Saturday, February 23, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Laura Bush Demands She Be Removed From Pro-Gay Marriage Ad
End Of Days News
"Mrs. Bush did not approve of her inclusion in this advertisement nor is she associated in any way with the group that made the ad," Anne MacDonald, a spokeswoman for the former first lady, told The Dallas Morning News Thursday morning.
"When she became aware of the advertisement Tuesday night, we requested that the group remove her from it," MacDonald added.
The commercial features a 2010 clip from the former first lady speaking on her support for gay marriage. She tells CNN's Larry King: "When couples are committed to each other and love each other that they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has."
Bush's support for gay marriage came as a surprise to much of the U.S. public, as her husband, former U.S. president George W. Bush, has openly voiced his opposition to gay marriage. He endorsed a 2004 constitutional amendment which would restrict marriage to two people of the opposite sex.
Laura Bush even wrote in her book, Spoken From the Heart, that during the 2004 presidential election, she asked her husband not to make gay marriage a central issue in his campaign platform, as they held opposing views on the issue.
"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."
According to the Respect for Marriage Coalition, this new commercial will reportedly hit various Sunday talk shows on Feb. 24. It is expected to also run as full-page print advertisements in major national newspapers, including The New York Times, and online advertisements will appear in the upcoming days.
Currently, there are two gay marriage cases facing the Supreme Court: California's Proposition 8 gay marriage ban, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
It was announced today that the Obama administration is considering intervening in the Supreme Court's Proposition 8 case in an attempt to urge the court to overturn the state's ban on gay marriage.
U.S. former first lady Laura Bush has requested that her spot be removed from a pro-gay marriage advertisement that launched this week. The ad is part of a $1 million print and broadcast media campaign by the Respect for Marriage Coalition.
"When she became aware of the advertisement Tuesday night, we requested that the group remove her from it," MacDonald added.
The commercial features a 2010 clip from the former first lady speaking on her support for gay marriage. She tells CNN's Larry King: "When couples are committed to each other and love each other that they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has."
Bush's support for gay marriage came as a surprise to much of the U.S. public, as her husband, former U.S. president George W. Bush, has openly voiced his opposition to gay marriage. He endorsed a 2004 constitutional amendment which would restrict marriage to two people of the opposite sex.
Laura Bush even wrote in her book, Spoken From the Heart, that during the 2004 presidential election, she asked her husband not to make gay marriage a central issue in his campaign platform, as they held opposing views on the issue.
The commercial also features previous clips from U.S. President Barack Obama, former vice president Dick Cheney, and former secretary of state Colin Powell, all speaking on their support of gay marriage.
President Obama's clip is taken from his inaugural address earlier this year in January, in which he said:"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."
According to the Respect for Marriage Coalition, this new commercial will reportedly hit various Sunday talk shows on Feb. 24. It is expected to also run as full-page print advertisements in major national newspapers, including The New York Times, and online advertisements will appear in the upcoming days.
Currently, there are two gay marriage cases facing the Supreme Court: California's Proposition 8 gay marriage ban, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
It was announced today that the Obama administration is considering intervening in the Supreme Court's Proposition 8 case in an attempt to urge the court to overturn the state's ban on gay marriage.
Respect For Marriage- Leadership
End Of Days News
New pro-gay marriage advertisement by the Respect for Marriage Coalition features President Barack Obama, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former first lady Laura Bush, and former secretary of State Colin Powell
Read more at http://global.christianpost.com/news/obama-cheney-bush-and-powell-in-new-pro-gay-marriage-ad-90436/#A4DAEkKR1oQTrCmw.99
New pro-gay marriage advertisement by the Respect for Marriage Coalition features President Barack Obama, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former first lady Laura Bush, and former secretary of State Colin Powell
Read more at http://global.christianpost.com/news/obama-cheney-bush-and-powell-in-new-pro-gay-marriage-ad-90436/#A4DAEkKR1oQTrCmw.99
In 1933 it happened! Will Obama Confiscate Guns and Gold?
End Of Days News
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 1933 GOLD HEIST
Roosevelt was inaugurated as President on March 4th, 1933. He immediately moved to outlaw the private ownership of gold. He proceeded in several steps.
On March 6th, FDR issued Proclamation 2039 that declared a bank holiday in order to halt “heavy and unwarranted withdrawals of gold and currency from our banking institutions for the purpose of hoarding”; that is, to cease redeeming money for gold or releasing client-held gold from its vaults. FDR blamed the “severe drain on the Nation’s stocks of gold” on foreign speculation and individual hoarding, which were causing a “national emergency.” The President assumed the power to “investigate, regulate or prohibit” the so-called wrongful use of gold. Americans violating the Proclamation or the regulations produced under its authority would “be fined not more than $10,000” or “imprisoned for not more than ten years, or both.”
On January 30th, 1934, the Gold Reserve Act required the Federal Reserve to surrender its gold and gold certificates to the US Treasury. It also arbitrarily changed the price of gold from $20.67 to $35. This caused a 69% devaluation of the dollar. Otherwise stated, the government increased the value of its gold by 41%.
The process: a declaration of absolute Presidential authority; Congressional affirmation; an executive order of implementation; and, an arbitrary devaluation of the dollar to increase government’s wealth.
Remember that Obama models himself on FDR [A good reason to get your larger gold holdings out of Dodge and beyond his reach while you can. --Ed.]. Obama actively pursues a path of regulation through executive orders. For example, a January 16th, 2013 Forbes headline reads, “Here Are The 23 Executive Orders On Gun Safety Signed Today By The President.” Obama also favors rule through policies imposed by massive and unaccountable federal agencies of which there are close to 70; their counterparts in FDR’s time were called Alphabet Agencies. Congressional approval is rarely required. Executive power has swelled since FDR’s days and Congress has been largely reduced to a funding role. As for devaluing the dollar, what else can you call the incessant increase in the currency supply? The increase enriches government because it is first to spend the new dollars before they can devalue through circulation. The main element missing from the FDR procedure is the executive order that provides implementation.
But how will the American people respond?
A PASSIVE PEOPLE NO MORE?
FDR was able to confiscate private gold for a combination of reasons. A major one was the cooperation of banks under the Federal Reserve. But what of the multitudes who directly surrendered their wealth? (In 1933, gold still circulated as currency and private ownership was widespread.)
One reason was fear of punishment. Another was patriotism. The Austrian economist Thomas Woods explained yet another reason. “The paper currency [$20.67] they were receiving in exchange for the gold had always been redeemable in gold in the past.” It was only later that they realized “they weren’t getting that gold back, and that the paper dollars they were being given in exchange would be devalued.” In short, they were duped.
Today’s gold-holding public is not so naïve or patriotic. Gold is not a circulating currency and those who buy it do so knowing that government is devaluing every dollar through inflation. Moreover, they know history.
Will Obama move to confiscate gold? No one knows. If he does, I expect it will not start as a direct confiscation from individuals. It would probably begin through steps toward nationalizing private retirement accounts such as IRAs. This could happen in one of two ways: require accounts to hold some percentage of government security, especially Treasury bonds; or, have a government agency manage the accounts.
On the Austrian economic LewRockwell site (August 21st, 2010), Ron Holland (contributing editor to the Swiss Mountain Vision Newsletter and Swiss Confidential) wrote:
Gold confiscation would likely begin with pension accounts because the state mechanisms to do so are already in place. Moreover, as with the gold in FDR-era bank vaults, the location and quantity is known; the organizations holding it would cooperate fully. (Again, more reason to make sure your IRA is self-directed and that you can internationalize the assets therein.)
Direct confiscation from individuals would be more problematic, and not merely because of its comparative anonymity. Direct confiscation returns us to guns. Given the personality of the typical gold bug and the simmering state of society, Obama must know that gun confiscation is a political prerequisite of a direct gold grab. On February 13th, the UK Market Oracle predicted for 2013, “The collection programs for guns will be eclipsed by collection of private pension funds and perhaps gold itself.” Guns and gold are blurring.
