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Forced Conversions and Child Marriage in Pakistan: An Everyday Event by Nasir Saeed

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17621/forced-conversion-child-marriage-pakistan

Governmental and law enforcement agencies are aware of the problem, but they do not officially accept it. Instead, they claim that Islam has not set a minimum age for conversion, so if a girl wants to convert to Islam of her own free will, no one can do anything about it.

By stating this, they transfer all blame to the victims and discharge themselves of any responsibility. They also accuse minorities and NGOs of making it a problem and claim it is a false allegation to enhance their own prominence.

It is the responsibility of the state to stop this practice even if they have to introduce new laws to ensure that the rights of minorities and children are not being violated. It is also the responsibility of politicians, courts, civil society and the ulema [Islamic clergy] because failing, in the name of religion, to enforce the laws already in place cannot be justified.

Forced conversion to Islam of young Christian and Hindu girls, some under the age of 12, seems to be an everyday occurrence. To those who are in a position to stop this practice, it appears not to matter. Almost no day goes by without news of these events.

This major and growing problem in Pakistan affects religious minorities. Human rights organisations working on this issue estimate that every year 1,000 Hindu and Christian girls are forced to convert to Islam — an estimate that could be far higher as many cases remain unreported. Most of the time, these girls are lured by much older men by the promise of a better life and sometimes are pushed into prostitution or even sold.

Ruthie Blum: Iranian aggression and Israel’s fragile coalition

At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett addressed the country’s security situation.

Referring to the Israel Defense Forces attack on Hamas targets in Gaza following the latest wave of incendiary balloons, he warned the terrorist organization that it will be held accountable for any such flareups, no matter which group is behind them.

“We’re not interested if they’re dissidents, or bored or whether they have any other excuse,” he said. “Hamas is responsible.”

Referring to Lebanon—without specifying the missile attacks on northern Israel on Saturday or Israel’s retaliatory strikes—Bennett pointed to the “very important awakening by many citizens [there] against Hezbollah and Iranian involvement.”

He added that “even during the severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon, Iran and Hezbollah are entangling [its] citizens in a front against Israel.”

The Israeli premier went on to caution “Lebanon and its army” that they “must take responsibility for what is happening in their backyard,” even if the perpetrators of the recent rocket launches hailed from a Palestinian organization, belonged to a dissident group or acted independently.

“The State of Israel will not accept firing at its territory,” he stressed.

Turning to Iran’s deadly suicide-drone assault on the Israeli-managed Mercer Street tanker on July 29, he commended the G-7 countries for having condemned the attack, which was proven by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) to have been carried out by the Islamic Republic. While on that topic, he invoked Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, the “‘hangman of Tehran,’ a brutal extremist even for the Iranian regime,” and cited “Iranian aggression throughout the Middle East—on land, at sea and in the air.”

Arabs Celebrate Downfall of Tunisia’s Islamists by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17629/tunisia-islamists-downfall

Tunisia is the third Arab country after Egypt and Sudan to say that it is fed up with the rule of the Islamists. With the exception of Qatar, most of the Arab countries have long regarded the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups as a major threat to security, stability and peace.

The Palestinians… seem to be the only Arabs who continue to believe in the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates, particularly Hamas, the terrorist group that has been ruling the Gaza Strip since July 2007.

Sawsan Al-Sha’er, one of Bahrain’s most influential journalists and intellectuals, expressed relief over the ouster of the Islamists of Tunisia and said that this should serve as a reminder to all Arabs that Islamist parties – Shiite and Sunni alike – care about nothing else but reaching power.

“The Arabs have discovered that these parties do not have a … development program, or a future vision; the only project they have is to reach a position of decision-making and seize power. The religious parties do not recognize sovereign borders, the state’s constitution, laws, and regulations. In all the Arab countries in which these parties have reached decision-making positions, they bypassed all constitutional and political frameworks, and they do not see anything wrong with that….” — Sawsan Al-Sha’er, Al-Ain, August 1, 2021.

According to Al-Sha’er, the Islamists want to… make them subject to foreign powers, especially Iran.

“What happened in Tunisia is similar to what happened in Egypt in 2013, when the Egyptian people rose up against the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and overthrew them after discovering their subversive project, confirming once again the failure of the Islamists in managing the affairs of the state…. it confirms that the Arabs can no longer tolerate this group and its policies.” — Amal Abdullah Al-Haddabi, Al-Ain, August 3, 2021.

Al-Haddabi pointed out that during the past decade, successive Tunisian governments that were dominated by the Islamists failed to score any achievements for the people.

Another reason the Tunisian Islamists failed, was because they “failed to believe in democracy in its true meaning, including freedom of the media, the independence of the judiciary and economic and social rights.” — Abdel Aziz Khamis Khamis, Saudi journalist, Sky News Arabia, August 2, 2021.

The jubilation in the Arab countries over the toppling of the Ennahdah Party sends a clear message to the rest of the world against embracing or appeasing the Islamists. Sadly, this is a message that continues to be ignored by the many Palestinians and leaders in the West who continue to support Hamas and other Iranian-backed Islamist groups that seek to eliminate Israel and keep the Palestinians mired in misery.

The removal of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda [Renaissance] Party from power has been welcomed not only by Tunisians, but by many Arabs who have accused the Islamists, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood organization, of spreading chaos and instability in the Arab world.

The Ennahda Party was inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the ideology of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

US-Iranian Nuclear Talks Come Unglued by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17618/us-iranian-nuclear-talks-unglued

One significant aspect of a newly invigorated JCPOA is whether the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) would be granted total access to known and suspected Iranian sites associated with the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Better not count on it.

Part of the problem may have been the new Iranian presidency, which began last week, of a Ebrahim Raisi, “the Butcher,” apparently a destruction machine who reportedly murdered thousands of Iranians, some of whom were not even sentenced to death… Although it is Iran’s Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who makes all final decisions, the US, to its credit, seems to have concluded that no deal just now would be better than “any” deal.

It now looks as of Iran may be happier with no agreement, and just sprint for unlimited nuclear capability without any Western strings attached. There also apparently exists, with good reason, insufficient trust on the Western side that the Islamic Republic would ever actually be in compliance.

Negotiators at the Vienna-based talks on re-establishing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have reportedly drafted an agreement and returned to their respective capitals, apparently in the hopes of securing an endorsement for the revived “nuclear deal” with Iran, which by the way Iran never signed. While some differences still remain, the P5+1 nations (the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) were trying to restore the JCPOA deal before the new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took office last week.

President Biden’s negotiating team, to win the support of Iran’s hardline dominated regime, had reportedly agreed to a substantial lifting of Trump administration-imposed sanctions on Iran.

The JCPOA, which was falsely touted as preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability, had in reality only postponed it a bit; and never addressed at all Iran’s manufacture of ballistic missiles to deliver such nuclear weapons.

Australia is a Penal Colony Once More Only this time the inmates are Australians themselves. Katie Hopkins

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/australian-penal-colony-once-more-katie-hopkins/

Australia is in a very dark place.

The army has been drafted in to force people to stay in their homes, going door-to-door to check for compliance. Police helicopters circle overhead, threatening anyone in parks or public spaces with police action and fines; there is genuine fear over being caught outside without a permissible excuse.

No one is allowed more than 5 kilometers from their home address, only one person per household may leave to purchase supplies once a day, and Sydney-siders are not permitted to speak to friends or stop to browse; they may only get what they need and return home.

And this is all for 239 cases from 110,000 tests.

Other states are not faring much better. Queensland just locked down over five cases. Melbourne has been brutalized by its leader, Dan Andrews, who sees himself as something of a leader among tyrants, setting the bar for just how bad it can get and how harshly you can treat people and force them to comply.

