With the holidays around the corner, Hudson in 5 will be taking a break next week. We'll see you January 6!

The Islamic Militia That Protects Churches

A line of men in Banser militia garb. (Photo by Paul Marshall)

In the lead-up to Christmas this week, Islamic militia members are mobilizing across Indonesia. But very few, if any, Indonesian Christians are worried about the annual appearance of thousands of militia members on their doorstep, writes Paul Marshall in Religion Unplugged. They are more likely to greet them with tea and cake. The militia is the Multipurpose Ansor Front (Barisan Ansor Serbaguna), better known as Banser, and is part of the youth wing of Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Islamic organization. One of Banser’s major functions has long been protecting churches from terrorists or extremists, especially at sensitive times like Christmas. After an attack on a church at Christmas in 1996, then head of NU Abdurrahman Wahid, who subsequently became Indonesia’s fourth President, ordered Banser to protect churches, and it has done so ever since.

New Rules for Nuclear Security

Military vehicles carrying DF-17 missiles participate in a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on October 1, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP)

The incoming Biden Administration will need to keep three conditions at the forefront of arms control negotiations, write Tim Morrison and former Senator Jon Kyl for Fox News. Such a potential agreement should have to pass three criteria when submitted to the U.S. Senate: first, the treaty should cover all nuclear weapons; second, it is time to abandon the Cold War paradigm and include rising powers, like China, in arms control; and, third, the U.S. must remain committed to a robust modernization of its nuclear weapons triad. As China conducts more ballistic missile tests than the rest of the world combined, and is on the path to double the size of its nuclear triad, it does little good if only two of the three major world powers are limited by the treaty.

Ending U.S. Dependence on Chinese Drones

A DJI Mavic 2 Zoom at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev., January 9, 2019.

The U.S. government at the federal, state, and local levels is using Chinese drones that the Chinese Communist Party is exploiting for espionage, writes Rebeccah Heinrichs in the National Review. Drones made in China and operated by Americans map U.S. infrastructure, agriculture, railroads, government buildings, power plants, disaster-relief operations, and the movements of law-enforcement officers. The data collected in those drone flights are believed to be sent back to China, where there is no divide between civil and military sectors. Steps taken by the Commerce Department last week underscore the growing national security concerns, and it’s time for the U.S. government at all levels to end Chinese drone companies’ access to U.S. commercial markets.

Afghanistan After the Taliban

Young girls study in a madrassa that Hafiza Faroke started, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Tuesday Oct. 27, 2020. The school now teaches over 400 students; most of them girls. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the UN Adela Raz joined Dr. Aparna Pande this week for a conversation on India’s ties with Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime. New Delhi and Kabul are closely watching the U.S. military drawdown in Afghanistan and ongoing peace talks with the Taliban with an eye towards its impact on regional stability. To discuss the stakes for political leadership in Kabul and New Delhi, Ambassador Raz was joined by former Ambassador of India to Afghanistan Gautam Mukhopadhaya and a panel of leading experts.

Xi's Little Red Bible

The Chinese national flag flies in front of St Joseph's Church, also known as Wangfujing Catholic Church, in Beijing on October 22, 2020, the day a secretive 2018 agreement between Beijing and the Vatican was renewed for another two years. (Greg Baker/AFP)

The explosive growth of Chinese Christianity is on a collision course with the Chinese Communist Party, writes Walter Russell Mead in the Wall Street Journal. Churches are increasingly targets of the CCP’s repression of free speech. Some have been demolished; others have been “secularized” as local officials tear down religious symbols such as crosses. A party-approved bible includes rewrites that twist the gospel’s message, while there are reports of Catholic churches being forced to replace pictures of the Virgin Mary with portraits of Xi Jinping. China’s Christians are to a great extent urban, well-educated and connected to global information networks. For these reasons, serious pressure on Christians will have an even more damaging impact on China’s international standing.

BEFORE YOU GO...

On December 7, the United States made a significant policy shift when it designated Nigeria as one of world’s ten worst abusers of religious freedom. In her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Nina Shea discusses why the designation is important, and why the State Department has a long way to go in addressing religious freedom abuses in Africa's most populous country.