Month: March 2023

Germany is rapidly descending into “eco-dictatorship” under the country’s Green minister for economics, an expert has claimed.

Prof. Manuel Frondel, a member of the RWI Essen (Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Essen) think-tank, has lashed out at Robert Habeck, Germany’s economics and climate change minister, saying that the country is devolving into an “eco-dictatorship” under his watch.

The statement was in response to Habeck’s latest great reset plan which will see oil and gas heating completely banned in the country from 2045, with the minister also planning to implement restrictions on heating systems allowed in the German market much earlier.

With Habeck having also implemented numerous other controversial energy policies already, this was seemingly the last straw for Prof. Frondel, who expressed outrage regarding the proposed plan.

“Germany is on the way to eco-dictatorship,” the think-tank tsar told Bild. “I am appalled by Robert Habeck’s plans to ban [gas and oil] heating.”

The professor went on to add that while it would make some sense to implement economic restrictions on non-renewable sources of home heating, allowing people to make the switch to cleaner methods at their own pace, forcing an adjustment by as soon as 2045 was overstepping the mark.

As a result, the ban is ultimately an “inadmissible interference with property rights” in Germany, Frondel argued, who ultimately called the planned reforms “unnecessary”.

Frondel’s criticisms, though the latest to be levelled at Minister Habeck, are far from the first to hit the ruling German official, with the current government’s handling of the ongoing energy crisis provoking outrage from even some of Germany’s green allies.

The Green minister’s handling of the energy crisis has not left many in the country in a good spot, with the spiking price of both electricity and gas causing chaos for both citizens and businesses within the EU nation-state.

Things got so bad in fact that at one stage, the sub-Saharan nation of Namibia launched an initiative to encourage Germans to emigrate to the country over the winter months, with authorities in the African state saying that any would-be migrants would not have to worry about sky-high energy prices.

“You can live and work here during the winter, you don’t have to fear the high heating costs like in Germany!” one Namibian official said. “We always have electricity!”

Such a dire energy situation however was not enough to dissuade progressive politicians in the country from deprioritising their aims, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz eventually being forced to bypass those in the rco-uling Green party to keep Germany’s three remaining nuclear power plants online.

Despite receiving numerous warnings from would-be allies in Europe, including Greta Thunberg, ruling German politicians were adamant that they should take the plants offline despite the risks of rolling blackouts last winter, which were ultimately avoided due to unseasonably warm weather.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/03/14/germany-becoming-an-eco-dictatorship-under-green-minister-professor-warns/

In the course of a service of an Evangelical Lutheran denomination in Munich, a group of youths broke a window pane and subsequently insulted the worshippers. The five or six youths verbally assaulted the visitors as they left the church on Saturday evening and, among other things, made derogatory comments about their religion, according to police on Monday. According to a report in the Bild newspaper, the expressions “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and “shitty Jews” were used. Remarkable at an Evangelical Lutheran service.

Afterwards, the youths fled. Beforehand, the 50 or so worshippers had heard a loud bang during the service. It later turned out that the youths had broken the glass of a church window with a stone. The police are investigating the matter.

https://www.rosenheim24.de/bayern/laim-allahu-akbar-und-scheiss-juden-jugendliche-flippen-vor-muenchener-kirche-aus-92143294.html

Important Free Speech Case Began Today: Pro-Trumper Doug Mackey Faces 10 Years in Prison Over Satirical Tweet https://t.co/jex1f0kyKv

— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) March 13, 2023

On the heels of the exposé of antisemitic social media posts by four journalists working for France 24, the French state-owned news network has suspended the journalists and is currently investigating their social media pages.

The France 24 news site reported online that “after the publication of an article on the CAMERA website [Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America], and taken up by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, implicating a journalist and three Arabic-language correspondents of France 24 regarding certain comments they allegedly posted on their personal pages on social networks, the channel’s management has immediately opened an audit on these alleged posts, as it communicated internally on March 10.”

"If only Hitler was Lebanese"

Meet the antisemitic social media diva "journalists" behind some of the egregiously problematic content uncovered by @CAMERAArabic's investigation of the French taxpayer-supported @France24_ar https://t.co/xu6034kvdk

— CAMERAorg (@CAMERAorg) March 6, 2023

CAMERA’s exposé, which can be read here in full, demonstrates that the four journalists failed to live up to France 24’s charter of ethics. In numerous social media posts, the journalists can be seen praising Hitler, minimizing the Holocaust, and glorifying Hamas-affiliated terrorists who murdered and maimed scores of Jewish civilians.

“The four journalists concerned were suspended from their jobs pending the results of the audit,” France 24 reported, adding that “the code of ethics of France Médias Monde [France 24, RFI, MCD] stipulates that its journalists, when publishing on blogs, forums, social networks and any space dedicated to the public exchange of information, must ensure ‘respect for professional and ethical rules (…) and not violate the values of ethics, independence, and impartiality of the company (…).'”

Journalists of French network suspended for praising Hamas, Hitler – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

A nursery school assistant in Linz was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment for supporting the IS and sharing videos of the terrorist organisation. After the case became known, the kindergarten assistant was sacked from her job.

The employer did not know anything about the involvement of one of his kindergarten assistants with the Islamic State. At the time of the incident, she was still a minor. Therefore, the city of Linz as employer was not informed by the court about the conviction, as required by the law.

However, the newspaper “Kurier” reported that the kindergarten assistant, who is now 19 years old, shared videos the previous year in which little girls beheaded dolls and shouted: “The Islamic State continues to exist and is expanding”. The city of Linz subsequently took action and terminated the employment contract with the young woman.

https://exxpress.at/kindergartenhelferin-gefeuert-sie-sympathisierte-mit-dem-is-und-wurde-verurteilt/

The BBC has had its day as a taxpayer-funded corporation in the wake of the Gary Lineker impartiality saga, prominent Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed.

The former cabinet minister told GB News the state broadcaster should no longer be funded by the mandatory license fee of £159 payable by all Brits who watch live television, and said the BBC would have far fewer problems if it was privately funded.

The corporation has come under fierce scrutiny over the past week after its highest-paid presenter, Gary Lineker, criticized the government’s new asylum policy on social media by comparing it with 1930s Germany. The sports presenter was subsequently suspended from his duties, which saw a massive backlash among several BBC staff who refused to work in protest, resulting in much scaled-back coverage of British sports over the weekend.

However, the corporation walked back its position on Monday, issuing a groveling apology for the whole mess and reinstating the broadcaster, who has yet to apologize for his remarks, angering many already skeptical of the state broadcaster.

“The issue is about the BBC rather than about Gary Lineker’s view,” Rees-Mogg said.

“He’s entitled to any view that he wants. We are all in favor of freedom of speech and people being allowed to say things that we don’t agree with, or may even find offensive. That’s absolutely fine.

“The issue is that the BBC is the state broadcaster and that it’s funded by a tax on televisions. If it weren’t, then we wouldn’t need to worry about its impartiality and actually if we changed the funding mechanism of the BBC, we could have a much freer media, as they do in the United States, where people are allowed to say what they think.

“And I think that would be much better, rather than this pretense that the BBC is impartial, which it isn’t, and then having rows about particular presenters’ views,” the Conservative MP added.

The former leader of the House of Commons suggested the BBC license fee is now “past its sell-by date, it needs to go.”

This is a notion that has long been prevalent among backbench MPs of the governing Conservative party in Britain, many of whom consider the state broadcaster to be inherently left-wing in its reporting, and the Lineker saga has now revitalized calls for the BBC to be defunded.

Conservative MP Scott Benton called the license fee “a decades-out-of-date, regressive tax which people shouldn’t have to pay simply to watch TV” and said “this self-inflicted chaos and (the BBC’s) obvious unwillingness to enforce impartiality will only strengthen calls for the fee to go.”

Fellow Conservative lawmaker Tom Hunt added: “Times have changed. I sense there is growing support for moving away from the coercive nature of the license fee. Clearly, the chaotic handling of the Lineker affair hasn’t covered them in glory but it’s bigger than just that.”

Former editor of The Sun newspaper, Kelvin McKenzie, warned on Saturday that “millions won’t pay the £159 license fee if (Lineker) returns.

Conservative broadcaster Nigel Farage called the corporation’s backtracking “a bad, shameful day for the BBC and will come as sickening news to license fee payers.”

https://rmx.news/uk/bbc-is-past-its-sell-by-date-as-a-state-funded-broadcaster-claims-conservative-mps/

An imam involved in the row over a damaged Koran that led to a 14-year-old schoolboy receiving death threats, spoke about punishing Muslims for celebrating Christmas, The Telegraph can reveal. 

Imam Hafiz Muhammad Mateen Anwar, of the Jamia Masjid Swafia mosque in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, warned worshippers not to wish others a merry Christmas, described homosexuality as “barbaric” and music as “toxic”, and also made sectarian remarks about more liberal followers of Islam.

The revelations came just days after he hosted a community meeting at the mosque alongside police and council leaders with the mother of an autistic Year 10 schoolboy who pleaded for forgiveness for her son after he brought a Koran into Kettlethorpe High School as a forfeit for losing a Call of Duty video game.

However, the Islamic holy book – which Muslims are taught to handle with respect and care and, in some cases, wash their hands before touching it – was dropped on the floor, causing a small tear on the cover and scuffing to some pages.  

Imam Anwar appeared on a panel with Chief Insp Andy Thornton and Insp Glen Costello of West Yorkshire Police, two teachers and the boy’s mother, where he told the meeting: “When it comes to the honour of the Koran we will stand and defend the honour of the Koran no matter what it takes.”

However, sources alarmed at what they described as “a session for ritual humiliation and threatening language” have now shared with The Telegraph evidence that they said showed the imam had preached “harsh social separatism”. Experts have also criticised the police for failing to do their “due diligence” in researching the imam’s comments.

The evidence bundle reveals that in a sermon three days before Christmas last year, Imam Anwar said that in an Islamic state, Muslims would be punished for taking part in the festivities of another religion. “It is very important who you conform to, whose lifestyle you adopt,” he said. “If you conform to them you are becoming part of them.”

Quoting a Muslim scholar, he added: “The one who conforms with the disbelievers on the days of their celebrations should be given “tazir”, a punishment… Anyone from the religion of Islam, claims to follow Islam, anyone who begins to take part in the celebration of disbelievers, that person should be punished.”

He said that he lived in the UK, where there was not Sharia law, but said: “What I’m trying to explain to you is how important these scholars took the subject of copying the disbelievers, of following their celebrations. One who congratulates a non-believer on the day of their celebration is also to be punished.”

Imam Anwar said that Christmas was not religious and told the congregation not to take part in Christian traditions, saying: “The disbelievers, in reality we can’t really call them Christians anymore because they don’t even follow the actual religion of Christianity. Christmas is a festivity, there is no link to it with religion. Having a family meal is perfectly fine, feed people, spread peace, but to call it a Christmas dinner on Christmas Day, don’t go snapping away [on] Instagram to show people that you are multicultural. Who are you trying to impress?”

He added that Muslims “should have no link with Christmas trees or Christmas lights either” and said that those who rarely gave food to neighbours but did so on Christmas Day were “acknowledging their celebration”, saying: “You are not permitted to do that.”

Imam Anwar also said that parents should not allow children to sit on Santa’s lap, not to be part of nativity shows and that if worshippers greeted someone on the day of a Muslim celebration “the first thing he is going to do is dial 999. We’ve got a terrorist, please come quickly. Why do you need to say merry Christmas back? What are they going to give you? You want to be multicultural, you want to fit into society, then when someone says merry Christmas, say thank you, have a nice holiday. You don’t need to turn around and say merry Christmas.”

In another sermon, he urged Muslims to remember hatred, saying: “Your love and your hate should be for the sake of Allah.” In a similar talk he used the word “rafidhis” for Shia Muslims, a derogatory term meaning rejectors and popular with hardline scholars, and also criticised “closet Shias” for “destroying our aqeedah [creed]”.

He has also described music as “toxic” saying it “messes with your mind” and urged Muslims not to listen to it. He also described “the rise of homosexuality” as “barbaric”.

Responding to his comments, Dr Paul Stott, head of security and extremism at Policy Exchange, said: “Many in Wakefield and beyond will find the words of Imam Anwar unpleasant, but hardly surprising.

“This is not the first time those who demand tolerance for their own beliefs have been caught struggling to display it themselves.

“If these words are damaging for Imam Anwar and Swafia Mosque, they raise very troubling questions about West Yorkshire Police, two of whose officers were seen chumming up to the mosque in videos that have circulated worldwide.

“If it is to have any prospect of regaining the credibility it has lost, West Yorkshire Police will need to start choosing its friends more wisely.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/imam-discusses-punishing-muslims-for-celebrating-christmas/ar-AA18wNpM

Tens of Thousands of Dutch Farmers Protest in The Hague: “Resist Much, Obey Little!” https://t.co/qeEeltr0o3

— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) March 13, 2023

On Sunday, March 12, Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA KS Eshwarappa, while speaking about Azaan, questioned whether Allah will listen to prayers only if loudspeakers are used to call him.

Addressing a rally organised as part of the BJP’s ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatra’ in poll-bound Karnataka, Eshwarappa, who has also served as the Deputy Chief Minister, said that playing Azaan on loudspeakers gives him a headache.

BJP MLA KS Eshwarappa makes controversial remarks during his speech in Mangaluru as Azaan plays in the background.
"This (Azaan) is a headache for me, does Allah hear prayers only if one screams on a microphone? is Allah deaf? This issue must be resolved soon" pic.twitter.com/Xlt3Up7pJp

— Deepak Bopanna (@dpkBopanna) March 13, 2023

“Wherever I go this is a headache for me. I have no doubt there will be an end to this soon as there is a Supreme Court judgement. Honourable PM Modi has asked us to respect all religions, but I must ask can Allah hear only if you scream on a microphone?”

Notably, the Senior BJP leader and former minister KS Eshwarappa was addressing a public gathering when Azaan blared from a mosque nearby. Commenting on the usage of loudspeakers by the mosques for Azaan, the BJP leader added, “even we Hindus pray in temples, sing shlokas and bhajans. It’s Bharat mata that protects religions, but if you say that Allah listens only if you pray with a loudspeaker I must question if he’s deaf. It’s not needed, this issue must be resolved,” he said.

Earlier, a huge controversy was stirred in Karnataka over using loudspeakers for azaan in mosques. This after several Hindu organizations in the state complained about the noise pollution being created due to the loudspeakers. In April, amid the controversy, at first, the Karnataka government outlawed the use of loudspeakers between 10 PM and 6 AM.

Then later, in October 2022, the Karnataka state government gave 10,889 licences to mosques to use sound equipment and loudspeakers for Azaan.

Karnataka Waqf Board orders a ban on the use of loudspeakers in Mosques and dargahs between 10 pm and 6 am

Notably, in 2021, the Karnataka State Waqf Board issued an order banning the use of loudspeakers during Azaan between 10 pm and 6 am in mosques and dargahs across the state.

The Waqf board observed that increasing ambient noise levels around many masjids and dargahs due to generator sets, loudspeakers and public address systems have adverse effects on human health and the psychological well-being of the people.

Further, the circular said any violation near the “silence zones” will be liable for a penalty. However, the Waqf Board also made it clear that there is no ban on Azaan, but it has only barred loudspeakers during the specified time to prevent noise pollution.

https://www.opindia.com/2023/03/is-allah-deaf-karnataka-bjp-mla-asks-after-hearing-azaan-from-loudspeaker/

By Eric Utter

By a landslide vote of 299 to 116, the U.K.’s House of Commons recently rejected an amendment that would have protected “private prayer and consensual conversations within any ‘censorship’ zone.” (Areas around abortion centers.) 

The vote came just one day after a pro-life activist, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, was arrested for the second time in several weeks for silently praying outside one such center. Vaughan-Spruce noted that she was “not protesting” or engaging “in any of the activities prohibited.” But, dammit, she was thinking the wrong thoughts, and thus had to be arraigned. Charged. Run in. Taught a lesson.

I mean, what kind of society would grant its citizens the right to silently pray by themselves? Some thoughts are simply not acceptable…at least in some areas, right? Surely, we can agree on that! And, if not, maybe you should be detained, too.

Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for a firm that has represented people who have been arrested for committing thought crimes outside of abortion centers, stated sadly that the vote was a “watershed moment for fundamental rights and freedoms” in the U.K. Tragically true, in a profoundly regressive way. (Sadder still: according to the Catholic Herald, MPs voting to reject the amendment included the allegedly Conservative government’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Attorney General Victoria Prentis.)

I am certain that today’s woke Thought Police would go easier on someone who claimed to be silently praying for more “fetuses” to be aborted, or for certain conservatives to succumb to life-threatening diseases.

But it is much the same in the U.S., where pro-lifers are routinely mocked, harassed, arrested, and prevented from being in certain areas, even as pro-abortion activists routinely vandalize or fire-bomb pregnancy centers and Christian churches without consequence.

Igunnubole added, “Parliament had an opportunity to reject the criminalization of free thought, which is an absolute right, and embrace individual liberty for all. Instead, Parliament chose to endorse censorship and criminalize peaceful activities such as silent prayer and consensual conversation.”

I would say this is a dangerous precedent, but it is simply part and parcel of the Left’s ongoing, all-out attempt to crush dissent and arrogate power to itself for eternity. You know, in order to preserve “our democracy.”

 In the new New World, as well as in (the formerly) Great Britain, you no longer have the right to privately pray for life…or even to think verboten thoughts. In fact, just about all of our fundamental, natural rights are under assault by power-hungry “progressives.” This has been evidenced by the recent mask and vaccine mandates. We were even told we couldn’t leave our homes. And we obeyed. We can be shunned—and perhaps fined or fired—for “misgendering” someone or using “incorrect” pronouns when referring to them. Are you a climate change “denier?” If so, you will not have access to the mainstream social media platforms.

In the United States, the Constitution and Bill of Rights were meant to protect our God-given rights from tyrannical government. But progressives don’t acknowledge any power above themselves. And they would like to cancel the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, probably several of the following Amendments…and anyone with whom they disagree.

U.K. House of Commons refuses to protect private prayer and consensual conversations – American Thinker