RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.meforum.org/61415/gurfinkiel-on-the-reverse-colonization-of-france

Michel Gurfinkiel, the founder and president of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute and a Ginsburg-Milstein Fellow at Middle East Forum, spoke to participants in a July 6 Middle East Forum webinar (video) about demographic changes in France in relation to her former colonies in Muslim North Africa.

At the time of the French conquest of Algeria in the 1830s, the French population numbered approximately 30 million, the Algerian population around 3 million, and the rest of North Africa between 3 and 4 million. Despite superior French technological and military power, pacifying Algeria required nearly two decades of protracted conflict.

In keeping with its post-revolutionary “universalist vision,” France sought to “turn Algeria [into] an integral part of the French state,” explained Gurfinkiel. In the 1860s, with colonial rule firmly established, Algerian Muslims were offered full-fledged French citizenship provided they accept the French civil code and in effect, renounce Islamic law (sharia). Most refused, seeing this as akin to apostasy.

Nevertheless, the French continued to see Algeria as much a part of the French nation as “Brittany, Burgundy or Provence,” said Gurfinkiel, and allowed immigration by Muslims from Algeria and other French colonies – many of them French-speaking – even after they became independent in the twentieth century. A similar stand was taken regarding the sub-Saharan African colonies.

During this time, the demographic balance between France and its former colonies shifted markedly. Today, there are 67 million citizens in the French Republic (including some French territories overseas), 43 million in Algeria, 35 million in Morocco, and 12 million in Tunisia, along with 233 million in the former colonies of West Africa, Central Africa and the Indian Ocean. Two thirds of the former colonies’ citizens are Muslims.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/08/25/kim-jong-un-still-isnt-dead-but-his-sister-is-climbing-the-ladder-of-power-n837995

Every few months some enterprising journalist creates a story claiming that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is dead. He heard the news from a friend who has a friend high up in South Korean intelligence circles who’s in the know. It’s all very journalistic, you see.

In truth, rumors of Kim’s death are nothing new and after he dies, there will be rumors that he’s alive for years afterward. The news abhors a vacuum and North Korea is a black hole for information.

But the news out of North Korea is that Kim’s ravenously ambitious sister, Kim Yo-jong, has apparently been elevated to a top party post that ensures the loyalty of the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party (WPK). In a Communist country, the longer the job title, the more important it is. Ms. Kim appears to be either taking some of the burden of leadership off of her brother or is grasping for power on her own.

CNN:

Kim Yo Jong has for years been a trusted aide and confidante to her brother. She previously served as one of North Korea’s top propagandists and is now an alternate to the Politburo — the senior body of North Korea’s ruling party.

While North Korea and the ruling Workers’ Party often do not publicly proclaim leadership changes, experts and analysts had speculated previously that Kim may have been put in charge of the Organization and Guidance Department earlier this year, based on her increasing portfolio of responsibilities. Jeong, the South Korean defense minister, said Kim now appears to also have an important role in shaping policy toward South Korea and the United States.

Rumors of the supreme leader’s demise surface every few months because Kim disappears for long periods of time with no explanation. It could be that Kim likes his 12-year-old scotch and painted ladies and goes on binges at times. Or he could be trying to avoid the coronavirus. Or it may be he’s afraid of assassins.

But his sister is something of a mystery woman as well. She, too, has been absent from the spotlight when she was expected to make an appearance.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/canceling-british-pride-bruce-bawer/

The first thing to know is that the BBC was never objective. In the 1930s, when Churchill was repeatedly warning his fellow members in Parliament about the dangers of Nazi Germany, the BBC refused him airtime to share his warnings with the general public. In the 1950s, BBC honchos fought tooth and nail against the breakup of their monopoly that finally permitted the introduction of commercial television.

Yes, Thatcher reformed the BBC. But after she was gone, Labour swiftly un-reformed it. Since then, the contents of programs on the Beeb, all of them financed by a hefty license fee extorted from British subjects on threat of imprisonment, have increasingly reflected the social attitudes, political opinions, and cultural tastes of hard-left north London nobs. During the Brexit debate, the Corporation systematically celebrated the EU and depicted Leave supporters as rubes, xenophobes, morons, and “Little Englanders.” Former BBC journalist Robin Aitken MBE, author of a book called Can We Trust the BBC?, recently complained that the BBC “doesn’t have the pulse of the country,” that it “portrays Britishness…in a negative light,” and that its slant is “quite Soviet in its intensity and its ubiquity.” In the run-up to the last general election, Boris Johnson dangled in front of voters the possibility of abolishing the BBC license fee.

Year in and year out, perhaps the only high-profile regular broadcast on the BBC that isn’t poisoned by far-left politics has been the Last Night of the Proms, the annual concert, aired live from Royal Albert Hall, at which audience members proudly wave the Union Jack and the BBC Symphony Orchestra rounds out the evening with lush, rousing arrangements of “God Save the Queen” and the traditional songs “Jerusalem,” “Land of Hope and Glory” and “Rule, Britannia.” 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16395/turkey-greece-heading-for-war

Turkey has threatened to invade the Greek islands in the Aegean since at least 2018. A recent Egyptian-Greek maritime deal appears to have escalated Turkey’s regional aggression.

“Turkey’s policy is part and parcel of a broader strategy to expand Turkey’s influence in the Middle East, the Gulf, and Africa. The aim is to impose geopolitical dominion: an undisputed regional hegemonic regime whereby Turkey is be able to determine big and important developments…. It appears willing to use military force in order to impose its revisionist plans.” — Dr. Giorgos Kentas, Associate Professor of International Politics and Governance at the University of Nicosia, in an interview with Gatestone.

“Turkey is currently attempting a similar policy of revisionism against Greece. The aim is to impose a hegemonic regime over Greece’s maritime zones and/or maritime zones that Greece claims in Eastern Mediterranean.” — Dr. Giorgos Kentas.

“The Turkish economy found itself on its knees last time US President Donald Trump cared to send Erdogan a message over the arrest of American Pastor Andrew Brunson. What is keeping President Trump from doing that now?” — Anna Koukkides-Procopiou, a Senior Fellow and Member of Advisory Board of the Center for European and International Affairs of the University of Nicosia, interview with Gatestone.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16393/appeasement-europe

Now, Britain and France seek to appease the three powers that most threaten the world today: Iran, China and Russia.

Both countries [Britain and France], as well as Germany and the EU itself, knew only too well that, rather than its stated purpose of denying Iran a route to nuclear weapons, the JCPOA in fact paved Iran’s pathway — not just to acquiring nuclear capabilities, but doing so legitimately.

The re-imposed sanctions will then leave China, Russia and the European countries with tough choices about whether they observe them or take the damaging consequences to their own trade with the US.

And for what? Perhaps for the benefit of Russia and China, whose weapons sales to Iran will both bring financial benefit and extend their influence in the region at the expense of America and Europe.

If US snapback sanctions succeed, that can only hasten the end of the terrorist regime in Tehran. It will also boost confidence and security among the Arab countries, increasingly fearful of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Europe is in the grip of a uniquely virulent and pernicious disease that threatens the wellbeing of its peoples and of the world: not Coronavirus, but appeasement. Anglo-French foreign policy in the 1930s was also dominated by appeasement — of Nazi Germany — a policy that failed to prevent one of the greatest catastrophes that ever engulfed civilisation and that led to the deaths of millions.

Now, Britain and France seek to appease the three powers that most threaten the world today: Iran, China and Russia. As permanent members of the UN Security Council, last week both Britain and France genuflected to their arch-enemies by refusing to support their greatest ally, the United States, in its resolution to extend the UN arms embargo on Iran. The US resolution was of course opposed by China and Russia, both of which intend to sell advanced conventional weapons to Iran as soon as the embargo runs out in October.

Back in the 1930s, the aggressive intentions of Nazi Germany were clear. Although appeasement of Hitler was inexcusable, the main reason was perhaps understandable: a prevailing attitude of “peace at any price” following the unexampled butchery of World War I, then still so fresh in everybody’s minds.

Today, the intentions of Khamenei’s Iran are just as clear, and have been frequently demonstrated in imperial aggression across the Middle East, especially against Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as well as in its unwavering threats and military actions against Israel.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16392/iran-criminal-enterprise

Venezuela, Iran’s ally, has also made clear its intention to buy Iranian missiles that can reach American cities.

It is not as if China’s criminal track record is not well known. The CCP deliberately let the Covid-19 virus spread around the world. It has directed the theft of trillions worth of intellectual property from the United States and Europe. It has hollowed out some eight million US manufacturing jobs, and it is illegally sending tons of the opioid fentanyl across US borders in partnership with the Mexican drug cartels.

As for Iran, desperate for cash and weapons and pummeled by US-led sanctions, the mullahs are contemplating signing on as a partner of the Communist Party of China (CCP). In return for sending China cheap oil and giving the CCP military bases in the region, Iran will get billions in cash.

