Christians caught with a Bible in North Korea have faced death and had their families, including children, thrown in prison for life, a new report says
Christians caught with a Bible in North Korea have faced death and had their families, including children, thrown in prison for life, a new report says
By Ryan Pickrell
May 26, 2023
North Korea offers freedom of religion to its citizens on paper but not in practice.
It has imprisoned tens of thousands of Christians, according to a State Department report, citing NGO research.
The recent report reveals executions and imprisonment for life for people caught with religious materials.
North Korea is notorious for the cruelty it inflicts on people deemed undesirable by the state. In the Hermit Kingdom that prizes weaponry over its own people, many of whom are starving and live in abject poverty, tens of thousands of Christians are said to be languishing in prisons.
A recently released Department of State report notes that while North Korea constitutionally allows for religious freedom, there is no such thing in practice.
The constitution vaguely states that religion must not harm the state or social order, giving authorities room to target those who seek to openly follow their faith.
The report from the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, citing research conducted by non-governmental organizations which have gathered testimony from defectors, says as many as 70,000 Christians have been imprisoned in camps along with those believers from other religions.
One NGO, Open Doors USA, has reported that for Christians in North Korea, life is a “constant cauldron of pressure” and “capture or death is only a mistake away.”
As State highlights in its report, North Korean government documents state that “freedom of religion is allowed and provided by the State law within the limit necessary for securing social order, health, social security, morality and other human rights.”
Anything beyond that can land citizens in deep trouble.
People who have been arrested for religious crimes have reportedly faced detention and forced labor, torture, sexual violence, and death.
Christians are considered a “hostile class” in the songbun system, in which people derive status from loyalty to the state and its leadership. Christians, ODUSA reported, are regarded as the lowest in society and are constantly “vulnerable and in danger.”
The Department of State, pulling from information collected by NGOs, noted that an entire family, including their two-year-old child, was imprisoned following the discovery of their religious practices and possession of a Bible.
The family, which was most likely targeted by the Ministry of State Security that handles roughly 90 percent of these cases, was sentenced to life in prison.
A report from the NGO Korea Future documented a shocking incident in which a man caught praying was nearly beaten to death by guards. Another incident involved a Korean Worker’s Party member who was found with a Bible, taken by authorities out to an airfield, and executed before a crowd of thousands.
North Korea celebrates the Kim family, specifically the current ruler, Kim Jong Un, and his late father and grandfather, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, above all, recognizing the Kim dynasty or Mount Paektu bloodline in ways reminiscent of deification.
The State Department report, pointing to Korea Future’s research, says that the state ideology “Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism” has “many hallmarks of religion.” It notes the state regards the two previous leaders as “extraordinary beings.”
ODUSA has reported that Christian materials, including Bibles, are leftovers from the early 20th century up to World War II and are passed among believers. Though there have been reports of underground churches, it is unclear if these are active given that, as one defector said, “meeting other Christians in order to worship is almost impossible.” Some even fear being reported by their own family members.
This situation has long been a problem in North Korea, and State noted that “multiple sources indicated the situation had not fundamentally changed since” the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry report on human rights in the in North Korea was published. That report found that North Korea “denied the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion” and engaged in “crimes against humanity.”
Palestinian workers prefer to work for Israeli employers
https://www.jns.org/report-palestinian-workers-prefer-to-work-for-israeli-employers/
Palestinian workers prefer to work for Israeli employers
Higher salaries, legal protections and lack of discrimination are among the reasons most Palestinians would prefer to work for Israeli firms.
February 16, 2020
The United Nations “blacklist” of businesses operating in Israeli settlements was lauded by the Palestinian leadership following its publication last week, but a recent report indicates that Palestinians actually prefer to work for Israelis rather than Palestinians.
Titled “Why Palestinians prefer to work for Israeli employers,” the report, by Israel-based media watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch, affirms that whenever Palestinian workers have the opportunity to work for Israeli employers, they are quick to leave their jobs with Palestinian employers. The report cites an article in the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that praises the Israeli-employment sector.
According to senior PMW analyst Nan Jacques Zilberdik, who co-authored the report with PMW director Itamar Marcus, there are a number of reasons Palestinians prefer Israeli employers.
“First, the salary from Israeli employers is more than double that of the Palestinian sector, but that is not all. Palestinians working for Israelis are protected by the same laws as Israeli workers, including health benefits, sick leave, vacation time and other workers’ rights, whereas these protections are not granted by Palestinian employers. Also there is no gender or religious discrimination in the Israeli sector.”
Speaking on the official P.A. TV show “Workers Affairs,” Israeli-Arab labor lawyer Khaled Dukhi of the Israeli NGO Workers’ Hotline said Israeli labor law is “very good” because it does not differentiate between men and women, Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews. However, he explained, “Palestinian workers who work for Israelis still suffer because Palestinian middlemen ‘steal’ 50 percent, 60 percent and even 70 percent of their salaries, especially those of women.”
The higher Israeli salaries have been consistent for years, according to surveys published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Labor Force Survey for the second quarter of 2018 showed that the average daily wage for wage employees in the West Bank was NIS 107.9 ($31.5) compared with NIS 62.6 (18.3) in Gaza Strip. The average daily wage for the wage employees in Israel and the Israeli settlements reached NIS 247.9 ($72.3) in the second quarter of 2018, compared with NIS 242.5 ($70.8) in the first quarter of 2018.
Hamline University, a self described “liberal arts” college, fired a lecturer for showing adult students this piece of controversial art that is considered by art historians to be “a global artistic masterpiece”
Hamline University, a self described “liberal arts” college, fired a lecturer for showing adult students this piece of controversial art that is considered by art historians to be “a global artistic masterpiece.”
Some students had complained to the college that the artwork included a depiction the Prophet Muhammad, which is against their religion. Instead of standing up for the “liberal arts,” the college fired the lecturer who showed the artwork. Art historians consider the artwork to be “a global artistic masterpiece.”
Source for image and information: https://reason.com/volokh/2022/12/26/hamline-university-apparently-fires-art-history-lecturer-for-showing-depictions-of-muhammed/
The Word ‘Homosexual’ Is in the Bible by Mistake: The Explosive Documentary That Is Under Attack
The Word ‘Homosexual’ Is in the Bible by Mistake: The Explosive Documentary That Is Under Attack
LOVE THY NEIGHBOR
The documentary “1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture” claims that one human error 75 years ago stoked decades of homophobia and hate. Extremists don’t want you to see it.
By Kevin Fallon
November 7, 2022
The first time the word “homosexual” appeared in the Bible was in 1946. That year, a committee gathered to translate an updated English version of the book from the Greek. Religious scholars, priests, theologists, linguists, anthropologists, and activists have done decades of research and investigation into the instances where the word appears in the book. Their conclusion is that it was a mistranslation.
In other words, the Biblical assertion that homosexuality is a sin—the catalyst for an entire shift in culture, with political repercussions, religious implications, consequences for LGBT rights and acceptance, and, frankly, deadly results—was, they allege, a mistake.
As a new film asserts, it was “the misuse of a single word that changed the course of history.”
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture is a new documentary directed by Sharon “Rocky” Roggio. Ahead of its premiere this week at the DOC NYC festival, it has, as one might expect, gone viral within the conservative and Christian communities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yly6Q0GbtFk
A grassroots campaign to promote the film on social media has gotten its official TikTok account more than 185,000 followers. That makes sense. For most people—practicing Christians or otherwise—what the film is stating is shocking.
There are layers to it: the realization that the Bible has been translated many times over the centuries, and that human error may have been involved in the process. That may be obvious, but it’s eye-opening. Moreover, there’s coming to terms with the notion that human error could be responsible for the stoking of homophobia—a mindset of hatred, oppression, and religious nationalism that has defined the last 75 years of our existence.
Before anyone has even seen the film, there has been an organized effort to attack and debunk the film’s claims. Roggio and others involved in the making of the documentary have received threats. Campaigns have been waged to get even innocuous social media posts taken down. An entire book was published to refute the evidence—even though the film has yet to be screened.
“The opposition is quite vocal about our film, trying to debunk it because they’re afraid,” Roggio tells The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview ahead of 1946’s New York premiere. “We’re literally unmooring them and pulling the anchors out from underneath.”
Those attacks are coming from all sides.
“We’ve been hit by the conservative audience,” Roggio says. “We’ve been hit by the atheist audience. We’ve been hit by LGBTQ people who have been hurt by the church and who have now left the church, because they feel that we are subscribing to religious supremacy by even playing along in this dialogue.”
1946 takes a journalistic, academic approach to substantiating these claims. Poring over thousands of historical documents, centuries of ancient texts, and Bible translations in many languages, the experts in the film conclude that two Greek words were mistranslated to mean homosexual. One more accurately means effeminate. The other connotes a person who was a sexual abuser and who had harmed someone.
As the film outlines, years after the translation, when the mistake was pointed out, the committee recognized and attempted to correct it. But, by the ’70s, the implications of those verses had become widespread. By the time the AIDS crisis arrived in the ’80s, that mindset was weaponized by the moral majority, particularly in the merging of politics and religion in the United States.
“A big point of our film has been biblical literalism,” Roggio says. “We do just think that it was a magical book that was just dropped down to us, but these are real people who have made these decisions that impact our real reality. People are going to feel unmoored by this idea that it’s man that has messed up, not God. As much as we are combating biblical liberalism, we want our conservative audience to journey with us, in the sense that this is not an attack on God. This is not an attack on the Bible. This is a real issue of a mistranslation.”
Before 1946 premieres at DOC NYC on Nov. 12, we spoke with Roggio about the work she did (along with scholars and activists Kathy Bullock and Ed Oxford) to meticulously substantiate the film’s claims, the challenge of getting through to a Christian community that refuses even to hear the evidence, and how a documentary like this could change the world.
I grew up in the church, but I am still someone who found the idea of “homosexual” being a mistranslation in the Bible to be shocking. What has been people’s response to this?
We’re talking about the biggest book in the world. This impacts the three largest religions in the world. This impacts everyone. And we don’t discuss these things. That was what intrigued me as someone who grew up in the church, was a victim of bad theology, and was discriminated against because I’m a member of LGBTQ community. Realizing that the word homosexual wasn’t in the Bible until 1946, that was a click for me. I think that it’s gonna be a click for a lot of people.
Even the basic principle that the Bibles we read were translated by a human, and there may have been a mistake in that translation—that’s a mind-blowing realization for people.
One of the biggest concerns that we see in America today is Christian nationalism and people using the Bible who are saying that it is inerrant. They are biblical literalists. It has sovereignty over us. It can’t be changed. The word is the word. That is dangerous. It’s dangerous for so many people. We see it playing out in our reality today, and I call that religious supremacy, really. My idea in finessing these themes is to hopefully get the conservative audience to join with us and be honest about this. Words have power and words have meaning. The way that we use the Bible and use these old texts is very important. So what we try to do is contextualize.
What is the goal of that contextualization?
Our movie is more than just theology. It’s history. It’s society. It’s politics. It’s law. It’s oppression. It’s how, again, these words have meaning. We as a group of people have had to negotiate the text. A group of people over time have had to pick and choose which verses stand out, which verses we follow—which verses play out in our land and our law. To really be an honest reader of Christian scripture, we have to find a way where we’re not oppressing people, where we’ve contextualized the text—we understand where it comes from and how it impacted a group of people.
When you’re introducing this idea, which is seismic and likely upsetting to a lot of people, how do you explain it to them at the most basic level?
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture is about the first time the word “homosexual” appeared in the Bible. We had a team of researchers who wanted to ask the question: Who made this decision, and why? What was discovered, through a series of letters written by the translation committee that put the word “homosexual” in there, is that it was a mistake. Then it was discovered how the word “homosexual” went viral in print in the ’70s. That impacted the ’80s and the moral majority, and how we see the merger of politics and religion, specifically in America. What we now see today is the dangers of Christian nationalism, and it’s only grown.
Can you talk more specifically about the mistranslation of the word “homosexual” and what happened there?
We’re talking about a word, a medical term that has a connotation of a group of people that have an orientation, as opposed to what the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts are referring to, which is an aggressor, somebody who was an abuser—somebody who has abused someone else, and there is a victim on the other side. It’s a very different connotation. So that was my drive for making the movie, because now I have tangible evidence, letters written from the committee [acknowledging this].
This translation committee also has not only recognized the error but continues to rectify it and make their translations reflect the connotation of abusive behavior. Whereas now we see malice in the conservative committees, who since the ’80s have done the opposite. They say it refers to consensual acts, so it’s been amplified as homophobia because of this mistranslation.
From my experience, I know there are many Christians who are unmoving in their beliefs, who operate from a point of blind faith. What is it like to arrive with all of this evidence, research, and proof—even just an ask to listen to what the movie is alleging—but be met with that stubborn certitude?
It’s like hitting a wall. You get two kinds of Christians. You get people like my dad. [Roggio’s father is a pastor who appears in the film and repeatedly challenges its claims.] They want us to think they love us so much, that they’re just trying to give us the truth. And my dad is very kind and he’s never hurtful. But there are other people that I’ll see, especially on social media, who turn their fear into anger and then hatred. They’re vicious. A lot of what I see on social media and TikTok is the epitome of the phrase “There’s no love like Christian hate.” They’re just so disgusting.
Is it ever productive? What is it like to encounter that, on a human level?
We have reached a couple of people who actually will listen and watch the movie. But there are so many people who are so close-minded. It’s heartbreaking that people aren’t even open to recognizing us as human. It’s just dehumanizing. With the church being comfortable othering people—it’s not us, it’s you—it’s easy for them to dehumanize the LGBTQ person. A key barrier is that even some of these theologians that will put out this harmful rhetoric, they don’t have relationships with LGBTQ people.
Do you think that makes a difference?
One reason why I wanted to put my dad in the movie and my story in the movie is because we are a prime example of that “hitting the wall.” Here’s an example of someone who I love very much, who is my biggest oppressor. There’s no getting through to him at all. And so the other thing is, you know, we’re not going to change everybody’s minds, and that’s OK. But at the end of the day, my dad needs to keep his beliefs where they belong, and stay out where my beliefs are.
I don’t impede his equal rights and he doesn’t need to impede mine. I’m doing this to provide equal protection for everyone under the law, because if we don’t get a handle on this now, with the Bible in this country, we’re all in trouble—no matter what you believe.
Jeremy Boland, Assistant Principal of Cos Cob Elementary School in Greenwich, Connecticut, has been placed on administrative leave after a Project Veritas video showed him confessing to illegally discriminating against prospective teachers who were Catholic or over 30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD2kM39S4d4
https://www.yahoo.com/news/connecticut-teachers-union-circles-wagons-170559875.html
Connecticut Teachers’ Union Circles the Wagons after Undercover Video Reveals Anti-Catholic Discrimination
By Caroline Downey
September 1, 2022
The Connecticut chapter of the largest teachers’ union in the country urged its district leaders to stonewall “unvetted” reporters who ask about a viral video which shows a Greenwich assistant principal admitting to discriminating against Catholic, conservative, and elderly job applicants.
After the video was released by Project Veritas on Wednesday, Greenwich Public Schools notified families and staff Wednesday evening that Cos Cob Elementary assistant principal Jeremy Boland was placed on administrative leave while an investigation is underway.
“We have been alerted that Project Veritas has dropped a hit piece using an administrator in Greenwich. While a teacher was not used(so far) the narrative is that of hiring liberal teachers to indoctrinate students, so it is not kind to educators,” Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association wrote in an email obtained by National Review.
“Please do not search this,” Dias said of the Project Veritas exposé. “Veritas does not need our hits to drive traffic to the site. We will get a clean copy of the video tomorrow from NEA and will share it out as soon as it received.”
She instructed union leaders not to speak to reporters “that have not been vetted,” insisting that they “should not comment on the Greenwich video at all.”
“We know that Veritas uses this tactic to trap educators and union members into making incriminating statements. Don’t feed the beast,” she said. Dias implored union heads to spread the word that undercover journalists from the independent outlet are “lurking around.”
“Keep meetings closed and ensure your members are the only people present,” she said. “Remind your members that they could be the next victim of a hit piece if they aren’t fully aware of who they make comments to and what they say.
Boland told the Project Veritas reporter that he oversees the hiring of faculty and rejects applicants who espouse conservative or Catholic beliefs, are older than 30, or sympathize with concerns about parental rights in education. Instead, he recruits progressive instructors so that they may incorporate their ideology into classroom curricula in a “subtle” way.
“You don’t hire them,” he said of Catholic teaching candidates. “Because if someone is raised hardcore Catholic, it’s like they’re brainwashed. You can never change their mindset. So, when you ask them to consider something new, like a new opportunity, or ‘you have to think about this differently,’ they’re stuck — just rigid.”
“Believe it or not, the open-minded, more progressive teachers are actually more savvy about delivering a Democratic message without really ever having to mention politics,” Borland said.
In this video from 2005, Whoopi Goldberg explains why she’s against censoring old Looney Tunes cartoons that have racial stereotypes. I agree with her. And I’m against suspending her for her recent comments about the Holocaust. And I’m Jewish.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
February 2, 2022
Whoopi Goldberg has just been suspended from The View for her recent comments about the Holocaust.
I’m Jewish, and I’m against her suspension. I support free speech for everyone, and for all points of view.
In the past, Goldberg herself has defended free speech for old Looney Tunes cartoons that have racial stereotypes. This video is from The Looney Tunes Collection Vol. 3, which was released in 2005:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCT1clqci3I
I’m Jewish, and I think it’s ridiculous that anyone would be upset by what Whoopi Goldberg said about the Holocaust
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
February 1, 2022
The people who insist on getting offended and upset by everything are saying that Whoopi Goldberg should be fired for her recent comments about the Holocaust.
I say those people are a bunch of totalitarian idiots.
I support anyone’s right to express their opinion on any subject.
I support Whoopi Goldberg’s right to say what she said about the Holocaust.
And I also support the right of people to say that Goldberg should be fired for her comments about the Holocaust. I disagree with what they say. But I do support their right to say it.
And I also support free speech for people who disagree with me.
I support free speech for everyone.
Free speech is awesome!
In California, some public schools are designating some rooms as prayer rooms for Muslims
California Schools Prepare for Thousands of Afghan Refugee Students
By Diana Lambert
September 21, 2021
In California, home to the largest number of Afghan refugees in the country, school officials are preparing for an influx of students who fled Afghanistan with their families after the Taliban seized power in the country last month.
Schools are especially busy in Sacramento and Fremont, which have two of the largest Afghan communities in the state. Over 40% of the nation’s Afghan refugees have resettled in the Sacramento region in recent years, according to Jessie Tientcheu, chief executive officer of Opening Doors, a resettlement agency based in Sacramento.
Elk Grove Unified School District began offering culturally appropriate meals and setting aside rooms in many of its middle and high schools for prayer during Muslim holidays in preparation for the additional Afghan students it expects in the next month. San Juan Unified is offering Saturday school for English learners, and Fremont Unified is planning to hire more translators.
‘No Gestapo Here!’: Polish Pastor Tosses Canadian Police Out of Good Friday Church Service
‘No Gestapo Here!’: Polish Pastor Tosses Canadian Police Out of Good Friday Church Service
By Beth Baumann
April 4, 2021
Calgary police were met with resistance when they attempted to shut down a Good Friday church service for violating COVID restrictions. Artur Pawlowski, the pastor at The Cave of Adullam, told police to leave and not return until they have a search warrant in hand.
“You come back with a warrant,” Pawlowski said. “Out! Out! Out!”
Police were hesitant to leave but the pastor wasn’t backing down. “Out of this property, you Nazis!” Pawlowski shouted. “Gestapo is not allowed here!”
As police left the property, Pawlowski told them “not to come back, you Nazi psychopaths.”
“Unbelievable sick, evil people. Intimidating people in a church during the Passover! You Gestapo, Nazi, communist fascists! Don’t you dare come back here!” he shouted as they walked away.
The pastor turned the camera to face him.
“Can you imagine those psychopaths? Passover, the holiest Christian festival in a year and they’re coming to intimidate Christians during the holiest festival? Unbelievable,” Pawlowski said. “What is wrong with those sick psychopaths? It’s beyond me. Wow. Wow. How dare they?”
“Unbelievable. We’re living in a total takeover of the government with their thugs, goons, the brown shirts, the Gestapo wannabe dictators,” an incredulous Pawlowski said. “Coming to the church armed with guns and tasers and handcuffs to intimidate during Passover celebration? Well, I guess that’s what it is, they want to enslave us all like the Egyptians did. They want to be the Pharaohs of today, that’s what they’re doing. Unbelievable. People, if you don’t stand up, wake up, wow. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
The pastor warned about Germany, where “wannabe Hitlers are already ruling” and fascism is reigning once again. He took particular issue with the country’s lockdown.
He referenced the COVID passports that are being talked about and potentially implemented.
“If you will not be vaccinated like a dog or a cat, you will not be able to buy or sell. You will not be able to go to school or work. Is that the future you want?” Pawlowski asked. “Is that what you want for your children and your grandchildren?”
According to the pastor, the time to stand up and push back against the out-of-control government is now.
Hanukkah Celebrated in Public in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the First Time, After Trump Peace Deal
Hanukkah Celebrated in Public in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the First Time, After Trump Peace Deal
By Joel B. Pollak
December 11, 2020
Jews observed the holiday of Hanukkah (or Chanukah) in public for the first time in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Thursday, following the peace deal between Israel and the UAE under the auspices of U.S. President Donald Trump.
A “lavish” Hanukkah party was thrown at the foot of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, on Thursday evening.
https://twitter.com/Ami_Magazine/status/1337409716864036865
Hanukkah is a post-Biblical festival that celebrates the victory of the Jews in ancient Israel over the occupying forces of the Syrian-Greek empire in the second century B.C. Religious Jews fought a rebellion against Hellenization and reclaimed the Holy Temple. Upon reconquering it, they found only enough oil to last for one night, but it miraculously burned for eight.
Traditionally, Jews observe the festival by lighting a menorah, or chanukiah, with eight branches, adding one light for each night. (The ninth light is called the shamash, and serves to ignite the other lights, but is not considered one of them.)
https://twitter.com/DrAlsarrah/status/1337101068598173700
https://twitter.com/kaisos1987/status/1337087677343145988
https://twitter.com/UaeMasami/status/1337119855116488708
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1337424023433728004
Hanukkah is the only Jewish holiday that is meant to be observed as publicly as possible. Families are encouraged to light their menorahs near their doorways or windows, for example. But that was not possible in Dubai until very recently.
The Abraham Accords, signed by Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and the U.S. in September, established peace and normalized relations between the Jewish state and its Arab partners. Similar agreements with Sudan and with Morocco soon followed.
Since then, Jews have been traveling to Dubai — to the extent possible under coronavirus restrictions — to enjoy the famed city’s attractions, and to host a variety of communal gatherings, including several boisterous Jewish weddings:
https://twitter.com/TheBelaaz/status/1333419118196822018
The menorah at the Burj Khalifa was erected by the local Chabad rabbi, part of a campaign of public Chanukah celebrations launched by the late Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Chabad reports an “exploding” number of Israelis in Dubai. Rabbi Levi Duchman has been in the country since 2015, helping to lay the groundwork for what has followed.
Splitting 5 to 4, Supreme Court Backs Religious Challenge to Cuomo’s Virus Shutdown Order
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/us/supreme-court-coronavirus-religion-new-york.html
Splitting 5 to 4, Supreme Court Backs Religious Challenge to Cuomo’s Virus Shutdown Order
In earlier rulings related to coronavirus restrictions in California and Nevada, the court had taken the opposite approach. But its membership has changed since then.
By Adam Liptak
November 26, 2020
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court late Wednesday night barred restrictions on religious services in New York that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had imposed to combat the coronavirus.
The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The order was the first in which the court’s newest member, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, played a decisive role.
The court’s ruling was at odds with earlier ones concerning churches in California and Nevada. In those cases, decided in May and July, the court allowed the states’ governors to restrict attendance at religious services.
The Supreme Court’s membership has changed since then, with Justice Barrett succeeding Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September. The vote in the earlier cases was also 5 to 4, but in the opposite direction, with Chief Justice Roberts joining Justice Ginsburg and the other three members of what was then the court’s four-member liberal wing.
In an unsigned opinion, the majority said Mr. Cuomo’s restrictions violated the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said Mr. Cuomo had treated secular activities more favorably than religious ones.
“It is time — past time — to make plain that, while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues, and mosques,” Justice Gorsuch wrote.
The court’s order addressed two applications: one filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, the other by two synagogues, an Orthodox Jewish organization and two individuals. The applications both said Mr. Cuomo’s restrictions violated constitutional protections for the free exercise of religion, and the one from the synagogues added that Mr. Cuomo had “singled out a particular religion for blame and retribution for an uptick in a societywide pandemic.”
The restrictions are strict. In shifting “red zones,” where the coronavirus risk is highest, no more than 10 people may attend religious services. In slightly less dangerous “orange zones,” which are also fluid, attendance is capped at 25. This applies even to churches that can seat more than 1,000 people.
The measures were prompted in large part by rising coronavirus cases in Orthodox Jewish areas but covered all “houses of worship.”
In a letter to the court last Thursday, Barbara D. Underwood, New York’s solicitor general, said that revisions to the color-coded zones effective Friday meant that “none of the diocese’s churches will be affected by the gathering-size limits it seeks to enjoin.” The next day, she told the court that the two synagogues were also no longer subject to the challenged restrictions.
Lawyers for the diocese questioned “the fluid nature of these modifications and the curious timing of the governor’s latest modification,” and they urged the court to decide the case notwithstanding the revisions.
Lawyers for the synagogues said Mr. Cuomo should not be allowed to “feign retreat” when “he retains the unfettered discretion to reimpose those restrictions on them at a moment’s notice.”
In a dissenting opinion on Wednesday, Chief Justice Roberts said the court had acted rashly.
“Numerical capacity limits of 10 and 25 people, depending on the applicable zone, do seem unduly restrictive,” he wrote. “It is not necessary, however, for us to rule on that serious and difficult question at this time.”
“The governor might reinstate the restrictions,” he wrote. “But he also might not. And it is a significant matter to override determinations made by public health officials concerning what is necessary for public safety in the midst of a deadly pandemic. If the governor does reinstate the numerical restrictions the applicants can return to this court, and we could act quickly on their renewed applications.”
In a second dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, said Mr. Cuomo’s restrictions were sensible.
“Free religious exercise is one of our most treasured and jealously guarded constitutional rights,” she wrote. “States may not discriminate against religious institutions, even when faced with a crisis as deadly as this one. But those principles are not at stake today.”
“The Constitution does not forbid states from responding to public health crises through regulations that treat religious institutions equally or more favorably than comparable secular institutions, particularly when those regulations save lives,” Justice Sotomayor wrote. “Because New York’s Covid-19 restrictions do just that, I respectfully dissent.”
The larger question in the two cases was whether government officials or judges should strike the balance between public health and religious exercise.
In a concurring opinion in the case from California in May, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that government officials should not “be subject to second-guessing by an unelected federal judiciary, which lacks the background, competence and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people.”
But in a recent speech to a conservative legal group, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who had dissented in the earlier cases, said courts had an important role to play in protecting religious freedom, pandemic or no.
“Whenever fundamental rights are restricted, the Supreme Court and other courts cannot close their eyes,” Justice Alito said this month, rejecting the view that “whenever there is an emergency, executive officials have unlimited, unreviewable discretion.”
In ruling against the diocese, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn said the case was difficult. But he concluded that he would defer to the governor.
“If the court issues an injunction and the state is correct about the acuteness of the threat currently posed by hot-spot neighborhoods,” the judge wrote, “the result could be avoidable death on a massive scale like New Yorkers experienced in the spring.”
In refusing to block the governor’s order while the two appeals went forward, a divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit drew on Chief Justice Roberts’s concurring opinion in the California case. Since the restrictions on churches were less severe than those on comparable secular gatherings, the majority wrote in an unsigned opinion, they did not run afoul of constitutional protections for religious freedom.
In dissent, Judge Michael H. Park said Mr. Cuomo’s order discriminated against houses of worship because it allowed businesses like liquor stores and pet shops to remain open without capacity restrictions.
Chief Justice Roberts rejected a similar argument in the California case. The order there, he wrote, “exempts or treats more leniently only dissimilar activities, such as operating grocery stores, banks and laundromats, in which people neither congregate in large groups nor remain in close proximity for extended periods.”
Judge Park responded that the order in the California case, coming as it did in the context of an emergency application that was decided in summary fashion, had limited force as a precedent. Moreover, he wrote, it had been “decided during the early stages of the pandemic, when local governments were struggling to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed.”
In asking the Supreme Court to step in, lawyers for the diocese argued that its “spacious churches” were safer than many “secular businesses that can open without restrictions, such as pet stores and broker’s offices and banks and bodegas.” An hourlong Mass, the diocese’s brief said, is “shorter than many trips to a supermarket or big-box store, not to mention a 9-to-5 job.”
Ms. Underwood responded that religious services pose special risks. “There is a documented history of religious gatherings serving as Covid-19 superspreader events,” she wrote.
Indoor religious services, Ms. Underwood wrote, “tend to involve large numbers of people from different households arriving simultaneously; congregating as an audience for an extended period of time to talk, sing or chant; and then leaving simultaneously — as well as the possibility that participants will mingle in close proximity throughout.”
Still, she wrote, religious services are subject to fewer restrictions than comparable secular ones. “Among other things, in both red and orange zones, casinos, bowling alleys, arcades, movie theaters and fitness centers are closed completely,” she wrote.
And here is still even more proof that the lockdown is a scam: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio does not understand math
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
May 21, 2020
Here’s another one that I’ll be adding the next time I update my list, which you can read here: Here are 70 reasons why I’m against the COVID-19 lockdowns
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio does not understand math.
According to the CDC, for children who contract COVID-19, the death rate is zero:
https://www.businessinsider.com/most-us-coronavirus-deaths-ages-65-older-cdc-report-2020-3
And here’s a recent news headline:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/risk-coronavirus-spreading-schools-extremely-194143983.html
Risk of coronavirus spreading in schools ‘extremely low’, study finds
Despite those two pieces of information, this is a recent tweet by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio:
https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1262509072051470340
The text of de Blasio’s tweet says: (the bolding is mine)
“Earlier today the NYPD shut down a Yeshiva conducting classes with as many as 70 children. I can’t stress how dangerous this is for our young people. We’re issuing a Cease and Desist Order and will make sure we keep our communities and our kids safe.”
Clearly, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio does not understand math.
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New York City, controlled by racist Democrats, is using COVID-19 as an excuse for the police to harass racial minorities
New York City is controlled by Democrats. It’s one of the bluest cities in the country. The mayor is a Democrat. Of the 51 members of the New York City Council, 48 are Democrats. In the 2016 election for U.S. president, 79% of the voters in New York City voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton. That makes New York City one of the bluest, most Democratic controlled cities in the country.
Democrats, as we know, are the party of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow, and school segregation.
After a Democratic U.S. Senator named Robert Byrd started his own chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and recruited 150 of his friends and family members to join it, Democrat Hillary Clinton referred to him as “my friend and mentor.” After Clinton praised the Ku Klux Klan leader, 79% of the voters in New York City voted for Clinton for U.S. President.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the racist, Democratic controlled city of New York is using COVID-19 as an excuse for police officers to harass racial minorities.
This recent article by NBC News it titled
Violent encounter in New York City prompts concerns about unequal policing of social distancing
The article’s first two paragraphs state:
A violent encounter between a New York City police officer and a bystander that police said began as an attempt to enforce social distancing rules has prompted concerns about unequal policing.
New York City’s public advocate Jumaane Williams posted pictures on Twitter on Sunday — one of swarms of white people sitting in parks and three images from what appeared to depict encounters between police and people of color.
This is the tweet that the article is referring to:
The same NBC News article also states:
Last week, de Blasio personally oversaw the dispersal of a crowd of mourners in the Williamsburg neighborhood at the funeral of a Hasidic rabbi, that he and the commissioner said drew thousands of people.
Clearly, the racist Democrats who control New York City don’t think the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of assembly and freedom of religion applies to minorities such as Jews.
It is very clear and obvious that New York City, controlled by racist Democrats, is using COVID-19 as an excuse to harass racial and religious minorities.
Mississippi police issue $500 tickets to drive-in church service attendees
Mississippi police issue $500 tickets to drive-in church service attendees
April 12, 2020
GREENVILLE, Miss. (WJW) — Police in Mississippi issued $500 tickets to parishioners attending drive-in church services on Wednesday.
In wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Temple Baptist Church began running its services using radio frequencies that can only be heard within a one-block radius of the church, WLBT reports.
On Wednesday, their drive-in church service was shut down by local police.
“The police started coming up and we said, well, we think we’re in our rights. And they started issuing tickets, $500 tickets, it may have been 50 — I mean 20 to 30 tickets. Everybody got one, it wasn’t per car. Me and my wife was both in the car together and both of us got tickets,” longtime parishioner Lee Gordon told the news outlet.
Greenville Mayor Erick Simmons claims the drive-in church services pose health violations.
“You’re there for a 2-hour-period of time, folks want to use the bathroom, or go potty, and the little girls want to go use it. Now folks are in and out and they are facing this invisible giant called COVID-19,” Mayor Simmons reportedly said. “What we’ve been asking for in the state is bold leadership from our state, and partnership. If we have clear direction, we wouldn’t have issues that have evolved across the state.”
Another church in the area, who experienced a similar situation, has filed a lawsuit against the mayor saying his order is ” unconstitutional, illegal and must be withdrawn.”
NYC Mayor Threatens to Shut Down Synagogues, Churches: But not Mosques
NYC Mayor Threatens to Shut Down Synagogues, Churches: But not Mosques
March 30, 2020
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened on Friday that the Big Apple could close down certain places of worship if New Yorkers continue violating the state’s stay-at-home restrictions and keep congregating for religious services at those locations report Fox News.
“A small number of religious communities, specific churches and specific synagogues are unfortunately not paying attention to this guidance even though it’s so widespread,” the Democrat mayor said at a news conference on the coronavirus crisis.
And although the corona-count hit the 1,000 mark in NYC on Sunday, city officials continue to work hard to control the spread of the pandemic.
“I want to say to all those who are preparing for the potential of religious services this weekend: If you go to your synagogue, if you go to your church and attempt to hold services after having been told so often not to, our enforcement agents will have no choice but to shut down those services,” he added.
Interestingly, de Blasio made no mention of the over one-hundred mosques in New York City.
De Blasio was also under fire recently for his bail reform whose lack of deterrent led many in New York’s Jewish community blamed for the increased antisemitic assaults.
Muslim Call To Prayer To Be Blasted Over Major U.S. City Five Times A Day
Muslim Call To Prayer To Be Blasted Over Major U.S. City Five Times A Day
April 25, 2020
A Minneapolis neighborhood, which lies in controversial Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s district, will begin broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer five times a day over outdoor loudspeakers throughout the month of Ramadan, reports say.
The move is “believed to be the first publicly-broadcast call to prayer in a major US city,” al Jazeera English said in a post on Twitter.
The simple, short call – known as the adhan – marked an historical moment for Minneapolis and major cities across the United States, community members said. While the adhan is commonly broadcast throughout the Middle East, North Africa and other places, for many Muslims in the US, it is only heard inside mosques or community centres.
“There’s definitely a lot of excitement,” said Imam Abdisalam Adam, who is on the board of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque, from where the adhan will be broadcast.
“Some people see it as historic,” Adam told Al Jazeera. “To the point … that they’re not doing it, able to see it in their lifetime.”
The city granted a noise permit for the prayer.
“Tonight’s historic call to prayer in Minneapolis will bring comfort and remind the faithful and the neighborhood that as we are physically distant we can still be connected to our faith and mosque,” Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said in a statement.
“The call to prayer is being issued via an amplified public address system on the rooftop of the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood,” Biz Pac Review reported. “According to the Sahan Journal, the P.A. system and technical support necessary for the community-wide vocal calls were provided by First Avenue (a famous nightclub and music venue that became a national landmark of sorts after Prince used it as a location for several scenes in the movie “Purple Rain”). The city of Minneapolis issued a noise permit for the calls to prayer that start at sunrise and end at sunset.”
Cedar-Riverside is a neighborhood that in recent years has become one of the most densely populated areas of Islamic immigrants in the country, principally coming from Somalia and Ethiopia. It was in that neighborhood that two years ago, a group of Muslims was reported to be patrolling the area, confronting people who were not following tenets of Sharia law.
Locals have for years called the area “Little Mogadishu” and it is known to have been a recruiting ground for Islamic terrorists.
Some residents were not happy.
“Pathetic! People can’t go to church or sit in their cars and listen to the gospel, but this….Unf***ing believable,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“Yes! It is not ok for Christians to pray over loud speakers. Something to do with our constitution and not pushing another religion on to another. If we do it’s a guarantee law suit from the Islamic Terrorist org, CAIR. Nuts, right!?” wrote another.
Palestinian workers prefer to work for Israeli employers
https://www.jns.org/report-palestinian-workers-prefer-to-work-for-israeli-employers/
Report: Palestinian workers prefer to work for Israeli employers
Higher salaries, legal protections and lack of discrimination are among the reasons most Palestinians would prefer to work for Israeli firms.
February 16, 2020
The United Nations “blacklist” of businesses operating in Israeli settlements was lauded by the Palestinian leadership following its publication last week, but a recent report indicates that Palestinians actually prefer to work for Israelis rather than Palestinians.
Titled “Why Palestinians prefer to work for Israeli employers,” the report, by Israel-based media watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch, affirms that whenever Palestinian workers have the opportunity to work for Israeli employers, they are quick to leave their jobs with Palestinian employers. The report cites an article in the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that praises the Israeli-employment sector.
According to senior PMW analyst Nan Jacques Zilberdik, who co-authored the report with PMW director Itamar Marcus, there are a number of reasons Palestinians prefer Israeli employers.
“First, the salary from Israeli employers is more than double that of the Palestinian sector, but that is not all. Palestinians working for Israelis are protected by the same laws as Israeli workers, including health benefits, sick leave, vacation time and other workers’ rights, whereas these protections are not granted by Palestinian employers. Also there is no gender or religious discrimination in the Israeli sector.”
Speaking on the official P.A. TV show “Workers Affairs,” Israeli-Arab labor lawyer Khaled Dukhi of the Israeli NGO Workers’ Hotline said Israeli labor law is “very good” because it does not differentiate between men and women, Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews. However, he explained, “Palestinian workers who work for Israelis still suffer because Palestinian middlemen ‘steal’ 50 percent, 60 percent and even 70 percent of their salaries, especially those of women.”
The higher Israeli salaries have been consistent for years, according to surveys published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Labor Force Survey for the second quarter of 2018 showed that the average daily wage for wage employees in the West Bank was NIS 107.9 ($31.5) compared with NIS 62.6 (18.3) in Gaza Strip. The average daily wage for the wage employees in Israel and the Israeli settlements reached NIS 247.9 ($72.3) in the second quarter of 2018, compared with NIS 242.5 ($70.8) in the first quarter of 2018.
Why Did British Police Ignore Pakistani Gangs Abusing 1,400 Rotherham Children? Political Correctness
Why Did British Police Ignore Pakistani Gangs Abusing 1,400 Rotherham Children? Political Correctness
August 30, 2014
A story of rampant child abuse—ignored and abetted by the police—is emerging out of the British town of Rotherham. Until now, its scale and scope would have been inconceivable in a civilized country. Its origins, however, lie in something quite ordinary: what one Labour MP called “not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat.”
Imagine the following case. A fourteen-year old girl is taken into care by the social services unit of the town where she lives, because her parents are drug-addicted, and she has been neglected and is not turning up in school. She is one of many, for that is the way in Britain today. And local government entities—Councils—can be ordered by the courts to stand in for parents of neglected children. The Council places the girl in a home, where she is kept with others under supervision from the social services department. The home is regularly visited by young men who try to entice the girls into their cars, so as to give them drugs and alcohol, and then coerce them into sex.
The girl, who is lonely and uncared for, meets a man outside the home, who promises a trip to the cinema and a party with children of her age. She falls into the trap. After she has been raped by a group of five men she is told that, if she says a word to anyone, she will be taken from the home and beaten. When, after the episode is repeated, she threatens to go to the police, she is taken into the countryside, doused in petrol, and told that she is going to be set alight, unless she promises to tell no one of the ordeal.
Social workers tell girls they cannot help them
Meanwhile she must accept weekly abuse, in return for drugs and alcohol. Soon she finds herself being taken to other towns in the area, and hired out for sexual purposes to other men. She is distraught and depressed, and at the point when she can stand it no longer, she goes to the police. She can only stutter a few words, and cannot bring herself to accuse anyone in particular. Her complaint is dismissed on the grounds that any sex involved must have been consensual. The social worker in charge of her case listens to her complaint, but tells her that she cannot act unless the girl identifies her abusers. But when the girl describes them the social worker switches off with a shrug and says that she can do nothing. Her father, his drug habit notwithstanding, has tried to keep contact with his daughter and suspects what is happening. But when he goes to the police, he is arrested for obstruction and charged with wasting police time.
Over the two years of her ordeal the girl makes several attempts on her own life, and eventually ends up abandoned and homeless, without an education and with no prospect of a normal life.
Impossible, you will say, that such a thing could happen in Britain. In fact it is only one of over 1,400 cases, all arising during the course of the last fifteen years in the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham, all involving vulnerable girls either in Council care or inadequately protected by their families from gangs of sexual predators. Almost no arrests have been made, no social workers or police officers have been reprimanded, and until recently the matter was dismissed by all those responsible as a matter of no real significance. Increasing public awareness of the problem, however, led to complaints, triggering a series of official reports. The latest report, from Professor Alexis Jay, former chief inspector of social work in Scotland, gives the truth for the first time, in 153 disturbing pages. One fact stands out above all the horrors detailed in the document, which is that the girl victims were white, and their abusers Pakistani.
Sociologists convinced government that the police are racist
Fifteen years ago, when these crimes were just beginning, the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry into the conduct of the British police was made by Sir William Macpherson a High Court judge. The immediate occasion had been a murder in which the victim was black, the perpetrators white, and the behaviour of the investigating police lax and possibly prejudiced. The report accused the police – not just those involved in the case, but the entire police force of the country – of ‘institutionalised racism’. This piece of sociological newspeak was, at the time, very popular with leftist sociologists. For it made an accusation which could not be refuted by anyone who had the misfortune to be accused of it.
However well you behaved, however scrupulously you treated people of different races and without regard to their ethnic identity or the colour of their skin, you would be guilty of ‘institutionalised racism’, simply on account of the institution to which you belonged and on behalf of which you were acting. Not surprisingly, sociologists and social workers, the vast majority of whom are professionally disposed to believe that middle class society is incurably racist, latched on to the expression. MacPherson too climbed onto the bandwagon since, at the time, it was the easiest and safest way to wash your hands in public, to say that I, at least, am not guilty of the only crime that is universally recognised and everywhere in evidence.
Police more concerned with political correctness than crime
The result of this has been that police forces lean over backwards to avoid the accusation of racism, while social workers will hesitate to intervene in any case in which they could be accused of discriminating against ethnic minorities. Matters are made worse by the rise of militant Islam, which has added to the old crime of racism the new crime of ‘Islamophobia’. No social worker today will risk being accused of this crime. In Rotherham a social worker would be mad, and a police officer barely less so, to set out to investigate cases of suspected sexual abuse, when the perpetrators are Asian Muslims and the victims ethnically English. Best to sweep it under the carpet, find ways of accusing the victims or their parents or the surrounding culture of institutionalised racism, and attending to more urgent matters such as the housing needs of recent immigrants, or the traffic offences committed by those racist middle classes.
Americans too are familiar with this syndrome. Political correctness among sociologists comes from socialist convictions and the tired old theories that produce them. But among ordinary people it comes from fear. The people of Rotherham know that it is unsafe for a girl to take a taxi-ride from someone with Asian features; they know that Pakistani Muslims often do not treat white girls with the respect that they treat girls from their own community. They know, and have known over fifteen years, that there are gangs of predators on the look-out for vulnerable girls, and that the gangs are for the most part Asian young men who see English society not as the community to which they belong, but as a sexual hunting ground. But they dare not express this knowledge, in either words or deed. Still less do they dare to do so if their job is that of social worker or police officer. Let slip the mere hint that Pakistani Muslims are more likely than indigenous Englishmen to commit sexual crimes and you will be branded as a racist and an Islamophobe, to be ostracised in the workplace and put henceforth under observation.
No one will be fired
This would matter less if fear had no consequences. Unfortunately political correctness causes people not merely to disguise their beliefs but to refuse to act on them, to accuse others who confess to them, and in general to go along with policies that have been forced on the British people by minority groups of activists. The intention of the activists is to disrupt and dismantle the old forms of social order. They believe that our society is not just racist, but far too comfortable, far too unequal, far too bound up with fuddy-duddy old ways that are experienced by people at the bottom of society – the working classes, the immigrants, the homeless, the illegals – as oppressive and demeaning. They enthusiastically propagate the doctrines of political correctness as a way of taking revenge on a social order from which they feel alienated.
Ordinary people are so intimidated by this that they repeat the doctrines, like religious mantras which they hope will keep them safe in hostile territory. Hence people in Britain have accepted without resistance the huge transformations that have been inflicted on them over the last thirty years, largely by activists working through the Labour Party. They have accepted immigration policies that have filled our cities with disaffected Muslims, many of whom have now gone to fight against us in Syria and Iraq. They have accepted the growth of Islamic schools in which children are taught to prepare themselves for jihad against the surrounding social order. They have accepted the constant denigration of their country, its institutions and its inherited religion, for the simple reason that these things are theirs and therefore tainted with forbidden loyalties.
And when the truth is expressed at last, nobody is fired, no arrests are made, and the elected Police and Communities Commissioner for Rotherham, although forced to resign from the Labour Party, refuses to resign from his job. After a few weeks all will have been swept under the carpet, and the work of destruction can resume.
An American woman named Bethany Vierra got a masters degree in Middle Eastern studies and a PhD in human rights, moved to Saudi Arabia, was shocked to discover that women didn’t have the same rights as men, and falsely claimed, “The problem here is not Islamic law”
Bethany Vierra was born in Washington state.
She got a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from the American University in Paris.
Then she got a PhD in human rights at the National University of Ireland.
With such an education, I would think that Vierra would be aware that women in Saudi Arabia didn’t have the same rights as men, and that this lack of equal rights was due to the country following Islamic law.
But I would be wrong.
Vierra moved to Saudi Arabia, married a Saudi Arabian man, and later gave birth – while in Saudi Arabia – to their daughter.
Since doing those things, Vierra and her husband have gotten a divorce, and are now involved in a custody dispute over their daughter.
During this custody dispute, Vierra was genuinely shocked to find out that under Islamic law (also known as Sharia law) in Saudi Arabia, women do not have the same rights as men. Here’s the obligatory “shocked” scene from the movie Casablanca:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
Vierra was also surprised to find out that she was not allowed to leave Saudi Arabia or to access her own bank account, without her ex-husband’s permission.
During the custody dispute, some of the evidence that was used against Vierra were photographs which showed that she had worn a bikini in public, had worn yoga pants in public, and had had her hair uncovered in public.
And Vierra said of this:
“The problem here is not Islamic law.”