Barack Obama often compares himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt. When he does, gold owners reach for a gun, of which they usually have several. Gold and guns are becoming politically entangled, and a connecting word is often “confiscation.”
The prospect of gun confiscation is fueling discussion of FDR’s 1933 nationalization of gold ownership, which resembled Hugo Chavez’s nationalization of Venezuelan gold mines in 2011. FDR did so by executive order; Chavez did so by decree. If guns in America are also ‘nationalized’, then the 1933 gold grab may have insights on how the state could proceed and how American public may react.IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 1933 GOLD HEIST
Roosevelt was inaugurated as President on March 4th, 1933. He immediately moved to outlaw the private ownership of gold. He proceeded in several steps.
On March 6th, FDR issued Proclamation 2039 that declared a bank holiday in order to halt “heavy and unwarranted withdrawals of gold and currency from our banking institutions for the purpose of hoarding”; that is, to cease redeeming money for gold or releasing client-held gold from its vaults. FDR blamed the “severe drain on the Nation’s stocks of gold” on foreign speculation and individual hoarding, which were causing a “national emergency.” The President assumed the power to “investigate, regulate or prohibit” the so-called wrongful use of gold. Americans violating the Proclamation or the regulations produced under its authority would “be fined not more than $10,000” or “imprisoned for not more than ten years, or both.”
On March 9th, the Emergency Banking Act passed Congress without being read because it had not been distributed. The Act affirmed all of FDR’s orders since March 4th, and amended the WWI Trading with the Enemy Act to give the President “absolute control over the national finances and foreign exchange” not only in times of war but also in emergencies. It required that “any individual or organization…deliver any gold that they possess or have custody of to the Treasury” in return for other lawful currency. Only Federal Reserve-approved and accountable banks were to remain open; private or independent banks were no longer permitted. In effect, all banks had to meet Fed regulations, including reporting and turning over gold in their vaults upon demand.
On April 5th, FDR signed Executive Order 6102 that prohibited the ownership, called “hoarding,” of “gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates…by individuals, partnerships, associations and corporations.” (There were minor exceptions such as jewelry.) Gold-holders had until the end of April to surrender gold to the Federal Reserve. They were reimbursed in currency worth $20.67, which had been the gold price per troy ounce since the late 1800s.On January 30th, 1934, the Gold Reserve Act required the Federal Reserve to surrender its gold and gold certificates to the US Treasury. It also arbitrarily changed the price of gold from $20.67 to $35. This caused a 69% devaluation of the dollar. Otherwise stated, the government increased the value of its gold by 41%.
The process: a declaration of absolute Presidential authority; Congressional affirmation; an executive order of implementation; and, an arbitrary devaluation of the dollar to increase government’s wealth.
Remember that Obama models himself on FDR [A good reason to get your larger gold holdings out of Dodge and beyond his reach while you can. --Ed.]. Obama actively pursues a path of regulation through executive orders. For example, a January 16th, 2013 Forbes headline reads, “Here Are The 23 Executive Orders On Gun Safety Signed Today By The President.” Obama also favors rule through policies imposed by massive and unaccountable federal agencies of which there are close to 70; their counterparts in FDR’s time were called Alphabet Agencies. Congressional approval is rarely required. Executive power has swelled since FDR’s days and Congress has been largely reduced to a funding role. As for devaluing the dollar, what else can you call the incessant increase in the currency supply? The increase enriches government because it is first to spend the new dollars before they can devalue through circulation. The main element missing from the FDR procedure is the executive order that provides implementation.
But how will the American people respond?
A PASSIVE PEOPLE NO MORE?
FDR was able to confiscate private gold for a combination of reasons. A major one was the cooperation of banks under the Federal Reserve. But what of the multitudes who directly surrendered their wealth? (In 1933, gold still circulated as currency and private ownership was widespread.)
One reason was fear of punishment. Another was patriotism. The Austrian economist Thomas Woods explained yet another reason. “The paper currency [$20.67] they were receiving in exchange for the gold had always been redeemable in gold in the past.” It was only later that they realized “they weren’t getting that gold back, and that the paper dollars they were being given in exchange would be devalued.” In short, they were duped.
Today’s gold-holding public is not so naïve or patriotic. Gold is not a circulating currency and those who buy it do so knowing that government is devaluing every dollar through inflation. Moreover, they know history.
Will Obama move to confiscate gold? No one knows. If he does, I expect it will not start as a direct confiscation from individuals. It would probably begin through steps toward nationalizing private retirement accounts such as IRAs. This could happen in one of two ways: require accounts to hold some percentage of government security, especially Treasury bonds; or, have a government agency manage the accounts.
On the Austrian economic LewRockwell site (August 21st, 2010), Ron Holland (contributing editor to the Swiss Mountain Vision Newsletter and Swiss Confidential) wrote:
Just as with the…nationalization of Healthcare, the tremendous amount of funds in private retirement plans and IRA accounts are also being targeted to meet future revenue needs. Bills have just been introduced in both the House and Senate to create the new Auto IRA accounts which will at first be voluntary but later will become mandatory like Social Security and I expect the early 3% employee after tax contribution levels to eventually rise to 10 to 15% of compensation rising even more than Social Security has increased over the years….The Auto IRA is the first step to… replace our private system with a forced, government controlled Social Security type program. In addition they will force much of your retirement funds into buying junk treasury bonds along with the Federal Reserve when the dollar/national debt crisis hits as billions of retirement funds become the buyer of last resort… (Auto IRA bills remain in both the House and the Senate, a glaring sign that you should get into a self-directed IRA while there’s still time.)The relevance of such “pension reform” to gold is twofold: many retirement funds contain a considerable amount of gold in some form; and, the state control would set a precedent.
Gold confiscation would likely begin with pension accounts because the state mechanisms to do so are already in place. Moreover, as with the gold in FDR-era bank vaults, the location and quantity is known; the organizations holding it would cooperate fully. (Again, more reason to make sure your IRA is self-directed and that you can internationalize the assets therein.)
Direct confiscation from individuals would be more problematic, and not merely because of its comparative anonymity. Direct confiscation returns us to guns. Given the personality of the typical gold bug and the simmering state of society, Obama must know that gun confiscation is a political prerequisite of a direct gold grab. On February 13th, the UK Market Oracle predicted for 2013, “The collection programs for guns will be eclipsed by collection of private pension funds and perhaps gold itself.” Guns and gold are blurring.
Will Americans Soon Not Be Able To Buy, Sell Or Get A Job Without A Global ID Card?
End Of Days News
A plan being pushed in Congress right now by senators from both major political parties would force all Americans to get a biometric national ID card. It is being promoted as a key “immigration reform” measure, but the truth is that a national ID card is much more about the government’s endless appetite for more control over the American people. If this national ID card plan is passed by Congress, you will not be able to get a job without one. So how are you going to survive if you can’t work? In addition, this national ID card would undoubtedly soon be used to identify us for all sorts of other purposes. For example, have you tried to open up a bank account lately? They make you jump through all sorts of hoops to prove that you are who you say that you are. So what would happen if the government decided to require you to show your national ID card before opening up a bank account? If you refused to get a card, how would you be able to function in society without a bank account? Would you try to conduct all of your transactions in cash only? That might work for a while. And of course you would not be able to drive or get on a plane without your national ID card. So forget about going anywhere. Are you starting to get the picture? Unfortunately, the push for a national ID card in the United States is only a small part of the overall push toward a “global ID card” that is happening all over the planet. The eventual goal is to have a “universal ID” that every man, woman and child on the planet will be forced to take.
That is why it is so important for the American people to speak up about this.
Right now, all of the big mainstream media outlets are lining up on the side of a national ID card.
