Islam - Current Day > Raif Badawi - sentence nearly finished; Islam blows up another mosque killing dozens; Raif Badawi - sentence finished - still in prison!

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Quebec family of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi hope he will soon be released

Hurdles remain to reunite Badawi, jailed in Saudi Arabia in 2012,

with family in Eastern Townships

CBC News · 

Posted: Feb 26, 2022 4:53 PM ET 

The family of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi hopes that he may soon be released. But advocates say Badawi still faces hurdles before being reunited with family in Canada. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

The family of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi says his release may be imminent, a decade after he was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for criticizing religious figures and promoting liberal views of Islam.

Badawi, whose wife and three children now live in Quebec's Eastern Townships, was arrested in 2012 and initially sentenced to 1,000 lashes, 10 years in prison and a fine of more than $340,000.

His story made international headlines in 2015 when, as part of that sentence, he was whipped 50 times in front of the al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah. The resulting international pressure forced the suspension of the remainder of his lashes, according to Amnesty International.

Now, after an unbearable wait, his family and supporters believe his release may be days away, as his 10-year sentence will have been served in full by Feb. 28. 

"My father was always giving us hugs and I don't even remember," said his eldest daughter Najwa Badawi, who is now a student at the Cégep de Sherbrooke.

"It's not very normal that a child doesn't even remember her father's hugs anymore."

Najwa Badawi, the eldest daughter of Badawi, was just a young child when her father was first jailed

a decade ago. She's now 18 and a student at the Cégep de Sherbrooke. (Radio-Canada)

Family fighting to bring him to Canada

Former justice minister Irwin Cotler, who has served as international legal counsel to Badawi's family, said there are still legal hurdles that Saudi authorities would need to drop in order for the family to bring him to Canada. 

"They would need to authorize that the other restrictions that were placed at the initial sentencing are no longer enforced," he said. That includes the fine and a 10-year travel ban.

"This is something that [his family has] been painfully awaiting now for 10 years," said Cotler. "I've seen it myself and seen the children — living deprived of their father has been very difficult."

Badwai's wife, Ensaf Haidar, shows a portrait of her husband as he is awarded the Sakharov Prize in Strasbourg, France, in this Dec, 16, 2015 file photo. (Christian Lutz/Associated Press)

Though progress has been slow, Saudi officials may wish to appear merciful in releasing Badawi now, according to Sylvana Al Baba Douaihy, a researcher at the society, law and religion research centre of l'Université de Sherbrooke.

"The crown prince [Mohammed bin Salman] has this ambition to repair his image and the image of the kingdom, which was pretty tarnished after the assasination of [Jamal] Khashoggi in 2018," she said.

'He should be proud' 

While she awaits his return, Najwa Badawi says she makes the most of the short phone calls she gets with her father, even if they have to stick to surface-level conversations. 

"We can't talk about real things because he's being listened to. He can't talk to us about how he's feeling," she said. "It's been 11 years that I haven't seen him. I don't know what he looks like and he doesn't know what we look like."

Najwa says her father should be proud that he fought to advance freedoms in his home country, despite the consequences. And inspired by her father, she hopes to study to become a lawyer. 

"I want … to be able to defend people who are in his situation," she said. "If I can help people, he will be proud of me. It will make him happy."

There are several articles on this blog on both Raif Badawi and his sister Samar Badawi who was released from a Saudi prison last July after 3 years for fighting for civil rights for women.

Attack on mosque leaves at least 56 dead

A powerful blast has rocked a site of worship in northwest Pakistan

Volunteers examine the site of explosion inside a mosque in Peshawar. © AP / Muhammad Sajjad

At least 56 people have been killed and almost 200 wounded following gunfire and an explosion at a mosque in Peshawar in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border on Friday, medics have said.

Updated reports from March 5th indicate 62 dead. ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the atrocity.

Many of the injured remain in critical condition, meaning that the death toll is likely to rise, according to the spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) who provided the figures.

The attack targeted the Kucha Risaldar Mosque in Peshawar’s old city at a time when Shia Muslim worshippers were gathering for Friday prayers.

Two gunmen initially opened fire at police officers outside the building, Peshawar’s Police Chief Mohammed Ejaz Khan has said.

One perpetrator and one officer were killed in the shootout, while the second attacker managed to make his way into the mosque and that’s when the blast went off, according to Khan. There were some 150 people inside, he added.

The office of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province governor later confirmed that the blast was a suicide bombing. Investigators have been working to establish details about the incident, which “seemed to be a suicide attack,” he said.

One of the survivors recalled that he was just entering the mosque when the blast threw him back into the street. “I opened my eyes and there was dust and bodies everywhere,” he said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the bombing, but both Islamic State and Pakistani Taliban have been active in the area, carrying out similar attacks.

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi still held after completing 10-year jail term

RSF - Reporters sans Frontier

After 10 years of imprisonment, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi should have been released from prison on 28 February, but he continues to be held in Dahaban Central Prison, North of Jeddah. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Saudi authorities to release Badawi immediately and allow him to join his family, who now live in Canada.

His wife, Ensaf Haidar, had been counting down the days to his release date on Twitter without knowing for sure whether he would be released when the date finally arrived. RSF has contacted the Saudi authorities, but received no immediate answer.

