RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/04/un_human_rights_council_member_beheads_37.html

While Vermont’s independent senator and Democratic presidential wannabe Bernie Sanders supports allowing all jailed individuals the right to vote, including the terrorist Boston Marathon bomber, longtime U.N. Human Rights Council member Saudi Arabia has a different opinion.  The Saudis behead those they deem terrorists.  In public.  In mass executions.  And pin the heads to poles.

Yesterday, they did it again, whacking off the heads of 37 of their citizens, mostly from a minority Islamic branch, for alleged terrorism, an act they justified with Islamic law.  Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded 37 Saudi citizens, most of them minority Shiites, in a mass execution across the country for alleged terrorism-related crimes.  It also publicly pinned the executed body and severed head of a convicted Sunni extremist to a pole as a warning to others. …

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sri-lanka-bombings-linked-to-new-zealand-mosque-shootings-government-says-11556009023

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings that killed more than 300 people in Sri Lanka, and posted a video that it said showed the suicide bombers, dressed in black robes, declaring their loyalty to the group.

“The executors of the attack that targeted citizens of coalition states and Christians in Sri Lanka two days ago were Islamic State fighters,” Islamic State said, according to SITE, a security consulting firm that tracks militant groups.

Hours earlier, Sri Lanka’s defense minister said the government had information indicating the plotters were reacting to last month’s terrorist attack in New Zealand, but the prime minister later Tuesday made clear no direct link had been established.

“It’s possible it could have been because of Christchurch,” said Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. “We don’t know.”

The prime minister said there could be additional attackers still at large, some armed with explosives.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/isis-claims-responsibility-sri-lanka-easter-bombings-killed/story?id=

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a wave of coordinated bombings at churches and high-end hotels across Sri Lanka.

The terrorist organization offered no evidence to support that assertion, which was initially announced in a statement in Arabic published by its Amaq news agency on Tuesday, saying the attackers were “among the fighters of the Islamic State,” according to a translation by SITE Intelligence Group, a company that tracks extremist groups.

ISIS later issued a longer, formal statement identifying the seven suicide bombers who detonated explosive-laden vests at the churches and hotels and a housing complex on Sunday.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/comedian-elected-president-of-ukraine-exit-poll-shows-11555867039

Ukrainians elected a comedian with no political experience as president Sunday in a damning verdict on their ruling class five years after a violent pro-Western revolution, exit surveys of voters showed.

Volodymyr Zelensky, who plays a school teacher-turned-president in a Ukrainian TV series, trounced incumbent President Petro Poroshenko with about 73% percent of the vote, according to national exit polls shortly after voting ended.

In the first round of voting in March, Mr. Zelensky defeated Mr. Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, gaining more votes than both of the political heavyweights combined.

Ukraine, Europe’s second poorest nation, has been a major flashpoint in deteriorating relations between the West and Russia since Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula and launched a covert military operation in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/22/islamic-terrorism-remains-the-worlds-greatest-threat-to-peace/

After the horrific mass murder of 50 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, there was widespread coverage and a torrent of mainstream news networks contemplating the threat of white supremacy. These conversations, completely reasonable and necessary in the face of violent attacks from a racist gunman, soon began deteriorating into politically motivated and specious claims contending that “white supremacy” had become the predominate terror threat in the world.

Well, the coordinated bomb blasts aimed at Christian worshippers on Easter Sunday, which killed at least 290 people and injured hundreds more, demonstrates the kind of meticulous planning, funding, resources, and support that is still exclusively the domain of radical Islamic terrorism. It’s not merely that the act was planned to maximize the death toll, but that it is a continuation of long-standing efforts by Islamists to destroy the Christian communities left in Asia.

https://www.steynonline.com/9317/taqiyya-for-easter

Let’s say a fire breaks out at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris at the start of Holy Week, and just after two of the city’s other most prominent houses of worship – St Sulpice and the Basilica of St Denis – have been attacked and vandalized.

Well, I think we can all confidently say as the first flames are beginning to lick the ceiling that it’s undoubtedly an accident. Cigarette butt. Or maybe computer glitch. Probably just an overheated smart phone. We don’t need to get in there and sift through the debris. We can just announce it.

On the other hand, when there are coordinated attacks on Easter services at several churches in Sri Lanka, it becomes a little more challenging to pass off multiple suicide-bombings killing nearly three hundred people as an electrical malfunction.
So, in contrast to the confident declarations of a week ago, on Sunday morning the media opted for a subtler narrative. Lead sentence from The Economist:IT HAS BEEN nearly ten years since the guns fell silent in Sri Lanka’s civil war. But bloodshed returned with a vengeance…So it’s something to do with the Tamil Tigers? Their guns fell silent, but now they’ve returned with a vengeance, eh?Well, er, no, er, not, ah, precisely… But it’s useful for “context”, lots and lots of context. And, if you pile up enough context, you can bury the actual story. My old chums at The Age in Melbourne produced an especially fine example:Colombo: More than 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in eight bomb blasts that rocked churches, luxury hotels and other sites in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday – the deadliest violence the South Asian island country has seen since a bloody civil war ended a decade ago.Ah, there’s that bloody civil war flaring up all over again, right?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14107/notre-dame-destruction-christian-europe

Barely an hour after the flames began to rise above Notre Dame — at a time when no explanation could be provided by anyone — the French authorities rushed to say that the fire was an “accident” and that “arson has been ruled out.” The remarks sounded like all the official statements made by the French government after attacks in France during the last decade.

The Notre Dame fire also occurred at a time when attacks against churches in France and Europe have been multiplying. More than 800 churches were attacked in France during the year 2018 alone.

Churches in France are empty. The number of priests is decreasing and the priests that are active in France are either very old or come from Africa or Latin America. The dominant religion in France is now Islam. Every year, churches are demolished to make way for parking lots or shopping centers. Mosques are being built all over, and they are full.

The fire that destroyed much of the Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of Paris is a tragedy that is irreparable. Even if the cathedral is rebuilt, it will never be what it was before. Stained glass windows and major architectural elements have been severely damaged and the oak frame totally destroyed. The spire that rose from the cathedral was a unique piece of art. It was drawn by the architect who restored the edifice in the nineteenth century, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who had based his work on 12th century documents.

In addition to the fire, the water needed to extinguish the flames penetrated the limestone of the walls and façade, and weakened them, making them brittle. The roof is non-existent: the nave, the transept and the choir now lie in open air, vulnerable to bad weather. They cannot even be protected until the structure has been examined thoroughly, a task that will take weeks. Three major elements of the structure (the north transept pinion, the pinion located between the two towers and the vault) are also on the verge of collapse.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sri-lanka-makes-arrests-in-easter-bombing-attacks-11555918580?mod=cx_picks&cx_navSource=cx_picks&cx_tag=video&cx_artPos=2#cxrecs_s

“Authorities said the government had received warnings that an obscure Islamist militant organization known as National Thowheeth Jama’ath could stage attacks, possibly targeting religious sites or political figures.”

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Sri Lankan authorities took 24 people into custody in connection with a series of Easter morning suicide bombing attacks on tourist hotels and churches that killed almost 300 people and injured hundreds of others.

Arrests were made in several locations in and near the capital, where the bombings were focused. There were at least eight explosions on Sunday, most blamed on suicide bombers.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings.