Tag: religion

US Supreme Court weighs claims Cisco aided Chinese human rights abuses

The U.S. Supreme Court confronted a case on Tuesday with broad implications for human rights litigation in American courts, a long-running lawsuit brought by members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement who have accused Cisco Systems of facilitating religious persecution in China.

The justices heard arguments in Cisco’s appeal of a lower court’s 2023 ruling that breathed new life into the 2011 lawsuit, brought under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789, that accused the company of knowingly developing technology that allowed China’s government to surveil and persecute Falun Gong members.

The court has a 6-3 conservative majority, and some of its conservative justices signaled agreement with the stance taken by Kannon Shanmugam, the lawyer for Cisco, during the arguments.

San Jose, California-based Cisco urged the Supreme Court to further limit the scope of the Alien Tort Statute, which lets non-U.S. citizens seek damages in American courts for violations of international law. The court in a series of decisions since 2013 has restricted the law’s reach, making it more difficult to hold U.S. corporations legally liable for human rights abuses.

President Donald Trump’s administration sided with Cisco in the case.

Paul Hoffman, a lawyer for the Falun Gong plaintiffs, argued strenuously against Cisco’s views.

“Under Cisco’s theory, even the corporate actors who provided the poison gas for Nazi crematoria would not be liable” under the Alien Tort Statute, Hoffman told the justices.

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Quebec counsellor faces disciplinary complaint over faith-based practice

A Quebec sexologist is facing disciplinary proceedings after offering counselling services that combined professional guidance with Christian teachings, according to lawyers representing her.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said it is supporting Maryse Gaudet-Lebrun, who was served with a formal complaint on Dec. 23, 2025.

Gaudet-Lebrun, based in Montreal, holds qualifications in sexology, social work and health sciences, and is a member of the Quebec Order of Sexologists, the body that regulates licensed practitioners in the province.

The complaint reportedly challenges videos on her website in which she discusses sexuality alongside Christian teachings, prayer and biblical principles. It also alleges she promoted heterosexual sexuality within marriage and used a spiritual approach in her counselling practice.

Gaudet-Lebrun primarily serves clients who share her Christian faith and has said she aimed to provide counselling that aligns with both professional standards and clients’ religious beliefs.

Constitutional lawyer Olivier Séguin said the case reflects wider concerns about the reach of professional regulators and the role of religion in client relationships.

Gaudet-Lebrun said the complaint was deeply distressing and that legal support had been significant for her.

The matter is expected to proceed with expert reports, clarification of allegations and preparation for a disciplinary hearing.

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US and Israel Claimed to Be Fighting for Iranian Minorities — While Bombing Them

Iranians of all stripes have been affected by the U.S.-Israeli war on their country, and the civilian cost of the conflict has yet to be fully understood. The United Nations Development Programme has raised the alarm about the “development in reverse” pushing more than 32 million people back into poverty globally, and economists have warned that 10 to 12 million Iranians, representing nearly half of the country’s workforce, are now on the brink of unemployment.

But the effect of the U.S.-Israeli aggression on Iran’s religious minorities has received comparatively little attention. Beset by years of neglect and underrepresentation at home, faith groups are now coming to grips with the cruelty of war and the devastation it has inflicted on their vulnerable institutions and houses of worship.

In Tehran, U.S.-Israeli airstrikes damaged two major churches, St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Mary, drawing condemnation from Tehran’s Christian communities. Although there have not been many updates on the status of the Church of Saint Mary, St. Nicholas Church, which is a major Russian cultural site in Iran, was reportedly closed on Easter due to the extent of the damages.

One day before the U.S.-Iran ceasefire went into effect on April 8, a 68-year-old synagogue in the Iranian capital was damaged in airstrikes for which the Israeli military claimed responsibility. The Israeli military said it was trying to target a military commander living nearby and regretted the destruction, which it referred to as “collateral damage.”

The attack put further strain on Iranian Jews as they navigate the challenges of a war waged by the United States and Israel under the pretenses of bringing liberation to the country. Iranian Jewish politicians and community leaders have been vocal in criticizing the attacks targeting houses of worship and civilian sites.

