Month: April 2025

Nigel Farage will face his biggest political test since the Brexit referendum at Thursday’s elections as his Reform UK party seeks to overturn the two-party Westminster establishment and build a base to bring populist governance to Downing Street.

Voters in England will head to the polls for the first time since last July on Thursday to decide the fate of over 1,600 council seats across 23 local authorities, six mayoralties, and the parliamentary constituency of Runcorn and Helsby.

The elections will allow citizens to give their verdict on the performance of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government and on the fledgling leadership of Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who was installed at the helm of the traditional party of government last November in the wake of its disastrous defeat to Starmer at the general election.

However, perhaps most significantly, the local contests will mark the first major test for Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party as it seeks to demonstrate that it is ready for prime time and capable of challenging the neo-liberal Westminster duopoly at the national level. The stars are electorally aligned for Farage and Reform: the pressure is on as his new party reaches its now-or-never moment.

Shortly before the snap elections called by failed Conservative PM Rishi Sunak last year, Mr Farage came out of retirement from frontline politics to spearhead Reform’s campaign. Yet, with just several weeks to run, the upstart party had little time to build out a national campaign and chose instead to focus on establishing a “beachhead” in Parliament.

The party succeeded on that front, winning 14 per cent of the vote with over four million votes, placing it in third place behind Labour and the Tories, and sending five candidates to the House of Commons, including Mr Farage for the first time in his long political career. While the first-past-the-post system hindered Reform, allowing the fourth-place Liberal Democrats to pick up more seats, it provided Reform with a platform in London to wage its first real campaign for this week’s local elections and build a national party infrastructure.

Just ten months on and the party has done just that, establishing local offices across the country and managing to field candidates for over 99 per cent of all races this week, more than any other party in England. Meanwhile, the party’s message, focusing on the detrimental effects of mass migration and the failures of the neo-liberal parties to deliver prosperity for the working class of the country, Reform has shot to the top of the polls, consistently outperforming both Labour and the Tories at the national level.

Another great poll showing @reformparty_uk leading

If you want change, vote for it! https://t.co/YYa3g4E3W2

— Richard Tice MP 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) April 30, 2025

Reform’s rise has not been without its controversy, however. The party has faced criticism from the online populist right over moves to sideline fan-favourite figures, such as former deputy leader Ben Habib, after he failed to win a seat in parliament last year.

Popular Reform MP Rupert Lowe was also suspended in March amid allegations he threatened party chairman Zia Yusuf. The allegations emerged shortly after Lowe had publicly criticised Farage’s leadership style, leading some to suggest that he was ousted over concerns that Lowe might seek to take over the party, given support expressed for such a coup by X boss Elon Musk.

Mr Farage also faced criticism over an interview with GB News, in which he stated that he was not interested in launching a mass deportation campaign if Reform wins the 2029 general election.

Perhaps in a bid to assuage concerns, the Reform boss recently vowed that if elected PM, he would establish a Ministry of Deportations with the sole focus of removing the estimated million-plus illegals living in the country.

Despite the controversies, the party has not suffered in the polls, as it has successfully managed to pull supporters away from both major parties, by taking advantage of the failures by Labour and the Tories to stem the tide of mass migration or turn around the struggling British economy, effectively squandering the opportunities that the Brexit independence from the European Union affords the UK.

The political landscape, in which there appears to be little difference between the two major parties, has created an opening for Farage and Reform. Indeed, top British pollster Sir John Curtice said last week that the country is on the precipice of “the biggest challenge to the political conventions of British politics since the 1920s,” which marked the last time an establishment party— the Liberals —collapsed in favour of the insurgent Labour Party bolstered by the support of the working class.

Professor Curtice predicted that Reform will win upwards of a “few hundred” seats on Thursday, while other projections have the Tories potentially losing over 500 seats. Yet, it is possible that fear of Farage’s rise could incentivise leftist and centrist voters to cast ballots tactically to try to stymie Reform as is frequently done against populist parties throughout Europe.

Farage has previously led other national campaigns, such as the 2019 European Parliament elections, the victory in which ultimately precipitated the collapse of the Theresa May Tory government.

However, this week’s elections will be his biggest political test since the 2016 EU referendum. A significant win will be crucial for building the momentum necessary to undertake the Herculean task of dethroning the establishment and finally delivering on the promises of Brexit.

