Islamic antisemitism not even news anymore while the world remains in denial of it: Links 4 on March 13 – 2015

1. Growing Somali mall in Minneapolis now boasts one of the state’s largest mosques

Karmel Square prayer hall is part of a major expansion at Minnesota’s oldest Somali mall

Construction of the metro area’s newest mosque involved a shopping trip to the Middle East, some back-and-forth with the city of Minneapolis and a reported $3 million investment.

But developer Basim Sabri says setting out to build one of Minnesota’s largest mosques at his Karmel Square mall wasn’t a vanity project. Instead, the space — part of a major expansion at Karmel — was meant as a goodwill gesture to the local Somalis who rent and shop at the south Minneapolis mall.

The expansion has tested Sabri’s famously tense relationships with the city and the mall’s neighbors, who have voiced concerns over parking and traffic issues. Part of the construction collapsed in May, cutting off electricity to the neighborhood and briefly stalling the project.

Since it opened earlier this year, the mosque has gotten rave reviews from a growing cadre of worshipers, who cover the sun-filled, 5,000-square-foot prayer hall completely when they kneel at Friday prayer.

“This mosque is not about showing off,” said Sabri. “It’s about need.”

The new mosque replaces a prayer room on the second floor that could not handle the crowds; worshipers spilled out into the mall hallways and, during the holy month of Ramadan, even the mall parking lot.

(And, in an oddly related story…)

2. ISIS aggressively recruiting from Minnesota

3. Raw vid of the three British girls in Turkey on their way to join the IS

4. Saturday March 14 2015 – Germany – Wuppertal :

Around 400 Salafists are expected to rally in Wuppertal on Saturday, March 14, in an action called by German Salafist preachers Sven Lau and Ibrahim Abou-Nagie.
A group of at least 800 PEGIDA demonstrators are also rallying in the city on the same day

RT – Live stream – starts in 10 hours from now ( Saturday morning – EST time USA + CANADA = 8 o’clock in the morning )

5. 9 people murdered in ISIS’ latest execution video – Mainstream media ignores it

What is now about to happen is that execution videos from ISIS are getting so common that people are getting numb to seeing them. It is a terrible outcome, and gives ISIS reason to rejoice. When people no longer care, the resistance and outrage will no longer be strong. When disgust becomes indifference, then the jihadists wins, and they may continue the jihad without being in the media’s spotlight.

6. Two Jewish Teens Attacked in Southern France
marseille synagogue
A synagogue in Marseille via Wikimedia Commons

Two Jewish teens in France were robbed and beaten after leaving their Marseille synagogue.

The teens were attacked on Tuesday by two assailants who they described as youth “of African origin,” according to the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA.

According to the victims, the assailants said, “Dirty Jews, we will exterminate all of you,” before they were robbed and beaten. The Jewish teens required medical attention.

(Slightly more here)

7. Rebel Media article on Feminist’s total lack of support for Harper’s anti face-cloth initiative

8. UK: South Yorkshire Police ‘ignored Sheffield abuse claims’

(Video at site)

South Yorkshire Police knew hundreds of young girls were making claims of sexual abuse in Sheffield but did not act, an ex-police officer has alleged.

Documents and interviews with ex-officers suggested the force failed to pursue a number of child sexual exploitation (CSE) inquiries.

It also ignored intelligence that girls as young as 12 were being raped and assaulted, the officer told the BBC.

The force said CSE inquiries were complex and could take a long time.

Two former senior officers are being investigated by the police watchdog over their handling of CSE allegations in Sheffield.

(The article continues with a list of horrors)

9. Ebola patient brought to Maryland

Thank you M., CB Sashenka, Wrath of Khan, Richard, Don C. and many many more

I find it fascinating that reports of Jewish people being physically beaten and robbed with clear as day, antisemitic motivations has become so common that its barely news yet the Western world, at least officially, still seem to be in denial that its a problem. The cognitive dissonance of political correctness and denial of the dangers of Islam have truly created a through-the-looking-glass existence.

About Eeyore

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

28 Replies to “Islamic antisemitism not even news anymore while the world remains in denial of it: Links 4 on March 13 – 2015”

  1. 5/ That is exactly what is a happening, the death of one being a tragedy and of a million a statistic, nothing new and not newsworthy. Our media are culpable but it is also psychologically inevitable, as to make our awareness of these atrocities bearable we adjust to each freshly heightened level of horror. Similarly with Jews being attacked for being Jewish. A friend’s preferred image is of a tsunami we can see coming on monitors that no one else around us is watching, and that their utter obliviousness makes hard to believe in whenever we take our own eyes off the screen.

    • And what happened, to steer us from Kooky Karma to Kooky Koran?

      August Darnell left New York City for the Caribbean in 1980 to become Kid Creole, looking for Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places, finding Latin Music and Animal Crackers In the Jungle. ‘Kid Creole was to be the larger-than-life central figure in a multi-racial, multi-cultural musical carnival… The original Coconuts were a trio of glamorous (and often skimpily-attired) backing vocalists led by Darnell’s then (Swiss) wife Adriana “Addy” Kaegi… Andy Hernandez served as Darnell’s on-stage comic foil.’

      It became a bit of a Schweinerei after a time, though, that kooky karma coming back at you, and only confirmed what Darnell had intuited at the outset, that When You Leave New York, You Go – Nowhere.

      Dear Addy , I’m afraid
      I’ve lost more than I’ve gained
      Bewildered and ashamed
      I let her slip away

      Mariam’s family left Catholic and Anglican Trinidad for secular Edmonton and she became Mizz Habibi, convert to Islam (#4 two pages back, ‘Canadian Muslims Preach Patriarchy, Wife-Beating’) finding the meaning of life and love not in anything Canada offered but in Islam.

      The family brought baggage with it from Trinidad. At 7 Mariam learned her mother’s husband was not her biological father. She grew up so fast that day. It changed her life forever. What little innocence she had left she didn’t have any more. Why had her real father left her? Why hadn’t he loved her enough to stay? It made her a cold person, she turned herself off of love.

      Mariam heard the word Muslim on 9/11 and went to a bookstore and bought a Koran. Later a Moroccan man yelled at her for being an alcoholic. He was an angel. ‘You are my sister in Islam,’ he told her. ‘I am going to treat you as I would treat my sister.’

      She asked Allah for help and he made it so easy for her: she would open the Koran, start reading, it would speak to her. That was her miracle. What more proof did she need?

      Mariam had been lost, something was missing. Christianity left her empty. Then she broke away from her destructive life, and the destructive cycles of her mother and her grandmother’s lives passed on to her. She found life’s purpose, everything she was searching for she found. ’Because Islam isn’t a religion, it’s a way of life.’

      It took Mariam reading the Koran and converting to Islam to realize what a woman’s worth is. She discovered the beauty in wearing hijab. She came to know what her stature is, and how she should respect herself and love herself by covering. Hijab is the best decision she ever made.

      Now Mizz Habibi has brothers and sisters all around the world, this huge family (only she doesn’t like white people much). She feels whole. She feels free. She is able to see the blessings in everything. Everything that happens comes from god. So it is easy to be grateful for everything, the good and the bad. Everything she was lacking in her life she found through Islam.

      • Since anything can mean anything in a postmodern appreciation, I interpret Kid Creole’s 1982 ‘Welcome to the Lifeboat Party” as a spirited effort to deal with his terrible apprehension, even in the heady days of ’80s multiculturalism, that we had passed the stage of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, that the ship of Western Civilization had actually struck the iceberg some time ago and gone down. Those responsible for the disaster – everyone, us – cannot change, and it’s too late anyhow. The lucky ones know somebody and get invited into the lifeboat for the multicult’s final fling. None of them will be saved. But the tune is upbeat and everyone dances with great energy as the boat sinks.

        Welcome to the lifeboat party, child
        Invitation only for the rank and file

        Glad you wore your gabardine and pinstripes
        Ain’t no kind of jeans allowed
        Glad you brought a bottle and not your wife
        Animals are dangerous in crowds

        Welcome to the lifeboat party, child
        Invitation only for the rank and file

        Come on in and say hello to Charlie
        He’ll let you blow his saxophone
        Don’t linger in the doorway like Veronica Lake
        You should have left the wig at home

        Welcome to the lifeboat party, child
        Invitation only for the rank and file
        (You gotta know somebody)
        Welcome to the lifeboat party, child
        Celebration’s just for the rank and file

        Oh Monica’s been makin’ every man in sight
        But now she says enough is enough
        This party is in honor of the will to survive
        So Moni-girl you mustn’t give up

        Oh Welcome to the lifeboat party, child
        Invitation only for the rank and file
        Welcome to the lifeboat party, child
        Never givin’ up no way no how
        (You gotta know somebody)

  2. Hate crime! Hate crime! Wait a sec… Looks like it is just a black guy randomly shooting… Btw, where is CAIR now?

    Texas police rule out hate crime in killing of Iraqi migrant (BBC, March 13, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31877923

    “Police in Dallas, Texas, have arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of an Iraqi migrant, but have ruled out the possibility of a hate crime.

