Tag: religion

Texas city CANCELS ‘unconstitutional’ Muslim-only day at water park under pressure from public, elected leaders

The Texas City of Grand Prairie has canceled their planned “Muslims only” day at an indoor water park. Epic Waters said their planned, discriminatory day has been removed from the schedule after Governor Greg Abbott said he would consider pulling state funding from the town over their unconstitutional practices.

A spokesperson for the water park said “After further review and in the best interest of the City of Grand Prairie, the June 1 EID event at Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark has been canceled.”

Abbott on Wednesday demanded that the City of Grand Prairie cancel a “Muslims only” event scheduled at a city-owned water park, warning local officials they could lose more than $530,000 in state grant funding if the event is allowed to move forward.

In a post on X, Abbott wrote that a city-owned facility had “openly advertised a ‘MUSLIMS ONLY’ event” and called the situation unconstitutional. “A city-owned water park in Grande Prairie openly advertised a ‘MUSLIMS ONLY’ event — closed to the general public,” Abbott wrote. “That’s religious discrimination. It’s unconstitutional.”

Abbott added that he had signed HB 4211 into law, which he said bans “Muslim only no-go zones” in Texas. “I signed HB 4211 into law — banning Muslim only no-go zones in Texas,” Abbott wrote. “The City must cancel the event and commit to never allowing something like it again by May 11th, or lose $530,000 in state grants.”

He continued, “Let this be a lesson to local officials: Facilities funded by ALL taxpayers are not just for a subset of Texans.”

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Religious leaders told ‘prepare now’ for UFO disclosure to unleash Bible-changing revelations

Influential pastors are claiming that they have been told to prepare their followers for shocking revelations about UFOs which may upend belief in the Bible.

Perry Stone, a well-known evangelist, author and Bible teacher from Tennessee, warned that fellow pastors were recently invited to a secret meeting with US intelligence officials to prepare for the release of secret files on extraterrestrials.

According to Stone, the officials warned a small group of pastors with a large reach in the Christian community that the government was about to release reports and possibly videos of aliens and spacecraft which were not from this planet.

In the April 27 video posted to his YouTube channel, the evangelist claimed that pastors were told about the existence of ‘reptilian’ creatures, UFOs and materials from a non-human origin and ‘other things that almost sound like something out of a sci-fi movie.’

On February 19, President Trump ordered the Pentagon and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to release all information the government possesses regarding UFOs and alien life.

Last week, Trump said that the first files would be released ‘very, very soon’ and would contain some ‘very interesting’ things for the public.

However, officials in this secret meeting allegedly said the information on its way may cause some Christians to question how the universe was created and even lose faith in religion.

Stone said: ‘You’re going to have people who are going to say if there are galaxies and there are allegedly other creations in the galaxies, then the whole creation story is a myth, and you’re going to have people that’s going to apostatize and turn from the Christian faith because they have no answer for what they’re about to hear.’

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Taxpayer-funded Texas waterpark announces ‘Muslim only’ day featuring modest dress and Halal-slaughtered meat

A taxpayer-funded Texas waterpark has sparked backlash by organizing a Muslim-only day to celebrate Eid. 

Epic Waters in Grand Prairie, Texas drew outrage this week as it released fliers for the June 1 event, which will demand a ‘modest dress code’ and serve only Halal-slaughtered meat. 

Posters for the event say it will be ‘for Muslims only’ to create a ‘family-friendly environment’, with tickets starting at $55 each. 

The waterpark’s website notes that men and women will not be separated during the event, but attendees are told to ‘uphold Islamic etiquette’ by ‘lowering the gaze’ throughout the day. 

‘Please follow the event’s modest dress code, and practice ḥayāʾ (modesty) through respectful behavior,’ the event says. 

All attendees are ‘expected to dress in accordance with Islamic values’, and the waterpark says all swimwear must meet Muslim guidelines. 

The event was criticized across social media, with many questioning if a taxpayer-funded space is allowed to exclude certain demographics from its events. 

Conservative commentator and radio host Dana Loesch led the backlash, questioning: ‘How is a taxpayer-funded, city-owned entity allowed to discriminate against non-Muslims at a public water park?’

Loesch added: ‘There would be literal riots if Muslims were similarly excluded and we all know that’s 100% accurate.’ 

Conservative influencer Sara Gonzalez also said she was intent on calling the city of Grand Prairie ‘with my questions’ as she questioned the legality of the event.  

Epic Waters, which is funded by an additional sales tax on Grand Prairie residents, included on the event a list of suggested swimwear for women. 

‘Explore our recommendations and get ready to make a stylish – and modest – splash!’ the website says. 

The suggested swimwear included full head-to-toe coverings with bathing suit material, alongside full body coverings for children. 

The site also includes testimonials from past attendees praising the event, including one from Ahmed S who said: ‘I loved the modesty and the Anasheed.’ 

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Israeli Police Arrests Jewish Man Who Assaulted Catholic Nun in Jerusalem

Attack brings back worries about inter-religion violence.

A few days after two Israeli soldiers were arrested for desecrating a Jesus statue in a village in Lebanon, a new episode of Jewish violence against Christians has taken place in Jerusalem.

Israeli police reportedly arrested a 36-year-old man who was recorded assaulting a French Catholic nun near Jerusalem’s Old City.

The attack caused a wave of indignation, and led Israeli authorities to react swiftly with ‘zero tolerance to all acts of violence’.

Euronews reported:

“Police said the unnamed man was arrested after the attack near David’s Tomb, a holy site outside Zion’s Gate on the southern side of the Old City, “on suspicion of a racially motivated attack,” and remained in custody.

Police video showed the nun bruised and the attacker wearing tzitzit, a fringed undergarment worn by some observant Jewish men. The nun, a French national, suffered injuries including a bruise on her forehead, as seen in an image posted by Israeli police on X.”

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Liberal Democrats Admit Human Rights Breach After Removing Candidate “Because He is Christian”

The Liberal Democrats have admitted that they unlawfully discriminated against former journalist and parliamentary candidate David Campanale because of his Christian beliefs, in what is now one of the clearest recent cases of a major UK party breaching the rights of a Christian over matters of faith and conscience. The party has agreed to pay damages after conceding the claim, while Campanale is also seeking legal costs he says exceed £250,000. The admission has been reported across outlets including The Independent, Church Times and other outlets, and it goes well beyond an ordinary internal party dispute: it is an acknowledged human-rights and religious-discrimination breach.

Campanale had originally been selected as the Liberal Democrats candidate for Sutton and Cheam ahead of the 2024 general election, but was later deselected and replaced by Luke Taylor, who went on to win the seat. The central legal issue was whether Campanale had been treated unlawfully because of his Christian beliefs on contested moral questions. On that point, the party has now surrendered. Church Times reported that the Liberal Democrats admitted to several counts of unlawful religious discrimination, while The Independent said the party accepted it had breached Campanale’s human rights over his Christian faith.

The significance of that admission lies in what it says about the treatment of Christians in contemporary public life. This was not a outside activist dispute or a row about obscure process rules. It concerned whether a mainstream political party was prepared to accommodate a candidate whose convictions remained recognisably Christian when applied to public questions.

Earlier reporting on the case such as this 2024 article said the dispute touched on Campanale’s views on issues including abortion, same-sex marriage and trans matters. During the litigation, the party’s defence drew particular attention for arguing that Campanale should prove in court the truth of the Christian statement that Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth and the life,” a move that many Christians saw as both extraordinary and revealing.

It was reported this week that the party had also argued it was a “statement of fact” that the era of prominent Liberal Democrats with Christian beliefs such as Shirley Williams and Charles Kennedy “was over,” and had initially claimed it had a right to deselect candidates who expressed religious beliefs. Those reported positions gave the case a significance far beyond one constituency. They suggested not merely a breakdown in local relations, but a deeper hostility to the idea that orthodox Christian belief should still have a place inside a party that presents itself as liberal, pluralist and rights-based.

That is why the case has been felt so keenly by many Christians. Clearly, Campanale is not being vindicated only as an individual claimant. The outcome also confirms the broader concern that expressions of Christian belief are only permitted when they are private or ceremonial, and welcome scrutiny when touching live moral questions. GB News framed the case as a legal victory for Campanale, called “an Anglican layman” in some reports, who was prevented from standing for his religious beliefs. The party has admitted unlawful discrimination, and the issue at its heart was Christianity.

