In this mailing: Giulio Meotti: The Death of Free Speech: The West Veils Itself Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Insulting Religious Minorities Uzay Bulut: Turkey: Container Cities, Uprooting Alevis, Fear of Infiltrating Jihadis The Death of Free Speech: The West Veils Itself by Giulio Meotti  •  April 26, 2016 at 6:00 am The West has capitulated on freedom of expression. Nobody in the West launched the motto "Je Suis Avijit Roy," the name of the first of the several bloggers butchered, flogged or jailed last year for criticizing Islam. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, sided with the Turks. She condemned the German comedian's poem, called it a "deliberate insult," then approved the filing of criminal charges against him for insulting the Turkish president. The West is veiling its freedom of speech in the confrontation with the Islamic world: this is the story of Salman Rushdie, of the Danish cartoons, of Theo van Gogh, of Charlie Hebdo. Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, just released an interview with Italy's largest newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, where he suggested a kind of grand bargain: We Iranians will discuss with you our human rights situation, if you Europeans suppress freedom of expression on Islam. Theo van Gogh (left) was murdered by an Islamist because he made a film critical of Islam. Salman Rushdie (right) was lucky to stay alive, spending many years in hiding, under police protection, after Iran's Supreme Leader ordered his murder because he considered Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses "blasphemous." Last week, Nazimuddin Samad sat at his computer at home and penned a few critical lines against the Islamist drift of his country, Bangladesh. The day after, Samad was approached by four men shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("Allah is great!") and hacked him to death with machetes. These killings have become routine in Bangladesh, where many bloggers, journalists and publishers are being killed in broad daylight because of their criticism of Islam. There is a hit list with 84 names of "satanic bloggers." A wave of terrorism against journalists reminiscent of that in Algeria, where 60 journalists were killed by Islamist armed groups between 1993 and 1997. But these shocking killings have not been worth of a single line in Europe's newspapers. Continue Reading Article Palestinians: Insulting Religious Minorities by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  April 26, 2016 at 4:30 am The Samaritan incident reveals as well how the Palestinian Authority (PA) treats religious minorities in the Palestinian territories. The tiny community of Samaritans in the West Bank now faces a tough choice: continue living with the Palestinian Authority and accept its intimidation, or relocate to a safer locale. In yet another blow to Palestinian Christians, the PA recently rejected demands to consider Easter an official holiday. The PA has had a long-standing policy of combating "normalization" with Israelis, and this is but one unpleasant example. Yet this campaign is directed not only against Jewish settlers, but also against Jews who live inside Israel proper. Showing their true colors, the activists do not hesitate to attack even Jews who are supportive of the Palestinians. Thugs assaulted people indiscriminately, including film crews, European activists and even Palestinian participants. Pictured above: Samaritans near Nablus celebrate their Passover holiday in April 2014. What happens if you arrive at a religious ceremony and discover that your Jewish neighbors are also on the guest list? Well, if you are a representative of the Palestinian Authority (PA), you get up and leave. No matter if such a move insults your hosts: the main thing is not to sit with Jews, especially if they are from the settlements. This embarrassing incident took place last week near the Palestinian city of Nablus, where members of the tiny Samaritan community gathered to celebrate their own Passover. The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group in the Levant, originating from the Israelites of the ancient Near East. Things went well for about two minutes on Mount Gerizim, one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of Nablus. That was how long it took for the Palestinian guests to walk out in protest at the presence of representatives of the Jewish settler community and IDF officers. Continue Reading Article Turkey: Container Cities, Uprooting Alevis, Fear of Infiltrating Jihadis by Uzay Bulut  •  April 26, 2016 at 4:00 am "This is a policy of forcing Alevis to immigration and dissolving the Alevi population," said Gani Kaplan, the head of the Pir Sultan Abdal Alevi Cultural Association. "We are not against immigrants, but it is impossible for us to live alongside jihadists in the same village." The province of Sivas is also a terrible choice by the government to build another container city for "refugees": Alevis in Sivas have already been exposed to a deadly attack there at the hands of Islamists. "After the attempt to build a refugee camp in the middle of the Alevi villages... where the [1978] massacre happened -- is it a coincidence that you are building yet another refugee camp in the predominantly Alevi town of Divrigi in Sivas -- where the [1993] massacre... took place? What is the objective of all of that?" — Zeynep Altiok, an MP from the Republican People's Party (CHP). The denial of the Alevi faith seems to be an effective way of assimilating Alevis into the Islamic culture or making them "invisible." There are also other methods -- such as trying to change the demographic character of the predominantly Alevi places by building container cities in the middle of Alevi villages. Turkish gendarmerie forces attack Alevi villagers with tear gas near Maras, April 3, 2016. Since late February, locals from the predominantly-Alevi populated villages in the province of Kahramanmaras, or Maras, have been protesting government plans to build a "container city" (housing made from used shipping containers) in their villages supposedly for the Syrian "refugees." There are 16 Alevi villages in the region where the container city for "27,000 refugees" is being built by the Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD). The villagers are deeply concerned that militants might infiltrate, and that the container city "could be turned into a human resources department of jihadists such as ISIS and al-Nusra." The Alevis in Turkey are a persecuted religious minority who have been exposed to several massacres and deadly attacks -- in both the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. Continue Reading Article

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