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In this mailing: 
    *   Judith Bergman: _Europe:  Illegal to Criticize Islam_ 
(mip://0b74d448/default.html#toc_item_9525)   
    *   Ahmed Charai: _Why  Donald Trump Should Focus on Africa_ 
(mip://0b74d448/default.html#toc_item_9522)   
    *   Raymond Ibrahim: _Egypt's  Deadliest Church Attack_ 
(mip://0b74d448/default.html#toc_item_9549)  
 
_Europe:  Illegal to Criticize Islam_ 
(https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9525/europe-illegal-criticize-islam) 
by Judith Bergman  •  December 12, 2016 at 5:00 am 
    *   While Geert Wilders was being  prosecuted in the Netherlands for 
talking about "fewer  Moroccans" during an election campaign, a state-funded  
watchdog group says that threatening homosexuals with  burning, decapitation 
and slaughter is just fine, so  long as it is Muslims who are making those 
threats, as  the Quran tells them that such behavior is mandated. 
    *   "I am still of the view that  declaring statistical facts or even 
sharing an opinion  is not a crime if someone doesn't like it." - Finns  
Party politician, Terhi Kiemunki, fined 450 euros for  writing of a "culture 
and 
law based on a violent,  intolerant and oppressive religion." 
    *   In Finland, since the court's  decision, citizens are now required 
to make a  distinction, entirely fictitious, between "Islam" and  "radical 
Islam," or else they may find themselves  prosecuted and fined for 
"slandering and insulting  adherents of the Islamic faith." 
    *   As Turkey's president, Recep  Tayyip Erdogan, said, "These 
descriptions are very ugly,  it is offensive and an insult to our religion. 
There is 
 no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and  that's it." There are 
extremist Muslims and  non-extremist Muslims, but there is only one Islam. 
    *   It is troubling that Western  governments are so eager to crack 
down on anything that  vaguely resembles what has erroneously been termed  
"Islamophobia," which literally means an irrational fear  of Islam. 
    *   Considering the violence we  have been witnessing, for those 
Westerners who have  studied Islam and listened to what the most influential  
Islamic scholars have to say, there are quite a few  things in Islam of which 
one legitimately ought  to be fearful.
 
 
In  Finland, Terhi Kiemunki, a Finns Party politician, was  found guilty by 
a court of "slandering and insulting  adherents of the Islamic faith." 
(Image source: YouTube  video screenshot)

Several  European governments have made it clear to their citizens  that 
criticizing European migrant policies or migrants is  criminally off-limits 
and may lead to arrest, prosecution  and even convictions. Although these 
practices constitute  police state behavior, European governments do not stop  
there. They go still farther, by ensuring that Islam in  general is not 
criticized either. 
Finland  is the European country most recently to adopt the way  that 
European authorities sanction those who criticize  Islam. According to the 
Finnish news outlet YLE, the  Pirkanmaa District Court found the Finns Party 
politician,  Terhi Kiemunki, guilty of "slandering and insulting  adherents of 
the Islamic faith" in a blog post of Uusi  Suomi. In it, she claimed that all 
the terrorists in  Europe are Muslims. The Court found that when Kiemunki  
wrote of a "repressive, intolerant and violent religion  and culture," she 
meant the Islamic faith. 
_Continue  Reading Article_ 
(https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9525/europe-illegal-criticize-islam) 

 
_Why  Donald Trump Should Focus on Africa_ 
(https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9522/trump-africa-focus) 
by Ahmed Charai  •  December 12, 2016 at 4:00 am 
    *   President-elect Trump has the  opportunity to make a historic 
course correction, and to  do so in a manner consistent with his 
administration's 
 stated goals. By renegotiating the U.S. African Growth  and Opportunity 
Act, which was first initiated by the  Clinton Administration, he can 
strengthen American  exports, create new export-related jobs and foster  
development-oriented investment on the continent. By  reforming U.S. 
humanitarian aid 
to Africa, he can cut  considerable bureaucratic waste, effectively 
increasing  assistance without upping the cost.
 
 
Kenyan  military personnel meet with U.S. military personnel at  Camp 
Lemonnier, in Djibouti, on March 14, 2011. (Image  source: U.S. Army)

What's  a three-word foreign policy agenda President-elect Donald  Trump 
can pursue that will create American jobs, reduce  terrorism, challenge China 
and set him apart from the  failings of his predecessor? Promote African  
development. 
On  the one hand, the world's poorest continent is rife with  socioeconomic 
problems that have paved the way for some  lands to become hubs of 
international terrorism, posing a  threat to their own populations as well as 
to 
distant  countries, including the United States. Of the eighteen  ISIS branches 
deemed fully operational by the National  Counterterrorism Center, eight 
are in Africa. According to  the latest edition of the Global Terrorism Index, 
the  world's deadliest terrorist group by sheer volume of  lethality is not 
ISIS but the Nigerian Boko Haram. 
_Continue  Reading Article_ 
(https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9522/trump-africa-focus) 

 
_Egypt's  Deadliest Church Attack_ 
(https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9549/egypt-church-attack) 
by Raymond Ibrahim  •  December 12, 2016 at 3:00 am 
    *   The law that the elders of  Islam bequeathed to Egypt's Muslims, 
holds that all  conquered indigenous inhabitants -- in Egypt, the  infidel 
Christians -- must not be permitted to build  churches, must not complain or 
ask for equal rights, and  must be grateful merely for being allowed to live. 
    *   In short, not only has nothing  changed for Egypt's Christians; the 
deadliest church  attack in modern history has now just taken place, not  
under Mubarak or Morsi, but under President el-Sisi.  What does he propose to 
do about it?
 
 
The  interior of St. Peter Cathedral in Cairo, after the  bombing of 
December 11, 2016. (Image source: AP video  screenshot)

The  worst attack on Egypt's Christian minority in recent years  occurred 
yesterday, Sunday, December 11, 2016. St. Peter  Cathedral in Cairo, packed 
with worshipers celebrating  Sunday mass, was bombed; at least 27 
churchgoers, mostly  women and children, were killed and 65 severely wounded.  
As many 
of the wounded are in critical condition, the  death toll is expected to 
rise. 
As  usual, witnesses say that state security was not present,  and that 
police took an inordinate amount of time to  arrive after the explosion. 
Preliminary investigations  point to a bomb placed inside an unattended woman's 
purse  on one of the rear pews of the women's section. 
Mutilated  bodies were strewn along the floor of the cathedral. "I  found 
bodies, many of them women, lying on the pews. It  was a horrible scene," 
said one witness. 
"I  saw a headless woman being carried away," said Mariam  Shenouda. 
_Continue  Reading Article_ 
(https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9549/egypt-church-attack) 

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