RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16221/turkey-hagia-sophia-mosque

“Would you have enjoyed it so much if a mosque at the center of Europe were converted into a church?” — Ertugrul Özkök, Hurriyet, March 8, 2014.

Turkey, however, also apparently wanted to inflict humiliation on the West. By turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque, Erdogan has been able to embarrass Washington, mock Brussels and defy Moscow.

For Erdogan and the Islamists, Hagia Sophia is the prime symbol of Christianity’s subjugation to Islam.

“Hagia Sophia is the symbol of conquest. It belongs to us”. — Yunus Genç, head of the Istanbul branch of the Anatolian Youth Association, Le Figaro, October 7, 2020.

When cartoons of Mohammed appeared in Danish and French newspapers in 2005, the Muslim world erupted in violence…. Now that Turkey is turning its formerly most important Christian monument into a mosque, there is no protest, only silence and mumbling, which are nothing but the soundtrack of the West’s submission to Islam.

“The city that Constantine had protected for more than a thousand years… has now undergone, in this unfortunate year, the destruction by the Turks. I suffer at the thought that the temple of Saint Sophia, famous all over the world, has been destroyed or desecrated. This is a second death for Homer, a second passing for Plato”. These words by the great humanist, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II, were written five centuries ago, after the great Christian city of Constantinople fell to the Ottomans.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued an unprecedented decree converting Hagia Sophia once again into a mosque. Erdogan’s decree is a gesture of immense symbolism and historic meaning. “A threat against Hagia Sophia,” said the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, “is a threat for the whole of Christian civilization”.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated:

“We urge the Government of Turkey to continue to maintain the Hagia Sophia as a museum, as an exemplar of its commitment to respect the faith traditions and diverse history that contributed to the Republic of Turkey, and to ensure it remains accessible to all”.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/07/11/iran-accuses-west-of-disinformation-as-another-huge-explosion-rocks-tehran-n631399

For the third time in three weeks, an explosion has rocked the Iranian capital of Tehran, leading many to conclude that these were coordinated attacks probably planned by Israel and the United States. Iran is denying that the explosion even occurred, although social media postings and “unofficial” news agencies say it did. They are accusing the west of mounting a disinformation campaign to undermine the regime.

That’s a good idea. Why didn’t we think of that?

The blast yesterday was so powerful, it knocked out power to thousands of residents. The Jerusalem Post reports that the blast may have targeted a Revolutionary Guard missile site.

Explosions were reported west of Tehran on Thursday night, with some initial reports claiming that the explosions occurred at a missile depot belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

According to the Iranian Mehr News Agency, the explosions were reported by social media users west of Tehran and in the cities of Garmdareh and Quds.

The Iranian government quoted the mayor of Garmdereh as saying that they heard no explosions. But there was one small problem.

Along with the denial of the explosion, Iranian media reported that the mayor of Garmdareh had stated that the explosion was caused by gas tanks, but it was later discovered that the quoted mayor had died over a year ago and that the quoted news was from years ago, according to the Independent Persian.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/07/11/tensions-rising-again-in-south-china-sea-as-beijing-u-s-conduct-exercises-n631452

There are a lot of warships steaming around the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea and the chances for some kind of encounter are rising.

The United States sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the region while China augmented its own forces. Both sides are conducting exercises while the war of words escalates.

SCMP:

The US Department of Defence said in a July 2 statement that the Chinese military exercises around the Paracel Islands had violated China’s international commitments to avoid actions that would “complicate or escalate disputes” in the region.

“The military exercises are the latest in a long string of [Chinese] actions to assert unlawful maritime claims and disadvantage its Southeast Asian neighbours in the South China Sea,” the statement read. “[These] actions stand in contrast to its pledge to not militarise the South China Sea and the United States’ vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”

China tried to play dumb but given their long-standing ambitions in the South China Sea, their words ring a little hollow.

China’s defence ministry rebuffed the US statement on Thursday, describing its early July exercises in the area as “not targeted at any specific country or objective”.

“The intent was to effectively elevate the Chinese navy’s maritime defensive capabilities, resolutely defend the safety of our country’s sovereignty, and to safeguard regional peace and stability,” the spokesperson said. “The US Department of Defence is disregarding facts, reversing black and white, inciting regional tensions, and seeking its own gain in all this.”

Donald Trump has been backing up his tough rhetoric toward Beijing by giving China a sample of U.S. airpower. Rear Adm. Jim Kirkof the Nimitz strike group says that the Navy made sure the Chinese got an eyeful.

Fox News:

Chinese naval officials are closely watching the carrier, and in the past People’s Liberation Army naval fleets have tried unsuccessfully to force U.S. Navy warships out of the area.

“We saw plenty of the Chinese navy operating around us as we did our exercises,” Adm. Kirk said.

The Chinese presence near the exercises “helped us raise our level of readiness as we go against each other through training,” he said. “So that was a marvelous opportunity for us.”

