Two men have been arrested on suspicion of shooting to death another man in the southern Swedish city of Malmö. Meanwhile, police armed with automatic weapons have been posted in front of the police station in the Rosengård neighborhood of Malmö.
In other news, a Muslim student at the University of Central Florida announced her intention to get another student expelled for declining to wear a hijab on World Hijab Day.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Charles Low, Fjordman, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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.
Roubini Says Bitcoin is the ‘Biggest Bubble in Human History’
“Dr. Doom” isn’t mincing his words when it comes to the crypto boom and bust.
Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Macro Associates said Bitcoin is the “biggest bubble in human history” and this “mother of all bubbles” is finally crashing, in an interview with Tom Keene and Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg Television. Bitcoin dropped below $8,000 Friday, a 60 percent tumble from its peak of $19,511 on Dec. 18.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Nation Divided Against Itself Will Not Stand
Jesus clearly stated in Matthew 12:25, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” We are seeing that illustrated this week with the disclosing of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) memo. It reveals the criminal activities of the previous administration in collusion with Hillary in the election of 2016.
The DNC paid for liars to develop a fake dossier that supposedly proved collusion between candidate Trump and the Russians. This fake dossier was then used with the DOJ, FBI and NSA to illegally spy on candidate Trump and all his campaign staff with the full knowledge of Hillary and unwavering backing of Obama. What has been done in weaponizing the DOJ, FBI and NSA in a political campaign is criminal. And there is a long list of criminals involved in these nefarious deeds.
Even the accusation that the Russians hacked into the DNC computers and leaked files to Wikileaks has also proven false. Instead it was their own man, Seth Rich, who had easy access to DNC files, downloaded them and then gave them to Wikileaks. You see how he was rewarded by those upset with his deeds: another corpse to the stack.
But sadly the criminal behavior did not end on November 8, 2016. In fact, it was ramped up to prevent the President elect from ever taking his oath of office on January 20th, 2017. At the FBI it was called “an insurance policy” — insuring that Trump would never take office.
Now a year later this FISA memo reveals all the criminality that came together as an attempted palace coup in which the duly elected President of the United States would not take office at all. It failed, but it didn’t end there. Once inaugurated, President Trump’s administration has been continually sabotaged by those same criminal Deep State operatives in many Departments and at many levels of his administration. It is a civil war within Washington, D.C. Two groups fighting for control over the government, one duly elected, the other criminal, and complicate in many crimes that are an attempted palace coup.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Amtrak, CSX Train Collision in South Carolina Leaves 2 Dead, Over 100 Injured, Officials Say
Two Amtrak personnel were killed and over 100 others were injured when an Amtrak passenger train collided with a parked CSX freight train early Sunday just outside the capital of South Carolina, officials said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Assange: Twitter Bots Boosting McCanin Attacks on FISA Memo Release, Trump
U.S. Sen. John McCain gets a lot of love on social media, but it’s fake and intended to attack President Trump, according to Julian Assange.
The WikiLeaks founder noted on Twitter today that bots are supporting the Trump critic and darling of Democrats.
Assange posted screen captures of several of examples of what he calls bot activity.
They show several accounts tweeting the same article, titled “John McCain just made a startling public accusation against Trump amid phony Nunes memo release,” at exactly the same time.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chaos Outside Super Bowl as Protestors Block Trains
MINNEAPOLIS — Police arrested 17 activists who blocked a light-rail line carrying Super Bowl ticketholders to U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday in a protest against police brutality and privileges enjoyed by wealthy visitors that shut down trains for more than two hours.
Live video from the scene showed officers unlocking or cutting through locks the protesters had used to chain themselves to each other and to fencing at the West Bank Station on Metro Transit’s Green Line. The handcuffed protesters were loaded onto a waiting bus. Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla said officials didn’t expect the 17 activists to face charges. Metro Transit respects people’s right to free speech and demonstration, he said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Chicago Police Teaming up With Feds Once More to Fight Shocking Rise in Violent Carjackings
Chicago cops are calling in the feds — again — to help combat violent carjackings that have reached record levels in the city.
Police announced at a news conference Sunday that they are teaming up with federal authorities, including agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to deal with the problem.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats Cheer Republican Train Crash
A train carrying members of the GOP congress to a Republican retreat in West Virginia yesterday (Wednesday) smashed into a garbage truck that was on the tracks at a crossing.
Several GOP congressmen and their aides were injured and the driver of the garbage truck was killed
Democrat CNN writer and talking head Jonathan Tasini delightfully wrote on Twitter that this was the result of God getting rid of his political opponents, say they. “The accident was a form of divine intervention aimed at ‘cleaning up Washington, D.C.” He went on to say that “God is working hard today to clean up the stink’ because a ‘train full of Goopers slammed into a dump truck.”
Tasini was an avid supporter of Socialist (Communist) Bernie Sanders, who refused to stand with those on the senate floor during the SOTU address when a statement about the American Flag was spoken by President Donald Trump resulting a burst of applause bringing the audience to its feet.
Bernie Sanders with a sour face remained sitting defiantly. No surprise as Commie Bernie took his wife to Russia for their honeymoon.
At another point in President Trump’s speech, the audience began shouting, “USA, USA USA” That was too much for Democrat Representative Louis Gutierrez who jumped out of his seat, into the aisle and dramatically stalked out of the chambers.The dem-wits hate the USA.
Other Democrats mocked the train wreck by stating this was “Karma” coming back to bite the Republicans in the butt. But how about the garbage truck driver who died when his truck was smashed to pieces?
Even Stephen King, the horror book author jumped on the Karma train to say the wreck which tossed about GOP members was payback. It is time to boycott his sick books. Yes sick. A depraved mind would have been necessary to create his books. And King looks like one of the horror characters in those books.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nick Foles threw the go-ahead 5-yard touchdown pass to Zach Ertz with 2:21 to go and the Philadelphia Eagles won their first Super Bowl by outscoring Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 41-33 on Sunday night.
The most prolific playoff game in terms of combined yardage in NFL history was then decided on a defensive play when Brandon Graham stripped Tom Brady and rookie Derek Barnett recovered with 2:09 to play to set up a field goal by Jake Elliott and prevent another late Super Bowl comeback by the Patriots.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
FISA Memo Made Public, Here is What Democrats Didn’t Want American People to See
In all, the four-page memo lists five major points and several parts of each of those points. All of the material in the memo relates — either directly or indirectly — to the surveillance of Carter Page. Page is an oil industry consultant who was a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. He was targeted by the FBI and DOJ for surveillance by both the FBI and DOJ.
The memo — based on intelligence which is not publicly available, but is referenced in general terms in the memo — shows that the “FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC” and that in spite of legal obligations to “include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government” and the fact that the FBI and DOJ “had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts,” the government “omitted” certain “material and relevant information.”
So, the FBI and DOJ, in an effort to gain FISA court approval to conduct surveillance on a U.S. citizen, presented incomplete information to the court — abusing the FISA process.
But do those omissions rise to the level of being “explosive,” “shocking,” “troubling,” and “alarming” and showing actions on the part of FBI and DOJ officials as being similar to those of the Soviet KGB?
