Giulio Meotti : The Dutch Death Spiral

The Dutch Death Spiral

From Paradise to Bolshevik Thought Police

by Giulio Meotti
December 11, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9537/dutch-death-spiral

• "It would have been better if the Dutch state had sent a clear signal [to terrorists] via a Dutch court that we foster a broad notion of the freedom of expression in the Netherlands." — Paul Cliteur, Professor of Jurisprudence, Leiden University.
• The historic dimension of Wilders's conviction is related not only to the terrible injustice done to this MP, but that it was the Netherlands that, for the first time in Europe, criminalized dissenting opinions about Islam.
• "I will never be silent. You will not be able to stop me... And that is what we stand for. For freedom and for our beautiful Netherlands." — Geert Wilders, Dutch MP and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV).
• "We have a lot of guests who are trying to take over the house." — Pym Fortuyn, later shot to death to "defend Dutch Muslims from persecution."
• Before being slaughtered, clinging to a basket, Theo van Gogh begged his assassin: "Can we talk about this?" But can we talk?

A country whose most outspoken filmmaker was slaughtered by an Islamist; whose bravest refugee, hunted by a fatwa, fled to the U.S.; whose cartoonists must live under protection, had better think twice before condemning a Member of Parliament, whose comments about Islam have forced him to live under 24-hour protection for more than a decade, for "hate speech." Poor Erasmus! The Netherlands is no longer a safe haven for free thinkers. It is the Nightmare for Free Speech.

The most prominent politician in the Netherlands, MP Geert Wilders, has just been convicted of "inciting discrimination and insulting a minority group," for asking at a really if there should be fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. Many newly-arrived Moroccans in the Netherlands seem to have been responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime there.

Paul Cliteur, Professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University, who was called as an expert witness, summed up the message coming from the court: "It would have been better if the Dutch state had sent a clear signal [to terrorists] via a Dutch court that we foster a broad notion of the freedom of expression in the Netherlands."

Here are just a few details to help understand what Wilders experiences every day because of his ideas: No visitors are allowed into his office except after a long wait to be checked. The Dutch airline KLM refused to board him on a flight to Moscow for reasons of "security." His entourage is largely anonymous. When a warning level rises, he does not know where he will spend the night. For months, he was able to see his wife only twice a week, in a secure apartment, and then only when the police allowed it. The Parliament had to place him in the less visible part of the building, in order better to protect him. He often wears a bulletproof vest to speak in public. When he goes to a restaurant, his security detail must first check the place out.

Wilders's life is a nightmare. "I am in jail," he has said; "they are walking around free."

The historic dimension of Wilders's conviction is related not only to the terrible injustice done to this MP, but that it was the Netherlands that, for the first time in Europe, criminalized dissenting opinions about Islam.

The Netherlands is a very small country; whatever happens to this enclave is seen in the rest of Europe. The Netherlands refused to surrender to the Spanish invasion. It was from Rotterdam, the second-largest Dutch city, that the Founding Fathers left to create the United States of America. It was to the Netherlands that some of the most brave, original European philosophers and writers -- Descartes, Rousseau, Locke, Sade, Molière, Hugo, Swift and Spinoza -- had to flee to publish their books. It is also the only corner of Europe where there were no pogroms against Jews, and where Rembrandt painted Jesus with the physical traits of Jews.

Take Leiden: "Praesidium Libertatis" ("Bastion of Freedom") is the motto of the Netherlands' most ancient university. Leiden was the university of Johan Huizinga, the great historian who opposed the Nazis and died in a concentration camp. Leiden was also the university of Anton Pannekoek, the mentor of Martinus Van der Lubbe, the Dutch hero who torched the Nazi Parliament in 1933.

In Leiden today, you meet brave intellectuals such as Afshin Ellian, an Iranian jurist who fled Khomeini's Revolution in Iran and who also now lives under police protection for his observations on Islam. Ellian's office is close to the former office of Rudolph Cleveringa. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and called on Dutch public officials to fill out a form in which they had to declare whether they were "Aryans" or "Jews", everyone but Cleveringa capitulated. He understood the consequences of such commands.

Twelve years ago, the Netherlands was again plunged into fear for the first time since World War II. In Linnaeusstraat, a district of Amsterdam, Mohammed Bouyeri, a Muslim extremist, ambushed the filmmaker Theo van Gogh and slaughtered him, then pinned on his chest a letter threatening the lives of Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Before that murder, Pim Fortuyn, a professor who had formed his own party to save the country from Islamization, was shot to death to "defend Dutch Muslims from persecution."

Twelve years ago, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh (left) was assassinated by an Islamist who pinned on van Gogh's chest a letter threatening the life of Geert Wilders (right). Today Wilders, the most prominent politician in the Netherlands, lives in hiding under round-the-clock protection.

Fortuyn had said, "We have a lot of guests who are trying to take over the house."
Since then, many Dutch artists have capitulated to fear.

Sooreh Hera, from Iran, submitted her photos to the Gemeentemuseum Museum in The Hague. One of these works depicted Mohammed and Ali. After many threats, the museum proposed that it would acquire the photos without publishing them and that one day, perhaps, when the situation was calmer, they might show them then. Hera refused: it would have been self-censorship, a sad day for the West.

Rants Tjan, director of Museum Gouda, bravely offered to exhibit her censored images, but that event was later cancelled, too. Hera was forced to go into hiding.
Paul Cliteur, a critic of multiculturalism, announced that he would no longer write for Dutch newspapers about Islam, for fear of reprisals: "With the murder of van Gogh, everyone who writes takes a certain risk. That is a scary development. What I am doing do is self-censorship, absolutely...."

Then a columnist, Hasna el Maroudi, from the newspaper NRC Handelsblad, stopped writing, after receiving threats.

The Dutch artist Rachid Ben Ali, irreverent about Islam, no longer satirizes Muslims.
Amsterdam, a city famous for its exuberant cultural life, had already lived through threats to artists: the occupation by the Nazis during World War II.

Several artists still refuse to mention Theo Van Gogh, so as not to "contribute to... divisions", according to the New York Times. Translation: They are afraid. Who would not be?

In the Oosterpark, a steel sculpture by the artist Jeroen Henneman, dedicated to Van Gogh, is entitled "De Schreeuw" ("The Scream"). But it is a scream you hardly hear in the Dutch society.

What you do hear is the defiant protest after the conviction of a brave MP, Geert Wilders: "I will never be silent. You will not be able to stop me... And that is what we stand for. For freedom and for our beautiful Netherlands."

Before being slaughtered, clinging to a basket, Theo van Gogh begged his assassin: "Can we talk about this?"

But can we talk?
Ask Geert Wilders, just the latest brave victim of Europe's Bolshevik thought police.

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.

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Judith Bergman : Europe: Illegal to Criticize Islam

Europe: Illegal to Criticize Islam

by Judith Bergman
December 12, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9525/europe-illegal-criticize-islam

• While Geert Wilders was being prosecuted in the Netherlands for talking about "fewer Moroccans" during an election campaign, a state-funded watchdog group says that threatening homosexuals with burning, decapitation and slaughter is just fine, so long as it is Muslims who are making those threats, as the Quran tells them that such behavior is mandated.
• "I am still of the view that declaring statistical facts or even sharing an opinion is not a crime if someone doesn't like it." - Finns Party politician, Terhi Kiemunki, fined 450 euros for writing of a "culture and law based on a violent, intolerant and oppressive religion."
• In Finland, since the court's decision, citizens are now required to make a distinction, entirely fictitious, between "Islam" and "radical Islam," or else they may find themselves prosecuted and fined for "slandering and insulting adherents of the Islamic faith."
• As Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said, "These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that's it." There are extremist Muslims and non-extremist Muslims, but there is only one Islam.
• It is troubling that Western governments are so eager to crack down on anything that vaguely resembles what has erroneously been termed "Islamophobia," which literally means an irrational fear of Islam.
• Considering the violence we have been witnessing, for those Westerners who have studied Islam and listened to what the most influential Islamic scholars have to say, there are quite a few things in Islam of which one legitimately ought to be fearful.

Several European governments have made it clear to their citizens that criticizing European migrant policies or migrants is criminally off-limits and may lead to arrest, prosecution and even convictions. Although these practices constitute police state behavior, European governments do not stop there. They go still farther, by ensuring that Islam in general is not criticized either.

Finland is the European country most recently to adopt the way that European authorities sanction those who criticize Islam. According to the Finnish news outlet YLE, the Pirkanmaa District Court found the Finns Party politician, Terhi Kiemunki, guilty of "slandering and insulting adherents of the Islamic faith" in a blog post of Uusi Suomi. In it, she claimed that all the terrorists in Europe are Muslims. The Court found that when Kiemunki wrote of a "repressive, intolerant and violent religion and culture," she meant the Islamic faith.

During the trial, Kiemunki was asked why she did not make a distinction between Islam and radical Islam. She replied that she meant to refer to the spread of Islamic culture and religion, and that she "probably should have" spoken of radicalized elements of the religion instead of the faith as a whole. Kiemunki was fined 450 euros. Her lawyer has appealed the verdict.
Kiemunki issued a press release after the verdict, in which she said:

"I am still of the view that declaring statistical facts or even sharing an opinion is not a crime if someone doesn't like it... I wrote that I don't want our country to be overtaken by a culture and law based on a violent, intolerant and oppressive religion."

According to YLE, she added that her essay did not generalize about Muslims, but pointed out that not all Muslims are terrorists. "In these times, specifically in the recent past and today, all of the perpetrators of terrorist acts have turned out to be Muslim," she said.

In Finland, Terhi Kiemunki, a Finns Party politician, was found guilty by a court of "slandering and insulting adherents of the Islamic faith." (Image source: YouTube video screenshot)

So in Finland, since the court's decision, citizens are now required to make a distinction, entirely fictitious, between "Islam" and "radical Islam," or else they may find themselves prosecuted and fined for "slandering and insulting adherents of the Islamic faith." As Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that's it." There are extremist Muslims and non-extremist Muslims, but there is only one Islam.

It is a pity that Kiemunki did not present the court with quotes from the Quran, such as, "Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them..." (9:5), and "So fight them until there is no more fitna [strife] and all submit to the religion of Allah." (8:39). Perhaps, then, the court could have at least tried to explain to the public in more concrete detail the differences between "Islam" and "radical Islam."

In the Netherlands, a state-funded hotline, run by the anti-discrimination bureau MiND, said that it could not act on a complaint about death threats against homosexuals posted to an online forum, in which the Muslim poster called for homosexuals to be "burned, decapitated and slaughtered." The reason why this anti-discrimination watchdog group could not act on the complaint was that, "The remarks must be seen in the context of religious beliefs in Islam, which juridically takes away the insulting character." MiND concluded that the remarks were made in

"the context of a public debate about how to interpret the Quran... some Muslims understand from the Quran that gays should be killed... In the context of religious expression that exists in the Netherlands there is a large degree of freedom of expression. In addition, the expressions are used in the context of the public debate (how to interpret the Koran), which also removes the offending character."

So, while Geert Wilders was prosecuted in the Netherlands for talking about "fewer Moroccans" during an election campaign, a state-funded watchdog group says that threatening homosexuals with burning, decapitation and slaughter is just fine, so long as it is Muslims who are making those threats, as the Quran tells them that such behavior is mandated. This might be one of the most astounding examples of voluntary submission to sharia law in the West thus far.
A spokesman for the MiND hotline later admitted that, after "further research" on the issue, it had concluded that the complaint had been "unjustly assessed" -- after Dutch MPs called for the hotline to be stripped of public funding.
In February 2016, a Danish district court found a man guilty of making statements on Facebook that the court found to be "insulting and demeaning towards adherents of Islam." The man had written:

"The ideology of Islam is as loathsome, disgusting, oppressive and as misanthropic as Nazism. The massive immigration of Islamists into Denmark is the most devastating thing to happen to Danish society in recent history."

He was fined for "racism." The High Court subsequently overturned the verdict in May 2016. The court found that the man was in fact innocent of racism, as his statements were "directed at the ideology of Islam and Islamism."

It is troubling that Western governments are so eager to crack down on anything that vaguely resembles what has erroneously been termed "Islamophobia," which literally means an irrational fear of Islam. Considering the violence we have been witnessing, it would be irrational not to have fear of its threats. As Shabnam Assadollahi recently pointed out in an open letter to Canadian Members of Parliament, there are quite a few things in Islam of which one legitimately ought to be fearful.

All these governments need to do is consult the speeches of one of the most influential living Islamic scholars of Sunni Islam, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi hosts one of Al Jazeera's most popular programs, Sharia and Life, which reaches an estimated 60 million viewers worldwide. Already in 1995, Qaradawi told a Muslim Arab Youth Association convention in Toledo, Ohio, "We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through the sword, but through dawa [outreach]."
Dawa, the Islamic call to conversion, is the Islamic summons for the non-violent conquest of non-Muslim lands, including Europe. As explained by Qaradawi in a recording from 2007, the aim of the conquest consists mainly the introduction of sharia law. According to Qaradawi, sharia law should be inserted gradually, over a five-year period in a new country, before implementing it in full. This sharia law includes chopping off hands for theft; killing apostates and homosexuals, denigrating and oppressing women, as in polygamy, beating them as a means of "disciplining" them, and so on. For those Westerners who have studied Islam and listened to what the most influential Islamic scholars have to say, there is quite a bit to be "phobic" about. It would be refreshing to hear the views of European leaders and courts on these aspects of sharia law instead of their almost ritual condemnations of those who have actually studied Islamic sources and seek to raise awareness of the nature of sharia law.
While prosecuting and sanctioning people who criticize Islam is becoming more common in Europe, this practice used to be reserved only for Muslim countries officially governed by sharia law, such as Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, where it is forbidden to insult Islam.
It is a pity that European courts and other state bodies have begun taking their cues from Islamic law. Apparently, European judges and politicians are no longer capable of appreciating the immense freedoms that used to be the norm on the continent, and which they seem all too willing, of their own free will, to abolish.

Judith Bergman is a writer, columnist, lawyer and political analyst.

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Mohshin Habib : Violence Against Non-Muslims Increases in Bangladesh

Violence Against Non-Muslims Increases in Bangladesh

by Mohshin Habib
December 14, 2016 at 4:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9538/muslim-hindu-violence-bangladesh

• "Since 2013, Bangladesh has experienced a series of violent attacks by extremists. The victims have included besides atheists, secular bloggers, liberals and foreigners -- many Buddhists, Christians and Hindus as well as Ahmadis and Shia Muslims." — Minority Rights Group International.
• "A new school of Islam from Saudi Arabia is transforming South Asia's religious landscape. Wahhabism, a fundamental Sunni school of Islam originating in Saudi Arabia, entered South Asia in the late 1970s. With public and private Saudi funding, Wahhabism has steadily gained influence among Muslim communities throughout the region. As a result, the nature of South Asian Islam has significantly changed in the last three decades. The result has been an increase in Islamist violence in Pakistan, Indian Kashmir, and Bangladesh." — Georgetown Security Studies Review, 2014.

Minority communities across Bangladesh are once again facing violence and persecution by the Sunni Muslim majority. In the last month or so, dozens of Hindu temples have been vandalized and hundreds of houses burned down by Muslims in different districts across the nation.
In one incident alone, a group of Muslims carried out attacks that left more than 100 injured and several hundred victims homeless. Hindus, at 9% of the total population the largest religious minority in Bangladesh, were targeted in the attack on October 30, about 120 km from the capital city, Dhaka. Muslims, led by two Islamic organizations -- the Tawheedi Janata ("Faithful People") and Ahle Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat --vandalized more than 15 temples and 200 houses belonging to Hindus. Violence continued a few days later, when, on November 5, extremists repeated similar attacks in the same area despite police "vigilance."
A day before the attacks began, a rumor circulated that a 27-year-old Hindu man named Rasraj Das edited a photograph superimposing the Hindu God Shiva onto an image of the Kaaba (the holiest site in Islam) and posted it on his Facebook page. Within hours of the post, he was caught by local Muslims and handed over to the police. Prior to his arrest, Das pleaded his innocence on his Facebook page, saying:

"At first I am apologizing to Muslim brothers because someone has posted a photograph from my facebook account without my knowledge. When I came to know yesterday night (October 28), I deleted it immediately. Here we live side by side as Hindu-Muslim brothers, I have no such mentality and of course I don't have such imprudent courage."

Yet the uproar of the Muslim community was not appeased, and on October 30, shortly after the early morning prayer, religious Muslims, in the name of "hurting Muslims' feelings," called on fellow Muslims, using loudspeakers from the neighboring mosques, to come out to retaliate. According to some witnesses, the local administration and police had a nonchalant attitude and did not intervene to protect the minority community.
After this episode, unrest spread across Bangladesh; many Hindu areas experienced attacks of similar religious oppression. Muslim fundamentalists vandalized idols, set fire to Hindu temples in several districts and, in some instances, looted the valuables from temples. Hindus traditionally use gold for the ornamental artifacts of Goddesses, which are sometimes hundreds of years old. These sacred items are extremely valuable; in one incident, a stolen idol of Lakshmi (Hindu Goddess of wealth and fortune) was later recovered from a mosque. Eleven months earlier, Muslim fundamentalists from the same district destroyed a museum containing a legendary Sarod (a musical instrument) belonging to the revered Alauddin Khan, who inspired many famous musicians including Pandit Rabi Shankar. For many, this had been the biggest assault on the region's culture since the 2001 destruction of the twin Buddha statues at the hands of the Taliban in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

Pictured above: A Hindu temple in Bangladesh that was recently vandalized by Muslims. The idol on the left was decapitated. (Image Source: FM Hindu video screenshot)

India has expressed concern over the safety of the Hindu community in Bangladesh, which houses the third-largest Hindu population in the world. In a tweet, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj wrote:

"I have asked Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka to call on the Prime Minister and express grave concern about the safety and wellbeing of the Hindus in Bangladesh."

Minority Rights Group International summarizes the escalating acrimony:

"Since 2013, Bangladesh has experienced a series of violent attacks by extremists. The victims have included besides atheists, secular bloggers, liberals and foreigners -- many Buddhists, Christians and Hindus as well as Ahmadis and Shia Muslims. A large number of the attacks targeting religious minorities have been claimed by... Islamic State (IS) – a claim vigorously denied by the Bangladeshi government, which has attributed the attacks to domestic militant groups. Regardless...the authorities have visibly failed to ensure the protection of those targeted. Besides the rising death toll, including civilians killed indiscriminately in bombings or individually selected by armed assailants with machetes in premeditated attacks, the... insecurity has diminished the ability of civil society to operate freely... Communal violence -- long a problem for religious minorities -- continues to take place on a regular basis, driven by political rivalries, expropriation and the apparent impunity enjoyed by perpetrators."

In another incident, on November 6, the staff of a sugar mill in Rangpur district, accompanied by local people, attacked indigenous Santal people. Three Hindu tribesmen were killed, and scores injured, when one of the five magistrates on the scene ordered police to open fire on them. Later, the mill's management blamed local villagers for the attack on the Santals.
The cascade of Hindu persecution seems only to be gaining momentum; furthermore, it appears that the government of Bangladesh is incapable or unwilling to protect their Hindu citizenry from torment. Recently, on November 29, ten idols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses at family temples were vandalized not far from Dhaka, and in the same month, 60 more human rights violations occurred. The result is a laundry list of abuses by Islamists -- with only one perpetrator incarcerated.
The growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh has also seen an increase in Islamic terrorism tied to the Islamic State. Last July, gunmen stormed a Dhaka cafe and killed 20 guests, including 9 Italians, 7 Japanese, one American and one Indian, before the six attackers were killed by Bangladeshi troops. The attackers tortured and killed anyone who was unable to recite the Quran, the holy book for Muslims.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. According to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist networks, all the attackers were Bangladeshi.
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism and radical activity in Bangladesh in recent years has taken on the form of bombings, machete attacks and in general generating fear between Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Prior to the events of September 11, 2001, political Islam and other forms of extremisms were already on the rise in the region. According to a 2014 Georgetown Security Studies Review:

"A new school of Islam from Saudi Arabia is transforming South Asia's religious landscape. Wahhabism, a fundamental Sunni school of Islam originating in Saudi Arabia, entered South Asia in the late 1970s. With public and private Saudi funding, Wahhabism has steadily gained influence among Muslim communities throughout the region. As a result, the nature of South Asian Islam has significantly changed in the last three decades. The result has been an increase in Islamist violence in Pakistan, Indian Kashmir, and Bangladesh."

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Raymond Ibrahim : "The Crescent Must be Above the Cross"

"The Crescent Must be Above the Cross"

Muslim Persecution of Christians: September, 2016

by Raymond Ibrahim
December 18, 2016 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9574/crescent-above-cross

• Three Christians were sentenced to be flogged for sipping wine during a communion Mass. "In a shock move," however, "oppressive officials in Tehran have charged the three with 'acting against national security' for taking part in the Christian ritual." — Iran.
• "One begins to wonder if Catholic priests have become an endangered species." Clergyman discussing latest murder of priest. — Nigeria.
• "We are at a breaking point. People can't put up with any more of this." — Christian bishop, Egypt.
• "They said all Christians should be killed. They said we were evil demons and made Pakistan impure." — Christian survivor of Muslim mob attack, Pakistan.
• Officials arrested 27 Christians -- including several women and children -- for the crime of "conducting Christian prayers" and being "in possession of Bibles." — Saudi Arabia.

In September 2016, a group of escaped ISIS sex slaves finally revealed the true fate of Kayla Mueller -- the 26-year-old American aid worker in Syria whom ISIS had reported dead more than a year ago. Her former fellow captives said Mueller had "refused to deny Jesus Christ despite being repeatedly raped and tortured." In February 2015, ISIS claimed their captive had been killed during a Jordanian airstrike and sent photos of her dead body in a white burial shroud, apparently as a sign of respect. One former sex slave said that Mueller "put others before herself," and once even refused a chance to escape with the other girls because she thought her American appearance would stand out and endanger the others.

Kayla Mueller was a 26-year-old American Christian aid worker in Syria. The Islamic State abducted her, and repeatedly raped and tortured her, then claimed that she was killed during a Jordanian airstrike. Above, Mueller is shown before her enslavement and death (left), and during her captivity (right), taken from an ISIS propaganda video.

An ISIS-related plot to butcher Christians with chainsaws in a Belgian shopping center was exposed in September after authorities interrogated a Muslim youth. The teen -- the son of a man being described as a "radical imam" -- was arrested for calling for the execution of Christians while walking down a street. Theo Francken, a Belgian official, said:

"I already signed the order to remove the Imam from Belgian soil. But he appealed the decision, so I can only hope for a quick sentence. Clearly radicalism runs in the family."

Speaking for the first time about the slaughter of the 86-year-old French priest Jacques Hamel, eyewitness Guy Coponet -- who was himself stabbed several times, including in the neck, and was not expected to survive -- revealed how the jihadi murderers also forced him to hold a camera and record them slitting the throat of the elderly priest: "They even checked the quality of the image and that I wasn't trembling too much. I had to film the assassination of my friend Father Jacques!" He said the assailants planned on using the video as propaganda, "which would allow them to earn their fame as a 'martyr' of Allah."
Meanwhile, Hungary became the first government in Europe to open an office specifically to address the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Europe. Zoltan Balog, Hungary's Minister for Human Resources, said:

"Today, Christianity has become the most persecuted religion, where out of five people killed [for] religious reasons, four... are Christians. In 81 countries around the world, Christians are persecuted, and 200 million Christians live in areas where they are discriminated against. Millions of Christian lives are threatened by followers of radical religious ideologies."

This move came weeks after Prime Minister Victor Orban drew criticism in the EU by saying, "If we really want to help, we should help where the real problem is.... We should first help the Christian people before Islamic people."
Around the same time -- and despite the many instances of Muslim migrants raping, murdering, and terrorizing Europeans -- Pope Francis urged Europeans to take in more Muslim refugees, including into their homes. He explained that the best way to combat terrorism is by warmly welcoming migrants and helping them integrate into the "European context."
The rest of the bloody month of September's worldwide Muslim persecution of Christians includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Kosovo: On September 10, Albanian Muslims in Pristina set fire to Christ the Savior Cathedral, "Immediately after the fire," notes the report, they "started using it [the church] as a toilet.... Since the Albanian Muslims took possession of this Orthodox land, hundreds of churches and monasteries have been burnt to the ground."
Spain: On September 8, a Muslim refugee from North Africa "attacked and burned several images of the Virgin in the Church of Fontellas." One of the side chapels was completely destroyed and several statues were torched. Part of the ornamentation of the chapel ceiling fell, and the nave was blackened by soot. Two days later, a judge issued an order banning the North African from being within ten meters of all religious centers of Catholic worship. According to the report, the man remains unrepentant and claims to have earned heaven by his actions, and police suspect he may be responsible for "other attacks on churches in nearby locations in the Ribera de Navarre, doing damage to Catholic religious symbols, such as defacing sacred books." (According to a canonical hadith attributed to Muhammad, "Do not leave any image without defacing it or any built-up grave without leveling it.")


Iran: Three Christians were sentenced to be flogged for sipping wine during a communion Mass. "In a shock move," however, "oppressive officials in Tehran have charged the three with 'acting against national security' for taking part in the Christian ritual," said the report. "[S]acramental wine is used by billions of Christians worldwide in celebration of the Eucharist. It is often watered down and is used during Holy Communion alongside small bread wafers." However, because the judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on sharia (Islamic law), which forbids the consumption of alcohol, all Christians who seek to partake of communion risk being arrested and flogged.




Indonesia: Muslims interrupted a funeral ceremony in a Catholic church in Purwosari, where 200 Christians were assembled. During a Bible reading over the dead, two Muslims who had mixed in with the congregation began heckling and cursing the priest and crowd. The police were able to remove them, but they came back with a Muslim mob, then threatened and pushed the priest and his assistant to the point where they fled the church and suspended the funeral ceremony.
In a separate incident, an angry Muslim mob, led by the Islamic Defenders Front, surrounded and protested against a Protestant church on the false accusation that it did not have the proper papers to renew its permit. "The presence of the Church in this area does not have the approval of most of the Muslim population," explained a local Muslim spokesman. "Residents said they never gave permission for the renewal of the project." However, the reverend of the church explained, "after we laid the first stone of the church, the mayor visited the site and officially recognized the project."


Syria: In September, a prominent Syriac Catholic church in Aleppo sustained significant damage from military shelling. At least 20 other Christian churches in Aleppo have been destroyed by ISIS and other "freedom fighters." Many of the churches destroyed were historically important -- such as St. Mary's, which ISIS detonated on Easter Day, 2015. Before the war, there were well over a million Christians in Aleppo; today, about 30,000 remain.


Pakistan: On the morning of September 2, four Taliban-linked Islamic terrorists wearing suicide vests stormed the church of a small Christian community of approximately 30 families in Peshawar. According to the report, "Thanks to the actions of a church security guard [who died in the shootout] and local security forces, a massacre of Christians was averted."


Yemen: Unidentified armed militants attacked the Church of Banjasar in Aden. A local source said, "Armed militants accompanied by youths from the village broke into the church after morning prayers and looted the contents of the church." Although Christian churches in Yemen are few in number, attacks on them have been on the rise. Not long ago, Houthi militias had stormed the St. Anthony Church in al-Tawahi, also in Aden, and plundered it of all its contents. Later, Saudi forces -- purportedly fighting the militants -- bombed and seriously damaged the church.


Egypt: Despite the recently passed church construction law, which was supposedly designed to relieve tensions by making church construction legally more acceptable, authorities are actually "sending a message that Christians can be attacked with impunity," according to Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch. The new law still allows governors to deny church-building permits, requires that churches be built "commensurate with" the number of Christians in an area, and contains security provisions that subject decisions on whether or not a church can be built to the whims of violent mobs. Although the diplomatic Coptic Church publicly welcomed the law, "many other Christian clergy, activists, local human rights groups, and Christian members of parliament criticize the law for upholding restrictions that continue to discriminate against Christians." The status of hundreds of churches that were used for years but then denied license renewals remains unresolved by the new law.

Violence, Prison, and Death for Christian "Blasphemers" and "Apostates"

Jordan: Nahed Hattar, a Christian writer and activist, was killed on September 25 outside of a courthouse in Amman. The 56-year-old man was earlier arrested for sharing a "blasphemous" cartoon about the prophet Muhammad. As he was walking into court to stand trial for "contempt of religion" and "inciting sectarian strife," a man dressed in traditional Muslim garb shot him dead. The report adds:

"Approximately 70 percent of Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa have blasphemy laws that make it illegal to criticize or dishonor religious symbols and teachings. In practice, many of these laws apply exclusively to Islam."

Uganda: A Muslim convert to Christianity was killed, and two others beaten, in three separate incidents:
1) The blood-stained body of 32-year-old Enoch Shaban -- a Muslim convert to Christianity and member of the Church of Uganda -- was found hanging from a tree. A local resident of the village said he heard Shaban shouting for help after another man said, "We have warned you several times of being a disgrace to our religion, and you have not taken seriously our warnings." The witness added: "Two weeks before meeting his death, he had mentioned several messages on his phone warning him to recant the Christian faith and return to Islam." The slain apostate appeared to have been struck on the head with a metallic object. The morning before his death, Muslims were reportedly seen loitering around his workshop, a mile away from the murder scene. Although Uganda is majority-Christian, the area where Enoch was killed is predominantly Muslim.
2) On the same day Shaban was killed, Aisha Twanza, 25 -- another Muslim convert to Christianity -- was poisoned by Muslim family members who put insecticide in her food. After their conversion last January, Aisha and her husband were forced to flee their village because relatives threatened to kill them. On August 10, family members informed Aisha that her mother was dying; she rushed to the village only to find that it was a lie to lure her back. Questioned about her conversion to Christianity, she refused to deny her new faith. "They were very disappointed with me for deserting Islam." Her family then served her food and allowed her to return home:

"Reaching home, I started feeling stomach upset that continued... Soon the pain intensified, and my husband rushed me to Mbale hospital, then I was taken to Pallisa, where poisoning was discovered after several tests. I never expected my parents to do such a thing to me, but I thank God for saving me."

3) A Muslim husband savagely beat his wife after she attended church. Neighbors found Fatuma Baluka, 21, unconscious and rushed her to a hospital: "When I arrived home, my husband shouted at me as an 'infidel,' and then and there started hitting me with a metallic object. I fell down, only to find myself in a hospital bed." She has since been abandoned by her husband and extended Muslim family.
Ethiopia: Six weeks after a Muslim man discovered that his wife, who is mother to his three children, had converted to Christianity, he locked her in the house and beat her with sticks; during her ordeal, neighbors heard him shouting -- including that she "should die for forsaking Islam." Neighbors found her soaked in blood from a deep gash in her forehead and rushed her to the hospital.
Pakistan: A 16-year-old Christian youth was arrested and could be executed for the crime of "blasphemy." He allegedly posted or liked on Facebook a picture of the Kaaba, Islam's sacred temple in Mecca, with a pig on top of it. Infuriated Muslims who saw the image immediately reported it to authorities, an act leading to his arrest. Authorities also removed the image in an effort to calm local Muslims and prevent them from rioting. The arrested youth's family fled their home in fear of reprisals. Accusations of blasphemy against Pakistan's minorities are common and often false. Religious hatred, personal score-settling, and economic gain are just a few of the motives behind false accusations of blasphemy.


Muslim Slaughter of Christians in Nigeria
The ongoing jihad on Christians by both Boko Haram, an Islamic jihad group, and allied Muslim herdsmen, left many dead in its wake:

• At least eight Christians were randomly shot dead by militants on motorbikes as they were exiting Sunday church service. A couple of weeks earlier, Boko Haram had said it would begin "booby-trapping and blowing up every church that we are able to reach, and killing all of those who we find from the citizens of the cross."
• Another senior priest was kidnapped after his car was ambushed by Muslim herdsmen; during the attack they violently beat and tried to kill two other members of the clergy in the car; one was shot in the head. On the same day, a Vincentian priest was kidnapped along with his brother. Discussing these and other attacks on Christian clergy in recent weeks and months, several fatal, the communications director of the local diocese said: "One begins to wonder if Catholic priests have become an endangered species."
• Boko Haram insurgents killed at least two people during raids on Christian villages. They tied up one man with a rope and slaughtered him in front of his wife and children. They also burned homes and set the market square of one village ablaze.
• A group of Fulani Muslim tribesmen attacked a 60-year-old Christian farmer while he was working his land and hacked him to death with machetes. He is "the latest victim of attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nasarawa State who have burned church buildings and homes and destroyed crops in the past four years," said the report.
• According to a separate report, Muslim Fulani tribesmen also killed another Christian pastor; raided Ningon village-- murdering two Christians as they slept in their homes, and seriously wounding a girl with gunshots; and raided the Christian village of Ungwar Mada, forcing their way into a married couple's home and slaughtering them.
•  

Muslim Contempt for and Abuse of Christians

Saudi Arabia: Officials arrested 27 Christians -- including several women and children -- for the crime of "conducting Christian prayers" and being "in possession of Bibles." The group of Christians, most if not all of whom were Lebanese nationals, were celebrating a feast day for the Virgin Mary when authorities stormed their residence and arrested them. Authorities, the dreaded "religious police," proceeded to strip them of their visas and deport them back to Lebanon. Ironically, this is a much better fate than that suffered by other Christians caught engaging in "acts of Christianity" in the Islamic kingdom. In 2012, a group of 35 Christian Ethiopians were arrested and abused in prison for almost a year, simply for holding a private house prayer. One of them reported after being released: "They [Saudis] are full of hatred towards non-Muslims."
Iran: At least 25 Christians were arrested in Kerman for unknown reasons. Security forces broke into the Christians' homes, searched them, seized various objects, and then took the Christians in. Officials did not reveal the reason for the arrest nor where the Christians were taken, leaving family and friends in distress.
In another incident, authorities raided a family garden party after they noticed it wasn't closely observing conservative Islamic norms; without a warrant, they arrested five men, former Muslims who had converted to Christianity. Then they searched the premises and confiscated several items, including three Bibles. The arrested men were taken to an unknown location, though later reports suggest they were sent to Evin Prison, where Iran's worst criminals are held.

Uzbekistan: Eight Christians were arrested and fined for possessing Christian literature, which is illegal in the Muslim majority nation. One Baptist, Stanislav Kim, was sentenced to two years in a "corrective-labor" camp for being caught with Christian literature a second time in one year. The Christian literature was ordered to be handed over to the state-backed Muslim Board.

Malaysia: After Ben-Hur, originally a novel, was made into a 2016 film, moviegoers were left disappointed and confused: authorities had cut out all scenes that portrayed Christ or had anything to do with Christianity, making the movie unintelligible. "I felt cheated," said one viewer:

"The novel from which this movie is adapted is Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ. It means Jesus is central to the plot. It was censored so much the storyline made no sense! How did Judah's mother and sister get cured from leprosy? They just appeared at the end of the movie healed."

Such anti-Christian edits are consisted with the government's ban on and confiscation of Bibles in the majority Muslim nation.
Separately, three Muslims who sought legally to convert to Christianity were denied conversion by the court system, due to the implementation of sharia (Islamic law), which maintains that anyone born into Islam -- namely, whose father was Muslim -- must remain Muslim. According to a source discussing this report, those trying to convert are often sent to a "purification center," where they are made to recite different Islamic creeds so they are again considered Muslim: "This purification center utilizes torture, beatings, and psychological attacks to terrify new believers into recanting their faith in Jesus Christ."

Egypt: After weeks of attacks more frequent than usual on the Christian minority in Minya, Upper Egypt, the government responded by appointing a Muslim cleric, Mahmoud Gomaa, to investigate the situation. Gomaa then appeared in a televised interview insisting that "Everything was good.... No one has been killed. No one has even been wounded. There's no conflict. The problem is really with the journalists writing about it."
Bishop Makarios of Minya responded by saying, "I have nothing to do with Mahmoud Gomaa. We are at a breaking point. People can't put up with any more of this." He explained how in recent weeks Christians have indeed been killed -- including a priest who was gunned down at the entrance of his church and a man who was stabbed to death by an angry mob -- as well as numerous incidents of mob violence on Christians which left many injured and their properties looted and burned.

United States: In September, when Coptic Christians were suffering abuses "every two or three days" in Egypt, an Egyptian Muslim woman living in America made a video calling for more Muslim hostility against Egypt's Christian minority, in the guise of an economic boycott. In a video, Ayat Oraby -- a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer who has nearly 1.5 million followers on Facebook -- called the Coptic Church a "bunch of gangsters," a "total mafia" that "rules [Egypt] behind the curtains." Oraby claimed that Copts are "stockpiling weapons in churches" and "striving to create a Coptic statelet" in order to continue waging "a war against Islam." That Oraby hates Copts simply because they are Christian came out clearly towards the end of her tirade, when she said: "They [Copts] must learn very well that the Crescent [Islam] must be above the Cross [Christianity]." In fact, Copts pose no danger to Egypt's Muslims -- but they dare to want equal rights, when they should be content with second-class status.

Pakistan: Hate, Rape, and Murder of Christians

"Christian girls are being 'systematically' kidnapped and abuse[d] in Pakistan," according to a September report, causing even "a Supreme Court justice to express alarm."

"But as far as the Pakistani police and government are concerned, this is not happening. They are claiming that the more than 1,000 children reported missing last year in just one province alone, in Punjab, actually left their home on their own free will."

Some of the missing children are boys. Christian leaders in Faisalabad accused local police of covering up the sexual assault and murder of Zeeshan Masih. The 14-year-old Christian boy was sexually molested, murdered, and then left hanging on a tree. Police reluctantly filed a complaint before declaring it to be a "natural" death -- despite the fact that autopsy reports clearly showed signs of sexual abuse and witnesses pointed to unidentified Muslim men. According to a local human rights group:

We now know that other children are complaining about sexual abuse and it is believed that Zeeshan was killed for threatening to tell his parents.... The manner in which police officers have attempted to camouflage this crime has hurt and angered them. They are calling for an independent inquiry into the handling of their son's death... The (incidence) of rape, sodomy and murder in Pakistan (is) reaching unprecedented levels. Christians and other minorities are natural targets as they are disenfranchised by the country's laws and statutes, which confer second-class citizenship upon them.

In a separate incident, because he refused to drop charges against them, Muslims shot and critically injured the father of a 27-year-old Christian woman they had earlier kidnapped, raped, and held for four months until she escaped. This happened three days after police refused to comply with a court order to arrest the four guilty Muslim men. Gulzar Masih, the father, was in an empty plot of land when the attack occurred:

"I was immersed in thoughts regarding the case when I saw Ghulam Hussain and Akram [two of the rapists] running towards me, hurling threats and abuses. As soon as they came near me, Hussain whipped out a pistol and fired a shot aimed at my chest. He then fired two more bullets at my legs, after which I fell down on the road. He then asked Akram to break my skull with a metal object that he was carrying. I was hit in the head, after which I lost consciousness.... They may try again to kill me, but I will not stop from knocking on the doors of justice to avenge my daughter's dishonor. Hussain and his friends are also threatening my three sons with dire consequences, but we have resolved not to sit quiet and let them get away with such a heinous crime."

