'Anyone Who Touches the Prophet, No Punishment -- Just Kill!'
The atrocities Muslims committed against Christians during just one month.
13 comments
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article first appeared on Gatestone Institute.
The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of May, 2022:
Murder and Mayhem in Nigeria:
On May 12, the Islamic State in Nigeria released a video of its members slaughtering 20 Christians (image above). The Muslim militants were dressed in black garb, which covered everything except their eyes. In the video, the Christians appear on their knees, with their hands tied behind their backs. A militant stands above and behind them holding a knife. The terrorists claimed that the murder of these 20 Christians is “payback” for the killing of ISIS leaders by the U.S. in Syria three months earlier. Although it is very reminiscent of the 2015 video of another pack of Muslim terrorists slaughtering 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, it received significantly less media coverage. The 2015 video of the Copts itself had received six times less media coverage than the killing of a gorilla that occurred at the same time. This video of the Nigerian Christians barely made a peep in the Western media (as if to suggest that the ritual slaughter of Christians has become so hackneyed as to be unworthy of reporting on).
On the same day the video was released, a Muslim mob beat, stoned and then burned the body of Deborah Emmanuel, a Christian college student: earlier she had refused the sexual advances of a Muslim man, who retaliated by loudly proclaiming that she had blasphemed Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. According to Pastor David Ayuba Azzaman, a local well acquainted with the incident:
Deborah Emmanuel was complaining in a class WhatsApp group chat, kicking against how they discriminate against Christians in the school in areas of assignments and test in favor of the Muslims. This is what they used as a yardstick to say she insulted Muhammad. She didn’t insult prophet Muhammad, but it was discovered that she turned down a Muslim proposal to date her. That led to him accusing her of insulting prophet Muhammad.
A brief video clip shows a massive fire against a wall, where the hapless woman was likely driven to and stoned in, with Muslims jumping around her burning body and crying the jihadist slogan, “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is greater). One man, dressed in traditional Muslim attire, triumphantly jabbers while waving around a box of matches—apparently the same used to ignite the Christian woman. After viewing other, more graphic videos of Deborah’s stoning and immolation, the Rev. Kelvin Ugwu said,
I can’t bring myself to share the videos of how they stoned and beat this young lady to death and subsequently burned her body. It is very, very traumatizing… Why does this keep happening? What is the content of the insult she was accused of? How was it investigated? What part of our constitution allows this? Why are we silent about this evil? Why are Muslim elites silent about this? When are we going to have this conversation to put an end to this evil?
Local media also reported that Muslim ire was further raised after Deborah said in a WhatsApp chat group that she had passed her exams thanks to Christ, “and when she was pressured to retract the statement and apologize, she declined.”
Far from being repentant, several Islamic clerics defended the actions of the Muslim murderers of Deborah. In one video, Bello Yabo, a sheikh, said:
A young person [Deborah] in Sokoto insulted Allah’s prophet yesterday. In Sokoto we kill such. We don’t tolerate such idiocy in Sokoto… Here we kill. When you touch the prophet we become mad people…. Anyone who touches the prophet, no punishment— Just kill! Even if the person repents or recants, forgiveness is God’s business. We must kill such…. Like Shehu Usman Dan Fodio [a nineteenth century Nigerian “caliph”], we are Mujahedeen (holy warriors) and Jihadists. No compromise. Allah curse whoever touches the prophet. Those of you who displayed your wrath, Allah bless you. Kill and disperse!
Separately but similarly, on May 20, rioting Muslims searching for another Christian woman rumored to have blasphemed against Muhammad set numerous Christian homes and shops ablaze and injured approximately 20 people. “A Muslim claimed he saw a comment written by one Rhoda Jatau, 40, a Christian woman, insulting Muhammad,” an area resident said. “This information the Muslim man passed to Muslims in the town made them set fire on houses and shops belonging to Christians.” But the Rev. Joseph John Hayab said Muslims were using blasphemy as a pretext to attack and abuse Christians:
We know and have evidence of how some of these allegations of blasphemy are false and just for blackmail or settling scores with perceived enemies or well-mannered young girls who have refused sexual advances by the opposite sex from another religion. We are also aware of how fanatics have in the past raised lies in the name of blasphemy. We wonder if the recent sermons we are getting from some Islamic clerics on what the Holy Koran says about what should be done if anyone is accused of blasphemy is unpopular among followers?
Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Preachers
Uganda: Knife-wielding Muslims crying the jihadist slogan, “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” intercepted a church leader and sliced him up after he left an open-air evangelistic event where for four days he had debated with Muslims. Several Muslims had converted to Christianity during the debates. In the attack, Bishop Amon Sadiiki received serious wounds to his head, torso, and legs, and might have died had others not intervened and driven the assailants away.
Iran: Anooshavan Avedian, a 60-year-old Iranian-Armenian Christian, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for teaching other Christians in his house church what Judge Imam Afshari called “educational and propaganda activities contrary to and disturbing to the holy religion of Islam.” Two other members of his house church, Abbas Soori, 45, and Maryam Mohammadi, 46—both Muslim converts to Christianity—were fined the equivalent of $2,000 USD and given a 10-year “deprivation of social rights” upon their release. All three were originally arrested in the summer of 2020, when about 30 agents raided Avedian’s home, where 18 Christians, including Avedian’s family, had gathered to pray and worship. Bibles and communication devices were confiscated and all in attendance were required to fill forms of personal information and forced to sign commitments to avoid fellowship with Christians and churches. Some were sent to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison where they were “subjected to psychological torture during several intense interrogation sessions.” According to the report,
[Judge Iman Afshari has been building a reputation in recent years by issuing some of the harshest sentences against Christians…. He was also the judge in the case of Fariba Dalir, a 51-year-old Christian woman convert who recently began a two-year prison sentence as a result of a conviction on similar charges…. The Christians’ defence was met with disrespectful remarks towards their character, and insults to their faith.
For Iran, all house churches are “enemy groups” of a “Zionist cult,” as the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran once wrote to the UN.
Pakistan: Charged with “blasphemy” nearly a year ago, Shagufta Kiran, a Christian wife and mother remains in prison awaiting her trial. She is accused of disseminating content deemed “insulting” to Islam that was sent to her via a WhatsApp group. “My wife and I lived happily with our children,” said her husband, Rafiq Masih. “The accusation of blasphemy has caused our lives to take a bad turn: Now I am very worried about the present and the future.” Once news of her crime was voiced abroad, her husband and children had to flee their home and take shelter in an undisclosed location. Shagufta’s 15-year-old son, said he was not even allowed to hold his mother’s hand when he recently visited her in prison: “They keep her in a small cell and there is a separation barrier between prisoners and visitors. It is heartbreaking to see her locked up like that. Living without a mother is like living in a body without a soul.” Her young daughter shared similar sentiments: “We feel no excitement about celebrating any feast without our mother. We are worried about her fate, and pray that the court frees her and that she can come back to us.” Discussing her case, Joseph Jansen, president of Voice for Justice, said, “[Pakistan’s] blasphemy laws and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act of 2016 are misused to curb freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion, as evinced in several cases, including Shagufta Kiran’s. Existing laws do not guarantee ‘the presumption of innocence, the proportionality of punishments, etc.’” whereas “the accuser enjoys impunity despite fabricating evidence.”
Sudan: A married Muslim couple that converted to Christianity face a 100-lashes punishment on the bizarre charge of “adultery.” According to the report,
Hamouda Tia Kafi, 34, and Nada Hamad Shukralah, 25, were Muslims when they married in 2016, but when Kafi put his faith in Christ in 2018, his wife’s family sought and won a sharia court decision to dissolve their marriage… The sharia court annulled the marriage on the basis of Kafi’s conversion as apostasy was a crime punishable by death at the time. In 2020, following the end of President Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist regime in 2019, Sudan decriminalized apostasy, and in 2021 Shukralah [the wife] converted to Christianity and returned with their two children to her husband. Following Shukralah’s conversion and return to her husband, her brother charged them with adultery under Article 146 of Sudan’s 1991 criminal law based on the sharia court’s annulment of their marriage.... Police arrested the couple on Aug. 17 and detained them for four days before they received bail…. [Moreover,] the couple, members of a Baptist church, are facing growing threats from hardline Muslims, in particular Shukralah’s brother.
Last reported, the married couple with children face a public flogging with100 lashes for their “adultery.” Ironically, and though Sudan has always been at the top of the list of worst nations to persecute Christians, it was removed from the U.S. State Department’s list of “countries of particular concern”—meaning nations that tolerate or engage in egregious violations of religious freedom—in December 2019.
Hate for and Abuse of Christians
Pakistan: On May 20, Muhammad Yasir, a 45-year-old Muslim, abducted Saba Masih, a 15-year-old Christian girl, as she and her sister were walking to work. He subsequently forced her to marry him and convert to Islam. Her family immediately called the police once Saba’s sister came running home, but police have failed to act. According to the girl’s father, Muhammad is a neighbor and “has already been married thrice”:
The police are not cooperating with us. The investigating officer keeps telling us that Saba has converted to Islam and contracted marriage with [Muhammad] Yasir, but he has not shown us any document as yet. We are pleading with police to at least recover the girl and arrange our meeting with her so that we can ascertain the facts ourselves, but he doesn’t listen to us.
Saba’s mother had severely injured her knee, and her two daughters were taking her place as a domestic servant. Continues the father:
I was forced to take my children, four daughters and two sons, out of school due to poverty, and my wife and elder daughters are working as household helps to supplement our family income. We are already suffering from poverty, and now our daughter has also gone missing.
Saba is among at least three Christian girls to be kidnapped in Faisalabad city since July 2021, when 14-year-old Chashman Masih was kidnapped from her school. On the following day, her family received images by phone of an Islamic conversion letter and Islamic wedding certificate claiming that she had willfully converted to Islam and married a Muslim man. On May 25, an Anglican Church leader, Azad Marshall, tweeted:
Kidnapping of our youth must end; today we see a new level of hate when a young girl with hearing and speech impairment was conned and kidnapped in broad daylight. The police must act, the judiciary must send a message. We are being forced to watch as humans are violated.
In a subsequent tweet, Marshall added, “Social indifference to predators who use religion to pursue and target minorities and the vulnerable, continuing to saw away at all of our futures. The violation of Saba Masih in Faisalabad is another reminder of just how grim the situation is.”
India: A video of a young Muslim child threatening to kill all Christians and Hindus surfaced, reigniting concerns that Muslim children are being indoctrinating to hate the other. The video was from the march of the Popular Front of India (PFI), an Islamic organization. In it, a small child chants the following words, while the marchers repeat them:
Be ready for your death rituals if you won’t live in our land quietly. Be ready with rice flakes to fill your mouth if you won’t live quietly (For Hindus). Be ready to burn amber in your home if you won’t live quietly (For Christians). Because we are coming, we are your death. We won’t go to Pakistan or Bangladesh, you have to live here as we say, or else we know how to make you live quietly, we will kill you even if we are attacked. We take pride in being a martyr, we salute them. If you won’t live quietly… Be prepared for your death.
The May 24 report continues:
It was not a random rant by a child. It was a song, a hateful verse that has been taught to the kid which he then sings and waits for people to join him in the sloganeering. The crowd around the kid seems familiar with the song because they know when to chant the appropriate slogans.
Yemen: A remote nation that has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014, little news concerning Yemen’s tiny Christian population ever surfaces. A May 25 report, however, offers useful information on the Christians of Yemen, who amount for about one percent of the Muslim nation’s population, or about 40,000 people:
Most Christians are coverts from Islam and must practice their faith in secret, meeting in small groups in homes or outdoors. Whereas Yemen is an Islamic country with apostasy and blasphemy laws in place, Christians are subject to a wide range of persecution, including exclusion of family and social life, loss of employment, physical and mental abuse, imprisonment, rape, forced marriages, and death. The degree and source of persecution varies between regions. Tribalism is strong and often the most severe persecution comes from one’s tribe or clan. In the northwestern third where Shiite Houthis exert authority, Christians are at the greatest risk due to strict adherence to Sharia law and heavy policing. In addition, those living in the south where there is a strong al-Queda presence also are at high risk… [Throughout the covid pandemic] Christians have been denied access to emergency humanitarian and medical aid, which typically is distributed by local Muslim leaders and mosques. Without necessary goods and services, their circumstances are especially dire. Due to the warring factions, lawlessness, and government dysfunction, Christians and other minorities are increasingly targeted with little hope of protection and justice.
Death and Destruction at Churches
Uganda: On May 5, Muslims set fire to a church; two Christians were killed from the blaze inside Holy Healing Ministry International Church. “The fire weakened the church structure and forced it to collapse,” said Pastor George Kato. “I managed to escape with other remaining few members, but two elderly members were trapped inside, and the fire burned them beyond recognition.” As the pastor emerged from the burning building, he “saw three Muslims dressed in long Islamic attire taking off. I couldn’t identify them.” He also saw cans of gasoline near the door. According to the report, “Hardline area Muslims accusing the Christians of being too loud in their worship services and prayer meetings had told them many times to remove the church building.”
In another incident in Uganda, on May 6, “Muslims furious that an Islamic sheikh and his wife put their faith in Christ destroyed a pastor’s house and church building.” While inside his church, which also served as his home, Pastor Wilberforce Naaya said he and other Christians saw a Muslim mob in the distance:
They were carrying machetes, clubs, sticks and marching towards our church building while chanting ‘Allah akbar! Allah akbar! Allah akbar! [God is greater]’ slogan. We quickly left the church, because we knew we were in danger for having a sheikh pray with us and quickly rang the police.
A Christian neighbor and eyewitness continues:
[S]ome of my Muslim neighbors were not happy about the conversion of the sheikh and the wife to Christianity. Some were even saying that they were going to report the incident in the mosque, since it was a Friday prayer day for the Muslims.
An hour after fleeing the approaching Muslim mob, the pastor and others saw smoke rising from the church building. “We knew that the Muslims had started burning it,” he said.
Nigeria: On May 14, Muslims attacked and looted three churches—two Catholic, one Protestant—and other Christian-owned stores. These attacks came in response to the arrest of two Muslim men involved in the stoning and burning to death of Deborah Emmanuel, who was herself a regular attendee of the Protestant church. Discussing this, a local Christian woman said, “It is the failure of the security agencies and the government to rise to such criminalities in the past that gave birth to terrorists and bandits. And as long as the state fails to bring these beasts and criminals amidst us to book, so long will the society continue to be their killing field.”
Pakistan: Fourteen armed Muslim men raided a Christian school, Global Passion School, which offers free education to Christian youth. They began by hurling chairs at a group of youth gathered in prayer. Then, according to the school principal, Simon Peter Kaleem, who was among those beat and tortured:
They attacked the security guard and demanded 100,000 rupees [US$536] in extortion money every month, threatening that if their demand was not met they would forcibly stop Christian worship and the school’s operations. They misbehaved with the female staff and issued death threats if we failed to make payment in two days. They also damaged staff cars and motorcycles parked in the building, causing an estimated total loss of 350,000 rupees… Many of our religious and political leaders, while visiting other countries, say that minorities and Christians are safe in Pakistan. After what happened to us today, I will never say that. Our security guard can’t even walk now. Our community is threatened to keep silent. A few among the neighboring Muslim community have always tried to stop us from praying…. We want to be treated equally. Please pray for us.
This is the third attack on a church institution in Pakistan’s Punjab province alone this year. According to the report,
In March, police in Lahore arrested a Muslim youth who climbed onto the rooftop of One in Christ Church and sat on the cement cross chanting “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is great) while trying to pull it down. In January, police charged four people with blasphemy for ransacking St. Camillus Church in a village in Okara district in Punjab province. According to parishioners, the raiders tied up the Christian watchman and threw pictures of the Holy Family, Eucharist, Bibles and the Ark of the Covenant on the floor.
France: On Sunday, May 8, a Muslim man barged into the Cathedral of Metz and began to scream repeatedly “Allahu akbar!” After arriving, police found a knife in his possession.
JOE BIDEN’S ASSAULT ON AMERICA’S HOMELAND SECURITY
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/06/joe-bidens-assault-on-homeland-security.html
REMEMBER THE MUSLIM INVASION SEPT 11 AND THE WORLD TRADE TOWERS
What could possibly go wrong? Border Report reported Monday that “a shelter for Muslim migrants opened over the weekend in Tijuana, the first of its kind in all of Mexico.” This is no small-time effort: “The Latino Muslim Foundation, based in San Diego and Tijuana, raised half a million dollars to make the facility a reality.” Meanwhile, fifty people on the terror watch list have been apprehended at the Southern border so far this year, and there is no telling how many got across without being caught. Welcome to Old Joe Biden’s America.
THE ANTISEMITIC DEMOCRAT PARTY AND THEIR MUSLIMS
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-muslim-assault-on-christians-this.html
“Mexican drug cartels are the “other” terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug cartels are now accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in virtually every community across this country.” JUDICIAL WATCH
Dershowitz: Biden ‘Should Come Out as Strongly as Possible Against the Squad’s Bigotry, Anti-Semitism and Racism’
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/05/dershowitz-biden-should-come-out-as.html
“Of course, one of the main reasons the nation is now “divided, resentful and angry” is because race-baiting, Islamist, class warrior Barack Hussein Obama was president for eight long years." MATTHEW VADUM
Yet the same Democrats who obsess over “multiculturalism” and “diversity” and actively encourage foreign nationals to cross our borders illegally were also making the spectacular claim that free speech somehow belonged to American citizens alone during election season.
To protect our security I suspended the entry of foreign refugees from terror afflicted nations. Biden has pledged a staggering 700 percent increase in refugees from the most violent terrorist hotspots anywhere on earth. If you don’t mind I’ll end that. And that was the deal, the manifesto, that he agreed to with Bernie Sanders and AOC+3 [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and three other female “progressive” reps, including Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan]..... The Biden plan would overwhelm your communities … and open the floodgates to radical Islamic terrorism. Raymond Ibrahim
When it comes to the Taliban, Nancy Pelosi is delusional
Showing a bizarre disassociation from facts, senility, or a feminist obsession that overrides all other things, Nancy Pelosi issued an utterly ludicrous statement on Afghanistan. Its entire focus is on women and girls. There’s no mention of the thousands or tens of thousands of men who have been and will be slaughtered in cold blood. There’s also no recognition that the Taliban is a medieval Islamic sect that believes women and girls (including little girls) belong in the home cooking for and satisfying the sexual needs of their Taliban husbands – and that’s it.
THE DIVISIONIST DEMOCRAT PARTY AND BLACK ANTI-SEMITICISM…. BUT BLACKS HATE EVERYONE PERIOD.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/05/black-lives-murder-most-violent_8.html
Only a minority of black people are anti-Semites, but those that are, are not lone wolves. They are not inventing the wheel. Rather, they are steeped in a significant cultural trend, a trend that persons of conscience will name, confront, analyze, and denounce.
Danusha Goska is the author of God through Binoculars: A Hitchhiker at a Monastery
Whose future, indeed? If we are to repel Black Lives Matter’s full-on assault on our values, institutions, and character, it will only be if all American patriots summon the kind of courageous, truth-telling resistance David Horowitz displays in his indispensable book I Can’t Breathe to expose and condemn the corrosive racial hoaxes perpetrated by BLM and the Democrat Party.
Black Lives Matter: Not Just Communist, But Viciously Anti-Semitic Too
Biden's EPIC Fail That Media Hid.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqgTGG3W60o
Biden's new press secretary has a problem with Jews
By Edward Davis
Karine Jean-Pierre makes history this week as the first woman "of color" and the first open lesbian to become the official spokesperson for the leader of the free world.
Unfortunately, another characteristic that sets her apart from previous White House press secretaries is her malicious radical activism, which reached its low point when she made fictitious allegations against a moderate, bipartisan pro-Israel organization.
OBAMA’S WAR ON THE JEWS
The Democrats are now officially the party of Jew-hatred. This is largely due to the disastrous presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. PAMELA GELLER
https://globalistbarackobama.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-disaster-of-barack-obama-democrats.html
Abunimah’s piece -- and Obama’s numerous anti-Semitic associations -- got little attention. Throughout his life Barack Obama has been close friends with numerous virulent anti-Semites: Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Khalid al-Mansour, Rashid Khalidi and others. PAMELA GELLER
Virulent Anti-Semite Maher Abdel Qader Campaigns with Multiple Democrats
Birds of a feather.
Maher Abdel Qader of the Palestinian American Congress is the Leonard Zelig of the modern Democrat Party; he seems to know everyone, has appeared in photos with most of them, and is connected to everything. He has hosted numerous fundraisers for New York City Mayor Eric Adams; he was part of a committee putting together a fundraiser for Jesse Jackson’s son Jonathan Jackson, who is running for the House in Illinois; and he is close to Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Ramallah) and Cori Bush (D-Race Hate), as well as a prominent former congressman, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Abdel Qader is also a virulent anti-Semite, which should surprise no one, given the bent of today’s Democrat Party.
It is odd, however, that Adams, who has courted New York’s Jewish community and appointed two Orthodox Jews to his administration, would have close ties to Abdel Qader. Early in 2021, Abdel Qader was one of only six community leaders to speak with Adams on a Zoom call and talk over the then-candidate’s “campaign vision [and] issues,” as well as to “engage in his campaign.” Abdel Qader noted in an Instagram post that has apparently been removed that Adams was “on board with our community and will stand to support us.” Then in September 2021, Abdel Qader posted on Instagram in another post that was later removed or concealed: “Arab and Muslim community leaders met at Marriott hotel - LaGuardia and held a Fundraising for Eric Adams the democratic nominee for New York City mayor….Event was organized by the Muslim Agenda 2021 Coalition.”
Thus it is clear that Adams was publicly friendly with Abdel Qader years after Abdel Qader posted an article on Facebook in 2016 that charged Jews with being “satanic” and claimed that they “practice subversion and treason.” In 2017, Abdel Qader posted a list of the Jewish members of Congress, headed “U.S. Senators and Congressmen with Duel [sic] Citizenship with Israel,” strongly implying that those listed have dual loyalty to Israel and the U.S., as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) alleged back in 2019. In November 2019, he shared a video that repeated the claim that Jews are “satanic” and added the paranoid anti-Semitic trope that they control the media, while minimizing the Holocaust.
Was Adams’ campaign so careless that it didn’t pick up this material about Abdel Qader? Or was Adams’ election such a sure thing, since New York is essentially a one-party state with a moribund Republican Party, that the campaign figured that Abdel Qader’s anti-Semitism simply didn’t matter? The worst possibility is that Adams’ campaign calculated that Abdel Qader’s anti-Semitism would resonate with the Democrats’ hateful, far-Left, pro-BDS base, and counterbalance the street cred the candidate lost for being a former police officer?
Whatever the case may be with Adams, other Democrats haven’t hesitated to associate themselves with Abdel Qader, either. In May, Abdel Qader posted on Instagram: “May 18, 2022, Fundraiser for Keith Ellison the 30th attorney general of the State of Minnesota in Manhattan- New York. Also attended by Michael J. Garner, Chief Diversity Officer, MTA Department of Diversity and Civil Rights.” Of course it was.
Of Jonathan Jackson, Abdel Qader wrote: “Jonathan Jackson son of Jesse Jackson/ Chicago is running for congress and needs our support. He is a staunch supporter of Palestine, Palestinians and our Arab American community.”
As for Bush, Fox News reported that “in early November, Abdel Qader posted a Bush fundraising flier for a reception hosted by the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Muslim Community of St. Louis, which solicited donations between $100 and $2,500 for Bush’s campaign, according to the flier. It appears he donated $250 to her campaign for the fundraiser.” Generous guy.
Abdel Qader appears to be closest, however to Tlaib, who has, according to Fox, “participated in several events with Abdel Qader over the years, with the most recent fundraiser posted to his Instagram account on September 25, 2021. One day after the fundraiser, Abdel Qader posted a picture of himself alongside Tlaib on a Manhattan, New York, rooftop.” In contrast to his parsimoniousness with Bush, “Abdel Qader has not only been a key fundraiser for Tlaib, donating $6,500 to her campaign since 2018, but he was also the chairman of her finance committee during her successful 2018 Congressional campaign. Tlaib introduced Abdel Qader by the title at a campaign event. And in 2018, Tlaib presented Abdel Qader with a medal as a sign of gratitude for his help with her inaugural campaign.”
Tlaib, a vociferous critic of Israel, was likely untroubled by Abdel Qader’s anti-Semitism. Apparently the other Democrat candidates Abdel Qader supported weren’t bothered by it, either. Is anti-Semitism now so mainstream on the Left that an open Jew-hater such as Maher Abdel Qader can become an influential mover and shaker for Democrat candidates? The answer is obviously yes.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 23 books including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad and The History of Jihad. His latest book is The Critical Qur’an. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.
The Biden Admin Just Made It Easier for Terrorists To Enter the United States
Lawmakers, former officials say change will let Iranian terrorists come to US
The Biden administration altered federal law to make it easier for individuals who have worked with designated terrorist groups to legally enter the United States.
The State and Homeland Security Departments last week amended federal immigration laws to allow foreigners who provided "insignificant material support" to designated terror groups to receive "immigration benefits or other status," according to the policy published in the Federal Register. Examples of individuals who would fall into the new category, according to the announcement, include individuals who provided "humanitarian assistance" or "routine commercial transactions" to terror groups.
The policy shift is fueling concerns that the Biden administration wants to make it easier for individuals who work with or for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the country's paramilitary fighting force that has killed hundreds of Americans, to enter the country. Notice of the change came several days before the Biden administration and hardline Iranian government resumed talks aimed at securing a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal.
A State Department spokesman said the law was amended to help vulnerable Afghans, who might have inadvertently worked with terror groups, gain refuge in the United States following the Biden administration's bungled withdrawal that left the Taliban in power. Lawmakers and former U.S. officials, however, say the new regulations are so broadly written that they would apply to organizations like al Qaeda and the IRGC. The policy change is also raising red flags as U.S. officials, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, face credible death threats from Iran.
The rule does not specifically mention Afghanistan but is written to cover all U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, such as the IRGC and al Qaeda, experts told the Free Beacon. The Taliban is not designated as a foreign terrorist organization, leaving lawmakers and former U.S. officials concerned the changes extend far beyond vulnerable Afghans and cover those tied to some of the globe's most violent terror groups.
Gabriel Noronha, a State Department special adviser for Iran during the Trump administration, said that "the Biden administration is claiming this regulation is all about Afghanistan, but they didn't even mention Afghanistan once in their action, and have made no serious attempt to limit the scope to the situation there."
"Instead," said Noronha, who is a fellow with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America think tank, "this looks like a massive watering down of our immigration restrictions against members of terrorist organizations."
The State Department says the changes are limited to Afghanistan, but would not say why the country is not mentioned once in the new order.
The changes "are an effort to address issues related to Afghanistan," a State Department spokesman, speaking only on background, told the Free Beacon. "The circumstances between Afghanistan and Iran are very different." The new rules "are not applicable to people who have received military-type training from [foreign terrorist organizations], including IRGC conscripts." Rather, the administration is trying to make it easier for those tangentially tied to terrorism to legally enter the country, the official maintained.
When the Free Beacon requested additional information and an explanation as to why the IRGC or similar groups would not be covered by the changes, the State Department declined to answer, saying, "We have no further information or comments to share." This lack of clarity is fueling concerns about the policy change.
Noronha and others who spoke to the Free Beacon say the broad reference to "foreign terrorist organizations" leaves open the possibility that groups like the IRGC and al Qaeda would benefit from the relaxed immigration guidelines. The revamped guidelines do not specifically include restrictions on either of these groups. "At best this is a horribly written regulation. At worst, it's an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Congress and the American people and make it easier for terrorists to come to America," Noronha said.
Richard Goldberg, who under Trump served on the White House National Security Council as the director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction, said that any effort to loosen restrictions on terror-tied individuals is worrying amid Iran's threats to kill U.S. leaders.
"Given Iran is actively plotting to kill former American officials, the administration should carefully explain if and how this [rule] might apply to a potential affiliate of the IRGC, and provide a high-level commitment to take all necessary steps to bar any potential IRGC associate from admission to the United States," Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told the Free Beacon.
Republican lawmakers agree with this assessment. Five Republican foreign policy leaders who spoke to the Free Beacon expressed concerns the administration is trying to quietly grant concessions to Iran as it reenters nuclear talks.
"It's outrageous that the Biden administration is lifting the blanket ban on individuals who have provided support to terrorists from entering the United States," Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Free Beacon. "The timing raises concerns coming just a few days before the latest round of Iran talks. President Biden should end these failed negotiations once and for all and return to a policy of maximum pressure, rather than continuing to make concessions to the terrorist regime in Iran."
Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he and his colleagues worry the Biden administration is attempting to grant concessions to Iran via backdoor changes to American laws.
"What do Americans gain by letting members of Iran's terrorist army cross our borders?" Banks asked.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R., Fla.), a combat veteran and also a member of the Armed Services Committee, said the change is purely about "appeasing terrorist groups—whether it's the IRGC, Houthis, or Taliban."
Reps. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) and Pat Fallon (R., Texas), both Armed Services Committee members, expressed shock at how broadly written the new regulations are.
"In what world is it an acceptable decision to allow terrorists into our country?" Fallon asked the Free Beacon. "Instead of ending the nuclear talks with Iran all together, Joe Biden has decided to bend over backwards to the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. Before it is too late, I urge them to immediately reconsider this foolish decision."
Update June 29, 3:31 p.m.: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Biden administration made no formal announcement of the policy change.
No comments:
Post a Comment