In a word, yes.
The first point listed in the committee’s findings is related to the now-discredited “dossier” alleging that Trump was both the victim of blackmail by Russian agents and the recipient of Russian assistance in his electoral contest with Hillary Clinton. The memo points out that the “dossier” was compiled by Christopher Steele, who was paid more than $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign “to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.” It further states, “Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials.”
No connections between those involved in the creation (perhaps “manufacture” would be a better word) of the “dossier” and the DNC/Clinton campaign were revealed to the court as part of the application process. The reason for that is apparent: That information would have been counterproductive to the argument put forward by the FBI and DOJ. After all, since the case for surveillance was built on the “dossier,” it would be considerably weakened if the court had known that the document was bought and paid for by Trump’s enemies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
With today’s release of the so-called FISA memo, many within the government and media have been quick to attack not only the contents of said memo but also the very idea of transparency in deciding to release it to the public in the first place.
— From James Comey pathetically claiming it was a nothingburger when it exposed his direct corruption, to the likes of CNN who have run continuous coverage attacking the president and Republicans for releasing the memo rather than actually focusing on its contents, it is clear that the deep state apparatus is running scared.
Now, globalist traitor and public anti-Trump critic John McCain has weighed in on the memo’s release, predictably attacking the idea of transparency while once again bringing up the laughable excuse that releasing it somehow helps the Russians.
That’s right, in John McCain’s sick mind, exposing widespread (and possibly illegal) corruption within the FBI and the DOJ is a terrible thing because it magically helps Putin.
Not only is McCain using the tired excuse that doing something that hurts the deep state in turn helps Russia, the globalist puppet is also directly shilling for Robert Mueller despite his obvious bias and anti-Trump sentiment.
While we already know McCain to be a globalist insider, he may actually have another reason for blaming Russia as he was the man who actually passed the Trump disinformation dossier to the FBI itself!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hawaii Emergency Worker Who Triggered False Alarm Fired
The Federal Communications Commission said on January 31 that the false ballistic missile alert sent throughout Hawaii on January 13 occurred when the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) worker in charge of alerts believed there “was a real emergency, not a drill.”
The employee believed that a ballistic missile had actually been fired at the state.
The New American reported back on January 16 that Hawaiians received on their cell phones and electronic devices a terrifying text message: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” Loudspeakers began to issue warnings. A bright red caption was superimposed across the top of television screens warning people to seek shelter — interspersed with the ominous message, “This is not a drill.” The islands were in a near state of panic.
A report in the January 30 Washington Post reported that the employee who sent out the false alert, who has not been publicly identified, was fired last week. State officials said his name will be released when any disciplinary appeals are complete.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘How Dare You!’: Judge Jeanine Slams Top FBI, DOJ Officials Who ‘Conspired’ Against Trump
Judge Jeanine Pirro said the Republican memo on purported government surveillance abuses reveals a conspiracy against President Donald Trump.
“Members of the highest echelon in our FBI and Department of Justice conspired to prevent an outsider from breaking the establishment’s stranglehold on the American people,” Judge Jeanine said in her opening statement Saturday night.
She explained that officials at the FBI and Justice Department used the unverified anti-Trump dossier to secure surveillance warrants on at least one member of the Trump campaign, according to the memo.
“They needed a reason to spy, so they made one up,” Judge Jeanine said. “They swore to facts they knew were lies to get what they wanted, in order to surveil a candidate they could not imagine being president. A cabal of arrogant, condescending employees of our government — whose salaries we pay — thought that we didn’t count.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In a Surprise Move, DOJ Asks Judge to Dismiss All Charges Against NJ Senator Menendez
Menendez has dodged similar bullets over his corrupt behavior in the past. Corruption aggregator DiscoverTheNetworks.org, in its six-page single-spaced summary of Menendez’s long history of graft, included these two:
In 2010 the Wall Street Journal reported that Menendez had written to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, asking him to approve the Crown Bank of Brick’s acquisition of the failing New Jersey-based First Bank Americano (FBA), whose chairman and vice chairman were both major Menendez donors. (That acquisition, had it been approved, would have prevented the two executives from losing whatever was left of their investments in the bank.) All told, 8 of FBA’s 15 directors had given money to Menendez or his political action committee. Former federal bank regulator William Black, a Democrat, called Menendez’s letter “grotesquely inappropriate” insofar as it directly asked regulators to approve an application, rather than to simply place it under consideration. A scathing FDIC report indicated that FBA had engaged in numerous unsafe or unsound banking practices over the years, and the acquisition ultimately was disallowed.
In December 2012 it was reported that one of the interns working in Senator Menendez’s office was an 18-year-old immigrant from Peru who was living in the U.S. illegally and was a registered sex offender. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency first became aware of the man in October 2012, but the Department of Homeland Security instructed federal agents not to arrest him until after the November elections; Menendez, whose six-year Senate term was drawing to a close, was among those on the ballot. When news of the intern’s background finally broke five weeks after Election Day, Menendez denied having known anything about the directive to delay the young man’s arrest.
Wednesday’s dismissal leaves Menendez free to run for reelection in November. Loyal supporters, ignoring both his corruption and his unconstitutional voting record, have poured nearly $6 million into his reelection campaign. Only the ethics inquiry now under way stands between him and another six years of corruption and treason to the United States by the senior senator from New Jersey.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In the Memo Release Aftermath, Where is Barack Hussein Obama?
It wasn’t the Russians who stole the 2016 election, but Barack Obama and his handpicked replacement Hillary Clinton who tried, but (thank God) so abysmally failed
Barely noticeable down there at the foggy bottom of the shocking FISA memo, the unabashed admission of British spy Christopher Steele that he “HATED” Donald Trump and didn’t want to see him elected as president.
We don’t know why the discredited Steele hates Trump, he just does.
Trump, after all was running as president of the USA, not as the prime minister of Britain and would have little impact on the hate-for-the-sake-of-hate crowd anywhere offshore.
Why would the FBI hire someone who was coming on as the 21st Century Resurrection of King George III to do in Candidate Trump with a dirty dossier?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Largest Super Bowl Security Operation in History
Four layers of aircraft in the sky including armed F-16 jets will be part of the largest security operation in the history of Super Bowl when it kicks off this Sunday.
Black Hawk helicopters and jet fighters will be circling above the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to force down any aircraft that enters the 30 nautical mile no-fly zone.
Helicopters equipped with infrared cameras will be in the air and there will be tens of thousands of police and FBI agents on the ground.
According to the event organizers they want the streets around the stadium to be the ‘most secure area in the world’ on the day of the Super Bowl.
Due to the risk of a terrorist attack, the Department of Homeland Security has given the Super Bowl a Level 1 ‘special event assessment rating’, the highest security designation available.
This year the FBI is on particular alert because of the number of terrorism cases in Minneapolis.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Memo Confirms Everything Democrats Tried to Suppress
The official House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence memo about intelligence surveillance abuses perpetrated during the 2016 election cycle finally came out today. It confirms the terrible things we’ve been hearing about the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Justice. The Left tried to use the power of government to rig a presidential election, and then when that failed, to frame Donald Trump for an offense he did not commit.
