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WORLD NEWS

Islam’s Hidden Role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade By Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/02/islams_hidden_role_in_the_transatlantic_slave_trade.html

From its inception, Islam’s history with the West has been one of unwavering antagonism and seismic clashes, often initiated by the former.  By the standards of history, nothing between the two civilizations is as well documented as this long war.  Accordingly, for more than a millennium, both educated and not so educated Europeans knew — the latter perhaps instinctively — that Islam was a militant creed that for centuries attacked and committed atrocities in their homelands, all in the name of “holy war,” or jihad.

These facts have been radically “updated” in recent times.  According to the dominant narrative — as upheld by mainstream media and Hollywood, pundits and politicians, academics and “experts” of all stripes — Islam was historically progressive and peaceful, whereas premodern Europe was fanatical and predatory. 

Whatever else can be said about such topsy-turvy claims — and there is much — they raise the question: if such a formerly well known, well documented, and bloody history could be revised in a manner that presents its antithesis as the truth — with little objection or challenge — what then of Islam’s more subtle but also negative influences on history, the sort that, unlike the aforementioned centuries of violence, are not copiously documented or readily obvious but require serious historical investigation?

Take Islam’s role in facilitating the transatlantic slave trade — which is otherwise almost always presented as an exclusively European enterprise.

Can Muslim Terrorists be Deradicalized? – Part I by Denis MacEoin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15512/muslim-terrorists-deradicalized

“What we found [in prisons] was so shockingly bad that I had to agree to the language in the original report being toned down. With hindsight, I’m not sure that was the right decision.” — Ian Acheson, British expert on prisons.

“There were serious deficiencies in almost every aspect of the management of terrorist offenders… Frontline prison staff were vulnerable to attack and were ill-equipped to counter hateful extremism on prison landings for fear of being accused of racism. Prison imams did not possess the tools, and sometimes the will, to combat Islamist ideology. The prison service’s intelligence-gathering system was hopelessly fractured and ineffectual.” — Ian Acheson, “London Bridge attack: I told ministers we were treating terrorist prisoners with jaw-dropping naivety. Did they listen?”, London Times, December 1, 2019.

“Obedience is achieved by violence and intimidation carried out by members of the group known as enforcers. ‘Those who had committed terrorist crimes often held more senior roles in the gang,’ the study found, ‘facilitated by the respect some younger prisoners gave them.’ The study found that terrorist groups such as al-Qaida did not see prison as an obstacle. Quite the opposite, they viewed it as an opportunity to organize and expand.” — Patrick Dunleavy, former Deputy Inspector General for New York State Department of Corrections, June 18, 2019.

On Friday November 29, 2019, an Islamist terror attack took place in London. Two young people, both recent Cambridge University graduates, Jack Merritt (25) and Saskia Jones (23), were stabbed and killed by a single attacker. It was a terrible and unnecessary loss of life.

The special irony about Jack and Saskia’s deaths is that they (and a colleague) had been involved with Cambridge University’s Learning Together prison-rehabilitation program, similar to the US version known as Inside-Out, both of which bring prison inmates together with students to learn together. The British programme is run by Cambridge University’s Institute of Criminology, from which both Merritt and Jones had received M.Phils in criminology.

On that Friday, the fifth anniversary of the program, they were attending a conference on offender rehabilitation. The event, dedicated to work on reintegrating prisoners after their release, took place in the stately Fishmongers’ Hall at the north end of London Bridge. It was attended by a mix of academics, students, graduates and former prisoners, some with tags.

ISIS Women: Victims or Perpetrators? by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15309/isis-women

“Female members of ISIS are often perceived as being passive, naïve, or even as victims. This is a dangerous and wildly inaccurate characterization.” — Free Yezidi Foundation.

It is important to stress that the true victims of ISIS’s hateful practices are not the thousands of women and girls who willingly joined ISIS and actively participated in the group’s horrendous crimes against humanity, but rather the hundreds of thousands of Christians, Yezidis and Muslims whom they displaced, tortured and killed.

The recent case of Samantha Marie Elhassani (née Samantha Sally) — an American mother-of-two who left her home in Indiana to join the now-defunct Islamic State (ISIS) caliphate in Syria — sheds light on the issue currently debated in the West about the degree of culpability of terrorists’ wives, and whether they should be viewed as victims or perpetrators.

On November 25, in a U.S. Federal Court, Elhassani pled guilty to, and was convicted of “providing financial support to individuals who desired to support ISIS.”

Palestinian Liberation or Islamic Conquest? Palestinians demand justice for themselves — and injustice for the rest of the world. Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/palestinian-liberation-or-islamic-conquest-raymond-ibrahim/

What drives Muslim animus for Israel: brotherly love for “oppressed” Palestinians or religious hatred for “infidel” Jews?

A recent incident in Jerusalem goes a long way in answering this question.  Hizb al-Tahrir—the “Liberation Party”—held a large, outdoor event near al-Aqsa mosque to commemorate the anniversary of the Islamic conquest of Constantinople (May 29, 1453).  There, as he had done before, Palestinian cleric Nidhal Siam made clear that, from an Islamic perspective, liberation and conquest are one and the same.

After all the takbirs (chants of “Allahu Akbar”) had subsided, Siam spoke:

Oh Muslims, the anniversary of the conquest [fath/فتح, literally, “opening”] of Constantinople brings tidings of things to come. It brings tidings that Rome will be conquered in the near future, Allah willing….  We are approaching the fulfillment of three prophecies, and we pray that Allah will fulfill these prophecies by our hands. The first prophecy is the establishment of the rightly-guided Caliphate in accordance with the way of the prophet. The second prophecy is the liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of the state of the Caliphate. The third prophecy is that Islam will throw its neighbors to the ground, and that its reach will span across the east and the west of this Earth. This is Allah’s promise, and Allah does not renege on his promises.

He and the assembled throng then repeatedly chanted, “By means of the Caliphate and the consolidation of power, Mehmed the Conqueror vanquished Constantinople!” and “Your conquest, oh Rome, is a matter of certainty!”

Cuba: The grim reality of life in a communist country By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/cuba_the_grim_reality_of_life_in_a_communist_country.html

Thanks to Obama’s reopening official relationships with Cuba, as well as the fondness that Hollywood and the media have for that Caribbean island, young Americans grow up thinking that Cuba is cool and that communism can’t be that bad. Four young men who traveled there, though, discovered the ugly truth: communist countries are every bit as bad as traditional Americans have been saying for the last 100 plus years.

One of the most shocking things about the 2020 election is how many people support a man who has had a lifelong love affair with totalitarian governments. We’re used to the fact that, for decades now, Democrats have viewed soft-socialist Europe as superior to a free and constitutionally governed America. They never did figure out that Europe had that kind of glamorous socialism because America footed the bill by absorbing all of Europe’s defense costs.

Bernie, however, has no time for the weak sauce that is European socialism. Bernie’s love is for hardcore communism. Everyone knows that he honeymooned in the Soviet Union and praised the wonders of breadlines. Some, though, forget that he has also had a love affair with Cuba’s communist dictatorship. Bernie wants the real socialist deal: the end of all private forms of ownership, the consolidation of everything in government hands, and himself as the head of the government. He’s not a cute, crazy grandfather. He’s a wannabe Lenin.

Paris Metro Passengers Lauded for Preventing Antisemitic Assault on Young Jewish Man

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/04/paris-metro-passengers-lauded-for-preventing-antisemitic-assault-on-young-jewish-man/Passengers on the Paris Metro who prevented an antisemitic assault on a young Jewish man on Saturday night have been warmly praised by a leading community defense group.

In a statement on Monday, the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA) highlighted the role played by passengers who interceded when four men attempted to chase the Jewish man.

The incident took place late on Saturday night at the Jean Jaurès station in northeastern Paris. The 25-year-old man, who wore a kippah that identified him as a Jew, was approached by four men said to be aged between 30 and 40, one of whom asked the victim for a cigarette. When the young man replied that he did not have any cigarettes, the attacker pinned him against the wall of the station, telling him, “You Jews have enough money, you can buy me some.”

At this point, other passengers intervened, blocking the four men and enabling the young Jewish man to safely depart the scene.

Israel Harshly Criticizes European Union Over Rejection of Trump Middle East Peace Plan

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/04/israel-harshly-criticizes-eu-over-rejection-of-trump-middle-east-peace-plan/

The European Union rejected parts of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Middle East on Tuesday, prompting an angry response from Israel which has strongly backed the American proposal.

The plan, announced by Trump last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, was rejected outright by the Palestinians.

