RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273313/islamist-bachelor-year-joe-kaufman

Former CAIR representative Ahmad Saleem, who made national headlines when he was arrested for soliciting sex from a 12-year-old girl, is in the market for a wife, and he may have found the perfect place to find one. It is Pakistan, a haven for child marriage.

On the night of May 20, 2015, Ahmad Abrar Saleem (a.k.a. Ahmad Shaheen) was arrested in Clermont, Florida, a short distance from his Orlando home. Saleem was intending to meet the twelve-year-old girl he had been chatting with online but, instead, met Sheriff’s deputies waiting for him and 21 others in a child sex sting operation. He was charged with “use of computer to seduce/solicit/entice a child to commit sex act” and “travel to seduce, solicit, lure a child to commit sex act.”

In July 2014, Saleem referred to himself as a “rising star.” Indeed, his celebrity within the Islamist community was growing. He had held the position of President of the University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Muslim Students Association (MSA) and, countrywide, served as MSA National Service Director; he was being invited to speak at mainstream Islamist conferences; and he had been named Orlando Regional Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13911/turkey-women-rights-abuse

“As the largest jailer of journalists in the world, it’s no surprise that Turkey has the most female journalists behind bars… most detained on anti-state charges.” — Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The new bill, expected to be voted on ahead of the March 31 local elections, aims to lower the age at which sexual relations with a child (under the cover of marriage) is considered a crime from 15-years-old to 12-years-old. If it passes, it will “pardon” the underage-marriage offenses of approximately 10,000 men currently serving prison sentences on sexual-abuse charges.

“Such an amnesty would whitewash… and encourage… illegal ‘marriages’ with children… It would also discourage the victims from appealing to the legal mechanisms and reintroduce the concept of ‘marriage with rape offenders’ into law.” — The “TCK (Turkish Penal Code) 103 Women’s Platform,” an umbrella organization for 157 women’s and LGBT groups.

International Women’s Day kicked off in Istanbul with the murder of a woman by her boyfriend. A few hours later, thousands of mostly female demonstrators participating in the “17th Feminist Night March,” were attacked with pepper spray by riot police attempting to disperse the annual March 8 event, launched in 2003. This year, however, Turkish police had declared the march “unauthorized,” and closed off all streets leading to the avenue on which it was to take place. Scuffles ensued between the police and women who circumvented the barricades.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/gender-pronouns-now-a-police-matter-in-the-uk/

Thank goodness they’ve solved all the other crimes in Britain.

I realize I’m just another dumb white cishet male and therefore the source of all the problems in the world, but I am utterly baffled by the growing insistence that gender pronouns are a matter of opinion.

Back in the old days, when “science” wasn’t just a word you threw at a political opponent to make him shut up about the weather, you had boys and girls. Men and women. He and she, him and her, his and hers. Easy to remember, and backed up by an ancient system of arcane witchcraft called “biology.” Sure, you had people who weren’t so easily categorized, like Prince and Rosie O’Donnell, but they were the exception. Most people were at peace with the fate dictated by their chromosomes. It was all good, man.

In 2019, now that we’ve apparently run out of absolutely anything else to worry about, more and more men and women are insisting they’re neither men nor women. They’re “nonbinary.” And if you address them by the same pronouns you used as recently as a year ago? They’ll call the cops.*

Now we’re supposed to use “they” as a gender pronoun. Not “he” or “she,” but “they.” As in: “There goes Dale, they work in my office. I’m their colleague. Pretty nice individual, once you get to know them.” Imagine being so confused about yourself that you insist on being identified as a plural.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13930/saudi-arabia-seventh-century

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman (known as MBS), has sought to project an image of himself as a keen reformer and modernizer, a moderate who respects women’s rights and the guarantor of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan, which aims to bring the country into the 21st century, at least economically, by, among other ventures, becoming less dependent on oil revenues.

The recent charges against the eleven women’s rights activists presents an opportunity for the Saudi regime to prove that its talk of modernization and reform is not just limited to bringing the Saudi economy up to date with the 21st century by reducing the dependence on oil exports or by opening the first cinema.

The regime now has a magnificent opportunity to prove that it genuinely wants to move from 7th century jurisprudence and into a more 21st century understanding of concepts such as the rule of law — especially a law, a women’s right to drive, that it has already permitted.

It could also do so by providing a general amnesty, not only to the 11 women activists recently charged, but to the many others sentenced, some of whom have been mentioned above. Such an initiative would help present the country in a refreshing new light to the West, and might even help Saudi Arabia attract the significant financial investments it so needs and desires.

Eleven women are on trial in Saudi Arabia this week, charged with lobbying for women’s right to drive and for abolishing the system of male guardianship over women[1]. Under the male guardianship system, Saudi women are still treated as legal minors. They are assigned a male guardian, who has to approve their applying for a passport, travelling outside the country, studying abroad on a government scholarship, getting married, leaving prison, or even exiting a shelter for abuse victims, according to the BBC.

The male guardianship system drew renewed international attention in January, when a young Saudi woman, Rahaf Mohammed, barricaded herself in a hotel room in Bangkok, and said that her family would have her imprisoned if she returned to Saudi Arabia. She eventually found asylum in Canada.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13863/turkey-insulting-erdogan

Since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 2014 election, there have been 66,691 “insult investigations” launched, resulting in 12,305 trials thus far, and the “numbers are increasing.” — Yaman Akdeniz, professor of law, Istanbul Bilgi University.

Ahmet Sever, a spokesperson for Turkey’s former president, Abdullah Gül, authored a book in which he wrote: “We [are] faced with a government or, more precisely, with one man, who considers books to be more dangerous than bombs.”

Meanwhile, as Erdoğan continues playing a double game with the West, as part of his decades-long bid to become a member of the European Union. That plan may well be why his justice minister announced in December that he would be unveiling a new strategy for judicial reform. The EU should not fall for this transparent ploy. Instead, it should be demanding that the Turkish government cease prosecuting innocent people — including those whose only “crime” is criticizing Erdoğan.

The criminalization in Turkey of “insulting the president” reached a new low in early March, when a father and daughter in Ankara accused one another of engaging in the punishable offense, as part of an internal family feud.

According to Istanbul Bilgi University professor of law, Yaman Akdeniz, since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 2014 election, there have been 66,691 “insult investigations” launched, resulting in 12,305 trials thus far, and the “numbers are increasing.”

Özgür Aktütün, chairman of the Sociology Alumni Association, told the independent Turkish daily BirGün that although Turkey has been “a society of informants” since the Ottoman Empire, “what is striking in recent times is the [rampant] use of [whistleblowing] on every issue.”

“Insulting the president” is a crime according to Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code, adopted in 1926. If convicted, violators face up to four years in prison — and longer, when the insult is public.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273186/yet-again-germany-horrified-migrant-murder-young-stephen-brown

In modern-day Germany, it is an all-too-common, and tragic, love story. Girl meets migrant. Girl dates migrant. Girl argues with migrant. Migrant kills girl.

The victim this time was Cynthia, 21, a beautiful young woman and native of the cathedral city of Worms, who worked as a nurse and whose dream was to become a midwife.

“She lived for her work,” said Cynthia’s uncle after her murder in early March. “She wanted to become a mid-wife. She was happy, loved parties, cheerful.”

But Cynthia, whose last name can’t be revealed due to German law, won’t be realizing her life dream of delivering babies due to her boyfriend Ahmed, 22, a Tunisian.

Ahmed had arrived in Germany in October, 2017, and applied for asylum. He had met Cynthia only four months before he murdered her. Cynthia lived in the upper story of the family home, which she had to herself. Occasionally, Ahmed stayed overnight. Police say Cynthia was murdered in her room.

One night in early March, Cynthia and Ahmed got into an argument. The Tunisian then took a knife and stabbed Cynthia, apparently while she was lying on her bed, numerous times. She suffered 10-15 stab and cut wounds to her back, neck, hands and lung.

Ahmed gave himself up to police the next morning, confessing his guilt without providing a motive. The police then went to Cynthia’s home and indeed found her body there.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-rise-means-trouble-in-paradise-11552950243

Viti Levu, Fiji

On a recent visit to Fiji I was able to confirm that the majestic islands of the South Pacific remain as close to paradise as one can get in this world. But alongside the sparkling crystal waters and coral gardens, I saw something darker at work in the region.

As U.S.-China competition intensifies, the thinly settled islands scattered across Oceania will become geopolitical flashpoints. The contest has already begun to impose strains on fragile societies. These strains will intensify as strategists in Washington, Beijing and Canberra seek to further influence political developments in tiny, almost inaccessible island-states.

U.S. interests in the South Pacific run deep. The American naval presence in the region, originally dispatched to protect U.S. whalers, is 200 years old. American statesmen have long believed that the country’s security depends on U.S. power in the Pacific. President John Tyler extended the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii in 1842; a century later the importance of the region was driven home by the brutal island warfare of World War II. Even in an era when many Americans want to limit the nation’s overseas commitments, voters and Washington strategists alike will remain focused on maintaining security and stability in the South Pacific.

For many years, the main diplomatic drama in the region revolved around the bidding war between Taipei and Beijing for diplomatic recognition. In exchange for aid packages, island-states would agree to recognize either Taiwan or the mainland. For small states without many goods to sell, diplomatic recognition turned out to be good business. Of the 17 countries world-wide that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, six are in the South or Central Pacific.

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/281731/chinas-plan-for-global-supremacy

In 2013 my friend Eduardo Medina-Mora became Mexico’s ambassador to the United States. We had known each other since 1988, when I was preparing a study of Mexico’s tax and regulatory system for a U.S. consulting firm, and Eduardo was running a small Mexico City law firm after a stint as press officer for the Ministry of Fisheries. We kept in touch over the years. In 2003, when he headed Mexico’s foreign intelligence service, the CISEN, and I ran the fixed income research department of Bank of America, we compared notes over dinner in Mexico City. He went on to serve as attorney general and other senior posts.

Eduardo complained that no one in the Obama administration seemed responsible for Mexico. “We don’t even know who to call when a problem comes up,” he told me at his office at Mexico’s Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue, where I called on him to offer my congratulations. “It’s easier for [then Mexican President Enrique] Peña Nieto to get the president of China on the phone than Barack Obama. What would you advise me to do?”