The Media is the Message - Woman gets 4 years for revealing truth; 50 Journalists Killed in 2020, hundreds missing; Big Pharma attacks Ivermectin through Twitter

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China jails citizen-journalist for 4 years over Wuhan virus reporting

Zhang Zhan went to Wuhan, interviewed residents and uploaded clips to YouTube

Thomson Reuters · 

Posted: Dec 28, 2020 2:33 AM ET

Police attempt to stop journalists from recording footage outside the Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court — where Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who reported on Wuhan's COVID-19 outbreak and was detained in May, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday. (Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images)

A Chinese court handed a four-year jail term on Monday to a citizen-journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year's coronavirus outbreak, on grounds of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," her lawyer said.

Zhang Zhan, 37, the first such person known to have been tried, was among a handful of people whose firsthand accounts from crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a more dire picture of the pandemic epicentre than the official narrative.

"We will probably appeal," the lawyer, Ren Quanniu, told Reuters, adding that the trial at a court in Pudong, a district of China's business hub of Shanghai, ended at 12.30 p.m. local time, with Zhang being sentenced to four years.

"Ms Zhang believes she is being persecuted for exercising her freedom of speech," he had said before the trial.

She knows she is in China, right? 

Criticism of China's early handling of the crisis has been censored, and whistle-blowers, such as doctors, warned. State media have credited success in reining in the virus to the leadership of President Xi Jinping.

The virus has spread worldwide to infect more than 80 million people and kill over 1.76 million, paralyzing air travel as nations threw up barriers against it that have disrupted industries and livelihoods.

The United Nations Human Rights office voiced concern at the sentence imposed on Zhang.

"We raised her case with the authorities throughout 2020 as an example of the excessive clampdown on freedom of expression linked to #COVID19 & continue to call for her release," it said in a tweet.

In Shanghai, police enforced tight security outside the court where the trial opened seven months after Zhang's detention, although some supporters were undeterred.

A man in a wheelchair, who told Reuters he came from the central province of Henan to demonstrate support for Zhang as a fellow Christian, wrote her name on a poster before police arrived to escort him away.

Entry denied

Foreign journalists were denied entry to the court "due to the epidemic," court security officials said.

A former lawyer, Zhang arrived in Wuhan on Feb. 1 from her home in Shanghai.

Her short video clips uploaded to YouTube consist of interviews with residents, commentary and footage of a crematorium, train stations, hospitals and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Detained in mid-May, she went on a hunger strike in late June, court documents seen by Reuters say. Her lawyers told the court that police strapped her hands and force-fed her with a tube. By December, she was suffering headaches, giddiness, stomach ache, low blood pressure and a throat infection.

Requests to the court to release Zhang on bail before the trial and live stream the trial went ignored, her lawyer said.

Other citizen-journalists who had disappeared without explanation included Fang Bin, Chen Qiushi and Li Zehua.

While there has been no news of Fang, Li re-emerged in a YouTube video in April to say he was forcibly quarantined, while Chen, although released, is under surveillance and has not spoken publicly, a friend has said.

That's free speech in China!

Study says at least 50 journalists killed in 2020;

hundreds detained or missing

By Clyde Hughes

Journalists cover a news conference from Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence in Moscow, Russia, on December 17. Photo by Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE

Dec. 29 (UPI) -- At least 50 journalists have died worldwide this year, according to new data -- a slight decline from 2019.

Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said in its report that the share of journalists who died in war zones, like Syria and Yemen, declined to 32% of the total number.

Conversely, the number of reporters killed outside war zones increased to 68%.

The five deadliest nations for journalists this year were Mexico (8 deaths), Iraq (6), Afghanistan (5), Pakistan (4) and India (4). Three died in the Philippines and Honduras.

Mexico - the Narco-State, is followed by 3 Muslim states. Curiously, neither Russia nor China are on top of the list.

The report said 84% of journalists who died this year were knowingly targeted and deliberately killed, a 21% increase over 2019.

Last year, RWB said 53 journalists were killed worldwide. Almost 1,000 have died over the past decade.

The data noted that the number of those who went missing, were detained, or held hostage in 2020 remained at a historically high 387.

"[This year] has also seen a 35% increase in the number of women journalists arbitrarily detained and a fourfold increase in arrests of journalists during the first three months of COVID-19's spread around the world," the report added. "Fourteen journalists who were arrested in connection with their coverage of the pandemic are still being held."

Undoubtedly, most, if not all, are being held in China, which this report curiously neglects to point out.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported earlier this month that at least 274 reporters worldwide were in prison on Dec. 1, the highest figure since the committee started tracking data in the early 1990s.

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As I suggested last week, 'Big Pharma will fight this all the way to the bank'. 

Twitter blacklists European MEDICAL JOURNAL after it published study

on Ivermectin treatment for Covid-19

31 Dec 2020 20:15

© Reuters / Kacper Pempel

Twitter has blocked a link to an article in a peer-reviewed scientific journal that suggested the antiparasitic drug ivermectin could be useful against Covid-19. The platform claims the journal's website is “potentially unsafe.”

Twitter user Karl Denninger (@TickerGuy) posted a link to an observational study in the European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences that found healthcare workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh who were treated with ivermectin as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) were markedly less likely to become infected with Covid-19. Just 6.9 percent of those given the drug tested positive for Covid-19, while a whopping 73.3 percent of those who did not became infected.

No sooner had his tweet slamming the “GHOULS” in charge of the US response to the pandemic (and telling doubters to stick the study where the sun doesn’t shine) gone live on Thursday morning, however, than Denninger discovered Twitter had blocked the link with a warning screen advising users “this site may be unsafe.”

Users who attempted to access the peer-reviewed journal were confronted with an alert that the link was “identified by Twitter or [its] partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe” and could potentially “steal personal information or harm electronic devices.” This would be quite an accomplishment for a static text-only page with no links or scripts running.

The absurdity of the warning is striking as the ejmd is peer-reviewed (therefore rigorously scientific) and I think we can assume that Twitters editors are not such scientific authorities. Their 'partners', on the other hand, may have some expertise, and, may actually be Big Pharma, itself, since they stand to lose billions of dollars if word gets out that there is a cheap, effective, and proven safe alternative to the experimental treatments being rushed through the approval process.

Twitter’s fondness for blocking traffic to “wrongthink” sites with spurious warning pages is a well-established headache for the alternative media, but ejmed.org is no ZeroHedge or BitChute. Indeed, it’s not political at all, let alone pro- or anti-establishment. Nevertheless, the social media behemoth saw fit to block not just that one article, but the whole ejmed.org site.

Even in the face of such a significant difference between the experimental and control trial group, the authors were tentative in their conclusions, stating only that ivermectin “should be subjected to large-scale trials all over the world to ascertain its effectiveness as pre-exposure prophylaxis for Covid-19.”

While the off-patent drug is best known as a deworming medicine, it also has an established reputation as an antiviral drug. Over two dozen trials have suggested it is effective in treating even late-stage Covid-19, including one successful study by the same Bangladeshi researchers who published the ivermectin-as-PreP paper.

Big Pharma's fears

Were such a drug to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of Covid-19, however, it could jeopardize the newly-released vaccines’ emergency use authorization, which requires there be no safe and approved treatments for a disease before a vaccine can be deployed on an emergency basis. Ivermectin is FDA-approved – like another controversial drug, hydroxychloroquine, it’s been on the market for decades for use treating other conditions. However, the agency has thus far refused to consider approving ivermectin to treat coronavirus.

While Twitter has not explained its decision to block the entire website of the European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, the platform declared earlier this month that it would be removing all “misleading” tweets about vaccines. Any post that suggests vaccines intentionally cause harm, “control populations,” or have side effects is fair game, as is any tweet that suggests Covid-19 is not serious. While most of these guidelines are subjective, Twitter plans to double down on them in the new year, adding warning labels to tweets with “disputed” claims about vaccines.

For now, however, Denninger seems to have found a way around Twitter’s mysterious outburst of anti-academic bigotry, posting a screen-cap of another study that came to similar conclusions as the censored paper in addition to the link.

While it is possible Ivermectin may be the miracle drug that could save millions of lives, we may never know. Big Pharma will do, and probably is doing, everything it can to keep it from ever being approved. Big Pharma, of course, is not interested in saving lives or reducing suffering, it's interested in profits, and that's all.

Controlling social media is the first thing to do; keeping it out of the news is the next. Let me know if you actually see a story on Ivermectin on mainstream news.

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Islam - Current Day - Islamic Terrorists 'Enemies of Allah' in Chechyna; Death Sentence in Cairo; Death Sentence for Youth in Iran; Ahmed The Dead Terrorist in Spain

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‘Enemies of Allah’ – Chechen leader Kadyrov slams ‘knife attackers’ who killed police officer and left another injured

31 Dec 2020 14:49

FILE PHOTO © Sputnik / Sergey Guneev

The leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has struck out at relatives of two men who his administration say were killed during a fatal attack on police officers in the regional capital, Grozny.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, the head of the Republic criticized family members of the deceased who had sought to deny their involvement in the incident. “One of our comrades was violently killed and another was wounded,” he said. “The enemies of Allah have committed this act of violence, and still their relatives think that it is acceptable to make irresponsible statements.”

Earlier that day, relatives of the two men demanded the authorities grant them access to their bodies in order to prepare them for burial. A spokesman for those involved, Sarazhdin Sultygov, insisted that “those killed in Grozny are our people. If they really were terrorists, then publish evidence. Surely there would be a video?”

Police say the men were shot dead in the city center on Monday, during an assault on officers that left one official dead and another injured. Both suspects were said to be from the neighboring Republic of Ingushetia, and had moved to Chechnya several years prior.

The majority-Muslim region has been historically known for a series of bloody wars, with a number of separatist leaders agitating for a break away from Russia. However, over the past two decades, the situation has stabilized and Grozny has sought to affirm its ties with Moscow.

Killers of Egypt’s Maadi girl handed down death penalty

Convicts killed the victim as they snatched her bag in a Cairo street

Published:  December 31, 2020 07:16

Samir Salama, Associate Editor, Gulf News

Abu Dhabi: Two Egyptian men were sentenced to death after they were found guilty of dragging a young woman to death following a drive-by theft, a Cairo Criminal Court ruled on Wednesday.

The murder occurred in October (4th story on link) has triggered massive outrage in the nation.

The court, which sought religious opinion from the Egyptian Grand Mufti on executing the two men, also acquitted a third defendant, who was held on charges of aiding and abetting the murderers.

The 24-year-old victim identified as Mariam Mohammed was walking on a street in the Cairo southern quarter of Maadi, where a person sitting next to a driver of a speeding minibus attempted to snatch her bag, the prosecution said, citing eyewitnesses.

The girl clung to her bag as the vehicle sped off, lost her balance, her head crashed into the front of a parked car and she was run over by the minibus of the convicts'.

Two of the men were charged with premeditated murder and forced robbery. The third was charged with complicity for having provided the prime defendants with the minibus, while aware of the crime plan, prosecutors said.

However, the court found that the third man was unaware of the convicts’ plans.

The prosecution said charges were based on testimonies of seven witnesses and confessions of the defendants.

The accused said they had committed the crime with the intention of stealing the victim’s bag, in which they found 85 Egyptian pounds (Dh19.8) and some make-up tools, Egyptian media reported.

Footage retrieved from surveillance cameras at the scene showed that the minibus had passed on the road at high speed.

Police investigations revealed that the offenders’ vehicle had dragged Mohammed, who was returning home from work, for several metres. She worked at a state-owned bank.

U.N. agency condemns Iran's execution of child offender

By Sommer Brokaw

The Iranian flag is shown. File Photo by Mohammad Kheirkhah/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The United Nations Human Rights Office condemned the execution of an Iranian man Thursday for a crime allegedly committed when he was 16 years old.

Mohammad Hassan Rezaiee was executed in Iran in the early morning even though execution of child offenders is strictly prohibited under international law. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said the execution was the fourth confirmed for a child offender.

"The UN has repeatedly urged Iran to cease the appalling practice of executing child offenders, but we understand that at least 80 child offenders remain on death row," Shamdasani said in a statement. "The High Commissioner urges Iranian authorities to halt all executions of child offenders and immediately review their cases in line with international human rights law."

Rezaiee, who turned 30 this month, was arrested in 2007 at age 16 in connection with a group fight where a man was fatally stabbed. Human rights groups allege violations of his right to a fair trial and torture.

His conviction was based on "confessions" extracted under torture, his trial was "grossly unfair" and authorities failed to investigate the torture allegations, Amnesty International Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Diana Eltahawy said in a statement earlier this month.

"Despite his young age, the authorities held him in prolonged solitary confinement, without access to his family and lawyer," Eltahawy's statement said. "They repeatedly tortured him to 'confess,' including by beating him with sticks, kicking and punching him, and whipping him with pipe hoses. In 2008, the trial court relied on his forced 'confessions' to convict and sentence him to death -- even though he retracted his 'confessions' at trial and said they were given under torture."

Shamdasani said that along with the "deeply troubling allegations" Rezaiee was forced to confess through torture, there were numerous other serious concerns about violations of his fair trial rights, and failure to pursue legal avenues to grant Rezaiee a retrial.

On Wednesday, United Nations experts urged members states to condemn a separate violation of international law in the United States. The U.N. experts said President Donald Trump's pardon last week of four former Blackwater Worldwide military contractors convicted of killing 14 Iraqis in 2007 violates U.S. obligations under international law. They urged member states to condemn the presidential action.

Of course, the entire operation in Iraq was a war crime, so, how could the President condemn only a few, as evil as they probably were. They were probably being paid by the Pentagon.

This, unfortunately, reminds me of Ahmed, the Dead Terrorist...

Spain: On Christmas Day, knife-wielding Muslim migrant screams

‘Allahu akbar, I’m going to kill you’ at passersby

DEC 31, 2020 2:00 

“Police investigate a Christmas day street event as jihadism,” translated from “La Policía investiga como yihadismo un suceso callejero del día de Navidad,” by Óscar López-Fonseca, El País, December 28, 2020 (thanks to Breitbart):

The National Police are investigating as a frustrated jihadist attack a street event that occurred on Christmas day in Castellón de la Plana, in which a Moroccan citizen was arrested. Armed with a machete and shouting “Allahu Akbar (Allah is the greatest ), I’m going to kill you,” he threatened the people he passed in the street. The detainee has been identified as Mohamed Q., 45 years old and cousin of Mhammed Q., a jihadist who resided in Castellón before moving to Syria to fight in the ranks of the Islamic State. The latter was arrested a year ago in Istanbul when he was trying to return to Europe and is currently imprisoned in Morocco.

The arrest took place around 4:00 p.m. on December 25, after the police received a notice that an individual was walking through the streets of Castellón with a knife in his hand and threatening to kill the people who crossed him, according to what the Ministry of the Interior said in a notice on Monday. Upon arriving at the scene, two uniformed Citizen Security agents encountered Mohamed Q., who, armed with a 35-centimeter machete, attacked them. The two policemen, who suffered bruises, were able to immobilize him and proceed to arrest him. In addition to the machete, the arrested man carried a knife.

The characteristics of the event led the National Police General Information Commissary, which specializes in the fight against terrorism, to dispatch a team that day from Madrid to investigate the events under the direction of the National High Court, the judicial body in charge of dealing with cases of jihadism. Police sources point out that the incident bears similarities to recent attacks in other European countries, including the attacks in October in a church in Nice (France) in which three people were killed with a knife, and in the German city of Dresden, where an individual stabbed two tourists, one of whom died. Switzerland has also classified as a terrorist attack the stabbing, at the end of November, of two people in a supermarket in Lugano by a woman.

The first investigations revealed that Mohamed Q., who had legal residence in Spain, had a lengthy criminal record, including a crime of sexual abuse of minors, but also that he was a relative of a Foreign Terrorist Fighter (Foreign Terrorist Combatant) who moved to Syria to fight in ISIS. The latter is Mhammed Q., a Moroccan citizen who had lived in Castellón before moving to conflict zones, and who was arrested by the Turkish police in January of this year in Istanbul when he tried to return to Europe together with other jihadists. Mhammed Q. was deported by the Ankara authorities a few days later to Morocco, where he is currently imprisoned, according to sources close to the investigation.

In the register of Mohamed Q.’s home in Castellón, the agents located two mobile phones, whose content is being analyzed. The judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz ordered this Monday his admission to prison, accused of a crime of terrorist threats, as confirmed by judicial sources. With this arrest, there are already 37 alleged jihadists arrested in Spain in 2020, according to statistics from the Interior Ministry.

Islam - Current Day - Bus Attack in Syria Kills 25; Explosions in Yemen Kill 20+; Muslims Destroy Hindu Temple; Islamist Group Banned

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'Terrorist attack’ on bus in Syria between Deir ez-Zor and Palmyra kills at least 25

30 Dec 2020 17:50 

FILE PHOTO. ©  REUTERS / Alaa Al-Faqir

A passenger bus on the road between Deir ez-Zor and Palmyra came under attack by terrorists, resulting in the death of at least 25 people on board, reported the Syrian state news agency SANA. Another 13 people were injured.

The attack took place on Wednesday afternoon local time, near the town of Kobajjep (Kabajeb), about 50 kilometers along the M20 road from Deir ez-Zor. 

Though the terrorist group Islamic State officially holds no more territory, there have been reports of their presence in the desert between the Euphrates river and Palmyra, an ancient city that changed hands several times during the Syrian conflict.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier in the day, one person was killed and three more injured in a rocket attack on Nabi Habil, some 30 miles (50km) outside of Damascus, which the Syrian government blamed on Israel.

Explosion and gunfire shakes Aden Airport in Yemen

as plane carrying new government lands 

30 Dec 2020 11:38 

People react as dust rises after explosions hit Aden airport, upon the arrival of the newly-formed Yemeni government

in Aden, Yemen December 30, 2020. © Reuters / Fawaz Salman

A loud explosion was followed by gunfire as Yemen’s new government landed at Aden International Airport. Local footage shows the chaotic scenes that resulted.

The blast reportedly killed at least five people and left dozens more injured. Footage from the Dubai-based Al-Hadath TV channel captured the incident as it was occurring. As people were peacefully leaving the plane via an airstair, a crowd gathered below it. Then suddenly a loud blast can be heard, causing the cameraman and other people at the airport to struggle to stay on their feet.

When the camera turns left towards the source of the sound, total chaos can be seen, with crowds of people running away through dark smoke, apparently left by the blast. Then, automatic gunshots are heard. At one point, Yemeni soldiers shoot their rifles up in the air to direct people away from the blast area.

An AFP correspondent on the scene said that “at least two explosions were heard as the cabinet members were leaving the aircraft.”

Graphic photos taken after the blast show the injured with blood all over their faces.

The cabinet members, including Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik, were not harmed and were transferred to the city’s presidential palace, according to Reuters.

Yemen’s new government was sworn in just last Saturday. Led by Abdulmalik, it includes members of opposing factions in Yemeni politics, and is supposed to represent a national push for unity in the war-torn country. The creation of the new unity government was backed by Saudi Arabia, to the point that the cabinet members were sworn in in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, instead of Aden, Yemen’s temporary capital amid the ongoing civil war.

The new government was the result of a political alliance between the Saudi-aligned Cabinet of Yemen, ultimately headed by President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and the Southern Transitional Council, a UAE-supported faction. In the ongoing civil war, both groups stand against the Iranian-backed rebel Houthi movement, which controls the north of the country.

The hostilities, together with the Saudi-led coalition bombings launched against the Houthis since 2015, have resulted in the region having the “largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” according to the UN.

UPDATE: 30 Dec 2020 15:22

Second explosion heard near presidential palace in Yemen’s Aden 

Local news have reported yet another explosion in Yemen, this time near the presidential palace, to which the new cabinet fled following the blast at Aden airport.

Yemen’s new government was transferred to the palace right after an explosion disrupted their arrival to Aden airport earlier today. It occurred as the officials were arriving to Aden from Riyadh, where cabinet members had a swearing-in ceremony that followed prolonged coalition talks brokered by the Saudis.

The destructive explosion at the airport resulted in more than 20 people being killed, and at least 60 injured, according to Salem Al-Shabhi, a senior health official who spoke to the Independent.

Mob led by Islamists demolishes Hindu temple in NW Pakistan

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted Dec 30, 2020, at 2:42 pm EST

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A mob led by members of Pakistan’s radical Islamist party demolished a Hindu temple Wednesday after setting it on fire in a deeply conservative northwestern town, a senior police official said.

The incident in the town of Karak drew condemnation from human rights activists and Pakistan’s minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari. Mazari took to Twitter to condemn the burning of the temple and urged law enforcement officials to ensure the arrest of those involved.

District police chief Irfan Ullah said police detained several people over their involvement in the attack on the temple.

Witnesses said the mob, led by activists and local leaders of the radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, attacked the temple after local Hindus received permission from authorities to renovate it.

The incident comes weeks after the government allowed minority Hindus to build a new temple in Islamabad on the recommendation of a council of clerics. Although Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully together in Pakistan, there have been other attacks on Hindu temples in recent years.

Most of Pakistan’s minority Hindus migrated to India in 1947 when India was divided by Britain’s government.

The rest of them should have! Muslims are known, even very recently, to kidnap Hindu or Christian girls and forcibly convert them to Islam and then marry them against their will.

Karak, PK

Indonesia bans influential radical Islamist group

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Group's spiritual leader investigated for sexting

Online News Editor

December 30, 2020

Jakarta, (efe-epa).- Indonesia has banned the controversial but popular radical group the Islamic Defender’s Front that in recent years staged several anti-government protests in the country, officials said Wednesday.

The government order to force the group, known by its acronym FPI, to stop carrying out any type of activities came into force from Wednesday, said Mahfud MD, the coordinating political, legal, and security affairs minister.

The government disbanded the group in June 2019, but it continued to carry out activities unlawfully, said the minister. The registration of the group expired on June 20, 2019, and the license was never extended after that.

The authorities also point out that at least 29 members of the FPI, founded in 1998, were convicted in various terror cases, and at least another six have been accused of related crimes.

The ban came after Indonesia’s radical Muslim cleric Rizieq Shihab returned home in November from Saudi Arabia. He was in exile from 2017 after being accused of pornography charges that were later dropped.

Rizieq, 55, is the group’s spiritual figurehead and its co-founder.

Mahfud made the announcement in a press conference also attended by six senior government officials, including the home minister, the attorney general, intelligence head, police chief, and the head of counter-terror agency.

The government also screened some “disturbing” videos, which linked the radical group to violent practices. A clip, recorded in the Indonesian region of Pamekasan, showed followers of the group simulating acts of beheading.

Another showed Rizieq expressing his support for the global terror network Islamic State in a 2017 speech. The authorities also cite it as one of the reasons to ban the PFI.

More than 100 followers of the FPI have been convicted of other criminal offenses, the authorities said, accusing the extremist group of carrying out illegal raids against the so-called anti-Islam practices.

Rizieq was detained on Dec.13 for allegedly breaching Covid-19 health protocols by holding mass gatherings in November, days after he returned home.

A defender of Islamic Sharia law and opposed to secularization, Rizieq was jailed for seven months in 2003 for encouraging his supporters to attack nightlife venues in Jakarta.

In 2008, he was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for inciting his supporters to attack another group calling for freedom of belief in Indonesia.

Rizieq was also one of the ringleaders of protests by Islamic radicals in 2016 and 2017 against the then governor of Jakarta, the Christian Basuki Tjahaja Purnama before he was sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy.

He left for Saudi Arabia in April 2017 when Indonesian police were investigating explicitly sexual messages the cleric had allegedly exchanged with a follower on WhatsApp.

After his exile and failing to appear before authorities, police filed formal charges for violating pornography law and for violating the founding ideology of the Indonesian state Pancasila that promotes national unity.

However, the charges were dropped in mid-2018, allowing the preacher to return.

Hmmmm! Why? 

Islam - Current Day - Supporting IS Leader, Sweden's Astounding Stupidity; Top Muslim Cleric Says, "Israel Belongs Only to Jews!"

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Is it madness, or astonishing stupidity that drives cultural suicide in Sweden?

Sweden gives ISIS leader who returned from Syria a protected identity

and welfare benefits

DEC 27, 2020 1:00 PM 

“She led the Islamic State Women’s Brigade in Syria – now Fatin, 33, receives protected identity and grants in Sweden,” translated from “Hon ledde Islamiska statens kvinnobrigad i Syrien – nu får Fatin, 33, skyddad identitet och bidrag i Sverige,” Fria Tider, December 23, 2020:

Domestic. The leader of the Islamic State’s women’s brigade in Syria, Fatin al-Mandlawi, 33, has moved back to Sweden and now lives in Angered in Gothenburg, Fria Tider can reveal today. The Swedish Tax Agency has given her the protected identity “Fatosh Ibrahim” which she uses to collect municipal social benefits and to run a black-market business where she offers to threaten people against payment.

– It’s a police matter. The municipality’s part is to offer support, says Zan Jankovski,

coordinator against extremism in the city of Gothenburg, to Fria Tider.

Fatin was born in Iraq as the fifth child of the al-Mandlawi Arab family of seven. During the Gulf War in the early 90s, the whole family came to Sweden and ended up in Eskilstuna. When she was ten years old, the family moved on to Gothenburg.

In July 2000, the father of seven, Mostafa al-Mandlawi, was interviewed by Göteborgsposten about the difficulties for immigrants to find work in Sweden.

– Yes, I hope I get a job. I have lived in Sweden for ten years and looked for a job all the time. Six years in Eskilstuna and four years in Gothenburg. In Baghdad, I had my own factory, but here I have sent lots of application papers, without anything happening, he said in the interview.

In the autumn of 2012, in connection with the so-called “Arab Spring”, Fatin’s big brother Hassan al-Mandlawi traveled to Syria to join an armed group close to the terrorist-branded al-Nusra Front.

After returning to Sweden, Hassan was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison for terrorist crimes for his involvement in the murder of two captured Syrian oil workers. According to the Gothenburg District Court, the motive for the murder of the workers was that they were employed by an oil company owned by the Syrian state. The verdict was later upheld by the Court of Appeal.

At the same time that Hassan traveled to Syria, his little sister, 25-year-old Fatin, also decided to leave the Gothenburg suburb of Angered for the Syrian city of Raqqa. There she joined what would later become known as the Islamic State.

In Syria, Fatin al-Mandlawi went by the alias Umm Fidah, which can be translated as “Mother of Restoration”. She married an IS terrorist from the UK in 2013. The man died the same year, while Fatin was expecting a child. In September 2013, she gave birth to a girl.

Fatin al-Mandlawi is one of the first women to travel from Sweden to Syria, and she became very active in attracting more women to travel there. In an interview with Kalla Fakta from 2015, the terrorist researcher Magnus Ranstorp described “Umm Fidah” ​​as a key person in IS recruitment work.

– She seems to be very aggressive. She has acted outwardly as extremely brutal. Brutal in terms of conviction, but there are also pictures of her holding a weapon. She is weapon-trained, he says in the interview.

Women’s Brigade

Fatin is not least known as the initiator of the Islamic State Women’s Brigade.

“Can we not start a brigade for just sisters and fight the pigs and pray for martyrdom,” she writes in an open post on Facebook. The Women’s Brigade is named al-Khansa, an Arabic metaphor for beauty.

Fatin was the leader of the newly started IS brigade and had at most between 60 and 70 women under her command. The Women’s Brigade’s main task was to ensure that other women living in the Islamists’ self-proclaimed caliphate complied with strict Sharia law.

In a picture that “Umm Fidah” ​​posted on Facebook, she can be seen in a square in the IS capital Raqqa. On the ground lie the bodies of beheaded people. On a fence next to her, a severed head is mounted on a fence.

“What? Are you talking to me? Oops you have no head!’ This is what we do with Bashar’s soldiers”, wrote “Umm Fidah” ​​in English as a comment on the picture.

Back to Sweden

In the spring of 2017, the Islamic State was collapsing. Outside Mosul in Iraq, fighting was raging that led to IS being forced to give up the city in July of that year. At the same time, the terrorist group’s unofficial capital Raqqa in Syria was surrounded by a coalition of IS-hostile forces. It was only a matter of time before the caliphate fell.

Fatin al-Mandlawi, who was now pregnant again, decided to flee back to Sweden. In October 2017, she gave birth to her second child. According to Fria Tider, the father was an IS terrorist who is currently in prison in Australia. Fatin al-Mandlawi changed her name to Fatosh Ibrahim and was granted protected personal data by the Swedish Tax Agency. She now lives in Angered again.

During the work on this report, Fria Tider has been in contact with the Swedish Tax Agency several times during the summer and autumn to ask on what grounds a former IS fighter has been granted a protected identity. However, the authority has rejected the request, and we are not even allowed to examine the document in disguised form, as even a masked document could be used to find out that it is Fatin al-Mandlawi who is hiding behind the authority’s protected identity Fatosh Ibrahim.

“The Swedish Tax Agency assesses that there is special reason to assume that Fatin may suffer if the information about him (sic!) is disclosed,” the authority writes in its decision.

– It is covered by a fairly strong secrecy, explains Johanna Sjöberg at the Swedish Tax Agency’s personal protection department to Fria Tider.

Open about the IS background

However, according to several people that Fria Tider has spoken to, the 33-year-old terrorist’s background is nothing she herself is particularly keen to keep secret.

– She has told me that she wanted to blow herself up. She has told that she saw when they set fire to this Jordanian pilot in the cage. She brags that she has been in IS, says a woman with an immigrant background who previously hung out in the circles around the IS leader, to Fria Tider.

– We protect IS soldiers and they live on our tax money. I think it should be clear that our authorities are actually protecting IS terrorists who have been there and killed children and adults, innocent people, she continues.

– I think it is terrible that there is an IS terrorist, free out on the street, who has posed in a square in Raqqa with severed heads. I do not want a terrorist outside my door.

According to the woman, Fatin, or Fatosh as she now calls herself, has said that she has received money from the Security Police and that it is the Social Services in Gothenburg that have helped her with her protected identity. The reason is stated to be that the authority has judged that it may be more convenient for her if she does not have to be recognized as a terrorist in Gothenburg.

Reported for threats

After returning to Sweden, Fatin has tried to increase the social contribution by selling services that are marketed as a mixture between Islam and voodoo, but which in fact are reminiscent of traditional intimidation activities. On Facebook, she calls herself “Fatosh Montana” and uses her network of young girls to, among other things, try to make black-market money by “casting spells” on others.

Whether the victims of the activity are in fact exposed to crime is not clear, but the activity has been reported to the police several times for, among other things, illegal threats. However, all reports against the former IS terrorist have been dropped.

– She still walks around threatening young girls and says that she will ruin their lives, says one of the women Fria Tider spoke to.

Zan Jankovski is the coordinator for the work against violent extremism in the city of Gothenburg. He tells Fria Tider that the municipality’s tax-financed work is mainly about giving help and support to the extremists, and not about giving support to their possible crime victims.

– We have a defector business. That defector activity has been around for a few years, it has been around for a while, he says.

– Then we talk about all the defined environments that exist.

Anyone who is threatened or exposed to other crimes by the IS terrorists who have returned from Syria, and whom the Swedish state has decided to protect, can therefore not count on help or support from the municipality.

– It’s a police matter. The municipality’s part is to offer support to individuals who need it, says Zan Jankovski.

Every time I start to think that the Canadian Government is the most stupid in the world, Sweden does something like this!

And now for something completely different...

Pakistan: Top Cleric Says Israel Belongs to Jews

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Cleric cites Islam, offering rare theological justification for Jewish sovereignty

by Shireen Qudosi, Clarion Project

December 29, 2020 

Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, head of the Council of Islamic Ideology, was also in the spotlight in 2016 when a religious body ruled that men should be allowed to ‘lightly beat’ their wives in the context of a draft of a women’s protection bill. (Photo: FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP via Getty Images)

Breaking news out of Pakistan signals a possible new layer for peace in the Middle East, as a senior cleric goes on the record to acknowledge that Israel belongs to the Jews.

How are we to understand this news? First, the conversation draws on history, specifically the history of the Islamic caliphates and its interface with theology.  Second, this fact opens up a larger conversation for concrete changes in the Islamic world that can be found on the razor’s edge of both frameworks, one that shows Islam still has plenty of wiggle room for advancement.

Calling on Muslims around the world to accept the Jewish state, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani announced before Christmas that the historic land of Israel “belongs only to the Jews.”

Sherani’s background includes serving as chairman of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology, which advises the Pakistani government and parliament on Islamic law. Until 2018, he was also a lawmaker in the National Assembly for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, a Sunni Deobandi political party in Pakistan. His credentials give the announcement even greater weight as they are rooted in Islamic theology.

