RUTHFULLY YOURS

Taken to its extremes, the urge to cleanse a culture of elements that do not live up to the politically correct orthodoxy currently in political vogue unsettlingly echoes the Taliban and ISIS credos of destroying everything that does not accord with their Quranic views. The desire “not to offend,” taken to its logical conclusion, is a totalitarian impulse, which threatens to destroy everything that disagrees with its doctrines. Crucially, who gets to decide what is offensive?

The question arises: How much purging and expiation will be needed to render a country’s culture politically correct?

“When we have days of carnivals and music the goal is that these days should be experienced as positive by everyone. The Swedish flag is not allowed as part of carnival dress. … Positive and bright feelings must be in focus. … School photos must obviously be free of national symbols.” — Swedish school in Halmstad.

Rome covered up its classical nude statues for a visit from Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, in January 2016. A decade ago, who would have even imagined such sycophancy?

In 1966, one of Sweden’s most popular children’s writers, Jan Lööf, published Grandpa is a Pirate, an illustrated children’s book, which featured, among other characters, the wicked pirate Omar and the street peddler, Abdullah. The book has been a bestseller ever since, and has been translated into English (as My Grandpa is a Pirate), Spanish, French and other languages. Ten years ago, 100,000 copies of it were even distributed to the Swedish public with McDonald’s Happy Meals, as part of an initiative to support reading among children.

Ah, but those were the days of yesteryear! Now, fifty years later, the book is no longer tolerable. The now 76-year-old author told Swedish news outlets that his publisher recently said that unless he rewrites the book and changes the illustrations, it will be taken off the market. The publisher also threatened to withdraw another of his books unless it is redone: it features an illustration of a black jazz musician who sleeps with his sunglasses on.

The Iranian regime has been escalating the advancement of its ballistic missile program ever since the nuclear agreement went into effect in January 2016. Some of Iran’s dangerous ballistic missiles can carry multiple warheads.

In the last four months, Iran has launched ballistic missiles several times. Some of these missiles had a phrase “Israel should be wiped off the Earth” written on them in Hebrew.

The Iranian regime is increasingly provoking other countries in the region and has made it clear that the ballistic missiles are aimed at targeting other nations. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of Iran’s Aerospace forces, said to FARS news agency (Iran’s state-controlled media outlet) that “Iran has built missiles that can hit targets at 2,000 Km. They are designed to hit Israel at such a distance.” He added that Islamic countries have surrounded Israel and “its [Israel’s] life is short. So it will collapse in any given war – long before a missile is even fired.”

This week, an Iranian general acknowledged that Iran has recently launched ballistic missiles again. This means that Iran has breached the nuclear deal and UN resolutions for the third time in the last four months.

Although President Obama and the Iranian regime argue that Iran’s launching of ballistic missiles is not violating anything, the UN resolutions and the nuclear agreement indicate otherwise.

The United Nations Security Council resolution (section 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231, 2015) is crystal clear. The resolution “calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

Up to now, most of the anti-boycott activity has been basically defensive. It assumes that Israel can be vindicated by providing relevant information.

Regarding the anti-Israel activists themselves, however, defensive strategies are ineffective, These people have no intention whatsoever to be fair; they treat information offered on behalf of Israel with derision. To deter them and drive them off, one must use strategies that fall under the rubric “This is going to hurt you more than us!”

So there are two principal questions. What activities are best carried out by government itself and what are best delegated to private organizations? And should organizations specialize in particular strategies or can a given single organization draw upon all the available strategies?

An earlier article defined and classified various strategies for combating both boycotts directed against Israel other kinds of hostile activity. Not discussed, however, were questions about who or what bodies should be implementing which strategies.

Such questions have become more acute, now that the Israeli government has designated substantial means for defending Israel from boycotts. We shall consider these questions after briefly reviewing the range of available strategies.
Kinds of Strategy

Up to now, most of the anti-boycott activity has been basically defensive. It assumes that Israel can be vindicated by providing relevant information. Either one complains that the anti-Israel activists are misrepresenting reality, by lying or omitting relevant facts or whatever. Or one complains that there are other countries that obviously deserve to be targeted in the alleged respects, but Israel alone is picked out for criticism and attack. Both strategies fall under the rubric “It’s not fair!” They are so familiar as to need no further elaboration here.

This week, five Muslim firebrands refused to stand for the magistrate before whom they appeared, as did their supporters in the body of the court. The defendants understand that their creed submits to no authority but Allah — a fundamental principle lost on all too many in the politically correct West
The election of Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, as mayor of London is only the latest example of someone professing the Islamic faith rising to occupy a powerful, influential position in a secular country. So what, some might ask? What does it matter how and where one worships? Public officials the world over belong to many faiths or none of them. So why the fuss over Islam? Isn’t Islam just another religion? After all, it is presented by all Muslims, and many non-Muslims agree, that Islam is one of the great Abrahamic religions, alongside Judaism and Christianity.

That assertion concerning Islam is categorically incorrect, and here is why: Christianity existed for centuries and Judaism for millennia before Muhammad began to proclaim Islam, based on messages he claimed came to him from Allah — the name he ascribed to the One God — that were delivered by the archangel Gabriel. The fact that some of those messages contained references to events and people of the Torah and the Bible is no authentication of the claimed Abrahamic nature of Islam. There certainly is no mention of Islam in either of those holy scriptures, even though Muhammad asserted that Islam, as the only true religion, existed from the beginning of time and all other religions were a distortion of the original true faith.

Far more important is the simple fact that Islam is not just another religion. Islam is drastically different from all other religions, Abrahamic or not. Indeed, Islam is not a religion so much as a political ideology in a similar vein to communism and Nazism, two doctrines with which it happens to have much in common. It regulates the lives of its adherents down to the most minute detail, instructing them how to behave, what to do and what to avoid in order to please Allah and thereby earn the reward of Paradise. These edicts extend even so far as a ban on wishing non-believers “Merry Christmas” and sending Festive Season greeting cards. One of the most important of the instruction is that Muslims must remain true and faithful to Islam at all times, although they are allowed, in fact encouraged, to fake other loyalties when such deception is to the benefit of Islam or to their personal advantage. There are also dire warnings of eternal hellfire for disobedience. The religious element in Islam is simply the means of enforcing the compliance in all matters of believers by constantly evoking the supreme authority of Allah. Reference to “political Islam” as an aspect of the doctrine is a misnomer. Islam is all political and only political.

The vast majority of Muslims, including most of their religious leaders, are not conscious of this — the true nature of Islam — although it was perfectly well understood and acted upon by many notable champions of the faith. It could be fairly said that most Muslims live in innocent ignorance. That, however, does not alter reality.

Anti-Semitism isn’t new to the UK Labour Party, and its recent anti-Semitic outbursts shouldn’t surprise anyone. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has ordered an “independent inquiry” into the party’s anti-Semitism. Douglas Murray, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Gatestone Institute, explains in the video below how Labour’s anti-Semitism problem starts at top of the party, and why this inquiry won’t solve anything.

Click to view this illuminating 5-minute video:

This is the first installment in Gatestone’s new video series, produced with the help of our friends at TheRebel.media.

A 14 year-old Muslim convert wants to change the world of ballet, all in the name of “tolerance”.

Stephanie Kutlow, age 14, from Sydney, Australia, has been dancing since she was two years old. She’s had the life-long goal of becoming a professional ballerina.

In 2010, when Stephanie was age 8, she, her two brothers and her Australian father all converted to Islam. It’s unclear if her Russian mother was already a Muslim or converted along with the family.

Upon Stephanie’s conversion, she quit dancing for awhile, claiming that no full-time ballet studio would accept her with her hijab. However, she missed her ballet practice, and feeling she shouldn’t have to sacrifice her hijab or her beliefs in order to pursue her dream of becoming a ballerina, she resumed her dancing.

Though there is no evidence that she is of professional caliber, she blames her lack of professional training on her hijab. One article stated that her hijab was the only thing that separated her from other ballerinas. Yet, anyone with a professional ballet background or familiarity with the professional world of ballet can see that Stephanie’s turn-out, feet and body type are all wrong for the competitive world of professional ballet. (Sorry!)

Never-the-less, inspired by Micheala DePrince and Misty Copeland, both top-notch ballet dancers of color, Stephanie was determined to be the world’s first hijabbed ballet dancer. She created a LaunchGood crowdfunding campaign to raise 10, 000 dollars to pay for the professional training and ballet tutoring she said she needed. Eventually, she wants to start a ballet school catering to those who are disengaged, or belong to religious and racial minorities.

Stephanie blames the ballet requirement to be hijab-free on “ignorance” and “Islamophobia”. She explains that people shouldn’t be ashamed of their differences, but proud of them. She wants people to know that Muslims have the same values of love and kindness that others have.

“I will not convert. I believe in my religion and Jesus Christ. And why should I be the one to convert and not you?” — Asia Bibi.

It is the West’s indolence and cupidity that has condemned Asia Bibi to death. No one in Europe has filled the streets to ask for the liberation of this courageous woman, or even to protest Pakistan’s anti-Christian laws.

Even Pope Francis stood silent. The emblem of his reticence is the 12 seconds of face-to-face time the Pope had with Bibi’s husband and her daughter in St. Peter’s Square. Francis barely touched the two. His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, publicly called many times for her release.

The mainline Protestant churches of America, too busy demonizing Israel, also stood silent. Meanwhile, Christianity is being erased from its own cradle.

The death sentence for Asia Bibi is like Chernobyl’s nuclear cloud: it contaminates everything around it. After Asia’s arrest, her husband, Masih, and her children went into hiding. They have moved house 15 times in five years. They could not even attend Asia’s judicial hearings. It is too dangerous for them. Her husband was forced to quit his job.

Asia’s “crime” was to use the same water glass as her Muslim co-workers. She was sentenced to death because she is Christian and she was thirsty. “You defiled our water,” the Muslim women told her. “Convert to Islam to redeem yourself from your filthy religion.”

Israel on Wednesday said it plans to expand a key missile-defense system to warships, in a bid to protect the country’s lucrative offshore gas fields amid growing aerial threats from regional adversaries.

Israel’s military said it had successfully tested a naval version of its land-based Iron Dome system in recent weeks and would begin deploying it on its newest frigates to protect the country’s strategic assets, including its gas rigs.

The naval system is a combination of the land-based Iron Dome missile interceptor and radar systems on ships, the military said. “We call it the Iron Dome of the sea,” Col. Ariel Shir, head of operational systems in the Israeli navy, told reporters on a phone call.

Israel’s land-based Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts short-range rockets and has become a bedrock of the country’s defense since its introduction in 2011.

The ship-based Iron Dome system would augment a combination of land-based systems that Israel has jointly developed with the U.S., and that it hopes will provide a layered defense against a variety of short range missile threats to those capable of flying more than 600 miles.

The Iron Dome system intercepted 700 rockets fired by Islamist movement Hamas during the war in Gaza in 2014, a 90% success rate that effectively blunted the Palestinian group’s aerial threat.

During that conflict, Israeli defense officials say Hamas tried to fire rockets at the country’s two gas rigs that sit about 20 miles from Israel’s shore. Since then the military, in coordination with Israeli defense companies, has been developing a naval-based system to negate such a threat. CONTINUE AT SITE

EgyptAir said one of its aircraft disappeared early Thursday while flying from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard, the third major incident to befall the nation’s aviation sector since October.

The Egyptian flag carrier said Flight MS804, which departed Paris at 11:09 p.m. local time, “disappeared from radar” at 2:45 a.m. Cairo time Thursday while at 37,000 feet. It lost communication over the Mediterranean Sea, the airline said, shortly before it was due to land at 3:15 a.m.

An EgyptAir official said military search and rescue teams picked up a possible emergency locator signal at 4:26 a.m. Cairo time, less than two hours after the jet disappeared.

But Egypt’s military, which is leading the search and rescue operation, said shortly after that no such signal had been detected.

A civil aviation ministry official told state television that the initial report had been his ministry’s error.

The Airbus A320, with 56 passengers, including three children, three security personnel and seven crew on board, was last spotted over the Mediterranean Sea on the way to Cairo, according to flight-tracking websites.