David Campanale is a former BBC investigative journalist who held a seat as a Liberal Democrat councillor from 1986 to 1994, and, having first been approved as a prospective parliamentary candidate in 2017, he was announced as the party’s candidate for Sutton and Cheam in January 2022. According to his legal claim, he was the subject of complaints made by members of the local party “almost immediately” in attempts to deselect him. The deselection eventually took place in August 2023.

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IRS weaponized Johnson Amendment to target conservative pastors while ignoring liberals, DOJ finds

Anew report released Thursday by the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias reveals what investigators describe as a “stark contrast” and a systemic double standard in how the Biden Internal Revenue Service policed American churches. 

“The Biden IRS … [opened] multiple investigations into Christian churches focused on the content of their sermons. The IRS asked these churches for detailed information about their operations, not just about the alleged violations,” the task force wrote. 

“But during the same time, when other houses of worship gave sermons that reflected different scriptural interpretations on culture war issues, or prayed for Democrat candidates, the Biden IRS appeared to take no action,” the group added.

The task force, which was established by President Donald Trump in an executive order last year, reviewed internal administration discussions, case files and prosecutorial decisions from the Biden administration across 17 federal agencies. 

Beyond the IRS’s apparent targeting of conservative Christian churches, the task force concluded that the Biden administration’s prosecution strategy, internal policies and practices demonstrated an overall anti-Christian bias that permeated throughout the federal government during that period.  

“No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith,” said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who chaired the task force. “As our report lays out, the Biden Administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans. That devastation ended with President Trump.” 

The task force determined that the Biden administration used the Johnson Amendment – a 1954 provision added to the tax code which prohibits 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates – to probe churches that hold traditional Christian teachings, arguing those positions amounted to political support for Republican candidates. 

Though the amendment, in theory, limits what pastors whose churches have 501(c)3 nonprofit status can say in evaluating candidates running for political office, it has only been “sporadically enforced,” according to the Justice Department.

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What Do You Think Happened After This English Teen Converted to Islam?

The United Kingdom, and the West in general, is deep in the throes of a severe spiritual malady. Large numbers of people in these historically Christian nations have cast off their ancestral faith, but haven’t managed to find anything that even comes close to filling the spiritual void they have opened up in their lives by doing so.

Meanwhile, they’re constantly told that while their own history and heritage is full of slavery, oppression, and racism, the Muslim migrants who are arriving in Britain (and all over the West) in large numbers are bringing with them a noble, unsullied faith, the overall wonderfulness would be obvious to everyone if not for a wholly unwarranted, race-based “Islamophobia.”

And so the Oxford Mail recently ran an article about a young English lad from Oxfordshire who “converted to Islam as a teenager.” That must mean that he converted within the last three years, as we’re told that he is sixteen now. Judging on the basis of what we’re told about Islam and “Islamophobia,” one might have expected this story to be all about how Islam transformed this young fellow’s life, and led him to feel better, act better, and live better. One might have expected to read happy quotations from the boy’s parents, all about, say, how he had fallen in with a rough crowd, and there are just so many temptations facing young people these days, but then he discovered the Qur’an, and since then, has been quiet, studious, courteous, and serious about bettering himself and making something of himself in this cruel world.

The whole story might have been another establishment media attempt to reassure Britons who are jittery about their country’s present and downright fearful about its future. Everything is going to be all right, you see; Islam is certainly different to what we are used to, but it makes people sober, upright, and godly, and who could possibly object to that? All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well, if only the “far right” would stop its endless agitating.

But that’s not exactly what the story is about.

Instead, it seems that this new Muslim now stands “accused of having a suicide vest and of supporting Islamic State (IS).” The pious young man has been “charged with stockpiling weapons, explosives and a suicide vest at his family home.” Even that is not all. He is “also accused of supporting IS and is suspected of sharing its propaganda on terrorist attacks as well as footage of battlefield explosions and killings.” He is even “said to have had swords in his possession as well as homemade explosives.”

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Democrat Activist Texas Judge Rules State Agency Must Greenlight 400-Acre Islamic City Near Dallas

Travis County District Court Judge Amy Meachum, a Democrat, ruled on Tuesday that the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) must greenlight the construction of a 400-acre Muslim community near Dallas, Texas.

The development, formerly marketed as EPIC City and now rebranded as The Meadow, will potentially be located in unincorporated areas of Collin and Hunt counties near the small town of Josephine, roughly 40 minutes northeast of Dallas.

The developers are planning to build more than 1,000 homes, apartment buildings, a K–12 Islamic school, a mosque, health clinics, retail stores, assisted living facilities, and other community amenities on the massive site.

Community Capital Partners, the developer founded by members of the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), one of North Texas’s largest mosques, sued the TWC after the agency allegedly failed to honor the 2025 settlement and review the project’s updated housing policies.

Judge Meachum’s order requires the TWC to “acknowledge, evaluate, or advance the fair housing policies” outlined in that agreement. She also denied the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, allowing it to proceed.

Imran Chaudhary, president of Community Capital Partners, celebrated the ruling in a statement to The Dallas Morning News, saying, “This ruling confirms what we have maintained from the beginning — that Community Capital Partners has been willing, ready, and committed to following Texas law at every step. We have done nothing wrong, and this decision reflects that.”

The ruling drew immediate criticism from state leaders who have repeatedly warned that the project raises serious fair housing concerns because it is being marketed exclusively to Muslims, potentially violating the federal law by discriminating based on religion.

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Inside the Crewe doomsday sect: Amid sinister allegations of sex abuse and forced marriage, we reveal the truth about ex-comic that runs it…

Standing in five acres of carefully manicured lawns on the outskirts of the Cheshire town of Crewe, Webb House is an imposing building.

With its central clock tower, structurally it remains much as it was when it first opened its doors in 1912, as an orphanage for the children of workers employed by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) who had lost one or both parents due to an accident at work.

But if the facade of the Grade II-listed property remains much as it was a century ago, that is where the similarity ends.

For, as dramatic footage of police vehicles filing through the gates this week demonstrates, Webb House has undergone quite a transformation since Francis William Webb, an engineer who designed and built locomotives for the LNWR, died in 1906, bequeathing £53,857 to build an orphanage.

Back in the day, up to 80 children were housed there: the boys would wear a uniform of black corduroy trousers and brown jerseys, and the girls heavy-knit blue dresses with blue or scarlet cloaks.

These days, the occupants still wear what can loosely be described as a uniform – predominantly head-to-toe black, with a preponderance of beanie hats.

And while aerial photographs of the site do indeed show a trampoline, multiple climbing frames, slides and a football pitch (along with a large outdoor gym), there are no orphans playing here.

Its purpose has changed significantly over the past 100 years or so – just how significantly is evidenced by the signs around the site, warning anyone approaching that there is CCTV in place and that the premises is under ‘constant surveillance’.

Drones are sometimes spotted flying across the lawns and there is video footage online of a ‘robodog’ patrolling the drive, its purpose – other than giving it all a distinctly dystopian vibe – unknown.

So just what, you may wonder, is happening at Webb House and who are its occupants, who, until this week, numbered around 150 adults and children?

Many of them could be seen protesting this week after a massive operation by Cheshire Police on Wednesday in which more than 500 officers from as far afield as Wales carried out raids on three addresses linked to a bizarre, but rapidly expanding, religious sect which has its headquarters there.

The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL) has, for five years, run its global operations from the site.

This week, however, it emerged that ‘allegations of serious sexual offences, modern slavery and forced marriage’ had been made by one woman who’d spent time with the Ahmadi sect in 2023 and who went to police in March.

It led to the arrest of ten people – seven men and three women – of multiple nationalities, who were later bailed. Police, it should be said, stressed that their investigation was not into the religious group itself and there was ‘no risk to the wider community’.

The group describes itself as a religious community – although others see it as a cult – and is led by an American-born former documentary maker, stand-up comedian and self-proclaimed ‘saviour of mankind’ named Abdullah Hashem who was one of those arrested and bailed this week.

The alleged victim moved to the UK from her home country under ‘false pretences of a better life’ and joined AROPL, Chester Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.

But after selling her home and giving up control of her finances and her travel documentation, she was subjected to sexual and physical abuse, the court heard.

But after being taken to Sweden by the group, she managed to raise the alarm while being brought back via Ireland, it was claimed, and police began investigating.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claims to have been contacted by the group online, the court heard.

Members are claimed to have visited her in her home country, and in 2023 she is said to have agreed to sell her property and move to the UK. But after being brought to Webb House she was allegedly subjected to offences including forced marriage, rape and assault by penetration, prosecutor Catherine Elvin said.

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