European Politics > Suella tells it like it is in Britain, and it's not good

 

My favourite British politician ever had to be fired last year because there is no place for truth and transparency in Westminster.

UK: Former Home Secretary says

‘the Islamists, the extremists, and the anti-Semites

are in charge now’

FEB 23, 2024 1:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

At last, the truth is spoken in shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain, where cowardice, submission, and willful ignorance are a trendy new lifestyle.

Suella Braverman claims ‘the Islamists are in charge’ of Britain as pressure grows on Keir Starmer over Commons Gaza vote chaos sparked by Speaker ripping up rule book to protect MPs from protesters

by David Wilcock, MailOnline, February 23, 2024:

Suella Braverman waded into the row over Wednesday’s Gaza vote in the Commons today, claiming that ‘the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now’.

The former home secretary, a frontrunner to be the next Conservative leader, made the incendiary remarks as the party switched its anger from Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to focus on Keir Starmer’s role in the political chaos.

Sir Lindsay has twice apologised for ripping up the Commons rule book, a move which helped the Labour leader avoid a a damaging revolt over the fighting in the Middle East.

The Speaker argued that he was motivated by anxiety about the safety of MPs from pro-Palestinian protesters, rather than partisan concerns. Extremist sympathisers projected the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ – seen as anti-Semitic – onto the Elizabeth Tower during the debate as thousands of protesters gathered outside Parliament.

But writing in the Telegraph this morning Ms Braverman said: ‘I may have been sacked because I spoke out against the appeasement of Islamists, but I would do it again because we need to wake up to what we are sleep-walking into: a ghettoised society where free expression and British values are diluted. Where sharia law, the Islamist mob and anti-Semites take over communities.

‘We need to overcome the fear of being labelled Islamophobic and speak truthfully.’

However, Ms Braverman faced criticism over her time in the Home Office from Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism. He tweeted: ‘As Home Secretary, Stella Braverman ignored the advice I provided on how to tackle anti-Semitism and issues for her department. In fact she never even bothered to read them. Her inaction in office is a part of the problem.’

And her successor James Cleverly said he did not ‘always agree with everything’ she said.

The Home Secretary told LBC: ‘She’s clearly expressing frustrations that she’s felt whilst she was in this role.

‘And I understand that. And she and I remain close friends – that doesn’t mean to say I always agree with everything she’s saying.

‘But it is absolutely the case that we must make sure that we crack down on extremist behaviour, it’s absolutely the case that we must not let our democracy be distorted through fear or intimidation.’…

It is absolutely the case that it already has happened, Min. Cleverly. The question now is, can you get it back to a real democracy?

 

Islam: Current Day > Burkina Faso: 58 Killed in Attacks Targeting Christians

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Sunday, June 07, 2020

Burkina Faso Christian Church at Tibin village near Ziniaré in the province of Oubritenga, Burkina Faso,

on October 9, 2013. | Wikimedia Commons/Martin Grandjean

At least 58 people, including children, were recently killed in northern Burkina Faso in three separate attacks by armed Islamic militants who were targeting Christians. 

Christians were among those targeted and killed in the attacks that took place in the provinces of Loroum, Kompienga and Sanmatenga within 24 hours, from May 29 to May 30, according to the U.K.-based aid agency Barnabus Fund.

The group said a local source spoke to a survivor, who said the militants targeted Christians and humanitarians taking food to a camp of internally displaced people with many Christian villagers who had fled before the violence.

Referring to an attack on a humanitarian convoy in Sanmatenga province’s Barsalogho area, which left six civilians and seven soldiers dead, the survivor said, “The driver shouted ‘forgive, forgive, we are also followers of the [Islamic] prophet Muhammad.’ One of them [among the gunmen] turned to the other attackers and said, ‘they have the same religion with us.’”

The attack subsequently ended, the charity said.

Apart from the attack in Sanmatenga, militants opened fire indiscriminately at a cattle market in Kompienga on May 30, killing at least 30 people. The day before, a convoy of traders, which included children, was attacked while traveling from Titao to Sollé in Loroum province.

Dozens were injured in the three attacks.

Last December, at least 14 people were killed when gunmen stormed a Protestant church service in the town of Hantoukoura near the border with Niger. Last April, gunmen killed a Protestant pastor and five other Christians who were leaving a worship service in Silgadji.

Burkina Faso, one of the most impoverished countries in the world, has been fighting armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State for more than four years.

Over 4,000 people were killed in Islamic extremist attacks in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali in 2019, according to the U.N.'s envoy for West Africa and the Sahel Mohamed Ibn Chambas.

Since 2016, extremist groups including the Islamic State West Africa Province and Ansaroul Islam have carried out attacks throughout the Sahel region of West Africa. But attacks increased fivefold in 2019 — deaths rose from 80 in 2016 to 1,800 in 2019.

Jihadist violence has now spread from the country’s north to the western Boucle du Mouhoun region where rice and maize are produced and transported to other areas, resulting in a food shortages and might cut off food for millions more in the region, according to The Associated Press.

It is feared that the COVID-19 pandemic might exacerbate the situation at a time when 2 million people in the country are already facing food insecurity.

“If production goes down in this area and if movement restrictions due to the coronavirus drive up food prices in the markets, it could push numbers of severely vulnerable people to double or triple,” Julia Wanjiru, communications coordinator for the Sahel and West Africa Club, an intergovernmental economic group, was quoted as saying.

According to the U.N., the number of people displaced in Burkina Faso rose 1,200 percent in 2019. There are about 600,000 internally displaced people in the country as it is becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian crises. 

This Week's 3rd Terrorist Attack in Europe - 2 Killed in German Synagogue on Jewish Holy Day

2 people killed in shooting outside German synagogue

on holiest day in Judaism

By JON HAWORTH, MORGAN WINSOR and GUY DAVIES, ABC News

Two people were killed in a shooting in the east German city of Halle on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.

Multiple gunshots were fired by the attacker near a synagogue and then in a kebab shop in the areas of Ludwig-Wucherer-Strasse and Humboldstrasse, which are about a 5-minute walk away.

The shooting began around noon local time, an eyewitness told ABC News. The suspected attacker fled the scene in a car towards south of Halle and was arrested outside the town at around 3:30 pm local time. A video of the shooting was reportedly posted online.

The unnamed victims were one male and one female, and police said the male is thought to be a "visitor" to the local area.

Police gave no further details about the target of the attack, although they did not rule that more people could have been involved. Federal prosecutors, who usually handle cases involving suspected terrorism or cases dealing with national security, have now taken over the investigation.

It is unknown how many people were inside the synagogue at the time of the incident, but the head of Halle's Jewish community, Max Privorotzki, told Der Spiegel that he estimated there were about 70 to 80 people inside.

"We have at least two crime scenes," local policeman Ralf Karlstedt told national broadcaster RTL. "One person died as the result of a shooting in the area Ludwig-Wucherer-Strasse, another one in the area of the Humboldstrasse. We first received information that there is one suspect, who was armed. There have since also been suggestions that there potentially there have been more people involved, but that at this point is not confirmed. We currently know of at least one suspect."

"The suspect then fled in a car. The police were able to trace a vehicle, which has been secured outside of Halle. The police arrested one suspect," he added.

"I heard a blast around noon. My wife came running to me screaming, 'Someone is shooting outside!'" Splett told ABC News. "I ran to the window looked outside and saw a man wearing a steel helmet. His face was all red, either painted or maybe he has a skin disease. He was very calmly shooting with a double-barreled gun arbitrarily at a group of people. Those people at first weren't realizing what was going on at first. They then all ran away."

"The shooter then went back to his car, opened the trunk and got out a handgun. He had a whole arsenal of guns in his trunk. A woman in the kebab place under my flat screamed. After about half an hour lots of police came in terrifying gear. They said we can't leave our house and if we do, we can't come back inside," he said.

The German government's secretary of state, Heiko Maas, drew a link between the shooting and anti-Semitism in the country.

"The fact that on the reconciliation festival #YomKippur shots were being fired at a synagogue hits us right in the heart," he posted on Twitter in German. "We all have to fight against anti-Semitism in our country. My thoughts are with the dead and injured, their relatives, and the police in these difficult hours. #Halle."

The European Parliament held a moment of silence to commence its session on Wednesday to mark the ongoing situation in Halle.

At this point, the killer(s) could be either Muslim radicals or far-right skin-heads as antisemitism is growing considerably in Europe, thanks, in part, to the growing population of Muslims.

Persecution of Christians 'Coming Close to Genocide' in Middle East – Report

Millions uprooted from homes, says UK report, with many jailed and killed

Israel is the blatant exception where Christians are

the most educated demographic in the country

Patrick Wintour in Addis Ababa

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was mentioned in the report for denigrating Christians. 

Pervasive persecution of Christians, sometimes amounting to genocide, is ongoing in parts of the Middle East, and has prompted an exodus in the past two decades, according to a report commissioned by the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

Millions of Christians in the region have been uprooted from their homes, and many have been killed, kidnapped, imprisoned and discriminated against, the report finds. It also highlights discrimination across south-east Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and in east Asia – often driven by state authoritarianism.

“The inconvenient truth,” the report finds, is “that the overwhelming majority (80%) of persecuted religious believers are Christians”.

Some of the report’s findings will make difficult reading for leaders across the Middle East who are accused of either tolerating or instigating persecution. The Justice and Development (AK) party of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for instance, is highlighted for denigrating Christians.

Hunt described the interim report – published on Thursday, based on a review led by the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Philip Mounstephen – as “truly sobering”, especially since it came as “the world was seeing religious hatred laid bare in the appalling attacks at Easter on churches across Sri Lanka, and the devastating attack on two mosques in Christchurch”.

Hunt, an Anglican, has made the issue of Christian persecution one of the major themes of his foreign secretaryship. “I think we have shied away from talking about Christian persecution because we are a Christian country and we have a colonial past, so sometimes there’s a nervousness there,” he said. “But we have to recognise – and that’s what the bishop’s report points out very starkly – that Christians are the most persecuted religious group.”

He added: “What we have forgotten in this atmosphere of political correctness is actually the Christians that are being persecuted are some of the poorest people on the planet. In the Middle East the population of Christians used to be about 20%; now it’s 5%.”

“We’ve all been asleep on the watch when it comes to the persecution of Christians. I think not just the bishop of Truro’s report but obviously what happened in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday has woken everyone up with an enormous shock.”

If only!

The interim report is designed to set out the scale of the persecution and a final report in the summer will set out how the British Foreign Office can do more to raise awareness of the issue.

The report shows that a century ago Christians comprised 20% of the population in the Middle East and north Africa, but since then the proportion has fallen to less than 4%, or roughly 15 million people.

In the Middle East and north Africa, the report says, “forms of persecution ranging from routine discrimination in education, employment and social life up to genocidal attacks against Christian communities have led to a significant exodus of Christian believers from this region since the turn of the century.

“In countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia the situation of Christians and other minorities has reached an alarming stage. In Saudi Arabia there are strict limitations on all forms of expression of Christianity including public acts of worship. There have been regular crackdowns on private Christian services. The Arab-Israeli conflict has caused the majority of Palestinian Christians to leave their homeland. The population of Palestinian Christians has dropped from 15% to 2%.”

In Gaza, which once had a very large Christian community, Christians were driven out when Hamas took over the government and made their lives even more difficult. The Christian population in Gaza is down to about 1% and getting smaller every day. 

Contrast that with this statement from Wikipedia re Israel - 

Despite the fact that Arab Christians only represent 2.1% of the total Israeli population, in 2014 they accounted for 17.0% of the country's university students, and for 14.4% of its college students.

Palestinian Christians attend an Orthodox Easter service in Gaza. 

Photograph: APAImages/Rex/Shutterstock

The report identifies three drivers of persecution: 

political failure creating a fertile ground for religious extremism; 

a turn to religious conservatism in countries such as Algeria and Turkey; and 

institutional weaknesses around justice, the rule of law and policing, leaving the system open to exploitation by extremists.

Countries where Islam is in the majority, invariably, and inevitably, become more conservative, more militant and less tolerant of those who are not Muslims, or Muslims of the same beliefs as they.

The report says: “The rise of hate speech against Christians in state media and by religious leaders, especially in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, has compromised the safety of Christians and created social intolerance.”

In findings that may pose difficulties for the UK as it seeks to build relations across the Middle East, the report states: “In some cases the state, extremist groups, families and communities participate collectively in persecution and discriminatory behaviour. In countries such as Iran, Algeria and Qatar, the state is the main actor, where as in Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt both state and non-state actors, especially religious extremist groups, are implicated.”

“In 2017 a total of 99 Egyptian Christians were killed by extremist groups, with 47 killed on Palm Sunday in Tanta and Alexandria. Egyptian Christians were continuously targeted by extremist groups during 2017 and 2018.

“Arrest, detention and imprisonment are common in Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. For example in the course of six days before Christmas 2018, 114 Christians were arrested in Iran with court cases left pending as a form of intimidation. Though most cases in Iran involve converts, indigenous Christians such as Pastor Victor, an Assyrian Christian, with his wife, Shamiram Issavi, have also been targeted and imprisoned.”

It also highlights how states, and state-sponsored social media, sometimes incite hatred and publish propaganda against Christians, especially in Iran, Iraq and Turkey. “The governing AK party in Turkey depicts Christians as a ‘threat to the stability of the nation’. Turkish Christian citizens have often been stereotyped as not real Turks but as western collaborators.”

In Saudi Arabia, the report says, school textbooks “teach pupils religious hatred and intolerance towards non-Muslims, including Christians and Jews”.

The report says freedom of religious belief can also act as a means of helping those suffering gender discrimination, since there is clear evidence that female Christians suffer disproportionately.

Defending the claim of genocide, the report says: “The level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN.”

The eradication of Christians and other minorities on pain of “the sword” or other violent means was revealed to be the specific and stated objective of extremist groups in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, north-east Nigeria and the Philippines. An intent to erase all evidence of the Christian presence was made plain by the removal of crosses, the destruction of church buildings and other church symbols.

This is also happening today in China as Xi Jinping is destroying churches, removing crosses from churches, and clamping down on church groups that are not registered with the state.

“The killing and abduction of clergy represented a direct attack on the church’s structure and leadership. Where these and other incidents meet the tests of genocide, governments will be required to bring perpetrators to justice, aid victims and take preventative measures for the future. The main impact of such genocidal acts against Christians is exodus.”

While Christians come under persecution from some Chinese, some Indians, and some Buddhists, probably 95% of Christian persecution is at the hands of Islam. It's not just radical Islam, but conservative Islam that persecutes Christians, and there are a lot of countries where Islam is very conservative and getting more so each year. 

This is the spirit of antichrist which is in the world and raises up hatred toward God by persecuting Christians and Jews. It will get worse before it gets better!

Referring to the universal declaration of human rights, the report concludes: “The challenge that faces us at the beginning of the 21st century is not that we need to fight for a just legal system, it is rather that to our shame, we have abjectly failed to implement the best system that women and men have yet devised to protect universal freedoms.”

North America was left off this report, probably because there is little in the way of persecution on religious grounds although it certainly does exist. But there are changes in Canada and the USA that will enable persecution of Christians in North America in the coming decade or two.

In the USA, the Democratic Party is being more and more driven by far-left politicians, mainly socialists. Socialism, in the context of a Christian society, has some merits. But in an unChristian society, it sets the stage for extreme intolerance. The next Democratic government, or, at best, the one after that, will be as antiChristian as many Muslim countries.

In Canada, Justin Trudeau has refused anyone who is opposed to abortion the opportunity to run for Parliament for the Liberal Party. His Cabinet is gender-balanced, in spite of having less than 25% women in the caucus. It is colour balanced! It has indigenous (or had indigenous ministers). It has gays, lesbians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, and who knows what else. The one demographic, which represents 60% of Canadians, that is missing, are Christians. Not a single Christian in Trudeau's cabinet. 

Last year he shut down government funding for charitable summer projects for youths, if the organizers refused to state that they agree with abortion. This year he backed off that bit of bullying, because this year is an election year.

The good news is, Trudeau's arrogance has got him into so much hot water it is quite unlikely that he can win the election in October. However, October is still several months away and Trudeau has powerful friends in foreign countries.

Canada's very Liberal Party, like America's Democratic Party, has moved dramatically to the far-left, well beyond Canada's traditional far-left party, the NDP. If that continues, the next Liberal government whether this fall, or 4, or 8 years from now, will be truly frightening.

The Annihilation of Iraq's Christian Minority

If Iraq's Christians were Palestinians - they would be front-page news in every western media outlet every day. But being Christians, MainStream Media couldn't care less.

by Raymond Ibrahim

"I'm proud to be an Iraqi, I love my country. But my country is not proud that I'm part of it. What is happening to my people [Christians] is nothing other than genocide... Wake up!" — Father Douglas al-Bazi, Iraqi Catholic parish priest, Erbil.

"Contacting the authorities forces us to identify ourselves [as Christians], and we aren't certain that some of the people threatening us aren't the people in the government offices that are supposed to be protecting us." — Iraqi Christian man, explaining why Christians in Iraq do not turn to government authorities for protection.

Government-sponsored school curricula present indigenous Christians as unwanted "foreigners," although Iraq was Christian for centuries before it was conquered by Muslims in the seventh century.

According to the "World Watch List 2018" report, Christians in Iraq -- the eighth-worst nation in the world in which to be Christian -- are experiencing "extreme persecution," and not just from "extremists." Pictured: A church that was burned

and destroyed in the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, Iraq. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

"Another wave of persecution will be the end of Christianity after 2,000 years" in Iraq, an Iraqi Christian leader recently said. In an interview earlier this month, Chaldean Archbishop Habib Nafali of Basra discussed how more than a decade of violent persecution has virtually annihilated Iraq's Christian minority. Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the Christian population has dropped from 1.5 million to about 250,000 -- a reduction of 85%. During those 15 years, Christians have been abducted, enslaved, raped and slaughtered, sometimes by crucifixion; a church or monastery has been destroyed about every 40 days on average, said the archbishop.

