The Christian aid organization Open Doors warned in a statement to Breitbart News on Monday that a Taliban-dominated Afghanistan may be the single worst violator of religious freedom in the world.
Afghanistan is home to a small minority of Christians already brutally repressed under the now-defunct administration of former President Ashraf Ghani. Prior to the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, Open Doors had ranked Afghanistan second only to North Korea on its World Watch List, an annual listing of countries doing the most to abuse, suppress, and violate the human rights of Christians and other religious minorities.
Following the Taliban’s installation in power this month, evidence rapidly began surfacing of Taliban terrorists going door-to-door seeking Christians to persecute and kill. Afghans found with Christian materials on their mobile phones, such as downloadable Bibles, faced immediate execution according to some on-the-ground reports.
Taliban spokesmen have insisted that the new Afghan regime they will build will be “inclusive” of all sectors of the country’s population but have explicitly avoided discussing religious freedom at all. They have renamed the country after themselves, the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” and insisted they would govern through sharia, or the Islamic law, leaving no room for religious diversity.
Open Doors confirmed that its sources have also witnessed Taliban door-to-door inspections to persecute “everyone with perceived or real connections to the West.” Many jihadist organizations associate Christianity in general with Western culture and consider it a foreign aberration.
“Non-Muslims are especially unwanted, and Christians are in grave danger,” Amy Lamb, Open Doors USA’s Director of Communications, told Breitbart News on Monday. “Those who are exposed will be severely punished with kidnapping, torture, possibly even death.”
A Taliban fighter (R) searches the bags of people coming out of the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
“Afghanistan is ranked the second-worst persecutor of Christians in the world on Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List. It lags only behind North Korea in intensity, severity, and reach of persecution,” Lamb explained. “The Taliban takeover adds another layer of persecution. Now that the risks and threats have increased, Afghanistan rivals North Korea as the worst violator of religious freedom in the world.”
“The thin layer of protection and justice that Afghan Christians had before the takeover is now completely gone. Christians are looking for ways to survive,” Lamb emphasized.
In January, the 2021 edition of the World Watch List proclaimed, “it is impossible to live openly as a Christian in Afghanistan.” Much of the persecution against Christians was occurring in areas already controlled by the Taliban, but factors such as tribal or even familial persecution of Christian converts played a tremendous role in the threat. The U.S.-backed government reportedly did little to protect Afghan Christians from violent retaliation from their relatives and neighbors.
“Areas controlled by the Taliban are particularly oppressive, but there is no safe way to express any form of Christian faith in the country,” Open Doors noted at the time, describing the country as “only very slightly less oppressive than … North Korea.”
A South Korean Christian prays wishing for peace on the Korea peninsular during a service to mark the 69th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War near the Imjingang Station, near the demilitarized zone of Panmunjom, in Paju, South Korea, June 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
North Korea is a communist atheist dictatorship that considers Christianity itself a national security threat. Those suspected of harboring Christian beliefs, possessing Christian materials such as Bibles, or otherwise engaging with Christianity in any way face state executions or lifetimes in grueling labor camps, enduring extreme torture. North Korean state museums display Bibles alongside firearms, identified as weapons of war.
In her remarks to Breitbart News, Lamb emphasized that Christians are not the only vulnerable religious minority in the country.
“Christians are not the only religious minorities who are targeted. Sikhs are also persecuted but are considered less threatening because they are not known for sharing their faith,” Lamb explained. “While they can still openly identify as Sikhs, they do experience plenty of hostility. Christians, however, must hide their faith or experience near-inevitable kidnapping, torture, and death.”
Lamb urged the world to offer “prayers and advocacy” for all Afghans, now facing not only the extreme dangers of Taliban rule but famine and disease given the collapse of the already precarious Afghan state infrastructure.
“Everyone in Afghanistan is in need of safety, food, clean water, and medical care. Supply chains have broken down and clinics have stopped functioning,” Lamb noted. “Clean water still runs from the taps, but it is at risk of becoming contaminated. If violence breaks out at a larger scale, more infrastructure will be lost, leading to greater loss of life.”
Internally displaced Afghan families, who fled from Kunduz and Takhar province due to battles between Taliban and Afghan security forces, collect food in Kabul on August 9, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
The Taliban have yet to make any public statements on the Chinese coronavirus pandemic since August 15. They do not have a clearly designated public health official and have not indicated they have any strategy in place to combat the pandemic.
Open Doors’ assessment of the situation for Christians in the country aligns with similar reports by other Christian groups active in the country. International Christian Concern (ICC), citing sources on the ground, warned Christians to attempt to stay out of the Taliban’s radar to the best of their ability.
“We are telling people to stay in their houses because going out now is too dangerous,” an Afghan Christian leader reportedly told ICC. “Some known Christians are already receiving threatening phone calls. In these phone calls, unknown people say, ‘We are coming for you.'”
CBN, which relayed the ICC report, noted that Afghanistan is believed to be home to between 10,000 and 12,000 Christians.
'They Were Given the Choice Between Death and Converting to Islam'
The persecution Christians experienced in just one month under Islam.
Tue Aug 17, 2021
Raymond Ibrahim
This report was first published by the Gatestone Institute. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of June, 2021:
Pakistan
The Rape, Forced Conversion, and Child Marriage of Christians
A Muslim father-of-four abducted a 13-year-old Christian girl, forced her to convert to Islam, and then “married” her. According to the father of Nayab Gill, when the beauty school she was attending shut down due to the COVID-19 lockdown, Saddam Hayat, a local Muslim who ran his own beauty shop, “told me that rather than wasting time, Nayab should learn salon skills to help her in supporting the family financially. He even offered to pick her up from home and drop her off after work, assuring us that she was just like his daughter.” He had also promised to pay the girl Rs.10,000 (US$63) per month for her services, but stopped paying her after a couple of months. When the girl went missing on May 20, her frantic parents turned to Hayat, who claimed not to know where she was, and kindly offered to help them find her, including by instructing Nayab’s simple and trusting mother to fill out the missing person’s report in a way that did not implicate him.
