"Why Are His Killers Still Out?": Persecution of Christians, January 2022

by Raymond Ibrahim • March 13, 2022 at 5:00 am

On Jan. 3, Muslims, including some from neighboring Somalia, murdered six Christians; most were burned alive in their homes. — Morning Star News, January 7, 2022, Kenya.
An elderly great-grandmother, locally known as Mama Fide, was burned alive during the raid: "Grandma was unable to escape when the attack took place because she was very old and blind." — Morning Star News, January 30, 2022, Nigeria.
Because Nigerian and Western mainstream media insist that Fulani herdsmen raids on Christians are not ideologically driven, but are rather for resources and land, one Twitter user wrote, "After [Joel's experiences, including being asked if he's Christian or Muslim], some people will come and say there's no jihad agenda," to which Joel replied, "Well, they clearly have an agenda and it's clearly working and they are so proud of it, telling me no one can stop them." — International Christian Concern, persecution.org, January 16, 2022, Nigeria.
On Jan. 3, a Muslim judge changed the life sentence that a Christian man convicted of "blasphemy" had been carrying out in prison, to a death sentence. Zafar Bhatti, 56, who had been languishing in jail since 2012 after being accused of sending blasphemous text messages, was sentenced to life in prison in 2017, under Section 295-C of Pakistan's blasphemy laws against defaming Islam's prophet, Muhammad. The change in sentencing came after one of his lawyers sought bail. — Morning Star News, January 10, 2022, Pakistan.
On Jan. 10, a Christian politician was arrested for a tweet that was deemed offensive to Islam. He is facing up to 10 years imprisonment. — ucanews.com, January 11, 2022, Indonesia.
[T]he church walls collapsed even as, ironically, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi was visiting the Coptic Pope during Christmas Mass to congratulate the Christians of his nation and speak of Christian/Muslim solidarity. — copticsolidarity.org, January 15, 2022, Egypt.

On January 10, Ferdinand Hutahaean, a Christian politician, was arrested in Indonesia for a tweet that was deemed offensive to Islam. He is facing up to 10 years imprisonment. (Image source: Debby Priatni/Wikimedia Commons)

The Slaughter of Christians

Uganda: A Muslim man, according to a Jan. 5 report, "is suspected of hanging his wife and two children because the young mother and oldest child received Christ after attending Christmas Day and Sunday worship services." On Dec. 27, Shamira Nakato, 27, and her two children, 3 and 8, had attended a church service. When Shamira's husband, who was away on business, returned early, a Muslim neighbor informed him that his wife and children had been seen attending a church. The Muslim man then went to the church.

"When he entered the church, his wife and the children were seated at the back," the church's pastor said. "He pulled her out of the church, and about 100 meters away, a member saw him beat his wife." Another neighbor confirmed that he later heard screaming from the Muslim household, then saw "two men wearing Islamic prayer caps outside [the] house putting together an undefined wooden structure."

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Putin and His One-Man War

by Amir Taheri • March 13, 2022 at 4:00 am

It is hard to know what went on in Putin's mind. But the past two weeks have shown that he has planned his war according to KGB rules rather than classical military strategy. He has relied on massive and indiscriminate use of force, and where Gerasimov and the professional military are concerned about losses among their men, he has been focused on wreaking as much havoc as he can.
His model is Ivan the Awe-Inspiring (Grozny). He wants to terrorize people into abject submission, as his forces did in parts of Syria where he and his allies hang on to an illusion of power.
In a classical war, the immediate aim is formulated with three words: conquer, cleanse, control. Putin's idiosyncratic style of war, however, measures success by the size of debris created and the piles of civilian dead left behind.
Even the aero-naval bases that Putin has secured on the Syrian coast of the Mediterranean remain vulnerable.
No war is won by one side unless the opposite side admits defeat, at least as the best of all bad options. This is, perhaps, why since 1945, no one has really won a war on a once-and-for-all basis.
But what Putin cannot do is to rebuild Ukraine as he pleases. Over 2,000 years ago, historian Tacitus quoted the Celtic resistance leader fighting Roman invaders as saying: They make a desert and call it peace!

It is hard to know what went on in Russian President Vladimir Putin's mind. But the past two weeks have shown that he has planned his war according to KGB rules rather than classical military strategy. Putin has relied on massive and indiscriminate use of force, and where Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov and the professional military are concerned about losses among their men, Putin has been focused on wreaking as much havoc as he can. Pictured: Putin (R) meets with Gerasimov (L) and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on February 27, 2022. (Photo by Alexey Nikolsky /Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

When he launched his invasion of Ukraine over two weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared like a man who knew what he was doing. In his televised session with the High Council of National Security, he gave the impression that he had a precise war plan with clear objectives.

Now, however, the possibility of that impression having been wrong cannot be dismissed. In other words: What if the Great Vladimir doesn't know what he is doing or, worse still, doesn't know what he wants?

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