Latest Analysis and Commentary
by J.B. Shurk • May 28, 2023 at 5:00 am
[M]edia polling from Harvard-Harris showing that Americans hold almost diametrically opposing viewpoints from those that news corporations predominantly broadcast as the official "truth." Americans have correctly concluded that [with the "Russia Hoax" and suppressing reported influence peddling in Hunter Biden's laptop ] journalists and spies advanced a "fraud" on voters as part of an effort to censor a damaging story and "help Biden win." Nevertheless, The New York Times and The Washington Post have yet to return the Pulitzer Prizes they received for reporting totally discredited "fake news." "Under the current approach to journalism, it is the New York Times that receives a Pulitzer for a now debunked Russian collusion story rather than the New York Post for a now proven Hunter Biden laptop story." — Professor Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law School, Twitter, May 15, 2023. The government apparently took the public's censorship concerns so seriously that it quietly moved on from the collapse of its plans for a "disinformation governance board" within the DHS and proceeded within the space of a month to create a new "disinformation" office known as the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which now operates from within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Although ostensibly geared toward countering information warfare arising from "foreign" threats, one of its principal objectives is to monitor and control "public opinion and behaviors." As independent journalist Matt Taibbi concludes of the government's resurrected Ministry of Truth: "It's the basic rhetorical trick of the censorship age: raise a fuss about a foreign threat, using it as a battering ram to get everyone from Congress to the tech companies to submit to increased regulation and surveillance. Then, slowly, adjust your aim to domestic targets." Democrat Senator Michael Bennet has already proposed a bill that would create a Federal Digital Platform Commission with "the authority to promulgate rules, impose civil penalties, hold hearings, conduct investigations, and support research." Effectively, a small number of unelected commissioners would have de facto power to monitor and police online communication. Should any particular website or platform run afoul of the government's First Amendment Star Chamber, it would immediately place itself within the commission's crosshairs for greater oversight, regulation, and punishment. Will this new creation become an American KGB, Stasi or CCP — empowered to target half the population for disagreeing with current government policies, promoting "wrongthink," or merely going to church? Will a small secretive body decide which Americans are actually "domestic terrorists" in the making? US Attorney General Merrick Garland has gone after traditional Catholics who attend Latin mass, but why would government suspicions end with the Latin language? When small commissions exist to decide which Americans are the "enemy," there is no telling who will be designated as a "threat" and punished next. It is not difficult to see the dangers that lie ahead. Now that the government has fully inserted itself into the news and information industry, the criminalization of free speech is a very real threat. This has always been a chief complaint against international institutions such as the World Economic Forum that spend a great deal of time, power, and money promoting the thoughts and opinions of an insular cabal of global leaders, while showing negligible respect for the personal rights and liberties of the billions of ordinary citizens they claim to represent. If Schwab's online army were not execrable enough, advocates for free speech must also gird themselves for the repercussions of Elon Musk's appointment of Linda Yaccarino, reportedly a "neo-liberal wokeist" with strong WEF affiliations, as the new CEO of Twitter. In an America now plagued with the stench of official "snitch lines," censorship of certain presidential candidates, widespread online surveillance, a resurrected "disinformation governance board," and increasingly frequent criminal prosecutions targeting Americans who exercise their free speech, the question is not whether what we inaudibly think or say in our sleep will someday be used against us, but rather how soon that day will come unless we stop it.
Now that the government has fully inserted itself into the news and information industry, the criminalization of free speech is a very real threat. (Image source: iStock)
If legacy news corporations fail to report that large majorities of the American public now view their journalistic product as straight-up propaganda, does that make it any less true? According to a survey by Rasmussen Reports, 59% of likely voters in the United States view the corporate news media as "truly the enemy of the people." This is a majority view, held regardless of race: "58% of whites, 51% of black voters, and 68% of other minorities" — all agree that the mainstream media has become their "enemy." This scorching indictment of the Fourth Estate piggybacks similar polling from Harvard-Harris showing that Americans hold almost diametrically opposing viewpoints from those that news corporations predominantly broadcast as the official "truth."
