From "Conservative Review": "Regime-friendly NY Times makes big money selling Iran tours"

The following is from an article at “Conservative Review” by Jordan Schachtel:

Regime-friendly NY Times makes big money selling Iran tours

Conflict of interest?

The recent protests in Iran have raised many red flags and questions as to whether the Times is reporting the news objectively. As videos continue to surface on social media, showing masses of people calling for an end to the regime (and even “death  to the Islamic Republic”), the New York Times has downplayed the protests as merely  economic disputes. Moreover, the paper’s Tehran-based reporter was conveniently “on vacation” as the most consequential, anti-regime protests in years spread through Iran like wildfire.

It turns out that The New York Times has a special financial relationship with the Iranian regime, likely unknown to many of its readers. As one of the few U.S.-based Iran tour providers, The Grey Lady delivers unprecedented access to the theocratic nation for a price.

Based on publicly available data  on the New York Times travel website, Conservative Review has analyzed that the organization’s “Iran: Tales from Persia” trip, which is hosted by New York Times journalists and opinion writers, is a cash cow that has reaped millions of dollars in revenue for the publication.

The Times’ travel website lists nine publicly available trips to Iran in 2018, with an average group size of 20 people. The Iran tour costs $7,895 per person (based on double occupancy. Single travelers pay an additional $1,500), plus $425 for internal airfare. The price does not include international airfare.

Read more at “Conservative Review” by clicking here.

ISIS Genocide Victims Do Not Include Christians, the State Department Is Poised to Rule

 

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

A report by a renowned journalist states that Christians are to be excluded from an impending official United States government declaration of ISIS genocide. If true, it would reflect a familiar pattern within the administration of a politically correct bias that views Christians -- even non-Western congregations such as those in Iraq and Syria -- never as victims but always as Inquisition-style oppressors. (That a State Department genocide designation for ISIS may be imminent was acknowledged last week in congressional testimony, by Ambassador Anne Patterson, the assistant secretary of the State Department's Near East Bureau.)

Yazidis, according to the story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff, are going to be officially recognized as genocide victims, and rightly so. Yet Christians, who are also among the most vulnerable religious minority groups that have been deliberately and mercilessly targeted for eradication by ISIS, are not. This is not an academic matter. A genocide designation would have significant policy implications for American efforts to restore property and lands taken from the minority groups and for offers of aid, asylum, and other protections to such victims. Worse, it would mean that, under the Genocide Convention, the United States and other governments would not be bound to act to suppress or even prevent the genocide of these Christians.

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ISIS Genocide Victims Do Not Include Christians, the State Department Is Poised to Rule

A Future for Minorities in the Middle East?

The Arabic letter "n" (inside red circle), signifying "Nasrani" (Christian), on an Assyrian home in Mosul.

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AINA) -- Consider this imaginary situation. Hundreds of British citizens are kidnapped while travelling in the Middle East by a Muslim jihadi militia. The kidnappers hold the victims in an unknown and lawless location in a failed state and demand a ransom of one million dollars per person for their release. When no ransom is forthcoming, the kidnappers take three males, dress them in orange jumpsuits, make them kneel and, after they say their names, they are shot in the back of the head while being filmed. The kidnappers then threaten to similarly execute the remaining captives if the ransom is not paid.

Consider another imaginary scenario. Some 5000 American women and girls are kidnapped by the same Muslim jihadi militia. They are turned into sex slaves, servicing the jihadi soldiers who consider the whole process to be an act of worship of their God. The women are sold for a few dollars in open markets and are subjected to an ongoing nightmare of exploitation, humiliation and terror.

If both of the above imaginary situations came to pass, it is highly likely that the British and American governments would bring the full force of their military power to bear on the perpetrators of such mediaeval barbarism. And they would be right to act in the interests of their citizens in this way, providing the protection that governments should provide to their own.

The subtext in the above scenarios is that in fact the situations described are going on as we speak. The hundreds of citizens who have been put up for ransom, with some being killed on camera, are not British but rather Assyrians, kidnapped in February from dozens of predominantly Christian towns and villages in the Khabur river valley in northern Syria. The exorbitant ransom demanded is far beyond the financial capacity of the local Assyrian community.

The thousands of women and girls, some pre-pubescent, serving as sex slaves are not Americans but mostly non-Muslim Yazidis, kidnapped in Sinjar in northern Iraq late last year. Some Christian women are also being held in the same manner. The perpetrators are, of course, the soldiers and leaders of the Islamic State, who have established rules of trade that include allowing an individual jihadi to purchase up to three female concubines. The captured woman are reportedly considered by their captors to have become Muslim if they are raped by ten ISIS fighters.

The significant difference between the above imaginary situations and the reality is that neither Assyrians nor Yazidis are citizens of powerful nations. Those currently held in captivity cannot hope for their armed compatriots to come to their rescue. In such a context, their nightmare must be even darker and full of greater despair, enveloped within a sense of absolute hopelessness. It is little wonder that a number of the Yazidi women are committing suicide, according to reports provided by some lucky women who have escaped their captors.

And as these appalling situations continue day after day, leaders of the powerful nations do express concern and meet to confer about ways of gradually "degrading" the capacity of the Islamic State. A group of nine nations led by the USA have been conducting bombing raids from the air on Islamic State targets since August 2014, with mixed results. But while the discussions and the bombing raids take place, days become months and months become years, and the Assyrian and Yazidi hostages remain in their situations of terror, with little hope of rescue.

Two thoughts come to mind. Firstly, the great nations of the world that are mulling over ways of dealing with the Islamic State in a step-by-step fashion would do well to act as if the kidnapped hostages are indeed British and American. Images of British citizens being executed on mass and American women being sold at sex-slave markets may well succeed in breaking the paralysis that has beset Western action over the problem of the Islamic State.

Second, the tragic situation raises the issue of the future viability of religious minorities in the Middle East. The best solution would probably be for Assyrians and Yazidis to migrate to the West. Many will do this, but many will remain in their ancestral homelands.

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A Future for Minorities in the Middle East?

Assyrians Largely Ignored By U.S. and Other Western Officials

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

Someone should tell ISIS: The orange jumpsuits no longer draw the world's attention as they did a year ago when American journalist James Foley became one of the terror group's first victims to be executed on camera wearing one.

In early October, three men crouched in sand wearing the orange one-piece outfits--all Assyrian Christians from northeastern Syria. They were shown being shot in the head and killed in a video released by ISIS. Those living in the United States most likely didn't see the one-minute video clip. A few Arabic-language media outlets carried reports of the latest filmed execution and some showed the video, but in the United States no news outlets televised it, and only a few reported it at all.

Yet the footage is the first from ISIS, or Islamic State, of Syrian Christians being executed. It also carried threats of further killings against hundreds of Assyrian Christians who have been held hostage for months, according to the Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights.

With the camera rolling and a brisk wind flapping their sleeves, the three men kneeling in the sand said they were "Nasrani," a Muslim pejorative for Christians. They recited their names and hometowns: Ashur Abraha of Tel Tamar, Basam Essa Michael of Tel Shamiram, and Dr. Abdulmasih Enwiya of Jazira. Two gave their dates of birth. Three men wearing desert camouflage and black masks next stepped behind them, each raising a handgun to shoot each of the three Christians in the head. The victims' bodies slumped forward, and seconds later three more men appeared kneeling behind the dead men, the executioners pointing guns at their heads also.

As with the first segment, each hostage recited his name and hometown, but one of them--in what looks like a scripted gesture--pointed to the bodies on the ground and said, "Our fate is the same as these if you do not take proper procedure for our release." With that, the video ended.

The three killed and the three apparently left alive all are confirmed part of a group of 250 Assyrians abducted in February after Islamic State attacked about 35 villages along the Khabur River in Hasakah Province. ISIS killed at least 15 young Assyrian Christians in the attacks as they tried to protect the towns, and militants rounded up hundreds and took them hostage in the overnight raids--leaving 1,400 Assyrian families unable to return to their homes (see "One family's night flight from ISIS," March 5, 2015). ISIS released several dozen captives, mostly elderly, leaving about 180 still held.

At that time, church leaders reported American aircraft flew over the area but took no action.

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Assyrians Largely Ignored By U.S. and Other Western Officials

Senior Female ISIS Recruiter is Student From Seattle

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

A senior female Isis figure who reportedly helped recruit women to join the extremist group in areas under its self-declared caliphate has been exposed as a student from Seattle, who may have been living in the city up until March this year.

The person behind the influential @_UmmWaqqas Twitter account has been revealed by Channel 4 as a woman in her 20s who lived and studied in the US.

Her Twitter account had a following of over 8,000 before it was suspended and shows that British recruits, such as Aqsa Mahmood, and other women from Europe were in contact with her in the days running up their departure. Mahmood goes by the name of 'Umm Layth' online and tweets from the @_UmmWaqqas account...

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Senior Female ISIS Recruiter is Student From Seattle

CHINA Kong Zhenlan, a mother to dozens of orphaned and abandoned children - Asia News

The following excerpts are from AsiaNews.it:

Jiuji (AsiaNews/Ucanews) – For the past 42 years, Kong Zhenlan, a Catholic in China's Shanxi province, has been bringing up handicapped orphans and abandoned children along with her own kids, and that has inspired one of her sons to become a Catholic priest.

Kong's son Father Anthony Fan Changliang says the adoption of orphans is related to a local tradition in their Jiuji Catholic village in Qi County.

Before the communist revolution in 1949, the ancient Catholic parish in the village maintained a tradition of charity to help the orphans.

In the two decades that followed the revolution this noble tradition and all the charity works were stopped as religions were oppressed, Catholics say.

In the 1970s, there was an increase of abandoned children but there was no orphanage. Father Fan said that in 1977 his mother began to adopt abandoned and handicapped orphans.

The lack of medical care and children’s poor health made mortality rate quite high, said Father Fan, who was a teenage at the time. The deaths of some children and the unbearable financial burden on the family saddened him.

For a while, he said, he lost the faith. But the words of his mother made him think deeper. "To love the poor is to love Jesus. Each of the kid is a little brother, a little Jesus. When we take care of our little brothers, we are taking care of Jesus," she used to say.

Only after graduating from the novitiate did Father Fan fully understand and support his mother's mission, he said.

“We are all brothers and sisters, there is no difference," he said when asked how many biological and adopted brothers and sisters he has. "It is a blessing" that his mother is able to give love to the kids, "a love with faith, and she enjoys doing it," he said.

Since the age of 24, Kong and her husband Fan Bucheng have been engaged in this charitable activity. Now, they are both 66-years old.

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CHINA Kong Zhenlan, a mother to dozens of orphaned and abandoned children - Asia News

Bill to legalize euthanasia in Peru draws criticism :: EWTN News

The following excerpts are from EWTN News:

A bill introduced in Peru to legalize euthanasia has met with harsh criticism from a cancer doctor who said that it fails to respect human life and dignity.

Dr. Luis Raez, director of the Memorial Cancer Institute (MCI) in Broward County, Florida, told EWTN News that although “de-penalizing euthanasia does not sound so bad,” what is really being sought is the legalization of murder.

“This attempt to legalize euthanasia will cause terrible harm to those who are ill,” warned Raez, who also serves as an associate professor at Florida International University.

The legislative proposal was entered for processing in the Peruvian Congress March 4, with the title “Law that de-penalizes mercy killing and that declares that the implementation of euthanasia is a need of the public and in the national interest.”

The document was signed by parliament members Roberto Angulo, Juan Pari, Eulogio Romero, Sergio Tejada, Esther Saavedra, Claudia Coari and Jorge Rimarachin.

Congresswomen Coari and Tejada have in the past voiced support for legalizing abortion as well.

The euthanasia bill is in the hands of the Constitution and Rules Committee and the Justice and Human Rights Committee for debate and a vote. If it passes this stage, it will be examined by the full Peruvian Congress.

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Bill to legalize euthanasia in Peru draws criticism :: EWTN News

Outbreak of Chicken Pox, Lice and Scabies in Assyrian Refugee Camp in Arbel

Ankawa Mall, an uncompleted building in Ankawa, Iraq, now housing nearly 1,800 Assyrian refugees. (See more photos from this refugee "camp" below)

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AINA) -- Eight months after ISIS drove nearly 200,000 Assyrians from their villages in the Nineveh Plains north of Mosul, Assyrians are now battling disease in the refugee camps they are living in. Refugees are living in uncompleted buildings, with no walls, windows or dividers.

One location, called the Ankawa Mall, is a 7 story building which was never completed. It has open floors on all levels. There are 420 Assyrian families living there, about 1,800 people, mostly from Baghdede (Qaraqosh), Tel Afar and Bertella. According to Fr. Immanuel Callo, there is now an outbreak of chicken pox, lice and scabies in this building.

There a severe water shortage. Six tankers of water, each bringing at least 12,000 liters of water, are purchased daily. $200 per day is spent on the generator for the building.

There is also a critical shortage of bathrooms, with most floors having only 2 or 3.

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Outbreak of Chicken Pox, Lice and Scabies in Assyrian Refugee Camp in Arbel

Assyrian Bishop to the Jihadists: Our Church Does Not Identify Itself With Any Armed Group

The following excerpts are from Fides News Agency:

Hasaka, Syria -- The Assyrian Church of the East -- to which hundreds of Christians in the Khabur valley taken hostage by jihadists of the Islamic State (Is) belong -- has chosen not to identify itself with any of the warring parties in the Syrian conflict and insists that Christians are "unrelated to the culture of weapons" and clearly states that no faction or paramilitary militia operating in Syria can present themselves as a military wing connected to the Assyrian Christian communities.

These are the contents of the letter that Assyrian Bishop Afram Athnil addressed to the leaders of Is to highlight the distances from all armed groups operating in the field - including self-defense militias formed by the Assyrians - and to demand the release of hundreds of Christian hostages still in the hands of jihadists. "In his letter - confirms to Agenzia Fides Syrian Catholic Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo - Bishop Afram has denied the existence of an alliance with Kurdish soldiers linked to the PKK, and hinted that the militias known by the acronym of 'Sotoro', also described in the international press as Assyrian Christian militias, have never had any mandate and approval by the Church".

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Assyrian Bishop to the Jihadists: Our Church Does Not Identify Itself With Any Armed Group

Up to 373 Assyrians Captured By ISIS, Executions Have Begun

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

Hasaka, Syria (AINA) -- According to Assyrian leaders in Hasaka, the number of Assyrians captured by ISIS is as high as 373. There are 150 confirmed captives whose names are known. Various news agencies reporting today raised the number of captured Assyrians to 250.

Aid to the Church in Need is reporting that some of the captured Assyrians have been executed. The Aleteia news agency is reporting that up to 350 Assyrians may have been captured, and that executions have begun. Aleteia reports that 12 fighters from the Assyrian village of Tel Hurmiz, two of them women, have been executed by ISIS.

According to Assyrian fighters in Tel Tamar, ISIS has withdrawn from the Assyrian villages of Tel Goran, Tel Shamiran and Tel Jazira. But residents and fighters have not reentered the villages for fear of booby traps left by ISIS.

Assyrian sources in Hasaka say ISIS claims to have sent pictures of the captured Assyrians to the U.S. government with an ultimatum to stop airstrikes against them else all Assyrians will be killed.

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Up to 373 Assyrians Captured By ISIS, Executions Have Begun

ISIS Has Begun Executing Captured Assyrians, According to Report

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

Islamic State militants have reportedly executed 15 Christians who have been captured in villages in northeastern Syria since Monday.

A priest who has been feeding reports to Christian aid agencies around the world, including Aleteia partner Aid to the Church in Need, said today that a Christian Assyrian lawyer in the city of Hassakah told him that about 15 young Assyrians "are martyred. Many of them were fighting to defend and protect the villages and families."

Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana of CAPNI, the Christian Aid Program in Iraq, said that in the Christian village of Tel Hormizd: 14 fighters, two of whom were women, were killed. One of the women may have been beheaded, he said. Another 13 fighters from different villages were captured.

Altogether, including civilians, as many as 350 Christians from the area have been captured, he reported--many more than the 70 originally reported. Their fate is unknown, and there is much speculation. He said that an unconfirmed report said that a mosque in the Arab Sunni village of Bab Alfaraj was calling people to attend a "mass killing of infidels in the mountain of Abdul Aziz on Friday."

Archimandrite Youkhana reported that none of the residents of one Christian village that the Islamic State attacked, Tel Shamiram, were able to escape. This village had 51 families, with an average of five persons per family, he said.

"There was fire exchange between the fighters protecting the village and IS terrorist group," the priest wrote. "It is believed there are casualties and many are Assyrians are been killed in the village. No news on the destiny of the families. Most probably they are been captured and transported to Mount Abdul Aziz, a nearby mount/region controlled by IS."

Other villages attacked included Tel Jazira, Tel Gouran, Tel Feytha, and Qabir Shamiya.

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ISIS Has Begun Executing Captured Assyrians, According to Report

As many of you already know, I was fired from my previous job back in January, as I told you in a previous post here. At the time, I did not want to go into the details of the reason I was given for being fired, so I will now. My former employer had told me, and the young lady that I worked with, that he was going to have to cut hours... Read more by clicking here.

Assyrian American Bishops Send Letter to Kerry Regarding ISIS Attacks on Assyrians

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AINA) -- The Synod of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East has sent a letter to John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, regarding the ISIS attacks on Assyrian villages and the capture of 150 Assyrians (AINA 2015-02-23).

Here is the text of the letter:

Dear Secretary Kerry:

The atrocities very recently committed against the Assyrian Christians of the Khabur region in northeast Syria prompt us to write to your good offices in order to bring to your attention the urgency of the present situation. As the diocesan bishops of the Assyrian Church of the East in the United States, we would like to bring to the attention of the Obama Administration the sufferings and plight of our Assyrian Christians, which we have all witnessed taking place in broad daylight, early Monday morning. In our very own day, another holocaust is taking place in history, but this time against the Christian population of Syria by ISIL....

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Assyrian American Bishops Send Letter to Kerry Regarding ISIS Attacks on Assyrians

Starnes: Moral Cowardice: WH Won't Call Latest Victims of Islamic Radicals 'Christians' - Fox Nation

The following excerpts are from FoxNews.com:

It was another weekend of bloodletting by the radical followers of Mohammed. By now you've seen the images - 21 Coptic Christians - slaughtered on a Libyan beach by radical Islamic extremists.

The White House denounced what they called the "murder of Egyptian Citizens" -- not Christians -- citizens. The president could not even summon the moral courage to speak the truth.

They're called Christians, sir.

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Starnes: Moral Cowardice: WH Won't Call Latest Victims of Islamic Radicals 'Christians' - Fox Nation

Pope denounces slayings of Egyptian Copts by Islamic State: 'assassinated for being Christian' | Fox News

The following excerpts are from FoxNews.com:

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has denounced the slaying by the Islamic State of Egyptian Copts in Libya, saying they were "assassinated just for being Christian."

Francis spoke off-the-cuff Monday during an audience with a Scottish ecumenical delegation. He said: "They only said 'Jesus help me ...' The blood of our Christian brothers is testimony that cries out. Be they Catholic, Orthodox, Copts, Lutherans, it doesn't matter: They're Christian!"

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Pope denounces slayings of Egyptian Copts by Islamic State: 'assassinated for being Christian' | Fox News

Iraqi Kurds Call for Foreign Ground Troops in Anti-Islamic State Fight

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AP) -- A senior Iraqi Kurdish official on Wednesday called for greater support in the battle against the Islamic State group, including with foreign troops, saying the Kurds are "alone" in the fight.

Fouad Hussein, chief of staff to Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, said the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes are helpful but "to finish ISIS... you need to finish it on the ground. And on the ground, we are most of the time alone. So we need partners."

"It means advisers, it means special forces, it means a collective fight against ISIS, it means equipment, it means munitions," Hussein said.

Though IS fighters have been forced to retreat from Kobani, the strategic town on Syria's border with Turkey, the battlefield picture suggests they are far from beaten in northern Iraq, where harsh winter weather and thick mud underfoot hampers military moves.

The Kurdish peshmerga fighters have struggled for months to inch ahead, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, which began in northern Iraq.

Several coalition countries have provided arms to the Kurdish forces but many of those weapons have not yet been delivered to soldiers because most require additional training.

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Iraqi Kurds Call for Foreign Ground Troops in Anti-Islamic State Fight

UPDATED: Sisi first Egyptian President to attend Coptic Christmas mass - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, right, visits Coptic Pope Tawadros II, center, during Christmas Eve
Mass at St. Mark's Cathedral, in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015 (Photo: AP)

The following excerpts are from ahramonline:

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has attended the Coptic Christmas mass to mark the first attendance ever made by an Egyptian president to the religious occasion.

El-Sisi arrived at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya district during the mass and gave a brief speech before leaving instantly.

He said that both of Egypt's Muslims and Christians are celebrating this occasion, asserting that they are "one entity" in the world's eyes.

He added that he had to come to congratulate the Coptic community and then apologised for interrupting the mass.

Video footage broadcast by State TV – covering the full mass – showed crowds cheering as El-Sisi entered the Cathedral with churchmen and saluted Pope Tawadros II.

Former Egyptian heads of state have visited the Cathedral including Gamal Abd El-Nasser and interim President Adly Mansour, but this is the first time for a president to attend the mass.

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UPDATED: Sisi first Egyptian President to attend Coptic Christmas mass - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online

Chaldean Patriarch Calls on Muslims to Denounce Violence Against Christians

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

"We Iraqi Christians are a genuine and essential component in Iraq; we would like to stay with you as partners and work together as a team for the progress of our country and the good of our people," Patriarch Louis Sako said in a message to Muslims for Eid al-Adha.

The Islamic State "has displaced us of our towns and even in Baghdad the pressures are exerted on us, but we tell you that we love you because Jesus Christ commanded us to love everyone," he continued. "We believe that all Muslims do not approve the actions of ISIS and there are some of Muslims who are good and considered as a blessing like Dr. Mohammed Al-Asali, who was killed in defense of Christians in Mosul."

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Chaldean Patriarch Calls on Muslims to Denounce Violence Against Christians

Kidnapping of Christians in Egypt Has Become Endemic

"Coptic cross" by Sagredo - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coptic_cross.svg#mediaviewer/File:Coptic_cross.svg

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

Wadi Ramsis, a Coptic doctor who was kidnapped in Sinai two months ago was released Monday after "payment of large sums of [ransom] money," said authorities.

Targeting Copts--especially professionals, who can afford to pay, or children, whose parents become desperate to pay--is becoming endemic to Egypt.

In May, five "unidentified persons" kidnapped a Coptic Christian pharmacy owner at gunpoint in Sohag, Upper Egypt. Soon after Friday mosque prayers, a car pulled up in front of the pharmacy and opened fire on it before the assailants raided it and drove off with the kidnapped owner, one Mr. Marcos, a 52-year-old Copt, at gunpoint.

In April, Isaac Eli--another Coptic man--was abducted under threat of gunfire by four "unknown persons" armed with automatic weapons. They came upon the Coptic wood merchant while he was working in front of his home, coerced him into their car, and sped away. Later, one of his relatives received a phone call demanding a hefty ransom to release the Christian man: 500,000 Egyptian pounds.

In late March, Shenouda Riad Musa, a Coptic Christian man, was kidnapped by "unknown persons" who later called his family demanding one million Egyptian pounds for his release, roughly the equivalent of $150,000 USD, an exorbitant sum in Egypt.

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Kidnapping of Christians in Egypt Has Become Endemic

Senator Ted Cruz Booed Off Stage At In Defense of Christians Summit

Senator Ted Cruz speaking at the
In Defense of Christians Inaugural Summit Gala Dinner.

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

Washington (AINA) -- Speaking at the In Defense of Christians (IDC) summit in Washington yesterday, Senator Ted Cruz ran afoul of the attendees who had gathered to build support for the Christians of Iraq, who are facing a genocide by ISIS.

Senator Cruz was introduced by Nina Shea, the director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.

Senator Cruz began by saying all gathered here are united in defense of Christians and Jews, and received applause.

He then said "Tonight we are all united in defense of people of good faith who are standing together against those who would persecute and murder those who dare to disagree with their religious teachings."

When Senator Cruz said "And today Christians have no better ally than the Jewish state" audience members began to object, saying "stop it" and booing. He immediately followed by saying "Let me say this: those who hate Israel hate America." At this point the audience became very agitated.

...IDC issued the following statement on the "disruption:"

In Defense of Christians President Toufic Baaklini issued the following statement in response to a disruption at the Inaugural Summit Gala Dinner:

As Cardinal Rai so eloquently put it to the attendees of the In Defense of Christians' inaugural Summit gala dinner: 'At every wedding, there are a few wedding crashers.' In this case, a few politically motivated opportunists chose to divide a room that for more than 48 hours sought unity in opposing the shared threat of genocide, faced not only by our Christian brothers and sisters, but our Jewish brothers and sisters and people of other all other faiths and all people of good will.

Tonight's injection of politics when the focus should have been on unity and faith, momentarily played into the hands of a few who do not adhere to IDC's principles. They were made no longer welcome.

When we set out to form In Defense of Christians, many in the foreign policy and faith-based communities said such an effort was impossible. That it would be too difficult to bring such a diverse group of Christian sects, religious and human rights organizations together to draw attention not only to the plight of the deteriorating situation facing our Christians brothers and sisters, but also to the plight of all people of faith, in the Middle East who are suffering.

For more than 48 hours, our initial IDC conference was successfully bridging divides of faith, language, geography and politics. It has not been easy, and not without challenges. Tonight's events make clearer than ever, that the In Defense of Christians is desperately needed in a world that remains divided to the point where even the most fundamental value of life and human dignity are cast aside.

We remain undaunted and focused on achieving our goals.

Note: Be sure to click the link below for the transcript of the speech from Senator Cruz, and listen to the audio from the speech there as well.

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Senator Ted Cruz Booed Off Stage At In Defense of Christians Summit

Former Israeli leader proposes united religious effort against terrorism : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

Catholic World News - September 04, 2014

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres proposed a worldwide organization uniting religious leaders against terrorist violence, during a September 4 meeting with Pope Francis.

The Pope also met on the same day with Jordan’s Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, to discuss the work of the Arab leader’s Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, later told reporters that the Jordanian leader’s work is entirely directed toward interreligious dialogue and commitment to peace, in the current context of violence.”

Shimon Peres said that his plan for a “United Religions” initiative reflected the need for a new organization to promote world peace. “The UN has had its time,” he told reporters after his meeting with the Pope. He suggested a new group that would “establish in the name of all the faiths that slitting people's throats or conducting mass slaughters, like the ones we have seen in recent weeks, has nothing to do with religion.”

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Former Israeli leader proposes united religious effort against terrorism : News Headlines - Catholic Culture