Separately, a drunken Muslim mob stormed the homes of Christians and savagely beat their residents after a Christian woman asked the drunken revelers -- who were shouting loudly and saying lewd things to young girls passing by -- to quiet down. The Muslims instantly became enraged at "the audacity of 'ritually impure' Christians making demands on them," said the report: "The drunk Muslim men gathered up at least a dozen of their friends and grabbed sticks, metal rods and other assorted weapons." The mob stormed Christian homes and indiscriminately attacked men, women, and children. According to a Christian witness:

"They said all Christians should be killed. They said we were evil demons and made Pakistan impure. I thought I and my family would be killed. It was very frightening."

Seven Christians were injured, five of whom had to go to the hospital to receive treatment for their injuries.

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by Muslims is growing.
The report posits that such Muslim persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location.

Raymond Ibrahim is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (published by Regnery with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).

=================

Heshmat Alavi : Iran: Why the Mullahs Will Not Reform from Within

Iran: Why the Mullahs Will Not Reform from Within

by Heshmat Alavi
December 22, 2016 at 4:45 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9597/iran-reform

• Iran's entire power structure and most of its civil society is centralized under the personal control of the Supreme Leader. In this way, Iran's dictatorship is every bit as entrenched as North Korea's, making the idea of traditional regime change a pipe dream.
• The mullahs created a regime -- an entrenched revolution -- specifically designed to resist change or reform, adopting a unique theocratic structure that uses both Islamic ideology and brutal force to maintain absolute power.
• There is but one regime, and it has no interest in "reform."
• The membership of every single one of the many official-sounding bureaucratic organs is personally approved by the Supreme Leader. Indeed, any individual, or coalition of individuals who might serve as a check on his absolute power is, in fact, completely beholden to Khamenei's whims, making him the most complete and powerful dictator on the planet.
• Elections in this regime are not indicative of any form of "democracy". Instead, they are merely a process of choosing among individuals vetted by the Supreme Leader. There are no factions based upon ideological differences, there is mere jockeying for position and the personal favor of the Supreme Leader.
• Western governments' policy of providing concessions to the Iranian regime in order to empower "reformist" factions is based on a fantasy -- a fantasy which the Iranian regime deliberately encourages in order to fool naïve foreign leaders into easing sanctions and turning a blind eye to the nuclear program. In reality, Western concessions are strengthening Khamenei -- further reducing the possibility of change, and increasing the likelihood of outright war.

Ever since Iran's mullahs rose to power in 1979 and established an "Islamic Republic", they have worked to consolidate power both at home and abroad. Given Iran's growing belligerence toward its neighbors, persistent crackdowns on domestic dissidents, and frightening nuclear ambitions, foreign analysts often talk about the possibility of regime change in Tehran. But there is very little understanding of the obstacles to dethroning the mullahs -- namely, that the entire power structure and most of civil society is centralized under the personal control of the Supreme Leader. In this way, Iran's dictatorship is every bit as entrenched as North Korea's, making the idea of traditional regime change a pipe dream.

The mullahs created a regime -- an entrenched revolution -- specifically designed to resist change or reform, adopting a unique theocratic structure that uses both Islamic ideology and brutal force to maintain absolute power.

The official name of this system is Velayat-e Faqih ("custodianship of the clergy") and it places all religious and legal authority in the hands of the Supreme Leader. What this means, in both theory and in practice, is that the Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei (like Ruhollah Khomeini before him) plays a direct role in all the country's affairs; and no individual, group, or committee in the country has the right to question or hold him accountable.

Khamenei exercises his authority through a morass of official-sounding bureaucratic organs, including the "Guardian Council", "Expediency Council", "Supreme Council of Leader, "Supreme National Security Council", "Strategic Council of Foreign Policy", and of course a "Council of Cultural Revolution". What one must understand is that the membership of every single one of these organizations is personally approved by the Supreme Leader. Indeed, any individual, or coalition of individuals who might serve as a check on his absolute power is, in fact, completely beholden to Khamenei's whims, making him the most complete and powerful dictator on the planet -- perhaps exceeding even Kim Jong-un in unrivaled control of North Korea.

The Guardian Council is the Khamenei's most important instrument; it has titular oversight of both the executive and legislative branches. All candidates for presidential or parliamentary election must be approved by this council, allowing him to exert his personal control over the outcome of elections. Likewise, all acts of parliament and new legislation must be confirmed by the Guardian Council.
Even decisions of the Guardian Council are subject to the Grand Ayatollah's veto; he reserves the right to reject legislation or winning candidates. And some decisions, like senior judicial appointments, do not go through the Council at all. Meanwhile, the entire domestic and foreign financial system is controlled through a parallel system of committees and "foundations" which are likewise under Khamenei's personal control.

While the Khamenei is the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces, his most feared weapon is the parallel army founded by his predecessor: the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Fiercely loyal to the Supreme Leader and brutally ruthless, the IRGC is lethally efficient in protecting the regime at home and exporting the "revolution" abroad, in places as varied as Yemen and South America.

As commander-in-chief of all armed forces Khamenei appoints the joint chiefs of staff, commander of the IRGC, and senior commanders of the army and all security forces, making the possibility of a military coup extremely unlikely.
Iranian civil society is an illusion; all of the government and by extension most of the private sector are mere extensions of the Grand Ayatollah's personal will. Velayat-e Faqih is the only state ideology; the only differences of opinion are about how it should be implemented.

Therefore, elections in this regime are not indicative of any form of "democracy". Instead, they are merely a process of choosing among individuals vetted by the Supreme Leader. There are no factions based upon ideological differences, there is mere jockeying for position and the personal favor of the Supreme Leader.
Traditional "regime change" in Iran is inconceivable. The Western obsession of labeling the regime's factions as "reformists" or "hardliners" is laughable. There is but one regime, and it has no interest in "reform".

Traditional "regime change" in Iran is inconceivable. The Western obsession of labeling the regime's factions as "reformists" or "hardliners" is laughable. There is but one regime, and it has no interest in "reform".

This regime will only change if the entire Supreme Leadership structure, along with all its linked organs, especially the IRGC, are annulled and dissolved. Otherwise, whether the president is the "hardliner" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or the "reformist" Hassan Rouhani, the regime's policies will remain the same.

Western governments' policy of providing concessions to the Iranian regime in order to empower "reformist" factions is based on a fantasy -- a fantasy which the Iranian regime deliberately encourages in order to fool naïve foreign leaders into easing sanctions and turning a blind eye to the nuclear program. In reality, Western concessions are strengthening Khamenei -- further reducing the possibility of change, and increasing the likelihood of outright war.

Heshmat Alavi is a political and rights activist. His writing focuses on Iran, ranging from human rights violations, social crackdown, the regime's support for terrorism and meddling in foreign countries, and the controversial nuclear program. He tweets at @HeshmatAlavi & blogs at IranCommentary

=======================

Giulio Meotti : The Saudis at the UN Human Rights Council

The Saudis at the UN Human Rights Council

by Giulio Meotti
December 23, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9628/saudis-human-rights-council

• While the medieval Saudi system of justice was flogging the gentle blogger Raif Badawi 50 out of the stipulated 1000 lashes, a delegation of UN bureaucrats landed in Jeddah to promote an international conference on religious freedom.
• The Saudis use these international seats to advance their oppressive agenda, and to press the Western democracies to punish criticism of Islam.
• Through the shameful trial of Geert Wilders, Dutch authorities sent a message of surrender to the Saudis and other rogue Islamic regimes that punish dissent.
• Did the Dutch prosecute Wilders on behalf of the Saudis, who threatened to impose sanctions on the Netherlands?
• The UN and the Western democracies are putting the defense of human rights and freedom in the hands of one the world's worst violators of religious and intellectual freedom.
• Sharia courts are already fully operating in the Netherlands. They know something about "human rights": stoning, flogging and chopping off heads.
• Who will rescue our right to speak?

"My husband has been languishing in a Saudi prison since June 17^th, 2012. Our children live with me in the city of Sherbrooke, Québec in Canada. They have not seen their father for five years now... On January 9, 2015, Raif received the first 50 lashes... Will members of the United Nations Human Rights Council join the European Parliament and ask for Raif's release?"

Unfortunately, the UN members did not respond to this appeal by Ensaf Haidar, the fearless wife of the most famous blogger of the Arab world, the gentle Raif Badawi, imprisoned and flogged by the Saudis for his secular ideas.
A few days after Ensaf's appeal, the United Nations welcomed Badawi's executioners, the Saudis, at the UN Human Rights Council. The Saudi representative, Abdulaziz Alwasil, will be decisive on three major issues at the UN Palace of Nations in Geneva: women, religious freedom and the system of justice.

What a great achievement for Saudi Arabia: The country flogs poets and bloggers, and its sheikhs have no other concern than filling their sumptuous palaces with wives and concubines, and then stoning them to death if they become "adulterous". Saudi Arabia is where a Shiite cleric was publicly beheaded and where a Christian cannot wear a tunic or a cross.

The British government supported the Saudi bid to be re-elected at the Human Rights Council (British Prime Minister Theresa May was urged in vain to oppose the Saudi election to the Geneva body). The Obama Administration did the same: Samantha Powers, the U.S. ambassador at the UN, called the Saudi bid at the UN a "procedural position".

Hillel Neuer, the director of UN Watch, captured the difference between realpolitik and the betrayal of Western values when he said: "Making an alliance with Stalin to stop Hitler is one thing; it's quite another to say Stalin is a champion of human rights".

A few days after the Saudi bid at the UN Human Rights Council, the Kingdom and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights held a two-day workshop in the Saudi capital to discuss the "evolution of the concept of human rights in the framework of international and regional human rights systems". Evolution of the concept human rights? Ask Raif Badawi, he knows better than the UN bureaucrats.

Raif Badawi and his children, before he was jailed.

The Saudis use these international seats to advance their oppressive agenda, and to press the Western democracies to punish criticism of Islam. 

The Saudis, in fact, considered curbing trade with the Netherlands over Geert Wilders, who has just been found guilty in a court in The Hague for "inciting discrimination and insulting a minority group". By asking at a public rally if people wanted "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands, Wilders was publicly declaring his alarm over the exploding crime rate by Moroccan Muslims in the country.

Through this shameful trial, the Dutch authorities sent a message of surrender to the Saudis and other rogue Islamic regimes which punish dissent. Did the Dutch prosecute Wilders on behalf of the Saudis, who threatened to impose sanctions on the Netherlands? It was reported that the Council of Saudi Chambers received a letter from higher Saudi authorities urging it not to involve Dutch companies in local projects either directly or indirectly.

The Saudis, through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), have been pivotal in advancing the non-binding U.N. Resolution 62/154, "Combating defamation of religions", which extends protection to opinions and to ideas, and grants people immunity from being "offended".

This is exactly what happened with Wilders: he was on trial for stating his opinion, that there should be "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands. Some people said they were offended by that. Oddly, however, no one appears to have been offended by much worse remarks, said by politicians from the "Left":

• "We also have sh*t Moroccans over here." Rob Oudkerk, Dutch Labour Party (PvDA) politician.
• "We must humiliate Moroccans." Hans Spekman, PvDA politician.
• "Moroccans have the ethnic monopoly on trouble-making." Diederik Samsom, PvDA politician.

The United Nations and the Western democracies are putting the defense of human rights and freedom in the hands of one the world's worst violators of religious and intellectual freedom. Middle East expert Paul Marshall blasted the "ongoing campaign by the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference which has given the anti-blasphemy movement weight and traction".

While the medieval Saudi system of justice was flogging the gentle blogger Raif Badawi 50 out of 1000 lashes, a delegation of UN bureaucrats landed in Jeddah to promote an international conference on religious freedom. No, it is not a joke.

Joachim Rücker, President of the UN Human Rights Council, was photographed smiling side by side with the Wahhabi Islamic guardians. The Obama Administration sent two envoys to the Saudi conference, the ambassador for religious freedom, David Saperstein, and Arsalan Suleman, an envoy at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Also attending was Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN special envoy for religious freedom, a noted scholar of Immanuel Kant (how did the Enlightenment collapse so far, so fast?).

Women, Christians, secular bloggers, Western "blasphemers", brave Dutch MPs: be warned! The muttawayyin, the Saudi religious police patrolling the Kingdom's streets to ensure respect for the Koran, are already in Europe's streets. Just ask France's satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.

A few days after 12 people were butchered at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, as well as four Jews at a grocery store, Saudi officials were allowed to march in Paris along with the terrorists' victims and world leaders. 

And the Saudis had just flogged a blogger for "blasphemy". Will Geert Wilders be next? Sharia courts are already fully operating in the Netherlands. They know something about "human rights": stoning, flogging and chopping off heads.
But who will rescue our right to speak?

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.

Khaled Abu Toameh : Palestinians: The Nightmare of Christians

Palestinians: The Nightmare of Christians

by Khaled Abu Toameh
December 24, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9634/palestinian-christians

• For the past four decades, Samir Qumsieh, who hails from a large and well-respected Christian family in the town of Bet Sahour, near Bethlehem, has fought for the rights of the region's miniscule Palestinian Christian minority. He has even dared to speak out against the subjugation of Christians living under the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
• He regularly receives death threats, and he has been the target of a petrol bomb attack.
• "The solution to extremism starts with the kindergarten, with elementary school. It begins with the churches, with the mosques and the school curricula. Curricula are very important – Jewish, Christian and Muslim ones. They should concentrate on accepting the 'other.' If this idea is adopted, the future generation will be liberal and open-minded." — Samir Qumsieh.
• "Every day we hear and see some radical Muslim clerics speaking strongly against Christians. Just recently, one of the sheiks was saying that Christian Copts should be slaughtered like sheep. Where is the Egyptian security? If I were in charge of Egyptian security, I would have this sheikh arrested immediately, and have him rot in a dark underground cell." — Samir Qumsieh.
• "To understand the severity of the situation is, let us recall that in the 1950s about 86% of the population of the Bethlehem area was Christian. Today, we are only 12%. In Israel, by contrast, we have 133,000 Christians and the figure is stable. Of course, I am worried about the future of Christians here." — Samir Qumsieh.
• "I fear the day will come when our churches will become museums. is my nightmare." — Samir Qumsieh.

Without question, Samir Qumsieh is one of the most courageous Christian leaders in the Middle East. Qumsieh is one of the few willing to risk his life to speak out against Muslim persecution of Christians in the Palestinian territories and the Middle East, generally.
For the past four decades, Samir Qumsieh, who hails from a large and well-respected Christian family in the town of Bet Sahour, near Bethlehem, has fought for the rights of the region's miniscule Palestinian Christian minority. He has even dared to speak out against the subjugation of Christians living under the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The plight of the Christians living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas is a subject truly taboo. Yet Qumsieh perseveres – and pays the price. He regularly receives death threats, and he has been the target of a petrol bomb attack. Muslim extremists have also distributed leaflets in the Bethlehem area condemning him for his outspoken views and activities on behalf of persecuted Christians.

Samir Qumsieh.

However, the campaign of intimidation has not deterred Qumsieh from defending them.
In an exclusive interview with Gatestone Institute, the prominent Christian figure, who founded the private Nativity TV Station in Bet Sahour, accuses the Obama Administration of failing to combat ISIS and radical Islam. Qumsieh says he is convinced that President-elect Trump will "terminate" ISIS.
Qumsieh discloses that a "Muslim mafia" has been stealing Christian-owned lands in the Bethlehem area.


As a prominent Palestinian Christian figure in the living in the Middle East, how would you assess the Obama Administration's role in the war on ISIS?

President Obama is the spiritual father of ISIS. His administration and he were never serious about fighting ISIS. This is what I firmly believe, and many facts confirm my thoughts. When Obama saw that this was about to be exposed, he finally acted, but in a weak manner. He put out a ransom against (ISIS leader) Abu Baker Al-Baghdadi and started telling us that he had bombed ISIS, and so on.


How do you explain Obama's refusal to use the term radical Islam?

If you ask me, I will tell you the truth: I doubt that Obama is a Christian. Really, I doubt it. During his term, ISIS emerged, and the Christians have suffered heavily. Let me ask you a question. What is ISIS? Why is it that this mobilization of the whole world has not been able to eradicate them? Who can convince me? When America toppled Saddam Hussein, who had a very big and strong army, he collapsed. But when it comes to ISIS, how come they still exist?


Do you believe that President-elect Donald Trump will endorse a different stance toward ISIS?

Absolutely. Trump will obliterate ISIS. Had Hilary Clinton won, believe me ISIS would have continued and flourished. In my view, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the 'father' of ISIS, and Clinton is its 'mother.'
I have a friend who is a painter. He paints portraits of presidents. He is a Muslim, by the way. We sent portraits to King Abdullah, to Mahmoud Abbas and the Pope. He painted a portrait of Obama in front of the Church of Nativity. He worked on it for two months and it cost a lot of money. When the portrait was presented to Obama through the US consul-general in Jerusalem, they did not bother to send a thank you letter to the painter, although I personally talked to the consulate about this. I told them, 'Gentlemen, this is shameful, at least send a thank-you letter to this man.' The consul-general at that time came to my office and took the portrait. Doesn't the painter deserve at least a thank-you letter?


Are you saying that Obama has not done anything to help Christians in the Middle East?

Nothing at all. As I said, I think he was not serious about fighting ISIS, which has harmed the Christians very badly.


In your opinion, what is the best way to fight religious extremism?

I have always said that the solution to extremism is not through the military or security. The solution to extremism starts with the kindergarten, with elementary school. It begins with the churches, with the mosques and the school curricula. Curricula are very important – Jewish, Christian and Muslim ones. They should concentrate on accepting the 'other.' If this idea is adopted, the future generation will be liberal and open-minded.


But isn't the turmoil and violence in the Middle East the result of religious extremism?

The current conflict in the entire region is a religious and sectarian war. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are Sunni. They are against Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Alawite regime of Bashar Assad in Syria. So we are witnessing a religious and sectarian war. This is not only a conflict between Sunnis and Shias.


How do you feel as a Christian when you see what is happening to Christians in the Middle East, especially the recent bombing of a church in Egypt?

What is happening is extremely sad, especially the bombing of a church. I think the Egyptian authorities should act decisively. Every day we hear and see some radical Muslim clerics speaking strongly against Christians. Just recently, one of the sheiks was saying that Christian Copts should be slaughtered like sheep. Where is the Egyptian security? If I was in charge of Egyptian security, I would have this sheikh arrested immediately, and have him rot in a dark underground cell.


Are you aware of Palestinian Muslim clerics who also speak out against Christians?

Yes. This past Friday, one of the sheikhs at a mosque was speaking in a threatening way about Christians. He said that Muslim youths should not imitate Christian youths, and should not wish them well at Christmas. He also said that Muslims should not be doing business with Christians. The sheikh said some highly intimidating things about Christians.


Did the Christians protest against this incitement by the sheikh?

My cousin, who is a retired officer with the Palestinian Authority Intelligence Security Department, published something about the Friday sermon on Facebook. The following day he had to delete the post because it seems he received threats or something like that. When I told my cousin that I will talk with the Palestinian Authority attorney-general about it, he asked me not to talk to anyone. My cousin said, 'Please don't talk about this matter because we are 40 Christian families in that area (where the sheikh lives). It is clear to me that my cousin did receive threats, although he would not admit to it.


How would you describe relations between Christians and Muslims in the Bethlehem area?

Objectively speaking, there are millions of Muslims who are good people. I have many close Muslim friends whom I consider as my brothers. The problem is not Muslims. The real problem is radical Islam. In the Quran, there are various kinds of statements, and every Muslim, depending on his belief and attitude, selects what suits him. Some verses call for peace and describe Christians as the 'People of the Book' and good people. There are also verses that describe us as infidels and sinful folks. Everyone chooses what appeals to him. According to my humble knowledge, these verses are undated. I think that if they were dated, the fresh ones would supersede the old ones.


My understanding is that you have personally been the target of threats and violent attacks. Can you elaborate?

Yes, I have faced a great deal of harassment, and in 2006 I was even attacked with Molotov cocktails. Also, fliers that spoke against me have been distributed.


What is the main accusation against you? Why are some Muslims angry with you?

When I saw that there was encroachment on Christian-owned land here, I protested against it.


Is it true that Muslims have been illegally laying their hands on Christian property in Bethlehem?

We have a mafia here that is seizing Christian-owned lands. I protested against this Muslim mafia, and I even called a large gathering. I invited 80 people to my home. They included the elite of society – Muslims and Christians. They all joined my protest. That same night, fliers were distributed in Bethlehem threatening to kill me.


What has the Palestinian Authority done to help against you fight this mafia?

There are still many unresolved cases with regards to land encroachment. These cases are in the courts, but our judicial system is very slow. If you go to court, you have to wait 15-20 years. Recently, we have noticed that the encroachments decreased immensely because we have been talking to the Palestinian Authority and pressing them about the problem. Today, there are only a few cases like this taking place. We want all these cases to be solved.


Is there discrimination against Christians living under the Palestinian Authority?

One cannot say that there is official discrimination. President Abbas attends Christmas midnight mass, his prime minister attends the lighting of the Christmas tree. Still, I can simply say that among our people you will find some who harbor radical extremist thoughts. ISIS is a thought. There are Christians working in the Palestinian Authority, but not many. We have Christian mayors, and that is how it should be. Bethlehem, Bet Sahour and Bet Jala have Christian mayors, although some have been demanding that this be changed because Christians are a minority. Fortunately for us, the Palestinian Authority did not respond to these demands.


Do you believe that Christian leaders are doing enough to defend the interests of their people?

Frankly, I do not want the day to come when the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Nativity are turned into museums. Rather, I wish to seize this opportunity hope that it will encourage our leaders to tackle the problem and find a solution. Any Christian businessman who is interested in the general issue of Christians should come and invest here. We want them to build projects, including housing projects. We are also hoping that these projects will provide jobs for young Christians. The biggest problem we are facing is Christian emigration. Some Christians are helping, but this is being done on a very limited scale. But I cannot say that Christian patriarchates are doing their best. Some of them are far from the congregation and do not even care about us. We want wealthy Christians to come here and create project initiatives. It is not enough to say 'I love the Christians and I care about them.' This love should be demonstrated through deeds.


Are you worried about the growing number of Christians who are leaving the West Bank and Gaza Strip?

Once, 5,000 Christians lived in the Gaza Strip. When Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2006, Christians began to be harassed and discriminated against. Today, only 1,100 Christians live there. In the Bethlehem area, there are about 40,000 Christians. Altogether, there are about 42,000 Christians remaining in the West Bank. There are two reasons behind the dwindling figures. The first of these is the ongoing emigration, which is a nightmare for us; the second is the low birth rate among Christian families. To understand the severity of the situation is, let us recall that in the 1950s about 86% of the population of the Bethlehem area was Christian. Today, we are only 12%. In Israel, by contrast, we have 133,000 Christians and the figure is stable. Of course, I am worried about the future of Christians here. Looking at the facts on the ground, you can see that there is no future for the Christians here. We are melting; we are disappearing. I fear the day will come when our churches will become museums. That is my nightmare.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.

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