Ramadan in Afghanistan: Muslims raid maternity hospital, murder 11 mothers, including 3 with unborn babies - Robert Spencer

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by Robert Spencer

“The attackers could have targeted other parts of the facility, but witnesses said they went straight to the maternity ward, which is supported by the international charity.”

Will the Islamophobia never end?


“Three women with unborn babies among 11 mothers killed in attack on Kabul maternity hospital,” by Deborah Haynes, Sky News, May 21, 2020:

Three women in the delivery room with their unborn babies were among 11 mothers killed in an attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul last week, a charity has said.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has accused gunmen of intentionally targeting mothers in the assault on 12 May that also left two young boys and a midwife dead.
In total, 24 people were killed and at least 20 more wounded, including five mothers and two new-born babies.
“I went back the day after the attack and what I saw in the maternity demonstrates it was a systematic shooting of the mothers,” said Frederic Bonnot, MSF’s head of programmes in Afghanistan.
“It was methodical. Walls sprayed with bullets, blood on the floor in the rooms, vehicles burnt out and windows shot through.”
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Taliban denied involvement, though suspicion remains, while there have also been reports it was carried out by militants linked to Islamic State….
MSF said a total of 26 mothers had been at the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital when an as-yet unknown number of gunmen launched their assault at about 10am….
The attackers could have targeted other parts of the facility, but witnesses said they went straight to the maternity ward, which is supported by the international charity.
“What ensued was four hours of hell – that is how long the attack lasted, while patients and staff alike looked for shelter,” said Mr Bonnot….

Robert Spencer

Source: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/05/ramadan-in-afghanistan-muslims-raid-maternity-hospital-murder-11-mothers-including-3-with-unborn-babies

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Texas: Yet Another Jihad Attack at a Naval Air Station - Robert Spencer

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by Robert Spencer

And still no lessons learned.

On Thursday, a 20-year-old Muslim migrant from Syria named Adam Salim Alsahli drove up to the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas and, according to CNN, “attempted to rush the security gate with a vehicle.” Then, after “security deployed a barrier to stop the vehicle,” Alsahli “exited the vehicle and opened fire…and naval security forces returned fire.” Alsahli was “neutralized,” but the threat he represents has not been neutralized at all, because of the refusal of the political and media elites to face it honestly.

Surprisingly in these times when nearly every jihad attack is written off as a manifestation of “mental illness,” the FBI immediately acknowledged that Alsahli’s attack was “terrorism-related.” As it turned out, “officials have identified various social media accounts, which initial reports indicate are likely associated with the shooter….Online postings by these accounts expressed support for ISIS and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

What a surprise. And Alsahli’s attack came only three days after the news broke that “the gunman who killed three U.S. sailors at a military base in Florida last year repeatedly communicated with al-Qaida operatives about planning in the months leading up to the attack.” And he didn’t just communicate with them. Attorney General William Barr noted that the Florida shooter, Mohammed Alshamrani, had “significant ties to Al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula not only before the attack, but before he even arrived in the United States.” Like Alsahli, Alshamrani attacked a naval air base, the Naval Air Station Pensacola.

In January 2013, Barack Obama announced: “We achieved our central goal ... or have come very close to achieving our central goal, which is to de-capacitate al Qaeda, to dismantle them, to make sure that they can’t attack us again.” Yet here it is over seven years later, and al-Qaeda is responsible for not one, but two attacks on naval air stations in the United States in the last six months. Leftists will blame Trump, but that’s even more ridiculous in this case than it usually is, as it was Obama’s policies that have increased America’s vulnerability to jihad attack and made sure that there will be many more like those perpetrated by Alsahli and Alshamrani.

These attacks were made possible by Obama-era policies that are still very much part of the institutional culture of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, policies that are based on the false propositions that Islam is a religion of peace, and that any attempt to discern whether or not any individual Muslim is a violent jihadist, or sympathetic to the global jihad, is dismissed as “Islamophobia.”