The memo is devastating. It shows how corrupt and downright evil many players in the nation’s capital are. No wonder Democrats shrieked so loudly in protest of the memo’s release: it indicts them. (Full memo here.)
So many people need to be fired, sued, imprisoned, or disbarred. Too bad tarring and feathering isn’t practiced anymore; it worked wonders for the Founders.
All of these unethical things — some of which are crimes — could never have been done without the personal knowledge and consent of President Obama. Obama is a Marxist and an Islamophile. He doesn’t care about democracy. He cares only about winning. If people get hurt or killed in the process, Obama is fine with that. The man even stayed behind in Washington after leaving the presidency in order to fight President Trump’s efforts to undo his destructive legacy.
The newly declassified four-page memo, compiled by HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), was based on classified information supplied by the FBI and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Justice. The two organizations coughed up the documents only after Nunes threatened contempt of Congress citations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Wants Student Expelled Over Hijab
A Muslim student tried to get another student expelled Thursday, which was World Hijab Day, after the second student refused to wear a hijab.
A Muslim student at the University of Central Florida said that she invited fellow student Kathy Zhu to try on a hijab, reported Twitchy. After Zhu declined her offer, the Muslim student, identified by Zhu to The Daily Caller News Foundation as UCF health sciences student Rayyan Sukkarieh, took to Twitter, posting “let’s get this girl expelled.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The State of the Democrat Party, Part 1
I have never written a column on a State of the Union address but the address given last night needs to be addressed as to the reaction of the Democrat Party. There has always been SOTU addresses where the party in power will have many standing ovations for their party leader, but the opposing party will remain seated. This I understand however, when points are brought out that America is, again, prosperous and regaining our rightful place as the leader of the free world, this should bring applause from both sides of the isle. But the hatred for Donald Trump is so deep that there was nothing but silence from Democrats for most of the evening. This only further confirmed that the Democrat Party is NOT for America but only for their political agenda.
Leading up to the SOTU there was a government shutdown led by Chuck Schumer not because he didn’t like the spending bill. He actually like the bill a was going to vote for it but he was more concerned about the welfare of illegals than for the American people. In an email from Allen West we see his comments on the shutdown: When Chuck Schumer and the radical left-wing political elites choose to shut down the government to defend illegal immigrants, I can only say that the State of our Union is sad.
I’m sure Chuck Schumer and his left-wing allies in the Senate gave themselves a big pat on the back for their efforts — because they don’t care about the true consequences of s government shut down.
Aside from the obvious — that it makes us look stupid and weak to foes and friends alike — their political games place politics ahead of country.
Imagine if you’re the guy sitting in a fox hole in Afghanistan and you’re told the government is shut down because some New York liberal wants more illegal immigrants in the country…
The depths of hatred the Democrats showed was no more evident than when Trump honored the parents of parents of two girls murdered by an MS13 gang: President Trump invited Elizabeth Alvarado, Robert Mickens, Evelyn Rodriguez, and Freddy Cuevas to his State of the Union Address. They are the parents of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, who had been close friends since elementary school, but in September 2016, the two girls were chased down and brutally murdered by MS-13.
On Tuesday night when the President honored the parents of Kayla and Nisa at the SOTU the Democrats booed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Uma Thurman Breaks Silence on Weinstein Attack
Actress Uma Thurman has detailed long hinted-at allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Father Lunges at Child Molester in Court for Abusing Daughters
‘Grant me 5 minutes in a locked room with this demon!’ father says at sentencing for disgraced Olympic doctor
Larry Nassar, a former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics national team doctor who abused more than 150 girls and women during his career, was rushed by Randall Margraves during sentencing in Michigan.
Margraves, who had just finished listening to two of his daughters address the court, began asking the judge for “5 minutes in a locked room” with Nassar moments before the incident began.
“I would ask you to as part of the sentencing to grant me 5 minutes in a locked room with this demon!” Margraves asked the judge.
After being denied his request, Margraves continued by asking instead for “1 minute” alone with the disgraced physician.
The distraught father then ran towards the former doctor before being blocked by Nassar’s attorney and tackled by numerous deputies.
While being restrained on the ground, Margraves was heard repeatedly pleading with the court.
“Give me one minute with that bastard!” the father said while being handcuffed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Vancouver Men Convicted of Human Trafficking and Pimping
Two Vancouver men have been convicted of multiple counts of human trafficking and pimping-related offences involving their exploitation of three young women, one of them an underage girl.
Tamim Albashir, 26, and Kasra Mohsenipour, 25, were found guilty of 17 of 19 charges in connection with offences committed against the victims in Vancouver, Coquitlam and Edmonton. The crimes occurred from May 2013 to April 2016.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Hasidic Jew, Son Narrowly Escape Suspected Car Ramming in Antwerp
Antwerp — Police in Belgium arrested a man who is suspected of trying to ram with his car an Orthodox man and a child on a street in Antwerp.
The incident Saturday morning was filmed by security cameras. It shows a black Seat Ibiza car swerving sharply while speeding on Isabellalei, a central street in Antwerp, toward the alleged victim and a boy, who is the man’s son, according to the Antwerp-based Joods Actueel Jewish monthly.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Brexit: Germany Will be Ruined After UK Exit From EU Due to Lack of Funding
BREXIT is threatening EU funded projects in Germany as budgets could shrink after the UK stops budget contributions when it leaves the bloc in March 2019, it has been revealed.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Europe: Judeo-Christian Symbols Vanish, Islam Rises
French writers coined the term “le grand remplacement,” meaning the demographic replacement by immigrants of native Europeans. There is, however, another replacement taking place on the old continent.
Look at the images taken by the Israeli-Hungarian photographer Bernadett Alpern. Synagogues — like silent witnesses of the fall of a fundamental branch of the European civilization — have been turned into museums, swimming pools, shopping centers, police stations and mosques.
Now it is the turn of the Stars of David and skullcaps, the two most visible Jewish symbols. A poll by the World Zionist Organization recently revealed that at least half of Jews in Europe do not feel safe wearing symbols of their faith. They are right. A few days ago, an 8-year-old Jewish boy wearing a skullcap was attacked and beaten in the street by two men in Sarcelles. Earlier in January, in the same suburb, a man slashed the face of a 15-year-old Jewish girl who was walking home while wearing the uniform of her Jewish school. It is the “new normal” for French Jews.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Muslim Accused of Killing Jewish Women No Longer Charged With Hate Crime
A judge in Paris scrapped hate crime charges from the indictment of a murder suspect who confessed to killing his Jewish neighbor.
The move came amid a rise in reported violent anti-Semitic attacks in France.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Man in Wheelchair Injured After “Southern Looking Men” Drag Him Through the Street
A 37-year-old man in a wheelchair was injured during a robbery attempt in Frankfurt, Germany. The man, called Mario Zivkovic, was dragged out of his wheelchair and was hurt on his hands and knees.
