‘Sharia Police’ Didn’t Break Law by Trying to Impose Muslim Rules in German Town – Court

    © Sertac Kayar / Reuters

A German court has ruled that a group of Islamists did not break the law when forming a ‘Sharia police force’ in 2014. The group caused public outrage after patrolling a western city in orange vests, instructing residents to abide by the strict Muslim code.

The group's vests had ‘Sharia Police’ printed on them in large block letters, but this did not breach the countrywide ban on political uniforms, the judges ruled. Under German law, a uniform has to be "suggestively militant" or have an "intimidating effect” to constitute a violation.

Apparently, the judges have no idea what Sharia Law is. Otherwise, how could they rule that there was no intimidating effect. 

The judges specifically cited one eyewitness who believed the vests were themed costumes for a bachelor party. They went on to state that there was no proof to suggest that the men were wearing the vests to break the law intentionally.

The court also noted that police in Wuppertal did not find anything criminal about the men wearing the vests, which were not seized by officers at the time.

The ruling has not yet come into effect and can still be appealed by the state prosecutor.

The men, all aged between 25 and 34, sparked anger by patrolling the streets of Wuppertal in 2014, telling nightclub goers to refrain from drinking alcohol and listening to music, and arcade customers not to play games for money, so as not to contradict the strict Muslim religious code of conduct known as Sharia law.

The group was headed by Sven Lau, a controversial Salafist leader who is currently on trial for supporting a terrorist group fighting in Syria.

But I'm sure he has a good heart and only wants the best for German people.!!!???!

In a debate on RT, Maximilian Krah of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said that the verdict showed that Germany’s courts are unprepared for the culture clash with its Muslim minority.

“The German society and the legal system have no weapons to protect the liberty of the citizens,” he said. “If the country decides that it wants to follow the liberal rules, then the state has the duty to enforce those liberties against the attempts of people in the other way. And this is not what happens in Germany."

“It’s very easy. If you come to Rome, live like the Romans,” he added.

But Remzi Aru of the German Democratic Alliance countered by pointing out the double standards towards Muslims when compared to other religious groups.

“I am against those things, but for everybody, not just Muslims,” he said.

“If you look at the rules and the laws the Jehovah's Witnesses tell you, it is very similar: you should not drink, you should not gamble, you should not drink alcohol, you should not do this, you should not do that. They are ringing your door and the people are not loving it, but they accept it so long as it's within the frame of law. There is freedom of religion in Europe, as long as these people do not harm you and don’t force you to do something.”

There is the point - freedom of religion, as long as they don't harm you or force you to do something. JWs don't wear police uniforms! Both the words Sharia and Police imply a lack of tolerance for those who break the law, in this case Sharia. They may work under the guise of peaceful persuasion for now, but there will come a day when that facade will come down and the real face of the Shariah Police will be revealed, and it won't be pretty. 

Wuppertal is one of Germany's most popular cities for Salafists, who follow a very conservative interpretation of Islam and reject any form of democracy.

The Monday ruling comes as Germany continues to struggle with the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, which resulted in more than 1 million mainly Muslim asylum seekers entering the country in 2015. Many residents across Germany have been vocal in opposing the arrival of the refugees, condemning Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy for those fleeing war and persecution.

Germany needs to stop the funding of German mosques from Saudi Arabia from whence Salafism is infiltrating the western world. Or, get on the bus and go to Friday prayers.

Nigerian Supreme Court Justice, 7 other Judges Charged with Corruption

If you have read this blog for more than a few months you will know that I believe Nigeria to be one of the most corrupt countries on the planet. From government to military to business, corruption runs rampant. It is my hope that President Buhari is considerably cleaner than his pathetic predecessor Goodluck Johnathon, and this action may be a sign that that is so. It's a drop in the bucket, certainly, but a big drop. Let's hope and pray the waves reverberate around that bucket and make life very uncomfortable for those who bring shame upon a country of beautiful people who deserve better.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, pictured at the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in New York City in September, pledged during his election campaign last year to fight corruption at all levels 

-- a pledge that resulted in the arrest of Nigerian supreme court justice Sylvester Ngwuta, as well 

as seven other judges. Ngwuta, who faces 15 counts, has pleaded not guilty. 

File Photo by Drew Angerer/UPI/Pool 

By Doug G. Ware

ABUJA, Nigeria, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- A judge on Nigeria's supreme court was charged Monday with 15 counts of fraud, including money laundering, authorities said.

Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, along with seven other Nigerian judges, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Monday. He was arrested last month after a raid on his home yielded cash and several different passports, officials said.

Prosecutors also claim that Ngwuta attempted to conceal evidence in his home, including bags containing about $85,000 in cash.

"We object to bail being granted because we are of the opinion that the defendant may conceal or destroy evidence," prosecutor Charles Adeogun Philips argued in Abuja Federal High Court, asking the judge that bail be revoked for Ngwuta.

The supreme court justice, though, was granted release on $317,000 bail until his trial, with assistance from the Nigerian Bar Association, BBC News reported.

The judges are not allowed to resume presiding over their respective courts, however, until at least the conclusion of their trials.

The raids involving Ngwuta and the other judges were motivated by suspicions of corruption, and follow a pledge by President Muhammadu Buhari last year during his campaign to fight corruption. He won election and took power in May 2015.

Rex Murphy: Curb Your Climate Change Enthusiasm

Rex Murphy

    AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy - Catherine McKenna, Canada's environment minister, chairs a 
    panel featuring Canadian Indigenous leaders discussing climate change, at the COP22 climate
    change conference n Marrakech, Morocco, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016.

At the critical moment of every second-rate movie ever made, when the town is under siege from the bandits, or the maiden is tied to the railway tracks and the hero is lost on what must be done, there will come a voice from the crowd: “What we need now is action!”

With that insight, the posse forms, the hero swoops, the town is saved, the maiden rescued from the onrushing locomotive, Stetsons fly into the air, and the victors ride off into the sunset.

I thought of these old and desperate melodramas when I read of Catherine McKenna, our environment and climate change minister, on safari to save the planet, this time in Marrakesh, Morocco, trailing her own posse.

The minister signalled to the world that Canada was, again, on the case: “We’re moving forward, as is the world. Everyone is absolutely committed to climate action.” Great news. Everyone is agreed that what we need now is action. Almost makes you wonder why in all their multitudes they went to Marrakesh at all, what with everyone “absolutely committed” to … action.

Does the everyone of which she speaks include President-elect, Donald Trump? And does that “whole world” contain the greatest industrial powerhouse of our troubled globe, the U.S.? Does Trump’s charming disinclination to heed the belief that the Earth is doomed without a carbon tax subtract from McKenna’s universalist optimism? It should.

For if the U.S. decides that Paris and its tenuous, non-binding resolutions are not of interest, is not her buoyant outburst more than a little out of key? With the U.S. out of the climate game, China multiplying coal-powered plants and free to spew emissions, India emergent as an industrial power, and half the world paying lip service to the cause, whence comes McKenna’s furious optimism? From an empty place, I would offer.

But regardless of what a Trump administration might do to the concert of consensus, McKenna soldiers on: The rest of the world “recognize(s) that pricing pollution is the best way to reduce emissions.”

The minister is playing semantic shuffle here. Carbon dioxide does not make smog. She is taking the lingo of the fight against pollution, which was sensible and has had demonstrable results, and using it for brush work on the different terrain of (contested) theories of imminent climatic disaster.

Nor is “pricing pollution … the best way to reduce emissions.” The best way would be to forbid all use of fossil fuel by diktat. Or, more congenially, to ask all countries to stop all industrial activity based on the use of oil, gas and coal. This would obviously be a huge hit in China, India, Africa, Cuba — now that it is in the sunshine again  — and, of course, Canada. Though drastic, it would at least have the merit of matching in substance the fever of the hyperbolic, apocalyptic rhetoric that trails around world climate conferences.

As ice to the fevered brow, let me offer a more contained understanding of what it means for the climate change file now that Trump will be adding Air Force One to his fleet. Brad Wall, premier of Saskatchewan, does not have McKenna’s gift for unmoored enthusiasms, but he does have a good eye for irresistible facts. His view is it “makes no sense for our federal government to push ahead with imposing a national carbon tax when our biggest trading partner — and our biggest competitor for investment and jobs — is not going to have one.”

Could Wall, who is not in Marrakesh, be on to something? At a time of economic stress in the Western provinces, the Alberta economy blistered by oil prices, Fort McMurray still reeling from the after-effects of the inferno last spring, Newfoundland wandering into debt hell — why impose artificial and unilateral restraints on our national economy? In particular, why impose restraints that will place us at major disadvantage with the one economy that matters most to Canada?

I doubt Wall’s more realistic take on these matters will do much to suppress the Trudeau government’s enchantment with posturing on the world stage. On this file, McKenna is clearly speaking the wishes of her prime minister, who prefers to see the election of Trump as having no bearing on his beloved climate tax. Justin Trudeau insisted in a recent interview that it is he, not Trump, who is “on the right side of history,” an awkward phrase in the best of times. Being “on the right side of history,” and Trudeau should know this, has an unfortunate provenance, and is always more of a cloudy boast than a fact.

He went on to assert that “there is tremendous economic disadvantage from not acting in the fight against climate change; for not pushing toward cleaner jobs and reducing emissions.” If he really wished to substantiate that argument, Ontario provides a perfect illustration: its green energy policy is a master plan for plunging a prosperous province into lacerating debt, while financing its dream with power bills that are stirring a populist revulsion.

The rhetoric of climate change has an aversion to reality, seduces governments into ignoring the needs of their citizens, and fires the minds of politicians who imagine themselves saving the world. In other words, it tempts them to feel they are more important than they are, that they are working with “history,” rather than operating administrations faced with more immediate, if mundane, needs. That is always a snare and a delusion.

National Post

Good-bye, Good Friday, You No Longer Exist in Bloomington, Indiana

Good Friday and Columbus Day renamed by 'inclusive' US city of Bloomington

From BBC US & Canada

    Good Friday marks the crucifixion of Jesus but is not a federal US holiday

The US city of Bloomington in Indiana has renamed Good Friday and Columbus Day as "Spring Holiday" and "Fall Holiday" to be more "inclusive".

Mayor John Hamilton said the move would "better reflect cultural sensitivity in the workplace", local media said.

It's not very sensitive toward Christians, I don't think! How is it that cultural sensitivity usually means offending someone? But, I guess, as long as those someones are just Christians or Jews, who cares, right? I just hope God doesn't notice the slight. Reducing the Crucifixion of Christ to just another holiday might not go down too well with His father.

Bloomington is a traditionally liberal city. Its county gave Hillary Clinton 58.6% in the presidential election.

But the move sparked a backlash on social media, with opponents condemning it as an act of political correctness.

The change was announced on Friday by Mr Hamilton in a memo to city employees.

"We are terrifically proud of our diverse workforce at the city," he wrote, according to the Herald-Times.

"That diversity makes us stronger and more representative of the public we proudly serve. These updated names for two days of well-merited time off is another way we can demonstrate our commitment to inclusivity."

Right, by excluding Christians, probably your biggest or second biggest demographic. Smart move!

Bloomington city employees receive paid time off for Columbus Day and Good Friday.

Columbus Day became a federal holiday in the United States in 1937 and celebrates the arrival of explorer Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492.

The holiday falls on the second Monday of October.

    A Columbus Day parade in New York. The day is not celebrated by all.  Image copyright EPA

However, it has drawn significant opposition from those who regard Columbus's arrival as a prelude to centuries of oppression.

A movement began in 1977 to replace it with a holiday that celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America. A few states now do not mark Columbus Day, or give it another title.

Good Friday is one of the most important dates of the Christian faith, marking the day Jesus Christ was crucified by the Romans.

It is not a federal holiday in the US but is a state holiday in some states.

Bloomington, with a population estimated at 84,067 in July 2016 by the Census Bureau, has long been regarded as a liberal city.

It is the home to Indiana University Bloomington and a number of other schools and institutes.

It enrolled in Tree City USA, a tree planting and tree care programme in 2015.

The renaming of the holidays drew strong social media responses, most of them condemning the move.

They included posts such as "How is the day Jesus died insensitive?" and "I'm guessing they will next rename Christmas to winter holiday".

Christianity in Russia - Oh, the Troubles of the Last Century, Shall They Return?

What is the state of Christianity in Russia? Well, I've got some good news and some bad news, and I'm not entirely sure which is which

Orthodoxy and Russia inseparable - Putin

TASS Society & Culture 

"Our moral values rest on Christian values, so in this sense it [Orthodoxy - TASS] is a major part of Russia’s soul," president said

    ©  Alexei Druzhinin / press-service of the President of the Russian Federation / TASS

VLADIVOSTOK, /TASS/. Orthodoxy has been playing a major role in Russia’s life throughout the entire history of Russia, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that Orthodoxy and Russia are inseparable, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in the film Patriarch shown on the Rossiya-1 television channel on Sunday to mark the 70th birth anniversary of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

"Orthodoxy and Russia are inseparable. And throughout our entire history, Orthodoxy has been playing a major role in the life of our state and our nation," the president said.
"Our moral values rest on Christian values, so in this sense it [Orthodoxy - TASS] is a major part of Russia’s soul," Putin said.

Russia's Newest Law: No Evangelizing

Outside of Church

(UPDATE) Putin signs new restrictions that limit where and how Christians share the gospel.

Kate Shellnutt, CT

    The State Duma building in Moscow  Bernt Rostad / Flickr

Update (July 8): This week, Russian president Vladimir Putin approved a package of anti-terrorism laws that usher in tighter restrictions on missionary activity and evangelism.

Despite prayers and protests from religious leaders and human rights advocates, the Kremlin announced Putin’s approval yesterday. The amendments, including laws against sharing faith in homes, online, or anywhere but recognized church buildings, go into effect July 20.

Though opponents to the new measures hope to eventually appeal in court or elect legislators to amend them, they have begun to prepare their communities for life under the new rules, reported Forum 18 News Service, a Christian outlet reporting on the region.

Protestants and religious minorities small enough to gather in homes fear they will be most affected. Last month, “the local police officer came to a home where a group of Pentecostals meet each Sunday," Konstantin Bendas, deputy bishop of the Pentecostal Union, told Forum 18. "With a contented expression he told them: ‘Now they're adopting the law I'll drive you all out of here.’ I reckon we should now fear such zealous enforcement.”

“There are potentially very wide-sweeping ramifications to this law,” Joel Griffith of the Slavic Gospel Association said in a Mission Network News report. “It just depends on, again, how it is going to be enforced, and that is a very huge question mark.”

-----

Earlier reporting (June 29): Christians in Russia won’t be allowed to email their friends an invitation to church or to evangelize in their own homes if Russia’s newest set of surveillance and anti-terrorism laws are enacted.

The proposed laws, considered the country’s most restrictive measures in post-Soviet history, place broad limitations on missionary work, including preaching, teaching, and engaging in any activity designed to recruit people into a religious group.

To share their faith, citizens must secure a government permit through a registered religious organization, and they cannot evangelize anywhere besides churches and other religious sites. The restrictions even apply to activity in private residences and online.

This week, Russia’s Protestant minority—estimated around 1 percent of the population—prayed, fasted, and sent petitions to President Vladimir Putin, who will have to approve the measures before they become official.

“Most evangelicals—leaders from all seven denominations—have expressed concerns,” Sergey Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia and a former Moscow church-planter, told CT. “They’re calling on the global Christian community to pray that Putin can intervene and God can miraculously work in this process.”

Following a wave of Russian nationalist propaganda, the laws passed almost unanimously in the Duma, the upper house, on Friday and in the Federation Council, the lower house, today.

“If this legislation is approved, the religious situation in the country will grow considerably more complicated and many believers will find themselves in exile and subjected to reprisals because of our faith,” wrote Oleg Goncharov, spokesman for the Seventh-day Adventists’ Euro-Asia division, in an open letter.

Proposed by United Russia party lawmaker Irina Yarovaya, the law appears to target religious groups outside the Russian Orthodox church. Because it defines missionary activities as religious practices to spread a faith beyond its members, “if that is interpreted as the Moscow Patriarchate is likely to, it will mean the Orthodox Church can go after ethnic Russians but that no other church will be allowed to,” according to Frank Goble, an expert on religious and ethnic issues in the region.

Russian nationalist identity remains tied up with

the Russian Orthodox church

“The Russian Orthodox church is part of a bulwark of Russian nationalism stirred up by Vladimir Putin,” David Aikman, history professor and foreign affairs expert, told CT. “Everything that undermines that action is a real threat, whether that’s evangelical Protestant missionaries or anything else.”

Sergei Ryakhovsky, head of the Protestant Churches of Russia, and several other evangelical leaders called the law a violation of religious freedom and personal conscience in a letter to Putin posted on the Russian site Portal-Credo. The letter reads, in part:

The obligation on every believer to have a special permit to spread his or her beliefs, as well as hand out religious literature and material outside of places of worship and used structures is not only absurd and offensive, but also creates the basis for mass persecution of believers for violating these provisions.

Soviet history shows us how many people of different faiths have been persecuted for spreading the Word of God. This law brings us back to a shameful past."

Stalin-era religious restrictions—including outlawing religious activity outside of Sunday services in registered churches and banning parents from teaching faith to their kids—remained on the books until the collapse of the Soviet Union, though the government enforced them only selectively.

Selectively, but mercilessly. One of the most intense books I have ever read, and I have read many, was called The Persecutor, by Sergei Kourdakov. It is also sometimes called Forgive Me, Natasha. Kourdakov documents the horrific brutality with which he and his mates punished Christians for meeting in private homes under the authority of the KGB. Here's the intro to his bio on Wikipedia:

Sergei Nikolayevich Kourdakov (Russian: Сергей Николаевич Курдаков; March 1, 1951 – January 1, 1973) was a former KGB agent and naval officer who from his late teen years carried out more than 150 raids in underground Christian communities in regions of the Soviet Union in the 1960s. At the age of twenty, he defected to Canada while a naval officer on a Soviet trawler in the Pacific and converted to Evangelical Christianity. He is known for having written The Persecutor (also known as Forgive Me, Natasha), an autobiography that was written shortly before his death in 1973 and published posthumously. Since its publication, it has been the source of varied criticism.

The book not only describes the fanatical evil that beset Christians, but it also portrays the utter hopelessness and insanity of the KGB and Soviet military. It is a must read if you can find it. Kourdakov lived only a few years in freedom before he was assassinated - the cost of leaving and exposing the KGB.

Some have questioned whether the government could or would monitor religious activity in private Christian homes.

“I don’t think you can overestimate the Russian government’s willingness to exert control,” Aikman told CT. If history is any indication, the proposed regulations reveal a pattern of “creeping totalitarianism” in the country, he said.

So, I have no small amount of admiration for Putin for which I am greatly embarrassed. Not because he is so vilified by western press and governments - I have no respect for their stated opinions whatsoever; but because I stated years ago that I thought Putin was trying to return Russia to the 'glory days' of the USSR. The 'glory' unfortunately, was restricted to only a handful of people in power while the rest of the country suffered miserably. Nevertheless, Putin seems determined to return Russia to those days and this move to restore Soviet-style control of religion just makes me more sure that I am correct.

Having said that, I am not entirely against the edict as it will have the effect of allowing the authorities of clamping down on Islamic recruitment. That cannot be a bad thing. As far as Christians are concerned, a little persecution is rarely a bad thing; it separates the wolves from the sheep in a hurry. America could use a little such persecution to reduce the wolf population in its pulpits. 

The other question I have is whether the Russian Orthodox Church will preach the real Gospel of Jesus Christ, whether they will be allowed to preach it, or will they have to water it down as they did in the communist era. That era was not representative of the thousand years of Orthodox Christianity in the great country of Russia.

The so-called Big Brother laws also introduce widespread surveillance of online activity, including requiring encrypted apps to give the government the power to decode them, and assigning stronger punishments for extremism and terrorism.

The proposal is an “attack on freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, and the right to privacy that gives law enforcement unreasonably broad powers,” the humanitarian group Human Rights Watch told The Guardian.

If passed, the anti-evangelism law carries fines up to US $780 for an individual and $15,500 for an organization. Foreign visitors who violate the law face deportation.

Russia has already moved to contain foreign missionaries. The “foreign agent” law, adopted in 2012, requires groups from abroad to file detailed paperwork and be subject to government audits and raids. Since then, the NGO sector has shrunk by a third, according to government statistics.

“In Moscow, we shared an office with 24 organizations. Not a single foreign expatriate mission is there now,” Rakhuba previously told CT. “They could not re-register. Missionaries could not return to Russia because they could not renew their visas. It is next to impossible to get registration as a foreign organization today.”

While Russia’s evangelicals pray that the proposed regulations are amended or vetoed, they have gone underground before, and they’ll be willing to do it again, Rakhuba said.

“They say, ‘If it will come to it, it’s not going to stop us from worshiping and sharing our faith,’” he wrote. “The Great Commission isn’t just for a time of freedom.”

19-y/o Homeschooled Christian Wins Ontario By-Election by Landslide

    19-year-old Sam Oosterhoff, now the youngest MPP in Ontario history

(LifeSiteNews) — A 19-year-old homeschool graduate and pro-life advocate won a provincial by-election by a landslide Thursday night, becoming the youngest Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario history.

Sam Oosterhoff, who suspended his first year of political science studies at Brock University to run, sailed to victory in the Niagara West-Glanbrook riding, winning 54 percent of the vote in the constituency previously held by former Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak.

Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) pointed out that the young politician earned the overwhelming victory despite a "relentless smear campaign" by the ruling Liberal party and the mainstream media.

The homeschooled teen ran as a “pro-life and pro-family politician, and the result was the highest vote percentage since at least the past five elections,” Fonseca told LifeSiteNews. He noted that Oosterhoff’s 54 percent of the popular vote was a 28 percent increase over Hudak’s 41.8 percent in 2014.

Oosterhoff had already stunned the PC Party establishment and political pundits when he beat long-time political veteran and PC Party president Rick Dykstra, Brown’s friend and chosen candidate, in the PC nomination race last month.

A member of the Canadian Reformed Church, and former political staffer, Oosterhoff promised during his campaign that he would “be a voice for common-sense, pro-family policies and concerns.” He also said he would “never waver in my support of parents as primary educators," and would "strive to ensure that parental rights are respected in education.”

'Socially conservative politicians can win elections by being unapologetic'

A runaway victory for a pro-life Progressive Conservative teen and a clear defeat for a socially liberal Tory in Thursday’s provincial byelections is a lesson for PC leader Patrick Brown, says Fonseca.

“What this teaches us is that socially conservative politicians can win elections by being unapologetic about their pro-life and pro-family beliefs,” he told LifeSiteNews.

This is especially true now when Ontario is being run by a provincial government that can only be described as 'far-left'! It's not time to slide left; it's time to stand up and say, 'that's enough!'

The “dramatic spike in PC fortunes achieved by Sam suggests that being a social conservative who can tap into ‘values voters’ might actually offer a significant political advantage,” Fonseca added.

“It also shows that opposing Kathleen Wynne’s radical sex curriculum was a winning strategy for Niagara West-Glanbrook,” he noted. “And believe me, the people of Niagara West-Glanbrook cast their ballots for the socially-conservative Sam, not for the liberal Patrick Brown.”

Wynne's sex-ed curriculum was called 'dangerous' by a US psychiatrist.

Liberals hold Ottawa-Vanier in 2nd byelection

But the Liberals held fast to their traditional stronghold of Ottawa-Vanier, where PC candidate Andre Marin badly trailed the victor, civil rights lawyer Nathalie Des Rosiers, at 30 percent to her 48 percent in a riding held by retiring Liberal MPP Madeleine Meilleur since 2003.

In that showing, PC leader Patrick Brown reaped the consequences for his notorious flip-flop over the Liberals’ controversial sex-ed curriculum, contended Fonseca, who compared this race with the September Scarborough-Rouge River byelection.

The PC’s Raymond Cho had earlier won that traditionally Liberal riding, but Fonseca asserts his success had a lot to do with the infamous letter the PC campaign circulated in the riding during the campaign — a letter signed by Brown that promised to “scrap the sex-ed.”

Brown later disavowed the letter, and has since publicly and consistently endorsed the Liberal sex-ed curriculum, but “it has to be recognized that in Scarborough Rouge River, Brown presented himself to voters as a social conservative who would repeal the unpopular sex curriculum,” Fonseca pointed out.

“That’s a stark contrast to Brown’s position going into Ottawa-Vanier, where he was the curriculum's number one fan,” he noted, adding: “I don’t think this difference should be ignored by analysts who are trying to figure out why the PCs got trounced in Round 2 of the rematch in Liberal-stronghold-land.”

“Too many Conservative politicians don’t understand the importance of standing on principle,” Fonseca observed. “Instead, they turn tail and run as soon as they feel the slightest pressure from liberals, and as a result, end up being seen as lacking integrity.”

That not only alienates the “natural so-con base of the Party,” who make up at least 40 percent of the Party’s natural base, says Fonseca, but also puts off the “mushy middle type of voter who doesn’t care about moral issues but wants to vote for the person who seems the most honest and principled.”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth de Viel Castel, candidate for the neophyte party Stop the New Sex-Ed Agenda, captured 400 votes in Ottawa-Vanier, coming in fifth in an 11-candidate field.

Indeed, the two anti-sex-ed candidates, de Viel Castel and Stephanie McEvoy of the Canadian Constituent’s Party, garnered 1.6 percent of the popular vote, noted Fonseca.

“In under three weeks, as an unknown Party running on a single issue, we gained 4.4 percent of the Progressive Conservative vote — all this without the machinery of a major political party behind us,” de Viel Castel told LifeSiteNews in an email.

“There is now greater public awareness of the serious problems with the new sex-ed curriculum,” added the mother of two, who formerly worked in communications and public relations. “We had a far reach into all regions of Ontario in the press as well as fantastic response on social media, reaching tens of thousands of people in the province.”

Queenie Yu, leader of the new party, echoed this. “For Elizabeth to get 400 votes for a party just starting out is impressive,” she stated in a press release. “Elizabeth did a great job and I am thrilled with how well she did at keeping the sex-ed issue in the news these past few weeks.”

A former PC Party staffer who worked as a fundraiser for the PC Ontario fund, Yu ran in Niagara West-Glanbrook to keep the sex-ed issue front and center, and also attributed Oosterhoff’s strong showing in that riding “to his well-publicized support for parental rights and strong pro-life position.”

Bill 28 - All Families are Equal

“Now that Sam has won, I hope he won’t let Patrick Brown silence him,” Yu stated, adding that the Liberal government’s controversial Bill 28 will soon be up for a final third reading vote.

Oosterhoff reportedly dodged questions during the campaign on whether he supported a repeal of the Liberal sex-ed curriculum and whether he would oppose Bill 28, but according to the Post, he stated there’s a “long-standing tradition within the PC party of allowing members to vote their conscience.”

Brown says the Tories support the Wynne government’s “All Parents are Equal” bill, which legally restructures the family, including substituting “parent” for “mother” and “father,” to accommodate homosexual couples who use IVF techniques to conceive children, according to the Star.

“Sam – please vote against Bill 28!” Yu stated. “The parents of Ontario are counting on you to stand up for them!”

Congratulations, Sam. People please pray for wisdom and godly guidance for this young man.

Up to 80 Islamists in Europe Readying for Attack & That Number Could Increase Dramatically

    FILE PHOTO: Masked Belgian police secure the entrance to a building in Schaerbeek during 
    police operations following Tuesday's bomb attacks in Brussels, Belgium, March 25, 2016. 
    © Christian Hartmann / Reuters

Between 60 and 80 Islamic State operatives in Europe are preparing to carry out attacks, a Dutch counter-terrorism official said, adding that the terror group is asking its militants to forgo traveling to Syria or Iraq and take the fight to Europe instead.

The would-be fighters get messages from the Islamic State group “asking them not to come to Syria and Iraq, but to prepare attacks in Europe,” Holland’s National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism Dick Schoof told AP.

The National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism (NCTV) is a unit responsible for crisis management, counter-terrorism, and cyber-security in the Netherlands.

While the number of “foreign terrorist fighters [from the EU]” hasn’t grown over the past six months this “does not mean that the potential threat of those who would have traveled is diminished,” Schoof warned.

Data from the NCTV says that between 4,000 and 5,000 European “foreign terrorist fighters” are currently in Iraq and Syria.

At present, extremists are very scattered due to an increase in anti-IS military operations in Iraq and Syria, Schoof said, adding that this could very possibly lead to an increase in the number of refugees posing a danger to the EU.

Indeed, by telling operatives to stay home, ISIS seems to be conceding the war in Iraq and Syria. Could it be possible that many Jihadists in those two countries will suddenly melt into the darkness and reappear in Europe? Is there any mechanism in place yet in the EU to stop them, or to even identify them? Should that happen, the threat increases exponentially.

“The chance of attack in the Netherlands is real,” added Schoof, while stressing “we have seen 294 terrorist fighters go overseas in Iraq and Syria and there are still 190 over there… And what happened in France and Brussels and Germany could happen to us.”

Schoof is not the first to note that Islamic State is now telling its fighters to stay at home and carry out attacks there. In October of this year, Belgian federal prosecutor spokesman Eric Van der Sypt said the same.

“Initially, Islamic State tried to recruit fighters [to] go to Iraq and Syria. [Now] IS is asking [them] to stay at home and sow death and destruction there,” he said.

Europe has recently been shaken by a series of violent attacks that have been carried out by militants from Islamic State. The biggest loss of life took place in November of 2015, when at least 130 people were killed in Paris.

In March, twin suicide bombings hit Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station in Brussels, killing 31 people and injuring dozens more. The station is near the buildings housing the EU Commission and the Council of the European Union, as well as NATO headquarters.

At least 84 people were left dead by the Nice tragedy in France on July 14 of this year, when a truck driven by an IS sympathizer plowed through crowds during Bastille Day celebrations.

Earlier this year, IS called upon its followers to carry out attacks on both civilian and military targets in the US and Europe during the Muslim Ramadan celebrations which began in early June. Numerous reports coming from EU intelligence services have been warning that the group is planning to carry out attacks on hospitals, schools, and luxury resorts in France, Italy, and Spain.