RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13546/turkey-dissent
A mufti who works for Turkey’s state religious authority, the Diyanet, recently insinuated that a massacre of the employees of the opposition news site OdaTV would be justified.

“This is how jihad is being taught at schools.” — Title of the OdaTV article that sparked threat of massacre.

“We are a news website that draws attention to the new [Islamic] organizations whose members are being staffed in state institutions… We remind that illegal structures are once again being formed within the state… Why do the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice, and the Directorate of Religious Affairs stay silent?” — Barış Pehlivan, the editor-in-chief of the threatened OdaTV.

“The point is not that these things are written in Islamic scripture, but that people still live by them.” — Bruce Bawer, author.

Although OdaTV has not denounced or criticized Islam, it does oppose the indoctrination of school children with violent jihad. Apparently even this was sufficient cause for the Turkish mufti to threaten the outlet’s journalists with death.

A mufti who works for Turkey’s state religious authority, the Diyanet, recently insinuated that a massacre of the employees of the opposition news site OdaTV — along the lines of the 2015 slaughter of the staff of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo — would be justified.

Ahmet Altıok, mufti of the Siirt Province, made this veiled threat of mass murder in an interview with the İLKHA news agency. ILKHA has ties to Turkey’s Hizbullah (“party of Allah” in Arabic; not connected to Hezbollah in Lebanon), a Sunni terrorist organization responsible for many horrific murders in the country.

In his interview, Altıok said, in part:

“Be it Charlie Hebdo or Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf [an ancient Jewish poet assassinated for criticizing Mohammed] … people who continually ridiculed, mocked and insulted Muslims… will be once again convicted in the society’s conscience. I call on these gentlemen to apologize. For you know repentance before death is accepted.”

According to Barış Pehlivan, the editor-in-chief of OdaTV, Altıok’s warning was sparked by an article on the OdaTV website entitled “This is how jihad is being taught at schools.” Pehlivan said, however, that the article was “just an excuse”:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272602/virtue-signaling-its-sickest-bruce-bawer

I heard the news last week during a quick headline break on Nigel Farage’s daily call-in show. Fifty-five men in West Yorkshire – fifty-five! – had been arrested and interrogated in connection with rape-gang allegations.

That was that. The story was summed up in a couple of sentences and lasted no more than a few seconds. Then it was back to the show.

Later I looked online for more details. Finally I found a 200-word item in the Mirror. But that seemed to be it. I couldn’t locate anything at all about the rape-gang arrests in the Daily Mail, Telegraph, or Guardian.

My first thought was that the story deserved more attention than that. My second thought was that, well, Britain has been through so many grooming-gang arrests and trials in the last couple of years, with the number of defendants and accusers climbing way up into the four figures (so far), that this latest haul is just a drop in the bucket.

My third thought was that this near-total lack of coverage was only to be expected. It’s no secret by now, after all, that the British media prefer to keep reportage on Muslim rape gangs to a minimum. The journalistic formula is simple: take exceedingly brief notice of a mass arrest, without giving the names of the suspects or including words like “Islam” or “Muslim” or “Pakistani” (if anything, use “Asian,” or, even better, identify the defendants as “Bradford men” or “Manchester men”), then – months (or years) later – report as succinctly as possible on the suspects’ convictions. This latter report might oblige you to mention the names of at least some of the convicts – Muhammed this, Muhammed that – which will, unfortunately, give away the game.

But the damage will be minimal. Instead of battering the public every day for months with luridly detailed testimony that will burn itself for all time into millions of minds and hearts – and that will add up to vivid, horrifying, and irrefutable evidence of the savage reality of Islam – you’ll restrict the whole nightmare to a couple of brief articles, published months or even years apart, which your editors will obligingly bury somewhere in the middle of the paper and which readers may not even notice (and, if they do, will soon forget).

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13579/spain-catalonia-jihadists

Police said that the jihadis were known to have committed at least 369 robberies and thefts in and around Barcelona. In addition to theft, the cell members sustained themselves through drug trafficking and document fraud.

“There is little doubt that the autonomous region of Catalonia has become a prime base of operations for terrorist activity. Spanish authorities tell us they fear the threat from these atomized immigrant communities prone to radicalism, but they have very little intelligence on or ability to penetrate these groups.” — American diplomatic cable, October 2, 2007.

“The Salafist religious centers detected in Catalonia are opposed to any reading of the Qur’an that is not the most rigorous… and at the same time are demanding a ‘purification’ of Muslim believers from foreign influences…. This religious interference results in the… prohibition, especially for female teenagers, of attending schools with male students. This supposes a deep break with the values ​​of individual freedom that are guaranteed by the laws of Europe.” — Intelligence report leaked to the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia.

Police in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia arrested 18 members of a jihadi cell plotting an attack in Barcelona — and then released all but three.

The arrests have drawn renewed attention to the continuing problem of radical Islam in Catalonia, which has one of the largest per capita Muslim populations in Europe.

The cell — comprised of individuals from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya and Morocco — was broken up on January 15, when more than a hundred police officers raided five properties in Barcelona and the Catalan town of Igualada.

The arrests were part of a year-long counter-terrorism investigation called “Operation Alexandra,” launched in May 2017 after police received a tip that local jihadis were preparing an attack.

Catalan police, known as the Mossos d’Esquadra, said that the cell included five ringleaders who were in an “advanced process of radicalization with the aim to attack.” The cell adhered to the “doctrinal principles” of the Islamic State and were “significant consumers” of jihadi propaganda.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13594/sweden-new-government

Keeping the Sweden Democrats away from any kind of political influence seemingly became the main reason the government crisis lasted so long. Swedish political leaders are especially opposed to the policies of the Sweden Democrats concerning immigration.

“Sweden needs to build a migration policy from scratch, with fixed rules, and respect for the country’s borders, citizens and laws… Fire brigades and ambulances cannot move into immigrant-dominated areas without armed escort. Those who live and work in our suburbs get their stores robbed, broken or taken over by criminals. The few perpetrators who are actually sentenced for serious crimes escape with mild punishment, while their victims do not receive support or redress. As a result of the uncontrolled immigration, terrorists… walk freely on the streets and squares and utilize our welfare and asylum systems.” — Sweden Democrats.

There is not a word in the new agreement about terrorism and internal security, even though the Swedish Security Service (Säpo), in a January 15 press release, stated, “The level of the terror threat remains elevated, a three on a five-point scale. This means that a terrorist act is likely to occur”.

On January 18, more than four months after Sweden’s September elections, Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven became prime minister for a second term, when he won the backing of the Swedish parliament: 115 parliamentarians from his own party and its coalition partner (the environmentalist Green Party) voted for his proposed government coalition, while 77 parliamentarians abstained and 153 voted against. There are 349 seats in the parliament.

Under Swedish parliamentary rules, a prospective prime minister can form a government even if he has not secured a majority of votes, as long as there is not a majority against him in parliament. Löfven was far from winning a majority of votes, prompting the question whether, despite becoming prime minister for a second term, he actually won the election.

https://worldisraelnews.com/prime-minister-of-muslim-majority-nation-mali-to-visit-israel-in-coming-weeks/

Israel is reportedly preparing for an official visit from the head of state of yet another Muslim-majority African nation in the near future.

By World Israel News Staff

According to Israel’s Channel 13, the Jewish state is preparing to welcome Mali’s Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga in the coming weeks.

The historic visit represents another step in Israeli premiere Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy of improving ties with nations in Africa, including those with Muslim majorities, such as Mali.

According to the report, Maiga’s visit will occur before Israeli elections at the beginning of April.

In 1973, Mali cut ties with Israel in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War during an era in which a number of African nations selected Arab allies over the Jewish state.

The announcement regarding the Malian leader’s visit follows a 2018 meeting between Netanyahu and Maiga in Liberia, after which Netanyahu’s office announced the beginning of a new era of “warming” relations between the two nations.

Mali joins other African countries that recently reestablished ties with Israel following decades of severed relations, including Chad, a nation from which Netanyahu just returned. Netanyahu traveled to Chad to officially relaunch ties after 47 years last week.

In response to the development, Islamic terrorists claiming to be affiliated with al-Qaeda killed 10 United Nations peacekeepers in Chad, and injured another 25, blaming the attack on the government’s decision to renew ties with Israel.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13569/unjust-turkey

Armenian member of parliament Garo Paylan has good reason to fear for his safety. In January 2007, the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was shot and killed outside his newspaper’s office in Istanbul. Dink, known for his outspokenness on the Armenian genocide, was prosecuted under Article 301, and received numerous death threats. It has been 12 years since Dink’s murder, and the case has yet to be solved.

