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.
From last month:
German police arrest man over rail ‘sabotage’
German police have arrested a man suspected of loosening bolts on a stretch of high-speed rail line between Cologne and Frankfurt. State-owned operator Deutsche Bahn described the incident as “sabotage.”
https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-arrest-man-over-rail-sabotage/a-52873197
A 51-year-old man in Germany was facing charges of attempted murder on Saturday after being “strongly suspected of having removed bolts on 80 meters (260 feet) of rail on a bridge between Cologne and Frankufrt,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Investigators are still trying to determine the suspect’s motives, while police on Friday said they could not rule out a “possible attack attempt.”
State-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn described the incident as “sabotage.”
The affected area of the track was located just before a bridge near Niedernhausen, outside Frankfurt. An Intercity Express (ICE) train driver noticed something unusual while crossing it during the early hours of the morning Friday. Police later said several trains had crossed that stretch before the tampering was discovered.
“Under such circumstances a train could be derailed,” a police spokesperson said. “Luckily no harm came to any trains or passengers.”.
Several trains had to be canceled or redirected as a result, but traffic has since returned to normal.
of having removed bolts on 80 meters (260 feet) of rail on a bridge
This an attempt to put a train in the river, we all know what motivation for that was.
Took planning, time, focus.
This can’t be written off as a hapless nutter.
(To all the clinical mental cases who might be reading this here, I’m your advocate! Gives a bad name to genuine nutters! They’re our brothers and sisters and kids; hurt them, you hurt us.
Maligning people with disabilites is disgraceful. Unfortunately, their families can’t compete with the jihadi lobby.)
https://youtu.be/DFsopx1A3xY
Extremely technical explanation of CCP plot to rule the planet. Short but worthy.
Vlad, ZH may be tracking you.
https://summit.news/2020/04/28/chief-public-health-officer-of-canada-appeared-in-2010-documentary-to-adcovate-tracking-bracelets-for-vaccine-refusniks/
Making the Saudis pay for the pain they’ve helped inflict on the U.S. economy. Same tactic as can be used against the CCP. Seizing assets. In the Saudi case PT also has the option of throwing the House of Saud to the wolves. Taken in the greater context of the Petrodollar arrangement, which means guaranteed crude supply for the U.S. in exchange for payment in U.S. dollars, the end is nigh no matter what for both the Saudis and the petrodollar, so their fall is already written on the wall. How’s this for “smart money”?
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Trump-Could-Use-Nuclear-Option-To-Make-Saudi-Arabia-Pay-For-Oil-War.html
Our enemies have been writing the petrodollar’s obituary for for years. They’d pray for it, if they weren’t godless commie tools.
Yes, the days of the USD as reserve currency are numbered. Just as life itself. Who knows? The USD might outlive mortals like Putin and Xi and the rat-pack regime of Twisted-Ragheads.
Sanctions are our boots on the ground. Bloodless, the most potent weapon in our arsenal. For as long as it lasts. We’re blessed by having a Potus who dares to exploit the power it gives us, who does it brilliantly.
Enemy propaganda drives defeatism in every dimension of war. Richard mentioned Lord Haw-Haw and Tokyo Rose the other day. During WWII they broadcast our defeat continuously in an attempt to demoralize our soldiers. They failed. We beat them to death.
The enemy had more success in the information battle space during the Vietnam war. Communists in network media convinced the American public we were losing – – when we were actually winning in the field. Body-bags on TV, night after night. Jane Fonda as Tokyo Rose, and so forth.
Defeatism is surrender.
Let the dogs gnaw on the USD that’s choking their economies, frustrating their fantasies of dominance. Like all good things it will come to an end, but by then we’ll surely have other weapons in our arsenal. Enjoy the ride now, stay tuned for continuing adventures with Winners.
Yucki, I don’t want to contribute to enemy propaganda by posting issues concerning the dollar, by any means. In fact my interest in the subject began with trying to find a basic autodidactic understanding of what money is, as a general interest. I knew intuitively this was an important question before knowing many answers.
The dollar is a much more interesting and expansive subject than when it is confined to the enemy’s perspective. A dollar that has the integrity our forefathers intended it to have enables individual freedom better than most other components of freedom. A “hard” currency gives us a chance at real savings for our hard labour, and a defense against fiat-fueled wanton war making which kills many of our best young men. Debt-based fiat has empowered the Left while weakening the Right in recent years. The Right, largely, is responsible for the creation of all real capital, while the Left has very effectively siphoned off savings and said capital via Keynesian economics, aka fractional reserve banking and deficit financing.
So while I understand your position, I think it is dangerous to say that any and all discussions of the dollar is playing into enemy hands. This stifles a valid subject. Especially at a time when the virus has triggered an incredible flood of cash everywhere, making the perils to purchasing power all the more timely. Not knowing the timeline on events doesn’t make them less important, just like the next jihadi suicide bomber we don’t know about is any less important to us.
Also, we cannot allow the vapid and dangerous Rothschild boogeyman to stop us from talking coin. Right now, globalist billionaires like Bezos, Gates and Buffet are more on our radar than are Jewish bankers. In fact, if the Jewish banker stereotype was ever real, he sure as heck had some hand in making the U.S.A. the world’s greatest nation, so let the aniti-Jewish propagandists square that one.
If America is the bedrock of individual freedom, and the dollar is the bedrock of the American economy, then I can’t see ignoring the subject in good conscience. And while enemies may call for the dollar’s demise, the dollar will also be the greatest weapon in our arsenal once it is put back on a sure footing by President Trump.
Knife attacks on passers-by committed by a group of Syrians in Hanau, Germany – Are the perpetrators some kind of “Sharia police”?
In Hanau yesterday, young men “with full beards” attacked passers-by with knives, four of the victims were taken to the emergency room during the night. Two suspects have already been arrested.
Last night, the Hanau police reported: After four people with injuries, including stab wounds, were committed to the emergency room of the Hanau hospital shortly after each other at about 10 pm, the police are currently searching for several men. The police helicopter was also used in the search. According to initial findings, the passers-by were travelling independently in the areas Leimenstraße/Langstraße, Hirschstraße and at Freiheitsplatz. When they each encountered a group of five to seven unidentified persons and were attacked. Almost all of the perpetrators are said to have full beards. One is about 20 years old, 6’2? tall and muscular. He has dark blond hair and wore short trousers. The injured four men are aged 17, 23 (2x) and 26 years. According to current knowledge, none of them is in mortal danger. The Hanau public prosecutor’s office has taken over the investigation. This morning, the police reported: “After four people with injuries, including stab wounds, had been admitted to the hospital in Hanau last night, the police provisionally arrested two suspects following a witness statement. The two Hanau residents, aged 23 and 29, are currently in custody. The Hanau public prosecutor’s office and the Hanau criminal police have taken over further investigations”.
According to information from the Bild newspaper, the two ” Hanau residents” who were arrested are Syrian. The victims are also said to have a migration background. Were the perpetrators a kind of “Sharia police”, who watched over the observance of Ramadan in Hanau?
According to Focus, the public prosecutor’s office has now confirmed that the men arrested are Syrian. And further: “No information is available yet on the background of the crime, the spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office explains further. “At the present time, we have no indication whatsoever that the attacks have a political or xenophobic background,” says Mies. Mies has not yet been able to confirm reports that the attacks were preceded by an argument in a Turkish snack bar in downtown Hanau.
https://medforth.blog/2020/04/29/knife-attacks-on-passers-by-committed-by-a-group-of-syrians-in-hanau-germany-are-the-perpetrators-some-kind-of-sharia-police/
Germany: 4 injured in stabbing attack in Hanau, suspects arrested – spox
Four people have been injured in a stabbing attack in the German city of Hanau on Tuesday evening, the prosecutor’s office confirmed on Wednesday, adding that two Syrian nationals were arrested in connection to the incident.
“We assume there was a confrontation between two groups whose members injured each other,” said Dominik Mies, spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office in Hanau, adding that the attackers were armed with “knives and striking tools.”
The official went on to stress that there is no evidence that the incident has a terror background or somehow connected to the Hanau shooting in February 2020 which left at least 10 people dead and five injured.
“We don’t have any evidence that the incident has any political, terror or xenophobic motives,” Mies continued.
As a result of the incident, four people were taken to a hospital in Hanau and none of those injured is in a life-threatening condition.
Democrat states promised and paid big money to mafia unions–and now they’re broke. These states deserve not one cent of bailout:
https://youtu.be/LjnDKle4t8s
“…We’re all in this together…”
Really? Then how about you government employees share some of your pensions, your benefits, your so-called work-at-home-while-getting-paid full salaries, as opposed to the rest of us who don’t get paid if we don’t work? In fact I bet some government workers over time become so far removed from reality that they cannot even imagine the concept of no pay for no work. Yes, I’m bitter. It is so unfair that the private sector must suffer through all of this CCP WMD bullshit WHILE being forced to pay government employee compensations that it is near criminal. I bet an Dystopian candidate for Prime Minister could run on this platform alone and get a substantial share of the vote. It is an inevitable reckoning to come, because everything said by the excellent guest in the video above goes for Canada in spades. I don’t blame people one bit for getting it if they can, but I do blame politicians utterly devoid of integrity in the face of economic ruin.
Once again the Dems are trying to use a crisis to further their Marxist goals, they know that if the Federal Government bails out their bankrupt states the taxes in all states will have to increase. “Tax Normalization” (all states charge the same tax rates) will stop people moving from the Dem controlled high tax states to the Repub controlled low tax states. This will allow the Dems to spread their Marxism to the entire nation and guarantee that the US economy remains in the basement.
Let the States go bankrupt and have fiscal responsibility force on them, thiw will lower the cost of living in those states and eventually lure corporations to move factories back to the rust belt. When the started the Unions were needed but under Dem protection they have grown way to big and way to powerful, especially the government workers unions.
Amen.
Now convince Mitch McConnell.
COVID-19: CONTROL OF DISEASE ACT 1984
video – 11 mins 14 secs
We discuss the recent legislation changes to the Control of Disease Act 1984 which came into force on the 27th April 2020, regarding vaccinations and Covid-19 medical treatment. The Government has the power to force medication on you. Arrest and detain you indefinitely in a hospital or centre. Take and destroy your personal things and destroy your building. You have no right of informed consent. No rights to prosecute or take any legal action against any authority and much more… Zed Phoenix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzJpRvSUbl4
+
PUBLIC HEALTH (CONTROL OF DISEASE) ACT 1984
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/22
German Prosecutors Charge Family and ‘Miracle Healer’ for Killing Young Woman in ‘Exorcism Ritual’ (sputniknews, Apr 29, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/202004291079130701-german-prosecutors-charge-family-and-miracle-healer-for-killing-young-woman-in-exorcism-ritual/
“…According to a report, 22-year old Nesma M. was forced to drink large amounts of salt water, as her husband, his parents, and a self-proclaimed “Islamic miracle healer” tried to cure her infertility by “expelling demons”….”
Two Suspects Detained After Stabbing Attack in Germany’s Hanau – Reports (sputniknews, Apr 29, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/202004291079129955-two-suspects-detained-after-stabbing-attack-in-germanys-hanau—reports/
“The police used a helicopter to search for the suspects in a stabbing incident, which occurred in Hanau in Hesse, located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. The preliminary reports described them as a group of bearded young men but didn’t elaborate on the issue.
Two young men have been arrested after a knife attack in the German town of Hanau, the magazine Focus reported, citing a police spokesman.
The suspects are said to be 23 and 29 years old, but there are no additional details in the report. It is believed that up to seven people participated in a stabbing attack, injuring four passersby on Tuesday…
Mass stabbing attack in Germany; five to seven men attacked passersby with knives on Tuesday evening in Germany’s #Hanau city. At least four injured. Two suspects detained by police…
The wounded were taken to a local hospital, and, according to the police, their lives are not in danger. However, the motives behind the assault remain unclear.
In late February, a gunman, identified as 43-year-old Tobias R., went on a shooting spree in Hanau, murdering ten people and wounding six more at two shisha bars before returning home where he killed his mother and committed suicide.
According to German authorities, there were signs that the Hanau shooting was a racially motivated terror attack.”
Three People Killed, 15 Wounded in ‘Suicide Bombing’ in Kabul (sputniknews, Apr 29, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/asia/202004291079129571-three-people-killed-15-wounded-in-suicide-bombing-in-kabul/
“The news about the attack comes just a few days after another attack, carried out by Taliban militants, in the central part of the country claimed lives of at least four security officers.
At least three people died and 15 more were injured in a terror attack in the Afghan capital, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday.
“A suicide bomber detonated his explosives among civilians in the Reshkhor area of the Char Asiab district of Kabul on Wednesday morning”, Tariq Arian said in an official statement.
So far, no organisation has claimed responsibility for the incident, which occurred during Ramadan – a holy month for Muslims…”
Kim Jong Un’s absence from public events likely due to COVID-19 concerns: South Korea minister
Shanmugam on “malicious” spreading of misrepresented videos to create foreign worker “panic”
COVID-19: Singapore to add 23,000 beds across various care facilities by end-June
Singapore will enter recession in 2020 due to blow from COVID-19 pandemic: Central bank
They treat the public like grownups.
Not glossing or spinning the forecast. It’s so refreshing.
COVID-19: Malaysian deputy health minister fined for violating movement control order
Irresponsible to put pressure to let home-based businesses operate during circuit breaker: Masagos
COVID-19: India cancels orders for test kits from China over quality, pricing issues
COVID-19: China says US politicians ‘telling barefaced lies’ as Trump suggests seeking damages
You can tell that the reporter in DC is a left winger who ignores the new facts that have come out.
CNA is now posting new videos but Youtube isn’t notifying us when they post.
The guy in DC doesn’t have a clue about natural rights. It’s a foreign concept for someone from his culture. You can tell it sounds kookie to him.
All he knows is what his American and British colleagues tell him. And they’re all leftists.
New Zealanders rush for fast food as COVID-19 lockdown eases
Deaths linked to COVID-19 in Indonesia could be underreported, new numbers suggest
Japan plans to fast-track use of antiviral drug remdesivir to treat COVID-19 patients
Remdesivir is crap, but Japan has invested in Gilead, the company.
Shinzo Abe’s our friend and ally, but he’s a bad person.
Fauci says ‘inevitable’ the coronavirus will return in fall
Associated Press – Fauci: Remdisivir study shows drug can block virus
It’s crap.
This is fraud.
91 Middle Eastern Migrants Intercepted in English Channel in One Day (breitbart, Apr 29, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/29/91-middle-eastern-migrants-intercepted-english-channel-one-day/
“British and French border authorities have taken ashore 91 Middle Eastern migrants in eight boats in the English Channel in just one day, with the vast majority of those taken into custody by the British being men.
Four boats managed to get as far as the Kent coast in the south-east of England on Monday before being intercepted by UK Border Force, while the other four were stopped by the French in the narrow, busy stretch of water between Great Britain and Europe.
The Home Office confirmed that the first boat was carrying 13 men and two women, and the three other vessels were carrying 30 men and two women. All migrants claim to be from Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, and Iran.
According to the BBC, all those intercepted in British territorial waters were taken to Dover, Kent, and transferred to immigration officials. The Home Office also confirms that all those detained are being observed for signs of the Chinese coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the UK’s French counterparts stopped four more migrant boats with a total of 44 migrants on board, all of whom are suspected of seeking to illegally travel to the UK.
Local news outlet KentOnline reported that the latest illegal boat crossings follow on from Sunday when UK Border Force caught three boats with 35 migrants on board, all of whom are said to be from Kuwait, Iran, and Iraq.
On Friday, the UK caught five boats carrying a total of 76 people, again with the majority – 55 – being men and all of which claim to be from Yemen, Kuwait, Iran, and Iraq. All were transferred to immigration authorities…”
Farage: Illegal Boat Migrant ‘Scandal’ Is ‘Bigger Than Anyone Realises’ (breitbart, Apr 29, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/29/farage-illegal-boat-migrant-scandal-is-bigger-than-anyone-realises/
“Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has warned that the illegal boat migrant “scandal” is “bigger than anyone realises”, claiming many migrants arriving in the south-east of England under cover of the night are never accounted for.
The Brexiteer politician has been warning in recent weeks of the dangers of illegal migrants entering the UK in boats crossing the English Channel bringing more cases of Chinese coronavirus into the country.
While a scant few media headlines have revealed dozens of illegals being intercepted off the coast of Dover, Kent, by UK Border Force and taken into custody, Mr Farage warned that there is a “scandal” happening in another part of the south-east of England, where organised smuggling may be ushering in even more migrants who may never be reported to authorities, adding to the at-least one million illegal aliens already in Britain.
Speaking from Pett Level in East Sussex, Mr Farage described it as the “favoured beach for migrants to come” because of the shallow seas, sandy beach, and the slipway (a ramp near the shore on which boats can be moved to and from the water).
“I think what’s happening is, boats and dinghies are coming in here, under the cover of darkness, and they’re able not just to unload the crew but to get the boats off on trailers, as well.”
Walking the route smugglers and illegal aliens would take, he pointed beyond the slipway to the road.
“We’re getting to the high end where they’re not just getting people out, they’re actually getting their boats back, as well,” Mr Farage said in the report posted to social media on Tuesday.
“We do see some, where the border force tow people in,” he said, alluding to interceptions such as those at Dover, where on Monday, immigration picked up 47 Middle Eastern — and overwhelming male — migrants in four boats. “There are other people landing above and beyond the official figures where the people are being smuggled away,” he said.
“This scandal, I think, is far bigger than anyone realises. [According to] the official figures, since we’ve been in lockdown, 550 people have come into the country. Not one, to my knowledge, has been returned [to France] and [home secretary] Priti Patel needs to get tough,” Mr Farage added.
Visiting nearby Hastings on the same day, one local told Mr Farage that he had seen “loads of immigrant boats coming in” with no Border Force in sight, saying that the most illegals he saw in one vessel being 29 people.
This week, Mr Farage condemned the mainstream media for refusing to cover the massive increase in illegal landings. One of the locals corroborated the disregard, saying there was “no point” in reporting them to the press because “they get the story off you, and that’s it, basically. Not all of them get published.”
He added: “I am speaking to someone in Dover at the minute… and they said [the media] are not publishing them, because every day in Dover there’s a boat coming in.”
Another had remarked that in East Sussex, he had also heard of landings daily.
On Monday, Mr Farage wrote of the media’s hypocrisy in its coverage of coronavirus “vigilance”, saying: “I am beginning to wonder whether some people’s Covid-19 vigilance stops at the point that the term ‘illegal immigration’ is mentioned.”
“What is the government doing to stop the boats from crossing the English Channel?” Mr Farage then asked on Tuesday, adding in an indictment of the UK’s immigration services: “Border Force seems to be complicit.””
You Tube has started making some of the videos from Korean news companies private, China must be feeling a lot of heat for them to pressure You Tube this way.
