Tag Archive for: radical Islam

FBI ‘Mission Drift’ Targeted Christians, Ignored Islamist Threats: Fmr. Advisor

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has drifted far off course, warned former FBI senior advisor Hedieh Mirahmadi Falco, a Christian convert from Islam, on “Washington Watch.” “It’s not just mission drift. It’s mission chaos. And the only way we can undo that is by putting a focus [on] these agencies to undo the harm that has been done.”

“I’ve been involved as a federal contractor for 20-plus years,” Falco explained. “We were building terrorism prevention programs to be to the ‘left of boom,’ which means we wanted to get ahead of a terrorist attack. And, in order to do that, we were developing all kinds of [tools], whether it’s countering radicalization, social cohesion, integration programs, how do we understand radicalization?”

This counter-terrorism focus continued throughout the Obama administration, she added. “Though the Obama administration called it CVE (countering violent extremism), clearly the focus was on Islamic extremism,” Falco said. “They just didn’t want to use the word and offend the community.”

But with the (surprise) election of President Trump, the FBI’s counter-terrorism work took a sharp turn. “Fast forward to 2016,” described Falco. “President Trump gets elected. He gets into the White House, and the building shuts down. I mean, our program was shut down. All of the efforts that we were focused on were shut down.” Falco didn’t know it at the time, but the FBI’s whole attention would be consumed by the fake investigation into the Russia collusion hoax, which the FBI already knew to be a plant of the Hillary Clinton campaign.

“The FBI has run like a paramilitary organization and takes its marching orders from the Department of Justice [DOJ],” Falco explained. “So, when that program shift, that mission shift occurs, the leadership is responsible. … And the fine men and women of the FBI who investigate crimes, who want to fight crime, are forced to follow the directives of their superiors.”

When President Trump left the Oval Office four years later, the FBI’s retooled investigative units had to find new targets. “After that, then you see all the grants and the programs after the J6 investigation,” Falco continued. “They open all of these cases … on grandmothers and people who were strolling by the Capitol.”

The massive number in J6-related cases led to an “uptick” in “the number of … what they described now as ‘racially motivated violent extremists,’ which is basically [code for] ‘white Christians.’ Even though … a lot of them are not white, they’re basically Christians, conservatives. And so, the whole department, the agency shifted to that focus,” Falco detailed.

The FBI used this to spin its own political narrative. “They elevated the threat by saying, we have all of these open investigations against racially-motivated, violent white people,” said Falco. “So the threat is no longer Islam. The threat is Americans practicing their religious liberty engag[ing] in all kinds of activity.” Falco described how the FBI borrowed a Pyramid of Radicalization — “a model used to define Islamic terrorism” — and filled it with disconnected groups that were Christian or right-leaning. “They inserted the names of organizations like CBN [Christian Broadcasting Network] and Charlie Kirk’s organization [Turning Point USA]” and the base of the pyramid, “and then KKK and the radical violent groups at the top.”

“The funding mechanisms that we had for radicalization and identifying terrorism prevention programs were shifted to crowdsource policing, basically, in a conservative town like Miami Valley, Ohio, to basically disrupt the access to the public square,” Falco continued. “Millions of dollars went to these kinds of programs.”

“Even though they identified this as probably illegal,” she added, the federal law enforcement bureau did it anyway. “The stated purpose was to prevent them from advancing their goals and their ideas.”

Unfortunately, such a grave departure from the FBI’s mission (“to protect the American people and uphold the U.S. Constitution”) did not harm only its new targets. Concentrating so much attention on peaceful Americans meant the FBI had to divert its attention from jihadist threats.

“This wasn’t just, ‘All right, so we’re going to start harassing these Christians.’ It was shifting the resources they had away from radical Islamists to focusing on grandmas and pro-life protesters outside of abortion clinics,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “But that came at a price. To shift that focus, we have events like occurred … on New Year’s Day in New Orleans, where you had a radicalized American — through Islamic influence, kill Americans on a street in America.”

Falco confirmed this analysis. “The program that I was hired … to scale and replicate — a program I built in the private sector — was shut down. And it was designed to help field offices identify cases like that and be able to intervene before an act of violence. So that individual was reported dozens of times. … And there should have been intervention programs in place, multidisciplinary teams that would have intervened, knocked on the door, said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’”

Instead, the FBI was too busy parsing whether Grandma Becky stepped off the sidewalk in front of an abortion center six years ago, or what those traditionalist Catholics were really saying in their Latin mass, or whether those concerned parents were about to drive their Suburban through the school board meeting.

If the FBI had its way, Americans would not even know that the New Orleans attacker was motivated by Islamist extremism. “There was a real problem within the culture of the FBI … just kind of double talking,” said Perkins. “New Orleans [was] the latest example of that [because] the first words out of the FBI’s mouth [were], ‘This was not a terrorist incident.’” That lie exploded upon impact because “social media had already identified that [ISIS] flag” in the shooter’s truck, said Falco.

The point is not to make the FBI as a whole look ridiculous. “I know there are fine men and women at the agent level who think this stuff is preposterous,” noted Falco. But “Their management is telling them that the focus is on right-wing extremism, that this Islamic threat has diminished to the point where we don’t need to be concerned about it.”

At this point, said Perkins, it’s difficult to tell whether the FBI brass “want to cover up” their improper mission drift, or “they’re just that blind that they can’t see that this is a terrorist incident.” With the advantage of hindsight, it’s easy to claim (but harder to prove) that incidents like the New Orleans terror attack were preventable. But if the FBI could have prevented any terror attacks by maintaining its attention to radical jihadist plots, this attack would likely have been one of them.

That’s why “it is so fundamentally important for us to undo what has happened at the Bureau and at the Department of Justice and at DHS [the Department of Homeland Security],” Falco urged. Hopefully, the team selected by President Trump — including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and (still awaiting confirmation) FBI Director Kash Patel — is up to the task of cleaning up America’s federal law enforcement agencies.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: USAID: From Cold War Sentinel to Ideological Sideshow

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Proposed Gaza Ceasefire Is a ‘Terrible Deal for Israel’

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1/17/2025 9:16 a.m. This story has been updated to reflect that the Israeli Cabinet has voted to approve the ceasefire deal.

A prisoner exchange and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was reached Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced. But, after “many months of intensive diplomacy” between the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar, the deal they devised would require Israel to give away the farm, leaving them no leverage to ensure that all their hostages are safely returned. “It’s a terrible deal for Israel,” complained Frank Gaffney, president of the Institute for the American Future. “I fear that it amounts to a victory for Hamas.”

The details of the deal have not been published, but according to reports, the ceasefire agreement would occur in three phases.

In the first phase, Israel would release 100 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences (a.k.a. “pedigreed jihadists,” Gaffney stated) and 1,000 other prisoners not involved with the October 7 attacks, and Hamas would release 33 hostages in return. “I’m getting some signals out of Israel that this is not the best deal for Israel,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “I’m told the ratio is 50-to-1 for every hostage.”

These lopsided prisoner exchanges would be spaced out over a six-week ceasefire — an unexplained delay that left Perkins “a little puzzled” — during which time Israel would pull its military out of all the populated areas of Gaza and allow hundreds of aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip, bringing humanitarian aid and tens of thousands of temporary homes.

In the second phase, the two sides would declare a permanent end to the war, and Israel would withdraw the rest of its forces from Gaza. Hamas would also release more hostages in exchange for more prisoners.

In the third phase, Hamas would return the rest of the hostages, including the remains of those it killed. In return, it would get “a major reconstruction plan for Gaza,” in President Biden’s words.

To review, Israel would have to pack up and go home before getting the hostages it came for, and Hamas would not only have its pre-October 7 autonomy restored, but it would get its own personal Marshall Plan, and spring 50 terrorists per hostage.

What an odd way to punish its terrorist atrocities! What an odd way to deter future iterations.

Unfazed by these particulars, Biden declared he was “deeply satisfied” that a deal had been reached — likely so he can claim credit. “We got the world to endorse it,” he boasted. Given how the world feels about Israel, that should be a warning sign.

“I think it’s, in some ways, worse than the plan … that Joe Biden put together” last year, said Gaffney. By agreeing to this deal, Israel would be “effectively surrendering the entirety of Gaza to the people who perpetrated this horrific attack on October 7th,” and who have “been at war with Israel … from the inception of this terrorist organization and will be until it is put out of business.”

“All of the progress that Israel has made to root out Hamas, to deprive it of resources, to close its infrastructure … will essentially be undone because they will be allowed to have the run of Gaza again,” warned Gaffney.

And all of this assumes that Hamas will keep up its end of the agreement through all three phases. But that might be the least likely outcome, based on its past behavior and genocidal hatred of Israel. “Hamas broke ceasefires with Israel in 2003, 2007, 2008, and nine times in 2014,” listed National Review’s Jim Geraghty, not to mention a terrorist shooting during a ceasefire in 2024.

Over the past year, Geraghty continued, “Hamas either rejected ceasefire proposals or hostages-for-prisoners trades, walked away from the table, or refused to restart negotiations in the months of December, January, February, March, April, May, June, and July 2024. … Hamas has proven a bad-faith, bloodthirsty, irrational, and self-destructive negotiator at every step in this process.”

The deal is so bad for Israel that it could put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in trouble domestically. “The Left has, of course, wanted his head on a pike for a long time,” said Gaffney, but “there are a lot of people now on the right who feel that all of this is for naught — all of the war efforts — if this [deal] is allowed to go forward.” Throughout the war, Israel has maintained its sovereign right to self-defense, which involves the right to react to the ongoing threat posed by Hamas, a terrorist group operating from within its borders.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have come out against the deal; while aligned with Netanyahu, they control enough votes to destabilize his coalition. “This could cause his governing coalition to implode,” Perkins exclaimed.

If fact, it seems that Netanyahu himself was reluctant to agree to the deal, until he met with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s incoming special envoy to the Middle East. The Biden administration’s State Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed that input from Trump’s team was “absolutely critical in getting this deal over the line.”

“Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu] basically had his knees broken” by Witkoff, said Gaffney. “He took what Donald Trump meant as leverage on the Hamas terrorists, putting them on notice that if the hostages were not released … by the time he came to office … all hell would break loose. Now, that was intended to be pressuring Hamas. Instead, Witkoff — and the Biden team, of course — turned this into leverage on Bibi Netanyahu.”

In fact, Gaffney suspected Witkoff of showing more loyalty to Qatar than to Trump. Witkoff said “that ‘Qatar is doing God’s work in these negotiations.’ I think he might have meant Allah’s work, because what has been done, I think, is not in the service of Israel,” he alleged. “This is a man who may work for Qatar, but I don’t honestly think he’s worked effectively for Donald Trump or the interests of the United States, to say nothing of Israel.”

Trump initially celebrated the “EPIC” ceasefire agreement that “could only have happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies.”

But Gaffney cautioned that Trump might not have the full picture. “I hope that the president, Donald Trump, will think better of this as he learns more about what’s been done,” he said. “I’d be a little surprised if President Trump knew when he put [Witkoff] in this position that he had actually done a $600 million hotel deal with the nation of Qatar.”

The Israeli cabinet approved the deal “after examining all political, security, and humanitarian aspects, and understanding that the proposed deal supports the achievement of the war’s objectives, the Ministerial Committee for National Security Affairs (the Political-Security Cabinet) has recommended that the government approve the proposed framework..”

Netanyahu accused Hamas of creating a “last-minute crisis” by making additional demands over the identity of the prisoners Israel will release. Netanyahu explained the deal Israel agreed to “gives Israel veto power over the release of mass murderers who are symbols of terror,” but Hamas now “demands to dictate the identity of these terrorists.”

Instead of approving the lopsided ceasefire right away, Israel launched overnight airstrikes against 50 terrorist targets in Gaza. Hamas-aligned sources claimed that the airstrikes killed at least 75 people — most of whom were probably terrorists. In a statement, the IDF confirmed the death of Muhammad Hasham Zahedi Abu Al-Rus, a terrorist who participated in the October 7, 2023 massacre at the Nova Music Festival.

The world may be ready to move on from Hamas’s atrocities, but Israel will not — cannot — rest secure until the Hamas threat within their own borders has been eliminated.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Could Syria’s Regime Change Fulfill a Biblical Prophecy?

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Following the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic regime to Islamic extremists, much attention has been paid to the geopolitical ramifications of the new makeup of the Middle East, but some Christians are commenting on the spiritual implications and biblical parallels.

In discussion with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturday morning’s episode of “This Week of the Hill,” Real Life Network’s Jerusalem correspondent Daniel Cohen explained that there is a “biblical component” to the regime change — and a biblical prophecy may have been fulfilled. “Are you starting to connect the dots?” Cohen asked. He continued, “I’m asking the question to see how the prophecy of the Hebrew prophet Isaiah may be … beginning to unfold.” Cohen observed that Isaiah 17 prophecies the destruction of Damascus, currently the capital of Syria.

“When I think about Isaiah 17, Israel — or another country that for that matter — may be left with no choice but to level Damascus, to leave it in a heap of ruins, as it says in Isaiah chapter 17,” Cohen anticipated, referring to the Islamic extremists now in charge of the Middle Eastern nation. He added that Damascus “is the world’s oldest continually-inhabited city, it has been for over 3,000 years. And now it’s suddenly on the brink of destruction, just as the Bible says.” Cohen said, “It would be just fascinating to me to think about what we could be witnessing here right now: a thousands-year old prophecy unfolding in real time, no question.”

Cohen also discussed the extremist bona fides of Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the leader of the Islamic paramilitary group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which toppled Assad’s presidency. “This is a new terror group. Maybe you didn’t have them on your bingo card, along with ISIS, along with al-Qaeda, along with, you know, you name it, all the different acronyms,” Cohen said. He continued, “Al-Jawlani is a former al-Qaeda leader. I believe he trained with ISIS. He’s definitely an Islamic extremist.” Chris Mitchell, Middle East bureau chief for CBN News, had previously said much the same, explaining that HTS “are Islamists. … They’re saying quite openly they want to take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque here in Jerusalem. This is only a stepping stone to take over a greater part of the Middle East.”

The threat posed by a Syria under Islamic extremist control has been amplified due to the nation’s prior role as what Cohen called a “pipeline” for terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. “If you know the map, if you know the map of the Middle East, the Islamic Republic used Syria; there was a pipeline that went directly through Syria to Lebanon,” Cohen explained.

He continued to note that Hassan Nasrallah, the former secretary-general of Hezbollah who was assassinated by Israeli forces earlier this year, had once “said famously, he said that if Syria would fall, Hezbollah would fall as well. He was right.” Cohen noted that Hamas, Hezbollah, and now Assad’s regime in Syria — a coalition he referred to as “the ring of fire” and a “group of people who hate Israel” — have all been crippled over the past year. “Israel seems to only be growing stronger while the enemies of Israel seem to be becoming weaker,” he summarized.

Pointing to the decision that the U.S. now faces, Cohen lamented that President Joe Biden “wants to give millions of dollars” to “prop up … this person who trained, who was an al-Qaeda leader.” He added, “I think that’s a terrible idea.” Cohen continued, “President Trump says it’s not our fight and not to get involved. I believe President Trump is right. How everything shakes out with this new rebel who appears to be the one that will take control, we don’t know exactly how all that will shake out yet.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED PODCAST: Tony Perkins: Political Shifts, Cultural Change, and What America Needs

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Despite ‘Moderate’ Claim, Experts Warn of Dangers of Islamist Militia Controlling Syria

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As questions abound regarding what is next for Syria following the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime at the hands of an Islamist militia last weekend, experts say there are serious concerns that the Middle Eastern country could eventually devolve into a global terrorist threat despite assurances from the invading militia that it will not persecute religious minorities.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan traveled to the region to meet with Israeli, Turkish, and other foreign ministers to discuss the situation in Syria. As of yet, the U.S. has not had any direct communication with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the militia that ousted Assad and took control of the Syrian capital of Damascus, which it officially considers a terrorist organization. Elizabeth Richard, the State Department’s top counterterrorism official, acknowledged on Wednesday that the U.S. will likely need to deal with the group, remarking, “We can’t wait till everyone is Mother Teresa and then talk to them.”

Meanwhile, experts in the region say threats that HTS has made in the past are cause for concern. Chris Mitchell, Middle East bureau chief for CBN News, spoke with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins via satellite from Jerusalem on Tuesday to give an update on the fragile situation in Syria.

“I know HTS is sort of presenting themselves as ‘moderate,’” he explained. “The leader has been on CNN already. But they are Islamists. … They’re saying quite openly they want to take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque here in Jerusalem. This is only a stepping stone to take over a greater part of the Middle East.”

Mitchell further noted that Turkey is supporting HTS, which has its own expansionist aspirations for the Middle East. “Turkey apparently has armed them [and] funded them, [which] is all part of President [Tayyip] Erdogan’s greater goal to restore the Islamic caliphate, the Ottoman Empire — he being the great sultan. But he’s using proxies to go ahead and do that — HTS and the Syrian National Army are two of those proxies.”

Mitchell went on to detail how forces aligned with democratic principles in the Kurdish northern region of Syria are also now being threatened.

“The other big issue is there has been for many years in northeast Syria a group in an administration area that [have] been self-governing and been one of the most democratic regions in the entire Middle East, and that region is now under attack, we understand, by members of the Syrian National Army [SNA]. This is the Syrian Democratic Forces … but these are the good guys. … [T]his is a group of Kurds, Christians, Yazidis, [and] Arabs working together. In fact, in their charter, they require that 40% of the representation in the government is by women. So that is under attack right now.”

As Mitchell additionally related, remnants of ISIS are reportedly still present in the country and are committing atrocities against Christians. “[A] [recent] report [indicates] some of these members of the SNA are … veterans of ISIS. … [P]eople that have escaped that region [have reported] women beheaded in front of their families and communities, mass shootings of civilians, dead bodies on the road, children kidnapped from their families.”

Mitchell further underscored that HTS is attempting to distinguish itself from SNA, which is likely unreliable. “[W]e’re going to see a deceptive facade right now on what’s happening in places like Aleppo. Mohammed al-Jawlani is the leader of HTS. He is a veteran of al-Nusra, which is an affiliate of al-Qaeda. He’s presenting himself as a moderate, and I believe he’s asking people not to put anything on social media like ISIS used to do. … [But] if you go back a few years when they were in charge of Idlib, … they implied employed Sharia law. So I think Sharia law is on its way to much of this area in Syria, but I think we might see a sort of interim period of what they call ‘moderation.’”

As to why Christians should care about the events in Syria, Mitchell explained its historic roots to the early church and its prophetic place in Scripture.

“Two thousand years ago, this was the cradle of Christianity,” he emphasized. “The gospel spread to Aleppo and other places in Syria and in Lebanon and throughout this region. This is the ancestral homeland of our faith, and many of the believers right now are in harm’s way because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Prophetically and biblically, I think many people have been referring to Isaiah chapter 17:1, when the prophet said that one day Damascus would become a heap of ruins. Perhaps we’re one step closer to that unfolding. When and how I don’t know, but that will one day be fulfilled.”

Mitchell concluded by encouraging believers to keep Syria in prayer. “Pray for the Christians in this region [who] are under threat, as well as Kurds, Yazidis, and other ethnic minorities, that they would be protected. And also that [the] northeast Syria autonomous region would be protected and supplied so that this democratic good news story can be preserved and that they can be a refuge for many of these people that are seeking asylum and safety from some of these Islamist groups.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘One Bad Apple for Another’: Islamist Rebels Topple Syrian Dictatorship

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Islamist rebels backed by Turkey abruptly toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, ending a 50-year family dynasty in a little over a week. After a decade-long civil war, a coalition of jihadist groups captured Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, last weekend before advancing rapidly south with swelling ranks. To everyone’s surprise, the rebels arrived in Damascus on Saturday, hours after Assad secretly fled the country.

With his generals planning to hand over power peacefully, Assad escaped Syria, skipping a prepared address to the nation and leaving his cabinet with no idea of his whereabouts. Hours later, he turned up in Moscow with his family, where they received political asylum. The Russian foreign ministry announced that Assad had resigned and that his prime minister would facilitate a peaceful transfer of power.

As instructed, Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali called for free elections, while the rebels declared Syria “free of the tyrant” and released hundreds of prisoners held in Saydnaya prison, dubbed the “human slaughterhouse,” where as many as 13,000 people were executed since 2011.

The Assad regime was brutal and inhumane, and its swift collapse underscores just how fragile it had become, after years of corruption, civil war, and an economic crisis. The regime was “in worse shape than we thought,” said Swedish government think tank security analyst Aron Lund.

Its sudden collapse also underscores just how fragile its allies have become. The Assad regime had been weak for years, propped up only by the aid of Russia and Iran. Now, Russia’s military might is so tied up in Ukraine that it is renting soldiers from North Korea. Consequently, Russian air strikes against the rebels tailed off after only a few days, with some speculating that Russia cut a deal to maintain its military bases. Now it suffers the international embarrassment of abandoning a close ally without even putting up much of a fight.

For its part, Iran’s network of terrorist proxies has suffered heavy losses in their unjustified war against Israel, particularly Hezbollah, which operates out of neighboring Lebanon. Iran declined to send reinforcements due to the threat of Israeli air power, and it ordered its militias to stay out of the fight. Still, rebels, who allowed the Iranian embassy in Damascus to be looted after they seized the city, may prove far less cooperative with Iran. Assad’s fall takes a hefty bite out of Iran’s regional security plan, cutting off routes to resupply and rearm Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It’s unclear what sort of government will succeed the Assad regime, and who will run it. The rebel coalition that toppled his regime represents a hodge-podge of factions that lack unifying interests. A key leader of the rebel march southward was Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani. Wanted by the U.S. government to the tune of $10 million, al-Jawlani is affiliated with al-Qaeda and leads a faction of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO). Meanwhile, other parts of Syria remain under the control of U.S.-backed rebel factions, including northeastern Syria, where a Kurdish government holds sway.

In other words, someone threw a cup of dice into the middle of the geopolitical chessboard. And, while we’re still counting the score, it’s safe to assume that no one can declare Yahtzee!

As for establishing a free and fair democracy, there are precious few examples where jihadist rebels toppled a dictator, and the result was a stable, Westernized system of government. Even if such a government was established, there is always the danger of leaving a power vacuum that might be filled by remnants of ISIS, bringing further chaos and suffering to the region.

As happened in Libya and other toppled dictatorships, “We might see a big, quick victory, and then the problems start,” an unnamed Western diplomat suggested to The Wall Street Journal.

All we can say for sure is that Russia’s and Iran’s influence in Syria has waned, while Turkey’s influence has increased. As the state sponsor for the rebel groups that toppled Assad, Turkey will likely have some influence over the government that takes shape on its southern border. “What is significant is the fact that these rebels were Turkish-backed, and so this is an extension of Turkey’s influence southward into the former borders of Syria,” Travis Weber, vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand.

A NATO member with an Islamic maverick streak, Turkey is not fully aligned with either the U.S. or with its adversaries, and Turkish leader Recep Erdogan has ambitions to recapture the glory of the Ottoman Empire.

As the Islamist rebels marched on Damascus, foreign ministers from Russia, Iran, and Turkey met at a conference in Qatar to discuss the future of Syria.

“Many will be taking note of the fact that … that continuous string of Iranian and anti-Israel influence from Iran to the Mediterranean has been broken,” Weber observed, but “those who are celebrating this as some universal win … [are] taking the wrong approach.”

“We must be under no illusions that the rebel forces are somehow a friend of Western values,” Weber warned. “Their posture towards Israel, ideologically, is likely very hostile as well.”

“So,” he concluded, “we will have to see how things shake out regionally, but in a sense, we’re trading one bad apple for another.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Israel Strikes Iran: ‘This All Goes Back to the Weak Leadership of Biden-Harris’

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The Israeli air force launched a long-anticipated strike against Iran early Saturday morning, in retaliation for Iran’s missile barrage against Israel on October 1. The operation demonstrated Israel’s air superiority, while also showing “restraint,” according to the National Review editors, giving Iran room to climb down from a further confrontation.

Israeli aircraft prowled Iranian airspace for hours, targeting Iran’s anti-aircraft installations first, followed by ballistic missile and drone production sites. Over 100 Israeli aircraft participated in the operation, which carried them more than 1,000 miles away from Israeli territory. They struck military sites in two southwestern provinces, as well as the province of Tehran. “There are over 140 sorties I know [of] by Israeli aircraft,” said Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) on Monday’s “Washington Watch,” “and devastation must have been pretty substantial.”

Iran’s National Air Defense confirmed “limited damage” and added that some of the strikes were successfully intercepted. The Iranian army said at least two soldiers were killed in the attack.

Notably, the Israeli aircraft successfully hit multiple S-300 air defense batteries, an advanced Russian system. In August, news reports indicated that Russia had delivered more S-300 systems to Iran, after Israel successfully hit an Iranian S-300 system in April. “It does look like they’ve degraded Tehran’s ability to respond to Israel,” remarked Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “And some are saying this could be setting up potentially another move by Israel if they deem it necessary.”

Israel’s decision to strike Iran’s air defense systems in a prolonged attack was likely intended to communicate that the air force could have done significantly more damage. “The very fact that the Israelis were able to have freedom of the air tells us that Israel can very well protect itself, and the Iranians have a long way to go,” Babin suggested. “It does look like, on first glance, that Israel’s attack has been relatively calibrated. It gives Iran room to climb down,” said Middle East commentator Sanam Vakil.

Israel delayed its counterattack plan after U.S. intelligence documents detailing its military preparations were leaked to an Iranian Telegram account last weekend.

Israel had initially made plans to strike either Iran’s nuclear weapons program or oil production facilities. However, due to the leak, it refocused its attack. Saturday’s attack “steered clear of striking the nuclear and oil facilities that Iran had warned for weeks would bring a tough response,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

This restrained attack was in deference to intense pressure from the Biden-Harris administration, which demanded the Israeli response not escalate the already-escalated conflict. “They want to stop the confrontation, which Israel is trying to eliminate the threat,” Perkins said.

“This all goes back to weak leadership on the part of the Biden-Harris administration,” lamented Babin. “We would not have seen the October 7th attack by Hamas in Israel, [and] we would not have seen the attack on Ukraine by Russia had we not shown … the absolute weakness of the Afghan withdrawal … which tells our allies they can’t really trust us and our adversaries that they really don’t need to fear us.”

Despite recent tensions and suspicions of leaks in Washington, Israeli officials did notify their U.S. counterparts shortly before the strike. U.S. forces were not involved in the attack, but a National Security Council spokesman said the operation was “an exercise of self-defense.”

In addition to sending a warning to Iran, Israel’s strike also attempted to conciliate the Biden-Harris administration. By pursuing a more limited strike, and informing U.S. officials about it beforehand, Israel is clearly trying not to antagonize or provoke the administration any further, giving it no reason to punish Israel after the election.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: How the Biden-Harris White House Helped Provoke the Russia-Ukraine War (Part 1)

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Israel Sustains Multi-Front War while Mulling Iran Counterstrike

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As the Israeli war cabinet is mulling their options to respond to Iran’s barrage of nearly 200 ballistic missiles that targeted the small country on Tuesday, there are plenty of other matters that demand their urgent attention. Israel is “involved in the near combat in Lebanon, they’re still cleaning up Gaza, and now they have a law enforcement action in [Judea and Samaria], and they still have Houthis firing rockets at them from Yemen,” listed Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) on “Washington Watch” Wednesday. Managing so many fronts at once requires Napoleonic organization and strategy.

Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are primarily focused on Operation Northern Arrows, an incursion into southern Lebanon designed to neutralize the threat from the Iranian-backed terrorist outfit Hezbollah, so that residents of northern Israel can return to their homes for the first time in nearly a year. Judging by the evacuation notices they have issued to Lebanese civilians, Israeli forces are advancing steadily, and their airstrikes based on excellent intelligence have nearly obliterated Hezbollah’s command structure.

Syria

Related to their fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel also continues to carry out airstrikes in Syria. The IDF aims to prevent all weapons shipments from Iran to Hezbollah, which must pass through Syria. An Israeli airstrike in Damascus on Monday injured nine and killed three, including a “consultant” for the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the arm of the Iranian government that coordinates international terrorist activities. Another Israeli airstrike in Damascus on Wednesday struck a hideout frequented by Hezbollah and IRGC officials, killing two. In recent weeks, Israeli airstrikes have killed and wounded dozens of people (probably almost exclusively terrorists) across Syria.

However, Israel’s latest strike in Syria may be the boldest strike yet — and the most under-reported. Overnight into Thursday, Israel allegedly struck a weapons depot in Jableh, inside Russia’s Khmeimim Airbase. Reportedly, Syrian and Russian anti-air defenses unsuccessfully engaged the aerial strike.

Judea and Samaria

Further south, Israel launched raids last month to dismantle terror cells in Judea and Samaria (sometimes called the West Bank). Two terrorists from Hebron, a city in southern Judea, illegally entered Israel and opened fire on a commuter train in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Hamas claimed credit for the attack, which killed seven and injured 16. Among the dead were multiple children and a mother who shielded her nine-month-old infant with her body.

Gaza

Meanwhile, things are not all quiet on the Western Front (the Gaza Strip). The IDF has wound down their most aggressive operations after dismantling all Hamas units offering resistance on the surface. But they continue to comb through Hamas’s elaborate tunnel network, searching for the remaining hostages and remaining terrorists, including top Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar.

The IDF recently announced the deaths of three Hamas officials who were “hiding in a fortified and equipped underground compound in northern Gaza.” These include Rawhi Mushtaha, head of Hamas government in Gaza, Sameh al-Siraj, Hamas’s security and labor secretary, and Sami Oudeh, commander of Hamas’s general security mechanism. Announcing terrorist deaths so long after the fact is not common practice for the IDF. Presumably, announcing these deaths now means either that Israel recently discovered their bodies or recently obtained intelligence allowing them to identify the bodies.

Yemen

Fortunately for Israel, the long-range Yemen front is the least active right now. If the Houthis had coordinated their own powerful cruise missiles with Iran’s ballistic missile barrage, that could have put extra stress on Israel’s missile defense system. However, after launching several missile strikes at Israel, the Houthis have confined themselves to the occasional pot shot, which provokes a proportionate counterstrike from Israel.

The Houthis’ lack of interest in Israel may be due to their more intriguing pastime: piracy. Due to their strategic location by the Red Sea shipping route, the Houthis are strategically placed to disrupt maritime trade, and their Iranian overlords seek to exploit this strategic advantage against Western nations aligned with Israel (not to mention Israel, which would otherwise see much larger shipping costs for goods from just about anywhere).

Just on Tuesday, the Houthis damaged two civilian ships in the Red Sea. They exploded a remote-controlled boat against the side of an oil tanker sailing under the flag of Panama and struck a Liberian-flagged cargo ship with a missile.

In secret talks brokered by Iran, Russia is reportedly considering whether to sell the Houthis their advanced, anti-ship P-800 missiles. The P-800 missiles are “a far more capable system than the anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles the Houthis have used so far,” according to a ballistic missile expert, and having these weapons would allow them not only to hit more civilian vessels, but even target American and British warships that patrol those waters to keep them safe for cargo ships.

Israel’s front with the Houthis is relatively quiet, but the Houthis’ superior capabilities, relative to other terror groups, makes it a perpetually dangerous one nevertheless.

Iran

All these roads lead back to Iran, the state sponsor for the various terror groups attacking Israel. Iran injected itself forcefully into its proxy war on Tuesday, when it launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel from within its own territory. Netanyahu has vowed to respond, and the likeliest targets appear to be Iran’s oil production, missile launch sites, or nuclear capabilities, Self suggested.

“I do not believe he will start with the nuclear sites,” proposed Self. That might depend on how close Iran was to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which “I suspect that Israel knows far better than we do.”

However, due to the number of enemies Israel must confront, and the possibility that Iran could launch another missile barrage at Israel, Self said, “I think [Netanyahu] will try to degrade their launch sites as much as he can — realizing they have mobile launchers — and he may take out some of their oil production.”

In any event, Self predicted that Israel’s counterstrike would likely be “serious,” not “proportional,” in the Biden administration’s impotent sense of the word.

The Diplomatic Front

Sadly, not all the fronts Israel is fighting on are against enemy combatants carrying arms. They must also wage a diplomatic and propaganda war just to extract the minimum amount of cooperation from the U.S. Fighting a multi-front war is easier when you don’t also have to fight a diplomatic war with your primary ally.

The Biden administration has “been slow-rolling their support for Israel ever since the October 7th attack,” Self complained. It’s “very clear that they are not supporting Israel as the U.S. has traditionally done.” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins agreed, noting that “most of [Biden’s] limiting language is focused on Israel.”

On the other hand, the Biden administration has loosened sanctions on Iran, allowing the hostile regime to more easily finance its war of terror against Israel. “Iran was broke when Trump left office. They now have almost $100 billion in reserves,” said Self.

On Monday, the U.S. announced an additional $336 million in humanitarian assistance for residents of the Gaza Strip, Judea, and Samaria. That brings the total aid the U.S. has supplied to Palestinian-controlled regions since October 7 to more than $1 billion, and most of that ended up in the hands of terrorists.

“We need to break loose the supply” of weapons to Israel, argued Self, “because if Iran and Israel do go to major fisticuffs — a major war — they’re going to need our support. And they’re going to need it now.”

“A great suite of air-defense systems: Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow, and they’re doing a magnificent job. But if you go to a major regional war, it’s going to require more,” Self continued. “Those are Israeli products,” while the U.S. supplies Israel with “more mundane military supplies,” ranging from “production of the actual rounds” of ammunition to bunker-busting bombs.

The IDF “put like 80 of those [bombs] on top of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, and they dug that hole deep to go get him. So, if they’re using them 80 at a time to get one of the leaders, they’re going to use them up faster and we’re going to have to resupply them,” he explained.

“Frankly,” Self added, “I believe the [Iranian] Ayatollah [Ali Khamenei] is probably in a bunker somewhere waiting his turn.” Indeed, after the strike on Nasrallah, Iranian officials have reported that Khamenei “no longer trusts anyone” and is gripped by paranoia.

Israel has discovered a successful way to fighting a multi-front war against terrorists: hit them where they sleep.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Iran Attack on Israel Sparks Global Response

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On Saturday, startled Americans watched as news anchors broke into their regular programming for a special report: Iran had begun a full-scale attack on Israel. After decades of using terrorist proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis, Tehran took direct aim at the Jewish nation for the first time in 40 years, launching more than 300 missiles and drones at its enemy to the east.

Iran’s offensive was a shocking twist on an already explosive situation in the region, as Israel continues its march against Hamas over the international pressure to end the war. And while Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it had intercepted as many as 99% of the rockets fired from Iran, the assault marked a new and dangerous chapter in the Middle East tensions.

In Washington, President Joe Biden rushed back to the White House, calling for a G7 meeting to “coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack.” Together with Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, Biden applauded Israel’s measures at self-defense but privately urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against retaliation.

“The president’s been clear,” White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby told NBC Sunday morning. “We don’t want to see this escalate; we’re not looking for a wider war with Iran,” he said before adding, “I think the coming hours and days will tell us a lot.”

In the weeks leading up to the strike, Netanyahu had “been preparing for the possibility of a direct attack from Iran.” He reassured the country that its “air defenses are deployed. We are ready for any scenario, both in attack and defense.” Here at home, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin backed up the prime minister, telling the press corps, “We do not seek conflict with Iran, but we will not hesitate to act to protect our forces and support the defense of Israel.”

The initial wave caused “very little damage,” Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant wanted people to know, but it did manage to accomplish something else: revealing Iran’s real intent. “Overnight, the whole world saw the true face of Iran — a terrorist state that attacked the State of Israel from a distance of 1,500 km and in doing so also attempted to employ all of its proxies.”

Iran’s political and military leaders celebrated the largely unsuccessful mission, calling the operation a “historic, powerful, victorious operation against [the] Zionist regime.” Meanwhile, Israel was carrying out its own counter-offensive, pounding Hezbollah targets in Lebanon early Sunday. “A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck a number of military structures in a complex belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces in the area of Jbaa in southern Lebanon,” the country’s forces announced. “Earlier during the night, IDF fighter jets struck Hezbollah military structures in the areas of Khiam and Kfarkela.”

As the weekend wore on, reaction from U.S. lawmakers poured in. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) insisted that “America must show our full resolve to stand with our critical ally. The world must be assured: Israel is not alone.” He put the blame for the weekend’s conflict, at least in part, at the president’s feet. “I will continue to engage with the White House to insist upon a proper response. The Biden Administration’s undermining of Israel and appeasement of Iran have contributed to these terrible developments.”

While the president is desperately working to keep Israel from engaging Iran directly, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called for more forceful action from the U.S. “We must move quickly and launch aggressive retaliatory strikes on Iran,” she urged.

Members of Biden’s own party joined the chorus for a stronger show of support for Israel after weeks of publicly abandoning our Middle East ally with calls for a ceasefire. Asked by CNN’s John Tapper if he agreed with Blackburn’s strategy, Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said no, but reiterated, “I just think we should follow and have Israel’s back in the situation. I don’t agree with the president.” He’s “entitled to his own views and whatever he decides to do,” the colorful senator explained, “but I would never capitulate to the fringe [of the Democratic Party]. … [T]hat empowers Hamas, and Hamas is actually convinced they’re winning the PR war. And they’re never going to negotiate at this point.”

Over in the House, the weekend’s conflict is prompting leadership to pivot to crucial legislation on Israel. Legislation, several conservatives have pointed out, that Democrats refused to consider four months ago. “… The House will move from its previously announced legislative schedule next week to instead consider [aid proposals] that support our ally Israel and holds Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) announced. “[T]here must be consequences for this unprovoked attack.”

An attack, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shook his head, that never should have happened. “So much for don’t,” the Trump official tweeted, referring to Biden’s one-word admonishment to Iran. “Don’t isn’t a national security policy,” Pompeo said last year when Biden made the comment. “It’s not even a deterrent.”

“When your Secretary of State declares near moral equivalence between good, our ally Israel — and evil, the Islamic Republic,” Pompeo pointed out over the weekend, “you get bad guys wreaking destruction.”

Former Israel Ambassador David Friedman was equally outraged by the administration’s tepid soundbites. “About six months ago, Biden looked Hezbollah and Iran in the proverbial eye and said ‘Don’t.’ Since then, Hezbollah has attacked Israel daily, almost 100,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in the North with no idea when they will return, Iran has received $26 billion in sanctions relief and the US carrier strike forces have sailed away. US policy here is weak, confused and unproductive,” he argued.

And the Democrats’ confused messaging doesn’t help matters. After calling for the overthrow of Netanyahu last month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) dared to say he “stands” with Israelis. “… [T]he United States will do everything we can to support Israel’s defense against Iran,” he claimed.

This constant wavering on the Left, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said, has given the entire world the impression that the president’s party “tacitly supports Israel’s opponents.” Perkins, who was in Israel three weeks ago meeting with Netanyahu, agrees that “what happened [Saturday] was the result of the Biden administration vacillating back and forth in its support of Israel.” As the prime minister told him last month, “If we are not decisive in our victory against Hamas, it’s going to incite Iran directly to attack us.”

Like other military experts, Lt. Colonel (Ret.) Bob Maginnis believes Iran anticipated that Israel would be supported by the U.S., yet launched the operation anyway. “That means the present deterrence in the region failed,” FRC’s senior fellow for National Security told The Washington Stand. For 40-plus years, Maginnis has written about Iran, including in his book “Never Submit,” which addresses the tragic history of the Islamic Republic and its tyrants. He believes, “They no longer fear the U.S. — and unless the U.S. and others increase their presence and demonstrated willingness to use force, much worse is likely on the horizon.”

The reality is, Maginnis warned, “Iran has the capability to reach out and damage Israel. Jerusalem is no longer safe in spite of separation provided by the Arabian landmass and the Persian Gulf. It also appears some of the Iranian weapons platforms used Iraqi airspace, a consequence of our disengagement with Baghdad.” As he put it, “The mullahs in Tehran are now out of the closet and openly engaging, threatening Jerusalem.”

And the price to Israel is steep. One of Iran’s goals is to exhaust Israel’s arsenal of “expensive anti-missile systems like Iron Dome Patriot, Arrow, and David’s sling,” he pointed out. “In other words, Iran is trading cheap drones for anti-drone, ballistic missile rockets fired by Israel and her Western allies.”

In other words, Perkins said, “Israel is fighting for its survival.” Preaching at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Sunday, the FRC president acknowledged that “we live in times of great uncertainty — both abroad and here at home. But we’ve been given clear instruction on how we as followers of Jesus Christ are to respond, “We’re to stand firm in the truth of God. Jesus warned us that these days would be coming. … God does not want us to be anxious. He does not want us to be worrying about this; He wants us to go to work.”

“This is the greatest threat that this nation of Israel has seen since its founding almost 76 years ago,” Perkins insisted. “And if we depart from our commitment to stand with Israel, I fear for our country’s future.” He announced that FRC and several churches around the country are declaring May 19 “Pray for and Stand with Israel Sunday.” It’s his goal to have churches all across America praying for the Jewish nation.

“While we may not have the political authority to negotiate and make decisions for our government … but as believers, we’ve been given the keys to the kingdom. And we need to exercise those keys. … We need to pray that God would show Himself mighty to save.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

Enjoying news and commentary from a biblical worldview? Stand with us by partnering with FRC.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

General: Afghanistan Withdrawal Enhanced New Terror Threat to America

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Resurgent Islamist terrorism poses a threat to the U.S. homeland, experts warned after a deadly attack in Moscow. “The deadly attack … has raised concerns that the terrorist group could potentially move to carrying out attacks in Europe and even here in the United States,” Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice summarized on “Washington Watch” Monday.

On March 22, terrorists armed with rifles, pistols, and knives opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow and lit fires that caused the roof to collapse, killing more than 100 concertgoers and injuring more than 500. Russian authorities have charged four men from Tajikistan with terrorism in the attack, for which the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) has taken credit.

General Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, recently warned that ISIS-K “retains the capability and the will to attack U.S. and Western interests abroad in as little as six months with little to no warning.”

ISIS-K’s Rapid Expansion

ISIS-K “morphed from a series of radical groups that were in eastern Syria [and] northern Iraq years ago, during the Obama administration,” Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert Maginnis explained on “Washington Watch” Monday. During the Trump administration, a U.S.-led coalition dismantled the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but not before its radical jihadis “spread elsewhere in the Middle East all the way to Afghanistan,” said Maginnis. Additionally, “they have tentacles not only in Central Asia, but all the way to northern and central Africa.”

The ISIS offshoot is “as radical an Islamic group as we’ve ever seen,” Maginnis described, to the point that they target other Islamists for their alleged compromises. Not only is ISIS-K “in contest with al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” as Maginnis said, but they have also attacked neighboring Muslim countries. In 2023, ISIS-K killed more than 60 people by bombing a political rally in Pakistan, and two ISIS-K suicide bombers killed 90 and injured more than 200 Iranians in January.

“They’ve got tentacles located in places like Tajikistan to the north … where the four suspects that were involved in the Moscow attack on the 22nd of March came from,” Maginnis continued. “One of the reasons I suspect they went after the Muscovites was because of the Chechnya battle that claimed tens of thousands of Muslim lives in 1990, but also because of the history of the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.”

ISIS-K’s Deadly Tactics

From suicide bombings and assassinations directed primarily at the Taliban, ISIS-K “has grown more ambitious and aggressive,” according to Clemson University professor Amira Jadoon, launching an international, “multilingual propaganda campaign and expanding the types of attacks it conducts.” The Moscow terror attack is among ISIS-K’s deadliest and most hazardous operations to date.

“They’re a very vicious group of people, very radicalized with their radical version of Islamic faith,” Maginnis noted. “They’ve always had, like al-Qaeda, an interest in using weapons of mass destruction (WMD): chemical, biological, radiological instruments. … These things are very, very serious.”

Maginnis added that ISIS-K “would do everything they can to come to this country.” Even if they couldn’t bring a WMD to the U.S., he suggested they might “attack a nuclear facility, or they would let off some sort of bomb near a chemical site that would have a mass casualty impact.”

U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Terror attacks perpetrated by ISIS-K have already resulted in the deaths of American citizens. This group was responsible for the 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers, among nearly 200 casualties. That terror attack occurred amid the chaos of America’s precipitous withdrawal from the country.

In fact, Maginnis said the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan is one reason why ISIS-K has expanded its reach. “With our departure, they had not only more equipment that the Taliban didn’t claim, but also more freedom of navigation,” he said.

General Frank McKenzie, former head of U.S. Central Command, offered a substantially similar analysis Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “The threat is growing. It began to grow as soon as we left Afghanistan and took pressure off ISIS-K,” he warned. “We should expect further attempts of this nature against the United States as well as our partners and other nations abroad.”

U.S. Vulnerability to Attack

To Maginnis, this expectation of a radical Islamist terror attack heightens the urgency of securing the southern border. “With the open southern border, we’ve had many, many people that have crossed over that don’t have our best interests in mind,” he said. Even more concerning, many illegal border crossers evaded capture, leaving U.S. authorities “totally clueless on who they are, what their intentions are,” Hice added. “You would think those who sneak in … [are] probably here for nefarious reasons.”

ISIS-K “has a strong desire to attack our homeland. We should believe them when they say that they’re going to try to do it,” McKenzie declared. Maginnis agreed. “They would like to attack the ‘Great Satan,’ the United States, and will do everything possible to do that.”

Maginnis predicted that “there will be an effort by ISIS-K, which likely already has a number of its terrorists deeply embedded in the United States.” These terrorists “would like to use any mechanism of terror that they could,” he concluded. “There’s no doubt we’re vulnerable.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED VIDEO: Trump’s detailed plan list to correct and make the U.S. great again video

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Israel, Hamas Trade Prisoners, Extend Ceasefire

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Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day ceasefire which began Friday, during which Israel has agreed to release three Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli hostage freed. As of early Monday morning, Islamist terrorists based in Gaza had released 58 hostages, including 39 Israelis, while Israel had freed 117 Palestinians. Despite alleged and real violations of the ceasefire, the combatants agreed Monday to extend the ceasefire for two more days.

Calls for a pause in fighting began immediately after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,200 Israelis, wounding more than 5,000, and kidnapping more than 240 hostages. Hamas militants directly targeted civilians, including elderly women, children, and even babies; they burned, raped, murdered, and committed unspeakable acts of brutality. In context, early calls for a ceasefire — after Hamas finished shooting but before Israel began — implicitly denied that Israel had a right to defend itself, and therefore a right to exist as a sovereign nation.

Demands for a ceasefire intensified as Israel’s air force bombed military targets and Hamas looted humanitarian stores throughout Gaza. On October 27, a majority of world governments passed a resolution of the U.N. General Assembly that called for an “immediate” truce in Gaza and contained no condemnation of Hamas. On November 1, the anti-Semitic wing of the Democratic Party pressured President Biden to reverse his rhetorical support for Israel and add his voice to the growing chorus chanting, “ceasefire now!” On November 9, Israel agreed to observe four-hour daily pauses to allow civilians to evacuate.

“Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response to global pressure for Israel to unilaterally lay down its arms.

Circumstances changed early last week when Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) successfully completed a two-front pincer advance on Al-Shifa hospital complex in northwest Gaza, which they have long identified as sitting above a key node of Hamas operations. The IDF has produced surveillance footage showing Hamas dragging two hostages through Al-Shifa hospital on October 7, as well as stolen IDF vehicles brought to the center. Israel believes that one hostage, Corporal Noa Marciano, was murdered in the hospital before her body was later found several blocks away. They also found a weapons laboratory in the basement containing finished and half-finished mortars, warheads, thermobaric weapons, and RPGs.

The IDF has also made efforts to explore the web of tunnels underneath Al-Shifa. On Wednesday, they showed journalists a tunnel stretching for 55 meters, which led to a restroom, kitchen, a large room with air conditioning, and several smaller rooms before ending in a blast-proof door with loopholes that would allow Hamas fighters to defend it against the IDF. The IDF also found dozens of guns, ammunition clips, and grenades in the tunnel.

“The findings prove beyond all doubt that buildings in the hospital complex are used as infrastructure for the Hamas terror organization, for terror activity,” the IDF said. “This is further proof of the cynical use that the Hamas terror organization makes of the residents of the Gaza Strip as a human shield for its murderous terror activities.”

It’s unclear whether Israel has completely explored Hamas’s tunnel network under Al-Shifa. The aforementioned tunnel’s only entrance was a four-foot-square hole in the ground, which the IDF only discovered by accident. This raises the possibility that similar underground features are similarly well-concealed. IDF forces exploring other tunnel corridors have found at least one exit leading to a kindergarten and another tunnel underneath a mosque. “It’s going to take time” for Israel to unearth all Hamas hideouts under the 10-acre hospital complex, said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht.

However, Israel’s capture of Hamas’s chief military post did give it an opportunity to contemplate a ceasefire. Israel’s two objectives are freeing the hostages and exterminating Hamas from Gaza. Unfortunately, the IDF did not manage to free any more hostages during their advance on Al-Shifa. The painstaking measures it adopts to protect civilians necessarily slow down its movements, enabling Hamas to spirit away its captives before Israeli rescuers can arrive. Israel is still committed to destroying Hamas, but it agreed to a ceasefire to negotiate the release of as many hostages as possible.

Before the ceasefire took effect, Israel demolished tunnels located beneath Al-Shifa and redeployed troops to the ceasefire lines.

The four-day ceasefire went into effect on Friday at 7 a.m. local time. On Friday, Hamas released 24 hostages — 13 Israeli women and children, 10 Thai citizens, and a Filipino citizen — and Israel reciprocated by releasing 39 imprisoned Palestinians. On Saturday, after a delay, Hamas released 17 hostages — 13 Israelis and four Thai nationals — and Israel released another 39 Palestinians. On Sunday, Hamas released another 17 hostages — 13 Israelis, three Thai nationals, and a dual Israeli-American citizen (a four-year-old girl whose parents Hamas killed on October 7) — and Israel released another 39 Palestinians. All told, Hamas has released 39 Israelis, 17 Thai citizens, one Filipino citizen, and one dual Israeli-American citizen, while Israel has released 117 Palestinian prisoners.

As of Monday afternoon, a fourth prisoner exchange had begun, with Hamas reportedly releasing 11 Israelis in exchange for the release of 33 Palestinian prisoners.

Thus far, all the prisoners exchanged between Hamas and Israel have been women and children. Many of the Palestinian prisoners released by Israel are teenage boys from the West Bank convicted of security offenses such as stone-throwing or disturbing the public order.

The Thai and Filipino hostages were not part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, brokered by the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt but were apparently released in a separate deal the Kingdom of Thailand brokered with Iran.

With the release of more hostages, the world learns more about the conditions they faced. “Their captivity sounds horrific — held underground for seven weeks, barely fed, sleeping on chairs, and denied the ability to go to the bathroom for hours; some in need of medical care, including one elderly woman in life-threatening condition,” summarized National Review’s Jim Geraghty.

On Monday afternoon, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid Al Ansary announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to extend the truce for two more days, allowing for the release of another 20 hostages. This agreement would extend the ceasefire until 7 a.m. local time on Thursday.

However, the preservation of the ceasefire is not automatically guaranteed. Unspecified Palestinian militants broke the ceasefire after only 15 minutes when they fired a rocket towards southern Israel — fortunately, it did no damage. “The world barely noticed; no one really expects Hamas to uphold its end of the agreement,” interpreted Geraghty. Hamas has also separated family units, in violation of the ceasefire.

For their part, Hamas officials have complained that Israel violated the terms of the ceasefire by not allowing humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza (Israel allowed 200 trucks carrying aid to enter), not releasing prisoners in the order Hamas wanted (Israel never promised to do so), and firing at Gazans seeking to return to northern Gaza (the ceasefire forbids reentry).

Hamas broke the last ceasefire on October 7 when, after years of lulling the IDF into a false sense of security, it launched a murderous surprise attack on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Still smarting from the latest blow, Israel is in no mood to trust the untrustworthy Hamas to abide by another ceasefire.

Whether the ceasefire continues for two days only or extends much longer, there is little hope of a permanent peace between Hamas and Israel. The Iranian-backed terrorist group has stated repeatedly and publicly that it aims at the total “annihilation” of Israel. Faced with an existential threat, Israel has no choice but to make its war aim to “destroy Hamas” — at least in Gaza. Thus, Israel is prepared to resume military operations in “full force” as soon as the ceasefire ends — assuming Hamas waits that long.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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Professor Suspended for Saying “Hamas Are Murderers”

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

UN Refugee Fund for Gaza Is Being Used to Finance Terrorism and Anti-Semitism, Experts Say

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In the wake of the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas terrorists that killed over 1,400 Israeli civilians on October 7, increased scrutiny is being centered on the ideology that fueled the barbarity that took place. Experts say that funds allocated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have not only been funneled to terrorists in Gaza, but have also been used to fund educational materials for Palestinian youth that is rife with anti-Semitism.

UNRWA was established in 1949 by the U.N. General Assembly with the original purpose of aiding the refugees that resulted from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Since then, the fund has been renewed almost every year and has grown astronomically to a current annual budget of over $1 billion. The Biden administration contributed $153.7 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars to the fund in June, which the UNRWA commissioner claimed would “help us keep over 700 schools and 140 health centres open over the next months.” For decades, however, the fund has been embroiled in controversy, as reviews of the fund’s expenditures showed that a significant amount of money was going to terror-group affiliates.

In 2018, the Trump administration ended funding for UNRWA due to the corruption that was uncovered. A report found that less than 5% of the population that it funded actually met the original definition of a “refugee.” But as experts have observed, this was only the tip of the iceberg. It was found that a number of the UNRWA staff working in Gaza had personal ties to terrorism and that “UNRWA schools in Gaza have been used by Hamas to launch rockets against Israel.”

What has become particularly distressing to observers is how the money is being used to fund schools that indoctrinate Palestinian youth to hate Israel and the Jewish people. On Monday, Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to discuss the situation.

“Our first report on Palestinian schoolbooks … was in 1998, and they were filled with poison,” he explained. “At that time … [an] American representative said, ‘I read this material and I wanted to vomit.’ It’s just unimaginable.’ Americans condemned it then, and the United States continued funding the Palestinian Authority year after year after year, knowing what was happening already then.

Marcus continued, “[W]e did a report in 2007, which I decided to release in the Senate, and I turned to Hillary Clinton. I wanted a Democrat … someone who would [not] be automatically pro-Israel. And she appeared at a press conference with me … [and] said, ‘The Palestinians are profoundly poisoning the minds of their children.’ And that was 2007. I call the Palestinians who are running through the streets today murdering Israelis, the Hamas, as well as the Palestinian Authority, Fatah people, the mainstream. They are the poisoned generation. They were brought up on hate, on demonization. And that’s what we have today.”

Marcus went on to describe the specific beliefs that have been espoused by religious authorities in Gaza.

“Mahmoud Abbas is the head of the Palestinian Authority — he’s seen as the moderate,” he noted. “He has a personal adviser on Islam … name[ed] Mahmoud al-Habash. He went on TV and he said that the Jews have been the enemies of Islam since the beginning of time, literally since the time of Adam. … [He also said] when you see a Jew, it actually might be Satan in the form of a human. … He literally said that the Jews are subhuman. [He also] said that the Jews are humanoids — creatures that Allah created in the form of humans but aren’t really humans. So you’ve got the top religious figure in the Palestinian Authority [saying] that Jews are actually subhuman, either Satan or animals, but they’re humanoids, so of course you can kill them.”

Marcus also pointed out that Palestinian textbooks for schoolchildren include quotes from a hadith (an Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad) that commands Muslims to kill Jews, and that TV programs owned and controlled by the Palestinian Authority teach children similar lessons. “Children have said they’ve learned in school to hate the Jews and kill them,” he noted. “We’ve had many, many chants and children’s programs where they talk about the Jews being the descendants of apes and pigs. … And one of the worst things that they’ve taught these kids is that they should go out and die for Allah, that if they [fight] against Jews and they’re killed, that’s the best thing that can happen to them.”

Perkins further wondered if peace is possible when Palestinian youth are taught that Israel has no right to exist.

“They deny Israel the right to exist as a state, and they deny Jews the right to exist as individuals,” Marcus somberly emphasized. “Those two together make peace impossible.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Trump’s new counterterrorism strategy singles out ‘radical Islamists’

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Bolton says: “Radical Islamist terrorist groups represent the preeminent transnational terrorist threat to the United States, and to United States’ interests abroad. The fact is the radical Islamic threat that we face is a form of ideology. This should not be anything new to anybody. King Abdullah of Jordan has frequently described the terrorist threat as a civil war within Islam that Muslims around the world recognize, and he is, after all, a direct descendent [sic] of the Sharif [inaudible], the keepers of the holy cities. If that’s how King Abdullah views it, I don’t think anybody should be surprised we see it as a kind of war, as well.”

The idea that there is a significant pushback to the jihad ideology within the Islamic world is a trifle overstated. The concept of jihad as meaning warfare against unbelievers in order to establish Islamic law’s hegemony over them is deeply rooted in Islamic texts and teachings, as well as in Islamic law. Nonetheless, in 2011 the Obama Administration removed all mention of Islam and jihad from counterterror training; this is a strong step in the right direction, toward once again enabling counterterror analysts to study and understand the motivating ideology of the enemy.

“New White House Counterterrorism Strategy Singles Out ‘Radical Islamists,’” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, October 4, 2018:

The Trump administration is implementing a new, government-wide counterterrorism strategy that places renewed focus on combatting “radical Islamic terrorist groups,” marking a significant departure from the Obama administration, which implemented a series of policies aimed at deemphasizing the threat of Islamic terror groups.

In releasing the first national counterterrorism strategy since 2011, the Trump administration is working to take a drastically different approach than that of the former administration, according to senior U.S. officials.

While the Obama administration sought to dampen the United States’ focus on Islamic terror threats, the Trump administration has made this battle the centerpiece of its new strategy.

National Security Adviser John Bolton acknowledged in remarks to reporters Thursday afternoon that the new strategy is “a departure” from the former administration’s strategy, which has been characterized as a failure by Republican foreign policy voices due to the increasing number of domestic terror attacks and plots across the United States

“Radical Islamist terrorist groups represent the preeminent transnational terrorist threat to the United States, and to United States’ interests abroad,” Bolton said.

“The fact is the radical Islamic threat that we face is a form of ideology,” Bolton said. “This should not be anything new to anybody. King Abdullah of Jordan has frequently described the terrorist threat as a civil war within Islam that Muslims around the world recognize, and he is, after all, a direct descendent [sic] of the Sharif [inaudible], the keepers of the holy cities. If that’s how King Abdullah views it, I don’t think anybody should be surprised we see it as a kind of war, as well.”

“One may hope that the ideological fervor disappears, but sad to report, it remains strong all around the world, and even with the defeat of the ISIS territorial caliphate, we see the threat spreading to other countries,” Bolton added.

The Trump administration strategy also shifts the focus to Iran, characterizing the country as the foremost state sponsor of terror across the globe.

“The United States faces terrorist threats from Iran, which remains the most prominent state sponsor of terrorism that, really, the world’s central banker of international terrorism since 1979,” Bolton said. “And from other terrorist groups. Iran-sponsored terrorist groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic jihad, continue to pose a threat to the United States and our interests.”…

EDITORS NOTE: This column with photos originally appeared on Jihad Watch. The featured photo is by Sophie Keen on Unsplash.

Sudan Orders Demolition of 25 Church Buildings

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We hope you read our engrossing, but disturbing series of articles on jihad genocide in the Sudan perpetrated by indicted war criminal, President Bashir.

Especially concerning was the disclosure of the Arab Coalition ‘final solution’ document captured in a Janjaweed truck by General Abakar M. Abdallah of Sudan United Movement. It presented evidence of Bashir’s plan to ethnically cleanse the indigenous African tribes in Darfur, Nuba Mountain, Blue Nile Region and South Kordofan regions dividing up the spoils among Arab tribes and exploiting gold and other natural resources with Saudi and Emirate funding.

Bashir is assembling a 150,000 Jihad army from across the Sahel region of Africa, include Islamic State foreign terrorists from Chad, Central African Republic, Niger, Mali, Libya and Syria.

Sudan’s ‘Orwellian’ Peace Force has been assembled in 16 training camps around the capital region of Khartoum.

You may have read our post of a bomb explosion in a Khartoum high rise on February 12th. SPLM-N secretary general Yasir Arman suggested the explosion was evdence of the presence of those foreign jihadi terrorists Bashir has assembled. 35,000 trained Peace forces have been deployed in both Darfur and the Nuba Mountains regions equipped with armed Toyota hilux pickup trucks.

This Gospel Herald report reveals the wanton destruction of churches ordered by the Bashir Regime in those Sudan regions, a practice begiun in 1990. That order came within a few years of issuance of the Arab coalition final solution in 1987, reissued in the 1990’s, 2003 and 2014 with a target of ‘completion’ by 2020, Bashir’s self proclaimed retirement year.

The Gospel Herald report noted the forced conversion to Islam of Christians especially directed at the vulnerable Nuba people. The Gospel Herald noted that the Sudan is the fifth leading counry of concern for indigenous Christian minorities.

Yesterday, my colleague Mike Bates of Northwest Florida’s 1330am WEBY Talk Radio and I interviewed Dr. Walid Phares Trump Campaign Foreign Policy Analyst and Fox News national security and foreign policy expert. Phares is the author of the acclaimed “Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West,” and a recent book, “The Lost Spring: US Strategies in the Middle East and Catastrophes to avoid.” Phares is being considered for a possible post a the State Department. We had posted on Phares’ remarks at a gathering of Nuba emigres in Washington , DC just days following President Trump’s election on November 10th..

In yesterday’s interview with him, Dr. Phares noted the lifting of Sudan sanctions by the outgong Obama Administration as unconscionable in view of Bashir’s genocidal record. Further, he stressed the hope that the Trump Administration might reimpose the1997 sanctions within the six month look back provision of the executive order. Ultimately, he thinks the solution is regime change to stop jihad in the Sudan and Sahel region of Africa.

Sudan Orders Demolition of at Least 25 Church Buil…
The order by Mohamad el Sheikh Mohamad, general manager of the land department in the Ministry of Physical Planning, urged that it be implemented immediately.”I
TOPBUZZ.COM

VIDEO: ‘Enemedia’ Lies yet again about the Threat of Radical Islam

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It is important to expose the establishment media, both large outlets and small, until it is universally known that these are not news outlets, but lying propagandists with an agenda. I was sent this article several weeks ago and was struck by this: “Norm Dyck attended an information session in Grande Prairie last year by controversial author Robert Spencer, who is a self-proclaimed expert on Islam. Spencer introduced his speech, according to Dyck, by showing footage of New York’s World Trade Center crumbling to the ground.”

The implication was that I was relying on some emotional appeal, a rabble-rouser stirring up trouble: “The connection was immediately made for us that Islam and the Muslim people where [sic] to be feared” said Norm Dyck.

I am a twentieth-century speaker. Anyone who peruses YouTube videos of my various talks around the U.S. (and in Europe, Israel and Australia, for that matter) will see that I never use PowerPoint, or film, or any audio-visual aids; I just speak. Usually I read a few things from the Qur’an. That’s it. So I was puzzled by this claim that when I spoke in Grand Prairie, Alberta, that I opened with video of the World Trade Center collapsing. I emailed the event organizer and asked him if he had shown such video before I arrived. He said he hadn’t, and would write a Letter to the Editor of the Daily Herald-Tribune, asking for a correction.

He did so. His letter is below. Not surprisingly, the Daily Herald-Tribune did not publish it or make any correction. Meanwhile, here is video of my talk in Grand Prairie last year. It begins with the introduction, while I am standing by (with my late great security man, Floyd Resnick, visible in the first few seconds of the video). Then I come up. No sign of any World Trade Center footage in either the introduction or the beginning of my speech.

“The first casualty is the truth,” eh, Mr. Dyck?

Of course, Svjetlana Mlinarevic of the Daily Herald-Tribune made no effort to contact me or the event organizer, or even to search out the YouTube video of the event, to see whether Norm Dyck was telling the truth. Why bother, when he confirmed the establishment propaganda line?

“A meeting of the faiths,” by Svjetlana Mlinarevic, Daily Herald-Tribune, February 2, 2017:

It was a meeting of two religions that wished to share their beliefs and open their minds to each other.

St. Paul’s United Church invited members of the Islamic Association of Grande Prairie and District (IAGPD) into their sanctuary on Wednesday to pray together, to share their experiences and fears, and to sing in unity….

Norm Dyck attended an information session in Grande Prairie last year by controversial author Robert Spencer, who is a self-proclaimed expert on Islam. Spencer introduced his speech, according to Dyck, by showing footage of New York’s World Trade Center crumbling to the ground.

“The connection was immediately made for us that Islam and the Muslim people where to be feared. This gentleman (another parishioner) talked about confronting falsity. That is extremely difficult. With a media predisposed to play on our fears (for) us and the others out there who are our enemy. The first casualty is the truth,” he said.

Dyck called on people searching for the truth to pursue it courageously regardless of where it takes them saying, “Truth denied, closes us from the light.”…

Here is the Grand Prairie event organizer’s letter to the Daily Herald Tribune, which the paper of course ignored. I present it unedited:

I think dialogue is important and as Norm Dyck emphasized that truth should be pursued. To clarify regarding the speaking engagement of Robert Spencer, there was no footage of world trade center’s crumbling, you can view the whole talk on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X36LSw7X5Bs. Robert has written many books on Islam and presents facts. As far as the suggestion that Islam is a religion of peace, that is a myth. It was said that radicalism, racism, terrorism and violence are not virtues of the Islamic faith, that is also a myth. There are peaceful Muslims to be sure, as there are in Grande Prairie, but when you are talking about the Ideology of Islam or it may be better described as Mohammadism, then questions should and must be asked. To understand the Ideology of Islam, the Quran and the Hadith’s and Sira of Mohammad are the norm. The leader of Islam was Mohammad. The Quran speaks of Mohammad as the great example 33:21, 68;4 and being that, Muslims must follow him. If Mohammad did it, said it, they are to emulate him. A historical summary of Mohammad shows him as a warlord, who killed, raped, terrorized, subjugated anyone who got in his way. He prescribed to what is called pedophilia. He married a girl Aisha at 6 years old and had sex with her when she was nine. Hadith and Sira 8:3309, 58;234,8:3311. That may have been common in the seventh century but not in the 21st century at least in Canada, US and other free nations. There have been over 30,000 Islamic terrorist attacks around the world since 9/11 www.thereligionofpeace.com. 270,000,000 killed in 1400 years of Jihad htpps://www.politicalislam.com/tears-of-jihad. Reliance of the Traveller is on Islamic Sacred Law, I would encourage everyone including politicians, judges to read this book.
Truthful and frank dialogue is needed before Canada finds itself like Europe, possibly living under Sharia Law. Unfortunately, we are 40 years behind in our conversation. As Norm said “Truth denied, closes us from the light”.

This letter could have stood a little editing and clarification of the citations, but its points are generally correct. They’re just not issues that the establishment propaganda media wants brought to light.

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EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on Jihad Watch.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Anti-Free Speech, Pro-Radical Islam Reporting

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Attention Canadian Broadcasting News Agency (CBC),

My name is Shabnam Assadollahi. I am a Canadian of Iranian origin, an award winning human rights advocate and freelance writer.

Reference your February 18th article “Protesters outside Masjid Toronto call for ban on Islam as Muslims pray inside.”

As an Iranian, a former refugee and former child prisoner of Evin for 18 months by the Islamic Republic of Iran who has been advocating for democracy and woman’s rights, I am strongly against the Political and Radical Islam and openly have shared my views about Motion-103. I am also appalled by a small group of people protesting in front of the mosque on Friday, some held hateful banners while ordinary Muslims were in and out and praying. IMHO, what that minority small group did yesterday was NOT activism but another form of hate.

I read your bias coverage of the demonstration at the mosque in Downtown Toronto and the connection you made between the demonstration and the controversy over Motion-103 which reminded me of what Muslim Brotherhood’s frequent cover up in Egypt and Iran’s Qods Forces propaganda in Iraq, Yemen, and Syria.

Religious freedom is part of our Canadian values and such small group’s hateful rally will only harm our Free speech but we already have laws to protect Every member of our nation. Shouldn’t your remind ALL Canadians to take pride to know that in 1982 the Charter of Rights and Freedoms made all Canadians equal? Don’t you think that this is the most important value that has been holding us together as Canadians?

As a former radio producer working for over twelve years knowing the ethics in journalism, I have observed that you frequently give a disservice to all Canadians by not sharing the complete information which can have an effect on one’s response to an issue. The last thing any of us should do is promote divisiveness because of lack of information especially coming from taxpayers funded media outlet.

This well documented article by CIJNews-Canada shows the supplications at Masjid Toronto Mosque located in downtown Toronto which is affiliated with the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC). According to this investigative journal, the mosque operates in two locations in downtown Toronto: Masjid Toronto at Dundas (168 Dundas St. West) and Masjid Toronto at Adelaide (84 Adelaide St. East).

Dr. Wael Shihab was appointed in April 2014 to a full-time resident Imam of the mosque Masjid Toronto. Shihab has a PhD in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University and he was the head of the Fatwa (Islamic opinion) Unit of IslamOnline.net (English website) and the Shari’ah (Islamic Law) consultant of the Shari’ah department of OnIslam.net. Shihab is also a member of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) headed by Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who played a major role in launching both aforementioned websites.

Shihab’s views as presented in articles and Islamic rulings posted on Onislam.net:

“Slay them one by one and spare not one of them; The solution to the global violence, extremism and oppression is Islam; Qaradawi’s book “Jurisprudence of Jihad” should serves as a guidance to Muslims; Thieves’ hands should be chopped off no matter their social status; Person who underwent gender reassignment surgery should return to his original gender; Muslims should avoid gays as homosexuality is evil and succumbing to the temptations of the Satan; Wife should not reject her husband’s call for having sex”

The above preaching is also against our Charter of Rights and Freedoms which ONLY creates hate and spreads radicalism among the worshipers, especially the youth. At the same time, a group of protesters rallying in front of this mosque and shouting for banning a religion in Canada is no difference from what the Islamic Republic of Iran is doing to atheists, Sunnis, Bahais Christians, and Jews, to name a few. Islamic republic of Iran also does not recognize Bahai as a religion/ faith. What is the difference between this small group of protesters, the radical Imams as such and what Iran regime is doing to Bahais? IMO: No difference.

Going in front of a place of worship calling to ban the worshipers’ faith on a “FRIDAY” especially a few weeks after a mass shooting happening in a mosque is NOT Canadian and it is not defending Free speech; but IMO is Hate Speech. The acts of radicalism by the small group of people is absolutely unacceptable. What they do will only assist the MSM and the Muslim Brotherhood to take advantage and to attack Freedom loving Canadians and to silence Freedom of Speech.

It is very sad that some Canadians from Islamic faith express that they don’t feel safe under Canada’s Charter of Rights and equality laws. When government and the media choose one group over another in a country that is diverse, they attack the very fabric that holds all of us together by saying that we are failing at diversity. If we do not treat all groups equally and say no to hatred to all; not singling out one group over another, then would only degrade our Charter.

It is appalling that when NCCM calls Canada to pass M-103, Canadian MSM such as yours cries for their call and yet QC imam Sayed AlGhitawi calls for the annihilation of the Jews and CBC and the rest of Canadian MSM won’t give any coverage on his hate speech.

It is the responsibility of our officials, educators and the media to remind all people living in this country that we are all equally protected-that no one needs an extra motion or extra protection-for that would make some “more equal” than others.

I have a reasonable fear of radical Islam” which I sent to MPs, and Senators Thank you.

Kind wishes,

Shabnam Assadollahi

RELATED ARTICLE: Quebec legislature adopts sharia blasphemy motion condemning ‘Islamophobia’

EDITORS NOTE: According to Wikipedia CBC News.

In 2009, CBC President Hubert Lacroix commissioned a study to determine whether its news was biased, and if so, to what extent. He said: “Our job — and we take it seriously — is to ensure that the information that we put out is fair and unbiased in everything that we do”. The study, the methodology of which was not specified, was due to report results in the fall of 2010.

In April 2010, the Conservatives accused pollster Frank Graves of giving partisan advice to the Liberal Party of Canada, noting his donations to the party since 2003. Graves directed a number of public opinion research projects on behalf of the CBC as well as other media organizations, and also appeared on a number of CBC television programs relating to politics. An investigation conducted by the CBC ombudsman found no evidence to support these allegations, stating that personal donor history is not relevant to one’s objectivity as a pollster.

In March 2011, the Toronto Sun accused Vote Compass, an online voter engagement application developed by political scientists and launched by CBC during the 2011 federal election campaign, of a liberal bias. The accusation centred on the observation that one could provide identical responses to each proposition in Vote Compass (i.e., answer “strongly agree” to all propositions or “strongly disagree” to all propositions) and would in each case be positioned closest to the Liberal Party in the results. This claim was directly addressed by Vote Compass representatives, who noted that the propositions in the application are specifically constructed in such a way as to avoid acquiescence bias and that the result described by the Toronto Sun was arrived at by gaming the system.[11] Vote Compass also released analyses of the data it gathered from the federal election, which have further negated efforts to discredit it. It is widely speculated that suspicions of bias were fuelled by Sun Media in an effort to promote its anti-CBC agenda and the concurrent launch of its cable news channel. The criticism appears to have been isolated to the 2011 Canadian federal election edition of Vote Compass and has not re-emerged in any subsequent editions of Vote Compass, either in Canada or internationally.

In February 2015, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made comments relating to the allegations. Speaking to Radio-Canada, the outlet’s on-air Quebec division, Harper commented saying he understood that many at Radio-Canada “hated conservative values”. Radio-Canada did not deny the allegations.

During the 2015 federal election, CBC was again accused of bias by some viewers and outlets. The majority of these claims spawned from a promise by the Liberals and New Democratic Party of Canada after the two groups promised to increase funding for CBC. The pledges came after the then Conservative government had cut $115 million from the CBC in the 2012 budget. Shortly before the pledges were made, CBC president Hubert Lacroix complained of the Conservative cuts, saying “the cuts make us weaker and affect morale, critics, key stakeholders and even some of the citizens we serve.”