Tag: religion

Anti-Islamic uprising in Iran continues: “This is the year of blood. Khamenei will be toppled.”

Starting on Sunday, there have been widespread anti-regime protests in Iranian cities, including Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Zahedan, primarily driven by economic distress, including the Iranian rial’s collapse to a record low of approximately 1.4 million to the dollar.

The protests, which began as economic demonstrations by merchants and shopkeepers, escalated into broader political unrest with chants of “Death to the Dictator” Ali Khamenei and pro-monarchist slogans calling for the return of the Shah.

Security forces, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and batons, while the government declared a state of emergency and vowed “total war” against the United States, Europe and Israel. 

There is no credible evidence of foreign military or organised group control over Iranian cities.

The central bank governor, Mohammad Reza Farzin, resigned amid the crisis.

The situation remains fluid, with protests continuing into 31 December with crowds chanting “This is the year of blood. Khamenei will be toppled.”

On Monday, independent news channel Tousi TV reported that anti-Islamic Iranians have taken control of Iranian cities.

“The revolution is still ongoing against the Islamic occupiers and the regime forces have retreated. Multiple cities and towns have now fallen into the hands of the anti-Islamic Iranians, and at the same time, resignations inside the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] have now started,” Mahyar Tousi said jubilantly while waving the Iranian flag.

His news cast includes videos of the popular uprising from Tehran, Karaj and other cities around the country.

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Taliban to jail barbers who shave men’s beards for up to 15 months under radical Islamic law

Barbers who cut off men’s beards in Afghanistan are set to be jailed under the Taliban‘s increasingly radical regime.

Some young men are also reportedly being beaten up and ‘humiliated’ for defying strict cultural laws by daring to pick a Western-style haircut.

Offending hairdressers will be referred to the Taliban’s feared judicial authorities and could face up for 15 months in prison.

The totalitarian regime claims it is merely laying down Islamic law.

Beard removal was already illegal under its dystopian-sounding Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, but did not carry a prison sentence.

Some accused of crafting non-traditional styles have already faced temporary detention, however, meaning their businesses have ground to a halt for days.

Esmatullah, from the Balkh province, told the Telegraph: ‘We are branded as agents of the former government if we trim our beards or keep what they call a Western hairstyle. 

‘The Taliban interrogate and beat people simply for how they look.’

He said a local college student was beaten up by Taliban members who also lopped off his hair with scissors, because he had decided to shave the sides of this head.

Another barber in Balkh said that many of his customers now ask him to visit them at their homes for haircut or grooming sessions, because it is too risky to do in public.

Many have also seen a steep decline in business since the Taliban reestablished in August 2021.

Last week, Taliban morality enforcers detained eight barbers in Afghanistan’s Parwan province for shaving or styling beards.

Their shops were shuttered, and their have been families told they will be detained for a month.

Taliban officials summoned male barbers in the Balkh province on Friday to the drum home the message that the crackdown is on.

Another Balkh barber told the newspaper: ‘If people are not allowed to shave their beards or cut their hair as per their choice, who will come to our shops?

‘We live hand to mouth, and these edicts will leave us without enough food on our plates.’

Since sweeping back to power in the wake of the Western withdrawal, the Taliban has steadily tightened its grip on the people of Afghanistan and stripped away their freedoms.

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Italy Arrests Nine Islamic Charity Chiefs Suspected of Raising Millions for Hamas

Italian police have arrested seven people suspected of funneling millions of euros to Hamas while posing as fundraisers for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, authorities announced.

Police also issued international arrest warrants for two additional suspects believed to be operating outside Italy.

According to local law enforcement, the investigation centers on three associations that publicly claimed to support Palestinian civilians but allegedly functioned as a front for financing Hamas.

The nine suspects are accused of transferring approximately seven million euros ($8 million) to “associations based in Gaza, the Palestinian territories, or Israel, owned, controlled, or linked to Hamas.”

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Self-Proclaimed Prophet from Ghana Told Followers the ‘End of the World on Dec. 25’ Was Postponed — Says His Prayers Were Answered and the Flood Is Delayed Until Further Notice — Bought a Mercedes-Benz Instead

A self-proclaimed prophet in Ghana has quietly moved the goalposts after his dramatic prediction that the world would end in a catastrophic flood on Christmas Day failed to materialize.

