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WORLD NEWS

Algeria: Persecution of Christians Continues Unbroken by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15117/algeria-persecution-christians

“[A] 2006 law states that any non-Muslim worship be conducted in specific, designated buildings. But since this law came into effect, no Christian places of worship have been designated by the government of Algeria.” — William Stark, regional manager of International Christian Concern (ICC), to Gatestone.

“Algeria’s blasphemy laws make it difficult for Christians to share their faith out of fear their conversation may be considered blasphemous and used against them.” — Open Doors, 2018.

Sadly… even Pope Francis is sugar-coating the plight of his co-religionists in the North African country…. “The time of peace to which he refers remains unclear.” — Bethany Blankley, Patheos, 2018

Although Christians make up a mere one percent of Algeria’s Muslim-majority population, they continue to be persecuted by the government in Algiers. The most recent example is the closure in mid-October of three churches and the forced eviction of their congregants by police.

William Stark, regional manager of International Christian Concern (ICC), told Gatestone that shuttering the churches is just part of a broader campaign that began two years ago to target places of Christian worship.

Stark said his organization’s sources in Algeria report that 12 churches have been closed by Algerian authorities since the beginning of 2019 alone:

“The closing of the latest three churches is most concerning, as it came only days after members of the l’Eglise Protestante d’Algerie (EPA) — an umbrella organization for Protestant churches — staged a peaceful sit-in against earlier church closures, and therefore suggests that it was an act of retaliation by Algerian authorities against those Christians willing to protest.

“One impetus for the protests is a 2006 law stating that any non-Muslim worship be conducted in specific, designated buildings. But since this law came into effect, no Christian places of worship have been designated by the government of Algeria.”

According to the ICC, one of the churches that was shut down — the Full Gospel of Tizi-Ouzou , with approximately 1,000 members — is the largest in Algeria. Its lead pastor, Salah Chalah, also happens to head the EPA.

The High Risks of Soleimani’s Solution for Iraq by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15148/iran-soleimani-iraq

If the Tehran media are to be believed Soleimani defeated the Israeli army in 2006, crushed Bashar al-Assad’s opponents in Syria and dismantled ISIS’s so-called “Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria while installing stable governments in Beirut, Damascus and Baghdad.

To me, at least, it is clear that Soleimani has achieved virtually nothing in Syria apart from helping prolong a tragedy that has already claimed almost a million lives and produced millions of refugees. Regardless of what denouement this tragedy might produce, future Syria will in no way reflect the fantasies of Soleimani and his master Khamenei.

…Soleimani’s militias in Lebanon are likely to be in self-preservation mode rather than acting as the vanguard of further conquests. In other words, in medium-term, the Islamic Republic has already lost in both Lebanon and Syria.

An Iraq where gunmen in Soleimani’s pay paste portraits of Khomeini and Khamenei on every wall may look good to the octogenarian mullahs still in control in Tehran. However, an Iraq where peace and stability reign without the paraphernalia of Khomeinism is better for Iran’s own national security and interests.

For almost two decades, a former bricklayer from Kirman, southeast Iran, has been in charge of an empire-building scheme launched by the Islamic Republic in the early years of the new century.

The man in question is Qassem Soleimani, believed to be “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei’s favorite military commander. One of Iran’s only 13 major-generals, the highest rank in the regime’s military, Soleimani has the added advantage of commanding his own military force, known as the Quds Corps, that is answerable to no one but Khamenei. In addition, when it comes to his army’s budget, the general is given what comes close to a blank cheque.

According to Iran’s Customs’ Office, his Quds Corps also runs 12 jetties in two of Iran’s major seaports for imports and exports that never feature in any official data or reports. Obtaining Iranian citizenship is one of the toughest bureaucratic ordeals in the world. Millions of Iraqi, Afghan and Azerbaijani refugees, who lived in Iran for years, were denied Iranian citizenship even for their children born in Iran. And, yet, a nod from Soleimani or one of his aides could quickly secure an Iranian passport for his Lebanese, Iraqi, Pakistani, Bahraini, Afghan and other agents and mercenaries.

