Headline News 02/06/2017

Headlines

• Majorities in Europe, North America worried about Islamic Extremism

• Orthodox Priest Warns Europe will Turn Muslim in 30 years, Russia in 50

• America's Afghan War: 16 Years, as Many as One Million Killed—and the War Machine Keeps on Rolling

Details

Majorities in Europe, North America worried about Islamic extremism

Across 12 countries surveyed from February through April by Pew Research Center, majorities said they were at least somewhat concerned about extremism in the name of Islam in their countries, including 79% who said this in the UK itself. And across the 10 EU countries surveyed, a median of 79% were concerned about Islamic extremism, while only 21% were not concerned. The issue of extremism across Europe has manifested itself in myriad ways in recent years, including significant and deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and now Manchester, all claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS), which is based in Iraq and Syria. And while individual terrorist incidents tend to increase fears about extremism, there has been great concern globally about the issue throughout the last decade. In many of the countries polled this year, much of the public is very concerned about extremism in the name of Islam. This includes 51% in Italy and Spain, 47% in Germany, 46% in France and 43% in the UK. Meanwhile, less than 15% of the population in all these countries is not at all concerned about the threat of extremism in the name of Islam. Fears about extremism, while pervasive across all demographic groups, are particularly acute among older people and those who consider themselves on the right of the ideological spectrum.

For example, in the UK, 87% of those ages 50 and older are concerned about extremism in the name of Islam, compared with 61% among Brits ages 18 to 29. Similarly significant age gaps exist in nine of the 12 countries surveyed. When it comes to ideology, there are significant gaps between those on the right and left in 10 of the 12 countries surveyed. In Canada, for instance, 66% of those who place themselves on the right politically say they are concerned about extremism, compared with only 30% on the left. [Source: Pew Research Center]

Western governments have deliberately stoked fear of Islam amongst their populations so that they can continue to justify Western intervention in Muslim lands. Without public support the West will not be able to prosecute its war against Islam in Muslim countries.

Orthodox Priest Warns Europe will Turn Muslim in 30 years, Russia in 50

A Russian Orthodox priest says the West better get ready for Islam's conquest. "There is very little time left until the death of the entire Christian Civilization," claims Dmitri Smirnov, chairman of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Matters and the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood. "Several decades, perhaps 30 years, well, maybe in Russia it will last 50, no longer," the priest reportedly told Russia's Soyuz TV channel.

Smirnov says Islam will eventually sweep the continent because Muslims are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to advance their own values. "The modern Muslim is willing to die for his faith," Smirnov said. "He wraps himself with dynamite and blows himself up wherever his mullah orders him. He is prepared to sacrifice himself.

He is labeled a terrorist. But his goal is not to terrify the world." The controversial Russian Orthodox archpriest claims young Muslims view their sacrifice as a noble cause in order to protect their societies. "And why do these young men die?" asks Smirnov. "Because they don't want to live in a state ruled by homosexuals. They don't want this obscene pop music. They don't want to have their values corroded, family values first of all.

"Smirnov claims Islam's domination will force Christians underground and they "will be like peas scattered across Europe." "Christians will not dare stick their necks out, they will congregate in small groups and will be persecuted," Smirnov asserts. "The rehearsal is already underway: in Europe, Christian women are being raped and murdered, and the men who are forced to protect their women, are unable to do so (while rapists are sentenced to one year probation maximum). This goes on in today's Europe, and we are next in line." He ends his presentation saying that while Muslims are ready to kill themselves, Christians in the West are just "exhausted sick people, as good as dead." [Source: CBN News]

Smirnov assertion about Christianity and the decadence that plagues the West is correct. How long can Westerners continue to defend their values from other Westerners?

America's Afghan War: 16 Years, as Many as One Million Killed—and the War Machine Keeps on Rolling

The American war in Afghanistan will soon enter its 16th year. Over this period, the United States and its allies have lost close to 3,000 soldiers, while an unknown number of Afghans have died. The official figure for the Afghan dead, above 150,000, is laughable. Each year, as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) finds, the percentage of women and children among the official death toll increases, many of the deaths a result of aerial bombardment. Afghan sources say that the number of war dead must be near the million mark. The human toll has been considerable. In 2016, over half a million people fled their homes because of the conflict.

This is the highest number of displacements since 2008. Of the estimated population of 32 million Afghans, almost two million have been displaced by the conflict; about three million are refugees from the almost 40 years of war in the country. In the five months that ended in May, UNAMA found that already 90,000 people had been displaced. The “spring offensive” of the Taliban began with a burst. On April 21, a handful of Taliban fighters infiltrated the Afghan National Army’s 209th Corps base in Balkh, a province in northern Afghanistan. They killed 140 Afghan soldiers. It was a devastating attack, which came a week after the U.S. dropped the 21,600-pound (9,798-kg) Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), the largest non-nuclear bomb in the world, on Nangarhar, Afghanistan. The bomb landed on the village of Asadkhel. The U.S. military said that 94 Islamic State fighters were killed.

Journalists have not been permitted to the site, although it should be said that the district is home to 1.5 million people. It was as if the Taliban paid no heed to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to drop “Madar-e Bamb-ha”, the Dari translation of the grotesque device. The Balkh attack almost seemed as a directed snub. The Taliban now controls over 40 per cent of Afghanistan, with its hold cemented in north-eastern Helmand province, north-western Kandahar province, north-western Zabul province and Uruzgan province. Its forces could soon be in command of southern Afghanistan, which would put the Taliban in charge of the length of the country’s border with Pakistan. The assassination of Taliban leaders seems to have barely dented its ability to push hard against the Afghan Army and the Army’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies. Dan Coats, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told the U.S. Senate that regardless of any action by the U.S., “the political and security situation in Afghanistan will almost certainly deteriorate through 2018.” What he meant is that US interest would not be safeguarded by the Ghani government. [Source:Alternet.org]

Any keen observer of America’s war in Afghanistan cannot help but notice that America has deliberately kept the Afghan government weak and has not bothered to eradicate the Afghan Taliban. It is almost as if America is using the strength of both parties to fight each other and maintain the status quo in favour of prolonged American presence. A technique America has perfected in Central and South America.