The New York Times decided not to use any euphemisms on Wednesday when they reported that “mobs of Christian men in Sri Lanka” have allegedly been “threatening and beating Muslims.”
Note, they specifically identified “Christians” as the attackers and “Muslims” as the victims.
Even though this was the deadliest Muslim terrorist attack since 9/11, the suffering of those killed and their families takes a backseat in the media to the fear of a “backlash” among Muslims.
Today, around 120,000 Syriac Christians reside in Sweden. While many of them fled genocide in the Middle East, attacks against their churches and threats against their organisations are still not uncommon.
A recent Facebook post by the Syriac National Federation has detailed expletive-loaded threats it received from speakers of Arabic.
According to the federation’s spokesperson, this is not the first time such an incident has occurred. Most often, he said, the callers speak either Swedish with a thick Middle Eastern accent or even Arabic.
The police, however, chose not to investigate the matter, explaining that obscene language is not illegal.
“As soon as something happens in the Middle East or we are somehow visible in the media, we get these calls, so we are used to this.”
“At one point they say they will do the same to us in Sweden as they did in the Middle East. A genocide has been carried out in the Middle East against Christians. We have fled these groupings to Sweden, but they have caught up with us here”, the spokesperson said.
The Syriac National Federation has repeatedly turned to the authorities, but found no understanding, except among the Christian Democrats.
According to Samhällsnytt, there is a widespread feeling of resignation among Syriacs in Sweden amid concerns over the future of the rule of law and the state’s ability to protect people and prosecute crimes.
“We expect some fucking civil war between different groups unless someone puts their foot down. The people who did terrible acts in the Middle East, they are here now… and no one seems to care”, the spokesperson concluded.
Syriac churches in Sweden have witnessed a series of bomb and arson attacks, such as the Saint Afrem church in Södertälje and the Saint Mary church in Norrköping.
The incidents have caused strong reactions in the Syriac circles. While some argued that the time was ripe to leave Sweden if the state is unable to protect all its citizens, others suggested to get “a police force of our own” in the comments.
Fatness is health, dieting is sexual assault, and fitness is a white supremacist Nazi science
– so stated a self-described ‘Fat Sex Therapist” at a college talk. Commenters were shocked, but the anti-fitness backlash is growing.
Sonalee Rashatwar, the therapist in question, delivered her polemic in a two-hour lecture at St. Olaf College, Minnesota last week. Puzzlingly, the lecture was hosted by the university’s Wellness Center, in conjunction with the Women’s and Gender Studies Department.
“I truly believe that a child cannot consent to being on a diet the same way a child cannot consent to having sex,”she declared, adding: “I experience diet culture as a form of assault because it impacts the way that I experience my body.”
While the overwhelming medical consensus recognizes obesity as a cause of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, and premature death, Rashatwar joins a growing number of ‘fat acceptance’ and ‘health at every size’ activists who argue otherwise. Science, she told the crowd, is a white supremacist tool designed to oppress the obese.
“We should be critical of the use of science and the production of knowledge to continue promoting this idea that certain bodies are fit, able, and desirable… is it my fatness that causes my high blood pressure, or is it my experience of weight stigma?” Rashatwar, who uses the gender-neutral ‘they/them’ pronouns, asked.
“Fatphobic” science is “often actually eugenic science… eugenic science is Nazi science,”she continued.
After denying the link between obesity and high blood pressure, Rashatwar attempted to link Christchurch mosque slayer Brenton Tarrant’s murder spree with his love for physical fitness.
“I do not think it’s surprising that the man who shot up Christchurch, New Zealand was also a fitness instructor,” the self-described “Donut Queen” said. She argued that the shooting was “a clear communication that there’s still an idealized body. Nazis really love this idea of an idealized body, and so it makes a lot of sense to me that a fitness instructor… might also think about an idealized body in this thin white supremacist way.”
Rashatwar’s woke speech generated some attention on Twitter, mostly negative. “This is what the death of a civilization sounds like,” one commenter wrote.
Rashatwar’s intersectional rambling was not a once-off event at a stereotypically liberal university. Rather, it came as part of a 12-date nationwide speaking tour, during which she dissects issues like “How Fat Queers the Body,”and “Health is a Social Construct.” She is also a licensed therapist.
‘Fat acceptance’ is a movement becoming more prevalent in academia. Last year, nutritionist Linda Bacon, author of ‘Health at Every Size’, was a featured speaker at Baltimore’s prestigious John Hopkins University. Bacon spoke out against diet culture and ‘fatphobia,’ at the same university that hosts the Global Obesity Prevention Center.
The head of Sri Lanka’s parliament has made damning accusations against senior officials in the government, alleging that they withheld intelligence about impending attacks on churches, hotels and politicians.
A series of Easter Sunday bombings at Sri Lankan churches andhotels killed at least 359 people. Authorities have made dozens of arrests in the aftermath.
“Some top intelligence officials hid the intelligence information purposefully. Information was there, but the top brass security officials did not take appropriate actions,” Lakshman Kiriella, leader of the parliament, said Wednesday
Kiriella claims that Sri Lankan authorities received a warning from Indian intelligence about possible attacks on April 4, and that this information was shared at a Security Council meeting, chaired by President Maithripala Sirisena, on April 7 but was not shared further.
“Somebody is controlling these top intelligence officials,” Kiriella added. “The Security Council is doing politics. We need to investigate into this.”
Meanwhile, former army chief and Minister of Regional Development Sarath Fonseka told parliament that he believed the attacks had been planned for some seven or eight years.
A confidential April 11 security memo contained names, addresses, phone numbers and movement patterns of the attackers from the National Thowheeth Jama’ath group suspected of carrying out the spate of attacks. Sri Lankan authorities also knew as far back as January that the group was stockpiling weapons and detonators.
Government minister Rauff Hakeem described it as a“colossal failure on the part of the intelligence services,”as in-fighting between Sri Lanka’s president and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe appears to have prevented effective action being taken to avert the danger.
“If the names of the persons involved were already known, why were they not arrested?” he added.
The Washington Post is under fire for printing a story with a contentious headline, implying that anger over the recent spate of bombings in Sri Lanka is unique to the “far right.”
Titled “Christianity under attack? Sri Lanka church bombings stoke far-right anger in the West,” the piece drew outrage online far and wide for its recklessly phrased headline.
In its story, the Post cites right-wing leaders and activists across the US and Europe – such as Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally party – who view the bombings in Sri Lanka as part of a greater attack on Christianity.
While the Post does acknowledge that “Christian minorities are targeted around the world,” some took the piece itself to be a religious slight.
“If you [need] any further proof that the Washington Post is anti-Christian, check out this asinine headline,” one user said on Twitter.
Some people believe prominent Democrats deliberately avoided using the word “Christian” when condemning bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday as part of a policy to undermine Christian faith in the US.
The eight bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, which killed almost 300 people on Easter Sunday, sparked worldwide condemnation. But the way some US politicians expressed their condolences sparked a minor outcry among conservative Americans. Former President Barack Obama and the former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, were blasted for using the term “Easter worshipers” instead of “Christians” when referring to the victims of the attacks.
Three Sri Lankan Christian churches were targeted by the perpetrators, implying that the Christian minority was in the crosshairs. Some commentators in the US said Obama and Clinton were in the wrong when they failed to name the religion.
Particular ire was sparked by the fact that both US politicians didn’t hesitate to use the word “Muslim” when expressing condolences to the victims of last month’s massacre at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Notably, Obama and Clinton were not the only US figures, who used the term in remarks about the bloodshed in Sri Lanka. So did Adam Schiff, the Democrat chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
And the same goes for US Attorney Trent Shores.
The criticism is based on the perception that the Democratic Party is bent on downplaying America’s Christian roots for the sake of sensibilities of people adhering to other religions. The sentiment is probably best reflected in Fox News’ coverage of the supposed “war on Christmas” in the US.
In this particular case, however, the notion may be misplaced, one commenter pointed out. Christian churches are not exclusively Christian places of worship there, quite the contrary.
In Sri Lanka, Christianity plays a unique role of serving as a bridge between people by welcoming both the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups. Considering that Tamil separatism was behind a bloody 25-year-long civil war on the South Asian island, which ended just a decade ago, one can understand why this role is highly appreciated.
A radical group linked to the Islamic State has threatened an attack on the damaged cathedral of Notre Dame, or possibly another historic Christian building.
Al-Munatsir, a radical group linked to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s erstwhile caliphate, disseminated an image showing Notre Dame’s iconic bell towers engulfed in flames, with the caption “wait for the next”.
The SITE Intelligence Group Enterprise counter-extremism organisation, which reported on the threat, appears to believe it was targetted at the Parisian cathedral — although it is possible “wait for the next” could refer to an attack on another Christian building.
The French authorities do not believe the Notre Dame fire resulted from arson or terrorism at present, saying it was likely an accident.
Islamic extremists were quick to celebrate it, however — including al-Munatsir, which published an earlier image of the burning cathedral with the caption “Have a nice day”.
The threats come as France honours the Paris fire brigade, the Pompiers de Paris, who were able to save much of the cathedral from the flames, despite the destruction of its spire and ancient roof timbers.
“The country and the entire world were watching us and you were exemplary,” French president Emmanuel Macron told hundreds of firefighters at the Elysée Palace, where they were gathered so he could pay tribute to them on behalf of the nation.
“You were the perfect example of what we should be,” he added, saying they would be awarded medals of honour for their “courage and devotion”.
Anne Hidalgo, the left-wing Paris mayor, also praised the firefighters’ “boundless courage”, saying they had “saved part of ourselves” by preventing the historic cathedral from being entirely consumed.
A leading member of South Africa’s ruling party has stirred controversy as he called on the country’s black population not to vote for white candidates. RT has asked a local politician and activist to weigh in.
With even members of his own party condemning the decision to “campaign along race lines,” the pressure is mounting against African National Congress secretary-general Ace Magashule. He has already found himself at the wrong end of a number of corruption scandals and has now been slammed for his “racist” remark.
A few weeks shy of the 25th anniversary of the end of apartheid, racial tensions remain an undeniable part of life in modern South Africa. And some in South Africa support Magashule’s sentiment.
“White people are the beneficiaries of racism, all of them,” Andile Mngxitama of the pan-Africanist Black First Land First party told RT. He believes that the disproportionate amount of resources that remain in the hands of the country’s white minority is an indication that they “still maintain an apartheid hold on the economy.” Given the circumstances, Mngxitama asks “why any black person would vote for a white person?”
Self-described “disillusioned left wing South African” Helen Heldenmuth sees this outlook is destructive, and not the opinion of the majority. Having been arrested for raising black children during apartheid, she believes that the solution has to move beyond black and white. According to her, comments like Magashule’s don’t help to “mend” the damage from the past, and only serve to further divide society along racial lines.
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