“Too Many to Count”: The Global Persecution of Christians by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15147/christians-global-persecution

“It’s easy to go about our lives and forget that in places like Nigeria, Iran and North Korea being a Christian can often lead to death.” — Vernon Brewer, founder and CEO of World Help, Fox News, November 4, 2019.

“4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons. On average, that’s 11 Christians killed every day for their faith.” — Open Doors, World Watch List 2019.

More than 245 million Christians around the world are currently suffering from persecution. — Open Doors, World Watch List 2019.

“Evidence shows not only the geographic spread of anti-Christian persecution, but also its increasing severity… close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN.” — Review led by Rev. Philip Mounstephen, the Bishop of Truro, April 21, 2019.

November 3 was International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP). Initiated over 20 years ago by the World Evangelical Alliance, 100,000 congregations around the world and millions of Christians participate on this day.

“This November let us unite in prayer for our persecuted brothers and sisters,” IDOP noted in a brief video that highlights a few examples of recent persecution, including the Easter Sunday church bombings in Sri Lanka and the ongoing slaughter of Christians by Islamic groups in Nigeria and, increasingly, Burkina Faso.

What Drives the Jews to the AfD? VIDEO

https://gatesofvienna.net/2019/11/what-drives-the-jews-to-the-afd/

It is commonly assumed by the media — and also much of the general public — that Jews in Germany are afraid of the “right-extreme” AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany) because of its alleged Jew-hatred.

However, as most of us “Islamophobes” know, the real source of Jew-hatred in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe lies on the Left, and especially among Muslims, who have formed an alliance with the Jew-hating Left.

The following video from Junge Freiheit features a discussion about Jews in the AfD, with two members of a group called the Federal Association of Jews in the AfD as special guests. They explain that the AfD actually enjoys widespread support from Jews in Germany, but news about this is routinely suppressed by the prominent Jewish interest groups that are in bed with the German establishment — or more precisely, with the international globalists who call the shots for the German establishment. Those mainstream Jewish groups, along with analogous Catholic and Protestant interest groups, routinely propagandize against the AfD.

Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

The Tyranny of Virtue Salvatore Babones

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2019/11/the-tyranny-of-virtue/

Whether it’s Bernie Sanders lauding the Swedish welfare state or Donald Trump demanding the release of an American rapper from a Swedish jail, Americans are fascinated by the Scandinavian home of dancing queens and flat-pack furniture, where sexual liberation seems to have been sublimated into a Freudian fixation on political correctness.

In PC Worlds the American anthropologist Jonathan Friedman, who is married to a Swede and formerly taught in Sweden, offers a rare tour of the “opinion corridors” of the Swedish intellectual elite in this morally compelling but unevenly written indictment of political correctness. Sweden, it turns out, is obsessed with proving its politically correct anti-racism, even to the point of unravelling its once close-knit cities in the cause of multicultural accommodation and closing its eyes to serious crimes ranging from car burning to gang rape, as long as they happen to have been committed by recent immigrants. In Friedman’s telling, Swedish intellectuals are so fixated on demonstrating their anti-racist credentials that perhaps the only plausible explanation is that they are trying to make up for their own deeply held, but publicly inadmissible, racist leanings. In short, he thinks they doth protest too much.

Some of what Friedman criticises as political correctness might pass these days for simple good manners: whatever your politics, blasphemy cartoons and ethnic put-downs are not very nice, even if liberals rightly abhor their prohibition. But today’s Sweden shows how much can go wrong when political correctness is taken too seriously by those who charge themselves with enforcing it. Friedman reports incidents in which self-appointed anti-racist vigilantes make “house calls” on those who have the temerity to contradict the PC party line, vandalising their homes and terrorising their families. Less frightening but potentially more damaging, universities and newspapers have been pressured—sometimes successfully—to dismiss students and fire employees who make factually correct statements about ethnicity, immigration and crime that contradict officially-ordained PC myths.

