Evil Penevil

Frankly, @GammaGlobulin, I don't give a damn. It true that polls rank GWTW as the most popular novel among U.S. readers and it is indeed better researched and written than most popular works of fiction, it is far from a great book.

@Deserted - There's plenty of "incopemetance" (sic) in your post.

To give some context to the clip from X posted above by @Bkk Brian: The chant heard in the clip is an antisemitic slogan coined by the founder of Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, in the 1980s. It refers to the Battle of Khaybar in 628 CE in which a Muslim army under Mohammad defeated and subjugated the large Jewish community of Khaybar in Saudi Arabia. Back then, what would become Saudi Arabia had several Jewish tribes. The words in Arabic are "Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud! Jaish Muhammad soufa yaʿoud!" In English, it becomes, "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews! The army of Mohammad will return!" In the context of the Palestinian conflict, it means Muslims will conquer Israel and slaughter the Jews. https://extremismterms.adl.org/glossary/khaybar-khaybar-ya-yahud It is frequently heard at pro-Palestinian demonstrations all over the world.

You seem to have confused your Native American movie stereotypes. Pow wow is the word used in English to indicate a social gathering that features traditional Native American dance. In movies and TV shows, it erroneously came to mean any sort of meeting where discussion plays a central role. Pow wow has nothing to do with the war chant used by the Crow tribe that involved slapping the palm of the hand against the mouth while whooping. You may have been thinking about the "How" open palm greeting used by the Lakota tribes. "How" was the English approximation of the word Lakota men used to greet other men. The open palm up, like shaking hands in Western culture, indicated friendly intent because of the lack of a weapon. It became a widespread stereotype and symbol of Native American culture in U.S. westtern movies and TV shows, even though the use in real life had been limited to the Lakota.

It's impossible for Israel to negotiate a permanent peace with an enemy whose goal is the destruction of the state of Israel and the eradication of its citizens. If Hamas and all other Palestinian groups would recognize Israel's right to exist as the homeland of the world's Jews, a permanent solution to the conflict could be found. But as long as the avowed purpose of Hamas or any other Palestinian group is the elimination of Israel, then the Israeli government's only option is to destroy those groups. Hamas has sought a ceasefire not because it wants peace with Israel but to regroup and rebuild so it can fight another day. Netanyahu is well aware of this. The only advantage the current ceasefire agreement carries for Israel is the release of the hostages and even a hostage exchange is problematic. Israel gets back 33 people, children, women and old or sick. Hamas will get hundreds of very fit terrorists wo will in the future yet again kill Israelis. In 2011, Israel exchanged one IDF soldier, Gilatd Shalit, a hostage for five years, for 1,027 Palestinians. One of the Palestinians freed by the deal was Yahya Sinwar, who went on to plot the murder of 1,200 people on Oct. 7. Israel has engaged with prisoner-of-war or hostage exchanges with various enemies since 1948. In 1967, Israel exchanged about 5,250 Arab soldiers and 1,400 civilians for 15 IDF soldiers and the bodies of two more. In 1983, about 4,800 Palestinians and Lebanese were exchanged for six IDF members. Through the years, many such lopsized exchanges have taken place. Hundreds of Israelis subsequently fell victim to released terrorists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab–Israeli_prisoner_exchanges

x Here's the link to the full report: Group-Based Offending Publication November 2024 I would agree it comes across as a whitewash that uses manipulation of statistics to downplay the role organized gangs of men of Pakistani origin have played in the exploitation and abuse of several thousand British girls. A excerpt from the report's Introduction sets the tone (my bold text): "Group based offending takes many forms and takes place in many different settings. Media coverage has tended to focus on specific communities and so-called grooming gangs. Whilst it is important that police and their partners respond robustly to offending of this type that shouldn’t distract us from the wider threat that occurs in many settings." That's the only time in the 28-page report the word "grooming" or phrase "grooming gangs" appears. The words "Muslim" and "Pakistani" are never used. It's clear those responsible for the report don't want the public to focus on Pakistani grooming gangs. Instead, they want the public to believe whites, the dominant group in the U.K., are responsible for most of the sexual abuse of children, which is true. For the sake of social harmony, academics and some government offficials are trying to claim Pakistanis are no worse than white British males when it comes to the exploitation and abuse of British girls. The sleight-of-hand with statistics comes on two fronts. First, the 83% figure doesn't refer to the TOTAL number of grooming gang perpetrators, but the number where the ethnicity of the perpetrators is known. The graphic in the report reveals that out of 4,790 total perpretrators, ethnicity is known for 2,266 perps, of which 1,884 , or 83%, are white. But what of the 2,524 perps whose ethnicity isn't known? If any of them are Pakistani, then the percentage of Pakistani perps will rise. For example, if half the unknown perps turn out to be Pakistani, that would mean 1,644 perps, or 34%, were Pakistani. Considering people born in Pakistan or in the U.K. of Pakistani ancestry amount to only 2.7% of the total U.K. population, Pakistanis are over-represented by any metric in grooming gang crimes. The second significant deception occurs because all of the 4,790 perps aren't suspected of committing grooming-related crimes. The report covers group-based child sexual exploitation, which includes several categories of crime. The report defines a group as two or more perps. It also notes:. "The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology.” (Department for Education, 2017)." Same link as above. This definition means that if two 12-year-old white boys persuade a 12-year-old girl to give them handjobs or to send them nude photos via the Internet, those boys are counted in the same 4,790 total as members of Pakistani grooming gangs. By "diluting" the figures on grooming gangs by including less serious white offenders, the proportion of white offenders is increased. To be accurate, the comparison should be between the number of Pakistani groomers versus white Brits who commit the same sort of crime.

