Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti accused a Nashville public school of &#8220;promoting particular religious viewpoints&#8221; through its accommodation of Muslim students during Ramadan, saying the school crossed the line from allowing religious exercise to actively facilitating it.
In a Tuesday <a href="https://tennesseestar.com/justice/tennessee-ag-skrmetti-weighs-legal-implications-of-muslim-prayer-accommodations-in-nashville-public-school/khousler/2026/04/15/">interview</a> with the Tennessee Star, Skrmetti responded to reports that a Metro Nashville Public Schools employee set up a dedicated Islamic prayer room at John Overton High School and encouraged Muslim students to skip class to use it.
“Free exercise says the government can’t stop you from practicing your religion,” Skrmetti explained. “The establishment clause, as interpreted, and as we hear about every time the legislature tries to do anything these days, says that the state can’t … participate in promoting particular religious viewpoints.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨BREAKING &#8211; I asked <a href="https://twitter.com/AGTennessee?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AGTennessee</a> Skrmetti today if the MNPS decision to allow Muslim prayers during school hours in a dedicated room led by an MNPS employee at Overton High School coerces non-Muslim students and violates the Religious Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. <a href="https://t.co/LhaaXAwEgL">pic.twitter.com/LhaaXAwEgL</a>
— Michael Patrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelpleahy/status/2044187616606859387?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
John Overton High School, according to a <a href="https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/04/07/ramadan-muslim-students-overton-high-school/">report</a> from the Nashville Banner, permitted more than 80 students to skip class daily during Ramadan prayer sessions, in addition to separate “food-free” classrooms for fasting Muslim students. Student reportedly used paper towels as improvised prayer mats and set up a divider separating boys and girls before one student recited passages from the Quran. Outside of the month of Ramadan, students are reportedly permitted to leave school grounds once a month to pray.
“So if the school is dedicating resources to something, that’s a very different situation than if the students are self-organizing,” Skrmetti added. “I look at it as an attempt to propagandize and proselytize [non-Muslim] students. That’s my view.”
In a similar vein, the U.S. Department of Education guidance released in February <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-issues-guidance-prayer-and-religious-expression-public-schools">states</a> that “public schools may not sponsor prayer nor coerce or pressure students to pray.”
“School officials should allow members of the public school community to act and speak according to their faith, as long as&#8230; The school itself does not engage in religious activities or speech as an institution,” the guidance continues.
The Tennessee attorney general teased further state action on the issue, concluding: “I expect that we’ll be hearing more about it one way or another.”
The controversy comes as Tennessee lawmakers grapple with the role of religion in public schools more broadly. State House Bill 1491, which would have required public schools to set aside a period for prayer and Bible reading, was temporarily <a href="https://www.tnfirefly.com/news/protecting-religious-liberty-and-expression-in-public-schools-act-tabled-for-summer-study?ref=pamphleteer.co">tabled</a> in a 12-7 committee vote last week in favor of further research on the issue over the summer.
Proponents of the bill argue that the bill aligns with the Supreme Court&#8217;s Kennedy v. Bremerton decision in 2022, which held that the First Amendment protects individuals engaging in religious activities from government reprisal.

Cultural Center In Chicago Aids Rohingya Refugees Resettling In The U.S.

Prayer Mats. Gender Dividers. Quran Readings. Classroom Changes During Ramadan Paid For By Taxpayers

Islam

Public Schools

Religious Freedom

Tennessee

The Texas State Board of Education faces pressure from leftist activists and conservative lawmakers as it meets Friday to consider a push to place more positive references to Islam in the state’s history curriculum. 
Officials in the Lone Star State are reviewing social studies standards amid a push from Muslim advocacy groups, which claim current proposals are “exclusionary and Islamophobic.” At the same time, congressional Republicans are urging the board not to give Islam a more prominent role, particularly in response to lobbying from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group that has been designated as a terrorist organization by Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott. 
“It has come to our attention that an extensive lobbying effort is underway to have the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) alter curriculum standards in a way that would diminish American and Texas history,” Rep. Brandon Gill and other Texas Republicans wrote in a Friday <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/1024602690/Rep-Gill-Letter-to-Texas-SBOE?_gl=1*1gq3kdd*_up*MQ..*_ga*NjgyMzMyMjg3LjE3NzU4MzYzNTA.*_ga_Z4ZC50DED6*czE3NzU4MzYzNDkkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzU4MzYzNTMkajU2JGwwJGgw*_ga_8KZ8BV0P5W*czE3NzU4MzYzNDkkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzU4MzYzNTMkajU2JGwwJGgw">letter</a> first obtained by The Daily Wire. The letter went on to describe CAIR as a &#8220;transnational criminal organization.”
CAIR has denied any connection to terrorism and has sued the state over the designation. Members of CAIR-Texas have <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/texas-education-officials-pushed-delay-175944847.html?guccounter=1">attended</a> recent board meetings to voice their opposition to how Muslims are currently represented in state curriculum. 
Republicans also pushed back on claims they say are being introduced into the standards.
“The petitioners’ efforts claim that Islam influenced our founding, culture, and way of life,&#8221; the letter states. &#8220;For instance, the (board) recently responded to public testimony asserting that the Alamo is an Islamic building.” 
&#8220;Such claims are intended to introduce sensationalized or false history into our curriculum, and it is not the (board&#8217;s) responsibility to accommodate flagrant lies or cultivate spurious claims of their belonging.”
The fight over the standards has been raging for weeks, with local Muslim groups organizing in support of changes. In March, an Islamic center in Houston <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DWRUs5Bjk-U/">hosted</a> a discussion on “challenging Islamophobia in Texas schools.” 
Gill said that Islam played no major role in the founding or development of Texas and warned against what he described as &#8220;revisionist history.&#8221;
“Students should be taught age-appropriate facts and hard-truths, even when it is uncomfortable. Islam did not play a role in the founding or development of Texas, and to say so would be an outright lie,” he wrote.
The other lawmakers who signed onto the letter include Reps. Chip Roy, Wesley Hunt, Michael Cloud, Nathaniel Moran, Ronny Jackson, Lance Gooden, Brian Babin, Keith Self, and Pat Fallon.

