RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16194/politically-corrected-paris

Of the 5,400 streets in greater Paris, 287 are named after persons or events with colonial, imperial, or ideological bearings that clash with political correctness, the fashionable ideology of champagne and caviar leftists.

Paris is dotted with old buildings, museums, offices, barracks, schools and exhibition sites associated with events that would anger the politically correct.

Black Americans are under-represented. Martin Luther King has a park in a down-market neighborhood. But he wasn’t BLM enough. He emphasized equal citizenship, not skin color.

Ah! Rewriting history!

Caught in the Davy Jones locker room, a civilization may dream of … a device to reel back the past like a film and edit it as you please.

With bookshops closed during Covid-19 lockdown I was obliged to re-read books I had read before. Among them was Lamartine’s “Graziella”, the journal of his six-month stay in Naples. A love story, the novel also talks of the repression of Italian freedom fighters who try to end French occupation under Marechal Murat, one of Napoleon’s generals, as their king.

A stone’s throw from our place is the Boulevard Murat, named after the man who crucified Italian patriots.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16175/turkey-deporting-protestant-christians

Dozens of Protestant Christian families, according to the Association of Protestant Churches, have been asked to leave Turkey or have not been allowed to enter the country — all based on trumped-up charges, such as “being a threat to national security”.

“According to the court, Turkey’s intelligence agency has a classified file on me that even our lawyer has been unable to review. According to this file, I am considered a threat to public order and security despite the fact that there is no legal complaint or court action against me.” — Carlos Madrigal, spiritual leader, the Istanbul Protestant Church Foundation.

“Are Turkish citizens who are Protestant Christians next?” — Association of Protestant Churches.

An alarming practice targeting Protestant Christians in Turkey has been brought to the attention of the public by the country’s Protestant community and its organizations.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16098/germany-antisemitism

The German government’s new report flies in the face of major EU reports… German statistics on anti-Semitism have been the object of criticism for quite some time.

“The majority of [anti-Semitism] cases in Berlin are attributed to right-wing extremists — without evidence…” — Die Welt, May 7, 2019.

“For a long time, experts have criticized the attribution of the majority of cases to far-right perpetrators… and that too little attention is paid to other groups of perpetrators, such as those from Islamist and other Muslim circles”. — Die Welt, May 7, 2019.

Yet, despite problematic evidence and flawed statistics, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is still claiming that virtually all anti-Semitism comes from the far-right. Why?

Despite all these measures, anti-Semitic crime in Germany is the highest it has been in the past two decades. This news alone should raise concerns in Germany that hate-speech laws such as the NetzDG, while severely limiting free speech, are not working. It should also concern other EU countries, such as France, that are looking to Germany as an example to follow.

Almost all anti-Semitic crimes in Germany in 2019 were committed by right-wing extremists, according to a recently published government report, “Politically Motivated Crime in 2019.” In the report, “politically motivated crimes” are divided into right-wing crimes, left-wing crimes, crimes motivated by foreign ideology, crimes motivated by religious ideology and unassigned crimes.

According to the report, anti-Semitic crimes were 13% higher in 2019 than in 2018, with 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes committed in 2019, the highest number in Germany since 2001. According to the report, 93.4% of those crimes were committed by right-wing extremists.

“The biggest threat is still the threat from the right,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said following the release of the crime report. “We must remain alert and tackle it. It is an order of magnitude that accompanies us with concern, with great concern.”

The German government’s new report flies in the face of major EU reports: In November 2018, the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published a report, “Antisemitism – Overview of data available in the European Union 2007–2017,” which quoted the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) as stating that in 2017:

“The main perpetrators of antisemitic incidents are ‘Islamists’ and radicalised young Muslims, including schoolchildren, as well as neo-Nazis and sympathisers of extreme-right and, in some cases, extreme-left groups”.

Germany was among the countries surveyed.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/red-china-moves-hong-kong-michael-finch/

I was fortunate enough to be in Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, traveling with a group headed by the estimable Bruce Herschensohn.  It was an extraordinary, if bittersweet trip, seeing the British ships sail out of Hong Kong harbor on the evening of July 1st.  The lowering of the Union Jack across the city allowed a moment of great sadness, a passing of an era, given way to a future of trepidation and worry.

On the trip, we were honored to meet the politician and freedom fighter, Martin Lee.  Lee was just recently arrested and freed, but will now, almost certainly, be under threat of harassment and further arrests.  William McGurn, then senior editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, also spoke to us, offering some hope, but tinged with warning.  That week marked a pivotal moment in history, one that anyone present in Hong Kong at the time will never forget.

Promises and guarantees were made; Hong Kong was given 50 years of freedom, under the now-infamous “one country, two systems” policy of administration.  And, indeed, it did work.  For just over 20 years, Hong Kong was the gateway and engine that helped propel China to a remarkable economic take off, lifting millions out of poverty.  Hong Kong was the portal for the rest of the world into China, and the city continued to thrive.  Rule of law, security of contracts, an independent judiciary and a free press were all legacies of British rule. 

All of this, however, was snuffed out in recent days with the new national-security law imposed on Hong Kong by mainland China.  Simply put, Hong Kong has lost its freedom. 

It certainly didn’t go down without a fight; the past months have seen countless protests and demonstrations from the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong.  It has been a sight to behold, watching thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Hong Kong carrying American flags, speaking the words of freedom and liberty.  It is awe-inspiring to see that America is still the beacon that all look to, a light of freedom that casts its radiance to every corner of the globe. 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16151/india-religious-freedom

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom apparently based its India report on the versions of evidently hostile non-governmental organizations and media outlets.

