Sunday, April 30, 2017

Alaskan Man Is Feeding A Huge Flock Of Bald Eagles, Then The Camera Pans Left…

Alaskan Man Is Feeding A Huge Flock Of Bald Eagles, Then The Camera Pans Left…

How does he get them to flock right at his feet?!
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When have you ever seen some three dozen bald eagles in one place at one time?
Bald eagles are rare, fascinating creatures. For most people, spotting one of these dignified birds in the wild is a stroke of luck, and unless they’re at a zoo, interacting with them is almost unheard of.
That’s not the case for Alaskan fisherman Jessie Peek, though, who claims that seeing the majestic birds up close is “just another day in Alaska.” If you don’t believe him, watch how he gets a bunch of bald eagles to flock right to his feet…

Wow, to think that this is just an everyday event for some people!


Europe: What Happens to Christians There Will Come Here

In this mailing:
  • Giulio Meotti: Europe: What Happens to Christians There Will Come Here
  • Amir George: "The Judeo-Christian Community"
  • Arnab Goswami: Ethnic Slaughter in Bangladesh

Europe: What Happens to Christians There Will Come Here

by Giulio Meotti  •  April 30, 2017 at 5:00 am
  • "Be careful, be very careful. What has happened here will come to you." — An elderly priest in Iraq, to Father Benedict Kiely.
  • Last year, more than 90,000 people chose to drop out of the Church of Sweden -- almost twice as many as the year before. Meanwhile, in one year, 163,000 migrants, most of them Muslim, entered the country.
  • "Shouldn't the issue of Middle Eastern Christians wake up European civilization to its core identity? Shouldn't we in Europe and the West be telling ourselves that these attacks are also aimed at us?" — Mathieu Bock-Côté, in Le Figaro.
The Catholic Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, headed by Archbishop Leo Cushley (right), is planning to cut the number of parishes from more than 100 to 30. (Image source: Lawrence OP/Flickr)
"I fear we are approaching a situation resembling the tragic fate of Christianity in Northern Africa in Islam's early days", a Lutheran bishop, Jobst Schoene, warned a few years ago.
In ancient times, Algeria and Tunisia, entirely Christian, gave us great thinkers such as Tertullian and Augustine. Two centuries later, Christianity has disappeared, replaced by Arab-Islamic civilization.
Is Europe now meeting the same fate?
In the Middle East, "Christianity is over in Iraq" due to Islamic extremism; in Europe, Christianity is committing suicide.
Within 20 years, more babies will be born to Muslim women than to Christian women world-wide; it is just the latest sign of the rapid growth that seems to be making Islam the world's largest religion by the end of the century, according to a new study released by the Pew Research Center.
"Christianity is literally dying in Europe," said Conrad Hackett, the head of the researchers who worked on the Pew report.

"The Judeo-Christian Community"

by Amir George  •  April 30, 2017 at 4:30 am
  • "We hear day and night, 'the Muslim community' and 'Muslim-majority nations.'"
  • "Why, then, cannot we use 'the Judeo-Christian community' or 'Judeo-Christian majority nations'?"
  • "If we do not look after us, someone else will. But we may not like what comes out."
The Iraqi desert (illustrative). Image source: U.S. Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. James B. Hoke.
Seeing Turkey's election this month, in which the Turks used their democratic freedom to vote themselves out of their democratic freedom -- just to throw it out -- should remind us that the Judeo-Christian values which we take for granted are more fragile than we may have thought.
Shortly after the liberation of Iraq in 2003, the only way to get into immediate postwar Baghdad was to get a ride in Amman, Jordan, and take it across the desert to Iraq.
A bulletin board in Jordan's Amman Intercontinental Hotel would list who was going to Baghdad and we all hitched rides with whomever we could get.
So, on a crazy trip, the well-known "Baghdad Dash," three of us crammed into a tiny, not so cool-looking car and made our way across the desert.
Halfway, the engine stopped. In typical Mohammedan fashion, the driver said "Insha' Allah" ("God's will"), got out of the car and walked off.

Ethnic Slaughter in Bangladesh

by Arnab Goswami  •  April 30, 2017 at 4:00 am
  • Last year, the police themselves set fire to about 3,000 houses of minority people.
  • Most recently, the Bangladesh Army killed Romel Chakma, an indigenous student leader. He was only 18 and had one eye. There was not even a case filed against him to make the arrest. The army decided to pour kerosene over his dead body and set it on fire.
  • The government forced the media to bury the news.
  • What is most perplexing is the silence of the international media and so-called humanitarian organisations.
Romel Chakma. (Image source: Arnab Goswami's Blog)
The Bangladesh government at present is carrying out atrocities against religious and ethnic minorities. Some foreign organisations helped me to flee to safety in Germany after nine of my colleagues were hacked to death by extremists.
Unfortunately, all the minorities of the country are not as fortunate. Last year, the police themselves set fire to about 3,000 houses of minority people. Most recently, the Bangladesh Army killed Romel Chakma, an indigenous student leader. He was only 18 and had one eye. The army decided to pour Kerosene over his dead body and set it on fire.
The government forced the media to bury the news. It is different in Bangladesh; nobody cares about minority people anyway.
What is most perplexing is the silence of the international media and so-called humanitarian organisations. Please let the world know about the realities in Bangladesh.
This is an article on the murder. It contains the links to the murder news covered.
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Robert Spencer: Michigan FGM Trial Could Be Test Case for Whether Religious Freedom Overrides Duty to Obey Other Laws

Robert Spencer: Michigan FGM Trial Could Be Test Case for Whether Religious Freedom Overrides Duty to Obey Other Laws




CNN reported last Wednesday that “two Michigan doctors and a medical office manager were indicted Wednesday by a Detroit grand jury in the first federal female genital mutilation case in the United States.” In an audacious move, Mary Chartier, the attorney for one of the doctors, Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, is basing her defense upon “Islamophobia.”

Chartier said: “I do believe that the government does not fully understand the religious practices of Dr. Attar and Dr. Attar’s religion, and I think that’s why we are in this courthouse today, and what we’ll be fighting over for the next few months.”

Indeed: the government is likely clueless as to the Islamic justifications for female genital mutilation.

But the key point here is that she is apparently basing her defense upon the Muslim identity of the defendants. In this, Chartier is getting right to the heart of the matter: apparently she intends to argue that female genital mutilation (contrary to constantly repeated establishment media myth) is justified in Islam, and that therefore Dr. Attar was just exercising his freedom of religion.

If that is really what she intends to do, this will become a test case for the spread of Sharia practices in the U.S.: either Muslims will be allowed to violate existing U.S. laws under the rubric of the freedom of religion, or they will be called upon to obey U.S. laws even when those laws conflict with the teachings of Islam. If the court rules for the latter, the U.S. will have a chance to continue to exist as a free society. If the court rules for the former, it will be opening the door to all manner of jihad activity and Sharia practices that violate laws regarding equality of rights and equality of access to services, and no one will be able to say a word against the spread of Sharia in the U.S.

Chartier also said: “They have a religious belief to practice their religion. And they are Muslims and they’re being under attack because of it. I believe that they are being persecuted because of their religious beliefs and I do not make that allegation lightly.”

No, they’re “being under attack” for mutilating girls’ genitals. But Chartier is right: female genital mutilation is indeed sanctioned in Islam. A manual of Islamic law certified by Cairo’s al-Azhar as conforming to the “practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community” says this: “Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) (by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the bazr ‘clitoris’ [this is called khufaadh ‘female circumcision’]).” — ‘Umdat al-Salik e4.3, translated by Mark Durie, The Third Choice, p. 64
Why is it obligatory? Because Muhammad is held to have said so: “Abu al- Malih ibn Usama’s father relates that the Prophet said: ‘Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.’” — Ahmad Ibn Hanbal 5:75

“Narrated Umm Atiyyah al-Ansariyyah: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: ‘Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.’” — Abu Dawud 41:5251

“Do not cut severely,” but not “Do not cut.”

That’s why it is so common around the world. A Muslim cleric in Russia said that “all women should be circumcised.” A Muslim cleric in India likewise urged that it be done. A Muslim cleric in Australia said that Islamic law permitted the practice. A leading U.S. Muslim jurist from the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA) said it was an “honor” in Islam. A marabout — a Muslim holy man — was arrested in France for having it done on his daughters. In the UK, there were 5,500 cases of FGM in 2016 alone. It is commonly claimed to be an East African problem, but 93% of Muslim women in Malaysia have suffered this procedure, and it is common in Indonesia. In one province in Iran, 60% of the women have suffered FGM.

It is certain to become increasingly common in the United States. And if Mary Chartier succeeds, it will become legal, as a matter of freedom of religion. That’s why this case bears close watching: it could establish whether the freedom of religion overrides all obligation to obey other American laws. And that would truly open the floodgates for Sharia.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.


German Parliament bans full-face Islamic veil

German Parliament bans full-face Islamic veil


It’s referred to as a “burqa” in this story, as in all media stories about these matters, but the niqab is much more common in Germany and the West in general. In any case, watch for charges of “Islamophobia” even against this small and essentially symbolic measure. Defending one’s nation and culture is racism and Islamophobia, you know.


“German Parliament Bans Burqa, Approves Ankle Tags On Terror Suspects,” by Jacob Bojesson, Daily Caller, April 28, 2017:
German lawmakers approved a partial ban on the full-face Islamic burqa Thursday along with a number of security measures.
The ban will only apply to public servants — including election officials, judges and soldiers — performing their duties.
“The state has a duty to present itself in an ideologically and religiously neutral manner,” the text of the law reads.
The law will now have to pass the lower house before being implemented. A number of European countries — such as France, Switzerland and the Netherlands — have imposed similar restrictions in recent years.
“Integration also means that we should make clear and impart our values and where the boundaries lie of our tolerance toward other cultures,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said, according to Deutsche Welle. “The draft law we have agreed on makes an important contribution to that.”
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union have pushed for a burqa ban “wherever it is legally possible.”
“The full-face veil is not acceptable in our country,” Merkel told delegates at a party conference in December. “It should be banned, wherever it is legally possible.”…

The Ugly Truth About Justin Trudeau | Ezra Levant and Stefan Molyneux

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Smokescreens in Islam: Confusing the Public about the Facts

In this mailing:
  • Denis MacEoin: Smokescreens in Islam: Confusing the Public about the Facts
  • Mohshin Habib: Saudi Arabia's 'Lavish' Gift to Indonesia: Radical Islam

Smokescreens in Islam: Confusing the Public about the Facts

by Denis MacEoin  •  April 29, 2017 at 5:00 am
  • Qadri's admirable take on terrorism conceals another large elephant in the room. Islam has for centuries used violence against non-Muslims in what is considered a legitimate manner: through jihad. It is not simply that Muslim armies have fought their enemies much as Christian armies have engaged in war. Jihad is commanded in the later verses of the Qur'an, is endorsed in the Traditions and the biography of Muhammad, and codified in the manuals of shari'a law. Qadri knows this perfectly well, and at times inadvertently reveals as much in several ways.
  • Qadri does not just insist that Islam is a religion of peace and security. By tucking all references to jihad in footnotes in transliterated Arabic, he never has to explain what it is about and how it relates to his rulings on what is and what is not permissible.
  • It is hard to be a reasonably knowledgeable Muslim and not know that calls for violence pervade the Qur'an and sacred traditions, or that Islamic armies have been fighting European Christians, Indian Hindus, and others since the 7th century.
  • Islam, after all, conquered Persia, Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East, Greece, Spain and most of Eastern Europe -- until its armies were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1863.
When Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri conceals important information and distorts Arabic vocabulary in order to drive home a narrative of Islam's deep connection to peace and security, he is engaged in setting up a smokescreen. (Image source: ServingIslam/Wikimedia Commons)
Following the terrorist attack outside Britain's Houses of Parliament on March 22, 2017, it was not surprising or wrong that many Muslims denounced the attack and declared it to be un-Islamic. Two days afterwards, Dr. Mohammed Qureshi, chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Shropshire Islamic Foundation, said:
We need to be united in this situation.
We should not give any religion a bad name and these people need to be dealt with in full force and there should be zero tolerance when it comes to dealing with them.
My heart goes out to these victims. And my heart goes out to the people's families and those who are injured. I pray they all have peace in their minds.
He added:
There is no place for these acts in the religion of Islam.
The people are being radicalised and the young and vulnerable people need to be protected.
We need to disassociate this with Islam, as Islam is a religion of peace.

Saudi Arabia's 'Lavish' Gift to Indonesia: Radical Islam

by Mohshin Habib  •  April 29, 2017 at 4:00 am
  • Prior to Saudi Arabia's attempts to spread Salafism across the Muslim world, Indonesia did not have terrorist organizations such as Hamas Indonesia, Laskar Jihad, Hizbut Tahrir, Islamic Defenders Front and Jemmah Islamiyah, to name just a few. Today, it is rife with these groups.
  • A mere three weeks after the Saudi king wrapped up his trip, at least 15,000 hard-line Islamist protesters took to the streets of Jakarta after Friday prayers, calling for the imprisonment of the capital city's Christian governor, who is on trial for "blaspheming the Quran."
  • In a separate crisis, crowds were demanding that Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (known familiarly as Ashok) be jailed for telling a group of fishermen that, as they are fed lies about how the Quran forbids Muslims from being governed by a kafir (infidel), he could understand why some of them might not have voted for him. If convicted, Ashok stands to serve up to five years in prison.
President Joko Widodo of Indonesia (foreground, left) meets with King Salman of Saudi Arabia (foreground, right), at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Indonesia. (Image source: Indonesian Presidential Palace)
Accompanied by a 1,500-strong entourage, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz arrived in Indonesia on March 1 for a nine-day gala tour. He was welcomed warmly not only as the monarch of one of the world's richest countries, but as the custodian of Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina.
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Why Is Female Genital Mutilation Still Happening in the U.S.?



Why Is Female Genital Mutilation Still Happening in the U.S.?

by Phyllis Chesler
Fox News
April 27, 2017
Be the first of your friends to like this.
Originally published under the title "FGM is Illegal in the United States. So Why Is It Still Happening Here?"

Knowingly subjecting someone to female genital mutilation (FGM), whether within U.S. borders or abroad ("vacation cutting"), is illegal under federal law.
Let's be clear: FGM (female genital mutilation) is illegal in the United States. That fact did not stop Drs. Humana Nagarwala, Fakhruddin Attar, and his wife Farida Attar, from allegedly performing these criminal and human rights atrocities against two vulnerable 7-year-old girls in the Detroit metro area. The physicians and Attar's wife have all been arrested. According to Fox 2 News in Detroit the three have been charged with female genital mutilation and conspiracy. The doctors are also charged with making false statements to investigators and trying to obstruct the investigation.
For years, many Muslims have insisted that the practice of FGM has nothing to do with Islam, that it is, originally, an African and pagan custom. This may be true. However, many Muslims believe it is religiously required.
Many Muslims believe female genital mutilation is religiously required.
Boldly, cleverly, the Detroit-area physicians are arguing that FGM is a "religious practice" and that to interfere with it is tantamount to religious discrimination. There is some proof that Mohammed allowed a female "exciser" to perform this mutilation -- but he advised her not to "overdo it."
In the Islamic world, FGM is practiced most widely in the in the Arab Muslim Middle East, both in the Gulf and in African states such as Egypt, Somalia, and Sudan; but it has increasingly spread to Muslim communities in Central Asia (parts of Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran) and to the Far East (Malaysia and Indonesia).
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is not at all like male circumcision. Not only is the capacity for sexual pleasure destroyed, but complications are routine and include bleeding, painful urination, cysts, and dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections. The growth of scar tissue can make marital intercourse a nightmare and turn childbirth into an experience of danger and torture.
The New York Times opted not to use the term FGM in its article about the Nagarwala/Attar case. The paper's Health and Science editor later explained that the term is too "culturally loaded."
FGM also increases the likelihood of newborn deaths. In addition, some girls and women develop fistulas and become incontinent. They are doomed to defecate and urinate without control. Absent effective surgery, this is a life-long condition that leads to a woman being shunned by her family.
And then there is a life-long post-traumatic stress disorder that normally accompanies the experience of having been forced into such suffering, traditionally at the hands of a female butcher, usually the mother or grandmother.
In the West, misguided concepts of "multi-cultural relativism" and fear of offending an increasingly hostile Muslim and African immigrant population has condemned those girls and women who live among us and who deserve their rights under Western law.
Whether FGM is understood to be a religious or a tribal custom, like polygamy, child marriage, normalized daughter-and-wife battering, incest, and "honor killing," it has no place in the West.
Those who choose to live here should obey our laws; the freedoms for which we have fought should extend to all Americans, not only to some.
Phyllis Chesler, a Shillman-Ginsburg fellow at the Middle East Forum, is an emerita professor of psychology and women's studies and the author of sixteen books.