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New South Wales electrician accused of planning long range missiles to aid Islamic State. Channel Nine report showed his mother draw her hijab over her face and scream into the camera.
One report here but several online
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-28/young-arrest-alleged-terrorism-offences-canberra/8311270
“Chinese (Uighurs) Muslim in all but facial hair”
For however sick and fü¢ked up that China is (and it is most certainly sick and fü¢ked up), Beijing’s ability and willingness to crush internal jihadism will likely prove to be amusing at best and (more likely) horrific at worst.
This is one of the few probable glimpses that our new century will get with respect to how any government (fair or otherwise) will eventually be forced to deal with Islam. The Chinese Uighurs are about to find out what happens when they antagonize one of this world’s most brutal and heinous governments.
Can you say, Organ Donors ? Us? That is, if there is any tissue at all sufficiently intact to be worth harvesting (unlike the poor Falun Gong practitioners). Islam will find an endless supply of “martyrs” in their Chinese Uighurs. Personally, I have not a shred of sympathy. Islam delenda est.
Bloody hell!
That was supposed to be “Organ Donors R Us” (with the “R” famously reversed). That’s the last time I try that bit of fancy font work. Feck all.
Permit me to substitute, “Drone Magnets Anonymous”.
IMF says Iran rebounds after nuclear deal, but danger looms (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/imf-iran-rebounds-nuclear-deal-danger-looms-45795518
“The International Monetary Fund says Iran’s economy has rebounded after the nuclear deal with world powers, but warns that uncertainty over future sanctions and problems with the country’s domestic banks could cause trouble ahead.
The IMF released a report early on Tuesday that said Iran’s real gross domestic product grew by 7.4 percent, recovering from a recession.
It attributed that growth largely toward oil production recovering after the atomic accord, which saw economic sanctions against Iran lifted in exchange for it limiting its enrichment of uranium.
However, the IMF warned that Iran’s domestic banking sector, with many lenders beset by bad loans, needed reformed.
It also warned renewed tensions with the U.S. “could deter investment and trade with Iran and short-circuit the anticipated recovery.””
With the sanctions lifted and the money Obama gave them their economy was assured of rebounding. Now that their economy is stronger, there are fewer to no sanctions and Iran has money how fast will their nuclear program advance in their quest for nuclear weapons and how soon will them become a major regional threat.
Bangladesh militants get death sentence for killing Japanese (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bangladesh-militants-death-sentence-killing-japanese-45795358
“Five members of a banned militant group were sentenced to death by a Bangladesh court Tuesday for their involvement in the slaying of a Japanese agricultural researcher two years ago.
Judge Noresh Chandra Sarker on Tuesday acquitted a sixth defendant belonging to the militant group, Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, in northern Bangladeshi district of Rangpur.
Four of the defendants are in custody and a fifth man has been tried in absentia.
Three masked men riding on a motorbike shot and killed Kunio Hoshi while he was riding in a rickshaw to his grass farm in Rangpur, a northern Bangladesh city in October 2015. The area is 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital.
The Islamic State group issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi postings online. The report could not be independently confirmed…”
German police raid sites linked to radical mosque in Berlin (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-police-raid-sites-linked-radical-mosque-berlin-45795517
“German police are searching dozens of sites across Berlin linked to a mosque visited by the truck attacker Anis Amri.
The raids follow a decision by state authorities on Tuesday to ban the organization that ran the mosque, Fussilet 33.
Police said some 450 officers began searching 24 locations — including several apartments, two company offices and six prison cells — at 6 a.m.
Authorities had been monitoring the mosque, which closed last week, because they believed it was frequented by Islamic extremists and used as a hub for funneling people and military equipment to conflict zones.
Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian, killed 12 people when he plowed a stolen truck into a Christmas market Dec. 19. He was shot dead by Italian police four days later.”
Germany: Berlin truck attacker’s mosque raided and shut down in widespread operation
The Moabit-based Fussilet mosque was raided again as part of Berlin wide operation on Tuesday. The organisation that ran the mosque, ‘Fussilet 33 e.V.’, was later banned by the Interior Ministry. The site is reportedly where the 24-year-old Berlin truck attacker, Anis Amri, visited on the day of the December attack which left 12 dead and dozens more injured.
The Fussilet mosque located in the ground floor of an apartment building in Berlin’s Moabit was closed last week because German authorities believed it was a meeting point for radical Islamists and a hub for sending people and military equipment to conflict zones.
German police are also searching dozens of sites across Berlin, including several apartments, business addresses and prison cells, linked to a mosque. According to Berlin police Twitter account, 460 law enforcement officers are currently participating in the operation.
Interior Minister for the state of Berlin, Andreas Geisel, is due to give further details at a news conference at 1pm
Germany: Christmas market attacker visited Fussilet mosque before attack – Berlin senator
Berlin’s Interior Senator Andreas Geisel said that the Christmas market truck attacker, Anis Amri, visited the Fussilet mosque frequently, including on the day of the attack. The announcement was made during a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, following a ban on the organisation that ran the mosque, ‘Fussilet 33 e.V.’.
Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s Interior Senator (German): “The Breitscheidplatz attacker Anis Amri regularly visited this mosque, including an hour or so before the attack on December 19. The cause for the ban is related not only to Amri but also to other members of the organisation [Fussilet 33 e.V.] who have collected funds or trained fighters for jihad.”
Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s Interior Senator (German): “The leading members of the Fussilet 33 organisation have been accused or already charged with supporting foreign terrorist organisations and preparing a serious act of violent subversion. The chair and the president of the so-called “committee of wise men,” one of the institutions of the Fussilet 33, have remained in pre-trial detention since January 2016. The member of the organisation’s managing committee has also been in detention since September 2016 for illegal departure to the Syrian war zone and firearm training at one of the terrorist organisations. The former imam of the Fussilet mosque has been under arrest for supporting the Islamic State since October 2016.”
Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s Interior Senator (German): “With this strike against Islamist terrorism, Berlin is sending a clear signal that people who act against our democratic principles, people who preach or conduct violent acts don’t have a place in this city. Berlin is not a place for people who incite religious hatred. The security forces will continue to keep focus on the Salafist scene. And we want to say this clearly, that if there is a condition for banning an organisation, when there are acts against democratic principles, when violence is conducted or preached, then we will act the same way as with the Fussilet 33.”
‘Taliban infiltrator’ aids police killing in Helmand province (BBC, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39112831
“At least 13 policemen were killed by one of their own in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province.
A police source told the BBC that an infiltrator from the Taliban had allowed militants into the police station in the regional capital of Lashkar Gah last night.
The infiltrator fled the scene with the Taliban, he said…”
Child refugees face death and sexual violence in Libyan jails as number trying to reach Europe doubles in a year (independent, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/child-refugees-libya-jails-death-sexual-violence-numbers-enter-europe-doubles-immigration-unicef-a7602856.html
“The number of refugee children trying to reach Europe by boat has doubled in the last year, with thousands now attempting the deadly Mediterranean crossing every month, Unicef has warned.
More than 25,000 youngsters – nine out ten of whom were unaccompanied – made the perilous journey in 2016.
On the deadliest sea route, between Libya and Italy, an estimated 4,579 people died, including more than 700 children.
The figures are published in the UN agency’s latest report on the refugee crisis, which details harrowing accounts of migrant children and women who have suffered sexual violence, exploitation, abuse and detention during their journey.
The report comes a day before a vote in the Commons on how to support unaccompanied child refugees in Greece and Italy…
Three quarters of the under-18s interviewed said they had experienced violence, harassment or aggression at the hands of adults.
Many of the abuses appeared to have taken place in detention centres dotted across Libya, the agency said.
The Libyan Government’s Department for Combatting Illegal Migration runs 24 detention centres, with each site holding as many as 7,000 detainees.
Armed groups are thought to run an unknown number of unofficial detention centres housing many more refugees.
Nearly half the women interviewed also reported suffering sexual violence or abuse during their journey.
The Unicef report also details how migrants are treated differently depending on their country of origin.
Sub-Saharan Africans tend to be treated much worse than migrants from Egypt or countries in the Middle East, Unicef found…”
Minimum Wage Massacre: Wendy’s Unleashes 1,000 Robots To Counter Higher Labor Costs
In yet another awkwardly rational response to government intervention in deciding what’s “fair”, the blowback from minimum wage demanding fast food workers has struck again. Wendy’s plans to install self-ordering kiosks in 1,000 of its stores – 16% of its locations nationwide.
Wendy’s chief information officer, David Trimm, said the kiosks are intended to appeal to younger customers and reduce labor costs. Kiosks also allow customers of the fast food giant to circumvent long lines during peak dining hours while increasing kitchen production.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-27/minimum-wage-massacre-wendys-unleashes-1000-robots-counter-higher-labor-costs
Some times I wonder if this isn’t want the left wants, the more robots the fewer jobs and the more the left can scream for an guaranteed annual income from the Government. This would mean an increase in taxes and make a lot more people dependent on the government thus guaranteeing more votes for the left.
And deterring small business from investing their hard earned capital because that’s socialism.
Deep State War? Russian Officials Keep Dying Unexpectedly
Six Russian diplomats have died in the last 60 days. As Axios notes, all but one died on foreign soil. Some were shot, while other causes of death are unknown. Note that a few deaths have been labeled “heart attacks” or “brief illnesses.”
If we go back further than 60 days…
If you include these three additional deaths that’s a total of nine Russian officials that have died over the past 2 years that WeAreChange.com’s Aaron Kesel knows of – he notes there could be more.
As Kesel explains, it’s worth noting that governments, specifically the CIA, have for long periods of time had chemical concoctions that can induce a full systematic shutdown of a person’s nervous system and in some cases cause someone’s’ heart to explode.
Former CIA employee Mary Embree discusses the infamous heart attack gun and how she was tasked with finding a chemical concoction that would cause a heart attack. The weapon was first made public during the Church Committee hearings in 1975 by former CIA director William Colby. It was said to be very lethal and untraceable, by using this weapon a murder is made to look natural while the poison dissolves in hours.
If we go back further than 60 days…
It seems highly unlikely and improbable to write off that six Russian officials would die in under 60 days in such an influx in various different mysterious ways without a catalyst. And let’s not forget RT founder and former Putin aide Mikhail Lesin was found dead in 2015 from a blunt weapon that was originally blamed on a heart attack so assassination can’t be taken off the table and ruled out in any of these cases. Turkey and Russia already accused NATO of a false flag attack killing Karlov the Russian-Turkish Ambassador. NATO also had a dead diplomat Yves Chandelon mysteriously die of a gunshot wound to the head in his car a week before the death of Karlov. Chandelon was the Chief Auditor in charge Of Counterterrorism funding.
“Turkey and Russia have the will not to be deceived by this false flag attack,” they said.
Don’t forget that on Christmas day, a Russian military jet went down over the Black Sea, killing 60 members of the Red Army choir and 33 others that just adds to the massive coincidence list.
On a final note, former acting director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Michael Morell openly conspired to “covertly” kill Russians and Iranians in Syria in an August 2016 interview with Charlie Rose. While Morell was talking about killing Russian and Iranian soldiers it is definitely a strange piece to add to this puzzle.
Are we witnessing a battle between the deep state and Russia in a spy versus spy plotline or is this all just a freak coincidence?
I doubt it is the US intel killing the Russians, it is possible but odds are it isn’t us. Of course with Obama having control for 8 years it could be. A lot of people (me included) said that some of his actions seemed to be designed to start a shooting war between the US and Russia.
Army makes history by putting Muslim in charge of 14,000 US soldiers’ spiritual needs
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article135249589.html#storylink=cpy
WASHINGTON
In January, Lt. Col. Khallid Shabazz received the call every Army chaplain dreams of, the call that validates years of intense study and hard work toward keeping the U.S. military in good spiritual health.
He was offered the job of chaplain for an entire division, an honor for anyone in his field but a milestone in his case. After a ceremony this summer, Shabazz will become the first Muslim division-level chaplain in the history of the U.S. military – a Muslim spiritual leader for more than 14,000 mostly Christian soldiers.
Shabazz, who’s dedicated his life to working across religious lines, found it hard to keep calm as he received the news at his desk on Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington.
“I’m on the phone saying, ‘Thank you, I appreciate it. I’ll serve honorably,’ and then I hang up the phone and I’m jumping all around like a little kid,” Shabazz, 48, recalled in interviews in February. “I was running around the office saying, al hamdulillah, al hamdulillah, praise be to God!”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article135249589.html#storylink=cpy
The breadth of vision: How H.R. McMaster’s view of Islam matters
By J.E. Dyer February 27, 2017
Since 9/11, there has been an orthodoxy split in Western politics. On one side are people who say that we should not call the global security problem “radical Islam,” partly because that tars millions of non-terrorist Muslims and their religion with the brush of radicalism. On the other are people who say that we must call it “radical Islam,” partly because the motives for terrorism by Muslims trace to the commands of Islam, and if we don’t make that clear, terrorists can just keep hiding among their co-religionists.
The “partlies” matter here, although that’s for another post. But Donald Trump expressed willingness during his 2016 campaign to speak in explicit terms of radical Islam, and radical Islamic terrorism, which is something neither Obama nor Bush was prepared to do. Trump’s first national security adviser, retired Army general Michael Flynn, did the same.
This is considered by supporters to be a welcome change, advantageous for policy and indispensable for sound strategic thinking. It’s about defining what the enemy is. If you can’t name it, you can’t fight it.
Now the new national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, has reportedly told the staff of the National Security Council that he doesn’t think the formulation “radical Islamic terrorism” is helpful. Those, according to the New York Times, are his words: that saying “radical Islamic terrorism” isn’t “helpful.”
http://libertyunyielding.com/2017/02/27/breadth-vision-h-r-mcmasters-view-islam-matters/
She makes some good points, I disagree with her but recognize where she is coming from and that she wants what is best for the US. What he doesn’t say in the article is that after 8 years of Obama the refusal to call the jihadists radical Islam has been tainted with the order of treason and surrender to the jihadists.
I will not call for McMasters firing just yet, but if he doesn’t come up with some good ideas on what to do to defend the US and defeat the jihad I will start calling for his removal and the return of someone like General Flynn.
This is where the rubber hits the road and it looks like the tyres will all be flat. America will never stop licking Muslim nutsacks. The Saudis told them it was the only way to a Muslims heart. Hubris and naivete has been Americas Achilles heel.
CBC : Canada’s migrant strategy
CBC – Professional provocateurs: show biz, free speech, or just hateful?
FRANCE – Students protest in Paris against police violence
Indonesia: Anti-Ahok supporters rally in Jakarta as FPI leader testifies at blasphemy trial
France: Google launches CrossCheck to combat ‘fake news’ ahead of elections
Google launched a verification platform dubbed ‘CrossCheck’ at the French Development Agency’s headquarters in Paris on Tuesday, aimed at combatting misleading or inaccurate news.
The project, a partnership between First Draft and the Google News Lab, will run in collaboration with 17 newsrooms, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), BuzzFeed News, France Televisions and Le Monde, among others.
Islamic caliphate for Australia – Today Tonight
HD copy –
Who is this man, he is talking like a counter jihadists rather then the Imam’s we are use to.
USA – Army makes history by putting Muslim in charge of 14,000 US soldiers’ spiritual needs
In January, Lt. Col. Khallid Shabazz received the call every Army chaplain dreams of, the call that validates years of intense study and hard work toward keeping the U.S. military in good spiritual health.
He was offered the job of chaplain for an entire division, an honor for anyone in his field but a milestone in his case. After a ceremony this summer, Shabazz will become the first Muslim division-level chaplain in the history of the U.S. military – a Muslim spiritual leader for more than 14,000 mostly Christian soldiers.
Shabazz, who’s dedicated his life to working across religious lines, found it hard to keep calm as he received the news at his desk on Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington.
“I’m on the phone saying, ‘Thank you, I appreciate it. I’ll serve honorably,’ and then I hang up the phone and I’m jumping all around like a little kid,” Shabazz, 48, recalled in interviews in February. “I was running around the office saying, al hamdulillah, al hamdulillah, praise be to God!”
To get a sense of what a long shot this might’ve seemed like to Shabazz, consider the numbers: He’s one of only 10 Muslim chaplains in the entire U.S. military; of the Army’s 1,400 or so chaplains, just five are Muslim.
“When you get the call saying you have been bestowed a division, the news is kind of like, unearthly,” Shabazz said. “The list is so small and it’s such a tough cut.”
With four months until the ceremony that will make him chaplain of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division at Lewis-McChord, Shabazz has plenty of time to think about taking on such a visible role in an age of open anti-Muslim hostility. He’d like to think his transition will be as smooth as those of his Christian peers, but he knows that not everyone will welcome him as warmly as the senior officers who gave him a standing ovation when the news was announced at a meeting on base.
“For me, a regular old guy from Louisiana, I look to the heavens and say, ‘Why me?’ ” Shabazz said. “As the day gets closer, I’m sure I’ll have more anxiety and think about it more. I’m extremely proud to have been on this journey for 20 years and never would’ve imagined that I’d be chosen to be the first.”
“Islamic guy in a leadership position?” he said. “If I think about it too much, it’ll get overwhelming.”
Shabazz came into the world as Michael Barnes, born into a large Lutheran family in Alexandria, Louisiana, about three hours from New Orleans.
Faith was at the center of the household. His mother took the family to church three times a week and recited prayers with her children each night. Shabazz, a lifelong athlete with a 6-foot-5-inch, 255-pound frame, had to study catechism before he could play football and basketball on Saturdays.
Other kids might’ve grumbled about such a rigorous worship schedule, but Shabazz said he didn’t mind – from an early age, he was taken with the spirit of friendship and service.
“I like people who have a commonality of purpose,” Shabazz said. “We loved each other. If people had rent problems or other problems, the church pulled us together to take care of those problems.”
After high school, Shabazz headed to Jarvis Christian College, a historically black college in the small town of Hawkins in eastern Texas. Upon graduation, he returned to Louisiana and began teaching biology to fifth-graders at an elementary school in his hometown. He said he wasn’t prepared for how despondent he became at seeing so many children whose growth was stymied by poverty or poor parenting; he struggled to accept that he couldn’t help them all.
After just six months, he quit. At age 23, he decided to join the Army, thinking that it would help him mature and make him a better, stronger teacher afterward.
“I thought, ‘I’ll do 20 years in the military and then I’ll teach and coach,’ ” Shabazz said. “But I fell in love with the idea and the paradigm of the military.”
While stationed in Baumholder, Germany, Shabazz worked the motor pool with a Muslim soldier who annoyed other troops with his boasts about the virtues of Islam. Shabazz, who back then was still Christian, grew fed up and decided “to cut him down to size.” He challenged the Muslim to a public debate on the merits of their respective religions.
On the afternoon of the showdown, Shabazz recalled, about 30 soldiers filled a meeting room on base. Shabazz was ready to pounce, but the Muslim opponent “kind of blindsided me with some facts,” launching into a powerful, persuasive defense of his faith that put Islam in a whole new light.
Shabazz, stunned, was down for the count.
“It was all-out cognitive dissonance, depression and shame, honestly,” Shabazz said, recalling his feelings at that moment. “I thought I had a stronghold on the truth. And, for the first time, my confidence was shaken in who I was as a human being and what I believed.”
Shabazz began studying Islam on his own, determined to correct the lack of knowledge revealed in his debate with the Muslim soldier. He’d work all day and then stay up well past midnight paging through the Bible and the Quran. He described it as going into a “cubbyhole.”
After two years, Michael Barnes, the devout Christian reared in a Louisiana church, decided to convert to Islam, taking the name Khallid Shabazz to complete his transformation. He said that there had been no single tipping point in his thinking, just a deep identification with Islamic tenets, such as the lack of a clerical hierarchy and the emphasis on charity.
“One of my favorite passages in the Quran asks if the man who thinks and the man who does are the same,” Shabazz said. “It’s the thinking component in Islam that really intrigued me. I am in control of my grace, and I don’t have to answer to the imam. I tell my congregation, ‘Listen, you have to do your own research.’ ”
Unsurprisingly, Shabazz’s conversion did not play well with his family in Louisiana, where he’s still known as “Michael.” He said it took years for them to accept the change, but now they tease him about praying on time and make him a special gumbo minus the pork sausage. Such conciliatory gestures, Shabazz said, must go both ways.
“I do still go to church with my family – that’s an important part of reaching across the aisle,” he said. “It would be improper for me to disrespect something that instilled in me so much of who I am.”
Shabazz’s switch in faiths didn’t exactly go smoothly with the military, either. He had to write memos for even the smallest religious accommodation, such as time to perform the traditional Friday prayers. He’d fast during the holy month of Ramadan, though his schedule called for grueling work in the field. Ravenous by the end of the day, he’d come to the mess hall only to find pork chops. He’d raise concerns with his superiors from time to time, but made little ground.
“When you have an unknown there, sometimes the leadership kind of treats you unfairly because they’re not educated into what you’re doing,” Shabazz said. “In defense of them, I didn’t explain it very well, either. I was growing. There were some tough days.”
On one of the toughest days, Shabazz was exhausted from a series of 12-hour shifts and hungry because of the lack of pork-free meals. Sitting outside on an M109 howitzer, he felt his frustration spill out in tears. Nobody’s here for me, he thought. Maybe this organization is not for me.
A passing chaplain noticed Shabazz’s distress and stopped. In an hourlong impromptu ministry session, the chaplain let Shabazz pour his heart out about his struggle to carve a space for himself in the military. After listening, Shabazz said, the chaplain mentioned that the Army had recently received its first active-duty Muslim chaplain: Would that kind of path interest Shabazz?
“I’m telling you, it was like a revelation from God,” Shabazz recalled. “Once it came out of his mouth, I said, ‘That is my calling. That is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’ ”
New challenges
The chaplain Shabazz encountered that day wrote him a letter of recommendation for the Chaplain Corps. When he was commissioned, Shabazz said, his mentor pulled him aside for a talk.
“He said, ‘Promise me you will be an advocate for our corps no matter what the faith or the background of the person is,’ ” Shabazz recalled. “It moved me to the very essence of my core. Here you have a devout Christian who’s taken the time to care for a young Muslim soldier and make sure I got to be a chaplain. I don’t want to help just Muslims. I don’t want to help just Christians. I want to help people who are in distress.”
Shabazz has now been in the Army for 26 years, 18 years as a chaplain. He’s been deployed seven times – including Iraq, Kosovo and a stint at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was sent to advise commanders on religious issues after a string of scandals.
He’s also dispatched to far-flung U.S. installations to minister to Muslim soldiers who are wrestling with some of the same issues he faced as a young Muslim in the service.
The Department of Defense counts more than 6,000 self-identified Muslims currently serving, from a total of 1.3 million active-duty and more than 800,000 guard and reserve members. The real number of Muslims is thought to be higher because many troops choose not to list a religion, especially if they’re worried about backlash.
Iraq, where U.S. troops fought insurgents near some of Islam’s most sacred sites, was a particularly hard deployment for Muslim soldiers. Shabazz said he counseled anguished soldiers to remember the centrality of intention in Islam – what were their intentions for serving? He’d remind them that they were there because they’d enlisted and that the Quran honors contracts. He offered reassuring passages, words to lift the heavy weight of the war from their shoulders.
“In combat, it was tough. You’re trying to establish Muslim service and you’re in a Muslim country fighting against Muslims,” Shabazz said. “The young Muslim soldiers could come in and do jumaa (prayers) and be assured that somebody is listening to them. You hold guys in your arms and they’re crying and saying, ‘Thank you.’ ”
The concerns Shabazz hears these days are much different, but just as fraught.
The bulk of his work at Joint Base Lewis-McChord isn’t even religious counseling, he said, but hearing out soldiers suffering from alcoholism or troubled relationships. More than sermons, Shabazz said, they want to know the secret to his 27 years of marriage to his college sweetheart, Rhonda, with whom he has three adult children and four grandchildren.
Others turn to Shabazz for advice on personal and career growth; among his most cherished achievements is helping 61 young soldiers find the confidence to apply for officer school.
