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The Motives Behind the False Narrative on Islam and the West By Raymond Ibrahim

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/the-motives-behind-the-false

Any honest and objective appraisal of Islam’s historic jihad on the Christian world must be eye-opening, to say the very least. In the first century of its existence (between 632-732) Islam permanently conquered, Arabized, and Islamized nearly three-quarters of the post-Roman Christian world, thereby permanently severing it. Europe came to be known as “the West” because it was literally the remaining and westernmost appendage of Christendom not to be swallowed up by Islam.

For roughly a millennium thereafter, Arabs, Berbers, Turks, and Tatars—all of whom called and saw themselves as Muslims—launched raid after raid, all justified and lauded as jihads, into virtually every corner of Europe. They reached as far as Iceland and provoked the U.S. into its first war as a nation. The devastation was indescribable; some regions in Europe, particularly in Spain and the Balkans, remain inhabitable due to the incessant raiding. Some 15 million Europeans were enslaved during this perennial jihad and, according to contemporary records, treated horrifically.

In short, “if we … ask ourselves how and when the modern notion of Europe and the European identity was born,” writes historian Franco Cardini, “we realize the extent to which Islam was a factor (albeit a negative one) in its creation. Repeated Muslim aggression against Europe between the seventh to eighth centuries, then between the fourteenth and the eighteenth centuries … was a ‘violent midwife’ to Europe.”

Here the inevitable question arises: How could such a long, well-documented history of unmitigated Islamic aggression that had immense repercussions on the development of Western civilization now be presented as the antithesis of reality?

The answer revolves around a number of modern philosophies—from the Enlightenment to moral/cultural relativism—that have each contributed to an all-pervasive “Narrative” concerning the historic relationship between Islam and the West. In presenting the West as aggressor and Islam as victim—hence the latter’s ongoing “grievance”-based animosity—this history is as entrenched as it is the reverse of reality.

Erased: How the Middle East Was Expunged of Its Judeo-Christian Heritage

Jeremy Corbyn Reminds Us Why Israel Exists By David Harsanyi

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/jeremy-corbyn-reminds-us-why-israel-exists/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=second

Corbyn hasn’t merely ‘tolerated’ anti-Semitic attitudes. He has actively transformed Labour into a safe haven for Jew hatred.

In a now-deleted tweet, the Washington Post informed its 14 million followers that the historic condemnation of Jeremy Corbyn by the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom was triggered by Labour Party leader’s strong support for “Palestinian rights.”

As numerous people quickly pointed out, this is a detestable falsehood. Indeed, the article to which the tweet linked notes that a review of online posts by Labour members uncovered “examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one individual who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood.”

Despite this, the rest of the Post’s story is something of a whitewash. Like so many others that have covered Labour’s moral deterioration, it goes out of its way to note that, “Corbyn, alongside many in the left-wing of his party, are strong supporters of Palestinian rights and fierce critics of Israel’s right-wing government.” This insinuation — that Corbynite animosity towards British Jewry is predicated on the existence of a “right-wing Israeli government” — is a myth.

For one thing, despite public perception, the right-center coalition run by Benjamin Netanyahu hasn’t altered Israeli policy governing the West Bank and Gaza in any significant way from its predecessors (other than, perhaps, by offering Palestinians more autonomy). For another, even if Netanyahu had altered that policy, there has never been — and almost surely never will be — any Israeli government of the right, left, or center that would placate the average Corbynite.

The link the Post draws is nonsensical. Are we to believe that the Leader of Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition referred to anti-Semitic terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as his “friends” in a speech in front of Parliament because he was worried about final status negotiations? Did Corbyn appear multiple times on the Holocaust-denying Hamas-backing Iranian regime’s propaganda channel because he misses Yitzhak Rabin?

The man who participates in a 2014 wreath-laying ceremony for the terrorists who murdered Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics and prevaricates when asked whether it is “anti-Semitic to say that Rothschild Zionists run world governments” is no friend of the Jews.

China Bids to Replace US Influence in the Middle East by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15216/china-influence-middle-east

In what could prove to be a serious challenge to the long-standing hegemony Washington has enjoyed in the region, Beijing is seeking to deepen its commercial ties in the Arab world, thereby encouraging Arab states to look to China to safeguard their future security needs rather than maintaining their traditional reliance on the US.

Beijing is particularly keen to stress China’s high-tech capacities in areas such as its position as a global leader in building 5G telecoms networks, as well as its Belt and Road Initiative, the ambitious economic plan to build trade networks across the world which is designed to deepen commercial ties with the Middle East.

The US, however, might bear in mind that “withdrawing from ‘forever wars'” might be seen by adversaries of the West as an invitation to move in.

The confusion among Arab leaders over the Trump administration’s policy towards its traditional allies in the region has opened the way for China to intensify its efforts to extend its influence in the Middle East.

In what could prove to be a serious challenge to the long-standing hegemony Washington has enjoyed in the region, Beijing is seeking to deepen its commercial ties in the Arab world, thereby encouraging Arab states to look to China to safeguard their future security needs rather than maintaining their traditional reliance on the US.

Beijing is particularly keen to stress China’s high-tech capacities in areas such as its position as a global leader in building 5G telecoms networks, as well as its Belt and Road Initiative, the ambitious economic plan to build trade networks across the world which is designed to deepen commercial ties with the Middle East.

Other aspects of China’s bid to expand its commercial interests in the region include Chinese-built communications networks, fast railways, state-of-the-art airports and ports costing hundreds of billions of dollars.

Many oil-rich Gulf states, such as the United Arab Emirates, have already developed close ties with Beijing, with Emirati ministers saying they are keen to advance bilateral relations with China.

The rise of the organized Muslim vote in Canada Anthony Furey

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/furey-the-rise-of-the-organized-muslim-vote-in-canada

A number of puzzled columnists and policy experts are currently trying to figure out why it was that Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has broken with its tradition of voting down United Nations resolutions that denounce Israel and – as happened last week – joining the pile-on to condemn the only Jewish state in the world.

So far the working conclusion they’ve arrived at is that it was done because Trudeau covets a two-year seat at the Security Council and this is one way to win over votes at the notoriously anti-Israel body. That’s no doubt part of it.

There could be something else at play though: Maybe this is just what Canadian voters want. Or at least what one highly motivated and increasingly influential segment of the electorate wants.

In the months leading up to the election, a group called The Canadian Muslim-Vote (TCMV) was unapologetic in predicting the power the organized Muslim vote could yield over the 2019 federal election results.

“The Canadian Muslim community has the numbers to decide the winners and losers this election, which directly impacts the composition of the government we will have,” TCMV executive director Ali Manek wrote in a press release that went out on October 17 – just days before the election. “Muslim voters have turned out to the Advance Polls over Muslim Vote Weekend and we will be there on election day because we understand that we speak the loudest when we vote.”

Brexit Ho! By John O’Sullivan

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/brexit-ho/

The Tories have run a solid campaign so far, while Labour has stumbled.

After two weeks of Britain’s election campaign, which now has less than three weeks to run, the lack of excitement over its result is palpable. The national polls have been more or less steady since the starting gun was fired, with the Tories hovering around 40 percent support, Labour rising slightly to 30 percent, the Liberal Democrats stuck around 16 percent, and the Brexit party falling to single figures. The weekend saw a slight strengthening of all these trends, with the Tory percentage settling down in the mid-40s, for a lead over Labour of well into double figures. If repeated on Election Day, that would produce a solid Tory majority of about between 40 and 60 seats. As the pundits say, however, these figures could all change very rapidly under the influence of events.

