A new and massive poll of 2,029 18- to 29-year-olds from Harvard’s Institute of Politics just released found that of those who say they will “definitely be voting,” 51 percent want the GOP in charge, 47 percent favoring Democratic control.
The unexpected anti-Democratic swing prompted a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter quizzing poll experts on a media conference call to IOP blurted out, "How did the Democrats and Obama screw this up?"The rest here.
“When I first selected my candidate on the electronic machine, it would not put the ‘x’ on the candidate I chose — a Republican — but it would put the ‘x’ on the Democrat candidate above it,” Donna Hamilton said.
“This happened multiple times with multiple selections. Every time my choice flipped from Republican to Democrat. Sometimes it required four or five tries to get the ‘x’ to stay on my real selection,” the Frederick, Md., resident said last week.
Queen Anne County Sheriff Gary Hofmann said he encountered the problem, too, personally.
“This is happening here as well. It occurred on two candidates on my machine. I am glad I checked. Many voters have reported this here as well,” Hofmann, a Republican, wrote in an email Sunday evening.
Illinois Republican state representative candidate Jim Moynihan went to the Schaumburg Public Library last Monday to vote for himself. “Instead, it cast the vote for my opponent,” Moynihan told Watchdog.org.“You could imagine my surprise as the same thing happened with a number of races when I tried to vote for a Republican and the machine registered a vote for a Democrat,” Moynihan said.
He notified the election judge at his polling place and demonstrated that it continued to cast a vote for the opposing candidate’s party. Moynihan was eventually allowed to vote for Republican candidates, including his own race.
According to court records from 1987, Carnell Alexander's girlfriend put his name on a form as the father of her child when she applied for state assistance.The rest here.
In the late 1980s, a process server told the court that he delivered the notice to Alexander.
That did not happen, however, as Alexander was incarcerated at the time for an unrelated crime.
It was during a traffic stop in 1991 that Alexander found out for the first time that he owed $60,000 in back child support.
Islamic researcher Hussein Al-Nu'ami said that women should not be allowed to drive because they are "subject to menstruation and pregnancy" and "internal psychological factors", which "prevent women from coping with pressure." Al-Nu'ami claimed that the rates of rape, fornication, and divorce were higher in societies in which women drove. His argument was countered by Saudi journalist Daham Al-'Anzi, who asked him: "If a woman commits an act of depravity, what's that got to do with driving?" The debate was broadcast on the Saudi Selah TV channel and posted on the Internet on September 26, 2014.He has no problem with a woman driving in some remote area where she has no contact with anyone, however.
The real issue between the Nusra Front and the Islamic State was that their commanders, former friends from Iraq, were unable to agree on how to share the revenue from the oil fields in eastern Syria that the Nusra Front had conquered. On the one hand, I was pleased by this. It made the men despise each other. Had their armies reconciled, I would have become the prisoner of a reunited fundamentalist organization under the command of the stronger of the leaders, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.
Over the last 22 months, I had stopped being surprised when Nusra Front commanders introduced their 8-year-old sons to me by saying, “He will be a suicide martyr someday, by the will of God.” The children participated in the torture sessions. Around the prisons, they wore large pouches with red wires sticking out of them — apparently suicide belts — and sang their “destroy the Jews, death to America” anthems in the hallways. It would be a mistake to assume that only Syrians are educating their children in this manner. The Nusra Front higher-ups were inviting Westerners to the jihad in Syria not so much because they needed more foot soldiers — they didn’t — but because they want to teach the Westerners to take the struggle into every neighborhood and subway station back home. They want these Westerners to train their 8-year-olds to do the same. Over time, they said, the jihadists would carve mini-Islamic emirates out of the Western countries, as the Islamic State had done in Syria and Iraq. There, Western Muslims would at last live with dignity, under a true Quranic dispensation.
East End Muslim Mahmoud is an ordinary family man whose life is turned upside down when he discovers that not only is he adopted, but that his birth parents are Jewish. The resulting cultural and religious chaos leads to an uproarious and insightful comedy about race, prejudice, confusion and what it really means to be yourself.Here's a song from the musical: Sexy Burka. I think one of the niqab-clad singers is actually a guy.
Couldn't you think of anything else to do a play on than disrespecting islam?
The muslim women who wear niqab only wear them out in public and around strangers, not in their homes.
