The lad brandishing the huge pair of scissors is celebrating the jihadis’ humiliation of Druze elders by forcibly shaving their beards.
Anyway, where is the Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims, exhorting these people to embrace the true, peaceful teachings of Islam?
Syria's new authorities have established a committee to investigate attacks on civilians during recent sectarian clashes in the southern Druze-majority province of Sweida. The week-long clashes last month killed more than 1,400 people, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and risked destabilising the country's fragile postwar transition.
Transition is a curious word here. What is Syria transitioning to? So far, it looks like it is less tolerant of other societies than Assad ever was. al Sharaa has some serious work to do to pull Syria out of the Dark Ages mentality.
Syria's new authorities have set up a committee tasked with investigating attacks on civilians during recent sectarian violence in the country's south, officials said Thursday.
The fighting in Sweida province earlier in July killed hundreds of people, displaced tens of thousands, and threatened to unravel Syria’s fragile postwar transition.
It was sparked by tit-for-tat kidnappings between armed Bedouin clans, mostly Sunni, and fighters with the Druze religious minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Syrian government forces intervened to end the fighting, but effectively sided with the clans.
Read moreRussia, Syria to deepen ties, review longstanding Assad-era agreements
Disturbing videos and reports soon surfaced of Druze civilians being humiliated and killed in public, sometimes accompanied by sectarian slurs. Druze groups later launched revenge attacks on Bedouin communities.
Syria's Justice Ministry said the committee would work to uncover the “circumstances that led to the events in Sweida," investigate attacks and refer those implicated in them to the judiciary, state-run news agency SANA reported. The committee is to submit a final report within three months.
A similar committee was formed in March, when sectarian violence on Syria’s coast killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, also a Shiite offshoot.
Attacks by armed groups affiliated with former President Bashar Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, prompted Damascus to send security forces, which descended on the coast from other areas of the country, joined by thousands of armed civilians.
Caution: disturbing video:
That committee found there had been “widespread, serious violations against civilians,” including by members of Syria's new security forces and that more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, were killed.
Its four-month investigation identified 300 people suspected of crimes, including murder, robbery, torture and looting and burning of homes and businesses. The suspects were referred for prosecution, the committee said but did not disclose how many were members of the security forces.
The outbreaks of violence have left Syria's religious and ethnic minorities increasingly suspicious of the country's new authorities, led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who previously led the Islamist insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
Al-Sharaa’s forces are trying to terrorize the Christians (and other religious minorities) into abandoning the country. This kind of action is how “the Islamic world” was created.
Al-Julani’s Forces Loot and Burn Greek Orthodox Church in Southern Syria, Targeting Christians and Druze
by Bill Giannopoulos, Greek City Times, July 16, 2025:
Al-Surah Al-Kabira, As-Suwayda Governorate – In a violent escalation in southern Syria, fighters loyal to Abu Muhammad al-Julani looted and set fire to the Church of San Michel, a Greek Orthodox church, in the village of Al-Surah Al-Kabira, located in the northern As-Suwayda Governorate, on July 15, 2025. The attack has intensified sectarian tensions in the region, with both Christian and Druze communities targeted.
Local sources report that the assault on the church, a significant religious site for the area’s Greek Orthodox Christian population, is part of a broader pattern of aggression by al-Julani’s Sunni militant group against non-Sunni populations. The destruction of the Christian holy site has drawn condemnation from community leaders, who see it as a direct attack on religious coexistence in the region.
Sectarian hostilities are not new to al-Julani’s forces, who have previously clashed with other religious groups, including Alawites in western Syria. Analysts suggest that these actions reflect deep-seated sectarian divisions, with al-Julani’s group reportedly showing intolerance toward those who do not share their Sunni beliefs….
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham should not have been removed from the list of terrorist organizations, and Trump should not have treated al-Sharaa as if he were a legitimate leader. U.S. policy toward Syria must make a sharp reversal, or yet again we are aiding those who have a desire to conquer and subjugate us.
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In the Islamic scheme of things, the Islamic community must always grow, and the non-Muslim community always diminish. In this case, the pretext appears to be the fact that a Muslim woman converted to Christianity; Islam forbids non-Muslims to proselytize among Muslims. This woman says Jesus appeared to her in a dream, but apparently even Jesus Himself is forbidden to proselytize as far as this imam is concerned.
Imam Orders Church to Stop Worship After 10 Years
International Christian Concern, July 10, 2025 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
7/10/2025 Indonesia (International Christian Concern) — After pastoring his church in South Kalimantan, Indonesia, for more than a decade, Pastor “Matias” was recently ordered to stop leading worship services.
The order came from a new imam at a mosque that sits just 55 yards from the church. More than 40 people attend the services, which are held in a structure next to Matias’s home.
The imam claimed that the services were disturbing villagers. Anger toward Matias stems from an event that occurred four years ago, which has since angered the Muslim community. It was then that a Muslim woman visited Matias’s church, explaining that Jesus had appeared to her in her dreams. She came to the church to give her life to Christ and be baptized.
After news of the woman’s conversion and baptism spread and anger toward Matias boiled over, several Muslim men visited the pastor. They accused him of trying to convert the entire village to Christianity.
The woman later told the men that Pastor Matias wasn’t the one who baptized her and didn’t pressure her to leave Islam. She said she put her trust in Christ on her own volition.
After the imam prohibited Matias from leading worship, word spread that a group of Muslim men would prevent the church from hosting services. After hearing this, members of the Dayak tribe, an indigenous group to which Pastor Matias belongs, attempted to meet with the imam but were unable to locate him.
Despite being animists, the Dayak tribe visited the church and stayed the night to help guard it. Fortunately, the group of Muslim men did not show up….
Israeli firefighters continue to battle wildfires that have been raging near Jerusalem for two days. Emergency services have described them as some of the “largest ever” in the country’s history.
The fires broke out on Wednesday along the main highway connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, spreading quickly due to the heat and strong winds.
The key highway and several other roads in the area were shut down, with people in at least ten communities forced to evacuate from what witnesses described as “walls of flame.”
More than 160 firefighting teams and 12 aircraft were deployed to contain the wildfires.
On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “we are now in a national emergency, not just a local one,” adding that “defending Jerusalem” was a priority.
Firefighters worked through the night, unblocking the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway and allowing residents in several settlements to return to their homes on Thursday. However, the fire service acknowledged in a statement that “at this stage we still have not gained control” of the conflagration.
According to the local media, at least 12 civilians and 17 firefighters, including two pregnant women, have been hospitalized due to smoke inhalation and burns.
About 5,000 acres had burned out as of Thursday, including about 3,200 acres of forest. Canada Park, outside the city of Modi’in, has been the most affected, according to the forestry organization Jewish National Fund.
Netanyahu also announced that 18 people had been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with the fires. However, police sources told the local media that only three detentions had actually been made and that the suspects had been trying to start fires not near Jerusalem but elsewhere.
The wildfires have prompted the Israeli authorities to reduce the scale of Independence Day celebrations, marked on April 30 and May 1. The traditional torch-lighting ceremony in Jerusalem was canceled.
The chairman of the Israel Fire and Air Rescue Association, Dov Ganem, has blamed the wildfires on the government, saying that it had been unprepared to tackle disasters of such scale. Ganem told the news outlet Walla that he had long been pushing for the country to develop an advanced aerial firefighting capability, but that his calls had been ignored by officials.
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) has launched a drone strike against an “extremist group” in Syria. In a joint statement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz called the attack a “warning operation” aimed at preventing violence against a Syrian Druze minority.
The strike targeted a “gathering of an extremist group that was preparing to continue its attack on the Druze population” in Syria, according to the Times of Israel. IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir has reportedly ordered troops to further target Syrian government sites “if the violence against the Druze does not stop.”
Clashes between the Syrian government-linked armed groups and Druze fighters have erupted around Damascus, according to AFP.
