For unspecified “hate speech”. They didn’t even tell us what the offending posts were.
This sets a chilling precedent for free speech.
To all other conservative news outlets – you are next.
The great censorship purge has truly begun.
A WordPress Blog-THE CHURCH MILITANT Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse. ALL CONTENT FROM HTTPS://RATHEREXPOSETHEM.BLOGSPOT.COM MOVED TO THIS NEW BLOG, MAY 2020
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
The European Union had a choice between supporting Donald Trump or supporting the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who scream “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” aid international jihad terror groups, and brutally oppress their own people. For the EU, it was a no-brainer.“EU slaps Trump in the face, urges ‘increased business with Iran,’” Associated Press, August 7, 2018 (thanks to Inexion):____________________________________________________________________The European Union’s foreign policy chief encouraged companies to do more business with Iran despite new U.S. sanctions, saying Tehran had upheld its commitments under the deal to limit its nuclear program.Federica Mogherini told reporters Tuesday during her trip to Wellington, New Zealand, that it’s up to Europeans to decide whom they want to trade with.“We are doing our best to keep Iran in the deal, to keep Iran benefiting from the economic benefits that the agreement brings to the people of Iran because we believe this is in the security interests of not only our region, but also of the world,” she said. “If there is one piece of international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation that is delivering, it has to be maintained.”The United States reimposed stiff economic sanctions on Iran on Monday, ratcheting up pressure on the Islamic Republic despite statements of deep dismay from European allies, three months after President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the international accord limiting Iran’s nuclear activities.Trump declared that the landmark 2015 agreement was “horrible,” leaving the Iranian government flush with cash to fuel conflict in the Middle East. Trump warned that those who don’t wind down their economic ties to Iran “risk severe consequences.” Business as usual for EU?German car and truck maker Daimler AG on Tuesday said it was suspending its “very limited” activities in Iran. In early 2016 the company announced plans for local truck production and cooperation with an Iranian partner but those plans had not panned out in a weak market. A representative office “will not be continued,” the company said.Iran accused the U.S. of reneging on the nuclear agreement, signed by the Obama administration, and of causing recent Iranian economic unrest.European allies said they “deeply regret” the U.S. action.Trump said in a statement, “We urge all nations to take such steps to make clear that the Iranian regime faces a choice: either change its threatening, destabilizing behavior and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation.”…
Communist and Islamophile Federica Mogherini
MOGHERINI: "POLITICAL ISLAM"IS THE FUTURE OF EUROPESEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS:EU Foreign Policy Chief Wants European Coast Guardto Protect MigrantsSEE: http://ntknetwork.com/eu-foreign-policy-chief-wants-european-coast-guard-to-protect-migrants/;republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Federica Mogherini said that she is most concerned with migrants’ rights, as Europe has been overwhelmed with foreigners pouring into the continent.
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republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
In most developed societies, technology and its devices are readily available and in use for all who will have them. The benefits of this progress have been many. However, there seems to be a dangerous growing epidemic that has been created as a result.Every day we see it in stores, restaurants, and on the streets as we walk — people staring vacantly at the screens in their hands instead of interacting with those around them. And all ages seem to have access to the screens that blind them to the real world around them.What are some of the dangers of this new way of living?Baroness Susan Greenfield, a British research scientist whose work focuses on brain physiology, cautions that social media and video games may create a society of individuals with grossly underdeveloped mental and emotional capacities.In an interview with The Telegraph, Greenfield stated, “What I predict is that people are going to be like three-year-olds: emotional, risk-taking, [with] poor social skills, weak self-identity and short attention spans.” The instant gratification of social media and video games, she asserted, would lead them to need “something every moment to distract them so they can’t have their own inner narrative, their own inner thought process.”As validation of her prediction, the baroness mentioned a recent study by Harvard and Princeton Universities that discovered “students preferred to give themselves an electric shock rather