Saturday, July 25, 2015

Secretary of Defense 'concerned' that 'Iran will not obey the agreement' - Thomas Lifson



by Thomas Lifson

It seems pretty clear to me that Carter has worries that he can only hint about in public.

Now he tells us. Well, actually he didn’t really tell us in the sense of an announcement to the general public or via the media. The declaration came during a question and answer session with troops in Iraq. As Breitbart reports:
[Secretary of Defense Ashton] Carter told a staff sergeant who asked how the deal will affect U.S. troops in Iraq:
I continue to be concerned about Iranian malign activity in the region to include here [in Iraq], and the possibility of Iranian aggression and the possibility that Iran will not obey the agreement, which we’ll find out, because there’s got to be inspections and [verification] and so forth.
He added, “We will keep the military option, which was the alternative to a deal.”
Of course, the cyberwar/sabotage option, which may be the most effective way of countering the program being carried out in deep bunkers, will be much less of an option now that the US is committed to teaching the Iranians how to counter it.

The SecDef has no choice, no matter what he may think in private, to hew to the Obama administration party line that inspections will be effective:
It solves one very important problem if it is approved and then if it is implemented, which as I said, we'll note, because we inspect it, but it doesn't solve all problems over in this part of the world, and it doesn't solve all problems emanating from -- from Iran.
So, we still have our job to do.  One of the things we're saying is, it's an agreement that places important limitations upon Iran, places no limits on us, and it doesn't place any limits on anything we do with anybody in this region.
I suppose he is speaking of military limits. The agreement certainly limits the use of economic warfare against Iran. It seems pretty clear to me that Carter has worries that he can only hint about in public.


Thomas Lifson

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/07/secretary_of_defense_concerned_that_iran_will_not_obey_the_agreement.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

CAIR Leader Nezar Hamze Is Now Deputy Sheriff - Joe Kaufman



by Joe Kaufman


First Jewish Sheriff of Broward County picks representative of terror group to wear gun and badge.





The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has its foundation in the terrorist organization Hamas. It has been named as a co-conspirator by the U.S. government for two federal trials dealing with the financing of Hamas, and it is recognized as an international terrorist group by the government of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Given this information, how is it possible that one of this group’s leaders, Nezar Hamze, could be considered for a position at one of the most prominent Sheriff’s offices in the United States? However, that is exactly what has happened.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) is the largest fully accredited Sheriff's office in the nation. As such, having the title of Sheriff comes with much fanfare and responsibility. The current Sheriff is Scott Israel; he was elected to office in November 2012. As Sheriff, Israel has made it a point to reach out to diverse crowds, including those who could be considered enemies of the U.S. and her allies.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel’s 2015 radical Muslim tour began this past January, when he posed for photos with Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout and a member of Zakkout’s Miami-based AMANA group at a local mosque. Zakkout is a big supporter of Hamas. On his Facebook page, one can find Hamas logos and photos of Hamas militants and leaders, including Hamas founders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi and deceased Hamas bomb maker Yehiya Ayyash.

In July 2014, Zakkout organized a pro-Hamas rally held in Downtown Miami, where the crowd chanted loudly a number of anti-Jewish and pro-Hamas slogans. Zakkout is shown on video with a huge grin on his face, as his mob repeatedly screams, “We are Hamas.” Following the rally, Zakkout wrote in Arabic on his Facebook page, “Thank God, every day we conquer the American Jews like our conquests over the Jews of Israel!”

Zakkout is also a big fan of white supremacist and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke. Zakkout has posted different links on his Facebook site to Duke videos      , including a link to Duke’s official YouTube page. In July 2010, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned Zakkout’s group AMANA for featuring what it called a “vicious” David Duke video on its website. In the video, which is titled ‘No War for Israel in Iran – Keep Americans Safe,’ Duke rails against Jews and is shown shaking hands with then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The next stop for Sheriff Israel, on his tour, was the Islamic Foundation of South Florida (IFSF), for a June Ramadan Iftar meal. The event was sponsored by Emerge USA, an innocuously named Islamist lobbying and advocacy group that attempts to dupe politicians into attending its functions by seducing them with a “Muslim vote.”

Like he did with Zakkout, Sheriff Israel posed for photos, one of which has him standing alongside Mayor of Sunrise, Florida Mike Ryan and the co-founder and co-chairman of Emerge, Khurrum Wahid.

Wahid, a South Florida attorney, has spent years representing high-profile Muslim terrorists. They include: Rafiq Sabir, who received a 25-year prison sentence for conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda; Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who was given a life sentence for being part of al-Qaeda and for plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush; Sami al-Arian who spent time in prison (and was later deported) for his activities within Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ); and Hafiz Khan, a Miami imam who received 25 years for shipping $50,000 to the Taliban explicitly to murder American troops overseas.

According to the Miami New Times, Wahid himself was placed on a federal terrorist watch list in 2011.

Another photo from the Iftar featured Sheriff Israel and IFSF Events Coordinator Abdur Rahman al-Ghani. Al-Ghani’s Facebook page is littered with anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and Islamic supremacist language and images. In March 2013, al-Ghani posted on his Facebook site a photo of a group of American rabbis, who were meeting with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office to discuss Judaism, with the caption, “Every President has end [sic] up like this. This is the power of Zionism in our U.S. Government.” In December 2012, he wrote on Facebook, “Zionist/Israelis are not holy people. They are demonic and the most evil on earth.”

In April 2012, al-Ghani posted on his Facebook page a graphic depicting an American flag, stating “Worlds [sic] Number One Terrorist Organization.” In March 2012, he posted a graphic stating, “ISLAM WILL DOMINATE THE WORLD.” He wrote next to it, “Yes, Allah (SWT) has Decreed [sic] we will overtake the world in numbers…” And in February 2012, al-Ghani posted a graphic of the CIA logo spattered in blood with a caption that read in part, “You wipe out the organization that is solely responsible for every terrorist act committed since it’s [sic] creation. You wipe out the CIA.”