MixCollage-10-Apr-2026-09-46-AM-265

One Of America’s Most Iconic Symbols — Now ‘Islamic’? The New History Fight

Brandon Gill

CAIR

History

Texas

The Trump administration arrested the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday, describing the man as a Jordanian terrorist.
Salah Sarsour, who has lived in the United States for over 30 years, was convicted in Israel as a teenager after throwing molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli soldiers. He has also been <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/21/womens-march-organizer-recently-met-ex-hamas-operative-has-family-ties-to-terror-group/">accused</a> of helping raise money for Hamas in the 1990s. Sarsour was issued a green card under former President Bill Clinton after lying on his immigration application, Homeland Security said.
Sarsour has been the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee for the past five years. The society is the largest Islamic group in Wisconsin, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/us/ice-milwaukee-muslim-leader-arrest.html">reported</a>. He is also a board member of the American Muslims for Palestine, a group that has faced <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-files-legal-brief-against-american-muslims-palestine-and-other-radical">scrutiny</a> over alleged links to Hamas and its support for intifada in the wake of Hamas&#8217; October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
&#8220;This terrorist will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,&#8221; DHS said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Today, <a href="https://twitter.com/ICEgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ICEgov</a> arrested a Jordanian national with a prior conviction for THROWING A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL at the homes of Israeli Forces.
He lied on his immigration application and became a green card holder under President Clinton.
This terrorist will remain in ICE custody pending… <a href="https://t.co/L38liuCxVy">https://t.co/L38liuCxVy</a> <a href="https://t.co/9IXWuo0t0f">pic.twitter.com/9IXWuo0t0f</a>
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) <a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/2039845268091265330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Trump administration posted the description and photo of Sarsour on social media in response to Wisconsin Democratic Governor Tony Evers criticizing the administration over Sarsour&#8217;s arrest.
&#8220;Targeting people because of their beliefs or background is wrong,&#8221; Evers said. &#8220;This is clearly about sowing division and fear and doesn&#8217;t help make Wisconsin safer. I’m thinking of Mr. Sarsour&#8217;s family in this difficult time, and I join [Rep. Gwen Moore] 
in calling for his immediate release.&#8221;
Sarsour&#8217;s attorney said the Milwaukee Muslim leader received deportation papers from the Trump administration, which said that the State Department determined Sarsour &#8220;poses an adverse consequence to foreign policy considerations.&#8221; The man&#8217;s attorneys argued that the Trump administration is only targeting Sarsour because of his anti-Israel views, adding that Sarsour has no criminal record in the United States.
Hundreds of Muslims gathered for a rally at the Islamic Society of Milwaukee&#8217;s Salam School gym following the arrest of Sarsour, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2026/04/02/islamic-society-of-milwaukee-president-salah-sarsour-detained-by-ice/89433525007/">reported</a>. Othman Atta, the executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee mosque told the crowd, &#8220;They want to criminalize advocacy for Palestine. That is the only reason that he is being targeted. There is nothing else.&#8221;
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to strip the legal status of immigrants found to be &#8220;Hamas supporters.&#8221; Last year, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-court-rules-against-mahmoud-khalils-release-from-ice-detention">arrested</a> pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who led anti-Israel and anti-America demonstrations at Columbia University after the October 7 attack. The Trump administration won a legal victory in January over its arrest of Khalil when a federal court ruled that he could be taken back into custody after a lower court ordered his release.

Standard Headline

ICE Arrests Islamic Leader Accused Of Aiding Hamas. He’s Lived In The U.S. For Decades.

Department of Homeland Security

Executive

Hamas

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Milwaukee

Trump Administration

U.S.

Wisconsin

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
In this piece, Manhattan Institute Vice President of External Affairs Jesse Arm warns Michigan voters not to trust a rising generation of radical lawmakers masquerading as traditional Democrats — most especially &#8220;far-left podcaster-physician Abdul El-Sayed.&#8221;
***
Michigan&#8217;s U.S. Senate race is viewed as one of the most consequential and contentious elections of the 2026 cycle. The three-way Democratic primary contest to replace retiring incumbent Gary Peters — between moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens, progressive state senator Mallory McMorrow, and far-left podcaster-physician Abdul El-Sayed — has emerged as a proxy war over the soul of the Democratic Party. As Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/01/michigan-senate-mcmorrow-stevens-el-sayed-00758408">noted</a> last month, the race is a &#8220;catch-all for every question and problem plaguing Democrats politically and tactically.&#8221; Democrats need to flip four Republican-held seats to win a Senate majority. Michigan is not optional.
But two weeks ago, the national spotlight on the Great Lakes state got a little brighter. Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon living in Dearborn Heights, collected arms and drove an explosive-laden truck into the preschool at Temple Israel in my hometown of <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/temple-israel-west-bloomfield-michigan-synagogue-shooting-attack">West Bloomfield</a> — the nation&#8217;s largest Reform synagogue in the heart of Michigan&#8217;s Jewish community. By some miracle, security guards engaged him and stopped the violent rampage before he could kill the nearly 140 children and their caretakers inside.
The attack was an act of Islamic terrorism, possibly carried out as revenge for a conflict between combatants on the other side of the globe. Ghazali’s brother was a commander in the Hezbollah terrorist organization, killed in a recent Israel Defense Forces airstrike. But Ghazali’s desire to sow terror could’ve also been incubated in Michigan. He lived next to “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/welcome-to-dearborn-americas-jihad-capital-pro-hamas-michigan-counterterrorism-a99dba38?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqeUTMNFjSRKEfwkYQ0IjPbfnp66S4OqNvk1IFXeBo3o5BCIKVDFzY0uvS1V54k=&amp;gaa_ts=69b39d4b&amp;gaa_sig=bX6tBUfC_GFHlVuLaQyJG3NhliIh5ORaMzQfDJqHkUzN9aDIqrza94PpOtdWtvInqzoQmCbcVWGKkEYS3tNfQw==">America’s jihad capital</a>,” a community where, in the days after October 7th, 2023, thousands marched through the streets celebrating Hamas&#8217;s slaughter of more than 1,200 innocent men, women, and children — including 46 Americans.
In the week following the West Bloomfield attack, one might expect a Michigan Senate candidate to take pains to lower the temperature. El-Sayed chose differently. Six days after the near-massacre at Temple Israel, he <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2034360293116067859">posted</a> a smiling photo of himself appealing to fans of Hasan Piker. Shortly thereafter, his campaign <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2036431020233293934">announced</a> joint appearances with Piker at rallies on the trail.
For those unfamiliar: Piker is a <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/the-handsome-face-of-terror-apologia">Twitch streamer</a> and self-described <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/democrats-are-too-cozy-with-hasan-piker-2ecee4cc?st=R2ZQfB&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">Marxist</a> with three million followers who has built his brand on antisemitism, terror apologia, misogyny, and anti-Americanism. He has called Jews &#8220;inbred&#8221; and declared that property owners who don&#8217;t rent out their homes should be <a href="https://x.com/Rightanglenews/status/1966264506486853810">killed</a> while letting &#8220;the streets soak in their red capitalist blood.&#8221; He has compared supporters of Israel&#8217;s existence to being a &#8220;rabid neo-Nazi&#8221; and <a href="https://freebeacon.com/media/from-defending-rape-to-excusing-9-11-10-statements-that-define-mainstream-media-darling-hasan-piker/">said</a> he doesn&#8217;t “have an issue with” the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. He has offered justifications for Hamas&#8217;s October 7th massacre and stated that &#8220;it doesn&#8217;t matter if rapes happened on October 7th.&#8221; He has claimed &#8220;America deserved 9/11,&#8221; praised the Chinese Communist Party, and gleefully shared Houthi terrorist recruitment videos with his audience.
El-Sayed is only a slightly more polished version of the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/michigan-senate-candidate-abdul-el-sayed-compared-an-oklahoma-ban-on-sharia-law-to-the-trail-of-tears/">same thing</a>. He has appeared at Islamist conferences alongside speakers who praised the October 7th attackers. He has raised money from an Arab-American PAC whose leader called for Israeli Jews to be sent &#8220;back to Poland.&#8221; And while speaking before a chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations — which has been designated a terrorist organization by both <a href="https://x.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1998156452377293228">Florida</a> and <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-designates-muslim-brotherhood-cair-as-foreign-terrorist-organizations">Texas</a> — he once compared an Oklahoma ballot measure restricting the application of Sharia law to the Trail of Tears.
<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://manhattan.institute/subscribe?utm_source=DailyWire&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=reihan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here for more Manhattan Institute content.</a></h3>
What makes much of this increasingly normalized radicalism especially maddening is how unrepresentative it all is, even of most Democratic voters. The median Michigander who tends to vote Democrat is not any sort of Hasan Piker acolyte. New Manhattan Institute <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/do-democrats-want-to-be-normal-survey-analysis-of-todays-democratic-coalition">polling</a> of nearly 2,600 Democratic voters found that most Democrats affirm Israel&#8217;s right to exist, that a plurality want their party to move toward the ideological center, and that an overwhelming majority believe political violence is never justified. The faction demanding maximalist anti-Western positioning as the price of progressive authenticity represents a small, loud, hyper-online minority.
So why does the radical left seem to continue gaining traction? As I’ve written previously in <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/democrats-party-voters-manhattan-institute-poll">City Journal</a>, the answer lies in examining who controls the actual machinery of Democratic politics. Over the past two decades, a network of progressive advocacy groups, ideological nonprofits, activist donors, and aligned unions has accumulated enormous influence over candidate recruitment, messaging, and policy prioritization. In election cycles without a presidential contest and thus lower voter turnout, that influence is magnified. Hit the right notes on all the crazy woke stuff, and the George Soros-types will make it worth your while. If not, it will go to your primary challenger. Many of these entities are deploying resources to achieve total ideological fealty to their extreme ideas, rather than to help Democrats win elections. After all, were ideological moderation to prove consistently successful at the ballot box, it would be economically threatening to the progressive groups&#8217; ecosystem itself.
Look at El-Sayed’s relationship with the Pod Save America network. Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Ben Rhodes — the former Obama aides turned podcast hosts — organized a <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/former-obama-speechwriters-to-fundraise-for-progressive-dem-senate-candidate-abdul-el-sayed/">fundraiser</a> for El-Sayed. Rhodes, notably, earned the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/05/huckleberry-capone-turd-blossom-white-house-nicknames-523723">nickname</a> &#8220;Hamas&#8221; during his White House years, bestowed by senior White House staffers for his relentlessly hostile stance toward Israel even then. That same crew has now attached itself to El-Sayed&#8217;s campaign as part of a broader attempt to nationalize the lesson they took from Zohran Mamdani&#8217;s mayoral victory in New York City: that the path forward for Democrats is to move left, not toward the center.
Mamdani won a Democratic primary in one of the bluest cities in America, under highly unique circumstances and against a uniquely unpalatable field. Attempting to run that same play in a dark purple Midwestern state and expecting the same result is what you do if you are chiefly focused on advancing a radical agenda and only secondarily on optimizing for victory. But all that won&#8217;t stop a large group of well-paid consultants coasting on Mamdani’s win from trying to sell that blueprint everywhere. And it won&#8217;t stop left-wing donors eager to believe it from buying it.
Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/michigan-us-senate-election-polls-2026.html">polling</a> is clear. Stevens held an early lead in the primary. While the race has tightened considerably, she has consistently posted the strongest numbers against expected Republican nominee Mike Rogers — a former longtime congressman and well-known Michigan political figure who has run statewide before — in every publicly available general election survey to date.
Republican voters tempted to root for El-Sayed’s nomination — or operatives considering meddling on his behalf, as Democrats <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-democratic-group-meddles-michigan-republican-congressional-primary">did</a> in Michigan&#8217;s 3rd Congressional District Republican primary in 2022 when the DCCC spent big bucks boosting election-denier John Gibbs against moderate GOP incumbent Peter Meijer — should think carefully. Democrats successfully flipped that seat after helping Gibbs win his primary. But primary meddling remains a highly risky and unreliable instrument, especially in an election cycle where the fundamentals do favor the Democrats. In this case, the downside risk is particularly severe: Abdul El-Sayed in the United States Senate.
We already have a pair of bigoted, America-hostile Islamic terror sympathizers in the House in Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. That is two too many. Patriotic Americans of all political persuasions should be unified in their desire to ensure that a third does not join them in the Senate — especially in the weeks following the resurgence of jihadist violence, not just in Michigan, but in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/12/shooting-old-dominion-university">Virginia</a>, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/suspect-in-texas-bar-shooting-wore-property-of-allah-clothing-and-iranian-flag-emblem-according-to-ap-source">Texas</a>, and <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-isis-supporters-charged-attempting-detonate-explosive-devices-during-protests-outside">New York</a> as well.
***
Jesse Arm is the vice president of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, where he oversees communications, government relations, and polling.

