Contributor’s links post for April 5, 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

145 Replies to “Contributor’s links post for April 5, 2019”

  1. Thousands rally in Mali to protest ethnic violence (saudigazette, Apr 5, 2019)
    http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/562818/World/Africa/Thousands-rally-in-Mali-to-protest-ethnic-violence

    “Thousands rallied in the Malian capital Bamako on Friday to protest at the failure of the government and international peacekeepers to stem rising ethnic and militant violence, notably the massacre of around 160 villagers last month.

    The protest was one of the largest in Mali in recent years.

    It followed the March 23 massacre by suspected militiamen from the Dogon ethnic group of rival Fulani herders in the village of Ogossagou, the deadliest act of ethnic bloodshed in West Africa’s Sahel region in living memory.

    Six years after French forces intervened to halt a militant advance from Mali’s desert north, the violence has spread across the Sahel, an arid region between the Sahara desert and Africa’s savannas, to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

    While helmeted riot police looked on, protesters held signs calling on Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and the United Nations MINUSMA peacekeeping mission to leave.

    Keita has responded to the attack on the Fulanis by disbanding an anti-jihadist vigilante group, whose fighters are suspected of being behind the massacre.

    Over 200 people had been killed by anti-jihadist self-defense groups in Mali since the start of this year, according to the United Nations, which has dispatched human rights experts to investigate the March attack.

    Friday’s march of religious, civil society and opposition leaders reflects growing frustration at the escalating violence.

    “We hold the government responsible for the deterioration of the situation,” said former minister Hamadoun Dicko.

    Friday’s march was largely peaceful, although at one point police fired tear gas and some protesters threw stones in response. Organizers have called for another protest next week. — Reuters”

  2. US to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization (saudigazette, Apr 5, 2019)
    http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/562819/World/US-to-designate-Irans-Revolutionary-Guards-as-terrorist-organization

    “The United States is expected to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington formally labels another country’s military a terrorist group.

    The decision, is expected to be announced by the U.S. State Department, perhaps as early as Monday, the officials said.

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident Iran hawk, has advocated for the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administration’s hardening posture toward Tehran.

    It would come ahead of the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of an international nuclear deal with Tehran and reimpose sanctions that had crippled Iran’s economy.

    The administration’s decision to make the designation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Reuters”

  3. Saudi Arabia detains supporters of women activists, including two US citizens (mee, Apr 5, 2019)
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-detains-supporters-women-activists-including-two-us-citizens

    “Saudi Arabia has arrested at least eight people, including two dual US-Saudi citizens, in an apparent crackdown on supporters of women activists whose trial has drawn condemnation from abroad, an associate and a rights group said on Friday.

    The 11 women on trial had campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system.

    Their case has intensified Western criticism of Saudi Arabia’s rights record, already in the spotlight after last year’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

    The US nationals are journalist Salah al-Haidar, whose mother Aziza al-Yousef is among those on trial, and Bader al-Ibrahim, a doctor and author of a book about Shia Muslim politics, the associate and London-based Saudi rights group ALQST said.

    Those newly detained are not frontline activists but have expressed support online for women’s rights and other reforms in Saudi Arabia…”

  4. Morocco under fire by Muslim scholars for mixing prayer with music (alaraby, Apr 5, 2019)
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/4/2/morocco-under-fire-for-mixing-of-prayer-and-music

    “The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) has decried mixing call to prayer with music during a ceremony attended by Pope Francis when he visited King Mohammed VI in Morocco on Saturday.

    The religious body condemned a performance in which three Muslim, Jewish and Christian singers sung hymns while music playing by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the background at Mohammed VI Institute for the training of imams.

    The show ended with the three singers locking their hands together followed by spectators’ applauding.

    In a press release published on the union’s website, the body expressed their condemnation and dismay over the performance.

    “We were surprised and shocked about what happened in the Institute for the Training of Imams in the Kingdom of Morocco, where the call to prayer, one of the greatest rituals of Islam, was mixed with Christian hymns and chants,” the statement said on Monday 1 April.

    The press release reiterates that tolerance exists in Islam and should be sought after, but it rejects “fabrication and disruption of Islam pillars”.

    Hamza El-Kettani, brother of preacher and former political prisoner Hassan Kettani, said in a publication he posted on his Facebook account that the performance is a form of “atheism and apostasy”.

    While, many religious leaders condemned the performance, former Salafi Mohamed Abdelwahhab al-Rafiki appreciated the show and criticised those who attacked it.

