Report: Syrian Rebels Behead Christian Man and Feed His Body to Dogs

 

 

It seems there’s no lowest point to the depravity of those murdering the innocent in Syria, and that includes atrocities carried out by those whom the West has decided to support. With each new atrocity, one can’t help thinking “It couldn’t be worse.” Well, it just got worse.

A leading nun in Syria is reporting that a young Christian man in Syria was beheaded by jihadi rebels who then fed his mutilated body to dogs.

Speaking to Britain’s Sunday Times, Agnes-Mariam de la Croix – who is mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated located between Damascus and Homs – said of the incident which occurred in early December: “They beheaded him, cut him into pieces and fed him to the dogs.”

She says 38-year-old Andrei Arbashe was a newlywed whose wife was about to give birth.
Those who killed him apparently acted after Arbashe’s brother was overheard complaining the rebels were “behaving like bandits.”
The Sunday Times reports:

Sister Agnes-Mariam, who has been keeping a macabre scorecard of such atrocities, believes that his fault, in the eyes of his killers, was his Christian faith.
“The uprising has been hijacked by Islamist mercenaries who are more interested in fighting a holy war than in changing the government,” she told The Sunday Times on a recent visit to Paris. “It’s turned into a sectarian conflict,” she added. “One in which Christians are paying a high price.”
 

A highly educated Carmelite nun of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, Sister Agnes-Mariam fled Syria over the summer after being warned that she was on the rebels’ “blacklist” for abduction.

She has been on an international tour since then to warn the world about the uprising’s “extremist” drift as the conflict turns into a magnet for Islamist mercenaries from all over the world, including Britain.

No video or still photographs have emerged to document the atrocity, and TheBlaze cannot verify the nun’s account.

Just last month, a Syrian opposition group posted a graphic video which showed a child helping rebels behead a man with a machete.

President Bashar Assad – even while ruling with an iron fist – for the most part protected Syria’s minorities including Christians and Alawites of which Assad himself is a member.

As the bloodletting continues and the Sunni rebel forces have been hijacked by al-Qaeda supporting extremists, Christians fear they won’t be safe in a post-Assad era. They are also worried that if Al Qaeda-inspired Islamist rebels take control, they could establish Sharia law as the law of the land as occurred in Egypt.

The Associated Press reported last week that Syrian Christians were keeping a low profile, afraid to even put up Christmas trees in their homes lest they draw the attention of the jihadis.

“Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria’s population of more than 22 million, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence that has been sweeping the country since March 2011.
They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups,” wrote the AP.

Since Saddam Hussein was ousted from power in 2003, hundreds of thousands of Christians fled Iraq as Islamic militants targeted them.

Sister Agnes-Mariam characterizes the Syrian Christians’ predicament as being caught between Assad’s Alawites – an offshoot of Shiite Islam – and the opposition Sunnis, like “filling in a sandwich.”

She is sharply critical of western nations for supporting the rebels even though the extremists among them are violating basic human rights. She tells the Sunday Times:

“They want to impose sharia,” said Agnes-Mariam, 60. “It’s a scandal that the free and democratic world is supporting extremists,” she added in a reference to western backing for the coalition.
Some have accused her of being a propagandist for the dictator Assad: her claim that rebel forces were responsible for the Houla massacre in which more than 100 civilians died, half of them children, has been challenged by a United Nations commission of inquiry, which blamed the regime.

The Daily Mail quoted the nun saying that militants wearing Al Qaeda black bandanas recently placed a two-day siege on her monastery to try to prevent Christians from celebrating the Christmas holiday.

She estimates that 300,000 Christians have been displaced since the conflict began in March 2011, including 80,000 forced out of the Homs region.

A new study released on Christmas Eve reported Christianity is in serious danger of being wiped out in the Middle East because of Islamic oppression. The report titled “Christianophobia” said Christians are suffering more persecution around the world than any other religious group mainly due to “Islamic oppression.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-syrian-rebels-behead-christian-man-and-feed-his-body-to-dogs/ 



THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING EVERYONE MUST KNOW. WATCH.

FDA secretly legalizes GM salmon during holidays while nobody was watching

(NaturalNews) Once the bastion of purity, seafood has now entered the realm of "manufactured" sustenance, thanks to a couple of U.S. government bureaucracies.

The Food and Drug Administration has granted permission to a firm that will allow it to produce GM salmon, a decision that has been called a genetically modified food "breakthrough" by breathless journalists who obviously don't understand the gravity of what has just occurred.

According to Britain's Independent newspaper, the FDA's decision means the salmon - which reportedly grow twice as fast as ordinary fish - "could become the first genetically-modified animal in the world to be declared officially safe to eat."

In reaching its decision FDA officials said they couldn't find any valid scientific reasons to ban production of GM Atlantic salmon, which are engineered using extra genes from two other species of fish - the Pacific Chinook salmon and an eel-like species called the ocean pout.

A 'perfect storm' of deceit regarding GM foods

The agency's decision clears the last legal hurdle that stood in the way of GM fish production; reports said the FDA's decision is liable to put renewed pressure on producers of salmon in Britain and throughout Europe to follow its lead.

As in the past, government scientists - inside the U.S., the United Kingdom and elsewhere - have bought off on the notion of genetically modified foods as a way of increasing the world's food supply in general; consumers, however, have always taken a much more cautious approach (as they should).

Misguided supporters of GM fish think the newly created salmon will make it easier and cheaper to produce on salmon farms, but they are also buying into the notion that manufacturing GM fish will be better for the environment because they can also be grown on land-based farms.

A couple years ago Sir John Beddington, Britain's current chief scientist, warned there would be a "perfect storm" of a swelling global population combined with climate change and food shortages, making it "very hard to see how it would be remotely sensible to justify not using new technologies such as GM."

Those "warnings" have become typical of GM proponents - scare tactics aimed at forcing acceptance of a "science" that enriches the companies managing it at the expense of the people they are allegedly trying to serve.

Opponents of GM fish have it right: They argue that introducing such fast-growing salmon creates unacceptable risks to human health and the environment; they also know that permitting genetically modified fish to be produced will likely lead to more GM animal production, which could eventually destroy entire food chains.

Before issuing its decision, the FDA had already said the salmon was fit for human consumption, but in a draft environmental assessment published recently but written in May, the agency went a step further, "declaring that the production of the GM fish is unlikely to have any detrimental impact on the wider environment," the paper said.

Opponents disagree. Dubbing the GM salmon "Frankenfish," they warn that the modified species could at some point escape into the wild then interbreed with wild fish, thereby undermining the genetics of certain species, especially the endangered Atlantic salmon, known as the "king of fishes" grown on fish farms in the UK.

It's a biotech food world

AquaBounty Technologies of Maynard, Mass., which has developed the AquAdvantage salmon, has downplayed any such threat, saying they will be only be grown as sterile females and kept in secure, land-based containers.

The FDA concurred the risk is negligible, saying such an occurrence would be "extremely remote" at best.

"[The] FDA has made the preliminary determination it is reasonable to believe that approval of the AquAdvantage salmon NADA [New Animal Drug Application] will not have any significant impacts on the quality of the human environment of the United States (including populations of endangered Atlantic salmon) when produced and grown under the conditions of use for the proposed action," said the FDA assessment.

It sounds like it is just a matter of time before we can add GM fish to the growing list of modified foods that already exist around the world.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038501_GM_salmon_FDA_GMO.html#ixzz2Gs36LByu

Birds falling from sky in Tennessee

Dead starlings litter roadways, fields

 

(MOUNTAIN PRESS) Residents and those passing by near Dogwood Hills subdivision on Boyd Creek Highway Sunday afternoon were met with an unusual scene. Dozens of dead birds littered the highway and surrounding fields after falling from the sky.
Sgt. Robert Stoffle of the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department said a call about the birds came in around 1:15 p.m. He said a witness reported seeing the birds in flight before turning back around to see them on the ground.
“It covered one lane of traffic,” Stoffle said of the bodies of the birds. Estimates of the number of birds varied from between 30 and 60 up to 300. They appeared to be starlings.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/birds-falling-from-sky-in-tennessee/#If1sA6hmiewvIwhI.99

8 deadly agents 'to bring U.S. to its knees'

DigitalGlobe Image, May 2012 - Shahid Bahonar Microbial Plant in Marzanabad – Iran

Iranian scientists, working under orders from the radicals running the Islamic regime, have genetically altered microbial agents in a nightmarish scheme to bring the West to its knees.
According to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit with knowledge of Iran’s microbial research and development, the scientists, with Russian and North Korean help, currently possess eight extremely dangerous microbial agents that, if unleashed, could kill millions of people.
As reported exclusively on WND on Dec. 16, the source revealed the existence of a plant in Marzanabad, Iran, where 12 Russian and 28 Iranian scientists are working on microbial agents for bombs. At that time, the source disclosed that Iran was working on 18 agents, with four completed. He has now provided information that with work at two other plants, Iran has created a total of eight microbial agents, with research on insects to be used as the vector to infect the societies of its enemies.
The eight agents are anthrax, encephalitis (the blueprint of this virus, Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis, was provided by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in an agreement two years ago with the Islamic regime), yellow grain (developed with the help of North Korea), SARS, Ebola, cholera, smallpox and plague.
Iran, with North Korea’s help, has genetically altered the smallpox virus that makes current vaccinations useless against it. And research at two facilities that act as drug companies but are fronts for the deadly research shows insects can be used as the vector to carry plague, infamous as the “Black Death,” according to the source.
The outbreak of plague in the Middle Ages killed one-third of Europe’s population, and it resurfaced in the 19th century in Asia, killing millions in China and India.
Discover the astonishing double life of a CIA agent inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran with Reza Kahlili’s “A Time to Betray,” from the WND Superstore!
The radicals ruling Iran believe their planned microbial attacks cannot be traced to them, the source said. Through various commerce channels and trade with Europe and even through Mexico into the U.S., the regime could release the infected insects and small rodents into populated cities, causing an epidemic that could possibly kill tens of millions of people, he said.
“The most dangerous biological weapons agents today are genetically modified or even synthetically created in a laboratory in ways that not only make them more contagious, infectious and lethal, but also are intended to defy existing vaccine countermeasures,” said Clare M. Lopez, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. “Among such (biological weapons) agents are (genetically-modified) strains of anthrax, plague and smallpox.
“The open-source literature consistently describes Russia and North Korea as sources of such strains and the scientific know-how to create and deploy them,” Lopez said. “Likewise, Iran and Syria are reported to be among the recipients of such deadly (biological weapons) agents; each of these countries also has an extensive medical and pharmaceutical research and development infrastructure within which to produce (and also conceal) its BW programs. Both Iran and Syria also have shared not only these pathogens, but the artillery, ballistic missile and munitions technology with each other and, likely, with Hezbollah as well, for delivery of such pathogens.”
Lopez said that insects such as fleas, flies and mosquitoes long have been recognized as natural vectors for the spread of deadly diseases and that disease-bearing insects have been used in warfare for centuries, perhaps most notoriously by the Japanese during WW II against China, causing the death of hundreds of thousands. While cholera typically is not fatal if treated quickly, some strains can kill within hours. Bubonic plague has been the cause of some of the greatest pandemics in world history.
The Revolutionary Guards source added that the Islamic regime has already armed 37 of its ballistic missiles with microbial agents, which upon launch would spray targeted areas as opposed to an explosion. It has also armed cluster bombs with such agents, which could be dropped from fighter jets spraying an intended area.
What makes it worse, the source said, is that Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist proxies of the regime have now been armed with microbial weapons. As reported in the Washington Times in August, chemical and microbial weapons have been transferred to Iran’s proxies in the region.
The West, with its soft approach on the radical regime in Iran, has provided the needed time not only for it to arm itself with some of the most deadliest biological weapons but also, with the help of North Korea, to get the nuclear bomb, and, despite what the West believes, is now working to arm its missiles with such weapons of mass destruction, the source said.
Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and author of the award-winning book “A Time to Betray” (Simon & Schuster, 2010). He serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI).

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/8-deadly-agents-to-bring-u-s-to-its-knees/#JVy5GcVQiCiK0oHK.99

LOOK AT THE TIES THAT ARE BINDING PEOPLE! 2013 WILL BE EVENTFUL WE BETTER PRAY AND WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY WITH YWEH!

 

Russia and India Sign $3 Billion Weapons Agreement

 

India agreed Monday of last week to buy $2.9 billion worth of Russian military equipment, as Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit to the longtime Kremlin ally. The quantities at play here mean these transactions are, literally, a big deal—It’s the equivalent of one fifth of Russia’s total defense sales in 2011.

The agreement says India will buy kits to assemble 42 Sukhoi-30 fighter jets for $1.6 billion, and 71 Mi-17 military helicopters for $1.3 billion. Russia has custom designed the jets specifically for India, and they are engineered to become the very backbone of the nation’s air force. Russia and India have also recently collaborated on a supersonic missile for the Sukhoi-30s, and India is rumored to be equipping this jet to deliver its nuclear weapons.
Civilian trade between Russia and India is also thriving. Since 2000, it has increased by 600 percent, and though growth has slowed some in recent years, Mr. Putin aims to accelerate it once again. Total annual trade for 2012, for example, is expected to be around $10 billion, and Putin wants this figure to rise to $20 billion by 2015.
As these last weeks’ deals —and the broader trends—show, the military ties between Moscow and New Delhi run deep. At last Monday’s meeting, Mr. Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh praised the accelerating military cooperation between the two nations, which marks a stark contrast from the pattern of earlier years when India sought to Westernize its military assets following several setbacks with Russian arms deals. New Delhi’s return to Moscow for weapons represents a significant economic loss for the Western nations that had previously enjoyed India’s business. And the indications are that Russia-India ties will continue to strengthen in the years ahead.
China and Russia are the regional behemoths driving the biblically prophesied cooperation of Eastern powers, which the Trumpet has been monitoring and reporting on for decades. India could play a role in this Oriental group, as well. To understand the significance of this Asian cooperation, and how it is connected to the most inspiring and hope-filled event that Earth has ever seen, read Russia and China in Prophecy. ▪

https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10230.21774.0.0/world/military/russia-and-india-sign-3-billion-weapons-agreement

Wars and Rumors of Wars!

 

China and Germany Strengthen Cooperation With Nigeria

 

In many ways Nigeria is becoming the new Somalia. Like the Somali al-Shabaab terrorist militia, Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents are unleashing a wave of religiously-motivated violence across the country. Like the Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, West African pirates are now terrorizing ships off the coasts of Nigeria and across the Gulf of Guinea.

Although pirates have been attacking ships in the oil-rich Niger Delta since the 1980s, their attacks have increased in frequency and severity in the last three years. According to Foreign Policy magazine, between January and September of 2012, pirates attacked 42 vessels in the Gulf of Guinea—taking 168 crew members hostage. Just last month, a group of Somali pirates operating off the Nigerian coast looted a German oil tanker, taking five Indian sailors hostage.
Analysts are attributing this rise in piracy to the fact that the Nigerian coast is largely unregulated and without an adequate maritime police force. This was not always the case.
After Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807, the African Oyo Empire began to decline and eventually collapsed. British influence in the Niger region then gradually increased over the course of the 19th century until Nigeria became an official British colony in 1900. Operating from this new colony, the British military was able to end the slave trade in the region and keep the Gulf of Guinea free from pirates. After Nigerian independence in 1960, with Britain’s global power in decline, the United States took on more maritime policing responsibilities.
Although the U.S. Navy is still involved in the Gulf of Guinea, its efforts to keep the waterways safe have proved ineffective. This has prompted other world powers to increase their military presence in the region.
Just last August, the Chinese military had discussions with the Nigerian government to upgrade the Nigerian Navy. During the discussions, Chinese military attaché to Nigeria, Kang Honglin, pointed to the fact that China has already helped Nigeria set up an ammunition assembly line. He then went on to talk about China’s desire to provide the Nigerian Navy with both the training and equipment necessary to secure the Gulf of Guinea.
The German military is also very involved with Nigeria, although Berlin’s focus has been more on combating terrestrial-based Islamic extremist than it has been on combating marine-based pirates. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in discussion with the Nigerian president last August wherein she offered German military training to Nigerian soldiers combating Boko Haram Islamic insurgents. Such military training would be a big step toward ensuring the safe passage of Nigerian oil supplies to both European and Oriental markets.
Foreign affairs analysts rank Nigeria as one of Africa’s three most geopolitically important nations. As Egypt’s fate determines the stability of Northern Africa and South Africa’s fate determines the stability of sub-Saharan Africa, so Nigeria’s fate determines the stability of the oil-rich nations surrounding the Gulf of Guinea. This fact is not lost on the political leaders of China or Germany—who are taking great pains to develop bilateral relations with Nigeria.
As America grapples with the fiscal cliff and financial decline, China and Germany are increasing their military presence in an African nation vital to global seaborne trade.
Deuteronomy 28 and Isaiah 23 foretell a time when a temporary German-Chinese alliance will ally against the United States in a great, global trade war. For a detailed explanation of this prophecy, read Chapter Seven of editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision. ▪

https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10236.21784.0.0/economy/trade/china-and-germany-strengthen-cooperation-with-nigeria

The United States is abandoning Britain in favor of a new friend—the European Union.

 

 

British Euroskeptics have long dreamed of leaving the European Union and forming a new relationship with the Commonwealth and the United States. Unlike the EU, this alliance would share Britain’s fundamental values—their laws flow from the same tradition. It would be a trade alliance that would benefit all involved.

The problem is, America’s not interested. It’s more pro-European than most of Europe is.
America’s response to Britain’s growing Euroskepticism shows that it views Britain as a bridge to Europe, rather than an important ally in its own right. If Britain leaves the EU, its usefulness to America is over.
The UK Independence Party is growing in popularity. Prime Minister David Cameron recently said that a British EU exit was “imaginable.” Faced with this shift, U.S. President Barack Obama himself is reportedly lobbying Cameron to keep Britain in.
The Telegraph’s diplomatic correspondent Alex Spillius reported that “the issue was raised by President Barack Obama in a video-conference call with the prime minister” on December 18.
American diplomats are also raising the issue. “It is important to state very clearly that a strong UK in a strong Europe is in America’s national interest,” Spillius reported a “senior U.S. administration official” as saying.
The sheer hypocrisy of a nation formed because it didn’t want foreign control over its affairs (no taxation without representation) telling Britain that it must subordinate itself to Brussels has offended many in Britain. But America’s shift in priorities has some logic. Britain used to be a major power, and the European Union used to be a bickering trading organization. Now, Britain is steadily shrinking in power and prestige while Europe is growing into a more powerful political union (though the bickering continues.)
Britain doesn’t have the clout that it used to, so America is looking for a new ally that does.
The fact is, the U.S. administration no longer sees Britain as its friend. Its friend is Europe. The administration’s European track record proves it.
Washington-based foreign affairs correspondent Nile Gardiner details this track record in a blog post for the Telegraph. In January 2011, America’s ambassador to the UK, Louis Susman, said, “I want to stress that the UK needs to remain in the EU.”
Stronger British participation in Europe “is crucial if, together, we are going to meet all the global challenges facing us, including climate change and security,” he said. “But let’s be clear: All key issues must run through Europe.”
In 2010, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Brussels could claim the title of “capital of the free world.” He praised steps toward closer integration, like the signing of the Lisbon Treaty. “The Obama-Biden administration has no doubt about the need for and strongly supports a vibrant European Union,” he said. “We believe it’s absolutely essential to American prosperity and long-term security.”
Now, America’s support for Europe could be set to move beyond rhetoric. Many commentators expect a new U.S.-EU trade initiative to be announced early this year.
“Despite approving noises from both sides of the ocean over the years, a comprehensive EU-U.S. trade deal has never seriously been attempted,” wrote the Wall Street Journal last month. “That could be about to change, and a good thing too.”
Both sides see a transatlantic free-trade deal as a cost-free way to boost the economy.
European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht recently said that “Perhaps not a marriage, but certainly a closer partnership” between the EU and the U.S. was in order. De Gucht is still discussing the feasibility of such a plan with U.S. authorities, but said, “I am confident we will be able to deliver it very soon.”
The idea also has strong support in the U.S. In November, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the idea, saying, “If we work at it, and if we get this right, an agreement that opens markets and liberalizes trade would shore up our global competitiveness for the next century, creating jobs and generating hundreds of billions of dollars for our economies.”
President Obama, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy called for “a bold initiative to expand trade and investment” in a joint statement earlier in the year.
“2013 presents the best moment for a serious U.S. trade initiative since Mr. Obama was first elected,” wrote Edward Luce in the Financial Times just over a week ago. “Most European governments, including the French and particularly the Germans and British, are also enthusiastic.”
Luce sees the deal as more than an economic partnership. He heralded “the geostrategic benefits to what is likely to be called the ‘transatlantic partnership.’”
“By 2030, Asia’s economy will be larger than that of the U.S. and EU combined according to the U.S. National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends report,” he wrote.
“By acting now when they still account for half the world’s economy, the U.S. and EU still possess the leverage to set the global standards that others, including China, are likely to follow,” he continued. “Five years on, it may be too late. In the words of a senior EU official, the round would be ‘strategic not tactical, global not bilateral.’”
Such a free-trade deal would not be easy. It would require many compromises, which Brussels may not be willing to make. But the recent surge in interest in a transatlantic free-trade partnership shows that America is keen on pursuing an alliance with Europe.
Even America’s so-called “Asian pivot” is pushing it toward this alliance. It’s a little counterintuitive, but if America wants to focus more attention on Asia, then it must have a strong, reliable partner across the Atlantic to cover for it. This is why America is trying to persuade EU countries to spend more on defense, rather than relying on the U.S. The U.S. seems like it would even favor a strong military union in Europe.
It’s still a bit of an exaggeration to say the EU is now America’s new best friend. It’s the direction transatlantic relations are heading, not a destination that has already been reached.
But they will get there. Two important trends the Trumpet has watched for years are the breakdown in relations between Britain, America and Israel, and America’s growing love for Europe, and especially Europe’s leader, Germany.
America can see that its global power is diminishing. But rather than addressing the cause of it, it is trying to build up a new power in Europe.
The loss of America’s power ultimately gets back to individual morality and a refusal to trust God for deliverance. This loss of power isn’t causing the U.S. to turn back to God in repentance; instead America is turning to its new European ally.
Bible prophecy reveals that this trust will be betrayed in a frightening and horrible way, but it will teach America a vital lesson. The American people will ultimately learn to trust God, not other nations, for protection.

https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10239.21791.0.0/britain/americas-new-best-friend

Iranian Meddling in the Gulf Triggers GCC Coalition

 

 

The Gulf Cooperation Council (gcc) has condemned Iran’s interference in the region and is working together to set up a unified, military command.

At the conclusion of a two-day summit December 24-25, the six-member, Saudi-led gcc—which includes Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen and Kuwait—issued a statement that slammed “the continuing Iranian interference in the affairs of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s states and called on Iran to stop these policies.”
Iran has denied any interference in the Gulf—a region that Iran clearly sees as its own backyard, as Reuters reports. Of particular note is Iran’s “backyard” pastime in the nation of Bahrain. Bordering Saudi Arabia and in the neighborhood of the rich Saudi oil fields, Bahrain is strategic for maintaining the economic and geopolitical influence of the Saudis. Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa commented on the “very serious threat” that Iran poses: “Politically, [there is] lots of meddling in the affairs of gcc states … and there is of course the looming nuclear program. [T]he threat level is quite high, but we are ready if faced with circumstances that require action.”
One way the Gulf Cooperation Council is getting “ready” is by integrating its members’ foreign and security polices, and enhancing defense cooperation. The gcc summit communique said the Council had “supported the creation of a unified military command that organizes and plans and leads the ground, naval and air forces.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote that “Saudi Arabia is rallying Muslim nations across the Middle East and Asia to join an informal Arab alliance against Iran.”
Back in 1994, based on Bible prophecy Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry said many of these nations will comprise the prophesied Psalm 83 alliance. Watch for that alliance to team up with Germany against an Iranian-led bloc of nations and, ultimately, against Israel. For the biblical identities of the states that will make up this alliance and more, request Mr. Flurry’s booklet The King of the South. ▪

https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/10240.21792.0.0/middle-east/iran/iranian-meddling-in-the-gulf-triggers-gcc-coalition

Gun checks soar 39 percent, set new record: FBI

 

 

(Reuters) - The number of FBI background checks required for Americans buying guns set a record in December, indicating that more people may purchase one after the Connecticut school massacre stirred interest in self-defense and prompted renewed talk of limits on firearms, according to FBI data.

 

The FBI said it recorded 2.78 million background checks during the month, surpassing the mark set in November of 2.01 million checks - about a 39 percent rise.

The latest monthly figure was up 49 percent over December 2011, when the FBI performed a then-record 1.86 million checks.

Consumer demand for guns appears to have accounted for the uptick in activity. There were no changes in FBI background check procedures that would have affected the December numbers, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.

December is typically the busiest month of the year for checks, however, due in part to Christmas gift sales.

The figures do not represent the number of firearms sold, a statistic the government does not track. They also do not reflect activity between private parties, such as family members or collectors, because federal law requires background checks only for sales from commercial vendors with a federal license.

Someone who passes a background check is eligible to buy multiple firearms.

FBI checks for all of 2012 totaled 19.6 million, an annual record and an increase of 19 percent over 2011.

The FBI system - known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) - "processed transactions following normal established protocols," Fischer said in an email.

The national debate on guns has grown more intense since December 14, when Adam Lanza forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

Lanza also killed his mother, the registered owner of the guns used in the killings, before going to the school.

SHOOTINGS LEAD TO SALES

Interest in guns tends to increase after a mass shooting, as customers fear for personal safety or worry that lawmakers might ban certain firearms.

President Barack Obama has committed to pushing new legislation, possibly including a ban on some semi-automatic weapons, this year.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for firearms-makers, estimates the size of the industry at $4 billion a year. A spokesman for the association did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Shares of gun maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp were up 1.2 percent at $8.54 at Wednesday's close, while those of Sturm Ruger & Co Inc were up 1.1 percent at $45.88, during a broad rally in which the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.5 percent.

Neither company responded to requests for comment.

"The last eight years (have) been very good to be a handgun company. The market has expanded significantly, and long guns having done pretty good, as well," said Smith & Wesson Chief Executive James Debney at a December 12 conference for investors.

The pattern of gun sales rising after a mass shooting is disturbing, said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a Washington group that favors gun control.

"While the majority of Americans look for solutions to stop the next attack, a minority of gun owners runs to hoard the very guns used in the most recent" incidents, Sugarmann said in an email.

Even as gun purchases rise, the share of U.S. households with a gun has been falling for decades, from 54 percent in 1977 to 32 percent in 2010, according to the University of Chicago's General Social Survey.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/us-usa-guns-record-idUSBRE9010H020130102



The illuminati must be proud of themselves!

U.N. lifts Syria death toll to "truly shocking" 60,000

 

 

(Reuters) - More than 60,000 people have died in Syria's uprising and civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday, dramatically raising the death toll in a struggle that shows no sign of ending.

 

In the latest violence, dozens were killed in a rebellious Damascus suburb when a government air strike turned a petrol station into an inferno, incinerating drivers who had rushed there for a rare chance to fill their tanks, activists said.

"I counted at least 30 bodies. They were either burnt or dismembered," said Abu Saeed, an activist who arrived in the area an hour after the 1 p.m. (1100 GMT) raid in Muleiha, a suburb on the eastern edge of the capital.

In the north, rebels launched a major attack to take a military airport, and said they had succeeded in destroying a fighter plane and a helicopter on the ground.

U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said in Geneva that researchers cross-referencing seven sources over five months of analysis had listed 59,648 people killed in Syria between March 15, 2011 and November 30, 2012.

"The number of casualties is much higher than we expected and is truly shocking," she said. "Given that there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013."

There was no breakdown by ethnicity or information about whether the dead were rebels, soldiers or civilians. There was also no estimate of an upper limit of the possible toll.

Previously, the opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group had put the toll at around 45,000 confirmed dead but said the real number was likely to be higher.

FATAL RUSH FOR PETROL

Video footage taken by activists at the scene of the air strike on the petrol station showed the body of a man in a helmet still perched on a motorcycle amid flames engulfing the scene. Another man was shown carrying a dismembered body.

The video could not be verified. The government bars access to the Damascus area to most international media.

The activists said rockets were fired from a nearby government air base at the petrol station and a residential area after the air raid.

"Until the raid, Muleiha was quiet. We have been without petrol for four days and people from the town and the countryside rushed to the station when a state consignment came in," Abu Fouad, another activist at the scene, said by phone.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces also fired artillery and mortars at the capital's rebellious districts of Douma, Irbin and Zamlaka, activists living there said.

After nightfall there was shelling in the Jobar and Assali districts, and fighting occurred in the northern suburb of Harasta, on the highway leading north, Syria's main artery.

Assad's forces control the centre of the capital, while rebels and their sympathizers hold a ring of southern and eastern suburbs that are often hit from the air.

The Observatory said a separate air strike killed 12 members of a family, most of them children, in Moadamiyeh, a southwestern district near the centre of Damascus where rebels have fought for a foothold.

The rebels hold wide swathes of the north and east of the country, but have been unable to protect the areas they control from Assad's air power. Their main targets in recent months have been air bases, with a goal of preventing the government from using its jets and helicopters.

The rebels launched a major attack on Wednesday on Taftanaz, a northern air base which they hope to seize. A statement by the northern rebel Idlib Coordination Committee said they had battled their way to the airport's main command building but were not yet in control of the site.

The statement said the rebels had detonated a car bomb inside the Taftanaz airport grounds and destroyed a helicopter.

A rebel speaking from near the airport told Reuters the base's main sections were still in loyalist hands but rebels had destroyed a fighter jet as well as the helicopter.

The family of an American freelance journalist, James Foley, 39, said on Wednesday he had been missing in Syria since being kidnapped six weeks ago by gunmen. No group has publicly claimed responsibility for his abduction.

Syria was by far the most dangerous country for journalists in 2012, with 28 killed there.

The conflict began in March 2011 with peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule and turned into an armed revolt after months of government repression.

"FOR GOD'S EYES"

Both sides have been accused of committing atrocities in the 21-month-old conflict, but the United Nations says the government and its allies have been more culpable.

In the latest evidence of atrocities, Internet video posted by Syrian rebels shows armed men, apparently fighters loyal to Assad, stabbing two men to death and stoning them with concrete blocks in a summary execution lasting several minutes.

Reuters could not verify the provenance of the footage or the identity of the perpetrators and their victims. The video was posted on Tuesday but it was not clear where or when it was filmed. However it does clearly show a summary execution and torture, apparently being carried out by government supporters.

At one point, one of the assailants says: "For God's eyes and your Lord, O Bashar," an Arabic incantation suggesting actions being carried out in the leader's name.

The video was posted on YouTube by the media office of the Damascus-based rebel First Brigade, which said it had been taken from a captured member of the shabbiha pro-government militia.

The perpetrators show off for the camera, smiling for close-up shots, slicing at the victims' backs, then stabbing them and bashing them with large slabs of masonry.

Syria's civil war is the longest and deadliest conflict to emerge from uprisings that began sweeping the Arab world in 2011 and has developed a significant sectarian element.

Rebels, mostly from the Sunni Muslim majority, confront Assad's army and security forces, dominated by his Shi'ite-derived Alawite sect, which, along with some other minorities, fears revenge if he falls.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8AJ1FK20130102

I am afraid of Russia, America! YOU SHOULD BE TOO! Russian Navy to hold biggest war games in decades

 

 

The four major Russian Navy fleets will hold a joint exercise in late January in the Mediterranean and Black seas. It will be the biggest such event in decades.
­Commands for the Northern, Baltic, Black Sea and Pacific fleets have been preparing for the exercises since December of last year, the Russian Defense Ministry has announced. Warships detached for the event are currently sailing to those regions.
“The primary goal of the exercise is to train issues regarding formation of a battle group consisting of troops of different branches outside of the Russian Federation, planning of its deployment and managing a coordinated action of a joint Navy group in accordance with a common plan,” the ministry’s information department explained.
The exercise will include several scenarios, including the loading of amphibious troops from an unprepared coast in the Northern Caucasus onto transport vessels.
The announcement comes days after the launch of the nuclear-powered submarine Vladimir Monomakh, the third Borei-class strategic submarine cruiser produced in Russia. The vessel, armed with Bulava ICBMs, will become part of the country’s nuclear deterrence force after completing sea trials.
The Russian Navy's five fleets each have their own headquarters. The strongest, the Northern fleet is based in Severomorsk in north-west of the country. The Baltic fleet is based in Kaliningrad, the western Russian enclave on the coast of the Baltic Sea.
The Black Sea fleet is based in Sevastopol, Ukraine, from which Russia rents a naval base. The Pacific fleet is based in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East. The Caspian flotilla is the smallest in the Russian Navy, but is the strongest naval force in the enclosed Caspian Sea.
Warships from the four main fleets conduct joint naval drills on regular basis to streamline command and control for operations. Groups of ships detached from different fleets also often sail for joint missions in the high seas. The patrol in the Mediterranean in August 2012 drew worldwide attention amid rumors that the ships would become involved in the Syrian civil war.

http://rt.com/news/russian-navy-major-exercise-211/

White House wins fight to keep drone killings of Americans secret

 

 

A federal judge issued a 75-page ruling on Wednesday that declares that the US Justice Department does not have a legal obligation to explain the rationale behind killing Americans with targeted drone strikes.
United States District Court Judge Colleen McMahon wrote in her finding this week that the Obama administration was largely in the right by rejecting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times for materials pertaining to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to execute three US citizens abroad in late 2011 [pdf].
Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both US nationals with alleged ties to al-Qaeda, were killed on September 30 of that year using drone aircraft; days later, al-Awlaki’s teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was executed in the same manner. Although the Obama administration has remained largely quiet about the killings in the year since, a handful of statements made from senior White House officials, including Pres. Barack Obama himself, have provided some but little insight into the Executive Branch’s insistence that the killings were all justified and constitutionally-sound. Attempts from the ACLU and the Times via FOIA requests to find out more have been unfruitful, though, which spawned a federal lawsuit that has only now been decided in court.
Siding with the defendants in what can easily be considered as cloaked in skepticism, Judge McMahon writes that the Obama White House has been correct in refusing the FOIA requests filed by the plaintiffs.
"There are indeed legitimate reasons, historical and legal, to question the legality of killings unilaterally authorized by the Executive that take place otherwise than on a 'hot' field of battle," McMahon writes in her ruling. Because her decision must only weigh whether or not the Obama administration has been right in rejecting the FOIA requests, though, her ruling cannot take into consideration what sort of questions — be it historical, legal, ethical or moral — are raised by the ongoing practice of using remote-controlled drones to kill insurgents and, in these instances, US citizens.
"The Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this pronouncement is not lost on me; but after careful consideration, I find myself stuck in a paradoxical situation in which I cannot solve a problem because of contradictory constraints and rules — a veritable Catch-22,” she writes. “I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the Executive Branch of our Government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping the reason for their conclusion a secret.”
Throughout her ruling, Judge McMahon cites speeches from both Pres. Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder in which the al-Awlaki killings are vaguely discussed, but appear to do little more than excuse the administration’s behavior with their own secretive explanations.
“The Constitution’s guarantee of due process is ironclad, and it is essential — but, as a recent court decision makes clear, it does not require judicial approval before the President may use force abroad against a senior operational leader of a foreign terrorist organization with which the United States is at war — even if that individual happens to be a US citizen,” McMahon quotes Mr. Holder as saying during a March 2012 address at Chicago’s Northwestern University. “Holder did not identify which recent court decisions so held,” the judge replies, “Nor did he explain exactly what process was given to the victims of targeted killings at locations far from ‘hot’ battlefields…”
And while both Mr. Holder and Pres. Obama have discussed the killings in public, including one appearance by the president on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Justice Department insists that going further by releasing any legal evidence that supports the executions would be detrimental to national security.
While Judge McMahon ends up agreeing with the White House, she does so by making known her own weariness over how the Obama administration has forced the court to rely on their own insistence that information about the attacks simply cannot be discussed.
“As they gathered to draft a Constitution for their newly liberated country, the Founders — fresh from a war of independence from the rule of a King they styled a tyrant — were fearful of concentrating power in the hands of any single person or institution, and most particular in the executive,” McMahon writes.
Responding to the decision on Wednesday, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer issued a statement condemning the White House’s just-won ability to relieve itself from any fair and honest explanation as to the justification of Americans.
“This ruling denies the public access to crucial information about the government’s extrajudicial killing of US citizens and also effectively green-lights its practice of making selective and self-serving disclosures,” Jameel writes. “As the judge acknowledges, the targeted killing program raises profound questions about the appropriate limits on government power in our constitutional democracy. The public has a right to know more about the circumstances in which the government believes it can lawfully kill people, including US citizens, who are far from any battlefield and have never been charged with a crime.”
The ACLU says they plan to appeal Judge McMahon’s decision and are currently awaiting news regarding a separate lawsuit filed alongside the Center for Constitutional Rights that directly challenges the constitutionality of the targeted kills.
“The government has argued that case should also be dismissed,” the ACLU notes.
In a Wednesday afternoon statement from the Times, assistant general counsel David McCraw says the paper will appeal the ruling as well.
"We began this litigation because we believed our readers deserved to know more about the US government's legal position on the use of targeted killings against persons having ties to terrorism, including US citizens," McCraw says.
Although she ruled against the plaintiffs, Judge McMahon, says McCraw, explained "eloquently … why in a democracy the government should be addressing those questions openly and fully."

http://rt.com/usa/news/drone-kill-mcmahon-obama-245/

US urges Israel, Palestinians to take steps to renew talks

Now is the time for real leadership on the part of the both the Palestinians and Israelis, in order to return to negotiations, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday in a daily press briefing.

"We urge both sides to clearly demonstrate that they’re serious about achieving two states living side by side in peace and security," she continued.

"So we call on Israel, we call on the Palestinians to cease any kind of counterproductive, unilateral actions and to take concrete steps to return to direct negotiations so that all the issues can be discussed, and the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security can be realized," she added.

http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=298220

WHEN WILL YOU GET IT? THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE! Sandy victims' outrage forces Congress to vote on relief package

Obama urges Americans to go to sleep ... "Take the BLUE pill sheeple"

Hobby Lobby responds to Affordable Healthcare Act mandate on abortion-in...

Eminem Becomes A Born Again Christian? What do you think? Don't judge him, PRAY FOR HIM!

 

 

Eminem could now be a born again Christian, according to a new rumor.

A source from the rapper's hometown of Detroit claims to have witnessed Eminem's transformation firsthand through some of his recent actions.
He stated that Eminem has been going through many changes as of late and has removed himself "from the depths of the music industry," and has also refused to conform to what is expected from him in the business.
Eminem, known for his shock value lyrics as well as his vivid storytelling and superior lyrical capabilities confessed to being a Christian on a song on his first album Infinite, which was released before his major label debut The Slim Shady LP.
"But in the midst of this insanity, I've found my Christianity through God and there's a wish he granted me," raps Eminem on "It's Ok." "He showed me how to cope with this stress and hope for the best, instead of moping depressed."
After penning these lyrics, Eminem went on to become an international superstar in the music world, selling millions of albums. The content in his music also continuously changed along the way as he began rapping as his alter ego Slim Shady who could be a serial killer one day and a drug addict the next.During his career, Eminem has also penned inspirational hits such as "Lose Yourself" and "Not Afraid" that were closer to "It's Ok" in terms of positive content.
The rapper has admitted in interviews that he prays on a somewhat regular basis, but still releases music laced with profanity and sexually explicit lyrics.
Many hip-hop artists claim to be Christians and still put out music that is offensive to many believers.
Eminem's recent spiritual transformation is still unconfirmed at this time.

Read more at http://global.christianpost.com/news/eminem-becomes-a-born-again-christian-87584/#Sr2heBequtIXXdK2.99 

It is real funny that this man wants to take away our rights to protect ourselves, but he SHOT an intruder to protect himself? I don't know people, I say this is a double standard!

December 30, 2012

Anti-Gun Senator Shoots Intruder

State Senator R.C. Soles (D - NC)
Long time Anti-Gun Advocate State Senator R.C. Soles, 74, shot one of two intruders at his home just outside Tabor City , N.C. about 5 p.m. Sunday, the prosecutor for the politician's home county said. The intruder, Kyle Blackburn, was taken to a South Carolina hospital, but the injuries were not reported to be life-threatening, according to Rex Gore, district attorney for Columbus, Bladen andBrunswick counties.. The State Bureau of Investigation and Columbus County Sheriff's Department are investigating the shooting, Gore said. Soles, who was not arrested,declined to discuss the incident Sunday evening. "I am not in a position to talk to you," Soles said by telephone. "I'm right in the middle of an investigation." The Senator, who has made a career of being against gun ownership for the general public, didn't hesitate to defend himself with his own gun when he believed he was in immediate danger and he was the victim. In typical hypocritical liberal fashion, the "Do as i say and not as i do" Anti-Gun Activist Lawmaker picked up his gun and took action in what apparently was a self-defense shooting. Why hypocritical you may ask? It is because his long legislative record shows that the actions that he took to protect his family, his own response to a dangerous life threatening situation, are actions that he feels ordinary citizens should not have if they were faced with an identical situation. It has prompted some to ask if the Senator believes his life and personal safety is more valuable than yours or mine. But, this is to be expected from those who believe they can run our lives, raise our kids, and protect our families better than we can.

http://www.tpo.net/anti_gun_senator/

Israel completes main segment of its Egypt border fence

Egyptian Cleric Threatens Egypt’s Christians With Genocide, ‘You Will Be Wiped Off The Face Of The Earth’

 

 

By Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute – “Islamic leaders continue to portray the popular protests against President Morsi and his recently passed Sharia-heavy constitution as products of Egypt’s Christians. Recently, Muslim Brotherhood leader Safwat Hegazy said in an open rally, as captured on video:

A message to the church of Egypt, from an Egyptian Muslim: I tell the church — by Allah, and again, by Allah — if you conspire and unite with the remnants [opposition] to bring Morsi down, that will be another matter…. our red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Muhammad Morsi. Whoever splashes water on it, we will splash blood on him.”

More recently, Dr. Wagdi Ghoneim — who earlier praised Allah for the death of the late Coptic Pope Shenouda, cursing him to hell and damnation on video — made another video, entitled, ‘A Notice and Warning to the Crusaders in Egypt,’ a reference to the nation’s Copts, which he began by saying, ‘You are playing with fire in Egypt, I swear, the first people to be burned by the fire are you [Copts].’ The video was made in the context of the Tahrir protests against Morsi: Islamic leaders, such as Hegazy and Ghoneim, seek to portray the Copts as dominant elements in those protests; according to them, no real Muslim would participate. Ghoneim even went on to say that most of the people at the protests were Copts, ‘and we know you hid your [wrist] crosses by lowering your sleeves.’
The heart of Ghoneim’s message was genocidal: ‘The day Egyptians — and I don’t even mean the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafis, regular Egyptians — feel that you are against them, you will be wiped off the face of the earth. I’m warning you now: do not play with fire!’
Along with trying to incite Egypt’s Muslims against the Copts, and threatening them with annihilation, Ghoneim made other telling assertions, including:

• Addressing the Christians of Egypt as ‘Crusaders,’ once again showing Islam’s simplistic, black-and-white vision, which clumps all Christians — of all nations, past and present, regardless of historical context and denomination — as one, in accordance with an Islamic tradition that states ‘All infidels are one religion.’
• Comparing Christian Copts to animals: ‘Respect yourselves and live with us and we will protect you… Why?… because Allah has forbidden me to be cruel to animals. I’m not trying to compare you to animals … but if I am not cruel to animals or plants, shall I be cruel to a soul created by Allah? You are an infidel in Allah’s sight — and it is for him to judge you. However, when you live in my country, it is forbidden for me to be unjust to you — but that doesn’t mean we are equal. No, oh no.’
• Telling Copts: ‘I want to remind you that Egypt is a Muslim country…. if you don’t like the Muslim Sharia, you have eight countries that have a Cross on their flag [in Europe], so go to them. However, if you want to stay here in Egypt with us, know your place and be respectful. You already have all your rights — by Allah, even more than Muslims… No one investigates your homes, no one investigates your churches. In fact, in the past, the Islamic groups used to fake their IDs and put Christian names on them when they would go out for [jihadi] operations, so that when the police would catch them, they would see they are Christians and be left alone.’ Ghoneim misses the irony of what he says: Police know that Egyptian Christians are not going to engage in terror; Egyptian Muslims are suspect.
• Saying, in mocking tones, towards the end: ‘What do you think — that America will protect you? Let’s be very clear, America will not protect you. If so, it would have protected the Christians of Iraq when they were being butchered!’ — a reference to the fact that, after the U.S. ousted Saddam Hussein, half of Iraq’s Christian population has either been butchered or fled the nation, and all under U.S. auspices.
• Claiming that the Copts are only four million while the Muslims are 85 million — even as Coptic Orthodox Church registries maintain that there are more than 15 million Copts, and most outside analysts say 10 million— and adding that Morsi was only being nice by saying, as he did during one of his speeches: ‘There are no minorities in Egypt.’ Ghoneim fails to explain, if Copts are so few — four million compared to 85 million — how could they be so influential, and flood the Tahrir protests with such large numbers?
• Mocking new Coptic Pope Tawadros—not surprising considering his great hate for the former Pope—by claiming that the new Pope urged Copts to protest; that the new Pope wants to see Morsi and Sharia law fall, and by adding, ‘Is it not enough that you have all those monasteries?’”

http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/egyptian-cleric-threatens-egypts-christians-with-genocide-you-will-be-wiped-off-the-face-of-the-earth/



1 step closer to a one world religion!

The rise of a new religious America

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the woman she replaces in Congress, Mazie Hirono, will be sworn in as the first Buddhist elected to the U.S. Senate.

Welcome to the new religious America.

Religious diversity, of course, has long been part of the American landscape. But in 2012, religious minorities became newly visible and vocal in a society historically dominated by the symbols, values and leaders of the Protestant faith.

Now that Protestants are no longer in the majority – as reported in a study released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in October – even the term “religious minority” will need fresh definition in our newly minted minority-majority nation.

 

The election of Gabbard and Hirono are just two of many recent signals that demographic shifts and changing attitudes are rapidly transforming America’s increasingly crowded public square.

Consider, for example, that for the first time in our history, none of the presidential or vice presidential candidates of either major party was a white Protestant.

Even more remarkable, the Mormon candidate not only received nearly half of the popular vote, but Mitt Romney was supported in large numbers by many evangelical voters that polls previously told us would not vote for a Mormon.

Religious affiliation (or lack of affiliation) is still a factor in public life, but the level of voter acceptance of candidates affiliated with historically unelectable faiths is growing.

When Congress convenes in January, significant numbers of politicians from groups with long histories of discrimination in America – notably Jews, Catholics and Mormons – will fill both chambers, many in leadership positions.

And let’s not overlook the fact that the current U.S. Supreme Court is made up of six Catholic and three Jewish justices and – another first – no Protestant.

Not surprisingly, there has been some backlash and resentment from those who don’t like the changing religious face of America – or who fear a falling away from the “Christian nation” they believe we are intended to be.

In 2012, American Muslims continued to be prime targets of both resentment and fear with debates in many state legislatures over anti-shariah bills and protests in many communities over the building of mosques.

The most tragic religious-bias incident occurred on Aug. 6 when a white supremacist gunman attacked a Sikh temple in Wisconsin (perhaps in the mistaken belief that Sikhs are Muslims), killing six and wounding four.

But 2012 was also the year that American Muslims joined by many interfaith coalitions pushed back, defeating or stalling anti-shariah legislation in a number of states and defeating several anti-Muslim candidates at the ballot box, including Florida Congressman Allen West.

The growing visibility and strength of America’s religious diversity is good news for religious freedom. The First Amendment affords legal protections, but it cannot fully prevent people in the majority from imposing social discrimination and political exclusion on those in the minority.

As James Madison argued at our nation’s founding, religious freedom is best secured in a society of many faiths and beliefs – with none in the majority.

“For where there is such a variety of sects,” wrote Madison, “there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”

Religious diversity, in other words, helps level the playing field, giving people of all faiths and none freedom to compete in the marketplace of ideas.

In religion, as in economics, monopolies stifle growth and innovation. That’s why the end of the Protestant hegemony in America will be no loss for religious people of any tradition, including Protestants.

On the contrary, as domination of one faith recedes, freedom for all faiths and beliefs expands – moving us ever-closer to fulfilling the promise of religious liberty under the First Amendment.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/the-rise-of-a-new-religious-america/2012/12/28/24cc7a8a-5120-11e2-950a-7863a013264b_blog.html