by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Investigative Project on Terrorism<\/em><\/p>\n The Obama administration’s support for its Islamist allies means lack of US support for their enemies, or, more properly identified,\u00a0victims\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 the Christian and other non-Muslim minorities of the Muslim world. Consider the many recent proofs:<\/p>\n According to Pete Winn of\u00a0CNS<\/a>:<\/p>\n The US State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that itreleased<\/a>\u00a0on May 24,\u00a0three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports<\/em>. The new human rights reports \u2014\u00a0purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 are also the human rights reports that include the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath. Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role. For the first time ever, the State Department simply eliminated the section of religious freedom in its reports covering 2011\u2026 (emphasis added).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The CNS report goes on to quote several U.S. officials questioning the motives of the Obama administration. Former US diplomat Thomas Farr said that he has “observed during the three-and-a-half years of the Obama administration that the issue of religious freedom has been distinctly downplayed.” Leonard Leo, former chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said “to have pulled religious freedom out of it [the report] means that fewer people will obtain information,” so that “you don’t have the whole picture.”<\/p>\n Of course, censoring information is a regular theme under Obama: if the administration is suppressing knowledge concerning the sufferings of religious minorities under Islam, earlier it\u00a0suppressed knowledge concerning Islam itself<\/a>(see here for a\u00a0surreal example<\/a>\u00a0of the effects of such censorship).<\/p>\n In “Obama Overlooks Christian Persecution<\/a>,” James Walsh gives more examples of State Department indifference “regarding the New Years’ murders of Coptic Christians in Egypt and the ravaging of a cathedral,” including how the State Department “refused to list Egypt as ‘a country of particular concern,’ even as Christians and others were being murdered, churches destroyed, and girls kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam. ”<\/p>\n And the evidence keeps mounting. Legislation to create a special envoy for religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia \u2014 legislation that, in the words of the\u00a0Washington Post<\/a><\/em>, “passed the House by a huge margin,” has been stalled by Sen. James Webb (D-Va):<\/p>\n In\u00a0a letter<\/a>\u00a0sent to Webb Wednesday night, Rep. Frank Wolf [R-Va, who introduced the envoy bill] said he “cannot understand why” the hold had been placed on a bill that might help Coptic Christians and other groups “who face daily persecution, hardship, violence, instability and even death.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yet the ultimate source of opposition is the State Department. The\u00a0Post<\/em>continues:<\/p>\n Webb spokesman Will Jenkins explained the hold by saying that “after considering the legislation, Senator Webb asked the State Department for its analysis.” In a position paper issued in response, State Department officials said “we oppose the bill as it infringes on the Secretary’s<\/em>\u00a0[Hillary Clinton’s]\u00a0flexibility to make appropriate staffing decisions<\/em>,” and suggested the duties of Wolf’s proposed envoy would overlap with several existing positions. “The new special envoy position is unnecessary, duplicative, and likely counterproductive<\/em>,” the State Department said (emphasis added).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But as Wolf explained in his letter: “If I believed that religious minorities, especially in these strategic regions, were getting the attention warranted at the State Department, I would cease in pressing for passage of this legislation. Sadly, that is far from being the case. We must act now\u2026. Time is running out.”<\/p>\n Much of this was discussed during\u00a0Coptic Solidarity’s<\/a>\u00a0third annual conference in Washington DC last month, which I participated in, and which featured many politicians and lawmakers \u2014 including the UK’s Lord Alton, Senator Roy Blunt, Congressman Trent Frank, Congressman Joseph Pitts, and Frank Wolf himself. As Coptic Solidarity’s\u00a0summary report<\/a>\u00a0puts it, “All policy makers voiced strong support to the Copts\u2026. Some policy makers raised concerns about the current US Administration’s overtures towards religious extremists.”<\/p>\n There was little doubt among the speakers that, while Webb is the front man, Hillary Clinton \u2014 who was named often \u2014 is ultimately behind the opposition to the bill. (Videos of all speakers can be accessed\u00a0here<\/a>; for information on the envoy bill and how to contact Webb’s office,\u00a0click here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Even those invited to speak about matters outside of Egypt, such as Nigerian lawyer and activist Emmanuel Ogebe, after describing the sheer carnage of thousands of Christians at the hands of Muslim militants, lamented that Obama’s response was to pressure the Nigerian president to make more concessions, including by creating more mosques (the very places that “radicalize” Muslims against “infidel” Christians). This, of course, is consistent with the administration’s position that the ongoing massacres of Christians havenothing to do<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Indeed, while the administration\u00a0vocally condemned<\/a>\u00a0vandal attacks on mosques in the West Bank (where no Muslims died), it had nothing to say when\u00a0Islamic terrorists bombed Nigerian churches on Easter Sunday<\/a>, killing some 50 Christians and wounding hundreds. And when the Egyptian military indiscriminately\u00a0massacred dozens of unarmed Christians<\/a>\u00a0for protesting thenonstop attacks on their churches<\/a>, all the White House could say is, “Now is a time for restraint on all sides” \u2014 as if Egypt’s beleaguered Christian minority needs to “restrain” itself against the nation’s military, a military that intentionally ran armored-vehicles over them at Maspero.<\/p>\n In light of all this, naturally the Obama administration, in the guise of the State Department, would oppose a bill to create an envoy who will only expose more religious persecution for the administration to suppress or obfuscate.<\/p>\n Such is the current state of affairs. In its attempts to empower its Islamist allies, the current US administration has taken up their cause by waging a war of silence on their despised minorities \u2014 the Christians and other non-Muslims of the Islamic world.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Raymond Ibrahim Investigative Project on Terrorism The Obama administration’s support for its Islamist allies means lack of US support for their enemies, or, more properly identified,\u00a0victims\u00a0\u2014 the Christian and other non-Muslim minorities of the Muslim world. Consider the many recent proofs:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,536],"tags":[12,192,1035,1053,253,1044,30,162],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-8G","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6393,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-crosses-red-line-by-supporting-jihadi-terrorism\/","url_meta":{"origin":538,"position":0},"title":"Obama Crosses Red Line by Supporting Jihadi Terrorism","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0Jihad Watch By now it should be obvious that whenever the U.S. interferes in another nation\u2019s politics in the name of \u201chuman rights,\u201d that that is only a pretext. So it is in Syria, as Obama prepares to plunge America in a war with that nation, and,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6664,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/murdered-christian-children-the-price-of-obamas-pro-brotherhood-jihad\/","url_meta":{"origin":538,"position":1},"title":"Murdered Christian Children: The Price of Obama’s Pro-Brotherhood Jihad","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Who is more deserving of punishment by the United States?\u00a0 Millions of Egyptians, for ousting the Muslim Brotherhood?\u00a0 Or the Muslim Brotherhood, for habitually terrorizing and murdering Christians, among many other crimes? According to the unmistakably clear actions of the Obama administration, it is the millions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5939,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/terrorism-as-therapy\/","url_meta":{"origin":538,"position":2},"title":"Terrorism as Therapy","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Obama administration is intent on downplaying the Islamic roots of contemporary terrorism. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online One common theme emerges from the hearings over the Benghazi disaster: The Obama administration is intent on downplaying the Islamic roots of terrorists who harbor an existential hatred of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Terrorism"","block_context":{"text":"Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/war-on-terror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9396,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-dream-of-muslim-outreach-has-become-a-nightmare\/","url_meta":{"origin":538,"position":3},"title":"The Dream of Muslim Outreach Has Become a Nightmare","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Affirming Muslim grievances has only increased the Arab world\u2019s sense that Obama is weak. \u00a0 By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online When President Obama entered office, he dreamed that his hope-and-change messaging and his references to his familial Islamic roots would win over the Muslim world. The soon-to-be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1681,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/whats-happening-with-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":538,"position":4},"title":"What’s Happening with Israel?","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Current American relations with our once-staunch ally Israel are at their lowest ebb in the last 50 years. The Obama administration seems as angry at the building of Jewish apartments in Jerusalem as it is intent on reaching out to Iran and Syria,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2010"","block_context":{"text":"April 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/april-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7883,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/confederacy-of-dunces\/","url_meta":{"origin":538,"position":5},"title":"Confederacy of Dunces?","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"From the president on down, they are in resolute denial about radical Islam. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The military effort against the Islamic State hinges on a successful threefold approach involving intelligence, homeland security, and diplomacy. 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