The EU, which often takes time to respond to international developments because of a need for unanimity among its 27 members, had said last week that it needed to study the Trump plan before it would give its verdict.

It made its conclusions public on Tuesday in a statement from EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said Trump’s plan departs from “internationally agreed parameters.”

Boris Johnson’s Climate-Change Dilemma By Madeleine Kearns

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/boris-johnsons-climate-change-dilemma/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=right-rail&utm_content=corner&utm_term=third

This November, the United Nations’s climate-change summit — rivetingly titled “COP26” — will happen in Glasgow, Scotland, the British government has announced. Given that polls now indicate a clear majority for Scottish independence north of the border, it’s a good idea to try to strengthen the union by uniting against a common enemy.

The BBC reports:

A ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 at the latest, under government plans.

The change comes after experts said 2040 would be too late if the UK wants to achieve its target of emitting virtually zero carbon by 2050.

Boris Johnson unveiled the policy as part of a launch event for a United Nations climate summit in November.

He said 2020 would be a “defining year of climate action” for the planet.

The only trouble is that Johnson, who previously described the effect of global warming as the planet being swaddled in “a tea cosy,” has been accused of a lack of seriousness.

 

The prime minister “doesn’t really get climate change,” said Claire Perry O’Neill, the former Tory energy minister, who was recently sacked as the conference president. Conveniently for Johnson, most of his pledges — e.g. banning new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 — are scheduled for when he will no longer be in office.

Corona and the Chinese ambassador’s Holocaust chutzpah Dai Yuming was being a true loyal Communist diplomat, spewing strategic propaganda with a purpose, part of which is to deflect from some inconvenient truths. Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/corona-and-the-chinese-ambassadors-holocaust-chutzpah/

China’s acting ambassador to Israel came under well-deserved fire this week for invoking the Nazi genocide of the Jews to criticize Jerusalem’s preventive measures against the spread of the coronavirus.

At a press conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Dai Yuming said that he felt “bad and sad” over the “errors to limit or even ban entries of Chinese citizens” into Israel “because it actually recalled me the old days, the old stories that happened in World War II, the Holocaust. Many Jewish were refused when they tried to seek assistance. Only very, very few countries opened their doors. One of them is China. I hope Israel will never close their door to the Chinese. In the darkest days of the Jewish people, we didn’t close the door on them. I hope Israel will not close the door on the Chinese.”

Dai’s comments could not have been more outrageous.

The outcry that they unleashed in the press and on social media spurred the Chinese embassy in Israel to express regret. In a statement issued to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Beijing’s diplomatic mission basically claimed that its representative’s words had been misconstrued.

“[W]e would like to clarify that there was no intention whatsoever to compare the dark days of the Holocaust with the current situation and the efforts taken by the Israeli government to protect its citizens,” the statement read. “We would like to apologize if someone understood our message the wrong way.”

Only 4 of Glasgow’s 71 Muslim Refugee Child Rapists Have Gone to Prison After a decade of investigations, no justice for the victims. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/only-4-glasgows-71-muslim-refugee-child-rapists-daniel-greenfield/

By the summer of last year, Glasgow had the highest number of housed refugees in the UK with almost 10% of the “asylum seekers” setting up shop in the Scottish city. The overflow of refugees, many of them from Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, has brought in government money, but also violence and crime. Refugees whose requests for asylum are rejected refuse to leave and remain on in Glasgow.

Glasgow had been eager to cash in on asylum seekers, and in the last two decades was fundamentally transformed by the tide of migrants filling up its neighborhoods. As Pakistanis became the largest minority group in Scotland, 42% of the country’s Muslim population took up residence in Glasgow.

By the 2011 census, a fifth of Glasgow’s population was non-Scottish. In Pollokshields, a quarter of the population is Pakistani. Pollokshields is also where Kriss Donald, a 15-year-old Scottish teenage boy, was kidnapped in the spring of 2004, stabbed all over his body and then set on fire by a Pakistani gang.

“His violent death was a result of political correctness that has gripped the police in Scotland,” Mike Liddell, a senior police officer warned. “Crime within Glasgow’s Asian community has been allowed to grow unfettered for years. Why? Because the police have been afraid to fight it in case they are accused of racism.”

Ayub Khan, a member of the Multi-faith Coalition group in Pollokshields, agreed, “people know that the police are too scared to come into the area and be accused of racism.”

That was 15 years ago.