Over the years, a handful of people have refused to work with Shabazz because he’s Muslim. That doesn’t bother him – he lives by the chaplain’s motto of “perform or provide,” so if he can’t minister himself, he’ll recommend a chaplain of a different faith. But Christians who do agree to be seen by Shabazz are often surprised by his fluency in the Bible’s teachings, a vestige of his many years in the church.
“Because I have the language from my days as a Christian, I can give them Scriptures from the Bible, and that doesn’t violate my religion,” Shabazz said. “My job is not to convert anybody to Islam. God guides people. My only goal is to have people leave my office stronger than when they came in.”
Sometimes, though, soldiers do convert and turn to Shabazz for guidance as they enter Islam. One of the most unusual conversions came just three months ago, Shabazz said. A master sergeant in the Special Forces – a man who’d come to no Friday prayers or study groups – showed up, crying, to meet with Shabazz. He told the imam he was ready to take shahada, the modest ritual to officially accept Islam.
“He said, ‘I heard you’re a good chaplain. I’ve been thinking about Islam for about three years,’ ” Shabazz recalled. “I took him down to the mosque, he took shahada and I’ve never seen him again.”
Much of Shabazz’s workload involves the rejection of Islam rather than the embrace of it. He writes a newsletter that goes to all the commanders on base and he offers cultural awareness classes in hopes of “getting out ahead,” staving off the anti-Muslim incidents that have made headlines at other bases. He writes memos in support of soldiers seeking halal meals or prayer breaks, hoping to bridge the communication gap with officers that existed when he was a young enlisted Muslim.
Shabazz and Command Sgt. Maj. Diamond Hough, another Muslim officer at Fort Lewis, have known each other since 2009 and have become close friends in the past couple of years. That coincided with a period of rising hostility toward Islam in America. Hough said his friend’s teachings had offered solace to him and to others hurting from the deep divisions in the country.
“I think what he does is extremely tough because of the times we live in, and the fact that he still can reach everyone and be able to articulate a message of unity, inclusion and love is exceptional,” Hough said.
Shabazz acknowledges the current period of anti-Muslim hostility but declines to discuss whether it’s worsened because of President Donald Trump. Even in his private sessions with soldiers, he said, criticism of the White House is taboo.
“Regardless of what they might think, he’s our commander in chief,” Shabazz said.
The timing of Shabazz’s milestone might seem like another one of those serendipitous moments in his life – the debate that led him to Islam, the tearful conversation that led him to the Chaplain Corps – that put him at the right place at the right time.
Shabazz appreciates the historic aspect of his rise but views it all pragmatically: He immersed himself in studies, devoted himself to interfaith work and completed four master’s degrees and two doctorates. In other words, he earned it, his ascent proof of the old line that the military is a meritocracy – after all, where else could a Muslim get a high-profile job in a U.S. government institution these days?
But Shabazz knows, too, that there are sure to be bumps ahead, tests of how well the military can insulate itself from the cultural battles that have cleaved the nation in two. Two verses are at the forefront of his mind these days – one from the Quran, one from the Bible, both about how hatred of a people has no place among the faithful.
“Some of the challenges will be really changing perceptions, changing mindsets, showing that I am something other than what they see – the guy on TV, the boogeyman,” Shabazz said. “I have a real opportunity to be an ambassador for the Army and for my religion.”
http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article135249734.html
Puke inducing. Obamas Army.
you betcha- pass the vomit bucket-
jihad wath – George W. Bush hits Trump, says Islamic jihadis “are not religious people”
It’s noteworthy that Bush is speaking out against President Trump, but remained almost completely mum during eight years of Obama. This is because he is an establishment Republican, and the establishment Republicans proved themselves during the 2016 presidential campaign to be partners, colleagues and allies with the Democrats in the Republican establishment, with only Trump and his supporters representing a legitimate alternative. So it is completely understandable that one month into Trump’s presidency, Bush would be hitting him as he never hit Obama; he is on Obama’s establishment Washington team, not Trump’s.
[…]It gets worse. In response to Lauer’s question about Trump’s immigration ban, Bush says: “I think it’s very important for all of us to recognize one of our great strengths is for people to be able to worship the way they want to or to not worship at all. A bedrock of our freedom is the right to worship freely.”
How does Trump’s ban, which was motivated by national security concerns, threaten anyone’s religious freedom? Bush didn’t explain, and of course Lauer, having gotten the answer he wanted, didn’t ask him to. Does Bush consider the First Amendment’s protection of the freedom of religion to be a license to commit treason and sedition? Neither Lauer nor anyone else will dare ask him that.
And then we get more of the willful ignorance and denial that marked Bush’s response to the jihad threat starting from just a few days after 9/11: “I understood right off the bat that this was an ideological conflict and people who murder the innocent are not religious people.”[…]
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/02/george-w-bush-hits-trump-says-islamic-jihadis-are-not-religious-people
The Terrorist Leader of the ‘Women’s Strike’
From helping to kill Israeli students to advocating militant resistance in the streets of the U.S.A.
February 28, 2017
Joseph Klein
The call from the Left is to “resist” a “Fascist America,” which is supposedly the direction the United States is taking under President Trump. Among other things, leftists regularly accuse President Trump and members of his administration of anti-Semitism. Yet one of the leaders of the “resistance” movement, and a co-organizer of the next women’s protest on March 8th is Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a convicted Palestinian terrorist. Odeh had participated in bombings in Israel nearly 50 years ago, one of which resulted in the killing of two Israeli students. Now she is advocating militant resistance in the streets of the United States. For Palestinians, “resistance” is often used as a rationalization for acts of terrorism. Odeh has not explicitly advocated the use of violence – at least not yet. However, Odeh and her co-organizers have called for the March 8th protest to include blocking roads, bridges, and squares. We have seen such uncivil acts of disobedience lead to violence in the past.
Odeh has joined with several other militants as co-authors of a manifesto for a new, more radical form of feminism. Odeh’s co-authors include Angela Davis, who supported the Black Panthers and was a former leader of the Communist Party USA, and Tithi Bhattacharya, a Maoist supporter. The manifesto heralded what its authors called an international “anti-capitalist” feminist movement that is “at once anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-heterosexist and anti-neoliberal.” So-called “lean-in” or “other variants of corporate feminism” are not “feminism for the 99%,” according to the manifesto’s co-authors.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265948/terrorist-leader-womens-strike-joseph-klein
A Left-Wing Group Hijacks Anne Frank to Attack Trump, Endanger Jews
Hijacking the memory of a murdered Jewish girl to aid the murder of more Jewish girls.
February 28, 2017
Daniel Greenfield
You see Steven Goldstein everywhere these days. He’s on cable news insisting, all evidence to the contrary, that President Trump is anti-Semitic.
When he does this, the gay rights activist, former Democrat political operative and local news producer, speaks as the head of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect.
Meanwhile people in the Jewish community are wondering who Steven Goldstein is and why he’s shamelessly exploiting the memory of a murdered Jewish girl.
According to his Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, Anne would have supported Elizabeth Warren and opposed Trump’s immigration pause of terror migrants. The organization, which claims to be dedicated to the memory of a murdered Jewish girl, has not mentioned any of the little Jewish girls murdered by Muslim terrorists. Instead it denounces President Trump for trying to protect little Jewish girls from being murdered by the Islamofascist supporters of Nazism.
It said nothing when even the ADL condemned Obama’s anti-Semitic rhetoric in support of an illegal arrangement aiding Iran’s nuclear program. It showed no interest in the actual murder of Jews.
But it did find the time to back Black Lives Matter: an anti-American and anti-Israel hate group.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265929/left-wing-group-hijacks-anne-frank-attack-trump-daniel-greenfield
Lavrov vs. McCain: Is Russia an Enemy?
by: Patrick Buchanan
February 28, 20
The founding fathers of the Munich Security Conference, said John McCain, would be “be alarmed by the turning away from universal values and toward old ties of blood, and race, and sectarianism.”
McCain was followed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who called for a “post-West world order.” Russia has “immense potential” for that said Lavrov, “we’re open for that inasmuch as the U.S. is open.”
Now McCain is not wrong. Nationalism is an idea whose time has come again. Those “old ties of blood, and race, and sectarianism” do seem everywhere ascendant. But that is a reality we must recognize and deal with. Deploring it will not make it go away.
