
“Give it a shot,” Trump said, urging people to call the state’s senior senator.
When CNN called the number, it went directly to voicemail and the recorded message said it was the phone number for Graham. The mailbox was full.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) When I lived in Ecuador, I was warned about the pollen from the flower of a beautiful tree. The pollen is called “Devil’s Breath,” and when a tiny amount is blown into the face of an intended victim, it immediately saps that person’s free will, turning them into a compliance zombie who will do anything they’re commanded to do: Empty their bank account, engage in sexual acts or even donate a kidney.
This isn’t some urban legend, either. The Devil’s Breath pollen is rich in scopolamine, a potent drug that saps free will and turns people into zombies. Scopolamine can “can wipe the memory of its victims,” reports the Daily Mail:
Scopolamine can be blown in the face of a passer-by on the street, and within minutes, that person is under the drug’s effect — scopolamine is odourless and tasteless.
‘You can guide them wherever you want,’ he explained. ‘It’s like they’re a child.’
[…]The drug, he said, turns people into complete zombies and blocks memories from forming. So even after the drug wears off, victims have no recollection as to what happened.
If all this sounds exactly like what we’re all witnessing in American society today, that’s because drug companies have turned scopolamine into an FDA-approved prescription drug.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former High Ranking U.S. Senator Wants to “Hang Edward Snowden on the Courthouse Square”
We need to hang him on the courthouse square as soon as we get a hold of him.
— Former vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Saxby Chambliss, on Edward Snowden
It appears the past few days have represented a sort of coming out party for formerly powerful players in the U.S. government to showcase their fascist tendencies. Earlier today, I highlighted General Wesley Clark’s clear suggestion during a MSNBC interview that Americans who are “disloyal” should be forcibly separated from the “normal” general population through the use of WWII style internment camps.
In the latest display, video has emerged of former Republican Senator, and ex-vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, saying that Edward Snowden should be hanged in the courthouse square. What ever happened to fair trials?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Four Dead Marines: Collateral Damage in Washington’s War on American Culture
Muslims in America now manifest as remote human-drone-killing-change-agents in our own country. The more Muslims we import into America, the more killings we expect to suffer in the coming months. We face post American multicultural chaos.
Did you notice the mainstream media tripped over itself NOT to admit the killer followed Islam. Nonetheless, Muslim Muhammad Joussuf Abdulzeez murdered five military personnel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. At first, political correctness dictated no mention of the killer’s religion: Islam. Barack H. Obama refuses to admit to the violence of Islam.
In this series, you will hear from Warren, a U.S. citizen, speak to our multicultural Islamic predicament. The fact remains: our country constitutes a killing ground for U.S. citizen Muslims imported into America by our own Congress.
“As a horrific verification of the folly of open borders and multiculturalism, we now have four dead marines in Tennessee,” said Warren. “The tragedy — getting past all of the sanctimonious official verbiage about how aberrant, awful, and unavoidable such things are — is that individuals like Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez represent EXACTLY the kind of people that “The Powers That Be” in Washington (and in the White House) want as “change agents” in this country to create the new, post-American culture that they are seeking to impose on all of us.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
John Kasich Launches Presidential Run: ‘We’Ll Prove Them Wrong’
The Ohio governor says he has a long history of winning elections he wasn’t supposed to.
Few are giving the two-term governor much of a chance of winning the nomination. With his late announcement, Kasich will be competing against a group of better-known and better-funded rivals who have spent months on the campaign trail. National polls show the governor near the bottom of the pack, and it’s uncertain whether Kasich will qualify to appear in the first Republican debate, slated to be held Aug. 6 in Cleveland. Missing the cut for a debate that will be held in his home state, many believe, would be an embarrassment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lawyer: Tennessee Shooter’s Uncle Detained in Jordan
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — An uncle of the man who killed four Marines and a sailor in attacks on Tennessee military sites has been in custody in Jordan since a day after the attack, a lawyer said Tuesday.
Abdel Qader al-Khatib told The Associated Press that he was barred from seeing his client and that family members were also prevented from visiting the detainee. Al-Khatib identified his client as Asaad Ibrahim Abdulazeez Haj Ali, a maternal uncle of the Chattanooga attacker, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.
A Jordanian government official said Tuesday that some of Abdulazeez’s relatives in Jordan were being questioned as part of an investigation into his stay in the kingdom. He would not elaborate on the probe.
The official said he was sure the uncle and “other relevant people” are being questioned, but that he did not know whether he was in detention. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case with the media.
Abdulazeez spent several months in Jordan last year under a mutual agreement with his parents to help him get away from drugs, alcohol and a group of friends his relatives considered a bad influence, according to a person close to his family. That person also spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern it would have business repercussions.
An FBI spokesman has declined to comment on that information…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Millions and Millions of Mohammeds
by Daniel Greenfield
During WW2, we would not have allowed millions of Germans named after the Fuhrer, who admired him and worshiped him, into the country. And if we had done something that stupid, we would have had only ourselves to blame when the darling Adolfs shot and bombed their way across America.
A country with more Mohammeds is a more dangerous place. If a million mothers named their offspring after Charles Manson and raised them to embody Manson Family values, America would be a much scarier place. An America with a million Mohammeds will be even worse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rachel Dolezal is Still ‘Black’
It was just over a month ago when Rachel Dolezal burst into the national spotlight as the white woman who pretended to be black and became an NAACP president. But now, nearly 40 days later, Dolezal, who no longer works at the Spokane chapter of the African-American organization, still maintains that she is black.
In a piece for Vanity Fair, the racially confused social justice warrior doubled — tripled, quadrupled — down on her identity:
It’s not a costume. I don’t know spiritually and metaphysically how this goes, but I do know that from my earliest memories I have awareness and connection with the black experience, and that’s never left me. It’s not something that I can put on and take off anymore. Like I said, I’ve had my years of confusion and wondering who I really [was] and why and how do I live my life and make sense of it all, but I’m not confused about that any longer. I think the world might be—but I’m not.
Besides sticking to this otherwise unscientific claim, Dolezal said it’s not her fault that America was offended by her lies, but their own.
[Comment: Naturally. She ‘feels’ black — therefore in her mind she is black. The reprogramming of such Americans is complete. Feelings trump reality/facts.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
RNC Rips O’Malley for Linking Rise of ISIS to Climate Change
Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus ripped Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley on Monday for linking the rise of the Islamic State to climate change.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Murder Rate Plunges as Guns in Public Proliferate
The number of Americans carrying concealed firearms has exploded in recent years, and contrary to the narratives and fearmongering peddled by anti-gun-rights activists, the sky did not fall. In fact, according to the most recent data, not only did the sky not fall, murder rates and violent crime over the same period have plunged dramatically — demolishing the claims of gun-control proponents, while bolstering the pragmatic case for even broader proliferation of public firearms ownership.
Of course, as The New American has reported for years, experts who study the issue have long known that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens is correlated with less violent crime and murder. A report released last week by the Crime Prevention Research Center confirms that fact yet again, and makes it abundantly clear: In the United States, as more and more people were legally carrying weapons in public, fewer people were being murdered and violently victimized by criminals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Who Expert: “Glyphosate is Definitely Genotoxic”
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) has reiterated its stance on glyphosate’s carcinogenic profile and now calls it ‘definitely genotoxic’ — just to be sure the world understands that Monsanto is causing harm to human beings and animals fed GM food.
One of the co-authors of the IARC report which found glyphosate to be ‘probably carcinogenic,’ professor Christopher Portier says that there is ‘no doubt in his mind’ that Monsanto’s best selling product, Round Up, is genotoxic. This means that it can damage DNA molecules in genes, causing tumors and other serious health issues.
The professor reiterated his stance when speaking recently in London at a scientific briefing on glyphosate in Westminster, organized by the Soil Association.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canadian Imam Calling for Establishing the Caliphate
Imam Mazin Abdul Adhim, a senior cleric of Hizb ut-Tahrir €” Canada, calls upon the Muslim Ummah (Nation) to unite in order to establish the global Islamic state, also known by its Arabic name the Caliphate.
The London, Ontario based Imam, vehemently opposes the Caliphate founded by ISIS in Iraq and Syria and does not accept the authority of its self proclaim Calif Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Rather he advocates for a new Caliphate that will implement the Islamic Law word for word and extend its authority over all the Muslim lands.
In a video clip on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr (July 17, 2015) at the end of the month of Ramdan, Imam Abdul Adhim explained that the Muslim Ummah is one body, and all its woes in the different parts of split up Muslim lands are originated only from the lack of a home for Islam and the absence of an Islamic regime that is able to represent the Ummah, as all Muslim regimes today are “traitors” or serving the interest of the “enemy” (the picture of US President Barack Obama was shown in the background)…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
British Charge Muslim Man in Plot Against U.S. Military, Trying to Join ISIS
A Muslim delivery driver used his rides to scout the largest U.S. air base in Britain, all the while planning to run over an American serviceman, kill him with a knife and detonate a suicide vest, according to UK prosecutor Mark Dawson.
