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Ruth King

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Jewish Settlers Agree to Leave Amona Outpost in West Bank The deal comes a week before a Dec. 25 deadline set by Israel’s high court to evacuate the land By Rory Jones see note please

By on December 19th, 2016

This is an appalling concession. The people in Amona came to build in and live in peace . ……rsk

TEL AVIV—Israel’s government on Sunday forged a last-ditch deal to relocate Jewish settlers from homes built on Palestinian land to another part of the West Bank, avoiding a potentially violent confrontation but underscoring state support for controversial settlements.

After weeks of talks with 40 families of Jewish settlers that had constructed an outpost of trailer homes in the Palestinian territories north of Ramallah, Israel’s conservative government agreed to move most of the settlers to nearby plots, a spokesman for the families said.

Israel’s Supreme Court in 2014 ruled that the outpost, called Amona, was built illegally after claims were lodged by Palestinians over the land. The court ordered the site be evacuated by Dec. 25.

The ruling pitted the judiciary and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against members of his conservative ruling government coalition who supported Amona and have since put forward new legislation to legalize other outposts in the West Bank.

In recent days, hundreds of supporters of the settlers had camped out at Amona ahead of plans by the police and military to forcibly remove the families. Earlier Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu urged the settlers to take the deal offered by the government and evacuate peacefully. CONTINUE AT SITE

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Rust Belt Is Right to Blame Obama The risk that regulators pose to business is up 79% from 2010—a burden that falls heavy on industry. By Clark S. Judge

By on December 19th, 2016

Donald Trump hasn’t wasted time moving to revive America’s economic growth, with an emphasis on manufacturing. Critics may say the recent Carrier deal, which will save 800 American jobs, is small potatoes, but Mr. Trump’s pledge to reduce regulation is decidedly not. A new analysis confirms that the average industry’s regulatory risk has increased nearly 80% from 2010—and that this burden particularly hurts manufacturing and heavy industry.

The analysis was developed by a small group of quantitative hotshots under the guidance of Alex Vogel, an old Washington hand, and Jeff Hood, a 30-year finance veteran. Instead of considering the question of regulatory risk like D.C. think tankers, they approached it like Wall Street analysts.

Their most inventive technique involved natural-language processing, an essential tool of the big-data era that has been used to analyze Shakespeare and fight spam email. Messrs. Vogel and Hood used the technology to analyze the language in the 10K reports that companies file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Every 10K report includes a formal assessment of the company’s vulnerabilities. Messrs. Vogel and Hood flagged any words and phrases that signaled regulatory exposure. They included general terms like “regulation” and “Congress” as well as specific ones like “fraud,” “inversions” and “Dodd-Frank.” They did something similar with the Federal Register to capture economically significant rule-making.

Then, firing up a suite of algorithms and formulas, they generated a regulatory-risk score for every company in the Fortune 500. Hedge funds are using the findings to gauge how potential investments could be affected by new regulations, court filings and other breaking events.

But the news here is in the next steps. The Vogel and Hood team analyzed corporate lobbying and turned out company-by-company ratings of its effectiveness. They put into the calculations the amounts that firms spend on government relations, the size of government-relations staffs, the expertise of the outside lobbyists hired, and the number of lobbying registration reports filed. Each company can then be ranked in the hierarchy of Washington influence.

Messrs. Vogel and Hood say their method is like a capital asset pricing model with one exception: In place of the standard measure for market risk, they substituted their metrics for regulatory risk and corporate response. What were the results?

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The EPA’s Science Deniers The agency changes its view on fracking and water without evidence.

By on December 19th, 2016

Speaking of fake news, the political scientists at the EPA have rewritten the conclusion of a report in order to cast doubt on the safety of hydraulic fracturing. Consider this EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s parting gift to Donald Trump.

Last week the EPA issued the final version of a five-year study evaluating the impact of hydraulic fracturing, the oil and gas drilling method known as fracking, on groundwater contamination. The draft report released last year for public comment concluded that fracking has not “led to widespread, systemic impact on drinking water resources in the United States.” The EPA’s findings haven’t changed, but its conclusion has.

After being barraged by plaintiff attorneys and Hollywood celebrities, the EPA in its final report substituted its determination of no “widespread, systemic impact” with the hypothetical that fracking “can impact drinking water resources under some circumstances” and that “impacts can range in frequency and severity” depending on the circumstances.

Any technology has the potential to inflict some damage—self-driving cars can be hacked to go haywire—and the EPA explains that drinking-water contamination could occur if wastewater is incorrectly disposed or wells are poorly sealed. In Pavillion, Wyo., the EPA’s faulty construction of a monitoring well caused contamination.

Yet after reviewing more than 1,000 studies, the EPA couldn’t find more than limited evidence—mostly alleged by plaintiff attorneys—of operational failures causing contamination. That the EPA uncovered only a few instances of contamination among a million some wells reinforces its prior conclusion that fracking doesn’t threaten the drinking-water supply.

The EPA now asserts that “significant data gaps and uncertainties” prevent it from “calculating or estimating the national frequency of impacts.” For instance, water-quality data was not collected everywhere prior to the introduction of fracking, which has allowed plaintiff attorneys to ascribe any contamination to oil and gas companies.

Methane can leak into groundwater naturally, and the EPA even notes that “site-specific cases of alleged impacts” are “particularly challenging to understand” because “the subsurface environment is complex.” Scientists have documented methane in the shallow subsurface of Susquehanna County, Pa.—one area of alleged fracking contamination—dating back more than 200 years.

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EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Academia on the Verge of a New Dark Age Leo Goldstein

By on December 18th, 2016

Editor’s Introduction: It has been widely reported that President-elect Trump is considering cuts to NASA’s Earth division, which is a major source of “climate change” research. Broadly speaking, climate change research has become a cause favored by the political left and dis-favored by the political right.

The following article by Leo Goldstein is a strongly-stated criticism of global warming theory that focuses on the political left’s support for the theory.

One of the strongest and most longstanding political/social prejudices has been that Liberals represent Science and Reason, while Conservatives oppose them. This opinion was probably imported from Europe, where it had some ground in the Enlightenment period. But it has never been the case in America. The fact that overwhelming majority of post-WWII scientists held liberal beliefs is not evidence, because scientists comprised only a tiny minority of Liberal or Conservative supporters.

Over the last thirty years, in fact, Liberalism has been taken over by the hard Left, abandoned science and reason, and become a hotbed of obscurantism and oppression. The myth that Democrats were the party of science but Republicans were anti-science played a significant role in this downfall. One notable phenomenon is the rise of the so-called “postmodern science,” a product of cultural studies.
AL GORE’S WAR ON SCIENCE

Al Gore played a unique role in corrupting and degrading the American scientific enterprise. He belonged to the group of “Atari Democrats” who made an early alliance with the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, but Gore had neither aptitude not training in science. He was no friend of science. Gore compared science to the Faustian bargain:

“[W]e have chosen to escape the Malthusian dilemma by making a set of dangerous bargains with the future worthy of the theatrical legend that haunted the birth of the scientific revolution: Doctor Faustus. Some of these bargains have already been exposed …” (Al Gore, Earth in the Balance, 1992, pp. 127-128)

In 1993-2000, Vice President Gore removed many distinguished, independent-minded scientists from the leadership of the American scientific community, replacing them with his political allies—especially from the environmentalist movement. For example, he fired Will Happer from the position of the Director of Science in the DOE, after Professor Happer suggested measuring the UV radiation impact of the alleged ozone layer depletion. This and other symptomatic cases are described in Michael Gough’s excellent book Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking(2003). Gore’s staff further demanded that distinguished oceanographer Roger Revelle’s name be removed from an article against global warming alarmism that Revelle had co-authored. Gore’s unsuccessful attempts to intimidate Professor Fred Singer and to manipulate Ted Koppel, then an ABC anchor, were well-publicized as well.

But the media and academics believed that science had no enemies on the left, so these misdeeds were largely ignored. The publication of Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science (1994) by Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt, the Sokal affair (in which physicist Alan Sokal submitted an article of deliberate gibberish phrased in politically correct cant to Social Text, and got it published), and similar expressions of academic dissent were too little and too late. Other processes leading to the corruption of National Academy of Sciences and scientific societies are outside the scope of this article.
“POSTMODERN SCIENCE” AND CLIMATE CHANGE

A scientific theory must match empirical observations. This is the essence of the scientific method, universally accepted for at least four centuries. Francis Bacon formulated it in 1620. A liberal arts education has long included sciences and required observations of nature or lab experiments. More recently, Karl Popper refined our understanding of the scientific method. It is currently accepted that any scientific theory must be testable (“falsifiable”) – the theory must have a non-trivial inference which is observable and can be demonstrated to be wrong (“falsified”) if the theory is incorrect. A theory contradicting natural or experimental observations must be rejected.

