In this mailing:
- Raymond Ibrahim: "We Have No Mercy on You People": Persecution of Christians, July 2020
- Sara Al Nuaimi: We Need This Change in the Arab World
- Amir Taheri: A Slippery Patch in World Affairs
by Raymond Ibrahim • August 23, 2020 at 5:00 am
"[T]here are young girls who have been abducted and enslaved, forced into sexual slavery by some of these guerrillas, these insurgents, these terrorists... We know that the recruitment of boys and adolescents, some of them very young, aged 14, 15, 16, is also happening. It is obvious that these young boys are under coercion. If they refuse to join the group, they could be killed." — Paulo Rangel, Portuguese Member of European Parliament, Catholic San Francisco, July 23, 2020; Mozambique, where Islamic State (ISIS) seized a port. In one week in June, 15 people were beheaded in the Christian-majority nation. Discussing the situation, Bishop Lisboa said: "The world has no idea yet what is happening because of indifference." — Mozambique. A 16-year-old Muslim refugee from Syria pleaded guilty to four counts of terrorism. His schemes were shared with and exposed by an undercover FBI agent posing as a fellow ISIS supporter online.... "It was a bomb lab," the report said. — Global News, July 31; Canada. "Somalis generally believe all Somalis are Muslims by birth and that any Somali who becomes a Christian can be charged with apostasy, punishable by death." — Morningstar News, July 9, 2020.
A Muslim man broke into Holy Cross, a historic Armenian cathedral on Akhtamar Island in eastern Turkey, and proceeded to recite the adhan — the Islamic call to prayer— and to scrawl graffiti on the church walls, according to a July 2 report. (Image source: Mishukdero/Wikimedia Commons)
The following are among the abuses that were inflicted on Christians throughout the month of July 2020: The Slaughter of Christians Uganda: A group of Muslims beat and drowned a pastor and another Christian for sharing the Gospel with other Christians. Peter Kyakulaga, pastor of the Church of Christ, and church member Tuule Mumbya, had begun to sail across Lake Nakuwa, where they would meet and evangelize to Muslims. More "hard-line" Muslims disliked this: "We have discovered that your mission is not to fish but to hold Christian meetings and then convert Muslims to Christianity," a man told them. "We are not going to take this mission of yours lightly. This is our last warning to you." The next day in late June, Christian villagers came knocking on the door of David Nabyoma, a local leader:
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by Sara Al Nuaimi • August 23, 2020 at 4:30 am
"What is the difference between a Jewish person and an Israeli?" my mother, a religious and traditional Emirati, asked. "Well," she said, "when they start coming here, we shall get to know them better." For women trapped in the dogma of tradition, half in-half out, adventurous but guilt-stricken, we now feel proud of the choices we made to carve a niche for ourselves, because this niche is the new center. We can finally be ourselves and create the lives we wanted: to be out in the world, not in the confinements of a golden cage. There was for so long the mantra of "Israel is the enemy." It was a mantra that people could not break out of and that they believed without proof. These people are now quiet. We need this change in the Arab world. It has taken so long to come.
The United Arab Emirates is making peace with Israel to inspire cultural, religious and political reform; they are visionary leaders, statesmen. The UAE saw that accepting Israel and negating the ideology that negated Israel was part of moving forward. Pictured: The skyline of Abu Dhabi, UAE. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
It was easier than we thought, that joint statement of the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the United States. There were so many steps that were skipped, though: you can tell by reading on Twitter the voices of opposition from other countries that were in shock at the news. They resist the possibility, but to us, now that we are capable of acknowledging the peace that was created, the opposition feels no bigger than ants with puny pincers. This is perhaps the first time that peace has happened without a war. It is peace for the sake of peace As an Emirati, I feel unstoppable, invincible, empowered. I can now breathe freely. I have another life to fall on instead of the limiting social construct of religion and tradition that was stifling women who were neither religious or traditional, just open-minded and easygoing with whomever crossed their path.
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by Amir Taheri • August 23, 2020 at 4:00 am
Today, as in the 1880s, big, small and even mini wannabe empire-builders are engaged in a ruthless power game.... The most intense activity comes from Russia and China. China, for its part, is projecting power all over the world while bullying some neighbors and bribing others into submission. When deemed necessary, it also acts with military force, as it did recently along the ceasefire line with India. China treats some African, Asian and Latin American countries, notably Congo-Kinshasa, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Ecuador as abatis or territory left by previous masters and open for pickings by new reapers. Overall, in economic, political and even military terms, Western powers, still nominally led by the United States, remain involved in all continents but are increasingly behaving as if their hearts, not to say their pockets, are no longer in it. As for Germany, it seems that its hapless Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has no ambition beyond caressing the corpse of the Obama "nuclear deal" with Iran. The current lukewarm war may never morph into a hot one, but the risk should not be dismissed. Today, projecting power with low-intensity war, often waged through inexpensive proxies as Iran does in Lebanon, or through mercenaries as Russia does in Syria and Libya, enables even relatively poor countries to cast a larger shadow than they deserve.
A new Berlin Conference may be needed to cool things down and construct a new rule-based international order. But at a time that even the next G-7 summit may not take place, who is going to take the initiative? Pictured: An illustration of the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 that appeared in the Allgemeine Illustrierte Zeitung. (Image source: Adalbert von Rößler/Wikimedia Commons)
"The world has stepped into a slippery patch, and we need to steady it." This is how Benjamin Disraeli saw the international scene in the early 1880s. André Maurois, the French biographer of the British Prime Minister, claims that Disraeli had become aware that the British Empire could no longer rule the waves alone and that others had to be invited to the banquet of global power. That analysis led to the convening of the Berlin Conference which, starting in November 1884, continued until February 1885. The British trick was to site the conference in Berlin and flatter Otto von Bismarck, Germany's "iron chancellor", into believing that, as the new strongman in Europe, he was running the show. Bismarck, the arch warmonger, was cast as peace-maker trying to temper rivalry among European colonial powers.
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