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Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Germans Avert Terrror Attack in Hamburg

Hat tip Vlad Tepes


German police have averted a major terror attack in Schwerin and Hamburg. A Syrian male, described as a refugee, is in custody.

https://vladtepesblog.com/2017/10/31/germany-major-terror-attack-foiled-just-in-time-syrian-refugee-suspect/

Vlad Tepes has translated the below statement by German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere.

Breaking: Vehicle Attack in New York

A driver rammed a rented truck into pedestrians in New York City while shouting, Allahu Ahkbar". Fox News is reporting at least 6 dead and one man in custody.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/31/nypd-responding-to-reports-shots-fired-in-lower-manhattan.html

At this point, there is nothing for us to do but turn on the news and follow this story.

*Update: At the press conference which just started, Mayor de Blasio says there are 8 dead.


Suspect being arrested-Photo Jihad Watch

*Update: Fox News reports that suspect is a 29-year-old who came to US in 2010. He was shot by police and is currently in a hospital.

Update: Suspect identified as Sayfullo Saipov, 29 an Uzbek.


-Vlad Tepes

PHOTO: Suspect Sayfullo Saipov seen in this undated photo.

-ABC News

What College Students Need to Know About Islam and Sharia

This week, I posted a video of Muslim apostate Nonie Darwish speaking at Hobart and Smith  Williams College in upstate New York. Her topic, Islam and Sharia, was not well received by the politically correct students and faculty.

It is unfortunate that Darwish gets such negative and often disruptive reactions when she appears on college campuses. Anyone who watches the attached video should be impressed by her life experience and her presentation.

College kids have been raised to believe that everyone is equal-a noble principle by and of itself. Yet there contradictions when certain individuals, groups, or cultures demonstrate that they deserve to be criticized. Like Darwish, I take care not to condemn all Muslims for the horrors that are being perpetrated by other Muslims. Yet, there is a definite reason why these horrors are being committed.

It is because Allah has mandated it.

Without going into details as I have in the past, here is what college students (and everybody else) need to know about Islam and Sharia. I will try to reduce it to something similar to bullet points.

Islam is not merely a religion. It is a political ideology with a religious veneer. As such, it is supremacist and intolerant of other religions. This has been illustrated throughout history and up to the present day.

Islam as a political ideology is not egalitarian. Muslims are superior to non- Muslims and men are superior to women.

According to Islamic belief, the Koran is the word of Allah as transmitted to the Prophet Mohammad by the Archangel Gabriel. Thus, the words are indisputable. Approximately 62% of the Koran's verses concern non-Muslims. They are not complimentary. Many of the verses mandate death to non-Muslims.

It is important for the non-Muslim to know when reading the Koran that there are many contradictory verses, some being peaceful with others being violent. The Koran is not in chronological order, rather it is by the longest sura (chapter) to the shortest. The exceptions are sura one and the final couple of suras just before Mohammad's death. These suras though supposedly representing Allah's words, ironically mirror the life of Mohammad, who began his prophecy peacefully in Mecca before being driven out by the pagan lords. He then relocated with his followers to Medina, consolidated power there, and then continued his prophesy through war and conquest. In the latter (Medina) periods, the verses of the Koran become more violent and hate filled. Islamic apologists love to quote the so-called peaceful words of the Koran as proving to non-Muslims that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. However, it is the Islamic scholars through the centuries who have reconciled the contradictory verses through the principle of abrogation. That simply means that if there are two conflicting verses in the Koran, that revealed to the Prophet later in time abrogates that revealed earlier in time. It is all quite logical.

It is those words that ISIS and their ilk rely on as they commit their mayhem. Like Mohammad, they not only engage in combat, they kill non-Muslims, behead captive soldiers, and take women into sexual slavery.

Islamic laws are based on the Koran, and the life, deeds and words of Mohammad as passed down from generation to generation. They are interpreted by Islamic scholars over the centuries. It is they who are the ultimate authorities in Islam. There are different Islamic schools of thought, and certain ones for example, "al Bukhari, are considered the most prestigious and authoritative.

Islamic law is called "Sharia". Its meaning in Arabic is "the path" (to the water). Sharia is designed to cover virtually every aspect of a person's life. There are punishments for violation of these laws. For example, it is forbidden to criticize Islam, Allah or the Prophet Mohammad. To do so constitutes blasphemy. The penalty for blasphemy is death. That also applies to non-Muslims. Sharia also mandates death for adultery, homosexuality and apostasy. That is why Darwish, an apostate who speaks out against Islam, lives with a fatwa over her head. She is literally under an Islamic death sentence. These penalties, by the way, are affirmed by the above Islamic schools of thought with few and only slight variations.

It is obvious that any law that mandates death for apostates, blasphemers, adulterers or homosexuality is inconsistent with our laws and constitution. The same would be said about any free, democratic society. Yet, many Islamic clerics in the US are trying to convince gullible non-Muslims that Sharia is perfectly compatible with our laws and constitution. I have heard it myself personally. It leaves one's mouth agape.

What kind of religion mandates death to those who leave it? That is not a religion; that is a mafia.

If you are a college student and Nonie Darwish comes to speak at your campus, I urge you to attend and listen. Ask yourself why is she supposedly not a credible messenger. Ask why she is under a death sentence.

These are things you need to know. After all, they are about life and death.

Manafort, Mueller et al

I have no inside information on the Manafort indictments, but based on the news I have heard  and my own experience in federal law enforcement, I offer my own initial speculations on the case(s). That includes the (missing) investigation on the Clinton Foundation and the Russians.

First of all, Paul Manafort and his business associate, Rick Gates, have been charged with money laundering in connection with Ukraine-all before Manafort joined the Trump campaign. (There are also other charges related to acting for a foreign government.) Therefore, the White House is rightfully declaring that this has no connection to President Trump or his campaign. However, if Manafort decides to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, presumably that cooperation would involve whatever knowledge or involvement he had with the focus of the investigation-the allegation that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 election in Trump's favor.

More to the point of the collusion question is the plea deal reached with George Papadopoulos, who served as a volunteer foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign. He has been charged with lying to the FBI. In addition, the FBI has emails showing that Papadopoulos was discussing contacts with Russians with other Trump campaign people. The question I have is whether any of those communications discussed actually colluding with Russian attempts to sway the election in Trump's favor as  opposed to say, improved US-Russian ties or that they may have been in position of Hillary Clinton emails. Moreover, he is being described as a "proactive cooperating " individual. That could mean many things including possibly having worn a wire.

In legal terms, this is also a conspiracy investigation. It is a widely misunderstood law, one that is often used in drug investigations. A conspiracy in federal legal terms is when one or more persons agree to violate a law. The crime is complete when one or more of the conspirators commits an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.  For example, in a  drug case, the conspirators enter into the agreement to smuggle 100 kilos of cocaine from South America. After that (the agreement), one of the conspirators buys a ticket to Colombia ( overt act). Technically, at that point, the conspiracy is complete. Note that overt acts don't have to be crimes in and of themselves. Buying a ticket to Colombia is not illegal-except that it is in furtherance of the conspiracy. Obviously, buying the drugs, transporting them and selling them in the US are all overt acts as well. The actual substantive crime does not technically have to be completed. In practical terms, however, conspiracy laws in federal drug cases (See Title 21) are used to prosecute the higher ups who rarely if ever touch the drugs. We are not prosecuting people who merely consider and discuss going into the drug trade. The effort is to get everyone actually involved in drug organizations.

In working conspiracy cases, at some point a cooperating witness is almost always needed. Somebody has to testify to the actual agreement and other overt acts. Naturally, the testimony of cooperating defendants must be corroborated as much as possible since their testimony will automatically be suspect.

So who should police and prosecutors try to "flip" and turn into a witness? While you always want to work your way up the ladder and get a person higher on the scale, in large conspiracies, the really small fish are usually not in a position to get you Mr. Big. For example, a courier arrested trying to bring in a kilo of cocaine into the US would not be in a position to provide direct evidence against Pablo Escobar or "Chapo" Guzman. For that, you need to "flip" someone much higher up the chain, someone who could provide direct evidence against the heads of drug organizations. 

I expect that Mueller will now try to obtain Manafort's (and Gates') cooperation. It also remains to be seen who Papadopolous has led investigators to as they go up the ladder (or attempt to). More people will definitely be put under pressure to cooperate.

So has Mueller "broken" the case? No. At least not from what we know. Someday, we may look back on today as a key development. But we don't know that yet.

I still feel that Mueller has a conflict of interest due to his close relationship with James Comey, who is a central figure in the matter. Mueller who served as FBI Director from 2001-2013, was Comey's predecessor.

There is also the matter of the Russian connection to the Clintons and their involvement, not to mention enrichment, over a deal signed off on by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by which Russia acquired 20% of America's  uranium supply. (Clinton was one of nine cabinet officials who signed off on the Uranium One deal.) The Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars from the interests involved in that deal.  Bill Clinton went to Moscow in 2010 and gave a speech sponsored by those same interests in which he received around $500,000. The FBI, under Mueller at the time, was aware of the matter. However, we have no special prosecutor looking into this. If Mueller can indict Manafort for charges and acts that happened before he joined Trump's presidential campaign, he can look into what the Russian connection to the Clinton Foundation was. But then he would have a conflict of interest because he was FBI director when it was all happening. They knew about it, yet then Attorney General Eric Holder was one of the officials who signed off on it.

Of course, nobody is talking about all that now. Today and well into the future, the talk is about Manafort et al.


Rutgers Campus Newspaper Grossly Downplays Professor's Anti-Semitism

Rutgers professor Michael Chikindas is under fire for posting vicious anti-Jewish images on his Facebook page as well as expressing vile statements  about Jews like blaming the 1915 Armenian massacre in  Turkey on Turkish Jews.

A student petition is under way at Rutgers calling for the suspension of Chikindas. Below is the description of this story by the campus paper, the Daily Targum. It grossly downplays the nature of Chikindas posts as being a criticism of Israel.

http://www.dailytargum.com/article/2017/10/students-create-petition-against-u-professor-for-anti-semitic-remarks



Mere criticism of Israel? Not anti-Jewish?

It is clear that Rutgers has no clue as what to do about Chikindas. It has also shown they are unable to do anything about anti-semitism on their campus in general as evidenced by many recent anti-Jewish incidents there over the past few years.

It is too bad that the campus paper, Daily Targum, is unwilling to let its readers know the true nature of Chikindas' rants against Jews-not just Zionists, not just Israelis, but Jews in general. Instead they are more interested in printing Chikinda's protestations of being free from anti-Jewish bias when he clearly is not.

Monday, October 30, 2017

UCLA's Daily Bruin and the Meaning of Fascism

"Hat tip" Daily Bruin




As a frequent reader of campus newspapers online, I usually tend to go easy on student writers.Yet, it is disturbing to read the intellectual rot that fills the pages of so many campus publications. They are a mirror of what is going on in campus life. Those professors who teach journalism should hang their heads in embarrassment at what student journalists are putting out.

One of the worst campus papers I have seen is UC Berkeley's Daily Californian. UCLA's Daily Bruin is not much better. In the current edition of the Daily Bruin, there is an op-ed that I have chosen to cross-post here not to embarrass the writer or single her out for any backlash. I post it here to illustrate how absurd the discourse is at the university level. The writer accuses the Trump administration of being fascist in nature. That is a silly charge in that if it were true, she would not be able to write such an article. She also reveals her own intolerance to opposing views in the article.

http://dailybruin.com/2017/10/24/submission-intolerant-policies-warrant-nonviolent-protests-not-civil-discourse/

"As is my wont, I have added a couple of reader comments. The longest one is pending editorial moderation.

One thing that is encouraging is that reader comments often show common sense and take issue with articles like this. The problem is that it is difficult to know if the readers who comment are students or community members.

"If this were a fascist state, you would already be in jail for writing this absurd piece. Instead you are free to write such nonsense. That is because you live in the freest country in the world. In addition, your reference to Nazi Germany is silly. The Germans were not able to rise up and remove Hitler from power because they were living in a total police state where dissent was crushed. Within weeks of taking power, the Social Democrats and Communists were rounded up and thrown in camps like Dachau where they were held under brutal conditions. The rest is history. Read the story of Hans and Sophie Scholl, Munich university students who were arrested distributing anti-war posters. Within three days they were put on trial in a kangaroo court, convicted and guillotined. You cannot compare the Trump administration to that. It is not fascist to oppose illegal immigration. I myself am married to a Mexican, but I oppose illegal immigration. I support legal immigration for anyone who assimilates and embraces our traditions and values of freedom and democracy. Similarly, it is not fascist or homophobic to oppose gender neutral restrooms and same sex marriage. Moreover your characterization of the Trump administration as white supremacists is unfair and inaccurate. Finally, by your own language, you show your own fascist tendencies. You oppose the right of speech for those with whom you disagree. That is fascist itself. So go ahead and protest all you like. That is your right. However, when you disrupt and try to shut down the speech of others, you are being a fascist yourselves. The society you wish to bring about would be totally fascist because it would not tolerate the same dissent that you freely exercise. I hope you will keep a copy of your article in a safe space (no pun intended) so you can take it out 20-30 years from now and re-read it. Hopefully, you will have enough sense then to realize just how silly you sound now."

*Update: As of today at 2pm (10-31) , I have sent this above comment to DB twice and it is not yet posted.

Never posted. So much for discourse.It was censored.

Stacking the Decks in Student Governments

Richard Cravatts has an interesting article running in Frontpage Magazine about how the pro-Palestinian forces are working to get their members and supporters into student governments. The result is the constant drumbeat of BDS resolutions against Israel that have to be debated every year by student governments. It includes the despicable tactic of trying to keep- Jewish students out of student government.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/268237/normalizing-anti-semitism-student-governments-richard-l-cravatts


"At McGill University this week, as the latest example, three board members of the University’s Students’ Society were removed from their appointments after a vote at the Fall General Assembly due to what was reported to be their perceived “Jewish conflict of interest.”



Angela's Kids Strike Again

"Wir schaffen dass." (We can do this.)


Another asylum seeker in Germany (this time from Pakistan)-another horrific murder. A Pakistani man murdered his 2-year-old daughter by slashing her throat while his wife was at a police station in Hamburg asking for their help. He fled to Spain and has been captured.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5028429/Pakistani-man-Germany-slashed-daughter-s-throat.html

What in the world is Angela Merkel thinking as she plunges blindly ahead bringing more migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees into Germany? What are the rest of Europe's leaders-not to mention the EU-thinking? Only the Eastern European countries are resisting bringing in hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim newcomers into their countries, gaining entrance merely because they show up. And the USSR-like EU and its Western European satellites threaten them with sanctions if they refuse to take in their "fair share" of newcomers.

Their fair share of rapes, murders, and terror attacks.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

The Status of Wives in Islam

Hat tip MEMRI TV and Vlad Tepes


If you want to know the true status of women under Islam, don't take my word for it, listen to this imam, Muhammad Syed Adly, speaking at a mosque in Columbia South Carolina.




And where is the reaction from the National Organization of Women?

In Islam, a man can have four wives. A woman can have only one husband. If a man wants a divorce all he has to do is tell the wife, "I divorce you" three times. The wife can't do that. The Koran actually gives permission for the husband to beat his wife. No such permission allows for the wife top beat her husband-you know, if he stays out late at the coffee shop or the hookah bar with the boys.  I could go on and on.

What say you, N.O.W.?

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Swedish Cop's Home Attacked by Gunmen

Late Saturday evening, one or more unidentified men opened fire with high caliber weapons at the home of a police officer as he slept with his wife and two children in the town of VästerÃ¥s. Nobody was injured. One 20-year-old man is being held for questioning. The below article was translator by me from Boras Tidning. 



