July 1, 2017

Teen Magazine Promotes Conspiracy Theory from Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Affinity Magazine is a publication written by and for teenagers. Its Editor-in-Chief, Evelyn Woodsen, is nineteen, and its Senior Editor Alex Brown is in high school.

Its website gets between 200,000 and 600,000 views per month, and it claims that it “serves a purpose of showcasing the voices of aspiring teen journalists.” The publication aims to “mix[] pop culture with social justice and politics….”

The young age of its writers and editors, however, does not excuse its promotion of an antisemitic conspiracy theory. In January, the magazine published an article titled, "Money and Israel Control the Media: Who Cares?" (January 8, 2017) Seventeen year-old author Zoya Wazir, relying on the antisemitic Rense website, wrote that:

Israel has political and economic ties to America of such necessity that they control the majority of the media. In fact, the big six corporations mentioned earlier all have Israeli ties and are headed by powerful Jewish families within the United States.

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=37&x_article=3667

I'm linking google's cache of this article. I don't want to give the site any extra traffic.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8T8q8djJsq0J:affinitymagazine.us/2017/01/08/money-and-israel-control-the-media-who-cares/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

June 28, 2017

The Mutating Virus: Understanding Antisemitism (compulsory listening)

Please take the time to either watch this video or read the full transcript.

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Full transcript here:

http://rabbisacks.org/mutating-virus-understanding-antisemitism/

<<snipped>>

The new antisemitism has mutated so that any practitioner of it can deny that he or she is an antisemite. After all, they’ll say, I’m not a racist. I have no problem with Jews or Judaism. I only have a problem with the State of Israel. But in a world of 56 Muslim nations and 103 Christian ones, there is only one Jewish state, Israel, which constitutes one-quarter of one per cent of the land mass of the Middle East. Israel is the only one of the 193 member nations of the United Nations that has its right to exist regularly challenged, with one state, Iran, and many, many other groups, committed to its destruction.

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist as Jews with the same rights as everyone else. The form this takes today is anti-Zionism. Of course, there is a difference between Zionism and Judaism, and between Jews and Israelis, but this difference does not exist for the new antisemites themselves. It was Jews not Israelis who were murdered in terrorist attacks in Toulouse, Paris, Brussels and Copenhagen. Anti-Zionism is the antisemitism of our time.

In the Middle Ages Jews were accused of poisoning wells, spreading the plague, and killing Christian children to use their blood. In Nazi Germany they were accused of controlling both capitalist America and communist Russia. Today they are accused of running ISIS as well as America. All the old myths have been recycled, from the Blood Libel to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The cartoons that flood the Middle East are clones of those published in Der Sturmer one of the primary vehicles of Nazi propaganda between 1923 and 1945.

The ultimate weapon of the new antisemitism is dazzling in its simplicity. It goes like this. The Holocaust must never happen again. But Israelis are the new Nazis; the Palestinians are the new Jews; all Jews are Zionists. Therefore the real antisemites of our time are none other than the Jews themselves. And these are not marginal views. They are widespread throughout the Muslim world, including communities in Europe, and they are slowly infecting the far left, the far right, academic circles, unions, and even some churches. Having cured itself of the virus of antisemitism, Europe is being reinfected by parts of the world that never went through the self-reckoning that Europe undertook once the facts of the Holocaust became known.

June 26, 2017

Professor who said Otto Warmbier got what he deserved loses job

The University of Delaware has cut ties with an adjunct professor who suggested that Otto Warmbier, the American student whose death last week after being imprisoned in North Korea drew worldwide attention, was a ‘‘clueless white male’’ who ‘‘got exactly what he deserved.’’

Katherine Dettwyler, who taught in the anthropology department as recently as spring semester, ‘‘will not be rehired to teach at the University in the future,’’ the university said in a statement on Sunday. Her comments were posted at a time when she was not employed with the university and ‘‘in no way reflect the values or position of the University of Delaware,’’ the statement read.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2017/06/26/professor-who-said-otto-warmbier-got-what-deserved-loses-job/GfXg0gjprLVHMRwvH1089H/story.html

June 22, 2017

San Francisco State University Hit by Lawsuit Alleging Anti-Jewish Animus

San Francisco State University Hit by Lawsuit Brought by Students, Community Members Alleging ‘Anti-Jewish Animus’

San Francisco State University (SFSU) was hit by a lawsuit on Monday brought by students and local community members accusing the school of “an extremely disturbing and consistent pattern of anti-Jewish animus.”

Claiming that SFSU has allowed a “hostile environment” toward Jews since at least 1968, when the social justice-focused College of Ethnic Studies was established, the plaintiffs said that the situation “has only gotten worse over time” and that “SFSU and its administrators have knowingly fostered this.”

<snipped>

The plaintiffs claim SFSU has allowed a “dangerous assault on First Amendment rights” to take place.

“Jews are at best ignored, but more often ostracized in every corner of the university community,” the plaintiffs wrote. “While other groups are able to host events, obtain permits and participate in ‘tabling’ at student fairs, Jewish groups are customarily forced to fight for these basic rights as tuition-paying students, no matter how hard they work to follow processes correctly and avoid controversy.”

https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/06/19/san-francisco-state-university-hit-by-lawsuit-brought-by-students-community-members-alleging-anti-jewish-animus/

June 22, 2017

The College Witch Hunt Began With Jews

<snipped>

The outrages at Mizzou, DePaul and Evergreen have their roots in the anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish bullying and harassment that has taken place in schools throughout the country, particularly at colleges that have chapters of Students for Justice and Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Brotherhood-founded Muslim Student Association (MSA).