And not a word of dissent is permitted. Not a single alternative viewpoint has made the editorials or commentariat.

The best effort has been made by Sky News Australia, loved by many as the last bastion of real talk. I made lunch plans with Rowan Dean of the popular show Outsiders when I knew I would be in Sydney. He is a good man, and is trying to keep some semblance of honesty in TV programming. For the crime of offering different opinions, Sky News Australia has been banned from YouTube for a week.

Videos from Alan Jones and the Outsiders program discussing hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin have been deleted by YouTube for violating community guidelines.

Others have been deleted by Sky News itself, including a September 2020 Outsiders clip of host Rowan Dean stating that “the jury is in on hydroxychloroquine – it saves lives,” and Jones saying there had been “rank dishonesty” around hydroxychloroquine and Australians were being denied access.

I am reminded of “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. I was deported from the country for my efforts to highlight the cruelty of keeping 35,000 people separated from their loved ones, and with them now banning media for non-compliance there is no one left to speak out for ordinary Australians.

I posted this brief explainer on my YouTube channel in support of those being imprisoned in their homes under this unofficial Marshall law.

Who Will Be The Vindicator To ‘Cancel’ China? Bob Maistros

ttps://issuesinsights.com/2021/08/09/who-will-be-the-vindicator-to-cancel-china/

“U.S. trade deficit hits record $75.7 billion in June … So far this year, the goods deficit with China, the largest that the United States runs with any country, totals $158.5 billion, an increase of 19.2% compared to the same period in 2020.” — APNews

For once the Bidenites have something right: Paramount Leader Xi isn’t about to scribble a check amounting to nearly half our annual gross domestic product. 

And why should he when China shockingly came out of COVID in an even stronger position vis-à-vis the U.S. economically?

Not to mention that the Chinese are the tightwad tyrants who of late, according to the Wall Street Journal, have “blown up what would have been the world’s largest initial public offering, launched probes into some of (China’s) biggest technology companies, and wiped out more than $1 trillion in market value while investors scramble for cover.”

The goal? “(E)nsuring companies do more to serve the Communist Party’s economic, social and national-security concerns.”

The Taliban Advance Escalates in Afghanistan Biden’s precipitous withdrawal is quickly becoming a debacle.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-taliban-next-targets-kabul-afghanistan-11628169126?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Biden Administration officials continue to insist that diplomacy is the only solution in Afghanistan. The Taliban has other ideas as its military advance continues over ever more Afghan territory and targets government officials who worked with the U.S.

The group’s “martyrdom battalion” launched an elaborate suicide attack on the Afghan defense minister’s home last week, killing eight and wounding 20. Gen. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi and his family weren’t harmed during the attack, which was followed by gunfights on the streets of downtown Kabul.

The Taliban said Wednesday that the latest bombing would be the first of many “retaliatory operations against key figures and leaders of the Kabul administration.” On Friday it assassinated Dawa Khan Menapal, the government’s chief media officer who helped local and foreign press. A Taliban spokesman took credit for what he called a “special attack” to punish Menapal “for his actions,” according to Reuters.

Kabul isn’t on the brink of collapse, but it will be increasingly dangerous for civilians, government officials and foreigners. Expect more violence in the capital as the U.S. withdraws and only a few hundred American troops remain to guard facilities like the U.S. Embassy. On Saturday the Embassy advised all Americans to leave the country on the first available commercial flight.

The Taliban now controls or contests more than 80% of Afghanistan’s districts, according to the Long War Journal, and provincial capitals are under siege. The city of Zaranj in Nimroz, a southwest province bordering Iran, was overrun by the Taliban Friday. Kunduz, a city of some 300,000 in the northeast, fell on Sunday.

“Their Goal Is Really to Eradicate Christianity”: Persecution of Christians, June 2021 by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17610/persecution-of-christians-june

A Muslim father-of-four abducted a 13-year-old Christian girl, forced her to convert to Islam, and then “married” her…. He had also promised to pay the girl Rs.10,000 (US $63) per month for her services, but stopped paying her after a couple of months…. . She told her grandmother that she wanted to go home and was willing to sign anything to do so…. The following day, a visibly battered Nayab appeared before court and reaffirmed that she was 19-years-old and had converted to Islam of her own free will. — Pakistan.

[N]early a million people have been displaced since 2017 and thousands slaughtered…. “They say their goal is to set up a caliphate similar to ISIS in Iraq and Syria…. They ask, ‘Are you a Christian? Or are you a Muslim?’ If you’re a Christian, you’re killed. If you’re a Muslim, then you get the opportunity to quote some Quranic verses. And if you can quote them sufficiently, you save your life. Otherwise, you also get killed [sometimes by crucifixion].” — Todd Nettleton, The Voice of the Martyrs USA, Mission Network News, June 28, 2021, Mozambique.

Five Muslims entered the hospital he worked in, seized and left with him, and then killed him and left his body in the bush… “His killers, who are herdsmen, came to the hospital, specifically asked for [the Christian doctor] …. collected his money, took him away, and killed him without asking for ransom. “What did he do wrong?…. Everyone loved him, always smiling, and he was one of the most hard-working persons I have ever known. His hospital boomed because he was saving lives. If you had any problems, Emeka would be there to help.” — Morning Star News, June 21, 2021, Nigeria.

“Armed groups are destroying schools and hospitals. Teachers and pupils are being killed. They are even killing the sick as they lie in their hospital beds. Not a day goes by without people being killed… Many people are traumatized… A large-scale project is underway to Islamize or expel the indigenous populations. Anyone who has been kidnapped by these terrorist groups and managed to escape from them alive has told the same story. They were given the choice between death and converting to Islam.” — Bishop Paluku, Catholic World Report, July 28, 2021, Democratic Republic of Congo

The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of June 2021:

Pakistan

The Rape, Forced Conversion, and Child Marriage of Christians

A Muslim father of four abducted a 13-year-old Christian girl, forced her to convert to Islam, and then “married” her. According to the father of Nayab Gill, when the beauty school she was attending shut down due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Saddam Hayat, a local Muslim who ran his own beauty shop, “told me that rather than wasting time, Nayab should learn salon skills to help her in supporting the family financially. He even offered to pick her up from home and drop her off after work, assuring us that she was just like his daughter.”

Hayat had also promised to pay the girl Rs.10,000 (US $63) per month for her services, but stopped paying her after a couple of months. When the girl went missing on May 20, her frantic parents turned to Hayat, who claimed not to know where she was, and kindly offered to help them find her. He even instructed Nayab’s simple and trusting mother to fill out the missing person’s report in a way that did not implicate him.

“On May 26, we were informed by the police that Nayab was in the Darul Aman [women’s shelter] since May 21,” her father continued. “In an application submitted to a magistrate’s court, Nayab claimed she had willfully converted to Islam a month ago …”

Lebanon and its Ticking Bombs by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17620/lebanon-ticking-bombs

Lebanon’s problems are deeply political. The consensus on which the Lebanese state was founded from the start has been badly shaken. Formal government structures have been duplicated, and at times replaced, by shadowy organs answerable to no one except, perhaps, foreign paymasters. The minimum rule of law that had survived many upheavals including a full-scale civil war has been replaced by the rule of the gunman.

The outside world cannot abandon Lebanon to its fate.

On the positive side, the region and beyond in the world needs Lebanon as a haven of contact, dialogue and peace, while a Lebanon turned into a platform for “exporting revolution” and real terror, along with drugs and dirty money, could harm everyone around or close to the Mediterranean basin.

In international politics, what do you do when you don’t know what to do but wish to appear to be doing something?

The answer is: you convene an international conference.

The gimmick started with the notorious Versailles Conference after the First World War that morphed into a series of photo-ops while real decisions were taken elsewhere and behind the scenes. More recently we had the grand Madrid Conference that was supposed to produce an unlikely peace in the Middle East but became an introduction to a new era of conflict in the war-torn region. Last week we have had a virtual version of the international conference on Lebanon, the second in 12 months and designed to mark the anniversary of the deadly explosion that tore Beirut apart.

The explosion shocked many, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, out of years of inattention to the many time-bombs that were ticking in Lebanon for almost three decades.

The first conference ended with classical clichés about solidarity with the Lebanese people and sugar-coated with pledges to provide $295 million for helping rebuild the shattered capital. The second conference noted that none of those clichés have acquired any meaning and that the money promised has either not been disbursed or ended up in the pockets of the usual suspects. The only rebuilding that has taken place, albeit on a modest scale, has been done by NGOs with some help from Switzerland and a few other countries.

The Arson Campaign Against Canada’s Churches What’s really fueling it. Lloyd Billingsley

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/false-phobia-symmetry-syndrome-lloyd-billingsley/

In recent weeks, more than 40 Christian churches have been torched in Canada, supposedly a response to abuse of indigenous people in residential schools. The arson campaign has drawn a variety of responses, including “Not much difference between Islamophobia and Christophobia,” from Vancouver Sun columnist Douglas Todd.

He defines Islamophobia as “dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.” Christophobia is “Intense dislike or fear of Christianity; hostility or prejudice towards Christians.” From these definitions Todd extrapolates symmetry of action.

“In Canada there is now no shortage of shocking displays of both Islamophobia and Christophobia,” Todd explains. “There have been assaults on Muslims, some deadly. There has been arson attack after attack on churches.” In reality, it’s not quite so simple.

Islamophobia is an incantation to ward off any discussion of subjects such as Islamic jihad, hatred of Jews, and Muslim violence against non-Muslims. What Todd calls “Christophobia” is nothing more than hatred of Christians, next to anti-Americanism surely Canada’s strongest hatred, particularly among the ruling class.

In the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, “a Coptic Orthodox Church, frequented mostly by immigrants from Egypt, was destroyed by fire.” The Copts are an ancient Christian community that, as Raymond Ibrahim notes, suffers horrible persecution in Egypt, and in the Sinai Copts cry, “They are burning us alive!”

Coptic Christians flee this hatred, now going on in Canada. Since the Copts have nothing whatsoever to do with Canada’s residential schools, a different dynamic must be motivating the arson against the Surrey Coptic Orthodox Church. Todd does not explore all the possibilities but does note that police are “silent about these being hate crimes.”

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police “are certainly sensitive to recent events,” one RCMP sergeant told reporters, but “will not speculate as to possible motives.” If enraged mobs were burning mosques to the ground, one may be certain, it would be called a hate crime motivated by Islamophobia, and that would be proclaimed up front.

By contrast, “Christophophobia” was not invoked in 2017 when Habibullah Ahmadi, 21, attacked Christian grandmother Anne Widholm, beating the 75-year-old Windsor, Ontario, woman into a coma before she died from her wounds. No photo of the suspect was released, nor any investigation of his background. Habibullah Ahmadi was charged with second-degree murder but his possible motive was never explored. For one of the most brutal murders in Canadian history, the convicted murderer could possibly gain release from prison in 10 years.

Catholic Churches have been prime targets but arsonists recently torched the House of Prayer Alliance Church in Calgary, Alberta. “We are refugees,” Pastor Thai Nguyen told reporters, “We escaped from Vietnam to come here to get more freedom, to live, and we think it was a good country – and now it happened to our church. Maybe it is not safe to be here in Canada compared to Vietnam.” That nation is a Communist state, but police and reporters seemed uninterested in the possible motive for burning the refugees’ church. Prime Minister Trudeau, who cries “Islamophobia” at the drop of a hat, does not seem overly concerned.