-
Photo: 
-Boras Tidning

http://www.bt.se/nyheter/ung-man-anhallen-for-polisskott/

Young man in custody for shooting at police residence in Västerås




A 20-year-old man is in custody on suspicion for the shooting at a police officer's residence in Västerås.
At least 12 shots pierced through the front door of the home where a policeman  and his family were sleeping.
Prosecutor Anne Sjöblom decided to arrest that man at 20.43 after a hearing in the evening. The man is arrested as reasonably suspected, the lower suspicion, for attempted murder, declares the police to TT.
According to the police, a second person held for interrogation earlier in the day has been released, but not dropped from the investigation.
Two adults and two children were in the shot up house and lay asleep during the shooting. The shots were  so powerful that they passed through the property and at least one of the shots hit the property behind, a police source said. This means that other persons were also be at risk. In the door alone could be counted at least twelve bullet holes.
- There is a great devastation in the house. There are a lot of  high caliber cartridges that are outside, "says regional police chief Carin Götblad at a press conference, explaining the night's events and the police work.
The police do not want to say what position the concerned police officer has in the (organization).
"But this is a  average, capable police officer that has been exposed. It is extremely serious. It's clear that nobody should experience this,"  she says.
She does not want to comment on the type of weapon that was used before the technical examination is completed.
"It's a high caliber weapon, it could be an automatic weapon," she says.
Götblad also does not want to confirm the information that a bullet entered the house behind the shot up villa.
"There is such information, we do not confirm it in this situation, but it's great devastation and heavy ammunition," she says.
According to Götblad, the family is now "not at all good" and everyone was home when the deed took place.
- They are getting all the support that may be needed.
According to the source of the TT, the police are currently working on the theory that the act was directed at the police authority as a result of the police's targeted work against  serious crime in the region.
"We assume that it is an attack directed at the police and our activity. Then we try to take the measures that we think are important so that this can not happen again. We are also working to secure the working environment for our workers, "said Police Area Manager Robert Wallén to TT.
"The starting point at the moment is that we will seize the perpetrator or the perpetrators who have committed this crime.
The police will have a greater presence in society because the incident also raises concern among residents in Västerås.
- I woke up because there was a rattling noise, but then it was quiet. It lasted  quite some time, says neighbor Kinda to TT.
- I checked all the windows and looked at the kids, but did not see anything. So I thought it was nothing.
An elderly lady who lives near the shot up house woke up because of the bangs.
"But I did not think it was a shot. I got up, but then let it go and woke up when the police knocked on the door, "she told TT.
Like almost all neighbors, TT spoke to, she did not want to give her name.
- I think it's terrible. This is such a calm and  nice area.
The police are now working intensively on the case and in the puzzle laying there is information acquired that has been of interest earlier. According to SVT Västmanland, seizures (clues) have also been made there.
"We have secured certain clues and made several seizures on the spot. That we can't go into, "Says police spokesman Daniel Wikdahl to SVT.
Police authorities have also entered the state of residence as a result of the incident, which is classified as attempted murder or attempted manslaughter.
No one has been arrested for the crime, but two people have been held for questioning.
"It is part of the intensive investigation work currently under way and we can not  say more on that," says Anders Hedström, president of the police in the region Mitt.
According to the police district manager Robert Wallén, therehas been  no concrete threat or a specific threat to the affected policeman.
TT: Are you targeting criminal groups in the investigation work?
"We work, as you usually say, broadly. We have a good picture of the serious organized crime in VästerÃ¥s, but also in the rest of the country.
"It can be noted that this is a very serious crime and that it is a highly violent to shoot with a high caliber weapon. It does not matter who it is, "Wallen says.
The prosecutor has been informed of the event and the family is being taken care of in a protected place.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hours after this incident I happened to be speaking with a Swedish acqauintance via Skype. Though he had no details, he informed me that VästerÃ¥s has a large immigrant community and that most criminal gangs in Sweden are made up of immigrants. He surmised that will almost certainly be the case here, but as yet, police have released no names. We shall see.

Univ. California Establishes Center Dedicated to Study of Free Speech

This article first appeared in Times of Israel.







University of California President Janet Napolitano, who oversees an institution where free speech has disappeared, has announced the establishment of a center dedicated to the study of free speech. The center will be in Washington DC.

Talk about complicating what should be a very simple issue. UC is now establishing an entire center to something that is simple enough to cover in one ten-week course, if not a two-hour class session. At least UC has ample anecdotal material in the form of its own history of disruptions of speech. From shutting down appearances by Milo Yiannopoulos at Berkeley to disruptions of pro-Israel events at Irvine, UC leads the nation in disruptions of conservative and pro-Israel speakers. At UC Santa Cruz, which I consider "America's wackiest university", they have an entire major called Community Studies, which teaches the little rascals how to organize and protest on behalf of "social justice".

I also view the appointments of UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman and UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky as being highly questionable. At UC Irvine, Chancellor Gillman has allowed groups like Students for Justice in Palestine to ride roughshod repeatedly over the free speech rights of pro-Israel students and speakers with virtually no punishment. Meanwhile, while Chemerinsky was dean of the UC Irvine law school, he allowed representatives of his school (aligned with the Marxist National Lawyers Guild) to act as "legal observers" riding shotgun along with the SJP hooligans to make sure their own "rights" to disrupt were being protected.

Odd choices indeed.

And how fitting that is all overseen by former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano. As head of DHS, she did nothing to protect our borders. As head of the UC system, she is more concerned about protecting the rights of students who are in the country illegally than protecting the free speech of those who might not agree.

And why establish this center in Washington DC? The need (if they are really going to defend free speech, which is doubtful) is on the UC campuses. It is UC students who need to be reminded of that quaint little historical footnote we call the First Amendment. Then again, if it is just going to be the usual, politically correct pablum and naval gazing, maybe the nation's capital is the right place for it. Either way, this is just another colossal waste of money by the University of California-which is nothing new.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Pro-Israel Event at NY Synagogue Disrupted

Hat tip Debbie

Reservists on Duty, an organization made up of Israeli veterans, is touring the US educating people on what it is like to be an Israeli soldier. At UC Irvine, a group of them were disrupted in May, an incident which I videotaped.

Now a similar disruption has happened in New York-in a synagogue no less by pro-Palestinian activists who have no respect for anything.




It matters not whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish or otherwise. There is something about the pro-Palestinian movement that has no respect for free speech and dialogue. All they respect is violence and disruption. It is time to start making arrests.

Nonie Darwiah at Hobart and Smith Williams College

Image result for Nonie Darwish
Nonie Darwish


Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-born apostate from Islam, writer and lecturer, recently spoke at Hobart and Smith Williams Colleges on the topic of Islam and sharia law. I am cross-posting the video of that speech with her permission. The event was hosted by Young Americans for Freedom.

I have seen Nonie speak on a few occasions personally and other occasions on video. I think this is the most impressive speech I have seen her give. Her words on the hate and intolerance of Islam were compelling. She made it clear at the beginning of her talk that it was not about hating Muslims as people, but that the charge of Islamophobia is an absurd one since any fear of Islam or sharia is hardly irrational but grounded in reality.

Yet, there were the usual know-nothings who not only tried to challenge her, but tried to abuse their opportunity to speak during q and a. They tried to hog the microphone and make speeches. A couple of them did what is common when Nonie gave her answer. They stormed out. They can't rebut the truth.

This video lasts an hour and five minutes. It is well worth it.


https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AuET9YFrRDaW0ac&cid=1DE84D1561D62DFB&id=1DE84D1561D62DFB%213530&parId=1DE84D1561D62DFB%21849&o=OneUp

I don't blame these young people for their ignorance. I blame their professors. One shining example is the man who stormed out at the end saying there was no free speech. He was a professor. What a sorry example these people set for their students.

