The Islamic State is targeting Christians in the Middle East - and these Americans are doing something about it

March 18, 2015

Writer

It's no secret that ISIS is targeting Christians in the Middle East as they seek to build a caliphate. Last night, Glenn was joined by Matthew VanDyke and Johnnie Moore, both of whom are working to protect Christians who live in the Middle East and are coming under attack by radical Islamists.

Glenn: I want to introduce you to Johnnie Moore. He’s been on the program before. He’s a friend and just a really solid guy. He’s the author of Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard . I want you to get this book. This book was just sped up by HarperCollins, right?

Johnnie: Yeah, that’s right.

Glenn: Just sped up because the crisis is getting so bad in the Middle East, and as it says here on the back, “Has a Christian Holocaust begun?” The answer is yes, it has. I was just talking to one of the head guys at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. I’ve never had a Jewish person say this to me ever before and especially from Simon Wiesenthal. He said, “Glenn, please, will you do me a favor?” I said, “Sure.” He said, “Will you stop talking about the persecution of Jews?” I was stunned, and I said, “Anti-Semitism is through the roof.” He said, “The Holocaust is happening now.” I don’t think he used the word Holocaust.

He said the real persecution right now far more than the Jews is the Christians. We’ve got to stand behind the Christians right now. This is what your book talks about.

Johnnie: Yeah, I mean, Glenn, this is a once-in-a-thousand-year crisis we’re witnessing in the Middle East. We have Christian communities that have thrived for nearly 2,000 years. Jesus himself gave the gospel to Thomas. Thomas takes the gospel to Iraq. I mean, this is the place of the birth of Christianity, and we’re watching the full-scale elimination, Nazi-style tactics.

Glenn: Literally Nazi-style tactics.

Johnnie: Literally Nazi-style tactics, I mean, incomprehensible things, and literally most people that are watching this think this came from nowhere this summer. This has been going on since 2003. They’re not starting something, they’re finishing it.

Glenn: Okay, I want to bring somebody else into the conversation. Matthew VanDyke is a guy I cannot wait to meet in person. He is the founder of Sons of Liberty International. Now, this is a nonprofit organization that uses donations to provide resources to local militias in their own defense against ISIS. Let me start with you, Matthew, on this because I have several questions for you, but let me start here. What is it that you have seen, and why is it you’re doing this? I can’t hear. Do we have his audio? Go ahead. Go ahead, Matthew. I think everybody else can hear you.

Matthew: Christianity is under threat of extinction in Iraq. There’s been a large diaspora of the Christian population, and this is really all or nothing for them. They’re either going to be able to provide for their own defense and convince their people to stay or we’re going to see the end of Christianity in Iraq. My motivation for this is Christianity in Iraq as well as ISIS killing two of my friends, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and me looking for a way to make a contribution and fight against ISIS.

Glenn: So, what is it you’re doing?

Matthew: I formed a company called Sons of Liberty International. We’re not technically a nonprofit organization for various reasons, but we operate on nonprofit principles. We’re revenue neutral, and we rely entirely on public support for our funding. So, people go to the website, sonsoflibertyinternational.com, and play an active role in the war on terrorism. They can give and have a tangible effect on the ground in this fight. The situation with Christians is desperate. We’re in a hurry to help them. We just finished training a battalion of them to defend their lands against ISIS, and the work continues. Really the only thing holding us back now is limited funding.

Glenn: Okay, so Johnnie, put the address of Sons of Liberty down so if anybody is interested…there it is. If you want to donate, you can donate there. Johnnie, tell me, what are the things that are happening that you talk about in the book that people would be surprised to know?

Johnnie: Well, the front page of the ISIS magazine in October was St. Peter’s Square right here in the Vatican, and ISIS superimposed a flag atop the Egyptian obelisk at St. Peter’s Square. They put the ISIS flag there. You know, this isn’t like some accidental thing. This is intentional. Every single time Baghdadi has spoken, every single time, everything he has written, he says 100% of the time that they’re marching all the way to Rome.

