Note: The following report by national security columnist Bill Gertz on the US Army War College's surrender to CAIR's slander campaign appeared in the Washington Times, June 12, 2019:

A Muslim activist group has pressured the U.S. Army War College into postponing a speech by Ray Ibrahim, an expert on the historical roots of Islamic terrorism, after the group falsely labeled him as a racist and “Islamophobe,” he said.

The Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group critics say is linked to the Islamist international group Muslim Brotherhood, protested the speech in a letter to the college superintendent, Army Maj. Gen. John S. Kem, and provost James G. Breckenridge. Purporting to represent the “Muslim community” in Pennsylvania, CAIR stated that it opposed Mr. Ibrahim’s planned June 19 speech on “Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West,” which is also the title of his latest book.

The group asserted that Mr. Ibrahim’s publicly stated view — that Muslim hostility for and terrorization of the West is not an aberration but a continuation of Islamic history — has the potential to instigate hatred against Muslims.

“We also do not believe that there is any benefit to the U.S. in promulgating the inaccurate thesis that Islam is our enemy, as this stereotype only alienates millions of Muslim-Americans,” the May 28 letter states.

Mr. Ibrahim, in an interview, denied the CAIR allegations and said the group set up straw man arguments against him in a smear campaign that involved taking his statements out of context.

The War College initially informed Mr. Ibrahim that the lecture could proceed despite the opposition. But after CAIR organized a publicity campaign alleging Mr. Ibrahim was a white nationalist, the college buckled to the group’s pressure.

Mr. Ibrahim, an Egyptian by ethnicity, vehemently denied he is a racist. “They are playing the race card,” he said.

After the Army announced it was postponing the speech, Jacob Bender, CAIR-Philadelphia executive director, issued a statement urging full cancellation. “A postponement is not enough — the college should reject hate,” he said.

Robert Martin, a spokesman for the Army War College, said Mr. Ibrahim’s speech was postponed so the Army education unit can “pair Mr. Ibrahim’s military history insights in close proximity with another historical perspective, at a time when [the Army War College] curriculum has addressed historical analysis of influences on conflict.” He did not respond when asked about the pressure from CAIR.

Mr. Ibrahim said the speech was canceled and the college’s claim of a postponement is not correct.

His 352-page book covers nearly 14 centuries in great detail, and CAIR provided no documentation for any research shortcomings in its campaign against him. “The history I present in ‘Sword and Scimitar’ is ironclad, verifiable and beyond well documented, with about a thousand endnotes, it is heavily based on primary sources, many of which are Muslim, and from eyewitnesses,” Mr. Ibrahim said.

CAIR and its affiliates have been known to engage in similar coercive campaigns against people and organizations it views as anti-Islamic.

The group forced NPR to fire commentator Juan Williams over comments he made about Muslims. Nike, also under pressure from CAIR, was forced to destroy 38,000 basketball shoes after the group claimed Muslims were offended by the word “Air” in stylized letters on the sneakers that appeared similar to the Arabic word for Allah.

CAIR was first identified as a member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 federal terrorism funding case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Texas. Five former leaders of the Muslim charity were found guilty of funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.... Keep reading

Note: The following report, by Lindsay Elizabeth, recently appeared on various media, including FaithWire, CBN News, and Assist News:

While you might have seen a decrease in mainstream media reporting regarding Christian persecution, there has only been an increase in the persecution taking place against Christians around the world.

According to the Gatestone Institute, persecution of Christians by extremist groups and individuals is continuing to climb, as the persecution has become more systematic than random.

In their latest “Religious Freedom Report,” Aid to the Church in Need warned that around 300 million Christians around the world have been subjected to violence, making Christianity the most persecuted religion in the world.

Raymond Ibrahim of the Gatestone Institute argued that that statistic demonstrates that it is much more difficult for a Christian to live in a Muslim country than a Muslim to live in a Western country.

He pointed to a study done by Voices in Europe where they pointed out that the chances of being killed as a Christian, simply for being a Christian, in a Muslim country is incredibly high.

Voice of Europe explained that because 300 million Christians have been subjected to violence, that means that in a Muslim-majority country, 1 in 70,000 Christians have been murdered for their beliefs.

“This makes the odds of a Christian in a majority-Muslim country being murdered by a Muslim – simply for being what he is – approximately one in 70,000,” Europe Voice pointed out.

“Which means that a Christian living in a majority Muslim country is 143 times more likely to be killed by a Muslim for being a Christian than a Muslim is likely to be killed by a non-Muslim in a Western country for being what he is.”

A few weeks ago, the archbishop of Irbil spoke about how “political correctness” in Western countries would lead them to become “complicit” in the persecution of Christians all over the world, but specifically in the Middle East.... Keep reading