    Police say 17-year-old Nykerion Nealon shot Ahmed Al-Jumaili with an assault rifle on 5 March.

    Officials said the gunman was seeking revenge after someone shot at his girlfriend’s apartment.

    Al-Jumaili was shot in a parking lot while taking photos of snow falling – the first snowfall he had ever seen.

    Dallas Police Senior Corporal DeMarquis Black confirmed to the BBC that a hate crime had been ruled out, but that the investigation was ongoing.

    Police said that Nealon fired at least 15 shots from an assault rifle.

    The victim ran towards his apartment and collapsed in a breezeway after being struck. He died a day later at a local hospital.

    The teenager and three others were looking for people who had shot at his girlfriend’s apartment earlier in the night.

    Police have charged the teenager with murder, and are investigating whether gang activity was involved.

    CCTV footage from a neighbouring school was released days later and showed four people fleeing from the scene on foot. One person was brandishing a rifle.

    Police credit a witness who provided them with Nealon’s nickname for helping solve the crime.

    In a police interview, Nealon admitted to being at the crime scene, but blamed the shooting on another person who was present.

    “We don’t believe that he knew Mr Al-Jumaili. We don’t believe that he knew Mr Al-Jumaili’s ethnicity,” said Dallas Police Major Jeff Cotner told reporters at a news conference on Friday.

    The victim’s relatives say he fled violence in his native Iraq to reunite with his wife in Texas just three weeks before he was killed….”

    • Tribalism at its worst, the left in their goal of destroying the west have brought back tribalism and the growing tribal violence to the west.

  3. MPs criticise ‘chasm’ between FGM prosecutions and reports (BBC, March 14, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31883674

    “MPs have criticised the “chasm” between the number of reported cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the UK and the number of prosecutions.

    The UK has a “lamentable” record on FGM, and “someone, somewhere is not doing their job properly,” a report by the Home Affairs Committee said.

    There have been no successful prosecutions of people who perform FGM in the UK in the last 20 years.

    The government said it was bringing in civil orders to protect at risk girls.

    The committee described FGM as an “abominable practice” and a “horrendous form of child abuse”…..”

  4. The problem is that the average well-adjusted hard-working fully-engaged-in-life adult is literally too busy to have the time to study the nuances of world politics. What’s more important, taking an hour to share your baby son’s first words, or studying the Balfour Document. Instead, normal people put their trust in a thing called the “mainstream media” to keep them informed ,and more important, to sound a warning in those rare cases when things go right off the rails. That’s why the anchors on MSM news programs are so gosh darn trust-inducing and nice. Chris Gailus wouldn’t be trying to fool me. He doesn’t have it in him.

    Unfortunately, the mainstream media figured that out some years ago and has been working toward their apparent goal of world domination for some time now. Crazy? Who put the radical pot-head Barry Hussein Soetoro Obama in the White House without even checking his bloody ID? Who let Hillary Clinton abandon Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett at the Benghazi Alamo without as much as a how-do-you-do? Who let Huma Abedin put her Muslim Brotherhood-connected eyes on the most classified documents available to the office of the American Secretary of State, without so much as a peep? That’s right. Sarah Palin’s friends at the “Lamestream Media”, that’s who. They are a political party unto themselves now, and they’re definitely up to something…

    Canadians saw it happening on a small scale as the left-wingers at the CBC hired only other left-wingers, who in turn hired more left-wingers until the whole edifice became an anti-conservative Marxist playground. Well, the exact same thing seems to have happened to the entire world media – with the exception of Fox News, of course.

    As for ISIS and the beheadings, that old story is pretty much in the rearview mirror by now, I would think – there will always be crazy brown people in funny hats killing each other for no reason somewhere…right? Nothing to see here, folks. Time to get back to worrying about climate change.

    • This has happened in the Universities also, and conservative or Christian professors have to keep their political and religious thoughts quiet or end up unemployed. The left worked hard to take over the educational and Journalism industries so they could indoctrinate the kids while they are young and insure that only their viewpoints were reported as news. The internet is interfering with the goal of total domination of the news industry which is why the left is working so hard to see the worlds governments take control of the internet.

      • I suppose, from the left’s point of view, the internet will be the Battle of Midway. If they can succeed in establishing “hurt feelings” as the basis for legal action, or “extremism” or “hate”, they will get what they truly desire – a free hand to simply unplug any website that they don’t happen to agree with.

        And about the universities. They claim that what you say is not true, but I defy any young would-be professor to wear a Rush Limbaugh button on their lapel at the faculty lounge, and still expect to have any chance of not going to their grave as a teaching assistant…

        • You are right, if the left can’t take control of the net they are doomed in the long run.

          It would be interesting to see some wanna be professor wearing a Rush Limbaugh button, dangerous for the kid but interesting to watch.

  5. CIA Director Says ISIS Not Islamic, But ‘Psychopathic’

    “We need to expose just how murderous and psychopathic these individuals are”

    CIA Director John Brennan has defended the White House’s efforts to avoid using the word “Islamic” to describe extremist terror groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).

    At a question and answer session at the Center for Foreign Relations in New York City on Friday, Brennan said using “Islamic” or “Muslim” to describe ISIS militants gives them “the type of Islamic legitimacy that they are so desperately seeking, but which they don’t deserve at all.”

    http://time.com/3744801/cia-director-john-brennan-isis-muslims-islam/

    video on this page :

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/cia-director-isis-not-islamic-theyre-psychopathic-thugs/

  6. Eeyore your take on the way the media is ignoring the attacks on Jews is correct, the LSM has decided that those attacks aren’t news and are not reporting them, thus allowing Jew Hatred to grow and become much more malign ate. Your advice in a different thread about how the Jews need to join the groups fighting the Moslem conquest is proven necessary by the lack of reporting of the attacks.

  7. REUTERS – Canada PM’s anti-Islam talk is a Putin-like tactic: opposition

    (Reuters) – A Canadian opposition leader on Friday compared Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s handling of Islam to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on gays, ratcheting up political rhetoric over the religion as Harper’s ruling Conservatives seek re-election in October.

    Harper said this week that the niqab, a face-covering veil worn by some Muslims, was “rooted in an anti-women culture” as he defended the government’s desire to ban women from wearing a niqab during the oath of citizenship.

    While Canadians and Harper himself typically celebrate multiculturalism, the sudden furor over wearing the niqab comes as Harper’s Conservatives warn Canadians they are under threat from “jihadist terrorism,” a threat best met by new tougher security legislation Harper will campaign on.

    Thomas Mulcair, leader of the left-of-center opposition New Democratic Party, on Friday told Ottawa radio station CFRA that Harper was pandering to Islamophobia.

    “It’s not dissimilar to what we see with the president of Russia, who uses a minority there, the lesbian, gay, bisexual community … and he goes after them with great relish because he knows that it’s going to resonate with a part of the population,” Mulcair said.

    Harper spokesman Rob Nicol said Mulcair was fearmongering.

    “The comparison to Putin is absurd. No Western leader has stood up to Putin’s regime and called him out as strongly as Prime Minister Harper and our Conservative government,” Nicol said.

    The government, on heightened alert after two attacks last year on Canadian soldiers in Ottawa and Quebec by Canadian converts to Islam, in January introduced legislation that would allow Canada’s spies to interrupt suspected terrorists’ travel plans and communications.

    But the political debate over the bill, broadly condemned by pundits as unnecessary but supported by skittish Canadians, has shifted from security to the place of Muslims in Canadian society, with the niqab as a Conservative vote-winning target.

    Amira Elghawaby, human rights coordinator at the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said she was very concerned with how Islam was being discussed.

    “It is extremely important to weigh our words carefully and to be sure that when we’re talking about violent extremism and criminal behavior, that we do so without alienating, marginalizing and casting this pall of suspicion over the more than 1 million Canadian Muslims,” she said.

    The opposition Liberals and New Democrats, both to the left of Harper politically, said Canadian women do not need to consult the prime minister on their clothing choices.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/13/us-canada-politics-idUSKBN0M92AD20150313

    NDP Thomas Mulcair Message to Canadian 1.2 Million Muslims

    • The Toronto burqa murder: The true story everyone who thinks the niqab is optional needs to read

      When her baby got a heart transplant at Toronto’s Sick Children’s Hospital, Bano Shahdady threw away her burqa.