What’s really interesting about Baghdadi is he took charge of this organization, ISIS, which was then called the Islamic State of Iraq, in May 2010. His first church bombing was in October 31, 2010. Almost as quickly as he took the reins, he went after these Christian populations. In that particular situation, I mean, he, you know, has these guards dress as security guards. They show up inside this Catholic church in Baghdad, Our Lady of Salvation. They killed 50 people, and they assaulted another 70. There’s so much blood that the blood was splashed on the walls and on the ceiling of the cathedral.

That was in 2010. Since that time, every single church in Iraq and every single church in Syria has built bomb walls around their churches to protect themselves. They’re like sitting ducks. I mean, this is what’s so important about what Sons of Liberty is doing. About 14 days ago, ISIS came in a 40-vehicle convoy, clearly, clearly an ISIS convoy, 40 vehicles. They attacked ten Christian villages along the south of the Khabur River in Syria. They kidnapped 300 Christians.

Now, tell me, if the United States government and the European governments are very serious as they say they are about getting rid of ISIS, how did a 40-car convoy of ISIS heading towards ten unarmed Christian villages not get blown to smithereens? It all happened with the whole world watching, and, you know, there’s Christian after Christian after Christian, pastor after pastor beheaded. Their wives and children have been put on slave markets, I mean, everything you could imagine.

I have a price list, a price list…so hard to even think about. It says Yazidi Christian girls, one to nine years old, $170. They kidnap these Christian families. They say in their literature they want to rape their wives and enslave their daughters. They behead the men. They’ve done it over and over and over again. There were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq in 2003. At best there are 150,000 left, and these are the Christians that have carried the gospel for 2,000 years.

Glenn: How many of them, do either of you know, Matthew, how many do we suspect have been killed?

Matthew: The number is not really known. The number of Christians even left in Iraq is estimated at 400,000, but that number is really not known either. You know, there’s so many missing and disappeared that they’re still counting, but it’s in the thousands.

Glenn: You know, I’ve heard about crucifixions. Is that true? Are they crucifying children? Are they crucifying people? Either of you know?

Johnnie: They’re overt in their literature that they are to do it, and there are pictures of them doing it and, by the way, tons of stories of them beheading children. I mean, I have one story in Defying ISIS, I, you know, literally have gotten so connected on the ground, I get emails and text messages from pastors and Christians in the region. This is the 21st century. There’s no barrier. They can communicate with you,

Glenn: Correct.

Johnnie: And one of these says ISIS came from village to village, and they stopped asking the parents if they were Christians because they thought it would be worse if they asked the children. So, this one particular village, this pastor sends me a text message, and he says, “ISIS is coming to my village. They’ve stopped asking the parents if they’re Christians. They’ve started asking the children. Every single one of the kids has said that they are, and every single one of the kids has been killed in cold blood. Please pray for me.” I don’t know what to say to these parents, and I don’t even know how to call myself a Christian, seeing the faith of these children—every atrocity you can imagine.

Glenn: Matthew, I have seen video of some of the survivors that have lost their house and lost everything and get across the border. They’re in these camps, I think it was in Jordan. I saw interviews with these children, and I could not believe the faith of these children. I couldn’t believe how they spoke of forgiving ISIS. It’s a totally different world. What do you see on the ground when you are there and you’re talking to these people?

Matthew: You know, they’re really distressed. You know, the resilience of them is remarkable. The courage of them is. The morale of them, the morale of the men we’re training, they’re highly motivated to defend their lands. Despite everything they’ve been through and the dangers and the horrific things that ISIS has done, they still want to stand up and defend Christianity in Iraq. The tragedy is a lot of the people that you see who cross the border are never coming back, and this is why Christianity is under threat in Iraq. A lot of the people who are refugees will not return to their homes. They feel like Iraq is never going to be a safe place for them, and that’s why the Christians are trying to organize for their self-defense to demonstrate to people that they can stay so that Christianity isn’t lost in the country. You know, it’s really an uphill battle.

Glenn: Let me ask both of you, and Matthew, I’ll start with you and then to Johnnie, and then we’ll take a break. When you’re talking to the people over there, what is it they say about us and our inaction or our blindness or silence?

Matthew: They’re very frustrated, and they don’t understand why all the talk is about supporting Sunni tribes and supporting the Peshmerga but not supporting them in their aspirations to defend themselves.

Glenn: Johnnie?

Johnnie: They told me they feel forgotten. They sent a message to Christians in the West that said, “You would have no Christianity in the West if it wasn’t for Christians in the East. Your church history is our church history, and what happened? Did you cut off the satellites? How did you know ISIS wasn’t coming into Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul? How did you know ISIS wasn’t coming in with their pickup trucks with their bolted guns in the back of it with the whole world watching? How did you not know that a city that has had tens of thousands of Christians for centuries would have zero left over?”

Glenn: But we’re not talking about…I mean, yesterday, yesterday, we were talking about ISIS, and behind me my staff had picked…one of the things that was rolling the tape behind me was after the execution. It was on the beach in Libya, and it was the sea blood red, just blood water. I stopped watching the show last night, and I rewound it and looked at it. I thought, “How is that not everywhere? How are people not seeing those things?” But in that same video, the banner up above said, “A warning to the people of the cross.” Our own media is complicit. Our own media is not telling the story.

Johnnie: Yeah, and they’re not doing it because it’s Christian, right? It’s religious, but what they don’t understand is that to ISIS, if you live in this country, you’re Christian. We’re a crusader nation in their mind, and so this threat against Christians in the Middle East is very much a threat against anyone in the United States of America because they all put us in this category. You rest assured if they had the opportunity to do it here, they would do it here.

Glenn: They will.

Johnnie: In fact, they are trying to do it here. In fact, they have tried to do it here. We had a beheading in the United States of America. We had police officers attacked on the subway in Brooklyn. We’re losing track. I mean, today we have an Air Force vet that gets arrested because he’s trying to get to Syria. Last night in Washington, D.C., we had a man charge into the cockpit of an airplane yelling “jihad.” The list goes on. We had an attempted suicide bombing in Washington, D.C., just the guy was a part of an FBI sting and got caught. This is happening, and you can rest assured if ISIS has their chance, they will take the Vatican. They will take over the Vatican. They’ll turn the Sistine Chapel into a prison. They’ll behead all the priests and put their heads on the Bernini statues all across there, and they’ll come here next. That’s why we ought to care about it. If our heart doesn’t pull us to care for these women and children, then at least our self-interest ought to do so, but we’re blind.

Glenn: Okay, so when we come back, I want to, Matthew, get specific on what you’re doing and how you’re training and specifically from both of you what we can do, because people feel helpless—this is too big of a problem. What can we do? When we come back.

The Deep State's NEW plan to backstab Trump

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

We cannot make the same mistake we made in 2016 — celebrating victory while the deep state plots its next move.

In 2016, Donald Trump shocked the world by defeating Hillary Clinton. Conservatives cheered, believing we’d taken back the reins of our country. But we missed the bigger battle. We failed to recognize the extent of the damage caused by eight years of Barack Obama and decades of progressive entrenchment. The real war isn’t won at the ballot box. It’s being waged against an insidious force embedded deep within our institutions: the administrative state, or the “deep state.”

This isn’t a new problem. America’s founders foresaw it, though they didn’t have a term for “deep state” back in the 1700s. James Madison, in Federalist 48, warned us that combining legislative, executive, and judicial powers in the same hands is “the very definition of tyranny.” Yet today, that’s exactly where we stand. Unelected bureaucrats in agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Justice hold more power than the officials we vote for. They control the levers of government with impunity, dictating policies and stifling change.

This is the fight for the soul of our nation. The founders’ vision of a constitutional republic is under siege.

We’ve felt the consequences of this growing tyranny firsthand. During COVID-19, so-called experts ran our lives, crushing civil liberties under the guise of public safety. Our intelligence agencies and justice system turned into weapons of political warfare, targeting a sitting president and his supporters. Meanwhile, actual criminals were given a pass, turning American cities into lawless war zones.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1816 that “the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents.” Today, we see Jefferson’s prophecy fulfilled. The deep state exercises unchecked power over our freedoms, and information itself is controlled by the fourth branch of government: the legacy media.

Even when we win elections, the deep state doesn’t concede defeat. It switches to survival mode. Trump’s first term proved this. Despite a historic mandate to dismantle the bureaucracy, the deep state fought back with everything it had: leaks, investigations, court rulings, and obstruction at every turn. And now, with the possibility of Trump returning to office, the deep state is preparing to do it again.

Progressives are laying out their attack plan — and they’re not even hiding it.

U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.) recently boasted about forming a “shadow cabinet” to govern alongside the deep state, regardless of who’s in the White House. Nickel called it “democracy’s insurance policy.” Let’s be clear: This isn’t insurance. It’s sabotage.

They’ll employ a “top down, bottom up, inside out” strategy to overwhelm and collapse any effort to reform the system. From the top, federal judges and shadow officials will block Trump’s every move. Governors in blue states like California and New York are gearing up to resist federal authority. During Trump’s first term, California filed over 100 lawsuits against his administration. Expect more of the same starting January 20.

From the bottom, progressive groups like the American Civil Liberties Union will flood the streets with protesters, much as they did to oppose Trump’s first-term immigration reforms. They’ve refined their tactics since 2016 and are prepared to unleash a wave of civil unrest. These aren’t spontaneous movements; they’re coordinated assaults designed to destabilize the administration.

Finally, from the inside, the deep state will continue its mission of self-preservation. Agencies will drag their feet, leak sensitive information, and undermine policies from within. Their goal is to make everything a chaotic mess, so the heart of their power — the bureaucratic core — remains untouched and grows stronger.

We cannot make the same mistake we made in 2016 — celebrating victory while the deep state plots its next move. Progressives never see themselves as losing. When they’re out of power, they simply shift tactics, pumping more blood into their bureaucratic heart. We may win elections, but the war against the deep state will only intensify. As George Washington warned in his Farewell Address, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force; and force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

This is the fight for the soul of our nation. The founders’ vision of a constitutional republic is under siege. The deep state has shown us its plan: to govern from the shadows, circumventing the will of the people. But now that the shadows have been exposed, we have a choice. Will we accept this silent tyranny, or will we demand accountability and reclaim our nation’s heart?

The battle is just beginning. We can’t afford to lose.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Drone mystery exposes GLARING government incompetence

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone issue is getting way out of hand.

Earlier this month, Glenn first reported on the mysterious drones stalking the night sky over New Jersey, but the situation is increasingly concerning as the sightings have escalated. Not only have drones been seen across the Northeast Coast, including over New York City, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, but recently, they have been spotted over the night skies of San Diego and other parts of Southern California.

It doesn't take an expert to identify the potential dangers and risks that dozens of undetectable, unidentified six-foot or larger drones pose to national security. Yet, our government's response has been one of unimaginable incompetence, leaving us to speculate on the origin and intention of these drones and wonder in astonishment at the government's ineptitude. Here are three examples of the government's lackluster response to the mystery drones:

Iranian Mothership and Missing Nuclear Warheads

- / Stringer | Getty Images

After several weeks of hubbub, New Jersey Representative, Jeff Van Drew gave an interview on Fox News where he claimed that the drones originated from an Iranian "mothership" off the East Coast of the United States. This theory has since been disproven by satellite images, which show that all Iranian drone carriers are far from U.S. shores. Another theory suggests that drones may be equipped with sensors capable of detecting nuclear material and that they are looking for a nuclear warhead that recently went missing! With these apocalyptic theories gaining traction in the absence of any real answer from our government, one can't help but question the motive behind the silence.

Pentagon's Limp Wristed Response

Alex Wong / Staff | Getty Images

In a recent press conference, national security spokesman John Kirby responded to reporters demanding answers about the government's lack of transparency, which has caused increasing public anxiety. He insisted that the drones did not pose a threat and were not assets of a foreign power, such as from Iran or China--even though he is still uncertain about their identity and origin. He also claimed that many of the sightings were simply misidentifications of normal aircraft.

This lackluster answer has only further inflamed national anxieties and raised even more questions. If the government is unsure of the identity of the drones, how do they know if they are a threat or if they aren't foreign assets? If they aren't foreign, does that mean they are U.S. assets? If so, why not just say so?

The Pentagon has also stated that they are leaving it up to local law enforcement to spearhead the investigation after concluding that these drones pose no threat to any military installation. This has left many feeling like the federal government has turned a blind eye to a serious issue that many Americans are very concerned about.

Where's Pete Buttigieg?

Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images

We are in the closing weeks of the Biden administration, and with the finish line in sight, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg probably figured nothing else could go wrong on his watch—but boy was he wrong. As Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg is in charge of the FAA, the agency responsible for managing all air traffic across the nation. One would think that mysterious, 6-foot-long, seemingly intractable drones are invisible on radar and flying above major cities would pose a serious threat to the myriad of legal aircraft that traverse our skies. Yet, Buttigieg has been silent on the issue, adding another failure to his resume which includes: malfunctioning airplanes, the train derailment in Ohio, and the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse, just to name a few.

Glenn: How Alvin Bragg turned hero Daniel Penny into a villain

Michael M. Santiago / Staff | Getty Images

We cannot allow corrupt institutions to punish those who act to protect life and liberty.

America no longer has a single, shared understanding of justice. Two Americas now exist, each applying justice differently depending on who you are and where you live. One America, ruled by common sense and individual courage, praises heroes who stand up to protect others. The other, driven by political agendas and corrupted institutions, punishes those same heroes for daring to act.

This stark division couldn’t be clearer than in the case of Daniel Penny, the Marine whose trial in New York City this week drew strong reactions from both sides across the divided line of justice.

If we let this slide, we accept a world in which heroes are treated as criminals and the law is a weapon for ideological warfare.

Penny was on a subway train last year when Jordan Neely — a man suffering from severe mental illness and reportedly high on drugs — began threatening passengers, saying, “I’m going to kill you all.” The fear on that subway car was palpable, but nobody moved. Nobody, that is, until Penny did what needed to be done. He took action to protect innocent lives.

In the America many of us used to believe in, Penny’s response would be heralded as heroic. His actions mirrored the courage of Todd Beamer on Flight 93, who, on September 11, 2001, rallied others with the words, “Let’s roll,” to prevent further tragedy. But in New York, courage doesn’t seem to count anymore. There, the system turns heroes into villains.

Penny subdued Neely using a chokehold, intending only to restrain him, not kill him. Tragically, Neely died. Penny, filled with remorse, told the police he never meant to hurt anyone. Yet, instead of being recognized for protecting others from a clear and present threat, Penny stood trial for criminally negligent homicide.

In Alvin Bragg’s New York, justice bends to ideology. The Manhattan district attorney has made a career of weaponizing the law, selectively prosecuting those who don’t fit his narrative. He’s the same prosecutor who twisted legal precedent to go after Donald Trump on business charges no one had ever faced before. Then, he turned his sights on Daniel Penny.

A jury may have acquitted Penny, but what happened in New York City this week isn’t justice. When the rule of law changes depending on the defendant’s identity or the prosecutor's political motives, we’re no longer living in a free country. We’re living in a state where justice is a game, and ordinary Americans are the pawns.

