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In this mailing:
* Raymond Ibrahim: 'A Gory Christmas": Christians Slaughtered in the Nigerian Genocide
* Amir Taheri: Gaza War: It isn't Over Until it is Over


** 'A Gory Christmas": Christians Slaughtered in the Nigerian Genocide ([link removed])
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by Raymond Ibrahim • January 7, 2024 at 5:00 am
* "Every two hours [in Nigeria], a Christian is killed for their faith." — Open Doors, April 22, 2022.
* [T]he Associated Press (AP) failed to mention that the massacres occurred during Christmas, just as it failed to mention the identities of the attackers (Muslims) and their victims (Christians). Rather, it presented the conflict, as many commentators increasingly do, as a supposedly regrettable byproduct of climate change...
* "It's tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn't a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting 'Allahu Akbar!' and screaming 'Death to Christians.'" — Sister Monica Chikwe, Nigerian nun, cruxnow.com, August 4, 2019.
* In 2020, President Donald J. Trump placed Nigeria on the State Department's List of Countries of Particular Concern — that is, nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom. Under President Joseph R. Biden, however, the State Department removed Nigeria... from the list.
* [F]or the mainstream media and many politicians, black lives — well over 50,000 and counting — apparently do not matter. At least not when those lives are Christian and being slaughtered by Muslims.

Muslims are now openly committing genocide against Christians in Nigeria, as confirmed by international observers. For the mainstream media and many politicians, black lives — well over 50,000 and counting — apparently do not matter. At least not when those lives are Christian and being slaughtered by Muslims. Pictured: The bloodstained floor of St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria, on June 5, 2022, the day Islamic terrorists murdered more than 50 Christians who were peacefully worshipping there. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Today, January 7, 2024, marks the Eastern Orthodox Christmas, according to the Julian calendar. It seems an appropriate time to recall that less than two weeks ago, on December 25, 2023, the more familiar Roman Catholic and Protestant Christmas was being celebrated in the West. This winter, however, festivities were cancelled. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, was a ghost town . "This year," said Brother John Vinh a Franciscan monk, "without the Christmas tree and without lights, there's just darkness." Alas, for many other Christians, Christmas was also just darkness.

While around much of the world, the holiday was being celebrated with peace and joy, in Nigeria, starting on Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day, Muslims massacred nearly 200 Christians.

During this holy time, "well-armed" Muslim Fulani tribesmen hacked, stabbed, riddled with bullets, and burned alive their Christian victims, many of whom were in the process of celebrating Christmas.

Continue Reading Article ([link removed])


** Gaza War: It isn't Over Until it is Over ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • January 7, 2024 at 4:00 am
* The usual suspects in the Middle East peacemaking industry are already beginning to recycle their old and discredited ideas. President Joe Biden, sounding like a dummy for the ventriloquist Barack Obama, is talking of "a two-state solution: one for the Israelis and one for the Palestinians."
* The optimists forget that what turned Gaza into the hell-hole it has become wasn't economic hardship. Before October 7, Gaza had a lower unemployment rate than the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt. In the first two quarters of 2023, the Gaza economy grew by four percent while that of the West Bank remained almost static.
* One Iranian IRGC analyst, writing in the force's Fars News site last week, indicates that Tehran does not expect a Hamas victory but wants it to "continue fighting as long as possible" so that more and more Israelis see that the best option is to leave.
* Tehran also promises to throw more of its regional assets, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis and various outfits in Iraq and Syria into the fray, albeit in small doses so that Iran not be dragged into the war itself.

What turned Gaza into the hell-hole it has become wasn't economic hardship. Thanks to international aid and donations, Gaza ranked ahead of Iran as percentage of GDP allocated to health and education. At the same time, Hamas did not need to fund its military and the tunnels it dug through taxation, as Tehran covered much of the cost. Pictured: A terrorist in a tunnel under the Gaza Strip, on April 17, 2022. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)

As the war in Gaza enters its third month, the short-attention span syndrome that characterizes our age swings in full gear to reduce it to a version of background noise. You might have noticed that the war is bowing out of front pages and dropped down several slots in TV news bulletins.

Even more interestingly we are beginning to hear growing chatter about the day-after of this tragic conflict, with the assumption that the actual fighting is heading for a close as the subtext.

The usual suspects in the Middle East peacemaking industry are already beginning to recycle their old and discredited ideas. President Joe Biden, sounding like a dummy for the ventriloquist Barack Obama, is talking of "a two-state solution: one for the Israelis and one for the Palestinians."

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is forming a multinational committee to work out a "peace formula" acceptable to both sides, not being clear about who the two sides might be.

Continue Reading Article ([link removed])

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