"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"

Father God, thank you for the love of the truth you have given me. Please bless me with the wisdom, knowledge and discernment needed to always present the truth in an attitude of grace and love. Use this blog and Northwoods Ministries for your glory. Help us all to read and to study Your Word without preconceived notions, but rather, let scripture interpret scripture in the presence of the Holy Spirit. All praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Please note: All my writings and comments appear in bold italics in this colour

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Pharmaceutical Company Charged Following Baby Deaths – UK Police

What a concept - holding pharmaceutical companies
responsible for what they produce!

© Srdjan Zivulovic / Reuters

Pharmaceutical company ITH Pharma Ltd is facing criminal prosecution following the deaths of babies at several British hospitals, police have announced.

London-based ITH Pharma Ltd is facing criminal charges after allegedly supplying contaminated feed to premature babies between May 27 and June 2, 2014.

The charges come after an investigation was launched in 2014, after three babies died and another 20 needed treatment over contracting septicemia (blood poisoning).  

Scotland Yard said in a statement on Wednesday: “ITH Pharma Ltd, based at Premier Park, NW10, has been charged with seven counts of supplying a medicinal product which was not of the nature or quality specified in the prescription on 27 May 2014.

“It has also been charged with failing to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that patients were not infected by contaminants, in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act, between 1 August 2009 and 1 June 2014.

“The company is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday, 17 December.”


The babies who died were treated at two hospitals: St Thomas' in London and Rosie Maternity Hospital, Cambridge.

Yousef Al-Kharboush died at only nine days old on June 1, 2014 after receiving the contaminated feed at St Thomas’. His parents said they will never recover from what happened.

“We have found it impossible to move on while the case is ongoing, I am not sure that we will ever come to terms with what happened,” his father, Raaid Sakkijha, said. 



How China Uses Intimidation, Negotiation to Bring Christians Under Its Control

War on Christianity - in China. It must be bad for CBC to report on it.

Crackdowns on Protestants, deals with the Vatican
part of realities for the religious
Saša Petricic · CBC News

Protestant Christians gather for prayer at Holy Love house church in Beijing. They have had to change their
schedule and their meeting places to avoid China’s crackdown on 'illegal gatherings.' (Saša Petricic/CBC)

The officials at the gate were expecting us — a dozen guards with armbands marked "local safety committee". The door has always been open on our other visits. This time, they seemed determined not to let a CBC reporter into the Beijing apartment building.

"For security reasons, no foreigner," said the man in charge. "No cameras. It's closed," he said.

That is, until our host arrived to argue with the guards.

"Why are you wearing the local committee badge?" Pastor Xu Yonghai asked the guard. "You're with the national security agency." The order to stop us from seeing him came from higher up, he suggested.


Fastest-growing Christian movement in the world

The pastor escorted us up to his apartment. With a cross on one wall and a row of Bibles on a bookshelf, his one-room home doubles as a church once a week.

Pastor Xu Yonghai, centre, leads a weekly sermon in his small apartment, which doubles as the Holy Love church in Beijing. (Saša Petricic/CBC)

There are thousands of these so-called house churches in China, a way for the fastest-growing Christian movement in the world to remain low-key and try to avoid a clampdown from government officials.

China's constitution guarantees religious freedom, but since President Xi Jinping took office six years ago the government has tightened restrictions on churches it cannot control. Religion is seen as a challenge to the Communist Party's power, especially now that Christians likely outnumber the party's 82 million members.

A recent poll determined there were about 31 million Christians in China. However, those are only the ones who were willing to admit it. The real number may well be several times that. So it is understandable that the government is concerned. It is the nature of Communism to be paranoid. Most Communist countries have believed that Christianity is a western plot to overthrow communism.

"The political pressure on us is growing," Xu said, over tea at his kitchen table. "The room for free belief has shrunk."

Like the pastor, many of his 30 or so parishioners at the Holy Love house church consider themselves dissidents, fiercely opposed to the government's attempts to restrict religious movements in China. And like the pastor, most of them have served time in jail for their protests.

He's convinced his phone is tapped and worse is yet to come.

"Just like you were obstructed today, police have stopped our people from attending the service," Xu said. "We had to move our meetings from Fridays to another day, and we frequently change locations."


Violent and aggressive raids

Religious groups have long played this kind of cat and mouse with Chinese authorities, but in recent weeks Beijing has asserted control. 

Protestants have seen churches closed and their crosses torn down under new laws. 

Catholics have seen a controversial agreement between China and the Vatican, with Beijing apparently formalizing its power over church leaders.

In China's southern Christian heartland, dozens of house churches have been raided, sometimes "violently and aggressively", said Pastor Zhang Chunlei from Guizhou province.

He said police removed crosses and other religious material from his church in the city of Guiyang and told him the gatherings are illegal.

"We never accepted that law," said Zhang. "To attend the prayer session is a right bestowed onto us by God."

"The authorities are very powerful," he said. "We cannot confront them, but we will find other ways to pray."

Protestant churches in southern China have had crosses removed over the past two months. On the left, a man
yells in protest at crews removing a cross from a church in Xingyang, Henan province, in September.
On the right, a cross being removed from a church in Zhejiang province, in October. (Names withheld by request)

One of the country's largest unofficial churches, Beijing's Zion Protestant church, was recently ordered shut after city authorities said it didn't have permission for "mass gatherings" or to distribute "illegal promotional material."


Cranes removing crosses

The Zion church had for years operated with relative freedom, hosting hundreds of worshippers every weekend in a large, specially renovated hall in north Beijing. But in April, it rejected official demands that it install surveillance cameras inside. The order to close came soon after.

"I fear that there is no way for us to resolve this issue with the authorities," Zion's pastor, Jin Mingri, said.

His followers received a notice from the local religious affairs bureau. Believers, it said, "must respect the rules and regulations and attend events in legally registered places of religious activity."

Even government-sanctioned churches have been ordered to reduce their visible presence. Cranes have shown up at many to remove the large red crosses from rooftops, as parishioners pray, sing hymns and watch.

In one video circulated on China's internet, a man is shown yelling at workers dismantling a cross in Xingyang, Henan province, in September. "Religious people are not bad people," he shouted. "Why are you treating us like this? You will be punished."


Cutting deals with the Vatican

Beijing has taken a different approach with the country's 10 to 12 million Catholics: negotiations with the Vatican.

Last month it came to terms with the Holy See, ending a 67-year dispute over who has the final say in choosing Chinese bishops. Since 1951, Beijing has insisted it has to approve them, while the church maintained the ultimate decision is up to the pope.

Pope Francis declared the agreement a "new phase" in his relationship with the Communist leadership, "which helps to heal the wounds of the past and maintain the full communion of all Chinese Catholics."

For decades the split forced the country's Catholics to choose between worship in state-sanctioned churches — under Beijing's control — or going to underground services with clergy loyal to the Vatican.

Pope Francis, pictured in April greeting Chinese Catholics at the Vatican, hopes a new agreement with Beijing
will 'heal the wounds of the past.' (Gregorio Borgia, File/Associated Press)

Details of the new agreement have not been made public, but observers in Rome say it will likely allow Beijing to vet a pool of potential candidates for bishops, leaving the Pope to choose among them.


'The churches will still be torn down'

Pope Francis has asked Chinese Catholics to support the Vatican's co-operation with Beijing, but given the Communist Party's opposition to religion — and its history of persecuting church leaders and followers who don't toe the line — the deal has been controversial.

The head of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong, Bishop Michael Yeung, called the agreement a betrayal that won't protect religious rights.

The deal "could not stop the suppression," he said. "The churches will still be torn down.… The young folks will not be allowed to go to church."

He worries priests who run afoul of the government will continue to be punished. "There will still be times when they are made to disappear," Yeung said.

On a recent Sunday at Beijing's Church of the Saviour, the service went ahead as usual. The choir sang, people prayed. The ornate church in the city's north end looks a lot like historic Catholic cathedrals the world over, but this one is run under the supervision of Chinese authorities.

And the talk on this Sunday was about potential changes for China's Catholics. Many parishioners didn't want their names used or their views published. A few did.

St. Joseph’s Wangfujing Catholic Church in central Beijing is one of several government-authorized Catholic churches in China, where the authorities have been negotiating with the Vatican for more control over religion. (Saša Petricic/CBC)

"I really don't want the church to have too much contact with politics," said university student Liu Haotian, but he said he hopes the deal will guarantee the rights of Catholics to pray.

Han Yu, a 37-year-old travel company manager, was hesitant. "For us Catholics, there will be some loss, regrets and even some feelings of helplessness," she said. But in the long term in China, "there may be more people who will be able to become Christians."

Those numbers of followers are growing quickly. But so is Beijing's determination to control which religious leaders they follow.


Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Bitcoin Mining Could Cancel Out Climate Change Efforts, Scientists Say

In 2017, bitcoin mining generated 69 million tonnes of CO2
Thomson Reuters 

A man holds a 25 Bitcoin token in a 2013 photo. Producing bitcoin at a pace with growing demand could
by 2033 defeat the aim of limiting global warming to 2 C, according to U.S. research published in the journal
Nature Climate Change. (Rick Bowmer/Associated Press)

Demand for bitcoin could single-handedly derail efforts to limit global warming because the increasingly popular digital currency takes huge amounts of energy to produce, scientists said on Monday.

Producing bitcoin at a pace with growing demand could by 2033 defeat the aim of limiting global warming to 2 C, according to U.S. research published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Almost 200 nations agreed in Paris in 2015 on the goal to keep warming to "well below" a rise of 2 C above pre-industrial times.

The Hut 8 bitcoin mine in Medicine Hat, Alta., uses as much electricity on a typical day as the entire city of 60,000,
and most of the electricity is produced by fossil fuels. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

But mining, the process of producing bitcoins by solving mathematical equations, uses high-powered computers and a lot of electricity, the researchers said.

"Currently, the emissions from transportation, housing and food are considered the main contributors to ongoing climate change," said study co-author Katie Taladay in a statement. "This research illustrates that bitcoin should be added to this list."

Mining is a lucrative business, with one bitcoin currently selling for about $8,300.

In 2017, bitcoin production and usage emitted an estimated 69 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, the researchers said.

That year, bitcoin was involved in less than 0.5 per cent of the world's cashless transactions, they said.

As the currency becomes more common, researchers said it could use enough electricity to emit about 230 gigatonnes of carbon within a decade and a half. One gigatonne is equal to one billion tonnes of carbon.

"No matter how you slice it, that thing is using a lot of electricity. That means bad business for the environment," Camilo Mora, another co-author, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Clouds of steam rise into the sky from the Svartsengi geothermal power station in Grindavík, Iceland in 2018. Bitcoin miners are moving away from sites such as China, with coal-generated electricity, to more environmentally friendly utilities in Iceland. (Egill Bjarnason/Associated Press)

Bitcoin mining, however, is becoming more energy efficient, said Katrina Kelly-Pitou, research associate at the University of Pittsburgh.

She said bitcoin miners are moving away from sites such as China, with coal-generated electricity, to more environmentally friendly utilities in Iceland and the United States.



Sweden - Crisis Hotline for Spousal Abusers; Disturbing Correlation - Violence & Progressive Society

Well this is unique. Hopefully it works, and if it does,
maybe they could set up such a hotline for child rapists.

But take note of the statements below that correlate very progressive
societies with the highest rates of domestic violence in the EU.

© Reuters / James Lawler Duggan

Swedish officials and social workers hope that abusive partners will lower their hands, take a breath and call a helpline, an unorthodox solution to a surprisingly common problem in ultra-progressive country.

The helpline is a two-year pilot project organized by local authorities in the nation’s capital of Stockholm and the southern region of Skane, where Sweden’s third-largest city Malmo is located. The service will start accepting calls in January.

While confidential helplines for abuse victims are already commonplace, providing support to the abusers themselves is a novel approach, one the organizers say will help them overcome shame, make amends, and stop hurting their loved ones.

There is “no obvious way of getting into contact with those perpetrating the violence,” but this project can change that, project leader Christina Ericson told state broadcaster SVT.

Trained social workers and psychologists will be ready to advise and counsel the perpetrators who want to stop hurting their partners. They will also work with people who experience thoughts of beating their loved ones, and help them to avoid violence.

Some abusers are aware of their own actions, would like to change their ways, but are reluctant to actually reach out for help, the organizers say. The hotline will “send a signal” to such people and “reduce the shame a little,” so those in need would be open to seek help, Andrea Hansson, a social worker at the Crisis Center in Malmo, told local media.

Progressive Society = Violent Society? The Nordic Paradox!

While Sweden has become a byword for ultra-woke progressive policy - the country’s largest trade union introduced a ‘mansplaining hotline’ in 2016 for instance - an EU report found that  the Nordic nation’s domestic violence rate is fourth out of the 28 EU states, and half of the Swedish women surveyed had reported physical or sexual violence in general.

This phenomenon has been dubbed ‘The Nordic Paradox,’ as it also affects Sweden’s closest neighbors, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. All countries have excellent gender equality ratings, but similarly high rates of domestic violence against women.

I may have to expand the meaning of one of my favourite expressions - Sin is Progressive!

The Nordic Paradox is only a paradox to those who think an ultra-progressive society is a healthy society. 

In the 2000s, a similar phone line for domestic violence perpetrators was launched in the UK by charity group ‘Respect.’ The National Domestic Violence Hotline, operating in the US, is also open to abusive partners and their victims.

And wouldn't it be nice to know if they are making a difference.




Sunday, October 28, 2018

Antisemitism on Rise Across Europe 'in Worst Times Since the Nazis'

Experts say attacks go beyond Israel-Palestinian conflict as
hate crimes strike fear into Jewish communities
Jon Henley

Note this article was written in 2014 but is intensely applicable today.
I have updated some statistics.

Mother of Miriam Monsonego, seven, at funeral of her daughter and three other victims of Toulouse school shooting. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

In the space of just one week last month, according to Crif, the umbrella group for France's Jewish organisations, eight synagogues were attacked. One, in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, was firebombed by a 400-strong mob. A kosher supermarket and pharmacy were smashed and looted; the crowd's chants and banners included "Death to Jews" and "Slit Jews' throats". That same weekend, in the Barbes neighbourhood of the capital, stone-throwing protesters burned Israeli flags: "Israhell", read one banner.

In Germany last month, molotov cocktails were lobbed into the Bergische synagogue in Wuppertal – previously destroyed on Kristallnacht – and a Berlin imam, Abu Bilal Ismail, called on Allah to "destroy the Zionist Jews … Count them and kill them, to the very last one." Bottles were thrown through the window of an antisemitism campaigner in Frankfurt; an elderly Jewish man was beaten up at a pro-Israel rally in Hamburg; an Orthodox Jewish teenager punched in the face in Berlin. In several cities, chants at pro-Palestinian protests compared Israel's actions to the Holocaust; other notable slogans included: "Jew, coward pig, come out and fight alone," and "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas."

Across Europe, the conflict in Gaza is breathing new life into some very old, and very ugly, demons. This is not unusual; police and Jewish civil rights organisations have long observed a noticeable spike in antisemitic incidents each time the Israeli-Palestinian conflict flares. During the three weeks of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in late 2008 and early 2009, France recorded 66 antisemitic incidents, including attacks on Jewish-owned restaurants and synagogues and a sharp increase in anti-Jewish graffiti. 

But according to academics and Jewish leaders, this time it is different. More than simply a reaction to the conflict, they say, the threats, hate speech and violent attacks feel like the expression of a much deeper and more widespread antisemitism, fuelled by a wide range of factors, that has been growing now for more than a decade.

"These are the worst times since the Nazi era," Dieter Graumann, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, told the Guardian. "On the streets, you hear things like 'the Jews should be gassed', 'the Jews should be burned' – we haven't had that in Germany for decades. Anyone saying those slogans isn't criticising Israeli politics, it's just pure hatred against Jews: nothing else. And it's not just a German phenomenon. It's an outbreak of hatred against Jews so intense that it's very clear indeed."

Roger Cukierman, president of France's Crif, said French Jews were "anguished" about an anti-Jewish backlash that goes far beyond even strongly felt political and humanitarian opposition to the current fighting: "They are not screaming 'Death to the Israelis' on the streets of Paris," Cukierman said last month. "They are screaming 'Death to Jews'." Crif's vice-president Yonathan Arfi said he "utterly rejected" the view that the latest increase in antisemitic incidents was down to events in Gaza. "They have laid bare something far more profound," he said.

Nor is it just Europe's Jewish leaders who are alarmed. Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, has called the recent incidents "an attack on freedom and tolerance and our democratic state". The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, has spoken of "intolerable" and clearly antisemitic acts: "To attack a Jew because he is a Jew is to attack France. To attack a synagogue and a kosher grocery store is quite simply antisemitism and racism".

Police at the site of a shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Belgium, where four people were killed.
Photograph: Eric Vidal/REUTERS

France, whose 500,000-strong Jewish community is one of Europe's largest, and Germany, where the post-war exhortation of "Never Again" is part of the fabric of modern society, are not alone. In Austria last month, a pre-season friendly between Maccabi Haifa and German Bundesliga team SC Paderborn had to be rescheduled after the Israeli side's previous match was called off following an attempted assault on its players.

The Netherlands' main antisemitism watchdog, Cidi, had more than 70 calls from alarmed Jewish citizens in one week last month; the average is normally three to five. An Amsterdam rabbi, Binjamin Jacobs, had his front door stoned, and two Jewish women were attacked – one beaten, the other the victim of arson – after they hung Israeli flags from their balconies. In Belgium, a woman was reportedly turned away from a shop with the words: "We don't currently sell to Jews."

In Italy, the Jewish owners of dozens of shops and other businesses in Rome arrived to find swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans daubed on shutters and windows. One slogan read: "Every Palestinian is like a comrade. Same enemy. Same barricade"; another: "Jews, your end is near." 

Abd al-Barr al-Rawdhi, an imam from the north eastern town of San Donà di Piave, is to be deported after being video-recorded giving a sermon calling for the extermination of the Jews.

There has been no violence in Spain, but the country's small Jewish population of 35,000-40,000 fears the situation is so tense that "if it continues for too long, bad things will happen," the leader of Madrid's Jewish community, David Hatchwell, said. The community is planning action against El Mundo after the daily paper published a column by 83-year-old playwright Antonio Gala questioning Jews' ability to live peacefully with others: "It's not strange they have been so frequently expelled."

Studies suggest antisemitism may indeed be mounting. A 2012 survey by the EU's by the Fundamental Rights agency of some 6,000 Jews in eight European countries – between them, home to 90% of Europe's Jewish population – found 66% of respondents felt antisemitism in Europe was on the rise; 76% said antisemitism had increased in their country over the past five years. In the 12 months after the survey, nearly half said they worried about being verbally insulted or attacked in public because they were Jewish.

Jewish organisations that record antisemitic incidents say the trend is inexorable: France's Society for the Protection of the Jewish Community says annual totals of antisemitic acts in the 2000s are seven times higher than in the 1990s. French Jews are leaving for Israel in greater numbers, too, for reasons they say include antisemitism and the electoral success of the hard-right Front National. The Jewish Agency for Israel said 3,288 French Jews left for Israel in 2013, a 72% rise on the previous year. Between January and May this year (2014), 2,254 left, against 580 in the same period last year.

Between 6,000 and 7,5000 Jews left France in each of 2014, 2015 and 2016. Since then the number leaving has decreased from that level by almost half.

In a study completed in February, America's Anti-Defamation League surveyed 332,000 Europeans using an index of 11 questions designed to reveal strength of anti-Jewish stereotypes. It found that 24% of Europeans – 37% in France, 27% in Germany, 20% in Italy – harboured some kind of anti-Jewish attitude.

So what is driving the phenomenon? Valls, the French prime minister, has acknowledged a "new", "normalised" antisemitism that he says blends "the Palestinian cause, jihadism, the devastation of Israel, and hatred of France and its values".

Mark Gardner of the Community Security Trust, a London-based charity that monitors antisemitism both in Britain and on the continent, also identifies a range of factors. Successive conflicts in the Middle East he said, have served up "a crush of trigger events" that has prevented tempers from cooling: the second intifada in 2000, the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006, and the three Israel–Hamas conflicts in 2009, 2012 and 2014 have "left no time for the situation to return to normal." In such a climate, he added, three brutal antisemitic murders in the past eight years – two in France, one in Belgium, and none coinciding with Israeli military action – have served "not to shock, but to encourage the antisemites", leaving them "seeking more blood and intimidation, not less".

Experts said anti-Jewish attacks were not only down to Israel-Palestinian conflict. 
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

In 2006, 23-year old Ilan Halimi was kidnapped, tortured and left for dead in Paris by a group calling itself the Barbarians Gang, who subsequently admitted targeting him "because he was a Jew, so his family would have money". 

Two years ago, in May 2012, Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah shot dead seven people, including three children and a young rabbi outside their Jewish school. 

And in May this year Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman of Algerian descent thought to have recently returned to France after a year in Syria fighting with radical Islamists, was charged with shooting four people at the Jewish museum in Brussels.

If the French establishment has harboured a deep vein of anti-Jewish sentiment since long before the Dreyfus affair, the influence of radical Islam, many Jewish community leaders say, is plainly a significant contributing factor in the country's present-day antisemitism. But so too, said Gardner, is a straightforward alienation that many young Muslims feel from society. "Often it's more to do with that than with Israel. Many would as soon burn down a police station as a synagogue. Jews are simply identified as part of the establishment."

Yeah... I don't think so!

While he stressed it would be wrong to lay all the blame at the feet of Muslims, Peter Ulrich, a research fellow at the centre for antisemitism research (ZfA) at Berlin's Technical University, agreed that some of the "antisemitic elements" Germany has seen at recent protests could be "a kind of rebellion of people who are themselves excluded on the basis of racist structures."

Arfi said that in France antisemitism had become "a portmanteau for a lot of angry people: radical Muslims, alienated youths from immigrant families, the far right, the far left". But he also blamed "a process of normalisation, whereby antisemitism is being made somehow acceptable". One culprit, Arfi said, is the controversial comedian Dieudonné: "He has legitimised it. He's made acceptable what was unacceptable."

A similar normalisation may be under way in Germany, according to a 2013 study by the Technical University of Berlin. In 14,000 hate-mail letters, emails and faxes sent over 10 years to the Israeli embassy in Berlin and the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Professor Monika Schwarz-Friesel found that 60% were written by educated, middle-class Germans, including professors, lawyers, priests and university and secondary school students. Most, too, were unafraid to give their names and addresses – something she felt few Germans would have done 20 or 30 years ago.

Almost every observer pointed to the unparalleled power of unfiltered social media to inflame and to mobilise. A stream of shocking images and Twitter hashtags, including #HitlerWasRight, amount, Arfi said, almost to indoctrination. "The logical conclusion, in fact, is radicalisation: on social media people self-select what they see, and what they see can be pure, unchecked propaganda. They may never be confronted with opinions that are not their own."

Now this was written in 2014, before the exodus of Middle-East Muslims into Europe. As bad as the writer of this piece makes it out to be, it is far worse now with millions more Muslims in Europe and far-right extremism growing exponentially, and 4 more years of Palestinian propaganda. 

If the political backlash against the absorption of millions of Muslims doesn't continue, you will see another round (referring to Nazism) of Europe turning its back on Jews as Arabs attempt to annihilate them. 

Yesterday, an American entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, and murdered 11 people, injuring several more. His intent was to kill all Jews. He was not Muslim, but he had the same hatred for Jews and the same determination to see them exterminated as radical Islam, and the same a Nazism. 

It is more than just propaganda that is driving this madness, although the propaganda certainly contributes significantly. There is, I sincerely believe, a spiritual element to this hatred. An element that will just grow stronger (dare I say it again, Sin is Progressive) until all Hell breaks loose. At that point, God will prove once again that He will not allow His people to be utterly destroyed. 



The Annihilation of Iraq's Christian Minority

If Iraq's Christians were Palestinians - they would be front-page news in every western media outlet every day. But being Christians, MainStream Media couldn't care less.

by Raymond Ibrahim

"I'm proud to be an Iraqi, I love my country. But my country is not proud that I'm part of it. What is happening to my people [Christians] is nothing other than genocide... Wake up!"Father Douglas al-Bazi, Iraqi Catholic parish priest, Erbil.

"Contacting the authorities forces us to identify ourselves [as Christians], and we aren't certain that some of the people threatening us aren't the people in the government offices that are supposed to be protecting us."Iraqi Christian man, explaining why Christians in Iraq do not turn to government authorities for protection.

Government-sponsored school curricula present indigenous Christians as unwanted "foreigners," although Iraq was Christian for centuries before it was conquered by Muslims in the seventh century.

According to the "World Watch List 2018" report, Christians in Iraq -- the eighth-worst nation in the world in which to be Christian -- are experiencing "extreme persecution," and not just from "extremists." Pictured: A church that was burned
and destroyed in the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, Iraq. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

"Another wave of persecution will be the end of Christianity after 2,000 years" in Iraq, an Iraqi Christian leader recently said. In an interview earlier this month, Chaldean Archbishop Habib Nafali of Basra discussed how more than a decade of violent persecution has virtually annihilated Iraq's Christian minority. Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the Christian population has dropped from 1.5 million to about 250,000 -- a reduction of 85%. During those 15 years, Christians have been abducted, enslaved, raped and slaughtered, sometimes by crucifixion; a church or monastery has been destroyed about every 40 days on average, said the archbishop.

Abducted, enslaved, raped and slaughtered,
sometimes by crucifixion;

While it is often assumed that the Islamic State (ISIS) was the source of the persecution, since that terror group's retreat from Iraq, the situation for Christians has barely improved. As the archbishop said, Christians continue to suffer from "systematic violence" designed to "destroy their language, to break up their families and push them to leave Iraq."

According to the "World Watch List 2018" report, 
Christians in Iraq -- the eighth-worst nation in the
world in which to be Christian -- are experiencing
"extreme persecution," and not just from "extremists."

Although "Violent Religious Groups" (such as the Islamic State) are "Very Strongly" responsible, two other societal classes seldom associated with the persecution of Christians in Iraq are also "Very Strongly" responsible, the report states:

1) "Government officials at any level from local to national," and 

2) "Non-Christian religious leaders at any level from local to national." 

Also, three other societal groups -- 

1) "Ethnic group leaders," 
2) "Normal citizens (people from the general public), including mobs," and 
3) "Political parties at any level from local to national" 

-- are all "Strongly" responsible for the persecution of Christians in Iraq. In other words, virtually everyone is involved.

The report elaborates:

"Violent religious groups such as IS and other radical militants are known for targeting Christians and other religious minorities through kidnappings and killings. Another source of persecution are Islamic leaders at any level, mostly in the form of hate-speech in mosques. Government officials at all levels are reported to threaten Christians and 'encourage' them to emigrate. Also, normal citizens in the north have reportedly made remarks in public, questioning why Christians are still in Iraq."

Another source of persecution are Islamic leaders at any level,
mostly in the form of hate-speech in mosques.

Several regional Christian leaders confirm these findings. According to Syriac Orthodox bishop, George Saliba:

"What is happening in Iraq is a strange thing, but it is normal for Muslims, because they have never treated Christians well, and they have always held an offensive and defaming stand against Christians.... We used to live and coexist with Muslims, but then they revealed their canines [teeth].... [They do not] have the right to storm houses, steal and attack the honor of Christians. Most Muslims do this, the Ottomans killed us and after that the ruling nation-states understood the circumstances but always gave advantage to the Muslims. Islam has never changed."

"The ruling nation-states always gave advantage to the Muslims. 
Islam has never changed."

Father Douglas al-Bazi -- an Iraqi Catholic parish priest from Erbil who still carries the scars from torture he received 9 years earlier -- made the same observation:

I'm proud to be an Iraqi, I love my country. But my country is not proud that I'm part of it. What is happening to my people [Christians] is nothing other than genocide. I beg you: do not call it a conflict. It's genocide... When Islam lives amidst you, the situation might appear acceptable. But when one lives amidst Muslims [as a minority], everything becomes impossible.... Wake up! The cancer is at your door. They will destroy you. We, the Christians of the Middle East are the only group that has seen the face of evil: Islam.

What is happening to my people [Christians]
is nothing other than genocide.

The Iraqi government is complicit -- when not actively participating -- in the persecution. As one Christian man explained after being asked why Christians in Iraq do not turn to governmental authorities for protection:

"Contacting the authorities forces us to identify ourselves [as Christians], and we aren't certain that some of the people threatening us aren't the people in the government offices that are supposed to be protecting us."

When Islam lives amidst you, the situation might appear
acceptable. But when one lives amidst Muslims [as a minority],
everything becomes impossible.... Wake up!
The cancer is at your door. They will destroy you!

When Christians do take the risk of reaching out to local authorities, police sometimes rebuke them with comments like, "[you] should not be in Iraq because it is Muslim territory."

The Iraqi government has only helped foster such anti-Christian sentiments. In late 2015, for instance, it passed a law legally forcing Christian and all other non-Muslim children to become Muslim if their fathers convert to Islam or if their Christian mothers marry a Muslim.

We, the Christians of the Middle East
are the only group that has seen the face of evil: Islam.

Government-sponsored school curricula present indigenous Christians as unwanted "foreigners," although Iraq was Christian for centuries before it was conquered by Muslims in the seventh century. As a Christian politician in the Iraqi Ministry of Education explained:

"There's almost nothing about us [Christians] in our history books, and what there is, is totally wrong. There's nothing about us being here before Islam. The only Christians mentioned are from the West. Many Iraqis believe we moved here. From the West. That we are guests in this country."

"If the [Christian] children say they believe in Jesus" in school, notes one report, "they face beatings and scorn from their teachers."

Most telling is that the Iraqi government hires and gives platforms to radical clerics whose teachings are nearly identical to those of the Islamic State. Grand Ayatollah Ahmad al-Baghdadi, for instance, one of the nation's top Shia clerics, explained during a televised interview the position of non-Muslims living under Muslim rule:

"If they are people of the book [Jews and Christians] we demand of them the jizya [a tax on non-Muslims] — and if they refuse, then we fight them. That is if he is Christian. He has three choices: either convert to Islam, or, if he refuses and wishes to remain Christian, then pay the jizya. But if they still refuse — then we fight them, and we abduct their women, and destroy their churches — this is Islam!...This is the word of Allah!"

Considering that Muslims in Iraq are indoctrinated by such an anti-Christian rhetoric from early youth -- starting in the schoolrooms and continuing in the mosques -- it should probably not be a surprise that many Muslims turn on neighboring Christians whenever the opportunity presents itself.

In one video, for example, a traumatized Christian family from Iraq tell of how their young children were murdered -- burned alive "simply for wearing the cross." The mother explained how the "ISIS" that attacked and murdered her children were their own Muslim neighbors, with whom they ate, laughed, and to whom they even provided educational and medical service -- but who turned on them.

"Their young children were murdered --
burned alive "simply for wearing the cross."

When asked who exactly threatened and drove Christians out of Mosul, another Christian refugee said:

"We left Mosul because ISIS came to the city. The [Sunni Muslim] people of Mosul embraced ISIS and drove the Christians out of the city. When ISIS entered Mosul, the people hailed them and drove out the Christians.... The people who embraced ISIS, the people who lived there with us... Yes, my neighbors. Our neighbors and other people threatened us. They said: 'Leave before ISIS get you.' What does that mean? Where would we go?... Christians have no support in Iraq. Whoever claims to be protecting the Christians is a liar. A liar!"

Iraq's Christians are on the verge of extinction, less because of ISIS, and more because virtually every rung of Iraqi society has been, and continues to be, chipping away at them.

"If this is not genocide," said Chaldean Archbishop Habib Nafali towards the end of a recent interview, "then what is?"

Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.


Saturday, October 27, 2018

NBC Reveals It Sat on Discrediting Info About Kavanaugh ‘Witness’

Mainstream Media are astonished at how little credibility they have in the public eye. Here is one of many examples why. They seem to be coming every day.

© Reuters/ Joshua Roberts

As the US Justice Department prepares to investigate media-hound attorney Michael Avenatti and Kavanaugh "victim" Julie Swetnick for making false accusations, NBC admitted they knew Swetnick's story was falling apart weeks ago.

More than three weeks after an NBC interview where Kavanaugh accuser #3 Julie Swetnick contradicted the sworn affidavit she gave Avenatti, the network is publishing text and phone exchanges with a supporting “witness.” 

Recorded around the time of Swetnick's interview, the second woman appears to tell two different stories when Avenatti is around and when he isn't.

The supposed witness signed an affidavit, made public by Avenatti on October 3, describing in no uncertain terms how she saw a young Brett Kavanaugh (now a US Supreme Court justice) spike the drinks of girls at student parties so that they could then be gang-raped. 

When questioned by NBC, however, she said she hadn't actually witnessed it, and Avenatti had grossly misrepresented her words in the document she had only "skimmed" before signing.

NBC then spoke to Avenatti, who had provided the second woman's contact information in the first place, to try to straighten out the stories, but the plot only thickened. The hot-tempered lawyer expressed his "disgust" with the outlet and at one point said "on background, it's not the same woman. What are you going to do with that?"

They then reached out to the "witness" again, and she backed Avenatti and the affidavit – only to insist in a phone call minutes later that she never saw Kavanaugh do anything and she wouldn't speak to Avenatti anymore.

Swetnick's own early-October interview to NBC revealed a story that markedly diverged from her written narrative. Questioned on camera, she could no longer be certain that Kavanaugh was among the boys who supposedly gang-raped her, or that he had spiked the punch at the party

It later emerged during the FBI investigation into her claims that Swetnick had a history of making false accusations of sexual misconduct.

Earlier this week, Judiciary Committee chair Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) referred Avenatti and Swetnick to the Justice Department to be investigated for conspiracy to defraud, making false statements to federal officials, and obstructing a federal investigation.

One would think perhaps NBC should be investigated as well. News is so blatantly political in America, and yet they accept no responsibility for the deep division in the country. 


Dutch PM Warns Canadians Against Sparking Up

Mark Rutte is not my favourite person. His government is far-left, though not as far as Trudeau's. He, like other far-left governments in parts of the EU are putting their own women and children at risk by hiding the disastrous atrocities committed by migrants, in the name of political correctness. He also supported Islamic brigades in Syria that supported ISIS. So, no, I don't like Mark Rutte, but what he has to say about cannabis makes sense and comes from a country with 40 years of experience.

Dutch PM Mark Rutte and some cannabis at a dispensary in Ottawa, Canada
© (L) Reuters / Aris Oikonomou ; (R) Reuters / Chris Wattie

Canadians had barely enjoyed legal marijuana for even a fortnight when they received high-level advice against using it, from the unlikeliest of people: the prime minister of the Netherlands.

Mark Rutte’s warnings came on his Thursday visit to Canada, just over a week after its much-anticipated cannabis legalization. He and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau were talking pot use in front of a young audience in Ottawa.

The best policy on drugs for yourself is 'no first use.'
It sounds conservative, but I would urge you:
Don't try at all.

That, coming from the prime minister of a country where buying and using marijuana in designated spaces has been legal for over 40 years. Many of Amsterdam's five million annual tourists specifically flock to its "coffee shops" to spark up or eat pot edibles without fearing the long arm of the law.

One of the problems with today's cannabis is that it's
"so much stronger than when we were young,"

Naturally, young Canadians were interested in Rutte's experience – but didn't get the endorsement they perhaps expected. One of the problems with today's cannabis is that it's "so much stronger than when we were young," Rutte said. He then mentioned his friends' children who were having mental health problems from its use.

He then mentioned his friends' children
who were having mental health problems from its use.

“At least make sure that you don't move from this stuff to other drugs,” Rutte added, perhaps acknowledging that his advice may fall on deaf ears.

Canada is only the second country after Uruguay, and the first of the G20 countries, to fully legalize the growing, selling, and consumption of cannabis, with Trudeau saying the laws removed the “contact that people had with criminals.”

Despite his misgivings about cannabis use, Rutte said the Netherlands too were looking at potential reforms to their own laws, saying coffee shops now have no way of getting the product legally. He added a pilot project was now underway in 10 Dutch cities to fix that.

Like I said!


Friday, October 26, 2018

European Courts Lagging Behind Europe in It's Growing Concern for Islamization

Austrian lecture slamming Prophet Mohammed
for marrying 6yo is hate speech – EU court

FILE PHOTO © Global Look Press / ZUMAPRESS.com

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that an Austrian lecturer is guilty of disparaging Islam, after the woman likened the Prophet Mohammed to a pedophile for marrying a six-year-old girl.

The lecturer known only as Mrs E.S. had already been convicted by an Austrian judge and fined €480 ($548) for her lecture. And now the ECtHR has upheld the ruling. The Strasbourg-based seven-judge panel stated on Thursday that her comparing Prophet Mohammed to a pedophile goes “beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate,” and that the Austrian court was right in “classifying them as an abusive attack which could stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace.”

The woman had unsuccessfully appealed the decision to the Austrian Supreme Court before taking her case to the ECtHR. She argued that what the court saw as inflammatory remarks insulting the Islamic faith was meant to reignite a public debate on child marriages.

She hosted “Basic Information on Islam” seminars in 2008 and 2009, during which she lectured the members of the right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) on the principles of the Islamic religion and its key figures. During one of her lectures, Mrs E.S. stated that marrying prepubescent girls makes Prophet Mohammad no different than a child predator.

“A 56-year-old and a six-year old?... What do we call it, if it is not pedophilia?” the woman reportedly said, referring to the marriage between the Prophet and Aisha, who is believed to have been six or seven when the marriage was arranged, and nine when it was consummated. Some modern scholars, however, dispute that timeline, arguing that Aisha was at least 15 at the time. 

Some modern scholars are trying to revise history to hide who the real Mohammed was.

When convicting Mrs E.S. of deprecating religion, the ECtHR pointed out that it had “comprehensively assessed the wider context” of her statement and “carefully balanced her right to freedom of expression with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.”

So, political correctness trumps truth every time in the EU.

The panel argued that the expressions the woman used to describe Prophet Muhammed were “not phrased in the neutral manner” and thus cannot be considered a legitimate contribution to the public debate on the sensitive topic of child marriages.

The court also dismissed the lecturer’s claim that the Austrian courts failed to consider the subject matter of her statements.

And then proceeded to ignore the subject matter of her statements. There is so much in Islam that should be debated. Aside from the example Mohammed set in taking 9 y/os to bed, he further gave permission to Muslims to do what they like with non-Muslim girls who are under their power. Rape, slavery, it's all good!

Devout Islam is madness, nothing less, and doesn't deserve to be protected by European courts.




Putin Stuns Crowd: ‘700 Hostages Captured by ISIS in Syria Including US and European Citizens’

ISIS threatens to kill 10 people every day unless demands met
Where is MainStream Media on this?
Alex Christoforou, Duran

The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris take a quick look at Vladimir Putin’s stunning statement at the Valdai Discussion Club meeting in Sochi, where the Russian President claimed that 700 hostages have been captured in Syria by Islamic State terrorists, including US and European citizens, and are being killed off 10 people a day.

Speaking at the annual Valdai Discussion Club meeting in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin told those in attendance that ISIS had taken 700 hostages in the US-controlled area of Syria.


“We now see what is happening on the left bank of the Euphrates River, our colleagues know that. This territory is under the protection of our American partners, they rely there on the Kurdish armed forces. But they obviously did not work it through, members of Daesh remained in several settlements.”

“They [terrorists] put forward ultimatums and certain demands, and warned that if these ultimatums are not followed up to, they will be gunning down 10 people everyday. The day before yesterday they executed ten people.”

“Our information shows that several citizens of the United States and [some] European countries were also taken hostage [by Daesh].”

“This is just horrible, it is a catastrophe,” Putin said, adding that the US forces that claim to control the area around the east bank of the Euphrates River, relying on the Kurdish armed forces on the ground, stay conspicuously silent on this crisis.

"Some US and European citizens are among the hostages,” the president warned, adding that “everyone is silent … as if nothing has happened.”

“They [the US] have clearly fallen short of their target,” Putin said, adding that Washington and its allies apparently failed to combat terrorists in the part of Syria they occupy. Islamic State terrorists continue to expand their presence in the area, he said.

Russian forces dealt a “heavy blow” to terrorists in Syria, eliminating many of them and forcing others to lay down their arms, Putin said. “Over these years, we liberated almost 95 percent of the Syrian Republic’s territory,” the president added.

“We maintained its sovereignty and did not let [the Syrian] state fall apart,” he continued, arguing that Russia’s actions helped “stabilize the situation in the region.”

He also praised Turkey for its efforts in driving terrorists out of northern Syria. “They work and we see it,” he said, adding that the Turkish side “does its best to fulfill its obligations” as he hailed the “effectiveness” of Ankara’s actions.

Except for buying oil from ISIS, but that was a couple years ago.

Putin has called on the world’s nations to “unite their efforts” to combat terrorism effectively. This cooperation has been reduced to some “separate instances of cooperation, which are not enough,” he added.

Euphrates R., Syria


Sunday, October 21, 2018

France in Shock as Video of Student Threatening Teacher With ‘Gun’ in Class Goes Viral

Violence, insults, and threats in French Schools - The New Normal

© youtube.com/user/lafouine

An appalling video showing a student in a French school threatening a teacher with a dummy ‘gun’ in class has shocked France. Questions are being raised about the regularity of such incidents and the authorities’ response.

The viral footage, initially distributed on Snapchat, shows a class in a school in Creteil commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. A male student stands in the middle of the classroom and threatens the teacher with an object that looks like a gun, and demands that she write ‘present’, not ‘absent’ in the attendance list. In the background, there is another student making obscene gestures at the camera.

And, the idiot recording the whole thing thinks it's hilarious.


Marine Le Pen✔
@MLP_officiel
 Le calme de cette enseignante braquée en plein cours par un élève et l’absence de signalement et de plainte immédiate par l’établissement scolaire à la suite de ce comportement suggère que ce type d’incidents est régulier.  Qui cela étonne-t-il encore ? MLP #Créteil



French media report that the gun was “an airsoft type” ball gun or a toy gun – which wouldn’t be capable of hurting the teacher. In spite of the shocking situation, the teacher seems unperturbed, as though it’s not the first time this has happened.

Following the incident, the teacher filed a complaint and two 16-year-old students were taken into custody, according to French media. The student who made the obscene gestures was soon released, while the main perpetrator is in custody and will stand before a juvenile court on Sunday. 

The story caused shock and outrage on social media, with people raising questions regarding the punishment for the students, whether the teacher’s reaction was appropriate, and how the authorities should respond. “I hope they will be severely punished,” one person wrote.

The mayor of the city of Nancy, Laurent Henart, expressed “condemnation and indignation.” The educational community should take exceptional measures “to ensure security” in schools, he tweeted.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the incident “unacceptable” and urged the ministries of interior and education to handle the case. 

Every day, teachers are insulted,” one person commented under Macron’s post. Another person said teachers have to deal with violence, insults, and threats almost every day.  “Should we get used to this free daily violence? The New World of Macron!” one person asked. 

Marine Le Pen, the president of France’s National Rally (formerly Front National), tweeted that the teacher looked relatively calm. The absence of an immediate report and complaint by the school “suggests that this type of incident is regular,” she wrote.