    Rafiki said that they rejected the performance because “they have a superiority complex” and because of their “historical hatred of art”.

    Pope Francis landed on Saturday in Morocco for a trip aimed at promoting moderate Islam and showing solidarity with the plight of migrants at Europe’s door.

    He also held a mass on Sunday for nearly 10,000 members of Morocco’s Catholic minority and called for existence between the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

    The highlights of the Pope’s visit was when he called for making Jerusalem a “symbol of peaceful coexistence” for the three religions.

    Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) hailed the pope’s visit to Morocco.

    The organisation’s Director-General Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri expressed his admiration for the pope’s visit and king’s speech, which he said underscores “cohesion and compassion between Moroccans regardless of their religious differences”.”

  5. East Libyan troops close on Tripoli, clashes near former airport (reuters, apr 5, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security/east-libyan-troops-close-on-tripoli-clashes-near-former-airport-idUSKCN1RH0TB

    “Eastern Libyan troops commanded by Khalifa Haftar said on Friday they had advanced into the southern outskirts of the capital Tripoli in a dangerous thrust against the internationally recognized government.

    Fighting was going on near the former international airport, which Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) force controlled by nightfall, an LNA spokesman and residents said.

    The move by the LNA, which is allied to a parallel administration based in the east, escalated a power struggle that has splintered the nation since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

    It came as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres departed after meeting Haftar to try to avert civil war…”

  6. Chinese Jets Fly Into Taiwan Airspace | Trump Calls Xi Jinping King of China | China Uncensored

  7. Nine foreigners recovered from Pak-Iran border (tribune, Apr 5, 2019)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1944492/1-nine-foreigners-recovered-pak-iran-border/

    “QUETTA: Levies forces on Friday recovered nine foreign abductees after a heavy exchange of fire in Balochistan near Pak-Iran border.

    According to official sources, the raid was conducted on a tip-off in the neighbourhood of Taftan in Chagai district.

    However, the kidnappers left behind Afghan abductees and fled from the scene…”

  8. Pakistan Army kills five Indian troops in LoC retaliatory fire (tribune, Apr 5, 2019)
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/1944425/1-pakistan-army-kills-five-indian-troops-loc-retaliatory-fire/

    “Soon after six civilians sustained injuries in cross-border firing, Pakistan Army soldiers responded effectively targeting Indian posts and killing five troops, a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Friday.

    Indian troops resorted to unprovoked fire in Chirikot Sector of the Line of Control (LoC) targeting civil population, the military’s media wing said.

    Six people, including a woman and four children, were injured who later shifted to hospital…”

  9. Nearly 1,230 irregular migrants held across Turkey (aa, Apr 5, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/nearly-1-230-irregular-migrants-held-across-turkey-/1443641

    “At least 1,227 irregular migrants were held across Turkey on Friday, according to security sources.

    In the northwestern Edirne province — bordering Greece and Bulgaria — gendarmerie forces held some 287 migrants, said a source, on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

    Meanwhile, police held some 496 irregular migrants in the same province when they were trying to illegally cross to Bulgaria.

    In northwestern Kirklareli province, gendarmerie forces held 43 migrants during regular patrols, another source said.

    One alleged human smuggler was also arrested in the operation.

    In northwestern province of Tekirdag, police held 181 irregular migrants during regular patrols. The police also arrested one alleged human smuggler.

    Meanwhile, some 71 irregular migrants were held in two different operations in Aegean Aydin province.

    Separately, in Aegean Izmir province, 119 irregular migrants aboard rubber boats were held by the Turkish Coast Guard off the coast of Ozdere. Security forces also arrested one alleged human smuggler.

    In the southeastern Siirt province, gendarmerie forces held 30 irregular migrants for reportedly trying to illegally enter Turkey.

    All of the migrants were later referred to provincial migration directorates.

    Turkey has been the main route for refugees trying to cross into Europe, especially since the beginning of the civil war in Syria.

    Some 268,000 irregular migrants were held in Turkey in 2018, according to the Interior Ministry. The migrants were mostly Afghan, Pakistani, Syrian and Iraqi nationals.

    *Ozgur Tiran in Kirklareli; Bahri Asik and Mehmet Calik in Aydin; Alper Aral, Suleyman Coskun Bozyel and Mesut Karaduman in Tekirdag; Fecri Barlik in Siirt; Safak Yel in ?zmir contributed this story”

  10. YES, China Does Want to Take Down America.” Gordon G. Chang with Sebastian Gorka

    • Gordon Chang is confirming that the Chinese economy is contracting, some of the Chinese government is defaulting on their financial obligations.