An Attempt to Whitewash Hate Speech in Canada


Hat tip Vlad Tepes and Gates of Vienna

Toronto imam Ayman Elkasrawy has been a point of controversy ever since he was recorded in a Toronto mosque calling for the death of Jews. Sure enough, Canada's liberal elite has rushed to his defense. According to the Toronto Star, Elkasrawy is a kind and gentle bridge builder whose words were, sigh, misinterpreted.


http://gatesofvienna.net/2017/10/the-elkasrawy-affair-imam-victimized-islam-misunderstood-and-hizb-ut-tahrir-mistranslates-arabic/#comment-495703

These excuses about misinterpretations of Arabic verses are getting pretty old. Killing is killing. I'm pretty sure the Arabic word for killing doesn't have an alternative meaning of "treat them (Jews) with kindness."


Thursday, October 26, 2017

Sweden's PM Speaks on Immigration


Image result for swedish flag and white flag

Hat tip Fria Tider (Sweden)

Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven spoke at Uppsala University Thursday and gave his views on the immigrant crisis in Sweden and Europe. I have translated the article from Fria Tider into English.

Stefan Löfven: Punish countries that do not receive immigrants
Published October 26, 2017 at 19.15

http://www.friatider.se/stefan-l-fven-straffa-l-nder-som-inte-tar-emot-invandrare


DOMESTIC. Border controls within the EU will remain for a long time. This was said by Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (S) in a speech on Thursday. At the same time, he pointed out "xenophobia" as the major threat to Europe, pointing out that EU countries that do not receive enough immigrants should be punished economically.


It was during a speech at Uppsala University on Thursday that Stefan Löfven stated that border controls are unlikely to disappear in the near future.
On the contrary, they will probably stay well into the future.
 Löfven, who in the early stages of the asylum wave in Autumn 2015 stated that "my Europe did not build walls", now called controls for "a necessary evil".
"As long as we have not got a working system in the EU and as long as the system and security can not be guaranteed, border controls will not disappear in Europe," said Löfven, according to SVT News , pointing out that this will have negative consequences for the free mobility within the EU.
The prime minister also said that the negotiations currently underway on the EU's future asylum policy are "complicated". But he is willing to compromise.
Migration Minister Heléne Fritzon (S) has previously said that Sweden can not have an asylum policy that differs significantly from the EU's forthcoming policy. The Swedish government is therefore trying to influence the negotiations so that all EU countries are forced to hand out permanent residence permits to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers. But other countries do not agree.
- The Swedish position and the opening of the negotiations are permanent residence permits. But when I listen to the other Member States, I do not hear so many say that, she told Ekot's Saturday interview this weekend.
In the speech at Uppsala University, Stefan Löfven also declared that EU countries refusing to receive so-called refugees should be punished by eliminating EU financial support.
According to SVT, Löfven also noted what he considers to be the major "threats" to the EU today: "populism", "xenophobia" and Brexit, that Britain is leaving the Union.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bottom line? It looks like more of the same for Sweden and Western Europe. Hopefully, the Eastern European countries will stand firm against this insane policy.

Ken Marcus Nominated for Civil Rights Post in Dept. of Education

Image result for kenneth marcus
Kenneth Marcus


President Trump has nominated Kenneth Marcus of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law to be Asst. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights. Having Met Mr. Marcus on several occasions, I am pleased at this nomination, which I think will be important given the many problems on our university campuses.

http://forward.com/fast-forward/386196/kenneth-marcus-bds-trump-devos-department-education/

Not only is it a positive development to have someone in this position who has worked to fight anti-semitism in our universities, I am confident that Mr Marcus will advocate for the benefit of any student facing discrimination or harassment in education whether they are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, black, white, Hispanic, Asian or whatever. Mr Marcus believes in equality and equal justice.

This is a badly needed appointment. The environment on our universities campuses is being poisoned by the day, and much work needs to be done.

Anti-Semitism Still Active at UC Berkeley: The Case of Allen Dershowitz


lbcaseisrael_joelmayorga_editorialcartoonImage result for Der Stuermer

-Left:Daily Californian
-Right: Der Stuermer


Noted attorney Allen Dershowitz spoke recently at UC Berkeley. There was considerable opposition to his appearance since his topic was a defense of Israel. Of course, that can never stand with the pro-Palestinian crowd. As expected, the anti-Zionists once again proved that they are really anti-Jewish. After Dershowitz's speech, a poster was placed on a wall in the law school with a swastika covering Dershowitz's image.



In addition, the Daily Californian, the rag that masquerades as a student newspaper, ran an editorial cartoon that conjured up images of Nazi Germany's infamous newspaper, Der Stuermer, which was run by the equally infamous Jew hater, Julius Streicher.

http://www.dailycal.org/2017/10/25/anti-semitic-caricature-alan-dershowitz-generates-no-criticism-uc-berkeley-hard-left/


To the credit of the Daily Californian, they did apologize, no doubt after being embarrassed after the fact.

http://www.dailycal.org/2017/10/25/editors-note-regarding-editorial-cartoon-depicting-alan-dershowitz/

I am gratified that Erwin Chemerinsky, the newly installed dean of the UCB Law School, wrote a letter protesting the anti-semitism surrounding Dershowitz's appearance. Too bad he was never aware of the problem while he occupied a similar position at UC Irvine. Maybe he is learning that denying the problem doesn't make it go away.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The Trump Russia Investigation Boomerangs on Dems

Who says that Trump-Russian connection isn't going anywhere? Now it has flown right in the faces of the Democrat party and Hillary Clinton. It was the Dems and the Clinton campaign that helped pay for the mysterious Fusion dossier that claimed Trump was holding orgies with hookers in a Moscow hotel room.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/25/fusion-gps-fallout-dnc-clinton-fbi-take-heat-after-bombshell-that-dems-funded-trump-dossier.html

I would say it is time for special counsel Robert Mueller to shut down his investigation into the Trump "collusion" with the Russians. On the other hand, if he wants to find something-anything- related to this fiasco with which he can claim "results" a'la Scooter Libby, he might want to shift gears and investigate this latest revelation. Instead of sending his agents off to execute no-knock warrants on the home of Paul Manafort in the dead of night, maybe he should shift his attention to people like Debbie Wasserman- Schultz and Hillary Clinton herself.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Anti-Semitism in Our Universities: An Empirical Study and One More Example

Hat tip AMCHA Initiative and Algemeiner

"Coordinated internationally by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), the academic boycott of Israel calls for college and university faculty to “boycott and/or work towards the cancellation or annulment of events, activities, agreements, or projects involving Israeli academic institutions.”
-AMCHA Initiative

"Of the 965 faculty boycotters in our study, 678 (70%) were affiliated with a department, program, center, or institute in the field of Ethnic, Gender, or Middle East Studies: 194 (20%) faculty boycotters had their primary affiliation in one of these three areas of study, and 483 (50%) faculty boycotters whose primary affiliations were in fields other than Ethnic, Gender or Middle East Studies had secondary affiliations in one or more of these three areas. "
-AMCHA Initiative


The AMCHA Initiative has just released a new study which shows the connection between the presence of professors who are anti-Israel agitators urging boycotts of the Jewish state and anti-semitism on campus, which affects Jewish students. The report focuses on the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, as well as specific fields of study, Middle Eastern studies, ethnic studies, and gender studies.

Algemeiner has a report on the release.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/10/24/new-study-exposes-how-faculty-support-of-israel-boycotts-intensifies-antisemitism-on-campuses/

Here is the AMCHA Initiative's release with a direct link to the study irself.

https://amchainitiative.org/new-study-faculty-boycott-israel-increase-antisemitism-pr-102417

Having seen these academic frauds in action at UC Irvine and other California universities, these findings merely confirm my own beliefs. As I write, we are dealing with this type of anti-Israel indoctrination being introduced into the Los Angeles and Orange County school districts. And the suspects are the same, in this case, people like Lisa Hajjar and Joel Beinin, professors who travel the lecture circuit at numerous universities, spreading their lies about the Jewish state,

Algemeiner has also posted a classic example of anti-Jewish faculty with this story on Rutgers University's Michael Chikindas.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/10/24/rutgers-professor-calls-judaism-most-racist-religion-blames-jews-for-armenian-genocide-in-flurry-of-antisemitic-homophobic-and-sexist-posts/

This reads to me like Julius Streicher and Der Stuermer incarnate. Opposition to the policies of Israel is one thing, but the case of Chikindas illustrates what this is really all about. Jew hatred. Rutgers employs at least two certified anti-Semites, Chinkindas and Jasbir Puar, who is mentioned in the above link, the AMCHA report, and who has been featured here at Fousesquawk. As long as these two are employed at Rutgers, the university will have to spend the next several years issuing public statements that they condemn these sentiments.

I hope universities everywhere will read the AMCHA report and act on it.

Debunking Pro-Palestinian Propaganda

I am cross-posting information from some of my colleagues in regards to the pro-Islam/anti-Israel propaganda training course being provided to teachers by both the Los Angeles and Orange County school districts. The presenters  are Islamic activists from CAIR and the Muslim Public Affairs Council among others, as well as anti-Israel activists from  various universities.

The below link  is being used by adjunct professor Jeffrey Cooper (Santa Monica Community College) in his presentation. It is written by professors Joel Beinin (Stanford) and Lisa Hajjar (UC Santa Barbara), both of whom are frequent speakers at anti-Israel events.. Cooper has made some modifications with the consent of both writers.

https://web.stanford.edu/group/sper/images/Palestine-Israel_Primer_MERIP.pdf

My friends at  The Israel Group have posted  hyperlinks to the Jeffrey Cooper version of the Primer on the Arab-Israeli conflict.






The below chart was composed by Louis Palme, a local writer and expert on Islam. Mr Palme is known to me personally. It refutes details contributed by California professors Joel Beinen and Lisa Hajjar, both anti-Israel activists. As stated, this material was used by Professor Jeffrey Cooper (with some modifications) during his presentation.

Lies and Half-truths about the Arab-Israeli Conflicts
Response to “Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Primer”
By Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar (revised 2014)

Page/Parag
Questionable Statement        
Facts and Data Refuting the Questionable Statement    
1/1
The conflict between Arabs and Jews is a new one.  (Note:  Parsing among Zionists   and secular Jews is a false argument to diffuse the reality of this animosity which has existed since the 7th Century when Jews rejected Islam.)
·         Devout Muslims pray 17 rakas a day which include the demonization of Jews as “those with whom Allah is angry.” (Surah 1:7)
·         Arabs drove two Jewish tribes from Medina and executed the adult males of the third tribe in the market square, making slaves of the women and children. (Ibn Ishaq, page 464)
·         On his death bed Muhammad decreed that there would be only one religion in the Arabian Peninsula (Ibn Ishaq, page 689)
1/3
Religious differences are not the cause of the conflict.
·         The HAMAS Covenant of 1988 states in Article 11 states, “The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf (endowment from Allah) consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it or any part of it, should not be given up.”
1/6
Jews insist on establishing an exclusive Jewish state in all of Palestine
·         The 1917 Balfour Declaration (and its derivatives) all emphasized that, “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
2/3
The text implies that the nationalistic goals of a minority (Zionists) form the laws and policies of the State of Israel.  This is not true.

