Last evening, Jews around the world concluded their celebration of Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish new year. In Judaism, Rosh Hashanah commences the Ten Days of Repentance that ends with the full fast of Yom Kippur. During this holy time, Jews earnestly repent for their transgressions, engage in deep introspection about wayward ways and habits, and beseech the Almighty to inscribe us in the Book of Life.
The Jewish process of teshuvah — atonement, introspection, <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/columnist-2/238089/can-better-5779/">vowing to always improve</a>, and humbly supplicating the Divine for a charitable ruling — is a fundamentally healthy and salutary exercise. We as a society would go a long way toward collectively bettering ourselves if we all more frequently and rigorously engaged in meaningful soul-searching, penitence, and course correction.
I thought about this a lot in shul over the past couple of days. Religious Americans of all stripes increasingly find themselves on the defensive in contemporary society. In the year 2019, cultural currents all firmly point in the direction of leftism and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-bernies-pagan-support-child-sacrifice-josh-hammer">paganism</a>. The reality is that modern America is a pretty great time to be a secularist — the media, Hollywood, the Fortune 500, the academy, and sundry other prestigious institutions comprising our broader societal vanguard all routinely shill for the advancement of taxpayer subsidized abortion on-demand, stigma-free self-inflicted genital mutilation under the &#8220;compassionate&#8221; guise of &#8220;transgenderism,&#8221; and homosexual- and transgender-infused revanchism that would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-house-democrats-equality-act-both-josh-hammer">oppressively snuff out</a> the ability of many religious Jews and Christians to practice their religions.
I serve in an <a href="https://firstliberty.org/team/josh-hammer/">of counsel capacity</a> for the nation&#8217;s <a href="https://firstliberty.org">largest law firm</a> solely dedicated to defense of religious liberty. Religious liberty, defined perhaps as the ability of the religious to freely and unobtrusively practice their faiths and worship and obey the Almighty in accordance with the idiosyncratic dictates of one&#8217;s own conscience, is the cornerstone of the American republic. Numerically, the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment are the first enumerated provisions of the very first ratified constitutional amendment. That is no mere coincident — the Framers first listed religious liberty for a reason. As John Adams once <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102">famously said</a>: &#8220;Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.&#8221; And Alexis de Tocqueville once averred that &#8220;[Liberty] considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom.&#8221; To be sure, if one cares about restoring the original public meaning of the Constitution and securing the eternal blessings of the liberty that Constitution secures, therefore, it logically follows that one must necessarily also care about safeguarding religion.
But crucially, religion as it has historically been practiced in America ought not to be merely viewed as a purely pragmatic cudgel to wield as a steppingstone toward the broader goal of constitutional elevation. Nor, to borrow the conceptual framework of the <a href="https://americanmind.org/discourse/our-constitutional-order-prioritizes-justice-not-procedure/">ongoing intramural</a> conservative <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-conservatives-must-make-their-arguments-josh-hammer">dialogue</a> between the New York Post&#8217;s Sohrab Ahmari and National Review&#8217;s David French, should religious liberty be merely thought of as the defensive terrain of those who would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-how-pro-israel-students-campus-can-fight-josh-hammer">procedurally plead</a> for &#8220;peace&#8221; or &#8220;tolerance.&#8221; Instead, conservatives and religious Americans ought to begin framing their defense of America&#8217;s religious tradition through a distinctively normative lens — namely, by arguing that the Judeo-Christian family of religions are intrinsically good for the pursuit of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia">human flourishing</a>.
Against the domineering would-be cultural hegemons of the modern Left, procedural arguments from religious Americans rooted in the universal equality and tolerance of the First Amendment&#8217;s Religion Clauses are deeply necessary, but hardly sufficient. Fundamentally, it is time for conservatives and religious Americans to go back on the offensive in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-culture-war-conservatives-congress-should-josh-hammer">culture war</a>. As I <a href="https://americanmind.org/discourse/our-constitutional-order-prioritizes-justice-not-procedure/">formulated</a> it last month at The American Mind: &#8220;Genuflecting and begging our illiberal brethren for &#8216;tolerance&#8217; and &#8216;respect&#8217; is a proven failure; values-neutral pluralistic liberalism has been tried and found wanting as a remedy. &#8230; Instead of retreating to procedural neutrality, conservatives must be willing to advance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47964/hammer-conservatives-must-make-their-arguments-josh-hammer">moral arguments</a> and wield the levers of political power to guide our culture toward a rediscovery of virtue and the promotion of the common weal.&#8221; But a necessary antecedent to the moralistic wielding of the levers of political power is to make the substantive, straightforward argument that the Judeo-Christian religious tradition is not just constitutionally proper or useful as a means to an unrelated end — rather, we must make the case that a more religious society is a better and more just society.
The Jewish practice of teshuvah is but one small and timely example. There are a myriad other examples of inherently wholesome and purifying rituals and activities undertaken in the name of the world&#8217;s great monotheistic religions, and it is incumbent upon religious Jews and Christians in America to highlight them. Only by standing forthrightly and unapologetically for the goodness of our religions can we lay the groundwork for culture war legislation. And only via progress in the culture war and a subduing of our secularist opposition can we, in the words James Madison in <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed57.asp">The Federalist No. 57</a>, &#8220;obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society.&#8221;
The republic will be most grateful for our efforts.

girl praying

HAMMER: Social Conservatives Must Defend The Intrinsic Good Of Religion

Christianity

Conservatism

Constitution

First Amendment

Judaism

LGBT

Persecution

Religion

In a story largely ignored by the mainstream media, the socialist government of Cuba banned several Christian ministers from visiting a religious freedom conference and arrested a journalist earlier this week.
Alliance of Evangelical Churches of Cuba (AECC, Alianza de Iglesias Evangélicas Cubana) members Rev. Moises de Prada Esquivel and the Rev. Alida Leon Baez were stopped by the Cuban State Security at Havana’s José Marti International Airport, where they were informed they would not be allowed to fly to Washington, D.C. for the event, Morning Star News <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2019/07/officials-in-cuba-forbid-church-leaders-to-attend-religious-freedom-event/">reports</a>. Both men serve as executive board members of the AECC and were to represent the religious organization at the event.
The regime cracked down on several other Christian ministers seeking traveling privileges. The Cuban government denied them visa renewals and permissions to make the trip outside of the country for the conference.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) commissioner Kristina Arriaga released a <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases-statements/uscirf-statement-cuba-preventing-religious-leaders-attending">statement</a> condemning the actions of the Cuban government.
<blockquote>“If the denial of religious freedom in Cuba was ever in question, the Cuban government laid to rest all doubt this weekend by blatantly prohibiting four pastors, leaders of the country’s major religious organizations, from leaving the country to attend the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, D. C,” she said. “This is exactly the type of human rights violation that we and Ministerial attendees from all over the world are working to expose and to prevent. We urge the Cuban government to allow these religious leaders to participate in this important conversation &#8211; in person &#8211; and to return to Cuba to work together with officials to improve religious freedom conditions for all of its citizens.”</blockquote>
This comes on the heels of Cuban state security officials forcibly detaining religious journalist Ricardo Fernandez Izaguirre after he visited a human rights group.
Metro Voice News <a href="https://metrovoicenews.com/cuba-ramps-up-crackdown-on-evangelical-pastors/">reports</a> that Fernandez was arrested following his visit to the offices of the Ladies in White in the city of Havana.
Religious freedom advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) condemned the arrest in a <a href="https://www.csw.org.uk/2019/07/13/press/4411/article.htm">statement</a> from their head of advocacy, Anna-Lee Stangl.
“CSW holds the Cuban government responsible for the wellbeing of Ricardo Fernandez Izaguirre,” she said. “Violations of freedom of religion or belief have increased in Cuba over the past six months, and Ricardo has dedicated himself to (traveling) across the country, often at great personal sacrifice, sleeping in bus stations and skipping meals, in order to document these cases and to offer solidarity to the victims. We call on the authorities to release him immediately.”
The travel bans and arrests have prompted criticisms from the Cuban religious community.
One pastor spoke to Morning Star News on the condition of anonymity, out of fear for his safety.
“In Cuba, there is no real freedom of expression or of worship,” he said. “Any person who openly opposes the established system is looking for problems.”
Despite the obvious violations of both the human rights of religious freedom and freedom of the press, the mainstream media has largely been silent on both of these issues.
UPDATE:
Premier UK <a href="https://www.premier.org.uk/News/World/Christian-freedom-defender-released-from-detention-in-Cuba">reports</a> Izaguirre was released from prison following a seven-day detention.
&#8220;The experience has given me the opportunity to know a reality that I had no idea about. Many times I had to stand between the prisoners and police as the guards would often beat the prisoners and I refused to let this happen. Many were there due to unjust circumstances and because of arbitrary laws.&#8221; He said in a statement to CSW. &#8220;They kept me handcuffed all day in a locked patrol car. That evening, they took me to a prison, gave me prison clothes and took away all of my belongings and put me in a cell. I was with 14 other prisoners; nearly all of them had light sentences.&#8221;
He added, &#8220;I was freed without any explanation &#8211; just as they had arrested me.&#8221;

Cuba Bans Pastors From Visiting Religious Freedom Summit, Detains Journalist

Cuba

Democratic Socialism

Journalism

Media

Socialism

Earlier this week, Christians traveling home following church services near the city of Jos, Nigeria were ambushed by terrorists who murdered at least thirty congregants.
The Sun of Nigeria <a href="https://www.sunnewsonline.com/scores-killed-many-injured-as-fresh-violence-erupts-jos/">reports</a> that the violence erupted in communities of Dutse Uku, Angwan Rukuba, and Rikkos, in the Nigerian state of Plateau. 
&#8220;We have received reports of tension around Dutse Uku, Rikkos, Cele Bridge and we have mobilized our personnel to the area,&#8221; Police Public Relation Officer DSP Mathias Terna Tyopev told The Sun. &#8220;As we speak, the Area Commander, Jos Metropolis is there on the ground. We are still on the trouble spots to bring the situation under control, I can&#8217;t guarantee you that I will issue a statement today but until I return from the area.&#8221;
Locals have accused radical Islamic Fulani herdsmen of attacking the Christian communities in their ongoing plan to create a &#8220;Fulanisation and Islamization&#8221; in the African nation. 
Jos city pastor Luke Shehu told <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2019/05/local-muslims-suspected-killing-of-christians-after-sunday-worship-in-jos-nigeria/">Morning Star News</a>, &#8220;Despite the intervention of security operatives, in less than twelve hours about thirty Christians were killed and over twenty houses where burnt or destroyed by Muslim militia, some in military uniforms from around Tina junction, Cele bridge, Dutse Uku, and Nasarawa areas, all bordering Muslim communities in Jos North.&#8221;
He continued, &#8220;These targeted attacks on innocent Christians are unacceptable, particularly with confirmed arrests of over thirty Christian women fruit and food vendors by soldiers around Tina junction in Jos after the attack today, 27th May 2019.&#8221;
This comes on the heels of seven Christians being kidnapped from choir practice at the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in the village of Dankande in Nigeria&#8217;s Kaduna state, which saw at least one congregant murdered. 
An unidentified witness told <a href="http://saharareporters.com/2019/05/20/gunmen-raid-church-kaduna-during-choir-rehearsal-kill-1-abduct-17-others">Sahara Reporters</a>, &#8220;As we were in the church, the armed men numbering over twenty just surrounded the church and started shooting. Everybody was terrified but there was no how we could run because they had already surrounded the church.&#8221;
Rev. Nathaniel Waziri confirmed that minister Zakariya Ido was taken with his daughter and fifteen other worshippers, including ten women and five men. 
&#8220;The gunmen came and asked everyone in the church to surrender phones and thereafter demanded the whereabout of the pastor,&#8221; he told <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2019/05/armed-gunmen-kidnap-19-christians-kill-one-in-kaduna-state-nigeria/">Morning Star News</a>. &#8220;After threatening the choristers, they became afraid and showed them the pastor&#8217;s house.&#8221;
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has responded to the attacks by purposing an executive order that would revoke gun licenses, but many Christians see this as an attempt to disarm them in the face of heavily armed radical Muslim.
One survivor of the attacks, identified only as <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/nigeria-attack-survivor-i-have-seen-the-love-of-god/">Aisha</a>, told Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors that she and others have been sexually assaulted during the ongoing struggle. 
&#8220;And, as I said before, I&#700;m not the only one in my community &#8212; many other women have been raped. We are weak, as women,&#8221; Aisha said. &#8220;We do not have strength to fight back, and the attackers have [a] great advantage over us. We are not [educated] and don&#8217;t have the money to reach out and tell the world what is happening.&#8221;
She added, &#8220;Continue to pray for us. Pray also for me. I really want to go to school. I was in school before. I dropped out because of finances. I&#700;m not going to school, and my children are not going to school. If there&#700;s one thing I desire in this life, it is to go back to school. I want my children to have an education. Please pray for that.&#8221;

REPORT: Radical Muslims Suspected In May Attacks On Nigerian Christians

Africa

Sexual Abuse

Sexual Assault

On Monday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show,&#8221; the host discusses the conscious effort by Democrats to use the phrase &#8220;Easter worshippers&#8221; instead of Christians when discussing the attack on churches in Sri Lanka by radical Muslims. Transcript and video below.
A new phrase yesterday entered into the English language that came by way of our political elites, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The phrase is, &#8220;Easter worshippers&#8221;. Barack Obama responding to the terror attacks in Sri Lanka said, &#8220;The attacks on tourists and Easter worshippers in Sri Lanka are an attack on humanity. On a day devoted to love, redemption, and renewal, we pray for the victims and stand with the people of Sri Lanka.&#8221; Attack on tourists and Easter worshippers. Does he mean Christians? I think the word that Barack Obama is looking for is &#8220;Christians.&#8221; Specifically, actually Catholics. Even the language he uses, &#8220;On a day devoted to love, redemption, and renewal, we pray for the victims and stand with the people of Sri Lanka.&#8221; It is a day devoted to love and redemption and renewal because of the resurrection of Christ. There are other days devoted to love and redemption and renewal. Easter Sunday is about the resurrection of Christ.
People would always say, actually, Chris Cuomo was just going off on this because we&#8217;ve been pointing this out. A number of conservatives have pointed out how ridiculous the phrase Easter worshippers is when Barack Obama should&#8217;ve used the phrase, Christian. And what Chris Cuomo said was, oh you guys are just using code to say that Barack Obama isn&#8217;t one of us. First of all, we&#8217;re not using &#8220;code.&#8221; It&#8217;s not &#8220;code&#8221; when you directly criticize somebody and you&#8217;re explicit about what you&#8217;re criticizing them for.
And we&#8217;re not even saying that Barack Obama isn&#8217;t one of us. We&#8217;re saying that he&#8217;s not even the guy that he&#8217;s pretending he is. Remember, Barack Obama ran on, oh I would go to church all the time. He&#8217;s a professed patriot, professed Christian. All of these words. But then in his behavior and in the language that he uses after he gets elected, it doesn&#8217;t seem that way. Easter worshippers. I&#8217;ve never heard that phrase before. Have you ever heard that phrase before?
Hillary Clinton said the same thing. &#8220;On this holy weekend for many faiths, we must stand united against hatred and violence. I&#8217;m praying for everyone affected by today&#8217;s horrific attacks on Easter worshippers and travelers in Sri Lanka.&#8221; Not Christians, not Catholics, Easter worshippers. A holy weekend for many faiths, you see, it&#8217;s not Easter Sunday, no. It&#8217;s the holy weekend for many faiths, and it was actually just those evil attacks that hurt people. It was those evil attacks. It was just hate. It was hatred and violence. It wasn&#8217;t Islamic militants waging war on Christians as they prayed on Easter Sunday&#8230; no. It was these broad terms, Easter worshippers. That&#8217;s all we can talk about.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hIXu7kJ2nII" width="560"></iframe></div>
Now, Julian Castro did the same thing by the way. He said, &#8220;On a day of redemption and hope, the evil of these attacks on Easter worshippers and tourists in Sri Lanka is deeply saddening. My prayers today are with the dead and injured, and their families. May we find grace.&#8221; This is so strange. Why all of these responses say, &#8220;Easter worshippers.&#8221; Hillary Clinton, when there are attacks on gay people, she says I stand with the LGBT community. When Orlando gets hit, she doesn&#8217;t say, I stand with nightclub dancers, my heart goes out to nightclub dancers. No, it&#8217;s I stand with the LGBT community.
When Muslims are attacked for something, she doesn&#8217;t say, I stand with Ramadan worshippers. I stand with Hijab wearers. No, she says I stand with Muslims. But when it&#8217;s Christians, then we can&#8217;t say that. We&#8217;re not allowed to say that word. It&#8217;s just too accurate and precise. We&#8217;re not allowed to use that kind of language when we&#8217;re talking about our culture, our civilization. Christians aren&#8217;t allowed to do that. We need this generic, made up term which no one had used until last night.
So why is the left using the phrase? Nobody worships Easter. We&#8217;ve never heard of this phrase before. We worship Christ, we are Christ worshippers. If you want to use the word worshippers, use the word Christ. Why can&#8217;t the left say the word Christian? It&#8217;s because Christians can&#8217;t be victims. Obviously, not in reality though. In reality, Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. But in leftist ideology, Christians cannot be victims because of all of their theories, because of intersectionality. Because we know that at the top of the oppressor pyramid is the straight white man who knows that he is a man, who is a Christian. That&#8217;s the worst oppressor in the whole world. So, when that person is the victim, he can&#8217;t be a Christian. He has to be some new phrase. He has to be an Easter worshipper.
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-knowles-show/id1266577963?mt=2">Listen to &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/michael-knowles-show">Subscribe to watch &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on-demand. </a>

KNOWLES: The Attacks Were On Christians, Not &#8216;Easter Worshippers&#8217;

Andrew Cuomo

Barack Obama

Catholic Church

Hillary Clinton

Michael Knowles

When Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tweeted about &#8220;art and architecture&#8221; during the Notre Dame fire, I defended her against the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46006/ilhan-omars-response-notre-dame-cathedral-burning-amanda-prestigiacomo">criticism it drew</a> from Christians who accused her of pointedly ignoring the spiritual significance of the building. I thought the tweet was perfectly normal and acceptable, and I don&#8217;t really expect a Muslim woman to find any spiritual significance in a building meant for Christian worship. To my mind, that outrage &#8212; if we can call it an outrage &#8212; was overblown.
But &#8220;Easter worshippers&#8221; is a different thing entirely. Responding to the slaughter of hundreds of Christians during Easter attacks by <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/21/whats-behind-the-terrorist-attacks-in-sri-lanka/">radical Islamic terrorists</a>, a number of prominent Democratic politicians chose to issue statements that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46251/obama-hillary-ripped-refusing-say-christians-after-amanda-prestigiacomo">glaringly omit</a> any direct mention of the faith identity of the victims.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jq-7AQTARzQ" width="480"></iframe></div>
Barack Obama said this: &#8220;The attacks on tourists and Easter worshippers in Sri Lanka are an attack on humanity. On a day devoted to love, redemption, and renewal, we pray for the victims and stand with the people of Sri Lanka.&#8221;
Hillary Clinton seemed to be working literally from the same script: &#8220;On this holy weekend for many faiths, we must stand united against hatred and violence. I&#8217;m praying for everyone affected by today&#8217;s horrific attacks on Easter worshippers and travelers in Sri Lanka.&#8221;
Several other Democrats latched onto this same phrase &#8212; &#8220;Easter worshippers.&#8221; If just one of them had gone this route, perhaps I could be convinced that it might be clumsy wording and nothing more. But it is simply impossible to believe that several significant Democrats would all independently and innocently think to refer to Christian victims in such a roundabout and obscure way.
I have been a Christian all my life and if I&#8217;ve ever heard the term &#8220;Easter worshipper,&#8221; or something like it, it would have been in reference to Christians who only go to church on Christmas and Easter. Generally we call those types &#8220;Christmas and Easter Christians&#8221; or &#8220;CEOs&#8221; (Christmas and Easter Only). But the general mass of people who show up to worship on Easter have always, in my experience, just been called Christians. It would be technically accurate to use a label like &#8220;Passover observers&#8221; in the place of &#8220;Jews&#8221; and &#8220;Ramadan commemorators&#8221; for &#8220;Muslims,&#8221; but I can&#8217;t imagine why anyone would be so unnecessarily vague and wordy. Unless, of course, there is some reason why they don&#8217;t want to explicitly acknowledge the group in question. And that appears to be the case here.
As it happens, we don&#8217;t need to wonder how the likes of Clinton and Obama would respond to a similar attack against Muslims. There was just such an attack a few weeks ago in New Zealand. Let&#8217;s look at their statements.
Obama: &#8220;Michelle and I send our condolences to the people of New Zealand. We grieve with you and the Muslim community. All of us must stand against hatred in all its forms.&#8221;
Clinton: &#8220;My heart breaks for New Zealand &amp; the global Muslim community. We must continue to fight the perpetuation and normalization of Islamophobia and racism in all its forms. White supremacist terrorists must be condemned by leaders everywhere. Their murderous hatred must be stopped.&#8221;
This gives the game away. No rational person could fail to notice a stark contrast between these statements and the ones issued in response to nearly 300 butchered Christians on Easter Sunday. They both make sure to use the word &#8220;Muslim.&#8221; Clinton goes further and ropes in &#8220;Islamophobia&#8221; and &#8220;[w]hite supremacist terrorists.&#8221; Not only does she omit &#8220;Christian&#8221; from her comments on Sri Lanka, but she certainly says nothing about &#8220;Christophobia&#8221; and &#8220;Islamic terrorists.&#8221;
Are we supposed to believe that this is a mere coincidence? If so, is it also a coincidence that Hillary Clinton, who accidentally forgot the word &#8220;Christian&#8221; yesterday on Easter, did not forget the phrase &#8220;LGBT community&#8221; after the shooting at a gay club in Orlando three years ago? Of course not. There is a purpose behind this, and the purpose matters.
Christians are among the <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/">most persecuted groups on the planet</a>. On a monthly basis, hundreds are murdered for their faith, hundreds more are locked in prison without just cause, and dozens of churches are burned or vandalized. Indeed, the most shocking thing about yesterday&#8217;s tragedy is how utterly routine it has become. It was only two years ago that over a hundred Christians were killed in explosions at Palm Sunday services in Egypt. Many Christians across the world know that they take their lives into their hands when they gather for worship. This fact &#8212; that Christians are not only a victim group, but are one of the most victimized groups &#8212; is extraordinarily inconvenient for Democrats, who have structured their whole agenda around their victimhood narrative. By their telling, racial minorities, women, homosexuals, and Muslims are The Victims while white men and Christians are The Bad Guys. This dichotomy would be thrown wildly out of balance and sent into disarray if Christians were admitted into the victim column &#8212; especially because they are so often victimized by Muslim extremists.
No, the Democrats can&#8217;t have that. So they usually ignore the genocide of Christians, and often enact policies that make it worse. And when they are forced, on the rare occasion, to acknowledge an attack of this sort, they will do it without saying anything that might give ignorant Americans the impression that there is a real systematic problem of Christians being constantly blown up and murdered by Muslim extremists. But the systematic problem is real, even if these conniving cowards won&#8217;t admit it.

WALSH: Yes, &#8216;Easter Worshipper&#8217; Was Intentional. Yes, It Matters. Here&#8217;s Why.

Oppression

Radical Islamic Terror

Terrorism

The government of China has ramped up its policy of &#8220;Sinicisation,&#8221; or the crackdown on religious liberty among its populace within the past two years. The communist regime has been accused of mass arrests, the tearing down of religious institutions, beatings, and even bribing communities into reporting their practicing members. 
Christian rights watchdog group Open Doors has ranked the persecution level in China as &#8220;<a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/china/">very high</a>.&#8221; 
Their website <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/china-promises-financial-rewards-for-reporting-christians/">reports</a> that the authorities are &#8220;reportedly resorting to offering monetary rewards to anyone who spies on a neighbor or even family member and reports a group of believers to authorities.&#8221; Tip boxes have appeared in the Henan province that allow neighbors to report their Christian neighbors. The human rights magazine &#8220;<a href="https://bitterwinter.org/reporting-boxes-and-tip-lines-to-stop-religion/">Bitter Winter</a>,&#8221; adds that reported individuals are immediately arrested, interrogated by the police, often beaten, and many have had their property seized. These seizures are not limited to &#8220;underground&#8221; churches, but even officially recognized churches in Henan province have had their crosses taken by the authorities. 
It is not just Christians suffering under the communist regime. As the Australia Broadcast Channel <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-18/chinas-mass-surveillance-of-uyghur-muslims-revealed-in-data/10820634">reports</a>, Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province are under constant threat of arrest, mass surveillance, and being sent to internment camps. It is estimated that at least 1 million Uyghur Muslims have been detained for &#8220;re-education.&#8221; 
The Augusta Review <a href="https://augustareview.com/tiny-kaifeng-jewish-community-faces-orwellian-future/">notes</a> that Chinese Jews are also facing intense pressure from the government. The already tiny community, known as Kaifeng Jews, have shrunk to an estimated 2,500 under the suffering. <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Henan,-Kaifeng-Jews-persecuted-along-with-other-religions-46272.html">AsianNews</a> adds that Judaism is not recognized as an official religion and their methods of worship are considered &#8220;illegal,&#8221; making any practice subject to police raids and arrests.
These crackdowns have been internationally condemned by the media, human rights activists, and by other governments. In <a href="https://augustareview.com/10-highlights-from-first-ever-state-dept-ministerial-to-advance-religious-freedom-worldwide/">September 2018</a>, the United States, along with Canada, Djibouti, Kosovo, and United Arab Emirates, signed the &#8220;Potomac Declaration&#8221; which condemned the attacks on religious liberty by China, Myanmar, and Iran.
The European Union is also taking steps to help relieve the situation. According to <a href="https://www.neweurope.eu/article/eu-urged-to-consider-asylum-claims-of-chinese-religious-group-members/">New Europe</a>, the EU is considering allowing 2,000 Christians to receive asylum for &#8220;severe persecution.&#8221;
The Trump administration has openly condemned the persecution. In a March speech in <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/rm/2019/290403.htm">Taiwan</a>, International Religious Freedom Ambassador Sam Brownback said, &#8220;What does the Chinese government have to fear from people reading the Bible or Uighurs naming their children Mohammad? The Chinese are a strong and vibrant people.&#8221; 
&#8220;They do not need to fear people who have strong religious beliefs or convictions. Instead, the government should promote the protection of the rights of its people to practice their beliefs and worship as they see fit,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I am committed to fighting for the rights of all to believe or not to believe as they see fit, and for all to be able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms without threat. Not just the freedom of religion or belief, but also the freedoms of expression, of association and of peaceful assembly.&#8221;
China does not seem to be backing down. The South China Morning Post wrote that Premier Li Keqiang said to the Chinese legislature in early <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/2188752/no-let-chinas-push-sinicise-religion-despite-global-outcry-over">March</a>, &#8220;We must fully implement the [Communist] Party&#8217;s fundamental policy on religious affairs and uphold the Sinicisation of religion in China.&#8221; 
ChinaAid founder Bob Fu told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/28/we-are-scared-but-we-have-jesus-china-and-its-war-on-christianity">The Guardian</a> that in the midst of the crackdown, Christianity continues to grow in the communist country. He explained, &#8220;I have hope for the future, these campaigns were done in Roman times, under Stalin and under Mao, and none succeeded.&#8221;
Fu added, &#8220;It will only have the opposite effect, and if Communist party cadres studied history they would see this. Crackdowns will cause the church to grow faster, and help [the] church be more united.&#8221;
The mainstream media appears to be finally waking up to the human rights <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-xi-jinping-is-attacking-religion-in-china-2018-11">violations</a> in China. For a time, the media stayed silent on the suffering of the religious Chinese. Now, with the communists targeting every person who does not toe the party line, the media has no choice but to bring attention to this crucial issue. 
<div> </div>

Even As International Pressure Mounts, China Ramps Up Religious Persecution

China

Trump Administration

Over 30 Nigerian Christians were killed in a brutal early morning attack by radical Islamic Fulani herdsmen, who have been systematically targeting believers living on lands the extremists claim to be their territory. 
The Guardian <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/suspected-fulani-herdsmen-others-kill-32-in-kaduna-sokoto/">reports</a> that the deadly assault occurred at around 4 a.m. near the town of Maro, in Kajuru County of Kaduna state, where the attackers set fire to several buildings, including homes and churches. The extremists shot civilians with rifles as they fled the burning establishments.
A member of local church Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) told <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2019/02/at-least-40-christians-killed-in-two-attacks-in-kaduna-state-nigeria/">Morning Star News</a> that members &#8220;ran out of the church building as the shooting was going on.&#8221; She added, &#8220;Many have been killed, and I have not seen my family members since morning. I have escaped out of the area.&#8221;
Some villagers and local policemen tried to resist the radical Muslim assault but were forced to retreat as the attackers overwhelmed them by sheer numbers and firepower. 
Kaduna&#8217;s local state government condemned the attack in a statement from Samuel Aruwan, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor.
&#8220;Today, the Kaduna State government was briefed by security agencies of renewed attacks in Kajuru Local Government Area, and in parts of neighboring Kachia Local Government Area,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The state government has been assured that the security agencies are working assiduously to contain the situation. The government is saddened by these attacks, condemns the perpetrators and urges all residents of the area to support the security agencies in their efforts to protect communities.&#8221;
The violence was so severe that a nearby boarding school administered by the Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS) evacuated to protect the children.
&#8220;We evacuated about hundred EMS kids from Kufana for safety,&#8221; explained school director Bakari Ibrahim to Morning Star News. &#8220;Many of our missionaries working among the Kadara tribe and some in Katari areas have been displaced. Please keep praying for our nation.&#8221;
Kaduna governor Aminu Tambuwal expressed sadness for the victims and called for more security in the Kajuru and Kachia counties to protect &#8220;people&#8217;s lives and property.&#8221;
The state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria Kaduna chapter Reverend Joseph Hayap said of the attack: &#8220;We have appealed to the youths in the area that there must never be any reprisal. We want to give the security operatives in the state the benefit of the doubt to go after the killers. We don&#8217;t want any reprisal attack because the circle of violence and killings will continue.&#8221;
Nigeria has been facing growing unrest as radical Islamic terrorist groups, including the Fulani herdsmen, have been ramping up attacks on Christians, who make up about 51% of the population. 
In September <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/36575/radical-muslims-murder-civilians-brutal-attack-jacob-airey">2018</a>, Islamic extremists raided Christian homes and murdered 11 civilians in a brutal assault in the city of Jos, the capital city of the Plateau State of the African nation. 
&#8220;When the Fulani herdsmen came, they shot into the house randomly, breaking and forcing their way into rooms, shooting defenseless women and children and anyone in sight,&#8221; a survivor said at the time. 
Christian persecution watchdog group <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/nigeria/">Open Doors</a> ranks Nigeria high on the &#8220;World Watch List,&#8221; sitting at number 12 just below Syria. 
<div> </div>

Muslim Extremists Murder Over 30 Nigerian Christians In Devastating Attack

Islam

Radical Islam

Another 60 Christians were arrested by Chinese law enforcement during a riverside park service in an ongoing crackdown of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, China, one of the largest &#8220;unlicensed&#8221; churches in the region. 
The communist government arrested and detained over 100 members of the church earlier in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39406/over-100-christians-arrested-china-pastor-faces-5-jacob-airey">December</a>, including Pastor Wang Yi and his wife, Jiang Rong. The minister is being charged with &#8220;inciting subversion of state power&#8221; and &#8220;stirring up trouble.&#8221; His wife has not been heard from since the arrests. 
World Magazine <a href="https://world.wng.org/2018/12/chinese_police_disrupt_weekend_worship">reports</a> that Chinese law enforcement detained another five dozen men, women, and children in a second mass arrest two weeks ago. The church planned on having a worship service but found their building surrounded by riot police who refused to allow entry to the congregants. 
The group then moved to a nearby park where they began their services, reading from their Catechism: &#8220;What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ,&#8221; they read, as the police arrived to arrest the worshippers. 
The watchdog group <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/worship-police-cars-60-arrests-chinese-church-raid/">Open Doors</a> noted that communist authorities were using intimidation tactics such as ransacking homes and damaging property the church owns in an attempt to force members to leave the church. 
One anonymous church member told <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/churches-christmas-12252018200331.html">RadioFreeAsia</a> that they have &#8220;nowhere to worship.&#8221;
&#8220;Many people can&#8217;t leave their homes,&#8221; she said, explaining that after the government authorities released some of the members, they were warned that if they tried to celebrate Christmas they would be arrested a second time. 
&#8220;It&#8217;s not a good time to talk,&#8221; she said, noting that police were watching the congregation. &#8220;[P]olice came to our home this morning,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Many of our brothers and sisters are in a dangerous situation.&#8221;
In a lengthy Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/prayforearlyrain/posts/306839769936876?__tn__=K-R">post</a>, a member of the Early Rain Covenant Church asked for prayer as the persecution intensifies. 
&#8220;Pray for the brothers and sisters who are locked up. Ask that the Lord would protect, strengthen and use them mightily, that they may become unique ambassadors of the Kingdom of God,&#8221; the member wrote. &#8220;Pray for the family members and children of those who are locked up. Ask the Lord to comfort, protect, and provide for them, to be for them a husband and a father. Pray that God would provide for the brothers and sisters in the midst of their hardships, that they would be led and comforted by the Word of God, that they would have wisdom and creativity in meeting together informally as they are prevented from meeting in the way they used to, and that they would strengthen and support each other. Pray for the hearts of the authorities, officials, and executives. Ask Jehovah to manifest his righteousness to them and to forgive their ignorance. Ask God to spare them of his wrath, for in this day and age, they do not know what they are doing. Ask the Lord Christ to give them a spirit of repentance!&#8221;
RFA reported that several other underground churches across the communist nation were targeted by the authorities in December. Congregations in the provinces of Guangdong and Henan were raided after hosting Christmas celebrations.

More Arrests By Chinese Authorities In Christmas Eve Raid Of &#8216;Unlicensed&#8217; Church

Communism

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced this week that he has ordered the creation of a new commission to investigate the persecution of Christians worldwide and how England can work to relieve the issue. 
Bishop of Truro, the Rt Reverend Philip Mounstephen, has been tasked with leading the new group. Sky News <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/foreign-secretary-uk-must-do-more-to-protect-persecuted-christians-around-the-world-11591328">reports</a> that the commission has three goals:
<ul>
<li>Mapping the persecution of Christians in &#8220;key countries&#8221; in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.</li>
<li>Provide an &#8220;objective analysis&#8221; of the level of UK governmental support on offer.</li>
<li>Provide recommendations for a &#8220;cohesive and comprehensive policy response.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
In an op-ed written in <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/26/must-not-allow-misguided-political-correctness-stop-us-helping/">The Telegraph</a>, Hunt explained that while attending his local church, he came to the realization that &#8220;others around the world are facing death, torture and imprisonment for that very right.&#8221;
&#8220;It is distressingly poignant at Christmas to hear recent warnings that the persecution facing Christians across the globe is now most stark in the region of its birth,&#8221; he wrote, describing how the Middle East was at one time 20% Christian and now has shrunk to a disturbing 5%. He also cited the case of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37835/pakistani-catholic-woman-sentenced-death-blasphemy-hank-berrien">Asia Bibi</a>, a Pakistani Catholic woman in hiding from radical Muslims after being acquitted of violating blasphemy laws, as an inspiration for the commission. 
&#8220;Whatever the cause, we must never allow a misguided political correctness to inhibit our response to the persecution of any religious community,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;It is not in our national character to turn a blind eye to suffering. All religious minorities must be protected and the evidence demonstrates that in some countries, Christians face the greatest risk. We should be willing to state that simple fact &#8212; and adjust our policies accordingly.&#8221;
The commission has been met with praise from Hunt&#8217;s fellow Tories. Berwick-upon-Tweed MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan tweeted her support. &#8220;Thank you to @Jeremy_Hunt instituting a review of persecution of Christians around the world,&#8221; she tweeted. 
<div class="embed tweet"> </div>
Scotland MEP Nosheena Mobarik echoed those sentiments on social media, saying, &#8220;Over 700,000 Rohingya people have crossed into Bangladesh to flee persecution in the last year. I thoroughly support @jeremy_hunt in his quest to bring the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing to justice.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet"> </div>
This comes on the heels of reports that the Christian population in the Middle East &#8220;has dropped to less than 250,000,&#8221; as highlighted by The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39678/christians-are-borderline-extinct-middle-east-now-paul-bois">Paul Bois</a>. This is one of the regions Hunt&#8217;s commission will focus on. 
According to a study by the watchdog group <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/">Open Doors</a>, an organization that maps suffering of Christians globally, many Middle Eastern countries are marked &#8220;Extreme&#8221; or &#8220;Very High&#8221; on their &#8220;World Watch List&#8221; rankings when it comes to persecution. 
Asia Bibi&#8217;s home country of Pakistan is listed as number five in the top ten worst countries for Christians to live. 
&#8220;While long-standing historic churches have relative freedom in worship and religious activities, they are heavily monitored and regularly targeted for bomb attacks,&#8221; Open Doors <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/pakistan/">reported</a>. &#8220;Churches that are engaged in outreach and youth work face the worst of the persecution, although all Christians suffer from institutionalized discrimination. Occupations deemed as &#8216;dirty&#8217; and &#8216;shameful&#8217; are reserved for Christians, and many believers are victims of bonded labor. Pakistan&#8217;s notorious blasphemy laws target religious minorities but affect Christians the most, especially those who seek to evangelize.&#8221;
<div> </div>
<iframe frameborder="0"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0"></iframe>

