Tag: religion

Thousands of Orthodox Jews rally in New York to protest change in Israel’s military draft rules

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the streets and sidewalks for blocks around the Israeli consulate in New York City on Sunday to protest issues including a potential end of an exemption for religious students from compulsory service in Israel’s military.

The protest at the consulate, a block from the United Nations campus in Manhattan, illustrated the complex relationship between Israel and segments of the large population of very religious Jews in New York and its suburbs.

The two influential, and often rival, grand rebbes of the Satmar community both called on adherents to participate in the demonstration. The Central Rabbinical Congress of the U.S.A. and Canada, a consortium of Orthodox Jewish groups, said it helped organize the protest.

It comes after Israel’s Supreme Court last year ordered the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the military. There had been a longstanding enlistment exemption – dating to the founding of Israel in 1948.

The ultra-Orthodox worry that mandatory enlistment will impact adherents’ ties to their faith. But many Jewish Israelis have argued that an exemption is unfair. Rifts over the issue have deepened since the start of the war in Gaza.

Rabbi Moishe Indig, a Satmar community leader, said he’s not sure organizers expected so many people to show up but he said he felt urgency building around the issue.

He said he was appreciative of the governments in New York and the U.S. “for giving us the freedom and liberty to be able to live free and have our children go to school and study and learn the Torah.”

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Alert: Spanish Priest Facing Years in Prison for Comment That Offended Muslims

If you pay any attention to American ideological discourse, you’ve no doubt heard the one about “Christian nationalism.”

It’s this bogeyman idea that Christians are trying to take over the world politically, culturally, and spiritually (as if that’s a bad thing).

For anyone paying attention to the world, however, you’re no doubt aware of just how perilous — and powerless — life is for Christians outside of America’s protection.

Father Custodio Ballester, a Catholic priest in Spain, is facing the possibility of very real prison time on charges of “Islamaphobia,” according to a harrowing report from The Christian Broadcasting Network.

Ballester is facing up to three years in prison for this charge, as well as fines.

The big crime? Answering a question about the possibility of an interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

(It can’t be stressed enough that this happened in 2016, nearly a full decade ago.)

“This renewed revival of Christian-Muslim dialogue, paralyzed by the alleged ‘imprudence’ of the beloved Benedict XVI, is far from a reality,” Ballester wrote in a letter, responding to the question. “Islam does not allow for dialogue. You either believe or you are an infidel who must be subdued one way or another.”

The Christian Broadcasting Network added: “In a 2017 YouTube video, Ballester expanded on his 2016 remarks, warning that Islam not only poses a threat in Europe, but also that in many Muslim-majority countries, Christians face persecution.”

Despite the rote — and fairly accurate — description of Islamic culture, Ballester incensed the Association of Spanish Muslims Against Islamophobia.

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Zohran Mamdani Campaigns with Imam Tied to 1993 World Trade Center Bombing

One day after the New York City mayoral debate, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani openly campaigned at a mosque alongside Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Instead of distancing himself, Mamdani proudly highlighted the event.

He even posted about it publicly, as if daring New Yorkers to overlook the danger.

For years, warnings about Mamdani’s ties to Wahhaj have circulated. Wahhaj was named by federal prosecutors as a co-conspirator in the terror plot that killed six and injured more than a thousand.

Despite this, he continues to serve as an imam in New York and has donated to Mamdani’s campaign.

He remains an influential figure in the same activist networks that have normalized radicalism under the banner of “progress.”

The connections don’t stop there. Linda Sarsour, the anti-Israel activist who has publicly defended Hamas sympathizers, calls Wahhaj her mentor.

His son, Siraj Wahhaj Jr., operated a jihadi compound in New Mexico where children were indoctrinated and trained to commit terrorist attacks.

Federal authorities reported that the group stockpiled weapons, plotted mass murder, and buried the remains of children on the site.

Members of the compound received life sentences.

These are the people surrounding Mamdani. These are the networks trying to seize political power in New York City.

Instead of distancing himself, Mamdani embraces them.

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China Arrests Almost 30 Pastors, Members Of One Of Its Biggest Underground Churches

Nearly 30 pastors and members of China’s unsanctioned Zion Church were detained Friday in the biggest Christian crackdown since 2018.

Founder and Pastor Jin Mingri was also detained at his home, his daughter, Grace Jin, and church spokesperson, Sean Long, told Reuters.

“What just happened is part of a new wave of religious persecution this year,” Long said, adding that authorities have questioned more than 150 church members and have increased harassment during Sunday church services over the last few months.

Long said five pastors and church members have been released, but he showed Reuters an official detention notice saying Mingri is being held on suspicion of “illegal use of information networks.” The charge could potentially land Mingri in jail for up to seven years, the outlet reported.

Jin said she is concerned for the health of her 56-year-old father, who was previously hospitalized for diabetes.

“We’re worried since he requires medication,” Jin said. “I’ve also been notified that lawyers are not allowed to meet the pastors, so that is very concerning to us.”

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Ken Paxton Uncovers “Illegal Activities” by Developers of ‘Sharia City’ – Takes Action to Stop Mega Mosque and Sharia Compliant Schools

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton uncovered “illegal activities” by the developers of the ‘Sharia City’ and super mosque.

“I’ve uncovered illegal activities by EPIC City developers and requested a referral from the State Securities Board to file a lawsuit,” Ken Paxton said.

“After a thorough investigation, it has become clear that the developers behind EPIC City flagrantly and undeniably violated the law,” he said.

“Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the identification of evidence that entities connected to the East Plano Islamic Center (“EPIC”) land development project violated federal and state securities laws and regulations. Attorney General Paxton has formally requested that the Texas State Securities Board (“TSSB”) immediately review the findings and refer the matter back to the Office of the Attorney General in order to file a lawsuit against those who broke the law,” Paxton’s office said.

“In March, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into EPIC City. He then expanded the investigation and requested documents from local municipalities and other entities that may have coordinated with those involved in the unlawful development. This thorough investigation revealed that certain people and entities affiliated with EPIC City violated state and federal securities law,” Paxton’s office said.

“In order to sue and hold the parties behind EPIC City accountable, the Office of the Attorney General must receive a referral from the Texas State Securities Board. Attorney General Paxton has invited Chairman E. Wally Kinney and Commissioner Travis J. Iles to examine the initial findings and corresponding evidence that demonstrates the EPIC City development project violated the law and subsequently refer the matter back to the Attorney General’s office for further legal action if the TSSB agrees with the office’s findings,” they said.

Earlier this year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched a campaign against a planned Islamic “mega-city” outside Dallas.

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Want Slavery Reparations? Go Ask Muslim Countries, Says Scholar

It’s arguable that the people who complain about slavery most actually may love it, in a perverse way. After all, it provides so many with excuses for failure, anti-Western talking points, and opportunities to extract hand-outs. Just consider “reparations,” which are now continually demanded (by people enslaved only by their own indoctrination). Why, California Governor Gavin Newsom, panderer-in-chief, just signed a bill Friday to create a reparations-administration agency. Never mind that California was never a slave state.

But to African-descent people who want reparations, a British-Bangladeshi scholar has a message: You’re barking up the wrong tree.

You need to seek your booty elsewhere — from Muslim countries.

Dr. Rakib Ehsan, a commentator and author of the book Beyond Grievance, mentions the Ottoman Empire in particular. Now the nation of Turkey, chattel slavery was a major part of its economy and society for more than six centuries, Ehsan points out. He elaborates at The Telegraph:

Millions were enslaved — including Slavs, Eastern Europeans, Africans, and people in the western Mediterranean.

The Ottoman Empire captured and utilised “white slaves” — primarily European Christians — through various methods such as raids into European territories and the Black Sea slave trade originating from the Balkans and Caucasus.

Under the “Devshirme” system, Christian boys were conscripted and forced to convert to Islam, trained to serve as slave soldiers (the Janissaries). The gradual rolling back of Ottoman imperial slavery was ultimately the result of Western pressure.

Note here that white slavery, in a de facto sense, wasn’t unknown in the early United States, either. According to the 2007 book White Cargo, in fact, more than 300,000 white de facto slaves were sent from Europe to the United States over two centuries. And among some groups within this number, the mortality rate was 25-50 percent.

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Massachusetts parents lose foster license after refusing to sign gender affirming policy for kids

A devout Christian couple has been stripped of their foster license after refusing to sign a gender-affirming policy they say conflicts with their faith.

Lydia and Heath Marvin, from Woburn, Massachusetts, have looked after eight children under the age of four since 2020, including many infants and toddlers with serious medical needs.

But the couple say social workers pulled their license because they refused to sign a clause requiring foster parents to ‘support, respect, and affirm a foster child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.’

It put them in a position where they were essentially forced them to choose between their religion and the vulnerable children they had dedicated their lives to helping.

‘We were told you must sign the form as is or you will be delicensed,’ Lydia told WBZ. ‘We will absolutely love and support and care for any child in our home, but we simply can’t agree to go against our Christian faith in this area. 

‘Our Christian faith, it really drives us toward that,’ husband Heath explained. ‘[The Book of James] says that true, undefiled religion is to care for the fatherless.’

The Marvins say they were blindsided by the decision. Their last foster child, a baby with complex medical needs, lived with them for 15 months. 

‘Every night for 15 months, we were up at least three times,’ Lydia said. ‘We certainly thought we would have young children in our home for… we didn’t know how long, but we were not done.’

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Judge blocks sanctions on boys who objected to female in locker room, rejects district’s Hail Mary

Awealthy suburban D.C. school district belatedly justified its 10-day suspensions of two boys for complaining about a female who identifies as a boy recording them in their locker room, by claiming they had harassed the female student “over weeks and months.”

That wasn’t enough for U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to reinstate suspensions by Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools, which she paused Sept. 16 shortly after the anonymous Christian boys sued.

The President Clinton nominee granted the boys’ preliminary injunction motion at a hearing Friday, shielding the 11th graders throughout litigation from punishment and a disciplinary notation on their record that could sink their college applications. 

One left LCPS after suing but “the threat of discipline remains” if he returns, their lawyers at America First Legal Foundation and Founding Freedoms Law Center wrote in their motion for preliminary injunction. (Brinkema asked last month why he should remain a plaintiff.)

Brinkema didn’t give her reasoning in Friday’s bench order, but AFL lawyer Ian Prior told the media she cited serious constitutional questions, the harm of removing their educational experience and the timing of the “permanent mark on their records.” The judge will issue an order with her reasoning but didn’t give herself a deadline.

“We’re extremely pleased” suspensions are off the table throughout litigation, Prior said. They expect to succeed on all counts – likelihood of success is a factor supporting preliminary injunctions – but need to win only one, he stressed. 

It’s arguing discrimination by religion, because a Muslim student who complained about the female wasn’t punished, and sex, for LCPS telling the boys to find a different place to change but not the female student. LCPS also violated the boys’ constitutionally protected free speech and misused its Title IX probe and findings “as a pretext for viewpoint discrimination.”

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Palisades Fires arsonist: “I literally burnt the Bible I had. It felt so amazing. I felt so liberated”

When fires broke out in Los Angeles in January, climate alarmists were quick to point to “climate change” as the reason,  including Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann of Climategate fame.  “Conspiracy theorists” and citizen journalists who were doing their own research, of course, knew better.  Investigators, led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were not fooled by climate change propaganda either.

Yesterday, Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old Uber driver from Melbourne, Florida, was arrested and charged with malicious arson for allegedly starting the 2025 Palisades fire in Los Angeles, a blaze that caused widespread destruction, destroying more than 6,000 homes and buildings, and at least 12 fatalities.

Rinderknecht was charged with one count of “destruction of property by means of fire” and is accused of intentionally setting the Lachman fire on 1 January 2025, which later escalated into the Palisades fire.

Federal prosecutors revealed that evidence collected from his digital devices included AI-generated images of a burning city created via ChatGPT and text prompts describing the burning of a Bible and feeling “liberated” after burning a Bible:

“I am 28 years old. And… I basically… This just happened. Maybe like… I don’t know, maybe like 3 months ago or something. Like, the realisation of all this. I literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing. I felt so liberated,” Rinderknecht wrote in a ChatGPT prompt.

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Italian PM Meloni Sends Bill to Parliament Banning Burkas and Niqabs in Public Spaces

Curbing forced marriages is another target of the legislation.

Conservative Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has introduced legislation in Parliament against ‘Islamic separatism’ that, among other things, would institute a ban on the burka and niqab in public places.

The Telegraph reported:

“The prime minister’s ruling Brothers of Italy party put forward a bill imposing fines of between £260 and £2,600 for wearing the face-covering garments in schools, universities, shops and offices.

The party called it a bill against ‘Islamic separatism’ aimed at combating ‘religious radicalization and religiously motivated hatred’.

It introduces criminal penalties for virginity testing, while strengthening punishment for forced marriages by adding religious coercion as grounds for prosecution.”

The bill also lays out transparency rules on the funding of Mosques and other religious organizations.

Muslim organizations must disclose all funding sources, ‘with financing restricted to entities that pose no threat to state security’.

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