Hamas-Linked CAIR Calls for Hate Crime Charges in Marion, Iowa
About something that has nothing to do with Islam.
The West Turns its Back on Persecuted Christians, Embraces Radical Muslims
A look at the West’s highly discriminatory immigration system.
Pew: 45% of U.S. Adults Think America Should be a ‘Christian Nation’
(CNS News) -- A new Pew Research poll found that 45% of Americans, nearly half the country, think the United States should be a "Christian nation" to one degree or another, and that 60% believe America was originally intended to be a Christian nation.
The Pew Research Center conducted the survey among 10,588 U.S. adults and asked them, “Do you think the founders of America originally intended for the U.S. to be a ‘Christian nation’?” 60% of Americans said yes, while 37% said no.
When asked, “Do you think the U.S. should be a “Christian nation”? 45% said yes and 51% said no.
The survey also asked, “Do you think the U.S. is now a “Christian nation”? 64% said no and 33% said yes.
Commenting on the words “Christina nation,” Pew said, “While some people who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation define the concept as one where a nation’s laws are based on Christian tenets and the nation’s leaders are Christian, it is much more common for people in this category to see a Christian nation as one where people are more broadly guided by Christian values or a belief in God, even if its laws are not explicitly Christian and its leaders can have a variety of faiths or no faith at all.”
“Some people who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation are thinking about the religious makeup of the population; to them, a Christian nation is a country where most people are Christians,” said Pew. “Others are simply envisioning a place where people treat each other well and have good morals.”
In related questions, the survey asked, “Should churches/other houses of worship endorse political candidates?” 20% said yes and 77% said no.
When asked about the amount of influence the Bible should have on our laws, 27% of U.S. adults said, “If [laws] conflict, Bible should have more influence than will of people,” and 19% said, “Will of people should have more influence.” Only 1% stated that, “Bible should have little or no influence on U.S. laws”.
The survey also revealed that 23% believe religion is gaining influence in the U.S. while 74% said it was losing influence.
Another question asked was, “Thinking about the way things have been going in politics over the last few years on the issues that matter to you, would you say that your side has been winning more often or losing more often than winning?”
The poll further asked whether the Republican or Democratic Party was friendly, unfriendly, or neutral towards religion. 58% of voters said the Republican Party was friendly towards religion; 37% said that the Republican Party was neutral towards religion; and 11% said the GOP was unfriendly toward religion.
In contrast, only 21% of adults said the Democrat Party was friendly toward religion; 44% said it was neutral; and 32% said the Democrats were unfriendly towards religion.
In conclusion, Pew said, “The survey suggests that more Americans see religion as a positive influence in American life than a negative one. Four-in-ten U.S. adults say religion’s influence is declining and that this is a bad thing. Approximately one-in-ten say religion’s influence is growing and that this is a good thing. Roughly half, then, express a positive view of religion in these questions.
“By contrast, about a quarter of U.S. adults express a negative view of religion by saying either that religion’s influence is waning and that is a good thing, or that religion’s influence is growing and that is a bad thing.”
‘Allah Will Kill All of You!’
The persecution Christians experienced in just one month.
This article first appeared on the Gatestone Institute.
The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of September, 2022:
The Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Azerbaijan/Armenia: On Sept. 13, Azerbaijan launched drones, artillery, and mortars on several Armenian villages; the bombardment continued for two days. Over 100 Armenian soldiers were killed. Though widely seen as a territorial dispute between (Christian) Armenia and (Muslim) Azerbaijan, jihadist hate has long fueled the conflict. As one example, during this most recent assault, and in the words of an Armenian military official, the Azerbaijanis:
“committed atrocities in our combat positions against our servicemen, including women soldiers. I cannot find words to describe how they dismembered a female soldier, cut off her legs, fingers and stripped her naked. This is unheard of cruelty.”
A video of these atrocities, made by the Azerbaijani soldiers themselves, was emailed to me; it shows piles of mutilated and decapitated Armenian soldiers, including the woman in question. She appears naked, with both of her arms and legs cut off. One of her eyes is clearly gouged out. A severed finger appears sticking out of her mouth, and another appears to be sticking out of her private parts. It is a truly disturbing if not diabolical image. The Muslim soldiers videotaping their handiwork, which included several other mutilated and beheaded Armenian men, can be heard laughing and joking in the background. The murdered woman was identified as “Anush Apetyan, 36, a mother of three children [who] was reportedly captured alive in Jermuk and then raped, tortured and dismembered by Azerbaijani soldiers.” The severing of this woman’s fingers is a telltale sign that jihadist sadism fueled the mutilation. For example, after declaring “I will cast terror into the hearts of infidels,” Allah calls on Muslims to “strike off their heads and strike off their every fingertip” (Koran 8:12; emphasis added). Nor are these recent mutilations an aberration. When Azerbaijan attacked Armenia in late 2020, Muslim soldiers “tortured beyond recognition” a mentally disabled Armenian woman by hacking off her ears, hands, and feet, before finally executing her. Similarly, video footage showed Azerbaijani soldiers overpowering and forcing down an elderly Armenian man, who cries and implores them for mercy, as they casually carve at his throat with a knife.
Mozambique: During the night of September 6-7, armed Muslim terrorists connected to the Islamic State stormed a Catholic mission compound in Chipene, where they set fire to the church, schools, and hospitals. During the chaos, one of the nuns, Maria De Coppi, was shot in the head and killed as she ran towards a burning dormitory to assist the few remaining students hiding there. She was 83 years old and had spent 59 years serving the people of Mozambique. Three other Christians were killed during this jihad. Hours before her murder, Sister Maria had called and left a voice message with her niece:
“Hello, Gabriella, good evening. I just wanted to tell you the situation here is agonizing, it’s not good. It is very tense. Everyone here is fleeing, the people are running away. [She was describing Islamic terror attacks from days earlier.] It is a very, very sad situation. Pray for us, that the Lord protects us and also these people. Goodbye, good night.”
The Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack and said they killed the nun because she had “excessively engaged in spreading Christianity.”
Uganda: Muslims drowned and killed a group of Christians. The Christians, five missionaries and their local guide, were travelling by boat to a new region where they hoped to found a new church. While in the vessel, they encountered and began to talk to ten men dressed in Islamic attire. According to Amos, their Christian guide who survived,
“On our way, Tonny Ankunda [one of the missionaries] started preaching to the people on the boat, which resulted in a huge argument between Muslims and the missionaries concerning the Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of the Muslims, identified only as Bashir, threatened the Christians: “If you continue insisting that Jesus is the Son of God, then Allah will kill all of you.” When the Christians continued to debate including by citing scriptures, Bashir exclaimed, “We are giving you one last minute to stop your blasphemy and to convert by confessing the shahada [Islamic creed], or else your lives are at risk.” When the evangelists refused to renounce Christ and embrace Muhammad, “the Muslims seized them and pushed them off the boat one by one… The 10 Muslims aboard were in agreement that the Christians should be killed, and neither they nor the boat’s pilot did anything to intervene.” Amos was released after telling the Muslims that he was not part of the team of five Christians.
In a separate murder in Uganda, a Muslim stepmother poisoned her step-daughter for becoming a Christian. On Sept. 18, Namata Habiba, 23, attended a church service at the invitation of a friend. There, she put her faith in Christ. On returning home that night, her stepmother inquired as to why she had returned so late. Namata, according to the friend who accompanied her home, confessed the truth, at which point the stepmother stopped talking. She continued preparing supper for the two Christian women and retired for the night. The friend, whose name is withheld for security reasons, refrained from eating, as she was fasting, but Namata ate. Within minutes, she became very ill and began to vomit. Her friend began yelling for the stepmother, but she was nowhere to be found. Due to the ruckus, neighbors came to the house, and helped rush Namata to a local hospital. Despite treatment, she died. A postmortem revealed that she had died by ingesting rat poison. Namata leaves behind a 3-year-old child, whose Muslim father had promised but apparently failed to make Namata his second wife.
Nigeria: Some of the genocidal assaults on the West African nation’s Christian population throughout the month of September, 2022, follow:
On Sept. 1, Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed six Christians in central Nigeria. “Some of the victims were shot, while others were attacked with machetes,” a local said.
