Author: Mick Hartley

, the JC can reveal.

Photos obtained by this newspaper show schoolgirls at Jaaferiya school in Tooting wearing green bandanas and a boy wearing a T-shirt that reads: “I don’t see death as anything but bliss.”

The school’s walls can be seen plastered with images of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s brutal Supreme Leader notorious for operating terror proxies across the Middle East, human rights violations and seeking the destruction of Israel.

In a Facebook post on October 7, a trustee and teacher at Jaaferiya school, Aun Ali Naqvi, shared an emoji of a Palestinian flag and said the day marked “happiness”.

A day later he wrote in a chilling post: “We will make our children soldiers of Imam (Aaj)” – a 9th-century figure whom Shia Muslims believe will reappear one day to wage an apocalyptic war against non-Muslims and rid the world of evil….

The charity that runs the school and its mosque, Idara-e-Jaaferiya, is already under investigation by the Charity Commission and the JC’s evidence has been added to the probe, a spokesman said.

This comes a day after we heard about the Iran-supporting UK charity.Labaik Ya Zahra, and its Jihadi Lioness.

How many more?

California Imam Marc Manley on the divine judgement of the Los Angeles fires, as Allah wreaks his revenge for the destruction in Gaza. "Did you think you would be able to rain down terror on the land of Allah and that you would not face some consequence?"

Why didn't Allah just prevent the Gaza bombardment in the first place? These gods work in very mysterious ways.

r tactics against their opponents are remotely compatible with democratic values, or acceptable in a healthy, diverse, literary sector.

The only way to stop these tactics being successful is to stand up to them. Gatekeepers, programmers, curators: it is not 2018 anymore. Most writers, alongside the public, are more opposed to this illiberalism than ever. Excuse my bias, but ‘gender critical’ feminists have also been proven to have more than a smidgen of a point with our arguments. May the Oxford Literary Festival hold firm and 2025 be the year that other festivals find the same vertebrae.

thinks, would be symbolic, but would have little practical impact on the Taliban….

Lest we forget, there is no doubt where responsibility lies for what the Foreign Affairs committee’s report called “a tragedy for Afghanistan, marking the biggest reversal in the rights of women and girls in a generation”. Levers over the Taliban disappeared with our departure from the country and it remains a puzzle why some politicians think England’s cricketers can clear up the gigantic mess we left behind.

To be fair: which the Americans left behind, with the UK bumbling along behind. No one comes out of this looking good. 

pre-wrap break-words” style=”padding-left: 40px”>Multiple sources told Daily NK on Friday that a Jan. 3 Rodong Sinmun newspaper article about South Korea’s political situation has become a widespread topic of private discussion. While public discussion of South Korean politics remains strictly forbidden and punishable in North Korea, people are quietly sharing their thoughts with close family and friends.

The initial reaction has largely been one of disbelief. The Rodong Sinmun newspaper’s coverage of Seoul protests, including “large-scale candlelight vigils and marches demanding ‘Expel Yoon Suk Yeol! Disband the People Power Party!'” has left many North Koreans stunned at the notion of citizens openly calling for their president’s removal.

“We can’t even imagine criticizing the party or Supreme Leader,” a source in Ryanggang province said. “People can’t comprehend how South Koreans can demand their president’s expulsion. It makes them say the South must truly be a different world.”

The detailed reporting has prompted North Koreans to draw comparisons between the political systems on either side of the DMZ. Many question whether the reports of South Koreans using “crude language” to criticize their administration are accurate or deliberately edited.

Another striking revelation for North Koreans has been learning that South Korean society continues to function normally despite political upheaval. “People with relatives who have defected are surprised to hear their family members in the South saying everything’s fine, even amid what’s being described as social paralysis,” the Ryanggang source noted.

“The consensus is that South Korea must be genuinely free,” the source added. “Here, you can vanish without a trace for speaking out. People are surprised to learn it’s not like that in the South.”

While the North Korean authorities likely intended these reports to highlight the superiority of their socialist system, they appear to have instead underscored the stark differences in political freedom between the two countries.

An own goal, as it were. Perhaps there's a bright side to the current political crisis in South Korea after all. 

The Times:

The head of a British charity has glorified a terrorist chief, promoted extremists who celebrated October 7 and personally accepted an award from the Iranian leader known as the “Butcher of Tehran”.

Syeda Umme Farwa runs the British-registered charity Labaik Ya Zahra (LYZ) in London, which says it “helps mankind” by advancing the Muslim faith and women’s rights through workshops, conferences and protests.

Something of a contradiction there, perhaps. Women's rights?

However, a joint investigation by The Times and the campaign group United Against Nuclear Iran can reveal that she has been hailed as a “jihadi lioness” in Iran and has given platforms to alleged extremists with links to terror organisations at her charity’s events.

Farwa, who is from Pakistan and lives in northwest London, was filmed receiving a trophy from Ebrahim Raisi at a ceremony in 2018, in honour of her charity work in the UK.

Raisi, a senior regime figure, was known as the “Butcher of Tehran” for overseeing the mass execution of thousands of people as part of the infamous “death committee” in the 1980s.

At the event, held in the Iranian city of Mashhad, he praised Farwa as a “faithful [Islamic] revolutionary woman”. A year later he was sanctioned by the United States for human rights abuses.

Is anyone the tiniest bit surprised by this?

The Charity Commission warns organisations not to invite speakers to their events who the trustees know are likely to promote extremist ideology to influence or direct the charity’s work….

In January last year Farwa said her charity commemorates the death of Soleimani, the assassinated IRGC general, every year. She told an Iranian state media outlet: “God willing … revenge will be taken for this bloodshed and the reign of the oppressors will come to an end.”

Soleimani was the mastermind behind Iran’s activities across the Middle East and helped to co-ordinate the military operations of terror groups in the region. After his death Hamas said he played a “major role” in supporting their operations.

Farwa appeared to acknowledge that Soleimani had been sanctioned in the UK but admitted that her charity had participated in demonstrations “at the time of the martyrdom of the commander”. She said that the charity produces films and videos to mark “the anniversary of the martyr every year”.

A Turkey-Israel confrontation draws a step nearer. From the Jerusalem Post:

President Tayyip Erdogan warned on Wednesday that Turkey had the power and ability to "crush" all terrorists in Syria, including Islamic State and Kurdish militants, while urging all countries to "take their hands off" Syria.

According to Anadolu, Erdogan also called on Israel to halt its "aggressive actions" towards Syria: "Starting with Israel, the forces attacking Syrian territories must immediately put an end to their aggressive actions. Otherwise, the consequences will have a negative impact on everyone."

In other words, this is now our domain. We, the Turks, are in charge and decide what's best for Syria – and that means, first of all, the destruction of the Kurds.

Since last month's fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey has said repeatedly it was time for the Kurdish YPG militia to disband. Ankara considers the group, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist organization.

Ankara has said the new Syrian administration must be given an opportunity to address the YPG presence, but also threatened to mount a new cross-border operation against the militia based in northeast Syria if its demands are not met.

Speaking in parliament, Erdogan said the YPG was the biggest problem in Syria now, and added that the group would not be able to escape its inevitable end unless it lays down its arms.

sh, Byzantine, and Aramaic speaking Christian communities to Arabisation and Islamic rule. It also Islamised Persia. Their conquest of North Africa and Iberia extended forced Arabisation to Egyptian, Greek, Berber, and Visigoth peoples. Turkish speaking people moved from central Asia into Anatolia in the eleventh century. The Ottomans subsequently imposed Turkish rule and settlement on large areas of the Middle East, Armenia, North Africa, Cyprus, and the Balkans, which they incorporated into a large Islamic Empire. The sequence of invasions and population flows in these areas throughout ancient, Medieval, and modern history renders the notion of an indigenous population in these regions largely without content…

Under the guise of promoting diversity and equality, the identity politics of the postmodernist left has overturned the broad coalition-building agenda of classical progressive movements. It has replaced it with the worship of ethnic and gender difference, based on inherited virtue conferred by a history of European colonial dispossession. The purpose of this exercise appears to be not the creation of a social order that provides fully democratic institutions and genuine equality to all its members, but a permanent acknowledgement of original sin and past guilt by the descendants of the colonisers, and those who benefit from the privileges that they enjoy.

But yes, read it all.

The events following 7 October 2023 should have made it abundantly clear that, contrary to official assurances, Jews are no longer equal citizens in the polities that they inhabit in most of the Diaspora. The attitudes of the postmodernist left have penetrated large areas of the public domain. They are now infesting the public school system in many places, making life intolerable for many Jewish children in non-Jewish schools. Boycotts of Jewish artists, writers, and performers have taken hold in large swaths of publishing and cultural life. Discrimination in hiring has now become a visible issue. Many mainstream institutions avoid engaging with clearly identified Jewish figures or agencies for fear of cancellation and violent protest. Calling on the traditional political and civil authorities to protect Jews from attack or exclusion in this sort of environment is seeking to respond to the growing threat with a phantom limb.

In order to develop viable strategies for ensuring survival in the current situation, Jews in the Diaspora will have to come to terms with the fact that they no longer have a natural, assured place in their host countries.

North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine turn out to be not quite the unquestioning super-efficient robotic killers they were supposed to be, while the Russian soldiers now tend to view them as "fundamentally subhuman". It's not a happy picture. From the Daily NK:

North Korea’s leadership is growing increasingly concerned about the psychological state and morale of its soldiers deployed to Russia, Daily NK has learned.

“Since late December, authorities have been alarmed by reports of deployed soldiers showing extreme fear of death, cultural adjustment difficulties, and signs of ideological instability,” a Pyongyang source told Daily NK recently.

The source revealed that December reports from Russia described soldiers as severely anxious and mentally distressed from their battlefield experiences, despite having undergone extensive ideological screening and physical preparation in North Korea.

Military officials on the ground in Russia have reported a stark contrast between the soldiers’ current psychological state and their mindset at initial deployment. Troops are grappling with battlefield trauma, constant fear of death, and uncertainty about their survival.

It turns out that they're human after all.

A particularly troubling issue emerging from these reports involves the soldiers’ interactions with Russian troops. Most North Korean servicemembers, having never been abroad, appear overwhelmed by these encounters with foreigners.

The reports indicate that North Korean soldiers, already conditioned by strict surveillance and control at home, are particularly intimidated by their more confident Russian counterparts. Their struggles with cultural differences and language barriers have led to concerning patterns of idealization of Russian allies.

“Front-line reports indicate that some Russian soldiers view their North Korean counterparts as fundamentally subhuman,” the source said. “The authorities believe this stems from the North Korean soldiers’ visibly defeated demeanor and inability to bridge the communication gap.”

The reports suggest mounting frustration within the Russian military toward North Korean soldiers, potentially jeopardizing military cooperation between the two countries.

Oh dear.

“As casualties increase, the deployed soldiers are battling psychological distress and adaptation difficulties. Officials worry these factors could lead to soldiers betraying the Workers’ Party and state at any moment,” the source explained.

In response to these concerns about ideological wavering and potential desertion, North Korean authorities are considering deploying additional high-ranking officials to supplement those already stationed with the troops.

self-absorbed entitled idiot takes a case like this to court? Well yes, a man, obviously.

And he won.

[Excellent comment from ArtyMorty at B&W on this]