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In this mailing:
* Raymond Ibrahim: The "Great Pleasure in Destroying Christians": The Persecution of Christians, September 2019
* Amir Taheri: Old Tricks and the Iraqi Genie


** The "Great Pleasure in Destroying Christians": The Persecution of Christians, September 2019 ([link removed])
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by Raymond Ibrahim • November 17, 2019 at 5:00 am
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* "These regulations [from 2006] stipulate that all places of non-Muslim worship must be licenced. However, the government has yet to issue any licence for a church buildings [sic] under this ordinance, ignoring applications from churches to regularise their status in accordance with the ordinance." — International Christian Response, September 25, 2019, Algeria.
* Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board sought to deport a refugee family — a mother and three children — that had fled their native country of Nigeria after they were attacked and threatened with death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity.... "They face a 'fatwa' (a pronouncement of death) against them for converting to Christianity from Islam. They believe they face certain death if they are returned to Nigeria. They are quite fearful." ... Supporters of the family said the government was not taking the time to establish the family's humanitarian status or perform a proper risk assessment. "They're trying to boot [them] out of the country before then." The family's current status is unclear.

Around mid-September, British police in Preston, Lancashire announced that they would be taking no action against a man who had earlier threatened to sodomize anyone who dares convert to Christianity. Pictured: The city center of Preston. (Image source: Andrew Gritt/geograph.ork.uk/Wikimedia Commons)

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: On September 22, the jihadi group, Boko Haram, released a video depicting the execution of two Christian aid workers. Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali Shikagham, both members of the Church of Christ in Nations, appeared on their knees, in front of three armed men, who proceeded to shoot them. Both Christians had gone to Maiduguri — near where they were captured — to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist violence. In the same video, and "speaking in the Hausa language, the middle one of the three terrorists says ... that they have vowed to kill every Christian they capture..." Responding to the executions, Pastor Pofi, a cousin of the two executed Christians, said:

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** Old Tricks and the Iraqi Genie ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • November 17, 2019 at 4:00 am
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e.org/15168/iraqi-genie#print
* They claim since force cannot impose democracy, it was wrong for the US to invade Iraq and dislodge Saddam Hussein. They ignore the fact that though force cannot impose democracy, impediments to democracy can, and have been, removed by force.
* Iraqi officials wonder how so many Iraqis, including many statistically-classed illiterates, manage to send and receive text messages on their smartphones. Those officials do not realize that even the poorest peasant is now able to pick up the rudiments of the alphabet and a vocabulary of a few hundred words to express his anger and passions and to coordinate action with those who share his concerns.
* Tehran is wrong in toying with the idea of ending the uprising with a bloodbath as in Syria. Washington is wrong to think that yet another election with the same rules and same cast of characters would do the trick. The Najaf mullahs are wrong to believe that Iraqis will obey their fatwas as they did a generation ago. Tribal chiefs are mistaken in thinking the big "Sheikh" could secure a big cheque in exchange for calming down his kith-and-kin.
* But, the fact remains that old tricks will not push that genie back into the bottle.

Pictured: Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on October 25, 2019. (Image source: Xequals/Wikimedia Commons)

Although it is too early to speculate about the outcome for the Iraqi uprising, one fact is clear: What we witness is the result of a multiple misunderstandings, by participants in the current drama and those who watch from the sidelines.

There are, first, those who see Iraq as a secular version of the "original sin". To them, toppling Saddam Hussein was the starting point of a journey that could only lead to hell.

They claim since force cannot impose democracy, it was wrong for the US to invade Iraq and dislodge Saddam Hussein. They ignore that though force cannot impose democracy, impediments to democracy can, and have been, removed by force.

Then there are those who believe that though Saddam is gone, Saddamism remains a dominant feature in Iraqi life. The talk in Baghdad cafes these days is of the danger of the emergence of a new Saddam.

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