According to Zivkovic the man tried to steal his bag: “He pulled really hard, so that I fell on my side from the wheel chair. That’s how I hurt both my knees, because he kept pulling me. I was already on the floor, and he dragged me a couple of meters, and I didn’t let go of the bag.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Macedonia: Name Dispute Draws Mass Protest in Athens
At least 140,000 Greeks have taken to the streets of Athens in a protest about the decades-long dispute over the name Macedonia. Many Greeks object to the country of the same name calling itself Macedonia, saying it implies a territorial claim on Greece’s northern Macedonia region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Shooter Motivated by ‘Racial Hatred’: Minister
A shaven-headed far-right supporter suspected of wounding six Africans Saturday in brazen drive-by shootings in central Italy was arrested, as the country’s interior minister said “racial hatred” had prompted the attack.
After the morning assault in the town of Macerata, the suspect got out of his car, allegedly made a fascist salute with a tricolour Italian flag draped over his shoulders and shouted “Viva Italia”, or “Long Live Italy”, and “Italy for Italians,” media reports said.
The wounded included five men and one woman from Ghana, Mali and Nigeria, the Agi news agency said. It came a day after a Nigerian man was arrested in the town over the gruesome murder of a teenage Italian girl.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nuclear Weapons: Germany’s Sigmar Gabriel Calls on Europe to Lead Disarmament Push
Berlin’s top diplomat has joined Russia, Iran and China in condemning the Trump adminstration’s plans to expand its nuclear capabilities. He warned that “the spiral of a new nuclear arms race is already underway.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Salah Abdeslam: Paris Attacks Suspect to Go on Trial in Belgium
The sole surviving suspect from the 2015 Paris terror attacks is due to go on trial amid tight security in Belgium.
Salah Abdeslam was captured in Brussels four months after the attacks.
The charges he faces are not related to events in Paris but to a gun battle with police while on the run in Belgium.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish PM Calls on Catalan Separatists to Nominate New Leadership Candidate
Catalan separatists should abandon Carles Puigdemont as their candidate for the regional presidency to put an end to political paralysis in the region, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Sunday.
Speaking in Córdoba, Rajoy said the former Catalan president — who has spent the past few months in Belgium and faces arrest in Spain on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds over his role in Catalonia’s independence referendum — should step aside for someone “who sees things differently,” according to El Pais.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Armed Officers Posted Outside Malmö Police Stations
Officers armed with Heckler & Koch MP5 machine guns have been stationed outside two police stations in Malmö in a move intended to ward off “vengeance attacks” from criminals.
The protective measure was put in place on Saturday night outside police stations in the troubled district of Rosengård, where an explosive device was detonated last night, and in Sällerupsvägen, where a police car was blown up in December.
Rosengård, in southern Malmö, is one of 61 areas across Sweden considered to be ‘vulnerable’, and defined as “a geographically defined area characterized by a low socio-economic status where criminals have an impact on the local community”.
On December 29th a police car parked outside a police station in central Malmö was damaged in an explosion. A 22-year-old man apprehended shortly after the incident remains in custody.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Two Held After Man Shot Dead in Malmö
A 30-year-old man was shot dead in Malmö early on Friday evening, as a wave of gun-crime continues to rock the city.
The shooting took place shortly before 8pm outside an apartment building in Hermodsdal, on the city’s southern suburbs. Police have seized two men, one aged around 50 and the other in his early 30s, on suspicion of carrying out the attack.
According to the local Sydsvenskan newspaper the victim was known to be active in local criminal gangs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Stopped Monitoring Stockholm Car-Rammer Less Than Three Months Before Massacre
Police stopped surveillance of Rakhmat Akilov less than three months before he ploughed his car into pedestrians in Stockholm killing five, according to local media. Akilov was already planning the massacre at that time.
The Swedish Security Service (Säpo) started monitoring Akilov, a construction worker from Uzbekistan, on August 31st 2016 after receiving a tip that he might present a risk. However, the surveillance was dropped five months later — January 31st 2017. The pre-trial hearing revealed that Akilov had started preparations for the vehicle-ramming attack on January 16, 2017.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Corsican Nationalists March Ahead of Macron Visit
Thousands of Corsican nationalists marched on Saturday demanding greater freedoms for the French island, three days ahead of a visit by President Emmanuel Macron.
The march opened with young girls wearing Corsican flag’s over their shoulders, as the crowd chanted “long live the independence struggle” and “killer French state”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: First ‘Private Police Force’ Has Caught 400 Criminals
The country’s first ‘private police force’ is investigating hundreds of crimes that regular officers are too busy to look at.
A firm led by former Scotland Yard senior officers has successfully prosecuted more than 400 criminals and is now carrying out murder inquiries.
TM Eye, which has a 100 per cent conviction rate, is thought to bring more private prosecutions than any organisation besides the RSPCA.
The company, the country’s first de-facto private police force, is operating against a backdrop of rising crime rates and police budget cuts
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Students’ Union Campaign ‘Has Become Vehicle for Extremist Interests’ Warns Think Tank
A National Union for Students (NUS) campaign to abolish the government’s anti-extremism programme has become a “vehicle” for Islamic extremist interests, according to a leading think tank.
Students Not Suspects, which became an NUS official policy in 2015, has hosted extremist speakers who have links to Islamic fundamentalists such as CAGE, MEND, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), and Friends of al-Aqsa, according to the report published Wednesday by the counter-extremism think tank The Henry Jackson Society.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Will the BBC Go Back to Ignoring Grooming Gangs?
by Douglas Murray
For the best part of a decade the BBC — like most other mainstream media — chose to ignore the issue of the northern Muslim grooming gangs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
In Kosovo, A Peace Built on Separation
That long history shaped his views and the views of many still living in Mitrovica. As a descendant of Milutin and Lazar, the monk gave voice to the Serb sense of persecution.
“First we were forced to live under the Turks,” he said. “Now it is under the Albanians and the Americans.”
But Serbs remember, he said. And he was hopeful that the Serbs would restore their medieval dominion over Kosovo once again.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Time for the US to Walk Away From the PLO
On Tuesday in Bethlehem, the Palestinians demonstrated the choice the Americans now face in their dealings with Fatah — the supposedly moderate PLO faction that controls the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. President Donald Trump and his advisers can play by Fatah’s rules or they can walk away.
On Tuesday a delegation of diplomats from the US Consulate in Jerusalem came to Bethlehem to participate in a meeting of the local chamber of commerce. When they arrived in the city, Fatah members attacked them. Their vehicles with diplomatic license plates were pelted with tomatoes and eggs by a mob of protesters calling out anti-American slogans.
After the Americans entered the hall where the meeting was scheduled to take place, some of the rioters barged in. They held placards condemning America and they shouted, “Americans Out!”
Some of the demonstrators cursed the Palestinians present, accusing them of treason for participating in a meeting with Americans. According to the news reports, the scene became tense and violent. The American officials beat a speedy retreat. As they departed the city, the Fatah rioters continued attacking their cars, kicking them and throwing eggs at them, until they were gone.
The attack on Tuesday was a natural progression.
On Saturday, Fatah members in Bethlehem-area UN camps convened to carry out a very public “people’s tribunal.” Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were tried for “racism” and “bias” against the Palestinians.
The “tribunal” found them guilty and sentenced the president and vice president to death by hanging. Their bodies, the “judges” decided, were to be burned…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Soros Denies He is Behind Anti-Deportation Protests
American Jewish billionaire George Soros denied accusations by Prime Minister Netanyahu blaming him for financing protests against Israel’s planned deportation of African migrants.
Israel has been subjected to an increasingly vocal campaign urging the government to scuttle its plan to deport illegal African infiltrators. Under the plan, some 40,000 infiltrators who entered Israel illegally, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, will have until the end of March to leave voluntarily with compensation.Anyone still in the country after that date will be arrested and deported without compensation.
However, many left-wing public figures argued that the infiltrators should be allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds, arguing that Israel is effectively sending them to their deaths by transferring them to a third country. In an open letter last month, 36 Holocaust survivors called on the government to refrain from implementing the plan and likened the infiltrators to Jews who were refused asylum when attempting escape from the Nazis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Imam Drouiche: Raping Christians and Yazidis Cannot be Considered an Islamic Right
According to Suad Salih, a professor at al Azhar University, possession of an enemy’s wives for one’s own pleasure during the war is lawful and authorised by Islam. According to Daesh’s lawyers, selling, buying and offering female slaves, even girls, is allowed in Islam. Why justify such savage crimes against human beings just because they are not Muslims? Profound change is needed.
Nimes (AsiaNews) — Now that reign of Daesh (Islamic State) seems to have collapsed, there are still reports of violence by militias against women, boys and girls, Christians and Yazidis, kept as sexual objects for a long time, slaves to sell and buy. In the past, AsiaNews presented some of these chilling stories from Iraq and Syria.
The end of Daesh does not mean the end of these attacks on the dignity of women and children. In the Islamic world there are institutions, imams, and even universities like the Azhar, the most authoritative Muslim cultural centre, that still teach that, legally, non-Muslim women, girls and children are “war booty”, usable as objects of pleasure and as a bargaining chip.
For Hocine Drouiche, vice president of the Conference of Imams of France and imam of Nimes, it is time to change Islamic law and cleanse Islamic teachings of anything that goes against human dignity and international law. This step is urgent to prevent further genocides against non-Muslim minorities and facilitate coexistence between social and religious communities in the future. Here we present the first part (of three) of his study on the topic.
In most Islamic countries, we sometimes see a confusion between religious law and positive law or their rapprochement. Indeed, life in society shapes the law in a way that is both necessary and sufficient. However, legal rules are not the only regulator of human behaviour. “Asserting its specificity unfolds in two phases”.
In archaic (ancient or medieval) or very religious societies, the two sets of rules are not distinct: religious precepts operate as civil law. On the contrary, in other States, the law is both distinct from religion and inspired by it. Consequently, there is a duality of rules, which can be overlapping or contradictory.
Their aims can also diverge. Religion seeks to perfect individuals, whilst the law is first of all intended to enforce a certain collective order. Similarly, their sanctions differ. Religious rules are sanctioned only by God, whilst respect for the law is part of the mission of public authorities. In addition, religion claims to govern both thoughts and actions; the law instead only concerns behaviour.
A comparative study of the rules of Islamic and international humanitarian law shows many points of convergence both in terms of The Hague (International Criminal Court) and Geneva (UN Convention on Human Rights).
In the past, these ambiguities clearly prevented a clear and strong response from Muslims against the attacks and atrocities of Daesh and al-Qaeda.
Al Azhar’s teachings
Suad Salih is a well-known female face in the School of Theology at Al-Azhar mosque, well known in Egypt and the Muslim world. She stated that Muslims have the right to have their enemy’s wives for their own pleasure during war because this is lawful and authorised in Islam!
Even if it is authorised and covered by religion or Sharia, there is only one clear way to describe this as “recommended legalised rape”. Would this professor have said the same, if Muslim women were raped by the enemies of Muslims? Surely, Muslims would have stood up, spoken out loud, and protested against such a thing, calling it a violation of human rights. No one can allow the values of human rights to be used only one way, and not consider them when Muslims commit such horrors.
Islam suffers from a serious legal vacuum on rape because it considers every extra-marital relationship as adultery without asking whether or not such a relationship is consenting, or committed by force against and compulsion of women. However, forced sexual relationship is rape even if it takes place in a married couple.
When I heard Suad Salih, I remembered the testimony of a courageous Iraqi Yazid woman, Nadia Taha, who was kidnapped by Daesh along with 150 Yazidi women. In front of the Security Council, she recounted the horror and cruelty of Daesh.
When a sex market was set up in Mosul, a sexual slavery exchange was created to separate young girls from their parents and their families to sell to monsters. The source for this could be found in the books published by Al Azhar and all the Islamic universities, containing justifications and other inhuman religious dictates that authorise the rape of women, girls and even children because they are not Muslims!
These books are part of the official curricula of universities and centres that train imams in almost all Muslim countries, even though all these countries have signed the Geneva agreements on conflicts and the various UN conventions relating to conflict situations.
Nadia described how she begged her kidnappers to be raped by a smaller man because she had been handed over to a tall and huge man who terrified her! She was raped before being passed on to another friend because the slave loses his or her humanity and becomes an object possessed like a car, a dog or a toy. It is time to burn these books that teach young Muslims about cruelty, slavery and the rape of women.
In the book Al-Ikhtiyar in Hanafi Law, on page 338, Al Musili writes as follows: “If the caliph takes a country or a city by force, he can divide it and offer it to his soldiers, and he can let non-Muslim residents live on the condition that they pay the jizia (tax), or they can kill them and take the women and children as slaves”.
This book is still in the study programme of the great Islamic university of al Azhar in Cairo.
Abu Ishaq Al Huwayni, a reference on Islam in the Arab-Muslim world who claims to fight Daesh’s doctrine clearly says: “Muslims are poor because they have abandoned the Jihad. If we do it against neighbouring non-Muslim countries, they will convert to Islam and if they refuse, we will take them as slaves. Unbelievers are people who do not deserve to live. If they reject Islam, they must be killed or made slaves! This is a gift that God gives to the Muslims!”
The most surprising thing is that Suad Salih, who supports sexual slavery and the rape of Jews, Christians, Yazidis, etc. … is considered the most moderate example in Egypt and in the Arab-Muslim world!
Not only Daesh
Is it really possible in this case to blame Daesh, since all these fatwas are circulated, taught and repeated, including at an official level, in all Islamic universities in the Muslim world?
In its online journal titled Dabiq, Daesh lawyers answered a question from someone who asked asked them if the sexual slavery of girls, including children, was authorised in Islam. The answer was: “In Islam, you are allowed to sell, buy or offer female slaves. You can have a relationship with a 10- or 11-year-old girl if she is able to sustain a sexual relationship! On the other hand, if she is still ‘too young’, you can obtain pleasure from her without penetrating her!”
These statements are not an invention of Daesh. Any imam, scholar or theologian who has studied Islam has learnt about these serious atrocities. At present, no teacher can criticise or oppose these inhuman words and opinions deemed “divine and sacred” because he would be immediately isolated among Islamic jurists.