“The goal of establishing a Jewish state has meant, in theory and in practice, establishing a state composed of Jews only – a state that excludes non-Jews.”
·         The 1948 Declaration of Establishment of State of Israel states, “THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
5/2
Palestinians feared that the Zionists would dispossess them from the land they had farmed for subsistence for hundreds of years.
·         The text implies that the purchase land from these absentee Arab land owners was an act of foreign imperial rule.  There is no indication that this wasn’t merely the function of a free market.  (On page x/paragraph y, the text acknowledges that HAMAS decreed death for any Arab to sell land to a Jew.  Does that constitute a free market?)
6/1
The suppression of the Arab Revolt (1936-39) caused the factionalized, quarreling, and divided Palestinian leadership during the crucial decade (1939-1949) when the future of Palestine would be decided
·         Long before 1939, T.E. Lawrence wrote, “Rebels, especially successful rebels were of necessity bad subjects and worse governors. . . [A]nyone who pushed through to success a rebellion of the weak against their masters must come out of it so stained in estimation that afterword nothing in the world would make him feel clean.” (Seven Pillars of Wisdom, pp 649-659)  The Arab failure to achieve self-rule was of their own making.
6/3
The Palestinian leadership and the Arab League refused to participate with the UN Special Committee . . . acting in accord with the overwhelming sentiments of the Palestinian people.
·         Where is the evidence of this “overwhelming sentiment”?  
·         The text on page 8, parag. 6 asserts that the “overwhelming majority” of the Arabs in Palestine acquiesced to the reality of the Plan once it was formulated, wanting peace and wanting to live in harmony with their Jewish neighbors.
6/3 & 6/5
The document states in 6/3 that the European Jews had recently colonized Palestine.
·         This is contradicted by 6/5 which states that the Jews had acquired by purchase 5.8% of the total land area of Palestine.  This is not colonization.
7/7
The UN Partition Resolution set aside Jerusalem and Bethlehem as an international zone, but this was objected to by the Palestinians
·         Since the Crusades, Jerusalem has been a contentious region for all three major religions. If any peace were to result from the partition of Palestine, it was essential that this region be deemed “international,” open to all.
·         The speculation of what would happen under “Zionist leadership” is a red herring.
8/3
In the end, the UN GA knowingly designed the Partition Plan against the will of the indigenous Palestinian Arab majority population.
·         Where is the data to show this plan was opposed by the majority of the Palestinian Arabs?  The document states on page 8/parag. 6 that “the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian population acquiesced in the reality of the Plan because they believed they were powerless to stop its implementation.”
8/4
The State of Israel was established unilaterally without UN approval, and it   resulted in the “massive dispossession and expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population (‘ethnic cleansing’) over the next two years.”
·         The departure of Palestinian Arabs was by order of the Arab nations prior to the Arab-Israeli War who said that remaining Arabs would be killed as collaborators.
8/5
Arabs argued that it was only because the British had permitted extensive Zionist settlement in Palestine against the expressed wishes of the Arab majority that Jewish statehood was on the international agenda at all.
·         Arab/Jewish statehood was unfinished business since World War 1. The League of Nations couldn’t find a solution, so it was passed on to the UN.  Today, 100 years later Palestinian leaders still refuse any proposal for resolving the issue.
·         The Palestinian position, as stated in the HAMAS Covenant, Article 13, is:  “Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. . . There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad.”
8/7
The Grand Mufti of Palestine was able to find only about 3,000 supporters of going to war over the Partition Plan.
·         The document fails to identify Hajji Amin Al-Husayni, who joined Hitler in the fight against Jews during World War II.  After WW II, Al-Husayni lost much of his credibility and following in the Middle East.
11/4
Immediately after the proclamation of Israeli statehood, the neighboring States (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq) invaded, almost exclusively, the territory allotted to the Palestinian Arabs to keep Abdullah from annexing the territory allocated to become the Palestinian state.
·         Why would Jordan invade Israel to prevent Jordan from annexing some of Palestine’s territory?
11/6
The systematic military, psychological, and economic warfare by the Jewish forces against the Palestinian civilian population during this period was an ethnic cleansing operation – whether by premeditation or not – and is regarded under international law today as a crime against humanity.
·         As pointed out above on Page 8/Parag. 4, there is plenty of evidence that the departure of the Arab Palestinians was ordered in part by the surrounding Arab nations.  Furthermore, the document goes on to say at the top of page 12, that neither Egypt nor Jordan allowed the Palestinians to exercise their right to self-determination.
·         It is difficult to lay blame for all of this at the feet of the Jewish forces.
12/2
The most infamous atrocity occurred at Deir Yasin on April 9, 1948, where 125 to over 250 Arab civilians were killed in an unprovoked attack.
·         Deir Yasin was a strategic village overlooking the only Tel Aviv – Jerusalem supply route.  Not only had local and foreign Arabs dug trenches overlooking the highway, they had been continually attacking supply trucks since December, 1947.
·         There is no evidence that there was a massacre of defenders or rape of women in this military operation.  Specific evidence includes:
1. The Jews gave warning to the residents to leave the town because it would be attacked to protect the supply route.  A safe exit route was left open during the attack.
2. Palestinians were trucked to safety in East Jerusalem.
3. Women and children casualties were due to a) collapse of houses after hand grenade blasts; b) men disguising themselves as women to avoid being shot.
4. Interviews with villagers after the attack could identify only 107 Arab civilians killed in the attack, out of 750 residents.
5. There were no rapes. “Hazam Nusseibi, who worked for the Palestine Broadcasting Service in 1948, admitted being told by Hussein Khalidi, a Palestinian Arab leader, to fabricate the atrocity claims. Abu Mahmud, a Deir Yassin resident in 1948 told Khalidi "there was no rape," but Khalidi replied, "We have to say this, so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews." Nusseibeh told the BBC 50 years later, "This was our biggest mistake. We did not realize how our people would react. As soon as they heard that women had been raped at Deir Yassin, Palestinians fled in terror."  Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-capture-of-deir-yassin
12/3
To this day, Israel has never allowed these Palestinian refugees or their descendants to return to their homes.
·         Israel could not simply agree to allow all Palestinians to return, but consistently sought a solution to the refugee problem. Israel’s position
was expressed by David Ben-Gurion (August 1, 1948): “When the Arab states are ready to conclude a peace treaty with Israel this question will come up for constructive solution as part of the general settlement, and with due regard to our counter-claims in respect of the destruction of Jewish life and property, the long-term interest of the Jewish and Arab populations, the stability of the State of Israel and the durability of the basis of peace between it and its neighbors, the actual position and fate of the Jewish communities in the Arab countries, the responsibilities of the Arab governments for their war of aggression and their liability for reparation, will all be relevant in the question whether, to what extent, and under what conditions, the former Arab residents of the territory of Israel should be allowed to return.”
·         Meanwhile, Israel preserved the assets and property of the Palestinians, including harvesting their crops in anticipation of reaching a peace agreement.  Israel also offered many partial compromises over the refugees, but The Arabs rejected all the Israeli compromises because they were unwilling to take any action that might be construed as recognition of Israel.
13/3
Large refugee camps established by the UN in 1949 remain in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria exist today 68 years after the war.
·         Post-war refugees are normally absorbed or disbursed soon after the war.  Examples include Poland, Finland, the 800,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries after 1967, and the 150,000 Turkish refugees from Bulgaria absorbed by Turkey in 1950.  The Palestinian refugee problem is a direct result of the Arab nations to either make peace with Israel or absorb the refugees as citizens. 
13/6
From 1948-1966, Israel imposed a strict military rule over the Palestinian minority in Israel. . . In many respects, they were, and remain today, second-class citizens.
·         Palestinian Arabs living in Israel actually have more civil rights than their counterparts living in other Arab nations, as confirmed on page 13 /paragraph 3 of this document . 





















