Reader’s links for April 21 – 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

72 Replies to “Reader’s links for April 21 – 2015”

  1. Car Bomb Explodes Outside Restaurant in Somali Capital (abcnews, Apr 21, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/car-bomb-explodes-restaurant-somali-capital-30466015

    “A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in Somalia’s capital on Tuesday, causing an unknown number of casualties, police said.

    Security forces are responding to the attack but there is no immediate confirmation of the number of those killed or wounded in the latest attack in Mogadishu, said police officer Mohamed Abdi. He said the car with the bomb was parked near Somalia’s presidential palace.

    No group has yet claimed of responsibility for the attack, but it bears the hallmarks of the Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which frequently carries out attacks in Mogadishu and throughout Somalia.

    At least seven people were killed Monday when a bomb planted in a U.N. van exploded in the northern area of Puntland, a semiautonomous region that is normally peaceful.

    Al-Shabab, which is allied to al-Qaida, appears to be stepping up attacks in Somalia and across borders even as it loses ground inside Somalia.

    Despite losing some of its top leaders in U.S. air strikes and being pushed by African Union forces out of the capital, Mogadishu, and into rural regions mostly in southern Somalia, al-Shabab is still able to carry out deadly bombings against the seat of government and public places seen as popular with foreigners.

    The extremists have also attacked neighboring Kenya, which has sent troops to Somalia to fight the insurgents. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack earlier this month at Garissa University College in eastern Kenya in which at least 148 people, most of them students, were killed.”

    • It’s about time. Pay for your own “militarism”.

      Beware 5th column. We’ll all be watching their operations for “excessive civilian casualties.” Muzzle the BBC. Prepare for massive riots.

      • …. well , the same happens here with my browser but once I get the title of the video I usually manage to find it on youtube….

        … the video on the Daily Mail page is this one :

        • You do it so quickly!
          My hands don’t work well so I’m typing with one finger. Usually hitting the wrong key.

  2. What the latest ISIS Christian massacre video means

    Brian Lilley explains the religious undertones of the video and what they mean.

        • Operation ‘Decisive Storm’ in Yemen has ended, new phase under way – Saudi-led forces

          The Saudi-led military coalition has completed operation “Decisive Storm” against Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen, a statement by Saudi military command cited by local media, says.

          All goals set by the “Decisive Storm” have been achieved, according to Arabiya TV. The anti-Houthi campaign is now switching into a new phase, code-named “Restoring Hope”, the statement says.

          http://rt.com/news/251777-yemen-operation-end-saudi/

          ======================================

          http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/04/21/Coalition-announces-Op-Restoration-of-Hope-in-Yemen-.html

          • Iran ‘Optimistic’ About Possible Halt Of Yemen Operation

            Iran has been calling for an end to the Saudi led “Decisive Storm” military campaign against the Houthis, a key issue for the Shiite majority country.

            Iranian Deputy FM Hossein Amir Abdolahian said Tuesday that his country is optimistic about a possible halt of the military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen.

            “As a result of diplomatic efforts, we are optimistic about a halt of the Saudi-led military operation in the upcoming hours in Yemen,” Abdolahian said, according to a number of Iranian news agencies.

            Iran has been calling for an end to the “Decisive Storm” military campaign against the Houthis, a key issue for the Shiite-majority country. A number of Gulf countries accuse Iran of supporting the insurgency.

            Saudi Arabia has been leading an air campaign against Houthi positions in Yemen since March 25.

            http://en.haberler.com/iran-optimistic-about-possible-halt-of-yemen-708273/

    • If this happens Obama has drawn down the US military to the point we would be unable to provide anything besides air cover for Saudi, and less of that then we did on other occasions.

        • Everyone is saying Obama is supporting Saudi but what if he is planning or ordering our planes to protect the convoy from the coalition aircraft? He has supported Iran a lot lately so that is possibility.

          • Maybe he’s taken a cue from his Turk boyfriend.

            When Erdogan – together with U.S. Jew-haters – sent the Mavi Marmara to arm terrorists during a war against Hamas in Gaza, the IDF boarded and stopped it. Casualties on both sides lavishly documented by complicit journalists made this the diplomatic brouhaha the enemy had envisioned.

            Israel was cast as the villain, Obama made Bibi grovel to the Turk, and demonstrations all over the world demonized Israel. Reparations [!] claims became astronomical, Erdogan kept escalating, and the issue was never resolved.

            By the way – it proved the ideal opportunity for the Turk to blow the cover on all the intelligence operatives involved with Israeli-Turkish joint security going back years. No doubt there were significant casualties, but those weren’t covered by the media.

            • Could be, in a war like we are fighting the question isn’t are you paranoid it is are you paranoid enough to survive. After all almost nothing that is happening is what it seems, it is usually much worse.

  3. This is the case against Obama’s Iran deal that everyone should hear

    The case for the Iran nuclear deal, which the US and other world powers are currently negotiating, is pretty straightforward. The deal would significantly reduce and heavily monitor Iran’s nuclear program, making it much more difficult for the country to ever build a nuclear bomb (Iran gets relief from economic sanctions in return). And, in the most optimistic reading, it could be the beginning of the end of decades of Iranian hostility and isolation.

    The case against the Iran deal may not be as obvious, and in many ways has been obscured by the antics of people like Sen. Tom Cotton. To understand it, I spoke to Michael Doran, who oversaw Middle East policy on George W. Bush’s National Security Council from 2005 to 2007 and is currently a scholar at the Hudson Institute.

    http://www.vox.com/2015/4/20/8453267/iran-deal-case-against

    • There are a lot we don’t know about, ones that will be able to continue the building of nuclear weapons no matter who bombs Iran. Because of this the only way to stop Iran is a 24/7 bombing campaign for 1 or more months that destroy every military facility and every factory in Iran, this will prevent the production of and delivery of nuclear weapons for years if not a full decade.

        • Given the way Obama has allowed them to delay the negotiations they probably have several working nuclear devices and are waiting for what they consider to be the best time to use them.

  4. Egypt’s ex-president Morsi sentenced to 20 years in prison

    This is the first verdict issued against Mohamed Morsi since his ouster in summer 2013

    Egypt’s ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for inciting violence that led to the death of ten people during clashes outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012.

    Fourteen other defendants, including Muslim Brotherhood leading figures Mohamed El-Beltagy and Essam El-Erian, and ex-presidential aides, also received twenty-year sentences on the same charge. Ali Gamal Saber and Abdel-Hakim Abdel-Rahman received ten-year sentences.

    […]Morsi still faces four other trials: over charges of “collaborating with foreign organisations to commit acts of terrorism in Egypt,” leaking documents to Qatar, breaking out of prison in 2011, and insulting the judiciary during one of the trials, according to one of his defence lawyers Montaser El-Zayat.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/128224/Egypt/Politics-/UPDATED-Egypts-expresident-Morsi-sentenced-to–yea.aspx

    ============================================================
    Mursi sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole

    • US `concerned` by sentencing of Egypt`s Morsi

      Washington: The United States expressed its concern on Tuesday after an Egyptian court sentenced Islamist former president Mohamed Morsi and 14 of his supporters to hefty jail terms.

      State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Washington would “review the basis” for the court`s decision to imprison Morsi for 12 years and was “concerned by these sentences.”

      “All Egyptians are entitled to equal and fair treatment before the law,” she added.

      http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/us-concerned-by-sentencing-of-egypts-morsi-14-more_1582634.html

          • As I have said before Treason can only be charged in a declared war, however giving aid and comfort to the enemy in time of conflict has the same penalty and not near the number of legal hoops to jump through. Although I don’t think they would give him the death penalty unless we are nuked and he did nothing.

            • In the event of a civil war, he had better make himself mighty scarce.

              Together with his whoring Secret Service goons.

  5. April 21 2015 – Syrian rebels vs muslim terrorists in Barzeh Syria – ( graphic )

  6. IS video – narrated in English – Stories from the land of the living – The story of Abu Khaled – Al Cambodi from Australia –

  7. Algeria – newly erected statue of famous imam removed by the authorities during the night –

    Brother of Ibn Badis asked authorities to remove the statue

    Until Saturday, the statue of Sheikh Abdelhamid Ben Badis still made the movement and even congestion, in the center of Constantine (eastern Algeria), where curious and catchers of the statue image which was brought from Portugal, at the time Ibn Badis family revolted, including his younger brother Abdelhak, 95, and the daughter of his brother, who is member of the National Assembly, Ms. Fouzia Ben Badis, and his grandchildren of his brothers, who asked stopping of what they called the farce and abuse against the image of Sheikh Abdelhamid Ben Badis.

    On the sidelines of the forum of Ben Badis, which was held on Saturday evening in Hussein Hotel, in the new city, Ali Menjli, in Constantine, where Echorouk asked Sheikh Abdelhak, Abdelhamid’s younger brother, who was left by his brother at the age of twenty years, and he considered what was done by the authorities as a misplaced diligence and should correct the error through uprooting the statue from its place, and refused to go into the doctrinal event, but the daughter of his brother, Senator Fouzia, officially asked from the governor of Constantine to remove the statue, not for religious reasons but because the statue does not resemble at all the Sheikh, both in the wrinkles of his face or in his eyes, especially the huge shoes, making the Sheikh through his statue, a mockery of young people and children who have turned the pictures in social network to jokes, at the time his grandson, Abdessalam, shouted angrily: “Allah gives blindness for the person who carved the statue.”
    Echorouk also called, on Sunday, the President of Sheikh Ben Badis Foundation, Dr. Abdelaziz Filali, and he said that the institution had already asked for the establishment of a statue of Sheikh Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, but should be made with bronze and big, but the it retrieved after that, when it learned that Sheikh Abdelhamid Ibn Badis had opinions and writings about the shrines and statues that are glorifying icons of the nation, as he absolutely rejected this and considered it a first-pagan, and encroachment against him and Islam as well.

    http://www.echoroukonline.com/ara/articles/240372.html

    • Better trash it now than wait for the tender mercies of the boys from IS.
      (The big feet were surely meant to be flattering to the old guy.)

  8. Gerard Bodigoff makes his first visit to Turkey and the land of his ancestors. Like many descendants of Armenians killed in the Ottoman massacres of 1915, Bodigoff is visiting in what he describes as a duty to mark the centenary.

  9. Bill Clinton – “ISIS is the most interesting NGO today “

    “Arguably the most interesting non-governmental organzation today, which proves the importance of inclusion by its short-comings but is formidable, is ISIS,” said Clinton.

    “ISIS is a terrorist organization, an NGO, trying to become a state. That is, they don’t recognize any of the boundaries of the Middle Eastern countries as legitimate. They were all established, drawn largely by Westerners after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. And so when they go capture a place, they set up their own judicial system[…]

  10. DAILY MAIL – ‘Halal’ sex shop set to open… in MECCA: ‘Sensual aids’ will be available to buy in Islam’s holiest city for the first time

    The shop in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, will stock ‘Islamically approved’ products
    Set to be opened by Moroccan owner of a Dutch sex shop called El Asira
    Abdelaziz Aouragh claims that a Saudi cleric has approved the proposal

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3049067/Halal-sex-shop-set-open-MECCA-Sensual-aids-available-buy-Islam-s-holiest-city-time.html

  11. Saudi Arabia: Man dressed as female molests women in mosque

    Dubai , April 20:

    A man in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Makkah has been arrested for allegedly molesting women at a mosque while being dressed as a female.

    The man, in his 30s and yet to be identified, was arrested by authorities following a complaint that a woman sometimes used to enter the bathroom of Jaarana Mosque and behave oddly.

    It was alleged that the ‘woman’ sexually harassed other women during the ablutions preceding the prayers, the Gulf News reported.

    The authorities started monitoring the mosque until they saw a woman, who was behaving suspiciously, leave the building. They tracked her movement and saw her heading towards a car with tinted windows parked near the mosque and got in to the back.

    No male driver was found in the car, the report said.

    The team quickly approached the car and saw a man taking off the ‘abaya’ – a loose garment worn by Muslim women in some parts of the world, prompting them to arrest him and seize the garment, it said.

    http://www.siasat.com/english/news/saudi-arabia-man-dressed-female-molests-women-mosque

    • According to my reading of Wiki, this crime would fall under the category of Tazir, a crime for which punishment is not specified in the Qur’an or Hadith, and therefore left to the discretion of the judge. (As opposed to hudud, where penalties are fixed for specific violations of Sharia, such as decapitation for apostasy.)

      “Ta’zir developed in the early Islamic empire of the Umayyads (A.D. 661-750). The objectives of the punishment was to discourage repetition of the crime. This was accomplished by varying the punishment to fit the circumstances of the convicted party…”

      Defining the appropriate sentence for this crime would challenge the scholars of Al Azhar!

      Perhaps the ingenious readers readers here could offer suggestions?

      Tazir
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tazir Modified on 19 January 2015.

  12. Washington denies Turkish FM’s claims of Obama’s mosque opening plan

    The United States has denied a claim by Turkey’s foreign minister that US President Barack Obama had agreed to participate in a joint ceremony to open a Turkish-American cultural complex that would house a mosque.

    A senior US administration official said on condition of anonymity that the opening of a mosque is not on Obama’s travel schedule or among his engagements. On Sunday Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu cited a telephone conversation between Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Obama, who reportedly said “yes” in principle when Erdogan invited him to open the mosque in Maryland. Cavusoglu was speaking at the site of the cultural complex.

    This is not the first time Washington has denied reported quotes from phone conversations between Erdogan and Obama. Last year, Erdogan attributed a sentence to Obama that prompted a White House denial.

    Cavusoglu is visiting Washington at the invitation of his US counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry, just days before an anticipated statement by Obama to commemorate the mass killing of Armenians in eastern Turkey in 1915. He was also scheduled to meet with Kerry on Tuesday evening. Only Turkish state-run and pro-government media outlets were allowed to cover his events in the US capital, part of Ankara’s practice of banning media that are critical of the administration from covering government events.

    Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu also reported that Cavusoglu will meet with National Security Adviser Susan Rice. The US official also denied this. “No meetings to announce,” the official said.

    http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_washington-denies-turkish-fms-claims-of-obamas-mosque-opening-plan_378518.html

  13. UNESCO resolution defines al-Aqsa Mosque as entire complex, calls on Israel to stop demolitions

    The foreign affairs committee at UNESCO’s executive board on Monday adopted a resolution submitted by Jordan and Palestine that reaffirms the definition of Al Aqsa Mosque as the entire sacred complex surrounding it.

    The resolution, supported by the Arab and Muslim group, confirms that Bab Al Magharbeh, the largest entrance for non-Muslim visitors to Al Aqsa Mosque complex, is an indivisible part of Al Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest shrine, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

    Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Sabah Al Rafie told Petra the resolution requires that Israel, as an occupation force, commit to international decisions and UNESCO resolutions related to the heritage of the Old City in Jerusalem and its walls, which has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1981 and on the World Heritage in Danger list since 1982.

    The resolution also calls on Israel to cease all excavation work and demolitions within the Old City, and urges it to end all violations that exacerbate tension and conflict among the followers of various faiths.

    The UNESCO committee also called for an immediate stop to all actions impeding 19 projects implemented under the Hashemite rehabilitation projects of Al Aqsa Mosque.

    Israel is also required to reopen the Bab Al Rahma gate of the mosque, put a stop to actions disrupting reconstruction work at the site and take the necessary measures to ensure the implementation of the Jordanian design for the reconstruction of the road to Bab Al Magharbeh.

    The UNESCO committee thanked Jordan for its cooperation, according to Rafie, who added that the Kingdom’s representative at UNESCO, Makram Qaisi, said at the meeting that Jerusalem is among Jordan’s priorities within the framework of the Hashemite custodianship.

    The resolution also urged Israel to end the forced entry of Jewish extremists and armed military personnel to Al Aqsa courtyards and their assaults on Jordanian awqaf department personnel in Al Haram Al Sharif.

    Moreover, it called for stopping the transformation of various buildings at the site into synagogues, and criticised decisions to change the historical names of dozens of streets and archaeological sites into Jewish names.

    The committee demanded that Israel refrain from hindering Muslims’ and Christians’ access to their places of worship and urged Tel Aviv to stop working on over 100 excavation sites implemented by settler societies with the aim of imposing a Jewish identity on unearthed Islamic or Christian artefacts.

    http://www.albawaba.com/news/unesco-resolution-defines-al-aqsa-mosque-entire-complex-calls-israel-stop-demolitions-684912