Category Archives: terrorism

Dear America: Here’s Your Gun Solution — Human Parts — Medium

Here’s some common sense for you. I want gun ownership to be as boring and annoying as car ownership. I want you to go to some Department of Weapons and sit for hours. I want folks who own guns to prove their skill, their mental and physical health, and to be licensed and reviewed over the years just as happens with our driver’s licenses. You earn the right to own and drive a vehicle; earn the right to own and use a gun.Quibble with me over semantics if you want to; what is a “right” vs. what is a “privilege.” I’ll be busy with my friends and colleagues trying to prevent more unnecessary deaths.Gun ownership isn’t some inalienable right granted by God. Remember, the Constitution was written by men coming out of a long and bloody war near the end of the 18th century. It was written for their time.It also included the “right” to own a human being.Things change.Folks evolve.

Source: Dear America: Here’s Your Gun Solution — Human Parts — Medium

Islamic State Uses Satellite Internet To Spread Message – SPIEGEL ONLINE

The answer to this question is an extremely problematic one for Europe, for it is European companies that provide the terrorists with access to the platforms they use to spread their propaganda. It remains unclear whether the companies knowingly do so, but documents obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE show that they may very well know what’s going on. And the documents show that the companies could immediately cut off Islamic State’s Internet access without much effort.If you need to get online in Syria or Iraq, the technology needed to do so can be purchased in the Hatay province — a corner of Turkey located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Syrian border. In the bazaar quarter of the regional capital of Antakya, peddlers hawk everything from brooms and spices to pomegranates, wedding dresses, ovens, beds and all kinds of electronics. Antakya has served as a crossroads for numerous trade routes for thousands of years. Wares continue to flow through the region’s relatively porous borders even today.Thousands of dishes have been installed in the region allowing users to access the Internet by satellite. There has been a huge surge in recent years in the satellite Internet business. Instead of the usual landline cable connection, all one needs is a satellite dish with a transmission and reception antenna and a modem. The result is top-speed Internet access, with downloads at a rate of 22 Megabits per second and uploads of 6 Megabits.

Source: Islamic State Uses Satellite Internet To Spread Message – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Robert Reich: Fueling the Fire – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

Perpetrators of hate crimes often take their cues from what they hear in the media.

But this doesn’t absolve politicians who have been fueling such hatefulness.Perpetrators of hate crimes often take their cues from what they hear in the media. And the recent inclination of some politicians to use inflammatory rhetoric is contributing to a climate of hate and fear.Carly Fiorina continues to allege, for example, that Planned Parenthood is selling body parts of fetuses.Although the claim has been proven baseless, it’s been repeated not only by Fiorina but also by other candidates. Mike Huckabee calls it “sickening” that “we give these butchers money to harvest human organs.”Even in the wake of Friday’s Colorado shootings, Donald Trump referred to videos “with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you’re selling parts to a car.”Some candidates are also fomenting animus toward Muslims.Huckabee says he’d “like for Barack Obama to resign if he’s not going to protect America and instead protect the image of Islam.”And Trump not only fails to condemn violence he provokes but finds excuses for it.Ben Carson says allowing Syrian refugees into the United States is analogous to exposing a neighborhood to a “rabid dog.” Last September Carson said he “would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.”Since the attacks that killed 130 people in Paris earlier this month, Trump has advocated registering all Muslims in the United States and putting American mosques under surveillance.

Source: Robert Reich: Fueling the Fire – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

The other mass shooting that happened today in the United States – The Washington Post

Suddenly, the little-noticed crime in Georgia became the second mass shooting in a single day — and at least the third since Robert L. Dear Jr. opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic last week in Colorado springs.

Source: The other mass shooting that happened today in the United States – The Washington Post

During Planned Parenthood Shooting, Fear and Chaos at Shopping Center – The New York Times

After arrest: “People poured out. Among them was Ms. Schilter, the woman at the grocery store. Her boyfriend, Jackson Ricker, 18, placed his arms around her waist and his chin on her shoulder and noted that Ms. Schilter had witnessed a different shooting a few weeks earlier when a heavily armed man shot and killed a bicyclist and two women in the downtown. “The first time she cried,” said Mr. Ricker, looking at his dry-eyed girlfriend. “She’s a veteran now.”

Source: During Planned Parenthood Shooting, Fear and Chaos at Shopping Center – The New York Times

Behind migrant protests, children live in limbo at Macedonia′s border | Europe | DW.COM | 27.11.2015

“The things some of these kids draw, they’re awful,” said Iro Kofokotsios, 18. “People with guns, war, torture.” Kofkotsios had come with a group of volunteers from the YMCA to the Greek border with Macedonia “We couldn’t bring them shelter or food,” she continued, “but we thought maybe we could bring them smiles.”Here at the refugee camp near the town of Idomeni, Greece, smiles are hard to come by. After the Macedonian government announced last week that it would only allow migrants from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq to cross its border, thousands here have been left behind. It’s led to daily protests, with the border at times being closed altogether. On Monday, a group of Iranian men sewed their lips together in desperation.But behind the crowds of angry, screaming men confronting the Greek riot police, in the camp set up by aid agencies, there are an estimated 70 children who are also stranded in this dusty no man’s land. Most are Iranian or Pakistani, with some from Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh and other countries. Many have come with their parents, others have come alone. But with the border now closed to these nationalities, all of them are stuck in refugee limbo.

Source: Behind migrant protests, children live in limbo at Macedonia′s border | Europe | DW.COM | 27.11.2015

From Indonesia, a Muslim Challenge to the Ideology of the Islamic State – The New York Times

“The spread of a shallow understanding of Islam renders this situation critical, as highly vocal elements within the Muslim population at large — extremist groups — justify their harsh and often savage behavior by claiming to act in accord with God’s commands, although they are grievously mistaken,” said A. Mustofa Bisri, the spiritual leader of the group, Nahdlatul Ulama, an Indonesian Muslim organization that claims more than 50 million members.“According to the Sunni view of Islam,” he said, “every aspect and expression of religion should be imbued with love and compassion, and foster the perfection of human nature.”This message of tolerance is at the heart of the group’s campaign against jihadism, which will be carried out online, and in hotel conference rooms and convention centers from North America to Europe to Asia. The film was released Thursday at the start of a three-day congress by the organization’s youth wing in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta.

Source: From Indonesia, a Muslim Challenge to the Ideology of the Islamic State – The New York Times

Godfather of terror: Saudi Arabia and ′IS′ | World | DW.COM | 25.11.2015

Saudi Arabia exports its version of Sunni Islam with the utmost consequence. In the last 25 years a former US ambassador estimated in a published study in 2007 that the kingdom had invested at least 87 billion dollars in religious propaganda worldwide. This sum, he thinks, may even have increased further due to the high price of oil over an extended period. The funds went towards the construction of mosques, Madrassa Koran schools and religious institutions, and helped finance the training of Imams, publishing houses and Wahhabi text books.A large part of the funds go to economically weak, but populous Islamic countries in south and southeast Asia, such as Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, or Malaysia. Proselytizing for Wahhabism is also done in parts of Africa. For many people in these parts of the world it is the only possibility of getting a school education. There they learn how to read and write and are also given access to the Wahhabi teachings. But there are also Saudi Arabian financed institutions in the West.

Source: Godfather of terror: Saudi Arabia and ′IS′ | World | DW.COM | 25.11.2015

Cameron calls for UK to join airstrikes in Syria | News | DW.COM | 23.11.2015 AKA: Cameron lusts for bloodsport to show manliness?

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that he would address parliament on Thursday to urge MPs to back strikes against the self-styled “Islamic State” (IS) militants in Syria.”On Thursday I will come to this house to make a statement” on the air campaign, Cameron said, having flown back to London from an earlier meeting with President Francois Hollande in Paris.The announcement came as the British government pledged an increase in the country’s military spending.Writing in Monday’s “Daily Telegraph” newspaper, the prime minister said: “As the murders on the streets of Paris reminded us so starkly, Islamic State is not some remote problem thousands of miles away; it is a direct threat to our security.”

Source: Cameron calls for UK to join airstrikes in Syria | News | DW.COM | 23.11.2015

Shabbat morning in Hebron | “And you shall teach this to your children”

The soldiers are bad here, but the settlers are worse. There is a Jewish woman who is notorious for trying to run over internationals and Palestinians with her car and a Jewish man who pretends to be a paramedic. He drives an ambulance but has no medical training or skills and arrives at scenes of injury to Palestinians for the purpose of impeding real medical assistance and causing further harm.While here, I have come to associate tzizit, kippah, and the star of David as synonymous with rifles, machine guns; harassment and/or impending injury. I have somewhat adjusted to this association, but this Shabbat morning it is more difficult. I find a part of myself wanting to forget that the soldiers and Jewish settlers call me a whore and traitor. I find myself wanting to follow the tallit wearing youth down the hill, wanting to hear the morning prayers. Quietly, under my breath I say the Sh’ma and feel tears well up in my eyes. I wonder what has become, and what will become, of Judaism?

Source: Shabbat morning in Hebron | “And you shall teach this to your children”