Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/11/2018

A gunman on the streets of the French city of Strasbourg — seat of the European Parliament — killed three people (some reports say four) and wounded twelve others near a Christmas market. The authorities are treating the attack as an act of terrorism. The suspect, whose name is Chekatt Cherif, escaped from the scene, reportedly in a taxi. He is a born-and-bred Strasbourgian (Strasbourgeois?), and his motive is not known.

In other news, President Donald Trump promised to shut down the government if Congress does not fund the wall on the southern border.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Dora, Insubria, MB, Reader from Chicago, SS, 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.

Financial Crisis
» French Credit Risk Soars as Macron Bailout Blows-Out Deficit
» Pound Falls to 18-Month Low on Reports Conservatives Have Enough ‘No Confidence’ Votes
 
USA
» Enviros Are Starting to Realize a Carbon Tax Won’t Ever Happen
» Graham on Uranium One, Unverified Dossier: Special Counsel Should Probe “All Things” Clinton
» Illinois Women’s Studies Dept: Abolish ICE and Police
» Man Whose House Was Blown up and Shot by Police Seeks $120 Million in Damages
» Mark Levin: A Time for Truth Regarding President Trump, Campaign Finance Laws and Indictment Hysteria
» Ohio Man’s ISIS-Inspired Jihad to Kill Rabbi, Target Synagogue Foiled, Feds Say
» Plot to Blow up Aventura Synagogue Ends With Man’s Arrest
» Stormy Daniels Ordered to Pay Trump $293,000 in Legal Fees and Sanctions
» Sundar Pichai Lies to Congress About Google Tracking Location of Users
 
Canada
» Jordan Peterson: The Gender Scandal — in Scandinavia and Canada
 
Europe and the EU
» 4 Dead, 12 Wounded in Strasbourg “Terrorist Attack”; Shooter Reportedly Fled Scene in Taxi
» Bureaucrat Nominated to be Next EU Chief: Uniting Europe With Africa ‘Matter of Destiny’
» EU Budget Rules Should Apply to France Too — Says Di Maio
» EU Intensifies Preparation for Clean Brexit After Rejecting Renegotiations, Commons Vote Delay
» European Court of Human Rights Blasphemy Laws: Where a Word Out of Place Can Cost Your Life
» France: Who’s Not Protesting Against Macron? Clashes at Hundreds of Schools During Student Protests
» Hungary Wants That Christmas Remains Christmas With a Nativity Scene and a Christmas Tree — Foreign Minister
» Italy’s Giuseppe Conte: We Are ‘Proud to Call Ourselves Populists’
» Leftist TV Channel Can’t Deal With Rise of the Right and Starts Hunting Down VOX Voters in Spain
» Media Cover Up: Middle Eastern Men Groom and Rape Girls as Young as 10 in Finland
» More Britons in Work, Wages Grow at Highest Rate for a Decade
» Paris Saw More Damage in Latest Protests Than Previous Weeks
» Pictures: UK Parliament Security Alert as ‘Intruder’ Tasered
» Shooting at a Christmas Market in France in Latest Terror Attack — 4 Dead, 11 Injured
» Strasbourg Christmas Market Shooting: Three Dead, 12 Injured
» Sweden: Father Arrested for Beating Burglar, Who Took His 7-Year-Old Son Hostage With a Gun
» The Guardian, Tommy Robinson, And Me
» UK: Farage: Brexit Deal ‘Won’t Pass, ‘ Voters Oppose Agreement 2 to 1
» UK: Lawmakers Call on May to Step Down as She Flies to Europe for Brexit Talks
» UK: Owen Jones Calls Working-Class Brexiteers ‘Fascist Weirdos’
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Italy: Salvini Surprised Hezbollah-Terrorist Comment Caused a Stir
» Italy Far-Right Minister Accuses EU of Anti-Israel Bias
 
Middle East
» Iran Arrests More Than 100 Christians in Growing Crackdown on Minority
 
Russia
» Neo-Feudalism Reconsidered: The Political Economy of a Zombie Nation
 
Far East
» The Skywalker Gibbon and the Bat That Looks Like a Backstreet Boy: WWF Report Reveals the 157 New Species Found in Asia’s Greater Mekong Last Year
» US to Condemn China Over Alleged Economic Espionage: Report
 
Australia — Pacific
» Greens Want to Scrap University Fees and Increase Funding in Plan That Will Cost Taxpayers $133billion
» ‘It’s a One-Off Thing — She’s Fine’: Gamer, 26, Who ‘Livestreamed Himself Attacking His Pregnant Girlfriend After She Interrupted His Fortnite Session’ Breaks His Silence
» Two Sierra Leone Women Who Smuggled 9kg of Ice Worth $6.3million From Africa to Australia Are Jailed for at Least Five Years
» Violent Gangs of Kids Terrorise Locals in Suburban Crime Wave — But Police Are Powerless to Stop Tearaways Because They Are Too Young
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» South African Group Calls on Blacks to Kill White Women, Children, Their Pets
 
Immigration
» Amnesty International Says Asylum Seekers in Italy Should Have More Human Rights
» Come by Boat, Stay Forever: How Labor PM Bill Shorten Would Gift Permanent Residency to 10,000 Asylum Seekers Who Arrived in Australia Illegally — Giving Them the Right to Full Welfare Payments
» Despite Massive Opposition, The UN Presents Migration Pact as Milestone for Europe
» Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare: Sri Lankan Immigrant, 19, Is Jailed for Repeatedly Raping Two Seven-Year-Old Boys He Was Babysitting
» Low-Skilled Immigrants With a Basic Grasp of English Will be Allowed to Move to Australia — But There’s a Catch
» Talks About the UN Migration Pact Are a Betrayal of Europeans — Hungarian FM
» The Immigrant-Ferrying Aquarius and Its Nefarious Connections to George Soros
» Trump Threatens Democrats: “I’ll Shut Down Government” If No Wall Funding
» UN Countries Adopt the Migration Pact and Applaud Themselves for Several Minutes
» Vatican Continues Full Court Press for U.N. Immigration Program
» Vatican Stresses Rights of All Migrants ‘Regardless of Their Status’
» Vatican: ‘Make Migration Work’ For Everybody
 