But then came “postmodern science,” with its constructivist epistemology, which declared science to be nothing more than what scientists say is true. In the postmodern framework, physical laws are just social conventions. If we were to take these postmodernists (or cultural constructivists) seriously, we would have to believe that gravity comes and goes as scientific opinion changes. This nonsense seems too absurd to do any real harm in the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, it has seriously harmed scientific institutions and scientific education, not least because it became a cornerstone of the climate pseudo-science. For example, the climate models of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are “validated” by comparing their results to other IPCC models rather than to actual climate change data.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

Academic: ISIS ‘as Islamic as Anything’ By Andrew Harrod

By on December 18th, 2016

These things come and go,” declared University of Toledo Islamic Studies professor Ovamir Anjum of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a phenomenon he demonstrated is not an aberration in Islamic history. His December 1 presentation, “ISIS & the Future of Islam,” at Georgetown University’s Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) indicated that ISIS has far more Islamic legitimacy than many will admit.

Speaking in ACMCU’s small conference room to about thirty-five listeners, including Georgetown Islamic Studies professor Emad Shahin, Anjum stated that “Islam is a discursive tradition; there are many different interpretations on any issue.” In Islam, “to say that something is wrong and I disagree with it – that is easy. To say that something is beyond the pale of any possible legitimate interpretation is very, very, very, very difficult.” Regarding ISIS, “misinterpretations like this in a free-floating enterprise like Islamic law happen all the time.”

As Anjum noted, ISIS consistently seeks justification in “Islamic texts, which they seem to know more or less,” although members “use the hadith and the Quran in a way that is not resonant with the scholarly tradition and with the scholarly consensus.” Nonetheless, the condemnation of ISIS from many Muslim organizations, including the terrorist group al-Qaeda, “does not demonstrate that ISIS does not represent one plausible interpretation of Wahhabi or Salafi doctrine.”

Explaining that ISIS is not unique in Islam’s past, Anjum described the historical example of a “charismatic figure on the margins of the Islamic world agonized by the depraved condition of the community.” He “unites tribes under his leadership to wage war against existing regimes and peoples for their loose practices, [and] sternly and violently imposes moral norms.” “Most crucially, [he] calls his Muslim opponents disbelievers and uses that to declare jihad against them.” “Ultimately, his successors succeed in establishing a powerful dynasty over a large and prosperous stretch of territory.”

Anjum suggested that this description could bring to mind eighteenth-century Saudi Arabian theological founding father Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Yet Anjum actually wanted to examine the twelfth-century North African Almohad leader Ibn Tumart. He also thought his statements had applicability to the Shiite Safavids in Iran.

Anjum’s main criticism of ISIS was that it “excludes other Muslims from being part of Islam” similar to the “super-pietists, fanatics, zealots” of the Khawarij sect (modern-day Ibadis) from Islam’s founding era in the seventh century. “You have checked out of the discursive community; you have excommunicated other Muslims; you are killing other Muslims,” he stated about ISIS members who violate Islamic norms demanding communal review of behavior. “It is kind of like the academic process of academic review and other people holding you to account, and you act in accordance with the respect for the academic community.” Yet ISIS “is a group that draws on a very legitimate set of grievances and the rejection of these people as Khawarij comes from the mouths of people that serve up…the tyrants who create the conditions,” giving ISIS “their major rebuttal.”

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Trump’s New World Order By Ted Belman

By on December 18th, 2016

The first hint of Donald Trump’s vision of a New World Order came when he said in a speech during the primaries that NATO was “obsolete.” The UK Independent wrote about that speech,

As currently constituted, he says, NATO is ill-suited to combating international terrorism, which is for him the world’s “single biggest threat”. He especially objects to the US footing so much of the bill, saying that other allies should “pay up or get out”, and refuses to see the US as the “world’s policeman”. As he told a town hall meeting in Wisconsin: “Maybe NATO will dissolve and that’s OK, not the worst thing in the world.”

As a result of that speech, NATO is currently being drastically overhauled.

President-elect Donald J. Trump spoke by telephone with Taiwan’s president a couple of weeks ago, thereby breaking with nearly four decades of diplomatic practice. Beijing was not pleased. Trump, during the campaign, continually complained about what China does to undermine the US. He has characterized climate change as a “Chinese hoax,” designed to undermine the American economy. He has criticized China for its manipulation of its currency to America’s disadvantage. And he has threatened to impose a heavy tariff on Chinese goods, a proposal that critics said would set off a trade war.

So it would appear that the phone call is part of a negotiating strategy.

On the other hand, Trump has had mostly good things to say about Vladimir Putin. Dick Morris in a recent podcast, said that Trump is trying to do what Nixon did with his China Policy, namely undermine the USSR, only in reverse. Trump is getting ready to put the squeeze on China for a better deal and he wants Putin on his side. Rex Tillerson, Trump’s pick for SoS, is there to grease the wheels among other things.

So, what else is Trump planning?

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on December 18th, 2016

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Technion opens new integrated cancer center. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel inaugurated the Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC) in Haifa. The center is a first-of-its kind hub for global cancer research, which will expedite the discovery of new diagnostic tools and treatments through a collaborative “bench-to-bedside” approach. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/220756

Israeli wins $25,000 neuroscience award. (TY Karen) Israel’s Dr. Gilad Evrony was awarded the Eppendorf and Science Prize for Neurobiology by Science magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr Evrony sequences and analyzes the genomes of individual brain cells to detect mutations.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-american-researcher-wins-25000-prize-for-young-scientists/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/220303

First US medical center to use Israeli hi-tech scanner. I reported previously (Dec 4) that the US FDA approved the P-ARTIS innovative upright CT proton scanner from Israel’s P-Cure. Now the Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center will be the first in the US to use it for patients being treated for lung cancer.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/375973

Facebook screens live brain surgeries from Israeli hospital. More than half a million viewers have been watching live broadcasts on Facebook of Israeli brain surgeons at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba removing a benign tumor. The purpose was to promote the work at the new brain center.
http://www.jta.org/2016/12/13/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/facebook-screens-live-brain-surgery-from-israeli-hospital

Israel’s first health informatics program. The Jerusalem College of Technology and the University of Toronto have jointly developed Israel’s first degree program in the field of health informatics. Health informatics involves managing and analyzing data to support the best treatment for patients.
http://www.jct.ac.il/en/jct-university-toronto-collaborate-health-informatics-program

1,000 new defibrillators. In what may be the largest purchase of defibrillators ever made in Israel, volunteer emergency medical services (EMS) organization United Hatzalah recently purchased 1,000 defibrillators – one for each of its volunteers. The aim is that no one in Israel will die from a treatable cardiac arrest.
http://www.jems.com/articles/news/2016/11/united-hatzalah-purchases-1-000-new-defibrillators-to-distribute-among-fleet-of-ems-volunteers.html

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

Jerusalem to distribute Xmas trees. Jerusalem’s Municipality continues its tradition of distributing free Christmas trees to the capital’s Christian residents. On Dec. 20, 150 trees will be distributed at the Jaffa Gate Plaza upon presentation of a valid ID card. Christian areas will be decorated and assistance given for fairs etc.
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Jerusalem-Municipality-to-distribute-150-free-Christmas-trees-475255

Islam in Israel – facts and figures. (TY Bennett) Excellent summary of Israel’s 1.454 million Muslim population. E.g. It highlights just how free religion is, with a 500% growth in the number of mosques since 1988 (from 80 then to 400 now).
https://israelforeignaffairs.com/2016/06/behind-the-headlines-facts-and-figures-islam-in-israel/

Why is Israel treating wounded Syrians? (TY BIG) This video was produced by Mohammad Magadli & Mohammad Al-Kassim. It features Moslems who cannot understand why Israel is treating Syrian wounded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgdjoi0KFBQ

Twice as much water for Jordan. (TY Bennett) Israel’s national water carrier Mekorot is to build a new pipeline from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) to Jordan. It will provide Jordan with 100 million cubic meters of water annually, roughly double the volume Israel currently supplies to the kingdom.
http://www.thetower.org/4298-israel-set-to-double-annual-water-supply-to-parched-kingdom-of-jordan/

Hands-free Smartphone reaches 1200 users. Latest news on Israel’s Sesame Enable smartphone for the disabled (see previous) is that it now has reached more than 1,200 customers globally, including in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, in the three years since it was set up. See video of the phone’s paralyzed co-founder.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hands-free-phone-opens-worlds-for-paralyzed-users/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no4ks4INcL0

Helping Ugandan children. Project TEN, a project of the Jewish Agency for Israel, has set-up its third volunteer center in Africa. Partnering with a coalition of organizations, the center in Namulanda, Uganda (between Kampala and Entebbe) will focus on education, healthcare, agriculture, and the arts.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/return-to-uganda-by-jewish-peace-corps/2016/12/11/

Israel welcomes new Turkish Ambassador. Mekin Mustafa Kemal Okem presented himself to Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem and officially assumed the post of Turkey’s first ambassador to Israel in five years. He hailed a “new beginning” in bilateral ties and called the Jewish state Ankara’s “partner and friend.” http://www.timesofisrael.com/taking-up-post-turkish-envoy-hails-new-start-with-friend-israel/

What Israel can do for Rajasthan. (TY Karen) Israel’s MASHAV has three centers of excellence in the Indian State of Rajasthan. They are working on producing high-quality seedlings, intensifying cultivation, better irrigation and fertilization. Israel can also help increase milk production, crop shelf-life and pest control.
http://swarajyamag.com/insta/israels-best-practice-ideas-that-can-exponentially-increase-the-dairy-output-of-rajasthan

PM visit to Muslim Azerbaijan. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed bilateral agreements governing tariffs, agricultural cooperation, and to advance further cooperation in science, technology, health, trade, and other economic matters. http://www.thetower.org/4292-netanyahu-israels-ties-with-azerbaijan-symbolize-muslims-and-jews-working-together/

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

How the US should engage China and Russia World stability depends on a strong America that is economically vibrant and technologically superior By David P. Goldman

By on December 18th, 2016

Russia, China and America never will be friends; at best they will be peaceful competitors rather than warlike adversaries. To maintain the former rather than the latter circumstance is the proper goal of American policy.

It would be dangerous for America to pursue the Wilsonian (and neo-conservative) vision of internal transformation of Russia and China, with the goal of turning them into American-style democracies.

The second-most dangerous thing America could do would be to abandon the world stage. World stability depends on a strong America, that is, an America that is economically vibrant and technologically superior.

It is whimsical to speak of a Russian-Chinese-American “alliance” in the sense of the European “Holy Alliance” after the Napoleonic Wars. America, Russia and China never will be allies. China and Russia can be “equal partners” with America, provided that America is more equal than China and Russia. By this I mean that China and Russia are powers that have legitimate interests that deserve consideration, so long as America retains a decisive edge in military technology – something that cannot now be taken for granted.

Relatively speaking, America’s big stick has shrunk noticeably, and there is a temptation to speak loudly by way of compensation.

Misconceptions about Russia and China abound and could have tragic consequences. Democracy is integral to American culture, which (as I have tried to show) flows from our self-conception as an almost-chosen people. Individualism is stamped indelibly on our national character, and our national avatar is the lone pilgrim.

Russia and China are not like us, and Russians and Chinese do not see the world the way we do. Russia and China are not nation-states but multi-ethnic empires. In that respect they bear a certain resemblance to the United States, which is a multi-ethnic republic rather than a nation-state in the usual sense of the word.

To construct a state from different ethnicities – a one, out of many -requires a culture with some universalizing character. The peculiar ways in which Russia and China were unified is the key to their character.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Europe: Christmas Shoppers in Jihadist Crosshairs by George Igler

By on December 18th, 2016

In Ludwigshafen, Germany, a “‘strongly radicalized” 12-year-old boy “of Iraqi heritage” planted a bomb at a Christmas market at the end of November.

Previously, the festive shopping tradition of Christmas markets had become “potent symbols of freedom,” with Germany’s Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière, urging people to stick to unserem Leben — “our way of life.”

In Birmingham, England, the Christmas market has concrete barriers installed to deter vehicular suicide bombers. According to the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, the magnitude of the terrorism faced by the UK is “unprecedented.”

French security forces thwarted attacks planned for December 1, against Disneyland Paris and the Christmas market on the main thoroughfare of the French capital, the Champs-Elysée.

With a pro-Sharia (Islamic law) advocate now secretary of state in the Berlin regional senate, and other Muslims even refusing to shake the hand of the German President Joachim Gauck at events designed to promote integration, Germany’s “way of life” is changing fast.

As the winter nights lengthen, an even darker shadow is falling across the run-up to the Christmas holidays in several European nations. Families in markets and shopping districts across the continent are buying presents in the knowledge that jihadists mean to target them.

On November 21, the U.S. Department of State cited a “heightened risk of terror attacks” in an advisory statement set to expire only on February 20, 2017.

“Credible information,” quotes Newsweek, prompted a warning to American travellers to “exercise caution at holiday festivals, events, and outdoor markets,” given planned attacks by Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Those attending “large holiday events, visiting tourist sites, using public transportation, and frequenting places of worship, restaurants, hotels, etc.” were likewise urged to exercise vigilance.

On December 16, German media reported that:

“a 12-year-old boy was suspected of planning two different bomb attacks in the western German city of Ludwigshafen. The German magazine ‘Focus’ said he had first tried to target a Christmas market at the end of November, before placing a backpack with explosives near a high-rise building containing both city hall and a shopping center.”

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

“The Crescent Must be Above the Cross” Muslim Persecution of Christians: September, 2016 by Raymond Ibrahim

By on December 18th, 2016

Three Christians were sentenced to be flogged for sipping wine during a communion Mass. “In a shock move,” however, “oppressive officials in Tehran have charged the three with ‘acting against national security’ for taking part in the Christian ritual.” — Iran.

“One begins to wonder if Catholic priests have become an endangered species.” Clergyman discussing latest murder of priest. — Nigeria.

“We are at a breaking point. People can’t put up with any more of this.” — Christian bishop, Egypt.

“They said all Christians should be killed. They said we were evil demons and made Pakistan impure.” — Christian survivor of Muslim mob attack, Pakistan.

Officials arrested 27 Christians — including several women and children — for the crime of “conducting Christian prayers” and being “in possession of Bibles.” — Saudi Arabia.

In September 2016, a group of escaped ISIS sex slaves finally revealed the true fate of Kayla Mueller — the 26-year-old American aid worker in Syria whom ISIS had reported dead more than a year ago. Her former fellow captives said Mueller had “refused to deny Jesus Christ despite being repeatedly raped and tortured.” In February 2015, ISIS claimed their captive had been killed during a Jordanian airstrike and sent photos of her dead body in a white burial shroud, apparently as a sign of respect. One former sex slave said that Mueller “put others before herself,” and once even refused a chance to escape with the other girls because she thought her American appearance would stand out and endanger the others.

Kayla Mueller was a 26-year-old American Christian aid worker in Syria. The Islamic State abducted her, and repeatedly raped and tortured her, then claimed that she was killed during a Jordanian airstrike. Above, Mueller is shown before her enslavement and death (left), and during her captivity (right), taken from an ISIS propaganda video.

An ISIS-related plot to butcher Christians with chainsaws in a Belgian shopping center was exposed in September after authorities interrogated a Muslim youth. The teen — the son of a man being described as a “radical imam” — was arrested for calling for the execution of Christians while walking down a street. Theo Francken, a Belgian official, said:

“I already signed the order to remove the Imam from Belgian soil. But he appealed the decision, so I can only hope for a quick sentence. Clearly radicalism runs in the family.”

Speaking for the first time about the slaughter of the 86-year-old French priest Jacques Hamel, eyewitness Guy Coponet — who was himself stabbed several times, including in the neck, and was not expected to survive — revealed how the jihadi murderers also forced him to hold a camera and record them slitting the throat of the elderly priest: “They even checked the quality of the image and that I wasn’t trembling too much. I had to film the assassination of my friend Father Jacques!” He said the assailants planned on using the video as propaganda, “which would allow them to earn their fame as a ‘martyr’ of Allah.”

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