In his press conference in Turkey on Monday, President Obama called “shameful” the proposals to give special treatment to Christian refugees from the Middle East. Here’s some of what he said:
The Yom Kippur liturgy, just followed in synagogues around the world, repeats several times references to God as one who rescues captives. The central daily Jewish prayer as well refers to God who “supports the fallen, heals the sick, sets captives free.” And throughout Jewish history, the…
As an addendum to Jonathan Last's piece about the bizarre willingness of liberals rushing to the defense of illiberal Muslims so long as it makes the GOP look bad, BuzzFeed has a nice story up today about a Muslim-American woman embracing her heritage and celebrating Eid. But BuzzFeed's story…
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz had a simple question to a reporter who asked whether he had a "personal animus against gay Americans."
Earlier this week, Harvard professor Robert Putnam did a Q&A with Washington Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein, headlined "Have faith groups been too absent in the fight on poverty?" Here is Putnam's answer to that question:
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal talked about religious liberty on NBC's Meet the Press this morning:
Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest in Yafia, near Nazareth, made news in 2012 when he publicly urged Israeli Christians of Arab descent to join the Israel Defense Forces. Since then, he’s become a lightning rod for encouraging Christians to integrate themselves into Israeli society…
Senator Ted Cruz’s vigorous defense of Israel at a recent conference for persecuted Middle Eastern Christians in Washington, D.C., provoked jeers from a loud minority in the audience, made up largely of Catholics and Orthodox, many of them from the region or of Middle Eastern background. In June,…
Gertrude Himmelfarb, writing for Mosaic Magazine:
Marietta, Ga.
Breitbart.com reports:
The executive director of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), David Brog, responds in a statement to Chuck Hagel's nomination as secretary of defense:
While in Egypt over the last several, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Muslim Brotherhood. But not everyone would meet with Clinton: Coptic Christians and Evangelicals refused, because, they claim, "the US administration has demonstrated their support for Islamism over other…
As the U.S. and its allies prepare to return to the negotiating table with Iranian representatives, hoping to reach a deal on their nuclear ambitions, the Islamic Republic has significantly ratcheted up its efforts to repress religious minorities in the country.
Christians United for Israel now has a million members, the group run by Pastor John Hagee announced. "Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the nation’s largest pro-Israel organization, announced Sunday that it had crossed the million member mark," the group noted in a press release. "The…
The New York Times reports that national conservative Christian leaders are waiting until after the South Carolina primary on January 21 to coalesce around a "not-Romney" Republican candidate. Those leaders are meeting in Texas this weekend to discuss the race. Here's more from the Times:
There was another attack on Coptic Christians today as they marched through the Cairo neighborhood of Shoubra. Until the late 1960s, it was predominantly a Coptic district (today, some estimate, it is 40 percent Copt), which is why the rally’s organizers felt reasonably safe to march. Instead,…
New York Times: "Pro-American Militia Members Die in Blast in Iraq"
This past Sunday night, the Egyptian revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak took another wrong turn when the same army once believed to be “hand in hand” with the people killed 27 Coptic Christians in Cairo and wounded hundreds of others. The Copts were marching toward Egyptian state television in…
Peter Beinart has a doozy of a column up over at the Daily Beast, rather breathlessly titled, "Why Norway Could Happen Here." Since I suspect that Beinart managed to repeat every left-wing myth about the violent tendencies of Christians and conservatives, let's take a look at the key paragraph:
With the eyes of the world transfixed at the sight of more than a million protestors rising up against Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the brutal New Year's Day massacre of Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, where 23 Christians were killed and 79 injured, seems like ancient history. But the…
Contributing editor Joseph Bottum has a piece in USA Today on the fate of Christianity in the Middle East: