Contributor’s Links post for January 17th, 2019

Daily Links Post graphic

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We muse use it while we can.

About Eeyore

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

105 Replies to “Contributor’s Links post for January 17th, 2019”

    • Rohingya detainees go on hunger strike to fight Saudi deportations to Bangladesh

      Look on the bright side of things. At least they’ll all weigh a lot less by check-in time at the airport departure gate. Think of all the savings on fuel!

  1. Denmark suspends arms exports to UAE over Yemen war: Report (mee, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/denmark-arm-exports-uae-yemen-report

    “Denmark announced the suspension of arms exports to the United Arab Emirates and the withdrawal of export permits approved by the Danish government, the Copenhagen Post reported on Thursday.

    The decision comes as a result of the UAE’s involvement in the conflict in Yemen, according to Denmark’s foreign minister, Anders Samuelsen…”

  2. Farsi press review: Imam sacked after calling state theology ‘a bunch of crap’ (mee, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/farsi-press-review-517536365

    “”Popular cleric removed for ‘insulting Islamic sanctities’

    Hassan Aghamiri, an Iranian imam with 1.6 million followers on Instagram and over 200,000 followers on Telegram, was defrocked by the Special Court for the Clergy for charges including “insulting Islamic sanctities” and “disturbing public opinion”.

    The court has stripped him of his title permanently and sentenced him to a suspended two-year prison sentence.

    Aghamiri is popular among Iranian youth for giving speeches that contrast with the official interpretation of Islam taught in Shia seminaries and accepted by Iranian authorities. His opponents nicknamed him the “Telegram cleric”, while his supporters praise him as a missionary of “God’s love”.

    In a controversial speech, he had denounced the ways in which Iran’s official narrative of Islam portrays God. “They have created a god for you who is up there to hang people, to burn them, to force them to drink boiling water,” he said. “This is rubbish, just a bunch of crap they are telling you.”

    Aghamiri is not the first Iranian religious figure to be defrocked. Famous clerics such as Hassan Yousefi Ashkevari, Hadi Qabel, Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, Ahmad Montazeri and Mohammadreza Nekunam have been stripped of their religious positions in recent years, mainly due to their political opposition to Iran’s theocratic governing system.”

    • Famous clerics such as Hassan Yousefi Ashkevari, Hadi Qabel, Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, Ahmad Montazeri and Mohammadreza Nekunam have been stripped of their religious positions in recent years…

      A most significant result of these dismissals is huge cost reductions in ink, printing costs, paper consumption, plus radio and television air time, along with many individual man-hours saved all because people no longer have to waste their precious time and breath pronouncing or writing down all of those stupid names.

  3. Death toll rises in Libya’s Tripoli as clashes enter second day (mee, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/death-toll-rises-libyas-tripoli-clashes-enter-second-day-630681786

    “Two days of clashes between rival militias near Libya’s capital, Tripoli, have left 10 people dead and 41 wounded, the health ministry said on Thursday.

    Fighting between armed groups erupted on Wednesday despite a truce deal four months ago that had halted deadly battles in the city.

    The health ministry said that there were women and children among the wounded…”

  4. Houthis ‘waging economic war’, Yemen government says (memo, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190117-houthis-waging-economic-war-yemen-government-says/

    “The Yemeni government said yesterday that the Houthis are “waging economic war”, noting that the country had lost $100 billion as a result of the civil war.

    Yemen’s Prime Minister, Salim Al-Khanbashi, said in a meeting with international envoys in the port city of Aden that “the Houthis looted the country’s institutions, systematically killed people and destroyed everything to achieve their goals,” Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported.

    Al-Khanbashi said that the latest evidence of the Houthis’ aggression was the “criminal” attack which targeted the leadership of the defence ministry. He claimed that the Houthis targeted civilians with mortars and artillery, as well as sieging civilians in Taiz, northwest of Aden, bombarding them with heavy weapons.

    The temporary government in Yemen is renovating economic and security infrastructure, as well as reforming financial services to increase the value of local currency. The authorities are also working to repair roads, electricity, sewage, water and schools.

    During the meeting, Al-Khanbashi said that the country is suffering because the Houthis are not committed to the agreements reached during the peace talks held in Swedish capital Stockholm in December.”

  5. Austria tilting law against Syrian asylum-seekers (memo, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190117-austria-tilting-law-against-syrian-asylum-seekers/

    “The Austrian government is seemingly determined to make it easier to expel Syrian asylum-seekers, reports Anadolu Agency.

    Interior Minister Herbert Kickl said Thursday that he believes a readmission agreement with the Syrian regime will be very effective.

    Speaking to Kronen daily, Kickl claimed an increase in the crime rate due to foreigners has been seen in the past year and so the government is set to take emergency security measures.

    Elaborating on Austria’s widely-criticized asylum law that allows the deportation of asylum-seekers whose requests are denied as well as those who have committed major crimes, Kickl said that the readmission agreement with the Syrian regime may take some time and the option to deport to a third country will be considered in the meantime. He added:

    We will keep asylum-seekers who are convicted or prone to violence at transit zones such as airports where they will have only one option ahead, to go back to their countries.

    He also recently told the media that his government is working to legislate tougher asylum laws which won’t forgive even petty crimes.

    ACCORDING TO UN REFUGEE CONVENTION, HOST COUNTRIES CAN ONLY DEPORT MIGRANTS WHO HAVE BEEN CONVICTED OF “A PARTICULARLY SERIOUS CRIME” SUCH AS MURDER, RAPE OR ARMED ROBBERY, but not lesser crimes.

  6. “What does the Left have to offer?” Dinesh D’Souza gives a Brilliant answer, gets standing ovation

  7. Morocco foils 89,000 illegal migration attempts in 2018: interior ministry (reuters, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-morocco/morocco-foils-89000-illegal-migration-attempts-in-2018-interior-ministry-idUSKCN1PB2P5

    “Morocco stopped 89,000 people from illegally migrating in 2018, up 37 percent compared to a year earlier, the interior ministry said on Thursday, as the country became the main launchpad in the Mediterranean for Europe-bound migrants.

    Morocco, which other Africans can visit without visas, has become a major gateway for migrants into Europe since Italy’s tougher line and EU aid to the Libyan coastguard curbed the number of people coming from Libya.

    In 2018, Moroccan authorities dismantled 229 migrant trafficking networks, the interior ministry’s figure showed.

    Some 80 percent of illegal migrants intercepted in 2018 were foreigners, 29,715 migrants were saved at sea while 5,608 opted for a voluntary return to their home countries, the ministry said.

    While some migrants try to reach Ceuta and another Spanish enclave in Africa, Melilla, others pay smugglers to put them on boats, as Spain is just 14 km across the western end of the Mediterranean.

    The EU has already transferred 30 million euros out of 140 million promised last October to help Morocco curb illegal migration, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Thursday at a news conference in Rabat.

    About half of the 111,558 migrants and refugees who entered Europe by the Mediterranean sea in 2018 made it through the Western route separating the Iberian peninsula from North Africa, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

    Some 2,217 died while crossing the Mediterranean including 744 on the western route, the IOM said.”

  8. Egypt: Containing sectarian violence (ahram, Jan 17, 2019)
    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/321905/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt-Containing-sectarian-violence.aspx

    “Decree 602/2018, issued by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi on 30 December, establishes a Supreme Council to Combat Sectarian Strife.

    According to the official gazette, the council will be mandated to formulate a general strategy to prevent and contain sectarian violence, developing “new mechanisms to contain such incidents and issuing periodical reports” on their success.

    The council will be headed by Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar, President Al-Sisi’s counter-terrorism advisor and a former interior minister, and include representatives from the Armed Forces, national security and intelligence agencies. It will be authorised to invite ministers and other concerned officials to attend its meetings.

    Al-Sisi’s decree was issued just a few days ahead of Coptic Christmas celebrations and before the president opened a major mosque and the largest cathedral in the Middle East in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital.

    The opening of the mosque and cathedral on 7 January came two days after a police officer was killed while defusing a bomb near a church in Nasr City.

    Islamist jihadists have long sought to target churches at Christmas time and during other Coptic feasts. Heavy security measures were in place during this year’s celebrations with roadblocks and police deployed en masse around churches to prevent car bombs and other attacks.

    In April 2017 terrorists attacked two churches, one in Alexandria, the second in Gharbiya governorate, killing 49 and injuring more than 140. At the time US President Donald Trump tweeted that the “bloodletting of Christians in the Middle East must stop”.

    In November, an armed group targeted a bus carrying Christians in the governorate of Minya, killing nine and wounding others. The Interior Ministry said it was able to pursue the group and kill its members.

    Al-Sisi’s initiative to confront sectarian violence was welcomed in religious and political circles.

    Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam described it as a “qualitative shift towards citizenship”. Coptic Orthodox Church official Kamal Zakher said it was a “positive step in confronting sectarian and terrorist incidents”.

    The council’s level of representation is a sign the authorities are willing “to address the problem’s root causes”, says Al-Ahram political analyst Nabil Abdel-Fattah.