“Iran has to take a decision whether it wants to be a nation or a cause,” Henry Kissinger, former US National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, told The Washington Post in 2006. He was referring to the tension between Iran’s national interests and the religious ideology that took over the country after Iran’s 1979 revolution.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, however, is neither a nation nor a cause: it is a criminal enterprise. The button men for ayatollahs are the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, (IRGC), the Quds Force, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi mountain bandits in Yemen.

Like the Salvadoran MS-13 and Mexican Sinaloa cartel, Iran specializes in regional aggression and “death to America” — and has used specially made improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to kill more than 600 American soldiers serving in the Middle East. But killing is not Iran’s only criminal activity. The Tehran thugs are the ones who make the deals with drug dealers, cigarette smugglers and human traffickers in the Middle East and in the Western hemisphere.

To rein in the mullahs’ criminality, the US had implemented tough economic sanctions on Iran. On January 3, 2020, the US also took out Qassem Soleimani, the head of the IRGC who had ordered the killing of more than 600 Americans. While the death of Soleimani was welcome news, it did not end Iran’s criminal empire any more than did the arrest in July 2019 of the head of the powerful Sinaloa Mexican drug cartel. The cartel remains in business today, smuggling tons of drugs into America.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/francis-buk-video-my-escape-slavery-sudan-frontpagemagcom/

This new Glazov Gang episode features Francis Buk, a former slave in Sudan who escaped his enslavement and is now an abolitionist. (Read his memoir Escape from Slavery and help him to free modern-day slaves by supporting iabolish.org.)

Francis shares The Nightmare I Experienced Under Slavery and My Escape, revealing also how the Left has betrayed African blacks enslaved — till this day — by Muslim-Arab slave-masters.

Don’t miss it!

And make sure to watch Dr. Charles Jacobs, the president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, discuss Do Black Slaves’ Lives Matter?, where he sheds a disturbing light on: When did the Left first go woke? When they betrayed black slaves.

He takes us into the horrific world of Racist Muslim Arabs Barbarizing Black Slaves in Africa.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16389/world-affairs-slippery-patch

Today, as in the 1880s, big, small and even mini wannabe empire-builders are engaged in a ruthless power game…. The most intense activity comes from Russia and China.

China, for its part, is projecting power all over the world while bullying some neighbors and bribing others into submission. When deemed necessary, it also acts with military force, as it did recently along the ceasefire line with India. China treats some African, Asian and Latin American countries, notably Congo-Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Ecuador as abatis or territory left by previous masters and open for pickings by new reapers.

Overall, in economic, political and even military terms, Western powers, still nominally led by the United States, remain involved in all continents but are increasingly behaving as if their hearts, not to say their pockets, are no longer in it.

As for Germany, it seems that its hapless Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has no ambition beyond caressing the corpse of the Obama “nuclear deal” with Iran.

The current lukewarm war may never morph into a hot one, but the risk should not be dismissed. Today, projecting power with low-intensity war, often waged through inexpensive proxies as Iran does in Lebanon, or through mercenaries as Russia does in Syria and Libya, enables even relatively poor countries to cast a larger shadow than they deserve.

“The world has stepped into a slippery patch, and we need to steady it.” This is how Benjamin Disraeli saw the international scene in the early 1880s.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16391/persecution-of-christians-july

“[T]here are young girls who have been abducted and enslaved, forced into sexual slavery by some of these guerrillas, these insurgents, these terrorists… We know that the recruitment of boys and adolescents, some of them very young, aged 14, 15, 16, is also happening. It is obvious that these young boys are under coercion. If they refuse to join the group, they could be killed.” — Paulo Rangel, Portuguese Member of European Parliament, Catholic San Francisco, July 23, 2020; Mozambique, where Islamic State (ISIS) seized a port.

In one week in June, 15 people were beheaded in the Christian-majority nation. Discussing the situation, Bishop Lisboa said: “The world has no idea yet what is happening because of indifference.” — Mozambique.

A 16-year-old Muslim refugee from Syria pleaded guilty to four counts of terrorism. His schemes were shared with and exposed by an undercover FBI agent posing as a fellow ISIS supporter online…. “It was a bomb lab,” the report said. — Global News, July 31; Canada.

“Somalis generally believe all Somalis are Muslims by birth and that any Somali who becomes a Christian can be charged with apostasy, punishable by death.” — Morningstar News, July 9, 2020.

The following are among the abuses that were inflicted on Christians throughout the month of July 2020: