According to the well-known Conditions of Omar, which are believed to have been promulgated by the second caliph of the same name, churches may not have bells or visible crosses.

"The attack on Christians was simply because of the pariah status they have in Pakistan.... A consequence of years of hate ideology having been inculcated in the minds of young people in Pakistan, through the use of media and a national curriculum that demonizes minorities." — A human rights activist, Pakistan.

"They sent me warnings through friends, telling me to stop talking about Jesus or risk getting killed. They said they knew it was easy to kill Christians because [Christians] don't have any weapons. They can simply be slaughtered." — A man in Mali, World Watch Monitor Mali, December 11, 2017.

In its boldest form, the "foe" is the force that wishes not only to defeat you in a contest or even a war but strives to destroy you.

In democratic societies, the choice may be between "friend" and "enemy". Here, the enemy does not want to wipe you out or even to force you to submit to all his wishes. He wants to deny you a bigger share of power which he wants to keep for himself.

The task of diplomacy and political leadership is to go through the Schmittian spectrum, turning foe into enemy, enemy into adversary, adversary into rival, rival into ally and ally into friend. May be, just may be, in his unorthodox way Trump is trying to do just that. So, let's give him a chance. What do you say?

"Incredibly, the indictment now admits that Turkey considers 'Christianization' to be an act of terrorism" – The American Center for Law and Justice

Meanwhile, there are ISIS sleeper cell houses in seventy cities across Turkey, according to a 2015 "confidential" note by a Turkish chief of police.

Turkey's arbitrary arrests of Brunson, Erdem and many other innocent individuals expose Erdogan's regime as a brutal dictatorship that invades its neighbors, does not tolerate diversity, and that targets Christians and peaceful dissidents who oppose jihad – actions that run counter to the US State Department's minimum requirements for membership in NATO.

In an Orwellian nightmare, Eren Erdem, a former MP, journalist and the author of 9 books, who has courageously dedicated his career to exposing and condemning terrorist organizations, is now being accused of "aiding terrorists". The real terrorists he has condemned, however, remain free.

Erdem is paying the price for telling the truth in Turkey. He has risked his life to stop ISIS and help save lives. Now is the time for human rights activists and the media to defend him.

"Where are the police forces? I identified 10.000 addresses [of ISIS members] in these documents of investigations conducted by prosecutors and judges.... Why are these men not in jail?" — Eren Erdem.

"If the commission we proposed were established, we would crush all of the ISIS cells across in Turkey in a few months. There would be no cell left. Because we know the addresses of these cells. We learn them from the police... We also learn from the investigations by police that ISIS members get organized in Istanbul through a magazine called 'The Islamic World'. But there has been no police operation against them. This is not neglect. This is cooperation [with ISIS]." — Eren Erdem.

The Iranian general did not offer to build the Palestinians a hospital or a school. Nor did he offer to provide financial aid to create projects that would give jobs to unemployed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. His message to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip: Iran will give you as much money and weapons as you need as long as you are committed to the jihad (holy war) against Israel and the "big Satan," the US.

The same Hamas that is telling UN representatives that it wants to improve the living conditions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is the one that is reaching out its hand to Iran to receive funds and weapons.

Now, someone needs to step in and stop Iran from setting foot in the Gaza Strip and using the Palestinians as cannon fodder in Tehran's campaign against the US and Israel. How might someone do that? It is not so complicated. Any international aid to the Gaza Strip must be conditioned on ending Iran's destructive effort to recruit Palestinians groups as its soldiers. It is that simple.

It can be said that Hamas has more than mere "ties" to the Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, its own documents point out that the Muslim Brotherhood has been intrinsically tied to Hamas and the entire Palestinian situation since as early as 1948.

Rather than "helping our enemies attract more recruits," targeting the Muslim Brotherhood would weaken those organizations.

The greater point about the Muslim Brotherhood is that in its quest for domination, it is either violent or not yet violent. For this reason it should be designated as a terrorist entity.

Aidoudi's asylum request was rejected in 2007 after allegations surfaced that he had undergone military training at an al-Qaeda jihadi camp in Afghanistan between 1999 and 2000. During his training, he had allegedly worked as a bodyguard for Osama bin-Laden.

The government in North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed that for years Aidoudi had been receiving €1,168 ($1,400) each month in welfare and child support payments.

"Salafists such as Sami A. have no business in Germany and should be deported. Germany should not be a retirement retreat for jihadists." — Alexander Dobrindt, Member of the German Bundestag.

The nations of the world want to know what Israel knows and have what Israel has -- whether they have formal diplomatic relations with Jerusalem or not.