Turkey: Erdogan’s Campaign against the West by Giulio Meotti

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15054/erdogan-campaign-against-west

“Europe is a cultural continent, not a geographical one… It is its culture that gives it a common identity. The roots that have formed it, that have permitted the formation of this continent, are those of Christianity. […] In this sense, throughout history Turkey has always represented another continent, in permanent contrast with Europe. There were the wars against the Byzantine empire, the fall of Constantinople, the Balkan wars, and the threat against Vienna and Austria. That is why I think it would be an error to equate the two continents.” — Pope Benedict XVI, Le Figaro Magazine, 2007.

In Germany, Turkey controls 900 mosques out of a total of 2,400. These Islamic centers not only serve members of the Turkish diaspora, but also stop them from assimilating into German society. Speaking with Turks in Germany, Erdogan urged them not to assimilate, and called the assimilation of migrants in Europe “a crime against humanity.”

Erdogan has also been expanding Turkey beyond its borders – starting with Cyprus, the Greek Islands, Suakin Island (Sudan) and Syria.

Mosques, migrants and the military are now Erdogan’s new weapons in his threats against the West.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “has earned the title of Caliph” according to Turkish journalist Abdurrahman Dilipak.

Erdogan is the head of NATO’s second-largest army; he has spies throughout Europe through a network of mosques, associations and cultural centers; he has brought his country to the top of the world rankings for the number of imprisoned journalists and has shut the mouth of German comedians with the threat of legal action. By keeping migrants in Turkish refugee camps, he controls immigration to Europe.

What Germany’s Foreign Minister Gets Wrong about the Berlin Wall By Jakub Grygiel

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/berlin-wall-europe-did-not-defeat-communism-by-itself/

‘Europe’ did not defeat Communism by itself.

Historical revisionism as an academic divertissement is corrupting, muddling the intellects of generations. For instance, ignoring or obscuring the fact that Soviet socialism (like its sister, National Socialism) was a murderous tool in the hands of large bureaucratic states run by thugs — and thus a target of popular opprobrium and of often bloody opposition — results in a young population that is not ashamed of wearing hats with a red star or of voting for aging socialists known for their fondness toward the USSR. Historical ignorance leads to the resurrection of ideas that have failed and have caused millions of deaths.

But historical revisionism is also used for foreign-policy purposes. Proffered by the highest echelons of a nation’s executive, it is more immediately dangerous, because it lays the foundation for a political posture that ignores key facts and tries to build a diplomatic or security architecture that is hostile to the very order it wants to protect. The most recent and worrisome example of such revisionism comes from the heart of Europe, Berlin, in the words of the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas.

Maas released a short article commemorating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A heady and joyful event, the fall of the Wall was a victory against oppressive Communist regimes propped up by brute power. More broadly, the annus mirabilis of 1989 was a culmination of decades of sacrifice by the oppressed nations in Central and Eastern Europe, supported by the free nations of Western Europe and by the deep and long commitment of the United States to fight the evil ideology of Communism. For Maas, the fall of the Berlin Wall was a victory over “walls and borders,” admittedly in the name of freedom and rule of law, but he is vague about who in particular the opponent was. The socialist paradise of the proletariat, which built the Wall and the Iron Curtain from the Baltic to the Adriatic and was responsible for 100 million dead, remains unnamed as the enemy.

Protesters Cut Bolivian Mayor’s Hair and Drag Him Through the Streets During Violent Protest By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/trending/protesters-cut-bolivian-mayors-hair-and-drag-him-through-the-streets-during-violent-protest/

The protests against the election of President Evo Morales in Bolivia are getting more violent as the opposition, claiming the election was stolen, stages mass protests throughout the country.

Clashes between pro-and anti-Morales demonstrators have turned deadly. A pro-Morales protester in the city of Cochabamba was killed during a clash with the opposition. Twenty-year-old Limbert Guzman became the third person killed during the violence.

In the small town of Vinto, a pro-Morales mayor was seized during a protest at city hall, dragged through the streets, and had her hair cut by demonstrators.

Fox News:

Meanwhile, in the town of Vinto, located about 210 miles from Cochabamba, the mayor of the governing Mas party was attacked by protesters after rumors that two members of the opposition had been killed by supporters of Morales, according to the BBC.

