In this mailing: Raymond Ibrahim: Migrants Desecrate More Than 2,000 Churches Just in Greece Amir Taheri: First Round to Putin, What Next? Migrants Desecrate More Than 2,000 Churches Just in Greece by Raymond Ibrahim  •  February 27, 2022 at 5:00 am       "As a deeply religious society, these attacks on churches are shocking to the Greek people and calls to question whether these illegal immigrants seeking a new life in Europe are willing to integrate and conform to the norms and values of their new countries." — Greek City Times, May 16, 2020. While the report most likely has the 1453 sack of Constantinople (today Istanbul) in mind — when countless Greek churches, including Hagia Sophia, were desecrated, destroyed, or turned into mosques — that pattern is a century older. Before Christmas, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, where more than a million Muslim migrants reside, some 50 public statues of Jesus and other Christian figures were beheaded and crucifixes broken. All around Western Europe, churches are under attack. This is especially true of the countries home to Europe's largest Muslim populations. In February 2019, "unknown vandals" desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, France, and mangled the arms of a statue of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner. In addition, an altar cloth was burned. (Image source: Eutrope/Wikimedia Commons) According to a new report published by Greece's Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, there were 2,339 incidents of church desecrations in the country between 2015 and 2020, when tiny Greece, seen as Europe's eastern gateway, was flooded with migrants from the Islamic world. Greek City Times wrote regarding the report: "There appears to be a correlation between the increase in illegal migration and the incidents of attacks on Greek Orthodox religious churches and religious spaces during the five year period which occurred during the peak of the migration crisis." In the most recent year recorded, 2020, there were 385 incidents against Christian churches and buildings, including "vandalism, burglary, theft, sacrilege, necromancy, robbery, placement of explosive devices and other desecrations." Over the years, a few of these desecrations made it to English-language media. Continue Reading Article First Round to Putin, What Next? by Amir Taheri  •  February 27, 2022 at 4:00 am       Initially, aware that he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] must cast himself as victim in order to win sympathy in Western public opinion that warms up to figures like Saddam Hussein or George Floyd, he presented Russia as a victim of NATO "expansion" and his saber rattling as an act of self-defense. Never mind that NATO is a defensive pact and not allowed to attack anyone unless one of its own members is first attacked. Even then, Article V under which military action is allowed is not automatically applicable and hasn't been applied since the alliance was created. In contrast, led by the now defunct Soviet Union, the rival Warsaw Pact was used for military interventions in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia to crush popular uprisings against Russian domination. [U]nder NATO rules, a country that has unsettled irredentist disputes with its neighbors cannot be admitted as a member. That rule applies to both Ukraine and Georgia, another country invaded by Putin, both of which are barred from NATO membership because of their territorial disputes caused by Russian aggression. Thus, Putin was making a song and dance about something that couldn't happen under NATO's own rules. [Putin] can no longer play wolf disguised as sheep. Even his apologists, not to say mercenaries among Western politicians and journalists, are able to defend his latest move let alone presenting him as a victim of "Imperialism". Putin would be wrong to think that with the passage of time the rest of the world will endorse his "conquest", just as no one ever recognized the annexation of the Baltic republics by Stalin. The spectacle of ancient Russian tanks and armored vehicles creeping into Donbass showed how antiquarian Putin's arsenal is. (Photo by Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images) At first glance, the latest twists and turns in the Ukraine poker game might present Russian President Vladimir Putin as the winner. After all, he is reaping what he sowed eight years ago, when he incited ethnic Russian secessionists to set up breakaway "people's republics" in parts of Ukrainian territory, in Donetsk and Lugansk. By stationing troops in the two enclaves, Putin makes official an occupation that he had indirectly exercised through Wagner mercenaries and local militias. Imposing two "cooperation treaties" on the breakaway "republics," he also shows their annexation in all but name by Russia. Initially, aware that he must cast himself as victim in order to win sympathy in Western public opinion that warms up to figures like Saddam Hussein or George Floyd, he presented Russia as a victim of NATO "expansion" and his saber rattling as an act of self-defense. Continue Reading Article