The problem for all the opposition parties is that there haven’t been many events — at least not the kind that change political fortunes. Iain Martin, who edits the Reaction website, makes the original point that Britain’s parliamentary politics have been fizzing with such neurotic energy in the last two years that the conventional exercises of the election campaign — manifestos, leadership debates, extremists slipping through the net into candidacies, etc. — seem fairly dull by comparison. A truly big story was needed to provide a shock to the system and to disturb its slow, inevitable progress rightwards. Unfortunately for Labour, the biggest news story, and not just in the U.K., has been the scandal of Prince Andrew’s relationship with the late, disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein (and allegedly with at least one of the underaged women in Epstein’s entourage), which the prince’s BBC interview succeeded in the near-impossible task of making worse. It’s a scandal with legs that looks like running longer than the West End hit No Sex Please, We’re British. The strictly political effect of this scandal, however, has been to distract attention from the election altogether and so, in all likelihood, to freeze the Tory lead.

Anti-Semitism Soars in Eastern Europe The old canard of ‘dual loyalty’ also has currency in Western European countries like Spain and Belgium. By William A. Galston

https://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-semitism-soars-in-eastern-europe-11574812176?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

During the past decade, as internal struggles have preoccupied the U.S., the rest of the world hasn’t been standing still. China has risen, as has populist nationalism—and so too, it turns out, has anti-Semitism.

The latest global survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League finds that anti-Semitic attitudes have increased significantly since 2015 in Central and Eastern Europe, which before the Holocaust was home to most of European Jewry. According to the ADL’s 11-question index, in use for more than 50 years, the share of the adult population expressing a high level of anti-Semitic views rose from 37% to 48% in Poland, 32% to 46% in Ukraine and 23% to 31% in Russia. Hungary showed a more modest increase of 2 points, but from a high base of 40% in 2015.

In these four countries, classic stereotypes prevailed. Asked whether “Jews have too much power in the business world,” 72% of Ukrainians agreed, as did 71% of Hungarians, 56% of Poles and 50% of Russians. Sixty-eight percent of Ukrainians, 67% of Hungarians, 56% of Poles and 40% of Russians agreed that “Jews have too much power in international financial markets.” Fifty-six percent of Ukrainians, 51% of Hungarians and 40% of Poles believe that “Jews have too much control over global affairs.” (Russians trailed at 29%, perhaps because they believe—correctly—that Vladimir Putin is more powerful than a mythical Jewish conspiracy.)

Citizens of these four countries also resent being reminded of the Holocaust. Asked whether “Jews still talk too much about what happened to them” in the genocide, 74% of Poles answered in the affirmative, as did 59% of Hungarians, 50% of Russians and 44% of Ukrainians.

This view is widespread in Western Europe as well. Fifty-two percent of Austrians regard the discussion of the Holocaust as excessive, as do 42% of Germans, 40% of Belgians, 38% of Italians and 37% of Spaniards. CONTINUE AT SITE

ADL Acknowledges Excess Muslim Jew-Hatred In Western Europe But in typical fashion, it was downplayed. Andrew Bostom

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/adl-acknowledges-excess-muslim-jew-hatred-western-andrew-bostom/

November 21, 2019, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released its 2019 survey data on the prevalence (occurrence) of extreme Antisemitism (defined, below) within 18 countries assessed between April 15 and June 3, 2019. Six of these countries—Belgium, The United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy—included a Muslim over-sample, allowing for a direct comparison of Muslims vs. Christians, those professing no religion, and the overall populations.

As ADL’s own press release stated:

Muslim acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes was substantially higher than among the national populations—on average almost three times as high—in the six countries tested: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and The United Kingdom.

In sadly typical fashion, however, the ADL downplayed these findings in its press release, effectively concealing them as the last of six bullet points, i.e., # 6 of 6.

The ADL also failed to expressly note how compared to Western European Christians, specifically, Muslims were also ~3-times more likely to harbor extreme Antisemitic attitudes as gauged by abiding at least 6 of 11 Antisemitic stereotypes queried. (see tabulated data)

In brief, the ADL presents respondents with the following questionnaire:

Jews are more loyal to Israel than to [this country/to the countries they live in]
Jews have too much power in the business world
Jews have too much power in international financial markets
Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust
Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind
Jews have too much control over global affairs
Jews have too much control over the United States government
Jews think they are better than other people
Jews have too much control over the global media
Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars
People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave

The “Index Score” determining the occurrence of “extreme Antisemitism” in each population surveyed is calculated as follows:

As a historian of England’s shameful anti-Semitic past,I dread the idea of Prime Minister Corbyn  By Tom Holland 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/16/englands-shameful-history-blood-libel-compelled-denounce-corbyns/

OnThursdayIjoinedJohnLeCarré,TrevorPhillips,FiyazMughalandmanyothersinsigningaletterexplainingourrefusaltovoteLabouron12December.Theconcern–indeed,thedread–whichweexpressedwas“theprospectofaprimeministersteepedinassociationwithantisemitism.”WhetherJeremyCorbynispersonallyanti-semitic,orwilfullyblind,orboth,Idonotpresumetojudge;butthesheerrangeofhiscontactswithindisputableanti-semites,hisrepeatedexpressionsofenthusiasmforthem,meansthatIhavelongfounditimpossibletoignoretheanxietiesofJewishfriends.

Oneassociationinparticularseemstomebeyondthepale.In2011,writingintheMorningStar,thefutureLabourleadercondemned“theZionistlobby”forsecuringthedeportationfromBritainofaPalestinianactivistnamedRaedSaleh.Ayearlater,CorbynwasstillcampaigningonSaleh’sbehalf,andevenissuedhimaninvitationto“teaontheHouseofCommonsterrace.”Itishardtothinkofanyonelessdeservingofsuchaninvitation.SalehhasbeenconvictedofdeployingthemostrepellantofallthemanycalumniesdirectedagainsttheJewsoverthecenturies:thechargethattheyareinthehabitofmixingchildren’sbloodwiththeirritualbread.

ThisbloodlibeliswidelyrepeatedacrosstheMiddleEasttoday–butitdidnotoriginatethere.ItoriginatedinEngland.Thecontextwasagrowingdreadin12thcenturyChristendomoftheJewsaswillingagentsoftheDevil.Increasinglytheywerefingeredassorcerersandblasphemers:enemiesoftheChurchwho,giventhechance,wouldpollutethesacredvesselsusedintheeucharistwiththeirspit,theirsperm,theirexcrement.Darkestofall,theywerechargedwithmurder.

In1144,thediscoveryofayoungboy’scorpseinawoodoutsideNorwichpromptedahostofsensationalaccusations:thattheboyhadbeenkidnappedbythecity’sJews,torturedasChristhadbeentorturedandofferedupasasacrifice.Thestoryspreadlikewildfire.AssimilartaleswerereportedacrossChristendom,afurtherhellishrefinementwasadded:thattheJews,inagrotesqueparodyoftheeucharist,mixedbloodintotheirbread.

Thatthisclaimwascondemnedasalibelfirstbyanimperialcommission,andthen,in1253,bythepapacyitself,didnothingtostopitsspread.Twoyearslater,thediscoveryinLincolnofasmallboynamedHughatthebottomofawellsawninetyJewsarrestedforthemurderontheordersofthekinghimself.Eighteenofthemwerehanged.Themurderedboywashailedasamartyr.ThatthepapacypointedlyrefusedtoconfirmthiscanonisationdidlittletocheckthegrowthofthecultofLittleSaintHugh.

A Meaningful Milestone in Sweden? by Bruce Bawer

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15208/sweden-milestone

Conditions in Sweden have deteriorated so drastically — with everything from child care to elder care being deprived of funds that are instead being used to feed, clothe and house refugees, faux refugees, and other foreign freeloaders — that many Norwegians worry, with good reason, about a massive spillover of social chaos, poverty and crime from a country with which it shares a thousand-mile-long border.