Israel's expansive sharing of water, solar and agricultural technology is legendary, as is Israel's emergency rapid response team. But military cooperation underpins freedom of navigation in the air and on the seas -- the source of international prosperity through trade -- and secures people in their borders. Security makes everything else possible.

The mufti's position parallels that of a US Supreme Court judge. If the mufti issues a legal opinion or religious decree, his people and leaders are expected to abide by it.

With the new fatwa, Abbas can go to President Trump and other world leaders and tell them, "I would truly like to make peace with the Jews; however, I am prevented from doing so by this fatwa, which bans Muslims from doing real estate transactions with Jews. Sorry!"

One can only imagine the response of the international community had the Chief Rabbi of Israel issued a decree banning Jews from doing business with Muslims. But in the instance of the Palestinian mufti and his superiors in Ramallah, everything seems to be fine -- once again, the international community turns a blind eye to the Palestinian leaders' apartheid and their terrorizing of their own people.

It is wrong to view Russia's political warfare as merely a kind of "competition" that lacks the seriousness of an actual military confrontation. As the Center for Strategic and Budget Assessments (CSBA) report -- detailing Russia's political warfare -- indicates, politics is war by other means.

Since then, however, the Czech Republic seems to be moving in the opposite direction, with an openly pro-Russian leader, President Milos Zeman. As one colleague of mine put it: "Could the land of the Velvet Revolution be slowly falling under the spell of Putin's propaganda?"

Jakub Janda, director of the European Values Think-Tank in Prague, worries that one measure of the success of Russian propaganda is that four out of ten Czechs blame the U.S. for the Ukrainian crisis, although there are Russian troops occupying part of the territory of Ukraine. And only 20% of Czechs believe that Russian-organized troops are not operating in Ukraine, a view held by President Zeman.

That countries with such promise as the Czech Republic are possibly sacrificing all that they gained after the end of the Cold War for the Russian government is a sad commentary on the condition of European societies. The good news is that there are brave elements within these societies who seek to push back and reclaim their freedom and sovereignty. Their efforts deserve not only our praise, but our full support.

Today, 510 million Europeans live in the European Union with 1.3 billion Africans facing them. If the Africans follow the example of other parts of the developing world, such as the Mexicans in the US, "in thirty years... Europe will have between 150 and 200 million Afro-Europeans, compared with 9 million today". Smith calls this scenario "Eurafrique".

The controversial quota system for migrants has already failed. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Hungary for detaining migrants. European governments cannot stop, deport, arrest or repatriate the migrants. What do the authorities in Brussels suggest? Bring everyone to Europe?

French Jews have fallen victim to a form of ethnic cleansing, according to a manifesto signed by, among others, former French President Nicholas Sarkozy and former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

Organizations representing the families of the Bataclan victims said that an Islamic rap concert praising jihad, in a place where people were murdered and tortured by jihadists, would be an insult to the memory of the victims, and asked that the concerts be canceled.

"France is at war, and leaves the enemy in peace". — Ivan Rioufol, journalist, in Le Figaro.

Macron and the French government speak and act as if the enemy has won and as if they want to gain some time and enjoy the moment before the final surrender.

You [Europeans] are supporting a terrorist regime that is determined to terrorize your countries.

You are supporting a regime that does not hesitate to commit some of the worst human rights abuses inside its own country, and abroad.

Where is your sense of decency and respect for human rights that you boast about so often?

The Khomeinist regime is programmed in its DNA to be anti-American, anti-West, anti-Semitic, anti-Arab, anti-Turk, anti-Russian, and more importantly perhaps, anti-Iranian.

The "Supreme Guide" is getting less and less "supreme". Signs that he is being cut down to size by events, including nationwide protests, have multiplied. He still makes speeches, summons civilian and military officials, and issues orders. But, increasingly, people hear him but don't listen.

Khamenei's power is declining not because he is challenged by anyone inside the establishment but by knocks on his door. Even if he wanted to do a Kim Jong-un, he can't. He has no organized political party and, heading for his 80th birthday, is unable to attract young Shiites who are thinking of their future.

Karam Majdi, a 19-year-old failed asylum seeker believed to be from Egypt, was sentenced to seven years in prison for raping a 14-year-old girl he met online. Majdi claimed to be an unaccompanied minor from Syria when he arrived in the UK in 2016.

During the 2018 Quds Day rally in London, Sheikh Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour of the Islamic Centre of England sent a message "to the Jewish people of Palestine": "You can be sure that the resistance will come, free Palestine, and wipe Israel off the map."

A protection order was issued in Sheffield for three sisters, aged one, four and six, deemed at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM).