Thursday, January 15, 2015

Pegida: The New German Revolution


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Pegida: The New German Revolution

by Peter Martino  •  January 15, 2015 at 5:00 am
Pegida's worries about the Islamization of Germany concern the seeming intolerance and religious fanaticism that have grown hand-in-hand with the arrival of the Muslim populations unwilling to adapt to Western values.
The terror attacks in France Had "nothing to do with Islam." — German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière.
By decrying Pegida's views as "xenophobic," narrow minded" and even "inhuman," Germany's ruling establishment shows how deeply out of touch it is with the worries of a large segment of the population.
Perhaps the people in the East just want to avoid the situation that the Western part of the country is in. Having gone through decades of Communist dictatorship, perhaps they are less inclined to trust that their political leaders have the people's best interests in mind with their policies.
PEGIDA on a Monday "evening walk" in Dresden, November 10, 2014. (Image source: Filmproduktionen video screenshot)
Every Monday evening since last October, thousands of citizens have marched through the city of Dresden as well as other German cities to protest the Islamization of their country. They belong to an organization, established only three months ago, called Pegida, the German abbreviation for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West."
Pegida is a democratic grassroots organization, without origins in the far-left, far-right or links to any political parties, domestic or foreign. The French Front National [FN] of Marine Le Pen even made it clear that it wants nothing to do with "spontaneous initiatives" such as Pegida. According to the FN, "something like Pegida cannot be a substitute for a party."

Turkey's Staggering "Shoeboxgate"
How Turkey "Fights" Corruption

by Burak Bekdil  •  January 15, 2015 at 4:30 am
Imagine an audio recording of the president calling his son and telling him to get rid of all the cash he keeps at home; and his son, after trying for several hours, telling him there are still millions left.
For Erdogan, his election victories meant that all allegations of corruption were baseless. For the first time in the history of justice, voters had acted as the jury for a high-profile corruption case.
Erdogan's ambitions are also about securing a two-thirds majority in the May election so that the constitution can be amended.
For the past year, Erdogan's administration has suspended, reassigned, prosecuted and jailed thousands of (mostly) police officers on charges of attempting illegally to topple his government.
The main opposition party replied: "If you don't trust the top court, how do ordinary citizens trust the ordinary courts?" Good question.
Reza Zarrab, an Iranian businessman, was accused of running a network that laundered at least $87 billion to bypass international sanctions on Iran, and bribing ministers, their sons and senior public officials in Turkey.
Imagine one chilly day the American people wakes up to news that, in early morning raids, squads of public prosecutors and police detain the sons of cabinet secretaries, a mayor, a state bank manager and prominent businessmen -- all with publicly known close ties to the Obama administration. The mounds of evidence include telephone conversations, video material, and more -- all unmasking the trafficking of huge amounts of illegal money and expensive gifts among the suspects, who include a shady Iranian businessman.

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