Authorities in Britain charged two Muslim relatives on Tuesday with terror-related offenses, alleging that one was plotting an attack against U.S. military personnel in the UK and the other planned to go to the Middle East to join ISIS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Santa Claus is Coming to Town… in July
Santas from all over the world are once again gathered in Copenhagen for the World Santa Claus Congress.
Jolly Santas and happy elves from all over the globe are having their annual meeting in Copenhagen for a three-day schedule that mixes official Santa business and pleasure.
More than 100 people dressed up as Santa Claus or ‘Julemanden’, arrived in Copenhagen on Monday to take part in the annual activities of the World Santa Claus Congress. This meeting dates back to 1957 and the Santas use the occasion to spread summertime Christmas cheer and trade tips on how Christmas is celebrated in their part of the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Strikers Provoke More Calais Travel Chaos
Striking workers from MyFerryLink blocked off the Channel Tunnel once again on Tuesday in part of their long-running battle to save their jobs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Prosecutors Find No Reason for Charges After Alleged Arafat Poisoning Probe
A French prosecutor’s office says there is not sufficient reason to bring charges in the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and asked that the case be dismissed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Officials Defend Handing Beach to Saudis
Much criticized authorities in the French Riviera have defended their decision to bar the public from a beach during the visit of a Saudi king, telling The Local it was simply a question of security and angrily rejected claims the Saudis had paid for the pleasure of having their own beach.
Authorities in the south of France have provoked a storm of criticism after it emerged that a Saudi king has been allowed to commandeer a public beach all for himself.
King Salman is expected to arrive in the Riviera this week where he and his family will stay at his plush villa which stands just metres from the Mirandole beach in Vallauris.
Local beachgoers from nearby Cannes and Antibes, have protested against the fact they will be barred from the beach for the entire duration of the family’s stay.
Saudi royals further inflamed relations with local hosts when they were given the green light to build an elevator down to the sand to make it easier for them to access the beach from their villa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: March for Kurdish Terror Victims Turns Violent
Police arrested six people in Berlin on Monday evening, as protests in solidarity with victims of a terrorist attack in Turkey turned violent.
Around 1,100 people assembled in the city’s Kreuzberg district on Monday evening to march for the victims of a terrorist attack in the Kurdish town of Suruc near Turkey’s Syrian border, reports the Berliner Zeitung (BZ).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s First Islamic Bank Opens in Frankfurt
Germany, home to 4 million Muslims, just got its first lender that adheres to Sharia law. Charging interest is prohibited, but turning a profit isn’t, leading experts to believe Islamic banks are safer than usual ones.
If, according to the Koran, trade is permitted but charging interest is the work of Satan, that would make most Western bankers more than a little devilish.
But tacking a fee onto the funds it lends out is not how Germany’s first Islamic bank, the Kuveyt Turk (KT) Bank, which opened in Frankfurt on Monday, will be making its money.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Serracchiani Says Sicily Situation ‘Untenable’
Crocetta says he won’t resign despite pressure
(ANSA) — Rome, July 20 — Debora Serracchiani, deputy secretary of the Democratic Party (PD), said Monday that the situation in Sicily involving regional Governor Rosario Crocetta is “untenable”.
She spoke one day after Crocetta insisted he would not resign over a case involving a reported wiretap that he was has been created by his enemies, including the Mafia.
“I will not resign, I am a fighter,” said Crocetta.
The situation involves an alleged wiretap where Crocetta was told by his doctor that Lucia Borsellino — daughter of slain anti-Mafia prosecutor Paolo Borsellino — should meet the same fate as her father.
However, Friday prosecutors in Palermo said they had no record of such a wiretap.
Still, Crocetta initially suspended himself from office over the affair. Serracchiani, in an interview with newspaper La Repubblica, said that despite concerns of a potential election defeat for the PD should Crocetta resign, it would be preferable to “political agony” caused by inaction.
“This would be a political agony the Democratic Party cannot afford,” she said.
Weekly magazine L’Espresso last week reported that, in the wiretap, Crocetta stayed silent after his doctor, Matteo Tutino, made his comments about Lucia Borsellino.
Lucia Borsellino, who father was killed by the Mafia in 1992 soon after his colleague Giovanni Falcone, recently quit as Sicilian executive health councillor.
Crocetta said he has no recollection of hearing Tutino say anything of the sort and argues he is the victim of a smear campaign.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cardinal Pell Raps Pope’s Climate Stance
Church has ‘no particular expertise in science’ says econ honcho
(ANSA) — Rome, July 20 — An Australian cardinal leading efforts to clean up Vatican finances has courted controversy again — after a much-criticised stance on sex abuse — by chiding Pope Francis for his landmark encyclical on climate change.
George Pell, who last year likened a typical victim of sex abuse to hitchhikers, and the Church to the truck they happened to have taken, told the Financial Times that the Church had “no particular expertise in science”.
Pell told the Financial Times the church had “no particular expertise in science”.
“The Church has got no mandate from the Lord to pronounce on scientific matters,” he said, adding “we believe in the autonomy of science.” Pell’s comments came a month after Francis released his historic encyclical, ‘Laudato si’, calling on humanity to fight global warming.
“We do need to slow down and look at reality in a different way, to appropriate the positive and sustainable progress which has been made, but also to recover the values and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of grandeur,” the pope wrote.
“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change.” The 192-page document, whose English title is Praise Be to You: On Care for Our Common Home, calls on humanity to be more motivated and to improve education to save the environment.
“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,” Pope Francis wrote.
“The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all.
“At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life.
“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system.” Pell is a well-known climate change skeptic.
He was appointed to reform the Vatican’s finances nearly 18 months ago.
Last August Pell enraged survivors of clerical sex abuse by comparing the Vatican to a trucking company that could not be blamed if a driver molested a hitchhiker.
Pell made the remark while testifying via videolink from Rome to an Australian probe into historic abuse and alleged cover-ups when he was Melbourne archbishop in the 1990s.
Saying it would not be appropriate for legal culpability to be “foisted” on church leaders, he drew an analogy between the Catholic Church and a trucking company, citing a hypothetical example of a case involving a woman who was molested by a truck driver.
“It would not be appropriate, because it’s contrary to the policy, for the ownership, leadership of that company to be held responsible,” Cardinal Pell said.
“Similarly with the church and the head of any other organisation.
“If every precaution has been taken, no warning has been given, it is, I think, not appropriate for legal culpability to be foisted on the authority figure.
“If in fact the authority figure has been remiss through bad preparation [or] bad procedures or been warned and done nothing or [done something] insufficient, then certainly the church official would be responsible.” Nicky Davis from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) was in the audience of the royal commission during Cardinal Pell’s comments.
She said the truck analogy left the audience “open mouthed in shock”.
“We were literally saying to each other, ‘Did he really just say that?’,” she said.
“He shows that he really has absolutely no conception of what is appropriate or inappropriate behaviour and what are appropriate or inappropriate things to say to survivors.
Dr Cathy Kezelman from Adults Surviving Child Abuse said the “outrageous” and “appalling” analogy could do a lot of damage.
“The victims are already in this process of being repeatedly traumatised. To have their experiences denied yet again…drives a knife into the wound and twists it yet again,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 19-Year-Old Paduan Runaway May Want to Join ISIS in Syria
Girl of Moroccan origin allegedly began preparations months ago
(ANSA) — Padua, July 21 — Police were on Tuesday investigating the case of a runaway teenage girl from the northern city of Padua who may be heading for Syria to enrol as a foreign fighter with Islamic State (ISIS). The 19-year-old, who is of Moroccan origin, is thought to have begun preparing her journey months ago using web-based specialist forums and the instant messaging service Skype, local newspaper Il Mattino reports. Otherwise, she led an apparently normal life, typically hanging out with school friends
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: June 2015 Hottest on Record, NOAA Says
This year likely to be hottest since records began in 1880
(ANSA) — Rome, July 21 — Last month was the hottest June since records began in 1880, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Tuesday.
Likewise, the first six months of the year were the hottest on record and NOAA said the same is likely to be true of the whole of 2015. In June the average global temperature was 16.33 degrees, 0.88 degrees above the 20th century average and 0.12 degrees higher than the previous record set in June 2014. This year NOAA meteorologists predict a strengthening El Nino, making it “almost impossible that 2015 won’t be the hottest year on record”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Student Found With Throat Slit in Marche Woods
Two young Albanians are being questioned by police after the body of a 17-year-old student was found in woods in the Marche region.
The dead body of Ismaele Lulli was found with his throat slit in woodland in San Martino in Selva Nera, Pesaro.
