Contributor’s links for September 1, 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 must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

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

124 Replies to “Contributor’s links for September 1, 2019”

  1. Kashmiri militant calls for Pakistan military intervention in disputed region (reuters, Sep 1, 2019)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-pakistan-militants/kashmiri-militant-calls-for-pakistan-military-intervention-in-disputed-region-idUSKCN1VM1K0

    “A Kashmiri militant commander said on Sunday that Pakistan should send troops to protect the people of India-controlled Kashmir if the United Nations does not send peacekeepers, after New Delhi revoked its autonomy last month.

    “It’s binding upon the armed forces of Pakistan, the first Islamic nuclear power, to enter India-occupied Kashmir to militarily help the people of the territory,” Syed Salahuddin, who heads an alliance of over a dozen groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, said.

    His comments underline growing domestic pressure on Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Kahn to take robust action after India stripped Kashmir of its special status on Aug. 5. Khan has so far focused on a global diplomatic campaign condemning India’s actions.

    “In these testing times… mere diplomatic and political support is not going to work,” Salahuddin told a gathering of hundreds in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani zone of Kashmir.

    On stripping Indian-controlled Kashmir of its special status, New Delhi blocked the region’s right to frame its own laws and allowed non-residents to buy property there. The government said the reform would facilitate Kashmir’s development, to the benefit of all.

    But the move angered many residents of the region, which has been under a security clampdown ever since with telephone lines, internet and television networks blocked and restrictions on movement and assembly.

    India and Pakistan both rule parts of Kashmir while claiming it in full.

    Islamabad this year announced it was cracking down on militant groups amidst global pressure to do so after a group launched a deadly attack on paramilitary police in India-controlled Kashmir in February.

    Salahuddin said that “harsh steps” taken by the government of Pakistan had hindered his group’s ability to take action.

    “These steps have restrained us from launching armed resistance against India in a move that is unfair,” he said.

    Officials in Pakistan say the government is working to show it is behaving responsibly and have rejected suggestions there could be a temptation to use militants as proxies against India.

    Salahuddin, who is originally from Badgam town in Indian-administered Kashmir, was placed on a list of global terrorists by Washington in 2017, a move Pakistan’s government at the time called unjustified.”

  2. Islam religion of peace, nothing to do with terror: Imran Khan (gulfnews, Sep 1, 2019)
    https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/islam-religion-of-peace-nothing-to-do-with-terror-imran-khan-1.66147048

    “Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that Islam is a religion of peace and has nothing to do with terrorism.

    Khan was addressing the 56th Convention of the Islamic Society of North America (Isna) in Houston, USA, through video link.

    “Terrorism has no religion. Tamil Tigers launched suicide attacks in Sri Lanka, even before the 9/11 attack in the USA. But, India has given the freedom struggle in Kashmir the name of terrorism,” Khan said.

    He briefed American Muslims on the situation in Kashmir and said that the Narendra Modi government has imposed a curfew in the valley and has cut all the communication lines to the area to suppress protests against the abrogation of Article 370.

    Khan said the current Indian regime is a follower of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and that the West will have to understand the philosophy of the RSS in order to think clearly about this problem.

    About Islam and misconceptions leading to Islamophobia, the prime minister said there was only one Islam and it was unfortunate to link any religion with terrorism.

    The man on the street in the West should be sensitised to differentiate the religion from individual acts. He noted with regret that after 9/11, every Muslim in the West was suspected and the term terrorism created Islamophobia.

    “Terrorism has nothing to do with religion,” he added and urged the West to realise Muslims’ sentiments they attached with the Prophet (PBUH). The prime minister noted that Islamophobia had led to attacks on Muslims in Europe including the mosque attack in Christchurch. He urged Isna members to use their platform and accelerate their efforts to remove misconceptions in the Western world about Islam and Muslims.”

  3. Royal Navy Helps 247 Undocumented Migrants in the Mediterranean (mwn, Sep 1, 2019)
    https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/09/281661/royal-navy-undocumented-migrants-mediterranean-2/

    “The Royal Moroccan Navy rescued 247 undocumented migrants in the Mediterranean on Friday, August 30.

    Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) quoted a military source, saying that the migrants are mostly sub-Saharan nationals. They were onboard small damaged boats in the Mediterranean.

    The list of migrants included several women and children, were provided. The navy provided the necessary first aid and brought the migrants sade to Morocco’s northern ports.

    Morocco’s navy rescued hundreds of irregular migrants last month. One of the latest operations took place on August 29 when the navy rescued 156 irregular migrants, including 15 women and three children.

    Most of the migrants were of sub-Saharan origin…”

  4. Turkish jets ‘neutralize’ 9 PKK terrorists in N.Iraq (aa, Sep 1, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/turkish-jets-neutralize-9-pkk-terrorists-in-niraq/1570166

    “Turkish fighter jets “neutralized” nine PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

    On Twitter, the ministry said nine PKK terrorists were “neutralized” in the airstrikes carried out in coordination with the ongoing Operation Claw — Turkey’s anti-terror operation against the PKK — in the Metina, Avasin-Basyan, and Gara regions.