Culture Wars
» Canadian Councillor Wants to Make Christmas Less Christian to Avoid Offending Muslims
» Spotlight on Speech Codes 2019
» Students Demand Comedian Sign ‘Safe Space’ Contract Ahead of Charity Event
 
General
» Murdered or Imprisoned Journalists Named Time’s 2018 ‘Person of the Year’
» Twitter Now Informing Western Critics of Islam if They Violate Sharia Law
 

French Credit Risk Soars as Macron Bailout Blows-Out Deficit

Having bitched and moaned at the utter temerity of the Italians to suggest a growth budget that busts Brussels’ mandated deficit limits, the French are about to make Milan’s defiance look like child’s play.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Pound Falls to 18-Month Low on Reports Conservatives Have Enough ‘No Confidence’ Votes

What looked like the first stirrings of a recovery in the pound Tuesday morning has given way to more selling, as the British currency tumbled to $1.2502 — just above a key psychological threshold — following reports that the conservatives’ 1922 committee had finally received the 48 letters of no confidence necessary to trigger a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May.

The no confidence letter count stood at 46 as recently as Tuesday morning. However, a few frustrated remainers joined with their Brexiteer peers to push the total over the top. What’s worse, the gesture of contempt comes as May is out of the country on a “whistlestop” our of European capitals in a desperate bid to achieve “assurances” on the Irish backstop that multiple EU leaders have said they wouldn’t be willing to give.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Enviros Are Starting to Realize a Carbon Tax Won’t Ever Happen

Carbon fees were once considered an obvious next step in the country’s multifaceted effort to reduce CO2 emissions. Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising star on the left, believes a carbon tax can be one part of her sweeping “Green New Deal.” Some conservatives have signed on to the idea, believing it to be a market-based approach to eliminating pollution. Even a number of major energy companies have come forward in support of charging businesses for the amount of carbon they release into the atmosphere.

However, carbon tax proposals have proven unsuccessful time and time again.

[One of them] was put to the test in Washington state during the 2018 midterm elections. Despite the state’s Democratic lean and the governor’s public backing, the measure was soundly rejected in November. It was the second time voters in the state had rejected a carbon fee.

Events across the Atlantic have only worsened prospects for carbon tax supporters.

In the face of unprecedented protests, the French government has decided to suspend a planned gas tax. President Emmanuel Macron had originally proposed a slew of new carbon taxes intended to wean consumers off fossil fuels and transition to electric vehicles. The price hikes, however, triggered a wave of intense riots. The protests, which have lasted for weeks, have even become deadly. One man was caught on video over the weekend losing his hand to a grenade explosion…

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Graham on Uranium One, Unverified Dossier: Special Counsel Should Probe “All Things” Clinton

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — who is the likely choice to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Monday that a special counsel should have been established to look into “all things Clinton,” in response to a question by Fox News‘s Sean Hannity about the Uranium One deal — and that he will investigate the unverified Dossier which was used in a FISA spy warrant application.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Illinois Women’s Studies Dept: Abolish ICE and Police

An Illinois Gender & Women’s Studies department endorsed a call for the abolition of both ICE and the police.

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign’s (UIUC) Gender & Women’s Studies department sharedthis demand from a nine-point platform created by the National Trans Youth Council’s nine-point platform, prefacing the Facebook post with “something to believe in.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Man Whose House Was Blown up and Shot by Police Seeks $120 Million in Damages

The man who police shot after blowing up his Dixmont house is seeking $120 million from the law enforcement agencies and officers involved in the 20-hour June standoff that preceded the explosion and shooting.

In a notice of claim sent Monday to the Maine State Police and other law enforcement agencies, attorneys for 62-year-old Michael Grendell requested $20 million in compensatory damages for the loss of his house and injuries, and $100 million in punitive damages.

The June 29 incident on Fox Lane in Dixmont was the first time police in Maine detonated explosives using a robot to end a standoff.

Grendell was in the midst of a mental health crisis June 28 when a neighbor called police to report that Grendell had shot at him the previous day. The neighbor, Lee Bell, told police he waited to notify them because he was worried about Grendell’s safety.

Col. John Cote, chief of the Maine State Police, said that officers shot Grendell after the 20-hour standoff when they drew him out of the house by detonating an explosive and Grendell continued walking toward them with a firearm…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Mark Levin: A Time for Truth Regarding President Trump, Campaign Finance Laws and Indictment Hysteria

1. A sitting president cannot be indicted. That’s official DOJ policy since 1973. Neither the Special Counsel nor the Southern District of New York (SDNY) nor Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein can defy that 45-year-old policy.

2. The SDNY is not expert in campaign finance violations and neither is the Clinton-appointed district judge. They rarely handle campaign finance cases.

The left-wing media and politicians are regurgitating what the prosecutors have merely filed in their own self-serving brief. The media and others intentionally refuse to look at the actual rules and context. They refuse to even question what these prosecutors have thrown together.

3. The actual campaign rules and context do not include Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) or an infinite variety of other contracts, payments, arrangements, acts of a private nature, etc. as campaign contributions. These represent normal human behavior and were never intended to be regulated or reported.

SDNY is dead wrong. And these private payments can be made in any manner or any amount. Again, they’re private payments involving private matters. To underscore, there is no reporting requirement because they’re not campaign payments made with or without campaign funds.

4. SDNY inclusion of these charges in the Cohen plea deal was a sleazy political and PR attack against the president by an office coordinating with Mueller and aligned with Comey.

SDNY knew Cohen would plead. It therefore knew its absurd allegations would not be tested in any courtroom — district, circuit or Supreme Court. If they were tested, SDNY would be hammered like a nail.

But it knew the left-wing media and politicians would use the mere over-the-top allegations from its office, with absolutely nothing more, to claim the president committed campaign felonies. No due process. No assumption of innocence.[…]

[NOTE: Read it all. A succinct summary of kangaroo-court-tactics by tyrants]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Ohio Man’s ISIS-Inspired Jihad to Kill Rabbi, Target Synagogue Foiled, Feds Say

He flirted with martyrdom from the safe confines behind a computer screen, claiming he was on a mission to complete a “virtual jihad.” Then the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting happened.

Damon Joseph, 21, of Holland, Ohio, was arrested on Friday by members of the Joint Terrorism Task after allegedly planning to commit jihad by targeting a Toledo, Ohio, synagogue and slay a rabbi and potentially others with AR-15 style rifles, authorities said.

If convicted, Joseph could face up to 20 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

The bust of the alleged ISIS-inspired terrorist dovetailed with the arrest and charging of Toledo woman Elizabeth Lecron, 23, who was hit with bomb-making charges for her desire to attack a farm “that raises pigs or cows.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Plot to Blow up Aventura Synagogue Ends With Man’s Arrest

A Hollywood man accused of trying to blow up an Aventura synagogue stood in Miami federal court on Monday and gave the judge two names — one real, the other an alias.

“My name is James Medina, also known as ‘James Muhammad,’ “ Medina told Magistrate Judge William Turnoff.

James G. Medina, 40, was arrested by federal agents on a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center, 20400 NE 30th Ave., during services on Friday. The actual bomb — sold to him in Hallandale Beach by an FBI undercover operative just before the planned terror attack — was a dummy, authorities said.

           — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes [Return to headlines]
 

Stormy Daniels Ordered to Pay Trump $293,000 in Legal Fees and Sanctions

Finally some good news for the president on the legal front.

Stephanie Clifford, the porn star better known as Stormy Daniels, was ordered to pay $293,000 in attorney fees and sanctions to Donald Trump, also known as David Dennison, after she unsuccessfully sued the president for defamation.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Sundar Pichai Lies to Congress About Google Tracking Location of Users

Google CEO Sundar Pichai lied to Congress during testimony today when he claimed that users could opt out of Google’s location tracking services, a claim that the Associated Press previously found to be false.

During his appearance in front of the the House Judiciary committee for a hearing entitled: Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices, Pichai claimed that users had control of what information Google stored about them.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Jordan Peterson: The Gender Scandal — in Scandinavia and Canada

In this occasional series, Jordan Peterson writes from his international speaking tour for his book, 12 Rules for Life, where he’s speaking to sold out crowds throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

           — Hat tip: MB [Return to headlines]
 

4 Dead, 12 Wounded in Strasbourg “Terrorist Attack”; Shooter Reportedly Fled Scene in Taxi

Update 4: Things are only getting stranger as the suspect in Tuesday’s shooting at a Christmas market in Strasbourg remains at large.

FranceInfo is reporting that the injured suspect made his getaway in a taxi that he robbed, which could explain why police have had such a hard time finding him.

Offering the first official confirmation in hours, Strasbourg’s mayor has confirmed that four were killed and 12 wounded in Tuesday’s attack.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Bureaucrat Nominated to be Next EU Chief: Uniting Europe With Africa ‘Matter of Destiny’

Named as the centre-left’s candidate for the next EU Commission President, Frans Timmermans announced he would crush conservative governments in Europe, insisting that the continent uniting with Africa is “a matter of destiny”.

Timmermans, who currently sits as the Commission’s first vice-president, was nominatedto lead the Party of European Socialists (PES) in next May’s elections by delegates at the EU Parliament grouping’s annual congress in Lisbon on Saturday.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

EU Budget Rules Should Apply to France Too — Says Di Maio

Deputy premier says Macron’s new measures will raise deficit

(ANSA) — Rome, December 11 — Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio suggested on Tuesday that the European Commission should worry about France’s budget plans not just Italy’s. He was commenting after French President Emmanuel Macron announced a series of measures to alleviate hardship following the recent wave of violent protests. “According to our calculations, the measures do not comply with the deficit-to-GDP ratio that has been given,” 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Di Maio said after a meeting with business representatives.

“So it will have to increase the deficit and a case about France will open up too, if the rules are valid for everyone.

“We are not hopeful,” he added. Di Maio reiterated that the M5S’s key election pledge, the ‘citizenship wage’ basic income for job seekers, will start “at the end of March at the latest”.

He said the ‘quota 100’ pension reform to effectively bring down the retirement age will come into force in February or March.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

EU Intensifies Preparation for Clean Brexit After Rejecting Renegotiations, Commons Vote Delay

Brussels bureaucrats have rejected suggestions that the withdrawal agreement with the UK can be renegotiated, while the European Union ramps up preparation for a clean Brexit.

Prime Minister Theresa May is due to meet with European leaders and EU officials Tuesday to seek “further reassurances” over the controversial Irish backstop after she postponed the House of Commons vote on the withdrawal agreement in face of certain defeat.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

European Court of Human Rights Blasphemy Laws: Where a Word Out of Place Can Cost Your Life

There are, of course, social settings where it pays to watch your words. Saying you fancy the looks of a mafioso’s new girlfriend could well prove fatal. Spending time with a bunch of Hamas terrorists while expressing your love for Israel might not lead to your premature demise. In London today, young men who make remarks or play music to other youths on the street can wind up stabbed to death. A recent comment on The Independent website claims, “In this country [the UK], some views, regardless of how valid and logical, can result in anything from public rebuke to loss of a job to violence.”

For the most part, we learn how to avoid words or actions that may offend someone or some group, especially if it is known to be prone to violence. Yet these misfortunes are rare and we live our lives on the assumption that in democratic countries, we can speak freely within the norms of civil society. We recognize that in many countries, racist, homophobic, antisemitic, or “Islamophobic” hate speech can be reported to the police and lead to the arrest and eventual trial of the speaker. The United States’ First Amendment to its Constitution protects its citizens from prosecution for free speech, except where there is a credible threat of “Imminent lawless action.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

France: Who’s Not Protesting Against Macron? Clashes at Hundreds of Schools During Student Protests

The protests to Macron’s government continue with, according to figures gathered by Reuters, 450 schools in France holding demonstrations on ‘Black Tuesday’. The education minister has stated that 60 high schools had to be completely shut down.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Wants That Christmas Remains Christmas With a Nativity Scene and a Christmas Tree — Foreign Minister

Hungary wants to preserve an EU where Christmas remains Christmas, with a nativity scene and a Christmas tree, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday.

According to Szijjarto, Europe must insist on its traditions and heritage and resist all attempts to irrevocably change the ethnic mix of the European Union.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s Giuseppe Conte: We Are ‘Proud to Call Ourselves Populists’

“If populism means giving sovereignty back to the people, we are proud to call ourselves populists,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an address to the Italian Parliament Tuesday.

The prime minister’s words came in preparation for a meeting of the Council of the European Union (E.U.) and the Euro Summit, which will take place in Brussels later this week to discuss the E.U. budget and the migration question, among other things.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Leftist TV Channel Can’t Deal With Rise of the Right and Starts Hunting Down VOX Voters in Spain

The right-wing VOX Party, which just last week had a historic election result in Spain’s most socialist region, Andalusia, is considering whether to press charges against leftist TV Channel La Sexta, which was created in 2005 under socialist President Zapatero.

The problem started when during a regular program a La Sexta channel reporter was sent to search out who were the 44 VOX voters in a small and famously far left small town near Seville called Marinaleda, whose mayor, José Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, has been caught stealing from supermarkets to “distribute to the poor”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Media Cover Up: Middle Eastern Men Groom and Rape Girls as Young as 10 in Finland

Earlier Voice of Europe reported on the rape of a young girl by several migrant men. Unfortunately this is not an isolated case, as more young girls are groomed and abused by asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

More Britons in Work, Wages Grow at Highest Rate for a Decade

More Britons are in paid work and wages have grown at their highest rate in a decade, according to government figures.

The Officer for National Statistics (ONS) December labour market report released Tuesday shows that 32.48 million Britons are in paid work for the period of August to October 2018, 79,000 more than the previous quarter (May to July) and 396,000 more than a year earlier.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Paris Saw More Damage in Latest Protests Than Previous Weeks

The property damage in Paris was even greater during “Act IV” of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) protests, despite there being fewer injuries and more arrests than the previous week.

The “Act IV” Yellow Vest protests saw the largest mobilisation of French police in years and saw well over one thousand arrested. But according to Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the property damage in Paris on Saturday exceeded that of the previous weekend, L’Obs reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Pictures: UK Parliament Security Alert as ‘Intruder’ Tasered

An extraordinary week in the United Kingdom Parliament took a dramatic turn Tuesday morning, with reports claiming the Palace was placed under security alert as an intruder attempted to make his way past the site’s gates.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Shooting at a Christmas Market in France in Latest Terror Attack — 4 Dead, 11 Injured

French police are saying at least four have been shot dead with at least 11 others injured by a gunman in Strasbourg tonight at the city’s Christmas market.

According to witnesses the shots began around 8pm near the Christmas market.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Strasbourg Christmas Market Shooting: Three Dead, 12 Injured

Three were killed and 12 injured in a shooting in the vicinity of the Christmas Market in the historic French city of Strasbourg Tuesday evening.

A “major public safety event” was underway Tuesday evening, according to the French ministry of the interior, after shots were fired in Strasbourg, the French city which serves as one of the two homes of the European Parliament. The ministry instructed local residents to stay in their homes.

France’s interior minister Christophe Castaner says a gunman “sowed terror” in three parts of the eastern city of Strasbourg with a shooting spree that killed three people and left six others with serious injuries, according to the Associated Press.

Earlier police union officials had said four people were killed. Officials did not explain the reason for the conflicting death tolls.

Castaner said early Wednesday that some 350 security officers and two helicopters are involved in the search for the assailant after the Tuesday night attack.

[…]

UPDATE 0:59 GMT — French authorities release the name of the suspected Strasbourg gunman

Reuters reports French police have identified Strasbourg-born Chekatt Cherif, 29, as the suspected gunman…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Father Arrested for Beating Burglar, Who Took His 7-Year-Old Son Hostage With a Gun

A father of a 7-year-old boy in Malmö has been arrested for beating up a burglar who put a gun in the boy’s mouth.

The 45-year-old burglar broke into a flat in Malmö. He was confronted by the family who lives there, whereupon he grabbed one of the children, a 7-year-old. He then allegedly put his gun in the boy’s mouth.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The Guardian, Tommy Robinson, And Me

by Bruce Bawer

Britain’s top rag uncovers a nonexisent “global network”

…On Friday, Britain’s most important, or rather self-important, newspaper ran a piece headlined “Revealed: the hidden global network behind Tommy Robinson.”

Move over, Pentagon Papers.

Obviously, the Guardian reporters in question — Josh Halliday, Lois Beckett, and Caelainn Barr — have stumbled upon that obscure and highly sophisticated research tool known as Google. And through Google, they’ve uncovered the sensational, previously unnoticed fact that two “US thinktanks…have published a succession of articles in support of Robinson,” while a third U.S. think tank has — gasp! — helped pay for Tommy’s legal fees.

These three think tanks, the Guardian scribes assert, “have been repeatedly accused of stoking anti-Islam sentiment in the west and spreading false information about Muslim refugees in Europe.” (Among the institutions that have been in the forefront of making these baseless accusations, unsurprisingly, is the Guardian itself.) The Guardian writers further contend that Tommy’s support from these “prominent and well-financed groups undermines Robinson’s self-styled image of a far-right populist underdog whose anti-Islam agenda is being silenced by the British establishment.”

Hold on a second and take a look at that last sentence. Has Tommy really sought to style an image for himself as a “far-right” activist? Who on earth would do that? Or has he constantly denied, quite correctly, that there’s anything “far-right” about him? This is journalism at its shabbiest. As for his being “silenced by the British establishment” — no, he hasn’t exactly been silenced. This Guardian article itself is a perfect illustration of the fact that he has, rather, been smeared, maligned, defamed, vilified, calumniated, misquoted, misinterpreted, and misrepresented by that establishment. Consistently.

Obviously, the Guardian reporters in question — Josh Halliday, Lois Beckett, and Caelainn Barr — have stumbled upon that obscure and highly sophisticated research tool known as Google. And through Google, they’ve uncovered the sensational, previously unnoticed fact that two “US thinktanks…have published a succession of articles in support of Robinson,” while a third U.S. think tank has — gasp! — helped pay for Tommy’s legal fees.

These three think tanks, the Guardian scribes assert, “have been repeatedly accused of stoking anti-Islam sentiment in the west and spreading false information about Muslim refugees in Europe.” (Among the institutions that have been in the forefront of making these baseless accusations, unsurprisingly, is the Guardian itself.) The Guardian writers further contend that Tommy’s support from these “prominent and well-financed groups undermines Robinson’s self-styled image of a far-right populist underdog whose anti-Islam agenda is being silenced by the British establishment.”

Hold on a second and take a look at that last sentence. Has Tommy really sought to style an image for himself as a “far-right” activist? Who on earth would do that? Or has he constantly denied, quite correctly, that there’s anything “far-right” about him? This is journalism at its shabbiest. As for his being “silenced by the British establishment” — no, he hasn’t exactly been silenced. This Guardian article itself is a perfect illustration of the fact that he has, rather, been smeared, maligned, defamed, vilified, calumniated, misquoted, misinterpreted, and misrepresented by that establishment. Consistently.[…]

By the way, the third think tank mentioned by the Guardian, the one that has helped pay his legal bills, is the Middle East Forum. I’ve benefited from MEF’s principled largesse myself more than once, when my outspokenness about Islam has landed me in legal or financial quandaries. As an American, I’m extremely proud that the MEF, based in Philadelphia and run by the estimable Daniel Pipes, has stepped in to cover Tommy’s expenses. As a lifelong Anglophile, I find it depressing that in the entire U.K., no individual or organization seems to have been willing to do the same.[…]

[Read it all! Some hilarious Grauniad quotes]

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Farage: Brexit Deal ‘Won’t Pass, ‘ Voters Oppose Agreement 2 to 1

Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage has said he doubts Prime Minister Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement will pass in the House of Commons, while a poll has revealed voters reject the deal two to one.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Lawmakers Call on May to Step Down as She Flies to Europe for Brexit Talks

British Prime Minister Theresa May was engaged in a last-ditch attempt to save her besieged Brexit deal Tuesday, meeting with Dutch leader Mark Rutte and Germany’s Angela Merkel after controversially deferring Tuesday’s planned vote in the UK House of Commons to prevent a near-certain defeat.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Owen Jones Calls Working-Class Brexiteers ‘Fascist Weirdos’

Owen Jones branded hard working-class Brexiteers as ‘Fascist Weirdos’ Sunday in a vile hate filled rant on his Twitter Feed.

An estimated 10,000 people turned up to back UKIP’s march for a Hard Brexit but Owen claimed just 1,000 turned up and then attacked the hard-working Brexiteers, the very people Labour need to win a general election.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Salvini Surprised Hezbollah-Terrorist Comment Caused a Stir

They don’t dig tunnels to Israel to do shopping says minister

(ANSA) — Rome, December 11 — Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Tuesday that he was surprised that him describing Hezbollah as terrorists during a visit to Israel had caused a stir. “I don’t understand the amazement that I have read about in a news agency item about calling Hezbollah Islamic terrorists,” Salvini told a news conference in Jerusalem.

“If they dig underground tunnels that breach Israeli territory, I don’t think they do so to do the shopping”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Far-Right Minister Accuses EU of Anti-Israel Bias

Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini accused the European Union of being biased against Israel, in remarks during a visit to the Jewish state on Tuesday.

“The European Union in recent years has been absolutely unbalanced… in its management of the conflict in the Middle East, condemning and punishing Israel every 15 minutes,” he told journalists.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Iran Arrests More Than 100 Christians in Growing Crackdown on Minority

Iran has arrested more than 100 Christians in the last week, charities report, amid a growing crackdown by the Islamic Republic.

Many of the 114 detained were converts to Christianity from a Muslim background, accused of “proselytising”.

They had to report the history of their Christian activities and were told to cut contact with any Christian groups, according to Open Doors UK, a charity which speaks out on persecution against Christians.

While Christianity has existed in Persia since Christ’s death, many believers fled after the Shah was deposed in a coup and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was installed in the Islamic revolution of 1979.

There are no official records, but there are estimated to be some 350,000 remaining in Iran — some one per cent of Iran’s population, with a rising trend toward converting to Christianity…

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

Neo-Feudalism Reconsidered: The Political Economy of a Zombie Nation

by Vladislav Inozemtsev

[…]

From the outside, what is going on within Russia’s political economy is describable as kleptocracy, and insofar as Russia shows its face to the West, that label is apt enough. But it falls vastly short of capturing the reality of the situation, which manifests itself in ways that, for most Westerners, are simply incomprehensible.

As Russia continues its process of de-modernization—or perhaps its escape from modernity—two trends are equally important for understanding the country’s future.

One is the ongoing stratification of current Russian society into those who are considered gosudarevy lyudi (Czar’s men) and those who are counted as kholopy. This is not the kind of income inequality that has been intensively analyzed as the crucial problem endangering the stability of Rus­sian society; rather, it is a status inequality, with not bourgeois but distinctly feudal roots. Contemporary Russian society has become a complicated system where legal norms are not so much neglected as entirely irrelevant if the parties to any dispute belong to different social strata.

[…]

This stratification has also become the fundamental pillar of a new system of social management, which nurtures not so much totalitarian attitudes on the upper level but omnipresent servility attitudes on the “lower” one, making Russian society hopelessly un-modern.

[…]

The second trend is a rather new phenomenon: the institutionalization of massive property under the control of local bureaucrats, which is distinctly different from the construction of nationwide “oligarchic” empires in the 1990s. Property in Russia is now divided into that of “national” importance (which, even if formally private, can be nationalized at any given moment) and “regionalized” property, which in large part belongs to the regional administrators who constitute the new feudal class. This situation doesn’t resemble the feudal disunity of Europe in the early Middle Ages, bit is much more akin to the 17th and 18th-century versions of feudalism, with the provincial aristocracy perfectly controlled from the top, the local lords exercising authority vested in them by the supreme leader. Therefore, the system is solid and durable, able to withstand both outside pressure and deep isolationism—so long as the goal remains control and not development.

How long can the new Russian feudalism survive? It will likely take decades to exhaust itself. Like any other classic feudal country, 19th-century Russia was a productive society that may not have been competitive with its neighbors, but had no alternative to encouraging population growth, implementing new production techniques, and establishing balances between different social classes. By contrast, contemporary Russia is a rentier economy with about two-thirds of its exports consisting of energy and commodities produced by less than 3 percent of its active population. In such conditions the ruling elite will never experience enough pressure from below to force significant changes to the system.

The best the Western world can do is to await the exodus of those who feel themselves people of the 21st rather than the 16th century. Exodus from Russia will eventually ruin the system: Unlike the omnipresent feudalism of old, after all, the new version is contained only within one particular country…

[RTWT. A subscription site but one may read several essays a month for free]

[Return to headlines]
 

The Skywalker Gibbon and the Bat That Looks Like a Backstreet Boy: WWF Report Reveals the 157 New Species Found in Asia’s Greater Mekong Last Year

A gibbon with a Star Wars name and a ‘toad from Middle Earth’ are among newly discovered species in Asia’s Greater Mekong documented by scientists in 2017.

Some 157 species new to science in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam were described by last year by researchers who had ventured into jungles, mountains, rivers and grasslands to make the discoveries.

A new report, New Species On The Block from WWF, reveals the three mammals, 23 fish, 14 amphibians, 26 reptiles and 91 plant species discovered for the first time.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

US to Condemn China Over Alleged Economic Espionage: Report

The Trump administration is reportedly set to condemn China this week over economic espionage and hacking campaigns, a move that would likely increase tensions between the two countries amid a trade war truce.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that multiple government agencies are expected to call out China over what the U.S. says is a pattern of behavior that includes attempts to steal trade secrets and technology, as well as government information. The administration is reportedly planning to declassify some intelligence documenting those efforts.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Greens Want to Scrap University Fees and Increase Funding in Plan That Will Cost Taxpayers $133billion

The minor party’s proposal would generate $139 billion in the same period through whacking offshore gas companies with a 10 per cent tax and ending fuel excise paid to mining companies.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘It’s a One-Off Thing — She’s Fine’: Gamer, 26, Who ‘Livestreamed Himself Attacking His Pregnant Girlfriend After She Interrupted His Fortnite Session’ Breaks His Silence

Luke Munday was charged on Sunday night after fans watching a live stream of him playing the popular video game called police when they allegedly heard him assault his partner at his Sydney home.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Two Sierra Leone Women Who Smuggled 9kg of Ice Worth $6.3million From Africa to Australia Are Jailed for at Least Five Years

Two women who were found with nine kilograms of meth hidden inside their luggage after flying from Sierra Leone to Australia have been jailed for at least five years.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Violent Gangs of Kids Terrorise Locals in Suburban Crime Wave — But Police Are Powerless to Stop Tearaways Because They Are Too Young

Locals in the Western Australian town of Maddington have been terrorised by gangs of youths on bikes.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

South African Group Calls on Blacks to Kill White Women, Children, Their Pets

South Africa has been roiled in a political crisis for months amid Pretoria’s plans to force white farmers to give up their homes and farms as soon as next year, in accordance with government efforts to amend the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation.

Black First Land First leader Andile Mngxitama has been accused of hate speech following the emergence of a clip showing him openly threatening to kill South African whites and their pets during a rally over a row with a business magnate, the country’s national media have reported.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Amnesty International Says Asylum Seekers in Italy Should Have More Human Rights

Monday was the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In true Global Migration Pact form, Amnesty International released a report on the anniversary and took the opportunity to criticise Italy.

It is questionable if 70 years ago migration would have been included in the Declaration of Human Rights but with the UN’s Global Compact, that is definitely the end goal for some, presently.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Come by Boat, Stay Forever: How Labor PM Bill Shorten Would Gift Permanent Residency to 10,000 Asylum Seekers Who Arrived in Australia Illegally — Giving Them the Right to Full Welfare Payments

The Labor government is looking to gift permanent residency to almost 10,000 asylum seekers who arrived in Australia illegally.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Despite Massive Opposition, The UN Presents Migration Pact as Milestone for Europe

After a petition against the United Nations Global Compact for Migration reached the threshold of 100,000 signatures last week, members of the British Parliament issued a response to the petition.

The UN Migration Pact is a comprehensive, inter-governmental negotiated agreement prepared by the UN to cover all the dimensions of international migration.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare: Sri Lankan Immigrant, 19, Is Jailed for Repeatedly Raping Two Seven-Year-Old Boys He Was Babysitting

A babysitter who sexually abused two seven-year-old boys in Perth has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison and is likely to be deported to Sri Lanka after serving his term.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Low-Skilled Immigrants With a Basic Grasp of English Will be Allowed to Move to Australia — But There’s a Catch

A new migration deal for semi-skilled foreigners to move permanently to the Northern Territory aims to fill skills shortages and boost the state’s population.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Talks About the UN Migration Pact Are a Betrayal of Europeans — Hungarian FM

Brussels and the United Nations clearly share the goal of legalising illegal migration, Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister, said after a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

Illegal migrants have arrived in Europe in an organised way ever since 2015, Szijjarto told Hungarian reporters.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The Immigrant-Ferrying Aquarius and Its Nefarious Connections to George Soros

Last Friday it became known that the infamous immigrant-trafficking ship, Aquarius, which became notorious this year for ferrying African immigrants to Europe on behalf of such troubled NGOs as Medécins sans Frontières and SOS Mediterranée, has finally been grounded.

This happened because of the constant political pressure of Matteo Salvini in Italy, and was finalised when Gibraltar and Panama rescinded their permission to fly their flags to sail.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Threatens Democrats: “I’ll Shut Down Government” If No Wall Funding

Update: Insisting that he would be “happy” to force another government shutdown if Democrats don’t accede to his demands that the next funding bill include $5 billion earmarked for construction of his border wall, Trump reiterated that he will make sure the wall gets built ‘no matter what’ following his Tuesday morning meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, which, as expected, yielded no discernible progress toward a compromise. However, as some analysts pointed out, Trump has risked a political backlash by openly courting blame for a shutdown, should one come to pass.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UN Countries Adopt the Migration Pact and Applaud Themselves for Several Minutes

UN Member States have now approved the globalist migration pact, which is said to make all migration a human right.

The agreement was passed to a several minutes long applause, when world leaders and the UN’s upper management met at the Marrakesh conference in Morocco, which began Monday.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Continues Full Court Press for U.N. Immigration Program

The Vatican newspaper announced Monday that over 160 nations had adopted the United Nations “Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration” (GCM), declaring the agreement a major milestone in international immigration regulation.

“An important example of multilateralism, the GCM is the first international agreement on migration at the global level,” L’Osservatore Romano noted in its article.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican Stresses Rights of All Migrants ‘Regardless of Their Status’

In the Vatican’s first intervention in the U.N. conference on migration in Marrakesh, Morocco, Cardinal Pietro Parolin reiterated the Vatican position that international migration must be governed globally rather than by individual nations.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Vatican: ‘Make Migration Work’ For Everybody

In his second address before the U.N. meeting on international migration, the Vatican’s secretary of state said that the Holy See’s primary objective is to make migration work for everybody.

“To achieve the declared objective to make migration work for all,” said Vatican Cardinal Pietro Parolin, “it is crucial to clarify the roles to be played by the different actors or stakeholders, so as to promote shared and balanced responsibilities.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Councillor Wants to Make Christmas Less Christian to Avoid Offending Muslims

A councillor in Victoria, Canada has succeeded in securing a review of the city’s Christmas decorations after he expressed concerns that things like Christmas trees were not secular enough and needed to be more ‘diverse’ because they may offend Muslims.

Coun. Ben Isitt has won support for the inquiry, which will look at “further secularizing or increasing the diversity of cultural elements in seasonal decorations,” reports the Vancouver Sun.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Spotlight on Speech Codes 2019

Most college students in the United States should be able to expect that freedom of expression will be upheld on their campuses. After all, public institutions are legally bound by the First Amendment, and the vast majority of private colleges and universities promise their students commensurate free speech rights.

In spite of this legal landscape, far too many colleges across the country fail to live up to their free speech obligations in policy and in practice. Often, this occurs through the implementation of speech codes: university policies that restrict expression that is protected under First Amendment standards.

For this report, FIRE surveyed the written policies of 466 colleges and universities, evaluating their compliance with First Amendment standards. Overall, 28.5% of surveyed colleges maintain at least one severely restrictive policy that earns FIRE’s worst, “red light” rating, meaning that it both clearly and substantially restricts protected speech. This is the eleventh year in a row that the percentage of schools earning a red light has gone down; last year, 32.3% of schools earned a red light rating.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Students Demand Comedian Sign ‘Safe Space’ Contract Ahead of Charity Event

A student club at the University of London is requiring that all comedians sign a “behavioral agreement” as a condition of performing at a January comedy night.

According to emails reviewed by PJ Media, the UNICEF on Campus chapter at the University of London sent five local comedians — including Russian-born free speech advocate Konstantin Kisin — a request to perform.

“Attached is a short behavioural agreement form that we will ask for you to sign on the day to avoid problems,” wrote Fisayo Eniolorunda, the club’s event organizer, in an email to Kisin and four other comedians sent Sunday.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Murdered or Imprisoned Journalists Named Time’s 2018 ‘Person of the Year’

Time Magazine on Tuesday revealed that a group of journalists who were killed or imprisoned in the past year as its 2018 “Person of the Year,” while President Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller earned 2nd and 3rd place respectively, according to NBC News.

[Comment: Time Magazine should have populists/nationalists as Person of the Year. But that will never happen.]

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter Now Informing Western Critics of Islam if They Violate Sharia Law

In another shocking act of censorship and tyranny displayed by big tech social media companies, two ardent critics of Islam on Twitter received notices from the social media company informing them they violated Pakistani law.

Both Imam Tawhidi, a Muslim scholar from Australia and Ensaf Haidar, a Canadian human rights activist and wife of Raif Badawi, a Saudi writer who has been imprisoned and tortured in Saudi Arabia for his satirical blogs, received notifications from Twitter informing them of their “violations” of Pakistani blasphemy laws.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

15 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/11/2018

  1. re: Russia’s new feudalism:

    So, only a mass exodus will stop this new feudalism?

    Where will they go?
    Will they really be allowed to freely emigrate to Europe?

    Eastern Europe perhaps but Western? I suspect not.

    It appears that the new land ownership system they have now is not so different than that envisioned by Agenda 2030.

    That will be the UN system of feudalism for the West.

    • It is a pity that you are not aware of the processes and scandals taking place inside Russia, which in the information society cannot be kept silent.
      And I also don’t speak English at all in order to convey this to the public.

      Contradictions and problems are growing like a snowball. In Russia, there are not many people with 16th century thinking, despite the fact that the authorities tried to implant obscurantism for a quarter of a century.

      The authorities hate their people because they refuse to see them as the highest caste. Perhaps that is why Asians are being massively imported there.

      As it happens in Shakespeare’s plays: the tyrant seems unshakable, and then some unexpected event occurs and a quick epilogue begins.

      And where to actually run? And for what?
      The situation is very similar to the one that was on the eve of the World Wars. Dugout dug in the taiga may be the best option.

    • Now Putin’s repressive machine has turned against the youth.
      Forbidden concerts of popular artists, introduce provocateurs, intimidate.
      And our young people have no 16th century thinking. And if there are backward, they are more likely ready to join the ranks of the nationalists.

      This group has recently been banned from performing.
      Almost manifesto.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBG3Gdt5OGs

  2. This will give a hand to international financial institutions who are in total control of “french” land to raise the level of militarization, in order to use it against the yellow jackets and any other opponents who will ever joint the protest. Good move from micron and europe who imported muslims for their own benefit. Dividi et impera.

  3. How about a Chekat- Factor, 100% in this case, but no second initial is given… maybe “M”? In my local paper, no names are given.Motivation is hence unknown.Just a ” shooting” .Oh, those damned Strasbourgeois, triggerhappy as ever, they never behave.

    • There was something on the radio this morning to the effect that he shouted ‘God is great’ [sic] in Arabic before beginning his rampage. Must be Presbyterian.

  4. In Ingushetia, an unknown threw a grenade at the security forces, there are wounded

    Two law enforcement officers were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds after an emergency near one of the shopping centers in Nazran. Earlier it was reported that an unknown person threw a grenade at the security forces.
    – Two employees are in the RCH in the city of Nazran with multiple injuries to the upper and lower extremities.
    Note that the details of the incident are not yet known. It was reported that everything happened at the shopping center “Ark”. Immediately after the emergency, additional law enforcement forces were pulled there.

    https://life.ru/t/%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8/1177798/dvoie_silovikov_s_oskolochnymi_ranieniiami_dostavlieny_v_bolnitsu_nazrani

    • Elena, Is Putin very popular among young people?

      I was told that Russians love strong men like Putin who are tough against the West.

      • Well, it depends on what kind of youth.
        I think he likes the part that feeds from his hand. He might like a conservative, if he did not flood the country with migrants and did not introduce anti-Russian laws.

        Although to be honest, I don’t communicate much with young people. My daughter went to live in another city, completely apolitical, she works and draws her strange paintings.

        Putin also likes stupid women. There are several of them in the next office at my work.

  5. to leCanadien …I am disappointed deeply.
    ————
    If you are somehow connected with Russia, then you will have no difficulty translating this document.

    SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF RUSSIAN MUSLIMS
    https://www.muslim.ru/actual/13636/

    Swearing oath of allegiance to the Russian State and the treaty of peaceful coexistence.
    And although he is usually full of Muslim lies (takkiya), it is acceptable

    But I think (I am sure) that the Caucasian and migrant youth are against this document and the version of Islam, which we call “traditional”.
    I often read about this in their social media posts.

    There was some kind of anthropological division.

    For some reason, the Asian youth has become very wild. Their parents are in many ways normal people and oppose religious radicalism (I studied with them at school in the North Caucasus when my father served there)

    With Russian youth quite differently. On the example of my daughter and her friends, I would not say that they differ from Western youth.
    If I show you a photo of her and her friends, you are at a loss to tell what country they are from. In the Soviet Union, the faces of people showed some kind of internal tightness. They don’t have it. They are educated and have a wide range of interests.

    • Thank you for this article.

      It appears the Kremlin has taken a bold and somewhat comprehensive move toward attempting to integrate islam into Russian society. Although most western countries have made similar statements of their desire for a more peaceful form of Islam within their borders and greater friendship, I would say that this declaration is bolder and more direct. It also seems to me to be a declaration that the Russian state is unable to truly defeat radical islam and must therefore employ the more traditional ‘peaceful’ muslims to help reform radical Russian islam.

      What a sharp turn from the desire to crush the radicals with physical force such as the Chechen Wars.

      I can easily see that young muslims would view this call to reform islam as a form of government dictated islam. The muslim radicals and no doubt most of the muslim youth want to dominate Russia and the Russian people who like the West, do not hold tight to their Orthodox religion as much as they did in the past. Russia then is on the same path to domination from islam as the west unless the Kremlin can use this declaration as a path to hold the traditional muslim leaders responsible for future radicalism and terrorism. Perhaps this will allow the Russian government to have a much firmer grasp of islam within its borders that we in the West lack.

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