Alan M. Dershowitz : What North Korea Should Teach Us about Iran

What North Korea Should Teach Us about Iran

by Alan M. Dershowitz
April 18, 2017 at 10:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10233/north-korea-iran

We failed to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. As a result, our options to stop them from developing a delivery system capable of reaching our shores are severely limited.
The hard lesson from our failure to stop North Korea before they became a nuclear power is that we MUST stop Iran from ever developing or acquiring a nuclear arsenal. A nuclear Iran would be far more dangerous to American interests than a nuclear North Korea. Iran already has missiles capable of reaching numerous American allies. They are in the process of upgrading them and making them capable of delivering a nuclear payload to our shores. Its fundamentalist religious leaders would be willing to sacrifice millions of Iranians to destroy the "Big Satan" (United States) or the "Little Satan" (Israel). The late "moderate" leader Hashemi Rafsanjani once told an American journalist that if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons, they "would kill as many as five million Jews," and that if Israel retaliated, they would kill fifteen million Iranians, which would be "a small sacrifice from among the billion Muslims in the world." He concluded that "it is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality." Recall that the Iranian mullahs were willing to sacrifice thousands of "child-soldiers" in their futile war with Iraq. There is nothing more dangerous than a "suicide regime" armed with nuclear weapons.
The deal signed by Iran in 2015 postpones Iran's quest for a nuclear arsenal, but it doesn't prevent it, despite Iran's unequivocal statement in the preamble to the agreement that "Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire nuclear weapons." (Emphasis added). Recall that North Korea provided similar assurances to the Clinton Administration back in 1994, only to break them several years later -- with no real consequences. The Iranian mullahs apparently regard their reaffirmation as merely hortatory and not legally binding. The body of the agreement itself -- the portion Iran believes is legally binding -- does not preclude Iran from developing nuclear weapons after a certain time, variously estimated as between 10 to 15 years from the signing of the agreement. Nor does it prevent Iran from perfecting its delivery systems, including nuclear tipped inter-continental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

If we are not to make the same mistake with Iran that we made with North Korea, we must do something now – before Iran secures a weapon – to deter the mullahs from becoming a nuclear power, over which we would have little or no leverage.
Congress should now enact legislation declaring that Iran's reaffirmation that it will never "develop or acquire nuclear weapons" is an integral part of the agreement and represents the policy of the United States. It is too late to change the words of the deal, but it is not too late for Congress to insist that Iran comply fully with all of its provisions, even those in the preamble.
In order to ensure that the entirety of the agreement is carried out, including that reaffirmation, Congress should adopt the proposal made by Thomas L. Friedman on 22 July 2015 and by myself on 5 September 2013. To quote Friedman:

"Congress should pass a resolution authorizing this and future presidents to use force to prevent Iran from ever becoming a nuclear weapons state ... Iran must know now that the U.S. president is authorized to destroy – without warning or negotiation – any attempt by Tehran to build a bomb."

I put it similarly: Congress should authorize the President "to take military action against Iran's nuclear weapon's program if it were to cross the red lines...."
The benefits of enacting such legislation are clear: the law would underline the centrality to the deal of Iran's reaffirmation never to acquire nuclear weapons, and would provide both a deterrent against Iran violating its reaffirmation and an enforcement authorization in the event it does.
A law based on these two elements -- adopting Iran's reaffirmation as the official American policy and authorizing a preventive military strike if Iran tried to obtain nuclear weapons -- may be an alternative we can live with. But without such an alternative, the deal as currently interpreted by Iran will not prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. In all probability, it would merely postpone that catastrophe for about a decade while legitimating its occurrence. This is not an outcome we can live with, as evidenced by the crisis we are now confronting with North Korea. So let us learn from our mistake and not repeat it with Iran.

Alan M. Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Harvard Law School and author of Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law and Electile Dysfunction: A Guide for the Unaroused Voter.

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Burak Bekdil : Turks Vote to Give Away Their Democracy

Turks Vote to Give Away Their Democracy

by Burak Bekdil
April 18, 2017 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10226/turkey-referendum

• Alarmingly, Turkey's proposed system lacks the safety mechanisms of checks and balances that exist in other countries such as the United States.
• It would transfer powers traditionally held by parliament to the presidency, thereby rendering the parliament merely a ceremonial, advisory body.
• "The conditions for a free and fair plebiscite on proposed constitutional reforms simply do not hold," said a report released by the EU Turkey Civic Commission.

In a bitter irony, nearly 55 million Turks went to the ballot box on April 16 to exercise their basic democratic right to vote. But they voted in favor of giving away their democracy. The system for which they voted looks more like a Middle Eastern sultanate than democracy in the West.

According to unofficial results of the referendum, 51.4% of the Turks voted in favor of constitutional amendments that will give their authoritarian Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, excessive powers to augment his one-man rule in comfort.
The changes make Erdogan head of government, head of state and head of the ruling party -- all at the same time. He now has the power to appoint cabinet ministers without requiring a confidence vote from parliament, propose budgets and appoint more than half the members of the nation's highest judicial body. In addition, he has the power to dissolve parliament, impose states of emergency and issue decrees. Alarmingly, the proposed system lacks the safety mechanisms of checks and balances that exist in other countries such as the United States. It would transfer powers traditionally held by parliament to the presidency, thereby rendering the parliament merely a ceremonial, advisory body.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims victory in the April 16 referendum, at a rally the night of the vote. (Image source: VOA video screenshot)

Why did the Turks choose democratic suicide?

1. Erdogan's confrontational Islamist-nationalist rhetoric keeps appealing to masses who adore him for his claims of being in the process of restoring the country's historical Ottoman influence as a leader of the Islamic world. His rhetoric -- and practices -- would often echo an authoritarian rule in the form of a sultan. It was not a coincidence that the thousands of Erdogan fans who gathered to salute their leader after his referendum victory were passionately waving Turkish and Ottoman flags and chanting "Allah-u aqbar" ["Allah is the greatest", in Arabic]. For most of Erdogan's conservative fans, "God comes first... then comes Erdogan". That sentiment explains why the vote on April 16 was not just a boring constitutional matter for many Turks: It was about endorsing an ambitious man who promises to revive a glorious past.

2. The 'No' campaign and its supporters were systematically silenced and intimidated by a powerful state apparatus, including its police and judicial powers. In contrast, the 'Yes' campaign enjoyed all possible government support, with full mobilization of state means and public resources. Worse, Turkey went to the ballot box under a state of emergency that was declared after a failed coup in July.

3. A European Union (EU) parliamentary organization warned before the referendum that the democratic legitimacy of the vote was in question. It mentioned that the lawmakers' ability to campaign for the 'No' vote had been undermined by the government. "The conditions for a free and fair plebiscite on proposed constitutional reforms simply do not hold," said a report released by the EU Turkey Civic Commission. It highlighted, among several other reasons, that the co-leaders of a pro-Kurdish political party who campaigned for 'No' have been imprisoned since November on charges of links with terror groups. In the 15 months leading up to the referendum, says a civil rights NGO, police used violence to stop a total of 264 peaceful demonstrations in support of the 'No' campaign.

