Headline News 12/05/2019

Headlines:

• - Catholic Bishop: ‘If Europe Disappears, Islam Will Invade the World’
  - After Ousting Bashir, Sudan's Activists Struggle to Loosen Military's Grip
  - Pakistan Tells Iran Impossible to Work on Gas Pipeline Under US Sanctions

Details:

Catholic Bishop: ‘If Europe Disappears, Islam Will Invade the World’

A high-ranking bishop in the Catholic Church has made it his mission to open Europe’s eyes to the dangers posed by Muslim immigrants. “As a bishop, it is my duty to warn the West,” said Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican’s prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Known for his conservative stance on social and moral issues, he has called out liberal Catholics, declaring that “it is a false exegesis [interpretation of scriptural text] to use the Word of God to promote migration. God never wanted these rifts.” The cardinal claims that the immigration crisis is not only harmful to Europe, but to the migrants themselves. “All migrants who arrive in Europe are penniless, without work, without dignity. … The church cannot cooperate with this new form of slavery that has become mass migration.” Cardinal Sarah has compared the modern influx of Muslim migrants to the invasions of barbarian tribes that ultimately brought down the Roman Empire in a.d. 475. If Europe’s policies toward Muslim migrants don’t change, Sarah warned, Europe will be “invaded by foreigners, just as Rome has been invaded by barbarians. … If Europe disappears, and with it the priceless values of the Old Continent, Islam will invade the world and we will completely change culture, anthropology and moral vision.” In an interview with French journalist Nicolas Diat, the cardinal made his comparison clear. “As during the fall of Rome, elites are only concerned to increase the luxury of their daily life and the peoples are being anesthetized by ever more vulgar entertainment. … The barbarians,” he said, referring to Islamic migrants, “are already inside the city.” The number of migrants fleeing to Europe has fallen dramatically since 2015, when Europe recorded its highest number of arrivals at more than 1 million. However, Cardinal Sarah warns that fresh arrivals of Muslim immigrants are not the only problem. He also cited the disparity between the birth rate of native Europeans and Muslims in Europe. “If the West continues in this fatal way,” he said, “there is a great risk that, due to a lack of birth, it will disappear.” [Source: The Trumpet]

The biggest threat to the Europe is capitalism, which has sucked the blood dry from the masses. The inequality in wealth between rich and poor will spur far right movements across the continent to displace the existing liberal order.

After Ousting Bashir, Sudan's Activists Struggle to Loosen Military's Grip

After spearheading the rallies that toppled former President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s main protest group is now locked in a stand-off with the country’s new military rulers that is testing its clout as a political force. The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) gained widespread support during more than four months of protests and it has helped win a string of apparent concessions from the military council that took over from Bashir on April 11. But as the unionists and activists in the SPA try to chart a course to full-fledged democracy, they are coming up against a powerful rival that has shown little sign yet that it is willing to move aside for a civilian-led transition. Frustrated by a lack of progress, the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), a broad coalition of opposition groups headed by the SPA, called on Wednesday for a campaign of civil disobedience to crank up the pressure on the military. “We have all options open from now on,” Ahmed Rabie, an influential SPA member, told Reuters. “If (the council) insists on holding on to power, we are going to consider this a military coup, and we will escalate our tactics, peacefully.” The biggest ongoing sit-in, which began on April 6 outside the Defence Ministry in Khartoum, has become the focal point of the uprising. The Transitional Military Council (TMC) has said it will not use force to end the sit-in. But the SPA could be undermined by maneuvering due to its lack of political experience. “The politicking is starting. This is a terrain that the professionals association might not be as well-equipped for as it seems,” said Sudanese analyst Magdi el-Gizouli. The SPA’s civil disobedience could put pressure on the military council given Sudan’s economic vulnerability. The country is already suffering from spiraling inflation and shortages of cash and basic goods. But its rivals in the TMC have powerful and wealthy backers. The TMC’s leaders, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have ties to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which together promised Sudan $3 billion to support the central bank and provide fuel, wheat and medicine. [Source: Reuters]

It is painfully obvious that the armies in the Muslim world are real custodians of the artificially nation states created by Western powers. Maintaining the viability of the nation state is the sole objective of military leaders across the Muslim world. Sudan is no different. The TMC will only allow the opposition to form a civilian government, once it is certain that the new civilian set up will not oppose the army’s guardianship of the nation state. The money offered by UAE and Saudi Arabia is a clear indication that both Britain and America want a continuation of the TMC’s guardianship of Sudan.

Pakistan Tells Iran Impossible to Work on Gas Pipeline Under US Sanctions

Pakistan on Friday informed Iran in writing that it cannot execute the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project as long as Tehran is under United States sanctions regime, Arab News reported. According to Mobin Saulat, the managing director of Inter State Gas, “Under present US sanctions on Iran, it is impossible to execute the IP [Iran-Pakistan] gas pipeline project and we have conveyed it to them [Iran] in writing recently.” In February this year, a new round of negotiations were launched between Pakistan and Iran after Tehran formally issued a notice to Islamabad and said it was moving an arbitration court against Pakistan for failing to lay down the pipeline in Pakistani territory in the timeframe stipulated in the bilateral agreement. “We have time till August this year to legally respond to Iran’s legal notice and settle the issue through negotiations,” Saulat said. “We are hopeful to find a solution through discussions with Iranian officials.” Sault further said, Pakistan was still committed to executing the project, but only if international sanctions on Iran were lifted. “We cannot risk US sanctions by going ahead with the project as America has clearly said that anybody who will work with Iran will also be sanctioned,” he said. Salut said, Iranian authorities were of the view that US sanctions did not apply to the IP gas project, adding that Pakistan had thus sent Tehran a questionnaire to ascertain exactly how that was the case. [Source: Geo TV]

For several years now, a gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan has been delayed because of US objections. This is despite the fact that some in the military believe that close relations with Iran and China will offset US pressure on Pakistan. The reality is that Pakistan’s military brass is subservient to America, and does not possess the will to oppose Washington.