RUTHFULLY YOURS

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.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-bloody-month-of-jihad-11547769108

The Trump Administration says Islamic State has been defeated, and it is moving ahead with its withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria and reducing America’s antiterror commitments in Africa. Meantime, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel is replacing a terrorism subcommittee with one focused on investigating what he apparently thinks is a bigger threat: Donald Trump.

The world’s terrorists don’t seem to have received this news that they’ve been defeated, as a spate of recent attacks around the globe shows.

• On Wednesday a suicide bomber killed two American soldiers, one civilian Pentagon employee and a Defense Department contractor, as well as 15 allied fighters and civilians, in Manbij, Syria. Islamic State took responsibility for the attack and claimed it specifically targeted Americans. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says the incident shows that Mr. Trump’s retreat and declarations of victory in Syria are emboldening jihadists—and he’s probably right.

• Also on Wednesday federal prosecutors charged a 21-year-old Georgia man with planning to attack the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and a synagogue. According to a criminal complaint, Hasher Jallal Taheb planned to form an assault group armed with guns, homemade bombs, an antitank weapon and hand grenades.

The man had “a hand-drawn diagram of the ground floor of the West Wing” and noted “the areas where the Secret Service and Homeland Security operated in the White House,” the complaint says. Credit the FBI for stopping him, but it shows that the threat from ISIS-inspired homegrown jihadists continues.

• On Tuesday militants from al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group based in Somalia, attacked a hotel and office complex in Nairobi, Kenya. The 18-hour rampage killed at least 21 people, including American businessman and 9/11 survivor Jason Spindler.

• A Taliban suicide bomber hit a foreign compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. Four people were killed and more than 100 wounded. Since word leaked that Mr. Trump may withdraw some or all U.S. forces in Afghanistan, ISIS and the Taliban have ramped up attacks and peace talks with the Taliban have faltered.

• Fighters from Islamic State in West Africa stormed a Nigerian military base on Sunday. The following day militants attacked a military-controlled refugee town, causing thousands of civilians to flee.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13571/modernity

I longed for a revival of a golden age when Muslims were mighty and triumphant, ruling large parts of the world, fighting victoriously in the name of God. I gloried in this past. Reviving medievalism, these fantasies were a way to escape modern life. I dreamed of a past and future glory, like many in their dogmatic slumber. I was entrapped in the golden cage of Islamism. I was a bird of paradise that did not want to escape.

There is an increased fear, and rightly so, about the free expression of extremist ideas and opinions that are polluting our social, cultural, economic and political orders in the Arab world, which is why Jamal Khashoggi stands as an enemy to free thinkers. “There can be no political reform and democracy in any Arab country without accepting that political Islam is a part of it,” he wrote.

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammad Bin Salman is in the throes of a war to achieve modernity. We want our independence from religious extremism, the ills of our society; and “MBS,” as he is called, is leading the reform in order to fight it and move his country away from its temptations. He needs to go ahead with his reform and do his good works. Because Khashoggi wanted an uprising against the Saudi royal family, the Prince was facing the fears and possibly the threats of being assassinated by those opposing his reforms.

The assassination of Khashoggi was a horrible mistake. There is a way of curbing religious extremists without violence. We must address the political aspects in the Quran that are at times interpreted with hate, instead of our always turning a blind eye to these verses. This study alone would stop religious extremists from having the means of justifying their crimes.

This article is not for the faint-hearted. I do not share a single sentiment with a single religious extremist, Jamal Khashoggi included. My heart is closed to them.

As a Muslim woman, my anger against them became especially determined when three of my relatives in Yemen, young brave, men, had left their homes and families to protect them. They joined the Saudi-backed Yemeni military to fight against Iranian imperialism, to fight for Yemeni independence, to fight for love and freedom. One was killed by a bullet; the other two on sand dunes when they stepped on landmines. Their bodies were so dismembered by explosions that it was difficult to identify them. Their families had to flee their homes; one woman, also terrified of stepping on a landmine, carrying a newborn baby in her arms.

http://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/01/17/there-is-

I’m sure everyone is fixated with the circus that is UK politics at the moment. The problem as I see it is the desire to “have a deal”. The stark reality is that there are no deals to be had – certainly no better deals.

Talking to a UK based friend last year about why she voted remain there were three points:

She favoured close economic ties with Europe – that is a bigger market argument,
She perceived many of the Leave arguments to be racist – yes, there was an element of racism in some of the Leave arguments,
She hoped the EU would get a wake up call and negotiate a better deal for the UK after the referendum.

Point 3 is worth discussing. The fact is that the UK already has a preferential deal, many deals, with the EU. They can legitimately ask the question, “More? You want more?”. Then David Cameron went to Brussels a few weeks before the vote and tried to get a better deal and the Europeans said no. So there was no better deal on the table if the UK had voted to remain.

But we know the UK voted to leave. The Remainers put up a whole bunch of legal challenges but in big pictures terms lost the fight. The UK parliament passed legislation that takes the UK out of the EU at the end of March. That part of the process is on automatic pilot and will occur unless the legislation is amended.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13543/strasbourg-capital-europe

A quarter of the Strasbourg’s public school students choose the halal menu in school cafeterias.

In October, from Strasbourg, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the shameful conviction of an Austrian woman for what the court called an “abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam” — just like that, in a stroke, accepting and legitimizing Islam’s blasphemy laws. It was, as one news analyst, born in Iran, took note, “the day free speech died in Europe.”

“Strasbourg,” according to the city’s official website, “embodies the fundamental values ​​of Europe”. But if the current trend continues, these values will be the opposite of those, such as freedom of expression, on which Europe was founded.

“New York, Geneva and Strasbourg are the only cities in the world which are home to international institutions without being national capitals”, an official page of the French city proudly proclaims. “The choice of Strasbourg as the European capital following the Second World War is no accident. The city stands as a shining symbol of reconciliation between peoples and of the future of Europe”.

Last December, however, Strasbourg was shocked by a new terrorist attack. Cherif Chekatt, shouting “Allahu Akbar”, murdered five people, before being neutralized in a two-day manhunt. Among Chekatt’s victims were Italian, Polish and French citizens. Unfortunately, Strasbourg has become one of Europe’s hotbeds of jihadism, an ideology seemingly aimed at destroying Europe’s people, not conciliating with them.

The weekly Valeurs Actuelles called Strasbourg a “French bastion of jihadism”. Seven men from Strasbourg, who went to Syria between December 2013 and April 2014, have already been sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to nine years. The heaviest sentence was handed to Karim Mohamed-Aggad, the brother of the Bataclan Theater suicide bomber Foued Mohamed-Aggad. The weekly L’Obs called Strasbourg “land of jihad”.

“It’s true that we have statistically more ‘S-Files’ [individuals labelled by authorities as a threat to national security] here in Strasbourg and in the Bas-Rhin department than the national average”, the mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, said. Farhad Khosrokhavar, a sociologist and director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, explained:

“Strasbourg is one of those leading cities of what could be called ‘jihadogenic urban areas’, such as the suburbs of Paris, Toulouse, Nice or Lyon in the past… Strasbourg is at the crossroads of Europe, all you have to do is cross the Rhine to be in Germany and you are not very far from Switzerland.”