One is reminded, of course, of the indefensible way in which British authorities handled — or refused to handle — decades of child-rape cases in Rotherham, Rochdale and other cities throughout Britain. But in Sweden — whose distinctive history of ideological conformity and self-image as a “moral superpower”… the readiness to deny unpleasant realities is even more widespread and deep-seated than in the U.K. and other Western European countries.

It was the Social Democrats and Moderates that created Sweden’s current crisis and allowed it to endure and worsen and be considered beyond criticism….

The Sweden Democrats’ triumph, then, may well be at once a genuine milestone in the advance of Swedish democracy and individualism and a mere turn in the road to ultimate cultural displacement.

When I moved to Norway twenty years ago, a term I encountered often was “American conditions” (amerikanske tilstander). It was always used disparagingly. It referred to such things as urban sprawl, strip malls, inner-city gangs, school shootings and private health care. After Barack Obama became president, I heard the term far less frequently — in Norway, after all, you cannot get too rough on a country with a black president, especially a president to whom you have given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Today, even though Trump-bashing — in Norway as in the U.S. — is the media’s favorite sport, the term does not seem to have come back into widespread use, which perhaps has something to do with the fact that the U.S., among other things, now has the world’s strongest economy and staggeringly enviable employment figures. Meanwhile, there is another term that has become increasingly common in Norway: “Swedish conditions” (svenske tilstander). It really took off about two years ago, when Sylvi Listhaug, Norway’s then Minister of Immigration and Integration, used it after visiting some of Sweden’s worst Muslim enclaves — a reaction that outraged politicians and journalists on both sides of the border.

Although recently there has been good news from Sweden — which I will get to shortly — let it be said, at the outset, that the term “Swedish conditions,” when used in Norway, has exclusively negative connotations. While “American conditions” covers a wide range of purported sins, however, “Swedish conditions” means basically one thing, or rather one set of intimately related things: admitting masses of unvetted immigrants from a very different culture into your country, encouraging them to settle in monocultural, autocratic enclaves that become no-go zones, allowing them to sit home collecting generous welfare benefits instead of learning the local language and finding jobs, and punishing even their most brutal crimes with a slap on the wrist — all the while continuing to repeat the mantra that their culture has enriched Sweden and to ignore the glaring reality that Sweden is undergoing a long-term conquest as well as what one Norwegian observer has called “an inferno of violence.”

Iran to Have Nuclear Bomb in a Few Months? by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15214/iran-nuclear-bomb-months

This marks a dangerous phase in Iran’s nuclear defiance. Tehran is now using a kind of prototype centrifuge that enriches uranium almost 50 times faster.

Although Iran is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it refuses to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its sites. The IAEA is also not allowed to inspect or monitor Iran’s military sites where nuclear activities are most likely being carried out.

That is why, before it is too late, which it is fast becoming, it is incumbent on the US and the international community to take seriously Iran’s nuclear advances and urgently address its rush to obtain nuclear weapons.

The Iranian government is shortening its nuclear breakout time — the amount of time required to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear weapon. Tehran has accomplished this through several steps in the last few months.

Iran’s government first increased its enriched uranium stockpile beyond the 300 kilogram limit; it enriched uranium to levels beyond the cap of 3.67 percent, and then activated 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 advanced centrifuges. The Iranian leaders even boasted that their government is now exploring new uranium enrichment programs and producing centrifuges.

Most recently, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, declared that Iran has an adequate supply of 20% enriched uranium., “Right now we have enough 20% uranium,” he told the Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA, “but we can produce more as needed”. He added that the country is resuming uranium enrichment at a far higher level at the Fordow nuclear facility — an underground uranium enrichment facility which is reportedly located on one of bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC­­) — injecting uranium gas into centrifuges, and operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges.