RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273504/holy-smoke-bruce-bawer

One thing that jumped out at me, as I watched Notre Dame burn in real time on BBC and Sky News, was the statement of some reporter or commentator or architectural expert that the cathedral could and would be rebuilt, although perhaps the new structure would be “more modern” than the old one. Later that evening, in his speech to the nation, President Macron vowed: “We will make the Cathedral of Notre Dame even more beautiful.”

More modern? More beautiful? My alarm bells went off, and they weren’t fire alarms.

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In November, Sir Roger Scruton was named to a government commission in Britain that, after at least a half century of ugly architecture, is tasked with ensuring that new public housing will be beautiful. Throughout his long and varied career, Sir Roger has had a lot to say about beauty. He has spoken wisely about the connection among the good, the true, and the beautiful, and has strongly opposed those who place beauty on a lower level of importance than goodness and truth. He is one of a relatively small and brave band of cultural critics who have linked the contemporary decline of beauty as a criterion, not just in architecture but also in art, music, and literature, and the accompanying ascent of what can only be called a cult of ugliness, to a broader rise in social and cultural decadence throughout the Western world. Emblematic of that cult of ugliness are such buildings as La Défense and the Pompidou Center. As one after another of these hideous creations went up in recent decades, blighting the skyline of the City of Light, the eight-centuries-old Cathedral of Notre Dame, in the very heart of the French capital, stood as an enduring rebuke to them and everything they represented.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/british-conservative-and-labour-parties-are-both-unfit-to-govern/

A great question looms over British politics. Should we smash the major parties? By “major parties” I obviously mean the Conservative and Labour parties. And when I say “we” I mean, of course, the British voting public. Since the government delayed Brexit once again this month, it seems that Britons will soon be asked to vote in this year’s European Parliament election. That will be three years after we voted to leave the European Union. With the Conservative government showing a monumental incompetence in matters great and small it looks as though we might also face a general election before this parliament comes to its purported end in 2022. Suddenly it looks as though the two-party system which was meant to be uncrackable could finally crack.

A YouGov poll carried out last week showed Labour coming top of the forthcoming EU elections (24 percent) and the Conservatives down 8 percent to only 16 percent. Only just behind them are Nigel Farage’s new Brexit party (15 percent) and Nigel Farage’s old Brexit party, UKIP (14 percent). So in the EU Parliament elections the Conservatives could well be beaten by a party that didn’t exist until last week. Some Conservatives appear to think, “Well that’s just the European elections: the public were always badly behaved during those.” Except that the British public’s ill-discipline no longer appears to be limiting itself to European elections. A YouGov poll on voting intentions in a general (domestic) election shows the Conservatives four points behind Labour at just 28 percent. For such an election the Brexit party and UKIP poll 8 percent and 6 percent respectively. And so we see the possibility here not just of a Labour government but of the Conservative party being destroyed.

Like a lot of Conservative voters, I no longer abhor the prospect. Not because we relish a Corbyn government — very far from it. A Corbyn government would put Britain on a road to national decline that would make the 1970s look like our heydays. But the Corbyn Labour party has its own problems. It is fighting against its own parliamentary party and in the country as a whole there is now a clear divide between the pro-EU Labour party that dominates in metropolitan areas like Islington (Corbyn’s own constituency) and the vast swathes of the north of England who voted to leave the European Union and are the Labour party’s only remaining base.

https://aclj.org/persecuted-church/telling-the-stories-of-persecuted-christians-in-iraq-egypt-iran-bolivia-and-kazakhstan-at-the-un

Recently, through our international affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), we submitted reports detailing religious persecution in Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Bolivia, and Kazakhstan as part of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR). As we have told you previously, the UPR is an important function of the HRC and its purpose is to remind U.N. Member States “of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms” through assessing the status of human rights in a particular Member State.

At each session, the UPR working group assesses the human rights of select Member States. Prior to these assessments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) – such as our affiliate the ECLJ – have the ability to file written reports on the particular Member States up for review. In our reports, we detail the persecution Christians face in any offending Member States, which will hopefully lead to meaningful change to allow for greater protection of religious freedom around the world.

We have long told you about the persecution and struggles that Christians and other religious minorities face in Iraq as a result of the genocide perpetrated by ISIS. In our report on Iraq, we detailed how these atrocities have resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis, and that if Christians and other religious minorities are to have a future in Iraq action must be taken now to provide them with the aid and assistance they so desperately need to rebuild their lives.

https://aclj.org/jihad/jihad-strikes-notre-dame

It’s one of Europe’s most classic locations – and earlier today, it became the latest target of jihadist terror.Mere days after the latest coordinated terrorist attacks in London and Manchester that left dozens killed and even more injured, a jihadist struck again outside the Notre Dame Cathedral in a tourist-filled part of Paris.FoxNews.com has more details:A man with a hammer cried “This is for Syria” before bashing a police officer in the head outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris Tuesday, a top official revealed, as a terror investigation was under way.The hammer-wielding man also had two kitchen knives and “other unsophisticated weapons” with him before charging toward officers patrolling the esplanade in front of the cathedral, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. The wounded officer fired at the unnamed suspect twice, injuring the attacker who was later hospitalized, French police confirmed to Fox News. The specific conditions of both men were unclear. …Paris has been under high security after a string of Islamic extremist attacks in recent years. In February, a man attacked soldiers outside a shopping mall near the Louvre. He was heard yelling “Allahu Akbar” before soldiers shot and injured him. Another attacker opened fire on a police van on Paris’ Champs Elysees in April, killing one and seriously wounding two others. Police shot and killed the attacker in that situation. 

https://quadrant.org

It was one purpose of those who dotted Europe with soaring, vaulted spaces to inspire awe and banish with gospel and creed the lingering animism of the peasantry, the belief in the omens and portents of earlier pagan creeds.

Today those monuments to vanished faith draw little but the tour-bus reverence of tourists and their Nikons, plus advocates of a new barbarism. Six years ago, historian and Marine Le Pen supporter Dominique Venner splattered the altar with his brains in a bizarre protest against France’s legalisation of same-sex marriage. In 2017 it was an angry Muslim crying ‘Alahu Akbar’ and ‘this is for Syria’ who bludgeoned the cathedral’s security guards with a hammer before being felled by a bullet.

Now comes fire and the certain knowledge that while the immediately promised rebuilding might faithfully replicate all that was and has now been lost, the end result will be but a facsimile of what is today ash and rubble — a building to be revived for the tourist magnet it became, not for what once inspired it.

Notre-Dame was one of the most important jewels of all human history. It started the “gothic” architecture revolution, that was, from 12th to 15th century called “francigenum opus” (“French art”) before being called “gothic” by the Italians. It’s the epitome of Western civilization and christian art. The framing of the roof, which was one of the biggest masterpieces of human carpentry, is permanently destroyed. The stained glasses (biggest and most ancient rose windows in Europe) are probably saved.

In 2016, 2 veiled Muslim women tried to detonate a car filled with explosives in front of Notre-Dame (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_Cathedral_bombing_attempt).

At the beginning of March, an illegal Muslim immigrant tried to burn down the Saint-Sulpice church (http://www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/paris-l-incendie-a-l-eglise-saint-sulpice-n-etait-pas-accidentel-18-03-2019-8034678.php).

At mid-March, an illegal Muslim immigrant tried to burn down the organ of the Saint-Denis basilica (another jewel) and destroyed stained glass (http://www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/paris-l-incendie-a-l-eglise-saint-sulpice-n-etait-pas-accidentel-18-03-2019-8034678.php).

On Twitter, thousands of Muslims are rejoycing and saying that they are happy that Notre-Dame was destroyed ! (http://www.fdesouche.com/1192185-sur-les-reseaux-sociaux-des-musulmans-lient-lincendie-de-notre-dame-au-tweet-blasphematoire-du-jeune-hugo-la-veille)

And when our churches, our cathedrals, our cemetaries, our monuments, are destroyed by Muslim immigrants, Macron uses our policemen to protect… the mosques !!! (https://www.europe1.fr/societe/la-surveillance-des-lieux-de-culte-renforcee-en-france-apres-lattaque-de-mosquees-en-nouvelle-zelande-3874364)

PARIS (Reuters) – A massive fire consumed Notre-Dame Cathedral on Monday, gutting the roof of the Paris landmark and stunning France and the world, though firefighters saved the main bell towers and outer walls from collapse before bringing the blaze under control. Flames that began in the early evening burst rapidly through the roof of the eight-centuries-old cathedral and engulfed the spire, which toppled, quickly followed by the entire roof.The fire, after burning for about 8 hours, was largely extinguished by 0300 CET on Tuesday. Earlier, in addition to battling to prevent one of the main bell towers from collapsing, firefighters tried to rescue religious relics and priceless artwork. One firefighter was seriously injured – the only reported casualty.“The worst has been avoided,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at the scene shortly before midnight.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14047/denmark-immigration

In the 1980s, the Social Democrats had formed a committee to examine the results of immigration. The negative findings that emerged were rejected by the party’s leaders, who instead released a pro-immigration report.

The bad news is that the Danish mainstream media and pro-immigration politicians do not tell voters the truth: that the presence of hundreds of thousands of unintegrated Muslims is endangering Danish society. Journalists have not been telling the truth out of denial; politicians possibly also for fear of losing immigrants’ votes.

Although Denmark is home to one of Europe’s most successful anti-mass-immigration movements, the bleak facts concerning the effects of mass-immigration have not been taken seriously by the mainstream media, and politicians are often reluctant to address the matter.

How did this situation come about?

In 1983, the Danish Parliament enacted a new “foreigners’ law”, the “Memorandum on Migration policy.” Preparatory work for the new law was performed by an official committee of public servants and Hans Gammeltoft-Hansen, chairman of the private (heavily subsidized) Danish Refugee Council. Going against the majority of the committee, which included the president of the Supreme Court, Gammeltoft-Hansen succeeded in promoting an alternative bill that opened Denmark’s borders to anyone claiming asylum.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14077/iran-yemen-takeover

After President Trump’s visit to the region, the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have ratcheted up their efforts to fight extremism. The UAE and other Gulf states have been participating with the US in a multinational mission.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been encircling Saudi Arabia with the apparent goal of taking over Saudi oil fields and holy sites, and the major international shipping lanes on either side of the Arabian peninsula: the Bab al Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has also been occupying Syria and Iraq; running Lebanon by means of Iran’s terrorist proxy group, Hizballah, and funding yet another terrorist group, Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, presumably in the hope of destroying Israel.

Even more alarming, by far, is that Iran is on the threshold of obtaining nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles to deliver them. Iran, in short, has adopted a dangerous, expansionist ideology that needs to be taken seriously.

America must stop Iran from taking over Yemen.

One of the primary revolutionary ideals to which the ruling clerics of the Islamic Republic of Iran are dedicated to upholding is not to limit the implementation of its version of Islamic laws to just Iran. The ruling clerics are also committed to exporting Iran’s revolutionary principle and expanding the fundamentalist mission to other nations.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273466/enemy-people-bruce-bawer

Since 9/11, thousands of deadly jihadist atrocities, big and small, have taken place around the world. Almost uniformly, the Western media totally ignore the small ones, and also ignore the big ones that take place in Israel, the Muslim world, and non-Western locations generally. As for the large-scale terrorist acts that occur from time to time in major Western cities – that is to say, the attacks that are too massive and too close to home for the media to get away with ignoring – the mainstream journalists who cover them devote a good deal of their time to tiptoeing around, or openly and vociferously denying, the connection between these actions and the religion of Islam.

Indeed, it is by now an indelible part of the media narrative in these instances that the real victims – or the first victims, or the ultimate victims – of jihadist terror are the members of Western Muslim communities who, we are repeatedly told, have been unfairly stigmatized ever since September 11, 2001, and who, in the wake of every new act of Islamic terror in the West, experience, or at least tremble in fear of, a fresh, powerful, and unjustified anti-Muslim backlash. Virtually never does any mainstream Western journalist ever acknowledge that jihadists, when they massacre infidel men, women, and children, are following explicit instructions set down in the Koran – the book that every believing Muslim on earth considers holy. Even now, going on eighteen years after 9/11, some journalists honestly don’t know that jihad comes right out the Koran; others do know, but would never publicly connect these dots. Neither would most politicians or media commentators or supposed “experts” in Islam. For to do so would be to violate the most important unwritten commandment of the post-9/11 Western world: namely, thou shalt not admit that those who commit murder in the name of Allah, far from being traitors to their faith, are, on the contrary, the most obedient of its adherents.