Prosecutors are stepping up their efforts to have Paylan’s parliamentary immunity removed, so that he can be tried for “insulting Turkey.” This is a travesty of justice perpetrated by the very system charged with upholding justice.

On January 13, US President Donald Trump warned Turkey of possible economic sanctions if it attacks Kurds in Syria following the American withdrawal of troops from the war-torn country. Washington would do well to apply similar pressure to Ankara, a member of NATO, to cease violating the human rights — and endangering the lives — of other ethnic minorities and critics, such as Paylan.

Turkish prosecutors have filed a motion to strip an Armenian lawmaker of his parliamentary immunity over his outspoken criticism of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Invoking Article 301 of the Turkish penal code — which states that “insulting the Republic of Turkey, the Turkish nation or Turkish government institutions” is punishable by a prison sentence — the prosecutor’s office of Diyarbakir began proceedings against Garo Paylan, who was elected in 2015 to Turkey’s Grand National Assembly as a member of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13580/france-angry

The beauty of capitalism is in its ability to make money out of anything. On Saturday, as all cafés in the Champs-Élysées were shut for fear of attack by “Yellow Vests”, mobile kiosks appeared selling espresso and croissants at double the price.

One of the few shops open away from the battlefield offered a designer version of the “Yellow Vest” at 125 euros apiece, compared of just 20 euros for the shabby original. So far, no “Yellow Vest” T-shirts, posters and mugs. But we expect some next Saturday.

We asked a lady at the next table what she would recommend from the day’s menu and she suggested “Aligot sausage with mashed potatoes”. We took her advice and were delighted by our meal. Which shows that “Yellow Vesters” might have good ideas when they know what they are talking about. Trouble is they often don’t.

“We are angry!” This is the sentence that I have repeatedly heard from Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) demonstrators during the past three weeks while taking the political temperature in France. The assertion seems to refute my first diagnostic in a column last month that the movement reflected boredom rather than anger.

Having talked to dozens of rioters and observed some of their shenanigans including burning car tires, overturning parked cars and smashing shop-windows in posh streets, I am prepared to admit that both anger and boredom might be involved.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13577/vatican-catholics-china

The Vatican may learn the hard way that that the Communist Chinese government does not honor its agreements. Beijing may attempt to extort even more concessions from the Vatican, just as the Chinese regime demands ever more surrender of sovereignty from western companies that do business in China.

It is also highly dubious that the Vatican will purchase peace by this pact: the regime will continue to persecute the Church. If the Communist regime is true to form, thousands more crosses will be taken down from Christian churches, especially in areas that have a high Christian population.

The courageous elders of Chinese Catholicism, who have endured decades of government persecution and regime efforts to divide the Church, may be seen by their flocks as having been bypassed by the Vatican. Many, if not most, Chinese Catholics are likely to view this agreement as a cynical political betrayal by the Vatican rather than a faith-based decision.

“In light of this dismal record, it seems that prudence and caution would seem to be the order of the day in Vatican negotiations with the totalitarians in charge in Beijing, at whose most recent Party Congress religion was once again declared the enemy of Communism.” — George Weigel, Catholic author and political analyst.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/understanding_brexit_in_2019.html

To understand what’s going on in the U.K. after the defeat of Theresa May in the Commons, one needs some background not only on what motivated the Brits to vote to leave the European Union, but more importantly what it is about the E.U. that they particularly dislike.

The first part of it is easy. The English, and it was they who provided the bulk of the “leave” votes, were simply tired of being told what to do by a European Commission that had not been elected by them or anybody else, for that matter. It was a simple matter of sovereignty, especially after the European Commission turned out to be nothing more than a proxy for a new German diktat after Merkel, without consulting anyone, opened the borders of the E.U. to two million Muslim migrants in 2015.

This may have been the proximate cause of the Brexit outcome, but the deeper reasons involve long held fundamental grievances that had been simmering over many years and finally boiled over. That had to do with the direction in which the E.U. is taking Europe. To put it simply, that direction is an unmistakably left-wing course aiming at the creation of a new union of European nations that lack individual sovereignty and are told what to do by their betters – a kind of democratic Soviet Union, which history tells us is not possible.

To be sure, there are many in the U.K. who share these objectives, from the increasingly socialistic left under Jeremy Corbyn to Scottish nationalists and a rabidly pro-E.U. mainstream press, but they are still a minority and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.