Tag: religion

Australia’s proposed “hate crime” bill is not only an attack on free speech; it opens the door to belief-based punishment

The “hate crime” bill that is being rushed through by the Australian government is officially called the ‘Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill’.  It is a sweeping piece of legislation introduced in response to the December Bondi Beach attack, so it is claimed.  

The Bill aims to crack down on “hate speech,” particularly from religious or spiritual leaders (“hate preachers”), with a maximum penalty of 12 years in prison for inciting violence or promoting racial hatred.  

“The ban on hate symbols will be strengthened, including by requiring a person caught displaying a symbol to prove that it was legitimate – a reversal of the burden of proof requiring prosecutors to prove a crime occurred,” The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Adding, “Changes to migration law will allow the immigration minister to refuse or cancel visas if a person has associated with hate groups or made hateful comments, including online.”

It also introduces a new federal offence for inciting racial hatred or disseminating “ideas of racial superiority,” which carries a potential five-year prison sentence, and grants the Home Affairs Minister power to ban “hate groups” in the same way as terrorist organisations.

“The home affairs minister flagged the National Socialist Network and Hizb-ut-Tahrir as two possible targets of the law, but we don’t yet know which organisations might qualify as hate groups and be listed down the track,” an article in The Conversation pointed out.

Critics, including legal experts, civil liberties groups and opposition figures, have raised serious concerns about the speed and lack of scrutiny of the Bill.  The government released the draft bill with only three days for public submissions and held a snap parliamentary inquiry with limited participation.  

Experts warn the legislation may undermine free speech, fail constitutional tests and risk unintended consequences due to vague language and rushed drafting.  

The Guardian pointed out yesterday that as Members of Parliament (“MPs”) prepare for an early return to Canberra to consider Labor’s draft bill, the bill looks friendless as criticism and opposition to it are coming from all quarters. 

“The Greens represent the only viable pathway for the legislation in the Senate,” The Guardian said.  “[Greens] Leader Larissa Waters said on Friday that negotiations would continue but the risk that the legislation could criminalise legitimate political expression was too great based on the current draft.”

“That is a dangerous path,” Waters said, asking why legal protections would be extended to one vulnerable group in the community but not others.  Labor says it is open to passing new laws to include protections for LGBTQ+ Australians and people with disabilities in the future.

In the following, Nation First looks into how the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 criminalises belief, punishes influence and puts ordinary Australians at risk for speaking their minds.

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Nigeria Massacre of Christians: Eyewitness Accounts as the Left Claims This Is Not Happening

In Vwang village in Vom District, Nigeria, the local Christian community is still reeling from a New Year’s Eve attack that left nine people dead when Fulani Islamist extremist gunmen opened fire on a Christian vigil. Pastor Gyang Ezekiel, the Alliance pastor and senior spiritual leader of the nearby Local Church Council of Danda, said the attack struck the very center of the community under his care.

Pastor Gyang said Danda has been a Christian community since its founding and was established explicitly on a Christian foundation. “This place has been a Christian-dominated area for some decades now,” he said. “This community was formed on a Christian platform, where Christianity has been and is still moving. There has never been any religion apart from Christianity here.”

He said the community’s faith remains firmly rooted in Jesus Christ and expressed confidence that their spiritual commitment has not been shaken despite the violence. Addressing the aftermath, Pastor Gyang said the suffering has been profound and that the church is struggling to respond to the scale of loss. While the church lacks the resources to replace what was destroyed, he said its focus remains on providing spiritual support to those affected.

The congregation has been praying together, comforting those who mourn, and urging members not to lose faith. Pastor Gyang said the church is focused on keeping Christ at the center of the community’s response to the violence. “We are trying to make sure that the people never lose hope in Christ,” he said, explaining that believers are being encouraged to deepen their faith rather than abandon it.

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Another Pastor Tortures Goldfish For Strange Sermon Illustration

There are few things that clever and seeker-sensitive churches like more than using strange and unusual sermon illustrations to make a point, and the goldfish-out-of-water scenario keeps being a winner.

We saw Ed. Young Jr do this a few years back, and then fellow Texan pastor Bruno Dacosta followed suit.

Now it’s Pastor Terrence Mullings of History Makers Church’s turn.

During his sermon “The Secret of the Soil”, Mullings posits that “places are important” and that God creates places for people first, then puts them in those places.

He has his assistant hand him a live goldfish, which he places on the table. As the fish lies there gasping for water and breath, he explains:

“A fish out of water looks like a failure. But if you take that fish and you place it [in water], this fish isn’t a failure—this fish just hadn’t found its place yet.

When you are in the place that God created you to be, you don’t look like a failure… (you flourish and look phenomenal.)”

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Court: Washington State Can’t Force Christian Mission To Hire Non-Christians

Most legal experts, court watchers, and even casual observers would not likely characterize the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit as a bastion of conservative jurisprudence. But, in a recent decision, a panel of that court unanimously rejected the state of Washington’s attempt to force a religious ministry to hire employees whose beliefs contradict those of the ministry.

The right of religious organizations to hire only employees who are aligned with and live out their religious beliefs is a foundational tenet of our Constitution’s protection of religious liberty. The free exercise of religion by individuals, churches, and other faith-based ministries is essential to our founders’ vision of ordered liberty and the bedrock upon which our free civil society rests.

Yakima Union Gospel Mission has served its community for nearly a century. The mission has provided shelter for thousands of people, distributed hundreds of thousands of meals, and assisted countless homeless individuals through its outreach services. This service embodies the vision of America’s founders regarding the role of religion in our nation. When people of faith are free to live it out in their communities, everyone benefits — the homeless are sheltered, the hungry are fed, and the suffering are cared for by their neighbors, who view them as fellow image bearers of God.

Alliance Defending Freedom represented the mission in a lawsuit against Washington state officials who enforce the Washington Law Against Discrimination, which requires the mission to hire individuals who do not agree with or live out its religious beliefs. The state Supreme Court gutted the WLAD’s religious employer exemption, thereby affecting all religious organizations in Washington state, including Yakima Union Gospel Mission.

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FBI investigating Two by Twos for historical child sexual abuse claims, including in Australia

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an international investigation into child sexual abuse within a secretive Christian sect that has followers throughout Australia.

The global fundamentalist sect does not have an official name. It is referred to by believers as The Truth or The Way, or by non-believers as the Two by Twos, or the Church with No Name.

WARNING: This story contains details that may be distressing to some readers.

Believers of the church meet in people’s homes for prayer sessions, with the group’s ministers moving between the different cities and countries where followers are based.

In February in the United States, the FBI launched a probe into the group after widescale reports of abuse were publicised by the BBC earlier this year.

A hotline for former members who have experienced sexual abuse within the sect in Australia and New Zealand has received allegations involving about 130 separate people.

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The Pentagon Is Rebranding Miracles as Threats

The U.S. government is afraid.

For the last few years, we have watched a slow-motion collision between the Department of Defense and a reality it cannot explain. We have seen Congressional hearings where decorated pilots testify about objects performing impossible maneuvers. We have heard intelligence officials invent sterile, bureaucratic language to describe the inexplicable: “Instantaneous acceleration,” “transmedium travel,” and “signature management.”

They call these objects UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). They treat them as a technological surprise—a potential national security threat from China, Russia, or somewhere further afield. The Pentagon is scrambling to collect data, desperately trying to catch up to a phenomenon they believe is new.

But it isn’t new. If the intelligence community bothered to open a theology textbook—or even a history book—they would realize they are thousands of years late to the conversation.

The Ancient Data Set

The Church has the oldest, most verifiable data set on this phenomenon in the world. But even before the Church, this reality was recorded by every major civilization.

We see it in Egyptian hieroglyphs. We hear it in the oral traditions of indigenous peoples who spoke of “Star People” long before the Old Testament was written down. This phenomenon has been a constant companion to humanity. The only thing that changes is the language we use to describe it.

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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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