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Bible Qoutation For TodayTruly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
Luke 18/15-17: "People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it.But Jesus called for them and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’"

Bible Qoutation For Today/For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind
Letter of James 03/13-18: "Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 06-07/15
Aoun's Demonstration: The difference between sheep & Human Beings/Elias Bejjani/September 06/15
How bad is the Iran deal? Let’s count the ways/Amir Taheri/New York Post/September 06/15
U.S. and West Victimize Christians Fleeing ISIS/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/September 06/15
Sorry, Egypt No Longer a Province of the Ottoman Empire/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/September 06/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on September 06-07/15
Aoun's Demonstration: The difference between sheep & Human Beings
Pope Calls on All of Europe’s Catholics to House Refugees
Pope Calls for Every European Parish to Take in Refugee Family
Salam: Chaos Not a Solution, Extremism Complicates Problems
Ibrahim Vows: I Will Not Rest Until Arsal Hostages are Freed
Geagea Travels to Qatar for Official Visit
Army Arrests 24 Palestinians in Nahr al-Bared and Jabal al-Beddawi
Latest Protests Fail to Attract Large Crowds
Parliament Vicinity, a Military Zone

Aoun's Demonstration: The difference between sheep & Human Beings
Elias Bejjani/September 06/15
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2015/09/06/elias-bejjaniaouns-demonstration-the-difference-between-sheep-human-beings-2/
One of the main reasons that Lebanon is falling apart in all domains and on all levels lies in the sad fact that many Lebanese people from all religious denomination and walks of life worship corrupted, Trojan, evil politician and follow them stupidly & blindly. This sickening phenomenon is deadly and disastrous.
One of the main reasons that Lebanon is falling apart in all domains and on all levels lies in the sad fact that many Lebanese people from all religious denomination and walks of life worship corrupted, Trojan, evil politician and follow them stupidly & blindly. This sickening phenomenon is deadly and disastrous.
These people who willingly gave up their freedom for nothing in return are practically mere slaves and sheep.
Quite frankly such subservient people do not deserve the Godly grace of life because they have no faith, no self respect and do not fear Almighty God or His Day Of Judgement.
They enjoy humiliations and brag in being stupid and naive.
This abnormal phenomena was boldly and shamelessly portrayed in the recent pro Iranian-Syrian Micheal Aoun’s unethical, defiled and anti-Lebanese barbaric demonstration. In our own private assessment, there was nothing at all Lebanese, or ethical, or Christian in this hostile, angry, and derailed demonstration.
Simply and according to all world wide criteria for such political acts, the demonstration was a disgrace to every thing that is Lebanese and every thing that is Christian.
This derailed demagogue politician, Micheal Aoun, falsely alleges to advocate for the Lebanese Christian existence, freedom and rights while in reality he is an Iranian-Syrian cheap puppet and mercenary.
Sadly many Lebanese Christian citizens fell in his trap and believe his lies and schemes.
As we see him, and in actuality he is an antichrist creature who has noting to do with the essence and core of Christianity by any means due to the fact that he does not honour any human or Christian values in his conduct, affiliations, rhetoric, selfishness, worship of money and power, nepotism, hypocrisy and detachment from reality.
In conclusion who ever worships a politician or any human being is totally stupid and must not be counted among those who enjoy the Godly gift of life. Sadly many Lebanese not only in Lebanon, but also in the Diaspora fall in this category and this explains the fatal and existential threats and hardships that Lebanon is going through.

Pope Calls on All of Europe’s Catholics to House Refugees
By ALISON SMALE/The New York Times/SEPT. 6, 2015/VIENNA — Pope Francis on Sunday called on every parish, religious community, monastery and sanctuary in Europe to shelter refugees fleeing “death from war and hunger,” adding that the Vatican’s two parishes would lead the way by taking in two families.In a speech to thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square, the pope said it was not enough to say “have courage, hang in there” to those marching toward what he described as “life’s hope.”Referring to the “tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees that flee death in conflict and hunger and are on a journey of hope,” Francis said, according to Vatican Radio, “the Gospel calls us to be close to the smallest and to those who have been abandoned.” He specifically asked that the European bishops support the effort. It was Francis’ first direct message to Europe — and the world — about how to embrace and integrate the largest mass migration Europe has seen since the end of World War II. From Greece to Germany, thousands of refugees remained on the move, packing boats, buses and trains and heading north and west. Pope Francis spoke to thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. The sudden decision late Friday by Austria and Germany to throw open their borders and take in thousands of refugees unwanted in Hungary does not seem to have stilled the movement across a continent that is feeling the effects of the caldrons of conflict across the Middle East. In Cyprus, the authorities said on Sunday that they had rescued 114 people believed to be refugees fleeing Syria after their fishing boat issued a distress call some 46 miles off the island’s southern coast, The Associated Press reported.Thousands of migrants continued to arrive on Lesbos and other Greek islands from Turkey. Migrants continued from there to the port of Piraeus in Athens and started heading north along the Balkan land route taken by tens of thousands of others in recent weeks.
At the same time, construction crews rushed to complete work on a nearly 12-foot-high fence topped with razor wire spanning Hungary’s 108-mile border with Serbia, the port of entry for most refugees. The authorities at a border crossing near the town of Roszke rounded up hundreds of refugees Sunday and sent them to a newly opened “registration center,” which the local police were calling an “alien holding center,” Reuters reported. The authorities said the migrants would be held there no more than 24 hours, but human rights groups, as well as the migrants themselves, were worried they might be detained longer. At the other end of the migrant trail, Austrian rail operators announced that they had carried about 13,000 people to Germany from early Saturday to Sunday morning. Thousands of migrants and refugees are desperately pushing their way into Europe. A team of New York Times journalists is documenting the journey. In the Austrian border town of Nickelsdorf, hundreds of migrants spent a cold night in a vast hall equipped over the past week to receive them. Other migrants at the Vienna rail station waiting for a train to Germany were allowed to sleep on an empty train as temperatures dipped below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, or 10 degrees Celsius, in some places. In Germany, which has taken in the most refugees and expects 800,000 asylum seekers this year, volunteers were again at the main Munich rail station and other locations across the country on Sunday, welcoming the new arrivals in a determined display of hospitality that counters right-wing resistance to the newcomers.
Chancellor Angela Merkel was to discuss the situation with her partners in her coalition government on Sunday evening. The Social Democrats back Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats in offering a determined welcome and insisting that Germany can afford to take in the expected arrivals. But some members of the Christian Social Union, the more conservative party in Ms. Merkel’s center-right bloc, have objected to throwing open the doors. Ms. Merkel and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary agreed in a telephone call on Saturday evening that both countries must continue to uphold their commitments to the European Union asylum law known as the Dublin Regulation, the chancellor’s office said. Both leaders agreed that the westward journey of the refugees on Saturday “due to the emergency situation on the Hungarian border was an exception,” the statement said.
Peter Altmaier, Ms. Merkel’s chief of staff, told a public broadcaster that the chancellor held talks throughout Saturday with German and European partners in an effort to get every European Union member to take in a share of refugees. “We have been facing this challenge for several months and we continue to take in refugees,” Mr. Altmaier said. “But we need a readiness in other European countries to join in.”“I am convinced that the situation will normalize itself when we are able to come to a European consensus, as we did in the crisis in Ukraine, in the crisis in Greece, that is supported by all countries in Europe,” Mr. Altmaier said. Austria faces a similar influx — 80,000 asylum applicants are expected this year in a country of eight million, about one-tenth the population of Germany. That prospect has bolstered far-right populists at the expense of the governing Social Democrats and conservatives, but Chancellor Werner Faymann insisted on Sunday that Austria would play its part in a European solution. A convoy of some 150 cars driven by Austrian volunteers headed toward Hungary on Sunday, with organizers saying they would pick up any refugees who wanted to go West. The police warned the drivers against exposing themselves to charges in Hungary that they were in effect smuggling people across borders.
The mass movement has produced a sharp spike in people smuggling, with the most tragic case occurring in Austria, where 71 people were found dead in an abandoned truck by the side of a highway southeast of Vienna on Aug. 27. Since then, officials have reported that almost 200 other people narrowly averted death in vehicles crammed with stowaways who pay hundreds or even thousands of euros for the promise of reaching Austria, Germany or other wealthy nations in Europe. Coincidentally, it was exactly 26 years ago on a first September Sunday that Hungary opened its border at Hegyeshalom to allow tens of thousands of East Germans to cross into Austria at Nickelsdorf and continue through Austria to what was then West Germany.
Hungary’s behavior in recent days — allowing and then barring refugees from trains into Austria, and building the fence on its southern border with Serbia to discourage migrants from entering — has come under criticism from its 27 partners in the European Union.
Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, which now holds the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union, told German television on Sunday that Hungary and other former Communist nations in Central and Eastern Europe had gained not only rights but also shouldered responsibilities in joining the union.
It is important, Mr. Asselborn said, for the European Union to respond to an expected request from Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, to absorb 160,000 refugees under an agreed quota system. A German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, reported that under Mr. Juncker’s plan, Germany would take in about 31,000 people, followed by France with 24,000 and Spain with almost 15,000. “We must do this,” Mr. Asselborn said. “I think we are capable of that.” Sensitive to criticism of callousness in response to the wave of migrants, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain is prepared to accept up to 15,000 Syrian refugees, but only from camps in that region, including from Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey, officials told The Sunday Times of London.
The British do not want to add any further incentive, or “pull factor,” that will encourage more refugees to risk the passage to Europe, nor to favor those migrants who could afford to pay people smugglers over those who are in the regional camps. With euroskeptics inside and outside Mr. Cameron’s ruling Conservative Party critical of Brussels, Britain will continue to reject the idea of mandatory quotas to distribute migrants and asylum-seekers already in Europe.
Britain will also allocate some of the financial aid it usually sends abroad to house and integrate Syrian refugees for the first year in Britain and to increase aid to refugee camps in the region, the chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said on Sunday. He refused to confirm a specific figure for the refugees. Mr. Cameron announced last week that Britain will add another 100 million pounds to the 900 million pounds it already provides for humanitarian aid to displaced Syrians.
**Reporting was contributed by Palko Karasz in Hungary, Melissa Eddy in Berlin, Steven Erlanger in London and Gaia Pianigiani in Rome.

Pope Calls for Every European Parish to Take in Refugee Family
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Pope Francis on Sunday called on every Catholic parish in Europe to take in a refugee family, saying the Vatican's two parishes would lead by example. Calling for a "concrete gesture" ahead of a Jubilee Year of Mercy starting in December, the pope urged "every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary in Europe (to) take in a family. "Faced with the tragedy of tens of thousands of asylum-seekers fleeing death (as) victims of war and hunger who are hoping to start a new life, the gospel calls on us and asks us to be the neighbour of the smallest and the most abandoned, to give them concrete hope," he said, giving the Angelus blessing in Saint Peter's Square in Rome. It's not just about saying "have courage, be patient", Francis -- who has made poverty and migration a key theme of his papacy -- told thousands of faithful gathered in the square. "Christian hope is more combative", he said, calling on "Europe's bishops, the true pastors to back my call in their dioceses." The Vatican would lead the way, he said, announcing that its two parishes would take in two refugee families "in the coming days". Drawing on a gospel story in which Jesus heals a deaf and mute man, the Argentinian-born pontiff said a miracle had also taken place in Europe, where "we have been healed of the deafness of selfishness and the silence of retreating into ourselves. "The closed couple, the closed family, the closed group, the closed parish, the closed country, that comes from us, it has nothing to do with God," he stressed.

Salam: Chaos Not a Solution, Extremism Complicates Problems
Naharnet/September 06/15/Prime Minister Tammam Salam on Sunday described the anti-government protests that have been shaking the country in recent weeks as a “legitimate expression” while warning that “some parties are trying to exploit this popular anger to spread chaos in the country.”The protests are “a legitimate expression of the anger of Lebanese over the deterioration of their living conditions,” said Salam during a meeting with Akkar clergymen and dignitaries. But he cautioned that “some parties are trying to exploit this popular anger to spread chaos in the country.”“Chaos is not a solution and resorting to extremism complicates problems instead of solving them,” the prime minister added. Describing the current situation in the country as “very, very difficult,” Salam warned that “the aggravation of political disputes – which has led to presidential void and legislative and governmental paralysis – will only lead to collapse.”Turning to Sepaker Nabih Berri's call for a national dialogue conference on September 9, the PM described it as a “lauded effort to contain the conflict and seek political exits and solutions to the crisis.”On Saturday, the August 29 coalition and the "You Stink" group organized small demos around Lebanon to protest what they call a corrupt and inept political class. The protest movement began in July when the country's main landfill in Naameh closed and pungent garbage started piling up in Beirut and its outskirts, but it has evolved into a broad-based mobilization against government impotence and corruption. Demonstrations organized by "You Stink" have escalated over the past two weeks, peaking last Saturday when tens of thousands flooded Martyrs Square in a rare display of non-partisan mobilization. Organizers said the small demos were to symbolize that they would not withdraw from the streets "until they obtain their rights, even if it costs them their lives." Meanwhile, "You Stink" has called for a massive demonstration near the place where the national dialogue will be held. On Thursday, more than ten "You Stink" activists began a hunger strike that they said would not end until Mohammed al-Mashnouq resigned as environment minister. In addition to his resignation, the campaign is demanding a lasting waste management plan, parliamentary elections and accountability for police violence against protesters. Some protest organizers and politicians had accused “thugs sent by political parties” of infiltrating peaceful demos to spark riots and clashes with security forces.