Relative to their level of education, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone as dumb as Bethany Vierra.
Instead of getting all of those useless college degrees, she should have watched the movie Not Without My Daughter. The movie is based on a true story. Here’s the trailer for it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TSmbayUJCo
And here’s a scene from it about how the country enforces its dress code:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm3xv5sosng
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., a woman named Linda Sarsour, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, made four tweets in favor of the U.S. adopting Sharia law.
Sarsour made this tweet, which says the following:
“10 weeks of PAID maternity leave in Saudi Arabia. Yes PAID. And ur worrying about women driving. Puts us to shame.”
She also made this tweet, which says:
“shariah law is reasonable and once u read into the details it makes a lot of sense. People just know the basics”
and this tweet, which says:
“You’ll know when you’re living under Sharia Law if suddenly all your loans & credit cards become interest free. Sound nice, doesn’t it?”
and this tweet, which says:
“If you are still paying interest than Sharia Law hasn’t taken over America.”
These statements prove that Sarsour wants the U.S. to adopt Sharia law.
Sharia law bans women from driving cars, prohibits women from appearing alone in public, calls for girls to have their genitals mutilated, and gives a woman’s testimony in court only half the value of a man’s.
After Sarsour made those four tweets in favor of the U.S. adopting Sharia law, left wing American feminists chose her to be one of the organizers of the 2017 Women’s March.
But any movement which truly cared about women’s rights would not support someone who wants the U.S. to treat women in such a horrible and repulsive manner.
I will say one positive thing about Sarsour: even though Sarsour claims to believe in Sharia law, and says that women in Saudi Arabia are better off than women in the U.S., at least she is not dumb enough to actually move to Saudi Arabia.
The Video Authorities Don’t Want You To See: Mystery Person & Flash Of Light Before Notre Dame Cathedral Fire
I’m not saying that this video is proof that the Notre Dame Cathedral fire is arson.
What I am saying is that forensics experts should examine the video, and come to their own conclusion, based on actual evidence.
I’m also saying that it’s really weird that authority figures have already said that the fire was not arson. There hasn’t been enough time to do a forensics investigation. So why have they already said it was not arson?
How about investigating the actual evidence before determining whether or not it was arson?
The Video Authorities Don’t Want You To See: Mystery Person & Flash Of Light Before Notre Dame Cathedral Fire
April 17, 2019
If it had only been a singular incident involving a Catholic church in France the burning of one of the most well known human monuments to all of Christianity and Western Civilization could be understandably classified as an unfortunate accident during recent renovation work. Given that more than a thousand French churches across the country have been vandalized in recent years, though, more and more French (and others) are wondering if the Notre Dame fire wasn’t something far more sinister. Just released video of what appears to be someone moving inside the cathedral followed by a flash of light allegedly right before the fire started will do nothing to lessen those suspicions. If this was an act of vandalism and not an accident then hopefully the perpetrator(s) will soon be caught and brought to justice.
Here is that video which is now going viral all across the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgfYYMjpf1s
It’s too soon to either blame or rule out arson as the cause of the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire. I will wait for the forensics investigation. In the meantime, who is this person in this video?
Given that they have not conducted an official forensics investigation yet, and given that such an investigation can take months, I don’t see how they can be saying for certain that the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire wasn’t arson.
A live broadcast by a French TV station showed an unidentified person walking around, way up high in the building, after the fire started. This person is neither a construction worker nor a firefighter.
I’m not saying this was arson. And I’m not saying this was not arson.
What I am saying is that:
1) There hasn’t been enough time to determine the cause, or to rule out any cause. So it seems really weird that people have already ruled out arson.
2) The person in this video has not been identified.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7xIOt4qR7M
Pittsburgh synagogue shooter tended to by Jewish doctors and nurses, officials say
Pittsburgh synagogue shooter tended to by Jewish doctors and nurses, officials say
October 29, 2018
PITTSBURGH — Jewish doctors and nurses at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh put their personal feelings aside to help save the life of the man who allegedly claimed he wanted to “kill all the Jews” as he opened fire at a synagogue and murdered 11 worshipers.
Robert Bowers, 46, was shot multiple times himself and taken to AGH. In addition to killing eight men and three women, he wounded six other people, including four police officers, before surrendering Saturday.
“He was taken to my hospital and he’s shouting, ‘I want to kill all the Jews’,” Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, president of Allegheny General Hospital and a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue, told ABC. “The first three people who took care of him were Jewish.”
Another nurse, whose father is a rabbi, “came in from a mass casualty drill and took care of this gentleman.”
Cohen was one of the first people on the scene. He lives in the neighborhood and heard gunfire from his house.
“I was standing there…and you could start hearing very quickly what was going on,” he said.
Just like the first responders who rushed into danger, Cohen credits his doctors, nurses and staff for stepping up.
“We are here to take care of sick people. We’re not here to judge you. We’re not here to ask ‘Do you have insurance or do you not have insurance?’ We’re here to take care of people who need our help,” he said.
Cohen says he and Bowers had a brief conversation at the hospital.
“When I stopped in, I asked him how he was doing. Was he in pain? And he said, ‘No. He was fine,’” Cohen said.
Cohen says Bowers then asked him who he was.
“I said I’m Dr. Cohen, president of the hospital. Then I turned around and left,” he said. “The FBI agent who was guarding him said, ‘I don’t know if I could have done that.’ And I said, ‘If you were in my shoes, I’m sure you could.’”
Bowers was discharged from the hospital Monday morning and arrived at the federal courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh around noon.
He faces 11 counts of criminal homicide, six counts of aggravated assault and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation in addition to federal counts that include weapons offenses and hate crime charges. Federal prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty against him.
A mass shooting in my own neighborhood
This morning, when I was in my apartment (which does not face the street) and I heard a very long succession of sirens from emergency vehicles going by, I suspected that something really horrible had happened, and the only possibility that entered my mind was either a bombing or a mass shooting at one of the nearby synagogues.
With large crowds of people, including large numbers of women and children, all together in an enclosed space, I’d thought for years that something like this could happen. But I never thought it would happen.
They still haven’t published the victims’ names, pending notification of their families.
I’m 47, and I’ve lived in Squirrel Hill my entire life. I’m hoping for at least another 47 years in this neighborhood. It’s too bad some scumbag deprived at least 11 of my neighbors from living out their lives. I don’t understand why anyone would do this.
The latest updates can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_synagogue_shooting
UK middle school teaches students about different religions. But the school’s act of brainwashing its students is only being done with Islam.
A middle school in the UK is teaching its students about different religions. I think that’s a good thing.
However, there is one aspect of this that is only being applied to one religion, and not to others. Specifically, the school has assigned its students to write a letter to their families about converting to Islam. But the school has not handed out this same assignment for any other religion.
As is often the case, the political left is trying to force Islam on to people against their will.
And in this particular case, they’re doing this to children, who are innocent and naive, and may have no idea what is being done to them.
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 