than face 10 minutes alone simply thinking.”Such startling and abnormal findings raise concern for our youth and should bring about action concerning the problem.It is not uncommon for kids to have smart phones well before high school. In fact, according to PsychCentral, “56 percent of children between the ages of 10 to 13 own a smartphone. While that fact alone may come as a shock, it is estimated that 25 percent of children between the ages of 2 and 5 have a smartphone.”The article aptly notes, “It should come as no surprise that smartphones and tablets have now replaced basketballs and baby dolls on a child’s wish list. Elementary school-aged children start asking, or let’s say begging, for these forms of technology before they can even tie their shoes.”The devices, which are created to appeal to increasingly (and astonishingly) younger ages, and the unmonitored and easy access to the Internet can do unfathomable damage to children. Technology is all around us, and as it typically involves face-to-screen time instead of face-to-face time with real people, it promotes isolation — one of its central dangers. This is especially troubling for children and can cause countless side effects — two of which are the inability to interact with others and the inability to self-regulate.In her blog on psychcentral.com, W. R. Cummings states in “The Negative Effects of Technology on Childhood Behavior”:When screen time is idolized, face-to-face time with other people is devalued. Fresh air drops to the bottom of the priority list, and playing (and therefore learning) becomes a backup preference. The ideal overwhelmingly becomes to stare at a screen to be entertained.Children are no longer forced to entertain themselves, but are now able to turn off the active parts of their brain to enjoy themselves. By no fault of their own, they’ve lost a huge piece of their ability to deal with boredom.This cause-and-effect reaction makes learning in the classroom more difficult for kids, which causes frustration, self-doubt, and negative choices. They’re less able to use gained social skills to maintain conversations with their peers. This causes avoidance of peer interaction, inability to express emotion to others, and a desire to escape group activities.The article then addresses one of the same concerns raised by Baroness Greenfield: that of instant gratification:The biggest problem with technology in childhood behavior, however, seems to be the learned expectation that every need or want can be (and should be) met immediately. Instant gratification becomes the norm, instead of the treat.Items can be bought with the click of a button.Packages can arrive on the doorstep in twenty-four hours.Entire seasons of TV shows can be watched in one sitting without having to wait each week for their arrival.Games can be played at faster processing speeds than any toy could compare with.Delaying gratification is a skill that a lot of children are no longer being forced to learn. When a kid can’t have what they want, or what they’re working for, right away, they become overwhelmed. Frustrated. Sad. Upset.To counteract these attitudes, Greenfield suggests that children engage in activities with a beginning, middle, and end. Some examples are reading books, playing sports, and gardening in which the plant growth would not be hurried in contrast to “multi-tasking where everything happens all at once and you can go backward and forward in time in games.”The negative effects of technology on children today are not necessary. If parents take responsibility by gaining knowledge, creating legitimate limitations, and setting right examples, a vibrant childhood does not have to be replaced with a lifeless virtual reality.
(Friday Church News Notes, August 24, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) –
The Greater Purpose Community Church of Santa Cruz, California, is building a beer brewery that will also serve as its meeting place. Pastor Chris VanHall says, “I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if a church could figure out a way to make a product where they split the profits with local community service organizations, we were like ‘hey, we love beer, we love making beer, why not do a brewery?’” He said that drinking a couple of beers “improves the sermon.” The church’s web site says, “[We] will embrace you regardless of your faith, personal life choices, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, political preference, social status, or economic standing.” The profit from the church’s brewery will go to abortion provider Planned Parenthood. This is “The Shack” Christianity which is void of conviction of sin, repentance, and life-changing regeneration. Such things are labeled “bigotry and hate-filled theology” by The Greater Purpose Community Church.
VIOLATION OF FIRST AMENDMENT BY GLOBALISTS & TECH GIANTS
Clare Lopez: What Is Gulftainer and Why Should We Care? from Thomas Hanson on Vimeo.
There was anguish among many activists when the result was announced
Supporters say dangerous abortions have killed thousands in the country – but politicians have voted against changing the law.