      If the CCP waits too long before they cave and give Trump what he wants it will be too late to save the Chinese economy.

  11. Women, kids refuse to land from Alan Kurdi – Salvini (ansa, Apr 5, 2019)
    http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/04/05/women-kids-refuse-to-land-from-alan-kurdi-salvini_1263b5ed-73bb-4ed4-b937-d1270a074b12.html

    “Two children, their mothers and a pregnant woman are refusing to leave the Alan Kurdi migrant rescue ship, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Friday.

    The kids, aged one and six, their mothers and the pregnant woman were given permission to land in Lampedusa for medical reasons by the interior ministry earlier.

    “All that remains is to wish them bon voyage towards Berlin,” said Salvini.

    The Alan Kurdi is run by German migrant rescue NGO Sea Eye.

    Sea Eye said later its policy was not to split up families.

    “Italy offered to evacuate two children and their mothers, The accord with the German government was, however, that families would be evacuated. We will not make any family separation active!” It added: “this is an emotional torture and puts the wellbeing of the child at risk”.

    A German foreign minister spokesperson, meanwhile, said that “we are in direct contact with our Italian partners” about the ship.

    A European Commission spokesperson said that the EU executive was following the case and had requested the creation of a coordination group.

    Germany also said it was willing to take some of the migrants on board the vessel. Two children, their mothers and a pregnant woman are refusing to leave the ship, Salvini said.

    The kids, aged one and six, their mothers and the pregnant woman were given permission to land on Lampedusa for medical reasons by the interior ministry earlier.
    “All that remains is to wish them bon voyage towards Berlin,” said Salvini.

    Coast guard and finance guard motor launches had left Lampedusa Friday to take the four on board. Sources said they would be taken to Lampedusa.

    The Alan Kurdi is currently reported to be zigzagging about 15 nautical miles from Lampedusa, respecting an Italian interior ministry warning Thursday that its course was to be considered “not inoffensive” to Italy, sources said.

    The ship has yet to obtain from the Roma coast guard maritime coordination centre an authorisation to enter Italy’s territorial waters.

    At Lampedusa, coast guard motor launches and finance guard vessels are said to be monitoring the situation, local sources said.

    Lampedusa is a stepping stone island for migrants, closer to Libya than to Sicily.
    It has borne the brunt of migrant landings over the past few years.”

  12. Over half of children at Danish refugee centre have symptoms of mental health problems: Red Cross (thelocal, Apr 5, 2019)
    https://www.thelocal.dk/20190405/over-half-of-children-at-danish-refugee-expulsion-centre-have-symptoms-of-mental-health-problems-red-cross

    “A Danish Red Cross report has found that a large proportion of children accommodated at a centre for rejected asylum seekers have problems ranging from difficulty sleeping to loss of appetite.

    A systematic screening of 56 children who stay at the Sjælsmark facility showed significant risks to their mental health, media including Politiken reported on Friday.

    Sjælsmark, like Kærshovedgård in Jutland, is a so-called udrejsecenter (departure or expulsion centre), housing rejected asylum seekers who have not yet left Danish territory.

    The Red Cross report concluded that as many as 61 percent of the screened children fulfilled criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis, with a further 19 percent also possibly meeting the criteria pending further examination.

    There is a “real risk” that symptoms currently seen in the children could become chronic, the report concludes.

    The report is based on a systematic screening of 56 children who live at Sjælsmark, conducted during the last six months.

    “The results show that the well-being of children is massively lacking,” Danish Red Cross general secretary Anders Ladekarl said as the report was released.

    Politicians from parties across the political spectrum commented on the Red Cross report.

    “This is crystal-clear documentation that children are suffering at Sjælsmark,” Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen of the Red Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) party told Ritzau.

    “I don’t believe that any minister – regardless of party – can see this without acting,” Schmidt-Nielsen said.

    “We are dealing here with children who are being made very, very sick by living in Denmark,” she added.

    Another opposition politician, Sofie Carsten Nielsen of the Social Liberal (Radikale Venstre) party, said that suffering of children at Sjælsmark had long been evident.

    “Actually seeing that over half of the children (living at the facility) are in danger of being diagnosed with an illness really shocks me,” Carsten Nielsen said.

    “We cannot dehumanise these children just because it suits our political goals. These are children who are being damaged while we are aware and the state is aware of what is going on,” she said.

    The Social Liberal immigration and integration spokesperson said she hoped that the evidence presented by the report would sway other parties over their positions on housing children at Sjælsmark.