The Chinese navy has been gradually improving its capabilities over the years, especially in amphibious warfare, as they contemplate invading Taiwan. But the entire Red Chinese Navy is no match for a couple of ultra-modern, lethal instruments of war like a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Bloomberg is reporting that the administration will lay out its case against Chinese aggression next week.

The Trump administration plans to make an announcement next week related to escalating tensions in the South China Sea, where Washington and Beijing are vying for military supremacy, according to two people familiar with the matte

The U.S. has raised concerns over China’s decision to conduct military exercises in the contested waters around the Paracel Islands. The Defense Department last week called the actions “unlawful,” and the U.S. plans to lay out its official position next week, said one of the people who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Neither side wants to get in a shooting war, but with so many ships and planes buzzing each other in a small area, accidents have a way of happening. For the nations of Southeast Asia under threat from the Chinese, a strong statement by the White House would be welcome.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/07/the_vatican_plays_politics_with_china.html

This past Sunday, Pope Francis spoke to the Catholic faithful during the traditional Angelus prayer.  Many throughout the world, especially those in Hong Kong, anticipated that the Bishop of Rome would speak out against the suppression of political and religious freedom by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) the week prior — as per protocol, the pope normally gives an exegetical explanation of Scripture followed by a brief address, normal on an international current event.

To the dismay of many, Francis made reference to the resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council that proposed some measures to deal with the devastating consequences of the coronavirus, particularly for areas in conflict zones — the request made is for a global and immediate ceasefire by countries that are currently engaged in combat with each other.

As reported and confirmed by various news agencies throughout the world, there was a bulletin distributed to journalists before the Pope’s Angelus prayer that contained some important words on the crisis in Hong Kong — the speech was to be read immediately after the Angelus exhortation:

“In recent times, I have followed the development of the complex situation in Hong Kong with particular attention and not without concern, and I would like first of all to express my cordial closeness to all the inhabitants of that territory.  In the current context, the issues addressed are undoubtedly delicate and affect everyone’s life; therefore it is understandable that there is a marked sensitivity in this regard. I therefore hope that all the people involved will be able to deal with the various problems in a spirit of far-sighted wisdom and authentic dialogue.  This requires courage, humility, non-violence and respect for the dignity and rights of all.  I then express the vow that social life, and especially religious life, express themselves in full and true freedom, as indeed various international documents provide for it.  With my constant prayer I accompany the whole Catholic community and the people of goodwill in Hong Kong, so that they can build a prosperous and harmonious society together.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16179/rape-victims-racism

“[W]e are neglecting to properly address the religious and racist aspects of grooming gang crimes…. It’s telling them that it’s OK to hate white people.” — Sarah Champion, British Labour MP, YorkshireLive, April 29, 2020.

Advice against alcohol, drugs, and reckless behavior would be more compelling if it were not made under duress.

Even when it comes to rape, then, if the victim is white and the rapist is not, she is no victim at all; worse, she is a “racist” and “hater” who, if anything, apparently deserves what she got and more. “Blame the victim” is back with a vengeance and gaining ground throughout the West.

An increasingly popular idea is that whenever races clash, only minorities can be victims. The notion is hardly limited to the recent riots in America. Elements of such thinking often appear in other contexts.

British women, for instance, including rape victims who drew attention to “Asian” (Pakistani and South Asian) sex grooming gangs, are also being attacked by the “woke” establishment.

Earlier this month in the UK, Sarah Champion, a Labor politician and MP for Rotherham (the epicenter of sex grooming), was accused of “fanning the flames of racial hatred” and “acting like a neo-fascist murderer.” Her crime? She had dared to assert that “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.”

The same elements accusing Champion of being a “murderer” also characterized the UK’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, as being “built upon a foundation of Islamophobia and racism.”

A few weeks earlier, an article titled, “I was raped by Rotherham grooming gang—now I still face racist abuse online,” appeared. In it, a British woman (alias, “Ella”) revealed that her Muslim rapists called her “a white whore, a white b***h,” during the more than 100 times she was raped in her youth by the Pakistani grooming gang.

“We need to understand racially and religiously aggravated crime if we are going to prevent it and protect people from it and if we are going to prosecute correctly for it,” Champion said in a recent interview.

“Prevention, protection and prosecution—all of them are being hindered because we are neglecting to properly address the religious and racist aspects of grooming gang crimes…. It’s telling them that it’s OK to hate white people.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-books-insight/in-echo-of-mao-era-chinas-schools-in-book-cleansing-drive-idUSKBN24A1R5

BEIJING (Reuters) – As schools reopened in China after the COVID-19 outbreak, they have thrown themselves into a nationwide exercise to remove books deemed politically incorrect, deepening Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push to instil patriotism and ideological purity in the education system.

A directive from the Ministry of Education last October called on elementary and middle schools to clear out books from their libraries including “illegal” and “inappropriate” works. Now teachers have removed books from schools in at least 30 of mainland China’s 33 provinces and municipalities, according to a Reuters review of social media posts, publicly available school and local government documents, and interviews with teachers.

From western Gansu province to Shanghai, the review of publicly announced measures pointed to books being cleared by the hundreds of thousands.

Censorship in China has been intensifying under Xi, but analysts say this is the first national campaign aimed at libraries in decades. It comes as government employees in Hong Kong last week removed books by pro-democracy activists from public libraries to see whether they violate a new national security law.

“This is the first movement targeted at libraries since the Cultural Revolution,” said Wu Qiang, a political analyst based in Beijing and former political science lecturer at Tsinghua University. In the late 1960s, zealous teenagers driven by Mao Zedong carried out a nationwide campaign targeting libraries and destroying or burning what they could get their hands on, as part of a wider destruction of traditional culture.

This campaign is more selective, and directed from the top, with schools putting groups of teachers in charge of interpreting the order. The books removed have mainly been out-of-date, shabby or pirated texts, but the drive has also covered those which, while they may be legally available, are sensitive.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/a-tale-of-two-countries/

Scottish nationalism in the wake of the coronavirus.

Britain is now reporting around 1,000 new cases of coronavirus a day, but the vast majority are in England. On June 29, Scotland accounted for only five out of 815 new cases across the whole of the U.K. Now, Scotland may be only weeks away from having no new cases. But something stands in their way, or so Scottish nationalists claim — the plague-ridden English!

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, a staunch pro-independence campaigner, said that while she had “no plans” to quarantine visitors from England, she couldn’t rule it out. Prime Minister Boris Johnson then accused her government of “astonishing and shameful,” “disappointing and divisive” rhetoric, making the bizarre statement that there is “no such thing as a border between England and Scotland.” Sturgeon responded in kind, calling out his “frankly disgraceful” politicization of the pandemic.

Though health is a devolved power and Scotland has, by and large, made its own decisions on how to tackle the coronavirus — in truth, the two countries’ approaches have been more similar than not. Take the mistakes made, for instance. The calamitous handling of care homes was an error made both north and south of the border. During its worst weeks, Britain saw a 300 percent increase in care-home deaths in England, while Scotland saw a comparatively lower 200 percent increase, though it’s worth mentioning, as writer Alex Massie has noted, “if the overall Scottish casualty rate remains lower that likely only reflects the fact that Scotland had fewer cases, proportionately, when lockdown was introduced.”

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/07/10/after-the-u-s-leaves-who-should-the-u-n-be-next/

We should never allow ourselves to be sullied by taking part in such incompetence, while paying for its officials’ lavish salaries and privileged bureaucratic perks.

We’d take it a step further, however. It’s become increasingly clear from observing the United Nations itself that it, too, suffers from many of the same ailments as WHO.

It spends billions and dollars but achieves little or nothing at all. It’s a feel-good bureaucracy that lets globalists pretend they’re addressing the world’s problems, but instead empowers dictators and authoritarians to do their worst.

Take but one example: the Human Rights Council. More than half its members are non-democracies, and include human rights violators Libya, Venezuela, Eritrea and others.

But what’s really strange about the U.N., and inexcusable, is its bizarre fixation on condemning Israel for lawful acts, while ignoring the killing, torturing and murder-by-government of many of its less-savory members.

Lest you think it an exaggeration, consider this: Since 2015, according the the U.N. Watch database, there have been 101 condemnatory resolutions against Israel brought to the floor of the General Assembly. All other nations total 35, six of which were against the U.S.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16178/turkey-erdogan-migrant-blackmail

On February 27, Erdoğan’s government was on the threshold of executing its threat to flood Europe with millions of (mostly Syrian) migrants … Hundreds of thousands of migrants began flocking to the border. By the next day, Greece was not only operating 52 Navy ships to guard its islands close to Turkey; it had also mobilized additional troops on land. Its security forces were able to block 10,000 migrants from entering Greece by way of the Turkish land border.

The new blackmail will not work for a number of reasons. First, because many migrants in Turkey have learned from experience that the Turkish-Greek border can no longer easily be crossed. And second, because the Greek security forces are now better equipped and better prepared to confront a new wave of migrants.

Greece has finally done the right thing and deprived Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of his perpetual threats to blackmail the European Union.

On February 27, Erdoğan’s government was on the threshold of executing its threat to flood Europe with millions of (mostly Syrian) migrants and opening its northwestern borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Hundreds of thousands of migrants began flocking to the border. In a few days, by the beginning of March, they would be in EU territory, to be followed by hundreds of thousands of others. Things, however, did not go as planned by Ankara.

By the next day, Greece was not only operating 52 Navy ships to guard its islands close to Turkey; it had also mobilized additional troops on land. Its security forces were able to block 10,000 migrants from entering Greece by way of the Turkish land border. Some migrants were stuck in the no-man’s land between the two countries and eventually had to return to the Turkish side. Greek officials reported only 76 illegal entries, whom they detained and prosecuted. In his social media account, Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kıran compared the alleged treatment of migrants seeking to cross illegally into Greece with conditions at Nazi death camps at Auschwitz. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece immediately condemned and denounced the statement.