Month: September 2023

17-year-old Islamist arrested: attack planned in Vienna

screen grab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40_ugNUKjvE

Austria’s interior minister says the arrest of a man in the capital Vienna has averted a possible terror attack in the city.

Wolfgang Sobotka said the 18-year-old was an Austrian citizen of a migrant background and there were “indications” of jihadist motives.

Police are warning the public to be alert and to report suspicious objects.

The arrest took place at about 17:00 GMT on Friday when special forces raided an apartment.

Mr Sobotka said the man had been under observation for several days.

“Our police forces managed in quick time to arrest a suspect and so prevent a potential terror attack in the federal capital Vienna,” he told reporters.

“The decisive leads came from foreign intelligence services.”

Mr Sobotka said possible links to Islamic extremist were being investigated.

“There are individual indications [of extremism] that we have to investigate. There is one contact that is pretty clear and there are several indications that will be looked at intensively,” he said.

Mr Sobotka declined to give any further details.

A report by the Austrian newspaper Krone said a group of Islamist militants of Albanian background had planned an attack in Vienna this month. It did not specify its sources.

In the wake of the arrest, police are increasing security in Vienna, a spokeswoman told AFP news agency.

Last year, Austria charged two men in connection with the 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. The men, who had been arrested at a refugee shelter in Salzburg, were later extradited to France.

In 2014, a 14-year-old boy was convicted of terrorism offences in Austria, including a plot to bomb a Vienna railway station.

Austria arrest ‘foils terror attack’ in Vienna – BBC News

Hagia Sophia Restoration and Maintenance: Concerns Over Political Motives and Damage Highlighted

Following the discovery of significant damage to the historic Orthodox Christian Hagia Sophia cathedral in Istanbul, which was converted into a mosque, the Turkish government has made the decision to initiate long-term maintenance and repairs. This extensive project is expected to require several decades to complete.

However, there are concerns among certain groups in Turkey who suspect that political motives may be behind this decision, with the intention of keeping Hagia Sophia closed and preventing its use as a mosque. These concerns stem from the fact that a similar decision was made in 2020 to convert the Chora Monastery into a mosque, but the conversion was not implemented and the monastery was unexpectedly closed for restoration work.

Nevertheless, Turkey’s Minister of Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, has reassured that Hagia Sophia will remain open and continue to function as a mosque. Currently, structural studies are being conducted to begin seismic protection measures and maintenance work on the cathedral’s domes. However, it is anticipated that during the restoration process, access to the prayer area and visitor areas will need to be further restricted, potentially leading to the closure of the site to visitors for a period of time.

The Turkish media has repeatedly emphasized the strain that the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque, along with the subsequent free access to the site, has placed on this monumental heritage site. Numerous reports have already been published highlighting the damage caused to the walls and gates by visitors. Additionally, scientists have identified previous damage to the cathedral, including the dome, and guides have reported issues with leaks caused by rainwater.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2023/09/17/hagia-sophia-restoration-and-maintenance-concerns-over-political-motives-and-damage-highlighted/

German journalist says he will stop criticising Islam after spate of threats

Constantin Schreiber, screen grab youtube

A high-profile journalist in Germany has announced that he no longer intends to discuss or criticise Islam after a recent spate of threats levelled against him.

Constantin Schreiber, an author and journalist working with the state-operated Tagesschau TV news programme, has written a number of books on the religion and his work has been compared to that of French author and poet Michel Houellebecq.

In an interview with Die Zeit, Schreiber said he wanted to leave that chapter of his life behind after receiving numerous threats over his discussion of Islam.

“I will no longer comment on anything that has even the remotest connection to Islam,” he said.

“I won’t write any books about it, I turn down talk-show requests, I won’t do it anymore. Some people might celebrate now and maybe open the bubbly bottles.”

Schreiber cited a number of menaces and verbal attacks on him as the reason for dropping the topic, describing how several of his colleagues had lambasted him as being far-right.

He also talked about receiving abuse from members of the public, with one taxi driver threatening him after picking the journalist up from his workplace.