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Western Leaders Downplay Islamic Terrorism, Pin Threat on White Supremacists

President Donald Trump is actively working to protect Christians in Nigeria who are being killed and abducted by radical Islamists, while Democrats in Congress are not only denying the religious nature of the violence but framing counterterrorism resources directed at Islamic extremism as Islamophobia. This pattern dates at least to the Biden administration and continues to the present, where political correctness is overriding national security.

When Ilhan Omar was asked directly about jihadist terrorism on Al Jazeera, she stated that Americans “should be more fearful of white men across our country” and called for profiling and monitoring white men, explicitly redirecting a question about Islamic terrorism. In March 2026, following ISIS-inspired attacks inside the United States, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared that “Islamophobia is a cancer that must be eradicated from both Congress and the country” in response to Republicans who were calling out Islamic extremism.

Regarding the ongoing attacks on Christians in Nigeria, ranking House Foreign Affairs Committee member Gregory Meeks and Africa Subcommittee ranking member Sara Jacobs issued a joint statement declaring that “clashes between farmers, many but not all of whom are Christian, and herders are driven by resource scarcity and land competition, not religion alone,” attributing a campaign of violence carried out by groups that explicitly state religious motivations to climate and economics.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken went further, testifying under oath before the House Appropriations Committee on May 22, 2024, that the killings of Christian farmers in Nigeria “have nothing to do with religion,” a statement Congress itself recorded in resolution text as inconsistent with available evidence.

The same pattern runs across multiple Western democracies simultaneously. In the United States, Biden repeatedly declared white supremacy the greatest terrorist threat to the homeland, explicitly naming it above ISIS and al-Qaeda. In Australia, after the ISIS-inspired massacre of Jewish civilians at Bondi Beach, the government said it was going to crack down on both right-wing extremism and Islamist terrorism.

In the United Kingdom, Prevent, the government’s counterterrorism program, systematically redirected resources away from Islamist cases toward right-wing extremism, despite the fact that documentation shows that Islamist terrorism accounts for 67 to 80 percent of all terrorism investigations, arrests, and foiled plots. The program directed referrals and resources toward right-wing cases at rates that bore no relationship to that reality. Officials also suppressed information about grooming gangs, largely Pakistani, for fear of being labeled Islamophobic.

In the United States, the leading sources of information on terrorism are START at the University of Maryland, a Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence; the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point; and the U.S. Intelligence Community’s own Annual Threat Assessment. These sources conduct research and publish reports that inform the U.S. government’s response to terrorism.

All three have ranked Islamic extremist terrorism as one of the top national-security threats for at least a decade. White supremacy is mentioned only once in all four threat assessments compiled under Biden, as an example of homegrown terrorism.

And yet Biden stated publicly, multiple times, that white extremism was the biggest threat, despite the fact that his own intelligence community and terrorism experts were telling him that Islamic extremism was the main threat. Under the Trump administration, the term “white supremacy” does not exist, whereas the 2025 threat assessment contains a section on Islamic terrorism, and the 2026 assessment mentions the term “Islamic terrorism” on the first page.

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IDF probes video showing soldiers destroying solar panels in Christian-Lebanese village

The IDF has launched an investigation into a video in which Israeli soldiers are seen destroying solar panels in a village in Lebanon, Israeli media reported on Saturday night.

The destruction took place in the village of Debel, the same village in which an IDF soldier was photographed smashing a statue of Jesus last week.

KAN also reported that the solar panels were civilian infrastructure, being used by hundreds of residents of the village who had not been evacuated from their homes, with the IDF’s permission.

“The actions seen in the video are not in line with the IDF‘s values and the conduct expected of its soldiers,” the IDF told KAN. “The incident is under investigation. Based on its findings, command measures will be taken accordingly.”

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Feds: Manifesto outlined plot to target admin. officials, expressed hatred of Christians

President Donald Trump has confirmed that Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old Los Angeles resident identified as the shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, allegedly left behind a manifesto in which he expressed hostility toward Christians.

In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing,” Trump described Allen as a “sick guy,” noting that the suspect’s own family had previously attempted to warn law enforcement about his radicalizing views.

“When you read his manifesto, he hates ‌Christians —that’s one thing for sure. He hates Christians, a hatred,” the president said.

