The Ignored Pandemic: 360 Million Christians Persecuted Around the World

And the legacy media are nowhere to be found.

Fri Feb 18, 2022 

Raymond Ibrahim

Share to Facebook

http://Share to Twitterhttp://Share to MorShare to Print

Raymond Ibrahim 

The year 2021 “saw the worst persecution of Christians in history”—with an average of 16 Christians butchered for their faith every single day.

This is according to the World Watch List-2022 (WWL), which was recently published by the international humanitarian organization, Open Doors.  The report ranks the top 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted for their faith. Annually published and released at the beginning of each year, the WWL uses data from field workers and external experts to quantify and analyze persecution worldwide.

According to the WWL-2022 (covering from Oct. 1, 2020 – Sept. 30, 2021), “over 360 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith—a rise of 20 million from last year. The number represents one in seven Christians worldwide. This year records the highest levels of persecution since the first list was published 29 years ago...”

For this same reporting period, 5,898 Christians were murdered “for their faith,” a number representing a 24% increase from 2021 (when only 4,761 Christians were killed).  Additionally, “6,175 believers [were] detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned,” and 3,829 Christians were abducted.

Perhaps even more reflective of the hate for Christianity, 5,110 churches and other inanimate Christian buildings (schools, monasteries, etc.), were attacked and profaned.

Crunching these numbers into daily averages, the above statistics mean that every single day around the world, more than 16 Christians were murdered for their faith; 27 were either illegally arrested and imprisoned by non-Christian authorities, or abducted by non-Christian actors; and 14 churches were destroyed or desecrated.

For the first time since these WWL reports were published, Afghanistan, which for years was usually ranked the #2 worst nation (following North Korea) shot up to the #1 spot, meaning “Afghanistan is now the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian.”  Additionally, according to the report:

• Christian men are facing almost certain death if their faith is discovered.
• Women and girls may escape death but may be married to young Taliban fighters who want “spoils of war.” When women and girls are raped, they will be trafficked.
• The incoming Taliban government gained access to recordings and reports that helped to identify Christians who were often detained, in order to identify networks of Christians, before being killed.
• Taliban fighters are actively tracking down Christians from existing intelligence, even going door-to-door to find them.

Ten other nations, following Afghanistan, received the same “extreme persecution” designation, meaning they are only marginally safer for Christians.  They are: North Korea (#2), Somalia (#3), Libya (#4), Yemen (#5), Eritrea (#6), Nigeria (#7), Pakistan (#8), Iran (#9), India (#10), and Saudi Arabia (#11).  In these countries, Christians face persecution ranging from being harassed, beat, raped, imprisoned, or slaughtered merely for being identified as Christian or attending church.

Notably, the “extreme persecution” meted out to Christians in nine of these top 11 worst nations either comes from Islamic oppression or is occurring in Muslim majority nations.  That means 82% of the absolute worst persecution is taking place in the name of Islam.

This trend affects the entire list:  the persecution Christians experience in 39 of the 50 nations on the list is also either from Islamic oppression or is occurring in Muslim majority nations. The overwhelming majority of these nations are governed by some form of shari'a (Islamic law). It is either directly enforced by government or society or, more frequently, both, although societies—family members outraged by convert relatives in particular—tend to be more zealous in its application.

In a section titled, “Emboldened: The ‘Talibanization of West Africa and beyond,” the report suggests that this trend is only worsening:

[T]he fall of Kabul has fuelled [sic] a new mood of invulnerability among other jihadist groups worldwide. The groups believe that they won’t face serious opposition from the West for their expansionist agendas and are exploiting nations with weak or corrupt governments. …..Sub-Saharan Africa, already the place where violence against Christians is highest, has faced further steep rises in jihadist violence, with fears that a significant part of the region faces destabilization….

In another section, the report elaborates:

In Nigeria and Cameroon, Boko Haram continues to wreak havoc, the Islamic State group is active in West Africa and Mozambique, and al Shabab controls large portions of Somalia. It seems like nothing can be done to stop the advance of Islamic extremism.

We know what radical Islamic ideology looks like for believers because we’ve seen it in Iraq and Syria. When ISIS took over parts of the Middle East, Christians were executed, abducted, sexually assaulted and hunted. Where groups like Boko Haram and al Shabab are active, similar threats are inevitable. When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, they tried to appear moderate—but there’s no sign that Christianity will be anything other than a death sentence.

Although Islam continues to have the lions’ share of persecution, religious nationalism in non-Muslim nations is also causing them to rise in the ranks.   In Myanmar (#12),

Converts to Christianity … find themselves persecuted by their Buddhist, Muslim or tribal families and communities because they have left their former faith and have thereby removed themselves from community life. Communities who aim to stay ‘Buddhist only’ make life for Christian families impossible by not allowing them to use neighborhood water resources.

Rising Hindu nationalism has catapulted India into #10, among the “extreme persecuting” nations:

The persecution of Christians in India has intensified, as Hindu extremists aim to cleanse the country of their presence and influence. The extremists disregard Indian Christians and other religious minorities as true Indians, and think the country should be purified of non-Hindus. This has led to a systemic—and often violent—targeting of Christians and other religious minorities, including use of social media to spread disinformation and stir up hatred. The COVID-19 pandemic has offered a new weapon to persecutors. In some areas, Christians have been deliberately overlooked in the local distribution of government aid and have even been accused of spreading the virus.

Several other nations have, one way or another, exploited COVID-19 to discriminate against or persecute Christians.  For example, “COVID-19 gave Chinese authorities (#17) a reason to shut down many churches—and keep them shut.”

Similarly, in Qatar, “Violence against Christians rose sharply because many churches were forced to stay closed after COVID-19 restrictions.”  Moreover, Qatar—“host for this year’s World Cup, where converts from Islam especially face physical, psychological and (for women) sexual violence”—jumped 11 spots (now #18 from #29 last year).

In Bangladesh (#29), local authorities told Muslim converts to Christianity who, like their Muslim counterparts, sought governmental aid “to return to Islam or receive nothing.”  As one Bangladeshi explained, “We see many villagers and neighbors receive relief aid from government support but we Christians do not get any support.”

In the Central African Republic (#31), which was “hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic … Christians were denied government aid and told to convert to Islam if they wanted to eat.”

Another notable trend concerns the growing number of internally or externally displaced people—84 million: “a significant number [of whom] are Christians fleeing religious persecution.” Those Christians that end up as refugees in neighboring Muslim nations “can be denied humanitarian and other practical assistance by authorities.”  Additionally,

Christian women fleeing their homes and seeking safety report sexual assault to be the leading source of persecution, with multiple reports of women and children subjected to rape, sexual slavery, and more, both in camps and while they journey in search of safety. Poverty and insecurity compound their vulnerability, with some drawn into prostitution to survive. As jihadism spreads and destabilizes nations, we can expect this Christian exodus to multiply further.

Although the report is limited to the 50 worst persecuting nations, it appears that persecution in general is growing over all around the world.  For example, although North Korea is now ranked #2, as a reflection of how bad matters have gotten over all, the report explains that “The persecution score for North Korea actually went up [compared to last year], even though its ranking went down.”

Similarly, hate crimes against Christianity in Western Europe are at an all-time high.  According to a Nov. 16, 2021 report  by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, at least a quarter, though arguably much more, of all hate crimes registered in Europe in 2020 were anti-Christian—representing a 70% increase in comparison to 2019.  Christianity is, furthermore, the religion most targeted in hate crimes, with Judaism at a close second.

Although media outlets rarely identify those behind these anti-Christian hate crimes, many of which revolve around church vandalism, it is telling that the European nations suffering the most also happen to have Europe’s largest Muslim populations—namely, Germany (where anti-Christian hate crimes have more than doubled since 2019) and France (where two churches are reportedly attacked every single day, some, as in the Muslim world, with human feces).

Even so, and as a reflection of how bad matters have gotten elsewhere around the globe, no Western European nation made the top 50 list.

In the end, perhaps the most disturbing trend is that the number of persecuted Christians continues to grow annually. As seen, according to the newest statistics, 360 million Christians around the world are experiencing “high levels of persecution and discrimination.”  This represents a 6% increase from 2021, when 340 million Christians experienced the same level of persecution; and that number represented a 31 % increase from 2020, when 260 million Christians experienced the same level of persecution; and that number represented a 6% increase from 2019, when 245 million experienced the same level of persecution; and that number represented a 14% increase from 2018, when 215 million was the number.

In short, the persecution of Christians, which was already horrific, has increased by nearly 70% over the last five years, with no signs of abating.

How long before this seemingly irreversible trend metastasizes into those nations currently celebrated for their religious freedom?

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/ignored-pandemic-360-million-christians-persecuted-raymond-ibrahim/

Evidence: ISIS Behind the Texas Synagogue Hostage Crisis

The terrorist group had called for an identical scenario, and for the same reason—to free “our sisters.”

Mon Feb 14, 2022

 hare to Pri

Another piece of evidence has emerged to indicate that the Muslim man who recently stormed and held a Texas-based synagogue hostage was not just acting in accordance with jihadist ideology, but following an ISIS directive.