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by Amir Taheri • May 28, 2023 at 4:00 am
Atatürkism... tried to reinvent Turkey's identity as a modern state claiming Hittite and Celtic roots, distancing itself from the "decadent Orient" and hoping to regain its proper place in the family of European nations. More importantly, Atatürk introduced the concept of secularism, using the French term laïcité, to end the centuries' long mixture of religion and politics under the Ottoman caliphs. The new identity that Atatürk tried to create has also been subverted by Erdoğan's reforms. Erdoğan has tried to re-inject a large dose of Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood type, into the Turkish identity. At the same time he has encouraged the expression of sub-identities, some of them to justify his peddling of Turkish-Islam as the broad tent under which all citizens of Turkey could gather under one flag. Thus the Kurds, around 15 percent of the population, have been able to discard the identity that Atatürk imposed on them as "Mountain Turks," and claim a bigger role in Turkish politics and culture in their own name. Atatürk's laïcité has also been upturned. In 1923, it was the state that controlled the mosque through a Ministry of Religion. Today, at times, the demarcation line between the state and the mosque is too pale to be seen by all. As far as aspirations to be European are concerned, Turkey is now farther away from securing a place in the European family of nations than ever. Even under the Ottomans, Turkey saw itself as a European power, even if lonely as "the sick man of Europe." Atatürk may also be dismayed by the return of pan-Turkist and pan-Turanist elements with a chauvinistic discourse that he regarded as repulsive. Would Atatürk be surprised if Erdoğan wins today's election? I don't think so. Erdoğan has a solid support base with some 30 percent of the electorate and has been able to co-opt or bribe a number of smaller constituencies into voting for him. Since the alleged coup attempt in 2016, he has been working to ensure his domination of Turkish politics by removing as many potential opposition bases as possible. Erdoğan has defanged the military's top brass and dismantled the network of Islamist clubs and businesses associated with exiled Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. He has sent 77,000 real or imagined opponents to prison for varying lengths of time. He has organized trials for 13,500 prominent figures from all walks of life, purged 2,745 judges and public prosecutors, imposed early retirement on 36,000 schoolteachers and 1,755 university professors, deans and chancellors. Overall, Erdoğan has fired 100,000 civil servants, including 9,000 from the Ministry of Interior, which organizes elections. More importantly, Erdoğan has tightened his party's control over the media by shutting down 45 daily newspapers, 25 weeklies, 23 radio stations, 16 television channels and 29 book publishing companies. His crackdown has also seen the cancellation of 50,000 passports, preventing the holders from leaving the country. Atatürk served for 15 years as president of the republic he had created, during which Turkey was one of the few countries to escape the tsunami of inflation that had hit Europe, leading to the emergence of Mussolini as ruler of Italy, the collapse of the Weimar Republic in Germany, and the advent of Hitler. Today Atatürk will watch the election results as the Turks face economic meltdown, with inflation setting records never known in their history. The "Father" won't be happy. However, his sole consolation would be that 100 years later, a majority of Turks still see him as a unifying figure at a time the leadership elites of all ideological colors try to divide them.
Atatürkism tried to reinvent Turkey's identity as a modern state claiming Hittite and Celtic roots, distancing itself from the "decadent Orient" and hoping to regain its proper place in the family of European nations. Pictured: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk talks with his advisors, circa 1919. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Today, Turkish voters go to the polls to elect their president while a special task force works on ceremonies to mark the centenary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923. But what would the man who founded the republic think of Turkey today? The man in question is Mustafa Kemal Pasha, alias Atatürk ("Father of the Turks"), the charismatic military commander who transformed the truncated remains of the Ottoman Empire into a nation-state aspiring to modernize itself. At first glance Atatürk would be proud of what he did. The republic he founded is the oldest in the Muslim world and one of the few that were founded by strongmen outside the West in the 1920s to be still in place. More importantly, Atatürk remains the only iconic figure of his time to be still respected, if no longer revered, by all his compatriots across the political spectrum.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • May 27, 2023 at 5:00 am
Since 2021, the Biden Administration has been cozying up to Iran in a way that has often seemed agonizingly embarrassing to entice it back to the disastrous 2015 "JCPOA" nuclear deal of the Obama Administration. Mercifully those efforts did not succeed: the new deal would still most likely have enabled Iran, after a few years, legitimately to have all the nuclear weapons it liked. Meanwhile, in Israel, on May 22, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides was asked, "Can Israel attack Iran without the US? What about the lack of meetings between President Biden and PM Netanyahu?" Nides answered: "The coordination between Israel and US vis-à-vis our mutual enemies, our common threats in the region, is rock solid. One of the things President Biden assured both PM Bennett and Lapid, and Netanyahu, was that there would be complete transparency regarding coordination on Iran.... And it's not just Iran, it's its proxies. We stand here to support Israel and work with it to make sure Iran never attains a nuclear weapon." The trouble is, can we believe him? So far, the Biden Administration's lack of strategy towards the Iranian regime also became evident during the recent briefing about Iran that disappointed U.S. Senators. "Strategic ambiguity on Iran policy only serves to embolden the regime and push our partners closer to China." — Senator Jim Risch, May 17, 2023. The Biden administration is also not putting any pressure on the European Union to stop trading with Iran. In fact, bragged the Tehran Times, "The value of Iran's export to the European Union (EU)'s member states rose 28 percent in the first nine months of 2022." Iran's increasing trade with and exports to the EU are also increasing the regime's revenues and assisting it to supply more weapons to Russia. "The source claimed that two Russian-flagged cargo ships, departed an Iranian port in January bound for Russia via the Caspian Sea, carrying approximately 100 million bullets and around 300,000 shells. Ammunition for rocket launchers, mortars and machine guns was allegedly included in the shipments. The source said Moscow paid for the ammunition in cash." – Sky News, March 8, 2023. Finally, Iran is now producing more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China, which desperately needs more oil, while the Biden Administration suspended new oil and gas leases on public lands and waters. The Biden Administration's policies of appeasement are directly energizing the Iranian regime. We need to remember what Winston Churchill warned against about appeasing aggressors: "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last."
Ever since President Joe Biden assumed office, Iran has been freely enriching uranium to levels just short of nuclear breakout – levels not needed for peaceful nuclear technology – and violating sanctions. Pictured: The Isfahan uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan, Iran. (Photo by Getty Images)
The Biden Administration's reluctance to enforce existing sanctions on Iran -- the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, according to the State Department in 2021 -- looks suspiciously like total appeasement of Iran's ruling mullahs. Since 2021, the Biden Administration has been cozying up to Iran in a way that has often seemed agonizingly embarrassing to entice it back to the disastrous 2015 "JCPOA" nuclear deal of the Obama Administration. Mercifully those efforts did not succeed: the new deal would still most likely have enabled Iran, after a few years, legitimately to have all the nuclear weapons it liked. Meanwhile, in Israel, on May 22, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides was asked, "Can Israel attack Iran without the US? What about the lack of meetings between President Biden and PM Netanyahu?" Nides answered:
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by Raymond Ibrahim • May 26, 2023 at 5:00 am
A savage jihad — replete with massacres, beheadings, and sexual enslavement — has been raging in the Christian-majority nation of Mozambique since 2017. Few in the West are aware of this, not least as the situation has been garbed in Marxist language that seeks to depict radical terrorists as "victims" and those resisting them, including the Mozambican government, as "oppressors." By May 2020, the massacres had reached the point that a "Genocide Warning" was issued. As of December 2021, the terrorists had slaughtered 3,340 people and displaced nearly a million more. The numbers of those killed and displaced has grown in the last year-and-a-half, though there appear to be no official statistics. As in other African nations, the Muslim terrorists of ISM are deliberately targeting Christians. "They say their goal is to set up a caliphate similar to ISIS in Iraq and Syria. And they are in some cases, literally going door to door. They ask, 'Are you a Christian? Or are you a Muslim?' If you're a Christian, you're killed [including by crucifixion]. If you're a Muslim, then you get the opportunity to quote some Quranic verses. And if you can quote them sufficiently, you save your life. Otherwise, you also get killed [for being insufficiently Islamic]." — Todd Nettleton, The Voice of the Martyrs USA, June 28, 2021. "Islamic militants turned a village soccer field in northern Mozambique into an execution ground when they beheaded more than 50 people during three days of savage violence between Friday, November 6, and Sunday, November 8...." — Barnabas Aid, November 10, 2020. After decapitating a Christian pastor, ISM terrorists handed the pastor's severed head to his widow and ordered her to deliver it to police. Three years and countless more slaughters later, the world still has no idea what is happening, and the international community is nowhere to be seen. Why? One reason is the media. They are committed to presenting the situation in purely economic terms, rarely if ever indicating that the terrorists are fueled by an expansionist, jihadist agenda to create an Islamic caliphate and subjugate if not slaughter Christians. This situation is a duplicate of the situation in Nigeria: there, Muslims are committing genocide against Christians for purely ideological (Islamic) reasons, while here, in the West, the media and establishment are insisting that "religion is not driving extremist violence [in Nigeria]," to quote Johnnie Carson, then-President Barack Obama's Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. [A] report, "How poverty and corruption fuel terrorism across Africa," argues that such attacks, which "are on the rise across the African continent," are "a consequence of poverty, [and] domestic grievances new and old..." — Channel 4, April 16, 2021. A genocidal jihad is being waged against Christians in virtually every corner of sub-Saharan Africa — from Nigeria in the northwest, to Mozambique in the southeast — but, for some reason, these black lives apparently do not matter.
A savage jihad — replete with massacres, beheadings, and sexual enslavement — has been raging in the Christian-majority nation of Mozambique since 2017. Pictured: Displaced persons from the town of Impire in Cabo Delgado province, on June 14, 2022, flee from jihadists who attacked their community. (Photo by Alfredo Zuniga/AFP via Getty Images)
A savage jihad — replete with massacres, beheadings, and sexual enslavement — has been raging in the Christian-majority nation of Mozambique since 2017. Few in the West are aware of this, not least as the situation has been garbed in Marxist language that seeks to depict radical terrorists as "victims" and those resisting them, including the Mozambican government, as "oppressors." A December 2021 report details how the Islamic State came to power in this southeast African nation: "Mozambique is a majority Christian country, with Muslims comprising around a fifth of its population. "A religious movement, Ansar al-Sunna, first appeared in 2015 in the north of the country, formed by followers of radical Kenyan cleric Aboud Rogo Mohammed who has been linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings.... "It started building mosques and religious schools, becoming more and more popular with locals.
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by Richard Kemp • May 25, 2023 at 5:00 am
I asked what they now needed most from our countries. Of course more guns, more ammo, more tanks, more rockets plus combat planes always featured. But another consistent answer was striking even if not surprising: please do not try to force our country to make peace with the invaders. The government in Kyiv has so far documented 19,393 kidnapped children, and there are most likely many more that are as yet unidentified. Like the torture and murder of civilians in Izium and elsewhere, and the summary execution of prisoners of war, these kidnappings are war crimes. It is for these abductions that the International Criminal Court in March issued arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and his so-called Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. Putin's forces and civilian bureaucrats have seized children from orphanages and children's homes, removed them directly from their parents or taken them into "care" after killing their families. Some have been forcibly fostered or adopted in cities including Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Rostov. Names and dates of birth are sometimes changed to render them untraceable. While torture and murder cannot be undone, Russia's child kidnapping can, and it is inexplicable that so far there has been no large scale international outrage. [K]nowledge of these wicked depredations is why they fight; and why they and the fighting men on Ukraine's other battlefields remain determined to keep attacking, holding the invaders from their families' doors until they drive them back beyond their borders, no matter what the personal cost might be.
Russian forces and civilian bureaucrats have seized nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children from orphanages and children's homes, removed them directly from their parents or taken them into "care" after killing their families. Knowledge of these wicked depredations is why Ukrainians fight on the battlefield, determined to keep attacking, holding the invaders from their families' doors. Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on April 23, 2023. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
This week, near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, I spent time with commanders and soldiers who have been fighting the Russian invaders in the shattered city, sometimes for months on end. This has been one of the longest battles anywhere in the world since 1945 and by far the most brutal in this war, with Russians and Ukrainians often fighting at close quarters, artillery hammering the city into Stalingrad-like rubble and a level of slaughter unequalled anywhere else in Putin's vicious war.
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by Burak Bekdil • May 24, 2023 at 5:00 am
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tirelessly struggles to harm Western interests. He should be punished and sanctioned for doing that. Instead, the UN, under U.S. direction, rewarded Turkey by appointing a close Erdoğan confidant to a critical Afghan post, and the Biden administration rewarded Erdoğan by requesting Congressional authorization to sell critical fighter jet parts to Turkey. In an effort to help Putin evade sanctions, Turkey agreed to pay 25% of its natural gas bill to Russia in rubles. In return, to help Erdoğan find a way out of a punishing economic crisis, Putin deferred repayment Turkey's $20 billion gas debts to Russia until 2024. By contrast, Turkey's relations with the West have seen one bottom after another. Erdoğan's request for the extradition [from Sweden and Finland] of "terrorists" does not fit into the judicial system of any democratic country: he insists that everyone who opposes his rule is a "terrorist" -- therefore more than half of 85 million Turkish citizens are terrorists. On April 17, the Biden administration officially notified Congress about the planned sale to Turkey of critical avionics software upgrades for its current fleet of F-16 fighter aircraft. "Turkey is a longstanding and valued NATO ally," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. "The Biden administration supports Turkey's efforts to bring the avionics of its F-16 fleet up to standard." Anything for a sale? Perhaps the Turkish foreign minister was right to call Biden "charlatan."
On April 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Moscow's burgeoning energy and wider economic ties with Ankara as he and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took part virtually in a ceremony inaugurating Turkey's first nuclear power plant. "This is a flagship project," Putin said. Pictured: An aerial photograph taken on April 26, 2023 showing the construction of the Russian-built Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Mersin Province. (Photo by Ozan Kose//AFP via Getty Images)
Some Western governments, in particular the U.S. administration, have a bizarre way of sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin's staunchest allies: by flooding them with rewards. Take, for instance, Putin's not-so-secret Trojan Horse in NATO, Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tirelessly struggles to harm Western interests. He should be punished and sanctioned for doing that. Instead, the UN, under U.S. direction, rewarded Turkey by appointing a close Erdoğan confidant to a critical Afghan post, and the Biden administration rewarded Erdoğan by requesting Congressional authorization to sell critical fighter jet parts to Turkey.
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by Burak Bekdil • May 23, 2023 at 5:00 am
There will be a second round for the presidential vote on May 28, but an opposition victory seems unlikely. Turkey is a country where average schooling is 6.5 years. In other words, the average person is a 7th grade drop-out. Ninety-five percent of Turkish citizens have never travelled abroad. Many Turks are captivated by identity politics: Ideology over everything else. Erdoğan's Islamism and nationalism still matter to tens of millions of starving Turks. This is their make-believe world: that Erdoğan will one day rebuild the glorious days of our Ottoman ancestors. Under pressure from the Erdoğan government, which apparently feared opposition propaganda on social media, Twitter announced on May 12, two days before the elections, "In response to legal process and to ensure that Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today." "This [a likely Erdoğan victory] is not only bad news for Turkey but also for other democracies around the world ... I don't know how Turkey will cope with a total economic collapse." — Daron Acemoglu, a Turkish-American economist who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1993. – Cumhuriyet, May 16, 2023. A Turkish collapse is likely -- but the Turks will probably blame it on the Crusaders while worshipping the man who caused it.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's re-election campaign, after a rule of 21 years, has highlighted "our country's survivability against major Western powers, the Crusaders, enemies within, traitors, terrorists, atheists and homosexuals." Pictured: Erdoğan casts his ballot in presidential and parliamentary elections, in Istanbul, on May 14, 2023. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
On May 14, 64 million citizens of Turkey went to polling stations in the wake of a punishing economic crisis, widening democratic deficit and a government revealed as totally helpless in relief efforts after February 6 earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people. The opposition bloc had never been stronger against an autocratic regime that is giving serious signs of metal fatigue. Turkey is a poor country where per capita income is barely $9,000. Budget and current account deficits have been ballooning, annual inflation is running at 43% (official) to 105% (unofficial) and unemployment is soaring. In response, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's campaign, after a rule of 21 years, highlighted "our country's survivability against major Western powers, the Crusaders, enemies within, traitors, terrorists, atheists and homosexuals." Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said that if the opposition won, they would legalize humans marrying animals.
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by Bassam Tawil • May 22, 2023 at 5:00 am
If anyone has been desecrating al-Aqsa Mosque, it is Muslims who have been rioting and using rocks and fireworks to attack police officers and Jewish visitors. Muslim rioters -- not peaceful Jewish visitors -- are the real threat to the sanctity of the mosque. Israeli authorities have clarified that the route of the "flag parade" absolutely does not include entry into any mosque. Assurances by the Israeli authorities, however, have not stopped Palestinians and other Muslims from spreading fake news and libels against Jews. Iran's terror proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have also used the celebrations in Jerusalem to spread the libel that Jews are planning to "desecrate" al-Aqsa Mosque. As far as Hamas and other Palestinians are concerned, the very presence of Jews at their holy site and in Israel is supposedly a "provocation." Hamas and several terror groups in the Gaza Strip, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also repeated the lie that "al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger." When the terror groups talk about "resistance," they are referring to the need for terrorism against Israel, including firing rockets from the Gaza Strip, and attacks by stabbing, shooting and car-ramming. "The people of Palestine have no historical rights to Palestine. They have no right that dates back 2,000, 3,000, or 4,000 years. The right of the Canaanites to Palestine is equal to the pharaohs' right to Egypt. Is it conceivable that any Muslim in Egypt would say: 'I am Pharaonic and proud of it?' Well, it is the same if a Muslim in Palestine said, 'I am a Canaanite and proud of it.' To hell with your Canaanite identity and to his Pharaonic identity. People, our history is simple and it is not ancient. It must not be said that the Palestinians have Canaanite roots. Our history dates back only 1,440 years.... The only thing you are allowed to say is: Oh Palestinians, you are Muslims." — Issam Amira, Palestinian Islamic scholar, al-Aqsa Mosque, April14, 2023 The revival of the "al-Aqsa is in danger" libel is part of an ongoing effort by Palestinians and other Muslims to delegitimize and eliminate Israel. Palestinian leaders and Muslim "scholars" spread lies about Israel and Jews to encourage and justify terrorism. The real threat to the mosque and other holy sites in Jerusalem is posed those Palestinians and Muslims who use battle cries to incite violence, terrorism and Jew-hate. Incomprehensibly, much of the international community, the media, and even prominent self-declared "human rights" organizations persist in defaming Israel and ignoring this fabricated, toxic incitement by Palestinian and Muslim leaders.
If anyone has been desecrating al-Aqsa Mosque, it is Muslims who have been rioting and using rocks and fireworks to attack police officers and Jewish visitors. Muslim rioters -- not peaceful Jewish visitors -- are the real threat to the sanctity of the mosque. Pictured: Israeli firefighters try to put out the flames of a tree that was set ablaze by Palestinian rioters on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, on April 22, 2022 (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
Palestinians are again repeating the lie that al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is in danger because the Jews are planning to "storm" and "desecrate" it. Some Palestinians and Muslims have gone so far as to accuse the Jews of plotting to destroy the mosque. The latest campaign of lies and misinformation arrived as Jews, on May 18, were preparing to celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem by holding a flag parade in the city. For days, the hashtag "al-Aqsa Mosque is in Danger" was trending on various social media platforms, evidently as part of a concerted campaign to smear Jews and rally Muslims against them.
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by Raymond Ibrahim • May 21, 2023 at 5:00 am
"The Taliban are offering money for Afghans to turn in any Christians they know. And Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to] Christians." — mnnonline, April 3, 2023, Afghanistan. [P]olice raided a large group of Christians, mostly college students, as they "gathered to sing and record video clips for social media." One-hundred-and three of them, "mainly students," were arrested and sent to prison. "This latest arrest puts the number of Christian prisoners detained indefinitely without trial in Eritrea to more than 500.... Mai Serwa [prison]...is ... known for its use of torture and other forms of mistreatment, including beatings, starvation, and denial of medical care. The Eritrean government detains individuals without charge or trial and has held many in detention for years without access to legal representation or the due process of law." — International Christian Concern, persecution.org, April 24, 2023, Eritrea. [I]n one night of unfathomable horror ... men, women, and children were slaughtered like chicken...." -- persecution.org, April 28, 2023 — Democratic Republic of Congo. The "pure genocide" of Christians, as it has been characterized by several international observers, reached new levels, according to an Apr. 10 report, which found that since 2009, 52,250 Christians in Nigeria "have been butchered or hacked to death." – Nigeria. "Political Islam replaces the laws or interprets them differently so that they restrict the practice of other religions. It also works to change the culture of society — which puts it under great pressure — so that it becomes more radical and extreme, not only toward other religions but also toward other Islamic sects." — catholicnewsagency.com, 2023, Libya. [P]olice arrested two illiterate cleaners—a Christian widow and a Muslim gardener—on the accusation that they had intentionally burned pages from the Koran, thereby committing "blasphemy." — morningstarnews.org, April 24, 2023, Pakistan. "Don't tell me that if you entered a church your faith would waver. Every other person of a different religion here hears the [Islamic] call to prayer five times a day [and their faith doesn't waver]." — Syed Saddiq, Malaysian politician, christiantoday.com, April 7, 2023, Malaysia. "Indonesia's Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 (SKB) makes requirements for obtaining permits nearly impossible for most new churches. Even when small, new churches are able to meet the requirement of obtaining 90 signatures of approval from congregation members and 60 from area households of different religions, they are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths." — morningstarnews.org, April 6, 2023, Indonesia.
Official intelligence reports concerning two separate terrorist attacks that occurred on Jan. 25, 2023, when a Muslim man from Morocco wounded a priest and slaughtered a Christian sacristan in Algeciras, Spain, were released in April and shed more light on the nature of the crime. Pictured: The scene of the murder of Diego Valencia, the sacristan, in Algeciras. (Photo by Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of April, 2023: Generic Muslim Abuses against Christians Afghanistan: According to a brief Apr. 3 report, "Taliban puts bounty on Afghan Christians": "The Taliban are offering money for Afghans to turn in any Christians they know. And Afghans are desperate, further heightening the security risk [to] Christians."
Eritrea: Sometime in April, police raided a large group of Christians, mostly college students, as they "gathered to sing and record video clips for social media." One-hundred-and three of them, "mainly students," were arrested and sent to prison. According to the Apr. 24 report:
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by Amir Taheri • May 21, 2023 at 4:00 am
[E]ven before you start a war, you must try to form a vision of how it might end, preferably at a point at which you can claim victory or, if that isn't possible, get out with a minimum of losses. Right now neither side in this war seems to have any idea of how it might end, while both sides dream of total victory. And that is bad news for the whole world.
Almost exactly a year ago, when the last Ukrainian defenders left the shattered city of Mariupol, many analysts believed that the war triggered by Vladimir Putin would be heading towards an end with a Russian victory. That belief was based on a number of assumptions that have since proven wrong. Pictured: A view of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, photographed on April 8, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Almost exactly a year ago, when the last Ukrainian defenders left the shattered city of Mariupol, many analysts believed that the war triggered by Vladimir Putin would be heading towards an end with a Russian victory. That belief was based on a number of assumptions that have since proven wrong. The first was that the 80-day battle for Mariupol could not be repeated in other Ukrainian towns and villages under Russian attack. In Mariupol, resistance was led by a hard-core of Ukrainian nationalists ready, if not eager, to fight to the very end. Most were workers in the country's largest steel mill and had developed an esprit de corps worthy of military gradation. That combination of reasons for resistance could not be repeated elsewhere in Ukraine. The second belief was that Russia, having sustained losses in both men and materiel, would be in no position to prolong a war that consumed both in proportions beyond imagination.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • May 20, 2023 at 5:00 am
At present, the ruling mullahs of Iran reportedly have enough enriched uranium to produce five nuclear bombs. General Hossein Salami, the chief of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has made the Iranian regime's plans vehemently clear: "Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map," he stated on Iran's state-controlled Channel 2 TV in 2019. Khamenei has also published a 416-page guidebook, titled Palestine about destroying Israel -- which Iran's former "moderate" President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, basically referred to as a one-bomb country. "Iran is 50 North Koreas; it is not merely a neighborhood bully like the dynasty that rules North Korea... This is an ideological force that views us, Israel, as a small satan, and views you as the great satan — and to have Iran being able to threaten every city in the United States with nuclear blackmail is a changing of history." — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, timesofisrael.com, May 4, 2023. Finally, there is always the danger of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Iran's proxy and militia groups, or that the Iranian regime will share its nuclear technology with its allies, such as the Syrian regime or the Taliban in Afghanistan – or sell it to anyone with the funds or political leverage to buy it. How many nuclear weapons will the Iranian regime -- called by the US Department of State a "top sponsor of state terrorism" -- obtain before the Biden Administration's term ends?
In the two years since the Biden administration assumed office, Iran's ruling mullahs have been rapidly and defiantly advancing their nuclear weapons program to levels never before seen. (Image source: iStock)
The Biden Administration has been the biggest gift to the ruling mullahs of Iran as their Islamist regime has been freely and rapidly advancing its nuclear program to unprecedented levels during President Joe Biden's term. In March 2023, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told the House Armed Services Committee that Iran's nuclear program had made "remarkable" progress and that it would take Iran 12 days to build a nuclear bomb. Ever since the Biden Administration assumed office, the Iranian regime has been accelerating its enrichment of uranium to "near weapons grade" and declining to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). As the IAEA pointed out: "Since 23 February 2021 the Agency's verification and monitoring activities have been seriously undermined as a result of Iran's decision to stop the implementation of its nuclear-related commitments."
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by Raymond Ibrahim • May 19, 2023 at 5:00 am
[S]ince the Islamic uprising began in 2009, 52,250 Christians "have been butchered or hacked to death" in Nigeria. — Report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law ("Intersociety"), April 10, 2023. In just the first 100 days of this year [Jan.1-April 10], "no fewer than 1,041 defenseless Christians were hacked to death by Nigeria's Jihadists ..." — Report by Intersociety, April 10, 2023. [R]oughly 15-20% of the slaughters were attributed to "Nigerian security forces, particularly the Nigerian Army." By far, however, the worst killers are the "Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen who specifically target and massacre Christians and wantonly destroy or burn down their sacred places of worship and learning; homes and farmlands." — Report by Intersociety, April 10, 2023. The Intersociety report makes clear that the jihadists are fervently trying to cleanse Nigeria of any Christian presence.... "This Jihad is based on the Doctrine of Hate taught in Mosques and Islamic Madrasas in northern Nigeria as well as the supremacist ideology of the Fulani. Using both conventional (violent) Jihad, and stealth (civilization) Jihad, the Islamists of northern Nigeria seem determined to turn Nigeria into an Islamic Sultanate and replace Liberal Democracy with Sharia as the National Ideology. ... We want a Nigeria, where citizens are treated equally before the law at all levels...." – Christian Association of Nigeria, May 4, 2018. Turkey..., once a bastion of ancient Christianity with churches everywhere, has, after the Turkish conquest, become so thoroughly Islamized, that its ancient basilicas, such as Hagia Sophia, now serve as mosques. Although the report appeared on April 10, the massacres and atrocities have continued relentlessly since. Sunday, Apr. 16.... One 5-year-old boy was beheaded. [N]ews outlets—including the Catholic News Agency—fail to identify the religions of either the murdered or their murderers. This video, which otherwise captures the tragic aftermath, refers to the Muslim terrorists as "bandits" and their Christian victims as "villagers." Esther Duniya, a 14-year-old Christian girl, was abducted from school and forcibly converted to Islam. Instead of helping her father and aunt recover her, police handed the girl "to Daawa, the Islamic group in charge - of converting and indoctrinating Muslims converts...." — The Guardian, May 10, 2023. [T]he government of Muhammadu Buhari, the Muslim president of Nigeria, has only "protected" the "Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen" to "the extent that the Jihadists now invade any Christian Community of their target at will and slaughter its natives and takeover their lands and properties at will." — Report by Intersociety, April 10, 2023. According to several Christian leaders in Nigeria (see below), the reason formerly simple Fulani herdsmen have, since Buhari became president in 2015, managed to kill nearly twice as many Christians as the "professional" terrorists (Boko Haram, ISWA, etc.), is "because President Buhari is also of the Fulani ethnic group." — Breitbart, June 27, 2018. "Under President Buhari, the murderous Fulani herdsmen enjoyed unprecedented protection and favoritism... Rather than arrest and prosecute the Fulani herdsmen, security forces usually manned by Muslims from the North offer them protection as they unleash terror with impunity on the Nigerian people." — Rev. Musa Asake, the General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, January 16, 2018. "What Obama, John Kerry and Hilary Clinton did to Nigeria by funding and supporting [current president Muhammadu] Buhari in the 2015 presidential election and helping Boko Haram in 2014/2015 was sheer wickedness and the blood of all those killed by the Buhari administration, his Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram over the last 5 years are on their hands." — Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria's former Minister of Culture and Tourism, churchmilitant.com, February 21, 2020. Despite all this, the American "mainstream" remains committed to describing the jihad in Nigeria as a byproduct of "inequality" and "poverty," to quote former US President Bill Clinton, who once explained what was "fueling all this stuff" (the "stuff" being a reference to the genocide of Christians in Nigeria). In their quest to blame anything and everything but Islamic, specifically jihadist, ideology, even climate change has been added to the mainstream arsenal of reasons fueling the genocide of Christians. Worst of all has been the Biden administration's response. In 2020, Trump placed Nigeria on the State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern—that is, nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom. Under Biden, however, the State Department removed Nigeria—this nation where one Christian is butchered every two hours—from the list. For mainstream media and politicians, black lives—52,250 now and counting—do not matter -- at least not when those lives are Christians' being slaughtered by Muslims.
A variety of Islamic terrorists—including "ISWA [Islamic State in West Africa], Boko Haram, and Ansaru Jihadists"—are responsible for the murders of 52,250 Christians in Nigeria since 2009. Pictured: A police officer walks beside a burnt prison vehicle in Abuja, Nigeria on July 6, 2022, after Boko Haram terrorists attacked Kuje Prison in a raid to break out imprisoned jihadists.(Photo by Kola Sulaimo/AFP via Getty Images)
The "pure genocide" of Christians in Nigeria, as it has been characterized by some international observers, has reached new levels, according to an April 10, 2023 report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, also known as "Intersociety", a nonprofit human rights organization based in Nigeria. According to the report, since the Islamic uprising began in 2009, 52,250 Christians "have been butchered or hacked to death" in Nigeria. With each passing year, the number of slain grows. In just the first 100 days of this year, "no fewer than 1,041 defenseless Christians were hacked to death by Nigeria's Jihadists ... [from] 1st Jan to 10th April 2023." As Open Doors observed a year ago, in Nigeria, "every two hours, a Christian is killed for their faith."
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by Con Coughlin • May 18, 2023 at 5:00 am
While U.S. President Joe Biden has constantly pledged his support for Kyiv, his rhetoric has invariably failed to result in providing the Ukrainians with the military support they require. Even when, as happened earlier this year, the White House reluctantly agreed to provide Ukraine with Abrams tanks - a move that was only approved after Washington came under intense pressure from allies such as Poland - the slow delivery timetable has made Ukrainian commanders despair that the equipment will ever actually arrive. As for the promised Abrams tanks, U.S. officials readily admit that the Abrams are months away from arriving as the Pentagon looks at its stocks to see what it can send. In a recent interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Sasha Ustinova, a Ukrainian lawmaker, confirmed the U.S. military had delivered far less than what Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine's top general, had asked for from the Pentagon. U.S. military aid is only arriving piecemeal as the Biden administration warns it is nearing the end of its ability to provide weapons that can be pulled off of the Pentagon's shelves to give to the Ukrainians. Ustinova said that Ukraine hoped to begin the offensive in April, but the lack of weapons has pushed the launch date back indefinitely. Certainly, any delay in the Ukrainians launching their offensive will only help to convince the Kremlin that, despite all the setbacks it has suffered over the course of the past year, it may still end up winning the war.
With the White House refusing to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons that are capable of striking targets within Russia, the Ukrainians are increasingly resorting to making their own homemade weapons to fill the gaps in their arms supplies. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers inspect a new Ukrainian-developed Sirko reconnaissance drone outside Kharkiv on April 30, 2023. (Photo by Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration's constant dithering over supplying weapons to Ukraine is proving to be a decisive factor in the Ukrainian military's decision to delay its long-awaited spring counter-offensive against Russian forces. Since the end of last year, when the Ukrainians inflicted a series of humiliating defeats against their Russian foes, Kyiv has been warning that it is in urgent need of fresh supplies of military equipment from its Western allies if it is to continue its campaign to liberate Ukrainian territory from Russian occupation. In particular, the Ukrainians say they are in urgent need of replacements of tanks and other heavy armour, long-range missiles and aircraft - including F-16 fighters. While the U.S. and its allies have pledged to provide limited supplies of weapons, however, the slow pace of delivery has prompted the Ukrainians to conclude they have no option but to delay their offensive until they are fully equipped.
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by Gordon G. Chang • May 17, 2023 at 5:00 am
[Hostile elements in senior Chinese Communist Party circles], thanks to the State Department, now have additional incentives to engage in belligerent conduct, and, in light of Washington's craven behavior, every nation that looks to America for security has to be extremely concerned. [Rick Waters, deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan] informed subordinates that Secretary of State Antony Blinken... had delayed already-planned actions [in response to China's spy balloon] to avoid increasing tensions with Beijing. Those planned actions included export-control licensing rules for Huawei Technologies and sanctions on China's officials for repression of Uyghurs. Reuters reported that these China measures "have yet to be revived." Why did the Biden administration delay taking action? It is still devoted to policies that have failed for three decades. "The recent revelation that senior State Department officials purposefully directed the postponement of actions against China following the discovery, and eventual shootdown, of a probable PLA reconnaissance balloon reflects a return to the ideology of engagement at all costs," James Fanell of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy told Gatestone. In short, China has successfully intimidated the American government. Defenders of the State Department's postponement of the Huawei and Uyghur measures have suggested that Washington will gain support among fence-sitting countries by showing that the United States was doing all it could to accommodate Beijing, ultimately making China appear the recalcitrant party. Such an argument might have made sense three decades ago, but certainly not at this late date. If countries by now do not perceive the danger posed by China, they never will. The way to obtain that consensus is Reagan-style American leadership — and American coercive diplomacy. Both, at the moment, are in short supply. Lowest common denominator solutions — the inevitable result of consensus building — do not work when danger is imminent. Now, Ukraine has become a great-power battleground, China and Russia are rapidly destabilizing North Africa, and the world looks as if it is just one conflict away from global war. Unfortunately, China cannot stop talking about war and is fast making preparations for it. Chinese President Xi Jinping is implementing the largest military buildup since the Second World War; he is trying to sanctions-proof China; he is stockpiling grain and taking control of all agriculture; he is surveying America for nuclear weapons strikes; and, most ominously, he is mobilizing China's civilians for battle. China's military has, Cultural Revolution-style, launched a purge of officers opposed to war. The recent death sentence handed down to retired Air Force General Liu Yazhou, who had argued against an invasion of Taiwan, is of particular concern. We are running out of time. There is, however, almost no sense of urgency in Biden's Washington and in the most senior levels of the Pentagon. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had more than 10 hours of meetings with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Vienna on the 10th and 11th of this month. The free-wheeling discussions have restarted what Washington Post columnist David Ignatius approvingly called "constructive engagement." Beijing, unfortunately, is merely playing the same old game of three decades: holding out the prospect of talks in order to get American presidents to delay taking action. Dialogue with a cynical Beijing is almost always fruitless. At this moment, China is trying to prevent both the G7, which will meet in Hiroshima starting May 19th, from taking action against Beijing's coercive economic diplomacy and the Biden administration from issuing long-awaited rules prohibiting investment into Chinese technology sectors. Xi appears to believe he has no reason to work "constructively" with America. "Change is coming that hasn't happened in 100 years," he proclaimed on March 22 while bidding farewell to Vladimir Putin in Moscow after their 40th in-person chat. "And we are driving this change together." The Biden administration is even moving in the wrong direction. "The Chinese Communist Party spent the past 30 years digging their talons into America's flesh, and a return to engagement will make getting rid of Beijing's influence even more painful," said Fanell, also a former U.S. Navy captain who served as Director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Once again, Western democracies are not recognizing threats and acting with the speed and determination required. China has completely intimidated the Biden administration. Americans — and others around the world — must worry what happens next.
Hostile elements in senior Chinese Communist Party circles, thanks to the U.S. State Department, now have additional incentives to engage in belligerent conduct, and, in light of Washington's craven behavior, every nation that looks to America for security has to be extremely concerned. Pictured: Then US Deputy Secretary of State Blinken (right) meets with Liu Yandong, then Vice Premier of China, in Washington DC on June 24, 2015. (Photo by Chris Kleponis/AFP via Getty Images)
The State Department delayed imposing sanctions, export controls, and other measures on China after the Chinese military brazenly flew its large spy balloon over Alaska, Canada and the lower 48 states in late January and early February. The postponement of these measures, reported by Reuters on May 11, will almost certainly strengthen, legitimize, and embolden the most hostile elements in senior Communist Party circles. These hostile elements, thanks to the State Department, now have additional incentives to engage in belligerent conduct, and, in light of Washington's craven behavior, every nation that looks to America for security has to be extremely concerned. "Guidance from S is to push non-balloon actions to the right so we can focus on symmetric and calibrated response," wrote Rick Waters, deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan, in a February 6 email. "We can visit other actions in a few weeks."
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by Lawrence Kadish • May 16, 2023 at 10:00 am
(Image source: iStock)
For decades it has been the modern version of turning lead into gold but its promise of clean inexhaustible energy is coming closer every year. The atomic process that powers the sun has the means to alter how we harness energy to power our world, but conquering the physics of containing a fusion reaction has proven to be enormously difficult. Yet the nation that creates a genuine, sustained, fusion reaction will own the future.
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