Category Archives: Fundamentalism

Anti-migrant party makes foreigners face of PR push – The Local

The populist party have made a name for themselves bashing migrants, whether they be Muslims, or Bulgarians and Romanians, who AfD claim move to Germany with the aim of living off its welfare system. The two models, Carla Caucean and Adi Ene, both come from Romania, one of the EU’s newest member states, reports jetzt.de. It appears that the AfD, too, never meant to make Eastern Europeans the face of its campaign. The images were downloaded from the stock image website iStock. When contacted by weekly magazine Kontext, the AfD in Baden-Württemberg said they had been given the pictures by a branch of the party in another part of Germany. Shortly afterwards the advert disappeared from their Facebook page. The AfD have something of a talent for shooting themselves in the foot.

Source: Anti-migrant party makes foreigners face of PR push – The Local

Tel Aviv mayor says the occupation is a cause of Palestinian terror | +972 Magazine

“On the one hand the occupation has lasted 49 years, and I took part in it,” Huldai told veteran journalist Ilana Dayan, “I recognize the reality and know that leaders with courage must look to take action and not just talk. The fact that we are suffering does not lead to a change in understanding of what must be done… There is no courage to do what needs to be done in order to reach a [peace] agreement.” “There is no way to hold people in a situation of occupation and think that they will reach the conclusion that every thing is okay and they will continue to live like that,” Huldai added.

Source: Tel Aviv mayor says the occupation is a cause of Palestinian terror | +972 Magazine

Video of the Day: 100 Years of Hijab as Political Defiance

It surprises me how in the most liberal of feminist American spaces, there remains incredible discomfort — if not outright bigotry and discrimination — towards women who choose to wear a headscarf. As a Muslim woman who does not wear a headscarf and is often read as racially (and religiously) ambiguous, I’ve been around far too many self-proclaimed liberals and feminists who feel comfortable indulging their racism around me—commenting on how Muslim women are oppressed, naive, brainwashed, being beaten by scary brown and black men, and/or suffering from intense mind control by choosing to cover their hair. Other times, parents of white friends (or white friends themselves) will connect my lack of a headscarf to progressivism, labeling me as a “good” Muslim woman who is politically sharp enough not to adorn the hijab.Well I do adorn hijab. Almost every day. I cover most of my legs, arms, and try to wear loose clothing. The Qur’an requires men and women to wear hijab—or dress modestly—but does not specify exactly what covering up looks like. Muslims are not a monolith (surprise!) and therefore differ on what modesty requires, meaning that there are a variety of practices in different cultures and countries: for some, including my family, hijab means a headscarf, for others like myself, it means wanting to wear a headscarf but not feeling safe enough to do so in their home country. For others it means a style of dress that includes a niqab (face covering), abaya (loose black gown), or none of the above.

Source: Video of the Day: 100 Years of Hijab as Political Defiance

Quote of the Day: “You’re a Bigot, Lady”

The witness, University of San Diego law professor Gail Heriot, lambasted the recent Departments of Justice and Education guidance on transgender students’ rights, declaring that “[i]f someone had said in 1972 that one day Title IX would be interpreted to force schools to allow anatomically intact boys who psychologically ‘identify’ as girls to use the girls’ locker room, he would have been greeted with hoots of laughter.” Heriot went on to dismiss trans students’ gender identities as “a fantasy,” asserting that, “I [am not] a great-horned owl just because, as I have been told, I happen to share some personality traits with those feathered creatures.”

Lofgren wasn’t having any of it. She condemned Heriot’s transphobia, noted the disproportionately high rates of violence and discrimination that trans students suffer, and declared her objection that Heriot’s hateful comments — many of which, by the way, are legally suspect in addition to unethical and bigoted — were ever entered into the record to begin with. Then, over the objections of Republican Chairman King — who demanded “civil” language from Lofgren but (of course) not from Heriot — Lofgren declared: I think you’re a bigot lady. I think you’re an ignorant bigot. Mic drop.

Source: Quote of the Day: “You’re a Bigot, Lady”

Duterte vows to kill criminals and reintroduce hanging in Philippines | World news | The Guardian

“What I will do is urge Congress to restore (the) death penalty by hanging,” Duterte, 71, told a press conference in Davao on Sunday. He also said he would give security forces “shoot-to-kill” orders against organised criminals or those who violently resisted arrest. “If you resist, show violent resistance, my order to police (will be) to shoot to kill. Shoot to kill for organised crime. You heard that? Shoot to kill for every organised crime,” he said. He said military sharp shooters would be enlisted in his campaign to kill criminals. Duterte also vowed to introduce a 2am curfew on drinking in public places, and ban children from walking on the streets alone late at night. If children were picked up on the streets, their parents would be arrested and thrown into jail for “abandonment”, he said. Duterte said he wanted capital punishment – which was abolished in 2006 under then-president Gloria Arroyo – to be reintroduced for a wide range of crimes, particularly drugs, but also rape, murder and robbery. He added he preferred death by hanging to a firing squad because he did not want to waste bullets, and because he believed snapping the spine with a noose was more humane. Advertisement The centrepiece of Duterte’s stunningly successful election campaign strategy was a pledge to end crime within three to six months of being elected. Duterte vowed during the campaign to kill tens of thousands criminals, outraging his critics but hypnotising tens of millions of Filipinos fed up with rampant crime and graft. On one occasion he said 100,000 people would die, and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish would grow fat from feeding on them. He complained on Sunday that people no longer feared the law, and he would change that. “We have a society now where obedience to the law is really a choice, an option only,” he said. “Do not destroy my country because I will kill you. I will kill you. No middle ground. As long as the requirements of the law are there, if you try to evade arrest, refuse arrest… and you put up a good fight or resist violently, I will say: ‘Kill them’.”

Source: Duterte vows to kill criminals and reintroduce hanging in Philippines | World news | The Guardian

Sectarianism & Islamophobia: Jounieh Wants To Become The “Christian Capital” of Lebanon | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

In the face of such disgusting slogans, I invite this blog’s followers who vote in Jounieh to refuse such hateful, xenophobic notions and to vote for the list opposing “Karamet Jounieh” on Sunday, which is the list calling itself “Jounieh El Tajaddod.”At a time when Christians in Beirut refused to be treated with the hateful, segregating rhetoric that Karamet Jounieh is giving its people in Jounieh by voting for Beirut Madinati, the last thing we need in this country is for such divisive talk to be center stage in any elections. Less fear and hate, more tolerance.

Source: Sectarianism & Islamophobia: Jounieh Wants To Become The “Christian Capital” of Lebanon | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Most Israeli Jews think there’s no occupation. So what is it? | +972 Magazine

If “occupation” is the wrong word to describe a reality in which Palestinians can, with no power to object, be kicked out of their homes for a few hours or a few days at a time so that the Israeli army can come and play war games in their backyards — what is the correct word? How do you classify a regime that considers a gathering of 10 or more people to be an “illegal assembly,” and which responds by arresting, beating or shooting the participants? Or how about a daily existence in which every entry and exit requires military approval and is scrutinized, logged and tracked unfailingly? And when that military authority can take away freedom of movement as a means of collective punishment — what is that called? In a manner of speaking, you can call this state of affairs anything you like: an occupation by any other name would still be as unjust. But that is precisely the point behind this poll finding — the denial and argument here is not, despite what it may seem, over semantics. At the heart of the matter is whether one believes that Israel’s military rule over 2.8 million Palestinians in the West Bank, and its siege on 1.8 million Gazans, are just or not. So where do you stand?

Source: Most Israeli Jews think there’s no occupation. So what is it? | +972 Magazine

One Of Trump\’s California Delegates Is The Leader Of A White Nationalist Party

“Donald Trump is the candidate that will Make America Hate Again.”

Source: One Of Trump\’s California Delegates Is The Leader Of A White Nationalist Party

“I just hope to show how I can be mainstream and have these views,” Johnson told Mother Jones. “I can be a white nationalist and be a strong supporter of Donald Trump and be a good example to everybody.” He also said that when applying to be a delegate, he did not use the phrase “white nationalist” but did disclose his background and activism.

According to their website, the American Freedom Party’s platform calls for white Americans to “push back” and says the party “shares the customs and heritage of the European American people.” The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the AFP to be a hate group and says it was “initially established by racist Southern California skinheads [and] aims to deport immigrants and return the United States to white rule.” The SPLC is a little less generous to Johnson, calling him “an uninspiring but determined white supremacist.”

Obama’s Take on Revolution

Democracy requires compromise, even when you are 100% right. This is hard to explain sometimes. You can be completely right and you still have to engage folks who disagree with you. If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral security, but you will not get what you want.

Source: Obama’s Critique of Sanders

Thousands of pro-EU, pro-democracy demonstrators march on Warsaw | News | DW.COM | 07.05.2016

Around 240,000 people marched through Warsaw on Saturday, the same day a smaller, pro-government rally took place. The rally of nearly a quarter of a million people gathered in the Polish capital to express support for both democracy and the EU, as the country’s right-wing government, headed by the Law and Justice Party (PiS), continues to draw criticism for suppressing opposition and alienating Brussels. People march during an anti-government demonstration organized by the main opposition parties in Warsaw “We are here because we believe in Polish law, Polish freedom and common action in the EU,” ex-President Bronislaw Komorowski told demonstrators.

Source: Thousands of pro-EU, pro-democracy demonstrators march on Warsaw | News | DW.COM | 07.05.2016