Reader’s links for April 25 – 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

40 Replies to “Reader’s links for April 25 – 2015”

  1. Commando style…

    Pakistani activist Sabeen Mehmud shot dead in Karachi (BBC, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32452760

    “A leading Pakistani human rights activist has been killed in a drive-by shooting in Karachi after hosting a talk on allegations of torture in the province of Balochistan.

    Sabeen Mehmud was shot dead as she drove home with her mother, who was also attacked.

    Ms Mehmud had been the subject of death threats before.

    Tributes were paid to her on social media as soon as news of her death emerged.

    Ms Mehmud was a director of the charity The Second Floor, also known as T2F.

    T2F regularly holds seminars on human rights issues. It houses a cafe and book shop where Karachi’s liberal activists and students can meet.

    The seminar on torture in Balochistan was held at T2F, having been cancelled by university authorities in Lahore, where it had been due to take place in the last few weeks.

    Taliban militants, Baloch separatists and other groups fight in Balochistan, which borders Iran.

    Shortly after leaving the event, Ms Mehmud and her mother were shot. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that Ms Mehmud died on her way to hospital, and that she had been shot five times.

    Dawn reported that her mother is in a critical condition in hospital….”

  2. Somalia’s al-Shabab kills man for ‘insulting prophet’ (BBC, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32452284

    “The Somali Islamist movement al-Shabab has for the first time publicly killed a man for “insulting the prophet Muhammed”, witnesses have told the BBC.

    Crowds watched as the man was shot by a firing squad in the southern town of Jamame in the Lower Juba region.

    A BBC Somali service repoter says al-Shabab have previously killed people accused of spying or apostasy.

    Last month al-Shabab carried out an attack on Garissa College in neighbouring Kenya, killing 148 people.

    The Islamist group controls large swathes of rural Somalia.

    Witnesses say that the man was shot by firing squad after he pleaded guilty in a Sharia court trial….”

  3. ‘Al-Shabab’ abducts and kills Kenyan chief near Mandera (BBC, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32446943

    “Suspected al-Shabab militants have abducted and killed a traditional chief in northern Kenya, a local elder says.

    Chief Muktar Otieno was seized early on Thursday morning on the road to Mandera town, close to the border between Kenya and Somalia.

    Assistant chief Abdinoor Dakane told the BBC that Mr Otieno was tied to a tree and shot dead by the militants, after locals failed to pay a ransom.

    Al-Shabab has staged a series of attacks in Kenya in recent years.

    Kenyan troops are part of the African Union mission battling the Islamist militants in Somalia.

    Al-Shabab has not yet commented on Mr Otieno’s killing.”

  4. Migrants killed by train on Macedonia railway track (BBC, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32445926

    “At least 14 migrants were killed when they were hit by a train on a well-trodden route across Macedonia to Western Europe, according to police.

    The accident happened at a remote location near the central Macedonian city of Veles on Thursday night.

    Local media said migrants often used the rail track as a guide while heading north after landing in Greece.

    EU leaders have agreed plans to curb an influx of migrants as many cross the Mediterranean aboard overcrowded boats.

    They held a summit in Brussels on Thursday after more than 750 people died on a boat crossing to Italy from Libya on Sunday…”

  5. Saudi police murder suspect ‘was acting for Islamic State’ (BBC, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32455002

    “Saudi Arabia says a man accused of shooting dead two policemen was acting on instructions from the Islamic State militant group.

    Officials said Mohammed Abdulrahman Abu Niyan, a Saudi citizen, confessed to the murders which took place in the capital, Riyadh, earlier this month.

    He received instructions, cash and weapons from IS elements in Syria, the interior ministry said in a statement.

    Saudi Arabia is keenly aware that it is a key IS target, correspondents report.

    IS has vowed to take over Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and site of its holiest mosques – and last year issued a call for followers to carry out attacks against Saudi targets.

    Abu Niyan confessed to the 8 April attack on the police officers in a patrol car in the capital, the interior ministry said in its statement carried by state media.

    The 23-year-old is also said to have admitted wounding two other policemen in a similar shooting in March.

    According to officials, he carried out the attacks after contact with an IS representative in Riyadh.

    The ministry said it was also offering a bounty of 1 million riyals ($270,000; £176,000) for the capture of an accomplice, Nawaf bin Sharif Samir al-Anzi.

    The Sunni Muslim-dominated Saudi kingdom is part of a US-led coalition waging an air war against IS, which has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq.”

  6. Sounds like UN extortion to me…

    UN: Myanmar Stability at Risk If Rohingya Issue Not Solved (abcnews, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/myanmar-stability-risk-rohingya-issue-solved-30570216

    “Stability in Myanmar’s most sensitive region can’t be achieved unless it addresses the issue of citizenship for minority Rohingya Muslims, the United Nations secretary-general warned its authorities Friday.

    Ban Ki-moon told a delegation from the Southeast Asian country that the U.N. has seen “already troubling signs of ethnic and religious differences being exploited” as elections approach later this year.

    The predominantly Buddhist nation recently emerged from a half-century of military rule, but it has been shaken by violence between Buddhists and Muslims in recent years that left at least 280 people dead and 140,000 homeless. Most of the displaced are Muslims confined to squalid camps in in the western state of Rakhine.

    Most Rohingya are not citizens, and prejudice against them is high. The government calls them Bengali and generally regards them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, even though many were born in Myanmar.

    The tensions “could be seriously destabilizing” and could jeopardize the country’s efforts to reform, Ban said….”

  7. Writer of this CNN article seem somewhat confused. However, he does acknowledge the existence of the proverbial elephant in the room to some great extent.

    Faith turns Christians into terrorist targets (CNN, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/24/world/terrorists-attacks-on-christianity/index.html

    “Several of the world’s worst terrorist groups, like ISIS and Al-Shabaab, aim to create societies governed by strict, distorted versions of Sharia law.

    That means anyone who doesn’t subscribe to such extremist views are enemies and in danger — Christians included.

    Of course, Christians aren’t the only ones who have suffered at the hands of such organizations. For example, most victims of ISIS are fellow Muslims who refuse to go along with the ISIS worldview and ruthless tactics.

    Still, there’s ample evidence that Christians have been targeted. The latest came Friday, when an Italian prosecutor revealed that a network of Pakistanis associated with al Qaeda talked about attacking the Vatican back in March 2010…..

    April: Man planned to attack French churches

    Sid Ahmed Ghlam asked for an ambulance to come to his Paris home on Sunday after (he claimed) he accidentally shot himself in the thigh….

    April: ISIS video shows beheadings of Ethiopian Christians

    ISIS has turned its beheadings of hostages into horror shows, producing propaganda videos seemingly aimed at producing the maximum amount of terror.

    What set the one from April apart were the number of people killed and that they were Christians from Ethiopia….

    April: Al-Shabaab militants single out Christians in Kenya

    Everyone at Kenya’s Garissa University College suffered in some way when a handful of Al-Shabaab gunmen stormed the campus early this month….

    March: Suicide bombers strike in Pakistan

    Two suicide blasts rocked a Christian community in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least 14 people and wounding scores more, according to officials.

    And that’s just the beginning, pledged the Pakistani Taliban….

    February: Egyptian Coptic Christians killed on a Libyan beach

    Sadly, the shock of the mass killings of the Ethiopian Christians in April may have been dulled simply because of a nearly identical atrocity a few weeks before.

    ISIS released a five-minute video in February showing the mass murder of Coptic Christians from Egypt….

    February: ISIS seizes more than 250 Assyrian Christians

    Modern-day Assyrians are a significant part of human history, tracing their roots back to one of the earliest civilizations. Their ancestors were also some of the first people to embrace Christianity in large numbers. Now the Assyrians are battling ISIS for survival in their native Syria and Iraq…..

    Summer 2014: ISIS takes over Mosul, then Iraq’s largest Christian city

    The number of Christians in Iraq has plummeted — from 1.5 million some 20 years ago to some 300,000 today, according to estimates from CAPNI, the largest Christian relief organization in northern Iraq….”

  8. A day or two ago we were being prepared for a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Iranian navies. Looks like such a confrontation has been postponed for now.

    Iranian ships turn away from Yemen (CNN, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/24/politics/iranian-convoy-ships-leave-yemen/index.html

    “A convoy of Iranian ships headed toward Yemen is now moving away from the war-torn country, days after the U.S. deployed warships to the Yemeni coast, according to two U.S. defense officials.

    One of those American ships, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, has also been redirected away from Yemen to the Persian Gulf.

    The Iranian ships turned away from Yemen on Thursday and on Friday continued to move northeast, back in the direction of Iran….”

  9. I am wondering, would they promote an article by someone on the opposite side of the spectrum of possibilities? Lets say for demonstration purposes, some German guy from Saarbrucken (as per context of this article), who would substantially disagree with (at least part of) the narrative presented here?

    How I was smuggled into Europe — and why it was worth it (CNN, Apr 24, 2015)
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/23/opinions/smuggled-syrian-migrant/index.html

    “I would have done anything to get to Europe. It was worth the risk, the bad treatment and the fear, hard as that may be to believe. Simply put, I have a better life now than I did before.

    But my journey across the Mediterranean, like those of thousands of other migrants, wasn’t easy. Here’s my story….”

    • That sort of thing could help my poor hands much more useful. Almost – but not quite – inspires me to check out some of these toys at Mass General.

      • While you are there check out the latest research on the nanite repair of the body, they are doing amazing things with the nanites these days.

  10. Three Islamic State car bombs hit Iraq-Jordan border crossing, four dead

    Three suicide car bombs exploded at a border crossing between Iraq and Jordan on Saturday, killing four soldiers, a witness and an Iraqi border police source said, in an attack claimed shortly afterwards by Islamic State.

    The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a video, saying it had targeted a government complex, control point for the border crossing, and army patrol, according to monitoring group SITE.

    A Jordanian official said his government had responded by stepping up security measures at the Tureibil crossing, while an Iraqi defense ministry spokesman said Baghdad would investigate the assault.

    The Iraqi government announced a new offensive this month to recapture parts of Anbar, Iraq’s Sunni Muslim heartland, from Islamic State, but the Sunni militants struck back by attacking Ramadi, the Baiji refinery, and al-Thirthar dam.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/25/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-jordan-idUSKBN0NG0GX20150425

  11. What is the future of Christian support for Israel?

    Strong Evangelical support for Israel is politically and strategically significant. Israeli leaders for decades have understandably sought friendship with Evangelical leaders and constituencies. More recently, critics of Israel, including leftist foundations, have sought to neutralize Evangelical support for Israel, with some success among Evangelical elites.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/what-is-the-future-of-christian-support-for-israel/article/2563089

    • The intelligent ones will continue to support Israel but many will fall for the propaganda.

  12. Yemeni port city Aden hit by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes amid fierce street battles

    SANAA, Yemen — Security officials and eyewitnesses say Yemen’s southern port city of Aden has been hit by dozens of Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.

    The attacks on Saturday come as Shiite Houthi rebels mobilized hundreds of reinforcements in an effort to wrest control of the city from militias supporting embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

    The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, say fierce street battles are ongoing in the strategic Aden neighborhoods of Khour Makser and Dar Saad as the Houthis try to gain a foothold in the districts.

    Hadi was forced to flee his southern stronghold of Aden last month as the Houthis advanced toward the port. The coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia began conducting airstrikes against rebel positions on March 26.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/fdedc2694b0242cda79e579ce84a42e8/ML–Yemen

  13. RUSSIA – DAGESTAN Two suspected terrorists who are believed to have sworn their allegiance to Islamic State were killed in Dagestan on Friday during a counter-terrorism operation led by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Internal Affairs Ministry.

  14. Yemeni Politician: Unless Airstrikes Are Stopped, There Will Be Attacks in Saudi Cities

    Yemeni politician Abd Al-Qader Salam, Secretary-General of the Nasserist Democratic Party in Yemen, said in an interview with Hizbullah’s Al-Manar TV that unless Saudis stopped their airstrikes in Yemen, there will be attacks in Riyadh, Mecca, and Medina. He boasted that the Yemeni people can only “flourish and develop” in a state of war.

  15. “We will not rest until every single Muslim is freed from the Tawaghit, al-Quds, al-Andalus are returned and we conquer Rome”

  16. Erdogan lashes out at EU and leaders for calling Armenian massacre ‘genocide’

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday lashed out at the European Union and world leaders who have recognised the 1915 massacres of Armenians as genocide on the centenary of the events.

    Erdogan accused the leaders of France, Germany and Russia of “supporting claims based on Armenian lies” after they described the slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide — which Turkey strongly objects to.

    During commemoration ceremonies in Armenia on Friday, French President Francois Hollande urged modern-day Turkey to recognise the massacre as genocide while Russian President Vladimir Putin too used the controversial label though only once.

    The statements were immediately condemned by the Turkish foreign ministry, which also lashed out against the “unfounded accusations” of German President Joachim Gauck, who qualified the mass killings as genocide a day before the centenary.

    “We would have wished that Putin had not gone to Armenia, nor Mr Hollande” Erdogan told a meeting of businessmen in Istanbul in comments broadcast by Turkish television.

    “The last countries to speak of genocide are Germany, Russia and France. What happened during the two world wars that had been initiated by Germany in the past century is before our eyes,” he said.

    “They should first, one-by-one, clean the stains on their own histories,” he said.

    Erdogan went on to accuse the EU — whose parliament voted to call the events a genocide on April 15 — of “not telling the truth” and said: “Hey European Union! Don’t offer us any thoughts, keep them to yourself.”

    “They have ears that do not hear, eyes that do not see, and tongues that do not speak the truth.

    “Have no concern, should there be a situation where the incidents of the past were accounted for today, Turkey would be the most comfortable on this aspect.”

    The Turkish leader also accused the United States of siding with Armenia and of “hatred”, though President Barack Obama sidestepped the contentious term by using the Armenian term Medz Yeghern, meaning great catastrophe.

    Turkey says it shares the pain of Armenians over the events but has vehemently rejected the use of the term genocide, contending that hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Christians were killed on both sides in a wartime tragedy.

    Earlier this month, Pope Francis drew Turkey’s wrath after describing the killings as “the first genocide of the 20th century”.

    Turkey summoned the Vatican ambassador in Ankara over the remarks and recalled the Turkish envoy to the Holy See.

    On Wednesday, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Austria in protest over Austrian lawmakers’ condemnation of mass killings as “genocide.”

    More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, have recognised the Armenian genocide.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/128626/World/Region/Erdogan-lashes-out-at-EU-and-leaders-for-calling-A.aspx

    video – Germany: Thousands of German Turks decry Armenian ‘genocide’ allegations

    • Several thousand people marched through the streets of Berlin, Saturday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the mass killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. The march was also organised as a protest against the Turkish government’s refusal to label the mass killings as a ‘genocide.’

  17. Ex-Gitmo detainees protest at US embassy in Uruguay, demand financial support

    Four former Guantanamo Bay prisoners protested on Friday night in front of the US Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, complaining over “broken promises” and demanding greater financial support from Washington.

    The men are part of a group of six detainees who were released from the US military prison in 2014 and granted refugee status by the South American country under then-president Jose Mujica.

    The Uruguayan government resettled the men into a four-bedroom house, where they have been staying for the past few months since their release. Ex-prisoners complained about their housing conditions.

    One of the six men, Tunisian Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi, said “we are too many to stay in the house” and complained they had to stay in a hotel from time to time, AP reports. But the men were recently evicted from the hotel as they had no funds to pay the bills.

    Another former detainee Omar Mahmud Faraj said the Uruguayan government had “promised many things, but so far these are only words.” At the moment each of them receives around $600 (roughly 15,000 pesos) per month to cover food, clothes and other items.

    El Ouerghi says “I want to live here and bring my family here, how am I supposed to pay for gas and water bills and food with only 15,000 pesos?”

    Late on Friday the former prisoners came in front of the US Embassy, saying they wanted to speak to the ambassador. The embassy was closed, and calls and email messages to the embassy went unanswered. They said they were ready to spend the entire night there. Their protest was peaceful: at one point in the evening the four men got down on the ground and prayed.

    Faraj said their actions might help them raise attention to the situation they are in as they have no means to support themselves.

    The six men were detained back in 2002. They were never charged and spent over a decade in the Guantanamo Bay Military prison. They were cleared for release in 2010, but were unable to go back home and had to stay in prison while the US authorities found a country willing to host the former terror suspects.

    In 2014 Uruguay’s then-President Jose Mujica agreed to host the men on humanitarian grounds. However the situation has changed since then. Mujica’s successor, Tabare Vazquez, has promised his nation will not resettle any more former Guantanamo prisoners, and called on the US to help the six men already there to re-start their lives.

    http://rt.com/usa/253033-uruguay-guantanamo-detainees-protest/
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    Feb 2015 – President of Uruguay blasts former Guantanamo prisoners for ‘lacking a work ethic’ after they were resettled in his country and turned down jobs

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2959989/Uruguay-president-says-former-Guantanamo-prisoners-lazy-middle-class-resettled-country-turned-jobs.html

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