If US President Donald J. Trump is determined to promote religious freedom the world over, he also needs to call upon other nations vastly more abusive than India is to “end religious persecution.'”

It is astonishing to note that the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Report, released by the US Department of State on June 10, 2020, ranks India on its lowest grade, “Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).” The report recommends that the US State Department meet people from India’s “religiously persecuted” communities and slap sanctions on the agencies and officials responsible for the predicament of the affected.

The report also groups India with countries, such as China, Iran, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia, which have long been notorious for their religious freedom rights violations. It says that India’s newly passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) makes the Muslims in the country “bear the indignities and consequences of potential statelessness.” It also claims that the Narendra Modi government allows “campaigns of harassment and violence” against Muslims and other religious minorities.

The report suggests that the government-perpetuated discrimination against religious minorities in India can be discerned in the newly changed status of the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region, the enactment of the cow-slaughter and anti-conversion laws, the inflammatory remarks of some Hindu-majority parties against minority communities, and the Supreme Court’s decision in the Babri mosque case. The report also alleges that in February this year “, three days of violence erupted in New Delhi with mobs attacking Muslim neighborhoods.” Finally, it adds that innocent members of minority communities “are being punished under India’s cow protection laws” that prohibit the export or import of beef.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-meaning-of-hong-kong-11593645526?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

China’s decision to impose its national-security law on Hong Kong is a seismic event that goes well beyond the sad fate of its 7.5 million people. The illegal takeover shows that Beijing’s Communist rulers are willing to violate their international commitments with impunity as they spread their authoritarian model.

We say this with regret because we were among those who hoped, amid China’s reform era that began in the 1980s, that the Middle Kingdom could be drawn into a world of peaceful global norms. Hong Kong, a showcase of the prosperity that economic freedom and the rule of law can produce, was a lesson for Beijing to learn from.

Now those hopes are crushed, as China’s Communist legislature imposed the national-security law that ends Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” governance and subverts the rights promised under the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984. Beijing promised to preserve Hong Kong’s legal autonomy and freedom of speech, assembly, the press and other liberties. The 7.5 million now subject to this sweeping legislation weren’t even permitted to read the text until it passed.

In a statement Tuesday, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam claimed that the national-security law “only targets an extremely small minority of offenders while the life and property as well as various legitimate basic rights and freedoms enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of citizens will be protected.”

https://www.newsweek.com/lets-scare-china-help-ourselves-our-friends-same-time

Americans blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether the virus was manufactured in a lab, was part of a bio-weapons program, derived from the “wet markets,” or something else, it is clear that Chinese government activity and deliberate obfuscation, arrests of scientists and deletion of crucial information has cost the world millions of lives impacted and countless economies damaged.

China has, as yet, paid no price. And that, inevitably, emboldens tyrannical regimes in their pursuit of dictatorial rule at home and abroad. It was true of the Soviet Union, and it is true of China.

Xi Jinping, China’s despot, has taken advantage of the necessary inward turn of Western national governments to increase China’s hold on Hong Kong, passing the “Security Law” that, in violation of the terms of the end of Britain’s lease on the island colony, puts Beijing in direct control. Early reports indicate that four activities are criminalized: secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign or external forces.

Those words should be inside quotation marks because all are subject to very wide interpretation. Communist legal interpretations, in particular, differ greatly from those of free societies. In this case, they will be interpreted by a nominally Hong Kong-led national security commission, with a Beijing-appointed advisor. Beijing will have the power to extradite people to the mainland for adjudication of the above national security crimes. It appears that “violators” (protesters) of the law can receive life in prison; the minimum term is 10 years.

In May, when it appeared that the law would pass, the Trump administration said it would no longer consider Hong Kong to be separate from China—thus ending the special economic, customs and travel status of which China has taken advantage. Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Canada announced that they would permit up to millions of people to come to their countries, if necessary.

https://www.meforum.org/61173/turkey-and-qatar-love-in-bloom?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=32ec283bff-MEF_Bekdil_2020_07_01_07_23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_086cfd423c-32ec283bff-33723125&goal=0_086cfd423c-32ec283bff-33723125&mc_cid=32ec283bff&mc_eid=bb334ea86b

Few Qataris who fought the Ottoman colonialists to gain their independence in 1915 and end the 44-year-long Turkish rule in the peninsula would ever have imagined that their grandchildren would become Turkey’s closest strategic allies.

Qatar, a tiny but extremely wealthy sheikdom, has a constitution based on sharia (Islamic religious law), while Turkey’s constitution is strictly secular (officially, if not in practice). In Qatar, flogging and stoning—unthinkable in Turkey—are legal forms of punishment. In Qatar, apostasy is a crime punishable by death, while in Turkey it is not a criminal offense.

But the ideological kinship between the two Sunni Muslim countries, which is based on passionate political support for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood (and a religious hatred of Israel), seems to have produced a bond that threatens Western interests.In 2014 Turkey and Qatar signed a strategic security agreement that gave Ankara a military base in the Gulf state, which is already home to the largest US air base in the Middle East (al-Udeid). Turkey stationed some 3,000 ground troops at its Qatari base in addition to air and naval units, military trainers, and special operations forces.