Badawi ran an online forum called Free Saudi Liberals in which he discussed religious and societal issues with exceptional openness. After his arrest in 2012, he was eventually convicted of insulting Islam and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes, a fine of 1 million riyals and a 10-year ban on leaving the country after completing his jail term.

“Raif Badawi’s continued detention after 10 long years is outrageous. He should never have spent a single day behind bars, and now that he has completed the full sentence based on ludicrous charges, there is no legal basis for the Saudi authorities to continue to hold him. We call for Badawi’s immediate release as an urgent priority, and for him to be granted safe passage from the country to join his family abroad,” said RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire.

Based in Quebec since 2013, Haidar has never stopped campaigning for her husband’s release. She is now pinning her hopes on Canada, which could grant him Canadian citizenship and thereby facilitate his resettlement.

“The government now has a chance to stand in solidarity with us, alleviate our pain and recognize his singular contribution to the global human rights movement by granting him citizenship and securing his safe passage to be reunited with his family,” Haidar said in a recent tweet.

But Badawi will not be able to leave Saudi Arabia unless the 10-year travel ban is lifted. That is why Haidar has also written to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS) requesting a royal pardon. “Your Royal Highness, I appeal to the father and husband that you are. Our family’s fate is in your hands,” she wrote.

In April 2020, Saudi Arabia announced the abolition of flogging as part of the “Vision 2030” reforms proposed by the crown prince, which also include human rights reforms. Of the 1,000 lashes to which Badawi was sentenced, he received an initial 50 lashes in April 2015. Subsequent sessions were planned but were never carried out.

Saudi Arabia is ranked 170th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

European Politics > Germany halts NSII certification; EU gas prices hit all-time high; Orban explains war in Ukraine; Why NATO pushed Russia too far

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Scholz decides Europe can pay more for energy...

Germany makes decision on Nord Stream 2

The move comes after Russia announced it would recognize the two

breakaway Donbass republics

FILE PHOTO. Olaf Scholz. © Getty Images /Sean Gallup

Germany will put an immediate halt to the certification of the Russian-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced, after Moscow recognized the two breakaway Donbass regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Scholz said the green light cannot be given for the pipeline to begin pumping supplies in the light of the current standoff between Russia and Ukraine.

"Given Russia's latest action" the certification "cannot go ahead," Scholz told reporters. "This is now about taking concrete steps relating to the situation that we have seen now."

Just hours before, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called on Europe to suspend the gas pipeline "immediately" after Moscow signed a deal recognizing the two breakaway Donbass Republics in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Construction on the pipeline, which is intended to link the gas fields of Siberia to consumers in Western Europe via a port in Northern Germany, was completed last year. However, it has been waiting for approval from Berlin's regulators to begin operations.

Last week, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said that the delays to its approval were down to Kiev's lobbying efforts. “Today, we are successfully blocking the Russian hybrid gas weapon Nord Stream 2 and will continue to do so,” he claimed.

Ukrainian officials have consistently opposed construction of the pipeline, which would see supplies transported under the Baltic Sea instead of solely through the country's overland network of Soviet-built pipes. Kiev has said the project amounts to an effort to undermine European energy security, and warned it stands to lose billions of dollars in transit fees if Moscow were to turn off the taps.

Washington has previously said Nord Stream is a "threat" and imposed sanctions on companies involved in the construction. However, Germany had continued to support the project despite objections from Ukraine, the US and other nations, including Poland and the Baltic States.

The day before Scholz's announcement, Putin held a televised national address in which he said “I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago” to “immediately” recognize both as sovereign states. The move, he said, was in response to years of fighting in Ukraine’s war-torn east and to Kiev’s attempts to “drag foreign states into conflict with our country” with its efforts to join NATO.

Leaders of the breakaway republics and officials in Kiev have accused each other of carrying out heavy shelling along the contact line for several days. Last week, Donetsk and Lugansk announced that they had begun evacuating civilians to Russia, amid what they claim is a sharp spike in hostilities, and have ordered the mobilization of all able-bodied men to be ready to fight in a potential conflict.

Ukraine rejects claims it is preparing to attack, with Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, claiming that “there is an attempt to provoke our forces,” and that Kiev’s troops “can only open fire if there will be a threat to the lives of our service members.”

Gas price in Europe smashes all-time high

European futures have soared past $2,200 per 1,000 cubic meters on supply fears

European natural gas prices spiked above $2,200 per 1,000 cubic meters on Wednesday for the first time in market history. The escalating crisis between Russia and Ukraine has raised fears of supply shortages.

The April futures at the TTF hub in the Netherlands soared from around $1,500 to $2,226 per 1,000 cubic meters, or $213 per megawatt-hour in household terms by 09:30 GMT, hitting an all-time high, data from the London ICE exchange shows.

The spike in prices follows sanctions placed on Russia by a number of Western states amid Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.

A huge increase in applications is raising the price by the minute, Kaushal Ramesh, senior analyst at Rystad Energy, told Vesti. He said it had also been affected by fears of supply outages due to possible damage to infrastructure in Ukraine, through which the majority of Russian gas is delivered to Europe, and the possibility of supply restrictions on Russian oil and gas.

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Hungary weighs in on reasons for Ukraine war

Russia was not afforded security guarantees, says President Viktor Orban,

and energy cooperation with Moscow must continue

A destroyed APC of the Ukrainian armed forces in Volnovakha, Donetsk People's Republic.