    Psychologists Rie Bornfeld and Solveig Gunnarsdottir, who authored the Red Cross report, recommend that families are not housed at Sjælsmark until their departure from Denmark is “imminent”.

    There is currently not a political majority in support of such a measure.

    “I hope that this will push people outside of (parliament) into action. Because that is what normally gets the bigger parties to act,” Carsten Nielsen said.

    “I am thinking here of both the (opposition) Social Democrats and what was once a decent party in (senior government partner) the Liberals. Things cannot go on like this,” she added.

    In a written message provided to newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, Social Democrat immigration spokesperson Mattias Tesfaye underlined his party’s hardline stance on immigration.

    “We do not have free immigration to Denmark, and that’s why these families must travel home. That is the responsibility of the parents. Until that happens, the children will be caught in the middle,” Tesfaye said to Kristeligt Dagblad.

    “Here, we have a political responsibility to protect children better than we do today,” he added.

    Rasmus Kjeldahl, director of children’s charity Børns Vilkår, said he believed Danish society was failing children at Sjælsmark.

    “This is scary and sad reading. Children are suffering because of the pressure being placed on their parents.

    “Although parents have a responsibility for not travelling home, we as a society have totally neglected to protect them from the consequences of their parents’ choices,” Kjeldahl said.

    All of the children who were screened in the report are children of rejected asylum seekers who have refused to voluntarily leave Denmark.

    But parents housed at the facility may be facing very difficult choices over whether to leave.

    Sjælsmark, as well as Kærshovedgård, houses rejected asylum seekers who have not yet left Danish territory, for example due to being stateless or because no readmission arrangement exists between Denmark and their home country.

    In other cases, asylum seekers may refuse to leave because they do not agree with the outcome of their asylum application.

    Others reject voluntarily returning to their home countries due to the danger they believe that will place them under.

    In January, a video which appeared to show a five-year-old boy being refused boiled vegetables at Sjælsmark sparked new debate over treatment of people refused refugee status in Denmark, with calls for children to be allowed to live away from the facilities.

    In December 2018, an ombudsman report found that children at Sjælsmark live “under difficult conditions” which are “designed to significantly complicate their formative years and limit their opportunity for natural development and life experience.”

    Conditions at the facility are not in breach of international rights conventions, the independent assessor found.

    153 children currently live at Sjælsmark.”

    • Appauling,how are these “mentally disturbed children”going to be able to rape and murder Danish old folk if they are locked up ?

  13. “The First & Second Amendment: The Tools with Which We Protect Our Freedoms” Caller Ray

  14. London BLOODBATH: Man hospitalised after being stabbed in brutal Dagenham pub brawl (express, Apr 6, 2019)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1110542/London-stabbing-UK-knife-crime-latest-Dagenham-pub-fight-The-Cross-Keys-attack-met-police

    “A BRUTAL pub brawl in Dagenham, London, has left a man hospitalised with multiple stab wounds, police said.

    The Metropolitan Police say they were called to the scene just after 9pm on Friday. The attack is believed to have taken place in the vicinity of The Cross Keys Pub on Crown Street. A spokeswoman for the Met Police told Express.co.uk police were called at 9.06pm on Friday, April 5 to reports of a fight inside a public house at Crown Street, Dagenham.

    She explained officers, London Ambulance Service (LAS) and London’s Air Ambulance (HEMS) had attended the horror incident.

    She said: “At the scene a male was found suffering from stab wounds.

    “The injured male was taken by LAS to an east London hospital.

    “We await an update on his condition.

    “A crime scene and cordons are in place.”

    No arrests have been made at this stage and police say enquiries are ongoing.

    Those with information are urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

    The attack is the latest in a string of knife crime to plague the nation…”

      • I’ve been screaming about the Solar Cycle for many years.

        Apparently, no one on the Left will admit it exists.

        • Of course not, if the changes are caused by the Sun big government can’t do anything to stop the change.

  15. the guardian –Donald Trump vs FBI director on the white supremacist threat

    FBI Director Chris Wray has described white supremacist extremism as ‘a persistent, pervasive threat’ during a House committee appropriations hearing.

    According to congressman Jose Serrano, Wray did not mention the issue by name in his budget request to the House, but Wray reiterated the significance of the issue, describing the shift from organised white supremacist groups towards un-coordinated lone actors.

    His comments were in contrast to those of Donald Trump who, after the Christchurch shooting, said he ‘didn’t really’ see white nationalism as a growing threat around the world but instead a ‘small group of people with serious problems’.