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Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
In France, there is a continuing uproar over the torture, rape, and murder of 12-year-old Lola Daviet by an Algerian woman. “The suspect had boasted about selling body parts,” one investigator told Le Parisien. “Evidence suggests that the girl was taken into the basement of the flat, where she was tortured, and raped, before being strangled and having her throat cut.” The woman had then stuffed her body in a suitcase and dragged it to the street.
The murderer, who had arrived in France on a student visa, had stayed on after her visa expired and been ordered to leave the country. But she did not do so, and what has enraged the country is the failure of the French state to enforce its own expulsion order. Fewer than 6% of those living in France illegally in 2021 were expelled. The rest simply continue to live illegally, in France, some of them for many years, without the overworked police taking action.
More on the story of Lola Daviet, and the wave of Muslim crime that has spread across France, can be found here: “France is now more dangerous than Mexico,” by Gavin Mortimer, Spectator, October 20, 2022:
France is in shock after the brutal killing of a 12-year-old girl in Paris last Friday. The details of how young Lola met her death are too gruesome to describe, but the news that a 24-year-old woman has been charged with the crime has deepened the disbelief. The fact that the woman is an Algerian national, living in France illegally after her student visa expired, has caused an uproar.…
For years the ruling class in France has rejected any link between immigration and crime, but slowly the omerta is cracking. Last week a book was published by Didier Lallement, until July the chief of police in Paris. Entitled The Necessary Order, the book is a damning indictment of the lawlessness endemic in the capital, where ‘one out of every two crimes are committed by a foreigner, often in an irregular situation’. This statistic was referenced by Le Pen in her question to Elisabeth Borne.
Those “foreigners” who commit half the crimes in Paris, consist almost entirely of maghrébins, North African Muslims, coming mainly from Algeria and Morocco.
Paris, or at least some of its suburbs, have long had a reputation for disorder, what the French describe as the ‘lost territories of the Republic.. So too has Marseille, where this year 28 people have been shot dead in drug-related killings, usually by men wielding assault rifles. Fifty-five percent of people arrested in Marseille are foreign, according to one government minister.
Those “lost territories of the Republic” are the no-go neighborhoods where an overwhelmingly Muslim population rejects the authority of the state, lives according to its own Islam-based code, and makes life dangerous for the French who still live in, or visit, these neighborhoods. The representatives of the French state now enter these no-go neighborhoods under police protection; the police themselves appear only in force.
In recent years, however, the crime and violence has spread to other towns and cities. Last month a global study ranked France as more dangerous than Mexico in terms of visitor safety, and one city was singled out for its chaos – Nantes. In 2004 Time Magazine described Nantes as the ‘most liveable [sic] city in France’ but it’s now considered more violent than Bogota in Colombia.…
In 2016 there were 283 cases of reported rape, assault and harassment in Nantes while in 2021 there were 562, the period when its Socialist mayor took pride in welcoming migrants into the city. Increasingly, women in Nantes are scared to go out after dark and perhaps they’re wise, given the response of mayor Johanna Rolland to last month’s rape. The police, she said, ‘will never be able to prevent a street rape, however terrible…because it is not their job’.
If it is not at present the job of the police “to prevent a street rape,” then it should be made part of their job. Put more state money into expanding the numbers of police, providing them with weapons so they are not outgunned by the criminals, and encouraging a much more aggressive policy of preemptive policing, by making lightening raids into no-go neighborhoods to disrupt criminal networks, especially those that control the drug trade, by seizing both drug hideouts and factories, and malefactors. Pay for more prosecutors and judges, to ensure that sentences are swift.
According to official figures released this month, 41 per cent of people arrested this year in Nantes are foreign. This is a statistic that not even the Socialist city council can duck. One of the deputy mayors, Pascal Bolo, admitted recently: ‘I am not saying that immigration equals delinquency, but too many of these young people are behind the attacks.’
These “foreign” people, these “young people” who are “behind the attacks,” are North Africans. Everyone in Nantes knows it, but it still cannot be said aloud. To specify that would make one vulnerable to charges of “Islamophobia” and, even more idiotically, “racism.” But many more people, following the examples of Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, are now willing to publicly identify the criminals as Muslims.
Violent crime and sexual assaults are also rising fast in Paris, up 30 per cent this year. There are some arrondissements where life is still rosy, but these districts tend to be where the political, cultural and media elite congregate. Elsewhere, life in the capital can be wretched, usually in the working-class districts like those where Lola lived.
The political and media elites of France live in the high-rent areas of Paris — and other cities — sheltered from the wave of Muslim crime that the rest of the population must endure. It has taken those cosseted elites a long time to recognize the problem, but now it has become impossible to avoid talking about it.
Didier Lallement’s prognosis is bleak. Unless France’s uncontrolled immigration is brought under control, he fears the Republic will before long experience a confrontation that will be ‘intense and destructive’.
More than just an “intense and destructive” confrontation, Lallemant has predicted, just like Pierre Bonchand, the former director of the French Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), a “civil war” in France, pitting Muslims against the indigenous French.
A new immigration bill will be tabled in January, one which the Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, promises will address the crisis. But his tough-talking was undermined last month by his president, who said that the best solution to the migrant crisis is to send them to the countryside to repopulate the ageing [sic] villages and towns.
Marine Le Pen retorted that the only place they should be sent is ‘back home.’
The best solution to the migrant – read “Muslim migrant” – crisis, is not to spread Muslims all over rural France, where they will simply multiply, and make life hell for the local French of modest means, but to end Muslim immigration, to immediately enforce all expulsion orders for those in the country illegally, and to pass legislation to make sure that, after serving their sentences, “foreign” (Muslim) criminals are immediately sent back to their countries of origin.
It will come to that. But how much longer will the French have to wait for their own government to adopt policies so sensible and so politically incorrect?
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The Defense Department was happy to hire Mohammad Rafi Mohammadi. Doing so proved they weren’t “Islamophobic.” The Defense Department would never dream of hiring an opponent of jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women. That would be “Islamophobic” in their eyes, and the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would be all over it, with lavish media coverage. And so this happens, and it will get hardly any media coverage at all.
“Kansas City man who worked for DoD lied about contacts with ISIS recruiters: Authorities,” by Bill Lukitsch, Kansas City Star, October 22, 2022:
A Kansas City area man once employed under contract as a translator in Afghanistan for the U.S. Department of Defense is accused of lying about his contacts with two recruiters aligned with the ISIS group that was responsible for the bombing of Kabul’s airport in August 2021, which killed 13 American service members.
Mohammad Rafi Mohammadi was arrested Sunday in Kansas City as part of an investigation led by the FBI’s local field office. He faces one charge in the U.S. District of Kansas of making false statements in reference to obtaining his security clearance, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
According to an affidavit filed in the case by an FBI agent, Mohammadi sought that clearance for work as a contract linguist, and answered a question falsely on a federal form in August 2019. On that document, Mohammadi denied ever associating “with anyone involved in activities to further terrorism,” court papers say.
Before then, the FBI and federal prosecutors allege Mohammadi sought to provide support for two people who were actively seeking to recruit and train members of ISIS-K, a division of the terrorist organization centered in Afghanistan’s Khorasan province.
Investigators based their conclusions in part on a review of Mohammadi’s public Facebook posts, social media messages, and statements he allegedly made to a confidential informant in 2021. Mohammadi was also interviewed by the FBI in early October.
Among the evidence referenced in support of the criminal charge were records obtained from Western Union that allegedly show Mohammadi wired $2,000 from a branch in Lenexa to a person in Afghanistan with the aim of having $400 given to an ISIS-K recruiter, identified as Individual #1, in May 2018. Authorities allege Mohammadi also shared Facebook posts around the time concerning that person’s arrest by Afghani national security forces….
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The Institute for Moderating Peace and Cultural Tolerance in the Middle East, known as IMPACT-se, has just issued a study of the Iranian curriculum and its schoolbooks. It makes for instructive – and frightening — reading. Its findings are reported on here: “Iranian students are also protesting against oppressive educations -opinion,” by Marcus Sheff, Jerusalem Post, October 14, 2022:
In the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be disappointed that Iranian students are destroying textbooks that carry his image, throwing the pictures into the garbage and trampling them. His disappointment will be particularly acute, as Iran has recently been targeting girls in textbooks by increasing the amount of material celebrating female martyrs.…
Iranian students, especially at the university level, have joined in the nationwide protests, but have also engaged in their own protests in schools by ripping out photographs of the Supreme Leader from their textbooks. It’s their version of shouting “Death to the Dictator!” They are not impressed with the increased coverage of girls and women in the textbooks, which consists of adding material not about girls and women in general, nor about those who are scientists or artists or doctors or lawyers, but is limited to stories about female “martyrs” who died while fighting enemies of the Islamic Republic. These include Houthi girls and women who fought Sunni Muslims in Yemen, girls and women in Lebanon whose husbands were Hezbollah fighters, and who themselves also waged war not just on Israelis, but also on both Lebanese Christians and Sunni Muslims, and female fighters who fought with Shi’a militia in Iraq against Sunni Muslims. That is the only favorable coverage of females that is allowed; any other roles they might have excelled in – as teachers, doctors, artists, professors, researchers – are ignored in the schoolbooks.
From an early age, Iranian children are encouraged to glorify jihad and violence, and to emulate “martyrs.” They are taught that participation in violent jihad against the Infidels – a group which includes all those who oppose the Iranian Revolution, including Sunni Muslims — is the highest and best use of their lives. Such fanaticism is inculcated in young children, and then continues all through their school years, until college.
The United States is the primary antagonist in the ongoing conflict between Islam and imperialism, leading to the prevalence of chants of “Death to America,” and “The Big Satan.” Alongside calls for “Death to Israel,” known in Iran as the “little satan” and the celebration of Hamas rocket fire raining down on the Jewish state, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s instruction that “Israel must be wiped out” now takes on a practical dimension, explaining that Israel’s destruction is achievable with reasonable effort and investment. In fact, the destruction of Israel is portrayed as a key condition for the world’s salvation.
The disappearance of Israel is taught in Iranian schools as a condition precedent to the world achieving salvation, which can only happen when the Iranian Shi’a version of Islam is accepted everywhere, by Sunni Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Once Israel is no more, the Hidden Imam can re-emerge as the Mahdi, and bring salvation to the world.
