Category: White Horse

US Hate Crimes On the Rise — Including on Houses of Worship

Brian Freeman – October 2021

Hate crimes in 2021 are on pace to surpass even the spike in 2020 in the United States — and many of them are linked to religious bigotry, Axios reported on Tuesday.

The number of hate crimes reported in 2020 was the highest since 2001, when the U.S. experienced a surge of Islamophobia after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to updated FBI statistics released yesterday.

Houses of worship of various faiths are also suffering from high amounts of vandalism, arson, and other property damage: There have been 100 acts of hate recorded against Catholic sites in the U.S. since May of 2020, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said last week.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before Congress on Monday that the Justice Department has charged at least 17 people with federal hate crimes and added that the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is also expediting its review of federal hate crimes, Axios reported.

Many incidents have apparently been influenced by news and political events worldwide.

https://www.newsmax.com

Report: Iranian VP threatens to hold Iran’s 10,000 Jews hostage

Gary Willig – October 13, 2021

Iranian Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaee warned that the country’s 10,000 Jews were hostage against Israel, Iranian opposition groups and the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported.

The “Iranian Regime Countdown” organization wrote a post on its Telegram account on Monday that Rezaee said in a speech that “he Israeli government knows very well that if it makes a mistake, the regime will treat the 10,000 Jews living in Iran differently.”

Rezaee, a former head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, made the remarks in an address to the members of the Tharollah Tehran organization.

According to Iranian Regime Countdown, this is the first time Iran has threatened the country’s Jewish community instead of threatening Israel directly.

Rezaee has made similar threats to take large numbers of hostages in the past. In June, Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born journalist living in the US, reported that Rezaee had threatened to take 1,000 Americans hostage in order to blackmail the US into providing relief for Iran’s struggling economy. Rezaee stated at the time that he would demand $1 billion for each hostage.

In January 2020, Rezaee threatened to “turn Tel Aviv and Haifa to dust” if the US attacked Iran.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com

Biden rejoins U.N. council notorious for ‘unending hostility toward Israel’

Sebastian Hughes – October 14, 2021

The Biden administration announced Thursday that the U.S. would officially rejoin the UN Human Rights Council, a reversal of the Trump administration’s decision to leave the body, in part due to its “unending hostility towards Israel.”

“Starting on January 1, 2022, in our new role as member, we can fully participate in the Council’s work of protecting and promoting human rights,” Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement Thursday. “Our goals are clear: stand with human rights defenders and speak out against violations and abuses of human rights.”

The U.S. left the council during the Trump administration, with then-Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley describing the council itself as a “hypocritical and self-serving” organization with a “disproportionate focus and unending hostility toward Israel,” Reuters reported.

Haley said that members of the council such as Russia, China, Cuba and Egypt have a history of human rights abuses, and she criticized countries sharing U.S. interests that “were unwilling to seriously challenge the status quo.”

Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made similar statements about the decision to leave, accusing the council of “absolving wrongdoers through silence and falsely condemning those that committed no offense,” Reuters reported.

https://www.wnd.com

Court rules: Jews can pray on Temple Mount

– October 6, 2021

For the first time since Jewish worship returned to the Temple Mount, an Israeli court approved the act and provided it with unprecedented legal standing.

Justice Bilha Yahalom of Jerusalem’s Magistrate Court,  accepted on Wednesday an appeal by Temple Mount activist Rabbi Aryeh Lippo against the police ban on prayer that he witnessed during his visits to the holy site.

“His daily Temple Mount attendance shows that this is a matter of principle and meaning for him,” Judge Yahalom noted in her ruling.

During the hearing, the court viewed a video documenting Jewish people praying on the Temple Mount. The court ruled that silently praying on the holy site is not a violation of police guidelines.

“The prosecutor doesn’t dispute that the appellant, like many others, prays on a daily basis on the Temple Mount, and this activity in and of itself is not a  violation of police instructions,” Judge Yahalom wrote.

Temple Mount organizations ad activists welcomed the ruling as it recognizes and green-lights “the positive process that is going on the Temple Mount.”

Activist Arnon Segal called it a “beautiful victory” while blasting the police for harassing Rabbi Lippo for no reason.

Shai Glick, CEO of the B’Tsalmo rights organization hailed the decision tweeting: “This is the first time we can say the words ‘the Temple Mount is in our hands.’ We are talking about a historic day for the Nation of Israel in its entirety.”

https://www.israel365news.com

Massive facility overseen by Pope Francis to pave the way for a “One World Religion” in 2022

ETH – September 30, 2021

(OPINION) Are we about to see the formation of what will ultimately facilitate and pave the way for a “One World Religion”? The Abrahamic Family House, which encloses a synagogue, a church, and a mosque in a single complex, and which is scheduled to be inaugurated in 2022, is 20 percent complete, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity (HCHF) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Committee, which is also supervising the project, said it is inspired by the 2019 Document on Human Fraternity. Constructed on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the project is closely followed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb of al-Azhar, who endorsed the design, the HCHF said.

The Abrahamic Family House derives its name from the Old Testament biblical figure, Abraham, who is recognized and greatly revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

The Abrahamic Family House’s design, by architect Sir David Adjaye, captures. the values shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, through three main buildings, including a mosque, a church, and a synagogue in one place.

“As such, the complex innovatively recounts the history and builds bridges between human civilizations and heavenly messages.” The names of the three separate iconic houses of worship in the Abrahamic Family House complex are officially unveiled as “Imam AlTayeb Mosque,” “St. Francis Church,” and “Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue”. Moses ben Maimon was a prolific and influential Sephardic Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Jewish man fired by Unilever for taking time off during Rosh Hashanah in 2019 – report

JERUSALEM POST STAFF   – September 24, 2021

A Jewish man was fired from Unilever, the Ben & Jerry’s parent company, for taking time off during the Rosh Hashanah two years ago, The New York Post reported on Thursday.

David Rosenbaum was working as a general manager at Unilever’s Englewood Cliffs at its New Jersey headquarters when he told Frank Alfano, his boss, that he planned to take days off for the Jewish holidays in 2019, to which his boss responded that he couldn’t take time off for the Jewish New Year nor for Yom Kippur, according to Rosenbaum’s lawsuit.

Unilever has been making headlines as of late for its decision to ban the sales of its ice cream in the West Bank.

Rosenbaum emphasized that his religion prevents him from working on those days and took the time off anyway, notifying his superiors at Unilever via email about the situation.

Rosenbaum was fired over the phone the next day.

The court filing also stated that Alfano allegedly touched Rosenbaum and asked him to lend him money.

Rosenbaum also worked with the ice cream company’s marketing team to organize sales events. Rosenbaum alleged that his firing was “further evidence of Unilever’s antisemitism.”

A Unilever spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post that “Unilever strongly refutes these allegations and has a zero-tolerance policy on antisemitism or any form of discrimination in the workplace.”

It was reported in late July that Ben and Jerry’s board chair made a statement that she was not antisemitic following Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s statement that the boycott is a “shameful surrender to antisemitism.”

https://www.jpost.com

Broken Arrow pastor arrested outside Tulsa Women’s Clinic

Katie Keleher – September 02, 2021

TULSA, Okla. — A Broken Arrow pastor is charged with disturbing the peace after being arrested outside of the Tulsa Women’s Clinic.

Pastor Greg McEntire said he and members of his church, Broken Arrow Baptist Temple, have prayed and sung while protesting abortion outside of the Tulsa Women’s Clinic every week for five years.

He said there were about 25 of them outside of the clinic. He said after being there for about an hour, a police officer showed up, asking them to tone down their singing. McEntire said the officer told them you could hear them singing from inside the clinic, which is a violation of Tulsa’s noise statute. McEntire said the officer was going to write him a ticket, but McEntire refused to sign it. He was then arrested.

McEntire said he feels like they were trying to take his voice away.

“We feel like it’s an attempt to silence our voices because if we get so soft we can’t be heard, why should we be there. If people can’t hear us, why are we there,” McEntire said.

https://www.kjrh.com

Police Surround Synagogue & Fine Jewish Worshippers For Holding ‘Illegal Gathering’

Milne News – September 7 , 2021

AUSTRALIA – Police surrounded a Melbourne synagogue to break up a Jewish New Year celebration and issue $5,452 fines for holding an “illegal gathering” to all adults who attended the celebrations.

An estimated 100 people attended the all-day Jewish New Year celebrations at the orthodox Adass Israel Synagogue in Glen Eira Avenue, Ripponlea, with Victoria Police dispersing the group around 9 pm on Tuesday night.

A second, smaller prayer group who assembled for Jewish New Year was also broken up by police from an apartment above the Ripponlea IGA supermarket, also on Glen Eira Avenue.

Police said they were alerted to the gatherings on Tuesday morning and they waited for people to exit the celebrations during the day.

But tensions grew as worshipers and their supporters confronted police in the early evening.

Two worshippers climbed onto a nearby roof around 6 pm as the confrontations ignited with some supporters heard abusing police and accusing media and health authorities of anti-Semitism.

‘Victoria Police has spoken to a number of people who attended an address on Glen Eira Road, Elsternwick on Tuesday 7 September,’ a Victorian Police statement said.

Under Melbourne’s latest lockdown, which began on August 5 and is still in place, no private or public gatherings are allowed.

‘All adults who attended will be issued with a $5452 fine. A number of children who were present will not be fined. Investigators believe a number of other people were present and are yet to be spoken to by police. Investigators are working to identify them.’

Earlier, police blocked roads around the synagogue where an estimated 100 worshippers celebrated Jewish New Year.

It is understood the worshippers stood their ground and refused to leave the two buildings on Tuesday despite Police attempts to make them get out.

Jewish New Year celebrations, known as Rosh Hashanah, commenced on Monday, September 6, and last until the evening of Wednesday, September 8.

https://milnenews.com

Pope Francis Is Preparing a Radical Reform of the Church’s Power Structures

Claire Giangravé – September 3, 2021

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In 2001, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was a rapporteur for the summit of bishops at the Vatican — and he did not like what he saw.

The Catholic Church had adopted a top-to-bottom approach that stripped local churches of any decision-making power, and the synod of bishops was reduced to nothing more than a stamp of approval for prepackaged conclusions made in Rome.

When Bergoglio emerged as Pope Francis in the 2013 conclave, the synodal process was high on his list for reform.

“There was a cardinal who told us what should be discussed and what should not,” Francis said about his experience at the 2001General Synod in an interview with the Argentine newspaper La Nation in 2014. “That will not happen now,” he added.

On Oct. 9 and 10, Pope Francis will inaugurate a three-year preparation process for the 2023 Synod, which will focus on reforming the synodal process. The preparation process and the 2023 Synod, with the theme “For a Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission,” have the potential to revolutionize the way decisions are made in the Catholic Church and promote a more decentralized structure of authority.

“If people just think about this as a meeting on meetings, they are so missing the point,” said the Rev. David McCallum, executive director of the Program for Discerning Leadership of the Gregorian University in Rome and a member of the Synod Commission on Methodology, in an interview with Religion News Service.

The three-year synodal review process will take place in three phases: a local phase at the diocesan and parish level, a continental phase engaging bishops’ conferences around the world and a universal phase, when bishops and lay people will convene in Rome to discuss the findings and topics developed in the first two phases. To coordinate and guide the entire process, Pope Francis created a five-member steering committee flanked by two commissions on methodology and theology.

The hierarchical structure Pope Francis eschewed at the Vatican in 2001 is currently reflected in Catholic dioceses around the globe. Throughout history “it became very natural that bishops, who were often the most educated and prepared leaders in the particular region where the church was, exercised their leadership as a mayor would,” McCallum explained.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

US street preacher arrested in London says speaking truth is now a ‘hate crime’

Ryan Foley – August 7, 2021

After facing arrest and detention for preaching that homosexuality is a sin, an American evangelist is warning that “things are getting very bad” in the United Kingdom and other Western countries, suggesting that the situation has deteriorated to the point where they are “becoming communist.”

Ryan Schiavo, who describes himself as an “evangelist and missionary,” was arrested in London on July 22 for preaching that homosexuality is a sin. While Schiavo is an American, he spends a considerable amount of time in London and frequently ministers to British youth and others gathered in the public square.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Schiavo recounted the events leading up to his arrest and warned about its implications for free speech and freedom of religion in the U.K. and Western civilization as a whole.

“I was preaching the Gospel on the streets as I frequently do, but it was about a 30-minute message, and in the course of a long message I can touch on many topics that I believe are pertinent,” he said. “At one point, I talked about the issue of homosexuality and transgenderism. I said that homosexuality is a sin; I talk about how it’s destructive, and the damage the transgender agenda is doing to children right now in the schools because it’s being pushed on children at a very young age here.”

Schiavo told CP that one of the things he said while preaching was that “the churches that have rainbow flags on them” were “not real churches.” His message drew the ire of one young woman, whom he believed was a lesbian. According to Schiavo, she was “very upset at what I had said, and so she called the police and the police came.”

As documented in a video of his arrest, Schiavo was detained for purportedly violating Section 4A of the Public Order Act, which bans people from causing “intentional harassment, alarm, or distress.”

The law declares that “a person is guilty of an offense if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm, or distress, he — (a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior, or disorderly behavior, or (b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting.”

As Metropolitan Police officers moved in to arrest him, Schiavo declared, “It is an honor to suffer for Jesus Christ.” He predicted that “God is going to judge this country so severely” because of its embrace of LGBT ideology.

“This is because I am a Christian!” he exclaimed. “That’s why this is happening.”

https://www.christianpost.com