Next to the photo of Sheriff Israel with al-Ghani, Emerge wrote, “Thanks again to IFSF and Abdur Rahman al-Ghani.”

The third stop of Sheriff Israel’s radical Muslim tour, which took place this month, led him to the Darul Uloom Mosque, located in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Darul Uloom has ties to a number of high-profile al-Qaeda terrorists.

“Dirty Bomber” Jose Padilla was a student at Darul Uloom. His teacher was the current imam at the mosque, Maulana Shafayat Mohamed. Padilla was sentenced to 21 years in prison for providing material support to terrorists and for conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim individuals overseas.

Now-deceased al-Qaeda commander and al-Qaeda Global Operations Chief Adnan el-Shukrijumah was a prayer leader at the mosque. In 2010, Shukrijumah was indicted by New York authorities for plotting suicide bombings in the city’s subway system. His father, Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, who was a translator for the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, “Blind Shaikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman, taught classes at Darul Uloom. One of Gulshair’s students, Imran Mandhai, was sentenced to twelve years in prison for plotting to blow up strategic targets in South Florida. Mandhai was deported to Pakistan this past May.

It has further been alleged that one of the 19 hijackers from the September 11 attacks prayed at Darul Uloom.

The official website of Darul Uloom contains a photo of its imam, Shafayat Mohamed, shaking hands with now-deceased bigot Ahmed Deedat. Deedat, author of the book ‘CRUCIFIXION OR CRUCI-FICTION?’ was infamous for going around the world giving lectures on how Christianity is a false religion. In his book, ‘Muhammad the natural successor to Christ,’ he repeatedly refers to homosexuals as “sodomites.” He states, “Euphemistically they call them ‘gays’ a once beautiful word meaning - happy and joyous - now perverted!”

The photo of Shafayat Mohamed with Deedat, whom Shafayat Mohamed said he “had a good relationship” with, was taken in Durban, South Africa, at what was then named the Bin Laden Center. Deedat, who according to the New York Times was “a vocal anti-Semite and ardent backer of Osama bin Laden,” personally received millions of dollars from Bin Laden for the center.

Shafayat Mohamed, himself, was thrown off a number of boards in Broward County for his outspokenness against homosexuals. In February 2005, an article written by him was published on the Darul Uloom website, entitled ‘Tsunami: Wrath of God,’ claiming that homosexual sex caused the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. He stated, “I have been pondering over the reasons for the recent Tsunami, ever since the incident took place… a time when thousands would have been enjoying themselves during the holidays in the ‘GAY PARADISE’… [A]fter days of pondering, I was able to find a major similarity with the Tsunami and Sodom & Gomorrah.”

Sheriff Israel arrived at Darul Uloom to deliver a Ramadan message to the crowd; he did so, before being warmly embraced by the imam, Shafayat Mohamed. But the real message was sent by the individual who was introducing the Sheriff. It was Deputy Sheriff Nezar Hamze. This was an alarming and surreal surprise, as Hamze has been a leader of a local chapter of the Hamas-associated CAIR for the past five years. Hamze is the Regional Operations Director of CAIR-Florida. Previously, he served as CAIR-Florida’s Executive Director.

CAIR was established in June 1994 as being part of the American Palestine Committee, an umbrella organization acting as a terrorist enterprise run by then-global Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook. Marzook, at the time, was based in the U.S and currently operates out of Egypt as a spokesman for Hamas. In 2007 and 2008, amidst two federal trials, the U.S. government named CAIR a co-conspirator in the raising of millions of dollars for Hamas.

Under a graphic of the World Trade Center in flames, CAIR posted to its national website a link to the Hamas charity, Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), asking its followers to donate money. The group also asked its followers to donate to the al-Qaeda charity, Global Relief Foundation (GRF).

In November 2014, just eight months ago, along with ISIS, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, CAIR was named a terrorist organization by United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Hamze has his own anti-social and dangerous issues, apart from being a CAIR leader.
In December 2010, outside a fundraiser for then-Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, George Galloway, being held at the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF), in Pompano Beach, Hamze was caught on video repeatedly refusing to denounce Hamas, when given numerous chances to do so.

As well, in June 2007, after his cousin, Abdelaziz Bilal Hamze, murdered a woman, running her over with his minivan, Nezar tried to make excuses for his cousin. Abdelaziz had dragged her body for several miles down the road – her body parts scattered throughout – and then attempted to flee the U.S. to Lebanon, where the Hamze family is from. Nezar was quoted by the media, saying, while his cousin “made some bad decisions,” he “may have been a little threatened.”

All of this would seem to make someone like Nezar Hamze ineligible to serve in any capacity within law enforcement and would render his designation as Deputy Sheriff untenable. Yet, there was Hamze, at Darul Uloom, in full uniform with firearm at his side.

During his talk, Sheriff Israel said of Hamze that he was a “friend” and a “phenomenal Deputy Sheriff.” He said that Hamze was with him because they are “on the same mission,” that they are “like-minded,” and because, “as a man who studies Islam and as a Muslim, he’s gonna find out information that we can’t. He’s gonna be able to bring information back to the community and take information from the community and bring to us.”

Can Sheriff Israel, the first Jewish Sheriff in Broward County, seriously believe that Nezar Hamze – a man who has spent years as a leader of a fanatic Muslim organization; a man who repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas when given numerous chances; a man who tried to make excuses for his murderer cousin, after his cousin had willfully ran over a woman, dragged her body for several miles, and then tried to flee the country – should serve as a Deputy Sheriff in one of the most prominent Sheriff’s offices in the nation?!!

By employing Nezar Hamze, Sheriff Scott Israel has compromised not only the Broward Sheriff’s office, but the security of the entire county and by extension U.S. national security. And with the intelligence information made available to someone in Hamze’s position and the misleading information Hamze has exhibited he is capable of providing, who knows how much damage this could cause!

If the situation is not corrected and Nezar Hamze is not dismissed from his position immediately, Sheriff Israel should resign from office immediately.

If you wish to contact Sheriff Israel, you can do so by sending an e-mail to: ask_the_sheriff@sheriff.org, or you can call the Broward Sheriff’s Office, at 954-764-4357. Please be respectful in any and all communications with this office.

Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.


Joe Kaufman was the 2014 Republican nominee for United States House of Representatives in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District. He is an expert in the fields of counter-terrorism, foreign affairs and energy independence for America. He has been featured on all major cable networks, including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and C-SPAN. Joe has been instrumental in getting terrorist charities shut down and terror-related individuals put behind bars. Exactly one month prior to the September 11 attacks, he predicted the attacks by stating that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was no aberration and that it would happen again.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/259552/cair-leader-nezar-hamze-now-deputy-sheriff-joe-kaufman

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

A Reversion to the Law of the Jungle - Michael Devolin



by Michael Devolin

Hat tip: Jean-Charles Bensoussan


And now in Barack Obama we have another American president who, like Jimmy Carter, exhibits the same misguided trust in “external influences” to moderate a regime and a populace rife with Islamic supremacist sentiment and enthralled with the notion that it is now within their grasp to erase the Jewish state from the face of the Earth.

 
Zarif with agreement“What we today call the policy of appeasement was in fact the refusal on the part of the civilized leaders of France and England to abandon the politics of reason. They were sincerely convinced that by reasoning with Hitler, by making compromises with him, they could avoid the horrors of reversion to the law of the jungle.” –Lee Harris

I won’t pretend to be an expert on the politics of the United States. Like the politics of Israel, and pretty much like the politics of any Western democracy, there are many-faceted issues that cannot be addressed from one perspective only or quickly summarized by even the most adept pundit. Besides, journalists these days are quick to point out the faults of our leaders but not so willing to provide actual denouements to the problems those leaders are dealing with, especially the problem of Islamic terrorism. So it’s not like I’m breaking any kind of rule if I don’t provide here all the answers to all the ills of the present age. Conversely, gross imprudence, even the most naïve kind, especially when committed by a mere neurotic orator (Barack Obama) who feigns a love of his country, cannot be easily mistaken, not even by amateurs like me.

In their book Kingmakers, Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, writing about the Iranian hostage crisis, point out that, “The hostage crisis by common account cost Jimmy Carter the 1980 presidential election.” They quote Abbas Amanat, who wrote in the New York Times on this subject that, “Americans were ‘taken by surprise’ when an Islamic revolution toppled the Shah and transformed a country that seemed friendly to the United States.” Efraim Karsh attributes the Carter administration’s naiveté in dealing with this crisis and their misreading of Iran’s fomenting hatred of America and the West at the time to “…the standard fallacy of attributing Middle Eastern developments to external influences rather than to indigenous dynamics…” President Carter and his advisors failed to recognize “…the supremacy of indigenous dynamics in Middle Eastern affairs and the limits of superpower influence were confirmed yet again.” Prof. Karsh summarizes that “this tendency has not disappeared following the end of the Cold War, as starkly demonstrated by the 9/11 attacks.”

And now in Barack Obama we have another American president who, like Jimmy Carter, exhibits the same misguided trust in “external influences” to moderate a regime and a populace rife with Islamic supremacist sentiment and enthralled with the notion that it is now within their grasp to erase the Jewish state from the face of the Earth. In his book The Devil That Never Dies, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen tells about an article written by a former governor of Iran’s Kish province, Alireza Forghani. “The article called for Iran to attack and annihilate Israel, which he grounded as a religious duty based on the Qur’an and the teachings of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that must be carried out.” This is back in 2000, the day after Ali Khamenei announced that, “There is only one solution to the Middle East problem, namely the annihilation and destruction of the Jewish state.” The article consisted of undisguised “operational plans.” As Goldhagen relates, “So that no one would mistake the exterminationist intention for anything else, Forghani, and all those Iranian sites that disseminated the operational plans to Iranians and the world, take pains to make the explicitly genocidal character of the plans clear.”

In February 2015 Khaled Abu Toameh of the Gatestone Institute surmised that “By the time Obama’s term in office ends, Iran will most likely be in control of more Arab countries, and Qatari-backed terror groups will be much stronger, killing more Muslims and non-Muslims.” Just as Brezhnev and the Soviet Union felt empowered by Jimmy Carter’s disinclination in dealing with the discovery of a combat unit of two to five thousand Soviet troops and about forty tanks in Cuba, so Iran’s Islamist mullahs are now feeling likewise empowered by virtue of President Obama’s foolhardy charity in handing them the realization of their genocidal dreams. This is not diplomacy at all—not in the traditional sense and especially of a country still regarded by its patriots as a Western superpower—but rather this is what I refer to as this administration’s “wimplomacy.” President Obama (as did Jimmy Carter before him) is parading the United States of America before the gaze of Islamist ideologues as though it were a mere stepping stone within an inevitable Western capitulation to a future Islam-dominated world.

President Obama is quick to point out the benefits of “dialogue” with Iran, but we hear nothing that would indicate his administration is cognizant of the malefic and brutal nature of Iran’s ruling religious elite. The British paper The Telegraph reported recently that, “Over the last decade, Iran’s regime has typically hanged between 500 and 600 people every year, giving the country the highest number of executions in the world…” Amnesty International informs us that 586 people have already been put to death this year. And now President Barack Obama and John Kerry have given us their assurances that this same regime is not in the least bit interested in developing nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of killing mass numbers of Israeli Jews.

“If the ax has become dull and he has not whetted the edge, he must exert more strength. Thus the advantage of a skill [depends on the exercise of] prudence.” So reads Ecclesiastes 10:10. This Obama administration, throwing prudence out the window, has now given the Islamic Republic of Iran, one of the most dangerous enemies of the Western world, the advantage. The State of Israel is at the top of their list of target countries to be “wiped off the map.” All their Muslim neighbours not in good standing will be next. But by then the Western world—our world—will have been forced into a reversion to the law of the jungle in order to free ourselves from another Middle Eastern religious quagmire, but also to prevent the inevitable proliferation of hostilities from becoming a world war. Because the law of the jungle is the only law the Shi’a clergy of Iran understand. If you don’t believe me, ask the people of Iraq.