The Court now finds that the interests of justice require default judgment as the only effective remedy. Motion Defendants willfully failed to comply with the Court’s discovery orders. Lesser sanctions would be ineffective. Indeed, the Court balks at Motion Defendants’ suggestions to allow Johnson additional discovery, impose more monetary fines, or again push back the litigation calendar. (Doc. 171, p. 3.) Been there, done that—to no avail. Motion Defendants have made clear their refusal to comply with discovery orders, and they “richly deserve[] the sanction of a default judgment.” See Malautea, 987 F.2d at 1542. Their willful disregard of discovery orders has prejudiced Johnson and brought this action to a standstill for eighteen months. Motion Defendants’ obstreperous conduct warrants the sockdolager of default. See Nat’l Hockey League, 427 U.S. at 643 (“[T[he most severe in the spectrum of sanctions must be available to the district court in appropriate cases.”); Adolph Coors, 777 F.2d at 1543; (upholding default judgment when the defendants refused to turn over crucial documents from the get-go, claiming privilege, and the district judge “exhibited great sensitivity” to the defendants’ concerns)
LIBERALS STRIP PARENTAL RIGHTS
There are only two laws that require American citizens to risk their lives. The first is a federal law, the military draft, which requires all healthy male adults to risk their lives in a war declared by the government to protect national security. The second is a state law requiring all healthy children to risk their lives in a war that doctors declared on microbes two centuries ago.
However, unlike adults who are NOT punished for following their conscience and refusing to fight in a war to protect national security, parents CAN be punished for following their conscience and refusing to risk their children’s lives in a war to theoretically protect the public health.
State sanctions include segregation and loss of the unvaccinated child’s right to a school education or permitting pediatricians to deny medical care to children if their parents refuse one or more government recommended vaccinations.
Two different laws that require healthy Americans to risk injury or death: one conscripting adults in what government clearly defines as an emergency military action; and the other conscripting children in a mandatory vaccination program that is not defined as an emergency military action but is operated like one.
Undisputedly, there is a very direct connection between the flu vaccine rules and the preservation of health and safety. The rules challenged here do not relate merely to a personal choice about an individual’s own health but, rather, seek to ensure increased public safety and health for the citizenry by reducing the prevalence and spread of a contagious infectious disease within a particularly vulnerable population.
Vaccines save lives and are an effective public health tool to prevent the spread of disease. The severity of this past influenza season reminds us of how deadly influenza can be. The influenza vaccine is the best protection against seasonal influenza for everyone.
Children who receive the influenza vaccine are less likely to get sick, less likely to need medical attention and less likely to die from influenza. This decision will help us protect more than 150,000 children in city-regulated day cares and preschools across the city.
This is NOT a public health issue. Vaccination rates are high. There is no crisis mitigating such a heavy handed, totalitarian piece of legislation. Our legislators are testing the water. How far can they go? Can they withhold a parents’ ability to feed their children if the parents are unwilling to ignore their religious or personal convictions? Why are our legislators targeting this poor, minority community?
“In the face of snowballing vaccine scandals—from fudged safety trials that use other vaccines as placebos, to persistent use of neurotoxic aluminum adjuvants, to the accelerated rollout of unproven vaccines that may be causing more problems than they solve—these and other vaccine advocacy organizations are not only turning a blind eye but are … beefing up public relations (PR) intended to stifle discussion …
Due to the well-funded medical-pharmaceutical-media apparatus that endlessly repeat the mantra that ALL vaccines are safe for ALL people ALL the time, it is nearly impossible to get a fair hearing for common-sense questions about vaccine safety, no matter how urgent such questions may be.”
[S]urvey data have documented that parental concerns over vaccination safety and timing are common, even among those whose children receive all recommended vaccines.
In 2015, a U.S. federal advisory committee warned that public confidence in vaccines cannot be taken for granted, and some prominent vaccine advocacy organizations are pushing for greater compulsion. But are these groups—which present themselves as reliable sources of information — providing the public with independent information?
Although safety analyses showed no statistically significant differences between Heplisav and the currently licensed hepatitis B vaccine Engerix-B (GlaxoSmithKline) in local and systemic solicited adverse events or deaths, there were numerically greater numbers of patients receiving Heplisav who had evidence of autoimmunity disorders, including thyroid disorders. The increases were not statistically significant, but advisory panel members said the safety database was too small to detect rare adverse events.3
The FDA’s Complete Response Letter (CRL) seeks information regarding several topics, including clarification regarding specific adverse events of special interest (AESIs), a numerical imbalance in a small number of cardiac events in a single study (HBV-23), new analyses of the integrated safety data base across different time periods, and post-marketing commitments. In the CRL, the FDA acknowledged that it has not yet completed its review of responses received from Dynavax in early October, including those pertaining to AESIs and the numerical imbalance in cardiac events. The responses included an extensive analysis that included independent expert consultation supporting our view that the imbalance was driven by an unexpectedly low number of events in the comparator arm. It would appear the Agency could not fully assess the responses in the current review period. In the CRL, there is no request for additional clinical trials and there are no apparent concerns with rare serious autoimmune events.9
The advisory committee needed to consider whether it was biologically plausible for the new vaccine to cause heart attacks. The new adjuvant in the vaccine caused an inflammatory response of uncertain duration. We know that inflammation causes atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries to rupture—the event that triggers most heart attacks. So a causal link between the vaccine and heart attacks wasn’t out of the question. Most importantly, we needed to decide if the imbalance in heart attacks between the two groups could have been due to the play of chance. That was a great question, but one that was impossible to answer.6
To know if the 7 -1 heart attack imbalance represented a real risk, we’d need comparative data in 50,000 people. The fastest way of obtaining that evidence would be through a post-marketing trial. But a post-marketing trial would be possible only if the vaccine was approved for public use.6
Why did I abstain? Based on the available data, it was impossible for anyone to know if the increase in heart attack risk in the Dynavax group was real or spurious. So although the questions were fascinating and the discussions terrific, my vote wasn’t that complicated. There is a simple rule in life: if you don’t know, you should say you don’t know.6
The NYT claimed that Jeong was “imitating” the behavior of people who harassed her online, but this does not explain why she was tweeting “fuck the police” and encouraging people to “kill all men.”A search for “cops” and “police” on Jeong’s Twitter reveals an extensive history of anti-cop sentiment and a lack of sympathy for police who are injured on the job.In one tweet from 2014 she wrote, “let me know when a cop gets killed by a rock or molotov cocktail or a stray shard of glass from a precious precious window.”“Cops are assholes,” she said in 2015.“If we’re talking big sweeping bans on shit that kills people, why don’t we ever ever ever ever talk about banning the police?” a tweet from 2016 asserts. –Daily Caller“
The New York Times is under fire after excusing Sarah Jeong, its newest editorial hire, for numerous anti-white sentiments — exposing the paper’s double standards when it comes to firing new employees over old, controversial tweets.
Hey, @sarahjeong is cool and people with hiring and firing power need to completely ignore alt-right bad faith arguments trying to get people fired over imagined grievances. It’s an amoral brain-rotted G*merg*te tactic.— Kaleb Horton (@kalebhorton) August 2, 2018
(Quran 24:31) And tell the believing women to reduce of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.(Quran 33:59) O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused.
But starting this month when she wears her niqab in public, her act of devotion will also be an act of civil disobedience. She will be one of the Danish citizens defying the country’s ban on face coverings in all public places, which came into effect on Wednesday.“Now it has also become a political choice for me,” says Sabina, who asked TIME not to disclose her last name out of concerns for her safety. “It is also a sign of protest.”Sabina is a founder of Kvinder i Dialog (Women in Dialogue), an organization started by niqabis—women who wear the veil—that brings Muslim women affected by the ban into conversation with the larger Danish population through events, social media and public appearances. Their goal has been to dispel what they say are misconceptions about their choice to wear the veil: that niqabis are forced to wear the garment, don’t go to school or work, and are radicalized and pose a threat.Now their aims have expanded to include standing their ground in Danish society. On the first day of the ban, the women led a public protest over their right to wear the veil. Hundreds of people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds congregated at Den Sorte Plads in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro neighborhood, donning niqabs, colorful scarves and flamboyant face coverings—a horse head, fake beards and lucha libre masks were spotted across the plaza—to challenge the enforcement of the ban. The crowd marched on local streets led by a sign that read “My clothes, my choice” and chanted “No racists in our streets!” as they locked arms around the Bellahøj police station. At the same time, across the country a protest took place in Aarhus, Denmark’s second biggest city.Many in the crowd said taking to the streets seemed to be the only way to bring attention to the problem. “When I was a kid, no one talked about who you could be and how you could look and dress,” said Line Schmidt, 33, wearing a black balaclava with yellow translucent heart-shaped glasses.“It’s not the Denmark I know.”To protesters and women who wear the veil, the ban looks like another sign that Denmark is betraying its long-held value of tolerance. “It’s not just about us fighting for the right to wear our niqab,” Sabina says. “It’s also about us fighting for right to live our lives as practicing Muslims in Denmark. We are saying to the government: we do not accept this form of racist, Islamophobic and oppressive politics.”…..
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SEE ALSO:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/08/swiss-government-caves-to-political-correctness-rejects-burqa-ban
Tommy Robinson has been freed from a stint in prison that he never should have been serving in the first place. The New York Times reported: “On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal ordered his release, pending a new hearing in his case. The court questioned the speed with which he had been tried and convicted, noting that it took five hours from the time of his arrest to a conviction.”Indeed. Tommy Robinson was arrested, tried, and sentenced with a Stalinist rapidity, for the crime of calling attention not only to the Muslim rape gang crisis in the UK, but to the abject failure of British officialdom to deal adequately with that crisis, for fear of being charged with “racism” and “Islamophobia.”Thus it was only just to free Tommy Robinson, and lessens the impression that Britain is becoming a police state in which it is illegal to criticize Islam and mass Muslim migration in Britain today. Britain is still on that road, but apparently in this case the May government was feeling too much pressure to keep Tommy in prison.However, no one should get the idea that Theresa May’s government has suddenly decided to behave decently toward foes of jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others. Ezra Levant reported Thursday that “Tommy was physically and psychologically abused in prison. You can see it in his face. His appearance is shocking — he lost 40 pounds of weight in just two months. If he were to have stayed in prison much longer, I fear his very life would have been in danger.”“I’m not a victim, I’m a target,” Robinson said in an interview with Levant, and the Mailonline reported that he said: “What they tried to do was to mentally destroy me. That wasn’t a prison sentence, that was mental torture.”The treatment of Tommy Robinson in prison was unconscionable, and consistent with the British government’s determination to crush all resistance to its program of mass Muslim migration and capitulation to Sharia supremacists. The treatment of Tommy Robinson in prison was a demonstration of pure police state tactics.Meanwhile, the establishment media defames him as “far-right” and as a “white nationalist.” Note the contempt and the vicious bias of the New York Times piece. This is Leftist propaganda disguised as a news story. Tommy is described as “anti-Muslim,” the universal label applied to those who oppose jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women, gays, etc. Was opposing the Nazis “anti-German”?The Times also characterizes Robinson as a “far-right activist.” Anyone, no matter how socially liberal and how committed to the principles of secular, republican rule, is “far-right” for opposing jihad terror and Sharia oppression. There is no substance to the term other than to try to equate such opposition with Nazism.The Times semaphores to its dwindling Leftist readership, if the point weren’t clear enough already, that Tommy is not to have their support, for he is supported by “former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon but reviled by others who call him a violent purveyor of hate.” Who calls him a “violent purveyor of hate”? Hope Not Hate, a Leftist smear group akin to the Southern Poverty Law Center.Then there is the open libel that Robinson’s “divisive, anti-Muslim rhetoric has resulted in acts of violence,” he added, the most extreme of which occurred when a man, inspired by Mr. Robinson, rammed a van into a congregation of Muslims leaving a mosque in north London in January.”In reality, there was no “inspiration” from Robinson, who never called for any attacks on mosques. The Times makes this connection based on a mass email that the perpetrator received, which itself did not call for or justify any violence. The Times rushes to connect Robinson to this incident, while it can never quite see the connection between Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” while killing people and the violent passages of the Qur’an.And so Britain descends further into madness while the international media smears and defames one of its few remaining sane citizens. Will the free British people go quietly into the night?
AfD leader Alexander Gauland addresses
The number of migrant sea arrivals in populist Italy, so far in 2018, is down 80 percent compared to last year, whilst surging by over 350 percent in the same period in socialist Spain.Over 57,500 illegal migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, compared to 112,375 over the same period last year, the UN Migration Agency said in a paper Tuesday.And as the number of clandestine crossings fell, deaths in the Mediterranean Sea more than halved, falling from 2,240 to 1,111.The significant fall is likely to be partly thanks to Italy’s new, populist government, which is fighting to end illegal crossings and to protect their borders. There were just 18,392 migrants arriving in Italy so far this year, 80.6 percent less than the same period last year.However, Spain, which has a new socialist government, has become the new main arrival-by-sea country in the Mediterranean. More than 22,800 migrants have arrived there since the beginning of the year, with 1,866 since the 25th of July alone…..
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Said Erdogan: “You cannot make Turkey take a step back with sanctions. They need to know the following: we are not tied with an umbilical cord to the U.S.”Good. Rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey has not been a reliable ally of the United States for some time, and it is foolish to pretend otherwise. This sham alliance, and others as well, should be ended.“US Slaps Sanctions on 2 Turkish Political Leaders Over Andrew Brunson’s Detention,” by Samuel Smith, Christian Post, August 2, 2018:The Trump administration followed through on its threats to take action against Turkey over the detention of American Pastor Andrew Brunson by sanctioning two top government officials on Wednesday.The U.S. Department of the Teasury’s [sic] Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it has sanctioned Turkey’s Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, both of whom lead agencies that are responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of the 50-year-old North Carolina native.“Pastor Brunson’s unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “President [Donald] Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately.”The sanctions come after Vice President Mike Pence and Trump vowed last week that they would slap “significant” and “large” sanctions on its NATO ally over Brunson’s detention. Pence made the promise during his keynote speech last Thursday at the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, a day after Brunson was released to house arrest after over a year-and-a-half in prison….Brunson appealed to a Turkish court this week to be released from his home detention. However, his appeal was rejected on Tuesday.Brunson, who has served as a church leader in Izmir for over two decades, was accused of having connections to an Islamic organization blamed for the 2016 coup attempt against the Erdogan government and was also accused of having connections to Kurdish militants. He has denied all charges. Many feel that he is being used as a political pawn to pressure the U.S. government to extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.“We’ve seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong and we believe he is a victim of unfair and unjust [detention] by the government of Turkey,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Wednesday. “As a result, any property or interest in property of both ministers within U.S. jurisdiction is blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.”The sanctions against Gul and Soylu are pursuant to the executive order issued last December by Trump which states that “serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”…The Turkish government has claimed that it cannot intervene in Brunson’s case because it is being handled by the judicial system. Brunson has had three hearings so far in which only questionable secret witness testimony has been presented against him. His next court hearing is in October….The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom lists Turkey as a “Tier 2” country of concern for religious liberty.“In 2017, the state of religious freedom in Turkey worsened. Proposed changes in the educational curriculum, an increase in government funding solely for Sunni mosques, and a lack of movement with respect to legal status and registration for non-Muslim communities have led Turkey on a downward trend,” a 2018 USCIRF report states, adding that the nation’s strict secularization prevents religious communities from obtaining full legal status.“The majority of the other longstanding religious freedom concerns remain unresolved, including the return of expropriated minority properties, the delay in providing dual citizenship to Greek Orthodox Metropolitans so they can participate in the church’s Holy Synod, and equal funding for religious minority community buildings from the public budget.”Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the U.S. on Sunday that it risks losing a “strong and sincere partner” if it continues pressuring it over Brunson.“You cannot make Turkey take a step back with sanctions,” Erdogan declared. “They need to know the following: we are not tied with an umbilical cord to the U.S.”On Wednesday, he claimed that “Turkey has no problems related to [religious] minorities.”“Threatening language of the U.S. evangelist, Zionist mentality is unacceptable,” Erdogan told reporters. “We will continue on the path we believe in without the slightest concession to our freedom, sovereignty, or judicial independence.”