The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."
The operation is expected to last weeks as the IDF wraps up its operations in Rafah.
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip. June 30, 2024.(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
The IDF’s current reinvasion of Shejaia
has led to killing dozens of Hamas terrorists since Friday, but so far
seems to be more about eliminating tunnels there which were missed
during the first time through.
This
is the fourth reinvasion staged by the IDF of northern and central Gaza
since mid-March, with prior reinvasions including: Shifa Hospital,
Jabalia, and Nuseirat.
IDF
sources said that Division 98 surprised Hamas on Friday in broad
daylight, succeeding in only 40 minutes in penetrating a new makeshift
headquarters established inside a school and a pharmacy.
The operation is expected to last weeks as the IDF wraps up its operations in Rafah.
By early January, the IDF
had already achieved operational control over Shejaia, but over recent
months once the IDF withdrew from the area, Hamas has been
reconstituting itself.
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip. June 26, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
But,
according to the IDF, it did not operate in all parts of Shejaia during
the first invasion, and it did not penetrate a significant amount of
Hamas’s tunnel network in the area.
Throughout
the invasion of Gaza, IDF sources have emphasized that they would need
years to eliminate all of the tunnels and are not necessarily being
given sufficient time to do so.
IDF tackles new Hamas command center in short time
In
the initial invasions of Gaza, many of the largest and most strategic
tunnels with larger communications tools, intelligence centers, and more
powerful weapons were destroyed, but significant aspects of smaller
tunnels were not always fully accounted for.
By getting to the new Hamas command center in such a short time, the IDF was able to prevent most of the Hamas terrorists from escaping the operation – something which has been a problem in many other operations.
A
number of those terrorists killed were part of anti-tank missile cells,
which have been one of Hamas’s strongest assets in ambushing the IDF.
Still,
the IDF did not use the technique of enclosing the entire area before
going on attack, such that some terrorists may still have escaped.
IDF
sources were somewhat defensive about needing to return to so many
parts of Gaza where they had declared having achieved operational
control.
The
sources notes, however, that the speed with which the IDF was able to
penetrate the area, that is, 40 minutes as opposed to the weeks it took
in December, showed that whatever version of Hamas was trying to return
was exponentially weaker.
From the beginning of operations in Rafah, the forces of Division 162 have killed over 1000 terrorists whose names the IDF knows.
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip. June 26, 2024.(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
About a month and a half ago, the 162nd Division
maneuvered towards Rafah with the aim of overwhelming the Rafah
Brigade, locating weapons, tunnels and taking control of the Philadelphi
Corridor and the Rafah crossing - through which weapons, ammunition and
military equipment were smuggled.
The
combat teams of the 401st and Givati brigades have taken over the
Rafah crossing, the Philadelphi Corridor, the NPK neighborhood (parallel
to the Philadelphi Corridor), the Brazil neighborhood in the south of
the city, and parts of the Tel Sultan neighborhoods in the West of the
city.
The forces of the 162nd Division, from the beginning of the maneuver in Rafah,
killed over 1000 terrorists whose names the IDF knows, not including
those buried under the ruins of the buildings or underground.
Also, the IDF located and destroyed most of the underground systems to which Hamas’s Rafah battalions moved.
What missions remain in Rafah?
The
IDF is required to complete the defeat of the Rafah battalions - most
of whose operatives fled to Khan Yunis. Those who remain in the area
move in the remaining underground structures or between buildings.
IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip. June 26, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
These
forces engage minimally with IDF troops, preferring instead to fire at
Israeli forces from a distance or waiting for the soldiers to move
elsewhere in order to survive.
And what about the Philadelphi Corridor?
Following
IDF operations in the Philadelphi Corridor, to ensure the permanent
destruction of Hamas's supply pipeline, the IDF will later perform scans
along the entire axis.
These efforts will be supported by the Technology and Logistics Division under the command of Col. Michel Yanko.
In addition, Israeli troops will be required to secure a logistics axis along the Corridor and toward Rafah.
The
diplomatic level has not yet decided on the continuation of combat in
the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, but at this stage, estimates
suggest that intense fighting in the city will conclude within a week.
There is a lot of speculation that this means that the Arab League no longer views Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
HEZBOLLAH LEADER Hassan Nasrallah delivers a video address, watched at an event in Beirut’s southern suburbs, last month.(photo credit: MOHAMED AZAKIR/REUTERS)
Reports over the weekend suggested the Arab League
is shifting its position on Hezbollah. According to the reports, the
Arab League Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki spoke at length with
Lebanese parliament Hezbollah member Mohammed Ra’ad. “Zaki reportedly
said there should be no additional escalation and that Lebanon should
choose a new president to fill the long-vacant position,” the New Arab
reported.
There is a lot of speculation that this means the Arab League no longer views Hezbollah
as a terrorist group. However, there is still lack of clarity on
whether this implies a trend in the region among the league members or
whether it is merely designed to brief the league due to concerns about a
possible war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
According to Al-Akhbar in Lebanon,
which is considered sympathetic to Hezbollah, Zaki was visiting the
country and held several important meetings. For instance, he spoke with
the commander of the Lebanese army and several other factions.
“The
most prominent meeting was with the head of the Loyalty to the
Resistance bloc, MP Mohammad Raad,” the newspaper said. “This was the
first contact between the two sides in more than ten years, especially
since the Arab League had accepted the Saudi-Emirati request and
approved in 2016 the classification of Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization.”
According
to this report, “as for the content, the sources revealed that ‘Zaki
informed Hezbollah that the university decided to remove the terrorist
designation against him, and it believes that he has a major role in the
future of Lebanon.’ He also called for accelerating the presidential
elections, pointing out the difficulty of electing any of the known
candidates, and considering that ‘the solution is to agree on the third
solution.’
Hezbollah operatives (credit: REUTERS)
“While
Representative Raad did not comment on the issue of party
classification, he repeated in the presidential file the position in
support of [presidential candidate] Franjieh while emphasizing openness
to any discussion, but the other party refuses dialogue.”
This
section of the report appears to illustrate that the wider context is
not the possible conflict with Israel, but actually Lebanese politics.
MEANWHILE,
Anadolu media in Turkey also reported on the meetings. “In a televised
statement on the Egyptian Al-Qahera News Channel the day after he
concluded his visit to Beirut, Hossam Zaki said: ‘In previous Arab
League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization,
and this designation was reflected in the resolutions, leading to the
severing of communication based on these decisions.’”
This
report leaves some confusion. “The member states of the League agreed
that the label of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer
be employed,” Zaki said. “The designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization no longer applies… the Arab League does not maintain
terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such
a manner,” he indicated. I searched for the original Al-Qahera report
of this statement and could not find it. It is apparently a translation
of a short video segment.
Lebanese politicians push back against Hezbollah actions
It’s
worth noting that Lebanese politicians who met with Zaki pushed back
against Hezbollah’s actions, which are escalating toward war with
Israel. Lebanon24 media noted that “the head of the Phalange Party
stressed his rejection of Hezbollah monopolizing decisions on war and
peace and dragging Lebanon into a war that will only bring it tragedies.
It has proven that it did not and will not serve Gaza or the two-state
solution that grants the Palestinians their right to a viable homeland,
which is the only way out to stop the war and stabilize the region.”
MEANWHILE,
the pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen characterized Zaki’s visit as also
reversing eight years during which Hezbollah was viewed as a terror
group by the league. “Zaki pointed out that the issue of the war in the
south took a significant amount of time in communications, expressing
his hope that things would not develop because ‘the evidence coming from
the Israeli side is worrying and expresses a desire to expand the war
on Lebanon, which is rejected by the Arab League,’” the report said.
This is important because it shows that the goal of the league is to
prevent a wider conflict.
In
most cases, there is no clear evidence about how the Arab League has
officially changed its position. On the other hand, the decision by Zaki
appears to come as the league has normalized ties with the Syrian
regime and the Syrian regime, which has close ties to Hezbollah.
The
terrorist group intervened to back the region in 2012. The decision by
the Arab League to view Hezbollah more negatively came in the context of
the Syrian civil war. Therefore, with the war largely over, it makes
sense that the league may be more open to talks with Hezbollah.
It’s
worth noting the meeting was with a Hezbollah member of parliament in
Lebanon, so the league can argue this is merely a formality and a
meeting with parliamentarians. Ra’ad was recently slammed in Lebanon for
comments in which he critiqued Lebanese citizens for going to the beach
and to nightclubs during the tensions with Israel.
The
overall context here is that the region is concerned about possible
war. Countries are considering asking their citizens to leave, and
reports say some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are already urging
citizens to leave Lebanon. The Kingdom of Jordan has also advised
citizens against travel there.
The
Arab League isn’t the only one doing outreach to Hezbollah. According
to reports, on Thursday, a Qatari official is also traveling to Beirut
to meet with Hezbollah. This report also appeared at Al Akhbar, clearly
showing that the Lebanese daily paper has an interest in trumpeting the
meetings with Hezbollah and officials in the region. This is designed to
legitimize the terrorist group and make it seem like it is playing a
major role negotiating on behalf of Lebanon.
Well-meaning people supporting the Palestinian cause are actually empowering Islamo-Nazis.
A pro-Palestinian protest in London, a week after
Hamas murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and took more than 250
others hostage into the Gaza Strip, on Oct. 21, 2023. Credit: Alisdare
Hickson/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons.
Jew-hatred in the Diaspora is out of control and escalating.
In Los Angeles last Sunday, a vicious mob
swarmed the Adas Torah synagogue and violently assaulted pro-Israel
counter-demonstrators and Jewish locals.
With many faces masked by keffiyehs, the
mob prevented Jews from entering the synagogue. The attackers used
pepper spray and bear spray. Some of their victims required medical
treatment.
It took an hour before the police finally
pushed back the attackers. Then the mob, chanting calls for “intifada”
and the destruction of Israel, moved on to target two smaller synagogues
attended by Iranian Jews. Targeting these synagogues showed that the
mob’s real agenda was not to attack Israel but to attack Jews. This was
not a protest against policy but an antisemitic onslaught against
people.
It’s routinely claimed that the violence
and intimidation perpetrated by mobs in the name of “Palestine” ever
since the Oct. 7 Palestinian Arab pogrom is anti-Israel rather than
anti-Jew. This is a demonstrable fiction.
Jews are being actively discriminated
against in the literary and cultural worlds with publishers refusing to
publish Jewish authors and with the homes of American Jewish museum
directors vandalized.
Jews are being picked on by companies such
as the firm of British plumbers that refused to work for someone
because she had opposed the BDS movement and given “cover to the State
of Israel.” And Jews are being personally attacked or abused by
individuals or institutions.
In London this week, several students at
the Jewish boys’ school Hasmonean were attacked at an
underground station. The mother of one of the boys said one was kicked
to the ground, another was elbowed and hit his head against a wall, and a
third pushed towards the edge of the platform amid shouts of “Get out
of the city, Jew!”
At the annual meeting of the British
Medical Association, a female doctor was heckled with repeated shouts of
“shame” after she said she was Jewish. Around one in 10 policy
proposals being put forward at the meeting was removed from the debates
on legal grounds because it related to the Israel-Palestinian conflict
and was said to risk “being perceived as discriminatory, more
specifically antisemitic.”
The BMA was accused of becoming a “vehicle
for Jew-hatred.” Such is the scale of this bigotry among doctors that
some British Jews are now hiding their Jewish identity when admitted to a
hospital.
The notion that such unambiguous attacks
on Jews are an unfortunate but essentially fringe by-product of the
“protests” over “Palestine” is a bad misreading of the situation. What’s
been unleashed in the West ever since the Oct. 7 atrocities is an
insurrection against the Jews that isn’t marginal to these
“pro-Palestine” demonstrations and antisemitic incidents. It’s
fundamental.
The alliance between left-wingers and
Muslims that’s behind such attacks has been put down to
“intersectionality.” This is the doctrine of overlapping victim groups
that divides society into victims and oppressors, based on a Marxist
view of the powerful and the powerless in which Jews are deemed to be
the most powerful of all.
This venomously distorted and paranoid
characterization of the Jews makes “intersectionality” itself a prime
source of antisemitic bigotry. However, the Palestinian cause that’s
promoted not just by these extremist culture warriors but also by the
entire “progressive” world is innately anti-Jew.
This is not confined to Hamas. The
Palestinian cause itself is based on the aim of exterminating Israel and
falsely appropriating historic Jewish identity in the land of Israel as
its own. The Palestinian cause writes the Jewish people out of their
own history.
That program of cultural extermination is
what all who support the Palestinian cause are actually signed up for.
They may heatedly deny it. They may believe they are supporting two
states existing in harmony side by side. They may claim that most
Palestinian Arabs merely want to live peacefully alongside their Israeli
neighbors. They may tell themselves there would be peace in the Middle
East if it wasn’t for Israel’s “right-wing” Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
They are delusional. They have not merely
contributed to the madness that is now sweeping the Western world; they
have sanitized and legitimized it. They have enabled the world to claim
that Palestinianism is respectable because it is anti-Israel and not
anti-Jew.
This was never true.
The Palestinian Arab agenda targeted Jews
from the start. During the Nazi period, the Mufti of Jerusalem—Haj Amin
al Husseini, who declared Islamic holy war against the Palestinian
Jews—allied with Hitler and pledged that if Germany won the war, the
Mufti would exterminate every Jew in the Middle East.
Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the
Palestinian Authority, hero-worships al Husseini and teaches Palestinian
children that their highest goal is to murder Jews and take their land.
The P.A. couches its murderous incitement against Jews in the language
of Islamic holy war and Nazi-style demonization.
The Palestinian Arabs are the true heirs
to the Nazis. As a consequence, well-meaning people in the West who
fondly believe they are supporting Palestinian rights are, in fact,
supporting Islamo-Nazis.
Politicians who hand on heart profess
their horror at today’s upsurge in antisemitism but push a state of
“Palestine” that will have the power to destroy the Jewish state—and who
then punish Israel for resisting this—are themselves deeply complicit
in fueling Jew-hatred.
President Joe Biden has condemned the
mobbing of the Los Angeles synagogue as “appalling,” “unconscionable”
and “antisemitic.” Yet his administration does everything it can to
prevent Israel from eviscerating the “appalling,” “unconscionable” and
“antisemitic” regimes of Hamas and Hezbollah, while also forbidding
Israel from striking the head of the genocidal snake in Tehran.
Moreover, not only does America continue
to fund the P.A. despite its murderous Jew-hatred, but the Biden
administration also continues to promote the Islamo-Nazi entity as the
worthy rulers of a post-Gaza war Palestine state.
In Britain, the Labour Party leader Sir
Keir Starmer, who is expected to become prime minister in next week’s
general election, has written affectingly about sharing Israel’s current
trauma through his wife’s Jewish relatives.
Nevertheless, Labour’s election manifesto
suggests, albeit in ambiguous and deniable form, that a Labour
government might unilaterally declare a state of Palestine—a supremely
hostile act that would greatly imperil Israel’s security still further
and is promoted by those who want the Jewish state gone.
In a party election broadcast, Starmer
also pledged to London’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, that a Labour
government would have a “zero tolerance approach” to Islamophobia.
Since “Islamophobia” covers any criticism
of the Islamic world, Labour’s policy appears to mean stamping upon any
critic of Islam with the force of law, including anyone who dares call
out the wildly disproportionate level of Jew-hatred in the Muslim world.
The never-ending war between the
Palestinian Arabs and Israel has been created and perpetuated by the
West’s behavior in sanitizing, excusing, legitimizing, funding and
incentivizing the Islamo-Nazis and their preposterous, mendacious,
brain-frying “Palestinian” cause.
In The Wall Street Journal this week, Seth Cropsey, president of the Yorktown Institute and a former U.S. deputy under-secretary of the Navy, wrote
that Iran has activated a network of global Islamist sympathizers to
ramp up public pressure on Israel as an essential element of its
strategy of attrition to destroy the Jewish state.
Tehran’s goal, he wrote, is to get Western
politicians to back a ceasefire. “By slowing the conflict down and
splitting Israel from the U.S. and its allies, Iran aims to make Israel
an international pariah,” he said.
The Palestinian cause has been manipulated
by Iran into a wedge issue. It has turned America against Israel, lined
up liberals with Islamo-Nazis, and set Jew against Jew. And after Iran
finishes with Israel, the West is next.
Palestinianism hasn’t just been used to
give a veneer of respectability to Jew-hatred. It is being weaponized
against civilization.
Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, writes a weekly column for JNS. Currently a columnist for The Times of London, her personal and political memoir, Guardian Angel, has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, The Legacy, in 2018. To access her work, go to: melaniephillips.substack.com.
[T]he campaign has thrown a grenade in Iranian political life by presenting immigration, in the words of Gen. Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf, one of the wannabes, as "the root-cause of all major problems the nation faces."
All candidates are career
government employees molded by the same ideology and committed to "total
and absolute obedience" to the "Supreme Guide".
This time, we don't even have the usual Punch-&-Judy show by "Reformists" and "Fundamentalists."
However, the campaign has thrown a grenade in Iranian political
life by presenting immigration, in the words of Gen. Muhammad Baqer
Qalibaf, one of the wannabes, as "the root-cause of all major problems
the nation faces."
Qalibaf hasn't offered a shred of evidence to back his claims.
Nor has the government of which he has been a part for 40 years produced
a single serious report on Afghan immigrants in Iran.
The fact, however, is that no Afghan has been involved in any of
the 22 terrorist attacks that Tehran has attributed to ISIS since 2019.
Tehran supported various anti-Taliban armed groups and, once the
US-backed Islamic Republic was placed in Kabul, became the third-largest
donor of aid to the Karzai-Ghani regimes. For about a decade, the flow
of refugees was reduced to a trickle.
The flow intensified again after the Taliban returned to power in
August 2021. Surprisingly, since then, trade between the two neighbors
has picked up. Last year, Afghanistan was Iran's second-largest trading
partner and foreign investor.
And yet, pressure on Afghan refugees in Iran has intensified. At
least 6,000 are currently in prison on various charges while many more
are subjected to daily insults, intimidation, semi-official
racketeering, eviction and unpaid wages.
Even worse, at least 300,000 children, many of them third- or
fourth-generation immigrants, are denied access to schooling because
they lack official papers necessary.
The manner in which most Afghan immigrants are treated violates Iran's laws.
The 1934 Nationality and Naturalization Act bases the granting of
Iranian nationality on the "blood and soil" principle, under which
anyone born of Iranian ancestry and anyone born on Iranian soil could
demand naturalization as a citizen. Foreign women married o Iranian men
automatically become Iranian along with their children.
Yet according to official surveys some 100,000 Afghan women
married to Iranians and over 300,000 of their children are categorized
as stateless.
The irony is that Afghans are the closest people to Iranians.
Part of what became Afghanistan was separated by the British with the
Paris Treaty of 1857, in a process that during the notorious Great Game
finally put Afghanistan on the map as a buffer state in 1879.
Thus, a judicious reading of the 1934 Act could enable many Afghans to claim citizenship based on common ancestry.
It is sad that the candidates in the Islamic Republic election ignore Iran's own laws, traditions and cultural values.
Pictured: Saeed Jalili, an Iranian presidential candidate,
casts his vote at a polling station in Tehran during Iran's presidential
election on June 28, 2024. (Photo by Hossein Beris/Middle East
Image/AFP via Getty Images)
On June 28, million of Iranians voted to elect a new president of the
Islamic Republic from among six pre-approved candidates in a first
round.
It isn't clear how many of those eligible to vote, including those in exile, registered to do so.
The early election caused by the death of President Ayatollah Dr.
Sayyed Ibrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, and the brief campaign have
offered little opportunity for would-be voters to assess the candidates.
All candidates are career government employees molded by the same
ideology and committed to "total and absolute obedience" to the "Supreme
Guide".
This time, we don't even have the usual Punch-&-Judy show by "Reformists" and "Fundamentalists."
Unlike in previous elections, none of the candidates is regarded by
Western pundits as an Iranian version of Janos Kadar, the Hungarian
leader whose "goulash Communism" softened the image of the Stalinist
regime. Nor is there a putative Iranian Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese
leader who successfully steered the Communist regime towards state
capitalism. Finally, this time even Jack Straw cannot discover an
Iranian Gorbachev, the Soviet leader whom Margaret Thatcher thought she
should drag to a tango.
All six candidates pledged to "continue martyr Raisi's shining path"
and repeated promises such as offering free housing that were given by
the late Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic
Republic, almost half a century ago and echoed by all eight Islamic
presidents Iran has experienced since.
It would, therefore, be easy to dismiss the whole rigmarole with a "been there, seen that, bought the T-shirt" quip.
However, the campaign has thrown a grenade in Iranian political life
by presenting immigration, in the words of Gen. Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf,
one of the wannabes, as "the root-cause of all major problems the nation
faces."
"Afghan immigrants are damaging Iran in many ways, notably drug
smuggling, taking jobs from the nationals and engaging in crime."
Qalibaf promised that, if elected, he would build a wall to seal off
Iran's frontiers with Afghanistan and Pakistan, a total of 1,831
kilometers. Qalibaf hasn't offered a shred of evidence to back his
claims. Nor has the government of which he has been a part for 40 years
produced a single serious report on Afghan immigrants in Iran.
Masoud Pezeshkian, another candidate, also talked of "completely
sealing off the eastern borders "to prevent Afghans from coming to
Iran".
He suggested that Iran adopt Turkey's policy of blackmailing the
European Union to pay for Syrian refugees and ask the EU to make a
similar deal with Iran on Afghan refugees.
Turkey, of course, has already built a 310-kilometer wall to seal its
border with Iran, ostensibly to keep out Kurdish "terrorists" but also
to forestall a flood of Afghans expelled from Iran.
Another candidate, Hojat al-Islam Mostafa Pour-Muhammadi, branded
Afghans as a threat but suggested that those who belong to the Hazara
community, being Shi'ites and Persian-speakers, receive a better
treatment, along with Afghans recruited by the late Gen. Qassem
Soleimani to keep President Bashar al-Assad in power in Damascus.
Soleimani had also promised to offer those Afghans Iranian citizenship
and tracts of land to "build a new life" in Iran.
The other three candidates, including Saeed Jalili, leader of the
"North Koreans of Islam", have cast Afghan immigrants as a security
threat because they could be wooed by ISIS and kindred terrorist groups.
The fact, however, is that no Afghan has been involved in any of the
22 terrorist attacks that Tehran has attributed to ISIS since 2019.
Figures concerning the number of Afghan refugees vary from 800,000,
given by the United Nations' High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and
5.2 million claimed by Iran's Interior Ministry.
The first wave of refugees, a few hundred, arrived in 1973 after
Muhammad Daoud Khan staged a coup to depose king Muhammad Zahir Shah.
Mostly high former officials and intellectuals and their families, those
asylum seekers quickly received residence permits or gradually left
Iran for Europe and the United States.
Five years later, the Communist coup in Kabul pushed thousands of
asylum-seekers to Iran. They, too, were mostly regularized under Iranian
laws effective during the constitutional monarchy.
During the Afghan civil war, the flow of refugees continued with
varying degrees of intensity. By the time the Taliban were out of Kabul,
more than 3.5 million Afghan refugees had entered Iran, many using it
as a stopping point on the way to other countries.
Tehran supported various anti-Taliban armed groups and, once the
US-backed Islamic Republic was placed in Kabul, became the third-largest
donor of aid to the Karzai-Ghani regimes. For about a decade the flow
of refugees was reduced to a trickle.
The flow intensified again after the Taliban returned to power in
August 2021. Surprisingly, since then, trade between the two neighbors
has picked up. Last year, Afghanistan was Iran's second-largest trading
partner and foreign investor.
And yet, pressure on Afghan refugees in Iran has intensified. At
least 6,000 are currently in prison on various charges, while many more
are subjected to daily insults, intimidation, semi-official
racketeering, eviction and unpaid wages.
Even worse, at least 300,000 children, many of them third- or
fourth-generation immigrants, are denied access to schooling because
they lack official papers necessary.
The limbo created means that many Afghans cannot fully own businesses, have bank accounts or even buy mobile phone SIM-cards.
The manner in which most Afghan immigrants are treated violates Iran's laws.
The 1934 Nationality and Naturalization Act bases the granting of
Iranian nationality on the "blood and soil" principle, under which
anyone born of Iranian ancestry and anyone born on Iranian soil could
demand naturalization as a citizen. Foreign women married o Iranian men
automatically become Iranian along with their children.
Yet according to official surveys, some 100,000 Afghan women married
to Iranians and over 300,000 of their children are categorized as
stateless.
The irony is that Afghans are the closest people to Iranians. Part of
what became Afghanistan was separated by the British with the Paris
Treaty of 1857, in a process that during the notorious Great Game
finally put Afghanistan on the map as a buffer state in 1879.
Thus, a judicious reading of the 1934 Act could enable many Afghans to claim citizenship based on common ancestry.
It is sad that the candidates in the Islamic Republic election ignore
Iran's own laws, traditions and cultural values. They imitate the US,
Turkey, Hungary, Poland and Thailand by building walls while echoing the
anti-immigrant tune that has poisoned political discourse in France,
Britain and Germany.
This article originally appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat
Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the
daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for
innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a
columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987. He is the Chairman of
Gatestone Europe.
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing.
A raging Muslim mob attacked
and savagely beat a 74-year-old Christian man, on what turned out to be a
false accusation of "blasphemy". Nine days later, on June 3, Nazir
Masih Gill died from his many injuries, including a smashed skull. —
Morning Star News, June 3, 2024, Pakistan.
The Muslim employer of Saima Bibi, a 24-year-old Christian woman,
dragged her outside and shoved her toward an electric chaff
cutter—which sliced off one of her ears, cut off most of her scalp, and
injured an eye. Her husband, Shahzad, who worked on the same farm and
was present, said that one of their employers, Muhammad Mustafa, was
angry that they were taking a break and ordered them to cut fodder for
the cattle. — Morning Star News, May 15, 2024, Pakistan.
Shahid Masih, a 35-year-old Christian dairy worker, was falsely
accused of theft and subjected to "merciless torture" at the hands of
Muhammad Ijaz. It included forcing him to ingest acid, from which he
died in the hospital 11 days later.... Last reported, authorities are
refusing to prosecute Muhammad Ijaz and his murderous accomplices. —
britishasianchristians.org, May 15, 2024, Pakistan.
"Christian sanitation workers work long shifts even in extreme
weather conditions.... these workers are often ridiculed and mistreated
because of their Christian faith.... They often face salary delays and
no job security. They are discriminated against even by their Muslim
colleagues, and now we are witnessing incidents of physical violence
against these weak people." — Sunil Gulzar, Christian socio-political
activist, Morning Star News, May 29, 2024, Pakistan.
Many other attacks on churches in France persisted throughout the
month of May, including arson attacks, general desecrations,
desecrations of cemeteries, defecations in churches and urination in
their baptismal fonts, and bomb threats. — France.
"Imagine the uproar if it was Christians throwing rocks at a
mosque? MPs and the media would be all over it screaming
'Islamophobia!'" — Tommy Robinson, British activist, x.com, May 1, 2024,
England.
The Church of the Holy Trinity was vandalized with Islamic
graffiti, which included "Allah Akbar," "Remove this church from here,"
"Only Muslims are here," "We don't want churches, we want mosques," and
"Islam is the only true religion!" — orthodoxtimes.com, May 15, 2024, Kosovo.
On Sunday, May 12, the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in
Vienna, Austria (pictured) was defaced with Islamic slogans, including
"Islam will win, with you or without." (Image source: Zairon/Wikimedia
Commons)
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of May 2024.
Muslim Slaughter of and Violence against Christians
Nigeria: Some May headlines from the ongoing Muslim genocide of Christians in the African nation:
Democratic Republic of Congo: During a public speech on May 25, Pope Francis said,
"I would like to stop and thank God for the testimony of
martyrdom that a group of Catholics from Congo, from North Kivu, have
given in recent days. Their throats were slit simply because they were
Christians and didn't want to convert to Islam."
As there have been so many massacres of Christians in the Congo, it
was not immediately clear which the pope was referring to in "recent
days," though it was most likely the one that occurred on May 13, in the
Ituri Province, where Muslim militants slaughtered 11 Christians, kidnapped others, and set their village on fire.
Somalia: On May 5, the extended Muslim family of Mohammad Abdul, a 40-year-old man, knifed
him for converting to Christianity. Earlier, after local Muslims
learned that he had become Christian they began sending the apostate
threatening texts:
"We are now aware that every evening you are praying in
the name of Issa [Jesus] as well as reading a corrupted book [Bible] and
not reading the Quran, the holy book sent to Muhammad from Allah. If
you do not stop this bad way of conducting religious activities, then
you risk your life."
Afterwards, things got worse—"On May 2, my younger son arrived crying
that he was beaten by some boys after telling them about my reading the
Bible and praying," said Mohammad. Then, in the evening of May 5, his Muslim relatives arrived at his door:
"They
were shouting and yelling that they were looking for my head. The
attackers forcibly entered the house and started questioning me for
forsaking Islam and joining a bad religion. My wife and children looked
shaken."
After a relative knifed Abdul, "The children began wailing and crying
in a very loud voice, which confused the attackers. I then managed to
escape through the rear door, bleeding."
An unnamed source who helped Abdul continues the narrative:
"While [Mohammad] Abdul was nursing injuries, the Muslims
went back to his house and started destroying his house, and the wife
and the five children went back with their people. His wife has told him
that the Muslims are looking for him, and that therefore he should not
go back to them."
Uganda: On May 16, Muslims savagely beat
two Christian evangelists for proclaiming Christ. Samuel, 27, and
Ephraim, 25, had just left an evangelistic outreach when three Muslims
blocked them near a swamp. According to Samuel,
"They stopped us and asked us to renounce Jesus Christ,
whom we were preaching at Naigombwa trading center for four days. At the
same time, they wanted to forcefully circumcise us as per Islamic
teaching for us to live. We totally refused, and they started beating us
badly with sharp objects and left us unconscious in a coma in a pool of
blood... My colleague, [Ephraim] suffered serious bleeding coming out
of his ears, bruised face and a deep cut in his left hand, while myself I
had a twisted neck, swollen face and neck."
They regained consciousness in a hospital where they learned that motorcycle passersby had rescued them.
"This law would apply to all villages controlled by jihadists.
According to our contacts, all villagers have been strongly advised to
convert to Islam if they want to continue living in their villages. And
those who refuse must pay a tax. If they pay, they are allowed to
continue living in the village. But they will live like slaves with
their families. All their property will automatically become that of the
jihadists. Those who do not want to convert or pay Jizya must leave the
village. But they are not allowed to take anything with them except the
clothes they are wearing.
Christians fleeing for their lives have become destitute. According to a local pastor, "We fled with nothing because we couldn't bring our food. We don't even have a shelter to stay in..."
Pakistan: The Rape, Slaughter, and Abuse of Christians
On May 16, one Muhammad Shahbaz broke into a Christian household in the middle of the night, where he raped Asma Bibi, a 35-year-old mentally handicapped Christian woman. *** On being questioned by police, Muhammad casually confessed:
"I was sexually aroused, so I entered the house and raped Asma." He
also named accomplices, prompting police to arrest and question several
other Muslim men. As a result, according to the report,
"The Masih [Christian] family finds themselves in a
harrowing situation, navigating threats and intimidation from
individuals pressuring them to abandon their pursuit of justice. Since
the arrest of the suspects involved, a wave of hostility has swept
through the Muslim community, leaving Nasir Masih and his loved ones
isolated and vulnerable. These threats, delivered with ominous warnings
of impending disaster should they persist in seeking justice, cast a
chilling shadow over the family's already tumultuous ordeal."
Human rights activist Juliet Chowdhry condemned the act in a statement:
"A very vulnerable woman was violently and brutally raped
in her own home by a neighbor. The man shows no remorse, justifying his
act as merely giving in to his urges, as if that were a valid excuse.
It's appalling that Islamic Sharia law permits such crimes to be
forgiven through compensation payments, which fosters a sense of
impunity and only serves to exacerbate and proliferate such crimes
against minority Christians."
On May 25, a raging Muslim mob attacked and savagely beat a
74-year-old Christian man, on what turned out to be a false accusation
of "blasphemy" (videos and images of the graphic incident here and here). Nine days later, on June 3, Nazir Masih Gill died
from his many injuries, including a smashed skull. On the day of the
incident, a local mosque had loudly announced that Nazir had been seen
burning the Koran in the street. A large mob consisting of hundreds of
irate Muslims—including many women and children—swiftly formed and set
fire to the modest shoe store of the elderly Christian man— at whom they
hurled stones and bricks, beat with sticks and other objects, and,
after he had collapsed to the floor, repeatedly kicked. The deceased
man's son, Sultan Gill, a member of the Presbyterian Church, described the incident:
"It was around 6 a.m. when we heard shouts outside our
main gate. When I went outside to enquire, I saw a group of 20-30
Muslims there who alleged that my father had burned pages of the Quran. I
tried to placate them and also sought forgiveness on my father's behalf
if he had indeed mistakenly did [sic] something wrong, but they
refused to listen. Meanwhile, the number of the mob had grown into
hundreds, and as soon as the police [who had earlier arrived] brought my
family outside, some people snatched my father from the policemen and
started torturing him. I tried to rescue him, but the police told me
that the lives of the entire family were at serious risk, and it was
important to move us to safety. They assured me that they would save my
father from the mob after which I agreed to leave, but they failed to
rescue him in time... [T]he entire episode has been so traumatizing for
all of us that I don't think we will ever be able to resume our normal
lives there.... All our valuables and belongings were looted by the mob.
They also burned some rooms of our house and damaged the
infrastructure."
As to what spurred the blasphemy accusation in the first place, the son said,
"Our business was flourishing, making some local Muslims
jealous of our success. There have been multiple attempts to involve us
in fake cases, which we faced bravely, but this time they misused
religion to persecute us."
According to a May 15 report, the Muslim employer of Saima Bibi, a 24-year-old Christian woman, dragged her outside and shoved her toward an electric chaff cutter—which sliced off one of her ears, cut off most of her scalp, and injured an eye (image here).
Her husband, Shahzad, who worked on the same farm and was present, said
that one of their employers, Muhammad Mustafa, was angry that they were
taking a break and ordered them to cut fodder for the cattle:
"I immediately got up and started to cut the fodder in
the electric chaff cutter, but as soon as my wife came outside to give
me tea, Mustafa started hurling abuses at her and told her to get to
work. When Saima said that she'll begin work in 10 minutes, Mustafa
pulled her from the hair and pushed her towards the chaff cutter,
causing her to fall and hitting her head in the running machine... Blood
started gushing out of Saima's head, and she screamed and cried in
pain. Seeing her in a bloody mess, Mustafa fled the scene."
On May 8, Shahid Masih, a 35-year-old Christian dairy worker, was falsely accused of theft and subjected to "merciless torture"
at the hands of Muhammad Ijaz. It included forcing him to ingest acid,
from which he died in the hospital 11 days later. Because the
impoverished Christian family lived near the dairy and heard the cries,
they rushed to the scene, where, according to his wife,
"My children were also subjected to violence simply for
weeping at the sight of their father's agonizing ordeal.... I too was
subjected to physical assault and verbal abuse."
Seeing that they had gone "overboard" and nearly killed the
Christian, Muhammad and his henchmen dropped him off at a hospital. His
esophagus, lungs, and stomach were irretrievably damaged:
"For
eleven agonizing days, Shahid fought for his life at Mayo Hospital, but
tragically, he succumbed to his injuries on the 18th of May 2024. His
untimely passing has left behind his wife, Sonia, and their six
children, who now face an uncertain future without their primary
provider."
Responding to this latest Pakistani injustice, the British Asian Christian Association said:
"This is a heartbreaking account of brutal violence
against an innocent Christian man. The savagery with which Shahid was
murdered is utterly detestable and deserves to be punished to the full
extent of the law. It is a damning indictment of Pakistan that
Christians remain vulnerable and face such devastating persecution due
to perceived impunity. Only a concerted effort to uphold the law in this
and other incidents will change the appalling mindset that treats
Christians as pariahs and condones the violence meted out against them."
Last reported, authorities are refusing to prosecute Muhammad Ijaz and his murderous accomplices.
On May 25, Muslims beat
Yasir Masih, a 35-year-old Christian sanitation worker, and left him
chained for hours in the blistering heat. When his father-in-law Hussain
found him hours later,
"Masih's
entire body was badly bruised, and he was chained to a chair. When he
regained some strength, he told us that Malik Khadim Hussain, a resident
of Gujjarpura, his son and three others had held him hostage and
tortured him for not immediately obeying their order to collect the
garbage and sweep the doorstep of their house."
Masih's primary responsibility was to clean the streets, although he
had usually agreed to the Muslim families' requests to clean their
specific areas:
"Masih told [Malik] Hussain that he would do the needful
as soon as he finished his official work and got busy. After some
minutes, when Masih went to Hussain's house, he told him to go on the
roof and clean it. When Masih went to the roof, Hussain, his sons and
the other men attacked him with iron rods, punches and kicks."
The Muslim family then chained him to a chair:
"When
they left Masih alone, he found a chance to escape, still chained to
the chair. He tripped down the stairs and dragged himself out of the
gate into the street, where he collapsed. Some passersby recognized him,
and this is how we also got information about his whereabouts."
Discussing this incident, Christian socio-political activist Sunil Gulzar said,
"Christian sanitation workers work long shifts even in
extreme weather conditions to keep the city clean. However, despite
their dedicated services, these workers are often ridiculed and
mistreated because of their Christian faith.... It seems that sanitary
workers are children of a lesser god. They often face salary delays and
no job security. They are discriminated against even by their Muslim
colleagues, and now we are witnessing incidents of physical violence
against these weak people."
Muslim Attacks on Churches and Other Christian Symbols
France: After knocking down
a large public cross with his van, a Muslim man of Turkish origin
emerged from it and, after shouting out a few "Allahu akbars," began to
perform Muslim prostration prayers at the scene. Although the report
ascribes his behavior to "psychological problems,"
it is notable that the day of the incident, May 29, is the anniversary
of the Turkish conquest of Constantinople—which featured the systematic
breaking of crosses to ubiquitous cries of "Allahu akbar."
Another Virgin Mary statue was similarly beheaded (here) and another riddled with bullets (here).
Many other attacks on churches in France persisted throughout the month of May, including arson attacks (here, here, here, here, here), general desecrations (here, here, here, here) desecrations of cemeteries (here and here), defecations in churches and urination in their baptismal fonts (here and here), and bomb threats (here).
England: On May 1 in Bradford, a Muslim woman was videotaped
hurling rocks at a church in broad daylight. Her immediate target was a
large statue of the Virgin Mary. A driver can be heard yelling "Leave
Mary alone!" As the British activist Tommy Robinson observed on X,
"Imagine the uproar if it was Christians throwing rocks
at a mosque? MPs and the media would be all over it screaming
'Islamophobia!'"
Austria: On Sunday, May 12, the Church of St. Anthony of Padua was defaced
with Islamic slogans, including "Islam will win, with you or without,"
and "Deen over Dunya" (religion comes before worldly affairs). According
to a report,
"Some of the words have been crossed out or replaced, but
the graffiti has not been removed. This is not the first time that St
Anthony's Church has been the scene of a crime. Four years ago, around
50 young people stormed the church shouting 'Allahu Akbar.' ... [T]he
church intruders were a group of Turkish youths who had previously
organised themselves via social media. There is currently no answer as
to why the graffiti has not been removed, as the parish has not yet
taken a position when asked."
Kosovo: On May 15, the Church of the Holy Trinity was vandalized
with Islamic graffiti, which included "Allah Akbar," "Remove this
church from here," "Only Muslims are here," "We don't want churches, we
want mosques," and "Islam is the only true religion!" According to the report,
"This incident is particularly troubling as it follows
the decision by the Kosovo authorities to ban Serbian Patriarch
Porfirije and other bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church from entering
Kosovo. This prohibition prevented them from celebrating the Holy
Liturgy ... [T]hese attacks on churches and private property are
predominantly driven by ethnic and religious motivations, specifically
targeting the Serbian community and the Serbian Orthodox Church."
Slovenia: On May 29, the walls of a chapel were discovered defaced with the word "Allah" scrawled in large letters with red paint.
Indonesia: On Sunday, May 5, in the island of Java, a Muslim mob, armed with machetes, sickles, and knives, descended
on a rented home, where a group of 15 Catholic students were praying.
Two young women were injured. The Muslims were angered that the
Christians had dared to worship in a home, as opposed to confining it to
whichever churches exist. As the report explains:
"Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy chairman of the Setara
Institute for Peace and Democracy, indicated that intolerant people in
Indonesia mistakenly believe that gathering for worship at a house is
against the law. Private worship is legal in Indonesia, but many people
consider the 'private sphere' as only the five daily prayers in Islam,
he said."
Similarly, on May 8, in another village in Java, a local Muslim official, with his wife and son in tow, disrupted another house during Christian prayer meeting. According
to an eyewitness, the Muslim family stood outside "screaming, yelling
and calling them bad names," all in an effort to force them to stop
worshipping. The report adds that
"The worship was not loud and has been taking place
regularly without incident for 10 years.... Indonesia, which has largest
Muslim population in the world at 231 million people, has seen a stream
of such disruptions of Christian worship in the past 25 years..."
Senegal: Catholic cemeteries were desecrated in the more than 97% Muslim nation. Photos
in the report show broken crosses, smashed tombstones, and exhumed
graves. A local authority, Cheikh Bamba Dieye, responded with strong denunciations:
"A nation of peace and harmony as tolerant and
open-minded as ours cannot tolerate and/or accept this desecration of
tombs in the Catholic cemetery of Saint-Louis. It is unacceptable
because it undermines living together and undermines our common desire
to build a Senegal of all and for all where we will live in peace with
respect for others. Shame on you."
Turkey: On May 6, an ancient Christian church in Constantinople (Istanbul) was reopened
with much fanfare as a mosque. Believed to have been in built in the
sixth century, Chora Church, like so many other churches following the
Turkic conquests of Christian lands, was converted into a mosque in the
fourteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century, during Turkey's
secular reforms, it was, due to its many Christian frescoes (images here) turned into a museum.
In 2020, however, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to
its transformation into a mosque—79 years after it had served as a
museum. At that time, the president of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou,
responded
by calling the move "an act of symbolic violence dictated by political
arrogance," which "blatantly violates the UNESCO World Heritage
Convention and brutally interrupts the long-standing intercultural
dialogue between East and West.... [It is further an act of] cultural
insecurity and religious intolerance, which condemns a treasure trove of
Christian art and cultural nobility to obscurity." One report elaborates,
"This decision [by Erdogan], reminiscent of the
conversion of Hagia Sophia in 2020, has sparked controversy both
domestically and internationally. *** The Chora Church, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site renowned for its stunning Byzantine mosaics and frescoes,
has long been cherished as a cultural and historical treasure. The move
to repurpose it as a mosque has drawn criticism from preservationists
and religious minority groups alike, who argue that it represents a
disregard for cultural heritage and religious tolerance.... Critics see
the conversion as a calculated political maneuver aimed at appeasing
Islamist parties, which constitute significant voting blocs supporting
the ruling Turkish President's Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
This shift in the status of historic Christian sites reflects a broader
trend in Türkiye, where some monuments with Byzantine and Greek heritage
have been repurposed in recent years."
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of
Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such
persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place
irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents
that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.
The decision was made as a tradeoff for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approval to legalize several outposts in Judea and Samaria.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu at a Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office
in Jerusalem, June 18, 2023. Photo by Amit Shabi/POOL.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
has extended a waiver shielding Israeli banks with ties to the
Palestinian Authority from lawsuits stemming from charges of supporting
terrorism.
The decision to extend the waiver was
reportedly made during a Thursday Cabinet meeting as a tradeoff for
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval to legalize several
outposts in Judea and Samaria.
The waiver, which the finance minister
signed for a four-month period, extends indemnity to Israeli
correspondent banks that transfer money to Palestinian Authority
financial institutions in Judea and Samaria.
Smotrich also agreed to unfreeze the last
three months of tax funds withheld from the P.A., a senior official in
Jerusalem told reporters.
Late last month, Smotrich called for a
series of punitive steps against the P.A. in response to its push for
unilateral statehood and support for the International Criminal Court case against Israel.
Smotrich’s proposals came hours after Norway, Ireland and Spain declared their official recognition of “Palestine,” in decisions that the P.A. and the Hamas terrorist group welcomed.
Ramallah is “working against Israel with
political terrorism and promoting unilateral measures around the world—I
cannot continue to transfer funds to them. If this causes the P.A. to
collapse, let it collapse,” Smotrich said.
In addition, Smotrich, who leads the
Religious Zionism Party, demanded that Netanyahu take steps to bolster
Judea and Samaria communities, including the immediate approval of
10,000 new housing units, establishing a new town for each country
recognizing “Palestine” and advancing a proposal to strengthen Israel’s
hold on the area.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen vowed
to use “all diplomatic efforts” to thwart the plans. “I’m particularly
concerned by Israel’s threats to take action that would lead to
Palestinian banks being cut off from their Israeli correspondent banks,”
she said on May 23.
“These banking channels are critical for
processing transactions that enable almost $8 billion a year in imports
from Israel, including electricity, water, fuel and food, as well as
facilitating almost $2 billion a year in exports on which Palestinian
livelihoods depend,” Yellen stated.
The Israeli Security Cabinet on Thursday
night regularized the legal status of five Jewish outposts located
beyond the pre-1967 Green Line—Evyatar, Givat Asaf and Sde Efrayim in
Samaria, and Adorayim and Heletz in Judea.
Steps to be taken against the P.A.
included canceling exit permits for officials to leave the territory and
increased enforcement against illegal Arab construction in
Israel-controlled Area C of Judea and Samaria.
“After weeks of discussions, the Israeli
government promoted an appropriate response to the anti-Israeli measures
led by the Palestinian Authority,” a statement from Smotrich’s office
said, adding that “the Security Cabinet authorized one outpost for every
country that unilaterally recognized Palestine as a state in the last
month.
“The Palestinian Authority joined Hamas in
trying to harm Israel in Israel and in the world and we will fight it,”
the statement continued. “For those who needed proof, we got it on
October 7. A Palestinian state in the heart of Israel is an existential
danger.”
The statement made no mention of the minister’s decision to drop his demand for financial sanctions.
The government’s decision received praise
from Yesha Council leader Israel Ganz, who credited Netanyahu with
“making history, which is an integral part of the victory that the
Jewish people need.” Ganz also thanked Smotrich, “who led the big move
with skill and wisdom.”
Almost 1 billion shekels ($265 million) in
tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority
yearly finances the latter’s “pay for slay”
policy, under which Ramallah disburses monthly stipends to terrorists
and their families, legal documents revealed in February.
