Why It’s So Hard to Pity Muslims
How does one pity a group that itself regularly exhibits no pity or even mere tolerance for others? This is the conundrum one faces when considering Muslim victim groups.
Take the Rohingya, for instance, a Muslim people that primarily lived in Burma (Myanmar), while, like most invading and conquering Muslims, not being indigenous to Burma. There they have been severely persecuted by the indigenous Buddhists of that nation. While the Rohingya are regularly presented as victims -- aspects of which is no doubt true -- historically and precipitating their current status, whenever they had the chance, they were the ones quick to victimize others.
In fact, and not unlike the Muslim minorities of other nations, the Rohingya have been committing the same sort of anti-infidel mayhem, violence, terrorism, and rape that one is accustomed to associating with “radical Islam” -- though news of it seldom reaches the West. The main difference is that, unlike the West, Burma has responded with uncompromising ruthlessness.
Consider the words of Wirathu, the leading anti-Muslim Buddhist monk in Burma: “If we are weak, our land will become Muslim.” The theme song of his party speaks of a people who “live in our land, drink our water, and are ungrateful to us” -- a reference to the Rohingya -- which “we will build a fence with our bones if necessary” to keep out. His pamphlets say “Myanmar is currently facing a most dangerous and fearful poison that is severe enough to eradicate all civilization.”
Relatedly, consider the words of Fr. Daniel Byantoro, a Muslim convert to Orthodox Christianity:
For thousands of years my country (Indonesia) was a Hindu Buddhist kingdom. The last Hindu king was kind enough to give a tax exempt property for the first Muslim missionary to live and to preach his religion. Slowly the followers of the new religion were growing, and after they became so strong the kingdom was attacked, those who refused to become Muslims had to flee for their life to the neighboring island of Bali or to a high mountain of Tengger, where they have been able to keep their religion until now. Slowly from the Hindu Buddhist Kingdom, Indonesia became the largest Islamic country in the world. If there is any lesson to be learnt by Americans at all, the history of my country is worth pondering upon. We are not hate mongering, bigoted people; rather, we are freedom loving, democracy loving and human loving people. We just don’t want this freedom and democracy to be taken away from us by our ignorance and misguided “political correctness”, and the pretension of tolerance. (Source: Facing Islam, endorsement section).
But surely all this is history? Surely having been at the receiving end of persecution, the Rohingya have come to learn how it feels, and, accordingly, come to deplore the idea of victimizing others simply because they are different? Unfortunately, that does not seem to be 
the case.
For example, in January of 2020, Muslim Rohingya in a Bangladeshi refugee camp savagely beat a dozen Christians in their midst. “[They] attacked us, the Christians. They looted our houses, and beat up many Christian members. At least 12 Christians have been undergoing treatment at different hospitals and clinics,” a Christian reported, before adding, “We came under attack due to our faith…. On May 10, 11, and 13 last year, this same group of terrorists attacked us. They want us to leave this camp. They have been attacking us systematically.”
Discussing that spate of attacks, the Rohingya Christian Assembly from India said that Muslim Rohingya “attacked the whole Christian community in Kutupalong Camp… Approximately 25 Christian families are displaced. It is winter and very cold, the victims have many minor children with them.” The group added that mobs armed with machetes -- “hundreds in many groups” -- invaded and destroyed every Christian home at night.
Last Christmas, 2021, in India, hundreds of Rohingya migrant Muslim workers, some lethally armed, violently attacked a group of Christian migrant workers near a factory. According to the report, “A scuffle broke out at around 11.30 pm when some Muslims objected to carols being sung by Christian migrants from Nagaland and Manipur. While they were celebrating and dancing late at night, Muslim migrants attacked them.” Several police officers and others who tried to intervene were also injured in the riot; fanatical Rohingya even “tried to burn policemen alive.”
Around the same time, Muslim Rohingya beat a Christian Rohingya in their refugee camp in Bangladesh. According to Saydul Amin “I have been persecuted since I revealed that I am a Christian. I no longer feel safe in the camp.”
The same report quotes David Sunir, another Christian who had been beaten in a Rohingya refugee camp: “We Christians are a minority, and we live in fear.”
It should be noted that something similar is happening here in the West. Reports of Muslim refugees (supposedly “victims” in need of asylum) attacking and killing the Christian minorities intermingled with them in European-based refugee camps regularly surface.
Indeed, at one point, teams of trained killers disguised as refugees were sent by ISIS into U.N. refugee camps to kill Christians, including “in their beds,” and to kidnap young girls to sell or use as slaves. This was reported after an ISIS operative “got cold feet and renounced jihad after witnessing Christians helping out other refugees within the camp. He then revealed that he had been sent with an Islamist hit squad to eliminate Christians as part of the hate group’s ideological drive to wipe the [Christian] religion off the map.”
The point here is not to argue that all Muslims are troublemakers and therefore “deserve” whatever treatment they get. Rather, it is, and to reiterate the question initiating this article, to ask: How is one supposed to feel pity and want to provide sanctuary for a minority group that, once it has the chance, treats the minorities in its midst atrociously -- and for no other reason than because they are different, in this case, because they are “infidels”?
Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
ISLAM IS THE CULT OF DEATH, HATE AND RAPE
Female student killed by mob at Nigeria school over blasphemy claims
Taliban Claims 130,000-Strong Army as Afghans Face Starvation
The Taliban’s defense ministry on Sunday claimed the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” has amassed a standing army of over 130,000 troops with hopes to bring that number up to 150,000.
Meanwhile, the Afghan economy is a wreck, poverty is rampant, and starvation is kept at bay only through massive international humanitarian efforts.
Volunteers prepare food to give a donation to the poor from the Afterlife foundation during Islam’s Holy fasting month of Ramadan in Kandahar on April 27, 2022. (Photo by JAVED TANVEER/AFP via Getty Images)
“More than 130,000 people have been registered and this process will continue. With the completion of registration, the Afghans will see an independent, well-formed and committed military who will provide security and defend the Afghan soil and borders,” Defense Ministry spokesman Inayatullah Khwarazami boasted to Afghanistan’s independent Tolo News.
Khwarazami said the female employees who worked for the elected government overthrown by the Taliban last year are still at their posts and “still receiving their salaries,” but the “Islamic Emirate and Defense Ministry will make a decision about them” soon.
Khwarazami also said the Islamic Emirate has not reached a final decision about what its military uniforms will look like.
The Taliban is still fighting against a resistance movement called the National Resistance Forces of Afghanistan (NRF), which includes many former members of the U.S.-trained Afghan military and police.
The Taliban and NRF both claimed significant military victories in the valleys south of Kabul last week. NRF commanders claim they killed at least 200 Taliban militants in recent clashes, and the Taliban committed “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in response.”
The Taliban responded by posting videos of alleged NRF fighters who were captured or switched sides to join Taliban forces. The NRF claimed these were actually hapless civilians rounded up by the Taliban to serve as props in their video.
The European Union and United Nations said the Taliban propaganda videos were “extremely worrying,” with some of them showing acts of extreme brutality toward captives, and called for “further verification” of reported atrocities from the Panjshir and Andarab valleys.
Kabul residents on Monday told the UK Guardian life in Afghanistan is considerably worse under Taliban rule, especially for women, who have been excluded from education and employment.
“Current restrictions on women’s employment have been estimated to result in an immediate economic loss of up to $1 billion – or up to 5% of Afghanistan’s GDP. There is almost universal poverty in the country,” U.N. Women Executive Director Sima Bahous reported.