Al Azhar, Islamic universities and centres that train imams are certainly all deaf or have not heard of the existence of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Geneva conventions that protect prisoners of war, define sexual violence against women as a crime against humanity under to international law, and dictate the rules of conduct to be adopted in times of armed conflict, including the protection of civilians, women, members of humanitarian organisations, the wounded and prisoners of war.
The Muslim states that ratified these Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, the two protocols of 1977 and the third additional protocols of 2005 continue to implement school programmes that authorise slavery and sexual slavery during armed conflicts.
Suad Salih, like most of the Muslim elite, believes that Sharia should be above the rules of human, international, humanist and universal law.
Up to now, no one knows the exact definition of the Sharia that includes the Quranic verses, the hadiths and the millions of religious dictates that are often contradictory and not compatible with international humanitarian law.
Physical sanctions such as hand cutting and stoning and sexual slavery are often the most shocking and visible aspects found in sharia. They are in contradiction with the universal values of human rights that most Muslim countries have adopted.
Why are such savage crimes against human beings justified simply because the latter are not Muslims? Why do we continue to despise non-Muslims, considering Muslims to be the nation elected by God, and other human beings, non-Muslims, as cursed by God?
Al Zuhaili in his book “Islamic law and its foundations” justifies slavery with the principle of reciprocity. He says: “Islam could not forbid slavery (including that of women) because it was necessary for the social and economic system of that era. Muslims have been forced to use the same system to respond to their enemies” (Volume 8, page 5,916).
Up to now, no imam or theologian has had the courage to say that Daesh cannot claim for itself the Islamic religion, that they are simply not Muslims.
Muslim terrorism, including slavery and sexual slavery, will vanish after the burning of all those books that teach Muslims, young and old, as well as imams such cruelties and barbarities. Otherwise these universities and religious centres will continue to create different brands of Daesh, Al-Qaida, Aqpa, Aqmi, Boko Haram, Shabab, al-Nusra Front, not to mention Ansar Dine, Ansar al-Sharia, etc.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France and Turkey to Work on New ‘Roadmap’ To End Syrian War
France and Turkey will be working in the coming weeks on a “diplomatic road map” for an end to the nearly seven-year war in Syria, President Emmanuel Macron’s office said Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Erdogan Criticizes EU Leaders for Lack of Support, Especially Against Terror
Turkish President Erdogan has insisted in an interview that Turkey should still join the EU. The comments came despite mounting pressure against the Turkish leader’s human rights record and his intervention in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Rebels Say Saudi Airstrike on Police Building Kills 8
Yemeni rebels say an air raid by the Saudi-led coalition fighting them struck a police building in the rebel-controlled capital, Sanaa, killing eight people.
The Saudi-led coalition has been at war with the northern-based rebels, who are from the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, since March 2015 to reinstate the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The rebels control Sanaa as well as their northern stronghold, Saada, and are nominally backed by Iran.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan President Ghani Tells Country That Pakistan Was Behind Recent Deadly Attacks
Afghanistan’s president forcefully accused Pakistan on Friday of sheltering Taliban insurgents, blaming the neighboring Muslim country for a recent wave of urban terrorist attacks that has roiled the nation and raised questions about his government’s ability to protect the populace.
In a televised address, President Ashraf Ghani described Pakistan as the “center of Taliban terrorism” and demanded that Pakistani officials take swift, substantive steps to drive insurgents from their country. “The Afghan nation is waiting for clear action” from Pakistan, he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Islamic Radicals Against Parish Charity Work in Yogyakarta
Parish provides basic necessities and free medical check-ups to people in need. The extremists have been trying to prevent this initiative in areas where most residents are Muslim. Ominous protest rallies and blockades are held in Banguntapan and Jaranan. For a Catholic lawyer, this is “public persecution”.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Groups of hard-line Muslims have been protesting the charity work of St Paul’s Pringgolayan, a Catholic community in Banguntapan, a suburb of Yogyakarta (Central Java), claiming that they are engaged in “covert proselytising”. The charitable work is intended to mark the construction of a church for a new parish in Bantul Regency.
On 27 December, Mgr Robertus Rubiyatmoko, archbishop of Semarang, led the ceremony marking the establishment of the newly ecclesiastical circumscription (picture 2).
The Catholic presence in the village on the outskirts of Yogyakarta dates back to 1974. At that time, a priest from the central parish of St. Joseph’s Bintaran would celebrate Mass in the homes of the faithful, people like Mr Sukirdjo and Francis Xavier Sardjono.
In 1979, with the full support of the late Card Justinus Darmojuwono, then archbishop of Semarang, the administrator of the Bintaran church bought land.
Between 1980 and 1983, the Catholic community engaged in a major fundraising drive that led to the construction of a first modest chapel, which was inaugurated on 25 January 1986.
Plan to expand the compound were slowed down by a major earthquake that hit the Yogyakarta area in 2006.
In the following years, work resumed and last December the local community saw the birth of its parish (picture 3-4).
To mark the event, Catholics in Banguntapan under took various charity initiatives for surrounding villages.
These activities, which embody the Church’s commitment to and compassion for the most unfortunate among local residents, consist of the gift of basic necessities and free medical check-ups.
However, this was met with the firm opposition by some hard-line Muslim groups who do not want Catholics to be involved in areas where the majority of the population is Muslim.
Last Sunday, Muslim extremists organised protests in Banguntapan (picture 1) to exclude Catholics from the locations where the latter had planned to carry out their initiatives. Ominous gatherings were also held in Jaranan, where other beneficial projects had been planned.
Islamic extremists accuse Catholics of carrying out “covert operations” to proselytise in Muslim villages. The local Islamist group Darrohman, which belongs to the Front Jihad Islam (FJI), told Catholics to do their charity works in the parish compound, not in residential areas.
In order to ease tensions, St Paul’s parish priest, Fr. Ariawan, was forced to cancel all the initiatives.
Speaking to AsiaNews, the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika Lawyer Association in Yogyakarta slammed Islamist action, defining the incidents as “public persecution” against Indonesian citizens, based on “false assumptions”.
“The persecution is a serious crime that leads to bullying, sorrow and concern among people,” said Agnes Dwi Rusjiyati, a Catholic lawyer and president of the association. “What is more, it constitutes a serious violation of international law.”
“The demonstrators have no evidence to support their accusations of proselytising, which are groundless,” concluded the lawyer, who calls on the authorities to prosecute anyone who took part in the violence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Singapore has so far escaped the attacks seen in other major world cities like New York, London and Berlin in recent years and remains close to the bottom of the 2017 Global Terror Index
Singapore authorities say they have been a target of Islamic extremism since the 1990s, but efforts to deter terrorism have stepped up markedly in recent years with more frequent attacks on Western countries and after Islamic State (IS) militants briefly took over a town in the southern Philippines last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Civil Society Against Forced Conversion of Minors
With a historic ruling, the Federal Court states that both parents must consent to the change of religion. The Constitution declares that the religion of a person under the age of 18 must be decided by the parent or guardian. Appeal for a clause stating that the religion of a child “should remain the one with which they were raised before the conversion of one of the parents”.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — After a 14-month trial, on January 29, the highest Malaysian court rendered the unilateral conversion of the three sons of a Hindu mother, Indira Gandhi, null and void, establishing that both parents must give consent to the change of religion of a minor.
This constitutes an important legal precedent for the nation. Still underage and without their consent or that of their mother, the three children had been converted to Islam in 2009 by their father, a few weeks after becoming a Muslim. The man then fled, taking his youngest daughter, of only nine months at the time. Mrs. Gandhi has not seen her since. The children are now 20, 19 and 9 years old.
The High Court of Ipoh, capital of Perak State, had previously canceled the conversion, but the father, Mohd Riduan Abdullah, appealed. A legal battle ensued for custody, which civil courts assigned to Ms. Gandhi, while the Sharia courts sided with Riduan. In 2014, the police did not comply with the civil court order to arrest the man, citing the legal conflict as the reason for their refusal. Malaysia practices a two-track legal system with issues such as those relating to family and marriages falling under the jurisdiction of Islamic courts. However, cases like this have led to “gray” legal areas.
The ruling was welcomed by local and international organizations, including UNICEF. “This decision is in line with the principle of ‘best interests of the child’, supported by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” says regional representative Marianne Clark-Hattingh. “Unilateral conversions eventually destroy families and the resulting custody battles are often long and painful for all concerned, especially the children themselves.”
However, the president of the Malaysian Muslim Lawyers’ Association, Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, says that the decision of the Federal Court is “very sad” and not consistent with previous deliberations on the matter. “However, we must accept this decision because it is taken by a competent court. The Muslim community will have to wait for another case to be heard, so this judgment will be put aside, “says Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar.
Following the Federal Court’s verdict, Malaysian Prime Minister Seri Najib Tun Razak said on January 30 that the government could consider changing the law to align it with the ruling. The Kuala Lumpur government hypothesis receives strong support from Malaysian moderates, lawyers and politicians. They consider it appropriate to reintroduce a specific article to the Law on Marriage and Divorce Reform (LRA). Clause 88A states that the religion of a child “must remain the one with which he was raised before the conversion of one of the parents” and that the child can, after having turned 18 and with the consent of father and mother, convert to Islam.
In Malaysia the Constitution states that Islam is a state religion and 61.3% of the population declares itself Muslim. Article 12, paragraph 4 of the Charter states that the religion of a person under the age of 18 must be decided by their parent or guardian.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Maldives: Supreme Court Acquits Former President. Police Clash With Supporters
Mohamed Nasheed was acquitted of terrorism charges, along with eight other opponents. He will be able to return from exile and run for political elections scheduled for the end of the year. Under his reformist leadership, sharia has never been abolished and religious freedom does not exist.
Malè (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Supreme Court of the Maldives has acquitted nine opposition members, including former president Mohamed Nasheed, who is living in exile in London, of terrorism charges. The decision took the country by surprise and supporters of the former head of state took to the streets of the capital Malè to celebrate. Hundreds of people waved flags calling for Nasheed’s return, but they clashed with police, who fired tear gas to disperse them. At least one policeman was admitted to the hospital.
From Sri Lanka, where he is currently on a visit, the former president welcomed the sentence, and called for “the immediate release of political prisoners and the restoration of their civil and political rights”. Then he called for the resignation of the current president Yameen Abdul Gayoom, whom he will challenge in the next elections scheduled for the end of the year.
The decision paves the way for Nasheed, 50, the first democratically elected president of the tourism paradise in 2008 to run once again. He is the leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and has been a political prisoner. In 2012 he was ousted by a coup d’état supported by Islamic radicals. In 2015 he was arrested for terrorism and sentenced to 13 years in prison, but he always defended himself by claiming that the accusations were politically motivated. Since 2016 he lives in the British capital, where he travelled with medical permission to carry out treatment. He recently accused China of “seizing land” and criticized the expansionist ambitions of Beijing, which sees in the country of white beaches as a strategic commercial port of call on its “New Silk Road”.
Gayoom, current president, was ready to confirm the political office, having suppressed opposition through the imprisonment or exile of his adversaries. Elected in 2013, he has maintained a strict control on all powers, from the judiciary, to police and bureaucracy. Under his leadership, the country, among one of the West’s most popular exotic tourist destinations, opted for a return to a more conservative and fundamentalist view of Islam in terms of domestic politics, and a strengthening of diplomatic and commercial relations with China at an international level. In 2014, the government’s decision to apply the death penalty to 10-year-old children caused quite a stir.
Yet even under the rule of the reformist Nasheed the dominance of the Islamic religion has never been questioned. In the archipelago of the Indian Ocean, where about 340,000 inhabitants live, Sharia is in force (Islamic law), Sunni Islam is the state religion and there is no religious freedom. In 2008 a constitutional amendment denied non-Muslims the possibility of having citizenship. In the country, alcohol and pork can only be served at the airport and at the resorts where local staff do not work. Furthermore, idols of other religions cannot be introduced into the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
No Safe Place for SE Asia’s Shia Muslims
Rising anti-Shiite sentiment owes to Saudi-influenced Wahhabism, a literalist reading of Islam that promotes intra-religious persecution
By David Hutt, @davidhuttjourno February 3, 2018 12:32 PM (UTC+8)
An Islamic cleric in Malaysia stirred controversy last month after claiming that Shiites, members of a minority Muslim sect, pose a national-security threat and that action should be taken against them.
Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, the mufti of Perlis, a northwestern Malaysian state, said Shia Muslims could “threaten national security” and a movement was afoot among them to turn Malaysia into a “mullah state,” a reference to the theocratic Shiite rulers of Iran.
This is despite the fact that there are likely at most 200,000 Shiites in Malaysia, a Muslim majority country of more than 28 million, and none have been connected to domestic terrorist attacks or extremist groups. Malaysia’s Muslims, who dominate politics, are overwhelmingly Sunni.
Asri’s comments come amid an investigation into the disappearance of social activist Amri Che Mat, who went missing in November 2016. He is just one of several civil-society actors who have “disappeared” in Malaysia in recent years.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Extends Afghan Refugees’ Stay for Only 60 Days
Pakistan’s government has extended the stay of Afghan refugees in the country for 60 days, a shorter-than-recommended time that revives fears Islamabad is preparing a forced return of hundreds of thousands to violence-plagued Afghanistan.
About 2.5 million Afghans live in Pakistan, home to the world’s second-largest refugee population.
But recent tense relations between the neighbors has prompted concern that Pakistan might retaliate by pushing back Afghan refugees, particularly since official permission to stay was only extended for 30 days at the beginning of this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Calls on US to Ditch Its ‘Cold War Mentality’ And Reduce Nuclear Arsenal
Defence ministry says Pentagon review naming China and Russia as potential threats is ‘presumptuous speculation’ and it has been ‘extremely restrained’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Accuses US of ‘Cold War Mentality’ Over Nuclear Policy
China decried the U.S. for its “Cold War mentality” on Sunday after Washington announced last week that it plans to diversify its nuclear arsenal with smaller bombs.