Police said his bloody clothes were found nearby, along with traces of duct tape on a tree trunk, Il Messaggero reported
They have not yet, however, confirmed reports that two backpacks were found close to the body.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Selfie-Loving Drivers Cause Spike in Accidents
Italy has seen a rise in the number of car accidents since selfie mania took hold, the country’s state police chief said on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Livelihoods at Risk as River Po Runs Dry
Italy’s longest river is drying up fast, putting the livelihoods of many along its banks at risk.
As a month-long heatwave grips Italy, levels of water in the river have plunged to 60cm in some areas of Lombardy.
Hydrometric data reveals the Po’s levels are way below average, with La Repubblica reporting that in areas around the town of Mantua the main water channel contained no more than 60cm of water.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Letter From Paris: An Intellectual Lady Leaves France in Protest
FOLLOWING a government decision made public last week, French policemen are henceforth allowed to grow beards and openly display tattoos on their arms and necks, if so they wish.
These are the changes of times and rules and regulations can always be left behind then forgotten, say those who do not see any anomalies in a number of measures that go against French traditions but were recently adopted by the Socialist government.
Schools are being pressured to drop the student uniforms and an old criterion that allowed teachers to hold back marks because of spelling mistakes in examination papers is soon going to be obsolete.
Many French intellectuals say they are revolted by these reforms. Two books that came out recently and became immediate best-sellers are Le Suicide Français (The French Suicide)by Eric Zemmour and Soumission (Submission) by Michel Houellebecq. Both writers warn against the changes being made at the peril of French culture and civilisation.
But the most astonishing of these reactions comes from Jeannette Bougrab, born in 1973 in France to Algerian immigrant Muslim parents. She has written two books, with even more dismal-sounding titles, about the decadence of the French society: Ma République se Meurt (My Republic is Dying) and Maudites (The Cursed Ones).
Figaro magazine recently carried out an interview of the author who says she is so disgusted with the refusal by the government to face the threats to the French culture that she has decided to quit her country of birth.
Asked if, following the Charlie Hebdo massacres in Paris last January, the authorities were able to draw necessary conclusions, Ms Bougrab says:
“The chronology of religious fanaticism in France is eloquence in itself. In January 2006 a man named Ilan Halimi was kidnapped, tortured for many weeks then assassinated by a barbaric gang. In March 2012 Mohammed Merah walked into a school and shot down a teacher and three children; two days earlier he had already killed three French soldiers.
“In May 2012 Mehdi Nemmouche, another young man of French nationality, entered a museum in Brussels and gunned down four people. I try to point out in my books that if we continue putting off our decisions over such threats to further and further dates, things will only grow worse and worse.
“The ‘I Am Charlie’ march in Paris in January this year in which four million people had participated means nothing if we do not take the right steps. A dozen journalists were murdered during an editorial board meeting then four more people were massacred in a food store. Our only reaction was a street protest. This is the proof of a terrible defeat and an absolute symbol of our decline.
“Have we gone so blind that we cannot see the horror and the monstrosity in these acts? Have we become so stupid that we think these things will go away all by themselves?”…
| — Hat tip: RRN | [Return to headlines] |
Lufthansa Plane Nearly Collides With Drone in Poland
A drone has nearly collided with a Lufthansa flight as it neared Warsaw’s main airport. The rising popularity of remote-controlled drones has posed new safety challenges for commercial aviation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘No Difference Between Italy and Assad’s Regime’
The number of refugees seeking asylum in Europe has risen dramatically over the past year, as have the violent incidences at the EU’s external borders. One young Syrian talks to DW about his experience.
“People don’t want that. They want to bring their families over from Syria, so they want to go to Germany or Sweden. As a result, they refrain from giving their fingerprints.”
“We were always told about human rights in Europe, that there is no harassment and so on, but I don’t think there is any real difference between Italy and Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Drone Nearly Crashes Into Plane on Landing
A Lufthansa plane flying in Poland nearly collided with someone’s private drone that was buzzing around the airport zone in Warsaw on Monday.
The plane was flying into Poland from Munich on Monday when it came within 100 meters of hitting a drone flying in the airspace, an airport spokesperson told broadcaster N-24 on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Remains of Alexander the Great’s Father Found
Skeletal remains found in a tomb in Vergina, northern Greece, belong to King Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father, as daily Protothema online reports today quoting experts as saying. The forceful ruler suffered a leg wound that left him partially crippled three years before his assassination in 336 BC. New research found evidence of his injury and signs of lameness in the skeletal remains. The remains of a female and infant buried with the identified skeleton is believed to be that of King Philip II’s wife Cleopatra and their newborn child.
Alexander the Great was the son of his fourth wife, Olympias. He later fell in love with teenager Cleopatra Eurydice, the niece of Macedonian general Attalus.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Moment a BMW Burst Into Flames Moments After the Driver Pulled Into a Petrol Station
This is the potentially catastrophic moment a BMW burst into flames moments after its driver pulled into a petrol station.
The red car’s engine set alight as the vehicle sat just feet from fuel pipes connected to underground tanks storing thousands of litres of petrol.
Video footage of the near fatal incident was recorded from a flat overlooking the Shell Discovery garage in Dundee, where the car fire started mere seconds after the BMW turned off the road.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Man Hurt in Blast at Malmö Community Hall
Police are investigating an explosion outside a community centre in Malmö in southern Sweden that destroyed two cars and injured one man.
The explosion took place in an industrial area (Norra Grängesbergsgatan) in the south of the city, close to the Rosengård suburb which has a reputation for violence and gang related crimes.
The explosion at the community centre comes in the wake of a wave of summer violence in Sweden’s third largest city including shootings, explosions, hand grenades being thrown and cars and buildings set on fire.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Democrat Asked to Leave Party Following Explosives Crackdown
The Sweden Democrats in a municipality in Halland wants the party’s municipal politician to leave his position and the party, according to Swedish Radio News.
The reason is that the person is suspected of crimes in connection with the large police crackdown on explosives in Halland last week.
Last Friday the police in Southern Sweden stopped a car for an ID check. The driver was arrested for suspected narcotics offenses. In connection with the arrest, the police performed several home searches and found around 500 kilograms of explosive materials.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Army Airlifts Water to Thirsty Cows
Low rainfall and searing temperatures this July have seen the Swiss army using high-tech helicopters to deliver much needed water to the country’s parched cows.
The unusual military operation saw soldiers installing ten water tanks in the Jura region of Canton Vaud on Monday.
A further six tanks were expected to be set up on Tuesday, with helicopters flying in water sourced from Lake Neuchtel and the Lac de Joux.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Zurich Pulls Plug on Islamic Kindergarten
Authorities in Zurich have refused to give the go-ahead to a Islamic kindergarten over fears it will be “too religious”.
The decision is a further blow to the Al Huda association which had hoped to set up a private preschool for 15 to 20 students in an apartment in Zurich’s Volketswil, NZZ reports.
It comes after the Zurich cantonal authorities also rejected Al Huda’s plans for the school which planned to hire two kindergarten teachers, a part-time Arabic teacher and a part-time Quranic teacher.
In its non-binding ruling, the court said there was a lack of “clear boundaries” between the preschool’s secular and religious teachings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Activism is Terrorism: London Police Lump Occupy With Al-Qaida
The presentation, the Guardian reports, is part of a City of London police initiative called Project Fawn and covers situations such as bomb threats from attackers including the Islamic State, al-Qaida, lone-wolf assailants and the IRA. However, it also continues to mention, under domestic extremism, extreme left and extreme right-wing groups, plus issue organizations and animal rights activists.
Occupy, climate groups and student protesters are listed as examples.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man ‘Planned to Kill US Serviceman and Tried to Join is’
A 24-year-old man has appeared in court charged with planning to kill US military personnel based in the UK.
Junead Ahmed Khan is accused of plotting to run over a serviceman, possibly from an US air base in East Anglia, and then kill him with a knife.
Mr Khan was also charged, along with his uncle Shazib Ahmed Khan, 22, both from Luton, over attempting to join Islamic State in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why 100,000 German Bee Keepers Want to Ban GMOs
The German Beekeepers Association (DIB), which represents almost 100,000 beekeepers, has called for a nationwide ban on GMO cultivation according to reports from the German NGO keine-gentechnik.de.
This call for a ban follows controversial legislation that has allowed EU member states to opt-out of GM cultivation even though it has been approved at the European Union level.
Though GM supporters have been angry about the new law, calling it ‘unfounded’ and stating that it ‘lacks scientific justification,’ many non-GMO supporters (including bee keepers) point to the dangers that have repeatedly come up regarding genetically modified foods. Not to mention the damage caused by herbicides and pesticides used to grow them and the decimation of pollinating (otherwise known as beneficial) insects.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gentiloni Says Individual Sanctions in Libya a Possibility
Foreign minister says ‘hypothesis’ involves ‘3-4 people’
(ANSA) — Brussels, July 20 — Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday said the EU is considering individual sanctions against “hardliners” in Libya who oppose the signing of a UN-sponsored power-sharing agreement reached in Morocco.