      At twenty years old, after years of religious training, she also decided to return to public high school. With help from her son’s doctors and a social worker, she arranged to rent an apartment to leave her parents and husband.

      It was there, two weeks after she moved in, that police found her strangled to death, her son left alone with the body for 15 hours, murdered by a man hiding his identity behind a burqa.

      On Wednesday, the husband Abdul Malik Rustam was sentenced to life in prison for the murder with no chance of parole for 17 years.

      “A woman has an absolute right to end any relationship,” Judge John McMahon of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice told the court. He said that Rustam planned the attack, disguised himself in a burqa to gain access to the apartment, and justified his actions to police. The judge also said that the victim’s father forgave Rustam and pleaded for mercy in court on his behalf, without once mentioning the loss of his daughter.

      The facts, as the judge outlined them, pointed to an “honour killing,” a crime distinct from other murders because its motive is to cleanse perceived family dishonour caused by a wife’s or daughter’s behaviour.

      http://www.therebel.media/the_toronto_burka_murder

  8. CANADA – CBC RADIO – Quebec officials accused of enforcing a de facto mosque moratorium

    n recent months at least four mosques in the Montreal area and beyond have been shut down, slated for closure or prevented from opening. Haroun Bouazzi, co-president of the Association of Muslims and Arabs for a Secular Quebec, says authorities are actively trying to shut down existing mosques and stop new mosques from opening. He says they are using zoning laws to do it.

    10 min 54 audio link on the page :

    http://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-224-isis-war-on-history-nazi-royals-mcdonalds-in-decline-and-more-1.2990417/quebec-officials-accused-of-enforcing-a-de-facto-mosque-moratorium-1.2994039

  9. NYT –C.I.A. Funds Found Their Way Into Al Qaeda Coffers

    […]While refusing to pay ransoms for Americans kidnapped by Al Qaeda, the Taliban or, more recently, the Islamic State, the United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars over the last decade at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of which has been siphoned off to enemy fighters.

    […]Details of the C.I.A.’s previously unreported contribution to the ransom demanded by Al Qaeda were drawn from the letters and from interviews with Afghan and Western officials speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The C.I.A. declined to comment.

    […]The C.I.A., meanwhile, continued dropping off bags of cash — ranging each time from a few hundred thousand dollars to more than $1 million — at the presidential palace every month until last year, when President Hamid Karzai stepped down.

    The money was used to buy the loyalty of warlords, legislators and other prominent — and potentially troublesome — Afghans, helping the palace finance a vast patronage network that secured Mr. Karzai’s power base. It was also used to cover expenses that needed to be kept off the books, such as clandestine diplomatic trips, and for more mundane costs, including rent payments for the guesthouses where some senior officials lived.

    The cash flow has slowed since a new president, Ashraf Ghani, assumed office in September, Afghan officials said, refusing to elaborate. But they added that cash was still coming in, and that it was not clear how robust any current American constraints on it are.

    “It’s cash,” said a former Afghan security official. “Once it’s at the palace, they can’t do a thing about how it gets spent.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/world/asia/cia-funds-found-their-way-into-al-qaeda-coffers.html

  10. State Dept: Hillary Clinton Was Never Issued Govt Phone, Only Used Personal Device

  11. TURKEY – SYRIA – ISIS Girls Helper Mohammad Al Rashed Claims Canadian Connection

  12. perfect timing !!!!

    ROME – ITALY – Pope Francis’s announcement of an extraordinary jubilee is great news for Italy’s economy

    On the second anniversary of his election, pope Francis has just promulgated a universal extraordinary jubilee: beginning Dec. 8 (the day when Catholics celebrate the Immaculate conception), the “holy” doors of St. Peter’s in Rome will be opened to welcome repenting devotees and grant them God’s pardon.

    The Jubilee, the “Holy Year,” explains the Vatican Insider:

    is the year of the remission of sins and of suffering from sin, of reconciliation, of conversion and of sacramental penance.

    The Jubilee is an institution Christianity shares with Judaism, and has its roots in the Old Testament.

    In practical terms, the Jubilee is a year during which a devotee performs a pilgrimage to a sacred site to obtain pardon of all sins. For Catholics, that sacred site happens to be the Vatican.

    While the sacred texts set the frequency of the Jubilee to every 50 years, it is often indicted every 25: it’s been the 20th century, when ordinary jubilees occurred in 1925, 1950, 1975, and 2000. There are, however, exceptional circumstances when a so-called “extraordinary” Jubilee happens—this year would be one of them (there were two last century, in 1933 and 1983).

    This should be cause for celebration for Italians of any religion: last jubilee, in 2000, recorded an unprecedented tourism BOOM in Italy, with a total 221.7 million rooms booked in Italian hotels, an increase of nearly 5% compared to the previous year, and an overall 22% increase in income from tourism (link in Italian), which accounts for about 10% of Italy’s GDP.

    In the city of Rome, particularly, there were over 30% more tourists staying at five-star hotels compared to the previous year, and an impressive flow of visitors from Catholic countries such as Ireland (35% more visitors than 1999) and Poland (72% increase, link in Italian).

    If those numbers are anything to go by, Italy—likely to benefit from an increased number of tourists generated by a cheaper euro as well as by the world Expo opening in May in Milan—should really thank the lord, or at least her man in Rome.

    qz ( ) com/362337/pope-franciss-announcement-of-an-extraordinary-jubilee-is-the-best-news-for-italys-economy/
    ==========================================
    Jubilee 2015: Pope Francis announces extraordinary Holy Year of a Mercy for sinners

    Pope Francis marked the second anniversary of his election announcing a special Jubilee Year to start in December.

    The move comes as a surprise as there have been only 26 Holy Years in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

    Francis made the announcement while celebrating a penitential liturgy during a late Friday mass at Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica.

    He said the extraordinary Jubilee Year will start on 8 December and help the Church focus on its main priorities: forgiveness and mercy. It will end on 20 November 2016.

    The starting date is of particular significance as it marks both celebrations for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council.

    “Dear brothers and sisters, I have often thought about how the Church could make its mission of being a witness of mercy clearer,” Francis said. “It is a journey that begins with spiritual conversion, thus I have decided to call an extraordinary Jubilee focused on God’s mercy.”

    Jubilee years are important to the faithful as they allow them to receive special indulgences, the highest form of forgiveness.

    In the past worshippers travelled from all over the world to participate in one of a limited number of events where indulgences were granted.

    Indulgences grant a full pardon from the temporal punishment for sins that have already been forgiven in confession. That translates as a shorter penance for the faithful to atone or a shorter time his soul will have to spend in purgatory.

    The first Jubilee was called with such purpose by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300. Holy Years were initially to be held once every century, but the term was later shortened to 25 years.

    Jubilees falling on those years are known as “ordinary” as opposed to the “extraordinary” ones that are called by a pontiff for some special occasion.

    The last ordinary Jubilee, known as the “Great Jubilee” was held under St. John Paul II in 2000 to mark the start of the third millennium, while the last pope to call an extraordinary Holy Year was Pius XI in 1933.

    Announcing the new Jubilee, Francis said his intention was to keep the church’s doors open not to exclude anyone from God’s mercy.

    “The bigger the sin, the greater must be the love that the church shows to those who convert,” he said.

    www( ) ibtimes( ) co( ) uk/jubilee-2015-pope-francis-announces-extraordinary-holy-year-mercy-sinners-1491862

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

    Vatican security chief says ISIS threat to pope is real

    ROME — While acknowledging that ISIS represents a real threat to Pope Francis and the Vatican, the commander of the Vatican gendarmes says security services have no knowledge of a planned attack.

    “The threat exists. This is what has emerged from my conversations with Italian and foreign colleagues,” said Domenico Giani, inspector general of the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the police and security service for the Vatican City State.

    “At the moment, I can say that we know of no plan for an attack against the Vatican or the Holy Father,” Giani said.

    The comments came in an interview with Giani in the March edition of the Italian magazine Polizia Moderna, an official publication of Italy’s state police.

    The Italian government went on high alert last week after threats from the Islamic State called Italy “the nation signed with the blood of the cross.”

    The video threat, released with images of 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt who were beheaded this month, warned that Islamic State forces were “south of Rome,” in Libya. At its closest point, Libya is little more than 100 miles from the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

    This comes four months after the Islamic State’s propaganda magazine Dabiq ran a cover photo of the militant group’s flag flying above the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican with the headline: “The failed crusade.”

    In the interview, Giani also said that the collaboration between the Vatican and Muslim countries around the world is good, and that these sources give him “valuable information” on ISIS.

    Muslim countries also send “declarations of esteem and admiration for the Holy Father,” Giani said. “I can say that today, Islam regards and respects the Holy Father as the world’s most influential moral authority.”