Seeing as your Jewish Mr David Baddiel your religion, just like christianity are so similiar to islam that you're really just insulting yourself. Jewish women wear burqas too but you're so westernised you must have missed that
FEAR ALLAH AND TAKE THIS VIDEO DOWN! THIS IS DISRESPECTFUL! MUSLIMAHS ACTING OUT LIKE THIS!
Joseph Watkins, Paul McKinley, Mark Carter and Harold "Noonie" WardAnd they blame most of the problems in the black community (including poverty, black on black crime) on the liberal black leadership in those black communities.
“It seems that you're allowed to wear a full-face covering into Parliament if you're a Muslim woman, but no other group is allowed to have that same privilege,” Redegalli said.
“We, as males, are not allowed to wear any face coverings in Parliament House."Niqab and Burqa-clad women are allowed entrance into the Parliament House as long as they show their faces at the security checkpoint.
The hard-hitting film features an endless cycle of parents scolding their sons, from toddlers through adolescence, for crying. It then powerfully culminates in an image of a man holding back tears. The camera shot then pans out to unveil that he is converting his emotions into violence by physically abusing his already battered female partner.
At the end of the video, a woman says: “We have taught our boys not to cry. It’s time we teach them not to make girls cry,”
“If you want to make a change, start with the boys.”He said:
“The idea of the film is centered around the fundamental truth that women’s empowerment is not about women alone, which is why I pledged to create a short film that communicates clearly the need to change the mindset of boys before they become men."
“When we teach young boys at an early age to not do something ‘like a girl’ – the distinction that what a girl does is insignificant is imprinted in the young boy’s mind. Growing up, when these boys don’t see eye to eye with their partners they feel the need to enforce their views through aggression.”More on Vogue's attempt to empower women and educate the men.
“Don’t let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs." “They always say that.Claiming trickle-down economics failed "rather spectacularly", she tells the crowd:
“don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs."
Apparently, there are 77,000 or so Somali people in Minnesota, the bulk of them refugees, who were resettled by Christian organizations like Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services.
“When we couldn't afford halal foods, we simply wouldn't buy lamb or would eat what we could with the budget we had,” she told International Business Times.
“The ‘viral’ writer is somewhat misinformed in that our community is not asking for additional food stamps from the county, nor are we asking for additional funding/taxes from the state or county,” Weli wrote in an email to IBTimes about Dedic’s Facebook post. She says the Somali community in Minnesota contributes $223 million to the state’s economy. A 2006 study found Somalis in Minnesota account for $164 million in buying power and own 600 businesses. “We aren't asking for handouts,” Weli said. “Most Somalis work hard so we asked some of our tax money to come back to our community so we can take care of our own while we keep continuing to do better.”If they are doing so well, as Dedic posits, why aren't they taking care of their own? Why can't business owners and mosques supply halal foods to those food banks.
“Some food shelves are trying to meet the need, but some of them already got canned beans that have already been mixed with pork -- and there is a literacy issue here.”Literacy. Hmm. Why isn't Isuroon worrying more about educating and teaching Somali people English and how to integrate, than bitching about not enough Halal food in local food pantries.
Beji Caid Essebsi, the 87-year-old leader of Nida Tunis, said soon after polls closed that “there are positive signs we may be first” with a large margin of seats.
His prediction was backed by exit polls conducted by the private Tunisia-based Sigma Conseil institute, which gave his party 37 percent of the 217-seat body, with just 26 percent to Ennahda.
“Based on our observations, we are optimistic,” said Yusra Ghannouchi, a party spokeswoman, who described the Nida Tunis announcement as “irresponsible.”
Speaking in late August in Berlin, Maassen said young Muslims are attracted to Islamic State (IS) because of its brutality. The militant group has become infamous for beheading captives amongst other things. The German domestic intelligence chief also says the group formally known as ISIS, seems to be “more authentic” than Al-Qaeda.According to Massen, it's the disenfranchised youth that are flocking to extremist groups because they go “from being underdogs to top dogs.” That's obvious. The bulk are German, with around 30 percent hailing from countries like Bosnia, Turkey, Morocco. A quarter are converts.
"There is a link between the successes IS has had so far in Iraq and the activities here in Germany and the propaganda and canvassing activities aimed at young jihadists," said Maassen, which was reported by Reuters. "The Islamic State is, so to speak, the 'in' thing - much more attractive than the Nusra Front, the al Qaeda spin-off in Syria."
"What attracts people is the intense brutality, the radicalism and rigor. That suggests to them that it is a more authentic organization even than al Qaeda," he said. "Al Qaeda fades besides the Islamic State when it comes to brutality," the BfV chief added.
“They knew in 2008. What do they do? Absolutely nothing, expect accuse the kid of doing it. What do they do, they blame, they cover up, they don’t tell the parents."After years of therapy, the students finally came forward.
“There was significant sexual abuse, intercourse and other inappropriate behavior such that one of the students had to have substantial surgical repair of that (private) area. It’s horrific."
Recently, we have become aware of disturbing allegations regarding a former teacher of Nur-ul-Islam Academy, Inc. (the “Academy”). These allegations relate to alleged acts of the teacher 6 to 8 years ago, which did not occur on the school’s premise, concerning at least one former student of the Academy. Upon learning of these allegations, the Academy immediately suspended the teacher’s employment, barred him from any further contact with Academy students and has since terminated his employment with the Academy. Although none of the acts are alleged to have occurred on the Academy’s campus, such acts, if true, clearly violate the conduct policy of the Academy, along with being a gross dereliction of the high level of moral character the Academy expects from its faculty.The Academy’s primary concern is to foster a safe and caring environment for all of its students, in which they can flourish personally and academically. The Academy, therefore, has undertaken a full review of its policies to determine what, if anything, needs to be done to further ensure the safety of our students. In the spirit of Islamic teachings, we offer prayers for the well-being of all our students, current and former.
His voice strained with anger, Putin accused the U.S. and its allies of trying to "tailor the world exclusively to their needs" since the end of the Cold War, using economic pressure and military force and often supporting extremist groups to achieve their goals.This from Russia's president, former KGB officer, who bemoaned the collapse of the Soviet Union, and is meddling in the Ukraine and Crimea.
“That was the last straw for me … calling me a liar, especially in front of three or four hundred people at that meeting."“Mr. Fotouh said it would be a good idea if I considered packing up my stuff and moving out further to the country.”
“We feel that these mosques are not fulfilling the needs of the community as they should. So, our vision is to have an integrated facility."Only 30 or so members will attend that mosque.
Despite its technological twist on the old allotment booklet, Venezuela’s new program of rationing is infuriating consumers who say it creates tiresome waits, doesn’t relieve shortages and overlooks the far-reaching economic overhauls the country needs to resolve the problem.
[snip]
The government rolled out the system last month across 36 supermarkets in this western border state, Zulia, whose capital is Maracaibo, with a recent expansion into a select number of state-owned markets in Caracas.
Venezuela is turning to rationing because of shortages caused by what economists call a toxic mix of unproductive local industry—hamstrung by nationalizations and government intervention—and a complex currency regime that is unable to provide the dollars importers need to pay for basics.
“The government is the one that lets the problems flourish,” said Eliseo FermÃn, an opposition member of Zulia’s state congress. “Now the average citizen bears the brunt.”The government blames smugglers, claiming the commie price-controlled products are smuggled out and sold in Colombia for a profit.
Though economists estimate that about 10% of Venezuelan consumer merchandise winds up in Colombia, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has said that the figure is 40%. He has closed checkpoints along the whole 1,375-mile border at night to stem the flow, and a crackdown on smugglers has led to the arrests of shoppers that officials believe to be planning to sell what they purchase in Colombia, say border guards.
“It is the responsibility of everyone to unite against contraband,” Zulia Gov. Francisco Arias, a member of Mr. Maduro’s Socialist Party, said on a recent TV show. He and other officials say fingerprinting prevents bulk buying for resale more effectively than requiring shoppers to show their national identity cards, a method that is used to track and limit purchases in some Caracas stores.
It has been providing arms to a group of radical Islamists called "Libya Dawn", whose allies, Ansar al-Sharia, were responsible for killing US Ambassador Christopher Stevens in an attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi in 2011.
It has also been funding a Syrian rebel faction called Ahrar al-Sham, a jihadist group who fought alongside Islamic State for control of the city of Raqqa. Although the groups have since split, the Syrian city has become an Isil stronghold, in which several Western hostages are believed to have been held.Naturally, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, denies it. And they're hosting the 2022 World Cup series.
Race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane told Fairfax Media the original ruling meant Muslim women were being treated differently to non-Muslim women.
"No-one should be treated like a second-class citizen, not least in the parliament,” he said.
“I have yet to see any expert opinion or analysis to date which indicates that the burqa or the niqab represents an additional or special security threat.”What? They want to be treated differently than non-Muslim women, that's why they wear burqas and niqabs in a Western society in the first place. And if they're wearing burqas, they're already being treated as second-class citizens, so what's the difference. And burqas and niqabs are most definitely a security threat. Lot's of space under that garb to hide any manner of explosives or weapons.
..Labor opposition frontbencher Tony Burke welcomed the backdown but said the initial decision should never have been made.
“What possessed them to think that segregation was a good idea?” he said.
“Segregation was previously introduced, apparently, with no security advice attached to it and no security reason attached to it.”
The Department of Parliamentary Services said in a statement that the rules had been changed and all visitors must now “temporarily remove any coverings” that prevent the recognition of facial features.
“This will enable security staff to identify anyone who may have been banned from entering the building or who may be known to be a security risk,” it said.
“Once this process has taken place visitors are free to move about the public spaces of the building, including all chamber galleries, with facial coverings in place”.
A steady stream of people walked out of the auditorium while he spoke, and at one point a heckler interrupted his remarks to complain about his handling of the immigration issue. The President told the heckler he would be better protesting at members of Congress who he said had blocked all attempts to resolve the crisis.
Police have declined to comment on a motive but suspects have been arrested and an investigation is ongoing, General Hossein Ashtari was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.The rest here.
He said four acid attacks had been reported in Isfahan, 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Tehran, but he gave no other details.
The violence led to chatter on social networks that there had been up to 13 acid attacks against women drivers who were "badly veiled" with accompanying warnings against leaving car windows open.
"We must not embellish things, and say that Islam is a religion of compassion, peace, and rose water, and that everything is fine. Brother, your Islamic history is full of wars, raids. From Tunisia alone, one million boys were taken as slaves to Damascus. "Islam has been politicized and used as a sword."Brave and enlightened man.
And according to Latino American Dawah Organization (LADO), a group that promotes Latino conversions, a little more than half of new converts are female.Scared? So Torres moves from an oppressive Communist society in Cuba where one lives in fear, can't deal with the new found freedom in America, so converts to an oppressive religion like Islam? Why didn't she just remain in Cuba?
Greisa Torres arrived in Miami four years ago from Cuba.
While she felt at home in the Florida city, where two out of the three residents are Hispanic, Torres says she lost her identity in the move and found it in the Prophet Muhammad.
While she was pregnant with her second son, Mahdi, Torres converted to Islam.
“It was very hard for me because we do not have family here, just my husband and my kids. On this day, my baby -- Mahdi -- he was going to be born. That is why I convert to Islam because I was scared," Torres says.
Londono says some women turn to Islam because they are repelled by Western values of success -- as measured by careers, schooling or wealth. She says they are more comfortable with traditional gender roles.[snip]
Londono says her research found that some people might view Islam as giving women less freedom, but the converting Latinas see it as a positive change.
“It defines their world on a clear grid of what’s permitted or 'halal,' and what’s prohibited which is 'haram.' So they know exactly where they stand," Londono says. "So the Koran becomes this guidebook that tells you exactly what to wear, what to eat, how to wash, how to behave, when to pray.”
While feminist Muslims might avoid the hijab, many Latinas embrace it.Most of the Latina converts where the hijab, including Torres who believes people respect her for it.
“When people see you with the hijab, they respect you first. Second, it’s the emotion you feel because you are different. You believe in something. It’s amazing.”Sorry, not me.
Relatives and other sources told VOA’s Somali Service the girls left Denver and flew to Frankfurt via Chicago. Family members alerted Denver authorities who contacted their German counterparts.
Two of the girls are sisters of ethnic Somali origin and are 15 and 16 years old. The third girl is from Sudan - her age is not yet known. It is not yet clear where they ultimately were heading, but one of the young girls reportedly told German authorities, “We are going to Turkey to study.”
The girls have since spoken to their relatives and are due to arrive back home later Sunday.The girls, of Somali Muslim descent, just disappear one day without their parents' consent, headed for Turkey, and no-one thinks they might just be headed to join the Islamic State as jihadi brides. Right.
National Security Minister Gary Griffith said the government has learned of the involvement of its citizens in overseas militant activity from foreign intelligence agencies that he did not identify.This, from a country that has a small Muslim community, only 5 percent of the 1.2 million people living there.
Some of the country's citizens taking part are fighters and others are providing logistical and financial support, Griffith said in an interview.
"There are those who are sympathizers, those who are providing financial support for the cause, those who are working in passport and immigration and lending other forms of assistance," he said.
He declined to say how many people there are, beyond "several," but said the government is concerned about the potential for a security threat in the future.
"What we are concerned about now, and a decision has to be made on this by the National Security Council, is how we deal with such persons who have gone to the Middle East and now want to return here," Griffith told The Associated Press.
In July 1990, a militant Islamic group stormed Parliament in an attempted coup and took the prime minister and his Cabinet hostage. The coup attempt by Yasin Abu Bakr and 113 members of his Jamaat al Muslimeen group resulted in the deaths of 24 people, most during looting that erupted in the capital of Port-of-Spain.
On Wednesday, Bakr was denied entry to Jamaica after arriving on a commercial flight from Trinidad. Jamaica's immigration agency said Bakr was barred from entering "in the interest of national security" and plans were being made to return him to his homeland.
Another Trinidad man, Kareem Ibrahim, was convicted in May 2011 in the U.S. of participating in a failed plot to blow up jet fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Authorities said the planned attack was meant to avenge what the plotters perceived U.S. oppression of Muslims around the world.The Miami Herald claims there are around 50 Trinidadian jihadists fighting overseas. One of whom was identified as Shane Crawford, 28.
"no longer a French city, it is a Maghrebin city".Enza Ferreri, a London-based Italian journalist, discusses the book.
Arabic is the first language spoken in Marseille, and French only the second.More photos on her blog.
95% of the students in the city's Collège Edgar Quinet are now Muslims.
No wonder Gaddafi once said in a speech that there was no need to invade Europe because in 20 years Europe would be Muslim.
Europe, with its political fear, spiritual decadence and weakness, and obsequiousness towards Islam, is the first battleground for Muslims in their quest to conquer and subjugate the world.
The book, which is little more than 130 pages, is unsettling the Somali militants as it challenges their misuse of Islam as a political tool.
Xadka Riddada, as it is commonly known, seems to be more dangerous for Islamist militants in Somalia than the thousands of troops sent by the African Union to the Horn of Africa nation, or the millions of dollars spent every month fighting Islamist terrorists.
The resistance to the book by radical clerics shows the fight against terrorism is essentially one of ideas rather than military might.
[snip]
He has done extensive research on the issue of apostasy in Islam and freedom of religion, and concluded that Islam does not prescribe the death penalty for apostasy, and that freedom of religion is clearly enshrined in Islam.
The booklet is a counter-narrative to the Islamist position that Muslims cannot abandon their religion and if they do, they should be killed -- a doctrine used to justify wanton killings in Somalia.
Mr Ismail argues that many of the doctrines in Islam are based on the out-dated Arab socio-economic situation of the sixth century, and that much of the Islamic Jurisprudence now used by Islamists is no more than tribal reading of key religious sources.
He advocates the separation of Mosque and State, so to speak, which is contrary to the rallying call by Islamist jihadists and their ideologues for Sharia as the supreme law in Muslim countries. This call is equivalent to the Bible being declared the law in Christian countries, an unthinkable preposition in this day and age.
The message describes the ruling for the alleged crime as "apostasy" and states the teenager has been "killed and crucified for a period of three days" as the punishment.
The alleged execution comes after it emerged ISIS militants had beheaded their own fighters for spying and espionage.
It is not known who took the picture, which was circulated across social media by some ISIS supporters on Friday.
"Crucifixion has been used many times before - it's an age-old punishment dealt out to people who have committed treason."
He said this punishment arises from Isis's fundamentalist interpretation of Verse 33 of the fifth book of the Koran, which reads: "Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth (to cause) corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land.
"That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment."
However, he said the next very next verse emphasizes forgiveness and removes the imperative to use such a punishment, saying: "Except for those who return (repenting) before you apprehend them. And know that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."
The man identified by his initials N.R., who was under police restrictions in France, was picked up at Casablanca airport, the Moroccan interior ministry said in a statement.
[snip]
The arrested couple will appear in court, while no mention was made of the way the children will be handled, or whether they will be returned to France.
The man was said to have been on his way to Turkey when he was arrested.
“Why do I have to be half naked to swim? To enjoy my time with my kids?" “I want to have the same rights as every citizen.”
“I told them I would take off the long dress, if that was their concern, and that I had clothes on underneath." “But they said if they let me, everyone would ask, ‘Why did you let them and not us?'”What part of 'no street clothes allowed' does she not understand? If certain Muslims are unwilling to conform, then maybe they should build pools for their overly modest selves.
“The city routinely turns away people who don’t have appropriate swimwear — jean shorts, sport shorts, not wearing swim diapers." “We turn all those individuals away because the No. 1 focus for us is safety.”
The decision by NUS's National Executive Committee to shoot down the motion is all the more shocking given that the same body adopted an aggressive bill just over two months ago condemning Israel and calling for a boycott of the Jewish state. The anti-Israel motion was adopted despite objections that it risked alienating Jewish students, who are feeling increasingly insecure on British campuses as a result of militant anti-Israel activity.The rest here, including the full text of the motion.
It comes as Kurdish fighters continue to battle ISIS in Kobane, stymieing the jihadi group's bloody advance through Syria. Rights groups have said that ISIS's brutal military campaign throughout Iraq and Syria amounts to ethnic-cleansing of "historic proportions", as non-Sunni Muslim groups - including Shias, Christians and Yazidis - have been targeted with rape, mass-killings and forcible conversions.
The proposed motion was penned in support of the Kurds in particular, who have both been at the forefront of resistance to ISIS and on the receiving end of much of the group[s brutality. It called "to condemn the IS and support Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention." (For full text see below.)
Saudi men believe women are to blame for the rising cases involving molestation of females on the grounds they are seduced by women’s excessive make up.No warning signs? Really? They need to be told it's not okay to sexually harrass or molest women?
The findings were included in a survey conducted by the Riyadh-based King Abdul Aziz Centre for National Dialogue and involved 992 males and females.
The survey, carried by Saudi newspapers, found that 86.5 per cent of the men polled believe that women’s exaggeration in wearing make-up is the main cause of the rise in molestation cases in public places in the conservative Gulf Kingdom.
About 80 per cent of the total persons polled believe lack of deterrent penalties and the absence of specific anti-molestation laws are also to blame for the phenomenon.
The report said 91 per cent of the respondents, all aged above 19, believe another key factor is the “poor religious sentiment” while nearly 75 per cent said the problem is caused by lack of awareness campaigns and warning notices at most public places.
Ebola Reston – In October 1989, the community of Reston, Virginia went about their daily lives not realizing that a serious crisis was developing right in their back yards that would not be entirely resolved until March 1990. It was a serious calamity that could have wiped out the entire population.
[snip]
The people in the book are real, two victims’ names have been changed, and the narrative and dialog were masterfully reconstructed from interviews and memories of those who participated in the crises.
Hazelton Research Products, a division of Corning, Inc. was importing and selling lab animals. On October 4, 1989, the monkey house called Reston Primate Quarantine Unit located not far from Leesburg Pike, received a shipment of one hundred crab-eating monkeys (a type of macaque) from the Philippines, caught on the island of Mindanao. Two of the monkeys were dead in their shipping crates. By first of November, 29 of the monkeys were dead, most of them in Room F. The heating and air system had failed so it was assumed the deaths had occurred from ambient conditions. Each night more macaques died. By November 16, a tentative diagnosis was given “simian hemorrhagic fever.”
“Joining a foreign armed force was previously punishable, now it’s no longer forbidden,” public prosecutor spokesman Wim de Bruin told AFP.
“You just can’t join a fight against the Netherlands,” he told AFP after reports emerged that Dutch bikers from the No Surrender gang were fighting ISIS insurgents alongside Kurds in northern Iraq.
The head of No Surrender, Klaas Otto, told state broadcaster NOS that three members who travelled to near Mosul in northern Iraq were from Dutch cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Breda.
A photograph on a Dutch-Kurdish Twitter account shows a tattooed Dutchman called Ron in military garb, holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle while sat with a Kurdish comrade.
Video footage apparently from a Kurdish broadcaster shows an armed European man with Kurdish fighters saying in Dutch: “The Kurds have been under pressure for a long time.”
“The big difference with ISIS is that it’s listed as a terrorist group,” said De Bruin.
“That means that even preparing to join ISIS is punishable.”
Citing figures compiled by the French Interior Ministry, the official on Monday said intelligence shows there are people "of Jewish extraction," some of whom converted to Islam, among those who joined the jihadist group.That is, if the information is true. However, some in the French Jewish community doubt it, claiming there is no proof.
The official emphasized that there are only a small handful of Jews among the IS recruits – not enough to consider it a trend.
The revelation comes just days after reports surfaced that a French Jewish teenager was among the approximately 100 young women who have left France to join jihad in Syria during the past year and a half.
Meyer Habib, a Jewish member of the French parliament, said the suspected jihadis were the topic of conversation among France's Jewish community. However, he claimed, there is no official proof they actually joined IS.
If a Jewish girl did join the Islamic State, "it really is the end of the world" and complicates matters, Habib told Channel 2.
"It is inconceivable that this would happen. There are many rumors swirling and we hope an official source will update us. Some say the Jewish girl converted, and that is also disconcerting."
Your character’s relationship with Peyman’s detainee reminds us of the humanity of these people. We tend to view suspected terrorists as this nameless, faceless “other,” when they’re human beings, too.Stewart's response:
As Americans, we should absolutely aspire to more than that. If you label something “bad,” people will justify the most terrible things. Just because you’re following a greater whole, suddenly you take the individual out of it and no one bears responsibility for anything."
She really gets swept up in all the post 9/11 patriotism and signs up for Gitmo duty, only to find that it isn’t what she thought at all.Stewart:
She’s simple, not very smart, and really socially inadequate—but a good person. So, if you can sign up, put a uniform on, and erase yourself, you don’t have to consider yourself anymore. You can take the individual out of it and say, “Well, this dignifies me. I’m good because of this.” And when that doesn’t end up being true, you actually have to contend with who you are. All she wants is to think, “They did 9/11, they’re bad, fuck that, I’m going to do my job and I’m going to do it well.” But then she gets down there and just can’t accept it; she can’t conform to that.Stern:
Right. The mistake we make is not viewing these detainees down there as people, too. We’re all people.Stewart:
That is essentially so fucking evil, it’s crazy. It’s a ridiculous idea for you to think that you know anything for sure in life—other than to take care of your fellow people. Where the fuck do you get off thinking otherwise? These two people couldn’t be from more different worlds and perspectives, and probably disagree fundamentally on most things, but there’s a through-line for all of us—and that’s what people forget, and that’s what makes people capable of doing terrible things to each other. What makes you different from any other person that walks the earth?
"A meeting was held between independent journalists and the ISIS media staff to state how [journalistic] work will be conducted after ISIS gained control of the Deir Ezzor governorate."
1 - Correspondents must swear allegiance to the Caliph [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi ... they are subjects of the Islamic State and, as subjects, they are obliged to swear loyalty to their imam.Those who agreed signed a contract agreeing to the rules. Those who didn't, got the hell out of dodge, though that wasn't so easy.
2 - Their work will be under the exclusive supervision of the [ISIS] media offices.
3 - Journalists can work directly with international news agencies (such as Reuters, AFP and AP), but they are to avoid all international and local satellite TV channels. They are forbidden to provide any exclusive material or have any contact (sound or image) with them in any capacity.
4 - Journalists are forbidden to work in any way with the TV channels placed on the blacklist of channels that fight against Islamic countries (such as Al-Arabiya, Al Jazeera and Orient). Violators will be held accountable.
5 - Journalists are allowed to cover events in the governorate with either written or still images without having to refer back to the [ISIS] media office. All published pieces and photos must carry the journalist’s and photographer’s names.
6 - Journalists are not allowed to publish any reportage (print or broadcast) without referring to the [ISIS] media office first.
7 - Journalists may have their own social media accounts and blogs to disseminate news and pictures. However, the ISIS media office must have the addresses and name handles of these accounts and pages.
8 - Journalists must abide by the regulations when taking photos within [ISIS territory] and avoid filming locations or security events where taking pictures is prohibited.
9 - ISIS media offices will follow up on the work of local journalists within [ISIS territory] and in the state media. Any violation of the rules in place will lead to suspending the journalist from his work, and he will be held accountable.
10 - The rules are not final and are subject to change at any time depending on the circumstances and the degree of cooperation between journalists and their commitment to their brothers in the ISIS media offices.
11 - Journalists are given a license to practice their work after submitting a license request at the [ISIS] media office.
Maher, a media activist, wrote on Facebook that leaving the governorate was very difficult because [ISIS] kept sending him messages, which fluctuated between intimidation and offering incentives to return. Some were threats of crucifixion or to arrest members of his family.
"The harassment of activists aims to push them to stop reporting on the repressive rule that [ISIS] is trying to impose in its areas," he said. "Because activists were exposing these practices, it quickly made them the number one enemy of ISIS, which tried to shut them down at any cost, similar to what the Assad regime did at the beginning of the revolution. It had focused on shutting them down because of the kind of work they do that exposes the crimes [Assad] committed against the Syrian people."
"The regime was arrested, imprisoned and tortured many in its prisons, many of whom died as a result. It was common for an activist to be detained once or twice, and then released from prison for several months."
"However, in the case of ISIS, activists are considered infidels and are sentenced to death, crucifixion and more, simply because they oppose ISIS policies. The charge [against me] was ready and so was the punishment. To make matters worse, ISIS threatened to arrest members of my family to stop me from exposing their practices on the internet.”More here.
"Every Muslim should get out of his house, find a crusader, and kill him. It is important that the killing becomes attributed to patrons of the Islamic State who have obeyed its leadership. This can easily be done with anonymity. Otherwise, Crusader media makes such attacks appear to be random killings."
ISIS’s heightened activity led to speculation that the group’s offensive to control Kobane was only a decoy architectured by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed ISIS “caliph.”
Observers, the Telegraph reported, say that while an ISIS-controlled Kobane would not greatly benefit the group strategically, the capture of Ramadi and other cities in Anbar would, as it would be catastrophic for both the Iraqi government and the U.S.-led coalition hoping to contain the group.
"Anyone hoping for a nice, neat, surgical operation without getting their hands dirty is in for a horrible surprise once it gets under way."
"The Islamic State doesn't mind if nobody attacks them or if everybody attacks them. They are patient, and time means little to them. They don't rely on any donor or country for funds but make financial gains from war booty and battlefield successes. America on the other hand has to do this as quickly and cleanly as possible. But already the subject of money has been raised. With our economies largely bankrupt, getting sustained public support for yet more war is going to be nigh on impossible."
“Don’t look for us. We will serve Allah — and we will die for him.”But have the fair-haired, blue-eyed girls really had a change of heart? They lived in a Western country with no restrictions on how they conducted their lives, and it's feasible that the highly restricted lifestyle of a Muslim jihadi's wife could quickly turn unappealing. But what if they are simply trying to get home so they can radicalize others, and at some point in time initiate a terrorist attack in Vienna? They seemed to be enjoying the lifestyle, according to social media.
For weeks social media accounts believed to belong to the girls have been posting pictures and information leading many to feel they enjoyed living a life of terror.Austrian authorities claim that was an ISIS plot to convince people that the teens wanted to be "the poster girls for jihad in Syria."
They have contacted their loved ones and told them they are sick of living with the Islamic state jihadis, but they also said they don’t feel they can flee from their unwanted new life because too many people now associate them with IS.
“The main problem is about people coming back to Austria,” said Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman, Karl-Heinz Grundboeck. “Once they leave it is almost impossible.”We make choices in this world, we suffer the consequences. They should not be allowed to return.
“We believe this world deserves a new world order."In other words, an Islamic State caliphate. That's because capitalism has failed.
The crowd was engaged and calm except for a moment of slight tension when an audience member asked the sheik about the penalty under sharia law for a Muslim leaving the Islamic faith.More here.
A 70-year-old woman also hit out at Al-Wahwah for criticising Australian values and told him to stop waving his finger around.
Hizb ut-Tahrir advocates that secular governments be replaced and Muslim-majority countries unite under a global caliphate governed by Islamic law.
“In life we have met, and in the afterlife, we have the hope - we ask God to see you in happiness, in a place where this no boredom.In heaven.."
On YouTube, one user commenting said “Oh mother, I did not die, but I am a martyr with my God,” while another user on Twitter said: “God bless you cub of Baghdadi, your picture has made me cry. I swear I wished if I was in your
place.”
Charlie Cooper, a researcher at the Quilliam Foundation, told The Independent newspaper that those sharing the pictures are paying tribute to the child as the youngest martyr from the Arabian Peninsula to have been killed in Syria.
However, there were others who criticized and scorned the use of children in conflict.
On YouTube commented said: “Unfortunately everyday a child in Palestine is martyred either because of conflict, hunger or sickness. We did not see anyone objecting…”
Another rebuked the use of children in conflicts on YouTube: “Is this holy jihad? Brainwashing kids’ brains?”
On Twitter user said: “Cub of Baghdadi youngest ISIS fighter killed, the child from the Arabian Peninsula came to kill other Arabs, what a great upbringing.”
Another Twitter user said: “ISIS has announced the killing of its youngest jihadist, and says he is in heaven with 72 Barbie dolls,” in apparent reference to a saying propagated by extremist groups that men will be rewarded with 72 virgins in heaven.