Gentiloni said the “hypothesis” of sanctions against “three to four” individuals who oppose the peace process could go into effect if there aren’t changes among certain factions in Tripoli, despite the fact that there was support for the process from “most” members from Libya.
“Eleven of the 13 mayors and many militias are in favor of the peace process,” Gentiloni said.
“Still, there has been a strong and threatening pressure from some hardliners against the possibility that there could be positive discussion in Tripoli,” he said, referring to those individuals against whom sanctions might be imposed if they continued their opposition.
Four years after a revolution in Libya ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi, two opposing governments are fighting for control of the oil-rich country where ISIS is gaining a foothold.
The conflict is pushing many Libyans to flee to European shores, causing an immigration crisis, especially for countries in close proximity such as Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Authorities Arrest 8 Suspected Members of IS-Linked Cell Allegedly Planning Attacks
Moroccan authorities announced Tuesday the dismantling of an eight-man group that they say had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and was planning attacks inside the country.
The Interior Ministry statement said the suspects were arrested in the northern cities of Tangier and Taounate as well as in the towns of Khouribga and Bouznika to the south and were in contact with the radical group based in Iraq and Syria.
The statement said the cell planned to host IS fighters traveling to Morocco so that they could carry out attacks on security personnel and other targets to destabilize the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Draft Anti-Terror Law in Parliament Tomorrow
It includes measure condemning apostasy charge (Takfir)
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 21 — Debate in parliament on a new draft anti-terror law against dirty money laundering in Tunisia will start tomorrow. The general legislative commission has finished examining all of the law’s articles that will now need to be voted by parliament in plenary session. One article was included by the commission, providing for a ban on the charge of apostasy (Takfir in Arabic) and punishing a call on violence and hatred against religious minorities or other religions. The new legislation states: ‘‘Anyone accusing others of apostasy (Takfir), or inciting others to do it, or promoting the spread of hatred between religious minorities or religions, can be punished with sentences that can include the death penalty. The convictions will be heavier according to whether they bring physical violence’’.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Passes Tough New Penalties Against Stone Throwers, Drawing Arab Objections
The Israeli parliament has approved a law that imposes stiff penalties on people convicted of throwing rocks at moving vehicles.
The law, passed late Monday night, is aimed at cracking down on Palestinian demonstrators.
Under the law, stone throwers could face 10 years in prison, and up to 20 years if it is determined that they intended to seriously harm the occupants in a vehicle.
Lawmaker Nissan Slomiansky, who sponsored the legislation, said that one-third of arrests in Jerusalem are connected to stone throwing. He called it a life-threatening phenomenon that must be “aggressively eradicated.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Thomas Sowell
Distinguished scientist Freeman Dyson has called the 1433 decision of the emperor of China to discontinue his country’s exploration of the outside world the “worst political blunder in the history of civilization.”
The United States seems at this moment about to break the record for the worst political blunder of all time, with its Obama administration deal that will make a nuclear Iran virtually inevitable.
Already the years-long negotiations, with their numerous “deadlines” that have been extended again and again, have reduced the chances that Israel can destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities, which have been multiplied and placed in scattered underground sites during the years when all this was going on.
Israel is the only country even likely to try to destroy those facilities, since Iran has explicitly and repeatedly declared its intention to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
How did we get to this point — and what, if anything, can we do now? Tragically, these are questions that few Americans seem to be asking. We are too preoccupied with our electronic devices, the antics of celebrities and politics as usual.
During the years when we confronted a nuclear-armed Soviet Union, we at least realized that we had to “think the unthinkable,” as intellectual giant Herman Kahn put it. Today it seems almost as if we don’t want to think about it at all.
Our politicians have kicked the can down the road — and it is the biggest, most annihilating explosive can of all, that will be left for our children and grandchildren to try to cope with…
| — Hat tip: RL | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS militants have picked up a few vital spycraft techniques from a trove of classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden that are helping them stay one step ahead of Western intelligence, according to US officials.
The New York Times reported that the tech-savvy extremist group that has cut a bloody swath across the Middle East has gleaned important information from the Snowden files on how the US and its allies gather intelligence on militants.
In order to minimize the risk of detection and capture, ISIS commanders now use human couriers or encrypted channels of communications that analysts working for Western intelligence services have been unable to access, unnamed military and intelligence officials revealed to the paper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Deal: German Companies ‘Must Act Quickly Now’
The Iranian nuclear deal will allow Germany to quadruple its exports to Iran in the next four years. Daniel Bernbeck, a German business representative in Tehran, discusses the opportunities of the deal in a DW interview.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: “We Will Trample Upon America”
A senior Iranian cleric delivered Friday prayers in Tehran while standing behind a podium that declared, “We Will Trample Upon America,” according to photos released by Iran’s state-controlled media.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Maybe it’s Time to Say Goodbye to an Iraqi Nation-State
From 2003 onwards — since the fall of Saddam Hussein — Iraq is increasingly engulfed into sectarian strife among the three largest ethno-religious groups: Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites. The divisions have existed long time before and even the fight against the Islamic State seems incapable of uniting the country. Only the guarantee of rights for minorities could still save national unity. The provocation of prof. Afshin Shahi: Iraq is dead. Translation from the original English text by AsiaNews.
Bradford (AsiaNews) — The end of Iraq is no longer a matter of if, or a matter of when — it has already happened. The country has been on life support for too long, and no matter how hard external players try to save it, Iraq cannot save itself.
One of the fundamental properties of any nation state is some sense a national consciousness, a sense of belonging; shared values regardless of how abstract they may be and, most importantly, a collective commitment to the perpetuation of the nation itself, which is perceived to be organically connected to the state. Without these ingredients, there never can be a stable nation state.
Of course, one could argue that perhaps Iraq never had a cohesive national consciousness anyway. After all, Iraq was only constructed almost on a whim by the colonial masters of the previous century. Even at the height of “stability” under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was a state without a nation.
There was very little effort put into building an Iraqi nation and the obstacles were always huge. The Kurds, who made up about 17-20% of the population, hardly subscribed to an Iraqi identity, and the Shia majority felt deeply marginalised by the political elite who were mainly Sunni.
But what’s happening in Iraq today is different from the realities of a classic multi-ethnic or multi-religious society in the Middle East. Similar situations and grievances exist in much of the region, but what makes the situation hopeless in Iraq is that there is no longer any strong state in power — and, more importantly, no prospect of one emerging any time soon.
Out of the bottle
Until 2003, Saddam’s Hussein’s repressive state at least put a lid on the chaos, but invasion, disastrous post-war policies and the opportunistic interference of regional states and sub-state actors finally let the genie out of the bottle.
The forces unleashed are now beyond control, and old animosities between ethno-sectarian groups are channelled into armed confrontation. This cycle of violence has effectively burned any grassroots bridges between the divided groups, who were supposed to be part of a nation, and these problems are here to stay even if Iraq cleanses itself of transnational jihadism.
The rise of Islamic State (IS) reflects a history of poor nation-building as much as anything else. The international coalition against IS has so far been ineffective but, in any case, cutting down IS without pulling up its roots would be nothing more than cosmetic surgery. IS is not really a threat to Iraq’s nationhood, rather a sign of its failure. The current hyper-sectarian conflict is not the cause, but the symptom of the failed nation-state model.
The country is divided into three parts, each of which centres around strong identities — Kurdish, Sunni and Shia — which predate the modern borders. For each of these groups, self-interest comes first.
The Kurds’ loyalty is first and foremost to Kurdistan — and they see an opportunity in the current chaos to realise their long-term dream of a Kurdish state. In many aspects, the Kurdish region is already independent, and given what they have gone through over the years spent resisting IS, it would be inconceivable to imagine them embracing the old system.
Southern Iraq, meanwhile, is effectively a country of its own. The majority of Shia live in the south with a very strong sense of Shia identity. The Shia political elite has dominated what is left of the Iraqi state and has shown little appetite for acknowledging the interests of other ethnic and religious groups — which would have been the only way to save Iraq. After all, in this hyper-sectarian climate being attentive to other minorities could have negative implications for a “state” which is effectively dependent on Shia militia for survival.
Many Sunni tribes, on the other hand, are stuck between the likes of IS or a Shia majority government, which has a track record of discrimination against them. In the same week that there was an anti-IS coalition conference in Paris to try to save Iraq, 50 more Sunni tribes gave their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi because they feared the rise of Shia militia with links to Iran.
Face facts
So what could be the answer? Democracy? Federalism? Iraq’s hyper-sectarian politics would never allow a democratic system to flourish within either a federal or centrist system. Sectarianism destroys the roots of civic culture and undermines the development of any functioning civil society, which is the backbone of any democratic system.
As has been proven time and time again in Iraq, people vote to empower their sect, meaning the Sunni minority will be perpetually disadvantaged. This inevitably feeds the politics of victimisation and, in turn, leads to endless battles over the distribution of power between the haves and the have-nots.
Although there are uncertainties about the result of this painful disintegration process, there is very little chance that an Iraqi nation state like that we knew before 2003 can ever be resurrected.
It’s about time we faced facts: Iraq is dead.
* Director of the Centre for the Study of Political Islam & Lecturer in International Relations and Middle East Politics at University of Bradford.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Transforming Into Functioning State That Uses Terror as Tool
The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, initially functioned solely as a terrorist organization, if one more coldblooded even than Al Qaeda. Then it went on to seize land. But increasingly, as it holds that territory and builds capacity to govern, the group is transforming into a functioning state that uses extreme violence — terror — as a tool. That distinction is proving to be more than a matter of perspective for those who live under the Islamic State, which has provided relative stability in a region troubled by war and chaos while filling a vacuum left by failing and corrupt governments that also employed violence — arrest, torture and detention.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nancy Menges & Luis Fleischman: Stop Ignoring Iran’s Subversive Behavior
As the deal with Iran is being scrutinized by the U.S. Congress, an opportunity opens up to discuss what has not been discussed during the negotiations.
During the negotiations over Iran’s program the P 5 + 1 related to Iran as a tabula-rasa country seeking nuclear weapons. In this equation Iran’s behavior and Iran’s geo-political ambitions were left out even as the Islamic Republic supported polarizing Shiite sectarianism in Iraq, the Assad regime in Syria and the Houthis in Yemen. This caused major instability in Iraq and worked to depose an America-friendly government in Yemen. Iran’s support for the Syrian regime’s viciousness strengthened the hand of ISIS. By displaying this behavior Iran helped reinforce the power of ISIS in the region and weakened the democratic forces operating in the Levant. Of course, this is without even mentioning the aid Iran provides to Hamas and Hezbollah, their traditional allies and proxies.
Dennis Ross, who served the Obama Administration in its first term and is not known for holding hawkish views, stated:
“the release of 150 billion dollars in oil sales and frozen accounts to Iran within six months, even if Iran “uses 90 to 95 percent of that to meet domestic needs, it is inconceivable that the Revolutionary Guards won’t receive a payoff that they can use for aggressive purposes”.
Senior administration officials have argued that Iran will use this money to give a boost to Iran’s frail economy…
| — Hat tip: MB | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Calls for Release of Americans Held in Iran, After Nuke Deal Omitted Them
President Obama called Tuesday for the release of Americans held in Iran, individually naming them during a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention — a week after his diplomatic team helped strike a nuclear accord with Iran that did not secure the prisoners’ freedom.
The deal’s failure to address the prisoners’ status has fueled criticism of the Obama administration, though State Department officials have said they raised their imprisonment repeatedly. The president also scolded a reporter last week at a White House press conference for suggesting he was “content” to leave the prisoners out of the deal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Three Spanish Journalists Missing Amid Aleppo Violence
Three freelance journalists from Spain have disappeared in Syria, according to a journalists’ federataion. They were working in the area around Aleppo, where government and rebel forces have been fighting for control.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France’s Depardieu Ruled ‘A Danger to Ukraine’
France’s larger than life actor Gérard Depardieu has been added to a black list in Ukraine, which features names of people judged “a threat to national security”, according to reports on Tuesday.
Depardieu is a big fan of Vladimir Putin, who in January 2013 handed the French actor a Russian passport, which was warmly accepted. The actor is registered as living in the town of Saransk, with his address listed as No. 1, Democracy Street.
He has also frequently spoken out in support of the Russian president and has angered Ukrainian leaders with some of his comments at the height of the ongoing conflict in the east of the country.
According to reports Depardieu was cited for his speech at a film festival in Riga, Latvia in August 2014, when he said: “I love Russia and Ukraine, which is part of Russia.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Ukrainian Right-Wingers Rally Against Govt
Huge number from right wing group Pravy Sektor
(ANSA-AP) — KIEV — Hundreds of Ukrainian right-wingers were rallying in Kiev on Tuesday to protest against government policies in the wake of a deadly stand-off between radical nationalists and police in the country’s west.
The radical Right Sector group was one of the most militant factions in the massive protests in Ukraine’s capital that prompted pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country in February 2014. Since the war broke out in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russia separatists several months later, the Right Sector has fought on the government side.
However, Right Sector militants keep running into disputes with local Ukrainian authorities and Amnesty International has accused the group of holding civilians as prisoners and torturing them. The activists claim they are trying to clamp down on corruption and nepotism but Ukrainian authorities accuse Right Sector of using violence to reach its goals.
Speaking Tuesday at the national Right Sector congress, group leader Dmytro Yarosh called for a referendum to impeach President Petro Poroshenko and his government.
Yarosh also called for the recognition of volunteer battalions and their right to carry arms as well as introducing martial law, which he said, will help defeat the rebels in the east.
Right Sector supporters gathered on Tuesday evening on Kiev’s main square to support Yarosh’s motion. Most of them were civilians and appeared to be unarmed, although some young men wore camouflage.
The Right Sector leader garnered about 1 percent of the vote in the May 2014 presidential election. His radical anti-Russian stance prompted the Kremlin to dismiss the uprising in Kiev as a neo-Nazi coup.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Ukrainian Right-Wingers Hold Anti-Government Rally in Kiev; Call for a Referendum
KIEV, Ukraine — Hundreds of Ukrainian right-wingers are rallying in Kiev to protest government policies.
The radical Right Sector group was one of the most militant factions in the massive protests in Ukraine’s capital that prompted pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country in February 2014. Since war broke out in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russia separatists several months later, the Right Sector has fought on the government side.
Right Sector militants, however, keep running into disputes with local Ukrainian authorities. The activists claim they are trying to clamp down on corruption and nepotism but Ukrainian authorities accuse Right Sector of using violence to reach its goals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Tries Ukrainian Film Director Sentsov on Terror Charges
A Ukrainian filmmaker has gone on trial on terror charges in Russia. Rights groups say the case against Oleg Sentsov was fabricated as payback for his vocal opposition to the annexation of Crimea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Villagers Behead Woman for ‘Witchcraft’
An elderly Indian woman accused of practising witchcraft has been stripped naked and beheaded by villagers in the state of Assam, police say.
They said that 63-year-old Purni Orang had been blamed for illness in the tribal settlement.
Seven people, including two women, have been arrested over her killing.
Police in Assam say nearly 90 people, mostly women, have been beheaded, burnt alive or stabbed to death after such accusations over the last six years.
Branding women as witches is particularly prevalent among tribal communities and tea plantation workers in the state.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Jakarta Governor Defends the Right of Ahmadis to Freedom of Worship
A Christian of Sino-Indonesian heritage, Ahok slammed recent attacks against the minority in the capital. On 10 July, Islamic extremist groups disrupted a prayer service in a place of worship they were able to shut down. For the governor, the principle of religious freedom applies to everyone. Indonesia “was not born under the tyranny” of the majority, “but based on the Constitution”.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has come out strongly in favour of Ahmadi Muslims, an Islamic group considered heretical by majority Sunni Muslims because they do not view Muhammad as the final prophet.
Also known as Ahok, the capital’s chief magistrate personally spoke on behalf of a local Ahmadi community, after it became the victim of attacks by local Islamist extremist groups.
A Christian of Sino-Indonesian origin, he is one of the few Indonesian political leaders daring to fight for freedom of worship, a battle that not even the current “reformist” president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Ahok’s former boss, seems intent on pursuing.
In an official statement, Governor Purnama said that he “would not submit” to pressure from any fundamentalist group. For him, this is nothing new. He had already come under fire from radical movements in the past, for being a Christian and for defending religious freedom and equal rights for all.
The latest incident took place on 10 July, when an Islamic extremist group forced the closure of an Ahmadi mosque in Tebet district, South Jakarta, disrupting Friday prayer with violence and threats.
Two days earlier, a district official had issued an order to halt religious services in the two-storey building because it lacked the required permits as a place of worship.
Speaking on the issue, Ahok said that he would on the legality of the Ahmadi faith, but that he plans to enforce the law and uphold the constitution in accordance with his role. Ahmadi believers have a right to pray and use the building as a mosque based on existing rules.
For this reason, the governor signed a directive authorising the re-opening of the place of worship. “The State should not meddle in such issues [of faith],” he warned.
“I asked the head of the South Jakarta district the reasons for closing [the Ahmadi place of worship],” said the governor. “I told him in no uncertain terms that hundreds, if not thousands of Muslim places of worship exist without a permit as required by the law, but no one dreams of shutting them down.”
For Jakarta’s first citizen, Indonesia “was not born under the tyranny” of the majority over the minority, “but based on the Constitution. That is my opinion.”
Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world. Increasingly however, it has become the scene of attacks or episodes of intolerance against minorities, whether they are Christians, Ahmadi Muslims or belong to other faiths.
In addition, building regulations are often use to stop non-Muslims from having their own places of worship, as was the case for the Yasmin Church in West Java.
Although the constitution guarantees Christians the right of freedom of religion, they have suffered from acts of violence and religious persecution.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Lahore: Two Christians Arrested for Blasphemy Could Get the Death Penalty
The two brothers have been accused of posting disrespectful content on their website. After four years on the run abroad and at home, Qaisa and Amoon are now in the same Lahore prison. The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) is dealing with their case.
Lahore (AsiaNews/CLAAS) — Two Christian brothers have been arrested on blasphemy charges after one of them was accused of posting disrespectful material on his website.
A case has been registered against Qaisar and Amoon Ayub of Lahore in relations to accusations dating back to 2011.
According to Qaisar, he closed his account in 2009 but one of his Muslim friends, Shahryar Gill, somehow managed to restore the website, while ownership remained in Qaisar’s name.
The story goes back to 2010 when Qaisar worked at the Raja Centre, Lahore, at the international office.
Qaisar is married to Amina and they have three children, while Amoon is married to Huma who is a teacher at the Cathedral School, Lahore.
One day an argument broke out at Qaisar’s office between his friends, when one of them made a comment about another’s sister.
The aggrieved friend blamed Qaisar and warned him that it is a serious matter in Pakistan. Qaisar started to receive death threats from his friends and then went into hiding.
When the situation deteriorated both brothers fled to Singapore without telling their wives, but after a month they returned to Pakistan and then Amoon told his wife the whole story.
The situation was still tense, so they left again in November 2009 for Thailand, in search of security, but could not stay there for too long time and in 2012 went back to Pakistan.
Qaisar was informed by one of his friend that the authorities were looking for him and that he could be arrested at any time because a blasphemy case had been registered against him.
On 10 November 2014, while on his way to work at the Kids Campus DHA, Amoon was arrested and told that a case had also been registered against his brother. The police asked him about his brother Qaisar and he told Amoon to stay hidden because he was accused under section 109-A PPC.
Qaisar was later arrested and sent to District jail Jhelum.
Fed up with life in Pakistan, Amoon finally decided to leave the country. On 17 November 2014, he was arrested by Immigrant Police at Lahore Airport. Later police sent him to Jhelum District Jail charged with the same offence as his brother.
Huma has done all she could to get her husband released, but has failed. However, she has not lost hope and finally approached the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) in June of this year for legal aid and support.
CLAAS is an interdenominational organisation working for Christians persecuted for their faith in Pakistan. It works for religious freedom, and against persecution of Christians in Pakistan under blasphemy and other discriminatory laws.
Qaisar’s 14-year-old son became mentally unwell because of his father’s imprisonment, and CLAAS has arranged treatment for him and is trying its best to support both families, but prayers are equally important.
CLAAS is providing both brothers with free legal advice and have visited them in Jhelum, jail. It is also going to apply for their bail once the Eid holidays are over.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Witch-Hunting Villagers Behead Woman in India
A 63-year-old has been beheaded in India’s eastern state of Assam after she was accused of being a witch. Over 2,000 people have been killed in the last two years for allegedly being involved with the occult and sorcery.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As Beijing Becomes a Supercity, The Rapid Growth Brings Pains
For decades, China’s government has tried to limit the size of Beijing, the capital, through draconian residency permits. Now, the government has embarked on an ambitious plan to make Beijing the center of a new supercity of 130 million people.
The planned megalopolis, a metropolitan area that would be about six times the size of New York’s, is meant to revamp northern China’s economy and become a laboratory for modern urban growth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Curator Replaced Stolen Masters With Forgeries
A man in China has admitted stealing more than 140 paintings by Chinese masters from a university and replacing them with his own forgeries.
Xiao Yuan, 57, a curator at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in southern China, sold 125 of the exhibits for more than 34m yuan (£4m, $6m).
In his defence, he told Guangzhou People’s Intermediate Court there were already fakes in the storeroom when he started work there.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Refuses to Back Down in South China Sea Dispute
China’s development of manmade islands in the disputed South China Sea is raising alarms over an increased political and possible military standoff in the region.
Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland spoke to foreign policy experts Timothy Heath and Karen Brooks about the unraveling situation.
China claims nearly 90 percent of South China Sea. This goes against other claims made by neighboring countries Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The Chinese believe this region is a vital part of their country and any attempt to disrupt this is a challenge to China’s security interests.
Brooks says what’s new is “a more muscular, nationalistic China of recent years does seem determined to change the facts on the ground to strengthen their claims in perpetuity.”
Heath believes this new Chinese strategy comes from the idea that “they have the money, the resources, the military, and they feel they’ve got the ‘carrots’ in the form of trade deals and economic initiatives that can convince the countries in southeast Asia to go along with what China wants to do.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Sharpens Censure of China Disputed Sea Activity
Japan’s annual defence report has strengthened criticism of Chinese land reclamation and offshore platforms in disputed seas.
The white paper was approved by PM Shinzo Abe on Tuesday after the first draft was rejected by his party for not taking a strong enough line on China.
It comes after the lower house approved changes to the national security law.
Those changes would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Says it Won’t Do Iran-Style Nuclear Deal With US
North Korea’s government said Tuesday that it had no interest in pursuing a nuclear agreement of its own with the U.S. as long as Washington pursued what Pyongyang described as “provocative” U.S. policies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NZ: New French Scrabble Champ Speaks No French
A New Zealander — dubbed “the Chris Froome of Scrabble” — has stunned French players of the classic game after somehow winning the world title for the Gallic language version — despite not being able to actually speak a word of French.
It’s surely a blow for Gallic pride — a man who can’t actually formulate a single sentence in French came out on top against French speakers from around the world to win the annual World Championship of French Scrabble.
The New Zealander, Nigel Richards, claims to have learnt the French dictionary’s words and their various conjugations in just nine weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Just what we needed:
‘Mojito diplomacy’ as Cuba reboots US relations in reopened embassyGuests toast inauguration of island’s new Washington mission inside its ‘Hemingway’ bar
Just like Hemingway’s favorite Havana hangout, a small but attractive bar had been set up nearly four years ago in one of the rooms at the Cuban embassy to liven up breaks between the many closed-door meetings held with political scientists and activists there.
Is “political scientists and activists” the current euphemism for operatives of the Communist regime?
But back to mojitos, here are the ingredients:…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
After Athens, German Gov’t Has Troubles Because of Refugees
Seehofer (CSU) proposes ‘tough measures’ against abuses
(ANSA) — BERLIN — It is not only Greece that provoke tensions in the ‘Grosse Koalition’ of Angela Merkel. The recent statements of the leader of the Bavarian Csu on asylum seekers have opened another front of opposition inside the Social Democrats. Over the weekend the Christian Social Horst Seehofer announced “tough measures” against the large number of asylum applications from the western Balkans. “We have to stop and reset this 40% of abuse,” Seehofer said. The statement was stigmatized today by the Secretary General of the Spd, Yasmin Fahimi: “It’s really miserable the attempt to foment a climate against refugees in Germany.”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Asylum Seeker Dispute Divides EU
The European Union’s home affairs ministers failed to reach a comprehensive agreement on the distribution of 60,000 asylum seekers among its member states in a meeting on Monday.
All parties agreed to receive 20,000 refugees who are currently not in EU territory, mainly in countries like Lebanon or Jordan. That group and a few thousands more, a total 22,500, will be accepted in different European nations.
But several countries refused to take a share of the 40,000 asylum seekers who are currently in Greece and Italy.
“It’s a partial victory and a partial failure. Some countries which could have taken a bigger responsibility won’t do it,” Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson tells Swedish Radio News.
Hungary chose to stay out of the deal and some large countries like Spain and Poland said they would not accept all the refugees the European Commission had suggested.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
English is Now a Foreign Language in London, Says Terence Stamp
Provocative: Actor Terence Stamp claims he can’t buy mangoes at his favourite East London market because ‘no one speaks English’As the dashing star of films such as Billy Budd and Far From The Madding Crowd, Terence Stamp was the symbol of ‘Swinging London’ in the Sixties, but says he now feels like an alien in his own country.
‘It’s very sad how few English people there are in London now,’ he tells me at a party in Mayfair, where he lamented what he seems to see as a lack of integration among some immigrants.
‘When I grew up in East London everyone seemed to speak English, and now you can barely get by speaking our own language.’
Stamp, who enjoyed romances with his fellow Sixties icons, the actress Julie Christie and model Jean Shrimpton, shared a flat with Sir Michael Caine, but is now based in West London.
‘I don’t live in the East any more, but I absolutely love mangoes and so occasionally I go back there to buy these wonderful Alphonso mangoes from the market on Green Street.
‘I’m lucky if I can buy one now at all because no one speaks English.
‘It’s changed so much in such a short space of time, that God knows what London will be like in another decade or so.’
In a provocative outburst, the 76-year-old actor, who went on to star in Hollywood blockbusters including Superman, added: ‘You see these mums wandering around with their prams and four out of five of them have these scarves wrapped around their heads. I feel like it’s not London any more; not the one I used to know anyway.
‘I do think a multicultural society can be a good thing, but when it’s at the cost of your own culture and history, then it’s gone too far and it would be very sad if London stopped being predominantly English.’
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Father of Kate Steinle Blasts ‘Legal Loopholes’ That Helped Daughter’s Alleged Killer
The father of the young woman killed earlier this month along a San Francisco pier on Tuesday blasted the “legal loopholes” that allowed the illegal immigrant suspected of pulling the trigger to be released despite a rap sheet that included seven felonies and five past deportations.
In dramatic Capitol Hill testimony, Jim Steinle and other relatives of people killed by illegal immigrants called on Congress to pass new laws aimed at keeping illegal immigrant criminals off the streets.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary Doubles Migrant Estimate, 300,000 Expected in 2015
Nearly 90,000 have come so far in 2015
(ANSA-AP) — BUDAPEST — The Hungarian government says it expects up to 300,000 migrants to reach the country this year, around twice its earlier estimate. Nearly 90,000 migrants have come to Hungary so far in 2015. Most continue on to other parts of the European Union.
Janos Lazar, head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said Tuesday “Hungary has become one of the countries most exposed to illegal migration.” He said the fence the country is creating on the southern border with Serbia to stem the flow of migrants “needs to be built in the shortest term possible.” Lazar said most of Hungary’s 175-kilometer (109-mile) border with Serbia would be protected by a chain-link fence dug 1.5 meters (5 feet) into the ground and rising 3 meters (10 feet) above ground, topped with razor wire.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ICE Failed to Deport 2 Illegals, Now Suspected Killers of Massachusetts Grandmother
Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to deport two illegal immigrants who are now being investigated for a July 4th shooting that resulted in the death of a Massachusetts grandmother.
Illegal immigrants Wilton Lara-Calmona and Jose M. Lara-Mejia lived above Mirta Rivera, a 41-year-old grandmother, in Lawrence, Mass. The Boston Herald reports they were arrested on July 4, 2015 for murder and drug charges after a 4:26 AM 911 call summoned Lawrence Police Officer Frank Bradley to their Exchange Street apartment.
Bradley entered the grandmother’s apartment to a gruesome scene and found the victim “lying supine on the bed, pulseless, not breathing, eyes fixed front, staring straight at the ceiling,” according to his record.
He then saw a clearly marked bullet hole had ruptured the ceiling. The officer rushed upstairs where “the smell of fresh burnt gun powder was strong and evident.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Serbia Over 61,000 Arrivals in January
Interior Minister, a thousand migrants a day
(ANSA) — BELGRADE — Since the beginning of the year, more than 61,000 migrants arrived in Serbia and in recent times the Balkan country recorded over a thousand arrivals per day. This news was reported by Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, according to whom the country has seen a gradual but steady increase in the flow of migrants, who travel along the so-called ‘Balkan route’.
Most of them come from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, through Turkey, Greece and Macedonia, and usually reach Serbia; they travel to Hungary and then move to northern European countries. The authorities in Budapest, in order to stem the constant flow of illegal immigrants, are building a metal 4-metre high fence along the southern border with Serbia, 175 km long.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Border Chief Says 200,000 Immigrants Could Arrive in 2015
Immigration director says figures higher than past two years
(ANSA) — Milan, July 21 — The total number of immigrants arriving in Italy in 2015 could reach 200,000 in 2015, surpassing the 2013 and 2014 annual figure of 170,000, said Giovanni Pinto, Director of Central Immigration and Border Police, on Tuesday.
“We’re facing a situation without precedent,” Pinto said.
“I spoke with UN refugee agency personnel and they told me that in Niger and Nigeria they’re preparing camps for 500,000 displaced people,” Pinto said, referring to those fleeing Boko Haram militants.
Earlier this year, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said that the 170,000 immigrants who disembarked on Italian coasts in 2014 represented 61% of the the European Union total of 278,000, and that the number of asylum requests — 70,000 — represented a 140% increase over 2013 figures.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Treviso Prefect Ousted Over Migrant Protest
The prefect of Treviso, Maria Augusta Marrosu, is set to be replaced following a violent protest last week against migrants in the northern Italian city.
The decision to replace her was agreed by premier Matteo Renzi and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Monday, and must now be approved by the council of ministers, Rai News reported.
Her ousting comes after residents in Quinto di Treviso violently protested the arrival of 101 migrants last Thursday, burning mattresses intended for them on the street and stopping food supplies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrant Girl Dies After Insulin Thrown in Sea
A ten-year-old diabetic girl from Syria died on a migrant boat travelling to Italy after one of the human traffickers threw a bag containing her insulin overboard.
The girl then fell into a coma and died during the journey from Egypt.
The shocking story was heard by the Italian coast guard on Friday when the Egyptian fishing boat carrying over 320 migrants arrived in the Sicilian port of Augusta. The boat had to be rescued after seven days on the water.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Dies From Burns in Channel Tunnel
Another migrant has died attempting to cross to the UK through the Channel Tunnel. Despite the migrants being told of the dangers, the victim attempted to enter the Channel Tunnel and was severely burned.
Thousands of migrants are camped out around the port in the northern city of Calais, in the hope of climbing aboard lorries travelling to Britain on ferries or entering the nearby Channel Tunnel.
The migrants, whose presence has long caused friction between London and Paris, sometimes go to dramatic lengths to smuggle themselves into Britain, and have even been recorded trying to swim across the Channel.
In recent weeks, traffic through the Channel Tunnel has been repeatedly disrupted by protesting French sailors, as well as attempts by migrants to smuggle through the undersea passage.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New French Law Aims to Boost Foreigners’ Rights
A new law was put to the French parliament on Monday which aims to shrink the bureaucratic hurdles for foreigners wanting to stay in France.
The raft of measures, introduced on Monday, aims to make a dent in the mountains of paperwork that come with France’s immigration system that has dealt with around 200,000 legal immigrants each year for the past decade.
The majority of these immigrants come for family reasons, with 60,000 arriving to study, and 20,000 for humanitarian reasons, such as asylum or illness.
The moves are intended to both allow a kinder welcome to foreigners, but also as as way of attracting global talent to come and live and work in France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NYC Mayor Blasts EU on Migration, Warns Wall Street on Climate, Thinks Pope is Pretty Great
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio denounced the European Union on Tuesday for leaving Italy to deal with waves of immigration, saying the EU must come up with a Europe-wide immigration policy or stop pretending it’s a union.
“As a proud Italian-American, I am deeply troubled by the lack of action by the European Union and the way that Italy has been left to fend for itself very unfairly,” said De Blasio, whose grandparents emigrated from Italy to New York.
“Europe can’t decide to be unified some of the time and ignore important issues at other times,” he said. “And there needs to be a European Union policy that addresses the vast amount of immigration that is happening. It’s not fair to have Italy have to shoulder so much of the burden.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rev. Graham: ‘We Are Under Attack … Stop All Immigration of Muslims to the U.S.’
Commenting on the five U.S. military service members killed by Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez last week in Chattanooga, Tenn., Rev. Franklin Graham said we need to face up to the fact that “we are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad,” and advised that America “should stop all immigration of Muslims” into this country until the threat from radical Islam ends.
“Four innocent Marines (United States Marine Corps) killed and three others wounded in #Chattanooga yesterday [July 16] including a policeman and another Marine — all by a radical Muslim whose family was allowed to immigrate to this country from Kuwait,” said Rev. Graham in aJuly 17 post on Facebook.
“We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad,” he said. “We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the U.S. until this threat with Islam has been settled.”
“Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized — and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad,” said the reverend, who is the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and also runs the international Christian relief group Samaritan’s Purse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain to Accept Just Third of Its EU Migrant Quota
Spain rejected the proposed quota for migrants and will accept just a third as EU ministers failed to agree on how to redistribute 40,000 refugees across member states.
Migration ministers from all 28 EU member state met in Brussels on Monday in an attempt to finalize European Commission plans to resettle 40,000 refugees based in Italy and Greece and another 20,000 asylum seekers from outside of Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Watches as EU Migrant Talks Collapse
EU nations have failed to agree on how many of the refugees that have arrived in the Mediterranean this year should be taken in by each member state after months of wrangling.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Top Immigration Official Caught Praising Islamic State
A top official in charge of Sweden’s immigration policy has been exposed as a jihadi sympathiser who described someone’s intention to join Islamic State as “beautiful”.
Samiyah M Wasame, who serves on Sweden’s Migration Board, is accused of ‘liking’ numerous jihadi posts on Facebook. In one example, she ‘liked’ a picture of an AK-47 next to the words “Remember the Mujahdieen in your prayers… Because they are fighting on your behalf.”
She also liked a black Islamic flag as well as a status by a jihadist who lamented the problems he was having travelling to Syria. She commented underneath, calling his decision “beautiful”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Immigration Officer Exposed as Jihadist Sympathizer
Claims criticism that she advocated ISIS propaganda represents “Islamophobia”
Sweden’s reputation as a place where extreme liberalism has run rampant was cemented further after it was revealed that a top official responsible for the country’s immigration policy is a jihadist sympathizer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland Sees Big Jump in Asylum Seekers
Almost 12,000 applications for asylum were lodged in Switzerland in the first six months of 2015 with Eritreans accounting for more than half.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Truly what has transpired to date is as unprecedented as it is outrageous. But I believe it’s nothing compared with what’s to come.
We’ve just learned that under Obama an additional 2.5 million ILLEGAL immigrants have entered the United States and more are actually encouraged to do so. Additionally the only thing keeping the Obama administration from totally opening the southern border is a brave federal judge named Andrew Hanen, who has issued an injunction against Obama’s executive orders to grant amnesty for scores of thousands of illegals living in the US. Of course the main purpose for attempting this bit of transformation is to shore up votes for Democrats.
Last week Obama visited a federal prison in Oklahoma, being the first sitting American president to do so. Certainly his intentions for visiting were clearly signaled when he commuted the sentences of 46 felons prior to doing so. It’s a clear signal that Obama further wants to “transform” America, much in the same way Castro did by opening Cuba’s prison doors and sending the inmates to America, a la the Mariel boatlift of 1980.
Under the Constitution, Obama certainly has the power to commute or pardon prisoners and the only question now is, how many are going to be let out of jail before January 20, 2017?
However, more importantly, he also wants to grant voting rights to prisoners, a right that has long been suspended for felons on the basis that if one is convicted of a felony, one loses the many rights enjoyed by non-felonious citizens. If he somehow manages to achieve this bit of legerdemain, then there’s little reason to believe that there will ever be a Republican administration in Washington.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Spend $125,000 Studying Sexist Adjectives
The federal government is spending $125,000 to study adjectives that could be perceived as sexist or racist. The National Science Foundation (NSF) tasked the University of Kansas with conducting the study last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Feminist: Not Allowing Your Wife to Sleep With Other Men is Sexist
Michael Sonmore allows his wife, with whom he has children aged 3 and 6, to sleep with as many men as she likes, because insisting upon monogamy is “patriarchal oppression”.
In a piece for NYMag.com, Sonmore writes;
“As I write this, my children are asleep in their room, Loretta Lynn is on the stereo, and my wife is out on a date with a man named Paulo. It’s her second date this week; her fourth this month so far. If it goes like the others, she’ll come home in the middle of the night, crawl into bed beside me, and tell me all about how she and Paulo had sex. I won’t explode with anger or seethe with resentment. I’ll tell her it’s a hot story and I’m glad she had fun. It’s hot because she’s excited, and I’m glad because I’m a feminist.”
[Comment: No. You are a cuckold. It’s just a matter of time before she leaves him permanently. Another example of the successful communist push for feminism, which is designed to break apart the family structure.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Court ‘Has Broken Our Balls’ With Same-Sex Ruling — Salvini
Northern League leader says bigger emergencies than gay rights
(ANSA) — Rome, July 21 — The European Court of Human Rights “has broken our balls” with its ruling on recognition for same-sex unions when there are greater emergencies facing Italy, Matteo Salvini said Tuesday.
In a post on his Facebook page, the Northern League leader complained that the Strasbourg court said “not a word on immigration, on taxes, on pensions, on unemployment.
“I think that these are emergencies for heterosexuals and homosexuals,” added Salvini.
The court ruled on the case brought by three gay couples, saying that Italy has not respected the rights of same-sex partners in a committed union.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Told to Recognize Same-Sex Couple Rights
The European Court of Human Rights said on Tuesday that Italy must recognize the rights of same-sex couples.
The court denounced the country for violating the rights of three same-sex couples after failing to recognize their unions.
Italy’s Court of Cassation in February rejected gay marriage, saying that nothing existed within the Italian Constitution which stipulated extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Says Operation Not Needed for Sex Change
It is no longer necessary to undergo a sex change operation in order to change your gender at the civil registry office, Italy’s Court of Cassation ruled on Monday.
The decision comes after an appeal by the Lenford network of lawyers who work to defend lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual rights.
The ruling was made at the end of an appeal on behalf of a 45-year-old transgender male, who in 1999 received permission to undergo a sex change operation but then decided not to go through with it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Breaches Rights Over Gay Marriage — European Court
Italy violates human rights by failing to offer enough legal protection for same-sex couples, a European court has ruled.
Judges said the government had breached the rights of three gay couples by refusing them marriage or any other recognised form of union.
Italy is the only major Western European country with no civil partnerships or gay marriage.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has long promised to pass a law on civil unions.
By failing to introduce new legislation, his government failed to “provide for the core needs relevant to a couple in a stable committed relationship,” the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Paedophile Phillip Kirk Wrote to Theresa May Asking for Child Sex to be Legalised
Britain’s most brazen paedophile has been jailed for four years — after he wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May asking for child sex to be legalised.
Phillip Kirk’s revolting actions also included researching child murder and local schools and girl guide groups in his home city of York, within weeks of being released from jail for other offences.
Remarkably, he also wrote to Theresa May saying: ‘I have been a paedophile since the age of 13 and openly a paedophile for the last three years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Strasbourg Denounces Italy on Same-Sex Marriage
Orders Rome to introduce legal recognition for unions
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, July 21 — The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Italy for failing to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples, and said the State must remedy that with new legislative measures.
The Strasbourg judges denounced Italy for violating the rights of three same-sex couples by not recognizing their unions, and thus failing to respect their legal and human rights.
“The legal protection currently available in Italy to same-sex couples…not only failed to provide for the core needs relevant to a couple in a stable and committed relationship, but it was also not sufficiently reliable,” the human rights court said in its ruling.
The court also ordered the State to pay damages of 5,000 euros to each of the three gay couples who brought the case against Italy to Strasbourg.
Premier Matteo Renzi has said his government would introduce laws on same-sex unions this year.
In February, Italy’s highest appeals court rejected same-sex marriage, saying there was nothing in the Constitution that requires the government to extend marriage rights to gays.
However, the Cassation Court added then that homosexuals have the right to a “protective” law that would ensure same-sex couples have the same rights as unmarried Italian couples.
Neither same-sex marriage nor civil unions between same-sex partners are legally recognized in Italy but some cities, including Rome, have a civil union register.
The three couples in the case have been together for years, living in Trento, Milan and Lissone, and all had asked their municipalities to recognize their marriages.
The European Parliament in March called on EU member States that have not already done so, to recognise civil unions and same-sex marriage as a civil and human right.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ashley Madison Hackers Blackmail Cheating Spouses With Threat to Release Names
Cheating spouses today rushed to delete their profiles on a dating website for adulterers as hackers threatened to expose their infidelity by posting their sexual fantasies and naked pictures online.
The Ashley Madison website promises its 37million members worldwide — including 1.2million in the UK — complete ‘anonymity’ and has the motto: ‘Life is short. Have an affair.’
Hacking group the ‘Impact Team’ claim they have stolen their details and will publish all names, addresses, credit card details and sexual demands unless it is shut down.
Ashley Madison has today waived its £15 ($19) fee to delete profiles as experts claimed the profiles would probably be sold on ‘to the highest bidder’.
The Impact Team say the website wrecks marriages and have told owners they will start publishing intimate details about users unless the site, known as the ‘Google of cheating’, is closed.
Two men — one American and one Canadian — have already been outed to prove their hack was successful.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lasers Could Blast Tiny Spacecraft to the Stars
Traveling to other star systems is a big dream, but achieving it may require going ultrasmall.
Blasting tiny, waferlike sailing spacecraft with powerful lasers could slash interstellar flight times from thousands of years to mere decades, one researcher says.
Human excursions to the stars are cursed by math. To get there in any reasonable amount of time, spacecraft must go incredibly fast — but fast travel requires carrying more propellant. That required amount of propellant, whether rocket fuel, a source for nuclear fusion or even antimatter, would make it more and more difficult for the ship to accelerate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jens Stoltenberg, General Secretary of NATO, to be present at Utøya Labor Youth camp in August 2015.
Theconservativetreehouse.com
has a great article linking Chattanooga shooter to the Muslim brotherhood.
Concerning the Feminist article about not letting your wife sleep with other men, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a man who wrote that. A sock puppeting post wall cat lady who’s bitter that she can’t even pay men to ride the carousel anymore is the most likely culprit. There’s a lot of little tells in there, but regardless of those, I can almost hear her screaming ego basting creed in some futile attempt for others…err…men to pay attention to her once again. Such creatures are to be ignored or ridiculed mercilessly. The best part is, she’ll have had no children, and will bleat her genetic irrelevancy from here to her death like so many of her kind will do. The future belongs to those who show up for it after all, and hilariously, her kind won’t.