The U.S. military believes its nukes are seen as too large to be used and wants to develop low-yield bombs—a move that has prompted condemnation from China, Iran and Russia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea ‘Using Berlin Embassy to Supply Nukes’: Spy Chief
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency chief has revealed North Korea has been acquiring equipment and technology for its nuclear and weapons programmes through its Berlin embassy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Slams State of the Union Address, Calls it ‘Trump-Style Arrogance’
North Korea on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, calling it “the height of Trump-style arrogance” and vowing that the regime’s nuclear capabilities would deter the president “and his lackeys from showing off on the Korean peninsula.”
Pyongyang’s foreign ministry spokesman hit back at Trump in an interview released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. The official disputed the president’s claim that the U.S. had “made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success” in the last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Shouting ‘Dutton’s game is a racist game’, and holding signs that called for an external board to ‘control the police’, hundreds protested in the Melbourne city centre on Sunday against racism.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
France Freezes Assets of Congolese General
France has frozen the financial assets of a Congolese general placed on the UN’s sanctions list for supporting a massacre of civilians by a suspected militia in 2014 and 2015, according to a notice published on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Charles Low | [Return to headlines] |
Katie Hopkins in South Africa: Farmer’s Son Traumatized by Deadly Attack
Bernard and his father came home to his farm from church that Sunday to start the braai.
8 men were waiting for them, hiding in the garage.
They butchered his father, bound and beat Bernard, shot at his 11 year old and tied the hands and feet of his wife with wire.
His little children were forced to watch the whole horrible thing…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: 16 Bodies Pulled From Sea Off Morocco
The bodies of 16 people have been pulled from the sea off the coast of Melilla, a small Spanish territory bordering Morocco.
Moroccan rescue services recovered the corpses after the crew of a Spanish ship spotted them in the water.
A medical official told AFP news agency all the dead were from sub-Saharan Africa, apart from one Moroccan.
It is thought they may have been hoping to reach Europe by sailing from Melilla, despite storm warnings.
Melilla, which is just 12 sq km (7 square miles), is a major crossing point for undocumented migrants seeking work or asylum in Europe.
It is one of only two EU land borders with Africa — the other being a second Spanish enclave, Ceuta.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 5 Million Third World Immigrants Entered Europe Since 2011
The latest figures of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) reveal that in the period from 2011 to 2017, 5,136,383 migrants have entered Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu: George Soros Behind Bid to Thwart Migrant Deportations
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused Jewish billionaire George Soros of funding a widespread campaign against the government’s plan to deport African migrants and asylum-seekers.
Netanyahu made the comment about the progressive Hungarian-born businessman during a meeting of ministers from his ruling Likud party, in response to Science Minister Ofir Akunis who had said the local aid organizations are funded by foreign governments and foundations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Official: 13 Pakistanis on Boat Capsized Off Libyan Coast
A Pakistani official says thirteen Pakistanis have been identified among some ninety illegal migrants on a boat that capsized off Libya’s coast.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Faisal, said Sunday that the bodies of 13 Pakistanis have been identified through documents and by a survivor, rescued by Libyan fishermen
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: “Center-Right” Parties Propose Enrolling Muslim Migrants in Volunteer Defense Organizations
This is not a joke. In Sweden, the four “center-right” parties of the Alliance — the Moderate Party, the Centre Party, the Liberal Party, and the Christian Democrat Party — want newly arrived Muslim migrants to be enrolled in Sweden’s volunteer home defense organizations. They think this will “contribute to the integration process.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Changing National Anthem to Remove Male Pronouns to Make Lyrics ‘Gender Neutral’
Canada jumped upon the PC Express with both feet this week after its Senate passed a bill to make country’s national anthem “gender neutral” by taking out the word “sons” because it is too masculine.
The offending line in the tune “O Canada,” reads, “True patriot love in all thy sons command.” Critics insisted that “thy sons” was not “inclusive” enough, so a bill was introduced to change the line to read, “True patriot love in all of us command.”
The song was originally written in 1908 and made the national anthem by an act of Parliament in 1980.
Independent Ontario Sen. Frances Lankin celebrated the passage of the bill saying that activists have been trying to make the song “inclusive” for 30 years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Public Minnesota Kindergarten Class Teaches Children About ‘White Privilege’
A public school district in Minnesota is taking a radical social justice approach to the education of their youngest children.
Young students in the Edina School District in Edina, Minnesota, will be introduced to the concept of “white privilege” as early as kindergarten, according to a new report from the Weekly Standard. The report details some of the unusual practices of the district.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The War on Terror Starts in the Classroom
As Dewey remarked: “You can’t make socialists out of individualists!” To that end, he advocated terminating things that connect the child with his culture, his past, his language, literature, science, geography…in short, anything that will prevent the student from being molded into the robotic, collectivist drone desired by the state, was seen as an obstacle.
That was 1984…what’s changed? Well, for starters, the malignant disease known as “western guilt” has, in the words of Heather McDonald, created a “fatalistic paralysis”. In laymen’s terms: political correctness is killing us.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“Yehezkeli notes that a ruling of the 1990s by a senior Muslim jurist states: ‘The occupation of the West will be done without war but quietly, with infiltration and subversion.’“
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taiyeti.
“Greece Macedonia: Name Dispute Draws Mass Protest in Athens”
The number was given by the police of a hateful regime.
I was there and the number of people was 1.500.000 milion and not 140.000,and if this government submit to what Germany and USA wishes,we the Greeks are determined to turn upside-down the Balkans along with the Serbs and God help the rest of Europe.
Well worth a look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yfo4TBZr-A
The horror of what is happening. This has been shown on Euronews.
The white fluffy Muslim imam is contrasted with the marginal Englishman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPkL01L28kQ
In the video they say that the Englishman was influenced by watching the film, which evoked hatred for the Pakistanis and Muslims.
About the fact that before this in Britain there were three acts of terrorism, not a word is said.
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https://spiderlog.livejournal.com/695037.html
….No mitigating circumstances were found among the English judges, which usually are with them, as well as with French, German, Swedish, etc. justice for Muslim criminals:
the role of alcohol, depression, unemployment, drugs …
They did not put forward their usual version: mentally unbalanced.
They dismissed the version of “accidental arrival” and “loss of control.”
His four children, after all. His life in a disgusting world, degrading every day.
Were his actions retaliation for the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London? English judges did not even consider it, did not even try to understand ..
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If this is not occupation, then what is it?
I like that world hijab day. Are they planning also a world trip to Mecca day? Or world raping of infidels woman day? Or world stoning of infidels day? Crazy, stupid world.
The infiltration of the West by Marxists has been done peacefully, usually through the subversion by our judiciary.
To M&M at play: I believe that you are right but I would like to add to what you have said. It appears to be not only the judiciary doing this but other institutions as well. Sticking with the judicial example, we do see many very light sentences for heinous criminals and many severe sentences for extremely minor offences if indeed they are offences at all. There are plenty of examples here in the pages of GoV. Here a violent rapist goes free, there a “tweeter” may be severely dealt with.
The clear pattern is long windy arguments about what might be perfect. This is followed by deliberately making perfect the enemy of the good. THIS IS THE GAME!
Making perfect the enemy of the good is the objective.
When the good is gone, that which follows…will not be.