"I heard them. They were shouting in Arabic and Swahili, saying that the kafirs [unbelievers] should be killed, all of them, and make Congo an Islamic state. Shoot all of them. Kill all of them, and burn their houses, these notorious Christians." — Persecution.org, October 10, 2022, Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The ADF rebels attacked the village, and more precisely the hospital. They looted everything they could find, taking medicines, and at the end they set fire to the building. A nun, who is also a doctor and was on night duty, was burned alive, along with a patient.... [Once the hospital was destroyed] the rebels continued on their way and set fire to another hospital nearby." — Father Marcelo Oliveira, Aid to the Church in Need, October 22, 2022, Democratic Republic of Congo.

"When they were all gathered, they started asking who is Muslim and who is Christian. Those who identified as Christian, they started tying their hands behind their back and they cut their throats." — Bishop Alberto Vera Aréjula of Nacala, Aid to the Church in Need, October 5, 2022, Mozambique.

Before long, the video went viral on social media, and was even broadcast as "breaking news" by TV9, which referred to James [falsely accused of blasphemy] as a "sanitary worker" — code in Pakistan for both Christians and the lowest of the low. In James' own words, "I knew the sensitivity of this news; it was a death warrant against me." — Voice of the Martyrs, October 12, 2022, Pakistan.

"[It is] an easy way to settle personal scores against someone. People don't even think twice before using this law against someone, as victims of this law have to spend 8-11 years in prison to prove themselves innocent...." — Nasir Saeed, Director of Centre for Legal Aid & Assistance, Voice of the Martyrs, October 22, 2022, Pakistan.

The president of Cairo University, Muhammad Uthman al-Khosht, assigned 31 new directors, deputy directors, managers, and researchers to head a number of departments, including those of agriculture, medicine, engineering, nursing, dentistry, statistical research, and African Studies. Although the Copts—Egypt's indigenous, Christian, people—make up anywhere from 10-20% of its population, notable among these new Cairo University hires is that not a single one of them is Christian. All are Muslim.

Earlier this year, 98 female judges took the legal oath in preparation for assuming judicial roles in Egypt's State Council.... [S]ince its inception 75 years earlier, not a single woman had sat on the podium of the State Council court—and now 98 are. Yet, not one of them is a Christian... at the very least 10 of the 98 should have, for proper representation, been Christian.

The new enrichment program is taking place in the Fordo nuclear center which, built deep underground, is supposed to be immune from possible air strikes.

As on the eight previous occasions when this trick was used, Tehran's message is addressed to Western powers, notably the United States: resume the nuclear talks or else!

The mullahs played that trick with presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In every case, except that of Trump, the trick worked.

At the same time, Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian plays reluctant debutante by claiming that the US "is begging us to resume talks." Over the past two weeks, he has been pestering Omani and Qatari foreign ministers with phone calls demanding they persuade Washington to return to the stalled talks.

Last week, Tehran announced that 41 foreign nationals have been seized as hostages and charged with helping the current anti-regime protests across the country. That brings the number of hostages now held by the mullahs to 81, the highest since they seized 52 American diplomats in 1979.

Will the trick work again? I am almost certain that, had it not been for the current uprising against the Islamic Republic, the Biden administration would have fallen for the trick with a big smile, if only to save Obama's only legacy while settling scores with Trump.

It is not hard to expose Tehran's game as a cheap trick. For years, Tehran, through its lobbyists and useful idiots in Washington, has been selling the story that Khamenei has issued a fatwa banning the production of nuclear weapons under Islamic law.

To be sure, no one has ever seen that fatwa except supposedly Obama, who claimed he had some knowledge of it. But if there is such a fatwa and the mullahs don't intend to build a bomb, why would they need to enrich uranium up to 60 percent?

The mullahs' game worked for as long as it concerned only themselves and the cynical or lily-livered Western politicians.

This time round, however, a third player is in the field: a good chunk of Iranian people who feel they cannot take it anymore.

The myth of the Khomeinist despotism as a people-based regime, peddled by characters like Noam Chomsky, has been punctured. Even Bill Clinton is now tweeting support for young Iranians calling for regime change in Tehran.