Ibrahim Vows: I Will Not Rest Until Arsal Hostages are Freed
Naharnet/September 06/15/General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim asserted on Sunday that he will not rest until the file of servicemen abducted by Islamist groups is resolved, the state-run National News Agency reported. “We will not rest until we get the issue of abducted servicemen to a happy ending no matter what the difficulties are” said Ibrahim during the inauguration of a new General Security office in the Mount Lebanon town of Qartaba. He urged all parties to commit to the State no matter how staggering it is, saying: “The state is our only shelter and we should stay united and have faith.”Several servicemen were kidnapped by the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front groups in the wake of battles between the army and the jihadists in Arsal in August. A number of the servicemen have since been released, four were executed, while the rest remain held.

Geagea Travels to Qatar for Official Visit
Naharnet/September 06/15/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea traveled Sunday to Qatar for an official visit, state-run National News Agency reported. He was accompanied by his wife MP Sethrida Geagea and an LF delegation comprising ex-minister Tony Karam, foreign affairs officer Pierre Bou Assi and Gulf dept. official Fadi Salameh, NNA said. In July, Geagea held talks in Saudi Arabia with the kingdom's top officials. On Saturday, the LF leader announced that his party will not participate in a dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri has called for to tackle Lebanon's controversial issues, describing it a “waste of time.”Geagea said it was an “impossible assumption” that the conferees could agree on a presidential candidate.He also slammed the government for failing to address the unprecedented waste management crisis and the rest of the country's political, economic and social problems.

'People's Court' Activists File Complaint Against Mashnouq
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/The newly formed activist group dubbed the People's Court asserted on Sunday that they have filed a complaint against Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq for neglecting the waste management crisis that led to the spread of diseases.“We filed a complaint against the Environment Minister for his administrative violations and for neglecting the trash crisis that led to the spread of diseases,” the activists said in a press conference they held in Marty Square in downtown Beirut. “The people should govern and decide. We are on the lookout and we will continue the same as we started,” they said. “We will take part in the demos that will be held on September 9,” they added, calling on everyone to take part in the mass demonstration coinciding with a dialogue session at parliament that Speaker Nabih Berri called for. The activists also demanded a “new modern electoral law that respects the constitutions and paves way for political reform.” The new group is one of many similar ones that have emerged lately kicking off a wide range of protests raging over the paralysis of the parliament and cabinet in addressing various pressing files the latest was the garbage crisis. The protest movement began in July when a landfill closed and pungent garbage started piling up in Beirut and its outskirts, but it has evolved into a broad-based organization against government impotence and corruption. Demonstrations initially organized by the "You Stink" activist group have escalated over the past two weeks, peaking last Saturday when tens of thousands flooded Martyrs Square in a rare display of non-partisan mobilization demanding the resignation of the Environment Minister. Moreover, several Lebanese activists launched an open-ended hunger strike last week, demanding the resignation of the environment minister. The activists set up tents outside the Environment Ministry in downtown Beirut.

Army Arrests 24 Palestinians in Nahr al-Bared and Jabal al-Beddawi
Naharnet/September 06/15/The Lebanese army arrested two Palestinian nationals in Nahr al-Bared in the northern city of Tripoli for preparing to illegally smuggle people to Turkey in a fishing boat, the Lebanese army Orientation Directorate said in a statement. Palestinians Mohammed Saleh and Mohammed Majzoub were apprehended on Saturday during a raid that an army unit carried out in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp. They were trying to illegally smuggle people to Turkey by sea using a fishing boat, the statement added. Furthermore, the army raided a residential apartment in Jabal al-Beddawi and arrested 21 Palestinians for a bid to travel outside Lebanon in an illegal manner with the help of the above.

Latest Protests Fail to Attract Large Crowds
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Only a small number of people turned out Saturday at demonstrations around Lebanon called by the "You Stink" group to protest what they call a corrupt and inept political class. The collective had called Friday for demonstrations in the coastal city of Tyre and in Zrariyeh, both in southern Lebanon. On Saturday around 300 people turned out in Tyre, an Agence France Presse correspondent said. "We elected them MPs, and they have become wolves who are never satisfied," banners read. "Thieves, thieves," people chanted. Activists had also urged supporters to protest in the eastern city of Chtaura, the historic town of Beiteddine and Nabatiyeh and Marjayoun in the south. But only a dozen or so turned out in Marjayoun, as was the case in the central town of Baakline. The protest movement began in July when a landfill closed and pungent garbage started piling up in Beirut and its outskirts, but it has evolved into a broad-based organization against government impotence and corruption. Demonstrations organized by "You Stink" have escalated over the past two weeks, peaking last Saturday when tens of thousands flooded Martyrs Square in a rare display of non-partisan mobilization. Contrary to the traditional practice of people demonstrating at the call of one political party or religious group, "You Stink" has cut across party and confessional lines. In Tyre, a bastion of Hizbullah and Amal movements, demonstrators dipped their hands in red paint and then imprinted them on a large white sheet. Organizers said this was to symbolize that they would not withdraw from the streets "until they obtain their rights, even if it costs them their lives." Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who belongs to Amal, has called for a dialogue of political leaders on Wednesday. Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, has said he will not participate. Meanwhile, "You Stink" has called for another massive demonstration the same day.

Parliament Vicinity, a Military Zone
Naharnet/September 06/15/The Security Forces decided to impose a military zone in the vicinity of the parliament in light of the demonstrations called for by the civil society and the Syndicate Coordination Committee that coincide with the dialogue session called for by Speaker Nabih Berri, An Nahar daily reported. The decision, over fear of clashes between the demonstrations and interlocutors, was taken as the country witnesses a wide range of protests raging over the government and parliament paralysis, the daily added. Berri has called for a dialogue of political leaders on Wednesday September 9 to revive the all-party talks that he had launched in 2006. Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, has said he will not participate. The "You Stink" has called for another massive demonstration the same day. Demonstrations organized by "You Stink" have escalated over the past two weeks, peaking last Saturday when tens of thousands flooded Martyrs Square in a rare display of non-partisan mobilization. The dialogue aims at discussing ways to end the almost two-year presidential vacuum, resume the Parliament and Cabinet's work, agree on a new election law, a law allowing foreigners of Lebanese origin to obtain Lebanese nationality, administrative decentralization and means to support the Army and the Internal Security Forces.

Several Turkish Troops Killed in Major PKK Attack
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Several Turkish soldiers were killed on Sunday in a major attack in southeastern Hakkari province suspected to have been carried out by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, reports said.There was no immediate official casualty toll but in a sign of the gravity of the situation Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu broke off a trip to Konya to watch a national football game and summoned an emergency security meeting in Ankara, the reports added. NTV television said militants staged a mine attack on two military vehicles in a convoy in the Daglica district of Hakkari, a known PKK stronghold. It added that Turkish F-4 and F-16 warplanes carried out strikes in retaliation against those suspected to have carried out the attack. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted to the attack during a live television interview but also did not give any casualty figures. "A mine attack has been staged. There will be a very particular and decisive fight there. We are very sad," he told the A-Haber channel. "The weather conditions were unfavorable. A struggle was being waged under such conditions," he said, adding the attack happened during a "clean-up operation" against PKK militants. The PKK has been staging daily attacks against the Turkish armed forces as the military presses an over month-long operation against the group in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq. The violence has left in tatters a 2013 ceasefire aimed at assisting the search for a final peace deal to end the PKK's three-decade insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

New Wave of Air Strikes Shake Yemen Capital
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Powerful explosions shook the Yemeni capital Sunday, witnesses said, after the Saudi-led coalition vowed to press its air war following a rebel missile strike that killed dozens of Gulf soldiers. The United Arab Emirates had pledged to quickly avenge its heaviest ever military loss after 45 of its soldiers were killed in Friday's missile attack, along with 10 Saudis and five Bahrainis. The UAE is part of the Arab coalition formed in March aimed at stopping the Iran-backed rebels from taking full control of Yemen and at restoring the rule of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. Complaining of marginalisation, the Shiite Huthi rebels descended from their northern stronghold last year and seized the capital Sanaa unopposed before advancing on second city Aden in March. The latest coalition raids pounded positions of the rebels and renegade troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to resign in 2012 following a bloody uprising. Coalition warplanes struck military bases on the Nahdain and Fajj Attan hills and the neighbouring presidential complex, south of Sanaa, as well as a headquarters for special forces. Also targeted were Huthi positions in the northern neighbourhoods of Sufan and Al-Nahda, forcing scores of residents to flee, the witnesses said. Witnesses said Sunday's bombardment was one of the heaviest since the air campaign began. "The first strike after dawn prayers shook our house," said Sadeq al-Juhayfi, a resident of Al-Haffa, southeast of Sanaa, where a military base was targeted. Witnesses in the area said explosions were still heard around midday at the base, suggesting it housed an arms depot. Meanwhile, normally bustling areas of the capital remained empty and shops were mostly shuttered. Students taking exams at Abdulrazzaq al-Sanaani high school, in Hadda neighbourhood, said they abandoned their tests and fled. "We usually get hundreds of customers... Today, workers have ran away and there are no people in the street," said Kamal al-Majidi, a waiter at a restaurant in Hadda. The Huthis said Friday's missile attack was "revenge" for six months of deadly air raids, but the coalition vowed there would be no let-up in its air war. The coalition launched the bombing campaign when President Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia in March after the rebels entered his last refuge, Aden. After loyalists recaptured the southern port in July, the coalition launched a ground operation that has seen the rebels pushed back from five southern provinces, although they still control Sanaa and much of the north and centre.
'Purge Yemen of scum'
For the UAE, Friday's losses were the heaviest since the formation of the federation in 1971, and the oil-rich Gulf state has vowed to retaliate. "Our revenge shall not take long," warned Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. "We will press ahead until we purge Yemen of the scum," he was quoted as saying in Emirati media. UAE newspapers displayed images of funerals across the country for the slain soldiers, while schools in Abu Dhabi were told to observe a one-minute silence on Sunday. National radio and television stations have played music and special koranic recitals to honour them. The Huthis said they had used a Tochka missile to attack the Safer camp in Marib. They hailed the strike as "revenge for the crimes and the war of extermination being carried out by the Saudi aggressor and its mercenaries". Marib has seen fierce fighting as loyalist forces and their coalition allies have advanced north. Loyalist military sources said the coalition had reinforced Safer this week with tanks, armoured vehicles, troop carriers, rocket launchers and Apache helicopters. Friday's losses came as Saudi King Salman met U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, with Yemen high on the agenda. Obama said the two sides "share concerns" about the need to restore a functioning government in Yemen and relieve its humanitarian crisis. More than 4,500 people have been killed in the conflict, including hundreds of children, according to the United Nations, which has warned that Yemen is on the brink of famine.

Australia Firm on Refugee Quota, but Will Admit more Syrians
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Australian leader Tony Abbott said Sunday the government would welcome a higher portion of Syrian refugees amid Europe's humanitarian crisis, but would not increase its annual refugee intake.Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of people seeking safe-havens, many from war-torn Syria, with the human cost of the crisis reflected in images of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi whose body washed up on a Turkish beach. Canberra takes a hardline stance against asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by boat, with Abbott saying Friday that tough policies were needed to stop drownings at sea. The prime minister said he was moved by photographs of the three-year-old and was sending Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to Geneva late Sunday for talks with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, amid a growing domestic push to address the crisis. But despite calls from opposition parties Labor and Greens for an increase in the refugee intake, Abbott said the annual 2015-16 quota, at 13,750, would remain the same."We are disposed to take more people from that troubled region under our refugee and humanitarian programme, and we are open to providing more financial assistance to the UNHCR," he told reporters in Canberra.
He declined to specify how many more would be accepted, but said Australia took in almost 4,500 refugees from Iraq and Syria last year and "we are prepared to take significant numbers this year given the ongoing crisis and its scale".The focus would be on families, women and children residing in camps "on the edges of Syria", Abbott said, particularly from persecuted minorities. Abbott added that Australia was already gradually lifting its annual refugee intake -- to 16,250 in 2017–18 and to 18,750 the following year. By contrast, Labor agreed at its July national conference to double the current refugee intake to 27,500 by 2025, while the Greens have called on the government to accept an additional 20,000 Syrian refugees on top of the current allocation. Other countries helping out include Britain, to take in 15,000 Syrian refugees according to a Sunday Times report, and Canada, to accept an additional 10,000 people from Syria and Iraq annually over the next three years. Under Australia's immigration policy, asylum-seekers that arrive by boat are sent to Pacific island camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea and blocked from resettling on the island continent even if they are found to be refugees. After Abbott came into power in September 2013, the government launched a military-led operation to turn boats back. Abbott said the current crisis needed a security response, with Australia set to reveal this week if it will extend its air campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq into Syria following a U.S. request.

Israeli Christians Protest State Funding Cuts
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Thousands of people rallied Sunday in Jerusalem to demand more funds for Christian schools which they say receive a third of what the Israeli government allocates to Jewish ones. Israel's 47 Christian schools have been on strike since the academic year started last week, with parents and school officials accusing the government of discrimination in funding their establishments.Schools officials said the strike will end only when the authorities in the Jewish state meet their demands. The strike affects 33,000 pupils -- 60 percent of them Christian and the others Muslim -- as well as 3,000 staff. "If you care, then be fair," said one of the signs held up at the protest outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office which was attended by students in uniforms, parents and school officials. "We pay our taxes and therefore we must have the same rights as everyone," said Manal Issa, a mother who came with her two children. Abdel Massih Fahim, a Franciscan priest and director of the Catholic church's Custody of the Holy Land which oversees the Christian schools, said state funds only cover 29 percent of costs. But Wadie Abunassar, another school official, said Jewish schools recognized by the state but not considered official public schools receive funds that cover 100 percent of their needs.
"We demand equal treatment," said Abunassar. Up until two years ago, Christian schools in Israel received 65 percent of their budgets from the state, with parents paying the balance, but that figure was cut then to 34 percent two years ago. Now parents have to put up the difference, in what has become a financial burden for many who had been relying on private donations and state subsidies to provide their children with an education. "We are demanding that the state give us 200 million shekels ($53 million) per year," to make up the difference and cover our costs, said Abunassar. A dozen Arab Israeli members of parliament also joined Sunday's demonstration as armed police stood guard. The rally came just days after Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was received Thursday by Pope Francis at the Vatican, and following recent attacks by extremist Jews on Christian churches.

Netanyahu Says Won't Allow Israel to be 'Submerged' by Syria Refugees
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he would not allow Israel to be "submerged" by refugees after calls for Israel to take in those fleeing Syria's war. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also announced the start of construction of a fence along Israel's border with Jordan, according to his office. "We will not allow Israel to be submerged by a wave of illegal migrants and terrorist activists," Netanyahu said. "Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of Syrian and African refugees... but Israel is a small country -- very small -- without demographic or geographic depth. That is why we must control our borders."Opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Saturday said Israel should take in Syrian refugees, recalling the plight of Jews who sought refuge from past conflicts. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also called for Israel to allow Palestinians from refugee camps in Syria to travel to the Palestinian territories, whose external borders are controlled by Israel. There is already hostility in Israel toward asylum-seekers from Africa and a concerted government effort to repatriate them. Rights groups say thousands of African asylum seekers have been coerced into "voluntary" departures. Official figures show 45,000 illegal immigrants are in Israel, almost all from Eritrea and Sudan. Most of those not in detention live in poor areas of southern Tel Aviv, where there have been several protests against them.
'To the Golan heights'
The start of construction of the 30-kilometer (19-mile) fence announced by Netanyahu involves extension of a security barrier to part of its eastern border with Jordan in a bid to keep out militants and illegal migrants. Netanyahu said when it was approved in June that the new fence was a continuation of a 240-kilometer barrier built along the Egyptian border which "blocked the entry of illegal migrants into Israel and the various terrorist movements."In its first stage, the new fence is being built along Israel's eastern border between Eilat and where a new airport will be built in the Timna Valley. "We will continue the fence up to the Golan Heights," Netanyahu said. That would take it into the Israeli-occupied West Bank along the Jordan Valley, an area which is already under Israeli military control but is claimed by the Palestinians as part of their state. Israel has insisted on maintaining troops in the area in any final peace agreement, a stance completely rejected by the Palestinians who say it would be a violation of their sovereignty and merely perpetuate the occupation.
Israel also has a fence that runs along the Syrian frontier through the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Those fences are in addition to a barrier that runs through the West Bank, which Israel began building during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which lasted from 2000-2005. Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it 14 years later, in a move never recognized by the international community.

Syria Govt. Arrests 'Nusra Suspect in Druze Bombing'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Syrian authorities have detained a member of al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front who admitted the group's responsibility for a double bomb attack in the country's Druze heartland, state media said Sunday. The arrested man, named as Al-Wafed Abu Tarabeh, reportedly also confessed the group was behind attacks on government property in Sweida city after the bombings, which killed 31 people. "Authorities in Sweida today arrested the terrorist Al-Wafed Abu Tarabeh, who confessed to responsibility for the two terrorist bombings on Friday," state news agency SANA reported. State television identified Abu Tarabeh as a member of al-Nusra. "The terrorist also confessed to participation in the attacks on the military police and security branches... in addition to acts of vandalism and theft in Sweida," SANA said. Twin bomb attacks hit Sweida on Friday night, killing 31 people, including prominent Druze cleric and regime critic Sheikh Wahid al-Balous. After the attacks, residents pelted government buildings with stones, accusing the regime of being behind the bombings. They destroyed a statue of Hafez Assad, father and predecessor of Syria's President Bashar Assad. Angry crowds including armed men also attacked two security buildings in the southwestern city, killing at least six regime security personnel, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Druze, who follow a secretive offshoot of Shiite Islam, have been divided during Syria's civil war, with some members fighting on the government side and others sympathizing with the opposition. Balous was a popular figure among the minority, which made up around three percent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million. He led Sweida's most powerful militia in battles against al-Nusra and the Islamic State group, but also opposed conscription of Druze men into the Syrian army's dwindling ranks. Analysts said his death would likely benefit Syria's government, which was angered by his opposition to conscription and his desire to keep the Druze independent.

Egypt Seizes Boats Carrying More than 200 Migrants
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/The Egyptian navy has seized three fishing boats in the Mediterranean carrying 228 migrants and arrested 17 crew members, the military said on Sunday. "Naval forces, as part of their mission to secure the Mediterranean coast, spotted three suspicious fishing boats off the coast of Alexandria," the military said on its Facebook page. "While inspecting them, they found, in addition to 17 crew, 228 people of different nationalities who were trying to emigrate illegally from Egypt," the statement said. It did not disclose the identities of the migrants or of the crew, but said they were taken to a naval base in Alexandria. It also did not say when the operation took place. Pictures posted online by the military showed men, who appeared to be African, sitting in a docked boat or on the ground of what seemed to be a harbor. In one picture a soldier bandaged the foot of a man and in another a soldier handed out plastic water bottles. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR on Saturday said 366,402 migrants had crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, with 2,800 dying or going missing en route.

Turkish Policeman who Found Aylan Says: 'I Thought of My Own Son'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/A Turkish police officer who was pictured picking up the lifeless body of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi -- whose death pricked the world's conscience -- said he thought of his own son when he saw the toddler on the beach. Speaking to Turkey's Dogan news agency, Mehmet Ciplak recounted how he prayed the little boy was still alive as he walked towards him and scooped him up from the water's edge. "When I approached the baby, I said to myself, 'Dear God I hope he's alive.' But he showed no signs of life. I was crushed," he said. "I have a six-year-old son. The moment I saw the baby, I thought about my own son and put myself into his father's place. Words cannot describe what a sad and tragic sight it was." Ciplak added he didn't know the photo, which reverberated across the world, was being taken and said: "I was just doing my job." Twelve refugees drowned on Wednesday when two boats sank on the short crossing to Greece, and images of Aylan's lifeless body washed ashore in Bodrum in southwest Turkey sparked international outrage over Europe's migrant crisis. Aylan was buried on Friday in the Syrian town of Kobane, itself now a symbol of resistance by Syrian Kurds against Islamic State (IS) extremists. Aylan's four-year-old brother, Ghaleb, and their mother Rihana also drowned when their boat sank. His father Abdullah was the only family member to survive and has returned to Kobane to be close to the graves of his wife and children.

Report: Britain 'to Take 15,000 Syrian Refugees'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/The British government is poised to accept 15,000 Syrian refugees and hopes next month to get backing for air strikes against Islamic State jihadists, the Sunday Times reported. Prime Minister David Cameron has been under pressure internationally and domestically to address the refugee crisis. On Thursday, he said he was "deeply moved" by images of three-year-old Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, found dead on a Turkish beach. Cameron now intends to expand Britain's vulnerable persons relocation programme, take in around 15,000 refugees and launch military action against people traffickers, the report said. He also hopes to persuade MPs in the opposition Labour Party to back air strikes in Syria in a vote early next month, it said. The paper previously reported that there was an option to directly accept refugees from UN camps on the Syrian border. Britain has accepted 216 Syrian refugees under a special government scheme over the past year and around 5,000 Syrians have been granted asylum since the conflict there broke out in 2011 -- far fewer than countries like France, Germany and Sweden. Britain has also opted out of a quota system for relocating asylum seekers within the European Union despite growing calls in the EU for fairer distribution. More than four million Syrians have fled the war. Cameron gained support for military action against Syria from an unusual source on Sunday -- former Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the world's Anglicans, George Carey. Britain should help "crush" the Islamic State and "air strikes" may be needed, Carey said. "I do not consider it enough to send aid to refugee camps in the Middle East. Rather, there must be renewed military and diplomatic efforts to crush the twin menaces of Islamic State and al-Qaeda once and for all," he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

Cyprus Rescues 114 Fleeing Syria in Fishing Boat
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Rescuers in Cyprus on Sunday saved more than 100 refugees fleeing the war in Syria after their boat ran into trouble overnight off the Mediterranean island, authorities said. The 114 people, including 54 women and children, had been aboard a small fishing boat about 40 nautical miles from the southern Cypriot port of Larnaca at the time they struck trouble, said a source in the island's Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. The boat had departed from the Syrian port town of Tartus and stopped in Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, authorities said. Interior Minister Socrates Hasikos told reporters the refugees had been headed for Greece, with some hoping to travel on to other parts of Europe. He said police had arrested three people who were being questioned in connection with the incident. Local newspaper Phileleftheros reported that the boat's captain was among them. The boat was mainly carrying Syrian refugees, but also some Lebanese and Palestinians from Syria, Hasikos said. Cyprus, a member of the European Union, lies just 100 kilometres (60 miles) off the Syrian coast but has so far avoided a mass influx of refugees from the country's conflict, with most preferring to bypass the island to reach the European mainland. The boat's captain sent a distress signal late on Saturday night as the vessel was listing because its engine stopped working, prompting the police and army to launch a rescue operation, authorities said. All of those on board the stricken vessel were safely brought ashore to Larnaca by 7:00 am (0400 GMT) on Sunday, police said. Some of them received first aid at the port, but "there were no serious injuries warranting a transfer to the hospital," the interior minister said. Phileleftheros reported that those rescued said they had paid more than $4,000 each (about 3,600 euros) to be taken to a "European destination". Police said the refugees would be taken to a reception centre on the outskirts of the capital Nicosia later on Sunday. Last September, some 345 Syrian and Palestinian refugees were rescued by a cruise liner in stormy waters off the island's coast and housed for several months before their camp was closed. Two months later, about 220 Syrian refugees crammed onto a fishing boat were rescued off the coast of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus after hitting rough seas. Europe has been facing an unprecedented influx this summer of people seeking refuge, many of them from war-torn Syria. The U.N. refugee agency says more than 2,500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, many of them Syrian refugees desperate to escape their country's four-and-a-half year war.

Iran Says EU Must Live Up to Historic Duty on Migrants
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 06/15/Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that European countries have a "humanitarian and historic duty" to do more to shelter migrants arriving at its borders. "The world, especially Europe, has a humanitarian and historic duty to (...) help these displaced and stranded people," Rouhani said, quoted on his website. Europe has been facing an unprecedented influx this summer of people seeking refuge, many of them from war-torn Syria but also from Africa. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said Saturday that 366,402 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, with 2,800 killed or missing en route. "We are glad some European countries have taken positive measures to save the displaced immigrants and we hope that other EU countries would join this trend," said Rouhani. Rouhani, speaking as he received Hungary's new ambassador, Janos Kuac, said Iran hosts more migrants from neighboring countries, mostly Afghanistan and Iraq, than any other state in the region.
"All the problems ... stem from the threat of radical groups and terrorists that have caused fear and displacement among innocent people in the region," he said. Hungary is a key point of entry to the EU for migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Asia trekking up through the Balkans to western Europe after crossing the Mediterranean to Greece. Some 50,000 migrants entered Hungary last month via the western Balkans. Hungary has responded with tough new anti-immigration measures. Its right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, has said Hungary did not want more Muslim migrants and warned Europe would lose its Christian identity.

How bad is the Iran deal? Let’s count the ways
Amir Taheri/New York Post/September 06/15,
A fatwa that doesn’t exist, a wish list that no one signed, a resolution that contradicts the wish list, a protocol that no one has seen…
These are the elements with which President Obama claims he has concocted a strategy to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions and stop it exporting murder and mayhem. Supposedly issued by Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, the fatwa declares nuclear weapons as “illicit” (haram) in Islam. Obama cites it as “proof” that Iran does not intend to build a bomb. The president has never said he has seen the fatwa, which, in any case, would have no legal or religious weight. However, those who refer to the fatwa, including some mullahs, always credit Obama as the source of their information. In the 18th century, Mullah Sadra liked to say that “you will see only if you believe.” He has a disciple in Obama. The wish list is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 159-page tome issued in Vienna last July after two years of talks between an Iranian delegation and the so-called P5+1 group of big powers led by the US. “This is neither an agreement nor a treaty,” writes Dr. Saberi Ansari, Iran’s legal advisor during the talks. “An agreement or a treaty is distinguished by the fact that its contents are binding on contracting parties. This is not the case with JCPOA. For example, JCPOA envisages moves that ought to be made by the United Nations or the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, it is not in Iran’s or the P5+1’s gift to decide for the UN and the IAEA.”What we have instead is a list of things that participants in the talks wish would happen. However, the Iranian side does not feel bound by the wish list. It has not even been presented at the Council of Ministers headed by President Hassan Rouhani. Ministers have read about it in the press. More interestingly, there is no official Persian translation of the text.The JCPOA, for which Obama has been fighting tooth and nail, has not received even a tepid endorsement from Khamenei. “This thing must be examined further, its shortcomings corrected,” he said on Thursday. Iran’s atomic-energy chief, Ali-Akbar Salehi, put it nicely when he said that “the only thing that Iran gave Obama was a promise not to do things we were not doing anyway, or did not wish to do or could not even do at present.”Because the JCPOA has no legal basis and no mechanism for application, Obama engineered a hastily drawn Security Council resolution, numbered 2231, to fill the gap. As a sponsor of the resolution, the US is committed to applying it whether the Congress likes it or not. Iran, which didn’t vote for the resolution, refuses to endorse it.
“The point of reference for us is the JCPOA,” says Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.Foreign Minister Javad Zarif goes further, boasting that Iran “will close this dossier” without accepting any of the seven resolutions passed by the UN. But even if Iran endorsed the resolution, what proof is there that it won’t cheat?Obama answers that with his favorite cliché of “robust inspections.”
In that context, the protocol signed by the IAEA and Iran last July merits attention.Obama’s “chance in a lifetime” diplomatic coup is nothing but a shady deal. The text of the protocol remains secret, known only the two signatories. So, Obama couldn’t know whether or not it envisages “robust” inspections; he could only hope that would be the case.
Statements by IAEA and Iranian officials indicate that the envisaged inspections are unlikely to be “robust.” Both assert that there will be no inspectors from countries with nuclear arsenals. That excludes the P5 to start with. Then, Iran will not allow inspectors from “unfriendly countries” such as Canada. The IAEA must ask Iran to arrange for inspections at least one month in advance, long enough to “cleanse” any site and change the decor. Even then, the IAEA must first consider using Iranian inspectors.
If Iran and the IAEA cannot agree the matter is referred to a ministerial group that would meet at least once every two years. There, decisions could be taken only if five out of the eight involved agree. (That is to say P5+1, plus Iran plus the European Union).
With Russia and China likely to vote with Iran or abstain, the mullahs would need one vote to stop any move against them. That could come from the EU some of whose members might cherish an opportunity to thumb their noses at the US, even if only by abstaining. Obama claims he has “blocked all of Iran’s paths to building nuclear weapons.”
That is untrue.
Iran is allowed to continue enriching uranium and producing plutonium, ingredients needed for nuclear warheads, albeit at lower grades. Iran promises to slow down the process for a 10-year period. Even then, it is not clear at what cadence the proposed slowdown would take place. In the meantime, Iran is benefiting from a steady crumbling of the sanctions edifice. More than 30 Iranian companies and banks are doing business with the EU and other nations.
Twenty-two individuals banned from travel abroad, among them eight generals and three convicted terrorists, have visited other countries.
The flow of unfrozen cash assets to Iran continues and is expected to top $20 billion by the end of the year. The ban on arms sales is quietly ignored, with Russia delivering S-300 anti-aircraft missiles and negotiating the sale of war planes and submarines. (Tehran and Moscow signed 11 agreements last week.) For its part, China has agreed to upgrade Iran’s nuclear industry, especially by supplying new plutonium plants.
Obama’s “chance in a lifetime” diplomatic coup is nothing but a shady deal between the Democrat Party and the Khomeinist faction in Tehran led by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani. The “deal” was prompted by calculations pertaining to domestic politics in the US and Iran. It leaves intact the potential threat that Iran’s nuclear ambitions continue to pose for peace and stability in the Middle East.

U.S. and West Victimize Christians Fleeing ISIS
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/September 06/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6445/west-victimizes-christians
Western nations are not merely ignoring Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East, they are actively supporting it by sponsoring "moderate" rebels who in reality are as "radical" and anti-Western as the Islamic State.
"Why the federal government has failed to take steps to expedite such reunification in cases where family and religious leaders are willing to vouch for and help those seeking asylum here... remains an unfathomable mystery." — East County Magazine, San Diego.
Such "unfathomable mysteries" are reminiscent of the U.S. State Department's habit of inviting Muslim representatives but denying visas to Christian representatives. Since the start of 2015, 4,205 Muslims have been admitted into the U.S. from Iraq, but only 727 Christians. For every Christian granted asylum, the U.S. grants asylum to five or six Muslims -- even though Christians, as persecuted "infidel" minorities, are in much greater need of sanctuary.
"Most European governments, especially those that are Christian explicitly or implicitly, are failing in their duty to look after their fellow Christians in their hour of need." — Lord Weidenfeld.
When persecuted Christian minorities manage to flee the Islamic State and come to the West for asylum, they are imprisoned again. All the while, Muslims -- in the Mideast and in the West -- are being empowered and welcomed in the West with open arms.
Not only does the West facilitate the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, but in the West as well.
According to a recent NPR report, the U.S. supported "moderate" coalition fighting both Bashar Assad and the Islamic State in Syria "has extremists in its own ranks who have mistreated Christians and forced them out of their homes" -- just as the Islamic State (IS) has done.
Christian minorities forced out of their homes who manage to reach Western nations -- including the United States -- sometimes encounter more trouble.
Despite having family members to sponsor them, a group of 20 Christians who fled the Islamic State in Iraq have been imprisoned indefinitely, some since February, at the Otay Detention Facility in San Diego, even though they have local family members and Christian leaders who vouch for them (a primary way that the majority of detained foreign nationals are released is to the supervision of American citizens who vouch for them).
Activists say that the men and women in detention have been held for too long, including by the U.S. government's own standards. Some have been imprisoned for over seven months with no hearing date for release even set.
"They are being held without a real reason.... They've escaped hell. Let's allow them to reunite with their families," said Mark Arabo, a spokesman for the Chaldean community in San Diego.
The detainees include a woman who had escaped the clutches of IS, and who had pleaded to see her sickly mother. Her mother died before she could see her. "She had been begging to be let out to see her dying mother," said a priest familiar with the case.
Discussing the ongoing plight of these Iraqi Christians, San Diego's East County Magazine concluded: "Why the federal government has failed to take steps to expedite such reunification in cases where family and religious leaders are willing to vouch for and help those seeking asylum here, then, remains an unfathomable mystery."
Such "unfathomable mysteries" are reminiscent of the U.S. State Department's habit of inviting Muslim representatives but denying visas to Christian representatives. Since the start of 2015, 4,205 Muslims have been admitted into the U.S. from Iraq, but only 727 Christians. For every one Christian the U.S. grants asylum, it grants asylum to five or six Muslims -- even though Christians, as persecuted "infidel" minorities, are in much greater need of sanctuary, not to mention more assimilating to American culture than Muslims.
Faith McDonnell, of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, said regarding the detainment of Iraqi Christians in San Diego:
This follows the disturbing pattern that we have seen from the State Department of ignoring the particular targeting of Christians by ISIS while giving preferential treatment for asylum to other groups with expedited processing -- like Somalis, Iraqis, and Syrians, some of whom could very well be members of jihadist movements.
The same is happening in the United Kingdom. Church leaders accuse David Cameron of "turning his back" on Christians facing genocide in Syria and Iraq by failing to grant them refuge in the UK -- even though thousands of Muslims have been allowed entry.
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, signed a petition calling on the UK government to "welcome Christian refugees and give them priority as asylum seekers," emphasizing that "Syrian and Iraqi Christians are being butchered, tortured and enslaved."
Similarly, Lord Weidenfeld, 95, who fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 with the help of British Quakers, said:
Why is it that the Poles and the Czechs are taking in Christian families and yet the British government stands idly by?
This mood of indifference is reminiscent of the worst phases of appeasement, and may have catastrophic consequences. Europe must awake and the Conservative British Government should be leading from the front.
Most European governments, especially those that are Christian explicitly or implicitly, are failing in their duty to look after their fellow Christians in their hour of need.
This is not necessarily true of east European nations. Along with countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia, Slovakia recently went so far as to say it will only accept Christians when it takes in Syrian refugees under an EU relocation scheme. The Slavic nation argues that "Muslims would not be accepted because they would not feel at home," including because there are no mosques in Slovakia.
Meanwhile, many of those Christians who are granted asylum in Western countries arrive there only to be further persecuted by Muslim asylum seekers -- indicating, once again, who does and who does not really need asylum; who does and who does not assimilate in Western culture.
Most recently in Sweden, two small families of Christian asylum seekers from Syria were recently harassed and abused by approximately 80 Muslim asylum seekers, also from Syria.
The Christians and Muslims -- described by one Swedish newspaper as "fundamentalist Islamists" -- resided in the same asylum house. Among other humiliations, the Muslims ordered the Christians not to wear their crosses around their necks and not to use the communal areas when in use by Muslims.
Asylum seekers in the Swedish city of Kalmar, where Christian refugees were forced to move out of public housing after being harassed and threatened by Muslims.
After continuous harassment and threats, these Christian refugees, who had managed to escape the Islamic State, left the Swedish asylum house "fearing for their own safety." A spokesman for the government migration agency responsible for the center they had been staying in said:
"They dared not stay. The atmosphere became too intimidating. And they got no help... They chose themselves to organize new address and moved away without our participation because they felt a discomfort."
Western nations are not merely ignoring Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East, they are actively supporting it by sponsoring "moderate" rebels who in reality are as "radical" and anti-Western as the Islamic State. And when these persecuted Christian minorities manage to flee the Islamic State and come to the West for asylum, they are imprisoned again. All the while, Muslims -- in the Mideast and in the West --
*Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War in Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).

Sorry, Egypt No Longer a Province of the Ottoman Empire
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/September 06/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6450/egypt-turkey
Egypt is increasingly unnerved by overt Turkish activity to support the Muslim Brotherhood politically, and covert Turkish activity to support alleged subversion.
Erdogan's obsessive shadow-fighting with the Egyptian regime in the hope of rebuilding a Muslim Brotherhood regime in the former Ottoman "Khedivate" is bad news: it undermines any Western effort to stabilize -- relatively -- the turbulent Middle East.
In August, possibly the first cheerful news containing the words "Turkey" and "Egypt" hit the headlines in the Turkish press since July 2013, when Egypt's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spearheaded a coalition to remove Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Turkish chargé d'affaires in Cairo (Turkey and Egypt withdrew their ambassadors after a row) married an Egyptian actress and former beauty queen on August 2. Their wedding was by attended by Turkish, Egyptian and foreign diplomats at a Turkish embassy residence in Giza.
At the wedding ceremony, the Turkish groom, Alper Bosuter, said that Turkey's relations with Egypt have been tense but would eventually return to their normal course. The Egyptian bride, Inci Abdullah, said she wished their marriage to have a positive effect on the two countries' relations.
Best wishes. But not so fast, given Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's obsession about building a Muslim Brotherhood regime in Cairo.
In 1805, Muhammad Ali Pasha ["Kavalali Mehmet Ali Pasa" in Turkish], an Ottoman army commander of Albanian origin, seized power in Egypt. His dynasty would rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952. Under his rule, Egypt was nominally an Ottoman province. In 1867, Egypt was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or "khedivate." It would remain an Ottoman "khedivate" until 1914.
With the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2012, Turkey's neo-Ottomans, most notably (then prime minister) Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (then foreign minister) miscalculated that Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, could once again become a "khedivate" of an emerging Turkish empire, with its Muslim Brother rulers paying servitude to their Turkish ideological next of kin.
Instead, today, Morsi is imprisoned, a death sentence hanging over his head, possibly never to be executed; Muslim Brothers are on Egypt's terror list; Turkey and Egypt have downgraded their diplomatic relations to the level of chargé d'affaires; and hostilities between Turkey's ruling Islamists and Egypt's ruling Muslims are deepening every day, with no prospect of normalization in the foreseeable future.
Erdogan keeps on investing in the Muslim Brotherhood, politically and otherwise. No doubt, the Brotherhood's famous "Rabia" sign, four fingers raised, the symbol of Brotherhood's riots against President Sisi, will be cheerfully featured at election rallies in Turkey -- by Erdogan -- in the run up to renewed parliamentary elections on Nov. 1.
The Muslim Brotherhood "Rabia" sign was a major election campaign theme used by the Turkey's ruling Islamists in the last three elections: municipal (March 2014), presidential (August 2014) and parliamentary (June 7, 2015). There is no reason why it should be abandoned, as Erdogan et al view it as an inexpensive and easy vote-catcher.
In this image, widely circulated in social media, Turkey's then-Prime Minister [now President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan flashes the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's four-fingered "Rabia" sign.
Meanwhile, Egypt is increasingly unnerved by overt Turkish activity to support the Muslim Brotherhood politically, and covert Turkish activity to support alleged subversion.
In July, news reports said that the Egyptian military had captured Turkish intelligence officers and jihadists involved in guerrilla warfare targeting Egypt and Sisi's regime. An Egyptian news site provided the names of a Turkish intelligence officer and his Arab operatives, who were captured and accused of attacks against Egyptian troops stationed in the Sinai Peninsula. Moreover, Egyptian officials often accuse Turkey of providing safe haven to Muslim Brotherhood terrorists, including their broadcasts from Turkish territory.
Erdogan's obsessive shadow-fighting with the Egyptian regime in the hope of rebuilding a Muslim Brotherhood regime in the former Ottoman "khedivate" is bad news: it undermines any Western effort to stabilize -- relatively -- the turbulent Middle East.
To augment any allied campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) the United States needs regional support. Egypt remains a staunch ally in the war against radical Islamists. Turkey has just recently joined the coalition campaign after several months of negotiations with its NATO allies. But Turkey's deep ideological problems with Egypt would only weaken the allied-plus-regional-powers effort against ISIS.
In remarks late in July, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said: "For a long time now, we have called on all states in the region to be more forthcoming in dealing with the ISIS threat, including monitoring and control of borders. Unfortunately, this has not been the case with Turkey."
The neo-Ottoman ambitions of Turkey's Islamists, to make Egypt a "neo-khedivate," have crashed into the wall of Middle Eastern realities. But those ambitions are still alive and kicking, and could damage a cohesive allied fight against the jihadists.
**Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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