RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/04/islamic_state_executes_coptic_christian_man_on_video.html

In a video released last Saturday, April 17, Muslims connected to the Islamic State executed a Coptic Christian man in Sinai, Egypt. 

The slain was identified as 62-year-old Nabil Habashi Salama.  In the video, Salama appears on his knees, with his hands cuffed behind his back; three masked men holding rifles stand behind him.  The one in the middle launches into a typical jihadi diatribe: 

“All praise to Allah, who ordered his slaves [Muslims] to fight and who assigned humiliation onto the infidels” — this latter part is said while the terrorist points at the bound and kneeling man before him — “until they pay the jizya while feeling utterly subdued.” 

This, of course, is a direct quote of Koran 9:29, which commands Muslims to “fight the people of the book,” understood as meaning Christians and Jews, “until they pay the jizya [monetary tribute] with willing submissiveness and feel themselves utterly subdued.” 

The middle speaker continued by threatening “all the crusaders of the world” — a reference to Christians in the West — while singling out the countrymen of the one about to be slain: “As for you Christians of Egypt, this is the price of your support for the Egyptian army.”

After his rant, the speaker points his rifle at the back of the bound Christian’s head — even as chants of “jihad!” blare out — and fires at point-blank range, killing him. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/alexei-navalny-hospitalized-in-russia-three-weeks-into-hunger-strike-11618839052

Jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny was hospitalized Monday, weeks after beginning a hunger strike, as the Kremlin brushed off warnings from the U.S. of repercussions if he were to die while in prison.

His hospitalization came a day after his supporters called for large-scale demonstrations to demand his release after doctors with ties to the opposition leader cited medical test results they said showed he was at risk of imminent renal failure and a possible heart attack.

Mr. Navalny, a prominent Putin critic who is serving a 2½-year prison sentence after being convicted of violating parole conditions, was transferred to a hospital for convicts within the prison system in Russia’s Vladimir region, prison authorities said Monday.

His health condition had been “assessed as satisfactory” and a doctor has been examining him every day, they said. He had also consented to being prescribed “vitamin therapy,” they added, without detailing the nature of such treatment.

Canada has signed away its future. A country that once had a great deal going for it—abundant natural resources; a vibrant energy sector; a viable debt-to-GDP ratio; a tradition of civic decorum maintained even during a brief period of Quebec-secessionist discord; an aversion to foreign adventures; and a commendable standard of living, among the highest in the world—has squandered its many advantages and blessings in an excess of poor electoral decisions and civic indifference to its national welfare. 

Of course, like any country, Canada has had its share of problems—language issues between French and English, a much-abused, asymmetrical equalization or fund-transferring formula between provinces, the Native victimhood industry—but it had managed to deal with them without protracted or endemic violence such as one sees in many other nations.

But there is no doubt that the country is dying. One has watched a steady disintegration of national unity and prosperity over the last generation. Some place the shipwreck of the country’s prospects with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program in 1980, the first move in the gradual destruction of Canada’s oil and gas producing regions, located primarily in the province of Alberta. Others target a dreary succession of incompetent, high-taxing prime ministers, culminating in the electoral victories of Justin Trudeau, inarguably the least qualified and most unpriministerial holder of high office in the entire history of Confederation.

The list of his misdemeanors, spendthrift excesses, and corrupt practices, circulated by Gordon Miller, a director of Canadians for Language Fairness, is unparalleled. We’ve had eccentrics in office many times, dating from the Father of Confederation John A. MacDonald, who was often in his cups. William Lyon MacKenzie King was a table rapper who communed with the spirits of his mother and his dog (though Michael Bliss in Right Honorable Men praises King as “Canada’s most highly-educated prime minister”). Pierre Trudeau posed as a sandal-wearing swinger and used his “swashbuckling hippie style” to advantage, effectively polarizing the nation. But nothing like the political reprobate and misfit Justin Trudeau has ever befallen this nation before. One recalls Canada’s 13th prime minister John Diefenbaker’s remark that “You can’t stand up for Canada with a banana for a backbone.” Nor with a banana anywhere else on your anatomy.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17298/turkey-afshin-sohrabzadeh

An Iranian Kurdish political refugee, Afshin Sohrabzadeh, 31, who suffers from cancer and lives in Turkey, has been held in administrative detention for deportation — for allegedly “threatening Turkey’s security”. He is currently being held in a removal center, and, if returned to Iran, he may well face the death penalty.

On April 5, he visited the Eskisehir Immigration Office to get permission to visit a friend in Ankara. Instead, he was held in administrative detention and a decision was made by the authorities to deport him back to Iran.

“Another option that will save Sohrabzadeh is that the UNCHR will step in and announce that he will be resettled in a third and safe country – other than Turkey or Iran.”

“As Turkey neighbours Iran, these refugees and their families continue to be exposed to the possibility of persecution by the Iranian intelligence agencies. At the same time, the Turkish immigration services are extremely reluctant to provide them with the administrative cooperation they need to complete their applications for asylum and resettlement in safer countries.” – Reporters Without Borders, April 30, 2020.

Turkey is bound by international law not to deport UN-recognized refugees. – Mahmut Kacan, Sohrabzadeh’s lawyer, to Gatestone, April 2021.

The UNCHR, the international media, and all human rights groups need to work to save Sohrabzadeh from arrest, torture and virtually certain death in Iran.

An Iranian Kurdish political refugee, Afshin Sohrabzadeh, 31, who suffers from cancer and lives in Turkey, has been held in administrative detention for deportation — for allegedly “threatening Turkey’s security”. He is currently being held in a removal center, and, if returned to Iran, he may well face the death penalty.

Sohrabzadeh, a political activist, was arrested and jailed in Iran in 2010, His lawyer, Mahmut Kacan, told Gatestone:

“Sohrabzadeh was arrested by Iranian authorities for joining demonstrations protesting the controversial 2009 Iranian presidential elections in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won. Sohrabzadeh was then charged with being a member of the Kurdish Komala organization, with being ‘an enemy of Allah’ and with ‘threatening Iranian national security.'”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/prison-for-hong-kong-democrats-11618612068?mod=opinion_major_pos2

A Hong Kong court confirmed this week what everyone has known for months: If you publicly challenge Beijing, you will be sent to prison. On Friday nine people charged with organizing or joining an unauthorized protest received prison sentences ranging from eight to 18 months. Four of them, including 82-year-old Martin Lee, founder of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, received suspended sentences.

The most prominent “convict” is Jimmy Lai, owner, publisher and writer for Apple Daily, which is frequently critical of China. Mr. Lai also has a following overseas, which especially rankles Communist Party leaders. Two months ago Beiing’s point man for Hong Kong affairs, Xia Baolong, gave a speech mentioning Mr. Lai by name, accusing him of “extremely notorious acts” and making clear that, in Beijing’s view, he needed “to be punished severely in accordance with the law.” It’s no surprise that the judge in the case obliged by giving Mr. Lai a long sentence of 12 months.

Most of the charges against those on trial related to an Aug. 18, 2019 peaceful, pro-democracy march that drew as many as 1.7 million Hong Kong people. The punishment is part of Beijing’s campaign to crush Hong Kong’s democracy movement. As Mr. Xia put it, “only patriots” must govern Hong Kong—i.e., only those who are willing to do Beijing’s bidding.

Mr. Lai’s trials aren’t over. Denied bail, he faces other charges related to the unpopular National Security Law that China demanded Hong Kong implement last year. On Friday the government added new security charges that could mean a life sentence for the 72-year-old publisher.

In his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping in February, President Biden raised China’s crackdown on Hong Kong as one of many areas where the U.S. takes issue with Chinese behavior. But the truth is that China has paid little international price for breaking its treaty with Britain that guaranteed autonomy for Hong Kong through 2047.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-castros-still-run-cuba-11618783289?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

Raúl Castro announced his resignation as chief of Cuba’s Communist Party on Friday. Many U.S. media outlets characterized the move as the “end of an era” of communist rule on the Caribbean island. This is false. For many years Cuba has not really operated as a communist or socialist state. Instead it has been ruled by a military dictatorship that concentrates its power within a cartel-like chain of command of hard-line Castro family members and loyalists and generals who fiercely shield their wealth and status—as well as each other.

Many analysts are focused on whether Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel will inherit Mr. Castro’s leadership position as party secretary, which—on paper, at least—is the highest office in the land. This is a distraction, as is Mr. Díaz-Canel, who was installed by Mr. Castro in 2018 as part of a faux transition of power. In Cuba, the Castro family leads with an iron fist, and the party and government follow suit. Even the Communist Party’s online motto, #SomosContinuidad—“we are continuity”—implies the regime is determined not to change.

The key figure of Cuba’s silent elite is Gen. Luis López Callejas, Mr. Castro’s former son-in-law and the father of his grandchildren. Mr. López Callejas leads Gaesa, a military-run conglomerate that controls about 75% of the Cuban economy, including hotels, construction companies, shipping companies, hard-currency transmitters and currency exchanges. In 2018, a former State Department official told a Senate subcommittee that Cuban military personnel under Mr. López Callejas’s command were “directly involved” in trafficking cocaine from Venezuela.

Another key figure is Mr. Castro’s son, Col. Alejandro Castro Espín, a powerful member of the Cuban intelligence apparatus. He maintains a close relationship with the Kremlin and was directing Cuba’s spy agencies at the time of the 2019 sonic attacks against U.S. and Canadian diplomats in Cuba, which are still unexplained.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fate-of-alexei-navalny-11618780971?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

The contest between freedom and dictatorship continues on many fronts, and the most stirring is the courage of individuals risking their lives by resisting oppression. Jimmy Lai and other Hong Kong democrats have been jailed at China’s insistence, while the Kremlin is slowly squeezing the life out of Alexei Navalny in prison.

The 44-year-old critic of Vladimir Putin has been languishing in Russia’s notorious IK-2 prison since March 11 on trumped up charges of violating his parole on a previous phony charge. He dared to recover in Germany after nearly dying after he was poisoned by government agents. But he bravely returned to Russia, where he was arrested and imprisoned.

Mr. Navalny has been on a hunger strike after being denied treatment for other ailments. “Alexey is dying now. Given his condition, it’s a matter of days,” Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on Facebook.

The White House warned Sunday that there would be “consequences” if Mr. Navalny dies, and President Biden said Saturday that his treatment is “totally, totally unfair.” But Mr. Biden sent Mr. Putin mixed signals last week by inviting the autocrat he has called a “killer” for a leader-to-leader summit even as Mr. Navalny’s health was weakening in prison.

The free world—if we can still use that locution in the Age of Woke—needs to find its voice again on behalf of courageous dissenters like Alexei Navalny and Jimmy Lai. They should become global household names, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov were during the Cold War. And let’s hope the White House is serious about “consequences.”