The system failed Jordan Neely

It’s worth asking: Where were activists like Alvin Bragg when Neely was suffering on the streets? Jordan Neely was a tragic figure — a man with a long history of mental illness and over 40 arrests, including violent assaults. The system failed him long before he stepped onto that subway train. Yet rather than confront that uncomfortable truth, Bragg’s office decided to target the man who stepped in to prevent a tragedy.

This isn’t about justice. It’s about power. It’s about advancing a narrative where race and identity matter more than truth and common sense.

It’s time to demand change

The Daniel Penny case — and others like it — is a wake-up call. We cannot allow corrupt institutions to punish those who act to protect life and liberty. Americans must demand an end to politically driven prosecutions, hold DAs like Alvin Bragg accountable, and stand up for the principle that true justice is blind, consistent, and fair.

If we let this slide, we accept a world in which heroes are treated as criminals and the law is a weapon for ideological warfare. It’s time to choose which America we want to live in.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

CEO Brian Thompson's killer reveals COWARDICE of the far-left death cult

Jeff Swensen / Stringer | Getty Images

Early on the chilly morning of Wednesday, December 4th, Brian Thompson, CEO of health insurance giant, UnitedHealthcare, was walking through Midtown Manhattan on his way to a company conference. Suddenly, a masked and hooded figure silently allegedly stepped onto the sidewalk behind Thompson, drew a 3-D printed, silenced pistol, and without warning fired multiple shots into Thompson's back before fleeing the scene on an electric bicycle. After a multiple-day manhunt, a 26-year-old lead suspect was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania after being recognized by an employee.

This was not "vigilante justice." This was cold-blooded murder.

As horrific as the murder of a husband and father in broad daylight in the center of New York City is, the story only gets worse. Even before the murder suspect was arrested, left-wing extremists were already taking to X to call him a "hero" and a "vigilante" who "took matters into his own hands." Even the mainstream media joined in on the glorification, as Glenn pointed out on air recently, going out of the way to show how physically attractive the murder suspect was. This wave of revolting and nihilistic fanfare came in response to the findings of online investigators who surmised the murder suspect's motives to retaliate against healthcare companies for corruption and denied coverage. The murder suspect supposedly underwent a major back surgery that left him with back pain, and some of his internet fans apparently viewed his murder of Thompson as retribution for the mistreatment that he and many other Americans have suffered from healthcare companies.

me liking tweets celebrating the assassination of the united healthcare ceo pic.twitter.com/N41w51ZuZR
— 🔻 (@pegasustits) December 5, 2024

The murder suspect and his lackeys don't seem to understand that, other than depriving two children of their father right before Christmas, he accomplished nothing.

The murder suspect failed to achieve his goal because he was too cowardly to try.

If the murder suspect's goals were truly to "right the wrongs" of the U.S. healthcare system, he had every tool available to him to do so in a constructive and meaningful manner. He came from a wealthy and prominent family in the Baltimore area, became the valedictorian at a prestigious all-boys prep school, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a master's in engineering. Clearly, the murder suspect was intelligent and capable, and if he had put his talent into creating solutions for the healthcare industry, who knows what he could have accomplished?

This is the kind of behavior the far-left idolizes, like communists on college campuses who wear shirts that celebrate the brutal Cuban warlord, Che Guevara. Merchandise celebrating the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect is already available, including shirts, hoodies, mugs, and even Christmas ornaments. Will they be sporting his face on their T-shirts too?

A liberal TikToker is selling a t-shirt that glorifies the recent assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in NYC.
“deny , defend, depose” was reported to have been on the shell casings. pic.twitter.com/IWpHYkx2lF
— SteveSant66 🇺🇸 (@SSant66) December 8, 2024

This macabre behavior does not breed creation, achievement, success, or life. It only brings death and risks more Americans falling into this dangerous paradigm. But we still have a chance to choose life. We just have to wake up and take it.

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