LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 20/19

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am He
“Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 08/21-24: “Again he said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.’Then the Jews said, ‘Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, “Where I am going, you cannot come”?’He said to them, ‘You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on February 19-20/19
Richard Relays to Hariri Concern over Hizbullah's 'Growing Role'
Lebanon: Preparations Kick Off For CEDRE Projects Implementation
Lebanon: Dissociation Policy Under Scrutiny As Minister Visits Damascus
Report: Gharib’s Visit to Syria Stirring ‘Disapproval’
Gharib Meets Aoun, Calls for Distancing Refugee File from Conflicts
Hariri 'Summons' Gharib to Grand Serail
Hariri: Let’s Not do Injustice to Some While Fighting Corruption
Khalil: Budget Process on Front Burner Without New Taxes
Civil Marriage Proposal Triggers Dispute between Lebanon’s Religious, Political Authorities
Berri: Civil Marriage Not on the Table, Can't be Tolerated
Berri: Country that does not apply law hotbed for corruption
PSP Defends Civil Marriage as Jumblat Says 'Stop Using Religion to Divide'
Kanaan after bloc meeting: Talks about ministerial rift groundless
Future bloc: Government solidarity fundamental
Germany Asks Lebanon to Extradite Syrian Official
Four Arrested over Molotov Attack on Kataeb Office
Ibrahim orders arrest of owner of Al-Fanar Hospital, Director of Medical Care at MoPH
ESCWA Chief takes oath of office before UN Secretary-General

Litles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 19-20/19
IS Fighters Face Surrender or Death, Says Syrian Kurd-Led Force
After IS, Ammunition among the IV Drips at Syria Clinic
Families Trapped as ISIS Steps Up Guerrilla Attacks in Syria
US Allies Demand Troops Stay in North Syria
Arab League Slams Israeli 'Piracy' of Palestinian Tax Funds
Egypt Security Forces Kill 16 Militants in North Sinai
Jordan Calls on Iran to Release Three of its Citizens
Netanyahu Seeks to Save Face after Canceled Central Europe Summit
PA Threatens to Cancel Agreements With Israel
Bernie Sanders Announces He Is Running for U.S. President
Trump Tells Venezuela Military to Back Guaido or 'Lose Everything'
Suicide bomber who killed 27 members of Iran's Guards was Pakistani: Guards commander
Suicide Bomber Kills Three Police in Historic Heart of Cairo

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 19-20/19
Post-Caliphate ISIS/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/February 19, 2019
Facebook Still Championing Blasphemy Laws/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/February 19, 2019
We Will Displace You, O Worshipers of the Cross” Muslim Persecution of Christians, December 2018/Raymond Ibrahim//Gatestone Institute/February 19, 2019
What North Korea Could Learn From Vietnam/Michael Schuman/Bloomberg/February, 19/19
Seeing Red: Trade and Threats Shaping Gulf-Horn Relations/Elana DeLozier/The Washington Institute/February 19/19

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on February 19-20/19
Richard Relays to Hariri Concern over Hizbullah's 'Growing Role'
Naharnet/February 19/19/U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard held talks Tuesday with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and relayed to him U.S. concern over Hizbullah's “growing role in the Cabinet.”“I am just really delighted to be here back at the Serail to greet the Prime Minister and congratulate him on the new government. It has been a long time coming and we are just thrilled that there is finally a government,” Richard said after the meeting. “We reviewed the very broad range of areas in which the United States is already working with Lebanon, and we reviewed what his (Hariri's) priorities are going forward,” the ambassador added. Richard also said that she was “very frank” with Hariri about U.S. concern over “the growing role in the Cabinet of an organization that continues to maintain a militia that is not under the control of the government,” apparently referring to Hizbullah. Hizbullah “continues to make its own national security decisions” and “continues to violate the government’s disassociation policy by participating in armed conflict in at least three other countries,” the ambassador noted. Warning that “this state of affairs does not contribute to stability” and is “fundamentally destabilizing,” Richard said she is very hopeful that Lebanon “will not be derailed from the path of progress now before it.”“In that spirit, I brought with me today a team of senior U.S. Embassy officials -- which includes our Director of USAID for Lebanon, our Defense Attaché, our Refugees Affairs Advisor, and our Counselor for Political and Economic issues,” the envoy added. “And we came to review the breadth and depth of U.S. support available for education and development; for helping Lebanese communities deal with the unprecedented demands placed on them when their Syrian neighbors fled the brutal Assad’s Regime; for building a capable and respected military that protects its citizens under the sovereign control of their elected leaders; and for addressing a range of difficult economic issues,” Richard went on to say. She added: “I told the Prime Minister that the United States is proud to be the largest provider of development, humanitarian, and security assistance to Lebanon. In just this last year alone, the United States provided more than $825 million in U.S. assistance – and that’s an increase over the previous year.”“We want to continue our longstanding and comprehensive support for Lebanon. As Secretary (of State Mike) Pompeo said just very recently, 'We are partners with Lebanon to achieve a good outcome for the people of Lebanon,'” Richard went on to say.

Lebanon: Preparations Kick Off For CEDRE Projects Implementation
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 February, 2019/Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday held the first consultative meeting with Arab and international financial institutions which provided assistance to Lebanon at the CEDRE Conference. Discussions focused on the necessary steps to accelerate the implementation of the CEDRE conference decisions. World Bank Regional Director Saroj Kumar Jha said during the meeting: “This was the preparatory meeting of all the international financing institutions and we discussed the priority projects that are included in Lebanon's Capital investment plan (CIP).
All the international financing institutions reconfirmed their support to Lebanon for the implementation of the plan.”“We also discussed the sectors' priorities and the projects that the international financing institutions will be supporting. This is very positive news for the country. I can say on behalf of the World Bank Group that the pledges of financial support that we made in Paris last year are valid and we look forward to working with the government of Lebanon to help implement the priority projects in various sectors in the economy,” he added. Hariri's Advisor Nadim Munla underlined that the meeting mainly aimed at “harmonizing projects and financing, to make sure that some sectors do not receive substantial funding while others remain without funding.”“We agreed on several steps in order to expedite the period between identifying a project and starting to spend on it so it is between 12 to 15 months. The meeting was very successful and the institutions reiterated their commitment to the aid they announced in CEDRE. They also expressed their readiness to provide additional aid if Lebanon carries out the reforms mentioned in the ministerial statement,” he added.

Lebanon: Dissociation Policy Under Scrutiny As Minister Visits Damascus
Beirut - Nazeer Rida, Khalil Fleihan//Asharq Al-Awsat/February, 19/19/A visit to Damascus on Monday by Minister of State for the Displaced Saleh Al-Gharib raised questions about Lebanon’s policy of dissociation from regional conflicts and its adherence to the decisions of the Arab League on moves towards Syria.Ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Gharib “visited Damascus on a personal basis, without any mandate from the Lebanese government,” which has yet to convene following the Parliament’s confidence voting session. The minister “did not get permission from the government, nor did he inform Prime Minister Saad Hariri about such move; therefore, he did not receive an official mandate” to conduct the visit, according to the sources. Al-Gharib met in Damascus with Minister of Local Administration and Environment Hussein Makhlouf. The meeting focused on ways to facilitate the safe return of refugees.
“The Syrian side was very responsive and welcomed the return of all displaced people,” he said, adding that Lebanon was “ready to work with all concerned parties to secure the return of refugees in a way that will ensure the interests of the Lebanese State.”For his part, Makhlouf pointed out that his government was “working to restore the infrastructure and water networks, and to provide all logistical procedures to secure a dignified return of the displaced.” In an earlier statement, Gharib’s Information office announced that the minister “will visit Syria… at the official invitation of the Minister of Local Administration and Environment Hussein Makhlouf to discuss the file of the displaced.”The minister’s visit sparked an internal political debate. Government sources considered that Makhlouf’s official invitation to Gharib was a violation of the Russian initiative for the return of the Syrian refugees and an attempt to disrupt Hariri’s government after receiving Parliament’s confidence. Gharib’s behavior is rejected by Hariri and other political forces, according to the sources, who also emphasized that the visit has confirmed statements by the head of the Democratic Gathering, Walid Jumblatt, about Gharib being pro-Syrian.

Report: Gharib’s Visit to Syria Stirring ‘Disapproval’
Naharnet/February 19/19/The controversial visit of Lebanon’s State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib to Syria to discuss the refugees file received no applause from Lebanese officials, media reports said on Tuesday. “The majority of officials were not aware of Minister Gharib's plan to visit Syria. It was arranged by party apparatus,” ministerial sources told al-Joumhouria daily. “The government has not held any meeting yet to decide such official visits by ministers after gaining confidence vote.”The sources pointed out that "Gharib has not yet seen the scheduled plans or programs in the ministry before the visit to know the policy to be applied. Furthermore, he has not discussed this file with anyone yet. That's why there will be harsh reactions at the Cabinet meeting next Thursday.”On the other hand, sources at the Center House of Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the Premier was not informed about the visit. “The Prime Minister was not informed about this visit. Gharib did not ask for permission, and the government has not met yet to decide on it. It can only be considered a private visit that does not bind the Lebanese government,” they said. On Monday, Gharib met with Syria’s Local Administration and Environment Minister Hussein Makhlouf in Syria where discussions highlighted the file of Syrian refugees. His visit cames three days after Hariri's new government won a vote of confidence in parliament and ahead of first Cabinet meeting. Coordination between Lebanon and Syria on the return of Syrian refugees is a highly controversial issue in Lebanon. Lebanese officials are divided over the conditions needed for them to return back.

Gharib Meets Aoun, Calls for Distancing Refugee File from Conflicts
Naharnet/February 19/19/President Michel Aoun received on Tuesday Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Saleh Al-Gharib where talks focused on the file of displaced people, the National News Agency reported. In the wake of the meeting, Gharib said he briefed the President on his visit to Syria a day earlier. He called on “everyone to distance the file of the displaced from political conflicts due to the pressures it is exerting at the economic and social levels.”Gharib’s remarks came one day after paying Syria a visit--a move that drew controversy-- at an officials invitation from the Syrian Local Administration and Environment Minister Hussein Makhlouf. Coordination between Lebanon and Syria on the return of Syrian refugees is a highly controversial issue in Lebanon. Lebanese officials are divided over the conditions needed for them to return back.

Hariri 'Summons' Gharib to Grand Serail
Naharnet/February 19/19/Prime Minister Saad Hariri has reportedly "summoned" the State Minister for Refugee Affairs, Saleh al-Gharib, LBCI TV station said on Tuesday. It said that Hariri has asked the minister to meet him at the Grand Serail at 4:00 pm today.Gharib had visited Syria on Monday at an official invitation from the Syrian side. He told reporters that Hariri was "in the picture" of the visit, a claim categorically denied on Tuesday by sources close to the premier.

Hariri: Let’s Not do Injustice to Some While Fighting Corruption
Naharnet/February 19/19/Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that diligent employees in the state’s institutions must not be done injustice during the process of eradicating corruption. “What we hear about the process of fighting corruption in the state’s administrations may give the impression that all are corrupt, which is not fair. Just like it’s our duty to close the doors on corruption, it is also our duty not to do injustice for diligent people,” said Hariri. Hariri’s remarks came at the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding between the Lebanese State and Order of Engineers and Architects.
“We will follow the reformist steps in all departments. We are able to do that if true intention exists,” he added.

Khalil: Budget Process on Front Burner Without New Taxes
Naharnet/February 19/19/Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil affirmed on Tuesday that he will make intensive contacts with Lebanon’s political forces to finalize the budget process which does not include any new taxes or fees, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday. Khalil said the budget process has been put on the “front burner” and that “it is supposed to be addressed by the government in successive sessions. It will be referred to the Parliament within a period not exceeding the second half of next month.”
The “budget figures will be studied well. Certainly there will be no additional taxes or fees that burden the citizen. The main objective we envisage is to reduce the deficit and move the country to the stage of growth,” said Khalil. “The basic requirement is the implementation of what was emphasized in the speeches of lawmakers for serious fight against corruption,” Khalil concluded.

Civil Marriage Proposal Triggers Dispute between Lebanon’s Religious, Political Authorities
Beirut - Youssef Diab/February,19/19 /A recent stance by Lebanon’s Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan over optional civil marriage has sparked a wave of support among political, social and civil circles, in contrast to stark rejection by the country’s religious authorities, mainly Dar Al-Fatwa, which said that such law would contradict the Islamic Sharia and the Lebanese Constitution.
“I will try to open the door to a serious and deep dialogue on this issue with all religious and other authorities, and with the support of Prime Minister Saad Hariri until civil marriage is recognized,” Hassan said in an interview last week.
In response, Lebanon's highest Sunni religious authority, Dar Al-Fatwa, issued a statement on Monday, saying: “The stance of (Grand) Mufti (Sheikh Abdul Latif) Daryan, Dar al-Fatwa, the juristic council and the council of muftis, which categorically rejects and opposes civil marriage in Lebanon, has been well-known for years.”
The adoption of such a law “fully contradicts with the rules of Islamic Sharia and also violates the stipulations of the Lebanese Constitution in terms of the need to respect the personal status law that is applied by the religious courts,” the statement added.
“Accordingly, the draft law cannot be approved in parliament without taking into consideration the viewpoint and stance of Dar al-Fatwa and the rest of religious authorities in Lebanon,” it stressed.
Former Interior Minister Marwan Charbel strongly defended Hassan’s proposal, deeming it “a courageous step that must be supported.” In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he explained that the Lebanese state “registers civil marriage contracts between Lebanese citizens married abroad,” adding that there were more than 3,000 marriage contracts registered in the courts. “So why should we oppose the adoption of a law allowing the optional civil marriage when we can relieve the Lebanese from the costs of marriage abroad,” he asked.

Berri: Civil Marriage Not on the Table, Can't be Tolerated
Naharnet/February 19/19/The issue of legalizing optional civil marriage in Lebanon is “not on the table and no one tolerates it,” Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Tuesday.
“Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan did not say anything wrong. She only said that she would hold consultations over the issue,” Berri added, responding to a question during a meeting with a delegation from the Press Syndicate. Al-Hassan's remarks have stirred renewed debate in Lebanon over the thorny issue, after the minister said she would seek “serious and profound dialogue over the topic with all religious authorities and other officials.” Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon's highest Sunni Muslim religious authority, has warned that civil marriage “totally contradicts with the rules of Islamic sharia and also violates the stipulations of the Lebanese constitution.”Civil unions still have no clear legal basis in Lebanon, a multi-confessional country of some four million people. Most faiths have their own regulations governing marriage, divorce and inheritance, and mixed Christian-Muslim weddings in Lebanon are discouraged unless one of the spouses converts. Lebanese authorities recognize civil marriages registered abroad, and it has become common for mixed-faith couples to marry in nearby Cyprus. Former president Elias Hrawi in 1998 proposed a civil marriage law, which gained approval from the Cabinet only to be halted amid widespread opposition from the country’s religious authorities. And in a country rife with deep-rooted sectarian tensions, many still oppose such unions, with some Muslims arguing that civil marriage is contrary to Islamic law and some Christians having concerns that such a law would diminish Christian presence in Lebanon.

Berri: Country that does not apply law hotbed for corruption
Tue 19 Feb 2019/NNA - "This government has got to succeed, it has no other option. I am not concerned about the government, but of the government itself. We do not every minister in it to have a cabinet of his own," said Speaker Nabih Berri this Tuesday, reiterating the call to "apply the law against corruption.""A country that does not apply the law is a hotbed for corruption, chaos and bankruptcy," he stressed. Pertaining to the situation in the region, Berri said "there is no doubt that there have been many positive developments in the region. In my opinion, though, the region is still on the earthquake line as long as there is no political solution in Syria and Yemen."Berri's words came during his meeting this Tuesday afternoon with a delegation of the Press Syndicate Council headed by Awni Al-Kaaki.

PSP Defends Civil Marriage as Jumblat Says 'Stop Using Religion to Divide'
Naharnet/February 19/19/The Progressive Socialist Party on Monday threw its support behind calls for legalizing civil marriage in Lebanon. “The Progressive Youth Organization regrets that so far there is no national consensus on devising a clear mechanism and measures for holding and registering civil marriages in Lebanon,” the PYO -- the PSP's youth organization -- said in a statement. The organization accordingly called on the relevant authorities to draft a “clear law,” noting that “the country has acknowledged its soundness and rightfulness.”“Marriage is a basic right and the method in which couples choose to wed is a right guaranteed by the Lebanese constitution,” the organization stressed. PSP leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat had earlier tweeted about the issue. “Can we voice our opinion without being accused of apostasy? Yes, I'm a supporter of volitional civil marriage and I call for a civil personal status law. Enough with using religion to divide citizens,” Jumblat said. MP Faisal al-Sayegh of the PSP meanwhile lauded Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan's call for launching a “serious debate” on the topic. “We call for showing openness towards this proposal and discussing its aspects and conditions objectively, without overbidding and bigotry, seeing as we see in it a gateway for further positive interaction among the various components of the Lebanese society,” al-Sayegh tweeted. In the first comment by a religious authority over the renewed controversy, Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon's highest Sunni Muslim authority, said its stance that “categorically rejects and opposes civil marriage in Lebanon has been well-known for years.”“It fully contradicts with the rules of Islamic sharia and also violates the stipulations of the Lebanese constitution in terms of the need to respect the personal status law that is applied by the religious courts of the Lebanese,” Dar al-Fatwa's press office said. In an interview with Euronews, Minister al-Hassan said she is personally in favor of having a “framework for civil marriage” in Lebanon. “I will talk about this issue and seek to open the door for serious and profound dialogue over the topic with all religious authorities and other officials, supported by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, so that civil marriage can be acknowledged,” al-Hassan said.

Kanaan after bloc meeting: Talks about ministerial rift groundless
Tue 19 Feb 2019/NNA - "The 100-day deadline for the government has started, and every minute counts. For this reason, we have set up a mechanism of coordination between the ministers and deputies of the bloc, as well as between them and the governmental, civil and regional bodies," said the secretary of the Strong Lebanon bloc, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, in the wake of the bloc's weekly meeting. "Everything said about ministerial rift is groundless. The words uttered by Minister of Defense Elias Bou Saab in Munich are based on more than one Arab and international consensus. He was congratulated on his approach, and we confirm that his speech was not a breach of the ministerial statement," Kanaan said, uttering keenness on ministerial solidarity. "All that is happening is for the benefit of the country, and the issue of displaced Syrians should not be subject to political friction," the MP stressed on behalf of the bloc.

Future bloc: Government solidarity fundamental
Tue 19 Feb 2019/NNA - The Future Bloc held its weekly meeting at the Center House under the chairmanship of MP Bahia Hariri, with talks featuring high on the latest local developments and the overall situation. At the end of the meeting, the bloc uttered "satisfaction with the course of things after the government has gained confidence," noting that "the MPs' discussion of the ministerial statement ranged from interventions that reflect a high sense of national responsibility and (...) others involving political backgrounds aimed to circumvent the government's program of reform and tamper with the role of Prime Minister Saad Hariri."The bloc pointed out that "the Lebanese were waiting to embark on a serious workshop that will stop the downward path of the State and the national economy and establish a new stage in which waste and corruption are properly addressed." Conferee stressed that "governmental solidarity is a fundamental rule to face the current stage's obligations," noting that "it looks forwards to the responsiveness of political leaderships and forces."

Germany Asks Lebanon to Extradite Syrian Official
Kataeb.org/Tuesday 19th February 2019/Germany has asked Lebanon to hand over former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, Jamil Hassan, Der Spiegel newspaper reported. German Public Prosecutor Peter Frank has charged Hassan with committing crimes against humanity, systematic torture and the killing of prisoners. It is believed that he is undergoing medical treatment in Lebanon. Even though Lebanon will unlikely extradite Hassan given that he is one of Syrian President Bachar Assad’s cronies, the request would put pressure on Lebanon and confine Hassan’s movement, the German newspaper noted. Germany’s investigations into cases of torture by the Assad regime showed Jamil Hassan as a key perpetrator. Two other individuals, 56 year-old Anwar R. and 42 year-old Eyad A., who appeared to have been involved in torture crimes were arrested in Germany. Investigations revealed that the two defendants worked in a division of Syria’s state security service in Damascus.

Four Arrested over Molotov Attack on Kataeb Office
Kataeb.org/Tuesday 19th February 2019/Three Lebanese and one Syrian national were arrested in Nabaa for launching a molotov attack on a Kataeb office last week, the Internal Security Forces announced on Tuesday. Assailants on a motorcycle tossed a Molotov cocktail at the Kataeb's office located in the vicinity of the Mirna Chalouhi Center in Sin El Fil on Thursday night. The attack caused only material damage, burning posters featuring photographs of Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel and martyr Minister Pierre Gemayel, as well as furniture inside the office. According to a statement issued by the ISF, four Lebanese and a Syrian (with an age range between 17 and 21) have been charged with attacking the Kataeb office and torching a poster of Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea in exchange for money. The 24-year-old mastermind, who was also arrested, is a Lebanese national who has been identified by his name initials Aa.B. Only one of the perpetrators, H.Aa., is still at large.

Ibrahim orders arrest of owner of Al-Fanar Hospital, Director of Medical Care at MoPH
Tue 19 Feb 2019/NNA - Judge Ali Ibrahim today questioned the owner and director of Al-Fanar Hospital for Mental and Psychiatric Diseases, Samar Al-Labban, and Director of Medical Care at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Joseph Al-Helo, and ordered their arrest.
Judge Ibrahim will continue his investigations tomorrow into the same file, and will listen to the statements of five hospital staff.

ESCWA Chief takes oath of office before UN Secretary-General
Tue 19 Feb 2019/NNA - United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Rola Dashti took her oath of office before United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday 18 February 2019 at the UN Headquarters, New York, after she assumed her duties at the helm of ESCWA on the 7th. Ms. Dashti promised not to seek or accept any instructions regarding the performance of her duties as Executive Secretary from any government or other source external to the UN. Ms. Dashti met with UN Deputy General Secretary Amina Mohammed and other senior UN officials.

Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published on February 19-20/19
IS Fighters Face Surrender or Death, Says Syrian Kurd-Led Force
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 19/19/Jihadists defending their last dreg of territory in Syria will be "killed in battle" if they don't surrender, a Kurdish-led force said Tuesday ahead of a final showdown. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they are trying to evacuate civilians trapped in the last half a square kilometre (0.2 square miles) of the Islamic State group's once-sprawling "caliphate" before storming the jihadist holdout. "We are working on secluding and evacuating civilians and then we will attack. This could happen soon," spokesman Mustefa Bali said, declining to provide more details on the operation. IS fighters "have only two options, either they surrender or they will be killed in battle," he said. IS declared a "caliphate" across large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014. A small hamlet of buildings in the village of Baghouz is all that is left of the proto-state, which at its height spanned an area the size of the United Kingdom.The United Nations on Tuesday expressed concern over "the situation of some 200 families, including many women and children, who are reportedly trapped" in the IS holdout. "Many of them are apparently being actively prevented from leaving by ISIL," the UN said in a statement, using another acronym for IS.
'Nightmare is over'
The frontline in Baghouz was quiet Monday afternoon. Tattered buildings and the twisted skeletons of cars dotted the side of the road. At the entrance of the village, the SDF had turned an embattled building into a temporary base. Dino, a 26-year old fighter who has battled jihadists for years, said "the nightmare is over. We have saved the people" from the IS group. "The first battles were difficult. We did not know our enemy very well but today we know them intimately." Thousands of people have streamed out of IS turf in recent weeks, but no civilians have made it out in the past three days.
Those that managed to escape have been ferried on trucks to Kurdish-held camps for the displaced to the north. The International Rescue Committee said Monday that 62 people, mostly children, had died on the way to the Al-Hol camp or shortly after arriving in past weeks. Beyond Baghouz, IS still has thousands of fighters and sleeper cells scattered across several countries. In Syria, it retains a presence in the vast Badia desert, and the jihadists have claimed deadly attacks in SDF-held territory. US President Donald Trump said the fall of the IS proto-state would be announced last Saturday, but the SDF says it is holding up a victory declaration until it can secure the evacuation of civilians trapped in the last redoubt. An SDF official on Monday said that an announcement will be made this week. "In a few days we will announce a great victory over the largest terrorist organisation that waged war on the world and wreaked chaos and death everywhere," Zeidan al-Assi said in a statement. Trump stunned allies in December when he announced all 2,000 US troops would withdraw from Syria as IS had already been defeated. The withdrawal plan is expected to be accelerated once IS is defeated.

After IS, Ammunition among the IV Drips at Syria Clinic
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 19/19/At a clinic in eastern Syria, the Islamic State group have fled leaving a floor strewn with medical supplies -- but also explosives and a foreign passport. U.S.-backed fighters took the three-story building in the village of Baghouz in recent days, and now use its roof to survey the frontline against the jihadists. After a months-long campaign, the last IS fighters are pinned down in their last scrap of territory just hundreds of meters down the road in the same village. In the former field hospital's courtyard on Monday, a red stretcher lay abandoned. Under three mounds of earth, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces had buried a woman and two IS fighters found wearing ammunition jackets.Inside the building, an intravenous solution drip was still hanging from a wall, near stacks of brown mattresses and colored blankets. SDF fighter Ehab al-Jabbar pointed to a metal table streaked with traces of blood. "This is where they used to put their wounded," said the 20-year-old. Around the medical facility, bandages, oxygen masks, tubes, bags of intravenous solution, medicine, and papers were scattered all over the floor. But among them are also plastic bags stuffed with small black triangles. "They'd use these in their explosive devices," Jabbar told AFP.
'Abu Ayub the Tunisian'
Among the disarray of papers, the SDF had found a handwritten work rota. "Morning shift", "Evening shift", and "ER team", someone had scrolled in blue ink, near the names of doctors and nurses on duty. Among the listed staff were foreigners -- "Abu Hamza the Iraqi" and "Abu Ayub the Tunisian", as well as Syrian names. The papers written in Arabic showed those scheduled to work in the pharmacy, the laboratory, maintenance, and on guard duty. IS declared a "caliphate" spanning parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, imposing its brutal interpretation of Islam on millions. In the early years, before several offensives chipped the proto-state down to its last half a kilometer square, the extremist group attracted thousands of foreigners. In the Baghouz clinic, one appeared to have left behind his passport. It said it belonged to a Tunisian who would be 29-years-old, and was stamped with an entry visa to Syria via Turkey dated January 6, 2013. There was also the election card of a Baghouz resident harking back to 1997. The Kurdish-led SDF have uncovered IS prisons, police stations, and even propaganda centers as they have taken one town after another from the jihadists. Saber, a 23-year-old fighter, said he stumbled on one such broadcasting center for the Al-Bayan radio station just a few kilometers away. "The place was empty with nothing inside except for a small sign saying Al-Bayan," he said.
'Foreign language'
On the roof of the hospital, Saber looks out onto what is left of the jihadist group's "caliphate". "We can hear them speaking on their walkie-talkies but we don't always understand them," said the fighter, with a thick black beard. "Some speak in a foreign language."A fellow fighter behind him, wearing an ornate scarf around his head, agreed."Sometimes they speak in code, saying things like "Immigrant 3' or 'Immigrant 5'," he added. From the rooftop, white and blue tents could be seen scattered over hundreds of square meters in the last jihadist patch by the Euphrates River. Two masked men in short trousers and long tunics were also visible. The SDF estimate hundreds of diehard jihadists to be holed up in the last pocket. But they have been moving cautiously in recent days, as they say IS fighters have been using hundreds of civilians remaining there as "human shields.""The important thing for us is to get out all the civilians... Then we'll be able to win, and go home," he said. On the outskirts of the village, a fresh group of SDF fighters step off two buses into lines, awaiting their orders. On their way out, fellow combatants were elated to be going on leave just as the "caliphate" is expected to fall.
"We're feeling so great. We've wiped them out," said Majid al-Sheikh, a fighter in his twenties.

Families Trapped as ISIS Steps Up Guerrilla Attacks in Syria
London-/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 February, 2019/Some 200 families are trapped in a shrinking area of Syria still controlled by the ISIS terrorist group, whose forces are stopping some from fleeing, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday.
"Many of them (also) ...continue to be subjected to intensified air and ground-based strikes by the US-led Coalition forces and their SDF allies on the ground," Bachelet said in a statement. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces attacking ISIS have an obligation under international law to take all precautions to protect civilians who are mixed in with the foreign fighters, her spokesman Rupert Colville told a briefing. The SDF said n Tuesday that ISIS has stepped up guerrilla attacks against its fighters in eastern Syria, pointing to the threat the militants will pose even after they lose their last enclave there. The US-backed SDF is on the brink of defeating ISIS in its last pocket in eastern Syria, the village of Baghouz, where it estimates a few hundred ISIS militants and about 2,000 civilians are under siege. ISIS militants have intensified attacks away from the last frontline in recent days, Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office, said. ISIS launched two of the attacks three days ago in the village of Dhiban, 90 km (56 miles) north of Baghouz. In the first attack, an ambush, two SDF fighters and a militant were killed. In the second, carried out that evening by a group of foreign militants, the SDF killed three militants and captured two, Bali said. “Sleeper cells are on the move on a daily basis,” Bali said. “The organization (ISIS) is working on security operations in an intensive way ... It is still strong, ending its military presence does not at all mean the elimination of Daesh (ISIS),” he said. ISIS redrew the map of the Middle East in 2014 when it declared a caliphate across large areas of Syria and Iraq. But the group steadily lost ground and its two main prizes - the Syrian city of Raqqa and Iraq’s Mosul - fell in 2017. Spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, the SDF has been the main US partner in Syria and has driven ISIS out of swathes of the north and east over the last four years. After capturing Raqqa, the SDF advanced south into Deir al-Zor province, attacking the militants in territory on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. ISIS still has some territory west of the Euphrates in a remote area otherwise controlled by the Syrian regime and its allies. SDF commander Mazloum Kobani has called for some international forces to remain in Syria to help fight ISIS and expressed hope that the United States would halt plans for a total pullout. US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal order has been criticized by allies at home and abroad.

US Allies Demand Troops Stay in North Syria
Washington- Elie Youssef/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 February, 2019/The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) did not respond directly to statements by Army Lieutenant General Paul LaCamera, who is the commander of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and his warnings against the Kurds’ heading towards Damascus and Moscow. A commander in the SDF called on Monday for part of US troops to remain in Syria and help fight ISIS. His comments followed talks with Head of US Central Command Army General Joseph Votel, who visited Kurdish-controlled areas accompanied by senior US military commanders and discussed the latest developments on how to withdraw US troops from the region and coordinate the move with Kurds. Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) serve as US-led SDF’s backbone northeast Syria. LaCamera has earlier stated that the United States will have to sever its military assistance to the SDF if the fighters partner with Head of the Syrian regime Bashar al-Assad or Russia. He warned that US law prohibits cooperation with Russia as well as Assad’s military. Head of Foreign Relations Commission in the Kurdish-led area Abdulkarim Omar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Kurds haven't received any official stance from the United States, noting that this subject needs several clarifications before being openly discussed. He said it is very complicated and linked to various factors, which have to do with regional and international contacts to arrange the post-US withdrawal from Syria. Omar added that Kurds will not go to Damascus and Moscow if their participation in any future talks and in the constitutional committee to draft a constitutional reform were not guaranteed, stressing the recognition of their own privacy as a condition. Head of Germany-based Kurdish Center for Studies (KCS) Nawaf Khalil, for his part, refused these warnings. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that Kurds demand that the Americans identify and clarify their options and demystify the process of their withdrawal from northern Syria.

Arab League Slams Israeli 'Piracy' of Palestinian Tax Funds
Cairo- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 February, 2019/The Arab League has decried as "piracy" an Israeli decision to freeze millions of dollars in tax fees it collected on behalf of Palestine. "This decision is a continuation of the Israeli piracy and theft of the Palestinian people's funds and resources," the Cairo-based league said in a statement released on Monday. The body of Arab nations has called on United Nations agencies to "face this new Israeli aggression," describing the freeze as "a clear violation and flagrant breach of international commitments." The Israeli government on Sunday announced it was deducting NIS 502 million ($138 million) from the funds that would normally be channeled to the Palestinian Authority. Israel says it is imposing the ban in protest at the authority paying money to families of Palestinians that have carried out attacks on Israelis. The Palestinians argue it is not Israel's money, it collects the taxes on Palestinian imports and exports on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas. Israel collects around $175 million every month in taxes on Palestinian imports and exports on behalf the PA. Tax revenue represents the PA's main source of income. The PA says the payments are a form of welfare to the families who have lost their main breadwinner.

Egypt Security Forces Kill 16 Militants in North Sinai
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 February, 2019/Egyptian security forces killed 16 suspected militants in the northern Sinai region, state media reported Tuesday.
Ten militants were killed in the Obeidat district of Arish and another six were killed in the Abu Eita district of the city, state-run Al Ahram said. An undisclosed quantity of weapons, ammunition and explosives were found with the six in Abu Eita. The two sides exchanged gunfire, it said without elaborating. The suspected militants' bodies were taken to several hospitals in the city of Ismailia to be examined and identified, security and medical sources said. The report came the day after an explosion in central Cairo killed three policemen. The security forces and military had launched in February 2018 a comprehensive operation in northern Sinai aimed at ridding the peninsula of terrorist groups.

Jordan Calls on Iran to Release Three of its Citizens
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 February, 2019/Jordanian Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh called Monday on Iranian authorities to release three Jordanians, who have been held by Tehran for two months now on charges of entering the country's territorial waters “by mistake” when they were on a fishing trip off the UAE.Tarawneh raised the case of the three detained Jordanians during a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Jordan Mojtaba Ferdosipour, urging Iranian authorities to take a “positive step” towards ensuring their quick release. Jordan’s foreign ministry said in January that the Jordanians accompanied by Emirati and Egyptian friends had entered Iranian waters “by mistake” during a boat trip on December 27. Iran had said at the time the detainees were being treated well and would be tried and fined in the coastal city of Bandar Lengeh, but without giving a date. Ferdosipour, for his part, assured Tarawneh that the case would be resolved “in the coming days,” noting that routine measures are being currently taken. Few days after the three Jordanians were detained last month, Ferdosipour had promised to release them, media quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid al-Qatarna as saying.

Netanyahu Seeks to Save Face after Canceled Central Europe Summit
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 19/19/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to save face Tuesday after a summit with four central European nations was canceled over a Holocaust-linked dispute with Poland, instead holding meetings with the remaining three leaders. The dispute put a dent in Netanyahu's attempts to forge deeper links with the four countries as part of his strategy to build alliances with nations providing strong backing to Israel within the European Union. Netanyahu frequently lashes out at what he calls the EU's "hypocritical and hostile attitude," referring to the bloc's criticism of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. The holding of a summit of the Visegrad group -- Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic -- in Jerusalem had been seen as a coup for Netanyahu's efforts. But the highly sensitive question of Poles' role in the Holocaust loomed over it, having previously led to a diplomatic dispute with Israel. The dispute was renewed last week, when Netanyahu was in Warsaw for a summit on the Middle East and was quoted as saying "the Poles collaborated with the Nazis," sparking Polish anger. Netanyahu's office said later that he was misquoted and had not implicated all Poles or the Polish nation in the Holocaust, but Poland later downgraded its participation in the summit, saying it would send its foreign minister. Israel's new foreign minister Israel Katz added fuel to the fire on Sunday, telling an Israeli television station "there were many Poles who collaborated with the Nazis."He also quoted former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir saying "Poles suckle anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk."Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the comments "racist and unacceptable," while pulling his country out of the summit altogether, and on Tuesday senior Polish officials demanded Israel apologize. The summit was postponed to the second half of the year at Poland's request, according to Slovakia. Warsaw has long been at pains to state that Poland, which was occupied by Nazi Germany, did not collaborate in the Holocaust although individual Poles gave up Jews to the Nazis.
'Underrates the cost'
After the cancelled summit, Netanyahu was meeting the prime ministers of Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary individually on Tuesday in Jerusalem before a joint lunch. "There are many, many things that connect us and I have to tell you that we are cooperating in areas of security, defense, intelligence," Netanyahu told Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini. The fresh controversy in Polish-Israeli ties comes after a row last year over a Polish law that made it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of complicity in Nazi German crimes. After protests from Israel and the U.S., Poland amended the law to remove the possibility of fines or a prison sentence. Netanyahu has faced criticism at home for agreeing to drop the issue after the amendments, including from Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and research center. Netanyahu's relations with leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also drawn criticism. Orban's visit to Israel in July provoked concern because of allegations he has stoked anti-Semitism in Hungary with nationalist rhetoric and a campaign against U.S. Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros. But Netanyahu has highlighted the support Hungary has pledged for Israel, and both men have been at odds with the EU establishment. When attending a Visegrad group summit in Hungary in 2017, Netanyahu's closed-door remarks denouncing EU demands of Israel as "absolutely crazy" were picked up by a microphone and heard by journalists. Jonathan Rynhold, police science professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, said Netanyahu's strategy "is to work with the central and eastern countries, the Visegrad group, to neutralize pressures coming from other parts of the EU, particularly Brussels.""I think he overrates what he is getting from it, and he underrates the cost in Jewish terms with being associated" with some of the countries, said Rynhold.

PA Threatens to Cancel Agreements With Israel
Ramallah - Kifah Ziboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 February, 2019/Palestinian leaders threatened to review all forms of relations with Israel and cancel agreements with it in response to an Israeli decision to deduct about $138 million of tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority. A series of emergency meetings began on Monday, as Palestinian officials acknowledged that the Israeli move would actually destroy the PA. “There is no power in the world that can make the Palestinian Authority stop paying salaries to the prisoners and the families of the martyrs,” said Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the PLO’s executive committee. “We will dissolve the Authority before we do such a thing,” he added. Rami al-Hamdallah, head of the caretaker government, said that the Israeli decision “places the Palestinian economy at risk, threatens the ability of the PA to pay salaries on time and disrupts the development process.” “It is part of a plan to destroy the Authority,” he emphasized. On Sunday, Israel’s cabinet approved deducting 502 million shekels ($138 million) in tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority, a figure equivalent to that paid by the PA as salaries to families of prisoners and fighters in 2018. The amount will likely be reduced gradually over 12 months. Israel’s decision to deduct this large sum comes in response to the Authority’s insistence on paying monthly salaries to the families of Palestinian fighters and prisoners in Israeli jails, a move that puts the future of the PA at stake, with the United States suspending all support for the Palestinians. Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that officials were considering to implement previous recommendations to cancel agreements with Israel, even if this entails an open political confrontation. “Israeli and American decisions are aimed at forcing the Authority to bow, but we will choose confrontation. We will proceed with the implementation of the recommendations concerning the disengagement of relations with Israel, even if this leads to the destruction of the PA. Moving to a state under occupation is a strong option,” the sources noted.

Bernie Sanders Announces He Is Running for U.S. President
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 19/19/Senator Bernie Sanders announced Tuesday he is running for president, launching a second bid for the White House after a surprisingly strong run for the Democratic nomination in 2016. Sanders, 77, made the announcement in a radio interview in his home state of Vermont. "I wanted to let the people of the state of Vermont know about this first," said Sanders on Vermont Public Radio.

Trump Tells Venezuela Military to Back Guaido or 'Lose Everything'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 19/19/US President Donald Trump on Monday urged Venezuela's military to accept opposition leader Juan Guaido's amnesty offer, or stand to "lose everything," as a crisis deepened over President Nicolas Maduro's refusal to let in desperately needed humanitarian aid.
Bringing in humanitarian aid is crucial to the viability of Guaido, who has denounced Maduro's re-election last year as fraudulent and in January declared himself interim president, a move recognized by some 50 countries. He has given the Maduro government until Saturday to let shipments of mainly US aid into the country, which is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis due to shortages of food and medicine exacerbated by hyperinflation. Addressing supporters and Venezuelan expatriates in Miami, Trump said he had a message for officials helping keep Maduro in place. "The eyes of the entire world are upon you today, every day and every day in the future. "You cannot hide from the choice that now confronts you. You can choose to accept president Guaido's generous offer of amnesty to live your life in peace with your families and your countrymen. "Or you can choose the second path: continuing to support Maduro. If you choose this path, you will find no safe harbor, no easy exit and no way out. You will lose everything."Guaido has set a target of signing up to a million volunteers to help bring in the aid, with 600,000 already registered. "On February 23, we have the opportunity to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans," he said. Maduro countered with his own announcement of 300 tonnes of aid from Russia, which he said would reach Venezuela by Wednesday -- three days ahead of a potential showdown brought about by his February 23 deadline. Speaking at an official event broadcast on TV, Maduro said the shipment contained "high-value medicine."Maduro has previously announced the arrival of aid from China, Cuba and Russia, his main international allies.
- Committed to change -
Earlier, opposition officials hit out at state internet provider CANTV for blocking the website where volunteers are signing up to help bring in the US aid stockpiled in Colombia just over the border from Venezuela. A second aid collection center is due to begin operations in Brazil's northeastern state of Roraima, which borders Venezuela. But there is much uncertainty over the aid in Brazil, with officials there saying they have no information at this point. Military officials in Roraima said they had yet to receive orders, although a collection center could be set up quickly, with some businesses having already provided warehouses to that effect. A third center is due to open this week on the Dutch island of Curacao, off Venezuela's north coast. The humanitarian aid standoff is due to come to a head this weekend, when caravans of buses are set to carry volunteers to border entry points to meet and transport arriving cargo. It is unclear how Guaido will overcome the border barriers put up by the Venezuelan military, on Maduro's orders.Volunteer groups have begun meeting in "humanitarian camps" in several Venezuelan states to organize and prepare for the arrival of the aid to alleviate hardship from an imploding economy has driven an estimated 2.3 million Venezuelans to migrate from the oil-rich country. Maduro, who denies the existence of a humanitarian crisis, dismisses the opposition moves as a "political show" and a cover for a US invasion.
- An 'international crime' -
"Whoever prevents the entry of humanitarian aid is condemned to spend the rest of their lives fleeing international justice, because that is an international crime," US Senator Marco Rubio said as he toured the Colombian collection center in Cucuta on Sunday. Three US military cargo planes delivered several dozen tons of food assistance to Cucuta on Saturday. Another US aircraft is due in Curacao from Miami on Tuesday. Guaido has ordered the armed forces to let the aid pass, but they remain loyal to Maduro, who has instructed his army to prepare a "special deployment plan" for the 2,200-kilometer (1,370-mile) border with Colombia. Maduro has dismissed the humanitarian assistance as "crumbs" and "rotten and contaminated food," while blaming shortages of food and medicine on US sanctions.

Suicide bomber who killed 27 members of Iran's Guards was Pakistani: Guards commander
Tue 19 Feb 2019/NNA - The man who carried out a suicide bombing which killed 27 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards near the border with Pakistan last week was Pakistani, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander said on Tuesday, according to the Tasnim news agency. One other member of the militant cell that planned the attack was also a Pakistani citizen, the head of the Guards’ ground forces, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said. Iran has repeatedly blamed Pakistan for sheltering militants connected with attacks in the border area, although Tuesday’s remarks appear to be the first time Tehran has said Pakistani citizens were directly involved in the attack. Iran also accuses regional rival Saudi Arabia of promoting violence among members of Iran’s Sunni Muslim minority. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia deny any role in attacks in Iran.
Three Iranians from Sistan and Baluchistan province in southeast Iran were also part of the cell and two of them have been arrested, according to Pakpour. The guards announced three arrests in the case on Monday. The Sunni group Jaish al Adl (Army of Justice), which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for ethnic minority Baluchis in eastern Iran claimed responsibility for the attack. “Today Saudi Arabia is the heart of evil in the region and the world,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the deputy head of the Guards, said on Tuesday at a ceremony commemorating those killed in the attack, according to the Fars news agency.Remnants of the car used in the suicide attack were given to the police, Pakpour said. Once the owner of the car was identified, intelligence and security forces carried out arrests. The militants had planned to carry out multiple attacks, Pakpour said: “This group had prepared a lot of ammunition and equipment.” -- REUTERS

Suicide Bomber Kills Three Police in Historic Heart of Cairo
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 19/19/A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the heart of ancient Islamic Cairo, killing three policemen who were chasing him through its narrow alleyways, medical and security sources said on Tuesday. Monday evening's bombing, in the Darb al-Ahmar neighbourhood near the historic Al-Azhar mosque, also wounded two other policemen, the interior ministry said in a statement. "As security forces surrounded the man and were about to stop him and bring him under control, an explosive device in his possession detonated," the ministry said. Video posted on social media on Tuesday morning showed police catching up with a male cyclist before being enveloped by an explosion. The ministry said the bomber was being chased as part of a manhunt for those responsible for a foiled bomb attack near a mosque in Cairo's twin city of Giza on Friday.
Police sappers successfully defused that device. Monday evening's blast damaged several shops in the alleyway which lies in an area frequented by foreign tourists. "My shop's front and windows were destroyed," said Kareem Sayed Awad, a barbershop owner. "The problem is not only that but also that people died. This is a tourist area and such incidents affect it," he said. Egypt's tourism industry, which had already been hit by the turmoil that followed the Arab Spring revolution of 2011, has been further damaged by a series of deadly attacks against foreign tourists by suspected Islamist militants. In December, three Vietnamese holidaymakers and their Egyptian guide were killed when a homemade bomb exploded on their bus near the famed pyramids in Giza. Authorities have made major efforts to lure tourists back, touting a series of archaeological finds and a new museum next to the pyramids, as well as enhanced security at airports and around ancient sites. Tourism has slowly picked up, with tourist arrivals reaching 8.3 million in 2017, compared with 5.3 million the previous year, official statistics showed. But that figure was still far short of the record influx of 2010 when more than 14 million visitors flocked to see the country's sites.
- Jihadist insurgency -
Since the 2013 ouster by the army of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt has been battling a persistent jihadist insurgency, centred in the Sinai Peninsula. In February 2018, security forces launched a major operation against the local affiliate of the Islamic State group, which has been mainly focused on volatile North Sinai province but has also targeted jihadist cells elsewhere in the country. Egypt has often announced the killing of jihadists during Operation Sinai 2018, but statements on significant losses by the security force have been rare. On Saturday, the army reported that an attack on a checkpoint in North Sinai left 15 soldiers dead or wounded and seven of the suspected jihadist assailants killed. On Tuesday, the interior ministry announced that 16 suspected jihadists had been killed during raids in the provincial capital El-Arish. It did not say when.The raids, on a deserted building in the city's Al-Obaydat neighbourhood and a house under construction in the Abu Eita district, targeted suspected "terrorist cells" in the city and triggered firefights in which the 16 were killed, the ministry said.

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 19-20/19
Post-Caliphate ISIS
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute/February 19, 2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13750/post-caliphate-isis
This ISIS penchant for high-profile cruelty is likely to continue, even against Muslims who already account for most of its victims. ISIS justifies this brutality against fellow Muslims by judging them as insufficiently orthodox in their Islamic faith, a theological tactic of attacking a fellow Muslim's commitment to Islam that is called "takfir."
In the foreseeable future, ISIS, because of its loss of a territorial Caliphate, will likely limit its battlefield operations to guerrilla warfare. Nevertheless, the overall thrust of ISIS propaganda will probably remain oriented to appeal to young male Muslims who feel isolated or are searching for meaning in life.
The disintegration of the Islamic State's Caliphate -- which once included large portions of Iraq and Syria -- may be a strategic defeat for ISIS, yet the jihadi terrorist group is very much alive. Its ideology, tactics and objectives have not altered. ISIS remains steeped in the ideology of "salafiya jihadiyah" (Salafi jihad), which requires every Muslim to wage "holy war" in some fashion against the "infidel."
The ideological vision of ISIS and the extremist acts which flow from that vision, such as its iconoclastic destruction of graves, sacred shrines, and cultural sites, closely resembles that of Sunni Wahhabi extremism with origins in Saudi Arabia, the source of the ISIS's ideological conflict against the values shared by freedom loving nations. An example of this ideological affinity is ISIS' destruction of the alleged graves of the Prophets Daniel and Jonah in the area of Mosul, Iraq in July 2014. As early as 1802, Wahhabi marauders acted similarly, destroying many shrines, graves and sacred sites in Shia Islam's holy city of Karbala, while massacring hundreds of Shia Muslims in the process. This behavior closely resembles the comportment of ISIS operatives throughout their Caliphate territories in Iraq, where they destroyed Christian churches in Mosul, Iraq and in Syria where they demolished ancient ruins in Palmyra.
Today, ISIS remains a most brutal jihadi terrorist network, known in the West for posting horrific execution videos online. The unearthing of several mass graves in regions of Iraq and Syria once under ISIS control underscores its willingness to murder large numbers of innocents. By spreading paralytic fear, they can presumably more easily control local populations.
ISIS' claim of responsibility for the terrorist bombing of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu Province, Philippines, seems evidence of a strategic effort to instill fear. ISIS, in cooperation with nearby chapters of the Abu Sayaf Group, detonated two bombs in Jolo on a Sunday morning, just before mass. The Jolo bombing could have been punishment meted out by ISIS and Abu Sayaf, as that was the only part of Sulu Province which had voted against a referendum to grant autonomy to this Muslim-majority province.
This ISIS penchant for high-profile cruelty is likely to continue, even against Muslims who already account for most of its victims. ISIS justifies this brutality against fellow Muslims by judging them as insufficiently orthodox in their Islamic faith, a theological tactic of attacking a fellow Muslim's commitment to Islam that is called "takfir." ISIS mullahs use takfir against Muslims who oppose the ISIS ideology, and ISIS clerics denounce their opponents as apostates to Islam in order to discredit them. ISIS's intolerance extends from Sunni moderates and Shia Muslims to ethnic minorities and non-Muslim religious factions, including Yazidis and Christians. ISIS believes that it is permissible to purge these non-believers from Islamic areas to "purify" the community.
By the autumn of 2017, it was clear that the ISIS Caliphate's days were numbered, yet ISIS still endures. Today, ISIS survives, in part, because it has demonstrated organizational flexibility. Although its networking has been global in scope, it is not a top-down organization such as al-Qaeda; a difference that may have made al-Qaeda's leadership more vulnerable to counterterrorist forces. ISIS is more amorphous than al-Qaeda: in ISIS, there no longer seems to be a head of the snake to sever. ISIS also possibly endures because some Muslims in the Middle East applaud it for having challenged the legitimacy of the maps created by European imperialist victors of World War I, thereby transcending the artificial state borders established by the Sykes-Picot Agreement drafted by the victorious allied powers of France and Great Britain.
In short, members of ISIS were defeated geographically, but may not feel not eviscerated ideologically. Rather, the organization is in a state of flux, in which ISIS fighters must face the new realities of a post-Caliphate era in their jihad. Some ISIS veterans remaining in or near villages in northeastern Syria will continue to engage in skirmishes against government, Kurdish, and foreign forces rather than surrender. A portion, however, are surrendering to US-led, mostly Kurdish, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF); still others may try to blend in with local population. Many foreign ISIS fighters, particularly from European countries, may have migrated back to their homelands or have been captured or killed. Others have apparently followed the directive of ISIS's Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to perform "hegira" (migration) to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the latter where al-Baghdadi recently was reported to have fled.
ISIS leaders, after the roll-up of the Caliphate, may have decided that they had to prove to their fighters that ISIS was still very much alive -- possibly the reason for the decision to execute its recent suicide-bombing operation in Manbij, Syria, in which four US nationals were killed. The operation also may have been, in part, a response to US President Donald Trump and the statements of other officials, asserting that ISIS had been crushed in the region. The strike on Manbij must feel particularly stinging, as about three years ago, the Manbij area celebrated its liberation from ISIS.
ISIS also may have targeted Manbij to attract more recruits by demonstrating that it remains vibrant and can reach anywhere, including areas assumed by counterterrorist forces as cleansed of terrorists.
In addition, ISIS continues its traditional messaging on social media platforms, with tweets as well as videos for Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. However, the terrorist group's propaganda themes have altered significantly. Gone are the sensational videos of battlefield victories and executions of captured "apostate" Muslim warriors.
Also absent from al-Baghdadi's latest communication to ISIS adherents are his former entreaties to build the infrastructure of an Islamic society inside the Caliphate. Al-Baghdadi now instructs ISIS recruits to concentrate on the "long war," which must be waged against the unbelievers. In keeping with this theme, last August, al-Baghdadi in an address entitled "Give Glad Tidings to the Patient," counseled his fighters, "The scale of victory or defeat with the mujahedeen, the people of faith and piety, is not tied to a city or a village that was taken."
In the foreseeable future, ISIS, because of its loss of a territorial Caliphate, will likely limit its battlefield operations to guerrilla warfare. Nevertheless, the overall thrust of ISIS propaganda will probably remain oriented to appeal to young male Muslims who feel isolated or are searching for meaning in life.
Despite ISIS's ideological rigidity, there is evidence that ISIS Caliph Al-Baghdadi can be quite flexible when military practicality dictates. Al-Baghdadi, for example, clearly rejected Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri's demand that ISIS detach itself from its battlefield alliance in Syria with the anti-Assad Sunni organization, Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria. After its initial series of battlefield reverses, by the beginning of 2016, ISIS's warrior numbers had decreased to an estimated 30,000 in the Iraq-Syria Caliphate. The organization still has considerable strength in some parts of the Islamic world, especially in the Levant (Greater Syria), Afghanistan, and countries along the North African coast, particularly in Libya and Tunisia.
Despite disastrous military defeats, ISIS is still a threat, is very much alive, and is recruiting a new generation of young, mostly male Islamic terrorists.
It might be safest to assume that this religiously-motivated jihad against "unbelievers" might last for some time.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve. He is also a practicing Catholic.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Facebook Still Championing Blasphemy Laws
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/February 19, 2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13583/facebook-blasphemy-laws
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg now appears to be more intent on censorship than ever. In a recent memo, written in mind-numbing, bureaucratic obfuscatese, he described his plan to discourage "borderline content", a concept appearing to be so meaningless as to encompass anything that Zuckerberg and Facebook might ever want to censor.
A report published in the Wall Street Journal on January 8, noted that Facebook -- and Twitter -- executives removed activist Laura Loomer from their platforms after Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations' (CAIR) San Francisco Bay Area chapter, complained to them. What Facebook fails to disclose is that CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing case in US history. CAIR has also been designated a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates.
Billoo herself, according to Jihad Watch, "In tweets that remain publicly available... has expressed her support for an Islamic caliphate and Sharia law. She also claims, in multiple tweets, that ISIS is on the same moral plane as American and Israeli soldiers, adding that 'our troops are engaged in terrorism'".
Facebook, however, appears to be "creatively" selective in how it chooses to follow its own rules. In France, a prisoner identified as Amir was accused in November of publishing ISIS propaganda from his prison cell using a smuggled phone. Facebook, apparently, took no notice.
Recent events illustrate how Facebook -- which has previously championed blasphemy laws -- continues its "sharia censorship" regarding content it apparently deems contrary to its "Community Standards".
A report published in the Wall Street Journal on January 8, noted that Facebook -- and Twitter -- executives removed activist Laura Loomer from their platforms after Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations' (CAIR) San Francisco Bay Area chapter, complained to them. What Facebook fails to disclose is that CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing case in US history. CAIR has also been designated a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates.
It should, however, be of little surprise that CAIR executives are able to wield such power over social media. According to Islamist Watch's Sam Westrop:
"Since 2008, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) has granted $330,524 to two Islamist organizations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Islamic Relief.... SVCF is America's largest community foundation, with assets of over $8 billion. Its corporate partners include some of the country's biggest tech companies -- its largest donation was $1.5 billion from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg".
Silicon Valley, in other words, appears to be in the habit of financially supporting Islamists.
Billoo herself, according to Jihad Watch, "In tweets that remain publicly available... has expressed her support for an Islamic caliphate and Sharia law. She also claims, in multiple tweets, that ISIS is on the same moral plane as American and Israeli soldiers, adding that 'our troops are engaged in terrorism'".
Also in January, Facebook removed ads promoting a "Britain First" petition against the redevelopment and expansion of a mosque in the UK, on a Facebook page called Political Gamers UK. "Britain First" announced it would sue the social media giant for "political discrimination".
The latest two instances of Facebook censorship were far from unique. In 2018, some of the publicized incidents of Facebook censorship included:
The news website Voice of Europe reported that it had been repeatedly censored and suspended for posting articles that contained content reflecting the critical stance of Central and Eastern European politicians against migration. An example is a book review of former Czech President Vaclav Klaus's Europe All Inclusive, in which he said: "The migrant influx is comparable to the barbarian invasions of Europe." According to Voice of Europe, "We've now decided we will not post all our news on Facebook anymore, because we don't want to lose our page."
German Catholic historian and author Dr. Michael Hesemann had his comments on the historic role of Islam in Europe deleted because they supposedly did not correspond to Facebook "community standards". Hesemann had written, "Islam always plays only one role in the 1700-year-old history of the Christian Occident: the role of the sword of Damocles which hung above us, the threat of barbarism against which one needed to unite and fight. In this sense, Islam is not part of German history..."
Frontpage Magazine editor Jamie Glazov was banned from Facebook for 30 days for posting screenshots of a Muslim's threats to him. Facebook also banned him for 30 days on another occasion, for writing an article on the 17th anniversary of 9/11 on how to best prevent future 9/11s, "9 Steps to Successfully Counter Jihad." (Most recently, another social media giant, Twitter, warned Glazov that his new book, Jihadist Psychopath: How He Is Charming, Seducing, and Devouring Us , is in violation of Pakistan's penal code, according to which Glazov is apparently "defiling the Holy Quran". For the moment, Twitter has not taken any action, but it shows the extent to which social media is willing to take sharia laws into consideration).
Facebook closed down Australian imam Mohammad Tawhidi's Facebook page "after he made a post mocking the terrorist group Hamas, and speaking in sarcastic terms about 'peaceful Palestinian protests'".
Facebook permanently banned the entire European branch of the anti-migration youth movement, Generation Identity, from Facebook. It deleted the movement's pages for containing "extremist content".
Facebook censored a post critical of Islam's treatment of gays as "hate speech" and banned the editor of the website behind the post, Politicalite, for 30 days.
Facebook regularly blocks posts from historian and author Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch website. It happened, for example, both in September and in December.
These represent just an extremely small selection of publicized incidents affecting a number of high public profile Facebook users; less-known social media users are censored and banned all the time. In Germany, for instance, lawyer, journalist and anti-censorship activist Joachim Nikolaus Steinhöfel runs a website that documents Facebook censorship in Germany alone. There appears to be an enormous amount to document -- as of June 2017, Facebook removed an average of 288,000 posts a month globally, according to its own statistics.
This should not come as a surprise – Facebook has, for example, signed the European Commission's Code of Conduct on countering illegal online hate speech online, which commits the social media giant to review and remove, within 24 hours, "illegal hate speech". Facebook's Vice President of Public Policy Richard Allan wrote in 2017:
"Our current definition of hate speech is anything that directly attacks people based on what are known as their 'protected characteristics' — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or serious disability or disease.
"There is no universally accepted answer for when something crosses the line...
"Sometimes, it's obvious that something is hate speech and should be removed – because it includes the direct incitement of violence against protected characteristics, or degrades or dehumanizes people. If we identify credible threats of imminent violence against anyone, including threats based on a protected characteristic, we also escalate that to local law enforcement."
Facebook, however, appears to be "creatively" selective in how it chooses to follow its own rules. It removes, for example, "content that glorifies violence or celebrates the suffering or humiliation of others". In Sweden, however, Ahmad Qadan posted status updates to his public Facebook profile, asking for donations to ISIS. The posts stayed online for two years. Facebook only deleted the posts after the Swedish Security Service, (Säpo), approached it. In November 2017, Ahmad was sentenced to six months in prison after having been found guilty of using Facebook to collect money to fund weapons purchases for the ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra terror groups and for posting messages calling for "serious acts of violence primarily or disproportionately aimed at civilians with the intention of creating terror amongst the public".
Facebook responded: "On occasions we make mistakes. When that happens, we correct them as soon as we are made aware".
In September, Canadian media exposed that a Toronto terrorist leader, Zakaria Amara, currently serving a life sentence for plotting Al Qaeda-inspired truck bombings in downtown Toronto, nevertheless had a Facebook page on which he posted prison photos and notes about what made him a terrorist. Only after Canadian media outlets reached Facebook to ask about the account did Facebook delete Amara's account "for violating our community standards."
In France, a prisoner identified as Amir was accused in November of publishing ISIS propaganda from his prison cell using a smuggled phone. Facebook, apparently, took no notice.
Most recently, in Germany, a parliamentarian from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party (AfD), Frank Magnitz, was severely wounded in a violent attack, which his party called "an assassination attempt." A German "Antifa" group, Antifa Kampfsausbildung, posted "thank you" in response to the assault. Facebook found the group's support of violence against a member of parliament perfectly in accord with its "standards".
Perhaps Facebook's selectivity is due to the loyalties it has already openly displayed. In July 2017, Joel Kaplan, Facebook's Vice President of Public Policy, reportedly promised Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan that Facebook would "remove fake accounts and explicit, hateful and provocative material that incites violence and terrorism".
"The spokesperson said that while talking to the Facebook vice president, Nisar said that the entire Muslim Ummah was greatly disturbed and has serious concerns over the misuse of social media platforms to propagate blasphemous content... Nisar said that Pakistan appreciates the understanding shown by the Facebook administration and the cooperation being extended on these issues."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg now appears to be more intent on censorship than ever. In a recent memo, written in mind-numbing, bureaucratic obfuscatese, he described his plan to discourage "borderline content", a concept appearing to be so meaningless as to encompass anything that Zuckerberg and Facebook might ever want to censor. This is how Zuckerberg defines it:
"One of the biggest issues social networks face is that, when left unchecked, people will engage disproportionately with more sensationalist and provocative content... At scale it can undermine the quality of public discourse and lead to polarization. In our case, it can also degrade the quality of our services.
"Our research suggests that no matter where we draw the lines for what is allowed, as a piece of content gets close to that line, people will engage with it more on average...
"This is a basic incentive problem that we can address by penalizing borderline content so it gets less distribution and engagement. By making the distribution curve look like the graph below where distribution declines as content gets more sensational, people are disincentivized from creating provocative content that is as close to the line as possible.
"Interestingly, our research has found that this natural pattern of borderline content getting more engagement applies not only to news but to almost every category of content. For example, photos close to the line of nudity, like with revealing clothing or sexually suggestive positions, got more engagement on average before we changed the distribution curve to discourage this. The same goes for posts that don't come within our definition of hate speech but are still offensive.
"This pattern may apply to the groups people join and pages they follow as well. This is especially important to address because while social networks in general expose people to more diverse views, and while groups in general encourage inclusion and acceptance, divisive groups and pages can still fuel polarization. To manage this, we need to apply these distribution changes not only to feed ranking but to all of our recommendation systems for things you should join."
It is curious that Zuckerberg would present his idea of disincentivizing "borderline content" as something new, when, in fact, it has been a staple on Facebook for at least several years. In November 2017, for example, "traffic to Jihad Watch from Facebook dropped suddenly by 90% and has never recovered" according to the website's creator, Robert Spencer.
Facebook is evidently still championing blasphemy laws.
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

We Will Displace You, O Worshipers of the Cross” Muslim Persecution of Christians, December 2018
Raymond Ibrahim//Gatestone Institute/February 19, 2019
The Slaughter of Christians
Egypt: A Muslim policeman charged with guarding a Coptic Christian church shot and killed two Christians—a father, 49, and his son, 21—on the night of December 12 in Minya. Eyewitnesses say a verbal quarrel had ensued before the officer pulled out his gun and opened fire on the two men. Video footage of the incident shows the killer-cop brandishing his gun as he stalks around the bloodied but still moving Christians on the ground. He loudly curses them—or all Copts in general?—as “mother-f*****s.” Thousands of angry Christians attended the funeral, chanting kyri eleison (“Lord have mercy!), and “One, two—but where are the rights of the martyrs!” Coptic Solidarity said in a statement:
Whatever punishment—if any!—the killer policeman may end up getting, the real culprit in this heinous crime is nothing but the authorities themselves, as they have allowed impunity to killers of Copts time and again, making it easy for anybody having an argument with a Copt to pull a gun, or knife, and just kill.
Attacks on Christians by Muslim officers are not unprecedented in Egypt. In 2011 an off-duty policeman boarded a train, identified some of its passengers as Coptic Christians (based on the tattoo of the cross on some of their wrists) and opened fire, killing one elderly Christian and wounding four others —while shouting Islam’s war cry, “Allahu Akbar.” More recently, a Muslim “policeman tasked with guarding a church from extremists instead aggressively entered the church and hurled insults at the congregation, calling them infidels.” Coptic Bishop Makarious likened the recent killing of Christian father and son at the hand of an officer guarding their church as having “a fox guard the hen house.” He added that this incident is worse than the St. Samuel Monastery attacks—where scores of Christians were massacred by Islamic terrorists on two separate occasions, the more recent weeks before this double murder—as it involves, not outlaws, but a lawman.
Nigeria: On the day after Christmas, Islamic Fulani tribesmen slaughtered seven Christians. Rawuru, where the murders took place, was attacked by the Muslim tribesmen six months earlier; then 230 Christians were butchered. “The size and coordination of those attacks showed that this could not just be another small local clash. It was clearly a well thought out and preplanned attack meant to kill as many people as possible,” the report said. “These types of attacks are not the normal farmer-herder conflict that the Nigerian government has been trying to claim they are,” the report continued in reference to both domestic and foreign mainstream media reports that habitually portray the murders as a result of clashes between nomadic Fulani herdsmen, who just so happen to be Muslim, and farmers, who just happen to be Christians.
Attacks on Christian Churches
Egypt: Rioting Muslims crying “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is greater) attacked and caused authorities to shut down yet another church on December 10. According to the report,
[G]roups of Muslim villagers … waged attacks against the houses of the Copts in the village of Kom al-Raheb, pelting them with stones and thumping at doors and windows. They were livid that the Copts had a day earlier, Sunday 9 December, opened a new church building and celebrated Holy Mass inside. The police arrived and demanded immediate closure of the unlicensed church. The Copts persuaded the police to wait for Mass to conclude before closing the building, which they did and confiscated its keys…. [F]undamentalist Muslims had used the local mosque’s microphone to rally the village Muslims against the Copts.
“It’s a hard time,” said one local Christian. “We don’t know what we should do. How does the government permit us to open new churches and then force us to close churches? We barely open churches, and the police don’t want to keep us safe!” “They are easily building many mosques, and when we try [to] build a church, all of them try to harm us,” said another. “It’s unfair, the situation has become so ridiculous!” “We are so depressed,” added the local pastor. “It’s not the first time extremists [have done] this; I think it’s government policy toward the Christians. We have nothing to do, just pray… God is good.”
Iraq: On December 1, Shabak, a Shia militia formed in 2014 to reclaim the Nineveh Plain from the Islamic State, opened fire on the St. George Assyrian Church in Bartella, formerly a Christian majority city, and threatened its priest, Fr. Behnam Benoka. Discussing the incident, Benedict Kiely, a Catholic priest, wrote:
Last week I spoke with Fr. Benoka for over 40 minutes on FaceTime. A few weeks ago, the Shabak militia blocked the road to his church, preventing his congregation from attending. They also strafed the church with gunfire. Fr. Benoka told me that this was the second time his church had been attacked in the last nine months. One of the militiamen held a handgun to the priest’s face when he went out to demand that they clear the street and stop shooting. Later, in a provocation unreported in any media, the same hostile militia went to Qaraqosh, the largest Christian town on the Nineveh Plain, and menaced the people living there. Fr. Benoka told me that the Shabak want to drive the Christians from the area. “They are the new ISIS,” he told me. “We are really vulnerable.”…
A separate December 2 report concerning the Islamic State’s depredations on the Christian communities found that 120 Christian churches and shrines and thousands of Christian homes were and destroyed in Mosul alone. An estimated15 billion dinars (over twelve million USD) is required to restore these building. According to the report,
The damage ISIS wrecked upon Christians was not just physical property damage. ISIS targeted Christians for genocide and many believers reported how their neighbors joined the militants in their violent intentions. Mosul’s Christians in particular are quick to point out that the ideology of ISIS was heavily present in their city long before the militants made it their capital in Iraq. Community trust was broken, lives lost, families separated.
Uzbekistan: Forty police and military personnel raided an unregistered Baptist church in the capital, Tashkent, during Sunday morning worship, November 25. Police detained 14 Christians, including a 14-year-old boy, and kept them outside in near freezing temperatures and later interrogated some for several hours. Everyone in attendance was photographed and their details recorded. Nearly 8,000 pieces of Christian literature and hymn books were seized. When one woman tried to conceal some songbooks used for worship, an official “screamed at her that you are liars, Christians must not hide anything,” said a witness. Towards evening, authorities cut off the church’s heat, as temperatures dropped below zero. “[We] were almost freezing as it is very cold at night,” a member of a family staying in the building explained. Officials concluded by telling the congregation that “we will come every Sunday and disrupt the church service every time until you give up and stop your activity…. We as the state cannot adjust to you, you need to adjust to our laws.” As in many other Muslim majority nations, stringent legal requirements make it nearly impossible to register churches in Uzbekistan.
Lebanon: Security officials foiled an Islamic State terror plot targeting Christians and their places of worship: a 10-month police surveillance operation codenamed “Lethal Cheese” uncovered explosives hidden in buckets of cheese smuggled in from Syria. Although Lebanon was once the Arab world’s only Christian majority nation, Christians now represent about 36% of the population and are quickly dwindling thanks most recently to a large influx of Muslim refugees from Syria . In 2016 eight Islamic State suicide bombers exploded themselves—two in front of a church—in Al Qaa, a predominantly Christian town on Lebanon’s border with Syria.
Attacks on Christian “Blasphemers”
Pakistan: On December 13, a court sentenced two Christian brothers to death for allegedly posting blasphemous material on a website in 2011. The brothers, Qaisar and Amoon Ayub, first got in trouble when the offensive material appeared on a website that was copyrighted to Qaisar’s name. He testified that he shut down the site in 2009, but that a Muslim acquaintance reactivated it, and kept it in Qaisar’s name. Regardless, Muslims rioted and called for the Christian’s life, prompting the brothers to flee to Thailand; they were arrested soon after they returned to Pakistan in 2015. “[B]ecause of threats from hardliners lower courts pass their responsibility to the higher court and then it takes years to prove the accused innocent,” said human rights activist Nasir Saeed. “We have seen this in the recent case of Asia Bibi.”
Egypt: On December 22, an appeals court upheld a Christian man’s three year prison sentence for blaspheming against Islam. Abd Adel Bebawy was arrested six months earlier, in July, after he linked to an article that compared Muhammad to Jesus on Facebook. On the following day, Muslims rioted in Minbal, where he resided, including by attacking Christian homes and trying to storm the village church. Windows were smashed and some Christians sustained injuries from glass shards. “The Muslim extremists in our village and the nearby villages incited the Muslim villagers against us …. They began pelting the Coptic-owned houses with stones and bricks, while shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ [Allah is greater] and chanting slogans against Copts, such as ‘We will displace you and the priest from our village, oh kafir [infidels], O worshipers of the cross, O defiled people,’” recalled one resident. “We lived very terrible moments while the mob were attacking our homes. Our children were screaming,” said another: “We spent a painful evening we shall never forget,” remembered another Christian resident of Minbal. “An evening of terror.” Discussing Bebawy’s recent sentencing, a lawyer involved in the case said, “This is not a sentence based on the law, but it is meant to please the public!” “We were thinking that the appeal will end up setting Abd free, and we were thinking who will compensate Abd for the months detained in prison until we reached the appeal time. Who will compensate his family, who have left the village and his kids moved to another school?” Mona, a family friend, explained. “Now after the [three-year] prison sentence, there is no justice expected.” “What else is expected by a blasphemy law?” asked Moheb, another family friend. “It is a law meant to be tailored for Christians so anyone can accuse a Christian and no matter what the proof of innocence is, he will be imprisoned.”
Indonesia: According to one report, “On December 2, an estimated 100,000 Muslims dressed in white carrying Islamic flags gathered at the national monument in Indonesia’s capitol of Jakarta. The occasion was to mark the second anniversary of a mass protest that led to the downfall, and inevitably the arrest, of Jakarta’s Christian governor,” known as Ahok. Two years earlier, “[o]n December 2, 2016, thousands of Muslim hardliners gathered to rallies that demanded him [to] be arrested for blasphemy.” He “was arrested for blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of insulting the Quran. Ahok is still serving his sentence.
Attacks on Muslim Apostates to Christianity
Uganda: “In 24 hours earlier this month, a [Muslim] convert to Christianity … lost his livelihood, wife and children to irate relatives and other Muslims,” reads one report. On December 7, a mosque leader “led a mob to Muhamud Gusolo’s banana plantation and destroyed it after Gusulo’s father objected to him leaving Islam for Christ.” According to Muhamud, 28, a month earlier,
My father [had] confronted me for being a disgrace to the family as a result of my conversion to Christ. Since my expulsion from the community, no one in my community has come to my aid. My father has openly denied me as his son, and the community has openly threatened me, saying, “No burial rites for you, a kaffir [infidel]”…. My wife and children also turned against me…. I am a very frustrated man with no family. After being ostracized from my community, I have appealed for help to the government administration, but this has fallen on deaf hears. I am very far from my family and reside in a lonely environment in another village.
In a separate incident in Uganda, a former Muslim wife and mother of four between the ages of five and nine was beaten, strangled, and threatened with death by her Muslim husband for embracing Christianity. Shakira Wanyenze, 31, converted six months earlier and managed to conceal her new faith from her husband, Ismail. One night, however, “My husband arrived home at around 8 p.m. on the 30th [of November] and heard me concluding the prayers using the name of Jesus,” she explained. “When he interrogated me to give reasons why I was using the name of Jesus, I kept quiet.” On the following morning he resumed questioning her; again she kept silent. He repeatedly began to slap her, successively harder with each strike. When she screamed for help he struck her hand with a wooden board, causing her fingers to bleed. “I fell down, and he started to strangle me. Fortunately, neighbors arrived and rescued me and took me to a clinic at Buyaga town council for treatment, and I was discharged after two days.” Shakira soon learned that her husband had purchased a coffin in preparation of killing her. She and her children took refuge at a pastor’s home. Last reported, Ismail was sending threatening message to the pastor, such as, “If you continue housing my wife in your house, then let it be known to you that soon I will be coming for your head.”
General Hostility for Christians
Saudi Arabia: America’s close friend and ally failed to live up to its promise to eliminate extremist content that promotes hostility for and violence against religious minorities from its 2018-19 school year curriculum. According to a December 1 report,
Saudi Arabia had previously pledged to remove all incitement content from its textbooks by 2008 and the government continues to allege that this issue has long since been resolved. However, other reports say otherwise. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a study this past March which says that the curriculum contains incitement content which had been thought removed. Examples of this content include demeaning non-Muslims and encouraging jihad against them. The execution of apostates is prescribed and children are encouraged not to associate with non-Muslims. Saudi Arabia not only continues to use these textbooks domestically, but exports them to other parts of the Middle East.
Iraq: A Christian leader asked the Ministry of Education to review statements within public school curriculum that contributes to hostility for non-Muslim minorities. For instance, one fifth grade textbook teaches that women who do not wear the veil—which includes virtually all Christian women—are “sick.” A separate report that appeared on December 9—one year to the day since Iraq’s former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the Islamic State—found that Christians continued to be persecuted and discriminated against. Majid, a local Christian, said, “I think before we celebrate ISIS’s defeat anniversary, we should go back to our history. We never experienced a stable situation during the past six decades… ISIS 2.0 is something possible.”
Indonesia: Local Muslims sawed off the top of a cross from a deceased Christian’s tomb—so it does not resemble a crucifix—and prevented mourners from meeting and saying prayers in the deceased’s home. Although there was an uproar on social media, local Christians said they were fine with the occurrence. Of the 150 families in the village, three are Christian and 147 Muslim. “There is no grudge between the family and neighbours,” Hans Supatman, an activist for religious dialogue, explained. “Everything is fine and even the funeral service was done quietly.” The cemetery “uproar occurred on social media and outside the village,” the activist noted. “Everything is fine here and everyone is happy. Church authorities in Yogyakarta offered psychological assistance to deal with the emotional stress experienced by [the deceased] Albertus Slamet Sugihardi’s family.”
Christmas Time Hate
Iraq: The nation’s highest Sunni authority and grand mufti, Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Sumaidaie, issued a fatwa (or Islamic decree) against Christmas. He said it is haram (forbidden) for Muslims to participate in any celebrations “of the cross” or even acknowledge the Christian holiday. “It is not acceptable to take part in the New Year celebrations or to congratulate Christians during Christmas,” he announced during Friday prayer at a mosque in downtown Baghdad, as doing so “means that you believe in their doctrine.”
Indonesia: Authorities arrested two Islamic terrorist who were plotting to massacre Christians during Christmas and New Year celebrations. Both men belong to the Islamic State-linked organization Jamah Ansyarut Daulah, which “has launched several terrorist attacks, some targeting Christians and claimed dozens of lives,” in recent years, notes the report. “The two come from one terrorist network, and we are now investigating the movement of this network in Java,” added a police spokesman. Hopefully, [we] can reveal the network so the atmosphere of Christmas and New Year celebrations will be conducive.”
In the days leading to Christmas, security forces arrested about 20 more would-be terrorists. According to the report,
These detentions were made as preventive measure under a revised anti-terrorism law approved in May, after Islamic State followers attacked churches and police with suicide bombs, killing more than 30 people in the city of Surabaya…. radicalized Islam is growing inside the country and scores of Indonesians have travelled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group. Attacks on churches in the nation’s capital, Jakarta, and elsewhere on Christmas Eve in 2000, claimed the lives of nearly 20 people. Ever since, authorities have stepped up security at churches and tourist spots during the holiday season.
Iran: Although it is common for the number of arrests of Christians to increase around Christmas time—when the Islamic republic seeks to deter interest through intimidation—beginning in November and into Christmas week, 2018, over 150 Christians were arrested, some, including two sisters, brutally beaten in detention. “The current situation has been described by some as unprecedented,” said a spokesman for the human rights group, Middle East Concern. “There are a huge number of arrests and detentions…. Recently it seems there is definitely a coordinated and determined campaign to decimate the Christian community and to spread fear and intimidation…. There is no doubt that it’s the Christian faith of these individuals that is the reason behind their arrests and detentions.”
Pakistan: As in other Muslim nations (see Indonesia above), security for churches is often ramped up during Christmas and Easter in Pakistan. Due, however, to the widespread outrage following the announced acquittal of Asia Bibi—a Christian woman who had been on death row for nearly a decade for allegedly “blaspheming” against Muhammad—church security had to be redoubled around Christmas. According to the report,
Churches have previously been the target of suicide bombers and this year, police have trained hundreds of Christian volunteers in an effort to see the season through peacefully. More than 1,500 police have been deployed across Islamabad and Rawalpindi to protect churchgoers over Christmas… CCTV cameras have also been installed at entry points and parking restrictions have been put in place to keep cars at least 100m away from church buildings. In Abbottabad, a district north-east of Islamabad, police were sweeping churches with sniffer dogs and bomb disposal units ahead of Christmas celebrations. Christians have been fearful of retaliatory attacks since Bibi was acquitted of blasphemy, for which she had received a death sentence. She was freed from prison in November but immediately forced into hiding as Muslim extremists hunted her down.”
United Kingdom: Authorities decided to deport a Christian man back to Pakistan, where he was previously beaten and threatened with death, “despite UK playing host to [Muslim] hijackers, extremists and rapists,” to quote from one report headline. Asher Samson, 41, “first arrived in the UK in 2004 to carry out his theology training in order to become a pastor, but later applied for asylum after receiving threats from Islamic extremists during visits home,” says the report: “His asylum claim was rejected earlier this year and Mr. Samson is now being held in Morton Hall Detention Centre in Lincoln where he has been told he will be deported.” “They told me they had booked me a flight and I refused to go,” Samson said. “They said next time they will take me by force.” He said he has “no one and nowhere to go” in Pakistan: “If they do send me back my life will be really in danger. I’m so scared…. People know who I am, they know I am a Christian and they have seen me on social media.” Revered Lorraine Shorten, the pastor of Samson’s church of 10 years, confirmed that he was a “well-thought-of” member of the community…. It’s shameful—we are a Christian country yet we can’t help them [Samson and his brother]. It’s terrifying to send him back there with the situation for Christians in Pakistan.”
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.
2)To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute

What North Korea Could Learn From Vietnam
Michael Schuman/Bloomberg/February, 19/19
Vietnam is more than a convenient neutral site for the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Kim Jong Un, which is slated for later this month. The Southeast Asian nation is being held up as a model for what Kim’s isolated country could become if he adopts sweeping market reforms. It’s an especially apt comparison, one which Kim himself reportedly noted last year -- but not necessarily for the reasons you might think.
The choice facing Kim at the Hanoi summit is the same as it’s always been: weapons or wealth. The U.S. has long offered North Korea a chance to develop its moribund economy in exchange for abandoning its nuclear program. Trump is so confident Kim will finally accept that he recently tweeted “North Korea will become a kind of Rocket -- an Economic one!”
Like his father and predecessor, though, Kim has so far left the deal on the table. Clearly he’s worried about losing his iron grip on the country if it opens up to the outside world. Moreover, it’s not entirely clear that the model of export-driven growth that Vietnam and other Asian tiger economies followed can work for the North, given the current rollback of free trade.
Vietnam’s experience, even more so than the famous example of China’s “reform and opening up,” would address both these concerns. Like China and fellow tigers Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea, Vietnam has posted an impressive record of growth since launching its “doi moi” reforms in the 1980s, lifting national income per capita from less than $95 in 1990 to $2,342 in 2017. Like China and Singapore, it’s managed to do so while maintaining firm one-party control over the political system and avoiding political and social unrest.
Uniquely, though, Vietnam could also show Kim how opening up could actually bolster his regime’s strength. At the moment North Korea, shunned by much of the world, is almost entirely dependent on its gargantuan neighbor and ally, China. Vietnam has been able to translate reform into strategic independence by balancing improved ties to the U.S. against China’s unavoidable economic influence. More of its exports go to the U.S. than China, while Japan, South Korea and Germany are also important customers. That’s allowed Vietnam some room to push back against China, for instance, on its incursions into the South China Sea.
Even more, Vietnam proves that the old Asian development model can still work. The country has skillfully enlarged its role in the global economy even as globalization has retreated. Exports expanded to more than 100 percent of national output in 2017 from about 70 percent a decade earlier. The secret has been an aggressive pro-trade policy that’s propelled Vietnam into numerous free-trade agreements, including the revamped Trans-Pacific Partnership. That, combined with an improving business environment and low costs, has made Vietnam a sound alternative to China for labor-intensive manufacturing, such as apparel and mobile phones.
A low-wage North Korea could readily achieve the same. It might even have an edge over Vietnam in attracting such factories, given that its neighbors China, Japan and South Korea share a keen interest in ensuring Kim’s reforms work.
Most of all, Vietnam highlights the true lesson of Asia’s record of modernization: Any poor economy, no matter what its history and cultural background, can alleviate poverty and industrialize with the right mix of policies.

Seeing Red: Trade and Threats Shaping Gulf-Horn Relations
Elana DeLozier/The Washington Institute/February 19/19
The Red Sea is fast becoming a critical economic and security node between the Gulf states and the Horn of Africa, so Washington should work to ensure cooperation, not conflict.
Alongside the perceived U.S. withdrawal from the Middle East, the emergence of new economic opportunities and security threats in the Red Sea has apparently spurred Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to draw closer to their neighbors in the Horn of Africa. This underdeveloped, populous area represents a clear economic opportunity for the Gulf, while the African states welcome the financial and infrastructure investment. Ideally, all nine states along the Red Sea—Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen—would benefit from cooperation and coordination, but conflicts between regional players risk further destabilizing some of the more fragile states that flank the waterway. The United States should increase its diplomatic efforts to facilitate cooperation, stave off conflict, and support its allies in the area.
RED HOT: THE SCRAMBLE FOR FOOTHOLDS
As a major transit waterway for world trade, the Red Sea has long caught the attention of great powers. It is bounded in the north by the Suez Canal and the south by the Bab al-Mandab Strait, two critical chokepoints that the littoral states rely on to export oil or otherwise access global markets. It is also a core part of China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative, an ambitious plan to build a twenty-first-century equivalent of the lucrative Silk Road.
As a result, great powers and aspirant powers alike have increasingly been setting up camp in the Red Sea region. After the United States established a military base in Djibouti in 2001, other countries followed suit: France (whose base also hosts German and Spanish forces), Italy, Japan, and China (which has also established a trade port there). Saudi Arabia has engaged in talks for a potential base in Djibouti as well, while Russia has done the same with Sudan. In addition, Turkey has a training base and port agreement with Somalia; Sudan has signed deals with both Ankara and Qatar to develop a port; and the UAE has varying degrees of access to at least eight ports or bases along the Red Sea, according to a January report by the Brookings Institution. As a senior African security official stated during the author’s recent trip to the Horn, “We have all five vetoes on our doorstep,” referring to the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
RED ALERT: PIRACY, THE YEMEN WAR, AND OTHER THREATS
Such a strong outside presence suggests that security will remain a key priority in the area. Regional officials and observers remember all too well that Egypt’s closure of the Straits of Tiran in the northern Red Sea helped spark the Six Day War in 1967. These longstanding security concerns—coupled with newer threats related to piracy, the Yemen war, and fears of U.S. withdrawal—appear to have boosted Riyadh and Abu Dhabi’s interest in protecting their western flank.
In 2009, NATO initiated antipiracy missions in and around the Red Sea, continuing the campaign until 2016. Yet just as the piracy threat wound down, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen began to demonstrate sophisticated coastal defense and sea denial capabilities, including antishipping missiles, sea mines, and self-guiding explosive boats. This forced Saudi Arabia to temporarily halt its shipments in the Red Sea in mid-2018. Meanwhile, Iran has long used the Red Sea to send weapons to armed groups, reportedly stationed a cargo ship off Yemen’s coast for intelligence purposes, and previously threatened to close transit chokepoints.
To stem these threats, Saudi Arabia spearheaded a new Red Sea collective in December, then organized last month’s Red Wave 1 naval exercises involving seven of the nine littoral states. The drills did not include Eritrea or Israel. Eritrea apparently declined an invitation but is expected to join in the future, though its preference for bilateral over multilateral relations may keep it on the sidelines a bit longer. Israel is unlikely to be officially invited, but it may quietly coordinate with some of the coastal states. Rumors of Ethiopian or Emirati participation also abound; although neither state borders the Red Sea, Ethiopia drives a great deal of trade through the waterway, and the UAE has a significant port presence there. The United States should play a greater role in greasing the wheels of some of these relationships, especially with Israel.
RED HERRING: AFRICAN ECONOMIC GAINS VS. WORRIES
The Red Sea’s economic potential is another driver of Gulf ambitions there. For example, the UAE has expanded its access to local ports in anticipation of future preferred trade routes, emphasizing its proven ability to manage complex logistics at such facilities. In the past, the Emiratis have sought to position Dubai as the middleman between Asia, Africa, and Europe, but the future of trade may be along China’s emerging “belt and road,” a more-or-less circular global route over land and sea. In this scenario, the Horn of Africa would play the middleman role, not Dubai, so access to Red Sea ports may help the UAE remain pivotal in world trade. As part of this strategy, the Emiratis plan to invest in infrastructure in Ethiopia, Somaliland, and Puntland, among other areas. They are also contenders to help reconstruct ports in Yemen once the war ends.
As mentioned previously, China, Qatar, Turkey, and other players have made investments of their own in the Horn, but African officials remain cautious. They worry about Beijing’s perceived blackmailing tactics, and what one official called the Gulf’s “ATM diplomacy.” They are also concerned about being drawn into external disputes such as the ongoing feud between Qatar and the Saudi-UAE bloc, or overt competition between China and the United States.
They find the Gulf dispute particularly worrisome. To be sure, African officials and observers acknowledge the value of Gulf support in spurring Ethiopia, Sudan, and Djibouti to pursue rapprochement with Eritrea. They also appreciate Gulf investment. Yet for most of them, the main priority is ensuring that the Gulf rift or other external matters do not play out on their turf.
Somalia is the most clear-cut example of this problem; since the Gulf rift began, Qatar has supported the Somali central government, while the UAE has supported the autonomous regions in the north. Observers worry that such policies will fracture or destabilize African countries already fragile from local rivalries. Riyadh did not help its case when a senior Saudi official stated in December that the kingdom’s goal in the Red Sea was to ensure “less negative outside influence,” a comment that many read as a jab at Qatar, Turkey, Iran, or all three. In short, the African states are loath to be the rope in regional games of tug of war, despite the potential economic gains.
RED TAPE: U.S. BUREAUCRACY NEEDS TO ADAPT
The U.S. government has a key role to play in addressing the Red Sea area’s growing importance, but to be effective, it will need to shift toward managing the diplomatic and military “seam” that runs down the region. Working across this seam is nothing new for U.S. officials; for example, Near East and Europe bureaus are accustomed to coordinating on Turkey, while CENTCOM often has to coordinate with AFRICOM, which oversees the base in Djibouti.
Yet some foreign service personnel have expressed concern that the two sides of the seam have not yet adapted to the changes occurring along the Red Sea. America’s partners are certainly doing so: Saudi Arabia appointed a minister of state for African affairs in early 2018, and the European Union has a special representative to the Horn of Africa. The United States should consider taking similar steps—perhaps appointing a special envoy or creating an interagency working group dedicated to the Red Sea. Either entity’s role would need to be comprehensive, pulling together the concerns of the State Department’s Near East desk, Africa desk, and China desk, along with the Defense Department, National Security Council, and other agencies.
To avoid creating a stir, Washington should discuss any such role with its Red Sea partners before making public announcements. And it should do so sooner rather than later. The area is fast becoming a critical node that pulls together far-flung portfolios, from economics and security to environmental, migration, and tourism factors. Someone needs to have their finger on that fast-beating pulse.
*Elana DeLozier is a research fellow in The Washington Institute’s Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy.