RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-congos-crooked-contest-11546453926

A long history of misrule has made the Democratic Republic of Congo one of the world’s poorest and most dangerous countries. The Congolese people had reason for optimism this summer when President Joseph Kabila agreed to step down. This makes the hijinks surrounding Sunday’s election particularly dispiriting.

This was only the fourth multiparty election since independence in 1960, and it is the central African nation’s best chance at a peaceful transfer of power. After delaying elections for years, in August Mr. Kabila agreed to abide by the constitution and forgo another presidential run. That left his chosen successor, Emmanuel Shadary, to face off against some 20 candidates. The opposition largely coalesced around Martin Fayulu and Felix Tshisekedi, and Mr. Shadary trailed in polls.

It’s hardly been a fair contest. The government used an Ebola outbreak as a pretext to bar voting in opposition strongholds, and security forces broke up opposition rallies. Thousands of voting machines were destroyed in a fire last month. Millions of the DRC’s 46 million registered voters were unable to cast a ballot.

Both sides have claimed victory, though it’s unlikely Mr. Shadary pulled off a legitimate win. The government has since shut down SMS, the internet, and some radio services. It claims this was meant to stop the spread of fake news. Pardon Congolese who suspect this is a fake excuse for disrupting nongovernment communications ahead of the release of preliminary results on Jan. 6.

https://edwardcline.blogspot.com/2019/01/britains-islamic-demise.html

I used to think that the U.K. would resist Islam “on the beaches, and in the skies,” that is, fight the Islamic invasion of the country (by virtual invitation) by a hostile, inimical religious-political ideology and its adherents, valuing all the Enlightenment heights it had achieved – in freedom of speech, “democracy,” reason and a rational philosophy – and wished to retain everything that advanced man’s condition and freedom from tyranny.

But I no longer think that. Britain has become as bad and totalitarian as Angela Merkle’s authoritarian Germany. Soeren Kern of the Gatestone Institute has itemized Britain’s submission to Islam in the half year leading up to the beginning of June 2018.

The Muslim population of Britain surpassed 4.2 million in 2018 to become around 6.3% of the overall population of 64 million, according to data extrapolated from a recent study on the growth of the Muslim population in Europe. In real terms, Britain has the third-largest Muslim population in the European Union, after France, then Germany.

The rapid growth of Britain’s Muslim population can be attributed to immigration, high birth rates and conversions to Islam.

Islam and Islam-related issues, omnipresent in Britain during 2018, can be categorized into several broad themes: 1) Islamic extremism and the security implications of British jihadists; 2) The continuing spread of Islamic Sharia law in Britain; 3) The sexual exploitation of British children by Muslim gangs; 4) Muslim integration into British society; and 5) The failures of British multiculturalism.

It goes without saying, that everywhere it’s been tried, multiculturalism has failed – Sweden, France, and Germany being the outstanding instances. It can succeed in sinking roots and flourish only if national governments allow it to and water it with mandatory “toleration.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13490/islamic-university-europe-netherlands

A 2012 Turkish YouTube video describes the “Islamic University of Europe” as a school “established in 2001 to build an aware and cultivated European Muslim identity in Europe and to promote Islam… and to bring to life the mentality that is ‘to serve humanity is to serve Islam.'” Bahçekapılı’s lectures are in keeping with this mission. One such lecture glorifies the eighth-century Muslim military invasion of Spain and the establishment there of the Islamic state of Al-Andalus (Andalusia).

The school’s former rector, professor Ahmet Akgündüz, has called the opponents of Turkish President Erdogan “enemies of Islam,” and has stated that stoning people to death is “one of the prescribed punishments within Islam.”

Europe might wish to look into what is being taught at Islamic schools, particularly those that receive government money.

A recent development in a two-year-old corruption scandal — involving the so-called “Islamic University of Europe” in the Netherlands — has renewed public interest in the institution, involving tax fraud.

Its rector, professor Nedim Bahçekapılı, has gone missing after Dutch prosecutors decided to arrest him as part of an investigation addressing the school’s “tax evasion of millions of Euros, corruption, and opening fraudulent classes.” The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security said that the rector could not be found and is believed to have left the country.

Less attention has been paid, however, to the dangerous course content of the Rotterdam-based school, which, in 2016, was stripped by the Dutch Parliament of its “university” status for financial reasons.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272389/theresa-mays-anti-christian-regime-jules-gomes

You don’t need to be a fan of the vintage British political sitcom Yes Minister to understand how government reviews are instruments of inertia, damage control, public relations, virtue signaling, obfuscation and a surrogate for action. As the smooth-tongued civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby from Yes Minister puts it: “The job of a professionally conducted internal inquiry is to unearth a great mass of no evidence.”

On Boxing Day, Britain’s Conservative in Name Only (CINO) government in cozy chumminess with the Church of England gave the nation a gift. The day was most certainly chosen for its significance: in British tradition postmen, errand boys, servants and the hoi polloi expect to receive a gift box from the high and mighty.

So as his Boxing Day 2018 gift, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP announced a review into the global persecution of Christians, which would be led by Philip Mounstephen, Anglican Bishop of Truro. The heralding of this great news of glad tidings was peppered with the standard British bureaucratic blather.

The Foreign Office said its independent review would consider “tough questions and offer ambitious policy recommendations.” It would provide “an objective view of Britain’s support for the most vulnerable Christians globally,” trumpeted Lord Tariq Ahmad, Britain’s special envoy on freedom of religion.