© Sputnik / Ivan Rodionov

War in Ukraine was inevitable, because the US and NATO didn’t provide the security guarantees required by Russia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday.

He added that “there were no arguments for curbing our energy cooperation with Russia,” despite the ongoing military conflict.

“NATO is steadily expanding eastward, and Russia likes it less and less. The Russians put forward two demands: Ukraine should declare its neutrality and NATO shouldn’t accept Ukraine. The Russians didn’t receive these security guarantees, therefore they decided to receive them through a war,” the PM explained in an interview with Hungarian outlet Mandiner.

It would have been so simple and easy for NATO/Washington to agree with those conditions. It would have made this war completely unnecessary. But they refused the conditions - yet they had to have known that they were pushing Russia into war. The question is why?

Last year, Russia demanded the US provide written security guarantees that NATO wouldn’t expand into Ukraine and Georgia. It also urged the American-led military bloc to scale back its provocative military activities near Russia’s borders. However, talks on the issue between Moscow and Washington ultimately proved fruitless.

Hungary has had the closest relations with Russia of all EU members in recent years, but the invasion of Ukraine had put Budapest in “a new situation,” Orban said. He condemned the Russian operation, urging the two sides “to get back to the negotiating table as soon as possible.” 

"The whole of Europe” should now work to achieve peace between Moscow and Kiev, he added.

Orban said his country wouldn’t hamper the introduction of new sanctions against Russia by Brussels, because “the unity of the EU is of prime importance at this time.”

However, the long-time Hungarian leader insisted “there were no arguments for curbing our energy cooperation with Russia.”

“It’s obvious that Russia will keep existing after the war. And Hungary and the EU will have their interests even after the war,” he pointed out, asserting that “EU leaders have also stated that sanctions will not affect energy supplies from Russia, as this would ruin the European economy.”

Orban had visited Moscow for negotiations with President Vladimir Putin in early February, with the Russian leader subsequently revealing that their two nations had signed a deal that would allow Hungary to purchase Russian gas at a discount until 2036. Budapest has been buying it at five times cheaper than the European market rate, according to Putin.

Hungary made it clear on Wednesday that it would not be sending any offensive arms to the Kiev government and nor would it be allowing fellow EU member states to transit such equipment through its territory. Budapest was willing only to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

Russia launched what it termed its “special operation” in Ukraine last Thursday in order to “denazify” and “demilitarize” its neighbor. According to Moscow, it was the only way to end the bloodshed in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, and prevent Kiev from attempting to reclaim those areas by force.

Ukraine has denied any plan to mount a full-scale assault on the two republics, and blamed Moscow for waging an unprovoked war.

Leading experts warned NATO expansion would lead to conflict.

Why did no one listen?

From Kennan to Kissinger, Western foreign-policy thinkers saw NATO’s eastward march

was a dangerous game

Bradley Blankenship is an American journalist, columnist and political commentator. He has a syndicated column at CGTN and is a freelance reporter for international news agencies including Xinhua News Agency. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has provoked serious backlash around the world, particularly in the Western world – an understandable reaction against a war of aggression in violation of international law. However, it’s also true that this outcome had been predicted by the world’s foremost foreign-policy experts for decades.

Specifically, experts have consistently warned that NATO’s eastward expansion would provoke conflict with Russia. So, this begs the question, how did we get here if so many people warned about it? Before getting into the answer, here are some examples of those warnings.

For starters, the top American Russia scholar George Kennan, the man who laid the foundation for US Cold War foreign-policy strategy, said NATO’s expansion into Central Europe in the 1990s was “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era.” He warned that expanding NATO would damage the US-Russia relationship so deeply that Russia would never become a partner and would remain an enemy.

That, of course, could well be the whole point of this exercise.

The US Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991 penned an essay nine days before the invasion, answering the question of whether the brewing crisis was, at that point, avoidable. “In short, yes,” he explained. On whether it was predictable, “Absolutely. NATO expansion was the most profound strategic blunder made since the end of the Cold War.”

Leading international relations scholar John Mearsheimer gave an interview after the Russian invasion, explaining that the situation “started in April 2008, at the summit in Bucharest, where afterward NATO issued a statement that said Ukraine and Georgia would become part of [NATO].”

According to him, “The Russians made it unequivocally clear at the time that they viewed this as an existential threat, and they drew a line in the sand.” Mearsheimer discussed in the interview, as he has maintained for years on this issue, that the issue of Ukraine joining NATO is key to Russia’s core national security interests.

The famed Russian-studies scholar Stephen Cohen likewise warned in 2014, during that year’s conflict in Ukraine involving Russia, that “if we move NATO forces toward Russia's borders ... it’s obviously gonna militarize the situation [and] Russia will not back off. This is existential.”

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, one of the most widely regarded American strategic thinkers of all time, said in a 2014 op-ed that “Ukraine should not join NATO.” This is because it would make Ukraine a theater in an East-West confrontation. He said that “to treat Ukraine as part of an East-West confrontation would scuttle for decades any prospect to bring Russia and the West – especially Russia and Europe – into a cooperative international system.”

There are many others, including former US Secretary of Defense William Perry, Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner Jnr., economist Jeffrey Sachs, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General Pino Arlacchi, former CIA director Bill Burns, former US Secretary of Defense Bob Gates and others listed by Arnaud Bertrand in a great Twitter thread on this topic.

