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In this mailing:
by Soeren Kern
• November 16, 2015 at 6:00 am
- French leaders
consistently act in ways that undermine their stated goal of
eradicating Islamic terror.
- Critics of the
policy say "Daesh" is a politically correct linguistic
device that allows Western leaders to claim that the Islamic State
is not Islamic -- and thus ignore the root cause of Islamic terror and
militant jihad.
- French leaders
have also been consistently antagonistic toward Israel, a country
facing Islamic terror on a daily basis. France is leading
international diplomatic efforts to push for a UN resolution that
would lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state
within a period of two years. The move effectively whitewashes
Palestinian terror.
- French critics
of Islam are routinely harassed with strategic lawsuits that seek to
censor, intimidate and silence them. In a recent case, Sébastien
Jallamion, a 43-year-old policeman from Lyon was suspended from his
job and fined 5,000 euros after he condemned the death of Frenchman
Hervé Gourdel, who was beheaded by jihadists in Algeria.
- "Those who
denounce the illegal behavior of fundamentalists are more likely to
be sued than the fundamentalists who behave illegally." —
Marine Le Pen, leader of France's Front National.
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After the January 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris,
France's President François Hollande declared: "We must reject
facile thinking and eschew exaggeration. Those who committed these
terrorist acts, those terrorists, those fanatics, have nothing to do
with the Muslim religion."
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French President François Hollande has vowed to avenge the November
13 jihadist attacks in Paris that left more than 120 dead and 350
injured.
Speaking from the Élysée Palace, Hollande blamed the Islamic State
for the attacks, which he called an "act of war." He said the
response from France would be "unforgiving" and
"merciless."
Despite the tough rhetoric, however, the question remains: Does
Hollande understand the true nature of the war he faces?
Hollande pointedly referred to the Islamic State as
"Daesh," the acronym of the group's full Arabic name, which in
English translates as "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,"
or "ISIL."
The official policy of the French government is to avoid using the
term "Islamic State" because, according to French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius, it "blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims
and Islamists."
by Burak Bekdil
• November 16, 2015 at 4:00 am
- In President
Erdogan's mindset, his party's landslide election victory not only
gives him a mandate to rule, but also to crush "the
other."
- Meanwhile,
Erdogan's Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, wants to clean up
Turkey's worsening image in the West. But not by upholding universal
values, protecting civil liberties and media freedoms and respecting
pluralism. He wants to do it by hiring a Western public relations
firm.
- A recent study
found that 80% of minorities in Turkey cannot openly express
themselves on social media; and 35% say they are subject to hate
speech.
- Erdogan cannot
"buy" respect or "force" others to respect him.
He can only "earn" respect -- something he clearly has no
intention of doing.
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Under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
(right) and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (left), Turkey has been
systematically intimidating the critical press, usually through police
operations and/or court verdicts.
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On November 1, nearly half the Turks (49.4%) gave President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist government a ballot box license to
strangle the other half. He will be only too happy to use that license
aggressively.
Only five years ago, Turkey was being universally (and wrongly)
portrayed as a success story, bringing together conservative Islam and
democracy. Today, Turkey boasts one of the worst records of human rights
and civil liberties -- including abuses of media freedom -- among
countries tied by some kind of bond to Western institutions such as NATO
and the European Union (EU). Erdogan hates pluralism. He embraces simple
majoritarianism -- so long as he wins the biggest share of the vote.
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