Below is the text of a message I have received from the pro-Israel organization, Stand With Us. It limits its objections to those points concerning Israel as opposed to those concerning Islam. Please note the links where you can send your own message to the LAUSD and OCUSD if you wish to protest this training. I have already done so.

An Urgent Message From StandWithUs


The Orange County Department of Education and the OC Human Relations Council co-sponsored an in-service training seminar for K-12 teachers called “Learning about Islam and the Arab World.” Two of the workshops are unequivocally anti-Israel. The seminar itself is produced by an anti-Israel organization called Fellowship of Reconciliation, which supports BDS. Participating teachers received salary points. The Los Angeles Unified School District also sponsored the same seminar.

Our only focus is on two anti-Israel workshops within the larger seminar. We do not oppose the overall seminar on Islam and the Arab world. We encourage teachers to be sensitive to their student's diverse classroom cultures.

The two workshops are given by Jeffrey Cooper and Rola Karam. The organization who produced the seminar is the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

There are numerous problems with both workshops, and the organization who produced them.

The “Palestine-Israel and the Arab Israeli Conflict,” given by Jeffrey Cooper, who is a part-time adjunct professor at Santa Monica College. His forty-page handout was originally written by two anti-Zionist academic activists, Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar. Cooper extensively revised his handout with their permission.

The “primer” on “Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” is the only reading material offered. It is completely one-sided, presenting a biased and ideologically anti-Israel narrative. This assigned primer is filled with factual errors and omissions. It downplays and rationalizes Palestinian terrorism, ignores the dispossession of nearly one million Jews from Arab countries (who now comprise a majority of Israeli Jews) while constantly referring to Israeli Jews as “European settlers.” It speaks of the “long-lived Zionist and Israeli desire for ethnic supremacy and exclusivity,” calls for the wholesale “right of return” of the 1948 refugees and all their descendants, and refers to Israel as an “apartheid” state. As a teaching tool, it fails even the most basic academic standards as it offers no citations for its claims, nor a bibliography.

“Palestine Today: No Way to Treat a Child,” workshop, given by Rola Karam features similar issues. The title of this workshop is the same as an international propaganda campaign called “No Way to Treat a Child,” a “joint project of Defense for Children International - Palestine and American Friends Service Committee.” Both NGOs support the BDS movement against Israel. The NGO Monitor has several articles on their activities and funding.

The campaign accuses Israel of falsely imprisoning Palestinian children, without mentioning that Palestinian youth are routinely indoctrinated to commit violence against Israelis, soldiers and civilians alike.

The campaign also fails to criticize various Palestinian factions (Hamas, Fatah and others) for using children as young as 13 as suicide bombers, couriers, fighters, and on the “front line” as rock and Molotov cocktail throwers. When not used as soldiers, many Palestinian children are used as human shields by these groups. (For further information, see our information booklet “No Way to Treat a Child: The Plight of Palestinian Child Soldiers.”

As for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, it works with the anti-Israel “Boycott Divestment and Sanctions” movement. FOR was the parent body of the vehemently anti-Zionist Interfaith Peace Builders, which sends “3 – 4 delegations to Israel/Palestine every year” to expose participants to “everyday war and violence of the occupation” (saying nothing about terrorism). The delegations meet a range of anti-Zionist NGOs including Coalition of Women for Peace, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Mossawa, Badil and otherss.


YOUR URGENT ACTION NEEDED NOW:

Contact the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education here and the Orange County Board of Education here. You can find samples letters to send to Los Angeles and Orange County board members in each document as well. Please be courteous and respectful interacting with staff.


Connect with us:
https://www.facebook.com/standwithus
https://twitter.com/standwithus/
https://www.instagram.com/standwithus/

https://www.youtube.com/standwithus
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Fousesquawk comment: Not only are the presenters very biased individuals who are activists to boot, I find it objectionable that teachers in any school district are receiving in-service training with such a politicized and one-sided agenda-both as to Islam and as to Israel. It is safe to assume that this is what teachers are supposed to pass on to students-our children- in the classroom. It is not education, it is indoctrination.

It would be equally objectionable if say, the president-any president-were sending his minions into the schools to advance his image or agenda. It would be equally objectionable if the Israeli  consul general were presenting a one-sided version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to teachers, presumably that they would carry this message into the classroom. It would also be objectionable if Global Warming activists were training teachers. The list goes on and on.

We do not train teachers to teach and advance political agendas. This is exactly what is going on in LA and Orange Counties. To make matters worse, they are propagating a myriad of lies.