RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nysun.com/foreign/brexit-mr-johnson-disraeli-has-his-eye-on-your/91038/

Boris Johnson, in his latest riposte to Brussels, is the man who won the heart of Brexiteers. This is the Prime Minister who tells the European Union that, unless significant progress is made quickly toward reaching a trade deal, then Britain will spend its time until December 31 focusing on its global trade agenda, relegating its future relationship with Europe to a footnote.

This Boris is in stark contrast to his predecessor, Theresa May. She enters the history books as having been too willing to bow to Brussels bureaucrats, at the expense of Britons and despite a referendum that called for the contrary. The new, post-Brexit Boris is also tacking differently than pre-Brexit Boris, who stirred up unrest among Brexiteers for seemingly going limp on full British independence.

Now, per the London Sun, the Prime Minister, with a ruling majority in Parliament, is feeling his oats. Boris’s “radical reshaping” reminds one of Sixtus V. Cardinal Montalto accedes to the Chair of Peter in 1585 as a “caretaker” pope — infirm and hunchbacked, clearly not long for this world. Yet no sooner is he elected than he throws away his cane, stands bolt-upright, and cries: “Now I am Cæsar.”

The Prime Minister’s renewed vigor thus cheers Brexiteers intent on full independence. This, though, was not Boris’s only volte-face. Students of Benjamin Disraeli have seen in BoJo not a little of that wily Victorian statesman. Both leaders captured the popular appeal and exude a joyous political élan. No less significant, a reputation as a “chancer” clings to them.

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2020/03/when-the-left-lies-conservatives-plead-guilty/

A distinguished journalist once confided to me what he admitted was a worrying thought: whenever he had appeared in a newspaper report as opposed to writing one, at least one fact in how he was reported turned out to be wrong. He didn’t think it was bias, since the errors were mostly about such pedestrian matters as his name or age. He had decided it was simply carelessness: standards were slipping. Maybe, though (he concluded sadly), it was just that he was getting older and grouchier.

Well, yes. And no. In the last week I’ve had good proof that my late friend was onto something, but something more complicated than carelessness. For I too was mentioned in the newspapers, this time as attending a conference in Rome at which “far right”, “hard right”, “anti-Semitic” and “homophobic” figures in European politics were speaking. And that came as a surprise.

The story began when the Guardian published a piece warning that a Tory MP, Daniel Kawczynski, was planning to attend a conference on national conservatism at which the leading speakers would include hard-right and anti-immigration figures such as the Hungarian prime minister “and a niece of Marine Le Pen”. In the Spectator Kawczysnki disputed this account and said he would go to Rome anyway. After which the story exploded with adjectives flying in all directions.

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, condemned Kawczynski for consorting with “some of Europe’s most notorious far-right politicians” and called on the Tories to suspend him. The BBC’s World at One repeated the “far right” slur. Labour front-bencher Andrew Gwynne said that Kawczynski would be sharing “a platform with anti-Semites, Islamophobes, and homophobes”.

The Rome conference took place despite this disapproval, and the Associated Press reported it here under the following headline: “Nationalists in Rome cheer Brexit, honour Pope John Paul II”. That headline was a good summary of the report, which was accurate about the facts, and not uncritical but fair-minded in its account of different speeches and opinions. It described the participants as “right-wing” and “conservative”, concluding with the information that “the conference was organised by the Edmund Burke Foundation based in the United States and other conservative intellectual and political groups”.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/03/03/un-nuclear-watchdog-admonishes-iran-for-denying-access-to-two-sites/

The UN watchdog policing Iran‘s troubled nuclear deal with major powers admonished Tehran on Tuesday for failing to answer its questions about past nuclear activities at three sites and for denying it access to two of them.

Reuters first reported on Monday that the IAEA planned to issue a second report in addition to its regular quarterly update on Iran‘s nuclear activities, rebuking Iran for less than full cooperation in general and for failing to grant UN inspectors access to one or more sites of interest.

The regular report showed Iran‘s stockpile of low-enriched uranium nearly tripling since November to more than a ton, as Tehran continues to breach key limits of its steadily eroding nuclear deal in response to renewed US sanctions against it since Washington pulled out of the accord in May 2018.

The extraordinary second report delved into the International Atomic Energy Agency’s open questions and Iran‘s denial of access to sites which a senior diplomat said are believed to have been active in the early 2000s.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15559/muslim-women-denmark

“We don’t have specific courts for Muslims… the essence of Danish society is that we have courts that apply to everyone… There are many democratic Muslims, who lead normal lives and are well integrated in Danish society…. I know it is easier said than done, but then we as a society must support them.” — Minister of Integration Mattias Tesfaye, Berlingske Tidende, February 2, 2020.
One imam, Mostafa Chendid, estimates that 2,000-3000 Muslim women in Denmark are trapped in Islamic marriages they cannot get out of.
“It is a big problem and many men hold the women hostage in marriages they do not want. They won’t accept a divorce from a Danish court — only from a religious one”, he said. “I know women who have tried in vain for ten years to find an imam that will accept their divorce… 80-90 % of the imams will not recognize that a divorce from a Danish court is also valid… And at the same time, the women’s husbands and families tell them that they are not divorced until they have the imams’ approval.” — Imam Mostafa Chendid, Kristeligt Dagblad, January 16, 2020.
It was four years ago that Danish television first exposed sharia councils and imams that help keep Muslim women in abusive marriages and in parallel societies. How is it possible that Danish politicians are still “shocked”?

In March 2016, a three-part television documentary, “The Mosques Behind the Veil,” was aired on Danish TV2. The documentary sent two young Muslims undercover, as Fatma and Muhammed, to a number of “parallel” Muslim societies in Denmark.

For the purpose of the documentary, Fatma was given a personal cover story — based on real-life dilemmas — for which she would seek advice from the different imams: Her husband was violent, and she did not wish to have sex with him. She could not get pregnant and his family had found a second wife for him. All the Danish imams with whom she consulted in the documentary told her to put up with the violence. When she pleaded for divorce at a sharia council in the Fredens mosque in Århus, Denmark’s second largest city, the imams there refused and told her — ten times — that she must go back to her husband and try again.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15645/iran-qaani-quds-force

The new head of the Quds Force, Gen. Esmail Qaani, is someone who not only desires to kill Americans but also boasts about killing Americans.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department Qaani covered “financial disbursements to IRGC-QF elements, including elements in Africa, as well as to various terrorist groups, including Hezbollah.”

It is incumbent on the international community immediately to cut the flow of funds to Iran’s Quds Force and General Qaani.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani as the new head of the Quds Force after Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike ordered by President Donald J. Trump. It is important to know who Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani is and what his policies are: his actions will have consequences for US national security interests and the lives of many Americans and the Free World.

The Quds Force, which the new Iranian General is now leading, has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US Department of State, and has been responsible for killing hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans. According to a statement by the US Department of Defense, the Quds Force was “responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more”.

The Quds Force also deploys its proxies and militia groups to attack the interests and assets of the US and its allies in the Middle East, as well as the soft underbelly of the US, Latin America. The Quds Force exerts significant influence, direct or indirect, through a conglomerate of more than 40 militia groups, which operate under the banner of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The organization is, furthermore, in charge of Iran’s extraterritorial operations, which include organizing, supporting, training, arming and financing Iran’s predominantly Shiite militia groups in foreign countries; launching wars directly or indirectly via these proxies; fomenting unrest in other nations to advance Iran’s ideological and hegemonic interests; attacking and invading cities and countries; and assassinating foreign political figures and prominent Iranian dissidents worldwide.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/03/the_canadian_health_care_myth.html

I recently had the opportunity to listen to two Canadian citizens discuss the Canadian health care system, and their personal experiences within it.  They were a very successful, middle-aged couple who had been involved in a motor vehicle accident in the United States while driving to Florida.  The accident in which they were involved was quite serious.  The wife suffered fractured ribs and a fractured sternum.  She also experienced pain in her shoulder, which wasn’t initially detected or diagnosed due to the extent of whole-body pain she was in.  She was taken to a nearby hospital.  Her husband, however, was more seriously injured.

He was trapped in the vehicle and had to be cut out by emergency personnel.  He was taken by helicopter to one of the premier shock trauma centers in the state, where he remained hospitalized for four days.  A broken leg, and a shattered wrist and forearm, necessitated surgeries, with hardware permanently implanted.  The husband received excellent care, as did the wife, though her injuries were not of a kind that are easily treated.  After four days, they returned to Canada, and began their recovery.

Had they lived in the United States, their recovery would have progressed entirely differently than it eventually did in Canada.  In the United States, they would have been seen within days by their primary care physician.  The husband would have been followed up by his surgeon.  Additional scans and studies, including MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays would have been performed to determine if his fractures were healing, if the bones were forming new growth where they had been joined with plates and screws.  The extent of any nerve damage would have been determined by EMG studies.  As soon as he was ready, he would have been started on a course of physical therapy directed to rehabilitating his many injuries, and returning him as closely as possible to his prior level of function, or that level that a maximum medical recovery would have allowed.  Such therapy would likely have been administered at least twice, and more likely three times or more, per week. The progress would have been recorded and the surgeon and primary care doctor, or other orthopedic specialist, would have been copied on the reports.  A team approach to this man’s healing would have brought about the greatest degree of recovery and resumption of function that it was possible to achieve.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/islam-global-muslim-jew-hatred-and-failed-jewish-andrew-g-bostom/

[Editor’s note: Below is the text of Dr. Andrew Bostom’s 10-minute talk in Nashville TN, on Thursday Feb 27, 2020, during a ‘Proclaiming Justice to The Nations, Panel on Antisemitism’, at The National Religious Broadcasters Convention.]

