A Month of Multiculturalism in Britain: January 2019

by Soeren Kern • February 4, 2019 at 5:00 am

More than 5,000 people signed a petition to boycott Marks and Spencer toilet paper: they alleged it was embossed with the Arabic word for God. Marks and Spencer, in a statement on Twitter, denied the claims: "The motif on the aloe vera toilet tissue, which we have been selling for over five years, is categorically of an aloe vera leaf and we have investigated and confirmed this with our suppliers."
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe urged Britain to make it a legal requirement for Muslim couples to register their marriages civilly before or at the same time as their religious ceremony, because Sharia marriages alone "clearly discriminate against women in divorce and inheritance cases."
The Guardian reported that hundreds, and possibly thousands, of young girls in Britain are being subjected to so-called breast-ironing, an African practice whereby mothers or grandmothers use a hot stone to massage across the breast repeatedly in order to "break the tissue" and slow its growth. The objective is to stop unwanted male attention.

At the request of UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid, the Royal Navy deployed patrol ships in January to the English Channel to deter migrant crossings. Pictured: Javid (center) meets UK Border Force staff on board HMC Searcher on January 2, 2018 in Dover, England. (Photo by Gareth Fuller - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

January 1. A 25-year-old Somali man stabbed three people — including a police officer — at Victoria Station in Manchester. BBC producer Sam Clack, who was waiting for a tram when the attack took place, reported: "The guy, his exact words were, he said: 'As long as you keep bombing other countries, this sort of sh*t is going to keep happening.' The suspect also screamed "Allahu Akbar!" ("Allah is the greatest!") as he was bundled into a police van. Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson nevertheless said that officers were "retaining an open mind in relation to the motivation for this attack." The suspect was eventually detained under the Mental Health Act.

Continue Reading Article

Turkey: Erdoğan's Unofficial Paramilitary Groups to 'Monitor' Elections?

by Uzay Bulut • February 4, 2019 at 4:00 am

The memo, sent by the Turkish Interior Ministry to the country's governors, states that in the March 31 elections, in addition to police and security officials manning the polls and taking the necessary "precautions required for election security," there will also be "volunteer security guards" involved.
The reason this announcement is worrisome to opposition activists, among others, has to do with what they suspect is the nature and makeup of these "volunteers" -- particularly with rise of unofficial paramilitary groups connected to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The Turkish Interior Ministry's new plans for "volunteer security guards" at polling stations during upcoming mayoral elections is worrying opposition activists, given the rise of unofficial paramilitary groups connected to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party. Pictured: Erdoğan casts his ballot at a polling station on November 1, 2015, in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Gokhan Tan/Getty Images)

A Turkish government memo related to the upcoming mayoral elections in Turkey is causing deep concern among oppositionists throughout the country.

The memo, sent by the Interior Ministry to the country's governors, states that in the March 31 elections, in addition to police and security officials manning the polls and taking the necessary "precautions required for election security," there will also be "volunteer security guards" involved.

The reason this announcement is worrisome to opposition activists, among others, has to do with what they suspect is the nature and makeup of these "volunteers" -- particularly with the rise of unofficial paramilitary groups connected to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Continue Reading Article