The pursuit of Iranian hegemony in the Arab Middle East is a vital goal: students learn that the world is divided between followers of Iran’s global revolution and those infidels who oppose it. They are taught that foreign militia members are now part of the Iranian regime. Our report pointed out that this likely means the regime may be inclined to use Arab militias to crush Iranian protesters, a fact which, sadly, was precisely what came to fruition. For the Iranian curriculum, enemies – Iranians and non-Iranians – are those who oppose the Khomeini revolution and friends – Iranians and foreign militiamen – are those who follow the path of the revolution.…
Just as Muslims are taught to see the world as uncompromisingly divided between Muslims and Unbelievers, between Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb, Shi’a Iran teaches its young that there is an even more important division, and the only meaningful one, which is that between those who support Shi’a Islam and the Iranian Revolution, and all those – Infidel or Muslim – who oppose it. The Iranian revolution welcomes the support of its Arab allies and proxies, including the Houthis in Yemen, the Kataib Hezbollah militias in Iraq, the Alawites of Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. In suppressing the current protestors in Iran, Tehran has been using some Arab militia members to help suppress the protesters, believing the Arabs are more willing to use live fire; the government fears that some Iranian troops, out of sympathy with their fellow Persians, might be more reluctant to inflict such violence on their fellow Persians. Hence the decision to make limited use of Arab militias to help suppress the protests.
The Iranian government has taken note of the protesters shouting against the Iranian regime’s expenditure of money, men, and materiel, in conflicts in Arab states. The protesters’ slogans include, pointedly, “Death to Palestine!” and “Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, I Give My Life for Iran!” That is why the regime has added to its curriculum, and to its schoolbooks, material justifying Iran’s expensive wars in Arab lands (Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon), claiming their successful outcome will enhance Iran’s security, and what’s more, will allow Iran to control much of the world’s energy supply that is shipped through the Gulf, by controlling the Strait of Hormuz and even the Suez Canal. That last claim is hard to take, for it is unclear how Iran could “control” the Suez Canal, unless Iran somehow managed to promote a successful coup against El-Sisi and the installation in Egypt of a Muslim Brotherhood government much more favorable to Iran.
In the encouragement of political subversion of neighboring Arab states, there is a clear explanation as to whom this is directed against. Bahrain is described as illegitimate. Advocacy is dedicated to uprisings against puppet governments in the Middle East in the hopes of advancing what the textbooks laud as the school of Hajj Qassem Soleimani.
Bahrain is singled out by Iran for condemnation as “illegitimate” because Bahrain’s ruler is Sunni, but the Bahraini population is 70% Shi’a; Iran has already been sending arms to Shi’a in Bahrain, in the hopes of a successful uprising but so far the Bahraini government, aided by both Saudi and Pakistani Sunni troops, has crushed all incipient attempts at rebellion Saudi Arabia is also depicted by Teheran as an enemy of Iran, which it is, because Iran has been encouraging attacks by its proxy Houthis, using drones and missiles, on Saudi oil installations and airbases, and as a “puppet” of the Great Satan, which it clearly is not, as the latest Saudi-American contretemps over cuts to oil production makes clear.
THIS YEAR, the Iranian curriculum includes passages commemorating the martyrdom of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) late terror master Soleimani, while Iraqi-Iranian terror leader Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis is depicted as a model martyr of the Islamic World in a passage that is part of an entire chapter focused on exporting Iran’s revolution.
The Iranian curriculum celebrates two terror masters who were killed by the Americans — the IRGC’s head, Qassem Soleimani, and another terror leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, each of them “the very model of a modern major terrorist” (with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan). These are the people – not scientists or artists – whom Iranian children are being taught to admire and to emulate.
Iran’s militia doctrine and, implicitly, Iran-induced turmoil in places such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza, are explained to students as contributing to the preservation of Iran’s internal security. The act of jihad is integral for defending Iran from invaders, fighting Iranian insurgents and supporting militias against the rival regional powers of Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Iranian students are told that Iran’s role In supporting proxies and a allies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza is a way to keep enemies from wreaking chaos and undermining the regime in Iran itself; those enemies are being fought against, instead, far from Iran. If Iran is to be free from invaders, it has to keep its foreign enemies off-balance as, for example, the Iran-backed Houthis do to Saudi-backed forces in Yemen, or as Hezbollah, directed by Tehran, has achieved through constant threats to northern Israel.
Interestingly, the curriculum expresses admiration for the Muslim Brotherhood and its founder, Hassan Al-Banna, while conspiracy theories abound, including a tenth-grade textbook on “Defense Preparation” teaching the false claim that Saudi Arabia and the US created ISIS to sabotage Iran.
The initial surprise over Shi’a Iran praising the Uber-Sunni Muslim brotherhood should have dissipated by now. The Muslim Brotherhood is admired for the fanaticism of its members, if not for the exact nature of its ideology (ideologically the MB and the Islamic Republic are not on the same page); Iran’s hatred of Egypt’s El-Sisi is so great that it is willing to support his regime’s greatest threat, the MB. Furthermore, the Gaza branch of the MB, Hamas, is supported by Iran because of the excellent work it has done in killing so many Israeli civilians, and thereby terrorizing many more. Presumably that allows Iran to consider the MB, and its founder Hassan al-Banna, as not enemies but ideological brothers, who even if they remain Sunni Muslims are acting just as the Supreme Leader would have them.
Familiar antisemitic tropes are a feature of the Iranian curriculum, including that Jews control the media, and that Jewish tribes have conspired and collaborated with enemies of Islam. Iran’s Arab neighbors are portrayed as servants of Jewish and colonial interests. Wars in the region are driven by Zionist aims to incite strife among Muslims, and Arab leaders are portrayed as ignorant and extremist Muslims sought out by America, Israel and the West to slander Islam. Jews and Sunni Muslims are, it is taught, working together to operate against all Shiites. Similarly, Jews are depicted as the enemies of the nascent Islamic nation and government.
The belief that “Jews control the media” must be a bit hard to swallow, even for many Iranians who have access to the Internet, given the consistently critical treatment of Israel in the world’s mainstream media, but it fits the narrative that the antisemitic ayatollahs want to present to the world. The Arabs opposed to Iran, such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain, do so not because they are being manipulated by the diabolically clever Israelis, but because they have suffered from Iran’s aggression. The Saudis and Emiratis don’t like having the Iran-backed Houthis shooting missiles and drones at their oil installations, and the Sunni ruler of Bahrain doesn’t like Iranian agents whipping up the 70% of the Bahraini population that is Shi’a against his rule. Israel had nothing to do with the understandably hostile reaction of Arab states to Iran’s behavior.
The characteristics of Iran’s educational system must be factored into any assessment of the regime’s future plans and intentions. The curriculum provides us with a blueprint for the regime’s goals, values and worldview. In 2016, we argued that the curriculum was then limited in its power to widely influence students due to overly mystical dimensions, but that it would nevertheless be welcomed by hard-core loyalists. The curriculum has changed and now poses a very direct threat that must be taken seriously.…
Apparently there is less of what Marcus Sheff describes as “mystical dimensions” to the current curriculum. I assume this means less attention to Shi’a theological doctrine, such as the re-emergence at the End of Time of the Hidden Imam as the Mahdi, which will come only after Israel disappears, and to other aspects of Twelver Shi’a chiliasm, and more about concrete ways to increase students’ support for Shia Islam hatred for the those opposed to the Iranian Revolution.
The Iranian regime no longer seeks unanimous support among its citizens. After three large-scale protests in 2009, 2017, and 2019, the regime’s rulers have felt the ground shifting under its feet, and want to shore up support among not all Iranians – now recognized to be an impossible task — but among a sufficient number of them. As the IMPACT-se report says, they want to shore up support among “enough clerics, military commanders, soldiers, scientists, technicians and other elements of Iranian society vital to the revolution.” Unfortunately for the regime, the current protests, that have now entered their second month and show no signs of abating, suggest that it’s too late; that too many Iranians, especially young adults, are deeply disaffected and not inclined to make peace with the regime.
Meanwhile, as the IMPACT-se report on Iranian schoolbooks and curricula makes clear, the regime is brainwashing a new generation of students, hoping that this time the effects will not be undone by disaffected parents and subversive websites. The contents of those schoolbooks are appalling. They describe, and proscribe, a world divided uncompromisingly between supporters of the Iranian Revolution, and everyone else, including Sunni Muslims. These books teach jihad and violence to children, beginning in the first grade. The texts insist that only after Israel disappears will the Hidden Imam reappear as the Mahdi, and bring salvation to the world. What kind of peace is possible with a regime that teaches such things, and what kind of Iran deal would ever be kept by such a country, its rulers in thrall to such crazed beliefs?
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The idea is to humiliate and degrade them, and by raping them, to deny them a place in paradise, for in Islam it is entirely the woman’s responsibility to prevent a man from being tempted (hence the hijab, chador, niqab, burqa), and if he is tempted anyway, it’s her fault.
“Exclusive: ‘Was forced to strip, govt uses sexual violence against female protesters,’ says Iranian Christian activist,” by Annu Kaushik, Firstpost, October 17, 2022:
In 2020, Mary Mohammadi was taken to a detention center near Iran’s capital Tehran. Officials told her that her hair was visible.
In the basement of the all-female detention center, Mary was forced to strip.
“If my hair is a problem, is it not a problem to force me to take off all my clothes? Is this Islamic?,” Mary told Firstpost in an exclusive conversation.
The incident was part of the sexual violence that the regime has been using to suppress female protesters and activists, Mary said.
“During protests, security personnel touch female demonstrators inappropriately. They want to make women fearful of stepping out,” she said.
24-year-old Mary has been on the radar of Iranian officials for several reasons. Born to a Muslim family, she converted to Christianity in 2017.
Christian converts and other religious minorities like the Bahais are not recognised in Iran.
Over the last few years, Mary has faced persecution from the authorities in the form of arrests and interrogations due to her faith as well as activism.
The personnel who transferred her to the detention center in 2020 belonged to the morality police which is currently in the eye of the storm due to the death of Mahsa Amini which has triggered nationwide protests in Iran.
But it’s not just the morality police who target women for not wearing the mandatory hijab or a head scarf or wearing it improperly.
According to Mary “radical Muslims do it too.”
In 2019, Mary was on a bus in Tehran. It was a hot day and she had taken off her hijab. Suddenly a fully veiled woman approached Mary and asked her to cover her hair.
“When I refused, an argument ensued during which the woman attacked me & my face was left bloodied,” Mary said.
The activist somehow managed to take the woman to the police station. According to Mary, the officers dissuaded her from filing a complaint and even threatened her with arrest.
“They (police) were very kind to that woman. They let her go at 10 pm but kept me in custody till 3 am,” she added.
“Radical Muslims can even attack minorities in public because the regime is behind them,
“Islamic hijab is mandatory in Iran even for non-Muslims. I am a Christian but I must wear hijab,” she said.
Mary’s activism and faith also took a personal toll. Without giving any reason, her university barred her from appearing in exams.
But what was more hurtful for Mary was the treatment meted out to her by a former employer who was also a close friend.
“The gymnast training center where I worked was shut down during the COVID lockdown. I kept asking my employers when I can return and they told me and they are still closed,” Mary said.
One day, the activist turned up at the center unannounced and saw that it was fully operational.
Mary was not given her job back and believes that her employer and the university faced pressure from the authorities.
Constant threats that Mary said were from the authorities forced her to flee Iran in February 2022. The activist who is currently living in the US told Firstpost that in her home country security forces “continue to use sexual violence in the ongoing protests.”…
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Mehdi Hasan is a hate-filled far-Left MSNBC host who espouses fashionable Big Lies such as the claim that “white supremacy is now a key ideology of the Republican Party” and “the far-right domestic terror threat is more dangerous than even Al Qaeda after 9/11.”
Back in 2009, Hasan, a Shi’ite, said of atheists: “In this respect, the Koran describes the atheist as cattle. As cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world.” The Qur’an does indeed say: “Already we have created many of the jinn and mankind for Gehenna, having hearts with which they do not understand, and having eyes with which they do not see, and having ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle, no, they are worse. These are the neglectful.” (7:179)
“For Mehdi Hasan, Two Antisemitic Wrongs Make Ilhan Omar Right,” by David Litman, CAMERA, October 17, 2022:
On October 16, MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan spoke with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on a number of subjects, ending with a question about antisemitism. Given Hasan’s history, it is unsurprising that the question exuded bad faith. To begin, he wields discussions of antisemitism as a weapon for his own partisan interests. Then, he seeks to downplay Omar’s antisemitism as just “criticism of Israel.”
Here is Hasan’s question in full:
“You have been demonized in recent years as an antisemite by many, especially by Donald Trump and the GOP over your criticisms of Israel and of Jewish groups’ support of Israel, some of which you have regretted and apologized for, that you should have been more careful with some of your language in the past. And yet this morning, former President Trump tweeted, and I quote, ‘Jews need to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel before it’s too late.’ This coming from the guy who said you should’ve resigned from Congress for your comments. What do you make of Trump’s post this morning? What do you think the right would be saying if you or Rashida Tlaib had threatened American Jews, which of course I know you wouldn’t have done?”
Partisan Exploitation of Antisemitic Incidents
Begin with the partisanship. From the start, his segment is not one of concern about antisemitism, but instead a rather blatant employment of political whataboutery. Hasan immediately declares that the concern about Omar’s history of antisemitism came “especially” from “Donald Trump and the GOP.” Hasan also tells us Omar, the “progressive” member of the Squad, has regretted her words, and that he “knows [Omar] wouldn’t have” “threatened American Jews” like Trump did. After all, the accusations of antisemitism against her came from that guy who said antisemitic things and “who said [Omar] should’ve resigned from Congress.”
Hasan seems to be suggesting that because Trump said antisemitic things himself, the accusations against Omar aren’t valid. It’s only a slightly more sophisticated version of the childish attempt to justify one’s actions by suggesting two wrongs make a right.
Of course, “Trump and the GOP” weren’t the only ones condemning Omar’s past remarks, and whatever their faults, they obviously do not reflect on other individuals and political groups condemning Omar. The Democratic leadership denounced her antisemitism, as have Jewish Democrats. The Anti-Defamation League, headed by the progressive Jonathan Greenblatt, has also recoiled from Omar’s obvious anti-Jewish animus….
Hasan’s tactic of trying to portray antisemitism as “criticism of Israel” fits together well with his partisan habits.
Any sensible definition of antisemitism will not be blind to the employment of classic antisemitic tropes used against the world’s only Jewish state. When Omar tweets that “Israel has hypnotized the world,” that’s playing on the classic tropes of Jewish power manipulating the media and governments.
When Omar tweets “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” to suggest that supporters of Israel are only doing it because of money, and then specifically mentions the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, that’s not criticism of Israel either. That’s employing the monied Jew and dual loyalty tropes against American Jews and their allies….
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Accompanying this Daily Sabah story is a photo from the Cologne Central Mosque in Germany. The place is packed, and it’s clearly a grand structure. It was completed in 2017. Now: where in Turkey have Christians been allowed to build a comparably large and imposing church in the last five years? Ten? Twenty? In Turkey, religious minority populations suffer severe restrictions of their rights. Turkish authorities don’t allow the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to have any legal identity, and consequently, it can’t own any property, even its own churches. Numerous Christian properties have been confiscated.
But Çağatay Kılıç, acknowledging none of this, would have us believe that the real place where religious minorities are having a hard time is in Europe, where Muslim migrants are streaming in and going on welfare, getting everything provided for them by the state. And people will fall for it.
“Racism in Europe has reached the peak: Senior Turkish lawmaker,” by Betül Usta, Daily Sabah, October 17, 2022:
Racism and discrimination against religious identities in Europe have reached a peak, the head of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission Çağatay Kılıç said Monday.
Noting that the commission follows political and social developments closely, Kılıç said that the rise of far-right parties and racist approaches in Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Switzerland and some Balkan countries is worrying….
“Islamophobia comes first among racism. Racism against religion is at its peak in Germany. We understand this from the attacks on mosques. There are disrespects such as drawing a swastika and leaving a pig’s head. Considering the public opinion polls, the far-right AFD is the first party in the German state of Brandenburg. Racism is a contagious element, and when it is infected, it evolves into events that will harm social life,” he warned, underlining that members of different religions are excluded from political decision-making processes.
“There are those in Europe who say, ‘We need to restrict the movement and living space of Muslims unless they adapt to us.’ This contradicts the basic values that Europe claims and puts forward,” he added.
He highlighted that a report on Islamophobia was published in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last week and added: “A human being is an entity with thoughts, feelings, beliefs and social networks. If a person is not allowed to live with these characteristics, this person’s fundamental rights and freedoms are taken away from them.”…
Nearly 48% of respondents said they believe “Islam is not compatible with German society,” while 29% suggested restricting the practice of Islam in the country.
“Negative attitudes towards Islam are widespread in all groups examined; people with and without a migration background,” the researchers said in their report….
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
“This is a private individual who made a personal statement that has nothing to do with the state.”
Of course. But he is one among many who share these views.
“Saudi cousin of Mohammed bin Salman threatens West with ‘jihad and martyrdom,'” Middle East Eye, October 16, 2022:
A cousin of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has issued a violent threat against the West amid souring relations over a decision by Opec+ to cut oil production.
In a message “to the West”, Prince Saud al-Shaalan is seen in a video circulating on social media saying “anybody who challenges the existence of this kingdom, we are all projects of jihad and martyrdom”. The prince is heard issuing his warning in English and French.
Saud al-Shaalan is a tribal leader and grandson of King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia, according to Saudi human rights advocate Abdullah Alaoudh.
His intervention comes as relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia have hit a nadir. With energy prices rising following Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine, Washington has lobbied members of the Opec+ oil cartel, particularly Saudi Arabia, to increase production….
Alaoudh, who belongs to the Democracy in the Arab World Now group set up by Khashoggi, said on Twitter that Saud al-Shaalan’s video showed “a direct cousin” of Mohammed bin Salman threatening the West with “jihad and martyrdom”.
However, Saudi lobbyist Ali Shihabi said the prince was a minor royal with no official role.
“This is a private individual who made a personal statement that has nothing to do with the state,” he tweeted.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
In a recent interview on EWTN’s The World Over, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned that the Synod on Synodality was engaged in a “hostile takeover of the Church.”
If you’re not sure what “synodality “means, don’t feel bad, very few know what the Synod of Synodality is all about. As best as I can tell, it’s a multi-year process consisting of numerous meetings and consultations which will culminate in the Synod of Bishops next year in Rome. It has to do with “walking together,” listening to one another, and gathering opinions from the faithful and not-so-faithful.
They haven’t gotten around yet to ask my opinion, so I’ll offer it here in case they never do.
My opinion? I agree with Cardinal Muller that the Synod is intended to be a “hostile takeover” of the Church. The first giveaway is the vagueness of it all. It’s about “listening to the Holy Spirit,” “listening to everybody,” and “not excluding anyone.” It’s the kind of language an HR department uses when it wants employees to think that their opinions are highly valued.
When the Synodal leaders do get more explicit, it only reinforces Cardinal Muller’s charge of a takeover. In speaking of divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Communion, or same-sex couples receiving a blessing, Cardinal Mario Grech, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, said they should be listened to because “this [might] be an opportunity for the Church to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through them also.”
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the Realtor General for the Synod (i.e., the man in charge) seems to already know what the Holy Spirit will say about these issues. Earlier this year, he said that the Church’s teaching on homosexuality is “no longer correct.” “It’s about time,” he said, “we did a fundamental revision of the doctrine here.”
Of course, if the Synod can revise one doctrine, what’s to prevent it from revising a few more? Or even two dozen? There are all sorts of pressure groups within the Church who favor changes to doctrine—changes that will make them feel more comfortable but may cause enormous damage to the Church.
To get an idea of how the synodal way will likely proceed, it’s useful to consider an example of another “hostile takeover.”
About five years ago, I wrote a piece about the “hijacking” of the Catholic-Muslim dialogue in America by Islamists. Perhaps “hijacking” was too strong a word. “Influence operation” might have been more accurate. In any event, the initial goal of the dialogue—to learn more about each other’s religion—shifted, in the words of one Catholic official, to “advocacy” for Muslims.
Thus, Anthony Cirelli, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs told Catholic News Service that “there is an “urgency to engage more in a kind of advocacy and policy in support of the Muslim community.” He added that U.S. bishops are “coming to stand with our Muslim colleagues…in trying to change the negative narrative surrounding Muslims in our popular media.”
In short, instead of Catholics learning more about Islam, the aim of the dialogues shifted to Catholics helping Muslims to improve their image. The “urgency” was not to understand Islam, but to “stand with our Muslim colleagues…” Against what? Against a supposed tsunami of “Islamophobia.”
But there was very little evidence of any real Islamophobia. Much of the data on anti-Muslim attacks was based on false reports. Moreover, Muslim-on-Muslim attacks (which are relatively frequent) were counted as instances of “Islamophobia.” And the media, far from pushing a false negative narrative about Islam, had instead painted a false positive image—namely, that Islam is a “religion of peace” that has “nothing to do with violence.” If the media was guilty of anything, it was guilty of covering up the massive scale of global Islamic terror attacks.
Nevertheless, Catholic leaders in America and elsewhere fell for the “Islamophobia” scam, and they threw money and resources into the anti-Islamophobia campaign—a campaign that was already well-funded by Arab Gulf States.
It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that Catholic dialoguers had been innocent victims. For most of them, the “Islamophobia” narrative was the narrative that they wanted to believe. It fit nicely into the Catholic narrative about Islam that had developed in the wake of Vatican II—namely, that Islam was a fellow Abrahamic religion that shared much in common with Catholicism, especially a desire for peace.
This focus on shared beliefs provided two main benefits to the Catholic dialogue participants. First, it allowed them to avoid the unpleasant business of discussing major theological differences with Muslims, and, second, it gave them an opportunity to signal their virtues.
If Muslims could be portrayed as victims of Islamophobia, then Catholic prelates who “stand with our Muslim colleagues” could portray themselves as protectors of the victims—older brothers who would defend their younger siblings from the bullies of the world. As Bishop (now Cardinal) Robert Mc Elroy said at one USCCB dialogue event, Catholics need to take up the fight against “the scourge of anti-Islamic prejudice.”
However, as anyone who is acquainted with recent history ought to know, Islam is hardly a defenseless younger brother. The number of Muslims in the world dwarfs the number of Catholics. And Islam is far more a victimizer than a victim. Anyone who doubts this ought to consult Raymond Ibrahim’s detailed record of the persecution of non-Muslims by Muslims in recent years. Yet, despite this abundant evidence, Catholic bishops seem more interested in protecting Muslims from imaginary crimes than in protecting Christians from real crimes at the hands of Muslims.
I bring up the “hijacking” of the Catholic-Muslim dialogue because what Cardinal Muller calls the “hostile takeover” of the Church by the Synod of Synodality seems to be proceeding by the same method. The Synod organizers are not interested in debating the merits of new movements within the Church, but rather of presenting various dissenting groups as “victims” who deserve justice.
In other words, the aim is not to discuss the pros and cons of women priests or same-sex unions, or the LGBT agenda but to convince ordinary Catholics that they must stand with their “persecuted” and “powerless” younger brothers and sisters in Christ.
So just as bishops have come to believe that they have a mission to protect Muslims from “Islamophobes,” they also believe they have a mission to protect dissenting minorities in the Church from “homophobes,” “transphobes,” and every other type of “progressivephobe” (a word which in all probability will soon be added to the lexicon). Moreover, the 24/7 focus on the needs and grievances of these supposed victims deflects attention away from the harm they do to Church and society
As in the case of Muslim “victims” of Islamophobia, these “excluded “groups are presented as beleaguered and powerless minorities when, in fact, they wield considerable power. As is well-known, Pope Francis has stacked the College of Cardinals with progressive prelates who share his own agenda. Moreover, many, if not most, of the top positions in the Vatican are currently held by pro-LGBT and pro-communion-for-everyone cardinals and bishops. It is they, not Cardinal Muller and the handful of other conservative prelates, who are calling the shots.
In this regard, traditional Catholics need to learn a lesson from the current political realities in America. In the wake of Joe Biden’s presidential victory, it turned out that the deep state bureaucracy and the Democratic machine had amassed far more power and control over American society than any, except for a few, had imagined. The “hijacking” of America was much further advanced than most had supposed.
Likewise, traditional Catholics should not be surprised when they discover that the “deep Church” of the dissenters wields far more power than they had thought possible.
They also should not be surprised to discover that the supposed “victims” of the Church’s “exclusivity” will turn out to be victimizers. The main victim of the “hostile takeover” will be the Church itself and the gospel revelation entrusted to it. The next set of victims will be all those Christians who have come to rely on that revelation for hope and guidance.
A recent piece in the National Catholic Register puts the matter bluntly: “Some faithful German Catholics are already talking, not of the synodal way, but the suicidal way.”
According to some Catholic officials, the word “synod” derives from two Greek words meaning “to walk together” or “walking together.” Unless it makes a sharp course correction, the current Synod on Synodality may be more accurately described as “walking together over the cliff.”
William Kilpatrick is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. His books include Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West, What Catholics Need to Know About Islam, and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Jihad.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
“Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your enemies…” (Qur’an 8:60)
10/13/2022 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – On Tuesday, October 4, Islamic militants murdered three Christians in an attack in northeastern Nigeria. The Christians lived in Njilang village, located in Chibok County. During the attack, the militants burned multiple houses and businesses to the ground and wounded dozens more residents.
An area resident who witnessed the attack identified the militants as affiliates of the terror group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Chibok county has suffered from many terrorist attacks over the past several years. It is a majority-Christian area, which makes its residents highly vulnerable to violence motivated by Islamic extremism.
The resident went on to say that the ISWAP militants attacked at 2:30 AM and were armed with high-powered weapons. They surrounded the village and shot at the Christians who tried to flee. According to the resident, “The ISWAP terrorists also set fire to six houses and looted five shops belonging to Christians in the village, and afterward burned down the shops.” …
As ICC reported earlier this year, the Nigerian government continues to deny any religious motivation behind these attacks. However, evidence repeatedly shows that Islamic extremist groups Boko Haram and ISWAP are seeking to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout the entirety of Nigeria.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
It’s no secret that Joe Biden was desperate to prevent the Saudi Arabian government from cutting oil output in advance of the U.S. midterm elections. Biden knew that rising prices at the pump just as American voters headed to the polls would foreclose any chance — however slim — that Democrats had to avoid an electoral disaster.
The Biden administration groveled before Saudi royalty — just as Barack Obama and George Bush had done. And like those other two presidents, it didn’t do any good. The Saudis either jacked up the price or cut the supply anyway.
Word has now leaked out — from the Saudis, no less — that Biden had requested that Saudi Arabia hold off cutting the production of crude oil for a month. That delay would have made the production cut after the November midterm elections.
The Saudis issued a bland statement on the issue. “The Government of the Kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the US Administration that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences,” the statement read.
It’s at this point that we should mention that what Biden was suggesting was an “in-kind” contribution by a foreign power to the Democratic Party. That’s illegal, and the Republicans want Nancy Pelosi to open hearings on the matter.
The administration tried the “Look! Squirrel!” defense by accusing the Saudis of aiding the Russians and undermining U.S. sanctions. Someone should tell old Joe that it’s their fricking oil and they can do whatever the hell they want with it.
These are very serious accusations and need to be investigated in a bipartisan manner. We can’t allow American elections to be held hostage by a foreign power.
The White House claims it’s all on the up and up.
“In recent weeks, the Saudis conveyed to us — privately and publicly — their intention to reduce oil production, which they knew would increase Russian revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions. That is the wrong direction,” White House spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
“We presented Saudi Arabia with analysis to show that there was no market basis to cut production targets and that they could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting to see how things developed. Other OPEC nations communicated to us privately that they also disagreed with the Saudi decision, but felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction,” he said.
Yeah, right. There’s plenty of “market basis” to cut production since it will put more money in the pockets of oil producers. But compared to saving the Democratic majority in Congress, how important is that?
It’s not really a question of whether or not the administration was looking for Saudi help in surviving the midterm elections. They were. The problem for Republicans is proving it. And given the current climate in Washington, it’s not likely that Democrats will accept anything less than a signed confession from Biden that he committed an impeachable offense.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Normally, when we hear about school violence (think about how awful that phrase sounds for just a moment), we think of either students or an outside intruder with a gun, a vendetta, and severe psychological issues. We also think of teachers as being the last line of defense between a monster and the children they teach. And indeed, there are stories of teachers who have gone above and beyond the call of educators to keep their children safe. But what happens when the potential danger is not from a current or former disturbed student or deranged person from the community? What does it mean when the possible threat is from a teacher?
Parents of students at St. Stanislaus school and other members of the East Chicago, Ind., areas are wrestling with that issue after a teacher was arrested on Thursday for having a kill list that had the names of staff members and even students on it.
Fox News reports that Angelica Carrasquillo-Torres told a fifth-grader Wednesday that she had made plans to kill herself, along with fellow staff members and students. Carrasquillo-Torres told the student that he or she was at the bottom of the list. Once the student alerted school officials, Carrasquillo-Torres was taken to the principal’s office, where she admitted to the existence of the list and that the student’s name was on it but did not produce it. For reasons unknown and particularly vexing to parents, Carrasquillo-Torres was told to leave campus and told not to return, and police were called four hours later. Carrasquillo-Torres was arrested the next day. Aside from the unexplained time lapse between the incident and the call to the police, parents were understandably furious that they were not made fully aware of the scope of the incident. One parent said that they only received an email that an “issue” had occurred in a classroom.
The Post Millennial found a message to parents on the school’s Facebook page that read in part:
It is with great sadness that we share the following statement.
On Wednesday, October 12, at approximately 12:45 p.m., the staff at St. Stanislaus School responded to a concerning report from a student regarding comments made by the student’s teacher. The teacher was removed from the classroom and escorted to the principal’s office, where she remained under supervision and had no further contact with students. The teacher was interviewed to further identify the details of the incident.
After students were safely dismissed at the end of the school day, the teacher was escorted off campus and the East Chicago police department was notified at approximately 4:45 p.m. When asked, the police assured the principal that the facility was safe and that they could proceed normally with all scheduled learning and school events for the next school day.
An investigation is underway.
On the pages of PJ Media and other sites, you can find stories of teachers pushing an LGBTQ, etc., agenda, a CRT agenda, or a socialist agenda. But a teacher with a hit list? This may be the first time such a thing has made the news. We understand that the world can be a nasty place and that schools need to be vigilant, and as a grandparent, I appreciate that. And it is entirely possible that, like many imbalanced people, Carrasquillo-Torres was able to fly under the radar until the signs of a potential disaster became evident. Unfortunately, the sign in question was a child learning that he or she was on the teacher’s “kill” list.
Schools need to be vigilant when it comes to external threats, and the “system” needs to be on the lookout for those people who may have the capacity for violence. But what needs to happen when the threat comes from the person whose job it is to protect the innocent? And what will be done to prevent another situation like this or one that goes one or more steps further from occurring in the future?
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The only hope of survival that the Islamic regime has is based on its ability to be ruthless and violent in putting down the protests. If the protesters can force the security forces to flee, there is hope in Iran for an end to this bloodthirsty regime.
“Iran protests: Gunfire at anti-hijab protestors in latest crackdown,” AFP, October 13, 2022:
Gunshots were fired as Iranian security forces confronted protests Wednesday over Mahsa Amini’s death in a crackdown that rights groups say has already cost at least 108 lives with many children among the dead.
The crack of gunfire interrupted demonstrators’ chants in the cities of Isfahan and Karaj and in Amini’s hometown Saqez, in videos shared by two Norway-based human rights organisations.
“Death to the dictator,” shouted female students who had defiantly taken off their mandatory hijab headscarves as they marched down a Tehran street, in a video verified by AFP.
Shots were heard in Isfahan amid the “nationwide protests and strikes”, Iran Human Rights (IHR) said of a video it tweeted, and in Saqez, according to the Kurdish rights group Hengaw, which reported that later “the security forces fled”.
Amini, 22, died on September 16 after falling into a coma following her arrest in Tehran by the notorious morality police for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Young women, university students and even schoolgirls have since taken off their hijabs and faced off with security forces in the biggest wave of social unrest to grip Iran in almost three years.
At least 28 children have been killed and hundreds more detained and held mostly in adult prisons, rights groups said.
Deadly unrest has rocked especially Sanandaj in Amini’s western home province of Kurdistan — but also Zahedan in Iran’s far southeast, where demonstrations erupted on September 30 over the reported rape of a teenage girl by a police commander.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday again accused Iran’s “enemies” of stoking “street riots”.
“The actions of the enemy, such as propaganda, trying to influence minds, creating excitement, encouraging and even teaching the manufacture of incendiary devices are now completely clear,” he said….
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
This is the fight I’ve been waiting for. Let’s be totally honest. The only religious people the left is truly scared to offend are Muslims. Criticizing Muslims is completely off the table according to the left’s rules of engagement, so if Muslims are upset about something, the amount of twisting, back-bending, and acrobatics the left will perform in order not to offend them will be something to see.
So when hundreds of Muslim parents, upset at gay porn in the school libraries, showed up to a school board meeting in Dearborn, Mich., and it devolved into shouting and chaos with board members running away and gay protesters being chased to their cars, the fallout was absolutely hilarious.The headline in the Detroit Free Press after the event went haywire was “LGBTQ and Faith Communities Struggle for Unity.” BAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Can you imagine what the headline would have been if it were a Baptist church chasing gay protesters to their cars? “Fascist White Supremacist Book Burners Bash Gay Man in Parking Lot,” or “Rabid Religious Zealots Terrorize Gay Man Defending Right to Read,” or something equally terrible. I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying this disaster.
Enjoy this thread and all the videos in it. I know I did.
I’ll be going over this hysterical story on today’s live stream. I’m covering the Darrell Brooks trial (if I can get through it and more). Meet me there!
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Since Jan. 20, 2021, America has gone swiftly from being a free republic to being an authoritarian regime in which foes of the rulers are locked up and subjected to conditions that are designed to destroy them and deter others from emulating them. Based on the false claim that the Jan. 6 entry into the Capitol constituted an “insurrection” aimed at nothing less than overthrowing the government, the Biden regime, chiefly Attorney General Merrick Garland, is working to criminalize legitimate political opposition to the Democrats’ far-Left agenda. In his infamous Sept. 1 speech before an ominous red-and-black backdrop and two Marines, Biden claimed that “MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Those were not mere words. The regime is acting upon them.
The Biden regime has decided to treat the Jan. 6 protesters, who are overwhelmingly patriotic Americans guilty of nothing more than supporting the former president and being concerned about the integrity of the 2020 election, as if they were dangerous enemies of the state. And so in America today, we not only have a Marxist regime that wants to crush all dissent; we have a gulag and political prisoners.
Last Sunday, Gateway Pundit published a letter from 34 of these prisoners to Garland, a rabid partisan and sinister authoritarian who has sicced the FBI on parents protesting the woke agenda at school board meetings, and who is virtually certain to ignore it and allow the inhuman treatment it describes to continue. The prisoners wrote:
When one considers a society that distinguishes itself upon the standards of a “First World Country” allocation among the other numerous Nations around the globe, while informing its citizens that they belong to a country that ensures “Liberty and Justice for All”, it’s difficult to imagine then, that The United States of America, supposedly the wealthiest Nation on the planet, would subjugate its own citizens to that of incarceration and injustice instead, all while administering medieval standards of living to the agonizing occupants of its “Correctional Facilities”.
The prisoners went on to charge that in the District of Columbia Jail, they were “all but slowly murdered in every way except for their very soul being ripped from their famished chests on behalf of this mercilessly sinister institution.” They added that “if this pale dungeon of Human Rights Violations dared to summon any honesty of hard choice pertaining to the abhorrent atrocities that take place behind these unforgiving doors, they should erect a sign above the front gate that says, ‘Abandon All Hope, Yee [sic] Who Enter Here.’”
These Americans, whose most serious crime is trespassing, state that they “have and will continue to endure” a long list of horrors, including “Begging for Help / Water / Medical Aid / Mercy through a 4-inch by 10-inch window of cold metal doors”; “No Visitations”; “No Religious Services”; “No Attorney Access”; and “Mail delayed 3-4 months prior to delivery.” Their laundry is returned “with brown stains, pubic hair, and or reeking of ripe urine.” They have found worms in their salads at mealtime, and the food is so poor that many are now suffering from a variety of ailments. In their cells, they endure black mold, cockroaches, and mice, and are denied “basic cleaning equipment to sanitize Living Space.” They have been “Stuck in Cells for 9 days without showers.” Medical professionals arrive months after they were requested, or not at all. They’re allowed to use tablets that are filled with “C.R.T. Propaganda”; “Re-Education Propaganda”; and “Racially Biased information.” They are made to endure “Solitary Confinement for 25 ½ hours or more at a time.” They have been “repeatedly Mocked and or Insulted for our skin color or “religious” documentation,” and have been “compared to ‘Beasts’, ‘Dogs’ and ‘Hogs by ‘The Final Call’ Magazine.” Jail staff mock them by wearing “Democrat, Black Lives Matter, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden related attire.” Meanwhile, they are “sent to ‘The Hole’ if we express any political views whatsoever.”
That isn’t even close to all of it; the prisoners even charge with physical and sexual assault by the guards. They accordingly ask Garland: “We hereby request to spend our precious and limited days, should the government continue to insist on holding us captive unconstitutionally as pre-trial detainees, to be transferred and reside at Guantanamo Bay, a detention facility that actually provides nutritional meals, routine sunlight exposure, top-notch medical care, is respectful of religious requirements, has centers for exercise/entertainment for its detainees despite the fact that those residents are malicious terrorists, real members of the Taliban and few are United States Citizens, instead of remaining trapped within the wretched confines of cruel and unusual punishment of the DC Jail.”
This is not grandstanding. The few remaining prisoners at Gitmo are treated far better. Biden’s handlers have a far more positive view of the Taliban than they do of conservative Americans. It is breathtaking that anything of this kind could happen in America, and it’s an indication of how far the Biden regime is from our founding principles. But this treatment will continue: the regime needs its scapegoats, and its bogus “insurrection” narrative, and so these unfairly persecuted people will continue to be made to pay for the crime of being in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
The brutal crackdown on protests against the Iranian regime following the death of 23-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the religious police has apparently not slowed the movement for reform down one bit. Dozens of videos on this Twitter account tell the story of the protests as well as the unspeakable brutality of the regime.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited a university campus and got a welcome he won’t soon forget.
Female students in Tehran chanted “get lost” as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited their university campus on Saturday and condemned protesters enraged by the death of a young woman in custody, videos on social media showed.
Raisi addressed professors and students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated “rioters” with flies, as nationwide demonstrations entered a fourth week.
“They imagine they can achieve their evil goals in universities,” Raisi said on state TV. “Unbeknownst to them, our students and professors are alert and will not allow the enemy to realise their evil goals.”
Not exactly the best way to win friends and influence people.
As the internet crackdown continues with limited or spotty access, protesters have devised ingenious ways to get their message out, including a brazen hack of a popular TV news show.
Later Saturday, hackers broke into the evening news on Iran’s state TV for 15 seconds, just as footage of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was being broadcast. The hackers flashed an image of Khamenei surrounded by flames. A caption read “Join us and stand up!” and “The blood of our youth is dripping from your claws,” a reference to Khamenei.
A song with the lyrics “Woman. Life. Freedom” — a common chant of the protesters — played in the background.
As Iranian bullies target primary schools to clamp down on protests, some activists are wondering, “Where is UNICEF” — the United Nations Children’s Fund?
Eventually, the regime will kill enough protesters or arrest enough of them that the energy will be sucked out of the movement — just as it was in 2009, 2015, 2017, and all the other mass movements that ended with blood in the streets and Iran’s young people serving long prison sentences.
And instead of putting pressure on the brave girl-beaters in Tehran, the Biden administration wants to sign a useless deal to allow Iran to build nuclear weapons anytime they wish. When that happens, tens of billions of dollars will be released for the regime to improve the tolls of oppression and build a military to challenge our friends in the region.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Regular PJ Media readers already know that Democrat-controlled cities and states are increasingly succumbing to unchecked crime and violence. Activists, politicians, and prosecutors with agendas have both suppressed law enforcement and repealed bail laws, essentially giving criminals free rein to terrorize law-abiding citizens. The situation has become so commonplace that it’s barely worth reporting anymore. But a new girl gang in New York City is so over-the-top and bizarre in appearance that it wouldn’t be surprising if the Penguin or Catwoman showed up next.
Greenway Productions, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Dubbed the Green Goblin Gang by New Yorkers, a group of women covered head-to-toe in lime-hued morph suits terrorized people on a 42nd Street subway platform in the early hours of Sunday morning. Videos posted to social media show somewhere between six and 10 women, who appear to be in their teens or twenties, rampaging across the platform and entering a subway train, pausing to beat and rob two 19-year-old women as well as fight among themselves.
Video posted to Reddit on Sunday showed the two victims being assaulted inside a subway car. In the foreground, one goblin hooks her foot into the strap of a victim’s handbag and then spins around the subway pole, flinging the woman across the car. Behind her, another goblin pulls a second victim into a headlock while repeatedly punching her in the face. Other goblins surround the two targets, yelling, punching, and shoving.
On YouTube, SuperFriends NYC posted a second video that was filmed from outside the train and shows the action on the platform. Over a period of nearly five minutes, the goblins cause chaos as they run amok on the platform and inside the subway car. One especially large goblin can be seen attacking the victims, leaving the car, then returning several times to beat them some more. Eventually, some bystanders remembered that they were men and encircled the victims, repelling the verdant villains.
“Yesterday was her birthday,” the mother of one of the victims told the New York Post on Monday. “This is how she spent her 19th birthday. I hope they get what they deserve and then some because it’s disgusting.”
The mom said the two girls were standing on the train platform, chatting and laughing, when the goblins swarmed the platform, bumping into her daughter as they passed. The girls got onto the subway, at which point the gang attacked them.
“[My daughter] was home from college. Now she’s getting chest X-rays and CAT scans,” the girl’s mother said. “She was supposed to be back in school this morning, but [she’s not] because of her injuries from being stomped in the head by 10 grown-ass women.”
“My daughter, thank goodness, has no marks on her face,” she added. “[She] has bruises on both of her arms and legs. One of them bit her shoulder. She has a bite mark through her clothes.”
The other victim’s mother told the Post that her daughter had been vomiting Sunday night and was awaiting a CAT scan Monday to check for concussion.
Besides the injuries they sustained, the victims were also reportedly robbed of a cell phone and a handbag.
While the goblins are a somewhat interesting development in the otherwise so-common-as-to-be-mundane street violence plaguing Gotham, they are also living proof that neon green skin-tight leotards are not for everyone.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Prices at the Grade II-listed Stoke Rochford Hall in Lincolnshire start at $575 per night. This kowtowing to Muslim migrants is part of the larger picture of how far the UK will go to accommodate these migrants (jihadists included, via infiltration). In 2020, Jihad Watch reported that illegal Muslim migrants were being given VIP treatment and filling up hotels on the taxpayer dime, and this looks to continue.
The UK is already overwhelmed by illegal economic Muslim migrants who have been streaming across the English Channel with no end in sight. According to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, “In 2020, the top five most common countries of the nationality of people seeking asylum in the UK were Iran, Iraq, Albania, Eritrea, and Sudan,” which are all majority-Muslim countries except Eritrea, which has a significant Muslim minority. “Of all refugees resettled in the UK from January 2010 to December 2020, around 70% were Syrian.”
Recently, Britain’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her support for open-door migration. before she became prime minister, she had vowed to put a stop to the illegal migrant flows arriving via the English Channel, insisting that she would “absolutely” use the Royal Navy to stop migrants from crossing the channel illegally. She also promised that a “military presencewould be maintained under her premiership.” It didn’t take her long to make a U-turn.
British citizens are increasingly becoming dhimmis as citizens give to see their tax dollars used by the government to make unreasonable accommodations to Muslim migrants, many of them who have demonstrated no respect for infidel Britons, nor for the rule of law.
“UK Govt Cancels Weddings at Victorian Country Mansion Hotel to Make Way for Migrants,” by Jack Montgomery, Breitbart, October 2, 2022:
Weddings booked by Britons at a stunning Victorian country mansion have been cancelled after the Home Office announced it needed the hotel for migrants.
At least three weddings have reportedly been cancelled at the Grade II-listed Stoke Rochford Hall in Lincolnshire…
The historic mansion, run by Countrywide Hotels, was already hosting migrants under what local media describes a “compulsory contract” with the government, and was forced to cancel the planned weddings after being told it was required to take on even more.
“The hotel has received notification from the Home Office that the current government contract is to be extended to take additional families with immediate effect,” said a spokeswoman for the hotel.
“It is with deep regret that three weddings that had planned to use the hotel over the coming months have to be cancelled,” she added.
The hotel said they “appreciate[d] how distressing and upsetting cancelling a wedding is, not only for the bride and groom but for all the guests that have been looking forward to celebrating the union and in many cases have made travel arrangements,” and that “[n]ot only are we offering our sincere apologies, but where possible looking at alternative arrangements and venues and then transferring the weddings plans to the [alternative] venue”– with a “full refund” which will supposedly cover “any additional expenses the couple may have incurred”….
In February, the cost of hosting migrants in hotels was estimated at £4.7 million a day — £1.71 billion ($2.31 billion) a year — and it is highly likely to have increased in the months since as 2022 has proved to be another record-breaking year for illegal immigration by boat alone.
Further costs, such as access to state schools and healthcare and regular stipends for migrants, take the direct financial burden associated with paying for them well beyond £2 billion a year.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Parents stand up to Antifa assaults - while protesting “Drag” and transgenderism for children.
Heavy police presence – but no arrests of Antifa perpetrators.
Violent leftist group promotes child sexual deviancy.
Texas MassResistance earlier revealed that Drag performer for children had criminal record.
October 2, 2022
Texas MassResistance leader Tracy Shannon talks to TV reporter during protest. She didn't hold back about "Drag" and Antifa.
We’re all learning how the Left’s storm troopers are not only violent but degenerate. They come out in force to defend those who push sexual deviancy on children – and attack anyone who disagrees.
But in Texas, pro-family activists - including MassResistance – are boldly standing up to it!
As we recently reported, Texas MassResistance leader Tracy Shannon and MassResistance activist Kevin Whitt exposed how a local leftist church in Katy, Texas, was bringing in a Drag Queen with a criminal record to perform at an upcoming event with children. This was widely reported on conservative news sites, and several pro-family groups announced they would be showing up there to protest as the Sept. 23 event was taking place.
Raising money to help teenagers cross-dress without parents' knowledge!
Besides pushing “Drag” culture on children, the purpose of the church’s “Drag Bingo” event was to raise money for "Transparent Closet," the church's in-house organization that helps teenagers to cross-dress without their parent's knowledge. For example, the group gives dresses and make-up to boys, and gives girls strappings to “bind” their breasts tight to appear masculine – a very unhealthy practice promoted by the LGBT movement.
One pro-family man managed to get an admission ticket to the church's Drag show. While inside, he also was given a tour of the "Transparent Closet" by a church member! But when they saw that he was videoing, they had a police officer remove him. Someone later posted his video on Twitter. Right after he left the church, Tracy Shannon interviewed him.
Pro-family activist talks to Tracy after getting ejected from the church 'Drag' event.
He told Tracy that the Drag show was just as bad as people imagined it would be:
It was a drag show. And there were kids and other adults giving the drag queen money during the performance. There were suggestive things said, all of that. There were adults, younger children, and teenaged kids.
He then described what he saw in the "Transparent Closet" area:
The closet is set up in a way that is designed to keep parents uninformed. Chest binders, underwear, and bras can be found.
They told me that they're trying to get more binders and things like that. They showed me jewelry, purses, makeup, bracelets, earrings, underwear, and scarves.
They said they give Home Goods bags to the kids to take it all home secretly, "because families aren't supporting."
This clip from pro-family activist's video shows a rack of dresses for boys in the church's "Transparent Closet" area.
He also mentioned that these repulsive buttons were being given out at the church event.
Pro-family people gather to protest
On Saturday, Sept. 23, 0ver 200 people from several area pro-family groups – including Texas MassResistance – lined up across the street from the church to protest the event.
Many held signs. Some prayed and sang. A Catholic group prayed the Rosary. A contingent of “Proud Boys” (who are much maligned in the media) showed up in support. The peaceful protesters came because they were upset that this was targeting children in their city.
The pro-family protest stretched for blocks.
People weren't afraid to speak out!
It was a diverse crowd! When they found out that Antifa was coming, they had messages for them!
Tracy Shannon had a T-shirt for the event along with her sign.
Antifa hoodlums come to support “Drag” and terrorize pro-family people
A group of several dozen Antifa thugs clearly had been organized to disrupt the pro-family protest. They lined up on the sidewalk in front of the church, facing the pro-family people across the street.
Many of them were masked and dressed entirely in black or wearing other bizarre clothes. They brought signs promoting homosexual and transgender behaviors (and child grooming), and, as usual, labeling those who disagree with them as “fascists.” (This is ironic, of course, because they are acting exactly as the true fascists of the 1930s.)
The Antifa crowd and their childish signs. Note the man on the truck wearing a kilt (or skirt?) and holding a rifle. (No one was intimidated by that.)
In front of the church.
More loser leftists with dumb signs: "Demand trans rights," "Pride not prejudice."
Next to the church parking lot. Afraid to show their faces.
Word of Antifa’s plans had apparently become known to the police, who showed up in riot gear to attempt to act as a barrier between Antifa and the pro-family people.
There appeared to be both local cops (above) and state police (below) on the scene.
The overwhelming opinion of the local people in Katy, TX was clearly against the Drag Queen event with children. Nearly all of the counter-protesters (supporting the event) seemed to be part of the Antifa group, and from outside of the community. All of the cars that passed by that honked or gestured supported the pro-family side. (A lot of thumbs-up!) The Antifa group appeared to be discouraged by that response, Tracy told us.
Antifa thugs attack pro-family people with Bear Mace
The Antifa thugs assaulted the pro-family people with Bear Mace – a powerful 20-foot spray meant to subdue aggressive, charging bears. Here’s what Tracy Shannon told us:
Antifa sprayed everyone with Bear Mace because they are idiots. They were intending to spray the Proud Boys but it was windy. The Mace blew down the street and affected most of the crowd.
There was also a drive-by by Macing of the Catholics who were praying Rosary. My son was Maced. The Mace got in all our throats. One woman had a panic attack, another had to administer an EpiPen because of allergic reaction to the Mace.
The group of Catholics reacts after being sprayed with Bear Mace.
The police saw what was happening but made no arrest of the thugs. They did not seem to want to get involved beyond keeping people apart. It was outrageous, and very frustrating.
Were there actual Nazis among pro-family groups?
There were some strange people on the pro-family side that the Antifa people insisted were “Nazis.” But this was likely a false-flag stunt similar to what we’ve seen the Left do many times before. As Tracy told us:
They kept pointing out that “Nazis” were on our side. So, I yelled at them that “we didn't invite Nazis, but you invited drag queens for children.” Not sure if the weird men standing here were real Nazis or not, but they have shown up before, but only when Antifa is there. So they are either plants (most likely) or they are more interested in Antifa than protecting children.
Final thoughts
Although the church event itself could not be stopped, the fact that over 200 pro-family people came and stood up to the intimidation tactics of Antifa is significant. People working to sexualize children should never get a free ride. And prominent conservative media across the country reported and commented on this action.
Besides being violent, Antifa is more degenerate than many people realize. Like the Nazis of the 1930s and the Leninists before that, they recruit dysfunctional people from the dregs of society and form them into a nationwide terror group. They are clearly well funded and well organized. In this case, much of their funding (as we know) comes from US corporations that give hundreds of millions through a variety of disgusting leftist “social justice” front groups.
But good people must continue to stand up – and we will eventually bring back decency and a healthy society!
Please help us continue to do our uncompromising work!
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Mahmoud Abbas met with a group of Palestinian-Americans on September 22, a week before making his Israel-bashing speech at the U.N., and offered them an intimate look at his recent meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It was quite a performance by Abbas, that revealed his special house blend of arrogance, rancor, and sheer miscomprehension. Abbas’ self-satisfied recounting of his phone conversation with Blinken can be found here: “‘You little boy’: Abbas says he scolded Blinken for not pressuring Israel,” by Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, September 29, 2022:
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a group of Palestinian Americans last week that he scolded US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for failing to pressure Israel to make peace.…
Mahmoud Abbas is in no position to scold Blinken or any other American official. The P.A. is deeply dependent on aid from the U.S. Without the $330 million that it now receives each year from the Bidenites, its economy would collapse.
In a recording of the September 22 meeting obtained by The Times of Israel, the PA leader recalled a recent phone conversation with Blinken during which Abbas said he grew frustrated with what he called a recurring US practice of claiming that Israel is not interested in peace, while refusing to use the American bully pulpit to pressure Jerusalem into moving in that direction.
“I told Blinken, ‘You little boy, don’t do that,’” Abbas told the Palestinian Americans, speaking in Arabic. Some details of the meeting were first published by the Haya Washington Arabic news site.
Abbas said he then recalled to Blinken how during the 1956 Suez Crisis, Israel agreed to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip after US president Dwight Eisenhower ordered prime minister David Ben Gurion to do so.
“I know your history,” Abbas said he told Blinken, detailing a string of phone calls that Eisenhower held with Ben Gurion at the time. In one of those conversations, the PA leader said the US president called the Israeli prime minister and asked, “David, have you gotten out of [Sinai]? Tonight, you’ll withdraw and you’ll tell me yourself that you’ve done so.’”
“Ben Gurion wrote in his memoirs that he withdrew that same night,” Abbas said, seeking to prove that the US has the power to press Israel when it wants to.
This is, of course, absurd. First, as to the actual withdrawal: Eisenhower threatened to withhold $100 million in aid to Israel in February 1957. Ben Gurion did not rush to withdraw overnight, as Abbas claims, but took a month to complete an orderly pullout. Second, and much more important, Abbas appears not to realize that Israel in 2022 is not the Israel of 1956. In 1956, Israel’s population was 1.6 million. Today it is over 9 million. Israel’s GDP in 1956 was $1.8 billion. Today it is $410 billion. Israel’s exports in 1956 of manufactured commodities were worth $34.3 million. In 2022, Israel’s exports reached $165 billion. In 1956 Israel was almost completely dependent for weaponry on outside suppliers, mainly France. In 2022, Israel is itself one of the top ten exporters of weapons in the world and has been so for five years running. It exports weapons to European countries and since 2020, to Arab members of the Abraham Accords; its top three export markets for weapons are India, Azerbaijan, and Vietnam. It also exports weapons to the United States. The American military has a deep appreciation for Israeli advances in weaponry, including, recently, both the Iron Dome and Iron Beam anti-missile defensive systems. In Operation Breaking Dawn, the Israelis achieved a successful interception rate of 97% using the Iron Dome. The Americans have benefited, too, from Israel’s advanced drones, its avionics (including improvements Israeli scientists made to the top-of-the-line F-35 that both air forces rely on), and its cyberwarfare and cyber defense capabilities, which are on a par with those of the U.S. and Russia. Israeli intelligence in the Middle East, especially about Iran and Islamic terror groups, is freely shared with the Americans.
Israel in 1956 could not say no to Washington. In 2022, though Abbas apparently does not realize it, Israel could manage, if it had to, without the $3 billion in aid it receives annually from the U.S. But could the U.S. do without Israeli advances in so many types of weapons, without its cyberwarfare capability, or without the intelligence gathered by its satellites and by Mossad agents? Israel is not just an ally, but arguably, is America’s most valuable military ally.
Abbas seems to think that Israel today can be pressured by Washington as it was in 1956-57. He’s wrong.
Commenting on the testy conversation with the US secretary of state, the PA president said he told Blinken: “The lesson [from this] is not to say, ‘My beloved, do this or don’t do that,’” when dealing with Israel, but rather to use the “red phone” and the authority of the president’s office to strong-arm Israel into changing its policies. He claimed the US deals with “190 countries” in this manner, but not Israel.
It is not true that the US strong-arms “190 countries.” The President cannot “pick up the red phone” and get Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, or Cuba, to do what he wants, nor can he do that with the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, or the rest of the European countries. He can’t even get the recipients of large amounts of American aid, such as Egypt and Jordan, to change their policies on human rights. And even though the Americans gave the P.A. $330 million in aid so far in 2020, they have been unable to get Abbas to shut down his “Pay-For-Slay” program. The days of diktats by the major powers are over.
Abbas told the meeting’s attendees that he used to believe the US administrations that claimed that Israel does not want peace. However, he now realizes that “it’s not that the Israelis don’t want peace but the Americans don’t want peace.”
Nothing makes sense here. No administration would have said Israel “doesn’t want peace.” They likely have said – but this distinction escaped Abbas – that Israel was unwilling to agree to start negotiations for peace “based on the 1967 lines” (that is, the 1949 armistice lines), which is what the 2002 Saudi peace initiative demanded, and what Abbas still demands. That is a different thing from not “wanting peace.” Israel has made great sacrifices for peace – giving up fully 95% of the territory it won in the Six-Day War in order to have a peace treaty with Egypt – as much as, or perhaps more than, any nation.
And when Abbas says that the “Americans don’t want peace,” it’s hard to fathom what he means, given the enormous amount of time and attention successive administrations in Washington have devoted to that ever-receding will-o’-the-wisp, a “two-state solution.”
Asked for comment on Abbas’s remarks, a State Department spokesperson said that Blinken “has maintained a respectful dialogue with President Abbas. Beyond that, we’ll decline to comment on the content of their conversations.”
A separate source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel: “This is not an accurate characterization of their discussions.”
Abbas was all swagger and swank before his friendly audience of Palestinian-Americans. He proudly described how he had told off Blinken, or so he says: addressing him condescendingly as “you little boy.” I doubt if he ever said that to Blinken. But he’d like others to believe that he did. “See, I put the Jewish Blinken Boy in his place.”
Fundamentally, Abbas cannot face the awful truth: that the American government is not willing, and even more importantly, is not able, to pressure the Israeli government as it did in 1956-57. Israel is six times more populous, hundreds of times richer, and infinitely more advanced in its military capability than it was 65 years ago. The Jewish state cannot be pressured, not by the UN, not by the EU, not even by the United States, to do what Israelis think would endanger their existence. And Washington, in any case, despite the squawks of assorted squadlettes, continues to stand with its plucky, brave, infinitely resourceful little ally.
Abbas Claims He Called Blinken “You Little Boy”; Berates Him For Not Making Israel Yield To U.S. Demands
Mahmoud Abbas met with a group of Palestinian-Americans on September 22, a week before making his Israel-bashing speech at the U.N., and offered them an intimate look at his recent m with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It was quite a performance by Abbas, that revealed his special house blend of arrogance, rancor, and sheer miscomprehension. Abbas’ self-satisfied recounting of his phone conversation with Blinken can be found here https://www.timesofisrael.com/you-little-boy-abbas-says-he-scolded-blinken-for-not-pressuring-israel/
“Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a group of Palestinian Americans last week that he scolded US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for failing to pressure Israel to make peace.
Comment:
Mahmoud Abbas is in no position to scold Blinken or any other American official. . The P.A. is deeply dependent on aid from the U.S. Without the $330 million that it now receives each year from the Bidenites, its economy would collapse.
“While Abbas has not shied away from publicly vocalizing his frustration with the Biden administration over the past year, his remarks during a private meeting with representatives of the Palestinian diaspora on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York appeared to go further and included the belittling of the United States’s top diplomat.
“In a recording of the September 22 meeting obtained by The Times of Israel, the PA leader recalled a recent phone conversation with Blinken during which Abbas said he grew frustrated with what he called a recurring US practice of claiming that Israel is not interested in peace while refusing to use the American bully pulpit to pressure Jerusalem into moving in that direction.
“I told Blinken, ‘You little boy, don’t do that,’” Abbas told the Palestinian Americans, speaking in Arabic. Some details of the meeting were first published by the Haya Washington Arabic news site.
“Abbas said he then recalled to Blinken how during the 1956 Suez Crisis, Israel agreed to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip after US president Dwight Eisenhower ordered prime minister David Ben Gurion to do so.
“I know your history,” Abbas said he told Blinken, detailing a string of phone calls that Eisenhower held with Ben Gurion at the time. In one of those conversations, the PA leader said the US president called the Israeli prime minister and asked, “David, have you gotten out of [Sinai]? Tonight, you’ll withdraw and you’ll tell me yourself that you’ve done so.’”
“Ben Gurion wrote in his memoirs that he withdrew that same night,” Abbas said, seeking to prove that the US has the power to press Israel when it wants to.
Comment:
This is of course absurd. First, as to the actual withdrawal: Eisenhower threatened to withhold $100 million in aid to Israel in February 1957. Ben Gurion did not rush to withdraw overnight, as Abbas claims, but took a month to complete an orderly pullout. Second, and much more important, Abbas appears not to realize that Israel in 2022 is not the Israel of 1956. In 1956, Israel’s population was 1.6 million. Today it is over 9 million. Israel’s GDP in 1956 was $1.8 billion. Today it is $410 billion. Israel’s exports in 1956 of manufactured commodities were worth $34.3 million. In 2022 Israel’s exports reached $165 billion. In 1956 Israel was almost completely dependent for weaponry on outside suppliers, mainly France. In 2022 Israel is itself one of the top ten exporters of weapons in the world and has been so for five years running. It exports weapons to European countries and since 2020, to Arab members of the Abraham Accords; its top three export markets for weapons are India, Azerbaijan, and Vietnam. It also exports weapons to the United States. The American military has a deep appreciation for Israeli advances in weaponry, including, recently, both the Iron Dome and Iron Beam anti-missile defensive systems. In Operation Breaking Dawn, the Israelis achieved a successful interception rate of 97% using the Iron Dome. The Americans have benefited, too, from Israel’s advanced drones, its avionics (including improvements Israeli scientists made to the top-of-the-line F-35 that both air forces rely on), and its cyberwarfare and cyber defense capabilities, which are on a par with those of the U.S. and Russia. Israeli intelligence in the Middle East, especially about Iran and Islamic terror groups, is freely shared with the Americans.
Israel in 1956 could not say no to Washington. In 2022, though Abbas apparently does not realize it, Israel could manage, if it had to, without the $3 billion in aid it receives annually from the U.S. But could the U.S. do without Israeli advances in so many types of weapons, or without its cyberwarfare capability, or without the intelligence gathered by its satellites and by Mossad agents? Israel is not just an ally, but arguably, is America’s most valuable military ally.
Abbas seems to think that Israel today can be pressured by Washington as it was in 1956-57. He’s wrong.
“Commenting on the testy conversation with the US secretary of state, the PA president said he told Blinken: “The lesson [from this] is not to say, ‘My beloved, do this or don’t do that,’” when dealing with Israel, but rather to use the “red phone” and the authority of the president’s office to strong-arm Israel into changing its policies. He claimed the US deals with “190 countries” in this manner, but not Israel.
Comment:
It is not true that the US strong-arms “190 countries.” The President cannot “pick up the red phone” and get Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, or Cuba, to do what he wants, nor can he do that with the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, or the rest of the European countries. He can’t even get the recipients of large amounts of American aid, like Egypt and Jordan, to change their policies on human rights. And even though the Americans gave the P.A. $330 million in aid so far in 2020, they have been unable to get Abbas to shut down his “Pay-For-Slay” program. The days of diktats by the major powers are over.
“Abbas told the meeting’s attendees that he used to believe the US administrations that claimed that Israel does not want peace. However, he now realizes that “it’s not that the Israelis don’t want peace but the Americans don’t want peace.”
Comment:
Nothing makes sense here. No administration would have said Israel “doesn’t want peace.” They likely have said – but this distinction escaped Abbas – that Israel was unwilling to agree to start negotiations for peace “based on the 1967 lines” (that is, the 1949 armistice lines) which is what the 2002 Saudi peace initiative demanded, and what Abbas still demands. That is a different thing from not “wanting peace.” Israel has made great sacrifices for peace – giving up fully 95% of the territory it won in the Six-Day War in order to have a peace treaty with Egypt– as much as, or perhaps more than, any nation.
And when Abbas says that the “Americans don’t want peace” it’s hard to fathom what he. means, given the enormous amount of time and attention successive administrations in Washington, have devoted to that ever-receding will-o’-the-wisp, a “two-state solution.”
“Asked for comment on Abbas’s remarks, a State Department spokesperson said that Blinken “has maintained a respectful dialogue with President Abbas. Beyond that, we’ll decline to comment on the content of their conversations.”
“A separate source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel: “This is not an accurate characterization of their discussions.”
Comment:
Abbas was all swagger and swank before his friendly audience of Palestinian-Americans. He proudly described how he had told off Blinken, or so he says: addressing him condescendingly as “you little boy.” I doubt if he ever said that to Blinken. But he’d like others to believe that he did. “See, I put the Jewish Blinken Boy in his place.”
Fundamentally, Abbas cannot face the awful truth: that the American government is not willing, and even more importantly, is not able, to pressure the Israeli government as it did in 1956-57. Israel is six times more populous, hundreds of times richer, and infinitely more advanced in its military capability than it was 65 years ago. The Jewish state cannot be pressured, not by the UN, not by the EU, not even by the United States, to do what Israelis think would endanger their existence. And Washington, in any case, despite the squawks of assorted squadlettes, continues to stand with its plucky, brave, infinitely resourceful little ally.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
What’s happening in Iran is the biggest women’s rights protest ever in the Islamic world. Yet the response from some of the leading feminists in the United States, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, has been strikingly muted. Each one has made what can be characterized at best as a tepid, pro forma response, one that contrasts sharply with their statements and actions during the Trump administration. It looks as if each one of these women regards Donald Trump as a far greater threat to women than the Islamic Republic of Iran is.
AOC tweeted on September 23: “Solidarity with the courageous women and allies in Iran protesting for their freedom. Mahsa Amini was senselessly murdered by the same patriarchal and autocratic forces repressing women the world over. The right to choose belongs to us all, from hijabs to reproductive care.” She also retweeted a tweet from Yassmin Abdel-Magid, a hijab-wearing Muslim writer in Australia: “To be (hijabi) or not be (hijabi) is the business of no state or man. Solidarity with women resisting patriarchal control, the world over.” Tlaib, meanwhile, retweeted AOC’s statement, and Omar retweeted Abdel-Magid’s. That’s it in terms of the public reactions of this trio to the uprising for women’s rights in Iran.
Neither AOC nor Abdel-Magid was going to come close to saying something about Islamic law, although that’s exactly what the protests in Iran are all about: women there don’t want to live under Islamic law anymore. But both are far too committed to the fictional concept of “Islamophobia,” and so they both made it all about patriarchy. That’s a much safer target for them, as patriarchy exists all over, not just in Iran, and not just among Muslims. So the very publicly practicing Muslims Omar and Tlaib could retweet their statements without fearing that they would be accused of criticizing Islam.
AOC also went further, equating the mullahs of Tehran with the pro-lifers in the United States. They’re “the same patriarchal and autocratic forces repressing women the world over,” daring to interfere with “the right to choose” in the fields of both “hijabs” and “reproductive care.” It’s a spectacular feat of illogic to equate a regime that is mowing down its own people in the streets with a Supreme Court decision that allows the individual states to determine whether to legalize or outlaw abortion, but that sort of incendiary rhetoric is how AOC keeps her rabid Left base ginned up with the requisite outrage that will drive these drug-addled slackers to the polls and to take other “social action.”
Yet AOC’s comparison, as you would expect, falls apart upon a moment’s thought. Pro-lifers, or at least the Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, are just like the Supreme Leader and his cohorts in the Islamic Republic. They’re both “patriarchal and autocratic forces,” you see. But from what ideological wellsprings does Iran’s patriarchal autocracy spring? AOC doesn’t dare get close to that question, for it is one of her most cherished dogmas that Islam is a religion of peace that has nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism and Muslims are victims of “Islamophobia” who must accordingly be given special consideration and accommodation. And allowing restrictions on access to abortion in some localities is, as far as AOC is concerned, equivalent to shooting women to death for daring to uncover their heads? The mind reels.
This is the same Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who in October 2020 took umbrage at then-President Trump referring to her as AOC in one of his debates with Old Joe Biden. “I wonder,” she wrote at the time, “if Republicans understand how much they advertise their disrespect of women in debates when they consistently call women members of Congress by nicknames or first names while using titles & last names when referring to men of = stature. Women notice. It conveys a lot. AOC is a name given to me by [the] community & the people. Y’all can call me AOC.”
So the “community & the people,” i.e., Leftists, can call her AOC, but if Republicans do so, they “advertise their disrespect of women.” AOC didn’t even say that the mullahs were displaying any “disrespect of women.” You may recall Tlaib, meanwhile, back in 2016 screaming and yelling at a Trump rally until she had to be escorted out. Has she ever gotten so enraged and emotional at the mullahs? Not publicly and likely not privately, either. For her part, Ilhan Omar claimed that Trump’s criticism of her was an attack on all women. Has she said that the murder of Mahsa Amini was an attack on all women? No.
Do Omar, Tlaib, and AOC just want the Iran protests to go away because Iran’s repressive and bloodthirsty regime interferes with their “Islamophobia” narrative? Sure looks like it.
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
“Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed…” (Qur’an 9:111)
“100 children killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul school: Report,” India Today, September 30, 2022:
At least 100 children died in a suicide bombing at an education centre in Kabul, according to reports. As per a local journalist, students, mostly Hazaras and Shias, were killed in the incident. The Hazaras are Afghanistan’s third largest ethnic group.
The blast took place at the Kaaj education centre in the Dasht-e-Barchi area in the west of the city, BBC reported.
A local journalist, Bilal Sarwary, tweeted, “We have so far counted 100 dead bodies of our students. The number of students killed is much higher. Classroom was packed. This was a mock university entrance exam, so students could prepare for the real one.”…
Dashte Barche in West Kabul have been constantly the target of deadly ISKP attacks. Hazaras and Shias murdered inside their classrooms, his tweet read further.
“Students were preparing for an exam when a suicide bomber struck at this educational centre. police spokesman Khalid Zadran had said….
The estimated 15,000-20,000 Christians who remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover “face routine torture and persecution from both the government and their own friends, families, and communities,” a new report finds.
This is not a new development. From the start, matters significantly worsened for Christians on August 15, 2021, following the Biden administration’s abrupt and poorly-planned withdrawal of U.S. troops, which caused the Central Asian nation to fall right back into the grips of the Taliban, an Islamic terrorist group complicit in the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
During the chaos of withdrawal, there were even reports that the Biden administration was actively preventing the rescue of Christian minorities from what has since become the sharia-enforcing Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Once U.S. withdrawal was complete, reports indicated that “Taliban militants are even pulling people off public transport and killing them on the spot if they’re Christians.” Any Afghan caught with a Bible app on their phone was reportedly executed. “How we survive daily only God knows,” a Christian Afghan reported on the condition of anonymity. “But we are tired of all the death around us.”
According to the World Watch List 2022, which ranks the 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted for their faith, Afghanistan is now the worst nation in the entire world in which to be Christian.
Similarly, Voice of the Martyrs, an international humanitarian nonprofit, offers the following about the 99.8 percent Muslim nation:
Beatings, torture and kidnappings are routine for Christians in Afghanistan. … Christians are martyred every year in Afghanistan, but their deaths generally occur without public knowledge. A few are also in prison… Christian converts from Islam are often killed by family members or other radicalized Muslims before any legal proceedings can begin.
Rather tellingly, immediate family members are most prone to persecute and murder converts to Christianity. As Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs recently explained, although conditions for Christians have “certainly worsened” since the Taliban takeover, “the first line of persecution is your family members, it’s your neighbors.” He explained how converts arouse suspicion when they fail to appear for prayers at their mosques. In just the first eight months of the Taliban’s resumption of power, one clandestine Christian man had to relocate his family three times due to the threat of discovery.
It is worth noting that, while Afghanistan was always bad for Christians, it became significantly worse in response to the U.S. invasion of 2001 (which, over twenty years later, and after spilling much blood and treasure, produced nil). Because Muslims tend to conflate Christians with the West in general, and America in particular—based on the popular but erroneous belief among Muslims that the West and America are still Christian—Afghan Christians were especially targeted after the U.S. invasion as a form of “collective punishment.”
In neighboring Pakistan, as usual (here, here and here) , Christian minorities were also attacked:
Life on any given day for Pakistani Christians is difficult. But members of Pakistan’s Christian community say now they’re being persecuted for U.S. drone attacks on Islamic militants hiding on the border with Afghanistan. The minority, which accounts for an estimated one percent of the country’s 170 million [mostly Muslim] population, says because its faith is strongly associated with America, it is targeted by Muslims.
“When America does a drone strike, they come and blame us,” said one Christian. “They think we belong to America. It’s a simple mentality.”
On the other hand, Western leadership is very careful not to show any concern for Christian minorities—a sentiment that goes hand in hand with Western acquiescence to Islamic sensibilities. If anything, Western leaders are more prone to turn a blind eye to, if not actively discriminate against, already persecuted Christians—as was the case with the UN and the UK, and during the Obama administration.
There is a final aspect to the plight of Christians in Afghanistan, one that more “pragmatic” observers will, no doubt, cite to blame the persecuted themselves. Apparently, many of the few thousand Christians that remain in Afghanistan are there on the same rationale that motivated the earliest Christians. According to David Curry, of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom:
Many Christians did flee Afghanistan when the Taliban took over. Some did stay because they want to be ‘salt and light’ [Matt. 5:13-16 Matt] in a theological sense in that country, even though it became more hostile. So, they want to be part of the community. They love their country. It’s totally understandable why many fled, but there is an embattled Christian community there in Afghanistan still today.
[Those remaining Christians] made the incredible bold decision to stay in the country. And their attitude was, ‘Listen, if all the Christians flee the country, who’s going to be here to share the gospel, who’s going to be here to be the church?’ And so they made that courageous decision to stay, even knowing that the Taliban would be taking over; knowing it was a very risky thing.
However one wishes to interpret this, here are the weak and vulnerable altruistically risking their lives for what they at least believe is the good of their fellow man, while many of the world’s rich and powerful, who habitually preach about “human rights” and “religious freedom”—at least when it suits their agendas, for example, to create racial divisions in the U.S., demonize Israel, or cover up for Islamist radicalization—have seemingly done everything possible to exacerbate their situation.
