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In this mailing:
* Raymond Ibrahim: "Such Things Should Not Happen": Persecution of Christians, April 2020
* Amir Taheri: China is Sending Mixed Signals


** "Such Things Should Not Happen": Persecution of Christians, April 2020 ([link removed])
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by Raymond Ibrahim • May 31, 2020 at 5:00 am
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* "What is the crime of these innocent people against Fulani herdsmen?... For how long shall we continue to beg the government and the security agencies to come to the aid of our people?" — Local resident of one of the villages that was ravaged, Morningstar News, April 9, 2020, Nigeria.
* "The insurgents have so far mainly targeted isolated villages, killing more than 900 people... The unrest has forced hundreds of thousands of locals to flee...." — The Guardian, April 22, 2020, Mozambique.
* On April 21, Christian convert and human rights activist Mary Mohammadi was sentenced to three months in prison and flogging [10 lashes] — above and beyond what she had already experienced — due to her criticism of the regime's violations against human rights.... During her hearing, the judge harassed her about her conversion to Christianity even though charges against her had nothing to do with religion. — The Christian Post, April 22, 2020, Iran.
* As occurred during the height of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, "jihadist rebels" continue to confiscate Christian properties in the name of "sharia." — Al Masdar News, April 25, 2020, Syria.

On April 14, Osama El Hannouny, a man with a history of anti-Christian hate crimes, tried to burn down Sacred Heart Church in Palos Hills, Illinois. Surveillance tapes indicate that he knew the church was occupied. Firefighters quickly managed to extinguish the flames. (Image source: Mike F./Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of April 2020:

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: The first two days of April opened with machete-wielding Muslim Fulani herdsmen murdered at least 13 Christians. "[W]e woke up to bury seven people burnt to death ... from an overnight attack," one source said. Those killed "are mostly elderly Christians who were unable to escape as members of the community ran into surrounding bushes during the attack."

Then, on April 7, Muslim Fulani herdsmen slaughtered a pastor and three members of his congregation, including a 10-year-old boy. The pastor, Matthew Tagwai, who was murdered in his home, is survived by a pregnant wife and two small children.

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** China is Sending Mixed Signals ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • May 31, 2020 at 4:00 am
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* [I]t is clear that Beijing is frightened of the contagion of democracy not only from Hong Kong but also from Taiwan, which has shown that a highly prosperous and reasonably democratic "China" need not remain a pipedream.
* Trouble is that the US does not have a coherent, strategically meaningful, policy towards China.... Imposing largely symbolic sanctions is like parking your car because you don't know where you want to go.

Is China frightening or is it frightened? An examination of decisions made in last week's annual session of the National People's Congress (pictured), reveals that she may be both. Or to put it another way, as on occasions in the past decades of Communist rule, China could become frightening because it is frightened. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Is China frightening or is it frightened?

An examination of decisions made in last week's annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), reveals that she may be both. Or to put it another way, as on occasions in the past decades of Communist rule, China could become frightening because it is frightened.

Billed as a parliament in the Western media, the NPC is a strange beast.

It is certainly meant to approve draft laws submitted by the leadership and, in theory at least, could weigh on policy debates and act as watchdog over the general state of things in the People's Republic.

However, equally certainly, it cannot be regarded as a parliament in the generally accepted sense of the term. Yet, it is not as some Sinpohobes assert, a mere rubber-stamp either. It may be a small aquarium compared to the huge ocean that is China, but it does provide an opportunity to see the fish allowed to swim in it, and to assert the size of each.

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