Because of these false assumptions, Alsahli and the Saudi national Alshamrani were able to enter the United States. Because of these wrongheaded ideas, no one would have dared monitor what was being taught in the mosques they attended; to have done so would have been “Islamophobic.” Anyone around either one of them who had the courage to declare publicly that they were suspicious of them would have been courting personal and professional ruin at the hands of groups such as the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is always on the lookout for incidents of “anti-Muslim bigotry,” no matter how spurious.

Even worse, despite these jihad attacks on American soil, nothing will change. Because of the establishment media’s indefatigable commitment to whitewashing the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, most Americans won’t even be aware that they happened at all. The TV networks are too busy broadcasting the latest documentary on the threat of “right-wing” violence to cover attacks of this kind.

Consequently, nothing is more certain than that there will be more attacks like the two at these naval air stations. Because nothing is likewise more certain than the fact that anyone who tries to sound the alarm about these events, and to call for measures to ensure that these things don’t happen again, will be smeared, defamed, marginalized, and silenced. So if you’re a betting man (or a betting woman, for those of you reading who are members of the thought police), head to Las Vegas now and place your bets on the certainty of another jihad attack in the U.S. – oh, never mind, Las Vegas is busy committing suicide to destroy Trump. People have so very many things to think about that are far more important than this. Everyone, that is, except for the likes of Adam Alsahli and Mohammed Alshamrani.


Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 19 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/texas-yet-another-jihad-attack-naval-air-station-robert-spencer/

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Democrats Will Sacrifice America to Win a Presidency - William L. Gensert

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by William L. Gensert

[Pelosi] wants us deplorables to understand that if we want our country back, we will have to pay for it.

The Dems will not allow any semblance of normalcy to return until Trump and recalcitrant Republicans in the Senate agree to bail out Democrat-run states facing fiscal insolvency. Democrat socialist policies have left states like California and Illinois with unsustainable pension obligations and exponentially growing deficits too dear for a shrinking tax base to sustain.

Buying votes ain't cheap.

Yet why would citizens, prudently residing in red states, acquiesce to paying for votes Democrats have bought in the past and wish to purchase in the future?

They would not, unless forced to.

Democrat governors, in particular Newsom (Calif.), Pritzker (Ill.), Murphy (N.J.), and Cuomo (N.Y.), are like terrorists, unwilling to release their states from lockdown unless they get their ransom.

The heck with the little people, the deplorables who refuse to see. They need to be shown the error of their ways. Should they perish in the process, they brought it upon themselves with their constant pleas of "I beg of you, let me work" and "I need to feed my family."

Pelosi, with her three-trillion-dollar dream bill, demands just shy of a trillion dollars for state and local governments — you know, as a gift to balance their books. This is the crux of her ask: bail out liberal mistakes and bad policy, or they and their minions in the media will counsel the wisdom of remaining closed indefinitely while blaming Trump for the all the misery.

Certainly, should she get her state bailout money, all of Nancy's other demands will slough away like all the dead skin she leaves on her pillow every morning.

Pelosi is no dope. She knows that with a trillion dollars, Dem states can jump right into the double-down-circle by buying votes for the 2022 midterms and 2024. In a way, however, in getting the dough for the states, she will be ceding the 2020 presidential election to Trump. She thinks that is an artful deal Trump will make.

She would be betting that with the help of media, she can hamstring the president with investigations and false narratives long enough to neuter his second term, while the shameless Dems can throw around so much money buying votes to guarantee her party the Senate in November or 2022 and the presidency in 2024.

She wants us deplorables to understand that if we want our country back, we will have to pay for it.

Democrats believe they hold the trump card and are determined to play it. Intense, unrelenting hatred of the president, as well as an all-consuming lack of respect, have led leadership to an epiphany: they think Trump can be extorted into sacrificing our future to purchase his today.

Despite always underestimating the man, it is true that Trump is most proud of his stewardship of the nation's economy. They believe they can negate that success by remaining closed and killing the country.

