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Why Britain’s Deradicalization Programs Are Failing by A. Z. Mohamed

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12575/britain-deradicalization-programs

The two effective initiatives were, “one defying political correctness and tackling difficult issues head-on and the other directly addressing extremism in religious [Islamic] texts.” — The Times.

Unwittingly, Home Secretary Sajid Javid showed just why the deradicalization programs he is defending do not work. He said nothing about the boy’s family’s religious faith, radical Islam or the narrative of hate and intolerance founded on a “radical” interpretation of the Quran and Sunna to which the boy may well have been exposed at home, at the mosque and over the internet.

The trouble with Javid’s tribute to those Muslims who “stand up against all forms of extremism” is that bigotry and bloodlust are not merely figments of Islamist extremists’ minds. They stem from an authentic interpretation of Quranic verses and hadiths, which currently dominates the Muslim world.

The vast majority of deradicalization programs in the UK are at best ineffective and at worst counter-productive, according to a recent study by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT, also known as the “nudge unit”), a social purpose company partially owned by the UK government, but that works in partnership with the Cabinet Office.

As the Times reported recently, BIT examined 33 deradicalization programs across Britain, in schools, youth centers, sports clubs and English-language classes. Most of these are part of Prevent — a strategy presented in 2011 to the UK Parliament by the Secretary of State for the Home Department — designed to keep vulnerable citizens from becoming terrorists or supporting any form of violent extremism inspired by radical Islamist or right-wing ideologies. BIT found that only two of the programs have been successful.

The main reason for the failure of the other 31 programs, according to the Times’ report on the study, is:

“…that facilitators were uncomfortable dealing with sensitive topics and would often refuse to engage if they were brought up. BIT found that teachers in particular were afraid to bring up matters of race and religion with their students without appearing discriminatory, often causing them to refuse to talk about these topics entirely.”

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Jeremy Black Identity Politics and the Empire Debate

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2018/06/identity-politics-empire-debate/

For many groups, such as Copts and Jews, empires ruled by the Ottomans, Habsburgs and Britain were frequently more benign than the ethnically based nation-states that succeeded them. The plight of the East African Indians once British rule ended constitutes a clear example.

Mealtimes, “institutional racism” and the “historical amnesia of British colonialism”. They were all there on January 27 when a group of fourteen, led by students at SOAS (formerly the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), chanting, “We have nothing to lose but our chains”, protested in the Blighty UK Café in Finsbury Park, London. They demanded that Chris Evans, the owner, “apologise to the local community” for commemorating Winston Churchill instead of presenting him as a racist who perpetuated the injustices of the empire. The café offers a breakfast called “The Winston” and décor featuring model Spitfires and a mock-up of an air-raid shelter. A change of décor and menu was demanded.

The SOAS Students’ Union, in a statement, declared that the café “exercises a concerted historical amnesia of British colonialism, which is offensive to those who continue to experience institutional racism”. Earlier, a large mural of Churchill had been repeatedly defaced. The phlegmatic Evans remarked, “If you cannot celebrate Britain and great Britons you are just erasing history and if you cannot celebrate Churchill, you cannot celebrate anyone.” In 2002 Churchill was voted the “Greatest Briton” in a large-scale BBC poll.

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David Flint: Donald Trump, Best in the West

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/06/donald-trump-best-west/

Opposed by Democrats, the media and a nefarious cabal of high government officials, this most unlikely president has implemented precisely what he had promised on the stump. Despite the Deep State’s worst efforts to bring him down, his record far exceeds even that of the great Ronald Reagan.

Australia is fortunate indeed that Donald Trump is US President, just as we have been fortunate that we have always been so close to the world’s most powerful nation — first Great Britain, then the United States of America. It is crucial to Australia that the US continue in her powerful role of preserving, protecting and defending Western civilisation based, as it is, on Judeo-Christian values.

Sadly, under the Obama administration, American influence had been allowed to wane, her armed forces under-resourced, action against ISIS circumvented by bureaucratic intervention and those powers most hostile to the West, Iran and North Korea, appeased. Meanwhile, the administration condoned the undermining of the family and traditional values by encouraging undemocratic judicial activism, the high point of which remains the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v Wade inventing a constitutional ‘right’ to abortion.

This was done by interpreting the Constitution as a ‘living document’—in other words, the Constitution means whatever the judges say it means. As the late and great Justice Antonin Scalia maintained, the only proper interpretation must be that the Constitution means what it meant to a reasonable person at the time it was adopted. This is the originalist interpretation.

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PRINCE WILLIAM AT YAD VASHEM

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

As Tevye would say “it doesn’t make much difference but its nice to know…..”rsk

“It has been a profoundly moving experience to visit Yad Vashem today. It is almost impossible to comprehend this appalling event in history. Every name, photograph and memory recorded here is a tragic reminder of the unimaginable human cost of the Holocaust and of the immense loss suffered by the Jewish people. The story of the Holocaust is one of darkness and despair, questioning humanity itself. But the actions of those few, who took great risks to help others, are a reminder of the human capacity for love and hope. I am honoured that my own great-grandmother [Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice] is one of these Righteous Among the Nations.
We must never forget the Holocaust – the murder of 6 million men, women and children, simply because they were Jewish. We all have a responsibility to remember and to teach future generations about the horrors of the past so that they can never reoccur. May the millions of Jewish people remembered by Yad Vashem never be forgotten“

That’s what Prince William has written during his visit to Yad Vashem. In this video he meets descendents of Jews saved by Princess Alice: report here

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The Race to Be Wrong First about Annapolis By Kyle Smith *****

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/media-bias-annapolis-shooting/

The shooter’s identity had not even been released when many prominent voices on the left began blaming Trump for the attack.

If you’re at all normal, which is to say not hysterically progressive, your reaction to initial reports of a horrific newsroom shooting in Annapolis, Md., was probably to assume it was the act of a disgruntled ex-employee. That is, after all, the usual back story to workplace massacres. Or your mind might have turned to other common motivators for such acts — psychosis, unrequited male affection. If you’re conversant with local newspapering specifically, you might have considered the special worry that accompanies this job: the danger of one of your readers being enraged by your coverage of a micro-feud involving zoning permits or construction detours or school-board composition or some other niche matter in which passions run inversely proportional to historical importance.

On the #Resist left, though, a faction increasingly prone to put emotions before reason, indeed to mistake the former for the latter, the immediate response was: This is on President Trump. Trump is up to his wrists in blood. Hasn’t Trump been railing at the press this week and for three solid years since he first announced his presidential candidacy? Did he not dub the media the “enemy of the people” on Monday night in South Carolina?

The shooter’s identity had not even been released when many prominent voices on the left began blaming Trump for either directly or indirectly inspiring the attack. American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten tweeted, “The demonization of the press leading to a shooting of the Press . . . Just horrible!!!!” Feminist writer Lauren Duca said on the same medium, “The shooting . . . cannot reasonably be separated from the President’s mission to villainize [sic] the press.” Reuters editor Rob Cox wrote, “This is what happens when @RealDonaldTrump calls journalists the enemy of the people. Blood is on your hands, Mr. President.” The Wire mastermind David Simon, a longtime Maryland newspaperman, tweeted at the president, “Blood today in an American newsroom. Aren’t you proud, you vile, fascist son of a bitch,” adding later that “Trump’s direct language was to blame.” Leftist commentators Jessica Valenti and Shaun King expressed similar sentiments. (Trump’s “enemy of the people” crack Monday was such a glancing aside that Chris Cillizza of CNN didn’t even include it in his exhaustive retrospective piece, “The 55 most over-the-top lines from Donald Trump’s South Carolina Speech.” Nor did the New York Times writeup of the rally mention it.)

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First Democratic Senator Calls for Abolishing ICE By Mairead McArdle

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/kirsten-gillibrand-abolish-ice-first-democratic-senator-call/

Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand on Thursday became the first current member of the Senate to endorse the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, claiming that the agency has become a “deportation force.”

“I don’t think ICE today is working as intended,” New York’s junior senator told CNN host Chris Cuomo. “I think you should separate the criminal justice from the immigration issues. I think you should reimagine ICE under a new agency with a very different mission and take those two missions out.”

“We believe that we should protect families that need our help, and that is not what ICE is doing today, and that’s why I believe you should get rid of it, start over, reimagine it, and build something that actually works,” Gillibrand concluded.

Gillibrand’s positions are an almost-180-degree pivot from the hawkish stance on immigration that she took as a House member representing a conservative district in upstate New York.

“Congresswoman Gillibrand has been a firm opponent of any proposal that would give amnesty to illegal aliens,” the platform on her old campaign website reads. “The federal government must provide the necessary resources to secure our borders, which is critical for America’s economic and national security.”

The campaign platform goes on to express support for increasing the number of border-patrol agents and installing technology along the border to catch human and drug smugglers.

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Wanted: Justice Amy Coney Barrett By Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-nomination-fight-would-provide-political-lessons/

The fight to confirm Barrett would contain edifying political lessons.

The mental relief that one will never again have to read an opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy is enough to satisfy for weeks. Just be glad for this, I’m telling myself. We never have to hear this man explain that his job is to “impose order on a disordered reality.” In an America of 300 million people, the likelihood of finding a new justice with Kennedy’s self-regard is near zero. After all, Donald Trump is unlikely to appoint himself.

But we must refuse the natural complacency that should settle on a normal and well-adjusted people who have survived the rule of Anthony Kennedy. We must press ahead. To do so, Donald Trump should appoint Amy Coney Barrett to the highest court in the land.

There are many good and fine people rumored to be on President Trump’s short list of candidates for the Supreme Court, including Amul Thapar and Senator Mike Lee. But Barrett’s qualifications match them all.

And her appointment, in particular, has several political advantages. Millions of Republicans held their noses and voted for Trump because they felt it was necessary to protect the liberty to practice their faith. The fight over Barrett’s confirmation would almost certainly build trust between President Trump and social conservatives. It would energize Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.

The facts of Barrett’s life — that she is a mother of seven children, and that when she speaks about her Catholic faith, she speaks about God as if she really believes in His existence — will provoke nasty and bigoted statements from Democratic senators and liberal media personalities. Again.

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The ‘Resistance’ Is Turning into a National Lynch Mob By John Zmirak

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-resistance-is-turning-into-a-national-lynch-mob/

Karl Marx once acidly quipped that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. But that’s not even right. When violent ideologies shred the fabric of common life, as is happening right now, there’s nothing funny about it. Not for those of us who have to live through such “interesting times.”

No doubt you’ve read the headlines. A Latin American-style socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has just effectively won a seat in the U.S. Congress, defeating a long-time Democratic Party boss. One of her close campaign associates is a Jew-baiting demagogue, who whipped up votes by denouncing “greedy Jewish landlords.”

The president’s press secretary, Sarah Sanders, and her family were evicted from The Red Hen restaurant by an owner who disapproves of her politics. Then that owner led a mob to follow some of the Sanders family and harass them at the next place they went to eat. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tried to eat at a Mexican restaurant, only to face a mob of protestors inside the eatery screaming “Shame” amidst profanities and insults. Florida Attorney General (and frequent defender of President Trump on Fox News) Pam Bondi was identified, harassed, and spat on when she tried to watch the new Mr. Rogers movie.

These courageous radicals seem to enjoy picking on women. But let’s be fair. When there are enough of them, they are willing to go after men. Remember the cast of Hamilton taking the stage to humiliate Vice President Pence? A menacing mob gathered outside presidential speechwriter Stephen Miller’s apartment, just this week.

Or if they have the weapons: It was only a year ago that a Bernie Sanders volunteer tried a one-man military coup, attempting to murder the entire Republican leadership of our Congress. CONTINUE AT SITE

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A Climate Shakedown Flops A federal judge tosses the left coast’s suit against fossil fuels.

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-climate-shakedown-flops-1530315398

The first wave of lawsuits to make oil companies atone for their alleged climate sins was beaten back this week by federal Judge William Alsup. One hope is that this victory for judicial sanity will stop the tide of litigation from spreading across the country.

The cities of San Francisco and Oakland sued BP, Chevron , ConocoPhillips , Exxon Mobil , and Royal Dutch Shell , demanding billions of dollars to remedy future environmental damage caused by fossil fuels. The Supreme Court ruled in AEP v. Connecticut (2011) that regulating emissions is the Environmental Protection Agency’s bailiwick. But the cities tried to circumvent the ruling by arguing that the mere production and sale of oil is a public nuisance.

Judge Alsup, a Bill Clinton appointee, rightly refrained from trying to regulate global carbon emissions from the bench. The problem of climate change “deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case. While it remains true that our federal courts have authority to fashion common law remedies for claims based on global warming, courts must also respect and defer to the other co-equal branches of government,” he wrote.

The judge also ridiculed the notion that fossil fuels are a public nuisance and even suggested that they have been a boon for humanity. “Our industrial revolution and the development of our modern world has literally been fueled by oil and coal. Without those fuels, virtually all of our monumental progress would have been impossible,” he noted. Fetch the smelling salts for Tom Steyer.

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From Auschwitz to America: Lessons from Europe’s Killing Fields : Adam and Gila Milstein

Posted By on June 30th, 2018

https://www.milsteinff.org/from-auschwitz-to-america-lessons-from-europes-killing-fi

This month, we had the privilege to learn more about the devastating and cruel truths of the Holocaust. We traveled to six countries – the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Germany – with 100 leading American philanthropists and scholars, and together, we tried to wrap our heads around the scope of the genocide carried out by Nazi Germany and its European collaborators.

We saw the horrific conditions suffered by the Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which were built with a single purpose: to eradicate the Jewish and Gypsy peoples. We saw mass graves in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland, where hundreds of thousands of Jewish families perished by firing squads because their gentile neighbors collaborated with or joined in when the German Killing Machine arrived. At the Rumbula Forest Memorial, we paid our respects to some of the 2.4 million Jews who were killed in the Hidden Holocaust by bullets – some, murdered by neighbors they had grown up alongside.

Far too many people view these places as simply historical sites, where you can learn something about the past, but nothing about the future. Many – including some within the Jewish community – can’t comprehend that the antisemitism that existed in Nazi Germany might happen again, especially in America.

Facing these horrors up close focused our attention on the relevance of the Holocaust to our present day. How can we ensure that Never Again isn’t just a slogan, but a mindset and an action plan?

Three lessons from our journey stand out.

First, events like the Holocaust don’t happen overnight. They result from a process of systematic racism, intimidation, and discrimination that lasts many years.