On Sunday, Sept. 11, Muslim herdsmen killed a Christian security guard after abducting a pastor and wounding his wife. In the words of an area resident,
“The gunmen stormed the RCC [Regional Church Council] chairman’s residence, at about 10 p.m., shot and wounded the pastor’s wife, and killed one James Ngyang, a member of the church and security church worker, before they forcefully took away the pastor at gunpoint.”
On Sept. 12, the gunmen contacted the pastor’s family and demanded 20 million naira (US$46,650) for his release.
On Sunday Sept. 18, Muslim Fulani killed three Christians during a raid on a Christian village in Benue state, “after slaughtering at least 22 others in the same area in the past three weeks.”
Three days later, on Sept. 21, more machete-wielding Muslim herdsmen massacred 15 Christians in midnight raids on two Christian villages.
Two days after that, on Sept. 23, Fulani raided six predominantly Christian villages in the same region of Benue state. “These attacks by the herdsmen have left dozens of Christians dead and several more with gunshot injuries and machete attack wounds,” area resident Ukan Kurugh said of this last attack. Similarly, the Rev. Akpen Leva, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Benue State Chapter, added in a press statement that attacks against Christians “have been ceaseless”:
“Armed herdsmen and terrorists have not stopped their unprovoked attacks on Christians in Benue state. These attacks are aimed at killing defenseless Christians and to force them out of their communities.”
In another targeted attack, machete-wielding Muslims hacked to death a 28-year-old Christian man, Samaila Sabo Awudu, who had recently graduated university with a biochemistry degree. According to his brother,
“We were told by some of his colleagues, corps members, that a group of five armed Muslims attacked him when they broke into his residence at the NYSC lodge in Yola and cut him with machetes. He was taken by police officers who went there to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, where he died.”
Before being hacked to death, Samaila was described as a committed church goer who had “lived an exemplary life, worthy of emulation,” said a pastor during his eulogy.
On Sept. 17, during an all-night prayer vigil inside the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Suleja, Niger state, Muslim Fulani broke in and abducted dozens of Christians, including the pastor. Less than one week earlier, 60 other Christians were abducted from the same denomination in another region of the country. Last reported, the terrorists had demanded exorbitant ransoms for some of the kidnapped. Responding to these and other attacks, a statement from the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union said,
“There is still no breathing space for Christian communities in southern Kaduna, as terrorists, jihadists, bandits and armed herdsmen have continued to plunder and wreck Christian communities in the southern part of Kaduna state.”
On the evening of Sunday, Sept. 4 gunmen kidnapped dozens of Christians, including Steven Bala, the pastor’s son, who was taking care of a prayer house.
Muslim Attacks on Apostates
Australia: The family of two related Muslim women who had converted to Christianity and fled what police described as an environment of “strict religious and cultural beliefs,” abducted and tortured the women, following a plot that required a “significant effort to orchestrate.” After locating their new residence in Melbourne, the mother, brother, and cousin of one of the women broke in and waited for the women while they were away. Then, according to the Sept. 16 report,
“As the women returned home later that evening, the cousin grabbed one of them from behind, covered her mouth and held a knife to her neck. Another relative grabbed the other woman by the hair, pulled her to the ground and held the other knife to her stomach, allegedly telling her: ‘You bitch, you think you can run away from home? I have a knife in my hand. Don’t move, don’t scream.’ At one point during the ordeal, the cousin allegedly ripped a gold cross necklace from around the neck of one of the women, who had converted from Islam to Christianity. The women were then bound, gagged, forced into the back of a car and driven back to Sydney, their wrists and mouths concealed by coats and face masks. Meanwhile, the father of one of the women drove a truck to Victoria and cleared the home of their belongings.”
Luckily for the kidnapped apostates, their ordeal, which began in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, “ended in western Sydney with police intercepting a car and freeing the women.” Four of their Muslim relatives—three men and one woman whose identities were not revealed—were charged with kidnapping and assault.
Libya: A Libyan court sentenced a young man to death for “apostasy from Islam.” According to the Libyan al-Jumhiriyah channel, the verdict was issued against a man named Diya’ al-Din Bil’awa, who graduated from the College of Information Technology in 2018. Diya’ was also described as a hafiz—one who had memorized the entire Koran—suggesting that he was a member of the Islamic clerical class, making his apostasy all the more scandalous. According to the report, sometime in 2019, the accused was asked to retract his apostasy and rejoin the fold of Islam, but he refused to do so. The apostasy law cited in the report was established in Libya’s penal code after the “Arab Spring” overthrow of Muamar Gaddafi, when “We [the U.S.] came, we saw, he died,” to quote then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Kenya: Muslim family members beat a Somali pastor of an underground fellowship, as well as his wife and child, for leaving Islam. Weeks after he had received medical attention, the 33-year-old pastor (name withheld for security) developed a serious infection in his hand, where his father-in-law had beat him with a thorny stick. “This is a curse from Allah—if you return to Islam, then Allah will heal you,” local Muslims later told him. “The thorny stick used to hit part of my hand and shoulder could have been a poisonous one,” he believes, and one doctor has suggested amputation. “At the moment, that part of my hand is numb and the veins are inactive.” Meanwhile,
“All these three weeks while I’ve been sick, they have been pressuring my wife to divorce me and return to Islam. But my wife has stood with me. We really need prayers so that God will miraculously heal me and get me out of the hospital.”
His wife’s loyal perseverance has come at a price: “Two Muslim women stopped me while coming from the market near our house and slapped me and caused some bruises on my face,” she said. “When I screamed, they ran away.” Even the first of their four children, who is 8-years-old, was beaten by boys of Somali descent and received hospital treatment for injuries.
Uganda: A Muslim mob beat and destroyed the home of a Muslim father of four—aged 5, 8, 10, and 12—on learning that he had become a Christian. On Sept 9, Muslims approached the home of 38-year-old Musa Wabwire. Once they had confirmed he had become a Christian, and in Musa’s own words,
“[T]hey all got annoyed and flooded into my home and asked me many questions, which I failed to answer. I only told them to take their money box [he used to serve as the local mosque’s treasurer], and that I be left with Christ, who was enough for me. They became so angry and started beating me up while shouting, ‘Kafir, Kafir [infidel]!’”
According to the report, “When he declined to renounce Christ, they flogged him 40 lashes with sticks.” Musa’s older brother, an imam in a nearby village, ordered the destruction of his home and crops. “My belongings were thrown out in the rain and got all wet,” Musa said. “My brothers said that I should not be killed but instead leave the homestead.”
Separately, a Muslim man beat and abandoned his wife after he learned that she had become Christian. On Sept. 10, Falida Nazziwa, 42, attended an all-night prayer vigil at a local church. She had expected her husband to return late on the following day, but he returned on the morning of Sept. 11—just as the secret convert was returning home from church. According to her,
“In the morning as I went back home, I found my husband very furious on the compound, and he asked about where I slept. I told him the truth that I had gone for an overnight prayer in the church. After hearing the words ‘overnight prayer,’ he just jumped on my neck shouting, ‘Prayers, not in my house,’ and started beating and strangling me while shouting, ‘Allah akbar [God is greater]! Kafir, kafir [infidel]!’”
Some people who heard her cries rushed to rescue her, and she and her two younger children managed to escape her husband. She received treatment at a medical clinic and has since taken refuge at an undisclosed location.
In yet another incident in Uganda, on Sept.16, Muslims attacked Shadia Namuzungu, a 52-year-old mother, two days after she put her faith in Christ following what she described as a miraculous healing. When an imam confronted her about her healing and conversion, and she told him of her experiences, the “imam was left in disbelief and left without uttering a word,” Shadia said. “But the following day, he returned with six other Muslims. Four of them started to destroy my crops, killed my sheep and began to pull down my house.” Other Muslims beat her with sticks, kicked, and slapped her. They fled when neighbors began to arrive. According to one of her neighbors, “Shadia started to faint. She had deep injuries on her back, both hands, stomach, legs and had swollen eyes.” After being hospitalized for several days she was still unable to walk.