Abducted, enslaved, raped and slaughtered,

sometimes by crucifixion;

While it is often assumed that the Islamic State (ISIS) was the source of the persecution, since that terror group's retreat from Iraq, the situation for Christians has barely improved. As the archbishop said, Christians continue to suffer from "systematic violence" designed to "destroy their language, to break up their families and push them to leave Iraq."

According to the "World Watch List 2018" report, 

Christians in Iraq -- the eighth-worst nation in the

world in which to be Christian -- are experiencing

"extreme persecution," and not just from "extremists."

Although "Violent Religious Groups" (such as the Islamic State) are "Very Strongly" responsible, two other societal classes seldom associated with the persecution of Christians in Iraq are also "Very Strongly" responsible, the report states:

1) "Government officials at any level from local to national," and 

2) "Non-Christian religious leaders at any level from local to national." 

Also, three other societal groups -- 

1) "Ethnic group leaders," 

2) "Normal citizens (people from the general public), including mobs," and 

3) "Political parties at any level from local to national" 

-- are all "Strongly" responsible for the persecution of Christians in Iraq. In other words, virtually everyone is involved.

The report elaborates:

"Violent religious groups such as IS and other radical militants are known for targeting Christians and other religious minorities through kidnappings and killings. Another source of persecution are Islamic leaders at any level, mostly in the form of hate-speech in mosques. Government officials at all levels are reported to threaten Christians and 'encourage' them to emigrate. Also, normal citizens in the north have reportedly made remarks in public, questioning why Christians are still in Iraq."

Another source of persecution are Islamic leaders at any level,

mostly in the form of hate-speech in mosques.

Several regional Christian leaders confirm these findings. According to Syriac Orthodox bishop, George Saliba:

"What is happening in Iraq is a strange thing, but it is normal for Muslims, because they have never treated Christians well, and they have always held an offensive and defaming stand against Christians.... We used to live and coexist with Muslims, but then they revealed their canines [teeth].... [They do not] have the right to storm houses, steal and attack the honor of Christians. Most Muslims do this, the Ottomans killed us and after that the ruling nation-states understood the circumstances but always gave advantage to the Muslims. Islam has never changed."

"The ruling nation-states always gave advantage to the Muslims. 

Islam has never changed."

Father Douglas al-Bazi -- an Iraqi Catholic parish priest from Erbil who still carries the scars from torture he received 9 years earlier -- made the same observation:

I'm proud to be an Iraqi, I love my country. But my country is not proud that I'm part of it. What is happening to my people [Christians] is nothing other than genocide. I beg you: do not call it a conflict. It's genocide... When Islam lives amidst you, the situation might appear acceptable. But when one lives amidst Muslims [as a minority], everything becomes impossible.... Wake up! The cancer is at your door. They will destroy you. We, the Christians of the Middle East are the only group that has seen the face of evil: Islam.

What is happening to my people [Christians]

is nothing other than genocide.

The Iraqi government is complicit -- when not actively participating -- in the persecution. As one Christian man explained after being asked why Christians in Iraq do not turn to governmental authorities for protection:

"Contacting the authorities forces us to identify ourselves [as Christians], and we aren't certain that some of the people threatening us aren't the people in the government offices that are supposed to be protecting us."

When Islam lives amidst you, the situation might appear

acceptable. But when one lives amidst Muslims [as a minority],

everything becomes impossible.... Wake up!

The cancer is at your door. They will destroy you!

When Christians do take the risk of reaching out to local authorities, police sometimes rebuke them with comments like, "[you] should not be in Iraq because it is Muslim territory."

The Iraqi government has only helped foster such anti-Christian sentiments. In late 2015, for instance, it passed a law legally forcing Christian and all other non-Muslim children to become Muslim if their fathers convert to Islam or if their Christian mothers marry a Muslim.

We, the Christians of the Middle East

are the only group that has seen the face of evil: Islam.

Government-sponsored school curricula present indigenous Christians as unwanted "foreigners," although Iraq was Christian for centuries before it was conquered by Muslims in the seventh century. As a Christian politician in the Iraqi Ministry of Education explained:

"There's almost nothing about us [Christians] in our history books, and what there is, is totally wrong. There's nothing about us being here before Islam. The only Christians mentioned are from the West. Many Iraqis believe we moved here. From the West. That we are guests in this country."

"If the [Christian] children say they believe in Jesus" in school, notes one report, "they face beatings and scorn from their teachers."