Islamic Law, Sharia, per Koran 9:29—the 9th sura or chapter, the 29th verse—mandates waging jihad war to submit Jews and Christians to a humiliating status of religious discrimination, and legal inequality, if they do not accept the true faith, i.e., Islam.

Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

But Islam also singles the Jews out, uniquely, for opprobrium, as is evident in the 7th verse of the Koran’s first chapter, called the “fatiha,” or “opening,” which pious Muslims repeat 17- times daily. This verse refers to those who have “incurred Allah’s anger”, and both a tradition of Islam’s prophet Muhammad himself, and over 13 centuries of authoritative Koranic commentaries, till now, maintain this reference is to the Jews. Why have they engendered Allah’s anger? Here is a 1940 summary “rationale” by the great scholar of Islam’s anti-Jewish polemic Moshe Perlmann, from a chapter entitled, “Jews in the Koran and Traditions” (which mirrors a 1966 work by Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, modern Sunni Islam’s greatest Koranic commentator, and Papal equivalent Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s Vatican, from 1996 to 2010, also entitled, “Jews in the Koran and Traditions”):

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/iran-becomes-ground-zero-coronavirus-pandemic-ari-lieberman/

On Monday, Iran’s Ministry of Health released new data concerning the coronavirus. It said that 66 people have died from the virus while 1501 have been infected. But given the Health Ministry’s propensity for lying, the figure for those dead and infected is likely much greater.

The rampant spread of coronavirus in Iran was a problem largely the result of the Islamic Republic’s own making. In early February, Iranian officials were aware of a potential problem in the city of Qom, where a shrine holy to Shia Muslims served as a breeding ground for the transmission of the virus. Yet authorities took no action to quarantine the city or even warn residents to take safety precautions. The shrine still remains open to visitors and video has recently emerged showing people licking the shrine.

By the time health officials began taking action, it was a case of too little too late. Iran’s Deputy Health Minister, Iraj Harirchi, downplayed claims made a city lawmaker that deaths from COVID-19 had reached 50 and said that he would resign from his post if that assertion was accurate. A day later, Harirchi became a victim of COVID-19 and was under quarantine but not before he was observed coughing on those adjacent to him during the previous day’s press briefing. Several other Iranian diplomats and parliamentarians have since been infected, and at least two have died including a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s bumbling and incompetence in dealing with the health crisis can be attributed to the Islamic Republic’s unwillingness to acknowledge weakness and vulnerability. Its healthcare system is woefully inadequate. There are dire shortages of masks, medicines and testing kits. In the final analysis, the regime’s deceit, incompetence and corruption has spread fear and cost lives.

Iran’s handling of the crisis stands in marked contrast to how its arch nemesis Israel is addressing the issue. While Iranian officials are spewing little else but propaganda, the Israelis are at the forefront of inventing cures and treatments for the coronavirus.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15638/china-religion-crackdown

“In practice, your religion no longer matters, if you are Buddhist, or Taoist, or Muslim or Christian: the only religion allowed is faith in the Chinese Communist Party.” — A Catholic priest, AsiaNews.it, December 31, 2019.

One mother, who is a member of The Church of Almighty God, said that her son told her to abandon her faith when he returned home after school. “My son told me that if I get arrested, our entire family will be finished. He threatened to jump off the building to end his life if I continued practicing my faith,” she recently told Bitter Winter.

One shop-owner told Bitter Winter, “A few years ago, many shops sold religious couplets. In 2018, the government started banning them. Last year, all couplets were confiscated from shops, and this year, sellers are threatened to be fined and imprisoned. No one sells them in Shangqiu anymore. Who dares to risk?”

China, meanwhile, maintains that its human rights record is admirable. According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, “The Chinese people are in the best position to judge China’s human rights condition, which is at its historical best.” — Time.com, January 15, 2020.

China is increasing its already extremely severe suppression of religious freedom. More than a year ago, at a November 2018 hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the President of the Religious Freedom Institute, Thomas F. Farr, described China’s religious suppression as “the most systematic and brutal attempt to control Chinese religious communities since the Cultural Revolution.”

On December 30, 2019, China’s Communist Party (CCP) announced new “Administrative Measures for Religious Groups”. The measures — which came into force on February 1, 2020 — stipulate that religious organizations exist to promote the CCP and its ideology, according to Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China.