“Now I know where you live!” Schrieber described the cabbie as saying, adding that the experience was “scary”.

The journalist is far from the first public figure to drop their discussion of Islam amid threats of violence.

British evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins, an atheist activist who has been a long-time critic of the religion, surprised much of the public earlier this year by point-blank refusing to discuss the faith during an interview.

Asked about the topic by UK TV presenter Piers Morgan in March, Dawkins – who had previously labelled Islam as “the most evil religion in the world” – mumbled that he would rather not talk about it.

The interview took place after the near-fatal attack on writer Salman Rushdie, who was left with life-altering injuries after being targeted by an Islamic fundamentalist in New York in August 2022.

Since publishing his contentious novel The Satanic Verses in 1987, Rushdie has been under pressure from Muslim fundamentalists, with Iran’s then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a $3 million fatwa calling for his death over the book in 1989.

https://brusselssignal.eu/2023/09/german-journalist-says-he-will-stop-criticising-islam-after-spate-of-threats/

Watch: Dozens Injured During Unrest at Eritrean ‘Cultural Festival’ in Germany

screen grab X

German police said dozens of people, including at least 26 officers, were injured during unrest surrounding an Eritrean cultural festival in the southwestern city of Stuttgart.

Shortly before the event was set to begin Saturday afternoon, around 200 protesters gathered in the area outside and began throwing stones, bottles, and other items at police officers and participants of the event.

Six of the 26 injured police officers were treated in a hospital for their injuries, police said. Four event participants and two protesters were also injured, according to police, although information wasn’t immediately available about the severity of their injuries.

Saturday’s protests were the latest in a string of unrest surrounding Eritrean cultural events in Germany and elsewhere. In July, a clash at an Eritrean festival in the western German city of Giessen left 22 police officers injured. A fight between Eritrean government supporters and opponents in Tel Aviv in early September led to one of the most violent street confrontations among African asylum seekers and migrants in the city’s recent memory.

The event Saturday was organized by several groups considered close to the government of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.

Tens of thousands of people have fled Eritrea for Europe, many alleging they were mistreated by Isaias’ repressive government. The conflicts surrounding gatherings like Saturday’s highlight the deep divide among members of the Eritrean diaspora, those who remain close to the government and those who have fled to live in exile and strongly oppose Isaias.

On Saturday, Stuttgart police vice president Carsten Hoefler condemned the protesters’ actions and said in a statement that “neither the extent nor the intensity of the violence was apparent in advance.”

City officials said there had been no reason to ban the gathering in advance, but that they will take steps to prevent similar unrest in the future.

“We must take decisive action against the emergence of conflicts from other states on German soil,” said Stuttgart Mayor Frank Nopper, according to German news agency dpa.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/09/17/watch-dozens-injured-during-unrest-at-eritrean-cultural-festival-in-germanywatch-dozens-injured-at-eritrean-cultural-festival-in-germany24974292/

We Tories Got it WRONG. We must Support Marriage, Community & Nation to Regain Trust-Danny Kruger MP

Can the Conservative Party escape its existential crisis? On this week’s #NCFWhittle we are joined by one of parliament’s leading political thinkers, traditionalist conservative Danny Kruger MP, Conservative Member of Parliament for Devizes and sometime political secretary to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mr. Kruger’s new book is “Covenant: The New Politics of Home, Neighbourhood and Nation”, in which he offers a thoughtful and rounded call for a conservatism that values family and community over self-interest and social atomisation: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Covenant-Pol… Kruger tells us that contemporary conservatism can easily be seen as a hollowed-out creed. Combining heartless free-market individualism with an unthinking social liberalism – or else simple authoritarian populism – it offers little to those whose sense of meaning is securely rooted in their families, communities and country. Kruger argues that we must restore the sources of virtue and belonging that underpin the good life by repairing the covenantal relationships of love and partnership that underpin our families, local communities and ultimately our country. We must, he contends, go beyond a politics based purely on individual autonomy, social atomisation and self-worship. By examining the most fundamental questions of love, sex, life and death, ranging from marriage to assisted dying, Kruger charts a course towards a conservatism that can respond humanely and wisely to the social, environmental and economic crises that face us. This riposte to both liberal orthodoxy and the authoritarian right is unmissable for anyone interested in British politics. It’s a key contribution to the debate on how the Conservative Party can respond to its current crisis. To order Danny Kruger’s book please see here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Covenant-Pol…

Geology: Too hard? Too white?

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License

By Eric Utter

Willa Rowan, of Western Washington University, had what she thought was a rock-solid idea for her master’s thesis. She would generate—and sift through—data to discover the systemic racism and inequality that must be inherent in the geosciences…and the study thereof.

According to thecollegefix.com, Rowan surveyed 139 college seniors majoring in geoscience– from 99 universities. She purported to find that “BIPOC students, especially female and non-binary students, were more likely to report struggles with mental health and feelings of inadequacy.”

The same could be said of females and non-binary individuals that aren’t in (or studying) the geosciences.

Unsurprisingly, Rowan also claimed that “BIPOC students in geoscience face discrimination and barriers to learning at all levels, from microaggressions to systemic racism.” Moreover, upon analyzing student survey and short-answer responses, Rowan found white students “had stronger geoscience identities than BIPOC male students, with much of the difference concentrated in the performance/competence domain of geoscience identity.”

Sounds like we have to rid the system of any/all performance/competence measurements, or maybe just ban performance and competence outright. Equity über alles!

Some students with physical limitations complained that geological field sites at which field camps or courses were held were not always handicap-accessible– or had physical demands that not all students could easily meet. No more geological sites on elevated sites or steep slopes! If it is, for some reason, absolutely necessary for a camp to be established, say, halfway up a mountain or hill, an escalator should be provided for all students and faculty.

Rowan’s nationwide survey of geoscience students found that some had other concerns, as well. One was that the faculty in the field are insufficiently diverse.

Another was that geoscience courses are “too rock heavy.” Not kidding.

Still another was that some students were concerned about “professors not respecting them enough for the knowledge they didn’t have.”

Let’s try that again: “professors not respecting them enough for the knowledge they didn’t have.” That’s a new one. I wish my professors had respected me for all the knowledge I didn’t have. “Eric, I just want to tell you how much I respect your ignorance of the course materials we’ve recently covered. Nice job. Keep it up!”

WTH?

And geology is “too rock heavy?” Is medicine “too health heavy?” Carpentry “too tool heavy?” Agriculture “too plant heavy?”  

So progressives think geology, like everything else apparently, is too white?

And too “ableist?”

Better to be dumb as a rock, I guess, as long as we’re all equal.

At this rate, it won’t be long until we hit rock bottom.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/09/geology_too_hard_too_white.html

Young Arabs fight like out of their minds: Escalation of violence in the city centre of Lübeck, Germany (Video)

A video reveals unbearable footage of an extremely brutal mass brawl: several men kick an opponent almost unrestrained on the head. Unbelievable: A helpless elderly man in a beige jacket and carrying a red shopping bag has fallen in the commotion and is unable to get up again. He clings desperately to a street sign – no one intervenes. Unleashed violence and aggression in the middle of the pedestrian zone!

The street Sandstraße in the city of Lübeck. Actually a quiet shopping street – which became the scene of a violent excess on Friday afternoon. An eyewitness recorded the tumultuous scenes and posted the footage on the internet. The footage shows ten young men attacking each other and fighting without restraint.

A man in his mid-20s with a beard and a waistcoat is beating a man using a rubbish bin. The scene is chaotic, the older man with white hair is lying on the ground. Right next to him, young men are brutally kicking the skull of another.

The riots occurred in front of a bakery shop near a bus stop. On the video, passers-by can be seen, completely stunned, trying to calm down the aggressive men. Screams can be heard. The perpetrators appear to be men of Arab origin. The word wallah (Arabic for “by Allah”) is often heard.

According to the police, it is not known what triggered the quarrel. The newspaper Bild reported that a school event was the reason for the fight.

In order to separate the group, the police arrived with ten patrol cars. According to Bild, four people were banned from the area. They are between 14 and 43 years old. The serious outcome of the brawl was that five people were injured, some of them seriously.

The police confirmed the authenticity of the video, but published a statement on the outbreak of violence in the city centre of Lübeck that leaves one stunned.

According to the police, sharing the video would allegedly make one liable to prosecution.

According to the police, sharing the video would allegedly make one liable to prosecution.

In a threatening manner, the police forbid you to save and distribute the circulating video. More than unusual – and it gets even more irritating: the police even ask to “immediately delete the video from your own computer”. The authorities remain silent on the reasons.

The police will not answer concrete questions until 9 a.m. on Monday.

Junge Araber prügeln wie von Sinnen: Eskalation der Gewalt in der Lübecker Innenstadt | NIUS.de

German Study On “Female” Pedophiles Included Trans-Identified Male Participants

A study aiming to analyze women who report pedophilic tendencies has raised concerns after including those who “identified with the female gender” among the participants. The study, conducted by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, used both self-identified biological sex and gender identity, and reported that up to 10% of women were pedophiles.

The study included participants who were at least 18 years old, were born as female or “identify with the female gender,” and self-identified as having sexual attraction to children under the age of 14. The authors note that they excluded individuals who identify as male, and use the keywords “female pedophilia” and “female-perpetrated offenses” in their outline.

According to the paper, which published on August 17, “paraphilic interests in females, such as pedophilic interest, have been neglected in research” when compared to males. They also claim that research into the prevalence of pedophilia amongst females yielded results ranging from “0.4 to 9.6%.”

As research on women with pedophilic tendencies is rare, the study took a survey approach by asking participants questions about what caused them to be sexually attracted to minors and their experiences getting professional help. The study found that most participants believe past experiences, including abusive or non-abusive sexual experiences during childhood, likely caused their sexual interest in children.

In addition, 30% of participants noted that they’ve sought frequent help to treat their pedophilic tendencies but reported having negative experiences. Some in the sample reportedly asserted that “the destigmatization of [sexual interest in children]” was necessary for female pedophiles to seek professional help.

Of the 50 participants, 46 self-identified as “female assigned at birth.” Among them, 37 said they “identify with the female gender,” five said they “identify with the male and female gender,” four indicated that they identify with another gender or “no gender at all,” and, most notably, three admitted to being “assigned male at birth.”

One of the participants admitted to being in a romantic “relationship” with a minor aged 12, but the survey did not state that any safeguarding interventions were being pursued.

Although the study pointed to some limitations in collecting results, none referred to the study’s inclusion of males. Instead, the authors highlighted that the most significant obstacle was because the sample size was “small and not representative.”

The shocking decision to include trans-identified males in a study about female sexual deviance comes on the heels of multiple controversies surrounding the attribution of male crimes to women.

On social media, some women’s rights advocates have taken to utilizing the hashtag “notourcrimes” to call attention to instances where media or even law enforcement obfuscate the sex of a criminal.

One of the most egregious cases in recent months was covered by Reduxx in August after media reported that a “woman” in Ringwood, UK was arrested on charges including indecent exposure and the possession of child sexual abuse materials.

On August 11, Samantha Norris, 55, was taken into custody in connection to an indecent exposure incident in which two young girls had reported being targeted.

While details on the case were limited, Norris was ultimately charged with two counts of exposure but also faces a host of other disturbing charges including three counts of making indecent photographs/pseudo-photographs of a child, possession of a prohibited image of a child, and possession of an extreme pornographic image. 

But the disturbing story quickly began to raise suspicion amongst users on X (formerly Twitter) after some noticed inconsistencies in the local media coverage. Most outlets referred to Norris as a “female” or a “woman,” with others avoiding the use of any pronouns.

Many users on social media pointed out that the crimes Norris had been accused of are typically committed by males, and that it was very rare for a suspect accused of sexual crimes against children, especially those involving hoarding child sexual abuse materials, to be female. 

After being contacted by Reduxx, the arresting police force stated that Norris “identifies as a woman.” 

https://reduxx.info/german-study-on-female-pedophiles-included-trans-identified-male-participants/