The manifesto, which was reportedly shared with his family members via email just minutes before the attack, framed Allen’s motives as a moral necessity.

“Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” the manifesto read, according to a law enforcement official.

His brother alerted New London, Connecticut police after receiving it minutes before the shooting occurred. In it, Allen allegedly referred to himself as the “Friendly Federal Assassin.”

The document reportedly outlined plans to target administration officials, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest. Notably, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel was omitted from the list.

Additionally, the manifesto mocked the “insane” lack of security at the hotel where the event was held.

“Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance,” the manifesto reportedly said. “I ​walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”

According to the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, Allen was carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives when he stormed a security checkpoint on the lobby level. One Secret Service officer was struck in the chest during the ensuing struggle but was saved by his ballistic vest.

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Israel Appoints Its First Ever ‘Special Envoy to Christian World’ After Controversial Incidents

Israel announced on Thursday the appointment of its first “special envoy to the Christian world” following some recent embarrassing incidents directed at the faith’s adherents.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar appointed veteran diplomat George Deek to the newly created role, saying the move is “intended to deepen Israel’s ties with Christian communities around the world.”

“He is a member of the Arab-Christian community in Jaffa and has been active in this society since a young age. His father, Yosef Deek, was the chairman of the Christian-Orthodox community in Jaffa and Israel for many years,” the Foreign Ministry said of George Deek.

“The State of Israel attaches great importance to its relations with the Christian world and with its Christian friends around the world. I am confident that George, an esteemed and experienced diplomat, will contribute greatly to deepening the friendship and strengthening the ties between the State of Israel and the Christian world,” Sa’ar said, according to a translation.

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Israeli lawmaker proclaims supremacy of ‘Jewish race’

A lawmaker from the ruling Likud party said Wednesday that the “Jewish race” is the smartest in the world and possessing of the “highest human capital,” which is why, he said, the Israeli public did not buy into the allegations of wrongdoing by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

MK Miki Zohar made the comments during a radio debate with veteran political journalist Dan Margalit about the corruption investigations in which Netanyahu is either a suspect or has given testimony.

His assertions led to a Twitter spat with Joint (Arab) List party MK Ahmad Tibi, who noted Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews as a race during the Holocaust.

Citing recent opinion polls that show Netanyahu enjoying strong support despite being a suspect in three graft investigations, Zohar argued that the media focus on the probes has not convinced the Israeli public that the prime minister is unsuited to lead the country.

“I can tell you something very basic,” Zohar said during the Radio 103FM debate. “You can’t fool the Jews, no matter what is the media writes. The public in Israel is a public that belongs to the Jewish race, and the entire Jewish race is the highest human capital, the smartest, the most comprehending. The public knows what the prime minister is doing for the country and how excellent he is at his job.”

Tibi, in response, tweeted a picture of Zohar with the message: “An elected official in ‘the Jewish state’ presents: race theory.”

Tibi, whose party and its members have often raised ire among their Jewish colleagues with their open support for the Palestinian cause, followed that tweet up with a photo of himself reading Amos Elon’s book “The Pity of It All,” which examines how the Holocaust brought an end to German-Jewish culture.

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Pakistan: Professor Sentenced to Death Following Blasphemy Charges

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are among the world’s most egregious tools of religious repression. They enable abuse, mob violence, and the targeting of individuals and religious minorities (including Christians) for criminal prosecutions that carry life sentences and death penalties.

Pakistani professor Junaid Hafeez, for instance, is imprisoned and sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. 

In 2013, police in Punjab Province arrested Hafeez, who was then an academic in his twenties. The professor has remained incarcerated ever since.

In 2019, a court sentenced Hafeez to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws following a trial whose delays spanned several years. The trial finally took place inside a high-security prison amid fears of mob violence. Hafeez’s appeal has yet to be heard.

According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), 

In March 2013, authorities arrested Hafeez, a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University, after his students accused him of blaspheming Islam on social media. In 2014, authorities placed him in solitary confinement after other prisoners repeatedly attacked him. That same year, two gunmen shot to death Hafeez’s lawyer, Rashin Rehman, in his office.

In December 2019, a district and sessions court in Multan sentenced Hafeez to death for “insulting the Prophet Muhammad” (Sec. 295-C PPC). He was also sentenced to life in prison for “desecrating the Qur’an” (Sec. 295-B PPC) and 10 years’ imprisonment for “intending to outrage religious feelings” (Sec. 295-A PPC). United Nations experts swiftly condemned Hafeez’s sentence.

Prior to his arrest, Hafeez received a master’s degree in the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship. He specialized in American literature, photography, and theatre.

On February 26, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement about Hafeez’s case. In it, HRW said:

“Junaid Hafeez’s case is emblematic of the unjust and abusive nature of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should quash Hafeez’s conviction and safely release him and others held under the blasphemy laws.”

The blasphemy laws, section 295-C, and other provisions of Pakistan’s penal code carry what is effectively a mandatory death sentence. Although there have been no executions, several people are currently on death row, while dozens are serving life sentences for related offenses. Hundreds have been charged under the law in the past three decades.

On February 27, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) submitted an official contribution to the U.N. Special Rapporteur regarding summary, extrajudicial, or arbitrary executions in Pakistan. In it, the ECLJ denounces the mandatory and automatic imposition of the death penalty for blasphemy against Islam in the country:

Those accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are sentenced to death by hanging. The death penalty, let alone by hanging, is egregious and disproportionate in blasphemy cases. It clearly amounts to torture. Notably, the Pakistani government has never carried out the death sentence in blasphemy cases. However, the accused spend years on death row. Additionally, many accused, their families, and communities have faced mob violence…

The authorities have also failed to stop mob attacks by private actors, such as fundamentalist individuals and organizations in blasphemy cases. In many cases, mobs gather and attack the accused, their families, and their communities. Where the accused are arrested and tried, fundamentalist organizations continue to pack the courtrooms to intimidate judges. As a result, trial courts rarely acquit the accused, leaving their fate up to the higher courts.

Even an accusation of blasphemy can provoke mob violence against victims, as well as their families and the wider Christian community. On Aug. 16, 2023, allegations of blasphemy against two Christian residents in Jaranwala (Faisalabad district of Punjab Province) led to a Muslim mob vandalizing and destroying over 20 churches and more than 80 Christian houses.

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The Vindication of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and a Long Overdue Reckoning for the Southern Poverty Law Center

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been under attack by Muslim groups for more than two decades. Her work in trying to free Muslim women from the tyranny, the beatings, the forced genital mutilation by Muslim men has resulted in death threats against her, too numerous to count.

A close friend and collaborator, Theo van Gogh, was butchered on an Amsterdam street in 2004 by a Muslim terrorist. Suffice it to say that “hate” — real, soul-destroying, all-consuming hate — is something that Hirsi Ali is quite familiar with.

Exposing the truth about Islamic societies, their oppression of women, and virulent antagonism directed against other religions became her life’s work. Yet, despite the target on her back and the need for constant protection from attack, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) branded her an “anti-Muslim extremist.”

“I have lived under armed protection for more than two decades because men with weapons and conviction want me dead—for apostasy; for writing about Islamist-driven antisemitism and the subversive actions of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups in the West; for drawing attention to practices such as honor killings and female genital mutilation; for arguing that Muslim women deserve the same protections under the law as other women,” writes Hirsi Ali in The Free Press.

But those crimes by Islamists play a secondary role to the glorious mission of the SPLC. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, and other violent white supremacists are only players in a massive fundraising game by the SPLC. If individuals like Hirsi Ali are exposed to blood-curdling threats and attempts on her life, that’s just part of the game.

The SPLC placed Ali on a blacklist called “A Journalist’s Manual: Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists,” along with 15 other “anti-Muslim extremists.” It accused her of using “the political bully pulpit to bash Muslims.”

“Maajid Nawaz, a reformed radical who ran a counter-extremism organization, and an array of figures also dedicated to combating Islamism and antisemitism, such as David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes,” were also on the list, according to The Free Press. Nawaz sued the SPLC and won a handsome $3.4 million settlement. The list of “anti-Muslim extremists” quickly disappeared.

But that lawsuit began a collapse of SPLC’s fundraising juggernaut. It was described in a 2000 investigation as the “wealthiest civil rights organization in America.”

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