ah, more rhetoric about the muzzy-xian-jewish war let'em fight it out without the US military or our tax dollars
their war ... their problem On Dec 8, 10:01 am, Travis <[email protected]> wrote: > *The End of Religious Freedom* > > Posted By *Phyllis Chesler* On December 6, 2011 **** > > Time has run out for the cause of worldwide religious freedom. On November > 18, 2011, America chose not to extend any further lifeline to persecuted > religious minorities around the planet. On that day, the U.S. government > shut down the work of an important and unique American effort: the U.S. > Commission on International Religious Freedom > (USCIRF<http://www.uscirf.gov/reports-and-briefs/annual-report/3594-2011-annu...> > [1]).**** > > Oddly enough, the mainstream media does not seem to have covered this > story. I certainly did not know about it. Did you? The only article about > this appeared at CNS > News<http://cnsnews.com/news/article/don-t-let-religious-freedom-commissio...> > [2].**** > > In 1998, the U.S. government passed the Religious Freedom Act and this > commission was one of the results. Since then, it has sent delegations > abroad to meet with minority religious leaders in Africa, the Middle East, > and central Asia, and released reports about their work. In 2011, their Annual > Report<http://www.uscirf.gov/reports-and-briefs/annual-report/3594-2011-annu...> > [1] covered countries such as Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, > Egypt, Eritrea, India, Indonesia, and Iran.**** > > In 2011, Nina Shea, the head commissioner, presented > testimony<http://www.uscirf.gov/government-relations/congressional-testimony/35...> > [3] before members of Congress about Christian minorities under attack in > Iraq and Egypt. In this hearing, Shea reported:**** > > USCIRF has found serious, widespread, and longstanding human rights > violations against religious minorities as well as disfavored Muslims. > Confronted by these violations, the Egyptian government has failed to take > the necessary steps to halt the discrimination and repression against > Christians and other minorities. Too often, it has failed to punish the > violators.**** > > Shea discussed the New Year’s Day bombing in Alexandria, which led to the > worst attack targeting Christians in a decade. Carefully, without saying > that Muslims or the Egyptian Muslim police were the perpetrators, she > refered to the “Coptic Christmas shooting that killed six innocent > Christians in Naga Hammadi.” Over the last two years, the Egyptian > government, media, and network of mosques have systematically engaged in > violence and in the coverup of that violence against Christians.**** > > In an interview with PJ Media, Shea said,**** > > With the onslaught of the Arab Winter and the threat of newly politically > empowered Islamists suppressing the freedoms of religious minorities and > even carrying out religious cleansing campaigns against them, USCIRF is > needed more than ever. Its voice carries official weight and it has > vigorously and consistently raised it within and outside the government on > behalf of a broad array of persecuted minorities and individuals around the > world. At this time, USCIRF is winding down its work, as it is legally > bound to do, since its authorization ends on December 16. As reported in > the Congressional Quarterly, Senator Durbin of Illinois has blocked the > USCIRF reauthorization for several months, reportedly in order to get an > earmark to fund a prison in his state. He has been intractable. President > Obama — who served with Mr. Durbin in the Senate before becoming president > and who has expressed an interest in using the prison at issue for holding > detainees from Guantanamo Bay – must speak up, if USCIRF is to continue. > President Obama can make this happen and I appeal to him to do so.**** > > Why would the American government shut down USCIRF now? Some might say that > we are in an economic recession and must care fo our own before we can help > others. Some secular Americans might simply want freedom *from* religion > rather than *of* religion. They may not care about the choice to practice > one’s religion or whether or not people are being persecuted for doing so. > And some Americans may agree with the UN > view<http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/un-acceptable-censorship-united-na...> > [4] that Muslims and Islam are not to be criticized and that any accurate > portrayal of Muslim behavior may be treated as a crime.**** > > *Next: The USCIRF’s opponent still pursues its totalitarian aims with the > blessing of the global community…***** > > The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Durban Follies, > constitutes a permanent delegation to the UN. The OIC was established in > 1969. Its position <http://oic-info.org/?q=38th-council-foreign-ministers> > [5] is as follows: it seeks to**** > > pursue as a matter of priority a common policy aimed at prevented > defamation of Islam perpetrated under the pretext and justification of the > freedom of expression in particular through media and internet.**** > > In 2011, the 38th Conference, held in Kazakhstan, stated “deep concern over > any activities carried out by certain governmental and non-governmental > organizations supported by governments in order to attack OIC member states > for political purposes and to further their foreign policy objectives in > international forums.” The conference also denounced “media campaigns and > fabrications made by some quarters in non-member states regarding the > mistreatment of non-Muslim minorities and communities in the OIC member > states under the slogans of religious freedoms and so on.”**** > > In other words, attempting to help a Christian escape genocide in Egypt, > Iraq, or Pakistan would be outlawed as would all work that reports on > religious persecution. What I’m writing here would be criminalized. The > Muslims who drafted this document want to do their gender cleansing without > being exposed, stopped, or held liable for it. That’s the OIC at the UN.**** > > The United States, to its credit, shunned the UN’s Durban III conference. > However, in 2009, the Obama administration eliminated the phrases “Islamic > extremism,” “Islamic terrorism,” and “terrorism” from national security > strategy > documents<http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/07/obama-bans-islam-jihad-nat...> > [6]. We have also seen a quantum increase in fears about a non-existent > “Islamophobia” and a similar quantum decrease in “official” fears about an > escalating anti-Semitism which in the Middle East is potentially genocidal.* > *** > > Many European politically correct/anti-racist governments agree with the > OIC Conference. For example, European governments have prosecuted “thought > crimes” which involve criticism of Islam or any objective presentation of > Islam (honor killing, honor related violence, forced marriage, daughter and > wife beating, etc.) that some Muslim somewhere finds offensive — in > Holland, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Iceland etc. I myself have called this > the death of free speech in > Europe<http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/924/the-death-of-free-speech-in-europe> > [7].**** > > Recently, I was involved in the case of a Pakistani apostate, Khalid > Saheed<http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/10942> > [8], who sought and was denied political asylum in Sweden. Predictably, he > and his family have received death threats from Islamic fundamentalists. If > Saheed and his family are sent back to Pakistan, they will be murdered for > leaving Islam. This is the true state of religious tolerance in the Muslim > world. There is no such freedom and USCRIF has boldly exposed and published > this truth.**** > > *Finally: What does Dick Durbin have to do with the death of the USCRIF?**** > * > > Perhaps there are simpler reasons involved in the death of USCRIF. The bill > to continue funding it was held up by just one man, Senator Dick Durbin > (D-Ill). Durbin may not necessarily oppose aiding religious minorities as > much as he is in favor of delivering pork barrel to his constituents. Thus, > unbelievably, only until or unless the Thomson Correctional Center in > northwest Illinois is funded and/or funded for the purpose of holding > Guantanamo Bay detainees, there can be no funding for religious freedom > anywhere else on earth.**** > > Politics is a decidedly unfunny business. I usually tell people that a > politician is, by definition, a thief and a liar, but that he or she is > also a balancer, a compromiser, someone who is always in a position to sell > one cause for the sake of another, to help one person and not another, to > borrow from Peter in order to pay Paul. This is both how democracy works > and how things get done in non-democratic countries as well. Cronyism, > greed, arrogance, intolerance, injustice, occasional mercy, occasional > do-goodism characterize how humanity in the aggregate behaves.**** > > We know that most Muslims are not friendly toward any infidel religion, > including Christians, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, etc. Christians have been — > and still are — savagely persecuted in Muslim lands. I and many others have > often written about this. Author and apostate Nonie Darwish and ex-Muslim > secularist Ibn Warraq have both spoken out about this burning issue.**** > > Christians are being savagely persecuted in Egypt and all across the Middle > East and Islamic world.**** > > In Pakistan, Christians have literally been crucified, teenaged Christian > girls have been kidnapped, raped, and then forced to marry their rapists > and convert to Islam. In 2010, a Muslim mob attacked a Christian man and > slaughtered him with pick-axes for refusing to convert to Islam.**** > > Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan do not allow Christians, Jews, or other > “infidels” to pray openly or to build any new houses of worship.**** > > The Arab Muslim Middle East is almost completely “Judenrein” (free of Jews) > since more than 800,000 Arab Jews were exiled or forced to flee their > countries between 1948-1968.**** > > Mina Nevisa is an Iranian Muslim convert to Christianity who wrote a book > about her experiences. Both she and her female cousin were attending an > underground Christian church in Teheran which put them in danger. Nevis > fled Iran together with her husband. Her cousin was not so lucky:**** > > She was arrested on charges of apostasy and taken to Evin prison, where she > was raped, tortured, and then killed by a firing squad. Their pastor was > also killed.**** > > Muslim apostates in Europe also face perilous challenges. Egyptian-Italian > Magdi Cristiano Allam, who was converted to Catholicism by the pope, lives > with six round-the-clock bodyguards. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the > Somali-Dutch-American apostate-secularist, also requires a full-time > security detail. People who do not have public profiles, who are not > academics, intellectuals, politicians, or public speakers, also face > similar danger.**** > > Tomorrow, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hosts a hearing on > the “Worsening > Plight of Egypt’s Christian > Copts.”<http://tlhrc.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1224> > [9] Nina Shea, the head commissioner of USCRIF, is a keynote speaker. > Clearly, USCIRF provides invaluable information concerning the injustices > levied against religious minorities in the Middle East and in the Islamic > world. Congress must reinstate the US Commission for International > Religious Freedom — to do otherwise would be immoral, dangerous, > un-American, and unacceptable.**** > ------------------------------ > > Article printed from PJ Media: *http://pjmedia.com***** > > URL to article: *http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-end-of-religious-freedom/***** > > URLs in this post:**** > > [1] USCIRF: > *http://www.uscirf.gov/reports-and-briefs/annual-report/3594-2011-annu... > ***** > > [2] CNS News: > *http://cnsnews.com/news/article/don-t-let-religious-freedom-commissio... > ***** > > [3] testimony: > *http://www.uscirf.gov/government-relations/congressional-testimony/35... > ***** > > [4] UN view: > *http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/un-acceptable-censorship-united-na... > ***** > > [5] position: *http://oic-info.org/?q=38th-council-foreign-ministers***** > > [6] national security strategy documents: > *http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/07/obama-bans-islam-jihad-nat... > ***** > > [7] death of free speech in Europe: > *http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/924/the-death-of-free-speech-in-europe... > > [8] Khalid Saheed: > *http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/10942***** > > [9] “Worsening Plight of Egypt’s Christian Copts.”: > *http://tlhrc.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1224***** > > ** ** -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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