Youths Arrested with Large Amount of Drugs Say They Stocked up for Ramadan (breitbart, Apr 29, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/29/youths-arrested-large-amount-drugs-say-they-stocked-up-ramadan/
“Three French youths arrested with a large number of illegal drugs told investigators they were stocking up before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Police seized 4¼oz of cocaine, 8lb of marijuana, 4½oz of cannabis resin, and 2½oz of ecstasy from the three suspects, two of whom are brothers.
The three youths, aged 21, 24, and 27, claimed the drugs were for their consumption rather than for selling on to others and that the large amount found in their possession was because they were stocking up before the start of the Islamic holy month, according to La Depeche.
Investigators say that they also found scales, knives, and a hundred or so small bags that led them to doubt the drugs were for personal consumption, as the trio had claimed.
At the time of the arrest, one of the young men, who had been released from prison earlier in the month, insulted the police officers and threatening to kill them.
All three appeared in court earlier this week but requested additional time from the judge to prepare their defence case. Their trial was delayed until May 19th. All three men have been kept in detention without bail.
The lockdown enacted to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus in France has had major effects on the illegal drug trade and has led to shortages across the country.
Some law enforcement officials have warned that the shortages could lead to violence if the supply of drugs does not resume.
Violence, especially towards police, has occurred repeatedly in the last several weeks in areas like Yvelines, where police reported nearly daily attacks from local youths.
Last week, many areas, particularly around the departments near Paris, saw several days of rioting along with attacks on police and firefighters, sparked by an incident between a motorcyclist and police in Villeneuve-la-Garenne.”
‘Panda Bashing’: China Ramps up Attack on Australia over Push for Coronavirus Inquiry (breitbart, Apr 29, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/29/panda-bashing-china-ramps-up-attack-on-australia-over-push-for-coronavirus-inquiry/
“Australia’s refusal to retreat from its call for a global inquiry into the causes of the coronavirus pandemic continued to draw a furious response from Beijing on Wednesday, with Chinese media claiming Australia is forever making trouble, “a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes.”
The state-controlled People’s Daily accused Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of seeking the probe to deflect criticism of his government, declaring his move will be defeated due to a lack of support by the UK and France. “This is a slap on the face which has come quickly,” it warned.
China’s ruling Communist Party has angrily dismissed Australian calls over the past month for an independent investigation into the spread of the disease from the Chinese city of Wuhan, as Breitbart News reported.
The Australians have also been among the most outspoken critics of China’s dangerous refusal to close the live animal “wet markets” seen as spawning grounds for the viral pandemic, and of the World Health Organization’s (W.H.O.) baffling endorsement of their reopening.
Morrison has continually defied China’s rhetoric and defended the “entirely reasonable and sensible” call for an inquiry as the international political fallout over the pandemic deepens.
On Wednesday Morrison said his conservative coalition government will not be deterred by China’s sneering disdain, as SBS News reported.
“This is a virus that has taken more than 200,000 lives across the world,” he told reporters in Canberra. “It has shut down the global economy. The implications and impacts of this are extraordinary.
“Now, it would seem entirely reasonable and sensible that the world would want to have an independent assessment of how this all occurred, so we can learn the lessons and prevent it from happening again.”
In recent days Chinese state media has run numerous inflammatory statements including that Australia was “gum stuck to the bottom of China’s shoe”, doing the bidding of the U.S. but without holding any influence, and risking longterm damage to its bilateral relationship and trading partnership with China.
On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy released details of a call from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat), and in a further attempt to embarrass the Morrison government, claimed the Dfat secretary had said it was “not the time to commence the review now and Australia has no details of the proposal”.
The move came after warnings by China’s ambassador to Australia, Jingye Cheng, on Monday that Australia would pay an economic price over its inquiry call, a move described by an Australian minister as “threats of economic coercion.”
Cheng said Australia’s support for the inquiry could result in Chinese tourists having second thoughts about visiting.
“Maybe the ordinary people will say ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?’” he told the Australian Financial Review.
A Tuesday night editorial in the Global Times followed that up and accused Australia of “panda bashing” and victim blaming, and Morrison of “adventurism” which could damage the bilateral relationship “beyond repair”.
For his part, Morrison calmly insists the investigation “is not targeted” and refused to buy into the war of words with China, saying the response was “a matter for them.”
“Australia will do what is in our interest, in the global interest, and we will of course continue to support moves to ensure there is a proper independent assessment of what has occurred here.”
Morrison said Australia’s relationship with China was “mutually beneficial” and noted its trade with China consisted mainly of export of resources. “I see no reason why that would alter in the future.”
China’s anger at Australia’s refusal to bow to its demands is not new, as Breitbart New reported.
Beijing took the same approach when Australia became the first country aside from the U.S. to block China’s Huawei telecom giant from supplying equipment for its 5G network, and the latest diplomatic row is seen as an extension of that blow to China’s global standing.”
South Africa nears economic, social collapse amid COVID-19 outbreak
OAN Newsroom
Satellite images of luxury boats further suggest North Korea’s Kim at favoured villa: experts
SEOUL (Reuters) – Satellite imagery showing recent movements of luxury boats often used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his entourage near Wonsan provide further indications he has been at the coastal resort, according to experts who monitor the reclusive regime.
Speculation about Kim’s health and location erupted after his unprecedented absence from April 15 celebrations to mark the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung.
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On Tuesday, North Korea-monitoring website NK PRO reported commercial satellite imagery showed boats often used by Kim had made movements in patterns that suggested he or his entourage may be in the Wonsan area.
That followed a report last week by a U.S.-based North Korea monitoring project, 38 North, which reported satellite images showed what was believed to be Kim’s personal train was parked at a station reserved for his use at the villa in Wonsan.
https://www.oann.com/satellite-images-of-luxury-boats-further-suggest-north-koreas-kim-at-favoured-villa-experts/
Virus came from lab:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/wuhan-laboratory-most-likely-coronavirus-source-us/
Women who dare dissent targeted for abuse by Yemen’s rebels (abcnews, Apr 29, 2020)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/women-dare-dissent-targeted-abuse-yemens-rebels-70399601
“Samera al-Huri’s fellow activists were disappearing, one by one. When she asked their families, each gave the same cryptic reply: “She’s traveling.” A few of the women re-emerged. But they seemed broken and refused to say where they had been for months.
Al-Huri soon found out.
A dozen officers from the Houthi rebels who control northern Yemen snatched her from her home in the capital, Sanaa, at dawn.
They took her to the basement of a converted school, its filthy cells filled with female detainees. Interrogators beat her bloody, gave her electrical shocks and, as psychological torture, scheduled her execution only to call it off last-minute.
Women who dare dissent, or even enter the public sphere, have become targets in an escalating crackdown by the Houthis.
Activists and former detainees described to The Associated Press a network of secret detention facilities where they are tortured and sometimes raped. Taiz Street, a main avenue in Sanaa, is dotted with several of them, hidden inside private villas and the school where al-Huri was held.
“Many had it worse than me,” said al-Huri, 33, who survived three months in detention until she confessed on camera to fabricated prostitution charges, a grave insult in conservative Yemen.
Long-held traditions and tribal protections once guarded women from detention and abuse, but those taboos are succumbing to the pressures of war.
As men die in battle or languish in jail in a conflict now dragging into its sixth year, Yemeni women have increasingly taken political roles. In many cases, women are organizing protests, leading movements, working for international organizations or advocating peace initiatives — all acts the Houthis increasingly view as a threat.
“This is the darkest age for Yemeni women,” said Rasha Jarhum, founder of the Peace Track Initiative, which lobbies for women’s inclusion in peace talks between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
“It used to be shameful for even traffic police to stop a woman.”
———
“I’D FALLEN OFF THE EARTH”
Systematic arrests and prisons rife with torture have been central to war efforts by both sides, the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition trying to oust them, the AP has found.
Yet the intimidation campaign against women, observers say, is unique to rebel-held areas.
Estimates of women currently detained range from 200 to 350 in the governorate of Sanaa alone, according to multiple rights groups. The Yemeni Organization for Combating Human Trafficking says that’s likely an undercount.
Other provinces are more difficult to pin down. Noura al-Jarwi, head of the Women for Peace in Yemen Coalition, estimates that over 100 women are detained in Dhamar province south of the capital, a major crossing point from government-controlled areas into Houthi-run territory.
Al-Jarwi, who runs an informal support group in Cairo for women released from Houthi detention, has documented 33 cases of rape and eight instances of women debilitated by torture.
The AP met with six former detainees who managed to flee to Cairo before the coronavirus pandemic grounded flights and closed borders. Their accounts are supported by a recent report from a U.N. panel of experts, which said sexual violations may amount to war crimes.
One woman, a former history teacher who asked not to be identified to protect family in Yemen, was swept up in a crackdown on protests in December 2017.
She was taken to a villa somewhere on Sanaa’s outskirts, though she didn’t know where. At night, all she could hear was barking dogs, not even the call to prayer.
“I was so far away, like I’d fallen off the earth,” she said.
Around 40 women were captives in the villa, she said. Interrogators tortured her, one time tearing her toenails out. In more than one case, three masked officers told her to pray and said they would purify her from sin. They took turns raping her. Female guards held her down.
The Houthis’ human rights minister denied the torture allegations and the existence of clandestine women’s prisons.
“If this is found, we will tackle this problem,” Radia Abdullah, one of two female Houthi ministers, said in an interview.
She acknowledged many women had been arrested in a recent anti-prostitution sweep of cafes, apartments and women’s gatherings. They were accused of “aiming to corrupt society and serving the enemy,” she said, referring to the Saudi-led coalition.
A parliamentary committee created last fall to probe reports of illegal detention discovered and released dozens of male detainees in its first weeks of work.
It planned to pursue the issue of women as well. But a Feb. 16 internal memo obtained by the AP complains that the Interior Ministry pressured the committee to end its investigation.
———
A WIDENING CRACKDOWN
The first major round-up of women came in late 2017, after the Houthis killed their one-time ally in the war, former ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh. The rebels detained scores of women who thronged public squares, chanting for the return of Saleh’s body.
The scope has expanded since, said al-Jarwi. “First they came for opposition leaders, then protesters, now it’s any woman who speaks against them.”
One woman told the AP she was dragged from her taxi at a protest spot, beaten and detained. A peace advocate for a London-based humanitarian group was locked in a Sanaa police station for weeks.
A computer teacher, 48, recalled how 18 armed men broke into her home and beat everyone inside, stomping on her face and screaming sexual insults at her. She had no connection to politics but had posted a video on Facebook complaining that government salaries had not been paid for months. She and her children fled to Egypt soon after.
Al-Huri said when she rejected a Houthi official’s request to snitch on other activists, she was abducted in July 2019 by a dozen masked officers with Kalashnikovs, “as though I was Osama bin Laden.”
She was imprisoned in Dar al-Hilal, an abandoned school on Taiz Street. A fellow detainee, Bardis Assayaghi, a prominent poet who circulated verses about Houthi repression, counted around 120 women held there, “schoolteachers, human rights activists, teenagers.” She said officers banged her head against a table so hard that she needed eye surgery to see properly when released months later.
The head of the Sanaa criminal investigation division, Sultan Zabin, conducted interrogations in the school, al-Huri and Assayaghi said. Some nights, they said, Zabin took the “young, pretty girls” out of the school to rape them.
The U.N. panel of experts identified Zabin as running an undisclosed detention site where women have been raped and tortured.
At least two villas on Taiz Street have been used to detain women, along with other sites around the capital, including apartments confiscated from exiled politicians, two hospitals and five schools, al-Jarwi and the ex-detainees said.
———
“GET US OUT”
When the history teacher was released in March 2018, her limp body was dumped under an overpass. Her family refused to see her because of the shame.
In their eyes, “I had gone out to protest, so I deserved what happened,” she said.
Female ex-detainees say the Houthis aim to humiliate them with rapes and allegations of prostitution.
“It’s intimidation to the core,” said Fatima Abo Alasrar, a non-resident scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. In Yemen’s patriarchal society, survivors of sexual assault are often ostracized, sometimes even killed by relatives to preserve family “honor.”
Women are set free only after pledging to stop protesting or posting on social media, and after they videotape confessions to prostitution and espionage.
“They told me: If you leave Sanaa, we will kill you, if you spread information, we will kill you, if you speak against us, we will kill you,” said Assayaghi.
In Cairo, the women help each other cope and move forward.
Over home-cooked dinners, they gather with their children and recall their city before the war, when they performed poetry and smoked water pipes in bustling cafes, many of which the Houthis have shut down to keep men and women from mingling.
Many still receive threats from the Houthis. None can see their families in Sanaa again.
Al-Huri struggles with insomnia. She knows the Houthis will release her confession soon. But she’s convinced that telling her story is worth the risk.
“There are girls still in prison,” she said. “When I try to sleep, I hear their voices. I hear them pleading, ‘Samera, get us out.’””
“Jews” is currently trending on Twitter and this is why…
NYC Mayor DeBlasio has threatened to arrest Jews (and he only mentions Jews) for congregating. There was an Hassidic funeral yesterday to which around 50 people attended. I guess this angered the Mayor.
This is in stark contrast to the many large crowds that turned out all over the city to watch the Navy/Air Force fly over yesterday. No one was threatened with arrest for this event. In addition, the Mayor Tweeted to the Muslim community that the over 400 NYC feeding stations are offering Halal food for Ramadan and he encouraged the Muslim community to avail themselves of this largess…
Read down a few dozen to get an idea of what is going on.
https://twitter.com/search?q=Jews&src=trend_click
Thanks, Babs.
I needed to hear that.
House Democrats say returning to DC too dangerous for them
One day after announcing that lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill next week, House leadership on Tuesday decided against going back so soon.
House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer said on reflection, the leaders decided it’s better to wait.
“After hearing from our members and consulting with the speaker and the attending physician, the House will not reconvene next week,” he said. “We will return once the CARES 2 [stimulus] package is ready.”
Hoyer had announced Monday the chamber would return from recess in a week. Lawmakers have been away from Capitol Hill since March 26. The Senate still plans to return Monday.
McConnell said Senate routines will be modified in “ways that are smart and safe.”
A group of House Democrats told Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday that returning was a “dangerous” idea. Others said a lack of childcare would also present a challenge.
So far, seven members of congress have either tested positive for COVID-19 or are presumed to have been infected.
https://www.gopusa.com/?p=88191?omhide=true
CBC NEWS – ‘Racist and inflammatory’: Canadians upset by Epoch Times claim China behind virus, made it as a bioweapon
The Epoch Times, a free newspaper typically found in street boxes, is coming under fire for advancing a conspiracy theory about the origin of the coronavirus — and putting it straight into people’s mailboxes unsolicited.
Some Canadians who received it by mail and a postal carrier who says he is forced to deliver it are angry over a special eight-page edition of the paper exploring the idea that the virus that causes COVID-19 was created as a biological weapon and arguing it should be called “the CCP virus,” a reference to the Chinese Communist Party.
People in Oakville, Etobicoke, Markham, and Toronto, Ont. all reported getting copies of a special edition of The Epoch Times, as did residents in North Vancouver and Kelowna, B.C., and Winnipeg. It’s not clear that all those papers were delivered by Canada Post.
Lisa Armstrong in Kelowna found a copy in her rural mailbox.
“That’s when I got annoyed or suspicious. It’s like, why is this in my mailbox? You expect to see those kind of things online on social media,” she said.
“It did seem to allude to conspiracy theories like, you know, maybe it was manufactured, this virus was manufactured in the lab. Well, no. We know scientifically that’s just not true.”
Scientists have repeatedly said the evidence points to the coronavirus having a natural origin.
Jason Kindrachuk, a Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, says that through studying the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, scientists can see it is similar to other bat coronaviruses and that it likely evolved naturally.
“There is an unbelievably high consensus within the scientific community at this point that there is, there is a very close to zero, if not zero, chance that the virus was ever engineered,” Kindrachuk said.
Armstrong was also worried the issue’s anti-Communist Party messaging could inflame racial tensions in Canada during the pandemic.
Issue sent to ‘specific neighbourhoods’
It’s not clear how many households in Canada received the paper.
Cindy Gu, the publisher of The Epoch Times, declined to say how many copies of that issue were distributed. In an email to CBC News, Gu said the publication had been delivering copies to “specific neighbourhoods.”
“The Epoch Times has recently been ‘sampling’ copies of a special edition on Beijing’s coverup that led to a global pandemic in select areas because we consider that information to be important to Canadians. We regard this sampling as an act of good citizenship,” she wrote.
“This is a standard way of raising brand awareness and recruiting new subscribers.”
Gu disagrees that the paper will fuel racism against people of Chinese background.
“Some people may have erroneously conflated criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with criticism of the Chinese people,” she wrote.
“Understanding the difference is vital and will eliminate racial tension, as people come to understand that the criticism of the handling of the virus is of the CCP, not the Chinese people.”
Who’s behind The Epoch Times
The Epoch Times, headquartered in New York, is part of a group of organizations under the Epoch Media Group umbrella, which also includes the Shen Yun dance troupe and the New Tang Dynasty TV channel. It says it operates in 23 languages in 35 countries.
A sociology professor says the Epoch Media Group is affiliated with the Falun Gong movement, a religious group that began in China and was declared illegal and a “cult” by the Chinese government in 1999. Its followers say the Chinese government persecutes them and oppresses their religious rights.
“Falun Gong followers started to organize large-scale protest[s] against the Chinese government’s attempt to suppress the practice. So it just evolved into this very antagonistic relationship between the Chinese government and this religious group,” said Xiaoping Li, a professor at Okanagan College who studies media outlets that serve the Chinese-Canadian diaspora.
“There are many stories about how group members were persecuted in China. There could be certain exaggerations but … definitely there is persecution and there are violations of human rights.”
As for The Epoch Times, Li says it’s not clear where the group gets its funding, but it can afford to employ reporters who speak English and Chinese in the many countries where it operates.
“Typically what happens is it’s funded principally by donations, in a Chinese dissident community, in a given local context,” said Stephen Noakes, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland who studies Chinese culture. “The people who staff the paper itself are normally also drawn from that context or are third-party acquaintances of the local Falun Gong community.”
Noakes said that Falun Gong has been “enormously adept” at using its various media platforms “to its advantage to call attention to its own plight as a major human rights issue the world needs to know about.”
“I think the local reporting is generally trustworthy. It does report what’s happening in, for example, in Vancouver, in Toronto or New York,” said Li.
But Li says its reporting on China is less reliable. The Epoch Times is “an anti-Chinese government media outlet, so you have to be careful that there could be some exaggerations.”
The head of a non-profit that studies misinformation and disinformation says The Epoch Times is using a well-known technique to sow doubt in people’s minds.
‘Kernel of truth’
“The most effective disinformation is that which has a kernel of truth to it, is that which kind of flies under the radar, doesn’t really break any guidelines,” said Claire Wardle of First Draft, which educates journalists and others about what misinformation is and how to spot it. “It’s much more hyper-partisan. It’s much more misleading than completely outright-false falsehoods.”