School presidents and administrators have allowed these organizations to cause far too much trouble for far too long. The behavior of anti-Zionist activists and the unwillingness of school administrators to act has degraded the intellectual and educational atmosphere on college campuses. Things have gotten so bad that a lawsuit was filed against San Francisco State University over the anti-Jewish animus that has manifested itself at the school since 1968.

Higher education, as a whole, is paying the price for the failure to confront the misdeeds of groups like SJP and MSA. The intimidation of students and faculty at Mizzou, DePaul and Evergreen State College is merely an expansion of the mistreatment endured by Jews on colleges throughout the country. Once it became evident that Jews could be treated badly without consequence, it was only a matter of time before ideologues enlarged their target base.

The bullies will not give up without a fight. Like any millennial movement faced with defeat, the social justice warriors who have made life so difficult for Jews (and others) on college campuses over the past few years will likely double down on their craziness when they get back to school this upcoming fall. We can expect their tone to be a confrontational one, as they try to maintain their ability to disrupt the intellectual growth of their fellow students and silence opposing ideological voices, who just now have started to find their voice.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/06/21/the-college-witch-hunt-began-with-jews/

June 21, 2017

Iran's Soccer Captain calls on country's leader to lift the nationwide Stadium Ban of Women

Shojaei has spoken out on a taboo issue in Iran – no player for the national team has ever called for a lifting of the ban, which has been in place since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran secured their 2018 World Cup berth after beating Uzbekistan last Monday in the Azadi Stadium, witnessed by almost 60,000 men in attendance.

"They should set a course that women are also allowed to come to stadiums in the future," Shojaei, who plays for Greek club Panionios, was quoted by Iranian news outlet Varsesh3.

President Hassan Rouhani and his government are reportedly against the stadium ban, but have not been able to push through lifting it.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/iran-captain-masoud-shojaei-asks-president-let-women-attend-matches#hSVQA00RJHJQaY2q.99

June 19, 2017

Nabra Hassanen abducted and murdered 'in hate crime' on her way to mosque in Virginia

Nabra Hassanen, 17, was on her way to prayers after breakfast yesterday when she was confronted by a man who drove past in a car.

She was assaulted and became separated from her four friends, police said. She was believed to have tripped over her clothes before she was attacked.

The other teenagers made it safely to the mosque where they notified the authorities and a search was launched for the girl. A body was later found in a pond near Ridgetop Circle in Sterling, about three miles from where the attack took place.

The girls had been to a sleepover the previous night at an Islamic institution nearby.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/muslim-girl-abducted-and-murdered-in-hate-crime-on-her-way-to-mosque-in-virginia-a3568081.html

She had the face of an angel. A smile that could light up an entire city.

June 16, 2017

WOMEN IN IRAN WEAR WHITE ON WEDNESDAYS TO CHALLENGE COMPULSORY HIJAB

Women in Iran have found a middle ground in the struggle between those who want to cover their hair and those who don’t in a new campaign called White Wednesday or “Wednesday without compulsion.”

Now running for the fourth week, the campaign invites women and men to wear white veils, scarves or bracelets, the color of peace, to show their opposition to the mandatory dress code. It is the latest initiative of journalist Masih Alinejad, founder of My Stealthy Freedom, an online movement advocating freedom of choice.

<snipped>

Iranian society is dictated by conservative Islamic law and since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 women have been required to cover their hair in accordance with these religious norms, facing arrest if they don’t follow them. The religious authorities have issued other bans restricting women’s choices throughout the years, and continue to do so.

A proposed ban on Zumba, the popular dance that is practised as a form of physical exercise in gyms worldwide, created controversy last week.

http://www.newsweek.com/women-iran-wear-white-wednesdays-challenge-compulsory-hijab-625453

June 8, 2017

Feds: Up to 100 girls may be victims in genital cutting case. FGM Michigan

A federal prosecutor said Wednesday that the government estimates as many as 100 girls may have had their genitals cut at the hands of a local Michigan doctor and her cohorts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward disclosed the information while trying to convince a a federal judge to keep a doctor and his wife locked up in the historic case. It involves allegations that two Minnesota girls had their genitals cut at a Livonia clinic in February as part of a religious rite of passage and were told to keep what happened a secret.

"Due to the secretive nature of this procedure, we are unlikely to ever know how many children were cut by Dr. (Jumana) Nagarwala," Woodward said, referring to the lead defendant in the case, later adding, "The Minnesota victims were not the first victims."

Against Woodward's wishes, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman granted bond to two other defendants in the case: Fakhruddin Attar, 53, of Farmington Hills, who is accused of letting Nagarwala use his clinic to perform genital cutting procedures on minor girls; and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, who is accused of holding the girls' hands during the procedure to keep them from squirming and to calm them.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/06/07/feds-up-100-girls-may-victims-genital-cutting-case/379356001/

June 7, 2017

Iran's parliament and Khomeini shrine attacked by gunmen.

Armed individuals have opened fire at the Iranian parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini in the capital, Tehran, causing a number of casualties.

Heavy gunfire could be heard on an audio recording from inside the parliament chamber, and there are reports that a security guard has died.

Several people were injured at the shrine, dedicated to the founder of the modern Islamic republic.
There was one suicide bomber and two or three other gunmen.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40184641