At the launch of the campaign last month, Mr Farage said: “Nobody is pretending that any of this is easy, it isn’t. We are taking on the vested interests, we are taking on the establishment. What we’ve done already is truly historic, but I believe in our potential as the voice of the silent, ignored, put-upon, and frequently insulted silent majority of this country. I believe that we are their voice, and I believe that we can make history in a way that perhaps has never been seen before.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/04/30/england-elections-its-make-or-break-time-for-nigel-farage-and-reform-uk

A family in Germany is demanding accountability after the brutal death of artist Kamilla N., 40, who was murdered while voluntarily undergoing treatment at a Munich psychiatric facility.

Kamilla was staying at the Isar-Amper Clinic for treatment in May 2022 when she was placed next door to Jayson David B., a Brazilian national and former trans sex worker, who had been admitted the previous day under alarming circumstances.

According to reports, the trans man had killed his own dog and explicitly warned authorities, saying, “Next up is a human.”

Despite this threat, Jayson David B. was allowed to move freely within the locked ward, and early on May 31, 2022, he attacked Kamilla.

According to court findings, he struck her with a piece of a shower curtain rod and strangled her, believing she was a witch, as part of a delusional episode linked to his paranoid schizophrenia. The coroner ruled that she officially died from asphyxiation.

He then threw mattresses and bed linen over her body and set fire to it, even taping off the fire alarm.

Only when the alarm was eventually triggered did the clinic staff realize what had happened.

In 2023, the Munich Regional Court ruled that the Brazilian national could not be held criminally responsible due to his severe mental illness. He was convicted of manslaughter and permanently committed to a secure psychiatric institution.

The court acknowledged that Jayson David B. had believed he was acting on “orders from the devil” and was mentally unfit to stand trial for murder.

However, Kamilla’s family has not found peace and has fought to hold the clinic accountable, accusing the institution of gross negligence. Despite the trans killer’s known history of violence and explicit threats, he was not properly medicated, closely monitored, or restricted in his movements within the ward, the family argues.

“The clinic failed Kamilla,” said Wiarda in a statement to Bild. “A dangerously ill man was allowed to roam freely in a closed psychiatric ward, with insufficient supervision and medication. This was not just a medical error — it was a catastrophic breach of duty.”

The family’s legal efforts hit a wall in January 2024, when Munich prosecutors dropped an investigation into possible negligent homicide by clinic staff, citing insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. But, lawyers for the victim’s family say the investigation was superficial and failed to consider a private forensic report that identified “clear and serious treatment errors.”

“The public prosecutor never conducted an independent investigation,” lawyer Jella von Wiarda claims. She has since initiated legal enforcement proceedings with the Munich Higher Regional Court, seeking a reopening of the case.

“The family can no longer accept the inaction of the Munich judiciary,” Wiarda added. “They demand clarity — because what happened to Kamilla must never happen again.”

https://rmx.news/article/german-family-seeks-justice-after-daughter-murdered-by-schizophrenic-trans-brazilian-migrant-in-psychiatric-clinic/

As the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) prepares for its biennial Kirchentag conference from April 30 to May 4, 2025, the focus is less on Scripture and more on identity politics. With some 1,500 scheduled events, the gathering reads more like an activist festival than a spiritual retreat—featuring workshops on “queer animals on the Ark,” “feminist parenting,” and “critical whiteness.”

The “Queer Animals” event is actually intended as an “interactive worship experience” for kids and families. Presumably, German Evangelicals are perfectly happy with this sort of thing being taught to their children (if they have any). Maybe the story of Noah has undergone some form of imaginative reinterpretation—perhaps the lions are now non-binary?

For mothers seeking guidance, there’s “New Moms for Rebel Girls,” a session dedicated to feminist child-rearing strategies. It seems even parenting advice must now pass through the lens of ideological activism.

Another session, “Be Brave and Strong,” offers “empowerment” exclusively for BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) children. Presumably, “indigenous” does not mean “White European,” even in a German context. The workshop is led by a self-described “anti-racism and empowerment trainer.”.

Those not “affected by racism” are invited to attend a three-hour workshop on “Critical Whiteness”—a guilt-heavy exercise for those born with the wrong skin tone. Meanwhile, diversity-themed games and readings will occupy a full day, featuring books and stories like “Simply Nina”, which charts the journey of a child who “feels trapped in the wrong body.”

While the Church invests its energy in this sort of ideological rebranding, its pews are emptying fast. In 2024 alone, EKD membership dropped by 586,000 to around 18 million. In 2003, by comparison, there were over 25 million. The decline shows no sign of slowing.

Once a spiritual anchor for millions, the Protestant Church in Germany now seems more preoccupied with progressive social engineering than with preaching the Gospel. Whether hosting drag queens on the Ark or dismantling the concept of sin in favor of intersectionality, the EKD is rapidly becoming a parody of its former self—one workshop at a time.

Germany’s Evangelical Church Pushes Woke Agenda as Congregations Vanish ━ The European Conservative

NHS staff have been encouraged by top management to fast for Ramadan, to display ‘allyship’ with Muslim colleagues.

The ‘NHS Ramadan Challenge’ called on NHS staff to join Muslims in fasting during the Islamic holy month in a poster circulated to NHS staff.

The poster included a message from NHS Chief Strategy Officer Chris Hopson, also the ‘Executive Sponsor’ of the NHS Muslim Network, who wrote: “I am pleased to be taking part in the #NHSRamadanChallenge, to show my allyship to all our Muslim colleagues in the NHS.

“I am doing so to create awareness of this holy month for Muslims and to thank our Muslim colleagues in the NHS for all their efforts and hard work.”

One of Britain’s highest paid civil servants in 2022, Hopson finished by calling on staff to “join me in showing allyship to our Muslim colleagues – one idea would be for you to fast for a day of your choice in Ramadan”.

On why staff should take part, the poster, created by the NHS Muslim Network, read: “[You should] take part to understand and experience how Muslims feel when they are fasting for Ramadan.

“It’s a great way to show allyship, gratitude, and to experience what the less fortunate go through.”

The poster was published in 2023. Hopson also spoke at the Network’s Eid Al Fitr event at the end of Ramadan, attended by other senior NHS figures.

The NHS allows its staff to band together and form ‘staff networks’. The NHS Muslim Network is one such initiative. Each network must find a sponsor among NHS Executives, with Hopson being theirs.

Its stated vision is of “inspiring, celebrating and championing the contribution of the NHS Muslim community” and among its stated aims are “increasing awareness about Islam/Muslims within the NHS and challenging Islamophobia”.

The Network provides a support package for Muslim members of staff, which includes talent development webinars, career development support, allyship webinars, a ‘How to be a better Muslim’ series, Islamic support and events.

GB News has revealed a guide produced by the Network, which detailed the process of conversion to Islam for ‘New Muslims’ was circulated among NHS staff.

The NHS Muslim Network have published other guidance, including a guide named ‘New to Hijab’, ‘A basic guide to Islam’ and a guide to ‘Allyship’ for colleagues who are not Muslim.

The group has received at least £2,655 in 2022/23 in public money, the Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed. GB News awaits further information on any funds it may have received in other years.

The Network is ran by NHS staff who are allocated ‘protected time’ away from their regular duties to work on it. The NHS recommends a minimum of two days a month for this.

In a message to the NHS Muslim Network’s membership for Eid 2024, Chris Hopson congratulated the Network for “growing the membership”, remarking on how they had “outgrown” their event venues.

He told the Network “I love working with you”, then congratulated them for “incorporating allies” (non-Muslim members of staff) to help expand the Network and further its aims.

The NHS waiting list had reached nearly 7.5 million by December 2024, which consisted of 6.2 million patients across Britain. Of those, more than three million had been waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment.

In response to these revelations about the New Muslim Guidance, reverse mentoring scheme and the Network’s events, NHS England said: “Senior NHS England managers regularly engage with staff across the entire NHS workforce to hear and understand their experiences of working in the NHS, in order to provide better care for patients.

“We are a diverse country and that is reflected in the NHS workforce – it’s vital that we make sure all our staff feel included so we can recruit and retain an NHS workforce that is as productive as possible.”

The NHS Muslim Network is under new leadership who claim they were unaware of the guidance. The Network says it is reviewing its guidance and developing a new strategy to support Muslim colleagues across the NHS.

On the NHS Ramadan Challenge, NHS England said: “It is obviously entirely reasonable for NHS staff to take part in Ramadan if they would like to – including as a way to recognise the tens of thousands of Muslims working in the health service.”

https://www.gbnews.com/news/nhs-fast-for-ramadan

Prof. Robert Adam has been a leading figure in traditional and classical architecture for 25 years. In 1992 he founded ADAM Architecture, now Europe’s largest practice specialising in traditional design. He has written six books including the leading textbook on classical architecture. An architect favoured by King Charles III, Prof. Adam was a key designer and consultant on the Poundbury development in Dorset, a project championed by the Prince of Wales (now King Charles III). This speech was delivered at the New Culture Forum’s regional #NCFLocals conference: “A Celebration of England – Magna Carta and the Making of the English”, held in Salisbury in March 2025.

Friedrich Merz, CDU leader and Germany’s incoming chancellor, issued a stark warning on April 28th about the state of democracy in his country. He declared that “trust in our democratic system is damaged like never before in our post-war history.” Speaking in Berlin at the event to ratify the new coalition agreement, Merz painted a bleak picture, saying that “the pillars we have relied on for decades are now faltering around us.”

The most recent survey on trust in democracy within the European Union, Flash Eurobarometer 550, conducted between June 25th and July 2nd, 2024, shows that 55% of EU citizens have confidence in democracy remaining strong in the EU over the next five years, while 41% expressed some level of distrust. In other words, four out of ten Europeans have no trust not in democracy as such, but rather European institutions. Establishment political leaders tend not to make this distinction, preferring to avoid uncomfortable questions.

The CDU leader did not hesitate to point to multiple threats: an imperialist war in Eastern Europe—a reference to Russia—but also growing domestic discontent, with citizens described as “frightened, insecure, and even radicalized.” Merz warned that Germany faces real risks of sabotage and disinformation campaigns orchestrated from Moscow, calling for a “determined defense of our democracy against those who seek to divide Europe.”

However, while paying lip service to the defense of Europe and the need for leadership, Merz has chosen a path that some observers label pragmatic, but many see as a sign of weakness: a coalition pact with the Social Democratic Party (SPD). After the February 23rd elections, in which the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) surged to become the second-largest political force with over 20% of the vote, Merz concluded an agreement with CDU’s traditional adversaries to form a “grand coalition” that should see him elected chancellor on May 6th.

It is worth noting that according to the latest opinion polls, AfD has now overtaken the CDU.

Pacts to save Europe … or to save power?

Merz has justified the agreement as a necessary evil to preserve national stability and prevent the further rise of political extremes. “This is not the time for euphoria,” he told his supporters, asserting that Germany must once again “assume leadership responsibility” within the European Union. His stated priorities include increasing defense spending, modernizing infrastructure, and implementing stimulus measures for a weakened economy.

His government, which will include figures like Johann Wadephul, a former soldier and strong supporter of Ukraine, promises to strengthen the Atlantic alliance. However, Merz warned that with Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency, “we can no longer automatically rely on the transatlantic relationship.” This has reinforced the CDU narrative of a more autonomous Europe, although the lack of specifics regarding his European defense proposals raises doubts among more critical sectors.

The CDU-SPD coalition represents an attempt to avoid political chaos, but at the same time it dilutes the conservative profile that many voters had hoped for following Merz’s electoral victory. Rather than a clear change of direction, Germany seems to be heading towards a nuanced continuity, where centrist consensus prevails over a recovery of firm values.

However, Merz himself admitted that if the new government fails to meet the demands of the majority of voters, Germany could end up in a situation where “perhaps at some point we are no longer able to govern.” This admission highlights the fragility of the balance achieved. Both within the AfD and other sectors, there is growing hope for early elections by 2027.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/merz-warns-of-democratic-crisis-as-he-seals-pact-with-the-socialists/

Social welfare fraud can now be added to the long list of reasons mass immigration has been a disaster for Austria, with the country experiencing 4,865 such cases last year. Alarmingly, nearly all such fraud is committed by foreigners.

Since 2018, the Social Benefits Fraud Task Force (SOLBE) has uncovered fraud with social benefits totaling €135.6 million. Of those cases, 70 percent of suspects are foreigners. However, if we factor in that many of the Austrians committing the crime also have a foreign background, it is clear that this is overwhelmingly a type of fraud committed by foreigners and Austrians with a foreign background.

“More than 70 percent of the suspects are not Austrian citizens,” said Gerald Tatzgern, head of the department for combating welfare fraud. One common form of fraud is couples registering at different apartments to receive higher benefits, while still living in the same house or apartment.

Numerous shocking cases abound. For example, one Bosnian mane was receiving €1,250 a month in social security benefits every month while renting out a number of condos in his home country and making healthy profits. In that case, taxpayers lost a total of €100,000.

“When important social systems are abused, the police and tax authorities take consistent action against the perpetrators,” said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.

The majority of cases, 2,626, were discovered in Vienna, while the second-most cases were in Lower Austria, totaling 508. The agency has investigated 25,156 cases since it was founded in 2018.

he number of foreigners committing such fraud is truly astounding, as the share of foreigners is only 16.2 percent in the whole population. Of the Austrians listed as committing social welfare fraud, many of them also have a foreign background as well, but clear data on this not available.

Austria, however, does not want to get rid of its social welfare system, even if a huge share is going to foreigners, many who never even worked in the country.

“Through its investigations, the Social Benefits Fraud Task Force ensures that social systems remain fair and available to those who actually need them,” said Karner.

The task force is also releasing information campaigns to help the public become more aware of social welfare fraud, as well as encouraging the public to provide anonymous tips on the web.

However, welfare fraud is often difficult to track, which means there are far more cases that go undetected.

In addition, welfare fraud is far from the only problem caused by Austria’s exploding migrant population. Crime statistics just released this month show that an incredible 46.8 percent of all crime suspects in the country are foreigners.

As reported by Kurier, Criminal reports involving children aged 10 to 14 have doubled in recent years, reaching 12,049 in 2024. The proportion of non-Austrian suspects in this age group stands at 48 percent. Karner said reports involving Syrian minors had “practically increased tenfold,” jumping from 150 in 2020 to around 1,000 last year.

“You have to address the facts clearly and distinctly. The number of complaints by Syrian suspects stands out,” Karner said earlier this month.

Germany also rife with welfare fraud

Neighboring Germany is also suffering from such welfare fraud cases. In one cases, hundreds of thousands of euros in benefits were sent to a migrant clan family that was already earning millions form illicit activities.

In the small German city of Braunschweig, asylum seekers, mostly from Sudan, were accused of committing benefit fraud worth millions. The “record holder” in that case had 12 identities which he rotated to receive benefits under each new name. Authorities in the city were pursuing 300 different cases just in 2017 alone.

According to the government report, the refugees registered several times at the state reception center in Braunschweig. Realizing they could gain benefits under different names, they would give themselves at least three to four different identities.

“Sometimes they grow a beard, sometimes they put on glasses, sometimes their hair is shorter — they always have different surnames,” said SOKO director Jörn Memenga. 

In another case from 2018, a criminal syndicate helped Nigerian immigrants gain residency by offering Berlin authorities fake papers. Despite repeated internal warnings, the immigration reportedly continued approving the applications for years.

Migrants in Germany are also participating in fake marriages and earning serious money doing it in exchange for helping these “wives” to obtain residence permits in Germany. Not only that, but the new “fake” fathers of these children then receives child welfare benefits for each child. One of them, a Nigerian migrant who named himself “Mr. Cash Money,” had 22 wives and was earning tens of thousands euros through his scheme through child welfare payments. Jonathan A., which is his real name, is far from the only one, and authorities estimate there have been tens of thousands of such cases in recent years.

Austrians getting robbed blind: Nearly all welfare fraud cases are committed by foreigners

Former rock star turned podcast firebrand Winston Marshall amazed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt when he asked her if President Donald Trump would consider giving asylum to U.K. citizens who have had their free speech cancelled after being arrested for social media posts deemed “hate speech.”

Over the past decade, the UK government has ramped up so-called “hate crime” arrests and incarcerated thousands of citizens for posts on social media. This growing intolerance for free speech by British authorities sent former Mumford & Sons rocker Winston Marshall to plead for relief for his fellow countrymen.

Marshall, who quit the band in 2021, was on hand during Monday’s White House presser and he had a very interesting question for the press secretary, according to the New York Post.

He noted that scores of Brits are facing “extensive prison sentences for tweets, social media posts and general free speech issues” and then had a question for Leavitt.

“Would the Trump administration consider asylum for British citizens in such a situation?” he asked.

Will the Trump administration consider political asylum for British Citizens prosecuted for speech? I asked @PressSec Karoline Leavitt and this was her response: pic.twitter.com/UDZcc6OB4A

— Winston Marshall (@MrWinMarshall) April 28, 2025

Leavitt seemed a bit taken aback by the question, and replied, “I have not heard that proposed to the president nor have I spoken to him about that idea, but I certainly can talk to our national security team and see if it’s something the administration would entertain.”

British authorities have been engaging in a serious curtailing of free speech in the UK in a supposed effort to stop “extremism” there.

In February, Vice President JD Vance lamented the loss of free speech, not just in the UK, but all across Europe. “In Britain and across Europe free speech, I fear, is in retreat.,” he said in a speech in Germany where he took European elites to task for the “shocking” censorship that he feels threatens western civilization.

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2025/04/29/former-mumford-sons-rocker-winston-marshall-asks-if-trump-will-give-asylum-to-brits-arrested-for-hate-speech

The Hungarian parliament has voted in favour of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), finishing a process initiated earlier in April by the government.

“With this decision, we refuse to remain part of a politicised institution that has lost its impartiality and credibility,” Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said on  X on April 29.

The parliamentary vote earlier the same day followed a government resolution issued on April 3, which authorised Hungary’s withdrawal from both the Statute of the ICC and the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the Court.

According to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the ICC was “a respectable initiative” but in recent times it had become a “political body”.

The announcement of Hungary’s intention to exit the ICC had quickly drawn criticism from European lawmakers.

On April 4, the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament condemned the move and urged the European Commission to take action against Hungary.

“The Renew Europe Group demands immediate action from the European Commission, including under Articles 2 and 7 of the Treaty on European Union,” the group wrote in a statement.

It warned that the decision “further isolates Hungary from the European legal order and undermines the EU’s commitment to human rights and accountability.”

Valérie Hayer, President of the Renew Europe Group, was especially critical: “Orbán’s decision to withdraw Hungary from the ICC is a disgrace and an attack on the rule of law,” she said.

“This action not only undermines international justice but also violates the EU’s legal framework, to which Hungary is bound,” she added.

Hungary had long maintained a sceptical stance on the ICC.

Following it issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hungary declined to take action when the Israeli PM visited Budapest on April 3, arguing that it was under no legal obligation to do so.

Orbán clarified that Hungary had never formally incorporated the ICC treaty into its domestic legal system.

“Even if we had wanted to comply, we couldn’t have instructed the police to act. Hungary never promulgated this international treaty into national law.” Orbán said at the time.

https://brusselssignal.eu/2025/04/hungary-votes-to-leave-politicised-institution-international-criminal-court/

By Sha’i ben-Tekoa

Why do Arabs chop off hands? The short answer to the question is that they suffer from a chronic plague of theft, a perennial social disease in their culture. The hand-chopping is an effort to limit the behavior. Not only is there no conscience in the culture to suppress the urge to steal, but there is even admiration for the thief who gets away with his crime. That admiration goes to the very roots of Islam.

In 1939, a year judged by cineasts to be Hollywood’s greatest year ever, one film was The Thief of Baghdad with its state-of-the-art special effects and a story drawn from A Thousand and One Nights, whose title character is a winsome little street thief played by the Indian actor Sabu. Folklorists are familiar with such folk tales, in many cultures, of the rascal, the trickster.

But no less normative in Araby is the despot stealing the wealth of the people he dominates. Commonly, when his people have had enough of his abuse and rise up, as we recently saw when Syria’s Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus, he takes all the wealth that he had looted. In 2011’s Arab Spring, Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was reported to have fled the country with truckloads of gold bullion. And after Israel assassinated Hamas kingpin Isma’il Haniyeh, last year, we learned that he had become a billionaire.

Thousands of years ago, the Sages of the Jewish people read in their Torah that even before his birth, Abraham’s first-born son Ishmael, whom he sired with his wife’s Hamitic handmaiden, had been prophesied to be a “wild ass of a man.” As a sixteen-year-old, Abraham, acting at his wife’s behest, expelled Ishmael because Sarah had watched Ishmael fulfill the prophecy as he grew. She had a premonition that, when her aged husband passed, Ishmael would be capable of murdering her son, Isaac, to steal all of Abraham’s wealth, material and spiritual. In the Midrashic literature of the Sages, Ishmael’s essential character is described as that of a thief.

In 11th-century France, Rashi, the greatest of Biblical exegetes, commented on Ishmael’s expulsion, and on the fact that he did not accompany his mother back to her native, superpower country, Egypt. He preferred the life of an outlaw and went off into the Desert of Paran armed with a bow and arrow, becoming an armed robber.

By Rashi’s century, the age of the Crusades, it was common knowledge that the Middle East was rife with nomadic bands of Arabs who preyed upon innocent travelers crossing their deserts, besides raiding other tribes. Armed robbery was a way of life for the Arabs for thousands of years. Gertrude Bell, the amateur English Arab expert, who drafted the boundaries of the modern state of Iraq, wrote of these raids, which she enjoyed watching like a spectator at a tennis match.

In the 6th century, Ishmael’s descendant, Muhammed, was born. Some scholars believe Muhammed had the brains to see the difference between his idolatrous, illiterate tribesmen and the Jews, who worshipped an invisible God, were literate, and who lived according to written laws in a book. Therefore, he tried to learn Judaism.

It’s a reasonable hypothesis given that there is so much Jewish material—both from the Torah and the Talmud—plagiarized in the pages of the Koran. Some scholars believe he entered a yeshiva in Mecca, but he was such a problematic personality and character that the rabbis expelled him as Abraham expelled Ishmael.

The result? A Koran replete with dozens of Torah characters and narratives, with significant alterations. When Muslims are asked to explain the discrepancies between the different versions of the same episodes, they’ll say the Jews stole the stories from Islam and changed them. And when confronted with the fact that the Biblical canon was closed roughly a thousand years before Muhammad was born, they’ll offer a fairy tale explanation fit for inclusion in A Thousand and One Nights.

In the 7th century, when the Arabs invaded the Biblical Promised Land, they sealed the conquest by overrunning the Jews’ Temple Mount. There, they built a “war memorial” in the spirit of the Arch of Titus in Rome for the emperor’s victory over the Jews. The golden Dome of the Rock, still there, sits on the very site of the Jews’ First Temple that had stood for 410 years, and the Second Temple for 418 years. The Dome of the Rock symbolizes Islam’s conquest, not just of the Jews, but of Judaism itself, with their corrupt version triumphing over the original.

Islamic law also requires Believers in the One True Faith to visit Mecca and circumnavigate the spot where Ibrahim (the mispronunciation of the Biblical Abraham) bound his son Isma’il (the erasure of the Biblical Isaac) for a sacrifice. That version implicitly concretizes the basic Islamic belief that the Jews stole this story and changed it, replacing Ishmael with Isaac. Moreover, they argue that this world-famous religious episode did not take place, as the lying Jews claim, in Jerusalem, but in Mecca.

No less, in 1963, the Oscar for Best Picture went to David Lean’s cinematic (if not historical) masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. In a pivotal scene, Lawrence finally gets the illiterate, tribal Arabs to attack a Turkish troop train, which they blow off the tracks, wrecking it completely. They then loot it, with each one finding some object that he fancies and wandering off with it.

Lawrence is shocked. He calls them to return for another operation. He thought he had recruited them for the noble cause of freedom from Turkish rule, but now understood they attacked just for the booty.

Lastly, the latest iteration of the Arab predilection for theft is their 20th-century invention of the verbal hologram of “Palestinians.” They use this stolen word (which always applied to the Jews who remained in Israel after Judea’s fall to Rome) to claim that they are the ancient, authentic, indigenous people of Palestine, dispossessed by the thieving Jews. This nonsense is what festers in the cracked brains of the ignorant, Jew-hating morons these days in their mobs chanting “Free, Free Palestine!”

This is Islam, a religion of theft that preaches that Believers have the right to overrun all the world’s peoples and destroy their religions.

Islam is a predatory culture afflicted with the uncontrollable appetite to steal what belongs to others, an urge it disguises as a divine command. It is a religion of theft.

And so, since they have a problem with thievery, it makes sense they are the only society in the world that lops off hands as punishment for theft—it is that serious a problem—a punishment prescribed by a legal system fit for a Stone Age people.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/04/why_do_arabs_chop_off_hands.html