With all of this out there, widely known and heavily discussed, we arrive back to that question: why? Well, it most likely has to do with controlling Europe and making sure that NATO itself doesn’t fall apart. In that sense, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has ensured this goal and then some.

I have been saying for many years that NATO has been constantly in search of a raison d'etre. As such they are the most dangerous entity in the world. Now they are risking WWIII for their own benefit.

Madrid will host a major NATO summit this June that will see the formation of the first NATO strategic concept document since 2010, which had been a major issue of contention both on the European continent and across the pond in Washington. It will be the alliance’s working strategic framework for at least the next decade and will clearly define its goals.

We had seen, prior to this, that Europe, particularly France, was pushing for a common European defense strategy – which, to be fair, was said to “complement NATO” but was so clearly in spite of it that Washington routinely resisted this stance. After actions by the US that rattled European leaders, particularly the AUKUS agreement, the administration of President Joe Biden made clear concessions that it probably didn’t enjoy.

This was clear from the read-out of a conversation between Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron in September 2021, which included the sentence, “The United States also recognizes the importance of a stronger and more capable European defense that contributes positively to transatlantic and global security and is complementary to NATO.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seemingly rejuvenated NATO overnight and put Europe on high alert. This is evident in Germany’s foreign-policy pivot and the announcement that it will be increasing its military spending to over 2% of its GDP in direct response to the situation in Ukraine; Sweden and Finland having reportedly given consideration to joining NATO; and even Switzerland ending its neutral status and joining the EU’s sanctions on Russian assets.

The June summit in Madrid will undoubtedly elevate pro-NATO voices that would otherwise be regarded as extreme, discussion of more bifurcation of the international system and, no doubt, direct mentions of Russia – maybe even China – in the organization’s strategic concept document. All of this falls neatly in line with US foreign policy.   

At the same time, this all has the benefit of increasing dependency on America – especially in the case of natural gas, with Nord Stream 2 now scrapped and Russia being choked economically – and on military hardware, which the military-industrial complex is surely happy about.

None of this minimizes Russia’s role in the conflict. It invaded Ukraine and, whatever the justifications, committed a violation of international law. But strategic thinkers in the West clearly predicted this would happen and, because of that, we may only assume that it fits into the larger agenda described here.

With that in mind, it’s clear that anyone who really supports the Ukrainian people must be principally against NATO’s expansion. EU residents will also suffer the fallout, both economically and perhaps even in their basic physical safety. But let’s remember that, until Russia’s invasion, Europe – mainly Germany and France – was doing all it could to diffuse the situation in spite of Washington’s brinkmanship.

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War on Christianity > Christian Pastor jailed for 8 years in China; 3 Christians killed, church destroyed in Nigeria; Illinois Masters Student restricted for being Christian

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Chinese court jails Christian pastor for 8 years:

‘Fraud for preaching the Gospel’

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor| 

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Catholic worshipers attend a morning mass on Easter Sunday at a Catholic church in a village near Beijing on April 4, 2021. | JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images

A court in China’s Hubei province has sentenced a female Christian pastor to eight years in prison on charges of “fraud for preaching the Gospel” after her house church refused to join the state-controlled body that regulates Protestant churches, according to reports.

The Ezhou Echeng District People’s Court sentenced Pastor Hao Zhiwei of Egangqiao Church in Ezhou city to eight years in prison earlier this month, UCA News reported.

The 51-year-old pastor had been charged with fraud for preaching the Gospel and receiving donations from church members without approval from the state-run Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches and the Christian Council, her lawyer, Si Weijiang, was quoted as saying.

The lawyer added that Hao, who was arrested in July 2019, is the first pastor of a house church in the country who has been implicated in a fraud case, and added that she will appeal her sentencing, watchdog group Church in Chains said.

Hao’s church building had been demolished in August 2019 and was facing ongoing persecution, the group said, adding that after the pastor’s arrest, the authorities arrested several more house church pastors on the same charge, including Elder Zhang Chunlei of Guiyang Renai Reformed Church and Elders Hao Ming and Wu Jiannan of Deyang Early Rain Qingcaodi Church.

The Chinese Communist Party uses the new Regulation on Religious Affairs, which took effect in 2018, to persecute house churches in various ways, Elder Li Yingqiang of Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church wrote in an article last November.

Those ways include "Sinicization," or seeking to align Christianity to China’s culture, religious and political ideology; “removing crosses, sealing up and demolishing church buildings; and banning church offerings.”

“Other charges include: ‘illegal business operations,’ ‘inciting subversion of state power,’ ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble,’ and so on. These charges are thorns on loyal preacher’s head and God’s crown for His loyal servants,” Li added.

Pastor Hao’s youngest son, Moses, who goes to a middle school, suffers from severe depression, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern said.

“Her husband passed away a few years ago, and her oldest son started college in 2020, so he can no longer take care of his younger brother. Moses dropped out this semester and began locking himself in a room. He refuses to interact with people and only has one meal per day,” ICC said.

Pastor Hao’s health is deteriorating in prison and she has lost a significant amount of weight, the group added. “After being detained for more than two years, she has developed acute pancreatitis four times and was sent to the emergency room. She nearly lost her life.”

Hao has “strong faith that she can be released without charge.”