According to reporting by News18, Ebo Enoch, who also goes by “Ebo Noah,” previously warned followers that nonstop rain would begin on December 25 and continue for three years, wiping out everything in its path.

The only salvation, he claimed, would be a series of Noah-style wooden arks he said God instructed him to build.

As December 25 came and went with no flood, no rain, and no apocalypse, Ebo quickly pivoted. The end of the world, he now says, has not been canceled, just “postponed.”

According to the self-proclaimed prophet, God was so impressed with his prayers, fasting, and “donations” that He granted humanity extra time. The revised divine instruction? Build even more arks and expand the project so additional people can be “saved.”

Ebo Noah:
God reveals to redeem. I have prayed, I have fasted, I have donated, and I have built. Through my prayers, I received another vision. In that vision, when you look at the number of people coming from all over the country and all over the world into the Ark, the expansion of the Ark could not contain them.

So I shared my vision with some great men of God who also interceded with me. After the intercession, God has given us some time to build more Arks, in addition to the tent that will contain all of us.

Therefore, tomorrow, nobody should rush to any location. I am not selling tickets. I am not taking money from anyone either. Please stay home, enjoy yourself, and have fun.

I also wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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Sending army to protect Sydney’s Jewish community not ruled out by NSW premier

Deploying the army to Jewish areas to protect the community has not been ruled out by the NSW premier as he contemplates security changes following the Bondi Beach terrorist attack. 

At a press conference on Sunday, Chris Minns also warned that Sydneysiders could expect to see more police officers carrying long-armed guns before and beyond New Year’s Eve.

Mr Minns said that “nothing was off the table” in response to a question about the deployment of troops, confirming that discussions about it were ongoing.

“We’re going to look very closely at security programs and measures in the future. We have to do things completely differently,” he said.

“The situation as it currently stands, it can’t continue … there’s a big challenge ahead of us to rebuild Jewish life in Sydney. So I’m not going to take anything off the table.

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New baby graveyard found at home where 796 infants were buried in septic tank

A second baby graveyard has been found at the site of a maternity home for unwed mothers run by Catholic nuns in Ireland, where the remains of almost 800 infants were already found buried in a septic tank.

Excavations are currently underway at a seemingly inconspicuous patch of grass next to a children’s playground in a small Irish town after a evidence of a mass grave was uncovered.

The land, attached to a home run by nuns between 1925 and 1961 in the town of Tuam, 220km west of Dublin, was left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972.

But in 2014, amateur historian Catherine Corless, presented evidence that 796 babies, from newborns to a nine-year-old, had died at Tuam’s mother and baby home, leading to an Irish Commission of Investigation into the so-called mother and baby homes.

During its almost 40-year operation, the facility housed a number of women who had become pregnant outside of marriage and were shunned by their families. They were often separated from their children after giving birth.

A planned two-year excavation of the unmarked mass burial site began in July, conducted by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention in Tuam (ODAIT), which has since found evidence of a second burial site at the home.

Daniel MacSweeney, who is leading the excavation, told Irish broadcaster RTE a total of 11 sets of infant remains have been discovered in the new location, around 15 metres away from a memorial ground on the site.

All were buried in coffins, and date from the period between 1925 and 1961, when the home operated.

They were found less than a metre below the old surface, which had been covered by gravel more recently.

“We have indications of further potential graves of infant and child size, and over the coming weeks and months we will excavate them and see what we find there,” he said.

“There is also a historic map that shows a larger burial ground in this part of the site. We will also excavate there and see if there are further burials.”

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President Trump Announces Deadly Christmas Day Strikes Against “ISIS Terrorist Scum” in Nigeria Who Are Killing Christians

President Trump on Thursday announced the US launched deadly strikes against “ISIS terrorist scum” in Nigeria.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Trump said on Truth Social.

“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper,” Trump said.

“May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” Trump added.

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Muslim Trained in Somalia Sentenced To Life In Prison For Conspiring To Commit 9/11-Style Terrorist Attack in America On Behalf Of al-Shabaab

A Muslim who trained in Somalia, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to commit a 9/11-style terrorist attack in the U.S.

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, John A. Eisenberg, and Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Christopher G. Raia, made the announcement on Monday.

He was convicted for multiple crimes that included conspiring to provide—and providing—material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, commit aircraft piracy, destroy aircraft, and commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said, “Cholo Abdi Abdullah was a highly trained al-Shabaab operative who was dedicated to recreating the horrific September 11 terrorist attacks on behalf of a vicious terrorist organization.”

“Abdullah pursued his commercial pilot license at a flight school in the Philippines while conducting extensive attack planning on how to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into a building in America.  As he later admitted to the FBI, he was fully prepared to die in his terrorist attack.  I commend the years of outstanding investigative work of the FBI and the career prosecutors of this Office who disrupted Abdullah’s murderous plot and brought him to face justice in a U.S. court.  He will now spend life behind bars, where he will not be able to harm innocent Americans.”

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg noted, “Today, justice has been served.”

“Abdullah, an al-Shabaab terrorist, sought to replicate the most horrific terrorist attack in our history, as he prepared to hijack a commercial airliner to take down a building on U.S. soil.  We thwarted this plot due to the relentless efforts of U.S. law enforcement and thereby likely saved many innocent lives.  His life sentence is a powerful reminder that those who plot attacks against the United States will be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

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Antisemitic terror plot mastermind’s younger brother ‘went to school’ with Sousse beach massacre gunman

The brother of a jihadist convicted of plotting what could have been Britain’s worst terror attack ‘went to school with’ the gunman who massacred tourists on a Tunisian beach.

Terror mastermind Walid Saadaoui’s younger brother Bilel, 36, is said to have gone to school with Seifeddine Rezgui, who went on to kill 38 people including 30 Brits in the 2015 atrocity at Sousse.

Bilel Saadaoui, who was three years older than Rezgui, is understood to have attended the Ibn Rachiq Secondary School in the town of Kairouan, 50 miles from the Tunisian coast, at the same time.

Rezgui, an electronics student before he became radicalised, was 23 when he opened fire on a packed beach with an automatic weapon, having come in from the sea – by jet ski or boat.

After firing at tourists on the beach, he entered the Hotel Imperial Marhaba, detonated explosives and fired more shots before running out of the hotel and being shot by police.

The link was revealed by Walid Saadaoui’s British first wife, named only as Jane, when interviewed by police.

The younger Saadoui has been convicted of knowing about older brother Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein’s chilling plan to attack Jewish targets in Manchester with semi-automatic rifles and handguns, and not informing the authorities.

A police source said: ‘The first wife of Walid made reference to Bilal having been at school with the attacker. When interviewed, she said she’d been told by Walid that Bilel had been in the same class as the Sousse beach attacker.’

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Oklahoma University Trans Instructor Fired for Failing Christian Student’s Essay on Gender

University of Oklahoma student Samantha Fulnecky, a Christian, received a zero grade from transgender teaching assistant Mel Curth for not upholding a woke narrative for a paper on gender stereotypes.

Initially, the University removed Curth from the classroom. On Monday, they announced that Curth “will no longer have
instructional duties at the University.”

“A student’s claim of religious discrimination on an individual assignment in an online Psychology Course taught by a graduate teaching assistant has come to resolution.”

“As stated previously, the student followed two available processes at the University: the grade appeals process in the college and she made a formal claim of illegal religious discrimination.”

“As already announced, the grade appeal was decided in favor of the student, removing the assignment completely from the student’s total point value of the class, resulting in no academic harm to the student.”

“The claim for discrimination has been investigated and concluded. The University does not release findings from such investigations.”

“At the same time of the investigation, the Provost-the University’s highest ranking academic officer— and the academic Dean reviewed the full facts of the matter.”

“Based on an examination of the graduate teaching assistant’s prior grading standards and patterns, as well as the graduate teaching assistant’s own statements related to this matter, it was determined that the graduate teaching assistant was arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper.”

“The graduate teaching assistant will no longer have instructional duties at the University.”

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