“On May 26, we were informed by the police that Nayab was in the Darul Aman [women’s shelter] since May 21,” her father continues. “In an application submitted to a magistrate’s court, Nayab claimed she had willfully converted to Islam a month ago …” According to this application, Nayab also claimed to be 19-years-old, and an Islamic marriage certificate was registered on May 20 claiming she had married Hayat. That same day the family managed to meet with Nayab at the women’s shelter. She told her grandmother that she wanted to go home and was willing to sign anything to do so. At that point, her “husband” and the police—having been notified by a shelter staffer that Nayab was in direct contact with her family—barged in and forcibly separated them. On the following day, a visibly battered Nayab appeared before court and reaffirmed that she was 19-years-old and had converted to Islam of her own free will. “Our lawyer did not show up at the hearing, so my wife and I directly approached the judge and presented all official documents to prove that my daughter was born on Oct. 16, 2007, which makes her 13 years and seven months old,” her father explained.
We told the judge that she was lying about her age under duress. She had bruises on her face, and her eyes were also red, which should have caught the judge’s attention, but he ignored it…. [In the end] Judge Jameel relied solely on Nayab’s statements made under obvious threat, rather than official documents, and failed to order an ossification test to determine her age…. My mother [the girl’s grandmother] collapsed in the courtroom as soon as the judge gave his order, and while we were attending to her, the police quietly spirited Nayab away.
In a separate incident, a group of Muslims abducted a Christian teenager, drugged and held him captive for five days, and repeatedly raped and tortured him, before dumping him in a desolate region. Danish Masih, 17, vanished on June 6. Although his father immediately reported his son’s disappearance to police, they showed no interest and failed to act. Discussing this incident, a local human rights activist said, “As Christians we are a minority and we are alone. For us there is no justice and no equal rights.” No one has since been arrested. According to the report, “Danish’s is not an isolated case. Violence against Christians in Pakistan is commonplace,” and includes a “rising number of abductions, child sexual abuses, forced conversions and forced marriages.”
In another incident, a young Christian woman was beat and raped in her home for refusing to convert to Islam and marry her rapist. Neelam Masih shared her experiences in a June 7 report. She was home alone when Faisal Basra “entered my home at gunpoint.”
[He] dragged me to my bedroom and began to punch and kick me. He threw me on the bed and started to rape me. He demanded I marry him and convert to Islam. I refused. I am not willing to deny Jesus and he said that if I would not agree he would kill me. He hit me on the face with his pistol and I shouted and screamed and tried to escape but he kept pulling me back, dragging me by my hair.
Eventually Neelam’s neighbor, who is also her second cousin, heard her cries and came rushing to the house, at which point the rapist fled into the night. Neelam, who is studying for a Master of Philosophy degree, said that, as the only educated Christian woman in her village, she is committed to speaking out against oppression and abuse, despite “reports that friends and family” of the Muslim rapist “are trying to hunt her down and kill her for standing up to him.”
I want the world to know what happened to me… I am determined to struggle for my faith, my life and my community…. My family is very poor. My mother has two jobs as a sweeper and has done everything she can for my education and it is very important that I stand up for my community.
“Neelam is a very brave woman,” said her lawyer, adding that it is “very unusual” for rape victims to go public in Pakistan:
Struggling against this man has taken great courage…. Most girls feel ashamed and submit to the demands of the attacker. They don’t want to tell anyone. They are usually easily threatened. But Neelam remains faithful to Jesus and is determined to tell her story to bring an end to attacks on Christian girls and young women.
In yet another incident, a group of Muslim men led by one Muhammad Akbar—a man known to have kidnapped Christian women before—abducted a Christian mother of five. She spent over 20 days in captivity being drugged, raped, and beaten. Discussing her ordeal, her husband said during an interview in between tears,
We are poor and Christian therefore the police are not taking any action against the abductor, and because he has heavily bribed the police. But I want justice for my wife. I want all the kidnappers arrested and punished for their crimes so they can stop kidnapping more Christian women.
Finally, according to a June 24 report, a “Muslim doctor forcefully converted a 13-year-old Christian girl to Islam,” so she could “work in their family kitchen.” The doctor was initially looking to employ two girls in his house. An impoverished Christian family with eight children sent two of their daughters, aged 13 and 11, to work there. The agreement was that they would be paid Rs.10,000 per month (US$63); and although this was a live-in job, the girls’ family could visit them. At the end of the month, however, Dr. Altaf only paid them Rs.3,000 (US$19). The poor family had no choice but to accept it. But matters soon worsened. According to the report,
Neha and Sneha worked there for four years, during this time they started complaining about mistreatment by the family, who would swear at them and even physically assault them. The girls were being treated like slaves and were hardly allowed to meet their parents. They told the family that they wanted to go back home and live with their family, but Dr Altaf did not allow them to leave.
Both girls were missing their family. Sneha [aged 11] fell ill and wasn’t any help to Dr Altaf’s family therefore they agreed to send her back to her parents, but they were not willing to return Neha [aged 13].
Masih requested that Dr Altaf return his oldest daughter too as he was not willing to leave his daughter behind, but Dr Altaf told him that Neha had embraced Islam therefore she could not live with him.
It was a shocking revelation for Masih and [he] refused to accept it. Dr Altaf explained that since they were Muslims, it was not possible for them to allow any non-Muslim to enter the kitchen and touch their food items and kitchen utensils.
Dr Altaf dropped another bombshell on Masih, telling him they had mistakenly overpaid him, 275,000 (US$1,750) and until you pay it back, he won’t be able to get his daughter back.
“Perhaps Pakistan is the only country where such crimes are happening on a daily basis under the cover of Islam,” said one human rights activist while discussing this incident. “It cannot be justified at any cost that a young girl was converted to Islam against her will and without her parents’ knowledge and now she cannot be returned to her parents because her parents are Christians.”
Uganda: Death and Destruction for Christians
On June 11, a Muslim imam slaughtered a 70-year-old Christian pastor. Pentecostal bishop, Francis Obo, was killed after a group of Muslims dressed in Islamic garb stopped him and his wife as they were returning home in the evening after grocery shopping. The slain’s wife, Christine, said the men accused Francis of being an “infidel” who causes Muslims to leave Islam and that, accordingly, “Today Allah has judged you.” One of the assailants told her to go away because “Today, it is a day for your husband,” she said. “As I moved a few meters in a hurry trying to save my life, I heard a little noise and wailing from my husband and realized that his life was in danger.” She ran home, “trembling and unable to speak, and her children took her to a hospital where she was treated for shock” On regaining consciousness in the early morning, she told her eldest son what had happened; he and some other siblings went to search for their father where she last saw him. “Reaching there, they were shocked and fearful as they found a big number of Christians and relatives gathered around the dead body mourning their bishop after being murdered by Muslims,” she said. Police arrested suspect Imam Uthman Olingha, for having blood splattered on his clothes, and another Muslim. An officer later told the family that “Olingha openly confessed that he can’t regret that he killed the bishop because he did it in the cause of Allah’s word to kill all infidels who mislead Muslims.” The murderer added that “Allah will be with him in jail, but the kafiri [infidels] deserved the killing.” Bishop Francis is survived by his wife Christine and 13 children. He oversaw 17 churches in the area and was active is spreading the Gospel among Muslims—hence why he was targeted.
In a separate but similar incident, the Muslim employer of Fred Isiko, a Christian evangelist, had him killed by assassins. Earlier, Fred had recorded his boss, Ashirafu Kasenyi, a Muslim sheikh, pressuring him to convert: “You need to convert to Islam if you are to remain as my employee,” Kasenyi says in a May 7 recording. Fred replies, “I am not going to leave Jesus Christ; better to resign than leave Christianity.” On the day he was killed, Kasenyi had sent Fred to fetch supplies from the local market. Fred had a Christian friend with him, Francis, who explains what happened next:
As we were about to reach the trading center, three people stopped us. They said that they have some information for Fred. So I moved at a distance, and immediately one of them removed a long knife and cut his neck as I fled for my life and reported the incident at Kagumu police post.
Police later confirmed that their suspect confessed that the Muslim employer had hired him for the killing.
Finally, the Muslim relatives of a recent convert to Christianity burned his family home down. After Louis Levi Baula, 46, had taken his 3-year-old son, who suffered from seizures and other symptoms, to the local imam several times, and paid him for prayers of healing, nothing changed. So he took him to a nearby Christian church where the prayers, Louis and his wife say, healed their son. “We went back home but did not tell anyone, except I shared with my mother-in-law about the prayers in church that made my child well, and that we were planning to go back to the church the following Sunday,” Louis said. “She kept quiet.” The next Sunday the family attended the worship service and thanked the church for the prayers that healed their son. When they returned home, more than 20 Muslim relatives were gathered outside their home. They began questioning them. One got very animated and began crying “Allahu Akbar.” “We thought that they were going to kill us,” the mother continues, “but they only warned us not to attend the church, and the meeting ended.” They initially stopped going to church, but then went again. On returning home that Sunday, they found three of their goats missing. “A [Muslim] relative named Hamisi told me that Allah had taken the goats,” Louis said. “I was scared by that statement and came back and told my wife.” She insisted they and their three children, ages 3, 6, and 10, must relocate.
As we were thinking of where to go, at around 9 p.m. we heard hens making a lot of noise in the kitchen, and when I came out, I saw smoke and flames going up the roof, and I went back and told my wife that we are dying. We picked up our children and went out very fast, and within a short period my brothers, sisters and Muslim neighbors together with an imam arrived. The imam recited the Koran, and then later told my brothers to start destroying the house.
They watched helplessly as their Muslim relatives and the fire destroyed their home, property, and livestock. “The imam told us,” Louis continues, “that from today we were no longer one of the family members, that we were kafir [infidels] and that we should leave the homestead immediately to go and look for other infidels. He added that had it not been the law of our state, we would face death, but ‘go out of here since you have disobeyed Allah and his messenger.’”
The family fled with nothing but the clothes on their back and since last reported took refuge in another Christian’s home.
More Christian Slaughter in Africa
Mozambique: As the southeast African nation continues to fight off the Islamic State and other terrorists—nearly a million people have been displaced since 2017 and thousands slaughtered—in a June 28 report, Todd Nettleton of The Voice of the Martyrs USA explained how the terrorists mostly target Christians:
They say their goal is to set up a caliphate similar to ISIS in Iraq and Syria. And they are in some cases, literally going door to door. They ask, ‘Are you a Christian? Or are you a Muslim?’ If you’re a Christian, you’re killed. If you’re a Muslim, then you get the opportunity to quote some Quranic verses. And if you can quote them sufficiently, you save your life. Otherwise, you also get killed [including by crucifixion].
In another report on Mozambique from June 23, Amy Lamb of Open Doors said,
Because of [the rise in Christianity], we’re seeing jihadist groups including those who are affiliated with the Islamic state, with al Shabab, with Boko Haram, al Qaeda…. [They are] organizing together in order to expand their territories throughout the African continent, and their goal is really to eradicate Christianity from this territory and, unfortunately, in some ways, it’s working. Even specifically from this northern part of Mozambique, an estimated 800,000 people have fled the region, and those who remain, including women, children, families, are facing starvation even if they’re spared from … violence.
Nigeria: Among several other lethal attacks on Christians, which claimed at least 17 Christian lives in the preceding days, Muslim Fulani herdsmen shot to death Precious Emeka Chinedu, a Christian doctor, on June 17 in Niger State. Five Muslims entered the hospital he worked in, seized and left with him, and then killed him and left his body in the bush. Discussing this incident, the doctor’s colleague, Baridueh Badon, said:
His killers, who are herdsmen, came to the hospital, specifically asked for him, didn’t harm anybody, collected his money, took him away, and killed him without asking for ransom. What did he do wrong? Your blood will keep crying until justice is done…. Everyone loved him, always smiling, and he was one of the most hard-working persons I have ever known. His hospital boomed because he was saving lives. If you had any problems, Emeka would be there to help.
Attacks on Churches
Democratic Republic of Congo: On Sunday, June 27, a makeshift bomb placed in the first row behind the altar exploded inside a Catholic church in Beni, leaving at least two injured. “I had just entered the church, I hadn’t even managed to sit down, I heard ‘Boom’… Blood started flowing from my mouth. I lost four teeth and was injured in the arms,” one of the injured women, Antoinette Kavira, explained from her hospital bed. The blast occurred shortly before the start of a confirmation ceremony. “They were targeting a large crowd because the ceremony would bring together children, their parents and the faithful,” said a church official. The Allied Democratic Forces, a terrorist group connected to the Islamic State, is believed to be responsible for the attack. While discussing this latest attack, local Bishop Paluku shed light on the devastation committed by the Islamic terrorists:
Armed groups are destroying schools and hospitals. Teachers and pupils are being killed. They are even killing the sick as they lie in their hospital beds. Not a day goes by without people being killed… We need centers where people can go for therapy. Many people are traumatized… A large-scale project is underway to Islamize or expel the indigenous populations. Anyone who has been kidnapped by these terrorist groups and managed to escape from them alive has told the same story. They were given the choice between death and converting to Islam.
Indonesia: In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 27, a Protestant church was vandalized and then set aflame in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The fire was put out before doing extensive damage. Although evidence indicates that the arsonist acted purposefully—he first broke the church’s windows, vandalized the interior, and then torched the exterior, all under the helpful cover of darkness—police concluded that the suspect is mentally disabled, prompting some critics to say that the incident is being “played down.”
Separately, police arrested “11 suspected Islamic militants accused of plotting attacks at several Christian churches in easternmost Papua province,” says a May 31 report:
The arrests led police to another suspect who was detained Sunday, and led them to seize items from various locations including chemicals for explosives, modified air guns able to fire real bullets, jihadist books and documents on planned attacks.
Those arrested are members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and carried out a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia, including the bombing of a cathedral during Palm Sunday mass in March 2021 in Makassar, in which 20 were seriously wounded.
Finally, on June 19, ten Muslim schoolchildren, between the ages of 5 and 12, vandalized and desecrated a Christian cemetery, including by breaking the crosses off a dozen gravestones. After inspecting the damage done, the mayor of Solo laid the blame on the Islamic madrasa the children attend, and its teachers, “because they are teaching intolerance to their students.” He even urged police to prosecute the teachers and punish the students despite them being children. “Their actions were a gross act of intolerance.”
Pakistan: According to a June 22 report, a group of armed Muslim men attacked Harvest Church in the Punjab province. They broke in, shooting their guns in the air and severely beating the watchman present; several other Christians, men and women who were participating in evening prayers, were also hurt and hospitalized.
Egypt: Authorities recently barged onto and seized land belonging to an ancient Coptic monastery that was originally founded in the year 360—that is, nearly 300 years before Islam invaded and subsequently conquered Egypt in the seventh century. On May 30, authorities arrived with bulldozers and police at the Monastery of Saint Macarius in the deserts of Wadi al-Rayan in Fayum. They demolished a fence of the annex-farm and other structures—including a church—that had been erected by the monks living there. Several monks who protested or tried to prevent this state sanctioned destruction were arrested but shortly released. The reason for this takeover is that the monastery has been unable to pay the exorbitant levies that the government imposed on it a few years ago, in large measure due to the many government enforced COVID-19 restrictions, including on tourism, which would have helped keep the ancient monastery afloat. Commenting on this, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization, said:
Whilst we recognise the right of the government to collect the agreed taxes, we also recognise that this monastery has been on this site for centuries and that the rental levies are a relatively recent expense in its historic existence. We encourage … a just settlement in this matter, including a reappraisal of the rent that the monastery is required to pay, which is a considerable financial burden even outside the unusual circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has negatively impacted livelihoods in Egypt and across the world.
This is not the first time that the Egyptian government harasses the ancient Christian monasteries scattered in the deserts of Egypt—the one in question, St. Macarius, in particular. In 2015, the government initiated a project to build a road around Fayum. The proposed road would have crossed the territory around and threatened to destroy ancient heritage sites connected to the Monastery of St. Macarius.
In the end, the monks had no choice but to lay their bodies down before the path of the bulldozers, which arrived to the accompaniment of triumphant cries of “Allahu Akbar” from the company drivers and workers (pictures here). Then, the monks were again arrested, though later released, and the road construction started, against their will.
Have You or a Loved One Been Hurt or Injured by the Democrat Party?
By J.B. Shurk
"Have you or a loved one been hurt or injured by the Democrat Party?" That's the only question Republicans should run on radio and television ads from here on out. It's the same question civil litigators regularly use in late-night commercials when they're looking to add new members to class action lawsuits, but compared to asbestos poisoning, the side-effects of prescription medicines, or injuries from medical devices, the Democrats are the Grand Pooh-bahs of causing physical and emotional harm to everyday Americans.
Have you been living in a run-down American city plagued by crime, awful public schools, and economic deprivation? You're most likely living in a city that has been run by Democrats for over a century. Life does not have to be this way. Most of the country does not live this way. Vote out those who make life miserable.
Have you or a loved one experienced anti-Semitism or religious bigotry? You may be represented by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, or any of the many Democrats who choose Islamic terrorism over Israel's right to exist. End the madness. You deserve to be represented by people who don't sympathize with those who wish you dead.
Are you tired of endless medical lockdowns indistinguishable from house arrest; mask Nazis policing what you wear; and vaccination passports mandated by Democrats in return for the "privilege" of being allowed to walk around in public, shop, and eat in restaurants without being harassed? Does your child find it difficult to breathe when running around the playground with a covered face? Is your little one struggling emotionally and academically after missing over a year of school because Democrat-run public school unions refuse to teach? Government coercion and threats do not have to be endured. You do not have to elect those who work to muzzle you.
Have you or a loved one been injured by foreign nationals not legally in the country? Have you experienced depreciated wages because local businesses can hire illegal aliens for far less? Has your child been a victim of drugs or gang violence made possible by an open southern border and unenforced immigration laws? If so, stop voting for the same people who hurt your family by using tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration and crime.
Have you been denied school admission or employment because you happen to be an "over-achieving" Asian? Have you been told, "You ain't Black" because you questioned Democrat policies? Has your church or synagogue been closed by government authorities because your faith is demonized as "harmful" to public health while those same government authorities encourage Antifa domestic terrorists to run roughshod over the streets to intimidate citizens into political compliance? Have you been told you must support abortion even though it directly conflicts with your religion? Have you been pressured to support illegal immigration just because you are a legal immigrant relatively new to the United States? Are you tired of being told that the color of your skin is more important than what is going on in your brain or heart? Are you exhausted at being told you must "learn someone's pronouns" or risk punishment? If so, you do not have to elect people who divide Americans into small warring tribes based upon how they look. You do not have to choose a political party that sees everything in terms of race. You do not have to support officials who would be properly called bigots in another age. You do not have to keep voting for hate.
Now, to me, those questions are so obvious and so damning that you'd have to have been running the Republican Party for the last thirty years not to see their worth. That Republican officeholders and operatives have so spectacularly failed to highlight the social and economic destruction caused by Democrat policies stands as enduring proof of their own institutional mediocrity. Considering how many former party chairs and leaders have either officially joined the Democrat party in recent years or actively support that party by pushing policies despised by the Republican base, the Republicans' inability to expand their appeal until Donald Trump emerged in politics is hardly surprising.
Too many potential Republicans have never made the jump because too many people are rightly confused about whom Republicans actually represent. (Hint: There is nothing wrong with "populism" if that means doing what actual voters prefer rather than what corporate lobbyists demand.) Most of the corporate boards, Wall Street banks, and Silicon Valley tech behemoths stand solidly with Democrats, yet Republicans are still routinely demonized as the "party of the rich." Is that because Republican officeholders are so pathetically bad at politics, or because they too frequently vote for corporate welfare and investment firm bailouts, enact policies that encourage the outsourcing of working-class jobs overseas, and protect multinational conglomerates at the expense of American industries? Well, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham, and sixteen other Senate Republicans answered this question once again by joining Democrats in a one-and-a-half-trillion-dollar drunken spending binge filled with pork, crony insider enrichment, and a massive expansion of government power under the guise of "infrastructure" improvement. And while it sets the stage for the additional three-and-a-half-trillion-dollar Green New Deal takeover of the economy barreling our way, it does nothing to give Republicans even a patina of restraint or sensibility. It is difficult to explain to fence-sitters how the Democrat-corporate alliance is threatening Americans' freedoms when half the Republicans in office use their powers to strengthen Wall Street and weaken Main Street at every turn.
So like all commercial advertisements worried about legal liability for causing unknown future harm from defective products, perhaps any ads against Democrats should include some variation of the following boilerplate language:
Warning: Although Republican voters overwhelmingly believe in limited government; individual freedom; the Bill of Rights; constitutional separation of powers; and the God-given guarantee of every American to live, work, and own property without giving a fig what anybody in government thinks, RINO-ism may occur when too many Establishment Republicans directly or indirectly support Silicon Valley censorship of Americans; the growth and entrenched power of D.C.'s labyrinthine bureaucracy; the super-taxation of the working class by enacting policies that devalue the dollar; the destruction of American jobs in the name of "free trade"; the expansion of the nanny state in the name of "compassion"; the proliferation of the surveillance state in the name of "security"; and the routine demonization of the Republican base as "domestic terrorists," "extremists," "Neanderthals," "deplorables," and other vile slurs cooked up by Democrats and their media monopoly but which Republican elites fully embrace. RINO-ism may or may not occur after Establishment Republicans accept huge campaign contributions from corporate interests or lobbyists. Additionally, some Republicans have a tendency to stab voters in the back, allow elections to be stolen right from under them, and engage in forever-wars. Should their tumescent narcissism last longer than it takes Lord Fauci to flip-flop, chuck those useless idiots out of office, too.
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Report: Taliban Abducting Girls to Turn into ‘Sex Slaves’ in Afghanistan
1
AP Photo/Farzana Wahidy
GABRIELLE REYES
12 Aug 20219
3:42
The Taliban terror group is allegedly “going door-to-door” in some regions of Afghanistan to select girls as young as 12 years old to become “sex slaves” for the group’s jihadi fighters, News Corp Australia’s News.com.au reported Thursday.
“An inside source suggests that Taliban leaders are attempting to kidnap and forcibly marry women,” the news site relayed, citing an earlier report by Bloomberg, published Monday.
“[T]he Taliban are going door-to-door in some areas, compiling lists of women and girls aged between 12 and 45 years for their fighters to forcibly marry,” Bloomberg reported on August 9.
“Taliban commanders, after capturing some of the provincial capitals, have ordered local Imams [Islamic leaders] to bring the lists of unmarried women aged from 12 to 45 for their soldiers to marry as they view them as ‘qhanimat or ‘spoils of war,’” OpIndia reported August 12, citing an August 11 report by the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
“The Taliban intends to ‘divide’ these kids among themselves as Jihadists consider them as a ‘prize,'” according to OpIndia, a conservative Indian news site.
“Taliban fighters are permitted to do this under their strict interpretation of Islam which views women as ‘kaniz’ or ‘commodities,'” Omar Sadr, a professor at the American University of Afghanistan, told the Daily Mail.
The Taliban reconquered large swaths of Afghanistan in recent months as U.S. and NATO-allied troops withdrew from the country to end a 20-year-long joint military operation based out of Kabul. The U.S. launched the War in Afghanistan in the autumn of 2001, by ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan’s government and will end the operation by August 31. The Taliban has swiftly regained control over at least 85 percent of the country in the wake of the nearly complete troop withdrawal. The Sunni terror group has ramped up its military campaign over the past week, retaking three northern provincial capitals in a single day on August 8.
Internally displaced Afghan women from northern provinces, who fled their home due to fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security personnel, receive medical care in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
The Taliban has reimposed sharia, or Islamic law, across most of the regions it reconquered in recent weeks. The group has ordered taxi drivers in the Afghan town of Balkh, a regional hub near the Uzbek border, “not to drive any woman into the town unless she’s fully veiled,” the BBC reported on August 11. The British broadcaster published its report after sending a group of reporters to Balkh to interview members of the Taliban.
“The day after we leave, reports emerge of a young woman being murdered because of her clothing,” the BBC revealed. “Haji Hekmat, though, rejects allegations Taliban members were responsible.”
The BBC identified Hekmat as a “local Taliban leader and our host in Balkh.”
“All the women we see … are wearing the all-encompassing burqa, covering both their hair and face,” the broadcaster wrote of its visit to Balkh’s main bazaar, or market.
Hekmat insisted to the BBC that no women were being “forced” to wear the full burka, claiming that “the Taliban are simply ‘preaching’ that this is how women should dress.”
“In our Sharia it’s clear, for those who have sex and are unmarried, whether it’s a girl or a boy, the punishment is 100 lashes in public,” a Taliban judge named Haji Badruddin told the BBC after the broadcaster visited “a Taliban court session” in Balkh.
“But for anyone who’s married, they have to be stoned to death … For those who steal: if it’s proved, then his hand should be cut off,” he said.
Bangladesh: Muslim Mob Vandalizes and Loots Hindu Temples, Shops, Homes
Inside the world of Sharia.
Wed Aug 11, 2021
Ashlyn Davis
5 comments
More on this story: days after a Hindu temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Ganesh was vandalized and burned down in Bhong city, Pakistan, another South Asian Islamic country, the erstwhile East Pakistan, has followed the same line of bigotry. We must give credit to Bangladesh for outdoing its former masters and taking down not just one Hindu temple, but four.
On Friday night, a group of Hindu women in the Shiali village of Rupsha Upazila in Khulna took out a religious procession from the local Purba Para temple and were headed for the Shiali crematorium. They had to pass by a local mosque to reach their destination, and crossed paths with an Islamic cleric, who registered his objections to the procession. This spiraled into a heated altercation between the Hindu devotees and the Muslim cleric. As it was already past 9PM, both parties decided to take the matter up with the police the following day.
However, on Saturday, August 7 between 3 and 6PM, a mob of Muslims launched an ambush attack on the Hindus of Shiali village. Hundreds of Muslims joined this frantic mob and entered the village armed with locally-made makeshift weapons including cleavers, hatchets, and axes. Their first target was the four major Hindu temples in the village; they were desecrated and torn down in minutes by the mob. Six smaller temples in the proximity became the next targets, and were razed to the ground as well. Idols of Hindu deities at the Govinda Temple, Shiyali Purbpara Durga Temple, Shiyali Purbapara Hari Temple, and Shiyali Mahasmashan temple were crushed to bits.
But the ire of the Muslim mob was not placated by the desecration of these Hindu temples alone. They shifted their ire to human beings and their livelihood. Dozens of shops belonging to the Hindus, including Ganesh Mallick’s drug store, Sourav Mallick’s tea and grocery store, Srivastava Mallick’s grocery store, Anirban Hira’s tea shop and his father Majumdar’s shop situated in the local marketplace, were plundered; over fifty-five Hindu houses were ransacked and emptied of valuables. The jihadi crowd also looted milching cows and other cattle belonging to the Hindus, which provided a source of nutrition as well as income to the hapless people from the marginalized community. Numerous unarmed Hindu villagers were assaulted and suffered severe injuries in this clash; many were brutally beaten when they tried to defend their shops from the jihadist plunderers.
The mayhem lasted for hours. Once the thirst for Hindu misery was satiated, the mob decided to disperse. By this time, some Hindus had informed the local police, and some had formed groups to confront the jihadis. However, Shaktipada Basu, the president of the Rupsha Thana Puja Celebration Parishad, accuses the police of chasing away the Hindus when they first went to complain to the Shiali Camp police station. “Police of the Shiali camp resisted the Hindu villagers when they wanted to chase the attackers during the attack,” alleges Basu.
Khulna Superintendent of Police Mahbub Hasan informed the media that a heavy police contingent had been deployed in the area of clash and claimed that the unrest had been brought under control. “We are working with local people,” Hasan briefed the press.
Attacks on the minorities have become a routine recourse for the jihadis of Bangladesh. On the occasion of Eid al-Adha last month, Kotalipara Upazila of Gopalganj district in Bangladesh carried out a similar orchestrated attack on the local Hindus, raiding Hindu houses and Hindu-owned businesses, and assaulting Hindus. No part of the plan for destruction was omitted in that act of mob violence, either.
Back in March 2021, triggered by a social media post allegedly made by a Hindu youth named Jhumon Das, a series of planned attacks was carried out on Hindu homes in the area of Das’s residence in Sunamganj. Das’s immediate arrest by the police couldn’t pacify the fuming mob, which targeted other Hindus who had no relation to the alleged offense, just for the fun of it. Economically deprived Hindus struggling to make ends meet were stripped of their last resources in the mob violence in Shalla Upazila.
The media’s colossal indifference to all this, and the inaction of the police in the face of these repeated acts of terrorizing the minority emboldens the mobs’ bloodlust and thirst for destruction and loot. They act upon these desires with unmatched impunity. They know for a fact that they have been made into a global victim by the Leftist platforms that shape the popular narrative; hence they have neither the fear of repercussions nor any reputation to salvage.
Do You Want to Be a Teacher at a Private School Led by an ‘ISIS Imam’?
Muslim Federation advertises job positions for terror-linked Miami madrassa.
Thu Aug 12, 2021
Joe Kaufman
Joe Kaufman is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative. He was the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).
The South Florida Muslim Federation (SoFlo Muslims) is an umbrella group for South Florida’s many Islamic extremist entities, including radical mosques. However, one fanatic mosque that the Federation is yet to affiliate with is Masjid As-Sunnah An-Nabawiyyah, the North Miami Islamic Center (NMIC). That may be changing, though, as the Federation recently used its social media to announce vacancies and advertise teaching jobs for the children’s school run by the mosque, Reviver Academy. Given the level of bigotry and incitement that is preached at NMIC, it is obvious as to why the Federation is eager to aid and abet its establishment.
On July 12th, an ad appeared on the Muslim Federation Facebook page with a large Reviver Academy logo affixed to it, stating the following: “Vacancy… Reviver Academy K-12 Grade Teachers Needed – SoFlo Muslims.” When clicking on the ad, you are brought to a page on the Federation website with more details about the Reviver job description, discussing position requirements, qualifications, benefits and compensation. You are even able to fill out and submit a resume directly via the Federation site. Question: What is so special about this school that the Federation is working so hard to help recruit teachers for it?
Reviver Academy was founded, in 2012, as an affordable alternative and to keep more in line with Islamic fundamentalist doctrine than existing Muslim elementary schools. Upon visiting the Reviver Facebook, one can see a number of disturbing posts, including the announcement of an NMIC memorial for deceased Muslim Brotherhood icon and recently ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Another (colored in red) reads, “Plant the seed of faith in your CHILDREN and reap the rewards even in the GRAVE.” While the message may be clear, why would the school want to subject young impressionable kids to such morbid images of death and the afterlife?
The Sharia Director, board member and spokesman for Reviver Academy is NMIC imam Fadi Kablawi. According to Kablawi, the FBI believes he is also a member of ISIS. In December 2013, Kablawi spent time in the Rikers Island Jail Complex, after the TSA had accused him of having explosive residue on his clothing and claiming that he was in possession of a bomb. As well, Kablawi hates Jews with a passion. This past December, he described Jews as “the lowest of the lowest.” In September, he proclaimed, “You will find the most enemies to the believers are the Jews.” And in July 2020, he said that Jews were behind all “the corruption in the Earth.”
Quran scholar Ibrahim Akar sits atop all Reviver teachers, on the school’s website. In March 2015, Akar made the vile claim that “90% of women… are cursed by God.” He further said that women “wearing perfume outside the house is forbidden” and is an act of adultery. He cynically concluded by asking, “Did you know why most of the people of the Hellfire are women?” This past December, Imam Kablawi added his own thoughts about women. He told his congregation that, if a Muslim man marries a Christian woman, he must forbid her from attending church and “a wife – Christian or Muslim – she is not allowed to leave your house without your permission.”
It is no wonder as to why the Muslim Federation would elect to actively assist a mosque like NMIC in their quest to hire new teachers, as the Federation already is tied to a number of other radical mosques. One mosque the Federation harbors, Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen (MJAM), promotes on its website material referring to Jews and Christians as “the enemies of Islam” and advocating female genital mutilation, death punishments for homosexuals, and the stoning of women. MJAM’s imam, Izhar Khan, who sits on the Federation’s Council of Imams, was alleged by the FBI to have helped finance the Taliban for the purpose of murdering US troops overseas.
Another Federation mosque is the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR). ICBR co-founder and current Federation participant, Bassem Alhalabi, was a former assistant to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami al-Arian. In June 2003, Alhalabi was charged by the US Commerce Department with illegally shipping a $13,000 thermal imaging device to Syria. ICBR co-founder, Syed Ahmad, was a website designer for Hamas. In October 1999, ICBR published a violently anti-Semitic essay on its website, ‘Why can’t the Jews and Muslims live together in peace?’ It called Jews “enemies” and spoke of a day when Muslims will “fight the Jews and kill them.”
MJAM and ICBR are but two of several examples of the extremist entities which flourish under the aegis of the South Florida Muslim Federation. It is obvious as to why this umbrella organization is advertising teaching positions and soliciting staff for the Reviver Academy and NMIC mosque. And while all three of these mosques insidiously refer to Jews as the enemy, in fact, it is the opposite. It is these violence-prone, intolerant Islamic centers and the Muslim Federation that houses and shills for them that pose the real threat. For these reasons and more, they all need to be shut down.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
Muslim Congressional Candidate Attends Radical Mosques, Singles Out Israel for Attack
Barbara Sharief says Islam is peaceful religion, then cavorts with terror-linked Islamists.
Mon Aug 9, 2021
Joe Kaufman
Joe Kaufman is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative. He was the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).
Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief has the distinction of having been Broward’s first black female mayor and first Muslim mayor. For the past 12-plus years, since she has held different elected political offices, she has, for the most part, kept a distance between herself and Islamist groups, of which there are many in South Florida. In fact, in 2016, it was reported that Sharief had not “been in a mosque since she was a teenager.” As a current candidate for US Congress, though, things have changed, as she now appears to have embraced radical Islam in a big way. This article was written to expose the potential danger she poses to the community.
Barbara Muhammad Sharief, in her youth, had a close relationship with the Nation of Islam (NOI), the black separatist group headed by rabid anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. Sharief had been a student at NOI’s Clara Mohammed School (CMS), located in Miami, and she, her mother Bobbie, and her late father James, had been active members of Masjid Al-Ansar (MAA), the mosque where the school was and still is housed and where boxing champion Muhammad Ali reportedly worshiped during his earliest days as a Muslim. According to the South Florida Times, Sharief gives “credit for her success in part… to the Clara Mohammed School system.”
This past April, Sharief, in her capacity as Broward Commissioner, read and presented a proclamation to representatives of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) designating April as ‘Muslim Heritage Month.’ The ceremony was held at the Islamic Foundation of South Florida (IFSF). In April 2014, IFSF hosted a talk by Mazen Mokhtar, a former admin for the now-defunct al-Qaeda recruitment site, qoqaz.net, and supporter of suicide bombings. IFSF’s ex-Youth Director Abdur Rahman al-Ghani, on Facebook, called Jews “demonic” and the US the “World’s Number One Terrorist Organization.” He threatened, Islam “will overtake the world in numbers.”
Speaking at Sharief’s IFSF event was Samir Kakli, President of the South Florida Muslim Federation (SoFlo Muslims), an umbrella organization for the majority of South Florida’s radical Muslim groups. One mosque the Federation harbors, Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen (MJAM), promotes on its website material referring to Jews and Christians as “the enemies of Islam” and advocating female genital mutilation, death punishments for homosexuals, and the stoning of women. MJAM’s imam, Izhar Khan, who sits on the Federation’s Council of Imams, was alleged by the FBI to have helped finance the Taliban for the purpose of murdering US troops overseas.
In May, Sharief did a video greeting to wish the Muslim community blessings during the holiday, Eid. While such a message would normally be viewed as innocuous, this particular one included an assault on Israel. She said, “This is a time where we should reflect and pray for those… who are under attack. Palestine needs our help and they need our support, and it’s unacceptable to have a place of worship be attacked.” No doubt, her words were reference to Israeli security entering al-Aqsa, and without getting into the false implication of her statement, her singling out Israel for condemnation was an anti-Semitic message to Islamists that she stands with them.
In June, Sharief was interviewed by Shafayat Mohamed, the imam of the Darul Uloom mosque, located in Pembroke Pines. In July, she spoke at the mosque. Darul Uloom has been a haven for high-profile terrorists. “Dirty Bomber” Jose Padilla was a student of Mohamed’s at Darul Uloom, and now-deceased al-Qaeda commander Adnan el-Shukrijumah was a prayer leader there. Mohamed, himself, was thrown off a number of community boards for his public vitriol against homosexuals. In February 2005, Darul Uloom published an article written by Mohamed, titled ‘Tsunami: Wrath of God,’ claiming that gay sex caused the 2004 Indonesian tsunami.
The past two months, prominent members of the Muslim community have been holding private affairs for Sharief, including a July ‘Meet & Greet.’ Attending the events and posing for photos with Sharief was COO of ICNA Relief Abdul Rauf Khan, who is an avid fan of Louis Farakhan and has used Facebook to target Jews and gays. ICNA or the Islamic Circle of North America is the American arm of South Asian Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). ICNA continues to promote domestic violence against women on its Why Islam (WI) website, and ICNA has spent 30-plus years harboring Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, a former death squad leader wanted for murder.
In May 2011, following the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by US Navy SEAL Team Six, Sharief was interviewed by the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel about her thoughts on the matter. She spoke of a negative “perception that bin Laden and 9/11 gave to the religion of Islam.” She told the publication, “What he did was completely opposite of what Islam and what its people stand for. Islam is a very, very laid back and very accepting religion... Peace and friendliness and cohesiveness is something I think that the Islamic community looks for.”
While this may very well be Sharief’s opinion, and she is certainly entitled to it, her actions, in cavorting with those from the Muslim community who are linked to bigotry and violence, make the commissioner out to be a total hypocrite. Indeed, the individuals and groups Sharief has been associating with epitomize – and this author uses Sharief’s own words – the “complete opposite” of the “peace and friendliness and cohesiveness” she speaks of.
Barbara Sharief is running for US Congress, one of the most powerful positions in our nation. If she wins, she will represent local communities throughout South Florida. Yet, because of her extremist affiliations, Sharief may actually be a threat to those same local communities and the nation in general. If local and national security mean anything to the voters of Florida Congressional District 20, their votes must go elsewhere.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
Internally displaced Afghan women from northern provinces, who fled their home due to fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security personnel, receive medical care in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
The Taliban has reimposed sharia, or Islamic law, across most of the regions it reconquered in recent weeks. The group has ordered taxi drivers in the Afghan town of Balkh, a regional hub near the Uzbek border, “not to drive any woman into the town unless she’s fully veiled,” the BBC reported on August 11. The British broadcaster published its report after sending a group of reporters to Balkh to interview members of the Taliban.
“The day after we leave, reports emerge of a young woman being murdered because of her clothing,” the BBC revealed. “Haji Hekmat, though, rejects allegations Taliban members were responsible.”
The BBC identified Hekmat as a “local Taliban leader and our host in Balkh.”
“All the women we see … are wearing the all-encompassing burqa, covering both their hair and face,” the broadcaster wrote of its visit to Balkh’s main bazaar, or market.
Hekmat insisted to the BBC that no women were being “forced” to wear the full burka, claiming that “the Taliban are simply ‘preaching’ that this is how women should dress.”
“In our Sharia it’s clear, for those who have sex and are unmarried, whether it’s a girl or a boy, the punishment is 100 lashes in public,” a Taliban judge named Haji Badruddin told the BBC after the broadcaster visited “a Taliban court session” in Balkh.
“But for anyone who’s married, they have to be stoned to death … For those who steal: if it’s proved, then his hand should be cut off,” he said.
Bangladesh: Muslim Mob Vandalizes and Loots Hindu Temples, Shops, Homes
Inside the world of Sharia.
Wed Aug 11, 2021
Ashlyn Davis
5 comments
More on this story: days after a Hindu temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Ganesh was vandalized and burned down in Bhong city, Pakistan, another South Asian Islamic country, the erstwhile East Pakistan, has followed the same line of bigotry. We must give credit to Bangladesh for outdoing its former masters and taking down not just one Hindu temple, but four.
On Friday night, a group of Hindu women in the Shiali village of Rupsha Upazila in Khulna took out a religious procession from the local Purba Para temple and were headed for the Shiali crematorium. They had to pass by a local mosque to reach their destination, and crossed paths with an Islamic cleric, who registered his objections to the procession. This spiraled into a heated altercation between the Hindu devotees and the Muslim cleric. As it was already past 9PM, both parties decided to take the matter up with the police the following day.
However, on Saturday, August 7 between 3 and 6PM, a mob of Muslims launched an ambush attack on the Hindus of Shiali village. Hundreds of Muslims joined this frantic mob and entered the village armed with locally-made makeshift weapons including cleavers, hatchets, and axes. Their first target was the four major Hindu temples in the village; they were desecrated and torn down in minutes by the mob. Six smaller temples in the proximity became the next targets, and were razed to the ground as well. Idols of Hindu deities at the Govinda Temple, Shiyali Purbpara Durga Temple, Shiyali Purbapara Hari Temple, and Shiyali Mahasmashan temple were crushed to bits.
But the ire of the Muslim mob was not placated by the desecration of these Hindu temples alone. They shifted their ire to human beings and their livelihood. Dozens of shops belonging to the Hindus, including Ganesh Mallick’s drug store, Sourav Mallick’s tea and grocery store, Srivastava Mallick’s grocery store, Anirban Hira’s tea shop and his father Majumdar’s shop situated in the local marketplace, were plundered; over fifty-five Hindu houses were ransacked and emptied of valuables. The jihadi crowd also looted milching cows and other cattle belonging to the Hindus, which provided a source of nutrition as well as income to the hapless people from the marginalized community. Numerous unarmed Hindu villagers were assaulted and suffered severe injuries in this clash; many were brutally beaten when they tried to defend their shops from the jihadist plunderers.
The mayhem lasted for hours. Once the thirst for Hindu misery was satiated, the mob decided to disperse. By this time, some Hindus had informed the local police, and some had formed groups to confront the jihadis. However, Shaktipada Basu, the president of the Rupsha Thana Puja Celebration Parishad, accuses the police of chasing away the Hindus when they first went to complain to the Shiali Camp police station. “Police of the Shiali camp resisted the Hindu villagers when they wanted to chase the attackers during the attack,” alleges Basu.
Khulna Superintendent of Police Mahbub Hasan informed the media that a heavy police contingent had been deployed in the area of clash and claimed that the unrest had been brought under control. “We are working with local people,” Hasan briefed the press.
Attacks on the minorities have become a routine recourse for the jihadis of Bangladesh. On the occasion of Eid al-Adha last month, Kotalipara Upazila of Gopalganj district in Bangladesh carried out a similar orchestrated attack on the local Hindus, raiding Hindu houses and Hindu-owned businesses, and assaulting Hindus. No part of the plan for destruction was omitted in that act of mob violence, either.
Back in March 2021, triggered by a social media post allegedly made by a Hindu youth named Jhumon Das, a series of planned attacks was carried out on Hindu homes in the area of Das’s residence in Sunamganj. Das’s immediate arrest by the police couldn’t pacify the fuming mob, which targeted other Hindus who had no relation to the alleged offense, just for the fun of it. Economically deprived Hindus struggling to make ends meet were stripped of their last resources in the mob violence in Shalla Upazila.
The media’s colossal indifference to all this, and the inaction of the police in the face of these repeated acts of terrorizing the minority emboldens the mobs’ bloodlust and thirst for destruction and loot. They act upon these desires with unmatched impunity. They know for a fact that they have been made into a global victim by the Leftist platforms that shape the popular narrative; hence they have neither the fear of repercussions nor any reputation to salvage.
