Category Archives: Global Politics

For God and country: more U.S. pastors seek political office in 2016 | Reuters {American Taliban on the march under cover of Christianity – next – revive and create new inquisition – when will they come for you?}

Since 2012, about 900 preachers from evangelical fundamentalist churches across the United States have made recordings of politically infused sermons and sent them to the IRS. The federal tax agency, which declined to comment, has yet to take any action.Lane and his network of pastors say they are well within their rights to bring politics into the church. “The founding fathers never meant for the church not to participate in government,” said Lane. “They meant for the government not to interfere with the church.

Source: For God and country: more U.S. pastors seek political office in 2016 | Reuters

Paris attacker was French army reject | Reuters

DNA matching followed, and the profile of yet another radicalized young man, from yet another part of France, emerged this week, joining other home-grown French and Belgian jihadis already identified as the killers of 130 victims at the Bataclan concert hall and elsewhere in Paris.Mohamed-Aggad had set off for Syria in 2013, and while his departure was no secret in his small home town of Wissembourg in northeastern France, some who knew him were shocked to learn of his role in the Paris killings.”I can’t believe it was him,” said Yazar Mesut, a 46-year-old neighbor told Reuters in one of the town’s bars. “He was intelligent and polite, knew what respect was about and didn’t act like a big shot.”According to another neighbor, who gave his name as Youssef, the young man failed the police entrance exam by just a few marks, and was also turned down by the army.”That’s the only time I saw him disappointed. He was complaining. He reckoned it was because of his foreign origins,” said Youssef.

Source: Paris attacker was French army reject | Reuters

Global Terrorism Index: The map that shows where 42 different militant groups have pledged support to ISIS – Times of India

Boko Haram, which was the deadliest terrorist group of 2014 and this year pledged its allegiance to ISIS, while engaging heavily with the group through “military training, funding channels and social media”.The five most deadly terrorist groups – Boko Haram, ISIS the Taliban, the Fulani militants and al-Shabaab – were found to be responsible for the 74 per cent of all terrorist deaths in 2014, killing a total of 18,444 people collectively.

Source: Global Terrorism Index: The map that shows where 42 different militant groups have pledged support to ISIS – Times of India

Donald Trump: Calls to ban US presidential hopeful from the UK over ‘hate speech’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A petition to bar Mr Trump from Britain reached more than 300,000 signatures amid an outcry over the comments and will be considered for a debate in parliament, as are all petitions with more than 100,000 signatures.”The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the UK,” the petition said.London mayor Boris Johnson called Mr Trump’s comments “complete and utter nonsense”.”I think he’s betraying a quite stupefying ignorance that makes him frankly unfit to hold the office of president of the United States,” he added.”Crime has been falling steadily both in London and in New York – the only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.”

Source: Donald Trump: Calls to ban US presidential hopeful from the UK over ‘hate speech’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Bay Area Muslims Suprisingly Resistant To Fascist Proposals: SFist

Michael Kim, age 46, of Lafayette, is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and for seven years served as an active duty naval officer “How is it possible that this country I love, that I’m a community member of, a nation I defend, is turning its back on me so harshly?” he said35-year-old emergency room physician Asad Tarsin who lives in Dublin, said “I feel we are at a crossroads at a nation. I think that with crossroads there’s a degree of concern if we as a country are going to make the right decisions.”Somehow, bless her, Tarsin has found a way to be hopeful and generous. “I think I have more faith in my fellow Americans than I do a segment of the population that’s been duped by a rhetoric of fear.”Now that’s a faith to which we should all subscribe.

Source: Bay Area Muslims Suprisingly Resistant To Fascist Proposals: SFist

Trump attended fundraiser for Sinn Féin before London terror attack | US news | The Guardian

Donald Trump attended a Sinn Féin fundraising dinner in New York just months before the party’s allies in the Provisional IRA ended its ceasefire with a massive terror attack in London’s Canary Wharf district.As controversy rages over the Republican presidential candidate’s demand that Muslims be barred from the United States to prevent Islamist terror attacks, footage has emerged of the tycoon shaking hands with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.

Source: Trump attended fundraiser for Sinn Féin before London terror attack | US news | The Guardian

Russia trying to carry out ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Syria’s Latakia: Turkish PM | Reuters {And Turkey knows about ethnic cleansing and genocide – Turkish Armenian Genocide!}

Russia is trying to carry out “ethnic cleansing” in Syria’s northern Latakia province, forcing its Turkmen and Sunni population out to create a safe haven and protect Russian and Syrian bases, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.”Russia is trying to make ethnic cleansing in northern Latakia to force all Turkmen and Sunni population who do not have good relations with the regime, they want to expel them, they want to ethnically cleanse this area so that regime and Russian bases in Latakia and Tartus are protected,” he told members of the foreign media in Istanbul on Wednesday.

Source: Russia trying to carry out ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Syria’s Latakia: Turkish PM | Reuters

Dear Donald Trump, Meet My Very Scary Muslim Friends | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

I honestly and from the deepest parts of my heart wish on you, Mr. Trump, never to be subjected to what these people had to go through: I hope you never know what it is to see your loved ones die in front of you. I hope you never know what it is to see your home destroyed as you drive away from it. I hope you never know what it is to be stuck in limbo, not knowing how to move on with your life or what to do. I hope you never have your worth as a human be valued by how much you can contribute to a society. I hope you never have to be labeled as a terrorist until proven otherwise when you are ALWAYS a perpetual victim. I hope you never have to deal with the likes of you.These are the more than a billion Muslim in the world, Mr. Trump, who live in hellish conditions, whose lives are always contingent upon powers higher up doing whatever they please with their homes simply because they exist on profitable lands, and whose worth as human beings is always dependent on the net price of the oil barrel.These are the more than a billion Muslim in the world who scare you but are incapable of doing any harm to you, while you get people to hate them, to draw weapons at them for simply existing, for believing that they are worthless.

Except you are not a hater of all Muslims, isn’t that right? Or is it that you only love those rich Muslims who build golf courses in your name and whose name you can use to say that you have “some Muslims who agree with you” akin to those people who have “gay friends” who agree with them that gay marriage is an abomination.

Isn’t that you with Hussain Sajwani, head of Dubai’s DAMAC group?

Entertain me for a moment, Mr. Trump, and answer this: How is it that you will screen for Muslims entering your beloved country on its path to greatness? Is there a Muslim gene you isolated? Will you get them to recite Quran verses? Where would that place me, a non-Muslim, who knows quite a few of Quran verses? Do you need me to recite them now or would that scare you?What you’re saying Donald Trump is not scary. Let me call it what it is, because most American journalists are somehow still shying away from using the word with you: it’s disgusting, revolting, bigoted, racist, Nazi-like and inhumane. Is your middle name Adolf? If not, I suggest you change it to that because the last time someone had such a message broadcast in such a way was post-WWI in Germany and we all know how that turned out to be.

Source: Dear Donald Trump, Meet My Very Scary Muslim Friends | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Donald Trump shows hate speech is now out and proud in the mainstream | Comment is free | The Guardian

Those who saw him only as an entertainer kept waiting for his Republican audience to get the joke and move on to more plausible candidates. But on Monday, after he called for Muslims to be prevented from entering the US, his presence had become so toxic, even his most dismissive detractors could ignore him no more.To cheers from the faithful, Trump read out a statement referring to himself in the third person: “Donald J Trump is calling for a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”Americans are used to such venom dripping from the lips of talk radio hosts and the occasional Fox News anchor. But to be uttered by the frontrunner for the nomination of one of the two main parties was more than many had bargained for. What once had been considered hate speech confined to the margins of political life is now out and proud in the mainstream. “Probably not politically correct,” Trump said afterwards. “But I don’t care”.

This is a large part of his appeal. He articulates the frustration and bewilderment of that section of uneducated, unskilled, low-paid white America, whose wages have stagnated and social mobility has stalled that is nostalgic for its local privileges and global status. In recent times, they have lost wars, jobs, houses and confidence.So when he brands Mexicans “rapists”, Chinese “cheats” and all Muslims potential threats he gives free rein to their insecurities about an increasingly cosmopolitan and less predictable world they feel they have been excluded from.To that extent, his base is not too different from that of the Front National, which just triumphed in the French regional elections, Ukip or any of the range of far-right parties currently making headway in Europe.

Source: Donald Trump shows hate speech is now out and proud in the mainstream | Comment is free | The Guardian