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Tunisian imams discourage pilgrims from completing Hajj as Saudis use money to fund wars


Middle East Monitor
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:40 UTC
Muslim Hajj pilgrims Kaaba stone
© Fırat Yurdakul/Anadolu AgencyMuslim Hajj pilgrims try to touch Kaaba stone as they circumnavigate around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, located in the center of the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia on 22 August, 2017
The Union of Tunisian Imams called on the Grand Mufti of the Republic to discourage pilgrims from travelling to complete the Hajj this year because of the high costs of the trip and the fact that the money is used by Saudi Arabia to pay for its wars in other Muslim countries.

Local media reported General-Secretary of the Union of Tunisian Imams, Fadhel Ashour, saying: "It is better to spend this money to improve the conditions of the Tunisian people."
Saudi Arabia uses the money of Hajj in the aggression against Islamic countries such as Syria and Yemen, which is contrary to Sharia.

Comment: Any attempts to inhibit the Saudi's brutal assault on Yemen should be applauded. See also:

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USA

The sad state of childhood poverty in America

Joseph Batory
Daily Times
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 18:34 UTC
hungry children, poverty,homelessness
For the children and the flowers are my sisters and my brothers,

their laughter and their loveliness would clear a cloudy day.

And the song that I am singing is a prayer to non-believers,

To come and stand beside us, we can find a better way.

-- From a John Denver song: 'Rhymes and Reasons')

-

As a nation, we have lost our way! In the "political wheeling and dealing" of Washington government's elites, far too many of these elected officials continue to pursue only their own self-serving interests. Getting re-elected is all that matters to these people. So the agendas and subsequent support of rich and powerful individuals and groups have become their priority rather than the common good and the critical needs of our nation.

One of the "buried issues" you never hear very much about in Congress or the White House is the appalling rate of poverty among children in the United States. But the primary advocate for children in America, Marian Wright Edelman, leader of the The Children's Defense Fund, has been relentless in her demands for better treatment of the poor children in our nation. Here is what she wrote to the newly-elected president in January:

Comment: Being a poor child is a direct result of having poor parents. What's one of the main drivers of poverty in many cases? Single parent homes. Unless there is an increase in responsible behaviors amongst men and women throwing more government money at the problem is unlikely to break the cycle of poverty.

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TV

Why media reporting on Venezuela is biased and inaccurate

Joe Emersberger
Fair
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 19:36 UTC
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
© European Press AgencyVenezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
A review of Alan MacLeod's Bad News From Venezuela

For almost 20 years, the US government has been trying to overthrow Venezuela's government, and establishment media outlets (state, corporate and some nonprofit) throughout the Americas and Europe have been bending over backwards to help the US do it.

Rare exceptions to this over the last two decades would be found in the state media in some countries that are not hostile to Venezuela, like the ALBA block. Small independent outlets like VenezuelAnalysis.com also offered alternatives. In the US and UK establishment media, you are way more likelyto see a defense of Saudi Arabia's dictatorship than of Venezuela's democratically elected government. Any defense of Venezuela's government will provoke vilification and ridicule, so both Alan MacLeod and his publisher (Routledge) deserve very high praise for producing the book Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting. It took real political courage. (Disclosure: MacLeod is a contributor to FAIR.org, as am I.)

Comment:

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USA

America is dividing against itself, again!

Star Parker
Townhall
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:01 UTC
Eagle vitriol flag
© David Foldvari
On May 22, 1856, Representative Preston Brooks entered the floor of the United States Senate, approached abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner, and beat the senator with a cane, almost taking his life.
Brooks was provoked by a passionate anti-slavery speech that Sumner had delivered in the Senate three days earlier, in which he assailed Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina, a relative of Brooks, for his pro-slavery stance.

This sad and gruesome history is related on the website of the U.S. Senate, which concludes saying, "The nation, suffering from the breakdown of reasoned discourse that this event symbolized, tumbled onward toward the catastrophe of the civil war."

We ought to be concerned that again, today, the nation appears to be flirting with this uneasy territory where "reasoned discourse" is breaking down.
The president's press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was asked to leave a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, where she was having dinner because, well, she works for Donald Trump. Stephanie Wilkerson, owner of the Red Hen restaurant, said she asked Sanders to depart because "there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one."
But what exactly are the "convictions" that Wilkerson was living in this incident? That you refuse to talk, associate, do business with anyone you disagree with? This is America?

Comment: Until Americans can step back, look at the big picture, recognize the congelation aspects of civil strife that lead to confrontation and then actively choose to recalibrate, the aspect of civil war increases in option and intensity.

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Russian Flag

SOTT Focus: The Resounding Success of the World Cup is a Great Victory for Football but an Epic Fail for Russophobes

Neil Clark
RT
Thu, 28 Jun 2018 19:07 UTC
world cup 2018
© Kai Pfaffenbach / ReutersMexico fan kisses a toy trophy, Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia, June 17, 2018
The 2018 World Cup is shaping up to be the best ever. It's a far cry from the negative media coverage that surrounded the Mundial before it began, which sought to de-legitimize Russia's hosting of the event and put fans off going.

Has there ever been a World Cup that has left so many people with egg on their faces.

We were told by indignant neo-cons and virtue-signaling Western 'liberals' that it was a disgrace that Russia, a country of which they did not approve, was being allowed to host the tournament. It would be like the 1936 Nazi Olympics, MPs and media pundits assured us. 'Putin's World Cup' would be the worst World Cup ever.

Fans who went would be in fear of their lives as three out of every four Russians was a racist, homophobic football hooligan and the fourth was like Frankenstein's Monster. England's players could be drugged in their hotel to "slow them down."

In fact, the World Cup has turned out to be absolutely brilliant.
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Star of David

US legislative candidates, critical of Israel, face political attacks - but norms may be changing

Umar A. Farooq
Middle East Eye
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 20:31 UTC
Leslie Cockburn
© Getty Images/KJNVirginia Democrat Leslie Cockburn labeled a 'virulent anti-Semite'
As the US mid-term legislative elections approach, several Democratic candidates are facing accusations of anti-Semitism for their critical stance on Israel, highlighting the relevance of the Middle East conflict in US politics.

Still, at least three of those candidates have secured their party's nomination, challenging a prevalent norm in US politics where being perceived as hostile to Israel can be a career-ending taboo.

Candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is running for Congress from San Diego, was chastised by Israeli media for being the grandson of an alleged militant. Campa-Najjar's grandfather, Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, was an officer in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) who was assassinated by the Mossad in 1973 in Lebanon.

Various US and Israeli media outlets, including Haaretz, the San Diego Tribune and the Times of Israel, slammed Campa-Najjar's grandfather, calling him a "terrorist". Israel had linked the candidate's grandfather to the Munich attack in 1972 when a group of Palestinian gunman seized and killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic games in Germany. While distancing himself from his grandfather, Campa-Najjar still acknowledges his Palestinian identity.

Comment: The not-so-blind are beginning to see 'a patch of blue' in the stormy sky of intolerance and manipulation by the pro-Israel forces controlling America.

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Info

Milo Yiannopoulos defends his 'gun journos down' trolling email after Annapolis shooting


RT
Thu, 28 Jun 2018 18:22 UTC
Capital Gazette scene
© Joshua Roberts / ReutersCapital Gazette newspaper shooting scene in Annapolis, June 28, 2018.
Following the Capital Gazette shooting, right-wing pundit Milo Yiannopoulos said his 'gun journos down' statement was not a call for violence, and accused left-wing press of exploiting deaths while the bodies are 'barely cold.'

Before authorities even named the motive behind the fatal shooting of five people at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, a number of journalists and activists took to Twitter to blame it on words President Donald Trump and Yiannopoulos have spoken about the press. Yiannopoulos issued a response via Facebook emphasizing that he "wasn't being serious" when he called on vigilantes to gun down the press.

"The bodies are barely cold and left-wing journalists are already exploiting these deaths to score political points against me. It's disgusting. I regret nothing I said, though of course like any normal person I am saddened to hear of needless death," the 33-year old wrote.
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Boat

Malta allows 230 migrants stuck on humanitarian ship to come to shore


Middle East Monitor
Fri, 29 Jun 2018 19:22 UTC
The Lifeline is the second charity ship that Italy has shut out of its ports this month after the new anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said private rescue vessels would no longer be welcome
© TwitterThe Lifeline is the second charity ship that Italy has shut out of its ports this month after the new anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said private rescue vessels would no longer be welcome
A humanitarian ship that has had about 230 rescued migrants on board for almost a week will enter a Maltese port today, ending a standoff with Italy which refused to let the ship dock.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said seven European Union countries had offered to share the burden of the migrants with Malta. The Lifeline ship, operated by German charity Mission Lifeline, is due to dock at around 16:00 GMT.

"Lifeline will be granted permission to enter a Maltese port, where procedures for identification, ascertaining their asylum eligibility, and distribution to other member states will start immediately," Muscat told reporters.
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Black Magic

Voodoo-practicing nurse convicted of sex trafficking in the UK


RT
Fri, 29 Jun 2018 17:16 UTC
Josephine Iyamu
© National Crime Agency
A nurse who forced women to take part in a voodoo ceremony before smuggling them to Europe to work as prostitutes, has become the first UK national to be convicted of human trafficking for crimes committed outside Britain.

A Birmingham Crown Court heard how Josephine Iyamu, 51 and originally from Liberia, subjected her victims to juju, a form of voodoo whose adherents claim can exercise a psychological control over those subject to it.

Iyamu, who became a British citizen in 2009, charged her victims, aged between 24 and 30, up to £33,000 to be smuggled into Europe. The route saw the women travel through the Sahara desert from Nigeria to the Libyan coast. The "horrendous" journey involved some women shot at and gang rapped, according to National Crime Agency (NCA) Senior Investigation Officer Kay Mellor. They would then travel across the Mediterranean to Italy, from where they would be sent to Germany and forced into prostitution to pay off their debts.

Describing the witch-doctors, Mellor said: "They exert an insidious control which an expert witness has said is more powerful than chains. As part of the oath-swearing ceremony they were given blood containing worms to drink. A chicken was used to hit her naked body on the back and on the chest.
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Pistol

Active shooter drill was reported a week before the Capital Gazette shootings

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 29 Jun 2018 17:06 UTC
Annapolis active shooter drill
Five people were killed in another mass shooting after a man opened fire at the Capital Gazette newspaper on Thursday afternoon, in what is being called a "targeted attack" by a deranged individual who reportedly went as far as mutilating his own fingers in order to keep police from identifying him.

Fueling conspiracy theories online, just one week before the shooting at the newspaper's headquarters, the Capital Gazette reported that "Annapolis Police will be conducting an active shooter drill."

The Annapolis Police Department released a statement claiming that residents "should be aware that real-life sights and sounds may be seen and heard along the periphery of the campus and a variety of emergency response vehicles will be in the area."

Annapolis Fire Department Spokesperson Ken White said that the drill was being held "just in case... we have an active shooter here in Annapolis," and insisted that "with the increase of active shooter incidents we are seeing, the city has determined that it's important for us to hold this training so that in the event that something may happen, we will be well-prepared."

Comment: See also: Police report five killed in 'targeted attack' at Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis

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