Michael Devolin

Source: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/07/a-reversion-to-the-law-of-the-jungle

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The secret of the disengagement from Gaza - Nadav Shragai



by Nadav Shragai


For 10 years we've been talking about the 2005 Gaza pullout, the 11,600 projectiles that have been fired at us and the wars we've fought since, but one question remains unanswered: Did Ariel Sharon really believe the disengagement was good for Israel?

A photo of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is projected over the walls of the Old City during a light festival in Jerusalem
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Photo credit: Getty Images


Nadav Shragai

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=27095&hp=1

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Get Paid to Harm Israel & America - Ronn Torossian



by Ronn Torossian

In working at the New Israel Fund, employees can sing songs of peace to ISIS in the hopes that “removing settlements” will ensure an end to global conflict.




Today, we are living in a very unusual time; a time when America doesn’t support her allies, surrenders moral authority and is not the world leader it once was. Our generation could very well be witness to the collapse of everything we hold dear in America. As President Obama yields to tyrants under the guise of liberalism and open-mindedness, we decide to sell out our allies in defense of fundamentalists that are hell-bent on killing anyone they consider infidels.  Throughout the Middle East – from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar there is concern with the dangerous nuclear deal reached with Iran.

Taking the lead from Obama, American Jewish liberals help weaken the West. For example, take the New Israel Fund (NIF), an American non-profit organization which supports initiatives harmful to Israel’s security and its economy, and backs the boycott of Israel. A job description for the hiring of a director of outreach for the western United States and a development associate deceptively detail the need to “Provide logistical support for public and fundraising events,” “Create and distribute invitations and manage RSVPs,” and “Provide logistical support for speakers and delegations from Israel; create and manage effective system for coordination of visiting speakers.”

Needless to say that the NIF does not mention in these ads that the funds raised will be devoted to harming Israel, weakening the Israel Defense Forces, and harming the interests of the West in the Middle East. With President Obama caving in to Iran, Western interests are further endangered in the region, while NIF money continues to empower the radicals among the Palestinian Arabs and other militant Arab organizations that are essentially in control of Israel’s neighboring regions. 

If you get a job with NIF, you can work alongside Edith Everett, a major NIF donor who supports capitulating to Iran.  In  this op-ed in The Jewish Week Everett asked,
In reality, how much can he (Obama) demand of Iran? The idea that the United States, however powerful, can pull all the strings is a kind of arrogance that needs to be tempered with reality. No other nuclear country, including Israel, would even consider observers of their facilities. The fact that Iran has engaged in this dialogue is a credit to Obama who, before proposing a military option, is intelligently and sensibly trying first to negotiate an arrangement that would limit Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon.
There is much fault with Everett’s hypothesis here, including the fact that among other options, there is the economic strength to stop despots from obtaining such power.  The real tell here is that she cedes America’s morality in being a great republic, claiming “arrogance.” A true Obamist.

Following the Iran deal, the NIF can actively pursue its mission of encouraging Israel to return the Western Wall, (occupied territory) and to weaken a strong Western ally in the Middle East. In working at the New Israel Fund, employees can sing songs of peace to ISIS in the hopes that “removing settlements” will ensure an end to global conflict.  What a wonderful world. The chosen candidate can hear from NIF donors like Yaffa & Paul Maritz, Bonnie & Marty Tenenbaum, Elisabeth and Gareth Turner, Dr. Gabor T. Herman, Sally Gottesman and others about how Israel is the rotten apple in a region of dictators and terrorists. 

Stand with the New Israel Fund – and get a paycheck for standing against America and Israel.


Ronn Torossian

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/259569/get-paid-harm-israel-america-ronn-torossian

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

U.S. State Dept. Bars Christians from Testifying about Persecution - Raymond Ibrahim



by Raymond Ibrahim


  • "This is an administration which never seems to find a good enough excuse to help Christians, but always finds an excuse to apologize for terrorists ... I hope that as it gets attention that Secretary Kerry will reverse it. If he doesn't, Congress has to investigate, and the person who made this decision ought to be fired" — Newt Gingrich, former Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives.
  • "The U.S. insists that Muslims are the primary victims of Boko Haram... The question remains -- why is the U.S. downplaying or denying the attacks against Christians?" — Emmanuel Ogebe, Nigerian human rights lawyer, Washington D.C.
  • "Stop building churches. Convert to Islam, which is the true religion. Otherwise we will make a horrible example of you." — Javed David, head of Hope for the Light Ministries, quoting a biker.
  • The Free Front of Algeria demands that all Christian churches remaining in the North African nation must be closed and reopened as mosques.
  • A Muslim mob in Deder, Ethiopia attacked a Christian man and forced him out of his home on pain of death in an effort to appropriate his land and build a mosque on it -- despite recent court rulings confirming the Christian man's property rights.
  • Accounts of Muslim immigrants taunting and even assaulting Christians in Italy are increasing.
  • "We are a poor nation. These people [Christian captives] have not done anything wrong and won't harm anyone. We as Assyrians do not have this amount of [ransom] money you are asking for" — Bishop Mar Mellis, Syria.

During the height of one of the most brutal months of Muslim persecution of Christians, the U.S. State Department exposed its double standards against persecuted Christian minorities.
Sister Diana, an influential Iraqi Christian leader, who was scheduled to visit the U.S. to advocate for persecuted Christians in the Mideast, was denied a visa by the U.S. State Department even though she had visited the U.S. before, most recently in 2012.

She was to be one of a delegation of religious leaders from Iraq -- including Sunni, Shia and Yazidi, among others -- to visit Washington, D.C., to describe the situation of their people. Every religious leader from this delegation to Washington D.C. was granted a visa -- except for the only Christian representative, Sister Diana.

After this refusal became public, many Americans protested, some writing to their congressmen. Discussing the nun's visa denial, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said:
This is an administration which never seems to find a good enough excuse to help Christians, but always finds an excuse to apologize for terrorists ... I hope that as it gets attention that Secretary Kerry will reverse it. If he doesn't, Congress has to investigate, and the person who made this decision ought to be fired.
The State Department eventually granted Sister Diana a visa.

This is not the first time the U.S. State Department has not granted a visa to a Christian leader coming from a Muslim region. Last year, after the United States Institute for Peace brought together the governors of Nigeria's mostly Muslim northern states for a conference in the U.S., the State Department blocked the visa of the region's only Christian governor, Jonah David Jang.

According to a Nigerian human rights lawyer based in Washington D.C., Emmanuel Ogebe, the Christian governor's "visa problems" were due to anti-Christian bias in the U.S. government:
The U.S. insists that Muslims are the primary victims of Boko Haram. It also claims that Christians discriminate against Muslims in Plateau, which is one of the few Christian majority states in the north. After the [Christian governor] told them [U.S. authorities] that they were ignoring the 12 Shariah states who institutionalized persecution ... he suddenly developed visa problems.... The question remains -- why is the U.S. downplaying or denying the attacks against Christians?
The testimony of another nun, Sister Hatune Dogan, also made in May, indicates why the State Department may not want to hear such testimonials: they go against the paradigm that "Islam is peace." According to Sister Hatune:
What is going on there [Islamic State territories], what I was hearing, is the highest barbarism on earth in the history until today... The mission of Baghdadi, of ISIS, is to convert the world completely to the Islamic religion and bring them to Dar Al Salaam, as they call it. And Islam is not peace, please. Whoever says ISIS has no connection to Islam or something like this is, he's a liar. ISIS is Islam; Islam is ISIS... We know that in Islam, there is no democracy. Islam and democracy are opposite, like black and white. And I hope America will understand. America today has the power that they can stop this disaster on the earth, with other Western countries.
The rest of May's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following accounts, listed by theme.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Pakistan: Three separate incidents involved attacks on churches:

1) On May 28, in the city of Chakwal, south of Lahore, Muslim men destroyed a Protestant church and beat six Christians, including the pastor. Some of those wounded had to be hospitalized. A few days earlier, Pastor Suhail Masih and his companions had been accused by local Muslims of carrying out "proselytism and conversions of Muslims," according to a preliminary report.

2) Javed David, head of Hope for the Light Ministries in Lahore, and his associates, have been receiving death threats since February. The latest incident occurred in April, but became public knowledge only in May. According to David:
I had been to church in Sheikhupura to attend a meeting with colleagues. It was 8 o'clock in the evening when we left to return to Lahore. We were about to reach the main road when a motorbike drove up and blocked the way. Maybe they were following us. The two bikers were wearing a helmet (sic). One of them came up to my window and spoke to me. "We know what you are doing here," he said. "Stop building churches. Convert to Islam, which is the true religion. Otherwise we will make a horrible example of you."... [On another] occasion too, I was going home when a motorcycle stopped in front of me. The driver knocked on the window and threw in a piece of paper. I did not open it before I got home. It said, "This is an Islamic nation. We cannot allow church building. Either you convert to Islam or you leave this country! Stop building churches or you'll pay the consequences!"
3) On May 29 in Faisalabad, around 2 a.m., a gang of Muslims on motorcycles attacked a church near the Sadar police station. They opened fire on the church and set its main gate on fire, damaging its windows. According to church cleric Dilawar Masih, "Though no human loss was reported in this incident, attackers gave a clear-cut message that Christians and their places of worship are not safe and they may be attacked any time by the terrorists."

Egypt: Two churches were attacked:

1) On May 16, a homemade explosive device planted next to a Coptic Christian church was detonated around sunset. As the St. George Church in Tamiya (Fayum governorate) was mostly empty at the time, there were no casualties. However, the church's administrative offices and second floor windows were shattered, creating chaos and panic in the area. Church security cameras captured the two men on a motorcycle, who stopped at the church. One of the men dismounted and placed a bag containing the bomb next to the church, and they then sped off.

2) On Sunday morning, May 31 in Senoras city, Fayum, masked men on motorcycles opened fire on an Evangelical church. Security forces guarding the church briefly exchanged fire with the masked men before they fled on their motorcycles. No one was reported hurt.

Canada: On May 26, a 22-year-old man of Muslim background was charged with alleged hate crimes committed against the St. Catherine of Siena Church and its neighboring elementary school in Mississauga, Ontario. Iqbal Hessan faces five counts of mischief, and over $5,000 in fines. On May 20, the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue that stands in front of the church was covered in black paint and the fingers of its outstretched arms were broken off. Behind the church, graffiti with the words "There is no Jew God" was scrawled across the brick wall along with a drawing of a face labelled "Jewsus." That vandalism was the fourth time the church was targeted. On April 9, surveillance cameras caught a young man breaking into the church, ripping pages of the Sacramentary book on the altar, throwing them at the tabernacle, and then stealing one of the church's sound-system speakers. On May 17, a drawing of a hand gesturing with the middle finger was found spray-painted on the front steps of the church. And on May 25, graffiti was sprayed on the school walls.


The St. Catherine of Siena Church and its neighboring elementary school in Mississauga, Ontario were vandalized this year by Iqbal Hessan, a 22-year-old Muslim man.
Algeria: According to Abdel Fattah Zarawi, the Muslim leader of the Salafi party, also known as the Free Front of Algeria, any and all Christian churches remaining in the North African nation must be closed and reopened as mosques. Although the transformation of Christian churches into Muslim mosques is nearly as old as Islam itself -- Algeria was Christian-majority and even gave the world St. Augustine before Islam invaded and conquered it in the seventh century -- the Salafi leader tried to portray his proposal as a "grievance" against rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, especially France. Launched on social media and networks, the Salafi campaign against Algerian churches even calls for the transformation of the nation's most important churches into mosques -- including the Church of Notre Dame d'Afrique in Algiers, the Church of St. Augustine in Annaba, and the Church of Santa Cruz in Oran -- since "they have no relation whatsoever to the religion of Algerian Muslims," in the words of the Free Front.

