"We Are Going to Burn You Alive!"
Muslim Persecution of Christians, June 2017

by Raymond Ibrahim • November 5, 2017 at 5:00 am

"They defend freedom of worship in the West in order to ban it in their homeland. They fight to build mosques in someone else's homeland whilst destroying churches and synagogues where they have power." — Kamel Abderrahmani, Arab journalist, Algeria.
"ISIS publicly caged and burned alive 19 Yazidi girls for refusing to have sex with ISIS fighters, according to local activists. Yazidi leaders last year showed Fox News photographs of the Islamic jihadists burning babies to death on a slab of sheet metal, photos that show tiny, roasted bodies side by side as flames engulfed them." — ISIS in Iraq, Fox News, June 14.
The Erdogan government seized at least 50 Syriac churches, monasteries, and Christian cemeteries, many of which were still active, in Mardin province, and declared them "state property." — Turkey.
A presidential order replaced Christian education with Islamic Studies in secondary schools. While the subject, "Christian Religious Knowledge," no longer exists, Islamic, Arab, and French studies have been introduced in the new curriculum.... The Christian Association of Nigeria further denounced this move "to force Islamic studies down the throats of non-adherents of the religion," as being an "agenda deliberately crafted towards Islamization." — Nigeria.

The Syriac Orthodox Mor Gabriel Monastery is one of at least 50 Syriac churches, monasteries, and Christian cemeteries in Mardin province, Turkey that were recently seized by the Turkish government and declared "state property." (Image source: Nevit Dilmen/Wikimedia Commons)

Jesuit Father Henri Boulad, an Islamic scholar of the Egyptian Greek Melkite rite, pulled no punches in an interview concerning the motives of Islamic terror and Western responses to it. "Islam is an open-ended declaration of war against non-Muslims" and those who carry out acts of violence and intolerance are only doing what their creed requires, said the priest. The interview continues:

Those who fail to recognize the real threat posed by Islam are naïve and ignorant of history, he said, and unfortunately many in the Church fall into this category.

Citing a letter he wrote last August to Pope Francis, Father Boulad said that "on the pretext of openness, tolerance and Christian charity — the Catholic Church has fallen into the trap of the liberal left ideology which is destroying the West."

"Anything that does not espouse this ideology is immediately stigmatized in the name of 'political correctness,'" he said.

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Time for an Assyrian Regional Government in Iraq

by Uzay Bulut • November 5, 2017 at 4:30 am

As can be seen in the region every day, it is not realistic to expect the Assyrians to be quiet and accept their "fate" under the tender mercies of Shiite or Sunni rule.
The future Assyrian regional government could be an independent state or autonomous region like the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq. Even if it is city-state like Vatican City, it would be monumental in stopping the annihilation of Assyrian people and could also serve as a safe haven for other persecuted minorities.
"Thank God that Jews, a historically persecuted people just like us, now have Israel... After centuries of persecution, is it not the time for Assyrians and other persecuted Christians to finally have their own government?" — Sabri Atman, founder of the Assyrian Genocide and Research Center.

A fighter from the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU) walks through a destroyed church on November 8, 2016 in Qaraqosh, Iraq. The NPU is a militia made up of Assyrian Christians that was formed in late 2014 to defend against ISIS. Qaraqosh is a mostly Assyrian city near of Mosul that was captured by ISIS in August 2014, and liberated in November 2016. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

When ISIS invaded Iraq and its Nineveh Plain in 2014, one of the most victimized peoples were Assyrians, a Christian community indigenous to the region.

After the defeat of ISIS, some of the displaced Assyrians from the Nineveh Plain finally returned to their homeland, but today, they are fleeing their homes as their towns once again become a battleground -- this time between Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

The Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldean people have inhabited the Middle East since the beginning of recorded history. We might now, however, be witnessing the disappearance of this community. The end of the Assyrians in Iraq means the eventual end of the Assyrians altogether.

The Threat of Iran

Christians are also increasingly facing threats from Shiite Iran as, after its gains against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, it attempts to expand its influence in the region.

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Iran and 'The Great Satan': A Four-Decade-Old Saga

by Amir Taheri • November 5, 2017 at 4:00 am

An Iranian woman paints an anti-American mural on a wall of the former US embassy in Tehran, on November 4, 2001, the anniversary of its seizure in 1979. (Photo by Keivan/Getty Images)

Right now, with marches and fiery speeches, the Islamic Republic in Iran is marking the 38th anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran and the holding of American diplomats as hostages for 444 days.

As the US Congress seeks new ways of tightening the screws on Iran, the Tehran leadership remains prisoner to old illusions. Most of those illusions are centered on the United States, which has frightened and fascinated the mullahs since they seized power almost 40 years ago.

The mullahs are frightened of the US because their view of history is shaped by their belief in conspiracy theories. They regard the US as a heavily-centralized diabolical machine controlled by a small coterie of conspirators, determined to rule the world. Internal political fights in the US are seen as part of a carefully scripted scenario to confuse the outside world.

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