Month: May 2022

The misogynist imam of Saint-Chamond, who was expelled from France, was interviewed by a media outlet in Comoros: “I have nothing to regret and nothing to apologise for as long as I have spoken the word of Allah. If I repent, I am no longer a Muslim”.

“I don’t have to apologise for the moment I spoke the word of Allah. […] Our sisters live a nightmarish life. […] and we call it a land of freedom”.
Comorian Imam Ahamada Mmadi recounts the circumstances that led to him and his family being expelled from France on Monday May 02 for quoting a verse about women in his sermon at the Saint-Chamond mosque in the Loire department.

https://www.fdesouche.com/2022/05/10/propos-misogynes-diffuses-par-la-mosquee-de-saint-chamond-42-pour-la-fete-du-laid-vous-femmes-musulmanes-tachez-dobeir-au-doigt-de-vos-maris-restez-dans-vos-foyers-et-ne-vous-exhibez/

🔴 Une source policière indique à @Valeurs, que le dimanche 8 mai dernier, un clandestin algérien de 47 ans dénommé Keddam R., est entré dans la #cathédrale de Metz où il a crié «Allah est grand». Les policiers, qui l'ont interpellé, ont trouvé sur lui un couteau en céramique 🔪 pic.twitter.com/wrh3stXLHE

— Amaury Bucco (@AmauryBucco) May 10, 2022

https://www.fdesouche.com/2022/05/10/metz-un-migrant-clandestin-en-possession-dun-couteau-entre-dans-la-cathedrale-en-criant-allah-est-grand/

The Federal Agency for Civic Education (BpB) recently drew attention to itself with a questionable post on the social media platform “Instagram”. In a short video sequence, two women wearing headscarves talk about the topic of feminism, among other things. One of them is Kübra Layik, who works as a journalist for the Islamic magazine “IslamIQ” and in her articles published there regularly gets worked up about the “anti-Muslim racism” allegedly rampant in Germany. In the video, the two headscarf wearers refer to Islam as “feminist” and declare that being a Muslim and a feminist go “hand in hand” for them. They also describe feminism in Germany as “very white and very privileged” and criticise it for not being accessible to other people.

Joachim Paul, member of the federal executive committee of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) , states:

“Two women appear in a taxpayer-funded forum of the Federal Agency for Civic Education and declare that Islam is per se feminist. More appropriate than this farce would be a critical reflection of the religious bullying that forces young women and girls to veil themselves – in very many cases against their will. The obvious contradiction between these conditions, which stem from the misogynist tradition of fundamentalist Islam, and the attitude displayed here should be palpable to many ordinary citizens. They might equally wonder why their tax money is being politically misused by the Federal Agency for Civic Education for Islamist narratives.The accusation that feminism is ‘too white and too privileged’ is downright cynical, considering that Muslim activists in particular are often enough the ones who brand any criticism of fundamentalist Islam and its structures as ‘racist’ and like to cover up grievances in Islamic milieus with a cloak of silence for ideological reasons. In this way, they share responsibility for the structural oppression of women who do not want to live as the men in their milieus pretend to do.

https://www.presseportal.de/pm/110332/5217566

According to the Munich Federal Police, the German Rail emergency control centre informed the police at around 11 pm. Several patrols from the federal and state police then drove to the scene. According to initial investigations, a 41-year-old German woman from Gilching had boarded suburban train S8 at the station in Herrsching, where she was “abruptly surrounded, harassed and beaten” by a group of people, a police spokeswoman said.

“When her partner, a 55-year-old German, came to the scene to rescue her, a 21-year-old allegedly hit him on the head with a bottle. The driver of the suburban train, a 43-year-old Macedonian, noticed the incident and rushed to the aid of the attacked.” The 21-year-old also attacked him, hitting him in the head with his fist. The couple then left the suburban train, but were pursued by the aggressor. He allegedly continued to hit and kick them.

The police managed to arrest a 21-year-old Somali man on the spot. The other persons in the group, however, had managed to flee before the police arrived. “They could not be detected in the course of search measures,” the police spokeswoman said. “It is currently assumed that the other persons were not involved in the offences.”

The 21-year-old was heavily intoxicated. According to the federal police, a test showed a breath alcohol concentration of around 2.4 per mille. The man has no permanent residence in Germany. He was to be brought before a magistrate on Sunday.

“The assailants suffered injuries due to the blows and suffered lacerations and haematomas,” the police spokeswoman added. They were first treated by the emergency services and then taken to different hospitals for further treatment. All three were able to leave the hospital in the meantime.

The federal police have started an investigation against the 21-year-old for dangerous bodily harm. Video recordings from the suburban train are now being analysed to reconstruct the crime.

https://www.tz.de/muenchen/region/mkr-s-bahn-angriff-herrsching-videos-zeugen-91530864.html

With 97 million euros per year, Big Tech is the largest lobbying sector in the EU. With the sector’s increasing financial power, its political influence has increased.

The largest technology companies (Big Tech) have recently spent more than 97 million euros per year lobbying the institutions of the EU to steer new legal regulations in their favour. According to the Corporate Europe Observatory(CEO), an organization that studies lobbying in the EU, the digital giants are the sector with the most lobbying spending, ahead of big pharma, the oil industry, finance (12 million euros), the chemical industry (17,75 million euros) or the automotive industry (9,85 million euros).

According to the CEO, while over 600 organizations are lobbying the EU on the subject of digital economic policy, it is dominated by just a few corporations: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Huawei, Amazon, IBM, Intel, Qualcomm, Vodafone. These companies represent 31 percent of the expenditure (32 out of 97 million euros). Other significant lobbying contributions are made by companies in the digital platform economy: the budgets of Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Spotify, Alibaba and eBay are between 600 000 and 900 000 euros.

The top lobbyists work behind the scenes

The high spending gives Big Tech firms privileged access to policy makers. Their representatives held 271 meetings with high officials of the EU administration, namely the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the EU Council. Lobbying is also often done indirectly, for example via think tanks (e.g. the European Center for International Political Economy, which is funded by Google), consulting and PR firms (e.g. FleishmanHillard), law firms, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), industry associations or academic institutions .

According to the CEO, lobbyists from the six largest tech platforms and IT infrastructure companies have met with the EU Commission since December 2019. Google met 46 times, Facebook and Microsoft 40 times each, Amazon 20 times and Apple and Huawei 14 times each. That works out to 174 contacts for the top group alone, or over three contacts per week.

The danger of lobbyists

The dangers that emanate from this are broad: Combating a narrow definition of “misinformation”, censorship on the Internet, general surveillance of the population and monopoly efforts undermine democratic principles, are sad examples of too much influence wielded by these corporations.

Another example is Big Tech’s lobbying campaign to prevent restrictions on its invasive, profitable advertising surveillance model, a core business of digital companies like Google and Facebook.

In this model, data traces of Internet users are recorded and profiles are created, which can then be used in a targeted manner – from car advertising to the manipulation of voters’ preferences. The Harvard economist Shoshana Zuboff criticized this model for systematically violating the private sphere of citizens without their knowledge and for being based on a monopoly.

Zuboff’s work is the source of many original concepts including “surveillance capitalism”, “instrumentarian power”, “the means of behavior modification”, “information civilization”, the “individualization of consumption” and “the coup from above”.

Many issues that plague contemporary society including the assault on privacy and the so-called “privacy paradox”, behavioral targeting, fake news, ubiquitous tracking, legislative and regulatory failure, algorithmic governance, social media addiction, abrogation of human rights, democratic destabilization, and more are reinterpreted and explained through the lens of surveillance capitalism’s economic and social imperatives.

Big Tech has intensified lobbying

Over the past decade, Big Tech has steadily increased its influence, replacing previously dominant lobbying sectors such as finance and big pharma, according to CEO. In 2013, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon spent 7,3 million euros (a third of today’s amount). With the exception of Microsoft, the budgets were all under one million euros.

In a year-on-year comparison from 2021 to 2020, some of the largest technology companies have increased their lobbying budgets in connection with recent negotiations on legal provisions (Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act) affecting the technology and digital sector, most notably Apple.

According to the CEO, Apple ‘s main concern was to fight regulatory measures that could loosen its control over the App Store or Apple’s mobile operating system. For this, the big tech group hired the Atlantic Council think tank, which invited EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders to an unofficial dinner with Apple. The whole thing happened in September 2021, when the EU Parliament and the EU Council were still discussing their positions on the Digital Markets Act.

Critics of the legislation have said it could break encryption for messaging, making products less useful for users, and it provides little clarity on how companies should be regulated. The final text will drastically affect consumers across the globe. Despite this, the discussions among the entities concerned took place behind closed doors.

“A new set of lobby documents released by the European Commission and Swedish Government via freedom of information requests, shows intense corporate lobbying to shape the final stage EU discussions of new tech rule,” the CEO warned. The lobbyists have tried to limit surveillance ads and expand external scrutiny of how the platforms’ systems amplify or demote content.

The International Center for Law and Economics is worried that the DMA “appears to blur the line between regulation and antitrust by mixing their respective features and goals”.

https://freewestmedia.com/2022/05/09/big-tech-the-top-lobbyists-in-the-eu/

“Environmental protection is a feel-good topic to hide hard-nosed ideology,” wrote Marco Gallina in his editorial for German independent news portal Tichys Einblick. He was referring to the latest chapter in Germany’s tragicomic energy policy, in which the construction of the new liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Wilhelmshaven was delayed due to the discovery of underwater biotopes in the area that are porpoise feeding grounds. According to environmental groups, the LNG terminal would endanger the marine mammals and therefore should not be built at all.

It appears the Greens are handing in their bill to the Social Democrat (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) for allowing their party to join the coalition government, and it will be left to Economic Minister Robert Habeck, also a member of the Green Party, to settle the outstanding balance for their fantasyland energy utopia. The green-energy transition the Greens have championed during the years of Angela Merkel’s government is already wreaking havoc, not only with the country’s energy security and industry, but also counterintuitively resulting in massive environmental damage.

A classic example of one of Germany’s climate activism-inspired disaster projects is the solar park in Hohensaaten in Brandenburg, where 370 hectares of forest were sacrificed on the altar of “eco-electricity.” A recent study in Spain also found that the country’s 18,000 wind turbines are killing 6-18 million birds and bats annually. Based on these figures, we can surmise how much wildlife has been sacrificed by Germany’s 29,000 onshore wind turbines. Other articles have pointed out that while wind turbines may be good for the climate, their effect on bird, bat and insect populations means they are doing tremendous harm to nature.

Now, the invasion of Ukraine has completely blindsided the German government, creating the perfect storm for the country’s energy policy. Not only must energy producers conform to strict environmental criteria, but they must also ensure they are not feeding into Russia’s war effort. Coal and lignite are out, nuclear is out and by the end of this year, Russian gas and oil are out, with the Nord Stream II gas pipeline literally dead in the water. Germany has found itself in a situation where its energy security must be balanced against the welfare of porpoises on the one hand, and the collapse of the country’s economy on the other.

The German Environmental Aid (DUH) has lodged an objection to the decision of the State Office for Water Management, Coastal Protection and Nature Conservation (NLWKN) with the aim of freezing the LNG terminal construction, which was supposed to start this week. The DUH took the view that the principles of the rule of law must be upheld even in times of crisis, and this also applies to climate and environmental protection. Yet, this will put the Greens into an impossible positions, as not only have they contributed to the destruction of German energy security more than perhaps any other party, but are also the most militant political force in the country when it comes to arming Ukraine and punishing Putin’s Russia. The LNG terminal was meant to wean Germany off its dependence on Russian gas, but its environmental cost again reveals the Green’s headline-grabbing hypocritical gesture-politics.

Minister Habeck had no choice but to warn against the lawsuit brought by the environmental group, saying, “If we don’t have the LNG terminals and if the gas doesn’t come from Russia, the security of supplies in Germany is not guaranteed.”

In other words, the Green’s joint leader is claiming that you are either on the LNG terminal’s side, or on the side of the porpoises, and inadvertently, also on Putin’s side. To exonerate the unsuspecting porpoises of any guilt though, in the type of emotional statement that is increasingly becoming the norm in German politics, Habeck confessed in cringe-worthy interview that he is “the biggest porpoise fan in the federal government. I love porpoises, I come from the coast.”

Nevertheless, the desperation tangible in Habeck’s words is a reflection of a radical party’s rise into power, one that was most comfortable churning out unrealistic populistic proposals as part of the opposition. Now, it seems they will have to pick up the pieces of Germany’s national energy security policy that they have so successfully undermined for years, and reconcile it with their uncompromising stance on pursuing tough sanctions against Russia. German political ineptitude of the last decades that some observers have described as having no adverse electoral consequences, could arrive to haunt German citizens in the shape of industrial and economic woes unknown to most of them for generations.

https://rmx.news/germany/germanys-tragicomic-energy-policy-green-party-tries-to-block-us-natural-gas-to-protect-porpoises/

“Heroes of Islam”: Five young men are under investigation for advocating the beheading of “infidels”.
“All of these individuals are allegedly linked to the radical party Tehreeke-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) with the aim of upholding the blasphemy law in Pakistan,” explains the Audiencia Nacional.

The beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty outside his school in October 2020 shocked the whole world. Police shot dead his killer, Chechen-born refugee Abdouallakh Anzorov, the same day, but the attack soon found its echo in the jihadist networks of various countries. In the case of Spain, the Audiencia Nacional is investigating five young men believed to belong to the radical Tehreeke-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party founded by Pakistani fundamentalist Khadim Hussain Rizvi.

“The terrorists who were glorified included Zaheer Hassan Mahmood, who attacked two people with a knife outside the editorial office of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris, France, on September 25, 2020, and Abdullah Abuyedovic Anzorov, who beheaded French teacher Samuel Paty outside the Bois d’Aulne school in Conflans Sainte-Honorine, north-east Paris, France, on October 16, 2020.” The suspects were arrested on February 24, according to a warrant leaked to El Confidencial. By posting on Tik Tok, Facebook or Instagram, they were portrayed as “heroes of Islam”, according to investigators.

Among those arrested is Ullah Shoaib, a 31-year-old Pakistani living in Andalusia. After the investigator testified as a witness on February 24, Magistrate Joaquín Gadea ordered his pre-trial detention without bail: “There is a reasonable risk of flight and the de facto thwarting of the access of justice, as well as the risk of criminal recidivism,” warns the court order. In the absence of any progress in the investigation, the magistrate cites the possible offences of glorifying terrorism via the internet, disseminating to incite terrorist offences or recruiting to form a terrorist organisation or to carry out terrorist actions.

In addition to its publications on social networks, the decision also highlights the evidence found in the seized devices: “a photo showing several machetes”, pictures of “assault rifles and light weapons”, a snapshot of the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, combined with the English word “headshot”, … “The risk of a repetition of the offence cannot be excluded, since the detainee cannot be denied the possibility of accessing social networks if fanatical and radical expressions have been identified which, taking into account the circumstances, could lead to terrorist actions”.

Shoaib appealed his detention, but the criminal division of the Audiencia Nacional rejected his arguments. “We must consider the large number of people reached by his postings when we take into account the fact that he operates or has operated at least five profiles on social networks,” they warned in a decision issued on March 29. “Although some of these profiles conceal the number of followers, there is evidence that at least 1,135 profiles are associated with him.”

From these accounts, the accused allegedly shared “a large number of videos” by a Pakistani preacher, characterised by their content, “in which he repeatedly calls for the beheading or killing of people who, in his opinion, blaspheme or insult the Prophet Mohamed”. Among the phrases heard or seen in their publications, the investigators mention the following: “Until the Day of Judgement, if anyone speaks ill of the Prophet, he is condemned to death”; “the punishment of the delinquent is only one” (the people in the background reiterate: behead) and “headless sacrilegious people, today two Pakistanis who love the Prophet have come to stab four infidels”.

In its ten pages, the court order describes the radical party Tehreeke-Labbaik Pakistan, which was founded by the above-mentioned preacher “with the aim of enforcing the blasphemy law in Pakistan and punishing it with death anywhere in the world”. Together with the preacher’s son, Saad Hussain Rizvi, they “worked hard to attract new followers and support”, for which “they often exploit and manipulate the religious sentiments of their followers”.

The magistrate compared them to “other terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda or Daesh”, as reported by the General Commissariat for Information and its provincial brigades in Granada, Jaén and Murcia. In the absence of further investigation, the investigation led to the arrest of the five young men: “All of them allegedly posted videos on the internet (via social networks) with messages, speeches or parts of speeches by Khadim Hussain Rizvi and tributes to the ‘heroes of Islam'”.

https://www.fdesouche.com/2022/05/09/espagne-arrestation-de-5-djihadistes-pakistanais-affilies-au-tlp/

A migrant from the West African country of Benin has been convicted in Swiss court for a brutal assault on a 27-year-old woman, who he first groped on a train. After she rejected his advances, he repeatedly stabbed her with a broken bottle, nearly killing the woman.

The case dates back to Aug. 4, 2020, when the lives of three people changed forever. A little after 10 a.m. a 26-year-old from Benin who had been sleeping for three days at Romont station near Lausanne saw a woman boarding a train and decided to follow her. On board, he cornered her and tried to touch her crotch. The 27-year-old woman managed to push him away while screaming. She then sat further away from him while a young man of 20 approached to assist her, reported 20min.ch.

The young man called the police, but the Beninese migrant returned, armed with a broken bottle. That is when a scene of horror unfolded, said the prosecutor during the trial, which ran on Thursday last week in Granges-Paccot.

With this sharp object, the Beninese man hit and stabbed his victims, prompting someone to hit the emergency brake at the Chénens station. Police arrived on scene in large numbers, where they encountered a horror scene, with the young woman struggling between life and death.

The woman’s life was saved at a hospital in the city, but she suffers from traumatic and permanent injuries, as her body and face are covered with wounds which required approximately 200 stitches. The young man who tried to help the victim suffered fewer injuries, but they were still serious and required extensive medical treatment.

“I have never seen such violence. I even saw a piece of flesh about seven centimeters in diameter on the ground,” said a witness during the trial.

‘Every morning when I see my body, I think back to everything.’

The woman continues to suffer gravely from the attack.

“I am always anxious and on alert. Every morning when I see my body, I think back to everything. I feel like a monster. I no longer dare to wear skirts, shorts, or T-shirts. There are no words to describe how I feel,” the teary-eyed young woman said during the trial.

The prosecutor charged the Beninese with attempted murder and serious bodily harm. The defendant did not seek to justify his actions, except for his illness. The man apparently suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was reportedly undergoing a psychological crisis during the attack, a pattern seen in countless murders, arson attacks, rapes, child killings, and even supposed terrorist attacks from migrants entering Europe.

The man is reportedly undergoing medical treatment, and appeared to have difficulty understanding questions during his trial.

‘This is a trial of horror and madness’

However, according to the Swiss Public Ministry, the accused was not completely detached from reality when he attacked the two individuals. The prosecutor, therefore, requested an eight-year prison sentence, coupled with a therapeutic measure in an institution. The defense pleaded for an acquittal, claiming that his client was not aware of what was happening.

At the end of the afternoon, the judges delivered their verdict. Unable to uphold the conviction that the defendant intended to kill, they did not convict him of the attempted murder. On the other hand, they found him guilty of grievous bodily harm and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment, together with expulsion from Switzerland for 15 years, after which time he would theoretically allowed to return.

The man will be placed in a “closed environment” psychiatric environment, which means the assailant will remain locked up until the day when specialists decide that he no longer represents a threat to society, which could last for years or even decades.

It is unclear whether the suspect will be placed in a psychiatric institution or a prison ward with a psychiatric department.

https://rmx.news/article/i-have-never-seen-such-violence-beninese-migrant-convicted-for-nearly-killing-swiss-woman-with-a-broken-bottle-leaving-her-with-200-stitches-and-deep-psychological-trauma/