Reader links for Thursday April 16 – 2015

This post has all its contents in the comments. For the newest freshest videos and news stories of interest to the Counter-Jihad and the Geopolitics of Islam, please click comments and add to, or read what is posted there.

Some will be integrated into the day’s posts and others not. But this way we can keep a great news flow going without interfering with the conversations about the issues under the various essays and news items in the posts that will be presented throughout the day.

Thank you all for your informative and important contributions.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

48 Replies to “Reader links for Thursday April 16 – 2015”

  1. The Turkish Union is based on love and affection. Everyone in the whole world will embrace the Turkish Union. And if they don’t, then they will burn in Hell for eternity!!!!

  2. This World – Kill the Christians – BBC Documentary 2015

    This was at Blazing Cat Fur. It has its share of aggravating drivel about ‘extremist’ Islam, ‘political’ Islam, Muslim backlash against Christian atrocities etc. But it does acknowledge that certain Muslims now and then can be a little bit naughty.

  3. Libya migrants: Muslim refugees arrested in Italy for throwing Christians into sea after fight

    Italian police have arrested 15 Muslim migrants in Palermo for allegedly having thrown Christian refugees off the rubber boat that was taking them to Italy after a fight for “religious reasons”, according to media reports.

    Those arrested – from Mali, Guinea and Ivory Coast – were part of a group of 100 that were rescued off the Libyan coast by the Italian coastguard.

    After their arrival in Palermo, the other migrants informed police that 12 Christian refugees were hurled off the boat and killed after a religious row with the 15 Muslims that were later arrested. Among the arrested is a 17-year-old, according to Repubblica newspaper.

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/libya-migrants-muslim-refugees-arrested-italy-throwing-christians-into-sea-after-fight-1496777
    ==========================================================
    Migrants thrown into sea ‘for being Christian’

    Italian police said on Thursday they had arrested 15 African Muslim migrants after witnesses said they had thrown 12 Christian passengers overboard following a brawl on a boat heading to Italy.

    The victims were “of Christian faith, compared to their attackers who were of Muslim faith,” police said in a statement, saying the 15 people arrested were accused of “multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate”.

    The incident aboard the rubber dinghy, which was carrying about 100 migrants, took place in the Strait of Sicily, between Tunisia and Italy.

    According to a group of Nigerian and Ghanaian survivors, a fight broke out over religion, with a group of Muslim passengers threatening the Nigerians and Ghanaians after the latter – who were in the minority – declared themselves to be Christians.

    “The threats then materialised and 12 people, all Nigerian and Ghanaian, are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean,” the statement added.

    The 15 migrants arrested over the attack on their arrival in Palermo were from Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal.

    In a separate migrant tragedy, as many as 41 migrants were feared drowned after refugee boat sank in the Mediterranean, Italian media reported.

    Four survivors reported the incident to Italian police and humanitarian organizations.

    http://www.thelocal.it/20150416/migrants-threw-overs-overboard-for-being-christian

    • This may be the first time I see a story like this on the very first CNNs page. Here is a link to a dedicated, special page…

      Italian police: Muslim migrants threw Christians overboard (CNN, Apr 15, 2015)
      http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/16/europe/italy-migrants-christians-thrown-overboard/index.html

      “Rome (CNN)Muslims who were among migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy in a boat this week threw 12 fellow passengers overboard — killing them — because the 12 were Christians, Italian police said Thursday.

      Italian authorities have arrested 15 people on suspicion of murdering the Christians at sea, police in Palermo, Sicily, said.

      The original group of 105 people left Libya on Tuesday in a rubber boat. Sometime during the trip north across the Mediterranean Sea, the alleged assailants — Muslims from the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal — threw the 12 overboard, police said.

      The boat was intercepted by an Italian navy vessel, which transferred the passengers to a Panamanian-flagged ship. That ship docked in Palermo on Wednesday, after which the arrests were made, police said.”

  4. American wounded in Pakistan in apparent terrorist shooting, police say

    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An American doctor was critically wounded Thursday in Karachi after being shot in the head in an apparent terrorist attack that raised the possibility of links to the Islamic State, police said.

    Authorities said the woman was vice-principal of Jinnah Medical and Dental College, a private medical college in the southern city. Police said she was shot at least once when two men on a motorcycle began firing into her car.

    “The initial investigation suggest that this was a pre-planned terrorist attack and was made over the lady because of her national identity,” said Asif Farooqui, a Karachi police official. The two attackers escaped, he added.

    The woman was being treated at a Karachi area hospital.

    The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said it was looking into the report, but could not yet confirm the police statements that the victim was American. Her name also was not immediately released by U.S. authorities.

    Dr. Nawab Baqar, head of the Jinnah college, said the woman was an American who has worked at the institution since 1996.

    “Everyone is very sad over what happened to her,” said Baqar.

    Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said it is also investigating.

    A Karachi police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the gunmen left a note on the victim’s car implying affiliation with the Islamic State.

    The note said the attack was in revenge for a police operation in Karachi last week that killed five suspected terrorists, including the head of local wing of al-Qaeda, the official said.

    Agence France-Presse reported one of their correspondents examined the note and said it threatened more “ambush” attacks on Americans.

    In recent months, Pakistani military and intelligence officials say they have detected only scattered signs that Islamic State militants posed a rising threat in Pakistan, which is home to a host of groups including the Taliban.

    But some militants with past affiliation to al-Qaeda or the Pakistan Taliban have announced they are now also operating under the Islamic State banner. Some Karachi residents have also been concerned by what they say is an increase in pro-Islamic State graffiti in some neighborhoods.

    Despite a decade of relentless violence, attacks on foreigners in Pakistan remain relatively rare, although a Pakistani-American doctor from Columbus, Ohio was shot and killed last May near Lahore in another targeted attack.

    Karachi, a bustling metropolis of about 22 million people, is one of Pakistan’s most volatile and dangerous cities.

    Over the past 18 months, Pakistani paramilitary officers have been engaged in a major operation against Islamist militants and criminal gangs in the city.

    But some parts of Karachi remain a refuge for the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/american-wounded-in-pakistan-in-apparent-terrorist-shooting-police-say/2015/04/16/28a4c9c4-e434-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html

  5. CNN – Iraq – Ramadi could fall as ISIS militants lay siege

    West of Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)Falih Essawi shouted on the phone as he described his situation. From his point of view, ISIS militants might be just hours away from taking the key Iraqi city of Ramadi.

    Fierce fighting has engulfed Ramadi, which lies only about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad and is the capital of Anbar province, Iraq’s Sunni heartland.

    Essawi, the deputy head of the Anbar Provincial Council, told CNN from inside the city Wednesday that it’s unclear how much longer government troops can hold their front lines against the ISIS offensive.

    The politician said he was on a front line himself, armed with a machine gun. Security was “collapsing rapidly in the city,” and he begged the Iraqi government for reinforcements and the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS for air support. He stressed that urgent support from the military and security forces is needed to save the city.

    “This is what we warned Baghdad of what’s going to happen,” Essawi told CNN by phone, referring to the Iraqi government at the capital. “Where is Baghdad? Where is al-Abadi?”

    more on the page :

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/15/middleeast/iraq-isis/

    • Over 2,000 families flee Ramadi as clashes rage in Iraq

      BAGHDAD, April 16 (Xinhua) — Clashes between Islamic State (IS) militants and Iraqi forces Thursday forced over 2,000 families to flee their homes in Ramadi.

      While clashes continued in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s western province of Anbar, a major offensive attempted to recapture areas north of Tikrit, the capital of Salahudin province, from IS militants, security forces said.

      The security situation in Ramadi, 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has deteriorated since Friday when IS militants carried out attacks and captured Albu Farraj in the northern side of Euphrates River which separates the area from Ramadi.

      The extremist group spread in Ramadi Wednesday and captured Soufiyah, Albu Ghanim, Albu Mahal and Albu Souda east of the city, partially seized by IS militants for months.

      Fierce battles in Ramadi displaced over 2,000 families, most of whom headed to Baghdad and settled in predominantly Sunni districts in southern and western Baghdad, an Anbar provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

      In Ramadi, IS militants attacked provincial police headquarters with a car bomb, while dozens of extremist militants clashed with guards who managed to repel the militants, the source said.

      http://www.globalpost.com/article/6518308/2015/04/16/over-2000-families-flee-ramadi-clashes-rage-iraq

  6. Migrants thrown into sea ‘for being Christian’

    The victims were “of Christian faith, compared to their attackers who were of Muslim faith,” police said in a statement, saying the 15 people arrested were accused of “multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate”.

    http://www.thelocal.it/20150416/migrants-threw-overs-overboard-for-being-christian

    African Muslims Throw Christians Overboard

    Illegal Muslim immigrants on boat to Italy throw 12 Christian passengers into the Mediterranean Sea, and are arrested on land.

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/194160#.VS_fcJM8qSo

  7. UK – Ukip candidate faces sack after describing Islam as an ‘evil cult’

    A Ukip candidate standing for Parliament faces being sacked by the party after describing Islam as an “evil cult”.

    Stephen Latham, who is fighting the West Bromwich East seat, made the remarks in a Facebook post and linked to an old article about claims the Labour party had been infiltrated by a fundamentalist Muslim group.

    In the post he wrote: “So the Muslims have infiltrated the Labour party. What a surprise. Who would have guessed such a thing was possible? The Labour Party of Diane Abbott and Harriet Harman infiltrated by the evil cult of Islam. Wow.”[…]

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/general-election-2015-ukip-candidate-faces-sack-after-describing-islam-as-an-evil-cult-10180962.html

  8. SAUDI ARABIA – Expat professor fired for ‘insulting Islam’ at Saudi college

    A professor at the Laureate College of Excellence was fired for insulting Islam and students using offensive and racial slurs, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.

    Students from the college claimed on Monday that the professor, who is from a Western country, called the pilgrimage rituals “stupid” and no one responded when they complained to the administration.

    One of the students said: “There is no one in the administration that is an Arab or Muslim and whenever we complained they would kick us out or ignore us.

    “We decided to take this to the press because no one listened to us and we do not accept what was said about Islam.”

    Al-Madinah reporters tried to contact the head of the college but he refused to meet them without an appointment and when they asked for a time he did not respond.

    Technical and Vocational Training Corporation official spokesman Fahd Al-Otaibi said the corporation received news of the incident from the press.

    He said: “The head of the corporation, Ali Al-Ghafees, formed a special committee to look into the incident.

    “The headquarters of the Laureate College of Excellence was informed by the corporation of the incident.”

    He added the corporation investigated the students’ complaints and found them to be true.

    “The corporation terminated the professor’s contract immediately as he violated the Ministry of Labor’s charter that outlines the importance of good conduct and respect toward Islam and violated the Laureate College of Excellence’s policy of religious tolerance,” said Al-Otaibi.

    He also said the corporation had not received any reports of the incident before the students’ complaint.

    “The corporation and Laureate College of Excellence would like to clarify that the professor’s actions do not represent the institute and only represents him as an individual.

    “All international institutes in the Kingdom are fully aware of the importance of respecting Islam and the severity of insulting the religion and the Saudi people in any way.”

    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2015/04/16/Expat-professor-fired-for-insulting-Islam-at-Saudi-college-.html

  9. this was interesting start at 8 minutes in (29:30 is also interesting): there is a lot of Bla bla bla.

    If this Imam is right the US might be drawing up the difference between extremist and none extremist. If he is correct this a major away from Multiculturalism.

  10. Australian ex-model, DJ, killed fighting for ISIS in Syria, family friend says (CNN, Apr 16, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/16/asia/australia-isis-sharky-jama-killed/index.html

    “A former model and DJ from Melbourne, described by his former agency as having a promising future, is the latest Australian believed to have been killed while fighting alongside ISIS militants in Syria.

    The parents of Sharky Jama, 25, were informed of their son’s death via a text message and phone call Monday, said Hussein Harakow, president of the Somali Australian Council of Victoria.

    “They’re very shocked and very disappointed,” said Harakow, who knows the Jama family.

    He said Jama had disappeared along with another Somali-Australian, named in Australian media reports as former business student Yusuf Yusuf, in August of last year….”

  11. Yemen port: Empty streets, the sound of shelling and desperation in the air (CNN, Apr 16, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/16/world/yemen-crisis/index.html

    “The streets were empty but not quiet. Shelling began to boom through the Yemeni city of Aden on Thursday afternoon as we hurried back to board the boat that had brought us here from Djibouti.

    Aden is a city gripped by fear, desperation and want. People line up for bread, they line up for cooking fuel, and the electricity only works a few hours a day.

    And from late afternoon onward, most people stay indoors. That is the time of the shelling, the daily aerial bombardment….”

    • Iraq’s Largest Refinery Not at Risk From Islamic State Group

      Washington: Iraq’s largest refinery in Baiji is not “at risk” despite an offensive by the Islamic State group that has breached parts of the facility, the US military’s top general said Thursday.

      The IS militants have “penetrated the outer perimeter” of the vast oil refinery and the US-coalition was concentrating bombing raids and surveillance flights over the area, General Martin Dempsey told reporters.

      “The refinery itself is at no risk right now, but … we’re focusing a lot of our ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and air support there,” the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

      The US and coalition aircraft had carried out eight air strikes near Baiji on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a statement from the military command overseeing the air campaign.

      Iraqi officials acknowledged on Wednesday that the IS group had seized some roads and buildings at the refinery, and that the militants were hiding among fuel tanks, complicating counter-attacks by Iraqi forces.

      Asked about an IS assault in the western city of Ramadi, Dempsey said the Baiji refinery carried more strategic importance.

      “I would much rather that Ramadi not fall, but it won’t be the end of the campaign should it fall,” he said.

      “We got to get it back. And that’s tragic for the people, as we’ve seen along the way.”

      Fighting in Ramadi has created a humanitarian problem and prompted a flood of refugees to Baghdad, he said.

      Baiji, however, is crucial for the country’s oil infrastructure and is the focus of coalition efforts, the general said.

      “Once the Iraqis have full control of Baiji, they will control all their oil infrastructure, both north and south, and deny ISIL the ability to generate revenue through oil,” said Dempsey, using an alternative acronym for the IS group.

      The IS jihadists repeatedly have tried to seize the refinery over the past 10 months but Iraqi security forces have fended off the assaults.

      Iraqi troops recaptured the nearby town of Baiji in October but the IS extremists have since taken back the town.

      Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi — who has said his government forces would be focusing on taking on IS in western al-Anbar province — discussed war strategy with US officials during his visit this week.

      http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iraqs-largest-refinery-not-at-risk-from-islamic-state-group-us-755658

  12. Pope’s remarks ‘to accelerate Hagia Sophia’s conversion into mosque’

    Pope Francis’ labeling of the mass killings of the Ottoman Armenians as “the first genocide of the 20th century” will only accelerate the reopening of Hagia Sophia to Muslim worship, the top Islamic official in Ankara has suggested.

    “Frankly, I believe that the pope’s remarks will only accelerate the process for Hagia Sophia to be re-opened for [Muslim] worship,” Professor Mefail H?zl?, the mufti of Ankara, said in a written statement released late April 15.

    According to H?zl?, the pope’s statement “has reflected a modern color of the crusader wars launched in these lands for centuries.” These lands have long been the “standard bearer” of the Muslim world, meaning many enemies, both from inside and outside of the country, have been launching attacks with different methods.

    “The statement that the Catholic world’s spiritual leader pope delivered three days ago, saying Armenians had been subjected to a genocide, is extremely spectacular,” H?zl? said, noting that the pope’s statement was intruding on the realm of historians and was hastily made.

    H?zl? did not touch on the precise relationship between Francis, the leader of the world’s Catholics, and the Haghia Sophia, which served as a Greek Orthodox basilica until the Turkish conquest in 1453.

    Armenia says up to 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians were killed in a genocide starting in 1915. Turkey denies that the deaths amounted to genocide, saying the death toll of Armenians killed during mass deportations has been inflated and that those killed in 1915 and 1916 were victims of general unrest during World War I.

    Stressing that all sides, not just Armenians, suffered in Anatolia 100 years ago, H?zl? also recalled that the theme of the 2015 Holy Birth Week, marking the birth of Prophet Muhammad, was the “Prophet and the Moral of Coexistence.”

    Debate over landmark’s status

    The Hagia Sophia Museum was first dedicated as an Orthodox patriarchal basilica in 360. Until 1453 it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople. Following the city’s conquest by the Ottoman Empire, the building turned into a mosque in 1453 and remained so until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was reopened by the authorities of Turkey’s young Republic in 1935 as a museum.

    The status of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, with a number of campaigns to open it for Muslim prayers being initiated, despite suggestions that this would be disrespectful to the building’s past as a church.

    Back in November 2013, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Ar?nç expressed his hope of seeing the Hagia Sophia be used as a mosque, already calling it the “Hagia Sophia Mosque” while speaking to reporters.

    “We currently stand next to the Hagia Sophia Mosque … we are looking at a sad Hagia Sophia, but hopefully we will see it smiling again soon,” Ar?nç said at the time in a speech during the opening ceremony of a new Carpet Museum, located adjacent to the ancient Hagia Sophia complex.

    First Quran recitation in 85 years

    On April 10, a Muslim cleric recited the Quran in the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years.

    A passage from the Quran was recited late on April 10 at a ceremony in the Hagia Sophia to mark the opening of a new exhibition “Love of the Prophet” on the occasion of the 2015 Holy Birth Week.

    It was read by Ali Tel, imam at the Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Mosque in Ankara.

    The ceremony was attended by top Turkish officials including the country’s top cleric, President Mehmet Görmez of the Directorate General for Religious Affairs (Diyanet).

    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/popes-remarks-to-accelerate-hagia-sophias-conversion-into-mosque.aspx?PageID=238&NID=81128&NewsCatID=338

  13. CHINA – Police Conduct Raids in Xinjiang a Year After Flag Burning at Mosque

    Authorities in a county in northwest China’s restive Xinjiang region have conducted raids of residents’ homes as they continued to search for suspects involved in a Chinese flag-burning incident at a mosque that occurred more than a year ago, local villagers and officials said.

    Police have detained hundreds of villagers and searched and confiscated abandoned houses where those involved in the incident could be hiding, they said

    Authorities began raiding the homes of the predominantly Turkic-speaking Muslim Uyghurs who live in Shayar (in Chinese, Shaya) county of Aksu (Akesu) prefecture this past January after three Uyghur youths burned a Chinese flag that was hoisted above an Islamic mosque in January 2014. Authorities had forced ethnic Uyghurs to bow to the flag when they came to worship, area residents said.

    “The government did wrong by raising the (Chinese) flag in mosques,” said one Shayar resident who declined to be identified. “It is unacceptable to everyone and to any group of Muslims anywhere in world. Of course, the people cannot say ‘no’ because this is the situation in our county, but the silence is not a sign of the acceptance of or our consent to the flag being raised in the mosque.”

    more on the page :
    http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/police-conduct-raids-in-shayar-county-04162015140703.html

  14. DAILY MAIL – Relatives of Boston Marathon bomber rant that terrorism conviction is a US conspiracy and want his defense team fired

    Three of the convicted bomber’s family members said they believe Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was the victim of a conspiracy
    An uncle said ‘American special services’ orchestrated the 2013 terrorist attack which left three dead and hundreds more wounded
    Tsarnaev was found guilty by a Boston jury on April 8 of all 30 counts – 17 of them carrying the death penalty
    The death penalty phase of his trial begins on April 21

    more on the page :

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3042168/Relatives-Boston-Marathon-bomber-rant-terrorism-conviction-conspiracy-want-defense-team-fired.html