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Can Terrorists be Deradicalized? – Part II by Denis MacEoin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15643/can-terrorists-be-deradicalized-part-ii

However pure religious Islam was in its earliest phase, after Muhammad came to rule in the city of Medina and during the successive caliphates that followed his death in 632, it became a dogma that the state must be ruled by Islam, its beliefs, and its laws. Today’s radicals, whether in Iran or as newcomers in Western societies, apparently consider this a view worth fighting to uphold.

As far as Western countries are concerned, radicalization appears to rest on three things: education in many Muslim schools, upbringing in unintegrated Muslim families, and the intensity of close-knit Muslim communities.

When implemented, these measures will certainly increase the likelihood of long-term deradicalization. But more still needs to be done to prevent the spread and acceptance of radical views in the first place.

In the first part of this analysis, “Can Terrorists be Deradicalized? Part I,” of the ongoing threat of Islamic radicalism in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, it seems to have proven difficult to take convicted terrorists and turn them into pious Muslims who repudiate violence.

The great irony, as some reports have shown, is that the very fact of being imprisoned or, in some instances, being trained in deradicalization courses can actually result in further radicalization. So far, not enough work has been done to identify and act on this problem, but it has been recognized by experts such as Ian Acheson. And the UK government has published important findings on the subject.

The truth is that many modern Western states seem to have trapped themselves in a range of social attitudes — such as the well-intended wish to show empathy or sound hospitable, or a fear of offending, or laws condemning “hate speech”, or simple self-censorship — that can unfortunately ignore or even sustain radical Islamic belief systems. This is not to say that the UK, France, or other countries actively promote the sort of radicalization that so often leads to acts of terror; but our failure to act, our insistence on political correctness, combined with a need to appear innocent of anything that might conceivably be considered anti-Muslim “hate crimes”, often leads to such results.

Canada’s Conservatives Welcome Extremists, Reject Reformers by Jakob Glogauer

http://Canada’s Conservatives Welcome Extremists, Reject Reformers by Jakob Glogauer

The Conservative Party of Canada might favor extremist Muslims in order to secure more votes and broaden the party “base.” All the while, Muslim reformers with a long history of loyalty to the party are being rejected, and not chosen as candidates. Party members who oppose advancing Sharia law and who run for leadership positions are disqualified.

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and current Conservative leadership candidate Peter MacKay co-founded the modern Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) based on the promotion of “freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.” Canada’s right-wing, however, has recently been consorting with Islamists patently opposed to these fundamental ideals.

Across the Western world, extremist Muslims have long partnered with the Left, perhaps out of a shared partiality for identity politics; or, at the very least, because progressive movements can easily be exploited to advance radical causes. Now, however, even the Conservative establishment is courting Islamist activists and politicians. At the federal level, frontrunners in the CPC leadership race, Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole, have each welcomed prominent extremist activists into their campaigns.

In January of this year, O’Toole appointed Walied Soliman as his campaign chair. Throughout his professional career, Soliman has supported applying the Sharia banking system in Canada. In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Soliman dismissed concerns that a Sharia-compliant economy would violate Canada’s secular system. “This is simply about market demand and interest,” he said. He may, of course, support more than that.

One LGBT group has criticized O’Toole for welcoming an advocate of Sharia into his campaign. Why, they asked, is Soliman “unable to publicly reject sharia law despite repeated attempts for clarification. Does he believe in sharia application to #LGBTQ people?”

O’Toole replied, “I will always oppose any threat to those principles [of “freedom, democracy, and the rule of law”], here and at home, including Sharia law. Any suggestion otherwise is preposterous, tinfoil hat thinking. The fact I even have to say this is profoundly sad.”

Bangalore Burning India’s Charlie Hebdo moment. Radhika Singh

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/bangalore-burning-radhika-singh/

It was pretty late at night; I don’t really remember what exact time though. I was watching some random videos when the phone started to ring. “Don’t get out of the house. Stay put,” warned a friend calling from Delhi.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Your city is burning.”

“What?” I gasped in disbelief.

Bangalore is a peaceful place. The crowd is educated, civilized, white-collared corporate types. Riots are not part of the norm in this city of IT parks. I switched on the TV. Yes. The city was indeed engulfed in flames. The mad mob had come for Bangalore now.

***

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, with their fake narratives about my country, have convinced the world that we are a living hell for the “minorities” — the Muslims who constitute the second largest religious denomination in this country. Far from the truth, these stories are nothing but an orchestrated attempt to paint the Muslim population as a meek, orphaned and harmless segment of our society. The reporting perpetually hides atrocities perpetrated by Muslims and promulgates amplified versions of minor incidents involving a Muslim “victim” — just as the media does worldwide.

Mounting Evidence Points to Hezbollah Culpability in Beirut Blast Hezbollah’s central role in Lebanon’s affairs precludes any conclusion but guilt. Ari Lieberman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/mounting-evidence-points-hezbollah-culpability-ari-lieberman/

Within an hour of the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on August 4, Hezbollah denied any culpability. Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, considered a close Hezbollah ally, immediately attributed the blast to the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that ignited after a nearby warehouse housing fireworks caught fire. Lebanese authorities claim that the ammonium nitrate was confiscated from a Russian cargo vessel in 2013 after the ship took a detour from its original destination and docked at the port.

The ammonium nitrate, which can be used to make explosives, was stored at the port for seven years before it blew up with catastrophic consequences. There is ample reason to believe that Hezbollah was responsible for the blast and resulting carnage. The collective evidence is in fact, damning.

First, one must understand that in Lebanon, Hezbollah controls all ports of entry, either directly through force of arms or indirectly, through graft. The obvious purpose is to control the flow of weapons, money and narcotics that pass through these ports of entry. Therefore, it is logical to assume that Hezbollah was aware of the presence of the ammonium nitrate.

In 2008 the Lebanese cabinet headed by the Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, attempted to remove security cameras installed by Hezbollah at Beirut International Airport. The cabinet also attempted to remove Brigadier General Wafiq Shkeir, widely regarded as a Hezbollah stooge, from his post as airport security chief. Finally, the government attempted to close separate telecommunication infrastructure that Hezbollah was installing throughout the country.

Austria Must Grapple With Its Past Holocaust education for young Austrians is essential.Joseph Puder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/austria-must-grapple-its-past-joseph-puder/

Austria today is one of the friendlier members of the European Union (EU) towards the Jewish state. In fact, the current Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz has been particularly friendly toward Israel, and he regularly speaks out against antisemitism. He has also been the one EU leader to convey Benjamin Netanyahu’s fair charges regarding EU policies toward Israel. Kurz’s Austria is the only West European nation whose government is actively shielding the Jewish state from EU sanctions. This year Austria’s parliament passed a resolution calling the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel a form of antisemitism. It also labeled Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Now, Chancellor Kurz has eased conditions for Israeli citizens to receive Austrian citizenship. Unfortunately, like his predecessors, he has thus far failed to confront Austria’s dark past, specifically Austrians behavior during the Holocaust.  Austria has done very little about educating its young people on the Holocaust or prosecuting its many living Nazi criminals.

Austria conducted two trials of Nazi criminals, both in the 1960’s. The first was the trial of Franz Murer, the SS-Oberscharfuhrer, also known as the “butcher of Vilnius.” Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor Nazi hunter, managed to get him prosecuted in 1963. The trial took place in Graz, Austria, lasting a week, and ended with the Austrians acquitting Murer. The second trial was that of Franz Novak, a senior aide to Adolf Eichmann. He stood trial on October 12, 1964, in Vienna, charged with participating in the deportation of 400,000 Hungarian Jews to the death camps in Poland. Convicted and imprisoned, he was pardoned by Austria’s President Rudolf Kirchschlager. Austrians have not bothered to grapple with their role in the Holocaust crimes. The one-time Austria was forced to face reality was in 1986, when Austrian Kurt Waldheim, the former UN Secretary-General, was running for the Austrian presidency. Press inquiries into his past revealed his role in the Nazi regime. Nevertheless, Austrians elected him as their president. Embarrassed by these revelations concerning Waldheim’s past, in 1991, Austria’s Chancellor Franz Vranitzky declared his nation’s responsibility for Nazi crimes. Austrians, however, were still unable to face up to their sordid history. They went from denial of their role in the Holocaust to historical revisionism.

Abdol Hossein Sardari, an Iranian of Azerbaijani Descent the Like of Schindler By Nurit Greenger

https://newsblaze.com/world/eurasia/abdol-hossein-sardari-an-iranian-of-azerbaijani-descent-the-like-of-schindler_167034/

The subject of this story, first published March 22, 2014, was recently brought up by the Consul General of Azerbaijan to the United States West Coast. The reason for his interest is that the hero of this story, Abdol Hossein Sardari, was Iranian, of Azerbaijani descent.

The story of Abdol Hossein Sardari is about the moral compass of right thing to do, no matter what, when there is a calling.

Abdol Hossein Sardari reminds us of Oskar Schindler

Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist, a German spy, and member of the Nazi party. Schindler has also been credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, by employing them in his factories, which were located in what is today Poland and the Czech Republic.

Abdol Hossein Sardari served as an Iranian diplomat in Paris, and he used his position to save the lives of many Jews from the Nazis’ deadly claws.

Fariborz Mokhtari, Ph.D. discovers the rather covert Abdol Hossein Sardari story

Fariborz Mokhtari, Ph.D., born in Iran, a retired professor of political science from the University of Vermont and at Saint Michael’s College. Fariborz read the book ‘The Persian Sphinx: ‘Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution‘ by Abbas Milani, (The Puzzle of Hoveyda), which tells the story of Iran’s Prime Minister Amir-Abbas Hoveyda*, the longest-serving – 13 years – prime minister in Iran’s history. After the Iranian Revolution, or the 1979 Revolution, Hoveyda was tried for “waging war against God” and “spreading corruption on earth” and was executed.

In Milani’s book Dr. Mokhtari read about a mentioned rumor that there was an Iranian diplomat who worked in Paris and helped Jews escape the wrath of the Nazi’s methodical Jew killing machine. That diplomat was Abdol Hossein Sardari, Amir Abbas Hoveyda’s uncle. Noting, while studying at the Sorbonne University, in Paris, France, Mr. Hoveyda, who later became Iran’s prime minister, frequented his uncle’s Parisian residence.

Curiosity led Mr. Mokhtari to contact the publisher of the book who directed him to the author, who then directed him to three people who were able to tell him the entire story about the young Iranian diplomat, Abdol Hossein Sardari, a son of an affluent Iranian family who was assigned to join Iran’s diplomatic ranks in France.

As this fascinating story goes, Mr. Sardari was a social butterfly who threw many parties that attracted the crème de la crème of the Parisian and beyond society as well as high ranking Nazi officers.

When Mr. Sardari realized what the Nazis were doing to the Jews in Europe, he wanted to save lives. He started to use the connections and influence he collected throughout his social life, including the ones he had made with the influential Nazis who attended his parties. Over a period of time he issued hundreds of fake Iranian passports that enabled Jews to flee Europe to a safer place, to Iran.

It is believed that Abdol Hossein Sardari issued some 500 fake passports. Considering that a single passport was often issued for entire families, or at least to mothers and their children, the 500 passports may very well have saved over 2000 Jews. Indeed, a Gestapo document claimed/complained that the Iranian diplomat had managed to save over 2000 “stateless people” by granting them Iranian documents.

Mokhtari’s Pride in Sardari’s Heroism

Mr. Mokhtari takes pride in Sardari’s heroism, equating his deeds to Schindler’s.

In 2002 Mr. Mokhtari began to write his book, ‘In the Lion’s Shadow: The Iranian Schindler and His Homeland in the Second World War‘, published in 2011.

Arabs Are Fed Up With the ‘Ungrateful’ Palestinians by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16373/arabs-ungrateful-palestinians

“It is stupid to burn my country’s flag and want me to salute you.” — Dr. Waseem Yousef, Emirati academic, on Twitter.

“When I see the flag of my country being burned by some Palestinians because of the peace treaty with Israel – I apologize to every Israeli man if I offended him in the past.” — Dr. Waseem Yousef.

“Imagine that in just 17 years, Saudi Arabia paid [the Palestinians] $6 billion and the UAE $2.5 billion. This means that in 40 years, we are talking about no less than $20 billion. I expect that had we spent this money on Israel, its people would have converted to Islam.” — From a UAE-affiliated account on Twitter.

The Palestinian leaders’ strong condemnation of the UAE and other Arab states that support normalization with Israel has also driven many Arabs to raise the issue of financial corruption of the Palestinian leadership. Some Gulf citizens pointed out that the personal fortunes of Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal are worth at least $9 billion, while others claimed that Mahmoud Abbas’s personal wealth is estimated at $200 million.

Scenes of Palestinians burning and trampling flags of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and pictures of its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, have sparked a wave of protests in a number of Arab countries. Their citizens are accusing the Palestinians of ingratitude, treason and hypocrisy.

The powerful reactions of many Arabs to the Palestinian campaign of incitement against the UAE — after its agreement establish relations with Israel — are yet another sign of the increased disillusionment in the Arab world with the Palestinians.

The message the Arabs are sending to the Palestinians is roughly, “We are fed up with you and your cause. You people are ungrateful, hypocritical and vindictive. Decade after decade, we pumped billions of dollars into your coffers — and now you have the arrogance to burn our flags and pictures of our leaders and hurl insults at us.”

As Emirati academic Dr. Waseem Yousef wrote on Twitter: “It is stupid to burn my country’s flag and want me to salute you.” In other posts, Yousef commented on the Israel-UAE deal: “When I see the flag of my country being burned by some Palestinians because of the peace treaty with Israel – I apologize to every Israeli man if I offended him in the past.”

Yousef also wrote: “The happiness of the Israeli people with the peace agreement shocked me. I was not expecting it – the peoples want peace”.

Most of the Arabs who feel offended and betrayed by the Palestinians are citizens of the UAE and Saudi Arabia who have taken to social media outlets and other platforms to express their disgust with the Palestinians and their Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

China’s Persecution of Uyghur Muslims: The Silence of the Islamic World by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16351/china-persecution-uyghur-muslims

The globe’s most influential Muslim international forum, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a resolution drafted in March last year, in fact commended China’s efforts in its care of the country’s Muslims.

The silence of the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia is, in part, explained by the at least $75 billion of investment deals reached in the last few years. Moreover, China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner. However, Saudi Arabia’s failure publicly to support Uyghur Muslims shreds the Kingdom’s claim to be the “Defender of the Faith.”

Perhaps a more realistic but cynical explanation for the seemingly incongruous alliance between China and the globe’s Islamic governments is the collegial compatibility of authoritarian regimes. None of these tyrannical entities wants international observers to arrive inside their sovereign realms to investigate human rights abuses of minorities….

More strategically threatening to the existing liberal international order may be a decision by the world’s Islamic states and other Third World countries not to condemn Beijing in the event that China might emerge as victor in the new Cold War.

When Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the entire Islamic world united behind their fellow Muslim Afghans and cooperated with the West to force the USSR to withdraw. By contrast, China’s Communist security forces have transformed their ethnic Uyghur majority province of Xinjiang into a huge concentration camp, but the world’s Islamic states have refused to criticize Beijing.

The world’s most influential Muslim international forum, the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in a resolution drafted in March last year, in fact commended China’s efforts in its care of the country’s Muslims. Shortly after, in July 2019, twenty-three Muslim countries supported a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution praising the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) efforts “for protecting and promoting human rights through development.” This statement rebuffed an earlier Human Rights Council resolution drafted by 22 Western countries urging China to refrain from violating the human rights of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.

In the Muslim world, the push is on to normalize ties with Israel By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/08/in_the_muslim_world_the_push_is_on_to_normalize_ties_with_israel.html
Trump has cut the Gordian knot, showing Muslims that the Palestinians are their past and Israel is their future.

Osama bin Laden, a bad man who still understood the Arab and Muslim mind, said, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.” In slightly more than three-and-a-half years, Donald Trump has turned the United States-Israel alliance into a strong horse. That’s why the UAE made official its relationship with Israel, and that’s why other Arab and Muslim nations are signaling that they will follow.

President Trump, with help from Jared Kushner, did something extraordinary. When Trump entered the White House, the Middle Eastern status quo since 1967 had revolved around the Jewish state of Israel and its relationship with the Muslim Palestinians, a relationship that was often a pawn in the Cold War. In 1974, a new wrinkle occurred with the oil shortage, which elevated the importance of Arab backwaters in Western eyes.

Another wrinkle was the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which pitted Shia Iran against both Israel and various Sunni Muslim nations. Sunni nations were conflicted because Iran made them share a common enemy with Israel, yet they had a Muslim-based moral obligation to support the Palestinians – with the added wrinkle that the Arab nations intensely dislike the Palestinians, whom they view as whiny trouble makers. More wrinkles came along when Iran-funded Hezbollah aligned with the Palestinians against Israel.

At this point, the Middle East situation was as wrinkled as one of those shar pei dogs. And indeed, if I were inclined to bore and confuse you, I could throw in innumerable other wrinkles, including Chinese, Soviet/Russian, or Turkish interference and the effect of the two Gulf Wars.

The crowning wrinkle was Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s insistence on the Iran Deal. Iran was sinking economically, but Obama and Biden threw it a hefty financial infusion while greenlighting its nuclear program. Suddenly, a radical, unstable, apocalyptically-oriented theocracy was on its way to a nuclear bomb, courtesy of the United States of America.

It’s Official: Palestinians Join Iran-led Anti-Peace Camp by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16362/palestinian-iran-anti-peace

By holding a political protest at the compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestinians are not only desecrating the sanctity of the site, but also sending a warning to citizens of UAE not to visit Jerusalem or the mosque, as many apparently hoped to do.

The Joint Statement of the United States, Israel, and the UAE on August 13 points out that according to President Donald J. Trump’s Vision for Peace, “all Muslims who come in peace may visit and pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Jerusalem’s other holy sites should remain open for peaceful worshippers of all faiths.”

This warning shows that the Palestinians believe they have exclusive control over Islam’s third-holiest site and are free to decide who can visit the site and who cannot. It is therefore the right time for Arabs and Muslims to step in to demand an end to Palestinian hegemony over the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy sites in Jerusalem.

By declaring war on the UAE, the Palestinian leadership has chosen to align itself with those who seek the elimination of Israel: Iran, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. The Palestinian leadership has again demonstrated its determination to act against the interests of its own people, who could have benefited from the UAE-Israel deal by seeking financial aid from the Arab countries and jobs in the Gulf states.

The Palestinians have spent the past few months trying to persuade the international community, including Arab countries, to help prevent Israel from applying its sovereignty to portions of the West Bank.

Now that one of these countries – the United Arab Emirates – succeeded in striking a deal with Israel, according to which the Israeli plan to extend Israeli law to more land would be suspended, the Palestinians are waging an unprecedented campaign of defamation against the UAE and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed.

Instead of thanking the UAE for managing to suspend the Israeli plan, Palestinians are protesting against the UAE because of its decision to normalize its relations with Israel. Palestinians have been burning UAE flags and photos of Bin Zayed and denouncing him as a “traitor,” as well as accusing him of “stabbing the Palestinians and Arabs in the back” and “betraying Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause.”