Saudi Arabia: Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani, former Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and current prayer leader of Muhaisin Mosque in Riyadh, issued a tweet from his personal Twitter account, saying, "My beloved nation: It suffices me that you shelter me from hearing church bells ringing in you." Due to his importance, the New York Times once issued an entire spread about al-Kalbani. The "hopeful" theme is how al-Kalbani managed to rise to the top in Saudi Arabia by becoming the first black Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. No word in any English language media, however, about his abhorrence for Christian churches and their bells.

Turkey: A 900-year-old Christian church in Turkey is to be renovated into a functioning mosque -- despite previous governmental assurances that it would be renovated into a museum. Enez's Hagia Sophia, the name of the ancient church, is located inside the city of Ainos, along the border with Greece and stationed atop a hill, visible to all. Another centuries-old church, Hagia Sophia in Trabzon, along the Black Sea, was reopened in 2013 as a mosque, although it was a museum for many years. Meanwhile, a majority of Turks await the re-transformation of the greatest Hagia Sophia (Constantinople's) into a mosque.

Yemen: A Catholic church was seriously damaged during a Saudi bombing raid around mid-May. The church of the Immaculate Conception in Aden had earlier been occupied by Houthi rebels who had vandalized its interior. The airstrike by Saudi bombers -- in support of the Yemeni government in its struggle with the rebels -- did further damage to the structure. Only one Catholic priest remains in Yemen. Two priests fled the country to escape the violence, while another, who was out of the country when the fighting began, has been unable to return. Twenty members of the Missionaries of Charities have chosen to remain in the war-torn country, tending to the sick and the poor.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom


Pakistan: On Sunday, May 24, a Christian man in the Sanda neighborhood of Lahore was accused of blasphemy when some Muslims saw him burning newspapers that reportedly contained Arabic verses from the Koran. After the accusation, a Muslim mob caught the Christian, severely beat him, and even attempted to set him on fire. A few months earlier, another Muslim mob burned a Christian couple alive inside a kiln after they, too, were accused of insulting Islam. The Christian youth -- named Humayun Masih, said to be "mentally unstable" -- was imprisoned and charged under section 295-B of Pakistan's penal code, which prohibits the desecration of the Koran. After the attack on the Christian youth, the Muslim mob, reportedly thousands, rampaged through the neighborhood and set fire to Christian homes and a church. Christians in the region were attacked, and most fled the region; some of the mob was armed and gunshots were heard.

Egypt: On May 5, another Coptic Christian was convicted of blaspheming against Islam: "ridiculing or insulting a heavenly religion" in violation of Article 98 (f) of the Egyptian Penal Code. A judge in Daqahliya sentenced Michael Munir Beshay to one year's imprisonment and a fine of one thousand Egyptian pounds. As International Christian Concern puts it: "Despite steps taken by the Sisi-led government to bring about greater tolerance and reforms, the conviction of Beshay is just another of many recent incidents highlighting the continued persecution of the country's Christian minority."[1] And Bishoy Armia Boulous -- formerly known as Mohammed Hegazy, an apostate from Islam to Christianity -- has remained imprisoned now for approximately a year, well past the legal six-month investigation period. All this time, he has been subject to physical and verbal abuse, from both prison guards and fellow inmates, on account of his "apostasy" from, and "blasphemy" against, Islam. He has been denied a Bible and has not had eyeglasses since they were intentionally broken some time ago. [2]

Iran: Ibrahim Firouzi, a Muslim convert to Christianity, was sentenced to the maximum five years in prison for "action against national security through collusion and gathering." After Firouzi converted to Christianity, he was arrested on August 25, 2013 and convicted of evangelizing, colluding with "anti-regime" foreign networks, launching a Christian website, and working against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although his prison term was supposed to end on January 13, 2015, authorities continued to hold him illegally, and on March 8 they sentenced him to serve another five years "in very difficult conditions."

Dhimmitude

Syria: After failed negotiations, the Islamic State (IS) refused to release 242 Christian hostages captured during a late February raid along the Khabur River. On May 1, the IS demanded $242 million USD for the release of 93 women, 51 children, and 98 men taken captive. The Assyrian church, family and friends, unable to raise such a large sum, made a lesser, undisclosed offer, which IS rejected, saying it would no longer negotiate concerning the fate of the captive Christians. Based on Islamic law, their fate will now likely be slavery (especially women and children) or execution (especially men).[3]

Ethiopia: A Muslim mob in Deder attacked a Christian man and forced him out of his home on pain of death, in an effort to appropriate his land and build a mosque on it -- despite recent court rulings confirming the Christian man's property rights. "Their first plan was to kill my husband," said Fikere Mengistu's wife. "Now, he has escaped from the area. We are fasting and praying for God to rescue us from this forceful action." She remains with her five children, elderly mother-in-law and 30 other Christians, praying on the property. "We did our best try to defend our faith based on the law of the country... Muslims are out of the control of the government and the law. What can we do?" said Mengistu.[4]

Iraq: Juliana George, a 16-year-old Christian girl living in Baghdad, was abducted from her home. According to her family, a person knocked on the door of their home and when she answered, she was seized by four men who forced her into a waiting taxi and sped away. Her grandfather, Joseph, a priest, chased the taxi on foot and grabbed its door, but eventually fell to the side as the vehicle sped away. She was eventually released after her family paid a $55,000 ransom to the abductors for her return. Juliana's father, George, said that she has been traumatized by the experience: "I fear for her and my two other daughters.... There is no reason to believe that we will not be targeted again. I don't see how we can stay in Baghdad after this."

Turkey: On the same year that millions around the world commemorated the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish authorities started the demolition of Kamp Armen, an Armenian orphanage in the metropolitan district of Tuzla, despite the attempts by some political representatives to intervene. The orphanage was built in 1962 on the initiative of the Armenian Protestant community. A brief historical recap of the orphanage follows:
Thanks to its activities, the institution has helped 1,500 children to grow up in an environment based on the spirituality and culture of Armenian Christianity. There was also Hrant Dink among its students, the Armenian Turkish journalist, founder of the bilingual magazine Agos, killed in 2007 after being repeatedly threatened with death for his positions on the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish State had expropriated the orphanage in 1987, and all legal attempt (sic) by the Armenian Protestant communities to regain control of the building fell on deaf ears.

Italian Dhimmitude

Accounts of Muslim immigrants taunting and even assaulting Christians in Italy are increasing. Earlier this year, a crucifix was violently destroyed in close proximity to a populated mosque, and a statue of the Virgin Mary was destroyed and urinated on by a group of North Africans in Italy. In addition:
  • A Muslim schoolboy of African origin beat a 12-year-old girl at a school because she was wearing a crucifix around her neck. The boy, who had only started to attend the school a few weeks earlier, began to bully the Christian girl -- "insulting her and picking on her in other ways all because she was wearing the crucifix" -- before he finally assaulted her. Italian police did not charge the boy with any offense; they said he was a minor.
  • On Sunday, May 10, after church mass, a group of young Muslim immigrants from the Islamic Center interrupted a Catholic procession in honor of the Virgin Mary. They shouted verbal insults and threats as the group passed in front of the Islamic Cultural Center in Conselice, a small town in lower Romagna. Approximately 100 Catholic Christians, including several small children, were preparing to receive their first Holy Communion. They were reportedly stunned and confused and halted the procession before regrouping and hurrying past the Center.
Egyptian Dhimmitude

On Sunday, May 24, in the village of Kafr Darwish, just south of Cairo, a Muslim mob attacked Coptic Christian homes by throwing stones and Molotov explosives at them. More than 10 homes were torched and damaged. This attack was apparently prompted by a familiar narrative: one of the Coptic villagers, Ayman Youssef, was accused of posting cartoons offensive to Muhammad on his Facebook account. Youssef is illiterate and says he lost his mobile phone a few days before the alleged Facebook posting. Village elders and security representatives held a "conciliation session" and decreed that Youssef's entire family -- including the 80-year-old father and 75-year-old mother -- must leave the village if angry Muslims were to calm down. The Christian family was told by the village mayor Ahmed Maher that police "cannot guarantee their safety if they remained in the village."

Dr. Khaled Montaser, an Egyptian intellectual and frequent critic of the Islamization of the country, discussed how discrimination against Coptic Christians is widespread in certain medical professions. He said during a televised program that, although the pioneer of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Egypt was a Coptic Christian (Dr. Naguib Mahfouz), his grandson is banned from entering these professions because he is a Christian. Montaser confirmed that this policy, even if not a formal law, has caused Christian students increasingly to continue their studies abroad. He pointed out that this "policy" has become a norm -- one of many that discriminates against Copts.

In a 25-minute interview on Arabic satellite TV with Dr. Mona Roman, Coptic Christian Bishop Agathon fully exposed the plight of his Christian flock in Minya, Egypt -- a region that has a large Coptic minority that is steadily under attack. It was pointed out that the Egyptian state itself is often behind the persecution of and discrimination against Christians. According to the bishop, local governmental authorities -- including the State Security apparatus -- do not just ignore the attacks on Copts, but are often the very ones behind them.[5]

During a recent interview on Egyptian television, Dr. Yunis Makioun, head of the Al-Nour Party, the political wing of the Salafis, insisted that Islam commands Muslims to "protect" the nation's Christian minority -- a reference to their "dhimmi" status -- and treat them properly. Even so, said the Salafi spokesman, Muslims, according to Islam, are forbidden to offer greetings or congratulations to Copts on any Christian holiday.

Coptic Kidnappings

Since the "Arab Spring" came to Egypt, the kidnapping of Coptic Christians has been on the rise. In Nag Hammadi alone, 77 persons have been abducted, and two killed.

Makram Nazir , a 55-year-old Coptic Christian man was kidnapped and killed. Nazir was returning home from his second job in the middle of the night on April 26, when he was seized. His abductors called his brother and demanded a million Egyptian pounds (equivalent of $131,000 USD). As it was an impossible amount to raise, the Coptic man's family negotiated a significantly reduced price by phone with the abductors. The brother went to the local police station, provided them with all the information, including recordings of the phone calls, but, according to Watan News, "no one made a single move or took the matter seriously." After paying the ransom, three days passed before Nazir's family found the Coptic man's corpse in a canal. Killing Christian hostages even after being paid the ransom is not uncommon in Egypt. The same happened to 6-year-old Cyril Joseph: on May 2013, it was reported that his "family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds [about $4000 USD] to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his body in the sewer system, where the body, swollen and moldy, was exhumed."

Armed gunmen seized an 8-year-old Coptic Christian child, Antonious Zaki Hani, who was walking with his mother to school in Nag Hammadi. Four armed gunmen appeared, forced the child from his mother on the threat of death, and fled in a car. The kidnappers demanded two million Egyptian pounds ($262,000 USD) in ransom. Police eventually released the boy 17 days after he was kidnapped, although some activists say police knew earlier where the boy was being held.

On May 2, another Coptic Christian girl, Marina Magdi Fahim, 17, vanished after leaving her home around midday in the Hanofil region of Alexandria. Her family reported her disappearance to the authorities. Human rights activists say the girl was not reported injured at any hospital -- a sign that she was kidnapped. She has not been seen since.

A few days earlier, another 17-year old Coptic Christian was kidnapped in the village of al-Kom al-Qibliyya in Samalout. An eyewitness said he saw a Muslim neighbor named Ahmed Khalifa seize the girl. Although the family planned to organize a protest, the village elders counseled against it, lest it backfire by provoking more of the area's Muslims to retaliate against the Christian minority of the region, as often happens whenever Copts ask for their human rights.

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians is expanding. "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some — by no means all — of the instances of persecution that surface each month.

It documents what the mainstream media often fails to report.

It posits that such persecution is not random but systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities and locations.

[1] Beshay's case is only one of several concerning Christians accused of, and punished for, insulting Islam. In April, Gad Yunan, a Coptic Christian teacher, and some of his Coptic students, were arrested on the charge of insulting Islam. Their crime was to have made a 30-second video on Yunan's iPhone mocking the Islamic State -- which Egypt's Muslims and authorities apparently equate with mocking Islam, even as Muslims in the West insist ISIS has "nothing to do with Islam. Last year, Kerolos Shouky Attallah, a young Coptic Christian man accused of blaspheming Islam for simply "liking" an Arabic-language Facebook page administered by an anonymous group of Christian converts, was sentenced to six years in prison. The Copt did not make any comments on the site, share any of the postings or upload anything to it, and removed his name from the page once he realized that it might offend Muslims. In the hours preceding the sentencing, a rioting mob burned down several Christian-owned shops. He remains in hiding.
[2] According to lawyer Karam Ghobrial, the reason his client is being held and tortured in prison has to do with what made Bishoy notorious some years back in the first place: his audacity not only to convert to Christianity, but to try formally to change his religious identity from Muslim to Christian on his ID card -- prompting much public animosity and death threats against him at the time.
[3] According to Bishop Mar Mellis:
We tried many times to negotiate with the people that captured them and for their release.
We offered them an amount of money in accordance with the law of jizya but sadly after a week the negotiator between us returned and told us that ISIS wanted $100,000 for each person. They were asking for over $23 million.
We are a poor nation. These people [Christian captives] have not done anything wrong and won't harm anyone. We as Assyrians do not have this amount of money you are asking for. We offered an amount of money that we cannot disclose at this time. With the amount we offered, we thought it was acceptable, to have the return of the 230 people.
After two days, they [Islamic State] told us: "The amount the church offered was not acceptable. From now on, we will no longer negotiate with you." We then thought we would wait, hoping they would come back to talk. Sadly, we received word that the 230 kidnapped people will be sent to the Court of Sharia in Raqqa, where a Muslim judge from Mosul will deliver their fate.
In the context of these ongoing attacks that the ancient Assyrian Christian community has been exposed to, particularly at the hands of IS, Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East declared before a European parliament on human rights that "Assyrian Christians are facing a danger that threatens their existence in their historical regions."
[4] According to International Christian Concern:
Fikere Mengistu's family has owned their land for more than 90 years, but a mob of more than 20 Muslims in Kufanzik village remain intent on forcibly building a mosque on the Mengistu farm in defiance of the law. Muslims make up the religious majority in the area. They have destroyed his fence and have looted his possessions. In addition, the local police are complicit in these attempts to steal his land.... The authorities are letting it happen. In the past, he has faced threats from local police officers, has been forced to pay bribes, and has been imprisoned simply because he is a Christian.
[5] For example, when the Copts were having a serious council meeting with government officials about the possibility of building a church, one of the authorities actually contacted the Islamic sheikhs of the village asking whether they "stand with the Coptic church or with the State?" If the latter, each Muslim household was instructed to send one family member to protest against the proposed building of a church -- so that security can then point to the mob and, as usual, just tell the Copts, "Sorry, no can do."
Other times, State Security is complicit: Male and female Christian minors -- currently 21 from just Minya alone, said the Coptic leader -- are habitually abducted by surrounding Muslims. At the moment, the youngest Christian girl abducted had just started elementary school. Whenever any of these attacks occur, Copts, working with the church, prepare bundles of documents, including photos and other verifications, incriminating the culprits. These then are placed into the hands of top officials, to make sure they don't get "lost" or "misplaced" by underlings. The bishop named many of these top people -- at no small risk to himself -- and said he even put such proofs and documents into the hands of the Director of Intelligence himself. "Absolutely nothing was done," said the despondent Christian.
He discussed the difficulties that Copts encounter whenever they want to build a church -- due to their dearth, some of the current churches serve tens of thousands of Christians -- or even make simple repairs. By way of example, he explained how the Virgin Mary Church in Safaniya village has no bathrooms or running water. Christians "tried time and time again to get approval to build bathrooms, to no avail." The bishop lamented how elderly and sick people sometimes urinate on themselves during service, while mothers must change their crying babies' diapers right on the pews.
In response, authorities told the bishop to "Go and ask the Muslims of your region if they will approve the building of a church, or bathroom, or anything -- and if they do, so will we."
It should be noted that Islamic law specifically bans the construction or repair of churches.
Clearly frustrated, the bishop added: "We as Copts are human beings. And envy takes us when we see our Muslim brothers build mosques where they will, how they will, at any place and at any time. And the State helps them! But as for us, we cannot build anything and that which is already open is being closed.... We, the Copts, are citizens with rights; and we see Muslims get whatever they want, while we are always prevented."
The Coptic bishop also said that sometimes Christians are punished whenever they go and "bother" authorities about their treatment. For example, when a Coptic delegation went to make a formal complaint, one of them was immediately kidnapped. His kidnappers demanded and received 120,000 Egyptian pounds for his release. Police were notified -- even told where the exchange of money for hostage was to take place -- but did absolutely nothing. The bishop referred to this incident as a "punishment" while Dr. Roman, the Coptic hostess, called Minya, Egypt a "State of Retribution" against those Copts who dare refuse to suffer quietly," adding, "Al-Minya is apparently not an Egyptian province; it is governed by ISIS."
Finally, Bishop Agathon made clear the despondency he and the average Christian in Egypt feel, repeatedly saying that, no matter which official they talk to, "nothing will change." If anything, the plight of Egypt's Christians has gone "from bad to worse," said the bishop: "We hear beautiful words but no solution."
Dr. Roman concluded by imploring Egyptian President Sisi, saying: "I've said it before: President Sisi is very meticulous and aware of the nation's issues. Why, then, is it that the Coptic plight in Minya is being ignored? Why is he turning a blind eye toward it?"
Bishop Agathon concluded by saying that "Copts are between a state anvil and aggressor hammers," meaning that, the state serves only to keep its Christian citizens in place while Islamic radicals pound away at them.


Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War in Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).
Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6141/state-dept-bars-christian-testimony

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.