The Epoch Times has shared misinformation and conspiracy theories in the past, and was banned from advertising on Facebook for trying to bypass political spending rules — though it is not alone in accusing China of coronavirus coverup.
Wardle says people who read the special edition of The Epoch Times may not be completely convinced about its findings, but will have been left with questions about what their governments are telling them.
“That is a technique of disinformation actors who want people to question as much as possible authoritative sources,” she said. “Ultimately, you’re no longer going to your trusted news site or the WHO or your government even for information. You’re left thinking, ‘I can’t trust anybody.'”
Carrier objects to delivering the paper
It was an article about a possible bioweapons link to coronavirus that set off alarm bells for a Toronto mail carrier when he saw the special edition appear in his mail station on Friday.
The carrier told CBC News that his supervisors decided that carriers wouldn’t have to deliver it, and that the station superintendent supported the decision. But then, according to the carrier, the superintendent was told Canada Post Communications had deemed the paper a political mailing and that carriers who didn’t deliver it would be disciplined.
“To be honest, it makes me feel like … humanity is facing an existential crisis. And I’m being forced to hand out weapons in a cage fight,” said the carrier.
Canada Post said in an email to CBC News, “We understand the reaction to this publication. However, as Canada’s postal system, we are legally required to deliver it. The content is the sole responsibility of the publisher.”
“Anyone concerned with its contents should contact the publisher, file a complaint against the publication through the appropriate institutions or place the item in the recycling box,” the email continued.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/epoch-times-coronavirus-bioweapon-1.5548217
Washington Times Wuhan lab ‘most likely’ coronavirus source, U.S. government analysis finds
A Wuhan laboratory is the “most likely” source of the COVID-19 outbreak now ravaging the globe, according to a U.S. government analysis that catalogs the evidence and concludes that other explanations for the origin of the coronavirus are less credible.
The document, compiled from open sources and not a finished product, says there is no smoking gun to blame the virus on either the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, both located in the city where the first outbreaks were reported.
But “there is circumstantial evidence to suggest such may be the case,” the paper says.
“All other possible places of the virus’ origin have been proven to be highly unlikely,” the document concludes. A copy of the report, compiled this month, was obtained by The Washington Times.
Chinese authorities have said the origin of the virus is unknown but initially stated that it came from animals at a “wet market” in Wuhan where exotic meat is butchered and sold. They said the virus may have jumped from bats to animals sold at the market last year and then infected humans.
U.S. officials have grown increasingly skeptical of that version of events. President Trump confirmed this month that “a lot of people” are investigating the origin. Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether the virus escaped from a lab or was the result of a naturally occurring outbreak.
“At this point, it’s inconclusive, although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural,” the general said on April 14, “but we don’t know for certain.”
The government analysis says the animal host explanation doesn’t hold up well because the first human diagnosis of COVID-19 was for a person who had no connection to the wet market. According to reports from China, no bats were sold at the market.
Meanwhile, a number of suspicious actions and a paper trail suggest that the virus escaped from one of the labs, though China is clamping down on the ability to pursue those leads.
“The most logical place to investigate the virus origin has been completely sealed off from outside inquiry by the CCP,” said the document, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
The party has taken draconian steps to control information about the virus since January.
“A gag order to both places was issued on Jan. 1, 2020, and a major general from the PLA who is China’s top military microbiologist essentially took over the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] since mid-January.”
Labs face scrutiny
Both of the labs under scrutiny in the report have conducted extensive research on bat coronaviruses, including those that have close molecular similarities to SARS-Cov-2, the full designation of the new pathogen.
Among the most significant circumstantial evidence identified in the report are the activities of Shi Zhengli, a leader in bat coronavirus research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s only high-security, level four research laboratory.
Ms. Shi has been involved in bioengineering bat coronaviruses, and a medical doctor named Wu Xiaohua launched an online campaign to expose Ms. Shi’s work. Dr. Wu said she believes the coronavirus at the root of the pandemic is one of 50 viruses in a database Ms. Shi manages.
The document also points to a 2015 academic report in Nature Medicine by Ms. Shi and 14 other scientists who said that while researching the potential for bat coronaviruses to infect humans, “we built a chimeric virus encoding a novel, zoonotic [animal-origin] spike protein … that was isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats.”
The scientists said the “hybrid virus” allowed researchers to study the ability of the virus to “cause disease.”
Dr. Wu stated in an internet posting that Ms. Shi used laboratory animals to test the human-infecting virus, and one of those animals may have been the origin of the pandemic.
Dr. Wu also asserted that the institute’s virus-carrying animals had been sold as pets, dead laboratory animals were not properly disposed of, and lab workers were known to boil and eat laboratory-used eggs.
“Wu’s charges of WIV management negligence are specific and have not been convincingly rebutted by WIV,” the analysis said.
Ms. Shi has worked closely with several U.S. virologists, and some American scientists have defended her and the institute from critics who point to her work with bat viruses as a needed focus of an investigation, the analysis says. Ms. Shi, in response to Dr. Wu’s assertions, said in March on her social media account: “I promise with my life that the virus has nothing to do with the lab.”
Another piece of circumstantial evidence cited in the paper is the mysterious disappearance of Huang Yanling. Those seeking the origin of SARS-CoV-2 suspect the laboratory worker is “patient zero,” the first known human infected with the virus.
“Huang worked at WIV but she is the only WIV employee whose biography, profile and picture have been deleted by WIV on its website, fueling speculation of foul play,” the report said.
The institute issued a firm denial. It said Ms. Huang is healthy and has left the institute and moved to another province to work.
“But Huang herself has never appeared in public and she has since disappeared,” the report said, noting that her whereabouts fueled widespread inquiries among Chinese on the internet.
China in March imposed restrictions on all publication regarding the origin of the virus.
Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, stated publicly this month that “there is no way this virus came from us.”
Edward Holmes, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia, said there is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans “originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.”
He said the bat virus kept at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was sampled from a different province and that the genome sequence divergence between that virus, RaTG13, and SARS-CoV-2 “is equivalent to an average of 50 years (and at least 20 years) of evolutionary change.”
“Hence, SARS-CoV-2 was not derived from RaTG13,” he wrote in a piece for the Science Media Center.
Scientific debate
The Washington Times first reported in January that the virus might have been released or escaped unwittingly from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Several academic papers have since concluded that there is no evidence the virus was manufactured in a lab, though scientists debate whether it might have escaped.
France, which signed a deal in 2004 to help China create the level four institute, said this month that its experts believe the lab is not the source of the coronavirus spread.
“We would like to make it clear that there is to this day no factual evidence corroborating the information recently circulating in the United States press that establishes a link between the origins of COVID-19 and the work of the P4 laboratory of Wuhan, China,” said a spokesman for French President Emmanuel Macron.
Chinese officials, after initially blaming the Wuhan wet market, later said the virus may have originated outside the country. They suggested that the U.S. Army or the CIA developed the virus and released it in China.
Mr. Trump and other U.S. officials have vehemently denied that accusation, which contradicts China’s initial assertions that the virus leaped from bat to human.
Chen Wen, a senior Chinese diplomat in Britain, told the BBC on Friday that China has rejected international calls for an investigation into the virus. He said the demands were politically motivated and an attempt to divert China’s attention to fighting the pandemic.
Earlier that week, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would seek an investigation at the annual meeting next month of the World Health Assembly, part of the World Health Organization.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/wuhan-laboratory-most-likely-coronavirus-source-us/
CBC – Canadians upset by Epoch Times’s claim that China is behind virus
The Epoch Times, a free newspaper typically found in street boxes in Canadian cities, is coming under fire for advancing a conspiracy theory about the origin of the coronavirus.
the epoch times CBC Intentionally Excludes Crucial Facts About Epoch Times and Our Coverage of Beijing’s Coverup of Virus Outbreak
The Epoch Times recently published a special edition on how Beijing’s coverup of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan led to the global pandemic with the front-page headline “How the Chinese Communist Party Endangered the World.” It is an eight-page collection of Epoch Times articles distributed to select areas in Canada, as we believe it contains important information for Canadians to have.
On April 29, CBC published an article devoted to this special edition that is deliberately misleading and intentionally excludes crucial information we provided to CBC prior to the publication of the article. The sole purpose seems to be to discredit The Epoch Times and our reporting on the coronavirus.
A copy of our email to the CBC reporter prior to publication is included at the end of this article.
I am heartened to see that most of the comments on the CBC article are critical of it. At the end of this article we include some of the comments.
The headline CBC gave the article seems to speak for all Canadians in saying “‘Racist and inflammatory’: Canadians upset by Epoch Times claim China behind virus, made it as a bioweapon”
The article quotes an individual who feels our coverage of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP’s) responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic is “racist and inflammatory.” Is that one individual’s opinion the source of a headline speaking for all Canadians?
The headline focuses on a small part of our eight-page special edition, a commentary article that discusses the history of top CCP officials talking about developing bioweapons. But this opinion article did not state that the Wuhan lab was developing bioweapons, contrary to the claim in the headline.
CBC purposefully omitted that we are founded by Chinese immigrants, which was stated in the email to the reporter. We are the media telling people that this pandemic is not the fault of the Chinese people, but is the fault of the Communist Party. The Chinese people have been victimized by the CCP’s handing of this pandemic. By discussing the CCP’s role, we are truly standing up for the Chinese people.
Making the truth about the CCP’s role clear will also help eliminate racial tension.
CCP propaganda is the origin of the identification of the CCP and China, and the CCP works continuously to emphasize this, not only in its own state-controlled media, but in media around the world. This identification enlists the Chinese people’s patriotism, and Westerners’ concerns about racism, to defend the CCP. And so people’s noble motives are used to enmesh them in the CCP’s ill behaviour. If people read our paper, they will understand these issues better.
There is no balance in the CBC article. The reporter purposefully chose a few voices that have one-sided opinions and used that to discredit us. The article does not include comments from any individuals who might disagree with CBC’s criticism.
In fact, we have received a great deal of feedback via phone or email regarding this special edition. Many Canadians are highly appreciative of our work. Sometimes people call our office and are very critical, but when we talk to them we often find that they didn’t take time to read our content, but just glanced at the cover and jumped to a conclusion. When we explain our content and ask them to read it, they often change their attitude and opinion.
The CBC article tries to discredit our reporting on China. In fact, China is the most difficult subject for media to cover due to the Beijing regime’s lack of transparency. However, we have more connections inside China than others and have reported vital information ahead of many other media.
We started to report on the Wuhan virus on Dec. 31 and reported on the cover up of the real numbers in early February. If more people had been reading The Epoch Times, our country could have been prepared. In our opinion, there is not enough truthful reporting about China and the nature of its ruling communist regime.
The CBC article also uses the persecution against Falun Gong in China to unfairly frame us as an agenda-driven media and then goes on to misrepresent that persecution.
It is grossly irresponsible reporting to say “Its followers say the Chinese government persecutes them and oppresses their religious rights,” as though the evidence for the persecution of Falun Gong depends only on what its adherents say. From the most basic research, CBC should know that both the American Congress and European Parliament have passed resolutions urging the CCP to stop this persecution campaign and have raised concerns about or explicitly condemned the forced organ harvesting that has targeted Falun Gong practitioners.
Regarding the persecution, one CBC source says there could be “certain exaggerations,” thus playing down a severe persecution campaign that has resulted in untold suffering and death.
The article also has simple factual errors. For instance, the first sentence describes us as “a free newspaper typically found in street boxes.” The Epoch Times in Canada stopped distribution through street boxes last July and is only available via paid subscriptions and home delivery.
This article asserts that the Shen Yun Performing Arts company is part of Epoch Media Group. It is not.
We understand different readers might have different opinions, and that they have the right to choose whatever media they want to read. But having different voices gives people more choice, and makes for a healthier society. This CBC report is meant to shut down our voice. Instead of debating on specifics and pointing out concrete reporting errors, it quotes a few critical voices in order to discredit us.
We have received numerous awards for our reporting, including from the Society of Professional Journalists and the New York Press Association.
We also received a national award for our SARS coverage in Canada, after being among the first media to break the SARS story in 2003, three weeks before the Chinese regime admitted there was an epidemic.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/cbc-intentionally-excludes-crucial-facts-about-the-epoch-times-and-our-coverage-of-beijings-coverup-of-the-coronavirus_3331812.html
Email Sent to CBC Reporter Prior to Publication
The email includes a message to the CBC reporter, information worth noting and information about the Special Edition.
Hi Katie,
Thank you for the inquiry.
1) The Epoch Times was founded by Chinese immigrants in North America who fled communist persecution in their home country. All of our editors and reporters in China were arrested, with some enduring long prison sentences and brutal torture. We have connections in China with people who provide exclusive information that we report on. For instance, here and here are two recent articles about the virus outbreak based on internal government documents leaked to The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times has broken many important stories related to China over the last two decades.
2) We started to report on the worrisome situation of the virus on Dec. 31, 2019. In early February we reported that the real number of deaths and infections inside China was at least 10 to 20 times the Chinese government’s official numbers, way ahead of other media. If more people had read our reports, the world would have been better prepared. Timely information can save lives.
3) The Epoch Times has recently been “sampling” copies of a special edition on Beijing’s coverup that led to a global pandemic in select areas because we consider that information to be important to Canadians. We regard this sampling as an act of good citizenship.
Sampling refers to distributing copies of a newspaper to specific neighbourhoods. This is a standard way of raising brand awareness and recruiting new subscribers.
4) Some people may have erroneously conflated criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with criticism of the Chinese people. The Chinese Communist Party does not represent the Chinese people or China. Understanding the difference is vital and will eliminate racial tension, as people come to understand that the criticism of the handling of the virus is of the CCP, not the Chinese people.
The current confrontation is between the CCP and the people of the world, both in and outside of China. Both the Chinese people and Canadians are victims of the CCP’s coverup.
We are not alone in pointing out the distinction between the CCP and China. Consider these recent headlines: Washington Post: “Don’t blame ‘China’ for the coronavirus — blame the Chinese Communist Party”; Globe and Mail: “The coronavirus exposes the lie at the heart of Communist China”; National Post: “Beijing’s communist regime is the biggest ‘China virus’ threatening our survival.”
5) Regarding the Wuhan lab, it is a small part of our reporting on the coronavirus. China silenced early whistleblowers, destroyed samples, and falsified data. We simply asked questions like many others. In the past, CCP top military officials openly talked about the development of bioweapons. Whether the virus is engineered or not, has neither been proven nor disproven at this point.
In our documentary we only raise questions, it never ruled out a natural origin and it does not assert that the virus was engineered. The documentary is fastidious in not giving any definitive conclusions regarding the origin. It presents the facts that were known and the opinions of experts.
6) While most newspapers have been experiencing a decline in circulation, The Epoch Times has been growing in recent years, against the trend.
————
Worth noting:
The Epoch Times was among the first to report on the SARS outbreak in 2003, three weeks before the Chinese regime publicly admitted there was an outbreak. Our early coverage of the SARS outbreak earned our Chinese edition a national award from the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada.
According to a recent study by the University of Southampton, if “non-pharmaceutical interventions—such as early detection, isolation of cases, travel restrictions and cordon sanitaire … could have been conducted one week, two weeks, or three weeks earlier, cases could have been reduced by 66 percent, 86 percent and 95 percent, respectively—significantly limiting the geographical spread of the disease.”
Dr. Shawn Whatley, past president of the Ontario Medical Association, said “I first learned about the damage by the new, aggressive Wuhan virus from The Epoch Times. Kudos to ET for doing what we pay the departments of health billions of dollars to do.”
———-
About the Special Edition:
Our Special Edition features some of our coverage of the virus that has engulfed the globe, causing a serious threat to people’s health and way of life. There have been multiple reports and studies, and even remarks by governments, noting that had the Chinese communist regime been forthright about the outbreak and the risks sooner, many lives could have been saved and the damage to economies would have been minimal.
The Special Edition delves into topics such as how the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup led to a pandemic, how the regime persecuted medical professionals in China who tried to get information out about the outbreak, how it is still hiding the true scale of the pandemic and the number of deaths in China, and how it has launched a global disinformation campaign to lay the blame for the pandemic elsewhere.
Regards,
Cindy Gu
Publisher, The Epoch Times Canada
https://www.theepochtimes.com/cbc-intentionally-excludes-crucial-facts-about-the-epoch-times-and-our-coverage-of-beijings-coverup-of-the-coronavirus_3331812.html
=====================================================
Selection of Readers’ Comments on CBC’s Article
Brad Mercier
17 minutes ago
I’m heartened to see most comments are critical of this CBC article and the way it defends the legitimate criticism CCP. Disinformation and controlling the narrative is common with our national broadcaster and this is another example.
John Burnaby
22 minutes ago
Many media organizations, including the CBC, just don’t get it. The CCP is an evil organization. They are seeking what’s best for themselves at the expense of everything and everyone else. Canada needs to look at them not as friends, but as adversaries – along the lines of Russia, North Korea, etc…
Mark Williamson
23 minutes ago
This article is quickly being buried and rightfully so. Please do not use the term ” Canadians ” when you are only talking about a handful of people that share your view
Sandra Rivera
1 hour ago
CBC needs to be investigated for writing such a blatantly pro Communist Party of China propaganda piece. Misinformation and misleading statements
Mary Lucas
4 minutes ago
I find Epoch to be one of the more objective, reliable sources of news. They don’t like the Chinese Communist Party, and they make that clear. By contrast, I find a lot of disinformation from Canadian main stream sources. I am also appalled that the CBC seems to think that postal workers should have to agree with the content if their deliveries. This article seems to be intended as a smear piece against Epoch Times.
Sandra Rivera
14 minutes ago
I typed in CBC and got this article. I thought at first this was the China Broadcasting Corporation website.
Fred Thiolla
24 minutes ago
Headline from the Epoch Times is: “How the Chinese Communist Party endangered the world”
Now tell me how ANYONE could interpret that as stirring hate or being r*cist? Absolutely ridiculous attempt to defend the CCP. The article should be criticized for pushing untrue claims not for questioning Beijing
Elias Eliot
1 hour ago
The tittle claiming “Canadians upset” is extremely misleading. Perhaps “some Canadian” would be more appropriate. But the integrity of journalist has been in decline for too long now and sadly things just keep getting worst.
Mike Smith
48 minutes ago
Thank you Epoch Times for at least opening up the discussion and our right to question
Charels Latner
28 minutes ago
The truth will not be suppressed , Thank-you Epoch…..
And yes, thank-you CBC for enlightening Canadians about this great publication.
Odd, but still,
Thanks.
Greg Dear
1 hour ago
Basically, this article is trying to convince us that criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the same as criticism of the Chinese people and even the same as racism against Chinese people. Suppose we believe it. The questions are
Is Criticism of the Iranian government is racism against Iranian people?
Is Criticism of the North Korean government is racism against Korean people? etc., etc.
Mike Smith
18 minutes ago
Democracy is built on the right to question and the freedom to have different opinions even if you don’t agree with them. We should never fear or worse try and squash anybody’s opinions. If they are completely false we have to have faith the truth will prevail and it will but it only happens when we are willing to explore all the possibilities.
Instant claims of rac… is cowardly defence.
Brian Robertson
34 minutes ago
The charge of racism has been so overused and abused as to render the term meaningless.
And the charge of being inflammatory?
Don’t make me laugh.
Brazil’s Supreme Court Opens Racism Investigation of Education Minister – Reports (sputniknews, Apr 29, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/latam/202004291079135873-brazils-supreme-court-opens-racism-investigation-of-education-minister/
“The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil has begun investigating Education Minister Abraham Weintraub for racism following his anti-Chinese statements, the G1 website reported on Wednesday.
In early April, Weintraub on Twitter hinted at Beijing being a likely benefactor of the global COVID-19 epidemic, while also making fun of the way the Chinese speak foreign languages. As a result, Chinese Ambassador Yang Wanming has demanded an explanation from President Jair Bolsonaro’s government.
On 14 April, the country’s Attorney General’s Office requested that the supreme court open an investigation into Weintraub, which was granted on Tuesday evening, according to the news outlet.
This is not the first time a Brazilian public person has run afoul of China. In March, Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, blamed Beijing for the COVID-19 outbreak, straining the relations between the two countries.”
the rebel – Dr. Theresa Tam is Canada’s patient zero for spreading coronavirus misinformation
Sheila Gunn Reid calls into the Ezra Levant Show to talk about briefing notes that prove Canada’s top doc Theresa Tam knew that China was lying about the coronavirus back in January.
CBC – Dr. Theresa Tam on WHO response to COVID-19, reopening Canada
Channel 4 ‘People very quickly adapted to a very radical disruption’ – writer Malcolm Gladwell on coronavirus
There are so many things we don’t yet know about this virus, the way it behaves or its likely long-term impact.
We are of course looking to scientists and politicians to guide us through this crisis.
But with them, seemingly, not always in step with each other, who should we believe?
In his latest book “Talking to Strangers”, the best-selling international author of “Tipping Point” Malcolm Gladwell explores concepts of trust and misunderstanding between strangers.
So are scientists and politicians strangers? We speak to him and begin by asking him if we had reached a tipping point with the lockdown.
comment : A Bennet 34 min ago :books on both sides to show how intelligent they both are, always in a library these people!
…in a pig’s eye.
Associated Press – Intubations take toll on patients, airway experts
Afghanistan: America Moving Out, China Moving In – with Help from Iran
During the tumultuous two decades of American military presence in Afghanistan, China has been quietly increasing its influence there.
While the Trump Administration is distracted by the coronavirus and its economic fallout, China is now poised to inherit the great power role once played by Britain, Russia and the U.S.
Beijing has deftly maintained low-key but friendly relations with the Taliban since the Islamic movement assumed power in Kabul in 1996. Only China and Pakistan kept their ties with the Taliban when American and Northern Alliance forces drove the terrorist group from power in the autumn of 2001.
China is now the foremost foreign source of investment in Afghanistan. China, for instance, has gained access to three separate oil fields in the Afghan provinces of Sari-i-pul and Faryab and has also invested heavily in extracting copper and iron ore from Afghanistan.
China, however, seems to be hedging its bets. It remains a supplier of weapons to the Taliban through the third-party services of Iran. Both the United Kingdom and the U.S. State Department have complained to China about the free flow of Chinese weapons to Iran, which then wind up with the Taliban. These include surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, artillery shells and land mines. In fact, as early as 2007, British Royal Marines intercepted a ten-ton cache of Chinese weapons left for the Taliban by the Iranians in Herat Province, Afghanistan, which borders on Iran.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15944/afghanistan-china-moving-in
Afghanistan is an infinite sink, according to my Russki. An absolute waste of blood no treasure can redeem.
China deserves the experience.
15 cops ‘raid’ restaurant allegedly over too many customers — Coronavirus violation — and owner may get year in jail, $5,000 fine
Readers need no reminding that hundreds of criminals are being released from jails because of the coronavirus. Criminalizing the businessmen is the socialist dream.
https://gellerreport.com/2020/04/democrat-crimialize-business.html/
Activists Protest Trevor Phillips’s Role in Ethnic Minority Deaths Review over His ‘Islamophobia’ (breitbart, Apr 29, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/29/activists-protest-trevor-phillips-role-coronavirus-bame-deaths-review-islamophobia/
“Activists are pressuring the government to expel Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, from an inquiry into the high proportion of black and minority ethnic (BAME) deaths due to coronavirus, due to allegations he is “Islamophobic”.
The Conservative Peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and cross-bench peer Lord Simon Woolley wrote in The Guardian on Tuesday that “a growing number of BAME groups and individuals are struggling to find the trust and confidence” in Mr Phillips. Philips was suspended from the Labour Party last month over allegations he had made racist statements about Muslims.
Warsi and Woolley went on to quote BAME organisations demanding the former equalities chief be fired. Notably, a letter sent by 16 associations representing tens of thousands of black and ethnic minority medics said that Public Health England (PHE) should “withdraw the participation” of the anti-racism campaigner and instead find “a suitable candidate who would be trusted by healthcare professionals from a BAME background”.
Another letter signed by 100 members of InfluenceHer, a group of professional black British women, claimed Mr Philips has “a recent history of discarding the very real issues and consequences of structural racism in the UK”.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which a government report found had links with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, has also objected to Mr Phillips’ involvement. While Labour MP Naz Shah claimed his appointment was “an insult to the memory of the numerous Muslims who have lost their lives, and also an insult to those Muslims who continue to serve on the frontline” at NHS hospitals.
Mr Phillips is known for having popularised the term “Islamophobia” after commissioning the Runnymede report into anti-Muslim prejudice in the UK in 1997. However, in 2016, the former EHRC chief admitted that Muslims had failed to integrate into British society after a poll revealed widespread opinions amongst the country’s adherents of Islam which are incompatible with a liberal, democratic society.
The commentator also acknowledged the “deeply ingrained sexism that runs through Britain’s Muslim communities” that resulted in grooming gangs in towns like Rotherham and Rochdale. Later, he condemned a proposed new definition of Islamophobia as a “bully’s charter” used to censor criticism of Islam and criticised the BBC for its “whitewashing” of black-on-black stabbings.
It was after his recent attacks on Labour that his own party branded him an “Islamophobe”. Phillips, a Labour member for 40 years, was a vocal critic of former leader Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the antisemitism scandal in Labour, writing in July 2019 that the party’s inaction on institutional anti-Jewish hatred in Labour was “shameful”.
In early March 2020, Labour suspended Mr Phillips, alleging that he had use of language “which targets or intimidates members of ethnic or religious communities, or incites racism, including Islamophobia”, specifically related to statements he had made about Muslim Pakistani grooming gangs. The remarks were not recent, however, but had come from a pamphlet he had written for civil society think tank Civitas in 2016.
In his defence this week, founder of counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, Maajid Nawaz, said: “I’m used to being hounded by factional loudmouths who claim to speak ‘for the people’ but instead monopolise discourse for their sectarian far-left, pro-Islamist agenda. [Her Majesty’s Government] must resist efforts to marginalise Trevor Phillips, the first black president of the [UK’s National Union of Students].”
“These organised and ideological anger merchants seek to discredit every independent thinking liberal BAME voice (no matter how seasoned and experienced) who dares to even question their divisive identitarianism, through a combination of slander, boycott & intimidation. Resist, always,” he added.
While educational reformer and headmistress of a London free school Katharine Birbalsingh said, the demands were “shocking but predictable.”
“Black man doesn’t say what a good black boy should say (he doesn’t normally wallow in victimhood), and they want to kick him out just for being who he is. Deeply offensive,” Ms Birbalsingh added.”
Pasadena Star News – California doctors with dubious COVID conclusions debunked
They dressed in scrubs. They sounded scientific. And last week’s message from two Bakersfield doctors was exactly what many stuck-at-home Americans wanted to hear: COVID-19 is no worse than influenza, its death rates are low and we should all go back to work and school.
Drs. Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, who own urgent care centers in the region, had called a press conference to release their conclusions about the results of 5,213 COVID-19 tests they had conducted at their centers and testing site. They claimed the results showed that the virus had spread further in the area, undetected, and thus wasn’t all that dangerous.
But public health experts were quick to debunk the doctors’ findings as misguided and riddled with statistical errors — and an example of the kind of misleading information they are forced to waste precious time disputing.
The doctors should never have assumed that the patients they tested — who came for walk-in COVID-19 tests or who sought urgent care for symptoms they experienced in the middle of a pandemic — are representative of the general population, said Dr. Carl Bergstrom, a University of Washington biologist who specializes in infectious disease modeling. He likened their extrapolations to “estimating the average height of Americans from the players on an NBA court.” And most credible studies of COVID-19 death rates in reality are far higher than the ones the doctors presented.
“They’ve used methods that are ludicrous to get results that are completely implausible,” Bergstrom said.
Still, the early media coverage went viral. A local television report on the Bakersfield doctors’ press conference garnered more than 4.3 million views on YouTube. Elon Musk, the Tesla founder who wants to reopen his Fremont manufacturing plant this week, praised the doctors to his 33 million-plus Twitter followers. Last night, the doctors got a conservative national audience for their views on Fox News, appearing on Laura Ingraham’s show.
In a rare statement late today, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine declared they “emphatically condemn the recent opinions released by Dr. Daniel Erickson and Dr. Artin Messihi. These reckless and untested musings do not speak for medical societies and are inconsistent with current science and epidemiology regarding COVID-19. As owners of local urgent care clinics, it appears these two individuals are releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the public’s health.”
The doctors had set up Bakersfield’s only private walk-in COVID-19 testing site and performed about half of all tests conducted in the area. They did not respond to a CalMatters request for comment today.
Misinformation thrives in a pandemic, and public health officials in California and elsewhere just can’t keep up.
“This pandemic has been so severely politicized in this country that evidence, no matter how poor, gets amplified enormously if it benefits one side or another,” said Bergstrom, who also was one of the first experts to critique the doctors’ study on Twitter. “We always hoped this crisis wouldn’t come, but that if it did we’d all be in this together. That’s been a huge surprise for all of us doing infectious disease epidemiology. It’s amazing to have to deal with this misinformation that’s being spread around for political purposes and the ways that interferes with adequate public health response.”
California Democratic state Sen. Richard Pan, a pediatrician who chairs the Senate Health Committee, said lawmakers who favor reopening the state had not yet cited the Bakersfield doctors’ conclusions as a justification to do so. But if they did, they’d “be on pretty weak ground,” he said.
The doctors “basically hyped a bunch of data and weren’t transparent about their methods. And they really played on the fact that they’re physicians. I think it’s quite disingenuous of them.” Pan said. “Then we have to push back on any media that promotes this information. They’re really doing this as a way to fish for attention.”
A Kern County public health spokeswoman told reporters that officials did not support the doctors’ call to reopen the region. Other epidemiologists echoed that sentiment.
But already the Bakersfield doctors — who tout their support of President Donald Trump and refuse to wear masks in public — had become heroes on social platforms and conservative media outlets, with some commenters calling them “brave.” Others who support continuing to shelter-in-place described the doctors as self-promoters whose chain of urgent care centers would benefit from reopening. Non-COVID medical visits have plummeted during the pandemic, endangering the practices of many doctors.
“As struggling business owners, their economic frustration is understandable. But it can’t be mistaken for science. People trust doctors,” Michigan emergency room doctor Rob Davidson wrote on Twitter. “When they tell Fox viewers to ignore recommendations from real experts, many will believe them…The impact of rejecting science-proven recommendations in exchange for these erroneous ideas would overwhelm health systems and cost lives. While re-opening the economy might be good for their Urgent Care Centers (sic), it would kill medical personnel on the actual front lines.”
Other highly-publicized studies of antibody test results by Stanford and USC researchers were similarly criticized for sampling bias and for the poor reliability of the tests it used. Researchers had suggested that COVID-19’s true spread in the community was much higher than expected and resulting death rates were low. But again, politicians and media who favor reopening states right away cited them as supporting evidence.
https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2020/04/28/california-doctors-with-dubious-covid-conclusions-debunked/amp/
LUTTE À MORT ENTRE MONDE D’AVANT ET MONDE D’APRÈS
AGENDA 21 FEATURED ON THE GLENN BECK SHOW
Glenn Beck just interviewed my Anti-Agenda 21 colleague Rosa Koire, author of Behind the Green Mask. She explains in great detail how Agenda 21 is a process to inventory and control everything on earth, from our food supply, property, energy, mode of travel, health care, and oversee our every action. They are transforming the nation and our way of life right before our eyes! Our economy hangs in the balance. The food industry is threatened with collapse. Health care has been all but shut down. And the Green New Deal crowd, like sponsor Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are dancing a jig! She is giddy because she says shutting down the airlines and stopping people from driving are saving the planet – just like she calls for in the Green New Deal. Tom DeWeese
https://americanpolicy.org/2020/04/29/agenda-21-featured-on-the-glenn-beck-show/
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GOVERNMENTS USING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC TO FINALIZE AGENDA 21 SOCIAL PLANNING REVOLUTION
video – 8 mins 36 secs
Last Wednesday, Glenn broke down how the draconian shutdowns, public/private partnerships, and push toward a global final authority we’ve seen during the coronavirus pandemic all lines up with “United Nations Agenda 21.” In an extended interview, Glenn speaks with “Behind the Green Mask : UN Agenda 21” author Rosa Koire about how deep-seated Agenda 21’s goals have already become in our own communities. But those pushing for global governance in the wake of this pandemic have severely misjudged the American people!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_oekEtJPsQ
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https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/outcomedocuments/agenda21
Waiting for… food? Hundreds spend hours queuing for handouts in the poorer suburbs of Paris
the rebel – How quarantines are supposed to work: The story of the 18th century plague in Marseilles, France
DEUTSCHLAND – MUEZZINRUF IN CORONA-ZEITEN
„Wir sahen den sozialen Frieden in Gefahr“
Mehrere muslimische Gemeinden wollen in Zeiten von Corona öffentliche Gebetsrufe abhalten. Nicht überall wird ihnen das gestattet. Aus dem Bundestag erhält der Muezzinruf starken Zuspruch.
Der Konflikt entzündete sich an einem Facebookpost. Um kurz nach 18 Uhr am Donnerstagabend postete der Ausländerbeirat der hessischen Kleinstadt Haiger eine Nachricht. „Liebe Mitbürger*innen!“, heißt es darin. Man wolle darüber informieren, dass aufgrund der Corona-Pandemie für viele muslimische Gemeinden „ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des Ramadans“ wegfalle. Künftig solle deswegen einmal täglich ein Gebetsruf erklingen – als „hörbares Zeichen für Zusammenhalt und Solidarität“. Einige gaben der Nachricht ihre Zustimmung. Von prominenter Stelle kam allerdings postwendend Widerspruch.
„CDU Haiger gegen Muezzin-Ruf in Haiger“, postete die Partei in einer Antwort. In 13 Zeilen führten die Christdemokraten aus, warum sie eine solche Aktion kritisch sehen. Darauf reagierte wiederum der Ausländerbeirat, der der Partei öffentlich Intoleranz unterstellte. Vorerst ist der Gebetsruf in Haiger abgesagt. Richtig gelöst ist der Konflikt indes noch nicht. Zu groß sind die unterschiedlichen Erwartungen auf beiden Seiten.
Es ist ein Problem, vor dem nicht nur Haiger steht. Landauf, landab haben Moscheegemeinden bei ihren Kommunen beantragt, in Zeiten von Corona öffentliche Gebetsrufe abhalten zu können – als Zeichen des Trosts und der Solidarität. Viele Städte haben dem Wunsch stattgegeben, schließlich dürften auch die Kirchen regelmäßig ihre Glocken läuten. Doch manche Politiker sehen die Genehmigungen kritisch. Es sei den Menschen nicht zu vermitteln, wenn nun ausgerechnet jetzt eine Sonderregel geschaffen werde, heißt es. Und dann ist da noch die Sorge, dass der Gebetsruf zu problematischen Ansammlungen vor Moscheen führen könnte.
[…]
CDU, SPD und Grüne für Muezzinruf
Mehrere Bundestagsfraktionen plädieren nun dafür, zumindest für die Zeit des Ramadans Ausnahmeregelungen zuzustimmen. „Wir sind in einer Ausnahmesituation, in der die grundgesetzlich geschützte Ausübung des Glaubens und das religiöse Leben in Deutschland aus gutem Grund enorm einschränkt wurden“, sagt Christoph de Vries (CDU), religionspolitischer Sprecher der Unionsfraktion. Dies schmerze Christen, Juden, Muslime und andere Gläubige „enorm“. Für die Zeit des Ramadans halte er „deshalb eine zeitlich beschränkte Erlaubnis des Gebetsrufs als symbolisches Zeichen der Verbundenheit und Gemeinsamkeit für vertretbar“. Wichtig sei, dass die Moscheegemeinden die Entstehung von Massenansammlungen verhinderten und der Gebetsruf bundesweit zur selben Zeit erfolge.
Auch die SPD zeigt sich offen für Sonderregelungen. „Ob der traditionelle Gebetsruf öffentlich zu hören sein darf, entscheiden die Kommunen vor Ort“, sagt der Beauftragte der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion für Religionsgemeinschaften, Lars Castellucci. „Ich fände es gut, wenn sie in dieser Ausnahmesituation für die Zeit des Ramadans erlaubt werden – als Zeichen der Solidarität und des Trosts für die Gläubigen.“
Die Grünen plädieren dafür, „die gleichen Maßstäbe wie bei anderen Religionsgemeinschaften anzulegen“. Der Ramadan sei „in Zeiten der Corona-Pandemie in jeder Hinsicht außergewöhnlich“, sagt Filiz Polat, Ansprechpartnerin für die Belange des Islam der Grünen-Bundestagsfraktion. „Deshalb ist es eine wichtige und richtige Entscheidung, den Ruf des Muezzin vor Ort in dieser Zeit zu genehmigen. Eine Ausweitung ist stets vor Ort zu beurteilen.“
https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article207559513/Muezzin-Ruf-Wir-sahen-den-sozialen-Frieden-in-Gefahr.html
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APRIL 24 – Bergisch Gladbachs
Bielefeld
Frankfurt am Main
Recklinghausen
Reformierte Kirche Bassersdorf-Nürensdorf
Gebetsruf von Pfr. Paul Zimmerli
Hamburg
Spaichingen
Goslar
Garbsen/Hannover
Hamburg
Bremen – DIe Linke
Ramadan-Grußbotschaft der Berliner Integrationsbeauftragten
Flensburg
Lennestadt
Hockenheim
OSNABRÜCK
Dortmund
Stuttgart
Wuppertal
Hameln
Hamburg-Bergedorf
Dortmund
Duisburg
Munich
Bochum
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