Generic Muslim Hostility for Christians
Egypt: On Sept. 12, a Cairo appeals court confirmed a five years’ imprisonment sentence (with hard labor) for a young Christian man, Marco Guirguis Shehata, who is charged with “deriding Islam.” The accusation is based on “evidence” found on his smartphone, which Marco had said was stolen at the time. His father, a modest iron smith, in Kena, north of Luxor, and his entire family were reported as being “devastated” by the extremely harsh sentence.
Indonesia: On Sept. 15, a police general currently serving a jail sentence for corruption was handed another criminal conviction, as well as an additional five-and-a-half months prison time, for assaulting a former Muslim cleric who had converted to Christianity. The incident occurred in 2021, when Muhammad Kosman was being detained at the National Police detention facility in Jakarta on the charge of blasphemy. Then, the police general in question, who goes by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte, entered into the “blasphemer’s” cell with a plastic bag full of human feces and violently smeared it over Muhammad’s face. Napoleon confessed to the incident during his hearing, before adding “Anyone can insult me, but not against my Allah, the Quran, the Prophet and my Islamic faith. Therefore, I swear I will take any measured action against anyone who dares to do so.”
Turkey: A young Muslim man claiming to be connected to the ultra-nationalist group made threats of murder to a Protestant church located in Malatya province—the same province where three Christian missionaries were tortured to death in 2007. According to the man, the Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-terror Unit (JITEM) approached him with addresses and photos of church members, and told him “if you kill them, we will give you whatever you want.” According to the Sept. 8 report, they then “gave him a gun and sent him to the church with a friend, but when they saw a little boy playing with a computer inside, they came back.” Although the threat was averted, and the church provided with governmental protection, the report points out that,
“Malatya is notorious for a hideous murder of Christians who belonged to the Salvation Church of which Serin [one of the Christians threatened] is a member. Two Turkish converts from Islam and a German citizen were attacked, tortured and murdered in a publishing house by five ultranationalists assailants on April 18, 2007. The murders became known as the missionary massacres in the Turkish media. After the killings, the publishing house was shut down and some Christians left the city or Turkey.”
Raymond Ibrahim
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Plays the Pope Like a Cheap Fiddle
Fresh steaming piles of cynical deception, Islamic proselytizing and leftist agitprop.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, who as grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar is the foremost cleric in Sunni Islam, met up again with his pal Pope Francis in Bahrain on Friday and gave us one of the best episodes yet of their ongoing buddy-movie series. Whenever these two get together, they always serve up fresh steaming piles of cynical deception, Islamic proselytizing, and Leftist agitprop, and Friday’s episode was no different. In fact, it was one of the most outstanding examples yet of how Islamic leaders use interreligious dialogue to further their own ends, playing their naïve Christian counterparts for fools again and again.
At the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue, according to Church Militant, al-Tayyeb asserted that “what is said and promoted from time to time about the institution of war in Islam against the infidels is not true. Indeed, it is a real lie about Islam and the life of its prophet, even if this is affirmed by some followers of the same religion, a religion that is based on evidence and testimony, not on ambiguity and lies.” The “lie” that al-Tayyeb had in mind was the readily demonstrable proposition that Islam is the only major world religion that has a developed doctrine involving warfare against the subjugation of unbelievers. Despite statements to that effect from numerous Muslim clerics and the undeniable evidence of over 42,000 violent jihad attacks worldwide since 9/11, al-Tayyeb insisted that it was all a misunderstanding.
We have, of course, heard this song before, and al-Tayyeb was aware of that, telling the pope: “I hope you are not bored with the constant claims that Islam is a religion of peace and equality.” Pope Francis, of course, was just the opposite of bored. He can’t get enough of that sort of thing, as back in 2013 he himself declared, with imperviousness to facts and evidence that was truly breathtaking, that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.”
Why is this so hard for Westerners to grasp? Well, it’s largely because it isn’t remotely true, but as far as al-Tayyeb was concerned, it was because Muslim scholars have been less than “diligent in letting Westerners know about true Islam.” He said that they should “continue to highlight what Islam encompasses in terms of lofty ideals, human brotherhood and cooperation, and other commonalities that the West and East agree on and welcome.” Yeah, good idea. Maybe he can explain where exactly the Qur’an calls for “human brotherhood and cooperation” with non-Muslims, whom the Islamic holy book calls “the most vile of created beings” (98:6).
Al-Tayyeb didn’t get close to dealing with that Qur’an verse and others like it. He was too busy playing to his audience, knowing that a doctrinaire Leftist such as Pope Francis would be thrilled to hear about how the Big Bad West could learn from the wise, benign, serene East: “Western culture should not be represented as the only civilized society and as the standard for judging other cultures. Any interference with other cultures is an abuse of power. The West needs the wisdom of the East, its religious and moral values upon which its people were raised, as well as its balanced view of man, the universe, and our Creator,” so as “not to be blinded by putting the ephemeral before the eternal.”
Church Militant notes that “while Pope Francis did not make any explicit reference to the Triune God or the Holy Bible, the highest-ranking cleric in the Sunni-Muslim world introduced and ended his address with an Islamic blessing and unapologetically quoted the Quran several times in his text.” At one point, al-Tayyeb asked: “What is the relationship between people according to the philosophy of the Qur’an? The only way to make this relationship work is knowledge, which is how Allah has established the interactions and relationships between people. The Qur’an says it clearly: ‘O humanity! Indeed, we created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may get to know one another. Surely, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware,’ (Qur’an 49:13).”
Gee, that sounds great, but unfortunately, it is not even close to being the Qur’an’s last or only word on such matters. As I told Church Militant, Al-Tayyeb’s statements demonstrated yet again that for all too many Islamic leaders, if not all, interreligious dialogue is a vehicle for dawah, Islamic proselytizing, not genuine give-and-take. His copious quotations from the Qur’an, while Francis fastidiously refrained from quoting the Bible, show once again how one-sided this “dialogue” really is: the self-abnegation and deference are all on the Christian side, while the Muslim side retains a resolute self-awareness and doesn’t move toward the other side even an inch.
Meanwhile, al-Tayyeb’s exposition of Islam was highly inaccurate and misleading; among the many salient Qur’an passages he did not quote are “Fight them until there is no more persecution and religion is all for Allah” (8:39), which is an open-ended declaration of war against unbelievers, and “Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are ruthless to unbelievers, merciful to one another” (48:29), which belies claims he made about Islam teaching that “peace and knowledge” should guide relationships between people. Even if he knew how deceptive al-Tayyeb was being, which he almost certainly did not, Francis wouldn’t have dreamed of contradicting him publicly or asking him any pointed questions. He willingly and happily played the useful idiot and dhimmi.
That’s the state of interfaith dialogue in this enlightened year 2022.
Robert Spencer
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 26 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 books are The Critical Qur'an and Who Lost Afghanistan?. Follow him on Twitter here, and like him on Facebook here.
With Accounts in 11 Languages, Iran’s Ayatollah Continues to Use Twitter to Spread Anti-US Views
(CNSNews.com) – Amid concern in mostly liberal quarters that Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will amplify harmful content, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday again used the platform – as he has done for years – to spread anti-America sentiment to his well over one million followers.
In a series of tweets, Khamenei highlighted excerpts of a speech he gave last week, saying, among other things:
--that “the isolation of U.S.” will be one of the main elements of the changing world order
--that political, economic, cultural and scientific power are shifting “from the West to Asia”
--that the U.S. “will be forced to end its presence across the globe” including at military bases in Asia, Europe and the Middle East
As he delivered the speech in question – marking “the National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance,” the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran – students in Khamenei’s audience began chanting “Death to America.”
Khamenei then responded – as highlighted in one of his Sunday tweets – as follows:
“Some say when you chant ‘Down with the U.S.,’ this causes the U.S. to become hostile toward you. But no! No one was chanting ‘Down with the U.S.’ in 1953 when the U.S. toppled a government in Iran that had been elected by the people. But they inflicted the blow they had in mind.”
(The actual chant in Farsi was “Mag bar, Amreeka” which translates “Death to America,” although Khamenei in his English-language tweet used the less incendiary phrase, “Down with the U.S.”)
Khamenei and other senior regime figures in Tehran have long used Twitter to disseminate their views, as have representatives and ministries of other regimes hostile to the U.S., including China, Russia, Cuba, Belarus, and the Maduro regime.
While Twitter in some cases draws attention to their affiliation or otherwise reacts, in others it does not.
For example, notorious tweets in 2020 by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman spreading conspiracy theories linking the U.S. military to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan were later given “Get the facts about COVID-19” links. But tweets by Khamenei calling the U.S. “Satan” and describing Israel as America’s “chained dog” still appear, with no Twitter intervention or comment.
Regimes antagonistic towards the U.S. continued to use Twitter even after the company’s consequential decision to suspend then-President Trump’s account permanently following the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
After purchasing Twitter, Musk pledged not to reinstate suspended accounts until a clear review process has been put in place. How Musk-owned Twitter deals such as Khamenei’s use of its platform remains to be seen.
Iran’s supreme leader today has Twitter accounts in at least 11 languages, ranging from the most popular in English (939,000 followers) to the least, in Urdu (just 953 followers).
Together, his accounts in English, Farsi, Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Hindi, Italian, German, and Urdu reach a total of 1.97 million followers, up from 1.71 million last February, from 1.25 million in mid-2020, and from 830,000 in November 2019.
Other regime figures in Iran with sizeable Twitter followings include President Ebrahim Raisi (199,300 followers, up from 107,000 last February); Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian (146,500 followers, up from 86,000 in February); former President Hassan Rouhani (1.1 million), former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (1.6 million) and former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (148,000).
Amirabdollahian, Zarif, Rouhani and Ahmadinejad have Twitter blue-tick verification. Raisi and Khamenei do not.
(A new service now being rolled out will enable any Twitter user to get the blue checkmark for a $7.99 monthly subscription fee.)
U.N. ‘concern and apprehension’
On Saturday, the United Nations’ newly-appointed High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, sent an open letter to Musk, voicing concern about how his ownership may affect Twitter.
“Twitter is part of a global revolution that has transformed how we communicate. But I write with concern and apprehension about our digital public square and Twitter’s role in it,” wrote Türk, an Austrian national who has held several senior U.N. posts.
“I urge you to ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter under your leadership,” he said. “Reports that Twitter’s entire human rights team and all but two of its ethical AI [artificial intelligence] team have been fired this week are not, from my perspective, an encouraging start.”
Türk offered six “fundamental principles from a human rights perspective that need to be front and center in the management of Twitter.”
They include the need to “protect free speech across the globe” but at the same time “avoid amplifying content that results in harm to other people’s rights.”
There is no place for hatred that incites discrimination, hostility or violence on Twitter,” he wrote. “Spread of hate speech on social media has had horrific consequences for thousands. Twitter’s content moderation policies should continue to bar such hatred on the platform.”
“Twitter has much to offer to our common agenda for a better world, but we need to be clear-eyed as to what is required to make that reality,” Türk concluded. “In a world as complex as ours has become, our shared human rights offer a unifying way forward. We look forward to working with you.”
The deal had provided Tehran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for the country agreeing to roll back its nuclear program.
Ayatollah Accuses US of ‘Hybrid Warfare’; US Says It's ‘Not Pushing for the Downfall’ of the Regime
(CNSNews.com) – Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday accused the U.S., Israel, and other enemies of mounting “hybrid warfare” against the Islamic Republic, as the Biden administration threw its support behind a campaign to expel Iran from the U.N.’s top gender equality body.
In a speech to students, Khamenei said in reference to protests roiling Iran that “the events that took place these past few weeks were not merely street riots.”
“They were detailed plots,” he said. “The enemy initiated hybrid warfare. The enemy, namely the United States, the Zionist regime, some insidious and malicious European powers, and some groups, came to the scene with all of their capabilities.”
The regime’s news agency IRNA accused U.S. officials of riding “a wave of Iranian youths’ emotions” in a bid to “realize their hidden goals.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence division earlier alleged that the CIA and Israel’s Mossad, closely cooperating with British and Saudi intelligence services and “reactionary proxies,” were playing a key role in provoking the unrest, “with the aim of committing a crime against the great nation of Iran and the country’s territorial integrity.”
The U.S. government has publicly expressed support for Iranians protesting against the regime, a movement sparked seven weeks ago by the death in custody of a young woman arrested for not complying with mandatory hijab rules.
But administration officials dispute that it supports “regime change.”
“We’re not pushing for the downfall of the Iranian government,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview with BBC Persian on Wednesday. “The people of Iran are speaking, and we are supporting their efforts to peacefully demonstrate against what their government is doing to them.”
“It is not up to the United States to determine any government, which government is in power in any particular country,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday when asked if the administration “supports a regime change or change in government in Iran.”
“That applies to Iran,” Price said. “This is a decision for the people of Iran.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. co-hosted an informal U.N. Security Council meeting to hear from Iranian women’s rights advocates, and announced that the U.S. will lead efforts to expel Iran from the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
Iran is serving a four-year term on “the world’s leading intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women,” after winning a secret ballot election in New York in April last year with the support of some liberal democracies.
Its election onto the CSW was slammed at the time by rights advocates. After the outbreak of protests and a harsh regime crackdown that has cost hundreds of lives a campaign to undo the move pick up steam, drawing support especially from high-profile women including former U.S. first ladies.
“The [CSW] cannot do its work when it is being undermined from within,” Thomas-Greenfield said during the Security Council meeting. “Iran’s membership is an ugly stain on the Commission’s credibility. In our view, it cannot stand.”
‘From theocracy to representative government’
During the meeting, Iranian-born actor and human rights advocate Nazanin Boniadi said the scale of rights abuses in Iran was a symptom of “a government considered illegitimate by its own people.”
She addressed what she said were two “myths” about the country – that hijab wearing is a “cultural” norm that shouldn’t be interfered with, and that the Islamic regime can be reformed.
“Where schoolgirls are defying a lifetime of indoctrination by rising up in classrooms, and people are taking to the streets in their tens of thousands to protest something despite the risk of death at the hands of the authorities, you can safely assume that’s not part of their culture,” she said.
“Another myth is that this regime is reformable,” Boniadi said.
“Elections in Iran are theater,” she said, adding that the rise to the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, “a pillar of the oppressive state, implicated in crimes against humanity … is proof enough that a culture of impunity reigns supreme in Iran and that the theocracy is impervious to reform.”
Pointing to malign regime activities beyond its borders, Boniadi said that “the potential for the current protests to transform Iran from theocracy to representative government could be a geopolitical game-changer, and the single most important key to bringing about stability in the Middle East.”
The Iranian people want the international community “to stop turning a blind eye to their suffering in order to fulfil our own political objectives,” she said.
“For decades we’ve only responded to the symptoms of the Islamic Republic’s hostile activities, with a focus on countering Iran’s nuclear ambitions and regional aggression,” she said. “But in order to address the cause, we must commit ourselves to intelligently supporting the Iranian people’s democratic aspirations.”
Seated behind Boniadi as she spoke was Rob Malley, the administration’s point man in its diplomatic efforts to revive the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, which President Trump exited in 2018.
Kayhan, a newspaper whose editor is appointed by and serves as an advisor to Khamenei, lashed out at what it called U.S. efforts to tarnish Iran’s image “through scattered incidents of riots in a few localities.”
“Its team of thugs, tricksters, terrorists, and traitors that include a handful of characterless women, have been ordered to indulge in arson, vandalism, murder, blasphemy, and obscene acts in public, accompanied by shouting of the weirdest of slogans against Islam and the Islamic Republic,” it said.
“Iran is the country of the virtuous and vigilant Muslim masses adhering to the Holy Qur’an,” Kayhan said. “So no-one in his or her wildest dreams can undermine the solid foundations of the Islamic Republic.”
A Tale of Two Islamic States
One is liberalizing, the other is massacring its people. Can you guess which one Biden is aiding - and the one he's pushing away?
Biden and the woke Democrats have enthralled themselves in a bizarre love affair with the Mullahs in Iran, while repelling energy and capital giant Saudi Arabia.
The strategic imbecility of this position amounts to geopolitical malpractice. It has emboldened the Iranian regime to murder Americans around the world, including threatened attacks against our former president and members of his administration, and to ruthlessly suppress dissent at home.
It also has driven the Saudis into the arms of Russia and Communist China, a consequence so avoidable to be simply idiotic.
Scratch your head all you wish: you will not find a rational explanation for such a policy because there is none.
Such is the World According to Joe.
Where are the feminists and the Woke Left when Iranian women and girls throw off their head-scarves and taunt the Islamo-fascist storm troopers linking elbows in the streets? Where are Joy Reid, Kamala Harris, or Sandy “AOC” Cortez? Instead of supporting the Iranian Revolution of 2022, they are shrieking at “Mega Maga Republicans” as the enemies of –uh– people-kind.
But the Woke Left doesn’t just tacitly support the murdering mullahs of Tehran. Before Elon Musk walked into Twitter headquarters last Thursday with his kitchen sink, the faceless brown-shirted “moderators” at Twitter suspended the account of an Iranian hactivist group called “Black Reward,” while maintaining the anti-Semitic hate-America rants of the Supreme Turban, phony ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
What was Black_Reward’s cardinal sin? They hacked into the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and posted on-line 50 GB of data, including internal emails detailing how the Iranian regime was lying to international nuclear inspectors as it secretly developed nuclear weapons.
Exposing the Mullahs’ marathon crawl to nuclear weapons must be hate speech. Just ask Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump.
Neddy Price, the State Department spokesman, still refuses to close the door on a new Iran nuclear “deal,” even though it’s crystal clear to anyone paying attention that showering a murderous regime with tens of billions of dollars and allowing them to continue their nuclear projects with the help of Western technology will lead to war – a real war, not a liberal war of words.
Since taking office on January 20, 2021, Biden and his B-Team of deep state imbeciles have twisted themselves into pretzels to cajole the Mullahs into a new nuclear deal, even offering at one point to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its leaders from the State Department terrorist list (a bridge too far even for Congressional Democrats and quickly walked back).
They waived Trump-era sanctions on the Iranian oil sector in July 2021, allowing the regime to profit from higher oil prices brought about by Team Biden’s war on fossil fuels. Former Trump administration national security director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction, Richard Goldberg, called the waiver “a bailout, plain and simple.”
Contrast this love affair with the Iranian regime — and apparent disdain for the wishes and aspirations of the Iranian people — with B-Team Biden’s war on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, MBS.
By now, every American knows Salman’s cardinal sin, because the Woke Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) drum it into us whenever they report on the Saudis. MBS ordered the gruesome October 2018 murder of heroic dissident journalist Jamal Kashoggi. How do we know this? Why, Biden’s CIA told us so.
The problem, of course, is that Biden’s CIA dearly wanted to make the case that MBS ordered the Khashoggi murder, but even they couldn’t go that far, saying instead that they “assessed” that MBS ordered the murder because it was “highly unlikely” anyone would carry out such an operation without his authorization.
In other words, they kinda felt MBS must be guilty, because they really really didn’t like him, but didn’t have any evidence or even whispered lies to prove it.
Don’t get me wrong: Mohammad bin Salman is no angel, let alone a Thomas Jefferson. But neither was Khashoggi. A self-avowed devotee of the Muslim Brotherhood and admirer of Osama bin Laden, he became beloved of the chattering class because he put his name on opinion pieces in the Bezos Post dreamed up and heavily edited by an unregistered lobbyist for the Government of Qatar.
That isn’t my opinion, but information revealed by New York Times scribe Ben Hubbard, whose 2020 book-length attack named after MBS was remarkably candid about Khashoggi’s (and the WAPO’s) corrupt behavior. The lobbyist, Maggie Mitchell Salem, “was serving as [Khashoggi’s] de facto agent, advisor, and editor while on the payroll of a country the Saudis consider an enemy,” he writes on page 205.
And yet, even his detractors begrudingly award Mohammad bin Salman a reputation for being a reformer. “His lifestyle changes have been a smash-hit with the under-30s generation of Saudi Arabia, some 70% of the kingdom’s citizens, and his ambition to transform the country into a modern technological leader has ignited the imagination of youth,” former British diplomat John Dobson writes in the Guardian newspaper.
In November 2017, less than five months after he was named Crown Prince, MBS had the royal palace summon hundreds of the wealthiest men in the Kingdom for private meetings with the King, including such powerful luminaries as Al-Waleed bin Talal, partial owner of Fox News. Thinking they were about to receive some royal favor, they all accepted the invitation – and were immediately escorted to the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh where they were kept under house arrest in luxury suites for weeks.
According to Hubbard’s account, they were interrogated “about corrupt deals they were accused of having been part of or privy to and confront[ed] with documents said to show their complicity.” (p195). MBS then robbed them of hundreds of billions of dollars they had plundered from the Saudi state.
He also fired the head of the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the Minister of Economy and Planning, and the commander of the Royal Navy. This was after he defanged the Kingdom’s Wahhabi clerics and made clear they could no longer dictate social policy or preach political Islam in the mosque.
Imagine if Donald Trump had done something similar in, say, June 2017, summoning the heads of the CIA, the FBI, the Directorate of National Intelligence, the NSA, the State Department, the CDC, and yes, even Dr. Fauci’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and then locked them up in private rooms in the Trump International Hotel while he proceeded to strip them of their security clearances and their Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards?
Once word leaked out of the arrests, the US media and their allies in the Deep State turned viciously on the Crown Prince. A former U.S. diplomat, quoted anonymously by NBC News, called it “a shakedown operation and a power consolidation operation.”
MBS had succeeded in defanging his own version of the Deep State – apparently, forever. And now he is focused on what he calls Vision 2030, his plan to reform the Saudi economy, weaning it away from all oil and government domination.
Just think of it: while Iran’s Mullahs are murdering women and girls for doffing their head-scarves, MBS is encouraging Saudi women to drive cars and become money-managers.
MBS has also signaled his desire to eventually join the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords, making peace officially with the State of Israel. Already, he has removed restrictions on Israeli commercial aircraft so they can overfly the Kingdom en route to the Gulf sheikdoms.
Ayatollah Khamenei would probably die of heart failure the day Israeli planes flew over Tehran.
I think I know which potentate I would cultivate, and it’s not Khamenei — but then, I’m not a Democrat.
Ken Timmerman’s 12th book of non-fiction, And the Rest is History: Tales of Hostages, Arms Dealers, Dirty Tricks, and Spies, was recently released by Post Hill Press. Timmerman was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and has covered the Middle East for 40 years.
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In Iran, stonings and beatings create a necropolis for the living
In 2007, a very disturbing video was smuggled out of the Islamic Republic in Iran, recording the stoning of a number of Iranians.
Watching the video is extremely upsetting.
The disturbing video begins with a lashing of one person. After that, Hojjatoleslam Ali Razini, who was the head of Tehran's judiciary at the time, announced the verdict for the accused men on the amplifier. They were brought to the center of an arena like lambs to the slaughter, surrounded by a baying crowd of fanatics, who had scavenged rocks to use as weapons, and drooled like bloodthirsty wolves for their first kill. The condemned men were covered in white shrouds, as men with spades dug and filled their death pits around them.
Half buried in the pits, Razini threw the first stone at the accused – as if he were giving the Roman thumbs down. The four men, who were buried up to their waists, could only aimlessly try and attempt to somehow avoid the avalanche of rocks, but like prey caught in a trap, they could not avoid the inevitable. Soon their white shrouds were broken open and reddened with the color that symbolizes the character of the Islamic regime occupying Iran.
Stoning is an age-old ancient punishment, but who would ever think that today, in this new Millennium that there are still people on the planet who are forced to live under such barbaric and brutal laws?
However, cases of stoning to death, prescribed in Islamic canons for certain offenses, are in widespread practice. In October 2004, a 13-year-old child was stoned to death in Marivan, Iran. She had been accused of a “moral sin” by falling pregnant.
The video featured male victims, but this outrage is indicative of a second problem well beyond the barbaric punishment itself: That women and girls are more often targets.
This is not as widely publicized as it should be. Even though the practice is applied to both men and women, because stoning is usually a punishment implemented against offenses such as adultery, women are more likely to be blamed and accused of such social misbehavior offenses.
Thirteen-year-old Jila’s horrific murder follows the death of 16-year-old Atabeh Rajabi, who was executed on August 15, 2004, for “engaging in acts incompatible with chastity.” Atabeh was refused a defense attorney in court. During an appearance in court, Atabeh bravely defied the adjudicator who sat in judgment of her and in doing so, the sociopathic judge sentenced her to death by hanging and personally volunteered to help with the noose. The free world stood by in silence and did nothing.
Fast forward to Sept. 16, 2022, the unjust arrest of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for the "crime" of improper hijab attire.
Mahsa was so brutally abused and beaten while in custody, that she eventually died while in a coma.
In its sixth consecutive week, Mahsa’s death has unleashed the anger of the Iranian people in what can only be defined as an uprising against the clerical regime such as has never been seen before, as well as the first ever female-led revolution.
Fearless Iranian women and teenage girls are disobeying the clerics by removing and burning their headscarves while courageous Iranian men proudly stand defiantly strong by their side against the brutal regime’s forces with the slogan: “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi,” meaning, “Woman, Life, Freedom.”
This grassroots movement has taken the world by surprise is the antithesis of the Islamic Republic’s ethos.
Now teenage girls are burning posters of the so-called supreme leader Ali Khamenei and shouting “Death to Khamenei” and “We want regime change,” while risking their lives to do so.
Countless people have been killed, including children in these protests.
Never before in the history of women, anywhere, in any timeline has there ever been a female-led revolution, where the women have faced such a dangerous and brutal enemy. Not even the women’s suffrage movement had to endure such threats. It cannot be denied this is historic and unprecedented.
So, this begs a question as to why the Western world is not demanding those responsible to be tried for crimes against humanity?
The Islamic Republic in Iran is a signatory of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
To add insult to injury, the regime's minions are sitting members of the United Nations Commission on Women’s Rights. It is debatable as to whether this is more a reflection of the Western world’s lack of integrity or the audacity of the clerical regime. The world's democratic leaders must surely give thought as to whether they can rightly carry on "business as usual" with the Islamic Republic, given Iran's clear desecrations of human rights.
Contrary to what is frequently said, dialogue with the Islamic Republic has not improved the human rights situation – quite the reverse.
But nobody can ignore the demands of the Iranian people.
In reality, today’s human rights abuses are the cause of tomorrow’s conflicts.
Facing a collapsing economy and social uprising, the ruling mullahs have always responded with intensified oppression. A government that collaborates with such a regime is neither ethical nor principled. They should have no business cooperating with such a regime and no business interests can justify such involvement. No resolution, however diplomatically it is drafted, can deny the fact that the people of Iran live in terror.
Under the standards of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, can one argue that the Iranian people are not entitled to them? In the wonderful civilization that we enjoy in the West, it is difficult to understand how any civilized government can have dealings with an illegitimate regime that executes its own defenseless people, including women and children who effectively live in a necropolis for the living. Ignoring such crimes is a stain on the free world.
Nicole Sadighi is President of the non-profit Angels in Blue and also the Director of the award-winning movie I Am Neda.
Hamas-Linked CAIR Calls for Hate Crime Charges in Marion, Iowa
About something that has nothing to do with Islam.
The arrest of two young men in Marion, Iowa for vandalism has caught the attention of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
ABC affiliate KCRG showed images of swastikas spray-painted on several windows. The letters “KKK” were also reported to have been spray-painted. Despite this, there seems to have been no ideological motive for the two 19-year-olds’ actions. Indeed, the Marion police are not charging the two with any kind of hate crime, and made the following statement.
While hate speech and racist graffiti are vile and despicable, they do not constitute a [hate] crime unless other factors are present. That includes targeting a specific person or group.
News anchor Nicole Agee tells us that “the nation’s largest civil rights organization” (yes, you read that correctly) is “not buying that.”
We then CAIR’s Deputy Director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, saying:
If vandalizing property and causing thousands of dollars in damage while spray-painting Nazi swastikas does not constitute a hate crime under Iowa law, Iowa law needs to change.
Besides telling us that CAIR is “the nation’s largest civil rights organization,” KCRG gives no explanation of who this group is or on what basis it can dictate terms to the state of Iowa. In fact, one has the impression that KCRG considers reporting CAIR’s statement to be a righteous act.
But here yet again, there is no explanation of why CAIR is getting involved in something that has nothing to do with Muslims or Islam. However, to those paying attention to the broader context of CAIR’s nationwide TV news appearances, the answer is clear.
CAIR is getting involved because the vandals are white. And CAIR has taken it upon themselves to be the scourge of white people in America.
One more time:
- CAIR hates white people.
- CAIR reps talk about how much they hate them.
- Well over 90% of the people CAIR attacks on TV are white.
- There are over 100 examples of their televised attacks, which have been going on for almost six years.
TV stations are complicit in all this.
- Here is KCRG giving voice to CAIR’s nominal executive director, Miriam Amir. I say nominal because the CAIR’s Iowa branch doesn’t seem to have a website. But Ms. Amir is also an official of the Muslim American Society, the chief arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.
- Here is CAIR’s National Communications Director defending the virulently anti-white, anti-American 1619 Project on a KCRG broadcast.
If the targeting of an individual or a group constitutes a hate crime, then CAIR must be considered a serial hate criminal which is given support by the mainstream media.
This is the first CAIR TV attack this month and the 29th of the year.
In time for Halloween, the message is that CAIR will continue to gain social capital, prestige, and legitimacy until it succeeds in changing the laws of Iowa and the country. CAIR will achieve their goal unless people begin to oppose its efforts.
“Third teen arrested, charged in July burglary, vandalism case in Marion,” KCRG, October 28, 2022:
MARION, Iowa (KCRG) – A third teen has been arrested and charged for his alleged participation in a series of burglaries and vandalism in July.
Police on Friday said they arrested 18-year-old Koda Holst, from Cedar Rapids….
Police also arrested Gary Jacobsen III, 19, of Cedar Rapids, and Zane Wilcox-Thomas, 19, of Marion, on Wednesday in connection to the crimes….
In a press release, police said some of the graffiti included swastika symbols, the words “I am a Nazi,” and “KKK.” The total damage is estimated at more than $10,000….
“This matter was thoroughly investigated to determine if a hate crime was committed but no evidence was uncovered to support hate crime allegations or warrant the filing of additional charges,” police said in a press release.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization urged prosecutors to review the case again to determine whether hate crime charges can be brought against the suspects.
Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Attack on Iranian Shiite Shrine
Islamic State terrorists on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a gun attack on Shiite Muslim pilgrims at a shrine in the southern city of Shiraz.
The Iranian regime vowed revenge for the massacre, which killed at least 15 and wounded 19 others. The regime linked the ISIS attack to the massive protests that have swept Iran over the past two months, sparked by the killing of a young woman for allegedly violating the oppressive hijab law.
According to conflicting accounts from local media and the Iranian judiciary, between one and three gunmen opened fire during Wednesday evening prayers at the Shah Cheragh mausoleum, a mosque constructed in the 12th century that contains the tombs of two fabled Shiite martyrs. The mosque, whose name translates to “King of the Light,” is a spectacular example of architecture and a major tourist attraction, in addition to being a center of worship.
Iranian media stated the attacker or attackers entered the shrine and “fired indiscriminately on worshipers” until they were captured by police. The reports implied at least one assailant is alive, in custody, and apparently resisting interrogation efforts.
Eyewitnesses said they heard women screaming during the attack, and media photos showed the bodies of two children and a woman among the dead.
The National on Thursday provided an account of the attack based on security camera footage:
CCTV footage broadcast on state TV on Thursday showed the attacker entering the shrine after hiding an assault rifle in a bag and shooting as worshippers tried to flee and hide in corridors. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said the attacker shot an employee at the shrine entrance before his rifle jammed and he was chased by bystanders.
He managed to unjam his weapon and opened fire on his pursuers, before entering a courtyard and shooting worshippers. Women and children were among the dead, according to the agency. “I heard sounds of gunfire after we prayed,” a witness told state TV. “We went to a room next to the shrine. This lowlife came and fired a barrage of shots.
“Then [the bullet] hit my arm and leg, it hit my wife’s back, but thank God my child was not hit. He is seven years old.”
Iranian officials quickly blamed the attack on “takfiri terrorists.” Takfiri, which essentially means “fake Muslim,” is a term the Iranian government frequently uses for Sunni Muslim militants, especially those belonging to ISIS.