“Educated Muslims need to understand that the Quran and history

prove to us that the Land of Israel belongs only to the Jews. 

King David built the house of God in Jerusalem for the Israelis

and not for the Palestinians.” 

– Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani

He went to support what sounds like a blurred two-state solution without outlining boundaries, saying, “There should be an Israeli state in the western part and a Palestinian state in the eastern part.”

The emphasis on education and the need to understand theology and the historic backbone that the theology is carried on is a critical message for Muslims — one that speaks to the evolving nature of Islam and the awareness that Islam is what Muslims do with it.

Islam in the 21st century is no different than any other period in Islamic history; it is still being carved and etched into human understanding.

The marriage between theology and history is crucial to an understanding of Islam. Reinforcement for Sherani’s announcement goes beyond the Quran (where mention of a Jewish homeland is slim to non-existent) and to where a precedent for recognizing Israel can be found. That precedent lies in the second Islamic caliphate that offers not only recognition of Israel but an example to embrace a sovereign Jewish homeland in Israel.

The sanctification of Jerusalem happened during the Ummayad Caliphate, which lasted from 637 AD to 1099 AD. The 400-year rule of the caliphate was sandwiched between the chronicles of back-and-forth wars between Byzantine and Persia and the Crusades.

The Byzantines, who had banned Jews from worshiping on the Temple Mount and at the Wailing Wall, fell in battle to the Ummayad Caliphate, which granted both Christians and Jews safety. As history notes, for the first time “after almost 500 years of oppressive Roman rule, Jews were once again allowed to live and worship inside Jerusalem.”

Fast forward to the 21st century. Sherani’s announcement is significant because it is another layer to the ongoing development of Islam. Here’s how:

Primary source material in Islam (the Quran) is light-handed (and at times contradictory) on where the Jewish people stand on their claim to Israel.

The significance of Israel to Muslims (of Jerusalem, to be precise) waxes and wanes, cementing only during the Umayyad Caliphate as (some suggest) a political move to sanctify and glorify Jerusalem among the Muslims.

As Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes points out, the measures taken by the Ummayad Caliphate to sanctify Jerusalem retroactively fleshed out Jerusalem’s importance within the Quran and in Islamic theology.

The statements by Sherani regarding Israel are incredibly important in light of other statements that Sherani has made. In the context of the interview where he accepts Quranic verses condoning wife beatings (however light), Sherani says, “You cannot ask someone to reconsider the Quran.”

This brings us to an interesting side point in this discussion: Sherani’s position on Israel clearly points to a precedent in Islam of reframing our understanding of what the Quran says (without changing the Quran itself). If the Ummayad Caliphate initiated development projects to shape theology and manifest an expansive approach to the faith, the same can be done in any other area … including women’s rights, without needing to poke holes in source material like the Quran.

That alone is a significant leap in understanding the marriage between history and theology in Islam. This type of “reconstructive” theology lays out a pathway for recognizing Jerusalem but also opens the gates for many places where we could go next.

Now, who saw that coming?

Unorthodox Russian Priest Arrested for 'Encouraging the Suicide of a Minor'

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Covid-denying Russian monk, who insists Putin has been replaced by Antichrist in rubber mask, detained over child suicide claims

29 Dec 2020 16:55

An Orthodox priest, known for “expelling demons” and warning of secret plans to enslave the world, has been held by police on suspicion of pushing children to kill themselves. His monastery was raided by riot police overnight.

Local media in nearby Ekaterinburg reported on Tuesday that a police operation was underway at the Middle Ural Orthodox chapter, and Nikolay Romanov (known as Father Sergius) had been detained. Hundreds of supporters gathered near the road to the compound to protest the arrest of the faith leader, who has previously been formally excommunicated from the Church.

Some hours later, Romanov appeared before a Moscow court, which will determine whether he can be held or released. The media has been banned from the hearing.

While details of the charges have not yet been released, Romanov’s lawyer, Svetlana Gerasimova, told journalists that he is suspected of encouraging “the suicide of a minor.” The Russian daily newspaper Kommersant suggests the case is linked to a sermon in which he asked his parishioners whether they were “ready to die for Russia.” An advocate for the breakaway church told the publication that “it was not about suicide, but about self-sacrifice for people, about patriotism.”

There is an aspect of Christianity that calls for adherents to 'die to self', that is to die to their selfish desires and lusts, to surrender their will to Jesus just as Jesus surrendered His to the Father - "Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done."

It has nothing to do with physical death for the adherent, but only death to the sin nature we are born with.

Look at the extraordinary gaze of the beautiful child in white.

Romanov’s long history of explosive claims have simultaneously won him followers and drawn criticism from church officials. He has repeatedly given voice to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories involving the fabricated ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ hoax, which claim that secretive Jewish organizations are working to subject the world to their rule.

In 2019, he warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin would soon be targeted for assassination as a result of changes to pension law. Later that year, he warned that the Antichrist was due to return to earth “at the age of 30, wearing a silicone mask, bearing Vladimir Putin’s face.”

That would be odd since Putin's face is more than twice that age.

Romanov has previously fallen foul of law enforcement over his refusal to close his churches and encouraging followers to break coronavirus prevention laws to attend them. “Whoever encroaches on the closure of temples – damn it and his whole family,” the priest has said. He has previously been issued with a fine over the statements.

Ex-NHL star Datsyuk 'holed up at monastery defended by Cossacks with priest who claims Covid is cover-up to microchip population'

In October, Romanov was officially excommunicated from the Orthodox Church in a decision sanctioned by its top priests. He was found guilty by a Church tribunal of violating the priestly oath, monastic vows and a number of other rules. However, he has since continued to perform his role as a priest as part of the Sredneuralsk Convent.

Romanov controls three large monasteries in the region, as well as residential buildings, industrial sites and farms. His group has plans to build the largest Orthodox Church in the world, with capacity for up to 37,000 worshippers.

Islam - Current Day - Islamic Tolerance in France; Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia; Druggie Throws Parents Out of Their House

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Outrage in France as Muslim son of police officers roughed up for ‘un-Islamic’ behavior after he attended Christmas party

27 Dec 2020 16:17

FILE PHOTO. © AFP / Patrick Hertzog

A young Muslim was attacked by fellow Muslims after he posted photos online of a Christmas party he had attended. The incident has prompted top French officials to condemn Islamic “separatism” and to pledge to keep fighting it.

The incident, which occurred in the northeastern city of Belfort, was reported by local media on Saturday. The 20-year-old victim is the son of law enforcement officers.

Shortly after posting the photos of the party, he was threatened by an acquaintance who was also Muslim – hardline followers of Islam consider partaking in the festivities of another religion to be wholly inappropriate.

He blasted the young man as a “dirty son of white, son of a snake, son of police” and promised to “show” him what a “real Arab” should be. Although the tone of the conversation was far from friendly, the young man agreed to meet his accuser in person to settle their differences.

A real Arab would show up with four friends...

The outraged hardliner showed up flanked by four other man, who beat up the 20-year-old and threatened him with further violence if he reported the incident to the police. Despite the intimidation, the young man filed a complaint against his attackers, and his mother has vowed to pursue the suspects. “He walked into an ambush,” she was cited by local media as saying.

This incident must not remain without consequences. 

These are sectarian and racist behaviors. 

This is unacceptable in the 21st century. 

Everyone is free to celebrate what they want and as they wish.

Seriously? Do you know nothing about Islam?

The incident did not escape the notice of France’s top officials. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed that the attack had taken place and an investigation had been launched. Darmanin condemned the anti-police sentiment the suspects had apparently shown and called Islamist “separatism” unacceptable.

“In Belfort, a young man was assaulted because he celebrated Christmas and was not a ‘good Arab’. ‘Aggravating’ circumstance: being the son of police officers,” the minister wrote on Twitter late on Saturday.

There’s no place for separatism in our country,

no place for racism – wherever it comes from.

In recent months, France has suffered a spate of terrorist attacks by Islamist radicals, including the gruesome beheading of a teacher outside Paris. The teacher was targeted by a young Muslim after he showed his class the infamous cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. While depiction of the Prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam, the provocative cartoons are considered particularly offensive by many Muslims.

In the wake of the attack, senior French officials, including President Emmanuel Macron, vowed to fight hardline Islamists by any means necessary and to weed out extreme ideology from the country. Macron’s tough response has caused diplomatic rows with a number of Muslim-majority nations, and protests against the president.

Macron's position was obvious and inevitable years ago. I must say, I am surprised that he reached that position as quickly as he did.

Prominent Saudi women’s rights activist sentenced to

nearly 6 years under terrorism laws

28 Dec 2020 14:21

FILE PHOTO. A protest in support of jailed Saudi women's rights activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul, in Paris, France. ©REUTERS / Benoit Tessier

Loujain al-Hathloul, a renowned Saudi advocate of women’s rights, has been sentenced to five years and eight months in prison, local media have reported. However, an early release is also reportedly possible for her in February.

The 31-year-old, who rose to prominence in 2013 while campaigning for making driving licenses available to women in Saudi Arabia, has been in custody since March 2018, when she was arrested at Riyadh’s request in the United Arab Emirates.

In June 2018, women were permitted to drive for the first time in Saudi Arabia. It was the only country where it was forbidden.

She was accused of a number of crimes under Saudi counter-terrorism laws, including attempting to change the kingdom’s political system and undermining national security. According to Sabq and al-Shark al-Awsat newspapers, a court passed the sentence on her on Monday. Most of the time she remained incarcerated was deducted from the sentence and there is a possibility of a conditional early release coming as soon as the end of February, the reports said.

Hathloul’s defenders say she was subjected to humiliating treatment, sexual assault and torture while in Saudi custody. At least twice in 2020 she was reported by family as going on a hunger strike to protest the conditions of her detention. Riyadh denies the allegations of having abused its prisoner.

Last month, Hathloul’s case was transferred from a regular criminal court to a special terrorism court.

The activist was one of at least a dozen like-minded individuals arrested by Saudi Arabia in 2018.

Of the arrested activists, some have been released while their prosecutions proceed. Nassimah al-Saadah was sentenced to five years in prison with two suspended in late November, according to reports.

Saudi Arabia, a major oil producer, is a key US ally in the Middle East and a major buyer of US-made weapons. Critics say Washington tends to turn a blind eye on Riyadh’s violations of human rights, both at home and abroad, as long as American strategic interests are observed.

Kuwait: Son arrested for throwing mother and father out of family home

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Reason was parents refusal to give him money to buy drugs

Published:  December 28, 2020, 14:04

Tawfiq Nasrallah, Staff Writer, Gulf News

Dubai: A Kuwaiti has been arrested and put behind bars at the Salwa Police Station for expelling his parents and the family servant from their home, despite the harsh cold weather, Al Anba daily reported on Monday.

The arrest came when the father, who is believed to be in his 60s, called the Operations Room of the Ministry of Interior and complained his son had put him, his wife, and his servant out of the house.

When police went to the house and arrested the man, they discovered he was under the influence of drugs. A report by the Forensics will determine what drugs he has consuming.

The father stated the reason for his son’s actions was his refusal to give money to buy narcotics.