In this mailing: Giulio Meotti: Italy: Defend National Borders, End Up on Trial Raymond Ibrahim: Kidnapped, Raped, and Forced into Islam: The Plight of Christian Girls in Pakistan Amir Taheri: Yes it Hurts, No it Doesn't Italy: Defend National Borders, End Up on Trial by Giulio Meotti  •  October 11, 2020 at 5:00 am       This is the first time that a court of justice in Europe has been called upon to try a governmental minister -- who is actually supposed to responsible for the security of a country -- for holding migrants at a port pending a redistribution of newcomers across Europe.... Until then, Europe had never offered Italy the slightest help. Italy's political ruling class, which for years has adopted as its migration policy the total surrender to illegal floods of immigrants -- often organized by criminal traffickers -- has now decided to turn Salvini over to the judges for doing what they did not have the courage to do: defend Europe's borders. There seems to exist an assumption that tens of thousands of people can take boats from Libya to Italy without controls, without deterrence, and without a country being able to exercise its right to self-defense from an epochal migratory tsunami. Italy is now sending a disturbing message to Europe and the rest of the free world: anyone who, by governing the country, defends national borders and tries to stop mass illegal immigration can end up on trial and in prison. The real horror in this charade is that Italy is still turning away ships carrying migrants, so why is Salvini being set up to take the fall? In 2019, Italy's then Interior Minister Matteo Salvini prevented illegal migrants from disembarking from a coast guard ship that had recovered the migrants at sea five days earlier. For this decision, Salvini now faces a criminal trial on charges of "kidnapping." Italy is sending a disturbing message to the world: anyone who, by governing the country, defends national borders and tries to stop mass illegal immigration can end up on trial and in prison. (Photo by Piero Cruciatti/AFP via Getty Images) "My only regret from this situation is that I will have to explain to my two kids that their father is going on trial not because he is a criminal, but because he defended his country", Matteo Salvini said as Italy's Parliament stripped him of immunity to open the way for his trial. For years, Italy's political ruling class has had a migration policy of surrendering to floods of illegal immigrants -- who have usually been organized by criminal traffickers. Europe has never offered Italy a jot of help. Now these "elites" -- politicians, opinion makers, journalists -- have decided to turn Salvini over to the judges for doing what they did not have the courage to do: defend the Italy's borders. Continue Reading Article Kidnapped, Raped, and Forced into Islam: The Plight of Christian Girls in Pakistan by Raymond Ibrahim  •  October 11, 2020 at 4:30 am       "A Christian 6 year old girl was beaten and raped after being forcibly taken to the home of a Muslim rapist in broad daylight.... the local Muslim community are threatening the Christian parents with violence, the rape of their other daughters and financial ruin if they proceed with a legal case against paedophile Muhammad Waqas (18 yrs)...." — Report; British Pakistani Christian Association, September 16, 2020. "Another Christian girl aged 14 was recently abducted and gang-raped by some Muslim youths... The victim is a student of grade nine and was abducted by four or five boys on her way to a local tuition center on Jan. 16, 2020. The abductors not only raped her but also obtained her signatures and thumb impressions on some papers." — Morningstar News, February 12, 2020. "Christian girls are only meant for the pleasure of Muslim men" — to quote a group of Muslim men, seconds before they rammed their car into three young Christian girls, who had ignored their sexual advances while walking home from work; one died. — British Pakistani Christian Association, January 20, 2016. Christian girls are being abducted, sexually abused, and forced into Islam with increasing frequency all throughout Pakistan. (Image source: iStock) Christian girls are being abducted, sexually abused, and forced into Islam with increasing frequency all throughout Pakistan. Moreover, everyone — including local police, court officials, and Islamic clerics — seem bent on facilitating this human rights tragedy. Most recently, according to a September 16 report: "A Christian 6 year old girl was beaten and raped after being forcibly taken to the home of a Muslim rapist in broad daylight. In a sickening twist the local Muslim community are threatening the Christian parents with violence, the rape of their other daughters and financial ruin if they proceed with a legal case against paedophile Muhammad Waqas (18 yrs)... Tabitha [the raped child] had been verbally abused, shouted at, slapped and beaten and forced to do a number of sex acts with Waqas. She had been stripped of her clothes and had described her terror that she would be killed by Waqas..." Continue Reading Article Yes it Hurts, No it Doesn't by Amir Taheri  •  October 11, 2020 at 4:00 am       General Hussein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is equally sanguine about his claim that, far from hurting, the Islamic Republic is on course to become a global power. "We have already reached the Mediterranean and prepare to go even further," he said in a recent speech. "We are now in a position to occupy and set on fire all military bases of the United States in the region and beyond." One audience consists of the Democrat Party in the US, with which part of the Islamic regime hopes to make a deal based on the one offered by Obama. The other audience is the people in Iran, who feel they are poorer than they were six years ago and blame the leadership for its ineptitude, corruption and failure to develop a better foreign policy and stop using resources on foreign adventures. However, there may be a subtext in that: preparing public opinion for yet another climb-down in the fight against the "Great Satan". After all, if people are convinced that making a deal with Washington is the key to all problems they would welcome what Khamenei calls "a heroic flexibility." General Hussein Salami, commander of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is sanguine about his claim that, far from hurting, the Islamic Republic is on course to become a global power. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images) While Tehran leaders have turned relations with the United States into the central issue of Iranian politics, they still seem unable to decide whether the present tension between the two sides hurts or helps their regime. One group within the establishment claims that the sanctions re-imposed by President Donald Trump actually helps the regime and hurts the US. In his recent talks to various US think tanks and media, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has defended that thesis with his usual panache. According to him, Trump has "isolated" the US while the Islamic Republic has earned "worldwide sympathy and support." General Hussein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is equally sanguine about his claim that, far from hurting, the Islamic Republic is on course to become a global power. Continue Reading Article