Abdul El-Sayed Campaigns for U.S. Senate Seat

Michigan Voters, Don’t Let Radicals Fool You Into Thinking They’re Normal

Democratic Party

Michigan

Senate

Eight years ago, 14-year-old Leah Sharibu was kidnapped from her school in northern Nigeria by Islamic militants and dragged into captivity. She remains in captivity to this day because she refuses to renounce her Christian faith. 
Last month, the anniversary of her kidnapping received little acknowledgement except from a number of persecution watchdog organizations. While many have forgotten her story, Sharibu’s absence is felt every day by her family, who have not heard from her since the day of the kidnapping in February 2018. 
Sharibu was kidnapped by the Islamic State-West Africa Province (ISWAP) alongside 104 other girls from the Government Girls Science and Technical School in Yobe State on February 19, 2018. While most of the other girls have since been released, Sharibu has not been let go because she refuses to convert to Islam.  
Ryan Brown, the CEO of persecution watchdog Open Doors, told The Daily Wire that Sharibu was the only Christian in the group of kidnapped girls and was singled out because of her faith. Open Doors keeps in regular contact with Sharibu’s family and helps them celebrate her birthday every year. 
“With so much going on in our world, it&#8217;s easy to forget these things. It&#8217;s easy to move on to the next headline,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But for those that had been personally touched by these things, they can&#8217;t move on.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1059647" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1059647" class="size-full wp-image-1059647" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1143782650.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Relatives of schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu abducted by Boko Haram Islamists hold cake to mark her 16th birthday and two years in captivity at the Unity Fountain in Abuja, on May 14, 2019. - Leah Sharibu was among over 100 schoolgirls abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in Dapchi, northeast Nigeria on February 19, 2018. But while schoolmates had been freed, she was held back for refusing to denounce her religion. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON / AFP)" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1143782650.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1143782650-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1143782650-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1143782650-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Sharibu&#8217;s family celebrates her birthday back in 2019. Credit: KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images.</div>
Some reports suggest that Sharibu has been forced into marriages with her captors and had children, but those are difficult to confirm. Another woman kidnapped by Islamic militants who later escaped in 2024 confirmed that she encountered Sharibu during her time in captivity. 
Sharibu&#8217;s family says that the Nigerian government has done little to get her released, Brown told The Daily Wire.
“There have been Nigerian officials that have communicated and attempted to see Leah released and have said that they will do that, but the family has not been able to see any visible evidence that there&#8217;s been anything other than promises that were made. And so that has been a source of confusion and pain,” he said. 
The Islamic State-West Africa Province broke off from the militant Islamic group Boko Haram in 2015 and has since displaced or killed thousands in and around Nigeria, <a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/terrorist_groups/isis_west_africa.html">according</a> to American intelligence. The group has between 4,000 and 7,000 members and carries out military-style bombings, kidnappings, and targeted killings. 
Sharibu’s continued captivity is a brutal reminder of the reality many Christians face in Nigeria despite the government’s assurances that it protects Christians from violent attacks. 
Brown praised the Trump administration for <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/naming-nigeria-country-particular-concern-important-step-advance">designating</a> Nigeria as a country of particular concern over Christian persecution in November 2025. Shortly after, on Christmas Day, President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-strikes-isis-targets-in-nigeria-on-christmas-day">ordered strikes</a> on ISIS targets in Nigeria, calling for the terrorists to stop “slaughtering of Christians.”
Brown said the problem of Christian persecution is real in Nigeria and that the government’s denial of the problem is inaccurate. He said there were examples of villages targeted by militants where all the churches were burned down, but the mosques were left standing. Even if there were arrests for violent acts, Brown said there were rarely prosecutions. 
“It&#8217;s difficult for any of us to know exactly what is going on there, but the end result is that whether it&#8217;s through omission or commission, there&#8217;s still a responsibility,” he said. “The Nigerian government needs to address those things, it needs to be able to respond to those types of situations.”
Facing increasing pressure from the Trump administration, Brown said that it looks like some of the militants behind killings of Christians over the summer might be prosecuted. 
“That is a huge step forward and one that we continue to advocate for and to ask the Nigerian government to not allow these individuals to act with impunity to make sure that there&#8217;s accountability for these acts of aggression,” he said. 
With growing pressure over its handling of Christian persecution, the Nigerian government has hired lobbyists to convince the American government that it is taking appropriate action to protect Christians. 
In December 2025, the DCI Group <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/1011620908/6278-Exhibit-AB-20251218-30">registered</a> with the Justice Department, notifying it that it was assisting the Nigerian government in “communicating its actions to protect Nigerian’s Christian communities and maintaining U.S support in countering West African jihadist groups and other destabilizing elements.”
Nigeria agreed to pay the consulting firm millions to resurrect its damaged image. So far, DCI has created pages called Secure Nigeria HQ across <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6278-Informational-Materials-20260311-8.pdf">X</a>, <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6278-Informational-Materials-20260311-7.pdf">Instagram</a>, and <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6278-Informational-Materials-20260311-3.pdf">Facebook</a>, according to filings with the Justice Department. The social media profiles have not yet been made public. 
<div id="attachment_1059627" style="width: 1563px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1059627" class="size-full wp-image-1059627" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-2.52.23-PM.png" alt="" width="1553" height="1063" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-2.52.23-PM.png 1553w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-2.52.23-PM-300x205.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-2.52.23-PM-842x576.png 842w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-2.52.23-PM-768x526.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-2.52.23-PM-1536x1051.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1553px) 100vw, 1553px" />Justice Department filing.</div>
Despite the efforts of the Nigerian government, the number of religious killings and kidnappings paints a more troubled picture. Of the 3,302 religiously motivated kidnappings that took place in 2025, 2,293 took place in Nigeria, Brown told The Daily Wire. 
Brown called for Americans to remember Sharibu’s parents in their prayers. 
“Knowing that there are others around the world that have not forgotten her daughter, that have not forgotten over this period of eight years, that her daughter has likely experienced a hell on earth, and to know that there are others who remember and that are continuing to lift [her] up in prayer, there is just such incredible encouragement.”

NIGERIA-UNREST-ISLAMISTS-KIDNAPPING

Eight Years After Islamic Terrorists Raided Her School, One Christian Girl Remains In Captivity

Boko Haram

Christian Persecution

Christianity

ISIS

Nigeria

In 2019, a journalist asked Iranian Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif why people are executed in Iran for being gay. His <a href="https://www.iranhr.net/media/files/Rapport_iran_2024-WEB.pdf">response</a>: “Our society has moral principles. And we live according to these principles … That means that the law is respected, and the law is obeyed.”
Under Islamic law, homosexuality is a crime punishable by imprisonment or execution for those who violate it. One could assume the conservative Islamic regime would produce similar consequences for transgenderism. But it is, in fact, legal and religiously permissible.
In the Western world, LGBT advancements are seen as a form of liberation. But in Iran, a complex dichotomy remains — where homosexuality can lead to death, yet transgenderism is given the green light. However, the practice is not celebrated so much as it is utilized as a cure for homosexuality. And in some cases, it is involuntary.
Transgenderism in Iran first surfaced in the 1980s. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, issued a fatwa — a religious decree — to legalize transgenderism, with the requirement that they are diagnosed with gender dysphoria and undergo surgery for sex changes. <a href="https://iranwire.com/en/women/124596-influential-iranian-women-maryam-khatoonpour-molkara-1950-2012/">Maryam Khatoon Molkara</a>, an Iranian transgender activist, is credited as the driving force of the movement. After years of writing letters and persisting with Khomeini, even visiting his home to plead his case, Molkara convinced the supreme leader to authorize transgender surgery in 1987.
Khomeini determined there was nothing in religious law that condemned transgenderism; rather, it could medically serve as a correction for the mental disorder.
A religious cleric, Hojatolislam Muhammad Mehdi Kariminia, famously <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7259057.stm">said</a> an operation is no more a sin than &#8220;changing wheat to flour to bread.&#8221;
He said, &#8220;Islam has a cure for people suffering from this problem. If they want to change their gender, the path is open.&#8221;
But Kariminia clarified his stance on homosexuality. &#8220;The discussion is fundamentally separate &#8230; Absolutely not related. Homosexuals are doing something unnatural and against religion,&#8221; Kariminia added.
However, ongoing reports suggest transgenderism in Iran may at times be exploited. Put plainly, some may be forced to transition.
A New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/world/middleeast/iran-transgender-surgery.html">article</a> published in October 2025 highlights the paradox: “For 40 years Iran has performed more gender transition surgeries than many other nations, largely a result of pressuring gay and gender-nonconforming citizens to undergo unwanted operations or risk the death penalty.”
The United Nations also expressed its concerns in a 2023 <a href="https://docs.un.org/en/CCPR/C/IRN/CO/4">report</a> that gay and lesbian Iranians are being &#8220;pressured into undergoing gender reassignment surgery without their free consent.”
An Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/a66b2167bb1744e6b12ba8ff1ef97c21">article</a> from 2018 stated that transgender surgery in Iran aims to cure the &#8220;disease,&#8221; and that those who &#8220;choose not to undergo surgery and get new documents can face arrest by police for dressing in a way that contradicts their government-recognized gender.”
As one of the few Muslim countries that offer these surgeries, Iran seems to be capitalizing on the endeavor: &#8220;Now, faced with an economy crippled by war and sanctions, the Islamic Republic is promoting its expertise to a global audience, hoping to attract transgender foreigners with the promise of inexpensive surgeries packaged with luxury hotel stays and sightseeing tours,&#8221; the Times noted.
According to the website of the medical company IranMedTour, compared to the cost of a transgender procedure in the United States (which can be $45,000), transgender surgery in Iran is much lower, with prices less than $12,000. &#8220;Other companies advertise procedures at government hospitals for as low as $4,500.”
The goal, according to the outlet citing Iranian media, is to raise over $7 billion annually in medical tourism.
What started as a plea for &#8220;transgender rights&#8221; from Molkara has turned into a compulsory crackdown on homosexuality and a vending machine bringing in cash from the rest of the world.

Trans_Gay_Fate_Iran

You Can Be Trans In Iran, But Being Gay Might Get You Killed

Global Politics

Iran

LGBTQ

Sharia Law

Transgender

transgender surgery

World

“You’re worried about Islamic terrorism? That is a false flag or an op.”
If you believe the people who tell you this, you are the sucker.
And if America ignores the very real problem of radical Islam, and you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you&#8217;ll end up dead. 
That is the message across America for the last couple of weeks, and it&#8217;s coming in loud and clear.
Yesterday alone, there were two Islamic terror attacks. The first happened at Old Dominion in Virginia, when ISIS-linked Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 26, stormed a classroom and demanded to know if it was an ROTC class. He then shouted — wait for it — “Allahu akbar!”
I know: you&#8217;re shocked.
He shot and killed the professor, Army Lt. Col. Brandon A. Shah, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Atlantic Resolve, before a group of heroic cadets jumped into action and stabbed Jalloh to death.
So who was the terrorist? According to the New York Post, he was a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone and a former Virginia National Guard member.
Were there any red flags? Just a few.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2387-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Fox News reports that Jalloh was forced to leave the military after he tried to provide material support to ISIS. He was a follower of Anwar al Awlaki, the now-dead leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The DOJ prosecution documents show Jalloh praised a July 2015 terror attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which a radical Islamist killed four Marines and a Navy sailor. He was actually arrested in 2016 after attempting to buy an assault rifle in Northern Virginia and then sentenced to 11 years in prison. Then he was released just 15 months ago for good behavior.
Good behavior.
So we released an actual, honest-to-God, ISIS-affiliated terrorist into the population for “good behavior.” Did he drop his terror support somehow? If so, what was the evidence that he had? Why did America owe him a free run of the country after he decided to side with an actual, honest-to-God terrorist group?
It should be noted that Jalloh received the victim treatment from leftists in the media. In 2016, The Intercept, a far-left publication, printed a sympathetic piece quoting his family, who said he was set up by the FBI. His brother told The Intercept that Jalloh was just another “Mohammad” who got set up.
The problem, you see, was really Islamophobia. Never radical Islam, just Islamophobia.
So was that attack at Old Dominion the only radical Islamic terror attack of the day? Of course not. Halfway across the country, at one of the biggest Reform Jewish synagogues in America, a radical Muslim suspect named Ayman Mohamed Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon who received a visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was naturalized under the Obama administration, tried to drive an explosive-laden car into the entrance of a preschool with 140 students in attendance. 
According to the New York Post, “He barreled down the hallway before security opened fire, killing the suspect.” That attack started a fire in the building. The driver was killed while he was in the car. Police found in the car a rifle and mortar shells.
The suspect allegedly came from Dearborn Heights, Michigan. The synagogue was located 20 miles north of Dearborn, an Islam-dominated city represented in Congress by radical Islamic terror apologist Rashida Tlaib.
How radicalized is Dearborn? In recent days, some Dearborn mosques have been praising Ayatollah Khamenei. In 2025, the city decided to honor terror-supporting activist Osama Siblani with a street sign. Siblani is a radical Muslim who openly speaks of his pride in terror leaders like deceased Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah, whom he called a great leader, saying he was “proud” of him. He also advocated for Hezbollah to make Israel “taste the Lebanon poison.”
When a resident of Dearborn showed up at a city council meeting to protest naming a street after this radical Islamist, the mayor of Dearborn told him to get out of the city and then called him — wait for it — wait for it — wait for it — an Islamophobe.
Unsurprisingly, there were some people in the media who found excuses for the terror attack at the synagogue. Over on GB News, one commentator explained that this was an “Israeli temple” and thus presumably deserving of its fate. The argument here seems to be that if you are a pro-Israel Jew in the United States, then it&#8217;s totally fine for a terrorist to drive a car laden with explosives into your synagogue.
Ryan Grim, formerly of The Intercept, reported that the terrorist had family members recently killed by Israel and its current action against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Even if that&#8217;s true, it makes for a rather strange defense of these terrorist actions. The mass murder of 1,200 Jews on October 7 in Israel has caused precisely zero Jews, zero, to drive an explosives-laden car into a mosque or near a Muslim school.
There&#8217;s just something about radical Islam that isn&#8217;t quite the same.
Of course, as we have been following, the two attacks yesterday were not the first attacks of the last few weeks. Last week, we reported on a radical Islamic terror attack in Austin, Texas, in which a 53-year-old Senegalese immigrant to the United States killed three people and wounded 13 more. He happened to be wearing a sweatshirt that read —wait for it, wait for it — “Property of Allah.”
I know, you&#8217;re shocked.
Over the last weekend, we saw two ISIS-affiliated radical Muslims throw IEDs at a rally outside Gracie Mansion, all of which led the mayor of New York to spend extraordinary efforts condemning — wait for it, wait for it, you&#8217;re not going to believe it — Islamophobia.
How does this radical ideology spread in America?
The answer is twofold. First, we import people who are sympathetic to terrorism, and then addle-pated Americans argue that they ought to be mainstreamed.
That&#8217;s how you end up with Zohran Mamdani — yes, he is a terrorist supporter — as mayor of New York. It&#8217;s how Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar end up in Congress.
What should we do about it? First, we can stop future immigration from radical Islamic countries and other third-world areas where we can&#8217;t vet our immigrants at the source. You cannot import problems from other parts of the world, require zero assimilation, and then pretend that the big issue is “Islamophobia.”
Unfortunately, there are people dedicated to forcing our border wide open.
Secondly, we ought to enforce the law to revoke the citizenship of people who associate with terrorist groups or who favor totalitarian forms of government. That is, in fact, the law under title VIII, U.S. code, section 1484.
If enforced properly, this would mean revocation of citizenship for a wide variety of radical Islamists living in the United States right now. This law is difficult to enforce; it requires a high degree of evidentiary demonstration. But that degree ought to be met when you affiliate with an actual terrorist group, and if it is not, then the law itself ought to be changed to allow for revocation of such citizenship.
It is not our duty to people who seek to destroy America in the name of radical Islam.
Until the law is either enforced to the letter or changed, we have an enormous number of people in the United States who are devotees of radical Islam. What&#8217;s more, we&#8217;ve been told by one entire political party that mentioning this inconvenient fact is tantamount to Islamophobia.
Have Americans seen enough?

TOPSHOT-US-SHOOTING-SYNAGOGUE-MICHIGAN

The Deadly Cost Of Denial

Ben Shapiro

Opinion

Radical Islamic Terror

Shooting

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice has charged two &#8220;alleged ISIS-inspired terrorists&#8221; who authorities say attempted to bomb a New York City protest, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Monday.
Defendants Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, are charged with five counts, including knowingly attempting to provide &#8220;material support or resources&#8221; to ISIS, a foreign terrorist organization; use of a weapon of mass destruction (an explosive device); transportation of explosive materials, interstate transportation and receipt of explosives &#8220;with the knowledge and intent that it would be used to kill, injure, and intimidate;&#8221; and unlawful possession of destructive devices.
&#8220;We will not allow ISIS’s poisonous, anti-American ideology to threaten this nation,&#8221; Bondi said in a statement on Monday. &#8220;Our law enforcement officers will remain vigilant.&#8221;
The two alleged terrorists are accused of attempting to detonate explosive devices near Gracie Mansion in Manhattan during a protest in the area, according to the unsealed DOJ complaint. Gracie Mansion is the official residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The protest was &#8220;Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer,&#8221; and there was also a counterprotest called &#8220;Run Nazis Out of New York City.&#8221;
&#8220;Preliminary results of testing of one of the devices indicates that it contained a quantity of triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a highly volatile explosive material used in multiple terrorist attacks over the last decade,&#8221; the complaint states.
After the New York City Police Department arrested them, both Balat and Kayumi made statements &#8220;referring to ISIS,&#8221; authorities said.
<div id="attachment_1056151" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-charges-two-isis-inspired-terrorists-who-attempted-to-bomb-nyc-protest/us-politics-new-york" rel="attachment wp-att-1056151"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1056151" class="wp-image-1056151 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2265146814-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2265146814-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2265146814-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2265146814-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2265146814.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks alongside New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch (L) during a news conference at Gracie Mansion in New York City on March 9, 2026. (Photo by Leonardo MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images)</div>
&#8220;For example,&#8221; the complaint says, &#8220;as Kayumi was being placed inside an NYPD vehicle to be transported, an individual from the surrounding crowd yelled to Kayumi and asked, in substance and in part, why he had done this. Kayumi responded, in part and as captured on NYPD body-worn camera footage, &#8216;ISIS.'&#8221;
Both Balat and Kayumi also discussed ISIS in recorded post-arrest statements that they made after they received their Miranda rights, the complaint says. Balat wrote on a piece of paper that he had &#8220;pledged allegiance to the Islamic State,&#8221; and Kayumi said that he was affiliated with ISIS, watched ISIS propaganda on his phone, and was partly inspired to &#8220;carry out his actions that day by ISIS.&#8221;
Balat also said they wanted to carry out an even bigger attack than the Boston Marathon, which he said caused only &#8220;three deaths.&#8221;
Around 12:15 pm on Sunday, Balat ignited and threw an explosive device toward the area where the protesters were gathered, according to the complaint. Pictures show the alleged terrorist holding the device. Immediately after he allegedly threw it, he ran to another location down the block where he &#8220;received a second item.&#8221; After he allegedly ignited it, he dropped the device near several police officers, ran away from them, and jumped over a barricade before he was tackled and arrested by the NYPD. His cohort, Kayumi, was also arrested at the scene.
When Balat was arrested, he had a Turkish government identification card on his person that identified him as &#8220;Emir Balat&#8221; as well as a Pennsylvania driver&#8217;s license with his photograph and name. Authorities identified Kayumi through Border Patrol facial-recognition databases, the complaint states.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

DOJ Charges Two ‘ISIS-Inspired Terrorists’ Who Attempted To Bomb NYC Protest

Islamic Jihad

Pam Bondi

A terror scare erupted in America’s tourist hotspot when suspected homemade bombs packed with nuts, bolts, and screws were hurled toward a crowd.
The devices were tossed during dueling protests late Saturday morning near Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in New York City.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said investigators are still working to determine whether the devices were functional explosives or hoaxes, adding the information released so far is early and could change as the investigation develops.
Police say the first protest began around 11 a.m. near Gracie Mansion. The demonstration — titled “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer” — drew about 20 participants and was organized by individuals associated with January 6 defendant Jake Lang.
A counter-protest nearby called “Run the Nazis out of New York City, Stand Against Hate” drew roughly 125 people at its peak. Officers separated the two groups into designated protest areas, but tensions escalated shortly before noon.
At 12:15 p.m., police say a protester associated with the Lang demonstration used pepper spray against counter-protesters and was arrested.
Fast forward 20 minutes. The situation intensified.
Police say an 18-year-old counter-protester identified as Amir Balat lit and hurled an ignited device toward the protest area. Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke trailing the device as it flew through the air before striking a barrier and extinguishing just feet from police officers.
Balat then ran from the scene, where investigators say he obtained a second device from a 19-year-old man tentatively identified as Ibrahim Nick.
Police say Balat lit that device while running before dropping it nearby. Officers quickly moved in, secured the area and took both men into custody. The incident was captured on NYPD surveillance cameras.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WATCH: NYPD tackle man who allegedly set off a “homemade smoke bomb.” Police are now ordering everyone to clear the area.<a href="https://twitter.com/Bodittle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Bodittle</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/TPUSA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TPUSA</a> <a href="https://t.co/lUnciJLJ25">pic.twitter.com/lUnciJLJ25</a>
— FRONTLINES TPUSA (@FrontlinesTPUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/FrontlinesTPUSA/status/2030341117053382819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Bomb squad technicians responded to examine the devices. Tisch said early inspections suggest the objects appeared to be jars wrapped in black tape, slightly smaller than a football, packed with nuts, bolts, and screws and fitted with a hobby fuse that could be ignited.
Investigators are still working to determine whether the devices were functional improvised explosive devices or hoaxes, as it remains unclear whether they contained explosive material.
Both devices were transported by the bomb squad to the department’s Rodman’s Neck facility for further testing and analysis.
Police established a safety perimeter and searched the surrounding area for additional hazards, using canine units and manually inspecting garbage cans, vehicles, and nearby locations.
In total, six arrests were made in connection with the events. Those arrests include the two men accused of handling and deploying the devices, the protester who used pepper spray earlier in the demonstration, and additional individuals charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic.
Some on social media are claiming Balat or Nick yelled “Allahu Akbar,” though that has not been confirmed by authorities.
Tisch praised officers who rushed toward the danger as the situation unfolded.
“I always speak about the police running toward the danger when everyone else runs away,” the commissioner said. “Let me be clear — that happened today.”
“I am grateful that there were no injuries associated with the incident,” she added.
Tisch said she has remained in contact with Mayor Zohran Mamdani throughout the day. Authorities say there is currently no indication the incident is connected to ongoing hostilities involving Iran, though the investigation remains active.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Watch as <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDPC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NYPDPC</a> and NYPD executives brief the media on an ongoing investigation. <a href="https://t.co/FgTRZHumPV">https://t.co/FgTRZHumPV</a> <a href="https://t.co/MKsui1817S">pic.twitter.com/MKsui1817S</a>
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/2030422025928310810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Frontlines TPUSA reporter Bronson Alford told The Daily Wire that the counter-protesters from &#8220;Drive the Nazis out of New York&#8221; were not your average demonstrators.
“The protesters weren’t normal protesters; they were ANTIFA and their goal was to hurt as many conservative journalists as they could,” Alford told The Daily Wire. Alford said things escalated when protesters started screaming “Bomb, bomb, bomb.” His surroundings began to fill with smoke saying it smelled like something had been ignited.

New York City Attack

Arrests Made After Homemade Explosives Cause Terror Scare In NYC

New York City

Terrorism

Zohran Mamdani

There are two basic ways to critique any belief system. You can critique it externally, by judging it according to standards it doesn’t accept, or you can judge it internally, by judging it according to standards it does accept.
Therefore, an external critique of Islam will judge it according to standards that come from outside its own sources, whether philosophical, historical, or theological, whereas an internal critique will begin from the Quran itself and ask whether Islam can stand on its own terms. 
The Islamic Dilemma is this kind of argument. It doesn’t impose Christian assumptions onto Islam. Instead, it begins with what the Quran itself says and follows those claims to their logical conclusion.
One of the strongest internal critiques of Islam is what’s commonly called the Islamic Dilemma. When followed carefully, it presents Muslims with a serious problem that can’t be resolved without undermining the authority of Islam itself.
The Quran repeatedly affirms that God revealed genuine Scripture before Muhammad, specifically the Torah and the Gospel. It speaks of these writings as guidance and light, given by Allah to earlier prophets. Just as importantly, the Quran commands Jews and Christians to judge by what God revealed in those Scriptures. Nowhere does the Quran clearly or explicitly teach that the Torah or the Gospel were lost, corrupted, or unreliable at the time of Muhammad.
The Quran doesn’t merely acknowledge earlier Scripture in passing. Instead, it repeatedly speaks of the Torah and the Gospel as real, authoritative revelations from God that were present and functioning in the world of Muhammad.
For example, Surah 5:44 states that “the Torah, in which was guidance and light,” was revealed by Allah and used for judgment. 
Likewise, Surah 5:46 affirms that Jesus was given the Gospel, “wherein is guidance and light,” confirming what came before it. 
These verses describe living Scriptures that guide God’s people, not lost or corrupted texts.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/plc-260226-sub?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1054605" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Matt-Fradd-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Matt-Fradd-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Matt-Fradd-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Matt-Fradd-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Matt-Fradd-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Matt-Fradd.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
More striking still, the Quran commands Jews and Christians to judge by these very writings. 
Surah 5:47 instructs Christians to “judge by what Allah has revealed in the Gospel.” 
Surah 5:68 tells both Jews and Christians that they have no firm standing unless they uphold the Torah and the Gospel. 
These commands only make sense if those Scriptures were accessible and trustworthy in the seventh century — when the Quran was written.
Finally, Surah 10:94 tells Muhammad himself that if he’s in doubt, he should ask those who read the Scripture before him. That appeal would be meaningless if those Scriptures were already corrupted or unreliable.
Taken together, these passages show that the Quran affirms the Torah and the Gospel as genuine revelation, present, readable, and authoritative at the time of Muhammad.
This creates a dilemma — with only two possible and mutually exclusive options.
Option one: The Torah and Gospel available in the seventh century were trustworthy.
If that’s true, then Islam faces a decisive contradiction. The Gospel preached in Muhammad’s time proclaims core Christian doctrines that Islam explicitly denies. It teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, that He was crucified, and that He rose from the dead. The Quran denies all three. So if the Gospel is trustworthy, then the Quran contradicts God’s prior revelation. That would mean the Quran can’t be from God.
Option two: The Torah and Gospel were corrupted before Muhammad.
This option also collapses Islam. If the Scriptures were corrupted, then Allah either failed to preserve his earlier revelation or allowed his followers to be misled for centuries. Worse still, the Quran commands Christians to judge by the Gospel they possess and appeals to those Scriptures as confirmation of Muhammad’s message. If those texts were already unreliable, then that doesn’t make sense. In that case, the Quran would be affirming and appealing to corrupted documents, which undermines its claim to divine wisdom.
Either way, Islam is trapped. It can’t affirm the Bible without contradicting itself, and it can’t deny the Bible without undermining its own authority.
Muslims often try to escape this dilemma by claiming that the original Torah and Gospel were pure but later altered. Yet that claim is historically unsupported. We possess New Testament manuscripts that predate Muhammad by hundreds of years, and they teach the same doctrines Christianity teaches today. There’s no evidence of a lost, non-Trinitarian, non-crucified version of the Gospel that Islam could appeal to. That so-called “original Gospel” exists only as a theological escape hatch.
The dilemma is therefore decisive. If the Bible is true, Islam is false. And if the Bible is false, then the Quran is false for affirming it. Islam depends on earlier revelation that it can’t consistently affirm or deny.
Christianity, by contrast, welcomes scrutiny of its historical claims. It stands or falls on events in history, especially the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead, then Christianity is false. Islam avoids history by rewriting it centuries later, but in doing so, it contradicts the very Scriptures it claims to respect.
The Islamic Dilemma doesn’t merely challenge Islam from the outside. Instead, it exposes an internal incoherence at the heart of its theology. And a revelation that contradicts itself can’t come from God.

Closeup of Muslim hands reading holy Quran book with Arabic text under warm light. Concept for Ramadan Kareem, Islamic religion prayer, spiritual faith, God worship, and reading scripture.

Can The Quran Affirm The Bible Without Contradicting Itself?

Bible

Catholicism

Koran

Matt Fradd

Muslims

Religion

Authorities in Austin, Texas, released new information during a planned <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbS6W0mC3mE">press conference</a> on Thursday — including 911 calls made during the March 1 shooting and footage from body-worn cameras — and gave an update on the victims of the deadly rampage.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said that some of the video had been deemed &#8220;too graphic&#8221; to release to the general public — and warned that even the video that was going to be released would be &#8220;difficult to see.&#8221;
One video, captured from a parked vehicle, showed the suspect walking into frame, carrying a rifle that Davis described as an &#8220;AR-15.&#8221; He raised the weapon to a firing position and drew down on a pedestrian, after which Davis stopped the video.
Another video showed the street view as bars began to close up for the night on Sunday and people spilled out into the street. Additional body cam footage from multiple officers showed them running toward the suspect — eventually engaging him in the firefight that killed him.
&#8220;As additional officers arrived, they were directed to the suspect’s location by brave people that were caught in this nightmare,&#8221; Davis said.
She also shared audio from two 911 calls. One was very difficult to understand, but someone could be heard on the line shouting at others to &#8220;get down. You need to go that way and get down &#8230; There has been a shooting &#8230; there are people dead over here. There have been multiple people shot. We need help right now.&#8221; Another caller said, &#8220;I heard six gunshots &#8230; there&#8217;s cops running towards it.&#8221;
The shooter was identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, a Senegalese immigrant, and he wore a shirt featuring the Iranian flag under a hoodie that read &#8220;Property of Allah.&#8221;
Three people have died so far as a result of the shooting. Ryder Harrington, 19, and Savitha Shan, 21, were pronounced dead at the scene and Jorge Pederson, 30, was taken to the hospital but later taken off life support. Two other victims who have not been identified remain in critical condition. A total of 19 were struck by gunfire during the attack.
&#8220;I don’t think any of us can imagine what these families are going through right now, the suffering that they are dealing with. Our hearts are with them,&#8221; Davis said.
She reiterated previous statements saying that Diagne had not previously been known to law enforcement, explaining that his last contact with authorities had been a welfare check in 2022 based on concerns about his mental health.
The shooting is being investigated as potentially linked to terrorism.

Bodycam

Austin Police Release Body-Cam Footage, 911 Audio In Terror Probe

Austin

Media

A D.C.-area mosque pledged its loyalty on Sunday to &#8220;Our Leader Shaheed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,&#8221; mourning his &#8220;martyrdom&#8221; after the Iranian dictator was killed in a U.S.-Israeli operation.
The Manassas Mosque is a sponsor, alongside left-wing groups like CodePink and the D.C. chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, of a &#8220;Stop the war on Iran&#8221; march on the White House planned for Monday night.
On its <a href="https://www.instagram.com/manassasmosque/?hl=en">Instagram</a> page, the mosque calls Iran&#8217;s dictator — not America&#8217;s elected representatives — its leader, and demands to &#8220;end US-Zionist aggression.&#8221; The picture was deleted after The Daily Wire captured it.
<div id="attachment_1052149" style="width: 380px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1052149" class="size-large wp-image-1052149" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HCaZ46IWsAAnrH4-Edited-370x576.jpg" alt="" width="370" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HCaZ46IWsAAnrH4-Edited-370x576.jpg 370w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HCaZ46IWsAAnrH4-Edited-193x300.jpg 193w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HCaZ46IWsAAnrH4-Edited-768x1194.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HCaZ46IWsAAnrH4-Edited.jpg 922w" sizes=" (max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px" />Screenshot via Manassas Mosque Instagram</div>
The mosque, about 30 minutes from the Pentagon in D.C.&#8217;s Virginia outskirts, is funded by the Alavi Foundation, which has spent tens of millions of dollars in America. The U.S. government has alleged that the foundation is a front for the Iranian regime.
In 2023, nine GOP congressmen <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/gop-reps-raise-alarm-bells-irans-influence-american-religious-institutions">wrote</a> to the Biden administration&#8217;s attorney general and director of national security, saying that the Manassas mosque received $200,000 from the Alavi Foundation and &#8220;a recent video inside the Mosque showed it is adorned with pictures of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps &#8230; This appears to be part of a network of regime-sponsored mosques acting as agents for a foreign adversary.&#8221;
After the October 2023 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, the Manassas Mosque issued a newsletter that said, &#8220;We stand firmly with the Palestinian Resistance (Hamas),&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/manassas-mosque/">InfluenceWatch</a>.
It has used racial divisions in the U.S. to infiltrate the Left, saying in 2020 that the death of George Floyd &#8220;exposes the facade of freedom and justice for all.&#8221;
In 2009, the then-head of the Alavi Foundation, Farshid Jahedi, was indicted for &#8220;allegedly destroying documents subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating the Alavi Foundation&#8217;s relationship with Bank Melli Iran and the ownership of a Manhattan office building,&#8221; the Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/nys/pressreleases/May09/Jahedi,%20Farshid%20Indictment%20PR.pdf">said</a>. In 2010, during the Obama administration, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-slap-hand-of-alavis-ex-boss/">only</a> three months in prison and a $3,000 fine on two felony counts. 
<blockquote>
<h1>&#8220;They really have no idea what they&#8217;ve unleashed upon themselves. It is exactly in moments like this that resistance fighter are born.&#8221;</h1>
</blockquote>
The group built a skyscraper at 650 Fifth Avenue in New York using a loan from Iran, and Alavi, for years, used front groups to hide the forbidden relationship, the DOJ said in a 2008 <a href="https://akamai-staging.justice.gov/usao-sdny/programs/victim-witness-services/united-states-v-all-right-title-and-interest-assa-corp-08-civ-10934-rjh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forfeiture action</a> against the Assa Corp., which the DOJ said was an offshore front group used by Alavi. In 2019, a jury verdict to seize the entire building for violating Iranian sanctions was overturned on appeal.
Its 2025 IRS filing includes <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237345978/202542879349100704/full">buying land</a> in Virginia. It has also given <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/237345978/download990pdf_11_2021_prefixes_20-27%2F237345978_201803_990PF_2021110319126074">loans</a> for Muslims to study at U.S. colleges, and mortgages to establish new mosques in places like Beaverton, Oregon, and San Diego, California.
The Manassas Mosque&#8217;s imam is Abolfazl Bahram Nahidian, who in 2010 said that Israel was behind 9/11.
His daughter-in-law, Atefeh Rokhvand, has been a major player in high-profile, left-wing-adjacent advocacy against Israel.
A D.C. court ordered Rokhvand and others to pay a rabbi $182,000 for abusing the U.S. court system by attempting to have him prosecuted for &#8220;stalking&#8221; for coming to the Israeli embassy to pray, where they had staked out in a constant protest. A lawyer for Rokhvand previously replied to The Daily Wire&#8217;s questions by implying the rabbi was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-israel-activists-ordered-to-pay-182000-after-falsely-accusing-rabbi-of-stalking">greedy</a>, saying the $182,000 was for &#8220;over-inflated legal fees.&#8221;
Rokhvand was the &#8220;governor&#8221; of the around-the-clock stakeout of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken&#8217;s home, which involved throwing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/soros-prosecutor-wont-shut-down-pro-palestinian-encampment-outside-antony-blinkens-home">fake blood</a> on his vehicle as he returned home. She previously taught third grade at a school affiliated with the mosque, and founded Teachers Against Genocide.
<div id="attachment_881199" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-881199" class="size-full wp-image-881199" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/embassy.jpg" alt="Hazami Barmada (center) and Atefeh Rokhvand (right) protesting the Israel embassy / Instagram" width="1200" height="600" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/embassy.jpg 1200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/embassy-300x150.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/embassy-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/embassy-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />Hazami Barmada (center) and Atefeh Rokhvand (right) protesting the Israeli embassy / Instagram</div>
On Instagram, Rokhvand this week posted a screenshot of a tweet saying, &#8220;they just canonized Kahmenei [sic]. And they really have no idea what they&#8217;ve unleashed upon themselves. It is exactly in moments like this that resistance fighter are born.&#8221;
Radical Islamists in the D.C. area have often used their daughters to embed in local Democrat politics. Several of the 9/11 hijackers worshipped at a different mosque, whose imam was later drone-struck by Barack Obama as a member of Al Qaeda. The daughter of a board member who hired that imam was later elected to the Fairfax County school board, where she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/school-board-member-abrar-omeish-whose-father-led-september-11-hijackers-mosque-opposes-resolution-honoring-victims">opposed</a> a moment of silence honoring the victims of 9/11.
Several members of Congress, in response to The Daily Wire&#8217;s flagging of the mosque aligning with an enemy during wartime, called for members of the mosque to be denaturalized and deported.
&#8220;The enemy is inside the gates,&#8221; Rep. Keith Self (R-TX), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said.
&#8220;Deport all who refuse to pledge allegiance to the United States of America,&#8221; Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) said.
&#8220;We need to get them the hell out of our country,&#8221; Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) said.
&#8220;Deport them. Now,&#8221; Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said.

Menu