    Referring to the pope’s attitude regarding the threats against him, Giani said that Francis has no intention of changing the style of his pontificate, which he said is founded on proximity between the pope and the people.

    “Even as pope,” Giani said, “he’s still a priest who doesn’t want to lose the contact with his flock. It’s us, those in charge of his safety, are the ones that have to help him, not the other way around.”

    Francis’ lack of concern for his safety is not new.

    While serving as the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2009, the Argentinian government once asked Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to wear a bulletproof vest in response to anonymous reports that a local union leader was planning the prelate’s assassination.

    Considering it uncomfortable, and preferring to trust in God’s protection, the future pope wore it only once and then gave it to a friend.

    The pope has referred to his own safety on various occasions, most recently during the plane ride from Sri Lanka to the Philippines last January, when he told the journalists traveling with him that he has a “healthy dose of obliviousness” about his own safety.

    As for the safety of the faithful who attend one of his events, the pontiff said, “I worry about it, truly.”

    Giani said the pope is well aware of the threat he faces, but is mostly concerned for the faithful.

    “The Vatican is a place tens of thousands of people pass through every day, between visits to the Basilica, the Museums, and the Audiences. They need to feel relaxed and safe,” Giani said.

    Talking about the most dangerous moment of his 16 years serving the Vatican’s gendarmerie, nine of which as a commandeer, Giani pointed to the period after a speech by Benedict XVI in Regensburg, Germany, in December 2006.

    “[It was] an intervention that reread today seems prophetic for the denunciation of the degradation of some extremist Islam, which [back] then generated protests and very strong threats against the pope,” he said.

    In Regensburg, Benedict XVI quoted an obscure 14th-century dialogue between a long-forgotten Byzantine Christian emperor and a Persian scholar, in which the emperor associates Muhammad with violence.

    Giani also said that the 130 police officers who safeguard the Vatican aren’t enough.

    “Given the risks that we face, there should be more of us,” he said. But, he added, there are budget constraints and an austerity plan in the Vatican.

    When questioned about the profiles of a candidate for the male-only position of Vatican Gendarme, Giani mentioned being Catholic and loving the Church, standing at least 5’8”, and being a high school graduate. Having served in the military isn’t required, Giani said, but is an advantage.

    www ( ) cruxnow ( )com/church/2015/03/02/vatican-security-chief-says-isis-threat-to-pope-is-real/

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    Rome on high alert with Islamic State just 300 miles from Italy

    About 500 extra troops have been stationed around historic sites in Rome after ISIS made threats against the city last week.

    Italy, which is just 300-miles from jihadi-controlled territory in Libya, was referred to by the terrorists as “the nation signed with the blood of the cross” in a recent video.

    ISIS has made repeated references to conquering Rome in its various messages, although there is some debate about whether “Rome” in fact refers to a symbolic enemy, or perhaps Turkey or the United States. However, according to USA Today, security has been increased in the city.

    In its video last week of the murder of 21 Coptic Christians , ISIS warned that they were “south of Rome”. The Islamist organisation now controls Benghazi, Libya’s second city, as the country has descended into civil war following the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011.

    It has threatened to flood Europe with 500,000 refugees and so destabilise the continent.

    www ( ) catholicherald ( ) co ( ) uk/news/2015/02/23/extra-troops-posted-in-rome-after-isis-threat/

  13. UK – BIRMINGHAM – ‘Kill Islam before it kills you’: Bigoted yobs strike again

    Two new vile messages appeared today

    Sick hate preachers have once again scrawled Islamophobic graffiti on Birmingham’s campus.

    Despite hopes the vandals striking on two separate occassions earlier this term were isolated incidents, more vile works have been sprayed onto both the walls of the Guild this morning and an electricity box near the sports pitches.

    One message said: “Islam must die”, imitating the same graffiti seen earlier this year.

    The message on the metal electricity box read: “Kill Islam before it kills you”, the same words used in the toilets of the Arts building.

    Simply reading ‘Islam must die’, the hateful messages were quickly removed by uni authorities.

    These disgusting acts come a day after the university held an open lecture entitled ‘Is There Islamophobia?’, led by the University’s Anglican chaplain.

    Unlike the previous occurance, this graffiti is directly in the line of sight of one of the guild’s CCTV cameras.

    If you have any information related to the graffiti please contact the West Midlands Police.

    http://birmingham.tab.co.uk/2015/03/14/kill-islam-before-it-kills-you-bigoted-yobs-strike-again/