Members of Afghanistan’s Powerful Women Movement, take part in a protest in Kabul on May 10, 2022. (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)
International experts who spoke to the Guardian noted that a large percentage of Afghanistan’s civil service workers, teachers, and medical staff were women before the Taliban takeover. Most of those employees appear to have been banned from their jobs or forced to work under onerous restrictions. The Taliban regime refuses to answer questions about how many women are permitted to work under their control.
While Taliban officials boast about the size of their standing army, Al Jazeera News reported at the end of March that over 23 million Afghans are facing starvation. Families headed by women who have been driven away from their jobs are forced to go for days on end without food.
“Mothers cannot pay for their antenatal and postnatal care, and as evident maternal mortality and morbidity rate is increasing tremendously, and is also affecting child mortality,” said former Afghan health minister Wahid Majrooh, who remained in the country after his government fell.
“In Afghanistan, a staggering 95 percent of the population is not eating enough food,” U.N. representative Ramiz Alakbarov warned. “It is a figure so high that it is almost inconceivable. Yet, devastatingly, it is the harsh reality.”
Humanitarian groups blame Afghanistan’s paralyzed banking system as a risk factor in starvation, saying U.S. and European sanctions against the Taliban regime are preventing outside relief groups from paying staffers or purchasing supplies inside the country. As always, this critique bypasses the question of why foreigners denounced as demons by the Taliban should be feeding its captive population while the “Islamic Emirate” is busy designing uniforms for its new army.
In his drive to secure a record $4.4 billion in funding for Afghanistan, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cited reports in March that Afghan civilians are “selling their children and their body parts” to get money for food.
“Wealthy, powerful countries cannot ignore the consequences of their decisions on the most vulnerable. Some 95% of people do not have enough to eat, and 9 million people are at risk of famine … Without immediate action we face a starvation and malnutrition crisis in Afghanistan,” Guterres said.
How the Palestinians Pay Terrorists as Biden Pumps Millions of Aid Dollars Into Their Government
The Palestinian Authority allocates hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists and their families even as the Biden administration pumps U.S. taxpayer funds into the Palestinian government, according to a non-public State Department report issued to Congress and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The report, published on May 10, details how the Palestinian government runs afoul of a U.S. law that bars it from receiving American aid dollars until these terror payments, known as the "pay-to-slay program," are stopped. The PA in 2019, the most recent reporting period available, allocated over $150 million to convicted terrorists. Another $191 million was paid to the families of terrorists who were "martyred" while conducting attacks against Israelis and Americans. There is no sign these payments will end, with Palestinian leaders voicing support on the international stage for the program.
"The PA has not terminated payments for acts of terrorism against Israeli and U.S. citizens to any individual, after being fairly tried, who has been imprisoned for such acts of terrorism and to any individual who died committing such acts of terrorism, including to a family member of such individuals," the State Department concluded. The PA makes these payments in cash as part of an effort to obfuscate its actions and stop the international community from holding it accountable for awarding terrorists and their families, according to the State Department's findings.
The report comes as the Biden administration pushes to increase U.S. aid dollars to the PA, which were terminated during the Trump administration as a result of the "pay-to-slay" program. More than $360 million in U.S. funding was given to the PA in 2021, potentially in violation of a bipartisan law known as the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits the American government from giving the Palestinians aid as long as they pay terrorists. The Biden administration maintains that the aid programs do not violate the law, though it is unclear what safeguards have been put on the funding to ensure it is not used to pay terrorists and their families. The State Department confirmed that no "economic support funds" were withheld as a result of restrictions in the Taylor Force Act.
"The Biden administration is strongly opposed to the prisoner payment system and has consistently engaged the Palestinian Authority to end this practice," a State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon. The U.S. Agency for International Development's "assistance in the West Bank and Gaza is implemented consistent with U.S. law."
Republicans in Congress disagree with this assessment. Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), for example, says the Biden administration cannot guarantee that the PA is not using U.S. funds as part of its terror financing program. Since the PA moved to a cash system, it is even harder to track which tranches of money are being used to fund "pay to slay."
"The Biden administration is ideologically committed to elevating the Palestinian government and pouring money into Palestinian territories," Cruz told the Free Beacon. "They've been doing this while they clearly knew that the same Palestinian government was inciting terrorism and using fungible money to reward terrorism against Israelis and Americans. It's disgraceful and unacceptable."
The PA "now makes the payments in cash and known recipients are unable to deposit the funds in bank accounts in the West Bank and Gaza" due to Israeli laws that bar financial institutions from supporting the program, according to the State Department's findings.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh endorse the "pay-to-slay" program and say they will not give in to the international community's pressure to end it. Both officials "reaffirmed the PA's commitment to continuing the payments for prisoners, including those convicted of acts of terrorism," according to the report.
In March 2021, for instance, Shtayyeh "publicly pledged his commitment to continue financial allowances to Palestinian prisoners and ‘martyrs' even if Israel continues to deduct these amounts from the PA's tax revenues," the report notes.
Abbas in a September speech before the United Nations pledged his support to terrorists and their families: "Why should we have to clarify and justify providing assistance to families of prisoners and ‘martyrs,' who are the victims of the occupation and its oppressive policies? We cannot abandon our people and we will continue striving to free all our prisoners."
The State Department also concluded that the Palestinian government still teaches violence to its children as part of official school curriculums. While portions of this agenda have been reformed, "some incitement to and glorification of violence or terrorism still exist in school textbooks." Efforts to reform the PA do not include plans to reduce incitement against Israel.
The State Department told lawmakers in its latest report that the administration "at all levels … continues to privately engage the PA to end this abhorrent practice."
France Deports Imam for Quoting Qur’an
Wait a minute. What do they think the rest of them are quoting?
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The French news site Fdesouche reported Tuesday that Ahamada Mmadi, an imam from Comoros who has been deported from France, has no regrets: “I have nothing to regret and nothing to apologize for as long as I have spoken the word of Allah. If I repent, I am no longer a Muslim.” Fair enough, Mmadi, but France’s action in deporting this Muslim cleric is curious. If he was really deported for speaking the word of Allah, what do French authorities think the other imams in the country are teaching?
Mmadi added: “I don’t have to apologise for the moment I spoke the word of Allah….Our sisters live a nightmarish life….and we call it a land of freedom.” Mmadi was claiming that women in France live a “nightmarish life” because they aren’t subject to the restrictions on women’s freedom that Islamic law entails. The good imam was apparently criticizing the status of women in France, as compared to the status of women in states that enforce Islamic law (Sharia), during a sermon at the Saint-Chamond mosque in the Loire department. During that sermon, he quoted a passage from the Qur’an that French authorities thought was unacceptably misogynistic.
According to the Islamic news site 5 Pillars UK, Mmadi and his family were “deported from France after he recited a verse from the Quran and quoted a Hadith which encouraged women to be chaste, stay at home and obey their husbands.” He was accused of making “comments incompatible with the principles and laws of the Republic.”
5 Pillars UK says that Mmadi quoted this passage from the Qur’an: “And stay in your houses. Do not display yourselves with the display of the time of ignorance. Be regular in prayer, and give alms, and obey Allah and his messenger.” (Qur’an 33:33)
The Qur’an has much worse; it even calls for the beating of women that Muslim men even suspect might be contemplating getting out of line: “Men are in charge of women, because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend of their property. So good women are obedient, guarding in secret what Allah has guarded. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, give them a warning and banish them to separate beds, and beat them.” (Qur’an 4:34) But it doesn’t seem as if Mmadi even quoted that verse; the other one, calling for women to cover themselves and stay at home, was bad enough in itself for French authorities.
According to 5 Pillars UK, however, Mmadi did go a bit farther: “He also told worshippers at the mosque about an authentic Hadith in which Abu Huraira (ra) reported: ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘If a woman prays her five prayers, fasts her month of Ramadan, guards her chastity, and obeys her husband, she will enter Paradise from any gate she wishes.’” This was the basis upon which “French authorities in the Loire region deemed his sermon, which was made at Eid prayers last year, ‘discriminatory.’”
Mmadi was defiant: “I don’t regret anything. These are not my words, they are the words of the Prophet and of God. All I did was repeat what was in the holy books.” Indeed. And so it is extraordinary that French authorities deported him for this. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of other imams in France. Do French authorities think that they don’t read the same Qur’an that contains the passage Mmadi quoted? Do French authorities assume that all other imams in France reject the Qur’an’s exhortations to violence, misogyny, and hatred for unbelievers? Do they not realize that other Muslims besides Mmadi read and believe in the Qur’an as well?
If French authorities think Mmadi is some kind of extremist outlier, they’re in for a rude awakening. They continue to insist that they want to create a new Islam with French characteristics, an Islam that will be compatible with French secularism. Yet the Qur’an also has Allah telling the believers: “This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favor to you, and have chosen Islam as the religion for you.” (5:3) If Islam is perfect as it is, any change will only make it worse, not better. That’s why innovation (bid’a) is a serious sin in Islam. Do French officials really think they will be able to create a new, Westernized Islam, shorn of its features that are offensive to contemporary Western sensibilities? They are indeed in for a rude awakening.
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.
Islamophobia: The Left Has It Backwards
The left — the progressive, socialist, communist, God-hating, atheistic left — gets just about everything either wrong or backwards, from cancel culture to the 1619 Project to racism to the environment to religion to family matters to abortion and pretty much everything else imaginable. If the left advocates any position on any subject, you're safe betting the rent money that the left got it wrong.
But where leftists go above and beyond the call of duty to put their foot in their mouth is on the subject of so-called Islamophobia.
If anyone dares to criticize Muslims for their violence, misogyny, antisemitism, intolerance, religiously sanctioned lies, and selfish arrogance, the left rushes to the microphones, keyboards, TikTok, etc. to sympathize with the poor mistreated Muslims who practice a "religion of peace" and commiserate with them on how awful it is to be subjected to the horrors of Islamophobia. It's stomach-turning at best, malicious at worst.
Islamophobia is an irrational racist hatred of Muslims and their "peaceful" religion. Islam is a religion, not a race, but we'll leave that aside for now. To be an Islamophobe these days is to be guilty of hating Muslims for no good reason. So says the left.
It also demonstrates the left's complete lack of knowledge about the Greek and Latin roots of the English language.
Greek Roots
A lot of words in English have their roots in Greek. This is especially true in the medical field. Wikipedia has a whole page of Greek and Latin roots on the subject, listed in alphabetical order. Here are just a few of the Greek ones.
- anthropo: (ánthrōpos), human, from which we get the word anthropology
- cardi: (kardía), heart, from which we get the word cardiology
- lip(o): (lípos), fat, lard, from which we get the word liposuction
The list goes on and on. There are Greek roots in every area of the English language.
Take the word "phobia" for example. It comes from the Greek name Phobos, the personification of fear, in mythology a companion of Ares. It's an "irrational fear, horror, or aversion; fear of an imaginary evil or undue fear of a real one." Hydrophobia is the fear of water, arachnophobia is the fear of spiders, acrophobia is the fear of heights, and so on. There are literally hundreds of different phobias, and the one thing they all have in common is fear — intense, unreasoning fear.
There are good reasons to be afraid of some spiders. Black widows and brown recluse spiders are venomous, for instance. There are also good reasons to be afraid of heights. A fall can kill you if you're not careful. But here the operative word is careful. As long as you're not careless, as long as you use proper precautions — when cliff-climbing, for instance — you're perfectly safe.
A phobia is different. The fear engendered by a phobia is intense and unreasoning. That is, it's a powerful fear that causes your heart to race, triggers a rush of adrenaline, causes shortness of breath, shakes, trembling, and the inability to think clearly. This leads to the second part of the phobia — the unreasoning part.
Phobias are not susceptible to reason or analysis. They're based on raw emotion and are immune to rational explanations. A person who suffers from acrophobia, the fear of heights, can't be talked onto the viewing platform on the roof of the Empire State Building for all the money in the world. Telling him there is an unbreakable Plexiglas shield around the edge to prevent accidents won't do any good. Offering a reward is pointless. There is simply no way to convince him it's safe, and there's almost nothing that can induce him to try it. Phobias are immune to reason.
Oddly enough, for all of the foregoing, phobias don't create hatred of the thing the person is fearful of. Phobias are so strong that they don't leave room for hatred. So people with hydrophobia don't hate water; they're afraid of it, but they don't hate it.
Islamophobia
Therefore, since a phobia is an intense, unreasoning fear of something, Islamophobia would be an intense, unreasoning fear of Islam.
And since phobias are so strong that they overwhelm hate, when the left says Islamophobia, is hate speech, it's a contradiction in terms. If someone suffers from Islamophobia, it's axiomatic that he doesn't hate Islam. Contrariwise, if he hates Islam, it's axiomatic that he doesn't suffer from Islamophobia. They're virtually exclusionary terms. You can have one or the other but rarely both.
There are legitimate, historical reasons to fear the actions of Islam, or more specifically, the actions of Muslims. Islam teaches a violent supremacy that is intolerant of other religions and promises instant rewards in heaven to any Muslim who dies fighting for Islam. 9/11 wasn't the result of extremists or terrorists who "hijacked" Islam; it was the perfectly logical and predictable result of Muslims following their Islamic faith to the letter. Every Muslim who charges into battle or attacks someone on the street or the workplace yelling "Allahu akbar" is faithfully following the tenets of Islam.
So there are actual reasons to fear Islam and keep an eye on it, the same as you would a rattlesnake you meet in the woods. Rattlesnakes are dangerous, but as long as you take proper precautions and keep your distance, they won't hurt you. As long as you do that, there's no need for an intense, unreasoning fear of rattlesnakes. Likewise with Islam.
Hating Islam
While there are good, rational reasons to fear the actions of Muslims following Islam, there are equally good and rational reasons to hate the actions of Muslims and Islam itself.
- It's a false religion.
- It preaches violent jihad (war) against non-Muslims and other religions.
- It justifies lying to non-Muslims.
- It prevents people from finding salvation in Christ.
- It's a totalitarian ideology.
- It traps people and makes them afraid to leave.
Leave fear of Islam to those on the godless left. You can tell they're afraid of it because it would never occur to them to insult Islam the way they insult Christianity. Leftists feel free to insult, deride, and make horrible jokes about Christianity because they know that Christians won't riot in the streets or try to kill them for it. Muslims, on the other hand, have a long and verifiable history of doing exactly that.
Just ask the French reporters at Charlie Hebdo about it. On January 7, 2015, Muslim brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of Charlie Hebdo armed with rifles and other weapons. They killed 12 reporters and injured 11 more, while shouting "Allahu akbar," to avenge years of the magazine's satire aimed at Islam.
Now try to picture Christians doing that over insults to Jesus. You can't, because you know it would never happen. The godless left knows it, too. Leftists know that Christians will turn the other cheek, but Muslims will shoot them in the cheek, head, stomach, back, and sides while yelling "Allahu akbar."
The godless leftists are the ones who suffer from Islamophobia, because they're terrified of Islam.
Michael V. Wilson is an author, freelance writer, curmudgeon, and husband who writes for the joy of it at Scribe of Texas.
Why the Koran Is Responsible for the Slaughter of a Christian Priest
Especially by way of these three verses.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
On April 7, 2022, in Egypt, a Muslim man lunged at and viciously stabbed a Christian priest thrice in the neck with a knife; Fr. Arsenius Wadid died soon thereafter. Although the murderer was instantly apprehended by passersby—the crime was committed on a crowded street—Egyptian authorities initially tried to do what their Western counterparts often do: portray the murderer as “insane,” an aberration of society.
Due to a combination of public outcry (primarily from the Copts themselves), the testimonials of seventeen eyewitnesses, and even the murderer’s own coherent responses—to say nothing of the fact that of all the people he could have “randomly” murdered he targeted the one openly professing his Christian faith by wearing a large crucifix around his neck—prosecution finally confirmed that he would be tried as sane and cognizant of his actions.
Why both Westerners and non-Westerners constantly seek to portray Muslim murderers of non-Muslims as “insane” should be clear by now: the alternative—that Islam somehow promotes such behavior—would open a massive can of worms that no one wants to deal with.
But can one really say that Islam promotes even the unprovoked slaying of a Christian clergyman, Fr. Arsenius, who was peacefully engaged in a public charitable activity with the youth of his church when he was slaughtered?
Three Koran passages would seem to answer this question in the affirmative: 1. “Kill the polytheists wherever you find them (9:5); 2. “Fight the leaders of disbelief [kufr] (9:12); 3. “When you meet the disbelievers, strike [with your blades at their] necks (47:4).
Consider how these three verses apply to the current case: A Muslim man comes across a “leader of disbelief”—that is, a clergyman, a visible representative of Christianity, as demarcated by the cross around Fr. Arsenius’s neck. It did not matter that he came across him on an open and crowded street, since Allah also commands the believers to “kill the polytheists”—and Islam categorizes Christians as polytheists due to the Trinity—“wherever you find them.” Finally, the murderer took his deity’s advice by striking directly at the neck, the jugular, which he repeatedly stabbed with a knife.
Should this rather straightforward interpretation still seem farfetched or not “nuanced” enough, keep in mind that Muslims recite the aforementioned three and many more hate-filled and violent Koran verses every single day; these scriptures are highlighted, praised, and expounded in countless books, on countless televised programs, and all throughout the mosques of the world, especially Egypt’s. In other words, these verses are ingrained in the minds of pious, observant Muslims.
Even so, one may object that, if such verses are so influential, why aren’t their more such attacks? Such an observation can only be made by someone whose information is exclusively derived from “mainstream media” sources: random attacks on “infidels” are actually quite common—not a few of them featuring knife stabs to the neck.
In Egypt alone—where a Coptic clergyman once complained that attacks on Christians happen “every two or three days”—a murder nearly identical to that of Fr. Arsenius took place in 2017: then, a Muslim man wielding a butcher’s knife was seen and videotaped chasing a Coptic bishop in broad daylight; when he finally cornered him, the Muslim repeatedly stabbed the Christian in his neck and head, murdering him. Finally, to underscore that his handiwork was religiously (Islamicly) motivated, the murderer used the bishop’s own blood to draw a cross on his forehead.
Further confirming that this killer was motivated by Koran verses such as those cited above, neighbors said that he had recently “begun praying in the street, shouting loudly and calling Christians infidels.” As for motive, one report explained that “he had decided to kill any Coptic priest, purchased a dagger, and lay in wait for one to pass by, in a street leading to the local church.”
“Lay in wait for one to pass by” sounds awfully similar to Koran 9:5, which, after calling on Muslims to kill infidels “wherever you find them,” counsels the faithful also to “capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way.”
There are other such examples. In 2013, Coptic priest Mina Cheroubim was shot dead as he left his church in al-Arish, Egypt. A botched attempt occurred in 2020: while traveling to his church in Alexandria, a Coptic priest was ambushed and “nearly murdered” by a Muslim parolee. According to the report, “the parolee, nicknamed Kareem Madi, has a history of attacking Christians—especially women and girls.”
Such murderous assaults are hardly limited to Coptic clergymen who, as the saying goes, wear their faith on their sleeves. Everyday Christians are also targeted and killed in what Egyptian media present as “random attacks” (with the only constant being the religion of the murderers, Islam, and the religion of their victims, Christianity).
As just two examples, in 2020 a Muslim man crept up behind a Christian woman walking home with groceries, grabbed her hair, pulled her head back, and slit her throat with a knife. Two days later, another Muslim man went for the jugular of a Christian man with a box-cutter; he only managed to sever an ear. On being questioned concerning his motive, this Muslim confessed that he did not know the Copt, but that he simply “hates Christians.” There are many more such examples from Egypt alone (to say nothing of the rest of the Muslim world); see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Such attacks are even spilling into the West. As one example, in 2016, two Muslim men marched into a church in France during mass and slit the throat of its 85-year-old priest, Fr. Jaques Hamil, killing him.
One may still protest: if certain Koran verses call for the outright butchery of infidels, “wherever you find them,” and if at least ten percent of Egypt’s population is Christian, shouldn’t there be many more—indeed, daily—murders?
The answer to this seeming conundrum is straightforward enough. First, although certain Islamic sects, past and present, have always accepted (and enacted) such murderous verses at face value, the mainstream did not, particularly in the context of the development of Islamic law, or sharia, which, in the case of Coptic Christians, made dhimmis of them, who are only to be killed if they rejected their second-class status (which then and now can be and is interpreted differently).
More importantly, however, is that Egypt is a modern state—meaning the random killing of a citizen on the charge of being an “infidel” is strictly prohibited. As such, only the most zealous—or as they are often portrayed, the most insane—are willing to accept the consequences of impulsively enacting the hate-filled and violent verses of their holy book, which include long or even life prison sentences.
That said, such killings would certainly be much more frequent—especially on Fridays, when the more “radical” mosques repeatedly cite such verses to rile their attendees against the hated “infidels”—were they not outlawed and punished by the state.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) blasted Omar in June after the congresswoman equated the U.S. and Israel to Hamas terrorists and the Taliban, claiming she was unfit to serve in Congress.
“Omar is an antisemite who hates America and hates American troops,” he said. “She has no place serving in Congress.”
MUSLIM NEO-FASCISM IN AMERICA
Ilhan and Imran's Incredible Islamophobia Intimacy
A shared campaign to destroy the freedom of speech.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-muslim-threat-to-america-ilhan-and.html
It’s Muslim Roulette. Even the most “moderate” and “peaceful” Muslims can, out of the blue, commit the most obscene acts of violence, but with no prior warning signs. These Muslims may not act outwardly any different than they have before, but internally, they began to take Islam seriously. And the more serious a Muslim takes Islam, the more potentially dangerous he or she is. Here’s what I mean by Muslim Roulette:
A is A. Islam is Islam. There is no such thing as “Good” Islam or “Bad” Islam. Islam is a totalitarian religion, while Muslims are individual human beings who may or may not practice Islam faithfully. There are active Muslims and passive Muslims, the faithful and the unfaithful, the submitted and the un-submitted in Islam, but there is no obvious way to tell the difference between them, which has its benefits for Muslims who are committed to spreading Islam by any means necessary. Mohammad said “War is deceit” and practiced this, and Muslims have followed their leader in using deception against non-Muslims from the first days of Islam to today. When Islam, the very antithesis of peace, is sold to us by Muslims and their useful idiots as being the very definition of peace, and actually gains traction, that would have made Goebbels blush.
BIDEN MUSLIMS
Biden: 'So Many Muslims Are Targeted With Violence' and 'Oppressed for Their Religious Beliefs'
Complaining about fake violence against Muslims while ignoring real violence by Muslims.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/05/sociopath-lawyer-joe-biden-up-muslims.html
Congresswoman Omar Poses for Photo with 'America is Run on Hate' Guy
Imtiaz Mohammad cozies up to politicians, while belittling the US and its citizens.
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).
Politicians take photos with a lot of people, and sometimes they wish they hadn’t. Given his statements belittling the US and her citizens, photos taken with Imtiaz Mohammad, founder of the American Muslim Progressive Caucus (AMPC), are probably ones that some office holders would wish they could take back. Yet, time and again, politicians smile and cozy up to him, lending themselves and their images to be shared on his social media. This was the case, when US Representative Ilhan Omar came to South Florida to speak at a CAIR event, and it has been the case for many others. Question: Do they agree with Mohammad’s contemptable views?
Imtiaz Ahmad Mohammad grew up in the Hyderabad area of Pakistan and arrived in the United States in 1991, first settling in New York, then Florida. Since coming to Florida, Mohammad has been involved in a number of ventures. He runs a plethora of South Florida beauty salons. In 2015, he incorporated and published a South Asian oriented monthly magazine, Pak Mag, which changed its name to Asian Times, in 2017, and which dissolved in 2018. He has also involved himself in the Democratic Party and different progressive causes, such as defunding police and abolishing ICE, and he had a couple of failed attempts at running for statewide office.
As well, Mohammad has attended and spoken at a number of events organized by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a group with several ties to South Asian extremism and which Mohammad calls “a humanitarian champion.” For 30-plus years, ICNA has harbored alleged death squad leader Ashrafuz Zaman Khan from the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide, and ICNA has promoted Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a banned front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). ICNA has further sponsored anti-Israel events, including a July 2014 pro-Hamas rally in downtown Miami, where rally goers repeatedly chanted “We are Hamas” and “Let’s go Hamas.”
In January 2017, Mohammad was a contact for tickets to an ICNA benefit dinner, featuring Hamas operative Monzer Taleb and community activist/agitator Linda Sarsour, whom Mohammad calls “a remarkable American Muslim.” Taleb has notoriously sung songs threatening Jews, and in June 2019, he posted a message on The Democratic congresswoman says she has always been somebody who 'understands how words can be harmful and hurtful to people.' We believe her.
The Jews can never seem to live up to Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D., Minn.) exacting standards.
The Minnesota congresswoman’s latest broadside came Tuesday afternoon, when she told CNN’s Jake Tapper that her Jewish Democratic colleagues "haven’t been partners in justice" and have yet to apologize for their allegedly Islamophobic comments.
Omar’s statement came after Tapper asked whether she regrets her comments last month comparing the United States and Israel with terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Taliban. Her answer was unequivocal: "I don’t."
That’s funny, because Omar at the time "clarified" that statement, which elicited a rebuke from Democratic leaders and a dozen Jewish Democrats, saying that she did not say what in fact she said: "I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries." To be clear, she also believes Israel is a terrorist nation.
Omar, as the kids say, is owning her truth. Her tap dance follows a pattern that is by now well established, in which the justice-seeking congresswoman makes nakedly prejudicial remarks, pretends to walk them back in the face of muted criticism from her colleagues, characterizes the criticism itself as Islamophobic, and proceeds to reoffend.
That pattern gives the lie to the apology Omar issued after arguing that American support for Israel is "all about the Benjamins, baby": Her offenses were born of ignorance rather than prejudice, she said, and thanked her colleagues for "educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes."
Omar could give a master class on anti-Semitism, and the pattern of her offenses makes clear she is using that knowledge to perpetuate it. That’s probably why a Punchbowl News report earlier this month indicated that "a number of Omar’s fellow Democrats believe Omar is an anti-Semite, even if they don’t say so publicly."
It is, of course, the only prejudice about which Democrats are tight-lipped and the only one tolerated in the party’s ranks.
It is also the latest indication that the party is following in the footsteps of the British left, led until recently by Squad ally Jeremy Corbyn. A report from the United Kingdom's Equality and Human Rights Commission implicated not just Corbyn, whose offenses are legion, but the Labour Party itself, which "at best, did not do enough to prevent anti-Semitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it."
To the extent there is resistance in the Democratic Party to Omar’s relentless attacks on Jews and her condemnations of American power and influence, surely it is driven at least in part by the shellacking the British left took in the last national election there.
Should the Democrats continue down this path, we have faith that the outcome for the left will be the same here as in Britain, and that the more they see of Omar and her allies, the dimmer their prospects become.
MUSLIM NEO-FASCISM IN AMERICA
Ilhan and Imran's Incredible Islamophobia Intimacy
A shared campaign to destroy the freedom of speech.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-muslim-threat-to-america-ilhan-and.html
It’s Muslim Roulette. Even the most “moderate” and “peaceful” Muslims can, out of the blue, commit the most obscene acts of violence, but with no prior warning signs. These Muslims may not act outwardly any different than they have before, but internally, they began to take Islam seriously. And the more serious a Muslim takes Islam, the more potentially dangerous he or she is. Here’s what I mean by Muslim Roulette:
A is A. Islam is Islam. There is no such thing as “Good” Islam or “Bad” Islam. Islam is a totalitarian religion, while Muslims are individual human beings who may or may not practice Islam faithfully. There are active Muslims and passive Muslims, the faithful and the unfaithful, the submitted and the un-submitted in Islam, but there is no obvious way to tell the difference between them, which has its benefits for Muslims who are committed to spreading Islam by any means necessary. Mohammad said “War is deceit” and practiced this, and Muslims have followed their leader in using deception against non-Muslims from the first days of Islam to today. When Islam, the very antithesis of peace, is sold to us by Muslims and their useful idiots as being the very definition of peace, and actually gains traction, that would have made Goebbels blush.
Biden: 'So Many Muslims Are Targeted With Violence' and 'Oppressed for Their Religious Beliefs'
Complaining about fake violence against Muslims while ignoring real violence by Muslims.
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/05/sociopath-lawyer-joe-biden-up-muslims.html
Rep. Ilhan Omar Accused of ‘Shilling for Iran’ After Calling to ‘Finalize’ Iran Deal
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) took heat online after posting a message in support of an immediate finalization of the damaging Iran Deal, which she claimed would stave off a Middle East conflict.
In a Monday tweet, Omar highlighted the urgency of securing a deal to lift sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
“We are running out time in making peace in the Middle East and avoiding war,” the Minnesota Muslim congresswoman wrote. “It’s time to finalize the Iran deal!”
Despite her attempt to tie the deal to “making peace,” many took to social media to blast her support for acceding to the theocracy.
“Making peace in the Middle East has much more to do with expanding the #AbrahamAccords, allowing Israel to work together with her Arab neighbors on tourism, economic growth & diplomacy, rather than making a bad deal in Vienna to fund the #1 State sponsor of terrorism in the world,” wrote media contributor Joel M. Petlin.
“Running out of time to make peace in the Middle East? @Ilhan We suggest you google Abraham Accords and stop pushing @NIACouncil’s talking points,” wrote Iranian advocacy group Iranian Americans for Liberty (IAL).
“We had peace in the Middle East, but then you elected Biden,” wrote conservative writer and commentator Chad Greene.
“On behalf of Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, Yemenis, Saudis, Emiratis, Bahrainis, Israelis, Egyptians, Iranians oppressed by their own regime and all people who will affected by Irani regime terrorism EMPOWERED by this deal, Please SHUT UP!!!” wrote former Miss Iraq Sarah Idan.
“Tell me you’re a pro-terrorism without telling me you’re pro-terrorism,” she added in another tweet.
“You have no right to talk on behalf of millions in the Middle East, most of them refuse your dirty #IranDeal that will empower Iran’s #IRGC— that ruined Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria,” wrote Dr. Nervana Mahmoud, a regional observer and independent commentator on Middle East issues.
“Shame on you!” she added.
“Ilhan Omar opposes the #AbrahamAccords and *actual peace* in the Middle East while shilling for Iran,” wrote social media activist Emily Schrader. “Can’t make this up.”
“Who’d like to support a fundraiser to help @Ilhan realize her lifelong dream of becoming an Iranian citizen?” wrote one Twitter user.
“Nothing says a stable middle east like giving terrorists nukes,” another wrote.
Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism worldwide, claims its nuclear program is for energy purposes, but world leaders, including the six nations that joined the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear weapons capacity, say enriching uranium may lead to Iran’s ability to quickly create a nuclear weapon.
The Obama-led nuclear deal — deemed fatally flawed and highly one-sided by many, from which then-President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 — delineates an enrichment limit of 3.67 percent.
Iran has been accused of violating the agreement as Tehran produces more enriched uranium.
Nevertheless, current nuclear talks in Vienna may see the United States and other world powers provide Iran with economic sanctions relief in exchange for temporary restrictions on its nuclear program.
According to a former State Department official, President Joe Biden’s impending agreement to restore the Iran nuclear deal offers the regime access to $90 billion in foreign currency reserves and sanctions relief to some of the world’s worst terrorists.
In addition to being granted hundreds of billions of dollars, it will likely use for terror and aggression. The deal also will not prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons.
In March, Russia’s envoy to the Iran nuclear talks admitted Tehran “got much more than it could expect” in the latest iteration of the nuclear deal.
Omar has a history of controversy, having been accused repeatedly of being antisemitic, anti-American, and supportive of terrorists.
In April, Minnesota congressional candidate Cicely Davis, a Republican challenger to Omar, accused the congresswoman of never missing an opportunity to “sow division.”
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) blasted Omar in June after the congresswoman equated the U.S. and Israel to Hamas terrorists and the Taliban, claiming she was unfit to serve in Congress.
“Omar is an antisemite who hates America and hates American troops,” he said. “She has no place serving in Congress.”
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
They Told Us to Renounce Jesus [or Else]'
The atrocities Muslims inflicted on Christians in the span of just one month.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article is reprinted from the Gatestone Institute.
The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of March, 2022:
The Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Iraq: Family members murdered Eman Sami Maghdid, 20, also known as “Maria.” Her “crime” was having embraced Christianity and behaving in a liberated manner, beginning four years earlier, when she abandoned the marriage she was forced into at the age of 12. Her 18-year-old brother and/or uncle responded by slaughtering her on Sunday, Mar. 6. Maria’s body was later found “tied with a tape, thrown at the side of the road, with many stab wounds,” said a local source. According to one report,
[S]he was punished by her family for leaving Islam, specifically for being emancipated and embracing the Christian religion; in short, she was ‘guilty’ of apostasy…. The young woman was well known for her activism, her struggle for women’s rights, which—together with her conversion to Christianity—led her to be condemned by her family….
News of Maria’s murder surfaced on International Women’s Day, Mar. 8. Rather than highlight this incident as evidence that much still needs to be done in the field of women’s rights, support for the murderers and abuse for their victim was evident throughout Iraq. According to one report,
[O]n the evening of March 8th, a radio interview was aired by what is one of the largest broadcasters, K24, where Maria’s brother and murderer was able to explain the motives of his cold-blooded murder for almost 15 minutes uncensored and without criticism—while he was still on the run…
For the entirety of March 8, social media comment columns were awash with people who, as always, condoned the murder. Old pictures of Maria were passed around, in which she was still wearing a hijab, and people commented, ‘see, this is what happens when you leave your faith,’ as many speculated that Maria converted to Christianity. Lies and slander were spread about her, and men and women threw themselves into a contest to see who could blame her most for her murder. By March 9, the brother was found in Kirkuk and detained, but until then, a large part of the Kurdish public managed to assassinate Marias’s character post mortem.
Uganda: Muslims publicly beat a Christian preacher to death before setting his body on fire. According to the Mar. 8 report,
John Michael Okero was quoting verses from the Koran about Christ [during an open-air evangelistic meeting] … when a Muslim identified only as Shakuuru grabbed the microphone from him. He and other Muslims started beating Okero as they accused him of blaspheming Allah by saying that he has a Son, misinterpreting the Koran, touching the Koran without ritual cleansing and disrespecting it by placing it under the Bible… They beat him to death with iron bars, stones and sticks and later burned his body to a chant in the Ateso language referring to a thief who steals people from one religion to join a bad religion, the source said. Okero was 43.
Egypt: On Mar. 1, six Muslim men killed and mutilated three Christian men (two brothers and one of their sons). The Christians were working on their field when the Muslims unexpectedly attacked and killed them, before proceeding to carve their bodies with knives while reportedly singing and dancing. It was later portrayed as a “revenge” killing for the killing of a Muslim ancestor that occurred seventy years ago—decades before the eldest of the slain Christians was even born. According to lawyer Romani Michel,
This heinous crime cannot be an act of revenge, because the method of killing involves the element of mutilating corpses, which does not happen in typical revenge crimes. Rather, the method shows that it was committed in the same way as ISIS, and therefore the security and prosecution must verify the truth of the motives behind the crime, which has the smell of murder on religious identity.
Other factors—“the village of the perpetrators turned into celebrations with drums and flutes to celebrate the killing,” even as the triumphant murderers chanted “Allahu Akbar”— further suggest that religious hostility played at least some role in the gruesome slaying.
Separately but also in Egypt, a Muslim man stabbed a Christian man seven times with a knife, after the Christian tried to save his son from the Muslim, their neighbor, who was holding the teenager against his will. Earlier in the day, the Muslim man, Mahmoud Abdel Rahman, had asked Thomas, his 17-year-old Christian neighbor, to bring him medicine because he was ill. When the youth entered Mahmoud’s premises, the Muslim lunged at and tried to stab him. Thomas managed to escape to Mahmoud’s balcony, where he locked himself in. From there, the teenager’s father, Magdy Fathy Shehata, heard Thomas’s cries for help, and rushed to his Muslim neighbor’s home. On entering, Mahmoud ambushed and began to stab him, while calling the Christian and his son infidels (kuffar) and crying “Allahu Akbar!” Magdy was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Quoting a local source, the Mar. 24 report says that Mahmoud had long targeted Christian “infidels,” including by playing “Koran recitations through loudspeakers” and “mistreating and insulting Christians.”
Germany: A Muslim migrant from Somalia living in a homeless shelter repeatedly stabbed to death and beheaded a fellow resident, in part due to his Christian background. During his trial, defense lawyers argued that the accused suffered from mental problems. According to one report,
Two therapists reported several conversations with the accused. He had told different versions of the crime… The accused had told of voices in his head and of statues standing behind him and staring at him. He was also afraid that the Christian faith [of his victim] would be inserted to him like a hard drive.
Democratic Republic of Congo: In a raid that began on Sunday, Mar. 13, and continued into the next day, members of the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic terror organization pledged to the Islamic State, butchered 52 people in the predominantly Christian nation.
Nigeria: Some of the accounts of terrorization and slaughter that Christians experienced in the month of March follow:
On Sunday, Mar. 20, an Islamic horde of more than 100 Fulani terrorists invaded a Christian village where they slaughtered 32 Christians and torched 200 homes. Many local residents were interviewed during the aftermath. “My mum’s family houses were all razed down, and one of my cousins was burnt to death in their house,” area resident Violet Peter said. “We haven’t been able to reach some of our [other] relatives. Lord please, this is too much for us.” Flora Kundi, another local, expressed similar sentiments: “This is too much for us, my colleague has been killed.” “I’ve never experienced what I did last night,” another area resident, Favour Gimbiya, said. “We could hear the gunshots very close to us. This is not the country we were enjoying before. Our children can’t go to school today; we don’t know our fate anymore.” “Is this a war declared against Christians?” was all that Florence Tachio, another local, could say.
On Mar. 3, Islamic terrorists slaughtered three Christians and abducted four. “I have always heard of kidnapping but never knew it would come right at my doorstep,” said a survivor. “I am now a victim as my Dad, Funom Bage, 57, and elder brother, James Bage, 30, were killed right in our house.”
On Mar. 8, Muslim terrorists killed a church security guard during their abduction of the Rev. Joseph Akeke of St. John’s Catholic Church. Another man was killed in the Christian majority region as the murderers shot sporadically while making their getaway. A woman and two children were also kidnapped. In another region, a young female Christian student at the University of Jos was also abducted on that day.
Between Mar. 26 and 27, Muslim Fulani raided six villages whence they abducted 45 Christians, one of whom was a priest, the Rev. Leo Raphael Ozigi of Mary’s Catholic Church. “Activities of Fulani herdsmen and terrorist elements here in Niger state have placed so much pressure on Christians, as entire Christian communities … are in disarray,” said another pastor in response.
On Mar. 17, Muslim Fulani herdsmen kidnapped 46 Christians, including many children, during a raid in Kaduna state. “The herdsmen terrorists invaded our village, while the Christian villagers were sleeping,” an area resident said. “They trooped into our village in large numbers and began shooting indiscriminately at anyone on sight…. Please be in prayer for these Christians being held captive in an unknown location at the moment.”
Muslim Attacks on Apostates and Blasphemers
Uganda: Muslim relatives of a family consisting of a husband (38), wife (32), and daughter (13) that had recently converted to Christianity sprayed them with acid. Two weeks earlier, Muslims learned that the family had embraced Christ, and called them to a family meeting, on Mar. 8. “During the meeting,” said Juma Waiswa, the father, “we were asked about our salvation, and we affirmed to them that we had believed in Jesus and converted to Christianity. They told us to renounce Jesus, but we stood by the newly founded faith in Jesus.”
When we refused to recant our faith in Jesus, my father, Arajabu, recited some koranic verses, and after that they forcefully started beating us with sticks as prescribed in the Koran, claiming that we were apostates. As this was not enough, my father went inside the room and picked up a bottle of acid and began spraying it on us while the group started shouting, ‘Allah Akbar [Allah is greater], you deserve death,’ and then disowned us… [A]s we were fleeing for our lives, we started feeling some serious itching that continued till the pain intensified. A nearby Christian neighbor called the pastor, who arrived immediately and took us to hospital in Mbale, but our daughter was seriously affected and was referred to a hospital in Jinja.
On the following day, March 9, while all three family members were still hospitalized, Muslim relatives set their home ablaze. Last reported, the “three are still undergoing hospital treatment.”
Separately but also in Uganda, Muslims beat a former mosque leader for converting to Christianity. Soon after Swaleh Mulongo stopped appearing at the mosque, and on learning of his defection from Islam, the new mosque leader organized a manhunt for him. They eventually located the church he attends and, on Mar. 13, intercepted him before he reached it. According to Mulongo, “It was around 8 a.m. when four Muslims stopped me and began asking me so many questions regarding Christianity, but I did not respond. Then the men started beating me up with blows and sticks, but thank God when they saw some people approaching, they fled away.”
With deep and serious wounds, including to his head and back, and a broken wrist, he was rushed to a hospital. Not content, his assailants continued until they had located the home of the pastor who had led Swaleh Mulongo to Christ and slaughtered his goats and chickens. They also left a warning letter: “We know you are a deceiver, and that you converted our imam to Christianity. We shall soon get hold of you, which will be a big regret to your family and the entire church.”
Pakistan: On Mar. 16, authorities arrested, beat, and tortured a Christian man into confessing that he had made “blasphemous” remarks about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, on Facebook, an accusation which he had rejected prior to the torture. Officials raided the home of Fansan Shahid, 54, shortly after midnight, before hauling him away to extract a confession. According to his wife, Safia, “When my husband opened the gate, over a dozen policemen rushed inside and started beating him up. My two children and I screamed and cried as they tortured Shahid and searched the rooms.” The arrest came soon after an Islamic cleric had registered a complaint against Shahid. The blasphemous remarks he allegedly made were posted by a cell phone he had lost back in 2019, his wife said: “We believe that the lost phone was misused by someone to post the blasphemous comment, because my husband did not use a passcode for its security, and his Facebook account was also logged in.” According to a legal representative, “Shahid has been charged under Sections 295-C, which calls for a mandatory death sentence for blaspheming Muhammad, and 295-A, which mandates up to 10 years in prison for ‘deliberate and malicious acts intended to outreach religious feelings.’” Because virtually every Christian in Pakistan is cognizant of these blasphemy related penalties, Shahid “would never post such comments as he was fully aware of the consequences,” his wife said, and often reminded their children “to refrain from discussing religion with Muslims.”
A separate report that appeared on Mar. 15, a day before Shahid’s arrest, seemingly confirms his wife’s claims. In an attempt to forestall discrimination and persecution against them, not only are Christian families careful not to offend Muslims, but they are going as far as to deny their Christian identities and pretend to be Muslims. One young Christian boy interviewed said that, while he is proud of being a Christian, “because of my faith, I often face challenges.” Although he used to wear a cross necklace, he has since stopped wearing it as it had exposed him for abuse. According to another interviewed Christian woman aged 40, “I changed my name because I faced discrimination by the instructors of Islamiyat classes in school. I have started to wear a hijab so people can’t find out more about me. My life has become much easier.” The experiences of her husband, the only Christian worker at a cement factory, confirmed her decision: “I was always discriminated against because of my faith,” he said, “and some of the Muslim employees used to harass me and make slogans to tease me. I resigned from the job in 2012.” He too now dresses like a Muslim. The couple have given their three children Muslim names and instructed them never to talk about religion. “My mother suggested I cover myself in school and college like other Muslim girls,” another young Christian girl that was interviewed said. “Since then my life has been free of discrimination and harassment, as no one in my class knows I am a Christian. I take Islamic Studies classes with them and pretend to be a Muslim.”
