[link removed]

In this mailing:
* Raymond Ibrahim: 'Tortured and Gang-Raped': The Persecution of Christians, July 2025
* Amir Taheri: Iran's Surprise New Neighbor


** 'Tortured and Gang-Raped': The Persecution of Christians, July 2025 ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------

by Raymond Ibrahim • August 24, 2025 at 5:00 am
* Muslim extremists now forbid Christians from farming, and punish defiance with shootings, kidnappings, and threats against families. Thousands remain displaced, living in overcrowded shelters with no food or medical care..... Despite military presence, extremist Muslim militias continue to terrorize rural Christian communities with near total impunity. — persecution.org, July 1, 2025 — Nigeria.
* Entire families were found burned alive in their homes. "They came from all sides, shooting and setting houses on fire. Anyone who ran was shot.".... "The fact that this community... reported the imminent attack to the STF military officers at that military checkpoint makes it more worrisome, suspicious and raises many questions." — Farmer Ezekiel Dung, persecution.org, July 22, 2025 — Nigeria.
* "[K]illings, kidnappings and robberies persist without real measures being implemented to curb them," highlighting the Syrian government's failure to protect Christian and other non-Muslim communities. — syriacpress.com, July 10, 2025 — Syria.
* The situation in Syria's Christian Valley remains dire. Locals who once defended their communities now face persecution despite promises that Christians would be spared. One resident... explained that his home was "destroyed" and "looted," and that authorities had "placed an arrest on his piece of land so he could not sell it." Similar measures were taken against his colleague.... [T]hose who resisted the jihadist forces are now being targeted. — dzen.ru, July 6, 2025 — Syria.
* According to a July 6 report, the situation in Syria's Christian Valley remains dire. Locals who once defended their communities now face persecution despite promises that Christians would be spared. One resident, Zhoryk, former head of a self-defense unit in the valley, explained that his home was "destroyed" and "looted," and that authorities had "placed an arrest on his piece of land so he could not sell it." Similar measures were taken against his colleague... [T]hose who resisted the jihadist forces are now being targeted..... The report illustrates the systematic targeting of Christians who defended their communities: despite prior promises of protection, those who opposed Muslim militants are being punished under the new regime, their homes and property seized, and their leadership removed. — dzen.ru, July 6, 2025 — Syria.
* According to a July 15 report, jihadists and other terrorists loyal to the nation's new "president," Ahmed al-Sharaa, attacked the Church of San Michel, a Greek Orthodox church. Militants looted it before setting the church on fire. Local sources described the assault as part of the new regime's ongoing campaign against non-Sunni populations. — greekcitytimes.com, July 15, 2025 — Syria.
* Turkey announced that the Armenian Cathedral of Ani — a UNESCO-listed site and "once the crown jewel of medieval Armenian architecture" — will reopen not as a church but as a mosque.... — zartonkmeda.com, July 4, 2025 — Turkey.
* World Heritage Watch called on UNESCO to place the Saint Catherine Area in Egypt on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger due to Egypt's continued failure to uphold its World Heritage obligations. — orthodoxtimes.com, July 7, 2025 — Egypt.
* [T]he church in Arudy was desecrated with excrement (an old jihadist tactic). Feces were smeared on the inside and outside of the church, and on its altar. Parish priest Father Armand Paillé called it "deliberate and symbolic," saying vandals sought to "reduce the church and the faithful to what they left behind." — intoleranceagainstchristians.edu, July 13, 2025 — France.
* [T]hrongs of Muslims surrounding the Helsinki Cathedral, while waving Islamic State flags and engaging in provocative behavior. — x.com, July 9, 2025 — Finland.
* [H]undreds if not thousands of Muslims encircle[ed] Melbourne's cathedral while waving Islamic flags and engaging in militant behavior. The X account of Christian Emergency Alliance adds that "These are acts of intimidation and insulting attempts at domination. Christians must not tolerate these disrespectful acts of intolerance." — x.com, July 8, 2025 — Australia.

A video posted at X.com on July 9 shows throngs of Muslims at Helsinki Cathedral, in Finland, waving Islamic State flags and engaging in provocative behavior. Pictured: Helsinki Cathedral. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)

The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of July 2025.

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: Below are some of the more notable incidents of the ongoing genocide being carried out against Christians in Nigeria:

Continue Reading Article ([link removed])


** Iran's Surprise New Neighbor ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------

by Amir Taheri • August 24, 2025 at 4:00 am
* On October 10, as the committee that chooses the Nobel Peace Prize laureate meets, US President Donald Trump is expected to be in Transcaucasia to inaugurate work on a 166-kilometer-long railway line over one of the world's most rugged terrains.
* The headline of the government daily newspaper in Iran the other day was "America Become Our Neighbor!"
* [U]nder the Trump "pathway" deal, the border area on the Armenian side to the depth of five kilometers is leased to the US for 99 years. Under the memorandum of understanding by Trump with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev and his Armenian counterpart Nikol Pashinyan, the actual border posts will be manned by Armenian guards. But the US will be in control of the entire border by creating a Pathway Zone like the Panama Canal Zone in Central America.
* Tehran is also sore that it wasn't even consulted about such a major change along a crucial border. Nevertheless, the Tehran leadership has decided to welcome the deal brokered by Trump and accept the Pathway, albeit with a few frowns, in the hope that the new situation would help ease tensions with Washington.
* One sign that Tehran has decided to accept the new neighbor is the decision to stop the project to build a new military base in Talesh, close to the borders of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, for possible use in an operation to invade and annex Nakhichevan. Thus, the Trump pathway could also make sure that peace is kept between Iran and Azerbaijan.
* Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei has remained totally silent on the issue, implicitly endorsing President Massoud Pezeshkian's pragmatic approach.
* As "neighbors," Iran and the Pathway Zone Authority will have to cooperate in a number of domains: security, fighting smugglers and drug- and human-traffickers, while contenting well-established joint environmental and water-sharing projects.
* The US zone would also need cooperation with Iran to secure part of its electricity, as well as all its oil and gas needs. In other words, Iranian and American personnel will have to learn to talk to each other and work together about practical day-to-day matters rather than hostages, exporting revolution, wiping Israel off the map and nuclear weapons.
* Well. One question: Will the Nobel barons recognize Trump as peacemaker?

On October 10, as the committee that chooses the Nobel Peace Prize laureate meets, US President Donald Trump is expected to be in Transcaucasia to inaugurate work on a 166-kilometer-long railway line over one of the world's most rugged terrains. Pictured: A view from Armenia's southern border showing the Arax River, near the planned railway corridor, with Iran visible across the water, on May 18, 2025. (Photo by Anthony Pizzoferrato/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

On October 10, as the committee that chooses the Nobel Peace Prize laureate meets, US President Donald Trump is expected to be in Transcaucasia to inaugurate work on a 166-kilometer-long railway line over one of the world's most rugged terrains.

The planned line is already dubbed the Trump Pathway to Peace and Prosperity, because it ends more than 200 years of on-and-off wars between Turks (initially as Ottomans) and Armenians (as subjects of the Russian czar and later the USSR). The disintegration of the Soviet Empire in the 1990s led to the emergence of a landlocked Armenian state next to what was dubbed the Republic of Azerbaijan, but the conflict continued.

With the Soviet suzerain gone, the two impoverished republics started a war that lasted over a decade and pushed over 300,000 people out of their ancestral villages.

Continue Reading Article ([link removed])

============================================================
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Twitter ([link removed])
** RSS ([link removed])
** Donate ([link removed])
Copyright © Gatestone Institute, All rights reserved.

You are subscribed to this list as [email protected]

You can change how you receive these emails:
** Update your subscription preferences ([link removed])
or ** Unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])

** Gatestone Institute ([link removed])

14 East 60 St., Suite 705, New York, NY 10022