For instance, just check out this short excerpt from a recent Washington Post article entitled “The case for a national ID card“…
The idea, signaled only in vaguely worded language from senators crafting a bipartisan immigration bill, has privacy advocates and others concerned that the law would create a national identity card that, in time, could track Americans at airports, hospitals and through other facets of their lives.
According to investigative reporter James Tucker, there are those in the Obama administration that are optimistic that they will be able to get a national ID card through Congress now that Ron Paul has left the House of Representatives…
Let’s hope so.
But of course there are many other large nations that are actually far ahead of the United States when it comes to implementing this global ID card scheme.
Just check out what is going on in Indonesia…
This is a global effort.
At this point, there are approximately 100 countries that now issue mandatory ID cards, and undoubtedly this campaign to gather the biometric information of every person on earth will continue to spread.
In fact, soon you may not even be able to log in to your favorite Internet sites without a fingerprint or an iris scan.
Does that sound crazy to you?
It doesn’t sound crazy to the major technology firms that are a part of the Fast Identity Online Alliance…
At first, we may all just be forced to carry around ID cards, but eventually cards will not be considered to be good enough.
Cards are easily lost, they can be stolen, and they can be forged.
But what about an electronic tattoo?
Wouldn’t that be much more secure?
That is the argument that will be made.
And the advancements that have been made in the field of electronic tattoos lately have got a lot of scientists very excited…
That is how these changes will be marketed to the public. They will be sold as the “hip” and “cool” things to do.
But the truth is that these electronic tattoos are incredibly dangerous. They can receive electrical signals from your brain, and they can also send electrical signals to your brain…
But most people just do whatever the “authorities” tell them to do without thinking about it.
So will you take a national ID card if Congress requires you to?
Will you take an electronic tattoo on your hand or your forehead someday if the authorities require it for “security” reasons?
The control freaks that run things just love to find new ways to watch us, track us and control us.
For example, just check out what is going on in New York City. The following is from a recent article in the Telegraph…
But the “authorities” insist that all of this “security” is making life so much “better” and “safer” for all of us.
Well, what about for 3-year-old Lucy Schulte?
She is a sweet little disabled girl in a wheelchair that has Spina bifida. Recently she was getting ready to get on a plane to go to Disney World, but TSA workers decided that she was a potential terrorist and so they manhandled her and confiscated her stuffed toy.
Is this really want we want America to become?
For much more on how America is being transformed into a Big Brother police state, please see the following article: “29 Signs That The Elite Are Transforming Society Into A Total Domination Control Grid“.
So what do you think about all of this?
Do you believe that a global ID card is a good idea or a bad idea?
Would you take a national ID card if Congress made it mandatory?
That is why it is so important for the American people to speak up about this.
Right now, all of the big mainstream media outlets are lining up on the side of a national ID card.
For instance, just check out this short excerpt from a recent Washington Post article entitled “The case for a national ID card“…
An effective solution would be to issue tamper-proof, biometric ID cards — using fingerprints or a comparably unique identifier — to all citizens and legal residents. Last week, both President Obama and a bipartisan group of eight senators seeking immigration reform urged something along those lines, without calling it a universal national identity card. That’s a major step forward.And of course the Wall Street Journal is reporting on this too…
Key senators are exploring an immigration bill that would force every U.S.worker—citizen or not—to carry a high-tech identity card that could use fingerprints or other personal markers to prove a person’s legal eligibility to work.
The idea, signaled only in vaguely worded language from senators crafting a bipartisan immigration bill, has privacy advocates and others concerned that the law would create a national identity card that, in time, could track Americans at airports, hospitals and through other facets of their lives.
According to investigative reporter James Tucker, there are those in the Obama administration that are optimistic that they will be able to get a national ID card through Congress now that Ron Paul has left the House of Representatives…
At a recent reception in Washington, D.C., an AMERICAN FREE PRESS source overheard Thomas E. Donilon, a White House national security advisor and past Bilderberg member, speaking of Paul’s retirement and the good chance that the global card could now be shepherded through Congress. Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), would not object to the plan, added the individual with whom Donilon was talking. He was referring to the fact that Senator Paul has backed off from the strong pro-nationalist positions of his father because he is fantasizing about being elected president in 2016.So will anyone in Congress step up and fight this on behalf of the American people?
Let’s hope so.
But of course there are many other large nations that are actually far ahead of the United States when it comes to implementing this global ID card scheme.
Just check out what is going on in Indonesia…
Since the start of the government of Indonesia’s multi-modal biometrics-based National Electronic ID Card (e-KTP) program in August 2011, record enrollments are being achieved across the country’s population of 172 million ID-eligible residents.And India is currently collecting biometric information on more than a billion people…
More than 103 million people have been enrolled and de-duplicated in one year with 80% or 140 million residents of the eligible population already enrolled and 85% already processed. Statistics show that over 1 million de-duplication transactions are being achieved in a single day in the data center and 600,000 enrollments being achieved in a single day in the field. In addition 60 million ID cards have been printed.
In India, a massive effort is underway to collect biometric identity information for each of the country’s 1.2 billion people. The incredible plan, dubbed the “mother of all e-governance projects” by the Economic Times, has stirred controversy in India and beyond, raising serious concerns about the privacy and security of individuals’ personal data.Are you starting to understand what is happening?
The plan is moving ahead at a clip under the auspices of the National Population Register (NPR) and the Unique ID (UID) programs, separately governed initiatives that have an agreement to integrate the data they collect to build the world’s largest biometric database. Upon enrollment, individuals are issued 12-digit unique ID numbers on chip-based identity cards. For residents who lack the necessary paperwork to obtain certain kinds of employment or government services, there’s strong incentive to get a unique ID. While the UID program is voluntary, enrollment in the NPR program is mandatory for all citizens.
This is a global effort.
At this point, there are approximately 100 countries that now issue mandatory ID cards, and undoubtedly this campaign to gather the biometric information of every person on earth will continue to spread.
In fact, soon you may not even be able to log in to your favorite Internet sites without a fingerprint or an iris scan.
Does that sound crazy to you?
It doesn’t sound crazy to the major technology firms that are a part of the Fast Identity Online Alliance…
Imagine logging on to your eBay account with your fingerprint. Or perhaps accessing your Facebook account via an iris scan.We live in a world that has become obsessed with information and obsessed with security.
It might seem a bit much for the average computer user, but it may not be that far off if an initiative is successful.
The use of biometric data as an added security measure is just one of the solutions being proposed by a consortium of firms who have come together to form the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance.
At first, we may all just be forced to carry around ID cards, but eventually cards will not be considered to be good enough.
Cards are easily lost, they can be stolen, and they can be forged.
But what about an electronic tattoo?
Wouldn’t that be much more secure?
That is the argument that will be made.
And the advancements that have been made in the field of electronic tattoos lately have got a lot of scientists very excited…
Temporary electronic tattoos could soon help people fly drones with only thought and talk seemingly telepathically without speech over smartphones, researchers say.Does that sound “cool” to you?
That is how these changes will be marketed to the public. They will be sold as the “hip” and “cool” things to do.
But the truth is that these electronic tattoos are incredibly dangerous. They can receive electrical signals from your brain, and they can also send electrical signals to your brain…
The devices are less than 100 microns thick, the average diameter of a human hair. They consist of circuitry embedded in a layer or rubbery polyester that allow them to stretch, bend and wrinkle. They are barely visible when placed on skin, making them easy to conceal from others.This is very frightening stuff.
The devices can detect electrical signals linked with brain waves, and incorporate solar cells for power and antennas that allow them to communicate wirelessly or receive energy. Other elements can be added as well, like thermal sensors to monitor skin temperature and light detectors to analyze blood oxygen levels.
But most people just do whatever the “authorities” tell them to do without thinking about it.
So will you take a national ID card if Congress requires you to?
Will you take an electronic tattoo on your hand or your forehead someday if the authorities require it for “security” reasons?
The control freaks that run things just love to find new ways to watch us, track us and control us.
For example, just check out what is going on in New York City. The following is from a recent article in the Telegraph…
Created by Microsoft and the New York Police Department, the Domain Awareness System, known as “the dashboard,” is state-of-the-art crime fighting technology.Could you imagine how much more intrusive such a system would be if “national ID cards” were constantly feeding information about all of us into their computers?
“The dashboard,” instantaneously mines data from the NYPD’s vast collection of arrest records, emergency 911 calls, more than 3,000 security cameras, license plate readers and portable radiation detectors and aggregates it into a user-friendly, readable form in the control room.
Eventually, that data will be able to be seen in real time by officers on laptops in their squad cars and on mobile devices as they walk their beat.
But the “authorities” insist that all of this “security” is making life so much “better” and “safer” for all of us.
Well, what about for 3-year-old Lucy Schulte?
She is a sweet little disabled girl in a wheelchair that has Spina bifida. Recently she was getting ready to get on a plane to go to Disney World, but TSA workers decided that she was a potential terrorist and so they manhandled her and confiscated her stuffed toy.
Is this really want we want America to become?
For much more on how America is being transformed into a Big Brother police state, please see the following article: “29 Signs That The Elite Are Transforming Society Into A Total Domination Control Grid“.
So what do you think about all of this?
Do you believe that a global ID card is a good idea or a bad idea?
Would you take a national ID card if Congress made it mandatory?
Saudi religious police arrest Ethiopian workers for practicing Christianity
End Of Days News
Saudi Arabia’s notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, swooped in on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians this month, shutting down their private prayer, and arresting the peaceful group of foreign workers for merely practicing their faith, FoxNews.com has learned.
The mixed group of men and women was seized in a private residence in the city of Dammam, the capital of the wealthy oil province in Eastern Arabia, and Saudi authorities charged three Christian leaders with seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of a brutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians, and drew a sharp rebuke from a U.S. lawmaker.
"Nations that wish to be a part of the responsible nations of the world must see the protection of religious freedom and the principles of reason as an essential part of the duty of the state," Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., who sits on the Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East, told FoxNews.com.
During Advent in 2011, Saudi authorities stormed a prayer meeting at the private home of one of the Ethiopian workers in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The Saudi mutawa imprisoned 29 women and six men for more than seven months in barbaric prison conditions, where the men faced severe beatings and the women were subjected to sexually intrusive torture methods. After Christian organizations and human rights groups, as well as the United States government, complained, the Saudis deported the 35 Christian Ethiopian workers in August 2012.
Last March, Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, the grand mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, declared it is “necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula.”
Still, Saudi officials claim to tolerate other faiths even as the mutawa, or Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, mount their crackdowns, said Dwight Bashir, deputy director for policy at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"During an official USCIRF visit to the Kingdom earlier this month, Saudi officials reiterated the government's long-standing policy that members of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, also known as the religious police, should not interfere in private worship," Bashir said.
"However, the past year has seen an uptick of reports that private religious gatherings have been raided resulting in arrests, harassment and deportations of foreign expatriate workers.
“The U.S. government and international community should demand that any expatriate worker detained and held without charge for private religious activity in the Kingdom should be released immediately,” Bashir added.
A spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington said she “is not allowed" to give her name and referred a FoxNews.com query to Nail al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
He did not immediately return FoxNews.com telephone and email requests. Diplomats from Ethiopia’s embassy in Washington told FoxNews.com they are looking into preparing a statement about the arrests.
Nina Shea, the director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com that the arrests in Dammam are “part of Saudi Arabia’s policy to ban non-Muslim houses of worship and actually hunt down Christians in private homes.”
Shea, who was in the Saudi capital Riyadh as part of a U.S delegation two years ago, sharply criticized the Saudis for breaking their 2006 pledge to the U.S. government to not disrupt non-Islamic religious practices. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom termed in its 2012 report Saudi Arabia a “country of particular concern”-- along with other authoritarian states such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea, China and Sudan-- for repression of religious freedom.
The Saudi government adheres to a strict form of Sunni Islam called Wahhabism that has animated many followers to engage in terrorism across the globe. The 9/11 terrorists, 19 of whom were Saudis, followed the Wahhabi school of militant Islamic ideology.
Shea said “the U.S. government does not raise its voice in protest” as part of the U.S.-Saudi strategic partnership. She added the failure to push the Saudis to change their intolerant behavior “has taken the backseat to oil and the war on terror. The Saudis are playing a double game -- cooperating with the war on terror and working against the war on terror campaign.” A telling example, she stressed, involves the Saudi government sending text books around the world that contain extreme forms of Islam.
The mixed group of men and women was seized in a private residence in the city of Dammam, the capital of the wealthy oil province in Eastern Arabia, and Saudi authorities charged three Christian leaders with seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of a brutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians, and drew a sharp rebuke from a U.S. lawmaker.
"Nations that wish to be a part of the responsible nations of the world must see the protection of religious freedom and the principles of reason as an essential part of the duty of the state," Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., who sits on the Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East, told FoxNews.com.
"The U.S. ... should demand that any expatriate worker detained and held without charge for private religious activity in the Kingdom should be released immediately.”- Dwight Bashir, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
During Advent in 2011, Saudi authorities stormed a prayer meeting at the private home of one of the Ethiopian workers in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The Saudi mutawa imprisoned 29 women and six men for more than seven months in barbaric prison conditions, where the men faced severe beatings and the women were subjected to sexually intrusive torture methods. After Christian organizations and human rights groups, as well as the United States government, complained, the Saudis deported the 35 Christian Ethiopian workers in August 2012.
Last March, Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, the grand mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, declared it is “necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula.”
Still, Saudi officials claim to tolerate other faiths even as the mutawa, or Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, mount their crackdowns, said Dwight Bashir, deputy director for policy at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"During an official USCIRF visit to the Kingdom earlier this month, Saudi officials reiterated the government's long-standing policy that members of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, also known as the religious police, should not interfere in private worship," Bashir said.
"However, the past year has seen an uptick of reports that private religious gatherings have been raided resulting in arrests, harassment and deportations of foreign expatriate workers.
“The U.S. government and international community should demand that any expatriate worker detained and held without charge for private religious activity in the Kingdom should be released immediately,” Bashir added.
A spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington said she “is not allowed" to give her name and referred a FoxNews.com query to Nail al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
He did not immediately return FoxNews.com telephone and email requests. Diplomats from Ethiopia’s embassy in Washington told FoxNews.com they are looking into preparing a statement about the arrests.
Nina Shea, the director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com that the arrests in Dammam are “part of Saudi Arabia’s policy to ban non-Muslim houses of worship and actually hunt down Christians in private homes.”
Shea, who was in the Saudi capital Riyadh as part of a U.S delegation two years ago, sharply criticized the Saudis for breaking their 2006 pledge to the U.S. government to not disrupt non-Islamic religious practices. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom termed in its 2012 report Saudi Arabia a “country of particular concern”-- along with other authoritarian states such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea, China and Sudan-- for repression of religious freedom.
The Saudi government adheres to a strict form of Sunni Islam called Wahhabism that has animated many followers to engage in terrorism across the globe. The 9/11 terrorists, 19 of whom were Saudis, followed the Wahhabi school of militant Islamic ideology.
Shea said “the U.S. government does not raise its voice in protest” as part of the U.S.-Saudi strategic partnership. She added the failure to push the Saudis to change their intolerant behavior “has taken the backseat to oil and the war on terror. The Saudis are playing a double game -- cooperating with the war on terror and working against the war on terror campaign.” A telling example, she stressed, involves the Saudi government sending text books around the world that contain extreme forms of Islam.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)