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In this mailing:
* Raymond Ibrahim: 'Innocent People... Indicted and Sentenced to Death': The Persecution of Christians, January 2023
* Amir Taheri: Ukraine: The Unintended Consequences


** 'Innocent People... Indicted and Sentenced to Death': The Persecution of Christians, January 2023 ([link removed])
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by Raymond Ibrahim • February 19, 2023 at 5:00 am
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* "[In Pakistan,] blasphemy is misused to settle personal disputes... to claim that religion has been defamed.... [T]hose who use spurious motives to accuse and stir hatred are not prosecuted, while innocent people who comment on social media end up being indicted and sentenced to death. In Pakistan, blasphemy has become a pretext for lynchings and extrajudicial killings. Islamic extremists have weaponised the... legislation [on blasphemy] to strike against religious minorities without legal due process Blasphemy accusations have become a quick way to exact appalling revenge and settling scores." — asianews.it., January 14, 2023, Pakistan.
* "I want to burn Christianity .... I swear to Allah we will cause chaos and kill the non-believers.... Whoever is not happy, a bullet in their head, I don't want a single person alive who would oppose Sharia." — Tarek Namouz, 42, barbershop owner and recipient of COVID money, accused of sending £25,000 to Islamic State fighters in Syria, Express, January 5, 2023 and Daily Mail, November 22, 2022, United Kingdom.
* The highest court of appeals [in Egypt] closed the door on the possibility of justice for Soad Thabet, a now 76-year-old Christian grandmother who was stripped naked and publicly abused by a group of Muslim men nearly seven years ago. According to one report: "Not only will the men who assaulted Thabet not be held accountable, but Thabet is facing litigation that could see her have to compensate the three men who assaulted her." Earlier... some 300 Muslim men... stripped her naked, and then beat and spat on her and dragged her through the streets by her hair—to jeers, whistles, and triumphant shouts of "Allahu Akbar." Her "crime" was that her son had been accused of being romantically involved with a Muslim woman. Several Christian homes in the village were also looted and torched, in keeping with Islamic law, or sharia, which prescribes the collective punishment of non-Muslim "infidels." — Mada34.appspot.com, January 16, 2023, Egypt.

On January 25, a Muslim man screaming "Allahu akbar" murdered Diego Valencia, a sacristan at the Church of La Palma, and stabbed 74-year-old Father Antonio Rodríguez, a parish priest at the Church of Santa María Auxiliadora, and wounded three other people in attacks on several churches in Algeciras, Spain. Pictured: The scene of Valencia's murder in Algeciras. (Photo by Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)

The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of January 2023:

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Democratic Republic of Congo: On Sunday, Jan. 15, Muslim terrorists bombed a Pentecostal church during a baptismal ceremony. At least 14 Christians were blown to pieces—the Islamic State, which claimed the attack, said 20—and 63 were seriously wounded. From their hospital beds, survivors recalled that black day:

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** Ukraine: The Unintended Consequences ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • February 19, 2023 at 4:00 am
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* It is, perhaps, more interesting to study the unintended consequences of this tragic saga. One such consequence is to bring war back into international conversation as a here-and-now reality.
* The idea that war could somehow be scripted out of the human story as were incest or slavery is exposed for what it is: a dangerous fantasy. This has led to musings about flashbacks to military doctrines that many believed or hoped had faded away.
* Today, however, some form of return to the draft system is publicly debated in several capitals. Defense spending that had been considered as a luxurious conceit is now regarded as vital for national security and independence.
* In 2022, however, more than 40 nations increased their defence budgets while embarking on massive programs to renew their arsenals and develop more advanced weapons systems.
* The most significant unintended consequence of the Ukraine tragedy may be the derailing of the so-called globalization process. Two decades ago, all the talk was about comparative advantage and delocalization. Today people talk of re-localization and rebuilding "our own industry".
* Well, spring isn't far away and Putin may have his offensive. But the question remains: then what?

Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) and Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov (L) at the National Defence Control Centre in Moscow, on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

What do you do when you are stuck in a war that you can neither win nor lose? This is the question that Russian President Vladimir Putin faces as his "Special Operations" against Ukraine enters its second year. The answer is: you stage trompe l'œil shows to hide the fact that you are stuck and going nowhere fast.

Last December, Putin and his propaganda machine harped on the theme of victory thanks to General winter which was supposed to clinch victory with its frozen claws. When that didn't happen they bought a few favorable headlines by sacking their commander in Ukraine and throwing their top military chief, General Valery Gerasimov, into the lion's den. However, it is now clear that Gerasimov, a bureaucrat in uniform with as many medals as a general in an operetta, is no miracle worker.

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