Islam, the ‘religion of peace,’ strikes again

By Pandra Selivanov

Google “Islam is a peaceful religion” and a number of sources will come up, declaring that Islam is indeed a religion that teaches peace and tolerance. Still, there have been hundreds of terrorist attacks in the name of Islam for decades. The Taliban is now enforcing the burqa in Afghanistan, even for female journalists. Ilhan Omar, the anti-Semitic representative from Minnesota, still enjoys strong support from the Muslim community despite her characterization of 9/11 as “some people did something.” I don’t pretend to be an expert on Islam but all this seems less than peaceful.

The latest outpouring of “peace” from the Islamic world has been directed at Nupur Sharma, an Indian woman who represented the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Apparently, she said something that angered the Muslim community in India. Sharma was forced to issue an apology, after which she was suspended from the BJP. Not content with ruining Sharma’s career, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, and Saudi Arabia condemned her remarks. Qatar wants an apology from the country of India. But what exactly did Sharma say?

Image: Nupur Sharma (edited). YouTube screen grab.

I searched in vain on this point. Every news source loftily declared that it would not print what Sharma said because it was so offensive. I finally came across a YouTube video in which the presenter claimed that all Sharma said was that Muhammad married his wife Aisha when she was six years old and that he consummated the marriage when she was nine years old. Traditional sourcesquote Aisha on these points.

As I said, I am not an expert on Islam. Nor have I read the Koran. However, I would go so far as to say that it should not be considered Islamophobic to mention something from a sacred text that has been accepted for centuries. Nor do I think a woman’s reputation and career should be destroyed by emissaries of “peace” who are not happy with what their sacred book alleges.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/06/islam_the_religion_of_peace_strikes_again.html

Get an Apple iPad or drop out of school

A public school in the Italian city of Bari presented its students with a difficult choice: Buy an iPad from Apple or drop out of school.

Italy is pushing ahead with the digitization of schools – and the public institute Mazzini-Modugno in the Italian city of Bari is breaking new ground. The institute obliges the students to buy an iPad from Apple. If they do not comply, they have to change schools.

Italian weekly l’Antidiplomatico, reported that the school itself offers the devices for sale, with various options. Prices range from 469 euros to 729 euros.

“This is an unacceptable impertinence that strictly excludes the use of equivalent devices (the much cheaper Android) and forces families to bear very expensive costs […] Children of families who do not comply are obliged to pay to change schools (and classmates).”

According to the publication, this is simply blackmail under the government-approved national plan for the digital school, which will exclusively benefit Apple.

“So much for public and equitable schools, the right to education and the constitution. The basic right of the state is violated again in the name of the market, under the pretext of the ‘digital revolution’.”

Students from low-income families have the option of using the devices free of charge. However, access to social support is precisely calculated in Italy with the ISEE (Indicatore della Situazione Economica Equivalente). The publication therefore wanted to know what the threshold would be for the school.

“What will those who are just a hair over the minimum threshold do? How should couples with several children and where only one person works be able to bear these costs?”

Di Siena noted that this places an additional financial burden on affected parents, alongside the massive increases in energy and food bills.

“This is another act of bullying towards the students (the most vulnerable of course) and the school system as a whole. Students have already been penalized by two years of unwise pandemic management, being forced to completely disrupt their social relationships in the name of distance learning and the continued wearing of masks in class. This while the whole world got rid of the masks.”

This is particularly disturbing given that spending on the Italian education system has been cut for decades. Educating young citizens is now a threat to the status quo. It appears that only consumers are needed. “And those who cannot consume should apparently return to child labor.”

https://freewestmedia.com/2022/06/07/get-an-apple-ipad-or-drop-out-of-school/

The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire – A new book blames the persecution of Christians on… Israel and the West

The following book review of The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire by Mitri Raheb was first published by the Middle East Quarterly. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Raheb, a Lutheran clergyman and academic in Bethlehem, argues that “Christian persecution is a Western construct that says more about the West than about the Christians of the Middle East.” Whatever persecution Christians may experience has little to do with Islam and is rather a byproduct of political developments that were and are almost always precipitated by Western or Israeli actions.

To make his thesis work, Raheb predictably begins his history in 1800 with the waning of Islam and the ascendancy of Europe. Christianity under Islam for the preceding twelve centuries—when it went from being the dominant faith to a tiny minority due to sporadic bouts of persecution and systemic discrimination—is otherwise presented in a rosy picture. Thus, the “persecution of Christians under the Ottomans, if any, was rare and localized.”

On the other hand, the “penetration by European powers had disastrous consequences for the region by introducing Zionism, nationalism, and colonialism.” The Mount Lebanon massacre of 1860 when Muslims butchered more than ten thousand Christians, and even the Turkish genocide of millions of Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christians, are presented as byproducts of European interference. Thus, “the only two cases of Christian persecution [by Muslims] in the past two centuries must be interpreted within the context of Western imperial penetration.”

Raheb avoids mentioning the obvious: While Western interference, past and present, may well have prompted and continues to prompt Muslims to massacre Christians, that is only because Muslims already see Christians as inferior infidels. Muslims massacred Christians in Mount Lebanon, during the Armenian genocide, etc., because they felt Christians were, thanks to colonial powers, becoming equals as opposed to knowing their place as second-class dhimmis within the Muslim social order as they did for the preceding millennium.

Although the European contemporary sources and eyewitnesses Raheb quotes disagree with him—always presenting the Muslim massacres of Christians as a byproduct of religious animosity—he gets around this by arguing that such Europeans did not understand the true, “political” significance of what they were reporting on—because they understood everything through an “Orientalist paradigm”:

In this paradigm, we depict an orientalist attitude of a superior and civilized Christian West that gazes at a barbaric ‘Orient’ that is Islamic, irrational, anti-Christian, and stuck in a primitive mindset … This discourse is part of an orientalist perception that persists in framing the Middle East as a backward, barbaric and intolerant region.

Clearly, Raheb, the Palestinian academic, is very much influenced by another famous Palestinian academic, Edward Said. This is especially evident in his presentation of Israel as one of the worst persecutors of Christians even though the examples he offers are sparse and pale in comparison to those furnished by Muslim-majority countries. Worse, whereas Israel’s conflict is not with Christians or Muslims but rather a territorial dispute with Arabs—and therefore furnishes the only example that truly conforms to his political thesis—he bemoans the actions of “radical Jewish groups” and “terrorists.”

Raheb boasts that an important and unique feature of this book is that it is written by a native Palestinian Christian theologian who has spent his entire life in the region … As such, it provides a decolonial interpretation … [and] allows us to expose the orientalist perception dominant in Western discourse.

But his pedigree also involves well-known drawbacks: Christians living in the Middle East tend to have a dhimmi/hostage mentality that accommodates Muslims, whereas those living abroad can speak more forthrightly.

The insistence that the persecution Christians suffer is an outcome of anything and everything except Islam—including “climate change [which] will take its toll on the Christian community”—is especially absurd.

Although Raheb makes some good points—for example, that Westerners can exploit the persecution of Christians for their own agendas without actually trying to make a difference—these are overshadowed by the book’s defects. In short, Politics of Persecution is fatally marred by the author’s own politics.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/06/politics-persecution-middle-eastern-christians-age-raymond-ibrahim/

No support for the LGBT community ! Call of Duty pro Talal Almalki shocks Twitter by distancing himself from his team: “I am a Muslim”

Talal Almalki, better known as Virus, tweeted and deleted criticism of FaZe’s Pride month celebrations. Like most companies, FaZe tried to show its support for the LGBT+ community by changing its logos to match the LGBT Pride flag, which apparently angered Virus.

Virus, the first Saudi to join the Esports team, tweeted that he did not support the gay community, ending his tweet with “I am a Muslim”.

This tweet led to many people calling on FaZe to delete Virus’ contract, but so far the company has not commented.

Virus was recruited in December 2020 and has mostly played Call Of Duty for FaZe. His YouTube channel has accumulated around 580,000 subscribers and on his Twitch channel he has been streamed to almost 230,000 followers.Metro

Feedback on Bounding Into Comics

https://www.fdesouche.com/2022/06/06/soutiens-a-la-communaute-lgbt-le-joueur-pro-de-call-of-duty-talal-almalki-choque-twitter-en-se-desolidarisant-de-son-equipe-je-suis-un-musulman/

Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games.[1] Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although organized competitions have long been a part of video game culture, these were largely between amateurs until the late 2000s, when participation by professional gamers and spectatorship in these events through live streaming saw a large surge in popularity.[2][3] By the 2010s, esports was a significant factor in the video game industry, with many game developers actively designing and providing funding for tournaments and other events.

The most common video game genres associated with esports are multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), fightingcardbattle royale and real-time strategy (RTS) games. Popular esports franchises include League of LegendsDotaCounter-StrikeValorantOverwatchStreet FighterSuper Smash Bros. and StarCraft, among many others. Tournaments such as the League of Legends World ChampionshipDota 2‘s International, the fighting game-specific Evolution Championship Series (EVO) and Intel Extreme Masters are among the most popular in esports. Many other competitions use a series of league play with sponsored teams, such as the Overwatch League. Although the legitimacy of esports as a true sporting competition remains in question, they have been featured alongside traditional sports in some multinational events in Asia, with the International Olympic Committee also having discussed their inclusion into future Olympic events.

By the late 2010s, it was estimated that the total audience of esports would grow to 454 million viewers, with revenue increasing to more than US$1 billion, with China accounting for 35% of the global esports revenue in 2020.[4][5] The increasing availability of online streaming media platforms, particularly YouTube and Twitch, have become central to the growth and promotion of esports competitions.[3] Despite viewership being approximately 85% male and 15% female, with a majority of viewers between the ages of 18 and 34, female gamers have also played professionally.[6][7][8] The popularity and recognition of esports first took place in Asia, seeing significant growth in China and South Korea, with the latter having licensed professional players since 2000. Despite its large video game industry, esports in Japan is relatively underdeveloped, with this being largely attributed to its broad anti-gambling laws which prohibit paid professional gaming tournaments.[9][10] Outside of Asia, esports are also popular in Europe and the Americas, with both regional and international events taking place in those regions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esports

The Liberation of a Continent and the Fall of the Nazi Third Reich

Cops probe street fight, sex assault at Lake Garda – Lower age of liability says Salvini

Italian police are investigating a street fight at Lake Garda in northern Italy by gangs of second-generation immigrant youths on the Republic Day holiday Thursday as well as a reported sexual assault on up to 10 girls by 30 of the suspects on the train back to Milan later that day.
    The incidents have been widely condemned.
    League leader Matteo Salvini said the age of criminal responsibility should be lowered so that “a 15-year-old of second, third or fourth generation cannot get off lightly”.
    He said a League-proposed law cracking down on teen gangs had been “stuck in parliament for three years”.
    Democratic Party MP Laura Boldrini, chair of the Lower House panel on human rights in the world, said “the gangs have once more unleashed their worst instincts by abusing women’s bodies, it is unacceptable.
    “I hope the probe quickly finds names and surnames”.
    Teen gangs, many of them formed by immigrant youths, have been active in Italy for years with the affluent northern regions of Lombardy and Piedmont particularly affected.
    There are also many teen gangs in the south of Italy, where they tend to be all-Italian.

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2022/06/06/cops-probe-street-fight-sex-assault-at-lake-garda_d0f31245-8d77-45b6-8f83-ce7cc55c10f8.html

Italy: Topless Virgin Mary at Cremona Pride sparks outrage

Screenshot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERtBnVr_gYE

Catholics and centre-right politicians have expressed dismay and outrage after a participant at Saturday’s Cremona Pride carried around a topless mannequin dressed up to look like the Virgin Mary at the event celebrating the LGBT community.
    On Sunday dozens of the northern city’s Christians gathered in the centre to pray together and try to repair the “damage” of the “act of desecration”.
    Mayor Gianluca Galimberti has come under fire following the incident because the city council endorsed the gay pride march.
    On Monday centre-right lawmakers Maurizio Gasparri and Paola Binetti, said in a statement that they had asked Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese to look into the “despicable, outrageous gesture”.
    They also called on Lamorgese to adopt “all the necessary measures to guarantee the full respect of Christians’ rights and prevent similar episodes in future”. 

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2022/06/06/topless-virgin-mary-at-cremona-pride-sparks-outrage_126aa17e-894d-4f4d-9f25-fdb9c6dca75a.html

Electric transport miracle fail: Wiesbaden reintroduces diesel buses

Launched with fanfare and pomp in 2019, Wiesbaden’s e-bus. Screenshot from YouTube

In Wiesbaden, Germany, the electric bus era is already over before it really began. The city is now buying conventional buses again. There were just too many problems with electric transport, they say.

The city had initially bought 56 battery buses. The Federal Environment Ministry added 45 million euros of taxpayers’ money. The then Minister Schulze declared: “Wiesbaden is setting a good example and showing how environmentally friendly and attractive public transport is possible.” For the Lord Mayor, the first buses marked the beginning of the “official battery bus age”. A total of 220 new electric buses were to be procured according to original plans.

In practical terms, the climate miracle – the electric bus – sadly failed to deliver. Again and again buses broke down, they had to be recalled by the manufacturer and the municipal transport company ESWE had to ask for understanding from passengers. And because of the hilly terrain in the capital of the state of Hesse, the electric buses did not even manage half the range of the diesel-powered buses.

A battery charge is said to last only 150 kilometres, and in icy temperatures and with a full bus even up to 100 kilometres less. A diesel-powered public bus travels 300 to 400 kilometres a day – uphill and downhill and also costs up to three times less than an e-bus.

The photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the station has also had to be dismantled “due to update fire-protection regulations”.

In the end, plans for a separate power station at the depot so that the many limping electric buses could be charged, were scrapped and further expensive green transport expenditures are off the table. With the e-buses in disrepair, the power station has become superfluous. For the time being, the transport authority is looking for a cheap place to park all the electric buses that are no longer in use.

https://freewestmedia.com/2022/06/06/electric-transport-miracle-fail-wiesbaden-reintroduces-diesel-buses/

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