The genocide of Christians at the hands of Muslims continued to rage throughout the month. Muslim "Fulani jihadists" slaughtered 2,500 Christians and "burned down or wantonly destroyed" 18,200 churches in just the first six months of 2023. Fifty million Christians have further been "forced out of their ancestral homes and lands into displacement and homelessness." -- news.band, June 3, 2023 - Nigeria

"All I can say is that war has been declared on Christians in Mangu [Plateau State, Nigeira]. The terrorists are just attacking and killing Christians in most of the communities around Mangu... Christians here really need help." -- Markus Artu, a member of the Mangu Local Government Council, after 150 Christians were killed in the first three weeks of June; Morning Star News, June 27, 2023 - Nigeria

On June 7, the mutilated body of Shazia Imran Masih, a 40-year-old Christian widow, was found. Earlier, four Muslims had "abducted, gang-raped and killed" her "for refusing to convert to Islam and marry the primary suspect." – Morning Star News, July 7, 2023 -- Pakistan

"The accused are very influential, and they have been persistently threatening us...." -- Zafar Masih, a member of a local evangelical church, Moring Star News, July 3, 2023-- Pakistan

"Indonesia's Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 (SKB) makes requirements for obtaining permits nearly impossible for most new churches. Even when small, new churches are able to meet the requirement of obtaining 90 signatures of approval from congregation members and 60 from area households of different religions, they are often met with delays or lack of response from officials. Well-organized radical Muslims secretly mobilize outside people to intimidate and pressure members of minority faiths." – Moring Star News, June 23, 2023-- Indonesia

"We.... are not building a church. So what's the problem? When we pray, where is the problem?" -- Elysson Lase, Christian woman, Morning Star News, June 23, 2023 -- Indonesia

Egypt's "contempt of religion" law -- supposedly meant to protect the sanctity not just of Islam, but of Christianity and Judaism as well, is a farce.... [T]his law exists solely for the benefit of Islam...." – Report, wataninet.com, June 19, 2023 -- Egypt

"Some of the more enlightened [Muslims] and Copts responded by asking why the alleged response by Abanoub Imad were to be considered as a reason to arrest him and put him under trial [even if he did indeed post them], when it was simply a reaction to insults against Christianity? Why are those who insulted Christianity in the first place not to be tried as well? And why are Christians always the only ones to be held accountable for contempt of religions, even though there are countless pages/sites that insult Christianity non-stop?" – Report, wataninet.com, June 19, 2023 -- Egypt

Today's inflationary crisis in Iran may be more political in nature than economic.

The sorry state of the Iranian economy and the inflation that is increasing the number of poor Iranians by an average of 10 percent a year is rooted in a political strategy that puts the interests of the dominant ideology ahead of the interests of Iran as a normal country.

As repeatedly put by the "Supreme Guide," that strategy has two key aims: driving the United States out of the Middle East, or "West Asia" that Khamenei has borrowed from Russian political lexicon, and wiping Israel off the world map. In pursuit of those aims, Tehran is forced to maintain increasingly costly surrogates in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and, more recently in a number of pro-Russian African states. The problem is that those surrogates don't want the Iranian national money, rial, and insist on getting crisp greenbacks. Thus, Iran needs a constant flow of American dollars, precisely the currency that they claim they want to dethrone as the global money.

The Islamic Republic of Iran doesn't spend its dollars as wisely as private citizens. Its dollars end up in the pockets of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hashed al-Shaabi, Asaeb ahl el-Haq and militant Shiite groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan and West Africa. The dollars that the "Supreme Guide" earns with so much difficulty are also used to pay what is left of Bashar al-Assad's army, party and administration.

Fasten your seat-belts for the first hyperinflationary freak-show caused by ideological lunacy.