With Beijing hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, many have expressed outrage about China’s treatment of religious minority communities. While China is being accused of genocide for its detainment of Uyghur and other ethnic Muslims in western China, human rights activists have voiced concern for years about the Chinese government’s yearslong crackdown on unregistered churches and house church movements.

Open Doors USA, a watchdog organization that monitors persecution in over 60 countries, warns that the monitoring of unregistered house churches in China increased over the last year as more house churches have experienced “harassment and obstruction once their activities have been discovered.”

Open Doors warns that many unregistered churches have been “forced to split up into small groups and gather in different locations, keeping a low-profile so as not to be detected by the sub-district officer or neighborhood committee.”

Ezhou city, Hebei

Islamic terrorists kill 3 Christians, destroy church in Nigeria

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor| 

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Suspected terrorists from the Islamic State West Africa Province have killed three Christians and destroyed a church in an attack in a village in northeast Nigeria’s Chibok area, according to reports.

The attack took place in the predominantly Christian village of Kautikari in Borno state on Friday evening in which three Christians were killed and the building of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria was destroyed, Morning Star News reported Sunday, citing area residents.

Nigerian newspaper the Daily Post identified the deceased as Bulama Wadir, a traditional ruler’s son, and two internally displaced persons.

The Kautikari community, which lives on the fringes of Sambisa forest, a base of ISWAP terrorists, was also attacked in mid-January, when 24 Christian women and children were captured and taken into captivity, with 20 of them still held captive. The four others managed to escape in late January.

A worship auditorium of the local Church of the Brethren in Nigeria was also damaged in the January attack.

Kautikari village is near Chibok, where over 200 girls were kidnapped from a school in 2014.

Chibok leaders were quoted as saying that their communities have been attacked more than 72 times since the 2014 kidnappings. After eight years in which 57 girls escaped on their own and others were released, 110 of the girls remain in captivity, according to the Chibok Area Development Association.

In an earlier interview with The Christian Post, Emeka Umeagbalai of the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law said kidnappings of Christians happen for various reasons.

Boko Haram, ISWAP and radicalized members of the Fulani herding communities are motivated by money, while others are inspired by Islamic radicalism.

That doesn't make any sense!

Security analysts say kidnapping for ransom has become a lucrative industry in Nigeria as weapons are becoming available to militants in Nigeria thanks to war-torn Libya.

In Nigeria’s northeast, Boko Haram and ISWAP have killed thousands and displaced millions.

The U.S.-based persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern warns that the Nigerian government “continues to deny any religious motivation behind the attacks and has recently convinced the U.S. Department of State to do the same.”

The Nigerian President, Buhari, is a Muslim. I believe he not only doesn't want Islam blamed for the horror show in northern Nigeria, but I seriously doubt that he wants it to stop.

Many have raised concerns about what they perceive as the government’s inaction in holding terrorists accountable for the rising number of murders and kidnappings.

However, last November, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from the U.S. State Department’s list of “countries of particular concern,” a designation reserved for the countries that tolerate or engage in some of the world's worst violations of religious freedom. Nigeria was added to the CPC list in December 2020 during the final months of the Trump administration. ICC identified the African country as one of its 2021 “Persecutors of the Year.”

This deal was brokered by Anthony Blinken as a reward for supporting Biden's LGBTQ language at the UN. This is one of the most morally corrupt actions I can recall by a western government.

“Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, as 50,000 to 70,000 have been killed since 2000,” the ICC Persecutor of the Year report states.

According to Open Doors USA’s 2022 World Watch List report, at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, up from 3,530 the previous reporting year, and more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 the previous reporting year.

University Orders Christian Student Not to Talk to Students

Who Disagree with Her

Michael Foust |

ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | 

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

An Edwardsville, Illinois, university violated a Christian student’s constitutional rights by ordering her not to have contact with three students who disagreed with her faith-centric viewpoint, according to a legal organization.

Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter late last month to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville after it ordered Maggie DeJong, a student in the master’s in art therapy counseling program, from having “any contact” or “indirect communication” with three students. The students, according to ADF, complained to the university that her viewpoint would not be “welcome or appropriate.”

The university offered no basis for the orders, which “limit her speech and physical presence on and off campus” through the end of the semester, the letter says. Further, the letter says the university acknowledged DeJong’s conduct did not violate university policy. According to the letter, the university said the non-contact orders were to “prevent interactions that could be perceived by either party as unwelcome, retaliatory, intimidating, or harassing,” according to the letter.

“Universities, especially classrooms where topics are supposed to be vigorously debated, should be marketplaces of ideas, not an assembly line for one type of thinking,” said Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel and director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. “Maggie has always respectfully expressed her viewpoint in class, which every student is entitled to do under the First Amendment. The university must immediately rescind the no-contact orders and revise its policies to adequately safeguard students’ constitutional rights.”

Langhofer told The Daily Citizen that DeJong’s Christian beliefs are the source of the dispute. At one point, Maggie informed a fellow student that “her personal beliefs are grounded in objective truth by the gospel of Jesus Christ,” according to The Daily Citizen.

The no-contact orders have prevented DeJong from “fully” participating in her educational activities, the letter says. Because of the orders, she cannot fully participate in classes with the three students. She also cannot participate in group chats in which any of the three students are present.

The orders violate DeJong’s free speech protections as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, the letter says. The letter says legal action is possible if the university does not withdraw the orders.

Military Madness > What's a Vacuum Bomb? Could hackers start WWIII? Finland, Sweden warm to NATO, good grief!

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Explainer: What are vacuum bombs?

By Danielle Haynes

   

An RPV-16 thermobaric rocket launcher is seen at a military fair in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2019. Ukrainian officials and

human rights organizations have accused Russia of using so-called vacuum bombs during its invasion of Ukraine.

File Photo by VoidWanderer/Wikimedia

March 1 (UPI) -- Human rights organizations and Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using so-called vacuum bombs on Ukrainian targets, weapons that are particularly brutal and deadly and could constitute a war crime.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova told reporters Monday that Russia used the weapon against a Ukrainian army base in the town of Okhtyrka.

"The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large," she said.

Sumy region administrative chief Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said 70 soldiers died in the blast, according to Politico.

The White House declined to confirm Russia's use of such weapons against Ukraine on Monday.

"I don't have any confirmation of that," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime."

But what exactly are vacuum bombs and what makes them so uniquely deadly?

Vacuum bombs are known by a few names, including thermobaric or aerosol bombs, or fuel air explosive. According to Human Rights Watch, such weapons are more powerful than other explosives of comparable size.

The way in which they detonate and inflict damage and injuries is also "particularly brutal," the organization said.

The bombs comprise a container of fuel and two different explosive charges. The first charge opens the container and disperses the fuel in a cloud, which mixes with the surrounding air.

The cloud of fuel spreads before the second charge detonates, creating a powerful, high-temperature blast wave by way of the fuel cloud.

A 1993 study conducted by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said the effects of a vacuum bomb on humans are "unique and unpleasant."

Those who happen to be near the detonation point of the bomb are "obliterated," according to the CIA in a separate study.

"Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible, injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs and possibly blindness," the CIA study said.

Because the shock wave causes minimal brain damage to those who aren't instantaneously killed, victims are often conscious and suffer for a time as they suffocate, the Defense Intelligence Agency said.

BBC News reports there are no international laws specifically banning the use of vacuum bombs, but if Russia is proven to have used them against Ukraine, the country could be tried for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.

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Russia’s space agency chief warns hackers could start war

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said attempts to target Russian satellites

would lead to serious repercussions

Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos State Corporation, © Sputnik/Evgeny Biyatov

The chief of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, has warned hackers attempting to disrupt the operation of the country’s satellites that their actions could be construed as a “casus belli – that is, an event that justifies a war.”

Dmitry Rogozin’s comment came shortly after a cyberattack on Russia’s RKA Mission Control Center. Speaking to Russia’s Rossiya 24 news channel on Wednesday, the official said that “those who are attempting to do this” should know that “it is a crime, which calls for a very severe punishment.” 

Rogozin went on to stress that the disruption of operation of “any country’s space forces is a so-called casus belli,” which is a Latin term used to describe an event that either leads to or justifies the beginning of a war.

The Roscosmos chief also threatened the people responsible that his corporation would identify them, and hand the data over to Russian security services so that they could open a criminal investigation against the hackers.

Earlier, several Telegram groups claimed that the NB65 hacker group, which is allegedly linked to Anonymous, had successfully breached Roscosmos’ communications with Russia’s satellites.

However, Rogozin dismissed the claims, saying that while there were attempts to penetrate the system, Roscosmos’ defense managed to fend them off.

Since February 24, when Moscow started a war against Ukraine, websites of the Kremlin, Russian ministries, banks, and media – including RT – have been targeted by hacker or DDoS attacks. Anonymous declared a “cyber war” on Russia on the day Moscow’s troops and military hardware invaded Ukraine.

Explaining the need for the military action, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was seeking to “demilitarize and denazify” the Eastern European country, as well as to protect from persecution the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass republics. Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed these claims as merely a pretext to invade a sovereign country, alleging that Moscow’s endgame is the installation of a pro-Russian puppet regime in Kiev.

Personally, I think they would be happy with a government that wasn't vociferously anti-Russian or played into the hands of NATO and America's games.

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Neutral Finland, Sweden warm to idea of NATO membership

By JARI TANNER

FILE - Finland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto, left and his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde take part in a joint press conference with Sweden's Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist, and his Finnish counterpart Antti Kaikkonen, in Stockholm, Sweden, Feb. 2, 2022, after talks on European security. Throughout the Cold War and in the decades since it ended, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining NATO, until now. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly changed Europe’s security outlook, including for Nordic neutrals Finland and Sweden, where support for joining NATO has surged to record levels. (Anders Wiklund, TT News Agency via AP, File)

HELSINKI (AP) — Through the Cold War and the decades since, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining NATO — until now.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly changed Europe’s security outlook, including for Nordic neutrals Finland and Sweden, where support for joining NATO has surged to record levels.

A poll commissioned by Finnish broadcaster YLE this week showed that, for the first time, more than 50% of Finns support joining the Western military alliance. In neighboring Sweden, a similar poll showed those in favor of NATO membership outnumber those against.

“The unthinkable might start to become thinkable,” tweeted former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, a proponent of NATO membership.

Neither country is going to join the alliance overnight. Support for NATO membership rises and falls, and there’s no clear majority for joining in their parliaments.

But the signs of change since Russia began its invasion last week are unmistakable.

The attack on Ukraine prompted both Finland and Sweden to break with their policy of not providing arms to countries at war by sending assault rifles and anti-tank weapons to Kyiv. For Sweden, it’s the first time it’s offering military aid since 1939, when it assisted Finland against the Soviet Union.

Apparently sensing a shift among its Nordic neighbors, the Russian Foreign Ministry last week voiced concern about what it described as efforts by the United States and some of its allies to “drag” Finland and Sweden into NATO and warned that Moscow would be forced to take retaliatory measures if they joined the alliance.

The governments of Sweden and Finland retorted that they won’t let Moscow dictate their security policy.

“I want to be extremely clear: It is Sweden that itself and independently decides on our security policy line,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said.

Finland has a conflict-ridden history with Russia, with which it shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border. Finns have taken part in dozens of wars against their eastern neighbor, for centuries as part of the Swedish Kingdom, and as an independent nation including two fought with the Soviet Union from 1939-40 and 1941-44.

In the postwar period, however, Finland pursued pragmatic political and economic ties with Moscow, remaining militarily nonaligned and a neutral buffer between East and West.

Sweden has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, choosing a path of peace after centuries of warfare with its neighbors.

Both countries put an end to traditional neutrality by joining the European Union in 1995 and deepening cooperation with NATO. However, a majority of people in both countries remained firmly against full membership in the alliance — until now.

The YLE poll showed 53% were in favor of Finland joining NATO, with only 28% against. The poll had an error margin of 2.5 percentage points and included 1,382 respondents interviewed Feb. 23 to 25. Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24.

“It’s a very significant shift,” said senior researcher Matti Pesu from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. “We’ve had a situation in the past 25-30 years where Finns’ opinions on NATO have been very stable. It seems to now to have changed completely.”

While noting that it’s not possible to draw conclusions from a single poll, Pesu said no similar shift in public opinion occurred after Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia and the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, “so this is an exception.”

In Sweden, a late February poll commissioned by public broadcaster SVT found 41% of Swedes supported NATO membership and 35% opposed it, marking the first time that those in favor exceeded those against.

The Nordic duo, important partners for NATO in the Baltic Sea area where Russia has substantially increased its military maneuvers in the past decade, has strongly stressed that it is up to them alone to decide whether to join the military alliance.

In his New Year’s speech, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto pointedly said that “Finland’s room to maneuver and freedom of choice also include the possibility of military alignment and of applying for NATO membership, should we ourselves so decide.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted last week that for Helsinki and Stockholm “this is a question of self-determination and the sovereign right to choose your own path and then potentially in the future, also to apply for NATO.”

There are no set criteria for joining NATO, but aspiring candidates must meet certain political and other considerations. Many observers believe Finland and Sweden would qualify for fast-track entry into NATO without lengthy negotiations within months.

Though not members, Finland and Sweden closely cooperate with NATO, allowing, among other things, the alliance’s troops to exercise on their soil. Helsinki and Stockholm have also substantially intensified their bilateral defense cooperation in the past years, and both have secured close military cooperation with the U.S., Britain and neighboring NATO member Norway.

Niinisto’s office said Thursday that he would meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday “to discuss Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the effects of the war on the European security order, and bilateral cooperation.”

The Finnish head of state is one of the few Western leaders who has kept a regular dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin ever since Niinisto took office in 2012. Niinisto has a seemingly good rapport also with Biden and two leaders have maintained close contact throughout the Ukraine crisis.

In December, Biden called Niinisto and said he was pleased with Finland’s decision to buy 64 Lockheed Martin F-35A stealth fighter jets to replace the country’s aging F-18 fighters. Biden said the move would pave the way for closer U.S.-Finnish military ties in future.

Because that's what it is all about. You buy our war machines and we will love you forever.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said this week that her Social Democratic Party would discuss possible NATO membership with other parties but didn’t set a time frame. She said everyone agrees that the events of the past weeks have been a game-changer.

“Together we see that the security situation has changed remarkably since Russia attacked Ukraine. It is a fact that we have to acknowledge,” Marin said.

___ Associated Press writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed to this report.

It seems our Swedish and Finnish friends have no clue as to why Russia attacked Ukraine. If they understood that it was to keep NATO away from their borders they might think again about the wisdom of joining NATO. It seems to me that it would put the Nordic countries in a much more dangerous situation to flirt with NATO as Ukraine has done.

This must be a very frightening turn of events for Putin as I think he probably expected the opposite to happen. Perhaps he didn't account for the effect of the left-wing media and the NATO-Washington propaganda machines.

Covid-19 > 50 poisonings from Rapid Test kit; Nerve damage for some long-Covid cases; More Warnings for Covid-19 test kits

..

50 calls made to poison control centres overexposure

to COVID-19 rapid test kit ingredients

CBC News · 

Posted: Feb 24, 2022 3:04 PM ET 

A health care worker hands out COVID-19 rapid tests to people at the Bear Creek rapid test

distribution centre in Surrey, B.C. on Jan. 18. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

At least 50 calls have been made to poison control centres in Canada over accidental exposure to certain ingredients in COVID-19 rapid test kits, which can be poisonous if swallowed or absorbed through the skin, warns Health Canada.

In an advisory released on Thursday, the federal department stressed the kits are safe and effective when used as intended. However, many test kits include liquid solutions with chemical preservatives, such as sodium azide and ProClin preservatives that can pose a danger if ingested — particularly for children and pets.