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
Pakistan: A Muslim man named Muhammed Bilal Saleem climbed atop and wrapped himself around a large cross on church property and started violently swinging his body in an attempt to bring it down—all while chanting Koran verses, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” and generally threatening Christians (video here). Two other Muslim men accompanying him insulted local Christian men while ogling and making crude sexual gestures to Christian girls. According to the Mar. 19 report, Muhammad was so “intent to tip the cross over,” and “in such a religious frenzy” that “he was risking his life to do so.” Not only did his attempt fail—the cross did not come down—but he hurt himself while jumping to the ground. In response,
Church members and other Christian people rushed to his rescue and, in a country known for its religious fundamentalism, they showed a real example of love. Instead of beating the man or lynching him, which many Muslims would do for much lighter religious offence[s], the Christian community placed the man on a charpai [bed] and brought him water.
Sudan: Angry Muslims upset by its presence locked up and shut down a church. In response, authorities arrested and questioned that church’s leaders. After his release, Dalman Hassan, an evangelist of the Sudanese Church of Christ, said that “the Muslims accused church members of hostility toward Islam by holding gatherings on Fridays, the Muslim day of mosque prayer.” Or in the words of one of the charges brought to officials, “They [Christians meeting in church] cause chaos and disrespect others’ religion.” Another church member said that “hardline Muslims also charged the church with providing food to [Muslim] children to win them to Christianity…”
Egypt: On Mar. 30, Amnesty International issued a report calling on Egyptian authorities to “immediately release nine Coptic Christians who were arbitrarily detained after peacefully protesting against the authorities’ refusal to rebuild a church that had burned down over five years ago…” Discussing that incident, Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director, elaborated:
The Egyptian authorities have for years ignored calls to rebuild the church, leaving around 800 Coptic Christians without a place to worship in their village. Now, in their shameful efforts to silence these calls, they are arbitrarily detaining villagers, criminalizing peaceful protests, and slapping ludicrous charges on those who dare to speak out…. Coptic Christians in Egypt should be afforded the right to collectively practise their religion. For too long, their religious freedom has been undermined by discriminatory laws and practices, which place undue restrictions on the construction and renovation of churches and grant unbridled power to governors and security forces to make decisions over church repairs…. The right to freedom of religion should never be restricted on discriminatory grounds, including people’s faith, economic status or location. The Egyptian authorities must immediately repeal the country’s discriminatory church law and replace it with one that ensures the right to freedom of religion for all without imposing additional conditions and barriers on religious minorities…. Egyptian authorities have failed not only to protect Coptic Christians from repeated sectarian attacks against their communities, but also to bring those responsible for such violence to justice.
Generic Discrimination against Christians
Egypt: In an attempt to demonstrate Egypt’s advancement concerning women, the nation’s discriminatory views on non-Muslims were equally displayed. On Mar. 3, 98 female judges took the legal oath in preparation for assuming judicial roles in Egypt’s State Council. This is considered a major and unprecedented development; since its inception 75 years earlier, not a single woman has sat on the podium of the State Council court—and now 98 will. And yet, not one of them is a Christian—despite the fact that the Copts, Egypt’s most native inhabitants, amount for more than ten percent of the nation’s population, suggesting that 10 of the 98 should have, for proper representation, been Christians.
Indonesia: A few days after a Christian man and a Muslim woman got married—and photos of their wedding in a Catholic church went viral—on Mar. 9, the nation’s top Islamic clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, declared that “the marriage of this couple is invalid and cannot be allowed.” According to Islamic law, or sharia, interfaith marriages are permissible only when the man (seen as the head of the woman and future children) is Muslim. The married couple responded by ignoring the clerics.
How the Koran Calls for the Murder of Christians
On April 7, 2022, in Egypt, a Muslim man lunged at and viciously stabbed a Christian priest thrice in the neck with a knife; Fr. Arsenius Wadid died soon thereafter.
Exclusive Video: London Mayor Sadiq Khan Tells Muslim Crowd They Are Trump’s ‘Worst Nightmare’
Thousands of Muslims gathered in London on Saturday to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid, in an event sponsored by a controversial Islamic charity and arranged by Mayor Sadiq Khan, who described the event as Donald Trump’s “worst nightmare”.
Marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, thousands of Muslims flocked to Trafalgar Square to celebrate ‘Eid in the Square’, featuring performances of traditional music, dance, comedy, and poetry.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, whose office helped coordinate the event, said that the celebration demonstrated the power of “diversity” in the British capital.
“You and I both know that Islamophobia is on the rise across the West but the key message we send to anyone is that diversity is not a weakness it is a strength. We don’t simply tolerate difference, we embrace it, we respect it and we celebrate it,” Khan claimed in a speech.
After concluding his address, the leftist mayor returned to the stage, sarcastically claiming that they had received a “complaint from America, from a chap called Donald Trump”.
“He says can you quiet down, you’re too loud. True story, I have his mobile phone number. So what I want to do is send a selfie from London and send it to him.”
“This is his worst nightmare,” Khan said in reference to the heavily Islamic crowd.
While in office, President Donald Trump and Khan engaged in several high-profile spats, with the American leader chastising the Labour Party politician as a “stone-cold loser” for his failure to tackle knife crime in the city.
Mayor Khan, for his part, called for the president to be barred from receiving a state visit in Britain.
Khan would go on to accuse Trump of deploying “xenophobia, racism, and ‘otherness’ as an electoral tactic” and said that Trump only cared about “White America”, claiming the America First campaign slogan was code for “White America First”.
Kurt Zindulka / Breitbart NewsThe event also saw the Islamic Call to Prayer, or Adhan, echo out across Trafalgar Square.
The ‘Eid in the Square’ celebration was sponsored in part by the largest Muslim charity in Britain, Islamic Relief UK, a subject of the Birmingham-based Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW).
The charity has come under considerable scrutiny over alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated a terrorist organisation in Egypt, and anti-Semitic statements made by leaders of the charity.
In 2020, the entire board of Islamic Relief Worldwide resigned after it was reported that in 2015 a former director of the charity, Dr Almoutaz Tayara, had posted an image with the phrases “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
Dr Tayara was also reported to have praised the Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas as a group of “great men” who took up the “divine and holy call of the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Following the revelation, the State Department under the Trump administration cut ties with the United Nations-funded organisation. Both the Netherlands and Germany also cut ties with the charity and barred the group from receiving state funding over the alleged connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.
German officials said in a statement they had enough evidence to conclude that Islamic Relief Worldwide and Islamic Relief Germany have “significant personal connections to the Muslim Brotherhood or related organisations.”
Despite allegations of anti-Semitism and connections to terror organisations, however the United Kingdom’s Charity Commission decided that it would not remove Islamic Relief’s charity status, which affords it special tax dispensations.
The regulator said that the charity had done enough to condemn the previous statements from former directors.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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