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India’s Manipur remains tense weeks after 400 churches were burned, 60 Christians killed


By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor | SUNDAY, MAY 21, 2023

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/indias-manipur-remains-tense-weeks-after-violence-on-christians.html

An Indian army soldier (R) stands along with villagers in front of a ransacked church that was set on fire by a mob in the ethnic violence hit area of Heiroklian village in Senapati district, in India’s Manipur state on May 8, 2023. – Around 23,000 people have fled the unrest which erupted last week in the hilly northeast state bordering Myanmar. The latest clashes erupted between the majority Meitei people, who are mostly Hindu, living in and around the Manipur capital Imphal and the mainly Christian Kuki tribe of the hills. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP) (Photo by ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

The northeastern Indian state of Manipur remains in a tense state of unease weeks after a devastating spate of violence led to the deaths of at least 73 individuals, most of them Christians, and the burning, damage or destruction of nearly 400 churches.

Kuldeep Singh, a security advisor to the Manipur Government, told reporters Saturday that 488 weapons and about 6,800 rounds of ammunition looted amid the strife had been retrieved, Ukhrul Times reported. The Assam Rifles additionally recovered 22 pounds (10 kg) of explosives and 2,000 BIPL detonators.

The largely Christian tribals belonging to the Kuki-Zo communities, who reside on the hills of Churachandpur district, say two groups of the predominantly Hindu Meitei community — Arambai Tengoll, also known as “black-shirts,” and Meitei Leepun — were behind the violence. Meiteis are primarily settled in the Imphal Valley.

The violence, which began on May 3, primarily engulfed the Imphal Valley and Churachandpur, causing at least four days of turmoil. The region remains fraught with tension as authorities fear possible reprisal attacks due to the significant accumulation of weapons within both involved communities.

The Indian Express earlier reported that over 1,000 weapons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition were stolen from the Manipur Police Training College, two local police stations, and an IRB battalion camp in Imphal by members of the Meitei ethnic group. The report also noted, without stating specific figures, that police stations in Churachandpur were attacked and looted by the Kuki community.

During this period of hostility, the escalating violence has not only claimed a minimum of 73 lives, out of which about 64 were Christian tribals, but also left 200 people injured. More than 1,700 residences suffered damage, complete destruction or saw their homes set ablaze. The turmoil has forced about 50,000 individuals to abandon their homes, of whom roughly 35,000 belong to Christian tribal communities.

The houses of Meiteis in the Christian tribal-majority Churachandpur have also been damaged or destroyed.

A local source informed The Christian Post that the violence and ensuing tensions have caused a complete exodus of tribal residents from the Imphal Valley. Similarly, all Meiteis previously residing or working in Churachandpur, including government and police officials, have fled the area.

According to the source, Christian organizations in the area have recorded the burning, damage, or destruction of 397 churches and six Christian institutions amid the wave of violence. Significantly, these churches primarily served as places of worship for Meitei Christians. It is alleged that these structures were primarily targeted and destroyed by Meitei Hindus.

Archbishop Dominic Lumon of Imphal, whose jurisdiction covers the entirety of Manipur, has launched an appeal for funds to assist those impacted by the violence. He warns of a “general sense of hopelessness and desperation” throughout the region, acknowledging that all communities, regardless of their affiliation, are affected by the ongoing strife.

Fr. Varghese Velikakam, Vicar General of the Diocese of Imphal, criticized local police for their failure to prevent the attacks and questioned the lack of guards after attempted assaults. Videos of the violence show police looking on or participating in the violence on tribal people. Despite the apparent targeted nature of these attacks, Fr. Varghese advised the Church to act cautiously, maintain neutrality and promote peace and unity.

Northeast India has had long-standing ethnic tensions. In Manipur, the Meiteis and the tribal communities have long been at odds over issues such as land ownership and affirmative action policies.

After winning the 2017 state election, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, reclassified the majority of tribal settlements as reserved forests, effectively treating them as illegal immigrants. This move, along with the Meiteis’ ongoing quest for recognition as a tribal group, has significantly exacerbated tensions between the two groups.

Manipur’s highest court’s recent instruction to the government last month to consider the Meiteis’ demand for legal recognition as a tribal group has further stirred anxiety among the tribal communities. The recent outbreak of violence was triggered when a tribal student group protested against this demand.

The Hindu Meiteis and Christian tribals each constitute approximately 42% of the state’s population. Despite this balance, the Meiteis have historically held dominance in the state’s political and economic spheres.

Critics also point to Chief Minister Singh’s past orders to demolish churches in Imphal, under the allegation of illegal construction on government-owned land, as a significant strain on inter-community relations.

The widespread violence and targeted attacks against the Christian community have raised concerns about the potential escalation of religious conflict in the region.

As these communities grapple with the aftermath, Manipur remains under a dark cloud of uncertainty, its future dictated by both the government’s ability to quell tensions and the communities’ willingness to engage in peace-building efforts.

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Here’s Why the Media Don’t Want You to Know About the Massive Protests Going on Around the Globe


REPORTED BY: BETH WHITEHEAD | JULY 15, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/15/heres-why-the-media-dont-want-you-to-know-about-the-massive-protests-going-on-around-the-globe/

Mass protests in Buenos Aires amid Argentina inflation crisis

Discontent with left-wing policy failures is triggering massive protests all over the world. Just don’t expect to read all about it in the New York Times.

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If you skim the front pages of major corporate news outlets, you’ll find no mention of the economic protests raging in Spain, Morocco, Greece, and the United Kingdom.

On The Washington Post homepage these days, you’ll find headlines such as, “How To Deal With A Chatty Coworker Who Won’t Get Out Of Your Office,” but you won’t find mention of the more than 100,000 people protesting in Madrid. You’ll find the story of a gay union entitled, “What’s Two ‘Yentas’ Plus One Senator? A Lifetime Together” at The New York Times, but you won’t see a single heading on the more than 10,000 protesters in Athens. Corporate media has largely glossed over the tens of thousands of farmers in the Netherlands who clogged up roadways and distributions centers by holding Canadian-trucker-convoy-style demonstrations to protest radical climate policies.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which records protests worldwide, 11 countries are currently seeing protests of more than 1,000 people in response to the rising cost of living and other economic woes in 2022. As of July 5, Carnegie had recorded protests of more than 120,000 people in France, 100,000 in Spain, 10,000 in Greece, 10,000 in Kazakhstan, 10,000 in Sri Lanka, 10,000 in India, 5,000 in Iran, 5,000 in Peru, 1,000 people in Argentina, 1,000 in Morocco, and 1,000 in the U.K.

Many of the French protesters took to the streets on May Day for salary increases and against President Emmanuel Macron’s increase of the retirement age. Fifty-four people were reportedly arrested in Paris after some demonstrations turned violent. France’s economy, Europe’s third-largest, shrank in the first quarter of 2022, and in June, inflation shot up 5.8 percent compared to last year. Protesters also held demonstrations in March, with some complaining they had lost 15 to 20 percent of their purchasing power. Meanwhile, France’s answer to inflation? Keep spending; the country is throwing $20.4 billion at the problem.

In Spain, with gas subsidies, direct grants, and an increase in the minimum wage, the socialist-leaning government has seen only rising inflation rates (10.2 percent), and the accompanying price hikes are driving thousands of people onto the streets to protest. The country is finding out the hard way what a 40 percent reliance on renewable energy will do to the labor market. With its high unemployment rate at 13.65 percent as of the first quarter of 2022, labor shortages are raising prices on staple grocery items to an almost 30-year high. Thousands of demonstrators protested in March for relief in the form of tax cuts.

Meanwhile, it’s no surprise that any supply issues, aggravated or initiated by the Russia-Ukraine war, would burden Greece’s weakened economy that only just emerged from a decade-long crisis in 2018 to be sent right back by Covid shutdowns in 2020. In April, thousands gathered at a labor union-organized rally outside parliament in protest of inflation, which followed a February demonstration where about 10,000 people showed up to protest electricity prices that had leaped 56 percent, fuel prices that had jumped 21.6 percent, and natural gas prices that had skyrocketed 156 percent in January.

In India, a country locked in a vicious cycle of going into debt to pay off interest of former debts, the increasing cost of living is racking the country. In March, an estimated 50 million workers participated in a two-day strike to protest the loss of jobs and income, with communist groups organizing rallies in May decrying the high rate of inflation.

The socialist government in Argentina that led the country to default seven times and produced the largest decline in the relative standard of living in the world since 1900 is trying to do something new. On Monday, Argentina’s new economy minister Silvina Batakis announced her plan to cut the fiscal deficit — a proposal more than a thousand Argentines are protesting.

Decades of government spending and faulty economic policies have led to Argentina’s inflation rate growing to 58 percent. Prices are liquid and through the roof, with iPhones costing six months’ rent and a two-hour plane ticket equaling the cost of a month’s college tuition. Batakis plans to hold Argentina to the terms of a $44 billion debt deal it made earlier this year with the International Monetary Fund. Thousands of Argentines meanwhile flocked to protest against the economic hardships felt by the country upon cutting spending and took up banners crying for Argentina’s separation from the IMF.

The United Kingdom is suffering from a high 9.1 percent inflation rate as of May, and many are tired of the government’s response. Brits flocked out in February to protest rising costs of living, with demonstrations held in at least 25 towns and cities and signs reading, “tax the rich” and “freeze prices not the poor.” The U.K.’s inflation rate was already at 5.4 percent in January of this year due in part to the 2020 Covid shutdowns, but it has since almost doubled, largely due to the EU’s sanctions on Russian oil. In June, thousands marched down central London in protest, wanting the government to boost its welfare response.

Still reeling from the worst drought it has had in 40 years, Morocco is seeing price spikes on even the most basic goods. Thousands of Moroccans joined protests in February to decry the increasing cost of living, with unions staging more demonstrations in April. The country has high unemployment rates and large public debt, along with a heavy reliance on imports.

Aside from a scant headline here and there, America’s most popular news providers, The Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, and NBC, did not cover these protests, despite the French and Spanish protests being 10 to 100 times larger than the protests these corporate media giants did report.

None of these four major outlets wrote a single line on the protests of more than 100,000 demonstrators in Spain, more than 10,000 in Greece, more than 1,000 in Morocco, and more than 1,000 in the U.K. The New York Times published one lone article on the strike in India, where an estimated 50 million people walked off the job. The Washington Post has two small articles on the Argentinian protests of more than 1,000 as inflation appears set to hit 70 percent, and it has reported once on the May Day protests in France where more than 120,000 people protested government pension reforms. NBC mentioned the May Day protests once in a world report. This is the entire 2022 coverage by these media giants of these countries’ protests over economic turmoil.

Of these 11 countries, only four made any major headlines. The corporate press oftentimes only highlights these economic protests when they get so loud they can no longer be ignored, as we saw with Kazakhstan’s kill order to quell protests and the Sri Lankans’ attack on their president’s home. Over the weekend, the biased media finally began covering the Sri Lanka protests that are over 10,000 people strong — but only because footage of demonstrators swarming the president’s residence by the thousands on Saturday went viral.

Corporate media won’t talk about the rest of these protests because the countries are struggling from economically disastrous policies akin to President Joe Biden’s. Any show of economic turmoil in EU member states could be traced back to EU sanctions on Russia or green energy failures, which would fly in the face of the corporate media’s agenda. Many of these countries have inflationary monetary policies.

The leftist media will tell you about Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Peru, however, but only to bolster its pro-Ukraine/anti-Russia narrative that denies the realities of war to promote Biden’s efforts to empty our pockets and replenish Ukraine’s.

In its treatment of the Kazakhstan protests, The Washington Post made sure to mention the country’s relationship with Russia. The Times’ articles on the Sri Lanka protests framed the economic downturns in terms of problems stemming from Russia’s invasion and ignored Sri Lanka’s Green Deal ban on chemical fertilizer that ultimately crashed its economy. Both CNN’s coverage of protests in Iran and NBC’s reports of those in Peru likewise stressed the Russia-Ukraine war as the cause for economic turmoil.

The media only highlight these world protests when they grow too big to ignore or when the facts can be skewed toward their preferring narratives. Cherry-picking which protests to highlight gives media cover to paint them as isolated incidents in non-Western countries instead of a worldwide trend showing the consequences of embracing left-wing policies. After all, Biden is making the same blunders in the United States, and corporate media can’t have Americans connecting those dots.

The U.S. labor market is in shambles. Inflation has skyrocketed to a 40-year high at 9.1 percent. The Biden administration is drawing down our emergency oil reserves, shipping it overseas to nations that can’t function on their “Green Energy” policies any more than we can. Irony alert: The oil will go through a European pipeline despite Biden citing climate conservation to shut down our own Keystone pipeline.

Discontent with these policy failures is triggering massive protests all over the world. Just don’t expect to read all about it in the New York Times.

Beth Whitehead is an intern at The Federalist and a journalism major at Patrick Henry College where she fondly excuses the excess amount of coffee she drinks as an occupational hazard.

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C. Douglas Golden Op-ed: Watch: Psaki Manages to Embarrass Herself and Biden with Stunning Answer


Commentary By C. Douglas Golden  September 28, 2021 at 8:54am

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki fields questions at a White House news briefing on Monday, where she had to answer for a comment from President Biden on Friday that discouraged the prime minister of India from taking questions from the media. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

On Jan. 24, just days after President Joe Biden took office, official CNN Democrat brown-noser Brian Stelter shared a chyron from his television show on Twitter.

“Psaki Promises to Share ‘Accurate Info’ (How Refreshing),” it read. The insinuation, of course, is that there wasn’t any accurate info from the Trump administration — but don’t worry, help was on the way!

Now, as it turns out, there’s a caveat to that refreshing promise: Psaki will be sharing “accurate info” (if often incomplete or misleading), but if President Joe Biden is going to be sharing information, your questions had better be “on point.” If they’re on a topic he doesn’t like, he’s not going to answer. (Psaki herself will probably promise to “circle back” to whatever the question was at a later date.)

On Friday, Biden met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Before their meeting, however, the president badmouthed the U.S. media and counseled Modi not to take any questions.

“The Indian press is much better behaved than the American press,” Biden told Modi. “I think, with your permission, you could not answer questions because they won’t ask any questions on point.”

That didn’t seem quite so refreshing, particularly after an incident with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier in the week when Biden’s staff shooed away reporters in the Oval Office.

Psaki was called on the carpet by the Washington press corps on Monday, given that reporters weren’t happy at the president telling the Indian prime minister to avoid taking questions. The White House press secretary tried to recontextualize — and made the problem worse in the process.

“I think what he said is that they’re not always on point,” Psaki said.

“Now I know that isn’t something that anyone wants to hear in here, but what I think he was conveying is, today he might want to talk about COVID vaccines, some of the questions were about that,” she continued.

“Some of the questions are not always about the topic he’s talking about in that day. I don’t think it was meant to be a hard cut at the members of the media, people he’s taken questions from today and on Friday as well,” she added.

Another reporter — CBS News Radio’s Steven Portnoy — followed up, saying, “It happened that he was sitting next to prime minister of India, the world’s largest democracy, when he said that. It also followed the incident on Wednesday when he was sitting next to the prime minister of Great Britain. Is the president reticent to take questions when he’s sitting next to a foreign leader in the Oval Office? Can we expect him to do that in the future?”

“Steve, he took questions earlier that day on Friday. He’d already taken questions that day. I think that was the context of his comments,” Psaki said. “And he’s taken questions standing next to a foreign leader many, many times in the past, and will continue to.”

There was also one other problem with Biden’s remark, as Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich noted.

“The president said that the Indian press was better behaved than the U.S. press, but the Indian press is ranked 142nd in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders, for press freedoms,” she asked.

“How does he say that about the U.S. press compared to the Indian press?” she asked.

“Well, I would just say to you that, having now worked for the president, serving in this role for nine months, having seen that he’s taken questions from the press more than 140 times, including today and Friday, that he certainly respects the role of the press, the role of the freedom of free press,” Psaki said.

“We ensure that we have press with us, of course, when we travel, that we have press with us for sprays in foreign capitals, and we will continue to. I think that should speak to his commitment to freedom of press around the world.”

It’s worth noting that Psaki had all weekend to work on her answer to this. She knew full well this was going to be one of the things she had to answer when she walked into the Brady Press Briefing Room in the West Wing of the White House. The best the press secretary and her team could come up with: You guys need to start asking the kinds of questions the president wants to hear. Talk about what he’s talking about. See, this is why he never takes questions from the press. Focus, people!

It was an embarrassment — to Psaki and the president. And even the shamelessly pro-Biden press corps had to know it.

For whatever reason, Brian Stelter hasn’t weighed in on how refreshing that answer was. Perhaps he missed it.

C. Douglas Golden, Contributor

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

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Daniel Horowitz Op-ed: Data from India continues to blow up the ‘Delta’ fear narrative


Commentary by DANIEL HOROWITZ | July 22, 2021

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-data-from-india-continues-to-blow-up-the-delta-fear-narrative/

Rather than proving the need to sow more panic, fear, and control over people, the story from India — the source of the “Delta” variant — continues to refute every current premise of COVID fascism.

Whitlock dishes on his ESPN exit, Bill Simmons, John Skipper, Deadspin and the Undefeated

The prevailing narrative from Fauci, Walensky, and company is that Delta is more serious than anything before, and even though vaccines are even less effective against it, its spread proves the need to vaccinate even more people. Unless we do that, we must return to the very effective lockdowns and masks. In reality, India’s experience proves the opposite true; namely:

  1. Delta is largely an attenuated version, with a much lower fatality rate, that for most people is akin to a cold.
  2. Masks failed to stop the spread there.
  3. The country has come close to the herd immunity threshold with just 3% vaccinated.
  4. Most people are now getting cold-like symptoms from Delta, but to the extent countries hit by Delta suffered some deaths and serious illness, they could have been avoided not with vaccines and masks, but with early and preventive treatment like ivermectin.

In other words, our government is learning all the wrong lessons from India, and now Israel and the U.K. Let’s unpack what we know occurred in India and now in some of the other countries experiencing a surge in cases of the Indian “Delta” variant.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently conducted a fourth nationwide serological test and found that 67.6% of those over 6 years old in June and July had antibodies, including 85% of health care workers. This is a sharp increase from the 24.1% level detected during the December-January study. What we can conclude definitively is that strict mask-wearing (especially among health care workers) failed to stop the spread one bit. Yet now they have achieved herd immunity and burned out the virus with just 3% vaccination (now up to 6%) with roughly one-sixth the death rate of the U.S. and the U.K. and less than one-half that of Israel.

Immediately, naysayers will suggest that somehow India is vastly undercounting the deaths because it is a shabby third-world country. However, if we are to suggest that, it would mean that so much of the data from so many other countries we use for studies must be ignored. Also, it’s true that India is poor in some areas, but it is highly developed and has a very strong bureaucracy and administrative state throughout. There might be undercounting, but the notion that it can account for that wide a gap between India and the U.S./U.K. was always unlikely.

However, now that the Delta has spread to other countries like Israel and the U.K., we need not speculate who is right about India’s death rate. The fact that Israel and the U.K. have so many Delta cases yet so few deaths relative to the winter spread of the original strain demonstrates that Delta is likely much weaker and India’s numbers are probably close to accurate. Remember, most of India’s spread, unlike in the West, occurred with Delta, long after the ancestral strain that hit the West was gone. If it really was the bloodbath some are suggesting (a tenfold undercount of deaths, in their estimation), why is the data from the U.K. showing just the opposite?

The latest data from the U.K. show that the case fatality rate for the Delta is just 0.2%, much less than the others. And we need not speculate with generalized studies. The raw data shows that since May 1, there have been approximately 1,300 deaths in the U.K. out of roughly 1.1 million confirmed cases. But those are confirmed cases. The likely infection fatality rate is much lower because now more than ever, people are avoiding testing, and the U.K. media has been reporting for weeks that the symptoms of the Delta for most people appear more like a cold.

The Guardian reports that based on data from the app-based Zoe COVID symptom study, the symptoms being reported are mainly headaches and runny nose. “People might think they’ve just got some sort of seasonal cold, and they still go out to parties … we think this is fueling a lot of the problem,” said Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, who is leading the work on the reporting app.

The U.K. media are trying to panic people about spreading a cold, but in fact, they are reporting good news! This virus has attenuated for most people to the point that they can’t even distinguish it from a cold, much less a flu. Thus, the fact that India achieved most of its immunity throughout the spread of the Delta variant actually lends a lot of credence to the fatality rate of one-sixth of that of the U.S. and the U.K., which experienced most of its deaths from the ancestral strain.

If you look at any chart from Scotland, which is now mainly over the curve, there is a complete decoupling of deaths from cases.

The same thing is being observed in Israel, which is slightly behind the curve. The country has had just 20 deaths so far in July, but again, 15 of them were of vaccinated individuals.

However, to the extent that there are cases, and the relatively rare serious cases, the vaccines have proven to be a bust in preventing them. The Western countries are relying on an exponentially higher vaccination rate than India with a much lower seroprevalence rate from infection. It’s simply not working. According to Israel’s Ministry of Health, the Pfizer vaccine efficacy against infection dropped 42% since the start of the inoculation drive in Israel, and efficacy against severe illness has dropped 60% among those vaccinated early on. Ditto for the United Kingdom.

In fact, in Israel, the case rates track almost perfectly with the percentage of those vaccinated stratified by age range.

Thus, the experience from India and the Delta variant teaches us the exact opposite of what the panic-mongers are pushing. Natural immunity, not vaccination, is king. Which explains the dichotomy between India and countries like Gibraltar. In Gibraltar, nearly every adult in the tiny country has been vaccinated, yet it has the third-highest per capita rate of infection in the world.

The same trend appears to be playing out in Cyprus:

In general, there is zero correlation between vaccination rates and better outcomes, and in fact, many Latin American countries with the highest vaccination rates have recently had high infection rates, and many eastern European countries with lower vaccination rates had many fewer cases than their vaccine-obsessed western European counterparts. Here in the U.S., San Francisco, which had a low infection rate until recently, has seen an explosion in cases, despite a 70% vaccination rate.

At the same time, as I chronicled last month in great detail, even within India, the states that used ivermectin to treat COVID experienced a much sharper and quicker drop in cases in May. Imagine if the Western world used ivermectin and many other treatment options pre-emptively and prescribed them at every testing station. That is how you flatten a curve.

The lesson is clear: The only way out of this is for most people to get it, and the best way to do that safely is to make sure early treatments with drugs like ivermectin are made available and to be used even preventively for vulnerable populations. If this is really about saving lives, rather than doubling down on all of the things that have failed and distorting data and history to comport with pseudo-science, they would try the one thing they have shunned until now – actually treating the virus before people have trouble breathing.CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is correct when she says, “Nearly every death, especially among adults, due to Covid-19 is at this point entirely preventable.” But the data and learned experience show that it’s not because of a lack of vaccines, but a lack of treatment.

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Religious persecution in India, China will increase in 2021: report


A woman wears a protective mask as she passes a church on February 8, 2020, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. The number of those who have died from the Wuhan coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, in China climbed to 724. | Getty Images

Though religious persecution in China and India is expected to increase in 2021, exposure to the Bible is increasing in North Korea, the world’s most repressive country, according to the annual Persecution Trends survey from Release International.

In its latest report, RI, an international Christian watchdog organization for persecuted Christians worldwide, said that persecution is “thriving” in China and will likely increase in the new year. RI cited the recent passage of tough new laws controlling religion, the shuttering of numerous churches, and the increasing number of registered churches forced to install CCTV cameras and put up posters proclaiming communist ideals and beliefs.

However, the Chinese Communist Party has “bought the silence of the international community” through increased dependence on trade, it said.

“The government of President Xi Jinping is increasing its ‘clean up’ of anything that does not advance the communist agenda. They appear to believe that they can achieve this by systematic opposition,” the group warned.

Corroborating other reports, RI said that China has been exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to tighten restrictions on underground believers. Earlier this year, it was reported that amid the outbreak, impoverished Christian villagers in China were ordered to renounce their faith and replace displays of Jesus with portraits of Chairman Mao and President Xi or risk losing their welfare benefits.

“The Chinese government is trying every way to take advantage of the virus by increasing the crackdown against Christian churches,” said RI partner Bob Fu, of ChinaAid. “It has accelerated particular campaigns, such as the forced removal of crosses.”

The group also predicted that in India, intolerance toward Christians and other religious minorities will continue to grow during 2021, largely due to growing Hindu nationalism. RI noted that incidents targeting Indian Christians have risen steeply since 2014, when Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.  It cited statistics revealing Christians suffered 225 incidents of religiously motivated violence during the first 10 months of 2020, compared to 218 incidents in the same period in 2019. Many of these attacks were by vigilante mobs.

In September 2020, Hindu extremists incited mobs of up to 3,000 people to attack Christians in three villages in Chhattisgarh state.

Thomas Schirrmacher, the newly-appointed head of The World Evangelical Alliance, which represents over 600 million evangelical Christians worldwide, previously told The Christian Post that Hindu supremacism is the driver of much of the persecution in that country.

“Elections are won by the prime minister with this topic: ‘India is for the Hindus,’ and suddenly Muslims and Christians find themselves in a country that clearly wants to get rid of them,” he said. “They promote the idea that an Indian by nature is a Hindu. So if he is not a Hindu, he has been stolen, and must be re-converted.”

“This idea was not on the market 10 years ago, and has led to an increase in discrimination and killings of Indian Christians and other minorities,” he said, adding that Christians in Western countries must “speak up” for those persecuted for their faith.

The report was part of RI’s annual Persecution Trends Survey, which was published in the recent edition of Release International’s Voice magazine. In addition to China and India, RI predicted Malaysia, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and Nigeria will also face increased persecution in the coming year. Interestingly, the group said that RI partners have been able to double their distribution of Bibles to Christians in North Korea throughout 2020, despite COVID restrictions. According to Open Doors USA, North Korea is ranked No. 1 on its list of countries where it’s most difficult for Christians to live.

“This has been the most creative year we have witnessed in the underground church to date,” the group said. A previous report found that the percentage of North Korean citizens who are exposed to the Bible is steadily increasing every year despite extreme persecution.

Before 2000, only 16 people claimed to have seen a Bible. After 2000, up to 559 North Korean defectors said they had “seen a Bible,” even though religious literature is banned in the isolated country.

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China Announces It Will Implement Tough Sanctions Against North Korea


Reported By Jack Davis | August 14, 2017 at 7:09am

URL of the original posting site: http://www.westernjournalism.com/china-announces-will-implement-tough-sanctions-north-korea/

For the second time in recent days, China took a major step to put pressure on North Korea to resolve its standoff with the United States over North Korea’s missile development efforts. The Chinese government announced Monday it will implement the sanctions that were imposed against North Korea by the United Nations on Aug. 5.

The Security Council sanctions block nations from accepting North Korea’s primary exports, including coal, iron, iron ore, lead and seafood. The sanctions also target other revenue streams, such as banks and joint ventures with foreign companies. The sanctions could cost North Korea a third of its $3 billion annual export revenue.

Although China did not block the sanctions at the U.N., it was unclear until the announcement whether China, which is North Korea’s largest trading partner, would implement them. China also faces possible action from President Donald Trump, who has said he may order an investigation into allegations of unfair Chinese trade practices.

“It is obviously improper to use one thing as a tool to imposing pressure on another thing,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday. “There will be no winner from a trade war, it will be lose-lose.”

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China’s action to implement the sanctions came days after a state-run newspaper said that if North Korea attacks the United States, it will fight any war that results on its own.

“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral,” the Global Times editorial said.

Throughout the escalation of tensions between the United States and North Korea, China has called for restraint.

“The current situation on the Korean Peninsula is complicated and sensitive,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a statement Friday.

“China hopes that all relevant parties will be cautious in their words and actions, and do things that help to alleviate tensions and enhance mutual trust, rather than walk on the old pathway of taking turns in shows of strength, and upgrading the tensions,” he said.

Writing in The Washington Post, David Von Drehle said China needs to emerge from the North Korean-American showdown with a win.

” … the audience of greatest concern to China — namely, the other leading countries in the region, including Japan, India, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam — faces the urgent question of whether they can trust a rising China to share in safeguarding their sphere. If the problem of Kim isn’t defused, those nations are sure to seek even deeper alliances with the United States while building their own military capacity. China’s regional influence will shrink rather than grow,” he wrote.

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Oppression of women in America?


waving flagPosted by    Monday, January 23, 2017 at 7:00pm | 1/23/2017 – 7:00pm

URL of the original posting site: http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/01/oppression-of-women-in-america/

THIS is actual female oppression.

 

I worked in National Security at Breitbart, which made me very grateful to live in America. Every day I covered stories describing actual oppression of females. I bet you anything those females would love to have the cost of their birth control as their only worry.

Those marches made me ashamed of my sex since governments in other countries actually treat its female citizens like second class citizens. I will concentrate on three countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and India.

Saudi Arabia

A major American ally. While the country has slowly started making ways out of the stone age, they still live in one. Saudi law prohibits females from leaving the house without a male guardian. The females cannot travel or even conduct any official business without this guardian’s permission. This guardian must also make medical decisions for the female.

Yes, Leftists. In Saudi Arabia, a male MAKES YOUR MEDICAL DECISION. Last time I checked you guys did not need a male guardian to give you permission to even go to a doctor.

Oh, those disgusting vagina hats you wore? Good luck doing that in Saudi Arabia! Over there, females must keep their bodies covered except for hands and eyes. Now, in some areas a female can have her face uncovered. SO RADICAL, RIGHT?!

Did you enjoy socializing with the males who marched alongside you? In Saudi Arabia, sex segregation is a top priority. In fact, if someone catches you talking to a non-relative male, you can receive charges for adultery or prostitution! In June 2010, the courts sentenced four men and eleven men because they had the nerve for socializing at a party. Yeah, they got lashes and time in jail.

Did you drive to the marches? Because females in Saudi Arabia basically cannot drive. There are no laws, but restrictions basically make it impossible for females to enjoy driving a car. The governments force these citizens to receive a local license to drive and the places do not issue them to females. Rural areas allow a little flexibility.

I saw that the march in DC gave the metro a historic day. Yeah, Saudi Arabia does not like for its females to enjoy public transportation because God forbid they mingle with non-related males. THE HORROR.

I could go on, but let’s move to another country.

Iran

Ironically, females worked hard to overthrow the government in 1979. The result gave females an oppressive government with little rights.

Work in the government? You must abide by the Islamic dress code. The previous government banned the hijab, but this new government forced ALL females to wear it. No choice. So you go from one extreme to the other. How lovely. The government banned females from becoming judges. Females must wear the hijab out in public. Want an education? You have to wear the hijab to school.

Females cannot play sports! To make it worse, females cannot even watch the males play these sports.

Guess what happened in 2015? Iran proposed bills to OUTLAW VOLUNTARY STERILIZATION. Yup! LITERALLY NO BIRTH CONTROL. Females cannot even receive information about ways to prevent pregnancy.

Another proposed law propped up gender discrimination:

The Comprehensive Population and Exaltation of Family Bill (Bill 315), which is due to be discussed in parliament next month, would further entrench gender-based discrimination, particularly against women who choose not to or are unable to marry or have children.

The bill instructs all private and public entities to prioritize, in sequence, men with children, married men without children and married women with children when hiring for certain jobs. It also makes divorce more difficult and discourages police and judicial intervention in family disputes opening women up to increased risks of domestic violence.Islam is NOT

India

India remains one of the most dangerous places on this planet for females. In 2011, a poll placed it at number four. Acid attacks help keep India high in the poll because any female from any class can have this attack, mainly used as revenge. Thing is, many of the attacks go unpunished.

The government outlawed child marriage, but no one enforces it! A family can marry off their young daughter to a disgusting old man. The girl better not fight back or else the family will punish her. Then there are those pesky dowry gifts. If a female violates the marriage contract, husbands have been known to kill or punish the female. Her family rarely comes to her aide because she has shamed them.

In rural areas, females often face punishment if males in their house commit a crime:

In August, village leaders in Uttar Pradesh state allegedly ordered the rape of two Dalit sisters to pay for the “sins” of their brother who had eloped with a higher-caste woman. These unofficial village councils, called Khaps, made up of men from dominant castes who often enjoy political patronage, are known to issue edicts restricting women’s mobility and rights, and condemning couples for marrying outside their caste or religion.

India witnessed a massive spike in honor killings:

India has registered an almost 800 percent rise in the number of killings in the name of “honour” reported last year, according to figures presented in parliament.

Indian police registered 251 cases of honour killings in 2015, compared with 28 cases reported in 2014 when the government began counting them separately from murder, according to a statement this week by Junior Home Minister Hansraj G Ahir to India’s parliament.

These silly females actually thought they could marry outside of their class or clan! HOW DARE THEY TRY TO HAVE FREEDOM AND CHOOSE THEIR OWN HUSBAND!!! Yes, their families will kill or harm them if they do something like this.

So there you have it, females in America. Keep whining about your birth control and no abortions on demand. You have NO idea what oppression feels like. You have NO idea what it feels like to be treated like a second class citizen. I suggest you study up on the rest of the world and get some perspective before you lecture about the alleged horrible way females are treated in America.

culture of deceit and lies RAPE

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Hillary Tries to SHUT DOWN Trump’s Latest AD… So Share it With EVERYONE [WATCH]


waving flagPosted on August 10, 2016

URL of the original posting site: http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/hillary-tries-to-shut-down-trumps-latest-ad-so-share-it-with-everyone-watch/

outsourcing

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is pressuring TV stations across the country to stop airing an anti-Clinton political ad sponsored by the pro-Trump super-PAC Rebuilding America Now.

The campaign claims the ad, titled “Outsourcing,” is “directly contracted by evidence in the public record.”

The ad claims Clinton went to India and talked up outsourcing — and then received a donation from Indian politician Amar Singh of up to $5 million in 2008.

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Three Americans HACKED TO DEATH By Terrorists Shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’


waving flagPosted on July 2, 2016

URL Of the original posting site: http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/three-americans-hacked-to-death-by-terrorists-shouting-allahu-akbar/

Screen Shot 2016-07-02 at 10.37.11 AMThe only people that were spared in this attack were those who could cite the Koran. 20 victims have been killed.

At least three American students have been identified among 20 people killed during an ISIS attack on a cafe in Bangladesh yesterday. Abinta Kabir, a student at Emory University who was from Miami, Florida, died when terrorists attacked the largely foreign crowd inside the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka. Fellow Emory student Faraaz Hossain, who attended the college’s business school, was also identified as being among the dead by a spokesman today. Tarushi Jain, 19, who studied at University of California Berkeley campus was also killed. Kabir, a sophomore at Emory’s Oxford campus, was an American citizen, while Hossain was born in Bangladesh and Jain was of Indian origin.

A spokesman said: ‘Emory University has learned that two Emory students, Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, were among those taken hostage and murdered by terrorists yesterday in the attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

‘Abinta, who was from Miami, was a rising sophomore at Emory’s Oxford College.

‘Faraaz, who was from Dhaka, was a graduate of Oxford College and a student at the university’s Goizueta Business School.

‘The Emory community mourns this tragic and senseless loss of two members of our university family.

‘Our thoughts and prayers go out on behalf of Faraaz and Abinta and their families and friends for strength and peace at this unspeakably sad time.’

According to witnesses a group of six Islamist radicals stormed the cafe yesterday evening armed with assault weapons, pistols and ‘sharp objects’ before taking more than 30 people hostage.

The terrorists then hacked 20 people to death, sparing only those who could recite the Koran, before engaging police in a 12-hour standoff.Do you want

The cafe was eventually stormed by elite Bangladeshi commandos who killed the attackers and freed the remaining hostages.

Among those killed are nine Italians, as well as tourists from Japan, South Korea, and India. The Italian foreign ministry confirmed the dead as: Adele Puglisi, Marco Tondat, Claudia Maria D’Antona, Nadia Benedetti, Vincenzo D’Allestro, Maria Rivoli, Cristian Rossi, Claudio Cappelli, and Simona Monti.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed declared two days of mourning for the victims to take place on Sunday and Monday. She also thanked all those who had expressed their solidarity with Bangladesh, and vowed that terrorism would be exterminated at all costs.

Army Brigadier General Naim Asraf Chowdhury said: ‘Most of (the hostages) were killed mercilessly by sharp weapons last night.’

On Friday night, Hasnat Karim had brought his family to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. Hasnat was too traumatised to say more than a few words about his ordeal, saying only that the hostage-takers ‘did not misbehave with us’. But he detailed to his father Rezaul how the gunmen – who were armed with automatic weapons, bombs and makeshift machetes – had split the diners into two groups.

Rezaul said: ‘(The foreigners) were taken to the upper floor and the Bangladeshis were kept around a table.’

He said his son told him the terrorists ‘did not hit people who could recite verses from the Koran. The others were tortured’.

He added: ‘The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Koran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night.’Do you want

Elite Bangladeshi commandos stormed the building after siege of more than 12 hours, freeing some 13 hostages. Six of the terrorists were shot dead and one was arrested at the scene.

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Disney World Fired 250 of Its Workers – But What It Told Them to Do Next Made Things Worse


 05Jun, 2015; by Cassy Fiano

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://rightwingnews.com/economy/disney-world-fired-250-of-its-workers-but-what-it-told-them-to-do-next-made-things-worse

Disney World Fired 250 of Its Workers – But What It Told Them to Do Next Made Things Worse

 

It’s not too uncommon a situation anymore, but now the Happiest Place on Earth has succumbed as well. Disney World just laid off 250 of its workers, to hire foreign replacements who would be willing to work for less.

disney world

Once upon a time, there were about 250 tech workers who were running the computers in the central nervous system of Disney World operations. Then, one day, Disney laid them all off, hired immigrants brought in on visas to take their place, and required many of the former employees to train their replacements. This isn’t your typical Disney-fairytale, but this is what The New York Times reported Thursday.

In October 2014, about 250 employees were laid off and Disney used an outsourcing firm in India to hire immigrants that would work under a temporary visa, known as H-1B, for highly skilled technical workers. Some employees’ severance checks required they continued doing their job for the next three months as they trained their replacements. Disney executives claim that the layoffs were part of a reorganization of the company and they opened more positions than it eliminated, the Times reported.

One former worker told the Times that young immigrants from India took their place:

“The first 30 days was all capturing what I did. The next 30 days, they worked side by side with me, and the last 30 days, they took over my job completely. I had to make sure they were doing my job correctly.”

The use of these visas, and whether they complement American workers or displaces them, is currently under debate in Congress. Critics of the visas say that they are being used to bring in immigrants to do work that Americans can do, for less money.

… Disney executives told the Times that the employees who lost their jobs were given a three-month transition period, with résumé help to get another job within the company or elsewhere. About 120 of those laid off took new positions at Disney, about 40 retired or left the company before the end of the transition period, and about 90 did not find new jobs.

Another worker who spoke to the Times said that his former supervisor was unaware of his layoff and, in his annual performance review, wrote that because of his hard work, he saved the company thousands of dollars. The employee got a raise and his severance pay had to be recalculated to include it.

Imperial President ObamaIt’s easy to blame Disney World for this, but should we not be looking at the Obama administration and how this country severely punishes successful corporations? We can’t give corporations the most unfriendly business atmosphere in the world, and then also complain when they outsource jobs overseas or hire foreign workers for cheap. Maybe if we were more welcoming to big business, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen.

 

 

 

 

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India Gives Obama’s Climate Deal Cold Shoulder


 

Posted by , Thursday, January 29, 2015

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/01/india-gives-obamas-climate-deal-cold-shoulder/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LegalInsurrection+%28Le%C2%B7gal+In%C2%B7sur%C2%B7rec%C2%B7tion%29

“Rejection comes after $1 billion dollar temptation and apologies.”

LI #17 India Pollut

In an ill-omened trip, Secretary of State John Kerry headed to India to pave the way for a climate change deal, missing the important Paris march against terror. I was skeptical that the Indians would warm to any carbon emissions agreement, given the level of poverty in that country and need to rapidly modernize its industry. He should have listened to me, because he just emitted a whole lot of greenhouse gas for no reason. The Indians rejected the deal.

President Barack Obama has left India for Saudi Arabia without inking a climate deal that formed much of the basis for his second trip to the subcontinent. The Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday that India has refused to embrace the idea of a ‘peaking year’ for greenhouse gas emissions – a designated year after which emissions levels would have to start decreasing.

China agreed to that sort of framework last year, but Indian officials now see being lumped in with Beijing as a negative thing. India is the world’s fourth-biggest carbon emitter. China is number one.

‘Having a peaking year was not acceptable to us,’ an Indian environment ministry official told the Times.

Obama visited India on Air Force One, a plane that burns five gallons of jet fuel for every mile it flies. His round-trip, including a stop in Saudi Arabia, will emit 809 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.Worship manditory

The President did offer the Indians $1 billion to develop green technology to sweeten the deal…which is fascinating, because American green technology ventures sponsored by this administration have been man-made disasters.

The President tried to tempt the Indians with an apology, too:

President Obama apologized for the role the United States has played in global warming during a speech in India, but that didn’t convince the Asian nation to sign a deal to put a limit to future greenhouse gas emissions.

“… the United States recognizes its part in creating this problem, so we’re leading the global effort to combat it…” Obama said during a speech from Sirifort, New Delhi, on Tuesday.Imperial President Obama

In light of his failure, Obama tried to pack a guilt trip for the Indians before he jetted off to Saudi Arabia:

“I know the argument made by some – that it’s unfair for countries like the United States to ask developing nations and emerging economies like India to reduce your dependence on the same fossil fuels that helped power our growth for more than a century,” Mr. Obama told an audience of 1,500 mostly young Indians at Siri Fort Auditorium on the final day of his trip here.

“But here’s the truth,” he added. “Even if countries like the United States curb our emissions, if countries that are growing rapidly like India with soaring energy needs don’t also embrace cleaner fuels, then we don’t stand a chance against climate change.”kingobamafingerconstitution-300x204

Between the gaffe-tastic gum chewing and the cold reception to the climate change deal, it confirms that the bad signs during Kerry’s trip were real portents of more #SmartPower failures.

[Featured Image: CBS News Video]Freedom with Prayer

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