British Foreign Secretary Orders Commission To Investigate Christian Persecution

Catholicism

England

Great Britain

Middle East

Pakistan

Chinese Pastor Wang Yi and over 100 of his congregation were arrested by law enforcement officials earlier this month, raising more concerns about the communist government&#8217;s religious crackdown. 
According to a Morning Star News <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/12/china-cracks-down-on-unofficial-church-arresting-pastor-and-100-members/">report</a>, security forces raided the 800-member &#8220;unofficial&#8221; Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. They took Pastor Wang Yi and his wife Jiang Rong into custody and arrested several church leaders on charges of &#8220;inciting subversion of state power&#8221; and for operating without registering with the authorities. 
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/asia/china-xinjiang-home-stays-intl/index.html">reports</a> that the intimidation of &#8220;unofficial&#8221; churches is commonplace for the communist government, which has also been cracking down on Uyghur Muslims. 
Yaqiu Wang, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/15/asia/wang-yi-early-rain-church-intl/index.html">CNN</a>, &#8220;Everyone who supports religious freedom should stand with Wang Yi and speak out against the Chinese government&#8217;s repression of religion.&#8221;
&#8220;Under President Xi, the government has further tightened control over Christianity in its broad efforts to &#8216;Sinicize&#8217; religion or &#8216;adopt Chinese characteristics&#8217; &#8212; in other words, to ensure that religious groups support the government and the Communist Party,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The shutdown of a Protestant church in Chengdu epitomizes the Xi Jinping government&#8217;s relentless assault on religious freedom in China.&#8221;
United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback reacted to the arrests on Twitter. &#8220;Distressing reports about another raid on Early Rain Covenant Church in #China,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;We&#8217;re deeply concerned abt the govt&#8217;s crackdown on house churches. We call on China to release leaders/congregants &amp; allow members of unregistered churches to exercise their #ReligiousFreedom rights.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Distressing reports about another raid on Early Rain Covenant Church in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/China?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#China</a>. We&#8217;re deeply concerned abt the govt&#8217;s crackdown on house churches. We call on China to release leaders/congregants &amp; allow members of unregistered churches to exercise their <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReligiousFreedom?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ReligiousFreedom</a> rights.
&#8212; Ambassador Sam Brownback (@IRF_Ambassador) <a href="https://twitter.com/IRF_Ambassador/status/1072314807263641601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom echoed Ambassador Brownback&#8217;s comments.
&#8220;USCIRF is extremely concerned by reports that on Sunday, December 9, Chinese authorities arrested Pastor Wang Yi and detained more than 100 members of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu,&#8221; they wrote in a <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases-statements/uscirf-statement-chinese-authorities-crackdown-early-rain">statement</a>. &#8220;These actions, in addition to the continued systematic repression of Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners, continue a pattern of escalating violations of religious freedom and other human rights under President Xi Jinping. USCIRF strongly condemns these actions by Chinese authorities and calls for the immediate release of Pastor Wang and all of his fellow church members.&#8221;
China has denied any sort of abuse of practicing Christians, Muslims, or other religious communities. 
&#8220;There is no arbitrary detention or lack of freedom of religion and belief,&#8221; a representative told the U.N. in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/13/asia/china-xinjiang-uyghur-united-nations-intl/index.html">August</a>. 
Pastor Wang and his wife face up to five years in prison for the charges issued by Chinese authorities. Their eleven-year-old son is reportedly staying with Wang&#8217;s mother as the trial progresses. Jiang Rong has not been seen since her arrest. 
The Christians right group Open Doors USA ranks China&#8217;s persecution level &#8220;<a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/china/">High</a>,&#8221; saying that &#8220;While the distinction between government-registered and unregistered churches used to be a major factor in whether or not they were persecuted, this is no longer the case. All Christians are slandered.&#8221; They added: &#8220;Spouses are sometimes forced to divorce their Christian partners, and some children are taken from their Christian parents. Public baptisms are impossible, and events such as weddings and burials involving known Christians are denied by imams and lamas.&#8221;

Over 100 Christians Arrested In China, Pastor Faces 5 Years In Prison

Law Enforcement

Muslims

The Egyptian government voted down a referendum to remove religious affiliation from their citizen ID cards earlier this week, a move that many believe will usher in further persecution of the Christian minority living in the African nation. 
Egypt has forced its citizens to identify their religious affiliations since the 1950s, a move that many have suggested makes it easier to target religious minorities. The proposed bill would have ended that requirement. It received widespread support from human rights groups within the country who were disappointed by its defeat.
The head of policy for the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms Sherif Azer told the <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/12/discrimination-against-christians-in-egypt-reflects-deeper-issues/">Morning Star News</a>, &#8220;Whenever there is a situation that requires showing your ID &#8230; you would be categorized right away.&#8221; 
Azer added he thinks it was voted down out of fear of inter-faith marriages and other &#8216;societal&#8217; problems perceived by the mostly Islamic legislature. 
&#8220;This is something no &#8230; conservative or even moderate Muslim would accept,&#8221; Azer said speaking of Christian men marrying Muslim women. 
&#8220;They would never say it specifically, but they would say it in the context that taking off the religion from the ID would cause chaos and would cause some social problems and will bring issues that we are not willing to face,&#8221; he added. 
Christians, Muslims, and Jews are required to include their religious affiliation on their government ID cards. No other religion is listed as a choice for those applying for an ID. 
Opposition of the bill ranged from the mundane, such as religion places no value on citizenship, to the ridiculous, such as the wrong religion could be placed on a headstone. 
&#8220;There is no way that families would be confused,&#8221; Azer responded.
The bill was introduced in November by Member of Parliament Ismail Nasreddin, an independent from South Cairo&#8217;s district of Helwan. He said at the <a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/25895.aspx">time</a>, &#8220;The draft was motivated by what President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said before the World Youth Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh on 4 November &#8212; that every citizen has the right to worship or not to worship what he or she likes, and that religious beliefs are a personal matter in which the state should not interfere.&#8221;
He added, &#8220;The national charter states that Egypt is a civil state that upholds the values of citizenship. To make this a reality the first thing we need to do is eliminate all forms of religious discrimination.&#8221;
Proponents of the move suggested it would protect Christians from facing discrimination at traffic stops, hospital visits, and job searches.
&#8220;You need to have a government that would have a proper vision of a society based on citizenship, equality and human rights, but I don&#8217;t think this current regime has any idea of what that would be like,&#8221; Azer explained. &#8220;In practice it is just sweet talk, and there is nothing on the ground happening.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38070/islamic-state-claims-responsibility-ambush-murder-jacob-airey">Coptic Christians</a> have been frequently targeted for violence by radical Muslims, with six murdered in an ambush in November. 
The ID measure has been proposed since 2006 and has gained widespread support from various organizations including the human rights group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (<a href="https://eipr.org/en/press/2006/08/removing-religion-national-ids-positive-symbolic-step-respect-freedom-religion-only">EIPR</a>), who issued a press release in support. 
&#8220;Removing religion from national ID cards would undoubtedly be a step forward as it would send a clear message that religion is a private matter and that the state is not interested in the religious affiliation of citizens except where required by law,&#8221; the statement read.

Egypt Fails To Remove Religious Affiliation On ID Cards, Further Endangering Christians

Egypt

Hundreds attended a funeral last Friday in Minya, a city in eastern Egypt, following a deadly ambush where radical Islamic terrorists ambushed a group of Christians leaving a monastery on a microbus.
Six Coptic Christians were killed, according to <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/11/islamist-terrorists-ambush-kill-seven-christians-near-monastery-in-minya-egypt/">Morning Star News</a>. Two children, a fifteen-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl were among the casualties of the attack near the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor.
A separate funeral was held in Sohag for a seventh victim, Asaad Farouk Labib Ghaly, an Anglican who was attending the monastery. His wife and four kids were among the mourners.
The BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46082927">reports</a> that an Egyptian-based cell of the terrorist organization Islamic State took responsibility for the murders, claiming that it was retaliation for the imprisonment of &#8220;our chaste sisters.&#8221; No clarification was given.
Government officials claimed that one of the routes to the monastery had been closed due to threats from radical Muslims, forcing the bus to take the alternative road where it was ambushed along with two other buses.
Priest of Mar Girgis Church Rad Noseer Mitri said at the funeral. &#8220;We would like to tell them [the attackers] that we still love them despite what happened. We have a question though, why are you doing this to us? We do not commit malice towards anyone,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We serve our church and nation in complete honesty. We play no role in terrorism or hate. We only play a role in serving our church and country like any other people all around the world.&#8221;
Bishop Makarios of Minya said in his remarks, &#8220;There is a mix of sadness and pain; sadness as these painful events are being repeated and pain because Copts are part of this homeland and part of its fabric.&#8221;
He added that the Coptic Christians would &#8220;not forget the promises of officials, including the president of the republic, that the criminals will be punished.&#8221;
The Egyptian government provided security for the funeral, but as BBC News reports, the guards were met with boos from the attendees.
Michel, who attended the funeral to commemorate a neighbor killed in the attack, expressed his concern for the safety of the Christian community.
&#8220;What do these terrorists want? Do they want us to hate Muslims?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Should I carry a gun with me when I go to pray or when I&#8217;m at home? Because I could die if I go to church.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/coptic-christians-killed-bus-attack-egypt/story?id=58924168">ABCNews</a>, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attended the service, stating, &#8220;I mourn with great sorrow the victims who fell today at the traitorous hands that seek to undermine the nation&#8217;s fabric.&#8221;
&#8220;We are determined to fight terrorism and catch the culprits,&#8221; he added.
President al-Sisi also held a moment of silence for the victims identified by the Coptic Orthodox Church as Kamal Yousef Shehata, Reda Yousef Shehata, Nady Yousef Shehata, Bishoy Reda Yousef Shehata, Maria Kamal Yousef Shehata and Bousy Milad Yousef Shehata.
On Sunday, the government announced that they had engaged in a firefight with the IS cell believed to be responsible for Friday&#8217;s ambush, killing nineteen of the terrorists.

Islamic State Claims Responsibility For Ambush, Murder Of Seven Christians In Egypt

Islamic State (ISIS)

Christians, citizens and at least one aid worker were brutally murdered by radical Islamic terrorists with ties to Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram in Kenya earlier this month. International Christian Concern (ICC), a group that tracks attacks on Christians around the world, first brought attention to the murders.
According to <a href="https://www.persecution.org/2018/09/18/boko-haram-executes-aid-worker-threatens-execute-leah-sharibu-others/">ICC</a>, the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped several women in Kenya, including International Committee of Red Cross aid worker Saifura Khorsa, a Muslim, back in March. This alarming incident turned tragic when Khorsa was executed this week. ICC reports:
<blockquote>
Saifura was executed early this week by the terrorists. This comes less than a month after Saifura and her fellow ICRC captives begged President Buhari to help rescue them, and that they were on the final warning from the group. Now in a video released by the group, Boko Haram has claimed that if they are not given ransoms within the next month, they will not only execute the other two aid workers, but will also murder Leah Sharibu. Leah, a 16 year old schoolgirl, is the lone captive from the Dapchi incident earlier this year.
</blockquote>
Amnesty International strongly condemned the murder and called for action against the radical group, the <a href="http://dailypost.ng/2018/09/18/boko-haram-amnesty-international-reacts-killing-saifura-calls-immediate-action-insurgents/">Daily Post Nigeria</a> reports.
&#8220;Amnesty International strongly condemns the recent killing of Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa, a midwife and aid worker, by Boko Haram,&#8221; the statement reads. &#8220;By this horrific act, Boko Haram has once again proven its brazen disregard for the sanctity of life which must not go unpunished.&#8221;
This comes on the heels of the reported murder of two Christian bus passengers, who were executed by seven members of the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab on Friday, September 14. 
According to <a href="https://www.persecution.org/2018/09/17/al-shabaab-executes-two-christian-bus-passengers/">ICC</a>, seven radical Islamic terrorists stopped a bus on its way to Garissa in Northeast Kenya. They forced the passengers to disembark and separated three individuals who did not have &#8220;Muslim-sounding&#8221; names. When two of them refused to say the Islamic Shahada because of their Christian faith, they were tied up and murdered. 
ICC called on the local governments to help end the violence against Christians. &#8220;The Kenyan and Somali Governments must continue to work to end the horrible atrocities that this evil organization commits and protect the lives of Christians in Kenya,&#8221; the group said in a statement posted on its website.
Open Doors, an organization that tracks Christian persecution based on countries, marks Kenya as a &#8220;very high persecution&#8221; nation due to the violence enacted by the radical Islamic <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/kenya/">groups</a> in the African nation.

Christians, Aid Worker Brutally Murdered By Radical Islamic Terrorists In Kenya

Over 200 innocent civilians were mass-murdered by radical Muslim Fulani herdsmen outside the city of Jos, Nigeria in the Plateau state region. 
In a series of attacks taking place June 23-24, the Islamic extremists raided ten predominantly Christian communities where they assaulted and killed men, women, and children, claiming that the attacks were in retaliation for cattle thefts, according to <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/06/slaughter-of-more-than-200-people-in-plateau-state-nigeria-shocks-christians/">Morning Star News</a>.
In several villages, church buildings were targeted to be burned down and their pastors victimized during the attack. 
Local law enforcement claimed that 86 people were murdered, but according to Morning Star News, whose correspondent visited two morgues in Jos, the bodies of victims numbered over 200. 
Survivors also dispute the low number, with one victim telling the press, &#8220;In Nghar village alone, about 70 corpses of Christians were recovered and the entire village has been burnt down by the Fulani herdsmen.&#8221;
No arrests have been made for the attacks. 
Plateau Gov. Simon Lalong denounced the assaults, saying, &#8220;The gory pictures of the killing of innocent citizens, women and children continue to torment our hearts, and it sends the serious message that something drastic needs to be done comprehensively, to nip once and for all the ugly menace of attacks that has come to be associated with suspected militia herdsmen.&#8221; 
He added, &#8220;These re-occurring attacks have regrettably opened up space for all manners of criminality by criminal elements and conflict merchants, who engage daily in cattle rustling, theft, banditry, gun running and other forms of crimes amongst our citizens.&#8221;
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attacks, but there have been calls for Buhari to either increase security or resign. 
Human rights advocate Femi Falana called on the president to arrest the perpetrators, or the lack of prosecution &#8220;will attract an institution of a case against the federal and state governments for condoning crimes against humanity and genocide.&#8221; He continued, &#8220;If Your Excellency does not take appropriate action to stop the killings in Plateau, we shall not hesitate to report the authorities of the federal government and the Plateau state government to the Special Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for condoning crimes against humanity and genocide.&#8221;
President Buhari has rebuffed calls for his resignation, claiming that he has increased security during his tenure, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/27/africa/nigeria-plateau-killings-intl/index.html">CNN</a>.
This is just the latest is a series of attacks by radical Muslims living in the African nation. In <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/27823/radical-muslims-slaughter-nigerian-christians-jacob-airey">February</a>, 19 Christians living in the Numan and Demsa areas were murdered by the same radical group of Muslim extremists. 
According to the Open Doors&#8217; 2018 <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WWL2018-BookletNew.pdf">World Watch List</a>, an organization tracking the persecution of Christians, Nigeria places 14th in the ranking.

Radical Muslims Murder Scores of Civilians In Nigeria

Crime

Murder

Two Christians were brutally murdered and one viciously attacked by radical Islamist Fulani herdsmen near the village of Kwall located in the Plateau state in Nigeria. 
On June 10, the three friends, Ibrahim Weyi, Larry More, and Samuel Weyi, were traveling home on a motorcycle after a Sunday worship service at the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in the Bassa area when they were ambushed by the Islamic extremists, according to a Morning Star News <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/06/two-christians-ambushed-killed-in-central-nigeria/">report</a>. 
Ibrahim Weyi and More were hacked to death by machetes while Samuel Weyi remains in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit in the city of Jos. 
A local resident explained, &#8220;Fulani herdsmen have continued to kill innocent Christians in our villages, yet the Nigerian government has not taken proactive measures to end the onslaught.&#8221;
Local authorities have stated that there is an investigation into the brutal murders, but that has not given the Christians any comfort. 
ECWA Senior Pastor Sunday Zibeh told the press, &#8220;In these cases, the victims were either ambushed and killed by the herdsmen or attacked in their homes at night.&#8221;
Rev. Zibeh believes that the government is not interested in protecting the shrinking Christian community for political and religious reasons. 
&#8220;The sad reality is that the Nigerian government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari, himself a Muslim and a Fulani man, has not acted in any way to end these attacks,&#8221; he said. 
This marks a growing safety concern for Christians living in Nigeria. As The Daily Wire reported in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/27823/radical-muslims-slaughter-nigerian-christians-jacob-airey">March</a>, 19 civilians were murdered by Islamic extremists tied to the Fulani herdsmen.

Two Christians Murdered, One Assaulted By Radical Islamists In Nigeria

A group of at least 25 Hindu extremists attacked Christians attending the Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in Baburia Kheda, Uttar Pradesh state, located in Northern India. 
Last month, radicals assaulted innocent civilians who had gathered to worship. The attackers did not spare women, children, or the elderly as they charged into neighboring homes seeking to murder lead Pastor Kamlesh Kumar, who was successfully hidden away, Morning Star News <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/05/pastors-wife-hides-husband-from-hindu-extremists-seeking-to-kill-him-in-northern-india/">reports</a>. 
Kumar said in an interview, &#8220;They manhandled women, beat them, pulled their clothes, spoke to them in a filthy language and disgraced them.&#8221;
The extremists assaulted people with wooden clubs, sending several people to the hospital with severe injuries. 
Congregation member Ram Prasad, 55, tried to stop the attackers, who then seized him and beat him into unconsciousness.
&#8220;I saw Ram Prasad fall on the floor bleeding profusely after being hit by a brick, but the attackers continued kicking him and hitting him with wooden sticks until he lay motionless on the floor,&#8221; Pastor Kumar&#8217;s wife Shashikala said.
When the attack was over, the congregation contacted local law enforcement, but when the police arrived, they instead blamed the church members practicing their faith. 
Pastor Kumar said, &#8220;Instead of taking action against our plight, the police began to question us as to, &#8216;Why are you running a church? You are not supposed to worship here&#8230; otherwise you will get killed and we can do nothing to help you.&#8217;&#8221;
He went to say that the police interrogated church members as suspects in a crime instead of victims of a brutal assault. 
Law enforcement officials filed a First Information Report, but have not proceeded with the investigation or made any arrests. 
The Hindu extremists living in India have ramped up their targeting of pastors and ministers. Earlier this year, radicals violently attacked a pastor and his wife living in the state of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/28582/extremists-violently-assault-pastor-and-his-wife-jacob-airey">Tamil Nadu</a>.

Hindu Extremists Assault Church Members In Northern India, Force Pastor Into Hiding

Foreign Policy

Hinduism

India

The Christian community in Nepal was rocked earlier this month when three churches were burned down and another was bombed. Though no one was injured, the property damage was catastrophic for all four congregations. 
Morning Star News <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/05/christians-in-nepal-suspect-hindu-extremists-in-sudden-attacks-on-churches/">reports</a>:
<blockquote>
The Hebron Church building in the eastern hilly region was set on fire on May 9, Emmanuel Church&#8217;s building in western Nepal&#8217;s Doti District was burned on May 10, and the Kanchanpur Emmanuel Church building in the midwest hilly region was set ablaze on May 11. Before midnight on May 12, the Mahima Church building in Dhangadhi, in western Nepal, was bombed. 
</blockquote>
Thousands of dollars of equipment, furniture, windows, and infrastructure were damaged.
Pastor Dhirendra Rana, senior pastor of Kanchanpur Emmanuel Church said in an interview, &#8220;The miscreants broke the lock of the church and formed a heap of all the stuff present in the building, including the records of the church, 300 kilograms of grain and electric appliances, and they set everything ablaze.&#8221;
The local police released tepid statements stating that the Biplab Group, a communist political party in Nepal, is under suspicion. The Christian community, however, is suspicious that a group of extremist Hindus are behind it. They cite recent social media posts with the hashtag &#8220;Esai Karan ke Virudh Hindu Jagaran Abhiyaan,&#8221; translated as &#8220;Hindu Awakening Against Conversion&#8221; as evidence.
The communities affected by the attacks have expressed disapproval at the slow speed of the investigation. Though authorities have met with and taken statements from the church leadership and congregants, the investigation is seemingly stalled. No suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made. 
Chair of the Religious Liberty Forum Nepal Tanka Subedi is convinced that the government has been slow-walking the investigation.
&#8220;They have not made any arrests yet, as it seems that they have been clearly notified to not carry out arrests in these cases,&#8221; he told Morning Star News.

PERSECUTION: Four Churches Attacked In Nepal By Extremists

Police

Radical Muslims launched a terror attack in East Java, Indonesia, assaulting three churches and killing at least a dozen innocent civilians.
The attack took place on Sunday, May 14, when a family of suicide bombers associated with the Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a terror cell with ties to ISIS and Al Qaeda, entered three churches and detonated explosive devices within a very short time of one another, according to <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/05/islamic-extremist-suicide-bomber-family-attacks-three-churches-in-east-java-indonesia/">Morning Star News</a>. 
The Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church, Diponegoro Indonesian Christian Church, and Santa Maria Catholic Church were targeted by the leader of a JAD, his two sons, and his wife, who took their two young daughters into the third church. They both perished in the explosion. 
According to the local police, two other churches were targeted, but the bombs failed to detonate. 
Another explosive device detonated prematurely, killing a woman and her teenage son in a Sidoarjo low-income housing district. The police located the bomber and killed him during a stand-off. 
Islamic State has taken responsibility for the attacks. 
On Monday, a separate attack by alleged members of JAD took place. The perpetuators crashed motorcycles into a nearby police station, detonating bombs. Though only the terrorists died, an eight-year-old girl was wounded along with at least ten police officers.
The combined death tolls of the attacks came to at least a dozen innocent civilians dead and another 40 seriously injured. 
The police told the local media that they killed four suspected members of JAD during a raid and arrested two others. 
According to Morning Star News, this is the fifth largest attack in Indonesia launched by Islamic State since 2016.

Radical Muslim Suicide Bombers Attack Churches, Police In Indonesia

Al Qaeda

Indonesia

On Tuesday, Pastor Abraham Topno was kidnapped by a group of unidentified gunmen in Eastern India near the Ranchi District, Jharkhand state. He was later found murdered, his body mutilated, and his head completely severed from his body.
The pastor was riding in a public carrier back to his home in the village of Kubasal when he and his driver were attacked by a group of unknown assailants who pulled the minister from the vehicle and began to beat him, UCA News <a href="https://www.ucanews.com/news/body-of-indian-pastor-found-beheaded-maoists-suspected/82204">reports</a>. After accusing him of being a police informant, they shot and beheaded Topno.
Aman Christochit Herenz, the nephew of the pastor, spoke to <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/05/gunmen-execute-gruesome-killing-of-pastor-in-jharkhand-state-india/">Morning Star News</a> about the brutal killing. Citing the information given to him, he explained that Pastor Topno and the driver&#8217;s face were covered. The kidnappers identified themselves as a group of radical Maoists and began shouting, &#8220;Death to police spy!&#8221; They allowed the driver to flee. He then reported the crime to his family, 
&#8220;His ears were covered along with his face, so he could not make out their conversation,&#8221; Herenz said. &#8220;The Maoists then slit the neck of my uncle and chopped off his head from his body and set the vehicle on fire while not interacting with the driver at all.&#8221;
He continued, describing his actions during the night. &#8220;I know it is a Maoist area and, sensing trouble, I returned home, not knowing that it was the same vehicle that my uncle was riding that was in flames, and my uncle lying dead beside it.&#8221;
He emphatically denies that Topno was a police informer.
Though the Maoists have taken responsibility for the brutal killing, Herenz suspects that radical Hindus could also be involved, although there is no evidence to confirm that at this time. 
Topno was a minister who had served the area for over 20 years at the Pentecostal Church of God. He leaves behind a widow, Huldah Hareing Topno, to whom he had been married for 15 years.

Gunmen Brutally Murder And Mutilate Christian Minister In Eastern India

Hate Crime

Two Kachin Christian pastors, who have been jailed for more than a year in a Myanmar prison following their criticism of airstrikes the military launched near civilian structures including churches, have been released.
Pastors Dumdaw Nawng Lat and Langjaw Gam Seng were among 8,500 prisoners granted amnesty by the newly-elected President U Win Myint, Morning Star News <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2018/04/two-pastors-in-burma-freed-from-prison/">reports</a>. 
Mong Maung town Pastor Zau Ra celebrated their release. &#8220;We are happy that they were freed, but they spent one year and five months in prison,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is not good for them, their family and even for the convention. They were arrested for being suspicious and sentenced into prison. It was a waste of time, and it was not fair.&#8221;
&#8220;It is important that respective authorities make sure that this wouldn&#8217;t be happening in the future, as we are in peace-building process,&#8221; he said, adding that the pastors are in good health. 
&#8220;This would harm relationship and trust-building between the government and civilians.&#8221;
The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/23022/human-rights-watch-calls-myanmar-drop-charges-jacob-airey">reported</a> that the two ministers were arrested on Christmas Eve in 2016 by army prosecutor Maj. Kyaw Zin Htun, who accused them of violating Unlawful Associations Act and the Export and Import Law. 
The Human Rights Watch organization accused the government of retaliating against the men after they showed journalists buildings that had bombed in an army raid and immediately called for their release.
The U.S. Embassy in Yangon issued a statement expressing &#8220;concern&#8221; over the treatment of the ministers at the time the arrests were made.

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