A message posted on the Telegram encrypted messaging platform on Thursday by an account linked to Islamic State operatives claimed responsibility for the attack. The message credited an ISIS gunman with “killing at least 20 Shias and wounding dozens of others.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised a “severe response” to the attack, while President Ebrahim Raisi said the crime would “definitely not go unanswered.”
“The security and law enforcement forces will teach a lesson to those who designed and carried out the attack,” Raisi vowed.
Raisi condemned the “enemies of Iran” who use “violence and terror” to “divide the united ranks of the nation,” which is disturbingly close to how his government talks about the Mahsa Amini protests.
Wednesday was the 40th day after Amini’s death at the hands of Iranian “morality police” for allegedly violating the hijab law. Day 40 is traditionally when a death is most strongly grieved and remembered under Shiite tradition, so thousands of protesters were on the streets doing just that, particularly in the Kurdish region from which Amini hailed.
Some Iranian officials went further in linking the Shiraz massacre to the Amini uprising, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who said the time has come for Tehran to act against “terrorists and foreign meddlers.” The regime claims foreign powers are orchestrating the anti-hijab protests.
“This crime made the sinister intentions of the promoters of terror and violence in Iran completely clear. There is reliable information that the enemies have drawn up a multilayered project to make Iran insecure,” Abdollahian said.
Iranian police reportedly used tear gas and live ammunition to fire on protesters in Amini’s home city of Saqqez on Wednesday, after thousands of mourners held a procession to the graveyard where the 22-year-old woman was buried. The mourners chanted, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” the semi-official slogan of the Amini uprising, “Down with traitors,” “Kurdistan will be the graveyard of fascists,” and “Death to the dictator,” meaning Ayatollah Khamenei.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom
FBI Contractor Spied on GOP Congressman to Protect Muslim Brotherhood
The ex-CIA officer’s company also worked for the Democratic National Committee.
The death of Qatari operative Jamal Khashoggi has been the subject of front page headlines, press conferences, a documentary, and speeches by top figures including Joe Biden.
Qatar employing an ex-CIA officer who set out to spy on a Republican congressman to help protect the Muslim Brotherhood has received virtually no coverage in the media.
The Washington Post, which platformed Khashoggi and labored to turn the old friend of Osama bin Laden into a martyr, did not feel that Qatar spying on a congressman was worth more coverage than rerunning the AP’s wire story. The New York Times didn’t even do that much.
The AP’s story alleged that Qatar employed Kevin Chalker, a former CIA officer, and his company, Global Risk Advisors, to target opponents of the Islamic terror state which has ties to everything from 9/11 to Hamas to the Taliban. That included “pitching a sprawling covert influence operation to damage the reputations of U.S. officials perceived as Qatar’s enemies.”
One of those “enemies” of the Islamic terror state may have been Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.
In 2015, the Republican congressman and Senator Ted Cruz introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act. This would have been extremely inconvenient to Qatar, which hosts Muslim Brotherhood figures and backs the Islamist expansionist movement whose goal is to take over countries and impose the brutality of sharia law on their people.
Including the United States.
The bill was reintroduced again in 2017, co-sponsored by a number of House Republicans, including Rep. Louie Gohmert. While the bill never became law, Rep. Diaz-Balart’s persistence appeared to worry Qatar and the former spooks doing its dirty work.
The AP story reveals that Global Risk Advisors created “Project ENDGAME” and “boasted in internal records that it had ‘developed an approach to a close contact of the congressman’ who sponsored legislation that year to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.”
“’Developed an approach’” is intelligence jargon for seeking to recruit a potential asset.”
At least one previous GRA effort had allegedly involved a Facebook “honey pot” operation.
While GRA appears to have done a lot of work for Qatar, the AP revealed that “its affiliates have won small contracts with the FBI for a rope-training course and tech consulting work for the Democratic National Committee.”
GRA also appears to have some employees who have gone on to work for Democrats. It may be no coincidence that the two known American targets of GRA operations, Rep. Diaz-Balart and former RNC finance chair Elliot Broidy are both high-profile Republicans. And Democrat media groups and reporters were deeply involved in promoting Broidy’s hacked emails.
Qatar has cultivated Republican contacts, but through its Muslim Brotherhood groups in the United States, it has become an integral part of the Democratic political machine. Unless new names are revealed, Democrat complicity in foreign operations against American officials by an enemy nation becomes a burning question that must urgently be resolved.
The involvement of the FBI is also troubling as it’s the Bureau that is investigating possible misconduct by its former contractor. And as we’ve seen with Russiagate, its personnel have a history of covering up the sins of their contractors and informants to protect their credibility.
In echoes of the Steele Dossier, GRA had allegedly employed British ex-intel officers to spy on the American team conducting a bid for a soccer tournament and used a “fake Facebook profile of an attractive young woman to communicate with the target”.
Was this what Qatar’s assets had in mind for a congressman?
What ought to be an explosive story has instead been studiously ignored by the media because it exposes its own complicity and touches the third rail of the Muslim Brotherhood’s involvement.
The intersection between an ex-CIA figure, an FBI contractor, Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood also raises the question of Islamist infiltration of the intelligence community.
The AP story on GRA’s work for Qatar notes that the Brotherhood’s Yusuf al-Qaradawi delivered a sermon after Qatar beat out America’s bid for a soccer tournament that the intel operatives had been hired to assure in which he said “Qatar had humbled the United States.”
Qaradawi had previously predicted that, “we will conquer America” and declared that, “those killed fighting the American forces are martyrs”. Serving Qatar ultimately means serving the enablers of Qaradawi and the Muslim Brotherhood’s quest to destroy America.
The complete lack of interest in the AP’s scoop by either the media or the political class also reveals how deeply Qatar, an ally of Iran, a state sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood and the hand behind Al Jazeera, controls Washington D.C. and the journalists of the mainstream media.
It also offers a peek into how enemies of this country were able to take over Washington D.C.
Kevin Chalker, the ex-CIAer, and Global Risk Advisors came up during the hack of former Republican National Committee deputy finance chair Elliot Broidy. Broidy’s emails were passed on to media operatives which described them as being “leaked”. Broidy’s lawsuits since have alleged that Qatar hired Global Risk Advisors to “coordinate” cyberattacks which led to the hacks of his emails which were then distributed to the media by a PR firm working for Qatar.
The media, which seized on the documents to damage former President Trump, and appeared to be coordinating with operatives working for Qatar, ignored or dismissed the accusations.
And previous AP reporting suggested GRA was engaging in behavior that could be interpreted as treason, after noting that “one Global Risk Advisors document lists the United States as a ‘threat’ to Qatar”.
Despite these revelations, the Democratic National Committee has failed to issue a statement disavowing GRA, laying out GRA’s work on its behalf and committing to ending that work.
Nor has anyone in the media pursued DNC officials to push for an answer.
Global Risk Advisers, to all appearances, appear to be operating normally. And the same media outlets which cried endlessly about Russian operations are keeping quiet.
Even allegations of spying on a Republican congressman aren’t about to change that.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act once again in 2021. Senator Ted Cruz reintroduced the Senate version: co-sponsored by Senator Ron Johnson. After 7 years, the bill has yet to pass. Will the revelation that Qatar appears to have targeted the bill’s sponsor to protect the Muslim Brotherhood change that?
Or will Qatar, the Muslim and a band of mercenary spooks continue to terrorize Congress?
Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
Pro-ISIS New Jersey Muslim Arrested for Synagogue Terror Plot
"So the motive of this attack is hatred towards Jews”
Remember this last week?
The FBI’s Newark office issued a stark warning Thursday as it announced it had received “credible information” about a nonspecific but widescale threat to synagogues in New Jersey.
The threat came from the likeliest source. As I have mentioned before, Muslim terror plots keep popping up, they don’t succeed so we don’t pay attention to them. But just because we don’t care about Islamic terrorism doesn’t mean it’s forgotten about us.
Omar Alkattoul had some thoughts about Jews.
“I am the attacker and I would like to introduce myself. . . I am a Muslim with so many regrets but I can assure you this attack is not one of them and Insha’Allah many more attacks like these against the enemy of Allah and the pigs and monkeys will come.”
Alkattoul sent the document to at least five other people, and allegedly described his motivation in the planned attack as “hatred towards Jews and their heinous acts.”
How long until the media blames mental illness?
“The Jews are in fact a very powerful group in the west which is why western countries today shill for them on top of the murtadeen in Saudi Arabia and every Arab country.”
Murtadeen means apostates. As we will see, Omar Alkattoul has some ISIS sympathies.
This attack was just to remind the Jews that as long as 1 Muslim remains in this world they will never live a pleasant life until the Muslims in Palestine, Syria, West Africa, and South Asia are living a pleasant life. The Jews support terror against the muslimeen and they always have . . . . So the motive of this attack is hatred towards Jews and their heinous acts and I don’t want anyone to tell me for a second that “not all Jews support terror against Muslims” yes they do! They have since day one. Their Torah justifies their acts and let’s keep in mind it was a Jew that tried to kill the nebi SAW.
That last is a reference to Mohammed.
The manifesto is classical antisemitism. Islamic terrorists have tended toward martyrdom videos, the manifesto is more of the sort of thing that school shooters and 4chan white supremacists tend to do before an attack. But Omar is 18, quite possibly born in this country, maybe even raised here, and he’s imitating them in tactics, even as his message and worldview is the traditional Islamic one.
Can we discuss this? I strongly suspect we can’t. The liberal Jewish groups who have recently started talking about antisemitism aren’t going to want to touch this with a ten-foot pole.
Muslim antisemitism is still politically incorrect. Even though it poses an existential threat.
Other sections of the Document contained the following titles: • “Why hatred towards Jews is a good thing even if they’re not Zionists” • “The right-wing ideology of the Jews” • “The term ‘anti-Semitic’ and it’s true meaning” • “The ‘Holocaust’” • “The ‘good’ Jews,” in which ALKATTOUL states, “Good jews do not exist unless if they convert to Islam. . . . I hate jews based on their actions and their religion that justifies the actions they do.”
So much for J Street and JVP.
This guy was busted, but how many more of them are there out there?
ALKATTOUL told Individual-1, “I actually started writing it a long time ago. If you want I will link it. It’s in the context of an attack on Jews.”
According to Individual-2, ALKATTOUL shared a link to the Document in the server with four individuals in addition to Individual-2. Individual-2 stated that he viewed the Document. Individual-2 also stated that the server may have had 20 members at one point, and when ALKATTOUL mentioned the Document, other users commented “good job” or “proud of you.”
On or about October 5, 2022, ALKATTOUL used a different social media application to send Individual-2 an audio recording of ALKATTOUL speaking in Arabic. The recording has been translated into English as follows:
“With Allah’s permission, we will conquer Andalusia, O French! And we will conquer Jerusalem, O Jews. With Allah’s permission, he will slaughter you, O swine and monkeys, Allah damn you. And I pledge allegiance to Abu-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, may Allah protect him; and I will obey him during hard times and good times. With Allah’s permission, the Jews will be frightened; the promise is near.”
Abu-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi is an ISIS caliph. It’s odd that the DOJ makes no mention of the ISIS angle. But there’s probably political reasons why the Biden DOJ isn’t eager to mention ISIS in the context of an American attack.
The manifesto mentions that, . . “when I say “heroes and lions” I am referring to Osama Bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Abu Bakr l-baghdadi, Abu Muhammad al-Adani, Anwar alAwlaki, Abu Omar al-Shishan, Mullah Omar and Abdullah Azzam[7] . . . and of course the lone wolf muwahideen who have made the kuffar shook”
And that he supports violence against non-Muslims in general.
“I as a Muslim and disbeliever in the taghut, I support terrorism against the kuffar and the enemies of the deen.”
And there are at least some international Jihadi fingerprints all over this
“ALKATTOUL stated that he had communicated with an individual (“Individual3”), who ALKATTOUL believed was affiliated with al-Qaeda and located in Pakistan, and an individual in Germany (“Individual-4”), who introduced ALKATTOUL to Individual-3.”
The manifesto appears to be in the style of the Breivik and 4chan manifestos. And Omar Alkattoul uses language strongly suggestive of the chan ecosystem.
On or about August 29, 2022, ALKATTOUL sent a private message on Application-3 to Individual-2, stating, “As a Muslim I support Dylann Roof because he went in a n****r Christian Janiya type church and killed 10 Christcucks while being an atheist, a lot Muslims in the west should learn from him.”
“Christcucks” is alt-right neo-Nazi chanspeak. It’s another indicator that neo-Nazis and Islamists are cross-pollinating
each other.
Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
Officials: Saudis tell US that Iran may attack the kingdom
WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia has shared intelligence with American officials that suggests Iran could be preparing for an imminent attack on the kingdom, three U.S. officials said Tuesday.
The heightened concerns about a potential attack on Saudi Arabia come as the Biden administration is criticizing Tehran for its crackdown on widespread protests and condemning it for sending hundreds of drones — as well as technical support — to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.
“We are concerned about the threat picture, and we remain in constant contact through military and intelligence channels with the Saudis,” the National Security Council said in a statement. “We will not hesitate to act in the defense of our interests and partners in the region.”
Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nor did Iran's mission to the United Nations.
One of the officials who confirmed the intelligence sharing described it as a credible threat of an attack “soon or within 48 hours.” No U.S. embassy or consulate in the region has issued alerts or guidance to Americans in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the Middle East based on the intelligence. The officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Asked about reports of the intelligence shared by the Saudis, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said U.S. military officials “are concerned about the threat situation in the region."
"We’re in regular contact with our Saudi partners, in terms of what information they may have to provide on that front,” Ryder said. “But what we’ve said before, and I’ll repeat it, is that we will reserve the right to protect and defend ourselves no matter where our forces are serving, whether in Iraq or elsewhere.”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said America was “concerned about the threat picture,” without elaborating.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the Saudis sharing the intelligence earlier on Tuesday. Iran has alleged without providing evidence that Saudi Arabia and other rivals are fomenting the dissent on its streets by ordinary Iranians.
Of particular ire is protest coverage by Iran International, a London-based, Farsi-language satellite news channel once majority-owned by a Saudi national.
The U.S. and Saudis blamed Iran in 2019 of being behind a major attack in eastern Saudi Arabia, which halved the oil-rich kingdom’s production and caused energy prices to spike. The Iranians denied they were behind the attack, but the same triangle-shaped, bomb-carrying drones used in that attack are now being deployed by Russian forces in their war on Ukraine.
The Saudis have also been hit repeatedly in recent years by drones, missiles and mortars launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Saudi Arabia formed a coalition to battle the Houthis in 2015 and has been internationally criticized for its airstrikes in the war, which have killed scores of civilians.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration has imposed sanctions on Iranian officials for the brutal crackdown on demonstrators after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September after her arrest by Iran's morality police. The administration has also hit Iran with sanctions for supplying drones to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.
At least 288 people have been killed and 14,160 arrested during the protests, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran. Demonstrations have continued, even as the feared paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has warned young Iranians to stop.
Iran already launched a series of attacks targeting Kurdish separatist positions in northern Iraq amid the protests, killing at least 16 people, including an American citizen.
U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia have also been strained after the Riyadh-led alliance of oil producing nations, OPEC+, announced in October that it would cut production by 2 million barrels per day starting in November.
The White House has said it is reviewing its relationship with the Saudis over the move. The administration said the production cut is effectively helping another OPEC+ member, Russia, pad its coffers as it continues its war in Ukraine, now in its ninth month.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday reiterated that the administration remains concerned that Iran may also provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles.
“We haven't seen that concern bear out, but it's a concern we have,” Kirby said.
Even as the U.S. and others raise concerns about possible Iranian action, the administration has not ruled out the possibility of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was brokered by the Obama administration and scrapped in 2018 by the Trump administration.
The U.S. special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, said on Monday that the administration was not currently focused on the deal, which has been stalled since August.
Still, Malley refused to declare the deal dead and said the administration “makes no apology” for “trying to do everything we can to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”
The deal had provided Tehran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for the country agreeing to roll back its nuclear program. It includes caps on enrichment and how much material Iran can stockpile and limits the operation of advanced centrifuges needed to enrich.
