Month: March 2022

by

Concerned Women for America files Title IX complaint against UPenn over Lia Thomas

Concerned Women for America (CWFA) has filed a Title IX complaint against University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) after UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas won a national title at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship.

CWFA is a public policy organization that “protects and promotes Biblical values and Constitutional principles through prayer, education, and advocacy.”

The complaint outlines the unfairness of allowing a biological male to compete against biological females in women’s sports. According to the complaint, allowing Thomas to compete on the women’s swim team has resulted in the displacement of female teammates.

“Thomas is anatomically/biologically a male who should not be eligible to compete in women’s sports, depriving anatomically/biologically female athletes of the opportunities afforded to them by law,” the complaint states.

[RELATED: Due process under fire: Biden’s nominee calls for “possibility” of innocence in Title IX cases]

Furthermore, the complaint criticizes the UPenn swim coach and the university administration for creating a “hostile environment” for female athletes within the school.

“Female athletes are being forced to forfeit their rightful privacy and dignity in sex-specific locker rooms in direct violation of Title IX,” the complaint states. “Worse yet, they do not feel free to speak up in disagreement with the policy without creating adverse effects on their dreams of an athletic college career.”

CEO and President of CWFA Penny Nance asserted in a Mar. 16 statement that any school that “defies federal civil rights law” by infringing on the right to equal opportunity of female athletes must be “held accountable.” 

“We filed a formal civil rights complaint against UPenn in response to this injustice,” she assured.

CWFA Press Secretary Katie Everett told Campus Reform, “A great injustice is being committed against women student athletes at UPenn and beyond in direct violation of federal law.” 

“The violations are compounded in that colleges and universities are allowing a hostile environment to fester which threatens female athletes’ entire college careers and even future earning opportunities if they dare to speak out against these unfair policies,” Everett added. 

Everett also stated that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is obligated to investigate the organization’s allegations within the complaint.

“We expect them to do their job and protect women athletes from discrimination based on their sex,” she said. “We expect them to push UPenn and other colleges and universities to provide a safe and fair environment for women athletes to have the equal opportunities afforded to them by law.”

A club swimmer at UPenn who wishes to remain anonymous told Campus Reform that he believes the concerns of CWFA are valid, but that its complaint should be directed at the NCAA.

“I do not think that transgender women should be participating in women’s sports,” he explained. “The numbers simply prove (especially in swimming) that these athletes have an unfair advantage.”

The student also pointed out the irony of people who support the NCAA’s policy that allows transgender women to compete in women’s sports, but claim to also be supportive of women’s rights, when this policy actively harms “thousands of women who have been training for years to compete.”

[RELATED: A look at 5 transgender college sports controversies]

However, one UPenn student told Campus Reform that he disagrees with the CWFA’s complaint. 

“Thomas is a great asset to our swim team here at Penn, but she by no means dominates it. My friends on the women’s swim team have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate their talents and abilities in the pool and out of it,” the student said, also requesting anonymity. 

According to the student, the team is “more than happy to have Lia on their team and they are always excited to compete alongside her.”

On Mar. 17, Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a Division I national championship in any sport after finishing first in the 500-yard freestyle, beating competitor Emma Weyant, a Florida native whom Governor Ron DeSantis declared the true winner. 

Thomas was previously ranked #462 when competing in the men’s division.

The American Principles Project shared pictures of Emma Weyant on Twitter, asserting that she is the “true winner to all of us.”

Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Pennsylvania for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=19275

by

On Women’s Day Fatah Terrorist Apologists presented its heroic women – a child murderer, a plane hijacker, and other terrorists

  • PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh chose to highlight the PA’s terror mom, Um Nasser Abu Hmeid, whose “achievement” is being the mother of 6 terrorists responsible for at least 10 murders
  • PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas chose to stress Palestinian women’s “heroic role in the struggle,” addressing women in their roles as “mother, sister, daughter, wife, friend, prisoner, wounded, Martyr”
  • Fatah: “On March 8 the entire world, and particularly the Palestinian people… celebrate Women’s Day in appreciation for the effort and sacrifices Palestinian women have made. Martyr Dalal Mughrabi (i.e., led murder of 37) joined Fatah in 1973 and commanded the Kamal Adwan operation… in which over 30 Israelis were killed… Fighter Theresa Halsa (i.e., terrorist hijacker)… enlisted to [Fatah’s] Black September. She participated in the operation to hijack a Sabena plane carrying Israeli passengers… Fatima Barnawi (i.e., terrorist, placed bomb in movie theater)… participated in the movie theater operation in 1967”
  • “There were prominent names in the Palestinian struggle’s history such as female fighter Theresa Halsa, Rima Issa [Tannous] (i.e., terrorist plane hijackers), Shadia Abu Ghazaleh (i.e., terrorist bombmaker), Reem Riyashi (i.e., suicide bomber, murdered 4), Fatima Al-Najjar (i.e., suicide bomber, wounded 3), Ayyat Al-Akhras (i.e., suicide bomber, murdered 2), Dalal Mughrabi (i.e., terrorist who led murder of 37, 12 of them children), Laila Khaled (i.e., terrorist plane hijacker, involved in murder of 1), Martyr Zakiya Shammout (i.e., terrorist, murdered 1)” – article in official PA daily

On the recent occasion of International Women’s Day, Abbas’ Fatah Movement stressed that its heroic women remain murderers, hijackers, and other terrorists.

In a video posted by Fatah and produced by Fatah-run Awdah TV, photos of women terrorists appeared accompanied by text on screen praising their “accomplishments,” including how many Israelis were killed in one of the terrorists’ attack. The female role models chosen by Fatah are:

Dalal Mughrabi – led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, in which she and other Fatah terrorists murdered 37 civilians, 12 of them children, in 1978.

Theresa Halsa – was a member of the Black September terror organization and participated in the hijacking of Sabena flight 571 in 1972.

Fatima Barnawi – placed a bomb in a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967.

https://palwatch.org/page/30855

by

University Caught Storing Bags of Aborted Babies and Aborted Baby Parts

Pro-life advocates made a disturbing discovery earlier this month in a lab at the University of Washington Department of Pediatrics: a freezer full of rows and rows of aborted babies’ body parts.

Pro-life advocates with Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, Pro-Life San Francisco and Rehumanize International said they gained access to the freezer March 9 after confronting university leaders about its unethical practices as the largest and most active fetal organ bank in the nation.

“The American people must be made aware of the mass dehumanization of these unborn children who are violently killed and thrown into a freezer, whose body parts are then portioned out to researchers in pursuit of federal funding,” said Terrisa Bukovinac, founder and executive director of PAAU.

This week, the pro-life groups published a photo of the freezer, which they said contained row after row of bags and containers of aborted babies’ body parts, labeled and prepared to be shipped to scientific researchers across the country.

“It is my hope that this photograph reminds us all that there are real victims being lethally oppressed by UW and traded like property,” Bukovinac said. “Fetal trafficking is abhorrent and it must end.”

University Caught Storing Bags of Aborted Babies and Aborted Baby Parts
by

Biden’s Supreme Court nominee refuses to define the word ‘woman’

Did President Biden keep his promise to nominate a black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court? At first glance, that seems like an absurd question. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a black woman. However, this past week’s interaction between Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Judge Jackson makes that point confusing.

Supreme Court confirmation hearings can be heady affairs. Although the topics of judicial philosophy, legal principles, and how to interpret the Constitution are vitally important to the functioning of our legal system, most Americans do not often consider them. Stare decisis, unenumerated rights, and originalism are simply not part of most people’s daily conversations with their friends or family members. As a result, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s four-day-long hearing on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court has likely proven dull for many people. 

However, likely lost among the hours of questioning in Tuesday’s confirmation hearing was a fascinating exchange between Judge Jackson and Sen. Blackburn.  During her questioning, Blackburn asked the nominee to define the word “woman.”

“Can you provide a definition of the word ‘woman’?” Blackburn asked. After a brief pause, Jackson answered, “No, I can’t.” Incredulous, Blackburn replied, “You can’t?” “Not in this context; I’m not a biologist,” the judge responded.

Initially, few news outlets reported on the exchange, and even most conservative court-watchers have focused on questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) about critical race theory and Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) contention that Judge Jackson has been too lenient when sentencing sex offenders. But the exchange between Blackburn and Jackson is a massive cultural moment and reflects how deeply gender identity ideology has taken root in our national subconscious. In short, those pushing gender identity ideology that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago have been so successful in promoting their views that it is now deemed too risky to define a woman as an adult biological female. 

The promotion and acceptance of transgender ideology have accelerated the rampant gender confusion in our nation, and the events of the past few weeks underscore just how successful LGBTQ activists have been in converting the news media, Big Tech, the business community, and now, apparently, the judicial community, to their cause. Just within the past few weeks, we’ve seen a biological male crowned an NCAA champion in women’s swimming and USA Today declared Rachel Levine, a biological male serving in the Biden administration, as one of the newspaper’s “Women of the Year.” 

But even though there have been several stories in the news lately featuring those who identify as transgender, it is remarkable that someone nominated to the nation’s highest court is unwilling to define the word “woman.”  It raises the question of how Americans can trust someone to faithfully interpret the U.S. Constitution and apply the nation’s laws who lacks the courage to simply state biological facts. Nevertheless, here we are.

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/bidens-supreme-court-nominee-refuses-to-define-the-word-woman.html

by

Why Stormy Daniels deserves to be punished

A few days ago, porn star Stormy Daniels lost her appeal in her failed defamation suit against Donald Trump.  She now owes more than $300,000 in legal fees to President Trump.

“I will go to jail before I pay a penny,” a defiant Daniels tweeted after the ruling.

Daniels also posted a lengthy statement on Twitter where she claimed Trump had won the case “on a technicality” because her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, failed to file a notice of appeal in her defamation suit on time.

Avenatti himself was convicted in Manhattan federal court last month for defrauding Daniels out of money she was owed in a book deal to write about her experiences with Trump.

Some background.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/why_stormy_daniels_deserves_to_be_punished.html

by

Most Florida Democrat voters support bill mischaracterized by LGBT activists as ‘Don’t Say Gay’

A majority of Democratic primary voters in Florida say they support a bill passed by the state Legislature that would prohibit schools from teaching sexual orientation and gender identity to students in kindergarten through the third grade.

Floridians for Economic Advancement, a political action committee that has supported candidates in both major political parties, released a poll that asked 701 Democratic primary voters for their thoughts about the state’s upcoming gubernatorial election on Tuesday. While the poll primarily focused on sampling public opinion regarding the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, it also asked respondents to weigh in on HB 1557, “an act relating to parental rights in education” that critics derided as the so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” 

The survey asked respondents a series of questions, including: “Should students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade be taught about sexual orientation in the classroom by their teachers?” Twenty percent of those surveyed responded “somewhat no” to that question, while 32% said “definitely no.” That adds up to a narrow majority (52%) of Democratic primary voters expressing some level of disapproval with teaching young students about topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity.

By contrast, only 36% of Democratic primary voters in Florida thought that schools should teach students about such concepts. Eighteen percent selected “Definitely yes” as an option, while an additional 18% said “somewhat yes” in response to the question. The remaining 12% were “unsure” about whether teachers should teach young students about sexual orientation and gender identity.

The poll demonstrates a stark contrast between the views of Florida’s Democratic primary voters and the views of their elected representatives in the Florida Legislature regarding HB 1557. Not one Democrat in either the Florida Senate or the Florida House of Representatives voted to support the bill when it came up for a vote.

While the poll conducted by Floridians for Economic Advancement only queried Democratic voters in Florida, The Daily Wire surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults of all political persuasions about HB 1557. The Daily Wire poll yielded similar findings, specifically that there is much stronger support among Democrat voters than Democrat politicians. 

https://www.christianpost.com/news/most-democrat-voters-support-derided-parental-rights-bill-poll.html

by

Resignation, protests at SUNY Brockport ahead of cop-killer’s speaking event

SUNY Brockport is hosting Jalil Muntaqim for an Apr. 6 event that characterizes the man who served nearly 50 years in jail for killing two police officers as a “political prisoner.” Now, Daniel Varrenti, a former police chief, is resigning his adjunct professor position in protest of Muntaqim’s invitation to speak. 

News of Varrenti’s resignation broke just days after the Western New York university decided to move the in-person talk to an online forum because the event “elicited strong feedback, divergent opinions, and has already spurred protests.”

Campus Reform obtained the Mar. 23 email sent by SUNY Brockport President Heidi Macpherson.

This change comes after dozens of concerned citizens as well as former and current members of law enforcement peacefully gathered on campus in front of the SUNY Brockport President’s House on March 21 to protest the university’s recent decision to bring a convicted cop killer to speak on campus.

Campus Reform was on the ground as the event unfolded.

The protest organizer, Cherie Stuhler, a SUNY Brockport alumnus who has worked with police advocacy group True Blue for two years told Campus Reform, “This man was not a political prisoner, but rather a murderer who has shown no remorse, or wanting to give back to society.”

She continued, “Why do we continue to place criminals upon a pedestal? Why do we continue to only hear one side of a story? I ask why we are not hearing from the victims’ families, their wives and children?”

Stuhler estimated that 50 protesters showed up to the demonstration, citing individuals that represent Roanoke Law Enforcement, RPD, Gates-Chili PD, Concerned Citizens Alliance, and True Blue NY.

[RELATED: Profs blame 9/11 on US foreign policy, racism at event featuring speakers with ties to terrorists]

Former Gates-Chili police chief and current New York State Senate candidate Jim VanBredore was also in attendance, as well as Marcus C. Williams, a candidate for New York State Assembly.

VanBredore told Campus Reform that the school displayed “no compassion” in having Muntaqim speak on campus and labeled the event “insensitive” given the increase in violent crime and homicides in the area this year.

He said that the school was “lying through omission” by labeling Mutaqim a “political prisoner” and leaving out his history of murdering two police officers.

“I believe this was intentionally done to raise people’s eyebrows and cause confrontation with the community. They brought this guy in to get the shock and awe and create a lot of controversy and division,” he continued.

SUNY Brockport’s Director of Communications John Follaco told Campus Reform “I’m referring all media to our website for information related to this event.”

VanBredore charged that university officials have “no courage” as they have not been responsive to media to “defend their position.” 

“That is a lack of courage, lack of leadership,” he said.

“I went to college 30 years ago. They never pushed their political views on us. I mean, really, that didn’t ever happen. That’s crossing the line,” he concluded.

Williams told Campus Reform, “I take serious issue with clear misrepresentation of indisputable facts that transcend bias. The event originally billed the speaker as a ‘political prisoner.’ He was no political prisoner. He committed premeditated murder. What’s worse is he also planted a fake 911 call in order to do so.”

[RELATED: Campus police step in after Antifa threatens Leadership Institute training event]

“The school has a history of creating difficulties for conservative speakers to come to the school,” he continued. “If everything is supposed to be equal, they should give conservatives and moderates the same time and equal treatment that they do liberals and extremists.”

Multiple witnesses reported to Campus Reform that protesters were mostly met with support from beeping cars, however, one woman was heard screaming “F*ck the police” at the demonstrators as she flashed obscene gestures.

In 1971, Jalil Muntaqim, formerly known as Anthony Bottom, made a fake 911 call to lure in the police and then proceeded to shoot the two responding officers to death. He killed Waverly Jones with one bullet but shot Joe Piagentini 22 times as the officer begged for his life.

When previously asked why he killed Jones, a black cop, Muntaqim reportedly responded, “a pig is a pig,” according to a letter to the school imploring them to cancel the event, written by Piagentini’s widow, Diane.

Muntaqim was involved with the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army, and co-founded the Jericho Movement, a group dedicated to the idea that members of militant groups who committed acts of violence against the police were “incarcerated because of their political beliefs and acts in support of and/or in defense of freedom.”

The event will be hosted by assistant professor Rafael Outland, who received his PhD in Counseling and Counselor Education and has written about “the effects of bullying among adolescents” as well as “the effects of media violence on the aggression level of adolescents.”

Campus Reform has reached out to SUNY Brockport and Rafael Outland for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=19241

by

Azerbaijan Escalates its Aggression against Armenians

While the world’s attention is fixated on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Azerbaijan has escalated its aggression against the Armenian land and people of Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, in the South Caucasus.

On March 24, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces violated the line of contact in the Parukh village in Artsakh and invaded. Women and children in the village of Khramort were also being evacuated for security reasons, the Artsakh Information Center reported.

Meanwhile, Artsakh is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe that Azerbaijan intentionally created.

From March 8 to March 19, over 100,000 Armenians in Artsakh were deprived of gas, heat, and hot water due to Azerbaijan’s deliberate disconnection of the gas supply to the entire territory of Artsakh. The weather in the region is at freezing levels (hovering between -10-0° C, or 14-32º F.). The allegedly damaged portion of the gas pipeline to Artsakh remains under Azerbaijani control. However, for 11 days, Azerbaijan did not allow the problem to be assessed and repaired. On March 16, Armenian officials announced that Azerbaijan decided to permit the gas pipeline to Artsakh to be fixed, and on March 19, the pipeline was finally repaired. Yet, two days later, on March 21, Azerbaijan once again cut off gas supply to Artsakh and the people there remain deprived of natural gas and heat ever since.

Azerbaijan’s military aggression has also been on the rise for several months. According to reports from the ground, Azerbaijan intensively fires toward Artsakh villages, threatens residents, and hinders their agriculture work. The European Union is “concerned” over the latest ceasefire violations and the disruption of natural gas supply, Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Armenian Service.

In a speech posted on March 15 on its Twitter account addressing the international community, the human rights ombudsman of Artsakh, Gegham Stepanyan, said, “Thousands of Armenians living in Artsakh are regularly subjected to terroristic and genocidal acts carried out by Azerbaijan every day.”