"Small doses of sodium azide can lower blood pressure, and larger doses may cause more serious health effects. ProClin is also found in many kits. It contains chemicals that can cause skin and eye irritation, as well as allergic reactions," the advisory continues.

It also notes that the various rapid test kits made available for people to use from local health units, schools, workplaces or other avenues might not have labelling or instructions that disclose the risks associated with "misuse or accidental ingestion."

Health Canada recommends to:

Keep rapid antigen test kits and solutions out of the reach of children and pets.

Do not swallow the solutions, and avoid eye and skin contact.

Wash hands thoroughly after use. If spillage occurs, rinse well with water.

Follow all instructions for proper disposal.

Report any health product-related side effects or complaints to Health Canada.

Contact your local poison information and control centre in cases of accidental ingestion of chemicals or direct skin exposure.

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

Nerve damage may explain some cases of long COVID, U.S. study suggests

60% of patients in small study had nerve damage, which may point to new treatments

Thomson Reuters · 

Posted: Mar 02, 2022 11:57 AM ET 

This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the United States. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. (NIAID)

A small study of patients suffering from persistent symptoms long after a bout of COVID-19 found that nearly 60 per cent had nerve damage possibly caused by a defective immune response, a finding that could point to new treatments, researchers have found.

The new U.S. study involved in-depth exams of 17 people with so-called long COVID, a condition that arises within three months of a COVID-19 infection and lasts at least two months.

"I think what's going on here is that the nerves that control things like our breathing, blood vessels and our digestion in some cases are damaged in these long COVID patients," said Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead author on the study published in the journal Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation.

As many as 30 per cent of people who have COVID-19 are believed to develop long COVID, a condition with symptoms ranging from fatigue, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, cognitive difficulties, chronic pain, sensory abnormalities and muscle weakness.

Oaklander and colleagues focused on patients with symptoms consistent with a type of nerve damage known as peripheral neuropathy. All but one had had mild cases of COVID-19, and none had nerve damage prior to their infections.

After ruling out other possible explanations for the patients' complaints, the researchers ran a series of tests to identify whether the nerves were involved.

"We looked with every single major objective diagnostic test," Oaklander said. The vast majority had small fibre neuropathy, meaning damage to small nerve fibres that detect sensations and regulate involuntary bodily functions such as the cardiovascular system and breathing.

Findings consistent with earlier study

The findings are consistent with a July study by Dr. Rayaz Malik of Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar that found an association between nerve fibre damage in the cornea and a diagnosis of long COVID.

In the current study, 11 of the 17 patients were treated with either steroids or intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), a standard treatment for patients with small nerve fibre damage caused by an immune response. Some improved though none were cured.

While the results would only apply to long COVID patients with this type of nerve damage, it is possible that immunotherapy could be helpful, said Dr. Avindra Nath, an expert in neuroimmunology at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and a study co-author.

"To me, it suggests that we need to do a proper prospective study of these kinds of patients" testing the drugs in a randomized trial, Nath said.

My question is, what would these symptoms typically be misdiagnosed as?

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FDA Warns of Possible False Results From Some COVID-19 Tests

By Jack Phillips

Epoch Times 

March 2, 2022

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday said that three rapid COVID-19 tests should not be used because of the potential for producing false results.

The FDA told people to stop using the Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test, the SD Biosensor Inc. STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag Home Test, and the Flowflex SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test (Self-Testing).

“The FDA is concerned about the risk of false results when using” those tests, according to the agency. These tests have “not been authorized, cleared or approved by the FDA for distribution or use in the United States,” the agency added.

All three tests work via nasal swab, the agency said. It recommended that health care providers have patients submit to new testing if they’ve used any of the three tests fewer than two weeks ago.

Epoch Times Photo: The FDA said ACON Laboratories has recalled all of its Flowflex tests, SD Biosensor has recalled its tests, and Celltrion USA has recalled all of its DiaTrust tests.

“People should not use the Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test that is in green and white packaging,” the FDA said, including a photo of the test.

Epoch Times Photo

(FDA)

SD Biosensor’s “unauthorized test may be packaged in a white and magenta box,” the FDA said.

In February, the FDA issued warnings about the E25Bio COVID-19 Direct Antigen Rapid Test, the Empowered Diagnostics CovClear COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test, and ImmunoPass COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Rapid Test for similar reasons. Recalls were also initiated for the tests.

And the ACON Laboratories tests are packaged in a dark blue box, according to the agency.

Epoch Times Photo

(FDA)

The FDA said it has “not received reports of injuries, adverse health consequences, or death associated with use of” any of the three tests.

In a statement, ACON Laboratories stated that the unauthorized tests are an “adulterated and misbranded counterfeit product.”

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning people to stop using the Empowered Diagnostics CovClear COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test and ImmunoPass COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Rapid Test,” the health agency’s statement said at the time. “These tests were distributed with labeling indicating they are authorized by the FDA, but neither test has been authorized, cleared, or approved by the FDA for distribution or use in the United States.”

It also comes as some poison control centers warned people not to improperly use at-home COVID-19 tests because they contain sodium azide, a potentially toxic substance. Some local poison control centers and hospitals have warned about an uptick in phone calls about exposures to the chemical.

Tests made by Flowflex and Celltrion contain the substance.

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