But what are these “universal values” McCain is talking about?
Democracy? The free elections in India gave power to Hindu nationalists. In Palestine, Hamas. In Lebanon, Hezbollah. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, then overthrown in a military coup welcomed by the world’s oldest and greatest democracy. Have we forgotten it was a democratically elected government we helped to overthrow in Kiev?
Democracy is a bus you get off when it reaches your stop, says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, autocrat of Ankara, a NATO ally.
Is freedom of religion a “universal value”?
Is Putin’s Russia an enemy, as McCain seems to believe?
Before we can answer that question, we need to know what the new world struggle is about, who the antagonists are, and what the threats are to us.
If we believe the struggle is for “global democracy” and “human rights,” then that may put Putin on the other side. But how then can we be allies of President el-Sissi of Egypt and Erdogan of Turkey, and the kings, emirs and sultans of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman?
But if the new world struggle is about defending ourselves and our civilization, Russia would appear to be not only a natural ally, but a more critical and powerful one than that crowd in Kiev.
http://www.freedomsback.com/pat-buchanan/lavrov-vs-mccain-is-russia-an-enemy
Further down he is willing to throw the Ukrainians under the bus if that is what it takes to make Putin our ally. I am not ready to do that (although I will admit the Ukrainians aren’t angels) because other nations in that region were also conquered by Russia in the 18th Century and are now free to make their own way in the world. Are we to let them be conquered and forced into the new Russian Empire?
Having said that we need to find common ground with Putin because we need him as a ally against the Islamic conquest and to help convince China to settle down and quit trying to seize control of international waterways and land/islands belonging to other nations. Yes China needs money and resources but so do the nations that China is trying to steal from.
Europe: Laughing at the Messenger
by Douglas Murray
February 28, 2017 at 6:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9988/sweden-trump
How can one excavate the minds of so many European officials and the extraordinary mental gymnastics of denial to which they have become prone?
One of the finest demonstrations of this trend occurred in January 2015, after France was assailed by Islamist gunmen in the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and then in a Jewish supermarket. In the days after those attacks, Fox News in the U.S. ran an interview with a guest who said that Paris, and France, as a whole, had “no-go zones” where the authorities — including emergency services — did not dare to go. In the wake of these comments, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, chose to make a stand. She announced that she was suing Fox News because the “honour of Paris” was at stake.
It appeared that Mayor Hidalgo was rightly concerned about the image of her city around the world, presumably worrying in particular about the potential effects on tourism.
Of course, Mayor Hidalgo’s priorities were all wrong. The reason Paris’s public relations suffered a dent was not because of what a pundit said on Fox News one evening, but because of the mass murder of journalists and Jews on the streets of the “City of Light.” Any potential tourist would be much more concerned about getting caught up in a terrorist firefight than a war of words. Mayor Hidalgo’s manoeuvre, however, turned out not to be a rarity, but a symptom of a wider problem.
What to Remember in Fighting Radical Islam
by Saied Shoaaib
February 28, 2017 at 4:30 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9952/fighting-radical-islam
US President Donald J. Trump has succeeded in naming a jihadi problem, political Islam, but it is hard to single out defective products from the factory without closing the factory — if one does not want them to appear again.
This does not mean that what Trump intends to do is not important; on the contrary, we need him after most Western politicians faced Islamic terrorism awkwardly, if they faced it at all. Sometimes they even cooperated with these terrorist organizations, invited their members to the White House; to Iftar dinners during Ramadan, and hugging what they falsely call “moderate Islam” — especially the Muslim Brotherhood, the incubator that most terrorist organizations come out of — instead of the true “moderate Muslims” who have been struggling to be heard above the crush of “influence,” infiltration and petro-dollars.
We can say that so far “Trumps’s recipe” for facing radical Islam had been tried before and failed. Dictatorships and military regimes in the Middle East, such as the presidents of Egypt Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak, and now el-Sisi, faced political and radical Islam. Russia did, and Saddam did in Iraq, Gaddafi in Libya, Bourguiba in Tunisia and others.
Perhaps the saddest failure is the Turkish model. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk built a dictatorship-state on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. He decisively confronted all forms of political Islam, and destroyed the military wing of the army that dreamed of restoring that Empire. Atatürk founded a dictatorship guarded by the army’s broad powers, but within a constitutional and legal framework, to deter Islamists who might want to change his modernist structure. It was also meant to stop any move to Islamic rule that might want to change the relatively open and pro-Western ideas of the Kemalist Republic.
Atatürk dominated the religious institutions, and made them work for him; they gave him a legitimate Islamic platform. He wanted Islamic culture to prevail, but under his control.
ALABAMA – Vehicle drives into Gulf Shores Mardi Gras parade; injuries reported
A vehicle “mowed” into several members of a band who were set to march in a Mardi Gras parade in Alabama on Tuesday, injuring nearly a dozen people.
A city spokesperson said 11 people were injured, including three people who were in critical condition, WKRG reported.
The vehicle was “a part of the parade,” according to an official, and witnesses told FOX10 that it was a white van with MOAA on its side that was driven by an elderly man. MOAA are the initials of the Military Officers Association of America.
The Department of Homeland Security was monitoring the situation.
Those hit were from the Gulf Shores High School Band, a parent at the scene said. A separate witness told FOX 10 the vehicle struck the students and “mowed them over.”
“A teenage band has just started to march down the parade route when they were struck from behind,” said Grant Brown, a spokesperson for the city of Gulf Shores. “The vehicle was a part of the parade.”
Gulf Shores canceled the parade after the incident and closed U.S. Highway 59 in the immediate area.
The episode comes just days after 28 people were injured when a truck plowed into the crowd at a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade on Saturday. That vehicle was allegedly driven by a highly intoxicated man.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/02/28/vehicle-drives-into-gulf-shores-mardi-gras-parade-injuries-reported.html
11 teens injured when vehicle strikes crowd at Gulf Shores Mardi Gras parade
Eleven teenagers were injured after a vehicle struck a marching band at the Gulf Shores Mardi Gras parade.
The parade was cancelled.
City spokesman Grant Brown said the band had just entered the street when a vehicle also in the parade accelerated and hit the teens. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
“Please be patient when leaving due to Emergency traffic needing access to the area,” the Gulf Shores police department posted on Facebook.
A witness at the scene tells AL.com the teens were struck by an older man driving a white Ford Expedition.
Gulf Shores police ask that anyone who shot video of the incident share the footage with investigators.
“If you witnessed and/or captured photos /video we are requesting your assistance,” the department posted on Facebook.
http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2017/02/marching_band_struck_at_gulf_s.html
<strong<Ist das die Zukunft unserer Karnevalsumzüge?
https://www.pi-news.net/2017/02/ist-das-die-zukunft-unserer-karnevalsumzuege/
EU lawmakers vote to lift Marine Le Pen’s immunity over tweets
European Union lawmakers “overwhelmingly” voted on Tuesday to lift the EU parliamentary immunity of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen for tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence.
Le Pen, a member of the European parliament, is under investigation in France for posting three graphic images of IS executions on Twitter in 2015, including the beheading of the United States journalist James Foley.
Responding to a request from the French judiciary, the EU lawmakers in the legal affairs committee voted to lift her immunity, EU officials said. The committee’s decision will have to be backed by the whole parliament in a second vote, possibly this week.
Le Pen’s immunity shields her from prosecution; lifting it would permit legal action against her. The offense being considered is “publishing violent images,” which under certain circumstances can carry a penalty of three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($79,650).
MEPs “overwhelmingly voted to lift Le Pen’s immunity,” said euroskeptic 5 Star Movement lawmaker Laura Ferrara. A Parliament official said 18 lawmakers voted in favor of removing Le Pen’s immunity and three voted against.
Le Pen could not immediately be reached for comment.
“Showing and naming the horror of Islamism allow us to fight against it,” Florian Philippot, the vice president of Le Pen’s far-right National Front party, told Reuters.
Le Pen, locked in an increasingly tight three-way race to succeed Francois Hollande this spring, has already seen her earnings as MEP cut for a different case involving alleged misuse of EU funds.
She has denounced the legal proceedings against her as political interference in the campaign, where she is the lead candidate, and called for a moratorium on judicial investigations until the election period has passed.
Polls say Le Pen should win the first of the two election rounds but lose in the runoff. They also show that her legal battles seem to have little effect on her supporters.
Le Pen’s immunity has been lifted before, in 2013. She was then prosecuted in 2015 with “incitement to discrimination over people’s religious beliefs”, for comparing Muslims praying in public to the Nazi occupation of France during World War Two. Prosecutors eventually recommended the charges be dropped.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-lepen-eu-idUSKBN1671LR
Muslim, Christian clerics convene co-existence meeting
Thousands protest in Skopije (Macedonia) against Albanian becoming official language, and demanding that the state’s integrity be maintained .
The leader of the social democrat SDSM party is about to get a mandate to form a government with the ethnic Albanian parties that support Albania’s initiative for constitutional changes in Macedonia, and Albanian becoming official language. Macedonians are afraid that this would be the first step towards a division of the country.
Ethnic Albanians (Muslims) higher fertility rate made them 25% of the population (2002 census)
In 2001 an Albanian militant group started an insurgency, demanding autonomy for the regions where the Albanians are a majority, which was seen by ethnic Macedonians as an attempt to divide the country the way Albanians did in Kosovo. The insurgents tried to kill Macedonian policemen.
Hungary: ‘Current EU refugee regulations not suited for large numbers’
Posted on February 28, 2017 18:30
By Vincent van den Born
On 27 February, European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) discussed fundamental rights in Hungary. Although the video stream of the meeting is available, the official transcripts are not yet published. The Hungarian government, however, has published its opinion in writing. These cover roughly two broad topics. Firstly, there is the cooperation with NGO’s. Minister of Justice László Trócsányi is clear:
Trócsányi stressed that the Hungary welcomes open dialogue and approaches issues with an open mind and constructively. With regard to NGO’s specifically, the Minister said that 60 thousand such organisations are active in Hungary. That they are free to voice their opinions, but that the government reserves the right not to agree with them. He did offer the opinion that NGO’s often have a tendency to think “all is well and good, there is no problem, terrorism doesn’t exist, we don’t have to worry about public safety and public order, and the important thing is that as many people as possible are able to enter Europe.” Trócsányi does not share this sentiment.
https://gatestone.eu/hungary-ngos/
Greece’s €108 billion in ‘non performing loans’ now face gridlock
Posted on February 28, 2017 16:00
By Benjamin de Wolf
“Not a single house” would be taken away from Greek citizens who could not pay their mortgage. “We have a plan, and we commit to putting an end to this nightmare of auctions of primary residences. Not a single house in the hands of a banker!” This was a promise made by Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras before his election. But as with many promises made by politicians who want to get elected, reality lurks around the corner when in office. And for Tsipras, the reality is a problem of 108 billion euro debt, and auctions are a necessity.
Last year the government was forced to auction off houses that were owned by people or companies that could not pay their loans anymore (non-performing loans, as they are called in business jargon). But activists from the “Against the Auctions” movement successfully managed to stop the process, and the thousands of auctions were ‘successfully’ reduced into a hundred.
In response to the chaos in the courts, Greek notaries nationwide decided not to carry out foreclosures of any residential property. Interviewed at her office, the president of the Thessaloniki Notaries Association, Ioanna Bilisi-Chrousala, said the decision was taken to prevent “a big social problem” and widespread homelessness. But new non-performing loans keep on surfacing, which has made the pile of non-performing loans only bigger.
Now the reality for Tsipras is this: he has €108 billion in non-performing loans (that is approximately twice the US defence budget), talks of Brexit are resurfacing, the pressure of the banks is extremely high, rumours of heightened tension within the Greek government are surfacing, and the Greek citizens are getting angrier by the day: “There is rage, anger. There are many folks that believed in Syriza, but their hope is gone for good,” according to schoolteacher Ilias Smilios. And the worst is maybe yet to come for Greece.
https://gatestone.eu/greek-debt-grid/
Sweden roundup: Three violent rapes in one week
Posted on February 28, 2017 15:00
By David Frankenhuis
Another brutal sex attack occurred in Sweden, this time in the city of Gothenburg, where two men raped a young woman in a car last weekend. Passers-by may have been filming the ordeal, that took place in a parking lot of near a school. No arrests have been made in this case, initial reporting indicates.
According to Aftonbladet, the gang rape has been committed somewhere around 3 o’ clock on Saturday morning, when police were called to the scene by witnesses. By then, the assailants had already fled.
Police have thus far only managed to briefly interview the woman, who has been examined in a hospital by a gynaecologist. She was not seriously injured, Expressen.se reports. On Sunday, forensic detectives have searched the parking lot for traces of the crime.
Woman forced from a party, beaten, raped
In the city of Malmö, a sexual assault occurred on Saturday night as well.
A woman was kidnapped from a party in the migrant-dominated neighbourhood of Rosengard by a man in his 30s. He subsequently took her to an apartment, where she was beaten, raped and abused. The attacker seems to have been known to the victim, Aftonbladet reports.
Following the rape, the woman on Sunday morning managed to flee from the apartment and alert people who were nearby. They assisted her with contacting the medical services and also informed the police of the felony.
Police constables were soon after able to arrest the suspect in the apartment. In the residence, the law officers uncovered a loaded pistol with a silencer plus ammunition and narcotics. The arrested man is now suspected of drug trafficking as well.
https://gatestone.eu/sweden-rape-roundup/
Shaykh Saed Rageah – Israel leads the world in the sexual slavery of little girls
‘They don’t get anything’ Austria passes harsh bill banning migrants from food and housing (express, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/773328/Austria-passes-harsh-bill-banning-migrants-food-housing-Europe
“FOOD and accommodation will be taken away from asylum seekers who have been told to leave Austria.
Authorities have now agreed a draft law which means rejected refugees will no longer be entitled to provisions paid for by the country’s taxpayers.
Austria’s centrist coalition government provisionally agreed the bill, which is part of a wider reform of laws dealing with foreigners in Austria.
Other harsh changes will be fines or prison sentences for migrants who lie about their identity.
The new package of policies is aimed at countering the rise of the far-right Freedom Party, whose candidate came close to winning the presidential election in December.
Those denied asylum will have to face the consequences, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said.
Mr Sobotka told reporters: “The first thing is basically that they don’t get anything from the Austrian state if they don’t have the right to stay here. Is that so hard to understand?”
Laws should be passed in the country so rejected asylum seekers leave voluntarily, the minister said.
Austria took in roughly 90,000 asylum seekers in 2015, more than one per cent of its population, as it was swept up in Europe’s migration crisis when hundreds of thousands of people crossed its borders, most of which were on their way to Germany.
It has since tightened immigration restrictions and helped shut down the route through the Balkans by which almost all the migrants – many of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere – arrived.
Asylum seekers in Austria get basic services, including free accommodation, food, access to medical treatment and €40 ($42.41) in benefits a month.
Sobotka said that of about 4,000 people who receive basic services but should have left the country, some 2,000 could be affected if the law is passed, because they are healthy enough to travel to their home countries.
The Austrian office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the bill was “highly questionable” and urged lawmakers to think hard about agreeing to it.
The bill would make asylum applicants who lie about their identities face fines of up to 5,000 euros or three weeks in jail.
Rejected asylum seekers in 2016 were most often from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, Interior Ministry data shows.”
SHOCK UN STUDY: Migrants racially profiled in Merkel’s Germany despite repeated denial (express, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/773355/UN-report-Migrants-racially-profiled-Germany-repeated-denial
“GERMAN authorities are racially profiling migrants, leading to discrimination, despite protesting they would never prejudice their visitors, it has been revealed.
A United Nations (UN) group report has claimed the practice is widespread in Germany and the true scale of the problem is being hidden from the public.
People of African descent routinely suffer widespread discrimination at the hands of Chancellor Merkel’s authorities, it was claimed in the report.
Ricardo Sunga, the leader of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, said: “The repeated denial that racial profiling does not exist in Germany by police authorities and the lack of an independent complaint mechanism at federal and state level fosters impunity.
“The Working Group believes that institutional racism and racist stereotyping by the criminal justice system has led to a failure to effectively investigate and prosecute perpetrators of racist violence, racial profiling and hate crimes against people of African descent.
“There is a serious lack of ethnicity-based disaggregated data, and an incomplete understanding of history, which obscure the magnitude of structural and institutional racism people of African descent face.”…”
Far-right group HIJACKS pro-refugee rally by dressing as Merkel and staging mock BEHEADING (express, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/773089/Far-right-group-hijacks-pro-refugee-rally-Merkel-mock-beheading
“A FAR-RIGHT group hijacked a pro-refugee rally in Spain’s capital city by holding a shocking mock Isis beheading.
Members of the “Hogar Social” group attempted to interrupt a protest in support of refugees in Madrid on Sunday.
Liberal activists were demonstrating against an EU-Turkey deal which came into effect last year.
Under the agreement, migrants arriving in Greece are deported back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or their claim is rejected.
In the astonishing video, members of the far-right group wave Syrian flags, brandishing a sign which translates: “Making Spain poorer while Syria bleeds.”
A woman, wearing an orange boiler suit similar to those seen worn by an Isis prisoner, can be seen on her knees with a man, depicting a Jihadi fighter, standing behind resting a huge knife against her neck.
Mocking the German chancellor’s open door policy, one Hogar Social group member could be seen facing the pro-refugee crowd dressed as Angela Merkel.
As the two groups came to a stand-off, police were later intervened in a bid to deter any confrontation.
The far-right group, consisting of about 30 people, were led away by officers. There are no reports of any arrests…”
Knife-wielding migrant holds pregnant woman HOSTAGE in Germany (express, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/773079/Germany-Hamburg-migrant-refugee-knife-terror-attack-asylum-seeker
“A REFUGEE wielding a knife has gone on the rampage in a migrant centre in Germany and taken his pregnant girlfriend hostage.
The armed and dangerous migrant took hostages and barrackaded himself into the centre in Hammerbrook, Hamburg.
A spokesperson for the migrant centre said he had trapped at least one woman inside with him and that was believed to be his pregnant partner.
Armed officers stormed the building with police dogs and what appeared to be heavy duty weapons.
German police said they believed the incident was taking place due to “a dispute over accommodation” and has now been resolved…”
ISIS fighters are being killed ‘at a rate they cannot sustain’ says British general (express, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/773285/ISIS-fighters-killed-rate-cannot-sustain-British-general
“ISLAMIC State fighters are being killed “at a rate they cannot sustain”, a British general has revealed.
Speaking as coalition forces tightened the noose on the jihadis’ last major strongholds Major General Rupert Jones warned that all foreign fighters – including about 500 British jihadis – face being hunted down and killed.
The deputy commander of the US-led Coalition bombing IS – also known as Daesh – said: “We as an international coalition have always been very clear.
“If you are going to take up arms on behalf of Daesh and you are going to kill innocent civilians we will find you and we will kill you.
“It does not matter whether they are from London, Paris or Baghdad. If you want to take up arms, this does not end well for you.”…”
4 teenage girls detained in France in suspected attack plots (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/teen-detained-northern-france-suspected-attack-plot-45804317
“Three teenage girls and an 18-year-old woman were detained in different parts of France Tuesday as suspects in attack plots, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
The four teenagers are suspected of taking part in an online chat channel, called “The Lionesses,” through the Telegram instant messaging application, the office said.
Prosecutors allege they spoke of the possibility of preparing “violent actions.”
Three of the detained teens are minors ages 14, 15 and 17. The fourth turned 18 in January, the office said.
Several French news outlets, citing unnamed judicial sources, reported the four teenagers were following the Telegram channel of Rachid Kassim, a French Islamic State fighter who was targeted in a U.S. drone strike in early February and who is believed to have overseen multiple plots in his homeland.
A growing number of young women and teen girls have been detained in France on suspicions of plotting attacks within the country or trying to go to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State group.”
Egypt arrests 9 Brotherhood leaders accused of revolt plot (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-arrests-brotherhood-leaders-accused-revolt-plot-45808680
“Egyptian authorities arrested nine leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group on charges that they belong to a terrorist organization and were plotting to overthrow the government, authorities said Tuesday.
The detained include Abdel-Rahman el-Morsi, a Brotherhood leader and member of the group’s Guidance Office, the Supreme State Security Prosecution said in a statement, adding that the men were now under investigation…”
Austria: Nigerian women forced into sex trade through voodoo (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/austria-nigerian-women-forced-sex-trade-voodoo-45808409
“Austrian police say they have arrested two Nigerian nationals on suspicion of forcing young women into prostitution, in part through voodoo rites.
Police spokesman Johann Baumschlager says the man and woman are accused of being part of a criminal organization, human trafficking and engaging in the international prostitution trade.
He says they forced at least 10 young Nigerian women into the sex trade in part by engaging “a voodoo priest, who made them submissive through certain rites.”
Baumschlager said Tuesday the victims were repeatedly threatened with new voodoo spells and told they each owed 50,000 euros ($53,000) for their transport to Europe.
He says the male suspect is cooperating with police but the woman denies the accusations.
Neither is being named in keeping with Austrian privacy laws.”
Germany summons Turkish ambassador over journalist’s arrest (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-summons-turkish-ambassador-journalists-arrest-45806426
“Germany’s foreign minister says the Turkish ambassador has been summoned to hear Berlin’s concerns over the arrest of a Die Welt newspaper journalist.
Deniz Yucel, who has both Turkish and German citizenship, was detained in Turkey on Feb. 14 following his reports about a hacker attack on the email account of the country’s energy minister.
He was ordered jailed Monday pending a trial on charges of terrorist propaganda and inciting hatred.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters Tuesday his office pressed the ambassador for consular access to Yucel.
Gabriel says Germany is doing “everything to ensure Deniz Yucel is freed as soon as possible and so that there is a good resolution for Deniz Yucel, for the freedom of the press and opinion, but also for the German-Turkish relationship.””
Tuareg rebels join Mali army in operation against extremists (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/tuareg-rebels-join-mali-army-operation-extremists-45801315
“Malian soldiers and former Tuareg rebels have staged their first joint patrol in northern Mali, a key step in a 2015 peace agreement meant to help calm a region under threat from multiple extremist and other armed groups.
As helicopters with the U.N. peacekeeping mission hovered overhead last week, 50 men in distinctive turbans started to patrol the city of Gao, a target of attacks by Islamic extremists including one in January that killed 54.
The joint battalion of some 600 people is the first to formally combine Malian soldiers with the rebels from armed independent groups of the Azawad region that signed the peace deal. The patrols are aimed at “building confidence and curtailing insecurity in northern Mali pending the full restoration of state authority,” the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, said Friday.
The new units face the challenge of securing the vast region and unearthing hidden extremists. They must also get along in the process, as the Tuaregs’ quest for autonomy has been a source of conflict for decades with the government…”
Turkey arrests 3 suspected of training as IS suicide bombers (abcnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-arrests-suspected-training-suicide-bombers-45803087
“Turkish officials say authorities have arrested three alleged Islamic State militants who are suspected of having trained to become suicide bombers.
A brief statement from the Gaziantep governor’s office issued Tuesday said two of the suspects were detained Feb. 14 in the province that borders Syria, while the third suspect was captured a week later in the neighboring province of Adiyaman.
Two other suspects who were also detained were allowed to go free pending a trial.
The statement says the suspects were rounded up in a raid that was carried out with information provided by two senior IS operatives during questioning earlier in the month.
The statement identifies the three suspects by their initials only. There was no information on their nationalities or where they allegedly received the training.”
Bavaria moots unlimited preventive custody for terror suspects (DW, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.dw.com/en/bavaria-moots-unlimited-preventivecustody-for-terror-suspects/a-37750496
“The Bavarian government has drawn up a draft law lifting time limits on preventive custody for “dangerous persons.” Opposition parties and lawyers say the idea is unconstitutional.
The conservative government in Bavaria is preparing a radical alteration to the state’s preventive custody laws that would allow judges to set their own limits on the incarceration of “dangerous persons,” rather than stick to the 14 days that German law currently allows.
The bill, which has already been approved by the Bavarian cabinet, is part of a new “anti-terror” package designed to improve surveillance of people security forces deem “Gefährder” (a term used by the intelligence agencies literally meaning “endangerer”).
Specifically citing the attack on the Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 and some individual attacks in Bavaria last summer, as well as the “ongoing national and international threat through different forms of terrorism and extremism,” the bill promises a “comprehensive re-working” of the law regulating police activities in the state.
Guantanamo by the Alps?
The measures include extending police powers to search and keep tabs on potential suspects. But the proposal to lift the limit on preventive custody has caught the most attention. Different German states have different laws on preventive custody, with states like Berlin limiting it to one or two days. Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have the highest maximum period at 14 days.
In its bill, the Bavarian government argues that Germany’s constitution – the Basic Law – does not oblige states to set upper limits on preventive custody.
The state government is made up entirely of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which routinely takes a more authoritarian position to the chancellor. The center-left opposition in Bavaria has already condemned the draft law.
“The CSU needs to answer the question: who wants to live in a country where people can simply disappear into prison?” Natascha Kohnen, general secretary of the Bavarian Social Democratic Party (SPD), said in a statement to DW. “With proposals like this, it is suspending the rule of law and stirring fear in the people in our state.”
“This leaves the impression that they’re just preparing a joke for political Ash Wednesday,” she added, referring to the celebrations thrown by German political parties around Carnival time, when members make satirical speeches.
The Greens party raised similar doubts…”
Turkish suspect identified in Vienna airport cyber attack (thelocal, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.thelocal.at/20170228/suspect-identified-in-vienna-airport-cyber-attack
“An investigation into a failed cyber attack on Vienna airport has found that the main suspect is based in the US.
Hackers attempted to bring down the airport’s computer servers in September last year, but were prevented from doing so. They did however manage to infect many of the computers with malicious software…”
Turkey: Erdogan attacks, Hurriyet editor quits (ansamed, Feb 28, 2017)
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/europe/2017/02/28/turkey-erdogan-attacks-hurriyet-editor-quits_02ebd1c5-59d6-4545-a011-adbb6a3d1dbc.html
“The editor-in-chief of secular daily Hurriyet, one of the most important in Turkey, Sedat Ergin, will quit on Thursday, local media reported Tuesday. The reports stressed that the decision comes at a very delicate time for Turkish politics – one and a half months from a crucial referendum on the presidential system – and, most of all, after harsh attacks on the paper carried out by President Erdogan over an investigative report published on Saturday on alleged contrasts between part of the armed forces and the government in Ankara.
After a judiciary investigation was opened yesterday, Erdogan went in public besides army chief of stadd Hulusi Akar, attacking the article and calling it ”indecent”.
Ergin will stay on at Hurriyet as a commentator, sources said. He could be replaced by the former editor of Milliyet, Fikret Bila, who could possibly sponsor a line closer to nationalists…”
Erdogan says paper to pay ‘price’ over controversial report (gulfnews, Feb 28, 2017)
http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/turkey/erdogan-says-paper-to-pay-price-over-controversial-report-1.1986094
“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that a Turkish newspaper would pay a “price” after a contentious report over alleged tensions between his government and the army.
Istanbul prosecutors launched an investigation into the Hurriyet front page story on Saturday which suggested that the army was not satisfied with the recent actions by the government.
The story listed seven grievances, including the lifting of a historic ban on female officers wearing the Islamic headscarf in the officially secular country.
“Let me put it very clearly, what’s done here, the headline they have used is insolent,” Erdogan told reporters at an Istanbul airport before leaving for Pakistan on an official visit.
Erdogan said nobody had the right to set the army against the government and warned: “Whoever tries to set us against one another will pay a price.”
“No offence but I don’t find such an approach forgivable at a time when we need unity, fraternity and solidarity more than ever,” he added.
Erdogan said he discussed the issue with Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar on Monday.
The government increased control over the armed forces in the wake of an attempted coup in July last year blamed on followers of preacher Fethullah Gulen.
The Hurriyet newspaper, the flagship daily of Dogan Media Group — the Turkish media giant which owns television channels Kanal D and CNN-Turk — is a mainstream daily but houses pro-government columnists as well.
The story headlined “the army headquarters are uneasy”, based on military sources, carried the byline of Hurriyet’s Ankara bureau chief Hande Firat.
Firat, one of Turkey’s most prominent journalists, was fiercely condemned by pro-government media for “coup mongering”.
Ironically, Firat played a crucial role in defeating the July 15 coup when she spoke to Erdogan live on her CNN-Turk show by FaceTime on the night of the putsch.
Erdogan used the interview to rally his supporters, calling them into the streets to resist the attempted power-grab.
An Istanbul prosecutor’s office on Monday launched an investigation into whether there was a pro-coup faction within the military that was trying to block the government’s actions, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The army on Tuesday dismissed “baseless and intentional criticism” in the Hurriyet story, which it said was a “distortion” aimed at harming the armed forces at a time when it is fighting terror at home and in Syria.
Appearing on CNN-Turk, Firat said the critics had not read her story properly, adding that Hurriyet had sought comment from the military chief of staff.
“We, as Hurriyet newspaper and Dogan Group, will continue to defend democracy,” she said.
Erdogan defended the lifting of the headscarf ban in the army and said women would enjoy their freedom.
“In the following process our victimised, oppressed sisters will take their place in all institutions” from the judiciary to the education sector, he said.”
Muslim, Christian clerics convene co-existence meeting (saudigazette, Mar 3, 2017)
http://saudigazette.com.sa/world/africa/muslim-christian-clerics-convene-co-existence-meeting/
“Top Muslim and Christian clerics from the Middle East gathered in Cairo on Tuesday for a two-day conference on promoting co-existence, as sectarian conflict continues to ravage the region.
The “Freedom and Citizenship” conference is hosted by Al-Azhar, one of the leading Sunni Muslim authorities based in Cairo. It comes as Coptic Christians in Egypt’s Sinai flee attacks by Daesh group (so called IS) who are waging an insurgency in the peninsula.
“Exonerating religions from terrorism no longer suffices in the face of these barbaric challenges,” Al-Azhar’s head Sheikh Ahmed Tayeb said in a speech on the opening day, referring to regional conflicts.
Tayeb called for dispelling “the lingering mistrust and tensions between religious leaders that are no longer justified, for if there is no peace between the proponents of religions first, the proponents cannot give it to the people.”
Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II called for “fighting extremist thought with enlightened thought.” He said: “Egypt and the region have suffered from extremist thought resulting from a mistaken understanding of religion that has led to terrorism.”
The conference, including Muslim muftis and Christian clergy such as Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, is to issue a closing statement on Wednesday. Daesh, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq, views Christians as enemies who should either be killed or subjugated.
In Egypt, the group’s affiliate called for war on the Coptic minority after bombing a church in December 2016, killing 29 people. Tayeb, who represents a more moderate and traditional form of Islam, argues that groups like Daesh have perverted the religion”
Al-Azhar sheikh calls for action on Islamophobia at Cairo inter-faith conference
The head of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, called on religious institutions in the East and West to act against Islamophobia, telling faith leaders at a Cairo conference that Islam “is not the reason for wars.”
El-Tayyeb was giving a speech to a conference on international freedom and citizenship in Cairo on Tuesday which is being attended by religious representatives from 50 countries.
El-Tayyeb argued that there are “obvious double standards” when dealing with violence committed in the name of Islam compared with that of other religions.
“It is very sad how a misguided group have strayed from the true principles of the religion and is mobilising the whole world against Islam,” El-Tayyeb said, arguing that if religious institutions around the world did not collaborate to act against Islamophobia, Christianity and Judaism would in the future face the same prejudice.
He also told leaders that absolving religions of any connection with terrorism would not be sufficient, and that religious institutions must deploy the principles and morals of religions to face the deteriorating situation of the world.
El-Tayyeb said that Al-Azhar avoids using the terms “minority” and “minorities” and instead prefers to spread the concept of “citizenship”, which he said was a principle applied by Prophet Muhammad in the city of Medina, the site of the first Muslim community.
The conference, which is taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday, will also see the participation of the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II.
At the end of his speech, El-Tayyeb praised Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, under whose auspices the conference was held, for holding the conference at such a critical time.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/259036/Egypt/Politics-/AlAzhar-sheikh-calls-for-action-on-Islamophobia-at.aspx