    ***”Nine terrorists, which were neutralized by air operations in coordination with our National Intelligence Organization in Gara region in northern Iraq today, were identified as intelligence and special force elements of the PKK,” the ministry added.

    Turkish authorities often use the term “neutralized” in statements to imply the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.

    The airstrikes also destroyed weapon emplacements and shelters used by the PKK terrorists, the ministry said…”

  5. ‘6 al-Shabaab militants killed, villages liberated’ (aa, Sep 1, 2019)
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/-6-al-shabaab-militants-killed-villages-liberated-/1570609

    “At least six militants belonging to insurgent group al-Shabaab have been killed and nine others reportedly wounded, after Somali National Army (SNA) launched a military operations, in Southern province of Lower Jubba on Sunday.

    An SNA radio broadcast claimed that the operations took place near the town of Jamame, Lower Jubba north of the port city of Kismayo, the administrative capital of Jubaland province.

    During the operation several villages were liberated from the al-Shabaab, according to SNA radio.

    “Somali National Army killed six al-Shabaab militants and injured nine others, near Jamame town. The troops also captured several villages in North of Kismayo town”, the SNA radio said…”

    • the independent – Desperate Syrians storm Turkish border post in protest over Assad offensive

      Hundreds of Syrians stormed a border crossing with Turkey on Friday in a protest that called for an end to a ferocious military offensive by Syrian and Russian government forces.

      Video footage from the scene showed crowds pushing their way past the border guards in armoured vehicles, and a huge convoy of motor vehicles massed at the border at Bab al-Hawa, the main gateway between Turkey and Syria’s northwest.

      The demonstration underscored the desperation of hundreds of thousands of Syrians trapped inside the northwest of the country, amid a military campaign by the Syrian and Russian armies to recapture the final swathe of rebel-held territory.

      That campaign has intensified in recent days as government troops have launched a barrage of airstrikes that have killed more than a dozen civilians and pushed into densely populated parts of Idlib province.

      Many Syrians have become increasingly disheartened at Turkey’s inaction in the face of the rapid government advance.

      Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan travelled to Moscow this week to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to find a solution to the crisis in Idlib. But images of the two leaders sharing an ice cream together as the battle raged have sparked anger.

      “We are very upset by the bombardment,” said Ahmad, a Syrian activist who attended the protest.

      “It is very harsh. There is displacement and destruction of civilian health facilities. We decided to come here to tell the world that we would go out to the border.”

      Protesters called for Turkey to either open its border or demand an end to the government offensive. Some were pictured holding signs which read: “Save the rest of us.”

      Following rapid gains over the past week, the Russian military said Syrian government forces will begin a unilateral ceasefire in the coming hours.

      The ceasefire is due to go into effect on Saturday morning at 6am local time.

      The images of hundreds of Syrians storming the border are likely to exacerbate deep anxieties in Turkey about the influx of Syrian up to 4 million refugees, who are increasingly viewed with hostility by segments of the Turkish population and the authorities.

      After initially welcoming Syrian refugees with an “open door” policy at the beginning of the eight-year conflict, Mr Erdogan’s government has recently begun to tighten restrictions and strictly enforce rules binding them to certain municipalities, and allegedly coerced some to return to their war-ravaged homeland.

      Speaking after Friday prayers in Turkey’s capital of Ankara, Mr Erdogan said the fighting in Idlib was forcing Syrians to migrate.

      “They are coming towards us and we need to be vigilant, we need to be cautious, and we have taken all the necessary precautions,” he said.

      “It would be a lie if we said the developments in Idlib are at the point we want,” he added.

      Turkey’s economic downturn last year has exacerbated worries that Syrian refugees are taking jobs, driving down wages, and driving up rents.

      “The domestic environment today is such that it will force the government to adopt much more hawkish policies than in the past,” Sinan Ulgen, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told The Independent.

      “The change in the economic conditions have affected the outlook towards the Syrian refugees from the government, but more so from the standpoint of the society which finds itself under increased economic duress.”

      Mr Ulgen also said the images of hundreds of men storming Syria’s border heightens fears that members of Isis and other jihadi groups could cross along with the refugees.

      Turkish interior minister Suleyman Soylu, in a briefing with journalists last month, said that the number of unauthorised Syrian refugees detained by authorities was predicted to reach 305,000 by year’s end, compared to 268,000 last year and 175,000 in 2017.

      “No country in the world has faced migration of this scope,” he told journalists.

      Mr Ulgen predicted the government would come under pressure to not allow any more Syrian refugees, forcing western nations to address the crisis, which many had predicted once the Russian and Syrian regime set its sights on conquering Idlib.

      “Europe needs to come back from its summer mode and start to think about what it can do to alleviate the humanitarian crisis at Syria’s border,” he said.

      “But Europe cannot turn a blind eye to a situation that has become unsustainable.”

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-turkey-border-protests-idlib-military-a9085886.html