If we lose a war with China, so be it. It will not make Nancy Pelosi any less comfortable in her estate, Sanders will still have his three homes, and Feinstein can rehire her personal Chinese spy.

Having ceded the jewel in his crown of presidential achievement to fight the Chinese pandemic, Trump cannot trumpet his economic prowess to the electorate when the economy is not growing and people are suffering. Many believe he would still win re-election against an addle-pated Biden and the lockdown Dems, who have a record of sending elderly mothers and grandmothers to certain death with their nursing home policies.

Yet California alone can sink this economy merely by doing nothing, and Newsom can maintain his alibi by professing, "Every life counts."

If Trump wants his growing economy, the price is budgetary surrender to Dem state demands to support their ongoing profligacy.

The president, forever at the mercy of the near 100% media antipathy and its attending canard of illegitimacy created through serial scurrilous innuendo, while being battered by the very real suffering Americans have endured under the predations of the Xi-Flu, realizes that his once almost guaranteed re-election is now in jeopardy.

Democrat states like California have mutated into antebellum secessionists.

Yet, the civil war this time will be between lockdown states, almost exclusively run by Dems, who make decisions about people's lives based solely on political calculations and open-up, Republicans, who want to give Americans a shot at pre-Xi-Flu normal lives.

The right understands that people can evaluate risk and make rational decisions on going back to work.

There is a chance free states will flourish to an extent that Dem states' lockdown play will become an obvious loser. Grow enough soon enough, and Dem governors will fold. Then we can hope that by November, the economy will be strong enough to re-elect the president.

Yet if wishes were nails, the Chinese would have long ago bought all the world's hammers — with the Democrats cheering them on.

Democrat overseers will make us pay to be free. They do not understand suffering, and they like control. They know not the absolute terror of being afraid you cannot pay your bills or feed your children.

All Democrats are like Barack Obama, whose hardest day was when there was not a Marine available to hold his umbrella.

Oh, the horror...

They do not care what happens to us; they care only about being in power.

In a desperate bid for affirmation from total strangers the author asks that you follow him on Twitter (@williamlgensert) and tweet this article — and please, try to say something nice...

William L. Gensert

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/democrats_will_sacrifice_america_to_win_a_presidency.html

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The Delusion of Palestine and the Reality of Israel - Rami Dabbas

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by Rami Dabbas

Who are the true occupiers of "Palestine"?

After conquering and colonizing this land, who are we Arabs to deny the return of the Jewish people?

I like to deal in truth and reality. Here are some truths and realities: Israel has never been called “Palestine,” at least not as a national political entity. Up until 1,420 years ago, there was no significant Arab population in this land; the more ancient history of this land is demonstrably Jewish, Aramaic and Syriac.

One need only consider the many “Palestinian” towns and villages that still carry Aramaic, Hebrew and Syrian names.

Another truth is that Islam occupied the Levant by force, and wherever it could changed place names and imposed its own religion and culture in an effort to erase this region’s true Judeo-Christian heritage. It is Islam, not Israel and the Jews, that is truly foreign to this land.

They call Israel and the Jews occupiers and colonizers. But that is precisely what the Muslim Arabs are. It is they who conquered, occupied and colonized this land, and over the course of 1,400 years gradually transformed it into Arab Islamic lands. But the evidence remains – this land’s true owners are the Jews, and they have every right to reclaim the homeland from which they were forcibly driven.

But no matter what your views of the past, Israel is today a reality. And we must recognize it for what it is – a nation working to restore its historic roots in this land. We as Arab must stop relating to Israel by way of the antisemitic saying: “The Jews are the only people who have a history, but not a nation.” One of the greatest mistakes of those original Muslim conquerors was to expel or Islamicize the region’s Jews and Christians. But that mistake is now, in our days, being righted.

Restoration, not subjugation

Given all the above, it is ridiculous to claim that the Jews are trying to “Judaize” Jerusalem or any other part of the land everyone seems intent on calling “Palestine.” They are the original inhabitants. They can’t “Judaize” what has historically always been Jewish. Rather, they are trying to restore what the Muslims stole from them and “Islamicized.”

