Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Soeren Kern • April 24, 2018 at 5:00 am
Since the March 2004 attacks on Madrid's trains, Spanish authorities have arrested more than 750 jihadis in 243 counter-terrorism operations, according to the Interior Ministry. Jihadis remain undeterred. A recent Islamic State document included a list of grievances against Spain for wrongs allegedly done to Muslims since the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on July 16, 1212. "There is little doubt that the autonomous region of Catalonia has become a prime base of operations for terrorist activity. Spanish authorities tell us they fear the threat from these atomized immigrant communities prone to radicalism, but they have very little intelligence on or ability to penetrate these groups." — US diplomatic cable, October 2, 2007.
An armed, masked Islamic State jihadist appears in a propaganda video, where he warns Spain that it would "pay a very heavy price" for expelling Muslims from al-Andalus hundreds of years ago. The Spanish subtitle above reads "Oh dear Andalus! You thought we forgot about you. I swear by Allah we have never forgotten you. No Muslim can forget Córdoba, Toledo or Xàtiva."
Ten members of an Islamic State jihadi cell have been sentenced to combined prison terms of nearly 100 years for a plot to bomb landmarks and behead infidels in Barcelona. The cell, composed of five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian, was separate to and independent of the jihadi group that killed 16 people in Barcelona and nearby Cambrils in August 2017. The case shows that Spain continues to be a prime target for jihadis, many of whom are striving to reconquer al-Andalus, the Arabic name given to those parts of Spain, Portugal and France occupied by Muslim conquerors (also known as the Moors) from 711 to 1492. Many jihadis believe that territories Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquest of Spain still belong to the realm of Islam, and that Sharia law requires them to re-establish Muslim rule there.
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by Vijeta Uniyal • April 24, 2018 at 4:30 am
A report commissioned by the German government found that newly-arrived asylum seekers were behind more than 90% percent of the increase in violent crimes in the state of Lower Saxony. As of December 2017, an estimated 600,000 able-bodied asylum seekers in Germany were on the welfare dole, according to Die Welt. "More than half of the able-bodied unemployment benefit receivers at present are of foreign descent," wrote Der Spiegel on April 10, 2018. Meanwhile, poverty in Germany, especially among elderly pensioners, has reached a historic high.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel poses for a selfie with Anas Modamani, a migrant from Syria, outside a shelter for migrants in Berlin, on September 10, 2015. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
While the number of Salafists in Germany reaches a record high and machete-wielding gangs riot on the country's streets, the establishment media not only covers up the fallout from Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door migration policy, but continues to paint a false picture of the country's current state. "Cool Germany," a cover story on Britain's magazine, The Economist, claims that, "Germany is becoming more open and diverse" and "[m]any of the country's defining traits" including "its ethnic and cultural homogeneity, conformist and conservative society" are "suddenly in flux."
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by Alan M. Dershowitz • April 24, 2018 at 3:00 am
Robert Mueller. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Just as the first casualty of war is truth, so, too, the first casualty of hyper-partisan politics is civil liberties. Many traditional civil libertarians have allowed their strong anti-Trump sentiments to erase their long-standing commitment to neutral civil liberties. They are now so desperate to get Trump that they are prepared to compromise the most basic due process rights. They forget the lesson of history that such compromises made against one's enemy are often used as precedents against one's friends. As Robert Bolt put it in the play and movie A Man for all Seasons: Roper: So now you would give the Devil benefit of Law! Thomas Moore: Yes, what would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that?
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by Bassam Tawil • April 23, 2018 at 5:00 am
Zomlot informed his Jewish audience, in English, what he would never dare say in Arabic -- that the Palestinians will one day recognize the Jewish connection to Jerusalem. If Zomlot made such a statement in his native Arabic language, he would be denounced as a traitor -- if he were very lucky. If he were less lucky, he would end up in a hospital or morgue. Zomlot knows that he can always deny (in Arabic) what he said in English.
Pictured: Jerusalem's Western Wall, and the Temple Mount above it. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
Denial of Jewish history in Jerusalem and the existence of the Jewish Temple has always been a central component of the Palestinian narrative and ideology. Palestinians, like members of all societies, disagree on many things. Nevertheless, when it comes to the historical connection between Jews and Jerusalem, Palestinians manage to unite in lies: Palestinian political leaders, academics and religious leaders have long promoted the false narrative that Jerusalem was, and remains, an Arab and Islamic city. We are currently witnessing a new twist on this old lie. It seems that some Palestinians are now trying to deceive the world into believing that they do, indeed, recognize the Jewish people's historic connection to Jerusalem. The problem is that Palestinian officials tell their people one thing in Arabic and the rest of the world another thing in English.
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by Natalia Osten-Sacken • April 23, 2018 at 4:30 am
"If I speak about Islam, they interpret it as hating Muslims. But I do not hate Muslims. I believe that this ideology is dangerous for all mankind. The Muslim community will also suffer under the Sharia." — Mona Walter, Swedish activist from Mogadishu, Somalia. "Jesus said we should love our enemies, but not that we should be stupid." — Mona Walter. "I always say to my Christian friends, 'What do you think, what will happen to you if Islam becomes dominant here?'" — Mona Walter.
Mona Walter. (Image source: AlfaTV video screenshot)
Mona Walter, age 45, is a Swedish activist from Mogadishu, Somalia. In the early 1990s, she fled as a refugee to Sweden. There, she abandoned Islam and converted to Christianity. The act resulted in criticism and death threats. The mainstream media consider her a person working for religious freedom. Other organizations accuse her of fueling anti-Islamic movements. Natalia Osten-Sacken: I have heard your statements stigmatizing Islam as an intolerant and hateful culture. If it is so, why did you not notice it in Somalia? Mona Walter: In my country, we had our own African culture. People did not deal with religion so much. There was no Sharia, we had our own secular law. We came here as young, secular people. It is worth mentioning, that we belonged to the Sufi Sunni faction.
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by Pinar Tremblay • April 23, 2018 at 4:00 am
Research conducted in March by 50 teachers from the Imam Hatip schools revealed that students are moving away from Islam. "[Mosques] no longer serve people, but rather serve as a source of income for certain people." – Young imam, later fired. Another cause of upset on the part of many religious Muslims is the content of the Diyanet-prepared Friday sermons, which frequently advocates violent jihad. What is clearly on the rise, however, is great disappointment in the Erdogan government's version of Islam, especially when accompanied by corrupt politics and a deteriorating justice system.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
For decades, prominent Islamist figures would rarely criticize Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and when they did, it would be directed at his policies, rather than his personality. That trust seems beginning to change.
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by Giulio Meotti • April 22, 2018 at 5:00 am
The leaders of Belgium's ISLAM Party apparently want to turn Belgium into an Islamic State. They call it "Islamist democracy" and have set a target date: 2030. "The program is confusingly simple: replace all the civil and penal codes with sharia law. Period". — French magazine Causeur. "The European capital [Brussels] will be Muslim in twenty years". — Le Figaro.
Riot police guard a road in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, after raids in which several people, including Salah Abdeslam, one of the perpetrators of the November 2015 Paris attacks, were arrested on March 18, 2016. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
The French acronym of Belgium's ISLAM Party stands for "Integrity, Solidarity, Liberty, Authenticity, Morality". The leaders of the ISLAM Party apparently want to turn Belgium into an Islamic State. They call it "Islamist democracy" and have set a target date: 2030. According to the French magazine Causeur, "the program is confusingly simple: replace all the civil and penal codes with sharia law. Period". Created on the eve of the 2012 municipal ballot, the ISLAM Party immediately received impressive results. Its numbers are alarming. The effect of this new party, according to Michaël Privot, an expert on Islam, and Sebastien Boussois, a political scientist, could be the "implosion of the social body". Some Belgian politicians, such as Richard Miller, are now advocating banning the ISLAM Party.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • April 22, 2018 at 4:30 am
Finally, a world leader, President Donald Trump, took a stance against the war criminal who rules Syria. Instead of supporting that action, however, many people have been attacking Trump for the clear message he sent Bashar Assad: He cannot use illegal weapons to target civilians and enjoy immunity. Whoever appeases Assad and legitimizes his actions should be aware that they are complicit in crimes against humanity.
Pictured: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.), then Speaker of the US House of Representatives, meets with Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2007. (Image source: AP video screenshot)
Many people claim to champion the pursuit of justice and the defense of human rights around the globe. If there is an opportunity for them to make promises, they will. But when a true need arises, when their voices and rallying could make a genuine difference, many of those promises prove false. Recently, Syria's dictator, President Bashar Al Assad, attacked his own people with banned chemical weapons -- at least 50 times. The victims were mainly civilians. Innocent people -- men, women and children -- were suffocated by these attacks, but not before burning their eyes and drowning their lungs in fluid. Finally, a world leader, US President Donald Trump, took a stance against this war criminal. Instead of supporting that action, however, many people have been attacking Trump for the clear message he sent Assad: He cannot use illegal weapons to target civilians and enjoy immunity.
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by Amir Taheri • April 22, 2018 at 4:00 am
How could we not understand that in the anti-war coalition's Manichaean world, the role of evil was reserved solely for the Western democracies? Over the past decade or so, Russia has waged war against Georgia in Ossetia and Abkhazia, attacked Ukraine, annexed the Crimean Peninsula, turned Chechnya into a pile of rubble and driven thousands out of their villages in Ingushetia and Dagestan without the "anti-war coalition" waving a single placard. So what we have is a "lukewarm war" in which Russia's assets consist mainly of the anti-West constituencies inside Western democracies plus the veto power that Russia has in the United Nations Security Council.
Pictured: Russian soldiers in Aleppo, Syria. (Image source: Russia Ministry of Defense/Wikimedia Commons)
"We are here to protest against the bombing of Syria by Donald Trump and Theresa May," said the placard-waving young man sporting a ferocious beard. "Killing Muslims must be stopped," added the middle-aged lady dressed all in black with a demeanor of a diva. Our interlocutors were among a handful of activists from the "anti-war coalition," spending part of their weekend venting their hatred of Trump and America, and presumably of capitalism and imperialism in general, in front of the US Embassy in London. We asked whether they would also demonstrate in front of the Russian Embassy in Bayswater, a posher part of London? The answer was a chagrined look all around. How could we not understand that in their Manichaean world, the role of evil was reserved solely for the Western democracies?
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by Soeren Kern • April 21, 2018 at 5:00 am
Anti-Semitism is running rampant at German primary schools, according to Heinz-Peter Meidinger, president of the President of the German Teachers' Association (Deutschen Lehrerverbandes, DL). He also said that videos of beheadings are commonplace at German schools, and that female pupils are being threatened with murder. "In chat forums like WhatsApp, movies such as ISIS beheading videos are spreading like wildfire." "It is unacceptable that non-Muslim and above all Jewish children have to be afraid of going to school in this country because they are being labeled as 'unbelievers' and even threatened with death.... Since autumn... Kuwait Airways is allowed to discriminate against Jews at Frankfurt Airport, and the Federal Government does not object. Let us not fool ourselves: it is the Federal Government, which, for inexplicable reasons, allows Jews in Germany to be treated like this." — Julian Reichelt, Editor-in-Chief of Bild. "Mass gatherings that degenerate into violence are incompatible with our understanding of democracy. Humanity, tolerance, respect and dealing with each other in a democratic way are the basic values on which our coexistence is oriented. We all want to live in a peaceful, open and democratic society." — Sören Link, Mayor of Duisburg.
The Spreewald Elementary School in Berlin's Schöneberg district (pictured above) hired security guards to protect teachers and students from unruly students. Around 99% of the pupils at the school have a migration background. (Image source: Fridolin Freudenfett/Wikimedia Commons)
March 1. The Spreewald Elementary School in Berlin's Schöneberg district hired security guards to protect teachers and students from unruly students. Around 99% of the pupils at the school have a migration background. "Within the past year, the violence has increased so much that we now had to take this measure," said headmaster Doris Unzeit. "The violence is widespread and we want to take countermeasures with the security service. This should improve the reputation of the school and ensure that the children can learn here again in peace." March 2. A 41-year-old Syrian, Abu Marwan, stabbed to death his 37-year-old wife in Mühlacker. The couple's three children, a girl and two boys, witnessed the murder. It later emerged that immediately after the killing, the blood-stained man posted a video on Facebook warning women not to irritate their husbands: "This is how you'll end."
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by Uzay Bulut • April 20, 2018 at 5:00 am
With the illegal seizures and occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974 and the Syrian city of Afrin this March -- with virtually no global reaction -- Turkey apparently feels unchallenged and eager to continue; this time, it seems, with the oil-and-gas rich islands of Greece. "To take an interest in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Crimea, Karabakh, Bosnia and other brotherly regions is both the duty and the right of Turkey. Turkey is not just Turkey. The day we give up on these things will be the day we give up on our freedom and future." — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 2016. Turkish needs are in reality supplied by its association with the US. Turkish officials usually get whatever they want from the West, but they seem to have chosen to align themselves with Iran and Russia, possibly in attempt to blackmail the West for more.
A computer-generated rendering of the April 17 incident in which Turkish fighter jets harassed the helicopter carrying Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and in response Greek fighter jets arrived to protect the helicopter. (Image source: 'A News' video screenshot)
Turkey has been harassing Greece consistently. Most recently, this week, on April 17, two Turkish fighter aircraft harassed the helicopter carrying Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the Greek Armed Forces Chief Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis as they were flying from the islet of Ro to Rhodes. With the illegal seizures and occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974 and the Syrian city of Afrin this March -- with virtually no global response -- Turkey apparently feels unchallenged and eager to continue; this time, it seems, with the oil-and-gas rich islands of Greece. Another provocation by the Turkish government recently took place when three young Greek men recently paid tribute to a dead pilot by planting five flags in some islets in the Aegean.
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by Andrew Jones • April 19, 2018 at 5:00 am
Britain's educational authorities also failed to note the underlying message of the Teacher Handbook: that jihadist violence is justified when committed by those who believe themselves to be victims. This is a crucial point: it accepts at face value what might only be many Muslims' perception of "victimhood." Despite the Teacher Handbook's questionable attempts to align Islam with secular, Western principles such as human rights, fundamental British values are undermined by the very content of theTeacher Handbook. No amount of Western appeasement can counter jihad, which is, as openly admitted, a global expansionist project. Many religious texts have violent verses, but in Islam people still live by them.
The Finsbury Park mosque, in London, England. (Image source: Olof Lagerkvist/Wikimedia Commons)
Sweeping reforms in Britain's education system are having an unintended dangerous consequence: the infiltration of extremist Muslim influence on the teaching of Religious Studies. This influence is visible in The Oxford Teacher Handbook for GCSE Islam, authored by a small team of educational specialists and Muslim community leaders. The purpose of the manual is to guide British teachers lacking in-depth knowledge of Islam to help their students pass the Religious Studies General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), the UK's public examination for pupils at the end of Grade 11. This academic study of religions is an optional but relatively popular subject in British high schools -- 322,910 students took the examination in 2017, out of a total GCSE cohort in all subjects of 3,694,771.
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by Uzay Bulut • April 19, 2018 at 4:00 am
"Why hasn't any 'kind-hearted' anti-Assad Arab state (e.g. Saudi) taken any Syrian refugees? Shouldn't countries that spent billions on arming militants (including terrorists) in the name of 'liberating' Syrians take refugees in? The only Syrian refugees that got attention in the Gulf states are the vulnerable underage girls they bought in the name of marriage." — Dr. Abbas Kadhim. "Why not bring Christians and Yazidis from the Muslim world here first?... Finally, why not bring Muslim girls and women who are already in flight from honor-based violence, including from honor killing, here next -- before we extend visas, green cards and asylum to Muslim boys and men?" — Professor Phyllis Chesler. "It is ironic that millions of Muslims are trying... to reach the borders of a civilization they have historically blamed for all the world's evils... is it 'Islamophobic' to point out that there is no war in Greece, Serbia, Hungary, or Austria?" — Burak Bekdil, BESA Center for Strategic Studies.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed French President Emmanuel Macron for his recent offer to mediate between Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), saying he hopes Paris will not ask Ankara to help when terrorists fleeing Iraq and Syria arrive in France: "With this attitude, France has no right to complain about any terrorist organization, any terrorist, any terrorist attack. Those who sleep with terrorists, welcome them in their palaces, will understand sooner or later the mistake that they made."
On April 7, hours after a man ploughed his van into pedestrians in Münster, Germany, Erdogan threatened France again, referring to the incident: :
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by Bassam Tawil • April 18, 2018 at 5:00 am
Finally, the Hamas "Press Office" instructed Palestinian journalists to focus on the "humanization" of the stories of the Palestinians who are killed or injured during the mass demonstrations. Translation: If the "victim" is a Hamas terrorist, the journalists are to avoid mentioning that and instead report about his having been a beloved husband, father and community member. Aren't Fatah and Abbas receiving financial aid from the US and EU because of their presumed support for a peace process with Israel? Why should the Americans and Europeans be supporting a Palestinian faction whose journalists openly incite against their Israeli colleagues?
Pictured: Palestinians in Gaza attempt to break through a section of the border fence with Israel, under cover of a smokescreen, March 30, 2018. (Image source: Ateya Bahar video screenshot).
Three weeks after the beginning of the mass demonstrations along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, which are being held as part of the so-called "March of Return," Hamas is trying to intimidate journalists into covering the events in a way that distorts the truth and reality. Hamas, one of several Palestinian groups responsible for the anti-Israel demonstrations, does not want the world to see pictures of Palestinians throwing stones, firebombs and explosive devices at Israeli soldiers. Hamas does not want journalists to use the words "clashes" and "confrontations" when reporting about the demonstrations. Hamas does not want journalists to report the fact that some of the demonstrators killed during the "March of Return" were actually members of its armed group, Izaddin Al-Qassam.
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by Burak Bekdil • April 18, 2018 at 4:00 am
In a 2016 fatwa, the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), Turkey's highest religious authority, ruled that it was not forbidden in Islam if a father felt lust for his own daughter "on condition that the daughter is older than nine." According to celebrity Islamist scholar Nureddin Yıldız, Allah allows men to beat their wives not to torture them or hurt them but only to relax. Yıldız's sermon on "what would the ummah lose if women work" is a must-read piece to understand the typical Islamist thinking on gender equality, family and tribal ambitions to grow still more numerous.
According to Turkish celebrity Islamist scholar Nureddin Yıldız (pictured), Allah allows men to beat their wives not to torture them or hurt them but only to relax. (Image source: Sosyal Doku Vakfı video screenshot)
The word ulama in its Arabic context denotes scholars of almost all disciplines. In the context of Sunni Islam, however, ulama are regarded as "the guardians, transmitters and interpreters of religious knowledge." With the rise of Islamism as the dominant, state-sponsored ideology, the Turkish ulama have gained prominence: talk shows, books, newspaper columns, sermons and fatwas come in abundance. Devout Turks take them seriously. Secular Turks often mock them. Yet the Turkish ulama provide a rich context for those who want to understand Islamic piety as interpreted by religious scholars.
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