4. With around 150 journalists in jail, the pervading climate was fear.
The great Turkish purge spells big numbers. According to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu:

• 47,155 people have been jailed since the coup attempt on July 15;
• 113,260 people have also been detained;
• 41,499 people have been released with condition of judicial control and 23,861 people have been released without any condition; 863 other suspects remain at large;
• 10,732 of those who have been arrested are police officers, while 168 military generals and 7,463 military officers have been jailed as of April 2, 2017;
• 2,575 judges and prosecutors, and 208 governors or other public administrators have been imprisoned. The number of jailed civilians, including handicapped people, housewives and elders, is 26,177
• Over 135,000 people have been purged: A total of 7,317 academics were also purged as well as 4,272 judges and prosecutors who were dismissed due to alleged involvement in the coup attempt.

'No' campaigners were threatened and treated like terrorists. Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) confirmed cases of intimidation against the 'No' campaign across the country.

5. The main opposition Republican People's Party claimed election rigging. It claimed the vote was manipulated in terms of content and method. Only an hour into the vote count, the Supreme Board of Elections declared as valid voting papers without official seals. That practice is clearly in violation of the election laws. The opposition also claimed that in some cities the election observers from the 'No' groups were removed from their polling stations. In Turkey, it probably does not matter what is in the ballot box; what matters more is who counts them.

The April 16 vote in Turkey meant more than a simple vote on a package of 18 constitutional amendments. With a narrow and controversial margin, the Turks voted to change regime in favor of a sultanate. It was not a coincidence that a news editor for Yeni Akit, a militantly Islamist newspaper and a pro-Erdogan outlet, tweeted after the referendum results, an obituary for the "Old Turkey." In January, a columnist for Yeni Akit claimed that Erdogan would become the "caliph" if he wins the referendum and the presidential election.

Turkey's soul-searching and societal wars never have a moment of truce. Turkey's wars are not just between political leaders and parties; they are wars between the supporters of a democratic, secular country and those of a caliphate which Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, abolished almost a century ago. As Kati Piri, the European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur, said of the referendum: "This is a sad day for all democrats in Turkey".

Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was just fired from Turkey's leading newspaper after 29 years, for writing what was taking place in Turkey for Gatestone. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Soeren Kern : A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in France and Belgium: March 2017

A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in France and Belgium: March 2017

by Soeren Kern
April 18, 2017 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10232/islam-multiculturalism-france-belgium

• Yussuf K. said he carried out the January 2016 attack "in the name of Allah and the Islamic State." He added that he chose his victim because "he was Jewish."
• A confidential police report revealed that more than 50 organizations in Molenbeek, a migrant-dominated neighborhood of Brussels, Belgium, are believed to have ties to jihadist terrorism.
• An Ipsos poll for France Television and Radio France found that 61% of the French believe that Islam is incompatible with French society.

March 2. In a landmark trial at the Paris Children's Court, a 17-year-old Turkish jihadist, identified only as Yussuf K., was sentenced to seven years in prison for attacking Benjamin Amsellem, a Jewish teacher in Marseille, with a machete. Yussuf K. said he carried out the January 2016 attack "in the name of Allah and the Islamic State." He added that he chose his victim because "he was Jewish." Yussuf K. was charged with "an individual terrorist attempt and attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise," with the aggravating circumstance of anti-Semitism. He was tried as a minor because he was 15 when he carried out the attack. The criminal trial of a minor on terror charges was the first of its kind in France, where some fifty children are currently being investigated for jihadist offenses.
March 2. The European Parliament voted to lift the immunity from prosecution for National Front leader Marine Le Pen for tweeting images of Islamic State violence. Under French law, publishing violent images can be punished by up to three years in prison and a fine of €75,000 euros ($79,000). Le Pen, a leading candidate in this year's French presidential election, posted the images in response to a journalist who compared her party's anti-immigration stance to the Islamic State. Le Pen denounced the legal proceedings against her as political interference in the campaign and called for a moratorium on judicial investigations until the election period has passed.
March 4. The mayor of the French port of Calais, Natacha Bouchart, signed a decree prohibiting aid groups from distributing meals to migrants and refugees at the site of the former "Jungle" migrant camp. The decree said food distribution by charities had led to large numbers of people gathering at the site of the now-closed camp, with fights breaking out and risks posed to the safety of local residents.
March 6. President François Hollande vowed to "do everything in his power" to prevent Marine Le Pen from winning the upcoming presidential election in France. Polls have suggested that Le Pen, leader of the National Front party, may win the first round of France's election on April 23. Le Pen, who has campaigned on an anti-immigration platform, has also vowed to hold a referendum on France's membership of the European Union. Hollande, who decided not to run for a second term, said it was his "ultimate duty to do everything to ensure that France is not convinced by such a plan" to take France out of the EU.
March 7. The 17th Criminal Tribunal of Paris acquitted the Moroccan-born French-Jewish scholar Georges Bensoussan of hate speech charges. The Collective against Islamophobia in France (Collectif Contre l'Islamophobie en France, CCIF) filed a lawsuit against Bensoussan, 64, for "public incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence against a group of people because of their religious affiliation" because of remarks he made on Radio France about Muslim anti-Semitism. He said:

"There will be no integration until we get rid of this atavistic anti-Semitism that is kept secret. It so happens that an Algerian sociologist, Smain Laacher, with great courage said that 'it is a disgrace to maintain this taboo, namely that in Arab families in France and elsewhere everyone knows that anti-Semitism is spread with the mother's milk.'"

In its ruling, the court said the plaintiffs failed to prove the charges of hate speech: "Bensoussan cannot be blamed to have aroused or wished to arouse a feeling of hostility or rejection against a group of persons and, even less, to have explicitly called for specific acts against the group." The judges added that the expression "anti-Semitism, it is sucked with the mother's milk" is a figure of speech, not the expression of "biological racism."
March 12. Mohammad Khan Wazir, a 30-year-old migrant from Afghanistan, was sentenced by the Criminal Court of Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) to 18 months in prison for threatening to assassinate the city's judges. Wazir was visiting his three-year-old son, named Djihad (the French word for "jihad"), whom judges placed under state care in Grasse, when he allegedly said that he wanted to "go to court with a Kalashnikov to kill them all." After Wazir left Afghanistan in 2007, he met a French woman named Claire Khacer. The couple separated after the birth of their child in 2013. Khacer, who is pregnant with the child of an Islamic State jihadist, was arrested after returning to France from Syria. She is being held on charges of conspiring to join a terrorist enterprise. In court, Wazir admitted to threatening the judges. He said was he was "overwhelmed" by the slow pace of the French bureaucracy. His French-born son still does not have a French passport.
March 13. Sonia Imloul, a 43-year-old activist and the former head of a deradicalization program, was found guilty by the Paris Criminal Court of embezzling and laundering public funds. She was accused of misusing the €60,000 ($65,000) which the French Interior Ministry gave her association, the House of Prevention and the Families (Maison de la prévention et de la familles), for the purpose of discouraging French Muslims from going to Iraq and Syria. She received a four-month suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay €25,000. The conviction, which came after Julien Revial, a student employed by Imloul, wrote a book exposing her scam, has highlighted the failure of the French government's deradicalization efforts.
March 15. Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said that French security forces would begin dismantling the Grande-Synthe migrant camp on the northern coast near the port of Dunkirk "as soon as possible" after violent clashes at the site. The number of people at the camp has swelled to 1,500 since the destruction of the "Jungle" camp near Calais, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) away. The Grande-Synthe camp, populated mostly by Kurds, was built to house migrants and refugees who otherwise sleep in tents or makeshift shelters. They gather along the northern coast of France trying to break into trucks heading to Britain or trying to pay smugglers to help them get across the Channel.
March 16. An Ifop poll found that 71% of French people believe the security situation in France has deteriorated during the past five years; 93% believe the terrorist threat remains high; 60% said they do not feel safe anywhere in the country; and 69% believe there are not enough police and gendarmes. The poll also found that 88% support deporting foreigners convicted of serious crimes, and 81% support terminating social assistance to parents of repeat offenders.
March 17. A 30-year-old Muslim man yelling "Allahu Akhbar" slit the throats of his father and brother in the courtyard of their apartment building in Paris. Police said the dead men were found lying on the ground in pools of blood. Neighbors said the suspect had recently become radicalized and that his family was not happy about it. Police quickly dismissed terrorism as a motive for the crime; instead, they focused on "double intrafamilial homicide" in the context of "radicalization." The suspect was arrested and transferred to a psychiatric ward.
March 17. Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the Left Party, proposed a solution to the debate over sharia-compliant meals in French schools. He said that vegetarian menus without meat in school canteens would answer both religious and ecological questions:

"You do not have meat, you can do without it. There's no need to eat meat all the time. When I was a kid, a lot of my friends were not eating pork because of their religion. We have to find a way that makes it possible for everyone to live well together. So, I would like to have vegetarian menus, menus without meat. There are other sources of protein besides meat. When you're at school, if there's a problem, go smile, vegetarian menus for everyone."

March 18. Ziyed Ben Belgacem, a 39-year-old French national of Tunisian origin, was shot dead at Paris Orly airport, the second-busiest airport in France, after grabbing a soldier's gun, and apparently intending to open fire on passengers. He shouted: "Put down your guns. Put your hands on your head. I am here to die for Allah. In any case, there will be deaths." Police said that Belgacem, who was born in Paris, was a "radicalized Muslim" who was known to the intelligence services. He was a career criminal with a long history of violence, robbery and drug offenses but despite his being investigated as a potential jihadist, Belgacem did not have an "S" file (Fiche "S" or Sûreté de l'État (state security), which flags individuals suspected of belonging to terrorist groups).
March 20. A confidential police report revealed that more than 50 organizations in Molenbeek, a migrant-dominated neighborhood of Brussels, Belgium, are believed to have ties to jihadist terrorism. More than 70 individuals are currently being monitored for suspected connections to jihadism. Most (46) reside in Belgium, while 26 are thought to be in Syria. Twenty people on the list are currently in prison. Counter-terrorism police have visited 8,603 homes and monitored 22,668 residents in Molenbeek, or one quarter of all of its inhabitants.
March 20. French Muslims between the ages of 14 and 16 are far more likely than non-Muslims to hold to "religious absolutism" and be "tolerant of taking violent action for ideological reasons" than non-Muslims, according to a survey of radicalism among French high school students. The study, carried out by the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), showed that "the dissemination of radical ideas in religious matters is approximately three times stronger among young Muslims than in the sample as a whole" and especially among boys (two times more often than girls). Nearly one-third (32%) of Muslim youth believe it is "acceptable in some cases to fight arms for their religion in today's society" compared to 8% of young people in general.
March 22. An Ipsos poll for France Television and Radio France found that 61% of the French believe that Islam is incompatible with French society, compared to 17% who believe the same is true for Judaism and 6% for Catholicism. Most respondents strongly endorsed proposals regulating Islam in the private sphere: 79% favor banning the veil in universities and 77% prohibiting the burkini in public spaces. An extremely large majority of the French (90%) believe that secularism is an essential value of the Republic, and 74% think it is threatened today (92% of Marine Le Pen's supporters feel this way). A majority of the French (60%) believe that the cohabitation between different religions does not happen well in France (85% of Marine Le Pen's supporters feel this way).
March 22. In an interview with De Morgen to mark the first anniversary of the jihadist attacks in Brussels, Mayor Yvan Mayeur warned: "Everyone knows that all mosques in Brussels are in the hands of Salafists. We need to change this, we need new mosques that follow our democratic rules and that are being controlled by the government." Salafists say they want to replace Western democracy with an Islamic government based on Sharia law.
The Collective against Islamophobia in Belgium (CTIB) condemned the mayor's remarks: "Those statements are very serious, manifestly incorrect and totally unacceptable from the mouth of a political representative of a cosmopolitan city such as Brussels."
Mayeur later called for a "mosque planting strategy" based on the "church plant model." This would give the government more control over what is preached inside the mosques. In an interview with the French-speaking RTBF radio, he said:

"I want a moderate Islam in Brussels. I have regular contact with two groups of people who want to build a mosque and who want to follow the standards in exchange for government support. I suggest that the government participates in the financing and control, a bit along the lines of the model of the church councils."

March 25. French anti-terrorism judges charged two men suspected of involvement in supplying a weapon to the gunman killed at Paris's Orly airport on March 18 after seizing the weapon of a soldier. The suspects, aged 30 and 43, were charged for "association with terrorist criminals."
March 29. Flanders, one of three official regions of Belgium, announced that it will impose new restrictions on the ritual slaughter of animals. As of January 1, 2019, all sheep will have to be stunned before they are slaughtered. The restrictions, which will eventually also apply to cattle, have been criticized by Muslim and Jewish groups as conflicting with their religious tenets.
March 30. The French Council of the Muslim Faith (Conseil français du culte musulman, CFCM), the official interlocutor between the French state and the country's Muslim community, in a bid to curb radical Islam, published a 12-point charter regarding the role of imams in society. The document, which all practicing imams will be encouraged to sign, recognizes the values of the French Republic and promotes tolerant Islam. The charter has been rejected by some of the biggest Muslim organizations in France, including the Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF).
March 31. Up to a thousand Muslims rolled out rugs and prayed on the streets of Clichy, a northern suburb of Paris, to protest the closure of a mosque on rue Estienne-d'Orves. The mosque was shuttered after its lease expired and the municipality voted to turn the building into a library. Up to 5,000 worshippers prayed at the facility every day. City officials say that Muslims can worship at a new mosque that was inaugurated in May 2016. Muslims say the alternative facility is too small and remote.

Up to a thousand Muslims prayed on the streets of Clichy, a suburb of Paris, on March 31, to protest the closure of a local mosque; its lease had expired. (Image source: LDC News video screenshot)

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.

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Soeren Kern : A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Britain: March 2017

A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Britain: March 2017

by Soeren Kern
April 16, 2017 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10215/islam-multiculturalism-britain-march

• "Have you seen some of those ISIS propaganda videos, they are cut like action movies. Where is the counter narrative?" — Riz Ahmed, actor.
• Britain's foreign aid budget is reportedly funding at least two dozen Palestinian schools, some of which are named after terrorists and murderers and which openly promote terrorism and encourage pupils to see child killers as role models.
• An estimated 400 home-grown jihadis have returned to the United Kingdom after fighting in Syria, but only 54 of those have been prosecuted, according to a Mail on Sunday investigation, which also discovered that some returned jihadis are roaming free on the streets of Britain.

March 1. A new Channel 4 documentary series called "Extremely British Muslims" showed the inner workings of a sharia court inside Birmingham's Central Mosque. In the first episode, viewers witnessed the case of mother-of-four Fatima, 33, as she sought permission to divorce her drug dealer husband she says has abused her throughout their 14-year marriage. According to sharia law, Muslim women must plead their divorce cases in court, while Muslim men need only to say the words "I divorce you" three times to obtain a divorce. Birmingham Central Mosque said it allowed the sharia proceedings to be filmed in an effort to "break down misconceptions about Islam." Some 100 sharia courts in Britain are now dispensing Islamic justice outside the remit of the British legal system.
March 2. English actor Riz Ahmed warned that the lack of Muslim faces on British television was alienating young people, driving them towards extremism and into the arms of the Islamic State. Delivering Channel 4's annual diversity lecture in Parliament, Ahmed said that television had a pivotal role to play in ensuring that Muslims felt heard, and valued, in British society:

"If we fail to represent, we are in danger of losing people to extremism. In the mind of the ISIS recruit, he's the next James Bond right? Have you seen some of those ISIS propaganda videos, they are cut like action movies. Where is the counter narrative? Where are we telling these kids they can be heroes in our stories — that they are valued? If we don't step up and tell a representative story we are going to start losing British teenagers to the story that the next chapter in their lives is written with ISIS in Syria."

March 3. The Amateur Swimming Association changed its swimsuit regulations to allow Muslim women to wear full body outfits, after a request from the Muslim Women's Sport Foundation. The rule was changed to encourage more Muslim women to take part in the sport. Rimla Akhtar, from the Muslim Women's Sport Foundation, said:

"Participation in sport amongst Muslim women is increasing at a rapid pace. It is imperative that governing bodies adapt and tailor their offerings to suit the changing landscape of sport, including those who access their sport."

March 4. Ryan Counsell, 28, a jihadist from Nottingham who left his wife and two small children to fight with the Abu Sayyaf Islamist group in the Philippines, blamed his behavior on the Brexit vote. He told the Woolwich Crown Court that increased tension within the local Muslim community after Brexit sparked his decision to leave. He said that he wanted to escape Britain's political climate and seek an "idyllic life" under sharia law. He was arrested at Stansted airport in July 2016 and was later sentenced to eight years in prison.
March 5. Homegrown terrorism inspired by the Islamic State poses the dominant threat to the national security of the United Kingdom, according to a comprehensive new report on violent Islamism in Britain. The 1,000-page report — "Islamist Terrorism: Analysis of Offenses and Attacks in the UK (1998–2015)" — was published by the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank based in London.
The report found that number of Islamism-related offenses (IROs) in Britain doubled between 2011 and 2015 from 12 to 23 a year. More than half (52%) of IROs were committed by individuals of South Asian ancestry: British-Pakistanis (25%) and British-Bangladeshis (8%). Other offenders had family ties to countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Forty-seven percent of IROs were committed by individuals born in the UK.
The also report showed a clear link between terrorism and growing up in Muslim-dominated neighborhoods. London was the place of residence of 43% of IROs, followed by West Midlands, with 18%. Of the latter, 80% of IROs were in Birmingham. The third most common region was North West England, with 10% of IROs. Together, these three regions contained the residences in almost three-quarters (72%) of cases. East London was home to half (50%) the London-based offenders, while the three most common boroughs — Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest — contained the residence of offenders' in 38% of all London IROs (and 16% overall).
March 6. British security services have prevented 13 potential terror attacks since June 2013, according to Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the UK's most senior counter-terrorism police officer. He also said that there were 500 live counter-terror investigations at any given time, and that investigators have been arresting terror suspects at a rate of close to one a day since 2014. The official threat level for international terrorism in the UK has stood at severe — meaning an attack is "highly likely" — for more than two years.
March 7. The National Health Service (NHS) revealed that there were 2,332 new cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Britain between October and December 2016. That brought the total of new cases in 2016 to nearly 5,500.
March 7. The managers of the cash-strapped Sandwell General Hospital near Birmingham are considering the construction of a special kitchen for preparing halal meals for Muslim patients and staff. The move follows complaints about the quality of halal meals that the hospital has outsourced to local vendors. A spokesman said: "We are still reviewing options around creating a separate halal kitchen and the best ways to provide a range of healthy halal options to patients and staff who want them."
March 10. The BBC announced that it would begin outsourcing production of Songs of Praise, a Sunday worship program that has been produced in-house for 55 years. Critics of the move said they feared that Songs of Praise will lose its Christian focus in favor of Islam. Anglican priest Lynda Rose said a recent Songs of Praise episode featuring a segment about the Muslim faith, including Church of England children visiting a mosque, exemplified the "Islamization of the BBC." More than 6,000 people have signed an online petition calling for MPs to investigate the BBC after it appointed Fatima Salaria as the BBC's head of religious programming — the second Muslim in a row to hold the post.
March 11. Britain's foreign aid budget is reportedly funding at least two dozen Palestinian schools, some of which are named after terrorists and murderers and which openly promote terrorism and encourage pupils to see child killers as role models. A Mail on Sunday investigation found pictures of "martyrs" posted on school walls, revolutionary slogans and symbols painted on premises used by youngsters, sports events named after teenage terrorists and children encouraged to act out shooting Israeli soldiers in plays.
Head teachers openly admitted to flouting attempts by British and European donors to control the curriculum at schools. They reportedly print overtly political study aids for pupils, some even denying the existence of Israel, while teachers boast of encouraging pupils to emulate teenage "martyrs" killed in terrorist attacks in the region.
One senior teacher from a prominent West Bank school, when asked what he would say to a pupil threatening to attack Israelis, said: "I would tell them go in the name of Allah."
March 11. Islamic preachers may be asked to begin delivering their sermons in English under measures being prepared to rid Britain of hate preaching. The Telegraph reported that the government's counter-extremism taskforce is working on the plans amid concern that preaching in foreign languages enforces divisions between Islam and mainstream British society and can foster radicalization.
March 12. An Islamic bookstore in Alum Rock, a predominately Muslim suburb of Birmingham that has produced 10% of all of Britain's convicted terrorists, was found to be openly selling books promoting jihad. The Sunday Express visited the Madina Book Centre and bought a copy of the 440-page "Bringing up Children in Islam" for £5 ($6). The book encourages parents to "keep alive in the children the spirit of jihad." It says:

"They [your children] may be inspired to strive for the restoration of the glory of Islam and Muslims. Jihad of warfare is where all humans spend their energies to stop a tyrant from being oppressive, for example when a tyrant makes it difficult for people to fulfill the commands of Allah to propagate Islam.
"Tyrants must be subdued whether they rule in an Islamic or non-Islamic land, or whether they are on a battlefield.
"It is the duty of Muslims to divert people from worshipping created things to the worship of the Almighty Allah alone."

The book also rails against cinema and theater, arguing they are the work of "evil-minded" Jews, and warns of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. The book supports adulterers being stoned to death and Muslim schoolchildren being kept separate from others: "Education under unbelieving and atheist teachers results in them going astray. Dangerous, communistic and materialistic ideas grow in their minds."
March 14. A father who describes himself as "Anglo-Saxon" lost a legal battle to prevent his Muslim ex-wife from sending their 10-year-old son to an Islamic secondary school. The man, who was not named for legal reasons, said he wanted to prevent his son from attending a "school inside a mosque" on the grounds that he would be "marginalized" by his son if he enrolled at the London-based school. The man's lawyer said that the mother and father had "different world views" and that it was client's wish that his son be educated in a "neutral" environment. The man and his ex-wife, both in their 40s, had divorced more than three years ago following a nine-year marriage. The man had converted to Islam but renounced his faith following the separation. The lawyer argued that the boy's Muslim faith could be adequately catered for at a secular school. A High Court judge dismissed the man's appeal on the grounds that an earlier ruling made by a judge at a family court — that the man would not be marginalized by his son — was correct.
March 15. Lawyers warned that a landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which allows employers to ban staff from wearing Islamic headscarves at work under certain conditions, will not automatically apply in Britain. The ECJ ruled that prohibiting the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination. The judgment was delivered in cases brought by two employees, one in Belgium and one in France, who were dismissed for refusing to remove headscarves. Lawyers said that British companies adopting the ban could easily be sued for discrimination. The Muslim Council of Britain, the country's largest Islamic organization, condemned the ruling:

"At a time when populism and bigotry are at an all-time high, we fear that this ruling will serve as a green light to those wishing to normalize discrimination against faith communities. Many will be worried that this action will prevent Muslim women who choose to wear the scarf from securing jobs. And it sends a message that we cannot accept a plural society that recognizes and celebrates religious differences."

Prime Minister Theresa May said that the government should not tell women what to wear:

"We have a strong tradition in this country of freedom of expression, and it is the right of all women to choose how they dress and we don't intend to legislate on this issue. There will be times when it is right for a veil to be asked to be removed, such as border security or perhaps in courts, and individual institutions can make their own policies, but it is not for government to tell women what they can and can't wear."

March 17. The former owners of a bookstore in Bradford apologized after copies of the Koran and other Islamic literature were found in a garbage dumpster outside the store. Police were called to the store after a group of Muslim males began shouting at and abusing staff. The imbroglio began after the bookstore's 80-year-old owner decided to close down his business, and the new owners gave him a month to move out the stock, which included a number of Korans and other Islamic books. A spokesman for the bookstore said:

"It has come to our attention that some Islamic materials were found in a skip [garbage dumpster] next to Book Centre. While the Book Centre site is being cleared, no Islamic material of any sort was purposefully disposed of. A small workforce was instructed to clear two storerooms from which some material made its way into the skip. This is wrong, unacceptable and a genuine mistake. The skip will be looked at as a matter of urgency and any materials removed."

A spokesman for Baker Reign Solicitors, which represents the new owners, said:

"Should our client have been aware that the previous owner would have sought to dispose of the Holy Koran and other books in this manner, they would have assisted in distributing the books to various mosques throughout the city.
"Our client now hopes that the previous owner takes a more responsible course of action by distributing the books to those less fortunate and in need of Islamic guidance."

March 17. Zameer Ghumra, a 37-year-old Leicester pharmacist accused of showing a beheading video to two young children, was released on bail until his trial begins at Nottingham Crown Court on September 25. He has been charged with distributing terrorist publications under section two of the Terrorism Act 2006.
March 18. The BBC apologized after a tweet from the BBC Asian Network account asked, "What is the right punishment for blasphemy?" The tweet provoked criticism that the BBC appeared to be endorsing harsh restrictions on speech. In an apology posted on Twitter, the network said it had intended to debate concerns about blasphemy on social media in Pakistan. "We never intended to imply that blasphemy should be punished," it said.

On March 18, the British taxpayer-funded BBC Asian Network account asked, "What is the right punishment for blasphemy?"

March 19. A British jihadist reportedly used social welfare payments to move his family to Syria to join the Islamic State. Shahan Choudhury, 30, who was radicalized at Belmarsh Prison while serving an 18-month sentence for allegedly stabbing to death a 17-year-old hospital worker over an alleged £15 ($18) drug debt, vanished from his apartment in London and has since used social media to urge other British Muslims to carry out terror attacks in the UK.
March 20. Mohammed Karamat, 45, an imam at a mosque in Coventry who assaulted four children as young as nine, was spared jail time. Magistrates watched footage of Karamat twisting a child's arm, slapping a child, and using a pen to stab a child and pricking a child's hand with the lid of a pen. He was filmed attacking the children during a six-day period. Karamat, who admitted to four counts of assault by beating, was ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work.
March 21. Minister for Higher Education, Jo Johnson, ordered British universities to include a clear commitment to freedom of speech in their governance documents to counter the culture of censorship and so-called safe spaces. In a letter, Johnson wrote that it was the "legal duty" of universities to ensure as far as practicable that freedom of speech is secured for "members, students, employees and visiting speakers." This meant that all university premises should not be "denied to any individual or body on any grounds connected with their beliefs or views, policy or objective."
March 22. Khalid Masood, 52, drove a car at pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge and, armed with two knives, stormed the parliamentary estate. He killed five people and injured more than 50 before he was shot dead by police. Masood, a convert to Islam, was born in Kent as Adrian Elms. During his school years, he used his stepfather's surname, Adrian Russell Ajao. A former English tutor, he was unemployed at the time of the attack and had been living on social welfare benefits. Masood, who had a history of criminality — he had previous convictions for assaults, including grievous bodily harm, possession of offensive weapons and public order offences — was reportedly radicalized in prison.
March 23. A total of 29 people were charged after girls as young as 11 were raped and sexually abused in Huddersfield. West Yorkshire Police said the 27 men and two women men face numerous offences including rape, trafficking with intent to engage in sexual exploitation, sexual activity with a child, child neglect, child abduction, supply of Class A drugs and the possession and making of indecent images of children. They are accused of committing the crimes against 18 girls in Huddersfield when they were aged between 11 and 17, between 2004 and 2011.
March 23. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Westminster attack. "The perpetrator of the attacks yesterday in front of the British parliament in London is an Islamic State soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition," the group's Amaq news agency said in a statement.
March 23. Prime Minister Theresa May said that it would be "wrong" to describe the jihadist attack on Westminster Bridge and Parliament as "Islamic terrorism." Instead, she said, it should be referred to as "Islamist terrorism" and "a perversion of a great faith."
March 25. Mark Ashdown, a childhood friend of Westminster terrorist Khalid Masood, described how Masood had completely changed after prison, where he converted to Islam. Ashdown said:

"When he first came out he told me he'd become a Muslim in prison and I thought he was joking. Then I saw he was quieter and much more serious. I gave him some cash-in-hand work for a few months as a laborer. He said he needed time to pray and read the Koran — something about finding inner peace. I heard he'd split from his partner and got even more deeply into religion."

March 25. Police investigating the Westminster attack concluded that Khalid Masood acted entirely alone for reasons that may never be known. "We must all accept that there is a possibility we will never understand why he did this," deputy assistant Metropolitan police commissioner Neil Basu said. "That understanding may have died with him." Meanwhile, British security services reportedly do not like the term "lone wolf" because they feel it glamorizes an attacker. They prefer using "lone actor" instead.
March 25. An estimated 400 home-grown jihadis have returned to the United Kingdom after fighting in Syria, but only 54 of those have been prosecuted, according to a Mail on Sunday investigation, which also discovered that some returned jihadis are roaming free on the streets of Britain.
March 28. Kevin Lane, a convicted murderer who spent 20 years in British prisons, including HMP Woodhill and HMP Frankland, told the BBC that he saw many inmates pressured to convert to Islam and carry out attacks on other prisoners. "I have seen many attacks within the prison system," he said. "One man boiled fat and poured it over someone's head because of an insult to Islam." A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "The allegations put forward by the former prisoner are historic."
March 29. The BBC tried to downplay Westminster attacker Khalid Masood's ties to radical Islam by airing an interview with a former employer of Massood. The man, identified only as Farasat, was a manager at an English language school where Massood worked between 2010 and 2012: The interview follows:

Q: Who was the man that you knew?
A: As a teacher, a very professional man. He was an excellent teacher. He got on well with his non-Muslim colleagues. A very friendly, stable kind of guy, really. He was not interested in the politicized version of Islam. He had no contact with any of the extremist groups. He was more a practicing Muslim who was committed to his faith, committed to his family and was focused on his career. I don't think he was influenced by extremist groups at all.... In fact, I'd go as far to say that he was the antithesis of a violent radical.

Masood was, in fact, known to police and security services and had once been investigated by MI5 over concerns about violent extremism.
March 30. Acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner Craig Mackey said there was a slight increase in "Islamophobic incidents" following the Westminster terror attack. Breitbart London reported: "The statement which New Scotland Yard sent along with its figures suggests the rise may not be due to a genuine increase in Islamophobia, but could instead be due to a 'community engagement plan' which sees the authorities actively encourage Muslims to come forward with allegations following what they describe as 'trigger events.'" The Met, the police service for the Greater London area, now employs 900 specialists focused on monitoring so-called Islamophobia.
March 31. A new biography of Prince Charles revealed that the heir to the British throne tried to halt the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to "honor" Ramadan. He made the plea in an "urgent call" to William Farish, the American ambassador to London, four weeks into the huge military operation launched after the 9/11 terror attacks. Farish recalled: "Prince Charles asked me if it would be possible to stop the invasion to honor Ramadan, and if I could convey that request to President Bush." The ambassador replied that it would be difficult to halt a military invasion already in full swing, but the prince allegedly protested: "But Americans can do anything!" Farish asked: "Sir, are you really serious?" Prince Charles replied: "Yes I am."

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.

• Follow Soeren Kern on Twitter and Facebook

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

Raymond Ibrahim : "Spit on the Cross or Die" - Muslim Persecution of Christians, January 2017

"Spit on the Cross or Die"

Muslim Persecution of Christians, January 2017

by Raymond Ibrahim
April 16, 2017 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10207/muslim-persecution-of-christians-january

• According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, 900 Christian churches have been destroyed in 12 northern states that adopted Islamic law, in the early 2000s.
• A blasphemy case was registered against Shaan Taseer — son of Salman Taseer, a human rights activist and defender of persecuted Christians who was assassinated by Muslims — for saying "Merry Christmas." — Pakistan.
• Thanks to dishonest Muslim translators, immigration officials are rejecting asylum applications from Muslim converts to Christianity from Iran and Afghanistan during what one pastor characterized as "kangaroo court" hearings. Rev. Gottfried Martens accused the "almost exclusively Muslim translators" of deliberately mistranslating their responses to disqualify their applications. — Germany.

Tragic stories of Christian experiences under the Islamic State continued to emerge throughout the month of January. A Christian doctor who forfeited the chance to escape his Syrian village after ISIS had captured it because he wanted to stay and help the sick and needy, both Christian and Muslim, was kidnapped by the Muslim terrorists and ordered to renounce Christ for Muhammad. When he refused, they publicly slaughtered him. Similarly, after ISIS ordered another Christian youth in Syria to embrace Islam, he too refused and was slaughtered for it. His mother — who was prevented from burying her martyred son's body — recalled that when ISIS first invaded their village, he reminded her of Jesus' assertion in the New Testament: "If you deny me before men I will deny you before the Father."
After members of ISIS raided the home of Zarefa, an elderly Christian woman in Iraq, they discovered crucifixes and Christian icons. "They forced me to spit on the Cross," she recalled.

"I told them that it was not appropriate, that it was a sin. He said that I must spit. 'Don't you see that I have a gun?' he asked me. I said to myself, 'Oh, the Cross! I am weak, I will spit on you. But Lord, I ask you to take revenge for me. I cannot escape from this.'"

According to the report, "The shame is still visible on Zarefa's face when she recounts the memory; her town, Qaraqosh, is liberated now, but she is still recovering from the traumatic two years that are only just behind her."
A Christian widow and her teenage son from the Nineveh plains of Iraq recounted their treatment after ISIS took their village. The boy described how the militants once marched him "by men in orange suits, held at gunpoint by a group of Daesh [ISIS] children."

"The children executed them with pleasure... Another time I ran into a big crowd on the street. There was a woman; her hands and feet were tied. The Daesh terrorists drew a circle around her. If she got out of the circle, she would live, but that was impossible because she was tied. While her relatives were crying and begging for a pardon, the Jihadists threw stones at her until she died."

After being made to watch several such execution, the militants told him: "If you do not convert to Islam, we will shoot you as well." The boy, who was 14 at the time, added: "That is when I converted to Islam. From that time on, we concealed that we were Christians." Later, when the jihadis discovered he was wearing a crucifix around his neck, they beat him and sent him to an Islamic "correctional camp" where he was indoctrinated in the Koran for a month.

"I was hit whenever I could not answer their questions [about Muslim doctrine] the way they wanted me to, and my mother was stung with long needles because she had not studied anything from the Koran."

After two years under ISIS, they managed to escape. "Yes, I am embarrassed for having had to profess Islam," the boy said.
The rest of the accounts of Muslim persecution of Christians to surface in January 2017 include, but are not limited to, the following:

Muslim Violence against and Slaughter of Christians

Egypt: Over the course of just 10 days in January, four Christians were slaughtered on three separate occasions. On January 3, a Muslim man crept up behind a Christian man, 45, and slit his throat, because he owned a shop that sold alcohol, which the Muslim deemed "contrary to the Sharia [Islamic law] and the religion [Islam]." On January 6, a married Christian couple (husband 62, wife 55) were found slaughtered in their home in Monufia, north Egypt. Their throats were slit and their bodies had multiple stab wounds. Nothing was stolen from their apartments; relatives say it was a hate crime based on their religion. On Friday, January 13, another Christian man, a young surgeon — well-liked by poor Muslim and Christian locals for providing them with free treatment — was found slaughtered in his apartment in Asyut, southern Egypt. He too had stab wounds to his neck, chest, and back.


Philippines: According to a January 12, 2017 report, a former Muslim convert to Christianity was found slaughtered in his home by local Muslims for apostatizing from Islam. During his time as a Muslim, Datu was hostile to Christianity; when he found that a Christian youth was courting his daughter and the couple wanted to marry, he began to hurl stones at the boy's father, a pastor. Later, when even death threats failed to separate the couple — and after securing a large dowry from the Christian family — Datu agreed to the marriage. During the church ceremony, which was conducted by the bridegroom's father, whom Datu used to stone, the Muslim man was struck by what he heard to the point that he converted to Christianity. He then fled to another town to avoid persecution and study the Bible. When he returned home to visit his family, he was found dead, killed by local Muslims for apostatizing from Islam.


Germany: A court heard how a 27-year-old Muslim intruder named Abubaker broke into the Heilbronn home of a 70-year-old Christian woman described as a "devout Catholic" and "regular churchgoer." He tied her up, abused her, placed a cross in her hands, and strangled her to death. Then he wrote "a series of Arabic and religious messages around the house" — including "It's payback time" in English — before stealing some items and fleeing the scene. The defendant — described as a "strict Muslim" — is of Pakistani descent and grew up in Saudi Arabia. Although his DNA was found on the scene of the murder as well as an imprint of the sole of his red shoes and fibers from his jacket, Abubaker insisted the charges against him were a "lie" and that he was being "framed by a religious conspiracy."


France: Apparently, the slaughter of Fr. Jacques Hamel, when Muslim terrorists marched into his church during morning mass and slit his throat, was just the spectacular tip of an iceberg of Muslim persecution of Christians in France. A new study reveals that "Islamist extremist attacks on Christians in France intensified in 2016, with the country experiencing a 38 percent rise in faith-related incidents. Attacks rose from 273 in 2015 to 376 in 2016," the majority occurring during the last Christmas season. "Many of the attacks took place in churches and other places of worship. One church had its wall vandalised by blasphemous graffiti. A Jesus Christ figure at a Catholic memorial in Fournes-en-Weppes was likewise attacked by the Islamist militants." In response to these hate crimes, growing numbers of clergymen are going as far as to accuse Muslim terrorists of demonic possession. Concerning the murder of Fr. Hamel, right before the Muslim assailant slit his throat, the priest reportedly shouted, "Be gone, Satan!", and during his memorial service, Archbishop Dominique Lebrun called on those "who are tormented by diabolical violence, you who are drawn to kill by a demonic, murderous madness, [to] pray to God to free you from the devil's grip."


Nigeria: On Saturday, January 7 a group of Muslim herdsmen invaded a predominantly Christian village, where they killed six police officers and four civilians, and destroyed houses and a police truck. According to the report"

"The Fulani are the largest nomadic people group in the world and are known for the high level of importance they assign to their cattle. They are predominantly Muslim and often carry out attacks in Nigeria in the name of Islam. However, Nigeria has refused to recognize them as a terrorist group."

Separately, because hundreds of Christians have been slaughtered by Muslim Fulani in recent weeks and months, the Christian Association of Nigeria designated Sunday, January 8, "as a national day of mourning for Christians killed by Muslim Fulani terrorists in southern Kaduna State," said a report. It described the killings as ethnic and religious cleansing by "Islamic fundamentalists disguising as Fulani herdsmen." This contradicts Nigerian President Buhari, a Muslim, who attributes Fulani violence against Christians to "poverty, injustice and the lack of job opportunities." Other analysts, especially in the West, cite climate change and desertification as factors. Christian leaders said Buhari's minimizing of the Fulani attacks "speaks volumes over perceived official endorsement of the dastardly and ungodly acts".


Uganda: On January 15, a Muslim mob consisting of nearly 100 men attacked a Christian church during a prayer meeting. They locked the congregation in, beat several male members with clubs and sticks, tied them up, and then raped 15 women. "Previously," notes the report, "Muslims had only thrown stones at the roof of the church building to disrupt church services of the 500-member congregation." During the attack, a Christian heard a Muslim yell, "Away with the pastor who is converting our Muslims to Christianity." Since two weeks after the attack, the pastor and eight other Christians remain missing.


Pakistan: Muhammad Din and three other Muslim men broke into a Christian household while the man of the house was out working and gang-raped his wife; while doing so they also demanded that she and her family to abandon their home, which is adjacent to the home of Muhammad Din. Before leaving, they set fire to the house; the Christian couples' four children managed to escape the flames, but the rape victim's elderly father could not get out in time and suffered burns. When they rushed the elderly "infidel" to a hospital, treatment was denied him. Since then, the 70-year-old "father of [the] victim of gang rape knocked [on] every door for justice to lodge report against Muslim rapists but due to their influence and contact in government none was ready to register case against them."
Separately, on New Year's Eve, an armed Muslim mob attacked a Christian neighborhood, described as a "mission compound," in Sukkur; 10 Christians were injured. According to the report, "the attackers had tortured the elderly, women, children and men alike." Some of the assailants wore police uniforms. The reason behind the attack is apparently that the Muslims want to evict them from their homes and seize the land for themselves.


Somalia: A report makes clear why the Horn of Africa is now considered the second worst nation in which to be a Christian:

"[T]he mere suspicion [that a Somali has become Christian] leads to a rushed public beheading. Christians cannot raise their children according to their faith and would face severe problems if they attempted to celebrate Christian holidays. In a nutshell, to survive in the country Christians must pretend not to be Christians."

One international law analyst said that "killing Christian converts in Somalia has become very common" and "implied that the converts in North Korea are better off, even though the latter is the world's top Christian persecutor."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Germany: Muslim vandals devastated a Christian parish in the town of Brühl and wrote Islamic slogans on the walls. According to the report, "the vandals left a 'picture of devastation' [according to police statements], destroying glass panes, breaking doors and writing 'Islamist' slogans on the walls." Despite the Islamic nature of the slogans, police said they "do not assume" they are relevant to the motive for the attack.


Nigeria: According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, 900 Christian churches have been destroyed in 12 northern states that adopted Islamic law, in the early 2000s. In January, the government of one of those sharia-compliant states, Jigawa State, ordered two churches — the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Lord's Chosen Church — both of which had been operating for more than 25 years, to be bulldozed to the ground; 800 Christians were left without a place to worship. Because authorities did not give church leaders any notice, they were unable to save Bibles, valuables, and other personal possessions. According to the report, "Christians in Jigawa State are suffering increasing persecution and discrimination from their Muslim counterparts and local leaders," many of whom are "hell-bent on enforcing restrictive laws on Christians. These church demolitions are just one example in the bigger picture of systemic persecution in these regions."
Iraq: At least 100 places of worship, mostly Christian, with a few Yazidi temples, have been vandalized or completely demolished in the territories of Mosul and Nineveh Province since June 2014, when the Islamic State captured them, said a report. Locals told how ISIS set fire to the Church of the Immaculate Conception and beheaded its statues: "The jihadists used the church as a shooting range and the mannequins [statues] as targets. The mannequins are completely riddled [with bullets]." St George's Syriac Catholic Church was transformed into an improvised bomb factory; hundreds of bombs and grenades were found there, battle plans were written on church walls, and chemicals were found in the building together with instructions on how to mix them into explosives.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Freedom: 

No to Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Evangelization

Uganda: At a New Year's celebration, Muslim relatives of Sandra, a 24-year-old former Muslim woman who put her faith in Christ at a Christmas service, coerced her into taking poison. From her hospital bed, she shared her story:

"I had great peace when the pastor prayed for me to take Jesus as my savior.... I later shared my testimony with my brother, who outrightly accused me of being an infidel and an outcast from the family and the Muslim community. I felt great pain inside me because of the insults."

On the following day, Sunday, January 1, her immediate family and a few other relatives gathered together for a meal in the predominantly Muslim village. At one point, a paternal uncle read to her a Bible verse and suggested it meant God would protect her from harm, including illness from ingesting poison.

"He said, 'Do you believe that Issa [Jesus] is able to protect you from poison as written in the Bible?' and I answered 'Yes'.... Immediately I was forced to take the poison to confirm my faith in the Bible, at around midnight. I could not deny the Bible, so I took the rat poison.... I started having severe stomach pains together with vomiting and cried for help. I was taken away from the homestead to a nearby bush. I was tied with a rope to a tree and left to die."

Her desperate cries awoke a Christian neighbor who came to the scene, saw her condition, and rushed her to a local hospital where, last reported, she was in stable condition.
Separately, six Muslims ambushed and beat a church leader after a sheikh, who had been dispatched to assassinate the pastor and destroy his church, ended up converting to Christianity instead.


Algeria: Samir Chamek, a 34-year-old Christian man, was sentenced to one year in prison after a court found him "guilty of insulting Islam and its prophet over items he posted on his Facebook page." The sentencing follows a year-long legal battle. Judicial police were presented with pictures and comments on Chamek's Facebook page, which were described as "accusing the prophet Muhammad of terrorism and murder and comparing the prophet to Hitler, mentioning the persecution and massacre of the Jews."
Pakistan: As happens every month, several Christians were falsely accused of blasphemy by Muslims looking to "settle the score":

• An evangelical Christian was arrested on charges of blasphemy and faces the death penalty. According to a complaint by a Muslim, Haji Nadeem, Shahbaz Babu desecrated the Koran by writing his name on some pages, tearing them up and then scattering them on the street in front of a mosque. Although the Muslim admits he did not see the accused in the act, Babu — whom human rights activists say is "completely illiterate" — was nonetheless arrested. In a nation where the mere accusation that an infidel insulted Islam could get the non-Muslim killed by the mob, executed by the state or simply imprisoned, Babu's defenders wonder at the notion that he "is supposed to have desecrated the Qurʾān in secret, but then left the evidence for everyone to see." Others say that he was disliked by the mosque because several members had stopped attending it and listening to the evangelist who is popular in his region.
  
• An imam in Lambanwali accused an elderly Christian of writing and sending to him a series of "derogatory letters" in which he defamed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Once the blasphemy accusation was made, police promptly stormed the Christian's home in the night and arrested his entire family. Although the man denies the accusation — correctly pointing out that in Pakistan only someone with a death-wish would do what he is accused of doing — he "is likely to face an imprisonment of 10 years while there are assumptions that Section 295-C might be invoked in order to aggravate the punishment to death penalty," said the report.
  
• A blasphemy case was registered against Shaan Taseer — son of Salman Taseer, a human rights activist and defender of persecuted Christians who was assassinated by Muslims — for saying "Merry Christmas."
  
• Five Christian-rights activists were known for their public opposition to the country's blasphemy laws; all went missing the same week.
  
  

Iran: "The Iranian government strives to limit the exposure of the majority Muslim Farsi-speaking Iranians to Christianity by banning them from attending church services, especially during the Christmas season," said a report on the conditions of Christians in the Shia-majority nation.

"Such restrictions are in place to slow down the spread of Christianity in the country. In recent years, all churches were strictly banned from holding Farsi Bible study sessions and refrained from any form of evangelistic activities. The official figure for the number of Christians in Iran is 200,000 individuals and only those officially recognized as Christians are allowed to celebrate Christmas in official churches. All others, including Farsi-speaking Christians are not allowed in churches."

Indonesia: A court decided to bar media coverage on the trial of the Chinese-Christian Governor of Jakartaka, known as Ahok. He is charged with insulting Islam and desecrating the Koran. The blasphemy controversy erupted when a video appeared online of Ahok saying that many Muslims misunderstand Koran 5:51 — which commands Muslims not to befriend Jews and Christians. That a Christian would dare try to distort the Koran's call for hostility against Christians and Jews in order to boost his chances at reelection was deemed blasphemous enough to prompt mass riots and calls for his death in Indonesia.
In the same manner, less than one month after Yulius Suharto, a Christian man, was hired to be the sub-district chief of Pajangan, he was fired and relocated to a mostly non-Muslim region, "following a massive lobbying campaign launched on social media by Islamic extremist groups and radical Muslims who targeted him because he is Catholic.... Most officials welcomed the decision to remove the official because he was not Muslim."

Muslim Contempt for and Discrimination against Christians

Pakistan: Back in 2013, after Muslims accused a Christian man living in Joseph Colony of blasphemy against Muhammad, approximately 3,000 Muslims descended on the predominantly Christian neighborhood in Lahore. During the attack they set fire to more than 150 Christian homes, shops, and two churches, and displaced hundreds of Christians. In January 2017, an anti-terrorism court acquitted all 115 ringleaders of the attacks, leaving many Christians, including the victims, bereft of justice. One Christian leader said:

"It's a sheer disappointment. The message is clear for us. Those who attack minorities and openly preach hate can go scot-free. Perhaps the pictures and video footages clearly showing faces was not enough evidence."

Egypt: Prosecutors in Minya province dropped a case against ringleaders of a Muslim mob that stripped naked and paraded a 70-year-old Christian woman in the streets, before plundering and then torching the homes of seven Christian families. Eihab Ramzy, the lawyer of the victim said, "It's a calamity" and pointed out that "preliminary investigations heard testimonies supporting her account from family members and policemen at the scene." Meanwhile, the elderly woman, Souad Thabet, and her family are unable to return to their home due to ongoing Muslim threats. According to Thabet:

"The government is allowing the oppressors to walk free on the streets... This is our village that we were born and raised in.... How can we be the victims and not be able to return to our village and homes? I feel let down for a second time. I feel that nobody is standing by our side."

Kyrgyzstan: In late 2016, approximately 70 people were involved with a mob that dug up the body of a Christian twice and reburied it elsewhere without informing the family. They did so because the deceased "had been a practicing Christian in a village that was overwhelmingly Muslim, and local religious leaders restricted the cemetery to Muslims." In response, only three of the 70 went to trial for their actions and they all received suspended jail sentences.


Bangladesh: Although police manage to rescue some non-Muslim children from the notorious child-trafficking rings that proliferate in the Muslim-majority nation — four were rescued in January — the fate of many more children remains grim. According to the report:

"Over the past seven years, the Bangladeshi police has rescued 72 children from a crime ring led by religious fanatics... [T]he group targets underprivileged indigenous communities most of whose members are Christians, Hindus or Buddhists. The religious extremists belonging to these crime ring[s] entice parents with prospects of a better future for their children, which then end up in [Islamic] madrasas around the country to be forcefully converted to Islam.... The forced religious conversion of young children adds yet another facet to the already severe marginalization of ethnic and religious minorities in Southeast Bangladesh."

Germany: Thanks to dishonest Muslim translators, immigration officials are rejecting asylum applications from Muslim converts to Christianity from Iran and Afghanistan, during what one pastor characterized as "kangaroo court" hearings. Rev. Gottfried Martens accused the "almost exclusively Muslim translators" who "mocked and laughed at" Christian asylum seekers of deliberately mistranslating their responses to disqualify their applications.

"He also referred to attacks on Christian asylum seekers by radical Muslims, and criticised the Catholic Church and the Protestant EKD Church, which had opposed housing Christian and Muslim refugees separately because doing so might suggest religions could not coexist peacefully."

A spokesman for the disqualified Christians said:

"These Christians have either fled from their home countries because of their newfound faith and the persecution they had to face because of it, or have come to believe in Jesus Christ after fleeing to Germany. Sending them back to their countries of origin is completely irresponsible in view of the situation for Christian converts in places like Iran or Afghanistan, because it is truly a matter of life and death."

In Germany, thanks to dishonest Muslim translators, immigration officials are rejecting asylum applications from Muslim converts to Christianity from Iran and Afghanistan. Pictured: Hasan (left), a Yezidi refugee in Germany who was threatened by Muslims, speaks to a reporter from German public television about how a government-employed translator deliberately mistranslated his complaint and took the side of his attackers. (Image source: Bayerischer Rundfunk video screenshot)

United Kingdom: After Rev. Kelvin Holdsworth of St. Mary's Cathedral invited Muslims to recite the Koran during an Epiphany service, Madinah Javed, a law student from Glasgow went beyond reciting the passage in the service sheet to include verses that explicitly denied Jesus was God's son — a cardinal Christian doctrine that Islam rejects. Regardless, Holdsworth posted a video of the reading on Facebook and described it as "wonderful event." This prompted outrage from some Christians who emphatically called on Holdsworth to resign. The video was removed and police, who later issued the following statement, were called: "Police Scotland will not tolerate any form of hate crime and encourages all communities to continue working together to ensure no one feels threatened or marginalized."

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).

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