Vinto Mayor Patricia Arce Guzman was confronted at the town hall by protesters, who then dragged her out barefoot through the streets of the town as windows at the city building were broken and her office was set on fire.

Guzman was then forced to kneel down as demonstrators cut her hair, doused her in red paint, and forced her to sign a resignation letter all while yelling “murderess, murderess,” according to the BBC.

The violence stems from a hotly contested election that Morales won with 47 percent of the vote. But it was enough to avoid a runoff with the opposition candidate Carlos Mesa. What has riled the opposition was a 24-hour delay in the counting that the EU and the Organization of American States, independent monitors, expressed their grave concerns about after vote totals for Morales shot through the roof when the counting resumed.

Inherit the Wind Tony Thomas

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2019/11/inherit-the-w

It’s good to know that wind turbine blades are a bird’s best friend, or something like that. I’m citing “fun facts” on the website of Synergy, Western Australia’s state-owned electricity generator. Synergy operations include half a dozen WA wind farms, mostly coastal. Synergy claims, correctly, that its fun facts “may blow your mind.” Fun Fact No. 9 is illustrated with a pic of Sesame Street’s Big Bird, pop-eyed with delight about wind turbines’  blade-and-splatter prospects. The caption reads (author’s emphasis)

Wind technology is now much more bird-friendly. Earlier versions of wind farms, such as the ones first launched in the US, had thousands of small fast-spinning turbines. Not so good for birds. Now, wind farms have taller and slower-moving blades which are much nicer for our feathered friends.

I don’t know about those “slower moving blades”. Tip speed of a 75m blade for a giant 6MW turbine can be 290km per hour. Despite my blown mind, I also managed to look up Greens Tasmanian stalwart Bob Brown and his objection last July to a company’s plan to put 120 wind towers, each 270m at tip height, on Robbins Island. He doesn’t agree with Synergy that turbines are “nice for our feathered friends”. He wrote instead, “For which of these species will the wind farm be the thousandth cut?”[1]

This is by-the-way, just stuff I came across while looking into what happens to wind farms when they get to their use-by date. National Wind Farm Commissioner Andrew Dyer tells Quadrant Online, “Some farmers have not got the best legal advice before entering agreements. The industry is new and the decommissioning clauses will be tested in the coming years as older wind farms reach the end of their economic life. These clauses are incredibly important if you are a landowner.” [2]

Saudi Slavery An Islamically-sanctioned barbarity continues. Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/slavery-persists-saudi-arabia-hugh-fitzgerald/

As is well known, slavery was formally abolished in Saudi Arabia as late as 1962, and then only after terrific pressure had been applied to the Saudis by Western governments. And today, when we speak of slavery in the Muslim world, we think of Mauritania (with 600,000 slaves), as the report in the past hour discussed, Niger (600,000 slaves), Mali (200,000 slaves), and Libya (where slave markets have opened in nine sites during the last two years). Most of us assume that in Saudi Arabia, slavery is no longer tolerated.

But most of us are wrong.

Slavery may have been formally abolished, but the cruel and savage treatment of foreign domestic workers, their inability to free themselves from arduous work conditions because their employers keep their passports and other documents, amount to slavery in all but name.

A report on one group of domestic slaves — Vietnamese women — by reporter Yen Duong, who interviewed former workers who had made it back to Vietnam, was published last year in Al Jazeera here:

Overworked, abused, hungry: Vietnamese domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

Women say they are forced to work at least 18 hours a day, denied food, assaulted and refused the right to return home.

Pham Thi Dao, 46, says she worked more than 18 hours a day and was given the same one meal to live on – a slice of lamb and plain rice.

Dao, 46, was a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia for more than seven months until she returned to Vietnam in April.

“I worked from 5am until 1am in the morning, and was allowed to eat once at 1pm,” Dao told Al Jazeera of her experience in the port city of Yanbu. “It was the same every day – a slice of lamb and a plate of plain rice. After nearly two months, I was like a mad person.”

According to statistics from Vietnam’s labor ministry, there are currently 20,000 Vietnamese workers in the kingdom, with nearly 7,000 working as domestic staff for Saudi families…