On Jan. 15, 2022, Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British Pakistani armed with a gun, took four people hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, during Sabbath service.  Akram repeatedly demanded the release of his “sister” (in Islam), Aafia Siddiqui, aka “Lady al-Qaeda,” another Pakistani national imprisoned for attempted murder and other terrorist-related activities. In the end, only Akram died in the standoff with police; all four hostages survived.

Instantly, however, and as almost always happens, the initial explanation—because we must never “jump to conclusions,” must never call it a duck, even if it looks, swims, and quacks like a duck—revolved around anything but the obvious.  Thus, whether the FBI initially declared that “we’re continuing to work to find motive,” or whether Akram was presented as suffering from “mental health issues,” few in officialdom wanted to confirm that this was a jihadist operation directed against Jews, who are seen by not a few Muslims as one of Islam’s archenemies.

Since then, some evidence has emerged indicating that Akram did indeed hate the “f*cking Jews” and sought to kill them.  

Missed, however, is the fact that, a few weeks before Akram stormed the synagogue, the Islamic State (ISIS) issued a directive calling on Muslims to do exactly what Akram did—and for the very same reason he cited.

On Dec. 20, 2021, the ISIS-operated Rocket.Chat communication platform did what it and other jihadist forums always do in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas: it sought to rile and incite Muslims to launch “lone wolf” attacks during the festive season, including by posting a drawing of a veiled jihadist brandishing a bloody knife in one hand while holding the severed head of Santa Claus in the other, with the following message:

With the advent of the so-called polytheistic celebrations that the unbelievers are experiencing these days, we send a message to our monotheist brothers in Europe, America, Australia, Canada, Russia, and other countries of unbelief and apostasy….  Attack the citizens of crusader coalition countries with your knives, run them over in the streets, detonate bombs on them, and spray them with bullets.

We have, of course, over the years seen numerous such lone wolf attacks, especially those consisting of Muslims randomly driving vehicles into people (Nice, France, 2016, with 86 people killed being only the most notorious) or going on stabbing sprees (London Bridge, with two killed, being only one of the most notorious).

But the aforementioned Rocket.Chat communiques which appeared in December, 2021, had another message:

Imagine with me, brothers, if Muslim refugees in Crusader Europe took hostages while the pigs [Christians] celebrate their polytheistic holidays and forced the European crusaders to order their angry dogs to release our sisters from the Al-Hawl and Ain Issa camps or else they would cut off the pigs’ heads.

This suggested scenario almost perfectly conforms to both the stated motive and actions of Malik Faisal Akram, who, before holding a synagogue in Texas hostage, was investigated in Britain for his known “radical” links—links that almost certainly suggest he visited, and was influenced by, jihadist sites such as Rocket.Chat.

Akram did, however, make one minor alteration: he took hostage, not the “pigs” (one of Islam’s epithet for Christians) but rather their partners in the infamous “Crusader-Zionist” alliance, the “apes” (one of Islam’s epithet for Jews).  He did so, not while Christians “celebrate their polytheistic holidays,” but rather while Jews, whom Islam also accuses of polytheism, worshipped on their holy day, the Sabbath.  And he did it all in accordance with ISIS’s directive “to release our sisters,” with Lady al-Qaeda—whom Akram repeatedly referred to as a “sister”—being the posterchild of female Muslim terrorist prisoners.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

to Twitter

Share to More

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/evidence-isis-behind-texas-synagogue-hostage-raymond-ibrahim/

 

In the Netherlands, it’s 'Civilized' to Empower Terrorists

How a jihadist entered the inner ranks of the Dutch ruling party.

Tue Feb 1, 2022 

Bruce Bawer

 

Her name is Soumaya Sahla. Born in The Hague in 1983 to Moroccan immigrants (her father was the founder of a mosque in that city), she joined a jihadist terror organization, the Hofstad group, at a young age, and along with another member of the group, Noureddine el Fahtni, to whom she’d been married in an Islamic ceremony, acquired an Agram 2000 submachine gun, which they were reportedly planning to use, at the direction of the leaders of the Hofstad group, to kill various politicians. Among their intended victims were Geert Wilders, then a relatively new member of the Dutch lower house, the Tweede Kamer, who’d made a name for himself as a critic of the Islamization of the Netherlands, and the Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who’d rejected her Muslim faith after 9/11 and been elected to the Tweede Kamer in 2002.

The year was 2005. The previous few years had been a busy time for assassination and assassination plots. On May 6, 2002, nine days before a general election from which he was expected to emerge as prime minister of the Netherlands, Pim Fortuyn had been murdered by an activist named Volkert van der Graaf who was appalled by his criticisms of Islam. In the summer of 2004, Sahla’s husband, Fahtni, had been arrested in Portugal on suspicion of planning to kill that country’s then prime minister, José Manuel Durão Barroso, but there had not been sufficient evidence to hold him. A few months later, on the morning of November 2, 2004, a fellow member of the Hofstad group, Mohammed Bouyeri, had slaughtered the celebrated writer and filmmaker Theo van Gogh - perhaps the Netherlands’ most prominent critic of Islam - on a busy street in Amsterdam.

Sahla and Fahtni’s plans, however, did not prove as successful as Bouyeri’s. On June 22, 2005, they were both arrested by Amsterdam police.

Fahtni ended up serving six months. Sahla spent nine years in and out of court. First, she was convicted by a Rotterdam court of illegally possessing weapons and of membership in a terrorist organization with the intent to commit murder. Later, the Court of Appeal in The Hague found her guilty, in addition, of planning to murder Wilders and others. In 2011, however, the Supreme Court annulled that ruling and transferred the case to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, which in 2014 found Sahla guilty of membership in a terrorist organization and possession of firearms but not of intention to kill anybody. Although sentenced to three years, she didn’t have to spend any time in prison because of the time she’d already served in detention.

During that long trial period, Sahla had studied political science, African Studies, and Islamic theology. She’d also, curiously enough, become the protegée of Frits Bolkestein, a legendary figure in the center-right VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy). As the newspaper Het Parool put it the other day, Bolkestein “led her into the party” in 2011 - that is, while her case was still under adjudication - “unseen and without causing a fuss.” It’s been established that Bolkestein knew about her history. So did other VVD leaders. Not one of them, apparently, considered it a reason not to give her a responsible party position. Sahla began her career in the VVD as head of its deradicalization and terror group; as of the beginning of this year, she’d risen in the party ranks to become - simultaneously - head of the VVD’s security and justice division, chair of a party advisory committee on deradicalization and terror, and “right-hand” woman to Bolkestein.

It’s worth noting that the current head of the VVD, Mark Rutte, is also prime minister of the Netherlands, a position he has held since 2010.

Not until January 18 of this year did Sahla’s past become a problem. On that day, during a discussion in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, Wilders, who since 2006 has been head of the PVV (Freedom Party) and who since 2004 has had to live with round-the-clock security owing to jihadist death threats, raised the subject of Sahla, saying that someone who’d been issued a gun with which to kill him and Ayaan Hirsi Ali had no business in a  leading position in the country’s ruling party. Wilders also mentioned Sahla’s sister Fonda, who, as it happens, is a politician for the centrist D66 and a colleague of Wilders’s in the Tweede Kamer, where she routinely wears a hijab.

Did representatives from other parties join Wilders in expressing outrage over the VVD’s employment of a woman who’d actively sought his death? No. They protested his bad manners. Rutte, obviously a man of exquisite sensitivity, said Wilders’s behavior had been uncivilized.

Still, the VVD knew this didn’t look good for them. On January 23, Claudia Kammer wrote in NRC Handelsblad that in the wake of Wilders’s criticism, VVD felt “ongemak” - discomfort - about her role in the party. (Not profound shame or self-disgust or a sense of mortification - discomfort.) On January 25, VVD was described as “embarrassed.” Part of the problem for the VVD was that Sahla had never really disavowed her terrorist history. On the contrary, in a 2019 interview with the newsmagazine Elsevier she’d called the long years of legal actions against her a “show trial.” It’s also relevant to note that in the last few years, when not seeing to her VVD duties, Sahla has been engaged in Ph.D. research, her objective being to determine whether “liberal Western thinking” is preferable to the “orthodox world view” of Islam. In other words, Sahla still doesn’t seem to have figured out whether she’s put the ideology of jihad behind her.

Well, she’ll have more time hereafter to ponder that question. On January 26, after a few days of intense intraparty debates, Sahla quit her position at the VVD - but not her party membership - and, for the first time, explicitly professed to regret her terrorist background. In an op-ed for NRC Handelsblad, Gerard Spong, a lawyer in Amsterdam, lamented her resignation, saying that Wilders had “overdramatized” the situation and criticizing both Wilders and VVD leaders for failing to recognize that “in a constitutional state, a convict who has served his/her sentence and who has been rehabilitated cannot be punished twice for a wrong step in the past.” Spong compared Sahla to Nelson Mandela: “He was also convicted of participating in a terrorist organization (the ANC). After 27 years in prison, he was released and for many years held South Africa's highest office.”

NRC Handelsblad cartoonist Siegfried Woldhek, too, considered Sahla a victim of injustice. Naming her his “woman of the week,” he complained that “three years in prison and a public expression of regret were apparently insufficient for the VVD to want to keep her on.” In an angry op-ed, Andreas Kinneging, a professor of legal philosophy and Sahla’s Ph.D. supervisor, described her as the victim of “a witch hunt” of a kind that is unworthy of “a civilized country.” The editors of the daily newspaper Trouw stood up for her, too, insisting that in a country like the Netherlands people like Sahla deserved to get “a second chance.”

This coming May 6 will be the twentieth anniversary of the assassination of Pim Fortuyn, who promised to save the Netherlands from a process of Islamization that he viewed, quite rightly, as an existential threat to the individual liberty of which the Netherlands had been a beacon for centuries. Three years after Fortuyn’s death came the butchering of Theo van Gogh. Not long afterward, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose criticism of Islam was seen as particularly potent since she herself had been raised in the religion - was driven out of parliament and obliged to emigrate to the U.S. Since then, the struggle to preserve Dutch liberty in the face of the increasingly powerful Islamic enemy within has been led by Wilders, abetted, since 2017, by Thierry Baudet of the FvD (Forum for Democracy). But the progress made by Fortuyn two decades ago, and instantly lost by his murder, has never been recovered.

On the contrary, this beautiful little country which, two decades ago, seemed to be on the verge of a remarkable rescue from a nightmarish fate, has become steadily more Islamized - which has meant, among much else, violent crime (especially against Jews, gays, and women). It’s meant increased self-censorship and cultural appeasement. And it’s meant that Dutch citizens who have the same understanding of Islam that Fortuyn did twenty years ago are even more reviled by their nation’s elites than he was, and - as evinced by Wilders’s multiple prosecutions for hate speech - are subject to judicial punishment for voicing objective truths about the Religion of Peace.

Meanwhile, a former terrorist like Sahla has been able to walk the corridors of power for over a decade - and even now is, almost certainly, viewed by most Dutch journalists, academics, and politicians as the virtuous victim of this recent episode, while Geert Wilders, the man she planned to kill, is the villain of the piece. Given the current atmosphere in the Netherlands, it seems safe to say a couple of things: first, that Wilders hasn’t seen his last “hate speech” trial; and second, that Sahla will soon enough find an even better job than the one she had with VVD. Because in a “civilized” country like the Netherlands, you see, involvement in Islamic terrorism is the act of a misguided soul who’s eminently deserving of forgiveness and rehabilitation (including employment on the highest level), whereas criticism of Islam is the act of an unrepentant boor whom enlightened citizens should do everything possible to marginalize, silence, and crush.  

Bruce Bawer is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/netherlands-its-civilized-empower-terrorists-bruce-bawer/

 

Did the Texas Synagogue Jihadi Act Alone?

A sobering look at the Pakistani connection.

Thu Jan 20, 2022 

Clare Lopez

 

Share to Facebookhttp://Share to TwitterShare to More
Share to Print

In the wake of the turbulence surrounding the 15 January 2022 Texas synagogue attack, it may be useful to take a step backward to review those events from a broader strategic perspective. John Guandolo at Understanding the Threat  has done an excellent job explaining how this attack fits into the overall Islamic Movement jihad campaign against Western Civilization and the United States Constitutional Republic and the Jewish people in particular. Here, though, let us focus on the particular involvement of two international aspects: the Tablighi Jama’at Islamic revivalist/missionary organization and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

First, the event itself: from what we know as of this writing, a Pakistani jihadi with British citizenship named Malik Faisal Akram entered the Reform Jewish Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, TX (a Dallas-Ft. Worth suburb) around 10:40 the morning of 15 January 2022 during Shabbat services. The shul’s prayer and services schedule is helpfully posted online at its monthly calendar page. Services were being livestreamed for the benefit of congregation members praying from home, so much of the event and subsequent 10-hour stand-off with law enforcement was captured on audio, although apparently not on video.

Akram initially approached the closed front doors of the synagogue and was let in by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, affectionately known by his congregation as ‘Rabbi Charlie”. At first Rabbi Charlie didn’t suspect anything untoward, but interrupting Shabbat services, decided to make tea for Akram. In a 17 Jan 2022 interview with CBS News, Rabbi Charlie recounted the moment when things turned terrifying. Reportedly, Akram pulled a gun and made claims about bombs. According to a portion of the synagogue livestream broadcast obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Akram is heard saying, "I've got these prisoners" and "I am going to die." While his key spoken demand was the release from U.S. federal prison of the Pakistani jihadi known as “Lady Al-Qa’eda” – true name, Aafia Siddiqui – that was but a pretext for a broader objective. Akram claimed that he and Siddiqui would be “going to Jannah (Muslim belief of heaven) after he sees her,” according to a statement from the FBI on Saturday night.

What neither Rabbi Charlie, his congregation members, nor apparently Local Law Enforcement Officers (LLEOs) and the FBI have understood was that, with these statements, Akram was reciting his belief in core Islamic doctrine. As Robert Spencer wrote in PJ Media, antisemitism is deeply rooted in the Qur’an itself, where it is written that “Jews are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); they disobey Allah and never observe his commands (5:13), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29), among many other slanders.” Further, as Spencer writes, the abduction of infidels as hostages is also sanctioned in the Qur’an (Sura 47, Verse 4), where it is stipulated that Muslims may choose to kill hostages, enslave them, ransom them, or “show favor” and release them. Similarly applicable is Sura 9, Verse 111, which offers the promise of paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah, in the act of jihad, thus becoming a shahid.

While it is a tremendous relief to know that Rabbi Charlie and all the other hostages got out of the situation alive and unharmed, their unfamiliarity with these Qur’anic passages may well have contributed to their unquestioning acceptance of interfaith dialogue associations that in retrospect may be seen as unwise. Indeed, as the synagogue’s Mission Statement declares, “we believe in interfaith inclusion” and “Tikkun Olam (Repair the World)”. Further, as the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue’s Facebook pages show, the Rabbi and his congregation had promoted interfaith events, including a 2 November 2019 and 6 November 2021 “Peace Together Walk”, with a photo of the walk beginning in front of the Colleyville Masjid, also known as the “Colleyville Association of Mid-Cities”. The Islamic Center of Southlake also was a participant. Unfortunately, each of these mosques has Muslim Brotherhood/jihadist connections, as documented by Understanding the Threat. Just one of those connections, for example, is the Imam Siraj Wahhaj, of the Brooklyn, NY Al-Taqwa Mosque, who was specifically named in a list of the unindicted co-conspirators at the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial.

Now, to the Tablighi-Jama’at and Pakistani connections. As we now know, Akram entered the U.S. through JFK Airport in late December 2021 with his British passport on the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)’s visa waiver program. He would have obtained that entry permit through the CBP’s online portal. Once waived through Customs at JFK, Akram was free to travel onward anywhere in the U.S. that he wished. It is unlikely that CBP is aware of what Tablighi Jama’at is or that Akram was affiliated with it. CBP should have, but possibly didn’t know either about Akram’s criminal record, as revealed by his brother. As Ilana Freedman documented in her excellent October 2016 monograph, “Gateway to Jihad: Tablighi Jama'at”, Tablighi Jama’at (TJ) is a global Islamic proselytizing organization with millions of followers in at least 80 countries. Although TJ is jihadist, it is not known to commit terrorism per se, but rather sends its missionaries to preach in mosques and Islamic Centers to strengthen the commitment of Muslim faithful to the essential doctrine and law (shariah) of Islam. Such dawah efforts, however, in many cases, serve as a conveyer belt or gateway to kinetic jihad, as was the case with Akram.

Akram himself, born in the United Kingdom (UK) of a family that hailed from the Jhelum district in the Pakistani Punjab, reportedly had traveled abroad on just such missions. According to reporting from the Hindustan Times, in the Blackburn, Lancashire area of England where Akram grew up, he “served as the head of the Rondell Street Islamic Centre in the London area, also known as Reza Masjid, where largely Muslims of Pakistani origin prayed. He also prayed at the Eldorado Masjid that was frequented by Gujarati Muslims in the region.” Two teenagers, possibly Akram’s sons, were arrested by UK Counterterrorism police in South Manchester on Sunday 16 Jan 22 and held for questioning.

As we can see, the connections to Pakistan are many. Nevertheless, it must be said that any possible connections to the Pakistani government or to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency are premature at this point. It is instructive, though, to recall the many Islamic terror attacks in which ISI has been involved. We may begin with the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India, in which, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) drawing on classified Indian government documents, the ISI was “heavily involved”. The following year, on 30 December 2009, according to declassified U.S. government documents, a Jordanian doctor reportedly recruited and dispatched by the ISI, detonated a suicide vest at the CIA’s Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, killing seven and injuring an additional six. Then, on 2 December 2015, U.S.-born Syed Rizwan Farook and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik carried out a deadly shooting attack at Farook’s office Christmas party in San Bernardino, CA.  The couple had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State online and expressed support openly for Islamic jihad. Malik had attended college and the Al-Huda International Welfare Foundation women’s Islamic seminary in the Punjab before marrying Farook through an online arranged wedding that took place in Saudi Arabia in 2014.

Once again, while direct ISI involvement in this attack has not been publicly documented, the area of the Punjab where Malik studied is known as a stronghold of Deobandi jihadist groups, such as Lashkar-e Jangvi and Lashkar-e Taiba, both closely affiliated with the ISI. Then, in June 2016, Omar Mateen, who identified himself as “an Islamic soldier” in talks with a crisis negotiator, opened fire inside the Orlando, FL Pulse nightclub, killing 49 people and leaving 53 wounded. Mateen, age 29, was a U.S. citizen, born in Queens, NYC to Afghan immigrant parents. At some point, Mateen had attended the Islamic Center of Ft. Pierce, whose imam, Syed Shafeeq Rahman, quickly after the shooting, named Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a local leader of the Hamas-related Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as the mosque’s new spokesman. Rahman, also a General Practitioner medical doctor, obtained his medical degree from the Ayub Medical College in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Finally, a brief mention must be made about the 2018 cybersecurity breach involving multiple Members of Congress. The Pakistani Awan brothers, who were given access to highly sensitive government information without a background check, were permitted to work remotely – from Pakistan – up to several months at a time, according to investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.

In summary, then, there are far too many Pakistani connections to jihadist attacks and operations, spanning many years, to ignore. Nevertheless, those connections would appear to be rarely noted and only perfunctorily investigated.  Certainly, in this most recent attack on the Texas synagogue, there must have been an extensive support network that conducted the pre-attack casing and surveillance, recruited and prepared Akram, and arranged for his travel to and within the U.S., his lodging, and provision of the funding and knowledge for how to purchase a gun on the street. Clearly, the Muslim Brotherhood/CAIR network in and around the Dallas-Ft. Worth area has been vocal in campaigns to get the Pakistan-born convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui released from prison. Siddiqui not only tried to kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan in 2008, leading to her conviction on terrorism charges in a 2010 Manhattan trial, but had been married to a nephew of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who remarked on her “obsession” with jihad. Educated at MIT, Siddiqui earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Brandeis University in 2001, before returning to southwest Asia in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. She is serving her sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, Ft. Worth, located some 24 miles from the Congregation Beth Israel. Note: This does not automatically mean that CAIR was involved in the synagogue attack, but rather that it shares Akram’s antisemitic animus and purpose in obtaining Siddiqui’s release from prison.

This analysis is offered in the interests of encouraging the situational awareness of faith communities, law enforcement, and national-level security agencies alike. Comments such as that made by FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno at a press conference following the end of the hostage crisis attest to the critical need for such education. Although roundly criticized later, that evening, DeSarno said that the “hostage taker was specifically focused on an issue not directly connected to the Jewish community” and added that there was “no immediate indication that the man had was part of any broader plan”.

The fact that UK police and counterterrorism officials are assisting their U.S. counterparts in the investigation does indicate that the overall investigation extends internationally. At the same time, comments such as made by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Sunday 16 Jan 22, who said that it was “too soon to tell” if the Texas synagogue hostage situation was part of a “broader extremist threat” and that they were looking into "what this person's motives were and whether or not there are any further connections” demonstrate just how far we yet have to go.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/01/texas-synagogue-jihadi-did-not-act-alone-clare-lopez/

 

Egyptian Scholar Sentenced to Five Years Imprisonment for Recounting Accurate History

Oh, and also, he was pro-Trump.

Wed Dec 22, 2021 

Raymond Ibrahim

 

According to a Nov. 19, 2021 report, “An Egyptian court sentenced an 80-year-old-intellectual earlier this week to five years in prison over his remarks on the early Islamic conquests.”  Ahmed Abdu‘ Maher, a high-profile lawyer, expert on Islam, and author of 14 books on Islamic history and jurisprudence, was found guilty of “contempt of Islam, stirring up sectarian strife and posing a threat to the national unity.”

One of Maher’s chief “crimes” is his view on the seventh and eighth century Arab conquests—a view based on a close and correct reading of both Muslim and non-Muslim sources: that Arabs conquerors invaded non-Muslim regions—specifically the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain—and engaged in atrocity after atrocity; that, while “spreading Islam” was the motive later Islamic historiography attributed to the Arabs, their true actions belied a lust for rape and rapine; and that they overthrew and supplanted much more advanced societies, to the region’s lasting regret.

Put differently, Maher’s views are identical with those presented in Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, particularly its first three chapters that revolve around the early Arab conquests.  As the Nov. 19 report continues,

Maher claimed in many of his speeches, writings, and TV appearances, that the early Islamic conquests were “military invasions”, and called on Egypt’s top Islamic institution—Al-Azhar—to apologise on behalf of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions who led the raids.  According to Maher, those “invasions aimed to enslave women rather than spread Islam” around the world.

Maher’s position naturally goes counter to the mainstream Islamic presentation of the early Arab conquests, which are referred to as futuhat—literally, “openings” for the light of Islam to enter (or fatah in the singular, as the Palestinian group tellingly calls itself).  In this context, every land ever invaded or seized by Muslims was done “altruistically” to bring Islam to wayward infidels, who are seen as the aggressors for unjustly resisting Islam.  Or, in the words of an article titled “The Wisdom of Jihad,” published by the popular website, Islam Question and Answer, jihad does not “only and simply mean to kill non-Muslims”; rather, “The kuffaar [non-Muslims] whom we fight will themselves benefit from jihad. We strive against them and fight them so that they will enter the religion of Allah which is acceptable to Him, which will lead to their salvation in this world and in the Hereafter.”

Maher made his position especially well-known back in early 2017, when the Muslim world was in an uproar after the announcement of President Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban” (as referred to by his woke enemies).  Then, Maher had posted a video on YouTube (since removed, naturally, though not before I had translated relevant excerpts, which follow):

Friends, in regards to … Donald Trump, we wanted to ask our brothers—the fuqaha [jurists of Islamic law] and the ulema [scholars of Islam]—a question: if this man … were to coerce, through the power of arms, the greater majority of Muslims living in America … to become Christians, or pay jizya, otherwise he takes over their homes, kills their men and enslaves their women and girls, and sells them on slave markets; if he were to do all this, would he be considered a racist and a terrorist or not?

Of course, I’m just hypothesizing, and know that the Bible and its religion do not promote such things, but let’s just assume: Would he be a racist or not?  Would he be a terrorist or not?  How then [when one considers] that we have in our Islamic jurisprudence, which you teach us, and tell us that all the imams have agreed on, that the Islamic openings [i.e., conquests] are the way to disseminate Islam?  This word “openings” [futuhat]—we must be sensitive to it!  The Islamic openings mean swords and killing.  The Islamic openings, through which homes, fortresses, and territories were devastated, these … [are part of] an Islam which you try to make us follow.

So I wonder O sheikh, O leader of this or that Islamic center in NY, would you like to see this done to your wife and daughter?  Would you—this or that sheikh—accept that this be done to your children?  That your daughter goes to this fighter [as a slave], your son to this fighter, a fifth [of booty] goes to the caliph and so forth?  I mean, isn’t this what you refer to as the Sharia of Allah? …  So let’s think about things in an effort to discern what’s right and what’s wrong.

In short, Maher asked the clerics of Islam what, precisely, they were complaining about.  All that Trump had done is ban immigration from Muslim nations closely associated with terrorism.  What if he actually treated Muslims in America the way Muslims have always treated non-Muslims under their authority—the way Islamic law, sharia, demands—that is, in a manner far worse than simply banning immigration from terrorist countries in the interest of national security?

For having such views and asking such questions, Maher has just been sentenced to five years imprisonment—the maximum penalty—in accordance with Article 98 F of the Egyptian penal code, better known as the “anti-blasphemy law,” which states that:

Detention for a period of not less than six months and not exceeding five years, or paying a fine of not less than five hundred pounds and not exceeding one thousand pounds shall be the penalty inflicted on whoever exploits and uses the religion in advocating and propagating by talk or in writing, or by any other method, extremist thoughts with the aim of instigating sedition and division or disdaining and contempting any of the heavenly religions or the sects belonging thereto, or prejudicing national unity or social peace.

Nor is Maher’s case an aberration; as the Nov. 19 report says, “Several other intellectuals, writers, and public figures have stood trial or received verdicts over the past few decades for their views under the infamous anti-blasphemy law.”

On Nov. 29, Maher appeared on BBC Arabic.  He refused to offer an apology, insisted that all he had done is relay accurate history and ask commonsensical questions, and urged Egyptian President al-Sisi—now his only hope, as Maher’s recent five-year-imprisonment sentencing is final and cannot be appealed before a higher court—to consider pardoning him.

As obscene as Maher’s experiences are, it’s worth noting that something similar is happening in the West, though in reverse: whereas Muslim nations insist on portraying their brutal and savage heroes of the past as noble and pious, Western nations insist on portraying their noble and pious heroes of the past as brutal and savage (in a word, “racist”).  As Western governments become more third-world dictatorial—and as their woke-war on history becomes more fanatical—look to see elements of Maher’s fate surfacing in the West.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/egyptian-scholar-sentenced-five-years-imprisonment-raymond-ibrahim/