    He added that the decree establishing the council comes parallel to the president’s order in July 2017 to form a National Council to Combat Terrorism and Extremism.

    Kamal Amer, head of parliament’s Defence and National Security Council, says the council could be an important vehicle in fighting sectarian incidents that seek to divide Egypt’s Muslims and Christians.

    “By issuing this decree,” intoned Abdel-Fattah, “President Al-Sisi is acknowledging that simple security solutions are not enough to resolve sectarian problems.”

    “We need a cultural and social revolution to change people’s mindset, particularly in Upper Egypt and rural areas.”

    In December two Christians were shot dead in Minya by a Muslim church security guard following a verbal squabble.

    “In many Upper Egypt governorates, and particularly in Minya, sectarian violence is common. Most often, it is an extension of personal disputes or clashes over places of worship,” said Abdel-Fattah.

    “Extremist elements exploit petty disputes and turn them into bloody clashes.

    “Minya heads national tables in terms of incidents of sectarian strife. For decades the governorate has been a haven for terrorist movements and extremist Islamist clerics who preach hatred and perverted interpretations of Islam.

    “These groups exploited the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood between 2011 and 2013 to spread their venomous ideology on a grand scale among villagers and school students. The lack of public services, development projects and employment opportunities helped create fertile ground for the spread of sectarian violence.”

    According to Abdel-Fattah, the government’s traditional approach to containing sectarian strife fuelled the situation.

    “When sectarian incidents take place reconciliation councils are convened to contain the situation rather than address its root causes,” he says.

    Abdel-Fattah hopes that the new council will develop a radical new strategy to tackle the situation.

    “We need to stand up to Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood clerics who preach hatred against Christians and issue discriminatory fatwas,” says Abdel-Fattah.

    Legal expert Fouad Abdel-Moneim Riad wrote in Al-Ahram on 12 January that President Al-Sisi’s decree should be followed by other measures to help contain sectarian incidents.

    “Religion should be removed from national ID cards, the niqab banned, control on extremist fatwas issued by Salafi clerics tightened and an anti-discrimination commission established,” wrote Riad.

    Riad, who chaired the committee charged with investigating sectarian incidents following the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, said the majority of attacks against Christians were triggered by the provocative preaching of extremist clerics affiliated with Salafi groups and the Muslim Brotherhood.

    “We saw how these clerics pushed members of their congregations to torch churches following the removal of the Brotherhood regime,” said Riad.

    Mushira Khattab, a former minister of population and family planning, said in an article also published on 12 January, that Article 53 of the constitution which prohibits discrimination urgently needs to be put into effect.

    “There is a pressing need for a national anti-discrimination commission to tackle all forms of discrimination based on religion, colour, gender and sex, promote a culture of diversity and tolerance and ensure educational curricula do not contain any discriminatory content,” she said.”

  9. IOM: 2,200 Irregular Migrants Arrived in Europe in 13 Days (moroccoworldnews, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/263621/iom-irregular-migrant-europe/

    “At least 2,200 undocumented migrants arrived in Europe via Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta across the Mediterranean during the first 13 days of 2019, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on January 15.

    The figure represents a slight increase compared to the 1,915 migrants and refugees who entered Europe by sea during the same period last year.

    By December 2018, Europe had received 113,145 migrants across the Mediterranean in 2018. Arrivals in Spain accounted for 50 percent of all European ports of entry. Spain received 57,250 irregular migrants who crossed the Mediterranean in 2018 up to December 26.

    According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 31 percent of those who entered Spain irregularly last year were from Morocco, 20 percent from Guinea, and 16 percent from Mali…”

  10. Morocco’s Islamic Ministry Suspends Imam for Saying New Year is Haram (moroccoworldnews, Jan 17, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/01/263639/morocco-islamic-ministry-imam-new-year-haram/

    “During his Friday sermon on December 28 in Chouhada Mosque in Rabat, an imam stated that celebrating the New Year is sinful and haram (forbidden in Islam), “because it is a Christian holiday.” The remarks earned him a ban from preaching by the Moroccan Ministry of Endowment and Islamic Affairs.

    The imam, like many Muslim scholars, stressed that Muslims should only celebrate the Islamic holidays, Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice.

    Although the imam reportedly sent a message to the ministry arguing that his sermon was founded on hadiths (stories about the prophet) and sermons by major religious scholars, the Islamic affairs minister, Ahmed Taoufiq, insisted that it was incompatible with Moroccan and Islamic principles of tolerance and cohabitation between religions…”

    • “During his Friday sermon on December 28 in Chouhada Mosque in Rabat, an imam stated that celebrating the New Year is sinful and haram (forbidden in Islam), “because it is a Christian holiday.”

      Islam, the land that fun forgot.

      • New Years is a Christian Holiday

        Fun forgot? I think it is the religion that requires a below 60 IQ of all of its followers.

        • below 60 IQ

          My high tech background has accustomed me to using a more quantitative engineering metric: “shoe-sized IQ”.

  11. India has no role in Afghan peace process: FO (tribune, Jan 18, 2019)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1890776/3-india-no-role-afghan-peace-process-fo/

    “While vowing to continue supporting and facilitating Afghan peace process, Islamabad has categorically said New Delhi has no role whatsoever in the Afghanistan peace process

    “Pakistan has facilitated the direct talks between the United States and Taliban and is convinced that an intra-Afghan dialogue is crucial to peace and stability in the war-torn country,” said the Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal at a weekly press briefing on Thursday

    He was responding to a question about fate of stalled Afghan talks amid efforts by Pakistan. The spokesperson said Pakistan has always maintained that the solution to the Afghan conflict lies in an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.

    “However, India has no role in the Afghanistan peace process,” he said in response to a query.

    He said Pakistan will continue to support and facilitate Afghan peace process in good faith and as shared responsibility. When asked about China’s relevance in the domain of Afghan peace process, he said the matter is ‘sensitive’ and the Chinese government is in a better position to respond…”

  12. Migrants: Hrw criticizes Italy and others for ‘opportunism’ (ansamed, Jan 17, 2019)
    http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2019/01/17/migrants-hrw-criticizes-italy-and-others-for-opportunism_8839c90d-8299-4a2e-ad36-9d7e39f9338d.html

    “In its annual World Report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized the opportunistic tendencies on migration shown by some EU leaders to the detriment of human rights in the bloc but noted that EU institutions were acting as a counterweight.

    ”Despite falling numbers of migrants arriving at the borders of the European Union, populist leaders in EU states sought to use the issue of migration to stoke fear and increase their support at the polls. Their positions on migration frequently undermined the EU’s moral standing and often had little to do with effective policy. However, EU institutions acted to address the Hungarian government’s attacks on the country’s democratic institutions and the Polish government’s attacks on the rule of law,” it noted. The report mentioned Italy as one of several ‘anti-immigrant’ countries: ”’Despite arrivals of migrants and asylum seekers decreasing to pre-2015 levels, the often opportunistic hardline approach of anti-immigrant European Union governments, including those of Italy, Hungary, and Austria, dominated the migration debate throughout the year.” ”With disagreements blocking agreements on reforms of EU asylum laws and fair distribution of responsibility for processing migrants and asylum seekers entering and already present in EU territory, the focus remained on keeping migrants and asylum seekers away from the EU, including through problematic proposals for offshore processing and migration cooperation with non-EU countries with fewer resources, uneven human rights records, and less capacity to process asylum claims,” it said.”

  13. Israeli student, 21, is ‘raped’ and murdered while on FaceTime with her sister as she rides a tram in Melbourne during exchange-year in Australia

    ‘I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it… the day before my wife had said to me, “We’ll have to go to Australia, Australia’s very safe, very nice”,’ the victim’s uncle Rame Maasarwe told national broadcaster ABC from the United States.

    NR: As is the case with many other “very safe, very nice” places that no longer are quite so tranquil, all of us know the reason why. Native civilian populations all throughout modern civilization are having Third World savages set upon them by governments too impatient for demographic displacement to take its course.

    Even if Aiia Maasarwe’s death is not directly connected to terrorism or migrant crime, a link remains in the way that metropolitan police forces around the world are more than swamped by law-breaking Muslims or immigrants (or both), especially in dealing with assaults against women of all ages.

    As the thin blue line is stretched to its breaking point, less determined attackers become emboldened by this overburdening of law enforcement. Given time, eventually these tyro thugs gain the impression that officers lack adequate resources to functionally deter crime. This process of disinhibition is only accelerated by obfuscative media shielding that only amplifies the protected species status conferred upon rapefugees by violent Antifa Hitlerites, willkommenskultur loons, and hysteria-prone advocates of Globalist Multiculturalism.

    This is how wildly disproportionate incarceration statistics attributed to Muslims and immigrants factor as an accessory to the murder of Aiia Maasarwe.

    Anyone who thinks that they can flood their own borders with this sort of violent, predatory flotsam had best start paying much closer attention to the catastrophes that are happening in Sweden and Germany. More of the same is on its way with every smuggler’s boat, refugee flight, trespassing alien, and migrant caravan.