I know this question wasn't addressed to me, but I will answer it anyway. The Quran and Hadith can be interpretted in many ways and some groups within Islam view rape of non-believers as not only permissible but commendable. ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html) Claiming the Quran’s support, the Islamic State codifies sex slavery in conquered regions of Iraq and Syria and uses the practice as a recruiting tool. "QADIYA, Iraq — In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted." The Pakistani grooming gangs probably use a similar interpretation of Islamic scriptture. It's permitted to rape white British girls because they aren't Muslim. The Pakistani gangs never go after Muslim Pakistani girls, only non-believers. Remeber that Islamic doctrine explained by leading imams, Muslim scholars and Western professors of religion can be very different from "what's allowed and what isn't" followed by Pakistani immigrants or children of immigrants in the U.K.

To keep the record straight- The 186,000 figure did not come from a peer-reviewed article but from an analysis in a letter published in the correspondence section of The Lancet. The analysis was done by three acaemics, with the main author a professor at an institution on the West Bank. The 55,298–78,525 estimate does come from a peer-reveied article in The Lancet. However, peer-review does not validate the information in an article. It means that independent, anonymous experts have read the article prior to publication to make sure it's not a hoax and follows widely recognized scientific methodology. The 55.298-78,535 estimate is also speculation, but rests on a sounder base.

At keast that estimate is lower than an earlier one of 186,000 published in The Lancet on July 20, 2024, for the same time period as the article above. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext#

Yes, indeed it does. For about 1,500 years (100 CE to 1600 CE) religion had been the dominant issue in Europe and the Middle East. But the English Reformation under Henry VIII and the broader Protestant Reformation inspired by Martin Luther had broken the hold of the Catholic Church and established the supremacy of secular law and government over religious practice. The American and French Revolutions cemented the idea that religion had become a matter of individual conscience and not secular duty. The separation of church and state is what today distinguishes Western democracies from Muslim states. In the West, people can choose to make religion a central part of their lives, but they are not forced to. In Muslim states, Sharia law, based on the Quran and hadiths, still has a huge influence on secular law and daily life. What Islam needs is a sweeping reformation and modernization that makes secular law superior to religious scripture.

If you are referring to Benjamin Netanyahu, he was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, after the establsihment of the state of Israel. His mother had been born near Tel Aviv in 1912 when the area belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Some of his mother's relatives had lived in what would become Israel since the 1870s. His father had been born in Warsaw in 1910, but immigrated at the age of 10 with his family to Mandatory Palestine in1920. To call Netnyahu a "Polish Jew" is absurd. The Polish government wouldn't recognize him as a citizen. Under Polish law, Netanyahu is not entitled to Polish citizenship because his father was born in Warsaw over 100 years ago and lived there for 10 years as a child. @NorthernRyland Would you say former President Barack Obama is Kenyan because his father was born in Kenya? Was the most famous Palestian leader actually Egyptian because Yasser Arafat was born in Cairo?

Let me rephrase my question: do you (or any other BM) dispute that Shamsud Din Jabbar's attack in New Orleans is an example of what is meant with the slogan used by many pro-Palestian groups, "Globalize the Intifada?"

On the contrary. Jabbar does indeed seem to have "globalized the Intifada." His deadly attack on random individuals who were celebrating New Year's Eve is very similar to the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. What else can "globalize the Intifada" mean, since the Intifada is merely a series of terrorist attacks?

It will be highly interesting to see if Jabbar has any connection to one of the U.S. pro-Palestinian groups. Israeli diplomats: Ideology of NYC ‘intifada’ march connected to New Orleans attack "This is the grim reality of the 'globalization of the Intifada' they called for. It's terror, pure and simple." https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-835926

It's possible Young's announcement that he would skip Glastonbury was part of a bargaining strategy. He doesn't like his live performances to be broadcast and when he appeared at Glastonbury in 2009 , he only allowed the BBC to livestream five songs from a two-hourr set. From the BBC: Neil Young reverses his Glastonbury 'boycott' https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrwvgj0149o