Most telling is that the Iraqi government hires and gives platforms to radical clerics whose teachings are nearly identical to those of the Islamic State. Grand Ayatollah Ahmad al-Baghdadi, for instance, one of the nation's top Shia clerics, explained during a televised interview the position of non-Muslims living under Muslim rule:

"If they are people of the book [Jews and Christians] we demand of them the jizya [a tax on non-Muslims] — and if they refuse, then we fight them. That is if he is Christian. He has three choices: either convert to Islam, or, if he refuses and wishes to remain Christian, then pay the jizya. But if they still refuse — then we fight them, and we abduct their women, and destroy their churches — this is Islam!...This is the word of Allah!"

Considering that Muslims in Iraq are indoctrinated by such an anti-Christian rhetoric from early youth -- starting in the schoolrooms and continuing in the mosques -- it should probably not be a surprise that many Muslims turn on neighboring Christians whenever the opportunity presents itself.

In one video, for example, a traumatized Christian family from Iraq tell of how their young children were murdered -- burned alive "simply for wearing the cross." The mother explained how the "ISIS" that attacked and murdered her children were their own Muslim neighbors, with whom they ate, laughed, and to whom they even provided educational and medical service -- but who turned on them.

"Their young children were murdered --

burned alive "simply for wearing the cross."

When asked who exactly threatened and drove Christians out of Mosul, another Christian refugee said:

"We left Mosul because ISIS came to the city. The [Sunni Muslim] people of Mosul embraced ISIS and drove the Christians out of the city. When ISIS entered Mosul, the people hailed them and drove out the Christians.... The people who embraced ISIS, the people who lived there with us... Yes, my neighbors. Our neighbors and other people threatened us. They said: 'Leave before ISIS get you.' What does that mean? Where would we go?... Christians have no support in Iraq. Whoever claims to be protecting the Christians is a liar. A liar!"

Iraq's Christians are on the verge of extinction, less because of ISIS, and more because virtually every rung of Iraqi society has been, and continues to be, chipping away at them.

"If this is not genocide," said Chaldean Archbishop Habib Nafali towards the end of a recent interview, "then what is?"

Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Iran Admits: Regime Working With Soros Organization

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif says government working 'closely' with George Soros' Open Society Foundations

Gary Willig, Arutz Sheva

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif said Sunday that the Iranian government has worked closely with billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations (OSF) organization.

Zarif made the remarks in response to questions raised in the Iranian parliament. According to Zarif, the activity began before he entered his current position, and he boasted that he had succeeded in "keeping the activity organized."

OSF has funded a number of far-left organizations in Israel which seek to change the policy of Israel's government.

According to NGO Monitor, among the top beneficiaries of OSF funding is Human Rights Watch, which has been criticized for targeting, and falsely libeling, the state of Israel. Another is J Street, which describes itself as “pro-Israel” but has been termed anti-Israelby others for, among other things, welcoming proponents of a boycott on Israel at its national conference and honoring IDF soldiers who refused orders.

Another recipient of OSF funding is the Institute for Middle East Understanding, which, NGO-Monitor reports, is headed by staff who have accused Israel of war crimes and have termed Israel an “apartheid state.

The extreme-left Israeli group B’Tselem also receives OSF funds. B’Tselem is notorious for publishing one-sided reports, and for inflating Arab civilian casualty figures. For example, the group included hundreds of Hamas policemen in Gaza as “non-combatants,” and counted Sheikh Ahmed Yassin – then the leader of Hamas – as not a definite combatant.

B’Tselem has listed OSF as a source of support, but OSF has not listed B’Tselem as a recipient, indicating that the grant may have come through an overseas entity.

A leaked OSF document said that OSF’s strategy with respect to Israel is to "focus on raising the cost of the occupation and ending it on the one hand, and on human rights advocacy and protection on the other."

A World Gone Mad – 7 Short Stories on Islamization

BY CLARION PROJECT 

Worshippers outside the Finsbury Park Mosque are allowed to occupy public space to listen to radical preacher Abu Hamza in 2004. The mosque was closed for extremism in 2003 but reopened in 2005. After an eight-year legal battle, Hamza was extradited to the U.S. where he was convicted of terrorism in 2014. (Photo: Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)

Are we living in a world gone mad? Here are seven recent stories of how radical Islamists managed not only to make their agenda acceptable, but how the West kowtows and facilitates it:

1.

A photo recently emerged of UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attending  a ceremony and laying a wreath at a cemetery of Palestinian “martyrs.” The photo, taken in 2014 in Tunisia,  shows Corbyn seen standing  in front of a plaque that commemorates (and is located next to the graves of) Black September members,  Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorists responsible, among other attacks, for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Under Corbyn’s leadership, Labour experienced a large gain in MPs in the last election and now holds 258 seats in the UK House of Commons (compared to 316 for the Conservative party). He is poised to become prime minister of the UK if the trend continues.

2.

A bus driver in the UK was disciplined for asking a Muslim woman wearing a niqab to remove the full-face garment before getting on his bus. When asked by a passenger why he cared, the driver replied, “I care because this world is dangerous. If you don’t see somebody’s face, that’s not good.”

A representative from the bus company later apologized to the woman “for the distress caused when one of our drivers expressed his personal opinions, and behaved in an offensive fashion that in no way reflects our deeply held values as an inclusive company which welcomes all people, irrespective of background, race, nationality or religion, as customers and employees.”  The company is also arranging a meeting with the driver and the woman so that the driver can apologize in person. In addition, they referred the matter to the police.

3.

Also in the UK, a gas station in Lancashire demanded a motorcycle instructor wearing an open-faced helmet while filing his tank take off his helmet. Yet a woman wearing a burqa filling her tank next to him was not requested to take off the garment covering her face.

The instructor called the incident “racism at work in Britain.”

“I had an open face helmet so people could see my identity,” he said. “The lady behind the till [cash register] has served me on hundreds of occasions.”

4.

Plans were dropped by UK social workers who petitioned the High Court to take five children away from their parents, both of whom are known Islamist extremists. The father is “a leading figure” in the banned terror organization Al-Muhajiroun, is on a terrorist watch list and has encouraged others to join ISIS. The mother is accused of being an active member of a women’s circle associated with the same terrorist organization and appeared in the television documentary ISIS: The British Women Supporters Unveiled. She also took her children with her to meetings of the circle on a number of occasions.  In a previous incident, the woman was officially cautioned by the police for an assault she committed in front of her children.

Yet the court ruled it could not be proven that the children were damaged by their parents’ ideology. The Telegraph reported this case is of one of many where plans to take children away from known extremists were dropped after courts ruled damages could not be proven.

5.

Five Somali pirates found guilty of raiding a German ship are now living on welfare in Germany. The men were released after serving prison sentences in Germany and applied for asylum –  a request that was rejected. However, none of the men face deportation for various administrative and political reasons. One now has a wife and a child who was born in Germany, whom the ex-pirate plans to raise in the country.

6.

A mother from the UK and her four-year-old daughter were jailed in Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Ellen Holman, a dentist and the mother of  three children, was detained after admitting to customs officials she drank a complimentary glass of wine on her flight from London on the UAE’s Emirates airline.

According to Radha Stirling, head of the legal aid organization Detained in Dubai, it is “wholly illegal for any tourist to have any level of alcohol in their blood, even if consumed in flight and provided by Dubai’s own airline. It is illegal to consume alcohol at a bar, a hotel and a restaurant, and if breathalyzed, that person will be jailed.”

The story began over a visa dispute, which Holman filmed on her phone (which is also illegal in Dubai). When the scene got nasty, the customs official asked her if she had been drinking and detained her for the glass of wine she drank on the flight.

Holman, who has visited Dubai many times previously, said she and her daughter were held in a “hot and foul-smelling” prison, forced to sleep on a “filthy mattress” and clean toilets, and given food that “smelled like rotten garbage.” Her passport and electronic devices were confiscated and her husband was not allowed to visit. Holman initially faced being detained for a year awaiting a court hearing, but due to direct intervention by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed, the two were released and sent back to the UK. All charges were dropped.

7.

Kuwait Airlines refused to sell a ticket to a woman with an Israeli passport trying to get back to Bangkok from London.  The aggrieved passenger, Mandy Blumenthal, sued the airline for racial discrimination and harassment and won. The airline must now pay Blumenthal the cost of the ticket plus damages.

In 2015, Kuwait Airways stopped flying between New York and London after the U.S. Department of Transportation ordered the carrier to stop refusing to sell tickets to Israelis. However, the route was reinstated. It is unclear if Israelis are allowed to buy tickets or not.

A similar story in Germany in 2017 saw a German court rule that Kuwait Airlines was within its rights to refuse to honor a ticket purchased by an Israeli. In 2013, Saudi Arabia defended a similar policy when it was revealed the kingdom’s airlines refused to sell tickets to Israelis flying out of New York.

German Prisons may Face ‘Wave of Extremists’, State Justice Minister Warns

The New Normal - Radicalized German prisons

FILE PHOTO: The high security prison of Stuttgart-Stammheim © Ralph Orlowski / Reuters

Detention facilities in Germany are trying to cope with a growing number of radical Islamist extremists, and officials fear a “wave of extremists” in jails.

Around 150 Islamists are currently being held in prisons across Germany, Die Welt reported on Wednesday, citing the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). They are either serving jail sentences or are in custody on terror-related charges. A number of other inmates being held, the so-called "relevant persons," are said to be sympathizers or supporters of radical Islam. 

Eva Kuhne-Hormann (CDU), who is minister of justice for the German state of Hessen, painted a bleak picture of the country’s security situation. "Over the next few years, we must expect a wave of extremists in our prisons," she told the newspaper. She noted that the sheer number of Islamists in German jails "poses great challenges for our deradicalization and prevention work."

The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe initiated around 1,000 terrorism prosecutions last year alone, Die Welt reported. Rene Muller, chairman of the Federal Association of Criminal Investigators, fears that "If more people are arrested, the security risk for the employees will also increase.”

Muller says it’s important to have special training and education for the staff in the face of dangerous Islamist prisoners.

His parents sure named him wrong

Last month, Christian Ganczarski, a German Islamic convert and a former senior Al-Qaeda member, attacked and wounded guards at the high-security prison in Vendin-le-Vieil in northern France after learning that he might face extradition to the US in connection with investigations into the September 11, 2001, attacks. The prison service said the 51-year-old assailant was armed with scissors and a razor blade. 

Experts agree that dangerous Islamists being held in prisons across Germany pose a real threat to public security. “The number of Muslims in the jails is big enough to create a group who can influence others in the jails because the others are not organized in any form,” Ralph Ghadban, a Lebanese-German political scientist and publicist, told RT.

The problem is that “Our society is not prepared for dealing with such problems,” Rainer Rothfuss, a former German intelligence officer, said.

“I think we really need to think of alternative solutions. The legal basis in parliament would need to be prepared, discussed, debated, decided. What is the purpose of keeping [extremists] in our prisons instead of solving the problem by deporting them, sending them back to their countries of origin. Deportation is something that threatens their existence, and therefore I think this would be much, much stronger of a signal compared to just social reintegration programs,” he told RT.

The number of violent Islamist radicals living in the German capital jumped more than fourfold in six years, a new security report said last month. As many as 950 followers of Salafism, a radical, ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, currently live in Berlin, the Tagesspiegel daily reported, citing a report by the German domestic intelligence service, BfV. The number of Islamists in Berlin has more than doubled since 2011, and is steadily rising as 100 new followers joined local Salafist groups since last spring, the paper reported. 

Over recent years, 127 radicals traveled from Berlin to Syria and Iraq to join terrorist organizations such as Islamic State, BfV said. 

Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, recently warned that the security services are facing a record number of Islamists. The number of Islamist sympathizers is at an “an all-time high,” he noted in December. The official noted that the fundamentalists are increasingly abandoning radicalization in mosques in favor of “small conspiratorial circles, primarily on the internet,” which is proving a “particular challenge” for the security services. 

3,000 Violent Extremists in Sweden, Majority have Islamist Motives – Security Police

© TT News Agency / Reuters

Sweden is home to some 3,000 violent extremists, the head of the security police has announced. Two-thirds have Islamist motives, while the others belong to far-right and far-left movements.

The numbers were revealed by Säpo chief Anders Thornberg during Almedalen Week, an annual political festival which takes place on the island of Gotland.

Elaborating on the figures, Thornberg stressed that although "few extremists" have the "will and ability" to carry out attacks, they must be found and closely followed.

"It's important that everyone in Sweden takes responsibility to end this trend," he said, as quoted by the Local. 

Thornberg's comments come less than three weeks after he announced that the number of militant Islamists in Sweden had grown from "hundreds to thousands." 

He went on to state that Säpo currently receives around 6,000 intelligence tip-offs per month regarding terrorism and extremism, compared to an average of 2,000 a month in 2012.

His comments follow an incident in April in which an Uzbek national who had expressed sympathies for jihadist groups, including Islamic State, plowed through pedestrians on a Stockholm shopping street, killing five and injuring 15 others.

Swedish national Osama Krayem has also been charged with committing terrorist murders over the 2016 Brussels Metro bombing.

Some 300 people from Sweden are known to have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join organizations such as IS since 2012, Säpo previously stated. Around 140 have since returned to Sweden and around 50 are said to have died abroad.

Meanwhile, Sweden has seen an increase in activity from far-right extremists in recent years with three sympathizers of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) currently on trial in connection with a series of bomb incidents near Gothenburg.

Sweden’s threat assessment is currently at three - “elevated” - on a five-point scale. It has remained at that level since 2010.