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Children are Starving Under Socialism

December 17, 2017

Children are Starving Under Socialism, Power Line, John Hinderaker, December 17, 2017

(Socialist dictatorship or a Communist Kleptocracy? — Not that it makes much difference. My wife and I were in Venezuela, off and on, for a couple of years just before and after Chavez took over. Back then, food was plentiful, the country was prosperous, health care was good and the people seemed to be happy.– DM)

Today’s New York Times has a long article, replete with photographs, on starving children in Venezuela. The situation is grim:

Hunger has stalked Venezuela for years. Now, it is killing the nation’s children at an alarming rate, doctors in the country’s public hospitals say.

Venezuela has been shuddering since its economy began to collapse in 2014. Riots and protests over the lack of affordable food, excruciating long lines for basic provisions, soldiers posted outside bakeries and angry crowds ransacking grocery stores have rattled cities, providing a telling, public display of the depths of the crisis.

But deaths from malnutrition have remained a closely guarded secret by the Venezuelan government. In a five-month investigation by The New York Times, doctors at 21 public hospitals in 17 states across the country said that their emergency rooms were being overwhelmed by children with severe malnutrition — a condition they had rarely encountered before the economic crisis began.

The article goes on to describe how infants are dying of starvation, young children are leaving their homes to forage for food in dumpsters, adults are shriveling to the size of children, and so on. All of this despite Venezuela supposedly having the “largest proven oil reserves in the world.” The Times says Venezuela’s “economy has collapsed.” It refers to the country’s “economic crisis” at least seven times by my count, but the origin of that crisis remains a mystery. This is as close as the Times wants to come:

President Nicolás Maduro has acknowledged that people are hungry in Venezuela, but he has refused to accept international aid, often saying that Venezuela’s economic problems are caused by foreign adversaries like the United States, which he says is waging an economic war against his country.

The article moves on without comment.

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. But many economists contend that years of economic mismanagement set the stage for the current disaster.

Socialism by definition is economic mismanagement. But the Times never does finger the real culprit, although it does briefly mention the fact that Venezuela’s government is Socialist:

The Venezuelan government has used food to keep the Socialists in power, critics say. Before recent elections, people living in government housing projects said they were visited by representatives of their local Socialist community councils — the government-aligned groups that organize the delivery of boxes of cheap food — and threatened with being cut off if they did not vote for the government.

The Democrats should try that, if they aren’t doing it already.

The Times’s coverage of Socialist Bernie Sanders has been almost entirely positive, and it reports gleefully on the growing number of millennials who describe themselves as Socialists. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the paper’s editorial board endorse Elizabeth Warren in 2020. I suppose it would be too much cognitive dissonance for the Times to acknowledge that the end point of Socialism, always and everywhere, is empty zoos and vanishing pets; dumpsters scoured for food scraps; rats hunted as a protein source; police violence against the hungry; a disappearing health care system; populations fleeing to neighboring countries; and, as in Venezuela, starving children, while the Socialists in charge of the scam make off with billions of dollars.

Categories: Chavez, Maduro, Starvation in Venezuela, Venezuelan dictatorship, Venezuelan economy
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Christians “Slaughtered Like Chicken”

December 17, 2017

Christians “Slaughtered Like Chicken” Gatestone Institute, Raymond Ibrahim, December 17, 2017

“These draconian [blasphemy] laws are being used as a tool for discrimination and forcible conversion every day and the world stays silent. This poor boy will now face a most daunting court case and will lose most of his life in prison…” — Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman, British Pakistani Christian Association. Pakistan.

The pastor, Amos Lukanula, said, “We cannot allow the Muslims to put up a mosque in place of the church.” The congregation first purchased the property in 2004; once they had erected a temporary church, local Muslims pulled it down. Another structure the congregation had spent three years building was again brought down by area Muslims in 2007. When, by 2009, Muslims could not raze the third partially built church —made of stone blocks not easily brought down—they filed a legal complaint prompting a court order to halt construction until the legal dispute could be resolved. The court case has dragged on for over eight years. — Tanzania.

A Muslim man raped a 3-year-old Christian girl, injuring her permanently. “[H]er 10-year-old son, Daud, was looking after his younger sister, a Muslim friend of Altaf, named Muhammed Abbas, came over. The man requested Daud to buy cigarettes for him from a nearby market. When Daud came back from a shop, Abbas kept him waiting outside the house and raped his sister. Abbas finally opened the door for Daud, lit a cigarette and left. When Daud went inside, he found his sister naked, covered in blood and screaming.” Police initially refused to investigate the rape until a local lawmaker exerted pressure on the authorities. — Pakistan.

“Christians who refused to renounce their faith were jailed indefinitely without trial. 173 long-term prisoners of faith remain behind bars in brutal conditions. They include many church leaders.” — Rev. Dr Berhane Asmelash. Eritrea.

Luc Ravel, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Strasbourg “went against the grain of Church leaders in France who have largely remained politically correct,” states a report, because he criticized “the demographic shift in France. Muslims, he said, are having far more children than native French, and slammed the widespread ‘promotion’ of abortion.” “Muslim believers,” he continued, “know very well that their birthrate is such that today, they call it … the Great Replacement, they tell you in a very calm, very positive way that, ‘one day all this, it will be ours.'”

Luc Ravel, Archbishop of Strasbourg, recently criticized “the demographic shift in France. Muslims, he said, are having far more children than native French.” (Image source: Peter Potrowl/Wikimedia Commons)

Another Christian leader, while discussing Sudan in particular, touched on what Christians throughout the Muslim world are facing, and why. “The government in Sudan wants to Islamize the whole population and they want to finish off Christianity and other faiths in Sudan,” said Pastor Strong. “We have to put pressure on the government so that the rights of the people to practice their faith openly will be given to them.” To achieve this, he added, they need the support of the “global Church”: “They are in the midst of trials, persecution, hunger — a lot of problems. And yet in the midst of all that, they rejoice. They’re always ready to die, and they testify their faith in every circumstance. They are willing to serve no matter what they have and what they might lose.”

July’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Pakistan: On July 24, an Islamic suicide-bomber detonated explosives, killing himself in an area heavily populated by Christians. At least 26 people were murdered. According to human rights activist Bruce Allen, “What the mainstream media is not reporting is that this is the second-largest Christian colony in Pakistan where this blast occurred”—only a mile-and-a-half from where “pastors in Pakistan meet on a monthly basis, where they receive their monthly financial support, where they get together for sharing prayer requests and have some ongoing training centers and things like that.” After explaining how many suicide terror attacks target Christians, he explained how such ongoing terror “puts the Christians at this heightened state of alert, and they have been for some time. We recall last Easter, a time of great celebration, and there’s an attack against Christians in the parks. And that’s what they live with constantly…. [W]e talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with people in combat. Well, here you have a whole population of people who that’s what their life is: combat. And so it has psychological, spiritual, and emotional wearing.”

Separately, a Muslim “master” tormented and then murdered his Christian “slave.”Javed Masih, 32, the Christian was, according to the report, “repaying a debt that his family had contracted three years ago…. In reality he was a slave.” After he was accused of stealing a motor bicycle, “the Christian was repeatedly beaten with sticks and other objects. He was taken to the hospital and died from serious torture.” The family sought justice and filed a case with police, but as is usual, the police refused to take the case and the Muslim “master” and his allies threatened the Christian family to withdraw the charge. As the older brother of the slain man explained “We want justice. We are poor and therefore the police refuse to listen to us and record the complaint. Large landowners are threatening serious consequences because we have opposed any compromise. All this is because we are Christians and poor.” The murderer said the slain man committed suicide, a claim the family strongly rejects.

Kenya: Muslim militants linked to the jihadi group Al Shabaab hacked 13 non-Muslims, most of whom were Christian, to death with machetes. “They were slaughtered like chicken using knives…. We suspect there are many bodies that haven’t been recovered,” police said. The incident took place on Sunday, July 9 in a village near Lama. Because the Muslim terrorists were “only targeting male non-Muslims,” local Muslims directed them to Christians. “The Christians were asked to recite the Islamic dogmas, which they could not, hence they were killed,” a local source explained. Another man explained how the militants “were asking the villagers to produce their identification cards and if you were found to be a Christian you would be shot or slaughtered…. Victims have been evacuated to camps where food and security is provided by [the] government and the Kenya Red Cross,” he added. “We are hosting more than 200 people in our church and we expect the number to increase as more families are evacuated from Boni Forest.”

Egypt: Another Christian solider was killed by fellow (Muslim) soldiers once they learned he was a Christian. Joseph Reda Helmy had just completed his military training when he was transferred to Al-Salaam (“peace”), a special forces unit, where three officers killed him. He is at least the sixth Christian soldier to be killed for his faith in recent years. According to the slain man’s father, “his large, strong son had arrived at the camp at 2 p.m. and was dead by 8 p.m.” His cousin, who retrieved the body, said his dead cousin “had bruises on his head, shoulders, neck, back and genitalia, with the worst injuries occurring on his back.” He also learned from eyewitnesses that “the three officers began to harass Helmy because of his Christian faith, and that the marks on his body indicate they kicked him with their boots and hit him with heavy instruments.” As in all of the previous cases where Christian soldiers were killed by their Islamic counterparts, the Egyptian army told relatives that the slain had died of something else, in this instance, an “epileptic seizure.” But even the “doctor who examined the body refused to bow to pressure from those who brought it and reported that the cause of death was not natural.”

Also, of the jihadi slaughter of Christians traveling to a desert monastery in late May, 2017, more details emerged. Speaking from her hospital bed, one of the survivors of the massacre, Mariam Adel, a young mother whose husband and nine of her relatives were killed in the attack, said that after the jihadis opened fire on their bus, they went onboard and “ordered them off the bus and told them to convert to Islam.” “Renounce our faith? Of course not,” Mariam said of the women’s collective reaction. “If we had, they might have let us off the bus and treated us well. But we only want Jesus and we are confident he will not leave us.” The militants responded by robbing the women of their possessions, which they justified doing as properly earned “spoils of war.” A 10-year-old boy whose father was slaughtered said that “They asked my father for identification then told him to recite the Muslim profession of faith. He refused, said he was Christian. They shot him and everyone else with us in the car. Every time they shot someone they would yell ‘God is great,'” or, “Allah is greater.”

Nigeria: At least one Christian student was killed by an Islamic suicide attacker from Boko Haram. “Ambore Gideon Todi, a 21-year-old student at the University of Maiduguri in Borno state, was staying in the Evangelical Church Winning All’s student ministry tent when Boko Haram suicide bombers detonated explosives,” according to a report. “It is believed that he was not the only one affected by the bomb blast,” a fellow student, said “as there were others involved… in their fellowship program…. The authorities did not say anything about their demise till after nine days. We knew of his death because he is from my state.”

Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom:

Pakistan: Another Christian was arrested for allegedly “blaspheming” against Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Nadeem Ahmed, a leading figure in the Islamist organization Tehreek e Tahafuz e Islam, filed a complaint against Shahzad Masih, a 16-year-old Christian who worked as a hospital sweeper. The Islamist group then circulated pictures of the youth through their social media platforms with insulting and threatening captions; they also threatened to slaughter him if police were to release him. Police moved the teenager to an unknown location—and even “refused to acknowledge holding the boy, and will not give the family access to him.” Local mosques went on to publicize the incident heavily, prompting outrage among Muslims. They threatened his family with death, causing them to flee into hiding. A spokesman for the Islamist group said that “the judicial system should inflict the worst possible punishment on Shahzad Masih [meaning execution] so that no one will dare commit blasphemy again ever.” According to Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, “These draconian [blasphemy] laws are being used as a tool for discrimination and forcible conversion every day and the world stays silent. This poor boy will now face a most daunting court case and will lose most of his life in prison; moreover, in the current climate a sentence could lead to his death via judicial or extrajudicial process.”

Ethiopia: A gang of Muslims with machetes violently hacked at a Christian, leaving “the 27-year-old man needing life-saving surgery,” says a report. A “doctor, believing he would die en route to a bigger hospital, operated on his wounds. Although he is still unwell, the surgery stabilised him enough to be taken elsewhere for more specialised treatment.” The Muslim gang that attacked him was reportedly angry at him for publicly evangelizing among Muslims. They first attacked the local church, creating damage to its wall and roof, before traveling to his home where the incident took place.

Iran: Four Muslim converts to Christianity, and accused of promoting it, were sentenced to ten years in prison. The four men were arrested in May during a series of raids on Christian homes by security service agents. The report notes that such harsh sentences are becoming the norm: “Whereas in recent years Christian converts involved in house church activities could expect to receive prison sentences of up to 2 years, sentences of 10 years or more in prison have been handed down in recent cases…. The four men were officially charged with ‘acting against national security,’ a catch-all charge often used by the Iranian government to punish different types of religious and political dissent. The government often uses it against converts instead of the charge of apostasy, according to freedom of religion advocates, in an attempt to avoid international scrutiny.”

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Egypt: After nearly three months of deadly terrorist attacks—including suicide bombing on churches that left nearly 50 Christians dead, followed by the slaughter of nearly 30 Christians traveling to a monastery in the Sinai and ongoing threats and other attacks — many churches suspended their activities and temporarily shut down for most of July. According to a report, “The Evangelical, Coptic Orthodox, and Catholic churches agreed to halt services, conferences, and any church trips to protect their congregations.” Other churches, in Alexandria for instance, remained open, although “with stricter security, including police checks, private church security checks, and metal detectors.”

One open church in Alexandria was targeted by a man who stabbed the guard preventing his entry. According to the report, the man, a 24-year-old male graduate from law school, “attacked the 47-year-old guard with a knife on the neck after the latter questioned his reasons for going into Al-Qiddisain Church in Alexandria.” Video footage of the incident shows “a man wearing earphones with a bag trying to enter the church when he was called back by a guard who asked to check the bag. The man took out a knife and slashed the face of the guard, who recovered quickly to subdue his attacker with the help of others.”

Tanzania: Responding to ongoing and angry Muslim protests, a court ruled that the church building that a Christian congregation had been trying to build for eight years on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar must abandon the project. According to the report, “Hard-line Muslims outside Zanzibar City have been fighting construction of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God building since 2009, having demolished the partially built structure twice before then. They claim the party that sold the property to the church was not the rightful owner. Christians believe the court on the overwhelmingly Muslim island acted out of religious bias. A previous court ruling allowed construction to go forward.” The pastor, Amos Lukanula, said that although the congregation is “frustrated and weary … We cannot allow the Muslims to put up a mosque in place of the church.” The congregation first purchased the property in 2004; once they had erected a temporary church, local Muslims pulled it down. Another structure the congregation had spent three years building was again brought down by area Muslims in 2007. When, by 2009, Muslims could not raze the third partially built church—made of stone blocks not easily brought down—they filed a legal complaint prompting a court order to halt construction until the legal dispute could be resolved. The court case has dragged on for over eight years and costs the congregation approximately $100 month.

Iraq: Due to the significant reduction of the Christian population, eight more churches were closed in Baghdad. According to the report, “After the regional Catholic Church authority visited the churches, the Vatican decided that it was best to close the doors for good. While this makes logistical sense, it represents a symbolic defeat for the Church in the capital of Iraq.” “It’s important to recognize,” the report adds, “that ISIS is not solely responsible for this. Christians have faced various forms of persecution and discrimination from a wide variety of perpetrators throughout the past 15 years.”

Muslim Abuse and Rape of Christians

Pakistan: A Muslim man raped a 3-year-old Christian girl, wounding her permanently. According to the report, “One day, when Catherine Bibi [the girl’s mother] and her oldest son, Altaf Masih, 21, were at work and her 10-year-old son, Daud, was looking after his younger sister, a Muslim friend of Altaf, named Muhammed Abbas, came over. The man requested Daud to buy cigarettes for him from a nearby market. When Daud came back from a shop, Abbas kept him waiting outside the house and raped his sister. Abbas finally opened the door for Daud, lit a cigarette and left. When Daud went inside, he found his sister naked, covered in blood and screaming.” Although the rape took place months ago, Catherine, the girl’s mother “says she’s emotionally and financially exhausted as she continues to fight for justice for her daughter, who will never be able to bear children due to severe injuries.” But the mother is determined: “My daughter is innocent of any crime at such a young and vulnerable age she has been subjected to a most brutal and evil attack, from a man with no morals. (Even) if this evil rapist is jailed it will not remove the vile treatment my daughter suffered. I call on prayers from anyone moved by my daughter’s plight. Please pray that she is completely healed and can one day have children which is a natural process designed by God and a real blessing for women.” Police initially refused to investigate the rape until a local lawmaker exerted pressure on the authorities.

Another Christian woman “was beaten and gang-raped in front of her five children by a Muslim man seeking to avenge his family’s ‘honor,’ because the woman’s sister fell in love and fled with the man’s brother,” says a separate report. The Muslim brother and some companions went to the home of the Christian woman, Samrah Badal, demanding news on the fled couple. When the woman refused to speak, “she was stripped naked and dragged out on the streets, where she was [gang] raped in front of her five children.”

Sudan: The Khartoum government issued an order calling on all church schools to begin operating according to the Muslim work week, which treats Friday (mosque day) and Saturday as the weekend, and Sunday as the start of the work week. One report says this move is part of “an ongoing campaign to rid the country of Christianity.” In a letter sent to Christian schools, the Ministry of Education wrote, “In order not to affect the educational process and the ongoing plan, we ask you not to observe Sunday holiday” though Christian schools had been observing it for decades. One Sudanese Christian teacher said, “The government’s decision to abolish Sundays for Christian schools is discrimination against Christians in Sudan.” He is not alone, as the “move prompted widespread outrage and led many Christians in Sudan and around the world to view it as another means of harassment and discrimination against Sudanese Christians.”

Tanzania: Three Christians were arrested for cooking food in the kitchen of their residence during Ramadan. A Christian couple and a female friend were frying fish when police came, informing them that they had “breached the law by cooking food during Ramadan,” said a report. Police also “verbally abused them.” “Today you will know how to fast,” the police told them as they dragged them away. After the intervention of local church leaders, the three were released days later.

Eritrea: In the east African nation considered the tenth worst nation wherein to be Christian, partially because of “Islamic oppression,” 200 Christians—including young children and a baby who “could spend their childhood in a prison cell”—were arrested in a series of random house-to-house raids. According to the Rev. Dr Berhane Asmelash, “People used to be arrested for conducting unauthorised meetings, such as Bible studies or prayers. But this is new for us when they go from house to house. They are arresting people for their beliefs, not for their actions. This is getting worse. Many Christians are in hiding.” “These latest arrests,” continues the report, “have brought fear to the Christian community….. In 2002 Eritrea outlawed many Christian denominations and shut down Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Christians who refused to renounce their faith were jailed indefinitely without trial. 173 long-term prisoners of faith remain behind bars in brutal conditions. They include many church leaders.”

Mali: According to one report: In July, “Three Christian missionaries … appeared in a video released by coalition of jihadist groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda urging their respective governments to ‘do what they can’ to negotiate their release.” The group, known as Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen—or the “Victory of Islam and Muslims” — said in the video that “No genuine negotiations have begun to rescue your children.” Six foreign hostages, “including three missionaries from Colombia, Switzerland and Australia, are shown begging the international community for help” in the video. One of the hostages is a nun, another an 82-year-old Australian surgeon, Ken Elliott, who said, “This video is to ask various governments, in particular the Australian government and Burkina government, to do what they can to help negotiate my release.” Addressing his family, he added: “I just want to say, again, I love you all and I appreciate all your prayers and all your cares. I look forward to one day being reunited.” The release of the video coincided with French president Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Mali. Macron said “he was pleased that one of his citizens was still alive after being kidnapped by the militant.” He added, “These people are nothing. They are terrorists, thugs and assassins. And we will put all of our energies into eradicating them.”

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by Muslims is growing. The report posits that such Muslim persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location.

Raymond Ibrahim is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (published by Regnery with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).

Categories: Europe and Islamic terror, Islam and Christians, Islamic nations, Political correctness
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D.C. Transit Cop’s Trial Details Ties Between Neo-Nazism and Islamist Terrorism

December 17, 2017

D.C. Transit Cop’s Trial Details Ties Between Neo-Nazism and Islamist Terrorism, Investigative Project on Terrorism, Abha Shankar, December 17, 2017

Material seized from Young’s home and computer included photos of Young and his associates in Nazi SS uniforms in front of a Nazi flag, a framed photo of Adolf Hitler, a photo of Young’s arm tattoo showing the official insignia of the 9th SS Panzer Division “Hohenstaufen,” a picture of the swastika imposed on an Israeli flag with the caption “The Greatest Devil,” and a cartoon depicting a pig with a giant hooked nose, titled “Jewish swine.” A photo found on Young’s phone showed billowing smokestacks with the caption, “Together we can finish what Hitler started.”

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Jury deliberations begin Monday in the federal terrorism support trial of a former Washington, D.C. Metro Transit Police officer accused of trying to provide support to ISIS.

Nicholas Young could be imprisoned for up to 60 years if convicted of attempting to provide ISIS with material support and lying to federal agents.

The 36-year-old Muslim convert from Fairfax, Va., is the first U.S. police officer to face terrorism charges. Evidence and testimony in his five-day trial showed Young’s unusual affinity for both Nazism and radical Islam.

“Don’t discount an alliance with Muslims to combat the Jews,” Young said after attending a neo-Nazi gathering in 2000, testified college friend, Ian Campbell, an Arlington County police corporal.

Young gave Campbell a copy of Serpent’s Walk, a 1991 novel published by the white supremacist National Alliance. Set nearly 100 years after World War II, it tells a story of SS officers who continued to fight for their cause until they were poised for global dominance. Agents also found a copy in Young’s home.

A Nazi-Muslim alliance occurred during World War II, and prosecutors showed picturesof Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini’s meetings with Adolf Hitler that were found in Young’s house during his August 2016 arrest.

“This is an alliance based on the idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” testified prosecution expert witness Daveed Gartenstein-Ross.

Al-Husseini helped recruit the Bosnian SS division and was the author of Islam in Judaism, which “encouraged violence against Jewish people,” Gartenstein-Ross said.

He explained for jurors the “areas of convergence between Nazism and Islamist militancy.” Things that attract people to neo-Nazism and to militant Islam are similar, and “once you succumb to one of those ideologies, you become more prone to succumbing to the other ideology.” Both totalitarian movements view the world in terms of “good” and “evil” and “share overlapping sets of enemies: the Jewish people and the West more broadly.”

Long before Young met with the government informants, “he represented this alliance,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gibbs said in his closing argument.

That’s a key element of the case, since defense attorneys argue Young was entrapped and would not have tried to provide support to ISIS had the informants not been involved.

Material seized from Young’s home and computer included photos of Young and his associates in Nazi SS uniforms in front of a Nazi flag, a framed photo of Adolf Hitler, a photo of Young’s arm tattoo showing the official insignia of the 9th SS Panzer Division “Hohenstaufen,” a picture of the swastika imposed on an Israeli flagwith the caption “The Greatest Devil,” and a cartoon depicting a pig with a giant hooked nose, titled “Jewish swine.” A photo found on Young’s phone showed billowing smokestacks with the caption, “Together we can finish what Hitler started.”

Young’s truck had the license plate “FRI-KRP,” a reference to the Freikorps – volunteer German paramilitary groups that preceded Hitler’s rise. A bumper sticker on the truck read: “Boycott the Terrorist State of Israel.” His prayer list included fascist leaders Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, and Otto Skorzeny. He used an Israeli flag as a doormat in front of his house.

Songs on Young’s iPod included “ISIS Techno Remix” and “Jihad Nasheed [chant].” “He would watch videos all the time” about “the guy talking about the Quran” and “stereotypical terrorist kind of videos” a former roommate, Fairfax County Police Officer Kenneth McNulty testified.

A 2006 photo shows Young dressed up in Islamic garb holding a gun. Investigators found electronic copies of The Book of Jihad and issues of al-Qaida’s Inspire Magazinedownloaded on the defendant’s computer before he met with an informant who identified himself as Khalil Sullivan in December 2010. Websites bookmarked on Young’s computer from 2009-2010 related to Jew-hatred, Neo-Nazis, Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, and other radicals. Agents also found a CD of Awlaki’s lecture series.

Young published pro-ISIS comments on the video sharing website, Liveleak, under the nom de guerre “dusselkamp,” named after SS Stormtrooper Klaus Dusselkamp.

Young collected Nazi paraphernalia and militant Islamist material because he had an interest in European history, defense attorneys said. When he and his friends dressed up in Nazi uniforms and Islamic garb, it was mere “re-enactments” and “cosplay.”

Other evidence showed Young used the encrypted instant messaging app Threema to send Google gift card codes worth $245 to “Mo,” a man Young thought had traveled to Syria to join ISIS. ISIS would use the gift cards to communicate with and recruit more Westerners to join the group.

“Inshallah more cards will come your way. Many sting operations and set ups in the area.” Young wrote.

“Mo,” however, was an FBI source.

Prosecutors described Young as “incredibly paranoid.” He suggested Mo use “burner phones” and “frequently took the battery out of his cell phone” to circumvent surveillance by agents.

Prosecutors also showed images of Young and Mo visiting a FedEx Office store to set up email accounts to communicate with each other after Mo left to join ISIS in Syria. Young used what he believed was Hitler’s birthday to set up his account Essakobayashi@mail.com.

Young traveled to Libya twice in 2011 and associated with rebels attempting to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi. Authorities discovered body armor, a Kevlar helmet, and several other military-style items in Young’s baggage. In one email communication with Mo, Young mentioned serving with the “Abo Salem Suhada Brigade” in Libya, which is a reference to the Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade that has ties to al-Qaida.

Young’s actions disprove the entrapment argument, said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gibbs. Young “agreed to send the codes without inducement or pressure.” His association with Islamist radicals and convicted terrorists occurred long before government informants Khalil and Mo came on the scene.

Young’s circle of friends included Islamist extremists such as Zachary Chesser, Saleh Al-Barmawi, Farouque Ahmed and Amine El-Khalifi.

Chesser was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2011 for threatening the writers of the Comedy Central show “South Park” for including a character said to be Islam’s prophet Mohammed dressed in a bear suit to mock radical Muslim reaction. Chesser also tried to support the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab. Ahmed was sentenced the same year for plotting attacks on D.C.-area metro stations, and Khalifi pleaded guilty in 2012 to plotting a suicide bombing on the U.S. Capitol.

“Those were the circles Nick Young ran in,” Gibbs told jurors. “Young spent a lot of time with them, knew them a lot better” than Khalil and Mo. In fact, it was Young who showed ISIS propaganda videos to Mo, he added.

Khalil Sullivan testified he met Young at a 2010 wedding party, where investigators wanted him to meet with another man under investigation named Saleh Al-Barmawi. Al-Barmawi called for “jihad against Israelis” and said “Israel and America were his enemies,” Sullivan said.

“Mo” also testified that he, Young, and two others would watch “ISIS-propaganda recruiting videos and talk about jihad.” “Go join them,” one of the men, Hicham Hall, told the others. “And that, and talk about being away from…from civilization in a place where you can practice real Islam, you can walk the Hajj, you can have four wives, you can build yourself a masjid, you can fight jihad, you can do it all.” Hall called former Taliban leader Abdullah Mehsud, the “Lion of Khorasan.”

Another of Young’s former roommates, Brian Michael Menzies, remembered speaking with Al-Barmawi at Young’s house and at events sponsored by the Muslim Students Association (MSA). “Nick and Saleh were friends, hung out a lot together,” Menzies said.

Young also told “Mo” about his desire to obtain a slave: “To be honest, I would like to buy a slave.. seriously, lol, but I hear the supply is low. inshallah a large crop of Alawi women will fall into the hands of the mujahideen.” He called local mosques corrupt because they preached that “the jihad is within ourselves, jihad of the pen, blah blah blah, the usual emotional stuff, zero evidence.”

That attitude is proof of Young’s inherent desire to support ISIS, prosecutors argued. “You can measure someone’s predisposition even from the way they act now. A police officer in Washington, D.C., says I want a slave,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg.

Young also watched “ISIS propaganda videos during his lunch break at work while serving as a police officer,” Gibbs said.

Young’s co-worker, former Metro Transit Police Officer Joanne Dill, testified she was “suspicious of him.”

“He believed in the caliphate and thought it was a good thing for that part of the world.”

In the prosecution’s final argument, Kromberg said Young “yearned being a terrorist, this is who he was, this is who he is.”

Categories: Islamic terrorists and Neo-Nazis, Islamic terrorists in America
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How do you say “Kill the Jews” in Swedish?

December 17, 2017

How do you say “Kill the Jews” in Swedish?, Israel National News, Giulio Meotti, December 16, 2017

The most impressive aspect of what happened in Sweden in the past week is not that there are people shouting anti-Semitic slogans, but that the Swedish authorities not only were unable to protect the Jewish minority, but often sided with those who would like to “shoot the Jews”.

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Last weekend, after the just US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, anti-Jewish slogans were hurled at the American embassy in London and under the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. But it is in Sweden that anti-Semitism has shown its most chilling face.

Molotov cocktails were launched against a synagogue in Gothenburg, while a group of Jewish boys barricaded themselves in the adjacent Jewish center. A few hours later, Israeli flags were burned in Stockholm. In Malmö, the third largest city in the country, hundreds of people gathered to scream “we will shoot the Jews”. The next day, more Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Jewish chapel in Malmö.

Swedish police increased security around Jewish community buildings after these events that shocked the country. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has condemned “incitement to violence against Jews”. But the fact is that even Swedish parliamentarians (who defend themselves by saying that they did not understand the slogans in Arabic) took part in a rally in which “death to the Jews” was shouted casts a sinister light on Swedish social democracy.

Jews in Sweden are fearful and Jewish parents are afraid to leave their children at Jewish kindergartens. They are afraid to go to the synagogue and there are many people who are puttig away their Stars of David because they are too afraid to wear them. Expressing public support for Israel can be dangerous, but the police do not always provide adequate protection for pro-Israel events. During a demonstration in Malmö, the small crowd of supporters of Israel was forced to abandon the event after the police were unable to prevent thousands of Palestinian supporters from attacking and rushing toward the group.

Following the attack in Gothenburg, some observers, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, linked the incidents to the Swedish government’s hostile attitude towards Israel. In 2014, Sweden became the first member state of the European Union to recognize the “State of Palestine”. More recently, Foreign Minister Margot Wallström was criticized by Israel for suggesting that the motivation of the terrorist attacks in Paris, during which Islamic terrorists killed 130 people, stemmed from the frustration of the Palestinians. Hanif Bali, a member of parliament for the Moderate Party, the largest opposition party, received a myriad of hate letters because of his open support for Israel.

A few years ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Eurabia is a place in Sweden”. And it will only become worse. In recent days, the Pew Forum explained that, depending on migratory flows, Sweden will have between a 20 to 30 percent Islamic population within thirty years. In that scenario, the slogan “Itbah al Yahud” (slaughter the Jew) is likely to become a soundtrack in the clumsy Scandinavian social democracy.

The most impressive aspect of what happened in Sweden in the past week is not that there are people shouting anti-Semitic slogans, but that the Swedish authorities not only were unable to protect the Jewish minority, but often sided with those who would like to “shoot the Jews”.

Categories: Antisemitic violence, Jerusalem - status, Sweden
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Austrian government’s platform refers to Israel as Jewish state for first time

December 17, 2017

Austrian government’s platform refers to Israel as Jewish state for first time, Israel Hayom, Eldad Beck and Israel Hayom Staff, December 17, 2017

(Please see also, Austria: New Government to Resist “Islamization”. DM)

Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz | Photo: GettyImages

The move by Kurz’s nationalistic Freedom Party to include these points in the new government’s platform indicates its new policy with respect to Israel and Austria’s Nazi past.

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The new Austrian government, headed by conservative Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, has, for the first time, included a clear reference to Israel’s Jewish character in its new platform.

The platform also states Austria’s commitment to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process based on the two-state solution, with aim of meeting Israel’s security needs while establishing a viable Palestinian state.

So far, Germany has been the only European nation whose government, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, has recognized Israel’s Jewish character.

The new government’s platform also includes explicit references recognizing Austria’s culpability in the Holocaust. This, too, is a political precedent, as the government has pledged to officially commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria to the Nazi Reich, which takes place next year, and the Holocaust, as “one of the greatest tragedies in human history.”

The move by Kurz’s nationalistic Freedom Party to include these points in the new government’s platform indicates its new policy with respect to Israel and Austria’s Nazi past.

Categories: Austria and Israel, Austria and Nazi past
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Austria: New Government to Resist “Islamization”

December 17, 2017

Austria: New Government to Resist “Islamization”, Gatestone Institute, Soeren Kern, December 17, 2017

Austria has emerged as a major base for radical Islam. Austria’s Agency for State Protection and Counterterrorism (BVT) has warned of the “exploding radicalization of the Salafist scene in Austria.” Salafism is an anti-Western ideology that seeks to impose Islamic Sharia law.

“The immigration seen in recent years is changing our country not in a positive but in a negative way,” said Kurz, who campaigned on a “law and order” platform: “Uncontrolled immigration destroys the order in a country.”

Strache, a supporter of Israel who has distanced his party from the rhetoric of the Austrian far right, insists that anti-Semitism had no place in his party and has urged a common front against Islamists. He has also pledged “to ensure that boycotts [against Israeli products] get taken off the agenda.”

During an April 2016 visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, at the invitation of at the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Strache said:

“For us, it’s important to act against anti-Semitism, and also against Islamism and terrorism, and to discuss the issues we have in common. Anti-Semitism often emerges anew from Islamism and from the left.

“We have a lot in common [with Israel]. I always say, if one defines the Judeo-Christian West, then Israel represents a kind of border. If Israel fails, Europe fails. And if Europe fails, Israel fails.”

Strache has called Merkel “the most dangerous woman in Europe” because of her migration policies, and has repeatedly said that Islam is “not part” of Austria. Strache has also warned that the “uncontrolled influx of migrants who are alien to our culture, who seep into our social welfare system … makes civil war in the medium-term not unlikely.” A Eurosceptic, Strache has called the European Union a “bureaucratic monster” and has said that Britain will “probably be better off after Brexit.”

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A coalition between the anti-immigration Austrian People’s Party and the anti-establishment Austrian Freedom Party, which will be sworn into office on December 18, is poised to catapult Austria to the vanguard of Western Europe’s resistance to mass migration from the Muslim world.

The massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country, appears irreversible. Austria has also emerged as a major base for radical Islam.

“We have a lot in common [with Israel]. I always say, if one defines the Judeo-Christian West, then Israel represents a kind of border. If Israel fails, Europe fails. And if Europe fails, Israel fails.” — Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Austrian Freedom Party.

The anti-immigration Austrian People’s Party and the anti-establishment Austrian Freedom Party have reached a deal, creating a new coalition to govern Austria for the next five years. The ground-breaking political alliance, which will be sworn into office on December 18, is poised to catapult Austria to the vanguard of Western Europe’s resistance to mass migration from the Muslim world.

Chancellor-elect Sebastian Kurz, 31, who won Austria’s national election on October 15 after campaigning on a promise to halt illegal immigration, will govern with Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, the Freedom Party leader, who has warned that mass migration is “Islamizing” Austria. Under the agreement, Strache will become the vice-chancellor; the Freedom Party will also take control of the ministries of defense, interior and foreign affairs.

Austrian Chancellor-elect Sebastian Kurz (pictured), who won Austria’s national election after campaigning on a promise to halt illegal immigration, will govern with Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, the Freedom Party leader, who has warned that mass migration is “Islamizing” Austria. (Image source: Raul Mee/EU2017EE/Flickr)

Kurz has been a strong critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door migration policy, which has allowed more than a million mostly male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to enter the country during the past two years.

During his time as foreign minister, Kurz was instrumental in garnering parliamentary approval of a groundbreaking new law that regulates the integration of immigrants. The so-called Integration Law — which bans full-face Muslim veils in public spaces and prohibits Islamic radicals from distributing the Koran — establishes clear rules and responsibilities for recognized asylum seekers and refugees granted legal residence in the country.

The new law requires immigrants from non-EU countries to sign an “integration contract” which obligates them to learn written and spoken German and to enroll in courses about the “basic values of Austria’s legal and social order.” Immigrants are also required to “acquire knowledge of the democratic order and the basic principles derived from it.”

Previously, Kurz was instrumental in reforming Austria’s century-old Islam Law (Islamgesetz), governing the status of Muslims in the country. The new law, passed in February 2015, is aimed at integrating Muslims and fighting Islamic radicalism by promoting an “Islam with an Austrian character.” It also stresses that Austrian law must take precedence over Islamic Sharia law for Muslims living in the country.

Austria’s Muslim population now exceeds 700,000 (or roughly 8% of the total population), up from an estimated 340,000 (or 4.25%) in 2001, and 150,000 (or 2%) in 1990, according to data compiled by the University of Vienna.

The massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country, appears irreversible. In Vienna, where the Muslim population now exceeds 12.5%, Muslim students already outnumber Catholic students at middle and secondary schools. Muslim students are also on the verge of overtaking Catholics in Viennese elementary schools.

At the same time, Austria has emerged as a major base for radical Islam. Austria’s Agency for State Protection and Counterterrorism (BVT) has warned of the “exploding radicalization of the Salafist scene in Austria.” Salafism is an anti-Western ideology that seeks to impose Islamic Sharia law.

“The immigration seen in recent years is changing our country not in a positive but in a negative way,” said Kurz, who campaigned on a “law and order” platform: “Uncontrolled immigration destroys the order in a country.”

Strache, a supporter of Israel who has distanced his party from the rhetoric of the Austrian far right, insists that anti-Semitism had no place in his party and has urged a common front against Islamists. He has also pledged “to ensure that boycotts [against Israeli products] get taken off the agenda.”

During an April 2016 visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, at the invitation of at the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Strache said:

“For us, it’s important to act against anti-Semitism, and also against Islamism and terrorism, and to discuss the issues we have in common. Anti-Semitism often emerges anew from Islamism and from the left.

“We have a lot in common [with Israel]. I always say, if one defines the Judeo-Christian West, then Israel represents a kind of border. If Israel fails, Europe fails. And if Europe fails, Israel fails.”

Strache has called Merkel “the most dangerous woman in Europe” because of her migration policies, and has repeatedly said that Islam is “not part” of Austria. Strache has also warned that the “uncontrolled influx of migrants who are alien to our culture, who seep into our social welfare system … makes civil war in the medium-term not unlikely.” A Eurosceptic, Strache has called the European Union a “bureaucratic monster” and has said that Britain will “probably be better off after Brexit.”

At Strache’s insistence, Karin Kneissl, an independent Middle East expert who speaks eight languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, will become Austria’s new foreign minister. Kneissl has been a vocal critic of EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, whom she has described as the “Caesar of Brussels.” She has also criticized Merkel’s migrant policy as “grossly negligent.”

Kneissl has said that most of the “refugees” arriving in Europe are overwhelmingly young males between the ages of 20 and 30 who are “economic migrants controlled by testosterone.” In an interview on Austrian television, Kneissl said that one of the main reasons for the revolts in the Arab world was “many young Arab men can no longer find a wife because they have neither work nor their own home, and thus cannot achieve the status of a man in a traditional society.”

Freedom Party Chairman Herbert Kickl, a speechwriter for the late party leader Jörg Haider and a close confidant of Strache, will become interior minister, a key position for domestic security and border control, while Mario Kunasek, a professional soldier, will run the defense ministry. Of the 16 future government ministers, only Kurz has Cabinet experience.

A 180-page document explains the new government’s agenda between now and 2022. It promises to crack down on political Islam; to crack down on illegal immigration; to speed up asylum decisions and to sponsor an EU summit on immigration when Austria holds the EU presidency in the second half of 2018.

The document also pledges to give Austrians more opportunities to vote in referendums — although it explicitly refuses to allow a referendum on the country’s continued membership in the European Union.

In addition, the document promises to: require migrants to learn German; require migrant kindergartners who have insufficient German language skills to repeat kindergarten before progressing to the first grade; increase the legal penalties for sexual crimes; strengthen Austrian defense; hire more police officers; reduce the bureaucracy and not raise taxes.

At the same time, however, the document pledges a strong commitment to the European Union: “Only in a strong Europe can there be a strong Austria in which we are able to take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century.”

Some observers have said that Kurz’s professed commitment to the European Union was aimed at calming worries in Europe about the Freedom Party’s Euroskeptic and anti-Islamization policy objectives. Others have described Kurz as a pragmatist “who is anti-establishment and establishment at the same time.”

Kurz has nevertheless pledged to reject the European Union’s compulsory migrant quota. “I will work towards changing this erroneous refugee policy,” he said. “Without the proper protection of the external borders of the EU, we will not come to grips with the problem of illegal migration.”

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.

Categories: Austria, Austria and Islamisation, Austria and Israel, Austria and Merkel, Austria Freedom Party, Austrian People's Party
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