All of these human rights abuses are taking place almost daily while Artsakh is still trying to mend its wounds from the unprovoked and unjustified war that Azerbaijan launched against it in 2020.

From September 27 to November 9, 2020, Azerbaijan—with the support of its closest ally, Turkey—committed many atrocities and bombed towns and villages across Artsakh, including homes and maternity hospitals. The actual number of deaths is still unknown, but around 5,000 Armenians were reportedly killed, and approximately 90,000 were forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands.

To help Azerbaijan during its war against Armenians, Turkey engaged in large-scale recruitment and transfer of Syrian mercenaries to Azerbaijan. This was confirmed by a United Nations report issued on November 11, 2020.

The Azeri government has not been brought to account for the war crimes and crimes against humanity it committed during the 2020 war, such as intentionally attacking civilians, murder, torture, taking of hostages, and extensive destruction of property. For instance, two Azeri air raids severely damaged the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi, also known as the Holy Savior Cathedral, on October 8. According to official data, shelling, rockets, and airstrikes by the Azerbaijani armed forces damaged at least 71 schools and 14 kindergartens in Artsakh.

More than a year after the signing of the ceasefire agreement and the suspension of the war, Azerbaijan continues its aggression and threats against the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh and Armenia.

According to journalist Anush Ghavalyan, who is based in Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert, Azerbaijani armed forces are terrorizing residents of certain villages in the territory. The Azeris say they will use military force if the Armenians do not leave the villages. Azeri forces have targeted the villages Khramort, Khnapat, Parukh, and Nakhijevank of Askeran region, and Taghavard, Karmir Shuka, Norshen, and Khnushinak of Martuni region. Ghavalyan told Providence:

Azerbaijan is aiming to finish the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh. They openly can’t go for a full-blown war today since Russian peacekeepers are deployed here. So they do everything to disrupt normal life and make people leave their homeland. Thus, they combine shootings and threats of the use of force with humanitarian issues like cutting off gas, mobile, and internet connections, or water, etc., to ruin the lives of those living in Artsakh.

According to the official Twitter account of the Artsakh/Karabakh human rights ombudsman, examples of recent Azeri military escalation, some of which have caused deaths and injuries of Armenians, include:

  • On March 9 and 10, the Azerbaijani armed forces regularly violated the ceasefire with the use of firearms of various calibers in the village of the Khnushinak in the Martuni region, and the village of the Khramort in the Askeran region. On March 10, Suren Baghdasaryan, 51, a resident of the village of Khramort, was wounded in the back while doing agricultural work in the yard of his residential house.
  • On March 7, Azerbaijani forces opened fire on Armenian soldiers in several spots along the buffer zones, which resulted in the death of at least one Armenian soldier. Courtney E. Austrian, the deputy chief of mission at the US Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), issued a statement on the killing: “The United States mourns the death of the Armenian servicemember Hrach Manasaryan on March 7.”
  • On March 4, Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire at the village of Norshen. They intimidated civilians by threatening the use of force and called on them in Armenian to leave their homes.
  • On February 26, Armenian schoolchildren filmed a video of Azerbaijani armed forces threatening them and demanding they leave the village of Khramort in the Askeran region.
  • On February 18, Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire and opened fire at the residential houses of the village of Taghavard in the Martuni region.
  • On February 11, Azerbaijani armed forces fired in the direction of the residential homes in the villages of Karmir Shuka and Taghavard in the Martuni region. Three children and a woman were inside their house at the time woke up to the shooting.

These acts of violence appear to be a continuation of the long-running, systematic assaults that the Armenians in the region have been exposed to at the hands of Turks and Azeris. From 1915 to 1923, Armenians in Ottoman Turkey were the victims of genocide, in which Armenians in the Caucuses were also targeted. The Islamic Army of the Caucasus, a military unit of the Ottoman Empire, carried out a massacre against the Armenian population in Baku in 1918.

Azeri violence against Armenians has been ongoing in the South Caucasus region for decades. The February 1988 Sumgait pogroms that Azeris committed against Armenians were followed by a wave of anti-Armenian violence spreading to Kirovabad in November 1988 and to Baku in January 1990. These pogroms resulted in the killings or expulsions of hundreds of thousands of Armenians from what is now known as Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s particular cruelty against both Armenian civilians and soldiers is well-documented. A Yazidi-Armenian soldier, Kyaram Sloyan, for instance, was decapitated by Azerbaijani soldiers during Azerbaijan’s war against Artsakh in 2016. Videos and pictures showing Azerbaijani soldiers posing with Sloyan’s severed head were posted on social media.

History repeated itself four years later when Azerbaijan launched yet another aggressive war against Artsakh. The war halted after 44 days as a result of the Russia-brokered agreement imposed on Armenia. According to the agreement, there would be “an exchange of prisoners of war and other detained persons and bodies of the dead.” However, Azerbaijan still illegally holds and abuses many Armenian prisoners of war.

According to a letter dated December 3, 2021, by the permanent representative of Armenia to the United Nations addressed to the secretary-general:

Dozens of video and photo materials have been circulating in social media illustrating the violent and inhuman treatment of those captured – beheadings or mutilations, killings and other violence towards servicemen and civilians, including the execution by Azerbaijani forces in Hadrut region of the Republic of Artsakh of two captured Armenians.

In addition, 38 civilians, citizens of the Republic of Artsakh, mainly elderly, remained in villages that came under the control of Azerbaijan were killed through physical violence, stabbing, beheading, close-range shot, and other direct means. In fact, all the civilians who did not leave their homes in territories which fell under Azerbaijan’s control were killed.

The letter added that those “Armenian servicemen and civilians who survived inhuman treatment and were acknowledged by Azerbaijan were convicted to or are facing imprisonment in Azerbaijan under unfounded accusations.”

By cutting off the gas pipeline to the population of Artsakh, firing at residents frequently, and still illegally holding Armenian prisoners of war in its jails, the Azerbaijani government appears to aim to ethnically cleanse the region of indigenous Armenians by destroying their peaceful life and violently forcing them to flee their ancestral lands.

“The targeting of civilian communities by Azerbaijan is an encroachment on the rights of the civilian population, first of all against the right to life. The criminal actions of Azerbaijan aim to intimidate, create an atmosphere of fear and despair among the population of Artsakh,” Stepanyan wrote on his Twitter account on January 11.

Would it not be a fresh and pleasant change if Western governments finally stepped up and took concrete action to stop Azerbaijan’s murderous violence against the peaceful residents of Artsakh?

Azerbaijan Escalates its Aggression against Armenians
by

Canada: Man with axe attacks mosque, Trudeau ‘strongly condemns’ attack, attacker arrested: Mohammad Moiz Omar

According to the press release, local police arrested a 24-year-old individual named Mohammad Moiz Omar for disrupting the morning prayer (Sobh) at the Dar Al-Tawheed mosque in Mississauga, a suburb of the city of Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario.AA.com

A man armed with an axe attacked worshippers at a mosque near Toronto. There were no injuries.

A man armed with an axe and bear spray attacked worshippers at a mosque in a Toronto suburb on Saturday without anyone being injured. This attack was condemned “in the strongest possible terms” by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The 24-year-old man who was arrested entered the mosque in the city of Mississauga (Ontario, eastern Canada) and sprayed some worshippers with his spray before being subdued, local police said in a press release.

Members of the mosque were slightly injured by the bear spray, authorities said. It was an ” individual act”, police said, indicating that it could be an “Islamophobic act”.

Canada: A man armed with an axe attacks Muslims in a mosque, an “Islamophobic attack” is said, Justin Trudeau “strongly condemns”. Assailant named Mohammad Moiz Omar, arrested
by

Students are ‘appalled’ that their university labels cop-killer a ‘political prisoner,’ invites him to speak

SUNY Brockport is slated to host an “intellectual conversation” with convicted cop-killer, Jalil Muntaqim, describing him as a “political prisoner” after he spent 50 years behind bars for murdering two officers. 

SUNY Brockport sophomore Maddie Boyce, who has a family history in law enforcement, told Campus Reform that she was “appalled” when she heard about the event. 

“I just don’t understand how bringing a murderer onto campus will be productive in any sort. It makes me sick to my stomach knowing this man is receiving such praise, support, and recognition by this campus despite his horrible actions. I can’t support that at all,” she said.

The Apr. 6 event is titled “History of Black Resistance, U.S. Political Prisoners & Genocide: A Conversation with Jalil Muntaqim,” and according to the event webpage, “partial funding was received from the [Promoting Excellence in Diversity] PED Grant of the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.”

However, the school’s Chief Diversity Officer, Damita Davis, sent out a March 16 memo to the student body, obtained by Campus Reform, noting that the school has “received new information” regarding the PED Grant awarded to allow one of SUNY Brockport’s faculty members to bring Jalil Muntaqim to campus.

“As a result,” she wrote, “the committee has rescinded the grant and no funding will be used to pay the speaker. We are not, however, cancelling the event.”

“Effective immediately, we will be pausing the PED grant program while a thorough review and revision of the grant application process can take place,” Davis concluded.

[RELATED: Third time’s a charm? Zoom cancels a third university seminar for attempting to host a terrorist]

Muntaqim is described as a “grandfather, father, mentor to many, and loving human being” by the SUNY Brockport event description. In 1971, Muntaqim was convicted of ambushing and killing two police officers in Harlem, New York: Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini.

The alleged “political prisoner” formerly known as Anthony Bottom made a fake 911 call to lure in the police, and proceeded to shoot the responding officers to death. He killed Jones in one shot, but shot Joe Piagentini 22 times as the officer begged for his life.

When previously asked why he killed Jones, a black cop, Muntaqim reportedly responded, “a pig is a pig,” according to a letter to the school imploring them to cancel the event, written by Piagentini’s widow, Diane.

“While my husband lay on the ground pleading with them not to kill him, pleading he had a wife and children,” Piagentini wrote, Jalil Muntaqim “took his service revolver and emptied it into his body. There were 22 bullet holes in his body.”

In 2018, she said, “He shot him in the head and down his spine.”

The event description notes Muntaqim’s involvement with the Black Panther Party, a militant Black nationalist group connected to a number of police murders. On their website, the group calls the Republican Party “White Supremacists and Terrorists.” 

He also co-founded the Jericho Movement, a group with ties to Antifa, dedicated to the idea that members of militant groups who committed acts of violence against the police were “incarcerated because of their political beliefs and acts in support of and/or in defense of freedom.”

The Jericho Movement describes Jalil Muntaqim and his “comrades” who were convicted of similar crimes as political prisoners and prisoners of war, including cop killers like Romaine Fitzgerald, Russell Shoats, Abdullah Majid, and several others.

When Muntaqim was released on parole in October 2020, the Jericho Movement website published an article welcoming him home and describing him as a political prisoner who maintains the “highest level of disciple, integrity and self-respect and respect for others.”

President of SUNY Brockport Heidi Macpherson acknowledged the “strong feedback” the school has received since announcing the event. 

One university employee told Campus Reform she felt the invitation was inappropriate to being with. 

“I do not feel Mr. Muntaqim is an appropriate speaker for our campus,” said Laurie Boyd, Manager of Procurement and Budget at SUNY Brockport’s Office of Facilities and Planning. “To me, murdering two police officers in cold blood as they are responding to a call for help is the ultimate expression of hate and intolerance. Mr. Muntaqim feels that he was a political prisoner, but his crime was the murder of innocent men.”

In an email obtained by Campus Reform, Macpherson states, “We do not support the violence exhibited in Mr. Muntaqim’s previous crimes, and his presence on campus does not imply endorsement of his views or past actions. However, we believe in freedom of speech.”

On Mar. 17, an editor’s note appeared below the event description on the university website reading, “SUNY Brockport does not endorse the characterization of this event.” 

A SUNY Brockport alum and former student government member, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke to Campus Reform.

“Free speech is an integral part of the college experience, but for the school to voluntarily give a platform to a known domestic terrorist and cop killer while referring to him as a political prisoner and victim of the system isn’t just upsetting, it’s the lunacy of woke ideology spreading like a cancer throughout higher education, hellbent on destruction. It’s time to finally say enough is enough,” the person said.

President of the New York State Police Investigators Association Tim Dymond issued a statement on Mar. 14 regarding the event stating, “To refer to a convicted killer who murdered two police officers as a ‘Political Prisoner’ is shocking, abhorrent and an insult to the families of the two slain officers.”

[RELATED: WATCH: Stanford students host protest, proclaim that they want ‘cops off earth’]

“On behalf of the 1,200 men and women who are actively serving as New York State Police Investigators and Senior Investigators, as well as our more than 1,400 retirees, we call on the SUNY Brockport administration to rescind the invitation to Jalil Muntaqim,” the statement continued.

“Further we believe that the University should issue an apology to families of the men Muntaqim killed, and the entire law enforcement community for their insulting proposal,” the statement concluded.

The New York State Senate Minority Leader Robert G. Ott sent a letter on Mar. 14 to President Macpherson echoing the same sentiment. In the letter, Ott called the event labeling the cop killer a political prisoner an “insult” to individuals who have actually been incarcerated for speaking out against political opposition, as well as those who lost their lives in the line of service.

https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=19187

by

Rand Paul Introduces Amendment to Remove Fauci as NIAID Director

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Monday introduced an amendment to remove Dr. Anthony Fauci as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), two years after the start of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Paul’s amendment would restructure the position, eliminating Fauci altogether and replacing his post with three other positions leading new institutes: the National Institute of Allergic Disease, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and National Institute of Immunologic Diseases.

https://www.breitbart.com/science/2022/03/15/rand-paul-introduces-amendment-remove-fauci-niaid-director/

by

Here’s why asking for gender pronouns is like a religious test

They’re written on name tags, sported on Twitter bios, mandated by language guides and used by at least one college mascot.

I’m referring to preferred, or self-chosen pronouns, and if you haven’t been asked for yours yet, you probably will be soon, Andrew Doyle stated in Unherd.

“Sooner or later,” he wrote, “your employer will suggest that you sign off emails with them, or announce them along with your name at the beginning of meetings.”

The same might be true for your university professor.

Not long ago, people seemed to get along fine with using “he,” “she” and “they” without prior permission or advice. Pronouns weren’t considered “mine” or “yours”; they were understood as a linguistic shorthand denoting our sex, which wasn’t usually hard to figure out.

Bespoke pronouns are now in vogue, however, because many want the concept of “gender identity” to replace sex as the determinant of whether someone is a man, a woman, or neither.

Here’s a definition of “gender identity” offered by journalist Helen Joyce in 2018: “an innate sense of being a man or woman [or neither] that usually, but not always, aligns with biological sex.”

Even more, there is a “deceptively simple, quasi-mystical idea,” Joyce stated, that everyone has a “gender identity.”

Joyce described this concept further as a ​​“radical notion” that is “sweeping across the Western world, with English-speaking countries in the vanguard.”

“The brainchild of a few sexologists, trans-activists and academics, it has spread via lobby groups and the internet, and on liberal campuses. It is now becoming consolidated in practice and codified into law, with profound consequences—not just for people who wish they had been born the opposite sex, but for everyone.”

“According to this theory, no one can determine a person’s gender identity except that person, and no one else can challenge it,” Joyce pointed out.

And if your gender identity makes you a man or a woman, only you can know whether you’re one or the other – so only you can know what pronouns are “yours.”

When you ask someone for their pronouns, as Andrew Doyle stated, “You are doing one of two things. You are either saying that you are having trouble identifying this person’s sex, or you are saying that you believe in the notion of gender identity and expect others to do the same.”

Mammals such as humans are usually good at inferring the sex of others, for good reasons. As evolutionist Richard Dawkins explained about lions:

When a male lion wants to mate, he looks for a female, for nearly every lion is a member of one of the two sexes. And since animals have no “social constructs,” their innate recognition of whom they should reproduce with is a sign of the objectivity of male versus female lions.

Our initial recognition of sex isn’t always right, of course. But the recognition of sex by observing secondary sex characteristics and other attributes is a valid, if not infallible, inference, just as it’s valid – but not foolproof – to infer that a man is married because he is wearing a ring on the third finger of his left hand, as philosopher Kathleen Stock writes in her book Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism.

So asking for pronouns probably doesn’t mean that someone doesn’t know your sex. Rather, it means that the person believes that gender identity, not sex, is what makes you a man or a woman – and since gender identity is internal, you can only know by asking.

“Gender identity” became normalized because it is a way to distinguish between the biological sex of transgender people and their internal sense that they are male or female.

But the idea that everyone has a “gender identity” isn’t a scientific concept. As Joyce and others have stated, it is a philosophical, quasi-religious idea promulgated by powerful groups.

As Doyle writes, it is “akin to a religious conviction, and we would be rightly appalled if employers were to demand that their staff proclaim their faith in Christ the Saviour or Baal the Canaanite god of fertility before each meeting.”

Moreover, he wrote, “declaring our pronouns has become the most common way in which we are expected to pledge allegiance to the new identity-obsessed religion that has captured most of our major institutions.”

Similarly, journalist Abigail Shrier stated that when you give “your pronouns,” you “participate in the catechism of Gender Ideology – the belief that there are ineffable genders, unknowable to all but the subject.”

So the next time a university language guide, professor, or student leader asks you for “your pronouns,” you might consider following Shrier’s model.

“Whenever anyone asks me to use their preferred pronouns, and I can do so without confusing my audience or muddying an argument, I do so and I think this is an important courtesy,” she said.

“But – when asked,” she stated, “I will not state my pronouns and if you don’t believe in Gender Ideology, you shouldn’t either.”

Instead, Shrier simply stated, “When asked for my pronouns, I say: ‘I am a woman.’”

https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=19174