We Arabs do not have the right to oppose the State of Israel in its efforts to reconnect to its people’s past, including via archaeology. Are we afraid of what the evidence of the past will reveal? That this is indeed Israel’s ancestral land, and that “Palestine” as a historic Arab Muslim land is a fiction?

The Arabs must stop lying to themselves, for the sake of our own future.

The problem is that the majority of Muslims do not see what Islam did historically as an invasion and occupation of the lands of other peoples. They do not see it as colonialism, even as they unjustifiably accuse the Jews of colonialism!

Anyone who is honest with themselves knows that this is not a historically Arab land. It is a land from which Arabs expelled the indigenous populations, probably never dreaming that those disenfranchised peoples might one day return! And anyone who truly knows the history knows that the only pretext for this Arab invasion and colonization was an order from the Islamic god “Allah.”

The Land of Israel, as well as other parts of the Levant, was stolen from its indigenous people, and now it has been returned. A historical mistake is being righted, and that is the simple truth.

Islam is and always has been a conquering and occupying force that steals land from those it views as “infidels.” How can we then complain when the land’s true owners return to reclaim it?


Rami Dabbas

Source: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/05/the-delusion-of-palestine-and-the-reality-of-israel

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What do Israelis really think about Sovereignty? - Shimon Cohen

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by Shimon Cohen

Data from the survey for the Commanders for Israeli’s Security were manipulated in order to present conclusions that were contrary to the reality. Kalman Liebskind investigated and got results.

In an article for Ma’ariv, Kalman Liebskind tells of the investigation he did of the survey data presented by the Commanders for Israel’s Security, claiming that the Jewish majority opposes the application of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria.

Below are a few key excerpts from Liebskind’s important article that show how the movement manipulated the data, to show the exact opposite of reality in order to arrive at results more in keeping with their members’ leftist positions.

Liebskind then confronts the head of the movement, Maj. Gen. (res.) and former minister Matan Vilnai, with the true data and receives elusive answers. Kalman Liebskind writes:

I seek to present here only the misinformation campaign that many of us have been exposed to. The publication of this survey was accompanied by interviews with the media. Maj. Gen. (res.) Matan Vilnai, chairman of the Commanders for Israel’s Security, was interviewed by Yinon Magal and Ben Kaspit on FM-103 radio. “The survey says that the public is very pragmatic, very prudent, it understands that they are selling it a cat in a sack. And in general, 60%, without even knowing the details of annexation, already oppose it”. Remember this figure, we will need it later.

“This survey is very well-based and serious”, continued Vilnai, “it was conducted by Kamil Fox and the key conclusion, which is very encouraging to me, is that the public is very realistic”.

I admit that I also was taken in. When the survey was published and following the movement’s announcement, I interviewed Brig. Gen. (res.) Rachel Dolev, formerly the chief censor and is currently active in the Commanders for Israel’s Security.

“The survey found that an overwhelming majority of Jews opposes annexation and prefers other solutions”, she said. “Only 6% of Blue and White supporters favor annexation and only 33% of the Likud is in favor of annexation. In other words, three quarters of the Jewish public is against annexation”.

In publications on the internet as well, she delivered the same message from the survey: “Only 26% support unilateral annexation, 74% support other alternatives”. Even before we come to the true data, we must make another important comment here. The Commanders for Israel’s Security have found a method to confuse and mislead the public. This method exploits the misunderstanding of the definition of “annexation” and uses it to the nth degree. Brig. Gen. Dolev, for example, like Vilnai, explains that after annexation “we will have another two million citizens without rights, for whom we will have to provide swabs, ventilators, National Insurance and unemployment benefits”. When she speaks of annexation, she is talking about bringing millions of Palestinians into the State of Israel and turning Jenin into a major Israeli city, like Kfar Saba. This manipulation is not honorable, because on the Right, there is no one (okay, there are very few) that supports such a plan.

Now let’s dig into the results. I repeat, this survey was not done by an unbiased or objective body, assuming that there is such a thing. These are the results of a survey commissioned by the leftist movement, Commanders for Israel’s Security, which was responsible for choosing the topics and wording the questions.

“Which policy choice would you prefer?”, the people surveyed were asked. 17% chose “full annexation”, 10%, partial annexation” and 25%, “President Trump’s plan”. In total, 52% support annexation/application of sovereignty over the various issues. If we temporarily disregard the 10% who prefer the existing situation, we are left with the remaining 38%  who want “two states for two peoples” or “unilateral disengagement from the Palestinians”. How does this correspond  with the stories that the movement presented to the news media and the “key findings” that were worded along with the survey? How does it relate to the data that Vilnai disseminated, that 60% of the Jews oppose annexation? How does this correspond with the statement by Brig. Gen. (res.) Dolev that three quarters of the Jews oppose annexation? Well, actually, it does not correspond at all.

Onward. Remember the claim by Brig. Gen (res.) Dolev that “only 6% of Blue and White supporters favor annexation, and only 33% of the Likud is in favor of annexation? Well, she is right. Almost. Dolev indeed remembered that only 5% of Blue and White voters support full annexation, but forgot to note that another 5% of them support partial annexation and another 27% of them support the Trump plan, which includes the application of sovereignty over the Jewish communities. In other words, it is not 6% of Blue and White supporters who are in favor of some sort of annexation, but 37%.

One moment, we’re not done. Remember that Dolev claimed that among Likud people support is 33%? She is right. She only forgot to note that besides them, there are another 29% who want the Trump plan. Want to read something else interesting? 24% of leftist voters – according to the part of Commanders for Israel’s Security survey which received less coverage – want some sort of annexation (full, partial or the Trump plan). Again, that’s 24% of leftist voters.

And here is another interesting question: “Is it a good idea to annex all of the Jewish communities in the framework of the Trump plan?” The answer: 54% answered “yes”. 23% answered “no”.

Wait, there’s more. The movement conducts surveys of this sort once every few months, and then compares the results that were received now with results that were received a year and a half ago, in November 2018, in order to identify the trend. What did it find, you ask? That along with a 15% drop in support for a “permanent arrangement” and along with a drop of 21% in the idea of separation, there is a rise of 62% in support of annexation. Amazing, right?

A few days ago, I phoned Vilnai, a person whom I respect and appreciate, and asked him for an explanation. “You have tricked us”, I told him. “You wrote in the summary of your research that only a quarter of Israelis support annexation. You wrote that the position of most Israelis is contrary to that of Netanyahu, Benny Gantz and the Trump plan, and this is not correct. The results that you received are the complete opposite. 54% of the public, according to your survey, think that annexation of all the Jewish communities within the framework of the Trump deal is a good idea. Only 23% think that it’s not. This is the survey that you ordered”.

“I don’t remember that”, Vilnai answered, “I don’t remember such a line”. This is only one example, I clarified, “the entire summary that you wrote is the opposite of the results that emerge from the survey”. “I will have to examine the numbers that you gave me again”, answered Vilnai, “I need to look at tit again”. “And who wrote the summary claiming that the Jewish citizens of Israel hold an opinion other than that held by Netanyahu, Gantz and Trump?”, I asked.

“We didn’t do the summarization, it was Kamil Fox”, he answered.

I called Prof. Kamil Fox. “This is not a survey that I did”, he explained to me, “I also did not write the summarizations and the main findings”.

“So what was your part?”, I asked.

“I only did the analysis, and was especially involved in comparing this survey with previous surveys that were done”.

“And what did you find in this comparison?”, I continued.

“That there is a rise in support for annexation”, he answered, “A big rise in support for annexation, compared with previous surveys. This is that part that I focused on”.

After returning to Vilnai again and asking for explanations, he referred me to Prof. Gilad Hirschberger, who conducted the survey. Although Hirschberger admitted that the survey found a drop in support for a “permanent arrangement” with the Palestinians and a rise in support for annexation, he claimed that it was impossible to relate to the Trump plan as an annexation plan, even if it does include the application of Israeli sovereignty over all of the Jewish communities.

“Why?”, I asked.

“Because sovereignty means unilateral annexation, while the Trump plan speaks of annexation as part of an agreement with the Palestinians”, he answered.

“No”, I corrected him, “the application of sovereignty for Trump does not entail any Palestinian agreement. But despite that, according to your survey, there is still a high percentage that supports it, the opposite of what the Commander for Israel’s Security presented”.

“There is no indication that the public understands the Trump deal as unilateral annexation”, he explained. After all of this, there remained only one point for me to clarify. Who is responsible for the analysis presented in the announcement made by the Commanders for Israel’s Security that says “most Israelis do not support annexation, despite the Prime Minister’s support for annexation, the assumed support of his coalition partner and the Trump plan that includes annexation of all the Jewish settlements”. Since Vilnai told me that it was not the members of his movement who worded this sentence, but Prof. Kamil Fox, and since Fuchs told me that he was not involved in it either, I asked Prof. Hirschberger if this wording was done by him.

“No, he answered, it was the movement’s people”.

“Agree with me that this wording is antithetical to the results of your survey”, I said.

Prof. Hirschberger thought that the word “antithetical” was too severe. He preferred to make do with “the wording is not accurate”. 

“We note that in the beginning of his article, he Liebskind related to the composition of the Commanders for Israel’s Security, writing about it: “This is a list that from time to time changes names, but remains with similar messages. Once they were called “The Council for Peace and Security”. After that they were a collection of senior officers who signed manifestos and declarations from time to time in the newspapers. Today, as noted, their name is Commanders for Israel’s Security”.

Such groups of senior professionals, history informs us, have collapsed time after time along with their predictions. They promised us that the Oslo Accord would reduce terror, a moment before this agreement brought upon us rivers of blood. They stated that “withdrawing from the Golan would be good for security”, and it seems that there are not many among us who are distraught that we did not listen to them. They declared, according to “our professional opinion”, that “the disengagement from Gaza would be good for security, and when the missiles began flying into Gush Dan, and the residents of Tel Aviv ran to the shelters, they did not think for a moment to look in the mirror before accusing Benjamin Netanyahu, because during his term, “communities were attacked with more missiles than in any other period in the history of Israel”.

By the way, the movement is making sincere efforts to free itself from this blemish. Did we support the Disengagement? Why, we were established nine years later. That is true, until you go over the list of names of the officers who supported the Disengagement at the time, and the officers who are members of the movement today, and find more than a few of the same faces there.

They have also had something to say about the Iranian matter and our relations with the U.S. When Netanyahu made his famous speech in Congress, the movement held a press conference and stated not only that this speech “would bring Iran closer to a nuclear bomb”, it would also cause a huge rift with the U.S. and ruin the historic alliance between the two countries. We end this part by saying that people who run lotteries such as the Israel Lottery, build their budgets exactly on such people, who gamble every single week – and lose every week”.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav 

Shimon Cohen

Source: http://ribonut.co.il/BlogPostID.aspx?BlogPostId=426&lang=1

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"Epidemic Prevention" Chinese Communist Party Style: Persecute Religious Minorities - Judith Bergman

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by Judith Bergman

Horrific human rights violations continue unabated in China

• One member of [The Church of Almighty God], who had been released, said that the police had "threatened to send her to the coronavirus epicenter in Hubei Province to be infected if she continued practicing her faith." — From Bitter Winter, May 6, 2020.
• Members of CAG are imprisoned in education camps alongside Uyghurs and other Muslims, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. One CAG member said that the Xinjiang camp she was sent to had 400 inmates, mostly Uyghurs, Christians and Falun Gong members. She was beaten, nearly raped and subjected to all sorts of torture as part of the indoctrination effort. — From Bitter Winter, March 18, 2020.
• When the elderly man in charge of the church asked why the government had destroyed it, the police viciously beat him. In April, authorities demolished a Three-Self church in Xining for being "illegal". Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese regime continued to remove crosses from Three-Self churches in Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, and other provinces. — From Bitter Winter, April 11 and 23, 2020.
• "Independent experts estimate that between 900,000 and 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang." — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCRIF), April 28, 2020.
• "Meanwhile, authorities in Xinjiang and other parts of China have destroyed or damaged thousands of mosques and removed Arabic-language signs from Muslim businesses." — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, April 28, 2020.
• "Human rights advocates and scientists presented evidence that the practice of harvesting organs from prisoners—many of whom are believed to be Falun Gong practitioners— continued on a significant scale." — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, April 28, 2020.

China's regime continues its crackdown on The Church of Almighty God, a group China banned as a "dangerous cult". In February and March, authorities arrested at least 325 members of the church "as a result of investigations in the name of epidemic prevention". One member said that the police had "threatened to send her to the coronavirus epicenter in Hubei Province to be infected if she continued practicing her faith". Pictured: Members of The Church of Almighty God commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, on June 4, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Since early 2020, China has been doubling down on its already extreme suppression of religious freedom, and the Covid-19 outbreak has done nothing to curb the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) enthusiasm. If anything, the virus outbreak has served as an excuse to crack down even more on freedom of religion.

In February, for instance, officials came to inspect whether a church in Henan province was implementing lockdown instructions, but, according to one church member interviewed by Bitter Winter, "seeing some bible verses written on a blackboard they said, 'China is the land of the Communist Party, and we are not allowed to hold religious beliefs'". The officials then "smashed everything in the venue and left, locking the door..."

The CCP also continued its crackdown on The Church of Almighty God (CAG), a group China banned and that it considers a "dangerous cult". Between February and March, authorities arrested at least 325 members of the group "as a result of investigations in the name of epidemic prevention". One member of the group, who had been released, said that the police had "threatened to send her to the coronavirus epicenter in Hubei Province to be infected if she continued practicing her faith". At the height of the epidemic in early February, authorities in the province of Shanxi "launched a special crackdown campaign against the CAG, encouraging masses to report on its members". A government employee from Anhui province said that he had been instructed "not to delay investigations into CAG members because of the pandemic: On the contrary, government personnel should use preventive measures as a pretext to enter residents' homes".

Members of CAG are imprisoned in "re-education" camps alongside Uyghurs and other Muslims, Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. One CAG member said that the Xinjiang camp she was sent to had 400 inmates, mostly Uyghurs, Christians and Falun Gong members. She was beaten, nearly raped and subjected to all sorts of torture as part of the indoctrination effort. Elderly members of CAG have been imprisoned and subjected to beatings and torture, despite being frail and ill. They are subjected to hours of indoctrination to make them sign papers saying that they will relinquish their beliefs.

Protestant house-churches have also been demolished. In February, a house-church in Guangdong province, which had been built mainly by seniors, was demolished and police arrested an elderly woman for five days for opposing the demolition. In April, officials demolished a church in Jiangxi province. Before the demolition, local Communist Party members told the congregation, "coronavirus was introduced from overseas, and the United States is China's enemy." In early April, police arrested a pastor, Zhao Huaiguo, in the central province of Hunan, who founded the Bethel Church, on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power" for using a virtual private network (VPN) to access foreign news websites that are blocked by Chinese government censors. In early May, police raided a church service in the southeastern province of Fujian and violently beat many worshippers.
In 2019, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which published its Annual Report 2020 on International Religious Freedom on April 28:

"Chinese authorities raided or closed down hundreds of Protestant house churches... including Rock Church in Henan Province and Shouwang Church in Beijing. The government released some of the Early Rain Covenant Church congregants who had been arrested in December 2018, but in December 2019, a court charged Pastor Wang Yi with 'subversion of state power' and sentenced him to nine years imprisonment. Local authorities continued to harass and detain bishops...who refused to join the state-affiliated Catholic association. Several local governments, including Guangzho city, offered cash bounties for individuals who informed on underground churches. In addition, authorities across the country have removed crosses from churches, banned youth under the age of 18 from participating in religious services, and replaced images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary with pictures of President Xi Jinping".

The CCP is even targeting the state-run "Three-Self" Protestant churches, which have already been forced to incorporate CCP propaganda in their sermons. In March, more than 200 officials and police officers showed up at a Three-Self church in Henan province and demolished it. When the elderly man in charge of the church asked why the government had destroyed it, the police viciously beat him, fracturing two of his ribs. They threatened to kill him if he "challenged the Communist Party again". In April, authorities demolished a Three-Self church in Xining for being "illegal". Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese regime continued to remove crosses from Three-Self churches in Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, and other provinces.

The Communist regime also continues its destruction of Buddhist temples, such as one in Hebei province, in early March. The temple was destroyed for lacking "a religious activity venue registration certificate" even though the temple director had never been asked by authorities to obtain such a certificate. According to the Annual Report 2020 on International Religious Freedom of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, in 2019:

"The Chinese government continued to pursue a strategy of forced assimilation and suppression of Tibetan Buddhism, as demonstrated by the laws designed to control the next reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and those of other Tibetan eminent lamas. Monks and nuns who refused to denounce the Dalai Lama have been expelled from their monasteries, imprisoned, and tortured. During the summer of 2019, authorities demolished thousands of residences at the Yachen Gar Tibetan Buddhist center in Sichuan Province, displacing as many as 6,000 monks and nuns. In April [2019], authorities closed the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy to new enrollment. Authorities also intensified a crackdown on possessing or displaying photos of the Dalai Lama, continued to monitor religious festivals, and, in some areas, banned students from attending festivals during their school holidays".

One of the members of USCRIF wrote in the report that, "Tibet is second only to Syria in terms of religious freedom and human rights violations. The situation in Tibet is worse than in North Korea..."

In addition to the demolitions of places of worship, arrests and general harassment of religious minorities, the CCP regularly imprisons members of religious faiths, alongside dissidents and a variety of other unwanted people in psychiatric hospitals for "treatment", where they are forced, frequently through torture, to take medication. One staff member in a psychiatric hospital in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said that when members of The Church of Almighty God are brought in, the hospital starts the "treatment" immediately, without any tests or examination. A church member who spent 157 days in a psychiatric hospital said, "A doctor told me that because of my faith, I was a mental patient, and there was no need for further tests".

According to the Annual Report 2020 on International Religious Freedom:

"Independent experts estimate that between 900,000 and 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang— an estimate revised upward since the previous reporting period. Individuals have been sent to the camps for wearing long beards, refusing alcohol, or other behaviors authorities deem to be signs of 'religious extremism.' Former detainees report that they suffered torture, rape, sterilization, and other abuses. In addition, nearly half a million Muslim children have been separated from their families and placed in boarding schools. During 2019, the camps increasingly transitioned from reeducation to forced labor as detainees were forced to work in cotton and textile factories. Outside the camps, the government continued to deploy officials to live with Muslim families and to report on any signs of 'extremist' religious behavior. Meanwhile, authorities in Xinjiang and other parts of China have destroyed or damaged thousands of mosques and removed Arabic-language signs from Muslim businesses".

In addition to all of the above, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom concluded in its "Key Findings" for China:

"According to reports, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested during 2019 for practicing the movement's meditation exercises or distributing literature about their beliefs. Human rights advocates and scientists presented evidence that the practice of harvesting organs from prisoners — many of whom are believed to be Falun Gong practitioners — continued on a significant scale. In addition, there were widespread reports that authorities across China demolished Mahayana Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian statues they claimed were 'unauthorized'".

It is positive that the coronavirus outbreak has focused attention on China's irregular international behavior. The world, though, also needs to muster the courage and the will vehemently to protest the unspeakable human rights abuses that the Chinese Communist regime inflicts on its own population on a daily basis.

Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16051/china-religion-persecution

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