At least 11 people were killed as “outlaw groups targeted civilians and security forces” in the Damascus suburb of Sahnaya on Wednesday, just a day after similar clashes claimed 17 lives in Jaramana, a mainly Druze and Christian suburb, according to the news agency.
The new Syrian authorities are dealing with tensions following sectarian violence in the coastal Latakia province, mostly targeting Alawites and Christians, that reportedly claimed 1,000 lives.
Or, maybe 2000. But nobody is really counting.
The violence prompted the US and Russia to denounce the persecution of Syrian minority groups, while the EU blamed “pro-Assad elements” attacking “interim government forces.”
Syria’s Interior Ministry has claimed the Israeli strike killed one member of the Syrian national security force, deployed to the area to stop clashes between armed groups, according to Reuters. The Syrian SANA news agency confirmed the Israeli strike but provided no information on any casualties.
Druze are a minority religious group that follows an offshoot of Islam and makes up 3% of Syria’s population. Some Druze in southern Syria asked for Israeli protection, calling it the “lesser evil” after the ousting of Bashar Assad in December following a surprise insurgency by Islamist forces.
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Starmer, Lammy display their remarkable stupidity,
and/or outright antisemitism in deal with the PA.
The Palestinians do not seek a two-state solution. They seek a one-state solution. The Palestinian National Charter States: “the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time….”
The so-called “State of Palestine” is already fully embraced and accepted by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which does not recognize the State of Israel. In 2020, the OIC issued a strong, unified declaration:
Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Dr. Yousef A. Al-Othaimeen, asserted that the issue of Palestine and al-Quds is the OIC’s raison d’être, pivotal cause, and source of unity and strength. “It is at the heart of the OIC’s joint Islamic action and the main consensus of all Member States.
It is evident and obvious that the Palestinian “resistance” from “the River to the Sea” has nothing to do with peace or the establishment of two states that will coexist side by side in peace. Islam conquered the Middle East, which included primarily territory that had belonged to Christians. Yet after controlling the region for centuries, Islam failed to stop the establishment of a Jewish state. To counter it, foes of Israel invented the Palestinian people to sell to useful idiots. This deeply entrenched propaganda empowered antisemitic sentiments. Even in the face of hard facts, history and the constant threat to Israel’s existence, Israel continues to be persecuted and internationally harassed. The UK is governed by a far-left government that is now concluding a groundbreaking “Memorandum of Understanding” to further smear Israel as an obstacle to peace. Furthermore, it signed this document with only one party — the jihadist portion. The document has no weight or meaning, except to attempt to further delegitimize the State of Israel.
The Palestinian Authority is no better than Hamas. The UK government appears to have no knowledge of, or interest in, the Palestinian Authority’s pay-for-slay program, which is aimed at incentivizing the murder of Israelis. The UK government is an antisemitic disgrace; it knows exactly what it is doing in its ruthless quest to undermine Israel in the name of “peace.”
The so-called “Memorandum of Understanding” also smears Israel as an occupying state.
The United Kingdom signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Monday to advance “Palestinian statehood” as part of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy hosted the PA’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in London, marking the first official visit by a PA leader to the UK since 2021.
“This visit marks a significant step in strengthening our relationship with the Palestinian Authority — a key partner for peace,” Lammy said, emphasizing that Britain is dedicated to recognizing a “Palestinian state at a time that will have the greatest impact.”
The MoU reiterates the British government’s recognition of the PA as the sole legitimate governing power in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” rejecting any role for the terrorist group Hamas — which violently eliminated its Palestinian opposition in a brief conflict in 2007, taking full control of Gaza after winning legislative elections the prior year. It also underscores the importance of reunifying Gaza and the west Bank under PA control.
“The UK will continue to press for a return to the ceasefire and a return of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Starmer wrote in a post on X.
“We are committed to a two-state solution, with lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Lammy added.
The British government also announced a £101 million ($135 million) aid package intended to provide humanitarian relief, stimulate economic development, and strengthen governance reforms in Gaza and the West Bank…..
£101 million to create a two state solution which is neither a solution, nor is it wanted by the Palestinians. But they will happily take the money from the hapless British and run.
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